Subject: Attn: Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2017 21:30:14 +0100 NIGERIA. Attn: I am Mr Godwin Emefiele the Executive Governor Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). We are pleased to inform you that you are among the list that will be compensated with just One Hundred and Fifty Thousand United state dollars ($150,000 dollar) as directed by office of Mr.President Muhammadu Buhari, Federal Executive Council and Central Bank Of Nigeria in Conjunction with directives from United Nations and World Bank/IMF Delegations after their meeting last week due to petitions from those that are victims of scam as part of Campaign of new change in Nigeria. It was agreed that to retain the good image of Nigeria and the rest of African countries,all the victims who lost his/her hard earn money to these faceless thieves will be compensated (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand United state dollars) This we assume will help you to start a new life. All you need to do now is to contact the Director of Zenith Bank of Nigeria with below information. Your full name Your Address, Direct telephone Below is his Contact information Name:Rev.Dr.Charles Johnson E-mail:infoinfozeb01@gmail.com Phone:+2349091351405 Sincerely yours. MR.GODWIN EMEFIElE GOVERNOR OF CENTRAL BANK OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR CENTRAL BANK OFNIGERIA.Attn:I am Mr Godwin Emefiele the Executive Governor Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). We are pleased to inform you that you are among the list that will be compensated with just One Hundred and Fifty Thousand United state dollars ($150,000 dollar) as directed by office of Mr.President Muhammadu Buhari, Federal Executive Council and Central Bank Of Nigeria in Conjunction with directives from United Nations and World Bank/IMF Delegations after their meeting last week due to petitions from those that are victims of scam as part of Campaign of new change in Nigeria.It was agreed that to retain the good image of Nigeria and the rest of African countries,all the victims who lost his/her hard earn money to these faceless thieves will be compensated (One Hundred and Fifty Thousand United state dollars) This we assume will help you to start a new life.All you need to do now is to contact the Director of Zenith Bank of Nigeria with below information.Your full nameYour Address,Direct telephoneBelow is his Contact informationName:Rev.Dr.Charles JohnsonPhone:+2349091351405Sincerely yours.MR.GODWIN EMEFIElEGOVERNOR OF CENTRAL BANK From: INFO INFO < infoinfooffice02@gmail.com >Subject: Attn:Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2017 21:30:14 +0100 From: Remittance Office Date: Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 9:58 AM Subject: Confirm Receipt To: Recipients Attention, This notice is coming from Governor of CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA. This is to inform you that your UNCLAIMED INHERITANCE FUNDS in CBN which is $8.3m is approved for cash delivery to you. It was loaded in 2 box and handed over to a deliveryman, Mr.Christopher Morgan to deliver to your door step. He has just arrived on TRANSIT with your 2 trunk boxes in Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport. You are expected to ensure that he leaves the airport as soon as he contacts you. Please, send your contact details to his email and cell phone: christophermorgan154@gmail.com, +1 (234)-231-5548. He is not aware of the content of the trunk boxes for safety precautions but i told him that the content is hospital equipment's meant for you,so this is the major reason why you must endeavor to make sure he leaves that airport heading to your house immediately to avoid the boxes been tampered with, and also very important that you mail me as soon as you hear from him. Mr.GODWIN EMEFIELE GOVERNOR OF CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA(CBN) On Thu, Oct 5, 2017 at 3:02 am, CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA < directoradam122@hotmail.com > wrote: CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA (CBN) TINUBU SQUARE, VICTORIA ISLAND,LAGOS-NIGERIA FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA P.M.B 0829. TINUBU SQUARE LAGOS. From the Desk Of: Mr. Godwin Emefiele Executive Governor (CBN) OFFICE TELEPHONE NUMBER +234 9020984146 ATTENTION: OUR ESTEEMED CUSTOMER. CONTRACT PAYMENT NOTIFICATION I am Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the executive governor Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), am delighted to inform you that the contract panel, which just concluded it 's seating in Abuja released your name among contractors to be paid by this last quater. This Panel was primarily delegated to investigate manipulated contract claims and over-invoiced payment as the effect has eaten deep into the economy of our dear country Nigeria . However, we wish to bring to your notice that your contract profile is still reflecting in our centralize datebase as unpaid contractor during the auditing. Your contract file was forwarded to my office by the auditors as unclaimed fund. In these regards, we are going to send your contract part payment of 10 Million USD. to you via courier service or Swift Transfer as you deem it with all the needed document to cover the money, Please you don't have to worry for anything, as the transaction is 100% risk free. Therefore, you are advised with utmost urgency to choose the payment method option that is suitable for you, with your personal details and contract particulars, Company name & address. You have to do this as quickly as possible because with this arrangement, every second counts due to the exigency involved and also the transaction is being supervised by the Swiss Government, World Bank Monitoring Group and the Economic & Financial Crime Commission of Nigeria (E.F.C.C). there are three methods to complete this transaction, you are advice to choose the option which may suit you and return for immediate proceed. 1.), Cashier Check, this will cost you the sum of $380.00 usd only for the delivering charge with proper paper documentation to avoid and stop order 2.),ATM VISA CARD WITH PIN CODE, this will cost you the sum of $398.00 usd only for the delivering charge with proper paper documentation to avoid and stop order 3.), Bank to Bank wire Transfer into your designated bank account, this will cost you the sum of $450.00 usd only, with proper paper documentation to avoid and stop order. Once your confirmation arrives my desk with sound proof, your release order will be dispatched by the Central Bank for the final crediting of the amount to your account call our office immediately you receive this massage. Best Regards, Mr. Godwin Emefiele The Executive Governor Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). DIRECT TELEPHONE NUMBER +234 9020984146 De la: Dr. John Andy < mr.johnsondounas@hotmail.com > Catre: Trimis: Duminica, 8 Octombrie 2017 5:10:06 Subiect: Godwin Emefiele CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA TINUBU SQUARE,VICTORIA ISLAND, OFFICE OF GOVERNOR CBN. Our New Transaction Code: REF: CBN/IRD/CBX/014/2017 Fund Compensation. Since the Suspension of Godwin Emefiele, Previous Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Investigation has revealed that After all promises to deliver your funds sum of $4,7million USD has not been accomplished, However, am glad to inform you about the new development on your compensation funds, For your information Your Diplomat Has arrived in Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas with your compensation funds. You are given 24 hours to contact and confirm your full details such as address and valid telephone number to enable DIPLOMAT JAMES NELSON deliver your consignment containing your compensation fund in the amount of $4,7Million USD (Four million Seven Hundred Thousand United State dollars) to you today. This is our private e-mails: godwinemefiele1godwinemefielegodwinemefiele12015@outlook.com Get back to me with update. Sincerely, Godwin Emefiele NEW EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA (CBN) Fecha: 16 oct. 2017 4:33 AM Asunto: Re: your diplomat has arrived and you have 24hours to call him now.323-484-8071 Para: Cc: 1 am the new Governor of (CBN) as i resume office received a payment credit instruction from the (United Nation/Federal Government of Nigeria)to credit your account with your full contract Inheritance funds from the Nigerian reserve account with our bank but we can not transfer this fundsdirect to your nominated bank account, because we are having a little problem with International Monetary Fund (IMF) so our method of payment is by Diplomatic Courier Servic (Delivery) This is to inform you that your diplomat has arrived with your cash consignment box value 10.7 million dollars in Los Angeles International Airport USA. as their transit I want you to know that you have 24 hours to call him now 323-484-8071 or E-mail( gexprespaulcoker@gmail.com ) then ask to speak to the diplomatic in person of PAUL COKER in the United States, let us know if you are still interested to get your consignment delivery to you today? as they have been waiting to hear from you to help them complete this livery to you right now the diplomatic have arrival at Los Angeles International Airport United State with you consignment box call them now to help them pay for clearance of your package as soon as he get to your airport you are to call him with this number 323-484-8071 and ask to speak with the diplomatic in person PAUL COKER or contact him through this email( gexprespaulcoker@gmail.com ) call them and get back to me Note; that you must call me as soon as you receive this email for more discussion, Also reconfirm your full current address and valid phone number to the Diplomatic once you receive this email to enable him to deliver your cash consignment to you without any further delay or mistake. I appreciate your good sympathetic and collaboration, Hope hearing from you swiftly. CONGRATULATIONS. MR GODWIN EMEFIELE , EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR, CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA De: " MR. GODWIN" < payment@almond.ocn.ne.jp Fecha: 16 oct. 2017 4:33 AMAsunto: Re: your diplomat has arrived and you have 24hours to call him now.323-484-8071Para:Cc: Targy: Immediate Release of Your FUND Via ATM CARD Datum: Fri, 20 Oct 2017 06:51:09 +1300 Felado: CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA < Centralbank@vivid.ocn.ne.jp > Valaszcim: ibtc.chartedpaymentcard@gmail.com CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR Zaria Street, Off Samuel Akintola Street, Garki 11, Garki-Abuja. Our Ref: FGN/CBN/NIG/06/2017. Your Ref. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . From The Desk Of Mr. Godwin Emefiele. Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Private contact address: cbnpaymentdata@gmail.com Immediate Release of Your FUND Via ATM CARD Attention : . Dear Friend, I wish to use this medium to inform you that your CONTRACT/INHERITANCE Payment of USD$10,000,000.00 (Ten Million United States Dollars) from CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA have been RELEASED and APPROVED for onward transfer to you via an ATM CARD which you will use to withdraw all the USD$10,000,000.00 in any ATM SERVICE MACHINE in any part of the world, but the maximum you can withdraw in a day is USD$10,000.00 Only We have mandated IBTC CHARTERED BANK PLC, to send you the ATM CARD and PIN NUMBER which you will use to withdraw all your USD$10 Million Dollars in any ATM SERVICE MACHINE in any part of the world, but the maximum you can withdraw in a day is USD$10,000.00 Only. You are therefore advice to contact the Head of ATM CARD Department of IBTC CHARTERED BANK PLC; Contact Person: Mr. Joseph Obi, Office email address:ibtc. chartedpaymentcard@financier. com Private email address:ibtc. chartedpaymentcard@gmail.com Tell Mr. Joseph Obi, that you received a message from the CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA. Instructing him to send you the ATM CARD and PIN NUMBER whichyou will use to withdraw your USD$10 Million Dollars in any ATM SERVICE MACHINE in any part of the world, also send him your direct phone number and contact address where you want him to send the ATM CARD and PINNUMBER to you. Note - Please update me as my contact address: cbnpaymentdata@gmail.com when you have contacted Mr. Joseph Obi, the IBTC CHARTERED BANK PLC ATM Card Manager for more updated information. We are very sorry for the plight you have gone through in the past years. Thanks for adhering to this instruction and once again accept our congratulations. Best Regards. Mr. Godwin Emefiele. Executive Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). From: Remittance Office Date: Sun, Oct 22, 2017 at 1:51 AM Subject: Notification On Shipment Delivery To: Recipients Attention, This notice is coming from Governor of CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA. This is to inform you that your UNCLAIMED INHERITANCE FUNDS in CBN which is $8.3m is approved for cash delivery to you. It was loaded in 2 box and handed over to a deliveryman, Mr.David Okoye to deliver to your door step. He has just arrived on TRANSIT with your 2 trunk boxes in Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport. You are expected to ensure that he leaves the airport as soon as he contacts you. Please, send your contact details to his email and cell phone: davidokoye039@gmail.com, +1 (909) 906-6111. He is not aware of the content of the trunk boxes for safety precautions but i told him that the content is hospital equipment's meant for you,so this is the major reason why you must endeavor to make sure he leaves that airport heading to your house immediately to avoid the boxes been tampered with, and also very important that you mail me as soon as you hear from him. Yours faithfully, Godwin Emefiele GOVERNOR OF CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA (CBN) CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA(C.B.N) www@joy.ocn.ne.jp > Date: Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 11:12 AM Subject: C.B.N DEBT PAYMENT NOTICE OF YOUR FUNDS To: CENTRAL BANK REMITTANCE UNIT, CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT, CADASTRAL ZONE, ABUJA, FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, CONTRACT #: MAV/NNPC/FGN/MIN/013, Swift Code: BPH KPL PK, A/C#: 329606=101244=169=678 PHONE : Phone : (+234-7067-2536-29) FOREIGN REMITTANCE Our Ref: CBN/IRD/CBX/021/11 Attention: Beneficiary, My name is Mr Godwin Emefiele the new Executive Governor Of The Central Bank of Nigeria (C.B.N) and the Executive Chairman of " E.C.D.R " .I discovered your name and email address (in the Central Computer among the list of unpaid contractors, inheritance next of kin and lotto beneficiaries that was originated from Africa (Nigerian Government) Europe, Asia Plus Middle east, Americans) among the list of individuals and companies that your unpaid fund has been located to a suspense account.Your name appeared among the beneficiaries who will receive a payment of $27,000,000,00 Million and has been approved already for Payment. Last Monday two foreigners (Mr. David L Smith and Mr. John Shook) visited my office on your behalf and stated that You and Mr. Jesus Martinez Cardona sent them to come and represent you in your stead to inform me that they are your Representatives from United State, whom has been working with the C.B.N as a beneficiary since. We in this Bank do not understand why yo u sent these men to come 1. LETTER OF ADMINISTRATION. 2. ORDER TO RELEASE. Actually, these Documents which they tendered to this Noble Bank is a clear Proof that you sent them to Collect this Funds for you.Finally, I told them to come back Next week Monday morning and they promised to come back. As the Governor of this Noble Bank, I was supposed to Release this Funds to them but I refused to do so because I wanted to hear from you first. Due to the Nature of my job, I will not want to make any mistake in Releasing this Funds to anyone except you whom is the Recognized Bonfire Beneficiary to this Funds. Kindly clarify us on this issue before we make this Payment to these foreigners whom came on your Behalf. In receipt of this confidential Letter, you are required to email this Bank immediately you receive this Confidential Letter. You are required to reconfirm to me your information bellow. 1, Your full name and your address 2, Your Telephone number or fax 3, Your Age and Marital status, 4, Your Occupation As soon as i receive these information's, I will proceed with the Processing of your fund transfer to your account. Best Regards Sincerely . OFFICIALLY SIGNED. MR. GODWIN EMEFIELE. Executive Governor Central Bank of Nigeria From:Date: Tue, Oct 24, 2017 at 11:12 AMSubject: C.B.N DEBT PAYMENT NOTICE OF YOUR FUNDSTo:CENTRAL BANK REMITTANCE UNIT, CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT, CADASTRAL ZONE, ABUJA, FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, CONTRACT #: MAV/NNPC/FGN/MIN/013, Swift Code: BPH KPL PK, A/C#: 329606=101244=169=678 PHONE : Phone : (+234-7067-2536-29) FOREIGN REMITTANCE Our Ref: CBN/IRD/CBX/021/11 Attention: Beneficiary, My name is Mr Godwin Emefiele the new Executive Governor Of The Central Bank of Nigeria (C.B.N) and the Executive Chairman of " E.C.D.R " .I discovered your name and email address (in the Central Computer among the list of unpaid contractors, inheritance next of kin and lotto beneficiaries that was originated from Africa (Nigerian Government) Europe, Asia Plus Middle east, Americans) among the list of individuals and companies that your unpaid fund has been located to a suspense account.Your name appeared among the beneficiaries who will receive a payment of $27,000,000,00 Million and has been approved already for Payment. Last Monday two foreigners (Mr. David L Smith and Mr. John Shook) visited my office on your behalf and stated that You and Mr. Jesus Martinez Cardona sent them to come and represent you in your stead to inform me that they are your Representatives from United State, whom has been working with the C.B.N as a beneficiary since. We in this Bank do not understand why yo u sent these men to come 1. LETTER OF ADMINISTRATION. 2. ORDER TO RELEASE. Actually, these Documents which they tendered to this Noble Bank is a clear Proof that you sent them to Collect this Funds for you.Finally, I told them to come back Next week Monday morning and they promised to come back. As the Governor of this Noble Bank, I was supposed to Release this Funds to them but I refused to do so because I wanted to hear from you first. Due to the Nature of my job, I will not want to make any mistake in Releasing this Funds to anyone except you whom is the Recognized Bonfire Beneficiary to this Funds. Kindly clarify us on this issue before we make this Payment to these foreigners whom came on your Behalf. In receipt of this confidential Letter, you are required to email this Bank immediately you receive this Confidential Letter. You are required to reconfirm to me your information bellow. 1, Your full name and your address 2, Your Telephone number or fax 3, Your Age and Marital status, 4, Your Occupation As soon as i receive these information's, I will proceed with the Processing of your fund transfer to your account. Best Regards Sincerely . OFFICIALLY SIGNED. MR. GODWIN EMEFIELE. Executive Governor Central Bank of Nigeria MR.GODWIN EMEFIELE GODWIN@clear.ocn.ne.jp > Date: Sun, Oct 29, 2017 at 2:43 AM Subject: * * * * * * * URGENT NOTICE* * * * * * * * * To: FROM THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR, CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA (CBN) GOV.GODWIN EMEFIELE. E-mail: godwinemefele9@gmail.com URGENT NOTICE, ATTENTION: BENEFICIARY I am Mr. Godwin Emefiele from Central Bank of Nigeria, I have come to make so many things right from the way the corrupt government officials has made it to be. Payment of Inheritance fund, overdue payments and compensations without causing heart break to beneficiaries is my priority. Is my pleasure to inform you that your deliveryman has arrived with your cash trunk boxes value $8.3 million dollars being your inheritance /compensation payment? He is currently in AustinaBergstrom International Airport, Texas, on transit. I want you to know that you have 24 hours to email or call him now with this line (512)-400-7124 or email: donaldosso55@gmail.com then speak with the diplomatic deliveryman for directives, his name is Mr.Donald Osso. As he has been waiting to hear from you to enable him get to your home address without missing his way. Most importantly you are advised to send your full data to him, which include your Full Name, Current Residential Address, Direct Cell Number, closest airport to you and A copy of any identity card to verify that you are the right receiver to avoid mistakes. Note that you must call Mr.Donald Osso as soon as you receive this email for more discussion; direct line is (512)-400-7124 . Also reconfirm your full current address and valid phone number to the Delivery officer via his above email address once you receive this email to enable him deliver your cash consignment boxes to your house without any further delay. You are advised not to waste his time at the airport, so that he would not be stranded in any way because he will return if he finds out that you are not doing anything to get him over to your house. CONGRATULATIONS. MR.GODWIN EMEFIELE, EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR, CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA E-mail: godwinemefele9@gmail.com From:Date: Sun, Oct 29, 2017 at 2:43 AMSubject: * * * * * * * URGENT NOTICE* * * * * * * * *To: notice@cbn.org Date: Oct 30, 2017 9:34 AM Subject: CONTACT THE DELIVERY MAN I SENT AND CLEAR YOUR CONSIGNMENT WITH HIM. To: Cc: FROM THE EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR, CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA (CBN) GOVERNOR GODWIN EMEFIELE E-mail: gov.godwinemefele510@gmail.com URGENT NOTICE, ATTENTION: BENEFICIARY This is to inform you that your delivery man has arrived with your inheritance cash trunk boxes value $8.3 million dollars in John F. Kennedy International Airport New York as their transit. I want you to know that you have 24 hours to call him now with this line (+1773 980 6178) or email (davidjohnson511@hotmail.com ), then ask to speak to the diplomatic deliveryman in person of Mr.david johnson in the United States.Let us know if you are still interested to get your two trunk boxes delivered to you today? As he has been waiting to hear from you to enable him get to your home address without missing his way. For your information, the deliveryman with your package is not aware of the content of the boxes for security purpose. Please do not tell him to avoid running away with your funds.On no account should you let him know about the content of the consignment to avoid evil intention.Most importantly you are advised to send your full data to him,which include (1)your Full Name, (2)Current Residential Address,(3) Direct Cell Number,and A copy of any identity card to verify that you are the right receiver to avoid mistakes, and bear in mind that you have to clear the trunks once the delivery man arrive to the Airport. Note that you must call me as soon as you receive this email for more discussion, Also reconfirm your full current address and valid phone number to the Delivery officer via his above email address once you receive this email to enable him deliver your cash consignment boxes to your house without any further delay or mistake.You are advised not to waste his time at the airport,so that he would not be stranded in any way because he will return if he finds out that you are not doing anything to get him over to your house. CONGRATULATIONS. GODWIN EMEFIELE, NEW EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR, CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA From: " godwin emefele" < governorgodwin5100@hotmail.com Date: Oct 30, 2017 9:34 AMSubject: CONTACT THE DELIVERY MAN I SENT AND CLEAR YOUR CONSIGNMENT WITH HIM.To:Cc: De la: Mr. Godwin Emefiele < mr.fashola220@gmail.com > Catre: @ Trimis: Luni, 30 Octombrie 2017 12:23:01 Subiect: ATTENTION PLEASE. DID YOU SEND ANYONE TO COME AND CLAIM YOUR FUND? FROM THE DESK OF: Mr. Godwin Emefiele DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL REMITTANCE FOREIGN OPERATIONS. Swift Code: BPH KPL PK, A/C#: 329606=101244=169=678 Our Ref: CBN/OHG/OXD1/2017 Your Ref :. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TELEX: CENBANK. PAYMENT FILE: CBN/BEN/17 Dear beneficiary Your Urgent Response Is Needed Immediately by email or phone conversation because your fiends Mr Johnson Manuel and Rev.Melville Turner they said that you send them to come and claim your fund on your behalf that you had an accident that made you indisposed to get the fund, so please if you are really the person that send them to come and claim your fund on your behalf please kindly let me know immediately before we can release the funds sum of 10.5M USD to them as you said to avoid us making wrong payment to another people You can all me on +234- 7033830311 for more clarification Waiting for your urgent reply. We bank in your response. Yours in service, Regards, BEST REGARDS, Mr. Godwin Emefiele Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Please do not responding to any message without the (CBN) Security Code (CS C-098) is for security reason to avoid dealing with those internet,hackers If you received a similar letter, please ignore it. Do not answer it. If you do, you will end up on more of the mailing lists used by the criminals behind this fraud. Read more.... Given the scale of the opioid epidemic, the nation should be mobilizing. More people are dying than at the peak of the HIV/AIDS scourge. In some places, overdose deaths are exceeding homicides, suicides and traffic deaths combined. President Donald Trump offered useful actions and ideas at a White House ceremony Thursday, such as measures to prevent addiction with really great advertising, create nonaddictive painkillers and bolster law enforcement against illegal imports of the synthetic opioid fentanyl. But Trumps announcements, including the designation of a public-health emergency, are not enough. Drug overdose deaths are zooming upward, from 52,898 deaths in the year that ended January 2016 to 64,070 deaths in the year that ended this January, much of the increase due to fentanyl imported from China. Turning the tide is possible. Opioid use disorder can be effectively treated. The U.S. Surgeon General says that only about 1 in 10 Americans with a substance use disorder receive treatment. What the nation really should be doing now is a crash effort to deliver effective treatment to those who most need itto stop the rising death toll. Although it didnt get as much attention as Trumps, an important statement was made by Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. He declared, correctly in our view, that given the scale of the epidemic, with millions of Americans already affected, prevention is not enough. He added, We must also help those who are suffering from addiction by expanding access to lifesaving treatment. The evidence shows that addiction treatments that include medication, counseling and social support can work. In Massachusetts, Gottlieb noted, there was a greater than 50 percent reduction in the risk of death from overdose among individuals treated with methadone or buprenorphine after a nonfatal overdose. Researchers say treatment with these medications is life-extending for individuals with opioid use disorder. Treatment can be a road to recovery and lower risk of relapse. Yet there remains a heavy stigma associated with medication-based treatment, a stigma that needs to be overcome. People trying to regain control of their lives with treatments involving medication should not be considered addicted, the commissioner said. Rather, they are role models in the fight against the opioid epidemic. Trumps list of proposals was a start, but he did not provide the resources the crisis demands. If a public-health emergency is going to cost billions of dollars, better to face that now than wait until later. As Joshua Sharfstein of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has pointed out, there are enormous resource demands, many at the state and local levels, for emergency medical services, law enforcement, child welfare, training and treatment. The nation must face the opioid crisis with a more expansive treatment strategyand more fundingthan what Trump has offered so far. Through most of the last generation you could find much of the edgy fringe of Idaho politics in Kootenai County, and pieces of a recent article about politics there helps locate one of the reasons things have gotten so worked up. The article by Anne Helen Petersen on the site Buzzfeed is called Heres what happens when Republicans have no one to fight (it is at https://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/wackadoodles-north-idaho). It describes in detail the evolution over the last half-century or so of local Republican politics, especially the relatively recent splintering between sundry pachyderms, Reagan Republicans, redoubters and others. The most central current figure in the article is Brent Regan, chair of the Kootenai Republican Party Central Committee, where at meetings people come to him, as if before a ruler, or a king. He apparently is not shy about expressing himself, writer Peterson said, and when I asked him to help refine my understanding of liberty-minded conservative beliefs, Regan protested my use of beliefs, which infers that they are, in fact, decisions instead of immutable truths. The article quoted an email from Regan: There is a right and a wrong, good and evil, and beneficial and detrimental. Society cannot thrive under Cartesian Relativism because it devolves into a muddle of conflicting truths. The truths are that American Exceptionalism is the product of Judeo-Christian morality (The Ten Commandments) and of Logos (try to speak Truth), Greco-Roman philosophy (democracy and the idea that nature can be understood) and Anglo-Saxon Law (Magna Carta, the laws apply to all, even the King). The result is articulated in the most powerful political statement in history, the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution is a covenant between the states to create a federal government. The Bill of Rights does not grant rights, it forbids the government from infringing on those rights which are endowed by their Creator. No. I reject his premise: These are not immutable truths. These are interpretations, analysesideas, opinions, which may have merit or not, but most certainly are not facts. Facts and opinions are different things. Its a fact that Regan was quoted in the article as the last paragraph indicates. This column is opinion and analysis, and so is the quote from the Regan email. Some of what Regan says here is just silly. American exceptionalism is the outgrowth of the Ten Commandments? Really? Other parts seem more sensible. I would agree that the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence is among the most powerful political statements ever, but how is that contention fact and not opinion? This is not mere philosophical hair-splitting. The inability to discern between fact and opinion is subtle but also one of the most serious real political problems we have these days, and its getting worse. A big part of what we as Americans suffer from is an inability to compromisewhich is another way of saying, the ability of the widely varied 323 million or so of us to get along and to work together. A society made up of people convinced of their own absolute, unquestioning rightness, the lack of any need to learn anything newmuch less about their fellow citizenscan keep our country from functioning. It can blow a society apart. You want to turn America into an updated version of the 90s-era Balkans? Evidently, you can find a prescription for that kind of future up in Kootenai County. A Friday terror attack against a police bus outside capital Manama left one police officer dead and eight agents injured, the interior ministry announced Sunday. The ministry imputed the attack to a terror group, which remotely detonated a bomb causing shrapnel holes through the bus. Authorities have launched an investigation into the attack whose authors have not been identified yet. The small monarchy has been facing insurgency since 2011. The country was rocked by protests staged by the population Shia majority, who complain about their marginalization by minority Sunnite. Five security forces were wounded this month in a bomb blast when protecting a ceremony in the west of Manama. Prior to that attack, one policeman was killed in June in a blast, in the Diraz home village of Shia Muslim spiritual leader, Ayatollah Isa Qassim. Two other policemen were injured in the attack. Qatars ruler Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani stressed that demand by the Saudi-led group to shut down Doha-based News Channel Al Jazeera is unfeasible and tantamount to giving away the countrys sovereignty. Were not going to shut down Al Jazeera, he told host Charlie Rose, in an interview aired Sunday by American CBS 60 Minutes program. Our sovereignty is a red line. We dont accept anybody interfering in our sovereignty. When you tell me to close a channel like Al Jazeera, history will write one day in 50, 60 or 70 years how it changed the whole idea of free speech in the region. Created in 1996, Al Jazeera has found itself in the eyes of the storm this year after Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with Qatar, they accuse of promoting terrorism. The quartet, few days in the midst of crisis triggered on June 5, issued a list of 13 conditions including the closure of the channel and the reduction of diplomatic ties with Iran. Doha vehemently lambasted the accusation and the conditions adding that the list was made to be rejected. The 37-year old monarch also said that the boycotting countries are wary of his countrys independence and by imposing the blockade they wanted a regime change. Early this month, Qatari authorities froze assets of Sultan Bin Suhaim al-Thani and of Abdullah bin Ali al-Thani, two men belonging to the Qatari royal Thani tribe, but believed close to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The two men were reportedly on the verge of announcing a rival government in exile. Sheikh Tamim however noted that he is more than willing for dialogue to end the crisis with his neighbors. In the meantime, Bahrain has rejected to sit with Qatar at the next Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit if Doha does not change its attitude. It also called for a freeze of Qatars membership in the organization until the tiny country abides by the conditions put forward. Morocco has renewed its attachment to Yemens sovereignty and national unity during a meeting convened Sunday in Riyadh by the foreign ministers and chiefs of staff of member countries of the Arab coalition supporting legitimacy in Yemen. Speaking during this meeting, SG of Moroccos Foreign Affairs Ministry Mohamed Ali Al-Azraq stressed the importance of the efforts seeking to reach a political solution to the Yemeni crisis in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 2216, the Gulf Initiative and the national dialogue. Al Azraq expressed Moroccos full solidarity with the brotherly Yemeni people and with the return of legitimacy in this country to end the sufferings of the Yemeni people due to the violations committed by outlawed groups. He also reiterated Moroccos full backing to all measures taken by Saudi Arabia to preserve its security and sovereignty and its readiness to support Saudi authorities to protect the sanctity of the holy sites and the two Holy Mosques and to preserve security and stability in the region. During this Arab meeting, Morocco called for finding appropriate solutions to the Yemeni crisis, which threatens the security and stability of the region, and voiced its readiness to deepen political consultations, military coordination and humanitarian efforts of the Saudi-led Arab alliance. In a press release issued at the end of their meeting, the Arab foreign ministers and chiefs of staff called upon the United Nations to review its fact-finding tools and mechanisms, in reference to a UN report on the children in armed conflicts. They rejected parts of this document which contain, according to them, false information and lauded other parts of the report, which hailed measures taken by the Coalition in protecting civilians, said Col. Turki Al-Malki, spokesman of the Coalition Forces in a press conference. Al-Malki said the Arab meeting strongly denounced the negative role played in Yemen by Iran, through supporting the coup militias with weapons, ammunition, ballistic missiles and mines, which represent flagrant violations of the Security Council Resolution no. 2216. The Iranian regime and its machinery are responsible for destabilizing the security in the region, he said. The Ministers and military officials condemned the militias killing of the Yemeni people and exposing them to famine, fear, and diseases. They also slammed the militias attempt to tamper with the capabilities of the Yemeni people and threaten the security and stability of the countries in the region. @alextdaugherty Florida anglers have a line to Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson. The state's Republican and Democratic senators may be divided on hot-button issues like health care but the pair can agree on one thing: the U.S. Department of Commerce should allow recreational red snapper fishing in the South Atlantic. Last week, Rubio and Nelson penned a letter to commerce secretary Wilbur Ross expressing disappointment over a decision not to allow recreational red snapper fishing off of Florida's east coast in 2017. "We cannot stress enough how important the red snapper fishery is to Florida's economy," the senators wrote. "This decision is disappointing for residents and small business owners from Jacksonville to Miami especially considering the enhanced opportunities being afforded to their peers along Florida's Gulf coast." The letter comes after the federal government announced an extended red snapper season off of Florida's Gulf Coast in mid-June. Recreational anglers now have 39 days to fish for red snapper this summer after the federal government initially announced a three day season at the beginning of June, raising the ire of fisherman accustomed to a longer season. "It is clear that excessively limiting recreational opportunities to fish for red snapper in federal waters--even as populations continue to rebound--threatens to further erode the public's trust in the federal institutions charged with science-based fisheries management decisions," the letter said. The federal government has jurisdiction over red snapper fishing in federal waters, which begin nine miles offshore on the Gulf Coast and three miles offshore on the Atlantic coast. Closer to shore, the state of Florida regulates recreational red snapper fishing. Recreational anglers can fish for red snapper in state waters on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through September 4. Read the letter here. @PatriciaMazzei @joeflech A second woman accused Miami Beach City Commission candidate Rafael Velasquez on Monday of sexually inappropriate behavior, saying he groped her at an event four months ago and then sent her a text message telling her she felt good. The disclosure, by local publicist Frances Alban, comes after Kristen Rosen Gonzalez, a Beach commissioner and Democratic congressional candidate, accused Velasquez whose campaign she endorsed of exposing himself to her in her car two weeks ago. After Rosen Gonzalezs accusation, the Miami-Dade County Democratic Party, which backed Velasquez in next weeks nonpartisan race, told the Miami Herald it would suspend its digital ads and mailed fliers campaigning for Velasquez. After Alban came forward, Party Chairman Juan Cuba said Velasquez should end his candidacy. If these allegations are true, it would be appropriate for him to withdraw, Cuba told the Herald. Alban said she and Velasquez, whom shes known for about seven years, both attended a June 8 meeting at the North Beach Youth Center. As they posed for a photograph, Alban said, Velasquez grabbed her butt. My immediate reaction was it must have been an accident, said Alban, who is smiling in the photo. Alban left early and texted Velasquez later to ask if shed missed anything, according to text messages she shared with the Herald. He said no and asked if they could meet one-on-one. You looked sexy tonight, Velasquez wrote, inserting a purple devil emoji. Why, thank you! Alban responded. Very feminine... and waiting for your photographer to shoot ...you felt good too. More here. This story has been updated. Photo credit: Matias J. Ocner, Miami Herald staff For picture posts from 2010 and earlier, see the Earlier Picture Posts Page The number of mule deer and elk taken by hunters on a portion of the Rocky Mountain Front are slightly above the long-term average through the second weekend of Montanas 2017 general big game season, a Fish, Wildlife & Parks wildlife biologist said. Elk harvest is about 2 percent above the 10-year average, but 14 percent above last year, at this time said Brent Lonner, FWP wildlife biologist, in a press release. The elk harvest can be roughly split two-thirds bulls and one-third antlerless elk. The 2017 numbers are also up for mule deer, Lonner said. Mule deer harvest is 9 percent above the 10-year average, and only slightly below last years total, at this time, Lonner said. Bucks constitute 87 percent of the total mule deer harvest thus far. For white-tailed deer, however, the number of animals brought to FWPs Augusta check station is down slightly. The white-tailed deer harvest is 4 percent below the 10-year average, Lonner said, and 12 percent below last year. The whitetail buck and antlerless harvest are nearly equal. This is mostly due to hunters using antlerless licenses in the area. The numbers at the Augusta check station Region 4s sole biological check station apply only to a handful of hunting districts on the Rocky Mountain Front. Elk hunters so far have brought in 65 elk (42 bulls, 21 cows and two calves) compared to the long-term average of 64 elk. Mule deer at the check station have numbered 53 (46 bucks and seven does). The long-term average is 48 animals. With whitetails, this years count in Augusta stands at 43 (22 bucks, 16 does and five fawns), while the 10-year average is 45. So far 732 hunters have stopped at the Augusta station, which is about 4 percent below average. The general deer and elk season runs through Nov. 26. Maria Gurreri knew she wanted to have a career as a nurse when she was just 5 years old. Most kids that age change their minds a few dozen times before they actually pick something, but not Gurreri. I never wavered, she explained of her career decision. I feel really lucky that way. Shes now been working at Community Medical Center in Missoula for more than a quarter-century, and is a full-time registered nurse on the pediatrics floor, where she helps sick kids recover and get back to life. Its totally rewarding, she said of her decision to work with children. Kids are super-resilient. They get sick super-fast. They get very sick. But they get better just as fast versus adults, who can kind of go in a downward spiral. Kids are kicking and screaming one minute and a minute later theyre in the hall playing with you and hugging you and they totally forgot that bad thing. Gurreri said that 99 percent of the time, the patients she sees get better and walk away from the hospital healthier than they were when they entered. Losing a patient is difficult for sure, and its difficult on the whole family, but luckily on my end it doesnt happen that often, especially at this hospital, she explained. Since she joined the hospital in 1996, Gurreri said shes seen all sorts of technology advancements. Many industries have experienced tech changes over the past 26 years, but perhaps none more so than the health care industry. Its like stepping into a time-lapse when she compares how things were back then versus now, Gurreri explained. So much has changed. Theres been a huge shift all over the nation. From intensive care unit monitors to separating child patients from adults, the changes since 1996 are immense. There are now built-in safety measures that prevent simple mistakes like mixing two medications that are dangerous when combined, for example. Now, computerized software wont let health care providers make those simple mistakes. Before, there was a lot more room for error, Gurreri said. Technology has made it safer, with reminders and safety measures in place. Community Medical Center recently held a party to celebrate the work anniversaries of all their longtime workers. The list includes 16 people who have worked there for at least 25 years, and three women who have hit the four-decade mark: Naomi Matten, Jan Wickman and Laura Schmidt. Jennifer Christopherson, the executive director of Community Physician Group clinic operations, also celebrated her 25-year mark. She started as a 19-year-old ward secretary when her mom was a nurse. The work and family culture here in all of my years has not changed, she explained. Its a great place to be. Its a warm feeling. The foundational culture is great. People stay here because of their coworkers and our providers are wonderful. Gurreri agreed, saying her coworkers are an important facet of the job satisfaction. The work is not easy, she said. And you dont go into this for the money. But its super-supportive. The administration is supportive. I dont think a lot of hospitals can say that. People that work here usually never want to go anywhere else. Susan Harriman, practice manager at Community, is celebrating her 15th year. She started as a nurse at the Mission Valley Hospital (now the Indian Health Services center in St. Ignatius). Her daughter was born seven weeks premature, and the nurses and doctors at the neonatal intensive care unit at Community saved the baby's life. I truly believe she wouldnt be here if it wasnt for Community Medical Center, Harriman said. I didnt realize at the time that I would end up working here. Harriman still remembers that on her first day of work, she was standing in a hallway looking confused as to where to go. I dont know how many people came up and asked me if I needed help finding something, she said. I think thats awesome. I dont think that cultures changed in 25 years, Christopherson said. Although health care is a very technology-heavy industry, the one-on-one interactions with patients are the most satisfying and rewarding parts of the job for Gurreri. Losing a loved one is never easy and the grieving process is a long and arduous road. Tom and Tonya Seiler, owners of Slikati Photo + Video, recognized that not all death practices work for everyone and were inspired to invite people to honor their loved ones in a less conventional fashion. Photos for the Dead is in its fourth year and is an event being held in conjunction with Missoula's Festival of the Dead. It is a free session for people to be photographed with items of loved ones who have passed. "There wasn't really a clear antecedent," Tom said of the event's origins. "I wasn't like, 'Oh, this person is doing this kind of photography, if we did it with people to celebrate their loved ones it'd be great.' It just kind of came together." While the event is still fairly young, the Seilers have seen many unique items brought in to honor the deceased, from books and photos to jackets and animals. "We request articles of clothing in particular because that just works well," Tom said of items that are normally brought. "Often times it's an article of clothing that the person who passed on has left...when we ask them to wear it, it's kind of a big deal." For Kashya Boretsky, it was her grandfather Bernerd's hat they got together on a fishing trip in Florida. Recounting the fishing trip with a smile, Boretsky remembers catching the most fish, but more so the time she spent with her grandpa. "He was in a wheel chair most of the time but at one point I held his hands and we walked around the house we were staying at. It was a really cool moment" Boretsky said. "It was a really cool thing to see my grandpa super happy because that was his favorite thing to do and I don't think he had been deep sea fishing before." Boretsky, who lost her grandfather in November 2015 after a long battle with Parkinson's, has a video of her grandparents dancing to their wedding song at their 50th wedding anniversary which she occasionally watches when she needs a smile. "He was able to dance with her and walk and he sang all the lyrics to it," Boretsky recalled. "It was just the cutest thing to see them so giddy together." While she has no special plans for the photos, Boretsky is glad she took part. "This was a very cool experience, I'm very happy with it," she said. "It's cathartic." *** Michelle Brademeyer honored a best friend who basically was a brother. She remembers Zachery Hartley as a generous soul who would give anything to anyone in need. "One time we were going to drive to California in his car I think it was his first car and then he met this girl who was pregnant and didn't have a car, so he just gave her his car," Brademeyer said. "Then we hitch-hiked to California together. That's Zach right there, he always just wanted to help everyone else." Brademeyer said Zach committed suicide a little over a year ago and his passing remains fresh in her memory. She keeps close the last thing she saw him touch, a black and white trucker hat that says "Take this job and shove it," and thought the event was a cool idea to help her in the grieving process. She says she's learned a fair share about death and herself this past year. "Grief is not something you can stick in a box because it's so weird how different it is for everybody and what we have to do to get through it," Brademeyer said. "Or that it's not something you get through even, it's just something you keep moving with the rest of your life." *** A small, brown wonder-book is all Jaime Benner needs to remember her mother and grandmother. Benner lost her mother when she was young and was gifted the book filled with stories, including her favorite, Pandora's Box, by her grandmother Wilhelmena before she passed away in March. "It's stories that my grandmother read to my mom and that my mom read to me," Benner said, "I thought it would be a cool remembrance piece." Benner got the book after visiting her grandmother after her 30th birthday. While she doesn't remember hearing the stories as a kid, she certainly remembers that day she read them with her grandma. "She sat down with me that night and read this book to me. I'm 30 and I sat on the floor with my legs crossed. She read the whole book" Benner recalled. "I was there for a long time. It was the coolest thing I remember." The two women were huge influences on Benner's life and their deaths have taught her to be OK with her feelings. Benner says that although it is not fun to grieve or be sad, it helps you grow to find a balance and understanding of your feelings. In years past, Photos for the Dead has been a one-day event, but this year sessions can be scheduled over two separate days Nov. 1-2. Information can be found on Facebook or through slikati.com/dead. This is the 25th anniversary for Missoula's Festival for the Dead with workshops and events being held throughout the week culminating with a parade down Higgins Avenue on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. HAMILTON When Kate Stone began setting out deer carcasses and motion-detecting cameras in the Bitterroot Valley as part of a raptor research project, she wasnt quite sure what she would find. The results delighted her. It wasnt just the data gleaned from the research that Stone, an ecologist at the MPG Ranch, found fascinating. Instead, many of the photographs show interactions among a variety of species ranging from birds to bobcats, leaving her to wonder what exactly is happening in each shot. Anyone can come up with a story about what is happening in the pictures, she said. Who knows if were right or wrong, but its something that we might not have known was happening in the wild. In one photograph, nine bald eagles are perched on a carcass, seemingly enjoying their dinner party. In other shots, however, eagles appear to be fighting over a carcass. Quite possibly theres a little spat going on, Stone said of the latter photo. Meanwhile, the ravens and magpies are waiting for something to fly off the carcass. Another series of photographs shows a bobcat on a carcass with a coyote approaching. Initially, the cats back is arched and it appears alarmed. As the coyote gets closer, the bobcat moves off the prize and crouches low. The third in the series shows the coyotes nose in the carcass while the bobcat appears to calmly sit by, staring at the camera. I have never seen that before, Stone said. We were really surprised by that series, and it happened more than once. She also hadnt anticipated the number of hawks and owls that stopped by, possibly due to last years crusty snow that made it a bit more difficult to puncture to grab small rodents. A couple of foxes were caught on camera, as was a moose. The photographs are part of the Bitterroot Valley Winter Eagle Project, a research collaboration Stone is doing in conjunction with the Missoula-based Raptor View Research Institute and the Bitterroot Audubon Society. Theyre banding some of the birds caught on camera and fitting them with transmitters to track their travels all the way from the Bitterroot to Alaska and back. They put deer carcasses collected by the Montana Department of Transportation, mainly along the U.S. Highway 93 corridor, out on private property as bait. Since 2011, theyve banded more than 100 eagles and outfitted more than 20 golden eagles with transmitters. They work in the winter when bears are hibernating, so they dont draw them in. Its also at a time when the raptors typically would be feeding on roadside carrion and gut piles left over from hunters. Were not changing what theyre eating, just changing where theyre eating. This way they're not on the Eastside Highway where they potentially could get hit by a car, Stone said. People who want to track the migration routes of golden eagles and osprey can do so online at raptortracker.mpgranch.com. Stone hopes the public will take a more active role in the study by going online to zooniverse.org and searching for Western Montana Wildlife, and helping them classify whats in the 5,000-plus images theyve captured. About 3,600 citizen scientists from throughout the world already have processed 13,932 images, which includes 279,941 wildlife classifications. They have amassed more than 300,000 photos from the 2016-17 season, and expect hundreds of thousands more this season, so Stone appreciates the help. People like to look at wildlife cameras, and this will help us complete the project, Stone said. This is a way people can get involved. Stone anticipates that theyll begin putting out carcasses again this year in mid-November at 35 to 40 sites, up from 26 last year. They also have 15 additional cameras this year, along with 20 cameras available last year. All were donated by the MPG Ranch. As agencies providing home and community-based services across the state for Medicaid recipients, including Montanas older adult population and those with physical, mental and developmental disabilities, we are greatly concerned by the proposed cuts that will affect the Montana citizens who most need these services. The cuts to Community First Choice, Personal Assistance Services, Big Sky Waiver Services and Severe Disabling Mental Illness services will decrease provider agencies' ability to maintain an adequate workforce and serve people in the community. Elimination of certain programs and severe cuts to other programs has been proposed in the state budget. The services provided through these programs help people with the need for assistance with activities of daily living remain at home and out of institutions. Montana has made significant progress rebalancing how we care for people needing long-term care (LTC) by reducing use of nursing homes from 52.6 percent of Medicaid LTC costs in 2008 to 42.8 percent in 2015, resulting in millions of dollars in savings for the state. The proposed cuts threaten these savings and Montanas progress in caring for people where they want to be at home. Not only do these cuts impact the people we serve and the workforce we employ, they also significantly reduce the amount of federal matching dollars Montana receives to support community-based programs. This in turn affects the overall Department of Public Health and Human Services budget, the state of Montanas economy, and returns to an institutional bias in Montanas longterm care system. Community-based services are a lifeline for many Montanans of all ages to be able to live and work in their communities instead of being forced into institutions. Some people are born with a life-long disability, some experience disability through a life-changing event, and still others develop disabilities through aging. No one chooses to be disabled, separated from family and friends or sent to isolating and expensive institutions. Community-based services are a more cost-effective approach to the provision of care. If consumers can no longer receive adequate support to live safely at home, the entire community suffers the consequences which will present themselves through the unnecessary and more expensive hospital re-admissions, emergency room visits and nursing home placements. Collectively, our agencies serve 2,179 people and employ 3,376 Montanans statewide. We serve Montanans in every age group, from birth to end of life. The cuts proposed for community-based services will reduce services to all 3,500 people currently enrolled in these programs and served by all agencies statewide. We encourage Gov. Steve Bullock and our legislators to come together and find solutions that will resolve the budget issues facing our state. We encourage thoughtful consideration of solutions such as utilizing a short-term investment loan through the Board of Investments, adjusting the required amount of the ending fund balance to help meet budgetary needs, or placing more emphasis on the use of community-based services over institutional services as a cost saving measure. Through compromise and cooperation, we are confident solutions will be found. We encourage solutions that are mindful of the citizens most in need of services, minimize the impact upon them, and maintain the safety and well-being of all Montanans as a priority. Recent moves by the Trump administration are putting our premier national parks in peril. And unfortunately for Montanans, this attack on what has been called Americas best idea is being led by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a Montanan who self-describes as a Teddy Roosevelt Republican. But if Teddy Roosevelt was alive today hed undoubtedly be whacking Zinke about the head and shoulders with his swagger stick for attempting to destroy the legacy he so presciently left for future generations. As it is, Teddy is probably rolling over in his grave at Zinke and Trumps plans to basically hand over national parks, wildlife refuges and coastal waters to none other than the fossil fuel corporations to ravage for private profit. Growing up next to Glacier National Park, one might think Zinke had some idea of the incredible beauty that led to Glacier being declared a national park. Millions of people from all over the world have flocked to Glacier since its inception and, in recent years, the park has been setting new visitation records every year. With its crystalline waters, majestic peaks, groves of ancient trees and ice-filled glacial basins, Glacier is indeed a jewel to be cherished, respected and preserved for generations yet to come. Surely Zinke knows that people do not come to Glacier to see oil rigs, breathe toxic emissions, wander through clearcuts or share the narrow park roads with ore trucks. Nor do they go to other national parks for a relaxing dose of industrialized landscapes and waters. Yellowstone was Americas and the worlds first national park, and remains a natural treasure that draws millions of visitors to stand in awe of the geothermal wonders, not the controversial cell towers on Mt. Washburn. Yet, while calling for slashing the budget for national parks by the largest amount in 75 years, President Trump issued an executive order in March requiring Zinke to conduct a review of existing rules and policies on drilling that may unduly burden the development of domestic energy resources beyond the degree necessary to protect the public interest or otherwise comply with the law. Mind you, this pressing concern about causing the oil and gas industry any problems in further exploiting public lands and waters comes at a time when the globe is deluged in so much oil and gas that prices are less than half of what they were only a few years ago. Surely Zinke and Trump understand the simple theory of supply and demand and that if there was a tremendous demand for more oil and gas, the price would reflect that. Adding insult to injury, the National Park Service under Zinkes command has announced it will more than double entrance fees to $70 a car at a number of national parks. While facetiously comparing the cost to enjoy national parks to Disneyland fees, these dubious public servants seem to forget that Disneyland is a private operation while the national parks belong to all Americans. We, not the corporations, own the parks a simple fact Trump and Zinke seem to have decided to ignore in charging outrageous fees to enjoy what we already own. The clock is ticking on these Trump era travesties to our irreplaceable publicly owned treasures and, although this administration seems deaf to public input, there is an opportunity for public comment. For the sake of present and future generations, Montanans must speak up loudly to Zinke and Trump that our national parks are not for sale, nor should they be made inaccessible to the public through the implementation of prohibitively expensive entrance fees. I am a caregiver in Montana helping seniors and others who are disabled, and Im writing on behalf of myself and as a voice for those who cannot because Im afraid of what the proposed $240 million budget cut will do to my clients in my community. As a caregiver, I work hard helping my people with things such as personal care, home maintenance and social time. If caregivers such as myself are not there to assist with the aforementioned, then their quality of life decreases immensely. Should the state cut hours given to caregivers/clients, then both sides will suffer. We need them to take both sides of the situation seriously and go back to Helena to prevent a loss in the budget wherein home care is greatly needed. As caregivers, we do our job every single day with care and compassion. We need our legislation to do the same when it comes to our budget. Debbie Sly, Hamilton The first time I met Mayor John Engen, I was an AmeriCorps volunteer. A friend introduced me on Higgins Avenue, and from that day forth Engen has gone out of his way to say, Hello, Adam York! when he sees me around town. It has always amazed me that the mayor of Missoula cared enough to acknowledge a 20-something kid from Louisiana wearing dirty Carhartts. Flash forward a decade, and I am a successful business executive. Engen still says, Hello, Adam York! when he sees me around town or at a nonprofit fundraiser he is emceeing. John Engen is the essence of Missoula. When Forbes ranks your town the 59th Best Small Places for Business and Careers, and Outside magazine calls your community one of the "16 Best Places to Live in the U.S.," it makes it difficult to argue that we should have any other mayor. Longtime Missoula resident Peter Stark may have summed it up best when he wrote, The mountains and rivers have always been here, but the lively energy and community have not." We should all thank John Engen with our vote. Adam York, Missoula Just a few words describing narcissism: self-admiration, arrogance, selfishness, egomaniac, conceit. It is also described in this phrase: "Narcissism: Humanity's secret weapon of mass destruction." This, of course, is especially extremely critical and calls for remedial action when this mental disorder has inflicted the president of the United States of America. This deterioration is being felt and witnessed as our Republican members of Congress struggle to individually maintain their jobs while collectively attempt to carry out their jobs for the good of our nation. The breaking point? Who knows. Bob McClellan, Polson The leaders of the House intelligence committee are warning that President Donald Trump associate Roger Stone will be slapped with a subpoena Friday if he does not reveal the name of his intermediary with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. "We'll give it until tomorrow," Rep. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican who is running the House panel's Russia investigation, told CNN Thursday. Asked if the panel would subpoena Stone if he did not disclose the name by Friday, Conaway said: "Yes. We'll take the next steps. Hope we don't have to." California Rep. Adam Schiff, the committee's top Democrat told CNN: "We have agreed to subpoena him if he doesn't provide the information. ... We'll see whether he's willing to comply or whether we'll have to use a compulsory process." Grant Smith, a Stone attorney, said: "We are working to comply by the deadline set by the committee. Everything has been collegial and professional. There has been no threat of a subpoena." Stone, who has known Trump for 40 years, testified before the House intelligence committee in a closed session last month. Investigators asked questions about his contacts with the Russian hacker Guccifer 2.0 during the election season, something that described as an innocuous and meaningless exchange over Twitter. US intelligence community said the name Guccifer 2.0 was used by Russian intelligence to disseminate stolen emails. And he insisted he did not collude or coordinate with Russians as part of an effort to meddle in the campaign. But after the hearing, Stone told reporters that he answered all of the committee's questions but one: his "intermediary" to Assange. Stone said his conversation with the intermediary was off-the-record and with a journalist, and he would honor the agreement to protect the journalist's identity. But he added that he planned to go back to the intermediary and ask to release him from the off-the-record agreement. "I'm not going to burn somebody I spoke to off the record," Stone said. "If he releases me, if he allows me to release it, I would be happy to give it to the committee. I'm actually going to try to do that." Conaway said Thursday that the name "will help eliminate any questions people might have, and it just helps support the story." "If we've got that name, then we can just evaluate what he said as a result of what he said, I think that will be helpful to the investigation," Conaway said. In his opening statement for the hearing, Stone denied any direct contact with Assange and attacked Schiff for suggesting he did when former FBI Director James Comey testified in March. "On June 12, 2016, WikiLeaks' publisher Julian Assange, announced that he was in possession of Clinton DNC emails. I learned this by reading it on Twitter," Stone said. "I asked a journalist who I knew had interviewed Assange to independently confirm this report, and he subsequently did," Stone wrote. "This journalist assured me that WikiLeaks would release this information in October and continued to assure me of this throughout the balance of August and all of September. This information proved to be correct." "I have referred publicly to this journalist as an, 'intermediary,' 'go-between' and 'mutual friend.' All of these monikers are equally true," Stone added. During the presidential campaign, Stone appeared to predict on a few occasions that WikiLeaks would release damaging information about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, including saying that it would soon be Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's "time in the barrel." Stone denied that he had any advance knowledge that WikiLeaks would release Podesta's emails, however, saying it was a reference to his own investigation into Podesta. The Montana Pole Superfund Site, the former wood timber treating plant in Buttes Boulevard neighborhood, has been back in the spotlight again and not for positive reasons. Butte-Silver Bow representatives have said they were blind-sided when they were recently told by the DEQ that the site would not be clean enough for re-use as an industrial site. Additionally, there is public concern that the site will not be clean enough to be safe for the neighborhood. We would like to explain our understanding of both concerns. As of recently the DEQ has been very upfront with the fact that the cleanup has not gone completely according to plan. We appreciate their candidness; but that information is nothing new. If you delve into the review reports which DEQ prepares for the site, you will find that it has been public knowledge since at least 2001 that the remedy would be only partially effective at treating contaminants. Simply put, the persistent pollutant dioxin has not been removed by soil treatment. That much was clear. What has not been clear is how that dioxin would limit the productive re-use or redevelopment of the site after the cleanup is finished. This we believe is the origin of the controversary and misunderstanding. The Montana Pole site was proposed as an appropriate place for Butte-Silver Bow to consider relocating the county maintenance shops. Implied in that proposal is the suggestion that the site will be cleaned up to standards for that use. What was never clear are the caveats that come with that offer. Caveats which include there will be a waste cap which must be maintained and any re-use of the site may entail significant costs on the part of the new owner to ensure that the remedy is not jeopardized. We understand that until recently DEQ did not have all the information needed to better describe these caveats; but we also believe that uncertainties should have been more clearly stated. Given that the caveats still need to be ironed out and given Butte-Silver Bows need to re-locate the shops soon, it is a good thing that they have moved on to another location. Regarding public safety, we do not think there is reason to believe the site will be a danger to the neighborhood or environment if it is capped. DEQs proposed cap is a solid barrier between the buried dioxin contamination and the surface, the cap design is appropriate, and the DEQ is committed to maintaining it. We expect the capped area will be better than a recreational cleanup level, because the cap prevents any contact with the dioxin. Similar capped dioxin waste exists at former industrial sites across Montana and the U.S. If located out of any floodplain and properly designed, these caps provide a high level of protection. We also would not call the soil treatment that has occurred a failure, because the contaminants other than dioxin have been treated. As for re-use of the Montana Pole site, only time will tell. It is possible that part of the site will be clean enough to be re-used as an industrial site; part could even meet residential standards. If portions of the site outside of the capped area are found to meet industrial or better standards, those areas could be sold and redeveloped. What remains to be seen is if any entity will take on the risks and responsibilities that come with redeveloping or using the capped portion of the site. Its not likely in the short term because real estate prices in Butte are still relatively low and undeveloped land remains abundant in the area. In the short term, we continue to encourage DEQ to evaluate the viability of any options which may be available for actually treating the dioxin and for cleaning as much of the site as possible to a level which allows an end use which the neighborhood is happy with. -- All four writers are affiliated with the Citizens Technical Environmental Committee, a technical advisory group in Butte. Ian Magruder is a consultant; Dave Williams is president of the board; Bill Macgregor is a board member; and Joe Griffen is a volunteer technical adviser. Boone County, MO - The Boone County Sheriffs Department Cyber Crimes Task Force did not know a man arrested last month on suspicion of possessing child pornography was a school bus driver until the day of his arrest, a detective said. A parent last week told the Columbia City Council she and other parents were concerned because the man arrested drove a school bus in Columbia Public Schools and the task force had said its investigation began in July, before the school year started. Heather Benson, whose children attend CPS schools, asked the city council last week to look into the the mans arrest and explain why he was allowed to drive the bus while being investigated. He worked with children, and a lot of them, everyday, she said. Det. Tracy Perkins, Boone County Sheriffs Department Cyber Crimes Task Force coordinator, said there are misconceptions about how crimes are investigated, especially online crimes. You have to put somebody behind the computer, she said. We have to cut through a lot of tape just to figure out who is responsible. On Sept. 28, authorities arrested Dakota Smith, 21, of Columbia, on suspicion of possessing child pornography. Perkins said detectives did not know until the day of his arrest that Smith worked as a school bus driver. Mayor Brian Treece at the council meeting said Smith was fired after his arrest. Smith has been out on bond since his arrest. He had an initial court appearance scheduled for Tuesday. It was not clear whether Smith has a lawyer. The Cyber Crimes Task Force began its investigation in July after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that said an individual believed to be in Boone County had uploaded child pornography to Tumblr, a social media site. Perkins said identifying a suspect in an online crime is a multi-step process that can take time. People can use fake IP addresses or fake names, she said. Additionally, if the person lives in an apartment complex or a home with other tenants, Perkins said detectives must determine which person in that building or household is responsible. Sometimes, depending on the incident, it can go fast but other times it doesnt, she said. Bus drivers transporting CPS students do not work for the school district. The drivers work for Student Transportation of America, which the district pays to provide transportation services. Michelle Baumstark, CPS spokeswoman, said the bus company conducts thorough background checks on all bus drivers during the hiring process. She said no CPS students were involved in the incident that led to Smiths arrest. That person passed all background checks and training and had no reported incidents prior to the arrest, Baumstark said in an email. DETROIT A certified pre-owned vehicle costs more than a regular used car, but it can give buyers some peace of mind in an often murky market. Certified pre-owned vehicles are used cars that are backed by an automakers guarantee. Theyre usually newer cars, coming off two- or three-year leases. Certified pre-owned programs limit the miles the cars can have on them under 60,000, in many cases and put the cars through a rigorous inspection. They come with extended warranties and, sometimes, extra perks like roadside assistance or a satellite radio subscription. If I want a car that hasnt been abused, this is one of the best ways to avoid all that guesswork, says Matt Jones, senior editor of consumer advice for the car shopping site Edmunds.com. Certified pre-owned programs have been growing in popularity as the supply of used cars balloons in the U.S. New vehicle sales have risen for seven straight years and as many as a third of those vehicles were leased. That has left automakers with a steady stream of two- or three-year-old vehicles with limited mileage that are ideal for certified pre-owned programs. U.S. certified pre-owned sales grew by 61 percent to 2.6 million between 2010 and 2016, according to Cox Automotive. Still, they only made up a fraction of the 28.7 million used cars sold by franchised and independent dealers last year. Certified pre-owned status generally adds 6 to 8 percent to the price of the car, or between $1,000 and $1,500, Jones said. A Ford dealer in Michigan is currently advertising a certified pre-owned 2014 Ford Edge SEL with 22,748 miles on it for $21,943. A CarMax dealer in Maryland is offering a non-certified pre-owned 2014 Edge SEL, with 33,000 miles, for $1,044 less. By comparison, a new 2017 Edge SEL starts at $31,790. For the extra cost, factory-trained mechanics will perform 150-, 160- or even 180-point inspections of the vehicle, which is usually less than five or six years old. Among other things, theyll check for any outstanding recalls and make those repairs. After that, what you get depends on the brand. Automakers may include whatever is left over from the original powertrain warranty, which covers the engine and transmission, along with a shorter bumper-to-bumper warranty, which covers the engine as well as interior parts like the infotainment system or air conditioning. Roadside assistance is often included for at least some period of time. Some manufacturers charge a $50 to $100 deductible for repairs while the car is under warranty; others dont. Buick offers three months worth of OnStar and lets buyers return the car within three days if theyre not happy. Dealers pay automakers a fee to certify a used vehicle. Kia, for example, gets $450 for every certified pre-owned vehicle sold, says Maria Williams, a senior certified pre-owned retail support manager with Kia. Whats more, she says, Kia is getting a relationship with buyers who will keep coming back to the dealership for service. In 2016, 47 percent of buyers who returned to the car market after owning a certified pre-owned Kia bought a new Kia, she says, based on data from the consulting firm R.L. Polk. That rate dropped to 33 percent among owners of a non-certified pre-owned used Kia. Here are some things to think about if youre shopping for a certified pre-owned vehicle: DECIDE IF ITS WORTH IT Experts are split on this one. Jones, who owns a certified pre-owned vehicle, says a certified pre-owned vehicle is worth the extra cost because youre getting a higher quality car and the promise of less hassle. Dealers are also more willing to deal on a certified pre-owned car, he says, because theyve already paid the automaker to get it certified. But Consumer Reports advises against getting a certified pre-owned vehicle. The magazine says certified pre-owned cars may not be in any better shape than any other low-mileage used car and buyers are better off pocketing the $1,500 or so and saving it for repairs or putting it toward a new car. Consumer Reports says shoppers considering a used car should have it inspected by a trusted independent mechanic before they buy. MAKE SURE ITS REALLY CERTIFIED Certified pre-owned vehicles can only be sold by a brands franchised dealers. Independent dealers may sometimes call a vehicle certified or Carfax certified, but that doesnt mean its a manufacturer-backed program with the same quality guarantees as an officially certified vehicle. Check the details of certified pre-owned programs on automakers web sites or in dealership brochures so you know what you should be getting, and look for the certified pre-owned sticker or logo on the car. READ THE FINE PRINT Some certified pre-owned programs are more generous than others. Kia certified pre-owned buyers, for example, get whatever is left of the cars 10-year, 100,000-mile powertrain warranty, plus an additional year or 12,000 miles of bumper-to-bumper coverage. Honda certified pre-owned buyers get a similar deal, but the original warranty is for seven years and 100,000 miles. Lexus offers a two-year full warranty with unlimited mileage, a great perk for drivers who drive a lot of miles. Porsche will certify vehicles that are up to 8 years old, as long as they have low enough mileage. Familiarize yourself with the terms for the brands youre interested in and see what might work best for you. Les emplois a Rennes sont abondants et varies. Il y a quelque chose pour tout le monde. Que vous soyez a la recherche dun emploi [] Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes [] Evelyn Alberta Pridmore passed away in her home early Monday morning October 23, 2017. She was 78 years old and had lived in the Napa Valley for 69 years. Evelyn was born at Victory Hospital in Napa on April 12, 1939 to Margaret and Everett Bellani. She was raised with her sister, Donna, in St. Helena. They grew up in the house on the corner of Main Street and Charter Oak Avenue (now known as Farmstead Long Meadow Ranch). Evelyn attended Ursuline Elmhurst Academy where she had wonderful memories of her relationship with The Reverend Mother Peter. She also enjoyed attending and graduating from St. Helena High School in 1957. Other childhood memories would include being a Rainbow Girl, a St. Helena High School Pom Pom girl, attending school dances and showing her horses, Buttons and Sky Baby. After high school Ev left Napa Valley to attend a cosmetology school in Reno. She later returned in 1967 and became employed by Queen of the Valley Hospital where she worked in Sterile Processing. She proudly worked there for 40 years. Evelyn married Chuck Pridmore in 1983 and they were married for 24 years until he passed away in 2007. Ev had a life-long love for music. She enjoyed listening to Motown, Country, Gospel, Big Band, and Swing. She also had a life-long love for her pets. Ev always had at least one dog and her pets were all treated like they were her children. Above everything else, her greatest love in her life was for her family. She will be greatly missed and remembered for her generosity, her quick wit, and her abundant love. She is survived by her two daughters Joan Perez (Kim) and Rene Hall (John). Evelyn was fondly called Nonnie by her five grandchildren, Ben Perez (Sarah), Heather Bartlett, Joy Dahl (Kevin), John Hall (Jennifer), Noel Fradella (Ian), and by her seven great grandchildren. There will be a private service and celebration of life held with her immediate family. Due to her love for pets and her battle with diabetes any donations that would like to be made on behalf of Evelyn can be made to ASPCA or Juvenile Diabetes. Two Napa County supervisors decided that helping with wildfire recovery trumps going on a previously scheduled, taxpayer-funded trip to Chile for an international wine conference. Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Belia Ramos and Supervisor Diane Dillon were to be delegates at the Great Wine Capitals meeting from Nov. 5-9 in Valparaiso, Chile. What might be the biggest disaster in Napa County history changed their plans. Both supervisors said they canceled their trips in the wake of the Atlas, Nuns and Tubbs wildfires that broke out on Oct. 8. Hundreds of homes burned in the Mayacamas Mountains and in the eastern mountains during the subsequent two weeks. My county needs me here, Ramos said. Dillon voiced similar sentiments. She said property owners lost structures and have questions about cleaning up debris and rebuilding. We need to respond to them as quickly as we can, Dillon said. Napa County for more than a decade has participated in Great Wine Capitals conferences. Recent practice calls for sending two county supervisors and the agricultural commissioner at county expense, with Napa Valley Vintners and Visit Napa Valley paying to send their own representatives. The local contingent in recent years traveled to such places as Porto, Portugal and Mendoza, Argentina to represent the Napa Valley on the international wine scene. The Board of Supervisors voted Sept. 12 to send Ramos and Dillon to Valparaiso, Chile for the latest conference at a maximum cost of $17,500. It authorized them to travel out-of-state from Oct. 28 to Nov. 13. Only one wine grapegrowing area and gateway pairing from each nation can be a Great Wine Capitals member. San Francisco/Napa Valley is the United States representative. Proponents of the annual trips say that Napa Countys wine industry has a $13-billion-a-year economic impact locally and competes globally. They see value to meeting with officials from the worlds other wine regions to discuss such issues as the relationship between tourism, agriculture and government. We think Great Wine Capitals is an important organization, said Rex Stults of Napa Valley Vintners. He too has dropped out of this years trip. Napa Valley Vintners is focused on helping its members recover and the community heal from the wildfire damage, he said. But Visit Napa Valley will send a representative. We do need to get the message out there that the whole valley has not been burnt out and we are open for business, Stults said. I think its appropriate that somebody from Visit Napa Valley goes and helps to spread that message. Clay Gregory is CEO of Visit Napa Valley. He made last years Great Wine Capitals trip, though this time another member of the organization will go, along with a representative from San Francisco Travel. The benefit is it connects us to other great wine regions around the world, Gregory said. Over the years, weve learned a whole bunch from each other. One benefit came a few years ago, when Napa County faced an outbreak of the invasive European grapevine moth, Gregory said. The county received information from Great Wine Capitals partners on how to successfully fight the grape-damaging pest. The Great Wine Capitals experience has also helped bond the Napa Valley with San Francisco Travel, Gregory said. Thats important in bringing San Francisco tourists to Napa Valley. Chile earlier this year faced its own historic wine country wildfire devastation. A January photo from National Geographic portrays a cloud of smoke towering over Valparaiso, a scene similar to that in Napa Valley during the height of the local fires. Great Wine Capitals members are San Francisco/Napa Valley; Adelaide, South Australia; Bilbao/Rioja, Spain; Bordeaux, France; Mainz/Rheinhessen, Germany; Mendoza, Argentina; Porto, Portugal; Valparaiso/Casablanca Valley, Chile and Verona, Italy. The initial quasi-debate last week among the four declared Democratic candidates for governor strongly indicated that access to medical care may be a dominant campaign issue. However, it also strongly indicated that voters will likely see more sloganeering on the issue than reality-based prescriptions. That would be unfortunate, because its an issue that potentially affects not only the well-being of 39 million Californians but the states largest single economic activity. An exhaustive study by UCLAs Center for Health Policy Research, released last year, found that health care is now a $367 billion per year California industry, with 71 percent paid by local, state and federal governments and the remainder by employers and/or individual consumers. The feds are picking up half of the states medical bills, primarily through Medi-Cal, which now covers 14 million low-income Californians, Medicare for the over-65 set and benefits to military and civil service retirees. Although Medi-Cal underwent a major expansion through the Affordable Care Act, known popularly as Obamacare, its estimated that about 3 million Californians, most of them undocumented immigrants, still lack coverage and depend on private and public charity for care. Covering them would add about $33 billion to the annual cost, bringing it to an estimated $400 billion more than twice the state budget and the core of the debate. All four candidates endorsed expansion of coverage, but they also used two terms single-payer coverage and universal coverage that arent necessarily synonymous. The former means that one new state agency would control the system, as proposed in Senate Bill 562, which cleared the state Senate this year only to be stalled in the Assembly by Speaker Anthony Rendon. He refused to consider anything that lacked financing and took heavy fire from advocates in the left wing of his party. The alternative term, universal coverage, implies that we could leave the present system, a combination of public and private programs, in place and simply add enough money for those now lacking coverage. The leading Democratic candidate, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, endorsed the single-payer approach, saying erroneously the money exists in the system. But the man now polling second, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, backed Rendons position, referring to promises without financing as snake oil and adding, The fact of the matter is we dont have a plan yet. Rendon and Villaraigosa are correct about SB 562s many shortcomings. It assumes that the feds would be willing to lump all of the health care money its now spending in California, nearly $200 billion a year, and give it to a new state entity. State and local governments assumedly would do the same but, according to a legislative analysis of the measure, even if they did, it would still require $200 billion in additional tax revenues to pay for the remainder. Thats no small amount. The analysis says it would equate to a 15 percent additional tax on all earned income, although the bite would be offset in some measure by eliminating costs now borne by employers and consumers. Furthermore, getting the feds to cooperate would be immensely difficult, and not only because Republicans now control Washington. Government employees and retirees probably would not be willing to merge their benefits into a state-run program. If the basic, although unstated, goal of advocates is to cover undocumented immigrants and California really wants that, theres no need to mask it in a dicey, probably unworkable, single-payer system. They could clearly say what they want, propose the taxes to do it and let the chips fall where they may. I am writing in hopes to help bring back Mr. Bordelon. Our family has two children who attend Justin-Siena High School. We have a sophomore and a junior. John is a very warm and kind man who puts all of the kids and families first. The tone of the school campus has been enhanced by his programs and presence in the school. My children are stressed and shaken by the sad news thrown at them on Monday morning last week. In a time when our school and community need our "All Heart" approach and support, the decision maker, Robert Jordan, couldn't have been more shortsighted and heartless. I am furious with the timing of this decision, the lack of transparency and the lack of respect shown to our high school's, students, parents and faculty. It was as if we woke up to another fire but this one could have and should have been prevented. I pray with my whole heart and I will do whatever I can to help reinstate John Bordelon. I will support the removal of Robert Jordan if he is found to have made this decision based on an emotional decision due to irreconcilable differences between the two men. I pray for our "All Heart" community, and I am proud of everyone pulling together for this very import cause. Juliet Hoban Napa Governor Rick Scott announced that his 2018-2019 budget proposal will include $63 million for teacher supply grants. This proposal is an increase of nearly $18 million, or $100 additional dollars per teacher. These annual grants are used by educators to purchase classroom supplies needed for the school year. Currently, Florida teachers receive $250 annually for classroom supplies. The Governors proposal will increase this funding to $350 annually. Thats in addition to annual bonuses of $1,200 or $800 that teachers will see this year (depending on a teachers evaluation). I have the opportunity to travel to schools and meet with our hardworking teachers, and yesterday, I was fortunate to meet with our Teachers of the Year to hear how we can make our schools even better, Governor Rick Scott said. Teachers are heroes to our students and Im committed to championing policies to continue to help them. We have worked every year to ensure that Floridas teachers have the resources they need to help our students succeed. Far too often, teachers are forced to reach into their own pockets to buy supplies for their classrooms and I am proud to propose additional money for this critical program. Teacher supply grants allow our educators to secure the tools they need in the classroom and we will continue to fight to ensure that every Florida teacher can focus on student success. - Spain imposes direct rule over Catalonia. - Spanish Prime Minister dismissed all regional politicians and called for fresh elections. - Rajoy announced the suspension of the top officials of Catalonia's regional police, and the appointment of administrators in the region Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy on Friday announced that the Spanish Parliament had approved the activation of article 155 of their constitution which allows the country to directly rule over Catalonia. The move also saw Rajoy announce that the dissolution of the Catalan parliament and suspension of their top officials including President Carles Puigdemont. He also announced the suspension of the top officials of Catalonia's regional police, and the appointment of administrators in the region. "The Spanish people have seen a sad day today, where nonsense has prevailed over the law and has demolished democracy in Catalonia," he declared in a televised address. "These are sad and anxious times," Rajoy said, adding that Friday's vote "ended the Catalan tradition of fostering agreement". Rajoy had previously held a cabinet meeting which lasted for three hours shortly before announcing the decision. "Spain is a serious country and a great nation, and we will not tolerate that a few people try to liquidate our constitution," Rajoy told journalists before the meeting. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 00:23:08|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TEHRAN, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Iranian officials and the visiting Chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano on Sunday called for commitment of all the parties to Iran's 2015 international nuclear deal. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that Iran would remain committed to its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal as long as Iran benefits from the agreement, Tasnim news agency reported. The Islamic Republic has repeatedly announced that it will not be the first party to withdraw from nuclear deal with six world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Rouhani said at a meeting with Amano in the capital Tehran. A country that has signed an international and multilateral agreement does not have the right to deal with it in whatever way it likes, Rouhani said, referring to the U.S. administration's treatment and interpretation of the deal. U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this month that the United States could not formally certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear accord. Washington has also demanded inspections of Iran's military sites, which Tehran has rejected. "We are committed to the JCPOA as long as we can enjoy the benefits mentioned in the deal," Rouhani stressed. Earlier on Sunday, Amano said that Iran is living up to its commitments under the 2015 international nuclear deal, Tehran Times daily reported. Since January 2016, the IAEA has monitored Iran's nuclear commitments under the nuclear agreement and conducted verification checks, said Amano. "The agency believes that the JCPOA is an important achievement for verification. The agency could stipulate that Iran's nuclear commitments under the JCPOA are being implemented," he was also quoted as saying by Press TV on Sunday. Amano made the remarks in a press conference with Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi. Amano is in Tehran for talks with the Iranian senior officials focusing on the verification and monitoring of the implementation of the 2015 nuclear agreement. The IAEA is in charge of monitoring restrictions on Iran's nuclear program under the nuclear agreement. So far the agency has released eight reports each time confirming Iran's adherence to the international nuclear pact. On Sunday, Salehi said that he has exchanged views with Amano about Section T of the JCPOA, which deals with the technology that could contribute to the development of a nuclear explosive device. Section T does not include special inspections, but the United States is making its own special interpretation of the provision, Salehi was quoted as saying by Press TV. He warned that "we can produce uranium enrichment at 20 percent within four days, but we do not want the JCPOA to collapse." Following the nuclear agreement between Iran and the major world powers in 2015, which was implemented in Jan. 2016, Iran agreed to stop the enrichment of uranium to 20 percent level. On Sunday, Rouhani also slammed Washington for what he called its "failure" to live up to its obligations. He described any call by the United States for renegotiating the agreement as "absurd." "The administration of a country that violates the international obligations of the previous administration is not trustworthy," he said. Donald Trump has called the Iran nuclear deal, reached during the former U.S. president Barack Obama administration, "an embarrassment" for the United States and has called for renegotiations over some parts of it. Besides, Rouhani said that Iran seeks to boost long-term cooperation with the IAEA, Press TV reported. "Our determination is to have long-term cooperation with the agency within the framework of international regulations," Rouhani said. "We hope that given Iran's full cooperation in recent years, the agency will declare its final conclusion about the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program as soon as possible," he added. Iran expects that the UN nuclear agency, in line with its measures and duties, would provide Iran with the same help it gives to other countries committed to the IAEA Safeguards Agreement and the Non-Proliferation Treaty, Rouhani said. Also, in a meeting with Amano on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif emphasized that all parties to the nuclear deal must remain committed to it. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 03:08:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close RIYADH, Oct. 29 (Xinhua)-- Saudi-led coalition in Yemen confirmed Sunday its full commitment to the United Nations' rules in its military operations in Yemen, Saudi Press Agency reported. The confirmation made during a meeting of Foreign Ministers and Chiefs of the General Staff of the Member States of the Coalition that has been engaged in a war in Yemen for more than two years. The meeting confirmed that the military operations were launched upon a request by the elected Yemeni government against rebels. The attendees accused Iran of supporting the militias in its brutal activities against innocent civilians and instability in Yemen. The participants also agreed to continue to provide humanitarian aids to Yemenis to help them deal with their devastating living conditions. The war that started in March 2015 shows no signs of ending, especially after the failure of talks between Yemeni political parties. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 03:33:38|Editor: Song Lifang Video Player Close (Xinhua file photo) BAGHDAD, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- The President of the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani on Sunday told a closed-door session of parliament that he was stepping down from his post on Nov. 1, local media reported. "I refuse to continue the position of president of the Kurdish region after Nov. 1," Rudaw Kurdish media said, quoting a letter sent by Barzani to the regional parliament session held in the regional capital Erbil. "Changing the law on the presidency of Kurdistan or prolonging the presidential term is not acceptable," Barzani said. He said that a meeting must be held as soon as possible so that "there will be no legal vacuum in the duties of the president of the region." However, Barzani pledged to continue his long mission as a Peshmerga "to sacrifice and struggle for the rights and demands of our people as well as preserve the achievements of our people," the letter read. Barzani set Nov. 1 as the date for stepping down and asked the parliament to vote on distributing the legal, military and administrative powers of the president to the regional government, parliament and the judiciary. The parliament continued its session after Barzani's letter and voted in favor of choosing the current regional Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani for Commander-in-Chief of Kurdish regional forces. Masoud Barzani's president post has sparked controversy, as his tenure was originally expired in 2013, but the Kurdish parliament extended his term to August 2015, but because of the blitzkrieg, or lighting war, of the Islamic State (IS), Barzani remained in office. The Kurdish parliament initially set Nov. 1 a date for parliamentary and presidential elections in Kurdistan region and the ethnically mixed disputed areas claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurds. However, on Oct. 24, the parliament postponed the regional presidential and parliamentary elections for eight months after the Iraqi security forces took control of the oil-rich Kirkuk province and most of the disputed areas. During the session, dozens of angry protestors, loyal to Barzani, broke into the parliament building and attacked journalists who were covering the parliament session at the entrance of the building. The protestors told Rudaw that they are there to demand an apology from the lawmaker Rabun Maroof from the opposition Gorran parliamentary bloc, who was accused by the protestors of insulting the Peshmerga and President Masoud Barzani. The chaos came under control after riot police intervened and bullets were heard as they drove out the protestors. Barzani, 71, a veteran Kurdish leader, took over the post of president of the regional government in 2005. However, Barzani's post has sparked controversy, as his tenure expired on Aug. 19, 2015. He is also leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party since 1979. On Oct. 16, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is also Commander-in-Chief of Iraqi forces, ordered government forces to enter the oil-rich Kirkuk province in northern Iraq to regain control of the ethnically-mixed disputed areas. The Kurds consider the northern Kirkuk province and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahudin provinces as disputed areas and want them to be incorporated into their region, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs and Turkmens in the region as well as the Iraqi central government. Tensions have been running high between Baghdad and the region of Kurdistan after the Kurds held a controversial referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region and the disputed areas. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 03:53:45|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MOSCOW, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Russia is holding talks with Ukraine on settling the latter's 3 billion U.S. dollars debt issue and believes expected results will be reached, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Sunday. "We are open to talks with our Ukrainian colleagues. The main condition is that we recover the entire debt Ukraine owes us, which is 3 billion U.S. dollars," Siluanov said during a program aired by the Rossiya 1 channel. "We are holding such talks. I am certain that a proposal for Ukraine to fulfill its commitments will be found," he said. The minister said that he has been discussing this matter with his German counterpart, and that such mediation in complex issues by Germany is "extremely helpful." In December 2013, Ukraine received a 3-billion-dollar loan in the form of Eurobonds from Russia to shore up its economy amid financial crisis. The loan matured on Dec. 20, 2015. After Ukraine's failure to repay the debt on schedule, the Russian Finance Ministry filed a lawsuit in the High Court of Justice of England in February 2016, seeking to secure repayment of the debt. According to the court's judgement in September 2017, Ukraine needs to pay to Russia the par value of Eurobonds worth 3 billion dollars, the accrued interests of 75 million dollars and overdue penalties, as well as compensate part of the expenses related to legal proceedings totaling 2.8 million pounds sterling. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 03:58:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GENEVA, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- The Swiss city of Lausanne has been chosen to host the 2019 World Conference of Science Journalists (WCSJ), the biggest global event on science journalism, according to an ongoing 2017 conference in San Francisco, the United States on Saturday. About 1,000 to 1,200 science reporters and specialists from over 60 countries are expected to attend the 11th edition of the WCSJ in Lausanne between July 1 and 5, 2019, mainly on the campuses of the Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Lausanne. It's the first time that the world's three major science writers' associations have joined forces to apply, namely the Swiss Association for Science Journalism, the French Association of Science Journalists in the news media (AJSPI), and Science Writers in Italy. The Lausanne event will be built around original forms of presentation including creative workshops, mobile debates, brainstorming discussions and tutorials. It will offer participants the opportunity to "share good practice and reflect on the values of the profession of science journalism," and to "allow them to discover new tools and how to implement them," said AJSPI Vice President Yves Sciama. Lausanne's candidacy has enjoyed the support of four major academic partners: EPFL, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the University of Lausanne and the University of Geneva. Besides visits to partner institutions, some 30 other study tours will be organized during the event, ranging from trips to alpine research stations to tours of many Swiss and European institutions. Switzerland has been drawing its economic success largely from science and innovation, and has been at the top of the Global innovation index for several years. Lausanne and the entire Lemanic arc where the city is located have profited from a unique environment renowned for high quality schools of higher education, well known multinationals, as well as numerous start-up enterprises active principally in the area of life sciences. "This conference is a unique opportunity for Switzerland to demonstrate to journalists from around the world that behind our famous mountains and chocolate lies a center of scientific excellence," said Nicolas Bideau, head of Presence Switzerland which is part of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs to promote Swiss interests. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 04:23:50|Editor: Yamei Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Over one third of U.S. citizens are "not proud" of the way democracy works in the country, a record high in the past few decades, according to a recent poll. U.S. citizens were unsatisfied overall regarding the country's politics, identifying money in politics as the "root of all evils," showed the Washington Post-University of Maryland poll which was released Saturday. When asked "how proud are you of the way democracy works in America," 36 percent of those polled said they were not proud, those who identify themselves as Democrats are more disappointed than those as Republicans or independents. The data were in a stark contrast with those gathered since 1996, when the percentage of those who claimed they were not proud never topped 20 percent in the four similar polls during that time. When asked to draw a comparison between the societal divisiveness now and during the Vietnam war, 70 percent said the division now is "at least as big as during the Vietnam war," while 27 percent said the division during the war was greater. Over 70 percent of those polled also believed that the country's politics have "reached a dangerously low point," among them roughly half believe that this period is temporary while the other half say the low point is here to stay. Money was pointed as the top two reasons behind the troubled signs in U.S. politics, according to the research, as 96 percent believe "money in politics" should be blamed for political dysfunction, the same for 94 percent with "wealthy political donors." Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 04:58:57|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close TEHRAN -- The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano has arrived in the Iranian capital Tehran for talks on the process of Iran's nuclear deal implementation, state TV reported on Sunday. The IAEA talks with the Iranian officials will focus on the verification and monitoring of the implementation of the 2015 nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Press TV reported. (Iran-IAEA) - - - - ANKARA -- One Japanese was killed and 17 Japanese were injured in a tour bus accident in Turkey's southern province of Antalya on Sunday, state-run Anadolu Agency reported. The tour bus, which has carried 18 Japanese tourists, overturned off the road due to the rainfall on the way from Antalya to Konya. (Turkey-Accident) - - - - TEHRAN -- Four people were killed in a fire eruption in Rag Sefid oil field in southwestern Iranian province of Bushehr on Sunday, official IRNA news agency reported. The fire was very huge and Iran's Red Crescent Society dispatched helicopters to extinguish it, the report said. (Iran-Oil Field) - - - - BAGHDAD -- The President of the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani on Sunday told a closed-door session of parliament that he was stepping down from his post on Nov. 1, local media reported. "I refuse to continue the position of president of the Kurdish region after Nov. 1," Rudaw Kurdish media said, quoting a letter sent by Barzani to the regional parliament session held in the regional capital Erbil. (Iraq-Barzani) Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 07:34:14|Editor: Song Lifang Video Player Close HAVANA, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Cuba seeks to attract foreign investors with a newly expanded investment portfolio to be presented at the upcoming 35th Havana International Trade Fair (FIHAV 2017). From Oct. 30 to Nov. 3, FIHAV will be the largest fair ever in terms of exhibition area, covering 25,000 square meters, about 4,000 more than last year, at a convention center on the outskirts of Havana. According to Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca, Cuba has updated its portfolio to offer the largest number of projects yet in tourism, renewable energies, oil exploration, food imports and nickel development. "This year's trade and business fair will show the trust and consolidation of foreign investors in the Cuban market, with the participation of companies from 63 countries and 37 high-level delegations including ministers," Malmierca said at a recent press conference. "Our main business and trade partners will have greater representation at this year's fair, a sign that our market is one of the most important in the region," he added. The fair will also host the second edition of the Cuban business opportunity forum, an event to be inaugurated by Malmierca on Tuesday to provide foreign businessmen with information about investing in Cuba and networking with local partners. "This forum is a real opportunity to nail down important trade deals for Cuba and also to increase future foreign investment in the island," \said the minister. Cuba will feature its goods and services in a pavilion that will house more than 300 companies and entities from all economic sectors, including the Mariel Special Development Zone, the government's flagship project to attract foreign capital. During this year's FIHAV, 16 nations are participating with pavilions of their own, including France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, China, Russia and Spain, the latter once again having the largest presence. Cuba's new foreign investment law, approved in 2014 by parliament, provides a favorable economic and investment environment for companies to set up joint ventures in the island. Cuba is banking on attracting some 2.5 billion U.S. dollars a year in foreign investment, as essential to steady growth. In the first six months of 2017, 11 new foreign investment projects were approved, as well as re-investments in two already underway, all worth more than 1.3 billion dollars, Deborah Rivas, the island's general director of foreign investment, said. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 09:04:31|Editor: Song Lifang Video Player Close by Abdul Haleem, Rahman Safi JALALABAD, Afghanistan, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Extracting pine nuts from pinecones in Kanda Chashma village outside Nangarhar's provincial capital Jalalabad city, a working lady whispered that Jalghoza (pine nuts) is a lucrative natural source of income for people living in eastern region of Afghanistan. Attired in villagers' dress and wearing a black scarf, the lady who refused to reveal her name as a sign of respecting traditions said softly that she can earn about 300 afghani (4.41 U.S. dollars) daily to support her family. In patriarchal Afghanistan especially in rural areas where people deeply believe in old traditions, women often reject to disclose their name or talk with men face to face. "My duty here is to take out pine nuts from pinecones and usually I work four, five, or even six hours every day," she murmured. Described by locals as a natural treasure, the pine nuts trees, growing naturally in Afghanistan's eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Laghman, Nuristan, Kunar, Paktia, Khost and Paktika provinces, have been strictly protected by Afghan villagers. Afghan pine nut, which is an expensive dry fruit, is popular in Pakistan, India and other countries in the region. The price of 1 kg pine nuts in local market nowadays is 2,000 afghani (29.41 U.S. dollars) which is beyond purchase power of ordinary people in the conflict-battered Afghanistan. However, local traders say that the price would double and triple if Afghan pine nuts are exported to other countries. Collecting Jalghoza or pine nuts in traditional way by hands, according to locals, is difficult and time wasting. "We can increase our products if the government helps us to change the way of processing from traditional hand collecting to machine collecting and to modernize our packing system," local trader Rasoul Khan told Xinhua recently. Afghanistan, according to Khan, produces 30,000 tons of Jalghoza or pine nuts annually and the amount could increase if the government encourages investment in this field. In the past, Afghan pine nuts, according to Khan, were exported largely to Pakistan but the expensive seed is currently exported to scores of countries and soon 10 tons of Jalgoza or pine nuts would be exported to China and Thailand. "Modernizing processing and packing of pine nuts would provide more job opportunities for people," a resident of Kanda Chashma village Hamisha Gul, 35, told Xinhua happily at the site of his work. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 09:09:34|Editor: Song Lifang Video Player Close CANBERRA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Australian opposition has said it could challenge more than 100 parliamentary decisions made by Members of Parliament (MPs) disqualified by the High Court. A research released by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) said on Monday that former Deputy Prime Minister (PM) Barnaby Joyce and and Fiona Nash, former minister for Local Government and Territories, had made 118 ministerial decisions or announcements since the July 2016 Federal election. Joyce and Nash were among the five MPs ruled by the High Court as ineligible to serve in parliament on account of being dual citizens. Joyce's seat in the lower house of parliament will be subject to a by-election and he, having renounced his New Zealand citizenship, is expected to win while Nash's position as a Senator will go to the next person on her party's Senate ticket at the last election. The ALP has received legal advice that the decisions made by Joyce and Nash in their role as ministers could be challenged under section 64 of the Australian Constitution which requires every minister to be an MP. "It is not difficult to envisage challenges being brought in respect of decisions that have had significant financial, environmental or other repercussions by corporations or persons with interests in reversing those decisions," Matt Albert and Matt Collins, both Queen's Counsels, said in a letter to Labor obtained by Fairfax Media. The South Australian government has also sought legal advice on whether decisions made by Joyce affecting the state would stand. Joyce on Monday urged the Labor Party to "go right ahead" and challenge the decisions, saying that it would be used against the governing Labor party in the Queensland state election campaign. "The ones they want to reverse are the ones that help regional Australia, and as the Labor Party goes to an election in Queensland, this is your Labor Party fellas: it doesn't look after regional people," he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Monday. "If the Labor Party wants to challenge a whole heap of decisions to make poor people poorer and to show they have absolutely no vision of regional Australia, go right ahead fellas because we have got the Queensland election on and we will be reminding everybody about how completely and utterly out of place you are with regional Australia." The threat of legal action came despite Australia's Attorney-General George Brandis on Sunday saying there was "no legal consequences at all" to the High Court findings. "Most decisions that ministers make are in fact made by the Cabinet on the recommendation of ministers," Brandis said. Bill Shorten, leader of the ALP, took time while on an official visit to Israel with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to blame the prime minister. "Mr Turnbull's too arrogant for that and because of his arrogance and his poor judgment, we've now got the current turmoil," Shorten told reporters in Jerusalem late on Sunday night local time. He said that the situation could have been avoided if Joyce had stepped aside from his ministerial duties while awaiting the High Court decision as Senator Matt Canavan did. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 10:39:54|Editor: Song Lifang Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Puerto Rico's state electricity company Sunday canceled a controversial contract worth 300 million U.S. dollars with a tiny Montana-based firm to help reconstruct the island's power grid. The company has only existed for two years and only had two full-time employees before Hurricane Maria destroyed the power grid of the Caribbean island over one month ago. Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello said earlier on Sunday that he was demanding an "immediate" cancellation, days after two panels of U.S. House of Representatives, along with a federal watchdog, started probing the no-bid contract signed by the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) with the Whitefish Energy, which is based in the hometown of U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. "There can be no distraction that alters the commitment to repair the power grid as quickly as possible," Rossello said in a statement. "I have given instructions to immediately proceed with the necessary coordination with the states of Florida and New York, in order for brigades and equipment to arrive on the island." "We are very disappointed in the decision by Governor Rossello to ask PREPA to cancel the contract which led to PREPA's announcement this afternoon," Whitefish Energy responded in a statement later on Sunday. In an interview this month, PREPA President Ricardo Ramos said he had agreed to a contract with Whitefish because the company did not insist on a down payment while other companies had demanded hefty sums. Meanwhile, Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski told media that the company got the contract because he was able to stay in communication with PREPA when other companies could not. Both Techmanski and Zinke, who are friends and neighbors in Montana, have denied that Zinke played any role in Whitefish getting the contract. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is part of Homeland Security, on Friday expressed "significant concerns" about the Whitefish contract, noting that it had not confirmed whether prices listed in the contract were reasonable. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 10:39:55|Editor: Song Lifang Video Player Close by Peter Mertz DENVER, the United States, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Two American conspiracy theories have grabbed the recent media headlines. On Thursday, the government released around 3,000 top-secret files that historians were hoping would unveil the truth about former U.S. President John F. Kennedy's assassination. The 1963 killing, officially attributed to former Marine Lee Harvey Oswald, who too was gunned down before he could be brought to trial, is considered the greatest conspiracy in the history of the United States. The resurrection of the American national tragedy comes as the country music concert massacre in Las Vegas on October 1 - the worst mass shooting in U.S. history - has been sparking conspiracy theories from coast to coast. VEGAS SHOOTING: COVER-UP HYSTERIA Fifty-four years after the Kennedy mystery, the same uncertainty over a "motive" has created confusion in the Nevada desert after professional gambler Stephen Paddock was officially confirmed as the man behind the Las Vegas massacre that left 59 dead, including the shooter himself, and more than 500 injured. How and why did a 64-year-old with no record of violence smuggle 23 weapons past security cameras and onto the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel and shoot thousands of bullets at the unsuspecting concert crowd? The day after, Alex Jones of Internet "news show" InfoWars posted a video on his Facebook page titled "Video Shows Second Shooter During Vegas Massacre," which was viewed more than 1 million times in 48 hours. "Could Stephen Paddock, the lone Vegas shooter, have been a patsy to kick off the left's war with the right in the streets of America?" Jones blogged. Another conspiracy theory went viral as a video was released showing bodies being removed from a Hooters restaurant near the shooting, with 17 ambulances arriving to take them. "Bombshell Vegas Video Of Dead Bodies In Hooters Proves FBI Cover-up," a YourNewsWire.com headline on Oct. 23 said. "(The) footage is absolute proof that the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI are lying to the general public and have not been forthcoming about all of the events that occurred that night." However, Dr. Stewart King, a U.S. State Department official, discounted the Vegas conspiracy theories as "media hype." "If there was any serious suggestion that there was another gunman or whatever the (InfoWars) post is trying to suggest, I'd assume somebody would be talking about it other than some trolls," King said. David Richardson, an attorney in Seattle, also dismissed the YourNewsWire.com report as not very credible. "They just toss it out there as a 'bombshell' with zero context," he told Xinhua. "Bombshell, why?Because the Las Vegas authorities are not honest about where bodies (were)loaded out of the massacre site? Not getting the issue." A surfer, Norbert Biro, posted an explanation of the video that had received 8,000 views in three days. "A lot of these videos posted now (are) trying to make some sort of conspiracy," Biro wrote Tuesday. "The reason why videos show many ambulances outside is because so many injured ended up there. It's not a secret or a cover-up ... no conspiracy." King, who was an officer at the U.S. Embassy in Guinea, remembered inaccurate media reports during a hotel siege in the West African state of Burkina Faso by terrorists in January 2016 that left at least 29 people dead. "There was considerable discussion about attacks at other hotels and restaurants, but it turned out to be a combination of jitter-firing by security guards and cops and stray rounds from the main battle landing a kilometer away," King recalled. U.S. A "CONSPIRATOCRACY" New York Daily News writer Annie Jacobsen said last year that "America is becoming a conspiratocracy ... conspiracies have never spread this swiftly across the country." Jacobsen, the author of "Area 51: An Uncensored History of America's Top Secret Military Base", described America as "a hotbed" of conspiracies. On Monday, Havasu News put the Las vegas speculations in the right perspective, saying: "It's unlikely that police agencies investigating the Oct. 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas are part of a conspiracy, but the lack of new information is creating fertile ground for the growth of many other conspiracy theories." Now America's "No. 1" conspiracy has been resurrected with 2,891 secret Kennedy assassination investigation documents from the CIA, FBI and other agencies posted on the National Archives and historians poring over the files, that include testimonies and letters from the heads of the CIA and FBI, Kennedy's wife Jacqueline, and the attorney of a mafia boss. U.S. President Donald Trump had initially announced all the secret JFK papers would be released. However, later he said that with several departments and agencies urging him that "certain information should continue to be redacted because of national security, law enforcement and foreign affairs concern," he had no choice but to accept the redactions, media reports said. Over the next 180 days, the redactions will be reviewed. Historians are hoping the files will finally answer the persistent questions: Was there a second shooter alongside assassin Oswald? Did he act alone or was he part of a wider conspiracy with others? Or was he simply a "patsy" as he had claimed? The files may also tell murky tales of U.S. espionage activities during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 12:25:26|Editor: Zhou Xin Video Player Close by Levi J Parsons SYDNEY, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Australian honey producers have been stung by the news that New Zealand's honey industry is in the process of trying to trademark the word "manuka" around the globe. In response, Australian producers have created a new industry body called the Australian Manuka Honey Association (AMHA) in order to fight the bitter feud. AMHA Chairman Paul Callander explained to Xinhua on Monday the function of the new organization is to ensure international governments understand the product is also native to Australia. "The Australian Manuka Honey Association will strive to ensure Australia's manuka honey gets a fair go in the global marketplace," he said. "Our new association is determined to protect the integrity and reputation of Australian manuka Honey." Considered a superfood, the buzz around manuka honey comes from its "healing power" and anti-inflammatory properties. Containing methylglyoxal compounds, the product is able to fight off superbugs and heal cuts and wounds. Callander said if the campaign by New Zealand is successful, it would have a severe impact on the capacity of Australia's industry, as the product is highly sought after around the world and fetches a premium price overseas. One of the New Zealand honey producers are attempting to trademark is China. "China is a massive market," Callander said. "Around 40-50 percent of the world's manuka honey is sold to China." "So we won't be giving in without a fight." New Zealand claims the honey as their own because manuka is an indigenous Mori word. "It's interesting that the Moris in New Zealand didn't produce honey ... there was no honey produced in New Zealand until the European bees came over there so it was just their name for the tree," University of the Sunshine Coast senior chemistry lecturer Dr Peter Brooks explained to local media. "But the same name has been used in Australia for about 150 years. There are newspaper articles going back to the mid-1800s talking about manuka plants growing in Australia." Australian beekeepers argue that because leptospermum plants which produce the honey are native to both countries, the word manuka should not be trademarked by either. "They were first to come up with the activity so they're thinking Australia is riding on their coattails, which we may be true to a certain extent," Brooks admitted. "But the fact that we've got the same product as them makes it very difficult to say that Australians can't call the same honey by the same name." "If you look at the chemical profiles of these honeys, it's almost indistinguishable, they are essentially the same honey." Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 13:15:33|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will pay an official visit to China from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 at the invitation of Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. The two will co-chair the 22nd China-Russia Prime Ministers' Regular Meeting here in Beijing. The following is a brief profile of the Russian prime minister. Medvedev was born on Sept. 14, 1965, in the Russian city of Leningrad, now known as St. Petersburg. He completed post-graduate studies in law at Leningrad State University in 1990. From 1990 to 1999, Medvedev taught as an associate professor at Leningrad (St. Petersburg) State University. He also worked as an advisor to the Chairman of the Leningrad City Council, and an expert consultant with St. Petersburg City Hall's Committee for External Affairs. In 1999, Medvedev worked as deputy chief of staff of the Russian Government Executive Office. From 2000 to 2005, he served in sequence as deputy chief of staff, first deputy chief of staff and chief of staff of the Russian Presidential Executive Office. In November 2005, he was appointed first deputy prime minister of the Russian government. In March 2008, Medvedev was elected as the Russian president. He assumed the post of prime minister in May 2012. During his terms of office as president and prime minister, Medvedev traveled to China five times, including visits and attending international activities. He is married and has a son. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 13:20:35|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close ZHENGZHOU, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Thirteen suspects in a cross-border telecom scam based in Cambodia were brought back to China by police from Luoyang City in central China's Henan Province Sunday. Police said the gang extorted money from victims in China using the Internet. Police began to trace the fraudsters in June after an extortion case was uncovered in Luoyang, involving 346,000 yuan (52,000 U.S. dollars). Since then police have found the gang extorted money from over 1,000 victims nationwide, involving fraud of 13 million yuan. Sino-Cambodian police forces moved in on the gang in Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, arresting 31 members, with 28 of them Chinese nationals. Police brought 13 of the gang members back to Luoyang for further investigation. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 13:25:36|Editor: Yang Yi Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- China is determined to put growth quality before pace, but that will not hold the economy back from growing faster than most of other countries in the coming decade, according to experts. In a report delivered to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the country's leadership called it "a new historic juncture in China's development," as the economy has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development. In the eyes of Chi Fulin, head of the China Institute for Reform and Development, that does not mean the growth rate will be mediocre. Over the next five to 10 years, China's economy will be able to achieve at least 6 percent of annual growth thanks to improvement in industrial structure, upgrading of consumer spending and progress of urbanization, he said. In the past five years, the global economy expanded at an average rate of 2.6 percent, while developing economies grew at 4 percent. China has set 2020 as the target to finish building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, just one year before the CPC celebrates its 100th anniversary. Chi estimated that by the end of 2020, China's economic rebalancing will yield eye-propping results. By then, the value of the country's service sector will increase to about 50 trillion yuan (7.58 trillion U.S. dollars) from 38.4 trillion yuan recorded in 2016. Retail sales of consumer goods will also expand to about 50 trillion yuan from 33 trillion yuan recorded in 2016. The integrated development of urban and rural areas is expected to generate investment and consumption of nearly 100 trillion yuan, which will be the most remarkable bonus for China's development in the medium to long run, he said. Over this period, China's contribution to global economic growth would remain at around 30 percent. More than half of its population would become middle-income earners. "A successful rebalancing of the world's second largest economy would not only upgrade China's economy, but also boost global economic recovery and growth," Chi said. In the future, China's economic restructuring will be advanced together with opening up, of which the Belt and Road Initiative and the development of service trade and free trade zones will be the focuses, he said. The IMF recently raised its forecast for China's economic growth in 2017 and 2018 to 6.8 percent and 6.5 percent respectively, both higher than the earlier forecast in July. For an economy with a total volume of over 11 trillion U.S. dollars, maintaining such high growth is not easy, Chinese Vice Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said. China's stable economic growth mainly stems from major progress in economic reforms, particularly supply-side structural measures, and the government's ability to maintain a stable macroeconomic policy, he said. While gains from structural reforms will come with a time lag, they will have a positive impact on China's economic growth in the medium term, said Changyong Rhee, director of the Asia Pacific Department at the IMF, adding China's growth has also provided ample opportunities for Asia to maintain its growth over the last ten years. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 14:55:50|Editor: Song Lifang Video Player Close LOS ANGELES, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- U.S. technology pioneer Elon Musk posted the very first glimpse of his Boring Company tunnel on Instagram this weekend, captioned "The Boring Company tunnel under LA." The photo shows that the tunnel features paneled walls, cables, a large upper conduit and lighting. It is a clear demonstration of how Musk's tunnel-digging venture has evolved from the initial idea first floated on Twitter to reality. In a post to his personal Instagram containing the same photo, Musk described this section of the LA (Los Angeles) tunnel as running parallel to Interstate 405 all the way to Interstate 101, with exit ramps "every mile or so." Musk wrote that "it will work like a fast freeway, where electric skates carrying vehicles and people pods on the main artery travel up to 150 mph (about 241.5 km per hour), and the skates switch to side tunnels to exit and enter." So far, the company has completed about 152 meters of its tunnel project under Hawthorne near the SpaceX headquarters in the city of Los Angeles, California. The tunnel "should be 2 miles (about 3.22 km) long in three or four months and hopefully stretch the whole 405 N-S corridor from LAX (Los Angeles International Airport) to the 101 in a year or so," Musk tweeted. ( The Boring Company started as a joke, but has became increasingly serious as Musk began tunneling in Los Angeles. In April, while he was giving a TED Talk about the project, he released a video demonstration of the concept of Hyperloop. He had also revealed the planned route of the first tunnel: "Full length of first tunnel will run from LAX to Culver City, Santa Monica, Westwood and Sherman Oaks. Future tunnels will cover all of greater LA." In June, Musk announced that The Boring Company completed the first segment of its tunnel under Los Angeles. "It has begun boring and just completed the first segment of tunnel in LA," Musk announced on June 28. In July, Musk tweeted that his Boring Company tunnel project has received "verbal government approval" to build a New York - Washington D.C. Hyperloop, which would drastically cut the travel time between the two cities. For the Boring Company there is still a long way to go, although the company has finally finished a portion of the tunnel they're digging under Los Angeles. Currently, tunnels are really expensive to dig, with some projects costing as much as 1 billion U.S. dollars per mile (about 1.61 km). The Boring Company said on its website that in order to make a tunnel network feasible, tunneling costs must be reduced. Apparently, the company still has a long way to go. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 15:20:53|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close KUNDUZ, Afghanistan Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Ten insurgents were killed in a special operation and an airstrike in Afghan northern province of Kunduz Sunday night, an army official said Monday. "Afghan army commandos raided a Taliban hideout in Khanabad district, killing five Taliban fighters, including a local Taliban leader named Noor Ullah, last night," Abdul Khalil, a spokesman of army's Division 20 Pamir based in the region, told Xinhua. The overnight operation in Khanabad was launched in retaliation for a Taliban attack Sunday morning, which claimed the lives of 13 police personnel, the source said, adding that Noor Ullah was directly involved in the deadly attack against police checkpoints in surrounding areas of Khanabad. Separately, the Afghan air force launched an airstrike against a Taliban position in neighboring Chahar Dara district, and the strike left five militants dead while an insurgent's bunker was also destroyed, Khalil said. The Kunduz province, as well as neighboring Baghlan and Takhar provinces, has been the scene of heavy clashes over the past couple of months as Taliban has been trying to challenge the government forces in the once relatively peaceful region. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 15:56:05|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close DOHA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Qatar Airways is planning to launch new direct flights to Pattaya in Thailand, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported on Monday. The Qatar airways' fifth route to Thailand, which includes four-times-a-week service, is in addition to the airline's existing flights to Bangkok, Krabi, Phuket and soon to be launched, Chiang Mai. Qatar Airways has launched a number of direct flights to different destinations in Asia, Middle East and Europe, to support its ongoing growth and expansion strategy, especially since the Gulf crisis beginning on June 5, when the four Arab countries severed the diplomatic and transport links with Qatar. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 16:01:07|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close MANAMA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Qatar's membership in the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) should be frozen until it meets the demands of the Arab Quartet, a top Bahrain official said Monday. This was highlighted on Monday by Bahrain's Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, who in a series of posts on his Twitter account called for Doha to leave the GCC bloc or meet the demands set by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Egypt. "If Qatar thinks it can delay and buy its time until the next summit of the GCC, then it is wrong. If the situation remains as it is, we will not attend," posted Shaikh Khalid on his Twitter account. "Bahrain will not attend the GCC summit if Qatar will participate because it is getting closer to Iran and deploying foreign forces, both of which are against the security of GCC countries," said Shaikh Khalid. Kuwait is set to host the 38th GCC summit later this year. "The right step is to freeze Qatar's membership until it responds to the demands of our countries." The Arab Quartet on June 5 severed their diplomatic and trade relations with Qatar after accusing it of supporting extremists and funding terrorism. It issued a list of 31 demands for Qatar to resolve the issue, that were rejected by Doha. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 16:06:08|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close TOKYO, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Subaru Corp. announced on Monday it would move to recall around 255,000 vehicles next week after it was revealed that final vehicle inspections had been carried out by uncertified staff. The recall will be applicable to the firm's whole range of 12 models that have been selling over the past three years, the Tokyo-based automaker said. Subaru owners who have had their vehicles inspected as per the law and prior to delivery being made will have their vehicles exempt from next week's recall. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, following talks with Subaru, will issue the recall, which will not apply to mini-vehicles produced by Daihatsu Motor Co. The results of an internal probe were reported to the ministry on Monday, with the probe launched after it came to light that uncertified staff had been carrying out inspections at two of its plants in Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo. The probe revealed that the practice had been going on for around 30 years at the embattled automaker. Subaru President Yasuyuki Yoshinaga told a press conference on Friday that the inspection malpractice was conducted in a systematic manner. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 17:01:29|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close PHNOM PENH, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Cambodia's Supreme Court will hold a hearing on the dissolution of the country's biggest opposition party on Nov. 16 after its leader Kem Sokha was charged with treason, according to a court letter. Signed by Supreme Court President Dith Monty on Friday and released to the media on Monday, the letter invited Kem Sokha, jailed president of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), to attend the hearing on Nov. 16 at 8:00 a.m. local time. The letter said the upcoming hearing is related for "the complaint requesting the dissolution of the Cambodia National Rescue Party." The government lodged a complaint to the Supreme Court, requesting the dissolution of the CNRP on Oct. 6, a month after its leader Kem Sokha was arrested for allegedly plotting the overthrow of the government with the U.S. support. Kem Sokha was charged with treason, the charge that could face up to 30 years in prison. The CNRP is the main rival to Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen's ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP), as the Southeast Asian country is gearing up for the national elections in July 2018. In the last national elections in 2013, the CNRP earned 55 parliamentary seats and the CPP won 68 seats in the 123-seat parliament. In the commune elections in June, the CNRP received about 3 million votes, or 43.83 percent of the total votes, as the CPP won 3.54 million votes, or 50.76 percent. The CNRP is currently holding 5,007 commune council seats, including 489 commune chief seats. Under the kingdom's recently-amended election laws, if the CNRP is dissolved, all its parliamentary seats and commune council seats will be redistributed to other political parties taking part in the elections. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 17:01:30|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close TOKYO, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Subaru Corp. said on Monday it would move to recall around 255,000 vehicles next week after it was revealed that final vehicle inspections had been carried out by uncertified staff. The recall will be applicable to the firm's whole range of 12 models that have been sold over the past three years, the Tokyo-based automaker said. Subaru owners, who have had their vehicles inspected as per the law and prior to delivery being made, will have their vehicles exempt from next week's recall. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, following talks with Subaru, will issue the recall, which will not apply to mini-vehicles produced by Daihatsu Motor Co. The results of an internal probe were reported to the ministry on Monday, with the probe launched after it came to light that uncertified staff had been carrying out inspections at two of its plants in Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo. The probe revealed that the practice had been going on for around 30 years at the embattled automaker. Subaru President Yasuyuki Yoshinaga told a press conference on Friday that the inspection malpractice was conducted in a systematic manner. Subaru permitted workers without the requisite certification who were in training to perform parts of the safety inspections and use stamps of authorized inspectors at two plants in Ota in southeastern Gunma Prefecture, in Japan's northern Kanto region, insiders with knowledge of the matter said. They added that temporary permits were issued to workers undergoing training, who carried out final vehicle checks before becoming fully qualified. Subaru, whose corporate name was Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. until April this year, is known for producing the popular Crosstrek, Outback, Forester and Impreza models of vehicles. The scandal at Subaru comes on the heels of revelations that Nissan Motor Co., Japan's second-largest automaker, has been involved in inspection practices that also did not meet transport ministry standards. The improper inspections at Nissan led to the automaker issuing a domestic recall of some 1.2 million cars sold in Japan over the past three years and a suspension to production of domestic automobiles. According to an internal investigation at Nissan, it was revealed that improper final inspections on vehicles has become an inherent practice at the Yokohama-based automaker and dates back as far as 20 years. Nissan had not been following standardized procedures and protocols for final inspections that are required by Japan's transport ministry to be conducted on all vehicles sold in Japan, it was revealed. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa's said that the automaker's training system for certifying vehicle inspection staff had not changed for 20 years, with sources close to the matter stating that, in violation of government requirements, final inspections had been routinely conducted by uncertified technicians. Transport Minister Keiichi Ishii said such negligence of compliance is undermining the nation's regulatory system and the government has since stepped up its overseeing of a number of manufacturers, including Kobe Steel, itself mired in a data standard fabrication scandal. The transport ministry, however, said Monday that it has found no improper cases of inspection conducted by Japanese automakers other than those already revealed at Nissan and Subaru, based on reports submitted by 24 makers at the ministry's request. It said the reports will be further inspected with current inspection standards by automakers likely to be a particular point of focus. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 17:06:31|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close SEOUL, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- South Korean prosecutors on Monday demanded a 10-year prison term for Chairman of Lotte Group Shin Dong-bin over management corruptions. The Seoul prosecution demanded 10 years in prison for the chief of the country's fifth-largest family-run conglomerate, for embezzlement and breach of trust, according to local media reports. It also asked the Seoul Central District Court to impose a fine of 100 billion won (90 million U.S. dollars) on Shin. Shin, 63, was accused of offering tens of millions of dollars in illegitimate pay to the founding family members of Lotte Group, while providing illegitimate business favors for the founding family-run companies. He was also charged with helping a financially-distressed affiliate increase capital by issuing new stocks, which were bought by other financially-healthy affiliates. Those illegalities incurred tens of millions of dollars in losses to the Lotte affiliates, prosecutors claimed. Meanwhile, the prosecution asked the court to sentence Shin Dong-joo, former vice chairman of Lotte Holdings in Japan and elder brother of Chairman Shin, to five years in jail and fine him 12.5 billion won for receiving the largest part of the illegitimate salary. Prosecutors requested seven years in jail for both Shin Young-ja, elder sister of the Shin brother, and Seo Mi-kyung, mistress of their father, the Lotte founder Shin Kyuk-ho, for evading taxes and receiving illegitimate business favors. They also fined Ms. Shin and Seo 220 billion won and 120 billion won respectively. The prosecutors said the Lotte founding family transferred a massive wealth from father to children in illegal ways while privatizing the company assets to pursue private interests of the family. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 17:16:34|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- China Monday voiced support for the Spanish government's effort to maintain national unity after the Catalan parliament declared independence Friday. Shortly after the Catalan parliament's announcement, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sacked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and his government and announced new elections would take place in the region on Dec. 21. The Spanish Senate approved the application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, which suspends the autonomy of Catalonia and hands control of key Catalan institutions to Madrid. "China's stance on this issue is consistent and clear. China regards it as a domestic affair of Spain and understands and supports the Spanish government's effort to maintain national unity, ethnic solidarity and territorial integrity," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said when asked for comment at a regular news briefing held in Beijing. "China opposes moves to split the country and breach the rule of law and believes Spain is capable of protecting social order and citizens' rights within the legal and institutional framework," Hua said. China has developed friendly cooperation with Spain in various areas based on the principles of respect for each other's sovereign and territorial integrity and non-interference in domestic affairs, the spokesperson said. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 17:46:46|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- At least 13 people were wounded in a bomb attack in Afghanistan's northern province of Baghlan on Monday, local police said. "A mine attached to a van went off at mid-day in provincial capital Pul-e-Khumri city, leaving 13 people wounded," provincial police spokesman Zabiullah Shuja told Xinhua. No one has immediately claimed responsibility for the incident. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 18:11:54|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close JAKARTA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Anti-terror squad of Indonesian police shot dead two alleged militants in exchanges of fire in West Nusa Tenggara province on Monday, police officer said. The exchanges of fire kicked off 9:50 a.m. local time (0150 GMT) in Mawu Rite village of Bima district, deputy police chief of the province Senior Commissioner Tajuddin said. "The location of exchange of fire is in the border of Bima city and Bima district," he was quoted by Antara news wire as saying in the province. But he did not elaborate further about the identity and roles of the militants. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 18:21:57|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's 2018 budget proposals for Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ) is expected to boost the e-commerce penetration rate and benefit local carriers as well as airports operator, said Maybank Investment Bank Research in a report on Monday. In the budget proposals, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak pledged 83.5 million ringgit (19.71 million U.S. dollars) to construct infrastructure for the first phase of DFTZ in Aeropolis, Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) and raised the import tax exemptions from 500 to 800 ringgit, to establish Malaysia as the regional e-commerce hub. These moves had reaffirmed Malaysian government's commitment in embracing the digital economy, and will stimulate the e-commerce business, Maybank said in the report. "As any goods below 800 ringgit will be cleared swiftly, we believe this can cut distribution time significantly and make online purchases more appealing to consumers," it said. Should the DFTZ sales pick up, Malaysia airliners' may see higher cargo throughput, according to the report. As the first physical site is located at KLIA Aeropolis, the Malaysian airports holder Malaysia Airports Holding Bhd (MAHB) should be the primary beneficiary. It is noted that MAHB has signed a joint venture with Alibaba Group to set-up a physical distribution center. The MAHB will obtain additional rental income and possibly a throughput distribution fee from the venture. Maybank noted that Malaysian consumers have already purchased goods via the e-commerce platforms such as Lazada, Ali Express and 11 Street. However, the cost of postage tends to be expensive and packages have a run-in with the authorities due to unpaid import duties, restrictions on certain type of goods and other complications. "The DFTZ aims to remove this complication by including an e-fulfillment hub, services hub and e-service platform. This will be integrated with the custom department systems and therefore enabling a vertically integrated distribution process," it said. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 18:32:00|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close GUIYANG, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou Province, will carry out a series of events and promotions to attract more tourists from the United States. The municipal government, Tourism Development Committee of Guizhou and American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) will jointly hold the ASTA China Summit 2017 in the city on Nov. 5. This is the first time ASTA, one of the world's largest travel professional associations, has participated in an event highlighting China as a travel destination. More than 130 U.S. travel agents and over 200 Chinese travel companies and representatives will attend the summit. From Nov. 1, 2017 to Dec. 31, 2018, U.S. citizens can visit most tourist attractions in Guiyang free of charge, according to Yuan Yunlong, director of the Tourism Development Committee of Guizhou. The city's hot springs will provide a 25 percent discount for U.S. tourists during this period, and local hotels and China Southern Airlines will also offer lower prices. Hou Ying, chairman of the China branch of ASTA said U.S. tourists want to experience different cultures, landscapes and foods, and Guizhou's stunning karst mountain scenery and multiple ethnic minorities each with unique customs and foods appeal to these interests. The ASTA summit aims to provide U.S. travel agents with more information about Guizhou, Hou said. More than 100 million tourists visited Guizhou in 2016, with the city's tourism revenue exceeding 130 billion yuan (14.8 billion U.S. dollars). This included nearly 184,000 foreign visits to the city, according to local tourism bureau statistics. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 18:42:03|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close PUL-E-KHUMRI, Afghanistan, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Taliban militants launched a massive offensive to overrun Burka district in northern Afghan province of Baghlan on Monday, a local official said. "Hundreds of Taliban rebels organized multi-pronged offensive against security checkpoints on Monday morning to capture Burka district and fierce fighting has been continuing," the official who declined to be named told Xinhua. Meantime, Governor for Burka district Mawlawi Shamsudin confirmed that some 700 armed insurgents including foreign nationals attacked security checkpoints around Burka to overcome the district. The official has also warned that any negligence in sending reinforcement would help militants to gain grounds. He also said that several people, including six insurgents, have been killed in the fighting for control of Burka district and gun battle has been continuing since early morning. Governor of Baghlan province Abdul Hai Nemati said that security forces would soon launch cleanup operations to restore law and order there. Taliban militants are yet to make comment on the situation. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 18:47:06|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Congratulations have been pouring in from around the world since Chinese President Xi Jinping was re-elected general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Wednesday. In their messages, leaders of foreign countries, political parties and organizations also expressed their confidence that the CPC, under Xi's leadership, will guide China toward greater prosperity and a larger international role. The following is an edited version of some of the messages. Viktor Orban, prime minister of Hungary and president of the Fidesz - Hungarian Civic Alliance party: Please allow me to present you my warm congratulations on the occasion of your being re-elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee. Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh, prime minister of Mongolia: I totally believe that in the next five years China will play a more important role in the international community and make bigger contributions to the world economic growth. Sher Bahadur Deuba, prime minister of Nepal and president of the Nepali Congress party: Your re-election shows that the CPC and the Chinese people sincerely uphold your strong leadership. I wish China greater achievements in its development in your new term. Alexis Tsipras, prime minister of Greece and leader of the SYRIZA party: I would take the opportunity of your re-election to reiterate that we attach great importance to strengthening our bilateral ties. Boyko Borissov, prime minister of Bulgaria and chairman of the GERB party: We believe that the Belt and Road Initiative and the "16+1" cooperation mechanism will generate more positive outcomes. Sheikh Hasina, prime minister of Bangladesh and president of the Bangladesh Awami League: We welcome Your Excellency's efforts in building a community with a shared future for mankind and highly appreciate Your Excellency's series of initiatives committed to the socio-economic development of developing countries. Patrice Trovoada, prime minister of Sao Tome and Principe and leader of the Independent Democratic Action party: Your re-election shows that the Chinese people unanimously acknowledge Your Excellency's remarkable contributions to your people and the international community. Motsoahae Thomas Thabane, prime minister of Lesotho and president of the All Basotho Convention: "The success of the Communist Party of China and the People's Republic of China is not only of significance to China, but also is of great inspiration to Africa and the world." Keith Christopher Rowley, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago: "I am particularly heartened by your vision for the People's Republic of China and your country's ongoing commitment to supporting developing countries such as Trinidad and Tobago." Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 18:47:09|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close HANOI, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Major Do Thi Hang Nga on Monday became Vietnam's first servicewoman to join a UN peacekeeping mission after receiving a tour assignment to South Sudan. Nga, assistant of the Advisory-Planning Department under the Vietnam Peacekeeping Center, will act as an advisory officer in charge of monitoring military activities at the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan for one year, the center said on Monday. The 36-year-old woman, who has good command of English language and computer science, plans to study the Arabic language in South Sudan. Nga and her husband have two little children who live in the capital of Hanoi. Before Nga, Vietnam has sent 19 military officers, all men, to UN peacekeeping missions. Vietnam is preparing for the deployment of a sapper unit and a second-level field hospital in South Sudan, said the Hanoi-based center. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 18:52:11|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close KAMPALA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Ugandan military on Monday said it is prosecuting some of its troops over sexual crimes committed in the Central African Republic (CAR). Brig. Richard Karemire, the military spokesman told Xinhua in an interview that the trial of errant soldiers who served under an African Union force to eliminate the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels starts after completion of army investigations into the allegations. "We received the report of sexual exploitation and abuses in CAR. Our leadership directed an investigation which has been done. As a result of that we have taken punitive measures. We have a number of our soldiers who are being tried," said Karemire, noting that two officers are among those being prosecuted. "We continue to educate our officers and soldiers in that area [sexual abuses] so that they don't fall victims of such problems in future when they are deployed abroad or even internally within Uganda," he added. Human rights groups in May accused Ugandan troops deployed in CAR of being involved in sexual exploitation and abuses against girls and women. The organizations said at least 13 women and three girls were abused since 2015. Ugandan troops have been deployed in CAR since 2009 as part of a regional force to fight the LRA rebels hiding in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and CAR jungles. In August this year the troops totaling to 2,500 were withdrawn from CAR after completion of the mission. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 18:57:12|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close SEOUL, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, chief of Samsung Group, South Korea's No.1 family-controlled conglomerate, withdrew almost 4 billion U.S. dollars from borrowed accounts without paying taxes and penalties, a lawmaker of the ruling Democratic Party said. Choi Jong-ku, chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), the country's financial regulator, told a parliamentary inspection of government offices Monday that the FSC will re-examine all of the withdrawal processes in consultation with the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), the financial watchdog. Based on the FSS documents submitted to Rep. Park Yong-jin of the Democratic Party, the lawmaker said Chairman Lee withdrew nearly 4.4 trillion won (some 4 billion dollars), including 4.1 trillion won in 957 securities accounts and 293 billion won in 64 bank accounts, without switching the borrowed names into the real one. All of the accounts surpassing 1,000 in number were opened in borrowed names. In 2008, an independent counsel found Chairman Lee's accounts under the names of 486 former Samsung executives, confirming the money inherited from Lee's father, Samsung founder Lee Byung-chull. In April 2008, Chairman Lee apologized for the borrowed accounts, promising to change the borrowed names into the real one and to pay all of the unpaid taxes. He also vowed to spend the remaining money, left after tax payment, on a "useful work," rather than on himself and his family. However, the billions of dollars of funds under the borrowed names was withdrawn without being changed into the real name and without paying taxes and penalties. Under the real-name financial transaction system, launched in August 1993 by an emergency order of then President Kim Young-sam, 99 percent of income tax is required to be levied on interest and dividend income earned through the borrowed-name assets. As high as 50 percent of the value of assets under the borrowed names is required to be fined as a punitive measure under the real-name financial transaction system. Chairman Choi of the FSC told lawmakers that he agreed with the 99 percent tax rate on interest and dividend won through borrowed-name assets, indicating an imposition of the super-high income tax on Chairman Lee's withdrawn money. The Democratic Party lawmaker estimated the income tax would reach at least 100 billion won, except for penalty. Meanwhile, Rep. Park Chan-dae, another lawmaker of the Democratic Party, said in a statement that a gift tax could be levied on the withdrawn funds of Chairman Lee in addition to penalty and income tax. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 19:02:15|Editor: Lu Hui Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Congratulations have been pouring in from around the world since Chinese President Xi Jinping was re-elected general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Wednesday. In their messages, leaders of foreign countries, political parties and organizations also expressed their confidence that the CPC, under Xi's leadership, will guide China toward greater prosperity and a larger international role. The following is an edited version of some of the messages. Gaston Browne, leader of Antigua and Barbuda Labor Party and prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda: Your continued leadership as general secretary of the CPC gives my country the assurance required for stability and continued good relations. Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, senior leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party and prime minister of Pakistan: Under your leadership, the Chinese people will better share the fruits of a prosperous economy and realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. Miyeegombyn Enkhbold, chairman of Mongolian People's Party and chairman of Mongolian parliament: China, under your leadership, will achieve the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, and further contribute to the peace, development and prosperity of the world. Humberto Schiavoni, president of Republican Proposal party of Argentina, and Francisco Javier Quintana, secretary-general of the party: On behalf of the National Council of our party, we extend warm congratulations to you on your re-election as general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC. Mohammad Karim Khalili, leader of Islamic Unity Party of Afghanistan and chairman of Afghan High Peace Council: Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era has rich meanings and contains many wise general policies, which can help address the problems of all the people who suffer from oppression and discrimination. Vincent Meriton, president of Parti Lepep and vice president of Seychelles: We note with tremendous admiration that Your Excellency's visionary leadership and hard work have been paramount in elevating the position of China as a highly respected and modern socialist state. Dejan Zidan, president of Social Democrats party of Slovenia and deputy prime minister of Slovenia: Your great success is of enormous importance for the progress and further development of China, its people and the world. Liow Tiong Lai, president of Malaysian Chinese Association and transport minister of Malaysia: Under your leadership, the CPC will remain true to the party's original aspiration and keep its mission firmly in the mind of party members. I believe that the party will continue to seek happiness for the Chinese people and rejuvenation for the Chinese nation and lead the people to realize the Chinese Dream of national rejuvenation. Sergei Stanishev, president of Party of European Socialists: Your vision of the future of China led by a rejuvenated CPC will allow China to continue to build a prosperous society through high-quality development. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 19:27:25|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close LONDON, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Theresa May ordered an investigation on late Sunday after the Houses of Parliament were hit by a wave of complaints of inappropriate conduct by politicians. May's intervention came after British weekly newspaper the Mail on Sunday reported that International Trade Minister Mark Garnier had admitted sending his secretary to a store in London's Soho district to buy sex toys. Complaints about inappropriate conduct by Members of Parliament (MP) have emerged in the wake of the Hollywood scandal which erupted after allegations against famous film producer Harvey Weinstein. Jeremy Hunt, secretary of state for health, was quizzed about the allegations against politicians on a Sunday morning political program on national television, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said. Hunt said reports about inappropriate behavior by MPs and government ministers were totally unacceptable if true. He added that the working culture at Westminster has got better in recent years, but there is still some way to go. Hunt told the BBC that the prime minister has asked the Cabinet Office to look at whether Garnier's reported actions broke a ministerial behavior code. May is also writing to the speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, calling for a new contractually-binding grievance procedure to be set up for all MPs and their staff. Garnier's former secretary, Caroline Edmondson, told the Mail on Sunday that Garnier had given her money to buy two vibrators at a Soho sex shop. The Mail reported that Garnier had admitted the claims, saying "I'm not going to deny it, because I'm not going to be dishonest. I'm going to have to take it on the chin." Meanwhile, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that the former Welsh Secretary Stephen Crabb had admitted sending explicit messages to a 19-year-old woman after a job interview at Westminster in 2013. The newspaper quoted Crabb as being "foolish" but said there had been no sexual contact with the woman, though he also admitted the two had met several times. "I accept any kind of sexual chatter like this is totally wrong and I am sorry for my actions," Crabb told the newspaper. In an article in the Mail on Sunday, Labor MP John Mann wrote, "It must be a wake-up call for Westminster. A number of us have been warning the parliamentary authorities for some time that the problem of male MPs who prey on young interns, secretaries, advisers and others, has been swept under the carpet for too long." "For decades, men working in the halls of power have been able to get away with the kind of sexually inappropriate behavior that could land them in court if it occurred outside the closed world of politics," Mann added. The Labor politician said he had raised this issue at a public hearing of the House of Commons Committee on Standards last year, when he said it was well known that female members of staff had been sexually harassed by male MPs -- including current MPs. However, nothing had been done about it "because the victims believed that no one would listen to their complaints," Mann said. The claims of misbehavior within politics follow the setting-up of an app on smartphones by women working in the Palace of Westminster to share their experiences. Their action came after women in the film industry shared their experiences of male misbehavior towards women in a similar way. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 19:32:28|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close BAGHDAD, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Monday called for adherence to order and calm in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan after a riot that followed Masoud Barzani stepped down from his post as president of Kurdistan region. In a statement by his office, Abadi said that he is "closely following the developments in Kurdistan region and the attacks on the headquarters of the (Kurdish) parties and media workers, in attempts to create chaos and disturbances in Erbil and Duhok." It said that such disturbances "would harm our citizens in the region.The political differences should not reflect on the Kurdish citizen." "We assure the keenness of the federal government on the stabilization of the situations in all Iraqi provinces," according to the statement. The disorder occurred late on Sunday after the regional President Barzani said that he was stepping down from his post on Nov. 1, but he pledged to continue to be part of the Peshmerga, according to Barzani's letter read in the regional parliament. Barzani's resignation sparked chaos in the evening as dozens of protestors, loyal to him, broke into the parliament building and attacked journalists who were covering the parliament session at the entrance of the building. The chaos came under control after riot police intervened and bullets were heard as they drove out the protestors. Barzani, 71, a veteran Kurdish leader, took over the post of president of the regional government in 2005. However, Barzani's post has sparked controversy, as his tenure expired on Aug. 19, 2015. He is also the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party since 1979. On Oct. 16, Iraqi Prime Minister Abadi, who is also Commander-in-Chief of Iraqi forces, ordered government forces to enter the oil-rich Kirkuk province in northern Iraq to regain control of the ethnically-mixed disputed areas. The Kurds consider the northern Kirkuk province and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahudin provinces as disputed areas and want them to be incorporated into their region, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs and Turkmens in the region as well as the Iraqi central government. Tensions have been running high between Baghdad and the region of Kurdistan after the Kurds held a controversial referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region and the disputed areas. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 19:32:29|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close KATHMANDU, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Nepali government has sought to relax foreign direct investment (FDI) in certain areas where foreign investment has so far been banned. A bill on new Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act has proposed relaxing entry of FDI in the retail business sector. The bill has returned to the government after the Nepal's parliament dissolved on Oct. 22 without passing it. Existing Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act has banned any foreign investment retail businesses. As per the bill, FDI worth more than 4.8 million U.S. dollars will be allowed in the retail sector. Pradeep Kumar Koirala, spokesperson at the Ministry of Industry told Xinhua on Sunday that the bill has sought to relax certain areas to attract foreign investment to make those sectors more competitive. Other areas where the bill has sought relaxing entry of FDI are -- consultancy services related to management, accounting, engineering and legal issues. The bill has proposed FDI in these sectors as minority shareholder. Foreigners can become joint venture partner with less than 51 percent investment, according to the bill. Currently, entry of FDI in these sectors has been banned. As there is no parliament at the moment, the Nepali government has now the option of introducing the bill as an ordinance. Otherwise, the bill will be submitted to the parliament to be formed after the new elections. Nepal is scheduled to hold federal and provincial elections on Nov. 26 and Dec. 7. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 19:37:31|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close LUANDA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Angolan President Joao Lourenco said on Monday the new central bank governor should work to make the national banking operate in line with international standards. The president made the remarks in Presidential Palace in the capital Luanda during the inauguration ceremony of Jose de Lima Massano in the position of the governor of the Angolan Central Bank (BNA). The nomination of Jose Massano is based on the confidence that he is the right person to take the banking in a general way to the levels demanded by the financial institutions worldwide, according to the president. "We are confident in his intellectual, professional, honest and hard-working qualities, and for this reason we believe that with his future team we will win this battle," said Lourenco. He said the Angolan government will create all the conditions to ensure the BNA governor's success. Jose Massano replaces Valter Filipe de Silva, who was sacked by the Angolan president. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 19:37:32|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said Monday that it has started an anti-dumping investigation into ethanolamine imported from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The ministry received a joint application demanding an inquiry from six domestic producers, who accused foreign manufacturers of dumping the products on the Chinese market, according to an official statement. The combined ethanolamine output of six applicants accounted for more than half of the country's total during the 2014-2016 period. The ministry will investigate whether foreign companies from the four countries have sold their products in China at an artificially low price. The investigation should be concluded by Oct. 30 next year, but, in special circumstances, may be extended to April 30, 2019, according to the statement. Ethanolamine is an organic chemical compound widely used in the production of emulsifiers, detergents, metal cleaners, and polishes. Photo taken on Oct. 29, 2017 shows the car bomb explosion site in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse) MOGADISHU, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Somalia's heads of police and intelligence have been dismissed following a second terrorist attack in Mogadishu that claimed 23 lives two weeks after a truck bomb killed over 300 people. Information Minister Abdirahman Osman Yarisow confirmed the sacking of National Intelligence Service Agency head Abdullahi Mohamed Ali "Sanbalolshe" and head of police Abdihakim Dahir Said. "The cabinet resolved to fire the head of intelligence and police commander today," the minister said. Photo taken on Oct. 29, 2017 shows the car bomb explosion site in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse) The sacking came barely hours after security forces battled throughout Saturday night to end a siege in Nasa Hablod II hotel in Mogadishu after the terror group Al-Shabaab detonated a bomb and made way into the hotel. The attack followed the October 14 attack described as the deadliest in the country's history that claimed over 350 lives. Sanbalolshe and Said were appointed on April 6 in a major security shake-up by President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed barely two months after he came to office. Sanbalolshe had served in the same position for a short stint in 2014 before he was appointed the country's ambassador to Britain. Photo taken on Oct. 29, 2017 shows the car bomb explosion site in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia. (Xinhua/Faisal Isse) Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 19:52:36|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close MADRID, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Attorney General Jose Manuel Maza announced Monday charges of rebellion, sedition, misuse of funds and other related crimes against former Catalan leaders behind last Friday's declaration of independence. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 19:52:37|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close COLOMBO, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's state-run airline Sri Lankan Airlines said on Monday that it had begun daily direct flights to Melbourne, providing global travelers a convenient option to visit Australia. Ajith Dias, chairman of the flagship airline, said this new service would be of great convenience to all travelers, including the large number of Sri Lankans domiciled in Australia, the many Australians who loved to travel overseas and people throughout Asia. Suren Ratwatte, CEO of Sri Lankan Airlines, said Sri Lankan had been extending its route network in a systemic manner throughout Asia, from the Middle East to the Far East, and could now provide Australian travelers excellent options in connectivity, with one-stop journeys to the most popular destinations via Colombo. Sri Lankan Airlines currently offers connections to 14 cities throughout India, nine in the Middle East and other destinations such as Male and Gan Island in the Maldives, and Seychelles. Sri Lankan Airlines also operates one-stop twice-daily services between Sri Lanka and Australia with its codeshare partners Qantas and Malaysia Airlines. An A330 aircraft will be flown between Melbourne and Colombo, the Sri Lankan Airlines said. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 19:52:38|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close HO CHI MINH CITY, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City attracted over 5 billion U.S. dollars worth of foreign investment in the first 10 months of this year, doubling the figure in the same period last year, the municipal Department of Planning and Investment said Monday. Between January and October, the city approved 681 foreign-invested projects with total registered capital of nearly 1.9 billion U.S. dollars, and saw 184 operational foreign-invested projects increase their capital by a total of 703.4 million U.S. dollars. Meanwhile, the city allowed 1,839 foreign investors to contribute capital or to buy stakes of domestic enterprises with a total amount of over 2.4 billion U.S. dollars. In the 10-month period, 33,839 Vietnamese enterprises with total registered capital of 457,082 billion Vietnamese dong (20.2 billion U.S. dollars) were established in Ho Chi Minh City, posting respective year-on-year surges of 13.2 percent and 88.7 percent. Vietnam attracted 28.2 billion U.S. dollars in foreign investment between January and October, gaining a year-on-year rise of 37.4 percent, said the Foreign Investment Agency. Of the total, 16.3 billion U.S. dollars was channeled into 2,070 new projects, nearly 7.3 billion U.S. dollars into 1,001 operational ones, and nearly 4.7 billion U.S. dollars into buying shares of companies in Vietnam. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 20:17:48|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close MOGADISHU, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- About 30 Somali youth are meeting in Mogadishu on Monday to discuss how to take leadership roles to bring about social transformation and how to promote rebuilding in the Horn of Africa nation. The week-long competitive United Nations Development Program (UNDP)-backed Youth Leadership Program (YLP) will also see young men and women seek ways of spearheading innovative ideas in reducing barriers to employment and economic development in Somalia. UNDP Somalia Deputy Country Director David Akopyan who opened the meeting said the Horn of Africa nation has progressed quite far in recent years, on a very challenging road to peace and development. "The road is still with many bumps, and at the recent Oct. 14 tragic attack, which devastated many families, we at UNDP lost a dear colleague, and four more people we worked closely with were killed in the blast. But we need to heal and together move forward," Akopyan said. "UNDP's next program will work much closer with youth and for youth. The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals are there for you to work with to ensure that Somali society moves from exclusion to inclusion and to more participatory political processes and economic development," he said. The training program which runs until Nov. 5 and selected participants will then go on to the larger regional event in Egypt in December, where they will receive further training, networking opportunities, and meet potential investors for their ideas. The program is run by UNDP Somalia and UNDP Arab States, in partnership with Danleey organization and the Somali Federal Government. Salad Addow, Director of Danleey, said his organization is working to make all Somali youth informed and actively engaged in the matters that affect them, to achieve a peaceful, prosperous and developed nation that creates opportunities for all. "This training is a transformational step to peace and development as young people represent a major portion of the population. Young people are the leaders of today and tomorrow," he said. The program is the third year the event has been run as part of an annual "youth4peace" initiative that aims to support young men and women across the Arab states region to come up with innovative approaches to address sustainable development challenges, in particular gender equality and women's empowerment. The young people will receive support to transform their ideas into innovative, impactful and sustainable development solutions, whether these be social enterprises, nonprofit initiatives, or campaigns. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 20:32:53|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi holds talks with visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 30, 2017. After the meeting, the two sides exchanged letters of approval for a mutual legal assistance treaty. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling) BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- China is willing to enhance cooperation with Sri Lanka within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Monday. Wang made the remarks during talks with visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana. This year marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and Sri Lanka, and the 65th anniversary of the signing of the Rubber-Rice Pact between the two countries. Wang said China hopes to take this opportunity to promote the traditional friendship and political mutual trust with Sri Lanka, as well as major infrastructure projects, investment and trade, maritime and people-to-people cooperations under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. Wang also introduced the major achievements of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), saying that China welcomes Sri Lanka to join in its opening up and development, and make joint efforts for a better future. For his part, Marapana congratulated China on the convening of the 19th CPC National Congress, saying that Sri Lanka expresses its gratitude for China's long-term support for its economic and social development. Sri Lanka attaches great importance to its traditional friendship with China and looks forward to promoting cooperation with China in all fields, he said. After the meeting, the two sides exchanged letters of approval for a mutual legal assistance treaty. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 20:37:57|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close BANGKOK, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has revoked passports of former premier Yingluck Shinawatra, said Deputy Police Commissioner General Pol. Gen. Srivara Ransibrahmanakul on Monday. He confirmed that the foreign ministry has already revoked two diplomatic passports and two general passports of the former premier who failed to show up for a final court verdict and is known to have fled the country since August. Yingluck is said to have slipped out of Thailand via neighbor Cambodia with the help of a few police officers, leaving the Supreme Court to deliver last month's judgment in her absentia, to the extent that she be otherwise sentenced to five years in prison for alleged duty-negligence and misconduct charges involving a rice subsidy program several years ago. Pol. Gen. Srivara said the Interpol and Thai authorities abroad have not located Yingluck's whereabouts amid possibilities that she might seek political asylum in Britain. The Thai authorities have not obtained any confirmed information which might probably involve her movement overseas for the time being, he said. The deputy police chief has earlier confirmed that Yingluck had flown to Britain from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where she had temporarily stayed after she had slipped out of Thailand two months ago. Her elder brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, is known to have been taking self-exile in the Middle East city almost a decade ago. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 21:08:04|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang (R), also a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, shakes hands with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin in Chongqing, southwest China, Oct. 30, 2017. Wang and Rogozin co-chaired the 21st meeting of the Joint Commission for the Regular Prime Ministers' Meetings of China and Russia in Chongqing. The meeting is preparation for the 22nd regular meeting of Chinese premier and Russian prime minister. (Xinhua/Han Ye) CHONGQING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang and Russian Deputy Prime Minster Dmitry Rogozin on Monday agreed to expand cooperation. Wang and Rogozin co-chaired the 21st meeting of the Joint Commission for the Regular Prime Ministers' Meetings of China and Russia in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. The meeting is preparation for the 22nd regular meeting of Chinese premier and Russian prime minister. Wang is a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China(CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau. During the meeting, Wang said under the guidance of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, bilateral ties are better than ever. He said the Joint Commission mechanism had been efficient and bilateral cooperation had yielded fruitful results. Wang said Sino-Russian trade has continued to improve this year with cooperation in nuclear energy, civil aviation, aerospace, and cross-border infrastructure construction advancing steadily. The two sides discussed new areas for cooperation, including Far East development, Arctic development and the digital economy, he said. Rogozin said Russia has always regarded the relations with China as the strategic priority of its foreign policy. Current Sino-Russian relations are in the best period of history, he said, noting that Russia is ready to deepen cooperation with China on the basis of mutual benefit and win-win results. He called on the two sides to give full play to the role of the Joint Commission mechanism to push for more cooperation. During the meeting, the two sides reviewed the work of the Joint Commission over the past year and exchanged views on the next steps in cooperation. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 21:18:09|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday the newly-elected leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee will work with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) to strengthen political guidance for closer bilateral ties. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks when meeting with Sounthone Xayachack, head of the LPRP Central Committee's commission for external relations, who visited China as the special envoy of Bounnhang Vorachit, general secretary of the LPRP Central Committee. "The ruling parties of China and Laos should bear in mind the strategic significance of bilateral ties with a higher and deeper perspective, so as to contribute to the development of the two countries as well as the world socialist development," Xi said. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 21:23:12|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close NANJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua)-- Ten Pakistanis started a two-year postgraduate course on Monday at a Chinese university as part of a commercial sponsorship program to offer full scholarships for 100 Pakistani transport personnel in the coming five years. The program is funded by China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC). The first batch of the ten students will attend Southeast University in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province. The scheme provides an opportunity for Pakistani government staff, technicians and graduates to study construction and operation of bridges and roads at Chinese universities, according to Lu Shan, chairman of CRBC. "The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is not only a corridor of physical connectivity, but also one of people-to-people exchanges," said Chen Shuai, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor is an important part of China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative to build a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along -- and beyond -- the ancient Silk Road trade routes. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 21:28:13|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close ISLAMABAD, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Monday confirmed the death of two Chinese nationals who were killed in southwestern Balochistan province days after they were kidnapped from Quetta, the provincial capital in May this year. "The DNA reports have confirmed that the two persons killed in Balochistan in June 2017 were the same two Chinese nationals, who were kidnapped from Quetta in May, 2017," Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement. The statement said the government of Pakistan expresses its deep shock and grief on the brutal act of terrorism, and extends condolences to the government and people of China and sympathies to the families of the victims. "The Government of Pakistan would continue to conduct thorough investigation and apprehend the perpetrators of this crime and to bring them to justice," the statement said. It said Pakistan strongly condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestation. "We are grateful to the Government of China for its strong support for our fight against the menace of terrorism," the Foreign Ministry said. It said Pakistan will continue to work with China and the international community to enhance counter terrorism cooperation as well as regional and global peace and security. According to reports, the couple who were teaching Chinese in Pakistan were kidnapped in May by unknown gunmen in Quetta. The kidnappers, disguised as police, initially took away three Chinese, two women and a man, but a passerby helped one of the women escape. The Pakistani side provided China information in June that the two abductees were "probably dead." Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying, speaking on the matter in June, has stressed that China opposes terrorism in any form, and that China will continue to support Pakistan's efforts to fight terrorism and safeguard national stability. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 21:28:14|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close BERLIN, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- German firefighters and police are out in force on Monday as they struggle with the aftermath of the storm "Herwart". The storm has left at least three dead and caused significant material damage and disruption to transport with strong winds and flooding. Coastal areas in northern Germany are the worst affected. Firefighters in Hamburg have responded to more than 550 calls after the river Elbe breached its banks and flooded parts of the city near its famous port. And firefighters in Berlin temporarily declared a state of emergency. In Stuttgart, an Airbus A380 was forced to reroute and make an emergency landing due to powerful gusts at its final destination Frankfurt. Several rail-connections in Germany were also interrupted by fallen trees, and were only gradually returning to normal operation on Monday. "Herwart" is already the third autumn storm to batter Germany this year and the second during the month of October, prompting fears that more extreme weather patterns have begun to affect the country because of climate change. The German Meteorological Service expects "Hewart" to lose most of its force over the course of the week. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 21:33:16|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close KHARTOUM, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Darfur Internal Dialogue and Consultation Conference kicked off Monday its sessions in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. Representatives of Darfur local communities, Sudan government, United Nations, African Union, the United Nations- African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) took part in the conference. "Darfur is witnessing continued improvement due to the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD)," said Sudan's Vice-President Hassabo Mohamed Abdul-Rahman, when addressing the opening sitting of the conference Monday. He reiterated the importance of continuing the dialogue among the components of the region to end violence. "Dialogue is important and its concept must be disseminated within the society. It is important to end violence and replace it with dialogue and acceptance of the other," he noted. Meanwhile, UNAMID Joint Special Representative, Jeremiah Mamabolo, addressing the conference urged the Darfur non-signatory movements to join negotiation and dialogue. "I wish to renew my appeal to non-signatory movements, the Sudan Liberation Army, led by Minni Minawi, the Justice and Equality Movement, the Sudan Liberation Army, led by Abdul-Wahid, to join the peace process towards a negotiated peaceful settlement to bring an end to the suffering of the good people that they represent," said Mamabolo. The Darfur internal dialogue and consultation conference is part of the DDPD, which was signed in Doha, Qatar, in 2011. The conference, held under the motto "Let's Talk Peace" aims to provide the opportunity for Darfuris to engage in an open and transparent dialogue on the root causes of the conflict and propose solutions for achieving comprehensive peace and sustainable development. Some major Darfur armed movements, including the Darfur rebel Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), led by Jibril Ibrahim, the Sudan Liberation Army ( SLA)/Abdul-Wahid Mohamed Nur faction and the SLA/Minni Minawi faction, have rejected to sign the DDPD claiming that it was partial and does not fulfill the demands of the Darfur people. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 21:38:18|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close HARARE, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Zimbabwean government has come up with an ingenious way of encouraging people to register to vote in the 2018 elections by dangling a reward of food to the district that registers the highest number of voters under the ongoing Biometric Voter Registration (BVR). The state run newspaper Herald reported Monday that Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Happyton Bonyongwe told traditional leaders in Bulawayo last week that the district with the highest number of voters in each of the country's 10 provinces would receive 30 tonnes of rice. While urging the traditional leaders to encourage their subjects to register to vote, Bonyongwe said the government had also seen it fit to introduce a competition on the exercise. "We then thought of programs to do with voter registration. As a ministry, we want to see people registering to vote. Everyone should go out and register as a voter. "The district that will register the highest number of voters per province will receive a truckload of rice, which amounts to 30 tonnes per district," he said. Bonyongwe said voter registration is important as it helps the government to prepare for the elections. About 1.2 million people have registered to vote under the new BVR since it started in September. In a bid to include all sectors of society in the exercise, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) has deployed mobile registration kits to disadvantaged people, including old people's homes, hospitals and institutions housing people with disabilities. President Robert Mugabe on Sept. 8 proclaimed four months of voter registration for the forthcoming elections starting on September 14 and running up to Jan. 15 2018. This will be the first time since independence in 1980 that the voters' roll will be administered outside the Registrar-General's Office following the adoption of a new constitution which transferred the responsibility to ZEC. Laxton Group of China has delivered all 3,000 kits needed for voter registration. ZEC has said it is targeting to register about 7 million voters for the 2018 harmonized Presidential, legislative and local government elections, where Mugabe is likely to face a challenge from a coalition of opposition parties led by former Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai was prime minister in a coalition government with Mugabe between 2009 and 2013. Mugabe, 93, has been Zimbabwe's sole leader since the country attained independence from Britain in 1980. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 21:43:19|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close HELSINKI, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- As the number of Chinese passengers traveling to Finland increases, the Helsinki-Vantaa airport has been continuously updating services for Chinese tourists. The airport has launched a series of services targeting the needs of Chinese passengers such as Chinese-speaking services and Chinese signboards and maps. Spotted in the airport were two Chinese-speaking service desks in the Schengen area and non-Schengen area respectively. On the side of desk were three blue Chinese characters meaning "I help you", and on top of the desks were piles of Chinese brochures and fact sheets. At least one uniformed staff could be seen standing behind each of the desks, ready to offer help in Chinese. Some shops have adopted remote translation software. In case a Finnish attendant has problem in communication with a Chinese customer, he or she can open a tablet and turn to the remote translation application. All stores and restaurants at the airport accept Chinese UnionPay, and some shops have also launched Alipay, the leading third-party mobile and online payment platform in China. Along the wall of the corridor leading to the waiting lounges Chinese artistic characters denoting "pure", "beautiful", "dream", "love" and "hero" are seen. Katia Siberg, senior vice president of Finnish airport operator Finavia, said the paintings were made by Pan Jianfeng, a Chinese designer who blended Chinese and Finnish elements. At the newly built terminal, some water dispensers are marked with "hot water" in Chinese. Siberg said Europeans are used to drinking cold water, whereas many Chinese prefer hot water. Helsinki airport has installed some water dispensers with hot water supply specifically for the Chinese travelers. Helsinki is situated on the shortest route from China to Europe, noted Siberg. "China is a very important market for us," she said. Currently, the Finnish national carrier Finnair runs direct flights between Helsinki and six Chinese cities. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 21:48:21|Editor: liuxin Video Player Close DAR ES SALAAM, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian prominent politician Lazaro Nyalandu announced on Monday that he is relinquishing his membership of the ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) and joining leading opposition party Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA). Nyalandu said in a statement that he had written to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Job Ndugai, informing him of his resignation as a Member of Parliament for Singida North constituency where he has served as an MP since 2000. Nyalandu, the former Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism under the fourth phase administration of retired President Jakaya Kikwete, said he had quit CCM because of its failure to nurture democracy in the east African country. "CCM has failed to govern in a democratic manner. There are also lots of human rights violations under the watch of the ruling party," Nyalandu said in the statement issued to media houses across the country. He also claimed that there is no clear separation of powers between the three pillars of state, the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. "We need a new constitution that will help us attain our goals and strengthen democracy in the country," Nyalandu said. "I have decided to quit CCM today, October 30, 2017, after serving the party in various posts, including the regional chairmanship of the ruling party's Youth Wing (UVCCM), MP for 17 years after being elected since 2000 and a member of the party's National Executive Committee," added the politician. On October 19, Nyalandu said he intended to table a private motion in Parliament in November this year aimed at reviving the debate on a new constitution. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 21:53:22|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close The 23rd session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) kicks off in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 30, 2017. Yu Zhengsheng, chairman of the National Committee of the CPPCC, presided over the opening meeting of the session. Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, delivered a report at the same session. (Xinhua/Ding Haitao) BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- It is the primary political task for China's political advisory bodies to arm its members' mind and promote their work with the essence of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said top political advisor Yu Zhengsheng Monday. Yu, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the remarks at the opening of the 23rd session of the Standing Committee of the 12th National Committee of the CPPCC. In a report delivered at the same session, Wang Huning, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said the political advisory body should take Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era as its guide for work. Political advisors should consciously accept CPC leadership and uphold and safeguard the core status of General Secretary Xi Jinping, Wang said. He called on political advisors to build consensus, unite people and pool the strength in a bid to achieve the goals set at the congress. Yu also participated in a panel discussion on Monday afternoon. The 19th CPC National Congress was held from Oct. 18 to 24 in Beijing. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 22:13:31|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close The 8th China-U.S. Bilateral Drug Intelligence Working Group Meeting is held in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 30, 2017. China and the United States agreed on cooperation in drug prevention at an anti-drug intelligence sharing meeting in Beijing on Monday. (Xinhua) BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- China and the United States agreed on cooperation in drug prevention at an anti-drug intelligence sharing meeting in Beijing on Monday. The two sides discussed control of synthetic opioids, drug testing technology, and efforts to place ketamine on a list of internationally controlled substances, among other issues. China and the U.S. can share a lot in the fight against opioids and their concerted efforts will improve drug control, said Liang Yun, head of the narcotics control bureau of the Ministry of Public Security. The U.S. side spoke highly of the Sino-U.S. cooperation in the past year, saying new progress in drug prohibition is expected. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 22:28:36|Editor: Liangyu Video Player Close BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- China's cyberspace authority on Monday issued two regulations to strengthen the management of online news services. One of the regulations requires online news providers to provide more training and supervision of their staff. The training on Marxist news theory should be strengthened, according to the document released by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC). Cyberspace authorities will set up a management system for online news editors, which will include a blacklist. The other document deals with a security evaluation mechanism on the use of new technology in online new services. It requires service providers to conduct such evaluations before the introduction of new technology or applications in their platforms. The CAC regulation also demands safeguard measures for information security. Both documents will go into effect on Dec. 1. (File Pic) Qatar's membership in the Gulf Cooperation Council should be frozen until it meets the demands of the Arab Quartet, Bahrain foreign minister said on Monday. (Xinhua Photo) MANAMA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Qatar's membership in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) should be frozen until it meets the demands of the Arab Quartet, a top Bahrain official said Monday. This was highlighted on Monday by Bahrain's Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, who in a series of posts on his Twitter account called for Doha to leave the GCC bloc or meet the demands set by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Egypt. "If Qatar thinks it can delay and buy its time until the next summit of the GCC, then it is wrong. If the situation remains as it is, we will not attend," posted Shaikh Khalid on his Twitter account. "Bahrain will not attend the GCC summit if Qatar will participate because it is getting closer to Iran and deploying foreign forces, both of which are against the security of GCC countries," said Shaikh Khalid. Kuwait is set to host the 38th GCC summit later this year. "The right step is to freeze Qatar's membership until it responds to the demands of our countries." The Arab Quartet on June 5 severed their diplomatic and trade relations with Qatar after accusing it of supporting extremists and funding terrorism. It issued a list of 31 demands for Qatar to resolve the issue, that were rejected by Doha. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 22:58:47|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close MOSCOW, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Norway has agreed to recover a Russian helicopter which crashed into the sea off the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said in a statement Monday. "An agreement was reached on the use of a Norwegian large-capacity marine vessel for carrying out work to lift the helicopter," the statement said. On Thursday, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter with eight Russian citizens on board disappeared from radar screens while flying over the Greenland Sea off a Russian settlement on the Svalbard Islands within the territory of Norway. The wreckage of the helicopter was found on Thursday at a depth of 209 meters underwater and some 2.2 km off the coast, according to Norway's rescue services. The Russian Emergencies Ministry said it had sent more than 40 rescuers to take part in the search operation. Also on Sunday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev had a telephone conversation with his Norwegian counterpart Erna Solberg, who expressed her condolences over the death of Russian citizens in the crash, a Russian government statement said. According to the Svalbard Treaty of 1920, the archipelago is under Norwegian sovereignty, but the exercise of sovereignty is subject to certain stipulations and citizens of signatory countries have equal rights to exploit its natural resources. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 23:03:49|Editor: Zhou Xin Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, meets with Hoang Binh Quan, special envoy of Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee, in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 30, 2017. Hoang is also head of the Commission for External Relations of the CPV Central Committee. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday called for joint efforts to promote the sustained, healthy and stable development of relations between China and Vietnam. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks during a meeting with Hoang Binh Quan, special envoy of Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee. Hoang is also head of the Commission for External Relations of the CPV Central Committee. The new leadership of the CPC Central Committee will work with the CPV Central Committee leadership headed by Nguyen Phu Trong to deepen strategic communication, enhance political mutual trust, implement important consensus, and properly handle related issues in order to promote sustained, healthy and stable development of bilateral ties, Xi said. He said the parties of China and Vietnam, both as ruling parties of socialist countries, should view China-Vietnam relations from a higher vantage point and a deeper level and firmly promote the building of a community of shared future. Referring to the 19th CPC National Congress, Xi said he called on everyone in the Party to remain true to the original aspiration and keep the mission firmly in mind, and that also applies to the development of China-Vietnam relations. For his part, Hoang Binh Quan said Vietnam looks forward to deeper understanding of the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the CPC and Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Vietnam stands ready to work with China to promote the bilateral relations in the new era to a new high, he said. Hoang Binh Quan also carried messages from Nguyen Phu Trong to President Xi. Nguyen Phu Trong said vietnam hails the great achievement made in the 19th CPC National Congress and believes the brotherly Chinese people can fulfill the grand goals set at the congress under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 23:13:54|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close ADDIS ABABA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Communal clashes in Ethiopia's western Benishangul Gumuz regional state left eight people dead over the weekend, authorities said on Monday. The clashes involved ethnic Gumuz native to the regional state and ethnic Amharas who've migrated to the area over the past decade. Nigusu Tilahun, spokesperson for Amhara regional state, said 11 people suspected of involvement in the clashes have been arrested. However, Tilahun said the clashes were of a personal nature and not ethnic-based. The Ethiopian Army and police have secure the area to prevent further clashes, he said. Ethnic Amhara activists said the figure of eight dead was an underestimation and that the clashes were ethnic-based and not of a personal nature. Ethiopia's version of ethnic federalism has been credited with ensuring the relative stability of the Horn of Africa country and giving economic, cultural and political rights to the 80 plus ethnic groups living in it. However, critics allege Ethiopia's ethnic federalism is in danger of magnifying ethnic differences at the expense of unity among the country's population of more than 100 million. Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 23:18:57|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close by Alessandra Cardone ROME, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- A new electoral law approved by Italy last week might slightly improve the country's long-standing political instability, but not annul the risk of ending up with a hung parliament after the next general elections, according to an Italian scholar. "If we take the current situation as it is, the new electoral system might be able to improve Italy's governability by a little," Giovanni Orsina, history professor and deputy director of LUISS University's School of Government in Rome, told Xinhua in an interview. HYBRID SYSTEM The new law introduces a hybrid system, in which two-thirds of lawmakers are elected on a proportional basis, and one-third via a first-past-the-post system. It also provides a 3-percent threshold for single parties to enter parliament, and a 10-percent threshold for coalitions. The expert saw two possible effects on the political system in the short term. "The first, and perhaps the strongest one is to bring center-right Forza Italia party (of former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi) and the Northern League closer in view of the election," Orsina explained. As a result, a center-right coalition would become more likely, and more compact. Secondly, the new law would overall reward those parties able to forge electoral pacts before elections are held. Therefore, it might partly penalize populist Five Star Movement (M5S), currently the country's largest opposition force, which has been against electoral alliances since its inception. "Theoretically, that is one likely perspective," Orsina said. However, he urged to take such predictions very cautiously. COALITION QUESTION The current legislature would naturally end in spring 2018, then parliament will be dissolved, and new general elections are expected by May at latest. Meanwhile, the scholar warned that many things might still change in terms of political alliances and equilibrium. "We know a center-right coalition is now projected at around 32-33 percent in polls, which means it should be favorite to win in many first-past-the-post constituencies, and especially in Northern Italy," Orsina said. Leftist and center-left forces, including the ruling Democratic Party (PD) of former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and leftist groups that splintered from the PD, were politically more divided, and less likely to join forces before election. "If the center-left fails to form a broad coalition, those uninominal (first-past-the-post) constituencies where the center-right block is weaker might be won by the Five Star Movement instead," the scholar said. POLITICAL STABILITY Overall, the winner-take-all mechanism introduced by the new law to elect one-third of lawmakers was most fit for "boosting political stability, and produce more solid governments, provided that two rival political blocks were at about 40 percent, and a third at around 20 percent," according to Orsina. On the contrary, latest polls showed Italy's three major political sides -- center-left forces, center-right forces, and the M5S -- were all almost neck-to-neck, a little over or a little below 30 percent. As such, the chance of ending up with a hung parliament after the next general elections would remain high. "The perspective is probable, and very worrying," Orsina stressed. "If the next election returns a split parliament, then I fear the country will have to go through great lengths to form a government." Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 23:29:00|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GAZA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- An Islamic Jihad militant was killed and nine others injured after the Israeli army destroyed a tunnel underneath the borders between Gaza Strip and Israel, medics and security sources said. Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of Gaza health ministry, told reporters that one Palestinian was killed and nine injured, after the Israeli army bombed an area southeast of the Gaza Strip, close to the borders with Israel. Security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Israeli army bombarded a tunnel underneath the borderline area between southeast Gaza Strip and Israel. They said ten people were stuck for a while into the destroyed tunnel, and contact with them was disconnected, adding that the ten are members of the Islamic Jihad's armed wing, better known as Saraya al-Quds, or al-Quds Brigades. Earlier on Monday, the Israeli army announced that an underground tunnel that goes from southern Gaza into Israel was blown up and destroyed, adding that the tunnel is 2-kilometer long and it is under construction. Israel held Islamic Hamas movement responsible for constructing tunnels that are used by militants in the Gaza Strip to carry out attacks from the coastal enclave into Israel. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 23:29:01|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close KATHMANDU, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- At least 15 people were killed and 12 others injured in two separate road mishaps in Nepal on Monday, authorities said here. In the first incident, nine people were killed and eight injured in the car crash in Birbas area of Gulmi District when it was enroute for Tamghas from Butwal, some 300 km away from the capital. The vehicle slipped off the highway due to over-speed and plunged some 200 meters down into the gorge, according to authorities. "Six were killed on the spot and three others breathed their last while undergoing treatment in local hospitals," Gopal Aryal, the Chief District Officer of Gulmi, told Xinhua adding that some of the injured are in critical condition. In another road mishap, six people killed and four others were injured when a jeep skidded off the road and fell 500 meters down in Katari on Monday afternoon. The ill-fated vehicle was enroute for Okhaldhunga District from Udayapur when it met the accident, local police officer Nawaraj Bhatta told Xinhua via telephone. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 23:39:03|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WINDHOEK, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Namibia has witnessed a decrease in the poaching of rhinos and elephants, while that of other animals like lions continue unabated, a government official said on Monday. According to the Director of Marketing at Intelligence Support Against Poaching (ISAP) Tinus Hansen, game species poaching is becoming a problem through a much more formalized channel where full time poachers travel the gravel roads at night and shoot game which is then sold to specific butcheries in the main city centers. "Permanent road blocks are ineffective in slowing down the transport of illegal meat for numerous reasons. At this stage, the main centers receiving poached meat are Windhoek, Khorixas, Kamanajab, Walvis Bay, and Outjo," Hansen said. He added that other protected species that are the focus of poaching syndicates are lions, certain bird species and pangolins. Recently, lions have been the victims of increases in poaching instances. This was noticeable in 2017 in the Kruger National Park in South Africa, where lion poaching has seen a huge upsurge. "Criminal demand for items such as lion teeth, bones and skin is on the rise. South African poaching trends tend to spill over into Namibia. What they suffer this year hits Namibia next year as often the same international syndicates are involved," Hansen added. For the first time in years, Namibia recorded a decrease in the poaching of rhinos and elephants. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 23:39:04|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close BAKU, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Top leaders of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia opened on Monday a newly built railway line which connects the three countries in Azerbaijan's capital city of Baku, linking central Asia and Europe through the Caucasus region. The opening of the 826-km Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line marks the conclusion of a 10-year project to open a rail corridor carrying cargo and passengers between the two continents. The railway line, which includes 105 km of new track, will have the capacity to annually transport 1 million passengers and 6.5 million tons of freight at the initial stage. Addressing the opening ceremony, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev called the opening of the railway line an event of "historic and strategic significance," saying the project will play an important role in ensuring stability and security in the region. The project build the railway was launched in 2007 with an agreement between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Its completion had been postponed several times since 2011. Starting in Baku, trains will stop in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi, pass through gauge-changing facilities in the Georgian town of Akhalkalaki and end their journey in the Turkish town of Kars before feeding into Europe beyond. The railway line is also designed to become a key part of the southern route of the emerging New Silk Road network of trade and transport corridors between China and Europe. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Kazakh Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov were also present at the opening ceremony. The official ceremony was followed by an open-air inauguration. The participating guests witnessed the first trains decorated with the flags of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan departing from the railway station. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 23:39:05|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NAIROBI, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Kenya's electoral commission on Monday declared the Oct. 26 repeat presidential election as free, fair and credible, amid criticism from the country's opposition leaders. Speaking during the conclusion of the election process in Nairobi, Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC) chairman Wafula Chabukati said he was satisfied that the electoral body meet all conditions that were set by the Supreme Court. "I'm satisfied that we were able to meet conditions that enabled the commission to deliver a free, fair and credible election," Chabukati said before he declared Uhuru Kenyatta as the president-elect. He said Kenyatta won the elections with 7.48 million votes in 266 out of 291 constituencies where the election took place. This represents 98.27 percent of valid votes. Chabukati said some 7.62 million out of 19.61 million registered voters cast their ballots, representing a turnout of 38.8 percent. He said the electoral commission was unable to conduct election in four Western counties where 25 constituencies did not participate in Thursday's poll due to insecurity situation occasioned by violent protests. Chebukati said the IEBC did everything to ensure every Kenyan exercised their right to vote during the repeat exercise. "We came up with a fresh presidential election management team to address concerns. To us as IEBC, all Kenyans and observers, we have had a free, fair and credible election," he said. (File Pic) Iran unveils advanced homegrown radar system on Monday to track vessels and aerial targets. (Xinhua Photo) TEHRAN, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Iran unveiled advanced homegrown radar system on Monday which is able to track vessels as well as aerial targets, Tasnim news agency reported. The advanced radar system named "Afaq" (horizons) was put on display during a ceremony on Monday with Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami in attendance. Hatami said the radar is capable of monitoring and tracking vessels at a distance of up to 200 kilometers. It is also able to track aerial targets, he said without further elaboration. Hatami hailed production of the radar system by the Iranian experts at the Defense Ministry. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 23:54:09|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close NAIROBI -- Kenya's Uhuru Kenyatta won the repeat presidential elections boycotted by opposition, garnering 98.2 percent of the vote cast, Kenya's electoral body said on Monday. (Kenya-Elections) - - - - ADDIS ABABA -- Communal clashes in Ethiopia's western Benishangul Gumuz regional state left eight people dead over the weekend, authorities said on Monday. The clashes involved ethnic Gumuz native to the regional state and ethnic Amharas who've migrated to the area over the past decade. (Ethiopia-Clashes) - - - - MADRID -- Spanish Attorney General Jose Manuel Maza announced Monday charges of rebellion, sedition, misuse of funds and other related crimes against former Catalan leaders behind last Friday's declaration of independence. The former leader Carles Puigdemont and his deputy Oriol Junqueras will be investigated by the Spanish High Court, while other former members of Puigdemont's government face action in the Spanish Supreme Court. (Spain-Catalonia) - - - - WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his business associate were asked Monday morning to surrender to authorities over the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election, the New York Times first reported. The charges against Manafort and his longtime associate Rick Gates in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation were not immediately clear, said the report. (US-Trump-Manafort) - - - - NEW DELHI -- At least one person has been killed and more than 57 others injured after a bridge collapsed in the southern Indian state of Kerala Monday, police said. The incident took place at Chavara in the state's Kollam district, some 65 km from Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram. (India-Bridge Collapse) Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-30 23:54:10|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- More than 1,000 business leaders, government officials and academics will converge at a UN forum Tuesday in Bahrain to strengthen global partnerships for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN News revealed here Monday. The three-day Forum, to be held by the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), in partnership with the government of Bahrain, will offer a unique opportunity to promote entrepreneurship and innovation to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Forum also includes a number of key events on the Maritime-Continental Silk Road; investing for global impact; women in industry; private sector engagement for implementing SDGs; promoting inclusive investment in Africa; and forging partnerships between entrepreneurs. "As our world gets more interconnected, no one country or region can meet development challenges on its own," President of the UN General Assembly, Miroslav Lajcak, who will be attending the World Entrepreneurs Investment Forum, said. It will also focus the role of female entrepreneurs, partnerships for development, and the implications for achieving the 2030 Agenda, in particular SDG 9 on industry, innovation and infrastructure. | 2017-10-31 00:43:56|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ATHENS, Oct. 30 ((Xinhua) -- A Greek criminal appeals court on Monday unanimously upheld a guilty verdict for money laundering for former defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos and 15 other defendants in a kickbacks trial, Greek national news agency AMNA reported. The court found all defendants guilty of receiving kickbacks for the purchase of the TOR-M1 missile system and submarines for the Greek Armed forces two decades ago. The only differentiation between Monday's verdict and the original verdict of the lower court is in the amount of cash considered to have been given to the former minister via his close associate Yannis Sbokos. This has been adjusted downward from 40 million euros (46.4 million U.S. dollars) to 10 million euros. The judges were expected to announce on Wednesday the sentencing. During the second trial, which lasted three years, one of the defendants passed away, while all the rest -- with the exception of Sbokos -- are not held in prison. Tsochatzopoulos, 78, was released last May on health reasons after undergoing a bypass surgery. He was serving a 20-year prison sentence after his conviction in 2013 for receiving bribes linked to arms procurement contracts during his term as minister between 1996 and 2001. He was the highest former official to be convicted for corruption in Greece in several decades. A part of the bribes has still not been traced in the offshore companies the former official, his relatives and associates had established. It was not yet clear on Monday whether the former minister or other defendants will return to prison after the second sentencing. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 00:04:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TEHRAN, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force plans to launch massive air drills on Tuesday, an Iranian commander was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency on Monday. General Massoud Roozkhosh, the spokesman for the war game, said all air bases of the Iran Air Force will participate in the aerial exercises to begin on Tuesday morning. Dozens of bomber airplanes, heavy-duty aircraft, military transport aircraft, communication and reconnaissance planes, tanker aircraft and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are slated to take part in the war game which is named the Fadaeeyan-e Harim-e Velayat 7 (Devotees of Velayat Airspace 7), Roozkhosh said. He also said various defense systems and weapons developed or upgraded by the country's academic and industrial centers as well as the Ministry of Defense are planned to be showcased during the two-day drills. Various kinds of domestically made missiles and bombs, including smart heavy and semi-heavy bombs as well as laser and radar-guided missiles will be also used in the war game, he added. Iran's Air Force holds annual war games in a bid to boost capabilities to defend the country's airspace, said the commander. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 00:04:14|Editor: Zhou Xin Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping (R), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, meets with Sounthone Xayachack, head of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee's commission for external relations, who visits China as the special envoy of Bounnhang Vorachit, general secretary of the LPRP Central Committee, in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 30, 2017. (Xinhua/Pang Xinglei) BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday that the new leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee will work with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) to strengthen political guidance for closer bilateral ties. Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, made the remarks when meeting with Sounthone Xayachack, head of the LPRP Central Committee's commission for external relations, who visited China as the special envoy of Bounnhang Vorachit, general secretary of the LPRP Central Committee. "The ruling parties of China and Laos should bear in mind the strategic significance of bilateral ties from a higher perspective and a deeper level, so as to contribute to the development of the two countries as well as the world socialist development," Xi said. "Socialism with Chinese characteristics has entered a new era," Xi said. "This important judgement is not only of great significance in the development history of the Chinese nation, but also in the history of world socialist development and the history of human society." "Socialist countries including China and Laos have been making tireless efforts to explore a development path that suits its own conditions, and have made remarkable achievements," he said. Xi also expressed appreciations for Sounthone's visit and a congratulatory letter from Bounnhang she brought with, which he said "demonstrates the friendship between the two parties and the importance that the LPRP attaches to the ties between the two parties and the two countries". In the letter, Bounnhang sent warm congratulations to Xi on his re-election as the general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC and the successful conclusion of the 19th CPC National Congress. Sounthone said the LPRP Central Committee hoped to work with the new leadership of the CPC Central Committee with General Secretary Xi Jinping at its core, to bring the comprehensive strategic partnership of cooperation between China and Laos to a new height in the new era. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 00:14:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close NCHELENGE, Zambia, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday urged the international community to put the refugee crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) high on the agenda as it was degenerating into a humanitarian crisis. UNHCR Country Representative in Zambia Pierrine Aylara called for more assistance to Zambia and other countries hosting DRC asylum seekers. Countries like Zambia require urgent assistance due to the increasing numbers of people being received on a daily basis, Aylara told reporters in Nchelenge, a district in Luapula province, during a visit to Kenani Transit Center for asylum seekers. She thanked the Zambian government for accommodating the asylum seekers and some cooperating partners for providing assistance. "We would like to thank the government for the generosity because it is not easy to look after such a huge number of people but still more needs to be done to make them feel at home," Aylara said. Abdon Mawere, commissioner for refugees in Zambia's Ministry of Home Affairs, said the transit center is receiving between 50 and 100 asylum seekers a day and that 5,890 people are now accommodated, 60 percent of them aged from 18 years and below. "It is now urgent that we quickly move these people so that we provide them with all the basic needs required," he said. At the center, some asylum seekers complained of inadequate food supply. "They give us small rations. The food is not enough," said Albert Kalengo, one of the asylum seekers, adding that some people only have one meal a day. However, Disaster Management Manager of the Zambia Red Cross Society Wisford Mudenda denied that the asylum seekers are not getting enough food. Food has been distributed in line with World Food Program (WFP) procedures and standards, he said. Mudenda said the camp has been divided into sections for easy distribution of food. "Because some of them do not have pots, we decided to come up with this program in order to ensure that they are catered for," he said. Mudenda however attributed some of the problems regarding the food situation to some section leaders who sell food supplies to nearby local communities. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 00:14:21|Editor: Zhou Xin Video Player Close Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with members of the advisory board of the elite Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Oct. 30, 2017. (Xinhua/Ju Peng) BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- President Xi Jinping said Monday that China is a contributor to economic globalization and its opening up is a win-win outcome for China and the world. Xi's comment came while meeting with an advisory board of Tsinghua University school of economics and management, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Xi said the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress is of great significance, and has enhanced China's confidence on the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. China is pushing forward comprehensive reform with unprecedented determination and efforts and will continue to boost reform and development through opening up, Xi said. While ensuring China's sovereignty, security and development interests, the country will remain committed to reform and opening up and adopt a mutually-beneficial and higher-quality approach to opening up, the president said. "As a beneficiary of and contributor to economic globalization, China's development is the opportunity for the world. China's opening up is not a zero-sum game but win-win cooperation," Xi said. As a Chinese saying goes, our friendship remains despite a failed deal.China will not set unfair clauses or take advantage of others, Xi said, adding that China will actively take part in the reform and construction of the global governance system, and promote the establishment of a community of shared future for mankind. Talent is the foundation and core element of innovation, said Xi, noting that constructors and successors of socialism with Chinese characteristics, rather than bystanders or opponents, should be trained through education. Xi said that China has made strategic decisions to speed up the construction of world-class universities and world-class academic subjects to enhance the country's core competitiveness. Xi said he is looking forward to receiving U.S. President Donald Trump in Beijing early next month. China is willing to work with the U.S. side to look far ahead and aim high, take each other's interests and concerns into consideration, properly solve differences and jointly promote China-U.S. cooperation so as to realize a mutually beneficial and win-win situation, Xi said. "We are optimistic about the prospects for China-U.S. relations," he said. Xi encouraged his guests to provide more advice on China's development, conduct more cooperation with the Chinese side, and offer a more objective and comprehensive introduction of China to the world. Breyer Capital's Founder and CEO Jim Breyer, chairman of the advisory board, and some other members, including Paulson Institute Chairman Henry Paulson, Chairman of the Blackstone Group Stephen Schwarzman, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke at the meeting. They said they were deeply impressed by President Xi's report to the opening session of the 19th CPC National Congress, noting that China deserves praise for its achievement in poverty relief and efforts to promote innovation and development, as well as its robust development in economic and social areas. The guests expressed confidence in China's future, saying that the international community expects to deepen cooperation with China in its reform and opening up process. They also hoped to see fruitful outcome from Trump's visit and the meeting between the two presidents in Beijing in November. The advisory board was founded in 2000 and consists of scholars and entrepreneurs from multinationals, as well as Chinese officials. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 00:19:23|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GAZA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Three militants were killed and ten others injured after the Israeli army bombarded on Monday a tunnel underneath the borders between southeast Gaza Strip and Israel, medics and security sources said. Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of Gaza health ministry, told reporters that three Palestinians were killed and ten injured, after the Israeli army bombed an area southeast of the Gaza Strip, close to the borders with Israel. He said that Ahmad Abu Armana, 25 and Omar al-Falit, 27 and Musbah Shubair, 30, were all killed and ten injured; one of them is in critical condition. Security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Israeli army bombarded with bombs a tunnel underneath the borderline area between southeast Gaza Strip and Israel. They said ten people were stuck for a while into the destroyed tunnel, and contact with them was disconnected, adding that the ten are members of the Islamic Jihad's armed wing, better known as Saraya al-Quds, or al-Quds Brigades. Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza Dawood Shihab told reporters "Our response to this crime will be taken in the right moment .. this is an attempt to mix up the situation after the attempt of assassinating General Tawfiq Abu Ne'em on Friday. Earlier on Monday, the Israeli army announced that an underground tunnel that goes from southern Gaza into Israel was blown up and destroyed, adding that the tunnel is 2-kilometer long and it is under construction. Israel held Islamic Hamas movement responsible for constructing tunnels that are used by militants in the Gaza Strip to carry out attacks from the coastal enclave into Israel. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 00:29:29|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close VILNIUS, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- German automotive industry company Continental plans to invest 95 million euros (1.1 billon U.S. dollars) and create around 1,000 jobs in Lithuania in the largest green field investment project in Lithuanian history, Lithuania's investment promotion agency announced Monday. A green field investment is a form of foreign direct investment where a parent company builds operation in a foreign country from scratch. Continental is to build a new manufacturing plant in Central Lithuania to expand automotive electronics production in Europe. The plant is to manufacture door and seat control units, gateways, intelligent glass control units, radar sensors for adaptive cruise control and emergency braking assistance systems. "Building the first Continental plant in Lithuania is an important part of our growth strategy in Europe," senior vice president at Continental Hans-Jurgen Braun said in a press release. The investment of 95 million euros is the largest of its kind for the small Baltic country with a population of less than 3 million. Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis said such manufacturing investment would "have a tremendously positive impact on this industry in Lithuania. Continental is bringing the biggest green field investment project in the Lithuanian history." The German automotive company is to make the investment in the next five years. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 00:29:30|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close SKOPJE, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The second round of local elections in Macedonia ended on Sunday, but the leader of the main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE Nikola Gruevski refused to accept the election outcome, claiming that the elections were "everything but free and fair". Gruevski's party won only five out of 80 mayoral posts throughout Macedonia. "Macedonia had mafia-style elections. Criminals joined with party and state structures. We did not have fair and democratic elections. (There were) blackmails, pressure, huge bribery and terror over the citizens in order to win the elections dishonestly," Gruevski said immediately after the second election round. He delivered seven demands to his political opponents with the purpose of restoring "democracy and the dignity of the country". The demands include swift premature parliamentary elections organized by a technical government, as well as forming a new special public prosecution that would be in charge of investigating the election frauds committed in the 2016 and 2017 election cycles. "This truly is a captured state. Those who have asked for democracy and freedom in the past years have proved themselves to be the biggest enemies of freedom and democracy...But they will not break us. Even if only one of us remains, VMRO-DPMNE will restore justice," Gruevski said. According to his opponent Zoran Zaev, the leader of the ruling Social Democratic Union of Macedonia party (SDSM), the elections were "crystal clear". He blamed Gruevski for acting upon "euphoria from the negative election results". "I hope you will find strength to act as a responsible political subject and you will participate and give constructive contribution to the reforms. I appeal to the leadership of VMRO-DPMNE to put the interests of the citizens in first line," Zaev said. Zaev refused the idea of premature parliamentary elections. "We have lost years and great expectations from the citizens to fulfill ahead of us," the Macedonian prime minister added. Still, Gruevski is not the only one to make accusations about election irregularities. The Alliance of the Albanians, one of the parties in the government coalition, whose leader is Ziadin Sela, also announced that it would not recognize the results. Sela accused his coalition partner Zaev of openly supporting the candidates of the other party of the ruling bloc, the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI). DUI's candidate Ramiz Merko managed to defeat Sela in the constituency of Struga with support from SDSM voters. "This result is not acceptable for us. We have information of police officers going around among citizens and threatening them, pressuring them on how to vote and buying votes with police support," Sela claimed. His fellow partisan Arben Taravari was elected as a mayor in Gostivar, but still complained that interior minister Oliver Spasovski used his personal influence to lobby against his election. "I categorically reject these claims. I did not call to lobby for or against anyone. The results of the elections are a showcase of the free election will of the citizens and their resolution to give their vote in a peaceful and fair process," Spasovski said in response to the accusation. The accusation from the Alliance of the Albanians will definitely put a strain on the ruling coalition, experts agree, although they don't see a risk for complete government fallout yet. "There will certainly be a sense of political frustration in the Alliance of the Albanians in the next period, but I don't believe that it will mean a real government crisis and there are several reasons for that. But first of all, because the pressure of the international community to maintain the coalition is big," political analyst Petar Arsovski told Xinhua in Skopje. "I think that the coalition will keep functioning, but certainly with bigger tensions and frictions within." Former politician Naser Zyberi agrees that the Alliance for the Albanians will most probably play the role of "a sharp stone in the government shoe", becoming a certain opposition within the ruling coalition. "I still don't expect that they will leave the government altogether, because their votes in the parliament are important for the majority and because their leader Sela was one of the main victims of the attacks in the Macedonian Parliament that happened on April 27," Zyberi says. International observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)'s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) said, "The second round mayoral elections were competitive and the respect for fundamental freedoms contributed towards the conduct of democratic elections." "Isolated cases of misuse of administrative resources and vote-buying were reported. Media continued providing balanced coverage of contestants, but this was overshadowed by negative campaigning spots. Election day was overall professionally managed, although the performance of polling staff during counting could have been enhanced," Ambassador Audrey Glover, head of the ODIHR election observation mission said on Monday. The election observation mission was comprised of 126 observers from 26 countries and was the biggest international observing mission of elections in the country. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 00:34:33|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close CAPE TOWN, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of people gathered in Cape Town on Monday to observe Black Monday, an event dedicated to farmers who have fallen victim to rampant crime. Wearing black clothes, protesters began to converge at Cape Town Stadium under blazing sun in the morning. As more people arrived, the Helen Suzman Boulevard became gridlocked. Many motorbikes, cars and even tractors joined the protesters, with a police helicopter hovered overhead. The participants kneeled on the ground to pray for the murdered farmers and held each other's hands in solidarity. "Enough is enough," the protesters chanted. Black Monday was launched in Cape Town by a group called "Enough is Enough" after the murder of 47-year-old farmer Joubert Conradie on his farm in Klapmuts near Cape Town last Tuesday. Joubert's widow, Marlene Conradie, came to Cape Town to take part in the protest. "I don't want another family to go through this," she told reporters, saying she was overwhelmed by the support from the protesters. Organizer Daniel Briers said the event is designed to forge unity among South Africans. "This is not the end," he said. "This is only the beginning." One protester, who only gave his first name, Lousef, said police are not doing enough to protect the farmers. Food security is at risk as more and more South African farmers are killed, he said. "South Africans must awaken to the rising farm murders," Lousef said. "Crime is not only a threat to farmers but also to every South African." In addition to Cape Town, Black Monday was also observed in other cities, including Johannesburg, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth, where protesters barricaded highways with tractors and cars. Police Minister Fikile Mbalula called for a non-violent and lawful protest for those taking part in the action. Mbalula warned that police will not tolerate lawlessness and that "any person who engages in conduct outside the perimeters of the law will face the consequences of their actions." As the nationwide protests went on, a 73-year-old man was hacked to death on a farm in Vryheid, northern KwaZulu-Natal, police said. This further highlights the seriousness of farm murders in South Africa, which has one of the highest crime rates in the world. Since the beginning of 2017, over 340 farm attacks have been committed in the country, and at least 70 people have been murdered, according to lobby group AgriForum. The world's average murder rate is 6.2 per 100,000 people per year, while that of South Africa is 34.1 per 100,000, the group said. The ratio at which commercial farmers in South Africa are being killed has been calculated at an extreme of 156 per 100,000 per year, AgriForum said. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 00:34:34|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close ROME, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Italy's northwest areas remained on high alert for fire danger on Monday when wildfires have been devastating the Piedmont region at the border with France since Oct. 10, and are spreading to the nearby Lombardy region, according to the Italian Fire Department. Up to mid-Monday, firefighters were at work in 11 areas between the provinces of Turin and Cuneo in Piedmont, and in at least four areas in Lombardy, the department stated on Twitter. Interior Minister Marco Minniti chaired an emergency meeting with local authorities in Turin, capital of piedmont region, and was to call another meeting in Lombardy's city of Varese later on Monday, according to local authorities. In the Susa Valley -- where Turin metropolitan area lies -- the situation appeared very critical on Sunday, and about 700 residents scattered in several hamlets were evacuated, including a care home for the elderly. Overall, some 502 firefighters have been deployed across 22 areas in Piedmont in the last 48 hours, local authorities said. At least 8 of them suffered from smoke intoxication so far, but no other casualties were reported, according to Ansa news agency. Piedmont submitted a state of emergency request to the central government on Oct. 27. When a state of maximum alert due to fire danger was declared on Oct. 10, some 130 wildfires spread across the region, devastating at least 2,000 hectares of land, according to the regional government. Overall, some 2,000 firefighters and civil protection officers, plus 2,200 volunteers, and 500 emergency vehicles were deployed. The situation appeared to be worsening in Lombardy, due to wildfires combined with a prolonged lack of rain, and the regional government would plan to file a request for the state of emergency as well, the civil protection councilor told local media ahead of the scheduled meeting with Minniti, the interior minister. Fires were affecting areas across five different municipalities, including Varese and Como near the border with Switzerland. Four helicopters, two Canadair water-dropping planes dispatched from the central government, and a third one from Croatia were being deployed for aerial firefighting in Lombardy, according to Ansa news agency. Photo taken on Nov. 4, 2013 shows a new Boeing 777-300ER flight "Maasai Mara" of Kenya Airways at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, capital of Kenya. The Kenya Airways launched its first Boeing 777-300ER flight on Monday. The new flight, which has 372 seats of economy class and 28 seats of business class, will enter into service formally on Nov. 18. It will fly non-stop to Guangzhou in China three times a week. (Xinhua/Meng Chenguang) by David Musyoka NAIROBI, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Beijing and Guangzhou cities in China are becoming popular destinations for Kenyan entrepreneurs, who have established a niche in the Chinese cities. From importing unique and durable construction materials to furniture and leather products, to second hand clothes, this is evident by the frequent Kenya Airways flights to Guangzhou every week. A spot check at most of these flights en route to Guangzhou reveals that majority of the passengers are Kenyans who are either going for a business trip, seminar, or importing goods from the one of the world's developed cities. According to one of the Kenya Airways (KQ) flight cabin crew, none of the KQ flights has ever flew Guangzhou with less than 50 Kenyans. "You can check the records in our office. The city has become a second home for Kenyan entrepreneurs," said the cabin crew as she boarded the 11 p.m. plane to Guangzhou. And this is evident by the adverts placed on local dailies inviting entrepreneurs wishing to travel to the big city. The entrepreneurs are offered subsidized costs in hotel books and air ticket on a first come basis. Xinhua caught up with Dinah Konzole, a Kenyan entrepreneur on her way to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport rushing to book the last flight to China on a Wednesday evening. Konzole, an entrepreneur who owns one of the largest boutique (beauty shop) in Kenya said she never misses to travel to the big city once or twice a month. "I'm a frequenter flier. I love this city. The environment is conducive and people here are welcoming. The infrastructure is quite amazing ranging from the buildings, the roads, wow," said Konzole. She imports ladies handbags, shoes, clothes, jewelries and beauty products. Walter Riungu, another Kenyan business entrepreneur said it is six years since he established a business in Beijing. The founder of China Africa Merchants Advisors limited, a trade and investment advisory firm which operates in China, Kenya and Zambia, said his company assists Chinese companies to secure commodities in Africa while handling the procurement of capital equipment and sourcing of financing in China for African companies. Photo taken on Nov. 4, 2013 shows a new Boeing 777-300ER flight "Maasai Mara" of Kenya Airways at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, capital of Kenya. The Kenya Airways launched its first Boeing 777-300ER flight on Monday. The new flight, which has 372 seats of economy class and 28 seats of business class, will enter into service formally on Nov. 18. It will fly non-stop to Guangzhou in China three times a week. (Xinhua/Meng Chenguang) According to Riungu, his business has been doing well given that it was established as a result of gap in the market. He said Beijing is a popular city to many Kenyans who visit it more often. "Beijing is constantly a growing city. You set up a business, it catches up very fast so long you establish your relations with the good hearted people around here," Riungu said in an recent interview with Xinhua. Some other Kenyan business entrepreneurs have come together to mobilize funds for air tickets and hotel bookings to enable them to attend business seminars and import goods as well. The team of 27 businessmen and women who are dealers in construction materials and furniture shops said they have a joint account in which they make deposits every month to enable them to attend the seminars annually. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 01:09:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TEHRAN, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Iran's top military commander said Monday that Iran will quit the 2015 nuclear deal, if the United States reimposes sanctions against the Islamic republic, Tehran Times daily reported. The international nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), should benefit Iran by the removal of western sanctions, said the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Baqeri. However, if the sanctions return, it will make no sense to stay in the JCPOA, he added. The JCPOA is a multilateral document which was achieved after months of diplomatic efforts and approved by the UN Security Council, Baqeri was quoted as saying. As for the deal, Iran has accepted nuclear restrictions and another party has committed to the removal of sanctions, he said. If sanctions are reimposed under other pretexts, "Iran will definitely withdraw from the nuclear deal." U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this month that the United States could not formally certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear accord. Washington has also demanded inspections of Iran's military sites, which Tehran has rejected. He has called the Iran nuclear deal, reached during the former U.S. president Barack Obama administration, "an embarrassment" for the United States and has called for renegotiations over some parts of it. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 01:09:42|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close GAZA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Five militants were killed and ten others injured after the Israeli army bombarded on Monday a tunnel underneath the borders between southeast Gaza Strip and Israel, medics and security sources said. Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of Gaza health ministry, told reporters that five Palestinians were killed and ten injured, after the Israeli army bombed an area southeast of the Gaza Strip, close to the borders with Israel. He said that Ahmad Abu Armana, 25 and Omar al-Falit, 27 and Musbah Shubair, 30, Arafat Abu Morshed, 29 and Hassan Abu Hassanein, 28, were killed and ten others injured. Security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Israeli army bombarded with several bombs a tunnel that was dug underneath the borderline area between southeast Gaza Strip and Israel. They said ten people were stuck for a while into the destroyed tunnel, and contact with them was disconnected, adding that the ten are members of the Islamic Jihad's armed wing, better known as Saraya al-Quds, or al-Quds Brigades. Eyewitnesses said one of the ten militants, were stuck in the tunnel, was killed, while the other four, were killed as they rushed to the destroyed tunnel to rescue the lives of the other nine people were stuck in the tunnel and were injured. Islamic Jihad spokesman in Gaza Dawood Shihab told reporters "Our response to this crime will be taken in the right moment .. this is an attempt to mix up the situation after the attempt of assassinating General Tawfiq Abu Ne'em on Friday. Earlier on Monday, the Israeli army announced that an underground tunnel that goes from southern Gaza into Israel was blown up and destroyed, adding that the tunnel is 2-kilometer long and it is under construction. Israel held Islamic Hamas movement responsible for constructing tunnels that are used by militants in the Gaza Strip to carry out attacks from the coastal enclave into Israel. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 01:14:44|Editor: Mengjie Video Player Close GENEVA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- During rapid economic change, the multilateral trading system needs to ensure the expansion of opportunities presented by technology and their lessening of adverse effects, World Trade Organization (WTO) director General Roberto Azevedo said Monday. Addressing a conference, Azevedo said: "Trade in services, data, and information is surging across digital platforms. Traditional trade in manufactured goods, agricultural products, or natural resources is also increasingly enabled by digital technologies." He added that between 2013 and 2015, the value of online trade jumped from 16 trillion to 22 trillion U.S. dollars, "expanding the opportunities worldwide." Azevedo said it is estimated e-commerce sales will rise by over 23 percent in 2017 alone and the global trading system "must go further." In the year 1900, almost half of all workers in France were employed on farms, he said. Today, the figure is less than 3 percent. In fact, in some economies eight out of ten job losses in manufacturing are due to higher productivity, not cheaper imports, Azevedo said. The biennial WTO ministerial conference will held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from Dec. 10 to 13. (File Pic) Iran 's top military commander said Monday Iran will quit the 2015 nuclear deal if the U.S. reimposes sanctions. (Xinhua/Sipa Photo) TEHRAN, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Iran's top military commander said Monday that Iran will quit the 2015 nuclear deal, if the United States reimposes sanctions against the Islamic republic, Tehran Times daily reported. The international nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), should benefit Iran by the removal of western sanctions, said the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Baqeri. However, if the sanctions return, it will make no sense to stay in the JCPOA, he added. The JCPOA is a multilateral document which was achieved after months of diplomatic efforts and approved by the UN Security Council, Baqeri was quoted as saying. As for the deal, Iran has accepted nuclear restrictions and another party has committed to the removal of sanctions, he said. If sanctions are reimposed under other pretexts, "Iran will definitely withdraw from the nuclear deal." U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier this month that the United States could not formally certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear accord. Washington has also demanded inspections of Iran's military sites, which Tehran has rejected. He has called the Iran nuclear deal, reached during the former U.S. president Barack Obama administration, "an embarrassment" for the United States and has called for renegotiations over some parts of it. A view shows the Russian-made Mil Mi-8 helicopter, that went missing October 26, 2017 with eight people aboard off the coast of the Arctic Svalbard archipelago, in the settlement of Barentsburg on Svalbard, Norway April 28, 2015. (REUTERS PHOTO) MOSCOW, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Norway has agreed to recover a Russian helicopter which crashed into the sea off the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said in a statement Monday. "An agreement was reached on the use of a Norwegian large-capacity marine vessel for carrying out work to lift the helicopter," the statement said. On Thursday, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter with eight Russian citizens on board disappeared from radar screens while flying over the Greenland Sea off a Russian settlement on the Svalbard Islands within the territory of Norway. The wreckage of the helicopter was found on Thursday at a depth of 209 meters underwater and some 2.2 km off the coast, according to Norway's rescue services. The Russian Emergencies Ministry said it had sent more than 40 rescuers to take part in the search operation. Also on Sunday, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev had a telephone conversation with his Norwegian counterpart Erna Solberg, who expressed her condolences over the death of Russian citizens in the crash, a Russian government statement said. According to the Svalbard Treaty of 1920, the archipelago is under Norwegian sovereignty, but the exercise of sovereignty is subject to certain stipulations and citizens of signatory countries have equal rights to exploit its natural resources. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 02:55:13|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- An influential U.S. home builders group on Monday voiced opposition to the House Republicans' forthcoming tax bill to be released later this week. "Last week, it appeared that we had a deal that would establish a meaningful homeownership tax credit that would benefit tens of millions of households," Granger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), said in a statement. "Unfortunately, we were told by the House leadership that the credit will be removed from the bill," the statement said. The House Committee on Ways and Means, the tax-writing committee, is expected to release the long-awaited text of the tax bill on Wednesday, which would cut income tax rates for businesses and individuals while eliminating almost all deductions to income taxes. "By sharply reducing the number of taxpayers who would itemize, what's left is a tax bill that essentially eviscerates the mortgage interest deduction and strips the tax code of its most vital homeownership tax benefit," MacDonald said, warning the forthcoming tax bill will harm home values, act as a tax on existing home owners and force many younger home buyers out of the market. "Given that owning a home is the largest asset for most American households, it makes little sense to offer a tax bill that effectively abandons the nation's long-standing commitment to housing," he said. Home builders' opposition reflected the complexity of tax reform and the difficulties that Republicans faced to gain widely support among business sectors. U.S. President Donald Trump and congressional Republican leaders have said recently that they hoped to pass the tax bill by the end of this year. But it's not clear whether Republicans have enough votes to get the tax bill through both chambers of Congress. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 02:55:14|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close OSLO, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Norway will get its first three F-35 Lightning II fighter jets on Nov. 2, as long as the weather conditions allows the flying, public broadcaster NRK reported Monday. The three airplanes will be flown by U.S. pilots, the report said. According to Major General Morten Klever, director of the combat aircraft program, the fighter jets are to land on the Orland Main Air Station at about two o'clock on Thursday and the official ceremony for the planes is planned for Nov. 10. The building for F-35 maintenance and an extended runway are ready for the first flight landing. In addition, the projects include the construction of camps for crew and officers and upgrades of infrastructure. The construction work on Orland air base will last until 2020 and has cost over 3.4 billion kroner (416 million U.S. dollars). Additional 6.4 billion kroner will be invested in the development of the combat aircraft base, NRK wrote. "As a professional property actor we can say that the work on developing the Orland air station and combat aircraft base has meant a lot for the Defence Estates Agency as an organization," said Thorbjorn Thoresen, director of the agency. "We have developed by working on the task, and what we learn we take with us in the further work to build defense capabilities," he said. Norway is one of the international partner countries participating in the F-35 program. Norwegian defense officials have said the Nordic country is committed to the procurement of up to 52 F-35s. (1 U.S. dollar = 8.16 kroner) Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 03:05:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Paul Manafort, former campaign manager of U.S. President Donald Trump, plead on Monday not guilty to all charges filed in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe over the alleged Russia meddling in the U.S. 2016 presidential elections. Manafort, together with his former business associate Rick Gates, appeared in the Federal District Court in Washington on Monday afternoon. Gates also pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. The indictment of Manafort and Gates neither mentioned Trump nor election meddling. Manafort was indicted on charges that he funneled millions of dollars through overseas shell companies and used the money to buy luxury cars, real estate, antiques and expensive suits, according to a New York Times report. "Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States without paying taxes on that income," the indictment reads. The authorities said Manafort laundered more than 18 million dollars, while Gates is accused of transferring more than 3 million dollars from offshore accounts. The two are also charged with making false statements. "As part of the scheme, Manafort and Gates repeatedly provided false information to financial bookkeepers, tax accountants and legal counsel, among others," the indictment read. In another development, an early foreign policy advisers to Trump's presidential campaign, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about a contact with a professor with ties to Moscow, prosecutors said on Monday. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev and Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili attend the inauguration ceremony of Baku - Tbilisi - Kars railway in Alyat, Azerbaijan, October 30, 2017. (REUTERS PHOTO) BAKU, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Top leaders of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia opened on Monday a newly built railway line which connects the three countries in Azerbaijan's capital city of Baku, linking central Asia and Europe through the Caucasus region. The opening of the 826-km Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line marks the conclusion of a 10-year project to open a rail corridor carrying cargo and passengers between the two continents. The railway line, which includes 105 km of new track, will have the capacity to annually transport 1 million passengers and 6.5 million tons of freight at the initial stage. Addressing the opening ceremony, Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev called the opening of the railway line an event of "historic and strategic significance," saying the project will play an important role in ensuring stability and security in the region. The project build the railway was launched in 2007 with an agreement between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Its completion had been postponed several times since 2011. Starting in Baku, trains will stop in the Georgian capital city of Tbilisi, pass through gauge-changing facilities in the Georgian town of Akhalkalaki and end their journey in the Turkish town of Kars before feeding into Europe beyond. The railway line is also designed to become a key part of the southern route of the emerging New Silk Road network of trade and transport corridors between China and Europe. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Kazakh Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov were also present at the opening ceremony. The official ceremony was followed by an open-air inauguration. The participating guests witnessed the first trains decorated with the flags of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Georgia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan departing from the railway station. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 04:15:37|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close HARARE, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has maintained its growth forecast for Zimbabwe of 2.8 percent in 2017, lower than the 3.7 percent projected by the government. According to the latest IMF Regional Economic Outlook Report for Sub-Saharan Africa, launched on Monday, the Zimbabwean economy is forecast to grow by 0.8 percent in 2018, below the expected average of 3.4 percent for southern Africa. Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mangudya, however, said Zimbabwe still expected the economy to expand by 3.7 percent in 2017, state-run news agency New Ziana reported. Mangudya bemoaned sanctions and continued isolation of the country by the West, saying this was impacting negatively on the country's ability to access "patient capital." Mangudya said the "smart" sanctions by the West were making it impossible for the country, which is in dire need of foreign direct investment and cheap capital, to maximize the potential of its economy. "The huge external debt compounded by Zimbabwe's isolation has made it difficult for us to secure patient capital," Mangudya said. "This economy requires patient capital for us to be able to grow and for us to get the funding we need to minimize the country risk, and minimizing country risk means we need to continue to engage," he added. Mangudya said sanctions were silently hitting the country's financial sector but were so "smart" that some Zimbabweans did not believe they existed. "You do not feel them in the streets of Zimbabwe. You feel them through the financial services sector where cross-border transactions are scrutinized much more than those for other African countries that are talking about compliance." He said the sanctions had resulted in Zimbabwean banks losing their relationship with critical global corresponding banks that facilitate international transactions. While still registering positive growth, Zimbabwe needed to be attaining higher GDP expansion levels to move in line with its ZimAsset blueprint, which targeted an average growth of 7 percent until 2018, he said. "We need to work very hard on investments and ease of doing business in Zimbabwe," he said, adding the government is committed to meeting its international obligations to such creditors as the World Bank and the African Development Bank. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 05:00:52|Editor: Mengjie Video Player Close President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani (R) speaks to the press accompanied by Tunisian President of People's Representatives Assembly Mohamed Ennaceur in Tunis, Tunisia, on Oct. 30, 2017. Antonio Tajani on Monday said the European Union (EU) will help Tunisia deal with multiple challenges it faces. He is on a two-day official visit to Tunisia, starting from Monday. (Xinhua/Adele Ezzine) TUNIS, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, on Monday said the European Union (EU) will help Tunisia deal with multiple challenges it faces. Tajani made the remarks when addressing the deputies of Tunisian parliament. The European Parliament chief is on a two-day official visit to Tunisia, starting from Monday. Tajani said "the stability of Europe would depend, in some ways, on the stability of Africa and the Mediterranean, including Tunisia, with which cooperation, including security, must be strengthened." The fight against terrorism, illegal migration and unemployment remain among the concerns shared between Tunisia and the EU, the European Parliament chief said. Tunisia "contributes remarkably in the development of relations between Europe and Africa. We will be, therefore, alongside Tunisians to the crowning of their economic and social model," the European Parliament chief said. For his part, the President of Tunisian parliament, Mohamed Ennaceur, said taking up all the challenges Tunisia faces will only be possible in the condition of a fruitful cooperation and partnership in full respect of common interests. Ennaceur also said Tunisia hopes to see Europe opens markets to Tunisian products. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 05:55:59|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close TRIPOLI, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Libya's eastern-based parliament on Monday decided to increase teachers' salaries after the General Union of Teachers in Libya started a strike in eary October that delayed the new school year, according to the Libyan News Agency. Parliament spokesman, Abdullah Blehik, said the parliament "decided in today's meeting to increase the salaries of teachers." He added that the parliament decided to form a committee to assess the amount of the increase by the end of November. The General Union of Teachers in Libya earlier in October decided to stop teaching in all educational institutions from primary to high schools across the country in protest until their demands are met. The Union demands increase of salaries for teachers, providing them and their families with health insurance, and introducing educational training programs for teachers. Tripoli-based UN-backed Government of National Accord decided two week ago to increase salaries of teachers. However, the strike continues. Libya is politically divided between an eastern government and a western one, thus having two ministries of education. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 06:06:03|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close RABAT, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- A regional meeting on migration opened in the Moroccan city of Skhirat with the aim to elaborate an African agenda on the issue. The three-day meeting brings together representatives of African states, the United Nations, the African Union, NGOs and academics. Speaking during the opening of the meeting, Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita said the informal session aims to open a deep dialogue between the politician, the experts and the civil society. Since March, Morocco's king Mohammed VI has been in charge of coordinating the migration issue within the African Union. In his speech addressed to the 29th AU Summit last July, the Moroccan king stressed the need for African states to work together to develop an African Agenda on migration question that includes a common vision. The meeting is expected to be the first step in developing the promised African Agenda on migration. Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 06:21:08|Editor: huaxia Video Player Close GAZA -- Seven militants were killed and ten injured after the Israeli army bombarded on Monday a tunnel underneath the borders between southeast Gaza Strip and Israel, medics and security sources said. Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of Gaza health ministry, told reporters that seven Palestinians were killed and ten injured, after the Israeli army bombed an area southeast of the Gaza Strip, close to the borders with Israel. (Gaza-Blast) - - - - MANAMA -- Qatar's membership in the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) should be frozen until it meets the demands of the Arab Quartet, a top Bahrain official said Monday. This was highlighted on Monday by Bahrain's Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, who in a series of posts on his Twitter account called for Doha to leave the GCC bloc or meet the demands set by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Egypt. (Bahrain-Qatar-GCC) - - - - TEHRAN -- Top Iranian military commander said Monday that his country will remove border restrictions with Iraqi autonomous Kurdistan region, Press TV reported. "Border restrictions between Iran and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region will be lifted soon and within the next few days," the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Baqeri said. (Iran-Iraqi Kurdistan) - - - - TEHRAN -- Iran unveiled advanced homegrown radar system on Monday which is able to track vessels as well as aerial targets, Tasnim news agency reported. The advanced radar system named "Afaq" (horizons) was put on display during a ceremony on Monday with Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami in attendance. (Iran-Radar) Enditem Source: Xinhua| 2017-10-31 06:26:09|Editor: Mu Xuequan Video Player Close HAVANA, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- The 35th Havana International Trade Fair (FIHAV 2017) on Monday opened up with the presence of 3,400 businesses and exhibitors from 70 countries in Havana's quest to attract foreign investment and diversify its economy which currently faces "financial limitations." "Cuba faces short-term financial limitations but the high participation of businessmen, official delegations and exhibitors in this fair once more shows the interest of the international community to do business with our country," said Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, at the event's inauguration. Malmierca said Cuba has continued paying its international debts but lately the country hasn't been able to do so in time due to "financial constraints." "Cuba ratifies its will to pay its international partners and redouble its efforts to continue advancing in its economic model," he said. He also referred to the recent setback in relations with the U.S. and said the economic decisions announced by President Donald Trump in June only benefit a minority. "The decisions of the president of the United States ignore the interests of large sectors of that nation, particularly the business community," he said. Trump announced in a speech in Miami in June that he would roll back his predecessor's historic opening-up, including banning business ties with Cuba's state institutions linked with the military, particularly in the tourism sector. Malmierca highlighted that since last year's fair, an important number of foreign investment projects have been approved in renewable energies, tourism, construction, oil exploration and food industry. "During this year, we have approved foreign investment projects for around 2 billion U.S. dollars and new endeavors should be approved before the year ends. This is a sign that Cuba continues to be an attractive business destination," he added. The Cuban official said FIHAV is consolidated as one of the most important trade fairs and business exchanges events in Latin America and in this edition the countries most represented are the country's top commercial partners. "We have a great representation from Venezuela, Russia, China and Spain, the latter the most represented with five pavilions. Those are our top trading partners and each year their presence grows in this event," he added. The fair will host the second edition of the Cuban business opportunity forum, an event which will be inaugurated by Malmierca on Tuesday and aims to provide businessmen with information about foreign investment in the country and networking with local partners. At the event, Cuba showcases its goods and services in a pavilion that brings together more than 300 companies and entities from all economic sectors, including the Mariel Special Development Zone, the government's flagship project to attract foreign capital. A new law on foreign investment was approved in 2014 by Cuba's parliament which provides a favorable economic and investment environment for companies to set up joint ventures in the country. The week-long event will feature business meetings, presentations and roundtables where companies from all over the world will seek to make deals with Cuban firms and other nations. China, which in 2016 became Cuba's top trading partner, will have a showcase presentation of its pavilion on Tuesday, an event at which top Cuban government officials are expected. The Cuba-China joint business committee will hold its annual meeting on Thursday in the framework of the trade fair. PM Modi offers prayers at Manjunatha Swamy Temple at Dharmasthala; addresses public meeting in Ujire Dharmasthala, Mon, 30 Oct 2017 NI Wire The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, yesterday arrived in Mangaluru on the first leg of his visit to Karnataka. He proceeded to Dharmasthala, where he offered prayers at Manjunatha Swamy Temple. At a public meeting at Ujire, the Prime Minister distributed RuPay cards to Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana account holders. He unveiled a logo to mark the launch of "Preserve Mother Earth, and Transfer to Next Generation" programme. Addressing the gathering, he expressed happiness at the opportunity to pray to Lord Manjunatha. He said that the current century is about skill development. India is a youthful nation, and hence, we must harness our demographic dividend, he added. Our saints and seers created as well as nurtured institutions which have helped society for centuries, the Prime Minister said. Speaking about the opportunity to hand over RuPay cards to women Self Help Groups, the Prime Minister said that he is happy to see enthusiasm towards digital transactions. He urged people to use the Bhim App and embrace cashless transactions. This is the era of honesty and integrity; there is no place for those who cheat the system, the Prime Minister said. The Prime Minister said that every rupee, and every resource from the Government of India is devoted for the welfare of Indians. We are ensuring that the fruits of development reach the intended beneficiaries without any scope of corruption, he added. Narendra Modi said that conservation of water is a major challenge for us in this day and age. We also need to give importance towards living in harmony with nature and not think about short term gains, he added. He called upon the farmers of Karnataka to embrace methods like drip irrigation that help conserve water. Source: PIB Share China is moving full steam ahead when it comes to the 5G train. It was announced that the first global 5G standard will be introduced in June of 2018. China is also hoping to introduce its 5G prototype products during the same timeframe. The news was released during a press conference held last week in Beijing, where Wen Ku, director of the telecom department, said the second phase of Chinas 5G testing program will be completed by the end of this year. The third round will start at the beginning of the new year. China is one of the first countries to promote 5G testing. In 2013, it established the IMT-2020 (5G) development group. Paula Bernier discussed how the country will lead with 5G subscribers, according to analysts at CCS Insights. We see China playing a far more influential role in 5G than it did in 4G. Size, scale and economic growth give China an obvious head start. But we expect network deployments to be much faster than in the early days of 4G, said Marina Koytcheva, analyst and VP of forecasting at CCS Insight (News - Alert). China will dominate 5G, thanks to its political ambition to lead technology development, the inexorable rise of local manufacturer Huawei and the breakneck speed at which consumers have upgraded to 4G connections in the recent past. The 5G standard is expected to be the main force of Chinas economic development and transformation, where commercialization of 5G mobile networks is expected by 2020. This will provide more efficient connectivity and lower energy consumption. To complete its further planned testing, 15 stations have been built in Huairou District in Beijing by companies such as Huawei (News - Alert) and ZTE. Edited by Erik Linask Niamey has had enough with Algerias ill treatment of Nigerien nationals, after 950 of them were summarily deported last week to Nigers borders. As Algeria turns a deaf ear to the calls by international rights NGOs to halt the inhumane treatment of Sub-Saharan migrants, Nigers Foreign Minisiter Ibrahim Yacoubou officially expressed his countrys concern over the surge in the numbers who were forcibly expelled by Algeria and abandoned on the borders in harsh conditions. Over 20,000 Nigeriens were kicked out of Algeria in four yearsthis is a major concern for us, said Yacoubou, voicing hope to see Algeria cooperate with Niger on the migration issue. Nigers protests at the inhumane treatment suffered by its nationals in Algeria is a reaction to the black man-hunt launched by Algerian authorities, which are surfing on a wave of anti-migrant populism espoused by senior political figures in the country. Algeria is on the verge of moral bankruptcy as it continues to vent the sluggish economic growth on poor Sub-Saharans, most of whom have fled poverty and conflict in their home countries to look for work in Algeria or seek transit to Europe via neighboring Libya Last week, Amnesty International denounced the racial and discriminatory crackdown launched by Algerian authorities against sub-Saharan migrants, rounding up and forcibly expelling more than 2,000 of them to Niger and Mali over the past three weeks. Amnesty International deplored that Algerian authorities proceeded to arbitrary arrests on a basis of racial profiling, as they did not seek to ascertain whether the migrants had the right to stay in the country, either by checking their passports or other documents. Some of those arrested and deported are undocumented migrants, while others have valid visas. Algerian authorities went too far in their discrimination against Sub-Saharans who were banned from using buses and taxis, in a move that prompts the worst fears of human rights activists. Last July, Ahmed Ouyahya, who is now the current Prime Minister, shamefully endorsed the crackdown on migrants, uttering heinous remarks when he described Sub-Saharans in Algeria as a source of crime, drugs and other calamities. Surfing on a tide of shauvinism, Ouyahya refused to consider migration from a human rights perspective, saying in a hostile and defying tone that the matter is part of the states sovereignty and that These people (migrants) are on Algerian territories illegally. He went on in his racist comments, saying that the State should protect Algerians from anarchy by imposing strict rules on these people (migrants). In the same vein, Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel accused Sub-Saharan migrants of involvement in crime and drug trafficking. Nurturing fear and hate towards migrants seems to be a state policy in Algeria in an attempt to ignite nationalist fervor at times of financial crisis. Strikingly, last year, presidential advisor and surprisingly Head of Algerias human rights commission Farouk Ksentini who is supposed to defend human rights as they are universally recognized, made scandalous statements, bluntly accusing sub-Saharans of spreading HIV and diseases in Algeria. It is no wonder then that a large segment of Algerian society is following suit, spreading hate on social media. Recently, a Twitter hashtag #cleaning Africans off Algerian cities was launched by local anti-migrant activists. Besides Amnesty International, Algeria is rebuked in several international human rights reports for its ill-treatment of Sub-Saharan migrants as it continues its mass expulsions of these migrants and asylum seekers whose protection is an obligation for Algeria under the 1951 Geneva Convention. Boom. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images Donald Trump had no idea what just hit him. Just as the president was screaming on Twitter that he or his campaign hadnt colluded with the Russians, Robert Mueller, the special counsel appointed to be the judge of such things, unsealed a criminal case against George Papadopoulos, who has already pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI for attempting to collude with the Russians. According to his plea agreement, which Mueller and team quietly made him sign earlier this month, he faces up to six months in prison for the offense. And all of this was on top of Mondays early-morning news that Paul Manafort, Trumps former campaign manager, had just been publicly charged as the first high-profile target of Muellers investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort aide Rick Gates was also indicted. But by every objective measure, Papadopoulos, minor actor though he seems to be, is the biggest bombshell of Mondays revelations and Muellers first major signal of what hes been up to since his appointment last May. For one, the acts that gave rise to Papadopouloss conviction arose and were investigated by the FBI before Mueller was tapped to lead the probe into links between the Trump campaign and Moscow which undercuts Trumps repeated claims that the special counsel is on a witch hunt and that collusion never occurred. Here, one caveat is in order: As much as the word has taken on a life of its own in the imagination of the #resistance, Papadopouloss crime wasnt collusion with the Russians. Collusion continues to be a quasi-legal term that isnt exactly punishable under federal law except to the extent that the misdeeds in question amount to campaign-finance violations or criminal conspiracies. With that out of the way, it is impossible not to conclude, after reading about the conduct over which Mueller nailed Papadopoulos, that the Trump campaign aide, whose title was foreign-policy adviser, was trying hard to cozy up to the Russians. And to procure from them something that Trump himself repeatedly obsessed over: any and all hacked emails relating to Hillary Clinton and her campaign. George Papadopoulos Photo: LinkedIn From the statement of the offense that Mueller filed in federal court in Washington today that is, the facts underlying Papadopouloss guilty plea we find that FBI agents met with Papadopoulos and caught him lying about his contacts with a Russian-connected professor who claimed to have dirt and thousands of emails related to Hillary Clinton. (The Washington Post reports that the professor is Joseph Mifsud, director of the London Academy of Diplomacy.) It turns out that back in March 2016, Papadopoulos met this professor in Italy, where Papadopoulos disclosed that he was set to become a foreign-policy adviser to the campaign. The professor, for his part, took great interest in Papadopoulos and claimed to have substantial connections with Russian government officials, which in turn would only increase the aides profile in Trumps orbit. Indeed, over the next several months, Papadopouloss persistence in wanting to become friendly with this professor and a female Russian national, both of whom remain unidentified in court filings, led him to connect with the upper reaches of the Russian foreign ministry all in hopes of setting up a bilateral meeting between Trump and Vladimir Putin. Papadopoulos quickly took advantage of his new acquaintances, such that during a March 31, 2016, meeting to discuss national-security policy with the campaign, he in sum and substance, according to Muellers prosecutors, boasted to Trump and others gathered for the occasion that he could hook up a meeting between the then-candidate and Putin. The Russian government has an open invitation by Putin for Mr. Trump to meet him when he is ready, he emailed the campaign in late April. In a follow-up meeting that same month with the professor, the latter told him about the dirt he had on Clinton, namely, the thousands of emails that could prove damaging to her campaign. (Of note: The batch of John Podesta emails obtained by WikiLeaks were hacked in March.) The problems began for Papadopoulos when the FBI learned of these exchanges and then asked him about it. All along, the campaign aide downplayed these contacts and said they happened before he joined the campaign. A trove of emails the FBI got ahold of told a different story. And Papadopoulos only made things worse for himself when, following a second interview with the FBI, he proceeded to delete his Facebook account where he seemed to brag about his Russian contacts and changed his cell-phone number, presumably to hide whatever digital trail he may have left. Thats only the information thats public. In the plea agreement Mueller reached with Papadopouloss lawyers, theres an expectation that his sentencing will be put off for as long as he also cooperates with the government: Your client also agrees that the sentencing in this case may be delayed until your clients efforts to cooperate have been completed, as determined by the Government, so that the Court will have the benefit of all relevant information before a sentence is imposed. In addition, as USA Todays Brad Heath rightly notes, though Papadopoulos was convicted in early October, he was arrested and charged in July. As one of the documents unsealed in court today makes clear, the former campaign aide, who by then had already done enough to merit a federal charge, met with the Government on numerous occasions to provide information and answer questions. Theres absolutely no telling what this information is, or what kind of perjury traps Papadopoulos may have helped Muellers team put down for other fact witnesses or subjects who may be familiar with the aides Russian involvement. Needless to say, some of them now may be wondering if they have been completely forthcoming with Mueller. And if they havent spoken to him yet, they may be thinking long and hard about how much they are willing to spin or distort the facts. All that to say: The special counsel delivered. He has only taken a couple of public steps in the sprawling Russia investigation for instance, theres nothing yet on whether Trump may have obstructed justice in his firing of James Comey but each was potent and deliberate enough to signify that, all along, he wouldnt succumb to pressure or give away his game ahead of time. For all we know, hes only getting started. Somebody to watch over me. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images The Republican Party has sent mixed signals for months about how it plans to respond to Robert Muellers investigation of the Russia scandal President Trumps ragetweets have been alternating with silence, and his Congressional allies have mostly urged patience. But in the days leading up to the first arrests, beginning today with former campaign manager Paul Manafort, the signals have changed, and the dashboard is now flashing red. The party apparatus is gearing up for a frontal attack on Mueller in particular, and the idea that a president can be held legally accountable in general. The Republican Congress is using its investigative apparatus not to discover the extent of Russian interference in the election, but instead to lash out at Trumps political opponents. The Republicans have developed a bizarre theory of alt-collusion, which holds that the real interference was Russia feeding false allegations against Donald Trump to private investigator Christopher Steele. Since the FBI investigated Steeles charges, the FBI is the agency that colluded. And since Robert Mueller is close with the FBI, Mueller, too, is tainted. The Wall Street Journal editorial page has been serving as a barely filtered outlet for this line of attack from Republicans in Congress. The page has called for Mueller to resign, and other Republican media outlets spent the weekend amplifying this message. In todays Journal op-ed page, two Republican former Department of Justice staffers, David Rivkin and Lee Casey, who frequently pop up in the media to defend party-line arguments, take the argument to its next step. They urge Trump to issue sweeping pardons to everybody involved in the scandal, himself included, so as to hopefully neuter Muellers investigation. And would it be an overreach of sorts for Trump to quash an investigation into himself and his cronies? No, they argue. Indeed, they insist he can halt any investigation he likes: A president cannot obstruct justice through the exercise of his constitutional and discretionary authority over executive-branch officials like Mr. Comey. If a president can be held to account for obstruction of justice by ending an investigation or firing a prosecutor or law-enforcement official an authority the constitution vests in him as chief executive then one of the presidencys most formidable powers is transferred from an elected, accountable official to unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats and judges. Consider the breathtaking scope of this claim. They argue that the president can order any prosecutor or law-enforcement official to halt any investigation or criminal proceeding. What if the president hired some goons to break into and bug the opposing partys headquarters? He could order the Department of Justice and FBI not to investigate and fire them if they did. What if he hired some goons to beat up or kill reporters or the opposing party? Same answer. The president, they argue, has unlimited right to protect himself and his allies from law enforcement as he sees fit. Rivkin has previously defended Trumps occasional demands that his 2016 opponent be locked up for various and largely imagined misdeeds. When Trump demanded in July that Congress and the Attorney General prosecute Crooked Hillary, Rivkin told the New York Times that the notion has some real merit. As a policy matter, I wouldve said a few months ago that it was a bad idea, he said at the time, But with whats going on in the Russia investigation, I am not sure that this is true anymore. In July, when Trump was calling for the prosecution of Clinton, he was also insisting he had the complete power to pardon himself or anybody else. The two courses of action neutering investigations into himself, and ordering them against Democrats seem to be linked in Trumps lizard brain. House Republicans appear to be intent on generating investigations against Clinton and the Obama administration in pursuit of their spurious alt-collusion conspiracy. (One strand of this plan is a fixation with an insignificant deal to sell non-weapons-grade uranium, with which Clinton had a tangential role.) This probe of the Democratic Partys Russian dalliance has a long, long way to go, reports Kimberley Strassel, the Wall Street Journal columnist and Congressional Republican message conduit. The endgame for this strategy will be to demand the news media treat both investigations as equally legitimate. Then Trump can magnanimously declare that both of them are in the past and both should be ended. The blessing of the Journal editorial page has enormous political significance. It is hardly out of character for the Journal to endorse abuse of the law for partisan ends. It spent the 1980s railing against the existence of any independent counsel, but once Democrats won the White House, the page flipped and began demanding prosecution of the Clintons for a wide array of crimes that included, the Journal believed, running a cocaine-smuggling ring and systematically murdering their opponents. The Journal editorial page has been insane for decades. But it also represents the partys financial and political elite. Republicans in Washington call the page the Paul Street Journal for its eerie tendency to align with the positions of Paul Ryan. Ryan, of course, is tacitly allowing his chambers investigative bodies to run point for Trump. The systematic elimination of any source of intra-party dissent has been one of the significant developments of recent weeks. Steve Bannons plans to purge the party have little ideological coherence, but (I have argued) are easily understood as an effort to cleanse its ranks of any members who might be inclined to uphold the rule of law at Trumps expense. At this point, the idea that Ryan would call off his partys Congressional attack dogs, or hold Trump accountable for grotesque illegality, is little more than a punch line. We are watching an important marker in the GOPs slow metamorphoses into an authoritarian party. Papadopoulos, second from left. Photo: @realdonaldtrump/Instagram George Papadopoulos, a former campaign aide to President Trump, pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents about exchanges involving Kremlin-linked Russians and Hillary Clintons emails, the Special Counsels Office announced on Monday morning. Unlike the indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, which were revealed earlier, the case of Papadopoulos has direct ties to the 2016 election, and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to influence it. During the 2016 campaign, Papadopoulos was in contact with a Russian professor whom he believed had close ties to the Kremlin. Papadopoulos told prosecutors that the man promised dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. In a significant detail, the offer took place in the midst of the hacking of Democratic National Committee emails months before those efforts were made public. Papadoupoulos admits was told Russians had "thousands of emails" in April 2016 The DNC emails leaked in July 2016. The Podesta emails in Oct. 2016. https://t.co/KlCoiI3LUx pic.twitter.com/aMSj6r3Ydl Peter W. Singer (@peterwsinger) October 30, 2017 Papadopoulos lied to investigators when he claimed that he thought the man was unconnected to the Russian government. The professor introduced Papadopoulos to a woman claiming, apparently falsely, to be a relative of Vladimir Putin. Using his connections, Papadopoulos attempted to set up a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Wow. "PAPADOPOULOS emailed the High Ranking Campaign Official, with the subject line "New message from Russia"... pic.twitter.com/XEU9j1r0m9 Pema Levy (@pemalevy) October 30, 2017 The newly revealed email element of Papadopouloss story is perhaps the clearest sign yet that at least some sectors of the Trump campaign sought to work directly with Russians to try to sway the U.S. election against Hillary Clinton. But whether such activities extended higher up on the Trump campaign ladder is unclear. More-senior officials turned down the Russia meetings Papadopoulos proposed, and the Washington Post reported in August that his continuing efforts on that front were met with more concern than excitement. Papadopoulos, who worked on Trumps foreign-policy team during the campaign, was arrested in July and made the plea on October 5, according to the Associated Press. The guilty plea appears to be a sign that Papadopoulos is cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller an ominous development for the Trump administration. Gates and Trump at the Republican National Convention in 2016. Photo: Evan Vucci/AP On Monday morning, Special Counsel Robert Mueller issued the first indictments in his probe exploring Russian interference in the 2016 election, sticking Paul Manafort and Rick Gates with several serious charges, including money laundering and tax fraud. Manafort was Trumps campaign manager for a good chunk of 2016, and has long been reported to be in Muellers crosshairs. But who is Rick Gates? Accounts paint a picture of a political operative who was all but attached at the hip to Manafort, working side by side with him as a consultant on many of the foreign transactions for which Manafort has become notorious. The New York Times reported in June that as investigators examine Mr. Manaforts financial and political dealings at home and abroad, they are likely to run into Mr. Gates wherever they look. The 45-year-old, who started out as an intern at Manaforts law firm almost 30 years ago, collaborated closely with Manafort in Ukraine, where the pair worked to polish the image of the pro-Russian president Viktor F. Yanukovych, who was eventually driven from power. Manafort and Gates had deep financial ties with Yanukovych and a series of oligarchs in Russia and Eastern Europe, setting up a number of shell companies in Cyprus that would profit from the fruits of their pro-market political work. Murky financial transactions involving those companies are at the heart of Mondays indictments, which allege that Gates transferred more than $3 million from offshore accounts, among other offenses. When Manafort was recruited by the Trump campaign in March 2016 to help keep renegade delegates in line, he brought Gates with him. Gates became an important player on the campaign, striking up a friendship with Reince Priebus and managing many of the anodyne responsibilities of a political operation. Manafort became a liability for the Trump campaign after it was revealed that he had accepted massive payments from Yanukovych, and he resigned as campaign chairman in August 2016. But Gates managed to stick around the presidents orbit. He landed a job at the Republican National Committee involving Trump campaign fundraising. After the election, he was recruited by Tom Barrack, a wealthy real-estate investor and confidant of President Trump, to help run the inauguration. He then joined, and raised prodigious amounts of money for, a pro-Trump group called America First Policies, but was let go in March amid further reports about Manaforts shady dealings in Ukraine. And yet, in June, the Daily Beast reported that even as Manafort had been fatally tarnished by the Mueller investigation, Gates had managed to wedge himself back into Trump-world even though the president did not like him personally, considering him a hanger-on. (Inadvertently underlining that point, Trump for weeks confused him with another Rick.) Regardless of whether Trump could tolerate him, Gates found an important ally in Barrack. Post-inauguration, Barrack hired Gates as director of the Washington office of his Colony NorthStar company allowing Gates to continue to wield influence in the capital despite his dubious past. But on Monday, it appears that his wily political maneuvering may have finally hit a wall. MasterCard foundation in partnership with Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) Uganda has launched a scholarship programme to help needy but brilliant students join higher institutions of learning. Dubbed Higher Education Access Programme (HEAPS), the eight-year initiative estimated to cost $10m (Shs 36bn) will provide 100 bursaries annually. According to Prof Christine Dranzoa, a board member at FAWE-Uganda, the bursaries specifically target successful S6 leavers who are unable to join universities on government or private sponsorship. Some of the beneficiaries of the MasterCard scholarship programmes The bursaries will cover whatever a student needs until he/she completes the course. We are looking at at least 300 beneficiaries from ages 18 to 25 years throughout the entire programme to undertake degree and diploma courses, Dranzoa said during the launch of the programme at Imperial Royale hotel last week. Of the 300 students, 70 per cent of the slots are reserved for female students and 30 per cent for males to pursue science programmes in areas of agriculture, medicine and education. The minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Elioda Tumwesigye, commended MasterCard and FAWE for targeting science courses, saying it is in line with governments policy of prioritizing science education. As government, we are grateful to educate our children because Ugandas population is growing at a very fast rate and sometimes the government is overwhelmed by the increasing number of students who need assistance, Tumwesigye said, urging students to concentrate on their studies upon enrolment. The Heap programme beneficiaries will be selected from Adjumani, Amudat, Amuru, Kaabong, Pader, Bukwo, Buliisa, and Buyende districts. Others are Katakwi, Mayuge, Bundibugyo, Kanungu and Ntoroko. FAWE Uganda executive director Christine Semambo Sempebwa said students from historically and structurally marginalized communities face immense barriers in enrolling for higher education. We selected those districts in particular because geographically, the Northern, Eastern and some parts of Western Uganda have been the most negatively affected regions, with more girls left behind in higher learning, Sempebwa said. She added that marginalization in the districts is occasioned by a myriad of factors including poverty, limited exposure of students to higher education, and inadequate education facilities. As a result, most students do not perform to the best of their abilities and, therefore, obtain lower grades than they would have had if they had been exposed to good learning environments, she said. Successful applicants will join education institutions like Mbarara university of Science and Technology (MUST), Gulu and Busitema Universities, Jinja School of Nursing and Midwifery, and Medical Laboratory Training School that have been selected to implement the programme. Sempebwa encouraged students who will complete their courses to serve in their communities and improve lives of other needy people. Meanwhile, Peter Materu, the director of education, learning and youth livelihood at MasterCard foundation, said they will also provide psycho-social support and facilitate pathways to students internships, industrial trainings and employment. justuslyatuu08@gmail.com In November, ALEX KAKOOZA will mark one year in the job of permanent secretary, ministry of Education and Sports. He talked to Yudaya Nangonzi about his view of the sector. You are almost a year in this office. What have you achieved so far? We have made some modest achievements. First, we are moving as a team together with the political leadership headed by our minister, state ministers and technical staff all focused on delivering quality education. Alex Kakooza One of our main achievements is filling positions at the ministry headquarters. A number of positions for heads of departments and directors were not filled and people were in acting positions. Most, if not all, have now been substantively filled. By the time I came in, we did not have a sector plan but we have got the education sector strategic plan that has been approved by the National Planning Authority. This framework is guiding whatever we are doing. When I joined, we had a few projects with challenges like the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) support to the Uganda Teacher and School Effectiveness Project (UTSEP). Then, we had a deadline of December 21, 2016 to sign contracts for 55 schools or cancel the entire project but we managed to achieve that. At least 83 more schools were also constructed on schedule. Other projects funded by the World Bank also had challenges but through teamwork, we achieved this. I am glad to say that World Bank is ready to give us other projects that they had halted. What are these projects? These halted projects are so crucial to the success of the sector that we cannot afford to lose them again. Among them is construction of more secondary schools and ensuring that delivery in those schools is much better. We have started the discussions and they are willing to give us more funds. What pressing issues in your office would you have wanted addressed in your first year? One of the things we have not realized this year is recruitment of teachers in secondary schools; instructors both in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions and teacher training colleges. This will now form part of our priority for next financial year. You know the challenges of the sector are so many. We would love to reach all schools through inspections to see whether our teachers are teaching, and with the right content. Recently, a report came out that we are doing poorly in terms of teacher presence. We still have issues of infrastructure yet learners need classrooms that are much better. We also need to sensitise parents that education is a shared responsibility most especially when it comes to feeding children. There are so many things that I would want to do but you cant do them immediately. For now, we have built a foundation to get us started next year. Your entry came at a time when championing the Skilling Uganda initiative was at its peak. What has been your contribution? Any challenges? Skilling Uganda was launched in 2012 to address the skills gap in the country. However, a few things were implemented though it had some major outlook of restructuring TVET. Donors were saying this initiative had stalled while other people thought it should not take off. So, we have gone through a lot of discussions, waiting, and negotiations. We had our last consultative meeting recently about the creation of the TVET council and managed to convince everybody because government is rethinking creation of authorities. The council will be demand-driven and led by the private sector but below it, we shall have skills councils for each subsector that will determine the hands-on skills required for the various fields like agriculture, manufacturing and oil and gas. At the end of it all, we want people who will go out immediately and start working both in the formal and informal sectors. Will the education ministry have funds to run the skills subsector councils? The TVET council will be affiliated to the ministry although we want it to be a semi-autonomous body because that is how the private sector wants it. Under the council, there will be a skills development fund in the secretariat that manages accreditation and standards. That fund will be contributed to by the private sector, donors and government. So, these subsector skills councils, based on their annual plans, will advise on how the money should be utilised. This issue has gone through a very long process but we are finally there. There were plans to construct an early childhood development (ECD) center at every government school. How far with this project? Government supports ECD but for now, we decided that delivery will be by the private sector. Our work is to set policies now and ensure that caregivers in these centres are trained, a programme also supported under GPE. Government is not yet ready to construct the ECD centres because we are still focusing on primary and secondary education. You instituted a committee to investigate school fees charges in various education institutions. Any progress made by the committee? The ministry has taken some time working on fees guidelines but we are doing our best to have everything done this year. The school fees review committee led by Prof Frederick Kayanja submitted its report and made several recommendations. We have put in place a team headed by the director, Basic and Secondary Education, Robinson Nsumba-Lyazi, to ease out the implementation plan and guidelines of their recommendations so that we publicise this report before schools break off for third term holidays. Parents and schools will get a comprehensive report that will give clear guidelines on school fees. Several schools have complained of delays in remitting capitation grants to Universal Primary Education schools. Is there any provision to increase on the current Shs 10,000 given per child, per year? Those delays are basically on local governments because the ministry of Finance normally sends this money to their accounts in time. Sometimes, accounting officers also delay to prepare warrants for the grants. On the other hand, if a school has been in one jurisdiction and in the next financial year it is in another location with the creation of new districts, it also creates a lot of confusion in transferring the money. We have talked to our counterparts in the local government to ensure that they always send the money in time. On increasing the grants, you know the budget of the sector is still very low; currently at Shs 2.5 trillion. We also understand that the capitation grants sent to these schools are inadequate but they will increase over time. At one time, we thought the grants would go to Shs 12,000 per child per year but it has not yet been possible because of budget constraints. Recently, parliament backed the ministrys move to close illegal schools. What is being done to ensure local government leaders implement this directive some of them are still open. We have written reminders to local governments and again requested them to ensure that schools that do not comply get closed. We were happy with the decision of parliament to back us because initially, they had stopped us. We will continue to close all illegal schools but as well encourage people who do the certification of schools to do their work faster and give responses to proprietors. When one applies and they are not given feedback, it forces people to open unlicensed structures. Next year, we promise to have much better inspectorate services. What should we expect in your second year of office? Now that we shall have completed the institutional framework for skilling Uganda, we intend to move faster and implement this initiative. Our focus will strictly be on skilling people. Also, in May this year, 14 African countries met in Nairobi to ensure that all children in the same generation get the same quality of education. We are going to ensure that whatever was discussed is followed like delivering education under different methodologies that give big results now. This calls for prioritization, commitment and accountability from the sector in order to get maximum outputs. nangonzi@observer.ug Village or town, the vulnerability and challenges of the girl child in developing countries are the same. The abuses and the abusers are similar too. And for Kyenjojo schoolgirls, the abusers are their own teachers and boda boda cyclists. The latter group not only woos girls with money and impregnates the willing ones, but also goes an extra mile to assault the unwilling. For every 100 girls in the western Kyenjojo district, at least 25 have been sexually abused not by a stranger, but by someone they know. The 2014 census by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics (Ubos) showed that nine per cent of all children aged between 12 and 17 years in Kyenjonjo have had a baby. Students in Kyenjojo debating issues affecting them Willing girls or not, adults must exercise maturity and stop sexually abusing young girls, says Beatrice Bisangwa, the executive director of the Organisation of African First Ladies Against HIV/Aids Ugandan chapter (OFLA-Uganda). We are almost at a level of a crisis. You talk to some of the teachers and they tell you the girl is the one who seduced me. Even if she seduces you, you are supposed to act mature. She may genuinely have a crush on you but you are better. Dont take advantage of her, Bisangwa says. Christine Kabarangira, a senior six student at Kyenjojo High School, knows that sexual harassment affects ones academic performance and wants parents to be more protective. Many parents enjoy money; they are greedy. Even when you are abused, they get money from the abuser and he walks away scot-free to abuse you more or another girl, Kabarangira says. Boda boda men throw words at girls like I love you baby girl and when you refuse, that is when they start abusing you. They abuse your physical looks and make you feel worthless. To make it worse, they are at the routes that we use to go to school every day. Considering that only 28 per cent of households in Uganda have a school within a one-kilometer radius, one can only imagine the torment that these girls go through every day. Parents are taking part in these things by siding with the offenders. They are paid money by the offenders, said Judith Kebirungi, a senior two student at the same school. Bisangwa says such stories surely reach and eventually overwhelm First Lady and Education minister Janet Museveni. In fact they are wearing her down. She even looks older than her age and even doesnt know what to do, Bisangwa says. Indeed, seemingly disturbed by the damning statistics, Ms Museveni did not mince words during the recent celebrations to mark the International Day of the Girl Child. While addressing a stakeholders meeting organized and facilitated by Unicef in Kyenjonjo, Ms Museveni attacked civil society, teachers, parents, police, and the judiciary for failing to protect the girl child against abuses. I want the adults seated here to visualise in their own minds a girl child and think about her and the dangers surrounding her. The insecurity that they have of every man they meet, Ms Museveni told stakeholders from the districts of Kyenjonjo, Kiryandongo, Kibaale, Kasese and Hoima. The girls really live with hopelessness, because if your own father negotiates with the abuser, the man who abused or raped you, what hope do you have? I want you to think about what these children go through. She added that it was absurd that the girls are even abused from their own homes by their own relatives and nobody is there to rescue them, including state institutions such as police and the judiciary. Now these boda boda men have become a problem on their own, Ms Museveni said. RIGHTS Vs RESPONSIBILITIES Contrary to the widespread perception that childrens rights are imported from the West, rights are inherent, according to Betty Byanyima, a consultant with OFLA-Uganda. No government is giving the children rights; government only comes in when those children [cant] exercise those rights, Byanyima said. Were not saying children must decide [what to do] but they must also be allowed to exercise their opinion. The students pose for a group photo after the workshop She, however, emphasized that childrens rights go with responsibilities such as accessing material and doing things that are age-appropriate. Participants agreed that the existent moral decadence of the young generation should be blamed on parents and the society at large who have absconded from their parenting duties. They called for the old culture of communally raising a child to be revived. For Alice Kabajoji, a teacher in Rukungiri, state structures are set up to fail children from the onset given that police stations dont have jail options for juvenile offenders. CONSTANT DIALOGUE At the meeting, cultural and religious leaders pledged to establish bi-annual dialogues between leaders and girls. They also agreed to review and amend abusive cultural practices by February 2018. The district leadership also pledged to prioritise adolescent issues, and address corruption in the justice system. The district will also collect data regarding adolescents on a quarterly basis for better planning. fkisakye@observer.ug Education minister Janet Museveni has called for the expedition of plans to form a skills development council if Uganda is to compete successfully within economies of the East African region and beyond. Ms Museveni said while government has for the last two decades implemented various reforms in the education sector, many youths have accessed basic education but lack necessary skills required by the labour market. To this effect, revitalization of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system was embarked on and needs to be carried forward, Ms Museveni said while presiding over a consultative meeting on the formation of the TVET council held recently at Hotel Africana. Our countrys Vision 2040 has also identified TVET as one of the leading sub-sectors that we must embrace to drive our economy towards attainment of a middle-income status. Education minister Janet Museveni In 2012, President Museveni launched the business, technical and vocational education and training (Btvet) strategic plan 2012-2022 aimed at creating employable skills and competencies relevant to the labour market rather than educational certificates as was before. The Btvet plan recommended the establishment of an autonomous integrated organisation in form of a TVET council but the project had stalled. Ms Museveni said a lot of consultations have already taken place with stakeholders and it is time to get started. It is important that employers [both in public and private] determine the kind of skills required to build a competent workforce for the world of work. There is no doubt that such approach will increase productivity as well as competitiveness for economic growth, she said. Her views were backed by the Belgian ambassador, Hugo Verbist, also chair of the Education Development Partners Group (EDP). Verbist said Ugandas private sector will not expand if the local workforce lacks technical skills and flexibility to adapt to an ever-changing and demanding working environment. Moreover, creating higher employment levels will be crucial to absorb the existing workforce and battle impoverishment. The role of the TVET council comes in handy with regards to preparing young people for employment, Verbist said. He however, said that as formation of the TVET council takes shape, it will be important for it not to excessively depend on the education ministry as it might compromise independence. The Skilling Uganda strategy requires employers to be in the drivers seat of the skills development process and this must be upheld for the success of the council, he said. TVET COUNCIL To kick-start the TVET council, government needs at least Shs 4bn to cover annual running costs and another Shs 2 trillion to fund formal and informal skills development in the country over the next nine years. According to the ministry of education permanent secretary, Alex Kakooza, the council will be made up of no more than 13 members including officials from ministries of Education, Gender and Finance, workers organisations, major employers of various sectors and the Private Sector Foundation Uganda. The chairperson of the council will be selected through a competitive process and must be a prominent champion for skills development in the country and appointed by the president, Kakooza said. Alex Kakooza, education ministry permanent secretary Members will also be tasked to align skills development with national economic and social priorities as well as aspirations of learners. At school level, the council will give primary and secondary students basic vocational skills to enable them choose which system to follow after national examinations. We shall assess competencies attained by learners in certain fields and issue national certificates to candidates along with their Uneb pass slips. For those who continue with general education, they will have some survival/life skills in case of employment scarcity, he said. Once the proposals of the council are completed, they will be submitted for cabinet approval. nangonzi@observer.ug Jal Paddy, The interesting case of Hon Abiriga reminds me of a very similar case of a London African pastor. I was told by one of my aunties who has lived in this country for years, and seen it all. This pastor was on one of his pastoral visits, and somehow got lost in the neighbourhood he was headed to. He got confused by the address to the house he was visiting. So, he ended up moving around in circles; up and down the residential streets. You know London houses and streets can be quite confusing because they are uniform and similar in nature. Unknown to him, his up and down movements had attracted the attention of one of those old pensioners who sit by their windows to watch over the street. Every London neighbourhood has them. Usually, there is an old stay-at-home lonely mzungu grandma, who from her window spot, knows who lives in which house, who leaves early for work and who has visitors late in the night. Naturally, she is also on the lookout for strangers to the neighbourhood, and is not afraid to call the police when she spots suspicious activity. Now, if the pastors hesitant up and down movement was not suspicious enough, then his constant stopping and looking around while at it, was more than enough reason for the old woman to call the police. Lucky for the pastor, the police caught up with him just as he was doing up his zipper and turning away from emptying his bladder against a ka back wall. The London cold has that effect of making one want to ease themselves every so often. I say lucky because much as urinating in public is seen as unbecoming behaviour, a recent UK court ruling saw no problem with it if no one sees you doing it. In other words, there is no specific law in this country against urinating in public. We could assume that the powers that be, in their wisdom, see urinating in public as an emergency act for which the perpetrator should not be punished. When you have to go, you have to go. By handling his business, discreetly away from the prying eyes of any passers-by, old mzungu woman inclusive, the pastor dodged being charged with indecent exposure. Instead, the police were quite helpful in assisting him locate the house he had been looking for. And therein lay pastors testimony and sermon for that Sunday! This brings us back to Abirigas case. The photos which made rounds on the Internet showed a man handling an emergency problem in a very discreet manner, with a police guard and all. In no way can it be argued that the honourable exposed himself on that fence with the intention of causing harm, alarm or distress to the public. (Okay, its a yes for shame). And the pictures show him swinging his thing around or swaying his hands while at it. Still, they got the man on being a public nuisance. I say Abirigas recent court woes have nothing to do with urinating on that poor finance fence, but everything with the bright eye-hurting yellow attire he was adorned in on that day, and our lack of faith in God as a nation. Oh ye, of little faith... Yours friend, Chris. Science, technology and innovation could be the magic bullet for countries to achieve the UNs Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Minister Elioda Tumwesigye has said. Dr Tumwesigye, who heads Ugandas science and technology docket, was recently in Brussels, Belgium, to deliver a keynote speech at the Global Science, Technology and Innovation conference. Held between October 23 and 25, the conference heard the minister say that strengthening the science and technology eco-system is essential for solving pressing societal challenges. Such challenges include limited access to quality health services, hunger and malnutrition, poverty, climate change effects and limited access to safe water. Minister Elioda Tumwesigye (2nd L) wants more technological solutions We need to promote vaccination against all preventable diseases, provide proper nutrition, improve maternal, child and reproductive health services and increase access to safe water and sanitation, he said. We need to provide technological solutions to better fight common infectious diseases such as TB, HIV, malaria, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) as well as non-communicable diseases. Quoting the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisations report of 2015 which said science will be critical to meeting the challenge of sustainable development, Tumwesigye urged delegates to harness technology. Science, technology and innovation development is an important determinant of progress and transition from pre-industrial to innovation-led and knowledge-based societies. Therefore, the extent to which a country has harnessed science, technology and innovation has a direct bearing on its level of development, the minister opined. Tumwesigye suggested that a taskforce or institutional framework at the United Nations should be put in place to track progress on the development, dissemination and deployment of integrated technological solutions for SDGs. These solutions should be feasible, acceptable and affordable from an economic and social point of view. In the long run, he opined, this infrastructure will support technological discussions at the UN and other international policy fora as they relate to SDGs, climate goals and means of implementation of multi-lateral environmental agreements. Such a taskforce can also negotiate mechanisms for increasing access [including price reductions] to such integrated technological solutions for poor countries to help fast-track achievement of SDGs, climate change mitigation and adaptation, the minister said. eyotaru@gmail.com President Musevenis much-touted dream of a middle-income status Uganda by the end of this decade has come under fresh scrutiny. Industry leaders have said the middle-income goal is not achievable in the current environment. A forum of Uganda Manufacturers Association meeting recently pointed out that existing government policies do not support the economys key sectors, which should be at the forefront. While swearing in for his fifth elective term in May 2016, President Museveni promised to bring Ugandans into the middle-income economic bracket by 2020, branding his new term Kisanja Hakuna Mchezo (term of no games). But the manufacturers, during the 8th edition of the annual CEO forum, held on October 25 at the Kampala Serena hotel, said governments reluctance to support the private sector and Ugandas current education system compromise the attainment of the 2020 target. Ugandan manufacturers say government's reluctance to support the private sector won't make Uganda realise her middle income dream by 2020 The forum, which brings together top company executives from around the country, was held under the theme, Accelerating inclusive growth and Vision 2020. According to Barbara Mulwana, Uganda Manufacturers Association chairperson, manufacturing contributes about 19 per cent of the countrys GDP, and 30 per cent of taxes yet it is operating at 52 % capacity due to lack of markets, inadequate skilled manpower and other export risks. We need to strengthen the Buy Uganda Build Uganda policy. If the local content bill is passed, it will help us as manufacturers to tap into the Ugandan market. We also need an export insurance policy fully funded by government to help in volatile areas that we work in, Mulwana said. The forum advised that government should set new policy guidelines for the middle-income drive. However, Dr Kisamba Mugerwa, the chairperson of the National Planning Authority, said existing policies are good, only that many government agencies have failed to implement them. This failure of implementation, Mugerwa agreed, makes the road to middle income seem narrow. Gideon Badagawa, the executive director of the Private Sector Foundation Uganda, said emphasis should be on building capacity. We need to revise the targets. Are we sure we are getting into middle income by 2020? Are we going to change the targets or we are going to work magically and get there? We need to build capacity of our own enterprises to employ more people and to satisfy our market. It is the private sector that will get us into the middle-income status, Badagawa. Bagadawa said given Ugandas tax-to-GDP ratio that stands at 13 per cent, there is no chance the country whose target was a tax-to-GDP ratio of 15 per cent can get into middle income three years from now. After nearly a decade of robust economic growth until 2010, GDP growth in Uganda has been slowing down. In the financial year 2016/17, the growth that was projected to reach five per cent leveled out at 3.9 per cent. Government was also asked to ensure more investment in human capital, instead of the current prioritization of infrastructure. The industry chiefs said Ugandas education system must be overhauled and turned into a more practical one. Do people know what they must do when put in certain positions? Someone has to be deployable before being employable. These days, graduates look for jobs and yet employers are also looking for quality workers, Bagadawa said. Farming, being the backbone of the countys economy, is facing major setbacks in production mainly because of the effects of climate change and poor skills. The forum observed that agriculture has largely been left to the illiterate who have little or no knowledge of enhancing productivity and value addition. Victoria Ssekitoleko, the chairperson of Uganda Agribusiness Alliance, criticized the government for not making it easy for farmers to get crop finance. She cited the example of Uganda Development Bank, which deals more with businesses that borrow large amounts of money starting from Shs 30 million, and yet farmers rarely borrow such huge sums, thus leaving them out. Uganda is an agricultural country but when you look at what our students are studying, how much agriculture education is there? It is only dropouts that join agriculture, Ssekitoleko said. kamogajonathan50@gmail.com Twenty months since the February 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections, there are still a number of undecided petitions at the Court of Appeal. Of those decided, the ruling NRM candidates have greatly triumphed at the expense of those from the opposition, even when the facts are similar. DERRICK KIYONGA looks at some of the cases. At the High court where 2016 parliamentary election petitions were heard, many of the judgments brought joy and relief to the opposition as NRM MPs were thrown out of parliament. NRM CEC members cutting their 2016 general elections victory The NRM MPs ejected for various reasons included: Peter Sematimba (Busiro South), Hajat Rehema Watongola (Kamuli municipality), Annet Nyaketcho (Tororo North), Edward Ssembatya (Katikamu South) and Col Charles Okello Engola (Oyam North). Others are Peter Panadol Mugema [Iganga municipality), Lillian Nakatte (Luweero Woman MP), Charles Engora Macodwongo (Oyam North), Andrew Martial (Igara East) and Cissy Namujju (Lwengo Woman). However, one year down the road at the Court of Appeal, the tide has turned for the opposition with the justices either canceling their earlier opposition victories or simply rejecting their appeals in instances where they had lost. Section 66(3) of the Parliamentary Elections (Amended) Act provides that the decisions of the Court of Appeal pertaining to parliamentary election petition shall be final. Therefore, the right of appeal to Supreme court previously accorded to dissatisfied litigants was removed. The most intriguing thing about this trend is the influence of Justice Steven Kavuma, the recently departed deputy chief justice. OYAM On Tuesday last week, Court of Appeal overturned a High court decision and reinstated Charles Engora Macodwongo, the state minister for Defence, as Oyam North MP. High court judge Jessica Naiga Ayebazibwe had thrown him out for lacking requisite academic qualification after a petition from his rival, UPCs Ayena Odongo. The judge agreed with Ayenas claim that Engora used someone elses masters degree in Arts and Public Administration to obtain nomination but Court of Appeal justices Kavuma, Elizabeth Musoke and Barishaki faulted Naiga for wrongly applying the law when she placed the burden of proof on Engora. IGARA EAST Earlier on October 2, the Court of Appeal threw out Igara East MP Andrew Martial, the NRM candidate, on grounds that he had bribed voters and also made defamatory statements about his opponent Michael Mawanda during the campaigns. Muwanda is an NRM-leaning independent. Justices Frederick Egonda-Ntende, Richard Buteera and new deputy chief justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo kicked out Martial who has been opposed to the lifting of the presidential age limit having found him guilty of bribing voters with Shs 1.5m. At the High court, Justice Winfred Nabasinde had dismissed Mawandas petition on grounds that he failed to adduce evidence to prove the allegations. KATUNTU RELIEF Meanwhile, NRMs Daniel Ibaale failed to prove defamation when he petitioned court to annul the victory of FDC stalwart Abdu Katuntu in Bugweri. He alleged that Katuntu uttered false statements against him during the campaigns. Justices Kavuma, Remmy Kasule and Richard Buteera upheld a High court decision to retain FDC stalwart Abdu Katuntu as MP for Bugweri. High court judge Margaret Muntonyi had earlier dismissed a petition by NRMs Daniel Ibaale for lack of merit. SEMATIMBA REPRIEVE Another of these judgments against the opposition came on September 18 when Kavuma together with Justices Cheborion Barishaki and Catherine Bamugemereire declared NRMs Peter Sematimba as the duly elected MP for Busiro South. The judgment dealt final blow to DPs Stephen Sekigozi who had won at the High court last year. In June 2016, High court judge Lydia Ssali Mugambe threw Sematimba out of parliament after finding out that the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) didnt independently verify the authenticity and validity of his diploma in Electrical and Computer Technology, which Sematimba claims to have been obtained from the Pacific Coast Technical Institute in the USA. Peter Sematimba But in their judgment, Kavuma, Barishaki and Bamugemereire cited the Evidence Act and noted there was no requirement for Sematimba to produce certified copies of his diploma, in evidence before court. The three judges said all Sematimba needed to do was to produce a certificate that bore a signature and seal of office of a foreign service officer in Uganda or British Counsel or diplomatic agent in such a foreign place, among others. It is not in dispute that first appellants [Sematimba] certificate did not comply with section 84 of the Evidence Act and the trial judge could have rejected the certificate and other documents therein, but she opted not to, for the justice of the case. The implication was that she presumed the documents to be authentic under section 84 of the Evidence Act, they wrote. WAKAYIMA WOE Then there is the peculiar case of DPs Nsereko Wakayima Musoke, the ousted Nansana municipality legislator. On September 15, Justice Kavuma, who was joined by Barishaki and Hellen Obura, upheld a High court ruling which had thrown him out of parliament. The three agreed with High court judge Vincent Okwanga that Musoke did not qualify being an MP since he is not a registered voter and therefore never qualified for nomination and election. The judges ruled that the name Wakayima Musoke Nsereko which was used by the DP politician for his nomination was nowhere on the voters register. Mr Wakayima was nominated in error as his name is not registered in the constituencys voter register; it was the name of Musoke Hannington Nsereko which validly appears on the National Identification card. We find that the purported change of names is null and void, the judgment read in part. The judges further agreed with justice Okwanga that there should be no by-election, thus declaring Kasule, who came second, as the elected legislator for Nansana. Ironically, when justices led Kavuma, Barishaki and Paul Mugamba were confronted with a similar scenario in May, they ruled differently. That appeal rotated around the names of NRMs Taban Idi Amin, the Kibanda North MP who was challenged by Sam Otada Amooti. The latter argued that Amin was not a registered voter. Taban Amin with President Museveni In the end, Kavuma, Barishaki and Mugamba agreed with Otada that indeed Amin failed to give a satisfactory explanation to the discrepancies in the name. For instance, he had Idi Taban Amin Tampo in the national voters register and national ID, Taban Idi Amin on the nomination form and academic documents while his passport indicated he was Idi Taban Amin. However, unlike in the Wakayima situation where the judges declared his rival the winner, this time round they ordered for a by-election, giving Amin another chance to get his papers in order. And indeed, Amin returned to parliament unopposed. SERERE On February 10, Justice Kavuma, Barishaki and Mugamba overturned a High court judgment which was in favor of FDCs Alice Alaso Asianut in respect of Serere Woman MP. NRMs Hellen Adoa had petitioned the Court of Appeal seeking to overturn High court judge Justice David Wangutusis July 2016 ruling which had overturned her victory. Justice Wangutusi nullified Adoas victory, citing Electoral Commissions (EC) non-compliance with the electoral laws. However, Kavuma, Barishaki and Mugamba disagreed with Wangutusi, ruling that court cannot interfere with the democratic choice of the voters where Adoa polled 48,762 votes against Alasos 32,651. unless it was established to the required standard of proof that there were such irregularities and electoral malpractices that would render the said election null and void and therefore subject to a nullification. It was not sufficient for the respondent (Alaso) to only establish that irregularities or electoral malpractices did occur. She had a duty to establish that the said electoral malpractices were of such magnitude that they substantially and materially affected the outcome of the electoral process, the judges ruled thus ending Alasos hopes. MALPRACTICES NOT SUBSTANTIAL IN LUWEERO In June 2016, High court judge David Batema annulled the election of NRMs Lillian Nakatte as Luweero Woman MP. In the petition filed by DPs Brenda Nabukenya, Justice Batema called for fresh elections after faulting Nakatte for not complying with the electoral laws and also bribing voters. Nakatte was declared winner with 56,573 votes, beating Nabukenya by about 3,015 votes. But the judge noted that evidence before court showed that EC let hooligans chase presiding officers and usurp their powers at various polling stations. The judge further found Nakatte guilty of bribing voters at Vvumba village in Butuntumula sub-county. But on June 2017, Kavuma, Mugamba and new deputy chief justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo overturned Batemas judgment. According to the trio, Nabukenya failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that there was voter bribery and election malpractices. The trio rubbished Nabukenyas claims of ballot-stuffing at St Kizito and Galikwoleka stations, adding that even if there was voter ballot paper stuffing, Nakatte won with a larger margin elsewhere. They said even if Nabukenya had won all votes at the said two polling stations, it couldnt change the final result. LWENGO Kavuma, Barishaki and Bamugemereire also offered a lifeline to NRMs Cissy Namujju Dionizia when they overturned a High court judgment that had nullified her election last year. The three quashed the ruling by High court judge Margaret Tibulya on grounds she arrived at the wrong conclusion that Namujju had no requisite academic qualifications to stand as Lwengo Woman MP. Namujjus election had been challenged by Martin Sserwanga, a voter, who asserted that while the legislator calls herself Cissy Namujju Dionizia, both her O and A-level certificates indicate Dionizia Namujju. Sserwanga further insisted that Namujju did not pass her Primary Leaving Examinations which she sat from Kyazanga primary school, thus she illegally joined secondary school. But Kavuma, Barishaki and Bamugemereire overruled Tibulya. They said Sserwanga shouldnt have read much into discrepancies in Namujjus names since the passport photos on both the said O and A-level certificates were Namujjus and, according to them, that was enough to prove that she was qualified to be an MP. So far, the single victory that the opposition obtained at the Court of Appeal came early this year when the court agreed with FDCs Proscovia Salaamu Musumba to throw out NRMs Rehema Watongola as Kamuli municipality MP. Justices Richard Buteera, Barishaki and Mugamba agreed with High court judge Geoffrey Namundi that Watongola didnt possess the required minimum academic equivalent of senior six at the time she was nominated. However, Musumbas victory was shortlived since Watongola won the subsequent by-election. As the opposition continues to lick its wounds, there are several pending judgments from the Court of Appeal. For instance, High court at Jinja threw out NRMs Nathan Igeme Nabeta and declared FDCs Paul Mwiru as the new Jinja Municipality East MP. Nabetas appeal is yet to be determined. In the same vein, Justice Margaret Mutonyi removed Mugema from parliament and declared FDCs Abed Nasser Mudiobole as the rightful MP for Iganga municipality. Mugemas appeal is also yet to be determined 15 months on. Ironically, the only constant in all these petitions is that Justice Kavuma headed all the corams of judges delivered the judgments. dkiyonga@observer.ug Lawyer Sam Mayanja Prominent lawyer Sam Mayanja has submitted a thought-provoking analysis of mailo land to the commission of inquiry into land matters. A renowned lawyer for President Museveni and the NRM, he questions the legality of the Buganda kingdom establishment, through the Buganda Land Board, to own the 350 square miles and recommends that the Traditional Rulers (Restitution of Assets and Properties) Act 1993 should be amended to bring it in line with the Constitution, writes DERRICK KIYONGA. The Justice Catherine Bamugemereire-led seven-member committee started work in May and has investigated land issues countrywide, meeting several people as it seeks to find a solution to the land-related challenges in the country. President Museveni instituted the committee to probe land wrangles and it is expected to table a comprehensive report to provide solutions. It is under this context that Mayanja, a senior partner at Kampala Associated Advocates (KAA), sought to help the commission understand the land problem from a historical perspective. He was aided by fellow lawyer Catherine Nansubuga in writing the submissions. In the preamble, a copy of which The Observer has obtained, Mayanja says the gist of his submission concerns the mailo land tenure system, which is predominantly in Buganda premised on the 1900 Buganda Agreement. He also cites the laws surrounding land administration and regulation of the mailo land tenure. When reached for a comment on Friday, Mayanja confirmed authoring the submission. My goal is to put the truth straight and help everyone concerned to bring their actions in line with the law, he said. But first, Mayanja tackles the Traditional Rulers (Restitution of Assets and Properties) Act. He notes that the act is inconsistent with the Constitution and, therefore, is liable to be challenged in the Constitutional court unless it is amended. Mayanja seems to allude to the fact that the act was instituted in 1993, two years before the current Constitution was promulgated, something he says casts doubt on its constitutionality. The Act is crucial when it comes to cultural institutions because it had an effect of restoring traditional assets and properties confiscated by state when Milton Obote abolished kingdoms on September, 17, 1967. The kingdoms that Obote abolished following the abrogation of the 1962 constitution were Buganda, Ankole, Bunyoro, Tooro and Busoga. FEDERAL STATE Mayanja says among the assets restored following the institution of the Traditional Rulers Act is Kabakas official 350 square miles of land. He notes that this was the land which was owned by Buganda as a province [federal state] under the 1962 constitution. At the time of the institution of the Traditional Rulers Act, Mayanja says, there was neither the provincial, administration nor kingdom of Buganda Federo administration under which the official mailo could be restored. These 350 square miles of official mailo are constitutionally under the administration of the district land boards; so is the Namasoles (Kabakas mother) 10 square miles and the seven square miles encompassing Bannalinyas (Kabakas sisters) land, he asks. Mayanja further notes that government recently returned official mailo titles to the Buganda Land Board (BLB), the entity that is in charge of managing Kabakas land. However, he says, those titles are officially supposed to be for the Ssazas (counties) and Gombololas (sub-counties). Mayanja seems to be referring to over 295 land titles that the central government has handed over to Buganda kingdom since 2015. The move was in fulfillment of the memorandum of understanding government inked with Mengo in 2013. But Mayanja pokes holes in the move, saying the return had no legal instrument and in any case he says government cannot legally give away public land to a private entity in the name of BLB. Indeed it was an error for the Registrar General to register private entity in the name of Buganda Land Board which clearly confused the public with the name of Buganda Land Board which existed under the 1962 independence constitution, Mayanja says. Under the 1962 constitution, the Buganda Land Board was a constitutional body, however, the current Buganda Land Board is a private company and corporation solely owned by the Kabaka who is Ronald Muwenda Mutebi. BUSUULU AND ENVUJJO LAW In the 25-page document, Mayanja takes aim that the Busuulu and Envujjo law which he accuses of having a lot of archaic provisions and, accordingly, he says that it should be modernized and overhauled without tampering with the security of tenure which the law has accorded to Bibanja holders. For instance, he cites Section 11 of the Buganda Busuulu and Envujjo Law of 1928, which provided that: No tenant may be evicted by the mailo owner from his kibanja save for public purpose or for other good and sufficient cause unless a court having jurisdiction shall have tried the case and made the order of eviction. The same law also provided that: while a tenant is still prosecuting his appeal, or until the time for appeal has expired, he shall remain in undisturbed possession of his kibanja until such time as the order of eviction shall have been received from the final Court of Appeal. This law, according to legal analysts, was a principal foundation of the current Land Act of 1998 and the subsequent 2010 amendments therein. Interestingly, Mayanja says that the Land Act of 1998 defines a kibanja holder as one who came to the land as result of the repealed Busuulu and Envujjo law yet under the 1995 Constitution, which he says reinstated the private mailo tenure, there was no law repealing the Busuulu and Envujjo law. Busuulu and Envujjo payment should be abolished and leasehold should only be extended by either the land commission or district land boards, Mayanja opines. This is to enable those with leaseholds to be protected by the provisions outlined in the guidelines on the on the administration of land under the Land Act. He further argues that procedures should be enacted where a kibanja holder should be allowed to convert to either freehold or mailo. Mayanja also delves into the utilization of land. Under the mailo system, Mayanja says only the kibanja holder was required to utilize land for economic purposes. When Asians were introduced in to Ugandas system, Mayanja says, they were accorded land under the lease system and all leases carried developmental conditions. These conditions transformed the economy of Buganda and Uganda into a leading producer of coffee, cotton, tea and sugar, among other cash crops, he says. Kibanja holders used the land to build their homesteads and carry out economic activities. This requirement of a kibanja holder to develop the kibanja and the Asian to conform to conditions imposed in their leasehold offers, Mayanja says, was the basis of agricultural development in Uganda and gave encouragement to Asian leaseholders to start building the towns and municipalities. On the other hand, Mayanja says, the mailo owners simply collected rent and subdivided their mailo land for sale. It is surprising that from 1900 to date, no single development project was set up on the hundreds of official mailos, Mayanja argues. No single coffee, tea or sugar estate is said to have been put up on any of the official mailo by whatever entity which owned that land; be it Kabakas, Namasole, Gombolola, Ssaza or other official mailo by whatever ownership named . In conclusion, Mayanja advises that there is need to revisit the whole concept of mailo land. Aside from creating a privileged class of landowners whose consideration was loyalty towards and collaboration with the colonial masters to keep law and order, among other things, it provided no development incentives whatsoever, he says. There is still need to inquire into and modernize some of the laws on mailo ownership. In a phone interview, Noah Kiyimba, Buganda kingdoms spokesperson, refused to comment, saying that he is yet to read Mayanjas submissions. dkiyonga@observer.ug At least 85 per cent of what Uganda earned after it won two disputes with global oil companies has already been spent, a government report says. This revelation is contained in the Bank of Uganda annual report 2016/17, the first official acknowledgement that much of the money was used. The two tax disputes generated $728,758,293 since 2010, the report said. The central bank reported that $434 million was from Heritage Oil while $250 million was capital gains tax from Tullow Oil. Another $43,833,312 was in stamp duty. Of this, BOU revealed, $620,582,750 was spent in the national budget. It didnt mention in which vote or particular year. This goes against a promise BOU governor Tumusiime-Mutebile made to a parliamentary ad hoc committee investigating corruption in the oil sector. Mutebile told the committee that money from these disputes would replenish the countrys foreign reserves, which had been used to buy jet fighters. On June 15, 2011 Mutebile told Londons Financial Times that up to $400 million was drawn from the bank to buy Russian-made jets and that President Museveni had promised him that this money would be recovered from anticipated oil revenues. On Thursday, October 26, an official at BOU said the money has helped pay for Karuma and Isimba hydropower dams construction. Jim Mugunga, ministry of Finance spokesperson, later told The Observer: Government revenue comes from multiple sources and becomes part of the overall resource envelope that is considered during the budget process. Our duty is to enable sectors spend as appropriated. We hardly colour or baptise monies according to their sources unless explicitly provided under guidelines or specific laws. In the report, BOU says the money was spent before the establishment of the Petroleum Fund, which should hold all revenues from the oil sector. According to the 2012 oil revenue management policy, all oil revenues shall be collected and deposited in a special petroleum fund to be established in Bank of Uganda. This will include the sale of governments share of oil extracted that will be received in kind, the policy reads. Government received the first batch of money from the oil disputes on August 4, 2010. At least $121.5 million of it was from Heritage Oil Limited and UKs Tullow Oil Ltd deal in which the former had transferred its Ugandan assets. The other money resulted from the dispute between Uganda and Tullow after the latter sold its blocks to China National Offshore Oil Company and Total E&P. Tullow agreed to pay $250 million. As at March 2017, Uganda had received $728 million from two oil disputes, including stamp duty. Government had created the Oil Revenue Account in BOU where this money was to be held so as not to mix it with other Consolidated Fund receipts. PETROLEUM FUND In 2015, the Petroleum Fund was established under the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) 2015 to facilitate the efficient management of Ugandas petroleum resources. The law says all petroleum revenues, which accrue to government be collected or received by the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) and paid into the Fund. As a result, ministry of Finance opened an account at BOU to separate petroleum revenue from other government revenues in order to ensure transparency and accountability, the central bank said. The law limits withdrawals from the Petroleum Fund, which can only be done with permission granted by an Appropriation Act and a warrant of the auditor general to support the annual budget. It can also be kept in the Petroleum Revenue Investment Reserve for investments. With the creation of the petroleum fund, the oil revenue account was consequently closed in June 2015. This meant that all monies which had been received should have been transferred to the petroleum fund. Appearing before parliaments committee on Commissions, Statutory Authorities and State Enterprise on March 7, 2017, ministry of Finance officials were asked to explain why they had not transferred the money from governments oil revenue account to the newly created petroleum fund. Godfrey Semugooma, commissioner financial management systems at the ministry of energy, told MPs then that when the fund was opened in March 2015, the money that was on government oil accounts was transferred to the consolidated fund. For his part, ministry of finance permanent secretary and secretary to the treasury Keith Muhakanizi told parliament they had not made transfers to the petroleum fund because there had been delays in putting in place a law. He also said his ministry needs to come up with a clear framework on how the petroleum account would operate. PRESSURE TO SPEND BOU said in the report: Revenue received into the oil revenue account was spent by the government through the budget. One analyst told The Observer that government has been under pressure to spend especially with the bloating cost of administration. Administration units in terms of number of districts, municipalities, and town councils have grown to unprecedented numbers in the past five years. Also, the number of parliamentarians and ministers have grown, which means governments appetite to spend had to swell. Meanwhile, the 2016 general elections were around the corner. With limited revenues collected from other sources, it is possible that this money from oil disputes became inevitable target. WHAT IS AVAILABLE? According to the BOU report, since the funds establishment in March 2015, oil revenue amounting to $109 million and Shs 30.9 billion had been received as at June 30, 2017. In the 2016/17 financial year, a total of $36,897,062 was received which includes the last instalment on the capital gains tax Tullow Oil Ltd paid. As at June 30, 2017 the available money had earned government $473,928 in interest. BOU says because of an absence of the investment policy and appropriations of the petroleum revenue, the Petroleum Funds continues to be held on call with minimum interest benefits. amwesigwa@observer.ug Highly placed sources in government have revealed that ongoing criminal proceedings brought against several senior police officers, who were charged before the General Court Martial last week, were instigated from State House. According to one source, before the police officers were arrested by military intelligence, President Museveni communicated to the Police leadership, directing the institution to cooperate with the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence. This communication was to the effect that police should as much as possible cooperate with CMI on the ongoing investigations and that this should not be looked at as contradicting [polices] work or in any way cause panic, the source said. You cannot know what his [the presidents] interest could have been in this matter but as a police officer, you have to act as directed, an insider police source said. Senior Superintendent of Police Nixon Agasirwe, who is a former commander of Police Special Operations being led out of the General Court Martial to Makindye Military Police detention facility The Observer was referred to Article 213(4) of the constitution, which provides that in the performance of the functions under clause (3) of this article, the inspector general of police shall be subject to and act in accordance with the laws of Uganda; except that on matters of policy, the president may give directions to the Inspector General. POLICY MATTER In the instant case the president can give a direction to anyone in the police on any matter of policy. Matters of policy are not clearly defined in the Act and it can be given a generous meaning, which includes the ongoing investigations, the source, who declined to be named, said. It is likely then that Deputy Inspector General of Police Okoth Ochola was acting under this constitutional provision when he surrendered the wanted senior police officers to CMI, given Musevenis reported communication. Julius Odwe, a former deputy inspector general of police, told The Observer this was not the normal practice. In case this was a matter to do with a disciplinary breach on the part of the officers, they should have done this in a normal way, by having them charged before the Police Tribunal. What happened was unprecedented and it just shows there are internal weaknesses within the police, he said. Efforts to reach Okoth Ochola for comment over the weekend were futile. He neither answered not returned our repeated calls to his known cellphone number. However, other well-placed sources said that last weeks incidents must be looked at from the viewpoint the president holds of the top leadership of the police. Immediately after the General Court Martial adjourned having charged two top police officers and seven other lowly ranking personnel with kidnap and being in illegal possession of firearms, Caleb Alaka, their lawyer, made a sensational claim before assembled media. Speaking to journalists outside the court martial building near Makindye barracks complex, Alaka claimed army investigators pressured his clients, hoping to get them to incriminate their boss. While in detention at the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence, the investigators did everything within their means to ensure that the arrested officers implicate IGP Kale Kayihura, Alaka said. Alaka, however, refused to respond to journalists persistent demands for him to shed more light on his claim. He instead chose to describe how the charge of being in illegal possession of firearm leveled against his clients is ludicrous. How can a police officer be charged with being in illegal possession of a firearm? Alaka said. Charged in the General Court Martial on Friday were: Commandant of Police Professional Standards Unit, Senior Commissioner of Police Joel Aguma; Senior Superintendent of Police Nixon Agasirwe, who is a former commander of Police Special Operations and Assistant Superintendent of Police James Magada (Crime Intelligence). Aguma and Agasirwe were remanded to Makindye Military Police detention facility till November 20. Others are Sgt Abel Tumukunde (Flying Squad), Faisal Katende (Flying Squad) and Amon Kwarisima. Rene Rutagungira, a Rwandese national, and Bahati Mugenga Irunga, a Congolese national, were charged alongside the police officers. They were remanded to Luzira prison. It is alleged that on September 25, 2013, the accused persons kidnapped Lieutenant Joel Mutabazi, a former bodyguard of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, in Kamengo on Kampala Masaka road and forcefully conveyed him to Rwanda. POLITICAL ASYLUM Mutabazi had fled for his life from Kigali to seek political asylum in Uganda with the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR looking out for him. The group was also charged with the kidnap of Jackson Kalemera, Mutabazis brother, on the same day. Similarly, Kalemera was also dispatched to Rwandan authorities against his wishes. Under the penal code, kidnapping or detaining someone with the intent to murder or knowledge that murder is probable or in order to obtain a ransom is punishable by death. But as the General Court Martial waits for the suspects to reappear, the defence lawyers intend to raise a raft of objections. Alaka told The Observer in a Friday interview that they are considering a number of technical issues, including challenging the jurisdiction of the Court Martial. His clients were charged under section 118 (h) (1) of the UPDF Act, which stipulates that persons subject to military law include, Every person in unlawful possession of arms, ammunition or equipment ordinarily being the monopoly of defence forces or other classified stores as prescribed. Interviewed on Saturday, Ladislaus Rwakafuuzi, a human rights lawyer, took exception to the accused being charged in a military court. Police officers are not military men, Rwakafuuzi said, They are civilians; they should have charged them in the High court. On the charge of kidnap, Alaka said their first line of defence will be the fact that there is a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Ugandas police and Rwanda police to hand over suspects. In fact, according to Alaka, there is an MoU between the IGP of Uganda and that of Rwanda which he said could have compelled his clients to hand over Mutabazi and Kalemera to Kigali. But a private lawyer who preferred anonymity, pointed out that the MoU cannot be a line of defence because Ugandas 1964 Extradition Act doesnt empower any police officer to hand over a fugitive or any asylum seeker to a foreign government. The process is very clear; if you want to extradite anybody, you must apply before a magistrates court, the lawyer said, adding: Even if there is an MoU, it must conform to the Extradition Act and international statues Uganda has signed. According to Ugandas 1964 Extradition Act, a fugitive criminal shall not be surrendered if the offence in respect of which his or her surrender is sought is one of a political character or if it appears to the court or the minister that the requisition for his or her surrender has in fact been made with a view to try or punish him or her for an offence of a political character. Four years ago, Aguma who was head of the newly created docket of CIID director in-charge of Crime Intelligence, was suspended after he irregularly arrested and unilaterally extradited Mutabazi, a fugitive who had been long sought by Kigali. At the time, Aguma had just returned from a one-year senior command and staff course at Rwandas National Police College. He took the UN refugee and Office of the Prime Minister, which is in charge of refugee issues, by surprise when he coordinated Mutabazis extradition. The Rwandan government wanted Mutabazi on grounds that he was escaping justice, having allegedly participated in a 2011 bank robbery in Kigali. Mutabazi, an Israeli-trained commando, according to sources, had already been offered asylum and was awaiting the outcome of his eligibility for refugee agency status application, a process which was being supervised by Refugees minister Musa Ecweru. His life in Uganda had been constantly threatened. In 2010, sources say that gunmen sprayed Mutabazis house in Kasangati, Wakiso district with bullets, but he managed to escape. In August 2013, Mutabazi was kidnapped, forced into an unmarked car, but rescued en-route to Rwanda following intervention by high-level Ugandan authorities and strong UN condemnation. However, in October that year, Aguma extradited him -- and this time nobody came to his rescue. dkiyonga@observer.ug skakaire@observer.ug Two popular items stand out in Uganda today: MP Ibrahim Abiriga and his not-so-much parliamentary car. Yes, the man is popular; I myself would love to meet this clown hero of a legislator who ran out of fuel at Bombo and was spotted refilling using a yellow jerrycan. How I miss this man who dresses yellow from toe to hair and sits only on yellow chairs! In Shakespearean style, fools and clowns were such pivotal characters in developing what would have been a rather stern and tedious plot. They were always brought in to pave way for a tragedy or ease the effects of a tragedy like the one that will soon befall Uganda if the constitution is amended. This is where Abiriga and his foolery will come in, to pave way and help ease the inevitable calamitous effects. All Shakespearean fools have something in common; they are loyal to their masters; too much and end up being nuisances and exposing their idiocy in the name of pleasing their masters or proving how untouchable they are because they rub shoulders with the king. Being a public nuisance and clown are definitely to Abirigas and NRMs advantage. He is actually a better option than being the serious traditional politician. Abiriga is quite famous despite him being on the unpopular end of the age limit debate. Just like in theatres, all fools are placed among antagonists but they end up most appealing to the audiences because of their rib-cracking absurdities and uttering bawdy innuendos. This takes away all the hate and increases the love and cheer. Despite his vigorous support for the age limit amendment, Abiriga today doesnt face the wrath like all other colleagues in his camp. He would actually win with a landslide if he contested in Kampala or anywhere else; he has earned his fame through his public gimmicks. And the NRM publicists are not seated; the other day they posted a video of Abiriga being cheered and welcomed in Arua ahead of the presidents visit, and therein suggested that all the cheering was to show support for the amendment, forgetting that the cheers and ululations were for Abirigas boldness to put up such a public display of foolery like he did the other day when he decided to pass water at the ministry of Finance wall. Aggrey Nyondwa aggreynyondwa@gmail.com Our doctors deserve better For many years, cases of doctors coming out boldly to express their grievances have been uncommon. For long, doctors have made easy scapegoats of themselves perhaps because of the way they are trained and socialized. Medical training instills a certain mentality in doctors that precludes their complaining about things that impact their own personal life or wellbeing as it would seem unethical. A lot of doctors cannot complain for the fear that the public will charge them with possession of selfish motives of thinking only about their own income. But now that doctors have begun grumbling about working harder and harder for less money, it is a matter that should draw the nations attention. Medicine is the most expensive course in Uganda. Some private universities charge up to Shs 8 million per semester which amounts to about 80 million for the 10 semesters apart from other essential costs. In addition, these medics suffer many deprivations. When you consider these elements, it becomes harder to justify the argument that these same people should sacrifice their income as well. In fact if we want people of high intellect and general excellence to continue to be attracted to the field of medicine; we cannot continue to tolerate a health environment in which we routinely beat up the practitioners by underpaying them. Nowadays, I encounter many doctors who feel so stressed that they are pointing their children toward other courses but actively discouraging them from going into medicine. Some of these frustrations are prompting many doctors themselves to re-examine their careers or to drastically alter their way of practicing medicine. Some have fled the country. As a result, our country is losing the services of our most experienced doctors at what should be the prime of their professional lives. These frustrations drive most of todays best and brightest out of medicine and may discourage tomorrows best and brightest from ever seriously considering a medical career. Nyanda Julius Droma, nyandajulius904@gmail.com Land amendment bill can't quicken projects' takeoff President Museveni has been moving across the country to explain to the people that the proposed constitutional amendment on land will quicken the time taken by government development projects to kick off and also ensure that government is not cheated in the exercise of land compensations. The current law about land use and compensation has failed the taking off of projects because the mafia within government has made it a failure. Creating the new land law is only creating room for the same fellows to take even more land from the poor citizens. The government should first solve the problems around land titles which are being duplicated every minute. Its common to find one piece of land being owned by five people with current land titles and when it comes to compensating the owners of the land, it becomes a challenge. The government should look into solving the issuance of land titles first before trying to change the current law on land. Edwin Fanta Mumbere, AFIEGO field officer, Kasese. NARO is doing well in agricultural research The National Agricultural Research Organization (Naro) recently held a press briefing to highlight its achievements, challenges and the plans it has in stock for the agricultural sector. Naro is doing a wonderful job in transforming agricultural research in the country, given the fact that many of the crops grown and consumed in Uganda are Naro products. In the year 2016/17 alone, Naro produced 36 new varieties of crops. Naro, through research, has produced different varieties that are more nutritious and resistant to pests and drought. In addition to producing quality seeds, Naro has also invented the NGU tsetse fly trap which catches tsetse flies faster than the normal traps, and anti-tick vaccines. Naro has also formed a partnership with Kiruhura women to make cosmetics out of ghee. The fall armyworm has also been a challenge since 2016 but Naro has started working on tests to produce pest-resistant maize and the results are promising. Natasha Mariam, natashamariam17@gmail.com Musevenis pride in violence is unfortunate Recently the media quoted President Museveni boasting that he and his NRM are the masters of violence. This was a revealing statement from Museveni who waged a very violent uncalled-for war where more than 300,000 innocent Ugandans lost their lives. Its unfortunate because people who lost their beloved ones and property are still nursing their wounds. May the good Lord soften the presidents heart that he may begin to value other peoples lives! Kennedy Kabonge, kabongek@yahoo.co.uk letters@observer.ug The mathematical (and other) thoughts of a (now retired) math teacher, The success of governments ambitious programmes of social and economic transformation are hinged on its ability to secure the peace and orderly conduct of all citizens and forge unity among all parts of the country, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has observed. He has thus stressed his governments commitment to ensure the full application of the law to safeguard the peace and security of the state. The application of the laws of the land will occur, in the words of the judicial oath, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, and without recourse to the political, religious or ethnic affiliations of any citizen of the land. he stressed. He was concerned, however, that over the years chieftaincy disputes have been a major setback to the nations social and economic development efforts, and thus called for the immediate resolution of those disputes across the country. It is time we brought all disputes across the country to an end , he said. President Akufo-Addo made the call when he addressed the chiefs and people of Manya Krobo during this years Ngmayem festival, last Friday. The President made a special appeal to the people and chiefs of the area to peacefully resolve all disputes that hinder the progress and development of the area. He assured them that the conduct of his government will lead to a huge transformation of the fortunes of the people in the area and the country as a whole. He expressed gratitude to the farmers of the area for their immense contribution towards the development of the Ghanaian economy over the years, and added that his government has begun the implementation of initiatives that would better the living conditions of the framer. Ghana has a unique potential to feed her growing population, meet the raw material requirement of our processing industry, achieve food security and compete successfully as a leading supplier to countries around us and beyond. Through its flagship programme, Planting For Food and Jobs, he noted that government has ensured the provision of improved seeds, the supply of subsidised fertiliser, dedicated extension services and marketing strategies, and the use of e-agriculture to help boost agriculture development in the country. He noted further that arrangements have been put in place to ensure ready market for the anticipated bumper harvest in the Manya Krobo Municipality under the Planting for Food programme to ensure that farmers get good pricing for their produce. In anticipation of a bumper harvest, the National Buffer Stock Company Limited has been resourced to provide ready market for farm produce. This will ensure that our farmers are paid minimum guarantee prices to make farming a viable venture. Agriculture remains the fuel that powers all our activities in Ghana; we ignore it at our risk. My government will certainly not ignore it. I give you my pledge that farmers food crop farmers, fish farmers and livestock farmers will have all the support they deserve from my government. Additionally, he said government has over the last few months in office been working to expand the Ghanaian economy and to create the necessary conditions to better the living conditions of the people. In furtherance of this, he mentioned several interventions such the Free Senior High School policy, the restoration of teachers and nursing trainees allowances, and the investments into the health sector as just but a few initiatives being undertaken by his government. He also mentioned the abolishment of a number of nuisance taxes which were stifling the growth of the private sector, and introduced a number of policies, such the national identification and the digital property addressing systems, among many others, aimed at formalising the structure of the Ghanaian economy. We are doing all these because we want to build a Ghana which looks to the use of its own resources and their proper management as the way to engineer social and economic growth in our country, he added. He used the occasion to thank the people and chiefs of Manya Krobo for the confidence reposed in him and the New Patriotic party in the December 2016 elections. I want to say a big thank you to you the people and chiefs of Manya Krobo and assure you that we will not let you down, he said. The President noted that the entire Krobo area has the potential of being developed into a major transportation corridor, linking the seaport of Tema to the Upper West, Upper East and Northern regions, and the countrys landlocked neighbours through the Volta Lake. Work has started and is progressing steadily on the Tema to Akosombo railway line, which will result in the construction of a containerised port at Akosombo. From there, shipment will be via the lake, and then by rail to Burkina Faso, and beyond. These projects have the potential of creating jobs and wealth for the people of Krobo, the President added. Source: The Finder Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video A decade ago, as Consol Energys 150th anniversary drew near, top executives began to take stock in where the company stood as a leading producer of coal and where that path would take it. Coal was in what CEO Nicholas DeIuliis called a supercycle. It was the workhorse of the national power grid and less expensive than competing fuels. U.S. production was robust, reaching a record 1.2 billion tons in 2008. Companies were expanding their reserves. Everything, DeIuliis recalled, was looking awesome. That was when the company decided to back out of the coal business it helped pioneer. Regulation was a concern. Burning coal creates major air pollutants that are linked more strongly to serious health consequences with each new study published, which has led to stricter and more expensive regulations to control them. And it was not lost on the Cecil-based company that it was sitting on the Marcellus Shale formation, the nations largest natural gas field. Consols decision to shift from coal to natural gas was fortuitously timed. Demand for natural gas soared, driven by an abundance of shale gas and lower prices. It enjoyed, albeit briefly, the image of an environmentally acceptable bridge to the time when renewable energy matures and offers a cleaner future. And its liquid byproducts have value as important feedstock for petrochemical manufacturing. In southwestern Pennsylvania, the newest power plant to be built is fired by natural gas rather than coal. In Beaver County, Shell is building an ethane cracker complex to turn natural gas liquids into polyurethane coveted by the plastics industry, raising hope among policymakers and economic development groups that it signals the budding of a major petrochemical manufacturing corridor in southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. But the impact the transition will have on air quality is coming under greater scrutiny. Natural gas, while less sooty than coal when burned, is not without an environmental footprint. And a growing body of evidence suggests that when emissions from the well pad to industrial use are considered, the shift to natural gas could add more air toxics, greenhouse gases and other pollutants to southwestern Pennsylvanias already overburdened air. Energy market shifts The fall of coal and rise of natural gas has been as swift as it has been dramatic. Trends in the electric power industry tell the story in a glance. Power plants are coals biggest customer, claiming 93 percent of the coal sold in the U.S. Coal-fired power plants, many of which are aging toward retirement, generated nearly half of the nations electricity in 2007. Today, they produce 30 percent and, for the first time, are being out-produced by newer power plants whose generators run on natural gas. In 2016, natural gas generated 34 percent of U.S. electricity, up from 22 percent 10 years earlier, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. The shift is seen across the nation as older coal-fired power plants close and gas-fired plants step in to pick up the slack to reign as the leading source of electricity. Last year, Tenaska, an Omaha-based energy company, broke ground on a 925-megawatt natural gas-fired power plant in Westmoreland County. And other energy companies announced plans to build natural gasfired power plants in and around the region, including a 550-megawatt plant in Elizabeth Township, Allegheny County, a 536-megawatt plant in Greene County and a 1,050-megawatt plant in Cambria County. We are seeing an unprecedented and rapid shutdown of coal-fired plants, said Gregory Reed, director of the University of Pittsburghs Center for Energy and the Energy GRID Institute. In my experience, I dont think weve seen anything this dynamic. Weve gone through changes before, but not changes like this in such a short amount of time. Drawn to natural gas A confluence of factors is driving the rapid transition. Scientific evidence of the health risk that industrial emissions pose has led to a steady tightening of air quality regulations for fine particulates, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and other pollutants that coal-fired plants emit in large volumes and require expensive technologies to control. At the same time, many coal-burning plants are nearing the end of their life cycle and face extensive and expensive upgrades. Coal no longer enjoys a substantial price advantage over its chief competitor, due to the efficient harvesting of shale gas with hydraulic fracturing technology that has roiled energy markets. Natural gas prices have fallen to levels roughly comparable to where locally delivered coal has been priced, said Edward Rubin, a professor and founding member of the Carnegie Mellon University Engineering and Public Policy department. Its a radically different situation than 40 or 50 years ago. Natural gas was two to three times more expensive than coal. When fracking started making natural gas more plentifuland bringing its price downthats when you have this radical shift. Natural gas burns much more efficiently than coal and that enables plants to make more electricity to sell from every unit of fuel they buy to fire their generators. And gas-fired generators reach operating temperature more quickly than coal-fired boilers, adjust to the demands of the power grid more nimbly, and waste less energy. Coal, as a result, is taking it on the chin. Falling demand has accelerated the downsizing of the workforce that began decades ago with the mechanization of mining. Coal employed 143,000 workers in 2011. Five years later, 43 percent of those jobs had vanished, leaving fewer than 82,000 workers in the industry, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration reports. Companies that had been snapping up coal reserves are now abandoning them for natural gas. Consol sold its underground West Virginia mines in 2013 and its surface mines in southern West Virginia in 2016. The company plans to sell or spin off its last coal operation, its Bailey, Enlow Fork and Harvey mines in Greene County, by the end of this year. But coal is not the only energy industry under pressure. Following a trend seen in other states, Exelon in May announced plans to close its Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg. Reasons include difficulties selling guaranteed power for coming years and competing with cheaper natural gas. Meanwhile, natural gas is steadily flowing from the Marcellus Shale underneath southwestern Pennsylvania. Production has risen consistently, even in recent years when low energy prices inflicted pain, jobs were shed and fewer wells were drilled. Such resiliency is a sign of the shale gas industrys maturity, said David Spigelmyer, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a shale gas trade group. Early wells, for example, could take as long as 60 days to drill and might extend only one-half mile horizontally through the shale to harvest the gas trapped within it. Today, drillers can sink a well in 10-15 days and extend it 2-3 miles to reach more gas. Over the course of a decade, the Marcellus Shale has come to produce 39 percent of the nations natural gas, more than any other shale play. But shale activity in Pennsylvania has slowed. The number of wells drilled has fallen from a high of 1,956 in 2011 to 503 in 2016, state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) data show. Jobs in the Pennsylvanias shale gas industry, which peaked in 2014 at nearly 32,000, decreased 10 percent the following year. And retiring coal-fired plants in favor of new plants that run on natural gas does not appear to be a job-generating proposition. Tenaska, for example, says it will operate its 925-megawatt natural gas power plant in Westmoreland County with only 25 employees. First Energys 2,490-megawatt coal-fired plant in Washington County generates 2.7 times more energy, but does so with 14 times the number of workers. But luring petrochemical companies to the region with the cheap and ample supply of feedstock that shale gas offers is expected to deliver jobs and investment. The Shell ethane cracker being built in Beaver County and another in southeastern Ohio proposed by a Thailand-based company follow a vision endorsed by the governors of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio of creating a petrochemical manufacturing corridor that holds the promise of boosting local economies and, once again, posing the challenge of balancing commerce, environment and public health. Wary of emissions A decade ago, the Sierra Club viewed natural gas as a bridge fuel to a cleaner renewable energy future. It even accepted millions of dollars in donations from Chesapeake Energy, a shale gas producer, to support its campaign against using coal as fuel. The honeymoon was short-lived. Within three years, the nations largest grassroots environmental organization reversed its position. It quit accepting Chesapeakes money, opposed hydraulic fracturing and made it known it no longer considered natural gas to be a kinder, gentler fuel in light of rising concern among local chapters and increasing scientific evidence of the potential risks to the environment and public health. Understanding how the shift to natural gas affects air quality is complicated by spotty data, large numbers of emission sources, wide variability in emissions among wells and other issues. Natural gas has been shown to be cleaner than coal in some regards. A natural gas-fired power plant generator emits 406.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide per megawatt hourless than half of the greenhouse gas emitted from a coal-fired generator, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Air quality modeling estimates that the new Shell ethane cracker will emit significantly smaller volumes of major air pollutants, such as sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, than the coal-fired zinc plant that previously occupied the Beaver County site. But evidence suggests that when the full cycle from drilling to industrial use is considered, the shift to natural gas as the leading fuel imposes its own burdens on air quality. Estimated emissions from the Shell cracker also suggest it will release higher concentrations of several hazardous air pollutants than the zinc smelter that was razed to make room for it. The air toxics include volatile organic compounds (VOC), which along with nitrogen oxides are a key ingredient of ground-level ozone. Ground-level ozone is a widespread air pollutant linked to an increased risk of health problems such as lung disease and asthma attacks. The air in southwestern Pennsylvania continues to carry ozone levels that exceed federal limits. University of Pittsburgh toxicologist James Fabisiak found that the additional VOC emissions from the Shell ethane cracker could reverse the downward trend in levels of the air toxic that Beaver County has experienced since 1999. Studies also report a link between shale gas drilling and increases in ozone, including one by University of Texas researchers who found that ozone levels tend to rise when higher gas prices spur greater production in the Eagle Ford shale play. Locally, DEP data suggest that the emissions from shale gas operations have increased levels of ozone-forming nitrogen oxides and VOC in Butler, Fayette, Greene, and Washington counties, where fracking is the most concentrated in the seven-county Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area. In fact, shale industry emissions are the largest source of VOC in Butler, Fayette, and Washington counties and account for nearly half of the emissions in Greene County. We are seeing ozone out West in the gas fields that is being driven by VOC and one has to wonder if that could also happen here, said Fabisiak, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh. Methane leaks from wells, pipelines and other sources is another environmental issue raised by shale gas development. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and several studies estimate that anywhere from 1.6 percent to 4 percent or more of the methane from shale gas operations is lost to leakage. Gas storage facilities are particularly vulnerable to leaking in Pennsylvania, where 830 sites are at least 60 years old and 45 percent of them were not designed for storage and dont meet current standards, according to a Harvard University study. Natural gas is much harder to handle than coal. It has a tendency to leak, Fabisiak said. The leaking of methane from when it is coming out of the ground to when it is being delivered to its ultimate destination is where there is a lot of uncertainty. The number of health studies related to natural gas is also increasing, although a shortage of data is proving to be an obstacle in precisely determining the level of risk to which people are exposed. The majority of recent studies identify areas of concern, including one that found higher rates of low-birth-weight babies born to mothers living places where fracking is the most concentrated. In 2013, as such health and environmental issues were emerging, an uncommon alliance of energy companies with stakes in local shale plays, foundations and environmental nonprofits announced theyd negotiated a set of voluntary environmental standards for the industry that exceeded the demands of oil and gas regulations. Known as the Center for Responsible Shale Development, they coupled the standards with a certification program. Unlike other voluntary industry best practices, companies seeking certification have to submit to independent audits to confirm their compliance with the standards in the field. They absolutely intended to state the need for leadership in this areathat simply waiting for the process of regulation adoption to take place should not delay implementation of best-management practices if you know that will lead to a better result, said Susan Packard LeGros, president and executive director of the alliance. Newspapers from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to the Washington Post applauded the alliance as an overdue step toward bridging ideological differences and addressing environmental concerns surrounding shale gas. Four years later, the groups charter energy companies Chevron, Consol, EQT and Shellhave all earned certification and have adopted the practices across their operations. But none of the dozens of other companies drilling in the Marcellus and Utica shale have joined them. Its one thing to say Im meeting best practices. Its another thing to open your doors to independent inspectors who look at your operations and look at your bookkeeping to see if thats true, LeGros said. Every company should be participating. The public should expect that. Shell Chemical Appalachias petrochemical complex has begun to rise from a dusty Beaver County brownfield that follows a slow bend in the Ohio River near Monaca. It took hefty tax incentives to secure it. The nations largest zinc smelter was razed to make room for it. More than 7 million cubic feet of earth were moved to accommodate it. No industrial plant has been more anticipated in recent decadesor been seen as more consequential to the economy and environment of the region. The ethane cracker, which will produce feedstock for plastics manufacturing, is the first major plant to exploit the industrial potential of the regions gas-rich Marcellus Shale formation, the second-largest unconventional natural gas field in the world. To economic development groups, the Shell complex is seen as a catalyst for an expansive shale-related industrial corridor endorsed by the governors of Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio to stimulate investment and create jobs in communities hungry for both. But the vision raises concern over the environmental impact of petrochemical plants that despite being required to deploy sophisticated emission control technologies are expected to add tons of air pollutants to a region where meeting air quality standards remains a struggle and the risks of cancer and other diseases from airborne toxic chemicals are among the highest in the nation. Untapped potential Hydraulic fracturing has enabled energy companies to efficiently tap the abundance of natural gas found in the tri-state regions Marcellus and Utica shale plays. Those plays are also rich in natural gas liquids, including ethane and propane, which are highly valued raw materials for petrochemical production and plastics manufacturing. That downstream manufacturing is underdeveloped in southwestern Pennsylvania. Last year, all of the ethane recovered in Pennsylvania as petrochemical feedstock was shipped out of state for processing, according to a recent industry analysis done by the business research firm, IHS Markit. Moreover, some 70 percent of the market for such products is within 700 miles of the Marcellus and Utica shale gas fields of southwestern Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. The governors of those states endorsed a Tri-State Shale Coalition in late 2015 whose intent is to expand the economic benefits of shale gas beyond drilling. To pave the way, the states agreed to cooperate on marketing the Appalachian Basin region as a destination for the petrochemical industry, spur investment in transportation and other infrastructure to support it and train an industry-ready workforce. Their vision is a hub of petrochemical manufacturing in the Appalachian Basin with the potential to become the largest network north of the sprawling 150-company chemical corridor along the Mississippi River that stretches from Baton Rouge to New Orleans in southern Louisiana. Eight months after the governors signed on, Shell announced plans to build the Beaver County ethane cracker, giving the proposed petrochemical corridor its first anchor tenant. Its validation for us, said David Ruppersberger, president of the Pittsburgh Regional Alliance, which is working with other economic development groups in West Virginia and Ohio to attract petrochemical companies. A lot of people here didnt think it could happen. A lot of people on the Gulf Coast didnt think it was going to happen because nobody builds crackers outside the Gulf Coast. And its Royal Dutch Shell that is making this investment. That is international validation that this is a viable play. The Shell complex will take low-cost ethane from locally drilled natural gas and crack or break the ethane molecules apart to produce polyethylene, a common plastic used to make products ranging from packaging and containers to automotive parts. An estimated 6,000 construction workers are needed to build the cracker. The plant itself is expected to employ about 600 people and estimates suggest its supply chain could generate another 1,200-1,800 jobs. Several nearby counties can use the work, state Department of Labor and Industry data suggest. Beaver County and nearby Washington and Fayette counties had unemployment rates this year higher than the 5.3 percent average for the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area. Ongoing operations at the ethane cracker are estimated to generate $9.3 million-$12 million in state income taxes and $3 million-$ 3.8 million in local taxes a year, according to an economic impact analysis Robert Morris University conducted for Shell. It is unclear how many petrochemical companies can be convinced to settle in the three-state region. Finding sites for large chemical complexes that cover hundreds of contiguous acres of relatively flat riverfront property is particularly challenging and seen as a limiting factor. But industry interest in the region is growing. Later this year, Thailand-based PTT Global Chemical is expected to decide whether to invest billions of dollars to build an ethane cracker along the Ohio River at Dilles Bottom in southeastern Ohio. I cant talk about specific companies, Ruppersberger said, but I can say there are other companies considering ethane crackers as well as other natural gas liquid processing. Pollution measured in tons While such possibilities brighten the economic prospects of the region, air quality modeling and other evidence suggest emissions from petrochemical facilities, such as ethane crackers, are not benign. The potential of the Beaver County ethane cracker to pollute is not lost on those who live in the surrounding communities, according to surveys conducted by the Clean Air Council, a Philadelphia-based environmental nonprofit. While 54 percent of county residents support the new plant, 56 percent are concerned about its environmental impact. Air quality permits require petrochemical plants to use emissions control systems that meet industry-specific best available technology and other engineering standards for reducing pollution. Cap-and-trade rules also allow a plant to reduce its emissions on paper and meet permit requirements by purchasing emissions credits that other plants earn by polluting less. Emissions from ethane crackers contain a wide range of regulated air pollutants, including major criteria pollutants as defined by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, such as fine particulates, known as PM2.5, and sulfur dioxide, as well as hazardous air pollutants, which include compounds known or suspected to cause cancer. Those air toxics also include volatile organic compounds, which contribute to ground-level ozone. Air throughout the seven- county Pittsburgh MSA fails to meet the annual federal limits for ozone, a widespread pollutant that research suggests raises the risk of asthma attacks, permanent lung damage and abnormal lung development in children. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued Shell an air quality permit to operate the ethane cracker in 2015 based on the sophistication of its pollution control systems and its estimated emissions. Required controls are very effective in capturing and controlling emission sources of volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants, Shell spokesman Ray Fisher said. They range from 98 percent to 99% percent effective. Characteristics of the ethane crackers emissions are detailed in the permit, which requires Shell to estimate the potential maximum volume of pollutants the plant will release. Those data also show how emissions from the ethane cracker, which is fueled by natural gas, differ from those typical of large coal-fired industrial works, such as power plants and steel and coke works. On one hand, the ethane cracker is expected to emit lower volumes of major pollutants. Shell estimates, for example, that the ethane cracker will release a maximum of 159 tons of PM2.5 a yearabout half as much as the U.S. Steel Clairton metallurgical coke plant in Allegheny County emits. Emissions from the Clairton Works is a major reason why Allegheny remains one of only 30 counties nationwide that are unable to meet EPA standards for PM2.5, which increases the risk of heart and lung disease. But the ethane cracker is expected to emit higher concentrations of several hazardous air pollutants than were released from the zinc smelter that previously occupied the Beaver County site, according to air quality permit data, a University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health regional air toxics analysis and other studies. Shell estimates, for example, that the Beaver County cracker will emit a maximum of 522 tons of volatile organic compounds a year, nearly eight times the amount the zinc smelter released in 2008. If you are using ethane to drive a petrochemical industry, that creates a new pathway for volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants being released, said James Fabisiak, toxicologist and associate professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh. We know volatile organic compounds can contribute to ozone formation. This industry brings an unprecedented amount of volatile organic compounds to the area. The south Louisiana chemical corridor and parts of southwestern Pennsylvania share some of the highest rates of cancer risk due to toxic emissions in the nation, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys most recent National Air Toxics Assessment data. Elevated lifetime cancer risk is reported across the 25 Louisiana parishes with a peak rate of 185 cases per 1 million peoplea likelihood of contracting cancer from breathing air toxics higher than what is reported in the southwestern Pennsylvania pollution hot spot in the Monongahela River valley downstream from Clairton, home of the nations largest metallurgical coke plant. In and around Monaca, where the new ethane cracker is being built, the estimated cancer risk from breathing toxic chemical emissions stands at 52-in-1 million people, which is 30 percent higher than the latest national average. Under state law, Shell is largely responsible for monitoring plant emissions and recording the data that will show how effectively the system is managing pollution. Its air quality permit only requires monitoring within the plant. The Clean Air Council argues thats not enough based on a health impact study it conducted that concluded the ethane cracker will raise the levels of several hazardous pollutants in the region. It is appealing the plants permit, contending, in part, that Shell should expand its monitoring to areas along the plants fence line and make the data public. Fence-line monitoring protects both workers and the community. People should know what is coming directly into the community, said Joseph Minott, the nonprofits executive director and chief counsel. The technology exists. The EPA requires it for refineries. We dont understand why DEP wouldnt require it for a facility like this. The appeal is pending. But Shells Fisher suggested that expanding air quality monitoring at the Beaver County petrochemical complex is not out of the question. While Shells view is that fence-line monitoring is not required by state or federal regulation for this type of facility, he said, Shell is open to considering the installation of fence-line monitoring and the sharing of monitoring information with the community. Power companies arent alone in their shift away from coal. Steelmakers, industry groups and the federal government are spending millions looking for a way to make steel without coke, the carbon-rich form of coal used to fuel blast furnaces. Like coal-fired power generation, coke production is a major source of air pollution, and its processing costs often make it the most expensive raw material fed into the furnace. Ever since coke was first used in a blast furnace, which I think was 1753, there have been attempts to try and run it without coke, said Chris Pistorius, co-director of the Center for Iron and Steelmaking Research at Carnegie Mellon University. To make iron in a blast furnace, you definitely need coke. How much coke you need, thats an interesting question. As far back as 2009, U.S. Steel highlighted to its investors its use of natural gas to reduce the need for coke in its blast furnaces. The companys coke production fell from 8 million tons in 2013 to 5.6 million in 2015 as it shuttered coke-making operations across the country, according to annual reports it filed with the U.S. Energy Information Administration. U.S. Steels Clairton Works produces 4.3 million tons a year, which is almost one-third of all the coke produced in the U.S. in 2015, according to the U.S. EIA. Its also perennially in violation of air quality standards and has been fined millions of dollars despite the company spending $600 million in upgrades meant to make it run cleaner. Over time, steel producers have discovered that alternative fuels, including natural gas, self-generated coke oven gas, and pulverized coal can be injected into the furnace to replace some of the coke, said Meghan Cox, spokeswoman for U.S. Steel. These options allow steelmakers to be flexible and improve their cost competitiveness based on raw materials costs, while reducing dependence on coal and coke. Coking plants consumed 4.6 million fewer tons of coal in 2016 than they did in 2010, a 21 percent drop, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Every kilogram of natural gas can replace a kilogram of coke, roughly speaking, Pistorius said. But that only works up to a point. Blast furnaces still need coke because it behaves in ways other materials dont. When heated, it turns molten and flows; as some of the volatile compounds are cooked out of it, it becomes hard; and in between, it allows gas to flow through the blast furnace, he said. Thats quite unique, Pistorius said. Only coke can do that job, and there isnt really an alternative. So, rather than a replacement fuel for the blast furnace, the industry is looking for a replacement for the blast furnace itself. Were looking at technologies that will make major changes in steelmaking, said Lawrence Kavanagh, president of the Steel Market Development Institute, a division of the American Iron and Steel Institute. The Institute is the main industry group for steelmakers in North America, with a membership that includes 19 steel producers including U.S. Steel, as well as 95 associate members. Were looking at significant changes in production processes, cost of operations and environmental impact. The best [research] projects have all three, said Kavanagh. The institute and U.S. Department of Energy are spending $11 million on a multi-year research project at the University of Utah that creates hot metal from iron ore powder in a natural gasfired reactor. Using gas rather than coke could cut carbon emissions by 39 percent, according to the Energy Department. Thats at the very large laboratory scale, Kavanagh said. Testing of that technology is ongoing. Kavanagh declined to say what the institute spends on research overall, but its funding helped kick off another research project that, according to its lead scientist, produces no carbon emissions at all. Called electrolytic steelmaking, the process requires no coal, emits no toxins, and produces oxygen as a byproduct, said Donald Sadoway, the John F. Elliott professor of materials chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sadoways process uses iron ore dissolved in an electrolyticor electricity- conductingsolution. A pair of electrodes developed by his research team fire electricity through the solution, raising the temperature to 1,600 centigrade, or about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. As in a blast furnace, the iron ore melts and hot metal makes its way to the bottom of the chamber. Unlike a blast furnace, the process uses no carbon for fuel and so produces no carbon dioxide, he said. No only do you not generate carbon dioxide and all the other side emissions; for every ton of liquid iron you produce, you get two-thirds of a ton of industrial oxygen. To keep the process carbon-free, a steel plant using Sadoways technology would have to get its electricity from renewable power. Obviously, you dont want to take a wrecking ball to a blast furnace and then use coal to generate the electricity, Sadoway said. But the technology raises the possibility of a solar-powered steel mill. When the sun shines, you make metal. When the sun doesnt, you tell people to go home and spend time with their families. Sadoways company, Boston Electrometallurgical Corp., built a pilot-scale reactor in a Boston suburb that has produced tons of steel, he said. This is not a science experiment. The American Iron and Steel Institute stopped funding the project several years ago because of doubts about whether it would be cheaper to produce steel in that manner, but they continue to monitor Sadoways progress, Kavanagh said. The scale and economics of steelmaking mean new methods of steelmaking have a high bar to clear before theyre adopted, Sadoway said. Steelmakers have spent billions of dollars on equipment for a manufacturing process with coke at its core. Sadoway believes that inertia is likely to be a major obstacle to the industry adopting his method. The process is so different. They look at all that capital investment and say, You mean we dont use all of this anymore? New methods of steelmaking also have to compete with blast furnaces that are the products of more than 300 years of refinements. Because the blast furnace has been around for so long, its been optimized, Pistorius said. It is very energy efficient. That makes it hard to improve upon. My mother and father were immigrants who had a mom-and-pop grocery store, and they worked hard. I was an only childborn March 20, 1931and, from the beginning, my father told me that I was going to be a doctor. I was an obedient child, so I never questioned it. Then as I moved through high school and into college, my life just seemed to flow that way. It was inculcated into me and that was it. I went to Pittpre-med, of courseand was very active. I was president of the student body and of my fraternity. I was business manager of The Pitt News and of the Pitt Players. I had the lead role in Our Town and was concertmaster of the orchestra. I was even president of the YMCAas a Jew! Back then, if you were a Big Man On Campus, everybody assumed you were pre-law because all BMOCs were pre-law. People kept asking, Where are you going to go to law school? Maybe thats what gave me the idea of becoming a lawyer as well as a doctor. Even before I finished my medical studies, I knew that I didnt want to be a general practitioner. As you might guess, I was looking for something more exciting. I had already decided to go to law school and was looking for a field of medicine that was integrated with legal applications. Thats when I found forensic pathology. And even though I had been accepted to both Harvard and Yale, I chose the Pitt School of Law because I was also accepted into the pathology residency program at the Veterans Administration Hospital here in Oakland. They would let me go to law school during my residency, as long as I fulfilled all of my obligations at the hospital. So for two years, I was a full-time law student and a full-time resident of pathology. But I needed one more year to finish up my law degree. Unfortunately, I got deferred through the military under what was called the Berry Plan. The idea was to let students finish med school and complete their residencies and specialties, then grab them for military service once they were full-fledged thoracic surgeons, etc. It sure beat grabbing a bunch of general practitioners! So they grabbed me as a pathologist. Law school was of no real concern to thembut I caught a break. As luck would have it, I was stationed at the largest Air Force hospital in the country400 beds and specialists in all fieldswhich was also the Air Forces pathology center! And boy, did we have a huge load. A couple of dozen bases throughout the Southeast regularly sent us their specimens for analysis. Long story short, I got credit for third- and fourth-year pathology training while doing my military duty. All I needed was one more year of law school and a fellowship in forensic pathology. Thats when I discovered an excellent forensic pathology program at the medical examiners office in Baltimore and the University of Maryland, which had a good law school with a fully accredited evening division. So I went there, finished my third year of law school in the evening, and did my fellowship in forensic pathology at the M.E.s office, then returned to Pittsburgh in the summer of 1962. In my field, the term legal medicine is the over-arching rubric under which fall the disciplines of forensic pathology, hospital law, and healthcare and medical ethics. In forensic pathology, one deals with homicides and suicides, civil litigation and so on, and that kind of work made sense for me. I could use both my medical and legal backgrounds to the fullest extent. But I wasnt planning on becoming a big shot. What evolved thereafter, I had nothing to do with directly. In the fall of 1963, one of the program chairs for the upcoming 1964 annual meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences called and told me that they were going to do a full-day program on the Warren Commission Report. It would be considered from the perspectives of pathology, toxicology, psychiatry, criminalistics, anthropology, etc. He then asked if I would be willing to address the John F. Kennedy assassination case from the pathology angle. I said, Sure. So I went to the Carnegie Library in the fall of 1964 to review the report. It comprised 26 volumes andto my horrorhad no index! The bastards did this deliberately, of course, so that the American public wouldnt bother reading it. Eventually, I found what I needed and gave my presentation in February of 1965, and Ive been up to my eyeballs with J.F.K. in every way ever since. Things just sort of snowballed from there. In 1968, Tom Noguchi, who was one of my good friends and colleagues, was the chief medical examiner of Los Angeles. One day, I got a call at 3 or 4 in the morning from Tom to tell me that Robert Kennedy had been shot. Now, Tom didnt need any advice on the autopsy. But he knew of my involvement by that time with J.F.K., and was concerned that the feds would try to pull the same thing that they did with Johnremove the body. I recommended that he speak with Pierre Salinger, a native Californian who was close to the Kennedys, and that he get the jump on the feds by inviting three military forensic pathologists to attend the autopsy. He did that and, for some reason, I ended up on national television with Dan Rather. Before long, all sorts of people started calling me about cases such as those of Sharon Tate, Patty Hearst, Elvis Presley and Tammy Wynette. So Ive met many interesting people through the years. Famed attorney F. Lee Bailey, for example, recommended me to the D.A. of Suffolk County for the Mary Jo Kopechne case, and I testified before the judge as to why her body should be exhumed. You know, Ive probably done more exhumations than any other forensic scientist in the country because my work has been so involved in medical-legal matters. In fact, I just did an exhumation for a guy whod been dead for two or three years. And even I, after 45 years and more than 100 exhumation autopsies, for a moment thought, What the hell is this? My nose is yours and my eyes are yours. I can smell and see what you smell and see. But there are certain things to which you cant acclimatize. You cant be trained not to smell or see. But its the work that I do. For me, the most important thing is never to lose cognizance of the fact that Im dealing with deceased human beings. Somebody somewhere loved these people. These situations must always be handled with great dignity and respect. This is not to raise a flag, but those of us in forensic pathology, we recognize that what we do is very, very sensitiveand also very, very important. Sometimes comments come back, often snide, about my involvement in certain high-profile cases. Well, thats what I do as a forensic pathologist. My work with the media hasnt kept me from doing autopsies. There arent very many pathologists around who have done more than me, and there arent very many who, at my age, are still doing themmore than 300 a year. So my detractors can take their criticism and shove it. The point is, the more involved you get in very big cases, every time you testify, your expertise (or, for some people, the lack thereof) is on record. In the old days, people had to seek out Attorney X in Connecticut or Attorney Y in Kansas to get a record of who said what in a particular case. Today, you can just push a couple of buttons and everything you ever said is there for all to read or hear. Now more than ever, we must maintain our honesty, integrity and credibility, otherwise our careers will be finished. So does it make me an egomaniac to say that I enjoy the media and being on TV programs? I dont think so. I dont rush home to see myself. I dont get Investigation Discovery on cable. One of my sons, who lives just two blocks away, does, but I dont go over there to see myself. In fact, the producers send me disks of the shows and I dont look at them. I simply dont have the time, and I watch very little TV anyway. I read five newspapers every dayfour on Saturday when theres no USA Today, and three on Sunday. (Theres no Wall Street Journal on that day either.) I still work seven days a week, many evenings, and I like to write. I dont waste time. I give interviews, even while Im in the car, via cell phone. I get many requests from students and Ill often have them call me at home on weekends when Ill have more time to spend with them. Sure, I work hard. And yes, Im proud of what I do. They named the Allegheny County medical examiner facility after me, you know. And Ive won more awards than I can count. So dont feel sorry for me because of my schedule. My wife and I, we get away when we canthree-day weekends, if they fit with the various programs that I keep up with. For the most part, things quiet down in the courts during the holidays, so we like to get away for Christmas and New Years. We love movies and have season tickets to many things here in town, including the Steelers. Most, of course, are shared with my family. Its amazing, but all of my kids wound up in Pittsburghwithout any scheming or conniving on my part. My oldest son, David, went to Yale and is now administrative judge of the Family Division with 13 judges under him. Hes going to be running for Superior Court next year in Pennsylvania. Hes got four kids. My second son, Daniel, went to Harvard, did medical school at Penn, then six years of training in neurosurgery followed by a two-year fellowship at Yale. Hes a neurosurgeon at UPMC and has three kids. My son Ben graduated from Penn, has a masters degree from Stanford, and is program director of the Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law at Duquesne. Hes got two kids. My daughter, Ingridmy youngestwent to Dartmouth and then got her masters and medical degrees at Georgetown. Shes an OB/GYN specialist, grouped mostly with West Penn, and she has two girls. So we have four kids, their spouses, and 11 grandchildren, and we get together at our home almost every Sunday when were in town, and share dinner or brunch once in a while. One shouldnt take family for granted. Yes, there were times in the past when I could have packed up and left Pittsburgh. I could have been the chief medical examiner of Nassau County, N.Y., for example. I once had an offer to become a professor of legal medicine at the University of Texas. And who knows? I also might have become the chief medical examiner of either New York City or Chicago. But after a while, the kids came along and they were all happy here. Then I got heavily involved in the region as chief forensic pathologist and coroner, and I even began to get involved politically, too. So thats my life, and I have no regrets. I get involved and I open my mouth. Thats all I can do. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, released a statement on Monday in support of the Russian investigation on her Facebook page. In light of todays news on the Mueller probe, I wanted to express my continued support for this investigation. The investigation into possible Russian interference in our election cycle is a serious matter and its important for our political process to allow it to continue so that we may get the facts. As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I will continue working on our bipartisan investigation and will follow the facts wherever they may lead. President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, were indicted Monday on charges of conspiracy against the United States, money laundering and several other financial charges. The charges were the first stemming from special counsel Robert Muellers probe into possible ties between Trumps presidential campaign and Russia. The indictment filed in federal court in Washington accused both men of funneling tens of millions of dollars in payments through foreign companies and bank accounts. Manafort and Gates surrendered to federal authorities, and were expected in court later Monday to face charges brought by Muellers team. The Citizens Budget Commission is recommending that the state tighten up oversight of Industrial Development Agencies (IDA)s and Local Development Corporations (LDCs) and eliminate redundancy and duplication. Six of the 62 counties have more than 10 LDCs and IDAs combined. The report states that the Capital Region has 21 IDAs and 27 LDCs. It recommends that the IDAs be consolidated into a multicounty IDA for each of the states 10 Regional Economic Development Councils. It also wants to step up the enforcement powers of the Authorities and Budget Office to allow it to assess fines, suspend directors and curtail activities of certain authorities that are not complying with state law. Other suggestions are for ABOs to verify job creation data for large economic development projects, for the state comptroller to have the authority to audit LDC and for standardization of reporting for IDA and LDCs. The commission is a nonpartisan organization seeking to make changes in the finances of New York City and New York state. Since I have taken over the beat, I have tried to become familiar with the various economic development agencies such as EDC Warren County, the Glens Falls IDA, the Warren County IDA, the Glens Falls Local Development Corporation and the Glens Falls Urban Renewal Agency. It gets a little difficult to keep them all straight. GLENS FALLS Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Southern Adirondacks has named its volunteers of the year and will honor them Nov. 16 at the 11th annual Big Night of Thanks at Highland Park Country Club in Queensbury. Its a really big night for us, and its one of my favorite events of the year, said Bill Moon, executive director of the local group. This is our chance to thank the people who make it possible for us to do what we do. We get to thank people for what they do. He said his favorite part of the event is when the little brothers and sisters talk about their big brother or sister. No one can do that justice like the kids, Moon said. They really know the kind of impact we have on the community. Luke Kelly, of Queensbury, was named the groups Big Brother of the Year. Luke has been matched with Sam for four years this November, and Sam said his favorite thing about his Big Brother Luke is that they share a lot of similar interests and he is fun to hang out with. Kelsey Schermerhorn, of Fort Ann, was named Big Sister of the Year. She has been matched with Amber since February of 2012. Officials said Kelsey has been a tremendous role model for her little sister and volunteered in Michigan before moving here nearly six years ago. Kelsey and Amber share a love for the outdoors and spend a lot of time exploring the Adirondacks and beyond. Deanna Lebel, a senior at Queensbury Union Free School District, was named school-based Big Sister of the Year. She has been with her little sister, Ari, for three years and was instrumental in the implementation of Big Brothers Big Sisters afterschool program at Queensbury Middle School. Her volunteering goes back to when she was 3 and helped her family bowl in Bowl for Kids Sake. Jared Humiston, president of Adirondack Technical Solutions, was selected as the honorary Big Brother. While he is not a traditional matched mentor, he has become a partner in strengthening BBBS and is involved with many other community organizations. Brian Bearor, CEO of Family YMCA of the Glens Falls Area, was selected as the recipient of the David J. Capron Humanitarian of the Year Award. He has worked closely with Tri-County United Way, currently serves as an officer on the board of the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce and is a Rotary member in addition to his role at the YMCA. The event is co-sponsored by Glens Falls Hospital, NBT Bank, C.R. Bard and friends of the agency, Bert and Terri Rappaport. The event will be hosted by the Hiland Park Country Club in Queensbury. Tickets to attend are $20 and can be purchased at mentoringinfo.org. FORT EDWARD The Fort Edward Meetinghouse, part of the 200-year-old Fort Miller Reformed Church complex, has announced a series of activities for the rest of the year, starting Sunday with a presentation by a well-known speaker and conservationist. Doug Vincent, an inspirational speaker and river enthusiast who has lived and worked in the Capital District for more than 20 years, will be the featured speaker beginning at 2 p.m. Vincent will offer a talk and slide show presentation about his 28-day canoe trip down the Hudson. The presentation is part of the Battenkill Conservancys annual public meeting held to update as well as collect feedback from the community on its the current activities. Vincent is a licensed clinical social worker with a masters in social work from Rutgers Graduate School of Social Work. Vincent currently resides along the river in Fort Miller adjacent to the meetinghouse. The meeting is open to the public and all are welcome. Refreshments will be served. Weekly services are still held at the church at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. During last years planning for reopening the meetinghouse, church and community members started talking about using the sanctuary and the fellowship hall for a variety of community events, and in a sense, returning to its original roots as a community meetinghouse to serve all. The concept was consistent with the churchs philosophy of being an all welcoming church. On Nov 11, the church will put on a roast pork dinner from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. A four-week session of gentle-moderate yoga will begin at 8:30 a.m. The annual Turkey Waddle takes place at 9 a.m. Nov. 23. Proceeds raised during the Turkey Waddle will go towards helping the Drake Bay Elementary School on Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. The meetinghouses final event of 2017 takes place at 5 p.m. Dec. 16 with A Festival of Carols, with refreshments and a sharing of peoples personal nativities and holiday memories. The meetinghouse is at 1239 Fort Miller Road and is part of the historic Fort Miller Reformed Church complex that sits between the Hudson River and the state Canal System, just off Route 4. More information on each of the events can be found at www.fortmillermeetinghouse.org. GLENS FALLS Candidates for office in the city of Glens Falls seem to agree on many different things, including the need to upgrade the citys roads and sewer infrastructure, becoming more environmentally friendly and addressing vacant properties. Selecting the candidates may come down to the candidates background and approach. About 40 people attended the Glens Falls Candidates Forum on Sunday to get to meet the candidates. The event was held at the Crandall Public Library and sponsored by the Green Party. The highlight was the remarks and questions-and-answers from the three candidates running for mayor Democrat Dan Hall, Green Party candidate Rich Cirino and Republican Tim Guy. Hall, currently the councilor-at-large, said he is very optimistic about the citys future because of the progress made during the last eight years. The city conducted a downtown visioning study and items are coming to fruition out of that, including implementation of an arts trail. He said he wants to focus on continued infrastructure improvement, including upgrading technology and being more energy efficient. Hall recently attended a Smart Cities conference in Washington, D.C. I believe there are ways that we can save money being a smart city, he said. Cirino said the city needs leadership and an overarching mission for its employees and residents. He would like to see more of a focus on the neighborhoods. I see a city that has nourished select parts and starved others, he said. Guy said the city is sitting on a surplus of about $3.7 million when there are unmet infrastructure needs. He also believes residents concerns are not being heard. If our city government is making them feel that theyre not important, then we have an issue, and thats why Im running, he said. Hall defended the citys record on infrastructure, staying that it has spent a half-million dollars and paved 5 miles of streets this summer. He said Glens Falls is attempting to address the zombie homes. It is difficult to track down the owners because the mortgages have been passed around to different parties. It is also working to address sewer infrastructure. Cirino said the city has the power to address nuisance issues. He the city should seal cracks in pavement so the roads would be in good condition for a longer period of time. Guy said the city should address potholes in certain sections. The candidates had differing views over downtown development. Hall believes the farmers market will be an asset. Cirino said the idea is not fleshed out and has no business plan. Guy was skeptical of the need for a year-round farmers market and believes the money could be spent better. In other races, Green Party candidate Robin Barkenhagen is facing off against Jane Reid, currently the Ward 3 councilor, for the councilor-at-large position. Barkenhagen said he plans to work full time in the job and open up an office at his own expense to address constituent concerns. I plan to bring an energy that youve never seen before, he said. His top five issues are broadening the tax base by filling empty storefronts, improving the infrastructure in neighborhoods, improving city ties with Queensbury and Warren County, saving taxpayer money by consolidating services and stepping up code enforcement to address rundown properties and increasing sustainability. Reid said she shared many of the same priorities, including upgrading sewer infrastructure to separate the stormwater and sanitary sewer systems. She said the city needs a plan for replacing this infrastructure. Reid said she has served on the Board of Education, Head Start and Glens Falls Home boards, which give her an informed perspective on issues. I feel that I get a lot of input from a lot of sources, and theyre not necessarily the type of sources that are going to pick up the phone and call the mayors office, she said. Diana Palmer, Democratic candidate for the Ward 3 Common Council seat, said she wants the city to increase efficiency to reduce its costs and create a registry for rental properties. Her opponent, Republican Rachel Murray, was not at the forum. Democrat Steve Baratta and Green Party nominee Ben Lapham shared what they would do if elected to the Ward 4 seat. Incumbent Republican Councilor Scott Endieveri was not at the forum. Barratas top issues are addressing crumbling sidewalks and stepping up code enforcement, providing affordable housing and developing a technology business incubator and a combined living and work space for artists. Lapham would like to upgrade city technology, address code issues, change the water bill so people pay less with less usage and increase transparency. Also in Ward 4, Democrat Bill Loeb and Republican Karen Judd shared their views on what they would do if elected to the Warren County Board of Supervisors for Glens Falls. Judd wants to focus on providing county services while holding the line on spending and taxes. She said the county should explore privatization and consolidation where possible, including the areas of tourism and the Glens Falls Police Department with the Warren County Sheriffs Office. Loeb wants to modernize telecommuncations infrastructure and have the Warren County Department of Public Works work more closely with the citys. He also was open to further exploration of police consolidation. Also attending the forum were unopposed candidates Councilor Bill Collins, who is running opposed for re-election in Ward 2; Claudia Braymer; and Matt Donald. Not in attendance were Councilor Jim Campinell, the Democrat representing Ward 1, and his Republican and Independence Party challenger, Phillip Underwood. Also not in attendance were the two candidates for county supervisor from that same ward Democrat Jack Diamond and Republican and Independence party candidate Nancy Underwood. All candidates seemed to agree with a line uttered by Guy at the end of the mayoral section of the forum. Theres a lot of backbiting and stuff going on in other communities, Guy said, obviously referring to the political drama in Queensbury. I want to thank everybody whos running for absolutely acting like the adults we are. QUEENSBURY Ethics has become a major issue in the town supervisor campaign, with accusations flying on both sides. The Republicans point to a state audit that Democratic Supervisor John Strough did not show to the Town Board. Meanwhile, the Democrats have linked Republican supervisor candidate Rachel Seeber to the deeds of Republicans who worked on her campaign. She refused to disavow them and instead defended them and worked to help them. The audit said the town had failed its job of checking on the grant-funded spending of a contractor for the Lake George Watershed Coalition. That contractor was later charged with fraud, and Republicans say they could have looked harder at the contractor if theyd known about the audit. When board members directly asked the contractor, Dave Decker, about the audit at a public meeting, he said the town had passed the audit. Strough did not protest. Instead, he doubled down, saying that the auditors had looked at every detail and then determined the town was not at fault. They discovered the state was at fault, he said. That is not at all what the audit said, and Republicans have pounded Strough for months on his choice to not give the board the audit and then mischaracterize it to them. Our supervisor hid a scathing audit, Seeber said. Not even just hid. Lied about. She noted that she was one of many who asked about the audit. I asked at a workshop: Are there red flags? (I was told) No, there are not. Thats a huge problem to me, she said. Strough said he made a mistake in not giving the board the audit. He said he was waiting for the state to give him the final version. While he waited, he held a meeting and resolved the concerns listed in the audit. But he never followed up when the final audit did not arrive. Still, he said it was not representative of his entire four years of work. They have gone over me with a fine-tooth comb. They found one thing, he said. I dont think theres that many people that could go through that scrutiny and come out with just one thing. He insisted it was a mistake, not a deliberate attempt to deceive the board. Why would I want to hide it? he said. I solved the problem. All the grants were being processed. Grant payments had not been sent to the town for months prior to Stroughs meeting with state officials. While Republicans say the hidden audit proves Strough cannot be trusted, Democrats say that Seebers ethics are questionable. When Councilman Doug Irish moved to North Carolina and refused to give up his council seat, Seeber defended him. Irish has been a leader in her campaign from the start. She broadcast meetings live from her seat in the audience so Irish could watch them. While she did not criticize his behavior, she said later he did the right thing when he resigned last week. Similarly, she did not criticize Irish for his role in planning to deceive the voters of Ward 1. When the Republican candidate, Hal Bain, wanted to drop out, Irish told him to stay quiet while others campaigned for him. Once Bain won, he could resign and the Republican-controlled Town Board would pick his replacement. Seeber said the idea wasnt wrong. How is it a scheme? she said, arguing that Bain had the responsibility of speaking up. Absolutely, the public should have known, but thats Hals decision, she said. She also defended attorney John Aspland, who participated in the email discussion. Aspland works for the towns law firm. He said Irishs plan would be optimal. He didnt mean to endorse the plan but just to say that election law wouldnt allow Bains name to be taken off the ballot, Seeber said. I wouldnt hold it against them. They didnt break the law. In my opinion, they answered a question, she said. In the future, she said, town officials shouldnt even ask employees or contractors about their political activity or affiliations. Strough called Asplands involvement unsettling and said he wants a town attorney who will act in the best interests of the entire town not just the Republicans. High winds early Monday caused widespread power outages around the region, and it might be Tuesday night before everyone gets electricity back. More winds Monday afternoon and early evening had the potential to cause additional outages. National Grid reported over 7,000 local customers without power as of early Monday, with the towns of Moreau, Queensbury, Bolton and Hague all dealing with extensive pre-dawn outages. There were hundreds reported out in Fort Edward, Johnsburg and Easton as well. Other outages popped up as winds continued during the day, though, with more than 1,000 out in Hudson Falls late Monday afternoon. But by mid-evening Monday, the number of local outages had dwindled to about 2,200. National Grid spokesman Nathan Stone said the company was still assessing damaged areas as of Monday afternoon and awaiting removal of damaged trees and limbs, so it was unclear when everyone would be back up. Progress was being made, as nearly 20,000 customers in eastern New York were without power early Monday, the number cut to under 5,000 by early evening. The damage was so widespread, a lot of trees are down and poles broken, he said. It was all over the place Ticonderoga, Glens Falls and down toward Troy and Albany. New York State Electric & Gas had nearly 3,000 customers in the region who were down early Monday, most of them in Granville, Hebron, Salem and Newcomb. That number had been cut to about 2,000 as of late Monday afternoon, with no estimated time of restoration listed. A high wind warning remains in effect for the region until 6 p.m. Monday, with gusts of up to 60 mph possible as the powerful storm that brought heavy rain Sunday moves east. The Warren County Sheriffs Office reported damage on at least 10 roads overnight, including Bay Road in Queensbury, Route 9N in Bolton and Call Street in Lake Luzerne. There were numerous calls for blocked roads listed on the Sheriffs Office website around Bolton, and Pickle Hill Road in Queensbury was closed. Much of the Million Dollar Half-Mile outlet center area was without power as of 9 a.m. as well. Bolton and Hague seemed to get the worst of it, said Warren County Emergency Services Director Brian LaFlure. I know the fire departments were out with a lot of calls overnight. The Washington County Department of Public Safety reported problems on numerous side roads, with highway crews out working to clear the damage. The National Weather Service reported a 45 mph wind gust in Queensbury at 3:42 a.m. Monday, with other reporting stations in the region topping 40 mph as well. Areas to the south logged gusts over 50 mph. The high winds, which intensified as they blew across New England, came from the southeast as a powerful storm moved across the Northeast. LAKE GEORGE Toni Loschiavo from the Lake George Region Women for Women in Need charity will speak at the next meeting of the Lake George Regional Chamber of Commerce Women in Business meeting. The meeting will be at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the chamber office, at 2176 Route 9. The Women in Business group is a networking, educational and empowerment program open to chamber members. Those who are not chamber members are welcome to attend a meeting to see if they would like to join. Decembers meeting is planned for Dec. 6. at 9 a.m. at Adirondack Salt Cave, 11 Broad St. in Glens Falls. Welcome Guest! You Are Here: MCD poll candidates rush to file nominations as deadline ends today Himachal sees poll percentage of approximately 75.6: Official It was 500 years ago today when a German monk publicly challenged the Roman Catholic Church, the most powerful religion in 16th century Europe. Martin Luther, a Catholic, made public 95 theses, or statements, about shortcomings he perceived with his church and its pope, with an emphasis on what were called indulgences, a method of reducing punishment for sins that was being used as a revenue-raising initiative. The 1517 event combined religious, political, cultural and intellectual upheaval that would split the power of the Catholic Church in Europe, and spawn protestant, or the protest movements that formed the Lutheran, Baptist, Presbyterian and Methodist faiths. The 500th anniversary has been widely celebrated around the Quad-Cities. Luthers act came on Oct. 31, the same day as All Hallows Eve, which had origins in the Celtic festival of Samhain, and later came to be known as Halloween in the United States. Some find that juxtaposition strange. The Rev. Cory and Carla Gonyo, now of Bettendorf, were formerly missionaries with young children in Myanmar, also called Burma, in Southeast Asia. When we lived overseas the context is different. You have to be on the outside, to see how odd it is to celebrate Halloween, Carla Gonyo said. The couple Cory Gonyo now is pastor at Bettendorfs First Baptist Church decided, instead, to celebrate Reformation Day to honor Martin Luther. They subsequently brought that idea to Bettendorf. Last weekend, First Baptist Church held its Renaissance Reformation, using costumes borrowed from Quad-City Music Guild. The focus was on fun and education, with games based on actual events during the Reformation. Lutheran churches have noted the anniversary for months. One event, an area-wide ecumenical celebration, was at Augustana Lutheran Church in Andover, Illinois, on Sept. 24, and the other events continued into October in Bettendorf, Davenport and Moline. St. Paul Lutheran Church, Davenport, hosted a concert and music event last Sunday. St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Davenport had a Luther Rose a seal designed for Martin Luther to express his faith, now seen as a symbol of Lutheran faith painted on the sidewalk in front of the church and held a special celebration of its German heritage on Oct. 22. The connection to Germany was experienced by church member, Renee Wade, who traveled to Europe in June. She and her husband were in a tour group that walked the Luther Trail to see where Martin Luther lived and worked, studied and translated the Bible into German. His story truly came alive for us, and it was an education of a lifetime, Wade said. Several dozen wooden replicas of the Luther rose were purchased in Germany for the Davenport event. In addition, St. Matthew put together an informational booklet that was passed out to guests at the anniversary celebration. Church members shared thoughts on the Reformation as it translates to 2017. Its caused us to re-examine what our faith really is, and the tenants we base it on, St. Matthew church member Nancy Napier said. We never would have had this, perhaps, if not for Martin Luther. He never realized the ramifications of what he did, said Sally Morrow, a St. Matthew member. The significance of the Reformation is recounted by the Rev. Edward Anglin, of New Life Church, Davenport. Luthers influence was to show others that the way to salvation is not through good works, he said. His contributions are invaluable and are central tenants to Protestantism, Anglin said. That Luther translated the Bible into German to make it accessible to the people is appreciated by Jim Welch, an elder at Trinity Lutheran Church, Davenport. Welch now owns translations in the Hebrew and Greek languages. Sunday at Park View Lutheran Church, Nancy Schmidt of Long Grove participated in a Reformation Walk and the church service included some of Martin Luthers favorite hymns and music. The Reformation to her means a time she reaffirmed her choice to become a Lutheran, she said. The Rev. Peter Hoft, Park Views minister, sees the pertinence of the 1517 Reformation to the world of 2017, especially through the freedom of expression. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is always relevant, he said. Byrd Krumbholz of Davenport describes himself as a cradle Lutheran from St. Matthew church and he appreciates the celebration as wide-ranging and educational. Its a reawakening of the faith, he said. Its been fun. The Quad-City region is experiencing an increase in stolen vehicles. Vehicle theft occurs very quickly and is one of the most preventable crimes, according to the Davenport Police Department. Many of the stolen vehicles were left running unattended, or with keys left inside the vehicles with the doors unlocked. Here are some recurring themes: Most stolen vehicles have been an easy target such as a car running unattended, or a car with unlocked doors with keys in it. Vehicle thefts occur throughout our community affecting all neighborhoods including driveways, unlocked garages, convenient stores, and gas stations. The most prevalent age group for the suspects of stolen vehicles is 12-18 years of age. The youngest was 11. Once having possession of a stolen vehicle, suspects are driving recklessly endangering lives, committing thefts and burglaries, involved in shootings, committing hit-and-run crashes and fleeing from police. When recovered, many stolen vehicles are found to have significant damage from crashes. If you see suspicious activity, call 9-1-1. To keep from becoming the next victim, follow these tips, from Davenport police. Always lock your vehicle when left unattended. Never leave your keys in your vehicle or in the ignition, even for a few seconds. This includes hiding the keys in your vehicle. Do not leave any valuables inside a vehicle, especially in plain view. (Cellphones, laptop computers, cameras, GPS devices, eyeglasses/sunglasses are small and easily concealable items are often left inside vehicles.) Do not leave firearms inside your vehicle. Do not leave identification items or financial documents inside your vehicle, such as your drivers license, social security card, checkbook or credit cards. Never leave your garage door opener in the vehicle. If you want to warm up/cool down your vehicle before getting into it, consider investing in a remote starter. From the Davenport Police Department Five teens were arrested and three stolen vehicles recovered late Friday in Davenport after a pursuit that began in Durant, Iowa, Davenport police said. Of the five teens arrested, a 15-year-old girl is charged with three counts of first-degree theft and one count of interference with official acts, as are a 15-year-old boy and a 14-year-old boy. A 15-year-old boy was charged with three counts of first-degree theft and interference with official acts causing injury, while another 15-year-old boy was charged with three counts of first-degree theft, interference with official acts and carrying weapons, a Taser. Police recovered a Jeep Grand Cherokee reported stolen at 4 p.m. Friday from the 2600 block of West 43rd Street, a Toyota Camry reported stolen at 8:28 a.m. Wednesday from the 1200 block of West 61st Street, and a Hyundai Sonata reported stolen out of Wilton, Iowa. Two of the teens were placed in the Scott County Juvenile Detention Center while the other three were released to guardians. According to Davenport police, Scott County Emergency Communications informed officers that Durant Police were pursuing three stolen vehicles into the city in the area of the 6300 block of West Kimberly Road. Dispatch described the vehicles as traveling at a high rate of speed and that the drivers were reckless. Durant police lost sight of the vehicles and called of their pursuit. At 8:01 p.m., Davenport police found two of the stolen vehicles occupied in the 1600 block of West 12th Street. As officers were coordinating their approach, the drivers tried to speed away in the vehicles. Officers deployed a spike system which punctured the tires on each vehicle. Several of the teens fled on foot from the vehicles, and five of them were taken into custody. One Davenport Police officer was injured as a result of the foot chase. A third stolen vehicle was recovered unoccupied in the area of 3500 West Locust Street. On Thursday, Davenport police arrested four teens boys, three were aged 14 while the other was aged 13, after they allegedly stole a vehicle from a construction site in the 1000 block of Brady Street. Davenport police received a call at 11:47 a.m. about the theft, and then at 12:41 p.m. officers responded to a suspicious vehicle call in the 1600 block of West Kimberly Road which matched the stolen vehicle. Officers responding to the area were then notified of a single-vehicle crash in the 3700 block of North Fairmount Street in which a vehicle struck a fence. Four boys were seen running from the vehicle. With help from witnesses, officers were able to track the teens to the 3100 block of West Kimberly Road. Each teen is charged with one count of first-degree theft and one count of second-degree criminal mischief. First-degree theft is a Class C felony under Iowa law that carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years. Within the past two days, Davenport police also have recovered five stolen vehicles found in the 1600 block of Eagles Crest Drive in Davenport. Three of the vehicles were reported stolen from Davenport, while one was reported stolen from Blue Grass and the other reported stolen from Rock Island. The Davenport Police Department's latest juvenile arrests follow multiple patterns that law enforcement agencies in the Quad-Cities continue to combat. Car thefts in Davenport have risen by more than 10 percent compared with last year and with the arrest of three more juveniles late Monday morning, law enforcement agencies continue to see that a good portion are being committed by the same teens. "We do experience a group that are committing multiple offenses," Maj. Jeff Bladel said. "We consistently see one-third as repeat offenders." On Monday, officers were dispatched to East 14th and Kuehl streets in Davenport after the report of a vehicle being abandoned by juveniles. Three juveniles were arrested and charged with second-degree theft of the vehicle, which was reported stolen from the 2100 block of Main Street. One of the juveniles has faced similar charges in the past. Friday's arrests of five juveniles were no different as two juveniles facing charges related to three stolen vehicles had previously faced similar charges. The high-speed chase on Friday began in Durant before police were able to deflate the tires of the vehicles and apprehend the teens after a foot pursuit. A 15-year-old girl, 15-year-old boy and 14-year-old boy face three counts of first-degree theft and one count of interference with official acts. Another 15-year-old boy was charged with the same offenses in addition to carrying a weapon, while another boy was charged with three counts of first-degree theft and interference with official acts causing injury. While local law enforcement agencies have seen a number of repeat offenders, on the other side of the coin, the growing pattern over the past six months is an increasing number of first-time offenders are starting with car thefts and the alleged perpetrators are getting younger. "In the past, the vast majority we would see with the car thefts would claim a gang affiliation in the Quad-Cities," said Scott Hobart, Chief Juvenile Court Officer of the 7th Judicial District. "What we're seeing now is we have some first timers to this system where their first offense is related to stolen vehicles." Thursday, three 14-year-old and one 13-year-old males were charged with one count of first-degree theft and one count of second-degree criminal mischief. The four males juveniles were alleged to have crashed a stolen vehicle into a fence on the 3700 block of Fairmount Avenue. None of the juveniles had previously faced charges related to stolen vehicles. Hobart said one of the concerning aspects was the change in mindset of juveniles, where it has gone from a criminal mentality to becoming a social media-driven activity. "We're used to seeing kids that are viewing it as a thrill-seeking and the big concern is they are seeing it as social media activity, where they are trying to one-up each other," Hobart said. With that change in behavior, it's become more dangerous because juveniles don't see the seriousness or consequences of the crime, which can escalate to homicide by motor vehicle. For a number of the teens involved, they have not learned how to drive yet. As a result, Hobart said juvenile court officers often hear teens talk of the how "fun" it was to steal cars, which has left the Juvenile Detention Center as stretched as it has ever been. It also emphasized the need to put resources into helping correct the increasingly troublesome behavior, he said. "The entire juvenile justice system is taking this car theft seriously," Hobart said. "This is blatantly a community safety issue." Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy Tuesday, Oct. 30, 1877 -- RIVER NEWS The Annie came in from the south this morning, and came up from Muscatine in four hours and a half, carrying 300 tons of freight. The Clinton will be in from the south to morrow, and the Minneapolis from the north. The Robert Ross went up to the Island to-day, with the barges of stone which have been laving the Rock Island levee for some time. Sunday, Oct. 31, 1897 -- CYCLISTS RIGHTS | What the Supreme Court had to Say in a Recent Case There is a matter of general interest, to people who drive as well as to those who ride bicycles, in the decision of the supreme court in the case of Allen Cook, appellant vs. E. Fogarty, from the Green county district court. The plaintiff was riding a bicycle from Grand Junction westward toward Jefferson on a public highway, and when midway between the two towns met the defendant, who was in a buggy drawn by one horse and who was driving from Jefferson to Grand Junction. Thursday, Nov. 1, 1917 -- Manufacturer - Inventor Dies JOSEPH DAIN, SR. Inventor of haying tools and manufacturer for a number of years at Ottumwa. Mr. Dain later joined the Deere & Co. staff and sold his business to the company. He died last night in Minneapolis. His home was in Moline. Tuesday, Nov. 2, 1937 -- 96 Year Old Davenport Man Killed by Truck Run down by a truck while he was crossing the street shortly after 8 p.m. Monday, Malichi Rose, 96 years old, one of Davenport's oldest residents, sustained injuries which caused his death at 4:40 a.m. today at Mercy hospital. Sunday, Nov. 3, 1957 -- 'Get Tough' School Policy Seen As Delinquency Curb | Teachers Should Be Resolute, Firm, Illinois Group Is Told How a "get tough" school policy can help curb juvenile delinquency was told junior high educators at a meeting in Moline Saturday morning. Schoolmen from a 70-mile radius of the Quad-Cities gathered for a regional meeting called by the Illinois Junior High Assn. Friday, Nov. 4, 1977 -- Bargain Hunters Finally Appear ANDREW, Iowa -- Harold Molenhoff did not come to the door Thursday when a visitor rang the doorbell and knocked at the door of his home here. You could see him through the picture window. He got up from his chair and moved to another room. Maybe it was just an odd reflection. Or maybe Mohlenhoff just didn't feel like talking to anybody right then. A few blocks away, an auctioneer was selling the grocery store Mohlenhoff's father opened in 1902, rattling off bids for three generations of work. Wednesday, Nov. 5, 1997 -- Trinity Cathedral will fulfill bishop's dream | Bell tower, spire is 13-story building One of the most unusual building projects in the Quad-Cities gets under way this week, a venture that will change the skyline atop Davenport's Brady Street hill. A 131-foot-tall bell tower and spire -- the equivalent height of a 13-story building -- are being built onto Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. WATERLOO The family of a Waterloo toddler who was strangled to death in 1974 said their load is lighter now that the man who killed her has died in prison. Im glad this part of it is over, said Bill Day, father of 2-year-old of Michelle Shelly Day, whose body was found in a crawl space over Russell James Fitzs bathroom at the Castle Apartments on Commercial Street on June 6, 1974. Fitz died Sunday at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale after spending more than 44 years in prison. He was 71. Fitz was serving a life sentence and had been suffering a chronic illness, according to the Iowa Department of Corrections, which confirmed his death on Monday. He had been moved to a hospice room over the weekend and died of natural causes at 11:23 p.m. Sunday. His death came two days before the anniversary of the verdict that found him guilty of first-degree murder. Im not rejoicing today. Ive carried that around on my shoulders for most of my life. Its Gods work now, said Rodger Day, Shellys older brother, who was 4 years old when she disappeared and was later discovered dead. Now hes got to meet his true judgment. It does relieve some pressure, said Shellys mother, Aileen. She said she would have liked to face Fitz one more time so she could ask him why. Shellys father agrees. We still dont understand all the whys, why man who is 27 years old would mess with a 2-year-old girl, Bill Day said. Shelly and her brother had been playing outside at their babysitters apartment, downstairs from Fitz's Commercial Street apartment. Aileen Day and the sitter shared some coffee, and they discovered Shelly was missing around 5 p.m. when the mother went to kiss her goodbye before heading to work, according to Courier archives. The next five or six hours was whirlwind of searching that included police, cab drivers, CB radio club members, neighborhood children and random volunteers. All these people that we didnt know came up out of the woodwork and flooded that area searching for her, Bill Day said. There was speculation that she tumbled into a window well and hit her head or that she got too close to the Cedar River, which was behind the apartment building and running high at the time. The father said he doubted the river theory because Shelly was barefoot, and there were burs between the river and the apartment building. According to Bill Day, his mother had inquired about a third row of windows arranged above the two-story apartment building during the search. The windows led to a space. Fitz, a construction worker, sat outside drinking a beer and watching the search, and he told a Courier reporter covering the disappearance that he felt bad that the girl missing. She was really cute, he told the reporter. I loved her probably as much as her parents did. The 1974 Courier article goes on to say that Fitz had joked with the father about abducting the girl. Shes so cute; Id like to kidnap her, the article quotes Fitz as saying. He then went on to tell the reporter that he thought someone was trying to kill him by turning on the gas to his stove. Fitz later walked to a squad car and began talking with officers, telling them that he though Shelly had a grown-up voice and that she had sat on his lap in the past, according to Courier archives. He told officers he was the last person to see her. Officers said Fitz allowed them to search his apartment, and he began to leave when investigators took an interest in the crawlspace overhead. They found Shellys body with an electrical cord around her neck moments later, and there were signs she had been sexually abused, according to Courier articles from the time. Her diaper was found in Fitzs dresser, and he was detained a few blocks away for public intoxication and then charged with murder. Fitz was convicted on Halloween 1974 and began serving his life sentence on New Years Eve Day that same year, according to Courier archives and Department of Corrections records. The slaying took its toll on the Day family in the years the followed. Aileen Day said she felt guilt, as if she should have done something different that day. She quit eating and sleeping and lost a lot of weight. Bill saved me. He told me to get my (expletive deleted) together or wed lose Rodger, she said Bill Day kept his emotions bottled up and began drinking heavily. I had that manly image of men dont cry, the father said. He said he and his wife grieved differently. They moved out of Waterloo in 1984 when the father was laid off from John Deere and found work in Rockford, Illinois. People there didnt know about Shelly, and on occasion the Days would hear acquaintances talk about their own daughters who were having graduations or getting married milestones that the Days missed out on. It stung a little bit, Bill Day said. The two divorced and married other people but reunited after their other spouses died. They now live together as friends. From what family members can tell, Fitz never admitted to the slaying. Some 20 years ago, Rodger Day wrote to Fitz asking for an explanation, and Fitz wrote back in a lengthy letter, claiming he was innocent and that he knew who the real killer was. The brother cut off contact with him at that point. The brother said he eventually decided not to worry about Fitz. It came a few years ago when he was traveling to Nashville for vacation. His phone rang with what he thought would be news of Fitzs death, and he pulled over and started to cry. It turned out just to be a notification that Fitz was being moved between different correctional facilities, and the expectation of closure and the dashed hopes ruined the vacation, Rodger Day said. I said Im not going to waste my life away waiting for the day he passes away, the brother decided that day. Its not up to me to carry that heavy load around. Rodger Day said that while he supports the death penalty, he was fine with Fitz lingering behind bars for decades. Thats got to be tough. I couldnt survive in prison, in a cell for how many years? Forty-four years. Thats a long time, Rodger Day said. Family members said they believe Fitzs death will bring some closure. Her death just started this grieving, but maybe now with Fitz passing we can put this behind us a little bit better, Bill Day said. It didn't have to go like this for President Donald Trump. Just a few words early on in his tenure would have made for a different narrative for the Russian investigation that's severely hampering his agenda. A mere utterance. That's all that was required. "Any attack on an American election is an attack on us all," he could have said. "I, too, am concerned and I hope that the Justice Department and FBI get to the bottom of this." Trump didn't have to say anything that called into question his legitimacy as president. Nor did he have to broach the specifics about his one-time campaign chief, Paul Manafort, one of two men charged Monday with conspiracy and money laundering after Special Counsel Robert Mueller won an indictment from a federal grand jury. Another member of Trump's campaign team, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty Monday of lying about conversations he had with Russian agents. A simple acknowledgement -- and a legitimate commitment to stay out of the investigation's way -- and this Russia story would be fundamentally different. At worst, Trump would be considered a bumbling political neophyte who surrounded himself with the wrong people. The president chose a different path. Over the weekend, amid reports that Mueller was about to hand down his first indictment, Trump took to Twitter and screamed "fake news." He continued his nonsensical assault on his Democratic opponent who does not inhabit the White House. He blasted news agencies for, yet again, accurately reporting the story -- just like they did when digging into meetings between Trump's family and Russian operatives, Russia's use of Facebook to sow confusion among key swing voters and the incredibly long list of Trump's cabinet who were forced out only because reporters got it right. Manafort's arrest and Papadopoulos' plea again proves that none of this is "fake news," Mr. President. And yet, Trump went ballistic on Twitter Monday morning. No one would expect a freshly elected president to come out and question his own legitimacy. All Trump had to do, in those early days, was to express concern. And, from there, he merely had to stay out of the way. A simple acknowledgement that foreign meddling was troubling and serious would have provided Trump substantial political cover. Instead, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey and admitted that the Russian investigation was on his mind when he did it. He deflects every time a fresh revelation about the investigation is about to break. He and his allies have actively attempted to undermine the investigation through innuendo and falsehood. Trump and his inner circle very well might have had nothing to do with the Russian interference campaign. Terrible judgement just might be their biggest crime. Yet his administration consistently behaves as if it's steering a cover up. Considering the massive power of the presidency, that behavior poses legitimate risks to basic constitutional principles. Trump's reaction to the Russian investigation -- more than anything else -- has hamstrung his administration. Don't blame some mythical "deep state." Don't blame "Democrats," who wield very little power in Washington. Don't blame "the media." Trump and Trump alone has blown through political capital with unprecedented speed. Along the way, Trump's collected a slew of sycophants in Congress more than willing to play along, as the president dawdles in delusion. Those members are only concerned with sending tax cuts to Trump's desk for a rubber stamp. To that end, they've been more than willing to defend the indefensible. But even these members of Congress know Trump is a weak president with approval ratings in the high-30s. Under Trump, the ruling GOP has not one legislative accomplishment. As such, even Trump's most stalwart apologists are growing frustrated with his self-destructive impulsiveness. No doubt, Trump will continue to pin his failings on the media, his critics and investigators for simply doing their jobs. But, in reality, Trump has no one else to blame but himself. Trump's fecklessness stems from that moment when his own insecurities barred him from admitting that foreign interference in an American election posed a clear and present danger. I am writing in support of Rich Clewell for 6th Ward Alderman in Davenport. While on the Davenport School Board, Rich has been amazingly easy to reach with any questions that I have had. He has answered my questions quickly or found a resource that could answer my questions if he did not know the answers personally. When I asked him about seat belts on school buses, I received thorough information on studies regarding school bus safely and seat belts. Rich has lived in my neighborhood for over 20 years, raised his two children here, knows our ward's needs and has the time as a retiree to devote to being our next 6th Ward alderman. He also looks forward to holding quarterly 6th Ward meetings to listen to all of our concerns. Im in my 15th year as a Western Illinois University professor. For most of my career, Ive enjoyed my work environment, students and colleagues. The last couple of years though have been difficult in part due to the budget impasse. Thankfully, the state now has a budget. Unfortunately, the university administration has taken a difficult situation and made it worse. The administrations proposal to cut salaries, eliminate minimum salary increases, severely restrict merit pay increases and increase faculty teaching load would have a long-term detrimental effect on faculty and on the learning environment for students. Talented, innovative, and marketable faculty will leave this university for institutions that demonstrate a commitment to support faculty by offering tangible incentives. The faculty will not seek employment at WIU and seek out other institutions that offer more competitive financial compensation for their teaching, scholarship, and service. Students will suffer the most from the administrations effort to undermine support for an effective and committed faculty. The union's contract proposal provides faculty with financial support and incentives that reward them for the teacher scholars they are. The union's contract proposal stipulates all tenured and tenure-track faculty should teach three courses a semester, which would ensure a high-quality, university-level learning environment for students. The union's contract proposal keeps WIU competitive with other universities and makes the university attractive to new faculty looking for a home for their careers and a community to raise their families. Greg Hall, Ph.D. Macomb, Illinois Editors note: Hall is a professor of history, Western Illinois University PIERRE | Three lawmakers voted no Monday in a protest against how the GEAR UP scandal is handled in an annual report from the Legislatures Government Operations and Audit Committee. The nays came from Senate Democratic leader Billie Sutton of Burke, Republican Sen. Neal Tapio of Watertown and Democratic Rep. Susan Wismer of Britton. They wanted a sentence stating South Dakota Department of Education leaders disregarded employees warnings about alleged wrongdoing in the GEAR UP program. The panel approved the report 5-3 without the sentence. The committee has 10 members. Sutton, the Democratic candidate for governor, asked whether a majority of those present was enough. Thats my understanding, replied Sen. Deb Peters, R-Hartford, the committee chair. Missing were Sen. Stace Nelson, R-Fulton, and Rep. Craig Tieszen, R-Rapid City. Five Republicans voted aye: Rep. David Anderson of Hudson, Rep. Wayne Steinhauer of Hartford, Rep. Jean Hunhoff of Yankton, Sen. Justin Cronin of Gettysburg and Peters. Wismers motion seeking the sentence failed 3-5 along the same lines as the final vote. Earlier this year the committee received copies of emails sent by LuAnn Werdel in January 2011 and Roger Campbell in 2012 to Education Secretary Melody Schopp. Werdel and Campbell were two of the departments past directors of Indian education. GEAR UP was a federally funded effort to make students from lower-income households aware of higher-education opportunities available after high school graduation. State Department of Education officials received federal funds to reimburse Mid-Central Educational Cooperative in Platte for GEAR UP expenses. The cooperative used nonprofit organizations to deliver GEAR UP services in school systems. Legislative auditors couldnt account for nearly $1.4 million from Mid-Centrals bank account. The nonprofits had access to the bank account. Mid-Central also directly administered other federally funded programs. Scott and Nicole Westerhuis, who were married, were the business manager and an assistant business manager for Mid-Central. They and their four school-aged children died in 2015 from shotgun blasts that investigators determined Scott Westerhuis fired. He allegedly killed his family and himself hours after Schopp told Mid-Centrals then-director Dan Guericke she wasnt renewing the cooperatives subcontract for GEAR UP. The Westerhuises and Stacy Phelps, who oversaw GEAR UP for Mid-Central, served as officers for the nonprofits. Phelps, Guericke and Stephanie Hubers, another assistant business manager for Mid-Central, face criminal trials next year on state felony charges. Schopp told the legislative panel in July that GEAR UP money wasnt missing. Gov. Dennis Daugaard announced Oct. 13 that Schopp would retire Dec. 15. Mid-Central went out of business June 30. Wismer was the Democratic nominee who lost to Daugaard in the 2014 election for governor. She said Monday it would be important that the report should note the committee heard the failure of the departments leadership to take seriously the directors concerns. We definitely learned that, and this is not really in here, Wismer said. Steinhauer said he had a concern her motion might overstate the situation. He said disregarded went too far because Schopp said her departments personnel took some steps to require additional proof from Mid-Central. He acknowledged those steps werent enough. "I cant think of another verb off the top of my head, and I will stand behind 'disregard,'" Wismer replied. GOAC convenes Dec. 18 to discuss possible recommendations for legislation responding to GEAR UP and situations that might be similar. Funeral services for Maurice Reed of Crawford will be Thursday, Nov. 2, at 2 p.m., at Chamberlain Chapel in Chadron. Visitation is today, Nov. 1, in Crawford at Chamberlain Chapel. A memorial has been established for the Crawford Rural Fire Department. Donations may be sent to Chamberlain Chapel, PO Box 970, Chadron NE 69337. Mr. Reed passed away Oct. 28, 2017, at Ponderosa Villa, In Crawford. Maurice was born Sept. 11, 1919, on a farm on the table southeast of Crawford near Squaw Mound, to Ralph and Bardeana Reed. He was the fifth of nine children, five boys and four girls, all of whom preceded him in death. He lived on the farm until 1941, when he entered the Army. He was stationed in the South Pacific (New Guinea and Australia). He was a gunnery sergeant of 105 howitzers. He also broke pack mules and horses. He told of one horse he broke bareback so when the officers went to ride with a saddle they would get thrown off. He later got jungle rot and injured his knee. After recovery, he was awaiting orders to be shipped off to Japan to fight when the war ended. After coming home, he worked on the farm until he met Evelyn on a blind date to a dance in Crawford. They married in January of 1947. They then lived in Crawford, where Maurice worked for the refinery hauling crude oil from Lusk, Wyo., to Crawford. He also worked at the John Deere Dealership in Crawford during the winter months. He later bought a terracer and built most of the terraces in Dawes County in the early 50s. In the fall of 1953, his parents retired from the farm by Squaw Mound, and he and Evelyn moved there and raised their family: Lloyd (Shirley) Reed of Loveland, Colo., Diane Durnin of Portland, Ore., Sue Daise of Whitney. While living in the Squaw Mound Community, they enjoyed many hours of pinochle and square dancing. After the children left home, they traveled to England, Scotland, and Ireland. They also enjoyed many bus tours in the USA and Canada. In 1961, Maurice bought The Reed homestead (1885) from his uncle Earl Reed. It is still owned by the family. He is survived by his wife, three children, five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. | Ellsworth residents are in for a fright on Halloween night as Haunted Camp Lancer makes its return for a second year on Oct. 31, 2017. Haunted Camp Lancer is a haunted house open to all military members, dependents, retirees and DoD civilians. Run and funded entirely by volunteers, this one-night-only attraction caters to both adults and families looking for a little less scare. I think its going to be a huge success this year, said Tech. Sgt. Jacqueline Chant, chief of plans and programs assigned to the 28th Communications Squadron and the mastermind behind Haunted Camp Lancers creation. Its at an early enough time where families can come and then go off and do trick-or-treating afterward. The scary portion doesnt start until almost nightfall. We have events for everything, everyone, and all age groups. The event will consist of two parts, with the more child-friendly Trunk or Treat from 4 to 5:30 p.m. During this time, children and their families are free to explore Haunted Camp Lancer with the lights on and spooks kept to a minimum. Trunk or Treat is a pretty great idea. I think it will be a big success here, said Staff Sergeant Adrian Banks, an operations manager assigned to the 28th Force Support Squadron and a volunteer for the event. The Trunk or Treat, in conjunction with the haunted house, is great because you dont have to come out at two separate times or two separate days. Its an all in one day Then, from 6 to 9 p.m. the lights turn off and the scares come out. Because Haunted Camp Lancer is made up of several small buildings, each room has been given to a different volunteer group to decorate and haunt. Visitors to the haunted house will get to experience all their creative and horrifying genius combined as they make their way through the attraction. I hope those who want to get scared out of their wits get scared out of their minds. We are going to set the precedence and hopefully we are going to set the bar pretty high, Banks said, whose room is one of the first that visitors will pass through. I think its going to be a great yield. It was a great turnout last year, so Im expecting it to be bigger this year. While relatively new to the area, the events organizers have high hopes for its success. I wanted to do a haunted house because there wasnt really anything last year that was close by, convenient and safe, Chant said. I wanted something fun and nearby. HOT SPRINGS - South Dakota congressional candidate Tim Bjorkman will be making a stop in Hot Springs on Friday, Nov. 3 at 9 a.m. for a coffee at Mornin' Sunshine to meet with folks and hear their concerns. It happens every year-spring forward and fall back, the time change comes to disrupt our lives. We gain back the hour we lost in the spring when we change the clocks back in November, or so the experts tell us. The history of daylight saving time (DST) dates back to American inventor and politician Benjamin Franklin who proposed a form of daylight time in 1784. In 1918, the US implemented DST during WWI when Europe established DST to conserve fuel. President Woodrow Wilson wanted to keep DST after the war ended, by the country being mostly rural at the time protested and so DST was abolished until the next war brought it back. In 2007, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 went into effect and expanded the length of DST to present timing. Whichever way you look at it, its now part of life. Fall back Nov. 5 at 2 a.m. and get that extra hour of sleep; youll need it next Spring. WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and Manafort's business associate Rick Gates face decades in federal prison and millions of dollars in potential fines if convicted on all counts in a sprawling federal indictment unsealed Monday. Manafort potentially faces up to 80 years in prison, according to a review of the federal charges and the relevant statutes by The Associated Press. Gates, who also worked for the Trump campaign, faces up to 70 years. Prosecutors could still file additional charges against the pair. If convicted at trial, the law gives federal judges wide latitude in imposing prison sentences and fines. Prosecutors allege that Manafort and Gates worked as unregistered agents of the government of Ukraine and the Party of Regions, a pro-Russian political party led by Victor Yanukovych. While serving as president of the former Soviet republic from 2010 to 2014, Yanukovych was closely aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The indictment says that up to $75 million flowed through overseas accounts controlled by the two Americans. Manafort is alleged to have laundered more than $18 million he used to buy property and goods in the United States. Gates is alleged to have transferred more than $3 million to accounts he controlled. A summary of the charges encompassed in the 31-page indictment and the potential penalties: COUNT ONE: Conspiracy Against the United States Both men are charged with conspiring together and with others to knowingly and intentionally defraud and commit crimes against the United States between 2006 and 2007. If found guilty of this count, each potentially faces up to five years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines. COUNT TWO: Conspiracy to Launder Money Both men are charged with conspiring together and with others to transfer funds from outside the United States to and through places inside the country without properly disclosing the transactions or paying required federal taxes. Penalties for this count include up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of either $500,000 or twice the monetary value of the property involved in the transaction, whichever is greater. COUNTS THREE THROUGH SIX: Failure to File Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts The indictment alleges that for each calendar year between 2012 and 2015, Manafort failed to disclose to the U.S. Treasury Department that he had a financial interest in and authority over bank accounts in a foreign country involving more than $10,000. Penalties include up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the four counts and fines of up to $100,000, or up to 50 percent of the total value for the transactions, for each of the four years encompassed in the counts. COUNTS SEVEN THROUGH NINE: Failure to File Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts The indictment also alleges that between 2012 and 2014 Gates failed to disclose to the U.S. Treasury Department that he had a financial interest in and authority over bank accounts in a foreign country involving more than $10,000. Penalties include up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the four counts and fines of up to $100,000, or up to 50 percent of the total value for the transactions, for each of the four years encompassed in the counts. COUNT TEN: Unregistered Agent of a Foreign Principal Prosecutors allege that both men failed to register with the U.S. attorney general as foreign agents of the government of Ukraine, the Part of Regents and Yanukovych between 2008 and 2014. Penalties include up to five years in federal prison and up to $10,000 in fines. COUNT ELEVEN: False and misleading statements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act The indictment alleges that both men made multiple false statements to federal officials in relation to their failure to register as foreign agents of the Ukrainian government. Penalties include up to five years in federal prison and up to $10,000 in fines. COUNT TWELVE: False Statements Prosecutors allege that between November 2016 and February 2017 that Manafort and Gates conspired together and caused others to make false statements and conceal crimes against the United States. The penalty for this count is up to five years in prison. __ Follow Associated Press writer Michael Biesecker at twitter.com/mbieseck Rapid City police are investigating a robbery that occurred early this morning at a convenience store on S.D. Highway 44. According to a news release, a man wearing a black mask entered the Fresh Start store at 3888 E. S.D. Highway 44 around 3:30 a.m. and approached the counter. He pulled a pistol from his waistband, set the firearm on the counter and demanded money from an employee, the release said. The employee gave the man an undisclosed amount of cash, and the man left the store. He was described as approximately 6 feet tall with an average build, in his mid-20s, and wearing a black/gray coat, blue jeans and a black beanie hat. Anyone with information about the robbery is asked to call Detective Rick Arlaud at 394-4134. Anonymous tips can be sent by texting RCPD and the information to 847411. U.S. authorities file motion to examine property of alleged Russian hacker Levashov MOSCOW, October 30 (RAPSI) The Federal District Court of Connecticut has received a search warrant concerning electronic devices belonging to Russian national Peter Levashov, who may be extradited from Spain on cybercrime charges, court documents available to RAPSI read on Monday. Among the property of Levashov, which is to be examined, are a solid-state drive, a memory card, a Sony Xperia tablet and several Apple products, including one black and silver Apple watch. At the moment all of these items are in possession of the FBI. According to the authorities, these devices may contain information related to cybercrimes. Specialists are to search for malicious software, any data referencing Kelihos aka Hlux botnet and any data indicative of harvesting credentials. It is also planned to search for Levashovs communications and information on his financial accounts, including cryptocurrency wallets or purses. In April, Levashov was arrested in Barcelona on request of the United States. According to the U.S. Ministry of Justice Levashov has administered Kelihos botnet since 2010. The malware was used to distribute hundreds of millions of spam-messages. The Ministry noted that Levashov was listed in Top Ten Worst Spammers list compilated by anti-spam group Spamhaus. The U.S. authorities believe that Levashov used credentials of other users, obtained through infected computers, to spread spam. In addition, they allege that the botnet was used to install malware for theft of users banking data. In 2007, Levashov faced charges in the state of Michigan and in 2009 in Federal District Court of Columbia. In September, the U.S. authorities asked a court in Alaska to issue a ruling in a civil case against Levashov because he did not react to the lawsuit in time. Grizzly bear management has evolved from growing populations to moving them around. And a couple of new reports give mixed signals about how the keystone predators travel. In the United States, evidence has grown that grizzlies have almost bridged the gap between the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem north of Missoula and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem south of Bozeman. But a British Columbia study released this month raises doubts about the condition of its much larger bear population. Grizzly movement matters because the rare and federally protected animals must avoid inbreeding for their populations to remain healthy. Critics of taking Greater Yellowstone grizzlies off the endangered species list say that the recovery area lacks connectivity to other bears, and so risks genetic decay. The U.S. Interior Department proposed turning Greater Yellowstone grizzlies over to state management in July, and is developing rules for similar delisting of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem population within a year. Montana researchers Cecily Costello of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and Frank van Manen of the U.S. Geological Survey published a report on possible grizzly pathways out of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem in the journal Ecosphere. Their work lends hope that the genetically isolated population around Yellowstone National Park may soon get a breeding boost as northern bears shake their family tree. There were routes that were not obvious before we started, and a lot more alternatives than we thought initially, van Manen said. Some bears leave the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex via the short but precarious path around Helena through the Big Belt Mountains toward Bozeman and relative security north of Yellowstone. Others loop around Butte to approach Yellowstone from the west. One counter-intuitive result van Manen observed was that the heavily used routes werent necessarily the best ones. The concentration isnt because thats the great habitat, van Manen said. Its because theres not a lot of great places to go. Those are pinch-points. Knowing that allows land managers and bear advocates to do two things. One is to make sure those pinch-points dont become too hazardous for grizzlies, such as providing wildlife crossings at freeways. The other is to protect the qualities of the more dispersed routes. Those (dispersed routes) have really good, secure habitat like the Beaverhead and Bitterroot mountains that are already well-protected with little human influence, van Manen said. That might make those routes more effective in the long run. We shouldnt just focus on the ones with highest concentration. At least 21 grizzly bears have been tracked moving between the two recovery areas. Almost all have been males. Female bears are much less likely to cross highways or human settlements, the authors noted. Our analyses placed much greater emphasis on potential paths following the Rattlesnake, Garnet, John Long, Flint Creek, Anaconda, Pioneer and Highland Mountains, the authors wrote. The Tobacco Root Mountains may be a particularly pivotal stepping stone, as many different paths converged on this mountain range. *** Three smaller recovery areas in the Cabinet-Yaak, Selkirk and North Cascades mountains of Montana, Idaho and Washington also depend on the movement of grizzly bears. Pathways there cross the international border between the United States and Canada, where British Columbia has a much larger grizzly population. Last week British Columbia Auditor General Carol Bellringer warned that supply of grizzlies may be at risk as well. The southeast corner of the province bordering Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park holds B.C.s greatest concentration of grizzlies. That zone is also the only portion of the B.C.-U.S. border open to grizzly hunting. But three of the four zones just to the west, bordering the small Cabinet-Yaak, Selkirk and North Cascade U.S. recovery zones, were considered threatened populations by the Canadians. British Columbia has slightly more than twice Montanas area and more than four times its population, although about 2.6 million of the province's 4.6 million people live in the greater Vancouver area north of Seattle. It also has more than 10 times the grizzly bears: an estimated 15,000 compared to the 1,500 to 1,800 estimated in Montana and the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which includes Idaho and Wyoming. Alberta had about 580 grizzlies, including about 140 in the region between Waterton Lakes National Park and Banff. Grizzlies can be hunted in British Columbia, but Bellringer said that was less a threat to their management than loss of habitat. The expansion of development in oil and gas, forestry and human settlement makes it more difficult for grizzly bears to mate, and results in food source loss, as well as more human-bear conflict, Bellringer wrote. An increase in resource roads 600,000 kilometers (100,000 miles) existing and more added every year also leads to more human-bear conflict, and ultimately, grizzly bear deaths. British Columbia charges residents $80 for a license to hunt during its grizzly season, while nonresidents pay $1,030. Grizzly hunting brings about $6 million to $7.6 million to the provincial economy. Commercial bear viewing in just one part of the province, the Great Bear Rainforest, was worth $15 million in 2012, according to the auditors report. While sales of resident hunting licenses have stayed steady at around 300 a year, nonresident sales have spiked. They grew from about 800 in 2000 to 1,700 in 2016. The audit did not separate Canadian and foreign purchases in the nonresident category. The possibility of U.S. states offering grizzly hunting seasons has been a major controversy in the delisting debate. But van Manen noted that the Canadians were borrowing many of the same steps Americans have used in the Endangered Species Act recovery process to maintain their bear populations. Weve certainly been fortunate we have a strong piece of legislation like the ESA, van Manen said. Roads are key. Keeping road density below certain thresholds is key to effective grizzly bear conservation. "In the Yellowstone, thats accomplished by setting standards for secure habitat that are at the same levels as 1998 or below. The same thing is happening with the NCDE (Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem) conservation strategy. That guarantees that in the core of the ecosystem, the road densities and motorized access will really not change. Blog Archive June (1) May (16) April (23) March (20) February (17) January (13) December (22) November (40) October (57) September (45) August (55) July (52) June (165) May (121) April (141) March (32) February (76) January (141) December (85) November (130) October (146) September (96) August (89) July (82) June (64) May (99) April (41) March (98) February (61) January (64) December (67) November (51) October (70) September (75) August (52) July (66) June (76) May (104) April (93) March (151) February (168) January (107) December (42) November (56) October (69) September (103) August (75) July (191) June (171) May (207) April (302) March (490) February (155) January (138) December (135) November (226) October (146) September (107) August (160) July (292) June (316) May (361) April (460) March (327) February (49) January (2) November (13) October (3) September (37) August (43) July (6) June (12) May (1) April (29) March (30) February (58) January (27) December (11) November (16) October (34) September (81) August (81) July (93) June (12) May (1) February (1) November (3) October (2) September (6) August (1) July (2) June (14) May (10) April (8) March (13) February (1) January (5) The Polisario has been humiliated in Latin America, where its so-called representative in Panama, Ali Mhamed Mbarek, was firmly expelled from the official ceremony of power transfer between the outgoing executive board and the newly elected board of the Central American Parliament, Parlacen, on October 25. Following the protest of the delegation of Morocco, which has the status of permanent observer member in this Latin American legislative body, the representative of the Polisario Front, who was not invited to this ceremony, was ordered to leave illico presto the premises. Shortly before the start of the ceremony, representatives of the Moroccan parliament in Parlacen, Ahmed Lakhrif, secretary of the House of Councilors and Najia Lotfi, a member of the House of Representatives, noted the unjustified presence of the Polisario member. The Moroccan delegation informed the organizers of the presence of the intruder who was immediately expelled. Actually, invitations to the event were addressed only to Member States, observer countries and countries having links with Parlacen, which is not the case of the Polisario and its henchmen. As a reminder, the Parlacen Executive Board held its July 2016 session in the southern Moroccan city of Laayoune and held then a working session with the Bureau of the Moroccan upper chamber. In the Laayoune Declaration, issued at the end of the meeting, the Parlacen expressed its support for a peaceful, final and negotiated solution to the Sahara conflict, within the framework of the respect of the resolutions of the UN Security Council, and the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Morocco. This new snub comes just weeks after the hard blow suffered by the Polisario in Peru last September. Peruvian airport authorities had banned Khadijetou Mokhtar from entering the country for the simple reason that she claimed to be the ambassador of the pseudo-Sahrawi republic SADR to Peru, while the Latin American country does not recognize the whimsical entity. The Peruvian authorities have pinned Khadijetou for usurpation of the status of diplomat and for illegal political activities in Peru that are contrary to the Peruvian immigration laws. After she spent several days in the airport, she was expelled back to Madrid wherefrom she had embarked for Lima. "A Culture that is Hard to Defend: Extralegal Factors in Federal Death Penalty Cases" | Main | "Most California Jurisdictions Show Declines In Property Crime During Justice Reform Era, 2010-2016" October 30, 2017 Appreciating ugly sentencing realities facing Paul Manafort and Rick Gates after federal indictment The big news in the political world this morning is the indictment of Paul Manafort, President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman, which flows from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Along for the ride is another Trump campaign official, Rick Gates, who is also facing 12 federal criminal counts thanks to the work of a federal grand jury. As is my tendency, I will be content to respond to this news with a few sentencing-related observations while leaving it to others to engage in political spin and other forms of legal speculation. The full 31-page indictment of Manafort and Gates is available via this link, and the 12 federal criminal counts facing them are conspiracy against the United States (count 1), conspiracy to launder money (count 2), failure to file required reports (counts 3 to 9), being an unregistered agent of a foreign principal (count 10), false/misleading FARA statements (count 11) and false statements (count 12). Though a number of these counts, coupled with the narrative of the defendants' actions in the indictment, can sound quite ominous, it is ultimately the money laundering count that should send a Halloween chill down the spine of Manafort and Gates (and, presumably, their defense lawyers). The money laundering count appears to carry the highest statutory sentencing range (20 years) of all the charges. In addition, because of the large amounts of money involved in these offenses the indictment alleges Manafort laundered $18 million the calculated guideline range for this offense is least a decade (and likely more). In other words, if Manafort were convicted of just the money laundering allegations against him, the "starting point and the initial benchmark" for his sentencing is 10+ years in federal prison. (It is not clear from a quick review of the indictment whether the amounts involved for Gates would drive his guideline range up quite so high.) Manafort, who is 68 years old, surely would like to avoid any prison time and he certainly does not want to risk spending the rest of his life in the federal pen. He can, of course, choose to fight all the charges at trial, but I suspect Mueller and his team only moved forward with these indictment allegations after becoming confident they could prove them all beyond a reasonable doubt. Moreover, thanks to the reality that federal judges can and often do consider "acquitted conduct" at sentencing, even an acquittal on most but not all of the counts may not significantly change these ugly sentencing realities for Manafort and Gates. Of course, what can change these sentencing dynamics is a plea deal that locks in some favorable sentencing terms and/or a decision by the defendants to, in the language of 5K1.1 of the federal sentencing guidelines, "provide substantial assistance in the investigation or prosecution of another person who has committed an offense." Those hoping that these indictments turn up the heat on current members of Team Trump can and should relish the reality that Manafort and Gates now have strong sentencing reasons to consider providing substantial assistance in the investigation of others. What others they might have information about, and what others Mueller and his team are seeking information on, will sure keep folks inside the Beltway chattering in the coming weeks and months. October 30, 2017 at 11:28 AM | Permalink Comments If Hillary committed no crime, I'm guessing Manafort and Gates were also merely "extremely reckless" and "incredibly negligent", but not criminally liable. Posted by: Lock Herup | Oct 30, 2017 12:11:41 PM Yes, perhaps Manafort can tell us what Lynch and Clinton were talking about on the tarmac, or how Uranium One went down. Who knows that things may come from investigating Russia? Posted by: Fast and Furious with Abortions | Oct 30, 2017 12:18:25 PM Charming. Another blog with descriptive comment names with the usual tone. Posted by: Joe | Oct 30, 2017 12:31:31 PM So the whole affair boils down to how much loyalty does 18 million purchase? Not to mention a favorable opinion from Trump for running a respectable convention. They went after the weakest link hoping to accomplish either one of two things. (1) Force Trump's hand and pardon Manafort thereby making Trump look guilty. This wins the legal battle but loses the political war. (2) Trump lets Manafort go and they hope Manafort rats him out. So the real question is whether Manafort CAN provide assistance to the government or more precisely whether Trump wants to take the risk he can. Posted by: Daniel | Oct 30, 2017 12:43:48 PM Can the criminal law be used for political retaliation, especially for the result of an election? What does the solemn ABA have to say? Standard 3-1.6 Improper Bias Prohibited (a) The prosecutor should not manifest or exercise, by words or conduct, bias or prejudice based upon race, sex, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or socioeconomic status. A prosecutor should not use other improper considerations, such as partisan or political or personal considerations, in exercising prosecutorial discretion. A prosecutor should strive to eliminate implicit biases, and act to mitigate any improper bias or prejudice when credibly informed that it exists within the scope of the prosecutors authority. (b) A prosecutors office should be proactive in efforts to detect, investigate, and eliminate improper biases, with particular attention to historically persistent biases like race, in all of its work. A prosecutors office should regularly assess the potential for biased or unfairly disparate impacts of its policies on communities within the prosecutors jurisdiction, and eliminate those impacts that cannot be properly justified. Posted by: David Behar | Oct 30, 2017 2:02:17 PM @David Manafort's indictment is an indictment for behavior that occurred BEFORE he can the Trump campaign; Trump or the presidential campaign is never mentioned in the indictment. That's interesting because even if the allegations are true that was/is not the role that Mueller was hired for. Mueller was hired to investigate Russian "meddling" in the election and so far he has not indicted anyone for that. So the only real purpose of this indictment is to get Manafort to flip under some domino theory of conspiracy. It can have no other point. Posted by: Daniel | Oct 30, 2017 2:13:47 PM Clemency aside, Manafort's only option is a plea deal. Posted by: beth | Oct 30, 2017 2:54:16 PM Beth. You are not a lawyer. I respect your opinion. However, Mueller violated the client lawyer privilege of Manafort. Mueller should lose his law license. Any judge allowing the evidence, should be removed, and impeached. Posted by: David Behar | Oct 30, 2017 3:14:15 PM Daniel. Do you think that discretion would have turned to Manafort for investigation had he not been campaign director of the Trump campaign? If you do not think these matters would have been investigated, then the prosecution is retaliatory. Let me have an hour with your personal laptop, I can send you to prison for decades and fine you $millions, just on the copyright infringements, never mind the content of your finances. If you were the campaign director of an opponent, my prosecutions would be retaliatory and unethical. Every adult can be prosecuted. Posted by: David Behar | Oct 30, 2017 3:19:19 PM Lost in all this rigamarole is due process. Wasn't the original warrant submitted with relation to the Trump campaign itself? If any evidence comes out that is not related to the actual investigation of criminal malfeasance with regard to Trump campaign activity, then such evidence cannot be used in conjunction with this special prosecutor, at least with regard to the original request for warrant. Geez, I'm not even a lawyer nor do I play one on the Internet, but we are in a post-Constitutional world. I'm seeing the policies played out with regard to sex offender registry issues now being brought out to bear on the rest of the populace, just as predicted. Posted by: Eric Knight | Oct 30, 2017 3:33:20 PM if it's found that this offices did this kind of maddness all of them should be jailed for know less than 50 years. why because someone knew this all the time and someone should also look at michigan voteing systen to see if someone got some money to help thump win the white house this mess have to stop its not a game.. Posted by: c williams | Oct 30, 2017 4:30:24 PM Test Posted by: Jason Holt | Oct 30, 2017 5:57:54 PM If Trump had some lawyers with some street, instead of Ivy indoctrinated morons, he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the role of Robert Mueller in the Uranium I scandal. Posted by: David Behar | Oct 30, 2017 6:03:46 PM original warrant submitted with relation to the Trump campaign itself? I'm not sure what warrant you are talking about and evidence against him probably comes from various sources anyway. I'm not sure what evidence regarding investigating the former campaign manager of the Trump Administration with connections to various people involved in the investigation is "not related to the actual investigation of criminal malfeasance with regard to Trump campaign activity." Mueller broad power to investigate though if you have an actual copy of the warrant you are concerned about, it would be helpful. Posted by: Joe | Oct 30, 2017 7:18:12 PM Do you think Trump will put in Prison for 20 years or whatever? He is problem with tweet and attach on HC. I pray for them.... I thank God.. Safe in America. Posted by: Donald Harmon | Oct 30, 2017 10:14:25 PM Manafort or his lawyer should get a hold of the latest edition of Michael Levine's publication, "171 Easy Mitigating Factors." Come to think of it, 171 such factors may not be enough. Posted by: Emily | Oct 31, 2017 12:21:15 AM Emily. The lawyers, the filthy traitor lawyers, are advising Trump to be cool. Bannon wants to go after Mueller. I suggest a special prosecutor to investigate Mueller for his role in the Uranium One scandal. What do you think? Give us the lawyer moron perspective. Posted by: David Behar | Oct 31, 2017 4:54:57 AM Behar, please explain how you got out of the straighjacket? Posted by: Emily | Oct 31, 2017 8:33:33 AM Eric, the scope of a warrant is different from the scope of Mueller's appointment as special prosecutor. Not knowing the exact language of the warrant, I could easily see a warrant covering "all documents showing communications between Manafort and the Russian governments or those acting on behalf of the Russian government between March 2016 and November 2016." While the exact language of the warrant would be relevant to a motion to suppress, one issue in a motion to suppress would be the "plain view" doctrine. Under the plain view doctrine, if a law enforcement officer while properly looking for the evidence described in the warrant sees a different item -- say an e-mail to an overseas accountant giving directions on how to hide the proceeds of his work representing the Russian government -- that is evidence of a crime, the law enforcement officer who stumbles upon that item is not required to put blinders on and ignore that item. Assuming that the item was found in plain view during a properly limited search, the question of what to do with that item would turn back to the scope of Mueller's appointment. If the terms of that appointment (not just the original terms, but any supplemental authority granted by the Deputy AG), does not include investigation of non-campaign related foreign contacts of campaign officials (and my vague understanding is that the Manafort investigation which began before he was hired as campaign manager was specifically within the scope of appointment), then that information would be forwarded to the appropriate U.S. Attorney's Office for their use in whatever charges not related to the special prosecutor's investigation were appropriate. Posted by: tmm | Oct 31, 2017 10:33:25 AM A.G. Rosensteins letter appointimg Muller as special counsel authorizes him to investigate not only any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump but also any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation. He is also authorized to investigate any matter covered by 28 CFR 600.4 (a) which includes the authority to investigate and prosecute federal crimes committed in the course of, and with intent to interfere with, the Special Counsel's investigation, such as perjury, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and intimidation of witnesses. Posted by: Michael R. Levine | Oct 31, 2017 1:25:33 PM Trump cannot escape the fact that he hired Manafort as his campaign manager. He hired a corrupt money launderer and tax evader to run his campaign. So much for Trump's judgment. Posted by: Dave from Texas | Oct 31, 2017 1:28:24 PM Mueller needs to lose his law license for his violation of lawyer client privilege. He should have immediately returned the item upon learning of the illegality of the seizure. The entire collection during that raid is fruit of the poisoned tree, and needs to be excluded from any trial. Posted by: David Behar | Oct 31, 2017 3:16:55 PM Dave. He failed to fill out an onerous form. The form is illegal itself. Posted by: David Behar | Oct 31, 2017 3:17:46 PM Professor Levine That elides my point. I don't have a problem with Mueller investigating anything that comes out of his investigation of Russian activity in the election; no one, I hope, expects him to turn a blind eye. But there is a difference between an investigation and an indictment. If his investigation discovered wrongdoing unrelated to Russian activity in the election the right thing to do would be for someone else to indict and try Manafort for that behavior. Muller is a special prosecutor, the DOJ can handle run of the mill crimes. Posted by: Daniel | Oct 31, 2017 5:52:04 PM Post a comment Appreciating ugly sentencing realities facing Paul Manafort and Rick Gates after federal indictment | Main | Interesting and encouraging new Gallup numbers on reports of crime victimization October 30, 2017 "Most California Jurisdictions Show Declines In Property Crime During Justice Reform Era, 2010-2016" The title of this post is the title of this short research report that I learned about via email from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice. Here I how the email describe the report: A new research report released today from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice examines local trends in Californias property crime from 2010 through 2016, a period marked by major justice system reform, including Public Safety Realignment, Prop 47, and Prop 57. Despite the relative stability of recent property crime trends, the report finds substantial variation in crime at the local level, which suggests that recent crime patterns may result from local policies rather than state policy reform. The report finds: From 2010 to 2016, property crime rates fell more than 3 percent statewide despite the implementation of large-scale criminal justice reforms. For every major crime except vehicle theft, more California jurisdictions reported decreases than increases in their crime rates from 2010 to 2016. For example, just 141 jurisdictions reported increased rates of burglary, while 367 jurisdictions showed decreases. Across California, crime trends have been highly localized. Of the 511 cities and local areas included in this analysis, 42 percent showed rising rates of property crime from 2010 to 2016, with an average increase of 12.8 percent, and 58 percent showed decreases, with an average decline of 18.1 percent. Many jurisdictions, especially those that began with higher rates of property crime, have devised successful policies and practices that are improving local safety. Jurisdictions that showed decreasing rates of property crime between 2010 and 2016 had higher rates at the start of the reform era than those showing increases. "The divergence between the 213 cities that have shown property crime increases since 2010 versus the 298 cities with property crime decreases was so large a 31 percentage point difference that the two categories of cities actually swapped places. This striking result suggests that reform measures such as Proposition 47 are not the reason a minority of cities experienced crime increases." Mike Males, Ph.D., Senior Research Fellow October 30, 2017 at 05:26 PM | Permalink Comments Why on earth would anyone in their right mind enter people's homes, or snatch their purses, or run around the highways stealing cars? That is too much like work, and far too dangerous, you fucking lawyers morons. They are stealing $5000 at a time on the internet. Nothing in our country is as stupid as the lawyer. And you fucking lawyer morons are doing nothing about that $100 billion take, and growing. Posted by: David Behar | Oct 30, 2017 6:01:54 PM Behar, I'm still trying to figure out how you got of the straightjacket. Just don't make 'em the way they used to. Posted by: Ted | Oct 31, 2017 12:15:15 AM D.B., pleae refill your prescription pill bottle. If you call tonight, the drugstore will have the refill in the morning. Posted by: Emily | Oct 31, 2017 12:16:50 AM Ted and Emily. Name a group stupider than the Harvard indoctrinated lawyer. You should throw your smelly KGB handbook back in the smelly, wet trash bin where you dug it up. Posted by: David Behar | Oct 31, 2017 1:08:54 AM Post a comment As you do not live on a remote island far from Facebook and Twitter and the news (sigh, IF ONLY), you are likely aware that Paul Manafort, who managed now-President Donald Trump's campaign for office, surrendered to federal agents following an indictment against him announced Monday morning that contained allegations including tax fraud, conspiracy against the US, and money laundering. Per DCist, the Department of Justice said via written statement that: Paul J. Manafort, Jr., of Alexandria, Va., and Richard W. Gates III, of Richmond, Va., have been indicted by a federal grand jury on Oct. 27, 2017, in the District of Columbia. The indictment contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. The case was unsealed on Oct. 30, 2017, after the defendants were permitted to surrender themselves to the custody of the FBI. But the DoJ isn't the only one issuing statements, as San Francisco's own Nancy Pelosi released her own while the rest of us were likely still getting ready for work. Here are her full remarks, sent to media this morning: Even with an accelerating Special Counsel investigation inside the Justice Department, and investigations inside the Republican Congress, we still need an outside, fully independent investigation to expose Russias meddling in our election and the involvement of Trump officials. Defending the integrity of our democracy demands that Congress look forward to counter Russian aggression and prevent future meddling with our elections. Pelosi also tweeted the statement, reiterating in the body of the tweet the need for the investigation to be independent of the current administration. The indictments of Paul Manafort & Rick Gates underscore need for an outside indpt commission to #FollowTheFacts. https://t.co/FNsocZ0JFB Nancy Pelosi (@NancyPelosi) October 30, 2017 Obviously, given the freshness of the news, it remains to be seen if Pelosi's demands will be met. As of publication time, Manafort remains in custody. You can read the full indictment below. #102917WF1 UPDATE FIRE 44 MOLIMO DR CONTAINED 1st Alarm 1 fatality 1 victim 1 Displaced Und. Investigation 554 am pic.twitter.com/anFw3d30ue San Francisco Fire (@sffdpio) October 29, 2017 One person is dead and a second injured, after an early-morning fire broke out in a home near Glen Canyon Park. According to the San Francisco Fire Department, the blaze at 44 Molimo Drive was reported at around 4:20 Sunday morning. According to NBC Bay Area, "neighbors quickly ran out to see if they could help calm the blaze but found 20 to 30-foot flames engulfing the structure for about ten minutes." Was a loud, early start to my Sunday. But thanks for the work @sffdpio @SFFFLocal798 pic.twitter.com/k52HBvOvaz Jonathan Woo (@jonrwoo) October 29, 2017 When they arrived on the scene, firefighters were met with "heavy fire blowing out of the front of the building," San Francisco Fire Department spokesperson Lieutenant Jonathan Baxter said. "The whole front of the house had flames coming out the front," neighbor Daniel Homsey, told NBC Bay Area. "People had fire hoses, trying to suppress the fire and stop it from spreading to the homes nearby." That combined effort was successful, the Chron reports, as by 6 a.m. firefighters had contained the blaze and "prevented the flames from spreading to neighboring homes." However, the SFFD says that one adult was killed in the blaze, their body found on the first floor of the home. According to NBC, they were "killed trying to escape from the front of the home which was engulfed in flames." As of publication time, they had not been publicly identified. The homeowner managed to escape from the rear of the two-story home, NBC reports. According to Bay City News, that person was injured in the fire but is is stable condition at an area hospital. According to the SFFD, the cause of the fire remains under investigation. In the latest chapter of right-leaning newsgroups and placing a high value on disrupting the proceedings of Berkeley, California, the Chronicle reports that an almost-$100,000 grant from the National Park Service to fund a project honoring the Black Panther Party has been revoked after blowback from conservative websites and law enforcement pressure. A UC Berkeley professors Black Panther memorialization funded by the Park Service had been approved in September, but the "Black Panther Party Research, Interpretation and Memory Project" was quietly taken off the table. After an additional review of the project, the NPS decided not to move forward with funding the project, a Park Service spokesperson told the Chronicle. The project would have been bolstered historical archives on the Panthers and landmarked sites of historical significance. Committed to truthfully honoring the legacy of BPP activists and the San Francisco Bay Area communities they served, the project seeks to document the lives of activists and elders and the landscapes that shaped the movement, the grant said, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. Producing an annotative bibliography that includes scholarly texts, newspaper, and magazine articles will be useful for future scholars of the movement. Equally significant, the project will document how the BPP impacted the visual arts, music, dance, and styles of the 1960s, 70s and 80s will underscore the vastness of its impact on American culture. Bay Area sites that shaped the BPP will be identified in an effort to memorialize a history that brought meaning to lives far beyond the San Francisco Bay Area. The conservative media agitation came in large part from that same Washington Free Beacon. Those of you following the developments of special counsel Robert Muellers Indictment Monday will recognize the Washington Free Beacon as the site that originally funded the Steele dossier that investigated Donald Trump, the report that produced allegations of what we now call the pee tape. But the Fraternal Order of Police was also pissed. As far as we are concerned the only meaning [the Black Panther Party] brought to anyones lives was grief to the families of their victims, the president of the FOP wrote in an Oct. 19 letter to President Trump. Members of this militant anti-American group murdered 16 law officers over the course of their history. Among their victims was U.S. Park Ranger Kenneth C. Patrick. (Patrick was shot in Point Reyes in 1973.) The $97,999 grant would have been awarded to UC Berkeleys incoming chair of African American Studies Ula Taylor, a specialist in Black Panther history and a consultant on the 1995 Mario Van Peebles film Panther. UC Berkeley had little comment on the matter, with university spokesperson Dan Mogulof saying, the park service has the answer, not the campus. And in terms of why they rescinded it, they have the answer, not the campus. Related: Alleged Former Black Liberation Army 'Warrior' Ronald Bridgeforth Comes Forward in 43-Year-Old Shooting The event is one of activities marking the 25th establishment anniversary of the Vietnam- Korea diplomatic relations.The exhibition showcased more than 30 photos featuring image, people, traditional culture, outstanding economic achievements as well as activities of Vietnam in the international and regional summits which attracted participation of Korean people, foreigners and Vietnamese community, who have been studying and living in RoK.Through the event, the participants desired to have a chance to learn about the country's culture as well as economic achievements. BY HOANG THANH- Translated by Huyen Huong Trick-or-treaters will be knocking on your door tomorrow night. If you haven't yet stocked up on Halloween candy to distribute, these were the most popular kinds of candy in 2016, according to The Daily Meal.com. 1. Reese's The perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter, REESE'S Peanut Butter Cups are the perfect companion for movies, sports, and parties. 2. M&Ms The first Ms are printed on M&MS plain chocolate candies in 1950. To ensure consumers get the real thing, the slogan, Look for the M on every piece, is created. 3. Snickers Frank Mars, founder of Mars, Inc. (originally called Mar-O-Bar Co.), invented the Snickers bar in 1930. The candy bar is named after one of Frank Mars' favorite horses, Snickers. 4. Hershey's milk chocolate Hershey Chocolate Company began marketing its standard size chocolate bars for a nickel ($.05) in 1900, setting a standard for the United States confectionery industry that continued until 1969. 5. Kit Kat The Kit Kat name originates from the late 17th century in London, when a literary club met at a pie shop owned by pastry chef Christoppher Catling. The group was called the Kit Kat club and took its name from an abbreviated version of the owner's name. In August 29, 1935 the first manufacture of the four-finger wafer took place in York. This candy is sold in London and the South East of England as Rowntrees Chocolate Crisp. SIOUX CITY | With colder temperatures moving into Siouxland, the Sioux City Police Department is reminding motorists to not leave vehicles running while unattended. Numerous vehicles were stolen over the past weekend, Sioux City Police Det. Jeff Harstad said in a news release Monday. Each case reported involved the owners leaving keys in their vehicle. Harstad said law enforcement investigates these crimes but are limited by resources and leads. The public can greatly assist law enforcement by taking simple, proactive measures that everyone can do, he said. If motorists use a remote to start and warm up their vehicle, they must take steps to make sure it can't be driven away by a thief. They should not store keys in the vehicle and should remember to routinely lock it up. For crime prevention tips, visit www.siouxcitypolice.com or contact the Crime Prevention Office at 712-279-6411. LE MARS, Iowa | A murder charge filed against an Akron, Iowa, woman accused of shooting her husband was dismissed Monday to give the prosecution more time to investigate the case. Plymouth County Attorney Darin Raymond asked that the Oct. 6 complaint charging Becky Hebert with second-degree murder be dismissed "without prejudice," allowing the possibility of refiling charges at a later date. More time is needed to investigate medical and lab reports and cell phone records, Raymond said in his motion, filed Monday in Plymouth County District Court. "... the additional information is necessary in seeking the truth and in the interest of accomplishing justice," Raymond said in the motion. Hebert's attorney, Brian Buckmeier, of Sioux City, did not resist the motion, which District Judge John Ackerman granted. Authorities have said Hebert, 34, shot Jeremy Hebert, 40, at around 12:15 a.m. Oct. 6 during an argument in their rural Akron home. An autopsy showed that Jeremy Hebert died of a single shotgun wound to the chest and abdomen, and his death was ruled a homicide. Raymond said in his motion that investigators needed more time to receive the autopsy reports and lab results from the Iowa State Medical Examiner's Office, reports from testing of the firearm and ammunition believed to be used in the incident and examination of cell phone information. The dismissal allows Raymond time to gather the information without running up against deadlines established in Iowa's Rules of Criminal Procedure, which require an indictment to be filed within 45 days of a defendant's arrest. Raymond may now gather the needed information and refile the charge, if there is enough evidence to support it. Raymond did not immediately return a message left with his office. Authorities had been called to the Hebert residence previously for domestic disputes, Plymouth County Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo said at the time of Becky Hebert's arrest. According to court documents, a Plymouth County jury in September found Jeremy Hebert guilty of domestic abuse assault and other charges, but acquitted him of attempted murder. Hebert was out on bond awaiting sentencing. Two days before his death, a judge had issued a warrant for Hebert's arrest because of alleged violations of a no contact order with Becky Hebert. LE MARS, Iowa | Prosecutors dismissed a theft charge filed against the former Westfield, Iowa, city clerk on Monday while an investigation into the small town's finances continues. Angela Sorensen, 48, of Westfield, has been accused of using $8,972 from a city fundraising account to buy personal items. Plymouth County Attorney Darin Raymond said in his motion to dismiss the criminal complaint that more time is needed to complete an investigation and report by the Iowa State Auditor. Raymond asked that the charge be dismissed "without prejudice," giving him the option of refiling charges in the future. District Judge John Ackerman granted Raymond's motion Monday in Plymouth County District Court. Iowa's Rules of Criminal Procedure require that a defendant be indicted or charged within 45 days of his or her arrest unless the state files a motion to dismiss on the grounds that dismissal in the furtherance of justice. Sorensen was arrested Oct. 11. With the dismissal, the investigation can continue without the possibility of pushing up against that deadline. Westfield Mayor Mike Tadlock contacted the Plymouth County Sheriff's Office on Sept. 7 after officials discovered the funds were missing from a bank account that held money raised for a public park and T-ball complex. According to court documents, Sorensen was in control of the account and took money from it for her own use. Sorensen resigned in August, and the city has hired a new clerk. SIOUX CITY | With the exception of the first three years of his retirement, Pete Groetken has never not held a public service position. The 68-year-old first-term councilman spent six years with the Iowa Army National Guard before joining the Sioux City Police Department in 1972. That led to a nearly 38-year career, including 23 years as captain. Groetken grew up in Sioux City, graduated from Bishop Heelan Catholic High School and attended Briar Cliff University. Following his tenure with the National Guard, Groetken -- who was married with three daughters -- decided to look for a civil service job. When he approached the city and asked about upcoming positions, he remembers a woman telling him there were two upcoming tests: one for a police department position and one for a Sioux City Fire Rescue position. "I asked which one's first? She said police. I said I'll take it," he said. Two months later, Groetken received his badge and gun as an officer. During his time on the force, he spent 31 years in supervisory roles, including 23 years as a captain, spending time overseeing each of the department's three bureaus. In 1985, he graduated from the FBI National Academy for law enforcement officers at Quantico, Virginia. Groetken points back to his many years with the Sioux City Police Department and the relationships he formed there as a driving force behind his decision to continue his involvement in city government. "I've always had this ideology that good things happen to good people, so therefore I want to be surrounded by good people," Groetken said. "I had a wonderful opportunity to be in a position to work around good people my entire career." Groetken retired in 2010. Three years later, he decided to throw his hat into the ring for one of three open seats up for election on the Sioux City Council. "There are a lot of good people in city government," he said. "(I thought) it would be ideal to be in a position to be able to vote to improve their capabilities to do good things for this city." Running in a field of eight candidates that included only one incumbent, Groetken in 2013 won the primary and went on to receive the second-most votes in the general election behind attorney Dan Moore. In his first term as a councilman, Groetken points to recently announced large-scale economic development projects and the strides that the Parks and Recreation Department has made in building trails and adding new parks as a success he wants to continue. Groetken finished third in the Oct. 10 City Council primary behind fellow incumbents Dan Moore and Alex Watters. Groetken lives in Sioux City with Donna, his wife of 46 years. They have three grown children and several grandchildren. Groetken said while none of his daughters remained in Sioux City, he wants to work to make it a place where more of the people who grow up and attend college decide to stick around. "I never got a chance to get them back here, but I think the goal for me would be to provide an environment growing up that the kids want to stay here," he said. "I hope that we can provide opportunities for them." SIOUX CITY | People could be peeling off U.S. Highway 20 in years ahead to see a spot near Correctionville, Iowa, where cultural artifacts from indigenous American sites of 1,000 years ago would be highlighted. There could be an area dedicated to framing how indigenous Americans lived in the bountiful area in the Little Sioux Valley. It is an expanse where farmers for decades have found arrowheads and other artifacts from centuries ago, and the recent discovery of geoglyphs is giving impetus to create an interpretive area. The work in the area by archeologists turned up more than 15,000 artifacts. Woodbury County and Correctionville officials are in early planning stages to display or give interpretive summary of the artifacts found over the last few years when the U.S. Highway 20 modernization project cut into lands just west of the Little Sioux River. That spot is up a hill that gives a great vantage to the lush valley where Native Americans lived off the land, buried some descendants and dug out geoglyphs in the shapes of animals. "It is an area rich with historical artifacts," Woodbury County Conservation Board Director Rick Schneider said. Trees on 241 acres were planned for removal for the highway project. Once those artifacts were found, the Iowa Department of Transportation plan for the highway west of Correctionville was slightly rerouted. IDOT Planner Dakin Schultz said no human remains were found, but the highway design from Minnesota Avenue east to Correctionville had to be narrowed to minimize impacts to the site. Schneider said the geoglyphs are similar but not the same as the Effigy Mounds burial mounds in eastern Iowa near the Mississippi River. He described geoglyphs west of Correctionville that are V-shaped trenches dug in the shape of animals, including one like a buffalo. Schneider said some burial sites date back 500 to 600 years ago, while IDOT personnel found geoglyphs that were made about 1,200 years ago. Those have not been removed, but are kept in confidential spots, so as not to disturb the items of cultural significance. The Woodbury County Conservation Board is processing a memorandum of understanding with the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation to get assistance in acquiring roughly 90 acres of land, in a timbered area, to protect the cultural resources west of Correctionville. "The Correctionville community is planning to develop an area to interpret the cultural resources and the Conservation Board would hope to collaborate with the community on this potential attraction," Schneider said. Correctionville is a town of 821 people in eastern Woodbury County. Correctionville City Clerk Carla Mathers said at this point it is not clear if the city of Correctionville or rather the nonprofit Correctionville Economic Development Corp. will take the lead on any interpretive center in town. There have been some seminars in recent months on items found through the highway digging, including from a trove of items found on the north side of the highway, Schneider said. A 2015 program titled "Spirits From Above: Archaeology on the Bluff for Highway 20 Reconstruction" was held in Correctionville. In that session, a research archaeologist with Bear Creed Archaeology of Cresco, Iowa, presented a slide show on discovered geoglyphs and described the rituals that may have taken place. "That room was full...It was pretty interesting," Mathers said. IDOT in September released a video on YouTube titled Landscapes that Shape Us. The video notes that the cultural resources discovery in the Highway 20 expansion project in Woodbury County resulted in government agencies, Native American tribes, historians and archaeologists working together to balance transportation needs while protecting cultural resources and the integrity of the land. Schneider said the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation will hold the land with historical artifacts while the county seeks grants to purchase the properties. He expects that grant to arrive in 2018. Todays top picks from our online calendar. Find more events at siouxcityjournal.com/calendar. Dirty Dancing Youll have the time of your life seeing this unprecedented live experience, exploding with heart-pounding music, passionate romance and sensational dancing 7:30 p.m. at the Orpheum Theatre, 520 Pierce St. Part of the Broadway at the Orpheum Series. Visit BroadwayAtTheOrpheum.com or call 712-279-4850 for ticket information. Haunted Trail Haunted Trail animates the dark and terrifying suspense of Halloween 8 to 11 p.m. today and Tuesday at Wayne State College, 1111 Main St., Wayne, Neb. The trail is appropriate for all ages, although adults without children may experience a more ghoulish adventure. Haunted Trail begins and ends near the Mamie McCorkindale School Museum due north of Faith Regional Physicians Services. Dress appropriately for cool October nights. $5 per person; $3 per person for groups larger than eight. Endless Loop Yun Shin, an assistant professor of art at Northwestern College, will display her work in the colleges Te Paske Gallery, 101 Seventh St. SW, in Orange City, Iowa. An opening reception is scheduled for 7 p.m. tonight. Shins exhibit, titled Endless Loop, features drawings created by tracing her fathers and mothers signatures thousands of times layering them into abstract patterns that suggest an infinite space. Visit www.nwciowa.edu for more information. Award-winning documentary filmmaker and fine-art photographer Miguel Gandert shows his work highlighting his mestizaje heritage, and the fusion and tension of the relationship between Spanish Colonial and Native Cultures of the Americas. Runs through 12/29. Querer means to want, to desire, to be in a place, with its people. In folk terminology, querencia is such a place, the center space of desire, the root of belonging and yearning to belong, that vicinity where you first beheld the light. Querencia, in collective terms, is homeland. ~Enrique Lamadrid, Nuevo Mexico Profundo Miguel Gandert tells stories. He tells stories of his homeland, New Mexico (and beyond), its people and the cultural practices that distinguish communities from each other while simultaneously revealing their kinship. You will have to form your own words, however. Ganderts stories are told through penetrating, black and white photos. A primary focus of his work is his own mestizaje heritage and the fusion and tension of the relationship between Spanish Colonial and Native Cultures of the Americas. Miguel Gandert, a native of Espanola, NM, is an award-winning documentary and fine-art photographer and filmmaker. His photographs have been shown in galleries and museums throughout the world and are in numerous public collections including the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the National Museum of American History and Art at the Smithsonian. Querencia: Rituals of the Rio Arriba opens Friday, October 6 at the New Mexico Humanities Council, 4115 Silver Ave SE, Albuquerque. An artists reception will be 6:00 pm 8:00 pm with an artist's discussion at 7:00 pm. The exhibit closes December 29, 2017. International Relations October 30, 2017 Richard Fidler and Dick Nichols Spanish PM Rajoy reacts to declaration of independence by launching assault on Catalonias government, parliament and other institutions. The Spanish governments war on Catalan autonomy and democracy is now in full offensive mode, following the Catalan parliaments October 27 decision to proclaim their nations independence of the Spanish state. In the following article, Dick Nichols, Barcelona correspondent of Green Left Weekly , reports on the sequence of events in recent days and since October 1, when a majority of Catalans resisting massive repression by Spanish police voted or tried to vote for independence. I follow these reports with a brief summary of key provisions of the Catalan Declaration of Independence, which is at this point available in an authorized version only in the Catalan language. [A Scottish blogger has already made a provisional translation, available here.] It will be noted that there are two parts to the resolution of the Catalan parliament, the first explaining why Catalonia has opted to form a sovereign republic and its immediate implementation, and the second outlining plans for a constituent process through which a Constituent Assembly will discuss and adopt a constitution for the new republic that will then be submitted for approval in a popular democratic vote. Whether or how these plans can be carried out will of course depend on how successfully the pro-independence forces can mobilize in the coming weeks and months in sufficient numbers to frustrate Spains moves to suppress their democratic aspirations. It is more important than ever, therefore, for international supporters of Catalan self-determination to organize and mobilize in defense of that nations democratic rights. In the Canadian state where Prime Minister Trudeau has constantly repeated his support for a united Spain and opposition to Catalan independence Quebec activists have initiated the formation of a committee of solidarity with Catalonia. Quebec solidaire, the left pro-independence party, is participating and is also circulating a petition calling on Trudeau to support Catalan self-determination, denounce Madrids repression, and recognize the validity of the October 1 referendum result. Richard Fidler Catalonia: Independence Declared after Rajoy Refuses Last-Minute Deal Just after 3pm on October 27, the Catalan parliament voted to ratify the results of the countrys October 1 referendum on self-determination, proclaiming Catalonia an independent state in the form of a republic. In the 135-seat Catalan parliament the vote was 70 in favour the MPs of the pro-independence coalition Together for the Yes (JxSi) and the anti-capitalist Peoples Unity List (CUP) 10 against the MPs of the left coalition Catalonia Yes We Can (CSQEP) and two informal votes. The other 53 MPs from the unionist parties Citizens, the Peoples Party (PP) and the Party of Socialists of Catalonia (PSC), walked out of the chamber in protest at a vote they said violated the Spanish constitution. Outside parliament the vote was greeted with cheers from the tens of thousands of people who had gathered for this historic moment. The vote marked the end of a tortuous two-year process, which began after the pro-independence parties won a majority of seats (but not votes) at the September 27, 2015 plebiscitary poll. Almost immediately, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, whose government is about to launch a takeover of Catalan government and institutions under section 155 of the Spanish constitution, tweeted: I ask all Spaniards for calm: the rule of law will soon restore legality in Catalonia. The Spanish Senate voted 214 to 47 (with one informal vote) to give the Rajoy government all the powers it needs to sack the Catalan government of Carles Puigdemont, control the Catalan parliament and launch an assault on Catalonias institutions. The Berserk Road to Independence October 27 was therefore a historic day. But the most amazing, convulsive, day in modern Catalan political history took place the day before. In the space of eight hours on October 26, Puigdemont shifted his stance in the face of the looming takeover by the central Spanish government from supporting a declaration of Catalan independence to supporting early elections and dropping independence and, finally, to dropping early elections and having the Catalan parliament decide on independence. Puigdemonts disorienting shifts came after three days of negotiation and debate within the mass organizations and parties of the Catalan independence movement had finally produced a decision in favour of declaring Catalonia independent. The establishment Barcelona daily La Vanguardia certainly thought so: on October 26 its gloomy front page headline read: Radical milieu pushing Puigdemont toward UDI [Unilateral Declaration of Independence]. The independence declaration had been on hold since October 10, when Puigdemont recognized the result of the October 1 referendum but suspended its application to call for negotiations with the PP government. When Rajoy ignored this call and pressed ahead with his war on Catalan self-rule, Puigdemont said the Catalan parliament would consider lifting the suspension. After the PP governments draconian plans for intervention were detailed on October 21, the declaration of independence seemed a certainty. The Establishments Mobilize However, that conclusion underestimated the huge pressure that the Catalan, Spanish and European political and economic establishments would bring to bear on the Catalan government. The 72 hours between October 23 and October 26 saw a near-panic mobilization of these powers-that-be. Nonetheless, their offensive failed for two reasons: the resistance of the Catalan independence movement and the refusal of the PP to drop what it sees as a precious chance to liquidate Catalan self-rule as part of its long-held recentralization agenda for the Spanish state. The mounting pressure on the Catalan administration, which included an ongoing campaign to scare companies to register themselves outside Catalonia and stern statements from European Union spokespeople, severely shook up the Puigdemont ministry and the ruling JxSi parliamentary fraction. At the same time, it had no impact on the CUP that had been insisting that the overwhelming Yes vote be ratified by the proclamation of the Catalan Republic. The Conflict Unfolds Here is how the week unfolded: October 23, 6pm. There is no indication of the drama to come, as both the government and JxSi parliamentarians agree that the Catalan Republic should be declared on October 27. October 24, 10am. As the details of the extent of the article 155 intervention start to sink in, discussion opens up in the Catalan cabinet as to whether it is even possible to defend the countrys institutions and whether going to early elections might not be wiser. This discussion spreads to the JxSi parliamentary group. October 25, 4pm. The JxSi parliamentarians adopt by a large majority the position of declaring the Republic and resisting with the people and speakers notes are prepared outlining the arguments for use at 100 meetings called by the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Catalan culture and language association Omnium Cultural. However, during the meeting, voices are raised against this suicidal course, provoking an all-in debate, the content of which is communicated to Puigdemont. October 25, 5pm. The position of a minority of JxSi MPs to shift to an election scenario to preserve Catalonias institutions (a position also held by Catalonia Yes We Can) gets further repeated in the editorials of all the major Catalan dailies, as well as in statements by the economic establishment. Business minister Santi Vila, who has been publicly reluctant about an independence declaration, puts out feelers to contacts in the Spanish government about the possibility of a negotiated settlement. October 25, 7pm. At a summit of the independence movement the government, mass organizations, parties and municipal bodies the majority view remains that of declaring independence and resisting with the people. However, Puigdemont notes a strong minority current arguing for early elections as a way of stopping an article 155 onslaught. He, too, is concerned about the capacity of the movement to resist, especially if it is divided. The Catalan crisis is particularly worrying for Basque Premier Inigo Urkullu (Basque Nationalist Party), who fears that a successful attack on Catalan autonomy will encourage the most centralizing forces in the PP and Citizens to target Basque institutions next. Urkullu offers to mediate between the Spanish and Catalan governments: he is supported by other figures with an interest in preventing a 155 intervention, namely various Catalan businesspeople, former Catalan PSC premier Jose Montilla and current PSC leader Miquel Iceta. Their contact person in the PP is Congress speaker Ana Pastor. These mediators convince Puigdemont that they have enough commitment from the PP for him to call early elections and dissolve parliament. October 26, 10am. Puigdemont informs his ministers, JxSi MPs and representatives of the two main parties in JxSi the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDECat) and the Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) that he has decided to call early elections and dissolve parliament. All he is waiting for is confirmation that the Rajoy government will call off its 155 intervention and thus avoid extreme violence. Revolt Puigdemonts announcement left the independence camp aghast. First to comment was CUP MP Carles Riera: Up until now the Catalan independence movement has had one enemy, the Spanish state. Now it has a second, the Catalan government. Next to react were three PDECat MPs, who along with JxSi independent MP Germa Bel, tore up their party cards. The ERC, while respecting Puigdemonts decision, said it disagreed with it and, after an emergency meeting of its national council, advised that if Puigdemont went ahead with his plan it would leave the government. Both the ERC and the smaller force, Democrats, called on Puigdemont to reverse his decision. The ANC and Omnium Cultural reaffirmed their commitment to respecting the October 1 result. Sumate, the organization of Spanish-speaking supporters of independence, tweeted: We dont accept Catalan elections, you have a mandate from the Catalan people and you must fulfil it. At the same time, the square outside the government building began to fill with angry protesters. They were led by the university students who had gone on strike that day in support of the Catalan Republic. The students were halfway through their march when the news started to spread that Puigdemont wanted to call early elections. The chants of the demonstrations changed effortlessly to Not a step backwards!, Those who are in prison dont want elections! [a reference to imprisoned ANC and Omnium Cultural leaders Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Cuixart], Betrayal and No independence without disobedience. Silence In the hours after Puigdemonts announcement, the noise of revolt continued to grow, but it was accompanied by total silence from a Rajoy government that was supposed to commit to suspending 155. When PP spokespeople were finally heard from, it was to say that we have to re-establish statutory and constitutional legality with decisions of the Senate (Javier Arenas, in charge of regional government policy) and stopping the application of article 155 doesnt depend on the calling of early elections in Catalonia but on a clear renunciation from the Catalan government of independence aspirations.(Galician premier Alberto Nunez Feijoo). By 4pm, six hours after Puigdemont had dropped his bombshell, the media were still waiting for him to make a public statement that had originally been scheduled for midday. Finally, it was clear the PP was not interested in giving any undertaking to Puigdemont and that, in fact, they were gunning for him. At 5pm, Puigdemont announced that because he had not received any guarantees, the offer of going to early elections was off the table and the decision on whether to respond to the threat of article 155 intervention with an independence declaration was to be taken by parliament. War The main effect of Puigdemonts offer was to further expose the political motivation of the PP: just as the Rajoy government was not interested in Puigdemonts previous clarification that no declaration of independence had taken place on October 10, it had no interest in accepting a truce that would have come at great political cost to Puigdemont had it actually gone ahead. The determination of the Rajoy government to get Catalonia saved the unity of the Catalan independence forces. Now, having voted for independence, those forces must prepare for war. Dick Nichols is Green Left Weekly s European correspondent, based in Barcelona. An initial version of this article has appeared on its web site. For up-to-the-minute information on the Catalan struggle go to Green Lefts live blog . A note on the Declaration of Independence adopted October 27 by the Catalan parliament The Declaration begins by reciting the full text of a resolution adopted October 10 by the parliamentary representatives of the pro-independence parties. The resolution recalls the repeated and frustrated attempts by Catalonia since the adoption of the post-Franco Spanish constitution of 1978 to expand the very limited administrative autonomy it grants into political recognition as a nation within the Spanish state. Faced with hostile rulings by the Constitutional Court and the rejection of negotiations by the central government in Madrid, the Catalan government had called the referendum on self-determination held October 1 of this year. Pursuant to its result, the parliamentary deputies had determined to constitute the Catalan republic as an independent and sovereign state subject to the rule of law and to initiate a democratic, citizen-based, transversal, participative and binding constituent process. The resolution ends by affirming the desire to open negotiations with the Spanish state, without pre-conditions, aimed at establishing a regime of collaboration to the benefit of both parties. It asks the international community and the authorities of the European Union to intervene to stop the violation of the civil and political rights that is under way, and to witness the negotiating process with the Spanish state. It expresses the unequivocal desire to join the international committee as quickly as possible, the new state undertaking to comply with the international obligations currently applicable in its territory and continuing to adhere to the international treaties to which the Kingdom of Spain is subject. And it calls on international governments and organizations to recognize the Catalan Republic as an independent and sovereign state. The Declaration then expresses the Catalan parliaments rejection of the decision of the Spanish cabinet and Senate to apply article 155 of the Spanish constitution, which amounts to the elimination of Catalan self-government. This, it says, is an attack on democracy without precedent in the last 40 years. The Declaration then sets out a series of measures proposed to implement independence. These include establishing a procedure for acquiring Catalan nationality, a proposal for dual nationality with the Kingdom of Spain, and the adoption of laws governing the transition to independence. The existing institutions and many of the existing laws and structures of the Catalonian autonomy will be retained. A public development bank will be established, as well as a new central bank, the Bank of Catalonia, to regulate the financial system. An inventory of Spanish state property will be compiled and will be included in the negotiations with the Spanish state, as will a proposal for division of assets and liabilities between the two states. Finally, the Parliament will open an investigation to determine the responsibilities of the government of the Spanish state and its institutions in offenses against fundamental individual and collective rights committed in the effort to frustrate the peoples right to vote on October 1. The second part of the Declaration, on the constituent process, calls on the Catalan government to establish a Constituent Assembly that will collect the proposals systematized in a Constituent Social Forum and submit them to a citizens consultation that will establish a binding mandate on the Parliament constituted as a Constituent Assembly resulting from constituent elections. Readers will note that the declaration of the Republic by the Catalan parliament, together with the commitment to set in motion a process to define the constitution of the new Republic, is very similar to what Catalan socialist Esther Vivas was proposing in the concluding paragraphs of Dick Nichols second article. A new stage in the struggle has begun in which the mobilized masses of Catalonia will be engaging in confrontations with the Spanish state and its repressive forces ranging from street demonstrations to mass civil disobedience. These developments, and the intense public debates they will promote, can help to arm the independence forces with a social agenda aimed not only against state repression and capitalist austerity but for a participatory and democratic movement that can point the way toward another Catalonia of social justice and equality. Their example can help educate and inspire working people and democratically inclined people in Spain and internationally with the progressive content and potential of the independentist process. (R.F.) The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless. The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well. By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism. Its not very often a government says sorry yet Scotlands ruling body has acknowledged where it went wrong. On Nov. 7, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon will apologize on behalf of the government to men who were convicted for gay sex under now-abolished laws. But the country is also backing up their apology with action. Scotland is publishing new legislation which gives automatic pardons to all convicted. Thanks to this new legislation, men with gay sex convictions before 2001 can apply to have them removed from their records. The First Minister will give a statement of apology to those convicted prior to 2001 under discriminatory laws against same-sex sexual activity that is now legal, a Scottish Government spokesperson said. The apology will be made on behalf of the Scottish Government for the treatment of homosexual men under previous governments and will coincide with the introduction of legislation to provide people convicted under these laws an automatic pardon. They added: The Bill will right a historic wrong and give justice to those who found themselves unjustly criminalized simply because of who they loved. Sturgeon promised this legislation in September and it was confirmed by Justice Secretary Michael Matheson last year, according to The Independent. In response, Equality Network Director Tim Hopkins said: The apology is important because it shows that it was the discriminatory laws that were wrong, and not the consensual relationships that were made criminal by those laws. Hopkins pointed out the details of the bill have not been released yet but if they are true to the word of the government, he believes it will be a huge step forward. If it implements the policy announced by the Scottish government, it will be a hugely important statement that Scotland regrets the discrimination of the past, and now considers its LGBTI people to be fully equal citizens who deserve equal respect, he said. It will also be of direct practical importance to people who currently have one of these convictions show up on criminal-record checks for jobs or volunteer posts. While some activists showed support, others encouraged a push even further. Nicola Sturgeon is making an unambiguous apology. I applaud the First Minister, said human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell according to Gay Star News. I urge the Scottish government to follow the German governments example by offering a symbolic compensation of around 3,000 to those men whose lives were ruined by homophobic laws. Many men were fined, jailed, lost their jobs, were forced out of their homes, subjected to gay-bashing and were driven to depression, alcoholism, mental illness and attempted suicide They deserve recompense. Le Collectif Cheikh Yassine a organise un certain nombre dactivites et de festivites pour les enfants de Gaza sous le theme La joie des enfants de Gaza pour lAid . Ces activites ont commence le premier jour de lAid et continue jusquau 4eme jour de lAid dans la bande de Gaza. Plusieurs activites, ont ete organisees parmi lesquelles : des competitions recompensees par des prix, des jeux, des animations et des chants presentes par un groupe ainsi que des distributions de cadeaux et daides financieres. When we last visited the Tokyo Coffee Festival in 2016, organizer Yuji Otsuki said it was a chance to introduce people to the local scene and show them the ease of brewing at home. Since then, the festival has established itself as a chance to explore new coffee, learn more about it, listen to live music, and try other specialty food and drink. And with the most recent event just finished, I thought it would be interesting to look at the ways the festival has grown and what new developments have taken place since we first covered the festivalits a look at what was, what is, and what to look forward to in the future! Espresso The most recent Tokyo Coffee Festival was also its espresso debut, with duties rotating on two-hour shifts to offer visitors a variety of coffee to try from coffee shops including Rec Coffee, Fuglen Coffee Roasters, and And Coffee Roasters. From far flung islands Though the event is always a showcase for Tokyo coffee roasters like Single O Japan, Light Up Coffee, 4/4 Seasons Coffee, and Glitch Coffee Roasters, its also blossomed into an event that introduces a variety of coffee shops from outside of Tokyo, too. Highlights this year included Cerrado Coffeeall the way from Okinawa with a sweet Ethiopia Gedeband Coral Coffee, who came from the coasts of the Goto Islands of Nagasaki! From afar, but not too far From outside of Tokyo, the Tokyo Coffee Festival hosted Takamura Wine & Coffee Roasters from Osaka, Hoshikawa Cafe from Saitama, Trunk Coffee from Nagoya, and Hibi Coffee from Kyoto, who brought a little of the tea ceremony to their kimono-clad barista working on pour-over coffee! From neighboring Asia When we first talked in 2016, Otsuki had mentioned with some surprise that a Taiwanese coffee shop had wanted to take part in the festival. This year, the lineup of Asian coffee shops outside of Japan included Papa Palheta from Singapore, St.1 Cafe and Aroma Cafe Live from Taiwan, and Blooom Coffee House from Macau. The overseas selection It isnt just the Asian coffee roasters with an interest in the festival, however, and the September Tokyo Coffee Festival included the likes of The Barn from Germany, Artificer from Sydney, Aloha Coffee Lab from Hawaii, and New Zealands Coffee Supreme, who not only sold a selection of cute red and white socks, but have also just recently opened their first Tokyo coffee shop. A celebration of specialty Though coffee is at the heart of the Tokyo Coffee Festival, its also an opportunity to introduce people to other specialty food and drink that shares in the craftsmanship and pursuance of natural flavors inherent in specialty coffee, and products made in the same vein or related to coffee in some way. Craft beer is often on display, but this year also saw specialty chocolate-covered bananas courtesy of Minimal, and Prana Chai with their specialty tea. Educating and Entertaining More recently, the Tokyo Coffee Festival has hosted talk events featuring competition champions like Japan Barista Champion Miki Suzuki, and World Brewers Cup Champion Tetsu Kasuya. This year the event hosted the JAC finals, as well as a talk on the Taiwanese coffee scene courtesy of Goodmans Coffee representative, Atsuomi Ito. To keep up with the Tokyo Coffee Festival, check their website or official Facebook page. Hengtee Lim (@Hent03) is a Sprudge.com staff writer based in Tokyo. Read more Hengtee Lim on Sprudge. Photos courtesy of Kazu Poon. I dont believe in ghosts or paranormal activity, but 30 years ago I had a series of experiences I cant explain in any rational way. It spooked me enough that Ill never take another job that requires me to work before dawn. I also still refuse to answer knocks at my door. Bulldog News, owned by Doug Campbell and Gloria Seborg, is a newsstand and cafe in Seattle thats been serving news junkies and the caffeine-deprived for the past 34 years. In the mid-1980s I worked there as a barista and, eventually, a manager. It was the perfect job for a news and magazine junkie like me. It did, however, require getting up at an obscenely early hour. Bulldog ran the distribution of The New York Times for the University of Washington campus, which meant I had to arrive by 4:30 AM to make sure our undergrad carriers got their newspapers. After the carriers were on their merry way, I would tune the store radio to NPRs Morning Edition, prime the espresso machine, and hang out until it was time to open at 6:30. Bulldogs front doors face the normally bustling University Avenue, but at that time of morning The Ave was so quiet Id only hear the occasional swoosh of a passing city street sweeper or the slow, erratic shuffle of an inebriated student heading back to the dorms. It was also dark and almost always raining, which I thought early on in my Bulldog tenure was the only half-way spooky aspect of the job. Then I heard the knock. It was 5:00 AM on a Thursday morning and I was sitting in the front of the shop, sipping on my first shots of Bulldog Blend espresso. My usual morning routine was suddenly interrupted by two solid knocks at the back door. I walked to the back room to see if it was a delivery, but when I peered through the glass pane, I couldnt see a soul. I cautiously opened the door and looked up and down the alley. Then I heard a mans voice say, Ready? The only living thing I could see in the alley was a seagull eating trash down by Magus Books. I couldnt lock the back door fast enough. Two weeks later it happened again, on a Thursday at about 5:00 AM. I went to the back door and saw nothing. This time I decided not to go outside. But when it happened a third time, I started getting nervous. That early in the morning I was all by myself inside Bulldog and it was always pitch black outside. Was someone playing a practical joke on me? Was there a water pipe that only made knocking noises on Thursdays at 5:00 AM? One afternoon, during a clove cigarette break in the back alley, I shared my story with a friend who worked as a barista at Cafe Allegro, the espresso joint located just a few feet down the alley from Bulldogs back door. He just nodded his head and rather matter-of-factly stated, That was probably just Cassidy. I waited for the punch line and when it didnt come, I realized he wasnt joking. Cafe Allegro, opened by former Starbucks executive Dave Olsen in 1975, was one of the very first espresso bars in Seattle and the staff is well-versed in its history. According to my friend, our end of the building, which was built back in 1909, used to house the Forkner Funeral Home. I pumped him for more information and learned that Cafe Allegros front entrance (and our back door) all used to be part of the mortuarys garage. In 1944 one of their hearse drivers took a wrong turn at night and ended up crashing into the Lake Washington Ship Canal. It was years before they recovered his body. That was Cassidy, my friend told me. Every once in a while he likes to knock on doors like he always did, looking to see if his customers were ready for a drive. Then he laughed and said, I think Thursdays were his pick-up day. After a few more nervous mornings, my level-headed Ph.D. candidate girlfriend convinced me it was probably the Allegro crew playing a practical joke. Given our constant good-natured trash talking about which of us made the best espresso on The Ave, it sounded plausible to me. So I decided to catch them in the act. It was a cold October Thursday morning, and Id asked one of our other managers to cover the first part of my shift. I told her one of our carriers was sick and I had to make their New York Times deliveries. As Tanya hung out inside Bulldog, I stationed myself at end of our back alley. I got suspicious looks from the occasional passerby, but nobody entered the alley or went near our back door. After about a half-hour I was cold and bored so, feeling a tad stupid, I went back to Bulldog and asked Tanya to let me in the front door. What happened next still gives me goosebumps when I think about it. Did you forget your keys? Tanya asked. When I told her I had not, she said: That wasnt you knocking at the back door? My face turned a shade of white usually found only on polar bears and marshmallows. She suggested I may need to eat more red meat. I just mumbled an agreement. Astonishingly I stayed at Bulldog for another 10 months after, but every Thursday morning, as the clock approached 5:00, I would crank up NPR and pretend not to hear what I know I heard. I hope ol Cassidy didnt feel slighted. And if he did, hes going to have to ring a doorbell to find me. Michael Alberty is a wine writer based in Oregon, and a Sprudge Wine contributor. The New Brunswick Horse Racing Industry Association (NBHRIA), which began in 2003 as an umbrella association to represent all segments of the horse racing industry in the province and remained active under the leadership of former Chair, Ross Galbraith, until it facilitated the creation of Horse Racing New Brunswick, is being relaunched to address a number of challenges facing the industry in the province. The recently-named Chair of NBHRIA, Brent Briggs, said that, with only 10 pari-mutuel racing programs at one New Brunswick racetrack in 2017, a significant decline in the number of horses and owners the past few years and an almost non-existent horse breeding industry, harness racing in the province is in crisis mode and demanded immediate action. It is the intention of NBHRIA to resume its original mandate to represent the harness racing industry in New Brunswick, Briggs said after meeting with Horsemens Association groups in Fredericton and Woodstock earlier this week. We plan to be open, available and transparent. The membership of the Fredericton Horsemen's Association and the Woodstock Driving Club voted unanimously to rejoin NBHRIA at those meetings. The Woodstock Driving Club also voted to withdraw from the New Brunswick Standardbred Breeders and Owners Association, which had previously represented their group. The Fredericton Horsemens Association seceded from that group in May. Briggs stated that the first plan of action for NBHRIA is to apply for pari-mutuel racing dates in Fredericton and Woodstock in 2018 and have already expressed its intentions to the Atlantic Provinces Harness Racing Commission. All of the live pari-mutuel racing dates were held in Saint John last year, he said. None were held in Fredericton or Woodstock and it is vital for a healthy, growing industry in the province to have participation at all racetracks. Briggs said the next meeting of NBHRIA will be held in early December and it will be appointing board members from all representatives of the horse racing industry in New Brunswick. Current members include Charles Miles (President of the Fredericton Horsemens Association) and Robert Kitchen (NBEX) from Fredericton and Andrew Sutherland, President of the Woodstock Driving Club. There will be representation from all areas of the province including Saint John and Moncton, horse breeders and any at-large interests, he said. NBHRIA seeks to develop and advance the horse racing industry while promoting it as a vital part of New Brunswicks lifestyle, heritage, and agricultural economy. (NBHRIA) The FSBOA-sponsored Sunshine State Stakes were contested in four non-wagering classes for two-year-olds on Sunday (October 29) with new life marks produced in three of the four $12,000 finals all trained by Kim Sears. Jay and Kim Sears Proud Bushy trotting filly Jennifer took the opener for John MacDonald, stopping the timer in 2:03.4, lowering her previous mark by over five seconds. Jennifer was sent to the front when the gate folded and marched through an opener of :31 before yielding to a rank I Rhoda Daley (Wally Hennessy), who raced very wide while taking command half way through the mile in 1:01.2. Approaching the third station clocked in 1:32.1, I Rhoda Daley again raced very wide allowing Jennifer to scoot on through to take command on achieve the win measuring one and three-quarter lengths. Ms Katie B (Gary Braden) was third and last in this event. The $6,600 windfall pushed Jennifers earnings to $10,993 in her six starts with the bulk of the lucrative Florida Stakes season just ahead. Wally Hennessey was in the bike for the juvenile trotting mile for colts and geldings and another Proud Bushy offspring, Brian, also owned by Jay and (trainer) Kim Sears, scored a gate-to-wire win in 2:02.4, lowering his previous mark of 2:06.3. Clocking panels of :30, 1:01.1 and 1:31.3, Brian, named after Jays Hall of Fame son, scored by one and a half lengths over Prairie Eclipse (Mike Deters) with Treasure Quest (Tom Lehmann) next. Jiro Dangerous and Captain Thomas completed the order of finish in this quintet. Brian added $6,000 to his earnings, pushing his bounty to $9,592 in his six career starts. The $12,000 filly pace went to Krinda, giving Kim Sears her training triple and Wally Hennessey a driving double. This daughter of Six of Diamonds, owned by Jay Sears, eclipsed her former mark of 1:58.2 with a wire-to-wire win in 1:57.3 -- :58 -- :29. Krindas opening panels were :29.1 and :59.3 along the way with her margin four and a half lengths over Diamond Eyes (Bryce Fenn) with Prairie Foolish (Jim Meittinis) third. Starcasim finished fourth while Prairie Stars was fifth in the sextet of youngsters. Krinda now has bounty of $10,312 off of her 6-3-1-0 scorecard. The two year-old pace for the colts and geldings went to Gold Star Diablo, a gelded son of Mysticism in 1:57.4. Wally Hennessey was in the sulky for the Mike Deters trainee, who was away fourth but rushed up to take command at the opening marker of :29. From there, 'Diablo' sliced through panels of :59.2 and 1:28.1 before a :29.3 finale sealed the deal by one and three-quarter lengths over Jay Jay (MacDonald) with Silver Wings (Corey Braden) next after a mild bid around the final bend. Dontblevmejuswatch was a distant fourth while Mister Special T picked up the final award. Gold Star Diablo, already the owner of a 1:55.3 mark at Mohawk, has banked $14,630 in his first six trips back of the mobile starting gate for owner Dan Clements. Pompano Parks $10,000 Winners Over Pace went, in an upset, to Bestinthebusiness, driven by trainer James Yoder for Brett Boyd Racing. The nine-year-old gelded son of Another Mile, went a brave first-over journey and, in a cavalry charge to the wire, eked out a photo finish decision over E R Melvin (Rick Plano) with Rockntouch (Mickey McNichol, third. The time was 1:52.2. The 1-5 favourite, Sing For Me George, was fourth after a stinging opening quarter of :26.2 and subsequent panels of :56.1 and 1:23.3. In a post-race interview, driver James Yoder said, Hes a tough horse that is very handy and not afraid to go first up on any competition. They were all right there at the finish so there is a lot of racing luck that plays into things and, tonight, we were the lucky ones. In garnering his sixth win of the year in 14 starts, Bestinthebusiness sent his seasonal bounty to $33,696. Lifetime, Bestinthebusiness has won 40 times with earnings of $383,400 to go along with his four year-old mark of 1:49.4 at Mohawk. The winner was second choice in the betting and returned $9.60 to win. In other action, the Florida Amateur Driving Club had two events on the card and Dein Spriggs swept both the first with Extracurricular and the second with Garlandsandpearls. Racing continues on Monday and Tuesday with first post set for 7:20 p.m. (With files from Pompano Park) Race dates for the 2018 season of live action at Northville Downs were announced by the Michigan Gaming Control Board late last week. According to a release by the MGCB, Northville Downs has been granted 60 race dates. Northville Downs will host cards of live harness racing on Fridays and Saturdays, and those dates will be split into late winter/spring and autumn meets. Live racing will take place at Northville from Friday, March 2, through Saturday, June 9, and will resume on Friday, September 7 and will continue through to Saturday, December 15. Post time for the cards will be at 7 p.m. A drone captures the action while high above Northville Downs (Image courtesy Northville Downs) It was also reported last month that more than $1 million in purse money that had been in escrow for more than two years has been released to Hazel Park Raceway and the Michigan Harness Horsemens Association. For more, click here. Hazel Park was granted 40 Thoroughbred dates which will be hosted from Friday, May 4, through to Saturday, September 15. Both tracks will offer simulcasting throughout the year. (With files from the MGCB) The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. has issued a press release stating that it is satisfied that the Great Canadian Gaming Corp. will fulfill the opportunities in the GTA Gaming Bundle in a responsible way. The statement from the OLG which can be read in its entirety by clicking here has been issued as Great Canadian is dealing with an allegations of money laundering that are alleged to have taken place at its River Rock Casino in British Columbia in 2015. On August 8, the OLG announced that Ontario Gaming GTA LP (OGGLP) has been selected as the service provider for the GTA Gaming Bundle which includes Woodbine Racetrack, Ajax Downs and the Great Blue Heron Casino following a competitive procurement process. The Canadian partnership is comprised of the Great Canadian Gaming Corp. and Brookfield Business Partners LP. Ontario Lottery and Gaming has announced that it is working closely with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation as well as regulators to exchange current information. The OLG has stated that it is continuing to monitor developments in BC, and that if other issues arise, OLG will respond accordingly. The statement from the OLG has come on the same day that Ontario Progressive Conservative Vic Fedeli issued a call for the re-examination of the decision to grant Ontario Gaming GTA LP the rights to operate gaming within the GTA Gaming Bundle. (With files from the OLG) The weather looks like it will be sufficiently cold and gloomy in Halloween night, which is the perfect setting for the Grey Ghost and Poltergeist Pace at The Downs at Mohegan Sun Pocono, sponsored by the Harness Racing Museum and Hall of Fame. The showdown with all grey horses has been carded as Race 4 on the 14-dash card. Post positions were assigned. The Cindy Weitoish-trained Gotta Love Him will make his fifth start in the Grey Ghost Pace. The nine-year-old won the race in 2014 and 2015, and his owners are hoping that his first win this year will be by the light of the ghostly All Hallows Eve moon. He has been rated at 12-1 on the morning line and will be driven by Austin Siegelman. White Rolls and driver Jim Marohn Jr. won the race last year, and the duo will be back in action again this year. Michael Hall trains the four-year-old that is 3-1 on the morning line. Another returning Grey Ghost is Six Gun, who will ship in from Harrahs Philadelphia for the contest. Six Gun is now in the Paul Stratton barn, and has won five races this year. The gelding has been rated at odds of 5-1 early. Simon Allard will drive Donald Doc, who is new to both Team Allard and the Grey Ghost. The four-year-old will be making his first start at Pocono after having raced at Tioga. Another new face will be Toejamminmomma for Valeriya Medik. She will be one of three mares in the field. Jim Taggart Jr. is scheduled to drive. Anthony Ciuffetelli will ship in with Forever Effie, who has been racing at Saratoga, and is 11 for 27 in the money this year. Andrew McCarthy will drive. Winter Blast, who has been pegged as a 6-1 shot, will ship in from Canada for trainer Carmen Auciello. Eric Carlson will be in the bike. Stirling Escort will enter the race off of a second-place finish at Pocono this past Saturday evening, and is 4-1 early with driver Matt Kakaley. Another new face is Gadsden Hanover, trained by Mark Ford. The mare has raced primarily at Yonkers Raceway and has been installed as the 5-2 morning line favourite. (With files from Pocono Downs) Pray for the Persecuted Church -- Nov 5th and 12th Contact: Wendy Wright, Christian Freedom International, 800-323-CARE WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ -- Christian Freedom International is offering a free resource kit for churches to participate in the International Days of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. This annual event held on the first and second Sundays of November raises awareness of the persecution and oppression Christians around the world experience for their faith in Jesus Christ. This year, violence against Christians especially where ISIS and other militant jihadists have gained footholds has reached dire levels. ISIS has called Christians their "favorite prey." As well as kidnappings and forced marriages of Christian girls, Christians are being martyred by genocide in Iraq and Syria, gunning down of men and boys for declaring they are Christians and refusing to convert to Islam, and suicide bombings in churches. Christian Freedom International's FREE resource kit includes: Reproducible posters and bulletin inserts Suggestions for Sunday School curriculum for children and adults Suggestions for Biblical references to persecution and worship songs Notecards to send to encourage a persecuted Christian overseas A CD containing these materials, as well as a short video presentation CFI Resource kit is available at: www.christianfreedom.org/day-of-prayer/ "I have just returned from Egypt where I met the widows and children of Coptic Christian men who were martyred by ISIS. They asked for Christians to pray for them and their families," said Wendy Wright, Director of Global Programs for Christian Freedom International (CFI). "God strengthens our faith through adversity, and unites us together through prayer." Christian Freedom International helps persecuted Christians in repressed and isolated regions of the world, where Christian men, women, and children are harassed, tortured, imprisoned, and martyred for their faith. A U.S. based organization, Christian Freedom International informs citizens of the intense persecution world-wide, and provides opportunities to assist through prayer and aid. More information is available at www.christianfreedom.org and 1-800-323-CARE. Attack on Bishop Morlino is Scurrilous Contact: Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, pr@catholicleague.org NEW YORK, Oct. 30, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on recent attacks on Bishop Robert Morlino of the Diocese of Madison (Wisconsin): Catholics in the Diocese of Madison are very fortunate to have such a brilliant and courageous leader in Bishop Robert Morlino. He is currently under attack by dissident Catholics, ex-Catholics, and those who never were Catholic, for merely upholding the teachings of the Catholic Church. The uproar is wholly unjustified, and is indeed scurrilous. It was occasioned when the vicar general of the Diocese of Madison, James Bartylla, recently told his priests how to handle funeral rites for persons known publicly to have been involved in a homosexual relationship. His remarks were not meant as "official diocesan policy," though they certainly had the backing of the bishop. One would think from the reaction by DignityUSA, an organization that has long been in open defiance of the Church's teachings on sexuality, and Faithful America, a left-wing group frequently at war with the bishops, that Bartylla had condemned homosexuals, barring them from a Catholic burial. That is a lie. He did nothing of the sort. The vicar general's comments were entirely measured. To begin with, he was not talking about the burial of homosexuals, per se; rather, he was addressing those instances where a homosexual was involved in a public union with his partner. What should a priest do when confronted by the family of the deceased about a person who was in such a relationship? Bartylla instructed them to "think through the issue thoroughly and prudently." The micro issue involved in this matter is the funeral rites for homosexuals known to be engaged in a public relationship. The macro issue is scandal. Citing canon law, Bartylla said that "ecclesiastical funeral rites may be denied for manifest sinners in which public scandal of the faithful can't be avoided...." Scandal, as defined by the Catechism, is "a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense." In other words, causing scandal--inviting others to believe that it is morally acceptable to engage in sinful behavior--is the big issue. The Catholic Herald offered a cogent statement on this subject two years ago. "Canon law makes it clear that funerals should be refused to manifest sinners to whom a Church funeral could not be granted without public scandal to the faithful." In 2014, Pope Francis illuminated the macro issue involved when he excommunicated members of the Mafia: their public profile made them "manifest sinners," thus offering "public scandal to the faithful." The central concern for the pope had nothing to do with crimenever mind public declarations of homosexualityit had to do with sending the wrong signal to the faithful by acquiescing in the deeds of "manifest sinners." I know Bishop Morlino as a kind person who holds no animus against any person or group of persons. He deserves our support. Shame on those agenda-ridden activists who are out to smear him. Let Bishop Morlino know of your support: officeofbishop@madisondiocese.org CLOCKS across the TCI will be set back an hour in November 2018 as part of the Governments decision to revert to previously acknowledged time zones. The territory will then remain in line with the Eastern Time (ET) zone indefinitely, which is recognised across 17 US states and much of eastern Canada. During the summer months, daylight savings time (DST) will be recognised clocks will be set forward an hour in March and back again in November. The premiers office announced the change in a statement made shortly before the hurricanes. It read: "The public is hereby advised that following extensive consultations across the Turks and Caicos Islands, Cabinet has taken a decision on July 19, 2017, to reinstate the previous time zone of GMT-5 to take effect from November 5, 2018. "This will result in seasonal time change to daylight saving time aligning with the Eastern Time zone of the USA. By Olivia Rose IN AN effort to address mental health issues associated with disasters, first responders and other health professionals have participated in a comprehensive psychological first aid training session. The Ministry of Health, Agriculture and Human Services (MHAHS) along with the Department of Mental Health and Substance Dependence, welcomed the Mental Health Regional Advisor of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) Dr Claudina Cayetano to the country. Disasters such as hurricanes can have serious mental health consequences which can take the form of post-traumatic stress disorder, acute stress, grief or depression. The training sessions which took place on Wednesday and Thursday (October 25 and 26) are tailored to increase the competence and skills necessary to improve the mental health of adults and children who may be struggling to cope. A representative from the ministry told the Weekly News that Dr Cayetano, who has extensive experience assisting countries to develop strategies to improve national emergency responses, helps health officials to provide mental health support to affected communities. The workshop was aimed particularly at first responders who typically operate on the front lines and often work under severely stressful conditions during disasters. Participants of this training include emergency health responders, the Mental Health Department, Primary Health Care, TCI Red Cross and the 911 Call Centre. The Ministry of Health, Agriculture and Human Services extended its gratitude to PAHO for its assistance. Coping with stress When a community has been hit by a natural disaster, many people can find themselves trying to make sense of what happened. The events can create a tremendous amount of stress and anxiety for those directly and indirectly affected. The Department of Mental Health offers the following advice for those who feel their mental health has been affected by the recent storms: In the days and weeks following the disaster, you may begin to experience some of the following reactions: -Disbelief and shock -Fear and anxiety about the future -Disorientation; difficulty making decisions or concentrating -Apathy and emotional numbing -Nightmares and reoccurring thoughts about the event -Irritability and anger -Sadness and depression -Feeling powerless -Changes in eating patterns; loss of appetite or overeating -Crying for no apparent reason -Headaches, back pains and stomach problems -Difficulty sleeping or falling asleep -Increased use of alcohol and drugs It is normal to have difficulty managing your feelings after major traumatic events. However, if you dont deal with the stress, it can be harmful to your mental and physical health. Here are some tips for coping in these difficult times: -Talk about it. By talking with others about the event, you can relieve stress and realise that others share your feelings. -Spend time with friends and family. They can help you through this tough time. If your family lives outside the area, stay in touch by phone. If you have any children, encourage them to share their concerns and feelings about the disaster with you. -Take care of yourself. Get plenty of rest and exercise, and eat properly. If you smoke or drink coffee, try to limit your intake, since nicotine and caffeine can also add to your stress. -Find time for activities you enjoy. Read a book, go for a walk, catch a movie or do something else you find enjoyable. These healthy activities can help you get your mind off the disaster and keep the stress in check. -Ask for help when you need it. If your feelings do not go away or are so intense that they interfere with your ability to function in daily life, talk with a trusted relative, friend, doctor or spiritual advisor about getting help. Make an appointment with a mental health professional to discuss how well you are coping with the recent events. Dont try to cope alone. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness. For help in coping with stress following a natural disaster contact the Department of Mental Health on the following numbers: Grand Turk, South Caicos and Salt Cay on 431-4905, or Providenciales, North and Middle Caicos on 231-8413. By Delana Isles ONE of the most contentious and hotly debated issues during the Commission of Inquiry was the former premier Michael Misicks use of privately leased aircraft and of government-funded aircraft. Last week, his ex-wife LisaRaye McCoy testified before the SIPT court, via video link from the US, about her recollections of the planes and their usage. Led through her testimony by Crown counsel, Andrew Mitchell QC, McCoy told the court she remembers discussing the purchase of a private plane with Misick, and that a jet was eventually chartered but failed to recall if one was ever bought. She said that she used the jet several times and while admitting that her ex-husband also had use of the jet, she failed to remember if anyone else had use of it. When questioned if she remembered if former government minister and defendant in the trial, McAllister Hanchell ever used the jet during his wedding or to go to his honeymoon, the witness could not recall if guests were brought in on the plane. She did admit to being told by Misick how the former minister got to his honeymoon, but before she could answer, Hanchells lawyer, Jerome Lynch objected to the line of questioning in relation to his client. His objection was sustained by the judge. The prosecutor then asked the witness what procedures she used when she wanted the use of the jet, she replied that she simply asked Misick to use it and got the use of the jet. She admitted to the court that she never contributed to the running cost of the plane, and that she had taken steps to outfit the jet by picking out colour, cabinets, carpeting and so forth. However, she testified that none of it was carried out. Contained in the commissioners final report were details of Misicks lavish lifestyle and spending habits while in office that far exceeded his salary and allowances Excerpts from COI final report: He spent lavishly and extravagantly, indulging in international travel by privately leased jet, and adopting what was referred to in the Islands as a Hollywood lifestyle. It was this, as much as anything, that attracted public comment, opprobrium and eventually investigation. His spending of government funds was extensive. As Chief Minister and Minister for Tourism, he funded worldwide travel on the Government budget. This extended in due course to the provision of a Gulfstream III jet which he treated as his own. He also ensured that his wife received contracts for promotion of the TCI, which resulted in payments to her of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Use of Government and leased aircraft He and his wife gave evidence to the commission about their use of private aircraft. After they met in mid 2005 they conducted a courtship from afar, flying between Los Angeles and the TCI, initially on scheduled aircraft. They quickly decided that a privately leased aircraft would give them more time together. He provided the funds; she said that she did not, at first, know the cost, but later learned that each one way trip cost about $50,000. They adopted this mode of travel from about July or August 2005, and continued, with two or three round trips per month, up to and beyond their marriage in April 2006. Assuming private leases were always at the level and rate mentioned by Ms McCoy Misick, the Premier would have spent between $200,000 and $300,000 per month between August 2005 and March 2007, when they began to consider a different arrangement. This represents expenditure of between $4 million and $6 million. Conspicuous and lavish expenditure of this nature is precisely the reason why there was such widespread public concern at the behaviour of the premier, and a legitimate concern as to how he could possibly afford it. In 2007 the Government acquired a 1976 King Air 200 aircraft271 for local and regional transport. It bought the plane for just over $1 million from a company called TCI Export LLC based in Boise, Idaho with a mailing address in Chicago. The only named manager on the corporate documents is a man named Paul Brassington, whose likely relative, Michael Brassington, became its regular pilot, once the Government had purchased it. Michael Misick proposed the purchase at Cabinet Meeting on May 30, 2007. Cabinet approved the purchase, and the following week, June 6, they approved payment for the employment of two pilots. The aircraft of greater interest, however, was a Gulfstream III jet aircraft, capable of international and trans Atlantic travel. From about the middle of 2007 they began to use another Gulfstream III Jet. Their evidence differs as to how that came about. He said that he had been interested in leasing a plane to save the Government money. She recalled that she had jokingly said to him that they needed a plane and he started looking into it and eventually they acquired one, and she used it. She recalled that on one occasion they had borrowed Mario Hoffmanns private aircraft for a trip to the USA. Michael Brassington suggested he look at a jet being offered for sale by Wealth Aviation of Las Vegas. It was flown to Los Angeles whilst he was there on a visit, for him look at. Although an offer to purchase was drawn up in his name with a view to outright sale of the jet for $6.25 million, his interest, he said, was only in leasing, so he did not continue with the transaction. However, Jeffrey Watson, a US citizen, a friend of his and Washington DC lawyer, knew of his interest, and bought the plane in the name of Indigo Transportation Partners, a company based in Miami. That company then offered to lease it to the TCI Government for $165,000 per month based on a total of 400 hours flying time. Ms McCoy Misick remembered the details of the acquisition somewhat differently. She had been shown the offer to purchase document whilst on board the aircraft from Miami to Providenciales. They had, she said, bought the plane; she knew that because her husband had told her so. She and he had made arrangements to personalise or customise the inside of the aircraft, to the extent of her designing a personal crest to be woven into the carpet. They had also chosen colours and fabrics for the interior design; she provided the commission with documentation from a designer, quoting for work on the aircraft which had been faxed to Captain Mike. At no stage during her marriage did she suspect that they did not own the aircraft. However, there is no doubt that the Hon Michael Misick had almost exclusive use of the aircraft. Floyd Hall told the commission that he had not travelled on it and had never even stepped on board. I have seen no evidence of other ministerial or other governmental use of it. Nor have I seen any evidence of payments made by Michael Misick to Indigo Transportation Partners for his personal use of the plane, nor any evidence of reimbursement by him to the Government for that use. SUPERINTENDENT of Her Majestys Prison, Steve Barrett, has disputed reports that there is any tension among Serco prison guards and local staff at the Grand Turk facility. In response to an article in the Weekly News issue of October 21 to 27, 2017, headlined Tension reported among UK staff and local prison guards, the superintendent sought to offer clarifications of what he termed "inaccuracies and speculation in the report. Below is the full text of his clarification: "Firstly, I absolutely and wholly refute the existence of any tension between the visiting UK officers and local prison staff. "Without exception, all of my staff are reporting significant personal and collective benefits from working alongside such a competent, experienced and confident team of staff. "The operational development of my staff will be exponentially grown as a result of their ongoing exposure to staff with high levels of field craft; this is more valuable than any other form of training and learning that they could access. "To report tensions without first establishing the facts of the matter is, in my view, irresponsible and potentially undermines the exceptional relationships that are blossoming between the UK and TCI staff. To be clear, all staff within the prison are collaborating exceptionally well. "I can confirm that a member of staff has indeed been suspended from duty following allegations of misconduct. This is an internal matter currently under investigation and given that, I think it prudent that no further comment be made on the matter. "I would also like to take this opportunity to advise you that the Serco staff are doing an exceptional job here and the execution of their work is not causing tension, as you report, but a more stable platform from which local staff can do their work going forward. "The role of a prison officer is complex and at times is hugely emotional and physically demanding; my staff will all become operationally improved as a result of their partnership with Serco staff. "As for trying to contact me, as was reported, there is no evidence that anyone from the Weekly News has attempted to contact me either at my office, cell phone or email. "It is important that public organisations, such as the prison service, have positive relationships with media outlets and I would be keen to ensure that this is the case going forward. "It is extremely unhelpful however that stories such as this one are presented to the public without an official representative from my organisation first having the opportunity to provide some balance and a reasoned response. "I trust this clarifies my position. The Weekly News would like to state that attempts were made to contact the Superintendent on cell and office phone numbers available to the reporter, and they were unsuccessful. Additionally, the information provided to the newspaper in the report was from reliable sources. (Delana Isles) GLOBAL credit rating body Standard and Poors has contacted the premier following hurricanes Irma and Maria. The New York headquartered agency has been providing sovereign credit ratings for the TCI since 2014 when it secured an impressive BBB+ with stable outlook, showing one of the most positive fiscal trajectories in the Caribbean. This has continued in subsequent years until July 2017 when the rating jumped from just stable to a positive outlook. Last Friday, October 20, the Weekly News contacted Premier and Minister of Finance, Sharlene Cartwright Robinson for her views on whether the two major storms would have any impact on the reviews from the rating agency. She disclosed that she has met with several agencies conducting assessments of the TCI since hurricanes Irma and Maria. The premier said that while she was unable to say definitively what effect, if any, they would have on the countrys finances, she too is interested in knowing the outcome of the agencys next rating - due sometime next year. "They have already been reaching out and they do appreciate that at this stage we are still doing a number of assessments, the premier said. "UN ECLAC came in this week (last week), and they will be back in the first week of November to present the countrys economic damage and loss assessment. "So, a lot of people want a lot of things to hurry along but the truth is we have critical assessments that have to be done and then we are all competing for the same resources. She noted that in addition to their usual assessments and engagements with local organisations and businesses during their rating survey, S&P will also need to look at the other assessments that are being done by outside and domestic agencies, adding that this is why the Government has to and is being careful with its financial decisions. No major negative impact The Weekly News reached out to Leader of the Opposition and former Finance Minister, Washington Misick, under whose guidance in the PNP administration the territory regained some of its financial standing and received its first sovereign rating. Misick expressed cautious optimism that the rating could be raised a bit, or that it would remain the same. "It is a difficult question, but it is hard for anyone to say whether it will or not, it all depends on a number of things, it depends for example on the stability of the politics in the country (this has a great part to play in it), it also depends on whether there is any negative impact on the GDP growth rate and the level of sustainability of the revenue stream. He said that if pressure is brought on the revenue stream to the extent that it starts to decline or there is no growth, this could impact the credit rating of the territory, that and the ability to continue to service the its debt and the level of that debt. "So, I cant say categorically that it wouldnt impact, but my own feeling is that if we play our cards right it may even be able to get above because of all of the building repairs and construction that needs to happen and with the injection from insurance money and public sector investment we could actually get a bump but I dont at this stage see a major negative impact. Noting that it is still the early days, Misick said that if the fundamentals remain the way they have been, tourists continue to come back as they have since the hurricanes passage and the countrys revenue streams are good, these things will stabilise the rating. "I dont see any positive change or negative change so I think theres a good chance it will remain stable. We have until next May to get things right so it is hard to say, he added. In July, S&P reported that the TCIs economy is on a positive footing, a major bump up from stable, which the countrys economic outlook has been given by the rating agency since 2014. For the last three consecutive assessments of the TCIs sovereign rating, tremendous work has been undertaken and completed in relation to the retirement of the TCI $170 million bond, the premier said at the time. By Delana Isles IN HER testimony before the SIPT court last week, US actress LisaRaye McCoy testified about her whirlwind, jet setting life with her ex-husband Michael Misick. Misick, chief defendant in the SIPT trial, married McCoy in a lavish ceremony in April 2006 and the couple were divorced sometime in 2008. The witness was taken through her direct testimony by lead prosecutor Andrew Mitchell via video link from Los Angeles. Testifying first to their courtship, the witness told the court that while they were dating, Misick revealed his financial position to her as well as property and businesses he owned and operated. Some of these, according to her testimony included: a real estate agency, a condo at the Alexandra, house and condo in North Caicos, the land that the (now defunct) cinema sits on, and property in Grace Bay. She recalled that during those days he told her that he was worth $108 or $180 million, that their first date was in Jamaica, and that when she visited him in the TCI she would stay at his beach house. McCoy testified to a courtship filled with trips around the world, frequent visits to the Turks and Caicos Islands, and telephone conversations that eventually led to a proposal of marriage from Misick shortly after they first started dating. Asked if they ever discussed how to deal with their respective financial affairs, since she was a millionaire in her own right and owned property in the US, McCoy said yes, that Misick brought up the fact of a prenuptial agreement. She said that Misick told her that someone had advised him to get one drawn up and signed, but that he said he did not need one. However, she testified that she did not mind signing such an agreement and revealed that one was indeed signed sometime later, after they were already married. Asked why the date of her wedding was moved from April 8, 2006, the actress said that she got scared and nervous. When questioned by the prosecutor about her engagement ring, McCoy said she does not recall when it was given to her and that while she got the ring valued after the marriage had ended she does not recall the price of it. McCoy then testified to a honeymoon in Bali, trips to St Barts, Indonesia, several parts of Europe, Cape Town, Johannesburg among several others. The witness could not recall how long after the marriage did she notice its deterioration, although she recalled that it last three years, and two months before the Commission of Inquiry was announced in 2008 she knew the marriage was over and shortly after she filed for divorce. When asked, the witness said that the US authorities never approached her about matters connected to the TCI, and that she has never talked to them about anything concerning the territory. Asked if she had access to credit cards during her marriage and who paid for them, McCoy said yes, and that she paid for some of them while her husband paid the rest. She testified that she had access to a Black American Express card, stating that she had always wanted one. Asked why, the witness replied "for the prestige and that she asked her husband to get her one because she "wanted one. The witness testified that while she did not pay for the credit cards she used during her marriage, she gave the bills to her husband, and what he did with them she does not know. Asked if she knew how Misicks bills got paid, McCoy said no and that she would not speculate. The witness testified that she was contracted by Kerwin Communications, who allegedly won a bid from the TCI Tourist Board, to do some work for the TCI Tourist Board, although when asked she said she does not recall how much she was paid for that work. In examining the relationship between Kerwin Communications and Misick, the final report of the commission of inquiry noted with concern the agreement between the Tourist Board and Kerwin Media LLC, a New Jersey agency working under the name of Kerwin Communications. Excerpts from COI report: It noted that until about 2006 advertising of the TCI in the USA had been handled by a company named Blur Advertising, working on a relatively modest budget. But that in 2006 Kerwin Communications emerged as a bidder for the work. The commission was shown a formal agreement contract between the agency and the board dated March 10, 2007. It was daunting in its scope, seemingly authorising the agency to act on behalf of the board in the placement of contracts for print media and broadcast media advertising without prior agreement. The bills were go to the board; Kerwin Communications would be held free of any liability, and would receive commission on all advertising placed; and the contract placed no restriction at all upon the amount of advertising or number of contracts placed by the agency. It was, it appears, in Kerwin Communications interest to place as much advertising as possible, as it received a straight percentage of every dollar committed. The contract, on the face of it, had been signed by the Hon Wayne Garland, as Chairman of the Board and on its behalf. On being shown the contract in the course of his evidence to the commission, he said that he had taken no part in its negotiation, all of which had taken place before his appointment. He agreed that the contract bore his signature, but, paradoxically and without explanation, denied that he had ever seen the document before. He agreed that it amounted to a blank cheque in favour of Kerwin Communications, and informed the Commission that the Government was being sued for a series of unpaid debts incurred on its behalf by the agency. He said that the contract would have been referred to Saunders & Co as attorneys for the board before signature. In fact, Kerwin Communications had already begun to place advertising for the Government before the purported signing of the contract with the Board in March 2007. At around this time they had engaged the services of the Hon Michael Misicks wife for advertising purposes from late 2006. Photoshoots had been arranged, for which she appears to have been paid nearly $300,000 through her company My Way Productions 2 Ltd. The evidence before the commission on this matter was, however, unstructured and poorly documented, the report states. The Tourist Boards minutes of its monthly meetings in the Autumn of 2006 confirm that Kerwin Communications had already begun to act de facto as agent for the board on instructions of the Hon Michael Misick before the March 2007 contract, and had been invoicing it for advertising placed. Thus, the thrust of the evidence from all three Tourist Board officials was that the Hon Michael Misick, not the board, had chosen Kerwin Communications as the advertising agency for the TCI, and that the board had effectively been instructed or asked to accept that choice. Their evidence in that respect is of a piece with that of Ms McCoy Misick, who said that her husband had played a role in negotiating the Kerwin Communications contract. She said that her husband had told the agency that she was going to be the face of the TCI, and had made the appointment of the agency dependent upon it. Michael Misick, on the other hand, told the commission that the board had selected and appointed Kerwin Communications and that he had played no part in the selection or in their choice of his wife to be the advertising face of the TCI. He maintained that it was a coincidence that the agency chose his wife. Mr Kerwin sought to support his stance, in a letter to the Commission asserting that the contract had been negotiated solely by the Hon Wayne Garland on behalf of the board, and that his agency had negotiated separately with Ms McCoy Misick as to the terms of her engagement. However, he acknowledged that Kerwin Communications had been instructed in mid 2006, about the time it had engaged her to advertise the TCI, long before the Hon Wayne Garland became the boards chairman, and, on his own evidence, first met Mr Kerwin, namely in May or June 2007. Daniel Butts, the Kalama man accused of murdering Rainier Police Chief Ralph Painter nearly seven years ago, finally has been tentatively scheduled for trial early in 2019. According to Columbia County Prosecuting Attorney Jeff Auxier, Columbia County Circuit Court Judge Ted Grove set Butts trial date for February 2019. A competency hearing for Butts is slated for Feb. 6, 2018, to determine whether he is fit to stand trial. Butts has been in and out of Oregon State Hospital in Salem after he was ruled unfit to stand trial in 2013 and couldnt assist in his own defense. He has since been forcibly medicated at Oregon State Hospital in hopes that he will become mentally competent to stand trial. If Butts is still found unfit to stand trial in February, his trial likely would be postponed again. Auxier said the reasoning behind the years wait between the competency hearing and the trial date is due to the defense lawyers' heavy caseload. In recognition that attorneys calendars fill up quickly, and in recognition that the victims family should be given a date to have some idea when this case will be resolved, we picked a trial date that was workable for all the parties, Auxier said. During the January 2011 shooting, Painter was responding to a car theft call at Rainier Sound Authority. When the chief arrived, he and Butts got into a struggle and Painter was shot in the head after Butts allegedly took Painters pistol. Jury selection began Monday in Brent Luysters triple aggravated murder trial in Clark County Superior Court. The trial is being held in one of the fourth-floor courtrooms, the largest in the Clark County Courthouse, but it was standing-room only Monday morning for the public and family of the victims after 92 jurors were escorted into the courtroom. Judge Robert Lewis, who is presiding, instructed jurors on what to expect during the selection process and read them Luysters charges: three counts of first-degree aggravated murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder and first- and second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm. The charges stem from the July 15, 2016, shooting deaths of Joseph Mark Lamar, 38; Lamars partner, Janell Renee Knight, 43; and Zachary David Thompson, 36, at Lamars home southeast of Woodland. He is also accused of wounding Thompsons partner, Breanne L.A. Leigh, then 32, who suffered a gunshot wound to the left side of her face. Seated next to his attorneys, Luyster, 37, wore a blue button down shirt and black jeans to court, a stark contrast to the orange jail jumpsuit and shackles hes typically in. Approximately 18 jurors were excused Monday morning due to hardship issues, such as previously scheduled travel plans or medical conditions that would interfere with their ability to serve. Lewis individually questioned each juror who said they have a hardship issue in a session in front of the attorneys and Luyster. The remaining jurors filled out a lengthy questionnaire, used to gather information about them and any preconceived notions they may have about the case. Lewis said court administration would not call in any additional jurors for today. He said the court will wait and see how voir dire a process where attorneys have a chance to question jurors goes today, and if any jurors are excused for cause. Jury selection is expected to run through the day. No electronic devices, photography or recording is allowed in the courtroom during the jury selection process. The court will likely hear last-minute motions from the prosecution and defense Wednesday before opening statements. Lewis said the trial will run Monday through Thursday this week, Nov. 6 to 9, Nov. 13 to 17 and Nov. 20 and 21. Its possible the trial could go into the week of Nov. 27, he said, adding that the jurys deliberations will take however long is needed. Dedicated to the Restoration of Progressive Democracy This Page has moved to a new address: Sorry for the inconvenience Redirection provided by Blogger to WordPress Migration Service Surangans annual student appreciation day Sanchali Basu : Although Surangan, Rupa Ghoshs school of music has been around for seven years, this was the 5th formal annual program celebrated on a grand scale at the HDBS Sur auditorium the evening of October 14. The record crowd bore ample evidence to the fact that not only has the school gained in the number of students, but also wide popularity especially in the Houston Bengali community. After months of rigorous rehearsals, the students got to showcase their talent on a platform, which boosted their confidence and brought the Surangan family closer. The young talents most of whom are born and brought up in the US did a commendable job of carrying the torch of Bengali culture and keeping the traditions alive, accomplishing the goal of Surangan. Emcee Sanchali Basu, welcomed the audience with a brief introduction of the school. The first half of the program was entitled, Andhakarer Utsho Hotey signifying the spreading of the mantra of being led from darkness to the light (Tamaso Maa jyotirgamaya) of hope, peace and well being as expressed by poets, writers and philosophers over the ages. The beacon and harbinger, Nobel laureate Tagores, Nibido ghono aandhare jwalichhe dhrubotara in Rupas mellifluous voice set the tone for the evening. A series of Rabindra Sangeet and Nazrul songs followed, to Biplab Samadders impeccable narration in his smooth, soothing, baritone voice. Solo and group songs were interspersed with solo and group dances. The dancers ranged from considerably young artistes to more mature, skilled ones and brought some color and life to the music program. Recitation pieces in between also solidified the entire program and were successful in bringing its essence to totality. Niranjan Roy and Barun Choudhury were on tabla accompanied with Rupa and her students. Once the students of the school had finished performing, guest artistes from the Houston Bengali community entertained the audience, including Kamalpriya, Swapan, Zulfikar, Ananya, Jharna, Prince, Anjali, Shonali, Biswaruchi, Nandini, Bina, Jitu, Runa, Rita, Mala, Bably, Banani, Kakon, Dina, Parvin, Bithi, Yasmin, Purno, Mina and Amit on vocals, Anirudha, Shouvik, Afsarun nahar and Mukul on recitation. This year's annual program was made special by the presence of Bangladesh's pride, renowned Rabindra Sangeet exponent Rezwana Chowdhury Bannya, who was the Chief Guest for the evening. She was called on stage to be felicitated by Surangan and the Houston Durga Bari Society. Certain other dignitaries including Elora Ahmed Shukla, Bulbul Sengupta, Muna Ahmad and Salahuddin Ahmad were recognized. Certificate distribution ceremony to the students by Bannya ensued and she was sweet enough to pose with them for the camera. By now the hall was filled to capacity and actually overflowing. The food corner, sari and jewelry stalls were doing brisk business and all were waiting with bated breath for the highlight of the evening. Bannya took the stage with Biplab Samadder on the violin, Rupa Ghosh on the keyboard, Mandira on the Bidhut Ghosh and Raja Banga on the tabla. She enchanted the audience with her rendition of not so popular, but rich Rabindra Sangeet numbers mixing them up with some popular ones. Annual research review workshop held at CVASU Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Science University (CVASU) and University Putra Malaysia signed an agreement for research and education between the two universities recently. Prof Dr Goutam Buddo Das of CVASU and Prof Datin Paduka Dr Aini Ideris signed Chittagong Bureau : The annual research review workshop of the Chittagong vaterinary & annimal science University was held yesterday morning at university campus with Research Director Prof.Dr. Kabirul Islam in the chair. Vice chancellor of CVASU Prof.Dr. Goutam Buddha Das graced the occasion as chief guest. Among others, Dean of Fishery Faculty Dr. Nurul Absar Khan, Dean of Food science and Technology Faculty Dr Md. Raihan Faruk, Dean of Veterinary F aculty Prof Abdul Halim, Director of One Health Institute Prof. Dr Sarmin Chowdhury were present on the occasion. After inaugurating the workshop, vice chancellor told that there is no alternative of research to increase the dignity of the university. He also declared for annual award of Tk.25 thousand those will complete submission of research papers in time and the award money will be distributed at end of the year. In the workshop, the activities of 18 research projects duly funded by University Grants Commission was presented through multimedia, CVASU sources said. CUET admission test Nov 1 Chittagong Bureau : The admission test for BSc Engineering of Chittagong University of Engineering and Techno-logy (CUET) will be held on Nov 1. The authority of CUET held a coordination meeting with the authorities concerned on Sunday morning at the Resource Center of CUET in the port city Chittagong. Vice-Chancellor of CUET Prof Dr Rafiqul Alam chaired the meeting while the top officials of the university were present. Addressing the meeting, VC of CUET Prof Dr Rafiqul Alam said, the good maintenance of the admission tests of CUET has already appreciated in the country earlier. "We are calling upon the authorities concerned to extend hands of cooperation for the current year's admission test." Best sanitation practicing schools awarded in Khulna Campus Report : A school assembly and prize-giving ceremony to present awards to the most sanitized schools in Khulna was held at Shahid Hadis Park, Khulna recently. The event was held under the Sanitation Month and World Hand Wash Day 2017 observation, Organised by Khulna City Corporation's FSM School Sanitation Program in association with SNV Netherlands Development Organisation. The main aim of the School Sanitation Program is to include faecal sludge management in the sanitation practices of schools, emptying the septic tanks in schools regularly and safely, keeping in place hand washing facilities for students after using lavatories, raising awareness among school-going children about faecal sludge management, including FSM in the student council initiatives, and encouraging formation of a fund in schools for sustainable sanitation system. Three primary schools and three secondary schools in Khulna received the awards of the most sanitized schools. The three primary schools who received the awards are: Daulatpur Mohsin Government Primary School, Raimahal Hamidnagar Haji Md. Mohsin Government Primary School, and Sonar Bangla Government Primary School. The secondary schools receiving the awards are: SOS Herman Gmeiner School, BN School and College, and Reverend Paul's High School Representatives of teachers and students of all the primary and secondary schools in Khulna city, which totaled to around 700, officials from the Khulna City Corporation, representatives from different NGOs and representatives from other public and private organisations attended the event. The occasion was presided by Advocate Sheikh Jahangir Hossain Helal, Chairman, Education and Culture Related Standing Committee, Khulna City Corporation. Md. Moniruzzaman, Mayor, Khulna City Corporation, attended the event as chief guest. Russian and US vetoes protect client states Thalif Deen : The vote on the latest American-sponsored resolution in the UN Security Council (UNSC) on Syria was predictable: of the five big powers, China abstained and Russia vetoed, while the US, UK and France voted for it. Not surprisingly, the 15-member UNSC continues to lose its political legitimacy as its five veto-wielding members are more intent in protecting their own national interests - and their client states-than the pursuit of world peace. The Russian veto - the ninth in six years - was aimed at protecting Syria, one of its longstanding allies in the Middle East, currently embroiled in a seven-year-old military conflict. Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics & Coordinator of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, told IPS that each of the vetoed resolutions in question were quite reasonable and consistent with international law. "There is no excuse for any permanent member of the Security Council to abuse of its veto power to shield an allied regime from accountability". "It should be noted, however, that the United States has used its veto power no less than 42 times to prevent passage of otherwise-unanimous resolutions regarding Israel, resolutions which were also quite reasonable and consistent with international law," said Zunes, who has written extensively on the politics of the Security Council. During the past 35 years, he said, Washington has used its veto power 78 times (in overall total), as compared with 25 times by Moscow. "So, while the latest Russian veto fully deserves the criticism it is receiving, the United States is hardly in a position to condemn," he added. The resolution, which suffered a veto at a UNSC meeting October 24, was aimed at extending the mandate of a joint UN body of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapon (OPCW) to identify the perpetrators of chemical-weapons attacks in Syria. Eleven of the Council's 15 members voted in favour, while Russia and non-permanent member Bolivia voted against the text. China, a permanent member, and Kazakhstan, a non-permanent members, abstained. The UNSC comprises five permanent and 10 non-permanent members elected for two years on a system of geographical rotation. If the resolution had been adopted, it would have extended the OPCW-UN Joint Investigative Mechanism's (JIM) mandate - established unanimously by the Council in 2015 and set to expire on 17 November - for a further one year. Following the vote, Ambassador Michele J. Sison, U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said the United States "deeply regrets that one member of this Council vetoed against this text, putting political considerations over the misery of Syrian civilians who have suffered and died from the use of chemical weapons. The reasons offered fool no one this morning." "We reject this cynicism, and we reaffirm our confidence in these technical experts, men and women who come from many regions, many backgrounds, and many perspectives. They knew their work would be attacked by Syria's allies - yet have carried out their mandate effectively and responsibly," she added. Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the Council what was happening was not pleasant. "It stinks, in fact," because the United States was politicizing the issue. The Mechanism had been created, with the Russian Federation's participation, to conduct thorough investigations, and its eagerly awaited report should be seen and discussed calmly before the mandate expired, he said. "Why put the cart before the horse?", he asked. Recalling the attack by the United States against a Syrian air base, he said it had been carried out after a hasty determination that Syria was guilty. "That rush to judgement had, therefore, been predetermined, as had strategies to impugn the Russian Federation. An early vote was the reason behind politicization," he added. Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch, said with its veto, Russia has once again sent a disturbing message to victims in Syria, signaling that Syrian government forces can continue to use chemical weapons with impunity and free of international scrutiny. "Russia has supported investigations into the use of lethal chemicals in Syria, but this time has chosen to protect its ally in Damascus. UN member states should find a way to ensure that the investigation of Syrian chemical attacks continues so perpetrators can be held to account," he added. Russia's ninth veto in the Security Council has only re-affirmed its strong and longstanding political, economic and military interests in Syria, going back to the days of President Hafez al-Assad, father of the current President, Bashar al-Assad. The relations were strengthened by a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the two countries, a treaty which continued to be renewed every 25 years. First signed with the then Soviet Union back in October 1970, the treaty provided Syria with long-term credits and outright gifts of Soviet weaponry. Asked how heavily Syria was dependent on Russian arms, Pieter Wezeman, Senior Researcher Arms and Military Expenditure Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) told IPS that Russia has been, by far, the most important arms supplier to Syria for decades. However, he pointed out, such arms supplies have fluctuated strongly, from the 1990s to 2008, including Syrian arms imports in general, and from Russia, were low. After an agreement with Russia about the large debts Syria owed Russia, several significant contracts for new military hardware were signed in 2007. Some of the equipment was delivered before the Syrian government lost control over large parts of Syria around 2013. Other equipment on order have not been delivered. In recent years, Syrian arms imports from Russia have been very modest, he added. Asked if Syria's entire military force structure was equipped with Russian weapons, Wezeman said almost all Syria's major equipment is of Soviet/Russian origin. Iran seems to have supplied artillery rockets and probably ammunition in recent years. There do not seem to be any other countries involved in supplying significant numbers of weapons to the Assad regime in recent years, he added. Asked about reports of Russian naval bases in Syria, he said there are Russian naval and air forces based in Syria, in particular the Russian access to Tartus harbor. (Thalif Deen, a Senior Consulting Editor at Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, has been covering the United Nations since the late 1970s). DMCH can't stop treatment of patients whatever the cause DOCTORS and nurses at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) went on a sudden work abstention on Sunday for three hours as some doctors were assaulted by relatives of a patient who blamed wrong treatment for the death of the old man admitted with chest pain. The hospital director dismissed the allegation of wrong treatment, claiming that they did everything they could for the patient's recovery. But as the work abstentions continues over 100 emergency patients were left unattended fighting between life and death. Hundreds others had to go to other city hospitals for emergency treatment. It was a chaotic situation and in our view DMCH should not stop treatment of patients under any pretext. Such situation is not however new as blame of attack on physicians on one side and blame of negligence of duty on the other remains the same. Another media report said some physicians of Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital at Bogra had beaten a patient attendant and his son for complaining neglect to attend an old women suffering from respiratory ailment. She was later discharged from the hospital at mid-night and died on the way home. Such incidents were also reported on earlier occasions. Yet another report said a physician in a Comilla hospital left a fetus in the mother's womb and closed it during a delivery. A High Court Bench on Sunday issued a show cause on concerned physician, district medical authorities and others to explain why punitive actions should not be taken against the errant physicians. We must say medical profession is highly sensitive that needs careful attention. Doctors are last resort of hope of patients and their families and any misunderstanding on both sides is unfortunate and unwarranted. Doctors are engaged in humanitarian services and any fight between them and patients' relatives is least expected and highly repugnant. We fear there is a serious communication problem from both sides to be polite and patient that can only help avoid such clash and miseries that can result from it. Doctors must be allowed to work uninterrupted but there are also allegations that they come late and during duty hours often remain engaged in gossiping instead of properly taking care of seriously ill patients. Such thing often burst into chaos. The DMCH is a huge 2600 bed hospital where over 1200 patients take outdoor help. But the number of physicians and nurses is too small and as reports said outsiders provide health support to permanent staff as patients relatives pay for them. We suggest internal discipline at all public hospitals including DMCH must be reviewed to improve the service quality of patients while more trained staff need to be employed to reduce pressure on existing staff overloaded with too many patients often lying on the floor. Khaleda slams govt for her motorcade attack UNB, Cox's Bazar : Condemning the attacks on her motorcade in Feni, BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia on Monday alleged that the attackers are known to the government. "We've come here to visit Rohingyas and give them some assistance, but on our way my convoy came under attack leaving many journalists injured," she said. The BNP chief further said, "I would like to say the government knows it very well who made the attack. Their photographs have already been published..." She came up with the remarks while talking to reporters after distributing relief materials among displaced Myanmar nationals at Moynargona Rohingya camp in Ukhiya upazila. Khaleda urged the government to stop this saying that such incidents will not bring any good for the government. "Instead, it'll make you completely isolated from people. So, stop such acts." She urged the government to come forward to work together for the welfare of humanity. On Saturday morning, Khaleda set out for Chittagong and her Cox's Bazar-bound convoy came under attack at Mohammad Ali Bazar near Feni district town in the afternoon. The attackers damaged a good number of vehicles, including microbuses of Channel i, DBC, Ekattor, and Baishakhi Television, and beat several newsmen and leaders and activists of BNP who were coming with Khaleda Zia to Cox's Bazar. Awami League and BNP have been blaming each other for the attack since then. Rohingyas using BD cell phone SIMs Anisul Islam Noor : The use of Bangladeshi mobile SIMs has been increasing in the Rohingya refugee camps despite the government asked the mobile phone operators and authorities concerned to make sure that Rohingya refugees cannot purchase SIM cards. Bangladesh has restricted mobile phone operators from selling SIM cards to the displaced Rohingyas who have entered Bangladesh fleeing the violence in Myanmar. As SIM cards cannot be sold without biometric registration, some local traders are allegedly using forged documents to sell SIMs to the Rohingyas. Some re-charging centres have also been set up by a group of people who are doing this by taking money for charging. The restriction has not stopped the Rohingyas living in Ukhiya and Teknaf upazilas of Cox's Bazar district from purchasing SIM cards to stay in touch with family members and relatives in Myanmar. The locals and Rohingyas staying in Cox's Bazar claimed to have found network of Bangladeshi mobile operators even in Myanmar's Maungdaw and adjoining areas. The matter has been termed as a security concerns by experts. State Minister for Post and Telecommunications Tarana Halim on September 23 said anyone found selling SIM cards to Rohingyas will be punished. The minister, however, said the displaced Rohingyas can use state-run Teletalk phone booths at the refugee camps for free to contact with other Rohingyas living in other camps. Local people told this correspondent over cell phone that the Rohingya people are buying mobile SIM cards from local markets from a group of local traders for double or triple the prices. An official of a mobile phone operator company in Cox's Bazar not to be named told this correspondent, "There are more than 200,000 Bangladesh SIM card users between Kutupalong and Noapara." The official said, "Traders take fingerprints from unaware and illiterate locals saying their fingerprints had not shown up correctly in the previous documents and later use these to sell SIM cards to the Rohingyas at a high price. "The Rohingyas also buy them because they have to keep contact with their relatives in Myanmar." The Rohingyas are compelled to break the law as the Teletalk booths are not for frequent use, one named Shahida Banu of Kutubpalon camp complained. Cox's Bazar Bachao Andolon's General Secretary Advocate Ayasur Rahman expressed concern over the issue. Cox's Bazar Police Superintendent AKM Iqbal Hossain told The New Nation over cell phone, "We are strictly monitoring the matter. We take quick action as soon as we get any complaint. Police have already seized around 250 illegal SIM cards and sentenced 20 people for illegally selling SIM cards, he said. 9 killed in Narsingdi road accidents Staff Reporter : At least nine persons were killed and 35 others injured in separate road accidents in Madhabdi and Shibpur upazilas of Narsingdi district on Monday. The accidents occurred between 7am and 9am on Monday morning. The deceased have been sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) and Narsingdi General Hospital (NGH) for autopsy. The injured have been admitted to DMCH, NGH and different other hospitals of Dhaka and Narsingdi districts for treatment. In Madhabdi, six people were killed in a head-on collision between a bus and a microbus on the Dhaka-Sylhet Highway in Kandail area about 6:30am. Of them, two deceased have been identified as Babul Hossain and Rezaul Karim from Bianibazar of Sylhet district. Officer-in-Charge of Madhabdi Police Station Elias Miah said the accident took place when a Narayanganj-bound bus collided with the Beanibazar-bound microbus, leaving four passengers of the microbus dead on the spot and 25 others injured. Three of them were injured critically. Later one of them died in Dhaka Medical College Hospital and another died in Narsingdi General Hospital. In Shibpur, three persons were killed and 10 others injured when a bus hit a human hauler in Kararchar area around 9:30am. The deceased were identified as Arman, 50, a schoolteacher, Masum 45, an imam, and Sohag, 22. The accident happened as the bus hit the human hauler (locally named as Leguna) in the area, leaving Arman dead on the spot and five others, including Masum and Sohag, injured. The injured were rushed to the hospital where Masum and Sohag succumbed to their injuries. Inspector of Itakhola Police Outpost Hafizur Rahman said the two vehicles had been seized after the incident. Ex-Trump aide Manafort charged with US tax fraud over Ukraine work Donald Trump's former presidential campaign manager, Paul Manafort, has been charged with conspiring to defraud the US in his dealings with Ukraine. The 12 charges brought against Mr Manafort and one of his business associates, Rick Gates, include conspiracy to launder money. They stem from an inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the US election. It has emerged that another adviser to Mr Trump was charged this month with lying about his links to Russia. George Papadopolous was indicted on 5 October with making false statements to FBI agents about his dealings with an unnamed overseas academic who allegedly informed him that the Russians possessed "dirt" on Mr Trump's presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. The charges against Mr Manafort and Mr Gates do not relate to Mr Trump's campaign but to the two men's Ukrainian business dealings up to 2015. An investigation headed by special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into any links between Russia and the Trump campaign. Both sides deny any collusion. Responding to news of the charges, Mr Trump tweeted to point out that they did not concern his campaign and asked why "the focus" was not on alleged wrongdoing involving Mrs Clinton instead. For years Paul Manafort operated on the fringes of power, a once-influential Washington player who worked with some less-than-savoury international characters because his services were no longer in high demand domestically, the BBC's Anthony Zurcher writes from Washington. Then, like many other politicos in Donald Trump's orbit, he was thrust into the spotlight because more established hands wanted nothing to do with the upstart's presidential campaign. Mr Manafort got his big break but it may end up breaking him. That resulting spotlight has drawn attention to Mr Manafort's past dealings and raised questions about his actions while in at the top of the Trump campaign. The good news for Mr Trump is these charges stem from Mr Manafort's past business dealings, not his campaign efforts. He is being accused of working for years for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians and laundering millions in subsequent payments. It certainly makes Mr Trump's decision to cut Mr Manafort loose last August after details emerged of his Ukrainian ties seem a wise one. The good news has its limits, however. Mr Manafort will be under growing pressure to co-operate with the Mueller investigation. If he offers up useful information about his time during the campaign, this could be just the first domino to fall. The indictment against the two men looks at their links to pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine between 2006 and 2015. It says they acted as "unregistered agents" of Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovych and his party, both in opposition and government. Mr Yanukovych was deposed as president in 2014 amid mass unrest over his pro-Russian policies. Mr Manafort is accused of having laundered more than $18m (14m) through offshore bank accounts, using it to buy property, goods and services in transactions concealed from the US authorities. He is said to have "used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle" in America. Altogether, at least $75m in payments from Ukraine flowed through the accounts, the indictment says. Mr Manafort and his lawyer arrived at an FBI office in Washington on Monday. Mr Gates is accused of having transferred more than $3m from the offshore accounts to other accounts he controlled. He has been ordered to surrender to authorities, according to US media reports. No immediate comment from lawyers for Mr Manafort and Mr Gates was reported after the charges were revealed. Mr Manafort, 68, has worked on several Republican presidential campaigns, beginning with Gerald Ford's in 1976. He resigned as chairman of the Trump campaign in August 2016 after being accused over his dealings with pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. He denies any wrongdoing. US intelligence agencies believe the Russian government sought to help Mr Trump win the election. The indictment against Mr Trump's former foreign policy adviser has the potential to damage the US leader because it relates directly to his election campaign. When Mr Papadopolous was interviewed by the FBI this January, he told them that his interactions with the foreign professor, who is said to have "substantial connections to Russian government officials", had taken place before he joined the Trump campaign in March 2016. But according to the US justice department, his meetings with the professor actually took place after he became an adviser to Mr Trump. The professor only took interest in him because of his new status within the Trump campaign, it is alleged. Mr Papadopolous is accused of seeking to use the professor's Russian connections in an effort to arrange a meeting "between the Campaign and Russian government officials". The alleged Russian "dirt" on Mrs Clinton took the form of "thousands of emails". No further details were given. On Friday, Mr Trump accused Mrs Clinton of links with Moscow. Republican lawmakers have alleged that a uranium deal with a Russian company in 2010, when Mrs Clinton was secretary of state, was sealed in exchange for donations to her husband's charity. A Congressional investigation has been opened into the case. Democrats say it is an attempt to divert attention from the alleged ties between Russia and Mr Trump. Work of ruffians against peaceful gathering of BNP was wrong and bad for government The attack on BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zias motorcade at Feni on the way to Chittagong to visit Rohingya camps in Coxs Bazar was the work of ruffians aimed at creating fear of oppression for the opposition politics. It was no doubt an outrageous act against maintaining peaceful situation in the country when politics is so charged. Her visit to the camps of distressed Rohingya refugees was to see for herself the condition of the suffering of the victims of atrocities by Myanmar. She also took some relief material for them and as is the arrangement left it with the army for distribution. The government should have welcomed that some help was coming to refugees. Begum Khaleda Zia is not an ordinary person, as leader of the largest opposition and a former prime minister her opinion would have some influence among the international community for getting aid and cooperation. We do not say her party men did not plan to use the occasion for a political show. They arranged crowd locally all along the way to show the public support the local leaders got when the general election is very much talked about. But Begum Khaleda Zia was well-advised not to make it an election affair by addressing the crowds anywhere on the way. So the situation did not call for any violent response from the government even if they thought she was campaigning for the election unless the government was anxious to convey the message that no peaceful election campaign by the opposition will be tolerated. It is known to all how intolerant and criminalised the politics has become for the raw struggle for power. There is no democratic politics where government does sit or talk with the opposition. The government has made it clear that politics is one sided affair of the government. Their claim is they liberated the country and it is their right to rule the country as long as they want. Someone has in fact claimed to be in power for some twenty years like in Malaysia with the party under which the country became independent. He was talking like Muslim League of Pakistan days. They do not accept that Bangabandhu himself recognised in the Constitution of the country that through the struggle of the people for establishing democratic Bangladesh the country was born. This is an attitude of extreme intolerance on the part of the government to continue in power. The politics of intolerance and violence has spread violence and cruelty in every part of the country. We have the gangs of unemployed youth who thrive on violence and they are known as youth wings of political parties. The political leaders cannot move without the ruffians around them. The government has police also to depend on. We have political parties without thoughtful politics. The government will not try to realise that the politics of violence has become the main political preparation to survive. Big political parties will not listen to us or anybody that politics is not violence but the ability to govern with public support. Rigged election is not public support. Politics is decent for decent people to serve the people. Unless the country is totally a police state people's support is necessary to govern peacefully. The whole media and country condemned the acts of violence against peaceful crowds. The journalist were not spared. Those who felt encouraged to use their muscle power on behalf of the government have done the government an awful damage to its image as well as faith in peaceful election. Denial by the government of the activities of their party's violent elements will not make the government look serious for its intention to make politics free from violence. Every body knows the musclemen would not be found anywhere near their leaders if the backing of the state machinery ceases. The government is making mass movement and chaos unavoidable. Country United States of America US Virgin Islands United States Minor Outlying Islands Canada Mexico, United Mexican States Bahamas, Commonwealth of the Cuba, Republic of Dominican Republic Haiti, Republic of Jamaica Afghanistan Albania, People's Socialist Republic of Algeria, People's Democratic Republic of American Samoa Andorra, Principality of Angola, Republic of Anguilla Antarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S) Antigua and Barbuda Argentina, Argentine Republic Armenia Aruba Australia, Commonwealth of Austria, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bahrain, Kingdom of Bangladesh, People's Republic of Barbados Belarus Belgium, Kingdom of Belize Benin, People's Republic of Bermuda Bhutan, Kingdom of Bolivia, Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana, Republic of Bouvet Island (Bouvetoya) Brazil, Federative Republic of British Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago) British Virgin Islands Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria, People's Republic of Burkina Faso Burundi, Republic of Cambodia, Kingdom of Cameroon, United Republic of Cape Verde, Republic of Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad, Republic of Chile, Republic of China, People's Republic of Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia, Republic of Comoros, Union of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, People's Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica, Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of the Cyprus, Republic of Czech Republic Denmark, Kingdom of Djibouti, Republic of Dominica, Commonwealth of Ecuador, Republic of Egypt, Arab Republic of El Salvador, Republic of Equatorial Guinea, Republic of Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) Fiji, Republic of the Fiji Islands Finland, Republic of France, French Republic French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon, Gabonese Republic Gambia, Republic of the Georgia Germany Ghana, Republic of Gibraltar Greece, Hellenic Republic Greenland Grenada Guadaloupe Guam Guatemala, Republic of Guinea, Revolutionary People's Rep'c of Guinea-Bissau, Republic of Guyana, Republic of Heard and McDonald Islands Holy See (Vatican City State) Honduras, Republic of Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Hrvatska (Croatia) Hungary, Hungarian People's Republic Iceland, Republic of India, Republic of Indonesia, Republic of Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq, Republic of Ireland Israel, State of Italy, Italian Republic Japan Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kenya, Republic of Kiribati, Republic of Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait, State of Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lebanon, Lebanese Republic Lesotho, Kingdom of Liberia, Republic of Libyan Arab Jamahiriya Liechtenstein, Principality of Lithuania Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Macao, Special Administrative Region of China Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Madagascar, Republic of Malawi, Republic of Malaysia Maldives, Republic of Mali, Republic of Malta, Republic of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania, Islamic Republic of Mauritius Mayotte Micronesia, Federated States of Moldova, Republic of Monaco, Principality of Mongolia, Mongolian People's Republic Montserrat Morocco, Kingdom of Mozambique, People's Republic of Myanmar Namibia Nauru, Republic of Nepal, Kingdom of Netherlands Antilles Netherlands, Kingdom of the New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua, Republic of Niger, Republic of the Nigeria, Federal Republic of Niue, Republic of Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway, Kingdom of Oman, Sultanate of Pakistan, Islamic Republic of Palau Palestinian Territory, Occupied Panama, Republic of Papua New Guinea Paraguay, Republic of Peru, Republic of Philippines, Republic of the Pitcairn Island Poland, Polish People's Republic Portugal, Portuguese Republic Puerto Rico Qatar, State of Reunion Romania, Socialist Republic of Russian Federation Rwanda, Rwandese Republic Samoa, Independent State of San Marino, Republic of Sao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom of Great Britain & N. Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe If you are looking for the new Immoral Minority posts, you should know that they can be found here at our new home Please stop by to get caught up on politics, join the conversations, or simply check out the new digs. Shopping is fun but.... Right. I shouldn't be saying this. Things used to be easier; now, competition has gotten fierceeven The Huffington Post (fer Pete's sake!) is publishing camera reviews and posting affiliate links to Amazon and B&H Photo. It's getting a lot tougher out there for cool old dudes who actually like to write words down such as, um, moi. And who at least sometimes provide content that goes more than just a little way past exactly what the marketing departments of the corporations we serve that serve us want us to say to shift product. This is my competition now too. (The link is to the pretty young woman above vlogging* about the Sony RX100V as a vlogging camera. She doesn't write; but then, I don't shoot video.) I shouldn't be discouraging anyone from shopping, is what I'm trying to say. But I just want you to look at something amazing, and take a second, placidly amid the noise and the haste**, to fully appreciate where we are and what is happening. Just look at this. It's a photograph. The photograph is of an unidentified woman, and it was taken by a photographer I've never heard of before named Andreas Jordan (to whom thanks, at a couple of removes). Enlarge it by clicking on it, then contemplate it, and then evaluate it visually from a holistic standpoint, i.e., without drilling down into picayune specifics. Given that most photographers now look at most photographs on screens now***, ain't that good enough? I'm just sayin'. Granted, it's not the ultimate in detail, by today's standard, but doesn't it give you pretty much all the detailall the informationyour actual human eyes could, at a distance where you'd be seeing that woman, the subject, in about the same way? Doesn't it get the idea across about as well as anybody needs? And that's a picture from a one-inch sensor. It was taken with a Sony RX100V, the fifth iteration of a tiny digicam that has a 1" (8.8x13.2mm) sensor. The sensor in the V iteration has a BSI (back side illuminated) sensor that gives it 315 focus points and the ability to capture AF in .05 seconds. Phil Hall at TechRadar (no link because the page imposes sound on you unwillingly, a new trend I happen to detest): "Using the same stacked Exmor R back-illuminated CMOS sensor technology that we first saw in the RX100IV, Sony says it has tweaked the chip, while the clever stacked sensor design means it has memory chips built right onto the back of the sensor. This means data doesn't have to flood out to the edge of the sensor, and, coupled with a new LSI chip, it means the sensor can deliver incredibly fast readout speeds." My readout, from my brain I mean, is that while there are differences, 1" sensors are now virtually as good as medium-format film was in 1991. Back then, my friend Jim Sherwood, an art photographer who did a lot of shooting of major storm damage in 6x7, switched from a ISO 100 speed film (Kodak Vericolor 100, I think it was, a low-contrast negative film beloved of 1980s art photographers who shot in color) to an ISO 400 speed film, which had just gotten good enough. While RX100V captures might not be quite as enlargeable in prints as Jim's 6x7 cm negatives were, it certainly beats the pants off it for color correctability and low light sensitivity, and for detail and image quality as long as you're looking at it on a screen. Of course, it does cost $998but then, that was about $560 in 1991. It's da bomb, as people who were that vlogger's age ten years ago used to say. Where I'm going with all this... ...Is a question. At what point are we going to learn to stop worrying and love da bomb?**** At what point are we just going to start making pictures again? When digital cameras came along for most of us in the late '90s and early 2000s, digital just wasn't good enough. But we all wanted to use it anyway because it was so liberating and so much fun. The first one I used, an Agfathere's a name not everyone knows nowwas not even close to one megapixel, and I remember thinking: too bad you can't get decent images from this thing, because using it is like being a kid let loose in a candy shop. Wheee. So we started this endless roundel of trying, comparing, shooting "test shots," making the most fanatically minute comparisons, and of course upgrading, always interested in the latest and the next. "Neomania," I called it back then. We became maniacs for the newest thing. But at some point, I just assumed, things would settle down and we'd go back to just...well, making, and looking at, pictures. You know, without caring how the pictures were made. Are we there yet? That still hasn't quite happened, I don't think. And now I'm wondering if maybe it never will. Oh, and speaking of 1" sensors... ...If image quality is all you're after, and not that wicked new processor and the last soupcon of AF speed, you can get the same image quality from the RX100IV for $100 less. Or, for that matter, from your iPhone, as long as you attach a DxO One to it. The iPhone as a 1" camera (Oh, right, right: DxO One: B&H, Amazon.) One-inch digicam / 8.8x13.2mm sensor = MF of only 26 years ago = who'd a' thunk? Mike *Vlog, n., video log, a weblog in which most of the postings are in video form. **The reference of course is to the "Desiderata" (desired things), a 1927 prose poem by American writer Max Ehrmann. Largely unknown in its author's lifetime, it became popular through several spoken-word recordings in the 1970s. It was not written in 1692, a fatuous but oft-repeated claim based on the fact that the rector of St. Paul's Church in Batimore, Maryland, included it in a compilation of devotional readings for his congregation, which is apparently where the creators of the spoken-word recordings found itand the church was founded in 1692. "Editors needed everywhere," as Yr. Hmbl. Ed. always says. Here's a book jacket photo of Max Ehrmann, who was born of Bavarian immigrant parents in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1872, and died in 1945 before his poem became famous. He was educated at DePauw University in Greencastle and later received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the University. And here's the poem, just to cover the faint possibility that you've never encountered it before DESIDERATA Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy. It's contained in a largely unread compilation of his poems, and there are various letterpress and calligraphic presentations of the poem available intended for framing. Some of the poem's ideas might have been "in the air" in the 1920s. I hear strains in it of the ideas espoused by the Oxford Group (founded 1921 as "A First Century Christian Fellowship"); of Schweitzer, whose The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle was published in 1931; and of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (1935) as represented in "The Big Book." Although it may be sappy, and beloved of sappy sorts, and thus easy to dismiss, the poem's advice, one must admit, is uncommonly sound, not to mention beautiful. There...now, you're not gonna get all that in a vlog, are ya? (Quiet, you in the back.) ***Even though more people are printing more photographs now than ever before, it's still a small fraction of the photographs viewed on screens. I can't substantiate any of that, but I believe it's true. ****The reference is to the subtitle of Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, a black comedic farce about how deranged leaders could needlessly trigger nuclear warwhich obviously can't happen because our leaders are so sagacious, cautious, probitious, contemplative, policy-savvy, humane, empathic, steeped in culture, and wise. ...On second thought, better re-watch Dr. Strangelove. Mike Original contents copyright 2017 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. B&H Photo Amazon US Amazon UK Amazon Germany Amazon Canada Adorama (To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.) Featured Comments from: Dave Wilson: "Among far too many others, I have both (all three? iPhone as well) modern devices you mention above. Frankly, for 90% of use cases, they're all you need: but this approach does mean that, when I pick up my FF camera, the reasons I still own it come flooding back. But I'm not going to chuck it in my work bag and take it to London daily, something I don't need to think about with either the DxO or RX100V." Mike replies: You'll note that our vlogger astutely says at one point that the smaller the camera, the more she'll use it. Struck me as both true and also honest. Andrew Molitor: "I dunno, hasn't there been a 'nerd' community for a long time? I distinctly recall in the 1980s spending a lot of time dorking around with lenses and films and testing this and that. Photographers, culturally, seem to have a terrible problem with looking for technical solutions to creative problems. I don't know how far back in time this goes, but I assume there were fistfights about how what percentage of silver nitrate to use in this solution or that. Or maybe it really arose with the internet forum? I don't know. But it's been around as long as I have been aware of these things, which is a few decades now." Mike replies: I've read enough in the old literature to suspect that distracting disputations about image quality have been going on at least since the Daguerreotype went away. Maybe it's essentially socialpart of how we keep each other's companygiven that the creative side of photography is so solitary? As I've lived only half of my photographic life in the age of the Internet, I can say with some confidence that the Internet did supercharge the tendency, no question. Bill Tyler: Along with the other footnotes, you might want to include the definition of 'probitious.' The most recent uses I've found are both 18th century, one in Congreve's Judgement of Paris, and one in 'An ESSAY On The Scheme and Conduct, Procedure and Extent of MAN's [typography sic(!) Ed.] REDEMPTION. Wherein is shewn from the Holy Scriptures, that This great Work is to be accomplished....' Title pages in the 1700s did tend to run a little long. Anyhow, a definition, please!" Mike replies: Found that.... Love the scrawled owner's commentary. And the library stamp, which to a book collector would amount to vandalism. I think I did read around in the 18th century too heavily when I was but a lad, although I never encountered the worthy William Worthington. Re "probitous," which is what I originally wrote, I think I made it up, on account of I have always wanted there to be an adjectival form of the noun "probity." When I started writing for magazines I fetched up against the uncomfortable fact that I had made up a lot of words and was in the habit of using them. I had to stop that. I guess I should go change it...probably to "upright," which to my ear doesn't have the same brawn or antique burnish or Latinate depth, alas. Or maybe I shall leave it as it is, and count on our exchange here to redress the error. cdembrey: "With the rapid decline of the middle class's discretionary funds, expect more competition for those few remaining dollars. Small bloggers will be squeezed just like small brick-and-mortar stores were in the past. Unique products will become more important. In many cases podcasts are both easier to consume (politics, literary criticism) and videos are more understandable (technical subjectsdon't tell me, show me). For me, I'm listening to more podcasts, and have cut back to only TOP and Eric Kim's blog. Speaking of Eric Kim, he said in his Review of the Pentax 645Z and Digital Medium Format Photography: 'My idea of the future of photography: either buy a digital medium format camera, or just use your phone.' I'm not impressed with gear-geekish-gobbledygook, so g-g-g goes in-one-ear...." Mike replies: Funnily enough (is "funnily" a real adverb? If it is, then "probity" should have an adjectival form, dang it. I'm going to stick my head in the sand on funnily), about half a year ago I decided to use my iPhone as one of my two main cameras, and since then have been trying to decide what the other one should be. And the logical answer keeps coming up, "go medium format." But I can't, because I can't afford it. So, one for Eric Kim. Life is full of frustrations! ...But I'm learning to look on the bright side, which is that I'm being geeky and I don't actually "need" any particular camera or kind of camera. I'll keep working on actually believing that. Michael Kay: "I agree with your comments about 1" sensors. I have the original Mark I version of the RX100 and it is remarkably good. But they are not cheap. Here is a cheap camera which produces a surprisingly high level of detail with its 86x56mm sensor. It only cost 15.49 (about $20). Read the text and click the link for the enlargement. You will be surprised." David Dyer-Bennet (partial comment): "'Deteriorata' may almost justify the existence of 'Desiderata.' Maybe." [Link added, and thanks to Steve for it. Ed.] Jim: "I have an RX100, and plenty of medium format cameras. The RX100 does not even come close to 35mm film, to say nothing of medium format. If your standards are that low that you cannot tell the difference, it might be time to reevaluate your sensibilities. Digital is still not good enough." Mike replies: This post twisted the tails of several medium-format film photographersamong which, Jim's comment was the mildest. One old friend came close to removing TOP from his RSS feed. All I can say is, wait till tomorrow. PhotoDes: "'Twas ever so. Many of the famous Baroque era artists experimented extensively with different pigments for their paintingsPrussian Blue, zinc white, etc. were valued for their intensity and were regarded as a characteristic of high-quality work." The best bang for your buck! This option enables you to purchase online 24/7 access and receive the Sunday, Tuesday & Thursday print edition at no additional cost * Print edition only available in our carrier delivery area. Allow up to 72 hours for delivery of your print edition to begin. Print edition not available for Day Pass option. Seventeen-year-old Jaylan Banks punched a guard at the Illinois Youth Center at Harrisburg as they struggled over a bottle of body wash. David Hayes, 18, spat in a guards face. And 18-year-old Lavell Staples was accused of shoving a guard as he tried to force his way out of his room. A few years ago, these incidents would have cost the teenagers their privileges, earned them a stint in solitary confinement or added time to their juvenile sentences. But these young men are among almost a dozen from the Harrisburg facility who now face substantial sentences in adult prison instead, a penalty even state officials call troubling and at odds with a court-ordered push to make the juvenile justice system more rehabilitative. Staples began serving a four-year term last month. Hayes was sentenced to six years. And Banks received eight years. Workers at the Harrisburg facility have sought more criminal charges for staff assaults over the past two years than employees at the states four other juvenile facilities combined, according to records and interviews. That includes another facility with about the same number of young offenders as Harrisburg but nearly double the number of staff assaults last year. Since 2016, the Saline County states attorneys office has pursued more than 40 criminal cases against youths at Harrisburg. Thirteen of the cases were dismissed and some are pending, but nearly a dozen young men have been convicted of felony battery charges and received sentences that range from three to eight years in prison, according to court records. State officials and juvenile justice advocates say the prosecutions are fueled, in part, by employees resistance to the statewide reforms. At Harrisburg, a low-slung, secure facility just 30 minutes from the Kentucky border that this month held 112 young men, more than 90 percent of the staff is white the highest at any of the states youth facilities and close to 70 percent of the offenders are African-American, according to the departments most recent available data. Whats more, court records and juvenile justice department data show the prosecutions disproportionately affect young black men from Cook County, a disparity that troubles department officials who began transferring some Cook County youths out of Harrisburg earlier this year. Top juvenile justice officials express unease about the prosecutions, saying they could conflict with their mission. Internal department documents describe some of the incidents as minor. Im concerned about how these charges are undermining the Department of Juvenile Justices efforts at reform and rehabilitation, said Kathleen Bankhead, the states independent juvenile ombudsman, a position created in 2014. Im also concerned about the fairness and the process of Saline County. Bankhead has spoken to a number of the young men charged in Saline County. Some of them, she said, told her they made only inadvertent contact with a guard or other staffer. Others said the incidents didnt happen at all. In nearly half of the cases, the youths had turned 18 while in custody, and were charged as adults and, if convicted, sent to the Illinois Department of Corrections. As a result, their felony convictions will follow them after prison at job interviews, on rental applications and anywhere else a criminal record could be an obstacle. Most of the other offenders were 17 or younger and their cases were handled in juvenile court. Exact numbers are difficult to obtain because the department doesnt keep records on how many youths face criminal charges while in custody. Saline Countys states attorney said he, too, doesnt track the number of cases from the Harrisburg facility. The American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which monitors the juvenile justice department as part of a federal consent decree, said in July court filings the prosecutions were a deliberate and concerted attack on the reform efforts. The group has accused Harrisburg staff of creating an alternative correctional system to drive a steady flow of prosecutions for what the ACLU describes as trivial incidents. In recent years, the department has adopted a number of changes to move from a more punitive approach to one that incorporates positive reinforcement and rewards. Officials rewrote the solitary confinement policy, banning its use as punishment, and are attempting to ensure that youths spend at least eight hours a day outside their rooms either in school or in other supervised activities. Ive never expected that this process was going to be easy or without mistakes and some resistance, but also (with) some surprising wins and surprising successes, Heidi Mueller, the director of the juvenile justice department, said in an interview. Ive not seen it be easy for anyone. They sent me down here so they can throw me away. At 18, Lavell Staples had been in and out of the juvenile justice system for four years, first for marijuana charges and later for parole violations in connection with drug and other arrests. His time at Harrisburg was mixed: He earned his GED but also was cited for behavioral violations. Like most youths in Illinois juvenile justice system, Staples has a history of mental illness. In a September interview, Staples sat on a steel stool inside the Saline County Jail. From behind the narrow glass partition, he picked up the thick black handset and recounted the January incident that landed him behind bars. He said he had placed paper over the window of the door to his room to be alone and shut out the world. A guard doing room checks saw the window covered and told Staples to take down the paper so staff could monitor his well-being. When Staples refused, the guard entered the room and removed the paper. Staples said he got up to leave and slid by the guard and out the door, then flipped over a table. The guard, according to records, said Staples shoved him in the chest as he tried to force his way out. That evening, Staples appeared in front of Harrisburgs adjustment committee, standard practice when an offender violates policy. Staff members review the case and recommend sanctions that can range from an earlier curfew and the restriction of privileges to an extension of the offenders sentence. For Staples, the committee suggested extending his sentence by 180 days. Harrisburgs superintendent recommended reducing the extension to 30 days. Either option would have kept Staples in the juvenile justice system. But the guard instead filed a report with the Harrisburg police. Within days, Staples was charged with aggravated battery to a peace officer, a felony. After eight months of court hearings and continuances, Staples pleaded guilty. A judge sentenced him to four years in prison with the possibility that he could serve less time if the Department of Corrections accepted him to a boot camp. He learned last week he was not accepted. He swapped out his room at the juvenile facility for a cell in a prison that holds close to 1,900 inmates and where, instead of being one of the oldest in the facility, he now is among the youngest. His fellow inmates at the Western Illinois Correctional Center include nearly 350 convicted murderers. If I didnt catch this case, I would have been home already, Staples said. They sent me down here so they can throw me away. When a guard brought Jaylan Banks a bottle of cherry-scented body wash to use in the showers at Harrisburg, Banks reached for the bottle so he could smell it. As he and the guard struggled over it, Banks said, the guard yelled at him to let go, then pushed his head against a phone box on the wall. Banks hit the guard in the face to try to get free. He said he quickly stepped back and put his hands in the air. The guard was bleeding from his nose and lip and sought medical treatment, records show. The guard said Banks punched him three or four times, according to department records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The guards who came to his aid, records show, described Banks as extremely combative, saying he only calmed down after they threatened to use pepper spray. Although Banks was 17 at the time, he was tried as an adult. Banks grew up in institutions, bouncing from residential centers to psychiatric hospitals to group homes, said his mother, Shakira Cousett. He was 8 when the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services became involved with the family, she said, and he remains a ward of the state. Jaylan is a loving person, Cousett said. I know people who only know him on paper might not see that, but thats more because of his mental health than anything criminal. He first entered the juvenile justice system at 14, his mother said, and has been locked up since he was 16 for armed robbery. Banks had two other charges against him one for spitting on a guard at Harrisburg, another for hitting a staffer there but they were dropped. In August, Banks was sentenced to state prison in Sumner. In a recent interview there, he said he is no longer treated as an adolescent and is forced to cope more on his own. His mother said she worries about his future once hes released from prison. Hes starting out with a Class 2 felony, she said. Where do you go from there? Little DOC The transfer of these young men from Harrisburg to adult prison conflicts with the mission of the juvenile justice department, which aims to rehabilitate the young people in its facilities and help them return to the community. It is not supposed to be a launch pad for prison, even if some of the juvenile offenders call it little DOC. I think if a youth ends up charged and convicted of an adult felony, it means we haven't done our job as well as I'd like us to, Mueller said. I consider that a failure. The department split off from adult corrections in 2006 and began implementing reform three years later. That effort gained urgency after the ACLU in 2012 sued the department for failing to provide adequate services or protect the youths in its custody. The department and ACLU agreed to a consent decree requiring the improvement of education and mental health treatment, the limitation of solitary confinement and adoption of a less punitive approach to dealing with behavioral issues. Research shows young people are particularly vulnerable to the effects of solitary confinement, and that it can create or exacerbate mental health conditions. It has even been linked to suicide. In 2015, the department ended the use of solitary as a punitive measure, though it still can be used for short periods if, for instance, a youth needs to cool down. That frustrated some staff at Harrisburg, who believed the department was taking an important tool from them. As part of the reforms, the department also cut its population by accepting only offenders who posed a significant public safety risk or for whom group homes or residential centers were not an option. A 2015 law to keep youths convicted of misdemeanors out of department custody similarly contributed to the population decline. In the past seven years, the departments population has dropped from about 1,000 to less than 400. Those who remain in custody, according to officials, tend to be the highest-risk and highest-need. Part of the job Eddie Caumiant, regional director at AFSCME COUNCIL 31, the union that represents the guards at Harrisburg, said correctional officers understand assaults are part of the job. But that does not mean they should go unpunished. Some officers are struggling to adapt to the changes, Caumiant said, but remain committed to the work. Its their right to seek justice and press charges, he said. The restrictions on solitary confinement are part of what Caumiant calls a softer approach to incarcerated youth. That, he said, has left guards feeling they cant do their job safely or effectively. If youre going to remove punishment, remove consequences within the system, theres going to be a natural challenge to address those issues, he said. One guard at Harrisburg, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not have permission from the department, said guards do not think the department will act on the reports of staff assaults. Their way of handling it will be to not handle it, he said. People have to be responsible for their actions. Its a dangerous environment. I dont want to go to work and get hit. If I was at home and somebody hit me, Id press charges. He said he would like to see additional training for guards and more programming for the youths. They can only play cards for so long, he said, before boredom leads to violence. Department officials have met with staff and union leaders to find solutions to the conflict. But they stand by the reforms, saying they are better for the youths and reflect trends across the country. There are still and always have been very few instances where a youth intentionally walks up and strikes the staff, Mueller said. When that does happen, incidents are handled by a department investigator in addition to a committee in the facility. The superintendent decides whether to forward the case higher up in the department. Mueller ultimately determines if a case should be referred to prosecutors. Time and again, Harrisburg staff have sidestepped department protocols and gone directly to police. By doing so, they essentially eliminated multiple layers of review that serve as backstops. Harrisburg police said they dont conduct independent investigations into incidents between guards and juvenile offenders. The Saline County states attorney said that he relies almost entirely on the investigations done by a designated supervisor at the facility. The juvenile justice department only began in January to track the number of youths it referred for criminal charges while in custody. Since then, the department has sent four cases of staff assaults to the states attorneys office, none of them from Harrisburg. The departments definition of assault is broad. A youth who spits or sprays water on an employee or even throws a piece of paper that hits a worker can be reported for assault. The same goes for an offender whose elbow, say, strikes a staff member while he is being restrained, or during a fight guards are trying to break up. According to department records, the number of youth-on-staff assaults has gone up in recent years. Mueller said the increase could be attributed to the department doing a better job capturing assault data. The youth correctional facility at St. Charles last year experienced the largest number of staff assaults across the department since 2013, reporting 112 assaults, compared to Harrisburgs 58. The pattern this year has been similar. By the end of July, Harrisburg staff had nearly matched its total for all of 2016 with 54 reported staff assaults. St. Charles was at 74, according to officials. But the number of criminal cases coming out of St. Charles has been a fraction of Harrisburgs. Only three youths at St. Charles have faced criminal charges this year one case ended without charges being filed. More than a dozen cases have come from Harrisburg. One big difference: the prosecutors. Different approaches Jayson Clark is confident and affable in a courtroom, with cropped blond hair atop a quick smile. The 40-year-old was appointed Saline County states attorney in March after the death of his predecessor, Michael Henshaw. The prosecutions of Harrisburg offenders began under Henshaw, but Clark has continued them, saying he has an obligation to respond to the reports from employees. This is a pretty simple situation as far as my role in it, Clark said in an interview in his office across from the courthouse. I'm receiving reports of crimes occurring in my county, and I'm enforcing the law. In Harrisburg and many other communities across central and southern Illinois, prisons provide steady, well-paying jobs. Many people work in corrections or know someone who does making them a powerful voting bloc. Clark, who is gearing up for an election next year, said people in town have thanked him for prosecuting the cases, and community support only grew after the ACLU raised concerns. On his Facebook page, one woman wrote, Good job, Jayson!! Keep it up since Juvenile Justice does nothing to them. Clark said he doesnt let politics dictate his decisions. I wish somebody would tell them that the state's attorney in this county will prosecute you for aggravated battery if you lay a hand on a guard, Clark said. The fact that they're in a juvenile facility because they committed crimes while they were juveniles, that doesn't make them any less culpable when they become an adult. In Kane County, more than 300 miles north, States Attorney Joseph McMahon handles cases from the St. Charles facility. He said his office has prosecuted only a handful of staff assault cases over the past five years. McMahon, who is considering a run for Illinois Attorney General, said the justice system should serve two purposes: accountability, which includes punishment of the offender and victim restitution; and behavior modification. The Juvenile Court Act is about restorative justice, about holding them accountable but getting him or her to change the behavior, McMahon said in an interview. And if we're going to fulfill that promise to juveniles, we have to be willing to give them a chance to come out of the system and make better decisions in the future. Guards should not have to tolerate being shoved or spat upon, McMahon said, but that does not have to lead to a felony. Less serious cases, he said, should be handled within the department. A philosophical divide Some who work in juvenile justice are alarmed by the prosecutions and worry they will derail reform. As Illinois first independent juvenile ombudsman, reporting to the governors office, Bankheads role is to ensure the rights of youths arent being violated. When she began to get calls from young men at Harrisburg, she alerted the department, the ACLU and the prison watchdog group John Howard Association. The ACLU took the issue to court. In response, the department drafted a plan to reduce the number of prosecutions that included providing additional training, directing staff to intervene physically only as a last resort and communicating with the public defender to better represent youths with mental health needs. That, the ACLU argued, was not enough. The department, the ACLU wrote in a court filing last month, can do more to help staff understand just how extremely deleterious to the welfare and life prospects of youth these prosecutions are, especially for youth facing adult charges. ACLU attorney Camille Bennett said the organization worries it is battling a philosophical divide as well, that Harrisburg is geographically and culturally distant when it comes to embracing reform. It is a community that's very much unto itself, she said. So when they come up with their own set of rules, they can enforce their own set of rules. Jennifer Vollen-Katz, executive director of the John Howard Association, said Harrisburgs staff may have legitimate complaints, but sending the young men to prison is not the way to address them. The legal system, she said, has failed them. The outcome of these cases are so dramatically out of sync with anything that resembles justice. Six years for spitting? she said. We are sacrificing lives to make a point and that's simply not OK. Do you have access to information about juvenile justice that should be public? Email duaa.eldeib@propublica.org. Heres how to send tips and documents to ProPublica securely. Communities, chambers of commerce and churches and other places of worship and nursing homes throughout Southern Illinois are announcing the dates and times they will observe Halloween, which is Tuesday, Oct. 31. City trick-or-treat hours Hours listed are for Tuesday, Oct. 31. Anna, 6 to 8 p.m. Benton, no set hours Buckner, 5 to 8:30 p.m. Carbondale, 5 to 8 p.m. Creal Springs, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Du Quoin, 6 to 9 p.m. Harrisburg, 6 to 8 p.m. Herrin, 4 to 8 p.m. Marion, 5 to 8 p.m. Murphysboro, 5 to 8 p.m. West Frankfort, 5 to 8 p.m. Other events BUCKNER Trick or Treat, 5 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, at the Buckner Fire Department, 207 E. Main St. There will be the Great Pumpkin Buckner Fire Department decorating contest (for youth 18 and under who must bring in an already carved or decorated pumpkin); the department is also participating in the Teal Pumpkin Project, which makes available treats and prizes that are safe for people with allergies. For more details, visit the department's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/buckner.firerescue. BENTON Trick-or-Treat, Heritage Woods of Benton, 4 to 6 p.m. Oct. 31. This event, which promises "tons of free candy," is open to the public. For more information, call 618-439-9431. CARBONDALE Fall Festival, 5 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, at Faith Temple Church of God In Christ, 604 N. Marion St. Hallelujah Bash, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, at Bethel AME Church, 314 E. Jackson St. Potter's Pumpkin Patch Trunk or Treat, 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, Rock Hill MB Church, 219 E. Monroe St. Trunk-A-Treat in the Fellowship Hall, 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31. New Zion MB Church, Fellowship Hall, 803 N. Robert A. Stalls Ave. For more information, visit the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church Facebook page. Architecture pumpkins display, 6:30 to 9 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 31, at the Buckminster Fuller Dome Home, 407 S. Forest St. Sixty different architectures from around the world are carved in pumpkins. CARTERVILLE Pumpkin Path, 4:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31. This event begins with a costume judging at 4:30 p.m. behind First Baptist Church and moves on to a parade, which starts at 5:30 p.m. Area businesses will give away candy and other treats from 6 to 8 p.m. on sidewalks throughout the downtown area. For more information, call the Carterville Chamber of Commerce at 618-985-6942. DE SOTO Trunk or Treat from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct 31, at DeSoto United Methodist Church, 211 W. Lincoln St. Candy, hot dogs and hot chocolate will be provided, for free, to the community. DU QUOIN Inaugural Main Street Trunk or Treat, 6 to 8 p.m. Oct. 31. Children 12 and younger must be in costume. Sponsored by City of Du Quoin and Du Quoin Chamber of Commerce. MARION Second Annual Halloween Spooktacular, 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, at the Williamson County Fairgrounds, 101 N. Fair St. There will be grilled food, snacks and candy at this event, hosted by Marion Police Department. MOUNT VERNON Annual Trick-or-Treat, 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, with participating downtown businesses (look for balloons to mark the 30 participating businesses). For more information, visit www.downtownmtvernon.org. MURPHYSBORO Trunk or Treat, 4 to 6 p.m., West Industrial Park Road Seventh Street Extension. Hosted by B&J Computers Inc. REND LAKE Trick or Treat at Rend Lake, Tuesday, Oct. 31, at the Rend Lake Visitor Center, hosted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Scavenger hunts for candy and prizes are planned for all day, with story reading and the chance to meet some favorite movie characters from 1 to 3 p.m. For more information about this free event, call the Rend Lake Visitor Center at 618-724-2493 or visit on Facebook at facebook.com/rendlakeusace. VIENNA Community Trunk or Treat, 6 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 31. Shawnee Worship Center and various other ministries and organizations are hosting this community trunk or treat at the Vienna City Park. The event will feature more than 20 decorated booths, laser tag, inflatables, and an outdoor movie. This event is free and open to the public. Concessions will be served. WEST FRANKFORT Trail of Treats, 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31. BLACKVILLE Driving too quickly can lead to significant losses when digging peanuts, according to a recent study by Clemson University agricultural engineer Kendall Kirk. Farmers often push digger speeds to save time or to outrace inclement weather, but driving too fast can reduce yield, Kirk said. Conversely, driving too slowly can rip vines apart and increase costs. As you drive faster, your operating cost, primarily your labor cost, goes down because you are able to finish the job faster, but the cost of operating your digger more slowly is relatively small compared to your loss in yield when digging at higher speeds, Kirk said. A peanut digger unearths peanut plants while a blade at the bottom of a conveyor belt cuts the tap roots and shears the soil to leave the peanut plants on the ground to be picked up later. The speed of this process matters. Peanuts left underground or detached from plant vines cannot be collected. To establish an optimal speed for digging peanuts, Kirk tested various ground and conveyor speeds when digging Virginia-type peanuts at Clemsons Edisto Research and Education Center in Blackville. According to his study, optimal ground speed for digging Virginia peanuts is 2-2.5 miles per hour. For each mile per hour above that target speed, digging losses increased 200 pounds per acre. Growers should also synchronize the speed of their diggers shaker chain, or conveyor belt, to their ground speed. If driving 2 mph, for example, the conveyor belt should be set to a speed of around 2 mph. A conveyor belt running about 20 percent faster than ground speed can result in yield loss of 100 to 200 pounds per acre, Kirk said. The average peanut yield per acre in South Carolina last year was 3,300, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Growers in the state harvested nearly 350 million pounds of peanuts that year at a value of more than $65.7 million. Kirk conducted the study at the request of South Carolina peanut growers looking to optimize profits. When setting their digging speeds, growers should keep several variables in mind, particularly soil conditions. Slower speeds should be used where digging losses are more likely, such as with larger pods, suboptimal maturity, heavier soils and drier soils, Kirk said. Driving too slowly will reduce your ability to dig on a timely basis, but driving too fast can cause higher yield losses. Special prosecutor David Pascoe announced indictments this past week in the investigation of corruption at the Statehouse. T&D Region lawmakers are concerned that the ongoing case is hurting public trust in the General Assembly, but they expressed confidence in Pascoe and the ongoing investigation. Five people were indicted in connection with Pascoe's probe: Richard Quinn Sr., Richard Quinn Jr., John Courson, Tracy R. Edge and James H. Harrison. Quinn Sr., president of First Impressions d/b/a Richard Quinn & Associates, has been indicted for one count of criminal conspiracy and one count of failure to register as a lobbyist. Quinn Jr., vice president of First Impressions d/b/a Richard Quinn & Associates and currently a suspended member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, was indicted for criminal conspiracy. Courson, former president pro tempore and currently a suspended member of the state Senate, was indicted for criminal conspiracy and statutory misconduct in office. Edge, former member of the S.C. House and former chairman of the House Healthcare Budget Subcommittee, was indicted for criminal conspiracy, common law misconduct in office, statutory misconduct in office and perjury. Harrison, former member of the House and former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was indicted for criminal conspiracy, common law misconduct in office and statutory misconduct in office. The South Carolina Supreme Court suspended Harrisons law license in a Wednesday order. Harrison is a Columbia attorney who spent 23 years in the House through 2013 and was chairman of the Judiciary Committee for nearly two decades. Pascoe, the 1st Circuit solicitor, said at Harrison's bond hearing Tuesday that political consultant Richard Quinn paid the Republican money every month to influence legislation that would help Quinn's private clients. Harrison has also been suspended from his position on the board of visitors at The Citadel and in his job providing research and legal support for the General Assembly. Richard Quinn has advised some of South Carolina's leading Republicans, including Gov. Henry McMaster, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson. In March, state police agents raided the Columbia office that housed his consulting shop, as well as son Rick Quinn's direct-mail business, retrieving documents and flash drives, among other items. Pascoe described Richard Quinn as having tentacles throughout South Carolina and using them to corrupt the system. After the latest developments in the Statehouse corruption case, T&D Region lawmakers commented on the developments, saying the indictments could hurt the publics trust in the Legislature. Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter, D-Orangeburg, said the indictments are sad and tragic. Im just sorry to hear and see all of this, Cobb-Hunter said. My heart goes out to the families. Its just a sad day for South Carolina, she said. This only further gives the impression that all elected officials are crooks and thats not good. Rep. Russell Ott, D-St. Matthews said, Trust is a very fragile thing. Its something that you work very hard to attain and it can be gone very quickly, he said. Rep. Justin Bamberg, D-Bamberg said, The public needs to know that they can trust their elected officials. All it does is further taint peoples future sense of hope in the government, he said. I just want them to know that there are elected officials who are for them. Bamberg said he wants lawmakers to put aside any desires of being self-serving and focus on whats good for the people of the state. Ott said the findings were disappointing but a cloud has been hanging over the Legislature for the past couple of years. I wish I could say it was surprise, he said. Its something that I think a lot of people were expecting. He believes more indictments are to come. Were not at the end of the book, Ott said. Where theres corruption, we absolutely need to find it and punish it. Rep. Jerry Govan, D-Orangeburg, said he cant help but feel concerns for them and their families. My prayers go out to them, he said. Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman said, I think Solicitor Pascoe will do a thorough job and a good job. Cobb-Hunter said she doesnt believe the looming investigation will have an effect on the upcoming legislative session as it is an election year. She doesnt think much will get done anyway. She also believes the investigation may not do much to deter offenders either way. Weve changed the laws before and it doesnt seem to prevent people from circumventing the law, she said. I dont know that it would make much of a difference to someone who is determined to try to game the system. Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, said, The work of the General Assembly will go on. He went on to say that he knows some of the people indicted and they had always been cordial. That doesnt mean they cant do something wrong, he said. Ott said, I dont want to pass judgment on someone until a case is tried. No one likes to be judged without having the opportunity to defend themselves, he said. Bamberg said, The dynamics of government on the Statehouse level are probably going to change because the Quinn institution is so politically tied. Any change we see is going to be good, he said. Bamberg believes Pascoe will do what he has to do to ensure that corruption in the South Carolina General Assembly is weeded out. Bamberg said the system is more important than any one person and was here long before them and will be here long after they leave. On Saturday night, Aug. 31, 1996, seven people three adults and four children drowned in John D. Long Lake near Union. The tragedy was news in itself, but its national poignancy came from its happening exactly where Susan Smith, now in prison for life, let her two children drown on Oct. 24, 1994 (20 years ago). In a bizarre and irony-wrought sequel to the Smith horror story, a 1987 GMC Suburban rolled past the granite monument to Michael and Alex Smith and into the lake. It was found in 20 feet of water 80 feet from shore, turned over on its top. The four children and the driver inside were dead, as were two other adult passengers who were outside the car when it rolled but who dived after it trying to save the children. The ignition key was still on when it was found, but the gear shift was positioned in Park. Much speculation surrounding the event focused on why the group was there in the first place. The simplest answer was to be the most logical. It was a pleasant summer evening, the party had been to a Saturday cookout, it was still early when it ended, and the lake was only 10 miles away from the cookout. Curiosity and time to waste probably drew them there, as they will draw others to the place they died. The nature of human beings is to be fascinated with death-places. Battlefields at Gettysburg and Shiloh, Manassas and Antietam, Little Big Horn and the Alamo attract millions of visitors each year. So do cemeteries and monuments. Thousands visit Fords Theater in Washington where Lincoln died, the Texas Depository in Dallas where John Kennedy died, the motel in Memphis where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, and the Little White House in Warm Springs, Ga., where FDR died. The altar of the chapel at Washington and Lee University is a full-sized recumbent statue of Lee, who actually rests with his family in a mausoleum beneath the chapel. Visitors to this tomb can also visit Lees horse, buried outside and next to the chapel after many years of being displayed downstairs as a skeleton, and Stonewall Jacksons grave is only a few blocks away. The waiting lines to walk by the shag-carpeted bathroom of Graceland where Elvis died are still long, decades after his death, as are the lines at the Roy Rogers museum in California wherein are displayed Roys stuffed horse, Trigger, Dale Evans stuffed horse, Buttermilk, and Roys stuffed dog, Bullet. Over in merry Britain, a venerable university requires that a respected scholar, Jeremy Bentham, attend meetings of the governing board. Bentham died in 1832, but his preserved body duly makes an annual appearance seated. The most memorable Christmas Story, Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, is actually a ghost story, in which Marleys Ghost is followed by the Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet To Come into Scrooges bedroom and imagination, and the most riveting scene of all takes place at his imagined grave. What is this attraction the macabre holds for us? I have a theory that seems a plausible explanation. It is stimulated by having seen the Halloween merchandise being put out at the local stores during Labor Day weekend. Most of us grew up hearing and telling ghost stories. Around the Cub Scout and Brownie and Sunday evening church youth group campfires of our impressionable youth, we heard of reappearing dead girls dressed in white graduation dresses on lonely nighttime highways and of headless horsemen chasing teachers out of town. We early become accustomed to death and to hooking it to hovering spirits and misty evenings. Our early childhood linkages linger with us as we age, even when we have become educated and logical and skeptical, seemingly in control of our emotions. In adult days, spirits still beckon, their crooked fingers snaring us like fish drawn to hooks. I have never visited Graceland, nor wanted to, but a few summers ago my wife and I drove 600 miles to Memphis to view the coffin of an Egyptian pharaoh. And we plan to drive it again to see relics dredged up from the Titanic. Theres something haunting about being humanly curious. WASHINGTON -- Latest to the vandals goes Teddy Roosevelt, whose bronze likeness astride a horse in front of New York's American Museum of Natural History recently received a splash of red paint upon its base. "Now the statue is bleeding," proudly pronounced a group of protesters in claiming credit for the makeover. "We did not make it bleed. It is bloody at its very foundation." One wonders whether these poseurs know anything at all about the man they've targeted. The 26th president gave us national parks, industrial regulation and environmental conservationism, among other things. He was also the author of over 40 books, some of which chronicle his expeditions and safaris that provided some of the basis for the natural history housed in the museum where he and his trusty steed keep vigil. Also, he died almost 100 years ago (1919). When are these self-important moderns going to get over themselves? The New York vandalism, which isn't directly connected to the recent flurry of protests against Confederate statues, is merely the most recent episode in a protest that gained traction in 2016 by the same groups that also want to change Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day. What apparently triggered the freelance artists were two other figures -- an indigenous American and an African -- flanking Roosevelt's horse. The jury is still out about what to do about the statue. Nothing would be a rational option, if a panel created by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio can handle some heat. Roosevelt may not be a civil rights icon like Rev. Martin Luther King, but he was hardly the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan, either. Indeed, in 1905, Roosevelt gave a speech at the New York Republican Party Club that paid tribute to Abraham Lincoln and addressed racial inequality, which Roosevelt said he aimed to change. That this radical social transformation didn't occur within his time or tenure doesn't affirm in itself that he was racist. In the speech, he did abysmally refer to whites as a "forward race." But the focus of his address was to echo Lincoln in calling strongly for the raising of minorities' status, which Roosevelt correctly said would benefit the entire country. And what about the two non-whites in the statue? Let's take a look. First, both men are walking in a proud, dignified manner, suggesting a parade in which the Rough Rider is accompanied by individuals who were part of his life experience. Second, we have to ask, what was the context of the time? Without the historical backdrop, criticism -- of politics, art or literature -- is meaningless. In 1901, when this Harvard-educated, wealthy, progressive, worldly Republican New Yorker became president, was he enslaving Indians and blacks? No. Was he hunting extensively in the American West and later in Africa? Yes. Quite a lot. Given this record, is it not possible that the other two figures represent his guides or scouts on his American West hunts and African safaris? The statue, created as a historical representation of the man and erected to honor his contributions to our knowledge of natural history, may be offensive to a few, but by what imperative are their feelings to be considered superior to the broader citizenry's right to not see public property harmed, defaced or splattered with paint -- or some facsimile thereof? Vandalism, contrary to the group's claim that they're performing "public art," is the artless tantrum of a childish, self-absorbed mind. Defeating a block of stone or bronze hardly requires courage or, obviously, intellect. Why not come up with something, I don't know, classier? Make an argument. Present facts. Bring passion but keep a cool head. One could argue, for example, that the protests against Confederate statues are substantively different from the objections to Roosevelt's monument. Given that most Civil War statues in the South were erected during the civil rights movement, inarguably, they memorialize not Southern courage but Jim Crow, a cowardly, despicable period of state-sponsored terrorism against blacks who had the audacity to insist upon equality under the law. There. Put that on your plaque, if you care so much about history. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, who hated the idea of memorials to the war, would likely be happy for his statues to settle in a statuary hall. As for Roosevelt, one only wishes the swashbuckling warrior-president could dismount for a few minutes and teach his vandals some manners. I'm guessing, but I suspect his two companions would lend him a hand. By Trend Today, the first train will be launched on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is as strategically important for Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia as for the entire region, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with Trend, Azertac and APA. "With this we announce that a direct rail link has been established from London to China through the middle corridor," he added. Currently, the cargo shipping time from China to such European countries as Great Britain, France and Germany along the South corridor and the North corridor, including the maritime shipment, is approximately 45-62 days, said Erdogan. He pointed out that the same cargo will reach the EU countries within 12-15 days through the Middle corridor with the launch of the BTK. "In other words, shipments sent by China to the EU, along with the BTK line, will reach the destination just in one fourth period of the previous period," added Turkey's president. Currently, the volume of cargo transported from China to Europe is more than 240 million tons. If 10 percent of this volume is carried out via the Middle corridor passing through the territory of our countries, then 24 million tons of additional cargo will be transported, he said. "Transportation of this cargo via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway for 30-45 less days than via other corridors will be considered more profitable for transporters. I am convinced that the BTK will be enough to turn the Middle Corridor Transportation Line into an important part of the historical Silk Road with just this reason. At the same time, we believe that the transport projects that are being implemented in parallel in our region are complementary and reinforcing," said Erdogan. He pointed out that in addition to its economic advantages, it will contribute to the development of our countries globally by improving peace, security, stability and social well-being, providing the flow of goods and passengers along with information flow. By Trend Turkey and Azerbaijan have potential to bring the volume of mutual investments to $30 billion over five years, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with Trend, Azertac and APA. First of all, Turkey and Azerbaijan are brotherly countries and our relations in the economic sphere are formed on the basis of brotherhood. In fact, the volume of mutual investments of the two countries stood at $23 billion as of late 2016. We have a potential to bring the volume of our investments to $30 billion over five years, said Turkeys president. Naturally, ongoing geopolitical processes in the global economy and region affect all of us. As we know, it is already four years that Turkey has been targeted by numerous attacks from various directions aiming to weaken it. But we are steadfast. Azerbaijan was affected by lower oil prices. We believe that every difficulty also brings some opportunities, he added. Erdogan said Turkey sees that the efforts to develop Azerbaijans non-oil sector are increasing successfully under the farsighted leadership of Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev. We will work in close cooperation with our Azerbaijani brothers in promoting foreign investments, attracting Turkish companies to invest in Azerbaijan and in privatization sphere. With this purpose, our ministries of economy continue to work on holding Road Show event in cooperation with Foreign Economic Relations Board in Turkey, added Turkeys president. Moreover, various measures were taken to develop our trade relations with Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and encourage our businessmen. On Oct.28, our economy ministers came together in Igdir, met with our businessmen and briefed them about the work done in this sphere. I believe that we will get concrete results in increasing the volume of trade turnover with Nakhchivan, he said. By Trend The opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a significant project for the future of the region, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the official opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars rail line in Baku Oct. 30. He noted that the BTK railway will connect not only Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey but also Europe and Asia. Erdogan noted that today the volume of cargoes going from China to Europe exceeds 240 million tons. If, at least, 10 percent of this volume is carried via the middle corridor passing through the territory of our countries, then 24 million tons of additional cargo will be transported, he said. The Turkish president also thanked the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. The agreement to construct the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was signed in Tbilisi in 2007. A 504-kilometer part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which has a length of 846 kilometers, passes through Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, a 263-kilometer part of the railway runs through Georgia, and a 79-kilometer part runs through Turkey. It is envisaged that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will transport 3-5 million tons of cargo in the third year of its operation, 6-8 million tons of cargo will be transported in the fifth year of its operation, and then 3 million passengers and 17 million tons of cargo will be annually transported via the railway. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is of global significance, connects two continents Europe and Asia and creates great social and economic benefits. Most importantly, the commissioning of the railway is a great contribution to stability in the region, closeness of peoples, and economic development. By Azernews By Aygul Salmanova Azerbaijan's investments in the Turkish economy have reached $ 10.1 billion, according to Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev participating at the Azerbaijani-Turkish business forum in Igdir on October 29 as part of his visit to Turkey. The minister said some 2,000 companies with Azerbaijani capital operating in Turkey, while the number of companies with Turkish capital accommodating in Azerbaijan reaches 3,000. Saying that Turkish investments in Azerbaijan amounted to $11.7 billion, the minister drew attention to the fact that there is a great potential for the development of the relations in different spheres of the economy. He stressed that the joint Azerbaijan and Turkey efforts will allow expand the economic cooperation and contribute to the wellbeing of the nations. Speaking of the economic ties, Mustafayev reminded that the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council is operating between the countries. The minister stressed that Azerbaijan implements its strategic projects jointly with fraternal Turkey, among such projects are the Southern Gas Corridor, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan-Kars, the STAR refinery and others. Mustafayev also reminded that Turkey and Azerbaijan are currently negotiating the Agreement on preferential trade. During his speech at the forum, Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci talked about various trade privileges that Turkey grants to Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, a landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan borders with three countries including Turkey, Iran and Armenia. We have provided Nakhchivan with unilateral opportunities and privileges, and we want Nakhchivan to be regarded as an area of benefit and focus in the economic sense. He said that Turkey freed the import of goods from Nakhchivan from customs duties and now products will be imported into Turkey without import duties and on preferential terms. "We will make one-sided generosity to allow Nakhchivan to sell more products to Turkey," he said. The decision taken by the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkey will affect 43 products (13 agricultural products, 30 industrial products). According to the decision of the Turkish government, goods produced annually in Nakhchivan worth $120 million will be imported to Turkey without paying import duties and the trade will be done in Turkish liras. In accordance with an agreement reached between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, trade volume worth $200 million will be created in the region. "This decision will bring a significant contribution to the development of the region and trade relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey," said the Turkish minister. This privilege given to Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic by Turkey is not given to any country in the world, which is a more convenient and privileged trade environment than the one provided for Cyprus, said Zeybekchi. The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, which forms the sole link between Turkey and Azerbaijan, has a specific place in terms of the bilateral relations of the two countries. Nakhchivan is physically separate from Azerbaijan can be described as "Turkish Gate", which forms the point of direct connection between Azerbaijan and Turkey. Data of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan shows that the trade turnover with Turkey in January-September 2017 amounted to almost $1.96 billion. According to the results of the reporting period, Turkey is the second trade partner of Azerbaijan in terms of commodity turnover. The contractual base of bilateral Turkish-Azerbaijani trade and economic relations includes more than 40 documents aimed at expanding economic cooperation between states. The two countries are successfully cooperating in the political, economic, scientific, technical, and cultural spheres. Azerbaijan and Turkey have good and developing economic ties, especially in terms of huge energy projects envisaging the transportation of Azerbaijan's hydrocarbon resources to the European and world markets through the Turkeys territory. Today, the two brotherly states are the beneficiaries of all the major projects in the region, in particular the Southern Gas Corridor, which comprises TANAP and TAP projects, as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. Turkey primarily exports iron and steel products, various finished products, electronics, furniture, plastic products to Azerbaijan. Natural gas accounts for 85 percent of Turkey's import from Azerbaijan. Aside from the natural gas, Turkey imports non-ferrous metals, chemical industry products, plastic products from Azerbaijan. By Azernews By Amina Nazarli October 29 marks the 24th anniversary of the occupation of Azerbaijans Zangilan region by Armenian armed forces. Like other occupied regions of Azerbaijan, Zangilan fell victim to betrayal during these tragic years for Azerbaijan. Zangilan, which was the last region of Azerbaijan to be occupied by Armenian invasion troops, didn't bow down to the enemy from 1988 until November 1993 and resisted attacks, losing hundreds of residents in the fierce fighting. Zangilan, having a 157 mile border with Armenia, had a significant place in the gradual increase in tensions in the region from 1988 at the start of Armenias open hostile actions aimed at claiming Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region. After the occupation of the neighboring Jabrayil and Gubadli regions, Zangilan was in complete blockade. The supply of electricity and water to the region stopped. On the last week, Zangilan was completely surrounded by the enemy forces. Armenian Armed Forces surrounded the region from three sides and exposed all settlements of the region to continuous shelling, inflicting new destruction and casualties. There was no strength to resist it longer and people of Zangilan including elderly, women and men gathered at the Araz River to flee to the Iranian territory. They found a way out by crossing the Araz River to get to Iranian territory. Otherwise, they could have been subjected to horrors similar to those that the residents of Khojaly suffered in February 1992. In the unequal armed struggle against the Armenian aggressors, Zangilan lost 188 martyrs. So far, the region's 44 residents are among those missing in the aftermath of the bitter conflict with Armenia. Moreover, 110 residents of the region have become disabled and about 200 children have become orphaned. Apart from being a territory with enormous amounts of natural beauty, Zangilan is considered one of the most ancient settlements in Azerbaijan. Prior to the invasion 35,000 people lived in the Zangilan region, which covers an area of 707 sq. km. The region's economy was based on agriculture, including winegrowing, tobacco growing and livestock breeding. The region, which included a city, a settlement and 83 villages, had 9 preschool institutions, 19 primary and 15 secondary schools, one vocational school, one music school, 35 libraries, eight cultural centers, 23 club-houses and 22 film projector facilities. The largest plane forest in Europe was also located in the region. Unfortunately, the Armenians are now cutting down these plane trees and selling them to foreign countries. Molybdenum, marble, gold, granite and other mineral resources are also being plundered by the Armenians from the region. There are reports that the Basitcay State Nature Reserve, established in 1974 in Zangilan, is in a deplorable state. The Armenians were reported to have cut down its valuable trees and use them in the furniture industry. As a result of the arsons committed by the Armenians, a great part of the region's territory has burnt down, and valuable trees and preserves have been destroyed. Zangilan's territory is also rich in archaeological and architectural monuments, the largest of which is the ruins of a medieval city known as Shahri Sharifam. Unfortunately, after the occupation, the Armenians plundered or falsified the samples of the region's ancient historical monuments. After Zangilan's occupation, more than 35,000 local residents had to be settled in 52 settlements across the country. Zangilan's residents, who were ousted from their homes, are looking forward to liberation of their native lands from the Armenian occupation. By Trend Over the past 24 hours, Armenias armed forces have 103 times violated the ceasefire along the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, the Azerbaijani Defense Ministry said on October 30. 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. By Trend The year 2017 will be remembered among the most successful pages of the history of independent Azerbaijan, Novruz Mammadov, assistant to the president for foreign policy issues, head of department, tweeted on October 30. "The landmark event - signing of the New; Contract of the XXI Century - today is followed by yet another milestone. The Baku-Tbtl?s?-Kars Railroad that connects countries of two continents and brings peoples together is being inaugurated today Azerbaijan, may your path be always clear!," he wrote. By Trend The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a historic project, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev Oct. 30. "Guests from brotherly and friendly countries attend today's solemn ceremony," Ilham Aliyev said at the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad official opening ceremony in Baku. "I particularly welcome Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime ministers of Georgia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, and ministers of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, and I am deeply grateful to them for their participation in this ceremony." "The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a historic project of strategic importance. The length of this railroad is approximately 850 kilometers, 504 kilometers of which go through Azerbaijan." President Aliyev stressed that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is the shortest and safest route connecting Europe to Asia. Through this route, it is expected to transport 5 million tons at the first stage, 17 million tons at the next stage, and then larger volumes of cargo, Ilham Aliyev said. In short, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is becoming an important part of Eurasia's transport map. The president noted that trade turnover and mutual investments between the countries along the railway will increase, cooperation between the countries using the railroad will deepen, and the railroad will serve stability and security. President Aliyev expressed confidence that with the use of the BTK railway, the development of tourism will gain a large scale and the number of tourists will increase. Naturally, the successful operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will enhance the geopolitical significance of our countries and create additional opportunities for us. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be very important for the development of business, mutually beneficial cooperation." "The agreement on the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was signed in Georgia, then the groundbreaking ceremony was held in Turkey, and finally, we celebrate the opening of this railway in Azerbaijan, said Ilham Aliyev. The head of state noted that the construction of this railway is a result of friendship and brotherhood between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The three states successfully cooperate in all spheres, support each other. Our countries, peoples implement important projects for the world. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is a project that has a rightful place among those projects, added President Aliyev. The head of state said the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was opened in 2006 with participation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That pipeline is a big infrastructure project connecting the Caspian and Mediterranean seas. Today, oil is transported via that pipeline, including from the eastern part of the Caspian Sea. In other words, our countries also provide transit opportunities for other states, said President Aliyev. A year later, in 2007, again thanks to the cooperation of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline was built. This project also has been ensuring the energy security of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, and successfully operating for almost 10 years. President Aliyev reminded that the three countries have also connected their electricity lines and the cooperation in this sphere is successfully developing today. Naturally, the Southern Gas Corridor, which is a global project and the biggest infrastructure project in Europe, is created thanks to the joint activities of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, as well as other countries. The implementation of this project is continuing successfully. As it is known, the Southern Gas Corridor consists of four parts. Ninety-eight percent of the work has been completed on Shah Deniz 2. The South Caucasus Pipeline is a gas pipeline connecting Azerbaijan and Georgia. The level of implementation is 99 percent, noted the head of state. The implementation of TANAP project, which is the main part of the Southern Gas Corridor, has been completed by 84 percent, while the implementation of TAP project has been completed by 60 percent, said the president. In other words, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway has been established on the basis of the previously implemented projects, noted Ilham Aliyev. Naturally, if we had not implemented those grandiose, large-scale projects in the oil and gas sector in the previous period, today we could only talk about Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, said the president. Some foreign circles did not believe in the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, he noted. They believed that this would not be possible and the technical facilities and financial resources necessary for that would not allow the project to be implemented. However, the three countries have shown and proved that this is possible, said President Aliyev. It is possible to do all the work when there is our strong will, mutual support, and confidence in each other. The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a clear example of this. I am sure that Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, which make the greatest contribution to regional cooperation, will continue to support each other. The head of state noted that big projects as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway strengthen the three countries unity and friendship. Central Asia, Kazakhstan are showing great interest in this railway project. The participation of delegations, high-ranking officials from Central Asia and Kazakhstan in this ceremony clearly demonstrates this, said President Aliyev. We are confident that there will be additional opportunities for the transportation of goods. Traditional friendly relations of our countries with Central Asian countries will also be strengthened with the help of this railway. He said that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is of great importance for Europe. Azerbaijan has already held relevant negotiations with several European countries. The countries of Europe also show great interest in the construction of this railway." "I should also note that at the same time, Azerbaijan is taking important steps to create the North-South transport corridor. All the work on the North-South railway project has been completed in Azerbaijan, in other words, the entire infrastructure is ready, added President Aliyev. The head of state noted that at the same time, Azerbaijan is demonstrating its technical and financial capabilities to create infrastructure in other countries. We are working now on the integration of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars and North-South transportation corridors. I believe that this is quite possible, and I am sure that in the future the North-West and South-West energy transportation routes will be put into operation. These two grandiose projects will unite many big countries. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars means the restoration of a part of the historical Silk Road. It can be used by China, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and European countries. The North-South transport corridor will unite India, Pakistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia and European countries, said President Aliyev. He went on to say that Azerbaijan is an active participant of both projects and a country that invests its financial resources. In general, I can say that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the transportation sector, big investments have been put. From 2004 until today, 11,000 kilometers of highways have been built and six international airports have been commissioned in Azerbaijan. Today Azerbaijan has a very big fleet of cargo aircraft. There are about 20 big cargo planes in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has the biggest naval fleet in the Caspian Sea, said Ilham Aliyev. A fleet of 270 ships plays a special role in the organization of cargo transportation in the Caspian Sea. A big shipbuilding yard was built in Azerbaijan several years ago that manufactures all types of ships. The plant will carry out even more work in connection with the expected growth of cargo transportation in the Caspian Sea, noted the president. Of course, the International Sea Trade Port in Alat is an important part of Azerbaijans transport infrastructure, said President Aliyev. The construction of the port is continuing successfully and the port is already operating, he added. The first phase of the port is planned to be commissioned in the middle of the next year. After that, 15 million tons of cargo and 100,000 containers will annually pass through the port. As a result of completion of the second stage, the capacity of the Alat port will be 25 million tons of cargo and one million containers." "In other words, investments put in the transportation sector in recent years have already led to the creation of a very strong infrastructure, which is of great importance both for our country, for the region and the world, added the head of state. The Azerbaijani president once again noted that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is a historic and global project. This project will bring countries closer. This project will play its role in ensuring stability and security in the region. This project will expand our economic opportunities, and we will receive more funds. The implementation of this project became possible only thanks to the joint efforts of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. We have not received any help from anywhere, we have not taken loans, we built this railway with help of internal capabilities, and today we put it into operation, said the Azerbaijani president. Dear friends, I want to congratulate you once again on this remarkable historic event. I am confident that the path of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will always be open, concluded President Aliyev. By Trend Tashkent will host next round of the Uzbek-Canadian political consultations. The Uzbek Foreign Ministry reported that the talks, which are the six in a row, will be held on October 30-31, 2017. A Canadian delegation headed by the General Director of the Bureau for Sub-Polar Regions, Eastern Europe and Eurasia of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Alison LeClair will arrive in Uzbekistan to attend the talks. The program of the visit also includes meetings at the Senate and the Legislative Chamber of the Uzbek parliament, the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the State Committee for Investments and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan. By Azernews By Rashid Shirinov The first Azerbaijani telecommunications satellite Azerspace-1 has started broadcasting programs of Georgias Iberia TV, the information portal FlySat reported on October 30. Currently, the satellite broadcasts a number of Georgian TV and radio channels, including Vector A.G, 1 TV Georgia, Ajara TV HD, Imedi TV HD, GDS TV, Imedi News, TV Pirveli, Palitra News, Obieqtivi, TV 25 Georgia, Saperavi TV, Trialeti TV, radio channels 1 Georgia, Ajara, Saz.Mau, Imedi and Iveria. All of them are available at the frequency of 11,095 MHz. The total number of TV and radio channels Azerspace-1 currently broadcasts reaches 130. The satellite was set at the orbital position of 46 degrees East longitude on February 8, 2013. At present, service area of Azerspace-1 includes several countries of Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The Azerbaijani satellite provides a variety of services, such as digital television, data transmission, VSAT multi-service networks, and governmental communications. The total cost of the Azerspace-1 project was $230 million. Meanwhile, the launch of Azerbaijans second telecommunications satellite Azerspace-2 is scheduled for next year. It will be placed at orbital position of 45 degrees East longitude. The service area of Azerspace-2 will cover the countries of Europe, Central and South-East Asia, Middle East and Africa. The new satellite will further ensure the sustainability of the work, and will expand coverage of services. Emirates NBD (ENBD), a leading bank in the region, has delivered a strong set of results with net profit up 15 per cent to Dh6.17billion ($1.68 billion) for the first nine months of 2017. Net interest income improved 4 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) due to loan growth and helped by a sustained improvement in margins. The operating performance was also supported by lower expenses and an improved cost of risk. The banks balance sheet continues to strengthen with stable credit quality and further improvements in capital and liquidity. Net interest margin improved by 27 bps from 2.29 per cent in Q4-16 to 2.56 per cent in Q3-17, helped by rate rises and coupled with lower funding costs, while total income was up 1 per cent y-o-y to Dh11.4 billion. Hesham Abdulla Al Qassim, vice chairman and managing director, Emirates NBD said: Our strong financial and operating performance was recognized when Emirates NBD was named 'Banking Company of the Year' by Gulf Business for the second consecutive year. We continue to expand our international presence with our first branch in India which will enable us to better support our customers. Our 2017 CSR activities, embracing the Year of Giving, support various social and environmental opportunities which contribute to the communities we serve, including initiatives to help transform Dubai into one of the worlds most disability-friendly cities by 2020. Shayne Nelson, Group chief executive officer, said: Emirates NBD delivered a strong set of results with net profit of Dh6.17 billion for the first nine months of 2017, up 15 per cent year-on-year. Margins have continued to improve throughout 2017, helped by rate rises and an improvement in funding costs. We are delighted to be recognized as the Most Innovative Financial Services Organization of the Year at the BAI Global Innovation Awards forum. Our planned Dh1 billion investment underlines our commitment to retain Emirates NBD's leadership position and to support the UAE as a driver of Digital innovation. We continue to extend our international branch network and, following the opening of the branch in India, work continues on opening three more branches in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Group chief financial officer Surya Subramanian said: We achieved a record performance for the first nine months of 2017 as we delivered positive jaws with higher income and lower expenses. With CASA representing 57 per cent of deposits, our book is positioned to benefit from expected rate rises. Expenses remain firmly under control and provide headroom to invest for future growth and to help deliver our digital aspirations. The bank is well placed to meet various accounting and regulatory changes that take effect in 2018 and we do not expect any material impact as a result. ENBD had earlier revised its 2017 UAE GDP growth forecast down to 2 per cent from 3.4 per cent previously on the back of lower oil output, following Opecs decision to extend production cuts into Q1 2018. However, Dubais growth is likely to exceed this on the back of increased investment in infrastructure and a focus on non-oil activity. Anticipation of a 5 per cent VAT to be introduced in 2018 may boost spending in the second half of 2017, as consumers bring forward purchases that otherwise would be made in 2018, a bank statement said. TradeArabia News Service UAE investors have announced $2.5 billion worth of investments into India in October, it was announced at the ongoing India-UAE Partnership Summit (IUPS) being held at the Armani Hotel in Dubai, UAE. This includes $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) investment by Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) by NRI-Emirati Investors Group and a further Dh1.7 billion investment by Lulu Group in Andhra Pradesh. Cumulative foreign direct investment (FDI) equity flow into India reached $114.4 billion (Dh420 billion) during the last two financial years 2015-16 to 2016-16, according to the latest report unveiled at the summit by global accounting firm KPMG. This is about 40 per cent higher than the $81.8 billion (Dh300 billion) recorded in the preceding three years, from 2011-12 to 2013-14. Cumulative FDI into India reached $498.9 billion in 17 years from April 2000 to June 2017, according to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce, India. In the financial year 2016-17, the country received the highest-ever FDI flow worth $43.5 billion (Dh160 billion), KPMG said in its report. India also witnessed an increase in private equity/venture capital investments led by its growing start-up segment. Between January and September 2017, India received $17.6 billion of private equity/venture capital spread across 402 deals. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has pegged Indias economic growth projections at 7.2 per cent for the current financial year, 2017-18 and it is likely to increase to 7.7 per cent in 2018-19. Higher infrastructure spending will play a vital role in achieving overall economic growth, the IMF said. The holdings of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) crossed 10 per cent share in the total Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) assets in India, as of May 2016, said Vikas Papriwal, Partner and Head of Markets, KPMG in the Lower Gulf and Middle East South Asia. In the equity market, its holdings reached $33.7 billion, while they accumulated $5.1 billion across debt instruments. Furthermore, SWFs holdings crossed 10 per cent share in the total Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) assets in India, as of May 2016. In the equity market, its holdings reached $33.7 billion, while they accumulated $5.1 billion across debt instruments, he added. Asian Development Bank (ADB) said the infrastructure sector in India requires $5.2 trillion (Dh19.1 trillion) worth of investments to sustain the economic growth and lend support to several government flagship programmes. The infrastructure sector is one of the key drivers of the Indian economy. India's infrastructure market, currently the third-largest in Asia, is anticipated to reach $6.6 trillion by 2025, constituting 12.5 per cent of the Asia-Pacific region. As of 2016, the sector contributes nearly 8 per cent to Indias GDP, said the report. The report was released in the presence of Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE Minister of Economy and Abdullah Al Nuaimi, UAE Minister of Infrastructure Development and Mohammed Sharaf, Assistant Minister for International Cooperation, UAE, and more than 800 VIP delegates including senior government officials and business leaders at the inaugural edition of the IUPS. The report highlights the economic and investment landscape of India and the opportunities lying in front of the investors, said Vipul, Consul General of India. We would urge the investors and businesses in the UAE to look at the huge opportunities and the talent pool in India and become part of one of the biggest economic growth stories and take advantage of the opportunities. The recent legal and financial sector reforms haves made the Indian economy more agile and transparent and our government is determined to create a more enabling environment where foreign investment creates a win-win situation for all Indian economy, investors, local businesses and human resources in terms of job and value creation. The report issued by KPMG on behalf of the IUPS, was commissioned by the Business Leaders Forum (BLF), organiser of the IUPS. Invest India, the foreign investment promotion body of India, said it will attract $100 billion foreign investment in the country, of which $85 billion has already been committed by 600 large businesses that will create 700,000 jobs, according to recent reports. FDI inflows into the country grew 8 per cent and touched a new high of $60.08 billion in 2016-17, according to Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). Cumulative FDI inflow from April 2000 till March 2017 reached $484.35 billion. The high-level and high-powered IUPS is split into a number of brainstorming business sessions and panel discussions on hot topics, including Investment Implementation, Infrastructure and Tourism while ministers of two Indian states Uttar Pradesh and Telengana will present investment opportunities in key projects within the states and seek investment from potential partners in the UAE. Sudesh Aggarwal, board member of the BLF, chairman of the IUPS Organising Committee and chairman of India Trade and Exhibition Centre (ITEC), said: The report by our knowledge partner KPMG shows that the bilateral trade between the two countries is expected to cross the $100 billion mark by 2020, from the current levels of $53 billion in FY17, there is an expectation that both the countries will realise a closer economic partnership. India has emerged as one of the leading investment destinations for UAE-based firms, as it received $1.2 billion FDI flows from the UAE in 2016, forming almost 90 per cent of the total investments received from the countries of the GCC. TradeArabia News Service Standard & Poor's (S & P), a global credit rating agency, has affirmed its outstanding rating for the cooperative insurance company Tawuniya, granting it an "A-" rating with a "stable" outlook, the highest rating among insurance companies operating in Saudi Arabia. In its report, S & P stated that Tawuniyas strong performance, coupled with its earnings in 2016 and the first half of 2017 were key factors in the high rating. Tawuniya's risk based capital adequacy has further improved, reflecting strengthened capital position and competitive position as the leading insurance company in the Saudi market, according to the report. S&P further noted that Tawuniyas high rating is aligned with the sovereign ratings on Saudi Arabia, given that Tawuniya operates only in Saudi Arabia. The stable outlook on Tawuniya reflects that on the sovereign rating on Saudi Arabia and S&P expectation that the Company will maintain its competitive advantage in the local market. Tawuniya CEO Abdul-Aziz Al-Boug expressed his appreciation and pride in being granted such a high rating by the leading international rating agency, adding that the rating affirms the great potential of Tawuniya in providing insurance protection to individuals and businesses that is on par with the highest international standards. He added: For 12 consecutive years, Tawuniya has maintained a distinguished global credit rating as a result of the companys family and employees cumulative efforts, clear strategic vision, the ability to innovate new programs and services. These are the key factors that have enabled the company to grow year after year. Al Boug further stressed the importance of such a high credit rating for the company as it reflects strong confidence in a company's financial capabilities, technical expertise and its ability to provide wide-ranges and sufficient insurance cover for large economic projects. As a result, Al-Bourg noted, it gives clients full confidence in their dealings, reassures stockholders in their investment in the company and satisfies requirements to work with global re-insurance companies. Tawuniya achieved a strong performance in 2016, as its gross premiums amounted to SR 8.1 billion ($2.15 billion), achieving the highest market share of 22 per cent. The net income increased to SR 733, the shareholders' equity amounted to SR2.9 billion and the total assets rose to SR13.5 billion. As a result of the profitable earnings, Tawuniya's capital adequacy improved to the 'AA' level in S&P model from 'BBB' previously. TradeArabia News Service Emaar Hospitality Group, the hospitality and leisure business of Emaar Properties, has appointed Ibrahima Gaye, as its corporate director of engineering. Gaye is an engineering expert with over 20 years experience, 14 of which have been in the hospitality industry. To focus on innovative initiatives for a high-level engineering operations set-up, Gaye will lead and liaise with the Property Engineering teams to develop standards and practices that are on par with international standards. He will ensure that leading advances in engineering are integrated as part of the operations, especially to support Emaar Hospitality Groups digital transformation. Olivier Harnisch, chief executive officer of Emaar Hospitality Group, said: With a fast-growing portfolio of hotel projects in the UAE and other international markets, we are committed to developing world-class hotels and serviced residences that assure the highest standards in guest service. This involves having an engineering team on board that can provide all necessary support from hotel development to operation stage. Ibrahima Gaye brings extensive and specialised industry experience that will contribute to the seamless functioning of our properties. Gaye said: Emaar Hospitality Group has set a distinct imprint in the hospitality industry with its elegantly designed hotels and serviced residences that are set in central locations. Providing innovative engineering services is central to delivering high quality guest service and to ensure that each hotel operates to the highest standards of operational efficiency. We will continue to focus on introducing innovative engineering approaches across our current and upcoming portfolio of hotel projects. Reporting to Chris Newman, chief operating officer of Emaar Hospitality Group, Gaye will be responsible for providing strategic direction for the entire Engineering function of the group. Previously, he was area engineering and design director for Africa and Indian Ocean with a leading hotel group overseeing 30 operational properties and 12 projects. Prior to that, he was regional engineering director for sub-Saharan Africa where he managed operations for 20 properties. He has also worked with other international hotel brands. Gaye completed his Baccalaureat Serie C in Senegal and holds a diploma in BTS - Electro Technique and DUT GEII (Electronic, Electrical and Computing Engineering). - TradeArabia News Service Middle Easts outbound capital flows into global commercial real estate (CRE) reached $10.1 billion between the second quarter of 2016 and this year, according to CBREs Middle East In and Out 2017 report. Despite a slowdown in outbound investment compared to the previous year, the report states that the Middle East still remains a major source of capital globally, representing 8 per cent of total cross-regional investments. Whilst international investors remain largely focused on the traditional commercial real estate sectors such as offices, retail and logistics, Middle East investors typically have a strong appetite for alternative asset classes such as hotels, residential, student housing, healthcare as well as infrastructure, the report said. Investors from the Middle East remain active buyers and continue to target core assets with long leases in safe haven locations. The UAE, for example has made major investments in large-scale infrastructure projects in the UK, such as Gatwick Airport, stated CBRE in its report. London was the top destination for Middle Eastern investment during the 12-month period hitting $1.7 billion, followed by New York at $820 million, Washington ($469 million) and Frankfurt ($348 million). During the last 12 months, the volume of institutional investments within the region has been limited. This is driven by several key factors, including the strategy of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) and other private money to invest outside oil-based economies for diversification reasons, and, to a lesser extent, the impact of regional sensitivities. Nick Maclean, the managing director, CBRE Middle East, said: "In spite of fluctuating oil pricing, capital leaving the Middle East region has continued to target global real estate markets. Investors have expressed their intention to increase global real estate spending, as a proportion of all investment asset allocations." "This is driven by a perceived need to diversify income streams by asset class and geography," observed Maclean. CBRE said in line with previous years, the sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) remain the main source of capital for investments from the Middle East. Outbound investments by SWFs witnessed a decline of 17 per cent y-o-y, but still acquired $5.4 billion in real estate assets globally. Certain SWFs continued to deploy capital into real estate, with funding coming from oil revenues, returns from assets under management and a higher allocation to alternatives, it stated. According to CBRE, the high-net-worth individuals and private investors were less active compared to previous years, which indicates that this group might be more susceptible to adverse market conditions. In terms of inward capital flow, despite economic headwinds, investment activity has remained strong in some core locations, reflecting the sustained appetite for institutional assets in markets such as the UAE. During the priod between the second half of 2016 and the first half of 2017, some major investment deals were completed, including high profile commercial office transactions in Dubai and the sale of several industrial portfolios. However, appetite for hospitality assets has waned considerably amidst a sustained downturn in revenue performance, said the property expert. In overall terms, the regional investment market remains characterised by low deal volumes and relative illiquidity, which has proven to be a consistent barrier for international capital, and for the development of a more formal and sizeable investment market. However, the relative illiquidity is not driven by a lack of capital for deployment, rather it is the lack of available investment product for sale, it stated. Commenting on inward capital flow, Maclean, said: "The Middle East real estate sector continues to offer attractive investment opportunities, but so far the markets full potential is still to be realised amidst limited availability of investment grade product and low investment volumes" "Despite these challenges, we expect to see the market open up in the coming years, as regional governments access new avenues for capital raising whilst balancing strong development ambition with an environment of lower hydrocarbon revenues and regionally tighter liquidity," he added. On the future of the region, Jos Tromp, the head of EMEA Research, said: "As economies continue to open-up and become more receptive to inward investment, we would expect to see foreign allocations of capital to Middle East property increase exponentially, although it could take some time before the Middle East generates investment volumes more reflective of its true size and potential."-TradeArabia News Service Dubai's Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has signed an agreement with the International Road Federation (IRF) to launch a global alliance and adopt modern technology for sustainable roads. The MoU, which comes in line with the UAE Vision 2021 and Greening the Economy, aims at launching the Excellence Center for Energy & Environmental Sustainability in Road Design to benefit from the latest experiments, research data and specialised studies related to road design, said Maitha bin Adai, the chief executive of RTA Traffic and Roads Agency, after inking the deal with Patrick Sankey, the president and chief executive of the IRF. Senior officials including Abdullah Al Mogbel, the chairman of the IRF, and Mattar Al Tayer, the director-general and chairman of the board of executive directors of the RTA, attended the signing ceremony on the sidelines of the ongoing IRF Middle East & North Africa Regional Congress & Exhibition in Dubai. The event is being held under the theme Mobility Solutions for the 21st Century. "It also aims to provide practical training to road researchers, introduce modern technology of sustainable roads, and foster partnerships between government institutions, academic centers and private companies through specific & specialized programs in this field," remarked bin Adai. "Pursuant to this MoU, a global alliance of connected roads will be launched, with the aim of utilising the existing expertise of the IRF, which participates with nearly 400 partners hailing from more than 70 countries, including researchers and smart infrastructure interested parties," she noted. The target of transforming 25 per cent of all transportation in Dubai into smart and driverless by 2030, requires conducting specialized studies, and infrastructure scientific research, particularly smart traffic control means, explained bin Adai. It also requires entry and exit management, and speed control procedures without compromising pedestrian crossings, which contributes to upgrading infrastructure in line with future plans, she added. Sankey expressed delight at signing the RTA pact, which underscores the keenness of the two sides to combine efforts to enhance communication and co-operation through government partnerships. "It also reflect the commitment of both parties to support all strategic initiatives and projects aimed at providing the best infrastructure for the roads & transport sectors as per the highest standards of traffic safety and facilities maintenance," he noted. According to him, the IRF will share the researches and views of leading road experts who boast long experience in road design, energy and environmental sustainability. "This MoU will contribute to upgrading the efficiency of modern roads and traffic services in Dubai emirate by overcoming the challenges facing mobility and devising the best solutions for smooth traffic flow in a way that achieves the RTAs vision and meets the aspirations of the residents, investors and visitors alike in order to shift the emirate to a new era of growth & development," he added.-TradeArabia News Service The Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) in collaboration with the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association (ABIEC) recently hosted the second edition of the Arab Halal Day, held on the sidelines of Anuga, the worlds largest and most important trade fair for food and beverages in Cologne, Germany. More than a tonne of halal-certified Brazilian beef barbeques were served at a makeshift mezzanine restaurant atop ABIECs stand at the food expo as part of a welcome gesture to more than 300 Arab buyers and visitors at the event, said a statement from ABCC. Arab Halal Day is a special event launched by ABCC and ABIEC in 2016 at the SIAL food show in Paris to highlight Brazils robust trade relationship with Arab countries particularly in the promotion of certified halal beef products. Arab countries are one of Brazils biggest export markets for certified halal beef products. The event was also aimed at promoting halal food products, not only within Arab countries but in global markets where halal food products are increasingly sought by customers. The barbecue event successfully attracted thousands of visitors to the ABIEC stand. Rubens Hannun, president, ABCC, said: The second edition of the event in Germany is testament to Brazils long-standing trade relationship with the Arab World. The Arab halal market is undoubtedly strong and ABCC continuously supports Arab countries in their initiatives when it comes to promoting halal food to reach out to new markets, he said. The event is an ideal platform to promote certified halal beef products and attract thousands of Arab distributors and buyers across Europe and beyond, he added. From January to September, Brazil exported to the Arab world a total of $728.85 million. Brazil exported mainly to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Algeria, Lebanon and Jordan. Hannun continued: The phenomenal success of our inaugural event at SIAL in Paris last year has prompted us to hold the Arab Halal Day once again, now here in Cologne, Germany to continue bringing together the Arab business community under one roof to celebrate as well as network for new business opportunities. As one of the largest food trade in the world, Anuga has almost 160,000 visitors from 192 countries and this spells a fantastic opportunity for Arab markets to expand their innovative halal brands, particularly beef products, he said. We look forward to witness another successful Arab Halal Day event in other global trade events in the coming years, he concluded. TradeArabia News Service Microsoft is showcasing an array of innovations at the 19th Water, Energy, Technology, and Environment Exhibition (Wetex), which opened in Dubai, today. The event, organised by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), will run till October 25. Held under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Minister of Finance and president of Dewa, Wetex is one of the worlds largest exhibitions of its kind with over 24,000 visitors, and 1,900 exhibitors from 47 countries, serving as a global platform for industry players from water, energy and environment to demonstrate the latest technologies, as well as share ideas and best practices. Built on the Azure cloud with the latest technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), immersive human-machine interaction, cognitive services and bot frameworks, Microsoft marked its presence at Wetex as a strategic partner to drive transformation through technology and a promise for industry organisations to better engage customers, empower employees, optimize operations and transform their services. Dubai has always been at the forefront of development and sustainability by adopting cutting edge technologies and transform the emirate into a global hub for clean energy and green economy, said Ibrahim Youssry, director of public sector, Microsoft Gulf. We take pride in being chosen by Dewa as the strategic Digital Transformation partner at this years Wetex, as we bring forth disruptive technologies for industry organizations to leverage Microsofts productivity platform and innovations to achieve more. Microsoft has a long-standing partnership with DEWA over the years. The Microsoft HoloLens has been adopted by Dewa as an end-to-end solution for its energy plants, and the Rammas Service built on Microsofts Bot Framework with AI capabilities - are part of a remarkable digital transformation journey that Dewa has embarked on, and we take pride in supporting them, added Youssry. Microsoft demonstrated its unique Connected Field Service solution to empower government agencies and organizations at all levels and move from a costly break-fix model to a proactive and predictive service model. Company experts demonstrated how employees can leverage Microsofts connected devices and machine learning capabilities combined with remote monitoring, digital services, and predictive maintenance to transform field service operations. The Connected Field Service solution enables organizations to capture and analyze data from connected devices. Explained Youssry. Using the Azure IoT Suite, workers can receive real-time alerts from devicesincluding places that were previously difficult to monitor. This solution gives a broader picture of operations to optimize resources, improve scheduling through field service and field management software, making the most of employee productivity and resolving issues faster. As part of its Office 365 productivity offerings for enterprises, Microsoft also introduced Wetex visitors to the power of StaffHub, a new application that allows managers to set schedules for deskless workers in the field through a simple interface and share with employees. The workforce can access those schedules through the StaffHub mobile app and also use it for other functions such as swapping shifts, chat, exchange files etc. Built for teamwork and the modern workplace, Microsofts 55 Surface Hub made a star appearance at this years Wetex. The fully integrated design with flexible mounting configurations, High Definition cameras, infra-red presence sensors and high-performance microphones, brings the ultimate power of collaboration for teams to suit their business needs. A Forrester Study finds a potential 3-year risk-adjusted ROI of 138% for businesses deploying Microsoft Surface Hub, said Youssry. Surface Hub reimagines the meeting experience. Working in concert with Windows 10 and Office 365, it unlocks the power of the group with its expansive multi-touch screen and responsive inking - driving productivity and advancing the way people work together. At Wetex, Microsoft also made a prominent presence at the World Green Economy Summit hosted by Dewa. Ramez Dandan, Microsofts Chief Technology Officer for the Gulf region, participated in a panel discussion titled Digital transformation: the core of the new green economy to discuss how technology can be leveraged in the context of economic, social and environmental challenges faced by countries today, and the shift in paradigms with the power of Digital transformation. Ibrahim Youssry and Ramez Dandan, also participated in a round table discussion Creating a smart city: challenges and solutions to highlight the role of technology in the transition from traditional to smart cities, and how it accelerates the transformation process. TradeArabia News Service The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) and Swiss luxury watch manufacturer IWC Schaffhausen have revealed a shortlist of four talented Gulf filmmakers for the sixth IWC Filmmaker Award. The award will be presented during the 14th edition of DIFF, which takes place from December 6 to 13. Four directors from the region will vie for a cash prize of $100,000 and the opportunity to bring their vision to life in front of a global audience. IWC Schaffhausen is participating for the sixth consecutive year as the Supporting Sponsor and Official Festival-Time Partner of DIFF. The nominees for the 2017 IWC Filmmaker Award are: Emirati director and screenwriter Nayla Al Khaja, for Animal; Bahraini filmmaker Mohamed Rashed Buali, for his project Kombars; Saudi director Haifaa Al Mansour, for her feature Miss Camel; and Omani filmmaker Muzna Almusafer, for The Crown of Olives. The four shortlisted directors will present their projects at DIFF, where an acclaimed jury headed by Academy Awardwinning actress and IWC Schaffhausen brand ambassador Cate Blanchett will determine the potential of each film project and select the winner. Joining Blanchett will be IWC CEO Christoph Grainger-Herr, DIFF Chairman Abdulhamid Juma, Tunisian actress and IWC brand ambassador Hend Sabri and DIFF Artistic Director Masoud Amralla Al Ali. The award will be presented to the winning filmmaker at an exclusive gala event on December 7, at the One&Only Royal Mirage in Dubai. The promotion and support of up-and-coming filmmakers and their projects is a priority of IWC Schaffhausen. We are looking forward to presenting the IWC Filmmaker Award for the sixth consecutive time at DIFF and helping to shine a light on the creativity and passion of filmmakers in the Gulf region, explained Christoph Grainger-Herr, CEO of IWC Schaffhausen. DIFFs artistic director Masoud Amralla Al Ali commented: Thanks to the IWC Filmmaker Award, both promising and established filmmakers have the potential to take their vision from script to screen. The Gulf region is home to a diverse range of cultures and talented filmmakers eager to tell their stories. Our partnership with IWC Schaffhausen is vital in providing an opportunity for them on an international stage. TradeArabia News Service Now is the time to pull out those ideas to fix the world that you have imagined but never known how to implement - the solution to that daily annoyance or a creative approach to one of societys most pressing problems. Expo 2020 Dubai has introducing the first Expo Live challenge open to absolutely everyone. The new initiative by Expo 2020 Dubais Expo Live programme will unleash the power of the UAEs collective genius by offering all nationals and residents the opportunity to bring to life their innovative ideas. "You could be a stay-at-home parent, a working parent, a community leader, a student, a businessperson or an expert in your field. If you have an idea that could solve a challenge the UAE is currently facing, we want to hear about it," said the organisers. The Innovation Challenge Programme (ICP) aims to engage the UAE general public and demonstrate what Expo 2020s theme Connecting Minds, Creating the Future looks and feels like by opening up opportunities for all. "There are no excuses now: if you have an idea, Expo Live is urging you to sign up to the ICP at its website (https://www.expo2020dubai.ae/expo-live/challenge). Here you can also follow the latest news and developments, including details of the topic for the first round of the challenge, to be announced later this year," a statement said. The programme follows the successful launches of Expo Lives Innovation Impact Grant Programme which now has 45 grant recipients from 30 countries and the University Innovation Programme, open to all university students in the UAE. Each round of the ICP will have a theme based on a challenge the UAE is currently facing. The most creative, unique and impactful ideas will be shortlisted, with candidates invited to workshops and to potentially pitch their idea to a panel of judges. Those with winning ideas will receive a prize and could also receive funding of up to Dh25,000 to get their idea off the ground. Yousuf Caires, Vice President, Expo Live, Expo 2020 Dubai, said: The goal of Expo Live is to connect minds for a purpose to unleash our collective ingenuity to address big problems that face us all, and to do so in a way that leaves a lasting impact for the UAE and beyond. Through the Innovation Challenge Programme we want to demonstrate what connecting minds looks and feels like and to empower and enable people to tackle the problems that matter to them. We believe that innovation can come from anywhere, to everyone. Ingenuity is a common trait in all of us. Yet sometimes an incentive is needed to awaken our creativity and innovativeness. We hope the Innovation Challenge Programme will be this extra stimulus and cultivate an innovative mind-set and spirit in the UAE. Expo 2020 Dubais Expo Live programme has an allocation of $100 million to back projects that offer creative solutions to pressing challenges that impact peoples lives, or help preserve the world or both. Organisers are looking for projects that would not reach their full potential without its support. The Innovation Challenge Programme will complement two existing programmes of Expo Live: the Innovation Impact Grant Programme that funds solutions from around the world focusing on entrepreneurs and start-ups; and the University Innovation Programme, launched last month, that helps university students in the UAE turn their ideas into reality. Caires added: We see innovation as the relentless commitment to solving a problem worth solving for humankind. We are convinced that so much more can be achieved by bringing minds together and through enabling meaningful conversations. We are counting on ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things. World Expos, which trace their origins back to the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, have always celebrated the latest in innovation and technology, from the x-ray machine to television and the Eiffel Tower. Expo Live aims to stimulate innovation that has a social benefit by supporting projects with funding, business guidance and promotion. Successful applicants will also have the chance to showcase their work to many millions of visitors to Expo 2020 Dubai. For more details on Expo Live, go to www.expo2020dubai.ae/expo-live/expo-live - TradeArabia News Service Ford Middle East has revealed three of its iconic products ahead of the 2017Dubai International Motorshow, with the new-generation 2018 Ford Expedition, as well as the new 2018 Ford Mustang and new 2018 F-150 making their regional debut. The three-model announcement further reinforces Fords commitment to deliver 30 products by 2020 across the MEA, a statement said. Held under the theme #FordMovesME, the event served as a curtain raiser for the companys activities leading up to show, setting the tone for a dynamic cadence of products and technologies, while reinforcing Fords continued drive to deliver products and services that will help move consumers well into the next era of mobility. As our CEO Jim Hackett said last month, Ford Motor Company was built on the belief that freedom of movement drives human progress. Its a belief that has always fuelled our passion to create great cars and trucks, said Thierry Sabbagh, Ford Middle Easts managing director. And todays launches epitomise this culture of freedom of movement. We are proud to present this strong line-up of Fords top three legendary nameplates. These models have not only created their segments, but they continue to set the benchmark and reinforce our commitment to delivering what our customers here in the Middle East want, Sabbagh added. The new generation 2018 Ford Expedition is powered by a second-generation 3.5-litre EcoBoost twin-turbo V6 engine with standard Auto Start-Stop plus a class exclusive new 10-speed automatic transmission. The new-generation Expedition is the most powerful Expedition ever, offering up to 400 horsepower on Platinum models along with a whopping 610Nm of torque. The new-generation Expeditions Terrain Management System has up to 7 drive modes including a Sand Mode, paired with a two-speed transfer case with low gear range and a rear electronic limited-slip differential that allows a full differential lock, offering excellent off-road capability. The new 2018 Mustang delivers 460 horsepower on the GT (570 Nm torque), and 310 horsepower on the EcoBoost turbo engine (475 Nm torque). It also offers the new 10-speed auto transmission on all models with an upgraded manual on the GT. Customers have more ways than ever to personalise Mustang to make it their own, with new paint colours, a variety of wheel choices and its new optional 12-inchcustomisable digital instrument cluster which it receives from the legendary Ford GT supercar. Fords new F-150 debuts for 2018 even tougher, smarter, and more capable than ever with the most advanced F-150 powertrain line-up ever that delivers best-in-class towing and payload for the Middle Easts pickup drivers. The new F-150 has best-in-class towing (up to six tonne)thanks to the 3.5-litre EcoBoost twin-turboV6 and enhanced 5.0-litre V8, respectively. For 2018, the new truck arrives with bold new styling, advanced technologies, a segment-first 10-speed automatic transmission and F-150s most advanced engine line-up yet. F-150 is part of Fords F-Series truck line-up Americas best-selling truck for 40 consecutive years and its best-selling vehicle for 35 years. Today, more than ever, Ford is connected with its customers here in the Middle East, added Sabbagh. We continue to help move customers with leading innovations, technologies, mobility solutions, and exceptional products like the iconic full size SUV Expedition, muscle car Mustang, and pickup truck legend F-150 and we cant wait to have them in Ford dealerships around our region. Fords latest range for 2018 will be on display at the Dubai International Motor Show from 14-18 November at Dubai World Trade Centre.- TradeArabia News Service Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts has been appointed by Prime Investors Capital to operate the luxury hotel within one of the capitals best-known and most prestigious monuments. Admiralty Arch Waldorf Astoria, London will open in 2022, following an extensive on-going refurbishment programme which will restore and protect the iconic landmarks architectural and historical features. Admiralty Arch was commissioned by King Edward VII in memory of Queen Victoria, and was designed by Sir Aston Webb, who was also responsible for The Mall and main facade at Buckingham Palace. In addition to housing the official residences of the First Sea Lords, Admiralty Arch has served as a centre for clandestine wartime intelligence efforts, a Royal Navy outpost, and latterly as a centre for the UK Governments Cabinet Office. Following a rigorous and thorough official tender process Prime Investors Capital outbid 28 institutional bidders from all over the world in order to acquire the 250-year lease of the property in 2015. Since construction of the building was completed in 1910, Admiralty Arch has hosted leading figures of state and society, from Sir Winston Churchill whose office was based within the arch when he was First Sea Lord of the Admiralty to author of the James Bond spy novels Ian Fleming. Situated in one of Londons most prestigious addresses, Admiralty Arch offers unmatched views down The Mall to Buckingham Palace, and commanding vistas across Trafalgar Square and Nelsons Column. Rafael Serrano, chief executive officer, Prime Investors Capital said: Since 2015 when we acquired Admiralty Arch from the British Government, we have made many decisions that will impact not only the future of the building and the local area, but also the profile of the very heart of London. We have appointed a team of talented experts with the experience and knowledge to capture the spirit of this magnificent building. We have created a detailed plan to transform Admiralty Arch into an extraordinary Hotel, Residences and Private Members Club. And one of the most important decisions we have made is to select and appoint the operator to whom we will entrust the management and running of this hotel. Further to interest and discussions with 12 top luxury hotel brands, we are delighted to announce the creation of Admiralty Arch Waldorf Astoria, London. The Management of Prime Investors Capital and Waldorf Astoria hold many things in common: a commitment to enhance the heritage of this remarkable, elegant building; a determination to preserve its sense of place; and the experience needed to provide superb hospitality to discerning guests from London and around the world. As the proud owners of Admiralty Arch, we have every confidence that, together with Waldorf Astoria, we will ensure that this London landmark enters the next chapter of its life in safe hands and maintains its iconic standing in the capital. Christopher J. Nassetta, President & Chief Executive Officer, Hilton said: This agreement marries the timeless elegance of Waldorf Astoria with the historic grandeur of one of Londons great monuments. Projects of this calibre are rare, and Admiralty Arch Waldorf Astoria will provide a truly unforgettable hospitality experience when it opens to guests. Waldorf Astoria has a legacy of protecting and enhancing historical buildings, from our flagship hotel in New York, which is currently undergoing a comprehensive refurbishment to protect the art deco building for future generations, to this incredible property in London. This partnership brings our iconic luxury brand to Londons finest address, and were proud to partner with Prime Investors Capital Ltd to introduce Waldorf Astoria to London. Admiralty Arch Waldorf Astoria will include 96 spacious and luxurious hotel rooms and suites, and three world class restaurants. Plans include a rooftop bar with sweeping views across Londons skyline, private meetings and event spaces, as well as a state of the art spa. Luxury private residences and an exclusive Private Members Club and other exclusive Food and Beverage components will join the hotel within Admiralty Arch. Councillor Robert Davis MBE DL, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Business, Culture and Heritage, Westminster City Council said: I have worked with Prime Investors Capital for a number of years. First on the creation of the Bulgari Hotel in Knightsbridge and more recently on their extensive plans to restore and refurbish Admiralty Arch into a luxury hotel. This extraordinary project is going to make a huge impact on Central London by opening up to the public an iconic building standing at the end of The Mall and adjacent to Trafalgar Square. The outstanding team that Prime Investors Capital has assembled - together with a variety of expert advisers - make me confident that Prime Investors Capital has shown the commitment and the vision to ensure that this project will be an enormous success. The hotel will be an important addition to the City of Westminster as well as to London as a whole - at a time when tourism and travel is so important for our country. Work is already underway to sensitively restore the buildings original features, and an internationally celebrated design team is in place, led by Michael Blair and David Mlinaric. Blairs work includes the restoration and extension of The Ritz, The Connaught and Claridges hotels. Mlinarics body of work includes The Royal Opera House, The Victoria & Albert Museum, The National Gallery and the British Residences in London and Paris. Historical interiors expert Andrew Damonte completes the design team. Damonte has worked alongside David Mlinaric on the restoration of Dumfries House in Scotland for HRH The Prince of Wales. Admiralty Arch Waldorf Astoria, London joins 26 Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts in the worlds most sought after destinations. - TradeArabia News Service Food Tourism is once again primed to take a top slot at WTM London, the leading global event for the travel industry, taking place from November 68. Its now accepted that travellers from the four corners of the world are seeking an experience whilst on a trip and the food element plays a big role in that experience. World Travel Market London has gathered together a panel of leading influencers covering every aspect of Food Tourism. Delegates will gain insight on the State of the Food Tourism Industry from Erik Wolf, executive director of the World Food Travel Association. In a recent article published on Medium, Wolf cited that on average 25 per cent of the tourists budget goes on food and drinks. The destination, technology and tour operator perspectives of Food Tourism will also be covered including a session with VizEat Co-founder and CEO Jean-Michel Petit. Food Tourism plays into many aspects of exploring a destination enabling locals to participate in and benefit from promoting a destination as well as allowing visitors to get close to the heart and culture of a place through memorable culinary experiences. Maria Elena Rossi, general manager, Piemonte Marketing (Piermonte is a region of northern Italy) will talk on how the region has used its farms and markets to attract tourists to the region. Furthermore, Ollie Lloyd, CEO, Great British chefs will discuss the perspective of the food service industry to food tourism. The Food Tourism session will be rounded off by a panel discussion on all the latest trends and the opportunity for questions from the audience. WTM Portfolio conference and seminar manager, Charlotte Alderslade, said: Were really excited to have Food Tourism back on the agenda for 2017. The session has gained traction since last year and will be a place for delegates to learn how they can best take advantage of this growing trend. The session takes place in the Platinum Suite 3 on November 7 from 10:30 - 12:30. - TradeArabia News Service Yahsat, a UAE-based satellite operator, today announced the successful trial of a 50Mbps in-flight connection that will change the way passengers experience air travel across the world. The result of a unique partnership between Yahsat, du, Etihad Airways Engineering, Hughes Network Systems and Carlisle Interconnect, the high-speed broadband offering will be available for airlines to offer its passengers within the next year. Using Yahsats Al Yah 2 satellite, and the latest generation Ka-band technology, the test took place in Abu Dhabi, simulating the environment found on an Airbus A320 aircraft. This new level of performance for in-flight connectivity (IFC) will mean passengers have an in-flight browsing experience similar to the service available in their home or office, including access to HD streaming content, social media, online shopping and the ability to connect with friends and family via messaging apps. Following this successful test, selected guests will be invited to experience the ultra- fast connectivity for themselves, onboard an Etihad Airways Flying Testbed Airbus A320 aircraft at the Dubai Airshow taking place from the 12th to 16th of November. Subsequently, Yahsat and its partners plan to execute the key next steps over the coming year to rollout the solution to commercial airliners across the Middle East, and beyond. Masood M. Sharif Mahmood, chief executive officer of Yahsat said: "We are incredibly proud to have brought together leading Emirati and global companies to achieve this milestone. It paves the way for Yahsat to bring further breakthrough technologies to the markets and segments it serves, adding another key pillar to Yahsats portfolio of market leading services and solutions. We look forward to showcasing the technology at the Dubai Airshow, and ultimately transforming the in-flight connectivity experience for passengers Abdul Khaliq Saeed, chief executive officer, Etihad Airways Engineering, said: This is a first for commercial aviation and Etihad Airways Engineering is delighted to be part of this exciting and challenging project. Innovation is part of the DNA here in the UAE, with local companies, always looking to push the boundaries for the benefit of consumers. Our country is known as an incubator to generate new commercial ideas, and this latest initiative with Yahsat and du will ensure todays travellers will enjoy the high-speed connectivity they already experience on the ground. Saleem Al Blooshi, chief infrastructure officer at du said: Our partnership with Yahsat is a testament to our commitment towards adding life to life through innovative new technologies, and we are pleased to be a part of such a monumental step in aviation history. This partnership will allow us to establish the necessary infrastructure needed to keep passengers comfortably connected in the air through the latest and most advanced in-flight connectivity. We believe that together we will set the benchmark for high-speed wi-fi in the air and we look forward to enhancing our customer experiences like never before. Furthermore, we are introducing our state of the art Data Analytics as well as our Backend systems to this innovative in-flight wi-fi which enables the Airline Industry to use such analytics of the user behaviour to enhance even further the customer experiences on board airplanes. The Dubai Airshow 2017, is the ideal platform for us to showcase such products and introduce customers to the new reality of connected flying. - TradeArabia News Service Dubai International Airport (DXB), the world's leading international hub, was chosen as the region's 'Leading Airport' at the Middle East Gala Ceremony of the 24th World Travel Awards held on October 29 in Dubai. Majed Al Joker, senior vice president of Assurance and Control Authorities at Dubai Airports, received the award on behalf of the company. World Travel Awards, established in 1993, acknowledges, rewards and celebrates excellence across all sectors of the tourism industry. - TradeArabia News Service Lawmakers proceeded with controversial proposals that would let some small mining operations, like those for sand and gravel, dig before they receive approval from the states environmental agency. Companies that argued in favor of the bill said they were at times held up for more than a year on what amounted to a low-impact operation, hurting their bottom line. Lawmakers were sympathetic to the permitting delays, but some were concerned by the precedent or worried that unsupervised mining could give industry a bad image. The environmental agency worried that expediting one groups permitting, however small their operations, would cause a backlog elsewhere. Proponents say the bill will streamline the process on permits that are relatively cookie cutter. I dont understand how streamlining could cause delay in other sectors. It frees up staff time ... These permits dont change a lot, said Mary Throne, the former lawmaker from Laramie and current gubernatorial candidate, acting as legal counsel for a company supporting the bill. Its common for Wyoming to take 18 months to approve these permits, compared to six months in Montana, proponents argued. They know they can get to the same level of environmental protection, in a shorter time, she said. Its important to emphasize that we are talking about small mining permits 10 acres per year is all they can do. Clarity and public comment But a number of unlikely bedfellows in Wyoming opposed the bill. Shannon Anderson, a lawyer for the Powder River Basin Resource Council, said there is a lack of clarity and a reduction in public participation in the proposal that she found concerning. It eliminates the right of appeal to the Environmental Quality Council, she said, referring to the citizens board that hears contested cases. Right now, companies can proceed with their work after the agency director grants the application, while a private citizen that doesnt like the operation can pursue an appeal to the EQC, she said. Thats gone. Thats a pretty significant limitation on public participation and opportunity, she said. Rep. Tyler Lindholm, R-Sundance, who supported the bill, disagreed on certain aspects of the bill that Anderson identified as confusing. Im a practicing attorney that advises landowners on these processes, Anderson said of the differences of interpretation.[Existing mining law] is already a bit confusing and complicated ... To create a whole new category of mines with different rules is going to confuse things even more. The bill also allows for a 25 days or less comment period, far below the norm, she said. Industry pushback Industry groups also had a number of criticisms for lawmakers. Joe Spiering with the Wyoming Contractors Association said there may be some unintended consequences with the bill in its current form. These things dont seem to be issues at first glance, but some of the issues that could arise are somewhat frightening, he said. In South Dakota, when they loosened regulations at the state level, counties responded with more stringent regulations that have since complicated working in South Dakota. Lindholm pushed back on the idea that the bill loosened the law by streamlining it. The issue is partly one of reputation, Spiering said. As is, the bill looks bad and it can make industry look back, he said. Deti, of the Mining Association, said much the same. I think it may be a perception thing. There is a perception with this bill, of possibly circumventing agency oversight, Deti said. Whether that is true or not, the perception is there and the perception is there for my operators. The permitting delay is something industry would like to rectify, but they want to do it carefully, the industry representatives said. We would be strongly supportive of moving this to an interim topic, said Deti from the Mining Association, suggesting a working group between industry and regulators to hash out a solution. But lawmakers moved the bill forward on a vote of 8 to 6, saying they would work with industry to assuage their concerns. This might be a cold day in hell when the Mining Association and the Powder River Basin Resource Council are on the same side of an issue, Deti said. The proposed changes will be debated in the upcoming budget session of the Legislature in February. The Wyoming Highway Patrol found 63 pounds of marijuana Thursday morning after a traffic stop on Interstate 80 near Laramie, the patrol announced Monday. Vickey Hamilton, 41, Lorenzo Hamilton, 21, and Champainge Rucker, 18, all of Nashville, Tennessee, were charged with felony possession of a controlled substance and felony intent to deliver a controlled substance, according to a highway patrol news release. A state trooper spotted the 2016 Ford Focus heading east on the interstate, about 20 miles west of Laramie, at about 7:30 a.m. After the car swerved out of its lane multiple times, the trooper pulled it over, according to the highway patrol. The highway patrol said the trooper suspected the people in the car of criminal activity, though the release did not offer any details. The driver consented to a search of the car and the trooper found the marijuana in several bags, according to the news release. The three suspects were allegedly transporting the drugs from California to Tennessee. The highway patrol estimates the street value of the marijuana at $126,000. Walking into the library at the Downtown Community School Inc., you would never know smoke blackened the room and all of its books just a year ago. A few of the kids in the preschool flip pages. Most wiggle around the room, crawling through play tunnels and scrambling onto couches. The bookshelves are mostly full and boxes of books still sit unpacked in the little office. That's thanks to a book drive several Tucson companies did as part of United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona's Days of Caring. School director and founder Emily McCrea says they lost about 500 books in an electrical fire that devastated the Barrio Viejo preschool at 614 S. Meyer Ave. last July, closing it for a year. Insurance covered the cost of the repairs, McCrea says. "The building was condemned for many months, and we rebuilt it here," McCrea says. "Smoke damaged most of our books, and then some things were actually burnt to the ground. If it wasn't burnt, there was a black layer of smoke over everything." When the school reopened this school year, McCrea and her small staff tried to scrub the soot off the books, and although it worked, it was also a lot of work. Story time meant ashy fingers. They needed a literary makeover. And they got it. Companies including Vantage West Credit Union, Bank of America and CODAC signed up to replenish the school's bookshelves, says Meredith Bode, the manager of events for United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona. On Thursday, McCrea had just received a few boxes of books from Jim Click Automotive Team, too. A few individuals also dropped off books. McCrea estimates the library now has 700 books, most of them picture books. "They asked for a collection drive, and we had different companies sign up to collect books on their behalf," says Melissa D'Auria, the director of marketing and communications for United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona. Last weekend, volunteers tackled 133 projects in Southern Arizona. The volunteering continues this weekend at Hope Fest at the Tucson Convention Center. "Little acts like this are huge for us because we're so small," says McCrea. "We have five people on staff and less than 20 children." Days of Caring projects also included building a small bench the school has dubbed "the snuggle bench" for kids to say their goodbyes to their parents each morning. Students from the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management helped with that one. "Because of our focus on emotional intelligence with kids, intimacy and attachment and love are a big part of what we're talking about," she says. "We wanted a cozy space for when kids say goodbye to their parents." McCrea says the building dates back to the late 1800s and because of that history and its location, they knew they had to rebuild here after the fire. Plus they had to bring home Blackie the chicken and Snowbell the bunny who survived the fire but spent the last year boarding elsewhere. They're best friends, McCrea says. The school focuses on risky play, socioemotional feelings (or emotional intelligence) and literacy an emphasis made far easier with a functioning library. Credit card skimmers at Arizona gas stations are nothing new. For the last decade or so, state inspectors were finding a handful every year, 10 at most, according to a top state official at the Department of Agricultures Weights and Measures Services Division. And then at the end of 2015, more were found in a single month than in any year that associate director Michelle Wilson could recall. Her agency rallied the troops, partnering with law enforcement, banks and gas station operators to tackle the problem. In 2016, inspectors visited every Arizona gas station to look for skimmers, which capture credit or debit card information for use in fraudulent transactions, and teach gas station employees how to better protect their customers from the potentially costly crime. Were there to make sure youre getting a gallon of gas, Wilson said of weights and measures traditional responsibilities. We knew that this was a group effort. Those stepped-up inspections have so far found 140 skimmers at 97 locations across the state, according to state data available online. In the Tucson area, 27 skimmers were found at 15 locations. Prior to the surge in discoveries, another skimmer was found at a Circle K on 22nd Street. While Wilson is cautious to read too much into the lull, more than 10 months have lapsed since the last skimmer was found in Pima County at the Circle K at 3712 W. Cortaro Farm Road in early February, according to nearly eight years of inspection data obtained and analyzed by the Road Runner. Another was found at a Shell on Grant Road the month before. In contrast, almost 50 skimmers at nearly 40 locations have been found almost exclusively in the Phoenix metro area so far in 2017. Sgt. Rick Radinsky, with the Tucson Police Departments Financial Crimes Unit, was also reluctant to declare any sort of victory, but did say I think the numbers speak for themselves. To the degree that local efforts have been successful in dissuading would-be card skimmers from targeting Tucson, Radinsky said credit is due to many organizations. He said several area banks, including Vantage West Credit Union, used their data to help provide leads on potentially compromised gas pumps. TPD has also worked with the Secret Service, which Radinsky said is the lead investigator, and merchants, who have largely been proactive in taking additional security steps. Our endgame was to decrease the amount of skimmers that were found in the city, and protect the consumer, he said. Wilson and Radinsky said suspects are often travelling groups of criminals that move from community to community. The skimmers themselves can be quite sophisticated, with some capable of transmitting card data via Bluetooth or text. Of the 16 sites where skimmers have been found in Pima County, 10 have been Circle Ks. A Tucson Circle K on Ina had eight, the largest number of skimmers found at a single site in Arizona since 2016. The convenience store chain is the largest in Tucson, with roughly a quarter of stores included in the inspection data. The company did not respond to an interview request by deadline. Inspectors also found skimmers at several Tucson Shell locations, at least one of them independently owned, a Hansons Good to Go and Arizona Best Gas. Skimmers were not found at other gas station chains with Tucson locations. Arnaldo Mendez, whose father owns A & M Shell on Grant, said it was the work of a bank that first led state inspectors to his location in August 2016, and he applauded the collaboration between banks, law enforcement and weights and measures. It was a collective effort, he said, adding that the credit union was the most proactive. After a second skimmer was found several months later, Mendez said his family put more secure locks on all of the pumps, started regularly checking them to look for tampering and began leaving lights on overnight when no one was in the store. We are much more alert, he said. As to what consumers can do to protect themselves, the three people interviewed by the Road Runner were unanimous in saying that debit cards, because they connect directly to a bank account, present more of a risk. Among their other suggestions were paying for gas inside, running debit cards as credit to avoid entering PINs, and regularly checking accounts for fraudulent purchases. However, Radinsky and Wilson said it could be challenging for the average consumer to detect if a gas pump has been compromised. Radinsky said some of the most effective measures can only be taken by the gas stations themselves, and those safety measures cost money. He encouraged customers to check information on the pumps about what security features they have, or asking store managers. For more information on gas pump skimmers and how to protect yourself, go to tinyurl.com/y8weczl6. DOWN THE ROAD Starting Monday, the Pima County Department of Transportation will begin fogsealing South La Canada Drive from Duval Mine Road to Esperanza Boulevard near Green Valley. Preparatory work will last through Wednesday with shifts from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. The treatment will be done during the same shifts Monday through Thursday the following week. During the work lane and speed restrictions will be in place, with sheriffs deputies and flaggers on site to manage traffic. PHOENIX The states highest court wont let homeowners burned out by the Yarnell Hill Fire sue the state for negligence. And that, according to an attorney for those affected, has bad implications for others who own property throughout the state. Without comment, the Arizona Supreme Court has spurned a request by the lawyers for those who lost buildings in the 2013 blaze. The lawyers claimed they should be able to make their case to a jury that the state, which was trying to contain the wildfire that started on public lands, also had a duty to protect their property. More to the point, David Abney said they were required to do so in a fashion that was not negligent. Instead, the justices left intact a lower court ruling that told the homeowners they have no legal recourse. Abney said the message is clear. My advice is, youd better look out for yourself, he told Capitol Media Services. Dont rely on the state. He said the essence of the courts action goes beyond whether state officials, in trying to contain a fire that started on public lands, also have an obligation to keep it from spreading to nearby properties. Abney said there is evidence that fire officials not only told Yarnell homeowners they would protect their lives and property but that they actually made an effort to do it. And he said the general common law has always been that once someone agrees to do something, even voluntarily, they have a duty to perform it in a nonnegligent manner. What makes all this significant, he said, is the residents relied on that. If the people of Yarnell had understood the state was going to do this incredibly incompetently, and the state was going to do a late and improper evacuation notice, they could have taken some measures to protect themselves, Abney explained. They could have gotten their personal possession out, their pets and livestock out, he continued. They could have removed propane tanks that blew up in the fire, they could have removed their excess vehicles. And Abney said they could have done other things to protect their buildings, including emergency brush removal and flooding their property to make it as fire resistant as possible. There is evidence of negligence in connection with the blaze that killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots and destroyed more than 120 homes. An investigation by the state Industrial Commission said that at the time of the fire the state Forestry Division had vacancies in the positions of both safety officer and the planning section chief. Marshall Krotenberg, the lead investigator for the commissions Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said that meant no one was available to pay attention primarily to the safety of the firefighters versus simply battling the blaze. Commission members also said there was a failure to properly plan how to battle the blaze, especially after initial efforts at suppression failed. Abney had his own list of issues. The management was absolutely abysmal, he said. In fact, one of the managers of the aerial effort left and went home, Abney said, leaving a subordinate in charge. The aerial effort collapsed at that point. What makes all that relevant, Abney argued in his legal papers, is that the state did make some efforts to protect the community. That, he said, means the homeowners had some legal right to assume they would do the job correctly. His lawsuit sought to present all that to a jury. But the case never got that far. Appellate Judge Kent Cattani, writing an extensive ruling earlier this year for the court of appeals, said all of Abneys arguments about state incompetence, even if true, are legally irrelevant. The judge said anything the state forester did was within his discretion for how best to protect state lands and not designed to benefit and protect the property of the residents. So they had no right to rely on the state to protect them. Abney had no better luck with his claim that the state, which owns the land where the fire started, was responsible for ensuring that it did not spread. Cattani said there might be some claim if the state had started the fire or created artificial conditions that resulted in the fire starting or spreading. But he said there was no liability because the evidence was that the fire arose from a natural cause on land that remained unused and in natural condition. It was that ruling which the Supreme Court, with its new order, left undisturbed. And that made the published decision of the appellate court the law in Arizona. Abney said thats not a good result. The state apparently cant be held liable, no matter how reckless, negligent or unprofessional it may be, he said. The state has an endless get-out-of-jail card, he said of the ruling. And thats not the way things should be. Gov. Doug Duceys office is pushing a series of controversial proposals to overhaul state water management. One reason is to assure investors that Arizona has enough water for future economic development. But water agencies are warring over how to make sure theres enough water for long-term growth, and whether that means saying no to some short-term uses. At issue is what one official calls the Colorado Rivers last supply. Thats river water that no user with contracts to buy it meaning cities, tribes, tribes and private water companies wants in a given year. Arizonas water users and agencies are at odds over whether to leave that leftover water in Lake Mead or continue to allow some of it to supply suburban subdivisions, among other uses. That issue is one of more than a dozen topics now being discussed in private by committees and work groups appointed by the governor, in order to get the states act together on water. The proposals have split officials of the Central Arizona Project and the Arizona Department of Water Resources and their supporters into competing camps. In an interview, Duceys chief of staff Kirk Adams made it clear that growth is a key factor driving these measures. With the states economy, battered by the 2008 financial crisis and real estate bust, now rebounding, the governor feels we need to be prepared for the growth, Adams said. When Adams meets with CEOs and other corporate decisionmakers considering investing in Arizona, water is consistently mentioned though its not at the top of their priority list, he said. Were making sure that we have everything in order, that we dont have anything impeding our ability to create new jobs, Adams said. Adams likened the current time to the era of Arizonas 1980 Groundwater Management Act, a nationally pioneering law that toughened state controls over excessive groundwater pumping. After that law passed, the state entered into a very big growth period, he said. Thirty-five years is a long time for any policy. Its time to see if there are any gaps or things to be improved on, he said. Kathryn Sorensen, the city of Phoenixs water director, also looked back several decades to explain her view on this dispute. For 30 years, this state focused on bringing as much water into the CAP and off the river as possible, to keep it away from California. Now that Lake Mead is tanking, we are looking at a total change in attitudes, said Sorensen. Thats at the heart of this issue how much water do we leave on the lake? How much do you bring into central Arizona? And who gets to decide this on behalf of the whole state? Underlying growth tensions At stake is a few hundred thousand acre-feet of water, enough to raise Lake Mead by a few feet if it were all put there. So far, the governor's committees haven't come up with a formal proposal for how to deal with this water, and a CAP task force is now trying to sort the issue out separately. The power struggle over this water has kept the CAP and the Arizona Department of Water Resources from reaching agreement on a broader Drought Contingency Plan-Plus that would cut back the states water use to protect Meads water levels. This issue also taps into underlying tensions among suburban developers, homebuilders, ranchers, cities and environmentalists. Thats because a healthy chunk of the leftover river water today goes to the highly controversial Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District, which like CAP is operated by the agencies parent Central Arizona Water Conservation District. The river water that goes to the replenishment district compensates for groundwater pumped out for thousands of subdivisions statewide, including dozens in Pima County. Such water is recharged into aquifers. Getting that water ensures that growth in places like Green Valley south of Tucson and Surprise west of Phoenix can continue as planned. This water is available because Tucson, Phoenix and Indian tribes that have legal contracts for CAP water dont always need every drop that they had previously planned to buy for a given year. So the CAP lets other users such as the replenishment district, that dont have such contracts, buy it. More such leftover water is available because CAP also has the right to take and sell unused river water belonging to irrigation districts, farmers and tribes along the Colorado River. The replenishment district wants this water because, by state law, the subdivisions within its boundaries cant develop without a 100-year assured supply of renewable water. Homebuilders and homeowners of about 1,200 Arizona subdivisions, including 66 in Pima and southern Pinal counties, pay fees to the district to be members. After the needs of the CAP contract holders are met, the leftover river water goes to: The Arizona Water Banking Authority, which stores it in large dirt recharge basins in the Tucson and Phoenix areas for future use in case of a cutoff of river supplies. A large pool set aside for Pinal County farmers. Lake Pleasant on the Aqua Fria River northwest of Phoenix, also for use in future years. The federal government, to help meet its legal obligations from its Indian water rights settlements. Officials of city water utilities, including Tucson Water and the Phoenix Water Department, told the water conservation districts governing board in January that they wanted much of this leftover water although not whats sold to farmers to stay in Lake Mead for at least the next three years. This guarantee will help them persuade their city councils to leave some of their own water in Mead that they would otherwise want to use, the water utility officials say. They note that their cities are already going to be on the hook for paying higher rates for CAP water once agreements to reduce water use for Meads sake kick in; less water raises the tab for each gallon. At the same time, those officials object to having leftover water delivered to the groundwater district or the water bank, which dont have contracts for it. Underneath this debate, many cities and environmentalists have distrusted the replenishment district because they believe it promotes unsustainable growth. City water officials also say the CAP and the replenishment district have a conflict of interest, because the parent water conservation agency is trying to protect Lake Mead, yet is legally obligated to find water for the replenishment district. Dennis Rule, the replenishment districts manager, sees no conflict of interest because he doesnt believe the CAP governing board would ever agree to deliver excess water to his district if those deliveries lowered Lake Mead enough to create a shortage. The district doesnt just benefit suburbs the city of Tucson itself was only able to prove its 100-year supply back in the 1990s by joining the district because at the time it had shut the CAP off, he said. CAP officials say they wont support leaving all unused water in Mead, in part because they dont know how much is available from year to year. So they dont want to guarantee anything up front, regardless of future circumstances. The CAP has a financial stake in this matter. Money the project gets by selling leftover water helps pay off the parent water districts debt to the federal government for building the $4 billion, 336-mile-long CAP canal. CAP also holds the legal cards in this issue. It has the right to decide who gets leftover river water, based on past contracts with the U.S. government. Im not confident that it is good public policy to make an automatic, open-ended, unquantified contribution to Lake Mead, said Tucson-based CAP board member Sharon Megdal. No other party to these Drought Contingency Plan-Plus negotiations Im aware of is being asked to do that. You should know what you are contributing and what you are expected to contribute. The replenishment district also has influential supporters. The Home Builders Association of Central Arizona recently joined with the Arizona Cattlemans Association to put a full-page ad into the weekly Arizona Capitol Times supporting the district. For ranchers, that districts use of renewable water to boost suburban land development keeps private land values stable. If theres no ability to get enough water to develop former ranches and farms, their value plummets, said Bas Aja, the cattle growers government relations director. Our ability to borrow money on the value of those lands on my ranch or farm or feedlot goes down dramatically. For the homebuilders, the district fulfills what we believe is a critical component of the state groundwater act to put water back into the ground, said Spencer Kamps, its vice president of legislative affairs. Thats a critical, critical supply. We need that supply. As the rivers supplies grow more pinched over the coming years, Kamps knows that the amount available for replenishment will decline. But he wants a managed decline, spread out over time. A quick cutoff wouldnt stop development because the groundwater replenishment district could buy Colorado River water from other sources. But that water would cost far more than the CAP supply, raising costs for both homebuilders and homebuyers, said Rule, who manages the replenishment district. He estimated the total extra tab at $8.6 million over two years. We know we are going to lose that supply. We just struggle with the kind of decision that automatically causes us to lose that, Kamps told a board meeting of the CAPs parent last summer. But for a Sierra Club leader who isnt siding with either party in the CAP-state water agency dispute, the struggle over unused river water represents whats wrong with the states broader water management. The Sierra Club has never been a fan of the replenishment district because it promotes massive sprawl on undisturbed desert, said Sandy Bahr, director of the groups Grand Canyon chapter. But that doesnt mean the state water agencys proposals are any better, Bahr said. Its a power struggle between two entities, neither of whom is looking at what is beneficial from an environmental protection standpoint, she said. Development is the motivating factor here on both sides. It always is. WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump and his vice president came out this past week with initiatives that are not as big, bold or immediate as they appeared. Despite the drum-roll implied in Mike Pence's recent remarks to Christians, the U.S. is not suddenly walking away from U.N. humanitarian relief programs and switching all that money directly to persecuted religious groups. And Trump's action on the opioid epidemic counts on a powerful anti-drug punch from advertising, a feeble weapon at least in the past. A look at their statements and other rhetoric from the week: TRUMP on a planned ad campaign against the opioid epidemic: "I think that's going to end up being our most important thing. Really tough, really big, really great advertising, so we get to people before they start." remarks Thursday. THE FACTS: He may prove history wrong, but past marketing efforts to scare young people from using drugs had poor results. More broadly, Trump's declaration of opioid overdoses as a public health emergency is not as consequential as it might sound. It does not bring new dollars to the anti-opioids fight. It does make it easier for the government to shuffle resources and make other changes, such as expanding access to medical services in rural areas. As for advertising, the government spent nearly $1 billion from 1998 to 2004 on a campaign to discourage illegal drug use by young people. A study financed by the National Institutes of Health concluded in 2008 that the campaign "had no favorable effects on youths' behavior" and may have prompted some to experiment with drugs, an unintended "boomerang" effect. A 2009 review of 20 studies of school-based D.A.R.E. programs found that students in the programs were about as likely to try drugs as those who didn't. Founded in the early 1980s, D.A.R.E sent police officers into thousands of U.S. schools to warn about the dangers of drugs. More recently, anti-drug campaigns have appealed to teenagers' desire for independence and self-control rather than drug fears. A 2011 study of the government's "Above the Influence" campaign suggested eighth-graders who had seen the campaign were slightly less likely to have tried marijuana than those who had not. PENCE, on redirecting U.S. humanitarian foreign aid: "While faith-based groups with proven track records and deep roots in these communities are more than willing to assist, the United Nations too often denies their funding requests. My friends, those days are over. ... . Tonight, it is my privilege to announce that President Trump has ordered the State Department to stop funding ineffective relief efforts at the United Nations. And from this day forward, America will provide support directly to persecuted communities through USAID." remarks Wednesday to a group helping Christians in the Middle East. THE FACTS: "From this day forward" is a stretch, as are Pence's other references to immediate change. The government is to study the matter. Studies take time, especially when multiple agencies are involved, and lead to conclusions that can't always be foreseen at the start. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said not all U.N. relief programs would be cut off from U.S. financing. "The U.N. will still get some of its money for this, but we will look for other avenues in which to more efficiently fund these types of religious minorities so that they can eventually return back home," Nauert said. A White House official says the goal is to make sure necessary levels of relief are steered to persecuted religious minorities in the Middle East and as part of that, more grants will go directly to religious organizations and other groups. An analysis will be done by the State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and the Office of Management and Budget, in conjunction with the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., "to determine how appropriated funds can best be spent," the official said. This background was shared on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to be identified. Also from this past week: TRUMP: "Bob Corker, who helped President O give us the bad Iran Deal & couldn't get elected dog catcher in Tennessee, is now fighting Tax Cuts...." And: "Corker dropped out of the race in Tennesse when I refused to endorse him, and now is only negative on anything Trump. Look at his record!" tweets Tuesday. THE FACTS: Trump, who spelled Tennessee right the first time, continues to label the Republican senator an enabler of the Iran nuclear deal when he was a leading critic of it. Corker had nothing to do with the 2015 international agreement forged by the U.S. and other world powers to constrain Iran's ability to build a nuclear arsenal. He argued at the time that President Barack Obama should have made the international pact a treaty subject to approval by the Senate. When Obama didn't do that, Corker helped fellow senators write legislation that subjected the accord to periodic congressional review. The legislation would have blocked the deal if that effort got enough votes. It didn't. Obama brought the deal into effect, not Congress. On Corker's political fate, Trump actually urged Corker to stand for re-election next year during a private meeting in September, the AP learned. And Corker's chief of staff, Todd Womack, said Trump called Corker after that to ask that he reconsider his decision to leave the Senate. Trump "reaffirmed that he would have endorsed him, as he has said many times," the aide said. Trump has not substantiated his competing claim that he withheld an endorsement of Corker and that's why the senator decided to leave Washington. Trump, on a contract landed by Boeing from Singapore Airlines: "In terms of the orders it's about $13.8 billion and most importantly it's about 70,000 jobs." at the signing of a "certificate of purchase" staged at the White House on Monday. THE FACTS: Yes, but. Boeing says the order will "sustain" more than 70,000 direct and indirect U.S. jobs for the company, its suppliers and others. The company did not say they were new jobs. The estimate of jobs and the value of the contract is based on full list price of the 39 planes Singapore Airlines has agreed to buy. Airlines routinely receive deep discounts from the list price of planes. So the contract, while unquestionably a big one, may end up worth less than $13.8 billion and have a less dramatic effect on employment than billed. The contract wasn't as new as it appeared: Singapore Airlines announced Feb. 9 that it signed a letter of intent to order the 39 planes from a U.S. manufacturer. Boeing booked the order in June but did not identify the buyer until this past week. Given the lengthy negotiations involved in airline purchases, it's clear the order announced by Singapore Airlines less than three weeks after Trump was sworn in largely came together when Barack Obama was president. It's unlikely either president had much to do with it. WASHINGTON (AP) A former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians, special counsel Robert Mueller said Monday, while Trump's former campaign manager and that official's business partner pleaded not guilty to felony charges of conspiracy against the United States and other counts. The guilty plea by former adviser George Papadopoulos marked the first criminal case that cites interactions between Trump campaign associates and Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign. The developments ushered Mueller's sprawling investigation into a new phase with felony charges and possible prison sentences for key members of the Trump team. Court papers also revealed that Papadopoulos was told about the Russians possessing "dirt" on Democrat Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails" on April 26, 2016, well before it became public that the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails had been hacked. Papadopoulos has been cooperating with investigators, according to court papers, a potentially ominous sign for others in the Trump orbit who might be implicated by his statements. During the daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders downplayed Papadopoulos' role in the campaign, saying it was "extremely limited." "He was not paid by the campaign," Sanders said, adding later: "Any actions that he took would have been on his own." She said the White House has had "indications" that Mueller's investigation would conclude "soon." The president quickly tweeted about the allegations against Manafort, saying the alleged crimes were "years ago," and insisting there was "NO COLLUSION" between his campaign and Russia. He added, as he has a number of times recently, "Why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" Manafort and Gates appeared in federal court in Washington and pleaded not guilty to all charges. Papadopoulos' plea occurred on Oct. 5 and was unsealed Monday. In court papers, he admitted lying to FBI agents about the nature of his interactions with "foreign nationals" who he thought had close connections to senior Russian government officials. Those interactions included speaking with Russian intermediaries who were attempting to line up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin and offering "dirt" on Clinton. The court filings don't provide details on the emails or whom Papadopoulos may have told about the Russian government effort. The FBI interviewed Papadopoulos about his Russian connections on Jan. 27, a week after Trump's inauguration. The interview predates Mueller's appointment but was part of the FBI probe into Russian election interference that he has taken over. Papadopoulos was arrested over the summer at Dulles International Airport and has since met with the government "on numerous occasions to provide information and answer questions." The separate charges against Manafort and Rick Gates contend the men acted as unregistered foreign agents for Ukrainian interests. The indictments also include other financial counts involving tens of millions of dollars routed through offshore accounts. Manafort's indictment doesn't reference the Trump campaign or make any allegations about coordination between the Kremlin and the president's aides to influence the outcome of the election in Trump's favor. The indictment does allege a criminal conspiracy was continuing through February of this year, after Trump had taken office. The indictment filed in federal court in Washington accuses both Manafort and Gates of funneling payments through foreign companies and bank accounts as part of their political work in Ukraine. The two men surrendered to federal authorities Monday, and were expected in court later in the day to face the charges brought by Mueller's team. The indictment lays out 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, making false statements and several charges related to failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts. The indictment alleges the men moved money through hidden bank accounts in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles. In total, more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts, according to the indictment. Manafort is accused of laundering more than $18 million. A spokesman for Manafort did not immediately return calls or text messages requesting comment. Manafort and Gates have previously denied any wrongdoing. Manafort, 68, was fired as Trump's campaign chairman in August 2016 after word surfaced that he had orchestrated a covert lobbying operation on behalf of pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. The indictment against Manafort and Gates was largely based on activities disclosed in August 2016 by The Associated Press, which reported that the pair had orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine's ruling political party. Citing internal emails, the AP noted that Gates personally directed the work of two prominent Washington lobbying firms, Mercury LLC and the Podesta Group. The indictment doesn't refer to the companies by name. Specifically, the indictment accuses Manafort of using "his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income." That included using offshore accounts to purchase multimillion-dollar properties in the U.S., some of which the government is seeking to seize. Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to tip the presidential election. The appointment came one week after the firing of James Comey, who as FBI director led the investigation, and also followed the recusal months earlier of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the probe. Manafort joined Trump's campaign in March 2016 and oversaw the Republican National Convention delegate strategy. Trump pushed him out in August amid a stream of negative headlines about Manafort's foreign consulting work. Trump's middle son, Eric Trump, said in an interview at the time that his father was concerned that questions about Manafort's past were taking attention away from the billionaire's presidential bid. Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. That investigation was incorporated into Mueller's broader probe. In July, his investigators raided one of Manafort's homes in Virginia, searching for tax and international banking records. Previously, he denied any wrongdoing related to his Ukrainian work, saying through a spokesman that it "was totally open and appropriate." Manafort also recently registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for parts of Ukrainian work that occurred in Washington. The filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act came retroactively, a tacit acknowledgment that he operated in Washington in violation of the federal transparency law. The indictment Monday accuses Manafort and Gates of making several false and misleading statements in that FARA filing. Mueller's investigation has also reached into the White House, as he examines the circumstances of Comey's firing. Investigators have requested extensive documents and have interviewed multiple current and former officials. Mueller's grand jury has also heard testimony about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York attended by a Russian lawyer as well as Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In Gates, Mueller brings in not just Manafort's chief deputy, but a key player from Trump's campaign who survived Manafort's ouster last summer. As of two weeks ago, Gates was still working for Tom Barrack, a Trump confidant, helping with the closeout of the inauguration committee's campaign account. PHOENIX A man fatally shot his pregnant girlfriend as she tried to prevent him from leaving his northwest Phoenix apartment with a gun during a late-night argument with neighbors, Phoenix police said. Jasmine Ponce died in Sunday's shooting, but her son was delivered in good condition. Christopher Michael Kraft, 34, got into an argument with neighbors when he returned home after drinking at a bar, police said. It's unclear what Ponce did to prevent Kraft from leaving with a gun. She was 36 weeks pregnant. It's not known whether Kraft was the boy's father. Kraft put the gun in a garage bin in the parking lot, but it was later found, police said. Kraft was booked on suspicion of murder and evidence tampering. I agree with the letter writer re Reid Park Zoo funding. We know zoochosis is real. Why do we continue breeding animals, who will grow up, and likely develop, zoochosis? This forced confinement is a very old, very cruel, and very slow torture. We have degraded &/or eliminated most of their habitat. There is no comparison of an animal in the wild to the creatures we keep in zoos. The one thing this does teach our children is that we have the power to make other creatures miserable. Have we even considered Reid Park Zoo itself to become a sanctuary? No more breeding. No more captives. Just a beautiful area where what we already have can live out their lives. Perhaps we ( including our children) can learn there is a time for everything. Perhaps the time for these animals to have a 'real life' is almost over. Since graduating from University of Arizona in 1970, my family has been solidly middle class and, over the years, I learned that calls for tax reform usually mean my taxes will increase once the reforms are enacted, whether on the state or national level. I doubt very seriously this experience is unique to me. In the meantime, the gaps between the upper 5 percent and everyone else gets wider, our infrastructure deteriorates for lack of funding and cohesive planning and since the Reagan days the only trickle down from tax breaks to the rich and corporations is to the shareholders. This time, tax reform is in the hands of a billionaire president and a Republican Senate and House. What can go wrong? Help India! By Afroz Alam Sahil, TwoCircles.net Support TwoCircles Mob-lynching in India is neither new nor specific to certain regions of the country. However, over the past few years, the nature of such has changed from mere angry mobs to targeted attacks on individuals belonging to certain communities, especially Muslims. And Pehlu Khan happened to one such Muslim whose life ended at the hands of the so-called cow vigilantes. He was beaten to death in full public view, the ghastly event was recorded and circulated in public, the media went berserk (for some time at least), and yet there are debates over who, or what killed him. When the Rajasthan Police exonerated six people accused of murdering Pehlu Khan, a number of people were shocked. But for Rajasthan Police and the State Government, this was the result of meticulous cover-ups and planning. And the role of Dr Mahesh Sharma, Union Minister of State for Culture, Environment, Forests and Climate Change and his hospital shows the levels at which justice for Pehlu Khan was denied. Sharma as part of Kailash Healthcare Limited which runs Kailash Hospital, where Pehlu Khan was brought after the attack. But before we get into what the doctors at Kailash Hospital did, let us go back to what conducted by a medical board of three government doctors from the Community Health Centre (CHC), Behror, revealed. In their findings, the government doctors wrote: After careful examination of dead body by medical board, the fact[s] reveal that cause of death is shock brought as a result of antemortem thoraco-abdominal injuries mention[ed] in PMR [post-mortem] report sufficient to cause of death as ordinary course of nature. And yet, the police and the prosecution are trying to negate the report with statements from doctors at the private Kailash Hospital in Behror where Khan had passed away. At least three doctors at Kailash Hospital have given statements to the police with regard to Khans death. General Surgeon, Dr V. D. Sharma, in whose care Khan was placed, in his statement claimed that Khan was absolutely fine on April 2 and on the morning of April 3, before dying of a heart attack, says the report published. The report questions and says, Dr Sharma also said it was not possible for Khan to have died of the injuries he had sustained. But Dr Sharmas statement is riddled with many apparent and unexplained contradictions. For example, Dr Sharma has also admitted that when Khan was admitted to the hospital on April 1 he had bled from the nose and complained of pain in the right side of his chest where an X-ray later found multiple fractures in the ribs. Yet, Dr Sharma said Khans blood pressure, pulse and breathing were normal. The report further adds, Dr Sharma admits that on his rounds the next morning he found Khan had been put on oxygen support due to difficulty in breathing. Yet, Dr Sharma said, Khans vitals, etc., were normal. The doctor also said that Mr Khan had been asthmatic and a heart patient, and had had stents installed in his heart: hence, his death was due to the failure of a weak heart and not from the injuries. The report pointed out how a similar line is taken by the other doctors of the Kailash hospital, although there is a minor divergence on one claim. Radiologist Dr R. C. Yadav said that four ribs had been fractured on both the left and the right side of Khans chest. Yet, Dr Yadav also said that a sonography, an X-ray and a USG [ultra sonography] revealed that the chest, lungs and abdomen of Khan were normal with no injuries. The radiologist, therefore, concluded Khan could not die of the injuries. The report added, It is not known if the police seized the medical reports from Kailash Hospital pertaining to Khans treatment from the time he was admitted until he passed away, or if they obtained an independent assessment from government doctors of such medical reports, the report said. The report pointing out the role of Sharma is not coincidental. As it rightly pointed out, in September 2015 when gau rakshaks lynched a Muslim, Muhammad Akhlaq, at his home in Dadri village of Uttar Pradesh, Dr Sharma called it an accident and denied it was a conspiracy. Rather, Sharma alleged in an interview to The Indian Express, that Akhlaq had eaten beef, which provoked the Hindus to attack him. In that interview, Dr Sharma also alleged, without proof, that illegal cow slaughter was rampant in the village. There has been a spurt in the cases of cattle theft, he told the newspaper. They [thieves] tie the four legs (of the cow) in a special knot, use some instrument, kill it. Within minutes, they skin it, pack its meat in a vehicle, and escape. When one of the accused died in police custody in October 2016, Dr Sharma not only attended his funeral but also intervened when the dead mans family refused to cremate him until their demands for an investigation and a compensation of Rs 1 crore were met. While many have questioned the exoneration of the accused, the fact-finding report has once again shown that these crimes are not committed out of rage or vengeance but are instead systemic in nature and the perpetrators have assurances of getting protection from the Police and the government. Help India! TCN News South-Asian community members from Metropolitan Washington area staged a peaceful demonstration against the ongoing genocide of Rohingyas in front of the White House on October 29, 2017. Support TwoCircles More than 500,000 Rohingyas fleeing a military crackdown in Burma have been forced to Bangladesh and in jungles in Myanmars Rakhine state. The demonstration was organized by the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) in collaboration with several Metro Washington area Muslim, Christian, and Jewish associations. Speakers informed the public about the conditions in the Myanmar, and the situation which led to such a mass exodus of Rohingyas Muslims to the neighbouring south asian countries. Rohingyas, a Muslim ethnic group who have lived in Myanmar, or Burma, for generations, were never accepted by the majority Buddhist country. Burma refused to allow Rohingyas to become citizens and have denied them equal access to health care, education and employment because of their religion, branding them illegal aliens from Bangladesh. Speakers informed that Burmese soldiers have destroyed hundreds of Rohingya villages, slaughtered husbands in front of their wives, cut womens throats with knives and smashed the heads of babies in front of their mothers. Several speakers at the rally also mentioned that Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have reported cases not only of rape and sexual assault but the mutilation of womens genitals by Burmese security forces. The Burmese military is carrying out psychological and physical torture without fear of consequences, speakers claimed. Speakers appealed to everyone to exercise their duty and let elected leaders at all levels know the concerns about this unfortunate situation in Myanmar and request them to use their power to stop the genocide of the century. Help India! By Amit Kumar, TwoCircles.net Almost a year ago, just as Indians across the nation were returning from work or sitting at home on the evening of November 8, the nation was sent into chaos by the announcement of Prime Minister Narendra Modis The Great Indian Demonetisation scheme. It was as much as a move to remove the black money as a push towards cashless India. Support TwoCircles In Gujarat, however, more than 4.5 lakh people were waiting for answers over how a multi-crore Chit Fund from Odisha managed to take over Rs 200 crores from investors across the state. The presence of Chit Funds, with their convenient schemes, was, and remains, a testimony to just how far India has to go before people start trusting and investing their money via the route of proper and the more trustworthy banking system in India, let alone cashless schemes. It is a question that people like Deveshbhai Gamit, Sageshbhai Gamit, Simonbhai Gamit and Pravinbhai Gamit can only ponder over now: four men who, between 2012 and early 2015, worked as agents for Oscar Chit Fund and collectively gave this company over Rs 1 crore of hard-working tribals money during this period. All of them also invested their life savings with the Chit Fund to show their customers that they too trusted it as much as they expected the customers to trust the company. For the past two and a half years, they have been asking the same question as for their investors: who will be held accountable, and will the money invested ever come back? If not, what do they say to their customers? But to understand why a Chit Fund company gained such a foothold in Tapi district, we must look at a number of factors. One, banks here, at least till 2012, were still seen as out of bounds by tribals in the region. One of the agents, Deveshbhai, explained the reason to TwoCircles.net, It is a bit like why people buy LIC Policies even though they are expensive and there is so much other insurance available, he says. This Chit Fund, like any other private scheme, worked on making people invest through their relatives, friends and gave the incentive of adding people into the system, he added. Second, while mainstream banks seemed complex to the locals, these chit funds kept things extremely simple by working on a daily-deposit scheme, says Deveshbhai. For every customer they added to the chit fund, the agents received a one-time commission of 23% of the initial deposit in case of fixed deposit. In case of daily deposit schemes, they would get 3% of the total monthly deposit they made in the Fund, the following month. One of the most sought-after schemes was a Fixed Deposit of Rs 10,000, which would double in a period of 78 months, translating to about 11% return per annum (compound rate of interest, calculated annually). Compare this with a bank like ICICI, which offers about 7% per annum for an FD of Rs 10,000 for a similar tenure. The rates were higher than what most company FDs would offer, and for good reason. There was never a plan to pay these people back. Not that agents or customers had any clue of the same. A path out of poverty or a fraud? Oscar Chit Fund was an Odisha-based company with investments in everything under the sunfrom movies to colleges to infrastructure and real estateand in 2011, they were getting letters of recommendations from MPs, MLAs to even the governor of Odisha. Quite why a governor was encouraging people to invest in a Chit Fund can be anybodys guess: but all these gimmicks worked. By 2013, the company had opened over 80 branches across Gujarat with headquarters in Surat, about 70 km from Tapi, the district where these four agents worked. There was, however, one more factor that worked the most in favour of this company: luring Adivasi youth who had no jobs and were not tuned for jobs in any organised sector, let alone banks. Among these four agents, for example, no one had been able to study beyond Class 12. Chances of getting a job were remote and in fact, all four were unemployed before joining Oscar Chit Fund. The promotional activity worked well: men who had not even considered having a regular income job were invited to fancy parties in Surat on a regular basis. Something as simple as giving us a suit worked for us. We would go to big hotels where a meal would cost over Rs 600 and it was all paid for by the company, said another person who worked as an agent for Oscar. He refused to be named as he had successfully found another job at a local car dealership. He never told his present employee of his work experience as an agent for a now infamous Chit Fund company. When you have been told from the beginning that an ITI course should be your aim and become a successful plumber should be your dream, a job like the one in Oscar felt unbelievable. I was earning about Rs 11,000 per annum after working there for 10 months. I worked for about three years until the company went bust and earned more than in that period than I ever did before, he added. Deveshbhai talks about a similar experience. I was sitting at home, unemployed, in 2012 after finishing my ITI course when a man from Odisha visited our village and told us about the scheme. He had by then employed other youths from nearby villages. The guy told us that we did not have to work full-time. We could also do other things and even promised full reimbursement for the petrol bills incurred during field trips. It all seemed like a good offer, he said. And for two years that Deveshbhai worked for the company, it was all going perfectly well too. In 2013, there was a case registered against the company in Odisha, but few in Gujarat knew much about it. Simobhai says that he initially started by investing a daily amount in the company for about 6 months before deciding on becoming an agent. There was hardly any savings from farming, so in 2013 I also jumped inthe the first month, I made only Rs 530 based on one deposit I got to the company. In six months, I was making about Rs 6,000 per month. This amount may not be huge, but nevertheless, it was more than what I ever earned from farming. And it was regular, he says. Leading up to February 2015 when the companys true nature came out, Simonbhai had started earning about Rs 10,000 per month for the last three months. He had also made his wife an agent and the couple invested Rs 50,000 in the FD scheme. Sageshbhai, meanwhile, had invested Rs 80,000 in an FD scheme with the chit fund. Until one day, the shutters of their office was downed on February 4, 2015. And it has remained the same ever since. Pramodbhai remembers the day well. I was in the field, collecting the daily deposits when I got a call that the office was closed. When I arrived at the office, I was stunned to find out that the office manager, who was an Odiya, had left Vyara. I still had the money collected in the day with me, but no office to deposit it, he says. We are not thieves, but people see us that way The next few days were harrowing for the agents. Customers held them responsible for what had happened, and soon it became difficult for them to even step out of the home. Pramodbhai recalled the events following the closure of the chit fund office. We came to know the same day that the head office in Surat had also shut down. I had slips of deposits, all stamped and approved, for over two years, but no end product. People naturally thought we had a role to play in itsome customers would come home early morning and threaten us. They would stay at my place for hours, swearing at us and calling us fraud. What could I do? I was doing my job like anyone else. What conspired in Odisha, I do not know to this date, he says. He added that a few weeks later, some customers tried to take his bike from him saying that he had to pay if the company couldnt. Fortunately for him, the police stepped in and saved him from any serious harm. We had collected money from our relatives, our family members and told them about the schemes. Now, we could not even show our face to them, added Sageshbhai. Till date, my relationships with our extended family members remained strainedI wish I could help them, but the truth is I too lost money to the company, he says. In 2016, the company Chairman Prabhas Chandra Rout was arrested from Delhi, but for the locals here and lakhs of other investors across Gujarat, there has been no respite. What has shocked them, even more, is that despite repeated protests and requests, the Gujarat government has not paid heed to their demands of asking for a CBI inquiry into the matter. Earlier this year, all the agents submitted many sacks of receipts to the police to show that they were not part of the nexus. We want an enquiry, we want people to get back their money and we want them to trust us again, but it seems the Gujarat government does not even want to acknowledge the problem we are facing, says Simonbhai. The end of the company also brought an end to their regular income, he says. I went back to working on the farmI barely make ends meet. Who will give me a job now? No one will trust an agent of a company that was a fraud. The little chance of having a career is now gone for us. Deveshbhai went back to being a part-time electrician and even tried his hand at selling Biryani in Songadh city, about 6 km from his residence. I had to shut down that business also because people kept harassing me over the money they lost. I doubt well ever get a job again, he added. Between displacement due to dams and forced migration in search of employment, the job at the chit fund was the only thing that could have helped these four men aspire to a better life for their family. Instead, 30 months after the end of the chit fund, they are no closer to recovering any money they handed to the company. What remains is an uncertain future and a fading hope that maybe, one day the money will be returned to the investors, says Simonbhai. I wanted to buy a refrigerator for my family. Now, I think I will have to wait a long time before I can even consider the same, he said. Even when an Adivasi in this region thinks he has made the cut and risen out of poverty, it seems factors much beyond his control conspire to bring him down. Help India! TCN News New Delhi: Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) clearly observes that one year of much flaunted demonetization by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi has created nothing but economic disaster than any positive change in the country. In this context, Social Democratic Party of India has planned to observe Novmber 8 the day when currencies were demonetised as Demonetization Accountability Day with the caption One Year is Over. PM Modi Answer. Support TwoCircles SDPIs national president A. Sayeed said in a press statement that the sudden announcement of demonetization in the midnight of November 8 shocked the entire nation and pushed the common folk to unexplainable and unprecedented miseries in exchanging their hard earned money. PM Narendra Modi assured the nation that it was a historic decision for which he will be answerable if this move proved to be a damp squib and he will be punished publicly. Sayeed reiterated that, the nation witnessed only economic disaster by the demonetization and the reasons showed for the move was proved absolutely groundless and absurd. The entire nation mutely viewed that the common people including women, children, aged and handicapped persons were suffered heavily standing in queues day night whereas the rich, corporates, ministers, bureaucrats never stood in the queues to exchange their currencies but bartered their notes in bulk with the bank officials in the back door. SDPIs statement said, During this one year after demonetization no any black-money was recovered, no fake currencies were confiscated, impact on terrorism is unseen and ultimately the nation became cashless. It was depicted by the Modi Bhakts that the demonetization declared by Modi was a bold and new leap in Indian history that nobody has taken such decision. In fact, there are many instances of demonetization in independent India which was taken on adequate preparation and due consultations with experts and ministers. Whereas, to gain instant and cheap heroic popularity Narendra Modi has imposed this grievous decision on the people of this country and categorically neglected his own ministers and economic experts before taking such serious decision. Sayeed said, The nation is still not recuperated from the damages from the ghastly blow on the entire economy of the country as the large and small scale industries are not raised up from the heavy losses, crores of people lost their employment, construction and land development sector come to a total standstill, small and big trading sectors are at the brink of collapse and farmers and labors are facing the hardship to find their way of livelihood. He further said that it is a mystery that even after such a long period of nearly one year news reports appearing that large quantity of demonetized currencies are confiscated while transition. The police or intelligence agencies never revealed the names of culprits or designs behind this cash mafia. He said, PM Narendra Modi has wisely forgotten his words as he had said that he will be punished publicly if demonetization proved a big failure. On 8 November, SDPI will lead the agitation throughout the country against such a heinous crime committed by the Prime Minister demanding answers from him for the damages and disasters incurred by blindfolded demonetization. Along with poster campaign SDPI will conduct dharna in front of RBI in the states and also conduct dharna in front of district collectorates all over the country. Help India! By Siddhant Mohan, TwoCircles.net A day after spiritual leader Ravishankar proposed to mediate the Ram Janmbhoomi Babri Masjid dispute between different parties, strong voices of dissent have already surfaced from the Sangh Parivar leaders. Support TwoCircles It seems that Ravishankars initiative is not getting a warm welcome from Hindu parties especially those leaning towards Vishva Hindu Parishad or BJP. Last week, the Art of Living Foundation announced that Ravishankar is in talks with several Imams and Mahant Ram Das of Nirmohi Akhara, former BJP MP Ram Vilas Vedanti rejected Ravishankars initiative to step in the matter. Vedanti told media on Sunday, Since Ravishankar has not been associated with the Ram Mandir movement, we cannot accept his mediation. We went to jail, faced house arrest and have been fighting cases in the courts. He never even had a darshan of Ram Lalla. How does he qualify? said Vedanti. Vedanti made it clear that Ram Janmbhoomi Nyas and Vishva Hindu Parishad led the movement, so it is up to them to whom they should allow the mediation. However, Vendantis announcement was used as an example by the Muslim organisations to show the stubbornness of the Sangh Parivar. Zafaryab Jilani from All India Muslim Personal Law Board expressed the fear Ravishankar or any other mediating party will have to face a hard time before VHP. We are open to talks with anybody who wants to mediate in the matter. Ravishankar is a man of repute so he must have thought to come up with a kind and balanced solution in the matter. But he must go first to VHP people, said Jilani. They are the one who had been running from any sort of mediation. Jilani also said, Ravishankar is a wise man. He should not issue press statements before doing anything. The issue must be dealt unaffected by any kind of influence. But if he wants Muslims to surrender towards VHP agenda, that is not going to happen and I must assure that mediation will fail in that case, added Jilani. Even Sunni Wakf Board, which is one of the parties in the case, believes that Ravishankars stance of mediation is important and must be welcomed. But Board showed the same fear as that of the AIMPLB that people involved in the movement will not agree to the mediation process. Sunni Wakf Boards chairman Zufaar Farooqui said, If Ravishankar wants to come at some amicable solution, that is welcome. But we must know that the talks with those involved in Ram Mandir movement are the most crucial thing here. As the Allahabad High Court distributed the disputed land between Sunni Wakf Board, Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla in 2010, the matter went to the Supreme Court where the hearing will take place in coming weeks. But mediation must be done as a Lucknow based social activist Shakeel Rizvi put first with those involved with Ram Mandir movement. RIzvi said, Talks with parties wont do much to the case. One should consider talking with every possible organisation involved in the matter, Farooqui said, Contesting parties have been refraining from any sort of talks, and that is where anyone should put much focus. I have been approached by his Art of Living foundation. I welcome them to the talk, but it is to see if they succeed in getting the other parties ready. Help India! By TCN News Nuh, Haryana: Human Welfare Foundation and Society for Bright Future jointly organised Humanitarian Relief aid for Rohingya refugees who are living in different camps of Nuh Haryana on Sunday, October 29. Support TwoCircles The Foundation also organised a medical camp with a team of specialist doctors from Al- Shifa Multispeciality Hospital- New Delhi for Rohingyas in Chandni Camp and Nuh in Haryana. More than 500 persons benefited through health checkup and free medicine were distributed among the patients. Foundation also distributed relief materials for more than 1,500 people that contain mat, bed, clothes, footwear etc. Human Welfare Foundation is helping Rohingya refugees on a humanitarian basis. It is our responsibility to help the people without any discrimination. The Foundation has been working with these people for three years, providing food, clothes, shelter and basic education, said Human Welfare Foundation General Secretary T. Arif Ali. The HWF trust was established by a group of eminent community leaders in 2006 and it is dedicated to carrying out humanitarian and development programs to ght poverty and peoples sufferings by working in partnership with vulnerable communities regardless of faith, caste, gender or political beliefs. The HWF trust was established by a group of eminent community leaders in 2006 and it is dedicated to carrying out humanitarian and development programs to ght poverty and peoples sufferings by working in partnership with vulnerable communities regardless of faith, caste, gender or political beliefs. In his first speech on public television, after the Catalan Parliament voted to declare independence on Friday, Puigdemont said he will not accept the suspension of the Catalan government by the Spanish government. "It is a decision contrary to the one expressed at the ballot boxes", he said from the Catalan government's headquarters in Girona, his hometown. "In a democratic society, Parliaments are the ones who appoint or dismiss presidents." Madrid starts to take control of Catalan institutions "And what now?", many Catalans ask themselves. The Spanish Government has already begun with the first measures derived from the approval of article 155 of the Spanish Constitution suspending Catalan self-government. This Saturday the chief of the Mossos d'Esquadra, the Catalan police, has already been dismissed. Josep Lluis Trapero accumulated charges of sedition by his "inaction" according to the Spanish Government during the celebration of the referendum on the p1st of October. The director general of the Catalan police, Pere Soler, has also been dismissed. This Friday the president of the Spanish Government, Mariano Rajoy, has cancelled the president and his cabinet, has dissolved the parliament and called elections for December 21. With these measures and others to come, Madrid wants to recover the "legality" of Catalan institutions. What is surprising is that Rajoy has delegated to the Vice-President of the Government, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, all the functions that would correspond to him. Thus, Santamaria now has the powers of the presidency of the Generalitat. In this way, it is stated in the Official State Gazette (BOE), where it appears that the President of the Government assumes the functions and powers that correspond to the President of the Generalitat and in turn, Rajoy delegates his tasks to the Vice-President. The measures and how they will be applied are still unknown. Party time Following Friday's declaration of independence, thousands of supporters took to the streets to welcome the Republic. The celebration did not stop even though hours after the proclamation Madrid had suspended the Catalan Executive and dissolved the parliament. According to local police in Barcelona, about 6,000 participants were counted in Sant Jaume Square, in front of one of the buildings of the Catalan government, the Palau de la Generalitat. The celebration had already begun hours before near where the Catalan Parliament is located, in Ciutadella Park. On the other hand, a demonstration in favour of the unity of Spain was concentrated in front of the Catalan public radio station facilities, where demonstrators broke windows. In 2013 when Boris Johnson was serving his final term as Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan was the former mayor's biggest critic when it came to reforming London's police services. They would have inevitably caused damage to the Metropolitan Police and the outcome of Mr. Johnson's reforms were not certain. But Mayor Khan's remarks back then are typical of this politician's motives; he will say anything to gain power. Since occupying the position of Mayor of London, he has gone back on so many campaign promises he made during the 2016 London Mayoral Election. He was a vehement proponent of freezing travel fares for the City's citizens and stole votes from his rival, Zac Goldsmith, and cost the latter victory. Yet after succeeding Mr. Johnson, he immediately reneged on his central campaign pledge. He does not represent the London taxi industry's best interests The Mayor's recent Uber ban also demonstrate the depths he is willing to sink in order to deceive the electorate. He was once filmed saying he was "more of an Uber man" as opposed to a black cab passenger. But his Uber suspension shows that his instincts lie with regulating the free market. He does not represent the London taxi industry's best interests. Mayor Khan's past has come back to haunt him in light of his recent proposals to close numerous police stations in Lambeth. He was opposed to Boris's measures in 2013 and now he is reforming the Metropolitan Police to the extent that community policing is being sacrificed to pay for his centralisation of power. No one questions these types of proposals when a Labour politician is enacting them It will not benefit Lambeth's residents to have one police station instead of ten. If this was a Conservative mayor proposing these cuts, the Labour-run Lambeth Council would be relentlessly lobbying the Mayor's Office. They have shown little energy in protesting against Mayor Khan's policy. No one questions these types of proposals when a Labour politician is enacting them, as opposed to Tory politicians, who would be crucified by the press. Sadiq Khan has forgotten his past comments and sacrificed his principles to gain power. He is part of the political class that is eroding people's trust in politics. He may have forgotten what he said in the past, but it is vital London citizens do not in the 2020 mayoral elections. Like all malignant things, racism needs space and time to grow in society. And in South Africa, even 23 years into our democracy, racism is thriving. On social media, we see some subtly racist posts and sometimes, an overt one or two. But by and large, the bulk of racism lies beneath the surface of Instagram holiday posts and happy birthdays on Facebook walls. The majority of racist sentiments are voiced when the people saying them are in a space where they won't be judged or called out. Today, there has been a call to wear black in solidarity with farmers in South Africa, who claim that there are approximately 50 white farmers killed in the country per day. The issue of Farm Murders is a highly politicised one, and this rate has been used by many apartheid apologists and supporters as evidence that South Africas white minority is facing oppression, sometimes even calling it genocide. While posts like this are common, and usually get eye-rolls from the general public, some honestly believe that the white population in South Africa has been under siege since democracy was achieved in 1994. In fact, the South African police reported that 49 people were murdered in farm attacks in 2015/16. The current statistic has not yet been made public. The local fact-checking organisation, Africa Check, says it is nearly impossible to accurately calculate the number of farm murders. Part of the reason is that the South African Police Service has no crime category called "farm attack" or "farm murder". There are many other reasons for the difficulty in calculating the numbers, which can be found in the report, but the fact is that the protest against farm murders is based on highly dubious grounds. The issue of violent crime in South Africa is all too real, and we don't need the fear-mongering that comes with protests like these. To top it off, protesters today were brandishing the old South African flag; the symbol of apartheid and an age of white supremacy that we would very much like to overcome. The flying of this flag is not only reminiscent of a time where people of colour were discriminated against but a time where the idea of white supremacy was encouraged and celebrated - a time where racism flourished and was something to be proud of. The reason this show of support for these old values can happen is that very few people within these communities will call it out as racist, and allow it to continue happening. It is a blatant display of underlying racism that has been suppressed by our country's new laws and younger, progressive attitudes that frown upon in public spaces on a day-to-day basis. This shows that the people flying it are comfortable to be racist within their own circles and it is not just a comfort zone where racism is allowed; it's a space where it's fortified. The acceptance of racism within these groups emboldens those involved to make displays such as this. Protesting in this way against farm murders is inherently about protecting Whiteness. The fact that the majority of farmers in South Africa are white in a majority black country is a testament to our structural inequality that is borne out of our painful history. It is also notable that majority of the crimes occurring in South Africa affect its black population. This protest is a diversion of attention away from the real issues that South Africa faces, taking attention away from the severity of the crimes against black people and focusing the attention back to white people. The realest I know pic.twitter.com/jGv3StYfOO Modern Day Bilquis (@MissMnotho) October 30, 2017 In a post on Facebook late last week, two young women sent a video to a WhatsApp group that was meant for their white friends only. In the video, the women scream: "A k*ffir stole my phone!" (The term "k*ffir" is a highly derogatory word to describe a black person.) The women in the video then say: "Don't let Zenani hear this." (Zenani obviously being their token black friend whom they probably use as their reason for not being racist: "I'm not racist; I have a black friend!") The people around them are unfazed by their rantings, and allow them to continue because whiteness allows for it. The post has since been removed from social media, but the point is the same. White people are - by and large - still okay with racist sentiments, and their whiteness protects and allows racism in all its forms, be it in displaying a flag or a drunken video. The Mayor of London has been criticised over his hypocritical stance regarding police station closures in Lambeth. Councillor Tim Briggs, the Conservative Group Leader on Lambeth Council, has created a petition on Change.org calling on the Labour-run council and Mayor Sadiq Khan to re-think their plans to close numerous police stations in the London borough. The Mayor of London's Office issued a press release defending his record of keeping London safe and called on the Government to reverse funding decisions which would endanger the nation's capital. These include a refusal from ministers to fully finance the National and International Capital Cities Grant, the Department for Communities and Local Government's refusal to ring-fence local resilience team budgets, and the Home Office's failure to take forward Lord Harris's recommendations from his review into keeping London safer from terrorist attacks. The Mayor said he has confirmed that two-thirds of Lord Harris' terror review recommendations have been implemented and accused the Government of "dragging its feet" on this issue. "Virtue-signalling hypocrisy" In an exclusive interview with Blasting News, Councillor Briggs accused the Labour-run Lambeth Council and the Mayor of London of "virtue-signalling hypocrisy." He added: "Labour always thinks they can get away with sneaking in cuts to our public services because they always portray themselves as the 'good guys' in British politics. Their actions betray them. "Sadiq Khan has broken many promises since coming to office. In 2013, he asserted that changes to the structure of policing were decided by the Mayor, and criticised changes made by Boris Johnson, which would have resulted in less damaging changes to the policing structure here than the current Mayor's proposals. "We as a Conservative Party support community policing. Unhelpful Labour councillors are trying to blame central government for this mess. The Mayor has a 17 billion-a-year budget. How can he say his funding decisions are affected by what Westminster does?" Lambeth Council issued a response to the Tory Leader's petition on Love. Lambeth, urging the Mayor of London to revisit its policy of reorganising Lambeth's police services, which would result in numerous stations like Kennington, Streatham, Loughborough Junction and Cobalt Square being closed. Lambeth Council's Leader, Councillor Lib Peck, and Councillor Mo Seedat, Cabinet Member for Safer Communities, have written to London's Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime, Sophie Linden, asking that plans to close all but one of the borough's police stations are rethought. "Putting public safety at risk" The letter outlines that the Labour Group supports Lord Harris' proposals, but it stressed that government cuts since 2010, which according to them have resulted in 400 million being taken out of the Metropolitan Police's budget since that year, are putting public safety at risk. Councillor Briggs said the Labour Group are only covering their own backs and they are failing to lobby Sadiq Khan. He added: "They are using loads of locally-funded propaganda to cover their own position. Labour has all the resources to do this instead of funding decent public services. "The Labour Group's letter to Ms Linden can be interpreted as a bit of a u-turn. We all know that it is the Mayor of London who makes a final decision on this matter, not the Deputy Mayor. "If these measures are passed, we must be allowed to make submissions. We support community policing." Lambeth Conservatives would not support the Mayor's new model Asked whether he believes Mayor Khan's proposals would make the City less safe, Councillor Briggs says it depends on the final outcome of the policy. He stressed the community policing model has been very successful and Lambeth Conservatives would not support the Mayor's new structure. You can find a link to Councillor Tim Briggs' petition on the Change.org website. One of the biggest military exercises involving navy warships, fighters and ground troops of Russia and india has concluded in the Russian Far East at Vladivostok. The sheer size and scope of the exercise show a desire by both nations to keep their strategic ties alive. The exercise took place from October 17-29 and has alarmed China who has realised that their close ties with Russia cannot be taken for granted. The exercise took place in the waters which China considers its backyard as reported by The Indian Defense Review. India - Russia cooperation In 1970, the shrewd Indian premier Indira Gandhi signed a 20-year military cooperation agreement with Russia. It guaranteed Soviet help during the war for the liberation of Bangladesh. Much water has flown down the river since then. The pact with Russia was not renewed in 1990 as India moved closer to America and Russia went into a partnership with China. Both countries have realised there is a confluence of interests between them and hence have held this war drill. Russia is wary of the growing power of China and it's dream to dominate the world. Similarly, India is also adverse to US overtures to Pakistan and supply of billions of dollars of military aid. Both nations Russia and India have decided this would be in their interests to rekindle the old relationship. The exercise The Indian war team was led by Rear Admiral Bose and he was feted by the Russians with a guard of honour. The Indian navy brought in frigates and the IAF used the latest Sukhoi fighter-bombers. The Army contingent brought in T-90 and 72 tanks along with infantry units. The Russians also matched the Indian strength and the exercise was conducted in the Pacific Ocean and the hinterland of East Siberia. It was a live exercise and smoke from the gunfire during the exercise filled the sky. Reports of the exercise are carried by Sputnik, Russian news channel. The exercise has showcased Indian military power. It also gave a friendless Russia a much-needed boost, as well as served a warning to China. The Indian troops and naval flotilla have now headed for home. They have however made a point to China about Russia - India military cooperation. The joint exercise just a few miles from the Chinese coast is certainly not to the liking of China. China China is the world's second-largest economy and in another decade will overtake the US. With a massive population of 1.3 billion, therefore it is crystal clear that China will try and dominate the world. They could also threaten Russian interests as Russian East is sparsely populated. So in this context, Russia and India will like to rebuild bridges to counter China. It's routine for Democrats to clash with the more conservative-leaning hosts on Fox News, which doesn't seem to be a theme ending anytime soon. During a broadcast on Thursday night, one network host ran into a metaphorical buzz-saw in the form of a Democratic member of congress. Fox News and Dems It all started two decades ago when Roger Ailes founded the Fox News Channel as an alternative news outlet to provide Americans a more conservative approach to politics. With names like Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity as the network's top stars, Fox News vaulted to the top of the ratings and has remained the number one cable news channel in the country for the better part of the last 20 years. From the days of the Bill Clinton impeachment trial, to defending George W. Bush, blasting Barack Obama on a nightly basis, while currently standing by the side of Donald Trump, Fox News is known as a political safe spaces for those on the right of the political spectrum who believe the mainstream media is made up of "liberal elites." Since the start of the Trump administration, Fox News has been the president's top advocate, with both sides having such a close relationship that the billionaire real estate mogul has been known to tweet about his favorite programs on the network. However, due to Fox News being crafted for a conservative audience, liberals and Democrats are not always presented in the most positive light. As seen on the October 26 edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," the host and his Democratic guest didn't see eye to eye. (Sherman fires back at 1:00 in the above video.) During a Fox News segment on Thursday night, host Tucker Carlson invited Democratic Rep. Brad Sherman of California to address the recent Washington Post story that revealed the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) reportedly funded the research that led to the now infamous "pee tape" dossier about Donald Trump. Despite Carlson pushing the issue, Sherman was aggressive in not taking the bait as he attempted to shift the conversation to the president's controversial tax plan. Honey Badger Dont Care: Brad Sherman Infiltrates Tucker Carlsons Interview With Byron York https://t.co/f2z8JA1I06 (VIDEO) pic.twitter.com/sPMNuXFogO Mediaite (@Mediaite) October 27, 2017 "I am here to talk about the tax bill," Sherman said. In response, Tucker Carlson replied, "We don't have a tax bill." Sherman then went on to break down Trump's tax reform plan, while Carlson chimed in an attempt to direct the conversation back to the alleged funding of the dossier by the Democrats. After Carlson told the congressman he could come back to his show to speak about taxes, Sherman was quick to fire back. Fox News heat "No, you wont!" Brad Sherman said, before adding, "I've been trying to get on your show again and again and again and you only have me on to talk about nonsense." When Carlson pushed for Sherman to speak about potentially stolen information in the dossier, the congressman said he didn't know, while adding, "I dont know whether there are Martians who have landed on this planet." The segment wrapped soon after, with the Fox News host accusing the Democrat of putting on a "performance." When Senator Orrin Hatch's spokesman, Dave Hansen, was asked about the senator retiring, he responded condescendingly. Mr. Hansen told the Atlantic that nothing had changed since the media outlet itself had published a "carbon copy" of the same claims from months before. According to either report, five sources in Utah said that Hatch told allies in private that he was planning to retire. But in saying so, he also added that Mitt Romney would be running to replace him. Hatch's 2017 priorities Mr. Hansen's response was to focus on the issues that Congress was currently facing, with passing "historic tax reform", confirming judges across the country and to continue to legislate for Utah by fighting through the gridlock. Hatch was likely referring to the issues that have presented themselves in Congress. Many Republicans have felt that Congress wasted a lot of time with trying to repeal Obamacare, as they had failed to pass a repeal multiple times due many in the party who refused to vote. Now with only two months left in the year, House Republicans have rushed to lay down the foundation to President Trump's tax reform by passing a $4 trillion budget. It will now be the responsibility of the Senate to do the same. Since Sen. Hatch is the chairman of the Finance Committee, he has said that in league with the budget that he planned on passing his tax plan by next month. Retirement gets Bannon's attention It's largely presumed that because Romney is "loved" in Utah that he would easily win for Hatch's seat. Although, according to Politico, Breitbart's Steve Bannon plans to throw his support behind a candidate for the Utah primary against Romney. Bannon has made no secret of wanting to go up against Romney. The Atlantic said that a spokesman for Romney would not comment. Sources claimed that the plans for Sen. Hatch to retire and for Romney to run have already been set in motion. But they also spoke on the conditions of anonymity because nothing has been finalized yet. Those allied sources spoke on the condition of anonymity for obvious reasons but also because both men could still change their minds. Before August, Steve Bannon was President Trump's chief strategist at the White House where he was said to strategize political attacks against Trump's opponents in the Republican Party. Steps to turn Congress into 'Trumpublicans' After being fired by White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, Bannon was one of the few who returned to Breitbart News vowing to fight against the president's critics from the outside. One of the recent examples of this was with Bannon throwing his support behind Roy Moore in Alabama. Trump publicly put his support behind Luther Strange, who replaced Jeff Sessions' seat, which was said to have been influenced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who Bannon has also vowed to have replaced. Roy Moore would win the Alabama primary. Hatch's retirement comes after Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) announced on the Senate floor that he too would be leaving. Sen. Flake had already been attacking and was getting attacked by President Trump via Twitter and in rallies. Flake is seen by Trump's supporters as an establishment Republican, and his retirement is largely seen as Trump "draining the swamp." As other Republicans either retire or even run for another term in 2018, Bannon is there to make sure he has candidates that are more like Trump, to replace them in primaries. On Monday morning, former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were revealed to be the first people charged in the ongoing Russian investigation. In their defense, the president took out his frustrations on Twitter. Trump and Russia From the early days of the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump has been fighting off allegations that he and his campaign had been in cahoots with Russia. From defending Russian President Vladimir Putin to refusing to release his tax returns, the former host of "The Apprentice" continued to claim his innocence, writing off the allegations as nothing more than propaganda from the media and Democrats. Fast forward to his upset win over Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and the allegations and scandal only increased, with several well-respected news outlets and government reports concluding that Russia hacked the election, and did so with a Trump victory in mind. As expected, the White House has stuck with their story, blaming the "fake news" media for pushing the story, while doing everything they can to deflect the reports of collusion back onto the Clinton campaign and Obama administration. Despite this, news broke over the weekend that the first charges in the current investigation into Russia, led by special counsel Robert Mueller, were filed. On Monday it was revealed that Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were the intended targets and both were charged with conspiracy against the United States. As seen on his Twitter account on October 30, Trump was in full-on defense mode. Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017 ....Also, there is NO COLLUSION! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017 Taking to his Twitter account on Monday morning, Donald Trump wasted no time fighting back against the Mueller investigation charges. "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign," Trump tweeted, before adding, "But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" In a follow-up tweet, Trump added, "There is NO COLLUSION!" Trump and Obama Prior to Donald Trump's defense of Paul Manafort, the commander in chief used his social media platform to hit back at the Democrats over their own alleged collusion with Russia. "Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS," Trump posted, while adding, "The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OK'd!" Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS. The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OK'd! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017 Fact-check Not long after Donald Trump sent out his tweets, Jeffrey Toobin, the legal analyst on CNN, debunked the president's remarks that Paul Manafort had been involved with Russia before joining his campaign. "It's just not true," Toobin said. "You only have to read the indictment to see that it says the conspiracy goes during the time when Manafort and Gates were both working for the Trump campaign," he added. Trump Falsely Claims Manafort's Alleged Criminal Conduct Occurred 'Years Ago' https://t.co/WLmk7iHMKM (VIDEO) pic.twitter.com/bGQ4CXGX97 Mediaite (@Mediaite) October 30, 2017 Despite the evidence against him, Donald Trump appears unwilling to come clean about either his knowledge or of those who worked for his campaign or administration in regards to collusion with Russia. As of press time, the White House has not responded further to the news. Donald Trump had yet another controversial week in the White House and the majority of the mainstream media made sure to hold his feet to the fire. After the week concluded with the first charges being filled in the ongoing Russian investigation, Trump attempted to deflect from the issue with a tweet of his own. Trump on Twitter Even during the early days of the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump has been forced to hit back against allegations that he had been in cahoots with Russia. Prior to the Republican National Convention last year, Trump was forced to replace his campaign manager with Kellyanne Conway after Paul Manafort was revealed to have had financial ties back to the Kremlin. In the year that followed, the former host of "The Apprentice" would continue to face allegations of collusion with Russia, with critics pointing out his constant praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his refusal to release his tax returns. Since defeating Hillary Clinton last November, the pressure has only mounted as multiple news outlets and government reports have all concluded that Russia hacked the election with a Trump victory in mind. Fast forward to present day and there has been an ongoing investigation taking place in regards to Russia, with Robert Mueller being brought on board as the special counsel to dig into what role the Kremlin played in the election. On Friday night, CNN broke the story that the first charges had been filed in the investigation, which led to the president tweeting about Hillary Clinton instead on October 27. WHAT HAPPENED How Team Hillary played the press for fools on Russia https://t.co/GqpIidk017 NOW WE KNOW! pic.twitter.com/SgWL1HZmkI Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 28, 2017 Taking to his Twitter account just an hour after the CNN report broke, Donald Trump promoted a New York Post story that accused Hillary Clinton of her own collusion with Russia. "What happened?" Trump rhetorically asked, before adding, "Now we know!" The allegations against Clinton date back to earlier in the week when the Washington Post reported that the Clinton campaign and the DNC had funded the research behind the controversial "pee tape" dossier. However, an additional report was released on Friday night with the conservative website "Washing Free Beacon" admitting to being the outlet who funded the dossier's research. Exclusive: A federal grand jury has approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Mueller https://t.co/ZVvg1WCjMs pic.twitter.com/fXsVZUILni CNN (@CNN) October 28, 2017 CNN's bombshell story on Friday reported that the first charges had been filed in regards to the ongoing investigation into Russian election interference. Robert Mueller has led the investigation since being named special counsel, and according to CNN, "the charges are still sealed under orders from a federal judge." It's unknown who has been charged, but it's likely to come out on Monday or Tuesday, with Paul Manafort being one name that is a rumored possibility. Next up As the Russian scandal continues to pick up steam in recent days, the White House appears to be gathering their thoughts and only time will tell how they handle the sensitive situation moving forward. As far as Donald Trump himself, it's expected that the American people haven't heard the last from the president on the issue at hand. Does one life Matter more than another? That is the question that many South Africans have been grappling with in light of the call for people to wear black on Monday 30 October in memory of all the farmers that have been murdered this year. Chris Loubser, a farm manager on a well-known Franschoek farming estate, made an appeal for all South Africans to wear black to honor Conradie Joubert, who was murdered on a nearby farm. The video went viral and started being posted all over social media with the tags #BlackMonday and #SupportOurFarmers helping gather support. While many South Africans felt like this was a great cause to get involved with, there was also substantial pushback from many who felt like many other murders were being overlooked on a regular basis and had the sense that this was related to the race of the people involved. For example, South Africa has an average of 19,016 murders a year with a comparatively small number of 74 farmers making up that number. All deaths matter vs. All lives matter The response of those supporting #BlackMonday was to suggest that anyone having an issue with the March was doing a bit of an #AllLivesMatter on the movement. When the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter started in the United States, it was quickly met with many white people posting #AllLivesMatter. The point black people were trying to make though was that white lives have always mattered but black lives have often mattered less and thus needed a special tag to help draw concern. When it comes to the #BlackMonday march though, it feels like just the opposite of that. No one is suggesting that the farm murders do not matter. They were tragic and needed a response immediately. But many people feel like the deaths that happen regularly in the townships or gangsterism attacks on the Cape Flats don't ever seem to get this kind of attention and so it feels as if they matter less. How do we find each other? I think the way forward is for us to be able to acknowledge that all murders are horrific and need to be acknowledged and mourned as communities and even collectively as a nation. As we take a moment to pause for the farmers who have lost their lives and the trauma their families are facing, let us also pause to remember those who have lost lives in the townships, on the flats and in various other places around the country. Let us commit to building relationships with people who do not look like us so that when these things happen, they do not polarise, but rather help bring us together. Blockchain uses a cryptographic network to provide a single source of truth, enabling different parties to co-create a permanent, unchangeable and transparent record of exchange and processing without relying on a central authority. The new technology has seen more application in China. Let us take a look. Asset-backed security issue The Baidu Inc logo is displayed outside the company's headquarters in Beijing, Nov 12, 2014. [Photo/VCG] A 400 million yuan ($60.4 million) asset-backed security(ABS), which was backed by Baidu's blockchain technology, was issued on the Shanghai Securities Exchange on Sept 19, according to Baidu. The security is the first blockchain-aided exchange-traded ABS in China. Baidu, as the technology provider, built a blockchain as a service for the ABS, with all participating parties on this consortium blockchain, including Baidu Finance, the security provider, the brokers, the rating agency and the law firm. Information on the asset and on the fundraising company, which issued the ABS, were both disclosed via the blockchain. Jiang Tai Insurance Brokers Co Ltd, one of the country's largest insurance brokers, is expected to float its shares on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's SME board next year, the company's chairman said. "We will submit our listing materials to the securities regulator in May next year. If everything moves on smoothly, the company will be listed on the SME board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange in the second half of 2018," said Shen Kaitao. Jiang Tai, with an expected commission income of around 900 million yuan ($136 million) this year, will be the country's second listed insurance broker. Before it, Mingya Insurance Brokers Limited filed for a listing in the National Equities Exchange and Quotation or NEEQ, also known as the "New Third Board", in July. In the past few years, Jiang Tai has grown at more than 20 percent on average, said Shen, who is part of the management team that owns around 65 percent stake. By the end of 2016, there were more than 400 insurance broking companies in China, compared with 14 insurance groups, 179 insurance companies and 37 insurance asset management companies. The total assets of insurance brokers have reached 17.1 billion yuan in 2016, up 26 percent from the previous year, according to industry data. Last year, premiums raised through insurance brokers was 69.4 billion yuan, or 2.2 percent of the total premium income of 3.1 trillion yuan, according to the China Insurance Regulatory Commission. Besides the traditional insurance brokerage business, Shen said the company is committed to another two types of online business platforms: Utou and Dajiuxing. Utou is a third-party cross-border investment and trade services platform that supports Chinese enterprises' overseas expansion, and provides a one-stop solution to risks and problems Chinese enterprises are likely to encounter in overseas investments. "We are seeking an overseas listing for the platform within four years," said Leo Xiang, deputy general manager of Jiang Tai Investment and Trade Services Co Ltd. Since Utou's launch in June this year, more than 4,000 enterprises have joined the platform as members, with most of the enterprises coming from Hebei, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces, according to Xiang. "Member fee will be one of the major revenues for the platform though now it is free of charge," said Xiang. Dajiuxing is a platform that provides assistance services to Chinese traveling overseas as well as foreigners in China. It can quickly match the assistance service providers with the clients to meet their needs for medical emergencies or other travel-related assistance, said Shen. The brokerage business is aimed to address insurable risks, while Utou and Dajiuxing are targeted at uninsurable risks, Xiang said. BEIJING - Foreign leaders and scholars are impressed by the development plans announced on the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and hold high hopes for China's continued economic reforms and peaceful development in the coming years. The CPC is leading the country successfully through successive reforms, Libyan Foreign Minister Mohamed Sayala told Xinhua in a recent interview. Sayala, whose government is backed by the United Nations, said what China has achieved over the past years through these reforms is "an economic miracle," noting that China has relied on the experience of the whole nation mobilizing for economic reform. "I think the important thing is that despite the achievements, the Chinese leadership still recognizes that China is a developing country and that there is still a lot of things to improve," Cheng Li, director of the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution, told Xinhua. Li believed that it reflects the Chinese government's confidence to take challenges "positively" and "constructively" and resolve problems. In a recent interview with Xinhua, Costas Gouliamos, rector of the European University Cyprus, said he believes Chinese President Xi Jinping is "firm to create (not only) the appropriate political and legal framework, but also social policies to tackle all issues." Gouliamos also said he believes that Xi is determined to eliminate corruption to make China an even better country. The new Chinese leadership under Xi can guarantee China's progress, as objectives are clear and the determination for success unquestionable, George Tzogopoulos, a lecturer on international relations at Democritus University of Thrace in northern Greece, told Xinhua on Wednesday in a written interview. "At the economic level reforms will continue and China -- despite criticism in the West -- is becoming more open and keen to accept market rules," said Tzogopoulos, adding that technology and innovation will drive growth, making "Made in China 2025" not wishful thinking but a reality. The CPC's long-term development plans have also impressed Hilik Bar, deputy speaker of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. "I believe that the people of China can only benefit from leaders who think and plan ahead, so many years in advance," Bar said. Commenting on the report delivered by Xi at the opening session of the 19th CPC National Congress, Bar said he was especially interested in the part about following the path of peaceful development and working to build a community with a shared future for mankind. "I think it is very important that China takes an active role in the development of the whole world and also the well-being of mankind," Bar said. In that regard, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday that Russia welcomes China's traditional option of peaceful development, cooperation and friendly relations with other states. The choice of peaceful development, cooperation and development of friendly relations is the traditional position of China, Zakharova said. "This is also what bilateral relations are built on. This is the fundamental thing that China promotes on the international stage," the spokeswoman said. Moscow can only welcome such an approach by both the Chinese leadership and the Chinese people, Zakharova added. "Under the leadership of the CPC, the Chinese government has proven that it deserves this protagonist role in keeping international peace and sustainable development," Gouliamos said. DHAKA - The Bangladeshi government signed a framework agreement with China on Sunday for construction of a 220-km pipeline to carry oil from tankers in the Bay of Bengal to storage plants on Chinese mainland. Bangladesh's Economic Relations Department (ERD) Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam and Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ma Mingqiang signed the framework agreement in the capital of Dhaka. The project is aimed to make a balance between the demand and supply of the country's energy need and ensure energy security of the country, they said, adding it will also reduce the system loss during import of refined and non-refined fuel. The ERD said this is one of the 27 projects for which memorandum of understandings were signed between the two governments in October last year. In December last year, Bangladesh reached an agreement with the state-owned China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPP) for engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning for installation of single point mooring with 220-km double pipelines. Bangladeshi State Minister for Power and Energy, who witnessed the signing ceremony on Sunday, said the new infrastructure will help the country to expedite the entire process and save about 1 billion taka ($12.5 million) a year in reduced vessel fare and operational loss. According to project details, a diesel and crude oil storage tank will be set up at Moheshkhali Island on the Bay of Bengal in Bangladeshi Cox's Bazar district. Officials said the project cost stands at 54.26 billion taka ($694 million). The project is expected to have an annual unloading capacity of 9 million tons. Under the project, BPC officials said the Chinese firm will build 146-km offshore pipeline and 74-km onshore pipeline to carry imported oil from sea to a refinery in Chittagong district, some 242 km southeast of Dhaka, for processing. The project was launched as Bangladesh is not capable of handling large vessels carrying imported crude and finished oil, due to low navigability of a key river channel and constrained facilities at the main seaport in Chittagong. According to the officials, large tankers anchor at deep sea and smaller ships unload them, taking lots of time and causing systematic losses for the government. Tibetan sisters Yangzom (first right) and Zhoigarlisten to two government officials relaying an answer from President Xi Jinping to a letter the sisters wrote to him. The sisters live in Yumai in Lhunze county along the Himalayas' foothills. CHANG CHUAN / FOR CHINA DAILY President Xi Jinping encouraged a herding family in the Tibet autonomous region to put down roots in the border area, safeguard Chinese territory and develop their hometown. Xi, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a reply delivered on Saturday to Zhoigar and Yangzom - two Tibetan sisters in the township of Yumai in Lhunze county, which sits at the southern foot of the Himalayas. The two sisters wrote a letter to Xi during the 19th National Congress of the CPC, which ended last week, to report their experiences in safeguarding the country's territory and introducing development and changes in their town, while pledging to make continuous efforts to protect the border. Among their activities is keeping an eye out along the border and reporting suspicious activities like possible smugglers. Xi, in his letter, praised the family's safeguarding national territory for two consecutive generations, thanked those who made loyal contributions to safeguarding and strengthening the country's borders, and encouraged the herders to build their hometown into a beautiful one. There used to be only one family, consisting of the two sisters and their father, in the remote location. The town now has 32 residents in nine families. It's the country's least populous town. Steep slopes and rugged paths make it difficult to access. "Without peace in the territory, there will be no peaceful lives for millions of families," Xi wrote. He said he hoped the family would motivate more herders to put down roots in the border area "like galsang flowers", and become guardians of Chinese territory and builders of a happy hometown. Fresh from the 19th CPC National Congress, Xi told the family that the Party would continue to lead people of all ethnic groups toward better lives. Xinhua contributed to this story. anbaijie@chinadaily.com.cn China's development road map and other outcomes of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, which ended last week, will have century-long global impacts as the country deepens engagement with the world, according to European politicians, scholars and lawyers. "The Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era ... has a cardinal importance for the further successful progress of China," Maja Gojkovic, speaker of the National Assembly of Serbia told China Daily over the weekend in a written interview. "I am convinced that the direction taken at this congress will yield measurable results and prosperity for the whole of the friendly people of China in this century." Having closely observed the congress, Gojkovic said Xi clearly demonstrated the intention to take China to a new era that includes continuation of the country's development and an increase in citizens' standard of living. "I am convinced that President Xi, having regard for the indivisible trust of the Communist Party of China that he enjoys and that was undoubtedly confirmed in this congress, will lead China through the path of success and prosperity in the forthcoming years," Gojkovic said. When asked what his message would be for China's new leadership formed at the 19th National Congress, Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said Belgium will build a stronger relationship with China and at both diplomatic and economic levels, while both sides need to develop mutual comprehension. "I believe we can work together toward this aspect (of building a stronger bilateral relationship)," Michel told China Daily last week at the launching ceremony of a direct flight between Brussels and Shanghai. Rolf J. Langhammer, former vice-president of the Germany-based Kiel Institute for the World Economy, said the key message of the congress, for him, is that China is strongly signaling growing interest in actively participating in and leading globalization, a trend that started a decade ago. Langhammer said that with its increasing international acceptance as a benevolent government, China will further take into account the interests of partner countries in decision-making. He said China has already made "first steps" in this direction and already has won trust by shouldering responsibility by contributing to global economic growth. Thomas Lagerqvist, senior adviser of Mannheimer Swartling, a Sweden-based law firm, said that to fulfill the Chinese Dream, this vision will serve as a guiding star into the new era. The world wants China to succeed as that will benefit global cooperation, he said. Lagerqvist said China's economy has been transitioning from a phase of rapid growth to a stage of high-quality development and is in a pivotal stage for transforming the growth model, improving economic structure and fostering new growth drivers. Overseas students visit a manufacturing factory of ZWZ Group, a bearing giant of China. [Photo by Sun Qi/ for chinadaily.com.cn] One hundred overseas students from five universities in Dalian visited Wafangdian, Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning province, Friday and Saturday. By visiting factories, museums, farmlands, and scenic spots, they could appreciate the city's vigorous development from different perspectives. The visit was part of the Perceiving China program organized by the China Scholarship Council. Activities in Dalian were co-sponsored by the publicity department of the CPC Dalian Committee and Dongbei University of Finance and Economics (DUFE). The students come from 35 countries and all got scholarships from the CSC, a nonprofit organization affiliated with the Ministry of Education that provides financial assistance to Chinese wishing to study abroad and foreigners wishing to study in China. "Usually, the overseas students stay in the classes. There are not enough chances for them to visit local communities and rural areas," said Ren Wei, an official with the International Education College of DUFE. "By taking part in such activities as Perceiving China - Charming Wafangdian, they can see the economic growth, the cultural heritage, and beautiful scenery there. Thus, they could have a deeper understanding of China," he said. I must have missed many interesting talks and papers in Washington while being away for several weeks in China, but was nevertheless glad to find a recent article by Colin Grabow, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, just days upon returning to DC. The title, Responsible Stakeholders: Why the United States Should Welcome China's Economic Leadership, came as a shock, or a pleasant surprise, to be precise. In this political town, such a headline is often deemed politically incorrect and, therefore, politicians and even think tank experts would tend to shy away from it. Having covered the eight years of the Obama presidency, I am well aware of the knee-jerk reaction to all things China, such as when the Obama administration lobbied US allies in early 2015 not to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) initiated by China. So I contacted Cato and met Grabow in person on Friday to seek his "unconventional" wisdom on the issue. Grabow, who had worked at a Japan-based trade and investment company before joining Cato just recently, dismissed the common concern in the US that China's economic initiatives will come at US expense. In the article, he argued that rather than sound the alarm over China's moves, US policymakers should be open to the possibility that Beijing is finally becoming the responsible stakeholder that many have long urged it to be. Grabow said the US should congratulate China and thank it when it plays the role of a responsible stakeholder. He warned the US of becoming automatically suspicious of everything China says and does. He found it encouraging that Chinese President Xi Jinping advocated free trade in a talk at Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year. He also believed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is a key steppingstone toward the eventual realization of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific. While many in the US often mistakenly portray RCEP as China-led and China's efforts to rewrite trade rules, Grabow said RCEP represented forward progress for free trade in the region even if the current RCEP standards were left unchanged. US allies Japan, Australia and South Korea are all in RCEP talks. "Are these countries going to sign on to a trade deal that is terrible?" he asked, in a rebuke to those who have tried to degrade RCEP. Grabow believes that China's backing of both AIIB and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) holds the possibility of much-needed improvements in infrastructure and connectivity that could bolster regional and global trade. "With none of its own resources or prestige at stake, the United States stands to benefit considerably, and at little cost, from China's efforts in this regard," he said. In his view, zero-sum fears that China's increasing prosperity and commensurate growth in its regional influence come at the US' expense should be balanced against the dangers presented by the alternative - a country that is isolated and economically failing. "Rather than reflexively viewing China's economic initiatives as an affront to US interests, the Trump administration should attempt to harness China's emerging taste for global economic leadership," he said. He believes that instead of focusing so intently on the trade disputes that divide China and the US, the Trump administration should seek to conclude Bilateral Investment Treaty negotiations and consider the merits of initiating negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement with China. "Through such cooperation, the United States and China could become successful partners in the promotion of trade and prosperity in the increasingly vital Asia-Pacific region," he wrote in the paper. I applaud Grabow's insight and more importantly, his courage, to voice such a view that is not very popular in this political town, known for its highly divided partisan politics for many years. I hope more people in the Capital Beltway will come to sense and see his wisdom. Contact the writer at chenweihua@chinadailyusa.com. The provincial parliament of Ontario, home to Canada's largest Asian community, has unanimously passed a motion designating every Dec 13 as Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day to commemorate the killing of 300,000 Chinese by Japanese troops in Nanjing during World War II. Motion 66 approved on Thursday was proposed by Soo Wong, MPP, a member of the legislature and the first female Chinese-Canadian to be elected to the Ontario legislature. "I am pleased that the legislature unanimously passed Motion 66 declaring December 13 the Nanjing Massacre Commemorate Day in Ontario," said Soo. "This day will allow all Ontarians to reflect, to honour and to remember the victims, survivors and families affected by the atrocity that occurred 80 years ago in Asia." Bill 79 is the Nanjing Massacre Commemorate Day Act, the initial proposal raised by Soo, which passed its second reading by three Ontario political parties last year. It has already garnered more than 90,000 petition signatures, and If passed, Dec 13 will become an official commemorative day in the province. Bu the bill faces objections from Tokyo and the local Japanese community to win passage as a private bill in the Ontario Legislature. "From December 2016 to present, No Private Members Bills (PMB) have been passed in the Ontario legislature," Soo stated in the legislative session. "Given this fact, I introduced Motion 66 - Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day - in the Ontario legislature to enable all MPPs to debate and vote on this motion on the same day." While the bill is currently in the legislative process, the motion the Ontario legislature adopted might still be steps away from becoming a law, according to Karen Lin, an activist in the Chinese community. She said Ontario should have a "moral obligation" to tell future generations about the carnage, terror and tragedies that happened in the second World War. "For the Chinese and other Asian communities in Ontario, this motion is of great importance," said Joseph Wong, founder of ALPHA Education, an organization that promotes a critical-historical investigation of the events of World War II in Asia. According to Wong, the adoption shows the provincial legislature for the first time recognizes that atrocities in Asia's WWII, symbolized by the horrors of the Nanjing Massacre, did occur and important enough to be remembered every year, and promoted in Ontarios education system. "It also means that the heritage and history of the three million Asian Ontarians are being recognized and reflected in our legislature. It provides a space for the Chinese community to commemorate and honor the victims of the Nanjing Massacre, and a foundation on which all Asian communities can build trust and reconciliation and peace." Wong said. "As educators we have the responsibility to ensure our students understand the realities of World War II in Asia so we can have a more authentic dialogue about social justice, courage and humanity," said Gerry Connelly, ALPHA Education Board member and a former director of education at the Toronto's district school board. "This motion for the 'Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day' is a big step in raising awareness to stimulate this dialogue," she said. "The Ontario Legislature passing the Nanjing Massacre Commemorative Day motion has far-reaching and broad historical and education significance," said Peter Lin, president of the Confederation of Toronto Chinese-Canadian Organizations. "It allows Ontarians and descendants to gather together to remember and honour the victims, survivors, and families affected by the Nanjing Massacre." renali@chinadailyusa.com By Zhang Ruinan in New York and May Zhou in Houston | China Daily USA | Updated: 2017-10-30 09:44 A delegation from China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region visited New York on Saturday, promoting mutual understanding and communication by holding discussions with leaders of overseas Chinese communities, local cultural organizations and scholars from local think tanks. "If you haven't been to Xinjiang, you have no idea how big China is," said Zuo Feng, deputy director of the human rights bureau at the state council information office. "It's better to see it once than to hear about it a thousand times." During a discussion hosted by the US East Coast Chinese Association Federation, Zuo said that the delegation aims to promote understanding of Xinjiang, especially among scholars in the US. "We hope to increase people-to-people exchange and cultural cooperation, and deepen understanding and friendship between our two peoples," said Zuo. Zuo discussed Xinjiang's recent developments in its economy, education, transportation and culture, China's stance on human rights issues and the implementation of ethnic and religious policies in the region. Zou explained that according to the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013, China will fully leverage Xinjiang's geographical advantages and its role as an important window westward, making it a core of the Silk Road economic belt. "Xinjiang also plans to create five centers, including a regional transportation center, a trade logistics center, a financial center and a regional medical center," said Zuo. James Heimowitz, president of the China Institute who visited Xinjiang four decades ago, said he had been impressed by the progress Xinjiang has made. Many Americans have little knowledge of Xinjiang, he said. He suggested the delegation send artists, writers and scholars to hold exhibitions and forums in the US to enhance understanding. "The only way to develop friendship (between China and the US) is through a deeper trust, and the way to have deeper trust is to have a deeper understanding through language, culture and business," Heimowitz said. "That appreciation doesn't really come from the formal political level putting forward policies, but from the appreciation at the people-to-people level," he added. Fred Teng, president of America China Public Affairs Institute, who just visited Xinjiang, said the delegation's visit was a significant way to provide people in the US with a more in-depth understanding of Xinjiang. "I was very impressed by the convenience of transportation in Xinjiang, it has changed a lot," Teng said. He added that Xinjiang had abundant natural resources and excellent development potential. The delegation also visited Houston on Oct 26 and 27 before coming to New York and held discussions with scholars, researchers from local think tanks and universities and overseas Chinese. Zuo also told audiences in Houston about the group's aim to promote understanding among scholars in the US. At one discussion held at the Asia Society Texas Center, its former chairman Charles Foster said he had visited Xinjiang and was impressed by the friendliness of the people there. He called the discussion meaningful and helpful for researchers to better understand China's ethnic and religious policies. Consul General of China in Houston Li Qiangmin addressed another meeting held at the University of St. Thomas Houston. He said that the recently concluded 19th CPC Congress has laid out the blueprint for China's future development. China will continue on her path of peaceful development and adhere to the principle of mutual benefit and a win-win strategy, he said. "The visit of the Xinjiang delegation put such vision into action by furthering exchanges between our two countries," Li said. Beena George, dean of the Cameron School of Business at University of St. Thomas, said that ethnic and religious policy was closely related to economic development. "I think it is very wise for China to pay close attention to these issues, because ethnic, religious and cultural environments are important to local long-term economic development and business cooperation," she said. The delegation heads to Canada next. Contact the writer at ruinanzhang@chinadailyusa.com Please turn JavaScript on and reload the page. Loading... Checking your browser before accessing the website. This process is automatic. Your browser will redirect to your requested content shortly. Please wait a few seconds. Vice President of Argentina Gabriela Michetti (R) receives Viet Nams Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade o Thang Hai at a meeting in Buenos Aires on Friday. VNA/VNS Photo Dieu Huong Buenos Aires Viet Nam is one of the most important economic partners of Argentina, Vice President of Argentina Gabriela Michetti told Viet Nams Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade o Thang Hai at a meeting in Buenos Aires on Friday. Michetti, who is also President of the Argentine Senate, stressed that Argentina is keen to develop co-operation with Southeast Asian countries, including Viet Nam, and recognised the remarkable progress made in bilateral relations in recent years. She proposed Viet Nam create opportunities for businesses to cooperate in the fields of their strengths, including garment-textiles, agriculture, culture, and people-to-people exchanges. Hai issued a briefing on the outcomes of the mid-term session of the Viet Nam-Argentina intergovernmental committee, which took place in Buenos Aires on October 25-26, and affirmed that the committee had helped promote bilateral cooperation not only in economics, trade and investment but also in agriculture, science and technology. He urged the two sides to strengthen coordination to increase bilateral trade to US$3.5 billion in 2017 as well as speed up the roadmap to open markets for farm produce in 2017-18, which includes facilitating procedures for Vietnamese fruits such as lychees, dragon fruits, longans and mangoes and Argentine fruits such as oranges, blueberries, pears, apples and cherries. The official also suggested increasing delegation exchanges and hosting trade and investment promotion activities to help firms explore the business environments in the respective countries. "Viet Nam will serve as a gateway for Argentina to export goods to the Southeast Asian market while Argentina will help Viet Nam penetrate into the Latin American market," he affirmed. He proposed Argentinaa founding member of the South American trade bloc Mercosuraccelerate the negotiation process and signing of a preferential trade agreement between this bloc and Viet Nam. Earlier Deputy Minister Hai and Secretary for International Economic Relations of the Argentine Foreign Ministry Horacio Reyser co-chaired a meeting of the Viet Nam-Argentina inter-governmental committee. Reyser said Viet Nam is not only a priority market in Argentinas strategy to diversify and expand exports, but also one of the countrys most important trade partners in Asia and Argentinas third-biggest importer. Two-way trade surpassed $3 billion in 2016, showing a year-on-year rise of 16.7 per cent. In the first nine months of 2017, bilateral trade reached nearly $2.4 billion, up 15 per cent against the same period last year. Viet Nam mainly exported footwear, garment-textiles, rubber, electronic spare parts and plastic products while importing soybeans, soybean oil, maze, wheat, cattle-feed and pharmaceutical products. The two sides pledged to speed up exchanges of information on food security and animal and plant quarantine. During his visit to Argentina, Deputy Minister Hai also had a working session with Argentinas Deputy Minister of Production Miguel Braun. VNS HA NOI The General Department of Taxation (GDT) is considering asking the Ministry of Finance to postpone the compulsory application of e-invoices until July 2019, instead of early next year. Nguyen ai Tri, GDT deputy general director, announced this at a press conference on e-tax services, held in Ha Noi late last week. Specifically, except firms that are already using e-bills and are small or micro-scale, GDT proposes that all other companies will have to use e-invoices from July 1, 2019, instead of January 1, 2018, as stated under the Ministry of Finances draft. Previously, the Ministry of Finance announced that it was drafting regulations on e-invoices and would ask the Government to set a deadline of January 1, 2018, for businesses to switch over from paper, which is the current method. While admitting huge benefits of e-invoices, many enterprises said they were finding it difficult to meet the proposed deadline. The Government is seeking to promote e-invoices because GDTs statistics showed that while paper invoices cost a total of VN4 trillion (US$177.8 million) per year, universal e-invoice use would cost only VN1 trillion. E-invoices also make it more difficult for businesses to evade taxes while ensuring they receive the tax refunds to which they are entitled. The application of e-invoices could create transparency for all transactions. When the use of e-invoice becomes popular, transactions of even less than VN200,000 will result in a tax refund. This could bring huge profits to companies, au Anh Tuan, director of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industrys Legal Department, said. The number of businesses using e-invoices has increased steadily. By the end of June, there were some 2,700 firms using roughly 400 million e-invoices, up from 800 firms at the end of last year. Nearly 2,400 businesses used e-invoices verified by tax agencies during the pilot implementation in 2014. However, Tuan expressed doubt about the implementation timeline proposed, as the department has received many complaints from firms about the short duration in which they are required to replace paper bills. VNS HA NOI The State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC) is under pressure to complete its divestment scheme towards the end of this year with many large companies still in its portfolio. Characterised as the sovereign wealth fund in Viet Nam, SCIC has planned to divest capital from 85 State-owned enterprises this year, of which it has completed proceedings for 20 companies. In a seminar with potential investors at the Gateway to Viet Nam 2017 held by Saigon Securities Inc last Friday, the State capital corporation said it would strive to accomplish the plan on schedule with information of its future divestment plans being released by the end of November or early December. According to market observers, SCIC is under high pressure as many in its portfolio are big companies including Vinamilk (VNM), Binh Minh Plastics JSC (BMP), Tien Phong Plastics JSC (NTP), IT giant FPT Corp (FPT), Viet Nam Construction and Import-Export JSC (VCG), Domesco Medical Import Export JSC (DMC) and Sa Giang Import Export Corp (SGC). SSIs current portfolio includes 132 companies with total market capitalisation of around US$4.7 billion, of which its holding in Vinamilk is the most valuable at $3.82 billion, based on Vinamilks share price on the HCM Stock Exchange on October 30. In mid-October, the sovereign fund announced it will auction a 3.33 per cent stake in Vinamilk on November 10. The initial selling price has yet to be decided but SCIC chairman Nguyen uc Chi said it would be close to the market price. Vinamilks shares are being traded at around VN152,000 ($6.70) per share, and its price has increased about 21 per cent this year. Meanwhile, SCICs divestment plan in FPT Corp and two big pharmaceutical companies, Traphaco and DHG, has yet to be announced. Besides Vinamilk, Viet Nam Construction and Import-Export JSC is likely to be SCICs next major divestment in the context that it previously planned to offload the entire holding of 22 per cent stake in this company. Simplify procedures SCIC wants to promote the competitive bidding process (instead of selling a majority stake to strategic investors) to enhance transparency in the divestment process. This process usually involves hiring consultants, organising road shows (in both domestic and international markets), setting initial selling prices and launching auctions on the stock exchange. Its efforts to simplify procedures for investors to participate in auctions have been demonstrated in the next share sale of Vinamilk in November. Foreign investors can make deposits in the US dollar while the State Securities Commission allows extending time for registering transaction codes for investors. Listed companies shall also be exempt from making a public bid but must send interest of purchase to the auction board seven days before the auction. In addition, SCIC is considering asking for the Governments approval to sell a whole lot of shares for a better price. SCIC, established in 2006, operates with two main functions: representing the Governments capital interests in State-owned enterprises and investing in State capital in key sectors and essential industries. About 1,000 enterprises have been transferred to SCIC since then, in which the Government has completely withdrawn capital from 876 enterprises. VNS HCM CITY The 7th a Lat Flower Festival will be organised in the Central Highlands province of Lam ong from December 23-27. The biennial event, with the theme Flowers of a Lat Miracle from the Good Earth, honours flower growers and promotes the citys flower and agricultural sector as well as tourism development, said Vo Ngoc Hiep, chairman of a Lat Citys Peoples Committee. The festival will feature 15 key cultural, art and tourism events and 30 supporting programmes in a Lat City, Bao Loc City and other localities in the province, Hiep said at a press meeting held last week in HCM City. For the first time, the Lam ong Tea Culture Week, which in the past was organised separately, will be part of the festival, with a series of activities honouring tea growers and sericulturists, and silk-reeling makers and weavers in Bao Loc City. A flower art space decorated with 30 flower miniatures around Xuan Huong Lake in a Lat City will also be a highlight of the festival. The festival includes an international exhibition and display of flowers from local and foreign firms; vegetables, bonsai, hi-tech agriculture, tea, silk and tourism exhibitions and fairs; a Tea-Coffee-Wine and Specialties Street; flower decoration contests and flower bike parades; and skating races and performances. Semiars on a Lat Citys investment, trade and tourism promotion in Lam ong Province will also be held. Around 500 artists will perform at the opening evening ceremony in Lam Vien Square in a Lat on December 23. More than 600 hotels and accommodation facilities have pledged to sell rooms at the list prices, Hiep said. To ensure security for tourists, the city will set up four hotlines during the festival. The festival is expected to attract 500,000 visitors. The city targets 4.5 million tourists this year. Last year, 3.5 million tourists visited the city, including 282,000 foreign tourists. VNS The exhibit includes over 30 administrative documents, images and technical drawings on typical French architectural constructions being stored at National Storage Centre I. Photo anninhthudo.vn HA NOI Over nearly a century of rule in Viet Nam, the French aimed to build a French-style administrative capital in Indochina. That legacy today is visible in many edifices that feature Western-style architecture and combinations of Vietnamese and Western attributes. Now, an exhibit of archives and documents, entitled French Architecture in the Heart of Ha Noi, will allow visitors to better understand the history of the buildings that contribute to the citys unique character. The exhibit opened at Ha Noi Book Street (19/12 Road, Hoan Kiem District), last Friday. The exhibit includes over 30 administrative documents, images and technical drawings on typical French architectural constructions being stored at National Storage Centre I. The show was co-organised by the State Records Management and Archives Department of Viet Nam under the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Hanoi Opera House. At present, documents relating to construction during French colonial rule are stored at National Storage Centre I of the State Records Management and Archives Department of Viet Nam. The documents include administrative records, records of state offices design and execution, manors, hospitals, museums, libraries, schools and residencies for high-ranking officials of French ruling government. Constructions built by French architects in Ha Noi remain one of the remarkable architectural highlights of the capital. These legacies of high aesthetic characteristics, combined with recent construction shaping a new face for Ha Noi, make the city look both vintage and modern. Some of the most famous buildings designed by French architects in the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century include the Ha Noi Opera House, Louis Fino Museum (now renamed Viet Nam National Museum of History), Ha Noi International Post Office, Ha Noi University of Science, Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters and Doumer Bridge (now Long Bien Bridge). Truong Van Tho, who lives near the Opera House and visited the exhibition, said the documents are valuable items for the capital public to learn more about Ha Nois past. After the French left, they have given these timeless and priceless legacies to the capital, not only for the older generation but for young people to look up to, he said. Vu Van ai, an architect from Nam inh, said he comes to the exhibition to learn more about the inspiring documents. Among these construction sketches, Im impressed most with the Ha Noi Opera House. I love music and so often am inspired by this amazing construction, he said. French architects usually build a high foundation to most of the buildings, and they are seven stories or shorter. The buildings also survive the humid weather in our country, thanks to French idea of elevating the basement higher to reduce the effects of humidity and high temperatures, so you feel cool when standing inside them. The organising board hopes the exhibition will help the public gain a fuller vision of the legacy of the colonial era on the capitals architecture, and promote interest in work to preserve that legacy. The exhibition opens free to public and lasts until November 5. VNS Le Au Ngan Anh, a 22-year-old beauty from the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, was crowned Miss Ocean Viet Nam 2017 in a finale at Hoa Binh Theatre, HCM City on October 28. Photo thanhnien.vn HCM CITY Le Au Ngan Anh, a 22-year-old beauty from the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang, was crowned Miss Ocean Viet Nam 2017 in a finale at Hoa Binh Theatre, HCM City on October 28. Anh beat out 29 contestants to win the beauty title and will represent Viet Nam at the Miss Supranational 2018. The first and second runner-ups went to Nguyen Thi Dieu Thuy, 20, and ang Thanh Ngan, 18, respectively. The pageant also handed out extra titles such as Miss Ao Dai (Viet Nams traditional gown), Miss Bikini, Miss Fashion, and Miss Photogenic. During the 8-month competition, the contestants have participated in many social and charity activities to encourage marine environment protection. Miss Ocean Viet Nam was founded by the Viet Nam Environment Protection Fund of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources and Vo Viet Chung, a well-known Vietnamese designer in search for an ambassador for the Blue Ocean World project. ang Thu Thao from the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho won the first Miss Ocean Viet Nam in resort Phan Thiet City, Binh Thuan Province in 2014.VNS HA NOI A thorough audit of all State-owned agricultural businesses will be carried out in 2019 following next years concentrated restructuring efforts, so as to identify underperforming firms and other issues facing the sector. The findings will be reported to the National Assembly, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue said at a conference last weekend. The conference aimed to review the progress of restructuring, renewing, and improving the operational effectiveness of State-owned agribusinesses in the 2015-2017 period. Ha Cong Tuan, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), said that 40 out of 41 restructuring plans for the agriculture sector in cities, provinces, and enterprises had been approved by the Prime Minister. Ha Nois agriculture restructuring plan was still being reviewed and adjusted by the municipal Peoples Committee following feedback from the assessment council, he said. Leaders of provinces including Lao Cai in the north, and Khanh Hoa and Binh inh on the south-central coast reported positive outcomes such as the streamlining of staff following new business plans directed by the Prime Minister. More encouragingly, post-equitisation, previously 100 per cent state-owned companies have seen increased revenues and profits. For example, annual revenues of the Binh Duong Province Rubber Co Ltd have jumped nearly three-fold post-equitisation, from VN49 billion (US$2.16 million) to VN133 billion ($5.86 million). Many forestry companies under the Viet Nam Forest Corporation (Vinafor) or the Viet Nam Rubber Group (VRG) also reported better earnings. However, it was also pointed out the overall progress over the last three years in implementing Governments 2014 Decree No. 118 on restructuring agro-forestry businesses had not been satisfactory. For example, in HCM City, only 20 of 102 State-owned agriculture businesses have been equitised, and 28 companies that were supposed to be dissolved still remain operational. Provincial agriculture officials mentioned many obstacles and challenges that they face. Lo Minh Hung, vice chairman of the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai, , said transforming SOEs into two-member limited liability companies was a totally new concept with many implementation bottlenecks. The second member of the company is supposed to be a private entity, which poses very difficult questions about capital ownership, investment direction and land management. The land these companies are currently managing are really favourable to agriculture. When a private company comes into the picture, the repurposing of land could be a problem in our province, he said. Hung urged the Steering Committee on Renovation and Development of Enterprises (under the Ministry of Finance) to issue guidance on implementing this particular company model to avoid losses and enable better management of capital and land resources. Other provinces also reported that many farms and forestry units which have converted to totally State-owned companies or companies with majority State-ownership are facing difficulties in sourcing capital, delays in granting charter capital additions and lack of assets to use as collateral for bank loans. A lot of companies undergoing restructuring are also struggling with issues like land measurement and mapping, brand valuation or resolving its bad debts, the conference heard. For instance, the Viet Nam National Coffee Corporation is having trouble collecting VN 380 billion ($16.76 billion) of outstanding debt from coffee-planting households as theres no clear authority to handle this. On the issue of land measurement and mapping related to all restructuring agricultural enterprises, which could end up costing VN 1,100 billion ($48.44 million), Deputy Finance Minister Tran Van Hieu said the problem was not the cost, as the government will shoulder 70 per cent of it, but that local governments need to take stock of existing land through field trips, not just gathering figures from books. Complex issues Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue said there were several reasons for the slow progress in restructuring. Objectively speaking, this is a complex matter as it involves financial problems and land issues lasting decades, but the main cause remains a lack of commitment from some local governments, according to Hue. Other provinces that want to finish the restructuring quickly lack practical plans, eventually slowing the whole process because it takes time to adjust the plans. Hue stressed that the case of agricultural enterprises was different from the general restructuring effort because it involved the livelihoods of millions of people, with social order and security implications in many localities. Underscoring that 2018 will be the year of restructuring, he directed that all restructuring plans must be completed and approved by the government in the final quarter of this year. The Finance Ministry was tasked with issuing guidelines encouraging private businesses to join the two-member limited liability company model; and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources was asked to quickly update its land and forest database. VNS NGHE AN Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong yesterday praised the High Command of Military Zone 4 for executing well its task of protecting the North-Central region, ensuring political stability and social security and safety. At a working session in the central province of Nghe An, he noted that Military Zone 4 is in a strategic location, covering six provinces in the central region. Hence the local military cadres should firmly uphold the patriotism tradition and build a healthy and transparent unit loyal to the Party, the nation and the people, he said. He asked the unit to build itself with political firmness and professionalism. "Military Zone 4 must pay heed to mass mobilisation and external relations, and contribute to strengthening the nations special solidarity with Laos," he said. Member of the Party Central Committee and Commander of Military Zone 4, Lt. Gen Nguyen Tan Cuong, said its Party unit and staff have abided by resolutions and directives of the Party Central Committee, the Politburo, the Central Military Commission and Defence Ministry, particularly the resolution of the 12th National Party Congress and another passed by the eighth plenum of the 11th Party Central Committee on national protection strategy in the new context. In accordance with the resolution of the fourth plenum of the 12th Party Central Committee and the Politburos Directive No.05, they have conducted criticism and self-criticism, devised measures to fight peaceful evolution attempts by hostile forces and resisted political and ideological degradation, he said. The cadres have also actively responded to the campaign exhorting people to study and follow the morals and lifestyle of Ho Chi Minh, he added. In coping with natural disasters, the Military Zone 4s High Command has deployed tens of thousands of officers and soldiers to conduct search and rescue operations and helped local residents stabilise their lives with other forms of assistance. It has offered free health checks and medicines and worked closely with Lao localities and units to safeguard the shared border, he added. Earlier yesterday morning, the Party leader offered incense and paid floral tributes to late President Ho Chi Minh at the Kim Lien relic site, visited the temple dedicated to 8th-century King Mai Hac e n Nam an District and the Emperor Quang Trung temple atop Quyet Mountain. VNS HA NOI The Government has lost its battle to reduce the number of public servants, with the administrative system bloating year by year. The National Assembly (NA) on Monday morning started discussing the results of administrative reforms for a leaner Government, focusing on sub-par quality and the redundancy of Government officers. The NA deputies are set to work for a full day on the issues, with discussions broadcast live on TV, in preparation for a resolution calling for stronger actions in downsizing. Addressing the first report of its kind to the NA, the NA legal affairs committee head Nguyen Khac inh said that the Government managed to cut some 400 public servants annually from 2014 to 2016. However, the number of public institutions shot up quickly, reaching 302,198 last year. Nearly 60 per cent of them, or 180,000 institutions totally relied on the State budget. The number of officers in public institutions also rose, from 1.97 million in 2011 to 2.09 million in 2016, inh said. Ineffective downsizing NA deputy Phung uc Tien from Ha Nam Province pointed out that the measures were proving to be ineffective, as the total number of Government officers had in fact rose by 4.8 per cent from 2011 to last year. He also questioned officer assessment work when all officers were said to have completed their missions in year-end reports despite rampant complaints from citizens about their performance. Deputy To Van Tam from Kon Tum Province agreed that the quality of the public servants was key to the performance of the Government. Yet the Government failed to sack those who could not do their jobs, he said. More than 90 per cent of the downsizing the Government claims to have performed was actually long-time officials choosing to retire early, Tam said. The system is now like the shape of a hopper. The input of personnel is very big while the output is minimal. Ministry within ministry A deputy from Nghe An Province Nguyen Huu Cau called on the NA to be straightforward in asserting which is the mystical middle level or the ministry within ministry that was said in the NA report to be responsible for the increasing number of public servants. As far as I can see, 17 out of 22 ministries have a total of 40 sub directorates with the administrative structure similar to a ministrys, Cau said. The NA should point out that the so-called middle level is the directorates and smaller divisions of the departments. The increasing number of established divisions in departments was slammed by Nam inh Province deputy Mai Thi Phuong Hoa. According to Hoa, there are currently 681 divisions under a department. In some extreme cases, a division was in existence with only division heads and no officers under command. The problem was rampant from ministerial to municipal level. If the central level could do it, why couldnt the provincial level? asked Quang Binh Province deputy Nguyen Ngoc Phuong. VNS HCM CITY Centres specialising in using robots to treat diseases and cancers are being developed in HCM City in order to treat people throughout the country and foreign tourists, according to HCM City Department of Health. District 3s Binh Dan Hospital, which on October 28 received Third Class Labour Medals from President Tran ai Quang, is a pioneer in using robots in minimally-invasive surgeries to treat 14 different diseases and cancers approved by the Ministry of Health. After more than 10 months of using the robotic technology, 222 patients with prostate, liver, lung and other cancers as well as other diseases have benefitted from it, according to Dr Tran Vinh Hung, director of the Binh Dan Hospital. Of these patients, more than 60 patients with financial difficulties had their costs for the robotic surgery reduced or exempted. Using robots in surgeries help treat cancers and diseases, preserve functions in the remaining organs and reduce the risks of common post-operative complications, Hung said. Through a magnified 3D high-definition vision system, surgeons can better control surgery and direct the robots hands to bend and rotate 540 degrees, far more than a human hand. Instead of going overseas for treatment, patients could be treated in the citys hospital with this advanced technology and doctors with global standards in robot-assisted surgeries, Hung said. Asso.Prof. Dr Vu Le Chuyen, chairman of Viet Nam Urology and Nephrology Association, said robots helped reduce bleeding during operations and enabled surgeons to operate precisely. Speaking at a ceremony to mark the achievements of the use of robots to assist surgeries, deputy chairwoman of HCM City Peoples Committee Nguyen Thi Thu said that Binh Dan Hospital developing robotic surgery is key to developing a high quality specialised health centre. On October 23, Cho Ray Hospital also started using robots in minimally-invasive surgeries, Thu said. The robotic surgery is expected to help attract more foreign tourists to hospitals in the country, including HCM City. The Ministry of Health has recognised the use of robots to assist surgeries as a new achievement in the country. According to the city Department of Health, with robot-assisted surgeries at Binh Dan Hospital and Cho Ray Hospital, professionally operational technologies in the city are the same as countries with developed health sectors, such as Singapore and Thailand. The citys policy to provide promotional loans is an incentive for hospitals to take the initiative in investing in robotic technology in surgeries. The deputy chairwoman of HCM City Peoples Committee expects other hospitals in the city to invest in advanced technologies, including robots, to improve the effectiveness of treatments. VNS A NANG A group of ten children affected in different ways by Agent Orange look intently as Teacher Yo threads beads with a thin string to make bracelets. Once they get it, they start doing it on their own, and show the results to Yo with excitement. They are rewarded with a bright smile and compliments from the teacher. These were children who barely communicated with anyone before Teacher Yo came into the picture. Nonoyama Nobuy, a volunteer teacher with the Japan International Cooperation Agency, is working with the children at the Protection and Assistance Center for Victims of Agent Orange and Disadvantaged Children in Hoa Nhon Commune, Hoa Vang District, a Nang City. Before coming to Viet Nam, Yo lived in Japans Nagoya City of Japan with her husband and parents. Her decision to work in Viet Nam was not welcomed by her relatives initially, but she managed to persuade them. She said that when she came here, the only luggage she carried was love and compassion for unlucky children. Over more than 10 years of doing community service in Japan, she gained a lot of experience in taking care of children with various difficulties. Yo not only teaches students how to draw, thread beads and make various handicraft products, she also gains the childrens confidence with the little Vietnamese she knows with a lot of gestures. Nguyen Thi Cam Vang, deputy director of the centre, said: Since Yo came here, the children smile, ask and express their ideas more. They teach her Vietnamese. She teaches them skills and how to be confident. Each time she comes to classroom, the children surround her. They miss Yo whenever she takes a day off. Yo has a camera with her all the time, and takes pictures of the children at different moments, when they are smiling and when they are sulking. One of the children she pays a lot of attention to is Nguyen Hoa Nien who showed no awareness of anything around him and never communicated with anyone. At ten, Nien is still small and stayed in bed all the time. Yo tends to a girl with disabilities. - Photos tuoitre.vn After the class, Yo usually visits Nien at his bed and gives him warm hugs. Nien has begun to follow her instructions and learnt simple signs and words. Now he knows how to wave, smile and bend his head to thank people who give him presents. Nguyen Nghi, Niens father cannot contain his happiness at seeing his child progress over the past one year that Yo has been interacting with him. I have never believed my child can do such things. Now he can play Japanese games and beat teacher Yo. For my family, teacher Yo is like a dream, he said. Nguyen Thi Hien, president of a Nangs Association for Victims of Agent Orange said Teacher Yo has also become partner of others who work at the centre. She said several teaching methods used by the centres teachers had not been successful, despite careful preparation. Yo came and introduced new, effective Japanese teaching methods, changing the atmosphere in the centres classes. Now children follow regulations stuck on the classroom walls. Yo is admirable. The discipline and strictness combined with love has been very effective. We have to learn a lot from Yo, said the centres deputy director Vang. Yo said that her biggest happiness is seeing the disadvantaged children mature, day after day. She said the work also motivates her to study and find and practice new, interesting teaching methods. Yo does not get away from her children even during weekends. She rides her motorbike to markets in the city centre and looks for teaching materials that can help the Agent Orange affected children develop their skills. Reflecting on a year in Viet Nam, Yo said: I never thought that I would come to Viet Nam and bond so well with disadvantaged children here. Everything has changed now. I really love this place and want to attach my life to it. - VNS HCM CITY Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has called on the Saigon Hi-Tech Park to accelerate R&D to expand the number of technological inventions and innovations made by Vietnamese companies. Speaking at a function held there yesterday to mark its 15th anniversary, he praised the HCM City-based parks remarkable achievements. It houses 128 hi-tech manufacturing, services, research and development, training and incubation companies in the SHTP with a total investment of US$ 7 billion. Phuc underlined the vital role of the park in attracting investment, creating a favourable environment for R&D, training, and incubation of high-tech enterprises and other start-ups. He advised it to offer incentives to attract quality human resources, including foreign scientists, and strengthen collaboration with universities and enterprises to train scientists and engineers. The SHTP has gradually become an attractive location for foreign investors, and now boasts the presence of many global corporations and technology companies, who have invested in manufacturing high-tech products here. They include Intel, Samsung, Sanofi, Schneider, Jabil, Microchip, Datalogic, Rockwell Automation, Nidec, Sonion, Nipro, and Microsoft. The annual output of its tenants has been growing steadily, and has risen from US$ 0.5 billion in 2010 to $7.6 billion last year. It is expected to top $12 billion this year. By 2020 its annual revenues are projected at around $20 billion, or around 10 per cent of the citys GRDP. The main reasons for the rising output are that the key products made in the zone meet global standards and the increasing value of R&D in its products, which is several times higher than for products in other industrial zones. Since 2010 a total of 38 projects and enterprises have been incubated here, and the park now has many domestic high-tech brands such as FPT, Minh Nguyen, and Nanogen. The park management has closely worked with the HCM City National University and several research institutes and universities to establish the Science City Study Technology North East City. The companies based in the SHTP employ more than 36,700 workers, including more than 400 foreigners. The number of highly skilled workers has increased gradually, and now accounts for 30 per cent of the workforce. The park contributes 30 per cent of the citys total exports. City authorities have approved Saigon Hi-Tech Park No.2 on an area of 200 hectares in District 9. The PM awarded the park the Labour Order, first class, for its contributions to the countrys hi-tech development. Earlier, on Saturday, Phuc visited South Korean footwear company Tea Kwang Vina in Bien Hoa Industrial Park 2 in ong Nai Province. He met with officials from the Viet Nam General Federation of Labour and local authorities to discuss the condition of workers in the park and their career development. VNS CUU LONG DELTA Many farmers in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta are regretting that they did not stockpile any rice as prices rise continuously and supply remains limited. Rice traders, meanwhile, are also finding it difficult to get enough of the grain for exports. The 2017 crop year is coming to an end. In provinces with large production areas and high yields, such as Kien Giang, An Giang or ong Thap, the amount of rice yet to be harvested is small, while there is no inventory as farmers have been selling their produce soon after harvesting it. Nguyen Minh Thien of Kien Giang Provinces Tan Hiep District told the Nong Thon Ngay Nay (Countryside Today) newspaper that his family finished harvesting three weeks ago. At that time, freshly harvested OM 5451 rice was selling at VN5,100 (US$0.25) per kilogram. Now, it has since risen by VN500 per kilogram but there is no rice left. We should have stocked dried rice to get the additional VN10 million ($440) with our 18 tonnes of rice, he said. Le Van Manh, head of Tan Hiep District Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DoARD), said that local farmers had planted 34,158ha of rice with approximate productivity of 5.5 tonnes per ha. Most of the crop was harvested when the rice price was at average levels. Only about 10,000ha of rice were gathered when the prices rose. Since farmers no longer stock dried rice, they are disappointed about the missed chance, said Manh. An Giang Province started its harvest season late. Local farmers here say that it is rare to have rice prices rising from VN300 to 600 per kilogram in such a short time. Tu Khanh Nhon of Chau Phu Districts Thanh My Tay Commune is harvesting his crop. He said the farmers worked very hard to save rice fields from flooding by strengthening local dykes. Their work has paid off. Over the last two weeks, traders have deposited VN500,000 ($25) for every 0.1 ha and bought rice at VN5,500 to 5,800 per kilogram, an increase of VN450 to 600 per kilogram compared to the previous crop. With a productivity of 850kg, his family can earn about VN2 million ($88) for every 0.1 ha. According to the Vinh Long Peoples Committee, because of salinisation, the rice production area has been reducing steadily. In 2017 it was 168,805ha, a drop of 7,624 ha over 2016. But productivity has been high. Tough to get Meanwhile, traders and enterprises are facing difficulties in collecting rice due to limited supply. Nguyen Thanh Nha, a trader in Can Tho Citys Thoi Lai District, said that he had to go to Kien Giang and An Giang provinces for two to three days to buy just 30 tonnes of fresh rice. For this crop, export companies order large quantities of rice at higher prices. However, it is hard to get enough rice at this time. We have to deposit money 15 to 20 days in advance, otherwise, farmers will sell the rice to other traders, he said. Nguyen Thi Kieu, deputy director of Can Tho City Agriculture Department, affirmed that rice prices were increasing because of limited supply. Simultaneously, in 2017, besides traditional markets like China, the province has signed several rice export contracts with news markets including Bangladesh and the Philippines. Tran Ngoc Toan, another trader in Vinh Long Province, said: A month ago, the price was at VN5,000 per kilogram, now, it is VN5,400 to 5,600. So many farmers are waiting for higher prices. Three days ago, I bought about 200 ha of rice at VN5,600 per kilogram, but I could not collect anything yesterday. Nguyen Trung Tin, director of the Phan Minh Agricultural Company in Kien Giang Province, said he was worried about the current situation. We are being challenged by the supply shortage. However, there is also a dilemma, since input prices and processing costs are rising higher than the rice prices, he said. VNS Viet Nam will send the first female security officer to join peacekeeping activities in South Sudan, Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga, Head of Viet Nams Permanent Mission to the UN, said yesterday. Photo tienphong.vn NEW YORK Viet Nam will send the first female security officer to join peacekeeping activities in South Sudan, Ambassador Nguyen Phuong Nga, Head of Viet Nams Permanent Mission to the UN, said yesterday. Addressing the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee (Committee Four) of the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly, she also said that the country was preparing to launch a second-level field hospital in accordance with UN standards in the country. She said Viet Nam had been an active participant in UN peacekeeping operations and a responsible member of the international community. Ambassador Nga stressed on the need to improve peacekeeping activities to ensure prompt, timely and effective response to changing situations. Viet Nam lauds the UN Secretary Generals recommendations on restructuring the international bodys peace and security pillar as well as its efforts in allocating resources to prevent conflicts and build peace, she said. She further emphasised that peacekeeping activities must be carried out in line with international regulations and the UN Charter, as well as respect for national sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, non-use of force, and approval of all sides concerned. Delegates attending the meeting agreed that peacekeeping was an essential tool for maintaining international peace and security. The UNs peacekeeping operations have had positive impacts in disputed areas worldwide, they said. In the face of complicated challenges, they welcome initiatives to improve efficiency and optimise resources in implementing peacekeeping missions. The delegates also affirmed that diplomatic tools, intermediation, conciliation and political measures will continue to be the UNs priorities in the coming time. - VNS HCM CITY The Judicial Council of HCM Citys high-level Peoples Court on Monday morning annulled jail sentences for former leaders of Viet Nam Pharma Company, to serve reinvestigation of the case. The decision came after an appeal, as the Judicial Court decided the case in the court of first instance which accused the defendants of smuggling and forging documents was not complete and comprehensive. The Judicial Council has accepted a proposal by the high-level Peoples Procuracy and transferred all case files to the procuracy at the same level for re-investigation. The temporary arrest warrants relating to former VN Pharma chairman of the Board of Directors-cum-general director Nguyen Minh Hung and former director of H&C International Marine Trade Company Vo Manh Cuong are still valid. The high-level Peoples Court has asked for further investigation and clarification of the responsibilities of the Ministry of Healths Pharmaceutical Management Department for granting licences to VN Pharma and Canadian Helix Pharmaceuticals Inc to import counterfeit cancer medication into Viet Nam. Previously, on August 25, the HCM Citys Peoples Court sentenced Hung and Cuong to 12 years in prison on charges of smuggling and faking documents. The court also recommended further investigations into several officials at the ministrys Department of Pharmaceutical Management for failing to detect irregularities in VN Pharmas import documents. However, the Supreme Peoples Procuracy issued a decision on September 22 asking HCM City Peoples Court to revoke its verdict and re-open the trial, citing that a number of issues remained unclear. Earlier VN Pharma was determined to have forged documents to import 9,300 packages of H-Capita 500mg, a drug used in cancer treatment, from a Canadian company called Helix Pharmaceuticals Inc. The shipment was licensed by the Ministry of Healths Department of Pharmaceutical Management in December 2013. The H-Capita drug imported by VN Pharma was later examined by the Ministry of Health, which concluded that it contained 97 per cent of an active ingredient called capecitabine which was low quality, had no clear origin and cannot be used in treatment. VNS NAIROBI Kenyas election board remained silent Sunday over plans to reschedule a vote in flashpoint opposition areas, where a boycott sparked violent protests in a poll set to hand President Uhuru Kenyatta a landslide, but tarnished, win. With the counting almost done after Thursdays presidential re-run, the results remained on hold as officials mulled what to do about 25 constituencies in four western counties where voting was blocked. There, supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga managed to prevent hundreds of polling stations from opening, prompting violent clashes with police which continued for several days, leaving nine dead and scores injured. At least 49 people have died since the first presidential election of August 8, which was later overturned, prompting Kenyas worst political crisis in a decade. Following Odingas boycott, Kenyatta is almost guaranteed a crushing win. But it was looking ever more like a Pyhrric victory with low turnout figures likely to tarnish the credibility of a vote that has deeply polarized the nation and sparked international concern about the future of east Africas most stable democracy. In a televised address, election chief Wafula Chebukati gave updated figures, saying that in 251 of the 266 constituencies where voting actually took place, some 7.4 million people showed up to cast their ballots. The figure equates to a turnout of around 43 per cent. Including the diaspora, Kenya has a total of 291 constituencies, but the vote did not happen in 25 of them. Although Chebukati had said he would address the question of a re-run in protest-hit western areas, he made no comment on the matter, pledging only to give a fresh update on Monday morning. "On 8 August, the commission thought we had done the best election ever but here we are now, and I want to assure you that what we are doing here... is being done properly in a free and fair environment," he said. "I can confidently say that Im satisfied with this process." No Raila, no peace! Plans to restage the vote in the western regions on Saturday were quickly called off after a second day of protests over fears for the safety of polling staff. Odinga, who earlier showed up for church in Nairobis protest-hit Kawangware slum, has demanded a new election within 90 days, vowing to stage a campaign of "civil disobedience". "No Raila, no peace!" chanted the large crowd which had gathered to hear him speak, some of whom had marched over from Kibera, another of the citys poorest districts. "We are telling (Kenyatta)... the people of Kenya will not be ruled by the gun," he said in Swahili, to whistles and cheers. "You cannot kill people because they did not vote." But William Ruto, Kenyattas deputy, ridiculed Odingas demand for a fresh poll. "There will be no election in 90 days, there will be no discussion on matters to do with elections. We will have dialogue with Mr. Odinga on other matters, not matters that have been settled by people of Kenya in their supreme will in a ballot," he told Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera. Thursdays presidential re-run was ordered by Kenyas Supreme Court after it overturned Kenyattas August victory over "irregularities" in the transmission of votes. No winners "None of the questions raised by the Supreme Courts nullification of the original vote were answered by the election," wrote Nic Cheeseman, an expert on African politics at Birmingham University in central England. And although the official results were likely to notch up a landslide for Kenyatta, "the low turnout and the circumstances surrounding the polls means that his government has gained little." "Given all this, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that this was an election in which there were no winners," Cheeseman wrote in Kenyas Daily Nation newspaper. While the Supreme Court ruling was hailed as a chance to deepen democracy, the acrimonious bickering between Odinga and Kenyatta -- whose fathers were rivals before them -- has sharply divided a country where politics is polarized along tribal lines. Kenyas political crisis is the worst since a 2007 vote sparked months of politically-driven ethnic violence that left 1,100 people dead. While the dynamics of 2017s political crisis are very different, the memory of the bloodshed a decade ago is never far away. AFP MOGADISHU The death toll from a deadly attack on a hotel in Mogadishu rose to 27 on Sunday, prompting the Somali government to sack its police and intelligence chiefs. The move came after Al-Qaeda aligned Shabaab gunmen staged coordinated bomb attacks Saturday outside the Nasa Hablod Hotel 2 before storming the building. Two weeks ago, Mogadishu was hit by a massive truck bombing that killed 358 people in the troubled countrys worst-ever attack. Saturdays carnage was unleashed when a car bomb exploded outside the hotel entrance followed by a minibus loaded with explosives going off at a nearby intersection. The gunmen then rushed into the popular hotel, launching a siege that lasted several hours. "Five gunmen stormed the building, two of them were killed and the rest captured alive," security ministry spokesman Abdiasiz Ali Ibrahim told reporters. Sporadic gunfire could be heard inside the building where the gunmen had holed up, but several people managed to escape, officials said. Officials had initially given a toll of 14 dead, saying "most" of the casualties were civilians although a senior police official and a former MP were among them. The Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement on its Andalus radio station, saying it was a hotel where "apostate officials" were staying. Serious accountability The latest toll was given by Security Minister Mohamed Abukar Islow at a cabinet meeting at which ministers approved the dismissal of intelligence agency boss Abdillahi Mohamed Sanbalooshe and police chief Abdihakim Dahir Said. The two were "fired for the purpose of serious accountability," said a statement, which also said police were interrogating the three captured gunmen. The removal of the officials comes soon after the abrupt resignation of Somalias defence minister and army chief on October 12, both of whom quit without explanation just two days before the massive truck bombing. Although a new army chief was named the same day, General Abdi Jama Warsame, the defence portfolio remains vacant. AFP There was a moment back in August when Dale Grey Beard Sanders considered giving up. In the middle of the 100-Mile Wilderness in Maine, far from help, he was bleeding internally and having heart palpitations not surprising considering that he was 50 or 60 years older than most of the people he had met on the Appalachian Trail. Sanders called his wife in Bartlett, Tenn., and she urged him to keep going. With a go-ahead from his doctors, he did, and on Thursday, Sanders, 82, officially became the oldest person to hike the entire 2,190-mile trail in a year. He walked much of it alone, but for the last mile, ending at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy headquarters in Harpers Ferry, W. Va., Sanders was joined by friends, family and hikers including a pair of dogs he had met along the trail. At the end of it, he danced a jig. I feel euphoric! he said. I keep thinking, is someone going to come out of the woodwork and say, Uh-uh, I hiked it last year ... and I was 83 but no one has stepped up and said that. Someone said to me, You cant do it, the only way an old persons going to be able to hike the Appalachian Trail is if theyve hiked it before. That challenged me. Sanders had completed other impressive feats. A couple of years ago, he paddled the length of the Mississippi River. He broke the record for underwater breath-holding in 1959 and was IUSA spearfishing athlete of the year in 1965. But he had never done a hike lasting more than two weeks. For this one, which he started in Georgia in January, he was on the trail for a total of seven months. He is, incidentally, two years older than the Appalachian Trail, which was officially connected in 1937, meaning people could hike it in its entirety from Georgia to Maine. Sanders hiked it in a flip-flop sequence, meaning he did a Georgia-to-Harpers Ferry leg, followed by a Maine-to-Harpers Ferry leg. A naturally gregarious person, Sanders had periods of depression while alone on the trail. He was helped by what he calls trail angels, people who recognized him from seeing him on the internet, who called out his trail name Grey Beard and hiked alongside him for a stretch. Sanders long beard is white, but he named himself after a Cherokee Native American chief he admires. The best comment from one of them was, I want to be like you when Im your age, he said. That kept me going. The majority of his fellow hikers were in their 20s. They didnt have to keep track of blood pressure medication or the two different kinds of eye drops that Sanders needs for glaucoma. As older people, we have a great deal more challenges, he said. Injuries take longer to heal, including the hip he injured in a fall on Kinsman Mountain in New Hampshire that took two months to stop hurting. During the hike, he wore a tracker so people at home could locate his position. He fell about 100 times along the rocky, mountainous trail, but only the Kinsman Mountain fall was serious. Sanders personal story includes a 50-year career as a Parks and Recreation program administrator. He spent his boyhood on a Kentucky tobacco farm, worked as a lifeguard and was a circus acrobat and cotton-candy seller. He always did acrobatics, said his sister, Elaine Bush of Nashville, one of several family members celebrating with him in Harpers Ferry. His wife, a daughter and son-in-law, and two grandchildren also came. He was always in the limelight, because he was unusual and he did unusual things. Sanders takes 30-inch steps, so he figures he took 4,625,256 steps for the hike. Along the way, he passed tens of thousands of white blazes that mark the trail. When he passed the last one on Thursday, he stopped, took off his cap, and kissed it. A few yards later, at the conservancy headquarters, he hugged his wife and accepted a glass of sparkling cider. And with all the honesty that 82 years affords a man, he announced his next move. Im done, and Im tired, he said. And I can go home. Event chair Marla Edler, Friends of the YWCA board president, said This is a first for the YWCA, but judging by its success it wont be the last. All proceeds benefit programs and services at the YWCA. The YWCA of Black Hawk County is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. Among their many programs are both child and adult fitness classes, parenting classes, Latino and multicultural services, daycare, before and after school programs and programming for teens. For more information or to become a member go online to ywcabhc.org or call 234-7589. WATERLOO The family of a Waterloo toddler who was strangled to death in 1974 said their load is lighter now that the man who killed her has died in prison. Im glad this part of it is over, said Bill Day, father of 2-year-old of Michelle Shelly Day, whose body was found in a crawl space over Russell James Fitzs bathroom at the Castle Apartments on Commercial Street on June 6, 1974. Fitz died Sunday at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center at Oakdale after spending more than 44 years in prison. He was 71. Fitz was serving a life sentence and had been suffering a chronic illness, according to the Iowa Department of Corrections, which confirmed his death Monday. He had been moved to a hospice room over the weekend and died of natural causes at 11:23 p.m. Sunday. His death came just two days short of the anniversary of the verdict that found him guilty of first-degree murder. Im not rejoicing today. Ive carried that around on my shoulders for most of my life. Its Gods work now, said Rodger Day, Shellys older brother. He was 4 years old when she disappeared. Now hes got to meet his true judgment. It does relieve some pressure, said Shellys mother, Aileen. She said she would have liked to face Fitz one more time so she could ask him why. Shellys father agrees. We still dont understand all the whys, why a man who is 27 years old would mess with a 2-year-old girl, Bill Day said. Shelly and her brother had been playing outside at their babysitters, who lived at the Commercial Street apartment building downstairs from Fitz. Aileen Day and the sitter shared some coffee, and they discovered Shelly was missing around 5 p.m. when the mother went to kiss her goodbye before heading to work, according to Courier archives. The next five or six hours were a whirlwind of searching that included police, cab drivers, CB radio club members, neighborhood children and volunteers. All these people that we didnt know came up out of the woodwork and flooded that area searching for her, Bill Day said. There was speculation she tumbled into a window well or that she got too close to the Cedar River, which was behind the apartment building and running high at the time. The father said he doubted the river theory because Shelly was barefoot, and there were burs between the river and the apartment building. According to Bill Day, his mother had inquired about a third row of windows arranged above the two-story apartment building during the search. The windows led to a space. Fitz, a construction worker, sat outside drinking beer and watching the search. He told a Courier reporter covering the disappearance he felt bad the girl missing. She was really cute, he told the reporter. I loved her probably as much as her parents did. The 1974 Courier article goes on to say Fitz had joked with the father about abducting the girl. Shes so cute; Id like to kidnap her, the article quotes Fitz as saying. He then went on to tell the reporter he thought someone was trying to kill him by turning on the gas to his stove. Fitz later walked to a squad car and began talking with police, telling them he though Shelly had a grown-up voice and that she had sat on his lap in the past, according to Courier archives. He told officers he was the last person to see her. Officers said Fitz allowed them to search his apartment, and he began to leave when investigators took an interest in the crawlspace overhead. They found Shellys body with an electrical cord around her neck moments later, and there were signs she had been sexually abused, according to Courier articles from the time. Her diaper was found in Fitzs dresser. He was detained a few blocks away for public intoxication and then charged with murder. Fitz was convicted on Halloween 1974 and began serving his life sentence on New Years Eve that same year. The slaying took its toll on the Day family in the years the followed. Aileen Day said she felt guilty, as if she should have done something different that day. She quit eating and sleeping and lost a lot of weight. Bill saved me. He told me to get my (expletive deleted) together or wed lose Rodger, she said Bill Day kept his emotions bottled up and began drinking heavily. I had that manly image of men dont cry, the father said. He said he and his wife grieved differently. They moved out of Waterloo in 1984 when the father was laid off from John Deere and found work in Rockford, Ill. People there didnt know about Shelly. On occasion the Days would hear acquaintances talk about their own daughters who were having graduations or getting married milestones the Days missed out on. It stung a little bit, Bill Day said. The two divorced and married other people but reunited after their other spouses died. They now live together as friends. From what family members can tell, Fitz never admitted to the slaying. Some 20 years ago, Rodger Day wrote to Fitz asking for an explanation, and Fitz wrote back in a lengthy letter claiming he was innocent and knew who the real killer was. The brother cut off contact with him at that point. The brother eventually decided not to worry about Fitz. It came a few years ago when he was traveling to Nashville for vacation. His phone rang with what he thought would be news of Fitzs death, and he pulled over and started to cry. It turned out just to be a notification Fitz was being moved between different correctional facilities. The expectation of closure and the dashed hopes ruined the vacation, Rodger Day said. I said Im not going to waste my life away waiting for the day he passes away, the brother decided that day. Its not up to me to carry that heavy load around. Rodger Day said while he supports the death penalty, he was fine with Fitz lingering behind bars for decades. Thats got to be tough. I couldnt survive in prison, in a cell for how many years? Forty-four years. Thats a long time, Rodger Day said. Family members believe Fitzs death will bring some closure. Her death just stared this grieving, but maybe now with Fitz passing we can put this behind us a little bit better, Bill Day said. WATERLOO Chris Reeves fellow sixth-grade teachers at George Washington Carver Academy wanted to be supportive when his son, Jonah, deployed to Iraq in January with the U.S. Army. That was particularly true of instructional strategist Chris Peck. I had talked about him last year when he deployed, said Reeves, from where his son is stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. Jonahs infantry unit was sent to Mosul, Iraq, and returned to Fort Bragg in September. Peck told Reeves she would pray for his son every day and wanted to meet the 21-year-old after the nine-month deployment ended. That was the goal, said Reeves. They discussed sharing a meal with the sixth-grade staff. But Peck wanted to get the students involved, as well. So when Jonah, home on leave, came to Carver on Monday, the schools sixth-graders were assembled to meet him in the commons. They had decorated the stage in red white and blue and waved small American flags. Jonah and his dad were seated on stage along with his mom, Nicki, and sister, Emma. A group of band students gathered to perform. It was all more than the soldier expected. After Jonah told the students where he had been deployed, Assistant Principal Sheena Canady presented him with a school T-shirt. Lets give Jonah a big round of applause, she said. Students were then treated to a special meal while sixth-grade staff ate with Jonah and his family in the teachers lounge, where flag posters and signs made by the children were hung. We were all worried, said Peck, when Jonah was deployed. Then when he came back, I really feel like we dont honor our people. Hes awesome to go there. She noted students were really excited to know a soldier and said it was important for them to honor Jonah. The 2015 graduate of Janesville High School has 11 months left in his three-year commitment with the Army. Part of Jonahs reason for taking leave is to decide if he wants to continue in the Army after the initial commitment ends. But the focus Monday was on honoring his willingness to serve. The event was really nice, nice surprise, said Chris Reeves. Everyone played their part. Its really sweet. DES MOINES -- The Iowa Department of Public Health announced Monday the first flu-related death of the 2017-2018 influenza season -- an elderly central Iowa man who died this month. Influenza activity in Iowa has been low so far this season, but state health agency medical director, Dr. Patricia Quinlisk, said the death is an indication that flu can be a serious illness. "This death is an unfortunate reminder the flu virus does have the potential to cause severe illness and death, especially in the very young, very old, or those who have underlying health conditions, she said in a statement. Federal health officials recommend that essentially everyone over 6 months of age should receive the flu vaccine. Now is a good time to be vaccinated, Quinlisk said, before the holiday season begins. It takes up to two weeks after vaccination for the body to achieve full benefit against the flu virus. To learn more about influenza in Iowa, visit http://idph.iowa.gov/influenza. Wind farm MidAmerican Energy Co. plans to build a new wind farm in Poweshiek County marking the third site in Iowa selected for construction as part of the companys Wind XI project. MidAmerican Energy has begun construction activity on the North English wind farm, with completion scheduled for December 2018. The wind farm will share an operations and maintenance building in Montezuma with the Prairie wind farm, currently under construction in neighboring Mahaska County. Bump stocks Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, expressing extreme concern about the role bump stocks played in the recent Las Vegas tragedy, joined a bipartisan group of attorneys general Monday in urging congressional leaders to close a loophole in current federal gun laws. The device was described as a firearm stock attachment designed to increase the ability of a semiautomatic rifle to fire faster and at a rate closer to that of a fully automatic weapon. The letter, signed by attorneys general of 29 states, the District of Columbia and three U.S. territories, noted that bump stock devices may be used to evade machine gun laws that are currently in place. Millers office said it was widely reported that the Las Vegas gunman, Stephen Paddock, modified otherwise lawful semi-automatic rifles with bump stocks to kill 58 people and injure hundreds more. The attorneys general urge Congress to regulate bump stocks like machine guns in order to protect residents from the dangers posed by unrestricted fully automatic weapons. According to the letter, bump stocks can mimic fully automatic machinegun fire and therefore lead to disastrous consequences in the wrong hands. The attorneys general also added that Congress should carefully consider whether bump stocks have created a loophole in the machinegun laws when considering any new laws. DES MOINES The 8-second video shows the red lights of a stopped school bus flashing through an early morning haze. Three seconds in, the headlights of a moving vehicle appear. It does not stop. One second later, the outline of a child streaks across the road in front of the vehicle, which does not stop, swerves onto the shoulder and misses striking the child by mere feet. Its only 8 seconds, said Chris Darling, executive director of the Iowa Pupil Transportation Association. But in 8 seconds, that child could have lost their life. Darling said the incident, which recently was captured on a camera mounted on the side of the school bus, happened in Iowa, although the school districts administration asked Darlington not to share the districts name. Darling said the driver was cited for illegally passing a stopped school bus and has a trial date in November. Five years ago Iowa strengthened the penalties for violating the states law against passing a stopped school bus, increasing the first-offense penalty from $200 to anywhere from $250 to $675. When the law was strengthened in 2012, it was named in honor of Kadyn Halverson, a 7-year-old north Iowa girl who was killed in 2011 when she was struck by a vehicle while crossing the road to board a school bus. Since the penalties were increased, the number of charges and convictions for passing a stopped school bus have declined, as has the rate of convictions, according to data compiled by the states nonpartisan legal agency. And yet drivers continue to pass stopped school buses at an alarming rate. Although there have been no deaths as a result of drivers passing a stopped school bus in Iowa since Kadyn Halverson, on one day this past May officials at about a third of Iowa school districts participated in a survey and observed 267 incidents of drivers passing a stopped school bus, a state education official said. If the rate was similar across all school districts, that would equate to roughly 800 incidents in a single day. As a nation and a community and a state, (Iowa lawmakers in 2012) stepped up and said we need to try to find a way to prevent this and make people aware of it. And they really thought this (increased) fine system would do it, Darling said. It has not. In 2012, there were 1,023 charges filed and 984 convictions for unlawful passing of a school bus, according to the figures compiled by Iowas nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency, using data from the Iowa Department of Transportation and the Department of Human Rights. In 2016, there were 940 charges filed and just 581 convictions. That represents a conviction rate in 2012 of 96.2 percent and in 2016 a rate of just 61.8 percent. Agency staff noted the data is not a perfect representation of convictions as a rate of charges because some cases can cross over calendar years. We just havent gotten any support from the county attorneys, said Max Christensen, transportation consultant for the state education department. They just dont follow through on it. I dont know if they feel they cant get a conviction. But even people like Christensen and Darling, who wish to see more convictions for passing a stopped school bus acknowledge it can be difficult to catch a driver in the act, secure enough information to file charges, and prosecute. If a school bus does not have a camera mounted on the outside and many dont and no law enforcement is nearby, it is up to the bus driver to witness the violation and secure enough identifying information a license plate number and description of the driver to make charges stand up in court. Bus drivers must do this all while still guiding children onto or off the bus. Watching kids getting on or off, your first concern is for their safety, Christensen said. Your second concern is to get the license plate number, the description of the driver, that sort of thing. Christensen and Darling also said some school bus drivers have given up on reporting incidents because they have become disheartened by a lack of charges and convictions. How its being prosecuted and followed through with is also a hindrance to the law, Darling said. Prosecutors with the Linn and Johnson county attorneys offices said some elements of the law make it difficult to prosecute. There is something unique about these charges, said Matt Kishinami, Assistant Linn County Attorney. Theyre not initiated by law enforcement and the perp or suspect is not stopped and identified at the scene of the crime. Because of that, the primary witness typically is the bus driver instead of a trained expert, like a police officer. Kishinami said while police often show up with their reports and tend to be experienced answering questions in front of people, that often is not the case with bus drivers. And prosecutors must prove who was behind the wheel of the vehicle when the violation occurred. You have to prove who the driver was, said Rachel Zimmerman Smith, Assistant Johnson County Attorney. You speed, the person in the drivers seat is the defendant. Your car drives by the school bus, it could be your 17-year-old kid. Its hard to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. We still have to prove all of our offenses beyond a reasonable doubt. Because of the penalties associated with the crime including the possibility of a 30-day suspension of the drivers license defendants are less likely to plead guilty to the offense like they would a speeding ticket or other moving violation, Zimmerman Smith said. Attorneys and judges are prosecuting the law unevenly across the state, Darling said. He said some counties fully prosecute the law while others commonly agree to plea bargains, often with community service in place of the license revocation. I can get a ticket in one part of the state and actually be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, he said. Then I can get a ticket in another part of the state and get it plea bargained. Darling said more education about the law, its penalties and the dangers of passing a stopped school bus could help reduce the number of incidents and increase the number of convictions. He and Christensen agree the law and penalties are worthwhile, but that the problem persists. Theres a lot of chances for kids to get hurt. Its a real concern, Christensen said. I think the school bus drivers throughout the state of Iowa do a really good job of caring for the kids on their bus, and are very concerned about this. ... It just scares the pants off you. It really does. Lee Hermiston of the Cedar Rapids Gazette contributed. DES MOINES State taxpayers paid an average daily cost of $95.16 to house nearly 8,100 inmates in Iowas nine prisons during the fiscal year that ended in June 2016, according to a state audit issued Wednesday. That cost calculated to $34,830 per inmate per year, which was up $4,200 from fiscal 2012 when the average daily cost stood at $83.69 and the states prison population stood around 8,500. These changes were indicated in the report issued by State Auditor Mary Mosiman. The average inmate population dropped to 8,094 during the five fiscal years that were studied. During fiscal 2016, the average cost per inmate ranged from $21,095 at the North Central Correctional Facility in Rockwell City to $60,858 at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, the audit found. The average cost per inmate has generally increased over the past two years, with the average cost per inmate for the year ending June 30, 2016, increasing from the prior year for six of the nine Institutions. Over the last five fiscal years, total state general fund expenditures increased by 7.4 percent from $262,590,999 in fiscal 2012 to $281,914,563 in fiscal 2016 when the yearly increase was only $2.4 million higher than the previous 12-month cycle. Staff employed at the institutions under the control of the Iowa Department of Corrections declined from 2,618 in fiscal 2012 to 2,590 employees in fiscal 2016 while the average number of inmates decreased 5.6 percent, from 8,573 in fiscal 2012 to 8,094 in fiscal 2016, and the average daily cost per inmate increased 13.7 percent from $83.69 to $95.16, according to the state audit. The state has eight correctional facilities at Anamosa, Clarinda, Fort Dodge, Fort Madison, Mount Pleasant, Newton, Oakdale and Rockwell City to house male inmates at various security risks under the Department of Corrections classification, and one prison to house female inmates in Mitchellville. A copy of the report is available for review at the State Auditors web site at the https://auditor.iowa.gov/reports/1764-0000-0R00 web address. Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds administration last week rescinded its health insurance stopgap proposal when the federal government said a decision was weeks away even though enrollment starts Wednesday. The issue carries significant real-world consequences for thousands of low-income Iowans. The state insurance division estimates roughly 20,000 individuals will experience cost increases so significant they will choose to forego health insurance next year and pay the tax penalty instead. The issue also could have political consequences, and both parties appear to be aware both are blaming the other. First, a quick refresher: Iowa next year will have just one company selling insurance plans statewide in the federal Affordable Care Acts exchanges for low-income residents. Those with low income levels qualify for financial assistance, but some at more moderate income levels do not. With just one company in the exchange and that company has proposed to increase premiums by an average of 57 percent to keep up with costs thousands of Iowans are in danger of being priced out of the market. So the state developed a stopgap plan that would have shuffled some of the financial assistance to individuals with more moderate income levels and moved individuals with high health-care costs into a separate pool. The goal was to bring younger and healthier consumers into the market and encourage the participation of more insurance companies. Because the plan called for shifting federal funds designed to help low-income health insurance buyers, it required a waiver under the federal law. The state applied for the waiver in June, and according to state leaders, worked with the federal government constantly on the proposal. But as of last week, the feds had not yet reached a decision, telling state leaders that could still be weeks away. So with open enrollment for 2018 starting Wednesday, state officials rescinded the proposal. State insurance commissioner Doug Ommen said the problem was created by the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, which was passed in 2010 when Democrats controlled Congress and the White House. Reynolds blamed the laws waiver process, which she said was inflexible. It came down to the law. As its written, it just does not afford the flexibility that we need to be creative, Reynolds said. Iowa Democrats immediately pushed back. They laid blame at the feet of Republicans, who they note have complete power to fix the law the GOP controls all the lawmaking levers in the Iowa and U.S. capitals. Gov. Reynolds and the Republicans in Washington, D.C., continue to break their promise to provide access to affordable health care to more than 72,000 Iowans, Democratic state Sen. Janet Petersen said in a statement. Republicans have done everything possible to undermine Obamacare, and they have failed to provide a workable, bipartisan alternative to help Iowans who need health care security. The present situation in Iowa is, in fact, the result of actions taken by both parties, according to health care experts. The Affordable Care Act, passed under full federal Democratic control, succeeded in getting millions more Americans enrolled in health insurance programs. However, the law was not as successful drawing in younger and healthier consumers, the types that help drive down insurance costs. According to a 2016 report from U.S. News and World Report, citing federal statistics, adults ages 25 to 34 remained almost twice as likely to be uninsured as adults ages 45 to 64, and 15.9 percent of young people remained uninsured compared to 8.1 percent of older adults. Getting more people enrolled and more healthy people enrolled in particular is key to make this work, JoAnn Volk, a senior research professor at Georgetowns Center for Health Insurance Reforms, said in the story. The law was unsuccessful in attracting some insurers including Wellmark, the states biggest insurer. Others have left since joining the program, and a health care cooperative created with federal funding failed within a year. But Republicans in control of Congress and the White House have prioritized remaking the law rather than fixing it. Thus far they have been unsuccessful in passing any new health care legislation, leaving the current law to languish. And President Donald Trumps administration has cut funding for advertising and outreach, stopped payments designed to help stabilize insurance companies participating in the program and granted extensions for insurance plans that skirt the laws requirements. That uncertainty has hastened the exit of some insurance companies, health care experts say. At the state level, while Iowa Republicans blame the Affordable Care Acts waiver process and call it inflexible, four states have been granted waivers: Minnesota, Oregon, Alaska and Hawaii. Tim Jost, a retired professor of health care law at Washington and Lee University and a supporter of the Affordable Care Acts policies, told national media outlets this summer he did not think Iowas stopgap proposal was legal. Basically theyre asking the administration to use (a waiver) as the carte blanche to allow states to completely rewrite the ACA and do whatever they want to do with federal money, and thats not what (the waiver) is or does, Jost told The Hill. By Ro Morse Oct. 30, 2017 | 06:58 AM | PADUCAH, KY - Banks Market Recipe of the Week Gingersnap Crust: 3 cups gingersnap crumbs 1/3 cup light brown sugar 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grind 3 cups of broken gingersnaps into fine crumbs. Add extra gingersnaps and pulse again until you have 3 cups of crumbs. If you aren't using a processor, place ginger snaps in a zip-lock back and roll a rolling pin back and forth until they are crumbs. Add light brown sugar and melted butter to the 3 cups of gingersnap crumbs. Whisk or stir with fork to combine. Line a 9" X 13" baking dish with parchment or foil. Dump the gingersnap crumb mixture into the lined-dish. Press into the pan. Cheesecake Layer: 16 ounces cream cheese, softened 1 1/2 cups sugar 4 large eggs 1/2 teaspoon salt Beat softened cream cheese in the bowl with electric mixer. Add sugar and beat until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Scrape the mixing bowl with a spatula, then beat in the eggs and salt until smooth. Spread this layer evenly over cooled crumb crust. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until firm. Cool completely before adding next layer. Pumpkin Layer: 1 cup hot heavy cream 1 cup sugar 1 small package unflavored gelatin 15-ounce can pumpkin puree 1 1/4 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon salt Heat 1 cup heavy cream until almost boiling. Quickly whisk in the sugar and unflavored gelatin, until smooth. Whisk in the pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla and salt. Pour pumpkin mixture over the cheesecake and place in the fridge. Cool until set. Once the pumpkin layer is firm to the touch, lift bars out of the pan by the edges of paper. Cut into squares and top each bar with a dollop of whipped cream or Cool Whip. Lightly sprinkle with pumpkin pie spice. This recipe is shared October 30-November 3, 2017 NewsTALK 94.3 FM, AM 570 WKYX, AM 1560 WPAD, AM 1450 WDXR, and AM 1320 WNGO. Ro's recipes are sponsored by Banks Market on Lone Oak Road in Paducah, KY. Check out more recipes online at: www.banksmarket.com Makes 24 bars By The Associated Press Oct. 24, 2017 | 05:33 PM | FRANKFORT, KY A plaque attached to a statue of Jefferson Davis in Kentucky's Capitol will be removed because it refers to the only president of the Confederacy as a hero and a patriot. The state's Historic Properties Advisory Commission voted to remove the plaque during a specially called meeting on Tuesday. Last month, a committee had recommended removing the plaque because it contained "subjective" language. Susan McCrobie, a past president of the Kentucky division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, vowed to file a lawsuit to keep the plaque in place. Black leaders in Kentucky have asked to remove the statue. Their efforts gained momentum following the racially-motivated murders of nine people at a South Carolina church in 2015. The commission later chose to keep the statue but to provide more historical context for it. past daily news Sep 13 (1) Sep 09 (15) Sep 06 (12) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (10) Aug 31 (17) Aug 29 (14) Aug 26 (13) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (12) Aug 19 (21) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (10) Aug 10 (10) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (10) Aug 06 (10) Aug 05 (8) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (14) Jul 29 (1) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (10) Jul 22 (11) Jul 19 (16) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (10) Jul 15 (13) Jul 12 (7) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (3) Jul 06 (5) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (11) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (8) Jun 28 (7) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (8) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (9) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (9) Jun 18 (8) Jun 15 (9) Jun 13 (13) Jun 11 (11) Jun 09 (19) Jun 06 (10) Jun 04 (10) Jun 03 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (5) May 30 (5) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (7) May 26 (6) May 25 (4) May 23 (6) May 22 (6) May 21 (4) May 20 (7) May 19 (9) May 18 (4) May 17 (6) May 16 (5) May 15 (7) May 14 (3) May 13 (3) May 12 (9) May 10 (3) May 09 (7) May 08 (4) May 07 (3) May 06 (5) May 05 (8) May 03 (9) May 02 (1) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (5) Apr 28 (4) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (4) Apr 24 (8) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (5) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (1) Apr 19 (5) Apr 18 (3) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (5) Apr 14 (2) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (2) Apr 11 (4) Apr 10 (3) Apr 09 (3) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (3) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (2) Apr 03 (3) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (7) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (6) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (10) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (5) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (5) Mar 17 (4) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (7) Mar 12 (5) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (8) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (12) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (8) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (8) Feb 28 (7) Feb 27 (5) Feb 26 (6) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (6) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (3) Feb 20 (1) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (2) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (3) Feb 13 (6) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (6) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (6) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (2) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (1) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (8) Jan 30 (2) Jan 29 (4) Jan 28 (1) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (4) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (2) Jan 20 (2) Jan 19 (3) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (2) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (6) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (4) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 05 (5) Jan 04 (4) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (1) Dec 31 (5) Dec 29 (4) Dec 28 (5) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (3) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (2) Dec 17 (1) Dec 16 (4) Dec 15 (2) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (5) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (2) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (4) Dec 06 (4) Dec 05 (1) Dec 04 (5) Dec 03 (3) Dec 02 (5) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (5) Nov 29 (10) Nov 28 (6) Nov 27 (2) Nov 26 (3) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (6) Nov 19 (2) Nov 18 (5) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (3) Nov 15 (2) Nov 14 (3) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (2) Nov 11 (4) Nov 10 (5) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (4) Nov 04 (5) Nov 02 (4) Nov 01 (4) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (9) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (2) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (3) Oct 23 (6) Oct 22 (4) Oct 20 (3) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (4) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (2) Oct 13 (4) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (5) Oct 10 (4) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (1) Oct 06 (10) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (1) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (6) Sep 26 (5) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (6) Sep 23 (5) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (6) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (5) Sep 18 (3) Sep 17 (5) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (4) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (4) Sep 06 (8) Sep 05 (6) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (3) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (5) Aug 31 (8) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (6) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (1) Aug 26 (4) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (7) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (4) Aug 21 (4) Aug 20 (7) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (8) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (2) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (4) Aug 08 (8) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (3) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (8) Jul 31 (1) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (2) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (10) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (5) Jul 23 (3) Jul 22 (2) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (1) Jul 16 (10) Jul 14 (7) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (7) Jul 10 (5) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (4) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (7) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (2) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (5) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (6) Jun 23 (4) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 18 (2) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (4) Jun 15 (3) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (2) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (8) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (10) Jun 05 (14) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (6) Jun 02 (8) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (7) May 30 (2) May 29 (7) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (4) May 25 (5) May 24 (4) May 23 (5) May 22 (5) May 21 (5) May 20 (3) May 19 (10) May 18 (6) May 17 (3) May 16 (6) May 15 (2) May 14 (3) May 13 (5) May 11 (1) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (4) May 07 (2) May 06 (4) May 05 (6) May 04 (5) May 03 (5) May 02 (1) May 01 (6) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (7) Apr 28 (8) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (14) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (1) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (1) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (1) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (2) Apr 08 (4) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (6) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (2) Mar 31 (5) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (9) Mar 26 (4) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (10) Mar 22 (9) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (11) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (3) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (6) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (3) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (5) Mar 08 (6) Mar 07 (13) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (6) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (4) Feb 26 (5) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (9) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (6) Feb 18 (3) Feb 17 (4) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (5) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (3) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (9) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (7) Feb 06 (10) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (2) Feb 03 (8) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (5) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (4) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (7) Jan 26 (8) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (6) Jan 23 (5) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (6) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (12) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (8) Jan 12 (6) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (7) Jan 09 (4) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (9) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (8) Dec 31 (2) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (4) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (3) Dec 18 (5) Dec 17 (3) Dec 16 (1) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (10) Dec 13 (7) Dec 12 (12) Dec 10 (3) Dec 09 (6) Dec 08 (7) Dec 07 (12) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (13) Dec 04 (6) Dec 02 (8) Dec 01 (8) Nov 30 (6) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (4) Nov 26 (8) Nov 24 (2) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (11) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (3) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (7) Nov 17 (6) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (5) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (4) Nov 09 (14) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (5) Nov 04 (11) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (10) Nov 01 (8) Oct 31 (12) Oct 30 (5) Oct 29 (5) Oct 28 (5) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (13) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (8) Oct 22 (5) Oct 21 (11) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (5) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (10) Oct 12 (11) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (10) Oct 09 (7) Oct 08 (5) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (14) Oct 04 (9) Oct 03 (12) Oct 02 (4) Oct 01 (9) Sep 30 (5) Sep 29 (7) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (3) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (10) Sep 21 (12) Sep 20 (12) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (11) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (8) Sep 11 (6) Sep 10 (10) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (9) Sep 07 (8) Sep 06 (11) Sep 05 (2) Sep 04 (8) Sep 03 (2) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (9) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (4) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (4) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (2) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (6) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (6) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (3) Aug 10 (5) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (9) Aug 07 (7) Aug 06 (7) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (11) Aug 02 (6) Aug 01 (9) Jul 31 (11) Jul 28 (7) Jul 27 (11) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (5) Jul 24 (1) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (2) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (8) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (7) Jul 15 (4) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (2) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (5) Jul 06 (6) Jul 05 (3) Jul 04 (6) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (3) Jun 30 (8) Jun 29 (5) Jun 28 (6) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (4) Jun 25 (1) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (5) Jun 19 (7) Jun 17 (4) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (4) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (4) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (6) Jun 09 (8) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (8) Jun 06 (7) Jun 05 (5) Jun 04 (7) Jun 03 (1) Jun 02 (9) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (8) May 30 (7) May 29 (5) May 28 (5) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (4) May 24 (3) May 23 (5) May 22 (2) May 21 (3) May 20 (7) May 19 (11) May 18 (1) May 17 (7) May 16 (3) May 15 (4) May 14 (3) May 13 (4) May 12 (4) May 11 (11) May 10 (2) May 09 (6) May 08 (6) May 07 (2) May 06 (3) May 05 (4) May 04 (5) May 03 (8) May 02 (4) May 01 (4) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (13) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (7) Apr 26 (5) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (2) Apr 23 (7) Apr 22 (9) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (2) Apr 19 (2) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (6) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (2) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (6) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (7) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (9) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (7) Mar 28 (4) Mar 27 (3) Mar 26 (6) Mar 25 (3) Mar 24 (8) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (10) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (6) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (4) Mar 12 (6) Mar 10 (3) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (4) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (5) Feb 28 (3) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (9) Feb 24 (11) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (7) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (6) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (2) Feb 12 (5) Feb 11 (5) Feb 10 (3) Feb 09 (10) Feb 08 (9) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (2) Feb 05 (9) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (7) Jan 31 (4) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (6) Jan 28 (5) Jan 27 (2) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (7) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (14) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (10) Jan 18 (11) Jan 17 (9) Jan 16 (5) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (10) Jan 06 (8) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (9) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (5) Jan 01 (14) Dec 30 (13) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (5) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (7) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (5) Dec 22 (4) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (9) Dec 16 (8) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (5) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (17) Dec 09 (8) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (10) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (7) Nov 30 (9) Nov 29 (6) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (15) Nov 24 (7) Nov 23 (15) Nov 22 (9) Nov 21 (6) Nov 20 (11) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (13) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (7) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (13) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (4) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (8) Nov 03 (9) Nov 02 (8) Nov 01 (6) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (15) Oct 26 (10) Oct 25 (10) Oct 24 (13) Oct 23 (9) Oct 21 (8) Oct 20 (13) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (8) Oct 16 (14) Oct 14 (9) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (13) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (15) Oct 07 (7) Oct 06 (11) Oct 05 (18) Oct 04 (14) Oct 03 (1) Oct 02 (10) Sep 30 (11) Sep 29 (11) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (15) Sep 26 (7) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (17) Sep 20 (20) Sep 19 (4) Sep 18 (11) Sep 16 (10) Sep 15 (12) Sep 14 (9) Sep 13 (12) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (4) Sep 10 (8) Sep 09 (9) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (13) Sep 06 (15) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (10) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (12) Aug 31 (14) Aug 30 (14) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (8) Aug 27 (9) Aug 26 (12) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (5) Aug 20 (6) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (11) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (5) Aug 05 (7) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (4) Aug 02 (5) Aug 01 (5) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (5) Jul 29 (9) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (8) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (6) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (6) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (5) Jul 18 (15) Jul 15 (14) Jul 14 (5) Jul 13 (6) Jul 12 (12) Jul 11 (8) Jul 10 (3) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (10) Jul 05 (4) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (5) Jul 02 (7) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (10) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (2) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (5) Jun 21 (7) Jun 20 (3) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (11) Jun 16 (5) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (7) Jun 13 (14) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (8) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (11) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (16) Jun 03 (8) Jun 02 (12) Jun 01 (5) May 31 (7) May 30 (15) May 28 (7) May 27 (5) May 26 (21) May 25 (14) May 24 (10) May 23 (7) May 22 (8) May 21 (11) May 20 (5) May 19 (4) May 18 (10) May 17 (11) May 16 (5) May 15 (6) May 14 (7) May 13 (12) May 12 (10) May 11 (7) May 10 (13) May 09 (4) May 08 (7) May 07 (3) May 06 (6) May 05 (9) May 04 (14) May 03 (7) May 02 (10) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (5) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (8) Apr 24 (6) Apr 23 (14) Apr 22 (16) Apr 21 (11) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (16) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (10) Apr 15 (8) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (11) Apr 12 (10) Apr 11 (8) Apr 10 (12) Apr 09 (5) Apr 08 (13) Apr 07 (9) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (15) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (15) Apr 02 (5) Apr 01 (11) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (10) Mar 29 (8) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (12) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (8) Mar 24 (7) Mar 23 (15) Mar 22 (17) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (8) Mar 19 (4) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (19) Mar 15 (13) Mar 14 (7) Mar 13 (20) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (13) Mar 08 (13) Mar 07 (7) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (16) Mar 02 (16) Mar 01 (13) Feb 29 (8) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (16) Feb 26 (10) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (12) Feb 23 (14) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (8) Feb 19 (12) Feb 18 (12) Feb 17 (11) Feb 16 (8) Feb 15 (9) Feb 14 (7) Feb 13 (10) Feb 12 (11) Feb 11 (13) Feb 10 (5) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (4) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (13) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (7) Feb 02 (19) Jan 31 (21) Jan 29 (11) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (13) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (2) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (13) Jan 21 (11) Jan 20 (9) Jan 19 (13) Jan 18 (4) Jan 17 (11) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (13) Jan 13 (9) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (5) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (7) Jan 08 (7) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (7) Jan 04 (7) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (8) Jan 01 (5) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (9) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (1) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (6) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (7) Dec 19 (13) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (10) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (11) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (4) Dec 12 (9) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (10) Dec 08 (13) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (12) Dec 05 (8) Dec 04 (11) Dec 03 (12) Dec 02 (16) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (11) Nov 28 (15) Nov 27 (16) Nov 26 (11) Nov 25 (9) Nov 24 (13) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (1) Nov 21 (7) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (11) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (10) Nov 15 (3) Nov 14 (10) Nov 13 (14) Nov 12 (8) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (11) Nov 06 (12) Nov 05 (17) Nov 04 (12) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (12) Oct 31 (11) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (10) Oct 28 (18) Oct 27 (16) Oct 26 (11) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (12) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (12) Oct 20 (17) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (15) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (10) Oct 14 (16) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (12) Oct 09 (21) Oct 08 (22) Oct 07 (19) Oct 06 (18) Oct 05 (6) Oct 04 (17) Oct 03 (13) Oct 02 (14) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (14) Sep 29 (15) Sep 28 (12) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (15) Sep 25 (13) Sep 24 (9) Sep 23 (10) Sep 22 (12) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (4) Sep 19 (12) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (16) Sep 16 (21) Sep 15 (14) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (10) Sep 11 (16) Sep 10 (7) Sep 09 (8) Sep 08 (10) Sep 07 (7) Sep 06 (5) Sep 05 (8) Sep 04 (9) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (4) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (1) Aug 28 (10) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (14) Aug 24 (4) Aug 23 (3) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (13) Aug 20 (9) Aug 19 (13) Aug 18 (3) Aug 17 (3) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (8) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (12) Aug 11 (9) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (14) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (1) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (6) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (2) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (3) Jul 29 (6) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (6) Jul 23 (5) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (5) Jul 18 (6) Jul 17 (5) Jul 16 (4) Jul 15 (9) Jul 14 (2) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (1) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (3) Jul 07 (13) Jul 05 (2) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (7) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (7) Jun 25 (4) Jun 24 (6) Jun 23 (9) Jun 22 (4) Jun 21 (3) Jun 19 (4) Jun 18 (7) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (11) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (3) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (3) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (4) Jun 06 (2) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (8) Jun 03 (9) Jun 02 (6) Jun 01 (4) May 30 (7) May 29 (9) May 28 (13) May 26 (8) May 25 (5) May 24 (2) May 23 (8) May 22 (9) May 21 (7) May 20 (4) May 19 (6) May 18 (7) May 17 (8) May 15 (9) May 14 (5) May 13 (8) May 12 (6) May 11 (6) May 09 (7) May 08 (6) May 07 (11) May 06 (7) May 05 (4) May 04 (11) May 03 (5) May 02 (4) May 01 (9) Apr 30 (6) Apr 29 (4) Apr 28 (9) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (3) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (10) Apr 22 (8) Apr 21 (9) Apr 20 (3) Apr 19 (4) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (7) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (6) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (3) Apr 12 (6) Apr 10 (2) Apr 09 (4) Apr 08 (5) Apr 07 (5) Apr 06 (2) Apr 05 (2) Apr 04 (5) Apr 03 (7) Apr 02 (7) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (3) Mar 29 (1) Mar 28 (2) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (2) Mar 25 (5) Mar 24 (4) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (4) Mar 21 (6) Mar 20 (9) Mar 19 (9) Mar 18 (8) Mar 17 (9) Mar 16 (7) Mar 15 (11) Mar 13 (5) Mar 12 (12) Mar 11 (9) Mar 10 (12) Mar 09 (4) Mar 08 (5) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (5) Mar 05 (5) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (11) Mar 02 (5) Mar 01 (8) Feb 27 (9) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (8) Feb 24 (6) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (3) Feb 21 (6) Feb 20 (3) Feb 19 (10) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (7) Feb 16 (5) Feb 15 (2) Feb 14 (8) Feb 13 (12) Feb 12 (8) Feb 11 (10) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (6) Feb 08 (3) Feb 07 (2) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (4) Feb 04 (11) Feb 03 (5) Feb 02 (7) Feb 01 (4) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (12) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (8) Jan 26 (13) Jan 24 (8) Jan 23 (12) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (10) Jan 20 (8) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (11) Jan 14 (4) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (6) Jan 10 (2) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (6) Jan 06 (4) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (3) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (2) Jan 01 (3) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (4) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (3) Dec 24 (5) Dec 23 (7) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (4) Dec 20 (4) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (8) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (9) Dec 15 (7) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (10) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (10) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (5) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (9) Dec 04 (3) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (10) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (1) Nov 29 (3) Nov 28 (9) Nov 27 (3) Nov 26 (7) Nov 25 (12) Nov 24 (3) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (4) Nov 21 (3) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (6) Nov 18 (10) Nov 17 (12) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (5) Nov 14 (12) Nov 13 (3) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (7) Nov 09 (6) Nov 08 (5) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (6) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (9) Nov 03 (6) Nov 02 (14) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (9) Oct 27 (3) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (8) Oct 23 (4) Oct 22 (3) Oct 21 (4) Oct 20 (2) Oct 19 (11) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (7) Oct 15 (7) Oct 14 (8) Oct 13 (5) Oct 12 (8) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (5) Oct 09 (11) Oct 08 (10) Oct 07 (8) Oct 06 (3) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (8) Oct 03 (3) Oct 02 (10) Oct 01 (3) Sep 30 (7) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (5) Sep 27 (8) Sep 26 (11) Sep 25 (11) Sep 24 (15) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (4) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (10) Sep 17 (10) Sep 16 (5) Sep 15 (5) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (5) Sep 12 (5) Sep 11 (8) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (7) Sep 08 (5) Sep 07 (2) Sep 06 (4) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (11) Sep 03 (7) Sep 02 (7) Sep 01 (2) Aug 31 (3) Aug 30 (1) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (5) Aug 27 (4) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (6) Aug 24 (9) Aug 22 (11) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (12) Aug 19 (8) Aug 18 (4) Aug 17 (4) Aug 16 (3) Aug 15 (6) Aug 14 (4) Aug 13 (7) Aug 12 (8) Aug 11 (7) Aug 10 (12) Aug 08 (5) Aug 07 (6) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (8) Aug 04 (5) Aug 03 (4) Aug 01 (7) Jul 31 (6) Jul 30 (12) Jul 29 (4) Jul 28 (5) Jul 27 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (8) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (3) Jul 21 (8) Jul 20 (6) Jul 19 (3) Jul 18 (8) Jul 17 (2) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (9) Jul 13 (10) Jul 11 (9) Jul 10 (8) Jul 09 (3) Jul 08 (7) Jul 07 (7) Jul 06 (7) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (4) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (1) Jun 27 (15) Jun 26 (10) Jun 25 (9) Jun 24 (16) Jun 23 (6) Jun 22 (12) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (6) Jun 16 (7) Jun 15 (5) Jun 14 (5) Jun 13 (13) Jun 12 (7) Jun 11 (14) Jun 10 (3) Jun 09 (2) Jun 08 (2) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (16) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (18) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (8) May 31 (3) May 30 (6) May 29 (6) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (4) May 25 (6) May 23 (4) May 22 (8) May 21 (5) May 20 (6) May 19 (2) May 18 (9) May 17 (1) May 16 (5) May 15 (5) May 14 (7) May 13 (7) May 12 (7) May 11 (4) May 10 (4) May 09 (5) May 08 (10) May 07 (4) May 06 (13) May 05 (4) May 04 (10) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (9) Apr 29 (6) Apr 28 (3) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (9) Apr 24 (7) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (3) Apr 20 (10) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (5) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (6) Apr 15 (7) Apr 14 (11) Apr 13 (4) Apr 12 (5) Apr 11 (9) Apr 10 (4) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (6) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (6) Apr 05 (10) Apr 03 (9) Apr 02 (9) Apr 01 (12) Mar 31 (4) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (7) Mar 27 (8) Mar 26 (8) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (11) Mar 23 (8) Mar 22 (7) Mar 21 (14) Mar 20 (6) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (11) Mar 17 (12) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (8) Mar 14 (13) Mar 13 (8) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (8) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (3) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (15) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (9) Mar 04 (6) Mar 03 (12) Mar 02 (20) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (8) Feb 26 (11) Feb 25 (6) Feb 24 (14) Feb 23 (5) Feb 22 (6) Feb 21 (8) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (4) Feb 17 (8) Feb 16 (11) Feb 15 (3) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (7) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (4) Feb 08 (6) Feb 07 (5) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (10) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (4) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (3) Jan 30 (5) Jan 29 (2) Jan 28 (6) Jan 27 (3) Jan 26 (2) Jan 25 (5) Jan 24 (7) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (4) Jan 21 (5) Jan 20 (5) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (7) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (4) Jan 15 (3) Jan 14 (5) Jan 13 (4) Jan 12 (5) Jan 11 (3) Jan 10 (5) Jan 09 (6) Jan 08 (6) Jan 07 (3) Jan 06 (1) Jan 05 (4) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (3) Jan 02 (6) Jan 01 (2) Dec 31 (6) Dec 30 (1) Dec 29 (5) Dec 27 (1) Dec 26 (2) Dec 25 (4) Dec 24 (8) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (1) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (8) Dec 18 (3) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (3) Dec 15 (3) Dec 14 (3) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (4) Dec 11 (4) Dec 10 (7) Dec 09 (5) Dec 08 (2) Dec 07 (5) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (9) Dec 03 (4) Dec 02 (2) Dec 01 (8) Nov 29 (5) Nov 28 (7) Nov 27 (5) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (3) Nov 24 (5) Nov 23 (6) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (12) Nov 20 (12) Nov 19 (10) Nov 18 (4) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (8) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (7) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (12) Nov 11 (6) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (4) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (5) Nov 06 (5) Nov 05 (9) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (4) Nov 02 (3) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (10) Oct 30 (4) Oct 29 (11) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (7) Oct 26 (7) Oct 25 (6) Oct 24 (7) Oct 23 (11) Oct 22 (2) Oct 21 (7) Oct 20 (4) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (7) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (5) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (7) Oct 11 (20) Oct 10 (2) Oct 09 (4) Oct 08 (21) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (34) Oct 04 (24) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (3) Oct 01 (7) Sep 30 (3) Sep 29 (5) Sep 28 (6) Sep 27 (5) Sep 26 (6) Sep 25 (5) Sep 24 (2) Sep 23 (8) Sep 22 (4) Sep 21 (3) Sep 20 (9) Sep 19 (11) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (7) Sep 16 (6) Sep 15 (3) Sep 14 (7) Sep 13 (8) Sep 12 (11) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (6) Sep 09 (5) Sep 08 (3) Sep 07 (6) Sep 06 (10) Sep 05 (7) Sep 04 (7) Sep 03 (5) Sep 02 (4) Sep 01 (8) Aug 31 (5) Aug 30 (7) Aug 29 (10) Aug 28 (7) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (3) Aug 24 (8) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (6) Aug 21 (8) Aug 20 (8) Aug 19 (4) Aug 18 (2) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (7) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (3) Aug 13 (4) Aug 12 (6) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (6) Aug 07 (4) Aug 06 (6) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (3) Aug 02 (4) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (3) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (6) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (5) Jul 25 (4) Jul 24 (7) Jul 23 (10) Jul 22 (8) Jul 21 (5) Jul 20 (4) Jul 19 (7) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (10) Jul 16 (11) Jul 15 (5) Jul 13 (5) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (11) Jul 10 (12) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (8) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (10) Jul 04 (8) Jul 03 (10) Jul 02 (12) Jul 01 (8) Jun 30 (5) Jun 29 (6) Jun 28 (23) Jun 27 (18) Jun 26 (12) Jun 25 (14) Jun 24 (15) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (15) Jun 20 (9) Jun 19 (8) Jun 18 (11) Jun 17 (7) Jun 16 (6) Jun 15 (6) Jun 14 (6) Jun 13 (5) Jun 12 (6) Jun 11 (9) Jun 10 (10) Jun 09 (9) Jun 08 (6) Jun 07 (2) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (4) Jun 04 (3) Jun 03 (4) Jun 02 (3) Jun 01 (6) May 31 (3) May 30 (5) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (2) May 26 (2) May 25 (8) May 24 (7) May 23 (6) May 22 (9) May 21 (6) May 20 (5) May 19 (6) May 18 (9) May 17 (10) May 16 (11) May 15 (5) May 14 (11) May 13 (6) May 12 (7) May 11 (7) May 10 (5) May 09 (3) May 08 (10) May 07 (8) May 06 (11) May 05 (5) May 04 (9) May 03 (3) May 02 (2) May 01 (5) Apr 30 (5) Apr 29 (8) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (4) Apr 26 (9) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (4) Apr 23 (11) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (7) Apr 19 (10) Apr 18 (8) Apr 17 (10) Apr 16 (8) Apr 15 (4) Apr 14 (5) Apr 13 (7) Apr 12 (11) Apr 11 (6) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (3) Apr 07 (3) Apr 06 (9) Apr 05 (10) Apr 04 (7) Apr 03 (2) Apr 02 (6) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (3) Mar 30 (4) Mar 29 (3) Mar 28 (5) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (5) Mar 25 (4) Mar 24 (5) Mar 23 (7) Mar 22 (6) Mar 21 (9) Mar 20 (5) Mar 19 (5) Mar 18 (9) Mar 17 (2) Mar 16 (8) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (10) Mar 12 (10) Mar 11 (2) Mar 10 (1) Mar 09 (6) Mar 08 (4) Mar 07 (4) Mar 06 (3) Mar 05 (3) Mar 04 (7) Mar 03 (6) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (9) Feb 28 (6) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (7) Feb 24 (3) Feb 23 (4) Feb 22 (4) Feb 21 (7) Feb 20 (4) Feb 19 (4) Feb 18 (2) Feb 17 (1) Feb 16 (6) Feb 15 (6) Feb 14 (5) Feb 13 (4) Feb 12 (7) Feb 11 (2) Feb 10 (2) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (5) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (4) Feb 05 (9) Feb 04 (3) Feb 03 (3) Feb 02 (10) Feb 01 (9) Jan 31 (5) Jan 30 (8) Jan 29 (5) Jan 28 (3) Jan 27 (4) Jan 26 (5) Jan 25 (6) Jan 24 (5) Jan 23 (4) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (3) Jan 20 (3) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (3) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (8) Jan 15 (7) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (1) Jan 12 (7) Jan 11 (1) Jan 10 (3) Jan 09 (3) Jan 08 (5) Jan 07 (4) Jan 06 (2) Jan 05 (3) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (4) Jan 02 (4) Jan 01 (4) Dec 31 (3) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (5) Dec 28 (8) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (2) Dec 24 (4) Dec 23 (4) Dec 22 (7) Dec 21 (5) Dec 20 (3) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (6) Dec 17 (4) Dec 16 (5) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (8) Dec 13 (3) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (8) Dec 10 (5) Dec 09 (4) Dec 08 (4) Dec 07 (7) Dec 06 (7) Dec 05 (6) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (7) Dec 02 (1) Dec 01 (6) Nov 30 (2) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (16) Nov 27 (7) Nov 26 (5) Nov 25 (2) Nov 24 (6) Nov 23 (5) Nov 22 (5) Nov 21 (5) Nov 20 (15) Nov 19 (8) Nov 18 (2) Nov 17 (3) Nov 16 (5) Nov 15 (7) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (7) Nov 11 (8) Nov 10 (3) Nov 09 (5) Nov 08 (8) Nov 07 (9) Nov 06 (9) Nov 05 (1) Nov 04 (4) Nov 03 (8) Nov 02 (6) Nov 01 (3) Oct 31 (6) Oct 30 (7) Oct 29 (3) Oct 28 (3) Oct 27 (4) Oct 26 (4) Oct 25 (8) Oct 24 (4) Oct 23 (1) Oct 22 (6) Oct 21 (1) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (6) Oct 18 (10) Oct 17 (6) Oct 16 (15) Oct 15 (4) Oct 14 (5) Oct 13 (3) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (7) Oct 10 (1) Oct 09 (5) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (3) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (5) Oct 04 (3) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (6) Oct 01 (6) Sep 30 (8) Sep 29 (6) Sep 28 (13) Sep 27 (10) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (8) Sep 24 (8) Sep 23 (3) Sep 22 (7) Sep 21 (9) Sep 20 (7) Sep 19 (8) Sep 18 (4) Sep 17 (3) Sep 16 (4) Sep 15 (8) Sep 14 (5) Sep 13 (7) Sep 12 (7) Sep 11 (9) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (10) Sep 08 (4) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (15) Sep 04 (5) Sep 03 (4) Sep 02 (6) Sep 01 (9) Aug 31 (7) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (8) Aug 28 (11) Aug 27 (2) Aug 26 (6) Aug 25 (15) Aug 24 (6) Aug 23 (8) Aug 22 (5) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (7) Aug 19 (2) Aug 18 (5) Aug 17 (5) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (4) Aug 14 (6) Aug 13 (9) Aug 12 (4) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (6) Aug 09 (5) Aug 08 (7) Aug 07 (9) Aug 06 (4) Aug 05 (4) Aug 04 (4) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (9) Aug 01 (10) Jul 31 (11) Jul 30 (4) Jul 29 (3) Jul 28 (11) Jul 27 (4) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (8) Jul 22 (5) Jul 21 (4) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (6) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (6) Jul 16 (7) Jul 15 (6) Jul 14 (4) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (8) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (14) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (5) Jul 07 (4) Jul 06 (9) Jul 05 (8) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (8) Jul 02 (5) Jul 01 (5) Jun 30 (6) Jun 29 (3) Jun 28 (3) Jun 27 (4) Jun 26 (8) Jun 25 (3) Jun 24 (5) Jun 23 (14) Jun 22 (11) Jun 21 (5) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (7) Jun 18 (4) Jun 17 (3) Jun 16 (12) Jun 15 (12) Jun 14 (10) Jun 13 (10) Jun 12 (9) Jun 11 (6) Jun 10 (12) Jun 09 (4) Jun 08 (3) Jun 07 (12) Jun 06 (6) Jun 05 (7) Jun 04 (6) Jun 03 (3) Jun 02 (4) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (4) May 30 (3) May 29 (8) May 28 (7) May 27 (4) May 26 (3) May 25 (5) May 24 (9) May 23 (16) May 22 (12) May 21 (11) May 20 (7) May 19 (10) May 18 (8) May 17 (8) May 16 (10) May 15 (8) May 14 (5) May 13 (1) May 12 (6) May 11 (9) May 10 (9) May 09 (10) May 08 (9) May 07 (6) May 06 (5) May 05 (7) May 04 (10) May 03 (7) May 02 (9) May 01 (10) Apr 30 (4) Apr 29 (9) Apr 28 (12) Apr 27 (9) Apr 26 (4) Apr 25 (5) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (4) Apr 22 (7) Apr 21 (8) Apr 20 (9) Apr 19 (6) Apr 18 (4) Apr 17 (2) Apr 16 (4) Apr 15 (10) Apr 14 (7) Apr 13 (5) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (7) Apr 09 (6) Apr 08 (7) Apr 07 (10) Apr 06 (8) Apr 05 (8) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (6) Apr 02 (4) Apr 01 (4) Mar 31 (11) Mar 30 (12) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (10) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (6) Mar 24 (9) Mar 23 (3) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (12) Mar 20 (14) Mar 19 (8) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (8) Mar 16 (4) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (9) Mar 12 (6) Mar 11 (5) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (8) Mar 08 (10) Mar 07 (12) Mar 06 (6) Mar 05 (4) Mar 04 (2) Mar 03 (3) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (8) Feb 29 (11) Feb 28 (5) Feb 27 (3) Feb 26 (13) Feb 25 (10) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (10) Feb 22 (9) Feb 21 (18) Feb 20 (6) Feb 19 (7) Feb 18 (9) Feb 17 (5) Feb 16 (9) Feb 15 (7) Feb 14 (6) Feb 13 (5) Feb 12 (6) Feb 11 (4) Feb 10 (8) Feb 09 (5) Feb 08 (8) Feb 07 (10) Feb 06 (7) Feb 05 (7) Feb 04 (5) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (4) Feb 01 (3) Jan 31 (12) Jan 30 (7) Jan 29 (7) Jan 28 (7) Jan 27 (12) Jan 26 (7) Jan 25 (11) Jan 24 (4) Jan 23 (6) Jan 22 (8) Jan 21 (12) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (6) Jan 18 (6) Jan 17 (11) Jan 16 (9) Jan 15 (4) Jan 14 (3) Jan 13 (6) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (9) Jan 10 (10) Jan 09 (5) Jan 08 (10) Jan 07 (5) Jan 06 (6) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (5) Jan 03 (8) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (10) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (5) Dec 27 (10) Dec 26 (4) Dec 25 (5) Dec 24 (7) Dec 23 (2) Dec 22 (9) Dec 21 (8) Dec 20 (8) Dec 19 (5) Dec 18 (1) Dec 17 (5) Dec 16 (6) Dec 15 (5) Dec 14 (13) Dec 13 (8) Dec 12 (7) Dec 11 (9) Dec 10 (12) Dec 09 (7) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (9) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (10) Dec 04 (6) Dec 03 (8) Dec 02 (6) Dec 01 (14) Nov 30 (7) Nov 29 (8) Nov 28 (8) Nov 27 (6) Nov 26 (9) Nov 25 (10) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (10) Nov 20 (4) Nov 19 (4) Nov 18 (8) Nov 17 (9) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (12) Nov 14 (6) Nov 13 (9) Nov 12 (3) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (10) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (7) Nov 07 (8) Nov 06 (10) Nov 05 (8) Nov 04 (7) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (11) Nov 01 (10) Oct 31 (5) Oct 30 (8) Oct 29 (8) Oct 28 (8) Oct 27 (11) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (9) Oct 24 (10) Oct 23 (5) Oct 22 (14) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (8) Oct 19 (11) Oct 18 (13) Oct 17 (7) Oct 16 (6) Oct 15 (9) Oct 14 (7) Oct 13 (12) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (9) Oct 10 (8) Oct 09 (9) Oct 08 (7) Oct 07 (12) Oct 06 (8) Oct 05 (13) Oct 04 (11) Oct 03 (7) Oct 02 (5) Oct 01 (14) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (12) Sep 28 (11) Sep 27 (11) Sep 26 (7) Sep 25 (10) Sep 24 (3) Sep 23 (7) Sep 22 (8) Sep 21 (8) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (7) Sep 18 (5) Sep 17 (14) Sep 16 (7) Sep 15 (11) Sep 14 (13) Sep 13 (11) Sep 12 (9) Sep 11 (5) Sep 10 (4) Sep 09 (13) Sep 08 (11) Sep 07 (11) Sep 06 (16) Sep 05 (1) Sep 04 (10) Sep 03 (8) Sep 02 (8) Sep 01 (7) Aug 31 (1) Aug 30 (6) Aug 29 (2) Aug 28 (3) Aug 27 (6) Aug 26 (8) Aug 25 (5) Aug 24 (5) Aug 23 (6) Aug 22 (7) Aug 21 (6) Aug 20 (4) Aug 19 (9) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (7) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (2) Aug 14 (5) Aug 13 (5) Aug 12 (10) Aug 11 (5) Aug 10 (4) Aug 09 (8) Aug 08 (3) Aug 07 (5) Aug 06 (12) Aug 05 (5) Aug 04 (7) Aug 03 (6) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (7) Jul 30 (7) Jul 29 (13) Jul 28 (10) Jul 27 (6) Jul 26 (7) Jul 25 (7) Jul 24 (4) Jul 23 (12) Jul 22 (14) Jul 21 (6) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (12) Jul 18 (9) Jul 17 (4) Jul 16 (6) Jul 15 (8) Jul 14 (15) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (10) Jul 11 (6) Jul 10 (6) Jul 09 (6) Jul 08 (6) Jul 07 (9) Jul 06 (15) Jul 05 (6) Jul 04 (10) Jul 03 (6) Jul 02 (6) Jul 01 (11) Jun 30 (7) Jun 29 (4) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (8) Jun 26 (5) Jun 25 (11) Jun 24 (9) Jun 23 (10) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (8) Jun 20 (6) Jun 19 (5) Jun 18 (15) Jun 17 (8) Jun 16 (13) Jun 15 (15) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (6) Jun 12 (15) Jun 11 (7) Jun 10 (7) Jun 09 (18) Jun 08 (20) Jun 07 (17) Jun 06 (9) Jun 05 (9) Jun 04 (12) Jun 03 (13) Jun 02 (14) Jun 01 (8) May 31 (13) May 30 (8) May 29 (6) May 28 (8) May 27 (17) May 26 (8) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (9) May 22 (4) May 21 (4) May 20 (11) May 19 (14) May 18 (6) May 17 (10) May 16 (4) May 15 (5) May 14 (28) May 12 (9) May 11 (17) May 10 (15) May 09 (12) May 08 (5) May 07 (4) May 06 (10) May 05 (8) May 04 (10) May 03 (5) May 02 (6) May 01 (8) Apr 30 (8) Apr 29 (12) Apr 28 (6) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (12) Apr 25 (6) Apr 24 (3) Apr 23 (5) Apr 22 (10) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (13) Apr 19 (11) Apr 18 (11) Apr 17 (5) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (11) Apr 14 (17) Apr 13 (6) Apr 12 (16) Apr 11 (10) Apr 10 (1) Apr 09 (18) Apr 08 (14) Apr 07 (6) Apr 06 (10) Apr 05 (21) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (4) Apr 02 (13) Apr 01 (8) Mar 31 (10) Mar 30 (11) Mar 29 (10) Mar 28 (8) Mar 27 (6) Mar 26 (12) Mar 25 (15) Mar 24 (10) Mar 23 (12) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (8) Mar 20 (4) Mar 19 (11) Mar 18 (7) Mar 17 (7) Mar 16 (9) Mar 15 (10) Mar 14 (4) Mar 13 (2) Mar 12 (14) Mar 11 (13) Mar 10 (7) Mar 09 (9) Mar 08 (17) Mar 07 (5) Mar 06 (7) Mar 05 (13) Mar 04 (10) Mar 03 (14) Mar 02 (12) Mar 01 (18) Feb 28 (8) Feb 27 (2) Feb 26 (9) Feb 25 (13) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (13) Feb 22 (12) Feb 21 (11) Feb 20 (11) Feb 19 (16) Feb 18 (17) Feb 17 (15) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (15) Feb 14 (10) Feb 13 (8) Feb 12 (10) Feb 11 (15) Feb 10 (11) Feb 09 (13) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (9) Feb 06 (6) Feb 05 (15) Feb 04 (15) Feb 03 (11) Feb 02 (14) Feb 01 (15) Jan 31 (11) Jan 30 (9) Jan 29 (19) Jan 28 (9) Jan 27 (9) Jan 26 (16) Jan 25 (19) Jan 24 (17) Jan 23 (8) Jan 22 (15) Jan 21 (9) Jan 20 (11) Jan 19 (7) Jan 18 (9) Jan 17 (6) Jan 16 (7) Jan 15 (12) Jan 14 (9) Jan 13 (14) Jan 12 (11) Jan 11 (13) Jan 10 (8) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (20) Jan 07 (11) Jan 06 (11) Jan 05 (8) Jan 04 (14) Jan 03 (6) Jan 02 (7) Jan 01 (7) Dec 31 (14) Dec 30 (15) Dec 29 (7) Dec 28 (10) Dec 27 (4) Dec 26 (3) Dec 25 (11) Dec 24 (9) Dec 23 (9) Dec 22 (15) Dec 21 (12) Dec 20 (11) Dec 19 (4) Dec 18 (16) Dec 17 (6) Dec 16 (12) Dec 15 (14) Dec 14 (11) Dec 13 (10) Dec 12 (6) Dec 11 (10) Dec 10 (17) Dec 09 (11) Dec 08 (12) Dec 07 (16) Dec 06 (11) Dec 05 (5) Dec 04 (12) Dec 03 (15) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (12) Nov 30 (16) Nov 29 (7) Nov 28 (11) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (13) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (15) Nov 23 (10) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (4) Nov 20 (8) Nov 19 (9) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (11) Nov 16 (11) Nov 15 (10) Nov 14 (9) Nov 13 (6) Nov 12 (10) Nov 11 (12) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (10) Nov 07 (6) Nov 06 (7) Nov 05 (12) Nov 04 (14) Nov 03 (10) Nov 02 (13) Nov 01 (9) Oct 31 (9) Oct 30 (11) Oct 29 (18) Oct 28 (13) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (12) Oct 25 (14) Oct 24 (20) Oct 22 (18) Oct 21 (18) Oct 20 (19) Oct 19 (12) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (5) Oct 16 (18) Oct 15 (8) Oct 14 (11) Oct 13 (9) Oct 12 (13) Oct 11 (6) Oct 10 (7) Oct 09 (27) Oct 08 (14) Oct 07 (10) Oct 06 (9) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (10) Oct 03 (6) Oct 02 (9) Oct 01 (13) Sep 30 (12) Sep 29 (13) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (9) Sep 26 (8) Sep 25 (14) Sep 24 (4) Sep 23 (14) Sep 22 (20) Sep 21 (11) Sep 20 (6) Sep 19 (9) Sep 18 (14) Sep 17 (8) Sep 16 (17) Sep 15 (6) Sep 14 (11) Sep 13 (9) Sep 12 (4) Sep 11 (7) Sep 10 (14) Sep 09 (12) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (12) Sep 06 (13) Sep 05 (9) Sep 04 (20) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (16) Sep 01 (10) Aug 31 (13) Aug 30 (4) Aug 29 (9) Aug 28 (6) Aug 27 (8) Aug 26 (11) Aug 25 (10) Aug 24 (14) Aug 23 (12) Aug 22 (13) Aug 21 (10) Aug 20 (13) Aug 19 (15) Aug 18 (8) Aug 17 (10) Aug 16 (8) Aug 15 (3) Aug 14 (11) Aug 13 (12) Aug 12 (15) Aug 11 (10) Aug 10 (17) Aug 09 (6) Aug 08 (13) Aug 07 (11) Aug 06 (13) Aug 05 (11) Aug 04 (11) Aug 03 (10) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (6) Jul 31 (10) Jul 30 (21) Jul 29 (14) Jul 28 (13) Jul 27 (16) Jul 26 (10) Jul 25 (15) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (15) Jul 21 (19) Jul 20 (17) Jul 19 (9) Jul 18 (7) Jul 17 (26) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (20) Jul 14 (16) Jul 13 (19) Jul 12 (11) Jul 11 (5) Jul 10 (13) Jul 09 (11) Jul 08 (8) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (16) Jul 05 (9) Jul 04 (5) Jul 03 (15) Jul 02 (11) Jul 01 (14) Jun 30 (13) Jun 29 (19) Jun 28 (8) Jun 27 (9) Jun 26 (16) Jun 25 (22) Jun 24 (17) Jun 23 (11) Jun 22 (15) Jun 21 (14) Jun 20 (8) Jun 19 (17) Jun 18 (10) Jun 17 (10) Jun 16 (17) Jun 15 (13) Jun 14 (14) Jun 13 (4) Jun 12 (13) Jun 11 (15) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (10) Jun 08 (23) Jun 07 (14) Jun 06 (20) Jun 05 (10) Jun 04 (11) Jun 03 (12) Jun 02 (21) Jun 01 (14) May 31 (10) May 30 (14) May 29 (8) May 28 (23) May 27 (20) May 26 (16) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (10) May 22 (18) May 21 (14) May 20 (12) May 19 (18) May 18 (14) May 17 (13) May 16 (4) May 15 (7) May 14 (16) May 13 (13) May 12 (8) May 11 (18) May 10 (8) May 09 (7) May 08 (13) May 07 (11) May 06 (15) May 05 (18) May 04 (17) May 03 (7) May 02 (5) May 01 (11) Apr 30 (19) Apr 29 (21) Apr 28 (18) Apr 27 (16) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (11) Apr 24 (9) Apr 23 (20) Apr 22 (23) Apr 21 (5) Apr 20 (16) Apr 19 (13) Apr 18 (6) Apr 17 (6) Apr 16 (16) Apr 15 (18) Apr 14 (13) Apr 13 (14) Apr 12 (9) Apr 11 (3) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (14) Apr 08 (12) Apr 07 (18) Apr 06 (7) Apr 05 (11) Apr 04 (9) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (16) Mar 31 (16) Mar 30 (22) Mar 29 (16) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (19) Mar 26 (31) Mar 25 (25) Mar 24 (26) Mar 23 (27) Mar 22 (22) Mar 21 (22) Mar 20 (13) Mar 19 (21) Mar 18 (20) Mar 17 (24) Mar 16 (18) Mar 15 (9) Mar 14 (9) Mar 13 (29) Mar 12 (15) Mar 11 (11) Mar 10 (11) Mar 09 (20) Mar 08 (12) Mar 07 (6) Mar 06 (21) Mar 05 (22) Mar 04 (19) Mar 03 (9) Mar 02 (20) Mar 01 (11) Feb 28 (11) Feb 27 (27) Feb 26 (15) Feb 25 (18) Feb 24 (17) Feb 23 (19) Feb 22 (24) Feb 21 (10) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (25) Feb 18 (16) Feb 17 (19) Feb 16 (23) Feb 15 (8) Feb 14 (11) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (16) Feb 11 (12) Feb 10 (18) Feb 09 (12) Feb 08 (14) Feb 07 (8) Feb 06 (27) Feb 05 (28) Feb 04 (24) Feb 03 (17) Feb 02 (20) Feb 01 (23) Jan 31 (16) Jan 30 (20) Jan 29 (26) Jan 28 (17) Jan 27 (21) Jan 26 (24) Jan 25 (16) Jan 24 (14) Jan 23 (16) Jan 22 (17) Jan 21 (19) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (17) Jan 18 (13) Jan 17 (14) Jan 16 (10) Jan 15 (21) Jan 14 (16) Jan 13 (19) Jan 12 (30) Jan 11 (14) Jan 10 (11) Jan 09 (8) Jan 08 (23) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (21) Jan 05 (15) Jan 04 (18) Jan 03 (9) Jan 02 (12) Jan 01 (15) Dec 31 (18) Dec 30 (7) Dec 29 (13) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (8) Dec 26 (6) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (28) Dec 23 (12) Dec 22 (12) Dec 21 (17) Dec 20 (19) Dec 19 (19) Dec 18 (22) Dec 17 (24) Dec 16 (17) Dec 15 (29) Dec 14 (22) Dec 13 (12) Dec 12 (22) Dec 11 (24) Dec 10 (25) Dec 09 (18) Dec 08 (15) Dec 07 (21) Dec 06 (24) Dec 05 (30) Dec 04 (28) Dec 03 (26) Dec 02 (22) Dec 01 (33) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (9) Nov 28 (18) Nov 27 (25) Nov 26 (17) Nov 25 (23) Nov 24 (27) Nov 23 (12) Nov 22 (10) Nov 21 (15) Nov 20 (23) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (24) Nov 17 (21) Nov 16 (20) Nov 15 (13) Nov 14 (15) Nov 13 (27) Nov 12 (23) Nov 11 (19) Nov 10 (21) Nov 09 (13) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (16) Nov 06 (32) Nov 05 (24) Nov 04 (20) Nov 03 (29) Nov 02 (12) Nov 01 (15) Oct 31 (20) Oct 30 (22) Oct 29 (27) Oct 28 (20) Oct 27 (23) Oct 26 (21) Oct 25 (15) Oct 24 (23) Oct 23 (26) Oct 22 (27) Oct 21 (28) Oct 20 (24) Oct 19 (13) Oct 18 (9) Oct 17 (30) Oct 16 (8) Oct 15 (20) Oct 14 (14) Oct 13 (17) Oct 12 (16) Oct 11 (8) Oct 10 (19) Oct 09 (22) Oct 08 (16) Oct 07 (18) Oct 06 (23) Oct 05 (7) Oct 04 (15) Oct 03 (21) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (22) Sep 30 (25) Sep 29 (20) Sep 28 (17) Sep 27 (13) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (15) Sep 24 (24) Sep 23 (23) Sep 22 (18) Sep 21 (20) Sep 20 (11) Sep 19 (24) Sep 18 (25) Sep 17 (25) Sep 16 (19) Sep 15 (21) Sep 14 (15) Sep 13 (10) Sep 12 (23) Sep 11 (23) Sep 10 (25) Sep 09 (25) Sep 08 (17) Sep 07 (3) Sep 06 (17) Sep 05 (14) Sep 04 (24) Sep 03 (16) Sep 02 (11) Sep 01 (19) Aug 31 (20) Aug 30 (11) Aug 29 (24) Aug 28 (24) Aug 27 (16) Aug 26 (26) Aug 25 (21) Aug 24 (15) Aug 23 (19) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (25) Aug 20 (27) Aug 19 (19) Aug 18 (24) Aug 17 (14) Aug 16 (10) Aug 15 (15) Aug 14 (16) Aug 13 (21) Aug 12 (30) Aug 11 (19) Aug 10 (8) Aug 09 (12) Aug 08 (17) Aug 07 (21) Aug 06 (26) Aug 05 (23) Aug 04 (21) Aug 03 (12) Aug 02 (7) Aug 01 (19) Jul 31 (21) Jul 30 (25) Jul 29 (29) Jul 28 (23) Jul 27 (17) Jul 26 (11) Jul 25 (21) Jul 24 (14) Jul 23 (15) Jul 22 (19) Jul 21 (15) Jul 20 (9) Jul 19 (10) Jul 18 (15) Jul 17 (22) Jul 16 (18) Jul 15 (21) Jul 14 (20) Jul 13 (7) Jul 12 (9) Jul 11 (29) Jul 10 (19) Jul 09 (17) Jul 08 (26) Jul 07 (21) Jul 06 (18) Jul 05 (14) Jul 04 (20) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (24) Jul 01 (23) Jun 30 (23) Jun 29 (18) Jun 28 (16) Jun 27 (16) Jun 26 (17) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (32) Jun 23 (29) Jun 22 (8) Jun 21 (17) Jun 20 (25) Jun 19 (28) Jun 18 (19) Jun 17 (25) Jun 16 (23) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (11) Jun 13 (14) Jun 12 (22) Jun 11 (19) Jun 10 (17) Jun 09 (15) Jun 08 (16) Jun 07 (7) Jun 06 (29) Jun 05 (27) Jun 04 (24) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (22) Jun 01 (13) May 31 (9) May 30 (26) May 29 (19) May 28 (15) May 27 (15) May 26 (23) May 25 (13) May 24 (12) May 23 (24) May 22 (13) May 21 (21) May 20 (18) May 19 (16) May 18 (7) May 17 (12) May 16 (25) May 15 (24) May 14 (23) May 13 (19) May 12 (17) May 11 (8) May 10 (6) May 09 (14) May 08 (21) May 07 (26) May 06 (14) May 05 (14) May 04 (3) May 03 (3) May 02 (24) May 01 (13) Apr 30 (15) Apr 29 (24) Apr 28 (24) Apr 27 (11) Apr 26 (8) Apr 25 (13) Apr 24 (27) Apr 23 (15) Apr 22 (21) Apr 21 (19) Apr 20 (17) Apr 19 (8) Apr 18 (20) Apr 17 (27) Apr 16 (27) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (8) Apr 13 (8) Apr 12 (7) Apr 11 (7) Apr 10 (22) Apr 09 (15) Apr 08 (15) Apr 07 (17) Apr 06 (14) Apr 05 (5) Apr 04 (12) Apr 03 (19) Apr 02 (17) Apr 01 (19) Mar 31 (25) Mar 30 (13) Mar 29 (9) Mar 28 (16) Mar 27 (23) Mar 26 (22) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (25) Mar 23 (16) Mar 22 (13) Mar 21 (24) Mar 20 (27) Mar 19 (20) Mar 18 (24) Mar 17 (17) Mar 16 (11) Mar 15 (6) Mar 14 (20) Mar 13 (28) Mar 12 (30) Mar 11 (20) Mar 10 (21) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (8) Mar 07 (17) Mar 06 (20) Mar 05 (19) Mar 04 (15) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (8) Mar 01 (12) Feb 28 (16) Feb 27 (17) Feb 26 (8) Feb 25 (23) Feb 24 (15) Feb 23 (8) Feb 22 (10) Feb 21 (24) Feb 20 (14) Feb 19 (24) Feb 18 (19) Feb 17 (27) Feb 16 (13) Feb 15 (11) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (13) Feb 12 (13) Feb 11 (21) Feb 10 (16) Feb 09 (15) Feb 08 (10) Feb 07 (17) Feb 06 (21) Feb 05 (17) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (23) Feb 02 (5) Feb 01 (8) Jan 31 (17) Jan 30 (22) Jan 29 (23) Jan 28 (10) Jan 27 (24) Jan 26 (12) Jan 25 (9) Jan 24 (12) Jan 23 (19) Jan 22 (19) Jan 21 (14) Jan 20 (21) Jan 19 (12) Jan 18 (8) Jan 17 (20) Jan 16 (14) Jan 15 (23) Jan 14 (8) Jan 13 (20) Jan 12 (9) Jan 11 (7) Jan 10 (18) Jan 09 (11) Jan 08 (18) Jan 07 (13) Jan 06 (12) Jan 05 (12) Jan 04 (11) Jan 03 (10) Jan 02 (9) Jan 01 (9) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (11) Dec 29 (6) Dec 28 (9) Dec 27 (13) Dec 26 (15) Dec 25 (8) Dec 24 (6) Dec 23 (8) Dec 22 (5) Dec 21 (6) Dec 20 (14) Dec 19 (17) Dec 18 (14) Dec 17 (14) Dec 16 (13) Dec 15 (9) Dec 14 (9) Dec 13 (11) Dec 12 (16) Dec 11 (18) Dec 10 (4) Dec 09 (24) Dec 08 (11) Dec 07 (19) Dec 06 (6) Dec 05 (26) Dec 04 (15) Dec 03 (20) Dec 02 (17) Dec 01 (11) Nov 30 (10) Nov 29 (18) Nov 28 (21) Nov 27 (10) Nov 26 (22) Nov 25 (16) Nov 24 (12) Nov 23 (8) Nov 22 (18) Nov 21 (9) Nov 20 (17) Nov 19 (16) Nov 18 (16) Nov 17 (5) Nov 16 (9) Nov 15 (21) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (20) Nov 12 (16) Nov 11 (13) Nov 10 (9) Nov 09 (10) Nov 08 (16) Nov 07 (15) Nov 06 (18) Nov 05 (19) Nov 04 (16) Nov 03 (11) Nov 02 (5) Nov 01 (17) Oct 31 (17) Oct 30 (21) Oct 29 (9) Oct 28 (16) Oct 27 (6) Oct 26 (6) Oct 25 (16) Oct 24 (18) Oct 23 (14) Oct 22 (17) Oct 21 (10) Oct 20 (6) Oct 19 (8) Oct 18 (11) Oct 17 (12) Oct 16 (14) Oct 15 (19) Oct 14 (15) Oct 13 (11) Oct 12 (9) Oct 11 (10) Oct 10 (23) Oct 09 (13) Oct 08 (15) Oct 07 (20) Oct 06 (13) Oct 05 (4) Oct 04 (16) Oct 03 (17) Oct 02 (17) Oct 01 (20) Sep 30 (17) Sep 29 (9) Sep 28 (8) Sep 27 (14) Sep 26 (20) Sep 25 (19) Sep 24 (13) Sep 23 (11) Sep 22 (9) Sep 21 (5) Sep 20 (8) Sep 19 (21) Sep 18 (12) Sep 17 (20) Sep 16 (16) Sep 15 (10) Sep 14 (6) Sep 13 (18) Sep 12 (14) Sep 11 (24) Sep 10 (17) Sep 09 (16) Sep 08 (16) Sep 07 (10) Sep 06 (20) Sep 05 (13) Sep 04 (23) Sep 03 (14) Sep 02 (12) Sep 01 (11) Aug 31 (11) Aug 30 (13) Aug 29 (18) Aug 28 (14) Aug 27 (21) Aug 26 (10) Aug 25 (8) Aug 24 (10) Aug 23 (17) Aug 22 (15) Aug 21 (14) Aug 20 (20) Aug 19 (20) Aug 18 (7) Aug 17 (9) Aug 16 (11) Aug 15 (12) Aug 14 (14) Aug 13 (19) Aug 12 (14) Aug 11 (6) Aug 10 (12) Aug 09 (7) Aug 08 (18) Aug 07 (16) Aug 06 (16) Aug 05 (20) Aug 04 (12) Aug 03 (8) Aug 02 (12) Aug 01 (14) Jul 31 (16) Jul 30 (16) Jul 29 (11) Jul 28 (8) Jul 27 (9) Jul 26 (17) Jul 25 (20) Jul 24 (17) Jul 23 (11) Jul 22 (18) Jul 21 (7) Jul 20 (10) Jul 19 (14) Jul 18 (11) Jul 17 (15) Jul 16 (12) Jul 15 (10) Jul 14 (8) Jul 13 (8) Jul 12 (17) Jul 11 (18) Jul 10 (16) Jul 09 (13) Jul 08 (10) Jul 07 (12) Jul 06 (8) Jul 05 (16) Jul 04 (14) Jul 03 (17) Jul 02 (13) Jul 01 (16) Jun 30 (19) Jun 29 (7) Jun 28 (19) Jun 27 (21) Jun 26 (27) Jun 25 (23) Jun 24 (23) Jun 23 (12) Jun 22 (9) Jun 21 (18) Jun 20 (15) Jun 19 (24) Jun 18 (21) Jun 17 (13) Jun 16 (9) Jun 15 (9) Jun 14 (18) Jun 13 (24) Jun 12 (18) Jun 11 (23) Jun 10 (25) Jun 09 (24) Jun 08 (27) Jun 07 (5) Jun 06 (25) Jun 05 (30) Jun 04 (23) Jun 03 (22) Jun 02 (16) Jun 01 (17) May 31 (18) May 30 (19) May 29 (17) May 28 (23) May 27 (15) May 26 (10) May 25 (19) May 24 (16) May 23 (16) May 22 (27) May 21 (20) May 20 (26) May 19 (6) May 18 (8) May 17 (20) May 16 (8) May 15 (18) May 14 (5) May 13 (21) May 12 (9) May 11 (8) May 10 (12) May 09 (18) May 08 (11) May 07 (27) May 06 (12) May 05 (16) May 04 (19) May 03 (14) May 02 (18) May 01 (18) Apr 30 (25) Apr 29 (27) Apr 28 (11) Apr 27 (10) Apr 26 (18) Apr 25 (10) Apr 24 (29) Apr 23 (29) Apr 22 (14) Apr 21 (15) Apr 20 (20) Apr 19 (22) Apr 18 (16) Apr 17 (32) Apr 16 (12) Apr 15 (21) Apr 14 (21) Apr 13 (15) Apr 12 (13) Apr 11 (14) Apr 10 (16) Apr 09 (20) Apr 08 (36) Apr 07 (22) Apr 06 (11) Apr 05 (28) Apr 04 (20) Apr 03 (29) Apr 02 (32) Apr 01 (18) Mar 31 (12) Mar 30 (9) Mar 29 (15) Mar 28 (22) Mar 27 (24) Mar 26 (17) Mar 25 (17) Mar 24 (13) Mar 23 (5) Mar 22 (12) Mar 21 (15) Mar 20 (18) Mar 19 (19) Mar 18 (16) Mar 17 (10) Mar 16 (6) Mar 15 (18) Mar 14 (24) Mar 13 (18) Mar 12 (18) Mar 11 (17) Mar 10 (13) Mar 09 (12) Mar 08 (18) Mar 07 (25) Mar 06 (16) Mar 05 (16) Mar 04 (22) Mar 03 (17) Mar 02 (6) Mar 01 (23) Feb 29 (19) Feb 28 (25) Feb 27 (26) Feb 26 (23) Feb 25 (12) Feb 24 (13) Feb 23 (15) Feb 22 (26) Feb 21 (31) Feb 20 (12) Feb 19 (21) Feb 18 (15) Feb 17 (10) Feb 16 (15) Feb 15 (19) Feb 14 (15) Feb 13 (25) Feb 12 (20) Feb 11 (9) Feb 10 (7) Feb 09 (28) Feb 08 (20) Feb 07 (22) Feb 06 (20) Feb 05 (19) Feb 04 (14) Feb 03 (16) Feb 02 (28) Feb 01 (37) Jan 31 (27) Jan 30 (31) Jan 29 (18) Jan 28 (14) Jan 27 (10) Jan 26 (18) Jan 25 (26) Jan 24 (34) Jan 23 (21) Jan 22 (21) Jan 21 (18) Jan 20 (18) Jan 19 (18) Jan 18 (26) Jan 17 (24) Jan 16 (23) Jan 15 (30) Jan 14 (20) Jan 13 (18) Jan 12 (24) Jan 11 (11) Jan 10 (23) Jan 09 (22) Jan 08 (17) Jan 07 (17) Jan 06 (9) Jan 05 (18) Jan 04 (15) Jan 03 (19) Jan 02 (14) Jan 01 (6) Dec 31 (12) Dec 30 (4) Dec 29 (15) Dec 28 (11) Dec 27 (7) Dec 26 (10) Dec 25 (16) Dec 24 (13) Dec 23 (16) Dec 22 (11) Dec 21 (26) Dec 20 (28) Dec 19 (14) Dec 18 (25) Dec 17 (23) Dec 16 (19) Dec 15 (22) Dec 14 (38) Dec 13 (26) Dec 12 (25) Dec 11 (27) Dec 10 (31) Dec 09 (15) Dec 08 (30) Dec 07 (31) Dec 06 (27) Dec 05 (38) Dec 04 (25) Dec 03 (27) Dec 02 (15) Dec 01 (36) Nov 30 (23) Nov 29 (17) Nov 28 (23) Nov 27 (13) Nov 26 (16) Nov 25 (14) Nov 24 (18) Nov 23 (21) Nov 22 (21) Nov 21 (24) Nov 20 (20) Nov 19 (23) Nov 18 (17) Nov 17 (17) Nov 16 (34) Nov 15 (25) Nov 14 (17) Nov 13 (21) Nov 12 (18) Nov 11 (9) Nov 10 (15) Nov 09 (9) Nov 08 (9) Nov 07 (12) Nov 06 (8) Nov 05 (4) Oct 29 (1) Oct 01 (1) Jul 29 (1) May 11 (1) Jul 11 (1) Boza and I call the Tiny Russian Village home for a few more weeks We have to get Sammy the Volga in the shop for one last item to be done. The rear end is being replaced. I messed up and destroyed the rear end and it is howling to beat the band. The rear seal went out on the highway and ran out of fluid before I realized it. Worn a bad pattern and now it is talking big time. So for a few thousand rubles, we will have another one swapped in. Love those Volga prices We will have new leaf springs, brakes and all installed. I take her Friday to spend a day and get a new butt to wiggle * * * * * Therefore, Svetochka got to Moscow safely and is doing good, Boza and I walked and are doing good, Boa ate three packs of food and I started a fire to warm the home up. Oh yes, I am posting this article. It is around zero degrees and the wind is blowing like crazy And the comments are back. Lets hope that they hold up against attacks better now. I have done some coding work and maybe that will stop the idiots of the cyber-net The crackle of the fire is very comforting. Coffee also * * * * * This is the look you get when you take my image and I do not want it taken. Actually I never want my picture taken, but I have a sweetie that does it anyway We were fixing one of the wells. It is not used and we plugged the pipe to fill it with. No need to fill it, when no one and I mean no one uses it. The villagers all think it is poisoned, that story went around 50 years ago and everyone knows the well is taboo. except the well is inline with all of them and one fills and drains to the other. Interesting how people never connect the dots and dashes together. Oh well! It is fixed now, 50 years later. Stop that deadly poison * * * * * We are comfy now in the house. It had gotten to +10 and now after half an hour, it is +16. Love that fire The world has gone white and cold here. I have talked about how winter is most of the year and this year it has been exceptionally winter already. Never saw spring, summer and or fall That is Russia for you and is normal in my life now This is what it looks like here Winter typically is about October to May. (7 to 8 months long.) That might be why most people do not like to come to Russia? * * * * * The world is getting interesting Cool and I like her, it and or whatever. Sing it baby * * * * * Well I need to walk the dog again and I will take a cup of coffee with me. It is daylight out and time to walk the valley of the Tiny Russian Village and then decide what I will do today. Boza loves to walk and that we will do Have a nice day. See you tomorrow WtR Way down among the Brazillians, Coffee beans grow by the billions, So theyve got to find those extra cups to fill, Theyve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil. The Coffee Song lyrics ran like an earworm through my head as I prepared for my September trip to Brazil. Only, once I got there, I discovered that the coffee, while good, cant compare to the birds. Oh my gosh! 1,712 species, 12% of which are endemics. I shouldnt have been surprised. Carlos Sanchez, who designed, organized, and led our bucket-list trip, warned me, and Carlos knows Brazil. Our group saw over 400 birds on our 15-day tour of the Pantanal, Cerrado and the Amazon (Cristalino Lodge). (News flashI just received the trip report from Carlos, and the tally is 419 species recorded, of which 16 were heard only; plus Ian and I saw an additional species before the tour started, courtesy of Paulo Boute. But, were not about the lists today!) Here are some of my favorite birds of Brazil: Favorite Antbird: I have mixed feelings about antbirds, antwrens, antshrikes, any bird with a name beginning with ant. They are challenging to find, frustrating to photograph, and the antbird experience often includes heat and humidity, mud and bugs. However, all is forgotten when you get a good look at them. Birds-whose-names-begin-with-ant are often surprisingly striking, and when I saw these two Bare-eyed Antbirds at Pocinha Francisco, a water station deep in the rainforest that surrounds Cristolino Lodge, my heart went pit-a-pat. I have a thing for birds with large eye-rings (also for birds with spectacles, a similar look). Bare-eyed Antbirds are a Brazilian endemic and obligate ant-followers, meaning that searching for, and then following swarms of ants, which flush the small bugs they feed on, is their aim in life. Lucky for us, they also need water. So, as the light faded, we saw these two Bare-eyed Antbirds enjoying a bath and a sip. Also, Spixs Warbling-Antbird, Dot-backed Antbird, Xingu Scale-backed Antbird and Black-spotted Bare-eye. The heat and bugs were forgotten. Favorite Every-Day Bird (Pantanal edition): Our first, very fleeting sight of Guira Cuckoos were fly-bys as we headed out of Alta Floresta towards Cristalino Lodge. We (we being my friend Ian and Steve from Los Angeles) were a little frantic, thinking wed never, ever see them again. Dont worry, Carlos said, By the end of the trip youll be sick of them. Well, I did not get cuckoo-fever, but it is true that once we returned from the rainforest we saw these large, funny-looking birds almost every dayunder the airplane stairs on the Alta Floresta airport runway, the fields of the Pantanal, the roadsides of the Cerrado. We got particularly great looks at Guira Cuckoo at Pousada Piuval, a resort that is also a cattle ranch; they were active all day, even after many of the birds that gathered in the early morning dispersed, often whistling loudly from the fence posts. Favorite Woodpecker: This is a toughie. We saw 15 woodpecker species, some, like Campos Flicker, colorful and photographable, some, like Crimson-crested Woodpecker, large and, yes, strikingly crested. I always felt uplifted when we spied the White-wedged Piculet, the only piculet of most of the Pantanal woodlands (Bar-breasted Piculet is uncommon in the northwest corner). Theyre just so small and so busy with their pecking and trilling, often oblivious to the camera but obscured by leaves and branches. You can get a brief idea of their activity with this video (ignore the photographer commenting on the lighting in the background). Favorite Bird Nest: Rufous Hornero nests, made of mud and shaped like Dutch ovens, are everywhere in Mato Grosso, and I got excited every time I saw one. Adaptable birds, theyll build anywhere, from the tree next to our urban hotel in Cuiaba, to this utility pole at Posada Piuval (despite plenty of nearby trees!). The name hornero comes from the Spanish term for a male baker, el hornero. (And, writing this post, Ive discovered that there is a Colombian bakery in Queens called El Hornero which I now need to try.) I was surprised to find out that our Ovenbird, the ground-walking warbler that also makes mud nests shaped like ovens, is not related to the Rufous Hornero at all. They are members of the Parulidae family and Horneros are members of the Furnariidae family, a nice example of parallel evolution. Favorite Big Bird: This must be the year of the Jabiru for 10,000 Birds. First Corey gets his life Jabiru in Belize, then I see my lifer in the Pantanal. And, of course, Pat sees Jabiru every year in Costa Rica. It was one of my most-wanted birds for Brazil, and I was overjoyed when our first morning at Posada Piuval was filled with herons, egrets, ibises, Wood Storks, and, the biggest big bird of them all, Jabirus. I was practically right next to the two in this photo (and, note the Rufescent Tiger-heron photobomb). They remind me of the Greater and Lesser Adjutants I observed in eastern India last yearprehistoric looking in their huge size, ungainly bills and bodies, yet possessing an air of dignity and self-possession that sets them apart from other birds in the field. That is, until you come across one in a river and it starts doing neck rolls and looking completely silly. Favorite Psittacidae: Hyacinth Macaw is one of Brazils signature birds (along with the Jabiru) and we had several excellent looks at this stunning, large (the largest parrot in the world according to Cornells Neotropical Birds) bird. Here it is emerging from a nest hole in a tree (not far from a Jabiru nest) on the grounds of Pousada Piuval. We also saw a couple copulating in a palm tree at Porto Jofre, a positive sign of this species hopefully stabilizing numbers after years of decline. (For more info and photos about the wonderful parrots of Brazil, reread Carlos post on Brazils Colorful Avian Clowns, which includes photos of the similar looking but smaller Lears Macaw.) Favorite Kingfisher: I was very tempted to put down Green-and-rufous Kingfisher because it is very beautiful and I got great photos of it, but the winner has to be this female Amazon Kingfisher. She perched on our boat heading down the Cuiaba River (Porto Jofre area), and stayed for at least five minutes. A big difference from most of the kingfishers, who tended to fly away as we approached! At one point, the kingfisher flew across the boat and looked like she was going to land on my hand, a thought which both delighted and alarmed me (its a fairly large bird with sharp toes and a very sharp beak!). I took a video that shows the quiet charm of our all-too-brief traveling companion. Favorite Non-Birds (Because birding is often more than birds) Favorite Butterfly: This metalmark butterfly was tiny and alit on the top of Tower #1 at Cristolino Lodge for only a minute; luckily, I had my iPhone in hand when I spotted it, because if I had stepped back to get it into focus with my zoom lens I would have lost the shot. The photo doesnt do it justice thoughthe ice-blue metallic sheen was dazzling, and the fine-tooled intricacy of the upper-wing design was made even more attractive by the tiny-ness of its size. I was able to identify the metalmark down to the Lasaia genus, but the name of the species eludes met so far. There are a number of Lasaia species in the Neotropics; they can be differentiated by the spot patterns, but its not easy. Any suggestions? Favorite Reptile: Yacare Caiman is one of three species of Caiman we saw, and it gets the number one spot because of this sight. We were approaching Posada Piuval on the Transpantaneira, our first day traveling through the Pantanal, it was getting dark, and we were looking forward to dinner and rest when Bianca suddenly stopped the car and yelled. Did I say it was getting dark? It really was dark, and it took me a few minutes to realize that the road in front of us was moving. Or, rather, that hundreds of baby caimans were slithering, no, walking across the road. This photo is only the tail end of the congregation of baby caiman. It was one of those magic experiences when you are so absorbed you forget you have a camera. (And then, I had to work at getting my point-and-shoot to capture a clear photo since my larger camera was packed.) You can get a better idea of how dark it was, and what the mother (well, we thought it was the mother) looked like sitting by the side of the road in this video. There are 10 million individual Yacare Caimans in the Pantanal, according to Wikipedia, a huge comeback from a period when it looked like the species was being lost to poachers eager to profit from their crocadile skins. Favorite Mammal: Jaguar for the win! Giant Ottersplayful and oblivious to the lady with the camerawere in the competition, but all our boatman had to say was, Theres a report of jaguars and we would say in unison, Forget the birds. Lets go! The Porto Jofre area, located at the end the Transpantaneira Highway and featuring protected lands and a network of rivers, has become THE place to see jaguars (but only during the dry season, from June to September). The boatmen, who work for various floating hotels and local jaguar-viewing-tourism companies, keep in touch and once a jaguar is spotted on the shore, word quickly goes out. The scene of boats filled with tourists holding cameras ranging from iPhones to big lenses on tripods surrounding a jaguar on the shore reminded me of the tiger scene in Ranthambore N.P., India. Only, the boats kept at a respectful distance and the fact that we were in a river and not limited by a road meant that there was always a way to maneuver for a view. (And, our Birding Pantanal guide Bianca Bernardon made sure that we were always in a good position.) And, as you can see, the jaguars were oblivious to our presence. Every once in a while, one would turn towards us and look intently, and we would wonder how well jaguars could swim, and then they would go back to their business. We saw a family of three jaguarsmom, dad, and daughterin the two full days we spent in Porto Jofre. At times they would be simply lying in the grass, other times they would engage with each other (the mother and daughter were surprisingly intimate) or stalk down the riverbank, eventually disappearing into the forest. No matter what they did, we sat and looked as Southern Screamers screamed from the treetops, fascinated by their self-confidence and beauty. Its good to be at the top of the food chain! Oct 30, 2017 | By David 3D printing news just keeps coming, and we know its not always easy to stay abreast of all the exciting developments. Thats why were here with a brief summary of things you might have missed recently, including Ricoh developing a new material, J Group Robotics launching a new FDM machine, and more besides. 1. Ricoh launches new 3D printing material for high speed 3D printer Global tech giant Ricoh has announced that it will be releasing a new 3D printing material on to the market soon. The company, which is headquartered in Tokyo, intends for the new material to be used with its Ricoh AM S5500P SLS 3D printer, its first branded AM machine, to give customers access to a broader range of applications. The application range will include parts for electrical components ranging from automotive motors to bathroom furnishings. Known as PBT, Ricohs new product is a high strength, heat resistant material that should provide properties similar to injection molding, but with the benefit of 3D printing technologys improved design flexibility and efficiency. The application range of PBT includes parts for electrical components ranging from automotive motors to bathroom furnishings. The material will be on display at this years formnext show, one of the major international exhibitions for the next generation of manufacturing technologies. It will eventually be made available to purchase for Ricoh customers by mid-2018. 2. Bio-based 3D printing polymer developed in Russia A group of researchers based in Russia have developed a new material that can be used with 3D printing technology in a way that will significantly reduce its carbon footprint and contribute less to the manufacturing industrys pollution of the natural environment. A bio-based polymer, the material will be completely recyclable and bio-degradable as well as having high-performance qualities similar to other polymers and plastics used for 3D printing. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, Russian researchers published the results of their work. Their material is known as PEF (polyethylene-2,5-furandicarboxylate), and it is made from bio-mass. The team was working with Valentine P. Ananikov at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, in the development of this cellulose-based material. The team was able to use a commercially available FDM 3D printer with standard settings to successfully make objects out of PEF. The individual layers of the printed objects were firmly bound to each other and the surface was smooth and of high quality. The objects also displayed impressive thermal stability, which meant that they could be easily melted down and made back into filament which could be re-used for FDM 3D printing. Another significant advantage of PEF was its solvent resistance. Many polymers are easily damaged by common solvents, and their material properties can suffer. Tests of PEF, however, demonstrated that the 3D printed objects were resistant to dichloromethane, one of the most aggressive solvents. 3.J Group Robotics launches Delta HC 666 FDM 3D printer One of Indias largest technology manufacturers, J Group Robotics, has announced the release of a new FDM 3D printer. The next-gen machine is known as the Delta HC 666, and J Group Robotics intends it to be used for functional prototyping, manufacturing aids, tooling and short-run direct digital manufacturing. According to Vaibhav Jariwala - C.E.O. of J Group Robotics, "Among the thermoplastic-based 3D printers, the next generation Delta HC 666 Production 3D Printer has industry leading accuracy and reliability. This new generation of the proven large format Delta HC 666 Production 3D Printer maintains the industry's leading accuracy and reliability. With additional key features, the 3D printer allows for improved use along with a rapid installation process that saves time for the users. The streamlined workflow that comes as standard with the Delta HC 666 3D printer should be ideal for a range of different industries, including the Aerospace, Automotive and Medical manufacturing sectors. The machine is compatible with most consumer and engineering-grade thermoplastics, including high-performance materials like Ultem 9085, Ultem 1010, Polysulfone (PSU), Polyphenylsulfone (PPSF / PPSU), Victrex 500 Peek, and Polycarbonate (PC). 4. 3D printing used to make ethoscopes for insect behaviour studies A team of researchers based at Imperial College London have developed a new piece of equipment that will enable the improved study of insect behaviour, which should contribute much to various scientific disciplines. 3D printing was part of the development process of this unique, easy-to-use, customizable device, which is known as an ethoscope. The ethoscope is basically a 3D printed chassis combined with a camera and a Raspberry Pi computer, but LEGO or cardboard could be used just as effectively. The software and instructions for construction are all available for free online. The ethoscope is capable of automating the usually painstaking manual process of recording a fruit flys behaviour. Not only this, but it can also manipulate the flys behaviour in particular desirable ways. Flies behave in ways that are often remarkably similar to humans, and for this reason their study is useful for neuroscience and many other fields in behavioural studies. According to Dr Giorgio Gilestro, who led the project, "We can programme the machine to send stimuli to the flies only when they behave in a certain way. For example, the robots can be programmed to give flies rewards only if they complete a learned task...The ethoscope is going to provide neuroscientists with a very new powerful tool to study, for instance, the biology of learning and memory or the function of sleep...Another possible use of ethoscopes is the adaptation of the platform to detect behavior of other animals; clearly, adapting ethoscopes to work with other small insects similar to Drosophila should be an easy task, and tracking behavior of even smaller animals may be possible using lenses." 5. 3D printed antenna based on moths used for chemical sensing A team of researchers from the Oak Ridge National Lab and the Georgia Institute of Technology recently published studies on the natural olfaction structure of male moth antennae. The results of their work could serve to improve performance of preconcentrators for chemical sensing. A key part of the research was the development of a 3D printed replica of the moths antennae. Male moths are capable of using their antennae to rapidly detect food and female pheromones over large distances. They can sense important chemicals from up to four kilometers away, which is significantly better than artificial sensors of similar size. Chemical communication is used by the insect to sense pheromones in less than a second, which is a significant reduction in the amount time that typical sensors take. Most hazardous gases arent detected by artificial sensors until after a minute of exposure. The researchers are hoping that moths olfactory capability can inspire a new approach to the detection of chemical leaks, drugs and explosives. They analyzed the natural dimensions and hierarchical structure of the moths antenna design and then fabricated a 1:1 scale replica of it, using Nanoscribes two-photon polymerization based 3D printer. The antenna demonstrated improved performance, and could be subsequently used for all kinds of practical applications. 6. Materialise and Henry Ford to validate the importance of accurate 3D modeling for mitral valve planning Mitral regurgitation affects more than 4 million Americans nearly one in 10 people aged 75 or older. Currently the primary option for the disease is open-heart surgery, which holds extremely high risks for patients in this age group and can prevent treatment in many cases. Non-invasive methods are entering the market to address this need and physicians are recognizing the importance of pre-surgical planning for this complex disease. Entering their pre-market phase of development, Materialise is working with select U.S. and EU hospital partners to validate the importance of accurate 3D modeling to help physicians plan complex transcatheter mitral valve replacement & repair (TMVR/r) procedures. The pre-market phase will assess the importance of accurate 3D modeling for robust, repeatable patient planning. Materialise has partnered with Henry Ford Health Systems to bring Henry Ford's validated, patented, mitral planning workflow, developed in Materialise's Mimics Innovation Suite to a broader TMVR Market. "Expanding access to this proven workflow is another step towards our mission to develop innovative products that result in a better and healthier world," said Brigitte de Vet, Vice President of Medical at Materialise. "Working with specific hospital partners in this pre-market phase of development of a TMVR planning tool means we are one step closer to helping more patients receive therapy without the risks inherent to open-heart surgery." Organizations participating in the Mitral Valve Planning research program will leverage Henry Ford's validated workflow in Materialise's Mimics Innovation Suite software where virtual 3D anatomical models are the basis for assessing left ventricular outflow tract obstructions (LVOTO) and other elements for planning complex mitral valve procedures. "The mitral valve anatomy is much more complex than other areas of the heart that transcatheter devices currently treat," said Dee Dee Wang, M.D., director of structural heart imaging at Henry Ford Hospital, and medical director, 3D printing, Henry Ford Innovation Institute. "The ability to bring advanced 3D computer aided design (CAD) technology and software into the transcatheter mitral space has been a real game changer. This 3D visualization of patient specific anatomy can help cardiologists and surgeons gauge each patient's mitral annular dimensions to better understand how a device will fit in the patient's heart and the nature of the obstruction of the left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) for successful TMVR device implants in highly diseased hearts. This, along with proper imaging and skilled staff, brings peri-procedural planning and patient-centered outcomes to a whole new level." Posted in 3D Printer Company Maybe you also like: Oct 30, 2017 | By Benedict Researchers from Michigan Technological University have conducted a study into the cost of 3D printing consumer goods using flexible filament. The researchers 3D printed 20 flexible products in NinjaFlex filament, analyzing the overall cost and technical feasibility of the 3D printed items. Michigan Tech researchers used a Lulzbot Mini 3D printer to put NinjaFlex filament to the test Flexible filaments have opened up a world of opportunities for 3D printer users. Once faced with the prospect of brittle and breakable 3D printed parts, makers can now easily make rubbery 3D printed items for a range of practical applications: mechanical parts, soft grips, and even the tires of an RC car. But are objects made from flexible 3D printing filaments as good as their molded, off-the-shelf counterparts? Moreover, are they worth the cost? Those are two questions that intrigued Aubrey L. Woern and Joshua M. Pearce, two researchers at Michigan Technological University who recently carried out a study into the effectiveness of functional objects made from flexible filament. Their extensive study involved the 3D printing and testing of 20 common consumer objects, all of which are made from flexible materials and which can be recreated using the popular NinjaFlex 3D printer filament. In addition to seeing how each 3D printed object performed at its designated task, the researchers attempted to see how cost-effective it was to 3D print the object in comparison to buying it off the shelf. The 3D printed products were quantified by print time, electrical energy use, and filament consumption by mass to determine the cost to fabricate with a commercial RepRap 3D printer, Woern and Pearce explain. Printed parts were inspected and when necessary tested for their targeted application to ensure technical feasibility. For their tests, the researchers used a Lulzbot Mini FDM 3D printer with a FlexyStruder hotend. This equipment was chosen not because it was the very best available, but because it represented a reasonable investment choice for the average non-specialist consumer. As for the 3D printed consumer goods, the researchers selected a range of objects including automotive parts, home goods, and a few wearable items and accessories. All of these simple objects could be printed on the Lulzbot Mini at a layer height of between 200 and 400 microns, and were selected based on their functionality, printability (size, shape), and their having a hardness of 85 Shore Ato match the chosen NinjaFlex 3D printing filament. One 3D printed object analyzed by the researchers was a GoPro camera skin Once all these objects had been 3D printed on the Lulzbot Mini, the first task for the researchers was to assess their quality. Luckily for 3D printer users everywhere, the Michigan Tech duo were satisfied with their findings, reporting that the 3D printed objects were both functional and aesthetically acceptable when printed with appropriate printer settings for their respective applications. More importantly, the researchers found that the cost savings associated with 3D printing these consumer goods were significant. Woern and Pearce found that commercial flexible filament is economically as well as technically feasible for providing a means of distributed home-scale manufacturing of flexible products, reporting 75 per cent savings when compared to the least expensive commercially equivalent products and a whopping 92 per cent when compared to high market priced products. Thats a huge advertisement for flexible 3D printing filaments right there, but the Michigan Tech researchers even calculated how worthwhile it would be for consumers to invest in their own 3D printing equipment based on these findings. Roughly, 160 flexible objects must be substituted to recover the capital costs to print flexible materials, the researchers say. However, as previous work has shown, the Lulzbot Mini 3D printer used in this study would provide more than a 100 percent [return on investment] printing one object a week from hard thermoplastics. The [FlexyStruder] upgrade needed to provide flexible filament capabilities can be accomplished with 37 average substitution flexible prints. Not content with savings of 75 and 95 per cent over off-the-shelf items, Woern and Pearce also looked at ways in which consumers can sidestep the cost of buying spools of filament. (Sorry, NinjaFlex!) The Lulzbot Mini 3D printer was chosen for the study because of its affordability According to the comprehensive 3D printing study, use of a pellet extruder and TPU pellets (rather than spools of filament) allows users to save up to 93 per cent over off-the-shelf goodsa small improvement, but one that could be significant in the long run. Even more striking are the researchers calculations regarding recycled filament. They estimate that by using recycled TPE filament processed with a Recyclebot filament extruder, 3D printer users can achieve cost savings of a phenomenal 99 per cent over purchasing off-the-shelf items, as well as doing a bit of good for the environment while theyre at it. Thinking about going to the shop to buy your next iPhone case, oil-resistant gasket, or ergonomic tool grip? Perhaps investing in a 3D printer and recycled filament extruder would be a better bet. Although the numbers sound impressive, Woern and Pearce do offer a few words of warning about their findings. For one, they say the oeuvre of 3D printable designs made for flexible filament is still relatively small, which meant there was a limited number of functional objects they could attempt 3D printing. They also note that the market prices used in this study are likely to fluctuate. However, these price changes will ultimately make 3D printing even more cost-effective, with the price of both 3D printing equipment and flexible filament likely to drop substantially as competition increases. This study showed that NinjaFlex filament, even being at a high price point, can be economically viable and appears to be technically feasible for providing a means of distributed home-scale manufacturing of flexible products, the researchers conclude. Their research paper, Distributed Manufacturing of Flexible Products: Technical Feasibility and Economic Viability, has been published in DMPI Technologies. Find it here. Posted in 3D Printing Materials Maybe you also like: by Ashutosh Jogalekar The flames crackled high and mighty, scalping the leaves from the oak trees, embracing bark and beetles in their maw of carbonized glimmer. The remains of what had been lingered at the bottom, burnt to the sticky nothingness of coagulated black blood. The walls of the stores and restaurants shone brightly, reflecting back the etherized memory of letters and words flung at them. Seen from the branches of the trees, filtered through incandescent fire, the people below were mere dots, ants borne of earthly damnation. A paroxysm of a new beginning silently echoed through the cold air. Palo Alto stood tall and brightly lit tonight. Bells Books, a mainstay of the town for a hundred years, projected its ghostly, flickering shell across the square, its walls stripped of everything that ever dwelt on them, now pale shadows of a dimming past. A few months back they had come to the store, crew cuts and stiff ties, smiles of feigned concerns cutting across the room like benevolent razors. As a seller of used and antiquarian books Bells posed a particular problem, riddled through and through as it was with undesirables. The owner, an old woman who looked like she had been there since the beginning of time, was told quietly and with no small degree of sympathy how they did not want to do this but how they needed to cart out most of her inventory, especially because of its historical nature. Were sorry, maam, but ever since they passed the addendum our directives have grown more urgent. And please dont take this personally since yours is not the only collection to be cataloged: over the last few weeks we have repeated this exercise at most of the areas stores and libraries. To be fair, they are offering healthy compensation for your efforts, and you should be hearing back from the grievances office very soon. With that, three Ryder trucks filled with most of the books from Bells had disappeared into the waning evening, the old woman standing in the door, the wisps of sadness on her face looking like they wanted to waft into the air and latch on to the gleaming skin of the vehicles. What happened to her since then, where she went and what she did was anybodys guess. But the space where Bells stood had already been sold to an exciting new health food store. Addendum XIV to the First Amendment had passed three months ago with almost unanimous approval from both parties. In an age of fractured and tribal political loyalties, it had been a refreshingly successful bipartisan effort to reach across the aisle. In some sense it was almost a boring development, since large parts of the First dealing with the right to peaceably assemble had been left unaltered. The few new changes added some exceptions to the hallowed Constitutional touchstone; these included an exception for public decency, another one for offending group sensibilities, and a third one for protection of citizens from provocative or offensive material. That last modification had been solidly backed by data from a battery of distinguished psychologists and sociologists from multiple academic centers, hospitals and government agencies who had demonstrated in double blind studies how any number of literary devices, allusions and historical references produced symptoms especially among the young that were indistinguishable from those of generalized anxiety disorder. Once the Surgeon General had certified the problem as a public health emergency, the road to determined political action had been smoothed over. Most importantly, Addendum XIV had been a triumph of the peoples will. Painless and quick, it was being held up as an exemplar of representative democracy. The change had been catalyzed by massive public demonstrations of a magnitude that had not been seen since the last war. These demonstrations had begun in the universities as a response against blatant attacks on the dignity of their students, marshaled through the weaponization of words. The fire had then spread far and wide, raging across cities and plains and finally setting the hearts and minds of senators and congressmen ablaze; whether through fear or through common sense was at this point irrelevant. In what was a model example of the social contract between elected public officials and the people, much of the final language in Addendum XIV had been left almost unchanged from drafts that emerged from spirited and productive town hall meetings. It was grassroots government at its best. After years of being seen as almost a pariah, the country could again expect the world to look at it with renewed admiration as a nation of laws and decent people. The police had put a perimeter around the fire, cordoning it off and trying their best to prevent spectators from approaching too close. But they were having a hard time of it since the whole point of the event was as a community-building exercise where the locals contributed and taught each other. An old cherry picker had been recruited to drop its cargo into the fire from top, but the real action belonged to the people. Children and old alike were cautiously approaching the bright burning flames and tossing in their quota and the younger crowd was flinging everything in quite enthusiastically. Parents who were trying to carefully keep their gleeful children from getting too close were simultaneously balancing the delicate act of teaching their kids how to do their part as civic-minded citizens. A mother was gently helping her four-year-old pick a slim volume and toss it into the gradually growing conflagration while the father stood nearby, smiling and returning the childs eager glances. It was hard to contain the crowds enthusiasm as they obeyed the overt guidelines of the government and the silent dictates of their conscience. The police knew that the people were doing the right thing, so they finally became resigned to occasionally helping out the crowd rather than trying to prevent them from being singed by the heat. An officer took out his pocketknife and knelt to help a man cut the recalcitrant piece of twine that was tying his sheath of tomes together. Based on the official state and federal guidelines, everyone had filled up their boxes and crates and SUVs and driven here. Driven here from Fremont and Berkeley hallowed ground of the movements sacred origins and some from as far as Livermore and Fresno, even braving the snaking line of cars on the Dumbarton Bridge to the East. They cursed under their breath for not being allowed to organize similar local events in their own cities, but the government wanted to build community spirit and did not want to dilute the wave of enthusiasm that had swept the nation. Rather than have several small events, they wanted to have a few big ones with memorably big attendance. Palo Alto afforded a somewhat central meeting point as well as a particularly convenient one because of its large repository of used bookstores and university libraries. The Ryder Company had helpfully offered generous discounts for use of their trucks. Stanford and Berkeley had been particularly cooperative and had contributed a large chunk of the evenings raw material; as torchbearers of the movement, they had had no trouble gathering up enough recruits. Berkeley especially had the White Houses blessing and federal funding had once again started to flow generously to the once cash-strapped institution. Now University Avenue was backed up with Ryder trucks stretching back all the way to Campus Drive, mute messengers of information overflow relived to be offloading their tainted cargo. As with most events like this, the restaurants were working overtime, offering happy hour deals and competing with each other for the attention of the diverse crowd. The $12.99 double slider special at Sliderbar had been sold out, and Blue Bottle Cafe in HanaHaus was going crazy trying to cater to their hyper-caffeinated consumers who especially relished the buzz from the establishments famous Death Valley Cold Brew. Groups of students could be seen working in relay teams; as one group helped unload the trucks and consign the contents to the flames, the other went back and brought back coffee and donuts for renewed energy. A family stood outside Palo Alto Creamery, the children squealing with delight as their ice cream melted quicker between their fingers in the glare of the heat. The parents watched with familiar exasperation, especially since there were three more bags to take care of. The extra generators at the creamery were having a hard time keeping up, but the huge size of the crowd seemed to please the crews even though they had been working since 3 AM. To facilitate the transition, the government had mandated paid vacation for one day so that they could deploy agents who would visit homes and take stock of the inventory. Just like they did for jury duty, they sent out letters to everyone confirming the date and time. I had to postpone once since I had still not finished counting up my collection. I wanted to postpone again, but the second letter made the urgency of the matter a bit more clear. Two boyish-looking agents had stopped by and efficiently noted down everything as they gently took volumes out of my shelves and kept them back. Once they were sure about the total they had handed me a piece of paper confirming the number, along with information on the date of the event in Palo Alto. We appreciate your help in this, Sir; you have no idea how some people have offered resistance to even such a simple call to community service. Its especially absurd since it was their own friends and family members who had gone out of their way to come to all those town hall meetings and demand this! In any case, well see you on the 27th. You have a nice day now. I nodded wearily. I had been reluctant to commit myself to that first milestone. There was another day late in November when those who couldnt make it for some reason the first time around could go. I decided to go to the October event all the same; I had had nothing much to do in the evenings ever since all the bookstores had been either closed or reduced to selling meager, uninteresting fare. They were offering discount parking in the lot on Waverley Street, so I parked there and took a right on University Avenue. As I turned a blast of hot air hit me, as if trying to wash away memories of an unwanted past. At the end of the street, flanked by shadows of the moving crowd, was the conflagration. The crowds around me were moving to and fro between the end of the street and the businesses along the sides, although the overall movement seemed to be toward the amorphous, flaring yellow shape shifter in the distance. I suddenly saw a familiar face at the side. It was Sam from HanaHaus; the establishment had opened an extra counter on the sidewalk to quell the crowds inside. Hey, hows it going? Some crowd huh? waved Sam. I waved back but Sams hand quickly dissolved in the flurry of hands grabbing coffee cups and placing orders. I kept on walking and quickly reached the police perimeter. Hi, do you have anything to donate?, asked an officer. I told him that I was going to take advantage of the extended deadline. Thats ok, he said; based on the conversations he had had, people had such large collections that many of them were going to be forced to come back anyway. As a family with three young kids approached with their bags, he requested me to stand back so he could help them. As I stepped back I took in the scene. The fire was gleefully lofting paper and pages up in a whirlwind of nihilistic ecstasy, the frayed, burning edges of pages proclaiming their glowing jaggedness, their silent letter-by-letter obliteration. Nearby, one group of children was dancing in a circle with others, enjoying the momentary dizziness induced by the motion. Their parents were keeping a close watch on them as they went on with their routine. Occasionally a child would quickly run to his or her parents side, pick up a volume and toss it laughing and screaming, even as the other children yelled about the interruption. They would then join the circle again and continue the dance, their own movements alternating with the movements of the soot as it went round and round the pyramid of burning paper. It was then that I saw some of the names; it was odd that I shouldnt have recognized them before, but it might simply have been because they were so ubiquitous that they had been rendered invisible. There were Lee and Kafka, Baldwin and Joyce, Ovid and Atwood, Plato and Melville, Rushdie and Russell, Twain and Conrad, Rhodes and Faulkner, Pynchon and Sagan, Woolf and Dostoyevsky, McCarthy and Stein. They were there because they were too colonial, too non-colonial, too postcolonial, too offensive, too profane, too sensitive, too traumatic, too objective, too white, too black, too egalitarian, too totalitarian, too maverick, too orthodox, too self-reflective, too existential, too modern, too postmodern, too violent, too bucolic, too crude, too literary, too cis, too trans, too religious, too secular, too nihilistic, too meaningful, too anarchist, too conformist, too feminist, too masculine, too languid, too unsettling, too horrific, too boring, too much ahead of their times, too much relics of the past, too much, simply. They were there because sensibilities had been offended, because words had been weaponized. Most of them were lined up in bag after bag next to the fire, gagged and bound, silently screaming against the passions of men. The ones that had already made it into the void were gone, ideas becoming null, breath turned into air, but some had stumbled back from the high pile with various parts charred and curled up in half- dead configurations, painfully trying to remain part of this world. Some of the names were partially gone, formless echoes being slowly stuffed back into the grave. The ones which had photos of their authors had these photos metamorphosed into things begging to be obliterated: a woman with only her smile burnt off, looking like a gargoyle without a mouth; a man with his eyes masterfully taken out by well-placed glowing embers; another one where the heat had half-heartedly engraved dimpled plastic bubbles on the face of a female novelist known to have a pleasing countenance, now looking like a smallpox victim with a jaw left hanging. It was then that I noticed another breed of spectator rapidly moving through the crowd. Photographers hired by both government and private agencies were canvassing the scene like bounty hunters looking for trinkets of a fractured reality which they could take back to their studios and immortalize in its isolated desolation. One of them was the noted photographer Brandon Trammel, from the California Inquirer. I could see him now on the other side of the fire, his body and the shimmering flames appearing to coalesce into one seamless disintegration. At a certain temperature human beings and paper become indistinguishable, guilt-ridden souls shredded apart into their constituent atoms, sons and daughters of the whims of men consumed by fire and fury. Trammel was taking photos of the men and women and children around the fire, etching their cries of glee and solemn duty into permanent oblivion. Moving around the fire like a possessed man furiously scribbling down the habits of an alien civilization, he came over to my side. I caught sight of a half-burnt title on the ground. It was a familiar volume from another era, an era now looking like the world in a snow globe, eroding now through the obscuring glow of time. Hey, I yelled at him, Here, let me pose for you. I picked up the book and threw it at the red wall with all my might. I heard a click, but at the last moment the charred remains of its edges had disintegrated in my hands and it fell short by a few feet. I desperately looked around. Another one was within sight. I hastily scampered over, picked it up and looked at Trammel, eager and wild-eyed. Again!, I screamed at the top of my voice, and cast it into the fire. by Max Sirak I dont spend much time on Twitter. I check it twice a day, maybe, for a combined total of 7 minutes. But recently, when swiping up to scroll down, I saw the tweets between Elon Musk and Governor Ricardo Rossello of Puerto Rico and smiled. Yes, I thought. This makes so much sense. When I was 20 I spent a summer backpacking in Europe. A couple friends joined me, or I them; they did most of the planning. It was the early 2000s. Cell phones werent ubiquitous. Pre-paid calling cards kept us in touch. The digital revolution was nascent. Our Eurail passes, like our currency, were paper. It was an eight week trip. We visited 13 different countries. And it was while winding on the rails all about Europe, from station to station, where I fell in love with reading and writing. Up until then, both bored me. (Not that this is what my essays about, but it seemed a relevant aside, you know, considering) Anyway, about 2/3 of the way through our trip we disembarked in Rotterdam. A friend from college, Whit, was studying there for a semester and, since we happened to be in that part of the world, we decided to drop in for a visit. Im glad we did. Not only was it nice to see a friendly, familiar face but city itself blew my mind. Sure, I was high (I mean, we were college kids from the US in the Netherlands), but still. It wasnt just the drugs that had me wide-eyed. It was the architecture. Id never seen anything like it. It wasnt the cobbled and quaint streets of Bruges. It wasnt the mind-melting, Seussical structures Gaudi built in Barcelona. It wasnt the amalgamation of antiquity and everyday that defines Rome. Rotterdam was modern. There were cube apartments for rent, strung like Christmas lights across avenues. The bridges, brightly colored and lit, looked more like industrial insects than brick barracks. It was more steel than stone, more odd angles than arches. It was on the way home from a bar, the four us in a cab, when I found out why. Hey, I asked the driver, How come Rotterdam looks so cool? We were at a red light. The driver turned around, cocked his head to the side, and squinted. Confused, he shook his head in disbelief. I could almost hear him think, Stupid American. The light turned green. The cab driver turned back around and looked up at me through the rearview mirror. This place was leveled during the war. Nazi bombs. Everything is new. Destruction And Creation This drunken cab conversation may have taken place 16 years ago but its one I havent forgotten. Rotterdam looked different because it was. The rest of the cities we visited in Europe had been preserved for centuries. Rotterdam was recently razed. Rotterdam had a modern feel was because it was rebuilt in modern times. The city dates back to 1270 (or 1340, depending on how me measure such things). No one can deny we, as a species, have made incredible advances in structural engineering, design, and construction science over the last 747 years. To rebuild Rotterdam as it was would have been mistake. Rotterdam was bombed into opportunity. Im not trying to gloss over the devastation, loss of life, or sheer catastrophe of Nazi bombardment. From May 10th to 14th, 1940 over 900 hundred people were killed. Another 85,000 lost their homes. And what once stood as a proud hub of shipping and commerce was little more than cinders and dust. All in less than 96 hours. I am not making light of the ruin of Rotterdam. I am, however, illustrating how to make light from it. Which is all any of us can do when faced with the horrors of war, the chaos of life, and total loss. Because heres a secret destruction is the seedbed of creation. Think about it. Have you ever done any remodeling on a building? After the planning is done, after the drawings are finalized, what is the actual first step of construction? Demolition. Sledgehammers smash. Anytime we create something new where something old already is, we begin with blasting away. Destroying what is makes room for what will be. Destruction begets creation. Rebuilding Smarter Only when things have been torn down to their foundations, can we institute wholesale change. Often times, before such a casualty, transformation of this scale is nearly impossible. The best we can do is add on, patch up, or work around. All three of which are perfectly reasonable fixes when dealing with exiting structures. But thats just it. Thats the beauty of complete destruction. It removes the possibility of using our aforementioned strategies and replaces them with a mandate: Build. Again. If we must build again why not take advantage of all the advances made, all the wisdom gained, since last we were given the chance to construct? Doesnt this make sense? Which Brings Me To Puerto Rico Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. And its not like the island was in great shape before the storm. There has been a steady migration north, to the mainland, since the beginning of the 2000s. Its estimated some 300,000 people, mostly skilled laborers, have jumped ship. Couple this population movement and the associated loss of workforce with an unregulated energy monopoly and things were already stormy before the hurricane hit. Puerto Rico featured some of the priciest energy in the US. When theres only one option to choose from customers lose. The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority had no reason to keep costs low or invest in infrastructure. Then, theres the islands old, centralized energy grid. 98% of Puerto Ricos power came from imported fossil fuels. Oil, natural gas, and coal were converted into electricity at a main plant and then distributed through the jungles of the island via above-ground lines on rickety old poles. Which, makes sense, this was the standard method, style, and strategy of energy distribution back when the original grid was built. However, in tune with Rotterdam, just because something used to be done a certain way doesnt mean its the only way. Destruction carries with it opportunity. Building For the Future Again, in Puerto Rico, we can see the unique gift destruction brings. It grants us a boon a blank slate, full of space, to rebuild. Whats been lost is forever gone. The choice now is to build again, without correcting all the previous flaws, in the same way as before. Or, to take advantage of any and all advances made since the original construction and improve upon what was there. Tesla is amped. Whats been talked about with Australia, and done on Tau (American Samoa) and Kauai, is being initiated in Puerto Rico. The powerpacks have been shipped. Decentralized microgrids. Solar panels. Renewable energy on a grander scale. A potential model of our future. Googles getting in on action too. Theyve already sent two solar powered balloons down to Puerto Rico. Soaring some 60,000 feet in the stratosphere, these members of Project Loon are granting wireless access to the citizens below. And more connectivity is on its way. The FCC has approved the deployment of 28 more balloons to further this internet initiative. Choices Theres a line in the Grateful Dead song, Scarlet Begonias, that goes, Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places, if you look at it right. Wreckage may sound like a strange place indeed to find light, but its not. Rebuilding offers opportunity. We can either: Do the hard work, use whats been learned so far, make changes for the better, and correct what bothered us before. Or rebuild in the same tired way, echo what once was, and face former frustrations. Its our choice. Neither path is without a downside. The latter brings with it well-known issues. The first, a whole host of new challenges. But when it comes to indiscriminate destruction, be it by Nazi bombs or natural disaster Im of the mind it makes more sense to side with the devil you dont know than the one you do. Because there too, along side this unfamiliar archfiend lives the angel of hope. Brandon Sanderson, author of Towers of Midnight, sums it up nicely. If a hold was damaged during a raid and you rebuilt it, you never made it exactly the same way. You took the chance to fix the problemsthe door that creaked in the wind, the uneven section of floor. To make it exactly as it had been would be foolishness. Puerto Rico, like Rotterdam before it, has an opportunity. Step into the future or hold onto the past. I know which Id choose. *** Max lives his life, records podcasts, and helps people write their books. Sometime he tweets. *** Photo Credits 1) By J. Dapp (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons 2) CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=203478 3) By SC National Guard 20171007- SC National Guard in Puerto Rico, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63441974 4) By Chief National Guard Bureau from USA 170927-Z-CD688-266, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=62861935 *** Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotterdam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_bombing_of_Rotterdam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_Hall_(Rotterdam) https://www.inverse.com/article/37420-elon-musk-tesla-powerpack https://www.inverse.com/article/37175-elon-musk-puerto-rico-flagship-project https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/6/16438054/elon-musk-puerto-rico-solar-power-tesla http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41524220 http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1112800_teslas-solar-and-battery-project-in-hawaii-we-do-the-math https://diginomica.com/2017/10/16/can-big-tech-save-puerto-rico/ http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-puerto-rico-balloons-20171021-story.html https://electrek.co/2017/10/21/top-stories-puerto-rico-charge-design-more/ https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/10/19/16431312/elon-musk-richard-branson-clean-energy-puerto-rico-solar-batteries-microgrid Kevin Berger in Nautilus: It doesnt seem enough to call Stephen Paddock, who killed 58 innocent people in Las Vegas this month, a monster. The term has lost its power to evoke the unimaginable. The beasts that terrorized the mental lives of our ancestors have been tamed by religion and culture, notes Stephen T. Asma this week in a Nautilus essay, Why Are So Many Monsters Hybrids?. So what do we call Paddock? Asma, a professor of philosophy at Columbia College Chicago, and author, most recently, of On Monsters and The Evolution of Imagination, says the term monster is not ready to be retired. The moniker suits Paddock, he says. Monster is a term we reserve for people who cannot be negotiated with. Its almost impossible, if not impossible, to understand their behavior, their motives, their mind. Our regular theory of mind doesnt work on these people. In a ranging interview with Nautilus about mythic and real monsters, Asma talked about the evolutionary origin of werewolves and the psychological fears that give rise to tyrannous leaders. Asma lived in Cambodia for a while and learned about the monstrous rule of Pol Pot. He offered his view of what appeals to Americans about Donald Trump. We delved into the roles that desire and repulsion play in our conceptions of monsters, and why he disagrees with neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett about the source of emotions. More here. After a much-needed makeover, this old school home becomes a bohemian gem. Once Joan Schubert and David Fletcher outgrew their home, they decided to return to the Sacramento neighborhood where Schubert grew up, and where she still has family. But before they could move into the 1930s Tudor-style house, the couple needed to do a major renovation. Before Photo, original photo on Houzz Houzz at a Glance Who lives here: Joan Schubert; David Fletcher; their son and daughter, ages 3 and 8; and Howard, the family's Cairn terrier Location: Historic William Land Park neighborhood of Sacramento, California Size: 2,800 square feet (260 square meters); three bedrooms, four bathrooms Designers: Laura Neuman of PepperJack Interiors and Sarah Ellis of Ellis Architects The house hadn't had any work done in decades and "needed a top to bottom renovation," interior designer Laura Neuman says. She took every wall down to the studs and completely reconfigured the layout, which is why the before-and-after photos won't appear to match up in this article. New replacement windows, electrical wiring and plumbing were installed throughout the home. The former living room, shown here, looked dated and felt small and closed off. The small windows also didn't allow in much natural light. Wall paint: Sea Salt CSP-95, Benjamin Moore; trim paint: Cloud White 967, Benjamin Moore; ceiling paint: Plaster of Paris CSP-185, Benjamin Moore; chevron chair upholstery fabric: Marlow in Licorice, Romo; drapery fabric: Madame Butterfly in Rouge de Chine, Manuel Canovas, Cowtan & Tout; light f Michelle Drewes Photography, original photo on Houzz Major floor plan changes reworked the front area into a new foyer, stair landing, hallway (on the far left) and dining room. The staircase leads up to the kids' bedrooms and bathrooms on the second floor. Framed openings with molding create a more authentic Tudor look than the previous unadorned openings. Because of the drastic configuration changes, the entire home needed new flooring. Wide-plank maple wood with a grayish tint replaced original oak. Neuman created a neutral, cool palette for most of the finishes, then added splashes of vivid color in the fabrics, artwork, wallpaper and kitchen cabinetry. In the dining room she mixed a Navajo rug, vintage African spears and a carefully edited collection of different dining chair styles: Chippendale, Mission and upholstered host chairs. Drapery fabric features Chinese pagoda motifs in oranges, pinks and blacks. "It's so easy to slip into doing something trendy and 'of the moment,' but this finished home transcends any trend or single narrative and makes a unique statement about the homeowner, while at the same time remaining flexible to grow and change with them through the years," Neuman says. Bench: Jade Bench (discontinued), Currey and Co.; wall baskets: West Elm; coffee table: Williams-Sonoma; window shade fabric: Breach Candy in Kesar Orange, Seema Krish Michelle Drewes Photography, original photo on Houzz New double doors on the rear of the family room open to the backyard and bring in natural light. Neuman mixed vintage finds, like the homeowners' orange velvet chair, with new pieces, such as the green Chinese bench, contemporary coffee table and wall-hung decorative baskets. Adding a delightful wave-like pattern without being overwhelming, the orange and white shade fabric was hand-printed using Indian blocks and hand-embroidered. Before Photo, original photo on Houzz The 1970s kitchen had seen better days. The former kitchen walls were largely reconfigured to create a more contemporary, open layout. Shade fabric: Biancara in Multi, Vervain; cabinetry: Puente Construction; Subway tile: Arizona Tile; accent tile: Petra, Rookwood Pottery; countertop: Cambria quartz; cooktop: Thermador; artwork: homeowners' collection Michelle Drewes Photography, original photo on Houzz Neuman had these vintage-inspired wood cabinets custom-made to complement the overall project palette of oranges, magentas and reds with touches of greens and blues. She selected the playful, multicolored shade fabric to tie it all together. A white subway tile backsplash features an additional linear-patterned accent strip by venerable tile company Rookwood Pottery. Neuman says she selected Rookwood because of its association with the Arts and Crafts movement. However, she gave it a contemporary twist by going monochromatic rather than using the traditional greens and reds. A casual breakfast area bridges the new kitchen and family room. Wallaper: La Fiorentina in charcoal, David Hicks collection, Groundworks, Lee Jofa; drapery fabric: African Masque in beige, Clarence House; black and white pillows: Pottery Barn; ceiling fan: Paris fan, Period Arts; carpet: Woven Road in custard, Masland Michelle Drewes Photography, original photo on Houzz For the master bedroom, which sits off the foyer, Neuman brought in touches of tropical, African and Mission styles, and unified them with a thread of black. The throw on the bed is a hand-woven Ethiopian textile. Light wool wall-to-wall carpeting gives a cozy break from the wood flooring found elsewhere in the home. Schubert displays and stores her collection of scarves on a nearby wall. Tub: Michelangelo, Hydro Systems; subway tile: Elevare, Lunar Gloss, Daltile; floor tile: Durastone Chevron, Crema Luna, Voguebay; towel: Pendleton; Cabinet pulls: Emtek; paint: custom mix) Michelle Drewes Photography, original photo on Houzz A vibrant Tim Collom art piece hangs from the ceiling above the bathtub, allowing the homeowners to avoid drilling into the subway tile on the wall. To work around space constraints, Neuman positioned the vanity beneath the window and hung a round mirror from the mullion. Bar cabinet: Malone Campaign, West Elm Michelle Drewes Photography, original photo on Houzz The designer turned the former detached garage into a home office and party overflow space, adding a new concrete floor and heating and air conditioning. A vintage pelican statue in the foreground on the left holds pink paperclips. The office consists of an open desk space, a small kitchenette, a toilet area and storage tucked behind a sliding barn door. Howard, the family's Cairn terrier, likes lounging on the cool concrete floor. Next to the kitchenette, a cheerful lacquered cabinet provides ample bar storage. Builder: Kristy Linger, River City Builders Floor Plan, original photo on Houzz A plan of the home's first floor illustrates the new layout. The master bedroom and bath are at the front right, the kitchen at the rear right, the dining room at the front left, and the family room at the rear left. The cottage is at the exterior far right of the home. This article was written by Karen Egly-Thompson for Houzz. You might also like: Love Patterns? See Why Chevron is the Right Fit for You Outfit the Office With the Perfect Desk Lamp Sliding Barn Door Hardware to Finish Off the Look Prospect Granted National Project Status Perth, Oct 30, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Prospect Resources Ltd ( ASX:PSC ) announces the Government of Zimbabwe, through the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development and the Ministry of Finance & Economic Development, has granted National Project Status to Prospect Resources' Arcadia Lithium Deposit. Summary: - Prospect Resources has applied for and The Government of Zimbabwe has approved our application for National Project Status - National Project Status is granted for 5 years - National Project Status is often applied to projects which have a large capital cost with a large portion of this cost being equipment and services not available within Zimbabwe. - Prospect Resources highlighted these and other factors such as the employment creation and foreign currency generating potential of this significant project. - National Project Status confers on Prospect Resources a 5 year duty free window to import eligible equipment in terms of Sections 140 and 141 of the Customs and Excise (General) Regulations. - As stated on various occasions, this again demonstrates the Zimbabwe Government's support for this project, the largest JORC reported lithium deposit in Africa. In response to these results, Mr Hugh Warner (Chairman) had the following to say: "National Project Status is another confirmation of the support we are receiving from The Zimbabwe Government to develop Arcadia. Our lithium deposit is covered by mining claims, our environmental approvals are in place and now we can add National Project Status which will help keep the upfront capital costs down. Once we settle off-take discussions and finance, we plan to begin construction of our Arcadia Lithium Deposit". About the Arcadia Lithium Deposit: Arcadia is the largest JORC Code reported lithium deposit in Africa, comprising ~808 000t contained lithium oxide (over ~2 000 000t contained lithium carbonate equivalent - LCE). About Prospect Resources Ltd Prospect Resources Limited (ASX:PSC) is based in Australasia with operations in Zimbabwe and is a publicly listed company. We are committed to creating value for Prospect's shareholders and the communities in which our company operates. Our vision is to build a Southern African based mining company of international scale. 2017 Annual Report Melbourne, Oct 30, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - SEEK Limited ( ASX:SEK ) ( SKLTY:OTCMKTS ) provides the Company's 2017 Annual Report. SEEK is a diverse group of companies that have a unified purpose to help people live more fulfilling and productive working lives and help organisations succeed. The Group encompasses a strong portfolio of employment, education and volunteer businesses which span across Australia, New Zealand, China, South East Asia, Brazil, Mexico, Africa and Bangladesh. SEEK makes a positive impact on a truly global scale, operating in a total of 18 countries globally with market leading positions in 14 countries. We create world-class product technology solutions to address the needs of jobseekers and hirers and facilitate the matching between jobseekers and hirers across our online employment marketplaces. Across our employment marketplaces we receive over 450 million visits to our sites every month and have over 4 million job opportunities available at any given time and relationships with over 150 million candidates. Online Education Services (OES) offers leading online education and SEEK Learning offers trusted advice in relation to career related education. SEEK's commitment to having a positive impact on society is reflected through the diverse range of initiatives which our businesses across the globe partake in to support the communities they operate within. In Australia and New Zealand SEEK Volunteer is each country's largest single source of volunteering opportunities offering not-for-profit organisations free access to post volunteer opportunities for their organisations. This free marketplace is something SEEK is exceptionally proud of. Over the 19 years of operation SEEK continues to innovate within the markets it operates in. We provide a culture of excellence and acceptance in our workplaces and celebrate the diversity of employees that contribute to the success of our organisation. To view the full report, please visit: http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/CC196RLJ About SEEK Limited SEEK Limited (ASX:SEK) (OTCMKTS:SKLTY) is a diverse group of companies, comprised of a strong portfolio of online employment, educational, commercial and volunteer businesses. SEEK operates across 18 countries with exposure to over 2.9 billion people and approximately 26 per cent of GDP. SEEK makes a positive contribution to people's lives on a global scale. SEEK is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, where it is a top 100 company with a market capitalisation close to A$6billion and has been listed in the Top 20 Most Innovative Companies Globally by Forbes, and Number One in Australia. Addendum to ASX Release on Giant Pegmatite at Poona East Perth, Oct 30, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Venus Metals ( ASX:VMC ) announces the following addendum to the previous ASX announcement "Giant Pegmatite identified within Poona East Project...." on 11 October 2017. The target area was initially delineated from GSWA 100k map and subsequently a quick reconnaissance field visit was made in 2016. Recently a geological investigation and preliminary mapping was carried out by field traversing. The giant Pegmatite body (1.3kmx300m wide) was identified by our Senior Geological Consultant Mr Barry Fehlberg (MAusIMM). The strike extent of the zone containing the pegmatite body is interpreted to be 3.5 kilometres long, and much of it is under cover and therefore prospective. The geological mapping is at an early stage and it is not possible to produce a map consistent with the JORC Code at this stage. The pegmatite is mineralised, with old Beryl workings being located and identified in the field traversing. Beryl mineralisation was also noted at other locations within the pegmatite body. The presence of Beryl in the Jackson's Reward pegmatite and Tantalum (identified from within a previously un-prospected downstream drainage system) makes it as potential target for LCT mineralisation. The Company has planned to conduct a detailed geological mapping and sampling soon to further refine the target. About Venus Metals Corporation Limited Venus Metals Corporation Limited (ASX:VMC) is a West Australian based Company with a focus on gold, base metals, vanadium and lithium exploration projects. The Company aims to increase shareholder value through targeted exploration success on its projects. The Company's major gold project is the Youanmi Gold Mine, located 500km north-east of Perth. The Youanmi Gold Mine is now jointly owned by Venus Metals (30%) and Rox Resources Limited (70%); Indicated and Inferred Resource of the mine is in excess of 3 million ounces of gold. Retracted and Revised October Presentation and Update on Definitive Feasibility Study Sydney, Oct 30, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Hastings Technology Metals Ltd ( ASX:HAS ) (the "Company") has today announced the retraction and revision of the October Presentation published by the Company on 26 October 2017. On 26 October 2017, the Company published an Investor Presentation titled "Future Producer of Neodymium & Praseodymium to the Permanent Magnet Industry" ("Investor Presentation"). Following publication of this Investor Presentation, on 27 October 2017 the Company's securities were placed in trading halt by ASX. The Company has reconsidered some of the content of the Investor Presentation and has decided to retract the Investor Presentation. Investors should not rely on the now retracted Investor Presentation. The Company has today published a revised Investor Presentation, a copy of which is attached to this announcement. The Company is pleased to announce that the definitive feasibility study is on track for completion and publication by the end of November 2017. To view the presentation, please visit: http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/50K35HFT About Hastings Technology Metals Ltd Hastings Technology Metals Ltd (ASX:HAS) (FRA:5AM) is advancing its Yangibana Rare Earths Project in the Upper Gascoyne Region of Western Australia towards production. The proposed beneficiation and hydro metallurgy processing plant will treat rare earths deposits, predominantly monazite, hosting high neodymium and praseodymium contents to produce a mixed rare earths carbonate that will be further refined into individual rare earth oxides at processing plants overseas. Neodymium and praseodymium are vital components in the manufacture of permanent magnets which is used in a wide and expanding range of advanced and high-tech products including electric vehicles, wind turbines, robotics, medical applications and others. Hastings aims to become the next significant producer of neodymium and praseodymium outside of China. Hastings holds 100% interest in the most significant deposits within the overall project, and 70% interest in additional deposits that will be developed at a later date, all held under Mining Leases. Numerous prospects have been identified warranting detailed exploration to further extend the life of the project. Brockman Project The Brockman deposit, near Halls Creek in Western Australia, contains JORC Indicated and Inferred Mineral Resources, estimated using the guidelines of JORC Code (2012 Edition). The Company is also progressing a Mining Lease application over the Brockman Rare Earths and Rare Metals Project. Hastings aims to capitalise on the strong demand for critical rare earths created by the expanding demand for new technology products. Quarterly Activities and Cashflow Report Melbourne, Oct 30, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Xped Limited ( ASX:XPE ) ("Xped" or "the Company"), an Internet of Things ("IoT") technology company, today released its Quarterly Activities Report for the September quarter. QUARTERLY HIGHLIGHTS - BOARD RESTRUCTURE AND CAPITAL INVESTMENT - SMART HOME SOLUTION ADVANCES - JCT HEALTHCARE CONTRACT SUCCESS - LENZE IPARK AND TELINK UPDATES - SIGNIFICANT COST REDUCTION STRATEGY IMPLEMENTED To view the full report, please visit: http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/00F95SGN About XPED Ltd XPED Ltd (ASX:XPE) is an Australian Internet of Things (IoT) technology business. Xped has developed revolutionary and patent-protected technology that allows any consumer, regardless of their technical capability, to connect, monitor and control devices and appliances found in our everyday environment. Xped provides technology solutions for Smart Home, Smart Building, and Healthcare. At Xped, were Making Technology Easy Again(TM) Editor's Note As with other publications largely focused on current events, AfricaFocus Bulletin is confronted with an exponentially increasing bombardment of daily news. My approach as the editor is to select a particular topic of interest, sometimes highlighted in the news and sometimes not, and try to put it into context for readers with excerpts from the most relevant sources. But I also find it essential to try to step back and refresh my understanding of the wider context. For that, I find I must turn to books. The list below, which I decided to share with readers, is all non-fiction, but it is not restricted to books explicitly on "Africa." As readers are aware, AfricaFocus Bulletin centers Africa, but with the understanding that Africa is an integral part of and fundamentally affected by the wider global context, including developments in rich countries that still dominate the global order and disproportionately reap the rewards of a deeply tilted global political economy. In this critical time for the United States, my reading has also strongly concentrated on books providing context for understanding the situation in this country, where racial, class, and other divisions both parallel and help to mold global inequalities. So, for your browsing and possible future reading, the lists below include books I have recently read and recommend to others who are interested in the topics ("recent" means in the last two years), as well as books I have noted that I would like to read. There are three categories: "Africa Past and Present," "Current Global Issues," and "USA Past and Present." The comments are very brief, my own in the case of books I have read and taken from publishers' descriptions in other cases. I have also included links to Amazon listings, which often give access to a preview of the text and to Kindle editions, although I also encourage you to purchase from your own independent book store or from the publisher directly or suggest to your library to order, when those options are feasible. The last AfricaFocus Bulletin including a substantial list of recommended books was in April, 2017: "African Feminism Past and Present" (http://www.africafocus.org/docs17/wom1704.php). This AfricaFocus Bulletin is somewhat of an experiment, and I don't know how frequently I will post such book lists, either as part of a topical Bulletin or as a separate Bulletin like this one. I know I definitely won't be able to read all the books I would like to read! But if you find this of interest, and have additional titles to suggest to me for future inclusion, be sure to send me your feedback and recommendations by email at africafocus@igc.org Update: Additional books suggested by AfricaFocus subscribers [Unless otherwise attributed, comments are from publishers' descriptions.] Joshua Hammer, The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu. 2016. "An extraordinary, moving story of a quietand successfulact of great bravery in the face of destructive fanaticism. (Adam Hochschild, author of King Leopold's Ghost Ernest Harsh, Burkina Faso: A History of Power, Protest and Revolution. 2017. "Smart, accessible, and essential reading for all who are interested in African politics. It provides new insight into Burkina Fasos political history, from Sankara to the 2014 uprising. - (Laura Seay, Colby College) James Mittelman, Implausible Dream: The World-Class University and Repurposing Higher Education. 2017. Drawing on his own groundbreaking fieldwork, he offers three case studiesthe United States, which exemplifies market-oriented educational globalization; Finland, representative of the strong public sphere; and Uganda, a postcolonial country with a historically public but now increasingly private university system. ++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++ The African Development Bank (AfDB) Thursday agreed to support Kenyas leading bank Kenya Commercial Bank Limited (KCB) in its assistance for local companies with $100 million Line of Credit (LOC). The credit, the Abidjan-based institution noted will provide much-needed liquidity support for the development of infrastructure and energy projects as well as support value-addition in manufacturing and providing the youth. With the credit, KCB will further assist established SMEs in Kenya to assess financial resources and participate in the growth of the eastern African country through job creation. The Pan-African bank also in statement added that it seeks through the LOC contribute to KCBs efforts to broaden access to financing for the private sector. It also noted that its intervention falls within its Ten Year Strategy, 2013-2022, as well as one of the Banks High 5 Strategic priorities of improving the living conditions of Africans. The Eastern African country though embroiled in political disputes with August Presidential elections annulled and Thursday re-run tainted by violence and boycott, still represents the most vibrant economy of the region and the continent. KCB also present in neighboring countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and Tanzania is the largest bank of Kenya in terms of assets, customer deposits, and loans as well as advances portfolio. It in 2016 made net profit of $226 million, representing a 18 per cent growth compared to 2015 figures at the same period. The Somali government Sunday ended functions of police commander General Abdihakin Dahir Saiid and director general of the National Intelligence Security Agency (NISA), Abdullahi Mohamed Ali following another terror attack in capital Mogadishu which left 29 people dead, two weeks after truck-bombing killed over 300 people. The cabinet decision announced by state-run radio station following an attack on a hotel in the capital followed by a siege which ended 10 hours after confrontation between al Shabaab militants and security forces. The militants in early Saturday morning drove a car bomb through the gate of Nasahablod Two hotel, near the Presidential palace. President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo was due to hold a meeting with the leaders of the countrys five federal states in the hotel in later afternoon. After the car destroyed the gate, a group of other militants stormed the hotel and took workers and civilians hostage. Security forces only broke the siege after 10 hours of gun battle. The ministry interior said two of the attackers were killed while three have been made captives. Most victims were members of security forces, the ministry further noted. The militants group which seeks to ouster the UN-backed government said 40 people had been killed noting only three of its fighters stormed the hotel. Two weeks ago, the Islamic State affiliate group Al Shabaab was suspected for a truck bombing on October 14, in the central Mogadishu. Over 300 people were killed and at least 200 injured in what became the worst attack witnessed by the country which still houses 22,000 international forces supported by the UN and the African Union (AU). Jean-Christophe Owono Nguema, Deputy Speaker of the Senate is expected to show up at Libreville Gendarmerie today Monday (October 30) for calling for resistance to President Ali Bongo is accused of wanting to the central African country into a monarchy. Nguema, received the demand to appear before the DGR on October 28, Steeve Ndong Essame, State Prosecutor noted on Sunday. Nguema, a senator from the opposition in a video posted by supporters of National Union parti called for resistance to President Bongo and denounced what it called monarchization of the Gabon in reference to plan to amend countrys constitution. The video dates back to October 19 and is footage of an interview with French channel TV5 Monde. Nguema indicated that he would not turn up citing his parliamentary immunity. Essame however hit back stressing that the DRC will be forced to use its means if he refuses to meet the request. The prosecutor accused the lawmaker of inciting revolt arguing his statements in the video could be interpreted as blatant offence and enough to strip off his immunity. The central African country has been rocked by political turmoil since last year disputed elections won by President Ali accused by many observers of rigging the electoral process. The Bangladesh opposition leader and the Chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Khaleda Zia, has accused the government of insufficient efforts in extending assistance to Rohingya refugees, The Daily Star reported. She urged the international community to continue diplomatic efforts and pressure Myanmar to take back the refugees, who have fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution in Myanmars Rakhine state. The former prime minister made these remarks while distributing relief and support materials at a Rohingya refugee camp in Coxs Bazar on Monday. Referring to the attack on her motorcade in Feni, while she was en route to visit the camp, Zia said, The government wont get away with this. The BNP and its archrival Awami League are blaming each other for the attack. Mumbaikars have hailed the hawker eviction drive conducted by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and railways that has made the city encroachment free. Citizens are now able to walk freely on footpaths and drive properly after vendors were evicted from public places. The civic body and railways had intensified crackdown against hawkers after the MNS had given 15 days deadline to remove hawkers from railway stations and footpaths. MNS activists too had taken initiative to oust hawkers from various railway stations of the city. Even though the eviction drive turned violent after hawkers retaliated by attacking MNS workers in Malad but results are visible as the party walks away with credit for spearheading an agitation against vendors. Mumbaikars had often complained with the BMC about illegal hawkers occupying public places but the civic body had turned a blind eye towards it. However, things have changed for the better after the Elphinstone railway station stampede incident as hawkers have been evicted from railways stations across the city. On the other hand, Shiv Sena is likely to allot hawking licences to vendors which will benefit the party by creating additional vote bank for it. Citizens are expecting the MNS to continue with the crackdown against hawkers which might help the party to revive itself ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. A Pakistani anti-graft court on Monday issued a bailable arrest warrant against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar after he failed to appear before it in a corruption case spiralling from the Panama Papers scandal. The Accountability Court dismissed Dars application seeking exemption from personal appearance in the case hearing. Dars counsel Khawaja Haris appeared in the court of judge Muhammad Bashir and sought Dars exemption from appearance as he was in London to seek medical treatment. But the court rejected the plea and issued bailable arrest warrant and ordered him to appear in the next hearing on November 2. The case was filed against Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) following a verdict by the Supreme Court, which disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after an investigation into corruption allegations against his family. Dar has so far appeared before the court seven times since the trial began. Earlier, he missed the first hearing on September 20. It is the second hearing that he missed. The court had indicted Dar last month in the case for owning assets beyond his known sources of income. At the last hearing on October 23, the court recorded statements of NABs witnesses, including Abdul Rehman Gondal of Allied Bank and Masoodul Ghani of Habib Bank Limited. Actor Varun Dhawans October, directed by Shoojit Sircar, will release on April 13 next year. As October comes to an end it arrives earlier next year. #October releases on 13 th April now.@ShoojitSircar @ronnielahiri @BanitaSandhu pic.twitter.com/1OtO1zjlo2 Varun Dhawan (@Varun_dvn) October 30, 2017 The 30-year-old actor took to Twitter to announce the release date and share his first look from the film, which was majorly shot in Delhi. As October comes to an end it arrives earlier next year. #October releases on 13th April now, Varun tweeted. In the picture Varun is seen running in despair. A Rising Sun Films production, the slice-of-life love story is written by Sircars frequent collaborator Juhi Chaturvedi. Newbie Banita Sandhu has been cast opposite Varun in the film. October was earlier scheduled to release on June 1 next year. Aiken City Council is slated to consider a number of items related to city initiatives and projects, as well as the first vote on a potential grocery store development on Whiskey Road during its Monday meeting. The council's regular meeting will be held at 7 p.m. in Council Chambers of the Municipal Building at 214 Park Ave. SW. New business items on the agenda include a resolution to pursue a possible defined contribution plan; a resolution to proceed with Phase I of the University Parkway widening project; and first readings of ordinances regarding property maintenance and rental registration. City Council will also consider the first of two readings on the proposed Lidl grocery store on Whiskey Road. The defined contribution plan item relates to the City's efforts to reform its pension system. During a work session this month, City Council discussed a proposal to move from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan, similar to a 401(k). The change would affect full-time employees hired after Jan. 1, not current employees or Public Safety employees. The employee and city contribution rates will be determined after additional analysis, a city manager memo in agenda documents says. The current draft outlines a 6 percent contribution for each. A vesting schedule for full-time employees will also be determined, along with an option for existing employees to leave the current plan and enter the new defined contribution plan. City Manager John Klimm has said while the current system is well-managed, the measure would save the City in the longterm, as the current system requires no match by employees. Council will also consider the first of two readings on two ordinances related to nuisance properties. One ordinance would amend the City code regarding unfit dwellings and boarded up properties, and the other measure involves the City's rental registration ordinance and details rental registration and license requirements and duties of landlords and tenants. City staff worked with the Aiken Council of Neighborhoods, known as ACON, on the changes. After additional public input, plans are to bring the ordinances back to Council with any suggested changes for second reading. City Council members will also consider a resolution to proceed with Phase I of the University Parkway project, which was approved by voters as part of the Capital Projects Sales Tax III ballot. Phase I goes from Richland Avenue West to Medical Park Drive and would cost approximately $9.5 million, according to a memo from Klimm. The City has more than $2.6 million allocated for the project, and Aiken County has committed $3 million through Capital Projects Sales Tax III funding, the memo says. County Council passed a resolution in November 2014 allocating the funds for the project. The State Infrastructure Bank has allocated $4.6 million. The estimated cost to complete both phases of the project is $13.6 million, which includes cost escalation, Klimm wrote. In other business, City Council will consider the first vote on an ordinance regarding the proposed Lidl development on 2129 Whiskey Road. Tax parcels for the grocery store development include Aiken Motorcycle and the property of an old skating rink. Two readings and a public hearing will be required before the item passes. READ MORE: Planning commission recommends Lidl grocery store on Whiskey Road The Aiken Planning Commission recommended annexation, rezoning and concept plan requests for the proposed 35,926 square-foot grocery store to Several presentations are also planned for the meeting. They include an update on Aiken Works and Enrollment Trends for Aiken County by public schools Superintendent Dr. Sean Alford; a presentation regarding stormwater revenue bond requests for proposals; and an AIKENSTAT update by Aiken Public Safety Chief Charles Barranco. Ahead of the regular meeting, City Council will meet in executive session at 5 p.m. to discuss the proposed sale of City-owned real estate and the proposed purchase of real estate. A work session will be held following that discussion at 6 p.m., where the Woodside Plantation Property Owners' Association will talk with City Council members about two roadway failures. Both of those meetings will be held in Room 204 of the Municipal Building. Aiken, SC (29801) Today Light rain early. Then remaining cloudy. Areas of patchy fog. Low around 45F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%.. Tonight Light rain early. Then remaining cloudy. Areas of patchy fog. Low around 45F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 90%. An anecdote told by a Honda employee from Alabama last week illustrates how women in manufacturing are making a difference. The story was told during last week's SOUTH-TEC conference in Greenville, S.C., showcasing the latest manufacturing technologies. According to Greenville Business Magazine, Kimberly Jackson of business operations with Honda Manufacturing of Alabama, said that having women on the team designing Honda vans has made them a better product. That ensures the company stays competitive. In vans, popular with mothers of young children, there's often no place for a diaper bag or large purse. Having women on the manufacturing team designing vans allowed the company to create a better product. Honda recently finished three-and-a-half years of redesign on the Odyssey, a mini-van designed and marketed toward families. Honda has redesigned and rolled out model redesigns for all four of its vehicles built in Alabama over the last three years - the Odyssey minivan, the Pilot SUV, the Ridgeline pickup and Acura MDX. "Some facets aren't considered," Jackson was quoted as saying. "Women want certain things not offered in vehicles." The new Odyssey is equipped with several features to minimize cabin noise and allow for convenience with families, offering three rows of seating. It also has an internal mic and camera system allowing the driver to communicate with passengers and look in on them, as would a parent with children. Jackson said companies should pair women and minorities with mentors to make sure they are prepared for what lies ahead. "You have to make your organization look attractive [to women]," Jackson said. "They are equal contributors. Match them with mentors. Invest in them." In addition, millenials are looking for jobs that balance work and life, something companies should consider in retaining employees. "The interests and aspirations of this generation are wide," she said. "They want family dynamics and options to have it all and to do it well." Authorities have released the name of a man fatally shot Saturday morning at a western Birmingham motel. The Jefferson County Coroner's Office identified the victim as DeAngelo Martezes Cain. He was 33. The shooting happened just before 6:30 a.m. at the Sun Inn on Bessemer Road. West Precinct officers were dispatched to the motel on a report of gunfire. When they arrived on the scene, they found Cain dead in front of one of the rooms. Lt. Sean Edwards said he had been shot multiple times. Police said it appeared the shooting stemmed from an argument between two men, possibly over a woman. Edwards said both men were staying at the motel. A witness told police the male suspect came from another room to Cain's room and started the altercation. The suspect pulled out a gun and shot the victim. A man at the scene identified by officers as the suspect was handcuffed and taken into custody. Edwards, however, said the suspect isn't in custody but police do know his identity. Formal charges have not been announced. Birmingham has to commit to opening more early childhood learning centers throughout the city through public-private partnerships, Mayor-elect Randall Woodfin said. "If we don't lay the proper foundation for our children before they ... enter our elementary schools, it is hard to catch up. It is hard to close the gap," he said. Woodfin, a former Birmingham Board of Education president, spoke about the importance of better educating the city's children and putting education at the forefront during a Monday morning press conference. The mayor-elect announced the formation of two new citizen-led committees that will focus on strategic priorities of his administration during the next 100 days. These committees will focus on education and workforce development and economic development and entrepreneurship. Woodfin, who takes office on Nov. 28, made the announcement at the Alabama Workforce Training Center. The center provides training for the manufacturing and construction industries at no-cost to students. Serving as co-chairs of the education and workforce development committee are Perry Ward, president of Lawson State Community College, and Fred McCallum, former AT&T president. Tracey Morant Adams, executive vice president at Renasant Bank, and Josh Carpenter, director of external affairs at UAB, are serving as co-chairs of the economic development and entrepreneurship committee. In ninth through 12th grades, the city has to make sure students have only three options when they leave school: enter the military, go to college or other technical school or enter the workforce, Woodfin said. "They should have only three options," he said. "Educating our children is more than 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Educating our children is more than Monday through Friday," Woodfin said. "Educating our children is more than August to May when school is in and when school is out. We have to commit to an entire educational pipeline as it relates to investing in our children." He said the city has to commit to workforce training and workforce development. "It can no longer be just talk," Woodfin said. The education committee is charged with developing plans to align and expand education and workforce programs to make sure students have the skills to land high-wage, high-demand jobs. The committee will work with Pre-K, K-12, community colleges and universities, state government agencies and business community. The economic development entrepreneurship committee will work with leaders in Birmingham and Montgomery to understand all efforts to recruit and expand industry and jobs. The committee will partner with the Innovation Deport and other groups to support budding entrepreneurs. Last week, Woodfin announced the creation of three committees to address neighborhood revitalization and public safety, social justice, and transparency and efficient government. The neighborhood revitalization and public safety committee is co-chaired by Herschell Hamilton, managing partner of BLOC Global Group, and Birmingham police Detective Ralph Patterson. The social justice committee is chaired by Dr. Nancy Dunlap and human rights attorney Richard Rice. Dunlap is professor emerita of medicine and scholar for the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy at UAB. The transparency and efficient government committee is chaired by Daniel Coleman, former CEO of KCG Holdings, and Annie Allen, owner of iSeek Solutions. Earlier this month, Woodfin announced that retired Gen. Charles Krulak - credited for saving Birmingham-Southern College and a decorated Marine - and Bobbie Knight, a former Alabama Power vice president, would lead his transition team. Anyone interested in being involved is asked to send an email to transition@randallwoodfin.com. The lawmen sat a few rows behind Martin Luther King Jr. as the plane took off from Atlanta, hoping they could make the brief flight to Birmingham without drawing too much attention. The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth had other ideas, David Orange, a retired major with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, would recall years later. "Come here, Dr. King, I want to introduce you to the men who are going to arrest you when you get to Birmingham," Shuttlesworth told King as he walked down the aisle of the airplane. Shuttlesworth then introduced King to Orange and his partner, Capt. Dan Jordan. "King and the others turned to take a brief look at us and that was it. It didn't seem to bother King one bit that we were on the plane. Everything went as we had planned," Jordan wrote in a 2001 Post-Herald editorial. "With the help of some sheriff's deputies who were waiting for us, we arrested King and his brother when the plane touched down in Birmingham and transported them out the back gate of the airport to avoid the news media." Sheriff's Major David Orange, left with gun, and Captain Dan Jordan, await the possibility of violence during a 1973 garbage workers strike in Fairfield. Orange, who was later elected to the Jefferson County Commission and died in 2016 at age 85, wrote about the arrest in his memoir, "From Segregation to Civil Rights and Beyond: A Story of the Southland." King became worried when he saw the cruiser pass downtown Birmingham. "I truly believe that Dr. King thought that we were going to do something dreadful to him and say that he had tried to escape," Orange wrote. "We quickly allayed his fears when we told him that he would be placed in the county jail in Bessemer. He did not like the idea, but he was in no position to argue the point." King and his brother, the Rev. A.D. King, were booked into the jail in Bessemer on Oct. 30, 1967. The next day, Orange and Jordan took King and his brother to the county jail in downtown Birmingham and had a pleasant chat on the way, he recalled. "We knew we had a great man," Jordan, the retired captain who still lives in Bessemer said. Jordan realized while booking King in jail that he was born on the same day as King. Jordan, who investigated the murder of Virgil Ware, killed the day of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, said he and Orange never put handcuffs on King. "Bessemer Police Commissioner Ed Porter, a friend of the sheriff, called Mel Bailey and said, "King's problems didn't originate in Bessemer and they shouldn't terminate in Bessemer," Jordan wrote in 2001. "Bailey considered Porter's request, and the next evening, Orange and I brought Martin Luther King Jr. and A. D. King to Birmingham. "Afterwards, Bailey suggested to Circuit Judge William C. Barber that it would be a good idea to give King and the other prisoners an early release. Apparently the judge agreed, it was reported later that they were released 48 hours early.' In 2013, on the 50th anniversary of the Birmingham Campaign, the Jefferson County Courthouse in Bessemer unveiled an exhibit commemorating King's 1967 stay in jail. "He walked out of that cell and continued his march for freedom and equality for all people," Sheriff Mike Hale said that year. The march ended on April 4, 1968, on a balcony in Tennessee, 183 days after his final arrest. A state prison inmate on work release was killed Sunday in a reported industrial accident at a poultry plant. Alabama Department of Corrections officials identified the victim as Frank Dwayne Ellington. He was 33 and previously had lived in Birmingham and Alex City. The accident happened about 5:30 p.m. at Koch Foods poultry plant in Ashland. As a work release inmate, Ellington was assigned to the Clay County job site. Authorities said Ellington had worked at the plant since June. Ellington was serving a life sentence for third-degree robbery out of Jefferson County. He was initially charged with first-degree robbery in 2008 for stealing a man's wallet at gunpoint in Ensley, court records said. He pleaded guilty in 2009 to third-degree robbery and, under the state's Habitual Offender Act, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He had a previous conviction for first-degree robbery in which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison with one year to serve, and a first-degree theft of property for which he was sentenced to three years in prison. The cause of the accident remains under investigation. Trying to figure out where to go for the best goodies Halloween night? According to one recent ranking, you should head to Shelby County. Leada Gore | lgore@al.com. Don't Edit Elizabeth Foster Alabama's top trick or treating spot 24/7 WallStreet looked at several factors in determining the best places for trick-or-treating in each state. The factors included: house occupancy rates; disposable income; weather; demographics for each town; population; and crime rate. Here's what they found: Don't Edit Photo: Wikipedia Alabama's best town for Trick or Treating? Helena in Shelby County. Don't Edit Mary Colurso | mcolurso@al.com Why Helena? There are a couple of reasons to pick Helena as your top haunt. First of all, almost 97 percent of the housing units in the town are occupied, meaning your little ghost or goblin wont waste time knocking on doors at vacant homes. Don't Edit )^ And then there's weather The average temperature for Halloween night in Helena is 62 degrees, meaning you likely wont have to wear a coat over your Wonder Woman costume. Don't Edit Don't Edit Photo: Wikipedia Compare that to... Soldotna, the best place to go Trick or Treating in Alaska. The average Oct. 31 temperature there is frightening 30 degrees. Don't Edit Photo: File Plenty of young people, too Twenty-six percent of Helenas population is younger than age 14, so people there should be ready for plenty of Trick-or-Treaters. Don't Edit Safety tips for towns everywhere No matter if youre going door-to-door in Helena or another town, there are some safety tips you need to know to keep your night fun and not scary. Don't Edit State Farm via Flickr Drivers should take it slow If youre driving through a neighborhood, slow down. Kids excited about Halloween may keep them from paying attention to the rules of the road. Don't Edit )^ Go as a group Children should always go in groups and typically with an adult. Don't Edit Don't Edit Mary Colurso | mcolurso@al.com Candy check All candy should be checked prior to eating. Discard any open or unwrapped candy. Don't Edit Mary Colurso | mcolurso@al.com Turn on the lights Homeowners should turn their lights on for Trick or Treaters. No light means skip the house. Don't Edit Mary Colurso | mcolurso@al.com It's a school night Halloween 2017 is on a school night, so be prepared for earlier-than normal visitors. Parents should wrap up Trick-or-Treating around 8 p.m. Don't Edit )^ Visible costumes, please Make sure costumes have reflective elements so they can be seen at night, wont cause a child to trip and that any masks dont cover the childs eyes. Don't Edit )^ Look left and right Remind kids about looking right and left before crossing the road. Don't Edit Don't Edit Halloween deals and discounts Halloween 2017: Best freebies, discounts and deals from Krispy Kreme, Starbucks, Red Robin and more Looking for some fun things to do this Halloween? Check out these deals and discounts. A Colorado man pleaded guilty on Friday to robbing a Montgomery bank, the same bank he was convicted of robbing about 10 years ago. Richard Allen Evans, 50 of Arvada, Colo. will be sentenced within the next few months, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Alabama. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison for the new charge and two additional years for violating his parole. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Evans entered the BBVA Compass Bank at 3508 Eastdale Circle, in Montgomery on June 14, 2017. He approached a bank teller and repeatedly demanded that she give him all of the money in her bank drawer. The teller complied out of fear for her life and gave Evans more than $1,900 in cash from the drawer, according to prosecutors. Evans then ran from the scene and drove to Florida where he was arrested the next day. Court records show Evans has robbed same BBVA Compass Bank about 10 years ago. He was convicted of that crime on Oct. 18, 2006 and ordered to serve more than 10 years in prison for that offense and six other bank robberies. He was still on supervised release for those prior convictions at the time he committed the June 14th bank robbery, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. A former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians, special counsel Robert Mueller said Monday, while Trump's former campaign manager and that official's business partner pleaded not guilty to felony charges of conspiracy against the United States and other counts. The guilty plea by former adviser George Papadopoulos marked the first criminal case that cites interactions between Trump campaign associates and Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign. The developments ushered Mueller's sprawling investigation into a new phase with felony charges and possible prison sentences for key members of the Trump team. Court papers also revealed that Papadopoulos was told about the Russians possessing "dirt" on Democrat Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails" on April 26, 2016, well before it became public that the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails had been hacked. Papadopoulos has been cooperating with investigators, according to court papers, a potentially ominous sign for others in the Trump orbit who might be implicated by his statements. During the daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders downplayed Papadopoulos' role in the campaign, saying it was "extremely limited." "He was not paid by the campaign," Sanders said, adding later: "Any actions that he took would have been on his own." She said the White House has had "indications" that Mueller's investigation would conclude "soon." The president quickly tweeted about the allegations against Manafort, saying the alleged crimes were "years ago," and insisting there was "NO COLLUSION" between his campaign and Russia. He added, as he has a number of times recently, "Why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" Manafort and Gates appeared in federal court in Washington and pleaded not guilty to all charges. Papadopoulos' plea occurred on Oct. 5 and was unsealed Monday. In court papers, he admitted lying to FBI agents about the nature of his interactions with "foreign nationals" who he thought had close connections to senior Russian government officials. Those interactions included speaking with Russian intermediaries who were attempting to line up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin and offering "dirt" on Clinton. The court filings don't provide details on the emails or whom Papadopoulos may have told about the Russian government effort. The FBI interviewed Papadopoulos about his Russian connections on Jan. 27, a week after Trump's inauguration. The interview predates Mueller's appointment but was part of the FBI probe into Russian election interference that he has taken over. Papadopoulos was arrested over the summer at Dulles International Airport and has since met with the government "on numerous occasions to provide information and answer questions." The separate charges against Manafort and Rick Gates contend the men acted as unregistered foreign agents for Ukrainian interests. The indictments also include other financial counts involving tens of millions of dollars routed through offshore accounts. Manafort's indictment doesn't reference the Trump campaign or make any allegations about coordination between the Kremlin and the president's aides to influence the outcome of the election in Trump's favor. The indictment does allege a criminal conspiracy was continuing through February of this year, after Trump had taken office. The indictment filed in federal court in Washington accuses both Manafort and Gates of funneling payments through foreign companies and bank accounts as part of their political work in Ukraine. The two men surrendered to federal authorities Monday, and were expected in court later in the day to face the charges brought by Mueller's team. The indictment lays out 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, making false statements and several charges related to failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts. The indictment alleges the men moved money through hidden bank accounts in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles. In total, more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts, according to the indictment. Manafort is accused of laundering more than $18 million. A spokesman for Manafort did not immediately return calls or text messages requesting comment. Manafort and Gates have previously denied any wrongdoing. Manafort, 68, was fired as Trump's campaign chairman in August 2016 after word surfaced that he had orchestrated a covert lobbying operation on behalf of pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. The indictment against Manafort and Gates was largely based on activities disclosed in August 2016 by The Associated Press, which reported that the pair had orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine's ruling political party. Citing internal emails, the AP noted that Gates personally directed the work of two prominent Washington lobbying firms, Mercury LLC and the Podesta Group. The indictment doesn't refer to the companies by name. Specifically, the indictment accuses Manafort of using "his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income." That included using offshore accounts to purchase multimillion-dollar properties in the U.S., some of which the government is seeking to seize. Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to tip the presidential election. The appointment came one week after the firing of James Comey, who as FBI director led the investigation, and also followed the recusal months earlier of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the probe. Manafort joined Trump's campaign in March 2016 and oversaw the Republican National Convention delegate strategy. Trump pushed him out in August amid a stream of negative headlines about Manafort's foreign consulting work. Trump's middle son, Eric Trump, said in an interview at the time that his father was concerned that questions about Manafort's past were taking attention away from the billionaire's presidential bid. Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. That investigation was incorporated into Mueller's broader probe. In July, his investigators raided one of Manafort's homes in Virginia, searching for tax and international banking records. Previously, he denied any wrongdoing related to his Ukrainian work, saying through a spokesman that it "was totally open and appropriate." Manafort also recently registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for parts of Ukrainian work that occurred in Washington. The filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act came retroactively, a tacit acknowledgment that he operated in Washington in violation of the federal transparency law. The indictment Monday accuses Manafort and Gates of making several false and misleading statements in that FARA filing. Mueller's investigation has also reached into the White House, as he examines the circumstances of Comey's firing. Investigators have requested extensive documents and have interviewed multiple current and former officials. Mueller's grand jury has also heard testimony about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York attended by a Russian lawyer as well as Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In Gates, Mueller brings in not just Manafort's chief deputy, but a key player from Trump's campaign who survived Manafort's ouster last summer. As of two weeks ago, Gates was still working for Tom Barrack, a Trump confidant, helping with the closeout of the inauguration committee's campaign account. Authorities in Mississippi say an officer has been shot and a suspect is dead after a highway standoff following a police chase. The Clarion-Ledger reports that authorities say the man refused to stop for Hernando police on Sunday and ended up in a standoff on Interstate 55 near Senatobia. Department of Public Safety spokesman Warren Strain told the newspaper that the suspect wrecked his car, which led to the standoff. The suspect and officers exchanged fire. The man was shot and killed. An unidentified officer was also hit, but his injuries are said to be non-life-threatening. Further details have not been released. Hindu groups accuse Hadiya, who converted and married to a Muslim man, a victim of Love Jihad, now top court agrees to hear her version. Hadiya is finally going to be heard a right that was denied to her by her parents, her community and even the highest court in her home state of Kerala. Indias Supreme Court on Monday said that consent of an adult for marriage is prime a verdict that womens rights activists have been waiting for. The top court also directed the police in the southern state to present Hadiya in the court in New Delhi on November 27. I think the Supreme Courts observations saying they want to find out what Hadiya thinks is a welcome order. She is an adult woman, she has to be treated as such, said Vrinda Grover, Supreme Court lawyer and womens rights activist. {articleGUID} Akhila Ashokan, now known as Hadiya, had adopted the Islamic faith and married a Muslim man Shafin Jahan in December 2016. She had been confined to her fathers house in Kottayam since May, when the Kerala High Court annulled her marriage. Her father, KM Ashokan, angered by his daughters decision, had petitioned the Kerala High Court, alleging that his daughter had been forcibly converted and was being held against her will. When an adult woman, even if she marries a convicted terrorist, that is her right. The Kerala High Courts annulment of her marriage is wholly without jurisdiction. She should not be confined in this manner, only a criminal can be, Supreme Court lawyer Karuna Nundy told Al Jazeera. On August 16, the Supreme Court had ordered a probe by the countrys anti-terror agency into whether the marriage was part of a Love Jihad conspiracy or whether the woman converted to Islam of her own free will. I am concerned that with the next date of hearing a month away, she will have to suffer and live with her parents against her wishes, Grover said. Love Jihad myth Far-right Hindu groups allege that Love Jihad is a conspiracy by Muslim groups to lure Hindu women into marriages with Muslim men and to convert them to Islam. The court was hearing a petition by Hadiyas husband, Jahan, which said the high court order was an insult to the independence of the women of India as it completely takes away their right to think for themselves. Indias top probe body, the National Investigative Agency (NIA) are looking into Jahans allegedly radical views and his suspected links to banned Islamic groups. The Hadiya case is fast emerging as one case I have been watching with growing discomfort and anger, said activist Harnidh Kaur. She said that the case paints an entire minority community as aggressors and manipulators, referring to allegations of Love Jihad. To even assume theres some sort of Love Jihad is atrocious, and to think that the SC continues this charade of paying heed to the idea is extremely disheartening. The top courts observations on Monday however, provided some succour to Jahan. Activist Rahul Easwar released a video last week that showed Hadiya pleading for her freedom and stating that her life is under threat at her fathers house. You have to get me out fast. I am sure I will be killed tomorrow or day after. My father is getting angry, I know. When I walk, he is pushing and kicking me, Hadiya says in the video. Womens rights groups, including the Kerala Womens Commission, have asked for a police probe into Hadiyas present living conditions. Its October 30. One year ago today, at precisely 7:41 in the morning the little medieval Italian hill-town in which I live began to shudder as a terrible roaring rose from the rock on which it was built more than 700 years ago. The central Italian region of Le Marche was being hit by a 6.5 magnitude earthquake centred on the town of Norcia some 25 kilometres away. For a frightening minute or two, people out in the town square for breakfast expected the bell tower of the church of San Francesco to come crashing down. It swayed violently but stood the test, as it had withstood other shocks over the centuries in this seismically active country. Today, my neighbours' faces are lined with anxiety. Many of them have lost their homes. Me included by You probably havent heard of this earthquake. It was the third to hit the area in a week, and the biggest. Two months earlier, another quake, almost as strong, had struck the town of Amatrice a little further south killing more than 300 people. That was the beginning of a swarm of quakes which are still going on. They have changed our lives forever. When all this began I was just completing work on my book A Recipe for Disaster. Its about the roller-coaster ride wed been through to make a self-funded online TV cookery series, Cookucina. Both book and series are celebrations of the local food, the wonderful countryside and the warmth of its people. They are fun and entertaining, with a genuine feel-good atmosphere. But the earthquakes have thrown all that into jeopardy. Today, my neighbours faces are lined with anxiety. Many of them have lost their homes. Including me. The lentil plains will recover quickly. The built environment will not We had an earthquake just the other day, at 9:58am. Theres something strange about being woken by your bedroom (and everything in it) beginning to shake. For a split second, it feels like someone is trying to shake you awake. Then the conscious mind kicks in and you snap wide awake, not knowing if this is all it is, or if its the start of a big one. Last October, when the big one did come, it caused major structural damage to 1,000 towns, villages, churches, cathedrals the wonderful medieval buildings that, together with its beautiful rolling hills, make the Le Marche region one of Italys hidden gems. Norcia is famous for its lovely Basilica, now badly damaged. North of Norcia the faultline runs along the valley of the River Nera, a line which runs through exquisite little towns like Visso and Ussita, Castel SantAngelo sul Nera and Castelluccio. Tourists come to Norcia, but few people outside the region have been to Castel SantAngelo, which is a shame because if it were in Tuscany it would be as famous as San Gimignano. Except that now its virtually destroyed. Visso is deserted. Its a military zone these days, and you need a special permit to enter. Castelluccio is built on top of the only hill on a four-kilometre-wide plain high up in the Apennines. Its where they grow the best lentils in Italy, and in the height of summer, its a riot of wildflowers growing in vivid strips of pink, purple, yellow, blue and red. This year, though, even the lentil farmers have to travel up in special convoys to tend their crop. The lentil plains will recover quickly. The built environment will not. The Norcia earthquake was not only powerful, it was shallow which meant that the astonishing release of energy was dissipated across a wide area. Le Marche and its adjacent regions were, for many centuries, part of the Papal Lands, and the local residents built their towns as hilltop fortresses, hundreds of small walled towns each with several churches, palaces, a museum and an art gallery. Most have an exquisite little theatre, too. There are hundreds, thousands of these buildings and right now many, possibly most, of them are closed pending expensive and lengthy repairs. Just a couple of kilometres outside my little town, nestling in a secluded valley under the lee of the mountains, theres the Abbey of San Biagio. It has stood on that spot for 1,000 years. It survived the Amatrice earthquake, but at 7:41am on October 30 last year, the tower bell collapsed onto the nave damaging priceless frescoes as it fell. If this were the only thing that had been damaged, its repair would be a five-year project with experts brought in from all over the world. But its not the only damaged building. One year on, no one can yet tell you how many San Biagio Abbeys there are. Who will pay? And who will pay? Historically the government pays. But this time, the damage is so widespread and the damaged buildings so valuable that the cost is beyond the scope of a single country whose resources are according to authorities stretched by the swell of refugee arrivals. And just as that is, in reality, a European challenge, so should this reconstruction be. Yet, few people outside the region have any idea of the scope of this problem. And those within are beginning to feel abandoned. Yet, there is a glimmer of hope. Last week, the University of Cambridge held a two-day conference examining the problems of reconstruction in one Le Marche town. Amandola is just 15 minutes down the road from us, and its problems are typical. The conference set out to gather engineering, earth sciences, sociology, architecture, history and history of art experts to address holistically an issue that is frequently only looked at with a narrow focus. In Le Marche, we can only hope that this is the beginning of a new, global, awareness of the damage to an important part of the cultural heritage of the western world. Then maybe, just maybe, the smiling and the laughter that permeate A Recipe for Disaster and Cookucina will return. Analysts say this months regional elections have exposed fractures within the opposition coalition. Venezuelas opposition is facing a deep political crisis, analysts say, as fractures within the coalition have emerged following the surprise loss in this months regional elections. Four out of five opposition governors in Venezuela accepted their elected posts last week in defiance of the opposition Democratic Unity Coalition (MUD). The four opposition politicians broke with the official MUD line when they chose to acknowledge the National Constituent Assembly, which is aligned with President Maduros party, and be sworn in as governors. MUD, which was expected to win a majority in the October 5 elections, refused to accept the result of the polls, calling the elections fraudulent an allegation the government denies. Additionally, MUD has maintained that the National Constituent Assembly is illegitimate and called on its winning candidates to refuse to be sworn in by the body. Maduros ruling PUSV party took 18 of the 23 seats up for grabs. The only opposition candidate to maintain MUDs official stance was Juan Pablo Guanipa, the governor-elect of the oil-rich Zulia state. On Thursday, the National Assembly approved a decree to hold a new election in the state. Guanipa stressed that his decision to not be sworn in by the National Assembly was not easy, but being faced with a dictatorship forces us to act with conviction, strength and consistency. At the same time, he said he was aware that this decision would bring dire consequences. I am emotionally, rationally, and spiritually prepared for any consequence as a result of the actions we are taking, he said. The decision by the other winning candidates to accept the National Assembly has exposed deepening divisions within the opposition, which analysts argue has given momentum to Nicolas Maduro and his party. {articleGUID} These results have generated a deep political crisis within the opposition, Ramon Pinango, a sociologist and analyst, said. The government can seize these hours of confusion to advance their political power, he told Al Jazeera. The National Assembly on Thursday called for local mayoral elections in December. The government was expected to call the elections for next year, but some, including Pinango, argue Maduro is taking advantage of the oppositions fractures, believing it will have the success it had in the regional elections. A political confrontation MUD has refused to acknowledge the National Assembly, which overrode the opposition-run national congress in July. By being sworn in by the National Assembly and accepting the results of the October 5 elections, the governors of the states of Tachira, Merida, Nueva Esparta and Anzoategui broke with the oppositions official line, and experts say this showed a fracture within the coalition. The Chavismo not only managed to win critical elections, they also managed to put the opposition in crisis by leading them to an electoral confrontation, Marco Terugi, an author and political analyst, explained. Many MUD supporters viewed the governors actions as a sellout. Popular opposition leader, Henrique Capriles, broke away from the coalition after the four governors, who are all part of the Democratic Action party (AD), were sworn in. Capriles said he would not be a part of MUD as long as Henry Ramos Allup, leader of AD, one of the biggest parties within the MUD, was a member. Sin duda vamos hacia una NUEVA UNIDAD!En las peores crisis y circunstancias siempre surgen oportunidades!Por encima siempre Venezuela! Henrique Capriles R. (@hcapriles) October 23, 2017 Translation: We are going to see a new unity. In the worst crises and circumstances, opportunities always crop up. Andres Velasquez, an opposition candidate who lost in Bolivar state also condemned the four leaders who were sworn in before the assembly. 1/ 3.- Gobernadores que se arrastraron ante ilegitima e inconstitucional ANC, merecen el mayor repudio nacional. Andres Velasquez (@AndresVelasqz) October 23, 2017 Translation: The governors who crawled and went to the illegitimate and unconstitutional ANC, deserve greater national repudiation. The ADs Allup lamented the reactions, saying many see this as a golden opportunity to shoot against Democratic Action. He added: It pains me that instead of facing together the crisis the country is in, we shoot at each other. Capriles accused Allup of being Maduros chosen opposition candidate for the 2018 presidential election. He is obviously the candidate Nicolas Maduro wants, Maduro finally found his official opposition candidate, Capriles said. The opposition leaders comments came after Maduro said in a press conference that he would wait for Allup in 2018. Two models But many believe that the struggle within the opposition goes much deeper. {articleGUID} Rachid Yasbek, an opposition member and coordinator of First Justice party in Bolivar state, told Al Jazeera that there are two competing models within the coalition. We have a model that defends the old way of doing politics, and is seeks to accommodate and the other that is willing to give everything for the country, he added, referring to opposition leaders who called for near-daily street protests earlier this year. Yasbek and his First Justice party believe protests are the real way to bring about change. Our duty with the country is to fight for our democracy, that is why our party (First Justice), and leaders like Capriles, and Juan Pablo [Guanipa] fighting for this change, Yasbek said. But some analysts believe the coalition is breaking away from the protest model and moving toward one that is more willing to speak to the government. Javier Buenrostro, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told Al Jazeera that the opposition is already seeing a transition away from those who supported the protests to Allup, who many believe is willing to talk to the government. What we are seeing now is the fracture of the right, and a transition to Henry Ramos [Allup] within the coalition, Buenrostro said. He added that Allup will have the opportunity to lead the opposition. But he said he is not sure the opposition leader can win in 2018. Buenrostro added, however, that it will make him [Allup] more competitive, and maybe give him the chance to work within the framework of a pacted democracy. Deep economic crisis While the political crisis escalates, the country is also gripped by a rising economic crisis. The Lima Group, formed by Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Peru, held a meeting on Thursday in Canada to discuss Venezuelas crisis. In a statement, the group said: child malnutrition stands at 11.4 percent, equivalent to a state of crisis according to world standards, primary school dropout rate has increased by 45 percent, and the cost of the basic food basket has increased by 343 percent in the last year. {articleGUID} As many as 85 out of every 100 medicines are not available, and diseases that were believed to have been eradicated, such as malaria, have increased by 76 percent. While the opposition blames Maduro and his economic policies for the humanitarian crisis, the governments supporters say the opposition parties do not offer any alternatives. I dont think the opposition parties are offering a real alternative to bring change, Zumira Cardozo, a government support, told Al Jazeera. We reached to this point, due to the economic war they have imposed against the government, she added. Many also believe the opposition is paying a high price for a failed strategy. To be incoherent has been the oppositions biggest failure, to say something today, and do something else tomorrow, this has weakened its political reach, sociologist Pinango explained. Now they are forced to change, and come up with a better strategy, he said. This week, Palestinians around the world are marking the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, a controversial letter issued by Britains former foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, on November 2, 1917. His Majestys Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly {articleGUID} understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country, the letter stated. The declaration, which turned the Zionist aim of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine into a reality, is broadly viewed as one of the main catalysts behind the 1948 Nakba and decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here, Al Jazeera explores some key images from the era of the Balfour Declaration. The arrest of ISILs Southeast Asia leader, Isnilon Hapilon, should have been a straightforward task for the Philippines forces, but the strength, preparedness and ferocity of the ISIL leaders followers led to a five-month-long military offensive. Fighting erupted on the streets of Marawi, a city situated on the southern island of Mindanao. Gunmen burned buildings, including a Catholic church, the city jail and two schools before occupying the main streets and major bridges of the city. Churchgoers and residents were taken hostage and a police officer was beheaded. It not only shocked the citys residents and the nation but also sent panic through the region ISIL had arrived in Southeast Asia and was looking to carve out a caliphate. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law across the entire island of Mindanao and predicted the battle would be over within weeks, but the armed fighters remained dug in many willing to fight to the end. Months of heavy combat between ISIL and government forces prompted hundreds of thousands to flee the city and left more than 1,000 dead. 101 East embedded with the Philippine forces, as they pushed into areas that had been under siege since May, seeing first-hand what is left of the city. Much had been reduced to rubble and smoking ruins and its estimated that it will take more than $1bn to rebuild Marawi. But there are concerns about future attacks and warnings that ISIL fighters are gearing up for the next assault as the group is trying to gain ground in Southeast Asia. Irans historic distrust for the BBC has led to the persecution of BBC journalists and their families. On October 25, the BBC sent an official complaint to the United Nations over the persecution which the staff of its Persian service face in Iran. A criminal investigation has been launched against 152 former and current BBC staff for conspiracy against national security. In August, a court ordered the freezing of assets of the 152 individuals and their families. The Iranian authorities have harassed, insulted and intimidated staff of the BBC Persian service for almost 40 years, often accused of being spies for the British government. This sustained campaign has no justification whatsoever in the present day but its roots could be traced in the role that the BBC used to play as a propaganda tool during World War II and the early days of the Cold War. Documents of the British Foreign Office reveal how in December 1940 when BBCs Persian radio first came on air they were part of the British strategy to counter Nazi propaganda. The broadcasts in Persian included texts written by the British intelligence directly targeting the then shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, who was suspected of supporting Adolf Hitlers expansionist plans in Asia. The broadcasts which are said to have led to the downfall of Reza Shah criticised his dictatorial methods and advocated republicanism. His Majestys Government now agreed that the BBC might begin to give various broadcasts in Persian which had been prepared beforehand, starting with talks on Constitutional Government and increasing in strength and colour until all Reza Shahs mismanagement, greed and cruelty were displayed to the public gaze, one document stated. Moreover, in the late 1940s and early 1950s when the diplomatic crisis over the nationalisation of Iranian oil came to a head, BBC Persian broadcasts were used to discredit the popular prime minister of Iran, Mohammad Mossadeq. In March 1951, when the nationalisation was carried out, he was portrayed as a misguided and often purblind patriot whose distinct demagogy, his single-minded obstinacy and his total lack of construction ideas had caused the crisis. {articleGUID} Those episodes had a lasting impact on the collective memory of Iranians towards the BBC Persian. But two points should be noted here: First, that the Islamic Republic has no affinity with either Reza Shah or Dr Mossadeq. Second, in the decades following the Mossadeq affair, the BBC gradually changed and by the time the popular uprising against Iranian Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi started in 1978, it was looking to cover events in the country objectively. Today, the conspiracy theorists in Iran, led by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, still regard the BBC as an instrument of British political machinations The lie-broadcasting BBC channel funded by English intelligence services is aiming to interfere in Irans internal affairs and this requires vigilance of the revolutionary forces, said the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) when BBC Persian TV went on air. However, the authorities have conveniently forgotten that it was the BBC Persian broadcasts during the two years prior to the Iranian revolution of 1979 that first aired their demands from the shahs regime. They have forgotten how they benefitted from BBCs independent reporting when despite mounting pressure from both Iran and the UK governments not to air an interview with the leader of the revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the BBC decided to go ahead with it. For that reason, the shah called the BBC his number one enemy in the final months of 1978, demanding the Foreign Office to close the section down. Archive documents have revealed that the complaints were transmitted by Sir Anthony Parsons, the then UK Ambassador in Iran, who argued that the broadcasts had enraged the shah an important British friend in the region. {articleGUID} The BBC remained adamant that its reporting on the revolution must continue. Several prominent supporters of the shah presiding in the UK bombarded the BBC with complaints. The Persian service became a highly debated topic in the Foreign Office with many agreeing with Parsons that the service should be closed and others including the then Foreign Secretary, David Owen, saying the BBC should be allowed to operate independently. The latter argued that the long-term interests of Britain lay in allowing the BBC to be independent and trusted as a world broadcaster. Since the Iranian revolution, the BBC has had difficulty sustaining an office in Iran and keeping its Iranian staff out of harms way. It has complained of harassment to the authorities on several occasions but without any result. Since the protests of 2009, which the BBC covered extensively, harassment against its staff has increased exponentially. The complaint the network filed with the UN details multiple ongoing infringements of the BBC Persian staffs right to freedom of opinion, movement and expression. It also states that measures being imposed on its staff and their families potentially engage a wide range of rights under general international law and international human rights. It documents several cases of harassment of its staff such as how the sister of a journalist was held in Evin prison for 17 days and forced to plead with the journalist via Skype to stop working for the BBC or spy on colleagues. Theres also evidence of how elderly parents of the journalists have been interrogated and questioned at night. The most common form of harassment involves the confiscation of passports on arrival, call for interrogation and then accusations and inflammatory fabricated stories in the hardline press. It is clear that the staff of the BBC Persian are being punished for exposing inconvenient truths in Iran, where the repressive regime continues to stifle freedom of expression. Journalism is not a crime and the authorities in Iran should not use journalists as pawns to settle political scores against Britain. The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy. Foreign Minister Khalid al-Khalifa calls for freeze of Dohas membership of the Gulf bloc until it submits to demands. Bahrain will not attend the next Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit if Qatar attends, the Bahraini foreign minister said in a series of tweets, in which he also called for Doha to be suspended from the bloc. In the posts made late Sunday night, Khalid al-Khalifa said Qatars membership of the bloc should be frozen until it submits to demands made by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, and the UAE. Bahrain will not attend the GCC summit and sit with Qatar The right step needed to maintain the GCC is to freeze Qatars membership until it comes to its senses and complies with our list of demands, Khalifa said. Given what comes from Qatar, from its rogue policy and pervasive evil nature that threatens our national security, our countries have taken the important step of boycotting Qatar and imposing a siege on it, he added. Khalifas tweets are the first admission by a member of the quartet that they are besieging Qatar after previously claiming there was merely a boycott of the country and that Doha had no grounds to complain. {articleGUID} The comments were made shortly after the broadcast of a CBS interview with Qatars Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in which he condemned attempts to encroach on his countrys sovereignty. Our sovereignty is a red line. We dont accept anybody interfering our sovereignty. When you tell me to close a channel like Al Jazeera, history will write one day in 50, 60 or 70 years how it changed the whole idea of free speech in the region, Sheikh Tamim said of the demands. Bahrain and its allies, which have imposed a land, sea, and air blockade on Qatar since June, accuse Doha of supporting terrorist groups. Demands made by the quartet include suspension of support for groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, cooling of ties with Iran, shutting down Al Jazeera and several other media outlets, and the removal of Turkish troops from Qatar. {articleGUID} Qatar has vehemently denied the accusations and rejected the demands. They dont like our independence, the way how we are thinking, our vision for the region. We want freedom of speech for the people of the region. And theyre not happy with that. And so they think that this is a threat to them, the emir told Charlie Rose on the 60 Minutes strand. Bahrains king said his country will not attend any summits in Qatars presence unless it corrects its approach. The king of Bahrain has said his country will not take part in any summit or meeting attended by Qatar unless Doha corrects its approach, as a major diplomatic crisis in the Gulf nears its five-month mark. Bahrain, along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, cut ties with Qatar on June 5 and imposed a land, sea and air embargo, accusing it of supporting terrorism. Doha has repeatedly denied the allegation. Bahraini King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on Monday said that Qatar had shown that it did not respect the treaties and charters that the Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) was founded upon, according to BNA, the kingdoms official news agency. As long as Qatar continues this approach, the Kingdom of Bahrain cannot participate in any GCC Summit or meeting attended by Qatar unless it corrects its approach, comes to its senses, and responds to the demands of the countries that suffered so much from its policies, he said during his weekly cabinet meeting in the capital, Manama. There was no immediate response from Qatar. A GCC summit is scheduled to take place in December in Kuwait, which is also leading mediation efforts to defuse the Gulf diplomatic crisis. Visa policy The GCC is a political and economic alliance of six countries in the Arabian Peninsula: Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. {articleGUID} According to BNA, the Bahraini king also said it was time to take firmer action against those resorting to foreign sides to threaten brotherly countries and put their safety at risk. His comments came a day after the Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid al-Khalifa called for the suspension of Qatars membership from the GCC until it responds to the demands of the four blockading countries. Separately on Monday, the Bahraini king also issued a directive to impose visas on Qatari nationals planning to visit the island kingdom. The new visa policy will only apply to Qataris and not to citizens of the other GCC countries, who will continue to be able to enter Bahrain by showing their identity cards. The king said the measure is part of Bahrains efforts to preserve the security and the safety of the kingdom, according to BNA. The move came a day after a US news broadcaster aired an interview with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in which he stressed he will not bow to pressure from the blockading countries. Our sovereignty is a red line. We dont accept anybody interfering our sovereignty, Sheikh Tamim told CBS 60 Minutes. The Qatari emir said his countrys policies are seen as a threat by the blockading states. They dont like our independence, the way how we are thinking, our vision for the region, said Sheikh Tamim. We want freedom of speech for the people of the region. And theyre not happy with that. Protesters don black to rage against killings but analysts say white farmers should be aware they are not only victims Johannesburg, South Africa Mostly white farmers across South Africa donned black clothing and gathered on motorways and roads in a procession of tractors and trucks, to protest against what they described as a weak state response to farm murders. The racially charged protest very few rallying were not white comes days after two white farmers were sentenced to more than 10 years in jail for assaulting a black man in a case that has also stirred racial tensions. White commercial farmers have long complained that they bear the brunt of rising violent crime and say the government ignores their plight. On Monday, hundreds of people galvanised by a group called Genoeg is Genoeg, or Enough is Enough, took their protest to the public while paying tribute to those who have been killed. The demonstration was called after the murder of two white farmers on Tuesday in Klapmuts, a town in the Western Cape. On Monday, as the protests got under way, there were reports of another murder of a white farmer, in KwaZulu-Natal. According to Afriforum, an organisation that seeks to represent white South Africans, Tuesdays killings took the death toll of farmers to 71 in 2017. I think there is an agenda, they are being tortured, said Ernst Roots, an Afriforum leader. According to the group, 156 commercial farmers are killed per 100,000 of the population, meaning white farmers are almost five times more likely to be murdered than the general population. The unique frequency of the murders, the unique levels of brutality, the farmers huge role in the country and the fact they live in quiet, far-off places, means that farmers need more protection, Root told Al Jazeera. But fact-checking website Africa Check has repeatedly disputed these numbers. White genocide claims Earlier in 2017, Africa Check said since there were no reliable estimates of how many people were working and living on farms, and that it was close to impossible to calculate a farm murder rate. {articleGUID} It also laid to rest accusations that a white genocide was unfolding in the country, after Mike Cernovich, a prominent American white supremacist, tweeted in late 2016 that white genocide is real in South Africa. Within the [white farming] community, there are white right-wing sentiments, and a belief that these attacks are orchestrated and they have been lobbying European countries, which has only resulted in a politicisation of the issue, said Gareth Newham, head of the governance, crime and justice division at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies. But they think its only them and this is a mistake. Of course, their concerns are serious. But they also need to appreciate its a national issue. Though claims of a white genocide continue to circulate on social media, with memes calling on the world to act and stop whites being murdered en masse, these have been met mostly with ridicule by most South Africans. Last week, the South African Police Services (SAPS) released its annual stats of crime. It found that there were more than 19,000 murders in the country, or 34 murders per 100,000 people between 2015 and 2016. Young black males most likely to be murdered Newham said the decline of faith in the police or criminal justice system is widespread and not limited to farmers. If you want to ascertain through statistics who are the most likely to be murdered in South Africa, then those are young black males, Newham told Al Jazeera. Johan Burger, an independent policy analyst based in Johannesburg, warned against the perception that only white farmers were killed during attacks on farms. It is true that, if you look at just farmers, it is still mostly white farmers who get attacked. But that does not mean that black farmers and black workers are not killed, he told local media. The protests on Monday went ahead in various parts of the country, including Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. Protesters raise apartheid-era flags Protesters carried white crosses and held placards that read: No Boer No pap or Dont kill the hand that feeds you. Some also raised apartheid-era South African flags. To every person who continues to fly this flag, you are racist, said Athi Jara, one of many people who took to social media to decry the move. According to a recent land audit conducted by Agri SA, white South Africans who comprise 8.9 percent of the population own 73 percent of agricultural land. To every person who continues to fly this flag YOU ARE RACIST! #BlackMonday pic.twitter.com/dMHkmBVh42 #IzweLethu (@athivuyo) October 30, 2017 The question of land redistribution remains one of the most divisive topics in South Africa and incidents on farms are almost always politicised. Murders on farms have been used to fuel the anxieties of white people in a country two decades into democracy. Gillian Godsell, a lecturer at the Wits School of Governance, told Al Jazeera that the claim of rising farm murders was a proxy for something else. I dont think this is about murders; the number of deaths, we dont know if these are whites or black farmers who were killed. Some say 30 percent of those murdered were black workers. People seem to be grieving for much more than these deaths. People are grieving about change in this country. Follow Azad Essa on Twitter: @AzadEssa The charges against the Catalan officials include rebellion, sedition and embezzlement. If convicted, the leaders could face up to 30 years in jail Spains chief prosecutor has filed charges against Catalonias leaders over their bid for secession, which Madrid says is illegal. The regions deposed President Carles Puigdemont and other cabinet members flew to Brussels, where the Belgian government said Puigdemont could seek asylum. The charges against the Catalan officials include rebellion, sedition and embezzlement. If convicted, the leaders could face up to 30 years in jail. Al Jazeeras Andrew Simmons reports from Barcelona. Ministers and officials given a few hours to take possessions from their former offices, as Madrid takes power. Barcelona, Spain The Spanish government has given dismissed ministers and officials of the regional Catalan government a few hours to take their possessions from their former offices. Madrid is assuming control over Catalan institutions on Monday after dismissing the regional government on Friday, hours after the Catalan parliament voted for secession. However, the Catalan government intends to go to work. We want to recover normality with the utmost discretion and with the principle of minimum intervention, Juan Ignacio Zoido, Spains interior minister and a member of the right-wing Peoples Party (PP), said on Monday. Mossos dEsquadra, the Catalan police force, informed ministry workers that they were ordered to escort ex-counsellors who intended to collect their things. If the ex-counsellors do not leave their posts, the Mossos are to issue a statement to the authorities which would, presumably, lead to charges of usurpation of functions. Spanish law says a person is committing a crime if they undertake the role of a public official without title or legitimate cause. The charge carries a punishment of one to three years in prison. {articleGUID} Catalan media reports that the Mossos first informed Josep Rull, a functionary of the Department of Environment and Sustainability, about the charge after he arrived at his ministry at around 10:00am local time. The deposed Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont had yet to arrive at the government palace in Barcelonas Gothic quarter on Monday morning. Puigdemonts Democratic Party of Catalonia is holding a meeting and the dismissed president is expected to be there. Former Vice-President Oriol Junqueras has not been seen at the Ministry of Economy, which he headed before his dismissal. A functionary of the Ministry of Economy, who asked his name not be used, confirmed to Al Jazeera Junqueras had yet to arrive and that the ministry has been dismissed without severance pay. While the Spanish government has dismissed ministers and high-ranking officials, it does not have the power to dismiss the Catalan parliament. Instead, regional elections have been called for December 21. Activists have gathered outside ministries to protect the former functionaries. No clashes between police and demonstrators have been reported. {articleGUID} The Mossos have become a symbol for many in Catalonia, due to their perceived resistance to orders from Madrid and their refusal to commit violence on October 1, the day of the disputed independence referendum. It remains to be seen how demonstrators will respond to the Catalan police forces consent to orders from Madrid. The former head of the Mossos, Josep Lluis Trapero, was dismissed over the weekend. He reminded his subordinates of their duty to respect their superiors. Mustafa al-Imam will be brought to the United States to face charges, US President Donald Trump says. The US government says a man linked to a deadly attack on a US diplomatic compound in the Libyan city of Benghazi five years ago has been captured. Mustafa al-Imam, who was captured in Libya on Sunday, will face justice in the United States, US President Donald Trump said in a statement on Monday. The September 2012 attack on the US consulate in Libyas second-largest city resulted in the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other US citizens. Our memory is deep, and our reach is long, and we will not rest in our efforts to find and bring the perpetrators of the heinous attacks in Benghazi to justice, said Trump. Upon arrival to the US, al-Imam will be presented before a federal judge in Washington, DC, according to the justice department. He faces three crimes charges that were filed on May 19, 2015, and were recently unsealed: killing or conspiring to kill a person during an attack on a federal facility, providing material support for terrorists, and using a firearm in connection with a violent crime. Al-Imam is approximately 46 years old, according to US authorities. Benghazi attack The attack on the US consulate came on the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda attacks in the US. Stevens, a career diplomat, had taken his post as ambassador in May 2012. Based in the capital, Tripoli, he was paying a short visit to Benghazi when the consulate came under attack. Then-US President Barack Obama and his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came under heavy criticism from Republicans, who accused them of failing to implement adequate security for the US citizens. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump, a Republican candidate, also raised the issue of the Benghazi attack against Clinton, his Democratic rival. On Monday, Trump addressed the families of those who were killed saying, they will never be forgotten, while vowing to find and prosecute the other suspects. Earlier this month, a US court opened the trial of Ahmed Abu Khatallah, another suspect in the 2012 attack. Khatallah was captured in 2013 and had been awaiting trial since 2014. Meanwhile, Trump called on the rival governments of Libya to form a unified government and military. We encourage all Libyans to support the ongoing reconciliation process facilitated by the United Nations and to work together to build a peaceful and stable country. Union leaders in Indonesia are calling for the resignation of a government minister after the latest factory fire claimed at least 47 lives. Union leaders in Indonesia are calling for the resignation of a government minister after the latest factory fire claimed at least 47 lives. The victims, who were cramped together in a small facility when the fire took place, included children. Both the owner and the director of the factory have been arrested for lack of safety measures and child labour. Al Jazeeras Step Vaessen reports from Tangerang, Indonesia. LGBTQ activists welcome decision by a US district court as a victory for transgender rights. A US federal judge has barred President Donald Trumps administration from enforcing plans to exclude transgender people from serving in the countrys armed forces. Trump had announced the ban in July, stating at the time on Twitter that transgender individuals would not be allowed to serve in the military in any capacity partly due to tremendous medical costs. In August, Trump signed a memorandum laying out in more detail the ban, which was supposed to go into effect on March 23, 2018. But US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly on Monday ordered a return to the status quo before Trump had announced the policy, since the transgender service members who had sued the US government over the ban were likely to win their case. BREAKING: Federal judge blocks attempt by President Trump to restrict transgender people from serving in military. pic.twitter.com/eEwedoOM2J AJ+ (@ajplus) October 30, 2017 Transgender people were allowed to serve in the military by President Barack Obama in June 2016. According to the National Centre for Transgender Equality, there are about 15,000 transgender people currently serving in the US armed forces. Grateful for such a clear, powerful ruling for our plaintiffs: no legitimate reason to treat #transgender service members differently, Shannon Minter, one of the lawyers working on the case, said on social media later on Monday. The news was welcomed by many other rights activists and opponents of the ban, who hailed the decision as a victory. Ryan Thoreson, researcher for LGBTQ rights at Human Rights Watch, congratulated the organisations who led the fight against the ban, calling Trumps plan discriminatory. GOOD: Federal court immediate halt to President Trumps trans military ban https://t.co/2QRrweSPYw via @glaad Ross Murray (@inlayterms) October 30, 2017 Congrats to @NCLRights & @GLADLaw, who just won a preliminary victory against the discriminatory #transban in the military! https://t.co/p0S9y7RZ8Q Ryan Thoreson (@ryanthoreson) October 30, 2017 The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said federal courts are recognising what everyone already knows to be true: President Trumps impulsive #TransBan was blatantly unconstitutional. The ACLU said it expected more decisions about the ban to follow. This is the first decision striking down President Trumps ban, but it wont be the last. As all of these cases move forward, we will continue to work to ensure that transgender service members receive the equal treatment they deserve. ACLU (@ACLU) October 30, 2017 Todays preliminary injunction is an important step in the ongoing efforts to protect transgender service members from the dangerous and discriminatory policies of Donald Trump and Mike Pence, Human Rights Campaign said in an official statement. In a statement on its official website, LGBTQ media advocacy organisation GLAAD welcomed the blocking of the ban. Todays victory reflects what a majority of Americans have been saying: that transgender service members should be thanked and not relegated to second-class citizenship, Sarah Kate Ellis, president and chief executive officer of GLAAD, said. The White House can appeal Mondays decision. Thousands of people in France have taken the Me Too online campaign to the streets. The hashtag has been used by millions of women worldwide to highlight and protest against endemic sexual harassment. Thousands of people in France have taken the Me Too online campaign to the streets. The hashtag has been used by millions of women worldwide to highlight and protest against endemic sexual harassment. It was triggered by the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the Hollywood producer accused of sexually assaulting and raping many actresses and subordinates over a number of years. The French government has recently acknowledged the scale of the issue and proposed new legislation to combat sexual harassment and assault in France. Al Jazeeras David Chater reports from Paris. Article cited claims that Abbas vowed not to appoint Hamas figures to his cabinet if they did not recognise Israel. The Palestinian presidency has refuted a report quoting Israeli politicians as saying that Mahmoud Abbas told them he would not appoint Hamas figures to his cabinet if they did not publicly recognise Israel. Abbas alleged comments were made in a meeting with 12 ex-Israeli members of parliament who visited him on Sunday in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, the Israeli daily Haaretz said in an article published on Monday. In response, Abbas Fatah party later in the day issued a short statement on its social media platforms, which noted: The presidency denies the remarks attributed to the president by Haaretz'. The statement by Fatah also pointed to reporting by al-Mayadeen news channel, which quoted sources in the Palestinian presidency as saying that Abbas assured the delegation that the Palestinian government is abiding by international agreements. The developments come after Hamas and Fatah signed a breakthrough reconciliation agreement in the Egyptian capital Cairo earlier this month, following a decade of division between the two political parties. Hamas has been the de-facto ruler in the Gaza Strip since 2007 after defeating Abbas long-dominant Fatah party in parliamentary elections. When Fatah refused to recognise the vote, Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in an armed conflict, after which Israel imposed an airtight siege on the territory. The two groups have governed the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip respectively ever since. The Cairo agreement is meant to usher in a new reality of Palestinian unity based on a power-sharing government. But fundamental differences in ideology and practices such as Hamas policy of using armed resistance and choosing not to recognise Israel, compared with Fatah, which cooperates with the Israeli occupation are some of the key obstacles that could undermine the planned unity, as has occurred in the past. {articleGUID} Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that his government would refuse any diplomatic talks with the unity government if Hamas had any role in it. The United States also chimed in earlier this month, demanding that Hamas disarm if it wants any role in a unity government. But Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmeh told Al Jazeera that the agreement is an internal Palestinian matter that will help bring peace. {articleGUID} The deal that we signed with Hamas talks about building a Palestinian state on the June 4, 1967, borders which is in line with international law, Qawasmeh said when asked the comments made by Jason Greenblatt, the US presidents special representative for international negotiations. Israel is trying through its allies to pressure the Palestinian leadership. We declare that our decision is a Palestinian, independent, national decision, and we will not go back to division, he added. At least nine Palestinians are also wounded and taken for treatment in hospital at Khan Younis town, officials say. At least seven Palestinians have been killed after Israeli forces destroyed a tunnel in a southern town of the Gaza Strip, in an attack described by the besieged enclaves rulers as a dangerous escalation. Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said that nine others were also wounded in the Khan Younis area and were taken to the nearby al-Aqsa Hospital for treatment. The ministry officially identified five of those killed as members of the al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad: Brigade Commander Arafat Marshood, Deputy Commander Hasan Abu Hasanein, Ahmad Khalil Abu Armaneh, 25, Omar Nassar Al-Falit, 27 and Jihad al-Samiri. The two others killed were identified as 30-year-old Masbah Shbeer and Mohammed al-Agha, 22 both members of Hamas Izz Eddine al-Qassam Brigades. The health ministy said the number of those killed could increase significantly due to the large number of people still missing. We affirm our right to respond to the aggression of the occupation today, the Islamic Jihad Movement said in a statement later on Monday. The occupation government must be aware that we will continue to work to strengthen our capabilities to protect our people, it added. Hamas, which rules Gaza, said in a post on Twitter that the attack constitutes a new war against Gaza people. Palestinian media reported that the tunnel had been hit by the Israeli air force. Reports said Israel fired five missiles at the tunnel that was being dug east of Khan Younis and which Israel claims was leading to its territory, Palestinian news agency Wafa said. Israeli officials said that the tunnel near the border wall, which was in the process of being built, was blown up after being monitored for some time. Since 2008, Israel has launched three offensives on the Gaza Strip. The latest one, code-named Operation Protective Edge, took place in the summer of 2014 and resulted in the deaths of more than 2,200 Palestinians. Sixty-six Israeli soldiers and seven Israeli non-combatants were killed in the same period. The Israeli blockade of the occupied Gaza Strip, in its current form, has been in place since June 2007. Israel controls Gazas airspace and territorial waters, as well as two of the three border crossing points; the third is controlled by Egypt. Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of destroying attempts to end the war in Yemen. It says Houthi rebels could not operate without Irans backing. The Houthis, on the other hand, say the Saudi-backed government is not prepared to enter a dialogue process. Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of destroying attempts to end the war in Yemen. It says Houthi rebels couldnt operate without Tehrans backing. The Houthis, on the other hand, say the Saudi-backed government is not prepared to enter a dialogue process. The Houthis have been fighting government forces, supported by a Saudi-led coalition, since 2015. With no end in sight, the humanitarian situation is still deteriorating for the almost 21 million Yemenis that the UN estimates are in need of assistance. Al Jazeeras Osama Bin Javaid reports. Prosecutor says sacked Catalonia president and his cabinet should face charges of rebellion and sedition against state. Barcelona, Spain Spanish Attorney General Jose Manuel Maza has confirmed he will file criminal complaints against the dismissed Catalan government. Maza said the charges will include sedition and rebellion, both felony offences with penalties of between one and 30 years in prison. The attorney general said the charges will be filed against dismissed Catalan President Carles Puigdemont, Vice-President Oriol Junqueras and others who have produced an institutional crisis that ended the unilateral declaration of independence with total disregard of our Constitution last October 27. The complaint consists of 118 pages and asks that the accused be summoned as a precautionary measure, taking into account the seriousness of the facts and of the crimes imputed. Later on Monday, Catalan daily La Vanguardia reported that Puigdemont had travelled to Belgium. The report came a day after Theo Francken, Belgiums migration minister, told local media that it would be not unrealistic for his country to offer Puigdemont political asylum if he asked for it. Political crisis The Catalan parliament voted to declare independence on Friday after an extended period of proposed negotiations between Madrid and Barcelona. Puigdemont initially declared an independent republic on October 10, then suspending the effects to encourage dialogue with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. No direct talks are known to have taken place. The Spanish government subsequently chose to enact Article 155 of the Constitution, which allows for control of the regional government. The regional government, including ministers and high-ranking officials, were dismissed on Saturday after Article 155 came into effect. Rajoy has called for elections on December 21. Sergi Sabria, a parliamentarian from the Catalan Republican Left party (ERC), to which dismissed Vice-President Junqueras also belongs, said he does not view the elections as legitimate, but still plans to participate. The December 21 elections have to be another opportunity to consolidate the republic. We do not have to waste any opportunities, Sabria told a press conference after a meeting of the ERC. Puigdemont has yet to be seen publicly in Barcelona, though Junqueras was present at the ERC meeting on Monday morning. Seventh round of Syria peace talks brokered by Russia, Turkey and Iran have begun in the Kazakh capital Astana. Key players in Syrias war are meeting in the Kazakh capital, Astana, for talks aimed at implementing a lasting ceasefire agreement and potentially paving the way for a political settlement. Representatives of the Syrian government and some armed opposition groups will be holding talks on Monday and Tuesday. The meeting was organised by Russia and Iran, who support Syrian President Bashar al-Assads regime, and Turkey, which backs the opposition. The talks are aimed at finalising a plan for four so-called de-escalation zones across eight of Syrias 14 provinces. The zones will include certain areas of Idlib, Latakia, Aleppo, Hama, Homs, Eastern Ghouta, Deraa and al-Quneitra. {articleGUID} The plan, which calls for a halt to regime air raids in these areas, would last for a period of at least six months and be extended if necessary. Sources have told Al Jazeera that the Astana talks will also discuss the release of hostages and prisoners, food and aid delivery to besieged areas, the transfer of dead bodies and the search for missing persons. Wether they get these prisoner exchanges and anything else they want is likely up to the Russians, the Iranians and the Turkish and the talks they have with the Syrian opposition, Al Jazeeras Imran Khan said from Astana. Russia, Turkey and Iran, who have monitored the talks, will act as guarantors of the de-escalation zones. Khan also said that while it was a closed-door meeting, the fractured Syrian opposition had already relayed their concerns over the role that these countries would play. Syrian rebels have accused them of instigating violent clashes, with civilians being affected, Khan said. The Russians have said theyre going after Hayet Tahrir al-Sham [an alliance largely controlled by Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, a former al-Qaeda affiliate] and ISIL fighters, but rebels have accused them of attacking civilians. The talks mark the beginning of the latest diplomatic initiative to put an end to nearly six years of war that have left much of Syria in ruins, killed nearly half a million people, and displaced half of the population. Besides the key players in the war, the United Nations and Jordan will also attend the talks. Paul Manafort and his former associate, Rick Gates were indicted on 12 counts including money laundering. The former campaign manager of US President Donald Trump and another aide have been charged with conspiracy against the US and money laundering, the first charges stemming from an FBI probe into alleged Russia meddling in the 2016 US presidential election. Paul Manafort and his former business associate Rick Gates surrendered to the FBI early on Monday. The Department of Justice announced the pair were being charged on 12 counts, including conspiracy against the US, money laundering and other financial charges. These are the first charges in Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections and collusion with Trumps team. Both Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty to the charges, according to the Associated Press. Manafort was released on a $10m bond, while Gates bond was set at $5m. They were both placed on house arrest. There were no charges related to specifically to the Trump campaign. According to the indictment, Manafort and Gates hid tens of millions of dollars from their work in Ukraine from 2006 through at least 2016 by laundering the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts. The news comes after reports last week that a grand jury had approved the first criminal charges in Muellers investigation. The charges had been expected since August when the FBI seized documents from Manaforts home. Trump steps in Despite charges that relate to dealings in 2016 and 2017, Trump tweeted on Monday that this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. He added that there is no COLLUSION! a statement he has repeatedly said in reference to the probe into Russias alleged meddling. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters that Mondays announcement has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the presidents campaign or campaign activity. The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected allegations that it tried to influence the US presidential election. The Department of Justice also said on Monday that George Papadopoulos, who served on the Trump advisory team during the 2016 campaign, pleaded guilty on October 5 to making false statements to FBI agents. The beginning of a process Al Jazeera Kimberly Halkett, reporting from the White House, described the charges as pretty significant. Weve known for some time that Paul Manafort was the focus of Robert Muellers investigation, she said. Laura Brown of George Washington University, told Al Jazeera that these charges mean the investigation is moving from a political story into a legal one. It is very disconcerting for anyone who is involved in the Trump presidential campaign in terms of what was done to make sure that President Trump could secure the nomination, Brown said. What we have to realise is that this is a beginning of a process starting with Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, but it certainly could extend to some of those we have heard throughout the summer and over the year that Robert Mueller is investigating. Who is Paul Manafort? Manafort served as Trumps former campaign manager from March 2016 until he was reportedly forced out in August 2016 after coming under fire for allegedly taking millions of dollars of undisclosed payments for lobbying efforts on behalf of a pro-Russia Ukrainian political party. He became a key figure in the investigations into Russias alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election. He has denied any wrongdoing. Manafort has been cooperating in the investigations surrounding the Russia probe. Much of the media attention on Manafort focuses on a meeting he had with Trumps eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and a Russian government lawyer, who claimed to have incriminating information against Hillary Clinton, Trumps Democratic challenger in the last years election. According to the Associated Press, Manafort has been a subject of a long-standing FBI probe into his dealings in Ukraine and the work he has done for the countrys former President Viktor Yanukovych. Kenyans have had two elections and the countrys opposition leader wants a third, calling the rerun a sham. Kenyans have voted in two national elections since August, and there are now calls for a third. Opposition leader Raila Odinga has branded the presidential election rerun a sham and wants a new poll within three months. The vote on Thursday was marred by violence and a low turnout. Many Odinga supporters refused to cast their ballots, banding behind the slogan no reforms, no election. The country is divided, and there are fears of another cycle of post-election violence. When that happened 10 years ago, more than 1,100 people died. So would a third election make any difference? Presenter: Richelle Carey Guests: Otiende Amolo, member of NASA opposition coalition Agnes Gitau, specialist on East Africa Ngunjiri Wambugu, member of Jubilee ruling coalition Barzani to step down as Kurdistan Regional Governments president under pressure after disputed vote to split from Iraq. The leader of Iraqs semi-autonomous Kurdish region will not be extending his term as president. Masoud Barzani had been under pressure to quit following Septembers controversial referendum. The vote triggered more than 10 days of fighting between Iraqi and Kurdish Peshmerga forces. The regional parliament met in a closed session on Sunday to discuss how to redistribute powers held by Barzani as president of the Kurdistan Regional Government. In a letter, Barzani outlined how his role could be divided between the government, the parliament and the judiciary But does that end the Kurds struggle for independence? And was it ever a possibility? Presenter: Richelle Carey Guests: Renad Mansour fellow, Chatham House Hiwa Osman award-winning Iraqi Kurdish journalist Shwan Zulal managing director, Carduchi Consulting A perilous journey through blizzards and icy roads at death-defying altitudes to deliver mandarins. Editors note: This film is no longer available online. Mandarin oranges are a prized commodity in Tajikistan, taken as a symbol of good fortune. Two drivers from Kyrgyzstan risk their lives on dangerous roads to bring a truckload to the neighbouring Central Asian country a 413-kilometre journey in a small, 30-year-old truck through 4,000 metre-high mountains. If I stay in the vehicle I'll die of hypothermia. by Duysha, truck driver Kuban and Duysha begin their adventure in Osh, Kyrgyzstans second-largest city. If the mandarins dont freeze in the cargo hold, they will be sold for scarcely more than the cost of the duos perilous journey through blizzards and icy roads, at death-defying altitudes. Its snowed a lot this year. It snowed early and theres too much, and theres black ice all over the road, says Duysha. Along the way, temperatures can drop to -30 degrees Celsius, and -10 inside the truck. Breaking down is not an option. If I stay in the vehicle Ill die of hypothermia, says Duysha. Theres no time to spare. Kuban and Duysha have to rush through a most challenging environment to deliver the mandarins to Tajikistan and sell them in good condition. Students can trick or treat Tuesday for Halloween at Library West, no costume required. Library West student ambassadors will host their first trick-or-treat event Tuesday from noon to 2 p.m., said April Hines, a faculty adviser. More than 1,400 pieces of candy have been purchased, and any student can participate, Hines said. At the library entrance, students will be given a bag and a map to guide them to the locations of five trick-or-treating stations throughout the library. The stations were chosen to highlight places in the library with resources students may not know about, Hines said. One of the stations with candy will be the one button studio, she said. A lot of students dont know about it, the adviser said. Its the video recording studio that we have on the first floor. Hines said each station will have candy and prizes. In order to receive the candy, students must listen to two facts about the library from an employee at the station. After visiting each trick-or-treating location, students will turn in their maps with their contact information on the back. Each completed map will be entered in a raffle for prizes like Starbucks gift cards, Hines said. The Library West student ambassadors wanted to put on a fun Halloween event and familiarize students with different aspects of the library, Hines said. I think that everyone loves the idea of trick-or-treating and has those memories of doing that, Hines said. I think everyone will love the idea of having a break and will get to be a kid again. Megan Pitt, a 19-year-old UF economics and political science sophomore, said she first heard about the event on Facebook. Pitt said since shell be at the library already, shell take a break to trick or treat. She is excited to receive the treats from the library and hang out with her friends. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now I love free swag, she said. If its free, it must be good. Under a pitch black sky, Maureen Malles put her eye to a telescope and saw the moons craters in new detail. More than 2,000 people observed the sky through professional-quality telescopes during the annual Starry Night event at the Florida Museum of Natural History, located at 3215 Hull Road, on Friday at 6 p.m. The event organizer, Chelsea Collison, set up the free event with the UF Astronomy department, the Alachua Astronomy Club, the Santa Fe College Astronomy Program and the Kika Silva Pla Planetarium. Its an event for everyone, Collison said. I think everyone can enjoy looking through the telescope and seeing the moon and planets. The event has been going on for about 10 years, Collison said. Participants were given a passport to the universe, where they could collect eight stamps throughout the night for a prize. The prizes included space-themed stickers, posters and magnets. Stamps could be collected from any of the 22 activity tables located inside and outside the museum. All of the activity tables were educational and space-themed. The tables included Ask an Astronomer, Cosmic Time Tunnel, Telescope Clinics and the Starlab Planetarium Show. The event also featured NASA astrophysicist Amy Mainzer, who gave presentations for children and adults throughout the evening. Collison said to prepare for the event, organizers placed the telescopes behind the building where the sky would be least obstructed. We moved all of the telescopes this year so they have more darkness, and thats been a big plus, Collison said. Malles, a UF law student, said she attended the event after hearing about it from her friends. She was fascinated by a recording of noise from space, which all participants could listen to. There were guys transmitting noise from space, the 26-year-old said. I didnt understand any of it, but it was interesting. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now In January, the Florida Science Olympiad Northern Regional competition will be hosted at UF for the first time. The tournament brings in more than 300 middle and high school contestants and pushes students to find their passion for science, said Mohona Ahmed, the co-director for UFs Science Olympiad chapter. The tournament consists of 23 different events in science, technology, engineering and math. Ahmed, one of the seven freshmen and sophomores chosen to plan the event, said she fell in love with the tournament in high school, skipping her graduation ceremony to attend the national competition in 2017. Our goal for this regional tournament is to be the competition that we would want to attend, the 18-year-old UF materials science and engineering freshman said. Kevin Hao, a UF mechanical engineering freshman and the founder of the UF chapter of Science Olympiad, said hes nervous, but excited, about planning the competition. This tournament is probably the biggest project Ive ever undertaken, the 18-year-old said. Hao is a Science Olympiad five-time regional and state champion and a four-time national medalist. Hao said it will help the contestants to know the director has been in their shoes before. He said the most important part about the tournament is learning more about science. They put a lot of pressure on themselves to succeed, he said. But at the end of the day, everybody is winning. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now Steve Wozniak has been to seven Fests as an attendant, an employee and a performer. The Fest, for me, has been my greatest weekend of the year for the past seven years now, the 29-year-old said. The Fest 16, Gainesvilles 16th annual punk rock festival, brought more than 310 bands in 20 downtown venues from Friday to Sunday, said Wozniak, Fests app developer, web designer and registration team leader. Seven Fests later, Wozniak said the community is what keeps him coming back. I found this community that I always hoped existed, but never knew about, Wozniak said. Everybody can be really happy and be really proud of who they are all in one place. As of Friday, about 2,600 tickets were sold, said Tony Weinbender, the owner and curator of Fest. One of the highlights of the festival was the Gainesville punk rock band Against Me! performing its entire first album, Against Me! Is Reinventing Axl Rose, on Bo Diddley Community Plaza, located at 111 E. University Ave., on Saturday, Weinbender said. About 3,000 people attended the show, which was the biggest crowd Weinbender has seen for a Fest performer. Weinbender said hes been planning Fest 16 since December 2016. Its very different because were not a big production, Weinbender said. Were just a bunch of people who love this genre and scene of music and put it on for the love of it. This is definitely a labor of love. On the last day of Fest 16, about 60 festival attendees practiced yoga at Depot Park, located at 200 SE Depot Ave., on Sunday. After a weekend of hardcore punk music, junk food and drinking, Nicole Nussbaum was looking forward to practicing yoga. Enjoy what you're reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox Subscribe Now Its nice to have a moment to reconnect and recenter, the 26-year-old Brooklyn, New York, resident said. Yoga feels like its a really good support for this particular weekend and for this energy. Nussbaum and other attendees practiced gentle flows and breathing exercises. For the third year in a row, 32-year-old Miguel Chen hosted the free event. Chen said the crowds at Fest have received the yoga class well. People usually seem pretty stoked, Chen said. Its nice because punk rock tends to be an open-minded community and so the people who get up and make it to Yoga for Punks are always grateful. Chen, who owns yoga studios back home in Laramie, Wyoming, said yoga is like his second music. I really love playing music, and I really love teaching yoga, because I love kind of helping people get in touch with themselves however I can, Chen said. @Christina_M18 cmorales@alligator.org Fest 16 attendees wait in a line outside The Wooly on Sunday. They were waiting to see the artist Into It. Over it. English News China speeds up its pace towards innovation-driven country Alwihda Info | Par peoplesdaily - 30 Octobre 2017 As China reforms the management system for science and technology, it has, step by step, built a market-oriented system for technological innovation in which enterprises are the main players and synergy is created through the joint efforts of enterprises, universities, and research institutes. By Liu Junguo from Peoples Daily China is hastening its march towards an innovation-driven country, with a recent report placing it 17th out of 40 major countries on the innovation capability index. The Chinese Academy of Science and Technology for Development (CASTED)s 2016-2017 national innovation index report shows that China tops the world in terms of filed applications for patents and issued ones, reaching 968,000 and 263,000, respectively. Science and technology has contributed 56.2% to Chinas national development. China's research and development spending in 2016 reached 1.544 trillion yuan ($236 billion) or 2.1% of the countrys GDP, and companies contributed over 78% of the total. The total value of technology-related contracts in the year reached 1.14 trillion yuan ($173 billion), exceeding the 1 trillion yuan threshold for the first time. China has made major advances in science and technology, according to Wang Zhigang, Vice Minister of Science and Technology, citing the 500-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) and quantum science experimental satellite "Mozi as examples. FAST is the world's largest single-dish telescope with a diameter of half a kilometer, while Mozi is world's first quantum communication satellite. Chinese scientists also found a new type of neutrino oscillation, and were awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, Wang said. He added that the country has also seen progress in manned space, lunar exploration, large passenger jets, the manned submersible Jiaolong, super computers and other big projects. The public has benefited from the technological advances, Wang said, adding that the shared bikes also adopted advanced technologies, including smart chips, radio frequency identification, location services, electric fences and mobile payments. As China reforms the management system for science and technology, it has, step by step, built a market-oriented system for technological innovation in which enterprises are the main players and synergy is created through the joint efforts of enterprises, universities, and research institutes. The procedures to apply for research projects, get funding and report the research have been simplified, and the more flexible proceedings provide a better environment for researchers to explore, said Wang Xiujie, director of the Center of Molecular Systems Biology of the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (IGDB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Dans la meme rubrique : < > China sees prosperous development of offshore wind power generation China speeds up efforts to expand, renovate expressways 'First-store economy' leads consumption upgrade Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena) English News Indian Military Veterans should stop bringing disgrace to the country Alwihda Info | Par Hem Raj Jain - 30 Octobre 2017 Bengaluru, India Sub:- Without reviving martial spirit of Indian State, Military Veterans cant expect justice ---- Many TV Channels showed on October 30, 2017 that the Indian Military Veterans (protesting for one-rank-one-pay, OROP) were humiliatingly removed from Indias capital New Delhi at Jantar-Mantar [ allegedly due to order of National Green Tribunal (NGT) which expects protestors to protest at Ramlila ground and not at Jantar-Mantar]. But protest venue (either Jantar-Mantar or Ramlila ground) is not the real issue. The real issue as generally mentioned at ( http://www.pakistanchristianpost.com/detail.php?articleid=2422 ) is the disgraceful manner in which Military (including its Veterans) is being treated in India and for this mainly the senior / top brass of Indian Military, the serving and Veterans, are to be blamed. The Indian Military will not come out of this disgraceful situation unless the following is done which, what to talk of OROP or any other legitimate demand of Military Veterans and serving Military men, but even respect and honor of Indian Military and (its Veterans) will rise to the exalted level:- (1)- Military Veterans should launch a new registered NGO (by giving its membership to other Indians too than merely to Military Veterans) which will carry out demonstrations at all the State Capitals and District headquarters for demanding the following which are exclusively concerned about the martial matters of Indian State. (2)- Martial Court (separate from Court Martial) should be constituted which will decide all the grievances of members of Indian Military. (3)- BJP came in Government in the State of Assam mainly on the issue of identifying, tracking and deportation of Bangladeshi illegal migrants in Assam. Hence Government of India and of Govt of Assam should immediately start the process of sending all the Bangladeshi infiltrators to Bangladesh from India as these illegal immigrants have become serious security threat to India especially in view of Rohingya crises (4)- India should immediately talk to Pakistan for the retrieve of PoK (even militarily if necessary) as mentioned at http://www.alwihdainfo.com/India-trying-to-be-over-smart-by-not-talking-to-Pakistan-about-Kashmir_a58779.html (5)- The dispute with China is legal (unlike dispute with Pakistan which is political) hence India should pressurize China to constitute a judicial commission (preferably through UN of which China is a privileged veto wielding permanent member) in order to settle Indo-China border dispute without any further delay. (6)- India should immediately recover Rs ~ 1,000 Trillion State capital as Income Tax as mention at ( http://www.alwihdainfo.com/Now-India-bound-to-get-Rs--1000-Trillion-income-tax-as-Delhi-Police-steps-in_a31456.html AND http://www.newsnation.in/article/121125-news-nation-disclosure-on-blackmoney-kharabpati-farmers-take-agriculture-route-t.html ) so that in addition to solving many of the problems of India (arising out of financial hardship) the Military power of India can also be buttressed further. Indian Military Veterans have already faced enough of humiliations and it is high time they use some common-sense and realize that seedhi ungli se ghee nahi nikalta (without pressure nobody listens) especially in democracy where other interest groups have taken control of Indian State. Regards Hem Raj Jain (Author of Betrayal of Americanism) Bengaluru, India Dans la meme rubrique : < > China sees prosperous development of offshore wind power generation China speeds up efforts to expand, renovate expressways 'First-store economy' leads consumption upgrade Pour toute information, contactez-nous au : +(235) 99267667 ; 62883277 ; 66267667 (Bureau N'Djamena) Following Habitat III, the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development, which took place in Quito Ecuador 2016, and the emerging need to further build the capacity of the media in reporting Housing and sustainable urban development, the UN Information Centre (UNIC) Lagos and the UN-Habitat Nigeria have organised a Media Workshop on []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric... There is an answer to Hillarys question, What Happened? And yes, it should be considered a dumb question rather than a book title. But the short answer to her question is: She fooled almost the entire left, for over two decades. Oh wait, that was a book title, not a question. And therein lies her biggest problem. Shes not really asking the question as she should be, shes not reflecting. Instead, shes wagging a finger and blaming everyone else for her loss. Back to the Clintons fooling the left. Lets start counting the ways. She was not just smart, she was the smartest woman ever. She was fully competent and capable in everything. She fought bravely for all the right issues. She was more qualified to be President than anyone who preceded her. She was, and is, the bright moral compass pointing the way forward to the left (who they believe should be all of us). She was the Yin to her husbands Yang. They were the best power couple ever, a beacon of truth shining in the darkness. Except they werent. She has proved that over time, and her book tour is confirming it. And the left is about to melt down as she and hubby finally are revealed for who they are. Who are they? In a nutshell, they are the lefts version of Elmer Gantry: frauds who love adulation, and even more, love money, power, and fame. If you think the left melted down when Trump won, wait until they have the scales fall from their eyes as this new scandal engulfs her and her party. Because this is the mother of all scandals. Trump has used his branding genius on this scandal already. He called it this generations Watergate. Which has to grate on the left, the media has once again been duly trolled. After all, nothing was worse than Richard Nixon. Ever. Now, most have heard the media scoundrels use the term dog-whistle. Its overused, and abused on the left, a smirk, a knowing wink and they all come alive, cackling when they use it. Well, Trump just whistled for them. "Watergate, Modern Age." Watergate. The Holy Grail of the lefts media triumph. But he has done more than just dog-whistle, or throw the media a tweet to drive them crazy. Hes been slowly amassing information and evidence about the mother of all scandals. Tom Clancy at his best could not have written a more exciting thriller. Which is what we are watching. I have a burning question. What did the President (Trump) know, and when did he know it? Because if there has ever been a more exquisite time to bear down and stay on this scandal, its now. My take: He has slowly amassed a giant dossier of evidence, but this one isnt fake, its very real. He announced it. Listen to the dog-whistle. Watergate, Modern Age. Trump has many sides, and one of them is his rough and tumble, shoot from the hip side. Say things that shouldnt be said, tweet at four in the morning to drive his enemies crazy. Keep moving, keep pressing, never back down. Never surrender to political correctness. Show them shiny objects as distraction, but stay the course. Another side, seldom paid attention to, is his ability to craft a long-term strategy. Couple that with his highly developed instincts about how to implement that strategy, and you have one formidable opponent on your hands. One who loves to win. One who formulates a goal, and pursues it relentlessly. Ask his GOP primary opponents. Ask Hillary. On second thought, dont, because she will never know what happened to her, because she never wanted to know what was happening. She was too busy luxuriating in her ill-gotten gains. While she was breaking out rare champagne on her campaign plane, Trump was busy visiting the battleground states. While she celebrated prematurely, he was in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the early morning of November 8, with a final push to eke out that states electoral votes. Its this side of Trump that we are witnessing. The lefts being fooled began a long time ago, but the country began to see it when they had a massive hissy fit about Hillary losing. Safe spaces and therapy were all they had to comfort them. And resisting. We all have witnessed their psychosis for the better part of a year now. One ugly toddler tantrum after another. And its not just their leaders and media stooges. As a nation we have just endured, and will continue to endure the Weinstein scandal, and have seen the squalid underbelly of the lefts cultural greats. The collusion to hide just how ugly, hypocritical, and immoral the culture of the left, as embodied by Hollywood, is out there for the entire country to see. This is who the left is. Ugly, hypocritical, greedy, and without conscience. And on the left theyre shocked, shocked to see just how squalid they all are. All the actors and actresses who benefited from their silence suddenly are not so silent. So brave, all these years later. But they put up with everything they preen on about hating, and put up with it for decades while making money and having fame. The left has been in CYA mode for weeks now over this scandal, trying so hard to get people to look elsewhere, anywhere but linking it to one of the Democratic Partys most faithful fundraisers and bundlers. He was the Clintons good friend. This was a big wound to the left, and will fester. The big shoe dropped when Trump branded the Uranium One scandal in his impromptu press conference. It had to be covered. And Hillary Clinton has now responded. With denials. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has doubled down, saying: "I think that this further proves if there was anyone that was colluding with the Russians to influence the election look no further than the Clintons and the DNC. Hypocrisy at the highest level and a new low in politics. Everything the Clinton campaign and DNC were falsely accusing the president of doing the past year they were doing it themselves." And now the FBI witness has been cleared to speak to Congress. And now there are calls for new congressional investigations. And calls for special counsels to investigate the Uranium One deal. And the Republicans have grown a spine, joining in these calls. The theory of evolution is proven. Jellyfish evolve. As the weekend began Friday night, the reaction came: word was leaked that a charge has been referred to a grand jury by Special Counsel Mueller, with an indictment and arrest expected as early as today. It is a choreographed diversion, providing an excuse for Hillarys media allies to avert their gaze from the unfolding trap. The question is, is it the deep state Mueller trying to shift away from the Clinton scandals that have erupted, or is Mueller simply doing his job well? Leaks over the weekend also suggest this is about Manaforts associations with the Podesta Group, and not Trump. Leaks suggest it is about illicit money transfers, aka money laundering, back in 2012 and even in earlier years. Obviously, that has nothing to do with Trump. Either way, all of Trumps ducks are lining up. Even if Mueller is indicting someone to obfuscate and change the news cycle, the jig is up. There is too much information exploding about Uranium One, and its not going away. If he indicts Manafort over his ties to the Podesta Group, then the news cycle is about to explode. I suspect this is what is happening, but we should know today. Trumps position looks good, he looks happy when he talks, and has for many weeks. He is in control. He sees the long game, and knows he is holding all the cards. It appears he has entrapped them all in this scandal called Uranium One. The FBI and the Deep-State. James Comey. Eric Holder. Loretta Lynch. The Clintons. Barrack Obama. The leftist news media. Real collusion, with a real crime. And it really is the mother of all scandals. Allowing the sale of 20% of US uranium for money. The biggest breach in national security since the Rosenbergs gave away the atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. All of Trumps ducks are lining up. Trump looks happy when he talks, and has for many weeks. He is in control. He sees the long game, and knows he is holding all the cards. It appears he has entrapped them all in this scandal called Uranium One. The FBI and the Deep-State. James Comey. Eric Holder. Loretta Lynch. The Clintons. Barrack Obama. The leftist news media. Real collusion, with a real crime. And it really is the mother of all scandals. Allowing the sale of 20% of US uranium for money. The biggest breach in national security since the Rosenbergs gave away the atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union. Revised 0615 How do you defend the indefensible? Start with Axios. The news outfit founded by former Politico mainstay Mike Allen has a front-page feature by Steve LeVine that attempts to defend and rehabilitate Fusion GPS, the group that produced the phony Trump dossier. In the piece, Levine recasts the notorious smear outfit as just a group of smart investigative reporters turned gumshoes. Axios portrays their principals, Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, as intelligent, ultra-competent, and rather incredibly, only in their line of business "with no motive apart from the thrill of the chase." (Which is to say they take anyone's dollars.) They are seriously savvy at finding extremely hard-to-locate and even more difficult to understand and contextualize documents and other intelligence on globally powerful people and organizations. People who know what they are talking about want to speak with them, in large part because they understand that either immediately or some time in the future they themselves can learn something from them. LeVine notes that the pair of them only got into their seamy line of work smearing people because Rupert Murdoch, the new owner of the Wall Street Journal, their former outfit, didn't want to pay for their open-checkbook speculative investigative projects when they were at that paper and wanted spot scoops that sell papers instead. It's Rupert's fault, see. Amid all LeVine's justifications and rationalizations for the firm, which he tries to pass off as just professional conduct, or going where the facts lead, LeVine leaves out one thing: They produce junk. Useless things. Things that blow up in a client's face. They're not in the business of truth, they're smear artists, as Sharyl Attkisson (a real investigative reporter) showed. Fusion GPS's procured Trump dossier is in the news because it's fake, the product of climbing in bed with Russian agents feeding disinformation from abroad. And it's so fake, the purveyors had trouble shopping it around to reporters, until a meeting with then-FBI Director James Comey was arranged with the dossier, so that the news of the meeting could be reported instead. The one news outfit that ran the phony dossier, without confirming any of it, Buzzfeed, is in deep doo-doo with the lawyers for it now. Other agencies, such as CNN's Jake Tapper, focused on reporting the meeting rather than the sordid, mendacious contents of the dossier itself, via leaks. Are these really investigative aces? Investigative aces worth the $9 milllion they were reportedly paid for this? They trusted an "old acquaintance," former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, who seems to have run a similar firm in London with putting the dossier together, given his pals in the Russian intelligence services, and what they ended up buying was likely Russian disinformation. What they ended up with was a mass of lies about "golden showers" and non-existent meetings in Prague written so badly the only people who were fooled by it were people who wanted to be fooled. American Spectator summed up the picture pretty well here: Clintons campaign hired a Democrat opposition research firm called Fusion GPS to dig up dirt on you, and in turn they hired a former British Intelligence agent named Christopher Steele to compile a sensational dossier on you. It turns out, however, that all of Steeles sources were Russians whom he never even spoke with. The dossier was widely discredited by the intelligence community with many suggesting the information in question was disinformation fed to Steele by Russian intelligence. And this wasn't just one big-dollar operation that went bad. Fusion GPS has a horrid history of producing bad information with no passing acquaintance with the truth. Taking cash from Venezuela's sleazy rulers, Fusion GPS came up with filthy false stories about two Venezuelan dissidents, Thor Halvorssen of the Human Rights Foundation and Alek Boyd, whose own investigative research into Chavista corruption enraged the Venezuelan government and its cronies. I have known these two men for years and am certain none of the sleazy claims have a scintilla of truth. Halvorssen testified in Congress on the appallingness of Fusion GPS and how it took cash from the corrupt Venezuelan tyrants to spread the most heinous lies to the press as well as intimidate reporters into spiking stories, just as the Chavistas wanted. Fox News also reports that they attempted to smear and discredit William Browder, a former hedge fund manager who got out of the business to defend his Russian legal-firm accountant, a man named Sergei Magnitsky who uncovered a $230 million tax-refund fraud in 2009 and was hauled off to prison where he was tortured to death. Browder's efforts led to the Magnitsky Act which sanctions Russian officials who had a role in the still-unpunished crime. According to the Weekly Standard, the firm also produced misleading information about the Planned Parenthood undercover videos, attempting to succor their client into making the claim for the press that the videos were "altered" while to read their fine print, it turns out they were not. Their great expertise touted by LeVine seems to amount to digging around trash cans in Idaho, where they smeared a man who donated money to Mitt Romney during the 2012 campaign, splattering all his personal information out there. The Wall Street Journal's Kimberly Strassel did some excellent reporting on the awfulness of the operation. It doesn't take great expertise to do these kinds of operations, just a lot of money and a willingness to swim in the sewer. All of these things are a day in the life of a smear operation. Crawl into bed with Russian propaganda operatives and pass off their lies as truth. Make up fake accusations against Venezuelan dissidents and muscle reporters into spiking stories. Spin the truth on Planned Parenthood videos. Violate the privacy of a political donor to scare him away. The worst of it is that they don't even produce anything of enduring value. They just manipulate the truth. And in the case of Fusion GPS's Trump dossier and the lies about the Venezuelans, they outright negate the truth. Now they're getting rehabbed as smart cookies by Axios. One hand washes the other in this reporter-smear firm racket. It only works so long as it doesn't get found out. Well, it's been found out - in Congress and among ethical reporters and columnists. That makes Fusion GPS's competence zero. The only question now is why Axios wants to save them. A little bit more of the swamp was drained last Thursday when President Trump announced that IRS Commissioner John Koskinen will be replaced when his term expires on November 12. Actually, Koskinen deserves another term, not as IRS Commissioner, but as an inmate at Leavenworth. Merely replacing him is too little too late: Trump tapped David Kautter, the Treasury Departments assistant secretary for tax policy, to serve as interim IRS commissioner, beginning Nov. 13. Koskinens term ends on Nov. 12. He was eligible for reappointment, but Koskinen is fiercely opposed by congressional Republicans. Members of the House Freedom Caucus attempted but failed to impeach Koskinen last year, largely over his handling of the scandal involving former IRS official Lois Lerner. Prior to Koskinens tenure, Lerner was accused targeting conservative groups who applied for non-profit status. Koskinen was accused of stonewalling congressional investigators looking into Lerners activities as well as of covering up for the Obama administration. Koskinen was an unindicted co-conspirator with Lois Lerner in the weaponizing of the IRS to target the Tea Party and other conservative groups during the 2012 election cycle, something which helped get President Barack Hussein Obama reelected. The Trump DOJ has apologized to these groups for the IRS excesses but these apologies ring hollow after Attorney General Jeff Sessions, poster child for the Peter Principle, let Lois Lerner skate on all criminal charges. Apologies not accepted. That introduction of a resolution to impeach IRS commissioner Koskinen came as no surprise considering the lawlessness of the Obama administration and its use of the IRS to bludgeon its political opponents and the refusal by the DOJ to prosecute Lois Lerner for her political targeting of the Tea Party and other conservative political groups, as well as her destruction of evidence. The resolution, introduced by House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), Rep. James Jordan (R-OH) and 18 other committee members, accuses Koskinen of making false statements under oath, failing to comply with a subpoena, and failing to notify Congress that key evidence was missing or destroyed. As they explained it to Fox News Sean Hannity: "The heart of this concern is that they had in their possession documents that were under subpoena and they destroyed those," Chaffetz said. "Imagine, Sean, if the IRS had asked you for those documents and you said, 'Well, I had them, but I went ahead and destroyed them.' What would happen to you?" Likely we would be incarcerated and not just impeached. As the Washington Times notes, Koskinen is knee-deep in the IRS corruption and the cover-up: Among the specific charges leveled by Mr. Chaffetz and 18 of his fellow Republicans on the committee were that Mr. Koskinen, appointed by President Obama in December 2013 after the targeting scandal broke, misled Congress when he said he had turned over all of former IRS senior executive Lois G. Lerners emails and that he oversaw destruction of evidence when his agency got rid of backup tapes that contained the emails. Lying to Congress and destruction of evidence under subpoena are federal crimes, and that includes the arrogant Mr. Koskinen, who is just one example of how being an Obama donor can get you a good job with the administration. As Investors Business Daily noted: Certainly it might be argued that Koskinen's current position is owed to four decades of being a prodigious Democratic donor. Koskinen has contributed to every Democratic presidential candidate since 1980, including $2,300 to Obama in 2008, and $5,000 to Obama in 2012. Of course, being an Obama donor with a government job in and of itself is not a crime, but how Koskinen has used that job is positively criminal. Koskinen once confessed before Congress that obeying the law was a difficult task Whenever we can, we follow the law," IRS chief John Koskinen recently told the House Ways and Committee in a Freudian slip of the truth that says it all. When the DOJ dropped prosecution of Lerner, no one was more delighted than Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md) whom Roll Call quotes as saying after the Lerner dismissal: Over the past five years, Republicans in the House of Representatives have squandered literally tens of millions of dollars going down all kinds of investigative rabbit holes -- IRS, Planned Parenthood, Benghazi -- with absolutely no evidence of illegal activity, Cummings said in a statement. Actually, there is quite a bit, including arguably some coordination with the abusive IRS by Cummings himself. As Investors Business Daily has noted: Of particular interest to us has been Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., ranking member on Rep. Darrell Issa's House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, who has made every effort to keep the committee from finding out the true extent of IRS corruption and abuse of power in its targeting of conservatives. As we've noted, emails released by Issa, a California Republican, show that Cummings' Democratic staff had requested information from the IRS' tax-exempt division, the one headed by Lois Lerner, on True the Vote, a conservative group that monitors polling places for voter fraud and supports the use of voter IDs, something that Cummings opposes. "The IRS and the Oversight Minority made numerous requests for virtually identical information from True the Vote, raising concerns that the IRS improperly shared, protected taxpayer information with Rep. Cummings' staff," the Oversight panel said in a statement. House and Senate Democrats, it has been documented, often sent letters to the IRS asking that particularly successful and annoying groups be investigated. Cummings coordination and collusion with the IRS is also troubling if not criminal. It is worth noting that one of the charges in the impeachment of Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal was just considering the use of the IRS for political purposes. People went to jail in Watergate for participating in and covering up a crime. So to should John Koskinen, along with Lois Lerner. Daniel John Sobieski is a freelance writer whose pieces have appeared in Investors Business Daily, Human Events, Reason Magazine and the Chicago Sun-Times among other publications. Putting aside all prejudice, and preconceptions, what is happening in Catalonia is petulance by two rather immature groups of people. I fear only tragedy may come of it. In a perfect world, the Catalans might deserve a country. Historically, they have been abused by Madrid. However, the Catalans seem incapable of creating a stable polity. During the Spanish Civil War, they fought each other as much as Franco. Right now, their independence parties often share nothing in common with each other but a disdain for Madrid. This is not a recipe for success. Artur Mas, the former President of Catalonia and one who ran up against Madrid as well has bluntly put it. Former Catalonian government leader Artur Mas has said the region is not yet ready for real independence. Mas, currently barred from public office for staging an informal independence referendum in 2014, told the Financial Times on Friday that Catalonia had yet to lay the groundwork. He said there was a debate among Catalan leaders about whether now was the right time to unilaterally declare independence. - Euronews Oct 7, 2017 Artur Mas is no lover of Spain. He was fined 36,500, and barred from public office for two years because of his defiance of the Spanish Constitutional Court and running a non-binding referendum on independence. The Catalans have not done the groundwork. It is just that simple. Ronny Gordon The Catalans seemed shocked when the EU would not embrace them. Catalonia's top envoy to the European Union says the credibility and the reputation of the European Commission has eroded in the wake of an independence from Spain bid on Sunday. - EU Observer What did they expect? Did they think that Brussels bureaucrats would embrace separatism? Were they even prepared for the obvious? Do they have a backup currency prepared and ready to go? A back up civil service?! They are considering a crypto-currency?! I am aware of Catalonia's history and claims to independence. Yes, they can make a case. A mediocre case, but they can make it. What is clear is that they were not prepared. No Plan B. Anyone who has read my articles on Spain knows that my sympathies are actually for the Basque. The Basque actually have a very strong case for independence. Their language is not merely different, but an isolate. They have unique genetic markers. They fought the Romans, the Franks, the Moors, long before Catalonia even existed. But more importantly, the Basque know how to run things. The highly successful Mondragon Company is a worker cooperative that came out of the Basque country, and is one of the richest companies in Spain. Is the Mondragon Cooperative a capitalist or a socialist organization? It is a bit of both. Unlike the Catalans, the Basque know how to cooperate. On a per capita basis, the Basque are the richest region in Spain. If the Basque were given independence, they would know what to do with it. Long after other anti-Francoists had given up, the Basque were waging guerrilla war going back to WWII. While right wing Spanish fought for Hitler in Spain's Blue Division, the Basque helped form the Maquis, and ran guerrilla squads against the Nazis in France; and, after 1945, against Franco. In 1959, the ETA was formed. It was these Basque operatives who killed Franco's henchman and appointed successor, Admiral Carrero, in 1973, preventing a continuation of the fascist regime. Many Spanish, at that time, were happy to see him go. The ETA were heroes to much of the population. Brutal, though it was, the plan was well thought out. After Franco died and somewhat of a democracy had set in in Spain, many of the more sane members of the ETA resigned. They accepted Spain's offer of a pardon, and autonomy for the Basque Country. This left the ETA organization under the control of a genuinely extreme left, which not only fought against the Spanish, but the conservative Basque Nationalists, as well (in Spanish). During post-Franco era, the Basque Country has been chiefly administered by the conservative PNV [Basque Nationalist Party], and the Basque have turned their region into a modern and wonderful example of industrial efficiency. Yet, though the Basque have proven to be capable, and though they deserve a country, they will not get it. Their ancestral regions are split between Spain and France, neither of which would allow a Basque state. To my surprise, though the Basque are voicing support for Catalonia, they are presently content to push on with their autonomy slowly, and get rich. Many here sympathize with Catalan nationalists. But after a controversial Catalan independence referendum in early October, an opinion poll found that nearly 63 percent of Basques did not want to copy the Catalan approach to achieving independence, while only 22 percent were in favor. And while 44 percent hope for greater autonomy from Madrid, just 23 percent want their own independent country. After over 40 years of separatist violence, many Basques want a timeout from the independence question, suggested Kirmen Uribe, an acclaimed Basque author who writes in Euskera, the Basque language. - NY Times The Basque are temporarily tired of the violence. The ETA, with its hyper-leftist and fractious policies, did not speak for the equally nationalistic, but right-wing Basque. The Basque want time to coalesce, before they press ahead. Its a question of timing we dont want independence right now, Mr. Uribe added. Were more thinking about cleaning the wounds between us, between the Basque people. - NY Times So, the Basque people, who deserve freedom, are not pressing for it, right now; while the Catalans, whose cause is a bit more questionable, have gone ahead on a tear. During the American Revolution, the Second Continental Congress voted almost unanimously for independence, with twelve of the thirteen colonies voting yes, while New York abstained for lack of clear instructions from their constituents. That is the way to seek independence. Not by spot polling, or accepting a questionable election, where only 43% of the electorate showed up, no matter who was to blame for that low turnout. Worse yet, a few months earlier, a Catalan sponsored poll showed that most Catalans did not even want independence, which brings even more suspicion on their claimed mandate. [T]here is still only a minority in favour of secession. A survey at the end of July found that 49.4% of Catalans were against independence and 41.1% supported it. - The Guardian (September 2017) A clear supermajority is required for a decision of that magnitude. The Continental Congress got that supermajority. The Catalans did not. Whether Catalonia deserves independence or not, the vote of October 1st did not present a clear mandate. Everything about this crisis smacks of incompetence. This is not to excuse the incompetence of Spains PM Rajoy, whose heavy handed police and fascist thugs have turned many Catalans who only wanted more autonomy into favoring secession. PM Rajoy's PP (Popular Party) thuggery has made heroes out of Catalonia's buffoonish leadership. Neither side deserves the limelight. Spain could defuse the situation by offering more autonomy to the Catalans in the December election they propose; and not arresting the Catalan leadership. Driving this is the ever-present Spanish fear that the strangely presently quiescent Basque are paying attention. If Spain muddles this, the Basque, who are far more competent, may arise out of their slumbers. That thought should inform all of PM Rajoy's decisions, so he makes them wisely. But for us Americans, our choice should be to say out of it. Turning Catalonia over to incompetents will not help them get freedom; but neither should we support Rajoy's goon squads. Mike Konrad is the pen name of an American who wishes he had availed himself more fully of the opportunity to learn Spanish in high school, lo those many decades ago. He also just started a website about small computers at http://thetinydesktop.com. See correction at the end of this article. President Donald Trump this week begins an Asia trip to Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines, a major topic of which will be the risk of war with North Korea. Will he also acknowledge that the U.S. is already in a deadly undeclared war with Communist China? Days ago, Mr. Trump declared a "public health emergency" over the worst drug epidemic in American history. In 2015, 92 million Americans 38 percent of the U.S. population were prescribed opioids. Almost half of working-age American men who are out of the labor force use painkillers daily, and opioid use could explain 20% of men's workforce attrition, according to Princeton economics professor Alan Krueger. In 2016, a tsunami of prescription and illegal opiates caused at least 64,000 drug overdoses killing more Americans than died during the entire Vietnam War and more every three weeks than died in the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Many have been casualties of China's new "Opium War." The journal Science reports that "the United States consumes 85% of all the world's natural and synthetic opiates" and that many health professionals blame opiates for America's declining life expectancy. While prescription opioids such as OxyContin have hooked many on opioid dependency, and have killed many who crush or otherwise try to accelerate this legal drug's 12-hour time release, something even more frightening is now happening. As users craving heavier doses turn to the criminal black market, Chinese dealers have been supplying Fentanyl and its precursor exports to the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Fentanyl, which users often mix with heroin or Vicodin or Percocet, is a synthetic opiate roughly 100 times more potent than morphine, reports Science. One victim killed by Fentanyl overdose was the musician Prince. A 2017 federal report found Fentanyl in 56 percent of opioid deaths in ten states. Two milligrams equivalent to a few grains of salt of the drug can be lethal by depressing breathing. "Underground labs in China," writes Science, "are devising potent new opiates faster than authorities can respond." One such opioid from China is Carfentanil, 100 times stronger than Fentanyl and about 10,000 times more potent than morphine. One website makes it available by mail, reports Science, "for $361 for 50 grams: tens of thousands of lethal doses." Someone might suffer a fatal dose of Carfentanil merely by touching it. For China, which officially outlaws such drugs and would execute dope-pushers selling them to its citizens, opioid exports are a win-win-win situation. They make money for China, weaken the U.S. by drugging our people and damaging our economy, and provide revenge for the Opium Wars of the 19th century. China's ruler Xi Jinping earlier this year invoked the "century of humiliation" caused by Great Britain forcing sales of its India-grown opium onto China. Xi is promoting a "make China great again" nationalist agenda that blames China's past failings on opium and English-speaking imperialism. This nationalism is calculated to redeem communists for their massacre of students in Tiananmen Square. The United States also fed opium into China that ruined many Chinese lives. Ships from Baltimore, as Craig R. Smith and I documented in We Have Seen The Future And It Looks Like Baltimore, played a role in selling Turkish opium to China. Baltimore today is one of America's heroin capitals, torn by rioting over the death of a heroin dealer. And China apparently finds it appropriate to wage this kind of chemical warfare against our children in a new "Opium War." (China likewise helps cause America's debilitating "New Stoned Age" by promoting marijuana use.) The anti-Trump media has used the opioid crisis to attack the president, a teetotaler who saw his own brother Fred destroyed by alcoholism. Both the Washington Post and CBS's 60 Minutes did recent stories accusing Republicans and Trump's now resigned nominee for drug czar of passing legislation that eased some legal restrictions on OxyContin and other narcotics manufacturers. These stories, noted the New York Times, both downplayed that Democrats "supported without dissent the same industry-friendly legislation that ... was then signed into law by [President Barack] Obama." These anti-Trump stories were also designed to put blame for the opioid epidemic on private business, not on government failures or Communist China. Karl Marx called religion "the opiate of the masses." For Xi Jinping's Communist China connection, the weaponized opiates now being targeted on America are opioids. Today's new Opium War could do more to destroy us than North Korea's arsenal of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Correction: Dr. Ted Noel wrote: Carfentanyl, which supposedly was "devised in China labs" in the very recent past, was actually developed in the 1974 and was used in research after that. It never entered clinical practice since it offered no clinical advantage over the other fentanyl congeners. A simple look at Wikipedia would have fixed this error. Lowell Ponte responded: Mea culpa. The reference to carfentanil came from the usually-reliable AAAS journal Science and its article "Underground Labs in China Are Devising Potent New Opiates Faster Than Authorities Can Respond," March 29, 2017, which I linked in my piece. The Science article at one point describes carfentanil [the Science spelling, hence the one I used] as "an elephant tranquilizer that apparently had never been studied in humans." The new Chinese opioids can vary by minuscule chemical changes. smaller than the change from carfentanil and Carfentanyl. We might be referring to "different" drugs here. Because Science used this drug as a prime example of its article's title, my article did likewise -- and supplied a link to this source for those seeking additional details and qualifiers. One challenge of science writing is that expert scientists commonly use a dozen footnoted technical sources to qualify every statement they write -- and hence can always find anything that is more simplified or generalized to be deficient. I've known scientists who insisted that my Reader's Digest pieces include quadratic equations to be accurate. Lowell Ponte is a veteran think-tank futurist and former roving science editor at Reader's Digest, as well as author or co-author of eight books. His latest book co-authored with monetary expert Craig R. Smith, Money, Morality & The Machine, is available free and postpaid by calling (800) 630-1492. Ponte can be contacted for interviews at radioright@aol.com. Is Debbie Wasserman Schultz related to Sgt. Schultz of Hogan's Heroes fame? The portly sergeant would constantly say, "I know nothing" when it came to reporting on the POWs' various capers. Wasserman Schultz and other Democrats are all saying they know nothing about payments by the DNC and the Clinton campaign to a law firm who funneled the money to Fusion GPS to create the infamous Trump Dossier. Daily Caller's Luke Rosiak points out that their denials sound eerily like the statements from Democrats about Imran Awan, the I.T. worker who apparently stole personal and national security information from the computers of dozens of Democratic lawmakers. Rep. Keith Ellison, deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee, said he was unaware of the DNC's role in funding the Trump dossier, repeating claims from former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and sources close to Hillary Clinton. The denial is reminiscent of Ellison's claims to have not heard of Democratic IT aide Imran Awan, despite being repeatedly informed of the major investigation involving him. In both the Awan and dossier affairs, Democratic leaders have said they did not have knowledge of major events that greatly concern them. Investigators contend that Imran Awan and his family members made unauthorized access to House servers thousands of times and funneled massive amounts of data off the network shortly before the 2016 presidential election. The Awans could potentially read the data of one in five House Democrats. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi professed unfamiliarity with the Awan investigation despite playing an important role in the handling of the case months ago as one of the House leaders who determined it warranted a criminal probe. "I'm not familiar I haven't followed that so closely," Pelosi said in May when asked about Imran Awan's continued employment in the House. "We've been busy with a lot of other things." Pelosi, however, was one of "the leadership [who] agreed to refer the probe to Capitol Police and the FBI" in October 2016 after the House inspector general said the Awans "could be reading and/or removing information," The Washington Post reported. The Daily Caller News Foundation asked her about the situation and her commitment to cybersecurity in September, and she simply walked away. Other Democrats claim to have not looked into the matter despite the data security and corruption implications, with some members making seemingly contradictory statements or even implying there never was an investigation into cybersecurity and procurement issues. If you're incredulous about these Democratic denials, you should be. How can they get away with it? Simple. The media accept their explanation at face value and walk away no follow up questions, no digging, nothing. Either we have the most incurious reporters in the country in Washington or the media don't want to know the truth. Also, Democrats are counting on the public remaining asleep while the media savage Republicans for "collusion." The efforts to forget the Awan affair and downplay any significance in the Fusion GPS caper will be successful because the vast majority of voters aren't paying attention to this stuff. An aroused populace would demand answers from any politician who seeks to stonewall, lie, and obfuscate the truth in important matters like national security and violations of campaign finance laws. But these matters just aren't sexy enough to force the media to cover them, meaning most Americans will remain in the dark. President Obama's never-ending campaign organization, Organizing for America, gave $972,000 to Perkins Coie, the high-powered Washington law firm that also funneled some $9 million to Fusion GPS, the Washington "opposition research" firm that procured the phony "Trump dossier." The Federalist's Sean Davis has an excellent, well explained report. It raises questions as to whether Team Obama actually procured the phony dossier as a pretext to obtain a FISA warrant to spy on then-president-elect Trump. To be fair, it's not known whether the $972,000 that went to Perkins Coie really moved onward to Fusion GPS and all its nefarious operations. But we do know that the White House spied on Trump and leaked its findings to the press. A look at how that FISA warrant was obtained and on what pretext would be most instructive. The timing and other details of the OFA payment are suspicious, according to The Federalist. The OFA cash rolled in to Perkins Coie around the same time as the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton campaign cash did. The Perkins Coie lawyer, Marc Elias, who gave the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign cash to Fusion GPS also handled the OFA cash. A key Fusion GPS employee, Neil King, was married to Shailagh Murray, who then worked in the White House. Both are ex-journalists, from The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, respectively. Another thing is that OFA, whose name started out as Organizing for Action, has been ethically problematic since its beginning. It began as a pay-to-play operation, where those who donated $500,000 to it were guaranteed face time with President Obama, as I detailed here. It was so dodgy that even the president of the left-leaning Common Cause said "it just smells." OFA has also been linked to unethical political and government activity. A link on a U.S. embassy website in Guatemala went to an OFA site and featured a speech by President Obama lamenting "our broken immigration system" to encourage illegal immigration. The Washington Post found it suspicious that OFA ramped up its activity rather than slowed it down as Obama prepared to leave office. There are likely plenty more questionable acts like this. It's telling that OFA had only a $4-million war chest, because it would mean that the nearly one-million-dollar payment to Perkins Coie amounted to a quarter of its budget. What would be important enough to Obama's campaign radicals to shell out a quarter of OFA's fisk on? Glenn Kessler, the Washington Post's "fact-checker," blithely ignores important facts when he purports to explain Uranium One and the Steele dossier to readers. As a result, he offers a phony framework comforting to Trump-haters. His first huge error is to presume that Russians were working to help Trump in the election: The dossier mirrors a separate conclusion by U.S. intelligence agencies that the Russian government intervened in the U.S. election in an effort to bolster Trump and harm Clinton, such as through hacking the Democratic National Committee and distributing materials to WikiLeaks to publish at key moments. He cites the claim that the intelligence community concluded that Russia was behind the WikiLeaks release of emails but fails to note that no forensic examination of the DNC server took place by the FBI or any investigative agency. A consulting firm, Crowdstrike, was hired by the DNC to examine the evidence on its own server. Crowdstrike was selected by the same law firm, Perkins and Coie, that engaged Fusion GPS, which hired Christopher Steele to create his phony dossier. At the same time, Kessler fails to reckon with the fact that the Russians were providing information harmful to Trump for the dossier, which casts even more doubt on his acceptance of the framework of Russia helping Trump. His analysis of the Uranium One deal is equally skewed. He claims that there was no real harm because "no uranium produced at U.S. mines may be exported, except for some uranium yellowcake which is extracted and processed in Canada before being returned to the United States for use in nuclear power plants." But the New York Times reported two years ago: [T]he [Nuclear Regulatory C]ommission confirmed that Uranium One has, in fact, shipped yellowcake to Canada even though it does not have an export license. Instead, the transport company doing the shipping, RSB Logistic Services, has the license. A commission spokesman said that "to the best of our knowledge" most of the uranium sent to Canada for processing was returned for use in the United States. A Uranium One spokeswoman, Donna Wichers, said 25 percent had gone to Western Europe and Japan. At the moment, with the uranium market in a downturn, nothing is being shipped from the Wyoming mines. The "no export" assurance given at the time of the Rosatom deal is not the only one that turned out to be less than it seemed. Despite pledges to the contrary, Uranium One was delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange and taken private. As of 2013, Rosatom's subsidiary, ARMZ, owned 100 percent of it. Finally, Kessler claims that Hillary Clinton had no real role in the decision to approve the Uranium One acquisition: [T]here is no evidence Clinton even was informed about this deal. ... Hillary Clinton, by all accounts, did not participate in any discussions regarding the Uranium One sale which as we noted does not actually result in the removal of uranium from the United States. The fellow senior political appointees who constituted the CFIUS committee most certainly want to exonerate their political ally, but that is no reason to accept their statements (which are not cited). But the idea that the Hillary had no knowledge of the deal beggars belief, considering that over a hundred million dollars flowed into Clinton-related coffers from the beneficiaries of the deal, much of it flowing to a Canadian subsidiary charity whose donations do not have to be disclosed. It also ignored that the "Russian reset" was Hillary's most prominent initiative in her term as SecState. All in all, this "fact-checking" obscures more than it explains. That may be a good index of the seriousness of the scandal and the depth of harm it threatens to inflict on the party supported by 80-90% of the WaPo's readers and journalists. Hat tip: David Kahn and Mike Nadler House Oversight Committee chairman Trey Gowdy told Fox News's Chris Wallace that Special Counsel Robert Mueller should crack down on leaks from his office regarding grand jury deliberations. A leak on Friday revealed that charges had been filed in connection with the Russian collusion investigation. Although at the time, no names were mentioned, we discovered today that former Trump campaign chief Robert Manafort and a close aide had been charged. Politico: "It is kind of ironic that the people in charge of investigating the law and executing the law would violate the law," Gowdy told host Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday." "Make no mistake, disclosing grand jury material is a violation of the law. So, as a former prosecutor, I'm disappointed that you and I are having the conversation because somebody violated their oath of secrecy." "The only conversation I've had with Robert Mueller, it was stressing to him the importance of cutting out the leaks with respect to serious investigations," Gowdy said. Still, the South Carolina Republican said he's not pushing for Mueller's investigation to be curtailed or shut down. "I readily concede I'm in an increasingly small group of Republicans," Gowdy said. "Bob Mueller has a really distinguished career of service to our country. I don't think any of your viewers can think of a single thing he did as the FBI director that caused them to have a lack of confidence in him." "He's a pretty apolitical guy," Gowdy added. Does an "apolitical guy" manipulate the media by getting Washington in a tizzy for an entire weekend anticipating whom the grand jury has indicted? Mueller knew full well that the leak on Friday that promised an indictment without revealing who would be charged would create a sensation inside the Beltway. It did. The leak was not only illegal. It violated the due process rights of the accused. But constitutional rights apparently pale in comparison to Mueller's media strategizing. Mueller is forced to play the media game because he has nothing so far on the Trump campaign's collusion with Russia. He has indicted Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, on charges relating to activities before the two men even worked for Trump. His obvious ploy is to get one or both men to flip on other principals being investigated. Mueller may have something specific in mind, or he may simply be involved in a fishing expedition shaking the tree to see if anything falls to the ground. Will anyone bother to mention that these charges are completely unrelated to the Russia probe? CNN managed to avoid saying anything until the fourth paragraph: The charges do not necessarily relate to actions during the 2016 campaign, but they do show how Mueller is homing in on key figures in Trump's orbit. Is Mueller "homing in"? If he is, he's a got a faulty homing device. He can't find anything related to the 2016 election, so he's looking for wrongdoing elsewhere. If, as expected, Manafort tells Mueller to go climb a tree, that he's got nothing on anybody, Mueller will be back to square one in his investigation. GOP senator Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wants to recall John Podesta and Debbie Wasserman Schultz to testify before the committee about their knowledge of Clinton campaign payments to Fusion GPS, the firm that created the Trump dossier. Washington Times: "They absolutely need to be recalled," Mrs. Collins said on CBS's "Face the Nation." "It's difficult to imagine that a campaign chairman, that the head of the DNC, would not know of an expenditure of this magnitude and significance. But perhaps there's something more going on here. But certainly, it's worth additional questioning of those two witnesses," said Mrs. Collins, Maine Republican. Mr. Podesta and Mrs. Wasserman Schultz, who was the head of the Democratic National Committee last year before resigning over the summer, reportedly denied to congressional investigators that they had any knowledge about an arrangement to pay the firm Fusion GPS for opposition research into Mr. Trump. That firm was behind the infamous dossier compiled on Mr. Trump's alleged connections with Russia, some of which has been disproven. But The Washington Post reported last week that Marc Elias, a lawyer representing the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, did retain Fusion GPS to conduct research. Mrs. Collins said Mr. Elias should be questioned as well. She also said she has not yet seen any "definitive" evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The danger posed by returning Americans who have trained with and fought for ISIS overseas cannot be understated or ignored. While it is impossible for any government agency to know exactly how many Americans have left home to join ISIS, it is heartening to know that of those our government knows about, very few have returned home thus far. From the Daily Mail: This week, the Soufan Center a Washington-based security intelligence consultancy released 'Beyond the Caliphate: Foreign Fighters and the Threat of Returnees'. In the report, the agency said that at least 5,600 citizens or residents from 33 countries have returned home, making up approximately 15 per cent of ISIS's fighters. However, for the United States, of the 129 fighters who succeeded in leaving the country, only seven have returned home. In 2015, the US government estimated that approximately one in five of the American fighters who fled to join ISIS were killed in war zones. However, there are no exact numbers of how many were killed abroad or how many may have escaped into other countries leaving the whereabouts of many unknown. An FBI spokesperson told Fox News that 300 Americans have 'traveled or attempted to travel to Syria and Iraq to participate in the conflict' including those have joined other armed groups, such as the US-backed People's Protection Units, Peshmerga or Free Syrian Army. While this number is lower in comparison to many of our international partners, we closely analyze and assess the influence groups like ISIS have on individuals located in the United States, who are inspired to commit acts of violence,' the spokesperson said. (ANSA) - Rome, October 30 - The Italian foreign ministry said it has joined forces with the World Food Program (WFP) for food assistance initiatives in Cuba with a 500,000-euro donation. "Our contribution will strengthen the National Plan for the Prevention and Control of Anaemia, through assistance services to pregnant and nursing women, and to boys and girls under the age of five," said Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano. WFP Representative in Cuba Laura Melo said the donation comes at a particularly crucial time. "Italy is an important partner for WFP in supporting Cuba achieving its nutritional and food security priorities," Melo said. "Today's contribution comes in addition to a 300,000 euro donation, which was recently made by the Italian Government to support the WFP relief programme in response to the unprecedented damage caused by Hurricane Irma in Cuba. "It is within this context that the World Food Program has launched a relief operation to help the government of Cuba provide people living in the areas most severely stricken by Irma with safe and stable food. "The initiative benefitted almost 600,000 people". NAPLES - Cyprus' ambassador to Italy, Tasos Tzionis, stressed the importance of memory during the inauguration in Naples of the exhibit ''Cipro - Memoria interdetta'' - or Cyprus, forbidden memory, organized by the local community, which focuses on the destruction of the island's northern side cultural heritage after the 1974 Turkish occupation. ''Without memory there is no civility'', he said. ''In the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus there is a will to kill memory, kill history with the use of violence. But the main motto of Cypriots that side against this crime is 'I don't forget'. And this is the duty of civil people against those denying freedom''. The show, which will remain open until November 14 at the monumental complex of San Severo al Pendino focuses on the dissolution of Cyprus' identity, which was systematic, organizers said. At least 55 churches were converted into mosques, another 50 became shops, museums, hostels while many churches and monasteries were demolished. The cemeteries of 25 villages were destroyed. Icons, altarpieces and archaeological treasures were stolen and sold abroad, creating an illegal market for local artwork. Organized in a setting that means to evoke the wall that in Nicosia still divides the Republic of Cyprus from the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the exhibit showcases the local cultural heritage and highlights methods that have allowed so far to recover and restore stolen artworks that are key to the historic memory of Cyprus. The inauguration coincided with a congress which was attended by Ambassador Tzionis as well as the president of the Society of Cypriot Studies Charalampos Chotzakoglous, who then stressed the efforts of his agency, in cooperation with Cypriot institutions and Interpol, to take back to the country masterworks that were illegally taken abroad and sold, recalling the final objective: ''We hope for a reunification'', he said. The director of the Byzantine Museum of Nicosia, Ioannis Eliades, stressed instead a strong point of contact in the millennial connection between the Hellenic culture and Naples: the Museo Nazionale Partenopeo in Naples hosts masterworks that were returned also thanks to the battle of Cypriots to obtain ''the tassels of a mosaic that is our memory, which was prohibited after the Turkish occupation'', he said. Eliades wanted to send out a message of hope: ''People in Cyprus celebrate every small icon, every artwork returning home. We are recuperating memory''. (ANSAmed). ISTANBUL - Turkish authorities have apprehended over the past week 4,822 migrants and refugees who were trying to cross the border with the European Union or enter the country illegally, according to the Turkish interior ministry. The ministry said that 532 of them were intercepted at sea. Also, 148 suspected human traffickers were arrested. (ANSAmed) - BARCELONA, OCTOBER 30 - The president of Catalonia's Parliament, Carme Forcadell, on Monday morning officially acknowledged that the Catalan Parliament has been dissolved and annulled the weekly meeting of the presidency scheduled on Tuesday. The Spanish government is attempting a 'soft' takeover of Catalonia after the decision taken by Premier Mariano Rajoy to take control of the region with the green light granted by the Senate, La Vanguardia reports. The objective, the newspaper said, ''is to demonstrate that the Catalan administration is under the direction of the central government without the presence of the State being perceived as an occupation'': ''this is the difficult balance and complex operation started by Rajoy''. (ANSAmed). MADRID - Spanish state prosecutor Juan Manuel Maza asked on Monday for an indictment of Catalan regional president Carles Puigdemont and his ministers for charges of ''rebellion'' and ''sedition''. The request, filed at the Supreme Court, is for charges to be brought also against Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell and members of the president's office. Puigdemont is currently in Brussels to meet with Flemish nationalists, Spanish media say. The Spanish television station La Sexta Puigdemont and five of Puigdemont's advisors have said that he plans to request political asylum in Belgium. Puigdemont's trip to Belgium ''does not worry'' Madrid, Spanish interior ministry sources have said, noting that what is important is that he does not go to the Palau de la Generalitat. TEL AVIV/GAZA - The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday blew up a Hamas tunnel found to have an exit in Israeli territory in the southern part of the area next to the Gaza Strip, on the other side of the border from Khan Younis. The announcement was made by the military spokesman, who said that it was a tunnel under construction. The Gaza healthcare ministry reported Monday that seven Palestinians had been killed in the tunnel, which was under construction. The same source reported that eleven others were injured, including one that is in critical condition. Local sources say that the tunnel was under the Islamic Jihad and that the four of the five killed belonged to the organization while one belonged to Hamas. Israeli farmers working in the area had been ordered by the Israeli army to leave the fields and the Iron Dome air defense systems in the area were alerted. ''We do not intend to move towards an escalation, but neither can we agree to having our sovereignty attacked,'' Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said. ''The discovery of this terrorist tunnel,'' the military spokesman added, ''is part of a large defense effort. This operative success is based on advanced technology.'' Along the line of demarcation between Israel and the Gaza Strip, Israel is building a large underground defensive barrier to protect it from Palestinian tunnels. Israel continues to blame Hamas for the tunnels. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. The introduction of the Cargo Zone at the Dubai Airshow comes at a time when Al Maktoum International Airport now hosts the worlds largest cargo operations, which will further boost Dubais goal to transform into a key regional hub with a capacity to handle more than 12 million tones of cargo annually. Taking place at DWC, Dubai Airshow Site within the Dubai Airshow 2017, Cargo Zone at Dubai Airshow will gather industry experts from airlines, airport authorities, regulatory bodies, freight forwarders and e-commerce businesses companies to discuss where the Dubai air cargo industry is going and how innovation can be taken further to enhance development. The Cargo Zone at the Dubai Airshow will host a one day conference alongside a dedicated exhibition on the show floor. With keynote presentations from both Nabil Sultan, Divisional Senior Vice President, Emirates Skycargo and Glyn Hughes, Global Head of Cargo, IATA; the conference will look at the future of the Dubai cargo industry and examine the international perspective before focusing on specific areas of opportunity and challenges to the industry. These include Air Cargo Safety and Security, looking at cyber security and its impact on cargo operations, cargo compliance and dangerous goods- regulations, capabilities and training; the vision of E-commerce, facilitation and regulation; and How to Develop An Effective Aerospace Logistics Hub, addressing the needs of OEMs, MROs and service providers, improving the speed and efficiency of air cargo handling systems and facilities and managing effective supply chain and inbound logistics to aircraft OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. The UAE is continuing to invest in airline cargo and is already an important location globally, said Timothy Hawes, Portfolio Director at organisers Tarsus F&E LLC Middle East. He continued, With the new facilities at Al Maktoum International, this strategically located hub now opens even more doors for business in Europe, Africa and Asia. The Cargo Zone will feature key industry exhibitors in a dedicated pavilion within the Dubai Airshow including Roamworks, Turkish Cargo, RSA Logistics and National Air Cargo, among others. In addition to attending the conference, delegates at the Cargo Conference will be able to access the Dubai Airshow for the full five days. The visit was in line with the national carriers longstanding mission to promote both the Kingdom of Bahrain and its national carrier. She was elected by all global members of FIATA at the recently held FIATA World Congress in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Commenting on her election, Nadia said: I am honoured to be elected as the Vice-President of the worlds most prestigious freight forwarders association. This election also affirms the UAEs strong position as a logistics hub and brings with it a great responsibility to further support FIATA and NAFLs vision. I am committed to further strengthening the UAEs position as a global logistics hub, raising the industry standards through our professional FIATA training courses and e-platforms and I will always work on opening doors of opportunities to our respected members as well as our country. I will always passionately work to assist all our members and any company interested to invest in the UAE. I am looking forward to enhancing our relations even further with FIATA to build stronger strategic relations for our entire region. His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports, Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group, is he Honorary Patron of NAFL, which is the oldest association of freight and logistics service providers in the Middle East. UAE is among the biggest contributors to the GCCs logistics sector. With Dubai alone awarding construction contracts worth AED 11 billion this year in preparations for the World Expo 2020 and investing much more toward developing infrastructure and enhancing its logistics facilities in the run upto the Expo, the country offers unparalleled smart infrastructure facilities for international businesses. Globally, the logistic industry is expected to reach $15.5 trillion by 2025, at an average annual growth rate of 7.5per cent. As business worldwide becomes increasingly borderless, companies are seeking to expand their operations and are seeking efficient and reliable movement of goods across international borders. During the FIATA World Congress, worlds largest gathering of international freight and logistics experts and decision makers, NAFL held an exhibition to promote the UAE as a logistics hub and a top destination for international events as well as an excellent platform to establish foreign freight and logistics firms, especially with the UAE having over 38 free zones. The NAFL delegation, which comprised of Abdullah bin Khediya, Senior General Coordinator, NAFL and Director, Air Traffic Department, Dubai Civil Aviation Authority (DCAA), Nadia Abdul Aziz, President, Ahmed Abdul Razak, Vice President, Praveen Chandrasen, Board Member, Ibrahim Abu Zayed, Board Member, Sudesh Chaturvedi, Secretary General, Shankar Subramanian, Training Director, and other leaders from freight and logistics industry in the UAE, discussed avenues of mutual cooperation with freight and logistics associations from various countries including Vietnam, Malaysia, Morocco, Egypt, Africa and others. The Established in 1992, NAFL has been actively working toward ensuring the UAE's leading position and Dubai's pre-eminence in the international freight and transportation fields for the last 25 years. It is the voice of the industry, and conducts certified trainings as well as hosts regular networking events for its members. The smart and intuitive SmartKargo booking system is noted for its ease-of-use, providing web-based access for agents and employees of Oman Airwith capability for customer bookings via a mobile app to follow in coming months. The solution facilitates the paperless transformation of key business processes across the board, including eAWB and the capability to digitally collect, store and transmit associated documentation via e-pouch, leveraging standard IATA C-IMP messaging. We chose the SmartKargo cloud solution due to the robust infrastructure, platform and advanced technology that it is built upon. We can now provide easy, secure access via integration with any business partner across the world, with little effort, said Mr. Mohammed Al Musafir, Senior Vice President Commercial Cargo at Oman Air. The full SmartKargo ERP solution was deployed in less than two months. Within the first 24 hours, the Go-Live system registered a tremendous response from users globally, he added. Advanced insights into the business are made possible in real-time with Revenue and Capacity Management that is informed by immediate access to data, full shipment visibility and robust reporting. The advanced SmartKargo Link capability within the solution will also facilitate Oman Air Cargos interline opportunities by streamlining processes and communications with partner airlinesopening up new revenue potential. I am delighted to say that the successful implementation of the Oman Air SmartKargo system has been a phenomenal success for us all. The team and support have been amazing and we look forward to leveraging latest technology in advancing our business for years to come, said Al Musafir. Oman Air demonstrated an amazing level of teamwork with SmartKargo, allowing us to take the vision of their management and implement it quickly, said Jay Shelat, EVP Sales & Marketing at SmartKargo. We are honored to be a part of the phenomenal success of Oman Air. SmartKargo is a 100% Cloud-based, browser-accessed solution that has been developed by Airline and Cargo industry experts, based on IATA standards, and is configurable to address unique business scenarios for global air cargo operators. The new four-times-a-week service, which starts on 28 January 2018, is in addition to the airlines existing flights to Bangkok, Krabi, Phuket and soon to be launched, Chiang Mai. The launch of the service to historic Chiang Mai is scheduled to start on 12 December, 2017. Located on the popular southeast coast of Thailand, Pattaya and nearby Rayong are major destinations for sun-seekers looking to soak up the local culture or relax and bask on one of the areas extensive beaches. Holiday-makers on the route are expected to come from Qatar Airways extensive network of destinations across Europe and the Middle East. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: We are delighted to announce the launch of our newest route to Pattaya in Thailand, our fifth route to one of Southeast Asias most popular destinations. Thailand is continuing to grow in popularity with our passengers, who love travelling to this beautiful country to enjoy its incredible culture, cuisine and natural scenery. "Qatar Airways is committed to responding to customer demand by flying our passengers where they want to go and providing them with our unrivalled five-star service to destinations around the world. Research released today from global IT provider SITA shows there is still room for improvement with only one third of boards at airlines, and a fifth at airports, having fully integrated cybersecurity into their business plans. Speaking t a gathering of European air transport industry leaders, Barbara Dalibard, CEO of SITA, highlighted that while cybersecurity is the number one priority for almost all airlines and airports, it demands more attention and must be higher on industry board agendas. Dalibard said: Recent global cyber attacks demonstrate the risks and the need for a proactive approach. The air transport industry is highly connected and reliant on partners. We must work as a community to fight the global threat to cybersecurity. While we are pleased to see a 46% increase in the number of airlines prepared to deal with major cyber threats over the past year, there is still more to be done. The industry should move from dealing with common cyber threats to being prepared for major ones. As the technology provider owned by industry members, SITA is committed to invest in, and lead, the community effort to maximize cybersecurity. Together we can ramp up the industrys defences and ensure we remain one step ahead of any threat. SITA has conducted in depth research into the level of cybersecurity maturity at airlines and airports in the fight against this global threat. The results show that there are very high levels of security awareness among staff at airlines (82%) and airports (85%). This year, beyond cybersecurity protection, the industry is focusing on threat detection and response management. Already CIOs at 69% of airlines and 47% of airports are implementing security events and correlation monitoring, while security incident response management is being put in place at 77% of airlines and 60% airports. Dalibard added: Airlines and airports are building their critical defenses and preparing to deal with common threats but we must all bring it to the highest level and integrate cybersecurity at executive and board level. Together we must identify, detect and react to cyber threats and protect the industrys assets from attack. Having identified the challenge, SITA earlier this year partnered with Airbus to address the air transport industrys distinct concerns and created a unique CyberSecurity Aviation Security Operations Center (SOC). It acts like a cyber control tower with an integrated combination of processes, people and technology to detect, analyse, respond to, and report on cybersecurity incidents. Markus Braendle, Head, Airbus Cybersecurity, said: The air transport industry has unique cybersecurity challenges because of the varied and increasing use of smart end points across a largely distributed infrastructure. Digital transformation is enabling the air transport industry to deliver better services to its customers, but raising its threat exposure. Together SITA and Airbus CyberSecurity bring expertise and solutions to help airlines and airports monitor their digital assets to detect and respond to incidents. TAV Airports Holding Executive Board Member & CEO Sani Sener said: 2017 has been a year of recovery from an aviation market that has been in downtrend for approximately 18 months. The recovery in our Turkish airports started in the second quarter and picked up full traction in the third quarter. Istanbul Ataturk Airports international Origin & Destination (O&D) passenger growth was 6% for the first nine months. Ankara Esenboga Airport enjoyed significant growth in international passengers (35%), thanks to year-on-year effect of routes that started late 2016. Georgia showed 44% growth in first 9 months, as a result of increased traffic to Russia, former CIS countries, Middle East and Israel. Medinah continued its eye catching expansion with 20% growth. Macedonia traffic managed a double digit growth of 12%, as Wizzair based its 4th aircraft at Skopje in July. In the first nine months we recorded 5% revenue growth, 12% EBITDAR growth and 49% net income growth in Euro terms. The quarterly revenue, EBITDAR and net profit in the third quarter were the highest in TAVs history. The revenue and EBITDAR growth was better than our initial guidance set in the beginning of the year, so we have revised guidance to 1-3% revenue growth for the full year and 6-8% EBITDAR growth, from flat revenue and EBITDAR growth. We have spent EUR35 million for new investments this year, of which EUR17 million was spent on Tbilisi Airport capacity expansion. Georgias 44% passenger growth for the year confirms our decision to invest further in the airport. We won the concession to operate three new airports in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Yanbu, Qassim and Hail). Negotiations on the Cuban airports are ongoing as ATU and BTA are also preparing for new projects in different locations. We now have lounges in fifteen countries including USA, Chile, Germany, Switzerland and Kenya. On the other hand, TAV Technologies is winning IT projects in the Gulf Region. During the third quarter Groupe ADP bought 8% stake of Akfen in TAV Airports and international investors bought 3.6% stake of TAV Airports from Tepe and Sera, increasing TAV Airports free float to 44.3%. With these transactions both Groupe ADP and international investors have reconfirmed their confidence in TAV Airports and in Turkey in general. TAV Airports will be Groupe ADPs main international expansion vehicle in our core geographies. I would like to thank our shareholders, business partners and employees for their trust and efforts in bringing TAV to where it is today. Ahmet Olmustur, chief marketing officer of Turkish Airlines, said: We always strive to offer our passengers the best flight experience possible on board and on the ground. With the addition of the Istanbul Bosphorus Experience, we continue to improve our wide range of activities and services including our worldwide known Turkish Airlines Lounge Istanbul, that earned the top spot in the category Worlds Best Business Class Lounge within the Skytrax World Airline Awards 2017, or our innovative Miniport service. He added: These offerings already transform the layover into a special experience. Passengers can now discover and enjoy the cultural facets of Istanbul at first hand. Besides further diversifying our unmatched offerings to our passengers by launching this service, we can also indirectly contribute to the Turkish tourism economy by this way. A battlefield study in France has led to a personal journey for both an Officer Cadet and Colour Sergeant from Sandhurst as they walked in the footsteps of their ancestors. [contextly_auto_sidebar] TYPICALLY, the PEN awards, held at a fancy hotel in Beverly Hills, ends up as one of the best parties of the year for literary and journalistic folk. The group and its events, of course, also have a bloody point to them: PEN is, mostly, a free-speech group, and its annual banquet is an attempt to honor artistry and freedom of expression and to raise money so they can do it again next year. (PEN USA was once known as PEN West, to distinguish it from the New York-based PEN America; the current LA-based group has ties to Hollywood but is hardly just an association for screenwriters.) In the spring of 2015, the East Coast PEN was torn with internal tensions over an award to Parisian magazine Charlie Hedbo: Even here in Los Angeles, last fall, it was hard not to hear echoing cries and denunciations that split what we could describe as free-speech liberals (Salman Rushdie was the fiercest of the group) vs. a small, outspoken group incensed by the magazines supposed bigotry. (This was either an updating of old quarrels on the Left or a dry-run for he larger tensions were are seeing today.) In any case, this years gathering, Friday night at the Beverly Wilshire, was not only free from obvious partisan rifts, but took on a fierce sense of purpose I dont recall before. With a clean-shaven Nick Offerman, the burly Parks & Recreation star, emceeing, and major awards going to Margaret Atwood (author of Theocrat dystopia The Handmaids Tale) and the team of New York Times reporters who broke the long-rumored Harvey Weinstein sexual-harassment story, this was a rare chance to feel good about the bad stuff swirling through American culture right now. There may be awful things afoot, we thought at as we sipped Chardonnay and ate our roast chicken, but at least somebody is paying attention. (Whether that is enough is a question I cannot answer.) So while PEN USA often gives its major awards to people overseas, typically in autocratic states African writers who risk exile or death, journalists who have survived imprisonment in the Middle East this year much of the emphasis was on brave folks here in Donald Trumps US of A. (These included, as well, Janet Mock , the mixed-race trans-woman who is the author of bestselling memoir Redefining Realness.) This event, like the others Ive attended, was smooth and well-executed, with winners speeches never reaching Oscars-level solipsism. Offermans delivery is famously ironic. But he was a solidly authoritative host here, offering both comic relief and good-natured expression of purpose, as when he described the freedom or people to express themselves its not something we should ever take for granted. (When I interviewed Offerman about his then-new podcast a few days after last years presidential election, he expressed nothing but frustration over our new president and his intolerant policies.) Chelsea Handler was a bit more pungent. Good evening, fake news, mainstream media, you suckas! Im Kellyanne Conway! (She went on to speak about sexual bullying by Bill OReilly and Weinstein.) The Freedom To Write Award went to the New York Times Emily Steel, Michael S. Schmidt, Katie Benner, Jodi Kantor, and Megan Twohey, three of whom attended. (Interesting to note: The Times top editor Dean Baquet once helmed the Los Angeles Times. The New Times team emphasized how hard Baquet pushed for difficult investigative reporting on the story, despite the fact that numerous news orgs have struggled to nail it down for years. In other words, if the mediocre minds of the Tribune Corp., has not so badly mis-handled the LA paper during Baquets time there, provoking his resignation, this scoop likely could have come from Hollywoods hometown paper. Baquet, for what its worth, hired me here in LA when he was managing editor.) Much of the buzz at the event was around the appearance of Atwood for her lifetime achievement award. (The television adaptation of The Handmaids Tale has become a rallying point for those disturbed by the sexual politics emanating out of the White House these days.) Atwoods address was brief but effective: She talked about her involvement with the Canadian PEN going back to the 80s, when the group was fragmenting into English and Francophone arms. She never though, she said, that the group would have to work so hard to defend freedom of speech in nations like the US and Canada: These days, though, it can be hard to tell whether what we see online comes from a professional troll, the agent of a foreign government, or simply a bot. Shes also disturbed by the current censorious impulse of the Left. Both sides attempt to shut down organizations like PEN, so old-fashioned in their rationality. Because the bash is held in Beverly Hills, it often attracts strange characters, like the older man at my table who asked everyone who sat down if they knew any movie producers who could get his movie made. These folks are easy to avoid though. I try not to use words like inspiring when I can help it, but this years PEN banquet seemed to be very much on the right track. Currently, the GST regime slots items under tax rate slabs of zero, 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent. Hyderabad: A Congress minister from Karnataka has hailed GST as a game changer and good reform but maintained it should be made simpler by reducing the number of slabs as well as rates. Karnataka Minister for large, medium industries and infrastructure development R.V. Deshpande said some changes are required in the current GST structure as small traders and businessmen are suffering. He said GST should have come under the UPA government itself but BJP then opposed it. Later, there was a delay in its implementation as opposition parties did not cooperate on certain issues, he added. When everybody was on-board, it was done. But, this being a new reform and a game changer One Nation One Tax ultimately is going to benefit (all) Yes, there are teething problems...a lot of them have suffered and are suffering. Though there are issues, I am sure they (the government) will act and I am happy some initiatives were taken by Arun Jaitley to resolve them (problems related to GST). But, still a lot has to be done, Mr Deshpande told PTI. GST should be made a simple tax, he said, adding definitely it has to be further simplified... then only it would be successful. There is a GST Council and it has to take decisions (on contentious issues). Currently, the GST regime slots items under tax rate slabs of zero, 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent. An additional GST cess is also levied on certain products. The actor reveals that his on-screen chemistry with his 'Piku' co-star will be different in the film 'Sapna Didi.' Mumbai: Irrfan Khan is all set to team up again with his 'Piku' co-star Deepika Padukone for their next venture 'Sapna Didi' and the actor reveals that their on-screen chemistry will be different this time. The film is an adaptation of S Hussain Zaidi's book 'Mafia Queens of Mumbai' and is based on the life and times of Ashraf Khan, popularly known as Sapna Didi, to be played by Deepika. Irrfan will play a grey character in the movie, to be directed by Honey Trehan. In an interview with PTI, Irrfan says, "I will always be excited to work with Deepika. I am all the more excited this time (as to) how our chemistry (will) work. In this film, I am not (portraying) a decent or civilised man, so our equation in this film is completely (different from 'Piku')... "She is the most beautiful person and a good human being. It gives me happiness when I see Deepika." Irrfan says the makers are currently working on the final draft of the film's script. The movie, produced by Vishal Bhardwaj, is scheduled to release on October 2 next year. Meanwhile, Irrfan's next film 'Qarib Qarib Singlle' is opposite Malayalam actor Parvathy. The movie, helmed by Tanuja Chandra, releases on November 10. After criticism of Akshay's comment on his daughter, the journalist called Twinkle's response a prosaic excuse from an embarrassed wife.' Mumbai: When stand-up comedian Shyam Rangeela's video of his mimicry of Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi went viral after the channel's refusal to air the episode, no one expected that a new controversy would erupt from it. But Akshays comment at the end of the video where tells one of the judges Mallika Dua, Aap bell bajao, main aapko bajata hu (You bang the bell, Ill bang you) snowballed into a big controversy. Mallikas father Vinod Dua, veteran journalist, was outraged by the comment and wrote on Facebook, I am going to screw this cretin Akshay Kumar for telling his co-worker Mallika Dua that Aap bell bajao, main aap ko bajata hun at 5:26. This is his sense of humour and language Star Plus Wake up." While the post got pulled down over failing to adhere to the websites Commnutiny guidelines, Mallika wrote an open letter on how the issue wasnt about Akshay but about workplace etiquette. While Akshay still maintains silence over the issue, his wife, former actress and now writer, Twinkle Khanna reacted to the row with a Twitter post on Sunday. She wrote how bajana was a colloquial phrase used by both men and women, giving examples and also asked how Vinod Duas screw comment should also be taken literally. Vinod Dua was not too be pleased with the response, calling it a prosaic excuse from an embarrassed wife.' He, however, seemed satisfied about the point coming across and how Akshay will think twice before uttering such words. He also revealed that they dont intend to pursue the matter any further. On a lighter note, Twinkle Khanna shared some hilarious reactions to the controversy, to which even Mallika reacted. Experts in dissemination and management of information about armed conflicts are also alarmed at the evolving trends in insurgency. Elusive Ulfa (I) chief Paresh Baruah uses this phone to contact sympathisers and to issue threats to business houses across Assam. Guwahati: The Indian Army is contemplating an intensive campaign to counter northeast rebel groups on the social media which is increasingly being used as a propaganda tool by the insurgents. Pointing out that insurgents are using the social media to make their presence felt in the region, defence spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Suneet Newton said, "It has become mandatory for security agencies to sharpen their knives to counter these low-cost and social media platforms from being used by terror groups." It is significant that Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Khaplang) recently launched an offensive by attacking an Army camp in Arunachal Pradesh. However, heavily armed NSCN-K rebels were forced to flee soon after a counter attack by Army personnel. The incident was a serious setback for the NSCN-K, but it took to social media claiming that its rebels inflicted heavy casualties on the Army. Pointing out that the NSCN-K, which takes pride in its strike power, had to face humiliation due to the security forces' prompt retaliation, sources said the rebel group took to the social media to make a false claim about success in the attack on the Army. It was a face-saving gesture by the NSCN-K, said defence source. In Assam, anti-talk faction of United Liberation Front of Assam-Independent (Ulfa-I) has been using WhatsApp and other social media tools to send extortion demands to business houses, security sources said, adding that "internet mobile" helps insurgent leaders in this regard. Elusive Ulfa (I) chief Paresh Baruah uses this phone to contact sympathisers and to issue threats to business houses across Assam. In order to continue their extortion drive, terrorists and their sympathisers or sponsors use several tactics to operate with maximum safety, prolong terrorism wars and project insurgency as the triumphing force against the security forces. They use propaganda as one of the major weapons to market a bogus or imaginary illusion of strength or victory, sources said, adding that even when terrorists are apparently defeated or suffer irrecoverable fatalities. Security sources said that, of late, there have been instances of northeast insurgent groups using social media to spread terror through propaganda. Admitting that social media platforms have wider penetration in the northeastern states, security sources said NSCN-K and Ulfa (I) rebels are also using various social media platforms to communicate their operational details among the cadres. Experts in dissemination and management of information about armed conflicts are also alarmed at the evolving trends in insurgency. Referring to a series of protests and opposition to terrorist outfits by villagers in Arunachal Pradesh, the defence spokesperson said that writing is clearly on the wall that these terror groups have started resorting to misusing social media platforms to spread misinformation and apparent rumours of their successes against the security forces. Apparently the prime reason for this misinformation campaign seems to be the urge in these groups to sustain their relevance and keep up the bogey of fear they try to enforce on people so as to keep their extortion machinery running unhindered, he added. In fact, it has been observed that the basic theme of social media campaign perpetrated by these groups is the illusionary casualties they claim to have caused to the security forces in dramatic encounters, without realising that the audience they intend targeting has become aware of the pitfalls of such baseless, malicious campaigns, Mr Newton said, while citing instances of protest by villagers of Niausa in Longding district of Arunachal Pradesh. Security sources also pointed out that terrorists target developmental activities of the government by spreading false propaganda on social media along the Indo-Myanmar border areas as the fear losing their relevance if progress takes place here. Interestingly, the existing constitutional bar on quotas at 50 per cent makes it impossible for any party to guarantee a separate quota for Patels. New Delhi: The BJP feels that the Congress efforts to stitch together a rainbow coalition of different castes will backfire as the two groups the party plans to bring together the Patidars and OBCs have common interests and have competing aspirations. The saffron party thus feels this move by the Congress will backfire and end up boosting its prospects. Patidar leader Hardik Patels warning to the Congress to commit itself to his communitys quota demand by November 3 or face dire consequences is being seen by the BJP as a clear sign of these contradictions. The Congress has already inducted Alpesh Thakor, who rallied the community against including Patidars in the existing OBC quota. The BJP, which has been in power in the state since 1995, has relied on the consolidation of voters around its Hindutva and development plank, keeping a lead of nearly 10 per cent over the Congress in voteshare. The Patidars have also been big BJP supporters and some party leaders insist a majority of them will continue to back it despite a sense of unrest among a section of the community against it. Political analysts, however, believe Mr Patels campaign against the BJP has struck a chord in the community as the quota issue raised by him has more resonance than Keshubhai Patels fight, which was confined to opposing then CM Narendra Modi. Interestingly, the existing constitutional bar on quotas at 50 per cent makes it impossible for any party to guarantee a separate quota for Patels. About 10,000 people migrate to the Gulf states every year from Telangana, and about 200 on average from Kalleda. Most migrants believe they will be able to make good money in Dubai in just a few years an illusion unscrupulous agents create. (Photo: AFP/File) Jagtial: On a hot, sleepy afternoon at Kalleda village in the southern Indian state of Telangana, Laxmi Malaya sat on the porch of her house where the body of her husband Chittam a daily wage labourer in Dubai was to be brought the next day. Chittam, 45, was the second migrant worker from the village to have died in Dubai in September and among the nearly 450 Indian migrant workers shipped home in body bags since 2014. There were three deaths (of workers from the village) last year as well. We were told Chittam died of a stroke, but he was healthy when he came home for a visit last month, said Ankathi Gangadhar, the former village head of Kalleda. Another local man, aged 24, died in Dubai last month after suffering a heart attack, villagers said. Officials of the Telangana state government cite stress, ill health and working in searing temperatures as the most common causes of death and say fatality numbers among migrants who travel to the Gulf from the state have remained stable. People discuss these deaths for a week, but then there is no initiative (to offer jobs here) so they keep leaving, Gangadhar told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. For decades, people have migrated from Telangana a largely rural region with the tech hub of Hyderabad as its capital to Indian cities such as Mumbai and to the Gulf, unable to make a living from farming, mainly due to water scarcity. About 10,000 people migrate to the Gulf states every year from Telangana, and about 200 on average from Kalleda, according to government figures. Most migrants believe they will be able to make good money in Dubai in just a few years an illusion unscrupulous agents create. When people started leaving for Gulf states (in the 1980s), this region was reeling from years of drought. They had no option but to migrate, said Suresh Reddy, a politician from Telangana who has worked on the migration issue. When they left, there were some economic gains but they paid a heavy price for it - working in inhuman conditions and leaving their families behind. Chittams annual savings rarely exceeded 12,000 Indian rupees ($185) and he sent home 4,000 to 5,000 rupees every few months. He worked in Dubai for 13 years and visited his wife and two children just five times during that period. He was planning to return for good next year after making a little more money, Gangadhar said, as Chittams wife Laxmi looked on, numb and impassive. False promises Ramanna Chitla had worked in Dubai for 16 years when he returned to Jagtial, a town in Telangana, last year, determined to work to stop others from being tricked by agents. I saw a lot of misery there. Workers were underpaid and poorly treated. They were cheated by their agents with false promises so I thought I would come back and bring a change, Chitla said. Over the years, the Indian government and non-governmental groups have received a steady stream of complaints from migrant workers, ranging from non-payment of wages to torture and abuse. Workers often take loans of 50,000 to 100,000 Indian rupees ($750 to $1,500) to pay agents, hoping to earn enough from working as cleaners and as labourers on construction sites to repay the loan, but their salaries rarely match promises. They dont visit doctors when they are unwell to save money, Chitla said, adding that deaths attributed to ill health are often due to exploitative work conditions. Government figures show there are some 6 million Indian migrants in the six Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman. According to official data, more than 30,000 Indian nationals died in the Gulf states between 2005 and 2015. The UAE embassy in New Delhi said in an emailed statement the Gulf state had introduced a number of reforms over the last few years to combat abusive labour practices including improving transparency of contracts, a wage protection system for foreign workers and a Know Your Rights campaign in five languages. As a government-authorised agent, Chitlas job is to ensure migrants understand their job contracts, the employer does not alter the terms of employment later, and that all the paperwork of the applicant is fair and complete. But he fails to attract the same number of workers as illegal agents. There are at least 50 unlicensed agents who are sending hundreds of workers. I have sent 48 so far, Chitla said. Indias foreign ministry has made attempts to streamline the recruitment process and help workers in need. Jingles asking workers to go through only authorized agents play on the radio every day but many are lured by the promises unauthorized agents make. Chandrasekhar Boragalla, 26, a father of two, stepped out of Jagtial for the first time two years ago when he sat on a bus to Mumbai about 800 km (500 miles)away and had an interview in a sea-front office for a cleaners job in Dubai. I paid 70,000 rupees to the agent for this job. When I reached there, they made me sign a two-year bond for a salary much lower than what was promised. I wasnt even paid for three months. I was asked to pay 85,000 rupees for leave to go home, he said. Boragalla returned penniless to Jagtial three months ago. He now works as a welder and is still repaying the loan he took to pay the agent from the 400 rupees he earns as daily wages. Its not enough. Dubai is danger. I will not go back, he said. Water, Jobs Kalleda could easily be mistaken for a prosperous village with lush farmlands and maize fields lining its roads. But earnings from farming are rarely enough to feed families. They are marginal farmers and own less than 5 acre (2 hectares) of land which does not support their families. Water is scarce as this is a rain-fed region, said land rights lawyer Sunil Reddy, who takes up cases of the rural poor. When Telangana was created as a separate state in 2014, two promises were made - more jobs and more irrigation water. But the situation is the same, Reddy said. Laxmi Malaya, now a widow, has a small piece of land on which she grows maize, turmeric and rice. Two harvests yielded an annual income of about 60,000 Indian rupees ($925), which supplemented the money her husband sent home. Migrant rights campaigners are seeking a compensation for the widows of Gulf migrants. Compensation is their right. The money workers send back is pumped into the states economy, said activist Bheem Reddy. Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary with the Telangana government said financial compensation for widows has been proposed as part of the states Non Resident Indian policy. For now, all thats on offer is the free transportation of bodies of workers like Chittam from Hyderabad airport back to their home villages. Radio Mirchi posted an apology on the micro blogging website Twitter. New Delhi: FM radio station Radio Mirchi, which is owned by the Times of India group, has displeased the Smriti Irani-led Union information and broadcasting ministry for airing a campaign titled #MatAaoIndia (Dont Come to India), telling foreign tourists to stay away from the country. Radio Mirchi aired the campaign after the attack on Swiss tourists in Fatehpur Sikri last week. The campaign, which was in Hindi, went: See the sea at Goa, and the tourists being harassed, See your Russian guest, and her molestation too, See the splendour of Fatehpur, and the couples being troubled there, See the respect we have for love, see the splendour of new India See the morality of death, see the way we insult guests Coming to India is injurious to health Guests are not gods. Do not come to India. The campaign was taken down after a flood of criticism on social media; some users branded the radio station anti-national the new buzzword and advised followers to unfollow the station on Facebook and Twitter. The tone of the Radio Mirchi #MatAaoIndia ca-mpaign was in sharp contrast to the previous campaign in which Aamir Khan urged better treatment of foreign tourists. The Union information and broadcasting ministry said the campaign violated the All-India Radio programme and advertisement code and was discouraging foreign tourists from visiting India through their broadcast. The notice was served on October 27 and the FM station has been given 15 days to respond as to why it should not be penalised. It was brought to the ministrys notice that the radio channel was discouraging foreign tou-rists from visiting India through their broadcast, the notice said. The content in question is defamatory and violated the AIR (All-India Radio) code, it said. Radio Mirchi has also been sent a verbatim transcript of the campaign, sources added. Radio Mirchi has been asked to furnish its reply within 15 days of receiving the notice, failing which the ministry would be constrained to initiate action, sources stated. Radio Mirchi posted an apology on the micro blogging website Twitter. Radio Mirchi apologises for the creative it ran about the tourist incident. Our intention was not to hurt the sentiments of people. We are deeply sorry. We have removed the creative, the apology stated. The slain policeman was identified as Zaheer Abbas Khan, a resident of frontier Poonch district. Srinagar: A jawan of Jammu and Kashmir polices counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) was killed in a firefight with a group of holed up militants in an area of northern Bandipore district on Sunday. However, the militants succeeded in breaching the cordon-and-search operation launched in Mir Mohalla of the Hajin town of Bandipore earlier on Sunday and escaped, the officials said. The slain policeman was identified as Zaheer Abbas Khan, a resident of frontier Poonch district. The police sources said a joint party of the SOG, the Armys 13 Rashtriya Rifles and the CRPFs 45th Battalion laid siege to Mir Mohalla on Sunday morning following intelligence inputs about the presence of militants in the locality. While the security forces were conducting searches the militants hiding in the area opened fire on them, triggering the encounter. After critically injuring the SOG jawan, the holed up militants managed their escape from the area following which the security forces called off the operation. The injured jawan died in hospital soon after being admitted there, the officials said. The officials and witnesses said that while the encounter was on groups of local youth clashed with the security forces. The youth hurled rocks at the security personnel in their attempt to help the militants to escape. The security forces fired live ammunition to quell the mob, injuring, at least, three persons. All the three, the hospital sources said, have received pellet wounds. While two of them were being treated at a local medical facility, the third was shifted to a hospital in Srinagar. A statement said that a wreath-laying ceremony was held at Srinagars district police lines to pay homage to the jawan. Deputy chief minister, Nirmal Singh, led the civil, police and other security forces officers and jawans in the floral tribute to Khan who is survived by his aged parents, wife and three minor children. In Srinagar, meanwhile, the National Conference, which has ruled J&K for several decades and is now the main Opposition in the state. Bengaluru/Srinagar: A day after veteran Congress leader and former Union finance minister P. Chidambaram made controversial remarks about azaadi and greater autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the Congress Party, saying that the azaadi remark was an insult to soldiers guarding innocent Kashmiris from terror in the strife-torn state. Addressing BJP workers at Bengalurus HAL Airport on Sunday, the PM, on a one-day visit to Karnataka, while not naming Mr Chidambaram, criticised Congress leaders for their insensitive and shameless statement on autonomy for J&K. They are talking the language of separatists and pro-Pakistan elements. The Congress owes an explanation to the nation for its azaadi remark. How will our country progress with such people, who try to derive political mileage from sensitive issues? The true colours of the Congress have been revealed, he said. In Srinagar, meanwhile, the National Conference, which has ruled J&K for several decades and is now the main Opposition in the state, passed a resolution on Sunday vowing to continue its struggle for the restoration of autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir in its original, pristine form. It asked both India and Pakistan to initiate a sustained and comprehensive dialogue to resolve the Kashmir imbroglio. The NC also asked the government at the Centre to end what it alleged was its muscular policy vis-a-vis the state. If New Delhi wants to win the hearts and minds of the people of J&K, it must restore autonomy to the state, said former chief minister Farooq Abdullah after being re-elected as NC president at its delegate conference, held in Srinagar after a gap of 15 years. In Bengaluru, continuing his tirade, Mr Modi said: I am surprised at the U-turn of Congress leaders, who are now talking of autonomy for J&K. They were in power at the Centre for many years, and they have the responsibility of ensuring internal security. Veteran freedom fighter Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel played a pivotal role in the unification of India. Our solders are guarding our motherland day and night and protecting innocent Kashmiris. Many soldiers have laid down their lives for the sake of Kashmir. But the Congress, which ruled the country by accident for so many years, is now shamelessly talking of azaadi for J&K. They owe an explanation to citizens for their shameless statement. We would like to send out a message that this is the land of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and we will not compromise when it comes to the unity and integrity of our great nation. I want to know from people whether can we expect development from the Congress, which politicises such sensitive issues, he said. Mr Chidambaram, a former Union home minister, had said in poll-bound Gujarats Rajkot on Saturday that when the people of J&K ask for azaadi, most of them mean they want greater autonomy. The demand in the Kashmir Valley is to respect the letter and spirit of Article 370, that means they want greater autonomy. My interactions in J&K led me to the conclusion that when they ask for azaadi, mostly, I am not saying all... the overwhelming majority, they want autonomy. Yes, I do, Mr Chidambaram said when he was asked if he still thinks J&K should be given greater autonomy. Under scathing attack from the PM, Mr Chidambaram said in New Delhi Sunday that Mr Modi had imagined a ghost... and was attacking it. He said it was obvious that the PM had not read the whole answer to the question put to him on J&K at Rajkot. Those who criticise must read the whole answer and tell me which word in the answer was wrong. The PM is imagining a ghost and attacking it, he told PTI. Mr Chidambaram had in July 2016 advocated greater autonomy for J&K, saying India should restore the grand bargain under which Kashmir had acceded by granting a large degree of autonomy to it. He had warned otherwise the country will have to pay a heavy price. The Congress, however, sought to distance itself from Mr Chidambarams remarks, saying the opinion of an individual is not necessarily the opinion of the party. Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala had said J&K is an integral part of India and will always remain so unquestionably. Mr Modi, meanwhile, taking a dig at Congress leaders who had asked for proof of last years surgical strike by the Indian Army across the Line of Control in Kashmir, said the surgical strike was actually a matter of pride for the entire country. Indias diplomatic strength had been proved during the standoff with China on the Doklam issue, which had been resolved diplomatically. Unable to digest this success, the Congress had issued a fake statement on the Doklam row, he claimed. The PM said he felt Congressmen would correct their mistakes after the party was wiped out in almost all states, but their arrogance had not subsided yet. After humiliating defeats, some Congressmen tried to bring the party back on track but had given up as they found it impossible to carry out reforms, he said. The installation work of EWDS has been completed and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik will inaugurate the advanced system by November 15. It has announced the inclusion of disaster management in school curriculum from next academic session. Bhubaneswar: With the memories of the 1999 super cyclone devastation still fresh in the minds, the Odisha government has chalked out a concrete action plan to tackle any such natural disasters. It has announced the inclusion of disaster management in school curriculum from next academic session. As per the guidelines of the National Disaster Management Authority, School Safety Policy will be implemented by school and mass education department shortly. Focus will be given on imparting life saving skill training to children at school levels and new syllabus on disaster management will also be included in the curriculum, said Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) managing director Pradipta Mohapatra. Speaking on the occasion of Odisha Disaster Preparedness Day and National Day for Disaster Reduction on Sunday in Bhubaneswar, Mr Mohapatra informed that the theme for this years disaster preparedness day is Early Warning to Save Lives. He further informed that Odisha would be the first state to have Early Warning Dissemination System (EWDS) particularly for six coastal districts of the state that are prone to such natural disasters shortly. The installation work of EWDS has been completed and Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik will inaugurate the advanced system by November 15. The state has so far constructed 879 multipurpose cyclone and flood shelters, 17,000 houses for Phailin affected people in Ganjam and Khurda districts and 571 houses at resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) site at Bagpatia. Congress also criticised Modi for 'not even making a mention' of the incident in 'Mann-ki-Baat' and called him 'insensitive'. The Congress on Sunday also demanded a court-monitored probe into the deaths of babies at the Ahmedabad civil hospital. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: The Congress has demanded Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's resignation over the deaths of 20 infants in three days at a civil hospital, and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah should be held accountable for infant deaths across the country. The party on Sunday also demanded a court-monitored probe into the deaths of babies at the Ahmedabad civil hospital. Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill criticised Modi for "not even making a mention" of the incident in his monthly radio address 'Mann-ki-Baat', and accused him of being "insensitive" to the pain of the families of the deceased. He dubbed the Prime Minister's radio address as "yet another disappointing monologue", which was not in sync with the ground reality and current issues facing the country. "Does the Prime Minister not feel the pain of the deaths of these infants in his heart or does he not have any sympathy for the families of the victims? "Instead of (expressing his) 'Mann ki Baat', the prime minister should have apologised to the people of this country, especially the families of the innocent infants, who lost their lives due to gross criminal negligence of the BJP-run administration," Shergill said in a statement. The deaths of the infants were not an "unfortunate incident" but "cold-blooded murders" by the state administration. "The Congress demands that Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani immediately resign from the post on account of the deaths," he said. He said Modi and Shah "should be held accountable and answerable for the frequent deaths of infants" all over India, especially in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. "The Congress demands that Modi, rather than indulging in PR exercises, should start addressing the real issues of the economy and do something to put an end to the dance of death going on in various BJP-ruled states," he said. The Congress leader alleged that the BJP in order to satiate its political appetite has turned government hospitals and doctors into "political handles for its political gains". Shergill also alleged that an "operation cover-up" has started in Gujarat to protect the accused involved in the "horrific" incident by authorising the deputy superintendent of the civil hospital to conduct an inquiry. "How can the accused be a judge in his own case? This is nothing but an eyewash to protect the accused," he said. In the last couple of weeks, several people had been questioning about the person who manages the Twitter handle of Gandhi. New Delhi: Continuing his dream run on Twitter, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, hitting back on his critics, tweeted a video on Sunday of his dog named Pidi performing a trick, adding that people have been asking who tweets for this guy (Rahul Gandhi). The tweet said, People (have) been asking who tweets for this guy... Im coming clean.. its me.. Pidi.. Im way cooler than him. Look what I can do with a tweet..oops..treat! In the video, Mr Gandhi is seen asking his dog to do na-maste, at which it stands up on it hind legs. Placing a dog biscuit on Pidis muzzle, he instructs it to stay. Then, at the snap of his fingers, the dog immediately eats the biscuit and Mr. Gandhi exclaims, Good boy! In the last couple of weeks, several people had been questioning about the person who manages the Twitter handle of Mr Gandhi. Surprisingly, reports say Mr Gandhi has gained more than one million followers between July and September. Over the last few weeks, he has become very active on Twitter and has been taking on the Central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In one of his tweets, Mr Gandhi had asked the Prime Minister to quickly hug the President of United States of America Donald Trump when he was quoted by a newsreport on improving ties with Pakistan. Hitting back at Mr Gandhi, a former Congress leader and currently BJP Minister in Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted, Sir @OfficeOfRG, who knows him better than me. Still remember you busy feeding biscuits 2 him while We wanted to discuss urgent Assams issues. Mr Sarma, before leaving the Congress, had alleged that when he went to meet the Congress vice president, was busy playing with his dog. Reports have also emanated that the reason behind the recent surge in Mr Gandhi Twitter handle has been due to animated bots. A Twitterbot is a software which may autonomously perform actions such as tweeting, retweeting, liking, following, unfollowing, or direct messaging other accounts. This was vehemently denied by the Congress. Article 35A empowers the J&K Legislature to define permanent residents and provide special rights and privileges to those residents. Srinagar: An alliance of key separatist leaders called Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) has asked people of Jammu and Kashmir to be ready for sustained agitation if the Supreme Court (SC) delivers a verdict against their interests. The Apex Court is scheduled to hear a petition seeking removal of Article 35A of the Constitution on Monday. Article 35A empowers the J&K Legislature to define permanent residents of the State and provide special rights and privileges to them. An NGO said, We the citizens, believed to be an RSS think-tank, challenged Article 35A in the SC in 2014 on grounds that it was not added to the Constitution through amendment under Article 368 and that it was never presented before Parliament, and came into effect immediately. In another case filed in the SC in July, two Kashmiri women argued that the states laws, flowing from Article 35A, had disenfranchised their children. The JRL which has on it Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Muhammad Yasin Malik said, A full-fledged agitation will be started if some decision comes against the Article 35A when the Indian Supreme Court hears the petition on Monday. It has alleged that a conspiracy has been hatched to change the demography of the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir. It has warned that if the State Subject Law which is in force since 1927 is diluted or any amendment introduced to weaken the laws that protect the interests of the people of the State or pave the way for settlement of outsiders in the state, the people will resist it tooth and nail. The JRL said in a statement that the plan to tinker with Article 35A of the constitution was a well thought out ploy to end the special status of the state. The nun was gangraped at a convent on March 14, 2015 allegedly by a group of suspected Bangladeshi nationals. Nuns take part in a rally in Kolkata to protest against the gangrape of a 72-year-old nun at Ranaghat. (Photo: PTI) Kolkata: The verdict in the gangrape case of a 72-year-old nun at Ranaghat in 2015 in Nadia district would be pronounced on November 7 after the trial of six accused concluded in a city court on Monday. The nun was gangraped at a convent on March 14, 2015 allegedly by a group of suspected Bangladeshi nationals, who had then decamped with cash from the safe of the convent. While six persons were arrested by the state CID which probed the case, one of the accused is absconding. The examination of witnesses and pleadings by lawyers representing the accused and the prosecution concluded before Additional District and Sessions Judge Kumkum Sinha in Kolkata. The judge said the verdict would be delivered on November seven. Investigation in the case was handed over to the CID by the state government soon after the incident. The trial was shifted from a court in Ranaghat to the Kolkata sessions court in May 2016 by the Calcutta High Court on a petition by the nun. The nun, who had relocated to Delhi following the incident, had sought transfer of the case to Kolkata stating that she feared for her safety as the accused allegedly had strong links in Ranaghat. The accused have been charged with and tried for gangrape, dacoity, attempt to cause death or grievous hurt, voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means and criminal conspiracy. The six accused, who are in judicial remand, are Milan Kumar Sarkar, Ohidul Islam, Mohd Selim Sheikh, Nazrul Islam, Khaledar Rahman and Gopal Sarkar. Rescued after villagers working in crop fields attack animal, forcing it to flee. Bhopal: A woman in a Madhya Pradesh village valiantly fought a leopard for nearly half-an-hour to save herself and her infant daughter, officials said on Sunday. Although the incident took place on Friday evening, it came to light on Sunday when the woman was admitted in the district headquarters hospital at Morena in serious conditions. According to official reports, 25-year-old Asha was attacked by a leopard when she barely stepped out of her village Bhaisai in Morena district along with her two-year-old daughter on Friday evening. She was walking in a forested route to go to her parents house in the nearby village. The leopard pounced on me when I was walking in an agriculture land inside the forest. The big cats push threw me on the floor. But, I could manage to get up by firmly holding my daughter in my arm and started running. The wild animal then tried to snatch my daughter. I then caught it in chokehold. The leopard wounded me with its claws in my arms and shoulders, but I did not loosen my grip over its neck, she said. The fight went on for about 30 minutes. Then, some villagers working in the crop fields nearby spotted me and started attacking the leopard, forcing it to run away, a local forest officer who visited her in the hospital quoted her as saying. She suffered deep wounds in her arms and shoulder in the attack by the leopard. She was first admitted at a local primary health centre and then shifted to the district headquarters hospital at Morena. We have launched an operation to track down the leopard, local divisional forest officer A.K. Ansari said. Visit comes months after India-China faceoff over road in Bhutans Doklam. New Delhi: A couple of months after the end of the military face-off between India and China over New Delhis refusal to allow the Chinese PLA to build a road in Bhutanese territory at Doklam, Bhutans royal couple will begin a four-day visit to India starting Tuesday. The current situation following the Doklam face-off resolution is likely to be discussed during the visit. The more than two month-long Doklam military face-off that ended on August 28 showed the world that India was capable of protecting Bhutanese territory as per the decades-long understanding between the two countries. In a statement on Monday, the MEA said, The King and Queen of Bhutan, His Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, Her Majesty The Gyaltsuen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck and His Royal Highness The Gyalsey Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, will be on a four day visit to India from October 31 to November 3, 2017. During the visit, His Majesty the King of Bhutan will meet with the President of India and the Prime Minister, who will host a dinner in honour of Their Majesties. The vice-president of India, external affairs minister and other ministers and senior officials will call on His Majesty, the King of Bhutan. The MEA added, India and Bhutan enjoy unique ties of friendship, which are characterised by deep understanding and mutual trust. The visit of His Majesty the King of Bhutan is in keeping with the long standing tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries. The visit would provide an opportunity to both the sides for reviewing the bilateral cooperation between the two nations. The chief reason behind Indias growing military spend is the lack of a domestic arms industry that can cater to the military needs. New Delhi: In a major reform initiative to encourage domestic military manufacturing, Nirmala Sitharaman-led defence ministry is envisaging deemed approvals to proposals unduly delayed or that have overshot prescribed timelines due to bureaucratic logjams and other unjustified grounds. Batting for the proposed changes, a top defence ministry source said, After all, the wait for military products cannot be an endless one. The permissions could be taken up on a case-to-case basis. Specifically, the ministry is looking at applying the deemed to be approved principle if license-related permission has not been given for some reason be it by the Home Ministry, Telecom Ministry or the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). India, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), remained the worlds biggest arms importer over the past five years, increasing its share of global arms imports from 9.7 per cent in 200711 to 12.8 per cent in 201216. The chief reason behind Indias growing military spend is the lack of a domestic arms industry that can cater to the military needs. Ms Sitharaman is understood to be proactively trying to usher in such changes that will seek to bolster the self-reliance aspect in defence products manufacturing. On Wednesday, Army chief-general Bipin Rawat also pitched for a strongindigenous domestic defence industry and underscored the importance of the private sector joining hands with the government. The threatening call was allegedly made by the former MP while he was lodged in the jail. New Delhi: The CBI probe into the sensational murder of Rajdeo Ranjan has found that the Siwan-based journalist had allegedly received threatening phone call from former RJD MP Mohammad Shahabuddin from the jail. CBI sources, privy to the investigation, told this newspaper that Rajdeo was attacked twice by criminals allegedly associated with Shahabuddin before he was killed on May 13, 2016. The CBI probe has concluded that the journalist was fatally wounded by Shahabuddins shooters while he was returning from office in Siwan. The threatening call was allegedly made by the former MP while he was lodged in the jail and the role of prison officials in allowing him to use a phone in his cell is still unexplained. The CBI has collected sufficient electronic evidence against Shahabuddin to prove that the slain journalist had received threatening call from him. This has been mentioned by the agency in its supplementary chargesheet, sources said, adding that statements of two witnesses are crucial in establishing his (Shahabuddin) active role in hatching the conspiracy to murder the journalist. Shahabuddins refusal to undergo lie detection test also points to the fact that he was hiding facts, sources said. Shahabuddin was in jail when the journalist was shot dead. Shahabuddin, who is facing more than 39 criminal cases that included kidnapping and murder, was transferred to New Delhis Tihar jail on February 18. The agency has sufficient evidence to prove that certain accused in the case were allegedly in constant touch with the arrested RJD leader. It has already been mentioned in the chargesheet, sources said. A special court in Muzaffarpur recently named Shahabuddin as the 10th accused in the case that was handed over to the CBI in September last year after the slain journalists widow, Asha Ranjan, and his father Radhe Krishna Chaudhary named the former MP as the killer. The suspicion over Shahbuddins involvement came to the fore after names of two of his henchmen, Mohammad Kaif and Mohammad Javed, surfaced in the case. The CBI on August 22 filed a chargesheet against Shahabuddin in the case. This was a supplementary chargesheet filed by the CBI against Shahabuddin and six other accused in a special CBI court in Muzaffarpur (Bihar). The agency had filed its earlier chargesheet against one accused in December 2016. The findings provide support for both sides of the debate. Youth may be trying e-cigarettes before smoking because they are easier to access. (Photo: Pixabay) E-cigarettes - often touted as a tool to help smokers kick the butt - may encourage high school students to start smoking regularly in later life, a study has found. The study, published in the journal Canadian Medical Association Journal, included 44,163 students from 89 school. Researchers from University of Waterloo in Canada looked at e-cigarette use and classified students into 6 categories: current daily smokers, current occasional smokers, former smokers, experimental smokers, puffers and those who had never tried smoking. Among students in both study phases, youth who used e- cigarettes in the 30 days prior to the start of the study were more likely to start smoking cigarettes and to continue smoking after one year, a finding consistent with other similar study types. At the same time, the prevalence of smoking decreased slightly over time. This means that if e-cigarettes are promoting youth smoking, the overall impact has been modest to date, researchers said. "Youth may be trying e-cigarettes before smoking because they are easier to access: until recently, youth could legally purchase e-cigarettes without nicotine, whereas regular cigarettes cannot be sold to young people under 18 years of age," said David Hammond, from University of Waterloo in Canada. The findings provide support for both sides of the debate. It is highly plausible that common factors account for a substantial proportion of increased cigarette-smoking initiation among e-cigarette users. At the same time, it would be foolhardy to dismiss the likelihood that early exposure to nicotine via e-cigarettes increases smoking uptake, researchers said. "While our study provides strong evidence that e- cigarettes are associated with smoking initiation among youth, the association is unclear," said Hammond. "E-cigarettes may help to re-normalise smoking; however, the association between e-cigarettes and smoking may simply reflect common factors rather than a causal effect: the same individual and social risk factors that increase e-cigarette use may also increase the likelihood of youth smoking," he said. The brawl between the MNS activists and the hawkers occurred after Mr Nirupams address to hawkers in which he asked them to resist MNSs actions. Mumbai: Malad police on Sunday registered a case against city Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam for allegedly addressing a hawkers rally without requisite permissions, a day after a few hawkers assaulted MNS activists that led to the hospitalisation of one of them, Sushant Malavde who heads the partys Malad unit and was conducting an anti-hawkers drive. The brawl between the MNS activists and the hawkers occurred after Mr Nirupams address to hawkers in which he asked them to resist MNSs actions. Several MNS leaders had accused Mr Nirupam of instigating the hawkers against MNS. Meanwhile, 18 MNS activists, who were arrested by the police on Saturday for vandalising hawkers stalls outside Malad railway station, procured bail from a court today. On Sunday, certain MNS activists vandalised hawkers stall situated outside the Vashi station in the evening. According to Malad police officials, there are three different cases lodged by them --- one of them is against seven hawkers who allegedly beat up MNS, second is against 18 MNS workers who allegedly went to vandalise and beat up hawkers after their act and third is against Mr Nirupam. The case against Mr Nirupam was registered under sections related to 143 (Whoever is a member of an unlawful assembly), 149 (Every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), among others. Mr Nirupam said, I have sympathy for MNS workers. The hawkers would not have attacked the MNS workers, but MNS is doing Goondaraj. I am constantly following up with government to apply Hawkers Safety Law. The hawkers are capable enough to retaliate against any aggression from MNS. The order had asked the corporation to remove a fire engine stationed in the park. Mumbai: The Bombay high court came down heavily on the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Monday for not complying with a June 19 order to restore status quo with regards to Priyadarshani park in South Mumbai. The order had asked the corporation to remove a fire engine stationed in the park. The order was passed after Malabar hill residents objected to the fire engine as it obstructed their walking track and playing area for children. However, as the BMC failed to remove the engine since June 19 and did not challenge the order, the court observed that the corporation was adamant and hence it would initiate contempt proceedings against it. The court refused to hear the arguments of the corporation and asked it to remove the vehicle within one day. A division bench of chief justice Dr Manjula Chellur and justice M.S. Sonak was hearing a notice of motion in a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the Malabar Hill Citizen Forum through advocate Kalpesh Joshi. The motion had pointed to the fact that the BMC had failed to remove a fire engine placed in Priyadarshini Park despite a high court order. The BMC counsel Anil Sakhare in the presence of additional municipal commissioner Idzez Kundan tried to justify the fire engine, stating that it was necessary to station it there as the nearest fire station was at Nana Chowk and it took 20-25 minutes for a fire tender to reach Malabar Hill. The bench was however not impressed by the argument of the BMC and lashed out at it for not complying with a previous order. If you are adamant and do not think that the orders of the court need to be followed then we will not hesitate in initiating contempt proceedings against the officials, said Dr Chellur. The agency can request its Malaysian counterparts to represent its case in the suit. Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is considering legal options of becoming a party in a case in a Malaysian court that is hearing a suit filed by local citizens demanding the deportation of controversial preacher Zakir Naik. The ED is probing Naik for money laundering, and a chargesheet has been submitted against him and his aides. According to sources, the ED can request its Malaysian counterparts to represent its case in the suit to ensure Naik is brought to the country to face the probe. Naik, who allegedly did not respond to four ED summons served to him, has a permanent resident (PR) visa for Malaysia and was allegedly last seen in Malaysia. There are inputs according to which Naik was in Malaysia in April this year to have discussions with a few intellectuals of that country. The ED is exploring legal avenues to become a party in the proceedings related to a suit in a Malaysia court asking for his deportation, said an ED official. The suit was filed in a Kuala Lumpur court in March by local human rights activists seeking a government declaration that Naik was allegedly a threat to Malaysias security. According to inputs, Naik has been allegedly shifting his locations from Malaysia to Saudi Arabia to United Arab Emirates in order to avoid getting into legal tangles that would lead to his deportation to India. When contacted by The Asian Age, Mr Naiks Mumbai-based lawyer Amin Solkar said, I dont know if he (Mr Zakir Naik) is in Malaysia. If the ED or any other agency serves summons to him as per law, we can think about what steps can be taken. He said, If they think he is abroad, the correct way to serve the summons to him will be through his email address. I dont know if this is being done. Naiks media advisor Aarif Malik said, I am not in a position to answer questions pertaining to Mr Naik as I have not been in close touch with him. The ED had in April filed a chargesheet against Amir Gazdar, a close aide of Naik, in connection with the money laundering case. ED officials said the first summons was sent to his Mumbai-based residence and later on three more such notices were mailed on his personal email address asking him to present himself for questioning in the money-laundering case. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) had also last week filed a chargesheet against Naik for allegedly inciting terror and hate speech at a special court in Mumbai. Nirupam plans to lead hawkers silent protest in Dadar today. Mumbai: In the backdrop of a volatile situation related to recent incidents of confrontation between Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) activists and hawkers around suburban railway stations in the city, Mumbai Congress has decided to hold the agitation in Dadar on Tuesday. Mumbai Congress chief Sanjay Nirupam along with the hawkers in the city will hold a silent march in Dadar to protest against MNS action. In reply, the MNS workers protested in front of Mr Nirupams house and tried to set a stall there. The political battle between the MNS and the Mumbai Congress is becoming aggressive day by day. After the police registered a complaint against Mr Nirupam for instigative speech in Malad West on Saturday, The Congress leader has decided to take the battle in MNSs bastion, ie. Dadar. On Tuesday, he is planning a hawkers rally against MNS. This will be a silent march. The attempt to take the law into their hands and indirect government protection to MNS is exposed now. We will fight this battle for poor hawkers, said Mr Nirupam. The MNS also continued its aggressive stand on Monday. In reply to Mr Nirupam, MNS workers held a protest at Nirupams house in western suburban. They also tried to set the stall in front of Mr Nirupam's house but the police didn't allow it. Mr Nirupam is playing with the life of lakhs of Mumbaikars. There is a strong law against illegal hawkers. We are just demanding its implementation. Opposition for the sake of politics is not good for the city, said MNS leader Sandeep Deshpande. Meanwhile, on Saturday, a group of hawkers had allegedly attacked MNS leader Sushant Malavade in Malad. The MNS leaders have alleged the involvement of Congress leaders in this attack but the Congress has denied this. Accusation against Spacey came after more than 50 women accused movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of misconduct. LOS ANGELES: Kevin Spacey came out as gay early Monday and apologized to actor Anthony Rapp, who accused the Hollywood star of making a sexual advance on him at a 1986 party when he was only 14 years old. Spacey's announcement, posted on his Twitter account at midnight, came after Rapp -- best known for being part of the original cast of the hit Broadway musical "Rent" -- made the accusation in an interview with Buzzfeed News. Spacey, 58, a double Oscar winner and star of the Netflix series "House of Cards," said he did not remember the encounter but that "if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior." He went on say that Rapp's accusation "encouraged me to address other things about my life." "As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behavior." Rapp, 46, told Buzzfeed that in 1986, while both he and Spacey were performing in Broadway shows, Spacey invited the then 14-year-old to a party at his New York apartment. Spacey would have been 26 at the time. Rapp said he was in Spacey's bedroom watching TV when Spacey appeared in the doorway at the end of the night, "kind of swaying" and apparently drunk. Rapp said Spacey picked him up, put him on the bed and lay on top of the teenaged boy. "He was trying to seduce me," Rapp told Buzzfeed. "I don't know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually." Rapp said he squirmed away after a brief period of time and went into the bathroom. Shortly after, he left Spacey's apartment and went home. Rapp's accusation came after more than 50 women accused movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of misconduct including rape, sexual abuse and harassment. His accusers include stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and Mira Sorvino. The now-disgraced tycoon was sacked as co-chairman of The Weinstein Company and also resigned from its board. The twice-married father of five has so far denied forcing himself on his accusers. He is being investigated by authorities in Los Angeles, New York and London. Pope Francis' call to the space station was the second of its kind, had conversation on peaceful topics.. "You see the thinness of the atmosphere, it makes you realise how fragile our existence here is," said ISS Commander Randy Bresnik. The cold-call pope is setting his sights set heavenward by ringing astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Pope Francis' hookup Thursday marks the second papal phone call to space: Pope Benedict XVI rang the space station in 2011, and peppered its residents with questions about the future of the planet and the environmental risks it faced. Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli was aboard the orbiting lab for that call and will be on hand to chat with Francis, who considered a career in chemistry before becoming a priest. International Space Station Commander Randy Bresnik has told Pope Francis that his greatest joy working on the orbiting lab is being able to "see God's creation maybe a little bit from his perspective." Francis and Bresnik spoke on Thursday during a phone call between the Vatican and six crew members currently in the space station. The pope asked the crew three Americans, two Russians and an Italian what gives them the most joy in their work. Bresnik, a US Marine who flew combat missions during the Iraq war, said what strikes him is that in space there are "no borders, there is no conflict, it's just peaceful." The astronaut said: "People cannot come up here and see the indescribable beauty of our Earth and not be touched in their souls." He added: "You see the thinness of the atmosphere, it makes you realise how fragile our existence here is." Pope Francis has praised Russia's "humanistic and religious" understanding of the power of love, during a phone call with Russian, American and Italian crew members of the International Space Station. During the Thursday hookup, Francis asked the crew how they understand Dante's verse that love is the force that moves the universe. Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin replied by noting that he had been reading St. Exupery's "The Little Prince" while in space and was taken by the child's understanding of love. He told Francis "Love is the force that gives you strength to give your life for someone else." Francis praised his response, saying "It's clear you have understood the message that St. Exupery so poetically explained, and that you Russians have in your blood, in your humanistic and religious tradition." Francis' papacy has been marked by his concern for the environment, as well as his firm belief in the compatibility of faith and science. It was a fellow Jesuit, the Rev. Georges Lemaitre, who first hypothesized the Big Bang theory in 1927. With Islam is presented by controversial intellectual reformer Islam Behairy. Although Al-Azhar advocates tolerance and moderate Islam in conferences, it also routinely asks for programmes and shows in which secular Egyptians criticise current Islamic practices or heritage to be banned. (Photo: Youtube) Cairo: An Egyptian court ruled Sunday that a television programme deemed contrary to Islamic law should not be broadcast, following a request from the countrys highest institution of Sunni Islam. Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb of Al-Azhar had demanded that the authorities ban With Islam presented by controversial intellectual reformer Islam Behairy and aired by private channel Al Qahera Wel Nass. Al-Azhar accuses Behairy of regularly attacking Islamic law. Although Al-Azhar advocates tolerance and moderate Islam in conferences, it also routinely asks for programmes and shows in which secular Egyptians criticise current Islamic practices or heritage to be banned. Behairy has infuriated Al-Azhars traditional clergy in the past with attacks on canonical religious books and some of Sunni Islams most important scholars. He served a year in prison for insulting religion before being released in late 2016 under a presidential pardon. Behairy can still appeal against the ban on his broadcasts. The charges are the first in Robert Mueller's investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. Manafort has been one of Mueller's prime targets. Earlier this year, FBI agents raided Manafort's home. (Photo: AP) Washington: President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, have surrendered to federal authorities Monday, according to sources. The charges are the first in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. The New York Times on Monday reported that Manafort and Gates were ordered to surrender, citing an anonymous person involved in the case. The Associated Press confirmed that Gates would turn himself in. Gates is expected in court to face charges later in the day, a person familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss an ongoing federal probe on the record. The White House declined to comment. Read: Speculation over first arrest in US probe into Russian meddling, Trump calls it witch hunt Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to tip the 2016 presidential election. Manafort has been one of Mueller's prime targets. Earlier this year, FBI agents raided Manafort's home, searching for tax and international banking records. Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. That investigation was incorporated into Mueller's broader probe. In Gates, Mueller brings in not just Manafort's chief deputy, but a key player from Trump's campaign who survived past Manafort's ouster last summer. As of two weeks ago, Gates was still working for Tom Barrack, a Trump confidant, helping with the closeout of the inauguration committee's campaign account. Many delegates will be hoping that by the next presidential election Trump either backs down or a new president has embraced the agreement. Rather ambitiously, Washington wants to handcuff its biggest geopolitical rivals to their commitments. (Photo: AFP) Washington: Facing 195 other countries who have chosen a different path, the task of US negotiators at upcoming climate talks in Bonn is unenviable. Donald Trump has vowed to exit the Paris Climate accord, just not yet, leaving US policy in limbo for the next three years until Washington can officially leave. So, it falls to Thomas Shannon - a respected career diplomat - to this week lead a delegation into talks aimed at implementing an agreement the US is set to abandon. "It is a strange situation, I don't think I have seen anything like it in my almost 30 years of following this process," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based non-profit working on environmental issues. The Trump administration says it will still turn up, hoping to protect America's interests and put "America first." Rather ambitiously, Washington wants to handcuff its biggest geopolitical rivals to their commitments. A White House official said it wants "to ensure the rules are transparent and fair, and apply to countries like China and other economic competitors to the United States." But Shannon and his team might find themselves on shaky ground. Ben Rhodes, a former aide to president Barack Obama, believes Washington has abandoned any leverage it once had. "The rest of the world has no incentive to make concessions to the US since we are now entirely isolated," he said "My expectation is that the rest of the world will simply continue within the Paris framework and wait and see what happens in the US in 2020. "The danger is that other countries are less ambitious in their own commitments and implementation plans because they have the excuse of the US leaving," he added. - Next election - Many delegates will be hoping that by a November 4, 2020 deadline - one day after the next presidential election - Trump either backs down or a new president has embraced the agreement. Either scenario is entirely possible. The White House has given itself ample wiggle room, saying the United States intends to withdraw "unless the president can identify terms that are more favorable to American businesses, workers, and taxpayers." That leaves open a broad range of possibilities that would not wreck the deal, including scaling back Obama's national plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent by 2025 compared to 2005 levels. But for now, the most supportive American voices come from outside the administration - in the cities, states and companies, many of whom will likely implement their requirements regardless. Billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is on the front line of the Paris accord's cheerleaders, determined to help meet US commitments whatever the position of the White House. "That's kind of a new plot here," said Meyer. "You did not have that kind of force in place when president Bush announced he was withdrawing from Kyoto in 2001." The key question is whether they can keep the flame alive for another three years. Wangs visit is regarded significant as it would set the tone for Mr Xis policy approach to India in his second term. Beijing: Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi will travel to New Delhi in December to attend the Russia-India-China (RIC) foreign ministers trilateral meeting, in what could be the first high-level Sino-India dialogue after Chinese President Xi Jinping commenced his second term. Mr Wang will visit New Delhi to attend the RIC meeting and hold talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj and meet Indias top leadership, Chinese official sources said when asked about the commencement of India-China dialogue ties as Mr Xi began his second term. The once-in-a-five-year Congress of the ruling Communist Party of China which concluded here last week endorsed a second five-year term for 64-year-old Mr Xi and elected a new set of leaders to rule the country for the next five years. While no dates were mentioned for Mr Wangs visit, officials said that he would attend the RIC meeting in December, which will also provide an opportunity for talks on bilateral ties in the aftermath of the 73-day standoff at Doklam which ended on August 28. In September, Mr Xi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met on the sidelines of the Brics Summit in the Chinese port city of Xiamen, and agreed to move forward. Media reports previously said that the RIC meeting was planned for April this year, but Mr Wang did not confirm dates in the backdrop of Chinas protests over the Dalai Lama visiting Arunachal Pradesh in the same month. China claims Arunachal Pradesh as part of South Tibet. Mr Wangs visit is regarded significant as it would set the tone for Mr Xis policy approach to India in his second term. Since Mr Xi took over in late 2012, bilateral relations were bogged down over his ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which includes the controversial $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). India has protested to China over CPEC as it traversed through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and boycotted the high-profile Belt and Road Forum (BRF) held by China in May. Chinese officials say BRI under which China has invested $560 billion overseas has assumed new significance as it has been included in the CPC Constitution during its Congress. In an apparent attempt to push BRI on the top of Chinas diplomatic agenda, its top diplomat Yang Jiechi, 67, has been elevated to the new Politburo, a high-ranking body of the CPC though he was due to retire early next year. Mr Yang was the Special Representative of the India-China border talks along with National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. In view of Mr Yangs elevation, Mr Wang may succeed him as state councillor in March next year and takeover as the top diplomat, according to the speculation. In Chinese diplomatic hierarchy, state councillor has higher rank than the foreign minister. Besides BRI, the Doklam standoff has dented the ties. Mr Wangs visit also takes place after US President Donald Trumps South Asia policy which warrants Pakistan, Chinas close ally, to dismantle the terror safe havens on its soil. Chinese officials say Mr Trumps visit here on November 8 may provide more clarity to his policy towards the region. More than 2,000 Army supporters, including Buddhist nationalists and monks, took part in the march. Yangon, Myanmar: Thousands of people have marched in Yangon to show support for Myanmars military, which has come under heavy criticism over violence that has driven hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims to flee from Rakhine state to neighboring Bangladesh. More than 2,000 Army supporters, including Buddhist nationalists and monks, took part in the march on Sunday. More than 600,000 Rohingya from northern Rakhine have fled to Bangladesh since August 25, when Myanmar security forces began a scorched-earth campaign against Rohingya villages. Myanmars government has said it was responding to attacks on police outposts by insurgents, but the United Nations and others have said the response was disproportionate. The United Nations has led global condemnation, calling the crackdown a textbook example of ethnic cleansing. US secretary of state Rex Tillerson phoned Army chief Min Aung Hlaing earlier this week to express his concerns at alleged atrocities in Rakhine state and urge a swift and safe return for the Rohingya. But inside Myanmar support for the Army has surged an unlikely turnaround for a once feared and hated institution that ruled for 50 years and whose lawmakers lost heavily in 2015 polls. Those elections sent Aung San Suu Kyis pro-democracy party into power, but the Rohingya crisis has put her government on the backfoot. Demonstrators carried banners lauding Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing and rebuking the international community for pressuring the Tatmadaw as Myanmars Army is known. The Tatmadaw is essential for the country, it protects our ethnic groups, races and religion, Nan Aye Aye Kyi, 54, said as the rally snaked through Yangon to the iconic Sule Pagoda. The Rohingya are not recognised as one of Myanmars patchwork of ethnic groups. Fear of a Muslim takeover of Buddhist-majority Myanmar through Rakhine state has been kindled over decades by the Army, which is now casting itself as saviour of the nation. The US is weighing targeted sanctions against key military leaders. Together they called upon North Korea to refrain from irresponsible provocations. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford hosted his South Korean and Japanese counterparts at the US Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii on Sunday. (Photo: AP) Seoul: Senior defence officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan held trilateral talks and urged North Korea to walk away from its destructive and reckless path of weapons development, the United States military said in a statement. Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford hosted his South Korean and Japanese counterparts at the US Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii on Sunday to exchange views on North Koreas recent long-range ballistic missile and nuclear tests. Together they called upon North Korea to refrain from irresponsible provocations that aggravate regional tensions, and to walk away from its destructive and reckless path of development, the statement said. During the meeting, the leaders also discussed current political scenario and future strategy for the PML-N, party sources said. Islamabad: Ousted Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs brother Shehbaz Sharif the incumbent Punjab chief minister is set to take over as the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) president soon. PML-N sources said that Shehbaz Sharif was likely to be given charge of the ruling party as senior party leaders met in London on Monday. During the meeting, the leaders also discussed current political scenario and future strategy for the PML-N, party sources said. Nawaz Sharif, who is facing National Accountability Bureau (NAB) references in Pakistan, left for London from Jeddah on Sunday while his brother Shehbaz reached London on the same day. Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and foreign minister Khawaja Asif also arrived in London from Islamabad while federal minister for finance Ishaq Dar, who was summoned by the accountability court for the hearing of NAB asset reference on Monday, also joined them. A senior PML-N leader revealed that Nawaz Sharif was expected to return from London to Pakistan on November 2 to attend accountability court hearing on November 3. Later on Monday, Mr Sharif said that there was no minus-Nawaz formula being considered by the party. Speaking to reporters in London after a meeting of top PML-N leaders there, Nawaz refuted rumours of rifts within the party, the Express News reported. Mr Sharif said that he would appear before an accountability court on November 3 in connection with National Accountability Bureau (NAB) references against him. I can see and understand whats going on but I will still return to Pakistan to face the court, he added. The PML-N chief said he was denied a fair trial in the Panamagate scandal, as he was disqualified over an iqama (UAE work permit) instead of the actual case itself. Meanwhile, the NAB court issued bailable warrant to arrest Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as he failed to appear before Accountability Court on Monday. The accountability court issued summon for the federal minister to appear before the court hearing a reference of assets beyond known sources of income on November 2. The court turned down an application of exemption from the appearance presented by Mr Dars counsel Khawaja Haris and issued arrest warrant for his client on request by NAB prosecutor. In earlier hearing, the accountability court ordered to freeze his assets possessed on NABs request in corruption reference of assets beyond known sources of income. NAB Chairman Javed Iqbal froze the assets of the finance minister and requested the NAB court to corroborate the step. The court gave a go-ahead to the step and issued a notice to the minister to this effect. During previous proceedings, the witnesses of the prosecution Abdul Rahman and Masoodul Ghani submitted the details of Mr Dars bank accounts. Abdul Rahman said he had two sacks full of record. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to London to mark the anniversary. Balfour Declaration was a 67-word letter from Britain's then foreign secretary Arthur Balfour that threw London's backing behind a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. (Photo: AP) London: Britain's foreign secretary has defended his predecessor's role a century ago in paving the way for the creation of Israel, saying two sovereign states for Israelis and Palestinians remains the "only viable solution" for peace. This Thursday marks the centenary of the Balfour Declaration - a 67-word letter from Britain's then foreign secretary Arthur Balfour that threw London's backing behind a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to London to mark the anniversary. The statement remains controversial, setting off a chain of events that eventually led to Israel's formation, the displacement of millions of Palestinians and decades of strife between the two communities that continues to this day. "I am proud of Britain's part in creating Israel," current Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wrote in the Telegraph newspaper on Sunday, adding the document was "indispensable to the creation of a great nation". But he warned that one of the key caveats of the Balfour Declaration - that the rights of non-Jewish communities shall be protected - "has not been fully realised". In the article, Johnson said he was writing his thoughts down in the same room Balfour used a century ago. He praised the 1917 letter for its "incontestable moral goal: to provide a persecuted people with a safe and secure homeland." London, he added, remained committed to a two-state solution. "I have no doubt that the only viable solution to the conflict resembles the one first set down on paper by another Briton, Lord Peel, in the report of the Royal Commission on Palestine in 1937, and that is the vision of two states for two peoples," he wrote. The borders, he added, should be as they were before the Six Day war in 1967, with Jerusalem "a shared capital" and "equal land swaps to reflect the national, security, and religious interests of the Jewish and Palestinian peoples." "A century on, Britain will give whatever support we can in order to close the ring and complete the unfinished business of the Balfour Declaration," he wrote. The GCC is a political and economic union including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait. In an interview airing Sunday, Qatar's emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani accused Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies of seeking to topple his government. (Photo: AP) Dubai: Bahrain's foreign minister today suggested suspending Qatar's Gulf Cooperation Council membership until it accepts the demands of its Arab adversaries in the region's worst crisis in years. "The correct step to preserve the GCC would be to freeze Qatar's membership until it sees reason and accepts the demands of our countries. If not, we will be fine with it leaving the GCC," Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said on Twitter. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt on June 5 severed ties with Qatar over accusations of supporting extremism and being too close to Shiite rival Iran, charges Doha has denied. Founded in 1981, the GCC is a political and economic union that includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as Oman and Kuwait. Experts have warned that the nearly five-month-long diplomatic crisis could cause the six-nation bloc's demise. Saudi Arabia and its allies in June issued Qatar with a list of demands including shutting down Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera, curbing relations with Iran and closing a Turkish military base in the emirate. "Bahrain will not attend a summit with Qatar, which becomes closer to Iran each day and brings foreign forces (to its soil), dangerous steps for the security of GCC countries," Sheikh Khalid said. GCC members are supposed to meet before the end of the year, but the crisis could see the bloc's annual meeting postponed or cancelled. After severing ties with Doha, Riyadh and its allies closed land and maritime borders, suspended air links and expelled Qatari citizens. In an interview airing Sunday, Qatar's emir accused Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies of seeking to topple his government. "They want a regime change. It's... so obvious," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani told CBS's 60 Minutes. "History as well tells us, teaches us they tried to do that before, in 1996 after my father became the emir. So, and they made it also so obvious in the last couple of weeks." An intention was expressed by the American side that was not approved by President Rouhani, an official said. In 2013, then US President Barack Obama and Rouhani spoke by telephone, the highest-level contact between the two countries in decades, prompting an outcry from Iranian hardliners. (Photo: AFP) Tehran: Foreign ministry says that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani turned down a meeting with President Donald Trump during his visit to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly in September. The Sunday report by the semi-official ILNA news agency quotes ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as saying an intention was expressed by the American side that was not approved by President Rouhani, in reference to the alleged meeting request. In 2013, then US President Barack Obama and Rouhani spoke by telephone, the highest-level contact between the two countries in decades, prompting an outcry from Iranian hardliners. Since then there has been no such communication between Tehran and Washington, which officially severed diplomatic ties in 1979. Australia disallows asylum seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores, detaining them in camps in Papua New Guinea. Australia has already said it would spend up to A$250 million ($195 million) housing the nearly 800 refugees and asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea for the next 12 months after its controversial detention centre closes. (Photo: AP) Sydney: Australia will not be allowed to walk away from legal, financial and moral responsibility for nearly 800 men when it closes its asylum seeker detention centre in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Tuesday, PNGs immigration minister said. Human rights advocates are warning of a looming humanitarian crisis when the Manus Island centre closes if the men are not properly resettled, with hundreds of the detainees refusing to leave the centre for fear of being targeted by locals. PNG Immigration Minister Petrus Thomas said late on Sunday that Australia will remain responsible for the welfare of the men that have been detained in the Australian-funded centre for more than four years. Australia refuses to allow asylum seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores, detaining them in camps in PNG and Nauru in the South Pacific. The United Nations and rights groups have for years cited human rights abuses among detainees in the centres. It is PNGs position that as long as there is one individual from this arrangement that remains in PNG, Australia will continue to provide financial and other support to PNG to manage the persons transferred under the arrangement until the last person leaves or is independently resettled in PNG, Thomas said in an emailed statement. Australia has already said it would spend up to A$250 million ($195 million) housing the nearly 800 refugees and asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea for the next 12 months after its controversial detention centre closes. The Manus centre is scheduled to close on Tuesday, after being declared illegal by a PNG court, with 600 men set to be moved to three new transit camps. Just under 200 men have already relocated. Despite threats that basic services like electricity and water will be cut off, the remaining detainees are refusing to move, citing fears for their safety. Fears of violence have been stoked further after PNG sent extra security forces to the camp. The relocation of the men is designed as a temporary measure, allowing the United States time to complete vetting of refugees as part of a refugee swap deal. The United States has agreed to take up to possibly 1,250 refugees from Australias two Pacific detention centres, but so far only 25 men from Manus have been resettled. In exchange, Australia said it will resettle Central American refugees. Australia has said those detainees not resettled in the United States will be allowed to stay in PNG or the tiny Pacific island of Nauru. But nearly all have refused invitations to settle permanently in both locations. Thomas said PNG will not force anyone to remain. It is the responsibility of Australia to pursue third country options, he said. Australias acting Prime Minister Julie Bishop said on Monday that Canberra was exploring possible deals for resettlement, but added those who have found not to be refugees should go home. Theyve been found by the (United Nations) not to be owed protection so they should return to their homes, she said. The bulk of the detainees come from war-torn countries such as Syria and Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. by Nirmala Carvalho The ceremony marking the anniversary was held yesterday in Prarthanalaya, Bandra. For the occasion, ten new members joined the lay association. May Jesus Our Divine Master help us become, as Pope Francis says, missionary disciples of Jesus, Card Gracias said. Mumbai (AsiaNews) Centennial celebrations of the foundation of the Pauline Cooperative Association and the Friends of the Divine Master were held yesterday in Prarthanalaya (Bandra), Mumbai. The event saw ten new members inducted in the group. You have one master, one teacher, one father God Jesus, said Card Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Bombay (Mumbai), to those present at the ceremony. The lay association of the "Friends of the Divine Master" was created in 1917 on the initiative of the Blessed Giacomo Alberione. Its members support the Sisters of the Disciple of the Divine Master in the Eucharistic adoration and liturgical apostolate as outreach leaders in the parishes and during the Eucharist. The Pauline Cooperative Association is a foundation of lay people who use social communication libraries, magazines, libraries to promote Jesus the Teacher as the way, truth, and life. The ceremony marking 100 years took place in the presence of a lot of members, enlivened by singing and dancing, including a performance by the Elvis Presley of Mumbai. "Many like the Indian tradition of sitting at the feet of the Master, kneeling in prayer and adoration of Jesus, the only Master, the cardinal said as he noted how the Sisters spend several hours in adoration in the face of the sacrament of the Eucharist. The prelate also quoted Pope Francis, who in the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium writes, "the joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. "We must have this joy of encountering Christ, Jesus is My Master, Our Master, he said. The Divine Master is one who teaches, who empowers, who gives Life. Commit yourself to encountering Jesus. What is more, Knowing Jesus, means, loving and following Jesus and also telling others about Jesus. The joy of our personal encounter with Jesus will overflow and influence our ability to bring Jesus to others. Card Gracias then called on people to speak about Jesus who is the way, truth and life. Wake up the World with the Light of the Gospel. Being a Friend, he said addressing the ten new members, means we must deepen everyday our relationship with Jesus, talking to Him, accompanying Him. Allow Jesus to live in you and you in Him, [. . .] May Jesus Our Divine Master help us become, as Pope Francis says, missionary disciples of Jesus. by Kamel Abderrahmani A monument to the saintly pope in Ploermel, Morbihan (Brittany), is at the centre of a controversy because it is topped by a cross. Frances Council of State has ordered its removal to defend secularism. On social media, people have reacted with the #MontreTaCroix (show your cross) hashtag. Paris (AsiaNews) "French secularism is targeting John Paul II," writes Kamel Abderrahmani, a young Algerian Muslim studying in France after Frances Council of State ordered the removal of a cross on top of a monument dedicated to John Paul II in the town of Ploermel, Morbihan (Brittany). Erected in 2006, the monument was immediately criticised by secularists for violating the separation between State and Church and because the cross was too "ostentatious". The Council of State ordered only the elimination of the cross and not of the entire monument (which includes the statue), as demanded by secularist groups. However, for many people the cross is part of the monument. On social media, a campaign has started with the #MontreTaCroix (show your cross) hashtag, which is gathering tens of thousands of supporters. What is interesting is that here a Muslim defends the cross, whilst in other contexts, many Muslims demand the elimination of Christian symbols. For Kamel Abderrahmani, secularism wants to " wants to erase the Christian character of French society" and cause conflict with religion". French secularism is targeting Pope John Paul II. The Larousse dictionary defines secularism as the conceptualisation and organisation of society based on the separation of Church and State that excludes Churches from the exercise of any political or administrative power, in particular from the organisation of education". In other words, in a secular state, religion does not intervene in politics, politics remains neutral vis-a-vis religions, and the state recognises the existence of one or more religions but none has the right to interfere in its affairs. It would seem that this conception of secularism is starting to decline if not disappear. Secularism is being exploited today for the wrong reasons, and if this continues, it will become the enemy of religions. We are witnessing a serious shift in French secularism. Otherwise, how can we explain that even the Christian origin of French society is attacked! In Ploermel, in the Morbihan department of Brittany, his holiness Pope John Paul II is out of favour. The Council of State recently ordered the mayor of the town to remove the cross at the top of the statue of the pope. The monument, which is almost eight metres high, was erected in 2006 in a public square in Ploermel. It was donated by Russian sculptor Zurab Tsereteli to then-mayor Paul Anselin. Since its installation, the statue has continued to be subject of controversy and tensions in this small Morbihan town. After a secularist association (Federation de la libre-pensee, Federation of Free Thought) filed a complaint, the Administrative Court in Rennes on 30 April 2015 ordered the mayor of Ploermel to remove the statue on the grounds that the arch was topped with a cross, "symbol of the Christian religion", and was of "an ostentatious nature". The ruling was reversed eight months later by the Administrative Court of Appeal in Nantes. Last Wednesday, the Council of State (Conseil dEtat) decided to annul the appeal court ruling and ordered the removal of the cross, but not the whole statue. According to the Council, the cross, unlike the arch, "constitutes a sign or religious emblem whose installation is contrary to Article 28 of the law of 9 December 1905 on the separation of State and Church. The town has six months to dismantle the monuments cross. It will also have to pay 3,000 euros to the complainants. A cross contrary to the law of 1905! Congratulations to the legislators of the Council of State. Are we witnessing a shift in French secularism? In the past, they attacked Muslims and Jews, and today they are attacking Catholicism. No religion seriously threatens secularism. This kind of secularism that wants to erase the Christian character of French society and pit secularism against religion may have negative consequences. I think that Christians must react to keep this cross, because a cross, above the head of the holy man that was John Paul II, does not bother Jews or Muslims, or the law of 1905. by Louis Raphael Sako* Mar Sako denounces the new wave of violence that has hit "the towns of Nineveh." Many residents have fled and breathe a "renewed atmosphere of anxiety and fear". Kurdish President Barzani announces his retirement. And he charges Baghdad, Washington and internal opponents, guilty of treason. Baghdad (AsiaNews) - The referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan has triggered a new wave of violence investing the "Christian citizens of Nineveh plain." The result is that "many inhabitants" have "fled", creating a "renewed atmosphere of anxiety and fear", which will eventually "give rise to new divisions and prevent the reconstruction and return of people to their homes, stresses the Chaldean primate Louis Raphael Sako, in an appeal published on the patriarchate website and sent to AsiaNews. In the letter, the leader of the Iraqi Church does not hide the danger that this further conflict, on a land already marked by suffering, may give rise to "further migration" of Christians. In a growing tension, the 71-year-old Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani announced his resignation as President of Kurdistan, shortly ahead of the expiration of the mandate scheduled for November 1st. He says he will not look for another term and launches a harsh accusation against the United States and a part of the Kurdish parliament. Barzani reproaches Washington for having already forgotten the Peshmerga's fundamental support in the fight against the Islamic State in Mosul and other areas of Iraq. He is the main promoter and builder of the referendum for independence, in response to which regular Iraqi troops launched an offensive in the territories - including Kirkuk - controlled by the Kurds. In an intervention broadcast on Kurdish TV, he said he wanted to continue "to be a Peshmerga in the ranks of the Kurdish people, who will always defend the victories of the Kurds." Barzani also accused the Baghdad government of violating the truce and the constitution by occupying Kirkuk with force. And he did not spare his criticism - but without explicit references of the rivals of the Kurdistan Patriotic Union for the "betrayal" that led to the loss of Kirkuk (and its oil wells, an essential resource for Erbil). In a framework of tension and violence, the Iraqi Church has again attempted to Invite the parties to dialogue "by analyzing the situation and trying to solve all outstanding issues with a renewed spirit of courage and full responsibility, looking to the good of the country" . Here is the letter of appeal from the Chaldean Patriarch sent to AsiaNews. Christians are not an outside part of Iraq, but they are in fact an indigenous people of the country. Their history, their identity, and their roots sink down over time back thousands of years. Today, despite their decline in numbers due to ethnic and religious violence, threats, seizures, killing, expropriation of land and shelling of their churches, in particular by the Islamic State (IS, formerly Isis) in Mosul and on the Nineveh plains, they seek to preserve their future with dignity and full equality with their Iraqi fellow citizens. Obviously, the displaced Christians of the Nineveh plain, who are trying to return to their native towns, are today experiencing a difficult situation. Seven months ago, Mosul and the plain of Nineveh were freed from the vice of the Islamic State, Isis. However, still today some Christian towns are still emptied of their original inhabitants because of the serious damage inflicted on homes and infrastructure. This is largely due to the inability of the central government to reconstruct it for lack of funds and because it did not want to give Christians the same importance as other priority situations. To date, those who have come back to their homes and where homes and infrastructures have been repaired, have done so thanks to the Church's efforts, albeit her modest resources. The other problem concerns the jurisdiction of the Nineveh plain, which was united, stable and secure until 2003; today, however, it is at the center of a dispute between the Iraqi government and the Kurdish forces. Since the referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan in September last, in which the desire for secession clearly emerged, there have been numerous military-style clashes between the Iraqi army and the popular mobilization militias ( Al-Hashd) on the one hand, and the Peshmerga Kurds on the other. These clashes happened at the borders of the Christian towns of Nineveh, and more recently in Baqofa and Teleskof. In these last episodes innocent children have been injured, and homes of Christian families have been used as defense positions. The result is that many residents of these towns have fled again, creating a renewed atmosphere of anxiety and fear of conflict between Baghdad and Erbil, which will eventually lead to new divisions and prevent reconstruction and return of people to their homes. All this will result in further migration abroad. In order to preserve the cultural and demographic diversity of Iraq, which has contributed historically to the renaissance and vitality of the country, we appeal to the Iraqi people to understand how important Christian presence in Iraq is, and what motivates them to emigrate. This would be a very serious loss for everyone in Iraq. To achieve these goals of security and stability, we ask you to: 1. Remove the Nineveh plain from the battle zones so that it stays united as it was until 2003; the central government must resume control of most of its towns, so that residents can rebuild communities with their neighbors without further clashes. 2. Incorporate the "Guardians of the Nineveh Plain" and other militant groups within the federal police, under the leadership of a united national police force where local members of the Nineveh plain are relocated within the territory, to directly secure the plane's safety. Since they are locals, the locals will certainly have more confidence in them. 3. It is necessary to nurture efforts to maintain stability, security and build trust between all groups of people on the Nineveh plain. All of us must support the uprooting of a culture that rejects the diversity, hate and negation of the other. We must change this lack of support for reconstruction and, on the contrary, pave the way for the return of displaced persons to their homes. In all this, Nineveh's inhabitants should have full access to the state-provided services and assistance in the rehabilitation of their villages, cities, churches and schools, as is the case for the inhabitants of other regions. Finally, we turn to political parties and Christian organizations to fulfill their mission according to a principle of unity, trying to minimize differences in order to reach a common goal and open a new page in such difficult circumstances. And follow the example of the Chaldean patriarchate, which opens its heart to all, for the common good. On this occasion, we warmly appease to the Iraqi Government and the authorities of the Autonomous Region of Kurdistan (Krg), to sit at the dialogue table and to analyze the situation, trying to solve all outstanding issues with a renewed spirit of courage and full responsibility, looking for the good of the country. To do this, both sides must know that the Iraqi people and the Kurdish people, both suffering, refuse to continue the war. * Chaldean Patriarch of Baghdad and President of the Iraqi Bishops' Conference by Santosh Digal The Grace to Be Born Maternity Home and Nursery is a haven for mothers and orphans, providing hope, food, care and spiritual nourishment during pregnancies. The facility has helped more than 263 mothers and spared the lives of 221 babies. About a thousand women die each year from abortion-related complications. Manila (AsiaNews) - Grace to Be Born is a pro-life movement that unites Catholic women against abortion. Active in the Philippines, it offers alternatives to women facing a difficult pregnancy and want to abort. In 2009, Bo Sanchez, Rey Ortega, Ditas Espanol and other members of the Light of Jesus community set up the Grace to Be Born Maternity Home and Nursery. Betty Roxas-Chua, the organisations vice president, says the facility operates as a temporary shelter for unmarried mothers and as an orphanage. It covers maternity costs and takes care of children abandoned in the streets and government hospitals. The home helps girls and women in crisis like Mary, a 13-year-old victim of incest, who saw abortion as a way to escape from her personal misfortune but instead found during her pregnancy hope, food, care and spiritual nourishment at Grace to Be Born. The home also offers girls and women vocational training so that they can subsequently have a source of income and be able to maintain their child. In total, more than 263 mothers received help and 221 babies were spared. "When the women are here, they renew themselves, for their family and their baby," said Roxas-Chua. According to pro-life doctors, the girls and women have to deal with the mental and psychological consequences that come with abortion. Grace to Be Born saves children and helps mothers realise their dreams, like Annas, a young woman deserted by her boyfriend after she told him about the unexpected pregnancy. After turning to the home, she was able to go back to school after having her baby, and eventually earn a Bachelor of Science in Social work. The Catholic Church of the Philippines is strongly opposed to the legalisation of abortion in the country, stressing the importance of respecting and protecting human life from conception. From the very first moment of their existence, human beings have the same rights as persons, including the inalienable right to life. The Philippiness law on abortion is among the strictest in the world. Abortion is illegal in all circumstances and there are no exceptions. However, due to a high rate of unintended pregnancies, abortion is widespread. Almost all abortions are clandestine and pose serious risks to the health of women who resort to it. According to the Guttmacher Institute, about 1,000 women die each year in the Philippines from complications related to abortion, a practice that contributes to the countrys high maternal mortality rate. According to projections based on the 2000 data, about 100,000 women were hospitalised in 2012 due to abortion-related problems out of 610,000 who had an abortion. Today, a Shiv Sena editorial states that India belongs to the Hindus. Since the Bharatiya Janata Party has been in power, the violence against the Christians has intensified. In 2015, 365 episodes of violence occurred. New Delhi (AsiaNews / Agencies) - India is primarily a Hindu country, and then all others according to the Hindu radicals of Shiv Sena, Bjp (Bharatiya Janata Party) in Maharashtra. With an editorial published this morning on "Saamana," the group's press organ, they say: "There are more than 50 countries for Muslims. Christians have countries like America and Europe. Buddhists have China, Japan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Hindus have no country other than this. " The editorial resumes and "corrects" what Mohn Bhagwat, the head of the RSS (Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh, Hindu ultranationalist paramilitary formation) said last October 27. At a conference in Indore, he had said that "Hindustan is a Hindu country, but that does not mean that it does not belong to others", referring to other religious confessions. Nationalists have long argued for the birth of a Hindu Confessional State, even though the Indian constitution guarantees freedom of religion. Since the rise of the Bjp to power in the Union in 2014, episodes of intolerance towards minorities have intensified. Specifically, Christians are accused of extorting conversions, distributing religious material against hinduism, or kidnapping children and tribals to force them to change religion. Citing the data from the report prepared by the Indian Ministry of Internal Affairs, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom reports that in 2015, episodes of violence against Christians were 365, more than three times that of 120 of 2014 These incidents involved more than 8,000 loyalists. The same committee reports that in 2016 the average of the attacks on a Christian religious was 10 per week. In a letter addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 101 Indian intellectuals say that between 2014 and 2016 there have been more than 600 acts of violence. All India Christian Council activists describe the violence in detail: vandalized and burned churches, Christians forced to renounce their faith, interruption of prayers, desecration of tombs and cemeteries. "The greatest shepherd, the Father, taught us how to be a good shepherd: he lowered Himself, emptied himself, abased Himself, took on servant status. "But, and these others, those who follow the path of clericalism, who do they draw near to?" They draw near to those in power or money or influence. And they are the bad shepherds. " Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The good pastor is always close to the people, even to the least, able to move and not ashamed to touch the wounded flesh. Those who follow clericalism are close to power of influence or money, said Pope Francis at Mass at Casa Santa Marta this morning, commenting on the Gospel of Luke, which tells the healing of the crippled woman. One Saturday in Synagogue Jesus meets a woman who has been crippled for years and is unable to stand up straight. The Pope notes how Luke uses five verbs to describe Jesus actions as the good shepherd who is always close to his people. Jesus saw, he called her, he spoke to her, he laid his hands on her and he cured her. But the doctors of the Law, the Pharisees and Sadducees, those who are very distant from their people, rebuke him continuously. These were not good shepherds, the pope explained, as they were closed within their own world and not interested in their people. Or perhaps, he added, they were only interested in them when the service was over and they wanted to see how much money had been collected. Jesus, on the other hand, is close to the woman and this closeness comes from the compassion he feels in his heart. Pope Francis said Jesus was always there with the most marginalized people, those who had been rejected by the clerical crowd, the poor and the sick, the sinners and the lepers. The good shepherd comes close and feels compassion, he said, adding that he is not ashamed to touch the wounded flesh of those marginalized people, just as Jesus did. A good shepherd, the pope insisted, doesnt say, Yes, yes, Im with you in spirit, and keep his distance, but rather he does what God did in sending his Son: he taught us to show mercy and compassion by lowering himself, emptying himself and making himself a servant to others. The clerical crowd, Pope Francis continued, are only close to power and money, making friends with influential people and worrying about their own pockets. They are the hypocrites who are not interested in their people but become offended when Jesus accuses them, saying that they always follow the Law. Luke tells us that the whole crowd rejoiced when Jesus adversaries were humiliated while that is a sin, the pope said, the people were glad because they had suffered so much. But the good shepherd, he concluded, is the one who sees, calls, speaks, touches and heals. Just as God came close to us through Jesus Christ, he said, all of us will be judged by how we try to be close to those who are hungry, sick, in prison or in any kind of need. Four new cheeses from Warrnambool Cheese & Butter Warrnambool Cheese & Butter has released its new Heritage Flavours range of cheeses. The cheeses were developed after taking into consideration the science behind contrasting flavour combinations, according to Product Manager Phillip Forbes-Pryer. With the new Heritage Flavours range we looked at how we could use different sweet, salty, spicy, and creamy flavours to challenge the traditional cheddar, Forbes-Pryer said. The range includes Vintage Cheddar, Lightly Smoked Cheddar, Red Bell Pepper Cheddar and Maple & Toffee Cheddar flavours. All of the cheeses have their own distinctive and exciting flavours, while still maintaining the high quality of the Warrnambool Heritage brand, Forbes-Pryer said. The cheeses are produced at Warrnambool Cheese & Butter, one of the largest employers in south-west Victoria, employing over 650 people. The company has been producing dairy products for over 125 years, making them one of the oldest dairy processors in Australia today. It was acquired by Canadian dairy company Saputo in 2014. Warrnambool Cheese & Butters four new 200g Heritage Flavour cheeses are available for $6.99 at selected IGA Supermarkets. Related articles Murray Goulburn sold to Saputo for $1.3 billion Australian dairy co-operative Murray Goulburn has announced that it has been bought by Saputo for A$1.3 billion. Murray Goulburn, formed in 1950 and home to ten processing plants in Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria is the manufacturer of prominent supermarket brands Devondale, Liddells and Table Cove. Its acquisition by the Canadian company Saputo comes as a result of the significant debt that exists within Murray Goulburn (MG). Saputo have said they would finance the acquisition through a new bank loan. MG chairman John Spark said the weight of debt and significant loss of milk to competitors forced MGs hand. The Directors of MG unanimously recommended that shareholders vote in favour of the transaction. MG dairy farmers to get a say Normally when a company is being sold, its constitution requires a special resolution to be passed by shareholders. In MGs case, this can only occur with the approval rate of 90 per cent in a ballot when more than 0.5 per cent of the company is being sold. In this current circumstance, MGs board have decided to put the decision to a ballot of wet shareholders. These are dairy farmers who are currently supplying the company with milk. The proposed ballot will require a 50 per cent plus one vote majority to pass. Whilst shareholders get a vote, this also lowers the threshold required for the ballot to be successful. Under the Saputo deal, farmers will receive 40 cents a kilogram of milk solids extra payment, for milk supplied this financial year. Active suppliers will also be entitled to an additional 40 cents a kilogram loyalty payment this financial year, as well as a commitment for milk collection and market pricing into the future. The deal represented the best available outcome for the co-operative according to Spark. Securing a sustainable future for MGs loyal suppliers is of paramount importance to the board. We are pleased with the strong milk commitments as part of Saputos offer, he said. Saputo already has a large presence in the Australian market Saputo are a Canadian dairy company committed to strengthening their presence in the Australian market. This acquisition comes after the company won a bidding battle for Warrnambool Cheese & Butter in 2014. The companys other well-known brands in Australia include Coon cheese, Cracker Barrel cheese, Great Ocean Road cheese and milk and Sungold milk. Its latest deal remains subject to approval by MG voting shareholders, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the Foreign Investment Review Board. The sale was announced just hours before MGs annual general meeting in Melbourne, where farmers were said to have voiced their anger over the sale of the company. Related articles Unilever in Streets battle on min. conditions The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union has urged Australian consumers to boycott Streets ice cream brands. Streets are the producers of the popular Paddle Pop, Golden Gaytime, Magnum and Cornetto ice creams. The boycott comes after negotiations between Streets and the companys owner Unilever about a new Enterprise Bargaining Agreement broke down. The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) announced the boycott because of a potential 46 per cent pay cut for factory workers in Minto, New South Wales. Unilever denied that a new agreement would result in a 46 per cent drop in workers pay An in-principle agreement with the unions was reached after 16 months of negotiations but was voted down by employees. Streets workers oppose reversion to minimum award rates Unilever has applied to Fair Work Australia to terminate the current enterprise agreement it has in place for its workers. Streets and Unilever have decided to hit the nuclear button and given workers no choice, AMWU Secretary Steve Murphy said. Unilever Australia & New Zealand general manager of ice cream Anthony Toovey disagreed, saying that if anyone has their finger on the nuclear button it is the union. We want to keep making Streets locally but the current situation is just not sustainable, he said. The nuclear option that Murphy and Toovey refer to is in reference to section 225 of the Fair Work Act. This allows employers to apply for enterprise Bargaining Agreements that have reached their nominal expiry date to be terminated. This returns workers to minimum award rates. This scenario would not be unprecedented in Australia, as the Fair Work Commission has recently granted these termination applications. Such cases include CFMEU v AGL in 2017 and AMWU v Griffin Coal in 2016. Australian manufacturing is too expensive Unilever released a statement announcing that it wished to create more flexible working conditions and enhance the competitiveness and viability of the factory. It is currently 30 per cent cheaper to import a Magnum from Europe, including 16,000 kilometres of frozen transport rather than make it at Minto, Unilever said. Streets ice cream was founded in the 1920s in the Wollongong suburb of Corrimal. The company launched its popular Paddle Pop ice cream in the 1950s, which is the worlds best-selling ice cream per capita. Related articles Students, backpackers and people newly arrived to work in Australia are being reminded that there are new fair work laws now in place which should protect them from exploitation.Overseas workers, including students and backpackers working part time, can become victims of unscrupulous employers who take advantage of the fact that they may not be aware of employment law.But the recently introduced Fair Work Amendment (Protecting Vulnerable Workers) Act 2017 means there are new, higher penalties for serious contraventions of workplace laws and record keeping breaches.The Fair Work Ombudsman has published a range of information and resources on its website at www.fairwork.gov.au aimed at assisting all workplace participants to understand and comply with their obligations.'In passing the new laws, the Parliament has reflected the community's concerns about deliberate exploitation of vulnerable workers,' said Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James.In one recent case two British backpackers working on a farm contacted the Fair Work Ombudsman when they became concerned that they were being underpaid. It was discovered that the flat rate they were being paid for the work on a crocodile farm in Queensland was indeed too low. They received more than $13,000 in back pay following an investigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman.But there are concerns that students in particular can be exploited. James pointed out that of all the groups that contact the ombudsman the number of overseas students is disproportionately low compared to other visa categories.'We know that international students can be reluctant to speak out when something is wrong, making them particularly vulnerable to exploitation. This is especially the case when students think that seeking assistance will damage future job prospects or lead to the cancellation of their visa,' said James.'We've seen cases where employers have threatened international students with deportation for working more than the number of hours permitted under their visa when they have raised questions about their entitlements,' she explained.'In some cases these same employers have altered payslips and underpaid hourly rates in order to disguise the number of hours the student has worked. I would like to reassure international students that in line with an agreement between my agency and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, you can seek our assistance without fear of your visa being cancelled, even if you've worked more hours than you should have under your visa,' she added. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. New business brings more traffic to any area, but in south Tampa where a new grocery store opened three years ago, the traffic has yet to subside. Dale Mabry Highway and Swann Avenue especially busy on weekends FDOT looking at dangerous intersection Have a Traffic Inbox story for Chuck? Click here There were big traffic headaches at the intersection of Dale Mabry Highway and Swann Avenue before Trader Joe's opened its doors. According to Bay News 9 viewer Don Berk, it is not better today. "It is dangerous, especially on the weekend, because people turn into the parking lot illegally across double yellow lines," Berk said. "When the lot is close to full, people back up the lane of Swann until it crosses Dale Mabry, stopping traffic." Bay News 9 Real Time Traffic Expert Chuck Henson said it's not illegal to make the left turn across the double yellow lines. The double yellow indicates a no passing zone, but that doesn't negate Berk's issue. Jonelle Gauger said some people park at her business, South Beach Tanning Company but then walk into the grocery store. "The traffic is still really bad," she said. "It gets backed up a lot because there's no turning lanes to get into Trader Joe's. People do park here at this business as well." "Managing the situation is complex. The city would be responsible for Swann Avenue, but the state is in charge of Dale Mabry Highway." - Bay News 9 Real Time Traffic Expert Chuck Henson Most of the businesses on the corner have posted "customer only" signs on their lots to keep the store overflow from hurting their customers. There is also an impact on the intersection. "A lot of honking and people yelling and stuff, because they're blocking the intersection and people can't get through," Gauger said. Managing the situation is complex. The city would be responsible for Swann Avenue, but the state is in charge of Dale Mabry Highway. Kris Carson with the Florida Department of Transportation said the agency is looking at the intersection. "We are currently reviewing crash and volume data," Carson said. "There are currently no concepts or designs yet as we are still in the data collection and review stage." It could be years before any major changes to the traffic pattern. Drivers in the area on the weekend but not going to Trader Joes might consider MacDill Avenue or Westshore instead. A trooper and a jet skier helped rescue three people near Sunshine Skyway Bridge after their boat overturned Sunday, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. Trooper, jet skier rescue boaters 3 people spotted atop vessel by trooper Large waves caused boat to overturn Corporal Jim Covert was patrolling the North Rest area near the bridge at 4:30 p.m., when he noticed an overturned boat about 200 yards offshore. Three people were sitting atop the boat, according to FHP. Covert called for assistance, but was told there were no rescue vessels in the area. Covert spotted David Teichman, 26, of St. Petersburg, who was nearby with his jet ski. Teichman traveled to the overturned boat and safely transported the three people to shore. The boaters launched from St. Johns Pass and traveled to the Skyway Bridge when their boat began to take on water, authorities said. The boat was hit by large waves, which caused it to capsize. St. Petersburg Fire Rescue, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission also responded to the scene. Tampa Police will have an increased presence throughout the city on Halloween night, including in Seminole Heights, where three people have been killed recently. Tampa mayor, police chief to spend Halloween evening in Seminole Heights 3 killings remain unsolved in Seminole Heights community PREVIOUS STORY: Seminole Heights remains on edge as murder investigations continue Also, Mayor Bob Buckhorn will join Interim Police Chief Brian Dugan in greeting community members, handing out candy at Giddens Park and then joining neighborhood children for trick-or-treating in the Southeast Seminole Heights area. The mayor and police chief will be at Giddens Park, 5202 N. 12th Street, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Three people have been shot to death in the past two weeks within a 1-mile radius in the normally quiet Seminole Heights neighborhood. Police think the shootings are linked by proximity and time frame, but they don't have a motive or a suspect. Benjamin Mitchell, 22, was killed on Oct. 9. Two days later, 32-year-old Monica Hoffa was killed in a vacant lot. Anthony Naiboa, 20, was shot and killed Oct. 19. Dugan has advised residents not to walk alone in the area, especially after sunset. Residents have expressed concerns about trick-or-treating on Halloween. Dugan responded by saying that Tampa Police officers would have a significant presence in Southeast Seminole Heights on Halloween night, adding that he would join children trick or treating in the community. They will be joined by several Tampa Police officers, including mounted officers on horseback, as well as Florida Highway Patrol troopers. Parents are being asked to accompany their children, and residents are being asked to turn on their porch lights to welcome trick-or-treaters. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Houston's Museum of Natural Science stayed open a bit later on Saturday as hundreds of Houstonians celebrated Halloween in their creative costumes. The museum's 14th annual Spirits & Skeletons Halloween bash hosted guests dressed in their creative costumes, including couple costumes like Dorthy and her tornado, to pop-costumes like "Game of Thrones" characters Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen. EPIC FAILURE: These Halloween costumes went frighteningly wrong "I had an amazing time with my hubs and all my friends at the Museum of Natural Science," Kellie Smith wrote on Instagram. "It was a night to remember." Other Instagram users called the night a "success" and said the museum was "too lit." Now Playing: Your favorite celebrities love to get dressed up for Halloween. Here is a look of the most epic celebrity costumes. Video: Houston Chronicle The majority of the exhibits in the museum were open for guests to explore while the festivities were going on. The infamous dinosaur bones and fossils in the Paleontology exhibit danced the night away as one of the most popular DJ spots in the building. The Paleontology exhibit was among the most photographed locations in the building on Instagram, including the Cabinet Curiosities - which is an interactive exhibit that allows guests to touch fossils, bones, and taxidermy - and the Tourmaline Treasures - which hosts a collection of brilliantly vibrant crystal formations. OTHER CELEBRATIONS: Houston celebrates Halloween at Something Wicked fest With bartenders located throughout the space, the lines for beverages - both alcoholic and nonalcoholic - were manageable, though a bit cluttered with a chance of some people cutting in lines. There were DJs throughout the museum and live band The Space Rockers turned the center of the museum into a dance hall as they sung covers from various genres and artists. To see the sights and costumes of one of Houston's most popular Halloween parties, go through the photos above. Heather Leighton is a digital reporter at Chron.com. She considers herself as a Jack(ie) of all trades and covers various topics from entertainment to politics. You can read more of her stories here and follow her on Twitter at @loveheathernoel. The Jasper City Council unanimously decided in six minutes on Friday that the police chief should be the one to decide the future employment of the officer who was indicted on a child sexual assault charge. In a short special meeting called on Friday, the Jasper City Council members quickly decided that it is Police Chief Gerald Hall's decision whether or not Officer Lacie Jackson will remain an officer with the city, City Secretary Karen Pumphrey told BeaumontEnterprise.com. The chief executive of Goldman Sachs has raised concerns that the US banking giant may not be able to fill its new European headquarters in London due to Brexit. Lloyd Blankfein took to Twitter on Monday, posting a birds-eye photo of the under-construction headquarters that is set to open in 2019, as he expressed worries over continued uncertainty. The banking boss tweeted: In London. GS still investing in our big new Euro headquarters here. Expecting/hoping to fill it up, but so much outside our control.#Brexit The new office which is being built just off Farringdon Street and near its Peterborough Court headquarters is expected to be around nine storeys high when it is ready to house staff in two years time. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference However, it is understood that Goldman has kept the option of letting out remaining space to other tenants, depending on how much square footage it needs for its local workforce. It is the second time this month that Mr Blankfein has aired his Brexit views on the social media site. On October 19, he detailed a recent trip to Frankfurt, where the US bank is planning to shift a portion of its UK operations after Brexit. He said: Just left Frankfurt. Great meetings, great weather, really enjoyed it. Good, because Ill be spending a lot more time there. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference Goldman Sachs, which employs around 6,500 people in the UK, has previously confirmed that it is looking to at least double its 200-strong employee base in Frankfurt as part of its Brexit contingency plans. Earlier this month it was reported that the group has signed a contract to lease eight floors of a skyscraper in the city, capable of holding 800 staff. The bank has said it is also looking at bolstering its footprint in other financial hubs across the EU. A raft of international banks, insurers and asset managers are preparing to shift portions of their UK operations to the Continent in preparation for Britains divorce from the EU in hopes of safeguarding against the loss of passporting rights which currently give UK-based financial services cross-border access to the bloc. Many have turned to Dublin for a post-Brexit base, while others have reached out to the likes of Paris and Luxembourg. But Frankfurt has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of Brexit so far as London-based financial firms increasingly opt to relocate staff to Germanys financial centre. Standard Chartered has committed to expanding or establishing offices in Germany, Citigroup has notified its bankers of plans to bolster its Frankfurt office, creating 150 jobs, and Morgan Stanley is on track to move as many as 200 staff. Mizuho will join a raft of Japanese banks which have chosen the city as an EU hub, including Daiwa, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) and Nomura. JP Morgan is taking a similar approach to Goldman Sachs by planning to spread staff across a number of European cities, including Frankfurt. Wholesale gas prices in Northern Ireland have fallen by 2% over the last four weeks - but remain more expensive than this time last year, according to a report. The monthly energy report by supplier Vayu said that while September had been expensive for energy prices due to supply problems, prices in October had been better value. For October, the average day ahead price for gas was 45.23p per therm, compared to 42.97p in October 2016. Keith Donnelly, Vayu senior energy analyst, said: "October and the 2017/18 gas year began with massive gains on the prompt market as prices rose by 9% followed by a further 4% on the opening two days of the month. "However, if you looked past the dramatic figures, it becomes clear it was a market correction following unsupported losses on the final trading day of the 2016/17 gas year. "Gains continued through the opening week of the month, driven by fluctuations in Norwegian supplies due to maintenance, an all too similar story over the last number of months. When Norwegian supplies returned, prices fell off by 8% to 10%. "Since then prices have remained fairly consistent, on a slow and steady upward trend." And he said prices would continue along the same pattern, with temperatures above seasonal norms. Meanwhile, he said the wholesale price of electricity was down 17% on a year ago, and was 3% lower than last month. Wind energy had accounted for around 34% of overall electricity generation in Ireland in October, compared to 28% in September. Wind generation peaked on October 21, when it had potential to meet 63% of total electricity demand in Ireland. Kevin Spacey has come under fire for opening up about his sexuality, stating that he is living as a gay man, in a statement in which he apologised for any inappropriate drunken behaviourwith a 14-year-old in 1986. The House Of Cards star and former artistic director of Londons Old Vic theatre tweeted a statement after actor Anthony Rapp accused the 58-year-old of historical harassment. In an interview with BuzzFeed, Rapp said Spacey, then aged 26, placed him on a bed and climbed on top of him following a party at his apartment. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference Spacey said he is beyond horrified by the claim, that he does not remember the alleged incident, which would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour. He said the story has encouraged me to address other things about my life. In the Twitter post, he added: I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fuelled by the fact that I have been so protective of my privacy. As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. Expand Close Anthony Rapp (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) AP/PA Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Anthony Rapp (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behaviour. He was criticised for conflating the two statements. Actor @billyeichner wrote: That Kevin Spacey statement. Nope. Absolutely not. Nope. But honestly I hesitate to make jokes because the Spacey statement is truly disgusting, irresponsible and dangerous. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference @rilaws said: For a famous person to deflect these accusations with a long-in-the-making coming out is so cruel to his supposed new community it stings. @larrywilmore wrote: Kevin Spaceys comment was wrong on so many levels. Rapp commented on Twitter: I came forward with my story, standing on the shoulders of the many courageous women and men who have been speaking out to shine a light and hopefully make a difference, as they have done for me. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference Double Oscar winner Spacey is best known for the film American Beauty and TV drama House Of Cards. His long-running tenure at The Old Vic hit the headlines a year after he joined when he reported to police that he had been attacked in a park at around 4am on a Saturday morning. He later dropped the complaint, saying that a youth had conned him into handing over his mobile while he was walking his dog and that he injured himself when he tripped over his pet as he chased the youth. On Monday, following Rapps accusation, the Royal Court theatres artistic director, Vicky Featherstone, was asked if she was aware of stories about Spacey when he was working in London. She told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I think that many people in theatre and the creative industries have been aware of many stories of many people over a lot of years. After the Harvey Weinstein allegations there had been an opening of the floodgates and a very important moment for us all throughout society, not just in our industry, she said. Three days after returning from a trip to New York, I was in the midst of jet lag hell. Bleary-eyed and exhausted, I couldn't stop yawning, and my skin was duller than a misty Monday in January. If anyone needed something called the Radiance Revival Facial, it was I. Was my complexion beyond repair, however? I wasn't convinced that 45 minutes was long enough to restore any semblance of radiance to my face, but my cares soon faded away as I snuggled under the blanket in the cosy, warm treatment room, and my facialist, Alison Williams, got to work. She began by thoroughly removing my make-up and cleansing my skin with Cellcosmet Precious Mask (the facial uses exclusively Cellcosmet products), before using the Dual Action Exfoliant, which thoroughly scrubs away skin cells with jojoba beads and papaya enzymes, while steam helped to open my pores and release all the yucky pollutants and grime that get trapped inside. Next up came the extractions (for the uninitiated, that means squeezing your pores, basically), a process I normally hate, and often have to politely decline, but Alison was so gentle I didn't even mind. When she applied a day cream packed with Cellcosmet's exclusive skin-forming actives and gently massaged it in, I hit peak relaxation - in fact I actually dozed off (the sign of an expert facialist I always think, not just extreme jet lag). Finishing with serum and eye cream, the treatment was over all too soon, but I was quickly perked up when I saw the results in the mirror. Plump, perky and glowy skin had miraculously replaced the pallid complexion I'd walked into the treatment room with. Of course, it's not cheap (what facial is these days?), but for instant results and intense relaxation in the process, this treatment is worth its weight in gold. Katie Wright experienced the Cellcosmet Radiance Revival Facial at Holistic Health Lab in London. Treatments are available nationwide with prices starting from 130 for 45 minutes. For more information, visit Cellcosmet.co.uk Ex-fashion designer Jessica Dornan says the heartbreak of her mothers death has inspired the creation of a high-tech journal where everyone can preserve their loved ones memories for future generations. Nineteen years after she lost her mum Lorna to pancreatic cancer, Jessica Dornan and her dad, well known local medic Professor Jim Dornan, have created a lasting tribute which will also enable others to pay homage to their loved ones. Afterbook.com is a unique new online platform which father and daughter hope will become a popular community hub where people can share memories of loved ones who they have lost. The website will also enable people to go on and create a living memory of their own lives for their children, adding video footage and personal audio messages something which Jessica dearly wishes she had from her mum. Lorna did write a much treasured letter to Jess before she died and it is this which was part of the inspiration for Afterbook. Jessica, who also has a sister Liesa (40) and, of course, a famous brother, Hollywood actor Jamie (35), has given up her career as a fashion designer to focus on developing Afterbook for which she has ambitious plans.She says she hopes it will be much more than a place to post special memories but act as a therapeutic tool for people who are grieving. Afterbook allows the user to build a legacy to, and tell the story of, a deceased loved one and creating an Afterbook profile is a cathartic and therapeutic activity, a form of digital therapy, she says. We also hope to develop it into a community platform where people can go on and discuss any loss in their lives be it a job, career or marriage breakdown. It is early days for us and we have lots of ideas for further developing the site. Jessica, who is married to Jonny Lynas (45), a pilot, and has two children, Delphine (8) and Francis (6), was just 17 when she lost her beautiful mum Lorna to pancreatic cancer aged 50. It was a devastating loss which she says she has struggled with ever since. This year will mark the year when her mum has been gone longer than Jess knew her and it is this which has compelled her to give up her career in fashion design to work full-time on Afterbook. I have struggled since mum died and it has coloured my life ever since, she says. I am very conscious I want my children to know their nana Lorna as well. It is 19 years now and I really felt I wanted to honour her legacy. I think subconsciously why Im doing it this year is because this marks the year mum has been gone longer than I knew her. I always thought of this year looming. I just wish I could have had more time with her and Afterbook has allowed me to create a legacy for her. Dad and I were having dinner a week before Christmas last year and we got talking with a glass of wine, and were sparking ideas off each other, as we quite often do. Expand Close A young Jessica with her mother Lorna / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp A young Jessica with her mother Lorna I wanted to do something to remember mum and he had a notion to create something which had come about for two reasons. Someone had given him video footage of mum singing at a christening 25 years ago and it struck him he would not have seen it had he not bumped into that person. It was very poignant and special and it got dad thinking about how people could create living memories for their loved ones. Mum wrote me a letter before she died. I loved that letter and in it she made predications for my life and most of them have come true. It was a brief letter and I yearned for more. Nineteen years ago there were no mobile phones and people didnt video. Another thing which affected dad was when an old friend had contacted him to say he had done well in his career and wished he could share it with his dad, but his dad had died two years earlier. It made him think that people didnt have anywhere to direct these sentiments and, although we like to talk about our loved ones, we have nowhere to direct it. The idea for Afterbook started to take hold and, when Jessica got some brand designers on board, she decided to give up her job in April to work full-time on developing the site. She was also able to secure a Proof of Concept grant from Tech Start Northern Ireland and a place on the business accelerator programme, Entrepreneurial Spark, which has provided her with office space in Belfast city centre as well as access to workshops and business bootcamps. She has also been working closely with the charities Marie Curie and Cruse Bereavement to make the site user-friendly. The website has just gone live and it is hoped people will go onto it and register and provide feedback which Jess says will help them to make it even more accessible. Expand Close Jessica Dornan and her father Jim / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jessica Dornan and her father Jim She says: It has been a real journey. Its like caring for a baby, you wont necessarily release it into the world until it is totally perfect. But we have reached the stage when we need to get it out there and get feedback. We tested it with friends and family in July on the anniversary of mums death, giving our tribute to mum to 185 people who had known and loved her. The feedback was so lovely but we really need to get it out there. The site offers a simple sign-up process which takes just a couple of minutes to complete. You then become the gatekeeper of your own profile which you can create either about yourself as a legacy for your children or in tribute to a deceased loved one. Your profile can only be viewed by invitation from you. The site also has a memory box facility where other people can leave specific memories or tributes to your loved one. Jessica says: The memory box is designed for people to go in and out of quite quickly, as we know people are time-limited these days. Then there is a chapters section where people can read longer chapters about the persons life. The Gatekeeper creates the profile and shares it with others who can then add their own memories. My dad and my sister added to Mums. There is also a light a candle feature where people can leave a condolence and, just like an email, you will get a message to let you know someone has left it. People can choose from a range of background pictures such as the night sky or a pebbled beach or a meadow and we will be adding to these as time goes on. Within about three minutes you can have quite a beautiful profile place. As well as creating a profile for a lost loved one we would like people to create one for themselves the filtered and focused content of ones life. Life is made up of a series of chapters, we would encourage people to write about their Afterchapters as theyre experiencing them and leave a legacy for their loved ones for generations. Weve always been encouraged to diarise or keep a journal and people dont do it as much now but thats what we hope it will do in a digital fashion. Expand Close Jessica Dornan and her father Jim / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Jessica Dornan and her father Jim While Jess is CEO of the new venture, her dad is very much on board, supporting her every step of the way. Professor Dornan, a well-known obstetrician and gynaecologist, says they have great ambitions for the website to become the new big global social media site. We really want to develop it as a community site and hopefully see a number of different platforms, for instance one where people can share mental health issues, he says. This site can be somewhere people can visit and share memories and experiences so that people are revered forever. Lorna lived from 1948 to 1998 and for us it is about that dash in between and replacing that with a digital legacy. It is our ambition to make it the biggest digital library of genealogy, obituary and biographies in the world. Everyone has a legacy and this is a way of giving every man a chance to build a legacy. Reflecting on her mum, who was the inspiration for the website, Jessica paid her own personal tribute to her. Mum was ahead of her time in many ways. She was adopted in 1948 which was not uncommon in those days, especially in Ireland, she says. Her parents were slightly older and she was brought up in a fairly strict household. She was a rebel and wanted to listen to rock n roll music and go to art college. She did win a place there but her parents wanted her to do nursing, so she became a nurse. She was very artistic and was good at painting and dressmaking and interior design and other forms of art and I think thats largely why I went to art college and studied fashion design. I obviously have the gene. She was fun-loving and loved a party and was always very glamorous. As a nurse she was known to put her lipstick on anywhere that was shiny, be that a scalpel or a bedpan. I know she was very proud of her children. She and Dad always gave us a long leash and always encouraged us to do whatever we wanted and try new things, and Im very grateful for that. Focusing now on getting Afterbook out into the public domain, Jessica adds: It is early days for us, we are still developing and listening to customers and making improvements. We want to begin a real movement to help people. It is new for me and I am negotiating the world of start-ups and entrepreneurialism daily. I am keen to connect with like-minded businesswomen and men and investors to really develop, grow and scale this important platform. Go to www.afterbook.com or follow on Facebook (Facebook.com/AfterbookLegacy/) and Instagram instagram.com/afterbooklegacy/) As any parent whose child has just started school for the first time will attest, finding out what little one has been up to all day is like getting blood out of a stone. Often the response is a shrug, or a simple (and frustrating), "Nothing". But there's a very good reason they're so non-committal says Shona Goodall, a clinical psychologist at Sheffield Children's Hospital NHS Trust, who's also one of the new faces on Channel 4's The Secret Life Of 4 And 5 Year Olds. "They're really, really tired and they don't always show it or tell you. And, generally at four, they can't hold in mind anything they've done through the day, so as a parent, don't be put off." Instead of asking direct questions, suggests Shona, it's better to engage them with a prompt or an observation: "If they're smiling, you might say, 'You look like you've had a good day', and then leave it and see what they say, or you might say, 'You're looking a bit tired, shall we get you a snack?' More of a commentary to try and engage them is what I find tends to help with a tired child." The documentary series, which has been a hit with parents since it started in 2015, is back in November with a cast of cuties including a girl with Down's Syndrome and a girl who's battled cancer. Here Shona answers some of those pressing questions about what's really going on in their heads... Why are the ages of four and five such a crucial time in terms of development? "It's a key developmental stage in terms of executive functioning, that starts to kick in around four and five and school definitely promotes them to practise. There's a certain point when you don't have theory of mind (the knowledge that other people think differently from you), your working memory is quite short, your processing speed is slower, in terms of what you can take in and hold at once. "And it's different - some at four are starting to get it, some at four are nowhere near, but by the time they're six, you'll be able to tell who has got good executive functioning and is able to apply it, and who hasn't." How can parents best support their child's learning at this age? "It's about encouragement and how you word it. Research has shown it's important to catch children in the act of doing something. Rather than saying, 'That was great', and it was 10 minutes or an hour ago, you want to catch them very much in the act. As they get older, you can praise them afterwards more easily and they will hold that information in their mind. "So, if they're sitting and being really quiet, you might want to put your hand on their shoulder, catch their attention and give them a little stroke and say, 'Aw, you're sitting really well' - there's something about the '-ing' action that encourages someone to keep doing something. Children really respond to being noticed in the moment." When do children start learning to share with others? "Sharing comes along with theory of mind, which is that ability to know that you have an idea that's different from somebody else's. There's an age at which children will just share because they've been told to, but they might not necessarily understand why. "And there's an age at which theory of mind comes on board and they start to understand what the meaning of sharing is and then, around seven and eight, they start to understand the equality and morals of sharing. "Children start to realise when somebody didn't share with me, I didn't like it, so I will share with them because they're my friend. And that varies from around age four to around six. So, some of our four-year-olds can be quite advanced and some of our four-year-olds can be quite delayed, but there's nothing to worry about because they'll all get there eventually." Why does my child appear to behave differently when I'm not around? "We all behave differently in different settings as grown-ups. We learn from a really young age about what is appropriate, what can we push and what isn't appropriate. "Some people we can really be ourselves with and show our whole range of emotions to, and in other situations, we really can't and probably shouldn't. "Even children as young as four and five know that in front of their teachers, or other children, they shouldn't really show all of themselves. They're really starting to learn that - and we're trying to teach them about private and public places, so it's no surprise to me when children behave differently in different settings." How important is play? "Relaxing and having fun strengthens the connection between parent and child and then, whatever happens, you've got a child who will be able to come to you and that mitigates against any stress. "You cannot underestimate the importance of endorphins and happy hormones and how they offset the balance of stress. Have relaxed times, moments where there's no pressure to do anything other than to be with each other. If you're having fun moments, you're more likely to help your child understand that stress doesn't have to be all-encompassing, you're role-modelling that okay, there's stress, but it can be managed." The Secret Life of 4 And 5 Year Olds airs on Channel 4 on Tuesdays at 8pm, from November 7. The Secret Life of 4, 5 and 6 Year Olds is published by Macmillan, 16.99 Pat Gillespie was shaken by his ordeal, but has vowed not to let it get him down A 100-year-old great-grandfather has vowed he won't be intimidated by callous thugs who robbed his home. Pat Gillespie said he will not let the horrific crime get him down and pledged to be back fighting fit and ready to celebrate his 101st birthday in December. Read More Mr Gillespie, a well-known and much-loved figure in Strabane, endured a horrific ordeal on Friday night when three masked men forced their way into his Railway Street home through a back window. The gang held him in his chair while they ransacked his bedroom. They made off with a sum of cash, leaving the centenarian shocked and shaken. Despite the terrifying attack, Mr Gillespie was back at Mass yesterday and visited his wife Eileen's grave, as he does every day. He has lived by himself since his wife passed away, but has plenty of company from his five children, plus his grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Recalling the horrific ordeal, Mr Gillespie told the Belfast Telegraph: "On Friday night I was watching television in the kitchen. "The door burst open and three men wearing black clothes and balaclavas came in. "One of them held me down firmly in the chair and the other two went into my bedroom down the hall. "The man was holding me down so hard I couldn't even move my head. I had to sit there and say nothing. Expand Close Pat Gillespie was shaken by his ordeal, but has vowed not to let it get him down / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Pat Gillespie was shaken by his ordeal, but has vowed not to let it get him down "They wrecked my bedroom looking for money. They pulled out all the drawers, threw things everywhere, they even threw the mattress and blankets on the floor, but there was nothing there. "Whatever little money I had, I had it in my trouser pocket. "They were in my house for around 10 minutes and they never said a word to me. I didn't know what to do. If I moved my head the man pushed it back again. "When they didn't get any money in my bedroom, they came back to the kitchen. "One man went to one side and another went to the other and they pulled me up out of the chair and searched me. They ripped my emergency alarm off my neck and got the cash in my pocket. As soon as they got that they were away." Mr Gillespie says he was very shaken up by the attack but is thankful that he wasn't hurt by the intruders. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't afraid," he added. "I was very afraid but I had sense enough not to resist, because they were there to get money and if they didn't get it they were going to find out where some was. "In the process they could have given me a real hammering. "I have read in the paper about what robbers have done, torturing people and pouring boiling water over them. Thank God that didn't happen, but it was on my mind the whole time they were there. "I just did what I was told because I knew that they could overpower me. I am fairly fit but I couldn't have managed three of them, they were big hefty men." Mr Gillespie says he is grateful for the support from the people of Strabane, who have put up reward money for the capture of the three men and raised enough money to get a hi-tech security system fitted to Pat's home. And Pat himself says he will not let the incident hold him back. "It knocked my confidence for a short time," he added. "But I'm back to normal now, fighting fit. This will not stop me, I'm just getting up and getting on with it. I'm not going to let these people get me down. "If I could speak to the people who did this to me I would say good luck to them. "I hope they enjoy my money, I don't like the way they got it. "I don't wish them ill will. They know in their conscience that they have done wrong, especially to a 100-year-old man who they didn't have to put much fight into overpowering. "They are cowards but I'm not going to let them beat me." Police have appealed for witnesses to the incident to come forward. Detective Constable Richard Donnell said: "Police received at a report just after 9.30pm on Friday, October 27 that earlier that evening the occupant of the house in Railway Street, an elderly male, was confronted by three men who had forced their way through a back window. "This was a disgusting and cowardly attack in which the intruders left with a quantity of cash. "Thankfully, the man was not physically injured during the incident. However, he has been left shaken by the ordeal. "We are appealing for anyone who was in the Railway Street area and saw anything suspicious to contact detectives at Strabane Criminal Investigation Unit on the non-emergency number, quoting reference 1623 27/10/17, or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111." A Met Office forecaster has said warnings arctic winds will drive down temperatures in Northern Ireland are premature./ Credit: PA A Met Office forecaster has said warnings arctic winds will drive down temperatures in Northern Ireland are premature. However, while it may be too early to make accurate predictions, low temperatures should still be expected. It has been reported that freezing air from the North Pole could be set to send temperatures as low as -11C. Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Met Office meteorologist Helen Roberts said: "We dont really have the science beyond about 30 days because of the inherently chaotic nature of weather. "The further ahead you go, the less reliable and detailed you can be with a forecast. "To give specific temperatures is not a reasonable thing to do." However, Ms Roberts said the temperatures predicted are "not wild". "We would expect to see somewhere, probably in Scotland, getting that order of temperatures... we got -5 last night so its not a massive leap," she said. It was also noted the Met Office has a seasonal forecasting team, but it looks at weather in a "probabilistic way" and that "the science is very young and there is much more research to be done in that area". Generally January and February are Northern Ireland's coldest months. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Northern Ireland was in Castlederg, Co Tyrone on 24 December 2010, when it dipped to -18.7C. Sinn Fein negotiator Gerry Kelly seen in the party's offices at Stormont, Belfast, as Northern Ireland's two main parties remain locked in talks with the latest deadline to restore powersharing due to expire within a matter of hours. Niall Carson/PA Wire Sinn Fein negotiator Gerry Kelly seen in the party's offices at Stormont, as the latest deadline to restore powersharing neared Press Eye Belfast - Northern Ireland 30th October 2017 General view of Stormont in east Belfast where talks have been ongoing between local parties to try and get the Northern Ireland Assembly up-and-running. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com The DUP and Sinn Fein have been given extra time by Secretary of State James Brokenshire to reach a deal to restore powersharing at Stormont. Mr Brokenshire said "further progress had been made" after Northern Ireland's two main parties left Stormont on Monday night having not reached agreement and failing to meet the latest deadline. Earlier Mr Brokenshire had warned both parties that unless there was a breakthrough before the end of Monday the only option remaining would be to legislate for a budget for the region at Westminster. However on Monday night he announced he was extending that deadline. Mr Brokenshire said: The parties have made further progress during the course of today. They are making certain additional requests of the UK Government which we need to consider. In the light of this, I believe it is right to defer the assessment on whether to introduce legislation to Parliament this week to enable an Executive to be formed. The parties will recommence talks in the morning and I will reassess the position tomorrow night. Neither party spoke to the media as they left. Stormont collapsed in January following the resignation of the late Martin McGuinness as Deputy First Minister. Since then a series of talks and negotiations have taken place and a range of deadlines have been missed with no deal in place. The main stumbling block centres on calls for an Irish Language Act. Sinn Fein Stormont leader Michelle O'Neill said her party would not return to power-sharing without an agreed Irish Language Act. However, DUP leader Arlene Foster rejected the proposal, instead suggesting a "cross-community" Bill with provisions for Irish and Ulster-Scots. But Sinn Fein insists it will only agree to stand-alone Irish language legislation. Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams, Mary Lou McDonald and Pearse Doherty have joined the party's negotiating team in Belfast. Both James Brokenshire and Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney have been holding meetings with the parties throughout the day. The region's smaller parties held a meeting earlier in the day to discuss the lack of openness and transparency in the talks negotiations. On Monday morning, ahead of the resumption of talks, the DUP called on Mr Brokenshire to set a budget to ensure a "measure of good government" in the region. The party said it will not accept "a bad agreement cobbled together to suddenly suit the timetables of others". "Our position has not changed we want to see an executive set up - we would have done it March and sorted these issues in tandem," said the party in a statement. "Given Sinn Fein have dragged their feet over the last 10 months, the Secretary of State should bring forward a budget to bring a measure of good government to Northern Ireland," the statement added. The DUP said it will continue the discussions as it believes "devolution is best for Northern Ireland". But it warned it would not be a part of a "bad agreement cobbled together to suddenly suit the timetables of others". Sinn Fein's Conor Murphy said while a deal can still be done it "needs to be a deal for all in our society and not just for the political leaderships of unionism". He added: "If the political institutions are to be sustainable then they must be restored on the basis of equality, rights and respect. "That requires an end to the DUP's denial of rights citizens enjoy everywhere else on these islands, language rights, marriage rights and the right to a coroner's court." Prime Minister Theresa May's official spokesman said the government is still working with the parties on reaching an agreement. James Brokenshire could be forced to introduce a budget for Northern Ireland via Westminster Sinn Fein negotiator Gerry Kelly seen in the party's offices at Stormont, Belfast, as Northern Ireland's two main parties remain locked in talks with the latest deadline to restore powersharing due to expire within a matter of hours. Niall Carson/PA Wire Sinn Fein negotiator Gerry Kelly seen in the party's offices at Stormont, as the latest deadline to restore powersharing neared Northern Ireland Secretary of State James Brokenshire has extended the deadline for the region's two main parties to reach a deal to restore powersharing. The DUP and Sinn Fein left Stormont shortly before 9pm on Monday having failed to reach an agreement. They had been warned by Mr Brokenshire that they had until Monday to produce a written agreement or he would be forced to legislate for a budget for the region at Westminster. However, on Monday night he said that the parties have made progress and he was therefore going to defer his decision to legislate for a budget. In a statement he said: "The parties have made further progress during the course of today. "They are making certain additional requests of the UK Government which we need to consider. "In the light of this, I believe it is right to defer the assessment on whether to introduce legislation to Parliament this week to enable an Executive to be formed. "The parties will recommence talks in the morning and I will reassess the position tomorrow night." The Northern Ireland Executive collapsed in January and the region has been without a powersharing government since then. Despite endless rounds of discussions, a deal to restore devolution has proved elusive with the introduction of an Irish language act seen as the main issue. Mr Brokenshire and Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney were in Belfast on Monday to try and help find a breakthrough to the political deadlock. Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Mary Lou McDonald also joined their party's negotiating team at Stormont. Throughout the day the DUP, Sinn Fein and the Irish and UK Governments stayed tight-lipped about any progress in the negotiations. The region's smaller parties held a meeting earlier in the day to discuss the lack of openness and transparency in the talks. Before talks began on Monday morning the DUP called on Mr Brokenshire to set a budget to ensure a "measure of good government" in the region. The party said it would not accept "a bad agreement cobbled together to suddenly suit the timetables of others". "Our position has not changed, we want to see an executive set up - we would have done it March and sorted these issues in tandem," said the party in a statement. "Given Sinn Fein have dragged their feet over the last 10 months the secretary of state should bring forward a budget to bring a measure of good government to Northern Ireland," the statement added. The DUP said it will continue the discussions as it believes "devolution is best for Northern Ireland". But it warned that it would not be a part of a "bad agreement cobbled together to suddenly suit the timetables of others". Sinn Fein's Conor Murphy said while a deal can still be done it "needs to be a deal for all in our society and not just for the political leaderships of unionism". "If the political institutions are to be sustainable then they must be restored on the basis of equality, rights and respect. "That requires an end to the DUP's denial of rights citizens enjoy everywhere else on these islands, language rights, marriage rights and the right to a coroner's court," Mr Murphy added. Prime Minister Theresa May's official spokesman said the government was still working with the parties on reaching an agreement. "We have had progress but there are still significant gaps which remain and we continue to work with them to overcome these. "You can expect James Brokenshire to update Parliament later this week on how that is progressing. "We continue to work with the parties on trying to overcome the differences between them and to restore devolved government, which is in the interests of all communities in Northern Ireland," the spokesman said. He added: "We are clear we don't want to see a return to direct rule, we want a return of devolved government in Northern Ireland, so that local decisions can be made by local politicians. "James Brokenshire has been clear that the latest we can practically introduce legislation to enable the executive's formation would be this week in order for it to be in time for a new executive to set a budget." Earlier SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said that if a deal is not reached by Monday's deadline, his party will not accept direct rule from Westminster but only joint rule from both London and Dublin. Alliance Party leader Naomi Long has called on Mr Brokenshire to reduce MLAs' pay by 30% if no progress is made. A UUP councillor has called for Sinn Fein to remove a poster near to the Cenotaph in Omagh ahead of events to mark Remembrance Day. Local UUP councillor Chris Smyth said it was the second year in a row a poster had been erected in the vicinity of the monument. Speaking about the poster, Cllr Smyth noted it advertised an event focusing on mental health which took place in the Strule Arts Centre last Saturday. "I work in the field of mental health and wish to put it firmly on record that I welcome any attempts by political parties to improve mental health in Northern Ireland," he said. "But at this very special time of Remembrance, it is at best insensitive for Sinn Fein, an organisation which supported the IRA's terrorist campaign and which in recent times has further traumatised victims by refusing to condemn the Enniskillen Remembrance Day bomb, to erect signs on the railings of the Cenotaph so close to events which will be held during Remembrance week," he said. In July, Sinn Fein Council Chairman of Fermanagh and Omagh District Council Stephen McCann made comments during an interview with The Impartial Reporter in which he said he would "not go down the road" of condemning the Enniskillen bombing. "I am angry that this is the second time that this has happened, with similar scenes at the Cenotaph last year. Omagh is a big town and there are many places that signs can be erected that would have the same visual impact," Cllr Smyth added. "Why, oh, why must Sinn Fein insist on placing signs at this one spot which they know is special to those who lost loved ones in the service of Queen and country in past wars and also including the Troubles." Responding to the criticism, Sinn Fein MLA told the Belfast Telegraph: "It is disappointing that UUP Councillor Chris Smyth has attempted to score cheap political points out of a poster advertising an event on mental health." She also confirmed that as the event was last Saturday the poster would be taken down. The Cenotaph monument is a granite obelisk and sits on three granite steps. It dates back to the 1920s and and was originally erected to commemorate the 2,000 men from Co Tyrone that died in the First World War. A 22 year old mother threatens to stab her daughter, mother and former partner under 'devil's influence.' A Co Derry woman who claimed the Devil made her want to stab her child to death could be moved to England to reduce any danger, the High Court has heard. The potential for treatment outside Northern Ireland was raised as prosecutors alleged the 22-year-old also made notes expressing a desire to kill other relatives. Adjourning her bail application, a judge requested expert opinion on the risks if she were released from custody. Mr Justice Maguire suggested: "If she were residing in England her ability to execute a threat, even if she wanted to, would be rather more limited." The defendant is not being named to protect her three-year-old daughter's identity. She faces three charges of making threats to kill the child, her own mother and ex-husband. The allegations relate to repeated disclosures made at two different medical facilities earlier this month. In the second incident, during voluntary treatment at Holywell Hospital in Antrim on October 16, she claimed voices in her head made her want to kill family members, the court heard. She allegedly spoke about stabbing her daughter, mother and former partner, nodding her head to reiterate a definite intention to carry out the threats before committing suicide. Prosecution counsel Kate McKay said the woman claimed: "The Devil has my mind." Jottings attributed to the defendant described being "out to murder... I'm going to stab them all myself", the barrister argued. Mrs McKay added: "She has named others in these scribblings, she has mentioned her sister and her ex-partner's partner." The woman denies any intention to act on her alleged comments. A consultant psychiatrist who examined the accused assessed her as not suffering from a mental illness. He concluded that she was fit for interview rather than requiring in-patient care. During the hearing Mr Justice Maguire stressed the need for further opinion on any risk the woman poses to herself and others. "On the face of it, repeatedly issuing threats of this nature is a grave concern," he said. Although the accused could not be detained for treatment in Northern Ireland, the judge indicated that she could be a compulsory patient under different mental health laws in England and Wales. As he adjourned the application for more information, Mr Justice Maguire explained: "This is not the sort of case where the court feels it can take more chances than is absolutely necessary." DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has described as "fake news" a report suggesting that the 1bn in funding for Northern Ireland agreed as part of the 'confidence and supply' deal with the UK Government at Westminster is under threat. A Financial Times report yesterday claimed that the impending Northern Ireland budget to be set by Secretary of State James Brokenshire will not include the 1bn funding package agreed between the DUP and the Government. Under the headline 'Theresa May's 1bn for Northern Ireland on hold as talks falter' the London financial newspaper said yesterday: "A budget from Mr Brokenshire would bypass the Stormont assembly, which is not sitting due to the stand-off, and a draft does not include the 1bn funding package secured by Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, when she agreed to prop up Mrs May after the UK prime minister lost her parliamentary majority in June. "The 1bn of funding will only be released if a power-sharing executive is restored or London imposes full-blown direct rule." But last night Sir Jeffrey rubbished the newspaper report's claim, describing it as "fake news". "The additional money will come soon as a separate appropriations order regardless of whether devolution occurs. "This FT story is #FakeNews," Sir Jeffrey said on social media. "They will be separate appropriations. NI Block Grant Budget first and then additional funding," the Lagan Valley MP said. The senior DUP MP - who was one of the signatories to the deal between the two parties - is on record as saying the 1bn additional funding would be spent regardless of whether an Executive was formed from the current Stormont talks process. James Brokenshire has met with the five main political parties in a bid to end the deadlock at Stormont The DUP is calling on the Secretary of State to bring forward a budget for Northern Ireland as today's deadline for a deal seems set to pass without an agreement. Arlene Foster's party and Sinn Fein have just hours left to reach a compromise to restore power-sharing before Mr Brokenshire returns to Westminster. Read More He is expected to begin moves to pass a budget in the House of Commons tomorrow if no deal is reached. Talks are continuing at Stormont today but the two parties remain at loggerheads over an Irish Language Act. A DUP spokesman last night said: "We will continue our discussions on the basis that we believe devolution is best for Northern Ireland. "But, given that Sinn Fein have dragged their feet over the last 10 months, the Secretary of State should bring forward a budget to bring a measure of good government to Northern Ireland." The DUP spokesman said his party wanted to see an executive set up as soon as possible but added: "Sinn Fein in particular have to realise that an agreement will only be possible when they drop red line demands. "We will not be a party to a bad agreement cobbled together to suddenly suit the timetables of others." The Northern Ireland Office said James Brokenshire will be at the Stormont talks today but will head to London tomorrow where he will brief the Cabinet on the negotiations. Unionist sources said if today's deadline passed without agreement, talks would continue for a few weeks but would not run beyond November. Writing in today's Belfast Telegraph, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood described a budget delivered by Mr Brokenshire as "direct rule - it can't be painted or presented in any other way". He said: "Arlene Foster and the DUP are being gifted a blank cheque over all of our futures. A Tory-DUP government is a combination which will do nothing to respect the Irish identity or protect our collective rights. "Nationalism across this island deserves a better strategy than the one which has left us with no Assembly, no North-South institutions, no voice in the context of Brexit and is now threatening to place us at the prolonged mercy of a coalition between the DUP and the Tories at Westminster. Sinn Fein's negotiating has delivered British direct rule." Ulster Unionist MLA Steve Aiken warned that Northern Ireland was heading towards direct rule "unless something dramatically changes in the next 24 hours". He said: "It is unlikely that there will be a deal before the DUP and Sinn Fein party conferences. "Arlene Foster won't want to be trying to sell a deal which contains an Irish Language Act and Gerry Adams will lose face if he tries to sell a deal which doesn't have one. Therein lies the problem." Mr Aiken said Sinn Fein's position in the negotiations would be decided in the Felons' Club in west Belfast. He urged Sinn Fein representatives and members to start "standing up and speaking out" against the leaders who had taken them into "the present political cul-de-sac". He added: "Other Sinn Fein members in the Republic of Ireland have done it, it's a pity some didn't do the same in Northern Ireland. "All communities are being affected by this political impasse, including their own." Alliance deputy leader Stephen Farry said that the failure to reach a deal didn't mean the end of Stormont and that he had asked Mr Brokenshire to reform the petition of concern in Westminster. "The gains of recent decades have been hard won and should not be discarded without exploring all the options and alternatives," he said. "The mutual vetoes in the hands of the DUP and Sinn Fein seriously hamper free and open debate and decision-making. "All the current issues which appear to be blockages to agreement, including language and culture, could be addressed through public debate and a proportionate resolution on the Assembly floor. "Any outcome would reflect the democratic wishes of the people of Northern Ireland." More than 100 community activists turned out in protest against vandals who caused extensive damage to the gates of Milltown Cemetery. The entrance to the graveyard in west Belfast was set alight on Friday night. Traffic cones and a wheelie bin were placed at the gates and set on fire by youths. People in the area have been left angry after it emerged the gates had been damaged in the arson attack. More than 100 people from the area called for the youths involved to hand themselves over to police and urged their parents to act responsibly. Sinn Fein MP Paul Maskey was among those who attended the graveyard on Saturday. He told the Belfast Telegraph: "This was a gathering of community activists and Sinn Fein representatives. "We wanted to show solidarity and pay respect because of the damage caused to the gate. "We walked around the graveyard as part of the demonstration. "It was a call for action to those individuals who carried out the attack on the graveyard on Friday. "This is unacceptable behaviour. Enough is enough. "I'm calling on parents to stop their kids from hanging about the park and the graveyard at night. "I'm sure those responsible for this unacceptable behaviour have relatives interred in Milltown like many of us. "This is disgusting behaviour and I will be meeting with agencies early next week to try and get a resolution to this problem." The West Belfast MP said it was one of a series of incidents in the Falls Park area. Police said some reports included a group of youths who had gathered in the area and were fighting among themselves. Area commander for west Belfast, Chief Inspector Kellie McMillan, said: "This is a cemetery - a graveyard - a place for quiet reflection to peacefully pay respects to loved ones who are no longer with us. "I cannot understand what any person feel could be gained from such thoughtless, criminal vandalism. "Police will be working with the community in west Belfast to prevent this behaviour and stop further hurt being caused to families and friends of those whose lives are remembered here. "This is not acceptable behaviour and a robust response from policing and the criminal justice sector is required. "I'm appealing to parents and guardians to know the whereabouts of their children and who they are with. "They must play a role in preventing them from becoming involved in behaviour which could see them end up with a criminal record. "If anyone has any information about who was involved in any of these incidents, if you were passing Milltown Cemetery and saw something, call us on the non-emergency number 101." Alliance councillor Sian O'Neill said the arson was "an attack on our whole community". She said: "It is sad to see the disrespect some people have for our dead in what is supposed to be an area of respect. "My thoughts are with the loved ones of those buried there, who may have been affected by this incident, and my thanks go to the fire brigade who ensured the fire did not spread any further. "Milltown is not a council-owned cemetery but I hope the council will be able to work with the relevant agencies to help prevent a repeat of this disgraceful behaviour." She urged anyone with information to come forward and tell the PSNI. Residents in west Belfast have been evacuated from their homes after bomb alerts were phoned in. Shortly before 6pm police reported they were dealing with a security alert in the area of the Bell Steel Road and Pantridge Road. The PSNI said a number of houses - understood to be around a dozen - were evacuated. In a statement, police urged anyone who noticed any suspicious activity or saw anything unusual to call police via 999. The statement added: "If you come across a suspicious object please do not touch it phone the police immediately." "We would ask for your patience whilst police work as quickly as possible to ensure everyones safety." SDLP councillor Brian Heading told the Belfast Telegraph: "Hopefully this will prove to be a hoax, nevertheless any incident like this being reported is worrying given the current political climate that we're in." He continued: "The police will soon be able to confirm if it's a viable device and families will be allowed back in eventually, but it's certainly a concern that as our political institutions are in doubt, other people will be looking to fill the vacuum." Sinn Fein councillor Stephen Magennis visited the area along with party colleagues, he said two bomb alerts had been made by phone. "We are hoping to keep disruption limited," he said in a post on social media. "The people who phoned these in have no support in these areas and are not wanted. All this causes is disruption for the local community." A former Republic of Ireland Justice Minister has described the Irish Government's aim of a "frictionless border" in Ireland after Brexit as a "political fantasy". Ex-Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter also described the decision to leave the EU "one of the most stupid acts of self-destruction since the Second World War". He also told the Sunday Business Post that peace in Northern Ireland could be in jeopardy as a result of the Brexit referendum. "We've heard endlessly that there is a sense of agreement between the British and Irish Governments that we'll have some sort of seamless, invisible border. "Waffling away about 'We all want seamless borders' may be a wish, but it may not be achievable," the former TD told the newspaper. Mr Shatter's remarks come just days after DUP MP Ian Paisley said that Ireland was in "total denial" about the reality of Brexit and should consider seeking a special arrangement from the EU to help it cope with the impact of the Brexit. "Nationalist parties north and south have been vocally complaining about a hard border that has not arrived and is unlikely to appear unless the Republic of Ireland really wants it," the MP told the Belfast Telegraph. "The fact is that there is a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Smuggling along this border has been occurring ever since price and product differentials made it worthwhile. "It is about time that the Irish allowed a new national conversation to begin and that they at least considered what it would be like to exit the EU along with the UK." Mr Shatter - once tipped as a possible future Taoiseach - resigned from the Irish Government in 2014 following a report critical of his department's handling of a Garda whistleblowing issue. He was also found to have broken data protection laws by disclosing personal information about independent TD Mick Wallace. He lost his Dail seat in the 2016 general election. The scene at a property on St James' Road on west Belfast where a shot was fired at a house in the early hours of Monday morning. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com The scene at a property on St James' Road on west Belfast where a shot was fired at a house in the early hours of Monday morning. Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye.com A living room window has been broken as the result of a shooting in Belfast. Detectives are appealing for information following the incident at a house in the St James' Road area on Sunday night. At approximately 12 midnight the male resident of the property heard what he described as a "loud bang". On coming down the stairs shortly after 3.00am he discovered the living room window had been broken. There was also what appeared to be part of a spent cartridge. Detective Constable Philip Cummings would appeal to anyone who noticed any suspicious activity or vehicles in the area to contact Detectives at Criminal Investigation Division, Musgrave on the non-emergency number 101, quoting reference 133 30/10/17. Alternatively, if someone would prefer to provide information without giving their details they can contact the independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. A former soldier who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp is selling poppies for the Royal British Legion at the age of 100. Ron Jones, who marked his centenary on April 30, volunteers at his local supermarket. Grandfather-of-two Mr Jones, from Bassaleg near Newport, South Wales, has been collecting for the Poppy Appeal since 1981. He was called up to fight in 1940 and served as a lance corporal in 1st Battalion Welch Regiment in the Middle East. Mr Jones was captured in Benghazi in 1942 and, after nine months in Italy, was transferred to forced labour camp E715, part of Auschwitz. After two years of being held at the camp, he was forced to join the "death march" of prisoners across Europe in 1945. He was freed by American troops and finally returned home to Newport and his wife Gladys in May 1945, having dropped from 13 stone to just 7 stone. Mr Jones worked at the city's docks until his retirement in 1980, then began collecting for the Poppy Appeal the following year. "I've been selling poppies for about 30 years, I go down to Tesco every year for a fortnight, practically every day," he said. "I like to do a lot for the British Legion as we help dependants, we help the boys coming back from Afghanistan. "If they need help, I'm there. "I've made as much as 15,000 occasionally, but normally we get up to nine or ten thousand." When asked whether he would ever retire from his role, Mr Jones replied firmly: "No." The pensioner admitted that he has become "a bit of a celebrity" at the Tesco on the Harlech Retail Park where he sells poppies. Customers come in each year looking for him, with one woman driving from London to Newport to specifically buy a poppy from Mr Jones. "She put 20 in my box, that's what happens," Mr Jones said. He usually volunteers for three hours each day but takes on a double shift, lasting for six hours, for three days of the appeal. Last week he attended the launch for the 2017 Poppy Appeal in Newport and refused a chair, standing instead for the 45-minute ceremony. Mr Jones, whose wife died in 2005, said the Legion had been there for his friends who returned home after the war and needed help. Brexit is unlikely to ground flights between the UK and EU, the chief executive of IAG, which owns British Airways, has said. Willie Walsh said that such a move would bring the entire continent to a standstill. Mr Walsh told the Commons Transport Committee: The prospect of there being no flying between the UK and and Europe, I dont agree with at all. I think this would bring the whole of Europe to a standstill. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference The comments came after Chancellor Philip Hammond had said it is theoretically conceivable that all flights between the EU and the UK could be suspended on the day Britain leaves the EU. He added: I dont think anybody seriously believes that that is where we will get to. The IAG chief told MPs the airline industry would be able to cope with Brexit as it was used to dealing with new regulations and adapting quickly to changing situations. A former Royal Marine injured in an IED blast has become the first UK veteran to benefit from iPod-based treatment for debilitating tinnitus. Harris Tatakis, 39, was blown up in Afghanistan in April 2007 when his Land Rover drove over an improvised explosive device (IED). The blast shattered his left leg, broke his right foot, ruptured both of his eardrums, caused brain damage and left him paralysed for two days. Expand Close (Royal British Legion/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (Royal British Legion/PA) He suffered constant tinnitus, likened to a fog horn going off in his head, and was left so hard of hearing that he had to learn to lip read. After 10 years of suffering, a Google Alert for tinnitus brought up Levo, which delivers treatment through an iPod while a person is sleeping. Mr Tatakis, of Cornwall, successfully applied for a Royal British Legion grant to cover the cost of his treatment and started it in January. It was like a dentist drill or fog horn constantly going off in my head which I couldnt get away from, he said. I couldnt tolerate people talking around me. Everything was horrendously loud and I couldnt get away from it. The tinnitus masks a lot of letters so it makes your hearing even worse, I had to learn to lip read to help me understand. People would look at me and theyd say, Youre fine, theres nothing wrong with you. I was really suffering. He said the US-developed treatment, as well as desensitisation therapy, had allowed him to function again as a human being. Expand Close (Royal British Legion/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (Royal British Legion/PA) Levo works through an iPod to deliver a personalised sound that stimulates the hearing part of the brain while a patient is sleeping. It aims to teach the brain to ignore the hissing or buzzing associated with tinnitus and reduce its loudness and annoyance. Mr Tatakis, who attends the Tinnitus Centre in Bristol, says his symptoms have reduced to a level that he is able to live with. Im getting my confidence back and I feel like Im part of society again, he said. Beforehand I would come up with excuses not to see friends simply because I was so uncomfortable in my own skin. I didnt want my Marine friends to see me in this state. I just wanted to shut myself away. Mr Tatakis is the first veteran in the UK to receive the treatment, which is being funded through the Veterans Hearing Fund managed by the Royal British Legion. Expand Close (Royal British Legion/PA) PA / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp (Royal British Legion/PA) The fund is part of the five-year Veterans Medical Funds, which use 13 million of Libor rate-fixing fines released by the Government. When I went into it I knew there was no guarantee that it would work, but because of how I was living day to day, I had to try something, Mr Tatakis said. I had nothing to lose so I knew it couldnt get any worse. I was desperate. The Royal British Legion is out there supporting me by paying for the treatment, and Id encourage anyone in my position to make the most of the help. The Legion is here for us whether were young or old and thats a wonderful thing. People suffer in silence because they dont know where to go. The NHS couldnt help me to the degree I needed so I looked elsewhere and Im eternally glad I did. Mr Tatakis, whose father served in the Royal Navy, joined the Royal Marines in 1998 and was medically discharged in 2011. He served with 3 Commando Brigade in Kosovo, twice in Iraq and twice in Afghanistan receiving operational service medals. On April 3 2007, while with 42 Commandos Lima Company, Mr Tatakis was travelling in a WMIK Land Rover which drove over an IED. He was found 35 metres away and brought back to the UK for treatment, which he received at Selly Oak Hospital and Headley Court. Mr Tatakis is one of the ambassadors for this years Poppy Appeal, which is asking the public to rethink what remembrance means. The charity is calling on people to reconsider what the poppy stands for and wear it in support of the armed forces community, past and present. Guo Yezhou, vice minister of the International Department of China's Communist Party, said China will not join other nations in condemning it for what many consider a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims (AP) China supports Burma in "safeguarding peace and stability" and will not join other nations in condemning what many consider a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Rohingya Muslims. Guo Yezhou, vice minister of the ruling Communist party's international department, told reporters that Beijing condemned "violent and terror acts", an apparent reference to attacks by Rohingya rebels on Burmese security forces. Beijing has long-standing close ties to Burma's military leaders who ran the country for decades, and Mr Guo emphasised what he called friendly relations between China's communists and political parties in Burma on China's southern border. He said those ties are based on the principle of non-interference and said China believes Burma's government and people are "capable of handling" the situation without outside help. The delivery of humanitarian aid to half a million displaced civilians in north-eastern Syria is under threat from fighting between Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters near the border, a medical charity has warned The delivery of humanitarian aid to half a million displaced civilians in north-eastern Syria is under threat from fighting between Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters near the border, a medical charity has warned. Doctors Without Borders is "extremely concerned" because the fighting threatens its only cross-border supply routes between the two countries - the Fishkhabour crossing. Scattered clashes erupted in recent weeks as Iraqi forces retook disputed territory from the Kurds, part of a crisis sparked by last month's Kurdish vote for independence. Federal forces sought to regain control of the country's borders from forces loyal to the Kurdish regional government. At least 11 civilians were killed in government bombings of a rebel-held enclave north of the capital Damascus, said Syrian activists. Two women, a child and a media activist working for local TV were among those killed in the Saqba and Hamouriyah districts, it has been reported. Pope Francis has said Christians can help shape Europe's future by promoting political dialogue "especially where it is threatened and where conflict seems to prevail". His speech on Saturday comes a day after the regional parliament in Catalonia made a unilateral declaration of independence from Spain, and as Britain negotiates its exit from Europe after four decades. The Pope told church and political leaders that politics, rather than the promotion of dialogue, "is instead becoming a forum for clashes between opposing forces". He said Christians can help by underlining that Europe is "made up of people", not institutions and statistics. The UN in Syria says it has delivered emergency food assistance to 40,000 people trapped in a government siege in the suburbs of the capital, Damascus. The UN's humanitarian agency said it had reached the eastern Ghouta suburbs on Monday, with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, but that the relief does not cover even an eighth of the estimated 350,000 people in need. Food supplies have withered in eastern Ghouta since the government retook two neighbourhoods in Damascus that were used to smuggle goods to rebel-packed suburbs in May. President Bashar Assad's government routinely blocks aid convoys from reaching areas opposed to its rule. The last convoy to reach Ghouta arrived a month ago. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent, which operates across conflict lines, announced it had completed its measles vaccination campaign in Eastern Ghouta. It said it had vaccinated 48,000 children over two drives, in May and October this year. Photos of children gaunt with hunger in eastern Ghouta shocked observers last week, and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein called the siege "an outrage". At least 11 people were killed by government shelling on Sunday, including on a kindergarten in the town of Kafr Batna. "The people here do not want assistance, they want someone to break the blockade and stop the shelling. "The relief we've received will not last for even a few days," said local activist Anas al-Dimashqi, who spoke to The Associated Press through WhatsApp messages. The delivery coincided with the resumption of talks between the government, rebels, and their international sponsors Russia, Turkey, and Iran in the Kazakh capital of Astana. It is the seventh round of talks since January this year, focused on "de-escalating" the six-year-long Syrian civil war - primarily by freezing the lines of conflict and allowing aid to flow to nearly a million Syrians trapped under siege. Progress is being made at a snail's pace and the eastern Ghouta suburbs have seen conditions deteriorate in recent weeks. Activists say local businessmen are hoarding food and medical supplies to raise prices, compounding the dire situation. In Astana, Russia's envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev said his country was considering hosting intra-Syrian talks. Russia is one of the so-called guarantors to the Astana agreements that mandate the unimpeded flow of aid to Ghouta and three other contested regions in Syria. It is also one of Mr Assad's most steady military and diplomatic backers in the war. State news agency RIA Novosti said a "Congress of National Dialogue" for Syria could be held in Sochi in mid-November. The office of the UN's envoy to Syria Staffan De Mistura, who has been party to talks in Astana and Geneva, declined to comment on the possibility. It said Geneva talks are slated to resume on November 28. AP The clocks turned back in more ways than one this weekend. For northern politics today marks another missed deadline and another talks failure. The most depressing commentary on that failure is the knowledge that no one is in the least bit surprised. It's a failure that has been long dragged out. After 10 months without a government, after two elections and after week upon week of talking, Sinn Fein and the DUP have now brought us to the brink of British direct rule. Read More And let's be clear, a budget delivered by James Brokenshire in Westminster is direct rule - it can't be painted or presented in any other way. As I previously stated, the very least that must now be expected from the DUP and Sinn Fein is for them to publish their papers, publish what progress was made and then let the public judge who acted as the main block to the restoration of devolution. As the talks ignore another deadline, no one should fool themselves into thinking that there is any solace to be found in direct rule. I am deeply concerned that due to the very natural frustration with the Stormont talks, we are constantly being told that people simply don't care whether our politics works or not. Those who continue to feed that narrative are so seasoned in cynicism that their analysis has become stale. We do not live at a time of political apathy; in fact people are more engaged than ever. They do care. The deep disruptions of Brexit, and a political crisis which has finally caught up with the financial crisis of a decade ago, mean that we're now in a moment when everyone is intensely focused on a much wider horizon. Both of these islands are at the centre of that evolving change. Due to the day-to-day intensity of modern politics, an old criticism is that it constantly carries the danger of failing to see the wood for the trees. In the current context the danger for northern politics in fact lies in the reverse. As focus is naturally drawn to the broader political wood of Brexit and its deep instability the trees in front of us, the very trees we all planted 19 Good Fridays ago are being ripped up before our very eyes. At the very moment the broader Anglo-Irish relationship faces into the seismic consequences of Brexit, the delicate equilibrium constructed between the two traditions in Northern Ireland is being sacrificed by a mixture of bad faith and bad negotiating. For nationalism in particular, that requires us to seriously reflect. We are now facing into direct rule with a difference - the difference being that because of the numbers at Westminster, Arlene Foster and the DUP are being gifted a blank cheque over all of our futures. A Tory/DUP government is a combination which will do nothing to respect the Irish identity or protect our collective rights. Nationalism across this island deserves a better strategy than the one which has left us with no Assembly, no North-South institutions, no voice in the context of Brexit and is now threatening to place us at the prolonged mercy of a coalition between the DUP and the Tories at Westminster. It deserves a better strategy than the one which left no legacy of substantial economy or social success after 10 years at the top of government. For all the vague talk of Gerry Adams' broader political agenda, no one should be blind as to where that strategy has now brought us. Sinn Fein's negotiating has delivered British direct rule. Surrendering power to a Tory/DUP government is a compromise the SDLP would never have made. Therefore if no deal is to be reached, it is critical that the Irish Government sticks by the position of Minister Simon Coveney in ensuring that there can be no 'British only direct rule'. In the absence of an Executive and Assembly, giving representation to the North's two traditions falls on both the Irish and British Governments. That is the logic and the balance underpinning all of our political agreements. Maintaining that balance means that the alternative to direct rule is the joint stewardship of the North by the two governments. We can't allow the clocks to go back any further. Colum Eastwood is leader of the SDLP Think of Barcelona: sunshine, teeming street life, cafes, tapas, open-air concerts and cavernous nightclubs. This metropolis hardly seems to sleep, kept awake by the millions of tourists who throng the city as well as the beaches that stretch along the Mediterranean coast of Catalonia in north-east Spain. There is the astonishing architectural genius of Antoni Gaudi as exemplified by his unfinished masterpiece, the church of Sagrada Familia. Art galleries abound, including those that honour artists such as Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro. But these are times of deep change. The red and gold bars of the Catalan flag, sometimes carrying the independence motif, are everywhere to be seen. Less common, and more apparent in the outer, working-class rim of the city is the flag of the Spanish state. The flags tell us of a deeply divided society. At the beginning of this month more than two million voters out of a Catalan population of just over seven million voted for full independence from Spain. This was in a referendum organised by the semi-autonomous Catalan parliament but deemed illegal by the Spanish government. Madrid sent in the Guardia Civil who assaulted hundreds of voters, some brutally, in an attempt to disrupt the referendum. The vast majority of voters plumped for independence while many who were opposed seem to have abstained. As in Northern Ireland at the end of the 1960s, television images of bloodied faces and police violence may well have radicalised a younger generation of Catalonians. That remains to be seen. Much depends also on whether the governing party, the right-wing, authoritarian Partido Popular, encourages further strong-arm tactics. As of this weekend there have been two further momentous developments. First, the regional government of Catalonia, led by Carles Puigdemont, has declared independence for Catalonia, in line with the results of the referendum (a declaration that neither Spain nor other countries of the European Union recognise). Second, the Spanish government has dissolved the regional parliament and has imposed direct rule from Madrid. Its position is that it is implacably opposed to the partition of Spain and the secession of any part of the national territory. The Spanish constitution guarantees the unity of Spain. Thus, as viewed from Madrid, those proposing the break-up of the country are guilty of treason. Direct rule might seem relatively innocuous. After all, Northern Ireland dances in and out of power-sharing with few major consequences, other than further increments to gross regional blather. But never before has the stripping away of regional powers and autonomy been attempted, that is, in the time since Spain adopted its current constitution in 1978. This followed the death of dictator General Franco who reviled Catalan republicans and separatists and sought to suppress the Catalan language. For some three decades after the advent of democracy, Catalan independentistes constituted only a small fraction of the Catalan electorate. What is happening in Catalonia right now, if the independentistes have their way, is more like Brexit, with all its uncertainties and unfathomable outcomes. The longer term consequences could well strengthen secessionist tendencies, not only in Catalonia and Spain but in other parts of Europe. But Brexit, complicated enough as we now know it to be, is not attended by threats of force. Catexit is. At the moment, the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, is threatening further repressive measures. He has already dismissed the head of the Catalan regional police force and two leading members of the pro-independence movement have been lodged in jail. More arrests are promised. While both sides have been playing something of a cat-and-mouse game in recent weeks, the space for compromise has been shrinking. It is now dangerously narrow. There is little to suggest the Partido Popular has learned much from conflicts elsewhere, including, one might add, the malign lessons from the Northern Ireland Troubles. Sheltering behind the Spanish constitution, as if it were chiselled in stone, it has set its face against permitting the kind of independence referenda that took place in Quebec and more recently in Scotland. In both cases the independence movements lost, and well-informed commentators suggest this would have been the case in Catalonia also. But one would not be so sure now. As one Catalan writer has wryly put it: "Madrid is a factory for the production of Catalan independence. An unrelated but fortuitous force for independence has been the impact of the economic depression since 2008. Economic and political grievances proved to be mutually reinforcing, despite (or perhaps because) Catalonia is one of the most economically advanced regions in Europe." By and large, the independentistes have been more effective in presenting their arguments to a wider audience. One particularly emotive video, appealing for European help for the Catalan cause, has gone viral. That could change. Moreover, stripped of their powers, it is difficult to see how Mr Puigdemont and his government colleagues can give substance to the assertion of Catalan independence. He also faces a deeper problem. The people of Catalonia are not as one on constitutional change. Catalonia, and Barcelona in particular, have since the 1950s attracted huge numbers of migrants from Andalucia and other economically disadvantaged regions of Spain. First-generation Catalans, who are largely working-class, and many of their children, appear to be less enamoured on political independence and place more emphasis on social and economic reform. One of the authors, the Catalan-born Irene Boada, feels the point of no return has now been reached after years of fruitless negotiation. In her view there is an undercurrent of hostility towards Catalonia and its people and a great lack of emotional intelligence on the part of the Madrid authorities. Catalans have tried over the last decade to negotiate stronger measures of autonomy for Catalonia - measures incidentally that were supported by the Spanish Socialist party - but to no avail. In the light of this dialogue of the deaf, only negotiated independence for Catalonia, mediated by international bodies, can resolve the disputed issues of language, culture and nationality. This will mean reforming the Spanish Constitution and Constitutional Court. Catalonia's future lies beyond Spain but firmly within the European Union. Liam Kennedy, a frequent visitor to Catalonia, is of the view that in the longer term Catalans are in the stronger position politically and that an act of generosity on their part, in the face of the intransigence of the Partido Popular, just might open the way to a compromise short of a republic. Perhaps along the lines of the Quebec-Canada settlement. Moreover, Mr Puigdemont needs to bear in mind, amid the giddy excitement of it all, that he has a 'constituency within', the half or so of the Catalan people who do not currently favour independence. Both authors agree, with attitudes hardening on the two sides, that time is running out and that the future is dangerously unpredictable. But both take some reassurance from the fact that Catalonia, unlike the Basque Country and Ireland, lack a tradition of terrorism. Irene Boada is from Barcelona and teaches Spanish and Catalan at Queen's University Belfast. She has published widely on Spanish, Catalan and Irish. Liam Kennedy is emeritus professor of history at Queen's University Belfast and writes on Irish history and politics The Tories are known for their ruthlessness when it comes to cutting public spending. Single parents, the sick, disabled and the weakest in our society have all been victims of their slash and burn approach. So if no deal is reached by tomorrow's talks deadline, it's obvious what Secretary of State James Brokenshire should do. Stormont is the biggest white elephant around and it's time for the Tories to act. There should be no special status for our pampered political class. The Assembly hasn't sat once since it was elected almost eight months ago, yet MLAs continue to enjoy 49,000 salaries plus expenses. There aren't many jobs in Northern Ireland where you're paid as handsomely as that. And our politicians don't even have to turn up for work to be rewarded. Just think of the effort you, your family, friends and neighbours put in to earn a crust. I see women slaving away in call centres and fast food chain outlets on zero hours contracts. Men breaking their backs on building sites in all weathers for a fraction of what they earned before the recession. Cleaners up at the crack of dawn to head across town to clear up other people's mess and sh*t. People doing jobs they don't want to do, just to feed their kids and pay the bills. So tomorrow, if there's no deal, Brokenshire shouldn't duck or dive, but rather tackle the situation head on. He must tell them: "No work, no pay." We are spending 1 million a month on their wages and expenses. When you add in the running costs of Stormont and other staff, the bill comes to 3.5m a month. Just think what that money would do for hospitals and schools the length and breadth of Northern Ireland. We may be divided over an Irish Language Act, legacy issues and equal marriage, but this matter unites us all. From hardline unionists to radical republicans, I haven't met anyone who says "keep on paying the MLAs". When devolution was suspended in 2002 they continued to receive 70% of their salaries and expenses for the next five years. We mustn't do that again. Reference is regularly made to the constituency work MLAs do, but we have enough elected representatives to fulfil that role already. Eighteen MPs, 462 councillors and three MEPs is ample for a place our size. But Brokenshire won't take the decisive action the public are calling for because London has invested heavily in showcasing Stormont to the world regardless of its poor record. Paying off the politicians would be an admission that little real change has been delivered here despite all the lofty promises. That's not something Downing Street wants to own up to just six month away from the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. And so Government generosity will continue. Ordinary men, women and children across the country will keep bearing the brunt of austerity, while millions are literally thrown at our politicians. Updated at 8:45 p.m. ET on 2017-10-30 An unprecedented influx of Rohingya refugees into southeastern Bangladesh is putting the ecologically fragile region on the brink of an environmental disaster, officials and analysts warn. As many as seven reserve forests, totaling about 2,500 acres, have been wiped out in just over two months in Coxs Bazar district as incoming Rohingya refugees cut down trees for firewood and to construct makeshift shelters, area forest officer Ali Kabir said. Make no mistake, this is an environmental catastrophe, he told BenarNews. As many as 607,000 Rohingya refugees have fled to southeastern Bangladesh, after the Myanmar army and security forces launched an offensive against the predominantly Muslim minority in response to attacks by Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) insurgents in Rakhine state on Aug. 25, according to the latest estimates from U.N. officials. With 400,000 Rohingya already settled along Bangladeshs southeast border before the latest exodus began, the number of refugees in the region has doubled the population of nearly 500,000 Bangladeshi people living in the region where about 15 refugee camps and settlements are situated, Kabir said. They have occupied 1,625 acres of forestland in Ukhia and 875 acres of forestland in Teknaf and have chopped down more than one million trees to make way for their huts, Kabir said, adding that the refugees were cutting hundreds of trees a day to use as firewood for cooking. As of last week, forest resources valued at about 1.5 billion Bangladeshi taka (U.S. $18 million) had been destroyed to accommodate the latest influx of refugees, according to the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Kabir said his department initially tried to stop the refugees from chopping down trees. Some Rohingya attacked three forest officials who attempted to discourage them, he said. The only solution is that Myanmar takes back the Rohingya population. Of course, that may take a long time. Until then, we really cant do much. Once they leave, we can start replanting trees, he added. Saif-ul-Isma Asrab, assistant director of the Directorate of Environment, agreed. If we really wish to control the situation, we will need to relocate the refugees to another region at the earliest. There is no other option, Asrab told BenarNews. A Rohingya boy who sells wood waits for customers near the Kutupalong refugee camp in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, Oct. 30, 2017. (Rohit Wadhwaney/BenarNews) Whats so bad about cutting trees? Biswajit Sen, a local environmental activist, said the blatant disregard for nature was not only harming wildlife, but was also posing a serious threat to the regions human population. Due to the rampant use of fossil fuel, Coxs Bazar is already at a risk of climate change. The region often routinely witnesses either extreme rainfall or extreme drought conditions. Low-lying areas have already been swallowed by the sea, Sen told BenarNews. With the fresh Rohingya arrivals denuding more than 200 hills that once teemed with trees, the risks have increased significantly, he said. As a result of extreme deforestation, the sea level will rise further and swallow more land. Deforestation may also result in high tides, heavy rainfall and landslides, Sen warned. Abdur Shakur, 50, a Rohingya who arrived from Rakhine last month with seven members of his family, admitted to cutting many trees to make place for his hut constructed from bamboo and tarpaulin on a hill in Balukhali. Do you think the [Myanmar] army bothered about the trees when they were setting our village on fire? Killing people is bad, burning entire villages is wrong. Whats so bad about cutting trees? Everyone here is doing it, he told BenarNews. Rampant deforestation also increased the threat of animal attacks in the region that is home to a wildlife sanctuary. At least six Rohingya refugees, including children, have been killed in separate wild elephant attacks near the Balukhali refugee camp over the last two months, forest officer Abdul Mannan said. Elephants almost always use the same path to move back and forth. They identify their path by the trees around. When you cut down the trees, chances of the elephants losing their way and entering areas populated by humans is more. This is precisely why such incidents are occurring frequently, Mannan told BenarNews. CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly named the area forest officer as Ali Hussain. Bangladeshi crime scene investigators collect evidence from a hotel room in Dhaka following an explosion as police prepared to raid a suspected militant hideout in the building, Aug. 15, 2017. Updated at 5:41 p.m. ET on 2017-10-30 Bangladesh is tightening security ahead of hosting next weeks Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference, which was moved to London last year over safety concerns following a massacre by terrorists at a cafe in Dhaka, the home minister told BenarNews. Three suspected members of Neo-JMB, a militant group linked to the Islamic State (IS) that local authorities blamed for the July 2016 attack, were arrested in northwestern Bangladesh on Sunday and weapons and explosives were seized during a raid targeting their hideout, officials said. The raid by the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) came as Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina prepared to inaugurate the 63rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Conference (CPC). Opening on Nov. 5 and running through Nov. 8, it will bring together 550 parliamentarians from countries belonging to the British Commonwealth. The anti-militant drive is continuous. We are going to host the conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association in Dhaka. So, we have to ensure maximum security to the foreign delegates, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told BenarNews. We maintain zero tolerance for terrorism and militancy. Since the Holey Artisan cafe attack, we carried out aggressive operations against the militants across the country to save the people. We have broken their backbone. They are no more a threat, he added. He was referring to last years attack that left 29 people dead, including 17 foreigners who were among hostages slaughtered inside the cafe and the five Bangladeshi gunmen who carried out the overnight siege. The 62nd edition of the CPC was scheduled to take place in Dhaka in October 2016, but was shifted to the British capital because of security concerns following the cafe attack. Organizers allowed Dhaka to host this year because of improved security. 29 raids After the Holey Artisan attack, Bangladesh launched a massive crackdown on suspected militants groups nationwide aimed at decapitating the senior leadership of Neo-JMB, a faction of homegrown militant group Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), and other extremist organizations. Twenty-nine raids launched by police and RAB since then have left at least 80 suspects dead, according to a list compiled by the police and obtained by BenarNews. The list includes four minors. Of those senior militants from Neo-JMB, JMB and Ansar al-Islam who are still alive, they and other key leaders of Muslim extremist groups are on the run, Khan said. Bangladeshi authorities have blamed Ansar, also known as Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT), for being behind a series of murders targeting secular writers and activists. A spate of those attacks took place after February 2015, but there have been no others since April 2016, when two gay-rights activists and intellectuals were murdered by machete-wielding intruders inside a Dhaka apartment. Neo JMB and ABT leaders including Tamim Chowdhury, a Canadian-born militant who was said to be the main mastermind of the cafe attack, were among the scores of suspects killed in the post-Holey Artisan counter-terror raids. The home minister, however, has adamantly denied that IS was involved in the cafe attack or has a presence in Bangladesh, even though the extremist group claimed responsibility for the massacre and IS media circulated photos online of the five attackers standing with assault rifles in front of the groups black flag. Since the cafe attack and a terrorist attack on a massive Muslim prayer gathering that followed soon after, the militants have not been able to stage any sabotage, Masudur Rahman, a spokesman for Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told BenarNews. Their activities have been reduced drastically. We have [maintained] a strict vigilance on militancy, he added. A terrorism analyst expressed skepticism that the crackdown had wiped out the terrorist threat in Bangladesh. It does not mean that they are finished. They nourish a distorted Islamic ideology. And an ideology cannot be crushed. They have been hiding to reorganize, security analyst and retired Brig. Gen. Sakhawat Hossain told BenarNews. Three arrested The 29 raids included Sundays raid in the northwest. Acting on a tip, RAB personnel raided a house in Chapai Nawabganj, the seat of a northwestern district by the same name, and arrested three Neo-JMB suspects. They were identified as Jenarul Islam, 25, Rasul Bux, 50, and Mohammad Islam, 70, RAB spokesman Mufti Mahmud Khan told BenarNews. RAB had obtained information that 10 to 12 Neo-JMB members were holding a meeting inside the suspected militant den, he said. Three of them were caught red-handed while the others fled. We have been working to trace them, the RAB spokesman said, adding weapons and bomb-making materials were found in the suspects possession. An earlier version contained wrong information about when Bangladeshi security forces last carried out a counter-terrorist raid. Newly arrived Rohingya wait for help at the Kutupalong refugee camp in Coxs Bazar, Oct. 29, 2017. Bangladeshs elite anti-terrorism unit is conducting search operations in Rohingya camps on its southeastern border after two refugees from Myanmar were arrested with guns and live ammunition over the weekend, a Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) official said. The raids in Kutupalong camp and adjoining areas in Coxs Bazar district, where a majority of Rohingya are sheltered, began on Saturday and likely will continue through the week, RAB Maj. Ruhul Amin told BenarNews. Police said some Rohingya refugees armed with sharp-edged weapons injured four Bangladeshis who were repairing a well near the Balukhali camp early Saturday. We also heard a gunshot, Amin said. Two suspects Elias, 25, and Noor Basar, 26 were arrested in connection with the assault a few hours later, he said, adding they had homemade guns and ammunition. During interrogation we got some links and started sending out our teams to conduct raids at the refugee camps, Amin said. The RAB has information that some refugees are hiding weapons in the camps where more than 607,000 Rohingya have taken shelter since a fresh wave of violence broke out in August against the predominantly Muslim community in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, he said. Both suspects were among the group of fresh arrivals from Myanmar. We havent recovered more weapons yet, he said. This is a very difficult operation considering the camps are extremely vast and over-populated. It is a very big challenge for us, Amin said. Amin said the two suspects likely are not members of Arakan Rohingya Salavation Army (ARSA), a rebel outfit based in Rakhine. The latest mass exodus of Rohingya began after the Myanmar army and security officials launched a massive counter-offensive on Aug. 25 to retaliate against an attack by ARSA on the countrys police and army posts. Brandishing pistols The raids come more than a month after a group of Rohingya Hindus who arrived in Bangladesh to escape violence in Myanmars Rakhine state told local authorities they were tortured at gunpoint for hours by Rohingya Muslims in the 3,000-acre Kutupalong camp. Those who had held us numbered in the hundreds, and were brandishing pistols and rifles before they tied a cloth around our eyes and mouths, Nitai Shill, 30, told BenarNews at a settlement of some 440 Rohingya Hindus situated a stones throw from the vast camp. They blindfolded us, tied our arms and led us deep inside the camp, where we were tortured for about eight hours by a mob. We were punched and kicked. When we asked for water, they made us drink our urine, Nitais brother Tajol, 19, told BenarNews. Tajol Shill, a Rohingya Hindu, shows bruises he alleges resulted from torture by Rohingya Muslims who abducted him, Ukhia, Cox's Bazar, Oct. 27, 2017. (Rohit Wadhwaney/BenarNews) A group of 11 Hindus had gone to Kutupalong to collect money from a livestock sale, but only nine returned alive. One mans body was found in a river and the other was still missing, the men said. The victims dont know the spot where they say they were tortured by men with guns. They gave us names of the alleged perpetrators, but we havent been able to locate any of them, Sub-Inspector Abul Kalam said, admitting the probe into the allegations had come to a standstill Meawhile, Muslim refugees denied the allegations. Why would Rohingya want to hurt other Rohingya, Mohammad Salam, a leader at the Kutupalong camp, told BenarNews. And how do you imagine anyone can bring weapons into such a crowded place without getting caught? Amin said it was not difficult. This region is full of thick forests and waterways. There are numerous unguarded points along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. Its very easy to sneak in anything and hide it, he said. A bedroom in the four-story apartment rented by militant leader Isnilon Hapilon in the southern Philippine city of Marawi shows signs of a vicious May 23 firefight, Oct. 30, 2017. Islamic books, hundreds of bullet cartridges and toy guns littered what was left of ground-zero of a five-month battle that killed more than 1,200 people and drew the worlds attention to a regional alliance of Southeast Asian and foreign militants in the southern Philippines. On Monday, reporters and residents viewed the bullet-riddled four-story house in Marawi, where Isnilon Hapilon, the Filipino leader of the Islamic State (IS) branch in Southeast Asia, gave orders to his extremist forces until May 23, when government troops encountered an unexpected number of militants during a bungled attempt to arrest him. The apartment in a quiet alley of Marawi city was where the military recovered a video showing Hapilon and other militant leaders, including Malaysias most-wanted terrorist, Mahmud Ahmad, planning an attack that would stoke fears that the Islamic State was trying to gain a foothold in the region. The militants intended to show IS leaders the video as propaganda material if they succeeded in capturing Marawi as planned, military chief Gen. Eduardo Ano told reporters in June. The grand plan of this [group] is actually, in time for the first day of Ramadan, they will seize the whole of Marawi and proclaim an Islamic caliphate just like what happened in Mosul when [Abu Bakr] al-Baghdadi occupied Mosul in June 2014, Ano said. But the military disrupted the plan when troops raided Hapilons lair. They were not able to fully deploy all their forces, Ano said. Supposedly more terrorists would join, but because of what happened, when we raided the safe house on May 23, where we got also the copies of the videos, it was all aborted. Well-trained snipers, including fighters from Indonesia, Malaysia and Arab states, fanned out in the citys business district, occupied high-rise buildings and pinned down troops, who eventually relied on daily bombings from Air Force fighter jets. The fighting killed almost 1,000 militants, 165 soldiers and police and 47 civilians. The clashes were set off when soldiers and police moved to arrest Hapilon, who was on FBIs most-wanted list with a reward of up to $5 million on his head. Officials later acknowledged they were caught unaware that Hapilon, the recognized emir of IS in the region, had prepared his forces. The troops were surprised when they wanted to arrest Hapilon, because they initially thought there werent too many armed men inside the house, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenza told reporters earlier. When they moved closer to the house, it turned out there were other terrorists in the area. On Monday, BenarNews reporters joined residents who were allowed access to Marawis Basak Malutlut neighborhood as they surveyed the damage after officials announced an end to the battle last week. About 4,000 people were allowed to return to their homes on Sunday, six days after soldiers killed the last remaining militants. The sound of birds Hapilons rented apartment has remained abandoned, with the chirping of birds offering the only sign of life in an area where, the military says, the fate of Marawi was decided. Bandoliers, thousands of ammunition casings, pocket-size copies of the Quran, discarded fatigue uniforms, toy guns and childrens shoes were scattered inside the rooms in the apartment occupied by Hapilon, a commander of the Abu Sayyaf who was killed two weeks ago. Muzzle-blasts from rifles blackened the freshly painted walls that were pockmarked with bullets, providing a reminder that the rebels who occupied it had enough firepower to withstand a sustained military assault. A member of the police special-action force unit who declined to be identified told BenarNews on Monday that he was holed up just two houses from the apartment. Hapilon had slipped in and out of the apartment unnoticed. I really didnt have any idea that he was there. When the fighting erupted, I was even trapped for two days before I was able to get out, he said. Hapilons wife and 6-year-old son were among the first fatalities when fighting erupted, according to Amenola Gandaw, 52, a village councilman. BenarNews could not independently verify his claim. Gandaw, whose house fronted the apartment, said Hapilon apparently stayed in two units. There were a lot of people coming in and out in those two units and we had no idea that he was there, Gandaw said. Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesman for the provincial crisis management committee, said the local government was at a loss on what to do with the structure. There were plans to leave it in its ruined state or restore it to build a museum. But Col. Romeo Brawner Jr., deputy commander of Joint Task Group Ranao, said the owner of the apartment, a government employee who worked out of town, would be allowed to reclaim the building after police and troops finished their investigation. The investigation will be handled by police. But we will ensure their rights will not be violated, Brawner said. Superintendent Ebra Moxir, the citys new police chief, said the apartment owner, whom he declined to identify, already showed up and told investigators he had no idea his place would be used to launch the regions deadliest attack in years. They told our investigators they have no idea Hapilon was there. I advised them also to clear their names with the military, he said. Two units of this four-story house in the southern Philippine city of Marawi were rented by Isnilon Hapilon, the acknowledged leader of the Islamic State in Southeast Asia, Oct. 30, 2017. (Mark Navales/BenarNews) Foreign governments to help rebuild Marawi With the Philippine government declaring fighting over on Oct. 23 five months to the day the battle began the United States, the countrys main defense ally, has said it stands ready to help the Philippines rebuild Marawis city center, which was largely destroyed by bombing by the military. On Monday, Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe also pledged to deliver nearly $9 billion in aid to the Philippines to rebuild battle-damaged areas of Marawi and improve infrastructure throughout the country. But there have been reports of looting allegedly committed by both sides during the fighting, and President Rodrigo Duterte has encouraged Marawi residents who wanted to file a criminal complaint to do so. Its well within their right to do that, Duterte said late Sunday before leaving for Japan for an official two-day visit. I declared martial law to answer the challenges of the moment and I take full responsibility. Thats on me, he said. I hold myself solely responsible. "info@glsdeuk.com" 2017/9/12 () 6:13 PM INSTRUCTION ON HOW TO LOGIN TO YOUR ACCOUNT Our Dear Customer. This is to inform you the we have been able to create your bank account with our bank GLS bank and you are advised to log in to your bank account with the following information; ONLINE LOGIN INFOMATION: Bank Website: www.glsdeuk.com Bank Website: www.glsdeuk.com Account Number: 10107876295 Account Password: 2288 Pin Code: 1955 Kindly use the information above to login so that you can access your bank account online and we shall make the transfer as soon as possible and your fund will reflect in your bank account in your respective country, note that the total amount authorized to us by United Nations Foreign Debt Recovery office is: $1,500,000.00 (one million five hundred united states dollars only) for recovered foreign inheritance. We shall proceed with your account activation in the next few minutes and you should acknowledge the receipt of this email so that we can proceed with the activation process and get back to you. NOTE: Once you login and view your account, kindly get back to us for further process to avoid any mistake! CC: Office of the International Transfer c/o: Dr. Ferid Belhaj Yours Faithfully, GLS BANK USA. Website:www.glsdeuk.com Tel:+1 832 271 3177 Email: info@glsdeuk.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - DISCLAIMER Information in this email is intended for the recipients addressed in the email. It may contain confidential information. If you receive this email in error, please delete it. If you are not addressed as the recipient, please have in mind that copying and disclosure of the email or using the information contained in the email is prohibited and may be unlawful. GLS Bank neither endorses nor is responsible for any opinion, recommendation, conclusion, demand, offer and/or agreement contained in this email. "info@glsdeuk.com" 2017/9/13 () 3:51 PM ACTIVATION FEES REQUIRED! Our Dear Customer, We are glad that you where able to log into your account and you are advised to get your account activated so that you can be able to make transfers to any bank account in the whole world, to activate your account, you need to pay an activation fees of two thousand two hundred dollars only to activate your account, once this payment is made, your account shall be activated within few minutes. PAYMENT DETAILS FOR ACTIVATION FEES: (MONEY GRAM PAYMENT WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER) PAYMENT DETAILS: USA. Receivers Name: Donald Lambs Country: United States of America States: Oklahoma (Zip code:73072) City: Norman Amount: $2,200.00 Once you make payment, kindly get back to us so that we can get your account activated. Yours Faithfully, Head of Accounts, GLS BANK Our Dear Customer,We are glad that you where able to log into your account and you areadvised to get your account activated so that you can be able to maketransfers to any bank account in the whole world, to activate your account,you need to pay an activation fees of two thousand two hundred dollars onlyto activate your account, once this payment is made, your account shall beactivated within few minutes.PAYMENT DETAILS FOR ACTIVATION FEES: (MONEY GRAM PAYMENT WESTERN UNIONMONEY TRANSFER)PAYMENT DETAILS: USA.Receivers Name: Donald LambsCountry: United States of AmericaStates: Oklahoma (Zip code:73072)City: NormanAmount: $2,200.00Once you make payment, kindly get back to us so that we can get youraccount activated.Head of Accounts, GLS BANK "info@glsdeuk.com" 2017/9/13 () 3:55 PM ACCOUNT REVERSAL Hello , we noticed that you made an online transfer of $1,500,000.00 and we are sorry to inform you that the money was reverted back to your online account the reason is being the fact that the bank requires you to get your account activated and we shall want to inform you that you need to pay an activation fees and once this fees are paid, you will be able to make transfers to any bank account in the whole world and we need to get back to us as soon as possible. Yours Sincerely, Head of Accounts Department, GLS BANK, De: FERID BELHAJ < Enviado: lunes, 18 de septiembre de 2017 12:20 Asunto: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. FERID BELHAJ < feridbelhaj8@gmail.com lunes, 18 de septiembre de 2017 12:20Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. GLS Bank Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director Direct office Tel: + 1 (832) 271-3177 Attention:Beneficiary, This is to inform you that we have recovered your foreign inheritance from the corrupt foreign bank through the assistance of United Nations Foreign Debt recovery Committee and it is now deposited with us here in United States. We shall release the fund to you as soon as we hear from you. Congratulations! Dr.FERID BELHAJ De: FERID BELHAJ < Enviado: miercoles, 20 de septiembre de 2017 5:16 Asunto: Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. FERID BELHAJ < feridbelhaj8@gmail.com miercoles, 20 de septiembre de 2017 5:16Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. Hello In respect of the last email sent to you by our noble office with regards to your foreign inheritance with has been deposited to our correspondent bank GLS bank United States of America and we shall want to inform you to send us the following information so that we can wire your fund from GLS bank to your bank account in your country so you are advised to send us the following information so that we can proceed with the fund transfer immediately once we reconfirm the following information: -Your full name -Date of Birth -House address -Scanned copy of your Identity card (DL or International Passport copy) -Working Phone number(mobile) -House of office address -Next of kin -Bank information(Account number,Bank name ) -Occupation Once we confirm all this we shall create an account for you with GLS Bank and we shall give you your bank account number, your online personal identification number(pin)and your account password-these information would allow you to make an online bank transfer to your personal account and you will receive your fund without any problem and you need to keep this process confidential so that you would not go into wrong hands. CC: GLS BANK, USA Yours Faithfully, Office of the International Fund Transfer De: FERID BELHAJ < Enviado: martes, 26 de septiembre de 2017 15:53 Asunto: Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. FERID BELHAJ < feridbelhaj8@gmail.com martes, 26 de septiembre de 2017 15:53Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. I have received your email, the site is under upgrading, it would be up in few days time, but I shall advise you to activate your account and you can call the banks direct phone number contained in your email for activation process . Regards! Hello, De: FERID BELHAJ < Enviado: martes, 26 de septiembre de 2017 16:26 Asunto: Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. FERID BELHAJ < feridbelhaj8@gmail.com martes, 26 de septiembre de 2017 16:26Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. okay, the bank shall get back to you okay in the next couple of days! De: FERID BELHAJ < Enviado: jueves, 28 de septiembre de 2017 22:59 Asunto: Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. FERID BELHAJ < feridbelhaj8@gmail.com jueves, 28 de septiembre de 2017 22:59Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. The bank shall contact you soon. Regards! Hello, De: FERID BELHAJ < Enviado: viernes, 29 de septiembre de 2017 9:57 Asunto: Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. FERID BELHAJ < feridbelhaj8@gmail.com viernes, 29 de septiembre de 2017 9:57Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. The banks Information: Website: www.glsdegroup.com Email Address: info@glsdegroup.com Phone Number: + 18322713177 De: FERID BELHAJ < Enviado: jueves, 05 de octubre de 2017 12:29 Asunto: Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. FERID BELHAJ < feridbelhaj8@gmail.com jueves, 05 de octubre de 2017 12:29Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. The reason why you have not received your money is that you have refused to get your account activated and the bank told you to pay $2200 so that your account would be activated and you can be able to make transfers to any bank account in the whole world once the activation process is completed. Yours Sincerely, Dr. Ferid B Hello De: FERID BELHAJ < Enviado: sabado, 14 de octubre de 2017 17:40 Asunto: Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. FERID BELHAJ < feridbelhaj8@gmail.com sabado, 14 de octubre de 2017 17:40Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. Hello, This is to inform you that we have re-visited your file with regards to your foriegn inheritance deposited with GLS BANK and during our investigation you have field to comply with the paying banks requirement in accordance with the monetary and fisical policy governing the international banking system, I shall employ you to contact GLS BANK as soon as possible so that your account would be activated and you can have access to your fund without any problem. Kindly acknowledge the receipt of this email as the urgency implies! Yours In Service, Dr. Ferid B. De: FERID BELHAJ < Enviado: domingo, 15 de octubre de 2017 8:13 Asunto: Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. FERID BELHAJ < feridbelhaj8@gmail.com domingo, 15 de octubre de 2017 8:13Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. website: www.glsdegroup.com The banks email: info@glsdegroup.com De: FERID BELHAJ < feridbelhaj8@gmail.com > Enviado: domingo, 29 de octubre de 2017 6:37 Asunto: Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. FERID BELHAJ < feridbelhaj8@gmail.com >domingo, 29 de octubre de 2017 6:37Re: Office of the International Transfer Final Crediting Director. You are the cause why you have not received your fund from GLS BANK, the bank asked you to get your account activated and you failed to activate your account and I shall advise you that if you want to receive your fund, you should kindly send an email to the bank and tell them to activate your account and you would receive your fund and note that you where asked to pay some fees for your account activation. Yours In Service, Dr. Ferid Hello , If you received a similar letter, please ignore it. Do not answer it. If you do, you will end up on more of the mailing lists used by the criminals behind this fraud. Read more.... The potential in Africa is mainly about inclusion and exploring new innovative ways of providing services and 'intrapreneurship' is a driver for accelerating culture change and organisational transformation. Sommai Larkjit via 123RF Speaking at the first local Intrapreneurship Conference in Cape Town in October, Saidah Nash Carter, head of innovation at Thomson Reuters Africa, said: Intrapreneurship is a driver for accelerating culture change and organisational transformation and developing the capability to capitalise on opportunities for growth and we need to open these channels of collaboration if we are to truly realise great opportunities across Africa. Industries are being disrupted one by one and as a result, business environments are constantly changing. Those that are embracing change and looking for ways to innovate faster and better are succeeding. Those that dont, are struggling. And, intrapreneurship is playing a critical role here. However, it is hard to innovate in big companies as they often sit with challenges around legacy procedures and infrastructures that can restrict their ability to innovate quickly. It is for this reason that Thomson Reuters believes it is critical to initiate such discussions around driving collaborative efforts through intrapreneurship; aimed at developing solutions that will start to address, or even solve, large scale problems affecting African countries. Leveraging technology There is plenty of opportunity to leverage great things across Africa and there is so much that we could do through a community collaboration. By leveraging technology and look at leaner and more innovative ways of doing business, this will help us facilitate the growth of starts-up and achieve significant social impact. In fact, everyone should be thinking about the business of the future. We need people to be pushing the boundaries and leading change, said Carter. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a change of power which goes back to the individual and the people. However, bottom-up innovation is difficult to predict. We are already seeing a lot of disruption and this will only increase, said Carter. Big corporates will have to decide on how to operate with the new playing field and identifying opportunities is something that they need to stay focused on. Take digital money and blockchain, for example, which will eventually result in everyone being part of the system. An ecosystem for trading data is emerging. A marketplace is emerging which brings with it opportunities and concerns. Continued Carter: Africas growth here is already taking place. Due to the success of M-Pesa, Kenya is widely recognised as a leading hub for mobile payments. And, we are going further than this looking at solutions that optimise solar, drive last mile delivery and open up financial inclusion by improving access to, as well as trust in new banking platforms. Healthcare is also a great opportunity in Africa. With greater levels of mobile heath, remote support is extending reach. These solutions are very much needed in Africa and can only be achieved through collaboration. Rise of machines With talk about frictionless currency transfer and e-governments, as well as digital identities, the big fear story is that of the rise of machines. The growth in the intelligence and capabilities of machines present both a threat and opportunity. Greater Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation will free up time, but also threaten jobs if people dont evolve. For Africa, the conversation on AI on the future workforce needs to shift from pessimistic concerns around job losses, to excitement and engagement about what technology might mean for the future workforce. Focus needs to shift to looking at what re-training will be required to ensure people continue to enjoy productive and rewarding lives, and as machines learn to assume more and more responsibilities in society. It is not about machines replacing humans in the workforce, but rather about machines augmenting humans making peoples jobs easier and potentially more interesting, but not making them redundant, added Carter. Africas problems can be solved through real solutions, but it requires deeper collaboration and partnerships that are more dynamic, long-term orientated and democratised. Together with start-ups, I believe we will be able to capture innovation and leverage the power of technology across Africa. This will help to not only facilitate the growth of start-ups, but also drive significant social impact. There is no one recipe for how to do it, but we are committed to fostering an innovative discussion so that we are able to light up the lives of millions of people. I believe people will rally behind change and they are ready to evolve and move to the next levels of innovation - and we plan to be here every step of the way, concluded Carter. The Nigerian SME Council brings together Facebook Africa's SME team and Nigerian business owners from a range of industries, in a partnership designed to provide better digital tools for business and customer growth. rvlsoft via 123RF Facebook has launched the Nigerian SME Council, the first to launch on the continent as part of its ongoing commitment to help support small and medium sized businesses throughout Africa. Made up of a combination 15 vibrant start-ups and established SMEs from a range of industries, each business brings with them a wealth of unique experiences in understanding and embracing digital and mobile strategies, as well as reaching the Nigerian customer making them ideally positioned to offer support to other companies who need it. Speaking at the launch, Abi Williams, Facebooks SMB Sales Manager, EMEA said: Small businesses form the backbone of most of the thriving economies in the world, driving sustainable growth and creating jobs, and those in Nigeria are no different. Facebook is strategically positioned to help SMEs grow their businesses, and with a vibrant SME sector, Nigeria was a natural choice in launching our very first SME Council on the African continent. With 35 million people in other countries connected to a Nigerian business on Facebook, the global market has never been closer for Nigerian SMEs. The Nigerian SME Council: The Nigerian SME Council joins 10 SME Councils across the globe, including in: North America, Ireland, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, Poland, India and Brazil. WASHINGTON, US: Apple will let you unlock the iPhone X with your face - a move likely to bring facial recognition to the masses, along with concerns over how the technology may be used for nefarious purposes. Apple's newest device, set to go on sale 3 November 2017, is designed to be unlocked with a facial scan with a number of privacy safeguards - as the data will only be stored on the phone and not in any databases. Unlocking one's phone with a face scan may offer added convenience and security for iPhone users, according to Apple, which claims its "neural engine" for FaceID cannot be tricked by a photo or hacker. While other devices have offered facial recognition, Apple is the first to pack the technology allowing for a three-dimensional scan into a hand-held phone. But despite Apple's safeguards, privacy activists fear the widespread use of facial recognition would "normalise" the technology and open the door to broader use by law enforcement, marketers, or others of a largely unregulated tool. "Apple has done a number of things well for privacy but it's not always going to be about the iPhone X," said Jay Stanley, a policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union. "Real reasons to worry" "There are real reasons to worry that facial recognition will work its way into our culture and become a surveillance technology that is abused." A study last year by Georgetown University researchers found nearly half of all Americans in a law enforcement database that includes facial recognition, without their consent. Civil liberties groups have sued over the FBI's use of its "next generation" biometric database, which includes facial profiles, claiming it has a high error rate and the potential for tracking innocent people. "We don't want police officers having a watch list embedded in their body cameras scanning faces on the sidewalk," said Stanley. Clare Garvie - the Georgetown University Law School associate who led the 2016 study on facial recognition databases - agreed that Apple is taking a responsible approach but others might not. "My concern is that the public is going to become inured or complacent about this," Garvie said. Widespread use of facial recognition "could make our lives more trackable by advertisers, by law enforcement and maybe someday by private individuals," she said. Garvie said her research found significant errors in law enforcement facial recognition databases, opening up the possibility someone could be wrongly identified as a criminal suspect. Another worry, she said, is that police could track individuals who have committed no crime simply for participating in demonstrations. Shanghai and other Chinese cities have recently started deploying facial recognition to catch those who flout the rules of the road, including jaywalkers. Facial recognition and related technologies can also be used by retail stores to identify potential shoplifters, and by casinos to pinpoint undesirable gamblers. It can even be used to deliver personalised marketing messages - and could have some other potentially unnerving applications. Last year, a Russian photographer figured out how to match the faces of porn stars with their social media profiles to "doxx" them, or reveal their true identities. This type of use "can create huge problems," said Garvie. "We have to consider the worst possible uses of the technology." Apple's system uses 30,000 infrared dots to create a digital image which is stored in a "secure enclave," according to a white paper issued by the company on its security. It said the chances of a "random" person being able to unlock the device are one in a million, compared with one in 50,000 for its TouchID. "Likely to touch off fresh legal battles" Apple's FaceID is likely to touch off fresh legal battles about whether police can require someone to unlock a device. FaceID "brings the company deeper into a legal debate" that stemmed from the introduction of fingerprint identification on smartphones, according to ACLU staff attorney Brett Max Kaufman. Kaufman says in a blog post that courts will be grappling with the constitutional guarantees against unreasonable searches and self-incrimination if a suspect is forced to unlock a device. US courts have generally ruled that it would violate a user's rights to give up a passcode because it is "testimonial" - but that situation becomes murkier when biometrics are applied. Apple appears to have anticipated this situation by allowing a user to press two buttons for two seconds to require a passcode, but Garvie said court battles over compelling the use of FaceID are likely. Regardless of these concerns, Apple's introduction is likely to bring about widespread use of facial recognition technology. "What Apple is doing here will popularise and get people more comfortable with the technology," said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, who follows the sector. "If I look at Apple's track record of making things easy for consumers, I'm optimistic users are going to like this." Garvie added it is important to have conversations about facial recognition because there is little regulation governing the use of the technology. "The technology may well be inevitable," she said. "It is going to become part of everyone's lives if it isn't already." Source: AFP The international creative scene convened in Berlin, Germany, to celebrate the laureates of the Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2017 on Friday, 27 October 2017. Established and upcoming designers as well as agency heads and company representatives from all over the world came together at the Red Dot Gala. The makers of the years best communication design works were honoured during the award ceremony in the Konzerthaus Berlin. The suspense was guaranteed right to the very end, as the winners of the top individual award, the Red Dot: Grand Prix, as well as the Red Dot: Junior Prize with prize money of 10,000 Euros were first announced on the evening of the award ceremony. 67 works recipients of the Red Dot: Best of the Best Agencies, designers and companies from 50 countries entered 8,051 projects in the Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2017. The 24-member jury selected the winners of the international competition in 18 categories. The sought-after awards were given to the laureates on 27 October 2017. Only 0.8% of all entries received a Red Dot: Best of the Best from the jury in 2017. The makers behind the 67 works that won over the jury with their high design quality and creative achievements were duly celebrated at the Red Dot Gala in the Konzerthaus Berlin. They accepted their trophies in front of around 1,400 international guests. Prof Dr Peter Zec, founder and CEO of the Red Dot Award as well as host of the award show, handed over the trophies together with the jury members present: Eric Chang, regional vice president of OgilvyOne Taiwan, who travelled especially for the award ceremony, along with his jury colleagues Prof Philipp Teufel, professor of graphic and spatial Design at the Peter Behrens School of Arts in Germany, and Michel Chanaud from France, founder and director of etapes: Editions. Outstanding five works awarded the Red Dot: Grand Prix The atmosphere remained exciting to the very end, as it was not until the evening of the gala that the prize-winners and the audience were told who had received an additional award. Only five works each the best in their category were awarded the Red Dot: Grand Prix for their outstanding design. One of the top achievements to win this title was the corporate design for the Eurovision Song Contest 2017, designed by the creative heads at Banda Agency and Republique from the host country Ukraine. The humorous advertising campaign Hovering Art Director, designed by Achtung!/Studio Kraftwerk from the Netherlands for US software manufacturer Adobe Systems, was also successful in this regard. Daeki & Jun Design Studio from the South Korean city of Seoul was another winner of a Red Dot: Grand Prix for its unconventional poster Book Club 01 Center 2 Center. The top individual award was likewise bestowed on the exhibition design S.F_Senses of the Future Milan Design Week 2017 by Tokujin Yoshioka Design from Japan and LG from South Korea. Last but not least, the jury awarded the online platform Earth 2050 by Kaspersky Lab from Russia designed by Possible Moscow as the best piece of work in its category. Best work from a newcomer comes from Germany The newcomer designers were also kept in suspense, as only one of the up-and-coming talents could win the Red Dot: Junior Prize. The award along with its prize money of 10,000 Euros went to Sarah Muller from the School of Design Ravensburg. She won the enthusiasm of the jury with her book, See Acoustics Rhapsody in Blue (Akustik sehen Rhapsody in Blue), which discusses the perception and impact of music as well as its visual interpretation. The jury appreciated the newcomers very analytical approach, which despite rigorous clarity created an emotional experience and used this to make the invisible visible. Audi honoured as Red Dot: Brand of the Year 2017 The most successful brand in the Red Dot Award: Communication Design 2017 also received a distinction. The title of honour Red Dot: Brand of the Year went to Audi and is the recognition for design quality and consistent decisiveness in brand management. Together with various agencies, Audi succeeded in 2017 in winning a total of 14 Red Dots as well as five Red Dot: Best of the Best awards. Giovanni Perosino, vice president marketing communication at Audi, accepted the trophy. thjnk celebrated as Red Dot: Agency of the Year 2017 The concluding highlight of the evening was the appearance of the Red Dot: Agency of the Year 2017. Germany agency thjnk, which for years has been consistently producing outstanding achievements in communication design, received the Stylus trophy in recognition of its successes. In addition to its awards in past years, 17 Red Dots and four Red Dot: Best of the Best awards this year bear testimony to the design and creative expertise of the full-service agency. Designers Night in the E-Werk in Berlin After the Red Dot Gala, guests partied into the early hours of the morning at the Designers Night. The Red Dot laureates received their well-earned certificates during the legendary party in the E-Werk Berlin. In addition, the award-winning communication design works were presented in the exclusive winners exhibition Design on Stage. A selection from the exhibition will be on show in the Museum for Communication in Berlin from 29 October 2017 to 14 January 2018 in the studio exhibition Best Communication Design Red Dot Winners Selection 2017. With all the hype around social media as the new darling of marketing, it turns out that a less sensationalised platform is arguably the real star. According to Salesforce.com, email marketing has grown at about 83% worldwide over the past two years, placing it amongst the fastest growing marketing channels, along with video advertising and text messaging. In addition, research from Radicati Group indicates that there will be more than 4 billion email users worldwide by 2020 - and email traffic will surpass 300 billion emails per day! Everlytic, an enterprise-level marketing cloud solution that enables customers to communicate with their markets via email, mobile and social channels, recently released its Email Marketing Benchmarks Report 2017 to take a targeted look at local email marketing trends. The company analysed over two billion emails, which were all bulk (not transactional) emails sent by SA customers. We compiled this benchmark report because there is no other data like this available for email marketing in South Africa, explains Walter Penfold, MD of Everlytic. The report that most marketers have relied on in the past is the IBM benchmark report, which groups SA under rest of world. This doesnt help us much. For marketers operating in a highly competitive, digitised era, email has two major advantages: it is a permission-based platform, and relies on first-party data. Over the next several years, as marketers gain more access to behavioural and demographic data (and the sharing of data across different channels increases), email marketing will enable hyper-personalisation - which will allow for a much more targeted approach to marketing and lead generation. Email marketing sits at the epicentre of digital marketing in South Africa, adds Penfold. Over the next five years, we predict that email will remain the top performing messaging channel in terms of ROI and will live up to its promise of being a true, one-to-one digital marketing channel. Importantly for brands and marketers, the Everlytic report unveiled key statistics around user behaviour and what this means for future email marketing campaigns. For example, average open rates were sitting at 25.83% - this type of metric shows that the person receiving your email trusts your brand, and finds your subject line enticing and/or relevant. In addition, average click-through rates were pegged at 3.46%, which indicates that your content is relevant and that subscribers want to engage. Notably, the report found that over 28% of emails are read on mobile phones, underscoring the importance of mobile responsive emails. Finally, it is encouraging that unsubscribe rates sitting below the average of 0.33% indicate that your database shrinkage is within the norm. When examining the international and local data, it is clear that email marketing will continue to grow in importance in the local marketing mix, concludes Penfold. And with ever increasing access to data, marketers can personalise and fine tune email marketing campaigns - and achieve even higher levels of engagement and ROI. Clicks Group plans to grow its retail footprint to 900 stores across the country after a stellar performance in its pharmacy and beauty divisions for the year to August. On Thursday, the retail-led healthcare group posted a 15.4% rise in operating profit to R1.8bn, driven by strong health and beauty sales that grew 14.7% Opening 111 stores, including 80 through the outsourcing agreement with the Netcare Group, bumped up its store footprint to 622. Its pharmacy network was increased to 473. During the 2017 financial year, the retailer's cash inflows from operations exceeded R2bn for the first time. Clicks plans to invest R680m during the 2018 financial year to add 25-30 new stores, and about 35 pharmacies, among other things. CEO David Kneale said the company was confident it would reach its new store target. Only 50% of households in SA lived within 5km of a Clicks store, presenting a gap for growth and convenience. "We believe the faster growth we experienced in the beauty and pharmacy divisions will lead to a 6.5%-7.5% growth in the medium term," said Kneale. 36One Asset Management equity analyst Daniel Isaacs said the company's targeted store footprint had jumped from 600 to 900 over the past few years as it spotted certain areas growing more than predicted. But he warned that if today's economic environment continued, it would negatively affect the growth plans of Clicks and all other retailers. "You can be a very well-run business, but you can't compete against or escape the environment," Isaacs said. Electus Fund Managers analyst Damon Buss said that because of income inequalities, not everyone could afford to shop at Clicks. While the company would probably meet the target, it would take a significant time. Online shopping would have long-term effects on foot traffic, while store location would remain a key issue. "You run the risk of cannibalising some of your current store base or you put them in a less optimal location," Buss said. While retail health and beauty sales including Clicks and the franchise brands of The Body Shop, GNC and Claire, increased 14.7%, the Musica business performed poorly. Musica's profit in the year under review was R28m lower than a year earlier, but Clicks chief financial officer Michael Fleming said the company was managing the Musica brand for shareholder value. However, the group would be open to selling the music and gaming retail chain to any suitor "with a cheque book that won't bounce". Clicks ClubCard increased active membership to 7-million, with the loyalty programme accounting for 77.4% of sales in Clicks stores. Clicks declared a final dividend of R2.34 per share, taking the total for the financial year to R3.22, an 18.4% increase on the previous year. The company's share price closed 0.55% down at R154.35 on the JSE on Thursday. Source: Business Day Consumer brands conglomerate AVI, which owns best-selling household brands such as Five Roses tea and Bakers biscuits, appears to be weighing offers for its I&J fishing business. A cautionary announcement issued on Thursday indicated that AVI had received a number of expressions of interest for certain of its business units. The group said Rand Merchant Bank had been appointed to assist in evaluating the expressions of interest. Smart money is betting that AVI is referring to its fishing operations, which have long been regarded as out of place in the consumer-brands portfolio. In an investor presentation in September, AVI CEO Simon Crutchley said that the group would undertake a portfolio review to test the "value realisation options" for I&J. I&J comprises the iconic hake fishing and processing business, which makes up the bulk of revenue and profits, as well as Australian seafood business Simplot and a sizeable abalone farming venture at Danger Point (near Gansbaai). The pool of potential buyers for I&J's core hake business will be limited because sector regulations stipulate that operational assets must always be sold to a party that is more empowered than the original owner. There are two large listed empowered fishing companies: Premier Fishing & Brands (PremFish), which is controlled by African Empowerment Equity Investments, and Sea Harvest, controlled by Brimstone. There is also an unlisted contender, TerraFin, which recently acquired the Saldanha Group's fishing business. Oceana Group - controlled by consumer brands conglomerate Tiger Brands - is the biggest fishing enterprise on the JSE and could easily afford to swallow I&J. But industry sources discounted the chances of the group bidding for I&J's hake operations, saying that I&J had battled to secure approval for recent deals struck in South African waters. PremFish director Khalid Abdulla confirmed the company had expressed an interest in certain of AVI's fishing assets. Brimstone executive chairman Fred Robertson said the group was aware of developments at AVI. It would be unlikely, for competitive reasons, for Brimstone-aligned Sea Harvest, which is already a large hake player, to bid for I&J's hake operations. This would result in complete domination of the local frozen hake sector. But industry sources said the Simplot operation could be an attractive addition to Sea Harvest subsidiary Mareterram, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. PremFish operations revolve mainly around lobster, squid and abalone farming, which means there could be considerable interest in the highly profitable I&J hake operations. PremFish, which raised more than R500m at listing in March, is the smaller of the JSE's fishing counters and has consistently reminded that it will not overpay for acquisitions or stretch its balance sheet. This might mean some misgivings about landing a business as big as I&J's hake operations if the price is not compelling. PremFish has also indicated a determination to rapidly expand its export-orientated abalone farming ventures. The AVI abalone farming venture is being upsized to an annual production capacity of 500 tonnes, with another 500-tonne expansion being evaluated. This venture would add considerable scale and profitability to PremFish's markedly smaller abalone initiative. Market watchers said the pricing of a potential deal to sell AVI's fishing interests would be interesting to gauge. Although I&J is highly profitable, the upcoming longterm fishing rights allocation process does muddy the valuation waters. Established fishing companies could suffer marked quota reductions in the process. In the year to end-June, I&J increased revenue about 9% to R2.36bn with operating profit jumping 18% to R389m. Market sources estimated a value of R2bn to R3.5bn for I&J. This compares with market capitalisations of R12bn for Oceana, R3.3bn for Sea Harvest and R1bn for PremFish. Suggestions are that the company's hake, Australian seafood and abalone farming operations would probably be sold separately. Source: Business Day Some 23 years down the line, democracy isn't all it's cracked up to be when it comes to levelling inequality. In fact, the strong economic growth South Africa has seen has deepened the divide. There is rising support globally for people-centric growth, former president Kgalema Motlanthe said at the Harith Business Day African Infrastructure Dialogue 2017. Do not take our democracy for granted. Strong growth leads to greater inequality, especially for younger people. He pointed out that 29-million South Africans live in extreme poverty, which stunts growth and contributes to growing resentment among black South Africans. "Stunted economic growth limits levels of innovation and dynamism. Infrastructure transformation therefore offers a chance to change the cycle of poverty, he explained. Diversification is imperative. We cannot rely on the way of the past. Present models of funding and partnerships will have to be challenged, said Motlanthe. Given the legacy of our past, infrastructure is poorly located to support growth, and its in need of maintenance, he pointed out. R6trn is necessary in the next three years to improve water, electricity and infrastructure. Speaking about the broader continental context, he said there is a need for trust as infrastructure projects are by nature long term, which required public private partnerships - backed by good governance, a stable environment and a favourable tax regime. Capital gravitates to predictability, so state-owned enterprises should have high governance standards. With committed leadership and governance, Africa can turn the tide of development. The scourge of corruption However, this goal is constrained by greed and money destined for the poor is siphoned off to line pockets. Corruption adds 10% to infrastructure costs. Mapping the way forward, we need to put mechanisms in place to prevent this scourge. We need to abandon outmoded ways of thinking about creating wealth, he explained, citing the example of the Norwegian wealth fund model. Because of the peculiarities of the past and the current paradigm, there remains a stark manifestation of inequality, which also limits the integration of communities to repair the bonds of the past. The University of the Western Cape's School of Business and Finance has produced research assessing the financial management skills of taxi operators in Cape Town. @ Glyn Spencer via 123RF The South African government has identified small businesses as a vehicle to address the challenges of job creation, economic growth, and income redistribution. Minibus taxi operators are classified as small businesses and have evolved to compete with the highly-regulated and government-funded bus and rail services. The Department of Transport and Public Works states that the taxi industry carries about 65% of passengers in the urban environment. In 2014, it was estimated that 20 million people in South Africa take a minibus taxi every day, with estimated annual revenue in excess of R39.8bn. There are over 8,000 taxi operators in the Western Cape, and commuters on average spend over 40% of their monthly income on public transport. The City of Cape Town estimates that there are well over 332,407 daily trips made by taxi commuters, making it the second largest form of public transport (after rail). Minibus taxi operators require skills to manage their finances prudently in order to channel this growth, and to compete with bus and rail services. Overview of the state of financial management skills To that end, the research provides an overview of the state of financial management skills within the minibus taxi industry. It was found that, while the majority of the taxi operators were found to be profitable, 84% and 72% of taxi owners respectively do not prepare financial statements nor perform financial analysis. It was also noted that 62% of the taxi operators surveyed increased the number of taxis in their businesses between one and five taxis over the past three years, indicating growth in the industry. In terms of financing their operation at startup stage, 71% applied for a bank loan (56% were successful) and the rest obtained finance from business partners, family and friends. Limited financial management skills The study confirmed that minibus taxi operators have limited financial management skills. Recommendations are provided with respect to training interventions needed to up-skill minibus taxi operators on their limited financial management skills to ensure better management of their finances. The financial training sought by taxi operators includes: recording financial transactions on a computer system; how to analyse financial statements; manage staff related matters; manage business tax matters and how to prepare cash budgets. The study was conducted in Du Noon and Khayelitsha, within the City of Cape Town by masters student Kagisho Motingwe and his supervisor, Dr Pradeep Brijlal from the School of Business and Finance (SBF) at UWC. Business environments are undergoing major change as disruption remains one of the only constants. Innovators and those embracing change are succeeding, whilst those that don't continue to struggle. This is were intrapreneurship plays a critical role. Speaking at the first local Intrapreneurship Conference in Cape Town, Saidah Nash Carter, head of Innovation at Thomson Reuters Africa said: Intrapreneurship is a driver for accelerating culture change and organizational transformation and developing the capability to capitalize on opportunities for growth and we need to open these channels of collaboration if we are to truly realize great opportunities across Africa. The potential in Africa is mainly about inclusion and exploring new innovative ways of providing services. However, it is hard to innovate in big companies as they often sit with challenges around legacy procedures and infrastructures that can restrict their ability to innovate quickly. It is for this reason that Thomson Reuters believe it is critical to initiate such discussions around driving collaborative efforts through intrapreneurship; aimed at developing solutions that will start to address, or even solve, large scale problems affecting African countries. Community collaboration There is plenty of opportunity to leverage great things across Africa and there is so much that we could do through a community collaboration. By leveraging technology and look at leaner and more innovative ways of doing business, this will help us facilitate the growth of starts-up and achieve significant social impact. In fact, everyone should be thinking about the business of the future. We need people to be pushing the boundaries and leading change, said Carter. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is a change of power which goes back to the individual and the people. However, bottom-up innovation is difficult to predict. We are already seeing a lot of disruption and this will only increase, said Carter. Big corporates will have to decide on how to operate with the new playing field and identifying opportunities is something that they need to stay focused on. Take digital money and blockchain, for example, which will eventually result in everyone being part of the system. An ecosystem for trading data is emerging. A marketplace is emerging which brings with it opportunities and concerns. Continued Carter: Africas growth here is already taking place. Due to the success of M-Pesa, Kenya is widely recognized as a leading hub for mobile payments. And, we are going further than this looking at solutions that optimize solar, drive last mile delivery and open up financial inclusion by improving access to, as well as trust in new banking platforms. Healthcare is also a great opportunity in Africa. With greater levels of mobile heath, remote support is extending reach. These solutions are very much needed in Africa and can only be achieved through collaboration. Don't fear the rise of machines With talk about frictionless currency transfer and e-governments as well as digital identities, the big fear story is that of the rise of machines. The growth in the intelligence and capabilities of machines present both a threat and opportunity. Greater Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation will free up time, but also threaten jobs if people dont evolve. For Africa, the conversation on AI on the future workforce needs to shift from pessimistic concerns around job losses to excitement and engagement about what technology might mean for the future workforce. Focus needs to shift to looking at what re-training will be required to ensure people continue to enjoy productive and rewarding lives, and as machines learn to assume more and more responsibilities in society. It is not about machines replacing humans in the workforce, but rather about machines augmenting humans making peoples jobs easier and potentially more interesting, but not making them redundant, added Carter. Africas problems can be solved through real solutions, but it requires deeper collaboration and partnerships that are more dynamic, long-term orientated and democratized. Together with start-ups, I believe we will be able to capture innovation and leverage the power of technology across Africa. This will help to not only facilitate the growth of start-ups, but also drive significant social impact. There is no one recipe for how to do it, but we are committed to fostering an innovative discussion so that we are able to light up the lives of millions of people. I believe people will rally behind change and they are ready to evolve and move to the next levels of innovation - and we plan to be here every step of the way, concluded Carter. South Africa is in the process of developing its intellectual property policy so it can better contribute to the country's development objectives. In a joint statement on Friday, the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) and the United Nations institutions said the policy seeks to achieve coherence in government. The dti, together with other ministries forming the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Intellectual Property (IMCIP), is developing the policy to help the country meet the objectives of the National Development Plan (NDP), National Industrial Policy Framework and various iterations of the Industrial Policy Action Plan (IPAP). Representatives from the main constituents of Intellectual Property (IP) policy - such as government representatives, civil society, business, patient groups, academia and the United Nations - held a consultative workshop last week in order to garner perspectives on the draft policy. This is crucial to enable government to develop a balanced, evidence based policy, said the dti and UN parties. Interested parties have until 17 November to submit written comments on the draft policy that was published in August. The three-day workshop was organised by the dti, in partnership with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The workshop is one of numerous public engagement processes that will inform the IP policy document. Health and IP The policy will also focus on health-related matters. The parties at the workshop noted that the burden of infectious diseases, including HIV, TB and malaria, continues to persist in sub-Saharan Africa, posing a significant challenge to health systems and populations across the region. This challenge is further compounded by the emerging diseases such cardio-vascular disease, respiratory diseases, diabetes and cancer. While significant advances have been made in developing new treatments, vaccines and diagnostic tools for these diseases, developing countries such as South Africa face significant barriers in adequately accessing essential life-saving health technologies. In September 2015, 193 UN Member States including South Africa adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG 3 on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all ages acknowledges the critical importance of access to affordable medicines and vaccines. The workshop agreed that access to medicines is dependent on a number of determinants, intellectual property being among these. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of IP Rights (TRIPS), to which South Africa is signatory, sets out minimum standards for protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights in all members and contains flexibilities that can and should be used to promote public health objectives, said the dti. It noted that many new health technologies are patent-protected and sold at high prices when first introduced to the market. The lack of access through public health systems has also meant that patients are burdened with high out-of-pocket payments for essential drugs, vaccines and diagnostic tests. These are major drivers of inequalities and poverty in low-and-middle-income countries such as South Africa. The countrys first draft IP policy was published by the dti in September 2013. The policy was met with criticism. In March 2017, Cabinet reviewed the new draft policy after which it was published in August. Interested parties can view the policy at www.dti.gov.za/gazzettes/IP_Policy.pdf. Equites Property Fund, the high-end industrial property owner, has clinched another deal in the UK, acquiring land and the development rights for a distribution centre there. Equites already owns four distribution centres in the UK worth about 104m. Through its Isle of Man-based wholly owned subsidiary, Equites International, the company will acquire a DHL distribution centre in Reading, England. Equites would acquire 3.2ha of vacant land from Exton Estates Three for 9.7m (R175m). It also concluded a development and funding agreement with Exton Estates, in terms of which Equites International would fund the development of a 9,325m last-mile distribution warehouse to be let to DHL International for an amount up to 15.9m (R286.38m). The transaction was consistent with Equites growth and investment strategy of diversification into the UK in order to mitigate the risks of its South African focus and access the advanced know-how and technology in respect of logistics facilities in the UK, Equites CEO Andrea Taverna-Turisan said. We are focusing on premium big-box distribution centres, let to investment grade tenants on long-dated triple net leases, in proven logistics nodes and built to institutional specifications, Taverna-Turisan said. Reading is a major administrative, commercial and industrial town on the Thames about 20 minutes drive from London. The modern logistics facility will provide its tenant with a newly constructed, high specification, steel portal frame distribution warehouse with six dock-level loading doors, four on-grade and two double height dock-level doors and twostorey offices. DHL, the UK subsidiary of the German logistics company Deutsche Post, has signed a 15-year fully repairing and insuring lease. The lease will be subject to upward only rental review in years five and 10 linked to rental values on the open market. The UK shift was low-risk and would feed off growing e-retail demand in England, said Len van Niekerk, senior property analyst at Nedbank. Equites was listed in June 2014 as one of a few specialist industrial property owners on the JSE. Source: Business Day Mauritius has been named among the top 10 countries to visit in Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2018. This reinforcing the tropical Indian Ocean island's bucket list worthiness with its stunning white beaches, dazzling sapphire seas, diverse culture, delicious cuisine, and an array of exciting sporting and adventure activities. zeinhofer via pixabay Listed alongside such destinations as Chile, Portugal and New Zealand among others put Mauritius in illustrious company as one of the worlds top destinations. It's just a short, four-hour trip from South Africa, with flights departing from Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. No visas are required, which takes another travel hassle out of deciding where to book your next holiday, and the wide variety of accommodation on offer, from five-star luxury hotels to self-catering apartments, makes this destination even more appealing for travellers. Setting the 2018 travel agenda The annual bestseller, Lonely Planet's Best in Travel, ranks the hottest, must-visit countries, regions and cities for the year ahead. Drawing on the knowledge and passion of Lonely Planet's staff, authors, and online community, it presents a year's worth of inspiration to take travellers out of the ordinary and into the unforgettable firmly setting the travel agenda for 2018. As self-confessed travel geeks, its staff collectively rack up hundreds of thousands of miles each year, exploring almost every destination on the planet. And every year, they ask themselves: Where are the best places in the world to visit right now? These places are then shortlisted by a panel of in-house travel experts who consider criteria such as topicality, excitement and wow-factor to decide what to include in the best-selling, inspirational travel yearbook. Best in Travel 2018 is their definitive answer. The destinations selected for this publication must offer travellers an outstanding experience in the year ahead: it could be that something special is going on in the year ahead. And that is certainly the case with Mauritius, as the island will be celebrating a momentous milestone in its history the 50th Anniversary of Independence. Gearing up for this special celebration, a series of national events and activities are currently being organised to culminate in March 2018. LONDON, UK: British low-cost carrier EasyJet announced that it had agreed to buy part of bankrupt carrier Air Berlin's operations at the German capital's Tegel Airport for 40 million ($46.4 million). EasyJet will enter into leases for up to 25 A320 aircraft and take over slots, it said, as the last Air Berlin flights were set to land back in Germany. The company also said it was hoping to recruit around 1,000 Air Berlin pilots and cabin crew over the coming months, to be employed on German contracts. Air Berlin, Germany's second-ranked airline employing some 8,000 people, triggered bankruptcy proceedings in August after its biggest shareholder Etihad Airways pulled the plug on a cash lifeline following years of losses. EasyJet said the 40-million-price it was paying excludes "potential startup and transitional operating costs", adding: "The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in December 2017. "This agreement is consistent with easyJet's strategy of purposeful investment in strong number one positions in Europe's leading airports (or number two to a legacy incumbent)," the carrier said in a statement. "This will enable EasyJet to operate the leading short-haul network at Tegel connecting passengers to and from destinations across Germany and the rest of Europe." It claimed that in addition to EasyJet's existing base at Berlin Schoenefeld, it would make the carrier the "leading airline" in the German capital. Air Berlin was able to keep flying until now thanks to a 150-million ($175 million) bridging loan from the German government, giving it time to negotiate the sale of its assets. German and international investors and competitors lined up, with an eye not only on Air Berlin's aircraft but also coveted take-off and landing slots at crowded airports. German flag carrier Lufthansa is taking the biggest chunk, buying 81 of the insolvent airline's 144 aircraft. It also plans to hire up to 3,000 Air Berlin staffers. EasyJet said it would operate a reduced timetable at Tegel during the European winter but planned to operate a full schedule from summer 2018. The carrier said it would announce new routes and services to and from Tegel in due course. Source: AFP South Africa is one of the 10 best countries in the world to visit next year, according to Lonely Planet. 12019 via pixabay "Beaches and mountains, wildlife and wine, and let's not forget vibrant culture and cosmopolitan Cape Town - South Africa has long been one of the world's most alluring countries," the travel guidebook publisher said on its website. "This year the country's many attractions will be bolstered by 'Nelson Mandela Centenary 2018: Be the Legacy', an official programme of events - some sporting, some educational, others devoted to the arts - aimed at honouring the legendary leader. "With more to see than ever, and favourable exchange rates offering great value, 2018 is a phenomenal year to visit South Africa." Other countries featured in the top 10 include China, Mauritius, Malta, Georgia, New Zealand and Portugal. " - TimesLIVE Source: Herald Eyewitness News (EWN) Cape Town journalists were honoured at the regional Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards held in Cape Town. The EWN team Monique Mortlock, Kevin Brand and Aletta Gardiner The team who reports from the Primedia Broadcasting Cape Town offices were celebrated for their work in effectively using radio as a medium to share news and information with South Africans. Awards and award winners: Kevin Brandt: winner in the Radio News category for coverage of the Courtney Pieters murder Rahima Essop: winner in the Radio Feature category for her long-form piece on the issue of affordable housing Aletta Gardiner: winner of the Sustainability category for her coverage of crayfish poaching in the Western Cape Monique Mortlock won the Young Journalist Award EWN is a small team that punches above its weight. Thats down to the dedication and hard work of everyone in our national team, said Katy Katopodis, Eyewitness News Group Editor in Chief. EWNs Cape Town reporters are committed to delivering relevant news to their audiences, and for giving a voice to communities in a balanced and engaging way. Passion drives us more than awards do, but the recognition is wonderful, and much appreciated, said Charlotte Kilbane, Eyewitness News Cape Town News Editor. For the latest news and information from Eyewitness News visit: www.ewn.co.za. Motion Icon's escalator step branding offers unlimited creative visual opportunities for brands looking to a new advertising channel that delivers ROI and hyper proximity communication. This website serves as a reference source for the art and science of Body Language/Nonverbal Communication. The views and opinions expressed on this website are those of the author. In an effort to be both practical and academic, many examples from/of varied cultures, politicians, professional athletes, legal cases, public figures, etc., are cited in order to teach and illustrate both the interpretation of others body language as well as the projection of ones own nonverbal skills in many different contexts not to advance any political, religious or other agenda. __________________________________ PR Newswire LONDON, October 30, 2017 LONDON, October 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The UK is the leading European destination for Silicon Valley investors, with British tech companies raising more venture capital from Bay area VCs than any other European country. According to the investment data released by London & Partners, over the last five years UK tech companies have received more venture capital investment from West Coast investors than France, Germany and Ireland combined. Silicon Valley investors continue to pump large sums of money into UK tech companies despite Brexit, with 2017 already seeing a record $1.13 billion raised since the beginning of the year. The findings have been released to mark the start of Silicon Valley Comes to the UK (SVC2UK), a week-long series of events bringing together leading figures from the Bay area and UK tech scenes. Further analysis of the investment data reveals that London tech companies received the majority of venture capital investment from the Bay area, accounting for over 90% ($1.04bn) of the total amount raised by UK tech companies this year. Over the last five years, London tech firms have also raised considerably more capital ($2.5bn) than their European counterparts, with Stockholm ($1.4bn), Berlin ($641m) and Paris ($500m). London's thriving VC market has been boosted by the number of unicorn companies based in the capital, with separate research from investment firm GP Bullhound revealing that London is home to more unicorns than any other European city. With 17 out of the 53 unicorns founded in London, the UK capital has more unicorns than Stockholm (7), Berlin (5) and Paris (3) combined. Recent London companies to join this year's list include Improbable, Deliveroo and Purple Bricks. Sherry Coutu CBE, Co- Founder of SVC2UK and serial entrepreneur: "With some of best global talent and a strong culture of entrepreneurship, the UK and Silicon Valley are two of the world's leading places to start and scale a technology business. While London has grown to become Europe's largest tech hub, we still have a way to go to emulate the success of Silicon Valley and there is a lot we can learn from each other." Manish Madhvani, CEO and Founder of GP Bullhound added: "London's digital economy has demonstrated unprecedented levels of talent, ambition, and investment, delivering an exceptional cohort of billion-dollar businesses. These pioneers have been critical to the rise of European tech and will drive the industry forward to create companies of scale to rival the US and Asia." To mark the start of the week-long series of events, SVC2UK has today announced the latest cohort of 50 high growth UK technology companies who will join to join the 2017 Scale Up Club. Together the firms have a combined revenue of 94 million in 2016, employing over 1,900 people across the UK. This year's club is made up of some of the UK's fastest growing tech businesses from across a range of sectors, from FinTech to FoodTech - including HomeTouch, the UK's top online care agency, food-sharing app OLIO, and Mumsnet, the country's largest online network for parents. This year's SVC2UK programme kicks off today in Cambridge, with a debate about 'Our Future', tech and the way it will shape our lives, at the Cambridge Union Society. The programme will then head to London tomorrow (Wednesday 1st) with masterclasses on building strategic partnerships when scaling at campus London and then on accessing finance at Barclays' innovation centre, Rise London, as well as insights from the likes of Renee La Londe, iTalent, and Ellen Levy, Silicon Valley Connect. The week culminates with the Good Growth Summit on Friday 3rd November, bringing together inspirational women leaders at the Institute of Technology and Engineering. Speakers at this event include SVC2UK Founder, Sherry Coutu, Debbie Woscow, Obi Felten, Google X and a keynote address from Shiza Shahid, CEO of Malala Fund. This year's summit is being run by London & Partners with support from SVC2UK partners including Mastercard, Google Campus London, Barclays, Softbank, Pennington Manches, Buzzacott, Herbert Smith and Freehills, WSGR, GBx, [email protected], FieldHouse Associates, Cambridge Wireless, Bradfield Centre, Judge Business School and Bailey Fisher Executive Search. The full list of Scale Up Club entrepreneurs and the full programme for Silicon Valley Comes to the UK can be found here. SOURCE London & Partners NAGPUR (PTI): French major Dassault Aviation will invest over 100 million euros in a joint venture with Reliance Aerospace to manufacture aircraft components as part of the 'offset obligation' connected to the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France. The Dassault-Reliance joint venture represents the largest ever foreign direct investment in the defence sector in India, the companies said in a joint statement. The foundation laying ceremony of the Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL) manufacturing facility was held on Oct 27 at the Dhirubhai Ambani Aerospace Park in Mihan SEZ near the Nagpur airport. The foundation stone was laid in the presence of Florence Parly, Minister of Armed Forces of the French Republic, Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Alexandre Ziegler, Ambassador of France to India. Kokilaben Ambani, the Ambani family matriarch, Tina Ambani, wife of Anil Ambani and his son Anmol were also present. DRAL will manufacture several components of the offset obligation connected to the purchase of 36 Rafale fighters from France, signed between the two governments in September 2016, Ambani said. It will manufacture components for the Legacy Falcon 2000 series of civil jets manufactured by Dassault Aviation and will become part of its global supply chain. "These first steps are expected to be achieved in the coming years, leading to the possible setting up of the final assembly of Rafale and Falcon aircraft in India," a DRAL official said. This is for the first time that a business jet will be manufactured in India, the official said. The DRAL facility will train skilled workers in aviation assembly and integration, and lead to major employment generation in Nagpur and surrounding areas, the official added. It will also attract and house an organic ecosystem of over 200 MSMEs to secure the component and avionics manufacturing needs of Rafale and Falcon jets. Dassault Aviation Chairman Eric Trappier said the firm is firmly committed to implementing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' programme. "This development (DRAL) gives the 65 year-long strong association of Dassault Aviation in India a new momentum and the will of future manufacturing developments," he said. "The Reliance-Dassault partnership will bring high levels of technology transfer and make India a major supplier in the global aviation supply chain," Ambani said. Dassault and Reliance will fully support 'Make in India' and 'Skill India' missions and enhance India's pursuit of self-sufficiency in the aerospace sector, he added. Ambani also thanked Gadkari and Fadnavis for their "strong and consistent support" for the project. The Dhirubhai Ambani Aerospace Park, spread over 289 acres, will be the largest greenfield aerospace park in India with a capital investment of over Rs 6,500 crore. It is being developed in two phases. Phase one production is expected to start next year. It will be home to DRAL - the 51:49 joint venture of Reliance Aerostructure and Dassault Aviation. Reliance Group will set up assembly lines and manufacturing facilities of fixed wing aircraft aerostructure for commercial transport aircraft and helicopters for both defence and commercial use. The park will also house ancillary and component manufacturing units to support after-sales requirements. NEW DELHI (PTI): India and France have decided to expand their military cooperation in the strategically key Indo-Pacific region besides resolving to further ramp up the overall defence and security ties. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her French counterpart Florence Parly have held extensive talks covering a range of issues, including the regional security situation, joint development of defence platforms and expansion of military-to-military ties. In their delegation-level talks, the two sides also agreed to expand counter-terror cooperation and felt that a lot more can be done in the maritime sphere, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region, where China was trying to expand its footprint, official sources said. Interestingly, the Trump Administration has also been favouring deeper Indo-US collaboration on security in the Indo-Pacific region. Parly described her interaction with Sitharaman as "excellent". The sources said the French side explored the possibility of a follow on order of additional Rafale fighter jets by India. India had signed a Rs 58,000 crore deal with France for the supply of 36 Rafale jets last year and the IAF was pitching for procuring another fleet of 36 Rafales. In a statement, the defence ministry said the ministers reviewed ongoing initiatives to further strengthen bilateral defence cooperation as a key pillar of the strategic partnership between the two countries. "Recognising the growing significance of maritime security in the Indo-Pacific and the need for greater maritime domain awareness, India and France will further expand information sharing arrangements," it said. It is Parly's first visit to India as defence minister and her trip is expected to lay the ground for French President Emmanuel Macron's upcoming trip to India. "A range of measures to expand military to military ties, including enhancing the scope of their joint exercises, in particular the Varuna naval exercise scheduled in early 2018, were agreed upon," the defence ministry said. It said both countries will also actively explore additional measures to facilitate operational level interactions between their respective armed forces. In their talks, the two ministers also comprehensively reviewed developments in defence equipment and industry cooperation between the two countries. France is a major partner for India in developing various key military platforms including the Scorpene submarines. "They agreed to strongly support projects for defence manufacturing under the Make in India initiative as well as promote defence technology and research and development cooperation," said the ministry. After talks with Sitharaman, Parly travelled to Nagpur and attended the foundation laying ceremony of an aerospace park being set up under a joint venture by French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation and Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Aerospace Ltd. Parley, during her two-day visit on Oct 27-28, also called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and meet National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. Two P-3C Orion ASW aircraft at the Naval Air Station INS Hansa, Goa. A Navy photo/Twitter NEW DELHI (PTI): Navies of India and Japan have begun a three-day anti-submarine warfare exercise in the Indian Ocean region to deepen their operational coordination in the strategically important sea lanes around the two countries. Indian Navy's two P-8 I long-range maritime reconnaissance anti-submarine warfare aircraft and two P-3C Orion jets of the Japanese Navy will be part of the exercise which started on Sunday, said an official of the Indian Navy. The two P-3C Orions, which are anti-submarine warfare aircraft, landed at naval air station Hansa in Goa on Sunday. The short duration exercise is taking place amid concerns in India and Japan over China's growing presence in the Indo-Pacific region. Navy spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said aircrew from both navies will also have extensive interaction to evolve a "concept of joint operations". "This exercise takes the bilateral relations to an unprecedented level of 'Strategic and Global partnership'," he said. Japan Navy has participated in the recent trilateral Malabar exercise along with India and the US. The three navies have been intensifying their cooperation considering China's expansionist behaviour in the critical sea lanes. Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Kono last week had said that Tokyo favours a dialogue between Japan, the US, India and Australia to further boost strategic partnership among the four countries. NEW DELHI (PTI): Indian Army has finalised one of its biggest procurement plans for infantry modernisation under which a large number of light machine guns, battle carbines and assault rifles are being purchased at a cost of nearly Rs 40,000 crore to replace its ageing and obsolete weapons. The broad process to acquire around 7 lakh rifles, 44,000 light machine guns (LMGs) and nearly 44,600 carbines has been finalised and the defence ministry is on the same page with the Army in moving ahead with the procurement, official sources told PTI. The world's second largest standing Army has been pressing for fast-tracking the procurement of various weapons systems considering the evolving security threats including along India's borders with Pakistan and China. Apart from kick-starting the procurement process, the government has also sent a message to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to expedite its work on various small arms, particularly on an LMG. The sources said a fresh RFI (request for information) to procure the LMGs will be issued in the next few days, months after the defence ministry scrapped the tender for the 7.62 calibre guns as there was only one vendor left after a series of field trials. The plan is to initially procure around 10,000 LMGs. The Army has also finalised the specifications for a new 7.62mm assault rifle and the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the defence ministry's highest decision making body on procurement, is expected to give the go-ahead for the much-needed procurement soon. "The General Service Quality Requirements (GSQR) for the new assault rifle has been finalised. The procurement plan will soon be placed before the DAC for approval," said a senior official, who is part of the acquisition process. In June, the Army had rejected an assault rifle built by the state-run Rifle Factory, Ishapore, after the guns miserably failed the firing tests. The procurement of assault rifles has witnessed significant delays due to a variety of reasons including the Army's failure to finalise the specifications for it. The Army needs around 7 lakh 7.62x51mm assault guns to replace its INSAS rifles. The Army had issued RFI for the rifles in September last year and around 20 firms responded to it. An RFI is a process whose purpose is to collect information about capabilities of various vendors. In June, the Army had kick-started the initial process to procure around 44,600 carbines, nearly eight months after a tender for it was retracted, also due to single-vendor situation. Around half a dozen firms including a few global arms manufacturers have responded to the RFI. Army sources said various specifications for the LMGs and battle carbines were tweaked to ensure that the problem of single vendor does not recur. The combined cost of the LMGs, assault rifles and carbines will be in excess of Rs 40,000 crore, said an official. On DRDO missing a number of deadlines in finalising the LMG, an official said the defence secretary has called a meeting this week of all stakeholders to discuss the project. "The infantry modernisation plan is a major initiative of the Army and it will significantly bolster the overall capability of the foot soldiers," said a senior army official. The issue was extensively discussed at the recently- concluded Army Commanders conference which felt modernisation of the Army must be in tune with the evolving security threat facing the country. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman conveyed to the Army during the conference that modernisation of the force was a priority for the government and all its "deficiencies" will be addressed to strengthen its combat capability. Indian and Russian troops and platforms during the joint military drill, INDRA-2017. A Russian Embassy photo NEW DELHI (PTI): The first mega war game involving armies, navies and air forces of India and Russia ended on Sunday after 10 days of intense drills with a focus on anti-terror cooperation. In the tactical exercise that began on October 19 at Vladivostok in Russia, the two countries particularly focused on combating terrorism. The exercise focused on the conduct of counter insurgency operations under United Nations mandate in a joint service environment, the defence ministry said in a statement. The exercise Indra also focused on achieving coordination between forces of the two countries in a tri-services integrated theatre command scenario. It was for the first time India participated in a tri-services exercise with a foreign country with such a large scale participation by the Navy, Army and Air Force, a senior Army official said. After intense and exacting military training, the joint exercise concluded with a closing ceremony, wherein both the contingents showcased their immense talents with unique traditional touches, the ministry said. Navy Chief Adm. Sunil Lanba during the naval commanders' conference. A Navy photo/Twitter NEW DELHI (PTI): Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lanba has asked top naval commanders to keep an unwavering focus on combat readiness in the wake of the evolving security architecture in the region. The Chief of the Naval Staff also asked the commanders to encourage innovative thinking and harness available technology in bolstering the Navy's overall operational capability. In an address at the concluding session of the four-day-long navy commanders' conference on Oct 27, Admiral Lanba also exhorted the commanders to put in concerted efforts to implement key decisions taken during the deliberations. The commanders on Wednesday last had cleared a new plan for deployment of the Navy's warships in the Indian Ocean region to effectively counter China's growing presence in the strategically key waters. The Navy Chief exhorted the commanders to keep an unwavering focus on combat readiness at all times, Navy Spokesperson Capt D K Sharma said. He said the commanders brainstormed over executing the new 'mission-based deployment' involving ships, aircraft and submarines beyond the immediate neighbourhood for providing sustained presence in the Indian Ocean Region. "In his closing address, the Chief of Navy Staff emphasised the need to optimise efforts, exploit the potential of each and every personnel, encourage innovative thinking and harness available technology," said Sharma. He said Admiral Lanba shared his views on the current security scenario and emphasised the need for the Navy to remain "outcome oriented" in all endeavours, both at sea and ashore. Army Chief Gen Bipin Rawat and IAF Chief Air Marshal B S Dhanoa had also interacted with the navy commanders. The service chiefs brought out the complexities in current security situation where the spectrum of threats ranged from possible conventional conflict to inimical actions by state and non-state sponsored terrorists, said Sharma. He said the service chiefs elaborated their vision and the path being charted by the respective services towards operational readiness and actions in progress towards improving tri-service cooperation. NEW DELHI (PTI): Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has issued directions to officials for addressing top military firms' concerns over licensing and tax issues and reiterated the government's commitment to facilitating private sector's participation in defence manufacturing. Sitharaman discussed various issues relating to implementation of the government's 'Make in India' initiative in the defence sector with representatives of industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), including top executives of a number of Indian and foreign defence firms. The defence minister issued directions to the team of officers headed by the Defence Secretary for time-bound action on key issues raised at the round table, including the resolution of licensing with the Home Ministry, tax-related matters with the Finance Ministry and commercialisation of technologies developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), the defence ministry said in a statement. It said a wide range of issues, including matters relating to licensing, taxes and duties and ways to speed up the procurement processes were discussed at the meeting. Ways to streamline the offsets regime and creation of a tiered defence industrial ecosystem with full integration and skilling of manpower in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sector were also deliberated upon during the meeting. Sitharaman conveyed to the top executives of the private defence industry that the government was "fully committed" to removing all the stumbling blocks and facilitating private participation in defence manufacturing with the objective of bringing high value foreign investment into the sector, officials said. She told them that focus of the initiative is to ensure self-reliance in meeting the country's defence needs and that the government will provide a level playing field to the industry. Sitharaman also asked the officials to ensure timely conclusion of procurement proposals. In May, the government had unveiled the strategic partnership model under which select private firms will be roped in to build military platforms such as submarines and fighter jets in India in partnership with foreign entities. "The present government has taken a series of significant policy initiatives, including promulgation of DPP (defence procurement procedure) 2016 which gives highest priority to indigenous design and manufacture of defence equipment, introduction of Strategic Partnership model, liberalisation of FDI norms and providing a level-playing to private industry," the defence ministry said. The chief executive of Goldman Sachs has raised concerns that the US banking giant may not be able to fill its new European headquarters in London due to Brexit. Lloyd Blankfein took to Twitter on Monday, posting a birds-eye photo of the under-construction headquarters that is set to open in 2019, as he expressed worries over continued uncertainty. The banking boss tweeted: "In London. GS still investing in our big new Euro headquarters here. Expecting/hoping to fill it up, but so much outside our control.#Brexit" In London. GS still investing in our big new Euro headquarters here. Expecting/hoping to fill it up, but so much outside our control.#Brexit pic.twitter.com/XwrIcqwM1t Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) October 30, 2017 The new office - which is being built just off Farringdon Street and near its Peterborough Court headquarters - is expected to be around nine storeys high when it is ready to house staff in two years' time. However, it is understood that Goldman has kept the option of letting out remaining space to other tenants, depending on how much square footage it needs for its local workforce. It is the second time this month that Mr Blankfein has aired his Brexit views on the social media site. On October 19, he detailed a recent trip to Frankfurt, where the US bank is planning to shift a portion of its UK operations after Brexit. He said: "Just left Frankfurt. Great meetings, great weather, really enjoyed it. Good, because I'll be spending a lot more time there." Just left Frankfurt. Great meetings, great weather, really enjoyed it. Good, because I'll be spending a lot more time there. #Brexit Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) October 19, 2017 Goldman Sachs, which employs around 6,500 people in the UK, has previously confirmed that it is looking to at least double its 200-strong employee base in Frankfurt as part of its Brexit contingency plans. Earlier this month it was reported that the group has signed a contract to lease eight floors of a skyscraper in the city, capable of holding 800 staff. The bank has said it is also looking at bolstering its footprint in other financial hubs across the EU. A raft of international banks, insurers and asset managers are preparing to shift portions of their UK operations to the Continent in preparation for Britain's divorce from the EU in hopes of safeguarding against the loss of passporting rights which currently give UK-based financial services cross-border access to the bloc. Many have turned to Dublin for a post-Brexit base, while others have reached out to the likes of Paris and Luxembourg. But Frankfurt has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of Brexit so far as London-based financial firms increasingly opt to relocate staff to Germany's financial centre. Standard Chartered has committed to expanding or establishing offices in Germany, Citigroup has notified its bankers of plans to bolster its Frankfurt office, creating 150 jobs, and Morgan Stanley is on track to move as many as 200 staff. Mizuho will join a raft of Japanese banks which have chosen the city as an EU hub, including Daiwa, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) and Nomura. JP Morgan is taking a similar approach to Goldman Sachs by planning to spread staff across a number of European cities, including Frankfurt. Police have launched an investigation after a shot was fired at a house in Belfast. A man living at the house in the St James's Road area heard a "loud bang" at around midnight on Monday, the PSNI said. Dublin City Council is to allocate an extra 23m next year to combat the homelessness crisis. Some 147.3m will be spent on homeless services next year, according to the Irish Daily Mail, after 1,138 families accessed emergency accommodation last month in the city. Four top Irish artists have been shortlisted for the Savills Arts Prize, to be presented at Vue 2017, Irelands national contemporary art fair. Janet Mullarney, Samuel Walsh, Charles Tyrrell and John Gibbons are in contention for the 5,000 prize, which will be awarded to an artist who has exhibited in the last year and made a substantial contribution to the visual arts in Ireland. The overall winner will be announced on Thursday at the opening of Vue 2017 at the Royal Hibernian Academy gallery. The Fair runs until Sunday, November 5. RHA director Dr Patrick Murphy, who has an extensive track record as a curator of contemporary Irish art, has adjudicated on nominations received from a panel of Irish art experts. "This is the third year the Savills Art Prize has been presented at Vue and we hope the award will become as important to Irish art as the Turner Prize is in the UK," said Vue 2017 organiser Louis OSullivan. Last years prize was awarded to one of the countrys most noted living artists, Patrick Graham. This years nominees are sculptor Janet Mullarney, abstract artist Samuel Walsh, John Gibbons and abstract painter Charles Tyrrell. Savills is the perfect partner to present the Prize as most art is found in homes and businesses, and not just museums," said Louis O'Sullivan. Vue 2017 is a great opportunity for collectors and investors to experience some of the best contemporary art currently being created in Ireland, and to get some expert advice and guidance from leading galleries. Galleries participating in Vue 2017 include Art Box, Kerlin Gallery, Cross Gallery, Gibbons and Nicholas, Molesworth Gallery, Peppercanister Gallery, Stoney Road Press, Hillsboro Fine Art, Green on Red, Eight, Kevin Kavanagh Gallery, Taylor Gallery, Black Church Print Studio, Kerlin Gallery, Catherine Hammond Gallery (Cork), Parallel Editions, Gormleys Fine Art, Solomon, Olivier Cornet, Oonagh Young Gallery, Claremorris Gallery and SO Fine Art Editions. Opening hours are 6-8pm on Thursday, November 2, 11am-8pm on Friday, November 3, 11am-7pm on Saturday, November 4, and 12-6pm on Sunday, November 5. Update 9.50pm: Northern Ireland Secretary of State James Brokenshire has extended the deadline for the region's two main parties to reach a deal to restore powersharing. The DUP and Sinn Fein left Stormont shortly before 9pm on Monday having failed to reach an agreement. They had been warned by Mr Brokenshire that they had until Monday to produce a written agreement or he would be forced to legislate for a budget for the region at Westminster. However, on Monday night he said that the parties have made progress and he was therefore going to defer his decision to legislate for a budget. In a statement he said: "The parties have made further progress during the course of today. "They are making certain additional requests of the UK Government which we need to consider. "In the light of this, I believe it is right to defer the assessment on whether to introduce legislation to Parliament this week to enable an Executive to be formed. "The parties will recommence talks in the morning and I will reassess the position tomorrow night." Update 9.45pm: Northern Ireland's two main political parties have failed to meet the UK Government's latest deadline to reach a deal to restore powersharing. Secretary of State James Brokenshire had warned the parties they had until Monday to produce a written agreement or he would be forced to legislate for a budget for the region at Westminster. However, the DUP and Sinn Fein left Stormont shortly before 9pm without a deal. Neither party spoke to the media. It is now up to Mr Brokenshire to decide whether to extend the talks deadline yet again or press ahead with a budget via Westminster. He is expected to clarify his position in the House of Commons on Tuesday or Wednesday. Update 7pm: The North's two main parties remain locked in talks at Stormont with the latest deadline to restore powersharing due to expire within a matter of hours. Sinn Fein has said the talks are continuing but no agreement has yet been reached with the DUP. Northern Ireland Secretary of State James Brokenshire has warned both parties that unless there is a breakthrough before the end of Monday the only option remaining would be to legislate for a budget for the region at Westminster. Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams, Mary Lou McDonald and Pearse Doherty have joined the party's negotiating team in Belfast. Both James Brokenshire and Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney have been holding meetings with the parties throughout the day. The DUP, Sinn Fein and the Irish and UK Governments have been remaining tight lipped about any progress. The region's smaller parties held a meeting earlier in the day to discuss the lack of openness and transparency in the talks negotiations. The executive collapsed in January and the North has been without a power-sharing government since then. Despite endless rounds of discussions, a deal to restore devolution has proved elusive with the introduction of an Irish language act seen as the main issue. Earlier: DUP call for Brokenshire to set budget as SF demand a deal for all in society Northern Ireland is inching towards direct rule from Westminster after the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) called on the Secretary of State to set a budget for the region. The DUP made the call just hours before the latest deadline to restore powersharing at Stormont runs out. Sinn Fein, however, has said a deal could still be done, but insisted it must be "a deal for all in society and not just for the political leaderships of unionism". The parties have been warned they must reach agreement by the end of Monday or Northern Ireland Secretary of State James Brokenshire will be forced to introduce a budget via Westminster. Talks between the DUP and Sinn Fein paused on Friday for the weekend, without an agreement being reached. On Monday morning, ahead of the resumption of talks, the DUP called on Mr Brokenshire to set a budget to ensure a "measure of good government" in the region. The party said it would not accept "a bad agreement cobbled together to suddenly suit the timetables of others". "Our position has not changed, we want to see an executive set up - we would have done it in March and sorted these issues in tandem," said the party in a statement. "Given Sinn Fein have dragged their feet over the last 10 months, the secretary of state should bring forward a budget to bring a measure of good government to Northern Ireland," the statement added. The DUP said it would continue the discussions as it believes "devolution is best for Northern Ireland". But it warned that it would not be a part of a "bad agreement cobbled together to suddenly suit the timetables of others". Sinn Feins Conor Murphy said while he believed a deal could still be done, it "needs to be a deal for all in our society and not just for the political leaderships of unionism". "If the political institutions are to be sustainable then they must be restored on the basis of equality, rights and respect. "That requires an end to the DUPs denial of rights citizens enjoy everywhere else on these islands, language rights, marriage rights and the right to a coroners court," Mr Murphy added. Earlier, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said that if a deal was not reached by Mondays deadline, his party would not accept direct rule from Westminster but only joint rule from both London and Dublin. He said: "As I set out in January this year, I want to again make clear that a return to direct rule from London is wholly unacceptable. "It would be a significant and serious breach of our political accommodation in the North and therefore must not be the automatic and the only fall-back option." Mr Eastwood added: "In the absence of an Executive and Assembly, giving representation to the Norths two traditions falls on both the Irish and British Governments. "Maintaining that balance means that the alternative to direct rule is the joint stewardship of the North by the two governments." The executive collapsed in January and Northern Ireland has been without a powersharing government since then. Despite endless rounds of discussions, a deal to restore devolution has proved elusive, with the introduction of an Irish language act seen as the main issue. Irelands Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney has arrived in Belfast in a bid to help the parties reach a deal. In a tweet, he said this was an important day for Northern Ireland, and added that "with political will and a willingness to work together on all sides there is a deal to be done ". Prime Minister Theresa Mays official spokesman said: "The talks are still ongoing. We are still working with the parties on reaching an agreement. "We have had progress but there are still significant gaps which remain and we continue to work with them to overcome these. "You can expect James Brokenshire to update Parliament later this week on how that is progressing. "We continue to work with the parties on trying to overcome the differences between them and to restore devolved government, which is in the interests of all communities in Northern Ireland." He added: "We are clear we dont want to see a return to direct rule, we want a return of devolved government in Northern Ireland, so that local decisions can be made by local politicians. "James Brokenshire has been clear that the latest we can practically introduce legislation to enable the executives formation would be this week in order for it to be in time for a new executive to set a budget." "All political parties have a responsibility to act thoroughly and properly where instances of unacceptable behaviour come to light, and to take appropriate action," said Ms Butler, who called for all parties to publish their complaints procedures. One man has died and a woman is in a serious condition in hospital following a single-vehicle crash in Co Clare early this morning. The incident occurred at around 4am at Carraig Hill, Woodcock Hill off the old Limerick to Cratloe Road. Mairead McGuinness MEP was at a private audience with His Holiness Pope Francis at the Vatican in Rome on Saturday. MEP McGuinness discussed the future of Europe and her role as Vice-President with responsibility for Dialogue with religious and non-confessional organisations. Three men are due to appear before a special sitting of Limerick District Court at 2pm today in relation to an apparent stabbing in Rahen, Co Limerick last Saturday. A man in his 30s was brought to University Hospital Limerick with apparent stab wounds following the incident, which occurred at around 2.30am on Ballycummin Road. Victims of historical child abuse have urged Northern Ireland's politicians to release compensation which has been blocked due to Stormont's collapse, as talks aimed at restoring powersharing enter their final hours. SAVIA - Survivors and Victims of Institutional Abuse, which represents people who were abused at institutions, called on Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire to make provisions for victims' compensation if talks fail and a budget is introduced in Westminster. Following an inquiry into abuse at children's homes, recommendations were made in January to the Northern Ireland Assembly to award compensation to victims and survivors. However, just days after the report, powersharing collapsed at Stormont meaning that no government has been in place to approve the release of funds. The parties have been given a final deadline of today to reach a deal, after which Mr Brokenshire has said he will be forced to legislate for a budget via Westminster instead. Margaret McGuckian from SAVIA said: "It's an absolute shame and a disgrace that people have been treated like this. "This government has said they care about victims of child abuse, but they really don't. "What we're asking is that Mr Brokenshire includes an interim payment in the budget if he passes one at Westminster. It's the least he can do and we know he can do it." Green Party MLA Clare Bailey, among those attending the protest, said: "The way people have been treated is just brutal. It's retraumatising, after everything people have already been through. "We demand that if James Brokenshire puts his budget through, they must get the compensation they deserve and which they're due." In January, a report by the Historical Institutional Abuse (HIA) Inquiry led by Anthony Hart, outlined a series of recommendations after sexual, physical and emotional abuse was revealed to have taken place at church and state-run institutions between 1922 and 1995. Among the recommendations was a proposal that abuse survivors should receive compensation ranging from 7,500 to 100,000 each as part of a compensation package. Mr Hart has suggested that institutions responsible for the abuse should make a financial contribution to the compensation fund. Some abuse survivors have said they have been left feeling suicidal and facing financial ruin due to the impasse. British Prime Minister Theresa Mays official spokesman has declined to confirm that the she has full confidence in international trade minister Mark Garnier, who is the subject of an internal government inquiry into sexually suggestive comments he made to his secretary. The spokesman said he did not want to pre-empt the outcome of the inquiry being conducted by the Cabinet Office. His comment came as Leader of the Commons Andrea Leadsom prepared to address MPs on Monday afternoon about allegations of inappropriate and unwanted sexual behaviour at Westminster. Mark Garnier, MP Mrs Mays spokesman said the PM would be present in the House to hear Ms Leadsoms statement on the issue as well as MPs comments in the debate which will follow. He denied claims that Mrs May was regularly updated by Conservative whips on a dossier of allegations relating to her partys MPs. The Prime Minister has offered to hold talks with Speaker John Bercow on overhauling Commons disciplinary procedures amid mounting reports of abusive and inappropriate behaviour towards women. A list of 13 MPs facing harassment allegations has been circulating at Westminster, according to The Daily Telegraph, as Number 10 again made clear any unwanted sexual behaviour was "completely unacceptable". Meanwhile the Guido Fawkes website claimed Tory aides had compiled a spreadsheet of 36 Conservative MPs - including 20 ministers - accused of inappropriate behaviour. The Conservatives declined to comment. Over the weekend the Prime Minister ordered the Cabinet Office inquiry into whether Mr Garnier had breached the ministerial code over claims he asked his Commons secretary to buy sex toys and called her "sugar tits". Asked at a regular Westminster media briefing whether the PM had full confidence in the international trade minister, the spokesman said: "There is an investigation which the Prime Minister has asked for, which is being conducted by the Cabinet Office. Obviously, I cant pre-empt that investigation." Mrs May was also facing calls to suspend a second senior Conservative, former Cabinet minister Stephen Crabb, after he was reported to have admitted sending explicit messages to a 19-year-old woman he interviewed for a job. In a letter to Mr Bercow, the Prime Minister said the current grievance system for dealing with complaints by MPs staff lacked "teeth" as there was no contractual requirement for MPs to follow its procedures. "I do not believe that this situation can be tolerated any longer. It is simply not fair on staff, many of whom are young and in their first job post-education," she wrote. Asked about press reports of regular meetings with whips to discuss a dossier on MPs sexual misbehaviour, Mrs Mays spokesman said: "That is not true, no. There is no dossier and therefore the PM hasnt seen one." The spokesman said that Mrs May had responded "very quickly" to reports in the weekends press of inappropriate behaviour at Westminster and wanted the Cabinet Office inquiry to be completed "as quickly as possible". He declined to state whether she was aware of any further allegations relating to Conservative ministers. "The Prime Minister is deeply concerned over recent media reports regarding the alleged mistreatment of staff by some MPs," he said. "She has been clear that any unwanted sexual behaviour is completely unacceptable in any walk of life and she strongly believes it is important that those who work in Parliament are treated properly and fairly, as would be expected in any modern workplace. "Thats why shes written to the Speaker to ask for his support in what can be done to ensure that the reputation of Parliament isnt damaged by these allegations of impropriety. "She has also been clear that this needs to be dealt with on a cross-party basis." Mrs Mays former communications director Katie Perrior said party whips often hold information but keep it secret to use as leverage to discipline MPs. She told BBC1s Breakfast: "The information is held by the whips, because they use that to make sure that MPs know that other people within the party know exactly what theyre up to, and that behaviour either is not acceptable, or indeed it will be used against them - you will vote in a certain way or we will tell your wife exactly what youve been up to." Tory former minister Anna Soubry said any new grievance procedure must protect "all workers in the Palace of Westminster" not just MPs staff. Many MPs were "fed up to the back teeth with the level of misogynistic abuse" they face, she told BBC Radio 4s Today programme, adding: "There is a problem and we are all responsible for sorting it out. "Theresa May, because she is a woman leader of a party, absolutely will - Im confident of that." Labour MP Lucy Powell compared the situation to the Hollywood abuse scandal, with people desperate to advance in an industry. She said: "When you have that mix of lots of desperate people in that environment, this sort of power abuse - because thats what it is, its about a power inequality - can thrive." But she said Mrs May was "too weak" to tackle the problem and in Mr Garniers case "referring something off to the ministerial code is just not sufficient". Labours John Mann said he knew of four cases of "objectionable behaviour", including two where women made complaints, one to her political party and one to the parliamentary authorities. One of the allegations "passes the criminal threshold" and one is "appalling", he said. Mr Mann told LBC: "These are within the last couple of years, both of these, so were talking of actual complaints where the woman have, in one case, been told to get lost, its nothing to do with us, and in the other case, nothing is done and shes not even got back to with a response, which shows how badly actual complaints are treated and these are serious complaints." The MP said he was calling for the cases, which relate to two different parties but do not involve Conservatives, to be reopened. He added: "In one case, the police were involved and then the police couldnt prosecute because the alleged assault took place abroad." Howard Williams, Wyre Forest Conservative Associations chairman, said Mr Garnier had his support. He said: "This happened seven years ago. I have been told the article in the Mail on Sunday is a fair account of what happened. "I support Mark and I have nothing more to say." Labours spokeswoman for women and equalities, Dawn Butler, wrote to Mrs May welcoming the PMs letter to Mr Bercow, and urged her to put party political considerations aside to put an end to "a culture that has tolerated or made light of abuse for far too long". Ms Butler demanded to know whether Mrs May had been made aware of allegations of inappropriate behaviour by ministers and Conservative MPs before this weekends press reports. Two sailors who were rescued by the US Navy after more than five months lost at sea have arrived back on dry land. Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava waved from USS Ashland as it docked at an American naval base in Japan on Monday. They arrived at White Beach Naval Facility, in Okinawa, five days after the ship had picked them up, along with their two dogs, from their storm-damaged sailboat 900 miles southeast of Japan. Appel and Fuiava had left Honolulu on May 3 aboard Appel's 50-foot vessel, the Sea Nymph, for what was supposed to be an 18-day trip to Tahiti. But storms flooded the engine and damaged the mast and sails so badly that they could not generate enough wind power to stay on course. They drifted aimlessly and sent unanswered distress calls for 98 consecutive days. The women were thousands of miles in the wrong direction when a Taiwanese fishing vessel found them. Towing the sailboat damaged it further, but Appel swam to the Taiwanese vessel to make a mayday call. The pair had run out of food for the dogs, and had begun sharing their own, leaving their food supply 90% depleted by the time they were rescued. The USS Ashland picked up the women, as well as their dogs Zeus and Valentine, on Wednesday, with all four looking remarkably fit for having been lost at sea for nearly six months. Appel told reporters on Friday that they were beginning to believe they were completely out of luck when they saw the US Navy ship chugging towards them. "When I saw the grey ship on the horizon, I was just shaking," she said. "I was ready to cry, I was so happy. I knew we were going to live." Although Appel has been sailing the Hawaiian islands for 10 years and spent two years preparing for this voyage, she acknowledged she and Fuiava, a novice sailor, may not have prepared as well as they could have. Appel credited their survival in part to the veteran sailors in Hawaii who had warned them to prepare well for their journey. "They said pack every square inch of your boat with food, and if you think you need a month, pack six months, because you have no idea what could possibly happen out there," Appel said. "And the sailors in Honolulu really gave us good advice. We're here." AP Sintex has opened up its products to brokers directly, a move it says acknowledges that growing its business is closely intertwined with supporting and serving the third party channel At Sintex were definitely not suits, says the non-bank lenders general manager, Cathy Dimarchos. Minutes after we meet, she proves it: she hands me a small bag containing two of her handmade soaps, a side gig she started to fund her volunteer projects in Tanzania. Dimarchos is a former suit, otherwise known as a banker, as are the companys founders and directors, James Christie and Peter James. She left corporate banking 20 years ago, discouraged by where it seemed to be heading, and now assists the two directors in overseeing a family-friendly atmosphere at Sintex. I like to actually feel that our business is about people and families, and we treat our customers in kind. Its really hard to do that with the banks: everybody is on KPIs; it has become a very different business, Dimarchos says. Sintexs name may be unfamiliar to some brokers. Established as a wholesale commercial funder in 2004 to complement the founders retail business, Resi Mortgage Corporation, it only branched out into residential lending about five years ago. It now boasts a suite of commercial and residential products covering the FHB, SMSF and full- and low-doc spaces. Resi Mortgage was sold to YBR in 2014. Since Sintex doesnt sit on any major aggregator panels, it has traditionally relied heavily on mortgage managers for distribution, and it has often been used by them as a white-label product. While that is still a very important source of business, over the last five years Sintex has been gradually granting accreditation to brokers with an ACL to work with them directly. It now has 145 brokers on board. The relationship between brokers and Sintex is mutually beneficial, Christie says. The broker network offers a solution for both the customer and for us, in that they can deliver the clients information that will facilitate the customers needs in a suitable loan from Sintex. If anyone is looking for growth in their business, it will inevitably need to include the broker network. If anyone is looking for growth in their business, it will inevitably need to include the broker network - James Christie, director What brokers can expect from the non-bank lender is innovation, an array of product choices, a competitive price and return, and stellar service and speed of reply, James says. Its turnaround time for all loan applications is within 48 hours. Sintex was one of the first lenders to offer long-term solutions to borrowers for its commercial loans, and it controls its own IT software and CRM through its affiliated company, Loanworks Technologies. The broker channels expansion is a reflection of the banks tightening their lending parameters. Growth is our main goal, as with growth we are able to present new products to market. We are also working to make the process as automated as possible without deleting the most important one-to-one contact in the process, James says. While the accreditation process is quite rigorous, Dimarchos says those who are serious in the business will already have what they need, including the necessary references, qualifications (ACL, Cert IV) and a police check. Once completed, brokers will gain direct access to credit. Dimarchos knows brokers have heard this line before, but she says Sintex takes that commitment seriously. The credit team crunches the numbers, but the back office and customer service staff are trained to help and support them in that process to prevent a backlog and make sure its a smooth experience for brokers and mortgage managers. Credit will sit there and take the time to run through a deal with [brokers]. They will even sit there and do a capacity calculator for them and say, No, this is where youve overlooked something in financials or tax returns, so it is genuine direct access to credit, Dimarchos says. As Sintex bolsters its BDM team this year, those employees will also be trained in credit before hitting the road. Whilst our BDMs are salespeople, they actually need to understand credit and what will make a deal a deal, she says. If a deal doesnt make it across the line, it goes back to Dimarchos for review. She tries to figure out what stopped it and whether theres any solution, then provides feedback to the broker. I think people are quite surprised by that. Its time that we put in. We could just let a deal walk out the door, but its not about that, she says. Russell Henshaw, state sales manager at mortgage manager Australian Financial, has been working with Sintex for the last 12 years. His firm has written both commercial and residential loans with Sintex, including for first home buyers with little to no genuine savings, investors looking for a high LVR, commercial purchases and refinances, and commercial SMSF loans. We have built up a very good relationship with the credit and settlement staff. They are very quick in answering any questions or scenarios we have. This enables us to reply to our broker network in a timely fashion. They also try their best to assist if at all possible, whether it is a loan application or a settlement issue, he says. As brokers seek out alternative ways to satisfy their clients increasingly diverse and complex needs, their interest in Sintex and what it offers is growing. Sintex is already seeing that come to fruition and is moving to a larger office space a few floors down in its Sydney building to accommodate its burgeoning team. For us its not about volume; its actually about the longevity of a relationship. Thats what weve always been in the business for long-term relationships, Dimarchos says. Survival of the fittest As much as Dimarchos distances herself from the rigid corporate suit stereotype, she admits that coming from an old-school banking background has given her a different way of looking at lending. Instead of relying on a matrix, as contemporary bankers do, Sintex looks at a whole spectrum of criteria to get a holistic view of the borrowers profile now and for the future. When staff come in here to do credit, theyre trained the old traditional way. Its about a commercial proposition. Its not about fitting a matrix. Its about how does this deal actually really work; how can we make it work? she says. One thing Sintex doesnt do is cross-collateralise. We dont revalue securities and we dont have annual reviews; as long as the clients loans are being maintained and repayments are being met, the customers have peace of mind that their loan will be available for the life of the loan, Christie says. The GFC hit Australia four years after the company was founded, and yet Sintex was one of the non-bank lenders that survived. The broker channels expansion is a reflection of the banks tightening their lending parameters. Growth is our main goal, as with growth we are able to present new products to market - Peter James, director Sintex is now one of the cohorts defining the accelerating non-bank space. Dimarchos thinks non-banks will claw back a bit of their pre-GFC market share, and as a result will provide consumers with a more even playing field. What the GFC did prove is that, no matter what the challenges are, the mortgage industry is resilient and will move forward and adapt as necessary. For brokers looking to plan for the future, Dimarchos suggests looking at the big picture. For me, its about having the broker take one step back and having a holistic view of what theyre doing for that customer sitting in front of you. I think when you do that, these challenges are actually not challenges; its actually crystallising now what you should be discussing with your customer. latest news October 31, 2022 Buddy TV In November, there are hundreds of new and returning TV showsit can be overwhelming to try and choose what to watch. That's why we've selected some of the best options... In this episode of Outlander, titled Creme De Menthe, Claires actions put Jamies business at risk, Claire encounters a fortune teller, and Jamie keeps a life-changing secret from his wife. Claire has only been back in 18th century Scotland for about 24 hours, and shes already at risk of being violated by a nefarious character. She might have considered taking some self-defense classes or bringing some pepper spray back with her. (It was invented in 1965.) Barton, Sir Percivals henchman, throws her on the bed, and she stabs him with a knife she grabs from the bedside table. She fails to do any real damage aside from pissing him off. But when trying to evade a subsequent swing of the blade, Barton trips, falls and bangs his head. Was Jamie Right to Mention Willie on Outlander? >>> Claires Actions Have Consequences Jamie arrives seconds later, and Claire recalls how she entered their room to find the man rummaging through Jamies things and how she had to defend herself from his unwanted advances. Barton groans, and Claire realizes hes still alive. Still true to her Hippocratic Oath, Claire is determined to do what she can to help the man, even though Jamie thinks the best course of action is to let Barton suffer and die. The walls are thin in the brothel, so it isnt long before Madame Jeanne and Fergus show up. Word has spread quickly around the place regarding sounds of a struggle. (If you can hear two people humping in the next room, you can hear an attempted rape.) Jamie searches the man and discovers that his name is John Barton, and hes an exciseman (tax collector). Jamie realizes Sir Percival is no longer adhering to their agreement. Jamie explains to Claire that in exchange for a cut of the profits, Sir Percival turns a blind eye to Jamie selling illegal liquor. Sir Percivals suspicions about Jamie are correct; hes expanding the business beyond Edinburgh and has failed to apprise Sir Percival of the situation. Jamie figures Barton was most likely trying to discover where Jamie was hiding the additional hooch. When Barton goes missing, Sir Percival will come looking for him, which poses a big problem for everyone in the room. Madame Jeanne is concerned because the extra casks of alcohol are hidden in her basement. Jamie promises Madame Jeanne that he wont let any harm befall her. Claire asks Madame Jeanne to send one of her girls for supplies so she can drill a hole in Bartons head to relieve the pressure. Claire prepares to head to the apothecary, but Jamie is adamant that Barton deserves neither Claires mercy nor her help. He also reminds his wife that if the authorities find out, the law isnt on her side. All they will see is a woman who was alone in a room in a brothel and are unlikely to buy that her actions were self-defense. The City Guard will arrest her. Jamies attempt to scare Claire into submission fails, and he doesnt have time to argue. Jamie has some liquor to hide. Jamie recruits Fergus, young Ian, Mr. Willoughby, Lesley and Hayes to help him remove the casks from Madam Jeannes. Ian worries that Sir Percival may search the print shop as well, and there is the matter of all those seditious pamphlets. Jamie can only deal with one crisis at a time, and he is confident the pamphlets are well-hidden. Jamie tasks Ian with selling off the casks as quickly as possible at any price. Claire rushes to the apothecary and is forced to wait in line behind a man, Archibald Campbell (Mark Hadfield), who is searching for remedies for his ailing sister. In exchange for letting her get the items she needs ASAP, Claire offers to come by and treat Campbells sister later. Dont Mess with the White Witch Fergus and Ian negotiate a decent price for the brandy and throw in some creme de menthe to sweeten the deal. Ian questions Fergus about Claire, having no memories of his aunt. Fergus sings Claires praises, citing her braveness and high-spiritedness. He remembers how fearless she was during all of the battles prior to Culloden. She put men back together who had been ripped apart by swords and cannon fire without so much as flinching. Fergus warns that, while Claire saved many lives, it was also rumored that she took a few as well, and shes not a woman Ian would want to cross. The two do agree that Claire has managed to create a bit of a catastrophe upon her return. Claire returns to the brothel and discovers that Barton is awake and an unwilling patient. Jamie has tied him up and is going to brutish lengths to keep the man quiet. She dumps something down his throat that quiets Barton down and prepares to operate. Madame Jeanne alerts Jamie that Sir Percival is downstairs. While Claire drills a hole in Bartons skill, Sir Percival and his creepy, cloudy-eyed sidekick, Harry Tompkins (Ian Reddington), search the basement. The casks are gone, but Sir Percival does spot a large wet spot on the floor, which Tompkins confirms is just water. Sir Percival may not have found any evidence, but he knows Jamie is up to something and warns hell be watching. (Not much of a search since the two men didnt even venture into any of the bedrooms.) Barton doesnt survive the surgery, which is a relief to Jamie but kind of bums Claire out. Claire doesnt expect Jamie to understand her disappointment, but that doesnt stop her from trying to explain that shes spent the last 14 years learning to respect human life. She doesnt often lose a patient. So what Jamie views as the will of God, Claire sees as a failing of medical science. Jamie is certain that Claire will have plenty of opportunities to put her knowledge to good use in the future. It finally dawns on Claire what a pain in the ass shes become. She returns after 20 years and puts Jamies life and livelihood in danger. Because Jamie is practically the perfect male specimen, he reassures Claire that he would give up everything to be with her again. Fergus and Ian hit a local tavern to celebrate the sale. Ian has a crush on one of the barmaids, Brighid (Zoe Barker). Fergus is determined to get his pal laid for the very first time. It appears Fergus is quite the ladies man, having lost his virginity at the age of 15 with not one but two women. Fergus schools Ian on the art of seduction, which basically boils down to getting the bonny lass drunk off her ass. Ian is so focused on Brighid that he fails to notice Tompkins watching him from a nearby table. Quiz: Which TV Scooby Gang Do You Belong To? >>> What is Abandawe? Claire makes good on her promise to call on the Campbells. Archies sister, Margaret (Alison Pargeter), is a bit touched in the head. Her brother claims shes a fortune teller, but what comes out of her mouth is gibberish. Archie seems to have a pretty good scam going, claiming hes able to interpret her visions. Margaret does warn Claire that Abandawe will devour ye! (Abandawe is the location of an ancient cave and stone circle in Jamaica in the book.) After questioning Archie about Margarets other symptoms, she comes to the conclusion that Margaret isnt a psychic; shes just suffering from a mental disorder. Claire suggests some teas to calm Margaret, but Archie is worried this wont be enough to subdue his sister since they are leaving for the West Indies. Claire doesnt think the trip is a good idea, but the brother and sister have a wealthy client who is expecting them. Her only other suggestion is that once they arrive at their destination, Archie makes sure his sister eats lots of fresh fruit. (An apple a day keeps the healer away.) 50 Shades of Lying Claire returns to the brothel to find that Bartons body is gone. Jamie had his cohorts store it in a cask of creme de menthe, assuring Claire that there are worse places to be laid to eternal rest. Claire is eager for her and Jamie to get a place of their own. Jamies content to stay where they are. He doesnt pay rent, and hes able to send all his money home to Lallybroch. Claire suggests that she could earn some money by working as a healer. Jamie doesnt look thrilled at the prospect, but their conversation is interrupted by the elder Ian Murray. Ian has come looking for his son, and Jamie tells Claire not to let her brother-in-law know where to find him. Ian is predictably shocked to see Claire. He and Jenny grieved over her for years, and Jamie clarifies that the only reason Claire disappeared was because she believed Jamie was dead. Ian questions where Claire has been, and she tells the truth: Boston. She continues with the tale that she just learned Jamie was alive and returned to find him. Young Ian has run away before. This time, hes been gone for weeks, but Jamie lies and says he hasnt seen his nephew since he sent him home with Fergus months ago. Jenny and Ian are concerned that Ian could have been taken by a press gang men who are authorized to force other men into military service. Jamie promises that if Ian shows up, hell return him to Lallybroch. Jamie walks Ian out, and we learn that Jamie is married. This isnt a shock to fans of the book series, but viewers who arent familiar with the source material may have suspected this juicy tidbit already. Ill leave the identity of Jamies wife a mystery, but all hell should break loose once Claire finds out. Claire questions why Jamie would lie to his own family. Jamie didnt want to admit that hed recruited his nephew to help with his smuggling business. Claire thinks Jamie could have at least put Jenny and her husbands minds to rest by revealing that hed seen Ian without giving away the rest. Jamie doesnt see the big deal. The bottom line is that Ian is safe. Claire doesnt share his opinion. How safe is Ian risking his neck working for Jamie without his parents permission? Jamie reveals that Ian has fled Lallybroch twice before, and its better that he be with his uncle than surrounded by strangers. At least Jamie is able to educate him on the ways of the world. Claire doesnt agree with the lying, and Jamie reminds her of all the deceptions theyve taken part in together. Claire points out that Jamie has no idea what its like to be a worried parent. This brings up some issues, particularly how Jamie is Briannas father but didnt get to raise her. He had no say in how Frank and Claire brought her up. Jamies still incensed by a picture Claire showed him of Brianna wearing a bikini. Claire questions if Jamie would approve if she and Frank had taught Brianna how to be a criminal and a traitor. Jamie thinks thats less of an issue than Briannas virtue being endangered. Claire finds Jamies attitude a bit hypocritical since hes chosen to live in a brothel. Claire makes it clear that Frank was a wonderful father, which leads Jamie to question how good of a husband he was to Claire. Jamie wants to know if Claire was in love with Frank, but the kind of love Jamie is talking about didnt exist between the two once she met the hot highlander. The increasing incompatibility between these two is becoming evident. And Jamie trying to get Claire to implicate herself regarding Frank is a pretty cheap attempt to cover his own tracks regarding his mystery wife. Burn, Baby, Burn Fergus advice works because Ian manages to get Brighid back to the print shop for some slap and tickle. At long last, Ian gets to pop his cherry. His happiness is short-lived because Tompkins breaks in to search the shop. Ian sends Brighid on her way. Ian confronts Tompkins, who demands to know where Jamie is hiding the liquor. Tompkins discovers the pamphlets, and a fight between the men leads to a fire. Tompkins retreats, but Ian stays behind in an attempt to extinguish the flames. But since hes in a print shop full of flammable material, he doesnt have much luck. Word of the fire quickly spreads, and Jamie and Claire rush to the print shop. Jamie suspects that Ian is inside because the boy sleeps in the back. He heads inside to rescue his nephew. The two emerge safely, but the shop doesnt fare as well. And Jamie has an even bigger problem: if and when Sir Percival finds out about those pamphlets, Jamie could be arrested for high treason, which is punishable by death. Its time to go on the run, forcing Jamie to take Claire to the last place on Earth he wants to go: home. Claires been back for two days, and Jamies life has literally been burned to the ground. Can Jamie and Claire overcome their differences? How will Claire handle the news that Jamie is married? Should Jamie have been honest with Ian about his son? And what is up with the fortune tellers prediction? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. Outlander season 3 airs Sundays at 8/7c on Starz. Want more news? Like BuddyTVs Facebook page. (Image courtesy of Starz) Rick and the gang are ready to continue their war on the Saviors in this episode of The Walking Dead, titled The Damned. They have a precise plan and have broken off into three groups for their next attacks. But are they being too brutal, rash and confident? The episode begins with various groups on their next missions. Rick and Daryl are working together with some others; Ezekiel, Carol and their group are recovering from the explosion; and Jesus, Tara, Morgan and Aaron are all getting ready for their next attack. Did We Meet Abbud on The Walking Dead? >>> The Satellite Attack Morgan, Jesus, Tara, Diane and some others are preparing to attack the Saviors satellite location. Tara says this is just like their attack on the location before, but Morgan wasnt there before. Hes pretty confident, though. I dont die, he says. Morgan distracts some Walkers at the fence, and some Saviors show up to find out whats going on. One of our friends swiftly shoots them in the head. Jesus, Tara, Morgan and their group then head inside to take out the Saviors. One of the guys is pretty freaked-out about killing people and starts shaking, but he calms down. They creep up to all the doors, then bust them open and start shooting all at once. But Morgan, the shaking guy, and another guy are shocked to see more Saviors than anticipated in the room theyre covering and theyre gunned down! Jesus and Tara, meanwhile, find a guy in a closet begging them not to shoot him. He even pissed his pants. He claims hes not one of the Saviors. And Tara and Jesus get into a huge argument about it. Tara wants to shoot him, but Jesus wants to wait. They hear some more shooting, and Tara goes to check it out. Jesus almost lets the guy out, but Tara comes back to finish the job, especially because they guy has the Hilltops stolen prenatal medicine. But the guy claims hes just a forced worker the Sanctuary sent over. Jesus refuses to shoot someone with his hands up, but Tara still wants to shoot him. While they argue, though, the guy manages to attack, get Jesus gun and hold Jesus hostage. He even crushes the medicine. He almost shoots Tara but, of course, Jesus manages to get free. He still doesnt shoot the guy, though. He knocks him out and ties him up. Taras pissed, but Jesus says Maggie will listen to him. Tara and Jesus get called out and see that their way out is blocked, so they need another exit. At the same time, Morgan thankfully wakes up to find that his two comrades are dead. He seems devastated, but he gets up and keeps moving. Morgan walks around and shoots Saviors without thought while he has flashbacks. Hes clearly not doing well. Look at who hes turned into. Jesus, Tara and the rest, meanwhile, have made it outside and continue looking for Saviors. Jesus wants to give the rest of the Saviors a chance to surrender. The first guy they find does surrender and tells the rest to surrender too. Taras pissed, though, and tells Jesus that even if Maggie listens to him, Rick will listen to her. Thats when Morgan shows up outside, though. He has a flashback of Rick telling them that they cant leave them alive. But then Jared, the guy who stole Morgans stick and killed Benjamin, calls out to Morgan. So Morgan goes up to him with the gun. Jesus stops Morgan and tells him this isnt what they do, and Morgan finally lowers his gun. Then what do we do? he asks. Ezekiel and Carol Fake It Til They Make It Ezekiel and Carol finally get up and see a whole group of Walkers stumbling toward them. Luckily, they and Ezekiels followers kill them all. The problem? They lost the Savior lookout whod set off the trap. Carol thinks the Savior will warn the others at the outpost theyre going to attack that theyre there, but Ezekiel says theyll get him and complete their mission. Theyll have a certain victory. The group makes its way through the woods, with Carol still issuing her warnings. While its a possibility, theres just one fact, according to Ezekiel: theyre going to get the job done. Quietly, he tells Carol that hes faking it until he makes it like he always has. He just keeps smiling. One of the guys finds blood from the Savior theyre looking for, though, so now they can track him. They finally track the Savior, Theyre about to shoot him, but Shiva shows up just in the nick of time and gets the job done. Ezekiel gives a rousing speech. Hes not happy about the Saviors death or anyones, but hes happy that they got him. They hear a voice over the radio, though, and realize the Saviors know theyre coming. Still, Ezekiel refuses to retreat, especially since Shivas there. Quiz: Which Creepy TV Show Should You Binge-Watch on Halloween? >>> Ricks Blast from the Past At another outpost, a woman named Maura chastises a guy, Todd, for not cleaning a gun correctly and tells him to get inside. She radios to Little Roy. She doesnt get a response, so she gets worried and radios Todd to block the stairwell. Thats when Aaron, Eric and some of our other friends show up and start shooting the place up, and a huge fight breaks out. Rick, Daryl and some others make it into the building while the battle still rages on outside. Rick has a map and note, presumably from Dwight, and he and Daryl realize they need to go upstairs to search for the Saviors stash of guns. They eventually make it to the last floor, and Rick wants to split up and check each room. Outside, Tobin gets shot, but he isnt hurt too badly. The fight rages on, and the Saviors who die turn into Walkers and start biting other Saviors. Daryl barges into a room and ends up coming across a cell like the one he was held in, and it really gets to him. Meanwhile, a Savior attacks Rick as hes creeping around, but Rick ultimately gets a hold of him. He asks where the guns are, but the guy says there are no guns, and Rick kills him. Its pretty brutal. The question is: is Rick wrong about the guns or was the guy lying? Rick grabs the guys keys and makes his way into a nursery. Theres a baby named Gracie in there! Is that what they were protecting in the top floor? Its unbelievably devastating. Rick catches himself in the mirror and is just shocked and disgusted with himself. The shootings still going on outside, and a woman dies right in front of Eric. Hes been freaking out this whole time, and this naturally really shakes him up. Aaron makes his way over to him and finds out that Erics been hit too! Its too sad. Rick, meanwhile, continues to make his way through the rooms and comes across a photograph that seems to upset him. Suddenly, a Savior shows up with a gun. They know each other! Rick recognizes him. Its Morales from Atlanta! But that was a long time ago, and Morales tells Rick that hes called the other Saviors and that theyre coming. Then he cocks his gun. The groups in huge trouble. Well, we knew this war wouldnt be that easy. The Damned ends with the group, once so confident, completely destroyed. Ricks in trouble; Daryls upset; Aarons trying to get Eric out; Jesus, Morgan and Tara are all upset; Ezekiels got a fake smile; and Carols super worried. Plus, theyre pretty much all conflicted about whether theyve gone too far or are doing the right thing. Is Rick about to get shot? Do you think Carol and Ezekiels group will make it? Has Morgan lost it? And is Tara or Jesus right? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. The Walking Dead season 8 airs Sunday nights at 9/8c on AMC. Want more news? Like our Facebook page. (Image courtesy of AMC) Ocean City's Cris Pannullo could be back on 'Jeopardy!' this week Ocean City man Cris Pannullo has 11 consecutive wins. His reign was paused while 'Jeopardy!' switched to the annual Tournament of Champions Automobile component maker Amtek Auto, which is among the companies to have been referred to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), has seen interest from a clutch of private equity players. AION and SSG Capital are among the private equity firms which have submitted expression of interest to buy Amtek Auto, sources close to the development said. In a burger, should the cheese slice be on top of the patty, or at the bottom? It is a million dollar question that is boggling the internet including Google CEO Sundar Pichai. So Pichai, 44, now wants to "drop everything else" and address the burger issue first. The debate started on October 29 when Thomas Baekdal, Founder of Baekdal Media, sought a Twitter discussion on how the placement of cheese in the "burger emoji" differed on Google and Apple. "We need to have a discussion about how Google's burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, while Apple puts it on top," Baekdal tweeted along with the pictures of the different emojis. I think we need to have a discussion about how Google's burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, while Apple puts it on top pic.twitter.com/PgXmCkY3Yc Thomas Baekdal (@baekdal) October 28, 2017 While several Twitter users engaged in the discussion to sort out the issue, the Indian-born Google CEO too chipped in albeit with a humorous take on the matter. "Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday:) if folks can agree on the correct way to do this!," Pichai said in a tweet, which was retweeted by over 10,000 users. Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday:) if folks can agree on the correct way to do this! https://t.co/dXRuZnX1Ag Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) October 29, 2017 Today, the market cap of Google stood over $800 billion, while that of Apple Inc. was close to $850 billion. IDFC Group and Shriram Group have called off their talks for a merger after failing to agree on a swap ratio. The two parties had, on July 8, entered into a 90-day agreement to evaluate a strategic combination of their relevant financial services. With no finality in sight, the parties had extended talks by a month till early November. Only 2 out of 11 suitors have put in final bids for the beleaguered Ventures. On the block as part of strategic debt restructuring (SDR), the company has drawn non-binding bids from Resurgent Power Ventures Pte and Brookfield Asset Management, a person close to the development said. Private carrier has phased out 30 expatriate pilots since April this year after its domestic pilots union National Aviator's Guild (NAG) sought the removal of all such "expensive" pilots. The Naresh Goyal-promoted full-service carrier, which is partly owned by Gulf airline Etihad, has 54 overseas commanders still working with it. They too would be done away with over a period of time, a source privy to the development said. The city-headquartered airline currently has over 1,400 pilots on its rolls. The overseas pilots in command its Boeing 737 and ATR fleet. The NAG had in April this year issued a directive to around its 1,000 members not to fly with the expatriate commanders after one of the foreign pilots allegedly assaulted a trainer in Bengaluru. The guild had also accused the management of treating its domestic pilots in a "step-motherly" manner. However, the boycott call was later withdrawn. " has handed over pink slips to some 40 expat pilots in the last more than six months. However, 10 of them have been hired again. So, in all, 30 foreign pilots have already been sent back home till now. But we want all these expensive pilots to be done away with," the source told PTI. The airline plans not to renew the service contracts of some more expat pilots, of the 54 still left with it, within this fiscal, the source said, adding, the carrier has already planned the removal of other such pilots as well over a period of time. In response to an e-mail query from PTI on the issue, a Jet Airways spokesperson said that the airline has only a "small percentage" of expatriates, which is in line with the DGCA norms for FATA (Foreign Aircrew Temporary Authorisation), but did not comment on the removal of expat pilots. "Today Jet Airways has an overwhelming majority of Indian pilots with only a small percentage of expatriates, which is in-line with DGCA guidelines on FATA, as per which, all airlines are expected to duly justify expatriates recruitment as well have a nationalisation plan," the spokesperson said. Jet Airways has been following a robust training and indigenisation programme, the spokesperson said, adding it is "committed to seeing a larger induction of Indian pilots." Demanding the exit of all expatriate pilots, the guild had, in a terse communication to Jet Airways management in April, said, "The management has for a very long time treated the Indian employees, including the pilots, in a step motherly manner and has disregarded the legitimate expectations of its employee to be treated fairly, reasonably and in a just manner. Sundar Pichai, India-born chief executive of Google, will partner with large Indian outsourcers to reskill their workforce in building smartphone applications after the country lost out in mobile apps to smaller rivals such as Vietnam and Turkey. KLM and its partner Jet Airways are targeting one million passengers between India and Amsterdam in 2018, with the launch of new services and enhanced co-operation, the Dutch airlines Chief Executive Officer Pieter Elbers said on Monday. Moving ahead with a plan for modernising madrasas in Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath government has cleared a proposal for introducing books by the Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in these educational institutions from the next academic session. In a setback to India, China will block the US resolution at the UN this week to declare Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar an international terrorist. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the 1267 Committee of the UN Security Council was yet to reach the consensus to ban Azhar, who is the mastermind of the deadly terror attack at an Army base in India last year. "As for the listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements. China put the technical hold so as to allow for more time to deliberate on this matter. To our regret, the Committee so far has yet to reach consensus," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. China has repeatedly scuppered India's effort to have Azhar declared an international terrorist. After Beijing blocked and put a technical hold on India's application that lapsed last year, the US in January put a fresh proposal - backed by France and the UK - to designate Azhar an international terrorist. Beijing again put a technical hold on the proposal till August and extended it for another three months. The technical hold expires on Thursday this week. Pakistan Army's support to terrorism is unacceptable, Indian Army's director-general of military operations (DGMO) told his Pakistani counterpart when they spoke on hotline, sources said. Lt Gen A K Bhatt, the DGMO of the Indian Army, also told his Pakistani counterpart that the Indian Army will continue retaliatory measures and retain the right to punitively respond to ceasefire violations, the Army sources said. The request for the unscheduled talks between the DGMOs of the two countries' armies came from the Pakistani side. A Mumbai-Delhi made an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport today morning due to "detection of an onboard security threat", officials said. Flight 9W 339, with 115 passengers and seven crew members, landed without incident at Ahmedabad and all 122 safely "deplaned", a Jet Airways spokesperson said. The flight had taken off from Mumbai at 2.55 am and landed at Ahmedabad airport around 3.45 am. The flight was "diverted to Ahmedabad following declaration of an emergency as per established security procedures, due to the detection of an onboard security threat", the spokesperson said. A member of the cabin crew had found a "printed note" stating that there was a bomb in the belly, the cargo area, of the plane, a senior official of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) told PTI. The message was passed on to the pilot, who is believed to have pressed the hijack alert button, following which the plane made an emergency landing, he said. Describing it as a bomb threat, he said nothing was found following a check of all the passengers and their bags. PTI correspondent Rajkumar Leishemba, who was on board, said the flight was diverted to Ahmedabad citing "security reasons". All the passengers deplaned and screened. They were photographed and questioned by security personnel on various details, including their last overseas visit, he said. After more than six hours at the airport here, the flight carrying the passengers took off for Delhi around 10.30 am, he said. "Passengers were profiled, taken photographs and all personal details sought...," Leishemba said on Twitter. The B 737-900 aircraft was parked at a remote bay, the spokesperson said in a statement. "Jet Airways is extending full cooperation to the security agencies who are investigating the matter and is not in a position to comment further at this stage," it added. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese President Xi Jinping has told herdsmen in Tibet to "set down roots" near the Sino-India border and safeguard Chinese territory. In a reply to a letter by two girls from a family who wrote to Xi introducing their township in Lhunze county in Tibet, Xi told them to develop settlements and stay put in the area bordering India. Situated in southwest China's Tibet, Lhunzhe is close to India's Arunachal Pradesh, which Beijing claims as its own and calls South Tibet. He encouraged a herding family to set down roots in the border area, safeguard the Chinese territory and develop their hometown, according to a short dispatch from Xinhua news agency. Xi acknowledged the family's efforts to safeguard the territory and thanked them for the loyalty and contributions they have made in the border area, the report said. "Without peace in the territory, there will be no peaceful lives for the millions of families," Xi was quoted as saying by the news outlet. He hoped that the family would motivate more herders to set down roots in the border area and become guardians of the Chinese territory and constructors of a happy hometown. In August, Indian and Chinese armies ended an over-two-month military stand-off - worst in decades - in the Sikkim sector which abuts Tibet. During the face-off, China sent battle tanks and conducted military drills in the Tibetan plateau. India and China have a dragging boundary dispute over the 3,488 km de facto boundary. The two fought a brief but bloody war in 1962. After being re-elected the General Secretary of the Communist Party last week, Xi asked the Chinese Army to be combat-ready. In his inaugural speech at the meet, Xi said China was ready to settle its border dispute with neighbours but it cannot be expected to swallow everything which undermines its and integrity and sovereignty. Bidders for firms facing insolvency are not taking well to the fact that existing promoters of such firms are getting an opportunity to join them in the bidding process for the stressed asset. They are objecting the promoters involvement after defaulting to loans. Many in party circles and among journalists have come to describe the BJPs annual Diwali get-together as selfie divas. Not as many as on previous Diwali get-togethers, but there were enough journalists this time as well, who requested the PM for a selfie. The Indian Army has finalised one of its biggest procurement plans for infantry modernisation under which a large number of light machine guns, battle carbines and assault rifles are being purchased at a cost of nearly Rs 40,000 crore to replace its ageing and obsolete weapons. The broad process to acquire around 0.7 million rifles, 44,000 light machine guns (LMGs) and nearly 44,600 carbines has been finalised and the defence ministry is on the same page with the army in moving ahead with the procurement, official sources told PTI. The worlds second largest army has been pressing for fast-tracking the procurement of various weapons systems considering the evolving security threats including along the borders with Pakistan and China. Apart from kick-starting the procurement process, the government has also sent a message to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to expedite its work on various small arms, particularly on an LMG. The sources said a fresh RFI (request for information) to procure the LMGs will be issued in the next few days, months after the defence ministry scrapped the tender for the 7.62 calibre guns as there was only one vendor left after a series of field trials. The plan is to initially procure around 10,000 LMGs. The army has also finalised the specifications for a new 7.62 mm assault rifle and the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the defence ministrys highest decision making body on procurement, is expected to give the go-ahead for the much- needed procurement soon. The General Service Quality Requirements (GSQR) for the new assault rifle has been finalised. The procurement plan will soon be placed before the DAC for approval, said a senior official, who is part of the acquisition process. In June, the Army had rejected an assault rifle built by the state-run Rifle Factory, Ishapore, after the guns miserably failed the firing tests. The procurement of assault rifles has witnessed significant delays due to a variety of reasons including the Army's failure to finalise the specifications for it. The army needs around 0.7 million 7.62x51 mm assault guns to replace its INSAS rifles. The Army had issued RFI for the rifles in September last year and around 20 firms responded to it. An RFI is a process whose purpose is to collect information about capabilities of various vendors. In June, the Army had kick-started the initial process to procure around 44,600 carbines, nearly eight months after a tender for it was retracted, also due to single-vendor situation. Around half a dozen firms including a few global arms manufacturers have responded to the RFI. Army sources said various specifications for the LMGs and battle carbines were tweaked to ensure that the problem of single vendor does not recur. The combined cost of the LMGs, assault rifles and carbines will be in excess of Rs 40,000 crore, said an official. On DRDO missing a number of deadlines in finalising the LMG, an official said the defence secretary has called a meeting this week of all stakeholders to discuss the project. "The infantry modernisation plan is a major initiative of the Army and it will significantly bolster the overall capability of the foot soldiers," said a senior army official. The issue was extensively discussed at the recently- concluded Army Commanders conference which felt modernisation of the Army must be in tune with the evolving security threat facing the country. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman conveyed to the Army during the conference that modernisation of the force was a priority for the government and all its "deficiencies" will be addressed to strengthen its combat capability. The central government has decided to increase the basic customs duty on to 20 per cent, from 10 per cent, with effect from last Friday. Warehouses of e-commerce companies based in countries such as Australia, Japan, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Russia may not be exempted from paying the income tax in India once the multilateral instrument (MLI) to prevent base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) comes into force. India on Sunday sent its first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan through the in Iran, seen as a "landmark" move to operationalise the new strategic transit route, bypassing Pakistan. The shipment was flagged off from the Kandla port in Gujarat with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani joining the ceremony through video conferencing. "The shipment of wheat is a landmark moment as it will pave the way for operationalisation of the as an alternate, reliable and robust connectivity for Afghanistan," the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said in a statement. In June, India and Afghanistan had launched an air freight corridor between the two countries to boost trade as Pakistan has been refusing land transit access through its territory. "I am extremely delighted that today we have joined on a momentous occasion for the people of our three countries and the region," Swaraj said, terming the move as an important step in realising the shared aspiration to carve out "new routes" of peace and prosperity. The consignment will be transported to Afghanistan from Chabahar through land route. Swaraj also reiterated India's continued commitment to support reconstruction, capacity building and socio-economic development of Afghanistan, including under the framework of the New Development Partnership announced last month. "The wheat that is leaving the Indian shores today, is a gift from the people of India to our Afghan brethren. It is a testament to the continued commitment of the government and the people of India to support our Afghan brethren in building a normal, peaceful, prosperous, secure and bright future for themselves," Swaraj said. The external affairs minister also renewed commitment to work closely with regional and international partners to bring peace, security, stability, and prosperity in Afghanistan. The is expected to open up new opportunities for trade and transit from and to Afghanistan and enhance trade and commerce between the three countries and the wider region. "The people of India, Afghanistan, and Iran have been connected through centuries; shared commonalities of art and culture, ideas and knowledge; language and traditions. Today, we are rejuvenating these connects and commonalities. I believe that this is the starting point of our journey to realise the full spectrum of connectivity," Swaraj said. Swaraj and Rabbani welcomed the fact that this is the first shipment that would be going to Afghanistan through the Chabahar port after trilateral agreement on Establishment of International Transport and Transit Corridor was signed during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Iran in May 2016, the MEA said. It said six more wheat shipments will be sent to Afghanistan over the next few months. India and Iran have already expressed commitment for early completion of the work on the Chabahar port project. The Chabahar port, located in the Sistan-Balochistan province on the energy-rich Persian Gulf nations southern coast, lies outside the Persian Gulf and can be easily accessed from India's western coast, bypassing Pakistan. The port is likely to ramp up trade between India, Afghanistan, and Iran in the wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi for trade with the two countries. India has been closely working with Afghanistan to create alternate and reliable access routes, bypassing Pakistan. Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said the Railways was investing Rs 3,500 crore in Jharkhand in the current financial year. Inaugurating a three-day Global Mining Submit here, Goyal said Jharkhand was on the path of development and Chief Minister Raghubar Das had responded to the Maoist menace positively. "The chief minister has told us to start work in Maoist-infested areas and promised security," he said. On the first day of the mining submit, the Jharkhand government and Coal India Ltd signed a MoU to provide drinking water to people from coal mines free of cost. The state government will process the water deposited in the coal mines and provide it to people. Raghubar Das said: "The Jharkhand government is determined to provide security to investors. "Jharkhand depended on royalty for the last 70 years. There is a need to set up value added plants in the state to end poverty and generate employment." More than 2,00,000 tobacco traders and retailers in Odisha have opposed a move by the Union health ministry to limit them from selling non-tobacco products. The Ministry of Finance and the World Bank on Monday announced the signing of a loan agreement worth $200 million for the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project. "Project will support Assam Govt to facilitate agri-business investments, increase agricultural productivity and market access among others," the Finance Ministry said in a tweet. It added that the project will also enable the small farm holders to produce crops that are resilient to recurrent floods or droughts in the state. "The $200 million loan from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a seven-year grace period, and a maturity of 16.5 yrs," added another tweet. However, the World Bank will release it's 'Doing Business' report on October 31. Following this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reportedly ordered ministries to work towards improving India's rank in the Ease of Doing Business. To protest against the popularity of app-based cab aggregators like Ola and Uber, local taxi unions in Lonavala have allegedly stopped the 'outgoing services' from the town. Moving ahead with reforms in the public sector banking space, the government has constituted a ministerial panel headed by Minister Arun Jaitley that will oversee merger proposals of state-owned . The other members of the panel include Railway and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "Govt walks the talk on banking reforms; constitutes Alternative Mechanism for PSBs consolidation; Minister to head," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said in a tweet. While announcing the unprecedented Rs 2.11 lakh crore capital infusion roadmap for the public sector last week, Jaitley had said, this will be accompanied by series of banking reforms over next few months. The constitution of Alternative Mechanism (AM) is a movement in that direction. The Union Cabinet in August had decided to set up an Alternative Mechanism to fast track consolidation among public sector to create strong lenders. The move to create large banks aims at meeting the credit needs of the growing Indian economy and building capacity in the PSB space to raise resources without dependence on the state exchequer. The AM will oversee the proposals coming from boards of PSBs for consolidation. The decision to set up the AM follows State Bank of India merging its five associate banks, as also the Bharatiya Mahila Bank, with itself. His Excellency Mr Paolo Gentiloni, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Italy, called on the President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, at Rashtrapati Bhavan today (October 30, 2017). . . Welcoming the Prime Minister of Italy to India, the President said that his visit is taking place 10 years after the visit of Prime Minister Prodi. And this visit holds very special significance for India-Italy engagement, as the two countries will be celebrating the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2018. . . The President added that India and Italy are ancient civilisations and have interacted with each other for ages. He stated that the economic partnership between India and Italy is strong. However, there is potential to do more. Indias reform initiatives, including efforts at ease of doing business and GST, offer business opportunities to Italian companies. Infrastructure development in India itself is a US $ 1 trillion opportunity. India is keen to leverage Italian technology and investment for its growth and development. He was happy to note that Italian companies want to participate in the railways, auto, renewable energy and food processing sectors in India. He stated that Indian companies are also looking for opportunities in Italy. . . The President said many commonalities bind India and Italy. Our relations are anchored in the shared values of democracy and rule of law. We have a large Indian diaspora in Italy. India deeply appreciates Italys recognition of their contribution to socio-economic progress. Our people-to-people connect is ever growing. There are over 2000 Indian students in Italy today. With so much that we share and jointly aspire for, our ties must continue to strengthen. . . The President said we are very happy that Italy would be participating at the World Food India 2017 as a Focus Country. He stated that Italy is known to be the design capital of the world. He commended the personal initiative of Mr Gentiloni to celebrate the Day of Italian Design in the World. He added that this year the event, held in over 100 cities across the globe, was a big success. And we look forward to jointly celebrating the event in India next year. . . The Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that Terrorism is a global concern that demands global attention and requires global cooperation. He was interacting with the Prime Minister of Italy, Mr. Paolo Gentiloni, who called on him, here today. . . The Vice President said that India believes in an early conclusion of negotiations and the adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism in the United Nations. He further said that we also need to coordinate our action at the forthcoming meeting of the Financial Action Task Force and ensure that designated individuals and entities have no access to property and financial services. We must ensure that Pakistan continues to remain under the Asia Pacific Group and Financial Action Task Force monitoring, he added. . . The Vice President thanked for Italys support which led to Indias eventual membership in the MTCR. Membership of the NSG remains a priority for Indian Government and we look forward to Italys continued support for Indias membership of the NSG, he added. . . The Vice President said that the bilateral trade between India and Italy is at US$8.7 billion (Rs. 57,878 crores), which is below potential. He further said that Indias unprecedented reform initiatives including ease of doing business, flagship programs and roll out of the Goods and Services Tax offers unlimited business opportunities to Italian companies. . . The Vice President said that Climate Change is a very important issue for the two countries and India ratified the Paris Agreement on 3rd October 2016. We have a renewable energy target of 175 Giga Watts by 2022, launched the International Solar Alliance initiative and are working on a road map for introducing all electric vehicles beginning 2030. . . The Vice President said that many Italians take active interest in Indian culture, cuisine, music, dance, Yoga and Ayurveda. We will be happy to collaborate with Italy in enhancing the understanding of traditional systems of Indian medicines, he added. . . The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh today asked the young police officers to brace themselves up for terrorist threats emerging from the cyber world. Addressing the Passing Out Parade of IPS Probationers at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA) in Hyderabad, Shri Rajnath Singh said the world is today grappling with the menace of terrorism and extremism; internet is being used by organisations like the ISIS to spread hate. We are not untouched by this menace, he added. . . The Union Home Minister, however, expressed satisfaction, saying our Intelligence and Security Agencies have been successful in countering these sinister designs. Central Government is all committed to strengthen the security structure of the country. He said we know that State Police Forces need Central Government help to tackle the present problems and all that might arise in future. We need to work towards Modernisation of Police Forces. Keeping this in mind our Government last month approved a Rs.25,000 crores package for Police Modernization, he added. . . Shri Rajnath Singh said we will have to find a permanent solution for problems like terrorism and extremism. We are working towards that direction. In next five years we have to eliminate extremism, terrorism and communalism from the nation, he added. . . Paying rich tributes to Sardar Patel, Shri Rajnath Singh said the National Police Academy (NPA) reminds us of Sardar Patel's love for the country and his commitment and dedication towards nation building. The foundation of national integration that Sardar Patel laid after Independence will continue to inspire us. Political Map of today's India is the result of Sardar Patel's effort. Sardar Patel was the architect of All-India Services which was meant to ensure integrity and unity of India; Indian Police Service is an integral part of it. All India Services not only provided a unified administrative structure but also helped in keeping the unity and integrity of India intact. Tomorrow is Sardar Patel's Birth Anniversary. Let us bow to the leader who was the main force behind unified India, he added. . . Encouraging the young Police Officers, the Union Home Minister said the police should not be a brute force but it should be a civilised force. As young police officials you all can be role models for youth. And I believe that your hard work will play a major role in this. . . Addressing the newly inducted IPS Officers, Shri Rajnath Singh said that in the initial years of your career, you all will work closely with the public. You will find that people have great expectation from police officials. The police service will provide you an ocean of opportunities. You will have to maintain professional and intellectual integrity while serving for the country. . . Shri Rajnath Singh said that the people will come to you not for sympathy but empathy. You should maintain good conduct and behaviour during your service. To meet these expectations will be a challenge as well as a responsibility and opportunity too. Positive attitude and decisiveness will also play an important role in your working. While taking a decision, officials should always ask this question whether it is in favour of justice or not. I have seen that the officials possessing these qualities are respected by politicians and all sections of society. Honesty and Integrity should be most important for all of you. Never compromise with it. Hard work, positive attitude, honesty and justice along with right decision making are the four attributes that I want to dedicate to you. These qualities help you in building your reputation and this is your biggest capital, he added. . . The Union Home Minister said India is ambitious but its aspirations have a strong cultural base. Shri Rajnath Singh said we all are contributing in making of the New India and you all have to be very important part of it. . . Shri Rajnath Singh also announced the grant of Rs.5 Crore for Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy Welfare Fund from the Home Ministry Welfare Fund. On the occasion, the Union Home Minister inaugurated the new Library Complex of the NPA and took salute of an immaculately turned out Parade. He also presented trophies and medals. . . Congratulating the medal winners, Shri Rajnath Singh said the biggest medal which you all can win will be the appreciation of your colleagues and the public. . . 136 Officer Trainees including five each from Bhutan and Nepal and four from Maldives completed 45 weeks of basic training at the NPA. The batch comprised of 22 Women Officers. Director, SVPNPA, Ms. D. R. Doley Barman, Executive Director, Nepal Police Academy, Additional Inspector General of Police Shri Devendra Subedi, Col. Rinzin Dorji of Royal Bhutan Police and Shri Ali Sujau, ACP of Maldivian Police Force and Senior and Retired Police Officers were present. . . Unidentified kidnappers bundled the deputy governor of Afghanistans northwestern province of Kunar into a car in the Pakistani city of Peshawar and took him away, police sources said on Sunday. Bahrain's foreign minister on Monday suggested suspending Qatar's Gulf Cooperation Council membership until it accepts the demands of its Arab adversaries in the region's worst crisis in years. "The correct step to preserve the GCC would be to freeze Qatar's membership until it sees reason and accepts the demands of our countries. If not, we will be fine with it leaving the GCC," Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said on Twitter. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt on June 5 severed ties with Qatar over accusations of supporting extremism and being too close to Shiite rival Iran, charges Doha has denied. Founded in 1981, the GCC is a political and economic union that includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as Oman and Kuwait. Experts have warned that the nearly five-month-long diplomatic crisis could cause the six-nation bloc's demise. Saudi Arabia and its allies in June issued Qatar with a list of demands including shutting down Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera, curbing relations with Iran and closing a Turkish military base in the emirate. "Bahrain will not attend a summit with Qatar, which becomes closer to Iran each day and brings foreign forces (to its soil), dangerous steps for the security of GCC countries," Sheikh Khalid said. GCC members are supposed to meet before the end of the year, but the crisis could see the bloc's annual meeting postponed or cancelled. After severing ties with Doha, Riyadh and its allies closed land and maritime borders, suspended air links and expelled Qatari citizens. In an interview airing yesterday, Qatar's emir accused Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies of seeking to topple his government. "They want a regime change. It's... so obvious," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani told CBS's 60 Minutes. "History as well tells us, teaches us they tried to do that before, in 1996 after my father became the emir. So, and they made it also so obvious in the last couple of weeks. Amid reports swirling that Catalonias president, Carles Puigdemont, was either set to call new elections to the Catalan parliament or declare full independence from Spain, he abruptly cancelled a scheduled press conference on October 26. When he did speak, he did not call elections and said it was up to Catalonias parliament to decide how to act. A former employee is suing the social media giant for allegedly misclassifying employees to exempt them from overtime pay. According to a report in arstechnica.com on Monday, Susie Bigger, a former client solutions manager at Facebook's office in Chicago, has alleged that she and other employees are illegally classified as managers as part of "defendant's scheme to deprive them of overtime compensation". The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed in a US court, is seekingAback pay, damages, interest and attorneys fees for an untold number of employees. "This lawsuit is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously," Facebook told Ars Technica. The lawsuit described a "systematic, companywide wrongful classification" system for Client Solutions Managers, Customer Solutions Managers, Customer Account Managers, "or other similarly titled positions". "CSMs do not perform duties related to the management or general business operations of Facebook. Rather, CSMs' duties constitute the principal production activity of Facebook as a social media and marketing platform," the lawsuit alleged. Facebook is set to announce its third-quarter results this week. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese President Xi Jinping, front row center, leads other cadres to raise their hands to show approval of work reports during the closing ceremony for the 19th Party Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. (Photo: AP|PTI) The Spanish central government has temporarily suspended Catalan autonomy using Article 155. This unprecedented and controversial measure enables the Spanish government to take over running of the region and to trigger regional elections to the Catalan parliament. The outcome of such elections may likely be a balance of power between separatist and anti-separatist forces very similar to the current one. This move, therefore, is little more than a way of buying time it is by no means a way out of the Catalan stalemate. Any long-term solution requires a deep understanding of the issues at stake, but the each day the situation is more puzzling to observers at home and around the world. Spaniards living abroad, like me, are often asked by friends and colleagues: whats going on in Catalonia? Is the imposition of Article 155 a dictatorial move? Was independence declared? Why is there no dialogue? Who started it? And, the most feared of all these questions: what do you think is going to happen? Khaliluddin Ismail returned home on Sunday after five months of war in the southern Philippines to find his house ransacked. But hes still smiling. Military songs rang out across downtown Yangon on Sunday as tens of thousands rallied in defence of Myanmar's army, an institution accused by the global community of driving Rohingya Muslims from the country. The average operating capacity of domestic edible oil refineries has increased by 15 per cent in the past two months following an increase in the import duty on crude and refined oil. 68 Indian fishermen, released yesterday by Pakistan as a goodwill gesture, returned to India through Attari border in Amritsar on Monday. The fishermen, held for allegedly violating Pakistan territorial waters, were lodged in Karachi's Landhi jail. A released fisherman Rafiq said he spent 10 years in the Pakistan jail and even though "there were not any difficulties and they were provided food at times, it was a prison in the end". "The government should stop doing this. We are poor and commute there for our livelihood as we have no other source of income. I will continue the fishing business but will never step on this side," he said. Another fisherman namely Shoaib revealed that there are still nearly 325 fishermen lodged in the Pakistan prison. "All our belongings, including our boat, mobile, wallets were seized and never returned. I will resume my work on Mumbai shore but not here. There are still 316-325 fishermen locked up in the Landhi Jail in Karachi," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vipin Sharma, the Amritsar district president of Hindu Surakasha Sena, was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Bharat Nagar area of the city on Monday. Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Jagmohan Singh said they are trying to identify the culprits from the CCTV footage. "Two people fired several bullets at him. We are trying to extract the photos of the criminals from the CCTV footage," DCP said. "We cannot specify anything for now. We have constituted a SIT(Special Investigative Team) for investigation. They are raiding different locations in search of clues," DCP added. Further details are awaited. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A large number of Baloch community members in the UK gathered outside the Cumberland Hotel in Marble Arch London on Sunday to protest against the China Pak Hill real estate developer's official launch. Baloch protesters carried placards and flags of Balochistan during their three-hour long protest, they chanted slogans against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and human rights violations in Balochistan. Members of Afghan community and other well wishers of Baloch people also joined the protest to express their support for the Baloch struggle. The protesters said Pakistan was involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Balochistan and China's support to Pakistan is encouraging it to continue its brutalities with impunity. They said Pakistani forces are involved in enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, rape and other atrocities in Gwadar district and rest of Balochistan. According to China Paki Hills webpage, "The China Pak Hills is a purpose-built $500 Million development, scheduled to be developed over three phases. China Pak Hills would be the next benchmark property in Gwadar catering to the needs of the city of tomorrow." The Baloch people in Balochistan and the Baloch diaspora strongly oppose these claims and say that Pakistan has destroyed Baloch villages near Gwadar and other surrounding regions to pave the way for CPEC. "The local people are being forcibly expelled from their ancestral lands because the Pakistan army and Pakistan real estate's mafia such as China Pak Hills want to sell the Baloch land to foreigners," said the Baloch Community UK protesters. The Baloch protesters have appealed to international investors not to buy lands in Gwadar because the Baloch people will not allow 'the auction' of their ancestral properties. They said the China-Pakistan real estate mafia is misleading international investors into believing that Gwadar is safe for development but that is not the reality. The Baloch Community members vowed to continue their protests against China Pak Hills and other real estates mafia groups that are selling Baloch land abroad and in Balochistan. The protester also urged Chinese government and people of China to stop becoming Pakistan's partner in crime in Balochistan. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An accountability court has issued bailable arrest warrants against Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar after he failed to appear for a hearing in connection with a corruption reference filed by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). The court also rejected an application seeking Dar's exemption from appearance in today's hearing, the Dawn reported. The hearing was adjourned until November 2. According to the Dawn, proceedings in the trial court could not advance due to Dar's absence, despite prosecution witness Abdul Rehman Gondal, the branch manager of a private bank in the parliament, being present with documents related to the minister's bank accounts. Dar's counsel Khawaja Haris had said in the application that Dar fell ill in Jeddah and subsequently had to go to London for medical treatment after attending the 16th Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference in Dushanbe. He requested the court to exempt Dar from personal appearance in the hearing as he had to undergo a medical check-up in London today. However, the NAB prosecution opposed the application and the court thereafter issued arrest warrants against the minister and asked him to appear on November 2. Last week, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had rejected Dar's second petition challenging his indictment by an accountability court in a corruption case pertaining to the ownership of assets beyond his known sources of income. The NAB had filed a reference against Dar and three separate references against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his children, earlier this month after the Supreme Court, while disqualifying Sharif, had asked the bureau to file the same on the basis of the material collected and referred to by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UK government's Department for International Trade (DIT) will curate a month-long series of technology-focused business activities in the UK and India. The India-UK 'Future TECH' Month DIT India is taking more than 60 Indian companies in ten sectors on a tour of business hubs in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leicester, Coventry and London with the objective of inspiring new partnerships, strengthening tech collaboration and landing business deals. The centre piece of the activity will be an India Zone at Innovate 2017 in Birmingham on 8-9th November. 'Future TECH' Month will showcase the very best UK and innovation to a high-quality Indian audience, including buyers, investors, and central and state-level Government officials, spanning sectors as diverse as data analytics, Internet of Things, ICT services, advanced manufacturing, electric vehicles, automotive, healthcare, life sciences, food and drink and creative industries. British High Commissioner to India, Sir Dominic Asquith, said: "November marks one year since British Prime Minister Theresa May led her first overseas trade mission to India, and two years since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's landmark UK visit. On both occasions, India and the UK demonstrated their 'unbeatable combination', agreeing a range of closer partnerships covering prosperity, science, innovation and . These are of course built in PM Modi's words on a 'living bridge' of talent, people, ideas and capital." "The time is right to redouble our commitment to matching India's demands with the UK's very best offer, encouraging UK companies to look to India and to encourage Indian companies to grow their businesses in the UK. We are working with a range of partners in the Government of India to lead this new form of partnership this November. We are already partners in core PM Modi priorities around 'Make in India', 'Digital India', 'Invest India', and we acknowledge the demand for British technology and innovation to meet India's ambitions as the world's fastest growing G7 economy. I am confident this India-UK Future TECH month will inspire British businesses to 'Think India' and will expose India's most ambitious businesses to the breadth and depth of the UK's tech expertise." At Innovate UK, DIT is bringing together partners from the Indian Government, Invest India, the Indian High Commission in the UK, and the Indian Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, along with Indian State Governments of Karnataka and Kerala. The focal theme of the programme is - 'India's Innovation and Technology Needs - The UK's offer'. A range of informative sessions will showcase the market opportunities in India, launch the Birmingham element of Invest India's 'Access India' programme, and provide crucial information on professional services and ease of doing business in India. This will be supported by thought-leadership sessions on India's 'trillion dollar' digital opportunity and a panel discussion on data analytics, internet of things and big data. Amitabh Kant, CEO Niti Ayog, is in the UK this month. He said, India's technology sector is set to triple in the next ten years. Our Prime Minister has listed "Digital India" among his top priorities. We share longstanding deep commercial partnerships with the UK, which we are keen to build on even further. Together India and the UK have the potential to transform many areas including financial technology, cyber security, skill development and R&D. "There is a digital revolution in India at the moment and the country is inching towards an even more cost-effective digital economy. We have one of the largest digital skilled work forces globally, and are keen to partner with the UK on domestic digital skill development and technology exchange. I see the UK's potential as limitless; India is already the 4th largest investor in the UK with a staggering 31% of investments in the technology and telecom sector. The initiative of bringing Indian and UK businesses face to face in the UK will I am sure develop strong future technology partnerships and business deals." Innovate UK Chief Executive Dr. Ruth McKernan said", "Innovate 2017 is an excellent platform to showcase the existing strong UK-India innovation links and foster further important business collaborations for the benefit of both our economies. I look forward to welcoming the Indian delegation to our event in Birmingham and hope it will generate some significant business deals and partnerships." As a part of Future TECH Month, Indian buyers and investors will visit the creative hub at MediaCity in Manchester, the VRTGO augmented and virtual reality conference in Gateshead, the Warwick Manufacturing site and of course Innovate 2017. These visits will be supplemented by business-focused 'meet the buyer' events in the Midlands and Manchester. DIT will facilitate one-to-one meetings with high-growth, innovative, UK exporters to match them with Indian buyers in who want the very best UK products in life sciences, food and drink, automotive, creative and tech services. In India, DIT is bringing innovative UK healthcare diabetes companies to the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India 45th Annual Conference in Bhubaneswar Nov 3-5 and then taking them to meet Indian companies in Chennai. DIT is also bringing an Oncology trade mission to the Indian Cancer Congress in Bengaluru, November 9-12, the same mission will participate in the India UK Healthcare Forum in Mumbai on November 13. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government will soon launch an intensive demand generation campaign to create awareness among people on anaemia, particularly the adolescents. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is also planning to strengthen its adolescent health programme - the Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram (RKSK) to make it promotion and prevention-centric and monitorable. Speaking on the sidelines of the second day of the 11th World Congress on Adolescent Health being organized by the International Association for Adolescent Health (IAAH), Dr. Ajay Khera, Deputy Commissioner and in-charge, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said, "It has been seen that not much has improved under the anaemia control strategy and anaemia continued to be a serious issue among adolescents." The Ministry will now monitor its Weekly Iron Folic Supplementation (WIFS) programme on IT-platforms to see how successful it was. Importantly, the Ministry will soon launch a big demand generation programme to help create awareness among the people about anaemia, which not only adversely impacts their physical growth but their cognitive growth as well. "Also, the focus of the Intensified School Health Activity (ISHA) under the RKSK programme will now be on prevention and promotion rather than clinical treatment. These decisions were taken during a review meeting on RKSK, where it was decided that schools should be made the platforms for implementing adolescent health programmes since 60 percent of the adolescents in the country were now in schools and the percentage was increasing," Dr. Khera said. The RKSK is implemented at the facility, school and community level. At the facility level, Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics (AFHCs), Resource Centres at the district levels and Adolescent Health Counselors at the Block level are the core components. At the school level, Intensified School Health Programme (ISHA), WIFS, health screening and menstrual hygiene are focused while Peer Education Programme, Adolescent Health Days, Adolescent Friendly Clubs and WIFS and MHS (for out of school beneficiaries) are being implemented. At present, the students are screened in schools and then referred to health facilities under the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK) for early detection of diseases, particularly non-communicable diseases. A Saathiya Toolkit under the Community Peer education programme was also launched at the World Congress on Friday. The Toolkit - available in physical and electronic versions - focuses on six broad themes of the RKSK such as NCDs, SRH, injuries and violence, nutrition, substance abuse and mental health. The toolkit can be downloaded from the website and customised by the states to suit their specific requirements. ''We will make the programme non-judgmental,'' Dr. Khera added. Addressing those gathered at the conference, Dr. Sunil Mehra, Executive Director, MAMTA Health Institute for Mother and Child said, "We need to intervene early and continue with age-specific programming till adolescents turn into young adults." At the World Congress, Dr. Mehra was awarded the IAAH Founder's Award by the International Association of Adolescent Health for outstanding lifetime achievement in advancing the health of adolescents. The findings of a survey shared by The Population Council at the IAAH 11th World Congress on Adolescent Health called 'Understanding the Lives of Adolescents and Young Adults (UDAYA), on young adolescents (10-14 years) in Uttar Pradesh (1,961 boys and girls) and Bihar (1,776 boys and girls) suggests that only 1 percent of boys and girls knew about RKSK. Only one-third of the girls knew about sanitary napkins programme though only 10 percent received benefits. Only 22-24 percent of boys and girls received health services/information at school but almost all knew about Anganwadi workers and 56-66 percent knew about ASHA. Only 4-7 percent of boys and girls received health services provided by ASHAs and anganwadis. The survey further showed that close to 2.4 million adolescents in these two states inflicted self-harm, 1.9 million showed symptoms of depression and 0.4 million had even considered suicide, and many had a worrying mental health condition. Most girls reported using pieces of cloth during menstruation, while half of those who did not use sanitary napkins could not afford one, and a quarter was not aware of sanitary napkins. A significant minority reported sexual and reproductive health problems with more boys than girls reporting a problem - one in 6 vs one in 10. Boys are three times more likely compared to girls to seek treatment with the private facility being the preferred choice for seeking treatment. The burden of nutrition is heavy in these two states with about 6.6 and 12.0 million very young boys and girls being anaemic and 1.2 million and 2.8 million being severely anaemic respectively in these two states. The injury was reported by a large number of early adolescents - one-third boys and one-fifth girls. Half of the boys and slightly less proportion of girls were beaten by their parents. Similar proportion was involved in physical fight with another boy/girl. Substance use was high among boys than girls. "Young people and adolescents are the future of the society, but also as much the present. Adolescents who are healthy are better equipped to contribute to the society. We need more investments in adolescent health - from action, to commitment, which lead to transformation," said, Dakshitha Wickremarathne, Youth Advocate from Sri Lanka in his keynote address at the plenary session. The IAAH 11th World Congress on Adolescent Health's second day of the conference witnessed several sessions on NCDs, Mental Health, Migration, Interactive Media, and more. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Highlighting the challenges faced by the world today, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday assured to eradicate extremism, terrorism, communalism from the nation in next five-year. Rajnath, while addressing the officials at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Police Academy here, said the world today is facing many challenges pertaining to security, which includes terrorism, cyber terrorism, radicalisation. "Terror outfits like ISIS and Al Qaeda are killing innocents across the world; threats of the use of nuclear weapons are there," he said, " adding, "We'll have to find a permanent solution for terrorism and militancy and we have started working in that direction. Even India is not unaffected with these changes. The training given to the terrorist in the neighbouring country has become a major challenge for the nation," Rajnath said. "In next five years we have to eradicate extremism, terrorism and communalism from the nation," he further said. He even referred about the growing threat of cyber attacks and fake news, which are misleading the people. Rajnath also announced the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) will provide an amount of Rs 5 Crore to Academy's welfare society. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Italy in a joint statement on Monday confirmed their strong commitment to the full implementation of the Paris Agreement adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni pledged to work together in the run up to and at CoP23, and beyond, on the next steps towards substantial and balanced progress on all items of the Paris work programme. The two leaders acknowledged the enhanced technical cooperation in the renewable energy sector and welcomed the MoU between the Ministry for the Environment of Italy and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of India. They recognised the ongoing progress in both the countries in replacing traditional energy sources with green ones, as a contribution to the global engagement against climate change. They further noted with appreciation the second Mission Innovation (MI) International Workshop on Smart Grids Innovation Challenge that will be held in India from November 16 to 19. MI is a global initiative of 22 countries and the European Union to dramatically accelerate global clean energy innovation. Agreeing that the migratory phenomenon is global in nature and requires a global response, both leaders noted the ongoing discussions within the UN Framework and their respective positions. They further acknowledged the valuable contribution of both the countries to peace and development in Africa, including through their participation in UN Peacekeeping Missions. Italy looked forward to India's participation as an observer at the forthcoming EU-African Union Summit as well. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Italy in a joint statement on Monday reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen global non-proliferation efforts. Italy congratulated India on its admission to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). Italy also welcomed India's subscription to the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (HCoC) and supported India's intensified engagement with Wassenaar Arrangement, the Australia Group, and the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) which strengthens global non-proliferation efforts. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart expressed their satisfaction with the outcomes of the EU-India Summit held in New Delhi on October 6 this year. Prime Minister Gentiloni, who arrived yesterday on a two-day visit to India, mentioned that Italy strongly supports a strengthened strategic partnership between India and the European Union (EU). He emphasized that the EU and India share many common interests and objectives and can work together in addressing global challenges and preserving the rules-based system of international governance. The two leaders expressed their shared commitment for strengthening the Economic Partnership between India and the EU and noted the on-going efforts of both sides to re-engage actively towards an early resumption of negotiations for a comprehensive and mutually beneficial India-EU Broad Based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA). The two sides also agreed to work bilaterally and with partners in the framework of the United Nations, the G20 and other multilateral fora to address emerging challenges to international security, global economic stability and sustainable development. Both sides reaffirmed their support to the new United Nations reform agenda on the three reform tracks of peace and security, development and management reform. The two leaders also called for reforming the bodies and organs of the UN system, including the comprehensive reform of the UN Security Council as well as the revitalisation of the work of the General Assembly, better aligning the work of its committees with the 2030 Agenda. They reiterated their commitment to improve the transparency and integrity of the public and private sector through practical international cooperation and technical assistance, and agreed to continue to fully implement the G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan of 2017-18. Prime Minister Gentiloni called for greater experience sharing between India and Italy in the area of fighting corruption. The two Prime Ministers underlined the historical importance of this visit to New Delhi, which not only sets a new momentum in the bilateral ties, but also seeks to revitalise on-going engagements between the two countries. The leaders emphasised the importance of regular high- level contacts to enhance India-Italy co-operation and mutual understanding. Besides, the two leaders also agreed on the need for a closer partnership between India and Italy based on shared principles and values of democracy, freedom, rule of law and respect for human rights and territorial integrity of States. They expressed their shared desire to work together to support a rules-based international system that upholds agreed international norms, global peace and stability, and encourages inclusive growth and sustainable development in all parts of the inter-connected . Both leaders welcomed the growing India-Italy convergence on contemporary global issues and agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in multilateral forums. Recalling the 2005 Memorandum of Understanding on Political Cooperation between the foreign ministries of the two countries, the two sides reaffirmed their intention of holding regular Foreign Minister Consultations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Italy, in a joint statement on Monday, agreed to work together on migration and mobility between the two countries. Moreover, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni mentioned the presence of the 170,000 strong Indian diaspora who have made Italy their second home and acknowledged their contribution to the Italian economy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated the measures taken by the Italian government to enable the Indian diaspora to integrate with the Italian society. The two leaders underlined the importance of valuing the archaeological and cultural heritage as well. They welcomed the exchange of best practices and scientific techniques for the conservation of the architectural and archaeological heritage; and sharing of information on managing cultural heritage tourism attractions. The two Prime Ministers also welcomed the possibility of exploring "twinning" arrangements between the UNESCO Heritage Sites in the two countries for exchanging information on conservation efforts. The Italian side welcomed India's interest to participate in the 2019 Biennale di Venezia, the world's most prestigious contemporary art exhibition and agreed to extend necessary support in this regard. PM Gentiloni congratulated PM Modi for his initiative of the International Day of Yoga, which is celebrated worldwide on 21st June every year. The Italian leader also conveyed that Italy will explore possibilities of introducing yoga practice in the physical education curriculum of Italian schools and to obtain certification for imparting yoga education by qualified yoga institutions in India. They welcomed the signature of the New Executive Program of Cultural Cooperation (EPCC), in the framework of the bilateral Cultural Agreement. The new EPCC will strengthen the ongoing cooperation between the two countries in the areas of theatre, music, dance, festivals, publishing, cinema, youth exchanges, and through grant of scholarship programs. The two leaders desired to enhance cooperation between the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for peaceful use of outer space and with particular reference to earth observation and space exploration. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Monday appreciated India's bold economic reforms and flagship initiatives. Prime Minister Gentiloni highlighted Italy's commitment to the 'Make-in-India' initiative through the activities of the 628 Italian companies which have invested over USD 2.4 billion and provide employment to over 23,000 people in India. Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Gentiloni pledged to further encourage the development of industrial co-operation between the two Countries. The two leaders welcomed the signing of a MoU between the Italian Trade Agency (ICE) and Invest India to assist bilateral efforts aimed at enhancing mutual investment activities. Prime Minister Modi called upon the Italian industry to explore India's untapped business opportunities in the infrastructure, food processing, renewable energy, and high-tech manufacturing sectors. Prime Minister Gentiloni also called upon the Indian industry to identify business opportunities, including in Italy's textile, automotive, leather, machinery and chemical sectors. Both took note of the progress made by the 19th session of the Indo-Italian 'Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation' (JCEC) held at the ministerial-level. They agreed to convene the next session of the JCEC in India in 2018. The two Prime Ministers also noted the potential for enhancing bilateral defence cooperation and encouraged structured dialogue through the Joint Defence Committee. They announced the organization of an 'Indo-Italian High Level Forum on Design. The High-level forum will endeavour to bring together prominent experts from the areas mutually identified, with the task of defining a program of activity for the Forum (exhibitions, workshops, contacts between young designers etc.) In the area of Smart Cities, both sides expressed their intent to identify specific areas for cooperation. The Indian side welcomed the Italian initiative to share their experience in the area of urban rehabilitation, advanced technology solutions in the area of energy management (from smart grids to electric mobility networks), affordable housing and waste management. The leaders also recognized the immense possibilities for collaboration in the food processing sector in India. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Monday welcomed the African nations at the inaugural ceremony of India Africa Knowledge Exchange Mission and stressed on working towards further enhancing co-operation in fields of energy, skill development with all the African countries. The exchange mission is organized by Ministry of Skills Development and Entrepreneurship and World Bank. "We are working towards further enhancing co-operation in fields of energy, skill development with all African countries. As Prime Minister keeps reiterating- this century belongs to India and Africa, future is ours to build," Pradhan said at the inaugural ceremony of the five-day programme. While asserting that both the countries have potential of solving the problem of global skilled manpower shortage Pradhan said, "Both India and Africa have huge demographic advantage with two-third of our population below the age of 35," said. In the backdrop of India-Africa Hydrocarbon Conference held in January 2016, Pradhan enumerated countries like Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon as some of the important countries for bilateral hydrocarbon trade, and promised India's efforts towards increasing energy and gas sourcing from Africa even further. At the event, Pradhan also announced to offer technical and professional courses to African students through India's premiere institutions under the scholarship programme that was launched in the 2o16 India-Africa Hydrocarbon Conference. "I believe it is important to collaborate in building our collective capabilities in these areas," Pradhan said, and added that the exchange would act as "a great leap for our future relations." Speaking on ties with the African countries, Pradhan mentioned Nigeria to be one of the top crude suppliers to India, and the top African trading partner for India. Pradhan further informed that India is among the largest foreign investors in Ghana's economy. Welcoming the Ethiopian delegate, Pradhan said India is the source of Ethiopia's second largest FDI with investment of five billion. At the event, the Minister also launched the India -Rwanda Innovation group programme "to expand ties in science, technology and innovation." "The programme is proposed to be implemented in the east African community in seven countries and will then be scaled up to seven other economic zones across Africa," Pradhan informed. Welcoming the Ethiopian delegate, Pradhan said, "Tanzania's 2nd largest investor. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju on Monday informed that the one, who kept the threatening note in Jet Airways flight 9W 339, a Boeing 737-900, has been identified and put on 'No-Fly' list. "I am informed that person responsible for Jet flt 339 (Mum-Del) incident causing landing at Ahmedabad, has been identified. I have advised the airlines to put him on 'No-Fly' list immediately in addition to other statutory criminal action," the aviation minister said. As per information, man named Salla Birju has confessed that he had kept the 'threatening note' to destabilise operations in the Jet Airways flight. Earlier in the day, Jet Airways flight 9W 339 BOM-DEL was diverted to Ahmedabad as a pilot in command was informed by the crew that a note was found in toilet stating, "9W 339 is covered by hijackers and a/c should not land and flown straight to PoK. 12 ppl on board. If you put landing you can hear the noise of people dying. Don't take it as a joke. Cargo area contains explosive bombs and will blast if you land in DEL. Allah is great." Soon after receiving the message, the Bomb Threat Action Committee (BTAC) assembled at the Ahmedabad airport and started the investigation process. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The will on Monday continue the hearing on Kerala 'love jihad' case. Earlier, the Kerala government had told the Apex Court that the state police is effectively investigating the alleged 'love jihad' case of the state and hence, there is no need for the Investigation Agency (NIA) to probe it. In an affidavit, the state government informed the Apex Court that the state police is competent enough to investigate such crimes. Recently, while hearing a matter, the Kerala High Court observed- "all inter-religious marriages cannot be termed love jihad". Last month, a group of people had submitted a petition to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and demanded a probe into the alleged unlawful incarceration of Hadiya, the 24-year-old Vaikom native, who had converted to Islam after marriage. Four months ago, the Kerala High Court had sent Hadiya with her parents K.M. Asokan and Ponnamma after annulling her marriage with Shafin Jahan. The case is under consideration of the Apex Court now, which had ordered the NIA investigation into it. With a growing step taken everyday towards digitalization and a surge in the sales of Smartphones and IOS, Indian youngsters are now giving a chance to the dating apps to make them fall in love. But the question to be raised is are youngsters falling in love or falling a prey to cyber criminals? Kaspersky Lab and research firm B2B International recently conducted a survey and found that as many as one-in- three people are dating online.People turn to online dating for a variety of reasons- 48% do it for fun, while some look for more meaningful relationships and one-in- ten are simply looking for sex (13%). People share information with others too easily when they are dating online, with a quarter (25%) admitting they share their full name publicly on their dating profile. One-in-ten have shared their home address, and the same number have shared naked photos of themselves this way, exposing them to risk. But how carefully do these apps handle such data? Kaspersky Lab decided to put them through their security paces. Kaspersky Lab experts studied the most popular mobile online dating apps (Tinder, Bumble, OkCupid, Badoo, Mamba, Zoosk, Happn, WeChat, Paktor), and identified the main threats for users. We informed the developers in advance about all the vulnerabilities detected, and by the time this text was released some had already been fixed, and others were slated for correction in the near future. However, not every developer promised to patch all of the flaws. Threat 1. Who you are? Our researchers discovered that four of the nine apps they investigated allow potential criminals to figure out who's hiding behind a nickname based on data provided by users themselves. For example, Tinder, Happn, and Bumble let anyone see a user's specified place of work or study. Using this information, it's possible to find their social media accounts and discover their real names. Happn, in particular, uses Facebook accounts for data exchange with the server. With minimal effort, anyone can find out the names and surnames of Happn users and other info from their Facebook profiles. Threat 2. Where are you? If someone wants to know your whereabouts, six of the nine apps will lend a hand. Only OkCupid, Bumble, and Badoo keep user location data under lock and key. All of the other apps indicate the distance between you and the person you're interested in. By moving around and logging data about the distance between the two of you, it's easy to determine the exact location of the "prey." Threat 3. Unprotected data transfer Most apps transfer data to the server over an SSL-encrypted channel, but there are exceptions. As our researchers found out, one of the most insecure apps in this respect is Mamba. The analytics module used in the Android version does not encrypt data about the device (model, serial number, etc.), and the iOS version connects to the server over HTTP and transfers all data unencrypted (and thus unprotected), messages included. Such data is not only viewable, but also modifiable. For example, it's possible for a third party to change "How's it going?" into a request for money. Threat 4. Man-in-the-middle (MITM) attack Almost all online dating app servers use the HTTPS protocol, which means that, by checking certificate authenticity, one can shield against MITM attacks, in which the victim's traffic passes through a rogue server on its way to the bona fide one. The researchers installed a fake certificate to find out if the apps would check its authenticity; if they didn't, they were in effect facilitating spying on other people's traffic. It turned out that most apps (five out of nine) are vulnerable to MITM attacks because they do not verify the authenticity of certificates. Threat 5. Superuser rights Regardless of the exact kind of data the app stores on the device, such data can be accessed with superuser rights. This concerns only Android-based devices; malware able to gain root access in iOS is a rarity. The result of the analysis is less than encouraging: Eight of the nine applications for Android are ready to provide too much information to cybercriminals with superuser access rights. As such, the researchers were able to get authorization tokens for social media from almost all of the apps in question. The credentials were encrypted, but the decryption key was easily extractable from the app itself.Tinder, Bumble, OkCupid, Badoo, Happn, and Paktor all store messaging history and photos of users together with their tokens. Thus, the holder of superuser access privileges can easily access confidential information. The study showed that many dating apps do not handle users' sensitive data with sufficient care. That's no reason not to use such services - you simply need to understand the issues and, where possible, minimize the risks. Do's: Using a VPN; Installing security solutions on all of your devices; Sharing information with strangers only on a need-to-know basis. Don'ts: Adding your social media accounts to your public profile in a dating app; giving your real name, surname, place of work; Disclosing your e-mail address, be it your personal or work e-mail; Using dating sites on unprotected Wi-Fi networks. Kaspersky Lab is a global cybersecurity company celebrating its 20 year anniversary in 2017. Kaspersky Lab's deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky Lab technologies and we help 270,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Jet Airways flight 9W 339, a Boeing 737-900 from Mumbai to New Delhi, was diverted to Ahmedabad in Gujarat on Monday due to the detection of an onboard security threat. The aircraft landed without incident at Ahmedabad at 4.25 a.m. and was parked at a remote bay, where all 115 guests and seven crew members were safely deplaned. The flight departed at 0255 hours from Mumbai. "Jet Airways is extending full cooperation to the security agencies who are investigating the matter and is not in a position to comment further at this stagem. The airline regretted the inconvenience caused to its guests and is making efforts to bring them to Delhi at the earliest," Jet Airways spokesperson said. Jet Airways flight 9W 339 BOM-DEL diverted to Ahmedabad as pilot in command was informed by the crew that a note was found in toilet stating, "9W 339 is covered by hijackers and a/c should not land and flown straight to POK. 12 ppl on board. If you put landing you can hear the noise of people dying. Don't take it as a joke. Cargo area contains explosive bombs and will blast if you land in DEL. Allah is great." Soon after receiving the message, the Bomb Threat Action Committee (BTAC) assembled at the Ahmedabad airport and started the investigation process. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An FIR has been lodged against Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam on Sunday for addressing a rally of hawkers in Malad without getting prior permission from the police. While addressing a press conference here, Nirupam alleged that he was being targeted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) because of his support to the hawkers. "The BJP registered an FIR against me just because I went to show solidarity with the hawkers," said Nirupam. He added, "The MNS goons are active since past few days, but no FIR has been registered against them". Earlier on Sunday, Nirupam addressed a rally of hawkers who were evicted forcibly by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) in Malad. After the rally, the hawkers allegedly attacked a group of MNS workers, in which one of them was seriously injured. After the horrific Elphinstone foot overbridge stampede that claimed 23 lives, the MNS has taken up strict actions against the hawkers operating outside railway stations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Monday came out in support of senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on the latter for his 'Kashmir' remark. Speaking to ANI, NCP leader Tariq Anwar said, "PM Modi is trying to represent P. Chidambaram's statement in wrong light." Echoing almost the same viewpoint, another senior NCP leader Majeed Memon said that he doesn't think that the statement is an insult to the soldiers. "Well I don't think that it is an insult to brave soldiers, nobody is undermining the efforts of our soldiers who are constantly defending our country. We always salute them, appreciate their efforts," he said. "This is not a dispute between Congress and BJP; Kashmir has been a contiguous issue for more than past half century. This has been going from government to government. Therefore this is nothing new that the local people need freedom. What the local people of Kashmir want is the question and unfortunately that has not been determined for all these years. We are trying to impose upon them," he added. On Sunday afternoon, while addressing a gathering in Bengaluru, Prime Minister Modi lashed out at the Congress; he also said Chidambaram's remarks were reflective of party's view on the army. "Why are Congress leaders lending their voice to those who want 'Azaadi' in Kashmir? This is an insult to our brave soldiers," he said. This reaction from the Prime Minister comes a day after P. Chidamabaram said, when people of Jammu and Kashmir ask for 'azadi' , they seek greater autonomy. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Nokia and Zain Saudi Arabia are deploying Nokia's FastMile to provide a superior customer experience to Zain's customers. The deployment, the first for Nokia FastMile in the Middle East and Africa region, follows a successful trial of the which recorded speeds of 20 Mbps; significant considering the current demands on 4G networks and provided seamless 4G macro network coverage to reach users located in a challenging environment. Zain is deploying the in the western and southern region of the country and also in the cities of Jeddah and Makkah. Interestingly, the FastMile solution will not only be deployed in the typical rural environments but more in suburban areas, where no fibre or copper network is available, using the 1800 MHz band. "We are enthusiastic about the success of the Nokia FastMile trial and the subsequent deployment of the technology, which will help us address the problem of poor in-house coverage and provide a much-improved user experience," said Chief Technology Officer, Zain Saudi Arabia, Eng. Sultan Abdulaziz AlDeghaither. "We look forward to working with Zain to deliver a better broadband experience. FastMile provides operators with an innovative way to re-use existing networks to meet growing broadband requirements. This deployment reinforces Zain's technology leadership, allowing it to use the latest technology solutions to meet the requirements of their customers," said head of Zain Saudi Arabia customer team at Nokia, Ali Al Jitawi. Service providers usually struggle with in-house coverage in a 4G network. Nokia FastMile allows them to improve in-house coverage and provide ultra-fast mobile broadband speeds to end-users by cost-effectively re-using an existing macro network infrastructure. In this case, the increase in throughput will enable Zain to build additional revenue streams by launching new and innovative services, as well as help attract new subscribers. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan army's support to terrorism is not acceptable, Indian Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) on Monday told his Pakistani counterpart. India's response came after Pakistani DGMO made an unscheduled Hot Line request and alleged that Indian security forces had resorted to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control (LoC). Indian DGMO Lt Gen AK Bhatt emphatically stated that retaliatory firing by Indian troops has only been carried out in response to unabated support given by Pak Army to armed terrorists who infiltrate across the border and target Indian Army posts with heavy caliber weapons. It is in response to such actions that Indian Army troops retaliate. Lt Gen Bhatt further clarified that "Indian Army always maintains impeccable standards of professionalism and does not target civilians. On the contrary Pak Army, has employed civilians at the forward posts and accorded permission for permanent locations of civilians in the vicinity of Pak Army posts. These civilians have repeatedly been used for gaining information of our locations and providing guides to the terrorists while crossing the LoC". The Indian DGMO impressed upon the Pak DGMO that "while Indian Army will continue efforts to ensure peace and tranquility on the borders, however, support provided to terrorists while crossing LoC by Pak Army is the prime reason for any collateral damage and is attributed to Pak Army aiding infiltration across the LoC. He reiterated that this support to terrorism by Pak Army is unacceptable and the Indian Army will continue to take all retaliatory measures as well as retain the right to punitively respond to such provocative acts of aggression from Pak side in future too. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Political parties in Manipur have vowed to protect oneness of the state at any cost. A resolution in this regard was passed at a meeting chaired by Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh. The meeting was convened to discuss the issue of territorial integrity of Manipur with reference to peace talks between Government of India and NSCN-IM ( Socialist Council of Nagaland- Isak Muivah). Representatives of various political parties shared their views on the issue and passed the resolution. The resolution said that all the political parties present in the meeting shall pursue the Central Government through their respective Central leaders to preserve and protect the oneness of Manipur at any circumstances. According to the resolution, the chief minister will also constitute a sub-committee comprising 5-7 members from the political parties to draft a comprehensive memorandum to be submitted to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other concerned in the issue. The meeting also decided to depute members of the consultative committee to meet concerned important stakeholders of government and to know the latest developments and facts at the earliest. It has also been decided that if necessary, a delegation of all political parties may visit Delhi to highlight the issue and its importance to prime minister and others. Earlier, Singh also informed the gathering of prime minister's assurance of protecting the territorial integrity of the state. The meeting also welcomed for a peaceful solution to the ongoing peace talk between Government of India and NSCN-IM without affecting the interest of other states. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy on Monday said Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is destroying his own credibility by making vile propaganda statements about demonetisation. "Just by making these void propaganda statements, Mr Rahul Gandhi is destroying his own credibility, what all little is left of it," Swamy said. His comments came hours after Gandhi described demonetisation as an "out and out disaster" and Goods and Services Tax (GST) as a "torpedo" which destroyed the economy. Gandhi had said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet not able to understand the pain of the nation. In the response, Swamy reminded Gandhi of BJP's victory in five assembly elections this year. "How Rahul Gandhi knows what the feeling of the nation is. After demonetisation, the Bharatiya Janata Party formed government in four states- Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur. In UP, the BJP won 75 per cent seats. So where is the question that he know the public's mood," he said. "If the public was angry, how can the Congress come to zero. Practically, it is the Congress which is out of step," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court on Monday asked petitioner and lawyer Suchitra Saxena to compile the guidelines related to security of children in schools and present it before the court. There are several guidelines on this issue which have been prepared by government bodies and institutions. The court will take all such guidelines into account while preparing a single set of guidelines to be issued to all the schools across India. Following the brutal murder of a seven-year-old child in Ryan International School, a plea was earlier filed by two women lawyers in the apex court seeking implementation of existing guidelines to ensure safety and well-being of children in schools across the country. Hearing the plea on September 15, a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices Amitava Roy and A.M. Khanwilkar issued notices and sought response within three weeks from the Union Human Resources Ministry and all the state governments and union territories. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Conference (NC) leader Mustafa Kamal on Monday said that Supreme Court should not wait any longer to hear petitions on Article 35A that preserves the rights of local residents of Jammu and Kashmir. "This special law of the state was implemented in 1927 in Jammu and Kashmir on orders of Maharaja Hari Singh. This enabled the safety of the rights of the local residents. It is because of this that neither anyone from outside the state was able to buy any property or get employment in the state. This decision was taken very thoughtfully so the Supreme Court should not wait any longer," Kamal told ANI. Kamal also said that there was no problem with the law until recently, but now "opportunist" people were trying to play politics over the issue. "Since last 65-70 years there have been no problem with this law, but these people are finding the problem in it today. This, firstly, involves a doubt that these opportunist people are trying to play politics with this law. " Kamal also said that the people of Kashmir will come on roads if there is any meddling with Article 35A. "Every person who loves Jammu and Kashmir will come on roads if there is any meddling with the law. A strong agitation will be carried out. Every citizen says if they want to change the state's status it will happen over their bodies." The Supreme Court on Monday will hear a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35A. Article 35A of the Indian Constitution is an article that empowers the Jammu and Kashmir state's legislature to define "permanent residents" of the state and provide special rights and privileges to those permanent residents. Article 35A was added to the Constitution by a Presidential Order in 1954 and accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of the Jammu and Kashmir. It also empowers the state's legislature to frame any law without attracting a challenge on grounds of violating the Right to Equality of people from other states or any other right under the Indian Constitution. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A study was conducted to outline the science behind the largest concentration of indigenous pre-Columbian rock art in the Caribbean. The research was led by academics from the University of Leicester and the British Museum working with colleagues from the British Geological Survey and Cambridge University. Exploration and surveys of around 70 cave systems -- part of an interdisciplinary study of past human activity on Puerto Rico's Mona Island -- revealed that Mona's caves include the greatest diversity of preserved indigenous iconography in the Caribbean, with thousands of motifs recorded in dark zone chambers far from cave entrances. Written by a collective of academics, including Dr Alice Samson (University of Leicester) and Dr Jago Cooper (British Museum), the paper is the result of three-years of research from 2013 to 2016, on the currently uninhabited and remote Mona Island in the Caribbean. The paper presented the results of National Geographic funded fieldwork by an Anglo-Puerto Rican team, who uncovered extensive and undocumented rock art deep inside the islands labyrinthine cave systems. The paper presented the first results of the dating of the art, as well as insights into the artistic choices made about location, technique, and paint recipes of the time. Dr Samson, co-author of the paper explained, "Scientific analyses from the team have provided the first dates for rock art in the Caribbean - illustrating that these images are pre-Columbian made by artists exploring and experimenting deep underground. "The conservation-minded approach we used squeezed every bit of information we could out of the discovery using multiple methods that are relevant to the studies of vulnerable rock art worldwide," she added. Dr Cooper also noted, "For the millions of indigenous peoples living in the Caribbean before European arrival, caves represented portals into a spiritual realm, and therefore these new discoveries of the artists at work within them captures, the essence of their belief systems and the building blocks of their cultural identity." The team uncovered multiple rock art sites inside the caves with iconography consisting of human, animal, and meandering designs. Some are painted or drawn, and others, drawn with the fingers in the soft walls, are more elaborate and akin to a technique called finger-fluting familiar from Palaeolithic rock art in southern Europe. The team also included students from Puerto Rico and the UK carrying out dissertations in Climate Science, Archaeology, and History. Victor Serrano, member of the student team said, "As a Puerto Rican these groups of people that visited and lived in Mona Island are my ancestors, and their story is of utmost importance. Working in those caves, as part of the Corazon del Caribe archaeological project, is hard but fun work. "Most of the precolonial pictographs are in very narrow spaces deep in the caves, some are very hard to access, you have to crawl to get to them, they are very extensive and humidity is very high but it is extremely rewarding. Imagine a social networking site, where instead of having a page with posts of people here you have an actual cave wall or roof full of different pictographs," he stated. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The market on Monday witnessed a rally in the Midcap and Smallcap indices by more than one percent, though equity benchmarks ended at fresh record closing high. The Sensex rose 108.94 points to 33,266.16 and the Nifty gained 40.70 points at 10,363.70. With a strong breadth, Lupin rallied nine percent intraday but came off day's high to close with 2.5 percent gains as the company expects US pricing pressure to continue, though maintained full year guidance. On the other hand, HDFC was up 0.4 percent post stable earnings and asset quality while Tata Steel was down 1.2 percent ahead of earnings later today. In the banking sector, ICICI Bank ended 0.2 percent lower as investors digested better asset quality performance of the bank. While in banking, Yes Bank rebounded 2.5 percent, after 7 percent fall seen in previous session due to bad asset quality performance in Q2. Among others, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Tata Motors leading contributors, up around 1.5 percent whereas ITC, HUL and HCL Technologies were down 1.5-2 percent. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Singapore's Foreign Affairs Minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, will undertake a two-day visit to India from Tuesday. During his visit, Balakrishnan will call on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The visiting dignitary will also meet Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal in Guwahati on Wednesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday said over Rs 2,008 crore had been spent on 'Haritha Haram' programme and the details pertaining to the expenditure will be placed before the State Assembly within a week. The Chief Minister said that in the past three years about 82 crore saplings were planted across the state against the targeted 230 crore saplings by 2019. These saplings were being raised in 3,000 nurseries in the state. "Except for a few thousand fruit-bearing plants to be supplied to people for raising in homes, the remaining saplings were raised and distributed through government nurseries," he said. Taking a dig at the previous governments' commitment in saving forest lands and increasing green cover in Telangana, he said, "Only Rs 130 crore was spent by the forest department from 2004 to 2014. This apart, vast forest lands were encroached and occupied across the state due to the negligence of the previous governments." "The forests along the Godavari belt and Adilabad, lots of green cover in the state had vanished. The need of the hour is to increase green cover and save forests in the state for the benefit of future generations," he pointed out. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) United States President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his former business associate Rick Gates have pleaded not guilty to money laundering and other charges from special counsel Robert Mueller, who is conducting an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Manafort was charged with conspiracy against the nation. Manafort and Gates had surrendered before the federal authorities in Washington on Monday. According to the Hill, Federal prosecutors have requested a USD 10 million bail for Manafort and USD 5 million bail for Gates, and have sought their release on house arrest. The indictment against the two men contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts.. Manafort was indicted under seal on Friday. The indictments were reportedly returned by a grand jury on Friday and were unsealed after the defendants were permitted to surrender themselves, according to a statement from the FBI. They appear to be the first charges related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Mueller has interviewed several White House former and current officials, including former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and ex-White House press secretary Sean Spicer, according to the reports. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The driver of Uttar Pradesh Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar was arrested on Monday for the accidental death of a minor boy by the politician's convoy in Gonda. The car which mowed down the eight-year-old on October 28 was seized as well. The boy was playing on the footpath late on Saturday evening when the car allegedly drove over him. The convoy reportedly did not stop for the victim's aid after the incident. The boy died on the spot. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath ordered a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the next of kin of the victim. Meanwhile, on Sunday, Rajbhar said he was deeply saddened by the incident and have asked the police to find the car which hit the boy and arrest the culprit as soon as possible. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shia Cleric Law Board member Maulana Yasoob Abbas on Monday welcomed the decision of introduction of Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) books in Uttar Pradesh Madarsas. Speaking to ANI, Abbas said "This suggestion is a good step; also Madarsas have played an important role right from the time of Independence. Without disturbing the course of Madarsas; it's a 'good move'. Before this gets implemented there should be good arrangements for the students". "We only wish that the syllabus and the course of Madarsas should not be disturbed. People who are opposing it, they should not do it. We should accept education from whichever source we receive it from," he said. Madarsas are minority educational institutions offering study in Islamic theology and religious law. Currently, there are about 19,000 recognised and 560 aided madarsas operating in the state. Earlier in January, the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh had made NCERT books mandatory for all schools affiliated to the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UP Board) from academic session 2018-19. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Ministry of Finance and the World Bank on Monday announced the signing of a loan agreement worth USD 200 million for the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project. "Project will support Assam Govt. to facilitate agri- investments, increase agriculture productivity and market access among others," the Finance Ministry said in a tweet. It added that the project will also enable the small farm holders to produce crops that are resilient to recurrent floods or droughts in the state. "The USD 200 million loan from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a seven year grace period, and a maturity of 16.5 yrs," added another tweet. However, the World Bank will release it's 'Doing Business' report on October 31. Following this, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had reportedly ordered ministries to work towards improving India's rank in the Ease of Doing . (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Sales rise 13.72% to Rs 463.28 crore Net profit of Bharat Financial Inclusion declined 18.15% to Rs 119.40 crore in the quarter ended September 2017 as against Rs 145.88 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2016. Sales rose 13.72% to Rs 463.28 crore in the quarter ended September 2017 as against Rs 407.39 crore during the previous quarter ended September 2016.463.28407.3955.3364.87122.53148.94119.40145.88119.40145.88 Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Canara Bank jumped 4.88% to Rs 423.45 at 9:46 IST on BSE after the state-run bank reported a drop in the ratio of gross NPAs and net NPAs in Q2 September 2017 on sequential basis. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 151.95 points or 0.46% at 33,309.17. On the BSE, 2.24 lakh shares were traded on the counter so far as against the average daily volumes of 2.11 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 425.70 and a low of Rs 397.65 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 463.40 on 26 October 2017 and a 52-week low of Rs 250.17 on 2 January 2017. The large-cap bank has equity capital of Rs 597.29 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10. Canara Bank's net profit fell 27.1% to Rs 260.18 crore on 1.57% decline in total income to Rs 11994.64 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 27 October 2017. The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 39164.08 crore as on 30 September 2017 as against Rs 37657.76 crore as on 30 June 2017 and Rs 33315.40 crore as on 30 September 2016. The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances stood at 10.51% as on 30 September 2017 as against 10.56% as on 30 June 2017 and 9.81% as on 30 September 2016. The ratio of net NPAs to net advances stood at 7.02% as on 30 September 2017 as against 7.09% as on 30 June 2017 and 6.69% as on 30 September 2016. The bank's provisions and contingencies rose 36% to Rs 2156.64 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016. The Government of India held 66.3% stake in Canara Bank as per the shareholding pattern as on 30 September 2017. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Ministry of Home Affairs has liberalised the Arms Rules to boost Make in India manufacturing policy of the Government as also to promote employment generation in the field of manufacturing of arms and ammunition. The liberalisation of the Arms Rules will encourage investment in the manufacturing of arms and ammunition and weapon systems as part of the Make in India programme. The liberalised rules are expected to encourage the manufacturing activity and facilitate availability of world class weapons to meet the requirement of Armed Forces and Police Forces in sync with country's defence indigenization programme. The liberalised rules will apply to licences granted by MHA for small arms & ammunition and licences granted by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), under powers delegated to them, for tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, defence aircrafts, space crafts, warships of all kinds, arms and ammunition and allied items of defence equipment other than small arms. The salient features of the liberalised rules are: (i) The licence granted for manufacturing shall now be valid for the life-time of the licensee company. The requirement of renewal of the license after every 5 years has been done away with. (ii) Similarly, condition that the small arms and light weapons produced by manufacturer shall be sold to the Central Government or the State Governments with the prior approval of the Ministry of Home Affairs has been done away with. (iii) Further, enhancement of capacity up to 15% of the quantity approved under licence will not require any further approval by the Government. The manufacturer will be required to give only prior intimation to the licensing authority in this regard. (iv) The licence fee has been reduced significantly. Earlier the licence fee was Rs. 500/- per firearm which added up to very large sums and was a deterrent to seeking manufacturing licenses. The licence fee will now range from Rs. 5,000/- to the maximum of Rs. 50,000/-. (v) The fee for manufacturing licence shall be payable at the time of grant of license rather than at the time of application. (vi) Single manufacturing licence will be allowed for a multi-unit facility within the same State or in different States within the country. A notification for the Arms (Amendment) Rules, 2017 has been issued by MHA on October 27, 2017. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With effect from 26 October 2017 Miven Machine Tools announced that Jitendra B Divgi has tendered his resignation as an Independent Director of the Company vide his letter dated 26 October 2017, which received by the Company on 27 October 2017. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Moody's Investors Service says that Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd.'s (ONGC, LC: Baa1 stable, FC: Baa2 stable) planned acquisition of a majority stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL, Baa3 positive) will cause ONGC's leverage to approach the upper limit of its Baa1 rating. ONGC's strategic importance to the Indian government (Baa3 positive) will also increase, given that the merger would create the country's first integrated oil & gas company with significant upstream and downstream operations. Based on HPCL's average market capitalization over the three months to 24 October 2017, the stake to be acquired by ONGC is worth about INR350 billion. Assuming this amount as the purchase price, Moody's says that ONGC will likely fund the transaction with incremental borrowings of INR250 billion, with the remaining amount funded with cash on hand and the liquidation of investments. "Using ONGC's pro-forma leverage for the fiscal year ended March 2017 as measured by retained cash flow/net debt and debt/EBITDA the acquisition would weaken these results to 33% from 68% and 1.9x from 1.1x," says Vikas Halan, a Moody's Vice President and Senior Credit Officer. "Nevertheless, the increase in leverage will be partly offset by a qualitative improvement in ONGC's operations, as a vertically integrated company, such that its pro-forma financial metrics could still support its Baa1 rating," adds Halan. Moody's analysis is based on the government of India and the board of directors of ONGC having given in principle approval for ONGC to purchase the government's 51.11% stake in HPCL. Moody's report also says that post acquisition, ONGC's local currency rating will not be rated more than one notch above the Indian sovereign's local currency rating, because of the increase in ONGC's exposure to domestic revenues through HPCL's refining and marketing business. In addition, Moody's views the increase in ONGC's leverage from the acquisition as an indication of stronger government influence on the company's financial profile. This level of influence will no longer support the current two-notch gap between the local currency ratings of ONGC and that of the government. And, the rating on ONGC's foreign currency bonds will remain constrained by the Baa2 country ceiling for foreign currency bonds in India. On HPCL, Moody's says that after the merger, HPCL will continue to be of strategic importance to the government and will form ONGC's largest subsidiary. Specifically, HPCL will stay strategically important to the government, because of its large-scale refining and marketing operations. HPCL will also retain its status as a state-owned entity based on the government's 69% ownership in ONGC and the government will keep its ability to appoint all HPCL board directors. Moody's also points out that while HPCL contributes significantly to the government's revenues through direct and indirect taxes, any support to the company if needed after the merger will be through ONGC. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ONGC's net profit rose 3.1% to Rs 5130.74 crore on 3.1% growth in net sales to Rs 18964.85 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016. The result was announced on Saturday, 28 October 2017. ICICI Bank's net profit fell 33.65% to Rs 2058.19 crore on 17.55% decline in total income to Rs 18763.29 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 27 October 2017. The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) net of write-off stood at Rs 44488.54 crore as on 30 September 2017 as against Rs 43147.64 crore as on 30 June 2017 and Rs 32547.50 crore as on 30 September 2016. The ratio of gross non-performing customer assets (net of write-off) to gross customer assets stood at 7.87% as on 30 September 2017 as against 7.99% as on 30 June 2017 and 6.12% as on 30 September 2016. The ratio of net non-performing customer assets to net customer assets stood at 4.43% as on 30 September 2017 as against 4.86% as on 30 June 2017 and 3.21% as on 30 September 2016. The bank's provisions and contingencies declined 36.42% to Rs 4502.93 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016. Canara Bank's net profit fell 27.1% to Rs 260.18 crore on 1.57% decline in total income to Rs 11994.64 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016. The result was announced after market hours on Friday, 27 October 2017. The bank's gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at Rs 39164.08 crore as on 30 September 2017 as against Rs 37657.76 crore as on 30 June 2017 and Rs 33315.40 crore as on 30 September 2016. The ratio of gross NPAs to gross advances stood at 10.51% as on 30 September 2017 as against 10.56% as on 30 June 2017 and 9.81% as on 30 September 2016. The ratio of net NPAs to net advances stood at 7.02% as on 30 September 2017 as against 7.09% as on 30 June 2017 and 6.69% as on 30 September 2016. The bank's provisions and contingencies rose 36% to Rs 2156.64 crore in Q2 September 2017 over Q2 September 2016. HDFC, Bharti Infratel, Lupin and Tata Steel are scheduled to report Q2 September 2017 results today, 30 October 2017. Bajaj Finance said it has allotted 4,000 secured redeemable non-convertible debentures (NCDs) aggregating to Rs 400 crore on private placement basis. The announcement was made after market hours on Friday, 27 October 2017. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Located in a dingy and dirty lane, there's hardly any scope for the sun's rays to penetrate into Surjeet Singh's 50 sq yard home. The two room set is the only shelter for him, his wife, four children and widowed mother, to whom the house was alloted after his father was killed in the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 -- when he was just eight at the time. "You can see how we are surviving. It has been now more than three decades of the 1984 riots, but seems our lives have remained stagnant. Forget justice, our condition of living has rather deteriorated. The riots shut our doors to a better life," Surjeet, now 40, told IANS. The Widow's Colony in West Delhi's Tilak Vihar was established by the government and alloted to the widows who survived as a part of the compensation to victims of the anti-Sikh riots that broke out on October 31, 1984 on the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. However, the present condition of the colony is extremely miserable; power lines hang low, garbage is littered over the narrow lanes and the drains are left uncovered. Around 3,000 widows were alloted houses in Tilak Vihar but now only a countable are left. Many went back to Punjab while few have settled in other parts of Delhi. Sixty-five-year-old Kuldeep Kaur, one a widow who has been residing in the colony since its inception, said that she has now learned to live with the traumatic and harrowing past pain but was worried about the future of her children and grandchildren "I am old now and have accepted whatever was written in my destiny. The riots not just took away life of my husband but permanently closed the scope of leading a secured and decent life. My three children saw their father being burnt alive in front of their eyes; they didn't attend school. And now, my son drives an e-rickshaw; what future will he give to his children," Kuldeep Kaur lamented. Surjeet Singh, who is a freelance photographer by profession, said he saw his father murdered by angry and violent mobs but was too young to understand what was happening. "Imagine a life without a father, how difficult it must have been for the widows to continue their lives with the sole earning member gone. At that time, women were not so educated to get a job. The situation after the riots was very bad," he voiced. The riots had majorly affected the children of the widows living in the colony; they got involved in addictions -- started taking drugs and surrendered themselves to alcohol --and left schooling. "Nobody could afford school, even though some went to school they couldn't complete their education because the dreadful past was too difficult to forget and difficult to concentrate on studies. The boys of Tilak Vihar are actually useless but you cannot blame them," Surjeet Singh pointed out. Kuldeep Kaur recalled how their lives changed in a blink; she and her children had no roof to shelter them and had to spend many days hungery. Being less educated, she couldn't get a job so took up a stitching work to continue her livelihood. "And this is not just what I have gone through but tale of all the widows in Tilak Vihar. Kamane ka zariya khatam ho gaya hain (our medium of earning a livelihood is closed). Now they (the survivors of the riots) either run autos or have small shops of their own," she further added. The survivors pitched that despite knowing under what circumstances they live, there has been no help from the government. "Its all gimmick by the political parties, whosoever comes to power. They leaders show their face either before the elections or during this time. They show their sympathy, give us false promises and then vanish, no sign of them for a year," Surjeet Singh pointed out. Kuldeep Kaur lamented that even the compensation amount which was offered by the government has not yet been fully given to them. She said: "Kishto mein milta hai (we get in installments). Had we got the money in time, our children could have at least completed their education, got a decent job and settled well." Surjeet Singh said that he doesn't expect any monetary compensation -- all that he wants is a better life for his children and doesn't want them to struggle for a living. "Only those who have gone through this knows the pain. But now, our hunger for justice have also died. We have lost all hope for the culprits to be punished. Every year many journalistst turn up, they talk to us, express their grief and gratitude, but nothing fruitful comes of it," he replied. "An earnest request," Singh paused before adding: "Please do write something that forces the government to take up our case seriously." (Somrita Ghosh can be contacted at somrita.g@ians.in) --IANS som/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The hearing in the "Two Leaves" AIADMK symbol case in the Election Commission following a row between rival factions was adjourned for Wednesday after three hours of arguments on Monday over the alleged fake affidavits filed by the ruling faction. The decision to hold further hearing in the case came after the T.T.V. Dinakaran faction sought permission for cross examination of some of the people whose affidavits were filed by the faction headed by the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister. Former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi, who appeared for Chief Minister E. Palaniswami, told reporters later that the Dinakaran faction did not have affidavits. He said they were desperately attempting to delay a decision in the case so that the commission would not be able to meet the November 10 deadline set by the Madras High Court. "In fact we want the hearing to close as fast as possible so that the symbol is given to us and the party can function without any hurdle," Rohatgi said. Senior Counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for V.K. Sasikala, alleged that some of the persons who had filed affidavits in favour of the ruling faction need to be cross examined because they now say they were made to sign under duress. Vijay Hansaria, appearing for Dinakaran, said the complaints of some of those whose names have appeared in the rivals' documents were that they have not filed the documents, they have not signed the affidavits, they do not know English and that they were made to believe that they were signing in favour of Sasikala. He alleged that the rival faction did not want cross examination because truth would come out about cheating and forgery and they could be prosecuted. K.P. Munsamy, senior leader of the ruling faction, said the Dinakaran faction did not have adquate support in the AIADMK General Council or among the legislators and so were indulging in tactics to delay a final decision. --IANS mak-vsc/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Masoud Barzani, the President of the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan has told a closed-door session of Parliament that he will step down from his post on November 1, the media reported. "I refuse to continue the position of President of the Kurdish region after November 1," Xinhua reported citing Rudaw Kurdish media which quoted a letter sent by Barzani on Sunday to the regional parliament session held in Erbil. "Changing the law on the presidency of Kurdistan or prolonging the presidential term is not acceptable," Barzani said. He said that a meeting must be held as soon as possible so that "there will be no legal vacuum in the duties of the president of the region". However, Barzani pledged to continue his long mission as a Peshmerga "to sacrifice and struggle for the rights and demands of our people as well as preserve the achievements of our people", the letter read. Barzani set November 1 as the date for stepping down and asked the parliament to vote on distributing the legal, military and administrative powers of the president to the regional government, parliament and the judiciary. The parliament continued its session after Barzani's letter and voted in favor of choosing the current regional Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani for Commander-in-Chief of Kurdish regional forces. Masoud Barzani's president post has sparked controversy, as his tenure was originally expired in 2013, but the Kurdish parliament extended his term to August 2015, but because of the blitzkrieg, or lighting war, of the Islamic State (IS), Barzani remained in office. The Kurdish parliament initially set November 1 a date for parliamentary and presidential elections in Kurdistan region and the ethnically mixed disputed areas claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurds. However, on October 24, the parliament postponed the regional presidential and parliamentary elections for eight months after the Iraqi security forces took control of the oil-rich Kirkuk province and most of the disputed areas. Barzani, 71, a veteran Kurdish leader, took over the post of president of the regional government in 2005. However, Barzani's post has sparked controversy, as his tenure expired on Aug. 19, 2015. He is also leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party since 1979. On October 16, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is also Commander-in-Chief of Iraqi forces, ordered government forces to enter the oil-rich Kirkuk province in northern Iraq to regain control of the ethnically-mixed disputed areas. The Kurds consider the northern Kirkuk province and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahudin provinces as disputed areas and want them to be incorporated into their region, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs and Turkmens in the region as well as the Iraqi central government. Tensions have been running high between Baghdad and the region of Kurdistan after the Kurds held a controversial referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region and the disputed areas. --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, accompanied by Queen Jetsun Pema Wangchuk and Prince Jigme Namgyal Wangchuk, will arrive here on Tuesday on a four-day visit to India, the External Affairs Ministry announced on Monday. The King will meet President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will host a dinner in honour of the royal family, a statement from the ministry said. Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and other ministers will call on the King. "India and Bhutan enjoy unique ties of friendship, which are characterised by deep understanding and mutual trust," the statement said. It said the visit would provide an opportunity to review the entire gamut of bilateral cooperation, including plans for celebrating in 2018 the golden jubilee of the establishment of diplomatic ties, and to advance bilateral relations of friendship and cooperation. There are a number of institutional mechanisms between India and Bhutan in areas such as security, border management, trade, transit, economic, hydro-power, development cooperation and water resources. India has set up three hydroelectric projects (HEPs) in Bhutan totalling 1,416 MW, which are operational and exporting surplus power to India. About three-fourth of the power generated is exported and the rest is used for domestic consumption. India is Bhutan's largest trading partner. In 2016, bilateral trade stood at Rs 8,723 crore with total imports being Rs 5,528.5 crore (82 per cent of Bhutan's total imports) and exports recorded as Rs 3,205.2 crore including electricity (90 per cent of Bhutan's total exports). --IANS ab/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A newly-wed woman, who allegedly poisoned milk in a bid to kill her husband, caused the death of 13 of her in-laws in Punjab province in Pakistan after they drank the milk when it mixed in 'lassi', it was reported on Monday. The incident in Daulat Pur in Muzaffargarh area had been shrouded in mystery when it was reported two days ago that the family members had died after accidental intake of intoxicated beverage, the Nation reported. However, police said the woman, identified as Aasia, had confessed to poisoning milk. Aasia was reportedly forced into the marriage and had only poisoned the glass of milk meant for her husband Amjad but somehow he did not drink it. The milk was later used to make lassi, which affected 28 people, 13 of whom died because of severe intoxication while 14 are still battling life in a hospital. Police have registered a case against the woman and were looking for her alleged paramour, suspecting he may also have a hand in the murder. --IANS ahm/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre has asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to expedite verification of rejected claims of house under the redevelopment of Kathputli Colony here as "some residents created trouble" in the evacuation process on Monday. DDA Principal Commissioner (Housing) J.P. Agarwal said that his teams went to the colony to pursue the residents to move out, who were staying there even after the request made to them to vacate the area on October 25. "Some vested interests have tried to create trouble and resorted to stone pelting," he said in a statement. Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri thereafter discussed the matter with DDA and gave the instruction of expediting the verification process of claims. Kathputli Colony is a colony of street performers in Shadipur Depot area of Delhi. "Under the Kathputli Colony redevelopment, taken up in 2009, 2,800 EWS (Economically Weaker Sections) houses are to be built for the identified eligible residents", said Agrawal. "To enable this redevelopment, the private developer has built transit accommodation for them at Anand Parbat. During the last three years, further to the efforts of DDA, 1,355 families have shifted to transit accommodation," he added. "Till the time of the last report, about 200 families have volunteered to move out of Kathputli Colony and DDA has made necessary transport arrangements for them." --IANS mg/ahm/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China is set to block a resolution at the UN this week to declare Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar an international terrorist, frustrating India and the US who want the chief plotter of a deadly attack on an Indian Army camp punished. After Beijing blocked and put a technical hold on India's application that lapsed last year, the US in January had put a fresh proposal - backed by France and the UK - to ban Azhar. Beijing again put a technical hold on the proposal till August, only to extend it further for three months. The technical hold expires on Thursday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the 1267 Committee of the UN Security Council was still in disagreement to approve the application. "As for the listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements. China put the technical hold to allow more time to deliberate on this matter," Hua said. "To our regret, the committee so far has yet to reach consensus," she added. Minus China, all the countries of the 15-member Security Council are on board to ban Azhar, who heads the Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit. China is one of the five veto holding members and its vote for and against the resolution is decisive. "We have made our position clear many times form this podium. Relevant resolutions of the Security Council have clear stipulations as to the mandate of 1267 committee and also clear stipulations when it comes to the listing of the terrorist organisations and individuals," Hua said. "We believe that the committee (UN) should follow the principles of objectivity, professionalism and fairness and reach a decision by consensus based on solid proof," she said. The listing of Azhar has become a sore point between China and India. In September, China agreed to include Azhar's outfit in the joint statement by BRICS members. --IANS gsh/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China is set to block a resolution at the UN this week to declare Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar an international terrorist, frustrating India and the US who want the chief plotter of a deadly attack on Indian military bases punished. After Beijing blocked and put a technical hold on India's application that lapsed last year, the US in January had put a fresh proposal - backed by France and the UK - to ban Azhar. Beijing again put a technical hold on the proposal till August, only to extend it further for three months. The technical hold expires on Thursday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the 1267 Committee of the UN Security Council was still in disagreement to approve the application. "As for the listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements. China put the technical hold to allow more time to deliberate on this matter," Hua said. "To our regret, the committee so far has yet to reach consensus," she added. China's 'no' to the US proposal means that a new resolution will have to be moved. Minus China, all the countries of the 15-member Security Council are on board to ban Azhar, who heads the Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit. China is one of the five veto-holding members and its vote for and against the resolution is decisive. "We have made our position clear many times... Relevant resolutions of the Security Council have clear stipulations as to the mandate of 1267 committee and also clear stipulations when it comes to the listing of the terrorist organisations and individuals," Hua said. "We believe that the committee (UN) should follow the principles of objectivity, professionalism and fairness and reach a decision by consensus based on solid proof," she said. The listing of Azhar has become a sore point between China and India. In September, China agreed to include Azhar's outfit in the joint statement by BRICS members. Asked if China was trying to defend Pakistan by vetoing application against Azhar, Hua said: "I can understand why you raised this question but I cannot side with what you just said. "China always upholds the principles of fairness and objectivity and we judge this matter on its own merits. You mentioned Pakistan. Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism and we support Pakistan in countering terrorism in accordance with its own national conditions." Beijing has steadfastly shielded its "all-weather" ally Islamabad, which has been accused of harbouring terror outfits by India. China has invested billions in the key infrastructure project of Belt and Road initiative in Pakistan which seeks to connect Asia with Europe through a network of roads, highways, ports and sea lanes. --IANS gsh/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP national President on Monday asked Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi to clarify party's stand on separatists in Kashmir and illegal migration of Rohingyas, who are posing a threat to national security. "The Congress leaders are supporting those who are raising slogans in favour of Kashmir's independence," Shah said at a public rally in Banikhet in Chamba district of the poll-bound Himachal Pradesh. Asking the electorates whether they were with those who are raising slogans for freedom, the BJP President, who started his five-day tour of the state on Monday, said thousands of brave soldiers belonging to this hill state had sacrificed their lives for the cause of Kashmir. Taking a dig at the Congress over its leader P Chidambaram's autonomy-for-Jammu-and-Kashmir remark, Shah said: "It's Chidambaram who wrote a letter to the Prime Minister asking him to allow the Rohingya intruders to come as they are facing tortures." "Why they should be allowed when the government of India is saying they are a security threat," he asked. "Rahulji and Soniaji should come here and give a reply on the issue. Himachal people and Gujarat people should ask them what is the Congress' stand on the issue of Rohingyas. And what is the stand of the Congress on raising freedom slogans," he said. "When in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) slogans like 'Bharat Tere Tukade Hazar Honge (India, you will become a thousand pieces)' were raised, Rahul 'baba' went there to express solidarity with them." Shah, who later addressed a public meeting in Jawali in Kangra district, said the Congress only promoted corruption, with scams worth Rs 12 lakh-thousand crore taking place in the previous UPA (United Progressive Alliance) regime. "In the last three years not even a single scam has come to the light," he said. Shah accused state Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh of corruption and ruining the state. "The Congress regime (in the state) had only performed ground-breaking ceremonies and the day never come to inaugurate them (projects)," he added. Elections to the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly will be held on November 9 and the votes counted on December 18, coinciding with the polls in Gujarat. The Congress party in Kerala on Monday passed a resolution authorising AICC President Sonia Gandhi to select the state party president and also the AICC members from Kerala. The state unit also said it has a record 33.84 lakh party workers, leading party units in the rest of the country. The state unit of the party officially completed its enrolment process and also elected party leaders at four levels of the party organisational structure, state returning officer Sudarshan Nachiappan told reporters here on Monday. "At the general body meeting held here on Monday, it passed a resolution authorising AICC President Sonia Gandhi to select the state party president and also the AICC members from Kerala," said Nachiappan. He added that the final list of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee would be released by the AICC along with the list of other states. "The new AICC president will be elected shortly and the process for it has begun," added Nachiappan. --IANS sg/rn (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress on Monday said it will observe November 8 as "Black Day" with country-wide protests against demonetisation with the theme "Bhugat Raha hai desh" (the country is suffering) and will not rest till "inherent flaws" in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) are resolved. The party said the people of the country will never pardon the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will go down in India's history alongside Muhammad Bin Tughlak for the "gross misadventure" of demonetisation that wreaked havoc with India's economy. The party made the announcement after a meeting of its General Secretaries which was presided over by Vice President Rahul Gandhi. In another meeting on GST, Rahul Gandhi, Former Prime Manmohan Singh along with P. Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh and finance ministers of the Congress-ruled states examined the "mess created by the Modi government on account of inherent flaws in the design, architecture and rates of the GST". "The meeting decided that Congress leadership and Congress finance ministers will espouse the pain and suffering of MSMEs, shopkeepers, traders, housewives and common man, both inside and outside GST Council," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala. "Congress will not rest until a resolution of these issues is done by the BJP government to the satisfaction of business and services," he added. Briefing reporters, Surjewala said demonstrations will be held in every district and state capital on November 8, the day the Modi government decided last year to junk Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. "Bhugat Raha hai desh" is the common theme of the Congress and other opposition parties. Surjewala said demonetisation "was the biggest scam of the century" and that GST had "crushed businesses and wiped out jobs". The party general secretaries will be present on November 8 in all the states. The party workers will hold rallies and protest march across all state and district headquarters in the morning and will also hold a candlelight march in the evening. "A government drunk with power and blinded by arrogance has the audacity to celebrate the surgical strike on India's economy," said Surjewala. Surjwala asked: "Who is responsible for the death of nearly 150 ordinary citizens who died in bank lines? Who is responsible for the utter confusion and consequent losses caused by repeated change of demonetisation rules by RBI on 135 occasions? Who is responsible for loss of over 3.72 crore jobs on account of demonetization in MSME sector alone? Who is responsible for loss of entire savings of crores of housewives done over a lifetime? "Who is responsible for crash of business of small shopkeepers and small and medium enterprises on account of the impact of demonetisation? Who is responsible for contraction of GDP from 9.2 per cent to 5.7 per cent resulting in a loss of over Rs 3 lakh crore?," asked Surjewala. "GST has crippled micro, small and businesses, stunted the economy and has led to insurmountable job losses." "The meeting noted with grave concern the fact that GST compliances in its present form have become impossible for shopkeepers, traders and businesses, wiping out their life's earnings. --IANS sid/rn (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Navy to consider giving a clerical post to a sailor who was sacked for undergoing a sex change surgery. Calling for a "change in mindset", a division bench of Justice G.S. Sistani and Justice V. Kameswar Rao said this was probably the only case of its kind in the armed forces and pointed out that the person was suffering from gender identity crisis. Manish Kumar Giri, 25, who has since changed his name to Sabi Giri, was discharged from service earlier this month by the Navy as part of its policy to not employ female sailors. The bench agreed with the Navy's decision to not allow Sabi Giri to continue as a sailor but called for a lenient view due to the nature of the issue. "This is an out of the box situation. This may have never happened in the Navy or other armed forces," the bench said. Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the government and Navy, said: "We are not judgmental as regard to transgenders and we respect their choice but Sabi Giri was discharged from service as a part of policy decision of the Navy. As of today, Navy is not ready to accept female sailors." Jain told the court that Giri went on leave without informing seniors and got the surgery done. When she came back she was in a bad shape due to infections, "and we treated her at the Navy hospital for five months". The bench remarked that if the person was suffering from 'Gender Identity Disorder' and "suppose she had suppressed it and continued as a boy sailor, she could have been the most dangerous person in the department... It's better she came out." The court said it will not interfere in the Navy's policy decision but suggested that it can punish Giri for indiscipline, for being absent without leave, but at the same time it can accommodate her and see the case from a different perspective. Posting the matter for November 23, the court asked the government and the Navy to seek instructions and inform it about their decision. Senior advocate Anand Grover, appearing for Giri, contended that Giri was fully and functionally fit to perform her duties. The petition filed by Giri has sought direction from the high court to reinstate her at the same rank and pay. The plea also challenged Section 9 of The Navy Act that allows the enrolment of only male sailors and limited entry of women sailors in specific departments, but has no provision for enrolment of transgender sailors. In October 2016, Giri took three weeks' leave to undergo the surgical procedure in Delhi. She rejoined the job on the stipulated date but pretended that nothing had changed. It was only when the sailor came down with urinary tract infection that the Navy doctors found out that she had undergone Sex Re-assignment Surgery at a civil hospital. The plea said that he was suffering from gender identity issues since 2011 and when he told his parents, they forced him to marry a woman. Giri is married with a child. --IANS gt/him/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a bid to promote domestic defence manufacturing, the Defence Ministry is mulling on formulating a method under which obtaining security clearance from Home Ministry, if delayed, will be "deemed to be approved". After a recent meeting between Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and representatives from the industry, the Defence Ministry is now discussing measures to help private sector industries to get a final clearance, in case their request has been pending for a long time. Sources said that a mechanism is being discussed under which small and medium level projects, if they don't get a clearance within a certain period of time, the Defence Ministry will take up their matter with the Home Ministry, which provides final security clearance to defence related manufacturing projects. The source also said the Defence Ministry is looking into a proposal under which if a licence remains pending for two months, or any decided period after its due date for approval has passed, it can be "deemed to be approved" in certain cases. The industry representatives during their meeting had also raised the issue of foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers getting tax concessions which the Indian manufacturers don't get. The ministry is also discussing taking it up the issue with the Finance Ministry. The Defence Ministry has also asked Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to prepare a list of defence technologies it has developed and has not been given to any government or private sector for manufacturing. "Some of the technologies developed by DRDO have already been given to private sector and equipments are being manufactured and also exported. We will work with DRDO to make a list of items which can be commercialised," said a source. India has been looking at expanding its defence manufacturing base under the Make in India programme, and small and medium scale industry has been identified as a special component under it. Sitharaman has held a meeting with representatives from the private sector on Saturday on pushing Make in India for defence. --IANS ao/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Manoj Tiwari's iPhone was stolen during a crowded event here, police said on Monday. The incident occurred on Sunday evening when the BJP MP had gone to attend a Swadeshi Jagran Manch event in Ramlila Maidan. As Tiwari went to the podium to deliver his speech, he checked for his iPhone but did not find it in his pocket, police said. The BJP leader has lodged a robbery complaint at Kamla Market Police Station. "There were thousands of people and party workers at the Ramlila Maidan to attend the event. Someone may have taken advantage of the crowd and taken away Tiwari's iPhone," a police officer told IANS. Tiwari's personal security officer also lost his shoes and wallet at the event, the officer said. --IANS sp/sar/nir/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Intense discussions are on in the Defence Ministry over the issue of appointing a combined Chief of Defence Staff and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also been meeting the service chiefs and other officials over it, sources said on Monday. However, the source indicated that that the Defence Minister, who has been extensively briefed on the issue, is not in favour of taking a hurried view on the complicated issue. A high-level committee, set up to examine the gaps in the country's security system in the wake of the Kargil war in 1999, had called for appointment of a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) as a single-point military adviser to the Defence Minister. In 2012, the Naresh Chandra Task force had also recommended creating the post. Successive governments have however not taken any decision on the issue. The source also said that the Defence Ministry is looking into the issue of rank parity between military personnel and armed forces headquarters (AFHQ) civil service officers. "The Ministry is of the view that no one's interests should be hurt, and no one should benefit at the cost of others. We are being very cautious, no false equivalence will be made," the source said. The source also said that the issue of equivalence should not be mixed with that of non-functional upgrade (NFU), which is in court. The NFU factor entitles officers or personnel of a batch to get salaries and grade pay of their batch's senior-most officer after a certain period. A Ministry circular of October 18, 2016 on rank equivalence between defence officers and armed forces headquarters (AFHQ) civil service officers, brought the ranks of armed forces officers a notch down compared to earlier status. As per the circular, a Major General and equivalent ranks of Rear Admiral and Air Vice Marshal will be equal to a principal director in the civil service ranks at AFHQ, while a Brigadier and equivalents of Commodore, Air Commodore will be equal to a director, and Colonel (Captain in the Navy and Group Captain in the Air Force) will be equal to a joint director. Earlier, a Colonel was equated with a Director, Brigadier was treated at par with a Deputy Director-General, and a Major General was treated as equivalent of a Joint Secretary. A committee was formed by then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on the issue, but as per sources, the report has not yet been submitted. --IANS ao/him/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday began his two-day state visit to Japan, to address the regional challenges ahead of the Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). Duterte would meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and was expected to exchange views on North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Before leaving for Japan, Duterte called for a dialogue with North Korea to curb the ongoing tension in the region, Efe news reported. "It would be good for America, Japan, (South) Korea and Kim Jong-un to talk and convince him to sit down in a round table (and say) nobody is threatening him. "There will be no war -- and that no one is planning to destroy them," Duterte said during a press conference in Davao, Philippines, before leaving. The Japanese government noted that Duterte's visit, the second since the beginning of his presidency in June 2016, is a good opportunity for the leaders to exchange views before the Aseam Summit, which will take place in Manila in mid-November. Before his meeting with Abe, Duterte would participate in a business event on Monday and meet Foreign Minister Taro Kono, as well as the President of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Shinichi Kitaoka. After holding a joint press conference with Abe, Duterte is set to attend a dinner hosted by the Prime Minister at his official residence. On Tuesday, the Philippine President will be received by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the Imperial Palace, which will be his first meeting with the royal couple. Duterte arrived in Japan early on Monday. His visit was shortened from three to two days due to the tropical storm Saola near Japan, which resulted in over fifty flights being cancelled on Sunday. --IANS in/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The first batch of farmers from Amaravati, who gave their land for the upcoming capital of Andhra Pradesh, on Monday left for Singapore to learn about the best practices in entrepreneurship. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu flagged off the bus carrying first batch of 34 farmers to Hyderabad, from where they will catch the flight for Singapore. The state government is sending a total of 123 farmers to Singapore. They were selected from among the farmers who have given their land for the development of new state capital. The state government will bear expenditure for their accommodation and food while farmers are paying for their tickets. In his speech on the occasion, Naidu said he was happy to send farmers to Singapore and those who gave their lands for the capital should become entrepreneurs. The Chief Minister reiterated that Amaravati would be developed on the lines of Singapore. He exuded confidence that the new state capital would attract all top global firms. About 26,000 farmers have given 33,000 acres of land under a unique Land Pooling System (LPS), the largest exercise of this kind in the country. The Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) has handed over developed residential and commercial plots to the farmers. Officials said the farmers visiting Singapore would learn how to use the land and the compensation to become successful entrepreneurs. --IANS ms/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and and his former business partner Rick Gates surrendered on Monday to Justice Department's special counsel Robert Mueller after being indicted on charges of conspiracy against the US, money laundering and making false statements. The two were indicted under seal on Friday. Mueller said Manafort laundered more than $18 million to buy properties and services, the New York Times reported. "Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the US without paying taxes on that income," the indictment read. Gates was accused of transferring more than $3 million from offshore accounts. "As part of the scheme, Manafort and Gates repeatedly provided false information to financial bookkeepers, tax accountants and legal counsel, among others," the indictment read. The indictment against the two men contained 12 counts: Conspiracy against the US, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. The charges did not cover any activities related to the 2016 presidential campaign, though these are the first criminal allegations to come from Mueller's investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 election. Manafort arrived at the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Washington field office on Monday morning. The two were being processed separately, according to a law enforcement official. They will later be transported to federal district court in Washington and will make their initial court appearances before US District Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson. A White House spokesman told CNN that the Trump administration "may not have a response at all" regarding the charges. Manafort, whose work for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych attracted scrutiny from federal investigators, previously denied financial wrongdoing regarding his Ukraine-related payments, his bank accounts in offshore tax shelters and his various real-estate transactions over the years. He joined the Trump campaign in March 2016 and Trump tapped him to serve as campaign chairman in May of that year. Manafort left in August 2016 after being accused over his dealings with pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. Gates, who also denied wrongdoing, was Manafort's longtime business associate in his lobbying firm before being tapped as his deputy on the Trump campaign. Over the weekend, the US President called Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt" and demanded that "something" be done about alleged irregularities that his former Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, committed during the 2016 election. --IANS soni/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Belgian police on Monday arrested four people as part of an investigation into a failed terror attack in 2015 on a high-speed train travelling from Paris to Amsterdam, the federal prosecutor's office said. Police carried out raids in several districts in Brussels and in the towns of Andenne and Marche-en-Famenne, both in the southern French-speaking Wallonia region, reports Efe news. The raids led to the arrest of the four people who are to be interrogated though no weapons or explosives were found. On August 21, 2015, an assailant opened fire on a high-speed Thalys train that had just crossed the border from Belgium into France. A passenger who tried to subdue him was stabbed and four people were injured in total though none were in serious condition. French police said they suspected it was an attempted terror attack though the assailant claimed it was a robbery. --IANS ksk/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Qatar's Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) membership should be frozen until it meets the demands of the Arab quartet, a top Bahraini official said here on Monday. Bahrain Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa also called for Doha to leave the GCC bloc or meet the demands set by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt, reports Xinhua news agency. "If Qatar thinks it can delay and buy its time until the next summit of the GCC, then it is wrong. If the situation remains as it is, we will not attend. "Bahrain will not attend the GCC summit if Qatar will participate because it is getting closer to Iran and deploying foreign forces, both of which are against the security of GCC countries," Shaikh Khalid said. Kuwait is set to host the 38th GCC summit later this year. "The right step is to freeze Qatar's membership until it responds to the demands of our countries." The Arab Quartet on June 5 severed their diplomatic and trade relations with Qatar after accusing it of supporting extremists and funding terrorism. It issued a list of 31 demands for Qatar to resolve the issue, that were rejected by Doha. --IANS ksk/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In India's holiday capital, crashed the party for the tourism and travel industry, rocking the coastal state's gravy-boat. Goa's tourism season begins in October as the winter sets in and winds up in March, with the advent of summer. Coming on November 8, landed a sucker-punch bang in the middle of the lucrative season creating problems for travellers and other stakeholders. "Foreigners saw a restriction on the flow of funds. Taxi fares shot up, making it difficult for them to travel within Goa. Indian tourists also faced restriction as far as funds were concerned," Edgar Cotta, proprietor of Miramar Hotel in the state capital, told IANS. He said major negative signs emerged when booking cancellations by foreigners and domestic tourists started happening. Goa receives more than six million tourists every year with half a million visitors hailing from European countries who visit Goa to escape the harsh winter back home. John D'Souza, head of operations for inbound travel for Eastbound Group, said that soon after the prime minister's announcement, the situation turned desperate. "Czech and Slovakian travel agents were travelling to Goa for the first time. They did not even have money left for a coffee. And they were supposed to promote Goa and India as a holiday destination for tourists in their respective countries. Imagine what impression they carried back," D'Souza told IANS. The Goa Tourism department, however, does not agree with omnipresent tales of woe, insisting that barely caused "initial hiccups" even as tourism inflow stabilised within one month. "In fact, the distress of demonetisation did not really affect Goa in any way. Except for some initial hiccups due to cash-crunch, tourists continued to visit Goa and accepted alternate modes of payment and facilitated the state's initiative for a cashless society," Tourism Director Menino D'Souza told IANS. "It was only in the first month of the introduction of demonetisation that the industry witnessed some cuts in travel plans from domestic and international tourists, but within a month the scenario was back to normal and we did not see any huge drop in footfalls," D'Souza said. Other stakeholders, of course, disagree. "It created a negative impact on us. We had to suffer a lot to make ends meet and paying employee salaries was a total burden. As a result we had to lay off many good employees as business was poor," said Sheldon Remedios of Groove Events, one of the popular event management companies in Goa. He said that convincing clients to go cashless was "very difficult". Now, the introduction of Goods and Services Tax was also not a healthy prospect, he said adding that "the forthcoming season also looks quite dull for us." Many businesses benefit from the beeline tourists make for the Goa beeches. Take the example of Smile Factory, a dental clinic in Calangute beach village known as a dental tourism destination. Dr Rachna Fernandes, who runs the clinic, must have seen the smile being wiped away from the visitors' faces. "They did not like standing in queue for hours for a couple of thousand rupees each day. They said they were here for a holiday, not to stand in queues for hours begging for their own money. It had scarred people. So those who were annoyed will not come back. Not this season at least," Fernandes said. Several of her prospective clients, who had pre-booked dental appointments before arriving in Goa on a holiday, had cancelled their arrival plans after hearing about the demonetisation decision, she said. But has demonetisation spread the practice of digital transactions in the tourism hub? Despite demonetisation and the subsequent emphasis on cashless transactions, only five per cent of the transactions were carried out by cashless means, D'Souza of Eastbound Group said. "Ninetyfive per cent of the transactions are still in cash," he added. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A group of leaders and scholars from different backgrounds on Monday urged the central government to "refrain from targeting any organisation or group as part of its political agenda" so as to ensure their freedom. The group includes senior lawyer Prashant Bushan, writers K. Sachidanand and Nivedida Menon and film producer Gopal Menon. In a joint statement, they demanded a halt on "demonising social activists, NGOs, the impartial media, the progressive and minority organisations and Muslims" who seek a peaceful and secure life in harmony with their fellow citizens. "While hate-mongers and extremist outfits connected with Hindutva roam free by dividing people and instigating violence on religious minorities and progressive sections, the central government and state governments under its control remain passive without fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities," the statement said. The signatories to the statement also included representatives of the Delhi State Minorities Commission, All India Milli Council, Rashtriya Dalit Mahasabha, South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre, Welfare Party of India, Alliance for Justice and Peace, Dalit Voice, Jamiathul Ulama-e-Hind and the National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations. "A... vilification campaign is being intensified by some government agencies with the help of a section of media that are biased against minorities and progressive groups. The atmosphere of hatred being created against them is with a specific and calculated purpose," they stated. This campaign, they said, was an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party government to muzzle the voices of dissent. --IANS mg/nir/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Less than two weeks after the murder of a RSS leader in Ludhiana, a Hindu organisation leader was shot dead by unidentified assailants in this Punjab city on Monday, police said. Vipin Sharma, the district president of Hindu Sangharsh Sena in Amritsar, was shot in the Bharat Nagar area near Batala Road here and died on the spot, police said. At least four assailants were reportedly involved in the attack. More details were awaited. Senior police officers rushed to the spot following the incident. The killing of the Hindu leader has come within days of the killing of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) leader Ravinder Gosai in Ludhiana on October 17. --IANS js/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pulling up the West Bengal government for challenging the Centre's decision to link Aadhaar for giving subsidies, the Supreme Court on Monday wondered how could a state government challenge a law passed by the central government. "How can a state government challenge a law passed by the Centre? This way Centre would start challenging the laws passed by the states," observed a bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan. The court also gave time to the West Bengal government to amend its petition questioning the linking of Aadhaar for giving subsidy by the state's Labour Department. The court said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could challenge the aspect of Aadhaar law requiring linking an "individual" and a "citizen". However, the court gave notice to the Centre on a plea challenging the mandatory linking of mobile phones with Aadhaar. The Centre was given four weeks to respond. --IANS pk/vsc/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and China on Monday held a Border Personnel Meeting at Bumla near Arunachal Pradesh's Tawang and a "thaw" in relations was evident at the meet, an official statement said. The meet, that comes months after a stand-off along the Sikkim sector which ended on August 28. Located at an altitude of 15,134 feet and situated 42 km north of Tawang town, Bumla is one of the five designated BPM venues, between Indian and Chinese troops. The Indian delegation was led by Brig M. P. Singh, and the Chinese by Senior Col Liu Jiang Xun. The Scheduled Military BPM commenced with the hoisting of flags and rendition of anthems of both the nations. This was followed by ceremonial welcome address by both delegation leaders, who extended greetings & good wishes to each other. "The thaw in the relations was evident during the meeting as both the delegations interacted in a free, congenial and cordial environment. The delegations parted amid the feeling of friendship and renewed commitment towards enhancing cordial relations and maintaining peace along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)," the statement said. It said that in last 25 years, the BPM mechanism has evolved into a vital platform for resolving local issues and fostering confidence with a view to enhance peace & tranquility in the sector. The stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops close to India-China Bhutan tri-junction started on June 16, when a PLA construction party entered the Doklam area and attempted to construct a road. Both sides announced disengagement on August 28. Overcoming the freeze in ties on the marines issue for over five years, India and Italy on Monday agreed to boost economic ties from the current bilateral trade level of $8.8 billion as the two sides signed six agreements, including on mutual investments and energy, following delegation-level talks headed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni here. "India and Italy are two large economies of the world and there is a lot of scope to boost our commercial cooperation," Modi said in a joint address to the media following talks with Gentiloni, the first Italian Prime Minister to visit India in 10 years. "There is immense potential to increase our bilateral trade from the current levels of $8.8 billion," he said. He said discussions with members of a high-level Italian business delegation accompanying Gentiloni has left him with a lot of optimism He called for more participation of Italian companies in India's flagship programmes in collaboration with Indian companies. "Our requirements in sectors like smart cities, food processing, pharmaceuticals and infrastructure match the expertise and capabilities of Italy," Modi stated, adding that Italy would be the focus country in the World Food India to be held in November. Diplomatic ties between India and Italy came to a near freeze following the February, 2012 firing by two Italian marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, from merchant vessel Enrica Lexie, killing two Indian fishermen off Kerala. The case is now with the International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas (Itlos) at the The Hague and India has allowed both the marines to return to Italy. The stand-off between New Delhi and Rome also affected the talks for a free trade pact between the European Union and India. According to a joint statement issued following the talks, both Modi and Gentiloni "appreciated the strong India-Italy economic linkages and committed to work in a result-oriented and mutually beneficial manner by injecting a renewed momentum into the broad-based economic engagement between the two countries". "PM Modi called upon the Italian industry to explore India's untapped business opportunities in the infrastructure, food processing, renewable energy, and high-tech manufacturing sectors," it stated. "PM Gentiloni also called upon Indian industry to identify business opportunities, including in Italy's textile, automotive, leather, machinery and chemical sectors." The Italian Prime Minister also highlighted his country's commitment to the Make inIndia initiative through the activities of the 628 Italian companies which have invested over $2.4 billion and provide employment to over 23,000 people in India. According to the statement, both leaders announced the organisation of an Indo-Italian High Level Forum on Design, with a focus on industrial design, auto design, architecture, interior design, and fashion. Gentiloni also underlined Italy's industrial expertise in the defence sector, and the renewed interest of Italian industry in participating in defence manufacturing under the Make in India initiative. "In the area of smart cities, both sides expressed their intent to identify specific areas for cooperation," the statement said. "The Indian side welcomed the Italian initiative to share their experience in the area of urban rehabilitation, advanced technology solutions in the area of energy management (from smart grids to electric mobility networks), affordable housing and waste management," it stated. Both Modi and Gentiloni expressed their shared commitment to strengthening the economic partnership between India and the European Union (EU) and noted the ongoing efforts of both sides to reengage actively towards an early resumption of negotiations for a comprehensive and mutually beneficial India-EU Broad Based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA), according to the statement. In his address to the media, Modi highlighted science and technology another area of cooperation between the two countries and said that Italy was emerging as a destination of choice for higher education among Indian students. Stressing on cultural contacts and cooperation, he said: "I was pleased to know that a lot of people in Italy have a deep and abiding interest in Indian culture, cuisine, cinema, music, dance, yoga and ayurveda." The Indian Prime Minister called for strengthening cooperation in tourism and people to people exchanges to strengthen such links further. "We discussed in detail some of the emerging security challenges facing the world," Modi said. "We are both committed to fight terrorism in all its forms, and to strengthen our cooperation in cyber security." Following Friday's talks, the two sides signed six agreements, including two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) on cooperation in mutual investments and in the field of energy, and a joint declaration of intent of cooperation for safety in the railway sector. Gentiloni arrived here on Sunday in what is the first Italian prime ministerial visit to India in over decade after the visit of then Prime Minister Romano Prodi in February 2007. Indo-Italian ties got a breather when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited the Vatican in September last year for the canonisation of Mother Teresa. --IANS ab/vsc/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Italy on Monday resolved to fight terrorism and cooperate in the area of cyber security in delegation-level talks headed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni here. "The two leaders resolved to fight terrorism and violent extremism in all their forms and manifestations," a joint statement issued after the talks said. "They condemned in the strongest possible terms recent terror attacks in India, in Europe and elsewhere and emphasised the need for strengthening international partnership and concerted action by the international community in addressing the menace of terrorism," it stated. Both leaders also expressed satisfaction on the first India-Italy Joint Working Group on Combating International Terrorism held in Rome in November last year and agreed to further strengthen the consultation mechanism through regular exchange of assessments and information, training and capacity building programme among others in the sphere of counter-terrorism. They agreed to strengthen cooperation to take decisive and concerted actions against Al Qaeda, Islamic State and their affiliates and all other all UN designated globally proscribed terrorists and terror entities. Modi and Gentiloni emphasised the need for effective implementation of existing international commitments on countering terrorism including UN Global Countering Terrorism Strategy, UN Security Council resolutions and targeted sanctions relating to terrorism. "In this context, the leaders also called upon all UN member countries to designate terrorist entities in line with the relevant UNSC Resolutions," the statement said. "Both leaders also called for an early conclusion of negotiations and adoption of the (India-initiated) Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism in the UN, as an instrument that would reinforce the message that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism." In a veiled reference to Pakistan, the two leaders "called upon all countries to work towards rooting out terrorist safe havens and their infrastructure and networks and halting cross-border movement of terrorists. "Emphasising that the liberal and pluralistic values of both countries are rooted in our secular democracy, the leaders affirmed that terrorism should not be associated with any particular religion, nationality, civilisation, creed or ethnic group," the statement said. "They also expressed concerns at the growing misuse of internet towards radicalisation of youth and agreed to strengthen cooperation in combating radicalisation and violent extremism." In the area of cyber security, both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to an open, free, secure, stable, peaceful and accessible cyberspace, enabling economic growth and innovation. "In particular, they reaffirmed that international law is applicable in cyberspace and that there was a need to continue and deepen deliberations on the applicability of international law to cyberspace and set norms of responsible behaviour of States," the statement said. In a joint address to the media with Gentiloni following Monday's talks, Modi said: "We discussed in detail some of the emerging security challenges facing the world. We are both committed to fight terrorism in all its forms, and strengthen our cooperation in cyber security." According to the joint statement, the two sides also reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening global non-proliferation efforts. "Italy congratulated India on its admission to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)," it stated. "Italy also welcomed India's subscription to the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (HCoC) and supported India's intensified engagement with Wassenaar Arrangement, the Australia Group and the Nuclear Suppliers' Group (NSG) which strengthens global non-proliferation efforts." Modi and Gentiloni agreed to work bilaterally and with partners in the framework of UN, the G20 and other multilateral fora to address emerging challenges to international security, global economic stability and sustainable development. "Both sides reaffirmed their support to the new United Nations reform agenda on the three reform tracks of peace and security, development and management reform," the statement said. --IANS ab/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In tune with India's growing engagements with Africa, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday held the 12th India-Tunisia Joint Commission Meeting with her Tunisian counterpart Khemaies Jhinaoui here. The focus of the meeting was on "setting up a robust agenda for bilateral cooperation", External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. The re-engagement with the North African country comes more than a year after then Vice President Hamid Ansari's visit to Tunisia in June last year. The two countries had then inked several agreements. Bilateral trade between India and Tunisia stood at $370.46 million in 2016. Tunisia has been a reliable source for phosphates and India accounts for around 50 per cent of Tunisia's global phosphoric acid exports. India exports a wide range of products including knocked-down kits, automobiles, electrical items, cotton, mechanical engines, organic chemical products, rubber, rice, coffee and spices. Jhinaoui is accompanied by a high-level business delegation representing diverse areas of business, trade and investments. India has been increasing its engagement with Africa, including through a series of high level visits in the last two years -- by President Ram Nath Kovind, then President Pranab Mukherjee, then Vice President Ansari and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. New Delhi hosted the India Africa Forum Summit in October 2015 that saw all 54 African nations participating. Earlier this year, India hosted the annual meeting of African Development Bank. --IANS ab/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a bid to boost business relations with Italy, Indian industry on Monday called for institutionalising a roundtable of company chief executives from both countries that would meet on a regular basis. According to a release here from industry chamber Ficci, at a roundtable here of Indian and Italian CEOs, its President, Pankaj Patel, "proposed institutionalising a CEOs Roundtable with Italy that would meet regularly or on the sidelines of the Joint Commission meetings to cross-pollinate India-Italy trade and investment relations". "The rising quantum of Indian investments reaching Italian shores was a key barometer to gauge business sentiments of Indian industry," Patel said. "Support from the Governments of India and Italy would give business the required impetus," he added. The roundtable here was attended by 19 Italian chief executives. They are part of the delegation of Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni who arrived here on Sunday on a two-day state visit to India. Indian business was represented by 16 companies at the roundtable, also attended by the Secretary and Additional Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). "The roundtable was an excellent opportunity to further deepen and strengthen the ties between Italy and India to explore joint ventures and partnerships," said Italian Trade Agency President Michele Scannavini. DIPP Secretary Ramesh Abhishek said at the meeting that the Indian government was working proactively towards building infrastructure and clearing bottleneck issues to create a conducive environment, according to the release. Italy is among India's five largest trading partners in the EU, with bilateral trade at $8.79 billion in 2016-17. India's exports to Italy total $4.90 billion and imports $3.89 billion, resulting in a trade balance of $1 billion in favour of India. Italy is the 13th largest investor in India with cumulative investments worth $2.41 billion from April 2000 to June 2017. There are over 600 Italian companies active in India covering various sectors such as fashion, garments, textile and textile machinery, automotive, automotive components industry, infrastructure, chemicals, energy, confectionery and insurance. The Italian Prime Minister's is the first such visit in a decade, in a bid to boost ties between New Delhi and Rome after the faceoff over two Italian marines. Romano Prodi was the last Italian Prime Minister to visit India in February 2007. --IANS bc/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Infertile women have 10 per cent higher chance of dying prematurely than those able to conceive and are 45 per cent more likely to die from breast cancer, a large study has found. The findings, presented at the annual congress of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) in San Antonio, suggest that having a baby could have a rejuvenating effect on the health of a woman. The results have prompted calls for women who struggle to conceive to be screened for certain cancers, the Telegraph reported on Monday. While it is not known for sure what links infertility and early mortality, the stark association with breast cancer, plus a 70 per cent increased risk of death from diabetes, points strongly towards hormone-related disorders. "Associations between infertility and medical disease have been noted in the male population, the relationship between a woman's fertility and her overall health has not been as robustly examined," lead researcher Natalie Stentz from University of Pennsylvania in the US was quoted as saying. "The study highlights the fact that a history of infertility is indeed related to women's lifelong health and opens potential opportunities for screening or preventative management for infertile women," Stentz added. The study followed more than 78,000 women for 13 years, 14 per cent of whom reported infertility, an inability to conceive for one year or more. Even though the incidence of diabetes was similar in fertile and infertile women, infertile women experienced an increased risk of death from endocrine-related diseases, including diabetes and breast cancer. Infertility was not, however, linked to increased rates of ovarian or uterine cancers. "One of the things we do know is that having a baby at some point in a woman's life is protective for health," Stentz said. --IANS gb/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, aspiring to enter the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), was arrested for cheating in the civil services main exam with Bluetooth equipment, a police officer said on Monday. Safeer Karim, currently an Assistant Superintendent of Police in Tirunelvelli district, was caught talking to his wife in Hyderabad for answers, according to the officer. The officer said being caught for cheating in exams will have a serious effect on Karim's career. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iran will abandon the nuclear agreement if any international sanctions are reintroduced, an Iranian military official said on Monday. Maj. Gen. Mohammad Baqeri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, made his remarks when he touched upon the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in a speech at National Conference on Passive Defence. "It is the decision of Iran to accept restrictions in return to remove sanctions, but if these sanctions return with other excuses, it will change decision to get out of the meaningless deal," he said, according to the Iranian news agency Mehr. Baqeri stressed that the JCPOA was a compromise between Iran and several countries and had been approved by the United Nations Security Council, so Tehran's withdrawal from the pact would be final in case of a reversal of sanctions. The nuclear agreement reached between Iran and the six major world powers in 2015 limits and oversees the Iranian nuclear programme to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons in return for lifting international sanctions. The United States President Donald Trump decided two weeks ago not to certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear pact and threatened to abandon it if its "shortcomings" were not corrected. Trump wants to correct the inspection mechanisms stated under the agreement, remove deadlines from the restrictions and deal with Tehran's ballistic missile programme. The Iranian authorities have repeatedly rejected a renegotiation of the agreement or limitations on its weapons programs, including missiles. The US Congress is now considering whether to re-impose sanctions related to Iran's nuclear program, but what it has already approved in recent months are sanctions against entities and individuals linked to Tehran's weapons programmes. --IANS ahm/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Islamic State and Al Qaeda have no links or concerns with Islam as it is a of peace, Sheikh Saleh Bin Abdullah Bin Humaid, the chief priest of Mecca, has said. In an interview with a private news channel, the prayer leader of Mecca's Grand Mosque said sectarianism was a curse which can be diminished by resolving mutual differences and following the "Kalma-e-Haq", the media reported on Monday. The Imam said that only the state was responsible for declaring jihad, not an organisation or a group of people, Radio Pakistan reported. He said that according to the holy Quran, killing one person without any reason would be considered killing the entire humanity. The Imam also said that Muslim countries were facing difficulties due to mutual differences and intolerance. --IANS soni/ahm/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Taliban on Monday said the health of one of the Kabul-based American University professors they had kidnapped over a year ago is critical. In August 2016, the Taliban had abducted two professors -- American Kevin King and Australian Timothy John Weekes -- while they were travelling in a university vehicle to their residence in Kabul. "One of them, the American professor, Kevin King, is suffering from critical heart disease (cardiac arrest) and kidney illness (renal illness)," Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement sent to Efe news. King's illness "has intensified, his feet have swollen and sometimes he becomes unconscious and his condition is getting critical every day", Mujahid added. He urged the US to secure his release in exchange for freeing Taliban prisoners being held at the Bagram base in north Afghanistan. The Taliban "are in a war situation and don't have access to good health care and treatment, so we can't provide full treatment to him", the statement said. Earlier this year, both hostages had appeared in a video pleading with then US President-elect Donald Trump to agree to the Taliban's conditions. --IANS ksk/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The lack of toilets and well-maintained manual water pumps have complicated the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh, according to a UN report. The report released on Sunday said that 30 per cent of the 4,370 manual pumps installed are in poor condition and 36 per cent of the 24,773 latrines were about to overflow in southeastern Bangladesh where some 750,000 Rohingya refugees are currently residing after fleeing violence in Myanmar, reports Efe news. "There is continuous new influx of refugees resulting in increase in population at multiple sites which is overloading existing WASH facilities (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) due to heavy use," the Inter Sector Coordination Group said in the report. According to the UN, the number of Rohingya refugees who have fled the armed conflict in Myanmar to Bangladesh since Aug 25 has risen to 607,000 - 2,000 more than the data collected on Friday - 561,000 of which took refuge in camps and another 46,000 in host communities. The new influx of Rohingya refugees brought the number of the Muslim minority ethnic group that sought refuge in Bangladesh to about 819,000. The goal of WASH services is to reach out to 750,000 refugees that live with poor water sanitation and hygiene, although the UN admitted that their humanitarian services have reached only 530,000, adding that the situation is worrisome due to overpopulation, poor infrastructure and shallow aquifers. Abu Naim Md Shafiullah Talukder of the WASH Department of the UN Inter Sector Coordination Group told Efe news that the manual water pumps work poorly due to excessive use. Regarding the latrines, Talukder said that it is normal that they are about to overflow since many people are using them, but warned that this could force the refugees to defecate in open air, deteriorating the overall hygienic conditions in the camps. The conflict in Myanmar began when a Rohingya insurgent group carried out a coordinated attack on various police and military posts, sparking a violent response from the Myanmar military. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has labelled the military campaign against the Rohingya Muslim minority group in Myanmar as ethnic cleansing. --IANS ksk (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pharma major Lupin Ltd on Monday reported Rs 455 crore consolidated net profit for the second quarter of fiscal 2017-18, posting 31 per cent decline from Rs 662 crore in the same period year ago. Sequentially, consolidated net profit for the quarter under review, however, increased from Rs 358 crore last quarter. In a regulatory filing on the BSE, the city-based drug firm said consolidated revenue from operations declined 8 per cent annually to Rs 3,952 crore from Rs 4,291 crore in the like period year ago, but grew 2.1 per cent sequentially from Rs 3,870 crore last quarter. Operating profit also declined 17 per cent annually to Rs 853 crore for Q2 from Rs 1,031 crore last year though up 20 per cent sequentially from Rs 768 crore last quarter. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) declined 12 per cent annually to Rs 927 crore for Q2 from Rs 1,058 crore last year, but increased 21 per cent sequentially from Rs 800 crore last quarter. "We have recorded strong growth in all our markets in Q2 but for the US generic business where we continue to see pricing pressure, as expected," said Lupin Managing Director Nilesh Gupta in a statement. The Ebitda sequential growth was fuelled by optimising operations and investing 12 per cent more on research and development to Rs 474 crore. "We are on track with our generic pipeline and have made progress on the speciality front with the acquisition of Symbiomix in the US," added Gupta. The company's blue chip scrip of Rs 2 face value gained Rs 26.70 per share when trading on the BSE closed to end at Rs 1,027.55 from Friday's closing rate of Rs 1,000.85 and opening price of Rs 1,005 after touching a high of Rs 1,090 and a low of Rs 993.50 during the intra-day trading sessions. --IANS fb/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Top Congress leaders, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party Vice President Rahul Gandhi, will be in Kerala next month to take part in a state-wide yatra to highlight the "failures" of both the state and central governments. The yatra, to begin from Kasargode district on Wednesday, will be led by Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennithala. Announcing this to the media on Monday, Chennithala said: "The yatra will highlight the dismal failure of both the state and the central governments. Manmohan Singh will address a public meeting as part of the yatra at Kochi on November 18, while Rahul Gandhi will be here on December 1, when the yatra gets over," said Chennithala. Other party leaders to take part include former Union Ministers P. Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Murali Deora, Chief Ministers of Puducherry (V. Narayanasamy) and Karnataka (Siddaramaiah). JD-U rebel leader Sharad Yadav will also take part in the yatra. "The Congress-led UDF workers will observe November 8 as 'black day' to mark the first anniversary of demonetisation. Chidambaram will address the rally at Kozhikode that day," added Chennithala. The BJP held a yatra this month against the CPI-M-led state government, which was followed by one by the Left against the BJP. The Congress' yatra will be the third such political march. --IANS sg/rn (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) After nearly 18 months, the famed 110-year old Matheran Toy Train resumed partial services on Monday, after it was suspended in May 2016 following several derailments, a top official said. "The train resumed services on the critical Matheran-Aman Lodge sector, around 3.5 km distance. We are planning to restart services on the entire 21-km Neral-Matheran route as soon as possible," Central Railway (CR) CPRO Sunil Udasi told IANS today. From Monday, the CR started 12 shuttles daily on the route. It started from Matheran at 8.50 a.m. and in return direction from Aman Lodge at 9.25 a.m., in what is Asia's only automobile-free hill station nestled in the Western Ghats, around 110 kms from both Mumbai and Pune. To ensure passenger safety, the CR has introduced enhanced safety features in the toy train 'Phul Rani', and replaced the original manual brakes with the safer air brakes system. In the original system, there was a manual braking in which six brake porters applied the brakes in sync and any timelag between could cause an accident. Under the new air brake system, the train driver can now slow down or apply the brakes as required without the involvement of the brake porters. Udasi said that the final trials to check the safety and operational issues before top officials were conducted on Sunday before giving the green signal to resume operations from Monday. The resumption of services would prove a boon to the local residents and tourists to Matheran as the winter peak tourism season has started and they were forced to cough out exorbitant amounts to hire horses or carts. The other option for the able-bodied people was to walk the steep route from Matheran to Dasturi Naka, the termination point for all vehicles outside the hill station precincts. The narrow guage toy train is considered a marvel and ascends in a crazy zig-zag (with more than 280 steep turns) from Neral to Matheran, around 2,500 feet from sea-level, offering breathtaking views of the lush green and steep hills and deep valleys, highlighting the beauty of the hill station. The toy train was built by a Mumbai industrialist, the late Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy at a staggering cost of Rs 1.60 million in seven years, between 1901-1907. The hill railway contributed in a big way to the growth of Matheran and forever changed the face of the tiny hillstation, after it was discovered in May 1850 by the then Mumbai Collector Hugh Poyntz Malet. --IANS qn/in/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Rabat, Oct 30 (IANS/MAP) Morocco launched on Monday the "Innov Invest Fund", an investment offer of 700 million Dirhams to seed stage companies and innovating small and medium enterprise (SMEs) in the country. The fund is aimed at reinforcing the equity financing offer in favour of Moroccan innovative startups with a strong growth potential. Speaking on the occasion, Minister of Economy and Finance, Mohamed Boussaid, said that the fund will offer funding-for-equity through smart debts to 300 project holders. The fund offers real opportunities in terms of support and funding for startups and innovative project holders, the Minister added. Senior economist at the World Bank, Randa Akeel said the fund is aimed at boosting Morocco's venture capital market and supporting young Moroccan entrepreneurs. She noted that the World Bank contributed by $50 million to the project. --IANS/MAP soni/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui on Monday apologised and announced that he is withdrawing his book "An Ordinary Life" after a complaint was reportedly filed against him for outraging the modesty of his "Miss Lovely" co-star Niharika Singh. "I am apologising to everyone who's sentiments are hurt because of the chaos around my memoir 'An Ordinary Life'. I hereby regret and decide to withdraw my book," Nawazuddin posted on Twitter. According to reports, the complaint was filed by Delhi advocate Gautam Gulati at the National Commission for Women (NCW). Last week, Niharika slammed Nawazuddin for not taking her consent before sharing their personal equation with the world in his memoir. She said the way he has "painted" her image, it appears he doesn't mind disrespecting a woman to boost the sales of his book. "Nawaz and I had a brief relationship in 2009 during the making of 'Miss Lovely' that lasted less than a few months. So today, when he paints me as a woman in fur enticing him into her bedroom with candles, or desperately calling him and mailing other women on his behalf, I can only laugh. "He obviously wants to sell his book and it would appear that he is willing to exploit and disrespect a woman just to do so," Niharika said. Excerpts from "An Ordinary Life" (Penguin Random House/pp 240/Rs 389), a memoir that Nawazuddin has come out with Rituparna Chatterjee, reveal that the National Award winning actor has spoken extensively on his personal life and relationships. --IANS sas/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Iran has not stopped building missiles and has no intention of doing so, said President Hassan Rouhani. Rouhani's remarks came on Sunday, three days after the US House of Representatives approved legislation that would impose new sanctions on Tehran for pursuing long-range ballistic missiles, the Los Angeles Times reported. In a speech carried on nationwide television, Rouhani insisted that no international agreements prohibit the development of such non-nuclear weapons, and that Iran has a right to produce them for its own defence. "We will build, produce and store any weapon of any kind we need to defend ourselves, our territorial integrity and our nation, and we will not hesitate about it," he said, according to a translation provided by the Iranian Students News Agency. Several times in the speech, Rouhani took aim at the US for what he called its "shaky" commitment to the nuclear deal negotiated under the Obama administration. US President Donald Trump has consistently attacked the deal, and recently refused to certify that Iran is living up to its end, although he did not pull out of the agreement as he has threatened to do. "The administration of a country that abandons international commitments of the previous administration is not reliable," the Iranian leader said. In negotiating and signing the nuclear deal with the US, Rouhani frequently clashed with more conservative forces in Iran who opposed any cessation of the country's nuclear weapons program. But there is near unanimity across the political spectrum in Iran on maintaining a robust missile program. "The missile project is a red line for everybody," said Saeed Laylaz, an economist and journalist who is considered a political moderate and reformer. "Nobody allows any country to put limits on its defensive military programme." Hamid Reza Taraghi, an influential conservative politician who is close to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, agreed. "All neighbouring countries in the region have missiles," he said in an interview. "Israel has nuclear weapons, Pakistan and India have nuclear warheads, then we cannot have missiles? Give me a break." --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hundreds of farmers from across Odisha and neighbouring West Bengal staged a demonstration here on Monday highlighting various issues faced by the farming community. Farmers from various districts of the state, under the banner of Odisha Krushak Sangathan Samanaya Samiti, staged 'Krushak Adhikar Chetabani Samavesh' against government apathy towards the community. The Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sangharsh Samiti of West Bengal also joined the protest. Holding banners and shouting slogans, the farmers demanded a hike in minimum support price (MSP) and farm loan waiver. Terming Rs 80 hike on paddy MSP insufficient, they demanded that the MSP of paddy should be increased to Rs 2,930 per quintal as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Environmentalist and farmer leader Prafulla Samantray, who joined the protest, termed both the state and the centre governments as anti-farmers. He alleged that at a time when the state government itself is yet to give bonus to the farmers, it has urged the Central government to increase the paddy MSP to Rs 2,930 per quintal. Samantray also came down heavily on the Centre for hiking the paddy MSP by a meagre Rs 80 even though Modi had, in the run up to the 2014 general elections, promised to double the price. He said the farmers would intensify their stir in every village if the government does not take up the issues and provide justice to them. Agriculture Minister Damodar Rout said the Reserve Bank of India was against the idea of loan waiver to farmers. --IANS cd/him/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan on Monday confirmed the death of two Chinese nationals who were abducted from Balochistan earlier this year. "The DNA reports have confirmed that the two persons killed in Balochistan in June 2017 were the same two Chinese nationals who were kidnapped from Quetta in May," a Foreign Office statement said. Lee Zing Yang, 24, and Meng Li Si, 26, were abducted from Jinnah Town in the city on May 24. The confirmation from the Foreign Office came months after the Islamic State claimed it had killed the Chinese man and woman who had reportedly been "preaching" in Balochistan under the garb of learning Urdu. "The Government of Pakistan expresses its deep sense of shock and grief on this brutal act of terrorism," the statement read, while extending condolences to Beijing and to the Chinese couple's relatives. Beijing is ramping up investment in Pakistan as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor unveiled in 2015 that will link its Xinjiang region to Gwadar port with a series of infrastructure, power and transport upgrades. --IANS ahm/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan on Monday returned the last of five helicopters given to it by the US for monitoring the country's border with Afghanistan, the media reported. The US gave a total of nine helicopters to Pakistan in 2002. Pakistan had returned four of them on October 15, Geo News reported. The remaining choppers were loaded on a transport aircraft in Islamabad. This is expected to land in the US on Tuesday. The choppers had been used in Balochistan and in anti-narcotics operations, according to the report. --IANS ahm/mr (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has arrived here from Saudi Arabia to hold a key consultative meeting on Monday with his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party leaders, including current Premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Talking to media after his arrival at Heathrow Airport on Sunday night, Sharif said he will soon return to Pakistan. Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif and other key cabinet members were also likely to attend the high-level consultative meeting of the PML-N, Dawn news reported. The top-level consultations come as legal pressure on Sharif and his family builds in the wake of the so-called Panama Papers judgment. Meanwhile, ahead of the key party meeting, Abbasi said there was no rift among national institutions. The Premier said he neither believed in conspiracy theories nor there was any room for those in the country. Abbasi said both the political and military leadership was sitting together during the recent meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Islamabad and all of the country's institutions were collectively playing their role for national development. Abbasi reiterated that there was no provision for technocrat government in Pakistan's Constitution. Last week, the accountability court hearing corruption references against the Sharif family issued bailable warrants for the former Premier in the three references against him as he had been a no-show in the proceedings. The references against the Sharif family pertain to the Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metals Establishment, their London properties and over dozen offshore companies owned by the family. The hearing was then adjourned until November 3 with the last chance for Sharif to ensure his presence in court. The former Prime Minister's daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired Captain Muhammad Safdar had already been indicted in one corruption case. --IANS soni/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ex-servicemen who were protesting at Jantar Mantar since 2015 were on Monday evicted from the spot, police said, while the veterans complained that many of them were manhandled and some also injured. The action came as police and Municipal Corporation officials evicted a number of protesters from the site after a National Green Tribunal order of October 5 banning protests at Jantar Mantar. Delhi Police said around 150 people from 32 groups of protesters were evicted from the site to implement the green tribunal's order, and two companies of police have been deployed at Jantar Mantar to stop protesters from gathering there again. A group of ex-servicemen have kept on their protest at the site since June 15, 2015 for One Rank One Pension (OROP) even after the government implemented the scheme, stating that the one given by Defence Ministry is flawed and not the OROP that was promised. Maj Gen Satbir Singh (retd), the advisor to the United Front of Ex-Servicemen and Chairman, Indian Ex-Servicemen Movement, said veterans were forcefully removed and three people, including a woman received injuries in the process. "We were brutally removed from the site early morning around 7.30 a.m. Police had come with officials of the municipal corporation. They manhandled us and took away our equipment, even though we said we would leave by evening if another place is provided," Satbir Singh told IANS.A He added that they were taken to a police station following the eviction and kept there till 4 p.m. Accusing the government was suppressing their voice, he said that they had not been given appropriate options to continue protest at another site. "Where is the alternate site for protest? Ramlila ground, they charge Rs 50,000 for a day, and the place does not even have toilets. How are we supposed to protest there," Satbir Singh asked. "If the Prime Minister thinks he can suppress our voices, I would appeal to the nation to question why the government is acting in this manner. We protect the borders so that people can sleep in peace. Here ex-soldiers are being manhandled," he added. "This is murder of democracy, government wants to suppress our voices. It is the second time they have used force on us. Ex-soldiers being treated like criminals by the police," he said. Attempts were earlier made to forcefully evict the retired soldiers from their protest site at Jantar Mantar on August 14, 2015, ahead of Independence Day. However, following criticism, authorities allowed the ex-servicemen to reclaim the site within hours. Satbir Singh also pointed out that the NGT had given a deadline till November 3 and questioned the evacuation. The NGT on October 5 had ordered a stop to all protests, public gatherings and use of loudspeakers at Delhi's designated protest site Jantar Mantar, and asked authorities to remove all makeshift or permanent structures from the area. The green panel directed all protests should now be held at Ram Leela Maidan in Ajmeri Gate. --IANS ao/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Restored Indian silent film "Shiraz: A Romance of India", which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival Archive Gala earlier this month, has been given a live score performed by British Indian sitar player and composer Anoushka Shankar. The film will travel to four Indian cities as part of the UK/India 2017 Year of Culture, read a joint statement from The British Council and the British Film Institute (BFI). The BFI holds the original negative material of Shiraz in the Archive. Franz Osten's Indian silent classic has been remastered by the conservation team at the BFI National Archive. The film will now travel to Hyderabad, Kolkata, New Delhi and Mumbai in India from November 1 to November 5, accompanied by live performance of a specially commissioned score by Shankar and an orchestral ensemble. "Shiraz: A Romance of India" tells the love story of the 17th century princess who inspired the construction of the Taj Mahal. For the modern viewer the appeal of Shiraz is the extreme rarity of a sophisticated silent feature film made outside the major producing nations of the West, the gorgeous settings and costumes and the glories of the spectacular fort at Agra and of course the iconic Taj Mahal, a central character here in its own right. Following the Indian tour the film will be screened around the UK in January 2018 and be released on Blu-ray by BFI. On bringing Shiraz back to audiences in India, BFI Head Curator Robin Baker said: "These gala performances of Shiraz are the culmination of the thousands of hours it has taken the BFI National Archive to restore and transform a silent film classic, ensuring that it is safely preserved for future generations. "Very few Indian silent films survive, which makes 'Shiraz: A Romance of India' all the more important and precious. It seems particularly fitting that in this UK-India Year of Culture 2017 we celebrate with a film that brought together talent from India and the UK 90 years ago - while the new score brings the film right up to date thanks to the genius of Anoushka Shankar," Baker added. --IANS ks/sas/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is gearing up to partner with Japanese taxi provider Daiichi Koutsu Sangyo and launch an app-based cab service in Tokyo early next year, reports said on Monday. Unlicensed private vehicles in Japan are generally prohibited from engaging in paid transportation, which is Didi's bread and butter, according to Nikkei Asian Review. As a workaround, Didi is entering the Japanese market via taxicabs rather than private vehicles, the report added. Comprising around 8,700 vehicles, Daiichi Koutsu Sangyo has the largest taxi fleet in Japan. The Chinese ride-hailing company now plans to register about 500 of those in its proprietary application by early next year, with the number to eventually rise to a few thousand. Didi will reportedly expand the service nationally by joining hands with other Japanese taxi companies. Both the companies are currently deciding on fares, operating procedures among other details. Meanwhile, Daiichi Koutsu is eyeing to leverage the collaboration to attract more Chinese tourists in turn. Headquartered in Beijing, Didi is the world's largest ride-hailing facilitator with over 21 million rides a day among its approximately 440 million registered users. Currently, the platform is available primarily in Chinese but support for Japanese-language version is expected. --IANS ksc/na/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday reiterated that genuine Indian citizens need not worry about exclusion of their names during the updation of National Register of Citizens, and accusing some sections of trying to spread a misinformation campaign. "Those spreading misinformation campaign about the NRC are anti-nationals. NRC is meant to protect the country. Genuine Indian citizens do not need to worry about being excluded from the NRC and the state government is committed to prepare a flawless draft NRC," he told media here. The NRC of 1951 is being updated in Assam through a Supreme Court monitored process and the draft updated NRC is expected to be published next month. The updated NRC is expected to effectively deal with the issue of illegal foreigners in the state. NRC coordinator Pratik Hajela recently stated that around 48 lakh people in the state have submitted panchayat certificates as supporting document for inclusion of their names in the NRC and that out of this, 17.4 lakh have been identified as original inhabitants. The rest are being examined. This has led to large-scale apprehension among the people that their names would not figure in the draft NRC. Several organisations like the All Assam Minority Students' Union and Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind have also questioned the classification 'original inhabitant'. The government has sought additional forces to be deployed in the state as the misinformation campaign could lead to law and order problem after the draft NRC is published. Congress alleged the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government is delaying the NRC updation process and trying to create a divide between Hindus and Muslims. --IANS ah/him/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Stubble burning in Punjab has dropped by 30 per cent this year as compared to last year, the state government told the National Green Tribunal (NGT) here on Monday. The Tribunal had earlier this month rapped the Punjab government for not incentivising the farmers or assisting them to manage the crop residue, estimated to be around 35 million tonne, which is consistently being set ablaze by farmers to make up for the short window between winter and summer crops. "There were 14,432 cases of stubble burning this year, while in 2016 there were 22,269 cases," the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) told the bench headed by Justice Swatanter Kumar. The Tribunal has also sought clarity from the central government over incentivising the farmers against stubble burning. Earlier this month, the Punjab government sought Rs 2,000 crore as financial help from the central government to support its farmers by removing paddy straw from the fields to avoid its burning. The NGT had earlier fixed the environment penalty amount per incident of crop burning to be paid by small land owners having less than two acres of land at Rs 2,500, medium land owners holding over two acres and less than five acres at Rs 5,000 and those owning over five acres at Rs 15,000. Stubble burning in neighbouring states has direct impact on Delhi's air quality that continues deteriorating. The NGT had in 2015 asked Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan to curb this practice and later asked them to incentivise small farmers to manage the stubble. --IANS kd/him/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) External Affairs Minster Sushma Swaraj on Monday called on visiting Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and discussed issues of mutual interest. "EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on Prime Minister of Italy Paolo Gentiloni in New Delhi. Engaging discussion on issues of mutual interest," ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. Gentiloni arrived here on Sunday night. This was the first Italian prime ministerial visit since the last one in February 2007 by then Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Earlier on Monday, Gentiloni was accorded by President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a ceremonial welcome in the Rashtrapati Bhawan. Gentiloni also visited Rajghat along with his wife and paid floral tribute to the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi. Later in the day, Modi will hold delegation-level talks with Gentiloni, following which a number of agreements are expected to be signed. --IANS ab-aks/ksk/vm (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre has proposed to fix emission standards for 21 industries, including sugar and leather, using cheap but highly polluting fuel petcoke. According to the draft gazette notification, put up the Union Environment Ministry's website, the 21 industries that use petroleum coke or its blends will have to adhere to emission standards of 600 milligrams per cubic metre for sulphur and 300 milligrams per cubic metre for nitrogen dioxide. The standards also apply on other fuels but not on those based on natural gas or agro. The notification came days after the apex court reprimanded the Union Environment Ministry for not setting standards for industries using the highly polluting fuel. The apex court also banned the cheap fuel completely from November 1 in Delhi and NCR where 34 industries are using petcoke. It also slapped a fine of Rs 2 lakh on the Union Environment Ministry for failing to fix the standards as ordered in June. There are 35 major industries including thermal power plants that use petcoke. The new emission standards will apply to sugar, cotton textiles, composite woollen mills, synthetic rubber, pulp and paper, distilleries, leather industries, calcium carbide, carbon black, natural rubber, asbestos, caustic soda, small boilers, aluminium plants, tannery, inorganic chemical, lime kiln, glass, ceramic, foundries and re-heating furnaces industries. After the new standards are implemented, the industries will have to either switch to cleaner fuel or invest heavily in the technologies, according to experts. "These are pretty good standards. To meet them, these industries will have to either use cleaner fuel or use de-sulphurisation technologies which are quite expensive," Polash Mukherjee, Research associate at Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), told IANS. Petcoke is made from the residue of the petroleum refineries and contains very high volume of sulphur and other major pollutants. Petcoke is banned across several countries. The manufacturing of petcoke results in emission of carbon dioxide, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, sulhpur dioxide and traces of heavy metals, according to Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The notification also says that industries will have to do real time online monitoring of sulphur emissions and install systems linked with pollution monitoring systems of CPCB and State Pollution Control Board. The ministry has invited objection or suggestions from people within next 60 days when the amendments to environment protection rules come into force. --IANS kd/sar/vd (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi on Monday opposed any re-investigation into the assassination of the Father of the Nation but the Supreme Court questioned his locus standi. The query from a bench headed by Justice S.A. Bobde came as senior counsel Indira Jaising told the court that she was seeking to intervene on behalf of the Mahatma's great-grandson. Jaising questioned the locus standi of the petitioner Pankaj Kumudchandra Phadnis seeking the reinvestigation citing some new material. Jaising said the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi cannot be re-investigated after 70 years. She said that this was a basic criminal law. She also said she would address the court on the locus of Tushar Gandhi on the next date of hearing. The court adjourned the hearing by four weeks as amicus curiae Amrendra Sharan told the court he has got some documents from the National Archives but not the entire lot. Sharan told the court that he would submit a report that will put quietus to the whole issue. After the top court questioned his locus standi, Tushar Gandhi took to Twitter to ask the Supreme Court to note that "I am Tushar Arun Manilal Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi". "Bapu's murderers have launched a campaign to falsify circumstances of his murder, a pathetic attempt to cleanse his blood from their hands," Tushar wrote on the mirco-blogging site. He also posted a picture of the cover page of his 2007 book "Let's Kill Gandhi: A Chronicle of His Last Days, the Conspiracy, Murder, Investigation and Trial", reiterating to the Supreme Court to note that it was "my locus standi" with regard to the case. "I am Tushar Arun Manilal Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. My Locus Standi, Supreme Court, please note," he posted in another tweet. The top court in the last hearing on October 6 had appointed senior counsel Sharan as amicus curiae to examine the material produced by Phadnis to ascertain whether there was need for further inquiry into the larger conspiracy behind the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Phadnis has moved the top court challenging the Bombay High Court's June 6, 2016 order junking his plea for fresh inquiry into the larger conspiracy behind the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in the wake of fresh evidence that has surfaced now. Pointing fingers at the British Secret Service Force, the petitioner said that the Indian Ambassador to USSR was informed in February 1948 that the British had organized the murder of Mahatma Gandhi. He also said he has come across evidence of a sinister British secret service Force 136 that had authorization to murder iconic freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose. Describing the investigation into the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi as the biggest cover-up in Indian history, Phadnis in his petition has said that "The blame on Marathi people in general and Veer Savarkar in particular for being the cause of the death of Mahatma has no basis in law and facts." He said in his petition that there was a "compelling need to uncover the larger conspiracy behind the murder of Mahatma Gandhi by constituting a new Commission of Inquiry". --IANS pk/rn (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US military sent a nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bomber on a long-range mission to the Pacific over the weekend ahead of President Donald Trumps Asia tour that includes a visit to South Korea and Japan. The US military Strategic Command said the mission took place on Sunday, a day after Pentagon chief Jim Mattis highlighted rival North Korea's "accelerating" atomic weapons programme during a visit to South Korea, the Japan Times reported. "I cannot imagine a condition under which the US would accept North Korea as a nuclear power," Mattis said. The long-range mission was conducted to "familiarise aircrew with airbases and operations in different geographic combatant commands, enabling them to maintain a high state of readiness and proficiency", the US military said in a statement. The statement also referred to the B-2 mission as "a visible demonstration of commitment to our allies and enhancing regional security". The weekend flight of the B-2, which can carry conventional as well as nuclear bombs, came just ahead of Trump's Asia tour from November 3 to 14. The US President will visit Japan between November 5 to 7 and will meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for talks that are expected to focus on the North Korean nuclear crisis. Trump will also visit South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that the South Korean regime nodded to its intent to suggest offering maintenance support for US strategic military assets deployed in the country with the hope that "the US will expand its missions on the Korean peninsula without any concerns over issues of maintenance, fuel supplies and so forth". Earlier in October, B-1B bombers were deployed from US territory of Guam during military exercises with the South Korean Air Force in the wake of rising tensions with the North Korean regime. Reacting to the move, Pyongyang said it will shoot down any US bombers violating its air space. North Korea also reportedly spent the weekend preparing for a war, conducting evacuation and black out drills across the country, NK News reported. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert has called on Iraqi Kurdish parties to support the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and work to realize a "strong KRG within a united and federal Iraq". A strong KRG is essential to the Iraqi long-term stability and to the enduring defeat of the Islamic State (IS), said Nauert on Monday, urging all Kurdish parties to support the KRG to resolve pending issues over the remainder of its term and prepare for elections in 2018, Xinhua news agency reported. She also hailed the decision of President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani not to seek another term. "President Barzani is a historic figure and courageous leader of his people," she said. "This decision represents an act of statesmanship during a difficult period." The US also welcomes the recent decision from Iraqi Prime Minister Gaider al-Abadi to begin a new dialogue with the KRG, she noted. "It is time for all parties to look to the future and focus on peaceful resolution of disputes." --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vistara, a joint venture between the Tata group and Singapore Airlines, has launched direct flights between Delhi and Ranchi starting Sunday. "Vistara will operate double daily direct flights between the two cities, providing a convenient same-day return option to travellers," the airline said in a statement. "We are delighted to add Ranchi to our network and introduce the citizens of Jharkhand to a superior flying experience, as we continue to pioneer concepts and set new standards in service," Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Strategy and Commercial Officer, Vistara said. It "reflects our strong commitment to the market, and we're confident that many business travellers and tourists will be delighted to fly their favourite airline to and from Ranchi", he said. Ranchi is a perfect fit into Vistara's network for business and leisure travellers alike, the airline said. With one-stop flights, Vistara also connects Ranchi to many other destinations via Delhi, including Mumbai, Srinagar, Jammu, Kochi and Hyderabad. --IANS mm/in/vm (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior IPS officer Y.C. Modi, who was part of a Supreme Court-appointed team that probed the 2002 Gujarat riots cases, on Monday took over as NIA chief, succeeding Sharad Kumar. In an official statement, the counter terror probe agency said, Yogesh Chander Modi, a 1984 batch IPS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, took over as Director General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA). He succeeded Sharad Kumar, a 1979 batch IPS officer of Haryana Cadre, who completed his tenure. Modi will hold the post till his superannuation on May 31, 2021, according to an order from the Department of Personnel and Training. He was named as NIA head on September 18. Modi takes over the NIA at a time when it is probing the funding of separatists and stone-pelters in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan-based terrorist groups. Earlier, Modi had joined the NIA as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) on September 22. Before that he was posted as Special Director with the CBI. Modi was appointed Additional Director of CBI in 2015. Modi was part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that probed the Gujarat riots cases in August 2010 and remained part of the team till July 2012. The SIT had cleared Narendra Modi, who at that time was Gujarat Chief Minister, in the Gulbarg Society massacre case. According to NIA, Y.C. Modi in his career spanning over 33 years, has extensive experience of investigation, intelligence and operations. "He worked with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a period of around 10 years in two stints from 2002-2010 and 2015-2017, where he handled special crime and economic offences besides anti-corruption cases." Modi was awarded the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2001 and the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2008. Sharad Kumar was appointed NIA chief on August 5, 2013. He was given two extensions -- the latest on October 23 last year. "The NIA, under his inspiring and able leadership, made path-breaking progress with its thorough and professional investigation," the agency said. The statement said that during Sharad Kumar's tenure, the NIA achieved significant successes in solving many complex terrorist crimes and unearthing intricate conspiracies, including the Bodh Gaya temple blast, blast at Patna rally of the then prime ministerial candidate of the BJP Narendra Modi, Pathankot airbase attack case, ISIS and the Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case. The agency said that it expanded its geographical presence to the entire country with the creation of three new branch offices at Kolkata, Raipur and Jammu. The office and residential complex of the Lucknow branch office was also inaugurated in August 2017. --IANS aks/rn (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) South African President Zacob Juma's office has denied claims about his wrongdoing in relation to some undeclared funds. Allegations contained in the reports "are misleading and are clearly part of the ongoing smear campaigns" against Zuma, Presidential spokesperson Bongani Ngqulunga said on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported. The Sunday Times newspaper published excerpts from a book called "The President's Keepers," which claims that Zuma received a "salary" of 1 million rand (about $70,000) a month from a controversial tender mogul without declaring it to the South African Revenue Service (SARS). The book, written by investigative journalist Jacques Pauw, also claims that Zuma did not submit his tax returns mainly due to the predicament of the Nkandla upgrades, which refers to the alleged abuse of public funding in upgrading Zuma's private home in Nkandla, his native place in KwaZulu-Natal Province. Zuma has declared to the relevant authorities all income received, said Ngqulunga. "The President has also not received any information related to taxes linked to the Nkandla upgrades as alleged by the media," Ngqulunga added. --IANS pgh/ (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Though management gurus have often said there is no such thing as merger of equals, bankers appear to have great faith in the dictum. When asked for his views on bank mergers, former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Y V Reddy said: It should be a merger of equals. Otherwise, I am reminded of George Bernard Shaw getting a marriage proposal from a beautiful lady... While he was referring to an exchange widely believed to have taken place between Isadora Duncan and playwright George Bernard Shaw, he was repeating what former State Bank of India chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya had said a few months agothat the merger of public sector banks should be between equals. The government managed a moment of shock and awe with the recently announced plan to recapitalise public sector banks (PSBs). The sheer size of the recap, at Rs 2,11,000 crore, to be disbursed within two years was unprecedented. The announcement was unexpected both in terms of timing and scale. The markets gave the move a big thumbs up, taking the PSB stocks up by 30-40 per cent in a matter of a few hours. Many global investment banks are now falling over themselves in rushing to upgrade the sector. Many analysts are calling this the second most significant reform of the Modi regime (after the goods and services tax), and are busy raising their estimates for GDP growth in FY19. Many feel we will now finally unclog the banking system of non-performing assets, allow a clearing price to be established for bad assets and purge the system of bad loans and unproductive assets. There are some who also feel that the one-way trade of being overweight on private sector banks and NBFCs, and short the public sector banks, positioning which had continued to generate outperformance for a decade, was now coming to an end. The idea of India, Australia, Japan and the US cooperating in defence and commerce in the Asia-Pacific has been around for over a decade. This quadrilateral partnership has also been referred to as a Concert of Democracies, underlining its counterpoise to authoritarian China. It first gained traction in 2007, when the navies of the four countries trained together in Exercise Malabar, prompting a diplomatic demarche from Beijing, which wrote to all four capitals acerbically asking who they were training to fight against. In 2008, the quadrilateral fell victim to domestic politics after Australia elected Kevin Rudd prime minister and the China-friendly leader promptly ended further quadrilateral engagement. Now Japans Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, the driving force behind the 2007 quadrilateral, has again mooted a coming together of the four countries, this time to counteract Beijings Belt and Road Initiative and its growing assertiveness in the South China Sea. Prime Minister Narendra Modis government, which had expanded the bilateral US-India Exercise Malabar into a trilateral featuring Japan in 2016, and this year invited Australian military personnel to attend Malabar 2017 as observers, has signalled its willingness to include like-minded countries code for Australia. The Congress party leadership on Monday asked finance ministers of state governments run by the party to be more forthright in criticism of the Narendra Modi governments flawed goods and services tax (GST). It also wants these people to move amendments to improve it at the next GST Council meeting, on November 10 in Guwahati. Prime Minister on Sunday launched a veiled but scathing attack on the Congress over corruption in development funds, asking which was the "hand" that reduced every rupee of government money to 15 paise before it reached the beneficiary. Addressing a public rally in Ujjire near Dharmasthala, a temple town in Dakshina Kannada, Modi also took a dig at the opposition for its criticism of demonetisation aimed at making the economy less dependent on cash, saying even parents limit cash given to their children because it spoils them. Without naming Rajiv Gandhi, Modi recalled that a former Prime Minister had said that from every rupee sanctioned by the government, only 15 paise reached its beneficiary in a village. "One of the Prime Ministers had said every rupee is reduced to 15 paise when it reaches a village after getting sanctioned from Delhi. Which 'hand' reduces the rupee?" he asked, in a sarcastic reference to the Congress election symbol. He said this was not the case with his government that was committed to devote every rupee and every resource for the welfare of Indians so that fruits of development reached the beneficiaries without any scope of corruption. Modi said cash currency had always been changing from stone coins, rubber coins, gold and silver coins in the economic history of the world and now it was the time for digital currency in the world. "India cannot lag behind." Beginning his address in Kannada, the Prime Minister, at the event organised by the charitable trust of the Sri Kshetra Dharmastala Rural Development Project, gave away RuPay cards to the Self Help Groups enrolled for Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and launched their digitised cashless transactions. He said such self-help groups, who have pledged to conduct their businesses cashlessly, have answered all those who spoke against demonetisation, questioning how was it possible to become cashless in a country where the poor and less literate have no digital connectivity. "But today, you have answered them. Aren't our women in rural areas educated? Twelve lakh people have pledged to make their businesses cashless. When your intentions are good, even obstacles can speed up your work. You have sown the seeds of digital India, less-cash society. I congratulate you," Modi said. "Even parents limit cash to their children because they think it will spoil them. That is why self-accountability is very important." He urged people to use Bhim App and embrace cashless transactions in the "era of honesty and integrity" where there "is no place for those who cheat the system". The Prime Minister urged farmers to conserve water and work with the motto "one drop, more crop". "By 2022, when India will celebrate 75 years of independence, can all the farmers take a pledge to cut down the urea use by 50 per cent? It will be a great service to the earth and will save farmers' money." He said water conservation was a major challenge in the current days of global warming. "We need to give importance to living in harmony with nature and not think about short term gains." Modi urged Karnataka farmers to take up the methods of drip and seaweed irrigation methods that can help in soil and water conservation. Modi arrived in Karnataka in the morning to take part in various public functions. He landed at the Mangaluru airport and flew to Dharmasthala in a helicopter and prayed at the Manjunatheshwara temple in Dharmasthala, about 100 km away from Mangaluru. Due to his visit, the temple administration restricted public entry till 2 p.m. on Sunday. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 11 people were killed today and several others injured in two separate road accidents in Nepal. In the first incident, seven people died and seven others sustained injuries in western Gulmi district when a micro-bus heading towards Tamghas in Gulmi skidded off the road and rolled down a hill, the police said. The injured were admitted to Shringa Health Post, Palpa for medical treatment. In the second incident, four people were killed while six others were injured when a jeep en route to Jayaramghat from Katari Bazaar fell 400 meters in Katari Municipality along the Siddhicharan Lokmarga. The accident took place after the driver lost control of the jeep at 1:30 pm, said police. A woman, a child and the driver were brought to Katari Hospital after being rescued by police with the help of locals. On Saturday, an overcrowded passenger bus veered off a road and plunged into a river in central Nepal's Dhading district, killing 31 people, including an Indian woman. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Altogether 18 Bangladeshi infiltrators were arrested from Nazurpura village of Sipahijala district, the police said today. Acting on an information, the police raided the area near the Indo-Bangla border in Sonamura sub-division and arrested 18 intruders from the neighbouring country last evening. During interrogation they admitted that they belonged to Natore district of Bangladesh and were going to Chennai in search of jobs, the police said, adding that the foreigners had initially claimed that they were Indians and shown fake Aadhaar cards. DGP A K Shukla, who was on a tour for inspection of the police stations in the area, and SP Sudipta Das also interrogated them. The police said the villagers had claimed that in the last three days, at least 2,500 Bangladeshis had sneaked into India through Nazurpura village. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena leader Amit Jani and his associate were arrested by the Special Task Force here today for allegedly outraging religious feelings by posting on WhatsApp a modified picture of the Taj Mahal with saffron flags atop its pinnacle and minarets. "Amit Jani and his associate Updesh Rana were arrested here by the STF, Agra, for posting a computer-generated picture of the Taj Mahal with seven saffron flags atop its pinnacle and minarets on a WhatsApp group," an STF official said here. Jani was earlier booked under IPC sections 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 295 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act in Agra. In the WhatsApp post, Jani appealed to all men associated with various Hindu organisations to gather at the seventeenth century Mughal monument on November 3, triggering panic and rumours in Agra. Following this, an FIR was registered against him. Jani was in jail for three months in 2012 for allegedly vandalising former chief minister Mayawati's statue in Lucknow's Gomati Nagar area after the Samajwadi Party came to power that year. Jani's actual name is Amit Agarwal and he is a native of Janikhurd village of Janikhurd block of Meerut district. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 70-year-old man was killed and his wife seriously injured this morning in a clash between two groups over a land dispute in Rajasthan's Bundi district, the police said. The incident took place at Dagariya village under the Hindoli police station. The police have booked six people, including three women, in the case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, including murder, they said. The elderly couple was attacked with swords and iron rods by members of their family. The clash broke out over a land dispute and building of a boundary, SHO Hindoli Laxman Singh said. Dilbagh Singh died on the spot while his wife suffered serious injuries. She was admitted to the district hospital, but later referred to the Maharao Bheem Singh Hospital in Kota, he said The body was handed over to family members after postmortem, the SHO, adding that a search was on to nab the accused. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court today came down hard on the Mamata Banerjee government for filing a plea challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of social welfare schemes, saying it was against the federal structure. The top court asked how a state can challenge the mandate of Parliament and said the West Bengal Chief Minister could file the plea as an individual. "How can a state file such a plea. In a federal structure, how can a state file a plea challenging Parliament's mandate," a bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the West Bengal government, told the court that the plea has been filed by the labour department of the state as subsidies under these schemes have to be given by them. "You satisfy us how the state has challenged it. We know it is a matter which needs consideration," the bench said adding the Centre's move can be challenged by an individual but not by states. "Let Mamata Banerjee come and file a plea as individual. We will entertain it as she will be an individual," the top court said. However, Sibal maintained that the state was entitled to file such a plea but said that they would amend the prayer in the petition. Meanwhile, the bench issued notice to the Centre on a separate plea filed by an individual challenging the linking of mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar. The court has asked the Centre to file its response on the plea in four weeks. The West Bengal government challenged the provision which says that without Aadhaar, the benefits of social welfare schemes would not be extended. Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefits of various government schemes has been extended till March 31 next year for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric identification number. It had said that the deadline extension from December end till March 31, 2018, would apply only to those who do not have Aadhaar and are willing to enrol for it. Several petitions, challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes and notifications to link it with mobile numbers and bank accounts, are pending in the apex court. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The RSS-affiliated ABVP and the Congress-backed NSUI have claimed victory in the student union elections held today in government colleges across the BJP- ruled Madhya Pradesh, after a gap of nearly six years. The Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) also claimed its maiden win in the elections. The National Students' Union of India (NSUI) alleged that its candidates and supporters were beaten up at several places and that the poll was "rigged" in favour of the ABVP. However, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) said the polls were conducted in a peaceful manner. "ABVP has registered victories in colleges in all districts. Parishad won in 90 per cent places (colleges) in these elections," ABVP organisation secretary, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Prafull Akaant, said. He said the ABVP registered victories at several colleges including in Jhabua, Khandwa, Barwani, Indore, and in Barkatullah University in Bhopal. In Madhya Pradesh, direct elections were discontinued on campus after clashes took place among student groups. The elections resumed in 2005, but on the basis of merit only. The last student elections were held in colleges in 2011-12. "Holding student union elections peacefully is a reply to the people who were expressing apprehension of violence in these polls," the ABVP leader said. NSUI's state president Vipin Wankhede said they have won in "60 per cent" of the colleges. "Candidates of NSUI registered victory in 60 per cent colleges of the state including those in Dewas, Singrauli, Harda and several other districts," he said. Wankhede alleged that NSUI candidates and supporters were beaten up by activists of ABVP at some places. He alleged that NSUI members have emerged victorious in elections at the Barkatullah University in Bhopal, "but the administration declared results in favour of the ABVP". CYSS convener Nishant Gangwani said his organisation registered victory at 86 posts of Class Representative (CR) and four posts of (college) presidents among others. "We won the elections in Katni district, the home turf of state Cabinet minister Sanjay Pathak, and at Churhat Assembly constituency of the Opposition Leader Ajay Singh," Gangwani claimed. The process to conduct the elections started from October 23 and the results were announced today. In these polls, the students elect CR of each class. These CRs then contest for student council of their respective colleges. The council comprises president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary who are directly elected by students. These representatives of students then elect the university councils. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Centre has directed states to immediately address issues pertaining to registration of e- rickshaws, saying that such vehicles provide last-mile connectivity and are also pollution-free. The directions were sent after Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari chaired a high-level meeting, attended by Transport Commissioners of several states besides E-Rickshaw Advisory Committee members and manufacturers. The Centre last year had removed legal hurdles in the way of running of electric rickshaws as last-mile connectivity by exempting such vehicles from requiring permits for plying on roads. "E-rickshaws are pollution-free, import substitute, cost effective and boon for the poor. The poor are getting employment besides people are getting last-mile connectivity. It is unfortunate that there are issues in some states regarding registration etc. We have issued directions to states to address these (issues)," Gadkari said after the meeting. The minister further said, "We have asked the states to expedite registration using Vahan. Manually pulling rickshaws is a huge pain, and exploitation of the poor is not justified." If states do not comply, "we will think about legal direction", Gadkari said. He said metropolises like Mumbai, Bengaluru and Pune could be left but there is no harm in running services in districts and cities like Varanasi besides Delhi where there is a huge road infrastructure. No e-rickshaw has been registered till date in nine states including Jammu & Kashmir, Tripura, Maharashtra barring Nagpur, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa and Chandigarh. Advisory Committee for e-rickshaws chairman Anuj Sharma said the Committee has asked for verification of e-rickshaw parts on the basis of quality and not on the basis of brands. Also, he said, lakhs of of e-rickshaws are plying illegally in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, West Bengal as Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) are not cooperating in registration and driving licences. "Only 35,000 e-rickshaws could be registered in Delhi in three years while 1,500 in West Bengal," he said adding that besides no subsidy benefits have been given to e-rickshaws as subsidy by FAME is given to only such manufacturers who are recognised by the Society of Manufactures of Electric Vehicle. The manufacturers body has also appealed for doing away with registration, road tax, HPA and fitness fee. The grouping also cited that manufacturers were facing problems as GST at the time of purchase is 28 per cent and 12 per cent at the time of sale. Removing legal hurdles for hassle-free operations of the e-rickshaws, the transport ministry last year had exempted such vehicles from requiring permits for plying on roads. Obtaining permits for operating in states were proving to be the biggest obstacle for e-carts and e-rickshaws. However, the state governments were allowed to impose restrictions under appropriate traffic laws on plying of these vehicles in specific areas or specific routes. The government has already issued guidelines for e-rickshaws, including speed limit, carrying capacity and body specifications. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways earlier had notified rules under the Act to bring e-rickshaws and e-carts within the legal framework, ensuring tests for approval of prototype for safety standards before registration of the vehicles. As per the notification, e-rickshaws had been allowed to carry four passengers and 40 kg luggage while e-carts would transport goods up to 310 kg. The rules define e-rickshaw as a special purpose battery operated vehicle 'having three wheels and intended to provide last mile connectivity for transport of passengers for hire or reward'. These vehicles are constructed to carry not more than four passengers, excluding the driver and the net power of its motor is not more than 2000 Watts and the maximum speed of the vehicle is not more than 25 kilometres per hour. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Taliban have killed 15 police in two separate attacks on checkpoints in the east and south of the country, officials said today. Arif Noori, spokesman for the governor of the eastern Ghazni province, said an attack on a checkpoint there killed nine police and wounded four others. He said seven insurgents were killed and five others were wounded in the battle, which lasted more than an hour. Late yesterday, the Taliban attacked another checkpoint in the southern Zabul province, igniting clashes in which six police and eight insurgents were killed. Amir Jan Alokozai, a district administrative chief, said another eight police and 12 insurgents were wounded. The Taliban claimed both attacks. The insurgents have launched a wave of attacks across the country against security forces this month that has killed more than 200 people. In a third attack, in the northern Baghlan province, a sticky bomb attached to a military vehicle went off in a market, wounding 13 civilians, according to Zabihullah Shuja, spokesman for the provincial police chief. No one claimed the attack, which took place in the provincial capital, Puli Khomri. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A convoy carrying aid for some 40,000 people entered the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region outside Syria's capital Damascus today, a UN spokeswoman told AFP. The joint UN-Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy was carrying aid to the Kafr Batna and Saqba districts, a week after doctors said at least two children in Eastern Ghouta had died of malnutrition and related complications. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The 64th All India Co-operative Week celebrations with the topic "Public Empowerment in Digitalisation of Co-operative Units" will begin here on November 14. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the statelevel celebrations with a message "Helping hand of Co-operative sector for green Kerala". Co-operatives Minister Kadakampally Surendran will preside over the function. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The CBI has told the Delhi High Court that digital evidence, seized in connection with the alleged leakage of AIIMS MBBS entrance exam paper from a Ghaziabad-based test centre, has been sent for forensic analysis. The probe agency, in a status report filed before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar, has said that a report is awaited from the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) in Thiruvananthapuram where the evidence is being examined. The agency also said it was looking into the call data records of suspected mobile numbers. It said it has recorded statements of several persons, including the AIIMS Assistant Controller of Examination and the person who had informed about the leak. The court listed the matter for hearing on December 15. The CBI's status report was filed in a PIL seeking a court-monitored probe into the alleged illegalities and irregularities during the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) MBBS entrance exam held on May 28 this year. In August, the agency had told the bench that it had registered a case in June on the alleged leak of question paper for the AIIMS MBBS entrance examination. It had told the court that "specific questions in the leaked screen shots were used in SET-3 of shift-2 at exam centre - HR Institute of Technology, Morta, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh". "It has also been found that the specific combination and sequence of the questions was randomly and uniquely allocated to a particular candidate," CBI had said in its report filed through Special Public Prosecutor Rajdipa Behura. The PIL was moved by a doctor, Anand Rai, who claims to be a whistleblower in the Vyapam scam case, and has sought directions to the AIIMS to quash the result declared on June 15 for the MBBS exam held on May 28. The petitioner, in his rejoinder, has said it was "imperative" that a re-examination is conducted "to avoid the possibility of candidates securing admission through corrupt and illegal means over meritorious candidates". Rai had on May 31 alleged that the question papers of this year's entrance exam for MBBS course of the AIIMS were leaked. He had, in a series of tweets, posted images of question papers of the entrance examination which was held across the country on May 28 and said he had received the snapshots from a source who claimed these were leaked from a college in Lucknow when the online test was going on. Rai had also alleged that AIIMS MBBS seats were being "sold". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma today dubbed the Bharatiya Janata Party's "vision document", which was released yesterday, rudderless and accused the saffron party of "exploiting" the sentiments of the people. Sharma also questioned the resources being spent on the Gujarat and the Himachal elections by the BJP and said the people have the right to know about the sources of funding. "The vision document is silent on job creation...No reference has been made to appointment of the Lokayukta, isolated Gudia rape-and-murder case has been blown out of proportion and references made on various issues are vague and lack direction," the deputy leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said while addressing the media here. The former Union minister accused the the BJP of deriving electoral mileage by "exploiting" the sentiments of the people of the state by politicising the Gudia case, where a minor was found raped and murdered at Kotkhai in July. "No doubt, the infamous Gudia rape case was a heinous crime and should be condemned by all, but the isolated case should not be made the sole criteria for judging the law-and- order situation in the state," the chief Congress spokesperson said. The former minister said the heinous crime rate in BJP- ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan was higher. Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "ruining" the economy by "reckless" decisions such as demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), Sharma said that he was ready to discuss the fallout of these decisions with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on any platform. "It is unfortunate that the prime minister is neither ready to accept the mistake (demonetisation) nor come out with an explanation, but was resorting to lies to mislead the people," he said, highlighting the more than 150 circulars, issued by the Reserve Bank of India and the Union finance ministry after the noteban, as an evidence of the "futile" exercise. Blaming the Centre for making a "mockery" of the GST, Sharma stressed that it was not 'one nation, one tax', but "one nation, six tax, and thirty states, thirty tax". "The GST has hit the economy hard as there is a 4-crore job loss in the unorganised sector, hit workers and small businessmen and traders and resulted in price rise," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Farmers of Andhra Pradesh are being flown to Singapore to study the development of the plots they got back in lieu of their farm land. Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu flagged off a bus carrying 34 farmers from the Andhra Pradesh capital region to Hyderabad today, from where they will fly to Singapore on a four-day trip partly sponsored by the Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA). Naidu said it was his objective to see farmers, who voluntarily parted with their land for the construction of the state's new capital city Amaravati, transformed into industrialists. He said the new capital city will be built on the lines of Singapore. "It's my responsibility to lend a helping hand to you all and you should grab it. You all should excel as entrepreneurs and we will create necessary opportunities for that," the chief minister told farmers. "I promised to build our capital city that is akin to Singapore. Designs for Amaravati are getting ready and the construction activity will start soon," he said. He said Singapore was a tiny fishing village 55 years ago which was transformed into a "heaven" with determination of its residents. In all, 123 farmers who gave away their lands for the capital, are being flown to Singapore in three batches to enable them "to study how to develop the plots (residential and commercial) they got back (in lieu of the farm land)". The visit, according to the CRDA, will create an awareness among farmers on urban infrastructure planning and development undertaken by the Singapore government. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Andhra Pradesh is now leading the way in what Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has called "cow dung uberisation". "Uberisation of dunghas been successful in 460 villages across the state," the Chief Minister told officials in a teleconference today. A release from the Information and Public Relations Department Commissioner quoted the Chief Minister as telling that money could be earned not only from (cattle) milk but also dung. "A monthly income of Rs 2,500 could be earned from each cattle. Each village could earn Rs 25 lakh to Rs 50 lakh per annum through cow dung uberisation that will contribute to the village's economic progress," the Chief Minister added. He cited the example of Konanki village in Prakasam district that achieved good results through cow dung uberisation. "Konanki should be a model for other villages in deriving wealth from waste. Every animal in Konanki, which has 1,500 families, has been tagged and they are earning Rs one lakh per month," the Chief Minister pointed out. Cow dung uberisation is a new concept being implemented in several villages in Andhra Pradesh, a senior official later said. "All dung generated in a village is pooled and dumped at a fixed spot. It is then processed and converted into organic manure. The cattle owners share the money thus earned," the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Israel's military said it blew up a tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into its territory today, a rare case of such an incident since the last Israeli-Gaza war in 2014. The Israeli army "neutralised a terror tunnel leading into southern Israel from the vicinity of Khan Yunis", military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists, referring to a city in southern Gaza. "The tunnel was detonated from within Israel, close to the security fence. The (Israeli army) actions are in light of this grave and unacceptable violation of Israeli sovereignty." He added, however, that the Israeli military was not seeking a further escalation. Conricus said the tunnel was targeted around two kilometres (less than two miles) from the Israeli village of Kissufim, but added that no Israelis had been in danger. He said the tunnel was still being dug and no opening was found in Israeli territory. The military had been monitoring it for "some time", Conricus said, declining to say when it was first discovered. He could not confirm whether the tunnel belonged to Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, but said Israel nevertheless holds the Islamist movement responsible for all such activity from the Palestinian enclave. Conricus said Israel used advanced technology to locate the tunnel, but declined to elaborate. There was no immediate response from Hamas. In April 2016, Israel's military said it had located and destroyed a tunnel extending from the Gaza Strip into Israel in the first such discovery since the devastating 2014 conflict. Hamas forces have used tunnels in the past to enter Israel and carry out attacks. Today's operation comes as Palestinian rival factions Hamas and Fatah seek to follow through on a reconciliation deal signed earlier this month and aiming at ending a decade- long rift between them. Hamas is due to hand control of the Gaza Strip back to the Palestinian Authority by December 1 under the agreement. The Islamist movement seized the enclave in a near civil war with Fatah, based in the occupied West Bank, in 2007. Israel has warned that it will not accept a unity government that includes Hamas if it does not disarm and recognise the country, among other demands. Israel launched its 2014 operation in Gaza with the stated objectives of halting rocket fire and destroying attack tunnels into Israel. During the war, 32 tunnels were discovered, including 14 that extended into Israel, according to a UN report on the conflict. It was the third war in Gaza since 2008 and the longest, deadliest and most destructive. It killed 2,251 Palestinians, while more than 10,000 were wounded and 100,000 were left homeless. On the Israeli side, 74 people were killed, all but six of them soldiers. Israeli leaders have been keen to show they are addressing the threat of tunnels from the Gaza Strip. A state inquiry in February accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top army brass of being unprepared for the tunnels used by Hamas during the 2014 conflict. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Army personnel of India and China today held a meeting at Bum La Pass in Tawang and resolved to maintain peace and tranquillity along the Sino-India border. A border personnel meeting (BPM) was organised by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) at the historic Bum La pass in Arunachal Pradesh, a senior Army official said. The Indian delegation was led by Brig M P Singh while the Chinese delegation was headed by Sr Col Liu Jiang Xun. The meeting commenced with the hoisting of national flags and the rendition of national anthems of both countries. The delegations interacted in a free, congenial and cordial environment and renewed commitments in maintaining peace along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Assam has transformed into a peaceful state and several investors are now looking at coming and setting up base here, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said today. "Assam has become peaceful and its impression of being a highly progressive state has strongly been put in place outside the state as well," Sonowal said. He added that the law and order situation in the state has improved considerably and not only people are coming out spontaneously to participate in the last two Independence Day celebrations but investors are also showing interest to come to the state and set up base. Sonowal said this while paying tributes to victims who died in bomb blasts at CJM Court premises and below the Ganeshguri Flyover in 2008. The chief minister said it is important to stay united to face terrorism and only collective willpower will ensure lasting peace. "We must stay united against terrorism and must defeat evil designs of forces inimical to the society's progress. Only peace can lead to development and harmony among all sections of the society which is must for achieving lasting peace," he said. Extending his sympathies to the families of the victims, the chief minister said the government is committed to look after the needs of the families. He urged people to stay alert against any act of terrorism and cooperate with the government to realise the goal of a terrorism-free Assam. '"Harmony and not conflict is the need of the hour and people from all section of the society must keep the bond of unity intact," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Australia's prime minister is in Israel for a re-enactment of a WWI battle where Australian and New Zealand troops triumphed over Ottoman forces in a charge that helped turn the tide of the war and shape the modern Middle East. Malcolm Turnbull met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a ceremony today ahead of the memorial. Foreign press photographers walked out of the event in protest after security guards demanded a chief photographer of the European Press Agency take his pants off for inspection. It was the latest in a series of incidents where guards ordered journalists strip for searches at media events with Netanyahu. The Foreign Press Association, which represents journalists covering Israel and the Palestinian territories for international organizations, has called the strip searches humiliating. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Autonomy has been provided to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of the Constitution of India and forms the core of the relationship between the state and the Centre, CPI(M) MLA from Kulgam, M Y Tarigami, said today. He also said that "fiddling with Article 35 A of the Constitution" was not acceptable. "J&K acceded to India under the guarantees provided by the Constitution of India. It is the Constituent Assembly which incorporated Article 370 in the Constitution providing a constitutional basis for the relationship of J&K with the Union," Tarigami said in a statement here. Autonomy guaranteed under this constitutional provision is the "core of the relationship" between state and the Centre, he added. The CPI(M) leader expressed surprise that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had characterised the demand for autonomy for J&K as "encouraging national disintegration". "It is surprising that those at the helm of affairs in New Delhi have characterised any demand for more autonomy to J&K as encouraging national disintegration," he said. Tarigami said the government of India, which initially recognised the special status for J&K, could not maintain this position. "After 1953, steadily the process of centralisation and erosion of autonomy began. Article 370 was subverted and misused to eliminate most aspects of the autonomy. The constitution application to J&K order of 1954 took off subjects in the Union list out of the purview of the state legislature and not just those mentioned in the instrument of accession," he said. There were 43 constitution (application to J&K) orders extending the scope of central intervention and laws which were not envisaged either at the time of adoption of Article 370 or the Delhi Agreement of 1952, he said. The four-time legislator said the reality is that from holding special status, Jammu and Kashmir now has been deprived of the rights and powers which other states enjoy. "The process of scuttling the spirit of Article 370 has only encouraged those elements who wanted to undermine J&K's relations with the Union. The deep rooted and the massive alienation resulting in unprecedented unrest is in reality the outcome of the process of erosion of autonomy and denial of democracy to the people of J&K," he claimed. Tarigami said the dialogue process can be meaningful only when this political issue is addressed aiming at protecting the rights of the people. "Autonomy, which is the core of the issue, has to be restored and people of the state assured that their distinct identity cannot be weakened in any form, whatsoever, in future," he said. Denial of restoration of Article 370 and fiddling with Article 35A of the Constitution is unacceptable, he added. Article 35A empowers the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to define permanent residents and confer them with special rights and privileges. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Banks are bound to inform its customers through personal notice before discontinuing any insurance policy provided as a cover for loans granted, the apex consumer commission has said. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to adjust the 'personal accident policy benefits' on the loans taken by a man, who died during the policy period, after noting that the bank had failed to inform him about discontinuing the policy. The NCDRC also upheld the direction of the lower fora asking the bank to pay Rs 15,000 towards legal expenses to Andhra Pradesh resident Surisetty Lakshmi Sai Mahalakshmamma, wife of the insured Venkata Rao, besides adjusting the home loan taken by him. "I agree with the order of the State Commission that the Bank having offered a personal accident cover as one of the conditions of the sanction letter should not have discontinued the policy suo motu without informing the insured who had opted for and were covered by this insurance," the bench headed by presiding member Rekha Gupta said. "...the bank was bound to inform the insured not only by publication in the newspaper but also mandatorily by personal notice that the benefit of insurance coverage of loan as given by the sanction letter was proposed to be withdrawn so that they could make alternate arrangement, if they, so desire," the commission added. According to the complaint, Rao in 2009, had obtained two housing loans from SBI under two accounts for Rs 8 lakh and Rs 5,80,000. The loan agreement was covered by 'Free Personal Accident Insurance Policy' which in case of the death the borrower, could adjust the insurance amount to the bank, it said. The complaint further said that on October 26, 2013, Rao died in an accident and bank refused to adjust the loan amount against the insurance policy saying the policy was discontinued from July 01, 2013. Subsequently, bank had sent notice under Sarfaesi Act. The Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI Act) allows banks and other financial institution to auction residential or commercial properties to recover loans. The bank contended that Personal Accident Insurance was a complementary service offered to customers and had discretion to continue or discontinue the policy at any time. The SBI had also apprised the fora that they had published the information in newspapers and updated the same on their website and in its notice boards. The district forum allowed the complaint and asked the bank to adjust the amount and pay legal expenses against which the bank approached the state commission. The state forum upheld the lower fora's order and directed the bank to serve personal notices to all customers who availed loans with insurance policy about the cancellation of such scheme to avoid future liabilities. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Taj Mahal and its origins may have been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons but "Shiraz", a silent cinema classic, brings the romance back. The 1928 movie, made by German filmmaker Franz Osten and produced by Himansu Rai, who also acts in it along with Seeta Devi and Emil Schunemann, has been given a new lease of life through a multicultural restoration effort. The film, set against the backdrop of events leading to the construction of the 17th century monument of love built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, is believed to be one of the finest examples of how talents from outside India contributed to Indian cinema in its nascent stage. The movie, which is now slated to be screened in Hyderabad on November 1, Kolkata on November 3, New Delhi on November 4 and Mumbai on November 5, was restored by BFI London. It took technicians 18 months to restore the 1-hour-47- minute-long film from its only surviving reel that made its way to London's National Archives in 1942. "We, at BFI, had known about the film for many years. In fact, the original negative of 'Shiraz' came to the National Archives way back in 1942. Given how few silent films made in India survived, it felt like the perfect film for us to bring back," Robin Baker, head curator, BFI, said in a press conference at the British Council today. Sitar player Anoushka Shankar, who was roped in to give music for the film, said it was a daunting task. "This score I've made for 'Shiraz' is probably the hardest thing I've ever done... It has really been rewarding. I have seen 'Shiraz' in its unrestored form, so I have seen the journey of the film. It was a moving experience to see these epic scenes of grandeur and glory on the big screen," she said. This is Shankar's first movie as a composer and the musician said it taught her how music plays a significant role in cinema. "I learnt how important music is to films. There's something about watching the films without music... That there's nothing to engage with. I hope I have done well, I tried to do it to the best of my ability," she added. Rai's scale of ambition is visible in the film, which was shot on location with a cast of thousands. "Shiraz: a Romance of India" is a romanticised version of events leading up to the construction of the historic monument, which is currently in with fringe groups in India claiming it to be a Shiv temple. Last week, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited the Taj Mahal in a much publicised event. When asked about the ongoing controversy, Anoushka told PTI, "I feel like some people feel like they need to put something else down in order for what they are to look good enough. You can apply that to people also and to organisations and religion... "Diversity is important, it's what makes our culture rich. And so to celebrate that and not quarrelling over 'mine is better', 'no, mine is better'. What's that going to do?" Rai plays the title character of Shiraz, son of a village potter who rescues a baby girl from an ambush. The girl, Selima is of royal descent. As they grow up, Shiraz falls in love with Selima, who is kidnapped and sold to Prince Khurram (Shah Jahan). Shiraz follows her to Agra and devotes himself to protecting her, even at the cost of his life. It is the second of the three silent films, made on location in India, that Osten and Rai collaborated on after "Light of Asia" (Prem Sanyas) in 1926 and 1929's "A Throw of Dice" (Prapanch Pash). "What I love about this film is that it brings together the best of filmmaking talent in India and the UK in the late 1920s, a cultural collaboration way back 90 years ago. People will be surprised to see amazing the storytelling is. It's thrilling, it's also deeply romantic," Baker said. He said though the movie was made in the English, German and probably one or more Indian language, they discovered the only version to have survived in the world was the English one at the BFI. Dominic Anthony Gerard Asquith KCMG, British High Commissioner to India said the restoration is "a great example of technology, mastery and creativity". "When Prime Minister Modi came to the UK, he talked about creating a living bridge between our two countries. We, in the UK, turned it into a multilayered bridge of people, technology and ideas." The initiative has been undertaken by the British Council as a part of the UK/India2017 Year of Culture. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The 'Bharat 22' Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), comprising 22 scrips of public sector units, will hit the capital market next month to mop up over Rs 8,000 crore for the government. The new fund offer (NFO), managed by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, will open for anchor investors on November 14, while subscription for retail investors would begin from November 15 and continue till November 17. An upfront discount of 3 per cent would be offered to all category of investors, the fund house said. "Approvals are in place. It is likely to open for retail subscription on November 15," said a Finance Ministry official. The ETF will help government meet its ambitious Rs 72,500 crore disinvestment target for the current fiscal. The state-owned companies or PSUs that are part of the new ETF are ONGC, IOC, SBI, BPCL, Coal India and Nalco. It also includes government's strategic holding in Axis Bank, ITC and L&T held through SUUTI (Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India). The other Central Public Sector Enterprises on the list are Bharat Electronics, Engineers India, NBCC, NTPC, NHPC, SJVNL, GAIL, PGCIL and NLC India. Only three public sector banks -- SBI, Indian Bank and Bank of Baroda -- figure in the Bharat-22 index. The government had raised about Rs 8,500 crore through the two tranches of CPSE ETF last fiscal. It had first launched ETF in March 2014 and had garnered Rs 3,000 crore. The first CPSE ETF consisted of scrips of 10 PSUs -- ONGC, Coal India, IOC, GAIL (India), Oil India, PFC, Bharat Electronics, REC, Engineers India and Container Corporation of India. Bhutanese King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck will arrive here tomorrow on a four-day visit during which he will hold talks with the Indian leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and review the entire gamut of bilateral cooperation. This is the first high-level visit from Bhutan to India after the "disengagement" between Indian and Chinese troops on August 28, ending a tense 73-day-long stand-off near the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction in the Dokalam area. Announcing the visit, the external affairs ministry said the King along with Queen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck and son Gyalsey Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck will visit India from October 31 to November 3. The King of Bhutan will meet the president and the prime minister, who will host a dinner in their honour, the ministry said. The vice president and the external affairs minister will also call on the King of Bhutan during his stay "India and Bhutan enjoy unique ties of friendship, which are characterised by deep understanding and mutual trust. The visit of His Majesty the King of Bhutan is in keeping with the long standing tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries," a ministry statement said. It said that the visit would provide an opportunity to both the sides for reviewing the entire gamut of bilateral cooperation, including plans for befitting celebrations of golden jubilee of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in the year 2018, and to advance the special bilateral ties of friendship and cooperation. Early this month, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had also travelled to Bhutan and held talks with the King and Bhutan Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Amid the controversy over a "sex CD" allegedly involving a Chhattisgarh minister, the ruling BJP today said technology should be used in politics but not for "destructive purposes", while the Congress asserted truth needs to reach to the people in this age of transparency. The "sex CD" allegedly involving Chhattisgarh PWD minister Rajesh Munat sparked a row after senior journalist Vinod Verma was arrested by the state police last Friday on charges of blackmailing and extortion related to the CD. Though the state government recommended a CBI probe the very next day, the Congress and the BJP have traded charges over the issue since the arrest. BJP MLA and spokesperson Shivratan Sharma today said, "No one is against the use of technology in politics. But it should be used for constructive purpose and not destructive." "A CD should be used for disseminating ideology and other information but not vulgar things." Claiming that the alleged sex video was morphed and tampered with, he alleged the Congress used the technology for "character assassination" of a political leader, which should not be done. Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition in the Chhattisgarh Assembly, T S Singhdeo, said investigative journalism is not a new thing and is being practised for decades. People believe there should be no restriction in bringing out the truth in this transparent age, he added. "There is nothing wrong in exposing something which is wrong, though the publication of false and fake information is absolutely inappropriate and should not be done," he added. State Revenue Minister Prem Prakash Pandey had on Saturday said the CD was "fake" and a local TV channel had mentioned in its report that it had been tampered with. Verma was arrested by the Chhattisgarh Police last Friday morning from his Ghaziabad residence. Verma had claimed that the Chhattisgarh government suspected that he had a "sex CD of Chhattisgarh PWD Minister Rajesh Munat" and that is why he was being framed. Munat called the CD "fake" and an attempt at character assassination. He had on Saturday filed a complaint against state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel and Verma for allegedly tarnishing his image through the "fake" sex CD. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The BJP today condemned the Karnataka Pradesh Congress president G Parameshwara's reported statement expressing apprehensions that the BJP can tamper with the electronic voting machines. Parameshwara had yesterday reportedly said the "BJP could tamper with EVMs in the forthcoming elections in Karnataka as they did in other states" and asked his party workers to bevigilant. BJP spokesperson S Suresh Kumar said the statement showed the fear and anxiety in Congress as it has "foreseen" its defeat in the forthcoming assembly elections in 2018. "This (such statement) is not at all expected from a person who is leading the Congress (in Karnataka) for the seventh year. This is an irresponsible statement and an attempt to mislead the party workers," Kumar said. He said the Congress has questioned the integrity of election commission by doubting the EVMs. "Instead of looking into the reasons behind its defeat, Congress is questioning the EVMs. BJP does not need to resort to such practises. Only those can tamper with the voting machines who have ruled the country for 60 years," Kumar said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least 16 people were killed in a raid and suicide attack in Cameroon and Nigeria today, in the latest violence blamed on Boko Haram Islamists. A civilian militia member said 11 people had been "slaughtered" overnight Sunday-Monday in the village of Gouderi, in the Kolofata region of Cameroon's Far North. "Boko Haram's incursion in Gouderi was an act of revenge," said the militia member, who asked not to be identified for security reasons. "The jihadists acted after the arrest in the area of some of their colleagues," he added. Civilians were also the target of a suicide bomber at a mosque in Ajiri Yala, 15 kilometres (10 miles) north of the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, in northeast Nigeria. The leader of the local Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) helping the military with security said the attack happened at about 4:30 am (0330 GMT). "A male suicide bomber disguised as a worshipper entered the mosque while people were gathering for the morning prayers," Modu Bukar told AFP by telephone. "He detonated his explosives. He killed five people and injured several others." The violence followed another attempted suicide attack against civilians and a clash between soldiers and militants at the weekend that saw the jihadists suffer heavy casualties. Nigeria maintains Boko Haram is a spent force but the latest attacks underline the persistent threat posed by the group, whose insurgency has killed at least 20,000 since 2009. Boko Haram typically never claims responsibility but has used suicide bombing as a frequent tactic in its eight-year insurgency to establish a hardline Islamic state. Mosques that do not ascribe to its extremist views are seen as legitimate targets, as are people and places seen to be supportive of the secular government. Yesterday, a CJTF member manning a checkpoint in the Muna area of Maiduguri was killed and another injured when two women strapped with explosives blew themselves up. A day earlier, a military source said, troops inflicted heavy losses on a large contingent of Boko Haram fighters near the Yobe village of Goniri. The previous weekend, 14 people were killed when three women detonated their explosives near the Muna Garage camp, which is home to tens of thousands of people made homeless by the violence. The United Nations warned recently that attack against internally displaced people (IDPs) in camps across the region was "a major concern". Communities in hard-to-reach areas of the remote region are also vulnerable and at the weekend, two women blew themselves up in the Gulak area of Madagali, in the far north of Adamawa state. A former Madagali local government area chairman, Maina Ularamu, said there were two blasts in Dar village on Saturday night and yesterday morning. "Our suspicion is that they intended to attack the church, which is located inside the primary school about 100 metres away from the scene of the explosion," he said. Ularamu said locals suspected the two women had come to Dar from the Sambisa Forest, in neighbouring Borno, where Boko Haram is known to have bases. The military said earlier this year it had retaken control of the former national park but there are reports the militants have moved back in. They are also known to have been holed up in the Mandara mountains that lie east of Madagali and form the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. On August 2, Boko Haram fighters stormed the village of Mildu, near Madagali, killing six. Ularamu said Boko Haram "remnants are still lurking" in remote villages and the Sambisa Forest, and troop reinforcements were needed. Attacks on civilians have largely been attributed to the Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau. Strikes against the military are generally blamed on the Islamic State group-supported faction headed by Abu Mus'ab al-Barnawi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court today ordered the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to remove by tomorrow, a fire engine stationed inside the sprawling Priyadarshini Park in south Mumbai. A bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice M S Sonak also directed the BMC to remove the temporary fire shed it constructed inside the park and to restore the jogging and walking tracks there to their original condition. The directions came after an independent committee comprising a member of the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority, and the High Court Receiver, inspected the park and submitted a report before the High Court today. The report stated that the fire engine stationed in the park and the temporary shed around it was encroaching upon some parts of the walking and the jogging tracks. The court had appointed the committee earlier this month to inspect the Priyadarshani Park in the Napean Sea Road area and submit a report on whether the fire engine stationed in the park since June and the shed constructed around it were obstructing the movement of joggers, or the residents who used the park, and whether the same were causing any other damage to the park. The court was hearing a plea filed by the Malabar Hill Citizens Forum against the BMC's decision to park the fire engine inside the sprawling park by erecting a shed. The residents had told the high court that several trees had been damaged and the park's entrance was demolished to make way for the fire engine and the parking shed. They had also said that the gates of the park had to be kept open even at night now for the free movement of the fire engine. The BMC on its part, had argued that the fire engine occupied only a 10 square metre area in the park, which was spread over a 6,000 square metre area, and that it was parked there for the residents safety. It had argued that the park had been leased to the citizens' forum for use and maintenance and that as per the original development plan, some area inside the park was reserved in 1987 for the construction of a fire station. The BMC counsel had also assured the court that the fire engine and the shed were in one corner of the park and that they were not damaging or obstructing any part of the park. Justice Chellur, however, noted today that the independent committee's inspection report contradicted the stand taken in court by the BMC. "You (BMC) told this court categorically that the walking and jogging tracks were not being obstructed and that the residents were not being inconvenienced. Unfortunately, this court took your words to be true, but you were clearly deceiving us. Thus, the tracks must be restored to their original condition," CJ Chellur said. The court also questioned "Why the BMC was insisting on keeping the fire engine inside the park?" It also asked if in the whole of Malabar Hill area, the BMC could not find any other place and advised the corporation against treating the matter as an "ego issue." "What are you going to lose? Till now there have been so many problems such as bad roads, potholes, and accidents because of them. And that has not seemed important. But this issue has suddenly become important for the BMC. Why are you taking so much interest in this? It has become a question of your ego now," the bench said. It said that several residents used the jogging tracks each morning and that children used the park to play and run around, and that they must not be subjected to any danger or obstructions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Bombay High Court today began hearing a bunch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of certain provisions of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act (RERA). A bench of Justices Naresh Patil and Rajesh Ketkar is going to hear the matter on a daily basis. Real estate developers including DB Realty, MIG (Bandra) Realtors and Builders alongwith several individual land owners had moved the court. The petitioners have questioned, among other things, the provisions that mandate that all ongoing projects be registered with the authority set up under the new act, and provide stringent penal action to ensure that projects are completed within fixed time. They have also challenged the provision which says that a plot owner who sells the plot to builder will be considered a co-promoter of the project when it comes to fixing the liability. The petitions claimed that the Act, and the constitution of a state-level authority for its implementation, were arbitrary, and therefore unconstitutional. In September, after several petitions challenging RERA were filed in high courts across the country, the Supreme Court stayed the proceedings in other courts and suggested that the Bombay high court hear its RERA cases first. Other courts should wait for the Bombay High Court's decision before hearing RERA-related matters, it said, while directing the high court here to expedite the hearings. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Catalonia's dismissed separatist leader Carles Puigdemont was in Brussels today, a Spanish government source said, as prosecutors called for him to be charged with rebellion over his drive for Catalan independence. The came as Madrid took political control of Catalonia after declaring that Puigdemont and his separatist regional administration were dismissed on Friday, following the Catalan parliament's independence declaration. Yesterday Belgium's immigration minister suggested Puigdemont could receive asylum in Belgium on the grounds that he might not get a fair trial in Spain. Today the Spanish government source told AFP that Puigdemont "is in Brussels". Catalan daily La Vanguardia reported that he was accompanied by others from his former administration. Puigdemont, 54, said the result of an outlawed independence referendum on October 1 gave the region a mandate to declare independence. Madrid and the Spanish courts said the referendum was illegal and that a unilateral independence declaration would violate the constitution. Belgian immigration minister Theo Francken, a member of the Flemish separatist N-VA party, said yesterday it was "not unrealistic" that Belgium could offer protection to Puigdemont. Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said an asylum request from Puigdemont was "absolutely not on the agenda". The European Union has backed the Spanish government in the Catalan independence dispute. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Catalonia's axed separatist leader Carles Puigdemont was in Brussels today, not in his home region as previously thought, a Spanish government source said. Puigdemont, 54, dismissed by the central government on Friday, "is in Brussels," the source told AFP. The Catalan daily La Vanguardia reported that he was accompanied by others from his former administration. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Kerala government today told the high court there was no need for a CBI probe into the seven cases of alleged political killings of RSS-BJP activists that took place after the CPI(M)-led dispensation came to power last year. Responding to a petition filed by the Thalassery-based Gopalan Adiyodi Vakkeel Smaraka Trust seeking a CBI probe into the cases, the state government said the plea was politically motivated. It handed over a progress report of the investigation to a division bench of Chief Justice Navaniti Prasad Singh and Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan. The bench had on October 17 directed the state government to spell out its stand on the demand for a CBI probe. The government today claimed that the conviction rate was higher in cases probed by state police than those investigated by the CBI. The bench adjourned the hearing in the case to November 13. The Trust had submitted that in all these cases active workers of a major outfit, part of the ruling front, have been named as accused. It had also alleged that in some cases, party activists hailing from the constituency of the chief minister, who also holds the home ministry portfolio, were involved. "In all these cases, facts and circumstances clearly indicate high-level political conspiracy in planned execution of the killings and efforts to save the real culprits," the petitioner had contended. The Trust had alleged that the police did not properly investigate the conspiracy angle in these cases. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Kevin Spacey's apology to actor Anthony Rapp has been received negatively by a lot of celebs with many blasting him for trying to divert attention from the sexual misconduct allegations by coming out as gay. The "Star Trek: Discovery" has accused Spacey of sexual assault when he was just 14. Following Rapp's revelation Spacey took to Twitter to apologise and also opened up about his sexuality saying he is now living "as a gay man". "It Gets Better" creator Dan Savage condemned the "House of Card" actor's statement, saying "There's no amount of drunk or closeted that excuses or explains away assaulting a 14- year-old child." "Billy on the Street" host Billy Eichner tweeted, "That Kevin Spacey statement. Nope. Absolutely not. Nope" Rose McGowan, who was one of the people to accuse Harvey Weinstein of rape, said that the focus should be on the victim, not the accused. "Keep focus on #AnthonyRapp BE THE VICTIM'S VOICE. Help us level the playing field," she tweeted. Author Mark Harris said "Coming out is a beautiful part of being gay. Attaching it to this vileness is so wrong." Comedian Cameron Esposito and writer Travon Free said that being gay does not have to do with going after "underage folks." Comedian-writer Guy Branum labelled the statement as "PR smokescreen." Actor Aimee Carrero Rock said, "Kevin Spacey sexually assaulting a minor has nothing to do with homosexuality. Also, someone should explain this to Kevin Spacey." Comedian Jordan Gavaris said sexual assault has nothing to do with sexuality. "Sexual assault is not about sexuality. Sexual assault is about power. Say it with me, please," he posted. In his statement, Spacey, 58, had said that Rapp's story encouraged him to address his sexuality. "I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fueled by the fact that I have been so protective of my privacy. "As those close to me know, in my life, I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic relationships with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behaviour," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Asserting that the US has any no territorial claim in the South China Sea, China today said that it would be better for the countries in the region to resolve the issue among themselves. China claims almost all of South China Sea and also laid claims on the Senkaku islands under the control of Japan in East China Sea and resorted to aggressive patrols in the last two years. The US calls the dominance of China over the SCS a threat to national interest in freedom of navigation. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had said China's "provocative actions" challenge international law and norms. Chinese Ambassador to the US Cui Tiankai said China has made its position "very clear". "On the South China Sea we have made our position very clear, and I think that the United States side should try to have a better understanding of it," Cui said ahead of US President Donald Trump's visit to China early next month. "The United States does not have any territorial claims in the South China Sea. So maybe, it will be better for the US to let the regional countries to continue our communication and discussion and find a way of managing the situation in the friendly and effective way," Cui said in response to a question on South China Sea. Calling for "denuclearisation" of the entire Korean peninsula, Cui said China would always stand for peace and stability. "We always advocate negotiated solution. This has not changed," he said. "If we fail to have negotiations resumed, if we allow the situation to go on like this, it could get more dangerous. So there is a strong sense of urgency here," he added. China, he said, is open to any talks between any parties, as long as they are conducive to a peaceful solution, to a negotiated solution of the nuclear issue. He asserted that China is doing everything it can on the Korean issue. "On the one hand, we are enforcing all the UN Security Council resolutions. We are taking measures to implement these sanctions, although honestly, many of the sanctions will be implemented with a high cost for China itself, because we are North Korea's neighbour," he said. "But still, we believe there's a larger global interest in the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula, so we are ready to take up more costs and make greater efforts if there are more UN Security Council resolutions," he said, noting that at the same time, this issue cannot be solved by China itself. It requires joint efforts of all the parties concerned, including the United States and including North Korea, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China today hinted at no change in its policy of blocking efforts to list JeM chief Masood Azhar as a global terrorist during the second tenure of President Xi Jinping, as Beijing continued to harp on its familiar stand that there was no consensus among UN Security Council members. A veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, China has repeatedly blocked India's move to put a ban on the Jaish-e-Mohammed chief under the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Council. JeM has already been in its banned list. China had in August extended by three months its technical hold on the the US, France and UK-backed proposal to list Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN after having blocked the move in February this year at the United Nations. "We have made our position clear many times from this podium. The relevant resolutions of Security Council have clear stipulations as to the mandate of 1267 Committee and also clear stipulations when it comes to the listing of relevant organisations and individuals," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here. Replying to questions whether China will block the ban on Azhar again when the 1267 Committee of the UNSC takes up the issue on Thursday, Hua said "as for listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements". China's latest hold is due to lapse on Thursday. India has identified Azhar as the mastermind of the Pathankot terror attack on January 2, 2016. It has also blamed his brother Rauf and five others for carrying out the attack in which seven Indian soldiers were killed. Hua's remarks indicate that China will continue its policy to block moves by India and other countries led by US to list Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN during the second term of President Xi. Hua said that China had put a technical hold to allow for more time for more parties to deliberate on this matter. "To our regret the committee is so far yet to reach consensus," she said. China in the past had asked India to discuss the issue directly with Pakistan in order to reach an understanding. In the last two years, China has stonewalled efforts by India and then later by the US, the UK and France to declare Azhar as a global terrorist, stating that there was no consensus on the issue. She also put up all familiar defence of Pakistan, shielding it against criticism for sheltering terror groups. "You mentioned Pakistan. Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism and we support Pakistan in countering terrorism in accordance with the its own national conditions," she said, adding that China advocated international cooperation on combating terrorism. On the Azhar issue, Hua said the UNSC resolutions have clear stipulations when it comes to the mandate of 1267 Committee and the listing of terrorist groups and individuals. "So far consensus has yet to be reached by the members of the Committee and the actions taken by China are meant to safeguard the authority and effectiveness of this committee," she said, defending Beijing's actions. She also claimed that China's stance showed a "sense of responsibility". "China will continue to follow the resolutions and the rules of procedure of the Committee and remain in touch and coordination with relevant parties," she said, adding that the Chinese actions are meant to ensure the authority and efficacy of the UN Committee. "We believe that the Committee should follow the principles of objectivity, professionalism and fairness and reach decision by a consensus based on solid proof," she said when asked if China is blocking India's efforts at the behest of Pakistan. Last year in March, China was the sole member in the 15- nation UN organ to put a hold on India's application with all other 14 members of the Council supporting New Delhi's bid to place Azhar on the 1267 sanctions list that would subject him to an assets freeze and travel ban. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) China today once again hinted at blocking the US, France and UK's bid to list Pakistan-based JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, harping on its familiar stand that there was no consensus among the UN Security Council members. China had in August extended by three months its technical hold on the proposal to list Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) founder Azhar as a global terrorist after having blocked the move in February this year at the United Nations. "We have made our position clear many times from this podium. The relevant resolutions of Security Council have clear stipulations as to the mandate of 1267 Committee and also clear stipulations when it comes to the listing of relevant organisations and individuals," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told media briefing here. Replying to questions whether China will block the ban on Azhar again when the 1267 Committee of the UNSC takes up the issue on Thursday, Hua said "as for listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements". A veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, China has repeatedly blocked India's move to put a ban on the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist under the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Council. Last year in March, China was the only member in the 15- nation United Nations organ to put a hold on India's application with all other 14 members of the Council supporting New Delhi's bid to place Masood Azhar on the 1267 sanctions list that would subject him to an assets freeze and travel ban. China views Pakistan as its all-weather friend and has been backing its bid to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The White House today claimed that there is clear evidence that former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton colluded with Russia to spread wrong information about President Donald Trump. At the same time, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders strongly refuted any reports of Trump Campaign's collusion with the Russians. She was responding to a volley of questions on the surrender of Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager, who has been indicted on 12 counts by a special counsel investigating into alleged Russian interference into last year's presidential elections. "Today's announcement has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the president's campaign or campaign activity," she said. "The real collusion scandal, as we've said several times before, has everything to do with the Clinton campaign, Fusion GPS and Russia. There's clear evidence of the Clinton campaign colluding with Russian intelligence to spread disinformation and smear the president to influence the election," Sanders said. She was speaking at the conference which was solely dominated by the surrender of Manafort and his business associate Richard Gates. George Papadopoulos, a foreign-policy advisor to the Trump Campaign, has also pleaded guilty to the FBI about his contacts with a professor connected with the Russian government officials. Papadopoulos's guilty plea, she said, has nothing to do with the activities of the campaign. "It has to do with his failure to tell the truth. That doesn't have anything to do with the campaign or the campaign's activities," she said. "There are no activities or official capacity in which the Trump campaign was engaged in any of these activities. Most of them took place well before the campaign ever even existed," she asserted. Ruling out changing the special counsel Robert Mueller, the former FBI Director, at this time, she hoped that the investigations would conclude soon. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The commerce ministry has asked exporters to strictly adhere to sanitary and phyto-sanitary norms, saying that non-compliance could damage the image of the country. In a trade notice, the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) also said that action would be taken against exporters for non-compliance of these rules which pertain to food safety and animal and plant health requirements. The warning follows a complaint received from the agriculture ministry with regard to non-compliance with global norms. It said that the Department of Agriculture "has brought to the notice of this directorate about various instances of non-compliance of sanitary/phyto-sanitary measures by Indian exporters while exporting goods". "Importing countries have been making complaints against Indian exporters, which amounts to disrepute to the image of the country and that can adversely impact the interest of other exporters as well as of the country as a whole," it added. The action for not following these rules could include monetary fine or suspension and cancellation of trade licence. Sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures came into force with the establishment of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on January 1, 1995. It concerns the applications of food safety and animal and plant health regulations. India is signatory to this agreement, being a member of the Geneva-based WTO. The DGFT, under the ministry, said that exporters are sensitised to ensure that sanitary and phyto-sanitary laws of importing countries are "strictly" adhered to. The directorate advised exporters to seek requirement of importing country along with export order. "And, while exporting goods, they must provide certificate(s) from designated agencies along with export documents indicating the observance of the norms mandated by the importing country," the trade notice of the DGFT has said. It has also asked the Department of Revenue to advise the field formations of customs to ensure that exporters adhere to the norms of the importing country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The main opposition Congress today staged a walk out from the Telangana Legislative Assembly as its request for a debate on the students' tuition fees reimbursement issue was not accepted. Deputy Speaker Padma Devender Reddy proceeded to take up Question Hour and Leader of the Opposition (Congress) K Jana Reddy sought to express his protest on the students' fees reimbursement issue. The Congress gave an adjournment motion on the issue. However, Legislative Affairs Minister T Harish Rao said it has been decided unanimoulsly in the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) meeting to take up adjournment motions after the Question Hour. He said protest can be expressed after the Speaker takes a decision on either allowing or disallowing the adjournment motion. The Chair has not given decision on the matter, he said. The deputy speaker said adjournment motion would be taken up after the Question Hour. Reddy, however, said his party wanted urgent matters to be taken up for debate and announced his party's decision to walk out. The deputy speaker said no decision has been taken on the adjournment motion and that Question Hour would continue in such a situation. The Congress members returned to the House after some time. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Construction of the 390 megawatt (MW) Kirthai-I Hydroelectricity project over the Chenab river, which flows into Pakistan, is likely to begin next year in Jammu and Kashmir's Kishtwar district, a government official said today. The process to complete the formalities has been fast- tracked and tenders for it will be floated within three to four months, District Development Commissioner, Kishtwar, Angrez Singh Rana said. The official said that two public hearings have been held by the environmental clearance committee this month in Padder Tehsil to clear bottlenecks. Kirthai-I will be built at the Chandra Basin near Padder's Kirthai village. The first hearing was held on October 14 and the second yesterday at Gulabgarh. This is a requirement before floating tenders, he said. "I was informed by Power Development Corporation (PDC) authorities that the tenders will be floated within three to four months. This will pave way for beginning construction work of the project by next year," Rana told PTI. The official said that in the 'run-of-the-river' project the river's water is not held back in a reservoir, but flows back into it after generating electricity. The project envisages the construction of a 165 meter high concrete gravity dam and requires a total of 321 hectares of state, private and reserved land of which the apportionment of private land is only 48 hectares in Padder, he said. During the hearings, people raised several demands, including reasonable compensation rate for land, employment and free electricity after the completion of the project, he said. They have been told that the area development plan and corporate social responsibility would focus on development of Padder, and about 1,200 people would get the jobs during the execution of the project, Rana said. He said that PDC authorities have also been asked to impart training to locals. The district development commissioner said that the projected Rs 167.71 crore environment management plan, includes Rs 343.40 crore for the catchment area and treatment plan. The Rs 163.90 crore has been earmarked for the muck management plan, Rs 333 crore for the compensatory afforestation scheme and Rs 113.50 crore for the local area management plan, he said. The government has sought the cooperation of the people to complete various developmental projects in the hearings. Rana assured that the beautification of Gulabgarh which includes parking yards and parks would be completed before the commencement of the next Machail yatra, which takes place during July-August every year. "Besides, for pilgrimage and tourism, Gulabgarh will be developed as a base camp for the trekkers," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) With a record crop of 400 lakh bales expected this season, Indian Cotton Federation (ICF) today appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to procure a minimum of 100 lakh bales and help maintain stability in the market. The cotton thus procured should later be sold directly to the consuming textile mills alone, which would help maintain stable prices throughout the year and create a win-win situation for the farmers, the Federation said in a memorandum to the Prime Minister. For the third consecutive year, lndia had retained its position as one of the world's largest cotton producers and the good cotton prices prevailed during last three years and poor remunerative prices from alternative crops, had encouraged the lndian farmers to grow more cotton, it said. To support farmers' sustenance in cotton and Prime Minister's "Make in lndia initiative", to double the income of farmers, CCl should be advised to act as a voltage stabilizer for prices and procure around 100 lakh bales during the peak season and make it available for consuming mills during the lean season. This would help stabilise prices for the benefit of farmers across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and few more states with a monitoring mechanism to see that cotton prices to the farmers do not dip and is around MSP, ICF said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala has come in for praise in an article in 'The Washington Post', one of the prominent American newspapers, for the "achievements" of the state under its rule. "A small state in India offers a place for a communist to dream," said the front page article titled "A communist success" in the newspaper's October 29 edition. It spoke of the communist party's journey in the southern state and devoted an entire central page to contributions of the Left party in Kerala. "In a small Indian state, the party of Marx may have done too well for its own good," it said. "Instead of ossifying into an autocratic force, Kerala's communists embraced electoral politics and since 1957 have been routinely voted into power," the article said. It also points out that unlike in other parts of the world, the communist movement in the state never sought to "stamp out religion". It traces various stages of the growth and development of the Left movement in the state and also carries pictures and excerpts of an interview of state Finance Minister and economist T M Thomas Issac. "A century after Bolsheviks swarmed the Winter Palace in Petrograd, Russia (now St Petersburg), the Indian state of Kerala, home to 35 million people, remains one of the few places on earth where communists can still dream," the Washington Post noted. It also said unlike communists in China, Latin America or Eastern Europe, party leaders in the southern state never seized factories or banned private property. "Instead, they competed in elections with the centre-left Indian National Congress party, winning some years and losing others," it added. The newspaper also praised Kerala's workforce calling it "healthy and educated". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Czech Republic Ambassador, Milan Hovorka today called on Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and lauded the state's initiatives in creating a conducive ambience for business, art and culture. The diplomat, who is in the city as part of the Czech delegation at the ongoing Guwahati International Film Festival, also praised the government's initiatives in organising events for facilitating cultural and sporting exchanges with different countries, an official release here said. Sonowal emphasised on frequent people to people interactions between Assam and Czech Republic. They pledged to take the mutual relations further through cinema, business, research and technology. Sonowal extended his invitation to the ambassador to the first Global Investors Summit to be held here on February three and four, next year along with a business delegation, which he assured to consider positively, the release said. Sonowal highlighted the investment landscape of Assam, particularly in the oil and natural gas, tourism, natural resources and connectivity sectors and other potential sectors where both Assam and Czech can work together for their mutual interests, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Defence Ministry is examining the report of a high-level committee which looked into the grievances of a section of ex-servicemen about the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme. Sources in the ministry talked about government's serious approach in examining the report, on a day a group of ex- servicemen demanded removal of "anomalies" in the OROP scheme implemented by the government. "We are examining the report of retired chief justice of Patna High Court L Narasimha Reddy," they said. The committee was appointed in December 2015 by then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to look into the anomalies, if any, arising out of the implementation of the OROP scheme. One of the major demands of the veterans was annual revision of pension while the government had agreed to review it after every five years. Earlier in the day, police and civic officials demolished tents and makeshift structures set up by ex-servicemen protesting at the Jantar Mantar for the last two years. Police said the ex-servicemen were removed from the site as the National Green Tribunal had banned protests and dharnas around the historic Jantar Mantar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government is seriously examining the long-standing issue relating to status equivalence between military officers and their civilian counterparts. Defence ministry sources said the government was trying to find a "balanced solution" on the controversial issue involving military officers and those from the Armed Forces Headquarters-cadre. "We are not going to benefit one side at the cost of another," said a source in the ministry. There has been growing resentment among the military officers who have been insisting that the current status equivalence was flawed and that government must address their concerns. For example, as per current norms, director-level officers have been put on the same level with the directors of the Armed Forces Headquarters-cadre. The military officials have been insisting that Lt Colonel is equivalent to directors of AFHQ cadre. Last year, then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar had set up a high-level committee to look into the issue. The defence ministry sources also said that government was studying the report of a high-level committee which was appointed by the government to examine the grievances of a section of the ex-servicemen on the One Rank One Pension (OROP). The committee headed by retired Chief Justice of Patna High Court L Narasimha Reddy was appointed in December 2015 to to look into the anomalies, if any, arising out of implementation of the OROP. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Resident doctors, who have been opposing the Delhi government's decision to extend OPD timings at its hospitals, today said that they will boycott outdoor services on November 1. The Federation of Resident Doctor's Association (FORDA), an umbrella body of the resident doctors of the city government hospitals, further threatened to paralyse the emergency services by not going to work, as their future course of action, if their concerns are not addressed. Over 15,000 resident doctors in various city government hospitals have been protesting against the Delhi government's decision of extending the Out-patient department (OPD) timings by wearing black ribbons at work. In its October 9 order, the Delhi government had extended the OPD timings saying the facilities would remain functional from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm so that there is enough time to attend to patients and avoid crowding. The OPD timing earlier was 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. The resident doctors alleged that even after repeatedly writing to the Delhi government, there has been no response over the issue. The FORDA, earlier, had sought the government's response on their objection to extend the OPD timings along with some others issues by October 21. "We will shut down OPD services at all the hospitals on November 1. Further, if our concerns are not addressed we will boycott the emergency services," Dr Vivek Chouksey, the president of the FORDA said. In a letter to the Delhi Health Secretary, the FORDA earlier said after the order, long queues of patients were seen at government hospital pharmacies and registration centres, but no measure has been proposed for reducing the queues or waiting time at the these facilities. "There should be a written order stating the duty hours of doctors, in compliance with the 48 hours a week working schedule and that should be strictly adhered to. "Also, there should be uniformity of working hours of all government hospital doctors in all settings like OPD, wards and operation theatres," the FORDA letter said. They further stated that there should be adequate manpower at all the OPDs as it is essential for the smooth conduct of the activities in view of the heavy patient load. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court today came to the aid of a daily wage labourer's 11-year-old daughter, a heart patient, by directing the G B Pant Hospital to provide treatment without insisting on pre-deposit of funds. Justice Vibhu Bakhru said that the Delhi government can examine whether the girl was entitled for free treatment and if found ineligible, the costs incurred by the hospital can be recovered from her father later. The court made it clear that pendency of the enquiry to ascertain their eligibility shall not come in the way of admitting her in the hospital and providing her the requisite treatment. With the directions, the court disposed of the petition moved on behalf of the girl by her father who claimed he cannot afford to pay an amount of Rs 50,000 sought by the G B Pant Hospital to admit his daughter. Advocate Ashok Aggarwal, appearing for the minor girl, told the court that she was in an urgent need of a surgery for her survival as she has a hole in her heart and one of its valves was also not functional. The girl is presently admitted at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital which cannot provide the treatment, the petition said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) District Magistrate (DM) B N Singh today directed the police to identify parking "mafias" and register cases against them and also tow away vehicles kept in no parking zones. In a letter to the SP Noida and the SP Traffic, Singh asked them to clamp the Goonda and Gangster Act on such parking mafias operating in the city. "It has been seen that the parking mafias operate in many areas. Some licenced parking contractors spread their operations to other nearby roads without permission. They also allow vehicles to park in no parking zones," he said. Residents park cars and motorcycles at no parking zones near shopping complexes areas. This blocks traffic and leads to congestion, the official noted. Eevn auto-rickshaws are parked haphazardly at metro rail stations, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chennai-based Eartheque Exquisite Elements, a leading architectural stores, with Bespoke design in India, plans to set up stores in all the States in the country by 2020, a top company official said today. As part of the expansion plans, stores, having furniture, interior and lifestyle products and accessories, would be opened in Hyderabad, Goa and Pune shortly, the company's director-India, Shilpa Darshan Kumar told reporters here. With the company opening its first store here under the franchisee mode, she said Indians were fast developing a taste for good life and this was being reflected in the rapid growth in the interior decoration business market. The company is eyeing a good market share of Rs 200 billion market in India in another five years, its promoter in the UAE, Akmal said. Though there was a slight slow down in the construction industry, it has not not affected the demand for the multi-brand design products, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of hitting the economy with the two 'torpedoes' of note ban and GST and not understanding the pain the moves inflicted on the people. The Congress, which is observing November 8 -- which was when Modi announced the note ban measure last year -- as a "Black Day", said it would take out protest rallies under the slogan "Bhugat raha hai desh" (India continues to suffer). "November 8 is a sad day for the country," Gandhi said. The day's 'barsi' -- Hindi for death anniversary -- would be marked with candle marches starting at 8 PM across the country to coincide with Modi's announcement. The marches would also be a tribute to those who lost their lives or livelihood because of demonetisation, Congress leaders said. The protests will be led by Gandhi, who has asked state leaders to head the rallies in their regions. Gandhi, who chaired a meeting of the party's general secretaries and in-charges which gave the final shape to the plan, attacked Modi, saying he had destroyed the country's economy with the two "torpedoes". He also chaired a meeting on the GST that was attended by former prime minister Manmohan Singh amd former ministers P Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh, where the leaders said the Modi government's GST had "inherent flaws". Singh noted with concern that its "faulty design" had killed jobs and businesses. Criticising the government's plan to celebrate the day, Gandhi said the prime minister's decisions had caused immense agony to people. He wondered why the government was "celebrating" the anniversary of the note ban, which he described as a "total disaster". "I don't know what is there to celebrate," he said. Gandhi said while the economy could withstand the first "torpedo" of the note ban, it could not do so with the GST, and was "shattered" by immense job losses. The economy, he said, "was in tatters now". "The prime minster is not able to understand the feeling of the people and the hurt and sadness these two decisions have caused," he told reporters after the two meetings. GST was a "good idea" which had been "destroyed" by the Modi government, Gandhi claimed, adding the that party would not rest till the problems were resolved by the government. Addressing a press conference later, Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala called demonetisation the "century's biggest scam" and said demonstrations would be held in every district and state capital on November 8. "Sadly, a government drunk with power and blinded by arrogance has the audacity to celebrate the 'surgical strike' on India's economy. People will never pardon the BJP," he said. Surjewala said it was time for the BJP and Modi to face the nation on promises made and not delivered, and "suffer the punishment in the people's court". Also present for the GST meeting was Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal and RPN Singh. Badal said all Congress finance ministers would raised public concerns on GST at the November 10 meeting of the GST Council in Guwahati. "We will demand exemptions from GST for small traders in cycle, gem, jewellery and textile sectors," he said. Surjewala said Gandhi noted that both demonetisation and GST were sold to the people by the BJP and the prime minister as a panacea for the poor, ordinary people and small businesses and for fighting black money. "Demonetisation and GST have turned out to be a double whammy in the life of ordinary people and have crippled or shut down businesses, besides leading to large scale job losses," he quoted Gandhi as saying. The PM, he said, had promised to bring black money back. "But where is the black money, since 99 per cent of all the currency has come back? Where is the fake money? Has terrorism stopped," he asked. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Energy Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule today appealed to the farmers to clear their pending power dues without payment of any penalty under the 'Mukhyamantri Krushi Sanjeevani Yojana'. There are around 41 lakh farmers whose electricity dues are pending, the minister informed. Addressing a press conference here, Bawankule said, to avail the benefit of the scheme the farmers should pay their current bill in the next one week. If the bill is not cleared by next week the government will issue order for disconnection, said the minister. The consumers, whose dues are less than Rs 30,000 will get the option of paying it in five installments, said Bawankule. The payment dates for this dues are in December 2017, March 2018, June 2018, September 2018 and December 2018, he said. Those consumers whose electricity bill dues are over Rs 30,000 will get an option to clear the same in 10 installments with a time span of 45 days between each installment, said the minister. "The farmers who are eligible in this criteria will not have to pay the fine and interest on the pending dues if they make the payment in the given time frame," informed Bawankule. He said the government is spending Rs 6.50 per unit for supplying electricity to farmers, but it is charging merely Rs 1.80 per unit from them. The present situation is that electricity bill of Rs 19,272 crore is pending from the farmers, informed the minister, adding, in the last three years not a single electricity connection of a farmer has been disconnected by the government. Bawankule has appealed to the farmers to pay their pending electricity bills as the government has to purchase electricity from power supply companies everyday. "If the electricity bills are not paid by the farmers the government will not be able to purchase power which will further escalate load-shedding situation in the state," said the minister. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court today asked the authorities to ensure that Mohalla Clinics are not set up in schools here as it would affect children's entry in the institutions and make the places unsafe. The court also asked the AAP government and civic bodies to explore the feasibility of setting up Mohalla Clinics at the various sites proposed by the DDA. "Nowadays children are already so vulnerable to exploitation. Do not block their entry in the schools by such steps. Ensure that you do not render safe places unsafe. It's a legitimate concern," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said. To this, the Delhi government counsel Sanjoy Ghosh said that as per the court's earlier order no MCD schools were being used for Mohalla Clinics. The court's observation came after advocate Ashok Aggarwal sought to be impleaded as a party in the matter and submitted that he was not against setting up of Mohalla Clinics but school premises and parks should not be used for this purpose. The court asked him to file an application in this regard after the government's counsel opposed his plea. It also noted that none of the three MCDs have filed their feasibility reports with regard to the land falling in their jurisdiction and directed them to file it. The court also asked the Delhi government to convene a meeting with the authorities, including MCDs and the DDA, to address the feasibility of the proposed sites for Mohalla Clinics and listed the matter for December 4. The court had earlier asked the Centre, the AAP government and civic bodies here to explore the possibility of setting up Mohalla Clinics in all parts of the city to provide adequate health facilities to the people. The Delhi government's counsel had said the proposal for the neighbourhood health facility scheme was approved by the competent authority. He had submitted that the department identified several free sites in the city. The health project had been delayed after complaints of irregularities were received by the LG, leading to a probe by the Vigilance Department. The lack of land for the project had also held it up. The court was hearing NGO Justice for All's plea for direction to the authorities to allot adequate number of plots for construction of these clinics with permission to raise the appropriate temporary structures to run them. Advocate Khagesh B Jha, appearing for the NGO, claimed that the LG had now approved the scheme of Mohalla Clinics but due to multiplicity of agencies and difference of opinion among them, the scheme was working at very slow pace. The NGO submitted that "the poor residents of the city have no means to afford the costly treatment of private hospitals and are completely dependent on government hospitals and dispensaries which have limited strength and are unable to serve the population in normal days". Seeking direction to the Centre, the DDA and MCDs to remove the technical difficulties for construction of the temporary structures and running the clinics, the plea urged that the authorities be asked to depute doctors, staffs and provide proper facilities for their smooth functioning. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The European Union is re-thinking civil protection assistance, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said, after a request from Portugal which this year suffered several deadly forest fires. "We will consider, at Portugal's request, the reorganisation of civil protection in Europe," Juncker said at a press conference alongside Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. In the immediate aftermath of a tragedy, the EU can deploy civil protection aid through either in-kind assistance, with the deployment of specially equipped teams, or send experts to the field to assess and coordinate with local teams. In mid-June, 64 people died when huge forest fires swept the central Pedrao Grande region of Portugal. Those were followed in the middle of October by new fires that killed 45 people, according to a toll by the country's civil protection agency. Nearly half of all forests burned in the European Union in 2016 were in Portugal, where fire-prone eucalyptus and pine plantations along with poor soil encouraged the deadly flames. The country is set to break the record for destroyed forests in 2017, with recent disasters killing dozens of people. The Portuguese government has promised to prevent new tragedies by carrying out "fundamental reforms" in forest management and firefighting. Juncker, a former Luxembourg prime minister who yesterday began a two-day visit to Portugal, said the disaster touched him "personally". "One of my fellow citizens perished in the fires here in Portugal," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Everyone needs to change their mindset about the inconvenience due to Metro III project work going on here, the Bombay High Court today said even as the Metro Rail Corporation informed that it has come out with a proposal to ensure minimum nuisance is caused to the public. A division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice M S Sonak was hearing a petition filed by advocate Robin Jaisinghani that the construction activity of the project was causing noise pollution in areas concerned. The court had last month refused to allow Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) to use heavy machinery or transportation vehicles at night for the Metro III line work. Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, appearing for MMRCL, today told the high court that the corporation had come out with a proposal by which it would ensure that the work is carried out and finished expeditiously. The MMRCL authorities will soon be meeting the petitioner (Jaisinghani) and advocate Zal Andhyarujina, appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter, to discuss the proposal and come out with a solution, he said. The HC then said while there may be some inconvenience, the authorities must see to it that it is bare minimum. "The Metro project is in public interest...at the same time how much the authorities can reduce the inconvenience and problems caused to public because of the construction work is also important. Everyone needs to change their mindset... everyone needs to come out of their respective attitudes and perceptions," Chief Justice Chellur said. She said the authorities must also change their attitude and be pro-active in trying to come out with the best solution. The bench has now posted the petition for further hearing on November 2. In another petition filed by Jaisinghani, raising concerns of fire hazards due to the ongoing construction work of the Metro project in Cuffe Parade area of south Mumbai, the bench directed the fire brigade officials to carry out inspection of buildings concerned and submit a report. In the petition, Jaisinghani had claimed that due to barricades put up in and around the area, in the event of fire in any of the residential buildings, the fire brigade would not be in a position to bring its vehicles inside the premises to douse the flames. The court has asked the fire brigade department to submit its report by November 2. Meanwhile, the court posted for hearing on November 6 another petition filed by a city resident challenging the construction of Metro rail car shed at suburban Aarey colony. The petition claims that Aarey colony is a sensitive eco zone and hence, no construction can be carried out there. "On August 24 this year, a notification was issued under the MRTP (Maharashtra Regional Town Planning) Act converting the land for construction work," the petitioner's counsel, Janak Dwarkadas, said. "Earlier, the car shed was to be constructed at a land in Kanjurmarg area but since the ownership of that land is in dispute before this court, the MMRCL decided to construct in Aarey Colony," the counsel said. He said the bench should hear the petition pertaining to the Kanjurmarg land dispute first. Agreeing to this, the high court directed for the petition to be tagged along with this plea. "The petitions will have to heard together in order to understand the practicality of which land can be used for the Metro car shed," the HC said. The 33-km Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro line III project is a part of the Metro system which will connect the Cuffe Parade business district in south Mumbai to SEEPZ in the city's north-central suburb. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri today asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to expedite the verification of claims of 771 applicants who had been rejected earlier for a house under the Kathputli Colony redevelopment plan, a DDA official said. Puri also spoke to Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal over the matter. Under the Kathputli redevelopment plan, taken up in 2009, as many as 2,800 EWS houses were to be built for the eligible residents. About half of the demolition work has so far been completed and about 2.50 hectares of the total encroached area of 5.20 hectares have been reclaimed for redevelopment, the official said. The DDA constituted a three-member Appellate Authority chaired by a retired additional district and sessions judge to hear the appeals against the rejection of claims by the Eligibility Determination Committee. Puri today directed early completion of hearing of these appeals and asked the DDA to ensure accommodation for all the eligible claimants. As many as 1,355 families have been shifted to transit accommodation at Anand Parbat, while 492 claimants were offered permanent EWS houses in Narela. Fresh claims were also received in the meantime. As the DDA team went to the colony today to pursue those still staying there to move out, some people tried to resort to stone pelting, the official said. When the matter was brought to his notice, the official said, Puri called the Vice-Chairman of the DDA and discussed the matter in detail and gave the direction to expedite verification of the claims of the applicants. About 400 families have volunteered so far to move out of Kathputli Colony and the DDA has made necessary transport arrangements for them, the official said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Trade, industry and exporters bodies in the region today thanked Tamil Nadu Chief Minister for assuring to take immediate action for faste acquisition of land to expand Coimbatore Air Port. In a statement, local chapter of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Vanitha Mohan exuded confidence that the special committee to be formed will study and inform the Airport Authority of India on the quantum of land that could be acquired. The initiatives for expansion of Airport will help this industrial hub to facilitate exports of products made in the region besides benefiting passengers, she said. In another statement, Tirupur Exporters' Association president Raja M Shanmugham said the Kongu region comprising seven districts of Western part of Tamil Nadu is contributing more than 40 per cent to the State GDP. While importing accessories from China and Hong Kong, Tirupur exporters are preferring Chennai airport because of more air connectivity which is lacking in Coimbatore, he said. He thanked Chief Minister K Palanisamy and Municipal Administration minister S P Velumani for forming a special team for land acquisition to develop Coimbatore Airport. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Farmers blocked tractors and deflated tyres of another set of such vehicles during separate protests held to demand higher purchase price for sugarcane. A group of farmers in Kolhapur halted tractors supplying harvested sugarcane to a mill, while another group of cultivators deflated tyres of tractors in Solapur district. Both incidents took place on Sunday night. The Centre has declared Rs 3,000 per tonne purchase price for sugarcane. Sugar mills have shown willingness to pay the price to cultivators but farmer leader and MP Raju Shetti has demanded a higher rate - Rs 3,400 per tonne. Shetti yesterday said, "Sugar mills can give a rate of Rs 3,400 per tonne. Farmers are in dire need and not agreeing to our demand will have some consequences." Hours after Shetti made the comments in Jaysinghpur, Kolhapur district, farmers took to streets and halted tractors supplying sugarcane to mills. The ban on sugar export has put stress on the finances of sugar mills but it does not mean they do not have funds to pay a better price to sugarcane cultivators, he said. Prices of the sweetener are low but rates of sugar byproducts have not dipped. Byproducts like ethanol and molasses are fetching good prices for sugar mills and they should pass on a part of this revenue to farmers, Shetti said. Sanjeev Babar, MD, the Maharashtra Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd, said, "If sugar mills are allowed to export excess sugar, we can pay better price to farmers. But the governments policies should be industry- friendly. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) At least five people were killed today when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in northeastern Nigeria, a militia member assisting the military against Boko Haram jihadists said. The leader of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in Ajiri Yala, some 15 kilometres north of Maiduguri, said the attack happened at about 4:30 am (local time). "A male suicide bomber disguised as a worshipper entered the mosque while people were gathering for the morning prayers," he told AFP by telephone. "He detonated his explosives. He killed five people and injured several others." Boko Haram typically never claims responsibility but has used suicide bombing as a frequent tactic in its eight-year insurgency to establish a hardline Islamic state. Mosques that do not ascribe to its extremist views are seen as legitimate targets, as are people and places seen to be supportive of the secular government. Yesterday, a CJTF member manning a checkpoint in the Muna area of Maiduguri was killed and another injured when two women strapped with explosives blew themselves up. Last Sunday, 14 people were killed when three women detonated their explosives near the Muna Garage camp, which is home to tens of thousands of people made homeless by the violence. The United Nations warned recently that attack against internally displaced people (IDPs) in camps across the region "continue to be a major concern". Communities in hard-to-reach areas of the remote region are also vulnerable and at the weekend, two women blew up in the Gulak area of Madagali, in the far north of Adamawa state. A former local government area chairman, Maina Ularamu, said there were two blasts in Dar village on Saturday night and yesterday morning. "Our suspicion is that they intended to attack the church, which is located inside the primary school about 100 metres away from the scene of the explosion," he said. Ularamu said locals suspected the two women had come to Dar from the Sambisa Forest, in neighbouring Borno, where Boko Haram was known to have bases. The military said earlier this year it had retaken control of the former national park but there are reports the militants have moved back in. They are also known to have been holed up in the Mandara mountains that lie east of Madagali and form the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. On August 2, Boko Haram fighters stormed the village of Mildu, near Madagali, killing six. Ularamu said Boko Haram "remnants are still lurking" in remote villages and the Sambisa Forest, and troop reinforcements were needed. Attacks on civilians have largely been attributed to the Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau. Strikes against the military are generally blamed on the Islamic State group-supported faction headed by Abu Mus'ab al-Barnawi. Last week, at least 15 soldiers were killed in a raid on a military camp north of Damaturu, which is the capital of Yobe state bordering Borno to the west. A military source said troops who had since been on high alert on Saturday inflicted heavy losses on a large contingent of Boko Haram fighters near the Yobe village of Goniri. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four civilians and a policeman were killed today in clashes in eastern DR Congo as demonstrations took place to demand President Joseph Kabila stand down this year, a correspondent said. The journalist said he saw the bodies of four civilians lying in blood in the Madjengon district of Goma, capital of the troubled North Kivu province, while the body of a policeman who had been hit with stones was on the ground in the neighbouring district Mabanga. The protest was organised by an associations of civil society groups, including the pro-democracy Struggle for Change (Lucha). "The resistance against the bloody and predatory regime of Kabila has well and truly begun," Lucha said on Twitter. Tensions are running high in the Democratic Republic of Congo after Kabila failed to step down on the expiry of his second and final term last December. Elections were due to take place this year under a transitional deal aimed at avoiding bloodshed in a country beset by ethnic divisions and fighting in its east. But the country's electoral commission earlier this month announced there would be no vote before early 2019, sparking fresh security concerns. The international community has pressed for a vote to choose a new head of state to be held as soon as possible -- but no timetable has been set so far. During a visit to the country last week, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, called on the government to hold elections next year, rather than delay them until 2019, if it wanted to count on American backing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A fresh round of peace talks seeking to end Syria's war began in the Kazakh capital Astana today, as part of a Moscow-led push supported by Iran and opposition backer Turkey. The latest round of talks began days after the Islamic State jihadist group was forced out of its de facto capital Raqa in northern Syria, in a major victory for the US-backed Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces. Russia's military intervention in 2015 turned the tables in Syrian president and Kremlin ally Bashar al-Assad's favour, but the role of diplomatic arbiter in the complicated conflict is a new one for Moscow. Speaking to journalists after the first day of closed- door talks, Russia's chief negotiator Alexander Lavrentyev expressed confidence that a political settlement to the six- year conflict was possible. Assad "has confirmed his readiness for... the preparation of a new constitution and the holding of new parliamentary and presidential elections on this basis", Lavrentyev said today. Lavrentyev called Assad's acceptance earlier this month of a constitutional reform process "a very important announcement". He also said Russia is ready to host a "congress of the peoples of Syria" involving both regime and opposition representatives. The precise date and location of the congress would be determined in Astana, Lavrentyev said, suggesting it could be at Russia's Hmeimim military base in Syria. The plan for a congress appears to be a confidence- building measure ahead of United Nations-led talks in Geneva on a political settlement that are set to start November 28. Recent rounds of talks in the Central Asian nation have focused on ironing out the details of a Russia-led plan establishing four de-escalation zones in Syria. The plan was first tabled in Astana in May to minimise fighting between government forces and moderate rebel factions and improve civilians' access to aid. The most recent round of talks in September saw Russia, Turkey and Iran agree to jointly police a buffer zone in the contentious northern province of Idlib, where Ankara and Tehran are viewed as having competing interests. Lavrentyev said today that Moscow was prepared to act as "a mediator" between Turkish forces in the Idlib zone and Damascus, which has called Turkey's military presence in the country illegal. Despite backing opposite sides in the war, Ankara and Moscow have been working closely on Syria since 2016, following a rift caused by Turkey shooting down a Russian war plane. The Russian foreign ministry confirmed that the country's top diplomat Sergei Lavrov discussed the Syria talks today in a telephone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. The Russian ministry said the diplomats confirmed their "mutual intention to continue efforts, including at international meetings, in the interests of further progress in the talks process between Syrians". Zones covering part of the south of the country, Eastern Ghouta, and the central province of Homs had already been agreed during a previous round of talks. Russian military police are present in all four zones. Syria's United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura urged parties to move towards "a more stable political settlement" during a mid-October visit to Moscow. While the de-escalation zones brought about an initial reduction in fighting, the International Red Cross has voiced concern that the violence has intensified again, including in the zones. Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Tehran on Wednesday and will hold bilateral talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the Kremlin said today. The war that began with anti-government protests in March 2011 has claimed over 330,000 lives to date. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Inviting UAE investors to join hands with India and be part of its infrastructure growth story, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today said two mega initiatives worth Rs 24 lakh crore - Sagarmala and Bharatmala - are going to be game changers. Addressing the India-UAE Business Summit in Dubai via video conferencing, the highways, shipping and river development minister said India is also keen to attract investors from UAE for the Clean Ganga Mission and projects related to it. "India shares a good relation with UAE. A lot of the stakeholders from UAE are investing in India... Prime Minister has taken a great bold decision to start Bharatmala wherein we are planning to start projects worth Rs 8 lakh crore within 2 years," he said. "These are important projects related to border connectivity, internal ring roads, tribal areas, tourism... There is huge potential available," he added. Gadkari informed investors that in an ambitious initiative, Sagarmala, "we are expecting the investment of Rs 16 lakh crore including Rs 4 lakh crore for port road connectivity and modernisation of ports. "We have started work worth Rs 1.6 lakh crore in the port sector. Investors have huge opportunity and should join hands with us". In Sagarmala, the government has planned for 14 industrial clusters and special economic zones which are going to accelerate the economy, he said. He said the ministry in JNPT, one of the 12 major ports in India, is planning for special economic zone where it is expecting investment of Rs 6,000 crore besides creation of 1.25 lakh jobs. "We have a huge Clean Ganga Mission. Cities on banks of Ganga are polluting its water. We are going to start work on projects to clean the river before March next. There are various projects worth Rs 4,000 crore... I request all of you (investors) in Dubai to take up projects. We are developing websites for it, all detailed project reports are ready," he said, adding that they could also sponsor and maintain a project for 15 years. He said investors could also help Clean Ganga Mission by donating for it. Stressing that there was remarkable presence of the UAE companies in India, he said the government was interested in investments from there, especially in the infrastructure sector which has been accorded the topmost priority. He said the road building pace was bound to reach 40 km a day shortly, from 23 km currently, adding that it was barely 2 km a day when the BJP government had taken over. "In highways sector alone we have awarded more than 35,000 km of highways construction. We are making express highways, green express highways," he said. Besides, he said the government has plans to develop 101 rivers into waterways and work on 10 such stretches will begin shortly. "We are working on Ganga, Brhamaputra and some other rivers and by end of this year we will start work on 10 inland waterways in the country. We have 20,000 km of river length. Ganga work has already financed by World Bank with Rs 5,000 crore assistance and we are developing three multimodal hubs at Varanasi, Sahibganj and Haldia," he said. He said exports will start from these multimodal hubs and there would also be 40 river ports in addition to cruise tourism in Ganga. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court today questioned the locus of Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, who opposed a plea seeking reopening of investigation into the assassination of the Mahatma 70 years ago. Tushar Gandhi, who moved for the first time in the Apex Court, said he can explain his locus in the case and opposed the plea, saying there was no point in reopening of the case. The apex court, which has appointed a senior advocate as an amicus curiae in the matter, said it would wait for his report before going ahead with the case. "There are several if's and but's in the case and we will like to wait for the amicus curiae (friend of the court) Amrender Sharan's report," a bench of Justices S A Bobde and M M Shantanagoudar said. "You (Tushar Gandhi) have to first satisfy us on the point of locus. What is your locus? Then only we can hear you," it said. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for Gandhi's great-grandson, said she would explain the locus if the court moves ahead with issuing of notice. "Notice has not been issued till now. If the court issues notice then I can show the locus in the case. Let us wait for the amicus curiae to file his report and we will prove our locus in the next hearing," she said. The senior lawyer said that if her client's (Tushar Gandhi) locus was being questioned then the same could be held against the petitioner, Mumbai-based Pankaj Phadnis, a researcher and trustee of Abhinav Bharat. Sharan, who was appointed amicus curiae in the case on October 6, sought four weeks time to file the report, saying he was yet to receive relevant documents from the National Archives. In his written submission, Phadnis had said telegrams were sent from the US Embassy here to Washington on January 30, 1948, after the assassination of Gandhi and one of the reports relating to it still remained classified. He has put on record one of the telegrams "obtained officially" by him during his visit this May to the National Archives and Research Administration, Maryland in the USA. Phadnis has challenged the decision of the Bombay High Court which had on June 6, 2016, dismissed his PIL on two grounds -- firstly, that the findings of fact have been recorded by the competent court and confirmed right up to the apex court, and secondly, the Kapur Commission has submitted its report and made the observations in 1969, while the present petition has been filed 46 years later. In the petition, Phadnis has also questioned the 'three bullet theory' relied upon by various courts of law to hold the conviction of the accused -- Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte, who were hanged to death on November 15, 1949. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was given the benefit of doubt due to lack of evidence. Phadnis has claimed that the Justice J L Kapur Commission of Inquiry set up in 1966 was not able to unearth the entire conspiracy that had led to the killing of the Mahatma. He had earlier told the court that the appeals filed by the convicts in the assassination case were dismissed in 1949 by the East Punjab High Court, following which the Privy Council had sent the matter back on the ground that the Supreme Court of India will come into existence in January 1950. "The Supreme Court never adjudicated this matter," he had said. Phadnis had maintained that as per the "restricted" telegram of January 30, 1948, sent from the US Embassy at 8 pm, Herbert Tom Reiner, Disbursing Officer, was within five feet of Gandhi when he was shot, and with the aid of Indian guards, he had apprehended the assassin. "Reiner filed a report on reaching the Embassy later in the evening. However, after 70 years, the report remains classified. The petitioner (Phadnis himself) has filed an application under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA of USA) for declassification of the said report," he had in his written submission in support of the petition. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Scientists have mapped priority areas around the world, including parts of India, to protect thousands of mammal species, with a focus on species with few close relatives. A study led by researchers at Australian National University (ANU) used maps of about 4,700 land mammals' habitats, and information on how species are related to each other, to identify important places across the world for protecting the world's mammal diversity. The study identified the top places in every continent, including parts of coastal Queensland, Australian deserts near Alice Springs, Sumatra and Java, Madagascar, India, China and Spain. "Habitat loss is a major threat to the world's mammal species - over 1,000 mammal species are already threatened," said Dan Rosauer from the ANU Research School of Biology. He said targeting conservation efforts in areas that provided the most benefit was critical, because resources - particularly land and money - were limited. "Scientists have often focused on the number of species in a protected area, but studies like this one consider the degree to which the family tree of life is well represented," said Rosauer, who led the study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "This study seeks to protect all land mammals, but it gives top priority to species with no close relatives, because if they were lost there would be nothing like them left. "This is the first time that anyone has mapped these priority areas for conserving the diversity of mammal evolution along with minimum target areas for habitat protection," said Rosauer. "People are already working on these challenges, but by using this cutting-edge genetic information we can make far better decisions, protecting up to 32 per cent more of the diversity of the mammal tree of life through better use of limited resources," he said. Animals with few close relatives include the echidna and platypus in Australia, the lemur in Madagascar, the aardvark in Africa, and the mouse-like marsupial monito del monte in South America, researchers said. "The platypus and echidna separated from each other around 25 million years ago. And they split from the rest of the early mammals way back in the time of the dinosaurs," Rosauer said. "By targeting areas with these really unique species, you would also protect a lot of other species too," he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The city government today failed to get any relief on the stay order on appointment of guest teachers, with the Delhi High Court saying it cannot recruit new teachers without following the regular process. The court said the appeal by the Delhi government challenging an order staying the process of appointing guest teachers and promoting those appointed since 2010 in government schools "is dismissed as withdrawn". A bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and Pratibha M Singh brushed aside the government counsel's submission that due to the stay on recruitment process, students were suffering as there was an acute shortage of teachers. It said that since guest teachers were already working, students were not deprived. "You cannot recruit new teachers without following regular process.... You don't get best of the persons if you keep appointing them on ad-hoc basis," the bench observed. The bench asked the government to make the submissions before the single judge, before whom the matter is pending, after which Delhi government standing counsel Ramesh Singh withdrew the appeal. NGO Social Jurist, represented through advocate Ashok Aggarwal, who has filed a contempt plea before a single judge seeking a stay on the order of the DSSSB withdrawing a notice on appointment of 8,914 school teachers, submitted that the appeal should be dismissed as it was not maintainable. The AAP government's plea seeking lifting of the stay on the process of appointing guest teachers is also pending before the single judge who has already issued notice on it. It, however, approached the division bench challenging the single judge's order of not disposing of the plea and instead issuing notice on it for November 9. The government has sought vacation of the stay so that it could appoint nearly 9,000 such teachers to fill vacancies in schools here contending that the order was causing serious prejudice to students who were suffering due to shortage of teachers. The counsel has said that till the 9,000 newly created posts of teachers are filled up either through recruitment or regularisation, guest teachers are required as a stop-gap arrangement against the newly created posts, which is not possible now due to the stay order. The court had asked the government to maintain status quo with regard to fresh appointment of guest teachers as regulars in its schools, after it was informed that authorities have not complied with the high court's 2001 order. The court was also informed that a bill was recently passed in the Delhi Legislative Assembly to regularise all guest teachers appointed since 2010. The division bench in its 2001 order had asked the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB) to ensure zero vacancy of teachers in schools on the commencement of each academic year. The Delhi government had introduced the DSSSB with the purpose of recruiting capable, competent and highly-skilled individuals by conducting written tests, professional tests and personal interviews. The plea said after a high court order of April 11, the DSSSB issued vacancy notice on August 7 inviting applications from candidates for 8,914 teaching posts in the DoE of the Delhi government and for 5,906 teaching posts in the three municipal corporation schools here. It alleged that the DSSSB, without informing or seeking permission from the court, had on August 24 "abruptly withdrawn the advertisement" regarding these vacancies. "The respondents have been deliberately and for some political motives delaying recruitment of regular teachers to the detriment of the interest of as many as 23 lakh students studying in schools run by the Government of Delhi and three municipal corporations," the plea has said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government is considering introduction of a time-bound mechanism for granting licences and various other regulatory clearances for defence manufacturing to cut inordinate delays in key projects. The defence ministry is examining the reform initiative in consultation with the Home Ministry which issues licenses to defence manufacturers, defence ministry sources said. A number of leading industry captains had recently conveyed to defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman their disappointment over delays in grant of licence for setting up of manufacturing facilities for military equipment and platforms. The sources said the government was looking at putting in place a system under which a time limit will be stipulated for granting of licence on short, medium and long- term basis. If a licence is not granted within the prescribed time- frame and there is no communication from the concerned agency on it, then the applicant can consider it to be approved, they said while elaborating on the broad contours of the proposal. India is a leading importer of arms and military platforms globally and the NDA government has listed indigenisation of defence manufacturing as a priority area. However, nothing significant has happened, primarily due to the regulatory hurdles. Sources also said government was examining giving tax benefits to domestic defence industry on the lines of relief being provided to the foreign equipment makers. The government gives a tax concession to original equipment makers but those manufacturing the same product in India do not get the benefit. In May, the government had unveiled an ambitious policy under which select private firms will be roped in to build military platforms such as submarines and fighter jets in India in partnership with foreign entities. A wide range of issues, including matters relating to licensing, taxes and duties and ways to speed up the procurement processes were discussed at a meeting Sitharaman had with defence manufacturers last week. The defence ministry is also making a list of technical know-how the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has shared with the private defence industry. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government has liberalised the arms manufacturing policy with the aim to boost its 'Make in India' initiative, doing away with renewal of licence every five years, allowing increase in capacity up to 15 per cent without its prior permission and introducing a one-time licence fee. The new Arms Rules, which came into effect last week, also give a blanket permission for manufacturers to supply arms to state or central government without seeking prior approval from the Union Home Ministry, an official statement said here today. The move, which is aimed at encouraging investment in the manufacturing of arms, ammunition and weapon systems in the country, is also expected to generate more employment in this field, it said. Under the new rules, licence granted to a manufacturer will be valid for life-time and does not need to be renewed every five years, as was the practice earlier, it said. The new rules will apply to those who have been granted licences by the Union home ministry for manufacturing small arms and ammunition. It will also be applicable to those manufacturers who have been granted permission by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) for tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, defence aircraft, space crafts, warships of all kinds, arms and ammunition and allied items of defence equipment, it said. The new rules, which came into effect on October 27, are expected to encourage the manufacturing activity and facilitate availability of world-class weapons to meet the requirement of armed forces and police forces in sync with the country's defence indigenisation programme. Under the new rules, enhancement of capacity up to 15 per cent of the quantity approved under the licence will not require any further approval by the government. The manufacturer will be required to give only prior intimation to the authority, the statement said. The licence fee has been reduced significantly. Earlier the licence fee was Rs 500 per firearm which added up to very large sums and was a deterrent to seeking manufacturing licenses. The licence fee will now range from Rs 5,000 to the maximum of Rs 50,000. The fee for manufacturing licence will be payable at the time of the grant of license rather than at the time of application. Single manufacturing licence will be allowed for a multi-unit facility within the same state or in different states within the country, the statement said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The government is considering appointing a chief of defence staff (CDS) as head of the tri- services with a sense of urgency, defence ministry sources said today. They said government was revisiting the long-pending issue, indicating that a clear picture may emerge soon. The defence ministry is attending to it with a sense of urgency, the sources said. A high-level committee set up to examine the gaps in the country's security system in the wake of the Kargil war in 1999 had called for appointment of a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) as a single-point military adviser to the Defence Minister. A group of ministers analysing required reforms in the national security system had also favoured appointing a chief of defence staff. However, successive governments were unable to take a call on the sensitive issue. "Several steps have to be taken before the appointment (of the CDS)," a source said. In 2012, the Naresh Chandra Task force had recommended creating the post of a permanent chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee. The CoSC comprises chiefs of the Army, Navy and the Air Force and the senior-most among them acts as its chairman as per existing norm. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Rose McGowan says she was offered USD 1 million to sign a nondisclosure agreement to prevent her from speaking out against disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein. McGowan told The New York Times that the offer came from "someone close to Mr Weinstein," just as several women were about to come forward with their claims of sexual misconduct against the Hollywood producer in an expose published by the newspaper. McGowan, who revealed earlier this month that she was allegedly raped by Weinstein, said she considered the offer, but countered with USD 6 million. "I had all these people I'm paying telling me to take it so that I could fund my art. I figured I could probably have gotten him up to three. But I was like, 'Ew, gross, you're disgusting, I don't want your money, that would make me feel disgusting.'," she said. A day after the story was published McGowan, 44, asked her lawyer to pull the offer. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The political tussle between the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and the Congress over the hawkers' issue intensified today with the workers of the Raj Thackeray-led party holding a protest outside the suburban residence of Mumbai unit Congress president Sanjay Nirupam. Police arrested 11 MNS activists for participating in the protest held outside the Versova residence of Nirupam who has sided with hawkers in the wake of the MNS' 'drive' to evict them from railway station premises. MNS and Nirupam have been exchanging sharp barbs since the last few days. On Saturday, some MNS activists were assaulted by hawkers outside suburban Malad railway station while they were trying to evict them forcibly, within hours of Nirupam addressing a rally of street vendors there. Nirupam had said that hawkers will not tolerate "high-handedness" of MNS activists and are capable of retaliation. Following the attack on MNS workers, Nirupam was booked yesterday for addressing the rally without securing prior permission of the police. A police officer said the 11 MNS workers arrested this afternoon were later released on bail. Police had arrested seven hawkers under various sections of the IPC, including 307 (attempt to murder) in connection with the Saturday's incident in which 40 MNS workers were also booked on charge of rioting and 18 of them were arrested. After MNS chief Raj Thackeray addressed a rally in south Mumbai earlier this month over the death of 23 people in a stampede on the staircase of the foot overbridge (FOB) at suburban Elphinstone Road railway station last month, MNS workers took upon themselves the task of removing hawkers from station premises. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Madhya Pradesh High Court today directed that seven minors, taken into custody by the railway police on the suspicion that they were being taken to Mumbai for religious conversion, be handed over to their parents. The parents had moved the Indore bench of high court with a 'habeas corpus' petition seeking that the police produce their children before the court. The Government Railway Police apprehended the children with a man and a woman from the railway station here about a week ago after a local Hindu outfit alleged that they were being taken to Mumbai for conversion. The court ordered the GRP to produce them and, after speaking to the children, a bench of Justices Alok Varma and S C Sharma directed the police to hand over the children to their parents in accordance with their own wish, said advocate K P Gangore, the petitioners' lawyer. The children are in the age group of 5-17 years. According to the GRP, the children were "rescued" from the railway station on October 23 when they were being taken to Mumbai by a man and a woman. The duo was arrested under the Madhya Pradesh Religious Freedom Act. Parents of some of the children said they were Christians and were going to Mumbai for religious studies of their own will. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Calcutta High Court today sought a report on the status of the job of a teacher who was not allowed to join duty after being absent since 2010 following illness owing to alleged mental harassment at the school. The teacher, Madhurima Das, claimed that she had been suffering from "acute mental instability" following "mental harassment" by the managing committee of the school over her wearing salwar kameez to work. Her counsel Ashis Chowdhury said in the petition that she had joined Maheshpur Prafulla Balika Bidya Mandir in South 24 Parganas district in 2010. She was allegedly asked by the managing committee to wear sari instead of salwar kameez in the school, where she taught English language. Chowdhury claimed that she was subjected to mental harassment following her refusal to abide by the directive of the committee and had subsequently fallen ill. Das was under treatment and had not been able to attend school. In July 2017, she was declared fit by her doctor, but was not allowed to join duty, her lawyer Chowdhury claimed, adding she then gave a representation to the district inspector of schools, but did not get any favourable response. Following this, Das moved the High Court seeking to know the status with regard to her job at the school. The lawyer representing the state submitted that the plea was not maintainable as the petitioner had moved the court after a gap of seven years during which she had remained absent from work. Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty directed the West Bengal education department to submit a report on steps taken by it and the district inspector of schools in South 24 Parganas district till date with regard to her service from 2010. The judge directed that the report be submitted by November 20 when the matter would be taken up for hearing again. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Madras High Court today quashed the FIR against T R Pachamuthu of SRM Medical College and University in connection with a multi-crore medical admission scam following directions from the Supreme Court. Justice MS Ramesh, before whom the case came up, said in view of the fact that the issue has now been referred back to this court from the Supreme Court, "the investigation in crime no. 143 of 2016 ... is required to be quashed, since all the claimants have given their consent through affidavits." The petitioner has also verified these affidavits and affirms them to be genuine. Incidentally, it was the intention of the apex court to have the FIR quashed to enable the claimants to receive their respective claims after due adjudication, the judge said. In view of the same, it would be expedient to record the disbursements made by the Court Commissioner and hence, the case needs to be adjourned for the limited purpose of recording the Commissioner's final report, the judge said. The judge then posted the matter for recording the report of the Court Commissioner to November 30. The matter relates to complaints filed with police by parents of medical aspirants alleging that they paid huge amounts running into crores of rupees to secure medical seats in the SRM Medical College in 2016. The court had appointed former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court N Paul Vasanthakumar as Commmissioner to disburse money to 136 claimants against which Pachamuthu filed a Special Leave petition in the apex court. Pachamuthu, who along with film producer Madhan of 'Vendhar Movies' was allegedly involved in the admission scam, had earlier moved the high court seeking to quash the FIR on the ground that the complainants in the case had agreed to withdraw their plaint. The money was paid allegedly to Pachamuthu through Madhan by 136 aspirants seeking medical seats. However, the seats were not given as promised and Madhan had absconded leaving behind a suicide note. He was later traced and arrested. Pachamuthu was also arrested in the case and later released on bail after he deposited Rs 75 crore and furnished Rs 10 crore bank guarantee in the trial court. The apex court while referring the matter again to the high court had directed all the claimants to file an affidavit to the effect that they will agree for quashing the FIR provided that their claims are settled before the high court. When the matter came up, senior counsel for Pachamuthu submitted that in compliance with the apex court directive, the 136 claimants as well as five additional claimants have served copies of affidavits on the petitioner stating that they have no objection in having the FIR quashed, provided their claims are settled. The judge while referring to the report of Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar said "...it is seen that 125 claimants out of 136 were prima facie admitted for disbursement. Among the remaining 11 claimants, 7 claimants have been referred to this court and four of the claimants could not be verified as they pertained to admission for Mahatma Gandhi Medical College, Puducherry and not SRM College." The counsel appearing on behalf of these 11 claimants submitted that they are in possession of further evidence and therefore, they may be given an opportunity to put forth their case for the purpose of re-adjudication, the court said. As the seven claimants, who were referred by the Commissioner to the court, represented that they were in possession of few more details, they deserve "reconsideration in my view". The judge allowed the 11 claimants to approach the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Central Crime Branch-II, Greater Chennai Police, Vepery, Chennai, for the purpose of further investigation into the alleged payments made for procuring seats in SRM College. The police on receipt of such a representation shall conduct a preliminary inquiry and submit a report to the Court Commissioner within one week from the date of receipt of such complaint from any of the claimants, the court said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) HDFC Standard Life Insurance today said the promoters will dilute 14.92 per cent in the forthcoming IPO that is likely to raise up to Rs 8,700 crore. The Initial Public Offer, for which the company set a price band of Rs 275-290, will see HDFC offloading 9.52 per cent stake while Standard Life will dilute 5.4 per cent. Currently, HDFC owns 61.21 per cent stake in the joint venture which will come down to 51.69 per cent, while Standard life's 34.75 per cent will come down to 29.35 per cent post issue. The IPO will open on November 7 and close on November 9. "The funds raised will be used by HDFC Ltd for its business purposes as the insurance arm has adequate capital needed for growth," HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh told reporters here. The IPO is offering up to 299,827,818 equity shares of the face value of Rs 10 each. This comprises an offer for sale of 191,246,050 equity shares by Housing Development Finance Corporation and up to 108,581,768 equity Shares by Standard Life (Mauritius Holdings), the promoters of HDFC Life. The global coordinators and book running lead managers of the IPO are Morgan Stanley India Company, HDFC Bank, Credit Suisse Securities (India), CLSA India and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India). The book running lead managers are Edelweiss Financial Services, Haitong Securities India, IDFC Bank, IIFL Holdings and UBS Securities India. The equity shares offered in the IPO are proposed to be listed on the BSE and the NSE. HDFC Standard Life was one of the first private life insurance companies to register in India and was established as a joint venture between HDFC and Standard Life Aberdeen plc (global investment company), initially through its wholly owned subsidiary The Standard Life Assurance Company and now through its wholly owned subsidiary, Standard Life Mauritius. The company has a pan-India presence, comprising 414 branches across India as of September 30, supported by a workforce of 16,544 full-time employees. Five Insurance IPOs, including HDFC Life, will together raise over Rs 44,000 crore from the capital market this financial. The companies are HDFC Standard Life Insurance, GIC of India, SBI Life Insurance Company and ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company. New India Assurance is expected to hit the capital markets in November. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The man who sent aviation security into a tizzy early this morning by placing a note on a Jet Airways flight about hijackers and a bomb in the plane is a "habitual offender" known for creating trouble onboard, government officials here said. The man, identified as Birju Kishore Salla, had once carried a cockroach with him on a flight and blamed the airline for it, the officials said. Salla, who belongs to an affluent Mumbai-based Gujarati family, had been let off on that occasion after he assured the airline he would not repeat the offence, an official privy to the investigation into the case said. A businessman in his late 30s, Salla always travels by business class, and mostly on Jet Airways. The officials said he seemed to hold a grudge against the airline. The incident today, when Flight 9W 339 carrying 122 people made an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport, triggered a scare in the security establishment. The two-level standard operating procedures (SOPs) in a hijacked situation were activated and anti-terror lead force National Security Guard (NSG) commandos were put on high alert, another official said. In a hijack situation, the two SOP levels are the aerodrome committee and the response team, comprising officials of the NSG, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, intelligence agencies and others. The accused has been detained by the Gujarat Police, which is interrogating him. When no suspicious objects or explosives were found on the aircraft after a detailed search, the plane, on its way from Delhi to Mumbai, was cleared to fly again for the remaining part of the journey. However, the pilot of the aircraft insisted that sky marshals be on board, and accordingly two armed guards travelled on the flight from Ahmedabad to Delhi. Salla is likely to be put on a no-fly list of people barred from boarding commercial aircraft. The Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight made the emergency landing after a note stating that there were hijackers and a bomb on board was found in the plane's washroom. The official pointed out that the note referred to POK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) which investigators found suspicious because Pakistan-based terrorists call the area 'Azad Kashmir'. The note, with a para in Urdu on the top and English at the bottom, ended with "Allah is Great" and said, "Flight No 9W 339 is covered by Hijackers and aircraft should not be land and flown straight to POK. 12 people on board. if you put landing gear you will hear the noise of people dying. dont take it as a joke. Cargo area contains explosive bomb and wl blast if you land Delhi (sic)." Flight 9W 339, which had taken off from Mumbai at 2.55 am with 115 passengers and seven crew members, landed without incident at Ahmedabad around 3.45 am. The Boeing 737-900 plane was parked at a remote bay and all 122 safely deplaned. "Salla was detained by the police after a preliminary investigation... It was revealed that Salla had put the threat letter in the plane's washroom. We will take necessary action against him," a police officer in Ahmedabad said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Hindu outfitleader was shot dead in full public view by four unidentified men in the Bharat Nagar locality on the Amritsar-Batala road here today, police said. Hindu Sangarsh Sena district chief Vipan Sharma (45) was standing with a friend outside a shop in the bustling Bharat Nagar locality when around a dozen bullets were pumped into him, the police said. The killing comes within a fortnight of the gunning down of RSS leader Ravinder Gosain in Ludhiana on October 17. Two of the four masked youths, including one sporting a turban, pumped bullets into Sharma's body and fled the spot on their motorcycles, police said. Sharma was rushed to the Escort Hospital where he was declared brought dead. "He was brought to the emergency wing of the hospital where a team of doctors declared him brought dead. There were around 15 injury marks on the deceased's body, including 8 bullet marks," the hospital's director, Dr H P Singh, said. Police Commissioner, Amritsar, S S Srivastava said the CCTVs installed at various locations had captured the incident. The footage from these cameras had been procured and the police was trying to identify the accused by making their sketches, he said. He said the exact number of bullets shot could be ascertained only after the post-mortem report but initially it could be said that nearly 12 bullets were shot on the spot which directly hit the victim. "It is a targeted killing and we are verifying all the aspects particularly a past threat perception if any," he said. Few of the deceased's relatives and friends claimed that he had recently applied for police protection, since he was active in raising his voice against the 'Ghalughara week' (Operation Blue Star anniversary), the police commissioner said. The deceased was a cable operator by profession and was running his business for the last many years in the city. Meanwhile, the Punjab Shiv Sena flayed the gunning down of the Hindu leader. In a statement, the Sena's state vice president Rajesh Palta alleged that the killing of Hindu leaders one after the other was indicative of revival of terrorism in Punjab. "If Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh does not tackle the issue with an iron hand, and instead carries on with the SAD-BJP policy of soft-pedalling over religious fundamentalists, then Punjab will again plunge into the dark days of terrorism like in the past and there will be danger to national integrity and amity," he claimed. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A hog deer today managed to cross the international border despite barbed wire in the R S Pura sector here and was subsequently rescued in a critical condition after it was attacked by dogs, a police officer said. The female deer was rescued near the Abdal village of Suchetgarh from a pack of dogs and handed over to the wildlife department after first aid at the local veterinary hospital, Sub-divisional Police Officer, R S Pura, Surinder Choudhary told PTI. He said the injuries suffered by the deer indicated that it had crossed the fence from the Pakistani side before being attacked by around a dozen dogs. Wildlife warden, Jammu, Amit Sharma said the condition of the mature female deer was "very critical" due to injuries caused by dog bites and barbed wire fencing. "Our doctors are attending the deer and doing their best to save the animal," Sharma said adding the species were present on this side of the border as well. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 44-year-old teacher, the husband of an Akali sarpanch, was shot dead by two men here in Punjab's Sangrur district, police said. Harkirat Singh, resident of village Mubarakpur Choongan was going on a bike to the government school at village Burj along with a colleague when he was stopped by two persons at around 9.15 am and attacked, they said. An accused, identified as Harpreet Singh, allegedly fired four to five shots from his .12 bore gun, killing Harkirat Singh on the spot, DSP (Malerkotla) Yogi Raj said. However, the victim's colleague escaped unhurt, police said. Old enmity was suspected to the be the motive behind the killing, police said. A murder case against Harpreet Singh and an unidentified person has been registered, police said. The victim's wife Manpreet Kaur is an Akali sarpanch from village Mubarakpur Choongan. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal condemned the murder of Harkirat Singh and said "vendetta killings" continued "unabated" in Punjab due to the alleged "failure" of the Congress government to rein in "goonda" elements. In a statement here, the SAD president said the day light murder of Harkirat Singh took place close on the heels of a murderous attack on SGPC member Dyal Singh Kolianwali's son Parminder Singh. Former minister and senior Akali leader Daljit Singh Cheema said Harkirat Singh's daughter also met with an accident while going to the hospital after learning about her father's murder. Cheema said the party will provide all possible assistance to the family. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The apex consumer commission has asked the ICICI bank to refund over Rs two lakh to a customer who lost the amount through an ATM fraud in 2006-07. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has asked the bank to also pay a compensation of Rs 2,000 to Haryana resident Karam Singh who lost Rs 2,07,368 during November 11, 2006 and February 2, 2007. Singh had alleged that during the three months period, he failed to receive any transaction message from the bank. The NCDRC has upheld the decision of lower foras asking the bank to pay a compensation of Rs 2,000 to Singh. "The State Commission as well as the District Forum have based their conclusion on the issue of deactivation of the service of sending messages to the complainants for each transaction. "It is clear from record that the SMS alert service had been provided by the Bank to the complainant. It is not understood, however, why the said service was not operational during the period in question, i.e., from 21.11.2006 to 25.02.2007," the NCDRC presiding member B C Gupta said. According to the complaint, the last transaction made by Singh was on November 20, 2006 and at that time, the balance amount left in the account was Rs 2,07,627. It further said that on February 26, 2007, when he wanted to withdraw some amount from the account, the ATM machine showed the balance amount as Rs 203 only. It is alleged that the amount was fraudulently drawn from his account by somebody during the period November 21, 2006 to February 25, 2007, but he did not receive any message on his cell-phone during the said period. Singh also said that even the message regarding the maintenance of minimum amount of Rs 5,000 in the Bank account was not received. The bank, however, said that the debit card as well as the PIN was in possession of the complainant so no amount could have been withdrawn. The bank also said there was no deficiency on part of the bank and in case some fraudulent withdrawal of any amount had taken place, the complainant was responsible for the same. The lower foras rejected the bank's contention and asked it to refund the amount with compensation. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Allahabad High Court on Monday directed the Uttar Pradesh government to implement within three months the provisions of an Act the provides for the maintenance and welfare of senior citizens. The court also directed the Yogi Adityanath government to set up an old age shelter home in each district of the state as per the provisions of the 'Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007'. The legislation requires the state government to create a mechanism to provide maintenance, medical facilities to the elderly. The High Court also directed the state government to establish tribunals and appellate tribunals, where aggrieved senior citizens can file their complaints. The bench comprising justice Tarun Agarwala and justice Ashok Kumar passed the order in a petition filed by Janki Devi and another. Devi was a 75-year-old lady who was looked after by one of her relatives. Due to old age she could not operate her bank accounts. The petition was filed seeking directions to the bank to allow the relative to withdraw money from Devi's account and use it for her maintenance. During the course of the hearing, the state government informed that a committee was formed, headed by the district magistrate, to look into the needs of the old lady. On this the court said that the DM should ensure that members of the committee shall visit the old lady's home regularly to ensure that she got basic and medical facilities. The court while disposing off the petition, directed the state government to take appropriate measures to give wide publicity and to sensitize the public and employees of the state government regarding the law protecting rights and interests of senior citizens in UP. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Italy today pledged to inject "renewed momentum" into bilateral economic engagement, especially in infrastructure, hi-tech manufacturing, textiles and automotive sectors. The India-Italy joint statement issued after the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni called for further strengthening of economic linkages between the two nations. The two leaders committed to work in a "result-oriented and mutually beneficial manner by injecting a renewed momentum into the broad-based economic engagement between the two countries", the statement said. Modi called upon the Italian industry to explore India's untapped business opportunities in infrastructure, food processing, renewable energy and high-tech manufacturing sectors. Gentiloni also called upon the Indian industry to identify business opportunities in Italy's textiles, automotive, leather, machinery and chemical sectors. The two leaders took note of the progress made by the 19th session of the Indo-Italian 'Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation' (JCEC) held at the ministerial-level. Modi and Gentiloni agreed to convene the next session of the JCEC in India in 2018. The statement further said the Prime Ministers announced the organisation of an Indo-Italian High Level Forum on Design, with a focus inter alia, on industrial design, auto design, architecture, interior design and fashion. "The high-level forum will endeavour to bring together prominent experts from the areas mutually identified, with the task of defining a program of activity for the Forum (exhibitions, workshops, contacts between young designers)," it said. The foreign ministries of the two countries will further discuss the objectives, structure, and host organisations for this High-level forum. The meeting of the High-level Forum is proposed to be held in March 2018. Modi and Gentiloni also took stock of the on-going work on an additional protocol amending the bilateral agreement to avoid double taxation and encouraged the respective agencies/ competent authorities to continue negotiations with the objective of early finalisation of the text. The adoption of the new protocol, together with the entry into force of the Protocol signed in January 2006, will update the bilateral Agreement of 1993, with tangible benefits for Indian and Italian companies. "The protocol will enable better administrative cooperation, and enhance the ability to counter tax evasion and tax avoidance. Work will also continue on Customs Cooperation to improve the mutual administrative assistance under the EU legal framework," the statement said. The two leaders discussed the possibility of an operating mechanism to be established between the Italian investment bank - Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP), which operates under Italy's Ministry of Economy and Finance, and Indian counterpart entities to explore opportunities for enhancing investment cooperation in India's infrastructure sector. The statement further said the leaders recognised the immense possibilities for collaboration in the food processing sector in India. They noted with "satisfaction the imminent mission" of the Italian Deputy Minister for Economic Development, who will be leading a high level business delegation to 'World Food India', where Italy will be 'Focus Country'. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Italy today emphasised that connectivity ventures must be based on international law, transparency and equality, in an oblique reference to China's One Belt One Road initiative. India has raised concerns as the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) under the OBOR passes through the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir. India has said that the CPEC violates it sovereignty. "They underlined that connectivity initiatives must be based on universally recognised international norms, good governance, rule of law, openness, transparency and equality and must follow principles of financial responsibility, accountable debt financing practises, balanced ecological and environmental protection, preservation standards and social sustainability," an India-Italy joint statement said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni, in their delegation-level talks, also reaffirmed their commitment to the full implementation of the Paris Agreement adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The two leaders pledged to work together in the run up to and at the CoP23, and beyond, on the next steps towards substantial and balanced progress on all items of the Paris work programme. To support peace and sustainable development in Africa, the two leaders expressed their commitment to explore areas of convergence to optimise possible synergies between their respective initiatives as well as in the multilateral fora. They acknowledged each other's contribution to peace and development in Africa, including through their participation in UN Peacekeeping Missions. "Italy also looked forward to India's participation as an observer at the forthcoming EU-African Union Summit," the joint statement said. In the field of space, the two nations expressed desire to enhance cooperation for peaceful use of outer space and with particular reference to earth observation and space exploration. To ramp up cooperation in the area of culture, the two leaders welcomed the signature of the New Executive Program of Cultural Cooperation (EPCC) in the framework of the bilateral Cultural Agreement. The new EPCC would strengthen the ongoing cooperation between the two countries in the areas of theatre, music, dance, festivals, publishing, cinema, youth exchanges, and through grant of scholarship programs. The Italian side welcomed India's interest to participate in the 2019 Biennale di Venezia, considered as the world's most prestigious contemporary art exhibition and agreed to extend necessary support in this regard. Tourism was also discussed by the two sides in their delegation-level talks. The two leaders also welcomed the exchange of best practises and scientific techniques for the conservation of the architectural and archaeological heritage and sharing of information on developing, marketing or managing cultural heritage tourism attractions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Italy today inked six pacts to boost cooperation in key sectors, including energy and trade, after detailed talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni on ways to strengthen ties and countering terrorism. They also called on all countries to work towards rooting out terrorist safe havens, their infrastructure and networks and halting cross-border movement of terrorists, a joint statement issued after the meeting said, in a veiled reference to Pakistan. Addressing a joint media event with Gentiloni, Modi said they discussed wide-ranging issues, including the challenges posed by terrorism and cyber crimes, while agreeing to enhance cooperation to counter them. Modi also noted that there was a huge potential for enhancing India-Italy trade ties. "India and Italy are two large economies, and the respective strengths of our economies provide us ample opportunities to strengthen our commercial cooperation. There is a lot of potential for our bilateral trade of about USD 8.8 billion to grow much further," he said. Modi also stressed that there was a lot of scope for Italian companies to participate in the flagship programmes of the government such as Smart Cities and cooperate in areas like food processing, pharma and infrastructure. After the Modi-Gentiloni meeting, the two sides signed six pacts to deepen cooperation in the fields of railways sector safety, energy and promoting mutual investments, among others. On his part, Gentiloni said good relations between the two nations provide major opportunities for companies and scientific cooperation. Italy, he said, looks with great interest at India with regard to investment. Italy is India's fifth largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade of USD 8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. India's exports to Italy were at USD 4.90 billion, while its imports were at USD 3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of about USD 1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached USD 3.22 billion. "In addition to bilateral issues, we also exchanged views on regional and global issues. In today's world, we face new challenges and threats every day," Modi said. "We discussed in detail some of the emerging security challenges facing the world. We are both committed to fight terrorism in all its forms, and to strengthen our cooperation in cyber security," he said. The two sides agreed to strengthen the consultation mechanism through regular exchange of assessments and information, training and capacity building programmes in the sphere of counter terrorism. The leaders also resolved to enhance cooperation to take "decisive and concerted actions" against the al-Qaeda and ISIS, the joint statement said. Noting that Italy has been a partner in the field of science and technology, Modi said both countries were keen to boost cooperation in this sector. Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on Gentiloni and discussed issues of mutual interest, ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. Gentiloni's visit is the first prime ministerial trip from Italy in more than a decade. The India-Italy diplomatic ties took a hit after two Italian marines -- Latorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone -- on board a ship named Enrica Lexie, were arrested for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in 2012. Italy claimed the ship was in international waters and that only the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) should apply. It also moved the international court. While Latorre returned to Italy in September 2014 following an order of the Supreme Court issued on health grounds, Girone was allowed to go in May 2016. They are now in Italy, pending the verdict by the arbitration court at the Hague. The India-Italy diplomatic row also impacted the European Union's relationship with India. The two sides also released a logo to commemorate the 70 years of relations between the two countries. India and Italy will complete 70 years of diplomatic ties in March next year. The Italian prime minister termed it as a relaunching of ties between the two nations. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Italy today resolved to fight terrorism and violent extremism in all their forms and manifestations, as they strongly pitched for strengthening international partnership and concerted action in addressing the menace of terrorism. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni, who held wide-ranging talks, also emphasised on the need for effective implementation of existing international commitments on countering terrorism, including the UN Global Countering Terrorism Strategy, UNSC resolutions and targeted sanctions relating to terrorism. "In this context, the leaders also called upon all UN member countries to designate terrorist entities in line with the relevant UNSC Resolutions," said a joint statement issued after the talks. The statement comes amidst indications that China will again block at the UN, efforts to list JeM chief and Pathankot mastermind Masood Azhar as a global terrorist. While responding to a query on the Azhar issue, Chinese foreign ministry has said that "as for listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements". China is expected to block the move to ban Azhar again when the 1267 Committee of the UNSC takes up the issue on Thursday, the day the current hold on the proposal, piloted by the US, the UK and France, is expiring. Modi and Gentiloni also condemned in the strongest possible terms the recent terror attacks in India, Europe and elsewhere and emphasised on the need for strengthening international partnership and concerted action by the international community in addressing the menace of terrorism. "In addition to bilateral issues, we also exchanged views on regional and global issues. In today's world, we face new challenges and threats every day. We discussed in detail some of the emerging security challenges facing the world," Modi said at a joint press event with Gentiloni. We are both committed to fighting terrorism in all its forms, and to strengthen our cooperation in cyber security," he said. They also called on all countries to work towards rooting out terrorist safe havens, their infrastructure and networks and halting cross-border movement of terrorists, the joint statement said, in a veiled reference to Pakistan. The leaders expressed satisfaction on the first India- Italy Joint Working Group on Combating International Terrorism held in Rome on November 10, 2016, and agreed to further strengthen the consultation mechanism through regular exchange of assessments and information, training and capacity building programmes etc., in the sphere of counter terrorism. The leaders agreed to strengthen cooperation to take decisive and concerted actions against the al-Qaeda, ISIS, their affiliates and all other UN-designated globally proscribed terrorists and terror entities, including those mentioned in the India-EU joint statement on cooperation in combating terrorism. The statement was issued after the India-EU Summit earlier this month. The statement said the two leaders also called for an early conclusion of negotiations and adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism in the UN, as an instrument that would reinforce the message that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism. The two leaders also affirmed that terrorism should not be associated with any particular religion, nationality, civilisation, creed or ethnic group. "They also expressed concerns at the growing misuse of internet towards radicalisation of youth and agreed to strengthen cooperation in combating radicalisation and violent extremism," the statement said. They also agreed to explore the establishment of a bilateral dialogue on cyber issues. Modi and Gentiloni reaffirmed their commitment to an open, free, secure, stable, peaceful and accessible cyberspace, enabling economic growth and innovation. In particular, they reaffirmed that international law was applicable in cyberspace and that there was a need to continue and deepen deliberations on the applicability of international law to cyberspace and set norms of responsible behaviour of states. The leaders welcomed the holding of the 5th Global Conference on Cyberspace in New Delhi on November 23-24, it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Ram Nath Kovind today said India is keen to leverage Italian technology and investment for growth and development. The president said this when Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni called on him at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Welcoming Gentiloni, Kovind said the visit comes 10 years after the visit of former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. He said the visit has special significance for India- Italy engagement as the two countries will be celebrating the 70th anniversary of their diplomatic relations in 2018. "The economic partnership between India and Italy is strong. However, there is potential to do more. India's reform initiatives, including efforts to improve the ease of doing business and the GST, offer business opportunities to Italian companies. "Infrastructure development in India itself is a USD 1 trillion opportunity. India is keen to leverage Italian technology and investment for growth and development," the president said. He said he was happy to note that Italian companies want to invest in the Railways, auto, renewable energy and food processing sectors in India. "Our relations are anchored in the shared values of democracy and rule of law. We have a large Indian diaspora in Italy. India deeply appreciates Italy's recognition of their contribution to socio-economic progress. "Our people-to-people connect is ever growing. There are over 2,000 Indian students in Italy today. With so much that we share and jointly aspire for, our ties must continue to strengthen," he said. The president expressed happiness over the participation of Italy in the World Food India 2017 as a "Focus Country". Italy is known as the design capital of the world, he said commending the initiative of the Italian PM to celebrate the "Day of Italian Design in the World". "This year the event, held in over 100 cities across the globe, was a big success. And we look forward to jointly celebrating the event in India next year," Kovind said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Tunisia today agreed to jointly combat terrorism and extremism while ramping up cooperation in the field of security. A review of bilateral ties was undertaken as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj co-chaired the 12th India- Tunisia Joint Commission Meeting with her Tunisian counterpart Khemaies Jhinaoui. During the meeting, the two sides also discussed regional and international issues of mutual interest. Six agreements in the fields of judicial cooperation, cooperation in youth issues, information and communications technology, trade and business, were also signed. To give a new impetus to bilateral relations, a roadmap for India-Tunisia partnership was initiated by Swaraj and Jhinaoui, to energise the relations, a ministry of external affairs (MEA) statement said. "The Tunisian side shared Indian concerns on terrorism and agreed to fight against terrorism, extremism, radicalism, drugs and organised crime and in the field of security, including cyber security," the statement said. The Indian side noted the successful transition to democracy by Tunisia and extended all possible support in the building of democratic institutions of that country, it said. At the meeting, Tunisia also conveyed that it would become a partner country in the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and expressed its willingness to join its various programmes. The Tunisian side appreciated India's initiative of holding the International Solar Alliance Founding Conference in New Delhi on December 8, 2017. In order to expand bilateral trade and investment, both countries proposed to enhance trade to USD 1 billion in the next five years. The Indian side called for greater market access in the pharma and fertilizer sectors, the statement said. It was also decided that two new Joint Working Groups -- one to remove barriers in trade and expand volume and range of trade and another on Agriculture to expand cooperation in agriculture and agro products -- would be set up. To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, it was decided to hold a year-long festival of India in Tunisia and festival of Tunisia in India in 2018. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UK government's Department for International Trade (DIT) will observe November as "India-UK Future Tech Month" and hold a series of technology-focused business activities in Britain and India. The series of events are aimed at showcasing the very best UK technology and innovation to a high-quality Indian audience, including buyers, investors, and central and state- level government officials, the DIT said. "November marks one year since British Prime Minister Theresa May led her first overseas trade mission to India, and two years since Prime Minister Narendra Modi's landmark UK visit. "The time is right to redouble our commitment to matching India's technology demands with the UK's very best offer, encouraging UK companies to look to India and to encourage Indian companies to grow their businesses in the UK," British High Commissioner to India, Sir Dominic Asquith said. The diplomat expressed confidence that the 'India-UK Future Tech' month would inspire British businesses to "Think India" and expose India's most ambitious businesses to the "breadth and depth of the UK's tech expertise". As part of the initiative, the DIT would take more than 60 Indian companies in 10 sectors on a tour of UK-wide business hubs in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Leicester, Coventry and London. The move aims to inspire new partnerships, strengthen technical collaboration and land business deals, in areas as diverse as data analytics, Internet of Things, ICT services, advanced manufacturing, electric vehicles, automotive, healthcare, life sciences, food and drink and creative industries. The centrepiece of the series has been highlighted as the India Zone at the Innovate 2017 summit, to be held next week in Birmingham. It brings together partners from the Indian government, including Invest India, the Indian High Commission in the UK, and the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, along with state governments of Karnataka and Kerala. The focal theme of the programme is "Indias Innovation and Technology Needs The UKs offer". "India's technology sector is set to triple in the next 10 years. Our Prime Minister has listed 'Digital India' among his top priorities. We share longstanding deep commercial partnerships with the UK, which we are keen to build on even further. Together India and the UK have the potential to transform many areas including financial technology, cyber security, skill development and R&D," said Amitabh Kant, CEO Niti Ayog. He highlighted that India was in the midst of a digital revolution and was inching towards an "even more cost- effective digital economy". "We have one of the largest digital skilled work forces globally, and are keen to partner with the UK on domestic digital skill development and technology exchange. I see the UK's potential as limitless; India is already the fourth- largest investor in the UK with a staggering 31 per cent of investments in the technology and telecom sector," he added. Innovate UK will comprise of a range of informative sessions to showcase market opportunities in India, launch the Birmingham element of Invest India's 'Access India' programme, and provide information on professional services and ease of doing business in India. This will be supported by thought- leadership sessions on Indias 'trillion-dollar' digital opportunity and a panel discussion on data analytics, internet of things and big data. "Innovate 2017 is an excellent platform to showcase the existing strong UK-India innovation links and foster further important business collaborations for the benefit of both our economies. I look forward to welcoming the Indian delegation to our event in Birmingham and hope it will generate some significant business deals and partnerships," said Innovate UK Chief Executive Dr Ruth McKernan. In India as part of tech-month series, DIT is bringing innovative UK healthcare diabetes companies to the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India 45th Annual Conference in Bhubaneswar later this week and then taking them to meet Indian companies in Chennai. DIT is also bringing an Oncology trade mission to the Indian Cancer Congress in Bengaluru and the same mission will participate in the India-UK Healthcare Forum in Mumbai later this month. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India is a voice of "peace and stability" at a time when many parts of the world are experiencing uncertainty, Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui said today. Delivering the 25th Sapru House Lecture at the Indian Council of World Affairs here, Jhinaoui termed India a source of inspiration for many countries including Tunisia. "Besides being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, India today represents the voice of peace and stability in a time of uncertainty, a source of inspiration to many countries around the world including Tunisia," Jhinaoui said. He was speaking on the topic 'New Tunisia: An Emerging Democracy in an Age of Challenges and Global Threats'. Jhinaoui denounced terrorism and called for cooperation among countries to fight the menace. Referring to the 'Arab Spring' demonstrations in parts of North Africa and Middle East, which began in Tunisia in 2011, Jhinaoui said the western world could not quite comprehend its nuances. "Now it (Arab Spring) denotes some kind of wishful thinking, a representation of revolution at a time of monolithic perception of the Arab region as a whole that does not take the individual experience of many countries," he said. Tunisia, unlike a few other countries of the region which were thrown into tumult due to people's uprisings, has made a peaceful transition into democracy. The Tunisian foreign minister described the relations between his country and India as "deep rooted and warm" and underlined convergences on issues including fight against terrorism and promotion of human rights among others. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Hundreds of Indian-Americans gathered on the banks of the historic Potomac River in the suburbs here to perform Chhath Pooja with several women attired in colorful saree worshipping the Sun God. Chhath Pooja entails worship of the Sun God, embodied in cosmic energy, and is observed mainly by people from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. The Chhath celebration expanded this year as Indian- Americans in New Jersey for the first time gathered on a lakeside in Monroe township to perform the pooja. Hundreds of Indian-Americans from in and around Maryland and Virginia area gathered on the banks of the Potomac river as nearly a dozen fasting women entered the river water on Thursday evening and early morning on Friday to worship the Sun God. "From just me and my family members and a few friends, this has now become a big community event," said Anita Singh, who has been organising the event for the past ten years now. Started by the Singh couple Kripa and Anita -- Chhath Pooja celebrations on the banks of the Potomac river attracted people from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Atlanta in addition to the Greater Washington area of Maryland and Virginia. The Singh family have been doing this for a decade now at the same place on the river bank, which in addition to hundreds of Indian-Americans have also started attracting several curious onlookers. An individual initiative so far, the Chhath celebrations this year attracted dozens of volunteers from near and far who helped the Singh family in every aspect of the festival from elaborate rituals, to the big community event on the river bank. They volunteered to provide free snacks to the visitors on Friday morning. Given the large turnout of the community members in the few years, Kripa Singh said they have now started looking for a parcel of land on the bank of Potomac river which can be developed into a traditional "Ghat" steps leading to the river for the annual celebration of the Chhath festival. Inspired by the Chhath Pooja celebrations on the Potomac river bank, the Bihar Jharkhand Association of North America (BAJANA) organised the festival for the first time ever in New Jersey. Over 300 devotees from all around New Jersey and the tri-state area got together at the lakeside of Thompson Park, Monroe township to offer their prayers to the rising and setting sun. "Volunteers got together in advance to make prasad for the members attending the pooja. The cold weather and frozen feet did not stop the devotees from entering the water and offer the 'Arag' to the Sun God," said Alok Kumar from BAJANA. "Everyone was emotional attending the event because they were attending it for decades! Having the chance to attend it here at home in New Jersey was a dream come true," Kumar said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A team of the Garhwal Rifles will travel to France in November to identify and bring back the remains of its two soldiers killed during the First World War, an Army official said. The decision came after the French government recently found the remains of four soldiers, including two unnamed Indian soldiers, at a construction site near Laventie, about 70km from Dunkirk, in France. "The French government has found remains of two soldiers along with their regimental insignia having 39 number engraved on it. This makes us believe that the two soldiers could be of the Garhwal Rifles regiment," Lt. Colonel Ritesh Roy of Garhwal Rifles said. Notably, during the time of World War I the now Garhwal Rifles regiment was known as '39 Garhwal Regiment'. According to Roy, the other two remains found from the site were of British and German soldiers. "We have already informed the Indian government and top Army officers about the situation and a team from our regiment will be visiting France to identify the remains. "If it is confirmed that the remains belong to the Garhwal Rifles regiment soldiers only, then we will bring it back with full army honour," he added. The British government honoured the 39th Garhwal Rifles by renaming it as '39 Royal Garhwal Rifles'. However, it was changed back to its original name after India's independence. Over 650 soldiers of the Garhwal regiment lost their lives during World War I. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 38-year-old Indian-origin bank employee in London has been sentenced to 15 months in prison after admitting to attempting to arrange or facilitate the commission of child sex abuse. Balachandran Kavungalparambath was caught on camera by a UK-based vigilante group called "Internet Interceptors" tracking the internet to catch adults grooming children online for sexual abuse. Kavungalparambath, the Citibank business manager, was intercepted in a hotel room in Birmingham where he had arranged to meet one of the group's activists posing as a 14- year-old girl during Whatsapp chats. "I will have to leave the country. I am from India. I lose my job, I have to leave the country," Kavungalparambath is heard saying on the video when asked what would happen to him as punishment. "I have heard about this. I heard about these groups. But as I said, I was supposed to have a chat with her, it was not with the intention of getting her into a bed and having sex with her. That was not my intention," he is heard saying. Birmingham Crown Court was told last week that the video was streamed live on Facebook, during which the London-based banker and married father of one broke down in tears and claimed he just wanted to have lunch with the youngster. However, his own Whatsapp messages were read out to him which indicated otherwise. "It's not right. I accept my mistake," he told members of the vigilante group on camera. At one stage he is ordered to empty the contents of his rucksack, with perfume and condoms spilling onto a table in front of him. Besides his 15-month jail term handed down last week, Kavungalparambath has also been placed on the sex offender register for 10 years and handed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order to prevent any future re-offending. A spokesperson for Citibank said: "This individual is not a Citi employee any longer. The offences are abhorrent. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Digital financial technology product provider Intellect Design Arena has bagged a deal from BDO Nomura to provide digital trading and equity research service. BDO Nomura Securities is a joint venture between BDO Unibank, Philippines and Nomura Holdings of Japan. "With this deal, Intellect marks its first deal in the securities trading segment in the country. Intellect will be implementing Integrated Portfolio Management Solution (iMPS), its capital market solution suite OneMarkets", the city-based company said in a statement. Integrated Portfolio Management Solution will provide the front-mid-back office management along with digital markets portal which includes mobile trading and equity research to BDO Nomura. "..is truly a marquee deal for us in the securities trading segment. Intellect's Integrated Portfolio management solution comprises of order and execution management that will empower digital journey of th etotal trade life cycle, seamless omni-channel experience and increasing customer engagement", Intellect Design Arena, Growth Markets, President, K Srinivasan said. With implementation of iPMS, brokerage houses and investment firms will be equipped to serve institutional, retail and high net worth individual customers by managing their portfolios across asset classes and markets. "We wanted to revamp and modernise our securities trading business. Our goal is to become one of the premier securities brokerage firms in Philippines. Intellect was the only technology partner to have successfully demonstrated an integrated seamless data flow...", BDO Nomura, President, Koichi Katakawa said in the statement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tehran today rejected as "ridiculous and baseless" accusations by Saudi Arabia that Iran is supporting rebels and blocking peace efforts in Yemen. "The Saudi foreign minister's claims that our country has been blocking peace efforts in Yemen are ridiculous and baseless," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said. "Iran has condemned the aggression (against Yemen) since the beginning... and will not spare any efforts to stop this bloody and detestable war," Ghasemi said in a statement published on the ministry's website. Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition backing Yemen's government in its fight against the Shiite Huthi rebels. Both sides in the Yemen conflict have come under harsh criticism for their neglect of civilian safety, but the Saudi- led coalition has in particular been accused of bombing schools, markets and hospitals. "Repeating such false accusations will not reduce the responsibility... of those who have committed heinous crimes, particularly murder, destruction of schools and hospitals and pushing an innocent population to famine," Ghasemi said. Yesterday, Saudi Arabia's top diplomat accused Tehran of smuggling arms to the Huthis, who control northern Yemen, and to their allies. Adel al-Jubeir said the Yemeni "militias would not have continued operations without the support of the greatest sponsor of terrorism in the world -- the Iranian regime". He accused Iran of "destroying all attempts to find a solution in Yemen, which has led to the failure of all political negotiations between the government and these militias". Multiple rounds of UN-sponsored talks have failed to broker a political settlement between the Saudi-backed government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and the rebels and their allies. Yemen's war has claimed more than 8,600 lives since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 after the rebels overran the capital Sanaa. A cholera outbreak in the impoverished country has claimed more than 2,100 lives since April, as hospitals struggle to secure supplies amid a blockade on ports and the country's main international airport. The United Nations has warned Yemen now stands at the brink of famine. The UN Human Rights Council in September agreed to send a group of experts to investigate alleged violations and abuses in Yemen, overcoming strong resistance by Saudi Arabia's representative. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Irrfan Khan will star in political satire series "The Ministry", set to stream worldwide on Amazon Prime Video next year. The series is created by Gursimran Khamba of AIB, and Irrfan will play a washed-up narcissistic Bollywood actor who is unwittingly appointed as temporary culture minister and battles various odds to be loved by the audiences once again. "I am looking forward to this great collaboration with Amazon and AIB, both have content that makes me very excited to work with them. It will be a great experience to be working on this show which will be very topical and funny and will release globally on Amazon Prime Video," Irrfan said in a statement. The actor has collaborated with AIB earlier on some comedy projects, such as spoof music video "Bollywood Party Song." "Irrfan told us that he wanted to be part of this show when he first heard about it. But because of certain complications it didn't work out. Then one night I met him at a party where he took me aside, stared into my eyes and said 'I want this'. And we all know how hard it is to resist Irrfan's eyes," Gursimran said. Irrfan will next be seen in Tanuja Chandra's "Qarib Qarib Single". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isrp) said today it will launch 30 satellites in a single mission on board its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in December. The mission, whose main payload would be Cartosat-2 series earth observation satellite, will be the first PSLV mission after the unsuccessful launchof navigation satellite IRNSS-1H in August. "We are planning our next launch in the second half of December, all things are in place... It will be a satellite of Cartosat-2 series along with other co-passengers," ISRO Chairman Kiran Kumar told reporters here. PSLV-C40 will be used for the launch from the spaceport in Sriharikota, about 100 kilometers from Chennai. The mission will be a combination of 25 nano satellites, three micro-satellites and one Cartosat satellite, along with "maybe" one university satellite, ISRO officials said. They said most of the co-passengers of Cartosat-2series satellite would commercial satellites from foreign countries, including Finland and the US. On August 31, India's mission to launch its backup navigation satellite IRNSS-1H onboard PSLV-C39 ended in a failure after a technical fault on the final leg following a perfect launch. ISRO had then said the heat shield did not separate on the final leg of the launch sequence, and, as a result, the IRNSS-1H got stuck in the fourth stage of the rocket. To a question about PSLV-C39 failure, Kumar said when a system, which had worked sixty times, fails because of a particular reason, it should not be a fundamental problem. "We are trying to improve further on the robustness of this (rocket). It is not a fundamental issue," he said. Another big launch in ISRO's calendar is the next lunar mission Chandrayaan-2, on board GSLV-Mk II, scheduled for March 2018. On Chandrayaan-2, Kumar said right now the orbiter was getting integrated at Bengaluru and some more tests were going on with regard to the lander and rover, instruments and systems. "By the first quarter of the next year we expect to put the orbiter, lander, rover - all the things together into the lunarorbit," he added. Chandrayaan-2, India's second mission to the Moon, would be an advanced version of the Chandrayaan-1 launched nine years ago. This spacecraft is a composite model consisting of orbiter, lander and rover. On the involvement of industry and academic institutions, Kumar said "what we are trying to see is while we build our capability; we also make sure that whatever excess capacity we have, we are in a position to market it and use." He said presently India was having 40-plus satellites in operation for earth observation, remote sensing, communication, navigation, and space science. However, the requirement was significantly higher. "So we are looking at a mechanism where we can increase the pace at which we are doing the work. "You can visualise if we have to deliver more and bring in more capability in space, what we call as the space infrastructure, we need to increase the number of launches we do, more satellites we have to build and using them more applications," he added. Kumar also said ISRO was now looking at a mechanism where the Indian industry actually gets support from it for competing internationally by leveraging on what they have already acquired. There was a huge market available for the supply of sub-systems, he added. The ISRO chairman was speaking to reporters at the curtain raiser press meet on the "International Seminar on Indian Space Programme - Trends and Opportunities for Industry" scheduled to be held between November 20 and 21 in New Delhi. The two-day event will have sessions on space industry, a public-private partnership for space programmes, capacity building and talent management, role of industry in Indian space programme along with B2B and B2G meeting, officials said. Students of the Jamia Milia Islamic University today accused the university administration of finding an "escape route" for not conducting student elections citing the matter as sub-judice. The students are on a hunger strike since October 25, demanding students union elections ion the varsity. The administration was also accused of not keeping its word to the Delhi High Court that the students union elections would be conducted as per the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations. "The Jamia administration has been looking for an escape route by stating that the case regarding the students' union is sub-judice before the Delhi High Court. The reality is, Jamia had in 2012 assured the court that there is no discomfort and objection to elections as well as an elected student body," the students said in a statement. The varsity adminstration had also said that they would first conduct the students' council election for the first two years and thereafter the JMI can hold the students' union polls according to the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations, they said. Reacting to the administration's argument, the students also said that the person who had filed the writ petition regarding the election and nine others who had impleaded in the petition were no longer students of the university. "...hence the responsibilities lie with the JMI," they said, adding that the administration is guilty of contempt of court as it has shown reluctance in conducting elections. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Gujarati jeweller was detained today for allegedly planting a note about hijackers and a bomb in the toilet of a Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing in Ahmedabad, officials said. Flight 9W 339, which had taken off from Mumbai at 2.55 am with 115 passengers and seven crew members, was diverted to Ahmedabad airport around 3.45 am. The Boeing 737-900 plane was parked at a remote bay and all 122 safely deplaned, a Jet Airways spokesperson said. The note, allegedly placed by Mumbai-based Gujarati jeweller Birju Kishore Salla, stated that there were hijackers and a bomb in the cargo area, officials said. It was a printed note in Urdu and English, asking that the plane be flown straight to POK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir). It ended with the words, "Allah is Great". The reference to POK made investigators suspicious because Pakistan-based terrorists call the area 'Azad Kashmir', an official said. Salla, who is in his late 30s and belongs to Gujarat's Amreli district, was a repeat offender who usually travelled business class and appeared to have a grouse against the airline. He had carried a cockroach in an earlier trip and blamed the airline. However, the airline had let him go after taking an assurance that he would not repeat the offence, an official privy to the investigation said. "Salla was detained by police after preliminary investigation... It was revealed that Salla had put the threat letter in the plane's washroom. We will take necessary action against him," added an Ahmedabad Police official. Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said he was advising airlines to put him on the no-fly list immediately, in addition to other statutory criminal action. "I am informed that the person responsible for Jet flight 339 (Mumbai-Delhi) incident causing the landing at Ahmedabad today morning has been identified," Raju said in a tweet but did not identify him. Security officials said nothing was found after a thorough check of all the passengers and their bags. Describing the note as a bomb threat, an official of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) told PTI that the message was passed on to the pilot, who is believed to have pressed the hijack alert button, following which the plane made an emergency landing. The flight was "diverted to Ahmedabad following declaration of an emergency as per established security procedures, due to the detection of an onboard security threat", the Jet Airways spokesperson said. Giving details of what had happened, Ahmedabad Airport Director Manoj Gangal added that the flight was allowed to make an emergency landing on the pilot's request. "The pilot requested the ATC to make an emergency landing as he suspected that some hijackers as well as explosives were on board. The flight later left for its destination after a thorough investigation by the police," Gangal said. PTI correspondent Rajkumar Leishemba, who was on board, said all the passengers were deplaned and screened. They were profiled, their photographs taken and personal details sought, including their last overseas visit. After more than six hours at the airport, the flight carrying the passengers took off for Delhi around 10.30 am, he said. The note, with a para in Urdu on the top and English at the bottom, was shared by a senior official. "Flight No 9W 339 is covered by Hijackers and aircraft should not be land and flown straight to POK. 12 people on board. if you put landing gear you will hear the noise of people dying. dont take it as a joke. Cargo area contains explosive bomb and wl blast if you land Delhi (sic)," it said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das today urged industrial houses to explore opportunities to invest in the mineral-rich state. He was addressing the maiden Jharkhand Mining Show 2017 Mining & Minerals Summit organised by the state with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). "I invite the new players and existing business houses to explore opportunities offered by the state," he told a large assembly of industry members, including CMDs and CEOs, at the inaugural session of the meet, as per a statement by the state government. The Mining & Mineral Show 2017 aims to promote the state in the national and international mining space and to deliberate on the growing prospects of the mining sector of Jharkhand. "The mineral reserve of the state provides excellent opportunity for the state to surge ahead and be on the drivers seat for countrys growth. My government is proactive in marketing outreach to attract foreign players. My visits to China, Czech Republic and especially Japan have been fruitful," the chief minister said. He said abundance of minerals has made the state home to various mineral based industries that includes Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group, JSPL, Usha Martin, ACC, Lafarge and large PSUs like Hindustan Copper, Uranium Corporation. Union Minister for Railways and Coal, Piyush Goyal said in his view Jharkhand will decide what will be the look of the country in the years to come. "Over the next five years we intend investing Rs 20,000 crores across projects, establishing a strong social responsibility programme, and helping generate 10,000 direct and indirect jobs. We look forward to your support," Adani Group MD Rajesh Adani said in the statement. Chief Secretary, Jharkhand, Rajbala Verma, said Jharkhand is on fast track for revamping the mineral and mining sector on basis of requirement specified by the industries operating in the sector. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi court today allowed the CBI's plea seeking advancing of hearing on its application on polygraph test on nine students in connection with JNU student Najeeb Ahmed who has been missing for over a year now. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal posted the matter for November 10 and sought the response of nine students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on the central probe agency's application. Najeeb, a first-year MSc Biotechnology student, has been missing from the Mahi Mandavi hostel in JNU since October 16, 2016. The CBI, in its plea, had sought early hearing on its application seeking consent of nine students for a lie detection test regarding the disappearance of Najeeb in October last year. The CBI had on October 16 approached the court seeking early hearing of its plea seeking consent of the suspect students for a polygraph test. The application was moved by the agency on the direction of the Delhi High Court for an early hearing of the plea, which has been adjourned to January 24, 2018. 27-year-old Najeeb went missing after a scuffle at his JNU hostel allegedly with ABVP activists. The RSS students wing has denied any involvement in his disappearance. A Delhi court had on May 3 quashed a police order summoning nine JNU students for recording their consent or denial for lie-detector test in the case after it noted a defect in the notice sent by the investigating officer to the students. On May 16, the high court handed over probe of the case to the CBI. The nine students, who are suspects in the case, had approached a magisterial court challenging the notice sent to them by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police seeking their presence before the magistrate for recording of their statement. The notice was sent after the Delhi High Court had asked the police to explore other avenues of probe as all other leads had not yielded any result. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi court today appointed former Director of Prosecution B S Joon its commissioner to oversee the lie detector test of controversial arms dealer Abhishek Verma, a witness in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case in which senior Congress leader Jagdish Tytler is an accused. The court's order came on the application of Verma, who accused a forensic lab here of trying to shield Tytler during earlier polygraph tests. In his application, Verma sought setting up a commitee of eminent persons, including a judicial officer, to observe the proceedings during the test. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Amit Arora has now fixed the matter for hearing on November 1 when the CBI is likely to inform it about a suitable date for the test. Senior advocate H S Phoolka, appearing for the 1984 riots victims, said the consent document of the former director of prosecution on being appointed the court commissioner will also be submitted on the next date of hearing. Verma, who has been undergoing polygraph test at the government-run forensic science laboratory at Rohini here, alleged in his application to the court that officials of the FSL were holding a "mini trial" and acting in an "unfair and biased" manner. While Tytler, who has been given a clean-chit thrice by the CBI in the riots case, refused to undergo the lie detector test, Verma gave conditional consent for it if provided round-the-clock security claiming threat to his life. The court had on August 2 asked the CBI to conduct the test on Verma. The case relates to the riots at Gurudwara Pulbangash in North Delhi where three people were killed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Tytler denied his role in the riots, but the court ordered further investigation despite the CBI having submitted closure reports in the case thrice in the past. The victims had filed a protest petition challenging the CBI's closure reports in the case. The court had on December 2015 directed the CBI to further investigate the matter and decided to monitor the progress every two months to ensure no aspect was left uninvestigated. The agency had reinvestigated the case of killing of Badal Singh, Thakur Singh and Gurcharan Singh near the gurudwara after a court in December 2007 refused to accept its closure report. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) An Indo-Russia joint venture is likely to sign a contract with the Indian government early next year for the supply of 200 Kamov lightweight multi-role military helicopters to the armed forces under a $1 billion deal. Various aspects of the project to supply the Kamov-226T helicopters were discussed on Monday during a meeting between Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and CEO of Russian Helicopters Andrei Boginsky. "We discussed all aspects of the Ka-226T project. (It was) agreed that the contract should be signed in the beginning of 2018," Boginsky said. In October last year, India and Russia had finalised a broad agreement to set up a joint venture between Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and two Russian defence majors -- Russian Helicopters and Rosoboronexport. The joint venture will produce the Kamov helicopters. India is procuring to replace its ageing Cheetah and Chetak helicopters. The JV was registered in India earlier this year. As part of the inter-governmental agreement, 'Russian Helicopters' along with Rosoboronexport will supply and localise production of the Ka-226T helicopters in India. Boginsky said the possibility of supplying 111 multipurpose helicopters to the Indian Navy by the JV was also discussed in his meeting with the defence minister. As per official sources, 60 Kamov-226T helicopters will be supplied to India in fly-away condition, while 140 will be manufactured in India. The inter-government agreement for the deal was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia in December 2015. The Communist Party of India (CPI) lashed out at the Delhi Police for alleged lathicharge on people protesting against the demolition at Kathputli Colony here today, and demanded strong action against those responsible for it. The Delhi Development Authority today began a demolition drive at west Delhi's Kathputli Colony, triggering clashes among its residents, activists and the police. However, the police and the DDA denied using any force against the protesters. "The Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of India condemns the brutal lathicharge of police at Kathputli Colony opposite Shadipur depot today morning, injuring several people. Hundreds of police suddenly invaded the colony and destroyed it with bulldozers," a CPI statement said. The statement stated that a delegation of the CPI national executive consisting of Annie Raja and Filomina John visited the injured at the hospital. The Left party alleged that "despite assurance from the Union ministers, the demolition took place in the most inhuman way destroying everything of the 4,800 poor families who had been living in Kathputli Colony for the last 6-7 decades". The party has also alleged that the colony, which is yet to be regularised, was demolished as the land has been allotted to a private builder for the construction of multi- storeyed buildings, malls and residential complexes. The CPI has demanded "release of all those who have been taken under police custody and initiate action against those responsible for unprovoked brutal lathicharge, along with restoration of the colony". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar today alleged that the KMP Expressway project was delayed because of the obstacles created by the previous government. The BJP government ensured an early hearing in the Supreme Court due to which the Manesar-Palwal stretch of the expressway has been completed. The Kundli-Manesar section is likely to be completed by this year-end, he said. Two banks had moved the court after the state government's decision to change the contractor, claiming that new project proponent had been engaged without protecting the interest of the financial institutions. Khattar said that after the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway is completed, vehicles would not have to enter Delhi to reach their destinations. Besides, the pollution level from heavy vehicles in Delhi would considerably reduce, he said. Special emphasis would be given to industrial development in an area of 2 km each on both sides of the expressway, Khattar said The chief minister said that he has visited all the 90 assembly constituencies of the state and has conducted several public meetings to redress grievances of the people. This is the first time a chief minister has visited all the assembly segments without any discrimination, he claimed, adding that he is spending two days in every district headquarter. During his visit, Khattar said that he participates in different programmes and also looks into the requirements and problems of the area. He said he has covered 16 districts under this programme and would visit six districts in November and December. The chief minister said that his government completed its three years on October 26 and that this was the Swarna Jayanti year of the state. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu would be the chief guest for the concluding function of the Swarna Jayanti celebrations to be organised in Hisar tomorrow, Khattar said. Two events, including the Swarna Jayanti Khel Mahakumbh and Run for Unity on the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel would be the key events of the programme, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) East Delhi mayor Neema Bhagat today handed over cheques of Rs 1 lakh compensation each to the kin of two persons killed in Ghazipur landfill site collapse last month. Tara Chand, father of Raj Kumari and Mahipal, father of Abhishek Gautam, were given the cheques at the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) headquarters in Patparganj, said a senior EDMC official. The incident had occured on September 1. Tonnes of garbage had come crashing down the 50-meter-high mountain of waste after rains. It had swept several people on a road nearby into a canal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tamil political representatives' acceptance of proposals in the interim report of the Constitutional Assembly represents a "historic" moment for Sri Lanka, a senior TNA legislator told parliament here today. The Tamil National Alliance's M A Sumanthiran was addressing the House when it met as the Constitutional Assembly started discussions on the interim report of the all-party steering committee in order to formulate a new Constitution to replace the existing 1978 charter. "This is a historic moment that Tamil party representatives have agreed to the proposals made in the interim report. Let all join and support this," he said. The three-day debate is aimed at discussing the interim report against which majority Buddhist religious leaders have already expressed opposition. Senior Buddhist monks have claimed that the new Constitution would pave the way for the division of the country, a goal of the former LTTE during the brutal three- decade civil war to create a Tamil homeland. Sumanthiran said the Tamils want the final solution to be a federal one, adding that the founder of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) S W R D Bandaranaike in 1926 had stated that federalism was the best solution. The SLFP, currently led by President Maithripala Sirisena, forms part of Sri Lanka's ruling alliance. "Treat us (Tamils) as equals, we are Sri Lankan," Sumanthiran said adding that "to erase the bitter past there must be dignity, equality of all in the country". He said there was unanimity in the steering committee among all political parties to this report, adding "No one raised any objections". The joint opposition backers of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa said they would reject the report's contents as it endangered the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Billionaire Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications, which plans to shut mobile telephony business by November-end, today said lenders will convert part of their debt to equity to gain 51 per cent control of the company. The firm will sell telecom tower and real estate businesses to pay off Rs 27,000 crore out of Rs 45,000 crore of debt on its book, RCom said in a statement. "Debt of Rs 7,000 crore is proposed to be converted into 51 per cent of the company's equity, as per the SDR guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India," it said. RCom said it has made a comprehensive "debt resolution plan to its domestic and foreign lenders". Under the plan, lenders would not have to write off any of their loans, it said. The 'no-loan write-off' plan involves payment of up to Rs 17,000 crore debt out of proceeds of monetisation of spectrum, tower and fibre assets. An additional Rs 10,000 crore would be paid by selling real estate in the Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City in Mumbai and other properties across eight metros. "The new RCom will have sustainable and profitable B2B - non mobile business," it said without elaborating. The new RCom will have "sustainable and conservative level of debt of only Rs 6,000 crore", it added. "Cost of debt will be lower due to ability to raise debt funds overseas at low cost," it added. The statement further said that the company is under a standstill period (for interest and principal repayments) till December 2018 and expects to complete the SDR (Strategic Debt Restructuring) process as per applicable RBI guidelines. The company plans to shut down its loss-making wireless telephony business by November 30 and concentrate only on 4G Internet services. As per sources in the industry and those privy to the development, the firm has asked its 1,500-2,000 employees to look for jobs as 2G and 3G cellphone services business will be shut down from November 30. The company, last week, had issued a short statement, saying it will adopt a 4G focused strategy for profitable growth of its wireless business. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Drug major Lupin today posted 31.3 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 455 crore for the September quarter as it continued to face pricing pressure in the US market. The Mumbai-based company had reported a net profit of Rs 662.2 crore for the July-September period of the last fiscal. Net sales of the company stood at Rs 3,874.2 crore for the second quarter of 2017-18, down 8 per cent from Rs 4,211.2 crore in the year-ago period. "In second quarter we have recorded strong growth in all our markets but for the US generic business where we continue to see pricing pressure, as expected," Lupin Managing Director Nilesh Gupta said in a statement. The company is on track with its complex generic pipeline and has made significant progress on the speciality front with the acquisition of Symbiomix in the US, he added. During the period under review, the company's North America sales stood at Rs 1,361.1 crore, down 31.9 per cent as compared with Rs 1,997.8 crore in the second quarter of previous fiscal. Lupin's sales in India rose however to Rs 1,159.3 crore during the second quarter, up 16.4 per cent from Rs 995.8 crore in the same period of previous fiscal. The company's sales also grew in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle-East and Africa (EMEA) and Latin America (LATAM) markets during the second quarter. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shares of drug firm Lupin today ended nearly 3 per cent higher even as the company posted 31.3 per cent decline in consolidated net profit for the September quarter. The stock gained 2.67 per cent to end at Rs 1,027.55 on BSE. During the day, it rose 8.90 per cent to Rs 1,090. The stock was the biggest gainer among the 30-share components. At NSE, shares of the company jumped 2.48 per cent to close at Rs 1,025.95. In terms of equity volume, 7.35 lakh shares of the company were traded on BSE and over 81 lakh shares changed hands at NSE during the day. "The company posted lower-than-expected sales, while EBDITA and net profit came in higher than expected," said Sarabjit Kour Nangra, VP Research- Pharma, Angel Broking. Lupin today posted 31.3 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 455 crore for the September quarter as it continued to face pricing pressure in the US market. The Mumbai-based company had reported a net profit of Rs 662.2 crore for the July-September period of the last fiscal. Net sales of the company stood at Rs 3,874.2 crore for the second quarter of 2017-18, down 8 per cent from Rs 4,211.2 crore in the year-ago period. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) BJP chief Amit Shah today lashed out at the Congress alleging the party had "sullied" the image of 'Devbhumi' Himachal by turning it into a state where mafia thrived. Addressing rallies in the poll-bound hill state, Shah latched on to former Union Home minister P Chidambaram's comments regarding more autonomy for Kashmir and demanded that Rahul Gandhi make his stance clear on the issue. He accused the Congress of speaking the language used in Pakistan. "Himachal has become a land of the mafia with forest mafia, mining mafia, drug mafia, transfer mafia, liquor mafia and land mafia flourishing in the state," he alleged while addressing rallies at Banikhet in Dalhousie and Chwalra in Jwali. Targeting Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Shah alleged that there was not even a single member in the Congress leader's family who was not facing corruption charges. He said the people of Himachal Pradesh would end the corruption and 'mafia raj' in the state. The BJP has already announced starting a Gudiya help line for reporting all cases of crime and would take prompt action on all complaints to establish the rule of law and instilling a feeling of safety and security among the people, Shah said. It is unfortunate that when you go to other states, people bluntly say that Himachal Pradesh was number one in corruption while the crime rate and mafia are flourishing, Shah alleged. This "stigma", he said can be removed only if the BJP under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is voted to power in the state. Modi's resolve was to provide a clean and responsive government in Himachal and rid the people of the mafia, Shah said. The BJP was on a winning spree and now it was Himachal's turn to become Congress free, he added. The BJP chief expressed confidence that his party would win even more seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and would also record a fourth successive victory in the upcoming Gujarat Assembly polls. He hit back at Rahul Gandhi over his comments seeking accountability of the Gujarat government. Shah claimed that "accountability" was tradition of the BJP governments and asked the Congress vice president to give an account of the Manmohan Singh government. He alleged that scams to the tune of Rs 12 lakh crore had surfaced during Manmohan Singh's rule and land, sky, sea or space, nothing was spared. "There is not even a single corruption charge against the Modi government at the Centre during the past three years," Shah asserted while holding the 'one rank, one pension' decision as a landmark achievement of the Modi government. Shah asked senior Congress leader P Chidambaram and others, including Rahul Gandhi, to clear their stand on the issues related to autonomy for Kashmir. Strongly reacting to Chidambaram's comments on greater autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir, Shah accused the Congress of "speaking the language used in Pakistan". Speaking about Himachal, he announced that internet connectivity would be expanded in the state and an IT-software hub would be set up creating ample job opportunities for the youth after the BJP was voted to power. He said that the practice of holding interviews for class III and IV posts would be abolished. Shah said the Centre had sanctioned Rs 2500 crore for 70 national highways, but the Himachal government could not even prepare the detailed project reports (DPRs). Three medical colleges, IIM, AIIMS and hydro engineering colleges had been opened in the state due to the liberal support of Modi government, he claimed. Shah said that 106 schemes started by Modi government had been implemented in Himachal Pradesh. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will go for a ministry reshuffle before the winter session of the state legislature and it will see the induction of former Shiv Sena leader Narayan Rane. "Rane has joined the NDA. He will be inducted into the state ministry. He will be a minister from our (BJP) quota," Fadnavis said at his official residence in south Mumbai. The BJP-led Maharashtra government completes three years in office tomorrow. The reshuffle will take place before the winter session of the state legislature, scheduled to begin in Nagpur on December 11, Fadnavis said. He said the Shiv Sena could have objected to Rane's induction had he "come to us from the Sena. He was in the Congress for a decade after leaving the Sena". Rane had set up his own party, the Maharashtra Swabhiman Paksha, after resigning from the Congress last month. He was Maharashtra chief minister in 1999 when he was in the Shiv Sena. He had quit the Sena in 2005 and joined the Congress. Asked if he had conveyed to the Sena that it should learn to accept the BJP as 'Big Brother' due to its good numbers in the Assembly, Fadnavis said "I do not believe (in the concept of) 'Big Brother'." "We have always respected (Sena founder) Balasaheb Thackeray. (Sena chief) Uddhav Thackeray is senior to me in age and position. But the public decided (in the 2014 assembly polls) as to which party is senior," he said. Fadnavis said any alliance between the BJP and the Sena (after the next assembly polls) can happen "only on the basis of this position". Asked about a report of NCP chief Sharad Pawar saying he had "never seen such a childish Maharashtra chief minister in the past", Fadnavis said: "He (Pawar) has clarified to me that he never said such a thing. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd today reported 58 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 13.47 crore for the quarter ended September as sales were hit after the implementation of the new real estate law and the GST. Its net profit stood at Rs 32.17 crore in the year-ago period, according to a regulatory filing. Total income also fell to Rs 129.14 crore in the second quarter of the 2017-18 fiscal from Rs 144.8 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Commenting on the result, the company's MD Anita Arjundas said, "The quarter has been impacted by the discontinuity created around marketing efforts due to lead time in RERA registrations and the impact on price in ongoing projects under GST transition." Mahindra Lifespace is the real estate and infrastructure development business of the Mahindra Group. In the residential business, Mahindra Lifespaces sold 200 units worth Rs 111 crore in the second quarter of the year. "Over 55 per cent of these units were in the Rs 75 lakh and below category with 36 per cent being in the sub Rs 50 lakh segment. Having handed over 2,250 units to customers during the last fiscal, the company continued its execution momentum with the handover of 875 units across projects in H1 FY18," the company said in a statement. During the quarter, the company said it entered into a strategic partnership with International Finance Corporation (IFC) for investments in its integrated cities and industrial clusters business with an investment commitment of up to USD 50 million by IFC. Earlier this month, Mahindra Lifespace also announced the creation of a strategic platform with HDFC Capital Affordable Real Estate Fund 1 (HDFC Capital) to expand its footprint of affordable housing under the Happinest brand. The investment commitment by both partners, together, is Rs 500 crore. "The company is currently awaiting approvals for 6 of its new residential projects in Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai and plans to launch the same upon receipt of the relevant approvals," Mahindra said. In the integrated cities and industrial clusters business, the Mahindra World Cities at Chennai and Jaipur leased 10 acres to 4 new customers - 1 in Chennai and 3 in Jaipur. The work has commenced at its industrial cluster in North Chennai while approvals are underway for its industrial cluster in Gujarat, both of which will be launched shortly. Arjundas said the company has focused on building partnerships that would help fuel growth in a capital efficient manner and it continue to look for meaningful opportunities to scale up businesses. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A man has been apprehended for entering the Delhi airport allegedly using a fake travel ticket to see his Moscow-bound wife off. S Bhojwani was apprehended at about 3:40 am yesterday when the CISF personnel, deployed for airport security, found him roaming suspiciously inside the Terminal-3 (T3) building of the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), a senior official involved in the airport security said. Bhojwani told the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel that he had entered the terminal to see off his wife, who was travelling to Moscow, the official said, adding he told them that he used a cancelled ticket to enter the airport. The man was subsequently handed over to police, he said. Entering airport terminal without a valid ticket is illegal under Indian aviation rules. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, were today indicted on charges of conspiracy against the United States, money laundering and several other financial charges. The charges were the first stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into possible ties between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. The indictment filed in federal court in Washington accused both men of funneling tens of millions of dollars in payments through foreign companies and bank accounts. Manafort and Gates surrendered to federal authorities, and were expected in court later today to face charges brought by Mueller's team. The indictment lays out 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered foreign agent and several charges related to failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts. The indictment alleges that they moved money through hidden bank accounts in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles. In total, more than USD 75 million flowed through the offshore accounts. Manafort is accused of laundering more than USD 18 million, according to the indictment. Manafort, 68, was fired as Trump's campaign chairman in August after word surfaced that he had orchestrated a covert lobbying operation on behalf of pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. The Associated Press reported that Manafort also represented a Russian billionaire a decade ago with the goal of advancing the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House declined to comment. A spokesman for Manafort did not immediately return calls or text messages requesting comment. Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to tip the 2016 presidential election. Investigators have focused on associates including Manafort, whose home was raided in July by agents searching for tax and international banking records, and ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign in February after White House officials said he had misled them about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States. Manafort joined Trump's campaign in March 2016 and oversaw the convention delegate strategy. Trump pushed him out in August amid a steady stream of negative headlines about Manafort's foreign consulting work. Trump's middle son, Eric Trump, said in an interview at the time that his father was concerned that questions about Manafort's past were taking attention away from the billionaire's presidential bid. Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. That investigation was incorporated into Mueller's broader probe. Previously, he denied any wrongdoing related to his Ukrainian work, saying through a spokesman that it "was totally open and appropriate." Manafort also recently registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for parts of Ukrainian work that occurred in Washington. The filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act came retroactively, a tacit acknowledgment that he operated in Washington in violation of the federal transparency law. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) FMCG firm Marico on Monday reported a 2.48 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 185.04 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, led by volume growth. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 180.55 crore in the July-September quarter a year-ago, Marico said in a BSE filing. Consolidated net sales during the quarter under review stood at Rs 1,536.29 crore, up 6.47 per cent from Rs 1,442.80 crore in the corresponding quarter of last fiscal. "The volume growth is mainly attributable to competitive pricing, continued investments and pipeline refilling in general trade," the company said in an information update. Its total expenses were up 7.54 per cent to Rs 1,304.23 crore as against Rs 1,212.75 crore. During the period, Marico's domestic sales were up 11.55 per cent to Rs 1,200.04 crore as against Rs 1,075.78 crore for the corresponding quarter of 2016-17. "In the second quarter, India business recorded a smart recovery with a volume growth of 8 per cent coupled with a healthy margin performance. The company continued to see satisfactory offtake growth with increases in market share in more than 90 per cent of the categories that it operates in," it said. However, revenue from international business in the said quarter was down 8.38 per cent to Rs 336.25 crore as against Rs 367.02 crore in the year-ago period. "Marico's International business grew by one per cent in constant currency terms (volume decline of 3 per cent). The male shampoo and male deodorants category slowdown in Vietnam and macro-economic headwinds in the MENA region continued to put pressure on the overall international business," the company said. Meanwhile, in a separate filing Marico informed that its board declared a first interim equity dividend of 175 per cent for the ongoing fiscal, which is Rs 1.75 per equity share of Re 1 each. Shares of Marico Ltd today settled at Rs 313.35 on BSE, up 0.80 per cent from previous close. British Prime Minister Theresa May today lamented the current toothless procedure to discipline MPs accused of inappropriate behaviour after a so-called "dirty dossier" embroiled 36 of her party lawmakers over allegations of sexual misconduct. May was yesterday shown a dossier of accusations of sexual misconduct against some of her Conservative party ministers and MPs. She wrote to the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, calling for an independent mediation service for staff wanting to raise concerns about MPs' behaviour as the current procedure for discipline "lacked teeth". "There is a suggested disciplinary procedure provided by IPSA [Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority] as part of the standard contract. However, it does not have the required teeth as contractually an MP does not have to follow the procedure. I do not believe that this situation can be tolerated any longer," May said in her letter. "The Conservative Party is determined to protect those staff who work for MPs but in order to do so effectively I believe that we must establish a House-wide mediation service complemented by a contractually binding grievance procedure available for all MPs irrespective of their party banner," it noted. Bercow is to hold a meeting to discuss the matter of dealing with inappropriate behaviour by MPs this week. The letter makes a reference to "recent media reports" regarding the alleged mistreatment of staff by some British MPs. Stressing that everyone who works in the House of Commons had the right to be treated "properly and fairly", May also invited other party leaders to engage with her on the matter. Her letter came as it was widely reported that Conservative party staff have complied a list of at least 36 current Tory MPs against whom allegations of inappropriate behaviour have been made, including havingaffairs with junior colleagues, being "handsy" with women. May has already called on the UK Cabinet Office to investigate the conduct of one of her junior ministers in the Department for International Trade, Mark Garnier, who admitted referring to his secretary with an inappropriate sexual phrase and sending her to buy sex toys for him. The events in question took place in 2010, before Garnier was a minister. Another senior Conservative party MP and former Cabinet minister, Stephen Crabb, has also admitted to sending "explicit" texts to a 19-year-old woman after she had been interviewed for a job by him. The scandal has since been intensifying as a number of other unnamed MPs have also been caught up in the scandal, which threatens to rock Mays leadership. While Downing Street has denied a report that emerged over the weekend that the British Prime Minister receives weekly updates from the Tory party whips office about MPs sexual misdemeanours, it said May was taking the issue very seriously. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, one of whose own MPs - Jared O'Mara - has recently been suspended amid claims of misogynistic comments, said he was ready to meet the Speaker and Prime Minister to strengthen disciplinary procedures. A Labour spokesperson said: "There must be robust procedures inside as well as outside Parliament for dealing with abuse and harassment". Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable signalled his support for May's initiative and said: "Parliament clearly needs improved procedures to respond to allegations of harassment". A series of claims about the behaviour of senior British politicians have hit the headlines in recent days after the Harvey Weinstein scandal in Hollywood encouraged women in other professions to share their experiences via a "me too" campaign on social media. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A narrow loss in the series decider against India is hard to swallow but New Zealand captain Kane Williamson chose to look ahead, saying the performance of Tom Latham-led middle-order was the highlight of the closely fought contest. "There were lessons throughout the series, there always are when you play the best in the world. To perform the way we did in first game (in Mumbai) was our best performance of the tour so far, this one could have been the best but it was not to be on the day," said Williamson after the six-run loss in the high-scoring series decider at Green Park last night. "However, there were a lot of good signs. Our middle order with the bat was something of a highlight throughout this series. Particularly Tom Latham, from opening the batting to coming into the middle order, taking that role, adopting it like he has and batting so beautifully, it was a great sign for us," said the skipper. Williamson said his side's bowlers also did well as they were able to trouble the Indian batsmen. "I thought the bowlers stuck at it really well. They were able to restrict a lot of the time and put a little bit of pressure despite the very good batting unit that India have." Last year too, New Zealand had faltered when it mattered the most, losing the five-match series in India 2-3. But yesterday, the Black Caps were almost there before nerves got the better of them in the final five overs. New Zealand ended with 331 for seven in response to India's 337 for six, which ended up being the highest total at Green Park. Williamson acknowledged that it was a case of missed opportunity. "I mean, naturally you look back at a game, to lose by six runs, having come so close in a big run chase, is frustrating, disappointing, but if you sit back and look at the work that was put in that batting innings to get so close, it is a really promising thing for this batting unit," he said. "Yeah, it is hard to swallow, another decider here on India. I think we put in some good performances, but you have got to be at your best when you play this Indian team, especially at home." Williamson said it's always a challenge to adapt to Indian conditions but his team did that well. He then defended the decision to bowl first on a batting beauty. "Yeah. It was good. I mean if you bowl first, you don't want the opposition to get 337, but it was a very good surface and a very fast outfield. After the start that India got, the way we pulled it back in the last 10 overs was a good effort," he said. "The way the ball swung early, you are never far away from taking some early wickets, but India are a very good batting unit and they played very well. To restrict them was a good effort, the dew later in the evening was helpful, but you to move on, learn from that. I thought guys executed their roles really well. It came down to one or two deliveries." New Zealand now look forward to the three-match T20 series beginning in Delhi on Wednesday. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni today held extensive talks on ways to strengthen the bilateral political and economic relations. Ahead of his meeting with Modi, the visiting leader, who received a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, described his visit as an opportunity to make ties between the two countries stronger. Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on Gentiloni and discussed issues of mutual interest, ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. In a series of tweets, Kumar said the two prime ministers reviewed the entire spectrum of the bilateral relationship. Prime Minister Modi and premier Gentiloni also interacted with 12 Indian and 19 Italian business leaders for boosting economic and investment cooperation, the spokesperson said. Gentiloni's visit is the first prime ministerial trip from Italy in more than a decade. Italy is India's fifth largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade of USD 8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. India's exports to Italy are at USD 4.90 billion, while its imports are at USD 3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of USD 1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached USD 3.22 billion. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) India and Italy today inked six pacts, including on boosting cooperation in the energy and trade sectors, after extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni on key issues such as terrorism and cyber crime. The two leaders also discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral political and economic relations, apart from deliberating on strategic international and regional issues. Addressing a joint media event with Gentiloni, Modi said they discussed wide-ranging issues, including the challenges posed by terrorism and cyber crimes, while agreeing to enhance cooperation to counter them. Modi also noted that there was a huge potential for enhancing trade ties. After the Modi-Gentiloni meeting, the two sides signed six pacts to deepen cooperation in the fields of railways sector safety, energy and promoting mutual investments, among others. Italy is India's fifth largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade of $8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. India's exports to Italy were at $4.90 billion, while its imports were at $3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of $1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached $3.22 billion. Ahead of his meeting with Modi, the visiting leader had described his visit as an opportunity to make ties between the two countries stronger. Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on Gentiloni and discussed issues of mutual interest, ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. Gentiloni's visit is the first prime ministerial trip from Italy in more than a decade. The diplomatic ties were hit badly after two Italian marines Latorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone on board a ship named Enrica Lexie, were arrested for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in 2012. Italy claimed the ship was in international waters and that only the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) should apply. It also moved the international court. While Latorre returned to Italy in September 2014 following an order of the Supreme Court issued on health grounds, Girone was allowed to go in May 2016. They are now in Italy, pending the verdict by the arbitration court at the Hague. The Indo-Italy diplomatic row also impacted the European Union's relationship with India. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ten days after over one lakh employees of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation called off their strike, the corporation has decided to deduct their 36 days' salary. The salary will be deducted over six months. The strike, for salary hike as per the recommendations of the seventh pay commission, lasted four days. "Following the high court's order which declared the strike as illegal, an action has been initiated and the legal section has issued a circular in accordance with the law to deduct 36 days' salary of the staff who resorted to agitation and put the corporation and lakhs of passengers in trouble," a senior MSRTC official told PTI. Apart from the four days of the strike, the agitating employees will not be paid for additional 36 days in the next six months. They employees will be paid for only 24 days (while they work for 30/31 days) over the next six months. The action was being taken as per the industrial dispute laws, and the high court's order declaring the strike as illegal mandates the MSRTC to take the action, the official said. The Bombay high court, in response to a petition, had asked the employees to end their stir immediately. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Mumbai City FC unveiled their brand new official jersey for Season 4 of the Indian Super League here. The jersey incorporates the iconic Bandra-Worli Sea Link into the design. The club that made it to the semifinals of the last ISL season has stuck to their signature electric blue colour. It, however, added a golden band on the sleeves to augment the 'Golden Fragments' on the front of the jersey, a media release issued here said today. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight made an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport today morning due to "detection of an onboard security threat", officials said. Flight 9W 339, with 115 passengers and seven crew members, landed without incident at Ahmedabad and all 122 safely "deplaned", a Jet Airways spokesperson said. The flight had taken off from Mumbai at 2.55 am and landed at Ahmedabad airport around 3.45 am. The flight was "diverted to Ahmedabad following declaration of an emergency as per established security procedures, due to the detection of an onboard security threat", the spokesperson said. A member of the cabin crew had found a "printed note" stating that there was a bomb in the belly, the cargo area, of the plane, a senior official of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) told PTI. The message was passed on to the pilot, who is believed to have pressed the hijack alert button, following which the plane made an emergency landing, he said. Describing it as a bomb threat, he said nothing was found following a check of all the passengers and their bags. PTI correspondent Rajkumar Leishemba, who was on board, said the flight was diverted to Ahmedabad citing "security reasons". All the passengers deplaned and screened. They were photographed and questioned by security personnel on various details, including their last overseas visit, he said. After more than six hours at the airport here, the flight carrying the passengers took off for Delhi around 10.30 am, he said. "Passengers were profiled, taken photographs and all personal details sought...," Leishemba said on Twitter. The B 737-900 aircraft was parked at a remote bay, the spokesperson said in a statement. "Jet Airways is extending full cooperation to the security agencies who are investigating the matter and is not in a position to comment further at this stage," it added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) City-based startup MyPetrolPump today said it was keen to avail benefits under a central government initiative to raise funds for extending their technology solutions to detect and prevent fuel adulteration. "Last week, the central government had unveiled a Rs 320 crore fund to support startups in the oil and gas sector. We are keen on availing funds to extend our technology solutions to detect and prevent fuel adulteration.We want to raise about Rs 50 lakh for the purpose," MyPetrolPump CEO Ashish Kumar Gupta told PTI here. MyPetrolPump claims it is the first startup in India to run diesel door delivery (refuelling) business. Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had unveiled the Rs 320-crore fund last week to help promote innovation and new business models in the oil and gas sector. Gupta said MyPetrolPump's initial prototype testing results had shown significant promises to detect blue kerosene adulteration in diesel fuel. "We are further extending the solution for all variants of diesel and kerosene blends for flow rates as low as 1 litre per minute to 2,000 litre per minute," he said. The technology would not only solve diesel adulteration problem for Oil Marketing Companies,but also protect consumers from getting adulterated fuel into their equipment,Gupta said. The startup has helped more than 300 apartment complexes in Bengaluru get their diesel gen sets refuelled safely on time. "We have supplied more than 50,000 litres so far," he added. "With our direct-to-equipment state-of-the-art refuelling system, these 300 plus apartment associations have saved average diesel pilferage of Rs 2.4 lakh on monthly basis that was happening during diesel transportation or loose storage injerry cans and drums earlier," he added. The deliveries were stopped for two months, from July to August end, after Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) directed state-run OMCs and privateretailers not to sell fuel, citing "safety." ANB Fuels, under the brand MyPetrolPump, had launched its operations from June 18 with three delivery vehicles, each with a capacity of 950 litres, but had to suspend the delivery within four days of launch due to a PESO circular tooil companies to stop providing fuel to it. Replying to a query, Gupta said the startup resumed operations in September as it believes the firm is completely a legal entity adhering to the existing guidelines and rules under the petroleum act. "We welcome government's approach towards bringing specific guidelines, which will allow doorstep delivery model to be implemented across India by several other startups like us," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In an apparent bid to counter the BJP in Ayodhya, the Samajwadi Party has put up for the mayor's post a transgender activist who asserts that she will be backed by all sections of people in the town known as the birthplace of Lord Rama. Gulshan Bindu, who garnered 11.45 per cent of the total vote as an independent candidate in the 2012 Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, said she would campaign for the support of every community for the upcoming civic poll. For the 2012 election, people had coined the slogan "Na Muslim, na Hindu, abki Gulshan Bindu" (Neither Muslim, nor Hindu, this time only Gulshan Bindu) to drum up support for her, Bindu said, adding that this would continue to be her battle cry. "I get the support of every section when I go out for campaigning. They want development and not the politics of caste and creed. They know only I can ensure that," she told PTI. Bindu, 47, said she would follow the doctrine "Na khayenge na khane denge" (Neither will I accept graft, nor let anyone do so) - a slogan made popular by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "I don't have any family. People of Ayodhya are my family. I want to assure them that if they elect me as their mayor, I will show them what development means," she said. Bindu, who stressed that she did not believe in mud- slinging or levelling allegations against her opponents, had contested the 2012 polls from Ayodhya as an independent, securing 22,023 votes and finishing fourth. SP candidate Tej Narain Pandey alias Pawan Pandey had won the seat, defeating the BJP. "I want to thank SP national president Akhilesh Yadavji for giving me the ticket and considering me as a party candidate," she said, adding that she was the runner-up in a Nagar Palika poll which the BJP had won by a mere 200 votes. Samajwadi Party MLC Lilawati Khushwaha said Bindu was a social worker "liked and supported by everyone" in Ayodhya. "The BJP will get to know what people want in the polls here with the victory of Gulshan. It will be a landmark election here," she said. Party president Akhilesh Yadav said the SP had given representation to all sections of society and added that women and traders were "worst affected by the economic policies of the BJP". Yadav said elections to urban local bodies had provided an opportunity for party workers to recover lost ground. The SP was decimated by the BJP in the March 2017 state Assembly elections. Its tally was reduced to 47, a steep fall from the 230 seats it had won in 2012. Civic polls in Uttar Pradesh will be held in three phases on November 22, 26 and 29, setting the stage for a virtual referendum on the Yogi Adityanath government in the state. Votes for the 16 nagar nigam, 198 nagar palika parishad and 438 nagar panchyats will be counted on December 1. Over 3.32 crore people will be eligible to vote in the polls to be conducted in 36,269 polling booths in 11,389 polling stations. The polls, being fought for the first time on party lines, will be a litmus test for the ruling BJP which stormed to power in the Assembly elections with a massive mandate earlier this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui today issued an apology for "hurting the sentiments" of women whose names he had mentioned in his memoir, "An Ordinary Life" allegedly without their consent and has decided to withdraw the book. The 43-year-old actor took to Twitter in the wake of the controversy surrounding his autobiography, co-written by Rituparna Chatterjee, in which he detailed his relationships and flings with former Miss India Niharika Singh and actor Sunita Rajwar. "I'm apologising to everyone whose sentiments are hurt because of the chaos around my memoir 'An Ordinary Life'. I hereby regret and decide to withdraw my book," he tweeted. The critically-acclaimed actor drew a lot of flak for revealing personal details about his "passionate" affair with his "Miss Lovely" co-star Niharika. Excerpts from the book started doing the rounds on October 23 and Niharika issued a statement a day later slamming Nawaz for "exploiting and disrespecting" a woman to sell his autobiography. While Rajwar took to Facebook to blast the actor for spreading lies and claiming that she dumped him for his "poor status". "I did not dump you for your poor status but for your poor thinking," Rajwar said, adding she was poorer than the actor at that time and their relationship did go beyond a play on which they worked together. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Authorities in Kashmir today announced new timings for schools from Wednesday, asking all government and private educational institutes in the Valley to strictly adhere to them. The directorate school education, Kashmir, has ordered that the new timing in schools within the municipal limits of Srinagar shall be from 10am to 3pm, while in areas falling outside the city's limits, the timing will be from 10.30am to 3.30pm, an official spokesman said here. The spokesman said the new timings will be effective from November 1. He said the instructions shall be adhered to strictly in all the concerned institutions. The change in school timings in the Valley is a routine decision, ordered every year during the onset of the winter season. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) State-owned Oriental Bank of Commerce plans to raise up to Rs 1,000 crore by issuing Basel III compliant bonds on a private placement basis. "The bank intends to raise tier I capital through private placement of Basel III compliant additional tier I bonds of Rs 10 lakh each aggregating to Rs 500 crore with an option to retain subscription of up to Rs 500 crore," it said in a regulatory filing. The Gurgaon headquartered bank said the proposed bond issue has been rated A (Hyb) with negative outlook by ICRA and A with negative outlook by CARE. Banks across the globe have to mandate themselves with the Basel III standards that seeks to protect them against unfavourable economic conditions by improving and strengthening their capital planning processes. The norms are being implemented to mitigate concerns on potential stresses on asset quality and consequential impact on performance and profitability of banks. Being implemented in phases since April 1, 2013, India is expected to fully implement Basel III standards by March 2019. This will align full implementation of Basel III in India closer to the internationally agreed date of January 1, 2019. Share of the bank closed 5.75 per cent up at Rs 143.55 apiece on the BSE. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) To boost farmers' income, the Odisha government today sanctioned 23 new projects worth around Rs 236 crore under the Rashtriya Krushi Vikash Yojana (RKVY), official sources said. The sanctions were made at the State Level Sanctioning Committee meeting of RKVY two days after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik claimed that Odisha was the only state in the country where farmers' income has doubled in a decade. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary A P Padhi here. The meeting sanctioned 23 projects worth Rs 236 crore out of 26 projects worth Rs 250 crore, an official said. The other three projects, estimated at around Rs 14 crore, were recommended for further technical examinations, Padhi said adding, the projects sanctioned are mostly in the agriculture, fishery, irrigation, food production, livestock development and allied activities. While giving nod to the projects, Padhi directed officials to make them more utilitarian and income-adding to the farmers. He further added that each project should add to farmers production and productivity. The Fishery and Animal husbandry department was asked to promote culture of the nutritious small fishes in rural and tribal pockets. He said consumption of this indigenous fish would add to the nutritional security of the people. Replying to reporters' query, Secretary Agriculture Sourav Garg said the major projects sanctioned today included increasing irrigation potential through individually owned bore wells and cluster micro river lift points, popularisation of modern agricultural equipment, surveillance and monitoring of common diseases of the ducks, livestock support services at the doorsteps of the farmers, strengthening of cashew nurseries, promotion of intensive shrimp farming, promotion of advanced fingerling nurseries, installation of automatic milk collection units and development of integrated farming system for livelihood security of the small and marginal farmers. RKVY was started in Odisha in 2007-08. So far, around 615 major projects have been implemented in the state under the scheme. Of this, 417 projects have been completed and 198 projects are ongoing as per year-wise time schedule. The scheme is run with funding support from Centre and the Odisha government on 60: 40 ratio. For 2017-18, the Centre has so far allocated Rs 205.19 crore against which the state government has provided Rs 136.79 crore, Garg said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US special operations forces have captured a militant who was instrumental in the 2012 attack on a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, officials said today. The attack resulted in the death of the US ambassador to the country and three other Americans. The Obama administration's handling of the deadly assault became a lightning rod for Republican criticism of Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time, through her presidential campaign. The commandos captured the man in Libya just before midnight local time yesterday and are transporting him back to the US, the officials said. The suspect is expected to arrive within the next two days, according to one of the officials. The officials said the mission was approved by President Donald Trump and done in coordination with Libya's internationally recognized government. The officials, who weren't authorized to speak publicly to the matter and demanded anonymity, did not identify the suspect and would not say where exactly he was captured. The Sept. 11, 2012, assault killed US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, State Department information management officer Sean Patrick Smith and contract security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Stevens and Smith died in the burning diplomatic outpost despite efforts to rescue them. Woods and Doherty died nearly eight hours later in a mortar attack on a nearby CIA complex. Earlier this month, another man accused in the attack, Abu Khattala, went on trial in federal court in Washington. Khattala has pleaded not guilty to the 18 charges against him, including murder of an internationally protected person, providing material support to terrorists and destroying US property while causing death. The attack became fodder for multiple congressional investigations to determine what happened and whether the Obama administration misled the public on the details of the bloody assault. Initial accounts provided by administration officials, notably former US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, said the attack had grown out of a protest against an anti-Muslim internet film. Later, the administration said it was a planned terrorist attack. A two-year investigation by a House Benghazi committee focused heavily on then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's role and whether security at the compounds and the response to the attack was sufficient. It was the Benghazi probe that revealed Clinton used a private email server for government work, prompting an FBI investigation that proved to be an albatross in her presidential campaign. The assault started in the evening when armed attackers scaled the wall of a US diplomatic post in Benghazi and moved through the front gate. Stevens was rushed to a fortified "safe room" along with Smith, but were then siphoned off from security officers when attackers set the building and its furniture on fire. Libyan civilians found Stevens hours later in the wreckage, but he died of smoke inhalation in the hospital, becoming the first US ambassador killed in the line of duty in more than three decades. The CIA annex was then attacked by mortar fire, killing Woods and Doherty who were defending its rooftop. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Pakistani anti-graft court today issued a bailable arrest warrant against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar after he failed to appear before it in a corruption case spiralling from the Panama Papers scandal. The Accountability Court in Islamabad dismissed 67-year- old Dar's application seeking exemption from personal appearance in the case hearing. His counsel Khawaja Haris appeared in the court of judge Muhammad Bashir and sought Dar's exemption from appearance as he was in London to seek medical treatment. But the court rejected the plea and issued the bailable arrest warrant and ordered him to appear in the next hearing on November 2. The case was filed against Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) following a verdict by the Supreme Court, which disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif after an investigation into corruption allegations against his family. Dar has so far appeared before the court seven times since the trial began. Earlier, he missed the first hearing on September 20. It is the second hearing that he missed. Proceedings in the trial could not advance today due to Dar's absence, even though prosecution witness Abdul Rehman Gondal, branch manager of a private bank's parliament branch, had appeared in the court with two gunny bags full of documents related to the minister's bank accounts. Haris stated in the application that Dar, after attending the 16th Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference in Dushanbe, Tajikistan had travelled to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. He said the minister fell ill in Jeddah and subsequently had to go to London for medical treatment. The court had indicted Dar last month in the case for owning assets "beyond his known sources of income". At the last hearing on October 23, the court recorded statements of NAB's witnesses, including Abdul Rehman Gondal of Allied Bank and Masoodul Ghani of Habib Bank Limited. Earlier, three witnesses 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. Aziz told the court that Dar invested Rs 120 million as finance minister in 2015 in NIT but withdrew this money after the Panama Papers case started in January 2017. On July 28, a five-member Supreme Court bench had ordered NAB to file three references against Sharif and one against Dar, on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insafs Imran Khan, Jamaat-i-Islamis Sirajul Haq and Awami Muslim Leagues Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. In its reference against the finance minister, 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)". The case alleged that the assets were "disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan Army's support to terrorism is unacceptable and India will continue to take all retaliatory measures to respond to such acts, Indian Army's director-general of military operations (DGMO) told his Pakistani counterpart today. In an unscheduled conversation with Lt Gen A K Bhatt over the hotline, Pakistani DGMO Maj Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza accused the Indian security forces of resorting to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir. However, Bhatt said retaliatory firing by Indian troops has only been carried out in response to "unabated support" provided by the Pakistan Army to armed terrorists, who infiltrate across the border and target Indian Army posts with heavy calibre weapons, the Army said in a statement here. The telephonic conversation was requested by the Pakistani side. The Indian DGMO told his Pakistani counterpart that while the Indian Army will continue its efforts to ensure peace and tranquillity on the borders, the support provided to the terrorists by the Pakistan Army was the prime reason for any "collateral damage". "He reiterated that this support to terrorism by the Pakistan Army is unacceptable and the Indian Army will continue to take all retaliatory measures as well as retain the right to punitively respond to such provocative acts of aggression from the Pakistani side," the Army said. It said Lt Gen Bhatt also clarified that the Indian Army always maintains impeccable standards of professionalism and does not target civilians. "On the contrary, Pakistan Army has employed civilians at the forward posts and accorded permission for permanent locations of civilians in the vicinity of Pakistan Army posts," the Army said. It said that these civilians have repeatedly been used for gaining information of locations of Indian troops and providing guides to the terrorists while crossing the LoC. The LoC in Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed a spurt in ceasefire violations by the Pakistani troops and the Indian Army has been retaliating effectively to Pakistani actions. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan today said that DNA testing has confirmed the death of two Chinese nationals, who were reportedly kidnapped by militants from the restive Balochistan province earlier this year. Chinese couple Lee Zing Yang, 24, and Meng Li Si, 26, had been killed in June - a month after they were kidnapped from the Jinnah Town area of Quetta on May 24. The bodies of Lee and Meng were found in mountains after a shootout with militants but their identity was not ascertained. In June, the interior ministry was informed that the Chinese were involved in preaching instead of business activities their declared purpose for visiting Pakistan. The DNA reports have confirmed that the two persons killed in Balochistan were the same two Chinese nationals, who were kidnapped from Quetta, according to a statement by the Foreign Office today. The confirmation from the Foreign Office comes months after the Islamic State (IS) militant group claimed responsibility for killing the couple, who had reportedly been 'preaching' in Balochistan under the garb of learning Urdu. "The Government of Pakistan expresses its deep sense of shock and grief on this brutal act of terrorism," the statement read, while extending condolences to Beijing and to the Chinese couple's relatives. It was not clear what the interior ministry suspected them of "preaching". The interior ministry had also confirmed the two Chinese had been killed but it was not clear if their bodies have been found. The then interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had ordered an initial review, followed by regulation and the streamlining of the visa process to avoid the misuse of business visas by foreign nationals. China had earlier asked Pakistan to take all necessary measures to ensure the safety and security of its nationals and institutions in the country, after reports of the killing of the Chinese couple. Chinese interest in Balochistan has spiked in recent years after the announcement of the USD 50 billion China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which plans to connect the Pakistani port of Gwadar to Xinjiang in China. In the past, China has asked Islamabad to improve security, especially in Balochistan, where it is building the Gwadar Port and funding roads as part of the CPEC. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi today refuted rumours that Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif would replace his brother Nawaz Sharif as the chief of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, according to a media report. Sharif, 67, had to step down as the chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) after he was disqualified as the prime minister by the Supreme Court on July 28 in the Panama Papers scandal. After attending a meeting of Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz's (PML-N) top leadership in London, sources said that it was decided that the PML-N would not accept removing the former premier from the post of the party chief. Abbasi refuted rumours that Shehbaz would replace his brother Nawaz as the chief of PML-N, Express Tribune reported. Sharif is in London along with his family to be with his ailing wife Kulsoom Nawaz who is still receiving cancer treatment in the British capital. His daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain (retired) Mohmmad Safdar have already been indicted in corruption cases filed against them by the country's anti-corruption body National Accountability Bureau on the Supreme Court's instruction in the Panama Papers case. Abbasi and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz left for London yesterday and met the former premier, who landed here from Saudi Arabia along with his son Hussain. Dismissing speculation about early general elections, Sharif said: "Rumours are always around but don't believe them". He once again complained about his removal and said: "When a government is weakened, the country gets weakened". Shahbaz had said that: "Elections will be held on time and there are no differences in the party or family". After the day-long meeting, Abbasi is expected to return to Pakistan later in the day. Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, along with other cabinet ministers, is also expected to reach the UK from Saudi Arabia. The PML-N party is trying to position itself for the 2018 elections. Both Sharif and his daughter have stated that the cases against them are politically-motivated. Sharif reached London to be with his wife after concluding a week-long private visit to Saudi Arabia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan today returned five helicopters given by the US to monitor the country's border with Afghanistan after failing to secure an agreement to further retain them. The US has provided nine rotary-wing aircraft in 2002 for monitoring of the Afghan border. Officials said that the helicopters were part of air wing of the Ministry of Interior and played a vital role in combating militancy and drug trafficking. "Pakistan decided to return the aircrafts after the two sides could not agree for their further use by Islamabad," sources said without giving any more details. Initially four helicopters were returned on October 15 while the remaining five were loaded on a transport aircraft in Islamabad today and sent back. Ministry of Interior air wing has been left with only three Cessna aircraft after the handing of nine helicopters to the US. US President Donald Trump had slammed Pakistan for its continued support to terrorist groups and warned Islamabad of consequences if it continues to do so while announcing his Afghan and South Asia policy in August. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Members of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti met Gujarat Congress leaders today but no agreement could be reached on the assurance about quotas for the Patels, a precondition set by PAAS leader Hardik Patel for extending support to the party in the Assembly polls. After the meeting at the Congress's state headquarters which lasted three hours, PAAS leaders said they will hold another round of discussion by November 7 to resolve the issue. Hardik Patel, who skipped the meeting, said the next round of negotiations will be the final. "If we have been fighting for reservation in government jobs and educational institutions for two-and-a-half years, then waiting for a few days is no a big deal. But the next meeting on the issue will be the last and final," he told reporters. Hardik Patel had last Saturday threatened to disrupt Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's proposed rally in Surat if the main opposition party in Gujarat did not make clear how it will provide quotas to the Patidar community. However, today he said he will not oppose Rahul Gandhi's rally. Gandhi is scheduled to campaign in poll-bound Gujarat from November 1 to 3. Patel said he will take the final call on meeting Gandhi after consulting the core committee of the PAAS. The ruling BJP, meanwhile, accused Patel and the Congress of misleading the Patidar community with the latter's claim that the opposition party has accepted all the demands of the community. "The main demand of the PAAS and Hardik Patel was reservation under OBC quota. The Congress and PAAS should clarify if the Congress will give reservations under OBC quota to the community," deputy chief minister Nitin Patel said, reacting to today's meeting. The Congress has been reluctant about promising quotas to the influential patidar community under the other backward classes category and offered them reservation under a separate grouping--economically backward classes. After the meeting, the PAAS members who met Congress leaders told reporters that the party agreed on four of their five main demands. "As far as the issue of reservation is concerned, we have decided to meet again to discuss its technical and legal aspects so as to ensure that it is technically and legally sound," said PAAS convener Alpesh Kathiriya. Congress agreed to the demand for formation of special investigation team (SIT), if voted to power, to investigate alleged atrocities against the members of the community during the PAAS rally in Ahmedabad on August 25-26, 2015, senior Congress leader Siddharth Patel said. He said legal action will be taken against those held guilty. It also promised withdrawal of all police cases against PAAS members, including on the serious charge of sedition. If voted to power, the Congress government will make an ex-gratia payment of Rs 35 lakh to the kin of those killed during the quota agitation and a government job to one member of their families, Patel said. The Congress will form a commission for general category communities and provide it with a corpus of Rs 2,000 crore for education, skill development and self-employment, he said. "The Congress discussed reservation in detail and we have decided to get more details on how to make it possible under constitutional provisions," Siddharth Patel said, adding the matter will be resolved at their next meeting. The Congress leaders who met the PAAS team included state party chief Bharatsinh Solanki. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has urged the Union government to take up with Canada the extradition of 10 NRIs, declared proclaimed offenders in drugs-related cases in the state and living in that country. In separate letters to Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Singh said the extradition process in the cases had been pending for up to four years, scuttling the state government's efforts to bring the accused to justice. The Congress government in Punjab has scaled up its efforts for their extradition from Canada, but the efforts have been obstructed as the cases remain pending at various levels, he said. According to an official spokesperson, the state government had decided to aggressively pursue the extradition of these suspects as their custodial interrogation was vital to establish the entire chain of the drug cartel in Punjab and to expose those allegedly patronising the trade. Listing out details of these cases, the Punjab chief minister said Sarabjit Singh Sandhar, alias Nik, a resident of village Balioun in Samrala, now living in Vancouver, had been declared a proclaimed offender on October 19, 2013. His extradition request had been sent to Canadian authorities and thereafter prepared afresh as per guidelines shared by them. The revised request was sent to the home ministry, which forwarded it to the external affairs ministry on July 20, 2017. The same is the status in another case, involving Ranjit Singh Aujla, a resident of village Muthada Kalan in Jalandhar district, in which the extradition request is pending since July 25, 2017. He was declared a proclaimed offender in August 2013. In the case of Nirankar Singh Dhillon of village Apra Mandi in Jalandhar, who was declared a proclaimed offender in October 2013, and is currently reported to be living in Lietkencher Circle Brampton, Canada, the extradition request is pending since September 19, 2017, Singh said, citing police data. The extradition request for Gursewak Singh Dhillon, who was declared a proclaimed offender in April 2014, was sent to the external affairs ministry by the home ministry on July 20, 2017, but there has been no movement since then. Singh in his letter cited similar cases of Amarjit Singh Kooner, Lamer Singh Daleh, Pardeep Singh Dhaliwal, Amarinder Singh Chheena, Parminder Singh Deo and Ranjit Kaur Kahlon. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today dismissed a PCS officer who was convicted and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment by a court last month in a 2010 bribery case. Punjab Civil Service (PCS) officer T K Goyal has been dismissed from service under Article 311 of the Civil Service Rules, a spokesman of the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said here. The officer was sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment in the bribery case which was reported when he was the joint secretary in the Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes (SC/BC) Welfare Department, he said. Goyal was arrested on September 8, 2010, from his office at the Chandigarh Civil Secretariat on a complaint by George Shambu of Begowal village in Kapurthala district, the spokesman said. He was caught accepting Rs 50,000 as bribe for issuing a SC certificate. The 1995 batch officer was posted as project director, Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), and holding the additional charge as joint secretary, Higher Education Department, he said. The chief minister, who has taken a stern stand against corruption, and has promised a clean and transparent government, has made it clear that there was no place in his administration for those found indulging in corrupt practices, the spokesman said. Amarinder Singh has directed strict adherence to the law in all matters. Any violation of this directive would be dealt with an iron hand, he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The National Conference today said the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and ally Bharatiya Janata Party have "merged", a day after two PDP ministers attended the BJP's national executive meet here. "Looking at the way the two parties are now having a joint-executive body meeting in Kashmir, the north pole and south pole have not just met, but undoubtedly merged," said Nasir Aslam Wani, the provincial president of the National Conference for Kashmir. Senior party leader and Public Works Minister Naeem Akhtar, along with PDP president and Social Welfare Minister Sajad Lone attended the BJP meet at Sher-i-Kashmir International Conference Centre (SKICC) yesterday, where they also gave a brief speech. Both the ministers also attended a lunch hosted by the BJP. "Executive body meetings are not part of governance decision making. These are policy making occasions for the party. The of Akhtar being part of this meeting is not just shocking, but questionable too," Wani added. The former minister alleged the presence of Akhtar in the BJP's executive was a "clear sign" that both the PDP and BJP has the same agenda in Jammu and Kashmir. "Are they (PDP) taking dictations from the BJP? Or are they helping the saffron brigade spread its tentacles better over J&K?" the NC leader said, adding that the people of Kashmir deserve an explanation about what the senior PDP leaders were doing at the BJP policy meeting. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju today said the person responsible for the security threat on the Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight had been identified and should be immediately put on the no-fly list. Flight 9W 339, carrying 122 people, made an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport early this morning "following detection of an onboard security threat", the airlines said. "I am informed that the person responsible for Jet flight 339 (Mumbai-Delhi) incident causing the landing at Ahmedabad today morning has been identified," Raju said in a tweet. However, the minister didn't disclose the identity of the individual concerned. "I am advising airlines to put him on the no-fly list immediately, in addition to other statutory criminal action," he said in another tweet. A member of the cabin crew had found a "printed note" stating that there was a bomb in the belly, the cargo area, of the plane, a senior official of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) told PTI. According to a Jet Airways spokesperson, the plane, with 115 passengers and seven crew members, landed without incident at Ahmedabad and all 122 were safely deplaned. "Jet Airways is extending full cooperation to the security agencies who are investigating the matter and is not in a position to comment further at this stage," the spokesperson said in a statement. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A leading health expert and microbiologist today said poverty is a big issue in the fight against diarrhoeal diseases. "Due to poverty in our neighbouring countries, diarrhoea rules the roost and the endemicity of diarrhoeal disease is higher in certain places," said Dr G Balakrish Nair, Acting Regional Adviser at the Communicable Diseases Department of the Regional Office of World Health Organisation for South-East Asia, New Delhi. He said compared to people belonging to higher socio-economic group, poor people do not have access to clean water and nutrition. He was speaking on the sidelines of the three-day 14th Asian Conference on Diarrhoeal Disease and Nutrition (ASCODD), which began here today. The conference is being organised by the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology, a national institute under the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India in association with International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), the INCLEN Trust International (INCLEN INT)and the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata. In Kerala, the high literacy factor enables proportional decline in the incidence of diarrhoea, he said. "Basically, where sanitation and hygiene is compromised and water is contaminated, there is every chance of spreading of diarrhoea. The transmission is either person to person, drinking water to person or contaminated food to person," Nair is quoted as saying in a release issued by the Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology here. Delivering the special address at the conference, incoming president of the ASCODD Firrdausi Qadri said a major cholera outbreak in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh was prevented by launching one of the fastest vaccination programmes in the world. "The signs of a major outbreak of cholera were evident in the Rohingya camps because of the unhygienic conditions. With combined efforts of the national and international agencies, the World Health Organisation disbursed nine lakh doses of oral vaccination within six days, which is one of the fastest vaccination programmes in the world," said the release quoting Qadri. The conference is themed on "Saving lives:innovations and solutions for diarrhoeal diseases, enteric fever and malnutrition," which is majorly supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. RGCB Director Dr M Radhakrishna Pillai underscored vastly improved healthcare facilities in Kerala and the state's preparedness to deal with severe health hazards. "Diarrhoeal diseases are termed among the deadliest ailments across the world. However, in Kerala, the scenario is much better. The infant mortality rate is 06 per thousand births. The state has a highly-efficient healthcare system in place leading to a Kerala model of healthcare," he said. Over 60 scientists from countries, including the UK, the US, Bangladesh, Germany, India, France and Sweden, are to present papers and lead discussions in 10 sessions spread over the three days. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Qandeel Baloch, the controversial Pakistani social media celebrity, was killed at the behest of Mufti Qavi, her father today told a court hearing her murder case, a media report said. Qandeel, 26, was murdered last year, allegedly by her brother Muhammad Waseem, who said he killed her in the name of 'honour.' Waseem is alleged to have drugged and strangled her, saying that she "brought dishonour to the Baloch name" due to her risque videos and statements posted on social media. Her parents, Muhammad Azeem and Anwar Bibi, were present in the court of Judicial Magistrate Pervaiz Khan in Multan city in Punjab province. Mufti Qavi, who is currently in police custody after his pre-arrest bail was rejected by a court earlier in October was also present. Mufti Qavi's selfies with Qandeel had gone viral on social media, causing a nationwide furore, after which the cleric's membership of the Ruet-i-Hilal committee and the National Ulema Mushaikh Council had been suspended. Azeem told the magistrate that he would not forgive anyone who was involved in his daughter's murder. He also maintained that the person responsible for his daughter's murder was Mutfi Qavi, Dawn newspaper reported. The cleric, however, maintained his innocence before the court and said he had done nothing illegal, adding that whatever had happened was on the record. Investigating Officer Asif Shahzad asked the court for a three-day extension in the cleric's physical remand, saying that police was likely to get the results of a polygraph test conducted on Mutfi Qavi soon, on the basis of which they would be investigating further. Three lawyers representing Mufti Qavi told the court that police were unable to gain anything despite an 11-day remand of the cleric and requested the court that no further extension in remand be granted to police. His lawyers maintained that the polygraph test had no legal standing. The court extended the cleric's physical remand for two more days, and adjourned the hearing until November 1. Model and actress Qandeel Baloch - born Fouzia Azeem - was found strangled to death in her house in Multan's Karimabad area on July 16, 2016. Her father claimed that she was killed by her younger brother, Waseem, in the name of honour. Her brother Waseem was arrested in Dera Ghazi Khan and confessed to killing her in the name of 'honour'. "There are other issues as well... Like the maulvi issue," Waseem had said, in an apparent reference to a controversy in the weeks leading up to her death after Qandeel took selfies with Mufti Qavi. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) today criticised BJP leader Subramanian Swamy over his reported statement that the party chief Raj Thackeray's ancestral roots are in north India. Swamy made the remarks while addressing a lecture in Dombivli in neighbouring Thane district last night. The BJP MP reportedly referred to the autobiography of late Keshav Thackeray, grandfather of Raj Thackeray, while making the statement. MNS, which projects itself as the sole guardian of the interest of Marathi manoos, has undertaken an aggressive 'drive' against hawkers outside suburban railway stations in Mumbai in the wake of the Elphinstone Road foot overbridge (FOB) stampede in September, which claimed 23 lives. MNS leader Rajesh Kadam, who attended Swamy's lecture, today said he confronted the BJP leader over his remarks. "Raj Thackeray has objected the presence of illegal hawkers who create a nuisance at railway stations. Mumbai is already over-crowded, but no action is taken against illegal hawkers, which leads to mishaps like the Elphinstone Road," he said. Kadam said he asked Swamy to prevail upon the BJP government in Centre as well as in Maharashtra to remove illegal hawkers and make Mumbai a clean and better living place. "There was no need to dig up Thackeray's ancestral issue. We are opposing only illegal hawkers and not entire community of hawkers," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Regulations should not become strangulation, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu said today, emphasising the need for minimising regulatory control to attract investment and ensure development in the country. "If India has to welcome investors, the ease of doing business must be considerably enhanced," he said, addressing an event here. Naidu said investments will come if the procedures are simple and if there is no harassment and corruption. "The regulatory controls must be minimised and the procedures should be clear, simple, streamlined and digitalised so that there is very little ambiguity or discretion. The regulation should not become strangulation," the vice president said. He said uncertainty and lack of information gives undesirable power to the implementing machinery. "We must standardise procedures and inform all citizens what these procedures are," Naidu said inaugurating the Vigilance Awareness Week organised by the Central Vigilance Commission. Apart from this, the cutting-edge administration with which the common man comes into contact with the government or its agencies needs a radical transformation, he said. Naidu said people welcomed demonetisation or remonetisation because they realised temporary pain would bring them long-term gain. "Why the people have welcomed the demonetisation, though it is painful for them. Because, they could understand the temporary pain is for long-term gain. And the idea of opening bank accounts to all people under Jan Dhan, understood by the public after demonetisation," the vice president said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on November 8 last year announced withdrawal of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes from circulation. Several opposition parties including the Congress and Mamata Banerjee's TMC have announced that they would observe the first anniversary of demonetisation as 'Black Day' and would hold protests across the country to highlight its "ill- effects" on the economy. To counter the opposition protest, the ruling BJP has decided to observe the note-ban anniversary as "anti-black money day". On the Goods and Services Tax (GST), touted as the biggest tax reform by the Modi government, Naidu said there might be certain shortcomings in the implementation of the GST but in the long run it is really going to improve the health of economy and going to create a very positive atmosphere. He said the presence of strong civil society, including a free press, and independent judiciary was an important pre- condition for good governance. "Unless you have free press, also if you don't have an independent judiciary, then good governance is not possible. The role of media and civil society in fighting the menace of corruption is also very very important. Media that is objective, balanced and neutral in its reporting and ethical, has a great importance," Naidu said. He said those in leadership role should lead by example if development has to reach people. "If the overhead tank is clean, then only we will get clean water. If overhead tank is itself polluted and you changed the tap, replace it by platinum or gold tap, you will not get pure water. Fortunately, in our country today, overhead tank is clean," Naidu said, referring to corruption-free governance under the Modi regime. Talking about the effect of corruption, he said constant vigilance is required to see that the vast beautiful tree of our country is not eaten up by weeds and pests. "The tree must be protected, preserved and nourished continuously by rejuvenating the entire eco-system," the vice president said. The vice president said that procedures and implementation of laws should become more citizen-centric. "Each citizen should be able to access quality services without harassment, undue delays and corrupt practices," Naidu said. The vice president said that all-out efforts should be made to improve the educational system to inculcate strong values, ethical conduct and commitment towards the welfare of the society at large. He said "black sheep" in all walks of life are the visible face of corruption. "They thrive in a system that has low accountability, low transparency, cumbersome, poorly understood procedures and high discretionary powers. It is this system that we should reform and transform," the vice president said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A restaurant-owner was arrested for selling liquor illegally in Jammu and Kashmir'sReasi district, police said today. Acting on a tip-off, a police team conducted a raid yesterday at the restaurant and arrested its owner forserving liquor to his customers, they said. The arrested person, identified as Payar Singh, was running his restaurant at the Lorry Adda in Reasi. Police said a case has been registered and investigation is underway. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A group of journalists today put up a road blockade near the state secretariat here demanding action against a traffic constable who allegedly beat up two scribes following an altercation over a traffic rule 'violation' by their motorbike. The journalists, however, withdrew the blockade after Deputy Commissioner of Police Satyabrata Bhoi reached the spot and assured them that action would be taken against the erring constable. The two scribes also lodged separate FIRs at the Capital Police station. The journalists identified as Sumit and Bijaylakshmi, claimed that the traffic constable posted near the PMG Square beat them up after an altercation that followed an alleged traffic rule violation by their motorbike. "We demand strong action against the traffic constable who physically assaulted and used filthy languages against me for not obeying his silly instructions near the PMG Square," said Bijaylakshmi. Stating that the traffic constable could have booked her for violation of traffic rule, she claimed that the policeman instead physically attacked and abused her. She demanded intervention of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who is also in-charge of the home department. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Congress today claimed that the BJP government in Madhya Pradesh spent Rs 1.74 crore on 'aaratis' performed by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan during this year's Narmada conservation campaign. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Ajay Singh, who made the allegation, also demanded a Supreme Court-monitored inquiry into the government expenditure on the campaign. "This is a kind of scam in the performance of aartis by the chief minister during the 'Namami Devi Narmade - Sewa Yatra'. According to RTI information, the government paid Rs 59,000 to an event management company for a single aarati performed by the chief minister at Khargone," he said. "So, an estimated Rs 1.74 crore were spent during this 148-day campaign only on aartis, a ritual that can be performed at a cost of Rs 5-10 at home. Even the Ganga aarati performed by the prime minister would have cost less," the Congress leader said. "A Supreme Court-monitored inquiry should be conducted in the expenditure on the Namami Devi Narmade - Sewa Yatra," Singh demanded. The BJP dismissed his allegation as made "out of desperation as people have repeatedly rejected the Congress". "This was the world's biggest campaign to create awareness about conservation of Madhya Pradesh's lifeline, the Narmada. A large number of people participated. The Congress is unable to digest good work," State BJP vice president Vijesh Lunawat said. "Congress has suffered defeats repeatedly in the leader of opposition's own area. His party will again be defeated in the Chitrakoot assembly byelection next month....he should take care of his constituency (instead of making allegations)," the BJP leader added. The Namami Devi Narmade - Sewa Yatra campaign covered a stretch of 1,831 km on the southern bank of the river, comprising 548 villages or towns, and a stretch of 1,513 km on the northern bank comprising 556 village or towns from December 2016 to May this year. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Armed miscreants today looted Rs 37 lakh from an employee of a cash collection agency while he was on his way to deposit the money in a bank, collected from two shopping complexes, police said. According to Deputy Superintendent of Police, Town, Ashish Anand, the incident took place this morning in Club Road locality under Mithanpura police station area of the city. He said two motorcycle-borne miscreants approached the cash collection agency employee who was riding solo with the money he had collected from Big Bazaar and City Life shopping complexes a little distance away. The Deputy SP said the miscreants sneaked in from behind and snatched the bag containing the cash and sped away, firing gunshots in the air to dispel onlookers. An investigation is on and footages of CCTV cameras installed nearby were being examined to identify the cluprits, he added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Authorities today banned the sale of combat dresses and uniforms of Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district, which borders Pakistan, in a bid to prevent them from reaching into the hands of militants. District Magistrate Sheetal Nanda said the ban was imposed under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and no unauthorised person or firm shall procure, store, stitch and sale Army combat dresses in Samba district. The ban, imposed after security agencies requested the authorities to regulate the procurement of such articles, came in the backdrop of attacks in Samba and neighbouring Kathua district by militants donning Army combat dresses and uniforms of security forces over the years. "The procuring, storing and selling of (Army uniforms) in unregulated manner may result in the items being passed into the hands of anti-national elements and may cause disturbances to (peace) as has been seen in the past," Nanda said. The order issuing the ban instructed that "all authorised private firms and shops procuring, storing and selling combat clothes shall immediately inform in writing to the nearest police station regarding their authority to carry on with this business". "The time limit for such information will be 15 days from the date of issuance and publication of this order," it read. The district magistrate has asked all authorised persons, private firms and shops to submit a fortnightly report of all the sales of combat and Khadi dresses cloth made by them. The report should have detailed information of the army, para-military and police personnel to whom the dresses were sold. "It shall be mandatory for all authorised firms and shops...to maintain the register giving details of items received with quantity, state of sale, items and quantity of times sold and the address and identity particulars of the parties or individuals to whom sold," she said. In March 2015, two terrorists launched a fidayeen attack on an Army camp in Samba district. The terrorists were killed, and a civilian and two army personnel were injured. The same month militants in Army fatigue stormed a police station in Kathua killing seven persons. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court today directed the father of a Kerala woman, who had converted to Islam and married a Muslim man, to produce her before it on November 27. A bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, asked senior advocate Shyam Divan, representing the father of the woman, to ensure that she is produced that day for interaction with the bench, which is likely to ascertain her mental stage and whether she had given free consent to the marriage. The National Investigation Agency, represented by Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, said there was a well-oiled machinery working in the state and they are indulging in the indoctrination and radicalisation of the society in the state where as many as 89 cases of similar nature have been reported. Divan, appearing for woman's father K M Ashokan, claimed the alleged husband of his daughter is a radicalised man and several organisations like Popular Front of India (PFI) are involved in radicalisation of the society. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for her husband Shafin Jahan, opposed the NIA's submission and that of the woman's father. The woman, a Hindu, had converted to Islam and later married Jahan. It was alleged that the woman was recruited by Islamic State's mission in Syria and Jahan was only a stooge. Jahan had on September 20 approached the apex court seeking recall of its August 16 order directing the NIA to investigate the controversial case of conversion and marriage of a Hindu woman with him. Meanwhile, the Kerala government had on October 7 told the Supreme Court that its police had conducted a "thorough investigation" into her conversion and subsequent marriage to Jahan and did not find material warranting the transfer of probe to the NIA. Jahan had moved the apex court after the Kerala High Court annulled his marriage, saying it was an insult to the independence of women in the country. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court today granted anticipatory bail to former Bihar Congress leader Brajesh Pandey in a case of alleged molestation of the minor daughter of a former state minister. A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said that there was not enough material against the accused to disentitle him to the relief of anticipatory bail. Advocate Shoeb Alam, appearing for the Bihar government, opposed the bail plea, insisting that Pandey had a role in the alleged molestation and that the process to declare him a proclaimed offender under Section 82 CrPC has already been initiated. Appearing for the accused, senior advocate Vivek Tankha told the court that it was a fit case for grant of anticipatory bail. The bench then directed Pandey to cooperate in the investigation as a condition for bail. In December, 2016, an FIR was registered by the alleged victim for outraging her modesty, criminal intimidation and various other sections of IPC, SC/ST Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO). The name of Brajesh Kumar subsequently figured during the investigation in the statements made by the complainant. Earlier the Sessions Court and Patna High Court had rejected Pandey's anticipatory bail applications. The apex court had on September 11, 2017, granted interim anticipatory bail to Kumar on the ground that his name had not been mentioned in the FIR. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Supreme Court today reserved its order on the bail plea of lawyer Rohit Tandon, who was arrested in connection with an alleged money laundering case after demonetisation. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud reserved its verdict after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi and Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta concluded their arguments in the case. The bench allowed Mehta to file an additional affidavit in support of his arguments that the benefit of bail should not be granted in the serious money laundering case. Seeking bail for Tandon, Rohatgi said that the concept of bail is rule and jail is exception has been turned upside down in this case. Rohatgi argued that no case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) was made out against him. He said that Tandon was allegedly found with unaccounted cash but that is not an offence under PMLA as the Act deals with proceeds of crime. At best, the case was of income tax violation and how can a man be roped in for an unknown criminal offence, he said. However, Mehta vehemently opposed the bail plea and submitted that Tandon was converting the illegal cash and causing harm to the government of India which had cracked down on black money. "Illegal cash was being converted by this gentleman through illegal means. It is not just a case of Income tax violation," Mehta said. Tandon has sought regular bail on the grounds that he needs to look after his ailing mother. The apex court had on September 4 refused to extend the three-week interim bail granted by the Delhi High Court to the lawyer. He was granted interim bail on August 10 by the High Court from where he had withdrawn his plea for regular bail. Tandon had earlier moved a fresh bail application before the High Court which on May 5 had rejected his bail plea. A trial court had earlier denied bail to Tandon on the grounds that he was alleged to have been involved in a "white collar crime" with other accused in a "well-planned" manner. The Enforcement Directorate had arrested him after a raid on his law firm in connection with a black money probe that had led to the alleged seizure of Rs 13.6 crore. He was allegedly involved in illegal conversion of nearly Rs 60 crore demonetised currency. Besides him, some other accused were also arrested in connection with a separate Prevention of Money Laundering Act case. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Pakistan's ousted premier Nawaz Sharif will hold a key consultative meeting with the ruling PML-N party's top leadership including Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi here to decide the next steps of the party and the government in the Panama Papers scandal. Sharif, 67, had to step down as the chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) after he was disqualified as the prime minister by the Supreme Court on July 28 in the scandal. Sharif is in London along with his family to be with his ailing wife Kulsoom Nawaz who is still receiving cancer treatment in the British capital. The top-level consultations in London come amid mounting legal pressure on Sharif and his family in the wake of the court proceedings, Pakistani media reported from London. His daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain (retired) Mohmmad Safdar have already been indicted in corruption cases filed against them by the country's anti-corruption body National Accountability Bureau on the Supreme Court's instruction in the Panama Papers case. Abbasi and Sharif's brother and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif left for London yesterday to meet the former premier, who landed here from Saudi Arabia along with his son Hussain. Dismissing speculation about early general elections, Sharif said: "Rumours are always around but dont believe them". He once again complained about his removal and said: "When a government is weakened, the country gets weakened". Shahbaz said that: "Elections will be held on time and there are no differences in the party or family". After the day-long meeting, Abbasi is expected to return to Pakistan later in the day. Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, along with other cabinet ministers, is also expected to reach the UK from Saudi Arabia. The PML-N party is trying to position itself for the 2018 elections. Both Sharif and his daughter have stated that the cases against them are politically-motivated. Sharif reached London to be with his wife after concluding a week-long private visit to Saudi Arabia. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US authorities have sent the body of 3-year-old Sherin Mathews to a funeral home but a medical report on how the Indian girl, adopted by an Indian-American couple, died is yet to come out, according to a media report. The cause of Sherin's death is still pending, a spokesman for the police department in Richardson city, Texas, told Fox . Sherin's body, found in a culvert on October 22, has been sent to a funeral home by the Dallas medical examiner, the report said. A spokesman for the Dallas County Medical Examiner said the body of Sherin was released on Saturday but did not say who has custody of the body. It is not clear if Sherin's foster mother Sini Mathews will have a role in handling the funeral arrangements since Sherin's foster father, Wesley Mathews, is under the custody of the Dallas County Sheriff's Department in connection with the child's tragic death. An online petition had requested authorities not to release Sherin's body to her foster parents and allow the people to give her a proper burial that she deserves. Sherin's body was found inside a culvert in Richardson city, nearly 1 km from her home. Her body was discovered by cadaver dogs over two weeks after she went missing from her home. Sherin was adopted by the couple from India last year. Wesley, 37, has been arrested on a charge of felony injury to a child with bond set at USD 1 million. He told police that Sherin had choked to death while drinking milk in the middle of the night on October 7. Mathews changed his story on Sherin's disappearance, initially claiming he left her outside at 3 am on October 7 as punishment for not drinking her milk. Mathews' latest claim is that he tried to "physically assist" Sherin in drinking her milk, but she choked on it and died. Sherin's foster mother, Sini, has denied any role in the girl's death and says she is cooperating in the investigation. But Richardson police say Sini Mathews has not been as cooperative as she has said, the Fox report said. Meanwhile, over two dozen people lit candles and said a pray for Sherin at a vigil on Saturday at the India Association of North Texas in Richardson, NBC Dallas reported. The vigil was attended by Indian community leaders in North Texas, as well as a member of the Consulate General of India in Houston. The CGI representative said he was not authorised to speak about the case but the Indian mission here has tweeted that it is actively involved in the investigation. The tree where Wesley initially said he had left Sherin for not finishing milk and the culvert where her body was later found have become memorial sites. People have been visiting these places and putting stuffed toys and flowers daily and praying for the baby to rest in peace. "It's a tragedy the whole life and you know a lot of people failed her. So it's time for us to pray, for her get together and hope that and pray that this never happens again in this entire community," said Salman Farshori, president of the India Association of North Texas. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A US Navy ship carrying two sailors from Hawaii after it rescued them in the Pacific has docked at an American Navy base in Okinawa, Japan. The USS Ashland arrived today at White Beach Naval Facility, five days after it picked up the women and their two dogs from their storm-damaged sailboat, 900 miles southeast of Japan. Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava had left Honolulu on May 3 for what was supposed to be an 18-day trip to Tahiti. Upon the ship's arrival, the women could be seen standing on the bridgeway with the commanding officer and others about six stories high at the top of the ship. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said steps will be taken to strengthen Bihar's silk industry, which has a "huge potential" for rural employment generation. The chief minister was speaking at 'Udyami (entrepreneurs) Panchayat', where people involved in silk production apprised the state government of problems they were facing, and proposed solutions for the same. "There is huge potential in the silk industry as far as providing employment in the rural areas is concerned. We will be providing assistance to all those who are associated with the industry, be it handlooms, powerlooms or dyeing", Kumar was quoted as saying in an official release. Citing measures taken by his government, he said with a view to giving a boost to production of tussar silk, "equipment have been given to at least 661 women across the state, which is bound to yield impressive results." Bihar is also coming up with measures like one-time settlement of power dues in order to incentivise silk production, Kumar added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Singapore has banned two foreign Islamic preachers from entering the country for preaching "segregationist and divisive teachings" unacceptable in its multi-racial and multi-religious society, the government said today. The decision was taken in consultation with the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), Singapore Tourism Board and Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. Ismail Menk, a Zimbabwean and Haslin Baharim, a Malaysian, will not be allowed to enter Singapore, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said. The move came after they preached on a religious-themed cruise departing and ending in Singapore from November 25 to 29 last year, Channel Asia reported. Ismail has been known to preach "segregationist and divisive teachings", it said. For example, he preached that it was the biggest sin and crime for a Muslim to wish a non-Muslim 'Merry Christmas' or 'Happy Deepavali', according to the Channel. Ismail and Haslin had their Miscellaneous Work Pass applications to preach in Singapore rejected previously. "They will not be allowed to get around the ban by preaching instead on cruise ships which operate to and from Singapore," the ministry said. Haslin has described non-Muslims as "deviant" and expressed views that promote disharmony between Muslims and non-Muslims, it said. "Such divisive views breed intolerance and exclusivist practices that will damage social harmony and cause communities to drift apart. "They are unacceptable in the context of Singapore's multi-racial and multi-religious society," the ministry said. The MUIS said that it does not support applications for foreign preachers whose views contravene the code of ethics under the Asatizah (religious teacher) Recognition Scheme. These include those with ideas that are "deeply problematic and very unsuited" to multi-religious Singapore, it said. The council found the teachings by the two preachers to "run counter to the values Singaporean Muslims uphold", the MUIS said, adding that Singaporeans need to play their part to reject and guard against divisive doctrines and preachers. Such teachings are "detrimental to our society and way of life, and will undermine the fundamentals of Singapore's peace and progress", the ministry added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan will be in New Delhi tomorrow as India and Singapore exchange a series of ministerial visits next month. Balakrishnan will visit the Indian capital and Guwahati from October 31 to November 1, his ministry said. In New Delhi, he will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and co-chair the fifth meeting of the India-Singapore Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) for Bilateral Cooperation with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. The India-Singapore JMC will review the state of bilateral relations and discuss new areas of cooperation. Balakrishnan will also address a symposium on 'India, Singapore & ASEAN: Shared History, Common Future'. Balakrishnan will speak on the current state of bilateral relations, India's importance and role in the region, and ways in which Singapore can continue to catalyse greater Indian engagement with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), said the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), a think tank at the National University of Singapore. ISAS is organising the symposium in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). In Guwahati, he will be hosted at lunch by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. Balakrishnan and Sonowal will also witness the signing of agreements to kick-start project implementation for the North East Skills Centre (NESC) in Guwahati. The NESC is Singapore's third skills centre in India and will contribute to the development of the northeast. Balakrishnan will be accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will visit Singapore on November 13 and 15, respectively, said Jawed Ashraf, India's High Commissioner here. Prabhu will meet the Singaporean business community during his November 13-14 visit while Jaitley will be a keynote speaker at the Singapore Fintech Festival and will attend the FinTech Asia Pacific Summit. Singapore's Minister of Trade and Industry S Iswaran will visit Andhra Pradesh and New Delhi from November 16 and its Defence Minister Ng Eng Heng will be in the Indian capital from November 27-29. A programme is also being worked out for the visit of Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong towards the end of November, Ashraf said. Goh was Singapore's second prime minister from 1990-2004 and has promoted India-Singapore business relations from the 1990s. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A Delhi court has reserved its order on a plea seeking an FIR in a case of alleged anti- national sloganeering at the Ramjas College by some students' groups in February this year. Metropolitan Magistrate Abhilash Malhotra reserved the order after hearing arguments of complainant advocate Vivek Garg and the Delhi Police, and posted it for next week. The court had earlier warned Garg against mixing this incident with the JNU case in which sedition charge was slapped against some students. In February 2016, JNU had hogged the limelight after the arrest of its student leaders, including then JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar. The Ramjas college case involved the raising of slogans and a clash between students owing allegiance to the ABVP and Left organisations, AISA and SFI. On February 21, members of the RSS student wing ABVP had gathered outside the college and shouted slogans in protest against a seminar for which JNU students Umar Khalid and Shehla Rashid were invited. The Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members allegedly pelted stones, vandalised the venue and disrupted the seminar. The next day violent clashes had erupted between the students of All India Students Association (AISA) and Students Federation of India (SFI) and the ABVP students, which left several of them and three teachers injured. The court had on August 29 observed that sedition charges could not be pressed on the basis of an unauthenticated and unreliable video, after it was shown so-called footage of the alleged "anti-national" sloganeering in the college. The plea, which sought registration of an FIR for alleged offences of sedition, criminal conspiracy, waging war against the State and defamation under the IPC, also demanded action against the Delhi Police officials for not lodging the complaint. The police had on August 3 submitted an action taken report in the matter and said it was examining students and teachers to identify the culprits involved in the Ramjas College clashes. In the report, the police had said they had lodged an FIR at the Maurice Nagar police station on February 22 for the alleged offences or rioting and obstruction, causing hurt and assault to deter public servant from discharging duty However, the complaint had alleged that "anti-national slogans/activities were being carried out by leaders/students of AISA/SFI in Ramjas College, shamelessly and openly which supported India's enemy Pakistan. The criminal acts of accused were also boosting the morale of terrorists against our country". (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Imagine putting on your virtual reality goggles and diving underneath the Antarctic ice to explore the rich, colourful and unique life on the seafloor. A new research expedition will make it possible. Scientists will for the first time document an entire Antarctic expedition in 360 degree virtual reality (VR) so that the general public can get a glimpse of what life looks like under the ice shelf. The researchers, including those at the University of Helsinki in Finland, will examine how climate change affects Antarctic coastal ecosystems. The group led by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand will set on an expedition to the coastal area near Scott Base on Ross Island, Antarctica. The Antarctic and Southern Ocean play a powerful role in the interaction between the world's oceans, climate and biodiversity, researchers said. "The aim is to raise awareness about the unique and fragile Antarctic coastal under-ice ecosystems and the broader effect climate change might have on the ecosystems and the whole planet. Climate change affects the whole world, including the waters of Antarctica," said Professor Alf Norkko from University of Helsinki. During the six-week expedition to Antarctica, temperatures can go down to minus 40 degrees Celsius when the team stays in the field camp in tents. "We want to touch the public; particularly the younger generation. They are the ones who will take over after us. "Imagine being able to put on your VR goggles and dive underneath the 2-5 metre thick ice in Antarctica and see the rich, colourful and absolutely unique life on the seafloor," Norkko said. "In addition to raising awareness, we want to give everyone an opportunity to follow a real expedition during six weeks. From start to finish, from planning to actual field work, camping in tents on the sea ice, and beyond," said Norkko. The expedition will use a strong arctic vehicle, which pulls the entire equipment, weighing 22 tonnes in total. Another special, so-called Hagglund vehicle, of Swedish design will serve as the crew transportation vehicle. The group will have two snow mobiles, 32 cameras, three drones and one ROV, which is a small remotely controlled submarine and five 360 degree VR cameras with them. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Four members of Spain's shooting team have been detained at an airport in the United Arab Emirates because of problems with their weapons' documentation. The Spanish shooting federation says four athletes have been held at the airport in Abu Dhabi since Sunday, when they arrived for a connecting flight after competing in India. The federation says the Spanish embassy in the UAE, as well as government officials in Spain, have been working to solve the problem. Olympic athlete Alberto Fernandez, who won the trap gold medal in New Delhi, tweeted early Monday that the athletes remained detained despite the attempts by the Spanish officials and the shooting federation. Spain also won the mixed team trap gold, while Fatima Galvez took silver in the women's trap. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Condemning the daylight killing of a Hindu outfit leader in Amritsar today, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said it seemed that there was no law and order in the state under Congress rule. In a press release, the SAD president said that a "wave of violence had been sweeping through the state" with impunity. He accused the the Captain Amarinder Singh government of allowing miscreants to make a mockery of the law of the land. "The high-profile killings have been on the rise despite the tall claims made by the state police of containing such incidents of violence," he claimed. If the government does not act, the situation can turn from bad to worse, putting in danger the communal harmony in this border state, he added. He asked the state government to take stern action against those involved in the heinous crime. Hindu Sangarsh Sena's Aimritsar district chief Vipan Sharma (45) was killed by four motorcycle borne assailants today, police said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Taliban say the condition of one of their captives in Afghanistan has deteriorated and that the American is in poor health. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid released a statement today saying that Kevin King is suffering from heart and kidney problems, and often loses consciousness. Mujahid also says the Taliban will hold the US government responsible if anything happens to King. In August 2016, King and an Australian identified as Timothy Weekes were abducted outside the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, where they worked as teachers. Since then, the Taliban have released two videos of the captives. In the first video, in January, they are seen apparently delivering a message on behalf of their abductors, asking President Donald Trump to offer a prisoner exchange to secure their freedom. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A 35-year-old software professional was arrested today for allegedly creating a fake online profile of his sister-in-law in order to settle scores with his wife with whom he is having a dispute, the police said. The accused, identified as Azahar Mohinoddin Tameem, is working as Database Administrator with a reputed software firm in Hyderabad, Karimnagar Police Commissioner V B Kamalasan Reddy told reporters. "Tameem is having a dispute with his wife. In order to humiliate her family members, he created a fake account in name of his sister-in-law, an engineering student, and connected it to a porn site. Tameem allegedly posted some pornographic content and also gave mobile number of his wife's sister," the commissioner said. Acting on a complaint, a special team arrested Tamim from Mukarampura locality and seized a laptop and a mobile. He has been booked under various sections of the IPC and IT Act. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Manoj Bajpayee may well be one of the top draws of commercial cinema, but the actor feels more at home with content-driven stories which help him break the mould of stereotypes. The actor's film "Rukh", currently in cinema halls, has been acclaimed by critics. The coming-of-age drama, directed by Atanu Mukherjee, revolves around a young man grappling with his father's sudden death. Bajpayee, widely praised for his short but memorable turn as the father, said the "classic novel" structure of the script prompted him to take up the role. "When I read the story, I found all the elements of a classic novel in it. I play a middle class man who is struggling to deal with one situation after another. He is breaking but still trying to hold everything together. The story is told through the eyes of his son," he told PTI. The actor, whose performance in Hansal Mehta's 'Aligarh' will be remembered as one of the most poignant portrayals of what it is to be gay in India, said he took up the character of Ramchandra Siras, a professor in Aligarh Muslim University, "with a great sense of responsibility". "I was never doubtful about my character or the director. If there is a strong film like 'Aligarh', it can dent a stereotype but you have to play the role with a great sense of responsibility," he said, adding that the film was an "important aspect" of his career. As a trained actor, Bajpayee said he looks for roles that help him interpret his character for it is not enough to just learn one's lines and deliver them well. "We somehow try to flow with stereotypes and try to play to the gallery and that's where the danger comes in. If you are a trained actor and have the experience of so many years, you have to have your own interpretation of the character," said Bajpayee, who worked for many years as a theatre actor before joining films. "Otherwise what is the use of mugging your dialogues and delivering them? If you are experimenting with your craft, then you are contributing in the real sense," he said. The actor said he mostly took up commercial roles because of his relationship with filmmakers, but was always "surprised" that mainstream directors wanted to work with him. "I have nothing against commercial films but it is just that I have never trained myself in that manner. I cannot boast of having been a part of the great commercial cinema. So when they offer me such roles, I always consider them, but mostly I do it (take them up) for friendships," he said. Content-driven films were a familiar platform, but he enjoyed working with directors such as Neeraj Pandey in the commercial space, he said, referring to their latest collaboration, "Aiyaary". "'Aiyaari' is the ideal Neeraj Pandey kind of commercial cinema where he does not compromise with the realism of the story. He has a unique and realistic voice which is woven in a fantastic manner in the script. I don't feel I'm out of my zone while working with him," he said. The actor believed though the audience was more receptive now to alternative cinema, the genre had still a long way to go. "I have been fighting for the co-existence of all genres in the industry for a long time. The viewers should have choices. Earlier, commercial films would rule the roost but we have certainly reached a place where content cinema is doing well. But the fight is not over yet," he said. Bajpayee -- who along with Irrfan Khan inspired a new generation of performers such as Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkummar Rao and Pankaj Tripathi -- said new artistes needed patience to discover their potential. "The journey of an actor is difficult as films are a mix of creativity and commerce. You go down because people are not there to back you up commercially but at the same time you must have the courage to stick to your convictions," he said. Despite all the odds, he said, an artiste had to hold on to hope. "People will rally around you if you don't break down," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The verdict in the gangrape case of a 72-year-old nun at Ranaghat in 2015 Nadia district would be pronounced on November 7 after the trial of six accused concluded in a city court today. The nun was gangraped at a convent on March 14, 2015 allegedly by a group of suspected Bangladeshi nationals, who had then decamped with cash from the safe of the convent. While six persons were arrested by the state CID which probed the case, one of the accused is absconding. The examination of witnesses and pleadings by lawyers representing the accused and the prosecution concluded before Additional District and Sessions Judge Kumkum Sinha here. The judge said the verdict would be delivered on November seven. Investigation in the case was handed over to the CID by the state government soon after the incident. The trial was shifted from a court in Ranaghat to the Kolkata sessions court in May 2016 by the Calcutta High Court on a petition by the nun. The nun, who had relocated to Delhi following the incident, had sought transfer of the case to Kolkata stating that she feared for her safety as the accused allegedly had strong links in Ranaghat. The accused have been charged with and tried for gangrape, dacoity, attempt to cause death or grievous hurt, voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means and criminal conspiracy. The six accused, who are in judicial remand, are Milan Kumar Sarkar, Ohidul Islam, Mohd Selim Sheikh, Nazrul Islam, Khaledar Rahman and Gopal Sarkar. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort was today charged with conspiracy against the US and money laundering, a significant development in a special counsel investigation into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort, 68, and his business associate Rick Gates, 45, surrendered to federal authorities and they were expected in court later today to face charges. The two have been charged on 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statements, and false statements. The indictment is part of the investigations being done by former FBI chief Robert Mueller, who has been appointed by the Department of Justice as a special counsel to probe into the allegations of Russian interference into the presidential elections and the connection with the Trump Campaign if any. The indictment filed in federal court in Washington also accused both men of funneling tens of millions of dollars in payments through foreign companies and bank accounts. There was no immediate comment from the White House. Manafort joined Trumps campaign team in March 2016, and was elevated to the role of campaign manager in June. He resigned amidst a scandal about his foreign consulting work. The Clinton Campaign and the Democratic Party have alleged that the Russian interference had contributed in Trump's electoral victory and the shocking defeat of Hillary Clinton. Mueller is also investigating if Trump indulged in obstruction of justice. A day earlier, Trump in a series of tweets said it is not a coincidence that surrounding Mueller's investigation was surfacing at the same time Republicans are pushing tax reform. "All of this 'Russia' talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Is this coincidental? NOT!" he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The police today claimed to have busted a gang of truck lifters by arresting two of its members after an exchange of fire near Surkhpur village in this district. On a tip-off, the police intercepted two men riding a motorcycle, who then fired at the police personnel, Jalandhar range DIG Jaskaran Singh said. The police personnel fired four rounds in retaliation and nabbed both the accused after a chase, he said. During interrogation, the accused, Harpreet Singh and Gurdev Singh, confessed to have stolen four trucks from Raya in Amritsar, and one motorcycle from Fattudhinga village in Kapurthala, the DIG said. Two stolen trucks, one motorcycle, two pistols and few cartridges have been seized from the accused, the officer said, adding a case has been registered against the accused and investigation is underway. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Britain's former Prime Minister Gordon Brown has credited an Indian-origin eye surgeon with rescuing him from complete blindness. Dr Hector Chawla gets a special mention as an "old friend" in 'My Life, Our Time' written by the former Labour party leader who was Prime Minister between 2007 and 2010, when he lost the general election and David Cameron led Conservative party went on to set up a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. Brown, 66, who was left blind in one eye after an accident during a rugby match as a teenager, was operated upon by Chawla at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh in 1971 to rescue him from retinal detachment in his remaining good eye and save him from complete blindness. "To my surprise, Dr Jackson highly esteemed in his own right said that this time he was not the best person to do the operation; the best hope was his young protege, Hector Chawla. But Dr Chawla was about to go on holiday. He delayed his departure and saved my eye," writes Brown in extracts published from his new book. "Had I waited even a day in rushing to the Royal Infirmary, he would have been gone and I doubt that I would have any sight today. Hector had recently returned from a year in America and I was blessed to be the beneficiary of his newly acquired techniques. A lifelong friendship followed," Brown recalls. Chawla, born in Sialkot in pre-Partition India to a Scottish mother and an Indian father who was a doctor in the British Indian Army, is praised by Brown as a "polymath" and a world expert on the retina. "Partly due to his breakthroughs, the success rate in reattaching retinas rose in forty years from 20 per cent to 90 per cent," he notes. Brown goes on to credit Chawla with saving his vision a second time by stepping in years later as a retired surgeon after he had suffered a sudden deterioration in his good eye while at Number 10 Downing Street. "When I woke up in Downing Street one Monday in September (2009), I knew something was very wrong. My vision was foggy," he writes. "That morning, I was to visit the City Academy in Hackney to speak about our education reform agenda. I kept the engagement, doing all I could to disguise the fact that I could see very little discarding the prepared notes and speaking extemporaneously," he adds. It was found that his retina in his good eye was torn in two places and that an operation was urgently needed. Brown was prepared for the surgery but asked the doctor if he could consult with his "old friend" Hector Chawla as well. "I emailed Hector who was in France on holiday but he offered to come to the hospital that Sunday morning on his way back home His advice was blunt. There was no point in operating unless the sight deteriorated further. Laser surgery in my case was more of a risk than it was worth," Brown writes. Brown was told that if his sight worsened, doctors would have to eventually operate within the eye rather than laser surgery, which was extremely risky. The former politician, who is now involved with humanitarian work, said he was "lucky beyond words" that his retina has held to this day. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Yogi Adityanath government has decided to introduce NCERT books in madrassas in Uttar Pradesh, apart from making mathematics and science compulsory at intermediate level in the Islamic schools. The steps are intended to make madrassa students more competitive by providing them contemporary and quality education, according to Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma. "The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to introduce National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) books in the madrassas in order to make students studying there to come on a par with children of other schools," Sharma tweeted. NCERT is the apex academic organisation for school education. In January, the state government had made NCERT books mandatory for all schools affiliated to the Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad (UP Board) from academic session 2018-19. In August, the state government had launched a portal of UP Madrassa Board for online registration of all such Islamic institutions where they were asked to upload all relevant information pertaining to their managing committee, teachers, students etc. As many as 2,500 madrassas had uploaded all their information by September 17, Minority Welfare Minister Laxmi Narayan Chaudhary had said. The aim behind the move was to stop irregularities in the madrassas and improve transparency, he had said. Sharma today said mathematics and science will be made compulsory at Aliya (intermediate) level to make madrassa students more competitive. The Madrassa Board is making preparations for introducing NCERT books in the institutions run by it after getting an approval from the state government, he said. Registrar of Madrassa Board Rahul Gupta said there was a move to review the curriculum, although it was in the primary stages and changes were likely in the books of all classes. The education related to the religious curriculum will remain as before, but a change is likely in other sections relating to academics in keeping with the demand of the times. Modern subjects will be included in the curriculam, he said. Meanwhile, Teachers' Association Madaris-Arbia Uttar Pradesh welcomed the decision of the state government and said that the change in the curriculum other than religious education in keeping with the present requirement was good. Before the online registration, there were 19,000 recognised madrassas in the state. As many as 4,600 partially-funded madrassas were there in the state, while the number of 100 per cent funded madrassas in the state stood at 560. Earlier, the Uttar Pradesh government had asked all madrassas to hold celebrations on Independence Day and videograph the event. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Online education company UpGrad today announced a collaboration with the executive education division of Cambridge Judge Business School, and has earmarked Rs 200 crore, for its international expansion. The company will expand operations into South East Asia (SEA) and middle east markets, UpGrad said in a statement. "After being the only online education company having upgraded over than 170,000 professionals in the country, venturing into international markets was the next logical step for us," Ronnie Screwvala and Mayank Kumar, Co-Founders, UpGrad said. With focus on upskilling business professionals in digital marketing strategies, the program will combine Cambridge Judge Business School's faculty along with experts and select corporate partners from local markets, it added. The enrolments are starting today and the first batch will launch in January 2018. UpGrad will be marking its first international expansion into Singapore and Dubai, supporting the company's strategic business decision and global growth strategy, it said. With over 400,000 marketing professionals across south east Asia and middle eastern markets who require upskilling and an executive education market size of USD 110 m, these markets are an attractive avenue for UpGrad, it explained. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US-India relationship does not have just a geopolitical aspect but an incredibly important geo-economics dimension in which the private sector can play a key role, Nisha Desai Biswal has said ahead of her visit to India this week as the president of a top business advocacy group. The former Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, Biswal this month joined the US India Business Council (USIBC) as its president. USIBC is a part of the powerful US Chambers of Commerce. In her previous capacity in the government, Gujarat-born Biswal said she realised the incredibly important role of the private sector. She said joining the USIBC and the US Chamber of Commerce, is "an opportunity...to bring the knowledge and understanding and insight that I had from government and bring that into private sector in terms of how can we better leverage the US and Indian private sectors to create the kind of economic partnership that not only creates opportunity in both countries, but also the ability for our two economies to partner in looking at the region and the global opportunity," Biswal told PTI. Referring to the major India policy speech by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Washington D C before his India visit this month, Biswal said this reflected the very profound vision of what is at stake for a US-India partnership across the Pacific, not just for the next four years but for the next century. "And that is not just a geopolitical, geo strategic dimension but an incredibly important geo-economics dimension," she said. Headed to India this week on her first visit as the USIBC president, Biswal said it is a profoundly important time in bilateral ties and the economic partnership is pivotal. Noting that there already is a lot of inherent and organic growth in two-way trade and investment, Biswal said but there can be a far more strategic leveraging of that. Responding to a question on the three years of the Modi government, Biswal said Prime Minister Narendra Modi made some significant economic reforms that have been well received by both his domestic industry as well as by American businesses that are looking to invest in and grow and grow their investments in India. "Clearly there is so much more that can and needs to be done," she noted. There was a recent study that talked about 90 per cent of the infrastructure of India of 2030 is yet to be built, she said. "And that's going to take an enormous surge of investment to be able to stand up that infrastructure. Investment domestically as well as foreign investment. So what are the things that can really clear the pathways of that investment," Desai said, noting that there are a number of things that one can look at bringing in more investment. Biswal said in her capacity as the USIBC president, she looks forward to continuing to play the role that she has always played to "bring our two countries, our two economies, our two peoples into much closer and closer collaboration" and to be able to engage with the governments and be able to engage with the businesses in service of that. "Bigger ideas is to me, not just a job but a passion and a vocation, it's a mission that I deeply and passionately believe in and I see this platform as being absolutely the most critical platform from which I can do this," Biswal said. The US-India Business Council is a premier business advocacy organisation dedicated to strengthening the economic and commercial relationship between the United States and India. The councils primary mission is to serve as the direct link between business and government leaders. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) US President Donald Trump has said that US special forces had captured a man linked to the 2012 attack on the American mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi. "Yesterday, on my orders, United States forces captured Mustafa al-Imam in Libya," Trump said in a statement, which came as the White House was rocked by the indictment of three campaign aides. Trump said "al-Imam will face justice in the United States for his alleged role in the September 11, 2012 attacks in Benghazi." Attorney General Jeff Sessions confirmed that the suspect "will face justice in federal court for his role in the attack." An alleged mastermind of the attack, 46-year-old Ahmed Abu Khattala, is already on trial in the United States, accused of being a commander of the Ansar al-Sharia militia. The attack killed US ambassador Chris Stevens as well as three other American personnel and became emblematic of conservative opposition to then secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Several congressional investigations were launched, along with a State Department security review, into both the handling of the attack and how it was described in the media. Clinton was never convincingly tagged with wrong-doing or negligence, but the issue haunted her failed 2016 presidential campaign and may have contributed to Trump's victory. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) E-cigarettes - often touted as a tool to help smokers kick the butt - may encourage high school students to start smoking regularly in later life, a study has found. The study, published in the journal Canadian Medical Association Journal, included 44,163 students from 89 school. Researchers from University of Waterloo in Canada looked at e-cigarette use and classified students into 6 categories: current daily smokers, current occasional smokers, former smokers, experimental smokers, puffers and those who had never tried smoking. Among students in both study phases, youth who used e- cigarettes in the 30 days prior to the start of the study were more likely to start smoking cigarettes and to continue smoking after one year, a finding consistent with other similar study types. At the same time, the prevalence of smoking decreased slightly over time. This means that if e-cigarettes are promoting youth smoking, the overall impact has been modest to date, researchers said. "Youth may be trying e-cigarettes before smoking because they are easier to access: until recently, youth could legally purchase e-cigarettes without nicotine, whereas regular cigarettes cannot be sold to young people under 18 years of age," said David Hammond, from University of Waterloo in Canada. The findings provide support for both sides of the debate. It is highly plausible that 'common factors' account for a substantial proportion of increased cigarette-smoking initiation among e-cigarette users. At the same time, it would be foolhardy to dismiss the likelihood that early exposure to nicotine via e-cigarettes increases smoking uptake, researchers said. "While our study provides strong evidence that e- cigarettes are associated with smoking initiation among youth, the association is unclear," said Hammond. "E-cigarettes may help to re-normalise smoking; however, the association between e-cigarettes and smoking may simply reflect common factors rather than a causal effect: the same individual and social risk factors that increase e-cigarette use may also increase the likelihood of youth smoking," he said. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Vice Admiral Karambir Singh will assume command of the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) tomorrow at a ceremonial parade to be held here. Vice Admiral Singh will assumes charge of the Command from Vice Admiral HCS Bisht, who will be retiring from services tomorrow, a Navy release said here. The parade will be held at the Naval Base where Vice Admiral Singh would inspect the ceremonial guard and review the platoons of naval personnel drawn from various ships and establishments of the ENC. Vice Admiral Bisht will be accorded a farewell by the ENC by the traditional pulling out ceremony, wherein he will be ceremonially pulled out in a jeep by flag officers and commanding officers of ships and naval establishments, the release added. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The full-service carrier today said it has connected Ranchi with New Delhi with a twice daily direct service to the Jharkhand capital, making the city its fifth destination in eastern India. The new flight, launched yesterday, will provide onward connections to other destinations such as Mumbai, Srinagar, Jammu, Kochi and Hyderabad via Delhi, said in a release today. "We are delighted to add Ranchi to our network. Vistara's start with double daily direct flights between the capital city and the national capital reflects our strong commitment to the market," chief strategy and commercial officer Sanjiv Kapoor said. "We are confident that many business travellers and tourists will be delighted to fly their favourite airline to and from Ranchi," said Kapoor. The Delhi-headquartered Tata-SIA joint venture airline Vistara has expanded its network to 21 destinations since its launch in January 2015, with over 660 flights a week, operated by a fleet of 16 Airbus A320 aircraft. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Delhi High Court today sought the Enforcement Directorate's response on a bail plea of a woman director of two Dubai-based firms, arrested in connection with a money laundering case arising out of the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper scam. Justice A K Pathak issued notice to the ED seeking its reply on the bail application by December 1. Shivani Saxena, director of Dubai-based M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings, was arrested by the ED and is currently in judicial custody. Senior advocates Dayan Krishnan and Mohit Mathur, appearing for Saxena, submitted that the woman has not been chargesheeted by the CBI in the main case but only the ED has chargesheeted her under the Prevention of money Laundering Act (PMLA). The counsel said when the accused was not chargesheeted for the main offence, the gravity of alleged scheduled offence dilutes. They further submitted that the woman has been in jail for over three months now. The high court had in September dismissed an earlier bail plea of Saxena. She was also denied the relief by the trial court. Saxena was nabbed on July 17 by the ED from Chennai under the provisions of the PMLA. The ED has chargesheeted her and the companies under various sections of the PMLA. Saxena and her husband Rajiv Saxena are residents of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. The charge sheet contains her name and that of her husband, who is also a director in the two firms. Rajiv Saxena has been evading ED summons and not joining the probe, the ED had alleged. The agency has so far not arrayed him as an accused. The ED has alleged that the two Dubai-based firms and Shivani Saxena were the ones through whom "the proceeds of crime have been routed and further layered and integrated in buying the immovable properties/shares among others". The agency has claimed its probe found that AgustaWestland, United Kingdom, had "paid an amount of Euro 58 million as kickbacks" through two Tunisia-based firms. "These companies further siphoned off the said money in the name of consultancy contracts to M/s Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius and others which were further transferred to M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings Ltd, Dubai and others," the charge sheet has said. The ED had also claimed that Rajiv was the "beneficial owner of M/s Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius". It has alleged that both the Dubai-based companies of the couple "received the proceeds of crime in their respective Dubai bank accounts" from the Mauritius-based firm. The ED, in this case, had also arrested Delhi-based businessman Gautam Khaitan who is currently out on bail. The ED had registered a PMLA case in 2014 and named 21 people, including Tyagi, in its money laundering FIR. On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks to the tune of Rs 423 crore paid by the firm for securing the deal. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Czech Republic actress Sara Sandeva has never been a "crazy fan" of Shah Rukh Khan, but she wanted to work with the Badshah of Bollywood some day. 'Swades', directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, happened to be one of Sandeva's favourite SRK movies. "I am not a crazy fan, but Shah Rukh Khan is one actor I wish to work with in an Indian movie," Sandeva told PTI on the sidelines of the first edition of Guwahati International Film Festival (GIFF) here. The Czech diva, who flew down to Guwahati to attend the screening of her fantasy-comedy 'The Spooks', drew huge appreciation from the public. When asked about one Indian film director she was keen to work with, Sandeva said: "I liked the film 'Queen' a lot. Director Vikas Bahl has made a beautiful film. I loved the concept of an Indian girl going out to tour Europe on her own." The 20-year-old actress said she was open to all types of movies that promise a "challenging role". "I would like to do more than one movie in India. I want to play different roles, no matter what the genre is," she claimed. The noted actress also said she loved dancing and was looking for a script, which would strike an emotional chord with the audience. "I would love to act in an Indian film because I love dancing. I started dancing when I was 13," she said. The GIFF kicked off on a grand note on October 28 with the screening of Oscar-winning movie The Salesman, a joint collaboration of Iran and France. As many as 78 films from 35 nations have been selected for the six-day extravaganza. Turkey being the "focus country" this year, cine lovers were being treated to five gems from the land, including Ember directed by Zeki Demirkubuz, Yarim by Cagil Nurhak Aydogdu and Toz Bezi by Ahu Ozturk. The state government-owned Jyoti Chitraban (Film Studio) Society organised the fest in association with Dr Bhupen Hazarika Regional Government Film and Television Institute. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Be it the Aarushi-Hemraj murder, the Nithari killings or the Sheena Bora murder, Indians have always been suckers for crime stories. No wonder that the fascination extends beyond real-life cases and translates into a massive readership for the genre. According to crime fiction writer Ravi Subramanian, it is the dark and mysterious that captivates one's imagination. "Nobody wants to read about good boys and girls," he said. The writer, who recently came out with his new book, "In the Name of God (2017)", was speaking at a session titled 'Criminal Minds' at the Penguin Fever yesterday at India Habitat Centre here. He was joined by writer Novoneel Chakraborty and Brijesh Singh, inspector-general (cyber) of Maharashtra. Subramanian said that one's interest in crime stories essentially stems from a "survival instinct". "When we read crime thrillers, that comes to the fore," he said. A constant struggle to keep oneself safe, drives them to be wary of things that might look suspicious or dangerous, Singh said. "If you go to a place and if I say, beware of pickpockets, you will be more concerned about pickpockets. That's how the mind works," he said. "We would be focussed on a crime story so that we are aware of our surroundings and protect ourselves," Singh added. The rich, intense and amplified drama in crime fiction also contributes significantly to an increasing readership. The key is to keep the readers hooked, Subramanian said. "The battle between tired fingers and drooping eyelids has be to won by the former," he said. Talking about the challenges in writing crime fiction, particularly for the Indian audience, Chakraborty said the stories must be a good mix of intelligence and emotion. He said that while the genre was "inherently intelligent", a good writer must churn out plots that will also strike an emotional chord with the readers. The growing interest in web thrillers is also giving tough competition to the literature being written in the genre. "The most difficult thing is to keep intriguing readers book after book," Chakraborty added. The six-day-long literary celebration marking the 30th anniversary of Penguin Random House India, began on October 26 and has already hosted the likes of Arundhati Roy, Shobhaa De, Vidya Balan and Ruskin Bond. The festival will also feature sessions by politician- writer Shashi Tharoor and Tamil author Perumal Murugan. The event will come to a close on October 31. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) HSBC reported rising costs on Monday, sending its shares one per cent lower and taking the shine off a better-than-expected quarterly profit driven by the Asian business that the bank has put at the heart of its growth plans. Third quarter expenses for Europe's biggest bank by market capitalisation rose 7 per cent, higher than analysts expected, as HSBC invested more in its retail banking and wealth management unit and paid out more in bonuses to staff. The results highlighted the difficult path HSBC is walking between cost-cutting and growth, as it seeks to increase income again following a period of wider restructuring after the 2008 global financial crisis. HSBC earlier this month chose veteran John Flint as its next chief executive, with its newly arrived chairman promoting an insider to drive revenue growth. Flint will take over as CEO in February 2018. With Flint, who spent much of his early career in Asia, and regional veteran Chairman Mark Tucker at the helm, analysts expect the London-based bank's shift toward its second home market of Asia to accelerate. "We've got good momentum, we're seeing good investor appetite for new business coming through not only in Hong Kong but further afield in Asia," Group Finance Director Iain Mackay told Reuters. Pretax profit was $4.6 billion in the September quarter, up from $843 million in the same period a year ago, HSBC said in a stock exchange filing. The profit was roughly in-line with analyst estimates of $4.7 billion. The year-ago profit was significantly impacted by a one-off loss of $1.7 billion from the sale of its Brazilian unit, and adverse foreign currency movements. Reported pre-tax profit for the Asia operations, which account for 70 percent of the bank's overall profits, rose 10 percent during the third quarter to $4 billion. "Our international network continued to deliver strong growth ... and our pivot to Asia is driving higher returns and lending growth, particularly in Hong Kong," HSBC Group Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said in the statement. HSBC saw a return on equity, a key measure of profitability, almost double to 8.2 per cent in the first nine months of the year but it did not give a timeframe for achieving its long-term goal of 10 percent. "We won't achieve 10 percent by the end of 2017, but we are heading in the right direction," Mackay said. HSBC shares were down one percent in London at 1000 GMT, as investors reacted more to the lender's surprise increase in costs than its better-than-expected profits. PEARL RIVER PIVOT HSBC has been able to boost its capital buffer despite rolling out share buybacks, the latest of up to $2 billion in July, and sustaining dividends, showing it is ahead on its turnaround strategy that includes expanding in Asia. The bank makes more than half of its profits in Asia, and its regional pivot is centred around China's Pearl River Delta region with billions in investment commitments and plans to bolster its retail and wealth management business. Its customer base for retail banking and wealth management in mainland China had expanded by more than 70 percent so far this year, it said. HSBC's common equity tier 1 ratio - a measure of financial strength - was 14.6 per cent at the end of September, slightly lower than 14.7 percent at end-June this year, but in-line with analyst expectations. The ratio is set to increase in the medium term, as the bank repatriates about $8 billion stuck at its US subsidiary, following approval last year from the US Federal Reserve. HSBC posted a 5 per cent drop in adjusted revenue in fixed income, currencies and commodities business during the quarter. Some of its European rivals such as Barclays saw the same business fall by more than 20 per cent in the period. The bank could end up moving fewer than 1,000 jobs to Paris following Britain's exit from the European Union, Mackay told reporters on a conference call, following previous remarks from senior bank executives suggesting that many roles would move. Samsung has released a critical software upgrade for its budget Galaxy J5 smartphone. The update addresses the Blueborne vulnerability, which was recently identified as a serious threat that spreads through Bluetooth and takes control over user devices. The Group of Ministers (GoM) on Sunday recommended lowering of tax rates under the GST composition scheme for manufacturers and restaurants to 1 per cent. Currently manufacturers are charged GST at 2 per cent while restaurants have to fork out 5 per cent and traders pay 1 per cent as tax. A senior official confirmed that the GoM headed by Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has also recommended that the tax rate for AC restaurants should be lowered to 12 per cent from 18 per cent at present. This would make tax rate uniform for AC and non-AC restaurants that are not covered under the composition scheme. Besides, the GoM has suggested that GST for hotels which have room tariffs of more than Rs 7,500 per night should be cut to 18 per cent from the current level of 28 per cent. The hospitality sector has been complaining of high rates hitting their business. The GST on restaurants in fivestar and luxury hotels had been earlier reduced from 28 to 18 per cent, bringing it at par with standalone air-conditioned restaurants. Food & beverages constitute 30-40 per cent revenue for five-star hotels. However, it remains to be seen whether these restaurants are also brought into the 12 per cent bracket. GST composition scheme is open for manufacturers, restaurants and traders whose turnover does not exceed Rs 1 crore. This threshold was earlier Rs 75 lakh and the GST Council had this month raised it to Rs 1 crore from October 1 so that more traders and manufacturers could benefit from this scheme which is easy to comply with as it does not require much paperwork. The fixed tax also has to be paid on a quarterly basis instead of monthly as is the case with others. With regard to traders, the GoM has suggested a twopronged approach for taxation under the scheme. It suggested that traders who want to exclude the sale proceeds of tax-free items from their turnover, can pay 1 per cent GST. However, those traders who pay tax on total turnover, the tax rate has been proposed at 0.5 per cent. The GoM also recommended allowing businesses which are engaged in inter-state sale to avail of the composition scheme, the official said. At present such businesses are not allowed to opt for the simplified scheme. The government has drawn flak from the business community which has been complaining about filing GST returns as they are not familiar with digital processes. Some of these entities have never filed tax returns before. With several assembly elections around the corner, the government is keen that the economic reform, which is aimed at spurring growth, should not become a political liability. Extending the ambit of the simpler GST composition scheme would help to smoothen ruffled feathers. Around 15 lakh businesses opted for composition scheme, which allows them to pay taxes at a concessional rate and makes compliance easy, under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which rolled out from July 1. There are over 1 crore businesses registered under GST. The GoM has also suggested that manufacturers engaged in job works can be allowed to opt for composition scheme, the official added. The GoM was set up earlier this month and was tasked with revisiting the tax structure of different categories of restaurants with the aim of rationalising or reducing the rates, apart from making composition scheme more attractive for businesses. The other members of the GoM are Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal and Chhattisgarh Minister of Commercial Taxes Amar Agrawal. The person responsible for the hoax bomb threat on-board a Delhi bound Jet Airways flight has been identified. Jet Airways flight 339 which took off from Mumbai in the wee hours was diverted to Ahmedabad after a hijack threat letter was found in the toilet. The alleged note threatened passengers with bombs and explosives. Minister of Civil Aviation Ashok Gajapathi Raju has asked the airlines to put the person identified for the hoax on the No-Fly list immediately, in addition to other statutory criminal action. The flight 9W339, which took off from Mumbai at 0255 hours, landed at Ahmedabad airport at around 0345 hours, after it was diverted for 'security reasons'. All the passengers were asked to deplane and were screened after the aircraft landed at Ahmedabad airport. A security personnel at Ahmedabad airport said the flight was diverted as there was a specific threat call. The aircraft was taken to an isolation bay after it landed in Ahmedabad. However, no bomb was found after the screening. The Jet Airways statement said the flight was diverted following "declaration of an emergency as per established security procedures, due to the detection of an onboard security threat". "We are extending full cooperation to the security agencies who are investigating the matter and are not in a position to comment further at this stage," it said. Nearly a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation, the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 bills returned to banks are still being "processed in all earnest" through a sophisticated currency verification system, the RBI has said. In reply to an RTI query, the central bank said it has processed about 1,134 crore pieces of Rs 500 notes and 524.90 crore pieces of Rs 1,000 junked notes, having face value of Rs 5.67 lakh crore and Rs 5.24 lakh crore respectively, as on September 30. The combined value of the processed notes is Rs 10.91 lakh crore approximately, according to the reply. "Specified Bank Notes are being processed in all earnest in double shift on all available machines (sophisticated counting machines)," the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said in reply to the RTI query filed by a PTI correspondent. The central bank was asked to provide details of demonetised notes counted so far. Replying to a question on providing the deadline for completing the counting exercise, it said, "The verification of notes withdrawn from the circulation is an ongoing process". The RBI said at least 66 Sophisticated Currency Verification and Processing (CVPS) machines were being used for counting of junked Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes that were deposited with various banks post demonetisation. The government had on November 8 last year banned the use of old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes and allowed the holders of these currency bills to deposit them with banks or use them at certain notified utilities. The notes deposited or collected are being verified by the central bank at its offices to establish the total number of currency bills returned and to weed out those that are fake. Several opposition parties including the Congress and Mamata Banerjee's TMC have announced that they would observe November 8, the first anniversary of demonetisation, as 'Black Day' and would hold protests across the country to highlight its "ill-effects" on the economy. To counter the opposition protest, the ruling BJP has decided to observe the note ban anniversary as "anti- blackmoney day". In its annual report for 2016-17 released on August 30, the RBI had said Rs 15.28 lakh crore, or 99 per cent of the demonetised Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, have returned to the banking system. In the annual report, which was for the year ended June 30, 2017, the central bank said only Rs 16,050 crore out of the Rs 15.44 lakh crore in old high-denomination notes have not returned. As on November 8, 2016, there were 1,716.5 crore pieces of Rs 500 and 685.8 crore pieces of Rs 1,000 notes in circulation, totalling Rs 15.44 lakh crore, it had said. "Subject to future corrections based on verification process when completed, the estimated value of specified bank notes received as on June 30, 2017, is Rs 15.28 trillion," RBI had said in the report. While the counterfeit currency notes made for a minuscule number, RBI post-demonetisation spent Rs 7,965 crore on printing new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 bills and notes of other denominations, more than double the Rs 3,421 crore spent in the previous year, it said. The Supreme Court has decided to set up a five-judge Constitution Bench to hear an array of pleas against the mandatory linking of Aadhaar with mobile numbers and bank accounts while the governments remain firm on December 31 deadline for those who already have the biometric ID. The apex court had received several petitions challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar linking with mobile numbers and bank accounts. The bench will hear pleas in the last week of November. Meanwhile, the centre filed an affidavit defending charges against Aadhaar. Earlier in the day, the court pulled up Mamata Banerjee government for challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of social welfare schemes. The apex court said the plea filed by West Bengal is against the federal structure and asked West Bengal chief minister to file the plea as an individual in order to be taken up by the court. The West Bengal government filed the plea last week. "How can a state file such a plea. In a federal structure, how can a state file a plea challenging Parliament's mandate. Let Mamata Banerjee come and file a plea as individual. We will entertain it as she will be an individual," a bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said. "You satisfy us how the state has challenged it. We know it is a matter which needs consideration," the bench added. However, according to senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who presented West Bengal government, the plea has been filed by the labour department of the state as subsidies under these schemes have to be given by them. He, however, assured that the prayer in the petition would be amended. Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefits of various government schemes has been extended till March 31 next year for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric identification number. In August this year, the apex court had ruled that privacy is a fundamental right, though subject to reasonable restrictions. While acknowledging the right to privacy, court judges asked the government to introduce legislation and measures to ensure that data is protected. Courtesy of the Box Elder County Jail Police have arrested a man suspected of robbing a convenience store at gunpoint. Kyle Kano was booked into the Box Elder County Jail late Friday afternoon on suspicion of armed robbery. The 40-year-old was arrested after officers received a tip as to his location. Box Elder County Sheriffs Chief Deputy Dale Ward said Kano was wanted on a no bail warrant from the 2nd District Court for violating his probation. Upon his arrest, evidence was recovered linking him to the robbery of the Bear River Country Market. He was taken into custody without incident. Deputies allege that Kano entered the Bear River City gas station displaying a handgun Wednesday afternoon, making off with an undisclosed amount of money. He was seen on video camera inside the store and driving away in a tan colored Subaru Forrester. Deputies later located the car Thursday morning. It matched the description of a vehicle reported stolen on Tuesday in Weber County. Kanos arrest came after investigators asked for the publics help, identifying him from video camera footage. Ward said the quick arrest of Kano was thanks in part to cooperation between multiple law enforcement agencies, working together in Box Elder County. He explained that information sharing and hard work between agencies was key to the crime being solved in a quick, safe and efficient manner. Kano is being on the warrant, robbery and automobile theft. He is expected to be arraigned in court later this week.

will@cvradio.com Warning | This is historical material frozen in time. The website is no longer updated and links to external websites and some internal pages may not work. Please visit the newsroom for up-to-date news and articles But the report said the government could introduce more incentives like free parking or the use of transit lanes for electric vehicles, or consider tax incentives like salary sacrifice or fringe benefit tax concessions to improve the take up. The Chinese students, who did not want to be identified, but who said that they had been frequently harassed in Woden, Dora Chen, far right, who said the Chinese community is offering free car rides to international students in the wake of the attack. Photo: Sitthixay Ditthavong One passenger was told on the phone two cancellations in one day on the Sydney to Canberra route were caused by mechanical issues, before later being told by ground staff it was because Qantas didn't have enough crew members to fly on other routes. "Our focus is for amazing content which is what they've done on-air, on ground, online, on mobile and it's because of their success that they're presented with these opportunities in bigger metro markets," Mr Wagstaff said. "On the other hand, Mr Igwebuike's apparently exemplary conduct in [prison], despite the alien nature of the environment he has found himself in, can also be seen as some kind of willingness to accept the consequences of his choices." Our Promise: Welcome to Care2, the world's largest community for good. Here, you'll find over 45 million like-minded people working towards progress, kindness, and lasting impact. Care2 Stands Against: bigots, racists, bullies, science deniers, misogynists, gun lobbyists, xenophobes, the willfully ignorant, animal abusers, frackers, and other mean people. If you find yourself aligning with any of those folks, you can move along, nothing to see here. Care2 Stands With: humanitarians, animal lovers, feminists, rabble-rousers, nature-buffs, creatives, the naturally curious, and people who really love to do the right thing. You are our people. You Care. We Care2. Through the good times and the bad, Daniil Kvyat has been part of the Red Bull family since 2010. But his relationship with the energy-drink brand and its extensive racing program has now come to an end. He is not any more with Red Bull and he is therefore free to do whatever he wants to do, Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost told Autosport. He is not any more with Red Bull or Toro Rosso. The Russian driver signed with the Red Bull Junior Team back in 2010 upon his debut in the now-defunct Formula BMW series. After winning titles in Formula Renault 2.0 and GP3, he made his F1 debut with Toro Rosso in 2014, and got called up to the Red Bull Racing team the following season, only to be dropped back down to the B-squad the next year. Disappointed with his lackluster performance, Toro Rosso dropped Kvyat from the lineup for this seasons races in Malaysia and Japan, bringing him back briefly for the last round in Texas. But this weekend in Mexico, the team opted to run Brendon Harltey and Pierre Gasly instead, leaving Kvyat out in the cold (despite a respectable tenth-place finish in Austin). Tosts declaration confirms that Kvyat is out of the mix for next season, as the team looks likely to go with Hartley and Gasly for 2018. If the two rookies perform well at Toro Rosso, they could even find themselves in the Red Bull hot seat in the future. The two drivers that Franz has for next year represent two exciting prospects for Red Bull Racing further down the line, said Red Bull boss Christian Horner. What is fantastic about the Brendon story is that that is a guy who started off life in [Red Bulls] junior programme, but was ultimately dropped before going on to win with Porsche at Le Mans. It is testimony to his determination and tenacity and skill and talent that he has got himself into a position to be selected for Toro Rosso for the races he is doing. Meanwhile Kvyat could yet find himself a seat with another team next season. Neither Sauber nor Williams have yet confirmed their lineup for 2018. If neither of those prospects work out, though, Kvyat could find work in another series, like Formula E (where fellow former STR drivers Jean-Eric Vergne and Sebastien Buemi compete) or GP2 (which he skipped on his ascent up the formula racing ladder). Photo: Contributed The Fall Creators Update takes your computer to version 1709 of Windows 10. This upgrade is roughly equivalent to what we used to call a service pack in older versions of Windows. It makes changes to your system files, and it takes a long time. Its good to be ready. Prepare for your update Last time we had a major update, I wrote a column on how to prepare for a successful update. The feedback poured in from people who promised not to upgrade because the things I suggested were time-consuming and a hassle. To be clear: I know that they are time-consuming and a hassle. They are also suggestions. You are all free to ignore them. Maybe everything will go fine. If youd like to have a successful update the first time you try, I recommend: Make a backup of your important information. (Youre doing that anyway, right?) Be sure you have a rescue drive for your current version of Windows, or create one. Update your critical software. Especially make sure you download and install an up-to-date version of your antivirus product. Make a record of your software licence keys for programs you pay for, especially your anti-virus and anti-malware programs, but also any business-critical applications (Sage Simply Accounting, QuickBooks, Adobe products, and so on.) If your computer is part of a Home Group, make a note of the Home Group password. If youre already being offered the update through Windows Update, youre almost ready to go. If it hasnt been offered yet, you can try to force it by grabbing it from this site. There you can either click on Update now to start the process, or you can create installation media and then do your update. Get started Before you start, you need to know this is going to take a while. If you have a fast, modern, RAM-rich computer, and you have a fast Internet connection, youre looking at an hour or more. If you have a slow, RAM-deprived machine and/or a slow internet connection youre looking at more. Dont start this process 10 minutes before you have to leave for the airport. My suggestions (Yes. More suggestions.): If you have a laptop or a tablet plug it in. You do not want to run out of battery in the middle of this. Turn off or uninstall your third-party anti-virus/anti-malware programs. What these do is prevent system file changes. What this upgrade does is change your system files. Make sure your AV product is out of the way. Enable System Restore and create a restore point. Once you start installing, you cant stop. So, grab a cup of coffee or an adult beverage and wait for the process to complete. Your computer will reboot two or three times during the upgrade. Thats nothing to worry about. Yay! All done! No problems? Excellent! Its probably because you were well-prepared! Heres what to do next: Turn on or reinstall your antivirus/anti-malware products and check the settings Make sure youre not missing any programs, and if you are reinstall them. The upgrade uninstalled Windows 7 Games for Windows 10 again. Doggone it. You can get it here. I noticed I had to sign into my Home group again. This doesnt seem to happen to everyone, but it happened to me. Some printers, especially multifunction devices, need to be reinstalled. Test your printers and scanners. Hope for the best, but reinstall if you must. Have you applied the Fall Creators Update yet? How did it go? Do you have any suggestions we havent covered here? Send email to [email protected] and Ill pass along your tips. This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet. Photo: Contributed (L-R) Pam Gakhal, Danica Currie and Dan Currie of Tim Hortons present a cheque to Kevin Arbuckle & Lisa Westermark from VJH Foundation. Tim Hortons 'Smile Cookie' campaign has raised a big chunk of cash for Vernon Jubilee Hospital. The annual campaign, held in September at locations in Vernon, Armstrong and Enderby, raised $26,670 in cookie sales and a matching donation from owners Dan and Jamie Currie. Chocolate chunk cookies decorated with smiley faces sold for $1 each to support pediatric care at the hospital. It is always heartwarming to see community members throughout the North Okanagan come together to support our kids, said Lisa Westermark, VJH Foundation executive director. Our thanks go out to our community and to Tim Hortons for their continuing support in making health care better. Since 2003, local Smile cookies have raised $309,057, providing equipment for the Womens & Childrens Health Services department and the sixth and seventh floors of the Polson tower. Tim Hortons has been supporting local communities through the 'Smile Cookie' program since 1996. Photo: The Canadian Press File photo of marijuana plant. The federal government's focus on the proposed legalization and distribution of cannabis does not appear to consider how it should be grown, which is worrying one Vernon-based business. Absolutely, it should be a concern, said Mary Horvatincic, co-owner of BlueSky Organics. The government isn't regulating the product. That's something they need to do when they roll out these laws, but it should have been done when they rolled out medical cannabis. The company promotes the organic growing of cannabis and other plants, selling specialized soil, plant food and fertilizer designed to keep finicky marijuana plants healthy. It does not grow cannabis for sale. The focus is being missed on how it should be produced, said Horvatincic. It's really important to talk about safe growing. A large number of marijuana users are smoking for medical purposes and Horvatincic said they should know whether or not chemical pesticides are being used on the plants. Our aim is to bring awareness and education to both consumers and growers....It's a very big industry (and) people need to understand how their product is grown. While BlueSky products are certified organic, Horvatincic said the government is so far not allowing cannabis to be certified organic. People who are using medically should have the option to choose organic, she stressed. Why are we allowed to purchase certified organic garlic or bananas? We should be allowed to choose organic marijuana. While BlueSky bosses hope Ottawa will consider pot production laws, the firm continues government-funded research and development of new products specifically designed for cannabis at a location outside of the Vernon city limits. Photo: Allison Getz Crews respond to a collision on Hwy. 97 on Oct. 29, 2017. UPDATE: 2:30 p.m. An ambulance rushed at least one person to hospital after a collision on Sunday. Two vehicles were involved in the incident, and the Jaws of Life were used on the SUV. One southbound lane has been reopened. ORIGINAL: 2:16 p.m Traffic is backed up on Highway 97 after a collision on Sunday afternoon in Westbank. The collision which took place around 2 p.m. occurred at Grizzly Road and Highway 97. A pickup truck and an SUV were involved in the crash. There is no word on injuries at this time or how the collision occurred. It appears traffic is at a standstill in the southbound lane. Photo: The Canadian Press A U.S. flag hangs from the ladder of a fire truck as a color guard comprised of Santa Rosa firefighters presents the colors to start a Day of Remembrance memorial for victims of California wildfires on Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (AP Photo/Ben Margot) It will take at least months and likely years to fully recover from devastating wildfires that ripped through Northern California earlier this month, destroying at least 8,900 structures and killing 42 people, Sonoma County officials said Saturday. "We don't control these things, and it makes you realize how small you are in the world when something like this happens," Sheriff Rob Giordano said. "I don't think we understand the level at which it is going to impact lives, and the community will be different." Giordano spoke before hundreds of people gathered at a college in Santa Rosa, one of the hardest-hit cities, for a memorial service to honour the lives lost in the deadliest series of wildfires in California history. The fires sparked Oct. 8, eventually forcing 100,000 people to evacuate. Before a bell rung 42 times to commemorate the dead, Giordano and other officials praised the ordinary and extraordinary acts of heroism by first responders and community members as the firefight raged on for more than a week. Some firefighters worked days on the front line, refusing to take breaks, while sheriff's dispatchers continued taking calls even as the fire came close to taking out their building. "The night of Oct. 8, we were all tested," Santa Rosa fire Chief Tony Gossner said. U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and five members of Congress spent Saturday attending the memorial, touring the fire ravaged areas and gathering advice from federal, state and local officials on what Congress can do to aid the recovery efforts. In a briefing in Santa Rosa, officials asked them to ease red tape that will make it easier to erect temporary housing and to ensure the Environmental Protection Agency has the resources it needs to clean up any hazardous material before it infiltrates the water supply. The EPA has assessed 740 properties so far, while the Federal Emergency Management Agency has given out $6 million worth of rental and other assistance to displaced Californians, officials said. Officials estimate the cleanup of debris and other hazardous materials will last into early 2018. The losses are estimated to be at more than $1 billion. Pelosi and U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, who represents Santa Rosa, said they must make their fellow lawmakers in Washington understand the unprecedented nature of the fires, the deadliest in California history. They drove through a neighbourhood near Coffey Park where entire streets are wrecked, with only burned-out cars and charred remains of once-standing houses lining the streets. "It was just unfathomable the amount of destruction that we saw," Pelosi said. "My colleagues will have to understand this is different from anything else, many times over." But Pelosi said Northern California's response to the fires can serve as a national model for disaster response if done right. She urged her colleagues in Congress to think beyond the incremental rebuilding needs to consider the big picture of helping the region better prepare for and mitigate damage from future disasters. Obtaining the appropriate amount of relief money will require detailed documentation of homes lost and other destruction, she said. Santa Rosa alone lost five per cent of its housing stock, Pelosi said. "What would we like to see the result be? Let's engineer it back from there," she said of the rebuilding efforts. On top of the devastation, authorities have had to deal with looting in neighbourhoods where fires raged. Santa Rosa police said two more people arrested late Saturday following a high-speed chase through city streets along the southern edge of a burn zone. Photo: The Canadian Press The Champlain Bridge crossing the St-Lawrence River in Montreal. The federal Liberals plan to shift just over $2 billion in planned infrastructure spending to future years, reflecting slower-than-anticipated spending on the file, The Canadian Press has learned. The money won't come from planned spending in one specific year. Nor will it come from one specific program, but across multiple funds set up by the Liberals and the previous Conservative government, as well as large-scale projects overseen by Infrastructure Canada, such as the Champlain Bridge replacement in Montreal. What the Liberals have found is that they can't move cash fast enough out of the federal treasury for infrastructure projects around the country. "It is about cash flow management to better meet the (construction) schedules of our partners," said Brook Simpson, a spokesman for Infrastructure Minister Amarjeet Sohi. The federal government regularly has to carry over, or "re-profile," infrastructure money from one fiscal year to the next: Spending analyses have shown that about one-quarter of infrastructure funds don't get spent in the year for which they are budgeted. The reason is that federal dollars only flow once project proponents submit receipts for reimbursement, often leaving a lag between when work takes place and when infrastructure money is actually spent. In some cases, the federal government won't receive receipts until the end of a project. And projects themselves can be delayed for any number of reasons, such as bad weather or a labour disruption, that are beyond the control of the federal government. Infrastructure Canada's website shows that as of last Friday, there was about $20.5 billion left unspent across 13 different programs, including two set up by the Liberals. Photo: Thinkstock.com Constellation Brands has signed a deal to acquire a nearly 10 per cent stake in Canadian marijuana company Canopy Growth Corp. for $245 million. The companies said Monday the agreement will see Constellation provide marketing and brand development support to Canopy. They will also collaborate in the development of cannabis-based drinks. Constellation said the deal is part of its strategy to stay ahead of evolving consumer trends and market dynamics, while maintaining focus on its core beverage alcohol business. "Canopy Growth has a seasoned leadership team that understands the legal, regulatory and economic landscape for an emerging market that is predicted to become a significant consumer category in the future," said Constellation chief executive Rob Sands. Constellation added that it has no plans to sell any cannabis products in the U.S. or any other market unless or until it is legally permissible to do so at all government levels. Canopy said the deal gives it a strategic ally. "We have also strengthened our balance sheet to fund the ambitious expansion efforts we have planned heading into 2018 a year that will see unprecedented growth in medical and adult-use opportunities," Canopy chairman and chief executive Bruce Linton said. Under the deal, Constellation will buy a 9.9 per cent stake or nearly a 18.9 million shares in Canopy for $12.9783 per share. It will also acquire an equal number of common share purchase warrants for Canopy. Canopy shares fell 16 cents to close at $12.79 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday. Constellation Brands has about 40 wineries, breweries and distilleries in its portfolio. Photo: Contributed A husband and wife from California who survived the mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music festival died several weeks after the Oct. 1 massacre in an auto crash. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Dennis and Lorraine Carver died after their vehicle crashed into a metal gate outside their community in Riverside County, California, and burst into flames on Oct. 16. At the music festival, Dennis Carver jumped on top of his wife to shield her from bullets. They managed to run away from the shooting and were not injured. Brooke Carver, the couple's 20-year-old daughter, says her parents had grown deeper in love in the weeks after the shooting. The Carvers had been together for 22 years. Photo: The Canadian Press Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister speaks at a press conference during the Council of Federation meetings, in Edmonton on Tuesday, July 18, 2017. Manitoba's Progressive Conservative government will announce a carbon tax of $25 The federal and Manitoba governments moved closer to a clash over carbon pricing Friday, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government will impose a carbon tax in Manitoba if need be. "There will be a federal backstop and if any province doesn't move forward in an appropriate way, the federal government will ensure that the equivalent price on carbon is applied to the specific jurisdiction," Trudeau said in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, just east of Montreal. "We will respect what Canadians asked us to do and show the leadership on protecting the environment and growing the economy that all Canadians expect of us." Any carbon-tax money collected by Ottawa in Manitoba would be spent in the province, he added. Trudeau's words came hours after Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister announced he will defy federal demands by introducing a carbon tax of $25 a tonne next year and keeping it at that rate. Ottawa has demanded provinces implement either a cap-and-trade system or a tax that would start at $10 a tonne in 2018 and ramp up to $50 a tonne by 2022. Pallister indicated he is ready for a battle with the federal government, which he suggested is using intimidation. "If Manitobans are favourable to our plan, I think it will be difficult for Ottawa to invoke theirs on our province," Pallister said. Most provinces have already agreed to follow Ottawa's proposal. Saskatchewan is the only one threatening not to impose a carbon tax at all. Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said Manitoba will be in good shape for the first few years of the carbon pricing plan. "After that, theyll need to up their game," she said in a statement on her Facebook page. Pallister released a legal opinion from a constitutional law expert earlier this month that said Ottawa has the right to demand or impose a carbon tax. But the expert also said Manitoba might be able to defend a lower price in court if its tax were as effective as the federal plan in reducing emissions. The $25 avoids hitting people too hard in the pocketbook, Pallister said, and gives Manitoba credit for the billions of dollars it has spent building its clean-energy hydro-electric grid. The tax will add about five cents a litre to the price of gasoline and also apply to items such as natural gas and coal. A couple with two kids will pay about $356 a year more than they do now, government officials said. Photo: The Canadian Press FILE - This April 30, 2008 file photo, shows a submarine and its owner Peter Madsen. Police in Denmark said Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, a Danish inventor has admitted dismembering a Swedish journalist who disappeared from his submarine. A Danish inventor has admitted dismembering a Swedish journalist who disappeared from his home-made submarine in August and has changed his story about how she died, but still denies killing her, police investigating the bizarre case said Monday. According to Copenhagen police, Peter Madsen now says Kim Wall died as result of carbon monoxide poisoning inside the submarine while he was on deck. Previously he had said she died after being accidentally hit by a heavy hatch in the submarine's tower. "This explanation (by Madsen) naturally will lead the police into gathering additional statements from the coroner and the armed forces' submarine experts," said Copenhagen police investigator Jens Moller Jensen. Police say Madsen acknowledged he dismembered her body and threw it into Koge Bay southwest of Copenhagen.. Wall's torso was found on a southern Copenhagen coast in late August, and her head, legs and clothes were found at sea this month. No fractures to Wall's skull were found that would have supported the claim that she was killed by the hatch. Wall was working on a story about Madsen and was last seen aboard his home-made submarine Nautilus as it left Copenhagen in August. The next day, Madsen was rescued from the sinking submarine without Wall. Police believe he deliberately sank the vessel. Madsen's pre-trial detention is set to expire Tuesday but police said no new hearing will be held as the 46-year-old has voluntarily agreed to remain in detention. Photo: The Canadian Press Chomedey MLA Guy Ouellette Former Liberal Guy Ouellette says he's being intimidated and muzzled by Quebec's anti-corruption unit in an attempt keep him quiet. In an exclusive interview with French-language radio station 98.5 FM conducted Friday but aired Monday, Ouellette said he fears he won't make it back to the legislature this week to be able to speak out with immunity. Ouellette, 65, was arrested last Wednesday in connection with an investigation by the unit, known as UPAC, into an important information leak to the media last April. In the interview, Ouellette denied being behind any leak and said he was set up and targeted because he was an obstacle to a bill that would see UPAC become an independent police entity. He has not been charged. Ouellette was linked to a UPAC probe called Machurer, which looked into suspected illegal financing within the Liberal party under former leader Jean Charest. UPAC has been investigating a leak from within its own organization last April that revealed it had been looking at the comings and goings of ex-premier Charest and Liberal fundraiser Marc Bibeau up until 2016. A news organization published emails dating from 2011 between Bibeau, Jean-Louis Dufresne, the former chief of staff to Premier Philippe Couillard, and Hugo d'Amour, a spokesperson for Charest. The emails showed the men discussed a contract to repair a Montreal-area bridge. During his interview on the radio station, Ouellette replied, "No, absolutely not," when asked by host Bernard Drainville if he were the leak of the source. Ouellette said authorities told him he was detained on suspicion of breach of trust and obstructing justice as well as conspiring to commit those two infractions. He said he maintained his silence after his arrest. "It's not to the people who arrested me that I'm beholden," Ouellette said. "I'm accountable to the population of Quebec and the citizens of Quebec." Photo: Kate Bouey File photo from Oct. 15 shots fired incident on 21 Avenue. A report of shots fired in Vernon just after 3 a.m. Sunday morning sent RCMP officers over to an area around 17th Avenue. However it appears the noise was from firecrackers rather than anything more serious. After thorough patrols in the area, no evidence was located to support that shots had been in fact been fired, said Cpl. Janelle Shoihet, RCMP E Division spokesperson. There were however a number of ongoing Halloween parties, leading us to strongly suspect the noise was fireworks/firecrackers. Castanet was contacted by a resident on 21A Avenue who reported hearing sounds like gunshots. Earlier this month, there were shots fired at a residence on the 3800 block of 21st Avenue. No one was injured. At the time, police issued a plea for information. "This time of the year, we receive lots of reports of shots fired, most of which turn out to be fireworks related," Shoihet said. Photo: The Canadian Press NDP MP Georgina Jolibois A Saskatchewan MP's private member's bill on making National Indigenous Peoples Day a holiday is moving forward. Georgina Jolibois represents the riding of Desnethe-Missinippi-Churchill River. Her bill proposes making June 21 which is National Indigenous Peoples Day a statutory holiday, which means it would be celebrated nationwide and would be a paid day off for employees. The bill passed second reading in the House of Commons on Oct. 24. Jolibois, who is an NDP MP, hopes her bill will be passed in the spirit of reconciliation. The bill is scheduled for debate in the House on Dec. 8. "The prime minister says that the most important relationship to him is the relationship with the First Nations, Metis and Indigenous peoples across Canada. And certainly when the TRC (Truth and Reconciliation Commission) calls for it as a national holiday, I'm pretty optimistic that it stands a good chance," said Jolibois. "There is an excellent opportunity here to think about what it really means when we talk about nation-to-nation." Photo: The Canadian Press More than 11,000 daycare workers staged a one-day walkout across Quebec on Monday, forcing thousands of parents to seek alternate arrangements for their children. The job action affected some 400 daycare centres and had an impact on more than 21,000 children. In Montreal, many workers, accompanied by parents, marched from the downtown area to the offices of Quebec Family Minister Luc Fortin. Picket lines were also set up outside daycares around the province, while a protest was held in front of Fortin's riding office in Sherbrooke. Fortin indicated he met Monday with union representatives and reiterated in a statement his department is available to pursue intensive negotiations this week. "I deplore the fact that children and their parents are the ones who are affected by the strike," he said. "We refuse the lowering of standards and the mediocrity the employer is trying to impose during this round of negotiations," said aunion spokeswoman Carole Leroux. Negotiations between the provincial government and the union representing the daycare workers broke down Thursday and have not resumed since. The employees, who have been demanding better working conditions, have been without a contract for two-and-a-half years. Photo: EdCan Central Okanagan public schools received national recognition Monday for drastically improving First Nation participation. The EdCan Network recognized Mount Boucherie Secondary School's Academy of Indigenous Studies for reducing the number of dropouts and increasing graduation rates. The school has succeeded in raising the graduation rate for Indigenous students from 55 per cent in 2011 to 78 per cent in 2017, making it the highest six-year Indigenous completion rate in the province. The program will be expanded to reach the districts more than 2,200 Indigenous learners. Teachers have built a "learning community" that uses team teaching, self-directed professional learning, and shared goal setting to meet each students unique needs and encourage cultural pride, the school district said in a press release. Classes are offered to students in grades 10-12 in Indigenous history, literature, leadership, culture, art and the Okanagan language. The Academy of Indigenous Studies leverages the communitys traditional knowledge to light a learning spark in Indigenous students, said Darren Googoo, chair of the EdCan Network. Our network of education changemakers looks forward to dissecting what makes this program so successful and to sharing our analysis with school districts across the country. The program emerged as a timely response to alarmingly high dropout rates among Indigenous learners. Engaging students with elders and community mentors, as well as teaching them about their culture and language has spoken to students' hearts and minds, and has allowed them to soar. Our academy connects educators interested in decolonizing our educational system for all students, said MBSS teacher Kyla Winacott. Monday's recognition will see the district receive $5,000 from national sponsor State Farm Canada. A case study will provide practical guidelines for educators across the country. Photo: Colin Dacre A Penticton man has been sentenced to 45 days in jail for exposing himself to a mother and three children in the parking lot of the Penticton Library last year. During a trial in June, the court heard David Friesen, 65, approached a woman unloading her children from a van in the library parking lot in Jan. 2016. He attempted to strike up a polite conversation with his penis fully hanging out of his pants. Several weeks later, the woman saw Friesen at her church, recognizing him as the man from the library parking lot. He was found guilty of two counts of exposing genitals to a person under 16 and one count of committing an indecent act in public. Fear has definitely been a part of my experience. I fear the what if, and I fear for the safety of my children and I fear bumping into the accused, said Crown prosecutor Ann Learchs, reading from the mothers victim impact statement. The court heard Friesen has struggled with mental health issues for decades, but not effectively managed them. A pre-sentence report put him at a low-moderate to moderate risk of reoffending. The crimes carry a 30 day minimum sentence, but the Crown asked for 90 days. Basically what the Crown is saying, is that if you have a mental health problem, you are a danger to the community and you got to be locked up, said defence lawyer James Pennington, who noted his client should be given some credit for getting 65 years without a sexual offence. Friesen had two previous convictions, for assault and breach; a record Judge Meg Shaw called fairly minimal. Shaw also sentenced Friesen to two years probation, including provisions banning him from areas with children. He received an additional seven day sentence for being caught consuming alcohol shortly after his release on bail. In total, Friesen was sentenced to 52 days behind bars. Desiree Vargas Wrigley pitched her startup, Pearachute, on "Shark Tank" Sunday. She landed a deal with investor Mark Cuban, but it fell apart not long after the show was filmed. (Michael Desmond / ABC) Pearachute founder Desiree Vargas Wrigley entered the Shark Tank and walked out with a $500,000 deal from Mark Cuban amid harsh criticism from an investor on Sundays show but the deal fell apart not long after the show was filmed more than a year ago, she said. The terms were terrible, she told supporters gathered for a watch party Sunday at Industrious in Chicago. There was a lot of back-and-forth over what ultimately wasn't that big of a check from his team. Advertisement Pearachute, founded in February 2016, offers a monthly subscription service for kids classes and activities. Prices, which have changed since Vargas Wrigley appeared on Shark Tank, start at $39 per month for four classes up to $199 for 30 classes; the company now also offers an a la carte option. A company with a similar model, Dabble Kids, also operates out of Chicago. The company was only 126 days old at the time of the pitch in June 2016, she said. Vargas Wrigley said she thought Cuban would make the perfect partner and went in looking to get a $500,000 investment for 6 percent of the company. Advertisement We thought, of all the sharks, he was the most tech-savvy and the shark that was most focused on experiences, Vargas Wrigley said. We're really trying to create the experience brand for millennial parents, and we thought he would get us the most of all of them. On set, though, she learned that tech startup investor Chris Sacca an early backer of Twitter, Uber and Instagram would be a guest panelist, and hoped to strike a deal that included both him and Cuban. During her pitch, Kevin O'Leary and Barbara Corcoran zeroed in on her departure from the first company she co-founded, GiveForward, a crowdfunding platform for medical expenses. Vargas Wrigley left the company, which she'd taken to $5 million in annual revenue in eight years, in 2015. It was later acquired by competitor YouCaring. Did you get whacked? O'Leary asked. I watched a competitor just blow past us, and I realized the founder's vision that I brought only had so much value at that point, and it was time for me to exit the business, she told them on the show. Corcoran said she didn't see Vargas Wrigley as an entrepreneur and told her, When the going got tough, you exited. That thing that Barbara said was as painful as it looked, Vargas Wrigley told those gathered at Industrious Sunday. She went on and on about how not great I was. O'Leary, Corcoran and Lori Greiner all bowed out. Although Sacca said he participates in a kid-and-parent music class with his three children, he also passed, before Cuban stepped up and cut the deal for $500,000 for 15 percent of the business. Advertisement So much time had passed since the taping that Vargas Wrigley figured she didn't make the show, she said; many of the startups who filmed at the same time as Vargas Wrigley aired last season. She didnt learn she would make it until this past Thursday, and the show aired outside the normal Shark Tank time slot, following another new episode at the regular time. But the 12-employee startup made the most of the exposure on the ABC show. On Sunday, Pearachute held a half-off special to coincide with the airing, launched a new equity crowdfunding campaign and went live with a new market Washington, D.C. At the time of the Shark Tank taping, Pearachute said, it had about just shy of $150,000 in revenue from 600 subscribers and 10,000 class and activity listings in Chicago. Today it has expanded to Dallas, Kansas City, San Francisco and Washington, and has about 300,000 listings. The company would not disclose its current membership total or revenue. One of the biggest problems is that we were just so young of a company we didn't have a lot of data, and there wasn't a lot of meat to go through for due diligence, so, unfortunately, it just didn't end up happening, Vargas Wrigley said. But I think it was kind of a blessing in disguise, because it created room for us to go through more traditional investment strategies. Pearachute has landed $1.2 million in venture capital funding from investors including Techstars Ventures, Chicago Ventures, and the founders of OK Cupid, HotelTonight and SitterCity. The company has also taken advantage of equity crowdfunding, which allows nonprofessional investors to back private companies; it brought in $240,000 through a campaign on crowdfunding platform Republic. "Looking back, I think (Cuban) was very fair for where we were at that stage of the business. But now that we've grown so much, I'm really glad we didn't end up taking the deal because we're worth a lot more as a company now," Vargas Wrigley said. I still think he would be a great team member for us. But I understand how venture capital works. You have to be very comfortable with the terms and the team. And we were still very young at the time." Advertisement Cheryl V. Jackson is a freelance writer. Twitter @CherylVJackson In this Sept. 26, 2017 photo, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, right, listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with members of the House Ways and Means committee in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. (Evan Vucci / AP) When I write about the strange ways that Washington math sometimes works, I'm usually sort of playful. That's because if you've dealt with real-world accounting for a long time, as I have, Washington math can be silly enough to make you laugh. But today I'm afraid that flawed Washington budget math is likely to do serious damage to tens of millions of Americans who are trying to save for their retirements. Given that the number of people earning substantial pensions is shrinking rapidly and Social Security benefits aren't enough to live on, saving for retirement is essential. Advertisement That's why it's so appalling to see Congress - OK, many of its Republicans - considering a proposal that would hamper the retirement prospects of about 49 million Americans to benefit the heirs of the 5,500 or so estates a year that are currently subject to estate tax. This may happen because of Washington's bizarre budget math. Advertisement What has me close to ranting is the serious chance that the tax-cut bill would greatly reduce the tax deductions that about 49 million people now get when they stash money into 401(k) plans and similar tax-deferred retirement accounts. President Donald Trump tweeted on Monday: "There will be NO change to your 401(k). This has always been a great and popular middle class tax break that works, and it stays!" Well, maybe. After Republicans, including Chairman Kevin Brady of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said that shrinking the tax-deductible amount is being actively considered, Trump seems to have backed off. Here's the problem I have with the budget math of limiting 401(k) contributions. Under the budget rules, the money that my employers and I put into my 401(k) plans over decades was tax-deductible at the time and is becoming taxable as I take out my annual "required minimum distributions." I suspect that if you reconciled the taxes I'm paying on my distributions with the deductions when the money went in, you'd see that even adjusted for time, the taxes offset most if not all-or maybe more - of the deductions my employers and I got all those years ago. Had I put that money into Roth accounts, where contributions aren't deductible but whose withdrawals aren't taxed, the Treasury would have collected more taxes from me then, but would collect nothing now. [ GOP tax leaders threaten to break Trump's promise not to change 401(k) rules ] [ 401(k) choices: What to do when you leave your job ] [ Trump shoots down plan to limit 401(k) contributions to pay for GOP tax cuts ] And the Republican talk is that people will be able to stash money in Roth-like accounts, so they could still save. The problem is that a lot of people - including my wife and me back when we lived paycheck to paycheck - would find it difficult, if not impossible, to put money away if it weren't deductible. Advertisement So even though I suspect that a rigorous analysis of swapping 401(k)s for Roths would show the Treasury losing money over the long haul, it would help budget numbers look better (or less bad) today. And today's numbers, not reality, is what matters. And while we're in Bizarro Numbers Land, let's discuss a prediction by someone I like and respect - but whose math seems squirrelly to me: the widely ballyhooed $4,000-per-household benefit that Kevin Hassett, chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, says will be generated by cutting the corporate tax rate to 20 percent from the current 35 percent. We met in 1999, when Hassett and Jim Glassman wrote a book called "Dow 36,000" and I attacked it. It was a bestseller, full of plausible-seeming scenarios and lots of econ-speak. But let's look at what I consider the key passage, on p. 13: ". . . it is impossible to predict how long it will take the market to recognize that Dow 36,000 is perfectly reasonable. It could take ten years or ten weeks. Our own guess is somewhere between three and five years." Oops. The Dow was 10,824 when the book was published in September 1999. Three years later, it was 7,986. And 10 years later, 9,779. On Friday, a near-record 23,434. Not remotely 36K. In a conversation Friday, Hassett told me to start my Dow math with the 8,906 at which it closed on March 30, 1998, the day he and Glassman published a Wall Street Journal op-ed that led to the book. OK, Kevin, it's done. Advertisement Hassett also said I was misinterpreting Dow 36,000. "What we said was that if you buy equities [stocks] and hold them for the long run, you can do very well," he told me. That's what they said, and it's true. But of course, "stocks for the long run" wasn't the sales pitch - Dow 36,000 was. Similarly, Hassett and his CEA associates told me that their $4,000-per-household average projected gain in salary and wages would take 10 years to be realized, and that the current average of U.S. households is $83,000. So the rise - which I still don't buy - would be about 0.5 percent a year. That time period and that low annual gain aren't exactly stressed in Republicans' sales pitches - but I certainly don't consider that Hassett's fault. The bottom line: If by Thanksgiving we end up with a tax bill whacking 401(k)s and projecting quick tax-related growth in household incomes, we won't have to wait until Dec. 31 to pick the turkey deal of the year. Developers want to convert the vacant Grace's Furniture building at 2618 N. Milwaukee Ave. into a 44-room hotel. The Logan Square building's billboards, seen here but removed in 2016, were the subject of a lawsuit against the city. (Costar) A boutique hotel with two restaurants could soon be coming to a Logan Square building that has been most known for its billboards. Chicago developers are in talks with 35th Ward Ald. Carlos Ramirez-Rosa and neighborhood groups as they seek zoning approval to bring a 44-room hotel to the former Graces Furniture building at 2618 N. Milwaukee Ave., the alderman confirmed. Advertisement Developers Marc Realty and LG Development and hotel operator Holiday Jones plan to convert the five-story building to a hotel with ground-floor and rooftop restaurants likely operated by Fifty/50 Restaurant Group, Ramirez-Rosa said. If approved, the project would bring tourists, diners and more than 100 full-time jobs to a long-vacant building overlooking the high-profile intersection of Logan Boulevard and Milwaukee Avenue that includes a CTA Blue Line station, a park and the Illinois Centennial Monument. Advertisement The proposed project would continue a trend of boutique hotels emerging in neighborhoods, rather than just downtown, and would bring dozens of rooms to a neighborhood known for its restaurants, architecture and wide boulevards. Other North Side boutique hotel projects in recent years have included Hotel Lincoln opening near the Lincoln Park Zoo; the Robey Chicago in the art deco Northwest Tower building at North, Milwaukee and Damen avenues; and the under-construction Hotel Zachary across the street from Wrigley Field. Holiday Jones will run another hotel thats under construction near Wrigley, called the Wheelhouse Hotel. Ramirez-Rosa said the Logan Square development thus far has been well-received by his office and neighborhood groups. The groups continue to work with the developers on specific aspects of the plan, which likely will include adding windows along the south side of the building that faces the neighborhood square, the alderman said. This is a great location for a hotel, Ramirez-Rosa said. People coming from OHare (International Airport) can get on the Blue Line and take it right to the hotel, where they can walk to all the activities that Logan Square has to offer. The vacant building previously was ensnared in a court battle involving billboards on the side of the structure, after the Commission on Chicago Landmarks banned billboards on the building in 2013. The commission declined a zoning application by the billboard company VisualCast, which had sold billboard space on the building in the past because the building is within a landmark district. VisualCast sued the city over the rejected application. The city won the lawsuit and the lone remaining billboard was removed in May 2016, DNAinfo reported. In November, a Marc Realty venture signed a long-term ground lease with the propertys owners, Julio and Digna Martinez of Lincolnwood, according to Cook County property records. The Martinez family could not be reached for comment. Representatives of Marc Realty, LG Development and Holiday Jones did not return calls requesting comment. Fifty/50 Restaurant Group co-owner Scott Weiner declined to comment. Fifty/50s restaurants and bars include West Town Bakery, Steadfast, Roots Handmade Pizza and the Berkshire Room. Advertisement A public meeting on the hotel project is expected this winter or in the spring, Ramirez-Rosa said. The site is so prominent that we really want the building to interface well with Logan Square, said Andrew Schneider, president of the Logan Square Preservation neighborhood group. Were cautiously optimistic that this is a good thing for Logan Square, but we want to make sure the design is thoughtful. rori@chicagotribune.com Twitter @Ryan_Ori The Associated Press has learned the Education Department, led by Betsy DeVos, is considering only partially forgiving federal loans for students defrauded by for-profit-colleges. That would mean abandoning the Obama administration's policy of fully erasing that debt. The Associated Press has learned the Education Department, led by Betsy DeVos, is considering only partially forgiving federal loans for students defrauded by for-profit-colleges. That would mean abandoning the Obama administration's policy of fully erasing that debt. (Jim Lo Scalzo /EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock ) Washington The Education Department is considering only partially forgiving federal loans for students defrauded by for-profit colleges, according to department officials, abandoning the Obama administration's policy of erasing that debt. Under President Barack Obama, tens of thousands of students deceived by now-defunct for-profit schools had over $550 million in such loans canceled. Advertisement But President Donald Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, is working on a plan that could grant such students just partial relief, according to department officials. The department may look at the average earnings of students in similar programs and schools to determine how much debt to wipe away. The officials were not authorized to publicly comment on the issue and spoke on condition of anonymity. Advertisement If DeVos goes ahead, the change could leave many students scrambling after expecting full loan forgiveness, based on the previous administration's track record. It was not immediately clear how many students might be affected. The department declined to comment. But the Trump team has given hints of a new approach. In August, the department extended its contract with a staffing agency to speed up the processing of a backlog of loan forgiveness claims. In the procurement notice, the department said that "policy changes may necessitate certain claims already processed be revisited to assess other attributes." The department would not further clarify the meaning of that notice. DeVos' review caused an outcry from student loan advocates, who said the idea of giving defrauded students only partial loan relief was unjustified and unfair because many of their classmates had already gotten full loan cancellation. Critics say the Trump administration, which has ties to the for-profit sector, is looking out for industry interests. Earlier this year, Trump paid $25 million to settle charges his Trump University misled students. Senator Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate committee overseeing education, criticized DeVos' plan as "appalling." "Secretary DeVos needs to stop listening to the corporate executives she's hired at the Department of Education, and instead do the right thing and start helping the defrauded students who are desperately seeking her help," Murray said in a statement Monday. Advertisement Eileen Connor, a litigator at Harvard University's Project on Predatory Student Lending, which has represented hundreds of defrauded students of the now-shuttered Corinthian Colleges, said that defrauded students deserve to have their debts erased completely. "Anything other than full cancellation is not a valid outcome," Connor said. "The nature of the wrong that was done to them, the harm is even bigger than the loans that they have." "Even more importantly, it is completely unfair that a happenstance of timing is going to mean that one student who's been defrauded is going to have full cancellation and the next is not," she added. A federal regulation known as borrower defense allows students at for-profit colleges and other vocational programs to have their loans forgiven if it is determined that the students were defrauded by the schools. That rule dates to the early 1990s. But it was little used until the demise of Corinthian and ITT for-profit chains in recent years caused tens of thousands of students to request that the government cancel their loans. In the last few months of the Obama administration, the Education Department updated the rule to add protections for students, shift more financial responsibility onto the schools and prevent schools from having students sign away their right to sue a school. That change was set to take effect in July, but DeVos has frozen it and is working on a new version. She argued that the Obama regulation was too broad and could cancel the loans of some students without a sound basis. Advertisement DeVos has come under criticism for delaying consideration of over 65,000 applications for loan forgiveness under the borrower defense rule. The agency hasn't approved a single claim since DeVos took office in February. Jennifer Wang, an expert with the Institute of College Access and Success, said the Obama administration was providing full loan cancellations to students. "It would be totally different from what was happening under the last administration," Wang said. "It's not equitable; it's not fair for students. If she provides partial relief, it's that she only cares what's fair for schools and not students." Abby Shafroth, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, said the agency could be faced with lawsuits, especially from Corinthian students, whose classmates had received full forgiveness. Illinois has improved its health exchange website, allowing consumers on the first day of open enrollment to look at and enroll in all individual plans both on and off the exchange. (Screenshot) Illinois is adding more information to getcovered.illinois.gov, its Obamacare website, on Wednesday, allowing consumers on the first day of open enrollment to look at and enroll in all individual plans both on and off the exchange. Advertisement The state also has expanded the hours of its help line and established a phone number for consumers to talk to a licensed broker, for free, about gaining coverage. In recent years, the website hasnt included information about all the plans or the ability to enroll in them or talk to licensed brokers. Advertisement The changes come as Republican Gov. Bruce Rauners administration has been critical of the Affordable Care Act and the federal government has cut outreach and shortened the window for buying health insurance on the exchange. Most Illinois residents get insurance coverage through their employers or government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. But this year, more than 350,000 Illinoisans enrolled in coverage through the Obamacare exchange, and many others chose individual plans outside of the exchange. Illinois Department of Insurance Director Jennifer Hammer said in a September statement, There is no question that major structural flaws in the (Affordable Care Act) have forced higher insurance rates and separated families from trusted physicians and hospitals. But on Friday, she said, The Affordable Care Act is still the law of the land and our mission is to protect consumers and provide a vital and robust insurance marketplace, and we are going to utilize all the tools available to the department to help consumers get the best plan and product. The department used part of a $1 million state appropriation to overhaul the site and its services, Hammer said. As we have been watching for the past few months the uncertainty in Washington, it became apparent to us we needed to be proactive to make sure consumers had all the best tools and products, Hammer said. Many consumers in Illinois and across the country are facing higher premiums and fewer choices for plans on the exchange. Average rates in Illinois are set to increase by 16 to 37 percent next year for the lowest-priced plans, according to the state. Open enrollment runs from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15. In years past, its run until Jan. 31. Also, the website where people may buy coverage, www.healthcare.gov, will be down for maintenance most Sunday mornings during open enrollment. Illinois consumers will still be able to enroll in plans at getcovered.illinois.gov even when the federal site is down those Sundays, Hammer said. Advertisement Insurance companies have attributed much of the price increases this year to uncertainty over federal subsidies known as cost-sharing reduction payments. Those payments compensate insurers for reducing deductible and copay costs for lower-income consumers who buy insurance on the exchange. President Donald Trump has decided to end those payments to insurers, though they will still have to provide the discounts to consumers. Illinois is one of a number of states that has attempted to mitigate the expense to consumers by instructing insurance companies to load the extra costs of not getting those federal subsidies into silver-level plans. That could help consumers who qualify for tax credits, which included more than 80 percent of Illinois consumers on the exchange as of February of this year. That's because the tax credit levels rise based on the price of the second-lowest-cost silver plan. For example, in most Illinois counties (not including Cook and Lake) a 40-year-old with an income of $25,000 will be able to enroll in the lowest-priced bronze plan next year for free, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. In Cook County, that same person will pay $32 a month, and in Lake County, that person will pay $31 a month, according to Kaiser. The higher a persons income, the less money in tax credits they get to offset their monthly premiums. lschencker@chicagotribune.com Twitter @lschencker IN CASE YOU MISSED IT [ Obamacare enrollment starts Wednesday. Here's what you need to know ] [ Health law open enrollment sign-ups start, and some see a 'hostile takeover' ] [ Column: On eve of Obamacare open enrollment, more evidence of impact of Trump's sabotage ] Willis Tower in Chicago is one of the city's top tourism spots. The Illinois Office of Tourism will open offices in China and Mexico to attract foreign visitors and help boost the states tourism industry, officials announced Monday. Willis Tower in Chicago is one of the city's top tourism spots. The Illinois Office of Tourism will open offices in China and Mexico to attract foreign visitors and help boost the states tourism industry, officials announced Monday. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) The Illinois Office of Tourism will open offices in China and Mexico to attract foreign visitors and help boost the states tourism industry, officials announced Monday. The government agency will expand into Mexico City on Nov. 1 and Beijing on Dec. 1, with three additional support offices in Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou. Advertisement About six to 10 people will work across the five offices on public relations, marketing and trade efforts for Illinois tourism, according to Cory Jobe, director of the Illinois Office of Tourism. Those individuals currently manage offices in Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. Advertisement To be quite honest with you, theres only so much money to go around here for us to market around the world. We have to be very strategic, Jobe said. The agency has worked on paid media and smaller trade initiatives in Mexico and China during the past few years and decided to open on-the-ground offices to meet the growing demand from those markets, according to Jobe. He said the initiative is a great way to showcase Chicago, Route 66, the Great River Road and the Lincoln legacy in Springfield. New employees will work with travel agents, create new products and pitch travel stories to help educate the Chinese and Mexican communities on what there is to see and do in Illinois, Jobe said. To be honest with you, Chicago and Illinois is still not known like destinations on the East Coast and West Coast. Were typically the fourth destination to the U.S. from an international traveler, he said. But we have seen with the limited paid media that weve done with no in-country representation that there is great interest in Illinois. China is the states top overseas market with about 235,000 visitors in 2016, an increase of 41.5 percent a year before. Chinese visitors spent an average of $175.1 million in Illinois, generating about $13.1 million in state and local tax revenue. About 26.3 percent of travelers were visiting friends and relatives, and 24.5 percent were on vacation. About 195,000 people visited from Mexico in 2016, a 10 percent increase from 2015. They spent an average $116 million in Illinois and generated $8.7 million in state and local tax revenue. More than 50 percent of Mexican visitors were traveling on vacation and about 20.7 percent were visiting friends and relatives, according to the agency. Advertisement A U.S. Travel Association study released Oct. 3 shows that international travel to the U.S. is still lagging behind domestic travel because of a strong dollar, global instability and the unintended consequences of Trump administration security policies. However Jobe said Illinois tourism industry has not been affected by President Donald Trumps rhetoric on Mexico and Mexican immigrants. He said the states No. 1 travel barrier is the strong dollar, which makes it more expensive to travel to the country. Jobe said the expansion is cost-neutral and that they are working within the existing budget for public relations and trade efforts in the international market. He said they will continue to work with airline partners in Mexico and China to expand tourism. At the end of the day, its all about dollars and cents, and it just made economic sense to expand at this time when those markets are growing to Illinois and to the United States, Jobe said. When I looked at what our competitors were doing, we had to make it happen. nmoreno@chicagotribune.com Advertisement Twitter @nereidamorenos These cookies won in 2009. Check out the recipes in our "Holiday Cookies" cookbook. Details below. (Chicago Tribune) There are just four days left in the voting for the Chicago Tribunes annual Holiday Cookie Contest, which ends Thursday. Contestants are competing for cash prizes and bragging rights, plus a visit to the Tribunes test kitchen. Advertisement You can vote online for your favorites through Thursday. Then the 15 highest vote-getters will be invited to bring their cookies to Tribune Tower for judging Nov. 6. Vote early and often you can vote every day on the contest page: chicagotribune.com/cookie. The winning cookies will be announced online Nov. 27 and in print Nov. 29, in our annual Holiday Cookie Contest cover story. In the meantime, enjoy this recipe from a past winner. These rich, nutty cookies are from Holly L. Sheridan, of Deerfield, and earned her an honorable mention in the 2000 contest. Advertisement The recipe is excerpted from "Holiday Cookies," a collection of more than 100 recipes of winning cookies from 25 years of the Tribune's annual Holiday Cookie Contest. During this years contest, we are featuring a cookie recipe per week from the book. The book is available for $24.95 at www.chicagotribune.com/holidaycookiesbook. A pumpkin maple dream cookie. (Chicago Tribune) Pumpkin maple dreams Prep: 1 hour, 15 minutes Cook: 15 minutes per batch Makes: About 4 dozen Cookies: 2 1/2 cups flour 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice 1 teaspoon each: baking powder, baking soda Advertisement 1 1/2 teaspoons salt 2 sticks (1 cup) butter 1/4 cup shortening 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 egg 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree Advertisement 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup raisins Maple frosting: 3 tablespoons butter, softened 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar 1 1/2 tablespoons milk Advertisement 3/4 teaspoon maple flavoring Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. > 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup chopped nuts, such as pecans or walnuts 1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Combine flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt in bowl; set aside. Beat butter, shortening and sugar in bowl of electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg; mix well. Add pumpkin and vanilla; mix until incorporated. Slowly mix in flour mixture until combined. Stir in raisins. Drop by tablespoon onto greased baking sheet. Bake until set, about 15 minutes. Cool on wire racks. 2. For frosting, cream butter in bowl of electric mixer. Gradually add sugar, alternating with milk, beating well after each addition, until smooth and fluffy. Mix in maple flavoring and vanilla. Spread (or pipe with star-tipped pastry bag) a thin layer of frosting on top of each cookie. Sprinkle with nuts. Nutrition information per cookie: 135 calories, 7 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 17 mg cholesterol, 180 mg sodium, 18 g carbohydrates, 1 g protein, 1 g fiber Advertisement gwong@chicagotribune.com Twitter @GraceWong630 In days since the paper was published, media outlets from New York to London have trumpeted the news that Chinese scientists have genetically engineered a pig that can better regulate its body temperature by burning fat in cold months. The side benefit? The hog ends up with leaner meat. The genetic breakthrough has been heralded as something of a win-win for farmers and consumers: The former could lower the costs of raising their pigs, and the latter could get their pork fix without as many calories from fat. All of this, of course, assumes that a genetically engineered pig from China could be approved for human consumption in the United States, no easy feat considering that it took the Food and Drug Administration nearly two decades to give the green light to GE Atlantic salmon. The fast-growing salmon still remains the only genetically engineered animal approved for human consumption in the United States, though the FDA did approve a drug produced in goats genetically engineered to secrete the compound in their milk, noted Gregory Jaffe, biotechnology project director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Regardless of the regulatory hurdles ahead, small hog farmers are cynical about who would benefit most from these Chinese pigs, whose DNA has been altered to include a gene that helps regulate the animal's body temperature. The farmers said GE pigs would mostly serve such multinational companies as Smithfield Foods, the world's largest hog producer, which slaughters millions of pigs annually. The Chinese-owned Smithfield produces hogs bred to be leaner than pasture-raised pigs, and these lean hogs, specifically their piglets, require barns with heat lamps and heated floors to keep the newborns alive in their fragile first days. The heating costs are not insignificant in large hog operations, where 5,000 animals may be confined under one barn roof. But just as important is the piglet mortality rate, which can range from 10 to 20 percent of newborns, some caused by cold barn conditions, said Todd See, head of the department of animal science at North Carolina State University. A pig with the ability to better regulate its body temperature might cut down on the mortality rates, See said. Pigs are one of the few mammals without a gene to regulate body temperature, which is why pigs will burrow in hay during the winter months. To alter the animal's DNA, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing used a laboratory tool known as CRISPR to edit a mouse gene into pig cells, which were then used to create more than 2,500 embryos. The embryos were inserted into 13 female pigs, surrogates that ultimately gave birth to 12 male piglets. The researchers noted that all 12 pigs were able to better regulate their body temperatures, while also decreasing their fat levels "without altering physical activity or daily energy demands," said a report published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "This study highlights the potential for biotechnology use in pig breeding to improve cold resistance and lean pork production." One of the study's researchers, Jianguo Zhao, told NPR that the animals, slaughtered at six months, showed no sign of abnormalities from the DNA editing. He pronounced them healthy and normal. He even predicted the meat from these Bama pigs, a small to medium breed native to southern China, would taste the same as the flesh from non-modified pigs, even though the former have 24 percent less fat than the latter. Small pig farmers sigh when they hear the argument that lean pork tastes just as good as the fattier stuff. To them, it's merely the latest hype from a hog industry that, for decades, has been obsessed with producing leaner meat - and then persuading Americans to buy more pork with marketing campaigns such as the Other White Meat ads. These smaller farmers have embraced old heritage breeds, such as Berkshires and Gloucestershire Old Spots, which are rich with fat and flavor. And they've made their own pitch to consumers: Lean pork is just inferior. "Making them leaner is going to make them taste worse," said Gretchen Dimling, who co-owns Whistle Pig Hollow Farm in Reisterstown, Maryland, with her husband, John. Lean pork, she said, "already tastes like wet cardboard." Bev Eggleston, co-founder of EcoFriendly Foods in Moneta, Virginia, echoed Dimling's thoughts. "It's going to be a terrible-tasting pig," he said. "I don't know about Chinese cultures, but I bet they like their old-timey pork that they've been eating for thousands of years." These small hog farmers say GE pigs are a solution to a problem that exists mostly at large-scale operations like Smithfield's. (Smithfield did not return an email and phone call for comment.) Old heritage breeds tend to have a lot of backfat, which naturally protects them from cold weather. "They're walruses," Eggleston said. "They don't regulate their body heat. They pack on the fat. It's not like my pigs are freezing in the winter." On Wednesday, the Dimlings helped a sow named Dottie give birth to, as Gretchen Dimling said, 14 "non-genetically modified, healthy piglets." The barn at Whistle Pig Hollow is not heated, but a corner of the farrowing area is accessible only to piglets. A single heat lamp is trained on the corner to help keep the pigs warm. The electricity needed to power the lamp is negligible, Gretchen Dimling said. "I don't think we've ever had one freeze to death," Gretchen Dimling said. "Piglets aren't always under [the lamp]. They'll run around and every once in awhile take a nap in the corner." Will Harris III, the fourth-generation owner of White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia, worried about the potential effects of a genetically modified pig, the kind that may not appear for years. He equates GE pigs to the ammonium nitrate fertilizer that salesmen persuaded his ancestors to spread across White Oak farm following World War II. At first, Harris said, the fertilizer produced lush, green grass. But by the 2000s, the soil at White Oak was depleted, robbed of the nutrients needed to produce crops or grass. "So many scientific breakthroughs that we've seen have undesirable consequences," Harris said. "We won't know for dozens of years, maybe 100 years, if there are unforeseen consequences for genetically modified animals." Then again, these concerns, as legitimate as they may be, could amount to nothing more than unnecessary hand-wringing. North Carolina State University's See said the GE pigs in China face some formidable obstacles before ever reaching the American consumer, let alone an American farm. For starters, See isn't sure U.S. consumers are ready to chow down on pork from genetically modified hogs. "It's probably got a bigger FDA hurdle and a bigger marketing hurdle than it may be worth" to introduce the pig to the American market, he said. What is Tennessee whiskey? Well, for just about all of Tennessee's nearly 219 years of statehood, Tennessee whiskey meant something quite straightforward: a whiskey produced in Tennessee. Advertisement That's why Phil Prichard, owner and operator of Prichard's Distillery, was infuriated in 2013 when he learned that the Tennessee legislature was considering a bill that would require spirits labeled Tennessee Whiskey to use a process known as the Lincoln County Process. The technique, named for the process used by Jack Daniel's, Tennessee's most famous whiskey maker, filters bourbon through (or steeps it in) charcoal chips before the spirit goes into casks for aging. And Jack Daniel's led the push for the legislation. Advertisement But Prichard, who had been making a whiskey labeled Tennessee Whiskey since 2003, doesn't use the Lincoln County Process. And he didn't want to start. "Every argument I heard for protecting a standard of identity didn't make sense," he says, with a hint of irritation evident in his voice nearly two years later. "They claimed to be protecting the quality of Tennessee whiskey. But anyone can charcoal-filter whiskey; it won't make a bad whiskey taste good. They said we have to protect the Tennessee designation like France does with Champagne. But that also has nothing to do with quality. It was just about (Jack Daniel's) desire to get the process that it invented memorialized." Prichard's whiskey seeks to hark back to an era before Jack Daniel's produced its first spirit. Prichard is a descendant of a Tennessee distiller named Benjamin Prichard, who bequeathed his distilling equipment to his son in his 1822 will. While Prichard doesn't know exactly what Benjamin Prichard distilled, he believes that he used white corn to make whiskey because that's what most people at the time were doing. "They made whiskey from what was available to them," he says. It's that history that he seeks to honor, which is why he calls the spirit Benjamin Prichard's Tennessee Whiskey. The whiskey is rich and complex, with a sweet and spicy nose, and notes of cinnamon candy and black pepper. For good reason the whiskey has earned acclaim and awards, and he didn't want to be bullied out of changing the spirit's name. So he fought back. While Tennessee's governor signed the bill requiring the Lincoln County Process to be used for any spirit labeled Tennessee Whiskey, Prichard got an exemption. In addition to enabling Prichard to make whiskey the way he's always made it, that exemption has had a side benefit, he says it is a pretty good marketing tool. But it isn't all politics. After all, who would care about a Tennessee whiskey that didn't taste good. And it does. Politics aside. Chicago Med" star Colin Donnell is a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan, but he removed his Cardinals hat when he attended a Cubs-Cardinals game at Wrigley Field. My wife and I happened to have (Cubs president) Theo Epsteins tickets for a Cardinals-Cubs game, so I was very polite, Donnell said Monday at a press event for Dick Wolfs franchise of shows set and filmed in Chicago. Advertisement Donnell, a Missouri native who plays Dr. Connor Rhodes on the NBC medical drama, praised Wrigley Fields old-school vibe" and went so far as to acknowledge the Cubs as last year's World Series champions. Im happily a Cardinals fan living in Chicago. I was very happy that they finally got their first World Series win last year, Donnell said. "I should probably stop talking. Advertisement The third season of Chicago Med" is scheduled to premiere at 9 p.m. Nov. 21. The Cardinals finished this season 83-79, while the Cubs went 92-70. tswartz@tribpub.com Twitter @tracyswartz [ Stars of NBC's Chicago-set franchise return to city to film new seasons ] [ 'Chicago Med' sets return date for Season 3 ] [ 'Chicago P.D.' star Sophia Bush says she took her driver to World Series ] When Broadway star Anthony Rapp walks on to the Shubert Theatre stage Thursday as Mark Cohen, the narrator in "Rent," he won't just be reprising his leading role in the Tony award-winning musical; he'll be coming home. The 26-year-old Rapp appeared at the Shubert 17 years ago in "Evita" when he was a grade-school student in Shorewood. "I've come full circle," Rapp said recently on the phone from New York. Given the stage, television and movie circles in which the Joliet-area native now travels at something akin to warp speed, a chat on the phone is a luxury. After more than a year of appearing regularly in "Rent" since it opened in January 1996 at the East Village's New York Theatre Workshop (moving to Broadway's Nederlander Theater that April), Rapp has been clocking more hours abroad and on the West Coast than in "Rent" or the home he shares with his brother, Adam, a playwright, in New York's East Village. Rapp just returned from London, where he was on a promotional tour for the forthcoming production of "Rent" in April. Before that he was in Hungary, filming "When Trumpets Fade," an HBO movie scheduled to air this spring. He had flown back to New York just long enough to change his answering machine from a message noting he was on the West Coast filming an "X-Files" television segment (it ran Nov. 23). His current message says he is back in town but will be leaving Jan. 5 to join the Chicago production of "Rent" for a month (he is currently scheduled to appear from Thursday to Jan. 25). He leaves the Broadway cast for good today, and, after his Chicago stint, will head to London to open the production there. Not that he's complaining. Rapp is living the life he has dreamed of since age 7, when he was performing in musicals put on by Island Lake Camp in northeastern Pennsylvania. His mom, Mary Rapp, who died in May), was the camp nurse. "I loved it. When I returned after the second summer there to Illinois, I wanted to do more. My mom's story was that I found an ad in the paper about auditions for `A Christmas Carol,' which was being mounted by Waubonsee Community College (in Sugar Grove)," Rapp said. "I had gotten the part of Tiny Tim. I had just turned 8. I knew this is what I wanted to do and keep on doing." That led to other community theater roles. "People in the shows would tell my mom to get me an agent because I was good," he said. But he is quick to point out that Mary Rapp was no stage mother. "She was supportive. But this was my thing. She encouraged me because she supported what I wanted to do. She was wonderful. One of the greatest moments of my life was when she saw me in `Rent,' " Rapp said, explaining that his mom and several other family members came for the opening night on Broadway April 29, 1996. (His parents divorced when Rapp was 2, and his father, Doug, saw the show at a later time.) By age 9, when he appeared in "Evita," Rapp already was a veteran of Chicago-area musical theater with an Equity card and an agent. At 11 and 12, he was touring with Yul Brynner as Anna's son in "The King and I." His classmates at Troy Junior High School in Shorewood grasped that Rapp was destined for show business when the play came to Chicago. Christopher Hart, an old school buddy and now a store manager in Winston-Salem, N.C., recalled the students' excitement at seeing someone they knew on stage with celebrities. "We knew Anthony was in shows. But I think the first time it hit us that he really was making it was when we took a class trip in 8th grade to see him," Hart said. Hart remembered that he and others in their group who would later perform in high school shows with Rapp wished they could trade places with him. "It was very cool. It was outside our realm of experience. But there was also a lot of jealousy," he said. "To see one of us making it already was hard, but it was neat. Later on, when we were older, we were very happy for him." That Rapp was "making it" became even more obvious to classmates when the 15-year-old Joliet West High School junior snagged the role of Daryl, one of the teens in Touchstone Film's "Adventures in Babysitting," a 1987 release with Elizabeth Shue and Keith Coogan. Rapp was in Los Angeles for the movie's summer premiere, but there was a special screening of the film in Joliet. "Most of my friends came that night," he said, still pleased. The following year he performed in John Guare's acclaimed "Landscape of the Body" at the Goodman Theatre, which in turn led to a role in Guare's "Six Degrees of Separation," both the Broadway play and the movie. But the movie's summer release interfered with Rapp's plan to return a third year to Interlochen National Music Camp (now known as the Interlochen Center for the Arts) in Interlochen, Mich. In spite of all his theatrical and film work, Rapp, a bright student who was a grade ahead of his age group in school, managed to keep up with his classes and participate in the school's chorus, shows and regional speech tournaments and write for the yearbook, newspaper and literary magazine. He received permission to miss classes, first to do a short-lived Broadway show, "Precious Sons," and then to film "Babysitting" in Canada. He still was able to graduate among the top 20 in his class. But to miss Interlochen's creative arts atmosphere where he was a summer drama and vocal major was different. "I was really looking forward to it. I received a scholarship for 1987 at the awards night the previous summer. But I couldn't go because, when `Babysitting' was released, I had to do the publicity tour. It was very disappointing," Rapp said. And slipping back into high school routine and friendships after working and circulating in the theater world in New York was harder than filling the gaps in lost classes. "The first time I was away, doing `Precious Sons,' it was very hard coming back. It was like, `How do you keep them down on the farm when they've seen the big city?' The second time, coming back after filming `Babysitting' in Canada, was easier because I knew what to expect," he said. Balancing all his school activities and studies with theater performances in the Chicago area was never particularly easy for Rapp, according to Joliet West English teacher Barbara Markelz, sponsor of the school paper and the yearbook. "He was a wonderful kid -- very talented in many areas," Markelz said. "He was a very talented writer. But it was a real challenge for him to juggle his school work and his professional life. It was also tough getting the kind of attention he received and still fitting into the high school routine. But in our setting here, he did so well. The kids who worked with him on publications liked him. He was such a likable kid." Longtime Joliet West guidance counselor David Jaeger also is a longtime Rapp fan. "He's been in front of people all of his life. He is so at ease at what he does. And he is a very intelligent young man. He was always quite active at school and was a gifted academic student too," Jaeger said. Markelz said she has enjoyed keeping track of his successes, ranging from off-Broadway shows such as "Trafficking in Broken Hearts" to the Broadway production of "Six Degrees" and from movies such as "School Ties" and "Twister" and "Dazed and Confused" and on to the wildly successful "Rent." And "Rent" is the vehicle that is bringing him back to Chicago and the Shubert Theater for a month, where former teachers and his many relatives in the Joliet area (his mother was one of 13 children) can see him perform. The Chicago audience will include Rapp's sister, Anne Smith of New Lenox, who will be seeing him in "Rent" for the first time. "I'm very proud of him. This is very exciting for us. He is very talented," Smith said. A widely held opinion, according to his proud dad. "We're not the only ones who say he is very talented. People have told us that for years," said Doug Rapp, who lives in Mundelein with his wife, Sandra. "So have the critics. Anthony has had a lot of stage presence since he was a child. He is able to connect with an audience." To Anthony Rapp, performing at the Shubert revives a connection of a different kind. "It feels weird coming back to the Shubert Theater after 17 years. It really is a powerful link to my mom. She was at the theater at the beginning, when I was 9," he said. "Rent," a rock opera that resets the opera "La Boheme" from a Paris ghetto to a loft of struggling New York city artists, also resonates with Rapp in a way that transcends theater. Knitted into a plot about hopelessness, dreams, love and death is the intertwining of homo- and heterosexuality. Rapp, who describes himself as bisexual, wants to see society come to a better understanding of people's sexuality. "A big goal of mine is to use whatever celebrity I have to take on the big issue of sexuality. I am especially concerned about young people not getting the support they need in coming out. The situation is improving," he said. "But there are still a lot of parents who are not giving their children the love and support they need at a very confusing, difficult time." In contrast, Rapp and his father appeared on the cover of the Oct. 28, 1997, issue of the Advocate, a national gay and lesbian news magazine. The magazine's story detailed Rapp's career as well as the support he receives from his family. He also intends to produce a screenplay he is working on about what happens to a family when the father leaves his wife for another man. "I would love for this to be a movie where I would be in a position to give people an opportunity to shine. There are good people struggling who just need a foothold. If I could be in a position to help them by casting them, I think that would be great," Rapp said. He also wants to help others who have experienced the death of someone close, as he did with his mother and with "Rent" author Jonathan Larson, who died of an aneurysm after the show's final dress rehearsal on Jan. 25, 1996. In talking about death, Rapp noted that he is writing a book about how his attitude toward the subject has changed. "I hope to impart how I went from being a young person who was afraid of death, unable to embrace its role in life, to how I came to accept it and move through it. Amazing things can happen between people when faced with death. "Jonathan's dying was horrible. But it brought those in the cast together. We supported each other in our time of need and learned how to honor someone. It was a test. And we all came through. That's unforgettable." From Scrubs to his current horror-comedy series Stan Against Evil, John C. McGinley has built a career playing outwardly assured, amusingly cranky men with a talent for the withering putdown or cantankerous rant. Advertisement IFCs Stan Against Evil is back for a second season with McGinley as a former sheriff turned demon fighter. Its so, so subversive, youre not going to believe it, he said of the new episodes. Its the most subversive thing Ive ever done and I mean that in a good way. His verbal dexterity has served him well in his career. But it was a talent that once abandoned him briefly. In 1987, he had returned to New York after shooting Oliver Stones Platoon in the Philippines. His next role was in the original production of the Eric Bogosian play Talk Radio about a shock jock (Bogosian) suffering an existential breakdown. McGinley played Stu, the board operator, and his character has an 8-minute monologue that McGinley and Bogosian co-wrote together. Advertisement Were in this sold-out 325-seat house, it was the hottest ticket in New York, and every night I got to do this phenomenal monologue, McGinley said. He did the play for two years and at some point during the run, he got a call from Oliver Stone with a job offer. Thats when things got complicated. My worst moment Oliver Stone calls up and says, Do you want to do Wall Street? And Im like, Yeah, Id love to! But Im doing a play, so you guys have to wrap me each night in time. I have to make half-hour (30 minutes before curtain) because I like to do a vocal warm-up and other stuff. Half-hour was 7:30 and Oliver says (imitates Stones intense delivery): McGinley, Ill have you up there, Ill get a Teamster to drive you, youll get to your f------ half hour! Im going to make you a f------ movie star! F--- you! and then he hangs up on me and Im like, Great, so hes out of his mind. So were going to be shooting the movie down at the Woolworth Building, which is a straight shot up Lafayette Street to the theater and it was a pretty manageable commute back then. If I was wrapped at 7:15 or 7:20 I could still make half-hour. And I was only on Wall Street for three weeks, so I figured no big deal. Charlie Sheen and I are hanging out with all these brokers and were learning about Wall Street, and then we finally start shooting and of course we get behind schedule immediately. Oliver doesnt like anybody tampering with his schedule but I had to go. I just kept telling the first AD (assistant director), I gotta go I gotta make half-hour. We would end up wrapping later and later, and each night the Teamsters were taking me up there at 20-of and then quarter-of and five-of and one time I get there and they had already called places and my understudy is in my wardrobe. And I was like, What? Get out of that, take my wardrobe off! Stop this nonsense! Advertisement And that night I went on, and 20 minutes into the piece, a pin-spot hits me, I turn and walk down in one (to the front of the stage) and I did the first two minutes of the monologue and then there was nothing. I couldnt remember anything. I went blank in front of 325 people who were clamoring for this hit. What was going through his mind Ill start crying telling this story, because it was so scary. I just stood there. Again, with a pin-spot on me, from the shoulder up. And you cant see anything when a pin-spots on you. And I couldnt remember anything that Eric and I wrote. All I could think about was Oliver screaming at me and Charlie. And Im sure it was compelling theater to see a human being dying in front of you. But all I could do was slowly turn around and walk back to my control board oh gosh, I just got teary and the stage manager called the next light cue and Eric picked the play back up. I was sitting three-quarters to the audience and I wasnt weeping but I was dying inside. I was gutted. And Erics such a mensch that he came to me afterwards backstage and said, Dont do this to yourself. Its not a big deal. And I couldnt even process that. The takeaway Advertisement I never ever have allowed conditions like that to ever reoccur. Ever. And I never will. I need to prepare. I need a vocal warm-up. I need to go over what were doing. I need to focus. I need the half hour. That works for me. I mean, that was bar none the worst experience. Oliver obviously didnt care because I was dropped off at 10-after the next night. So I missed one show. But thats never happened to me again. I did Glengarry Glen Ross on Broadway with Al Pacino and Bobby Cannavale in 2012 and never missed a line. Actually, I used to go in a couple hours early because I just wanted to be there. Id hang out with Al what, are you kidding me? Like Id pass that up? I loved it! But from Talk Radio, I use that memory all the time. I use it as a guide track for my priorities. nmetz@chicagotribune.com Twitter @Nina_Metz [ RELATED: My worst moment: 'Transparent' co-star Alexandra Billings confronts transgender negativity at an audition ] [ My worst moment: When hubris got the best of 'Survivor's Remorse' star Erica Ash ] [ My worst moment: Ted Danson on the actor's nightmare ] Barbara Campbell has twice had shingles. Each time, one side of her body was covered in "thousands of these horrid blisters." She could only wear the lightest silk blouse. Anything else touching her skin hurt too much. "I'm in terror of having it happen again," said Campbell, 79, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, describing the painful rash that will affect almost 1 out of 3 people in their lifetime. Because of allergies, she couldn't get the Zostavax vaccine, which is made with live, albeit weakened virus. Advertisement But Campbell and millions of other older Americans at risk of shingles - a condition caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox - may soon have another option. A more effective vaccine, Shingrix, was licensed by the Food and Drug Administration on Oct. 20. The federal panel that helps guide U.S. vaccination policy on Wednesday recommended the new vaccine for use in adults 50 and older with normal immune systems. The panel noted that Shingrix, made by GlaxoSmithKline, provides substantially greater protection than Zostavax, made by Merck. Shingrix's protection is also maintained at a high level for at least four years. The panel recommended that anyone previously vaccinated with the one-dose Zostavax be revaccinated with Shingrix, which is given in two doses. Advertisement The recommendations are expected to be approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention next year. The Washington Post spoke with Edward Belongia, who chaired the shingles vaccine work group of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The work group spent two years reviewing evidence on the two vaccines. Belongia, 61, is an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute in Wisconsin. (The interview has been edited for length and clarity.) Q: Who's at risk for getting shingles? A: Shingles is a serious and very common condition. When people get chickenpox as children, the virus lays dormant in their nerves, held in check by an individual's immune system. As you get older, your immune system starts to decline. People over 50 have an increased risk of developing shingles, which is a reactivating of the dormant virus. There are about 1 million cases of shingles in the United States every year. It typically resolves in one to three weeks, and it's painful while you have it. Q: What are some of the complications associated with shingles? A: About 15 percent of people who get shingles develop chronic severe pain, known as post-herpetic neuralgia, or PHN. It's severe pain that can last for months. Your risk increases as you get older. There are also rare complications, such as increased risk for stroke and vision loss. But PHN is the most common complication. It can be very, very debilitating. Advertisement Q: Can people with compromised immune systems get Shingrix? A: At this point, the license is for prevention in people ages 50 and older, with normal immune systems. But there are studies underway, and over the next year we expect to be looking at results that have the potential to be helpful for this population. The only absolute reason why you should not get [Shingrix], if you're 50 and older, is if you have a history of allergic or severe reactions to any component of the vaccine. Q: Should people like Barbara Campbell, who already had shingles, still get the new vaccine? A: Yes. She is certainly eligible to get it. There isn't any reason not to get it. Q: Why should someone who has already gotten Zostavax get revaccinated with Shingrix? Advertisement A: Zostavax provides a moderate level of protection. That protection declines over time, and by five years, that protection is only about 35 percent. The new vaccine uses an entirely different technology. Shingrix is substantially different in terms of overall efficacy and duration of protection. It was shown to be highly effective even in the oldest age groups, people in their 70s and 80s. Q: When should someone who has already received Zostavax get the new vaccine? A: The committee did not want to prescribe a specific interval. The minimum interval should be eight weeks. That's a decision each individual should make with his or her own health-care provider. Q: Should people who have received Zostavax and also had shingles get Shingrix? A: Yes. The clinical trials did not include people who had already had shingles. But there was a small study of 96 people over age 50 who had a previously documented episode of shingles. They got a strong response [with Shingrix]. They did not find any adverse events. Advertisement Q: What about side effects or problems with Shingrix? A: The clinical trials did not find any evidence of increased risk for serious adverse events, such as death, hospitalization or disability. However, about 80 percent of individuals had some type of vaccine reaction, compared to 30 percent of people who got a placebo. Most symptoms were mild or moderate. Most common was a sore arm and pain after injection. About half the people also developed more general side effects, such as muscle ache, fatigue and headaches that resolved in two to three days. It's very important to understand that [these side effects] are likely to occur when they come back and get the second dose. About 15 percent of people who got the vaccine had a reaction that interfered with their normal daily activities. Those resolved within two to three days. Q: What about ongoing safety monitoring of this vaccine? A: There's going to be extensive safety monitoring. This vaccine uses a new adjuvant [an immune-system booster]. We don't have experience with hundreds of thousands and even millions of people having received it. Even though clinical trials look reassuring, we know from past experience that things pop up and it's not evident until a much larger number of people have received it. Advertisement GlaxoSmithKline is conducting a safety study. The CDC-funded Vaccine Safety Datalink is safety monitoring in near-real-time for this vaccine as it is rolled out. And there's the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which reports episodes of vaccine-related adverse events. Q: What information is there about the effectiveness of just one dose of Shingrix? A: Almost nothing. Q: Will it be hard to persuade patients to return for a second dose? What's the recommended interval between doses? A: Education is going to be key so we can manage expectations. We don't want people feeling like they have to go to the emergency room for reactions that are normal and expected. The recommendation for the second dose is anywhere from two to six months. Advertisement Q: Will insurance cover Shingrix if you've already gotten Zostavax? A: Our expectation is that it will be covered. Q: You're in the recommended age range to get a shingles vaccine. Did you get Zostavax? A: I was eligible to get the vaccine, and I've been waiting [for Shingrix]. I knew what was coming. --- An earlier version of this story incorrectly credited the article to Bloomberg News instead of the Washington Post and writer Lena H. Sun. Advertisement RELATED STORIES: Fertility tests may not be best gauge of biological clock Marijuana users have more sex, study finds Experts concerned that HIV, AIDS may be poised for a comeback Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 19 Plot: In a dystopian future, teen Wade Watts must save the virtual reality world called The Oasis. Starring: Tye Sheridan as Wade, Olivia Cooke, Ben Mendelsohn, T.J. Miller and Simon Pegg. Steven Spielberg will direct. Release date: March 30, 2018 (Broadway Books) In the spring break capital of Cancun, Mexico, hotel occupancy has tumbled 10 percent this year. As bad as that is, over in Los Cabos, on the tip of the Baja California peninsula, it's worse. The airport serving Cabo San Lucas and its lesser-known sister city, San Jose del Cabo, is looking emptier these days. And hotel guests have canceled 35,000 nights of bookings over the next year. Advertisement At a time when the weaker peso should be luring American travelers in droves, many are staying away, spooked by a wave of violence that's come dangerously close to tourist hot spots. Gunmen opened fire at a Cancun nightclub in November, and a cooler with two human heads was found on Cabo San Lucas's main hotel strip in June. But the biggest blow came on Aug. 22, when the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning advising tourists to steer clear altogether. "Group tourism automatically went down the moment the warning hit," said Carlos Gosselin, head of the hotel association for Cancun and Puerto Morelos. Many insurance companies likely won't even consider offering coverage in areas under advisory, hurting conventions and events in the area, he said. Advertisement Mexico is reinforcing security in popular tourist spots to get the State Department to revise its views, and companies including Hilton Worldwide and Marriott International are spending millions to make guests feel safer. Their motivation is clear: Barclays estimates that a drop in tourism could wipe out as much as 0.5 percentage point from Mexico's gross domestic product growth this year. "Lower tourism activity will definitely have an impact on growth," said Marco Oviedo, head of Latin America economic research at Barclays. "External tourism is one of the most important sources of income in the current account." Mexico gets about $20 billion a year from tourism. With murders quadrupling in Los Cabos and doubling in Cancun this year, a chunk of that revenue may be at stake. Quintana Roo, the state where Cancun is located, is the destination of a third of all the nation's international tourists. In Los Cabos, local and federal authorities are teaming up with hotels, time-share companies and the airport operator to step up the area's security. The group is spending $50 million to increase surveillance cameras to cover the 20-mile main stretch that includes hotels, restaurants and public beaches. A new military facility, paid for in part by the private sector, will be built near a highway to respond to any activity spotted on the cameras. It is set to open in the second quarter of 2018. "We understand and appreciate that travelers are more concerned than ever about their safety and security and we have rigorous security procedures in place at all of our hotels in Mexico," Marriott said in an emailed response to questions. "Mexico continues to be a desirable destination for visitors from around the world and we've had very few cancellations for Holiday season due to this matter." But the slowdown in Los Cabos since the travel warning is starting to show in other areas. International passenger arrivals dropped 2 percent in September, the first decline in three years, and compares with a 20 percent average gain for most of this year, according to airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico SAB and the Los Cabos Tourism Board. Other factors such as hurricanes and earthquakes in recent months contributed, said Rodrigo Esponda, managing director of the tourism board. American Airlines Vacations, which packages trips to beach destinations in Mexico, said business had been rising about 25 percent from a year earlier - until the travel warning torpedoed demand. Meanwhile, the online-booking site Best Day Travel Group has also seen a slowdown in reservations for the end of the year, said Director Julian Balbuena. Los Cabos is the hardest-hit destination with a 6 percent drop, he said. Advertisement "We were having a good year for Mexico in particular," said Eduardo Marcos, president of American Airlines Vacations. Gosselin, from the hotel association, said the travel warning went too far and may have been influenced by a shift in U.S. policies toward Mexico following the election of President Donald Trump. There are also signs the alert's effect on tourism is waning, he said, as the peso is still trading about 26 percent below its 10-year average. Marcos also said he thinks bookings will pick back up. Even so, the hotel association is putting up 10 million pesos ($520,600) for a marketing campaign aimed at attracting more American tourists to Cancun hotels, Gosselin said. The move came after hotel occupancy growth fell from a clip of about 2 percent last year to a drop of about 10 percent, he said. "Ninety percent of the economic activity here is tied to tourism," Esponda said in a phone interview from Los Cabos. "That's why security has to improve. We need tourism to continue improving people's quality of life - and it's a shared responsibility." With assistance from Mary Schlangenstein. RELATED STORIES: Advertisement Monarchs in Mexico allow brush with fragile beauty 10 best airports to sleep in Police say Swiss tourists badly beaten in north India Get into the holiday spirit with Rockford's Stroll on State on Nov. 25. (Rockford Area Convention & Visitors Bureau) Here are some of the more interesting events, deals, websites and other travel tidbits that have come across our desk recently: The fifth annual Stroll on State in Rockford features the Merry & Bright Holiday Parade on Nov. 25. Floats, music and costumed characters will highlight the parade, and other activities include live music, shopping and a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. http://tinyurl.com/y9y83wec Advertisement The annual Quad City Arts Festival of Trees ushers in the holiday season Nov. 16-26 in downtown Davenport, Iowa. This marks the 25th year for the holiday helium balloon parade Nov. 18. The Festival of Trees features uniquely designed Christmas trees, designer displays, handcrafted stockings, ornaments and more. http://tinyurl.com/yas9hemb The Swedish community of Bishop Hill, Ill., holds its annual Julmarknad Christmas Market on Nov. 24-26. There will be Swedish food specialties, as well as holiday music, handmade items and folk art for sale. http://tinyurl.com/y89dl9g3 Advertisement The Wayne County Lightfest, billed as the Midwests longest drive-through holiday light display, opens Nov. 16 and runs through the end of the year. The showcase begins in Westland and stretches 4 miles. http://tinyurl.com/y7d4ermo The 74th annual Holiday Folk Fair International will be Nov. 17-19 at the State Fair Park Exposition Center in West Allis, Wis. Cultures from across the globe will be represented with music and dance, food, handcrafted goods and more. www.folkfair.org Americas Thanksgiving Parade kicks off Nov. 23 on Detroits historic Woodward Avenue. The parade, which dates from 1924, draws hundreds of thousands of viewers, and features floats, helium-filled balloons, marching bands and specialty acts. http://tinyurl.com/ybhp89ct Festive Friday Eves celebrates six free family-oriented evening events during the holiday season at Cedar Creek Settlement in Cedarburg, Wis. Each Friday will have a theme, and there will be live music, food and wine sampling. Events will be Nov. 17 and 24 and Dec. 1, 8, 15 and 22. www.cedarcreeksettlement.com The French Lick Scenic Railway in French Lick, Ind., will be offering The Polar Express Train Ride through Dec. 23, with 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. departures each Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Polar Express book will be read, and there will be cookies and hot chocolate on hand. http://tinyurl.com/y6weq8n2 Azores Airlines is running a special on round-trip flights to the Azores from Boston for $596. Flights must be booked by Nov. 30 for travel between Nov. 3 and Dec. 12, or Jan. 2 to March 21. The Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal, has become an increasingly hot tourist spot. http://tinyurl.com/y9t8uftn The Colorado tourism folks have a list of some unusual ways to enjoy their state in the winter. Among the suggestions are snow kayaking and snowkiting. Get the details at http://tinyurl.com/yak5ozdl. Sea Island on the Georgia coast is offering the Emerald Anniversary Celebration Package to note the resorts 90th anniversary. From Jan. 2 to Feb. 28, guests who stay two or more nights will receive 90 percent off their third night at The Cloister. http://tinyurl.com/yby3zwkq Advertisement European Waterways, which specializes in cruises on hotel barges, has released its 2018-2019 brochure. http://tinyurl.com/yalrjxjf Deals and websites listed here have been checked for availability as of press time. Listings are not endorsements. Send tips at least a month in advance to ChicagoTribTravel@gmail.com. Phil Marty is a freelancer. [ Related: 10 best airports to sleep in ] [ National parks seek fee hike to cover $11 billion maintenance backlog ] [ If United Airlines tickets expire, can they unexpire? ] A rare archival film shot over Chicago from a dirigible in 1914 is paired with current-day video looking over the same locations. (National Archives; Chris Walker and Alyssa Pointer / Chicago Tribune) (Chris Walker) An aviation pioneer named Roy Knabenshue brought his dirigible to Chicago in 1914, offered 25-minute balloon rides and settled on a great idea: Why not hire a cameraman to film Chicago from the air? Advertisement That brainstorm led to one of the first aerial movies of the city, a rarely seen, eight-minute film that was recently tracked down by the Chicago Tribune in the National Archives. The film isn't newly "discovered" it's been in the Archives since 1943 but hardly anyone knew it existed, so in a sense it's been rediscovered. Advertisement Pilot Roy Knabenshue, right, with an unidentified man. (Chicago Tribune historical photo) Chicago's cultural historian, Tim Samuelson, recalled seeing at least some of the footage once on WTTW-Ch. 11 in the 1960s but had wondered for decades what happened to it. "I have been hunting for that film," he said. "This is exciting to find that sucker once and for all." Geoffrey Baer, longtime producer of Chicago documentaries for WTTW, was shown the movie and declared: "I've definitely never seen that, and it's kind of mind-blowing." Original 1914 video The original eight-minute film showing Chicago in 1914, recorded from a dirigible piloted by Roy Knabenshue. (National Archives) (National Archives) To a modern audience, the city in Knabenshue's film is barely recognizable, with many Chicago landmarks not yet built. There's no Soldier Field, no Buckingham Fountain, no Michigan Avenue Bridge. Al Capone and the Chicago Bears haven't come to town yet. Cars outnumber horses on the street, but there won't be any traffic lights for another nine years. The film shows a booming downtown, with high-rises racing to the sky. Some of them are gone, including the Masonic Temple Building, once Chicago's tallest, and the Federal Building, where Capone would be convicted of tax evasion in 1931. The Chicago of 1914 is prosperous but not always pretty. Vast rail yards cut through the landscape. Loop buildings belch smoke. But the South Side looks magnificent as it takes center stage in the film. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 17 Roy Knabenshue's dirigible, White City. (Chicago Tribune historical photo) Along the lakefront in Jackson Park we see two structures that outlasted the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. One of them, the German Building, was destroyed by fire in 1925. The other still exists, though with a different identity. In 1914, it was the plaster-clad original home of the Field Museum. Now it's the limestone-covered Museum of Science and Industry. Advertisement Farther south, the privately run Manhattan Beach around 75th Street is crowded with bathers, including women in modest swimsuits that nevertheless inspired protests from religious leaders. Soon after, that stretch of lakefront would become the public Rainbow Beach. In its Gothic adolescence, the University of Chicago is an impressive sight, but there's no Rockefeller Chapel, because it wasn't erected until the next decade. Also shown is the South Shore Country Club, a snooty playground that banned Jews and blacks. Two years after the movie was made, the main building was replaced with an even bigger one. Ultimately, the country club became the publicly run South Shore Cultural Center, and a place that once banned blacks was the site of the wedding reception for Barack and Michelle Obama, who would become the first African-American president and first lady. The movie reminds us that Washington Park hasn't changed all that much. There's still the open meadow and the Refectory, a dining hall designed by Daniel Burnham. But people's clothing is certainly different: The vast majority of parkgoers in the film are wearing white, making them barely indistinguishable at a distance from the sheep that also hung out in the park in 1914. (Unfortunately, those sheep weren't captured by the movie camera.) Sorry, North and West Siders: The dirigible didn't film your parts of town. There's just a brief scene of the Ogden Slip, created to add dock space just north of the mouth of the Chicago River. The Tribune recently learned of the film's existence from former Chicago harbor master and author R.J. Nelson, who became aware of it while doing research in the 1970s. The Tribune contacted the National Archives and obtained a copy. Advertisement Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 7 From the Chicago Daily Tribune on Jun. 17, 1914. The footage was taken in early August 1914 from a dirigible called White City that was based at the South Side amusement park of the same name, at 63rd and South Park Way (now King Drive). At the airship's helm was Knabenshue, known for piloting the first successful dirigible flight in the U.S., a 15-mile voyage at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904. To avoid embarrassing his prominent family Knabenshue's father was editor of the Toledo Blade newspaper the aviator flew balloons under the name of "Professor Don Carlos" early in his career. He went on to manage aviation exhibitions for the Wright brothers, but had left the Wrights and was conducting dirigible flights on his own when the Chicago movie was shot. In his unpublished autobiography, "Chauffeur of the Skies," Knabenshue wrote that he struggled with Chicago's winds while giving balloon rides. When he canceled flights, "I was called many uncomplimentary names." Once, he succumbed to pressure from White City spectators and flew despite his best instincts. His engine quit, and he feared being blown over the lake, so he set down "on the roof of a dwelling and wrecked both the rudder and the propeller. The ship bounced off the roof and into a tree, ripping a large hole in the balloon which quickly deflated it." Later in the summer, he rented a movie camera "and hired an operator to turn the crank while I managed the ship." The camera operator is not identified in the autobiography, which is kept at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. "Pictures were made purely as a private enterprise for which I received no profit," he wrote. "But I did use the 1914 film to show to the Navy and the Army, and through these pictures, I was able to secure a contract to build observation balloons in 1917." Knabenshue contacted the federal government in 1943 and offered to donate his 35 mm. film. John G. Bradley, then-chief of the National Archives' Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings Division, filled out a routing slip with his assessment of the footage: "Evidently quite valuable. May be 1st (certainly among the first) motion picture taken from the air." Advertisement It was not the first. Wilbur Wright was five years ahead of Knabenshue, inviting a cameraman aboard a flight of his biplane in Italy in 1909. That film is well-known and available online. The Knabenshue movie might not even be Chicago's first from the air. Another film was made around the same time by aviator C.C. Witmer and Harold McCormick, son of reaper inventor Cyrus McCormick. They flew in McCormick's seaplane along the lakefront and filmed footage that ended up in a short Army Air Corps movie. Oddly, the Air Corps film includes 45 seconds of Knabenshue's film mislabeled as being shot from McCormick's aircraft. It's not clear which came first: Knabenshue's August 1914 footage or McCormick's, taken sometime in 1913 or 1914. (The Air Corps film, which is technically inferior to the Knabenshue film but has unique views of Chicago's lakefront, is not well-known, even though it has been available online since at least 2008.) Whether Knabenshue's film was first or not, it was significant, and the Archives wanted it. There was a sticking point, however: Knabenshue asked the Archives to make him a copy, but Bradley wrote back that a copy would be costly around $7 and the government wouldn't pay for it. Knabenshue agreed to donate the movie anyway. Jeff Nichols, a University of Illinois at Chicago graduate student who found the first known film clips of the 1915 Eastland disaster two years ago, said he was unaware of the Knabenshue footage until the Tribune showed it to him. The movie does something that still pictures cannot, he said. "There's an emotional immediacy," Nichols said. "Anything that helps people make an emotional connection is good." "It's a fantastic find," he said. mjacob@chicagotribune.com Twitter @MarkJacob16 A body removal service transports a 16-year-old girl who was fatally shot in the 6600 block of South Marquette Road on Oct. 29, 2017, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune) A 3-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl were among at least 25 people shot in Chicago over the weekend, according to police. The boy, Dwayne Franklin Jr., was riding in the car with his stepdad on the South Side when they were caught in gunfire at East 60th Street and South Wabash Avenue in the Washington Park neighborhood early Sunday. Advertisement "I didn't know it was gunshots," the boy's stepdad said. "I just heard something hitting the car." The boy was stabilized at Comer Children's Hospital. Advertisement Less than 24 hours later, gun violence killed a young victim. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > On the South Side, a 16-year-old girl died in what Chicago police said was an accidental shooting. The girl died around 7 p.m. Sunday in the 6600 block of South Marquette Road after an acquaintance accidentally shot her in the eye, police said. The weekend's other gun death was a 21-year-old woman shot late Saturday, police said. She was in an apartment in the Northwest Side's Portage Park neighborhood with a 37-year-old man when a gun that one of them was handling fired, police said. Among the wounded from the weekend was a 28-year-old man who was shot in the arm at Lowry's steakhouse off Michigan Avenue during a robbery, police said. The man was stabilized at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. So far this year, at least 3,119 people have been shot in Chicago, down from 3,640 this time last year, according to data kept by the Tribune. There have been at least 576 homicides, 67 fewer than this time last year. A 27-year-old man was held without bail after breaking into a South Loop condominium while naked and sexually assaulting a woman Sunday morning. James Allen, who did not appear in court Monday because he was undergoing a mental evaluation at a hospital, has been charged with two counts of aggravated criminal sexual assault, home invasion and three counts of residential burglary, prosecutors said. Advertisement A naked Allen "traveled throughout'' the building, trying the door handles of multiple apartments in the first block of East 16th Street about 5:30 a.m. Sunday, prosecutors told a judge in court. When he entered a fifth-floor unit, he found the victim, 31, asleep in a bed and her friend, a 25-year-old man, sleeping on a couch. Advertisement She screamed when Allen went into her bedroom and began sexually assaulting her, waking up the 25-year-old man, who ran into the room, pushed Allen off her and fled to the hallway for help, prosecutors said. Allen followed him but then walked to the floor below and broke into another apartment where three people in their 20s were sleeping. There, he took a cellphone, glasses and other belongings, but when one of them woke up, he confronted Allen, who ran upstairs to the ninth floor, where he broke into a third apartment occupied by a sleeping 44-year-old man. When that man woke up and saw Allen with his laptop, wallet and guitar, he called police and building security, prosecutors said. Police found Allen, still naked, in the 44-year-old man's apartment. Allen was arrested after being identified by two witnesses, prosecutors said. Police said Allen, of the 2600 block of West 83rd Street, is a convicted felon. A judge denied bail for him Monday. Chicago Tribune reporter Megan Crepeau contributed. The man was slumped against the wall outside the restaurant off Michigan Avenue, softly repeating into a phone, "I've been shot." A woman walking down Ontario Street spotted him as she passed Lawry's steakhouse and rushed to the nearby Marriott hotel for help. "A guy just got shot," she yelled as she banged on the glass door. Chicago police said the man, 28, was shot in the right arm when he walked into a robbery at the steakhouse at 100 E. Ontario St. around 11:45 p.m. Sunday, police said. The robber, armed with a gun, had restrained employees in a locker room and took their cellphones, according to police. When the man walked into the locker room, the robber shot him and ran away. Officers arrested a suspect shortly afterward and recovered a weapon, police said. He is a disgruntled former employee who knew his way around the restaurant, a law enforcement source said. The wounded man was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where his condition was stabilized. Julio Ayala said he was working security at The James, a hotel on the same block. He rushed outside when he saw lights and sirens, and saw paramedics tending to a man lying on the ground. "To have a shooting this close ..." Ayala said, trailing off and shaking his head. Patrons of nearby bars, restaurants and hotels stepped outside, straining to see what happened in the middle of a downtown street that was still busy Sunday night. Lily and Abe Chapa, both 33, were sitting in the lobby of the AC Hotel by Marriott, just across the street, when the woman banged on the doors and yelled that someone had been shot. Moments after, they saw a swarm of police cars arrive. The Houston couple had just finished dinner at another steakhouse a few blocks away. "We were going to go there for dinner," Lily Chapa said of Lawry's, but the couple changed their mind at the last minute. Chicago police released video on Sept. 8, 2017, of suspect Chad Estep, who allegedly pushed a man onto CTA tracks Aug. 1 as he was waiting for a Blue Line train downtown. The man was not seriously injured. (Chicago Police Department) (Chicago Police Department) A Chicago man pleaded not guilty Monday to felony charges that he deliberately shoved a stranger onto CTA tracks in a Loop in early August. Chad Estep, 34, stood silently in a Cook County courtroom as his attorney, Vadim Glozman, entered the not-guilty plea on his behalf during a brief hearing. Advertisement Estep, a recent doctoral graduate in neuroscience from Northwestern University, has been charged with one count each of attempted murder and unlawful restraint and two counts of aggravated battery, court records show. A motive for the attack remained a mystery, but prosecutors have said Estep appeared intoxicated on surveillance videos inside the Blue Line's Washington Street station. Advertisement Estep came up behind Benedict and shoved him onto the tracks with both hands, knocking him perilously close to the electrified third rail, according to prosecutors. Estep then tried to block Benedict from getting back onto the platform and even tried to stop others at the station from assisting Benedict, prosecutors said. Benedict finally climbed to safety just seconds before a train arrived, prosecutors said, while Estep escaped on foot. Ben Benedict, 46, stands in the Washington Street Blue Line station on Sept. 6, 2017. Early in August, Benedict was pushed by a man onto the CTA subway tracks. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune) Police did not issue an alert after the attack. Video and a photo of a suspect were not released until the Chicago Tribune approached police about a month later. The surveillance video showed a man jumping the turnstile at the subway station but did not show the attack. Prosecutors have said police received several anonymous tips on the identity of the suspect after the surveillance photos were publicly released. At a previous court hearing, Benedict identified Estep as the man he saw moments after he was knocked onto the rails who was trying to prevent him from getting back onto the platform. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Estep is free on $200,000 bond after his wife posted the necessary $20,000 by check hours after his first appearance in court earlier this month. His next court date is scheduled for December. Proceedings are still in the very early phases, Glozman said. Advertisement "We're going to keep investigating until we're able to get the best possible result for Mr. Estep," Glozman told reporters outside the courtroom. mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com Twitter @crepeau Suspect in CTA pushing is bailed out of jail by wife Northwestern Ph.D. grad charged with pushing man onto CTA tracks in Loop Drew Peterson in the courtroom after being found guilty of the murder of Kathleen Savio. (Cheryl A. Cook, for the Chicago Tribune) From early on in his wife Stacy's disappearance, Drew Peterson passed himself off as a devil-may-care serial marriage victim, unfairly suspected in the death of one wife and the disappearance of another. Stacy Peterson has now been gone for 10 years she was last seen on Oct. 28, 2007, and reported missing the following day and by now even Peterson's son Stephen Peterson has admitted that his father's joking attitude is "not funny anymore." Advertisement Even early supporters like his son came to believe that there was no good explanation for the disappearance of Stacy, Drew's fourth wife, and the passing of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, who was found dead in a bathtub in 2004. Authorities took a new look at Savio's death after Stacy Peterson disappeared. A jury eventually convicted Drew Peterson of Savio's murder, and he was sentenced to 38 years in prison. Advertisement Much has happened in the case even since then, with a recent Illinois Supreme Court decision upholding his conviction. In between, Peterson was also found guilty of trying to arrange a hit on Will County's top prosecutor, adding 40 years to his prison sentence. As the story unfolded with one bizarre twist after another, Peterson became an infamous national figure who seemed to enjoy the attention he was getting even as he repeatedly proclaimed his innocence. While being sentenced for Savio's murder, he interrupted proceedings with the outburst: " I did not kill Kathleen!" To mark the 10th anniversary of Stacy Peterson's disappearance, her family planned to gather with friends and family at 2 p.m. Sunday to celebrate her life and raise funds for Team Watters Sonar, a nonprofit volunteer group based outside St. Louis that conducts water searches and recoveries and has assisted in the search for Stacy Peterson, her sister said. Tickets are $15, and the event takes place at the Levy Center in Bolingbrook. Stacy Peterson's sister Cassandra Cales, a 32-year-old single mother, says she accepted from the beginning that her sister was murdered, but has never given up trying to find her. "I'm still not stopping," Cales said. "My search will continue until I get the answers and bring Stacy home." She wants to keep Stacy in the news so that someone who knows something about what happened to her will come forward. As the case became a national scandal even spawning a TV movie starring Rob Lowe as Drew Peterson each person closely involved has had their lives altered forever. Advertisement Stacy and Drew Peterson in 2007. (Chicago Tribune) Stacy Peterson Stacy Peterson was just 23 when she disappeared, 30 years younger than her husband. They had two children together who are now adolescents. She also adopted Drew Petersons two children with Savio; they are now young adults. By all accounts, she was in love with Drew when they married. But he soon grew controlling, not letting her talk to her friends, pressuring her to get breast implants and constantly suspecting her of cheating, Cales said. Stacy disappeared the day before she was going to see a divorce attorney. Illinois State Police named Drew Peterson a suspect in Stacy's disappearance, which remains an active investigation, but he has never been charged in the case, and she has never been found. Cales said much of her extended family will fly in for the memorial Sunday. She said she still get tips about Stacy that she shares with police, but she said she is frustrated that they wont share any of the details of their investigation with her, citing confidentiality. "It's just so frustrating," she said. "The law needs to change." Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 35 An Illinois Department of Corrections van carrying Drew Peterson arrives at the Randolph County Courthouse in Chester, Ill., on May 23, 2016. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune) Drew Peterson Peterson, a former Bolingbrook police sergeant, called Menard Correctional Center, where he was held, a "living hell." Earlier this year, prison officials had him transferred to a federal prison in Indiana after determining that he was a threat because of the murder-for-hire plot. In April, he was attacked by another prisoner with a food tray in the chow hall but was not seriously injured, sources said. His son has told the Tribune that, on the phone, Drew remains in good spirits, despite having previously said in court that he was suicidal in prison. He is eligible for parole in 2081. Peterson's attorney Steven Greenberg said Friday that he will file a petition for a rehearing before the state Supreme Court, calling the ruling upholding the murder conviction "indefensible and unsupportable." Advertisement If the state court rules against him again, they'll take the case to federal court. Greenberg said of Peterson, "His spirits are good, and he's going to keep fighting because, notwithstanding public opinion, he did not commit the crime and the evidence did not prove it." Drew Peterson was convicted of killing his third wife, Kathleen Savio, and sentenced to 38 years in prison. (Savio family photo) Kathleen Savio Savio was Drew Peterson's third wife and was 38 when she was found dead in a dry bathtub at home in Bolingbrook in 2004, weeks before a scheduled hearing on money and custody matters in their divorce. Peterson at the time said she must have fallen and hit her head, which local police initially accepted. But after Stacy Peterson disappeared, investigators reopened the case. Savio's body was exhumed, and the coroner ruled her death a homicide, eventually leading to charges against Drew Peterson. No physical evidence or witnesses linked him directly to the death, but prosecutors used incriminating statements that Savio and Stacy Peterson had told associates that Drew Peterson had made. Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow arrives at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet in 2012 during the Drew Peterson trial. (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune) James Glasgow Peterson's third alleged victim was the man who put him behind bars. Will County State's Attorney James Glasgow made the decision to charge Peterson despite criticism that he lacked physical evidence and relied on hearsay testimony. Advertisement While Peterson was in jail awaiting trial, police recorded him in phone calls talking about what Glasgow said was an "evil plot" to have the prosecutor killed. Peterson was convicted of a murder-for-hire plot and sentenced to an additional 40 years in prison, which all but guarantees he'll die behind bars. Glasgow was unopposed for re-election last year, and is the longest-serving state's attorney in Will County. Stephen Peterson, son of convicted murderer Drew Peterson, and Melissa Moore, host of the TV show "Monster in My Family," talk in the Bolingbrook home in 2016 where Drew Peterson lived with his fourth wife, Stacy, who is missing and presumed dead. (Lifetime) Stephen Peterson Drew Peterson's son was an Oak Brook police officer who lost his job in 2011 for failing to disclose that after Stacy Peterson's disappearance, he hid his father's guns and checks worth more than $200,000. The younger Petersons marriage ended, and he moved into the home in Bolingbrook that Drew and Stacy once shared. He now is acting as guardian to Drew and Stacys two children, and also has looked after Drews two sons with Savio. Cassandra Cales objected that Stephen doesnt let her see the children. Stephen Peterson told the Tribune in February that he had been living on Drew's pension payments until they ended last year. He said the financial pressure since then prompted him to agree to a $10,000 payment to participate in an episode of the Lifetime show, "Monster in My Family." Peterson told the Tribune he planned to look for work, possibly in law enforcement. Advertisement rmccoppin@chicagotribune.com Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Twitter @RobertMcCoppin RELATED Timeline: The Drew Peterson case Drew Peterson gets 40 extra years for plot to kill prosecutor PDFs: Drew Peterson case file Advertisement Drew Peterson's son: Father 'probably' killed both wives Contrite former Peterson attorney Brodsky apologizes for 'going too far' Rosendo Hernandez, right, holds a sign with photos of the alleged victims of former Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara outside the Leighton Criminal Court Building on July 20, 2016. On Oct. 30, 2017, Guevara testified regarding a 1998 murder investigation. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) In his second appearance on the witness stand in two weeks, embattled former Chicago police Detective Reynaldo Guevara continued to claim Monday that he didnt remember anything substantial about a 1998 murder investigation, but then denied allegations he beat two men who confessed to the killing. Guevaras denials came after a Cook County prosecutor and a judge pressed him on whether he punched Gabriel Solache or Arturo Reyes, both convicted of the brutal double murder in Chicagos Bucktown neighborhood. Advertisement Did you ever punch (Reyes) in the stomach? asked Assistant States Attorney James Papa. Its something I would not have done, Guevara replied. Advertisement When Judge James Obbish pressed for a straight answer, Guevara flatly denied using physical force on Reyes. Guevara gave similar answers when asked whether he punched Solache, but when Papa asked if he slapped the suspect, Guevara denied remembering anything. Earlier in his testimony, Guevara didnt appear to look at paperwork shown to him by prosecutors who were attempting to help refresh his memory. Ive asked you to review it, Papa said. Start looking through pages. Its a report, I dont remember, Guevara said without appearing to examine the document. Guevara, 74, who has previously invoked his right to remain silent when questioned about such allegations, has been granted immunity from prosecution in an effort to get him to answer questions. But his lawyers feared that breaking his silence could put him at risk of perjury charges if his answers differed with his accounts from years ago. He could, however, risk contempt of court and his jailing by refusing to testify altogether. After Guevara wrapped up about half an hour on the witness stand Monday, prosecutors argued that they should be allowed to use the retired detectives more forthcoming testimony from 2000 to fight the attempt by Solache and Reyes to have their charges thrown out. Advertisement Obbish agreed but noted it was up to him to decide how much weight to give that decades-old testimony by Guevara in light of more recent developments. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Attorneys will argue in December if the confessions were obtained lawfully. Earlier this month, Guevara took the stand for less than 10 minutes at a hearing and repeatedly said he did not recall anything substantial about the circumstances of the investigation. Attorneys had agreed ahead of time to split his testimony in two, so he returned Monday. Multiple others who have been convicted of murder have come forward in recent years with similar accusations of wrongdoing against Guevara. Several of their convictions have been thrown out. mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com Advertisement Twitter @crepeau RELATED [ Ex-Chicago cop accused of misconduct takes stand but denies remembering details ] [ Judge says controversial ex-Chicago police detective 'has to testify' ] Someone fired a gun at least six times outside a South Side elementary school as kids were on the playground 50 feet away Monday afternoon, according to Chicago police. No one was injured in the shooting, which happened about 12:20 p.m. outside the Irma C. Ruiz Elementary School at 24th and Leavitt streets, police said. Maribel Vanegas, 21, was pulling her car out of a parking spot on 24th Street when the shooting started. The first shot she heard hit her front windshield and exited the back. "I just panicked, I guess," she said. She put her car in reverse, then did a U-turn and headed back east on 24th Street to a friend's house. She heard police sirens soon afterward and headed back to make a report. The children were playing outside for recess when the shooting started, Vanegas said. Chicago Public Schools declined to let the school principal speak on the record for this story. Advertisement Officers found at least six shell casings in the street outside a home where a family was loading a moving truck. After waiting to make sure no one showed up shot at a hospital, an officer put on latex gloves and placed the casings into a clear plastic bag. Vanegas said she was shot in 2012, when she was 16, while walking to a corner store. She walked between a shooter and two men he was aiming at. She was struck in the buttocks, and a friend was wounded in the arm. Aviation security officers struggle with a United passenger who was asked to leave a flight the airline says was overbooked. This is a screenshot of a video posted on Twitter. (Tyler Bridges / Twitter) Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Subscribe here. Topspin The second week of City Hall budget hearings starts Monday, with the Department of Aviation among the agencies under scrutiny. Advertisement Earlier this month, the city's Office of Inspector General showed the agency had fired two of its officers involved in April's widely publicized dragging of a passenger off a flight at O'Hare International Airport. In July, aldermen pushed back on a directive from Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans to remove the word "police" from the uniforms and vehicles of aviation security officers. Advertisement Also this week: The new Civilian Office of Police Accountability is on the hearing schedule for Wednesday, and the Police Department on Thursday. Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposed budget, which included a $1.10-a-month fee hike on phone lines, will be considered by the full City Council in November. What's on tap *Mayor Emanuel will make an announcement about police body cameras in the morning and speak about changes to the city's domestic violence policy at City Hall in the afternoon. Later, he'll attend the Chicago Innovation Awards. *Gov. Bruce Rauner is on a trade mission to Israel. *The City Council committee on Committees, Rules and Ethics meets, as will the Committee on Workforce Development and Audit. *Cook County budget hearings continue, with hearings on the budget for the offices of Board President Toni Preckwinkle and Treasurer Maria Pappas. *Hillary Clinton will have a book tour stop at the Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University. *Democratic candidate for governor J.B. Pritzker will hold a news conference to announce an endorsement from U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, a source close to the campaign said. Advertisement *Illinois Democrats in Congress and Preckwinkle will hold a news conference to mark the beginning of the Affordable Care Act open enrollment period. *Chicago City Treasurer Kurt Summers will introduce a new lending program for small business owners. *Illinois Office of Tourism Director Cory Jobe speaks to the City Club of Chicago. *The week ahead: City budget hearings continue, but state lawmakers won't be in Springfield again until next week. From the notebook *On the "Sunday Spin": Chicago Tribune reporter Rick Pearson's guests were Fred Hochberg, former president and CEO of the Export-Import Bank of the United States; former state Republican Chairman Pat Brady and Democratic U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg. The "Sunday Spin" airs from 7 to 9 a.m. on WGN-AM 720. Listen to the full show here. What we're writing *State Rep. Ives collecting signatures for possible Rauner primary challenge. Advertisement *Ex-Gov. Pat Quinn looks at possible attorney general bid. *Assessor Berrios offers no timeline on property tax study 3 months after Preckwinkle ordered it up. *Rauner won't weigh in on attempt to ban "bump stocks" after bill fails in House. *Former President Obama called to jury duty in Cook County and plans to serve. *Two intelligence committees interested in Peter W. Smith, who sought Clinton emails from Russian hackers. *Aldermen call for tougher background checks of Uber, Lyft drivers. Advertisement What we're reading *New Apple store to dim lights at night after group says birds are flying into its glass. *Amazon Stadium? Chicago developer hopes it's the ticket to HQ2. *Flip Burger's soul-satisfying burger rivals Au Cheval. Follow the money *The Illinois Campaign for Political Reform tracks the week's top donations, including in the race for governor. *Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here. Advertisement Beyond Chicago *Trump Tower meeting talking points shared with Kremlin. *Limit 401(k) savings? *U.S. keeps secrets in standoff with North Korea. *Puerto Rico cancels Whitefish contract. George Papadopoulos, a former adviser to Donald Trump's campaign, has been indicted as part of the ongoing investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller. George Papadopoulos, a former adviser to Donald Trump's campaign, has been indicted as part of the ongoing investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller. (Internet - Fair Use) The 30-year-old Chicago man who entered the first guilty plea in special counsel Robert Muellers probe of the Russian governments efforts to interfere with the 2016 election is just a small part of a much larger investigation, court papers unveiled Monday show. George Papadopoulos, a 2009 DePaul University graduate, pleaded guilty Oct. 5 to lying to the FBI and signaled he is cooperating with investigators as they attempt to unravel the Trump campaigns dealings with Russia. He has acknowledged that he misled investigators about his dealings with the foreign power, including interactions with an unnamed overseas professor whom he believed to be connected to the Russian government and who told him the Russians had dirt on then-candidate Hillary Clinton via thousands of emails. Advertisement Theres a large-scale, ongoing investigation of which this case is a small part, said Aaron Zelinsky of the special counsels office at Papadopoulos plea hearing. Papadopoulos, who grew up in suburban Lincolnwood and attended Niles West High School, did postgraduate work in London after earning a political science degree from DePaul, according to his social media accounts. Court records show that he has been given permission to live in Chicago, where he owns a home with his mother and younger brother in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, until his sentencing. Advertisement Papadopoulos, who has no prior convictions, was convicted of one count of making false statements. It carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to court documents. However, in the plea deal he cut, it is estimated he would face either no prison time or up to six months in prison and a fine in the range of $500 to $9,500, documents show. A foreign policy adviser to President Donald Trumps campaign, Papadopoulos was arrested July 27 after arriving at Dulles International Airport on a flight from Munich, according to federal records. He was charged in a sealed criminal complaint the next day and had an initial court appearance before a magistrate judge in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., though the proceedings were held in a courtroom closed to the public, records show. At that hearing, Papadopoulos agreed to surrender his passport and not to travel outside the federal court districts in Virginia, Washington, D.C., or Northern Illinois. He was also barred from communicating with anyone associated with the presidential campaign or others mentioned in the charges, records show. Meanwhile, the special counsels office at the time sought and received permission from the federal judge overseeing Papadopoulos case in D.C. to keep all filings under seal, arguing that any public knowledge of the charges against Papadopoulos would have a chilling effect on the investigation, court records show. The special counsels office also has described him in court documents as a proactive cooperator, a legal term used to describe someone who actively helps in a law-enforcement investigation. The three-month gap between his arrest and the governments unveiling of his plea also suggests that kind of assistance. This means hes not just answering questions and telling the special counsel what went on, said former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Cramer, who is now managing director for the Berkeley Research Group. It means he took an affirmative step toward helping the investigation. One way of doing that is to wear a wire. Papadopoulos Chicago-based attorneys, Thomas Breen and Robert Stanley, declined to comment on the case, saying it was in their clients best interest to do so. We will have the opportunity to comment on Georges involvement when called upon by the Court at a later date, the attorneys said in a statement. We look forward to telling all the details of Georges story at that time. Advertisement The public was not allowed in the courtroom when Papadopoulos entered his guilty plea earlier this month. According to a transcript made available Monday, Papadopoulos told the judge he was born in Chicago, has a masters degree and that he understood he was giving up his trial rights. I plead guilty, Papadopoulos said, according to the transcript. Toward the end of the 45-minute hearing, Breen told the judge he had no objection to the proceedings remaining under seal, which he said was to his clients benefit. I certainly understand the special prosecutors position on this matter, considering the very expansive investigation thats going forward, Breen said. Papadopoulos has been living in a large, remodeled brick bungalow on a secluded block of stately homes in the Lincoln Square neighborhood, according to state records and a neighbor who lives across the street. He is frequently seen walking his dog, but otherwise mostly keeps to himself, said neighbor Kim Zimmerman, who believes he lives in the home with his mother. Papadopoulos did not attend this year's block party or mingle much with neighbors, who often commiserate while doing yardwork, she said. Advertisement Zimmerman said she last saw Papadopoulos about a week ago. Someone often picked him up, she said, honking the horn of his car to alert Papadopoulos that it was time to leave. "They are friendly enough," Zimmerman said. "But I never really had enough encounters to know them at all." No one answered the door of the home Monday afternoon. A conservative think tank researcher, Papadopoulos was living in London in early March 2016 when he agreed to join the Trump campaign as foreign policy adviser, according to court records. Trump, at the time, was competing in hard-fought presidential primaries, including Illinois mid-March contest, and had not yet secured the GOP nomination. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders downplayed Papadopoulos campaign involvement Monday, calling him a volunteer whose role was extremely limited. However, Trump referred to him as an excellent guy in a March 2016 interview with the Washington Post and touted his expertise on energy and oil-related issues. Based on a conversation with a supervisory campaign official after joining Trumps team, Papadopoulos understood that a principal foreign policy focus of the campaign was an improved U.S. relationship with Russia, court documents show. Advertisement He met with an unnamed overseas professor for the first time in March 14, 2016, according to court documents. On April 26, 2016, the professor told Papadopoulos about the thousands of emails he had that could prove damaging to Clinton, court documents show. Court records suggest Russia regularly uses nongovernmental agents to achieve its foreign intelligence objectives. Papadopoulos misled FBI agents about those initial conversations when he was interviewed in Chicago shortly after Trumps inauguration. FBI agents first questioned Papadopoulos on Jan. 27, 2017. He spoke with them a second time on Feb. 16, when he promised to cooperate with their investigation. The next day, according to federal records, Papadopoulos deleted his Facebook account and created a new one in an attempt to delete any information about his Russian contacts. He also switched cellphone numbers a short time later. In addition to falsely stating that the March meeting took place before he joined the campaign, Papadopoulos told agents the professor was a nothing and just a guy talk(ing) up connections or something, court documents show. Advertisement In truth, Papadopoulos understood the professor had substantial ties to Russian government officials and had met with some of those officials in Moscow just before telling Papadopoulos about the thousands of emails, documents show. He also told federal investigators, according to court documents, that he met an unnamed female Russian national before joining the campaign and their communications consisted of emails such as Hi, how are you? In fact, he met the woman around March 24, 2016, because he believed she had ties to Russian government officials, court records show. Papadopoulos sought to use the woman over a period of months in an effort to arrange a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, court documents show. At one point, he thought the woman was Russian President Vladimir Putins niece, but she was not, according to federal records. Through his false statements and omissions, defendant Papadopoulos impeded the FBIs ongoing investigation into the existence of any links or coordination between individuals associated with the Campaign and the Russian governments efforts to interfere with the 2016 presidential election, court documents show. According to the special counsels office, Papadopoulos emailed a high-ranking campaign official in May 2016 with the subject line Request from Russia to meet Mr. Trump. In the body of the message, he stated that Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite sometime and have been reaching out to me to discuss. Advertisement In later emails, Papadopoulos contacted a high ranking campaign official, including correspondence on June 19, 2016, inquiring about setting up a meeting with Russian agents. The Russian ministry of foreign affairs messaged and said that if Mr. Trump is unable to make it to Russia, if a campaign rep (me or someone else) can make it for meetings? I am willing to make the trip off the record if its in the interest of Mr. Trump and the campaign to meet specific people, Papadopoulos wrote. After several weeks of additional communications about a potential off the record meeting with Russian officials, the campaign supervisor told Papadopoulos in August 2016 that I would encourage you and another foreign policy adviser to the campaign to make the trip, if it is feasible, according to court documents. According to court records, the campaign official forwarded Papadopouloss email to another campaign staffer and stated: Lets discuss. We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal. U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, a Chicago Democrat and member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Papadopouloss plea suggests this is just the beginning. When Im asked, Are you connecting the dots on the investigation, I say, Yes. But as we do, Im finding more dots, Quigley said at an unrelated event with other Democratic members of Congress on the West Side. I suggest as you follow this youre going to have other names pop up that youve never heard of before, but theyre going to be critical to the investigation. Advertisement Chicago Tribunes Marissa Page, Stacy St. Clair and Rick Pearson contributed from Chicago. poconnell@chicagotribune.com jmeisner@chicagotribune.com kskiba@chicagotribune.com Twitter @pmocwriter Twitter @KatherineSkiba Advertisement Twitter @jmetr22b RELATED [ 3 former Trump campaign aides face criminal charges in dramatic expansion of Mueller probe ] [ Upstairs at home, with the TV on, Trump fumes over Russia indictments ] [ Analysis: 7 big questions about the Russia probe from Trump aide George Papadopoulos's plea deal ] The U.S. military has launched a homicide investigation into the death of a Special Forces soldier in Mali and whether members of the Navy SEALs had a role in his killing. Staff Sgt. Logan Melger died June 4 in Mali's capital, Bamako, where he was deployed as a member of the Army's 3rd Special Forces Group. A spokesman for Army Special Operations Command, Lt. Col. Robert Bockholt, said Melger's death is under investigation, but he declined to release additional details. The cause is listed as homicide, two U.S. military officials familiar with the case told The Washington Post on Sunday. Melger's death was first reported by the New York Times, which said a Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation now centers on two members of the Navy's SEAL Team 6 and a medical examiner's determination that Melger died by strangulation. No criminal charges have been filed, the Times reported. A spokesman with U.S. Special Operations Command declined to comment on the case. Ed Buice, a spokesman for NCIS, confirmed its role in the probe, saying the agency took over for the Army's Criminal Investigative Division in late-September. He declined to address how Melger died, saying NCIS does not discuss the details of ongoing investigations. Then-U.S. envoy Chris Stevens attends meetings on April 11, 2011, at the Tibesty Hotel in Benghazi, Libya. U.S. special operations forces captured a militant in Libya accused of playing an instrumental role in the Benghazi attacks, officials said Oct. 30, 2017. (Ben Curtis / AP) WASHINGTON U.S. special operations forces captured a militant in Libya accused of playing an instrumental role in the Benghazi attacks, officials say, in a high-stakes operation designed to bring the perpetrators to justice five years after the deadly violence. President Donald Trump on Monday identified the militant as Mustafa al-Imam and said his capture signified that the four Americans who died "will never be forgotten." Justice Department officials were escorting al-Imam by military plane to the United States, where he's expected to be tried in federal court. Advertisement "Our memory is deep and our reach is long, and we will not rest in our efforts to find and bring the perpetrators of the heinous attacks in Benghazi to justice," Trump said. The Navy SEAL-led raid marked the first publicly known operation since Trump took office to target those accused of involvement in Benghazi, which mushroomed into a multiyear political fracas centered on Republican allegations of a bungled Obama administration response. Those critiques shadowed Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the attacks, through her presidential campaign. Advertisement U.S. forces captured al-Imam just before midnight local time Sunday in Misrata, on Libya's north coast, U.S. officials said. He was taken to a U.S. Navy ship at the Misrata port for transport by military plane to Washington, where he's expected to arrive within the next two days, one of the officials said. Once on American soil, al-Imam will face trial in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as the FBI continues to investigate, the Justice Department said. He faces three criminal charges that were filed in May 2015 but only recently unsealed: killing or conspiring to kill someone during an attack on a federal facility, providing support for terrorists, and using a firearm in connection with a violent crime. It wasn't immediately clear how al-Imam was involved in the Sept. 11, 2012, violence. The U.S. attorney's office said he is a Libyan national and about 46. Trump said he'd ordered the raid, and thanked the U.S. military, intelligence agencies and prosecutors for tracking al-Imam and enabling his capture. The U.S. officials said the operation was coordinated with Libya's internationally recognized government. They weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he'd spoken with the relatives of some of the Americans who died in Benghazi: U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, State Department information management officer Sean Patrick Smith, and contract security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Tillerson said the U.S. would "spare no effort" to ensure al-Imam is held accountable. Al-Imam will face court proceedings in U.S. District Court, officials said, in an apparent departure from Trump's previously expressed desire to send militants to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In an interview last March with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called Guantanamo "a very fine place for holding these kind of dangerous criminals." The commando raid also came amid an ongoing debate about the use of U.S. forces to pursue insurgents in Africa and other locations outside of warzones like Iraq and Afghanistan. Four U.S. soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger earlier this month under circumstances that have remained hazy and prompted Democrats and Republicans in Congress to express concerns. Advertisement Earlier this month, another man accused in the Benghazi attack, Ahmed Abu Khattala, went on trial in federal court in Washington. Abu Khattala, captured during President Barack Obama's tenure, has pleaded not guilty to the 18 charges against him, including murder of an internationally protected person, providing material support to terrorists and destroying U.S. property while causing death. The Benghazi assault started in the evening when armed attackers scaled the wall of the diplomatic post and moved through the front gate. Stevens was rushed to a fortified "safe room" along with Smith, but were then siphoned off from security officers when attackers set the building and its furniture on fire. Libyan civilians found Stevens hours later in the wreckage, and he died of smoke inhalation in a hospital, becoming the first U.S. ambassador killed in the line of duty in more than three decades. A nearby CIA annex was attacked by mortar fire hours after the diplomatic complex, killing Woods and Doherty, who were defending the rooftop. The attack became fodder for multiple congressional investigations to determine what happened and whether the Obama administration misled the public on the details of the bloody assault. Initial accounts provided by administration officials, notably Obama's U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, said the attack grew out of a protest against an anti-Muslim internet film. Later, the administration said it was a planned attack by extremists. A two-year investigation by a House Benghazi committee focused heavily on Clinton's role and whether security at the compounds and the response to the attack was sufficient. It was the Benghazi probe that revealed Clinton used a private email server for government work, prompting an FBI investigation that proved to be an albatross for her presidential campaign. Associated Press writers Maggie Michael in Cairo and Sadie Gurman in Washington contributed to this report. In this undated handout photo released by Ekho Moskvy radio station shows journalist Tatyana Felgenhauer in the Ekho Moskvy (Echo of Moscow) radio station office in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, Oct. 23 2017. (Vitaly Ruvinsky / AP) MOSCOW A Russian journalist who was put into a temporary coma by a stabbing attack thanked supporters Monday in her first statement from the hospital, while Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to play down the attack. Tatyana Felgenhauer, a top host and deputy editor-in-chief at Ekho Moskvy, Russia's only independent news radio station, was stabbed in the throat last week. She underwent surgery and is still in the hospital. Advertisement Investigators have identified the assailant as 48-year-old Boris Grits who holds Russian and Israeli citizenship. He is under arrest. The station says he attacked its security guard then went up to a higher floor to directly target Felgenhauer. In her first statement since the attack, Felgenhauer thanked colleagues, family and friends Monday and said "you have to fight for your life." She recalled how a stranger who was visiting the station stayed with her while a colleague went to call for help. Advertisement "That woman didn't walk away," Felgenhauer said. "She helped to press on the wounds on my throat because I had no energy left and I was beginning to choke on the blood." Speaking at a session with Russia's most prominent rights activists, President Putin on Monday rejected suggestions that the attack on Felgenhauer follows an ongoing crackdown on independent journalists for their critical reporting. "That was just a sick man," Putin said in the reference to the attacker. "What does freedom of speech have to do with this?" Felgenhauer's statement came a day after Russia's major state television station put out a 13-minute clip attacking Ekho Moskvy, claiming the station had provoked the attack. Rossiya 24's Dmitry Kiselyov, whose station aired a documentary two weeks before the attack accusing Felgenhauer and her colleagues of working against Russia, on his Sunday show described the attacker as "a typical Ekho Moskvy fan." Ekho Moskvy's editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov said last week that he had to evacuate another host, Ksenia Larina, because of security concerns. Another senior editor at Ekho confirmed Monday that Larina had fled Russia. Kiselyov, who is also a senior executive at the state-owned TV company that runs Rossiya 24, dismissed Venediktov's concerns as "persecutory delusion." He insisted that his channel never "called (Larina) a criminal or urged to bar her from the profession." In addition to charges against President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort that were released on Monday, there was another unexpected development in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. George Papadopoulos, identified in March 2016 as an adviser to the Trump campaign during an interview with The Washington Post, admitted to having provided false statements to the FBI about his interactions with individuals tied to the Russian government. Papadopoulos' credentials as a foreign-policy adviser were questioned immediately by observers; a 2009 college graduate, his LinkedIn page included his work with model United Nations as an "honor and award." According to a document unsealed by the FBI on Monday, Papadopoulos admits to having been contacted by Russian agents shortly after being identified as a campaign adviser, contacts that continued for months. After being arrested in July, he then met with authorities multiple times to answer questions, details revealed only once the Manafort indictment was made public. Below, a timeline of what the statement details. March 6, 2016:Papadopoulos learns that he will serve as an adviser to Trump's campaign. (The timing isn't clear; it may have been a day before or after this date.) March 14: While in Italy, Papadopoulos meets a "professor based in London" who is initially "uninterested" in Papadopoulos - until Papadopoulos explains that he's working for Trump's campaign. Papadopoulos is interested in the professor because the professor has links to the Kremlin, which Papadopoulos believed would be useful in bolstering his position with the campaign. March 21: Trump meets with The Post and identifies several campaign advisers, including Papadopoulos. March 22: Papadopoulos' credentials are called into question. On this same day, Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta is sent an email including a fraudulent link to change his Google password. It's believed that this email was sent by an agent of the Russian government and was used to illegally access his email account. March 24: Papadopoulos and the professor meet in London. They are joined by a woman who claims to be a niece of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The purpose of the meeting, he later writes in an email to "the Campaign Supervisor and several members of the Campaign's foreign policy team" (per the statement), is to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin. Who the "campaign supervisor" is isn't clear. At that point, the Trump campaign is being managed by Corey Lewandowski. In August, The Post reported that Sam Clovis, a campaign co-chairman who worked with the foreign policy team, had rejected the idea of a meeting over the short term. "We thought we probably should not go forward with any meeting with the Russians until we have had occasion to sit with our NATO allies," he wrote in an email. From our report: "In the same email chain, [adviser Navy Rear Adm. Charles] Kubic, the retired admiral, reminded others about legal restrictions on meetings with certain Russian officials, adding, 'Just want to make sure that no one on the team outruns their headlights and embarrasses the campaign.' " March 28: Manafort is hired to manage the Trump campaign's delegate process. March 31: At a campaign national security meeting in Washington (also attended by Trump), Papadopoulos tells the group that he had connections that could facilitate a meeting with Putin. Trump tweeted an image from the meeting. Jeff Sessions, then a senator from Alabama, is seated in the foreground and is speaking. Papadopoulos is sitting two chairs to Sessions's left. Early April: Papadopoulos emails the foreign policy team to update them about ongoing discussions with the professor and Putin's "niece." He details his "outreach to Russia." At some point this month, the Democratic National Committee's server is illegally accessed by hackers believed to be connected to the Russian government. It's the second such intrusion; the first occurred in the summer of 2015. April 10 - 11: In an email exchange with the "niece" and the professor, Papadopoulos mentions trying to set up a "potential foreign policy trip to Russia." The professor replies that it has "already been agreed" and mentions that he'll be in Moscow later that month for meetings at the Russian Duma and a "Valdai meeting." (There is such a meeting on April 19.) The niece replies, "I have already alerted my personal links to our conversation and your request . . . As mentioned we are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump. The Russian Federation would love to welcome him once his candidature would be officially announced." April 18: During the period that the professor says he'll be in Russia, he introduces Papadopoulos over email to a Russian who works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Later reporting from The Post indicates that this is likely Ivan Timofeev, a senior MFA official. Late April: Papadopoulos and Timofeev have "multiple conversations over Skype and email" about setting up a meeting between the campaign and government officials. April 22: Timofeev and Papadopoulos discuss meetings in Moscow or London. April 26: Papadopoulos and the professor meet in London. At that meeting, the professor tells Papadopoulos that, while in Moscow, he learned that "the Russians had obtained "dirt" on then-candidate [Hillary] Clinton." Per Papadopoulos, the professor said that "'They have dirt on her'; 'the Russians had emails of Clinton'; 'they have thousands of emails.'" April 27: Papadopoulos emails a senior campaign staffer to indicate that he's gotten some "interesting messages." He also emails a "high-ranking campaign official" to reiterate that Putin would like to host Trump. The Post's August report indicates that the high-ranking official who was told about Putin wanting to meet was Lewandowski. April 30: Papadopoulos emails the professor to thank him for his help, saying that it's "history making" if the meeting happens. May 4: Timofeev emails Papadopoulos. "I have just talked to my colleagues from the MFA," it reads. "The[y] are open for cooperation. One of the options is to make a meeting for you at the North America Desk, if you are in Moscow." Papadopoulos forwards this to Lewandowski and, the next day to the "campaign supervisor," who is probably Clovis. Lewandowski doesn't reply; Clovis says, "[t]here are legal issues we need to mitigate, meeting with foreign officials as a private citizen." May 21: Papadopoulos emails another high-ranking campaign official - Manafort, according to The Post's August report - informing him that "Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite sometime and have been reaching out to me to discuss." Manafort forwards the email to Rick Gates (who was also indicted on Monday). "We need someone to communicate that [Trump] is not doing these trips," he writes. "It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal." Summer 2016: Papadopoulos tries to set up an off-the-record meeting between the campaign and Russian officials, possibly including himself. "The Russian ministry of foreign affairs messaged and said that if Mr. Trump is unable to make it to Russia, if a campaign rep (me or someone else) can make it for meetings?" he emails a campaign official on June 19. "I am willing to make the trip off the record if it's in the interest of Mr. Trump and the campaign to meet specific people." The meeting never happens. July 22: WikiLeaks begins releasing emails stolen from the DNC. July 27: During a news conference, Trump states that Russia "probably [has] her 33,000 emails" - referring to emails deleted by Clinton after her service in the State Department because her lawyers didn't believe them to be related to her tenure. Oct. 7: WikiLeaks begins releasing emails stolen from Podesta. Jan. 27: Papadopoulos is interviewed at the FBI. During that interview, he makes false statements about the above interactions. He claims: - That the professor contacted him before Papadopoulos worked with the campaign and that he met the "niece" before him being in that role as well. - That the professor was an unimportant figure. - That he was told about the "dirt" on Clinton before serving with the campaign. Feb. 16: The FBI interviews him again. Feb. 17: Papadopoulos deactivates his Facebook account. It had included information about his conversations with the professor. July 27: Papadopoulos is arrested at Dulles Airport in Washington. Summer: Papadopoulos "[meets] with the Government on numerous occasions to provide information and answer questions." Oct. 5: Papadopoulos admits that the statements he gave the FBI are false and agrees to the timeline and details above. Oct. 30: The statement of offense is unsealed, the same day that indictments against Manafort and Gates are made public. Advertisement Advertisement Al Markus was feeling restless standing in a crowd of people near a stage erected in Volunteer Park in Sugar Grove, awaiting the kickoff of the villages annual Corn Boil last July. He wasnt the kind of guy that liked standing still for too long, said his son, Allan. It was the 50th year of Sugar Groves most popular festival aimed at promoting a sense of community and providing support to various causes in that far western suburb of about 9,000 residents in southern Kane County. This year it raised money to help those affected by autism Markus, a former Chicago resident, had lived in Sugar Grove since 2001 and was a big part of making the Corn Boil a success. For years, he was in charge of all the facilities at the event installing signs, ordering equipment, setting up and tearing down tents and fencing, and getting generators up and running. I dont think we could have done it without him, said Pat Graceffa, a longtime member of the Corn Boil planning committee. He did about everything. So when it was announced on stage that Markus had been selected as Sugar Groves 2017 Citizen of the Year, it came as no surprise, except to the award winner himself described as a shy man known for his smirk and funny take on things whod been kept in the dark until that very moment. Al had no idea he was getting the award and thats what made it so great, said Joe Didier, a retired Illinois State trooper, who was next to Markus as he learned about the award. He had turned to me just seconds before and said, I wonder what old fart will be getting it this year? Advertisement Markus, 67, who was battling a heart condition in recent years, died Oct. 15, after collapsing in his home, his son said. Al was a kind and gentle giant, Graceffa said. Losing him was like losing family. Markus wife of 37 years, Donna, died in 2012. She served on the planning committee for the Corn Boil, and a scholarship for local students was established in her name. Friends say they will never forget how Markus cared for his wife during her struggle with cancer. It touched everybodys heart, Graceffa said. For years, Markus was also responsible for putting up and taking down the more than 2,000 lights that adorned the Sugar Grove Christmas tree in the village center. Advertisement Hed moan and groan climbing that cherry picker with all those lights, but hed never let anyone else to do it, Graceffa said. When it was lit, he loved seeing the smiles on kids faces, especially his own grandchildren. The son of a machinist, Markus was born and raised on the Northwest Side and graduated from Gordon Technical High School. He loved cars, was good with his hands and quickly found work in several auto shops. In the mid-1970s, he was hired by a company that installed fiberglass used in the construction of roller coasters during the construction of Six Flags Great America in Gurnee. He was there when the gates first opened and had signs from opening day, his son said. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Markus was the manager of Bump City Auto Body in Oak Park for more than three decades, before retiring at age 64. For many years, he lived with his family on the Northwest Side in the Galewood neighborhood, before moving to Sugar Grove. He signed on as a volunteer with the Corn Boil soon after. Year after year, Id see him out in the park putting up tents, installing port-a-potties and testing equipment, and Id wonder to myself if people had any idea how much work he put into this, Graceffa said. Advertisement Didier, who met Markus soon after he moved to Sugar Grove, says hell miss his old friend, whom he visited nearly every day for the past five years. After Donna died, I thought he might be a little lonely, so Id swing by his house, Didier said. Hed say he was fine, but as I was leaving hed always call out, So Ill see you tomorrow, right? Other survivors include a son, James; a daughter, Melissa Fayfar; two brothers, Bill and Daniel; a sister, Patricia Bailey; and five grandchildren. Services were held. Joan Giangrasse Kates is a freelance reporter. Natalie Saffold was the former president of the LeClaire Courts public housing complex in Chicago's Garfield Ridge neighborhood, near Midway Airport. (Phil Velasquez / Chicago Tribune) For more than a decade, Natalie Saffold was the president of the LeClaire Courts public housing complex on the Southwest Side a role she took on with serious pride. Advertisement When dozens of residents of the housing complex near Midway Airport were forced to move so it could be demolished, she was the last one to pack up and go. She was the type of person who wanted to make sure everyone else was secure and had homes before she left, said her son, Robert Saffold. Thats where she came from, where she spent her life and where she was respected, so she didnt want to leave. Advertisement During the Chicago Housing Authoritys controversial implementation of its Plan for Transformation, which tore down dozens of public housing complexes and scattered residents throughout the city and beyond, she emerged as one of the most vocal resident leaders. Saffold, 61, died Oct. 24 at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center of complications related to kidney failure, her son said. Saffold grew up on the West Side near West Garfield Park and was a single mother with three children when she moved into LeClaire Courts in 1981. She had an aunt who lived at the complex off the Stevenson Expressway, near Cicero Avenue and West 47th Street, and the father of her children grew up nearby, so the move was meant to stabilize her family, her son said. But once she got settled, she learned she could have an impact on her neighbors lives simply by speaking up for them. She was quickly elected president of the resident council and became known as an advocate for resident work programs, computer training and for pushing for recreational programs for the children who lived there. When plans were made to demolish the complex, Saffold was one of the key organizers who tried to persuade residents not to leave without a fight. She worried that once the residents left for new homes, either on the private market with vouchers or in other complexes, they would lose their power. In recent years, Saffold emerged as a strong voice challenging CHA for not returning residents back to their original homes, as was promised. She moved from LeClaire Courts in 2009. She liked her new apartment in Bridgeport but often expressed that she felt stripped from her close-knit community, said her son, CHA officials and housing activists. I was struck by the resolute clarity of vision she had about wanting to see justice for her community, said Leah Levinger, the executive director of the Chicago Housing Initiative. For her, it was a simple matter: Promises were made, she was the president when those promises were formalized. She felt it was her duty to make right on what her community had been told. Even as her health suffered, Saffold made it her business to attend CHA public meetings where decisions on LeClaire Court were being discussed, because she wanted to represent the residents interests. Once, at a meeting where some of the vacant land was being sold to be developed into a charter school, she suffered a health crisis and had to be hospitalized. Advertisement She had a real force of spirit she was going to speak her truth no matter what and was going to advocate for her community no matter what, Levinger said. She threw herself in to it and gave the best of her capacity to make things right for the residents of LeClaire. She was well-known even among CHA administrators and officials. Daywatch Weekdays Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. > Natalie loved where she came from, and she had a passion and love for the people in that development because they were like her family, said Crystal Palmer, an assistant director of regional engagement for CHA. She felt really hurt that they were not all together at their site. She had a deep love for her community, and the residents cared for her because she fought for them. When she could, she would agitate CHA officials about moving residents back to the complex, which was supposed to be rebuilt. But she never got a chance to live in her old neighborhood again. They never built anything for her to go back to, her son said. All she wanted is what they promised to go back home. Besides her son, Saffold is survived by another son, Courtney Saffold; a sister, Elaine Weathersby; a brother, Clarence Saffold; a daughter, Resheka Saffold, and four grandchildren. Advertisement A service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at the LeClaire M.B. Church at 4402 S. Lavergne Ave. in Chicago. lbowean@chicagotribune.com Twitter @lollybowean In a seminal speech Tuesday, Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., announced that he would not seek re-election because he did not want to accommodate himself to the "new normal" of Donald Trump's Republican Party and did not want to adjust to the "present coarseness of our national dialogue." The speech stood out for its emphasis on the failure of moral leadership in the Republican Party, with the word "principle" appearing 13 times and "values" 11. Flake rejects the messaging and policy coming out of the White House because he is emphatically a champion of the "old normal." The White House's Twitter response offered a different take on Flake's motivation, but its crudeness affirmed his statements about how the president has degraded politics in Washington: "The reason Flake and Corker dropped out of the Senate race is very simple, they had zero chance of being elected. Now act so hurt & wounded!" Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., criticized Trump in announcing his decision not to seek re-election in 2018. As the news industry struggles to keep up with the volleys lobbed between Trump and his critics, it seems that the Flake speech has struck a chord. He and many Republicans have a name for that "old normal" that they are committed to reinvigorating: conservatism. Once at the forefront of a revolution in the party, where do these conservatives stand now? By exhorting them to stand on the traditions and values of the nation's founders, Flake is channeling his hero Barry Goldwater, who once held Flake's Senate seat. Flake models his career on the moral philosophy outlined and practiced by Goldwater. But that philosophy is unswerving, prioritizing conservative values above all else. And that is now why the party is drifting away from him, as it did from Goldwater in the twilight of his career. As Flake's purportedly conservative colleagues embrace Trumpism, they are actually advancing what has become the Republican Party's main agenda: winning elections. More than ever before, Sen. Flake is challenging his party to re-evaluate its core values by returning to its roots. In fact, Goldwater first galvanized the American Right precisely this way. He convinced them that the Republican Party should belong to them, a western and Midwestern movement of ordinary God-loving people, not the moderate elites in New York City who he argued were insufficiently ideological. When Goldwater ran for president in 1964, he delivered the most victorious loss in American history. Even while getting clobbered, he propelled the conservative movement to a half-century of great success. For Goldwater, these values were not merely campaign fodder, but governing values. Over many years, he developed a conservative policy tradition, starting as a Phoenix city booster when he ran Goldwater's department store and won a seat on the city council in 1949, then as a five-term U.S. senator. This meant using government to nurture a business-friendly environment that kept taxes low, regulation on industry minimal and unions weak. Goldwater combined his pro-growth libertarianism with patriotic, Christian citizenship ideals. He became the father of the conservative movement when, in 1960, he packaged these ideas together with the help of ghostwriter Brent Bozell into a popular, easy-to-digest paperback. A movement found itself when "The Conscience of a Conservative" became its bible. It wasn't that people read and adopted its ideas so much as they read and discovered themselves. Goldwater and Bozell expressed the transformation that millions of Americans wanted to see in politics. The book focused on how dangerous the federal government had become because it had amassed enormous power, which it used to excessively interfere in the daily lives and economic activity of Americans. "The farmer is told how much wheat he can grow. The wage earner is at the mercy of national union leaders whose great power is a direct consequence of federal labor legislation. The businessman is hampered by a maze of government regulations, and often by direct government competition." Goldwater and Bozell somehow addressed a swelling populist rage that had been building against the New Deal welfare state, while providing a manual for dignified political discourse. Unlike materialist liberals, they wrote, conservatives take account of the "whole man." "The Conservative realizes ... that man's development, in both its spiritual and material aspects, is not something that can be directed by outside forces." Four million copies later, the book remains in print today. And it served as the inspiration for Flake's new manifesto, which shares its title but is accompanied by the pointed subtitle: "A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle." This 21st century reboot is less about policy and philosophy than about character and how populism is debasing the GOP and threatening to undermine the basic pillars of American freedom. Like Goldwater, Flake also has a conservative policy record. He has pushed for tax cuts and deregulation. And indeed, his outspoken defiance against Trump has been about morals and policy areas where Trump deserts conservatism. His anti-Trump rhetoric seems infused by Goldwater's influence. It echoes the outcry against "moral decay" offered by Goldwater during his presidential campaign to an electorate becoming alarmed over delinquency, urban riots and unrest on college campuses. This moral aspect of conservatism mattered for Goldwater. In fact he achieved legendary status in part because "Mr. Conservative" was truly "Mr. Principle," compelled to break ranks with his party when his principles demanded it. In the 1990s he openly supported gay rights, which contradicted the agenda of ascendant religious conservatives. Though himself Christian, he deplored how religiosity came to dominate the party's agenda after 1980. And yet, for all of his principled opposition, he also understood how to govern. Speaking about "preachers" in the Republican Party, his friend John Dean quotes him as saying, "Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them." Flake, like Goldwater, laments the end of compromise and how it has paralyzed Congress. Flake asks, point blank, in his "Conscience of a Conservative," "What Would Goldwater Do?" But in leaving office, Flake is doing the opposite of what Goldwater did. He is not launching a career but ending one, ultimately raising the question: Is this the end for him and American conservatism? Flake believes not. On Tuesday he asserted that Trump's brand of populism and scapegoating are a "spell (that) will eventually break." One has to wonder, though, as populists lay waste to Republican incumbents. Remember Eric Cantor? Trump's supporters seem to be taking over the party, just as the Christian Right swatted aside Goldwater's objections on the way to turning issues like abortion and opposition to gay rights into Republican litmus tests. The marginalization of first Goldwater conservatism, and now, three decades later, its descendant, Flake conservatism, reveals that the Republican Party's ideals are far more malleable than the conservatism espoused by Goldwater and Flake. Many Republicans want to win and will sacrifice conservative values for electoral power. But if Trumpism takes over the party, it will also have to prove capable of governing. So far, the president's successes have added up mainly to anti-government - using executive orders to undo as much of the Obama legacy as he can manage. The policymaking, which requires members of Congress to work together for tax and health-care reform, has not yet been realized. The great irony is that Jeff Flake, as mouthy as he is, has actually been a good player for team Trump. While criticizing the president for bad behavior, he voted with him pretty consistently. Will the successors to these outgoing conservative incumbents support the president so loyally? Will the maverick tendencies that won them the adulation of a populist base allow them such obedience to the establishment? Can the Roy Moores or Kelli Wards of the Republican Party work with colleagues in their party and across the aisle to advance legislation? Reading and watching Jeff Flake leads me to channel Mr. Conservative again here and wonder, "What would Goldwater say?" His answer would almost certainly be: I doubt it. Washington Post Nickerson is associate professor of history at Loyola University History and author of "Mothers of Conservatism: Women and the Postwar Right." The news is breaking that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has surrendered to federal authorities, after the first charges in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation were filed against him. Manafort and a junior business partner have been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy against the United States, among other things. The seriousness of the charges suggests that Mueller may be able to bring substantial pressure on Manafort to cooperate with his ongoing investigation into matters more directly relevant to President Donald Trump himself. Mueller will try to get Manafort to disclose everything he knows about any Russian sabotage of the election, any Trump campaign collusion with it, and any Trump organization dealings with Russia he might know about. Advertisement I spoke Monday morning to Paul Rosenzweig, a senior counsel on Ken Starr's investigation into Bill Clinton who is now a lecturer in law at George Washington University. Rosenzweig said: "Mueller is trying to use the specter of criminal prosecution and jail time to induce Paul Manafort to be truthful in his testimony about the nature of the Trump campaign's relations with Russia." Rosenzweig laid out some of the lines of inquiry that Mueller will try to pursue with Manafort, if he can get him to cooperate (which is obviously unknown at this point). Advertisement First, there's the meeting that Donald Trump Jr., arranged with Russians in the expectation that the Trump campaign would be given damaging information on Hillary Clinton that originated with the Russian government. Manafort and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner were at the 2016 meeting, and there are reports of cryptic notes that Manafort took there that are in Mueller's possession. Rosenzweig says Mueller will want to question Manafort about what happened at the meeting, but that's only the beginning. "Were you contacted after the meeting by the Russians in any follow up?" Rosenzweig says Manafort would likely be asked. "During your tenure as campaign chair, did you discuss this meeting with Donald J. Trump?" That last one is particularly relevant, since it could shed light on what Trump knew about the meeting and when. Also recall that Trump had a hand in drafting the initial statement from Donald Trump Jr. that lied to the nation about why the meeting was held, which directly implicated Trump himself in covering up the true rationale for this meeting. Meanwhile, we also have just learned from The New York Times that the Russian lawyer at the meeting appeared to be sharing notes with a high-level figure in the Russian government. Manafort likely knows the full story of this meeting, what went into it, the surrounding context and direct relevance of it to Trump himself. Rosenzweig also pointed out that Mueller could try to press Manafort about what he knows about any possible collaboration between the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks. U.S. intelligence services believe Russian hackers gave WikiLeaks a treasure trove of hacked emails from Democrats. During the campaign, Trump confidant Roger Stone seemed to telegraph advance knowledge of a WikiLeaks dump against Hillary Clinton's campaign. "This is a whole other set of questions," Rosenzweig said, noting that Manafort may be asked: "Did you talk about that with Roger?" And there's still more Manafort could conceivably shed light on Trump's business dealings as well. "Obviously Manafort was deeply engaged in business with the Russians," Rosenzweig said. "We should also remember that Manafort may have information about the Trump organization's financial connections to Russia that are relevant to Mueller's investigation but not directly tied to collusion." Mueller has reportedly expanded his probe to look at Trump's business dealings. We don't know whether Manafort will end up cooperating, and it should be stressed that even if he does, his truthful testimony may end up producing nothing incriminating about Trump himself. But the stakes suddenly got a lot higher. As Rosenzweig put it: "If Manafort agrees to testify truthfully, they'll have the personal testimony of a key insider who is likely to have information about almost every incident of interest to Mueller." Beyond this, the stakes just ratcheted up big-time in two other ways, too. It is going to be a lot harder from here on out for Trump to use obfuscation, misdirection and lies echoed by his dutiful media allies to distract from Mueller's probe, now that concrete charges and facts are emerging. Advertisement At the same time, this emergence of concrete charges and facts means we may soon finally find out whether Trump will go full authoritarian whether he will issue any pardons or take action to remove Mueller and whether Republicans, having seen the seriousness of these charges, will take active steps now to warn him that any such move will be met with a forceful response. Washington Post Greg Sargent writes The Plum Line blog, a reported opinion blog with a liberal slant. In his fantastic book about Steve Bannon's role in President Donald Trump's rise, Joshua Green recalls a particularly telling scene from election night: "Trump was alluding to his victory speech: he didn't have one. Nor had he prepared a concession speech. Aware that his boss was deeply superstitious ... Bannon had intuited that he wouldn't respond well to the hoary political tradition of writing out two speeches ahead of time, and so he had simply never raised the subject with him. Trump wouldn't want to jinx himself, he was sure. Truth be told, Bannon loved this part of Trump his easy willingness to say '(expletive) that' to any number of venerable traditions without so much as a moment's thought. Pure honey badger." This "(expletive) that"/honey badger attitude has been a pillar of Trump's rise. As we're now seeing, it is threatening to cost him dearly. The Washington Post has confirmed that former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Manafort's former business partner, Rick Gates, are turning themselves in to face charges stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. The long-standing belief among those close to Manafort and in the media is that Mueller hopes Manafort will serve as a conduit to potentially incriminating others essentially, that he'll "flip." We have no idea if that will happen or if there's really anything for Manafort to "flip" on. But that fact that Trump's campaign and now his White House find themselves in this position is, in part, due to that same attitude on display on election night. Trump has played fast and loose with pretty much everything, from his campaign to his administration. He has flouted both tradition and basic political safeguarding. But that's also the kind of thing that can catch up with you over the long haul. Manafort's overseas work and ties to pro-Russia political forces in Ukraine were really no secret. "We joke in Ukraine that it is a bad sign for Trump that he hired Manafort, because his client [Viktor] Yanukovych was ousted and fled to Russia, to the city of Rostov," Ukrainian political expert Oleg Kravchenko told Politifact in May 2016, shortly after Trump hired Manafort to steady his unwieldy campaign. "So Trump could also end up in Rostov. It is almost like an anecdote." Manafort's overseas work eventually led to his ouster from the campaign and is at the heart of his current problems (we don't know exactly what's in the indictment at this point), but not before he had served for a five-month period spanning from the latter stages of the primaries to the early part of the general election campaign. He was at the meeting that Donald Trump Jr. set up with a Russian lawyer who we've come to find out discussed the topic beforehand with the Kremlin's equivalent of the attorney general. Manafort was the kind of figure that any normal U.S. presidential campaign likely would have avoided. Whether Trump's campaign was unaware of these problematic ties or simply never bothered to vet Manafort (I'd wager both are possible), it's now proven to be a serious error of judgment. Whatever Manafort knows, he's now in the position of potentially using it to save himself. This kind of error of judgment never irreparably harmed Trump during the campaign. And as Bannon believed, it arguably helped him by serving notice to everyone that he wasn't your average politician. The more the media highlighted Trump's tendency to fly off the handle and stoke controversy, the more his supporters seemed to dig in and defend him. But while that might have worked as a great political base strategy, it is far less ideal when the decisions you're making have real political and legal consequences. Trump has largely brought his Russia problems on himself, most notably by firing FBI Director James Comey. That paved the way for Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein to appoint Mueller as special counsel a move that removed this whole investigation, to some degree, from Trump's chain of command. Now that Mueller has apparently penetrated one of those closest to Trump's political rise, we may see just how much much of a problem Trump created for himself. Michael LaPorta and Patrick Kelly were childhood friends. Then they were college roommates. And then drinking buddies. Kelly became a Chicago cop. Then, on Jan. 12, 2010, after the friends had been out drinking, they ended up alone back at Kelly's house in the wee hours. Next thing you know, LaPorta has a bullet in the side of his head courtesy of Kelly's gun. Advertisement LaPorta lived, barely. Today he is wheelchair-bound, can't read and is completely dependent on his family for care. Kelly, meanwhile, is still on the police force, though he was stripped of his police powers, meaning he can no longer carry a gun or make arrests. Advertisement Kelly claims LaPorta tried to commit suicide that drunken night. He says he left his gun unattended, and that LaPorta whom Kelly claims was depressed grabbed it and shot himself. LaPorta claims Kelly shot him. No fingerprints were found on Kelly's gun or holster. The only other witness was Kelly's dog, and the dog's not talking. Obviously, it's a sad, tragic story on many levels. LaPorta's family sued Kelly, which makes perfect sense. They settled the lawsuit in 2012 for $300,000. The amount likely was no coincidence, as it was the maximum under Kelly's insurance policy, which means Kelly likely paid zero to LaPorta's family, while his insurance company paid the LaPortas $300,000. Concurrently, the LaPorta family's lawyers went looking for a deep pocket. A pocket that might even have $90 million in it, which is what LaPorta's family sought in damages to cover LaPorta's ongoing medical expenses, severe pain and suffering, and a predicted shortened lifespan. Not too many pockets are that deep. But they found one. The LaPortas sued the Chicago Police Department, meaning they sued you and me, the Chicago taxpayers. Advertisement "Now wait," you might say. "Was Kelly on duty, wearing his uniform, when LaPorta was shot with his gun?" If so, suing the CPD might then make sense. But no, Kelly was not on duty. He was a civilian out drinking with his friends. So what is the basis for suing the CPD? The LaPortas' lawyers claimed that CPD's "code of silence" by which officers are trained to support each other and look the other way on bad behavior is so prevalent that Kelly was essentially taught by CPD that he could even kill and get away with it. Said differently, LaPorta's lawyers essentially argued that CPD was a co-conspirator. It is somewhat akin to arguing that CPD helped pull the trigger. Now think about that. If that is true, then if Kelly is ever criminally prosecuted for the attempted murder of his friend, shouldn't the CPD also be prosecuted as a co-conspirator? You know, they didn't pull the trigger, but under this theory CPD supplied the gun and basically whispered in Kelly's ear that he could get away with killing whomever he wanted. Advertisement Sound crazy? It is or should be. But in today's American jurisprudence, where it's all about searching for that deep pocket, it is allowed. And it's rewarded, as the jury ruled in favor of LaPorta's family for $44.7 million, half of what their lawyers sought. The city says it will appeal. This is the definition of diffused responsibility gone awry. Taken to its illogical conclusion, I suppose when a Chicago cop abuses his or her spouse, the spouse should sue CPD because it created a "culture of abuse." And why stop there? Whenever a cop does anything off-duty, isn't CPD somehow responsible? It's as if, back at the training academy, there were a class on "Doing Whatever You Want, Whenever You Want, However You Want, Now that You are a Cop." If the police "culture" is really this toxic, shouldn't someone other than the taxpayers pay? Shouldn't some officials the ones who fostered this "culture" at least lose their jobs? Advertisement Although LaPorta was shot more than seven years ago, the Tribune reported that CPD only recently stripped Kelly of his police powers. And if we are doling out culpability here, the police union also deserves examination. Kelly had a checkered disciplinary record, yet it is near impossible to fire a union member. All said, Kelly the one the jury found put a bullet in his friend's head paid only $300,000 and kept his job. Actually, he likely paid nothing, but his insurance company paid $300,000 on his behalf. Meanwhile, you and I are now on the hook for $15 million (with the balance of the nearly $45 million judgment to be covered by insurance) because CPD "enabled" Kelly to think he could get away with putting a bullet in his friend's head. William Choslovsky is a Chicago lawyer. While the biggest headlines Monday concerned the indictments issued against President Donald Trumps former aides Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, special counsel Robert Mueller also revealed a plea bargain with a heretofore minor figure in the Russia scandal by the name of George Papadopoulos. And that could actually be Mondays biggest news. Advertisement That's because while Manafort and Gates aren't yet cooperating with Mueller's investigation of alleged ties between the Trump presidential campaign and Russia, Papadopoulos is, which means he likely has information that will lead Mueller closer to the heart of the case. Papadopoulos was a junior foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. In August we learned that he had tried to set up meetings between Trump officials and even Trump himself with representatives of the Russian government. At the time, his suggestion was characterized as having been rejected by other Trump officials as inappropriate while Trump was still a candidate and not yet president. Advertisement But now that we've seen the details of Papadopoulos' plea, it sure looks like that wasn't the whole story. Papadopoulos has agreed to plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians. Specifically, he falsely claimed that they had occurred before he joined the campaign in March 2016. He had communication with a professor who had contacts in the Russian government; this professor told him that the Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." The professor introduced him to a female Russian national who was supposedly Russian President Vladimir Putin's niece (it turned out she wasn't), and to someone who supposedly had connections in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Based on those conversations, Papadopoulos pressed the campaign to set up meetings with the Russians, a suggestion that never came to fruition. So what does this have to do with the larger case? I spoke Monday with Barbara McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School who is a former U.S. attorney and has worked extensively in criminal and national security cases. I asked: If Papadopoulos was just some low-level nobody tossing around ideas that were rejected by the campaign's higher-ups, why would Mueller offer him a plea deal that is contingent on his cooperation? Doesn't that suggest that he has information that can be used to build a case against someone more important than him? "I think it's a fair conclusion to think that he has information that is valuable in the prosecution of others," McQuade says. "You would only offer that cooperation if you've sat down with him and learned that he has information that is of value." And that appears to be what is happening: In return for what will likely be a reduced sentence, Papadopoulos has agreed to sing. As the letter laying out the terms of the plea agreement says, "The government agrees to bring to the court's attention at sentencing to the defendant's efforts to cooperate with the government, on the condition that your client continues to respond and provide information regarding any and all matters as to which the government deems relevant." Who does Papadopoulos have information on? We don't know. The plea document mentions his discussions (his efforts to set up a meeting with the Russians) with people who are referred to as "Senior Policy Adviser," "Campaign Supervisor" and "High-Ranking Campaign Official," but we don't know who they are. Then there's this: "On or about May 4, 2016, the Russian MFA connection sent an email (the 'May 4 MFA email') to defendant PAPADOPOULOS and the professor that stated: 'I have just talked to my colleagues from the MFA. The(y) are open for cooperation. One of the options is to make a meeting for you at the North America Desk, if you are in Moscow.' Defendant PAPADOPOULOS responded that he was '(g)lad the MFA is interested.' Defendant PAPADOPOULOS forwarded the May 4 MFA email to the High-Ranking Campaign Official, adding: 'What do you think? Is this something we want to move forward with?' The next day, on or about May 5, 2016, defendant PAPADOPOULOS had a phone call with the Campaign Supervisor, and then forwarded the May 4 MFA email to him, adding to the top of the email: 'Russia updates.' " This exchange happened not long before Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner had their infamous meeting with representatives of the Russian government who purportedly had damaging information on Hillary Clinton to offer. Given that context, it seems rather unlikely that Papadopoulos would not have mentioned the possibility that the Russians had "dirt" on Clinton contained in "thousands of emails." But we don't know for sure. Advertisement What we do know is that the prosecutors believe that Papadopoulos' information will be valuable to them in building a case against others. Manafort, on the other hand, is not cooperating at least not yet. "The fact that he was indicted suggests to me that pre-indictment he said, 'No, I don't want to cooperate.' I'm sure they presented him with the opportunity," says McQuade. "I think that's quite possible that there are additional potential charges against Manafort, and he could still cooperate," McQuade said. If Manfort is going to flip, there are only so many people he could flip on who are actually closer to the center of whatever happened than he was. That could include Kushner, perhaps Trump Jr., and of course President Trump himself. But right now, Papadopoulos is the one who is providing Mueller an entry into the heart of the Trump campaign and its relationship to Russia. Which is why McQuade says, "That one, because of its relevance to that larger question, strikes me as maybe the more important development today." And this is just getting started. The Washington Post Paul Waldman is a contributor to The Plum Line blog and a senior writer at The American Prospect. On Nov. 8, its anticipated that thousands of Americans in at least nine cities will take to the streets to scream helplessly at the sky. You can probably guess the reason: Its to mark the one-year anniversary of the election of Donald Trump as president. Can you believe its almost been a year since the election? Time flies when everyone seems to be losing their minds! Heres the good news: If youre reading this, youre still alive. The stock market seems downright giddy knock on wood, at least for now and despite our presidents occasionally baffling and sometimes alarming tweets, our country is apparently still free enough for people to get on Facebook and organize cross-country protests that involve shouting at clouds. Advertisement Nearly 2,300 people have already signed up to scream helplessly at the sky in New York City, and 15,000 more have expressed interest. Personally, I have never screamed at the sky, shaken my fist at the sun, or berated any other random celestial object. I didnt even watch the eclipse! But this is America, and people can still do pretty much what they want to do, even if its a half-baked protest that I guarantee will become really awkward the moment after everyone walks outside and screams for 10 seconds and then looks around in a gigantic, unspoken OK, now what? (Maybe some of the better protests will include a live band and hot-dog trucks to offset all of the screaming, but somehow, I doubt it.) Advertisement For many Democrats, left-of-center voters, and even Republican opponents of Donald Trump, OK, now what? is truly the question of our times. Johanna Schulman, the organizer of the original Boston scream protest it has now been canceled, she says, due to circumstances beyond our control told the press that coming together reminds us that we are not alone, that we are part of an enormous community of activists who are motivated and angry, whose actions can make a difference. Well, OK. But seriously: Now what? Sure, there are vague rumblings about impeachment. When it comes to Russian meddling in the 2016 election, the saga continues: A grand jury reportedly approved the first set of charges in special prosecutor Robert Muellers investigation of alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, while the Clinton campaign was outed as a secret funder of the infamous Russian-linked Steele dossier. Meanwhile, if we actually ended up with a President Mike Pence, the same people screaming at the sky would spiral into an immediate panic about America becoming a clone of The Handmaids Tale. But beyond that, Democrats seem to be working on the presumption that on the next go-round, enough Republican voters will simply get queasy enough to jump ship. That would be a swell strategy, except for the fact that most disgruntled Republicans even the ones alarmed by Trump tend to find the Democrats scarier. What, for instance, does the Democratic Party stand for? Is it the party of Tom Perez, chair of the Democratic National Committee, who declared that the Electoral College is not a creation of the Constitution? (Fact check: It is.) Is it the party of Sen. Bernie Sanders, the batty Vermont socialist who owns three houses but believes there are too many brands of deodorant? Is it the party of Wendy Davis, the failed Texas gubernatorial candidate, who, if you believe her Twitter feed, seems to believe that the most important issue facing America is fighting for womens paid period leave? Is it the party of California, where recent laws supporting gender nonbinary birth certificates and the potential jailing of health care workers who use the wrong gender pronoun have somehow failed to stop an epic number of residents from fleeing the state? As for abortion, we already know where Democrats stand: Planned Parenthood is sacrosanct. For all of the national media attention on the radicalism of Alabamas wildly unfortunate GOP Senate candidate, Roy Moore, we hear little about his Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, who wants federal funding for abortion and suggested to the press that he supports the practice until a baby is born. Im sorry, but thats bananas. No one can deny that Republicans also have problems. (Just for starters, what kind of knuckleheads float the idea of limiting peoples contributions to their own 401(k)s, as congressional Republicans reportedly did this week?) Someday, I hope, people of both parties will recognize that the solution to much of this nonsense involves limiting the power of government, not expanding it. But, in the meantime, Democrats might want to take a critical look inside their own party as they holler at the sky. Heather Wilhelm is a National Review Online columnist. President Donald Trump and his surrogates most especially the Fox News lineup (which includes a fleet of conservative pundits who disgrace themselves by facilitating a political distraction game for Trump), obsequious Republicans in Congress, old allies such as Roger Stone (who wound up getting banned by Twitter) and the talk radio crowd have been frantically fanning Hillary Clinton non-scandals about Uranium One (it was baseless before and baseless now) and the dossier's funder. (Fusion GPS initially was hired by the conservative Washington Free Beacon, which at one time claimed not to know the identity of the Republican outfit that first hired Fusion.) The unhinged rants from Trump's defenders demanding Clinton be locked up for one or both of these reveal how tightly Trump and the right-wing ecosystem that supports him rely on Clinton as an all-purpose distraction. Upon a moment's reflection, the non-scandals make no sense (Clinton was colluding with Russia to beat herself in the election?), have been debunked before and in no way affect the liability, if any, of current or ex-Trump administration figures. This is "whataboutism" run amok. It does expose the degree to which Fox News has given up the pretense of a real news organization, preferring the role of state propagandist. (And it's not just the evening hosts; the non-scandals now monopolize the rest of the schedule.) The intensity of Trump's frenzy underscores the peril in which the president now finds himself. Beyond the indictments unsealed Monday morning, Trump does not know what special counsel Robert Mueller has uncovered; which witnesses are flippable; what financial documents have revealed about the Trump business empire; and whether, for example, Mueller finds support for an obstruction of justice charge from Trump's own public dissembling (e.g., hinting at non-existent tapes of former FBI director James Comey). For someone who insists on holding all the cards and intimidating others, Trump finds himself in a uniquely powerless position. As I have argued, Republicans should be saying publicly that efforts to fire Mueller and/or pardon indicted figures will commence impeachment proceedings. Those moves would set off a constitutional crisis in which the president is using his powers to protect himself from the Justice Department. Even former Sen. Rick Santorum concedes that it would be "very perilous" for Trump to fire Mueller. Right now that is a theoretical question, but given how rattled Trump seems to be, we shouldn't rule out the possibility. It is incumbent on media interviewers to ask Republicans if that is their position and if not to justify giving a green light to what would be an unprecedented scheme to protect himself from investigation. Appearing on ABC's "This Week," the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., argued: "Now, I don't think the president's power is all that absolute, as people have been suggesting. The president cannot pardon people if it's an effort to obstruct justice, if it's an effort to prevent Bob Mueller and others from learning about the president's own conduct. So, there are limitations. If it were truly unlimited, it would have the effect of nullifying vast portions of the constitution. The president could tell Justice Department officials and other law enforcement to violate the law and that if they did, and it was ever brought up, they were brought up on charges, he would pardon them. "And one principle of constitutional interpretation is you don't interpret one power as nullifying all of the others. "So, I don't think it's unlimited. And I think it would be highly problematic for the president if it's part of an effort to obstruct justice." It should surprise no one that congressional Republicans, who have demonstrated their spinelessness again and again, are silent. They've got themselves fixated on tax reform, which they irrationally conclude will be imperiled if they try to head off Trump from doing something catastrophic with regard to Mueller or pardons. (Trump needs tax reform as much as they do so he's not going to block it, for goodness sake, if they speak up to prevent a constitutional crisis.) We will see what else Mueller has in store for us, but if Trump is this hysterical now, one wonders what he'll be like if a stream of indictments relating to the campaign and/or obstruction of justice begins. Washington Post Dawn broke Monday in Washington with news reports anticipating special counsel Robert Mueller's first indictments in the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. The anticipators got the basic story right: Mueller charged former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an associate with an array of financial-related crimes. Ah, but Mueller wasn't done. In a stunning development, the special counsel revealed that low-level Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians who claimed to have "dirt" about Hillary Clinton's campaign. Advertisement That potentially puts Papadopoulos somewhere in proximity to the heart of the Russia investigation. Yet Papadopoulos wasn't on the radar of the anticipators, which is a useful fact to remember as this investigation proceeds: Handicap the significance of events at your peril. Any wags who claim to have this whole affair figured out whether in defense of Trump or in damnation are blowing smoke or showing their political stripes. No one outside the investigation has enough info to make any proclamations in advance about where Mueller may be going. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 and has been cooperating with the investigation, Mueller said. The public knew nothing of the plea before Monday because Mueller reveals details when they suit the investigation, not parlor room curiosity. Of course leaks happen, but so do surprises. President Donald Trump on Monday was still tweeting his reaction to the Manafort indictment ("NO COLLUSION," he typed) when the Papadopoulos news broke. Advertisement The facts we know begin with U.S. intelligence agencies saying in January that Russians had hacked Democratic emails last year as part of an effort to interfere with the election. In March, FBI Director James Comey confirmed he was investigating Russian efforts to monkey with the election and said he was looking at any possible links between people associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government, "and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia's efforts." In May, Trump fired Comey, which led to the appointment of Mueller as special counsel. Back to the present: We know Manafort is in trouble because he allegedly tried to hide millions of dollars earned from prior consulting work for the pro-Russian government of Ukraine. He clearly was a bad choice to become Trump campaign chairman and lasted just three months in his position. His coziness with Russian interests is intriguing, but is not proof of nefarious activity. He and his business associate, Rick Gates, pleaded not guilty to all charges. Papadopoulos is an even odder figure to analyze. In March 2016, he became a Trump foreign policy adviser. That title may have grossly exaggerated his influence and expertise. We vaguely remember him from news accounts last year as the 2009 DePaul University grad whose credentials included participating in a Model United Nations event. According to his plea agreement, Papadopoulos lied to FBI investigators about his dealings with foreign nationals he believed to be connected to the Russian government while he was working for the campaign. One of the Russians allegedly was a niece of Vladimir Putin. The Russians passed word to Papadopoulos that they had "dirt" on Clinton, including "thousands of emails." He and the Russians seemed keen to set up a meeting of some sort with Trump to discuss U.S.-Russia ties. "Great work," a campaign supervisor emailed Papadopoulos at one point. So what really happened? News accounts portray a Trump Tower meeting that involved campaign officials, including Manafort, and a Russian attorney who claimed to have information that could be used against Clinton in the campaign. Did Papadopoulos play a role in arranging that meeting? We don't know. Yes, thousands of Clinton campaign-related emails were hacked by the Russians. But there's not yet any public evidence connecting the dots to confirm any collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. In August, The Washington Post reported on emails between Papadopoulos and the Trump campaign, which were among documents turned over to congressional committees. They showed that senior officials had "reacted coolly" to the suggestions by Papadopoulos of a Trump campaign meeting with Russian leadership. No question, Monday was a bad day for President Trump: Two campaign officials indicted, while a third has pleaded guilty. Perhaps this is a turning point in the investigation, but in what direction? We don't yet know. Neither, we suggest, does anyone but Mueller. Join the discussion on Twitter @Trib_Ed_Board and on Facebook. Cook County Assessor Joe Berrios listens to questions during an interview for a taping of "First Tuesdays" with Ben Joravsky of the Chicago Reader and Mick Dumke of the Chicago Sun-Times at The Hideout Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016, in Chicago. (John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune) (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) Cook County Democrats hope the repeal of their sweetened beverage gouge will soften the partys taxoholic image among Chicago, suburban and statewide voters. All of which overlooks another potential vulnerability for the ruling Democrats. His name is Joe Berrios. In late February, Cook taxpayers many of them infuriated by fast-rising taxes will be making the first of their two annual property tax payments. On March 5, those taxpayers can express what they think of the Democratic regime at the County Building: Early voting begins for the March 20 Illinois primary. Advertisement If we were running for any county office, wed focus voters on the grossly unfair property valuation system that Berrios oversees as county assessor. Wed focus voters on the Tribune series that, four months ago, detailed how that system disadvantages poor and often minority homeowners. Wed focus voters on the slow-mo review of Berrios unfair system a review County Board President Toni Preckwinkle promised more than three months ago. Because this sorry episode isnt just a problem for Berrios. As head of the Cook County Democratic Party, and as an underling to state party boss Michael Madigan, Berrios is on every county Democrats team. Although we do wonder if hell be airbrushed out of Democratic mailers that will clog all of our mailboxes as the primary approaches. Advertisement On Saturday, the Tribunes Hal Dardick reported that Berrios denies hes trying to delay the study of his assessment system until after the primary. But Berrios had only lame, defensive answers when Commissioners Richard Boykin, an Oak Park Democrat, and Peter Silvestri, an Elmwood Park Republican, questioned him during a budget hearing Friday about the poky pace of the review. Seven words from the fog Berrios offered about a group called the Civic Consulting Alliance, which is conducting the evaluation: I cant tell them what to do. Berrios said he has given the group office space, but for him to demand that they finish it by a certain date, to me would be unfair to them. Unfair to a study group? What about the rank unfairness of his own assessments? Berrios and Preckwinkle should be hopping up and down, conveying urgency to the review team and working weekends to strip the inequities from his shabby system. From the opening, June 11 installment of The Tax Divide: An unprecedented analysis by the Tribune reveals that for years the county's property tax system created an unequal burden on residents, handing huge financial breaks to homeowners who are well-off while punishing those who have the least, particularly people living in minority communities.The problem lies with the fundamentally flawed way the county assessor's office values property. The valuations are a crucial factor when it comes to calculating property tax bills, a burden that for many determines whether they can afford to stay in their homes. Done well, these estimates should be fair, transparent and stand up to scrutiny. But that's not how it works in Cook County, where Assessor Joseph Berrios has resisted reforms and ignored industry standards while his office churned out inaccurate values. The result is a staggering pattern of inequality. Many Democratic officials understand their risk in enabling a fellow Democrat whose system perpetuates a staggering pattern of inequality. Berrios unsuccessfully tried to refute the Tribunes allegations but couldnt. Nor could he explain away his 2015 press release boasting of new computer modeling that would address inequalities a system he then didnt fully implement. County Clerk David Orr, frustrated with the lack of changes since The Tax Divide revelations, neatly synthesizes the failure of his fellow county officials to act while thousands of homes subsequently have been reassessed under Berrios unfair system: "I believe the assessor's problem is enormous and it is getting not enough attention. This is like this great big threat is all around us, and we're still pedaling along with our tricycle." Advertisement Democrats who tolerate Berrios and his cronies can vote for every incumbent on the primary ballot. Democrats who truly do care about inequality can punish every incumbent who isnt demanding better. Hillary Clinton promotes her new book, "What Happened," on Sept. 28, 2017, in Toronto. (Christopher Katsarov / The Canadian Press) After reviewing the charges against three former members of Donald Trumps presidential campaign the first charges to come from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election I have reached the following conclusion: LOCK HER UP! By HER I mean Hillary Clinton, and by LOCK and UP and the exclamation point I mean put Clinton aka, HER behind bars. Advertisement The indictments of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates, along with a guilty plea by former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos show the obscene lengths Clinton went to in an effort to make Trump look bad. Honestly, its shameful. Not only is she responsible for this entire witch hunt, as Trump calls the Mueller investigation, but now shes seeing to it that actual witches get caught, a move that GREATLY LESSENS the dismissiveness of calling something a witch hunt. Advertisement LOCK HER UP! LOCK HER UP! Manafort and Gates are charged with conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money and acting as unregistered foreign agents, among other things. The charges largely revolve around work they did for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine. Papadopoulos, a 2009 graduate of DePaul University in Chicago, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI as part of a deal. According to court documents, he had multiple interactions during the campaign with an overseas professor he believed to be connected to the Russian government and was told the Russians had thousands of Clintons emails. The documents say Papadopoulos tried to arrange a meeting between Russian government officials and members of the Trump campaign. In response to these developments, Trump sensibly tweeted: But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? That is such a good question, and it truly merits five question marks. If theres one thing we know, Crooked Hillary is to blame for everything. Why? Because Republicans want her to be, and its not possible to believe in two controversies at the same time. You might say, Gee, couldnt it be true that Clinton engaged in some dodgy behavior AND people around Trump also engaged in dodgy behavior? No. The answer is no. It was decided years ago that there can only be one dodgy person, and its Clinton. I dont make the rules. (Fox News does.) Advertisement Knowing that, heres what we know based on what we have been programmed to think we know: When she wasnt busy killing people or loading our precious uranium supplies into Russian nuclear warheads in exchange for money she used to fund a pizza parlor that served as a front for a child sex ring, Clinton convinced Trumps adult children to advise Trump to hire Manafort to run his presidential campaign. She even bribed Trump advocate Newt Gingrich to glowingly tweet: Nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to really help get this campaign to where it is right now. For years before that, Clinton forced Manafort and his business associate Gates to make bazillions of dollars doing political work for Putin-hugging politicos in Ukraine. She then forced them to launder much of that money, setting them up for future charges. Paying attention even to tiny details, Clinton had the Trump campaign encourage only one change to the GOP platform at its 2016 convention: the removal of language that suggested the United States arm Ukrainians to help them push back against Russian aggression. Clever move, Clinton. Its clear from Muellers court documents if you read between the lines with your head in a microwave that the Russia-connected overseas professor who met Papadopoulos was actually Clinton wearing a costume. She is known as a master of disguise, which explains how she hid her identity while shooting President John F. Kennedy, raiding the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and being Charles Manson. Advertisement During the presidential campaign, she covertly started chants of LOCK HER UP! at Trump rallies, knowing that people who wanted her to go to prison for violating government email rules might later look silly when they shrugged off 12-count federal indictments against Trump supporters as nothing burgers. These facts Im highlighting should be more than enough to show that Clinton was involved in a wide-ranging conspiracy to create a conspiracy against Trump, one that he and his followers would believe is a conspiracy for which she was to blame. (That woman is devious!!) But the icing on the Clinton-baked cake is this: Months after she purposely lost the election, she got Mueller a lifetime Republican highly respected by members of both political parties to convince a federal judge to convene a grand jury. Then she managed to get her Clinton tentacles on each member of that independent grand jury and force them presumably under threat of death by uranium poisoning to indict Manafort and Gates. And in an act of mercy, she allowed Papadopoulos to cut a plea deal, presumably because she felt bad that she fooled him with that professor costume. Its sinister. Its telling. And its the only possible explanation. Advertisement Because Hillary Clinton has to be blamed for everything. Rules are rules. rhuppke@chicagotribune.com [ Related: Trump's reckless style just caught up with him ] [ Donald Trump is done ] [ If Trump seems hysterical now, just wait. ] [ Where will Robert Mueller's investigation go next? ] William Choslovsky finds it objectionable that a jury awarded nearly $45 million, paid by the Chicago Police Department, to Michael LaPorta when his Chicago police officer friend shot him in the head. Choslovsky doesnt buy the theory that the CPD is somehow responsible for a police officers belief that he could get away with killing whomever he wanted due to his status. However, doesnt the course of events since the shooting over seven years ago illustrate LaPortas attorneys theory? The officer, Patrick Kelly, was not fired. He didnt lose his police powers in spite of a checkered disciplinary record. He was never charged with a crime for shooting LaPorta. Apparently, Kelly was correct in assuming police officer immunity. Advertisement I recognize that this award will be paid by the taxpayers of Chicago. So isnt it time that these taxpayers demand accountability from the officials who allow this behavior to continue? Kelly isnt the only police officer who shot someone, resulting in a subsequent million-dollar-plus award, and then kept his job. Lewis Jones, Wheaton Dear Tom, Do weathermen still track heating and cooling degree days? Advertisement Paul Geddes, Rockford Dear Paul, Advertisement They sure do. Degree day units assess heating and cooling usage. They are easy to calculate, using a daily average temperature of 65 degrees, a value engineers have determined requires no heating or cooling to maintain a comfortable indoor environment. Each degree that a day's average temperature falls below 65 is one heating degree day. A day with an average temperature of 40 would log 25. Heating degrees are tallied on a seasonal basis from July 1-June 30, giving a one-number snapshot of seasonal heating usage, allowing for quick season-to season comparisons of heating requirements. In a similar manner, cooling degrees are tallied for each degree the day's average exceeds 65, with totals kept on a calendar-year basis. Ask Anna is a sex column. Because of the nature of the topic, some columns contain language some readers may find graphic. Advertisement Dear Anna, I've become possessed by a woman. Like the Santa Ana wind, she arrived in the fall. Like the Santa Ana, it's not entirely clear whether she's named for a saint or for a devil. When Didion wrote, "The wind shows us how close to the edge we are," she was talking about her. When Chandler wrote, "There was a desert wind blowing that night ... Anything can happen," that was her, too. She's a katabatic rush, booming across my life and I'm the California coast set alight from San Diego to Santa Cruz. I won't ask you how to contain the wind. But how do you contain this fire? Eternal Fire Advertisement Dear EF, The lover's house improves with fire, as the Sufi poet Rumi once said. From now on I will make burning my aim, for I am like the candle: burning only makes me brighter. Charles Bukowski put it (a tiny bit) less dramatically. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is. Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. > I want you to find the power in this wanting, EF, this katabatic rush, as you put it, and I want you to let yourself grow rare with it. Do as Prometheus did in Greek mythology, and take the fire, the knowledge, and give it to mankind. Let it fuel you. Live in the flames, the mad-dashing saintly devil winds, and allow them to alter you. How will you do that? Its up to you. Create. Write. Paint. Play. Knit. Saute. Sashay. Whatever you want. But make. Let the brute winds carry you aloft. Let the fire transform you like the Japanese art form, Kintsugi, which treats the shards of broken ceramics as part of its beauty, its life and history, rather than something to be disguised or thrown out. (Im making some wild assumptions about you. Im assuming that you are still, in fact, a person, who is showing up to work, eating, engaging in tasks that amuse and annoy you, paying your electricity bills. If you arentif you have truly ceased to function, then dont take this advice. Take a cold shower immediately and retreat to colder climes. But I dont think thats whats happening. You would have mentioned it, if so.) Let the winds mark you and the elements run dangerously close to annihilation. The fire cannot be contained. You know this. Air fuels firethats not destiny; its chemistry. Let the fire be what it is. Even if its only for an hour. A week. A year. A lifetime. Several lifetimes. You may be possessed at this moment, but there is no other way through the magic. The winds will change and the fire will die down eventually, and only if you have submitted to its force fully will you emerge softer and more resilient in the wake of its chaos. Fire consumes, but it also renews. It is passion and warmth and illumination and alchemy. It stimulates growth and nurtures ecosystems. It is revered and feared in equal measure. It is even considered to be a bridge between mortals and gods, because fire is one of the four elements that humans can make themselves. Do as the fire does and be both mortal and god. Were all going to end up as ashes some day. Advertisement Enjoy the heat while it lasts. [ Check out more sex and dating advice from Anna here. ] Anna Pulley is a RedEye contributor. Want to ask Anna an anonymous question about love, sex or dating? Send it below, or email redeyedating@gmail.com. The Marmion Academy Flannigan Rifles march in last years Veterans Day Parade in Aurora. This years parade will be held Nov. 11 in downtown Aurora. (Linda Girardi/Beacon-News ) The city of Aurora and the Aurora Veterans Advisory Council will host the annual Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 11 in downtown Aurora. The David L. Pierce Art and History Center, 20 E. Downer Place, will be open beginning at 9:30 a.m., serving coffee and doughnuts. Advertisement The parade will step off at 10:15 a.m. from Broadway and Benton Street, and travel north on Broadway, then west on Downer Place to the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall, 23 E. Downer, where a ceremony will take place. During the ceremony, Mayor Richard Irvin and others will pay tribute to veterans, and a military rifle salute is scheduled for 11:11 a.m. Advertisement "We are extremely grateful to our veterans for their service," Irvin said. "I am a proud veteran and Auroran who looks forward to the parade each year. It is a special time to reflect and to say thank you to those who sacrificed so much for our community and our nation." The keynote speaker is Lt. Lauren Carthan, Senior Naval Science Instructor of the East Aurora Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. A 22-year Navy veteran, Carthan enlisted in the United States Navy in 1987 and was commissioned as an officer in 2000. She served in a number of capacities throughout the country, including officer in charge of the Officer Recruiting Program in Indiana and Deputy Director of Dental at the Naval Hospital at Great Lakes, prior to being deployed to Afghanistan in 2007, according to a news release from the city. While on that tour of duty, her primary job was to assist in developing a tracking system for military members injured on the battlefield. After retiring from the military with an honorable discharge, Carthan was hired in 2011 as the first female NJROTC instructor at East Aurora High School, according to the release. In 2015, she was named Senior Naval Science Instructor of the East Aurora NJROTC, the largest unit in the country. The Veterans Day Parade lineup includes active and retired military personnel, local and regional veterans' organizations, public safety personnel, a community chorus, marching bands and ROTC units. After the parade and ceremony, the G.A.R. Memorial Hall will be open for tours. The parade, ceremony and tours are all free and open to the public, according to the release. Illinois State Troopers said they found $48,460 in cash inside a Louis Vuitton bag inside a car they stopped in Kane County. The Indiana man driving the car initially told police the money was from a show he did in Minneapolis, more than a month before they pulled him over near milepost 52 on an Illinois Tollway stretch of Interstate 90. Advertisement Authorities think it is drug money, which the state is seeking to keep through a forfeiture case filed last week, according to a document signed by Kane County Assistant State's Attorney Donald O'Brien. No criminal charges appear to have been publicly filed in Kane County in connection with the cash, and the man, of the 8800 block of Schafer Drive in St. John, Ind., could not be reached for comment Monday. Advertisement On or about Aug. 25, a state trooper stopped the man's car while it was in a Kane County section of the tollway, according to court filings, which don't specify the reason for the stop. Approaching the car, the trooper noticed two cellphones in the cup holder, though court filings indicate no passengers were in the car. Knowing drug dealers use multiple phones "in furtherance of their business," the trooper started to question the driver, according to the filing. The man "became increasingly nervous when asked about the purpose of his travels," and tried to make a phone call, the trooper noted. The driver said he didn't have narcotics or bulk currency in the car and denied the trooper's request to search it, the filing states. At some point, a police drug-detection dog sniffed the car, and another trooper arrived for backup. Court filings do not make clear which happened first or how long the driver was detained before the dog became involved. A state police spokesman could not be reached Monday. The dog alerted police it had detected the odor of narcotics on the driver's side of the car, which told the trooper narcotics probably had been inside, according to court filings. But after the trooper asked him again, the driver continued to deny having narcotics or money in the car, filings state. Both of the troopers conducted a probable cause search of the car, finding the designer bag full of cash and four cellphones, according to the complaint for forfeiture. The driver then said he'd left Minnesota earlier that day, knowing he had the money in the car, and that it came from "a show he did" July 8 in Minneapolis. He showed police a contract stating an artist would be paid $10,000 to perform. Nothing mentioned the larger amount of $48,460, police noted. Advertisement Police took the driver to State Police headquarters to wait for agents from the North Central Narcotics task force. Citing the money laundering article of the controlled substances act and drug asset forfeiture procedure, court filings through the office of Kane County State's Attorney Joe McMahon argue the money seized should be forfeited. The cash was furnished or intended to be furnished in exchange for an illegal substance, according to the complaint. Further, the state argues, the driver knew it represented "proceeds of unlawful activity," and transported it intending to promote the carrying on of illegal activity "from which the criminally derived money was obtained." O'Brien, the assistant county prosecutor, signed the forfeiture complaint, which was notarized Oct. 24. The driver is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 19 before Judge Christine Downs at the Kane County Judicial Center in St. Charles for a status-of-forfeiture hearing in the case. hleone@tribpub.com Twitter @hannahmleone Quinn, 3, a female Siberian Husky, came dressed as the grandma from Little Red Riding Hood during Buffalo Grove Park Districts Hall-O-Ween Pooch Parade. Boondock (left), 5, a male Australian shepherd, came as Little Red Riding Hood. (Karie Angell Luc/Pioneer Press ) While their owners came dressed for the chilly temperatures, the dogs a part of the Buffalo Grove Park District's "Howl-O-Ween Pooch Parade" Saturday came dressed for the occasion some as lions and others as furniture pieces. As 50 area residents, many dressed in coats, hats and gloves, watched their pooches in the park district's annual Halloween-themed event, their dogs competed to win the costume-contest portion of the event a tradition that dates back to 2012, said Allison Christopoulos, recreation supervisor for the Buffalo Grove Park District. Advertisement Park district officials gave out prizes among the 30 dogs that participated in various categories, including small dogs, large dogs and best family ensemble. The event also featured an one-and-one-half mile walk and doggy egg hunt, officials said. "The Buffalo Grove Park District does lots of things to celebrate families, and canines are members of families," Christopoulos said. "The community is very caring and compassionate, and loves community events." Advertisement Residents who came to the event dressed their dogs either in handmade or store-bought costumes. Vaneza Guarez, of Mundelein, dressed her 2-year-old pit bull named Lady as a lion for the pooch parade. "This is my first time," Guarez said of participating in the event. "She (Lady) likes to get to know other dogs and she's very friendly." Buffalo Grove resident Sara Logan and her family dressed their 5-year-old female beagle, Xena, as a bistro side table with Halloween treats and tabletop accessories. The design earned Xena a first-place finish for best costume in her size category. Amanda Logan, 9, proudly held Xena's first-place ribbon, which is now a family memento. "First place, it feels great," Sara Logan said. "We worked hard on it." Karie Angell Luc is a freelance reporter and photographer for Pioneer Press. You no longer have to vote to oust a candidate in Illinois just overwhelm the governmental body with protestors and prevent any official business because the Open Meetings Act requires accommodating all who attend. Palos Township Advertisement President Donald Trump's tax reform legislative looks like it's on the path to succeeding. Congress's passage of a budget to complement it, sent the stock market climbing even further. What does that say about who will most benefit from it? Answer: Definitely not the disappearing middle class. Tinley Park Advertisement First of all, pointing out the fact that the United States has the fourth lowest tax rate in the world does not make me a "tax loving person." Your thoughts of "wisdom" are actually GOP talking points. Yes, you can say that we have the highest corporate tax rate, but that is not what companies actually pay thanks to all of our tax loopholes. These loopholes will never go away because our politicians work for the lobbyists who represent these corporations. These lobbyists will make sure the system is set up to favor corporations. Nobody pays the actual tax rate in this country. So, please, go sell your so called "wisdom" elsewhere. And, I'm not spending other people's money; you have me confused with the president and our Congress. Why is it now Democrats are now mad and are against President Donald Trump tax reform because they say it would add $1 trillion to the debt? Why didn't these same people get mad when former President Barack Obama added $10 trillion to the debt? What's Speak Out? Speak Out allows readers to comment on the issues of the day. Email Speak Out at speakout@southtownstar.com or call 312-222-2427. Please limit comments to 30 seconds or about 120 words and give your first name and your hometown. Chicago police officers search the Lake Michigan shoreline south of Foster Avenue, Oct. 31, 2017, as they continued to look for evidence of Gail Peck, of Elgin, who was murdered. (Nancy Stone / Chicago Tribune) An autopsy has been performed and DNA testing is underway to determine whether a body found in duffel bags in a Chicago lagoon is a missing Elgin woman, Elgin police said Monday. "We are investigating this as a criminal investigation and are working with the Chicago Police Department on the possibility that the body that was found near Lincoln Park may be part of this case," said Elgin assistant police chief Bill Wolf. Advertisement The Cook County medical examiner's office does not know the identity of the person found in the lagoon, but a spokeswoman, Becky Schlikerman, confirmed testing is taking place. Schlikerman said the body is believed to be that of a white woman. Schlikerman also said the remains include a torso and parts of two legs. Advertisement On Friday, Elgin police asked via its Facebook page for the public to be on the lookout for Gail Peck, 76, who was last seen in the 700 block of Littleton Trail on the east side of Elgin, in the area of East Chicago Street and Shales Parkway. Elgin police collect evidence inside the home of Gail Peck, 76, who has been missing since Friday. (Stacey Wescott / Chicago Tribune ) At that time, police were told she had left home a few hours earlier to walk her dog, Doris. Police said the dog returned home without Peck. She is described as 5 feet tall with black hair and hazel eyes; her clothing description was unknown. On Saturday morning, a fisherman at the Lincoln Park Lagoon located a duffel bag filled with what appeared to be human remains, according to police. The fisherman first told Chicago police he "caught something heavy," according to a law enforcement source. A zookeeper at Lincoln Park Zoo also reached out to police immediately after the first bag was discovered, but when reached by phone on Monday, one of her co-workers said she could not discuss the incident because of her position with the zoo. The law enforcement source in Chicago said detectives were questioning a person of interest, though it was not clear whether those were detectives from Elgin or Chicago. It also wasn't clear whether that meant anyone has been detained, arrested or was voluntarily answering questions. Marine Unit divers and detectives went to the lagoon after the initial 911 calls in Chicago. Searchers found a second bag with more remains, said Frank Giancamilli, a police spokesman. The remains were all believed to be from the same person, he said. Gail Peck, 76, who was last seen in the 700 block of Littleton Trail on the east side of Elgin. (Elgin Police Department) Authorities said further dive missions were suspended the following day and no additional dives were planned. On Friday night, Elgin police conducted an extensive search for Peck, Wolf said. Advertisement Elgin's K9 teams, as well as those from other agencies, were called in to search for the woman. Members of Elgin's Community Emergency Response Team, the Hanover Township Emergency Response Team, the Elgin Fire Department's drone and a Cook County helicopter were all brought out as part of the search, Wolf said. "As the evening progressed on Friday, we received information that (Peck's disappearance) did not occur as it was reported. The investigation suggested that what was reported may not be accurate," Wolf said. Other information has suggested the Lincoln Park remains and Peck's disappearance may be related, Wolf said. He would not elaborate on the ongoing investigation. Schlikerman said that from the remains that were located, it is clear the woman has a scar on her back, which was the result of an earlier back surgery. "Scientific testing is necessary to confirm identity," Schlikerman wrote in an email. The autopsy Monday did not conclusively reveal cause or manner of death, and the determinations are pending both further testing and the investigation, she said. Advertisement "The medical examiner's office is working with Elgin police to determine if the remains match a missing person's case from Elgin," Schlikerman wrote. kdouglas@chicagotribune.com Janelle Walker is a freelance reporter for the Courier-News. All votes in the CO-3 election won't be counted until the end of this week By Dezan Shira & Associates Editor: Alexander Chipman Koty The digitization of business functions is not a new phenomenon, particularly in developed economies. However, the adoption of technology for HR and payroll processes in developing countries such as China is far less common. Arguably, it is in these countries where such IT solutions are the most needed, and could have the greatest transformative effect on business operations. Although China is rapidly developing into a mature economy, the HR and payroll processes of many companies operating in the country are still paper-based or recorded on rudimentary Excel spreadsheets. This leads to inefficient use of time by HR professionals, and makes record-keeping a challenge. Such HR and payroll processes also have low levels of transparency, which often hurts overseas managers who are unfamiliar with the Chinese language and unable to physically access relevant documents. IT solutions are a popular way to manage these challenges in developed countries, but foreign companies should consider local conditions in China as well as their companys structure and needs before implementing a similar system in China. Some IT solutions have a very specific and targeted purpose, while others are comprehensive and wide-ranging, affecting virtually all business functions. Ultimately, the optimal solution rests on a companys current requirements combined with its long-term growth strategy. RELATED: Chinas Social Security System Single function software As the name suggests, single function software has one core use. These solutions are conceptually straightforward, but come in a variety of forms and can have dramatic effects on efficiency and productivity. Time and attendance software Time and attendance software products include biometric scanners and mobile phone apps that employees use to clock in and out of work. Though simple, in China they come in a variety of different forms to suit different businesses, such as a physical input that also acts as an office key, to digital clocks accessible from any location that track the time spent working on a given project. These types of software allow employers to objectively determine when employees arrive at and leave the workplace, thereby preventing false overtime claims and increasing office security. They also slash the amount of time HR staff spends calculating employees work hours and reduce the potential for incomplete or inaccurate documentation, thus allowing for simple payroll processing. Further, managers can analyze the data collected by HR and payroll software to make more informed business decisions. For example, project work hours can be objectively tracked, and then compared with the average time spent working on similar projects or projects undertaken by different teams. This information can be used to measure productivity and determine if profit margins on a given project are accurate and valuable. Tax processing software Tax processing software is another type of single function software that can make HR administration and payroll processes more efficient, but in a far different way. Where the value-add for solutions such as time and attendance software is on the collection of information, tax processing software creates value in the computation of inputted data. Collecting the relevant input data and accurately calculating the correct tax payments is a significant challenge in and of itself. This challenge is compounded when HR and payroll duties are handled by those unfamiliar with Chinas complicated tax regime, such as by payroll processors located in a foreign companys home country. Single function software such as tax processing programs can thus be a solution both for small and medium sized enterprises that lack the requisite internal resources, and for larger companies that need assistance with Chinas particular compliance demands. Comprehensive IT solutions Large multinationals invest heavily to establish in-house IT and ERP solutions to handle their complex operations, while smaller companies often enlist a third party provider for HR and payroll functions. Medium sized companies often find themselves somewhere in between. These organizations are growing large enough that outsourcing HR and payroll is no longer economical, but cannot afford to set up, configure, and maintain an ERP system from large tech companies like SAP and Oracle. For companies in a position such as this, the solution is increasingly an ERP-based solution set up by a payroll provider familiar with Chinas payroll landscape. Individual profiles can be set up for each employee, containing their contractual details, bank information, and social insurance obligations, etc. These can be configured with organizational HR hierarchies: reporting lines between employees and managers, and different teams and departments. For example, an employee can scan the fapiao (invoice) for a taxi trip, and upload it to his or her profile to apply for a work-related expense reimbursement. The relevant manager will then be automatically notified of this claim by e-mail, and can approve or reject the expense accordingly. If approved, the expense will be transmitted to HR and payroll staff, and added to that employees monthly salary payment. Such a process cuts down on physical documents, streamlines record keeping, and increases efficiency. It also promotes more formalized HR and payroll processes, and allows for greater transparency. An executive, for instance, can easily compare how internal policies are being followed across different teams, and make sure that no single team or individual is getting preferential treatment at the expense of another. This functionality is especially beneficial in China, where managers are not often based in a single location permanently and must travel between offices and factories, overseeing several operations remotely. As more and more companies adopt China Plus One strategies and open complementary operations in other Asian countries, the ability to streamline and formalize HR and payroll processes through digital systems becomes increasingly important. Information Technology Solutions from Dezan Shira & Associates Implementing a holistic approach to HR and payroll Before choosing an IT solution, a company must define its needs and what it hopes to achieve in terms of business processes. Some companies may be looking to bridge an organizational weakness, while others may be seeking to formalize and strengthen existing processes. This is the difference between simply ensuring that employees are paid the right amount and on time a challenging task in its own right and strengthening internal controls regarding payroll processes. IT solutions can bridge efficiency and accuracy gaps in the payroll data gathering and transferring process, and streamline related business processes. While they facilitate the collection and computation of inputs, knowledge of Chinas payroll regulations is still required to make accurate payments and maintain compliance. A comprehensive HR audit should be undertaken before an IT solution is adopted, as simply digitizing weak internal processes will translate into a weak digital system. Further, implementing a solution before needs are expressly defined will inevitably lead to unforeseen and unpalatable cost overruns when systems need to be reconfigured to suit processes that have been changed from the ground-up or redesigned to correct unanticipated and unwanted outcomes. This article is an excerpt from the April issue of China Briefing magazine, titled Payroll Processing in China: Challenges and Solutions. In this issue of China Briefing magazine, we begin by laying out the challenges presented by Chinas payroll landscape, including its peculiar Dang An and Hu Kou systems. We then explore how companies of all sizes are leveraging IT-enabled solutions to meet their HR and payroll needs, and why outsourcing payroll is the answer for certain company structures. Finally, we consider the potential for China to emerge as Asias premier payroll processing center. Dezan Shira & Associates Brochure Dezan Shira & Associates is a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax and operational advisory to international corporate investors. Operational throughout China, ASEAN and India, our mission is to guide foreign companies through Asias complex regulatory environment and assist them with all aspects of establishing, maintaining and growing their business operations in the region. This brochure provides an overview of the services and expertise Dezan Shira & Associates can provide. An Introduction to Doing Business in China 2017 This Dezan Shira & Associates 2017 China guide provides a comprehensive background and details of all aspects of setting up and operating an American business in China, including due diligence and compliance issues, IP protection, corporate establishment options, calculating tax liabilities, as well as discussing on-going operational issues such as managing bookkeeping, accounts, banking, HR, Payroll, annual license renewals, audit, FCPA compliance and consolidation with US standards and Head Office reporting. Chinas Investment Landscape: Identifying New Opportunities Chinas foreign investment landscape has experienced pivotal changes this year. In this issue of China Briefing magazine, we examine how foreign investors can capitalize on Chinas latest FDI reforms. First, we outline new industry liberalizations in both Chinas FTZs and the country at large. We then consider when an FTZ makes sense as an investment location, and what businesses should consider when entering one. Finally, we give an overview of Chinas latest pro-business reforms that streamline a wide range of administrative and regulatory measures. Dezan Shira & Associates Mongolian businessmen take full advantage of China-Mongolia Expo to expand their distribution channels and promote cultural communications. A clock designed by Ochir is exhibited at 2nd China-Mongolia Expo in Hohhot, capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, on Sept. 26, 2017. [Photo by Zhao Shan/China.org.cn] "I appreciate this opportunity to promote my Mongolian crafts and enter China's market. I design all of my products personally, ensuring that they have a profound connection to Mongolian history and culture. This has attracted more and more Chinese people to buy my products," said Erdenechuluun Ochir, CEO of Craftsman, a Mongolian craft company, at the Inner Mongolia International Convention and Exhibition Center in Hohhot. It's the main venue of the second China-Mongolia Expo, covering a total exhibition area of 49,000 square meters. It's the second time for Ochir to participate in the China-Mongolia Expo. Since the Expo was first held in 2015, Ochir has sold his handicrafts to Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. "I can network with many Chinese and Russian businessmen at the Expo. It's a perfect opportunity for businessmen from different countries to expand their distribution channels. I'm now seeking opportunities to cooperate with Chinese agents. I hope to accumulate enough commercial resources to lay the foundation for setting up my factory in Hohhot," Ochir explained. Abu, the chief designer of a Mongolian company named Natural Textile Group, has also attended the China-Mongolia Expo twice. "I gained a lot at each Expo I went to. Before 2015 when I attended the 1st China-Mongolia Expo, I had no Chinese customers. But now, my products have not only entered the Inner Mongolian market, but also attracted many customers from places as far away as Guangzhou and Shenzhen in south China," he said. "I met my first Chinese agent from Guangzhou at the first China-Mongolia Expo. He showed great interest in my carpets and was very keen to cooperate with me. He told me that people from south China prefer light colors to dark ones," Abu recalled. "Since then, I have put forward design solutions aiming at market expansion in south China. Sales figures for the past two years went beyond my expectations." "I think Chinese people like my carpets because of the strong local ethnic culture captured in their patterns. Not only can the China-Mongolia Expo serve as an engine for market expansion, but it can also open a window for people to discover the charm of different cultures," Abu said. "Two years ago, I couldn't imagine that I would expand my market to south China. But now, through this Expo, people from south China and from Mongolia can gather for business exchanges and cultural communications. It's amazing." "Thanks to China's Belt and Road Initiative, our Mongolian businessmen can enjoy vast potential for future development. I hope I can make Mongolian culture more well-known worldwide through selling my crafts. This Expo is a starting point for me to realize that dream," said Ochir. President Xi Jinping encouraged a herding family in the Tibet autonomous region to put down roots in the border area, safeguard Chinese territory and develop their hometown. Tibetan sisters Yangzom (first right) and Zhoigar listen to two government officials relaying an answer from President Xi Jinping to a letter the sisters wrote to him. The sisters live in Yumai in Lhunze county along the Himalayas' foothills. [Photo/China Daily] Xi, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks in a reply delivered on Saturday to Zhoigar and Yangzom - two Tibetan sisters in the township of Yumai in Lhunze county, which sits at the southern foot of the Himalayas. The two sisters wrote a letter to Xi during the 19th National Congress of the CPC, which ended last week, to report their experiences in safeguarding the country's territory and introducing development and changes in their town, while pledging to make continuous efforts to protect the border. Among their activities is keeping an eye out along the border and reporting suspicious activities like possible smugglers. Xi, in his letter, praised the family's safeguarding national territory for two consecutive generations, thanked those who made loyal contributions to safeguarding and strengthening the country's borders, and encouraged the herders to build their hometown into a beautiful one. There used to be only one family, consisting of the two sisters and their father, in the remote location. The town now has 32 residents in nine families. It's the country's least populous town. Steep slopes and rugged paths make it difficult to access. "Without peace in the territory, there will be no peaceful lives for millions of families," Xi wrote. He said he hoped the family would motivate more herders to put down roots in the border area "like galsang flowers", and become guardians of Chinese territory and builders of a happy hometown. Fresh from the 19th CPC National Congress, Xi told the family that the Party would continue to lead people of all ethnic groups toward better lives. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has awarded the UNESCO Medal on Space Science to the first Chinese national sent to space, Yang Liwei, along with three other prominent international space pioneers, on Friday evening at the organization's headquarters in Paris. Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, left, and Shen Yang, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of the People's Republic of China to UNESCO, display the UNESCO Medal on Space Science awarded to Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei, at UNESCO's Headquarters in Paris, Oct 27, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua] The three other laureates of the 2017 edition - who, with Yang, were the first recipients of the award - are Valentina Tereshkova, the Russian cosmonaut and first woman in space; Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, the first Cuban in space; and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese commander of the International Space Station. "I thank you all for your courage and commitment," said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, who concluded with "an appeal, for you to continue on your scientific journey, and also to return to UNESCO as often as possible, to reach out to younger generations, to share UNESCO's message to build peace in the minds of men and women." Unable to attend the ceremony himself, Yang was represented by Shen Yang, ambassador and permanent delegate of China to UNESCO at the ceremony. In a message delivered by Shen on his behalf, Yang recalled October 2003, when the world witnessed the success of China's first manned space mission. He noted that a UN flag was taken aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft during the mission, which he called a sign of the Chinese people's willingness to use space for peaceful purposes and to benefit mankind, while also demonstrating China's support of the UN's mission and principles. "In the future, we are willing to work together with all countries and regions that are committed to the peaceful use of outer space, with an aim to contribute more to the promotion of scientific progress and peace and development of the world," Yang was quoted as saying. The UNESCO Medal on Space Science, announced in June, is awarded by the head of UNESCO to prominent scientists, public figures and organizations involved with the development of space science in the spirit of UNESCO. The awardees were selected by the International Commission for the Creation of the UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems. The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei province region saw air pollution worsen in the first three quarters of the year, with concentrations of major pollutants rising and fewer days with blue skies, according to data from the Ministry of Environmental Protection released on Saturday. From January to September, residents in the 13 major cities in the northern region on average saw 52.6 percent of days with good air quality, a year-on-year decrease of 8.7 percentage points, said Liu Zhiquan, head of environmental monitoring at the ministry. Concentrations of PM2.5 and PM10 both increased by about 10 percent in the first three quarters, the figures showed. PM2.5 and PM10 refer to hazardous particulate matter with diameters measured in microns. They are used for China's major air quality indexes. In the smog-affected region, six cities were listed among the 10 most polluted of the 74 domestic cities with severe problems in the first three quarters. Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, was No 1, with the most severe air pollution, according to the ministry figures. Beijing saw a significant decline in air quality in September. PM10 levels increased by 53.8 percent year-on-year, and days with blue skies accounted for about half the total, at 53.8 percent of the days - a 13.4 percentage point drop year-on-year - the ministry said in the statement. "From March to August, the strict controls on emissions in Beijing and the neighboring region have worked to push PM2.5 levels down, hitting a record low," the capital's Environmental Protection Bureau said on Sunday. "But the typical air pollution, which occurs in winter, hit the capital earlier in September, creating a severe challenge." China's vast northern and eastern regions, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area, are prone to severe air pollution when heating services fire up, typically in November. Coal burning soars, and frequent atmospheric thermal inversions occur, which make the dispersal of pollutants difficult. Beijing has experienced challenges in meeting the reduction target set by the central government - an average PM2.5 concentration in 2017 of 60 micrograms per cubic meter. Data show that in the first nine months, the average level was 60, and the winter season is unlikely to help maintain that. "Beijing has imposed strict measures to curb pollution emissions since 2017 and strengthened their implementation since September. Joint efforts have been made by every involved department and district," the municipal environmental authority said. To date, Beijing has phased out 374,000 old vehicles with heavy exhaust emissions. And 5,829 polluting companies, which were exposed by environmental inspectors from the ministry, were shut down, it said. The capital's environmental authority has levied fines of 145 million yuan ($21.8 million) on more than 3,000 polluting companies in the first three quarters, an 86.2 percent increase of total fines in the same period last year. You are here: Home A team from the United States has won the "Chinese Bridge" language proficiency competition for secondary school students held in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province. Contestants take part in the final of the 10th Chinese Bridge the Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign Secondary School Students in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Oct. 28, 2017. [Photo: Xinhua] The final round was held on Saturday evening, with the winning team from each continent, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, the United States, Mozambique and Australia, taking part. A number of participants from countries such as Canada and Austria also won individual awards. The series of contests, which focuses on spoken Chinese, Chinese culture and art performances, attracted 320 teachers and students from 96 countries and regions. During their stay in Kunming, the participants visited local families and communities to experience folk arts and traditions. Since 2002, the headquarters of the Confucius Institute in Beijing has organized a series of Chinese Bridge language competitions. Old houses in Huangshan, Anhui province, offer a unique insight into the centuries-old architecture of the Ming and Qing dynasties, but a lack of funding is making protection a challenge. Traditional lanterns glow near centuries-old residences in Hongcun Village, near Mount Huangshan, Anhui province, in May. [Photo/China Daily] There are more than 6,000 Ming and Qing houses in Huangshan, a UNESCO cultural and natural heritage site; but, because of limited government funding, fewer than one-fourth - 1,325 - are under State protection. Yet, all of these old houses, many of which once belonged to important people, are treasures in local residents' eyes. How to effectively protect these examples of cultural heritage has long been a challenge for inhabitants and authorities alike. Many villagers work in cities as migrant workers, leaving their old houses behind, vulnerable to decay and collapse. "There is a lack of money for the renovation of these houses, and it is a real shame to have to watch them collapse or fall into ruin. So we are encouraging people who are able to invest capital in repairing the old houses to make good use of them," said Hu Jianbin, Huangshan's culture bureau chief. Urbanization is a significant factor. Increasing numbers of city dwellers, tired of the hustle and bustle of city life coupled with traffic congestion and air pollution, are turning to the countryside to escape. Preservation of old houses in Huangshan offers such people a glimmer of hope. Clean air Huangshan has many advantages to attract people escaping city life. Apart from its natural scenic beauty, the city is one of the cleanest in China. Last year, the number of days that air quality reached the national standards of "excellent" and "fairly good" hit 355 in Huangshan. It is also the cradle of Hui culture, which has inspired unique residential building designs since the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Shu Qing is one of the people attracted to Huangshan. Born in Yixian county of Huangshan, Shu worked as a journalist in Beijing for eight years before returning to her hometown. "I liked strolling around the Lama Temple in Beijing, and loved all the small restaurants nearby. I dreamed of opening one in my hometown," she said. In 2009, Shu, left the big city and returned to Yixian where she opened her own restaurant - The Hui House - in an old building near the former residence of Sai Jinhua, a woman of note in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The building is located near the townships of Xidi and Hongcun, two UNESCO cultural heritage sites. Dream property "The house had been left empty and had decayed wood that had been destroyed by termites," she said, recalling the first time she saw her dream property. Five months of reconstruction and interior decoration have turned The Hui House into a cozy and elegant restaurant known for delicious food and attentive service. Only eight groups of diners are served each day. "We carefully keep the old building in good condition according to government requirements, frequently repairing it," Shu said. A lover of old architecture, she started searching for a suitable ancient house to live in with her husband. In 2012, she bought two adjoining Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) houses in a precarious state of disrepair. It took her three years to rebuild and decorate them. "The project's plan and blueprint must be approved by the government first to prevent workers destroying any of the original structure. The Hui style of a house must be maintained, including the use of black tiles, high white walls and wall tops shaped like horse heads," she said. The restored houses, which were completed in 2016, have eight tastefully designed rooms, equipped with modern amenities such as central air conditioning and heated floors. "Since 2016, we have lived in the houses. In March this year, we began providing accommodations for travelers," she said. Personal investment Shu spent 1.5 million yuan ($225,520) buying the two old houses, and another 2.6 million yuan rebuilding and decorating them. "Buying old houses is costly, and reconstructing them is not only costly but also time-and energy-consuming. If you are not really fond of them, you will destroy the houses," said Yu Biao, director of the cultural heritage protection office in Yixian. "So we must supervise buyers' credit and their economic power, no matter what kind of old houses they want to purchase." Fascinated with Hui culture, Huang Hua, president of Beijing Hua Sheng Hang International Cultural Development Co, specializes in Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture. Since 2003, he has made a living trading nanmu, a rare wood often used by Qing royal families. In 2013, he came across an ancestral hall in Yixian. "It was almost collapsing and was classified as dangerous. It would have been a shame to allow it to disappear," he said. Win-win scenario Because the hall is listed as a cultural relic, the Yixian government only leased it for 40 years. Huang rebuilt it over a period of two years, spending 3 million yuan. Now it is a museum for Ming and Qing furniture. Huang also exhibits his company's products. In recent years, local governments have taken a series of steps to attract private investors like Shu and Huang to renovate the old houses in Huangshan. If the plan goes well, it will prove to be a win-win, sustainable way to preserve cultural heritage. "We have a set of meticulous rules to ensure that only capable investors can rent the houses. Ownership stays in the hands of the government," said Hu, the culture bureau chief. A two-day tour for foreign visitors in Changsha, Hunan Province, kicked off on Oct. 28. With the tour, the city aimed to present its new image and share its history and development to the world through culture and art. Bonnie Krcmar, a professor at the National University of Defense Technology, speaks at the opening ceremony of the tour held in Changsha, Hunan Province on Oct. 28, 2017. [Photo by Cui Can/China.org.cn] Entitled "Happy Changsha, My Home," the tour received more than 50 foreigners from 24 countries working or studying in Changsha. The host city took the visitors to the Li Zijian Art Museum, the Tanheli Bronze Culture Museum, Changshas high-tech zone and the cultural show of the Tanhe Ancient City. "Changsha is a place to relax and experience Chinas life at reasonable costs in a city full of friendly, welcoming citizens," Bonnie Krcmar, a professor at the National University of Defense Technology, said at the tours opening ceremony. "Each time I leave Changsha for a few months and then return, I am eager to scope out the latest changes, as this city is building and renovating rapidly." With the citys rapid building and renovating, Changsha is striving for further development and opening up to the world. According to the local government, Changsha's industrial economic output grew to 1.16 trillion yuan (US$174.9 billion) in 2016, ranking fourth among provincial capital cities in China. At present, there are 15 Hunan-based enterprises recording foreign trade of more than US$100 million, four of which are located in the Changsha Economic and Development Zone. With a long history and rich cultural resources as well as its location in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the city appeals to many foreign talents with its preferential policies for promoting entrepreneurship and innovation. Michael Donovan, a chief engineer who works in a biotechnology company in Changsha, is one of the foreign talents attracted by the citys unique charm and decided to study and work there. He said that he enjoyed living here, and had already seen Changsha as his second home. "This is my sixth year in Changsha," Donovan said. "Originally, my plan was to be here for only two years to complete my master's and then return to the U.S., but I was quite interested in the culture and history of Changsha, and also the rapid growth of bio-technology here." Donovan said Changsha had implemented a batch of preferential policies to boost the development of hi-tech industries, especially bio-technology, which is still a relative new industry in China. He said this is attracting a number of talented minds both at home and from abroad to the city. For example, there is a new bio-tech center in Hunan University run by top-level professors from the U.S. and Germany in this field. In addition to the rapid development in emerging industries, Changsha also attaches great importance to preserving and promoting its culture. "One of the things that Changsha impresses me most is that almost every museum and art center is open to the public, said Zhur Alena, a 27-year-old from Ukraine who is studying for her doctorate at Central South University. In the past year, the beautiful cultural center at North Star Delta opened, where I have enjoyed several concerts, quiet coffee in the library, and learned so much about Changsha in the Demonstration Hall and Museum." As Krcmar said in her opening remarks, "when relaxing and appreciating the culture of Changsha, its not easy to forget that we are also in a fast-growing technological, entrepreneurial and industrial city." The city tries to blend its historical culture and rapid industrial development to attract foreigners to live and work there. Flash The independence bid of Spain's wealthy Catalonia autonomous region has reached a dead end as Madrid, invoking Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, has imposed direct rule on the untamed region. Central government takes full control of Catalonia The Spanish government on Saturday officially took control of Catalonia's regional government, Generalitat, with Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy taking control of the functions of the president of Generalitat. Rajoy has delegated these duties on Spain's Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, who is also in charge of the Catalan vice-presidency. He also called for new elections in the region on Dec. 21. The Spanish ministries take control of different departments of the Generalitat. The Spanish government sacked the chief of the police force of Catalonia, Josep Lluis Trapero, who accepted the decision, and appointed Ferran Lopez as the new chief. These moves followed the decision taken by the Catalan parliament on Friday to unilaterally declare independence of the region in the northeast of Spain. Catalonia held a referendum on self-determination on Oct. 1, which had been declared illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court. The application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, which suspends the autonomy of the Catalan region and hands control of key Catalan institutions to Madrid, was approved by the Spanish Senate Friday afternoon. The Spanish State Prosecutor will on Monday consider presenting accusations of "rebellion" against former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and his government, with charges which could lead to a jail term of 15 to 30 years. Historical root of Catalan independence bid Catalonia has been part of the Kingdom of Spain since 1469. But the region has long argued that its unique history, culture and language are a far cry from those of Spain. Catalonia's friction with Madrid dates back to 1714, when Spanish King Felipe V stripped its autonomous status. More than 200 years later, after Spain became a republic in 1931, Catalonia enjoyed a short-lived autonomy until the Franco regime, victor of the 1936-1939 civil war, imposed military rule in the region. After the death of Francisco Franco in 1975, Spain embarked on a democratic transformation. In 1978, the new Spanish Constitution conferred a high degree of autonomy to Catalonia. In 2006, an act passed by the Spanish Parliament handed more autonomous power to Catalonia. The preamble of the Act even referred to Catalonia as a "nation". The Spanish Constitutional Court ruled in 2010 that parts of the act were unconstitutional, including the "nation" reference. Piqued by this verdict, Catalan nationalism mounted and resulted in an emphatic victory of pro-independence parties in regional parliament election in 2012. In November 2014, defying a ban of the Constitutional Court, the separatist regional government held a non-binding independence referendum. Some 2.3 million voters participated in the vote, of which 80.8 percent favored independence. On Sept. 6, 2017, the Catalan parliament passed a bill that called for an independence referendum on Oct. 1. Spain's Constitutional Court suspended the law at a gallop and slapped a ban on the vote. The Spanish government also took an array of measures in an attempt to stop the referendum. Nevertheless, the vote was held as scheduled with sporadic clashes between voters and police. Standing to its ground, the Spanish government has never recognized its legality. Populists misuse well-meaning regionalism The independence bid is mainly maneuvered by populist parties which misused the well-meaning regionalism, said an expert. "The free movement of goods, services, people and capital and a border-free Europe reduced the influence of the national authorities and increased the margin of maneuver for regions," Gerhard Stahl, a visiting professor at College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, told Xinhua. "Regional governments developed an own agenda taking into account more their geography and the close connection to border-regions in other countries and less their 'nationality'," he explained. He noted that the European Union (EU) also developed an influential regional policy of "supporting regions and not member states directly". "Most of the European regions have offices in Brussels, allowing them to address directly -- without the national control -- EU institutions," he said. "A specific EU institution was created -- the Committee of the Regions -- which guarantees that regions can take part directly in the decision shaping of the EU," added Stahl, who had served as general secretary of the committee for several years. "All this increased the political role of regions," he said, though stressing that the rising political role of regions is not so much a problem for federal member-states like Germany and not a threat to the EU. "In contrary, it showed that the day-to-day life of EU citizens became more integrated, and that certain powers from the national level shifted to the European level and some other powers to the regional level, which is nearer to the citizens' concerns," he explained. But Stahl also underscored that regionalism could also be misused by political parties to get votes, via identity politics which tries to create the feeling of "we the natives of a region against others", which is intended to create new borders and new frontiers, said the expert. "Some of the richer regions object to financial transfers to poorer regions in a country. This allows some populist party to win votes," he said. "The internal market creates more economic benefits for the economically stronger regions. Therefore, it is necessary that these regions also support the weaker regions to develop," he stressed, adding that separatist policy that wants to reject any solidarity with others is against the spirit of the EU. Stahl is concerned that governments may lose credibility and support from its citizens to solve conflicting interests due to populist campaigns. "I expect that the Catalan conflict will be solved by respecting the Spanish Constitution and by a decision imposed by the national level to organize new regional elections," he said. Independence can worsen rather than solve Catalonia's plight It is noteworthy that not all Catalan voters bought into the separatist party's peddling which has a flimsy base. Both opinion polls and the low turnout of the referendum have indicated that nearly half of the Catalans took up the cudgel against independence. Catalan populist parties touted their separatist bid on an illusional premise that the region will fare well after separating from Spain without paying a price. According to local media, since Oct. 1, more than 1,500 companies have decided to move out of Catalonia, and 107 companies have decided to relocate their headquarters. Obviously, the independence bid will worsen rather than relieve the plight of Catalonia. You are here: Home Flash The Chinese government handed over a batch of high-tech equipment for rescue and relief operations to Bangladesh's Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief on Sunday. Ma Mingqiang, Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh, handed over the equipment to Shah Kamal, Bangladeshi secretary of disaster manager and relief, in a ceremony in Dhaka. As a token of friendship of the Chinese people toward Bangladesh, China donated hydraulic wheel excavator, forklift, air compressor, generator set, cutting machine, and many other calamity rescue equipment to the ministry. Upon request from the Bangladeshi government, the Chinese government agreed to provide the batch of disaster and relief equipment, a Chinese embassy official told Xinhua. A 10-day training for Bangladeshi operators of the equipment was conducted by the Chinese side last month, said the official. Flash The Chinese embassy in Afghanistan said Sunday that China will provide Afghanistan with 4,242 tons of rice which is emergency food aid to the militancy-hit country. Chinese Charge d'Affaires Zhang Zhixin together with Afghan acting State Minister for Disaster Management and Humanitarian Affairs Mohammad Aslam Sayas attended a handover ceremony in Kabul on Sunday morning. The Chinese side handed over the first batch of 502 tons of rice, the rest will arrive in Kabul before March 2018. Zhang told reporters at the ceremony that as winter draws near, some Afghans, particularly in rural areas, are faced with difficulties and that the latest food aid donated by China will help the needy people to receive assistance before winter. As a friendly and close neighbor to Afghanistan, China hopes to work with the Afghan government in helping the Afghan people get through the food crisis, he said. Sayas told reporters that the first batch of the donated food will be transported to five most vulnerable provinces in the mountainous country. He also expressed gratitude to China for its cooperation with the government and the people of Afghanistan. Flash People wave Spanish national flags in a march with the slogan "Enough and let's recover the sensibility", to defend the Spanish constitution and the unity of Spain in Barcelona, Spain, Oct. 8, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua] Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets on Sunday in Spain's northeastern city of Barcelona in a huge pro-Spain rally, two days after the Catalan regional parliament voted to declare independence. Protesters carried Catalan, Spanish and European flags in support of Spain. They also shouted slogans such as "Puigdemont to prison", and "no amnesty, no forgiveness", among others. Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, along with his government, was dismissed on Friday by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who also called new elections in the region on Dec. 21. The demonstration was organized by the association Societat Civil Catalana, which claimed that there were 1.3 million people on the streets. The representative of the Spanish central government in Catalonia said around 1 million people joined the rally. Barcelona police put the number at some 300,000. The Spanish government on Saturday officially took control of Catalonia's regional government, Generalitat, with Rajoy taking control of the functions of the president of Generalitat. Rajoy has delegated these duties on Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Saenz de Santamaria, who is also in charge of the Catalan vice-presidency. The Spanish government sacked the chief of the police force of Catalonia, Josep Lluis Trapero, who accepted the decision, and appointed Ferran Lopez as the new chief. These moves followed the decision taken by the Catalan parliament on Friday to unilaterally declare independence of the region in the northeast of Spain. Catalonia held a referendum on self-determination on Oct. 1, which had been declared illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court. The application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, which suspends the autonomy of the Catalan region and hands control of key Catalan institutions to Madrid, was approved by the Spanish Senate Friday afternoon. The Spanish State Prosecutor will on Monday consider presenting accusations of "rebellion" against former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and his government, with charges which could lead to a jail term of 15 to 30 years. Flash Turkish military officers attend a Republic Day ceremony at mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in Ankara, Turkey, Oct. 29, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua] Turkey celebrated its Republic Day and 94th anniversary of the establishment of Republic of Turkey on Sunday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding president of the country in Ankara early Sunday, laying a wreath and writing on memorial book. Erdogan said the spirit which brought victory to Turkish War of Liberation and gave life to the republic is alive today as it was before 94 years, noting that the resistance of the coup plotters on July 15, 2016 is the embodiment of this spirit. As previous Republic Day, the ceremonies this year were held at every cities and towns, with large size national flag fluttering on main street and historical buildings across the country. The Turkey's Republic Day celebrates Oct. 29, 1923, when the Turkish Parliament amended the constitution to change the system of government to a republic. It concluded the four-year independence war against several countries and officially marked the end of the Ottoman Empire. You are here: Home Flash A passenger plane with 122 people on board destined to New Delhi was on Monday diverted midway following a threat call, local media reports said. The Jet Airways flight from Mumbai to Delhi was diverted to Ahmedabad early on Monday after a security threat was reported on board. Reports said an air hostess in the plane found a note informing the plane was hijacked and should not land in New Delhi, and she alerted the pilot. The airline carrier confirmed that the incident had taken place, media reports said. "Boeing 737-900 from Mumbai to Delhi was diverted to Ahmedabad following the declaration of an emergency as per established security procedures, due to the detection of an onboard security threat. The aircraft landed without incident at Ahmedabad and was parked at a remote bay, where all 115 guests and 7 crew members were safely deplaned," the local media quoted a statement released by Jet Airways as reporting. So far no untoward incident was reported. The authorities have initiated a probe into the hoax call and are searching the plane. You are here: Home Flash South Korean prosecutors on Monday demanded a 10-year prison term for Chairman of Lotte Group Shin Dong-bin over management corruptions. The Seoul prosecution demanded 10 years in prison for chairman of the country's fifth-largest family-run conglomerate, for embezzlement and breach of trust, according to local media reports. It also asked the Seoul Central District Court to impose a fine of 100 billion won (US$90 million) on Shin. Shin, 63 was accused of offering tens of millions of dollars in illegitimate pay to the founding family members of Lotte Group, while giving illegitimate business favors for the founding family-run companies. He was also charged with helping a financial-distressed affiliate increase capital by issuing new stocks, which were bought by other financially-healthy affiliates of the Lotte Group. You are here: Home Flash China on Monday said it hoped that the Republic of Korea (ROK) would fulfill its commitment not to increasing deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system. ROK Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told lawmakers Monday that the ROK was not considering any additional THAAD deployment. Kang said the country would not participate in the U.S.-led missile defense networks. She also stressed that trilateral security cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo would not extend to a military alliance. The U.S. military has installed a THAAD battery that includes six missile launchers in the southeastern ROK county of Seongju. "We value these three aspects of the ROK pledges," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing. Hua reiterated that China firmly opposed the deployment of THAAD in the ROK. She said China hoped that the ROK would fulfill its commitments and deal with the relevant problems, so as to get China-ROK ties back on track. Republic of Korea Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha reportedly told lawmakers on Monday that the country is not considering any additional deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system. She also reiterated that the ROK will not be part of the US-led missile defense networks. Such remarks are valuable because they suggest Seoul has heeded Beijing's security concerns and is taking steps to get their strained relations back on track. Kang's remarks follow other signs of a thaw in bilateral relations. On Tuesday the ROK's chief representative in the Six-Party Talks will meet his Chinese counterpart in Beijing, one week after the first talks in nearly two years were held between the two countries' defense chiefs at a security forum in the Philippines. A meeting has also reportedly been slated between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his ROK counterpart Moon Jae-in on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting to be held in Vietnam on Nov 10-11. China has always opposed the deployment of THAAD in the ROK as part of the missile defense networks the US is trying to establish because its powerful radar can probe deep into the country and harm its national security. Yet it has never wavered in seeking to resolve the diplomatic dispute by maintaining close communications and exchanges with the ROK. Beijing understands the ROK's security concerns regarding the latest development on the Korean Peninsula. That China and the ROK are pursuing ways to improve their relations reflects the fact that their common interests outweigh their differences and that the two neighbors share the desire to turn the page. This is timely since the growing tensions between Pyongyang and Washington threaten to become more than just a war of words. At such a critical time, Beijing and Seoul can work together to be a voice of reason. For with the escalating war rhetoric from Pyongyang and Washington, Beijing and Seoul stand in the same trench calling for the same thing: the maintaining of regional peace and stability. The rapport they seem to have regained is testament to the resilience of their relations, which have brought real benefits to the people of both countries since the establishment of diplomatic ties 25 years ago. China hopes the ROK will fulfill the commitments it has made. Both sides should treasure and strengthen this hard-won strategic and cooperative partnership. Reforms, financial deleverage, M&As, tech focus help revive government firms' fortunes Last week, the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China learnt that since the last congress in 2012, as many as 34 central State-owned enterprises, or SOEs, have been restructured, with their overall number falling to 98 from 117. An outstanding feature of the ongoing SOE reform has been the sustained drive to improve the companies' financials, mainly through sophisticated debt management. The reform, which went beyond mergers, acquisitions and rationalization, helped improve central SOEs' efficiency and competitiveness, thus bolstering China's long-term march toward emerging as the world's largest economy, overtaking that of the United States. Central SOEs posted a record high net profit of 1.11 trillion yuan ($167.2 billion) from January to September, thanks to supply-side reforms, which helped bring down the asset-liability ratio requirement and curbed capital outflows. As a result of the reform, financials of 2,041 "zombie companies", all subsidiaries of 81 major central SOEs, also improved, with their losses shrinking by 88.5 billion yuan, compared with the same period of 2015. ("Zombie companies" are economically unviable businesses, usually in industries with severe overcapacity, kept alive only with aid from the government and banks.) China will accelerate its efforts to prevent systemic financial risks from arising and infecting the broader economy, said senior government officials during the 19th CPC National Congress. The ongoing supply-side structural reformcuts to overcapacity in certain sectors such as steel and coaland more flexible financial policies will be sustained, they said. From January to August this year, debt risk at central SOEs was under control as these companies maintained a steady debt-to-asset ratio over the past five years, according to State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, or SASAC. By August-end, the average debt-to-asset ratio of central SOEs dropped to 66.5 percent, 0.2 percentage points lower than the level at the beginning of this year. "The debt risk level at central SOEs is reasonable and controllable," said Huang Danhua, vice-chairwoman of SASAC. "Apart from asset restructuring, central SOEs can also direct their resources toward competitive companies or industries through equity cooperation, asset swaps, strategic alliances and joint ventures," she said. Under the government plan, debt-to-equity swaps will be pushed forward, with State investment funds encouraged to participate in the process. Central SOEs will speed up the pace of mergers and acquisitions, or M&A's. Already, the SOE sector has seen a merger of two of China's top high-speed train makers and another of two major steel producers. To cut the leverage ratio, SASAC has also encouraged SOE behemoths to optimize capital structure via initial public offerings, and supported efforts toward asset securitization. Huang said central SOEs have made headway in cutting outdated capacity, reining in debt risks and improving competitiveness. Given the favorable conditions, more effort is needed to cut the debt level of SOEs and a guideline will be formulated, he said. As the debt-to-equity program is considered a significant and efficient method to tackle debt woes, China Shipbuilding Industry Corp, one of Chinese Navy's biggest contractors, converted debt into equity by offering eight investors stakes in two of its unlisted subsidiaries for an estimated 22 billion yuan ($3.27 billion) in August. This is the country's first defense-related enterprise supervised by the central government to restructure its finances via such swaps. China Cinda Asset Management Co Ltd and China Orient Asset Management Co Ltd, two of the eight investors, will contribute around 5 billion yuan and 2 billion yuan, respectively, toward servicing debt of CSIC's Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co Ltd and Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry Group Co Ltd. In return, they would pick up equity in the two CSIC subsidiaries. In the first nine months of this year, the government reached its goal of cutting 5.95 million metric tons of capacity of central SOEs in the iron and steel sector ahead of schedule. It also succeeded in cutting 23.88 million tons of coal overcapacity. Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China, the central bank, said M&As remain an important way to rein in SOE debt, and should go hand in hand with efforts to cut outdated capacity. "While opening up, China's financial sector must always stick to risk-management standards and shall not tolerate highly leveraged, low-capital and non-performing loans," said Zhou. Yin Zhongli, a researcher at the Institute of Finance and Banking at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said technological breakthroughs should continue to be made in sectors riddled with overcapacity, and innovation should play a role in deleveraging as it helps improve corporate strength. "The reform should be further expanded to more heavily indebted industries and real economy sectors with competitive products and good market prospects," said Dong Ximiao, a senior researcher with the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of the Renmin University of China. The mixed-ownership reform, which seeks to diversify the ownership structure of SOEs, has started to take off in recent years as SOE monopolies in many sectors shut out smaller firms and caused low efficiency and poor service. So far, almost 69 percent of central SOEs at all levels have been involved in the mixed-ownership reform, while 47 percent of local SOEs were also involved, according to SASAC data. In key sectors such as electricity, telecommunications, aviation and defense, 19 groups were chosen to start such reforms, according to Peng Huagang, deputy secretary-general of SASAC. In August, China Unicom, one of the country's telecom giants, announced plans to bring in private investment mainly by issuing shares to companies including China Life and Tencent, marking top-level mixed-ownership reform at State firms. "The SOE reform is an open process, which aims to attract partners in all types of ownership," said Peng. "China also welcomes the participation of foreign enterprises in the process, if they are interested," he said. "With reforms deepening, the SOEs will take on a new look and make new achievements." Agreed Li Jin, chief researcher at the China Enterprise Research Institute in Beijing. "Protecting the interests of SOE employees will be a major task in the next step of SOE reforms." Looking ahead, the reform will be mainly pushed forward through M&As instead of bankruptcies, Li said, adding that China will not experience another upsurge in layoffs like the one seen during SOE reforms in the 1990s. As restructuring has mainly involved mergers within the SOE sector, the Institute of International Finance, a global association of around 500 major financial institutions, said it does not expect widespread failures or losses to be incurred in the new round of SOE reforms. Stated differently, the reforms would not threaten employment or create unmanageable systemic risk in China. Data from the Ministry of Finance show that by the end of June, SOEs' total liabilities amounted to 94.13 trillion yuan, up 11.4 percent from last year, while assets were worth 143.5 trillion yuan, up 11.5 percent. Gao Peiyong, director of the Institute of Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said it is good for China to gradually get rid of excess industrial capacity even though "quite a few workers will lose their jobs". He warned of risks to the financial sector if China does not move quickly enough on this front. "(On their books), financial institutions have a lot of outstanding loans extended to 'zombie enterprises'. When you select companies, you're going to do some kind of clean up when you take the bad loans off the banks' balance sheets. It needs to be done fast and efficiently," he said. China's 25,000 twenty-foot equivalent units or TEU of exported goods arrive in Hamburg, Germany. In 2016, around 30 percent of TEU to Hamburg were from China. [Photo/Xinhua] The China Structural Reform Fund plans to help its clients deploy more resources in consumption upgrading, elderly care and core chip technology to put their growth on a firmer footing. The CSRF, a venture that aims to establish a sub-fund to support State-owned enterprises' reorganization, is China's biggest investment fund raised from SOEs. Incorporated in 2016, the fund has 10 shareholders including China Mobile Communication Corp, Shenhua Group Corp and China Petrochemical Corp. It is now aiming for a corpus of 350 billion yuan ($53 billion). It will inch toward the half-way mark by firming up 131 billion yuan in the first phase of its formation, which will end by September of 2018. A further 65.5 billion yuan is expected by the end of next year. "The fund is a market gauge of the effort to push forward SOEs' structural reform using State capital," said Zhu Bixin, president of the CSRF. According to Zhu, the fund has invested in a number of SOEs already, including China Metallurgical Group Corp, Air China Ltd and Power Construction Corp of China Ltd. The fund has invested 1.8 billion yuan so far in Air China and will pour more money into the airline, to push the latter to the next higher level and to fund its structural reform and fleet expansion, including the purchase of 15 Boeing-B787 aircraft. The fund also aims to bolster financially troubled SOEs, stabilize their operations and deleverage the market. "The CSRF invested 2.25 billion yuan to set up an industrial fund with Aluminum Corporation of China Ltd," Zhu said. "The fund will strengthen the supply-side reform in the alumina processing sector." In the future, the CSRF will augment investment in high-tech and high-end equipment industry, including sectors such as third-generation nuclear power plants, the internet of things, big data, robots, premium healthcare and intelligent manufacturing. Wei Ran, general manager of China Chengtong Asset Management Co Ltd, which manages the fund, said another fund is being readied for the emerging sector. "We are mapping the strategy for infrastructure for the coming age of the internet of things," said Wei. "Whether it's new energy vehicles, new energy, big data or cloud computing, they will all rely on data storage infrastructure. As the 5G era is coming, we need efficient market measurement to accelerate the setting up of such infrastructure." Wei said the company is currently in talks with sub-funds of China General Nuclear Power Group and China Nuclear E&C Group. The fund is also considering participation in overseas acquisitions. Shen Ying, chief accountant of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission or SASAC, said the fund has done well so far but it still has a long way to go. "The practice of the past year has proved market measurement to be an efficient way in supply-side structural reform, SOE reform and the use of capital," Shen said. "It explored a new way in State-owned asset management and supervision. "The CSRF needs to stay ahead of the market, enhance market research and risk control awareness to play a greater role in the deepening of supply-side structural reform." Employees of ZTO sort parcels in Fuyang, Anhui province. [Photo/for China Daily] China's courier firms defended their recent move to raise prices of their delivery services for the upcoming Singles Day online shopping festival on Nov 11, which is also known as 11/11. They said they were "forced" into the move to ease the pressure of the inevitable higher 11/11-related operational costs like transportation, human resources and raw materials. Earlier this month, ZTO Express announced, without specific details, a price-rise, and said business volume in five to 10 days around 11/11 was expected to increase three to five times. ZTO also said hiring a temporary worker in the past used to cost only about 2,000 yuan ($301). Now, however, it needs to pay 5,000 yuan to 6,000 yuan to short-term hires. One of its deliverymen in Beijing said a 1-kg parcel delivery now costs 15 yuan, up from 10 yuan, with heavier loads entailing an additional charge of 8 yuan/kg, up from 5 yuan/kg. Besides, the price of corrugated paper, a material used in deliveries, surged to 4,748.30 yuan per ton in September, compared with about 2,800 yuan per ton in April, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed. However, industry insiders said that most of the logistics supplies are bought by franchisees, not courier firms themselves. Stated differently, courier firms' main raw material tends to be paper receipts, whose usage rate is only about 10 percent, now that digital receipts are used widely. Industry insiders said some courier firms may be seeking to charge their franchisees more for courier receipts and delivery services, which could be passed on to consumers eventually. China Express Association data show this 11/11 could see more than 1 billion packages. So, higher delivery charges could help relieve the additional pressure on regional franchisees' capacity. Given the 11/11 craze, courier firms appear to be confident that a price rise now would not entail the risk of losing clients, insiders said. But, besides ZTO, only Yunda Express announced a prices hike this month. Other express delivery players, such as YTO, STO and SF, said they do not have any price-hike plans. Fang Xi, a researcher with the Research Center of the State Post Bureau, said it is natural for ZTO and Yunda to raise prices before Nov 11 to control the amount of deliveries. Price-rise does not necessarily mean they are seeking to make unfair profits by exploiting a situation opportunistically. Rather, price-rise helps prevent over-stocking at warehouses, he said. Fang further said international courier firms have to factor in oil prices and taxes before fixing their service price, while their Chinese counterparts are not affected by them. "That's why, the two companies (ZTO and Yunda) needed to find better rationale for raising prices." Delivery charges at the enduser level are typically shaped by market forces, and cannot be raised by one company, said Wang Yong, senior director of operations at YTO Express. Industry insiders said a better way would be to raise prices gradually over the long run while maintaining short-term stability. Yang Daqing, a researcher with the China Society of Logistics, said price-hikes won't become a trend in the domestic courier market during 11/11. Some companies hike prices to signal their entry into the top-end segment of the market and to steer clear of certain clients, so as to avoid accepting too many orders during the peak period, Yang said. A worker fixes fastening brackets to an e-toilet seat at the factory of Topseat in Anshun, Guizhou province. [Photo/China Daily by Yang Jun] Topseat's toilet seat covers sell in millions, creating a big opportunity for Chinese firms From the designs that glow at night to the models that can be used to potty-train kids, made-in-China electronic toilet seat covers are winning the hearts of consumers the world over, particularly in the West. Chinese commode cover manufacturer Topseat is now selling around 2 million pieces every year globally, netting $26 million, said the company top executive. Topseat's clients include major home improvement retailers such as US firm Home Depot Inc and Lowe's Cos and Germany's OBI Group and Bauhaus. Its high-tech toilet seats are also sold on US e-commerce platform Amazon under the Topseat trademark. "More than 70 percent of our products are exported to Germany and we have taken up more than 60 percent share for the do-it-yourself toilet seat market in Germany, with that for mid-to high-end ones reaching 80 percent," said Wu Dongcheng, president of the company. "Our toilet seat covers are sold in more than 70 countries, including Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe." It has been quite a turnaround for the 42-year-old businessman, who set up the toilet seat company in 2003 only as a trial program to boost his resume for a business school application. In 2003, the company sold the first batch 2,000 toilet seats to an Italian company at $4 each. But now the company's toilet seats are sold at $35 to $70 each in the US market, while the price in the European market is even higher, with some products costing more than 100 euros ($117.6). From its factory in Anshun, a city in Southwest China's Guizhou province, Topseat creates decorative toilet seats from locally sourced, environmentally friendly materials such as bamboo, straw stalks and bio-glues. Being eco-friendly is a key factor for the company's success in the Western markets, as they are more environmentally concerned, Wu said. In 2014, the company took the lead to make toilet seat covers from straw stalks to turn this potential environmental hazard into a business opportunity. Topseat has an agreement with Xiayun township in Anshun, which buys straw stalks from local farmers on behalf of the company. Sales of toilet seats made of straw stalk are expected to reach more than 200,000 pieces this year. Topseat is negotiating with the World Wildlife Fund to use the WWF logo on its product packaging. "We aim to increase the sales of straw-made toilet seats to 5 million units annually in the next five years," said Wu. A consumer checks out a toilet seat at a Topseat showroom. The firm's colorful products feature many designs. [Photo/China Daily by Yang Jun] Innovation is another reason behind for Topseat's success. It holds more than 1,000 patents for its over 5,000 pattern designs, everything from flying birds, flowers, green bamboo leaves, whales, turtles and the Eiffel Tower, and some even with relief sculptures and 3D effects. "Most of our toilet seat covers have slow-close feature: as the lid closes, you can see the whole process of flowers blossoming," said Wu. One well-received cover can be used for both adult and babies, making it a good choice for families with toddlers. Topseat uses a magnet to connect the toddler seat to the lid, so it is basically hidden when it is not in use. In addition, the child's fingers won't get trapped as both the lid and the adult seat have the slow-close feature. The company developed this special toilet seat cover in 2007. In the same year, the model sold more than 400,000 pieces in the US market, giving the design a head start and the company millions of dollars in revenue. On online shopping platform Amazon, a Topseat toilet seat is sold from $35 to $70, depending on the model/design, which generally receives high ratings and praise from satisfied customers. "This seat is very easy to install and seems to be made from high-quality materials. I have never spent this much for a toilet seat and this is well worth the price," wrote one customer. "I feel a little silly to rave about a toilet seat, but the turtle on the seat is gorgeous. The fish and turtle appear to move as you do and the design changes to another scene as you look from different angles," commented another. Topseat also wants to tap into the Chinese market. In 2015, reports of Chinese tourists swarming stores in Japan during the Chinese New Year holiday to buy all electronic toilet seats in stock provoked heated discussions among Chinese netizens, when it was later discovered that they were made in China. The quality of toilet seat covers made in China is as good as, if not better, than those made by Japanese companies, said Wu, who also recognized that more marketing and advertising are needed before Chinese consumers know about and accept the Topseat brand. Li Jiayue contributed to the story. Gianluca Pettiti, president of the China unit of US multinational Thermo Fisher Scientific. [Photo provided to China Daily] Gianluca Pettiti pilots Thermo Fisher's drive to revolutionize healthcare through precision medicine Italian-born Gianluca Pettiti, president of Thermo Fisher Scientific China, a healthcare technology company, believes that in this age of customized this and personalized that, it is perhaps only fitting that the medical practice, which has been somewhat standardized for decades, should also become person-specific, highly precise to meet individual needs. Such an approach can enable patients to get better treatment and, more importantly, the right treatment. This could save a lot of money for Chinese people, he said. "Our focus on precision medicine is to create a better diagnostic system, in order to enable doctors to make better choices and help patients to have better outcomes at a lower cost," said Pettiti. Making that happen is a mission of sorts for the company, which already employs 4,000 staff in the country with headquarters in Shanghai. Thermo Fisher Scientific specializes in accelerating life science research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics, delivering medicine to market and increasing laboratory productivity. All this it does in various vertical markets such as environmental protection, food safety, precision medicine, pharma, biopharma and academia. Precision medicine, he said, is not simply gene sequencing but personalized therapy that uses different treatment protocols for different patients, a method that helps improve the efficiency of diagnosis and treatment. Without this kind of method, treatments or therapies may become unaffordable for ordinary patients. Besides, they may also be misdiagnosed or prescribed wrong drugs. "That's why I think Thermo Fisher Scientific is uniquely positioned, because we are operating on the measurement side, and we are helping measure what is important to make the right decision," said Pettiti. The company's mission is in line with the Chinese government's emphasis on the development of precision medicine. As early as 2015, President Xi Jinping gave instructions to set up a China Precision Medicine Strategy Experts Team. In response, the Science and Technology Ministry decided to invest 60 billion yuan ($9 billion) in the sector by 2030. "China is developing rapidly. It's our second-largest market worldwide after North America," Pettiti said, adding that Thermo Fisher has a big role to play in helping China's healthcare sector to develop fast. "We're the right partner for Chinese industry players because Thermo Fisher is a leading company that has relevant technologies cutting across genomics, proteomics and metabolomics," he said. (Genomics is the study of structure, function, evolution and mapping of genes or genetic material; proteomics is the study of the set of proteins that are in, or can be expressed by, a cell, tissue or organism; and metabolomics is the study of substances called metabolites formed in, or necessary for, metabolism.) "We created a healthcare ecosystem for our customersthe Thermo Fisher Cloud, a platform that analyzes patients' data collected by its instruments, through big data technology. There are already more than 50,000 users, with more than 25 percent of them coming from China." The State Council, or China's Cabinet, released a statement on Aug 24 that the country will promote the development and application of big data platforms in the healthcare industry. Ever since, Thermo Fisher in China has accelerated its cooperation with local governments, hospitals, emerging companies and academia to apply its technology knowhow and international experience to the challenge of developing the precision medicine sector. In mid-September, Thermo Fisher Precision Medicine Customer Experience Center, opened in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, a year after signing a cooperation agreement with Guangzhou government. Its hospital partners include First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, West China Hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan province, and Fuwai Hospital in Beijing. Last year, the company achieved double-digit growth in the China market, compared with the average growth of 5 to 6 percent of the healthcare sector in the country. "Thermo Fisher Scientific is a one-stop scientific solution provider, giving all-round services in precision medicine such as smarter laboratory equipment and big data cloud platform. "We try to be very local in the way we serve our customers. There are very few staff who are foreigners, with more than 62 percent of our employees being technical specialists and engineers who serve customers directly." In using such strategies, Pettiti draws heavily from his previous successful stints in other parts of the world: Italy, the Netherlands, Latin America... Working and living in different continents and diverse cultures gave him opportunities to learn five languages. "In Thermo Fisher, we all have one missionenabling our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and saferwhich inspires us to run the company and develop our talent," he said, adding that setting a clear goal is also the secret to managing a company well. He has been the president of Thermo Fisher Scientific China since January 2015. He joined the company as vice-president of associate firm Life Sciences Solutions China in 2014 through the acquisition of Life Technologies. His years in China have helped sensitize him to both modern and ancient aspects of the country and its culture "China shares the same culture with Italy: We are very close to our family, we are very close to our friends, and we love food that's why I enjoyed so much my time here." Passionate about technology, and the impact of digital tools and artificial intelligence on life, he spoke on future healthcare at the Summer Davos, the World Economic Forum event in Dalian Liaoning province, earlier this year. He also writes articles on artificial intelligence and digital science on social media His suave demeanor and sartorial elegance suggest he is a man meant to excel in a precision-related field. A consumer checks out Mead Johnson Nutrition's milk powder in Linyi, Shandong province. [Photo/for China Daily] New regulations expected to give established brands opportunities to expand beyond big cities Infant formula maker Mead Johnson Nutrition, a transnational company, plans to explore expected opportunities to expand into China's third-and fourth-tier cities and villages next year. New rules from Jan 1 will likely push out players selling regular products, leaving the market wide open for reputable brands that are mostly present only in big cities. Infant formula makers operating in China need to register their formulas by Dec 31. Without registration, they can no longer sell from Jan 1. According to the new guidance on registration of infant formulas released by the China Food and Drug Administration last year, companies have to meet specified standards for category and quality of their ingredients to get registered. Enda Ryan, CEO of Mead Johnson Nutrition Greater China, said the company would strive to introduce its products in less-developed cities where new regulations will likely eject substandard products from the market. He said about 50 percent of the infant formula brands may be removed from the Chinese market after the implementation of the new system. So, the company expects a growth rate higher than the industry's compound annual growth rate of 22.6 percent. Changjiang Securities data showed about 70 percent of infant and children product shops are located in third-and fourth-tier cities, where little known players are known to sell ordinary or substandard products. Such firms are likely to fail to get registered. So, next year, established brands may seek to replace them in markets whose collective sales may exceed 15 billion yuan ($2.27 billion), it said. Song Kungang, honorary president of the China Dairy Industry Association, said there will be fierce competition among big milk producers when small and medium-sized brands vacate their current market strongholds. More than 420 formulas have been approved by Oct 20, according to the CFDA website. Domestic brands Yili and Mengniu are among those that have been approved, while foreign ones included Abbott, Wyeth and Mead Johnson Nutrition, according to the website. The information spurred players to make fresh efforts to expand their market share. Liu Senmiao, vice-president of Junlebao Dairy Co Ltd, a Chinese milk powder company, said his phone number became a hotline of sorts for distributors after one of the company's brands, Lepur, appeared on the approved list. Lepur sales surged four times in one month, he said. Ma Fuxiang, deputy director of the department of special food registration of the CFDA, said at a symposium held by Xinhua News Agency in September that about 1,000 formulas would get registered before the deadline of Dec 31. "There are three principles that govern inspection of formulasnecessary nutrients must be added; optional nutrients need to be marked clearly; and dangerous ingredients, including additives, are banned," he said. Zhu Guogang, deputy general manager of domestic milk powder supplier Yashili Group, said companies used to compete in terms of product prices and marketing strategies. Now, however, their focus is on safety and innovation of products. Gu Lei, vice-president of Mead Johnson Nutrition Greater China, said: "Products with high quality will win recognition and popularity. The newborns will benefit the most." According to market researcher Euromonitor International, China's baby formula market is estimated to rise to 133.7 billion yuan by 2020, led by foreign brands such as Mead Johnson Nutrition, Nestle, Beingmate and Danone. Mead Johnson Nutrition boasts a 12-percent market share in the milk powder segment in Asia, following Nestle, it said. Mead Johnson Nutrition's revenue reached $3.74 billion last year, with half of it coming from Asia, according to its 2016 financial report. Ryan of Mead Johnson Nutrition said China has become the most vibrant market in the world. At the same time, it is also the most fiercely competitive market. So, the company will focus on the development of innovative products, provision of customized products for new mothers as well as expansion of sales channels through supermarkets, maternal and infant shops, and e-commerce, he said. The vending machine of Vingoo Juice can dispense a cup of fresh orange juice in 40 seconds. [Photo provided to China Daily] Whenever she passes by some malls in Beijing, Du Ni, 28, a bank employee in Beijing, buys a cup of fresh orange juice from an automated vending machine. "My husband likes the juice. It's priced around 10 yuan ($1.5) per cupreally cheap and fresh. I think such orange juice has quality and is safer than that extracted from manually operated machines. I can also see the process of juice extraction. I'd try other fruit juices, whenever they become available through such vending machines," Du said. Vingoo Juice, a brand that developed the first automated orange juice vending machine in the world five years ago, now takes about 50 percent of the niche market share in China. The machines are mostly located at airports, train and subway stations, colleges, hospitals, malls and sightseeing spots. By June-end, Vingoo Juice had more than 3,000 machines in 176 Chinese cities. The company sells 4 million cups of orange juice every month, higher than its combined sales between 2013 and 2015. For a consumer, all it takes is 40 seconds to lay his or her hands on the juice cup. The transaction starts with a mobile phone scan of a QR code displayed on the vending machine. It is followed by mobile payment using tools such as Alipay, ApplePay or WeChat Pay. Then, the machine peels a juicy orange, crushes it to extract its juice into a cup, seals it with a wrapper and dispenses it, all in full view of the consumer. Zhou Qi, founder and CEO of Shanghai Geant Investment Co Ltd, the company behind the Vingoo Juice brand, said the vending machine was developed in-house. He said the machine has helped remove intermediaries in distribution of fresh fruit, and directly connects consumers with fresh orange-producing areas. "Our consumers are diversified. Orange juice is rich in natural nutrition, and it is healthy and fresh, which is suitable for both the young and the old. We'll further develop our orange farms, increase sales outlets and upgrade service quality," he said. Vingoo Juice is now seen as a successful user of the online-to-offline, or O2O, model. In October, Geant announced that it has finished its B round of financing for 400 million yuan. It also said it plans to forge a smart eco-system that integrates agriculture, industry and new retail (O2O retail). Soon, the company will launch new automated vending machines that operate on a 24-hour basis at unmanned kiosks to dispense fresh food. The company will also launch separate automated vending machines to make ice cream and coconut juice. After drinking the fresh coconut water, consumers can take home freshly extracted coconut pulp. Zhou said unmanned smart vending machines are set to gain in popularity among consumers. So, the company has been focusing on research and development of such machines, and will innovate further in this direction. "We still have a vast unexplored market. We'll further expand the domestic market, and enter the Southeast Asian markets and European markets that are involved in the Belt and Road Initiative." Wang Wenlong, partner of Legend Capital, said as a brand, Vingoo Juice has created a new spending scene, in line with the ongoing consumption upgrade in China. It also helps avoid rising production costs. "China has advanced information technology infrastructure and mobile payment methods, and relatively under-developed food industry facilities. In this kind of environment, the unmanned food and beverage vending market will see significant growth opportunities." Investors check stock prices at a brokerage in Fuyang, Anhui province. The top leadership's call for sustainable development and green economic growth has boosted investor sentiment toward companies involved in environmentally friendly businesses. [Photo/for China Daily] 'Lucid waters and lush mountains' speech gives some A shares fresh energy A-share companies that offer solutions for environment management, environment protection and pollution control are likely to benefit long-term from China's strengthened policies for "green development", said analysts. At the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China last fortnight, President Xi Jinping reaffirmed the country's commitment to push forward green development. On several occasions in recent months, Xi sought to underline the importance of green development, and that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets". The top leadership's call for sustainable development and green economic growth has boosted investor sentiment toward companies involved in environmentally-friendly businesses. For instance, shares in Guangdong Liantai Environment Protection Co Ltd, a wastewater treatment solution provider, rose from 18.1 yuan ($2.73) by the end of September to 23.08 yuan on Friday, up 27.5 percent, on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Shares in Shanghai Environment Group Co Ltd, an urban solid waste treatment services provider, rose from 24.1 yuan at September-end to 27.49 yuan on Friday, up 14 percent, on the Shanghai Stock Exchange. Shares in Beijing Qingxin Environment Co Ltd, an air treatment solutions provider, rose 8 percent from 21 yuan at September-end to 22.68 yuan on Friday on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. China has launched a series of policies to improve management of water, air, soil and waste treatment. For improvement of water quality, the "River Chief" system requires supervision of each water body by a local official. He or she has to prevent any further harm to the water. This has entailed collaboration at various levels among multiple government departments. Water treatment technologies, solutions and innovative ideas are shared among localities, pushing up demand for quality solutions. Local government efforts for a healthy ecology are reviewed annually and nation-wide inspections are done every five years. The next such inspection will be in 2018. "Environment protection and improvement, as a sector, has been put in a significant position," said a research note from Sinolink Securities. The note said that from a policymaking perspective, the environment tax, which will be imposed in 2018, will strengthen inspections of local governments' efforts for environment improvement, spurring demand for related services and solutions. Jiang Chao, an analyst with Haitong Securities, said China's economic growth pattern is shifting from rapid pace to quality, with focus now more on sustainability, green development, balance and optimized structure of growth. Development in both rural and urban areas, and consumption upgrade will also increase demand for improved environment treatment solutions, said Huatai Securities. Water, waste and air treatment facilities are included in the blueprint for tens of industrial new cities across China. Environmentally-friendly solutions will be integral to the development of new cities that will be built from scratch. According to a brokerage's research note, consumers' preference for a better environment will spur service providers in both public and private sectors to consider such solutions. Developers of residential properties and facilities such as schools, parks and theaters will include more environmentally-friendly products than ever before while finalizing their procurement budgets. Liu Xintian, 6, has a one-on-one online English class with her teacher, Bridgette, who is in the United States. One-on-one attention from teachers, convenience spur growth On a weekend morning in Beijing, Youyou, 7, clicked an app on her iPad, greeted her teacher in the United States, and started her one-on-one online English lesson at home. Having two lessons a week - each lasting about 20 minutes - the first-grade primary school student had been studying this way for almost three months. Her mother, Amy Chang, who had sat with Youyou during all her the lessons, was particularly happy with her performance this time. "She's getting more used to the teaching approach, mastering the knowledge faster and interacting better with the teacher from afar," said Chang, who pays about 200 yuan ($30) per online lesson. "It turned out to be a sensible choice to change my daughter from an offline English class to an online one." One-on-one online teaching for children, especially English lessons taught by teachers who are native speakers of the language, is becoming increasingly popular in China. A report released by iResearch consulting company in August showed that the market size of children's online English education in China was almost 2 billion yuan last year, up 45 percent from the previous year. The number of users in China of such online education tools - including free programs - was about 3.2 million people in 2016, 40 percent up from 2015. Online English education for children will experience "explosive growth", the report said, as more Chinese parents emphasize their children learning English, the acceptance of online education grows and more parents plan to send their children to study overseas at a young age. Bright future The report anticipated that the market size would surpass 5 billion yuan in 2019, with the number of users reaching 8 million people that year. Some companies have already benefited from the growing need and are developing and expanding quickly. One such service, VIPkids, an online English education platform targeting children 4 to 12 years old in China, was established only four years ago but has already signed up 20,000 teachers from the US and Canada to conduct one-on-one teaching of English through video to more than 200,000 paid users. In August, the company announced that its latest round of financing had garnered $200 million, the largest such financing round in the K-12 online education sector. Mi Wenjuan, founder and CEO of VIPkids, said the popularity of children's online English education is closely related to Chinese parents' evolving educational perspective. "Parents born in the 1980s, and even the 1990s, grew up in an era in which the internet started being woven into aspects of their life, including how they bring up children," she said. "They are more open and willing to try new things than parents born in the 1970s or earlier. For them, online English education is convenient and time-saving. Most importantly, they are seeing their children's growing interest in the language and good learning effects." Effective learning Li Li, a Beijing resident, said she finally decided to move her 8-year-old son to an online one-on-one English class because she was getting increasingly busy with work and had no time to send her son to and pick him up from the offline course. "That was the original cause of choosing an online course, but I soon found more benefits I hadn't expected," the 37-year-old said. "The teacher did a great job in arousing my son's interest in learning the language by means of engaging him with various activities such as conversations, games, singing and drawing. And one-on-one meant full attention from the teacher to ensure effective learning." Allysa Bolzon, a teacher in Canada who teaches an average of 20 hours a week on the VIPkids platform, said online on-one-one English education relies a lot on teachers' body language and visuals to help keep students focused. Total physical response - a language teaching approach based on a coordination of language and physical movement - is emphasized by many online education companies like VIPkids. Education professionals say it enriches the online classroom environment and helps increase the connection between teacher and student by getting the student to move and interact with the teacher. "It is also a great way for the student to remember vocabulary," Bolzon said. Customs officials in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, inspect e-commerce parcels from South Korea. [Photo/China Daily] Chinese cross-border e-commerce transaction reached 6.7 trillion yuan ($1.01 trillion) in 2016, up by 31.6 percent, chinanews.com reported Sunday, citing an index released at a forum held in Shanghai. The Chinese Cross-Border E-commerce Index also predicted that by 2018, value of China's import and export transaction via e-commerce, including retail and business-to-business, might hit 8.8 trillion yuan. According to the index, people born in the 1980s were the major buyers, accounting for 59 percent of the cross-border orders in 2016, while those born in the 1990s made up 23 percent and those born in the 1970s accounted for 14.4 percent. Most of these buyers were highly educated, employed in big corporate and had kids. In the year 2016 and 2017, the best-selling goods were cosmetic products, baby-mummy products, shoes, clothes, health products, accessories and suitcases. Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou are top three locations where people favored cross-border e-commerce. Shanghai consumers accounted for 11.9 percent of the entire cross-border buyer population, while Beijing consumers accounted for 11.1 percent and Hangzhou consumers for 3.8 percent. A Ssangyong Tivoli car is displayed at an auto show in Beijing. [Photo/for China Daily] South Korea's Ssangyong Motor may cancel plans to produce cars in China as carmakers from the Asian nation encounter hard times amid fierce competition in the world's biggest car market. Ssangyong President and CEO Choi Johng-sik said the project is making slow progress and the company is seeking a plan B, according to the Korea Herald newspaper. The remarks come a year after the carmaker signed a letter of intent with China's Shaanxi Automobile Group to build a new plant in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi province, as well as an engine plant and a research and development center. "Currently, we are revising the direction of the China business," Choi said. "We are still thinking whether it is (the best option) to take the path of finding a private company to outsource (manufacturing)," he added. An official from Shaanxi Automobile's strategic development department told Reuters the project has been canceled. "This project no longer exists," the official said. Choi said that even if the two established a joint venture in China, it may face difficulties if it failed to satisfy China's fuel efficiency standards and did not produce eco-friendly cars as well as petrol cars. Ssangyong produces around 150,000 units a year in South Korea. From January to September, it reported an 8 percent increase in domestic sales year-on-year while its exports, which make up a quarter of total sales, fell 29 percent. Analysts say the prospect of Ssangyong producing cars in China was uncertain from the very beginning. Because of concerns about overcapacity, China is no longer so enthusiastic about foreign automakers forming joint ventures, they said. The authorities have also made it clear that in principle they will not approve new facilities that are dedicated to gasoline cars. The performances of Hyundai and Kia, which have built joint ventures, is under great pressure in China because of increased competition from Japanese, German and Chinese carmakers. Statistics from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers show that South Korean carmakers accounted for 4.1 percent of the passenger car market in the first nine months of the year, three percentage points lower than the same period last year. In the same period, Japanese carmakers garnered a 17.8 percent market share, up two percentage points from last year. German and Chinese carmakers each saw their shares grow about one percentage point. Hyundai and Kia are expected to sell a combined 1 million vehicles in China this year - a plunge of at least 40 percent from a year earlier, according to a S&P Global Ratings report in September. Beijing Hyundai sold only 415,000 cars in the first seven months of this year, a 29 percent decline from a year earlier. S&P Global Ratings has downgraded its outlooks for Hyundai and Kia from stable to negative. The ratings agency said Hyundai and Kia would continue to face profitability pressures over the next 12-24 months because of "intense competition and difficulties in their Chinese operations." Workers assemble digital electric generators at a production line of new energy cars in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province. [Photo/for China Daily] Chinese authorities investigate whether manufacturing rush will lead to sector's overcapacity China is investigating whether its new energy vehicle sector suffers from overcapacity as both traditional carmakers and newcomers have been jumping on the bandwagon in recent years. Song Qiuling, a senior official at the Ministry of Finance, said China's drive to promote production of new energy cars has had some negative impact, according to Caixin Magazine, but she did not specify what measures China will take if there are overcapacity problems. Song made the remarks at a meeting earlier this month on China's newly enacted regulation, which demands carmakers in the country produce a certain percentage of new energy vehicles starting in 2019. China launched an initiative to promote the sector in 2009 and started to subsidize it one year later. The moves have made China the world's largest market for such cars, home to about 1 million of them by the end of 2016. Government subsidies and the sector's bright prospects have fueled investors' enthusiasm to a high degree in the country. According to statistics compiled by the Economic Observer newspaper, more than 1 trillion yuan ($150 billion) was poured into more than 200 new energy car projects from 2015 to the first half of this year. The plants have a combined design capacity of producing 21 million vehicles a year when they are completed around 2020, which is already 10 times the production goal China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology set for the year in a long-term development plan released in April. But some analysts said overcapacity is not as easy to see as the numbers would suggest. They argue the designed capacity does not necessarily equate to the actual production capacity in the end. Such projects are usually implemented phrase by phrase, they explain, and some companies might intentionally put a higher number on their blueprints to attract more investment. Wang Binggang, a senior expert on China's national new energy car initiatives, said the investigations may target those who look to profiteer by reselling their carmaking licenses, which are getting harder to obtain in China. "Some companies, which used to produce bus or special vehicles ... have no intention to really enter the new energy car industry, so they neither conduct research and development nor produce cars. They would like to make money by selling the licenses," said Wang in an interview with China Business News. Some others are so obsessed with government subsidies for new energy cars that they even lie to get them illegally. About a dozen, including Suzhou Gemsea, were caught and fined in a crackdown in 2016. The government had earmarked 33.4 billion yuan of subsidies by the end of 2015. It is phasing out such incentives and is expected to stop them by the end of 2020. "Those companies disrupt the market order and without proper government supervision they are going to result in a waste of resources," Wang said. China has also temporarily suspended issuing carmaking licenses in the hope of raising the threshold for the new energy car sector. A total of 15 companies had won licenses from the authorities in 17 months starting from March 2016, which has led many to wonder whether such a rush is favorable for the sector's long-term development. At a forum in January, Song, official with the Ministry of Finance, said the new energy car sector is faced with the problem of too much capacity for low-end products yet too little for high-end ones and Chinese carmakers are yet to come out with cars that are competitive internationally. Statistics from LMC Automotive Shanghai show that at least 70 percent of new energy cars sold in China are priced as low as 50,000 yuan or less. China sold 400,000 such cars in the first nine months this year, a 37.7 percent rise year-on-year, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. It expects sales to reach 700,000 by the end of the year. 1. The 19th CPC National Congress introduced "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" for China's long-term development. How do you think it will guide the country's future? 2. President Xi Jinping said China has embarked on a "new era" in its development while spelling out a two-stage development plan by the middle of the century. What do you think? What's the most impressive thing happening in China? 3. President Xi has pledged to develop a modern economy. What are your expectations for that? 4. China is still the world's fastest-growing economy, and millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. What, in your opinion, has been the key to these achievements and what do you think of the country's development model? Ivona Ladjevac, head of the regional center of the Belt and Road Initiative at the Institute of International Politics and Economics in the Republic of Serbia 1. This report clearly indicates that the Communist Party of China has drawn up a two-stage development plan for the period from 2020 to the middle of the century to develop China into a great modern socialist country. This new thought will still lean on "old" ideas incorporated into Chinese socialism, but also will include new ideas that arise from modern society, a society that will succeed in beating unbalanced and inadequate development and will correspond to people's ever-growing needs for better lives. 2. The two-stage development plan has a main goal; to turn China into great modern socialist country that is prosperous, strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious and beautiful. Considering all previous Chinese plans, there is no doubt that such a goal is achievable because both the Chinese government and the Chinese people are dedicated in fulfilling their duties. The most impressive thing is that common interest is always put above the interests of the individual. 3. In the international sense, China is already regarded as a modern economy. In future, that development will be even faster because of China's plans to develop more in its western provinces. Also, it is important to underline the tremendous achievements in the fight against poverty and the successful reduction in the number of poverty-stricken people to 70 million. 4. The decisiveness of the Chinese authorities and the diligence of the Chinese people can be considered a recipe for success. Setting clear goals, determining the schedule and sticking to it are the reasons the plans have been realized. The Chinese development model should be taken as an example that there is an alternative to liberal capitalism which causes insecurity for ordinary people around the globe. Editor's Note: The Communist Party of China concluded its 19th National Congress last week in Beijing. China Daily asked five prominent experts for their views on Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, which was introduced at the congress. President Xi Jinping said China has embarked on a "new era" in its development while spelling out a two-stage development plan for the country by the mid-21st century. What do you think of that? What is happening in China that impresses you the most? China is already making meaningful progress on some of the issues addressed by President Xi Jinping at the 19th Communist Party of China National Congress, such as in innovation. For example, I have been particularly impressed by China's advancements in quantum technology. President Xi Jinping has pledged to develop a modern economy. What are your expectations for that? I would expect a modern Chinese economy to be one that has a thriving middle class, is even more integrated in the global economic system, and open to foreign goods and services. As China's middle class grows, I would expect Chinese consumers' appetite for high-quality US goods to increase, such as US agricultural goods. This year, China re-opened the door to US beef after a 14-year ban, in part due to increasing demand for high-quality US beef among China's middle class. China's is still the world's fastest-growing economy, and millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. What in your opinion has been the key to such achievements? And what do you think of the Chinese development model? I believe China's patience and willingness to take calculated economic reforms over time have been instrumental to China's success thus far. The number of people that have been lifted out of poverty in China is truly impressive, and is due, in no small part, to economic reforms that have allowed the private sector to play a larger role in the economy. China has also been making efforts to reform and develop the global governance system. How do you think China's experience and wisdom can benefit countries and people around the world? While China has certainly been active in shaping the international economic environment, many observers remain cautious toward China. China's ingenuity and willingness to shoulder more responsibility internationally, such as in addressing tensions on the Korean Peninsula or combating illicit drugs, will benefit the global community. China has made progress on its adherence to the rule of law and we look forward to the Chinese leadership making it more transparent for the international business community. The scientist behind China's "giant rice" has said he believes the crop could boost yields across Southeast Asia and other Belt and Road Initative countries, helping to ease global concerns over food security. Xia Xinjie, chief researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said his newly developed rice plant can better adapt to conditions such as climate than the rice plant strains in use. The new plant grows to about 2 meters, almost twice the height of standard varieties, and has a longer growth cycle. A test in Hunan province this month yielded 15,000 kilograms per hectare, just short of the record 17,000 kg set by the newest hybrid rice strain. Xia is confident his rice will one day surpass hybrid rice yields. "Hybrid rice has almost reached its maximum capacity, but (the research team developing) giant rice is charting a new route to record-breaking yields by increasing the biomass - or weight - of the plant," he said. The taller plant also allows increases in the capacity for aquatic products in paddy fields, which can increase farmers' incomes, he added. "For common rice plants, the water level is low and there is limited space for raising aquatic products. Sometimes, overcrowded aquatic products can reduce the rice output. But with higher rice plants, 300,000 frogs could live comfortably within a hectare of paddy, and bring in an extra 300,000 yuan ($45,000) per hectare for farmers." However, after the initial media reports about Xia's giant rice, concerns have been raised over its cost-effectiveness and whether it would increase the use of fertilizers. A user of Zhihu, a Chinese Q&A website, wrote that "extra tall rice plants would require newly developed reaping machines, and certainly more fertilizers, thus compromising the cost-effectiveness of the new breed". Xia said the harvest of giant rice can be managed by standard reaping machines, although "it could lead to some waste". He added that if the giant rice is to be planted on a large scale, "some modifications" to the reaping machines would be needed. As for fears over the need for more fertilizers, he said that although the higher rice plant requires more nutrition, farmers do not need to apply extra fertilizers. "It's because many paddies are already suffering from ... too much fertilizers," the scientist said. "Giant rice can grow to 2 meters even though farmers do not increase the fertilizer volume. Besides, the excrement from the aquatic products provides a natural fertilizer." Xia began his research in 2006, after he was inspired by the achievements of biologist Yuan Longping in developing super hybrid rice. "I was working for a US agricultural biotechnology company then. After I watched a TV program introducing Yuan's super hybrid rice, I was encouraged and wanted to return to China to continue my previous research on paddy rice," he said. After continuously selecting and breeding plants that met his requirements to create a taller, stronger rice plant with bigger flower clusters and stronger stalks, he started trial planting in 2014. He said the new breed is "100 percent free of genetic modification". "Tens of millions of yuan were invested in the research. Quite a few entrepreneurs offered to sponsor the project at the beginning, but many withdrew because the breeding process was too long and the result was uncertain," he said. He plans to expand the plantation of the giant rice plant to more than 130 hectares next year, if authorities grant approval. Currently only several dozen hectares of giant rice were planted in Hunan. Contact the writers at lilei@chinadaily.com.cn Faced with a lack of funds, one area is taking a fresh approach to protection Traditional lanterns glow near centuries-old residences in Hongcun Village, near Mount Huangshan, Anhui province, in May. [Photo by WANG HAO/CHINA DAILY] Old houses in Huangshan, Anhui province, offer a unique insight into the centuries-old architecture of the Ming and Qing dynasties, but a lack of funding is making protection a challenge. There are more than 6,000 Ming and Qing houses in Huangshan, a UNESCO cultural and natural heritage site; but, because of limited government funding, fewer than one-fourth - 1,325 - are under State protection. Yet, all of these old houses, many of which once belonged to important people, are treasures in local residents' eyes. How to effectively protect these examples of cultural heritage has long been a challenge for inhabitants and authorities alike. Many villagers work in cities as migrant workers, leaving their old houses behind, vulnerable to decay and collapse. "There is a lack of money for the renovation of these houses, and it is a real shame to have to watch them collapse or fall into ruin. So we are encouraging people who are able to invest capital in repairing the old houses to make good use of them," said Hu Jianbin, Huangshan's culture bureau chief. Urbanization is a significant factor. Increasing numbers of city dwellers, tired of the hustle and bustle of city life coupled with traffic congestion and air pollution, are turning to the countryside to escape. Preservation of old houses in Huangshan offers such people a glimmer of hope. Clean air Huangshan has many advantages to attract people escaping city life. Apart from its natural scenic beauty, the city is one of the cleanest in China. Last year, the number of days that air quality reached the national standards of "excellent" and "fairly good" hit 355 in Huangshan. It is also the cradle of Hui culture, which has inspired unique residential building designs since the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Shu Qing is one of the people attracted to Huangshan. Born in Yixian county of Huangshan, Shu worked as a journalist in Beijing for eight years before returning to her hometown. "I liked strolling around the Lama Temple in Beijing, and loved all the small restaurants nearby. I dreamed of opening one in my hometown," she said. In 2009, Shu, left the big city and returned to Yixian where she opened her own restaurant - The Hui House - in an old building near the former residence of Sai Jinhua, a woman of note in the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The building is located near the townships of Xidi and Hongcun, two UNESCO cultural heritage sites. Dream property "The house had been left empty and had decayed wood that had been destroyed by termites," she said, recalling the first time she saw her dream property. Five months of reconstruction and interior decoration have turned The Hui House into a cozy and elegant restaurant known for delicious food and attentive service. Only eight groups of diners are served each day. "We carefully keep the old building in good condition according to government requirements, frequently repairing it," Shu said. A lover of old architecture, she started searching for a suitable ancient house to live in with her husband. In 2012, she bought two adjoining Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) houses in a precarious state of disrepair. It took her three years to rebuild and decorate them. "The project's plan and blueprint must be approved by the government first to prevent workers destroying any of the original structure. The Hui style of a house must be maintained, including the use of black tiles, high white walls and wall tops shaped like horse heads," she said. The restored houses, which were completed in 2016, have eight tastefully designed rooms, equipped with modern amenities such as central air conditioning and heated floors. "Since 2016, we have lived in the houses. In March this year, we began providing accommodations for travelers," she said. Personal investment Shu spent 1.5 million yuan ($225,520) buying the two old houses, and another 2.6 million yuan rebuilding and decorating them. "Buying old houses is costly, and reconstructing them is not only costly but also time-and energy-consuming. If you are not really fond of them, you will destroy the houses," said Yu Biao, director of the cultural heritage protection office in Yixian. "So we must supervise buyers' credit and their economic power, no matter what kind of old houses they want to purchase." Fascinated with Hui culture, Huang Hua, president of Beijing Hua Sheng Hang International Cultural Development Co, specializes in Ming and Qing Dynasty furniture. Since 2003, he has made a living trading nanmu, a rare wood often used by Qing royal families. In 2013, he came across an ancestral hall in Yixian. "It was almost collapsing and was classified as dangerous. It would have been a shame to allow it to disappear," he said. Win-win scenario Because the hall is listed as a cultural relic, the Yixian government only leased it for 40 years. Huang rebuilt it over a period of two years, spending 3 million yuan. Now it is a museum for Ming and Qing furniture. Huang also exhibits his company's products. In recent years, local governments have taken a series of steps to attract private investors like Shu and Huang to renovate the old houses in Huangshan. If the plan goes well, it will prove to be a win-win, sustainable way to preserve cultural heritage. "We have a set of meticulous rules to ensure that only capable investors can rent the houses. Ownership stays in the hands of the government," said Hu, the culture bureau chief. A visually-impaired student on a class at a special education school in Anqing, East China's Anhui province. [Photo/VCG] The government's plan for inclusive education aims to have 95 percent of children with disabilities enrolled in mainstream schools by 2020. But the drive faces headwinds, including a lack of individual training plans and a teacher-evaluation system that doesn't adjust for lower student performance on average, which could hurt a teacher's chances of getting a pay raise. Qiao Xueying would barely talk to her classmates when she first arrived as a transfer student at Wuhou Technology Park Primary School, an experimental school in Chengdu, Sichuan province. "She was so introverted and felt so unsafe that she didn't play with other children," her teacher, He Ping, said. "She would scream when her grandfather dropped her off in the morning." Qiao, who has trouble walking - a consequence of cerebral palsy - attended a special school until she was transferred in the second grade. In the three years that followed, her improvement has been noted. He, a teacher involved in Wuhou's inclusive education program, said Qiao now happily plays and studies with other children, and there's even been some improvement to her physical condition thanks to exercise classes with specialist teachers. Those able to go to regular schools should be encouraged to do so, according to Li Jing, a researcher at Renmin University of China who is focused on the rights and interests of people with disabilities. "A totally inclusive education can help such children become more confident and gain interpersonal skills by communicating with others, which is extremely important for integrating into society," she said. "It can't be limited to studying at special schools with no contact with the outside world." Zhu Yinuo is another example. The fifth-grader, who has Down syndrome, receives a tailored education at Wuhou, but she also takes some classes alongside other students. "She is now more confident and open to playing with others compared with when she started," her father, Zhu Yin, said. To aid the push toward inclusive education, the central government has pledged to give schools 6,000 yuan ($902) a year for each disabled student to cover the costs of upgrading facilities - such as toilets and stairwells - and paying specialist tutors, the Chinese Journal of Special Education reported in August. One essential element, according to He, the schoolteacher, cannot be ignored: Most students with disabilities need individual training plans. But that "is seen as an extra burden for teachers at standard schools". "Many disabled children also perform worse on exams than other students, which could mean trouble for teachers in terms of their own performance reviews," He said. Du Yang, a senior communications officer at Save the Children, said that to ease the burden, educational departments and schools should set up special assessment systems for disabled students, and their test results should be excluded when evaluating teachers. jiangchenglong@chinadaily.com.cn Liu Xintian, 6, has a one-on-one online English class with her teacher, Bridgette, who is in the United States.[Photo provided to China Daily] One-on-one attention from teachers, convenience spur growth On a weekend morning in Beijing, Youyou, 7, clicked an app on her iPad, greeted her teacher in the United States, and started her one-on-one online English lesson at home. Having two lessons a week - each lasting about 20 minutes - the first-grade primary school student had been studying this way for almost three months. Her mother, Amy Chang, who had sat with Youyou during all her the lessons, was particularly happy with her performance this time. "She's getting more used to the teaching approach, mastering the knowledge faster and interacting better with the teacher from afar," said Chang, who pays about 200 yuan ($30) per online lesson. "It turned out to be a sensible choice to change my daughter from an offline English class to an online one." One-on-one online teaching for children, especially English lessons taught by teachers who are native speakers of the language, is becoming increasingly popular in China. A report released by iResearch consulting company in August showed that the market size of children's online English education in China was almost 2 billion yuan last year, up 45 percent from the previous year. The number of users in China of such online education tools - including free programs - was about 3.2 million people in 2016, 40 percent up from 2015. Online English education for children will experience "explosive growth", the report said, as more Chinese parents emphasize their children learning English, the acceptance of online education grows and more parents plan to send their children to study overseas at a young age. BEIJING -- The Communist Party of China (CPC) is still facing a "grim and complicated" situation in its clean governance drive and the fight against corruption, a report from the Party's anti-graft body read. According to a work report of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) submitted to the 19th CPC National Congress which concluded earlier this week, the CPC had registered remarkable progress in its strict Party governance drive over the past five years. The Party's political activities were reinvigorated, and its political ecology improved, the report said. Disciplinary authorities have investigated 440 officials at or above provincial or corps level for corruption over the past five years, who included 43 members and alternate members of the CPC Central Committee, as well as nine members of the CCDI. In the first nine months of this year alone, 56 officials at or above provincial level were investigated and punished. Rampant corruption was headed off, and a crushing momentum had been gained and consolidated against graft, it read, adding that the Party was "reborn" and was "beaming fresh, strong vitality."x However, the breeding ground for corruption continues to exist, the report said, citing obstinate negative factors that threaten the Party's political activities and ecology, weak Party leadership, inadequate Party building and insufficient Party governance. It said some Party organizations had failed to fully implement the CPC's Constitution, its rules and disciplines, as well as the Party lines and policies, and corruption cases occurred frequently, particularly in certain regions and departments. Corruption at grass-roots levels is far from being rid off, and a number of discipline inspection officials had demonstrated poor work conduct. Some even defied and violated inspection disciplines, leveraging their power to seek personal gains, the report said. "Corruption has existed since the beginning of the history of human civilization," it read. "All public power is at the risk of being corrupted, and all ruling parties are faced with the fight against corruption." Self-purification thus is a major challenge for the CPC, which has been China's sole ruling party since 1949, the report said. It said the CPC must coordinate intra-Party supervision with national supervision, advance the modernization of its governance capabilities, and find an effective way to improve self-supervision on the basis of a lone-term rule. The report noted that Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era shall be taken as a powerful theoretical weapon as well as a guide for action for graft busters, urging them to keep in alignment with the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core. In the next five years, the CCDI will fully implement the spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress, and work to improve Party governance and the work style of its members. It will also deepen reform on the national supervisory system, build a team of trustworthy discipline inspectors, and make greater efforts to ensure officials do not dare to be corrupt, institutionalize the legal framework so it is not possible to be corrupt, and finally create a moral compass so that officials do not want to be corrupt, the report said. PARIS - The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has awarded the UNESCO Medal on Space Science to the first Chinese national sent to space, Yang Liwei, along with three other prominent international space pioneers, on Friday evening at the organization's headquarters in Paris. The three other laureates of the 2017 edition - who, with Yang, were the first recipients of the award - are Valentina Tereshkova, the Russian cosmonaut and first woman in space; Arnaldo Tamayo Mendez, the first Cuban in space; and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese commander of the International Space Station. "I thank you all for your courage and commitment," said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, who concluded with "an appeal, for you to continue on your scientific journey, and also to return to UNESCO as often as possible, to reach out to younger generations, to share UNESCO's message to build peace in the minds of men and women." Unable to attend the ceremony himself, Yang was represented by Shen Yang, ambassador and permanent delegate of China to UNESCO at the ceremony. In a message delivered by Shen on his behalf, Yang recalled October 2003, when the world witnessed the success of China's first manned space mission. He noted that a UN flag was taken aboard the Shenzhou 5 spacecraft during the mission, which he called a sign of the Chinese people's willingness to use space for peaceful purposes and to benefit mankind, while also demonstrating China's support of the UN's mission and principles. "In the future, we are willing to work together with all countries and regions that are committed to the peaceful use of outer space, with an aim to contribute more to the promotion of scientific progress and peace and development of the world," Yang was quoted as saying. The UNESCO Medal on Space Science, announced in June, is awarded by the head of UNESCO to prominent scientists, public figures and organizations involved with the development of space science in the spirit of UNESCO. The awardees were selected by the International Commission for the Creation of the UNESCO Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems, an integrated knowledge base dedicated to Earth life. A 2,140-meter long table banquet was held in Danzhai county, Guizhou province during the Double Ninth Festival on October 28, 2017. Some 21,433 people, including local villagers and tourists, took part in the banquet. The local Miao and Dong ethnic groups have an over 1,000-year-old tradition of celebrating festivals with long table banquets. [Photo/ecns.cn] A three-day conference on ferroic materials was held in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi province. The meeting, which ended on Oct 27, was jointly hosted by Nature Research, an international academic journal, and the Frontier Institute of Science and Technology (FIST) of Xi'an Jiaotong University. The meeting was chaired by Ren Xiaobing, a professor of FIST, Wei Fan, associate editor of Nature Communications, Giulia Pacchioni, senior editor of Nature Reviews Materials, and Giacomo Prando, associate editor of Nature Nanotechnology. Around 20 scholars from top universities, laboratories and institutes shared their research and findings at the event. "Ferroic materials are the core of many smart technologies, and are gaining importance in our smart age," Ren said. He also added that FIST will continue working with the international ferroic community and contribute to the growth of the field. Panel discussions were also held during which participants discussed how to transfer the research results into practical applications. Besides, a poster exhibition, in which research papers were presented as posters, served as a communication platform. A workshop on mathamatics is held during the Future Forum Annual Conference in Beijing on Oct 28. [Photo provided by Future Forum] The Future Forum Annual Conference kicked off in Beijing on Saturday, with prominent scientists, scholars and business representatives from home and abroad participating. The two-day event was a scientific and technological feast for the participants. It featured a series of workshops on a wide range of themes, including mathematics, quantum physics and celestial physics. In these workshops, scientists and scholars delivered speeches and made presentations on their latest research and breakthroughs. Dialogues between scientists and audience members were also held, where leading quantum physicist Pan Jianwei, mathematician Xu Chengyang and biophysicist Shi Yigong answered questions and provided thought-provoking suggestions. Entrepreneurs and scientists also exchanged ideas on hot topics like artificial intelligence, automatic vehicle and genetic engineering, as well as discussing collaboration between research institutes and enterprises. The Future Forum was founded in 2014 by a group of entrepreneurs and scientists, with the aim of supporting basic research, promoting scientific and technological development and encouraging innovation. In 2016, the forum's first annual conference was held in Beijing and the council of the forum announced the winners of the Future Science Prize, also dubbed "China's Nobel Prize". "As a non-profit organization, Future Forum hopes to spread scientific knowledge both at home and abroad and encourage the younger generation to do their bit for scientific development," said Wang Haoyi, a council member of Future Forum and a genetic scientist from the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. License for publishing multimedia online 0108263 Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 A 54-year-old man from Hunan province rode 25,800 kilometers across China on a motorcycle in five months, Morning Herald reported on Wednesday. Zhou Yunyong left his hometown of Zhuzhou on June 15 and traveled through 192 cities of 20 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, carrying only an old tent and a small amount of money. He finished his trip on Oct 23. "Traveling on a motorbike allows me to feel closer to the world, either the city or nature," he said. "I have learned about the cultures and customs of different regions, and made friends with other travelers." Zhou ate take-away food and noodles on the trip and washed in public toilets and gas stations. He slept in his tent on more than 120 nights. He said he received a lot of help from people in different places during the journey and was more healthy by the end of his adventure than at the start. "Riding a motorcycle is really hard and tiring work. I went to sleep early each night after sending messages to my family. Plenty of sleep and exercise made me feel good. Even the swelling in my legs and pain from frozen shoulders subsided." Zhou said he plans to organize free exhibitions about Tibetan culture. BEIJING-- Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Monday the newly-elected leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee will work with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) to strengthen political guidance for closer bilateral ties. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made the remarks when meeting with Sounthone Xayachack, head of the LPRP Central Committee's commission for external relations, who visited China as the special envoy of Bounnhang Vorachit, general secretary of the LPRP Central Committee. "The ruling parties of China and Laos should bear in mind the strategic significance of bilateral ties with a higher and deeper perspective, so as to contribute to the development of the two countries as well as the world socialist development," Xi said. James Thornton has advised the Chinese government on updating the country's environmental law. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] President Xi Jinping's plan to establish an "ecological civilization" is among the best blueprints for green governance, according to James Thornton, a UK-based environmental lawyer and activist. New data suggests global climate change is increasing at unprecedented rates. According to a World Meteorological Organization report, published on Monday, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere surged last year at its highest speed in 800,000 years, driven by human activity and drought. The environment was among the topics addressed at this month's 19th National Congress of Communist Party of China. In his keynote speech at the event, Xi mentioned the environment 89 times, while the economy was mentioned 70 times, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. In addition to creating more material and cultural wealth to meet people's ever-increasing needs for a better life, Xi told CPC delegates presenting at the congress that they need also to provide more quality ecological goods to meet people's ever-growing demands for a beautiful environment. Erik Solheim, head of the United Nations environment department, said "global political will and a new sense of urgency" is needed to combat climate change. Since assuming office, Xi has overseen wholesale changes to environmental policy in China, including the first amendments to the country's Environmental Protection Law in 25 years. Thornton, founder and chief executive of London-based environmental advocacy agency ClientEarth, was among five foreign experts to advise the Chinese government on the new legislation. "Which Western country is getting together a global panel of experts to analyze its legal system to see what could change to deliver an ecological civilization? Nobody," Thornton told China Daily. ClientEarth has defeated the United Kingdom government in court on air pollution cases and has also prevented Poland from building new coal-fired power plants. Thornton said China has enacted "profound corrective action" to its environmental policies. Among other changes, the updated law makes it easier for civilians and non-governmental agencies to bring cases against polluting companies, including State-owned ones. President Xi Jinping meets with members of the Advisory Board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Monday. WU ZHIYI / CHINA DAILY President receives foreigners for first time since 19th Party Congress China will firmly stick to the basic national policy of opening-up and pursue win-win cooperation while safeguarding the country's sovereignty, security and development interests, President Xi Jinping said on Monday. Xi made the remark while meeting with members of the Advisory Board of Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. The members include foreign and Chinese entrepreneurs, academics and former officials. It was Xi's first meeting with foreigners after his re-election as general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee at the First Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee last week. Xi told the members that the recently concluded 19th National Congress of the CPC had great significance, boosting Chinese people's confidence of continuing with the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Saying that China is deepening overall reform with unprecedented determination and force, Xi vowed to continue to promote reform and opening-up. China has not only benefited from but also contributed to economic globalization, Xi said, adding that China's development means opportunities for the world. China will not seek to take advantage of other countries but will pursue win-win cooperation, Xi said, while pledging to take more measures to boost opening-up. The president pointed out that China sticks to the path of peaceful development, proactively participating in the reform and construction of the global governance system, and pushes to build a community of a shared future for mankind. Xi also highlighted the importance of education, saying that China's education system aims to train builders and inheritors of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Commenting that he is looking forward to the upcoming meeting with US President Donald Trump, Xi said China would like to make joint efforts with the US to take each other's interests and concerns into consideration, dissolve disputes and contradictions, and engage in win-win cooperation. During the meeting, some members of the board made speeches to express confidence in the Chinese economy and extended congratulations to the Party's 19th National Congress. Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc, said at the meeting that Apple looks forward to "continuing to be in China and working together on a very prosperous future". "Innovation and technology come from openness and collaboration. I'd like to strongly encourage China to continue to open wider to the outside world," he said. The new CPC central leadership will continue to work with the leaders of ruling parties in Vietnam and Laos to further promote bilateral ties, Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, said on Monday. Xi made the remark as he met special envoys sent by Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and Bounnhang Vorachith, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party. The envoys were Hoang Binh Quan, head of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee's Commission for External Relations and Sounthone Xayachack, head of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Committees Commission for External Relations. They were sent to convey congratulations on the successful 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and Xi's re-election as general secretary and his endorsement as the core of the Party's leadership, as well as to pass along messages from their leaders to Xi. Xi said he appreciated the visit as well as the congratulation letters sent a few days earlier. Trong said in the message that he believed the "brotherlike" Chinese people, led by the CPC Central Committee, which put General Secretary Xi Jinping as the core, will attain the grand goals set at the congress, turn China into a strong socialist country and make greater contributions to the peace and development of the region and the world. Xi said on developing China-Vietnam ties that the two sides should bear in mind the traditional friendship nurtured by leaders of elder generations and ideals, beliefs and historical responsibilities shared by the two parties. The two ruling parties should view the bilateral relationship with a higher and deeper view and resolutely push forward the community of shared destiny, Xi said. Bounnhang said in his message that General Secretary Xi has guided the CPC, Chinese government and Chinese people to obtain historic achievements in various causes and is highly trusted and supported by the whole party. Director of the CPC Central Committee General Office Ding Xuexiang and State Councilor Yang Jiechi attended the two meetings. Contact the writers at lixiaokun@chinadaily.com.cn Chinese pipa player Wu Man and French cellist Gautier Capucon are touring with the NCPA Orchestra in North America. [Photo provided to China Daily] The National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra is on a six-city tour in North America, including Chicago, New York and Philadelphia, until Nov 7. The tour will see the orchestra make its debut performance at the Carnegie Hall on Monday. Under the baton of Lyu Jia, the chief conductor of the orchestra, the tour features violinist Ning Feng and French cellist Gautier Capucon. Chinese pianist Zhang Haochen, 27, a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and a Gold Medal and First Prize winner at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, has stepped in for Lang Lang, who is recovering from an inflammation in his left arm. Also performing on the tour is Grammy Award-nominated pipa player Wu Man. The medium is Chinese but the subjects are Tunisian. An amalgamation of the cultures of the two geographically distant but historically close countries has won an appreciative audience as six Chinese artists painted scenes they had witnessed in the North African country during their 10-day stay. Their work, done in the delicate traditional Chinese ink painting style, is being shown in Hammamet, a beach town in eastern Tunisia that is a prime tourist destination. The one-week exhibition, which was inaugurated on Wednesday, is jointly organized by the Chinese and Tunisian ministries of culture as part of Sino-Tunisian cultural exchanges. There are more than 50 drawings by six artists, including Zhai Jianqun and Zhou Xiaomingmembers of the Chinese Artists' Associationand Ding Xuejun, a professor of the renowned Rongbaozhai painting academy in Beijing. Their subjects range from landscapes and figures to Tunisian folk culture. Zhai says that they stayed in Tunisia for over 10 days to experience local customs. They painted Tunisia in traditional Chinese ink painting style. "We found Tunisian artists know little about Chinese ink painting. So this exhibition is a good way to share our traditional painting culture with Tunisian artists," says Zhai. "We communicate and learn from each other." Moez Mrabet, the director of the International Cultural Center of Hammamet, says the exhibition is a good opportunity for Tunisian artists to learn about the Chinese painting technique. Bai Guangming, cultural counselor at the Chinese embassy in Tunis, says Sino-Tunisian cultural ties have witnessed rapid development in recent years, thanks to frequent artistic exchanges. An artist from China's Henan performs Sichuan Opear during a Happy Chinese New Year event in South Africa on Feb3, 2017. [Photo/Wang Yang] The Just Share It - Happy Chinese New Year 2017 global online photo contest announced its results. This online campaign was sponsored by Chinaculture.org, organized by China Daily website and supported by the Bureau for External Cultural Relations, Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China. Launched on Jan 1, the global online campaign gained extensive attention from our domestic and foreign friends. We received more than 4,000 submissions from more than 400 participants in over 60 countries and regions, including the US, UK., Spain, Germany, Australia and Canada. Many of these photos reached a professional level, such as Chinese New Year Celebration in Spain, People in Benin Perform Chinese Dragon Dances and Ottawa Ice Dragon Boat Festival. According to the judges grading results, 100 (group) photos were selected. They will be included in the Ministry of Culture's publicity source and may be used in the ministry's cultural activities or cultural products, such as exhibition, publication, poster and photo album design. The Just Share It photo contest joins hands with the Happy Chinese New Year series of events, inviting people all over the world to share their photos and stories on various aspects of Chinese New Year via Chinaculture.org and its Facebook page, China Daily Forum and blog. Chinaculture.org's Facebook aroused hot discussion on Chinese culture during the contest. Foreign friends also shared their stories about Chinese New Year. In 2015, Chinaculture.org successfully held its first Just Share It - Happy Chinese New Year global online photo contest. The online campaign made a great impact and drew heavy response, with over 2,100 works from 35 countries and regions. In 2016, more than 2,600 photos from more than 350 participants in over 50 countries and regions were submitted. Chinese model Du Juan wearing a pink cashmere sweater with puff sleeve attends an event in Shanghai on Oct 28, 2017. [Photo/VCG] Often associated with Disney princesses-style or Shakespearean heroines, wedding dresses or royal costumes, puffed sleeves have undergone many transformations in size and shape over the years. In the 2018 Spring/Summer fashion season, puffed sleeves have made a comeback in formal fashion. However, this time, puffed sleeves are not limited to ball gowns and other formal wears. They have slipped into fashion insiders daily style. T-shirts, cardigans, dresses, and even windbreakers characterized by puckering the fabric at the shoulder create the latest style of puff sleeves. Tong Xing Project, started by Hao Jingfang, the winner of Hugo Award for best novelette in 2016, was launched at Gewai Bookstore in Beijing recently. Hao invited 25 outstanding people in different fields to join in the project, including Lee Kai-fu, expert on computer science and founder and CEO of Sinovation Ventures, and Liu Cixin, Hugo Award winner for his Three-Body Problem. The project will provide good-quality educational content that can be shared via internet among children. Lee attended the launch ceremony and shared his knowledge about artificial intelligence with the young audiences. "The shared educational content can allow every kid around the country to have access to the lectures of top talent in various fields," Hao said. According to a McKinsey report in 2016, in the coming 10 to 20 years, artificial intelligence may replace people for 49 percent of the present jobs, exerting big influence on labor markets, especially China and India. In the coming year, the project will provide 25 free online lectures given by the experts about subjects such as the universe, forest, city, architecture, future and so on. The project will also bring free science education programs to remote villages for left-behind children, whose parents go to bigger cities for better job opportunities. THE LEGISLATURE of Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province, recently reviewed a draft regulation on garbage sorting in the city. Compared with previous versions, the current draft highlights residents' role in garbage sorting. Southern Metropolis Daily comments: The draft regulation in Guangzhou has established several principles: Those who make more garbage will pay more for the disposal of it, while those who sort their garbage will pay less than those who don't. That's giant progress compared with the current practice of many cities, which collect the same fee for garbage disposal from every household. That practice is unfair because households that produce less garbage have to pay the same fee as those who produce more. Besides, it fails to encourage people to produce less garbage or sort their garbage. Actually, the Guangzhou government introduced pioneering efforts in this regard several years ago, yet they failed because it was too hard to calculate the cost. More work needs to be done to find the best way of calculating the amount of garbage a household produces and charging accordingly. Besides, there must be a supervision system to prevent residents from trying to avoid the charge by disposing of their garbage via unofficial channels. Some cities in the Republic of Korea have a quite strict supervision system, in which cameras are installed to watch garbage collection sites, while residents are encouraged to report illegal dumping of garbage to the authorities. Of course, that's only one of the problems that the new system might face. Even if Guangzhou adopts a strict supervision system, it needs to do much more job to effectively implement the new regulation. That in turn requires the urban management department of Guangzhou to be patient enough to solve all the problems that are encountered. However, the authorities are heading in the right direction. A real estate under construction in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang province. File photo. [Photo/Xinhua] General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee Xi Jinping reiterated in his report to the 19th CPC National Congress that "houses are for living in", which has set the tone for China's housing development, and a variety of housing reforms and measures are expected to be rolled out over the next five years. In his report, Xi once again said that housing is not for speculation and the country will accelerate the building of a rental market in the country. This orientation and the building of a more sound social security system can be expected to serve as an important means to address China's main social contradiction in the new era, build a consumption-driven growth model and advance the country's modernization. For many years the country's housing supply has attached greater importance to the sales of residential properties while paying less attention to housing for rent. As a result, housing has increasingly departed from its nature as a dwelling, and investment and speculation have run increasingly rife. The failure to work out a targeted top-level design is a fundamental reason why a series of regulatory measures adopted by previous decision-makers failed to tame skyrocketing housing prices. To highlight the nature of housing as dwellings and a public good means that rental housing will become more prominent in China's housing system. This marks another significant institutional reform in China's housing sector. For urban newcomers who cannot afford to purchase a house in the cities where they work, measures are indeed needed to ensure they can rent a home before they have a financial capability to buy their own home. The new housing system is expected to better meet the housing demands of new city residents and serve people's desire for a better life. -Southern Metropolis Daily Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who is also leader of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), attends a news conference at LDP headquarters in Tokyo, Japan October 23, 2017. [Photo/Agencies] Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe got a phone call from his British counterpart Theresa May on Oct 23, who congratulated him on his win in the general election. May lost overall majority in the British parliament after taking an extraordinary gamble of calling a snap election in June to take advantage of what she perceived to be a weak opposition. Now, she is running a government with the support of Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party. Abe's political opportunism, on the other hand, has paid off. His ruling coalition won two-thirds of the seats, or super majority, in the lower house of Japan's parliament in the Oct 22 snap election. As a result, Abe could stay in power until autumn 2021 and bid for a third term for the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership race in September 2018. The LDP won the same number of seats, 284, that it had before Abe dissolved the parliament on Sept 28. But its junior partner, the Komeito, suffered a blow, with its share dropping from 35 to 29. The centrist party's coalition with the center-right LDP, which has been criticized for ramming a series of controversial bills through parliament in the past almost five years, has eroded the Komeito's public support. The low turnout and flagging popularity of opposition parties worked in favor of the LDP. Only 53.68 percent of the voters, as the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said, cast their ballots on Oct 22, which was the second-lowest turnout since World War II. The opposition's efforts to get to the bottom of Abe's cronyism scandals involving two school operatorsMoritomo Gakuen and Kake Educational Institutionwere halted due to the election. And many voters say Abe has not provided detailed explanations to prove wrong the accusations of his involvement in the two scandals. Support for Abe, battered by the scandals and voters' perception that he took them for granted, dived from 60 percent earlier this year to 26 percent by the end of July. So when parliament convenes again, opposition lawmakers will likely continue grilling Abe for his alleged involvement in the scandals. The Asahi Shimbun has rightly termed the election result "a defeat of the opposition parties" rather than a victory of the ruling camp. Half of the voters who support Abe do so, as NHK polls showed, because there is no alternative. The ideologically divided opposition parties, which were caught unprepared, could not come up with any convincing pledge to garner voters' support. The LDP's control of postwar Japan has been nearly absolute, broken only by a short-lived coalition government of opposition parties in 1993-1994 and by the 2009 victory of the Democratic Party of Japan, which was in power till 2012. Japanese people want to see a balance of power between the ruling and opposition camps, because when the ruling camp enjoys an overwhelming majority in parliament, as even the pro-Abe newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun argued, a fragmented opposition cannot hope to act as an effective watchdog. "The situation inevitably erodes the healthy and necessary tension in politics," Yomiuri Shimbun said. Still, any misstep by the new Abe Cabinet will cause his approval ratings to fall again. Abe has pressing policy issues such as the economy, a low birth rate and an aging society to handle, and he is eager to make his dream of amending the country's Constitution come true while he is in power. Opinion polls showed that more than 80 percent of the newly elected members of the lower house support constitutional revision while the public is still divided on the issue. This means the LDP's constitutional amendment proposal may be passed in parliament but fail in a national referendum. Knowing that he has lost much of his popularity, Abe vowed at a press conference on Oct 23 to run his new administration "humbly and sincerely", because he will not get another chance to take a gamble. The author is China Daily Tokyo bureau chief. caihong@chinadaily.com.cn Zhangjiajie in Hunan province.China's Hunan province is on the list of Lonely Planet's best value destinations for 2018.[Photo/Xinhua] Among newly published lists of hot travel spots around the world in 2018, China is in the top 10 countries to visit. Lonely Planet, the world's largest travel guide publisher, recently released its annual report of the best worldwide destinations in 2018. The list features "Top 10 countries", with Chile topping the list; "Top 10 cities", where Seville in Spain grabbed first place; "Top 10 regions", with Belfast and the Causeway Coast in Northern Ireland taking the top spot, and "Top 10 best value places", with pole position occupied by Tallinn in Estonia. All of the listed destinations are selected by Lonely Planet's globe-trotting team based on factors like safety, convenience, novelty and whether the place can offer visitors a unique experience. Also worthy of interest is China's Hunan province being on the list of best value destinations, for its abundance of natural and historical treasures like Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang ancient town. Moreover, the province's modern wonders like its newly-opened glass bridge, longest in the world, are also worth a try. Just as Lonely Planet put it, China is a country full of mystery and adventure. "Twenty-first century China is here to stay," the guide said, "so hop on board a bullet train and explore this modern Middle Kingdom." Former US President Barack Obama campaigns in support of Virginia Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam, Democratic candidate for governor, at a rally with supporters in Richmond, Virginia, US, Oct 19, 2017. [Photo/Agencies] CHICAGO - Former US President Barack Obama has been called for jury duty in Chicago. Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans on Friday told county commissioners during a budget hearing that Obama, who owns homes in Washington, D.C., and Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood, will serve in November. He is registered to vote in Chicago. Evans says Obama's safety will be "uppermost in our minds" when he serves. Those called can be put either in the pool for criminal case or civil hearings. They can be called to any of the county's Chicago or suburban courthouses. All jurors watch a decades-old video about their duties narrated by a mustachioed Lester Holt, once a local news reader and now anchor of NBC Nightly News. Jurors in Cook County are paid $17.20 for each day of service. AP Anti--independence supporters shout slogans and wave Spanish flags as they march against the unilateral declaration of independence approved earlier by the Catalan parliament in downtown Barcelona on Friday.Francisco Seco / Associated Press Spanish prime minister Rajoy called new poll for December 21 BARCELONA, Spain - Hundreds of thousands who want Catalonia to remain part of Spain rallied in downtown Barcelona on Sunday, two days after a separatist majority in Catalonia's parliament exacerbated a political crisis by voting for the wealthy region to secede. Organizers say the march's goal is to defend Spain's unity and reject "an unprecedented attack in the history of democracy". Leaders of rival pro-union parties from the ruling conservatives, the pro-business liberals and the socialists have joined together under the slogan "We are all Catalonia. Common sense for coexistence!" Rally organizers Societat Civil Catalana, the leading pro-union grassroots group, said that over 1 million people turned out for the march that maintained a festive mood without any incidents reported. Police haven't yet provided a crowd estimate. Many demonstrators waving Spanish, Catalan and European Union flags flooded a central boulevard. Some held hand-made signs and banners reading "We won't let Spain to be torn apart into pieces" and "The awakening of a silenced nation". "Catalan leaders have broken the law. The central government has let this situation go for too long, for even 30 or 40 years, thinking that we were never going to arrive to this extreme, but here we are," said Angelita Cuesta, a 66-year-old retiree. "Our society is fractured, there are family members and friends who no longer can talk about politics to avoid conflict." Three weeks ago, the same group organized a mass rally that brought hundreds of thousands onto Barcelona's streets. That was by far the largest pro-union show of force in Catalonia in recent years, in contrast to huge rallies by separatists. "We have organized ourselves late, but we are here to show that there is a majority of Catalans that are no longer silent and that no longer want to be silenced," Societat Civil Catalana President Alex Ramos said. Members of Spain's central government, including Health Minister Dolors Montserrat, and Enric Millo, who is Madrid's representative in Catalonia, also attended Sunday's rally. No major pro-independence marches were expected. Catalonia's separatist leader, who was fired along with his regional government on Saturday, has called for Catalans to engage in peaceful opposition to Spain's crackdown to keep the country together. The vote by pro-independence lawmakers on Friday in favor of secession, and Madrid's response triggering unprecedented constitutional powers taking control of Catalan affairs, was the climax of Spain's worst political crisis in decades. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also dissolved Catalonia's parliament and called a new regional election for Dec 21. Separatists only won 48 percent of the vote in Catalonia in the last regional election in 2015, although they took more seats because of Spanish election law which gives more weight to sparsely populated areas. Associated Press MANILA - Lions, chimpanzees, giraffes, leopards and a wide variety of sharks received added protection at a UN wildlife conference in the Philippines, organizers said. Some 34 endangered species were selected to receive heightened conservation efforts at the Conservation of Migratory Species conference that just concluded in Manila. Protecting migratory species poses particular difficulties since they cross borders, including possibly moving to countries with less stringent wildlife protection systems said Bradnee Chambers, CMS executive secretary. "If the species is moving around all of these countries, everybody has to pitch in," he said at the end of the weeklong conference. "An intensive week of negotiations have resulted in a stronger commitment by countries to stepping up their efforts to conserve the planet's migratory wildlife," said Chambers. The week-long CMS conference ended on Saturday with decisions on 34 species in submissions made by 24 parties from Asia, Africa, the Americas, Europe and Oceania, according to Chambers. These include actions on Africa's great carnivores, 10 species of vulture, and the endangered Whale Shark, known as the "butanding" in the Philippines, he said. Over 1,000 delegates representing every region of the world attended this year's meeting. It marked the first time the summit had been held in Asia. Moreover, he said the governments also agreed to cooperate on reducing the negative impacts of marine debris, noise pollution, renewable energy and climate change on migratory species. The conference took place in the Philippine capital from Monday to Saturday under the theme "Their Future is Our Future - Sustainable Development for Wildlife & People." Lions, leopards and chimpanzees were singled out as needing more conservation work. The chimpanzee in particular is at risk as their numbers have dropped in recent years due to habitat loss, the organizers said. The giraffe, which is in decline throughout Africa with fewer than 90,000 animals left in the wild, was also listed. All four of these African mammals were approved by a "wide majority" for additional protection measures, a CMS statement noted. Other animals that were listed were three species of shark including the whale shark, the largest fish in the world. Host country the Philippines had lobbied for this creature, which has become a major tourist attraction. AFP - Xinhua MOGADISHU, Somalia - An Islamist attack on a hotel in Mogadishu ended on Sunday after 29 people were killed during a siege lasting nearly 12 hours, police said. The attack proved once again that insurgents can carry out deadly assaults in the heart of the Somali capital. Twin bombings in Mogadishu two weeks ago killed more than 350 people, the worst such attacks in the country's history. The Islamist militants al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack on Saturday. The group wants to overthrow the weak, UN-backed government and impose a strict form of Islamic law. "So far I am sure 29 people died - the death toll may rise," Abdullahi Nur, a police officer, said. At least 12 of the dead were police officers, Nur said. And a woman, Madobe Nunow, was beheaded while her "three children were shot dead," he said. A witness saw seven bodies lying inside the hotel. Three militants were captured alive and two others blew themselves up after they were shot, police said. Some militants may have disguised themselves and escaped with the residents who were rescued from the hotel, one police officer said. The attack began around 5 pm on Saturday when a car bomb rammed the gates of Nasahablod Two hotel, which is close to the presidential palace, and destroyed the hotel's defenses. Then gunmen stormed the building. The explosion destroyed the front of the three-storey hotel and damaged the hotel next door. Many Somali officials live in fortified hotels for the security they offer. Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of Amin ambulances, complained the emergency service had been denied access to the blast sight. "After the hotel operation was over, we wanted to transport the casualties ... all entrances of the scene were blocked by security forces. Al-Shabaab said 40 people had been killed, including three of its fighters who stormed the hotel. The government and al-Shabaab typically give different figures for victims in such attacks. The twin bombings in Mogadishu on Oct 14 killed at least 358 people, the worst such attacks in the country's history, igniting nationwide outrage. Al-Shabaab has not claimed responsibility for that attack, but the method - a large truck bomb - is one it has often used. Reuters NEW YORK - Dancing is technically illegal in thousands of bars, clubs and restaurants in the city that never sleeps, but New York campaigners are finally in sight of getting the law overturned. The "cabaret law," passed in 1926, requires public spaces that sell food and drink to acquire near impossible-to-obtain permits to authorize dancing indoors. Those without the permit can be fined. Repeat infractions risk bar owners losing their license to sell alcohol, which could in turn lead to bankruptcy. Yet fewer than 100 of New York's more than 22,000 bars, restaurants and clubs have the elusive permit, which is granted after mountains of Kafkaesque paperwork and jumping through prohibitively expensive hoops that Brooklyn Councilman Rafael Espinal said unfairly discriminate against small business owners. "It's just ridiculous," says the indignant 27-year-old Democrat in his basement office. He wants to repeal the law, which could be put to a vote in the New York City Council as early as December. "Let's finally get this law off the books so that we can go after the real problem, whether it be noise, crime, unsafe conditions," he said. "Let's not go after dancing." Espinal and pressure groups such as the Dance Liberation Network say the law has been used historically to crack down on neighborhoods with large minority populations such as African Americans, Latinos and the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community. Passed initially to assert control during the time of Prohibition, some historians say its true goal was the closure of Harlem jazz bars in the 1930s, '40s and '50s to stop whites and blacks mixing. In the 1970s and '80s, it was used to close establishments frequented by the LGBT community as it fought for its rights. In the 1990s, mayor Rudy Giuliani used the law to get tough on clubs in his fight against crime. Today, it is little used, but detractors say it is invoked as an excuse to shut down premises considered undesirable. The campaign to scrap the cabaret law has won the support of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, who also acquiesced to another of Espinal's demands - create a "night life mayor". The search is now on for a liaison officer between city hall, residents and New York's multibillion-dollar night life industry, in order to support a safe night life scene that supports 300,000 jobs and attracts tourists far and wide. Agence France-presse LONDON - Nine crew members from a British nuclear submarine have been dismissed from the Royal Navy after failing drugs tests, national media in London reported on Saturday. Four officers, including a captain, have also been removed from HMS Vigilant after breaking the rules forbidding affairs aboard submarines, the Daily Mail reported. The nine British servicemen were thrown off the vessel, which the reports said was already at the center of a sex probe. They tested positive for a prohibited class-A drug, reported to be cocaine, while on duty and are alleged to have held drug-fueled parties while the submarine was docked in the US to pick up nuclear warheads, the reports added. The Daily Mail also revealed that the submarine's second-in-command, Lieutenant Commander Michael Seal, 36, has been removed over claims of an extramarital affair with a 27-year-old female engineering officer who has also been taken off the sub. The submarine had already been embroiled in controversy over an alleged affair between its captain, Commander Stuart Armstrong, 41, and a 25-year-old female junior officer. They both have been removed from duty. The Daily Mail said the dismissals mean that around 10 percent of HMS Vigilant's 168-strong crew have either quit, been kicked out, are under investigation or have been removed from duty. All of the service's fleet have a no-touching rule that prohibits intimate relationships aboard warships. The newspaper said the matter was considered so serious that Defense Secretary Michael Fallon has discussed the situation with the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Philip Jones. The BBC in London reported that Fallon has ordered all crew members serving aboard Britain's four nuclear subs to be tested for drugs. HMS Vigilant is one of the four Royal Navy's submarines which carry up to eight of Britain's Trident nuclear deterrent missiles. Xinhua Desire for mischief, self-promotion encouraging the phenomenon SINGAPORE - Fake news has Asians amused, bewildered and in some cases deeply anguished about the turn of events. A growing number of such instances, coupled with the lack of adequate regulation, damaging consequences for legacy media and repercussions on efforts to build informed societies, is stoking debate anew on tackling the issue. Two weeks ago, Bangkokians trying to navigate an overwhelming downpour were distraught by social media reports of a sudden discharge of water from dams north of the capital city, threatening to worsen the situation. The news, it turned out, was false, it was dated to 2011, when indeed flooding had devastated the city. Observers say a vile desire for mischief and self-promotion among those holding on to devices promising reach and a stir if not a complete shake-up with a mere click, in less policed Asian societies is encouraging the spread of fake news, and could make situations toxic. The nascent, innovative efforts to counter the phenomenon are far from adequate to remedy the situation. A collective effort, involving all stakeholders, could be the way to contain its potentially damaging consequences. The problem, they add, involves the young and the old, is mired in technology, is tied to several aspects of life - among them education, health, financial and well-being - and can have a bearing on community harmony as well as a country's overall economic bounty. Nothing new Fake news is not new, said Edson Tandon, assistant professor at Nanyang Technological University's Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information. "Societies have long confronted rumors. But fake news has found an ideal platform in social media, which allows the quick spread of erroneous information outside the control of institutions, such as news agencies, traditionally tasked to protect public discourse from misinformation," Tandon said. "Fake news also thrives in social networks as users depend on other users not only for their information supply, but also for verification. An increasing mistrust in traditional media is being replaced by dependence on popularity ratings online, so that a post that gets viral is accorded more attention, and most likely, more credibility, when viralness does not equate to veracity, only popularity." Many Asian countries are trying various measures to fight fake news. These include public policies setting guidelines for dissemination of content via online platforms and empowering service administrators to regulate services, as well as imposing penalties to deter purveyors of fake news. However, the enormity of the challenge continues to befuddle many. A report this month said Baidu examines three billion claims of fake news every year. Experts say, the technology-led fact-checking solutions by individuals do not entirely meet needs to counter fake news and they urge social media platform providers to develop more effective solutions, since they are well-versed with their technologies. In India, for instance, the government has said it is helpless in tackling fake news as it cannot access "objectionable" content because of WhatApp's encryption, reports The Statesman newspaper. WhatsApp has said that the problem is complex but it is looking into ways to tweak its product to minimize the spread of fake news. More than 200 million people use the platform in the country. One of the disastrous consequences of the spread of fake news via social media was in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand in the summer, when mobs viciously attacked groups of strangers they thought were responsible for child-trafficking after the "news" circulating on WhatsApp. Only later did they realize that they were wrong. Seven people died. The Straits Times/ANN NAIROBI, Kenya - Opposition leader Raila Odinga on Sunday called for a new presidential election, claiming that Thursday's repeat poll was invalid due to the low turnout. In an interview with the Associated Press, he said that a new poll should be held within 90 days. Odinga spoke after deadly clashes between police and opposition supporters in some parts of Kenya since the repeat election. His call came after heads of international poll observer missions appealed for calm following the conclusion of the election that has deeply divided the East African nation. In a joint statement, the heads of groups from the Commonwealth, EU, Africa Union and The Carter Center, among others, urged Kenyans to refrain from violence. "We urge all Kenyans to refrain from unlawful acts and respect the rights of fellow citizens, including polling staff, independent observers and others who have a responsibility in the election process," the observers said. The statement came amid violence across western Kenya and in some parts of Nairobi, where five people were killed and several others injured in anti-poll protests. The electoral body has since suspended elections that were due to be held on Saturday in four western counties. The observers noted the decision of the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission to postpone polling in Homa Bay, Kisumu, Migori and Siaya counties, based on the electoral law, saying that all citizens have the right to vote or not to vote. "We appreciate that the Constitution of Kenya guarantees the right to peaceful demonstration. Citizens have a responsibility to uphold the law whilst exercising their rights," they said. The foreign missions called on security forces who have been battling protesters to provide protection to all citizens and avoid excessive use of force. "We call for full accountability of the security agencies for all actions taken that result in injury and loss of life," said the observers. The local poll observers said the just concluded presidential re-run has amplified divisions in the society and body politic. Elections Observation Group Chair of the Steering Committee Regina Opondo told journalists in Nairobi that the repeat presidential polls was an extraordinary election process that was characterized by boycotts from large swathes of the country and a general low turnout in other areas. AP - Xinhua A couple enjoys bubblewrap waffles in London's iconic Chinatown, an area that is expected to undergo transformation. [Photo/China Daily] For more than 50 years, London's Chinatown has been the heartland of the United Kingdom's Cantonese community. It was where they shopped, ate, and socialized. But it is now being transformed to accommodate and reflect other Chinese communities and to keep up with the changing profile of the Chinese in the United Kingdom. The adjustment means there will be fewer supermarkets and family-run restaurants in the years ahead and more large-scale branded restaurants. Most of the property in Chinatown, which is in the southern part of the Soho area of Central London, is owned by Shaftesbury, a public limited company. Tom Welton, the property director of Shaftesbury, said neighborhoods change over time. "Chinatown, in its own way, is evolving to cater for different tastes," he said. "We're seeing now lots of students from the Chinese mainland hanging out in Chinatown. They might come from different parts of China and have different tastes, but the businesses are responding to that." London's first Chinatown was in the east of the city, close to its docks. It migrated to its current location in the 1970s, when rents were cheap and Soho was a byword for crime and prostitution. It is a bustling network of traditional dim sum restaurants, old fashioned barber shops, grocery stores, and gambling places but now also features shops selling Taiwan bubble tea, matcha ice cream, and Instagram-friendly bubblewrap waffles. Shaftesbury wants new tenants to offer more to Chinese students and visitors, people who are more likely to come from the Chinese mainland than Hong Kong. Welton said the increasing number of Chinese tourists to the capital is a major catalyst for change in Chinatown. Around 160,000 Chinese tourists visited London last year, each spending an average of 1,370 pounds ($1,808), which is more than half of an average Londoner's monthly net salary of 2,227 pounds, according to the Office for National Statistics. The number of Chinese tourists is expected to reach 330,000 a year by 2025, which will make them the largest group of tourists visiting London. Welton said Cantonese people and products will still play an important role in Chinatown, but there will be less of them. "Places evolve, and things change," he said. "They don't just get fixed in time and you have to respond to that." Soho has become more popular and expensive since the 1970s and small businesses now find it hard to afford the rent. Jon Man, a member of the West End Chinatown Tenants' Association, said increasing rents forced his Chinese restaurant out of the area. He is skeptical about whether newcomers will be able to succeed there because of the high overheads. "They do not have a clue what the market is like," he said. "They think it's a gold mine, but that's not what it is." Welton said the company does not want to simply lease property to the highest bidder. "Chinatown has a very special location and very unique characteristics. We want to keep the best of those things there, and it would be madness to try and move out all these restaurants and rebrand it and that's not our intention," he said. Peter Lam, the president of London Chinatown Chinese Association, said he fears Chinatown could become like any other part of London. "We do not mind the landlord introduces the new stuff as long as they want to keep the authenticity of Chinatown," he said. Lam, who owns restaurants in Chinatown, noted the neighborhood was built on the hard work of migrants. "There is a lot of hard work from our grandparents and parents' generation to build Chinatown as it is today, the glory of which we can see from many old restaurants," he said. But he wonders if future generations will be willing to work as hard to keep their foothold in Central London. "If you go down the kitchen to take a look, the daily running is a tough sell compared to working as a solicitor or an accountant. That could be a threat to the future of Chinatown," he added. Zhang Yangfei contributed to the story GUIYANG - Guiyang, capital of southwest China's Guizhou province, will carry out a series of events and promotions to attract more tourists from the United States. The municipal government, Tourism Development Committee of Guizhou and American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) will jointly hold the ASTA China Summit 2017 in the city on Nov 5. This is the first time ASTA, one of the world's largest travel professional associations, has participated in an event highlighting China as a travel destination. More than 130 US travel agents and over 200 Chinese travel companies and representatives will attend the summit. From Nov 1, 2017 to Dec 31, 2018, US citizens can visit most tourist attractions in Guiyang free of charge, according to Yuan Yunlong, director of the Tourism Development Committee of Guizhou. The city's hot springs will provide a 25 percent discount for US tourists during this period, and local hotels and China Southern Airlines will also offer lower prices. Hou Ying, chairman of the China branch of ASTA said US tourists want to experience different cultures, landscapes and foods, and Guizhou's stunning karst mountain scenery and multiple ethnic minorities each with unique customs and foods appeal to these interests. The ASTA summit aims to provide US travel agents with more information about Guizhou, Hou said. More than 100 million tourists visited Guizhou in 2016, with the city's tourism revenue exceeding 130 billion yuan (14.8 billion US dollars). This included nearly 184,000 foreign visits to the city, according to local tourism bureau statistics. Marchese Taliani de Marchio examines a bronze wine container during his time in China. [Photo/China Daily] A collection of Chinese artifacts and furniture with links to the horror of Japan's invasion of China will be auctioned in London on Nov 9. The antiques were collected by the Italian diplomat Marchese Taliani de Marchio, who was Italy's representative to Chiang Kaishek's Republic of China administration in Nanjing from 1938 to 1946, although he was interned for two years by the Japanese from 1943. While in China, Taliani and his wife, the exiled Archduchess Margaretha of Austria, collected rare and important pieces "that convey the rich history of Chinese decorative arts", according to the auction house Bonhams. Among the highlights are a number of classical pieces of Chinese furniture dating from the 16 th and 17 th centuries that are made from rare huanghuali wood, also known as fragrant rosewood. A pair of large Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) cabinets, acquired in Beijing from the furniture dealer Robert M Drummond on April 15, 1939, is expected to fetch at least 300,000 pounds ($397,000) at Bonhams Fine Chinese Art sale. Taliani lived in China at the time of its war of resistance against a brutal Japanese invasion that began in 1931 and continued against the backdrop of the wider World War II until Japan's defeat in 1945. China was also beset by civil war at the time, between the Communists and the Nationalists. Colin Sheaf, head of Asian Arts at Bonhams, said major furniture collectors from the Chinese mainland were showing a lot of interest in the sale. "They are particularly excited when items have got a good provenance, and what makes this collection fascinating for collectors is that it was bought by the Italian ambassador in China in the 1930s," he said. When the war ended, the new Italian government reconfirmed Taliani as ambassador to China, until 1946. Along with Taliani's collection of furniture and artifacts, many of the purchase invoices also survived, providing "an important documentation of Chinese art dealers active in Shanghai and Beijing between 1938 and 1946". "The majority of the invoices are dated between December 1938 and 1943, with a significant gap until April 1946, explained by the fact of the Marchese and Marchesa Taliani's internment by the Japanese," Bonhams said. Bonhams international head of Chinese art, Asaph Hyman, said: "It is very rare that important pieces with such exceptional documented provenance come to market." Hyman said the sale is "a unique opportunity for collectors and museums alike to acquire what are unquestionably masterpieces of classical Chinese furniture". Also on sale is a rare set of four huanghuali folding chairs, estimated at being likely to sell for 200,000 pounds, which are "unique individually and more so as a set". Exquisite furniture will be sold at Bonhams auction on Nov 9. [Photo/China Daily] BEIJING - China on Monday said it hoped that the Republic of Korea (ROK) would fulfill its commitment not to increasing deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system. ROK Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told lawmakers Monday that the ROK was not considering any additional THAAD deployment. Kang said the country would not participate in the U.S.-led missile defense networks. She also stressed that trilateral security cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo would not extend to a military alliance. The U.S. military has installed a THAAD battery that includes six missile launchers in the southeastern ROK county of Seongju. "We value these three aspects of the ROK pledges," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing. Hua reiterated that China firmly opposed the deployment of THAAD in the ROK. She said China hoped that the ROK would fulfill its commitments and deal with the relevant problems, so as to get China-ROK ties back on track. BANGKOK - Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has revoked passports of former premier Yingluck Shinawatra, said Deputy Police Commissioner General Pol. Gen. Srivara Ransibrahmanakul on Monday. He confirmed that the foreign ministry has already revoked two diplomatic passports and two general passports of the former premier who failed to show up for a final court verdict and is known to have fled the country since August. Yingluck is said to have slipped out of Thailand via neighbor Cambodia with the help of a few police officers, leaving the Supreme Court to deliver last month's judgment in her absentia, to the extent that she be otherwise sentenced to five years in prison for alleged duty-negligence and misconduct charges involving a rice subsidy program several years ago. Pol. Gen. Srivara said the Interpol and Thai authorities abroad have not located Yingluck's whereabouts amid possibilities that she might seek political asylum in Britain. The Thai authorities have not obtained any confirmed information which might probably involve her movement overseas for the time being, he said. The deputy police chief has earlier confirmed that Yingluck had flown to Britain from Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where she had temporarily stayed after she had slipped out of Thailand two months ago. Her elder brother, former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, is known to have been taking self-exile in the Middle East city almost a decade ago. A novel by British writer Jeffrey Archer will be adapted into a drama series for Chinese television in another example of the expanding ties between China and the United Kingdom in the cultural and creative industry. The crime-thriller False Impression was a best-seller in 2005. It is an engrossing tale that spans the globe and centers on the disappearance of Vincent van Gogh's painting Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear. Archer is one of Britain's most famous novelists and has sold around 330 million copies of his books worldwide. The British production company Wilson Worldwide Production, which is also known as WWP, has reached a deal with Canada's New Franchise Media, which owns the television and film rights to many of Archer's works, allowing the adaptation of the book for Chinese TV. Archer expressed his delight at the deal and said he would be intrigued to see how the story will be received in China. WWP has set its sights on the Asian market and especially China in recent years. Josh Wilson, CEO of WWP, said: "We are very interested in the Chinese market as it has shown a growing appetite for British TV and film productions." TV series from the UK have gone down well in China. The BBC's third season of Sherlock received almost 70 million views on video website Youku, while each episode of Downton Abbey has had around 160 million Chinese viewers. In order to appeal to as many Chinese viewers as possible, the production team behind the filming of False Impression wants to blend in as many Chinese elements as possible. Wilson said: "We are looking to make the heroine a Western-educated Chinese woman and possibly change the Tokyo scene from the novel to Hong Kong or Shanghai." At the moment, the company has been in discussions with Chinese partners, including Jiangsu Broadcasting Corporation, Shanghai Media Group, and other Chinese internet platforms such as Tencent and iQiyi. The partnership is likely to be finalized shortly and there is expected to be between 10 and 13 episodes in the first season. In 2015, a film production treaty was signed between China and the UK that facilitates eligible co-productions between the two nations being shown in Chinese movie theaters. Currently, China allows only 34 revenue-sharing, international titles in Chinese cinemas each year. According to Pact, a UK trade association that represents the commercial interests of the makers of independent television and film, a television co-production agreement is set to be signed at the end of this year that is likely to open more doors for collaborations between the two countries. The annual event Asian Art in London is celebrating its 20th anniversary with series of activities, exhibitions, auctions, and lectures aimed at promoting Asian creativity at venues throughout the British capital. As part of the showcase that starts on Thursday, the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour will host the new exhibition East Meets West, which features contemporary and antique works as well as workshops and displays of interior designs influenced by Asia. Claire German, managing director of the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, described it as "an international hub, known for its impeccable design credentials, luxury brands and world-class talent". "As a center of international design expression, we're delighted to present such a multi-dimensional exhibition focusing on the culture and creativity of the Far East," she said. The exhibition will include a colorful selection of innovative works by Chinese contemporary artists represented by the gallery ArtChina. They will include mixed media, modern ceramics, landscape paintings, and folding prints that merge tradition and modern, craft, and fine art. And Young Guns, a group that deals in antique art, has been "charged to show authentic Asian antiques in an entirely new way". The Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour said there will also be immersive experiences, including talks, demonstrations, workshops, and discovery tours that will explore the crossover between art from the East and the West. Other highlights of Asian Art in London include Aktis Gallery hosting an exhibition dedicated to the late Chinese artist Zao Wou-Ki and lectures and seminars that mark the festival's 20th anniversary. This year's big event will be a panel discussion in association with Sothebys Institute of Art. Modern and Contemporary Asian Art: Can London be a Global Hub will explore the potential for the further development of modern and contemporary Asian art in the UK capital, with experts debating ways to increase the visibility and knowledge of such art in London. Asian Art in London coincides with several major Asian art auctions. Around 10 auction houses, including giants Bonhams, Christies, and Sotheby's, will hold viewings or sales during November. Asian Art in London starts on Thursday and continues until Nov 11. UN peacekeeping, the Belt and Road Initiative and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will continue to be priorities for the China-UN Peace and Development Trust Fund in 2017 and 2018, according to the Chinese Permanent Mission to the UN. The Guidance Committee of the China-UN Peace and Development Trust Fund met for the second time on Oct 27 at UN headquarters in New York, presided over by Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, chef de cabinet to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The meeting reviewed the implementation of programs in 2016, the fund's financial situation and related project applications. Wu Haitao, charge d'affairs of the mission, said at the meeting that General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in his speech at the 19th National Party Congress in Beijing that China will stick to the road of peace and development, and push for the building of a community for shared destiny for mankind. China maintains the global governance view of extensive consultation, making joint contributions and sharing benefits and supports the UN to play an active role in international affairs. The setup of the China-UN Peace and Development Fund has strongly demonstrated the commitments China has made, Wu said. Wu said he hoped the fund's management team will continue work on its branding. President Xi Jinping announced during the UN's 70th anniversary summit in 2015 that China will establish a $1 billion China-UN peace and development fund to support the UN's work in peace, development and security. Li Junhua, director general of the international division of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the 19th NPC reaffirmed China's support for the UN and highlighted the UN's important role in China's national development and international relations, which reflect China's support for UN's work and multilateralism. Chen Zhibin, a deputy director general from China's Ministry of Finance, said the ministry will provide funds as scheduled to support its operation and he hoped the secretariat will ensure a solid financial status for the fund. Progress has been made on the first batch of 13 projects, according to Viotti, who expressed hope that the fund will play a greater role in advancing international peace and development. The UN Economic and Social Affairs Department will continue to work with China to fully implement related projects of the fund and contribute to the 2030 Agenda, said Under-Secretary-General Liu Zhenmin. BEIJING - Russia is China's comprehensive strategic partner of coordination, and whatever volatile changes may take place in the international arena, China will not change its determination to deepen relations with Russia, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Thursday. Xi made the remarks during a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. China cannot develop in isolation from the rest of the world, Xi said. And China is willing to work with Russia to advance bilateral relations to achieve more tangible fruits so as to benefit the two peoples as well as people from all other countries. During the conversation, Putin congratulated Xi on his reelection as the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Putin also extended congratulations on the successful conclusion of the 19th CPC National Congress. Expressing appreciation for Putin's congratulations, Xi said that the just-concluded congress formulated an overall principle and an action guideline for the future development of the CPC and China, which reflected the strong consensus reached by all the 89 million party members. "We have the confidence and the capability to lead the Chinese people toward the goal of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, which is the CPC's historic responsibility and mission," Xi said. Putin said it is very important that Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era was established during the congress. And the achievements of the congress have fully demonstrated the Chinese people's trust in and support for the CPC led by Xi, he said. Putin expressed his sincere wishes that Xi will lead the CPC, the largest party in the world, to continuously score new achievements. The Russia-China relationship is a exemplar of harmonious coexistence of major countries in contemporary world, Putin said. "I am willing to maintain close contact with President Xi to advance bilateral cooperation in various fields and conduct close communication and coordination on major international and regional issues," he said. About 20 years ago, theologian D. H. Williams wrote a book called Retrieving the Tradition and Renewing Evangelicalism: A Primer for Suspicious Protestants. He focused on a certain sector of evangelicalismthe free church tradition, including many Baptists, independent Bible churches, nondenominational churches, and the like. These churches were admirably devoted to preaching and studying Scripture, but they were dangerously neglecting the rich legacy handed down to them from the churchs past. Williams worried that this disregard of the historical churchs wisdom would spell disaster, gradually resulting in shallow worship, superficial discipleship, and weak missional and social engagement, among other ills. Accordingly, he issued a clear warning: If the aim of contemporary evangelicalism is to be doctrinally orthodox and exegetically faithful to Scripture, it cannot be accomplished without recourse to and integration of the foundational Tradition of the early church. . . . Tradition is not something evangelicals can take or leave. Since Williamss dire warning, contemporary evangelicals have made significant strides in linking their theology and practice not only to the early church, but to the church of the past two millennia. But critical voices still scold evangelicalism for its historical rootlessness. Such criticism often comes from adherents of Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy, especially those who were formerly evangelicals. In 2002, observing the recent drift of evangelicals toward Roman Catholicism, theologian Scot McKnight speculated on the cause: Many feel they are isolated in the faith, in a modern evangelical movement that has cut itself off from the history of the Church. Most evangelicals know almost nothing about the early Fathers, and what they do know (they think) supports what they already believe, so why bother studying them. . . . This historical disenfranchisement, when discovered, can lead to curiosity. Even more profoundly, it can lead to a need to discover how the Church developed. And many [evangelicals] were led right to Rome when they began to study this part of Church history. Does modern evangelicalism suffer from a lack of tradition and historical awareness? Not so fast, says Kenneth Stewart, a theologian teaching at Covenant College. His book, In Search of Ancient Roots: The Christian Past and the Evangelical Identity Crisis, tells a different story than were accustomed to hearing. Firmly Rooted Many people treat evangelicalism as a late-blooming phenomenon. Some experts believe it began during the Reformation, others would place its origins in the 18th-century Great Awakening, and still others would contend that it dates back to the period after the Second World War. But Stewart denies that evangelicalism is an upstart and a latecomer. Indeed, he demonstrates that this movement, centered on the evangel (or gospel), has been a perennial and recurring feature of Christian history. As for the common charge that evangelicalism is ahistorical and bereft of tradition, Stewart judges it an overstatement: While this critique might apply to certain varieties of evangelicalism (20th-century fundamentalism, for instance, or many parachurch movements), it misses the mark more often than not. After all, he argues, the trunk from which contemporary evangelicalism developedthe Protestant Reformationwas firmly rooted in creeds and beliefs from the early church. The Formula of Concord (1577), a Lutheran statement of faith, underscored the importance of the Apostles, the Nicene, and the Athanasian Creeds. In their writings, Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, and others made regular reference to Augustine, Bernard, Jerome, Athanasius, the Cappadocian fathers, Chrysostom, Origen, Cyprian, and others. In his Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin claimed, If the contest were to be determined by patristic authority, the tide of victory would turn to our side. Moreover, the Reformers criticized Roman Catholicism for its doctrinal and liturgical innovations, such as purgatory (a 7th-century development) and transubstantiation (a 13th-century novelty). Article continues below Interestingly, Stewart points out that Protestants are responsible for many modern translations of writings from the early church fathers. J. B. Lightfoot edited the five-volume critical edition The Apostolic Fathers (18851890), and Henry Wace and Philip Schaff coedited the series Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers (18871900), following Alexander Donaldson and James Robertsons edition Ante-Nicene Fathers (1860). Serious-minded Protestants wanted their churches to carefully study the church fathers because their writings belong to all Christians, not just Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox. In all of this, Stewart sets himself firmly in opposition to John Henry Newman, the famed 19th-century Anglican turned Catholic convert. In An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, Newman argued that to be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant. He was confident that the more one explores the early and medieval churchs doctrine and tradition, the more obvious it becomes that history tells in favor of Catholicism. But Stewart uses several detailed examples to find fault with Newmans perspective. He demonstrates, first, that the early church had a strong traditiondeveloped by such luminaries as Melito of Sardis, Origen, Athanasius, Cyril of Jerusalem, Jerome, and John of Damascusaffirming that the Old Testament should consist of the 22 books of the Hebrew Bible, and not include the apocryphal writings found in the Septuagint (or Greek Old Testament). The Protestant canon reflects this early church tradition. Second, Stewart shows how Catholicisms own history undermines the lofty claims made about the antiquity and universal role of the [pope]. He mentions several heretical popes, the many anti-popes, and the Great Schism of 1378, when the emergence of three rival popes precipitated a decades-long crisis of authority. Stewart then takes up the Catholic charge that Protestants essentially invented the doctrine of justification by faith alone. As he points out, the problem with this claim is that the Reformers and their post-Reformation acolytes marshaled support from early church fathers, including Augustine, Hilary of Poitiers, Cyril, and Bernard of Clairvaux. Indeed, Stewart highlights a Roman Catholic justification by faith alone party that existed prior to, and even during, the 16th-century Council of Trent, where the Catholic Counter Reformation took shape. The Bibles Authority Stewart does not confine himself to answering the common caricature of evangelicalism. He also makes constructive suggestions for how evangelicals should draw from their past. Chief among them is an appeal to the principle of authority: In other words, is a particular doctrine or practice in accordance with Scripture? Stewart shows how this question guided the early church, which read Scripture together, developed its doctrine from Scripture, and fought heresies according to Scripture. None of which means that other resources were neglected, but only that early traditions like the creeds and the rule of faith (a set of core doctrines) derived their authority ultimately from the Bible itself. By emphasizing the principle of authority, Stewart makes a key point that the church should resist engaging in a simple imitation of the practices of an earlier time. Take, for instance, the question of how frequently we should celebrate the Lords Supper. Unlike most evangelical churches today, the early church did so every week. But for Stewart, the early churchs Communion practices had been seriously compromised by the transformation of the church begun in Constantines time, during the fourth century. Article continues below In other words, a loss of gospel centrality resulted in disregard for the Lords Supper and a corresponding decrease in the frequency of its celebration in the church. Accordingly, as churches become more gospel-centered and develop a greater appetite for Christ, they are under no obligation to administer this sacrament as infrequently as the post-Constantinian church prescribed. What goes for practices must apply also to doctrines. To insert my own example, once upon a time, church leaders understood Christs crucifixion as a kind of ransom payment to Satan, who was thought to be holding humanity in bondage. From the era of the church father Origen up through the medieval theologian Anselm, this was the dominant model of the atonement. Today, however, one is hard-pressed to find any church or denominationProtestant, Catholic, or Orthodoxthat takes this view of Christs death. Which goes to show that even if a doctrine holds sway for a thousand years (or longer), the contemporary church might be perfectly justified in abandoning it. Longevity doesnt guarantee orthodoxy. Rather, the church must apply the principle of authority to determine orthodoxy and distinguish it from error. Our Identity Crisis In Search of Ancient Roots is a unique and important book for evangelicals and those critical of them. It counters the common charge that contemporary evangelicalism is a novelty, suffering from a lack of tradition and historical awareness, and it presents constructive proposals for strengthening the movement in ways consistent with Scripture. Moreover, the book comes at an opportune moment, given the lively debates taking place today about the nature of evangelical identity. Some evangelicals are asking whether we should even retain the word evangelical anymore. Perhaps, some say, that word is just too tainted from close association with conservative politics or the Trump presidency. Even without the political baggage, youd still have massive difficulty getting everyone who identifies as an evangelical to agree on what that terms means. So why bother? I wont attempt to speculate on how Stewart would advise those currently casting about for an alternative to evangelical. But the core themes of his book would seem to caution against discarding that label too hastily. Certainly not when, as he has demonstrated, evangelicalism represents a perennial and recurring feature of Christian history. Our movement may be in the midst of an identity crisis, but theres no doubting that our roots run deep into the fertile soil of the churchs past. Gregg R. Allison is professor of Christian theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of Roman Catholic Theology and Practice: An Evangelical Assessment (Crossway). Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here. Pray for the Persecuted Church -- Nov 5th and 12th Contact: Wendy Wright, Christian Freedom International, 800-323-CARE WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- Christian Freedom International is offering a free resource kit for churches to participate in the International Days of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. This annual event held on the first and second Sundays of November raises awareness of the persecution and oppression Christians around the world experience for their faith in Jesus Christ. This year, violence against Christians especially where ISIS and other militant jihadists have gained footholds has reached dire levels. ISIS has called Christians their "favorite prey." As well as kidnappings and forced marriages of Christian girls, Christians are being martyred by genocide in Iraq and Syria, gunning down of men and boys for declaring they are Christians and refusing to convert to Islam, and suicide bombings in churches. Christian Freedom International's FREE resource kit includes: Reproducible posters and bulletin inserts Suggestions for Sunday School curriculum for children and adults Suggestions for Biblical references to persecution and worship songs Notecards to send to encourage a persecuted Christian overseas A CD containing these materials, as well as a short video presentation CFI Resource kit is available at: www.christianfreedom.org/day-of-prayer/ "I have just returned from Egypt where I met the widows and children of Coptic Christian men who were martyred by ISIS. They asked for Christians to pray for them and their families," said Wendy Wright, Director of Global Programs for Christian Freedom International (CFI). "God strengthens our faith through adversity, and unites us together through prayer." Christian Freedom International helps persecuted Christians in repressed and isolated regions of the world, where Christian men, women, and children are harassed, tortured, imprisoned, and martyred for their faith. A U.S. based organization, Christian Freedom International informs citizens of the intense persecution world-wide, and provides opportunities to assist through prayer and aid. More information is available at www.christianfreedom.org and 1-800-323-CARE. home World Christians in Bangladesh and Pakistan declare their support for Rohingya Muslims Christians in Bangladesh and Pakistan are declaring their support for Rohingya Muslims, who are currently experiencing persecution in the predominantly Buddhist country of Myanmar. Rohingyas have been fleeing from Myanmar since August to escape what has been described by the U.N. as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" being perpetrated by the Burmese military. Last month, dozens of Pakistani Christians gathered in front of the National Press Club in Karachi to protest Myanmar's treatment of the minority group, and a press conference was held in Islamabad earlier this month to address the crisis. "Our Christian leadership and community stand in solidarity with our Muslim brothers and sisters in Rohingya," said Christian politician Asiya Nasir at the press conference in Islamabad. "Our prayers are with them in this difficult time. Daily prayers will be offered for protection and safety of innocent lives. Christian leadership of Pakistan requests the international community and human rights leaders to speed up the efforts to save our Muslim brothers and sister in Rohingya," he added. The All Pakistan Christian League decried the "inhumane treatment" of the Rohingyas and urged world leaders to "unite and put an end to these atrocities." Sheheryar Shams, chairman of Pakistan's Christian Citizens Forum and a lawyer, decried Myanmar's decision to classify the Rohingya population as foreigners and called on the Pakistani government to provide security to the minority group. About half a million Rohingya have fled Myanmar to move to Pakistan, most from a former exodus back in the 1960s and '70s. The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council and the Bangladesh Christian Association are also staging rallies on behalf of the Rohingya. About 809,000 Rohingyas are now taking shelter in Bangladesh after fleeing the violence that began in Myanmar's Rakhine state at the end of August. Other Christian organizations are also trying to do their part to support the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. The evangelical aid group World Vision had been providing food to the Rohingya in Rakhine, but the group decided to leave the country after the fighting broke out in the area on Aug. 25. The group is now asking permission from the Bangladeshi government to set up further assistance for the refugees. Christian public health nonprofit Medical Teams has already deployed its staff in the informal refugee settlements to prevent disease outbreaks. A representative from a Christian organization, which asked not to be identified due to the security threats in Myanmar, has noted that while the majority of the Rohingya population are Muslims, at least 165 families are Christians. "The military and the Buddhist Rakhine hate all Rohingya, so these families of Christians are targeted because of their ethnicity and not necessarily because of their conversion to Christianity," the representative told Christianity Today. The organization has since rented land in Bangladesh for the Rohingya community and connected them with shelter and food. There wasn't any reason to be bored this weekend in Houston as the city was inundated with events, festivals and parties all weekend. This weekend saw several annual Halloween parties, pub crawls, and ghost-themed celebrations - among them was the 2017 Something Wicked EDM Festival, the Houston Museum of Natural Science Spirits and Skeletons soiree, the Luckyrice foodie festival and of course, the World Series games and watch parties. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A Midtown residential complex in recent weeks welcomed its first residents, but it's already poised to win a national award. Surge Homes' Parc at Midtown, a mix of condominium concepts which vary in size, is among the finalists for the "Best Condominium Community" in the 2017 National Association of Home Builders awards. Surge Homes President Louis Conrad said the project stemmed from a dearth of millennial-friendly Midtown real estate. He explained that the generation of buyers interested in owning a Midtown home could not afford the average starting price of $350,000. ZIP CODES: 9 Houston ZIP codes rank among Texas' top 20 priciest when it comes to renting "Once we identified that need we focused on creating an innovative solution," Conrad said in a prepared statement. His company's solution was a sleek master-planned, gated community of "space-efficient" condos that vary in size, and start at 450 square feet. These homes, which feature a variety of different floor plans, enclose a 5,000-square-foot park at 2401 Crawford St. Each is outfitted with name-brand appliances, stylish details and luxury finishes. "Space efficiency is the key to this development's success," Conrad said. "We worked with our architects to reduce square footage in ways that provided living areas that feel spacious. These floor plans, along with a range of different parking solutions, allow for a lower-than-market price for potential homebuyers." HOMES WITH HISTORY: River Oaks homes built for iconic Houstonians Prospective buyers can opt for one of the Sky Townhomes, which has a balcony on each floor, a two-story penthouse or a standard micro-unit. "We're excited that our ideas about stylish, yet affordable homes have attracted so many homebuyers," Conrad said. He added that the development is more than 80 percent sold, "and honored that those ideas have drawn the attention of the homebuilding industry." Surge Homes will learn if they nabbed the top honor at this year's NAHB awards early next year. The winners will be announced Jan. 9 at the International Builders Show in Orlando, Fla. A Houston man was charged Monday with murder in connection with a Spring-area slaying on Sunday. Urick Howell, 33, is accused of fatally shooting 26-year-old Byron Booker just before 7:45 p.m. at an apartment complex at 1699 Romano Park, near Cypress Station, according to the Harris County Sheriff's Office. Investigators believe Howell and Booker got into an argument at the complex. During the dispute, Howell allegedly shot Booker in the head, then left the apartments. Authorities pronounced Booker dead in the complex's driveway. Howell later returned to the apartments where he was arrested, according to the sheriff's office. Howell is being held in lieu of bail in the Harris County Jail. Howell has a prior conviction, following his guilt plea in 2014 to driving while his license was invalid, according to court records. Houston police Monday have not released the identify of a man found dead in the Midtown area. Officers and emergency personnel were called at around 6:05 p.m. Sunday to the 4200 block of Main where they found the man, according to a news release from the Houston Police Department. A Houston man remained in jail Monday after he was charged in the fatal shooting of his 23-year-old nephew. Joseph Timothy Filer, 41, was charged Saturday with murder, according to court records. He is being held in the Harris County Jail in lieu of a $50,000 bail. Dear Abby: Last year, I had a baby with one of my college professors. He left me 10 days before our daughter was born and has never met her. I chased him through family court, and he gives me the bare minimum in state-ordered support. Recently, I spotted him advertising himself on a dating website as a loving man and describing how he loves his first daughter with no mention of ours (he has two other children, a girl and a boy). How do I move past this? A part of me is angry for her, but I'm also angry for myself. I'm in therapy, but seeing him on a dating website describing himself as a good person, when in truth he's a sociopath, has reopened wounds I thought had closed months ago. Open Wounds Dear Open Wounds: Thank you for writing to me, but this is a question you should be addressing with your psychotherapist. Sometimes it takes multiple doses of "medicine" to cure an ailment, but the longer you allow this man to occupy real estate in your head, the harder it will be for you to get on with your life. Call your therapist. Dear Abby: I love my fiance with all my heart. We have good friends and family. The problem is, my fiance loves to talk. He talks a lot I've known this since I met him, but because I don't talk much, it doesn't bother me. I like listening to his stories. However, I can see our friends getting annoyed because of his constant talking. It also happens when we are around his family - and they usually end up treating him badly for it. Is there any way I can gently talk to him about this so he's aware that he is irritating people? I don't want to hurt him, but I also don't want him to annoy people. I'm also afraid it may affect his employment. His co-workers get that same look on their faces when he's talking that his family members do when they are annoyed with him. Engaged to a Big Talker Dear Engaged: Your fiance may have difficulty picking up on social cues, which is why he doesn't notice that others become annoyed as he drones on and on. You should absolutely point out to him what you have noticed. Then suggest he discuss his compulsive talking with a licensed mental health professional. This is not to imply there is anything "wrong" with him, but rather that he may benefit from professional help in recognizing the social cues he is missing. A note to parents of young children: Tonight is the night when wee witches and goblins will be out trick-or-treating. Please supervise them so they'll be safe. Happy Halloween, everyone! Love, Abby DearAbby.comDear AbbyP.O. Box 69440Los Angeles, CA 90069Andrews McMeel Syndication Count out University of Texas System Chancellor William McRaven as a potential challenger to Gov. Greg Abbott in 2018. The retired Navy admiral said Monday in a statement that he has "no interest in running for governor or any other public office" after speculation in Texas and nationally about his potential political future. His statement, which a spokeswoman said applied "broadly" beyond 2018, comes in the last months of his three-year contract as UT's chancellor and one week before the system's regents hold their next quarterly meeting. McRaven has not committed publicly to wanting to stay at UT beyond the end of his contract. Texas Democrats lack a high-profile challenger to take on Abbott, a popular Republican who has already amassed a massive campaign war chest. McRaven's name had arisen within the state and nationally as a potential opponent. Most recently, a former Democratic congressional aide penned a long column in The Hill urging Texas Democrats to "draft" McRaven. "Texas Democrats should rise to the occasion and draft the best man for the mission, the best candidate for the post, the best leader who can lift the state and nation by serving in government as he served in uniform with character, integrity and valor," Brent Budowsky wrote in the piece. McRaven, 61 years old, came to the UT System in 2015 after a long military career, where he was responsible for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. As chancellor, he's weighed in on touchy political issues in the state and nationally. This fall, he urged collegiate athletes to stand during the National Anthem, though he emphasized that those who chose to kneel had his "full support to exercise their rights as citizens." After President Donald Trump called the news media the "enemy of the American people," McRaven told journalism students that he viewed that sentiment as "perhaps the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime." And during a promotional tour for his 2017 book Make Your Bed, based off his University of Texas at Austin commencement speech in 2014, he backed former FBI Director James Comey's testimony before Congress. Speculation about his interest in politics is not new. Some writers considered whether he would run for president in 2016, and Time reported that McRaven was on a list of preliminary vice presidential names sent to Hillary Clinton in March 2016 when she was the likely Democratic nominee. In Texas, weeks before the gubernatorial filing deadline, no high-profile candidate has signed on to lead the Democrats' ticket. "This is when many Democrats start talking about fantasy candidates," Rice University Baker Institute political science fellow Mark Jones said. McRaven, Jones said, has the "star quality" and leadership experience to be on the party's "silly season" speculation list. "There's a tendency in both parties to want to choose a unifying figure, and that tends to be somebody who has military experience, who is often seen as apolitical but also extremely competent," University of Houston political science professor Brandon Rottinghaus said. Both analysts said McRaven running as a Democrat would face slim odds against Abbott in a state dominated by the Republican Party. The state's partisanship and McRaven's high-profile failure in expanding the UT System into Houston would have given McRaven "no chance whatsoever" in 2018 against Abbott. McRaven purchased hundreds of acres in Houston in 2015 for an undefined system project. He never received Abbott's public support on the project and saw blowback from state lawmakers during the legislative session before calling off the expansion in March. "It doesn't sound like a particularly good career move to resign as chancellor to launch out on a long-shot bid to defeat the most popular politician in the state of Texas," Jones said. A gubernatorial race would also require McRaven to take stands on topics including abortion and immigration, Rottinghaus said, which could erode support among Republicans who approve of his job running UT. Though he may have more crossover appeal than other Texas Democrats, any race would still be an "uphill battle," he said. McRaven's three-year contract at the UT System ends in January. He said in June that his future with the system depends on whether he and regents share the same vision for UT and whether the board wants him as chancellor. His purchase of the Houston land saw pushback from Abbott-appointed regents. "If some of the things that have occurred over the last couple years have created friction for the board, ... if I'm not adding value to the University of Texas System, then maybe I'm not the right guy for the job," McRaven said at a June event sponsored by the Texas Tribune. In July, he called regents "fantastic" but said the board had not discussed his future with the system. "That will come in time," he said after a meeting. Lindsay Ellis writes about higher education for the Chronicle. You can follow her on Twitter and send her tips at lindsay.ellis@chron.com. University of Houston research on coastal protection and water contamination after Hurricane Harvey received a combined $210,869 from the National Science Foundation, which is backing multiple projects on hurricanes after Harvey and Irma this fall. One project will evaluate chemical and microbiological contamination in Brays Bayou, Buffalo Bayou, Greens Bayou and Peach Creek. The information may help improve future efforts to strengthen water infrastructure during and after big storms, civil and environmental engineering professor Hanadi Rifai said in a UH news release. Rifai directs UH's environmental engineering graduate program. The research will span about a year, according to the award abstract. A biochemistry professor will separately examine how mangroves protect the coast, comparing them to salt marshes. Biology and biochemistry professor Steven Pennings is examining a piece of the coast near Port Aransas, UH said in a news release. "Hurricane Harvey provides a unique opportunity to answer a critical question -- do mangroves provide fundamentally different shoreline protection than the low stature grasses and forbs they replace?" he asked in the project's abstract. The two projects are just the latest around Texas that aim to help public agencies analyze Harvey's aftermath. Texas A&M University's AgriLife Extension Service is offering free private water-well testing for contamination, and communications researchers at the University of Texas at Austin will analyze how individuals needing emergency help -- as well as first responders -- used social media as the 911 system was overwhelmed. Lindsay Ellis writes about higher education for the Chronicle. You can follow her on Twitter and send her tips at lindsay.ellis@chron.com. James Nielsen/Houston Chronicle AUSTIN -- An interim fight over toll roads in North Texas is already brewing as the Texas Transportation Commission considers how to prioritize funding on multiple billion-dollar projects. The commission's workshop session this month, led by director Lauren Garduno, outlined options of what will soon become the agency's strategy to prioritize designate major projects for funding, given the $28 billion funding horizon over the next decade. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Earlier this year when former NASA astronaut Captain Robert L Crippen asked the students of Crippen Elementary School how many of them wanted to be astronauts, dozens of little hands rocketed into the air. Crippen Elementary School in New Caney Independent School District was named after Captain Crippen, who grew up in Porter and graduated from New Caney High School in 1955. Earlier this year, Crippen visited the school in east Montgomery County for its 20th anniversary celebration. "I grew up in Porter," Crippen said in the February article. "It was not the same town it is now. It was a little country town back then. In fact, the only school building we had was in New Caney. We had first (grade) through 12th (grade) all in that one building." Crippen went on to receive a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas in 1960. He went on to have many contributions to the field of astronautics including piloting the first manned space shuttle, Shuttle Columbia, in 1981, and served as Commander of three following missions. And his dreams of space flight all started in the piney woods of Porter, Texas. Early life Herb and Ruth Crippen moved their family to Porter from Ville Platte, La. in the early 1940s, according to a 1981 Courier article. They had two children, "Bobby" and his sister, Betty. When he was growing up, Crippen's Drive-In was a combination of gas station and restaurant out in the country according to The Courier. Young Crippen spent a good deal of his spare time helping out around the service station. "He always was a good boy," said his mother, Ruth, in a 1981 Courier article. "Even back then he would ask me if the moon was really made of green cheese. I'd tell him I didn't know and he said he'd just have to find out one day." She said in The Courier article she had no doubts he'd one day fulfill his dream. At New Caney High School, Crippen was "Mr. Music" his sophomore year and president of the class his junior and senior year. He was also "Most Likely to Succeed," "Mr. New Caney High School" and salutatorian of his graduating class. His mother kept all his report cards and said he was born smart, especially in math. Following his dream After his graduation from the University of Texas, he entered the Navy's Aviation Officer Program at Pensacola, Florida. In his flying career Crippen has logged more than 6,500 hours flying time, which included more than 5,500 hours in jet aircraft. In October 1966 he was selected for the U.S. Air Force's Manned Orbiting Laboratory Program. The program was canceled before a space craft was ever launched and Crippen then became a NASA astronaut in September 1969. He was a member of the astronaut support crew for the Skylab 2, 3, and 4 missions, and served in this same capacity for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission, which was completed successfully in July 1975. Finally in April 1981, on his first trip into space, he piloted the first orbital test flight of the Shuttle Columbia, the first true manned spaceship. It was also the first manned vehicle to be flown into orbit without benefit of previous unmanned "orbital" testing; the first to launch with wings using solid rocket boosters. This propelled him into fame and on the covers of magazines and newspapers around the country. "John Young was a natural for being commander of the first flight," Crippen said in a 2011 speech. "He was chief of the astronaut office, so he got to pick who went on the flight." He said Young selected him as pilot to help expand NASA's experience base. It was Young's fifth flight and Crippen's first. Crippen went on to command three more shuttle flights on Challenger, one in 1983 and twice in 1984. The first flight met with many delays, most notably the tiles that kept falling off and the main engines that kept exploding in tests. "The engines are really, really powerful and fragile," he said. Safety has always been a top concern for NASA. "We did have ejector seats on the first four flights, but to me that was a placebo," Crippen said, noting that they would instantly vaporize the astronauts if they ejected during flight. After two days in space putting the shuttle through its shakedown paces, it was time to return home. "Entry was a thing of beauty from my standpoint," he said. He added that even though they were traveling through space at 17,500 mph, it wasn't until they were landing that he got a feel for their speed. "The clouds going by gave me much more sense of speed going by," he said. He was caught by surprise when he looked out the window and saw thousands of vehicles parked around the runway at Edwards Air Force Base to view the landing. He also described his experiences to the children at Crippen Elementary back in February. Crippen recalled the exciting and unusual experience of being in space, including weightlessness and the breathtaking view of the earth from space. "Most of the astronauts would spend all their time staring out the window if they didn't have to work," Crippen said. "It's a beautiful place to watch. You go around the earth once every hour, so you get a chance to see most of the earth. It's a beautiful place we live on and it's one we need to take care of." A Four-flight veteran Columbia also was the first winged reentry vehicle to return to a conventional runway landing, weighing more than 99-tons as it was braked to a stop on the dry lakebed at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The mission lasted 54 hours, 20 minutes, and 53.1 seconds. Crippen's other space shuttle missions were as commander, first on the second flight for the Orbiter Challenger (June 18-24, 1983). On April 6-13, 1984, he commanded a 7-day mission during which the crew successfully deployed the Long Duration Exposure Facility, retrieved the ailing Solar Maximum Satellite, repaired it on-board the orbiting Challenger, and replaced it in orbit using the robot arm called the Remote Manipulator System. His last space shuttle flight was the first mission with a 7-person crew, October 5-13, 1984. During the 8-day flight the crew deployed the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, conducted scientific observations of the earth with a Large Format Camera, as well as demonstrating potential satellite refueling with an EVA and associated hydrazine transfer. A four-flight veteran, Crippen has logged over 565 hours in space, orbited the earth 374 times and traveled over 9.4 million miles. Crippen has worked alongside several other renowned astronauts, including Sally Ride. "Girls can be astronauts too," Crippen told the school children in his presentation. "When I started flying, women didn't think they could be, but Sally Ride, who was the first woman from the U.S. to fly in space, flew with me on her initial flight and also on a second flight; and we have a woman commander for the International Space Station at this time. Nothing is beyond your reach." Life after the flights From 1986-1989 Crippen was deputy director, Shuttle Operations, for NASA Headquarters at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. He was responsible for final Shuttle preparation, mission execution, and return of the orbiter to Kennedy Space Center after landing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. In 1990-1992 he served as Space Shuttle director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he presided over the overall Shuttle program requirements and performance, and total program control including budget, schedule, and program content. He next managed Kennedy Space Center from 1992-1995, processing launch, and recovery of Space Shuttle missions, ending a 21-year NASA career in January 1995 as the Director of the Kennedy Space Center. He then served as vice president of Training Simulation Systems at Lockheed Martin Information Systems. In December 1996 he became President of the Thiokol Propulsion Group, Brigham City, Utah. Crippen retired in April 2001 as President of Thiokol Propulsion. Crippen reflects on end to MANNEDspace missions As the era of manned spaceflight was coming to an end in 2011, Crippen spoke to a variety of groups about his experiences. "I'm sorry to see this part of the space program end. It's been a stunning adventure for 30 years," he said during a speech at the 18th International Academy of Astronautics Humans in Space Symposium at the Westin Galleria Hotel in April 2011. Two days earlier Crippen was at Kennedy Space Center on the stage with NASA Director Charles Bolden when he announced where the retiring shuttles would be displayed. In an interview after this talk, Crippen was reluctant to share his feelings about Houston's shuttle snub. "It's sad to see the shuttle come to an end without a definite plan where we're going in the future," he said. He added that he feels humans should first establish a base on the moon and then shoot for Mars and beyond." In the meantime, Crippen's journey from Porter to space may serve as inspiration for New Caney ISD students for years to come. "I have enjoyed all the things I've had a chance to do in the space program," Crippen said. "My education starting out here in the New Caney school district is what allowed me to do it." Parts of this article taken from an article by Houston Community Newspapers reporter Melanie Feuk published in February of this year, a 2011 Houston Chronicle story when Crippen spoke at the 18th International Academy of Astronautics Humans in Space Symposium and an article covering when Crippen spoke to The East Montgomery County Historical Society in 2011. A grand Memorial mansion is now under foreclosure and available to the public for $2,589,600. The residence at 247 Hedwig is a 10,487-square-foot home set on nearly an acre of land in the prestigious Memorial Villages neighborhood. A retired Houston Police Department officer will serve three life sentences after a jury found him guilty of three first-degree offenses of sexually assaulting a child. Abel Diaz Rodriguez forced the 14-year-old girl to choose between physical or sexual abuse in 2014, Galveston County District Attorney Jack Roady said in a press release. He also showed her a video of sexual acts, which Rodriguez had recorded secretly, that office said. Yes, you can transfer your domain to any registrar or hosting company once you have purchased it. Since domain transfers are a manual process, it can take up to 5 days to transfer the domain. Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred. For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here. Two men were slain and another wounded Saturday afternoon at a Spring Branch East motel, just days after another shooting left one dead at the same location, according to Houston police. Officers responded to the Lisa Motel in the 10600 block of Hempstead around 3:50 p.m., where they found two shot men inside a guest room. One had already died, but first responders rushed the other to a local hospital. Support for the death penalty plummeted this year to its lowest level in four and half decades, a change driven in part by a substantial drop in favor among conservatives. According to the latest Gallup poll, 55 percent of U.S. adults support capital punishment for convicted murderers, a low not seen since March 1972. Among Republicans, support has tumbled 12 percent since last year. "The groups that were thought to be automatic death penalty supporters are no longer automatic death penalty supporters," said Robert Dunham of the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that has been critical of the administration of capital punishment. "The issue is becoming less partisan in that now almost a third of sponsors of death penalty abolition bills are Republicans. And the states in which we are seeing more and more activity in terms of abolition are red states." A day before Gallup put out its latest findings, Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty put out a report examining the growing Republican interest in state-level bills to abolish the death penalty. "The Republican momentum to end capital punishment is real," Mark Hyden, CCATDP national advocacy coordinator, said during a Wednesday press conference. "It's clearly gaining steam, and I believe this increased conservative opposition signals that the death penalty's days are, in fact, numbered." The report cites wrongful convictions, high costs and pro-life concerns as reasons some conservative legislators have turned to abolition efforts. The group looked at legislative efforts dating back to 2000 and found more than 210 Republicans sponsors of repeal legislation in that time frame, though none in Texas. While CCATDP has been examining the death penalty since its founding in 2013, Gallup has been asking Americans about their views on capital punishment since 1936. Support hit a peak in the early 1950s, when 68 percent of respondents were behind the practice. But it fell out of public favor in the late 50s and into the 60s, with as little as 42 percent of the population supporting it in 1966. The last time support was under 60 percent was 1972, four months after the Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Furman v. Georgia halted executions. But polling numbers climbed in the following years, even as states began bringing back capital punishment toward the end of the decade. The practice enjoyed its most widespread support during the tough-on-crime 1990s, peaking at 80 percent favor in 1994. Since then, it's been a gradual downslide. Pew Research surveys have shown similar numbers and trend lines, though last year's data showed a slightly lower dip with just 49 percent of respondents supporting the death penalty. While the latest Gallup poll didn't include questions exploring the reason for decreasing interest in the death penalty, a 2015 Pew poll found that questions about its value as a deterrent, concerns about executing an innocent person and issues surrounding racial disparities were all among reasons respondents cited for opposing the practice. Some experts say the growing media attention around a string of botched executions in recent years could be diminishing support as well. "Most people don't change their views about the death penalty because of reason, they change their views because they feel like it," Dunham said. "The botched executions bring home in a visceral way problems with the death penalty that problems with arbitrariness or bad lawyering never do." And a few years after support for the death penalty started dropping, so did the number of executions carried out every year. "As public support for the death penalty diminishes, juries return it less and less frequently - and as it is used less and less, support for it drops," Dunham said. Although 2017 has seen a slight uptick in executions over the year before, the general downward trend still holds. And at the same time, there's been a decrease in the number of new death sentences imposed per year. "One thing that's interesting in the Gallup poll, though, is that 39 percent think it isn't used enough and I think that suggests that there's a certain core support for the death penalty," Dunham said. "Half of the public thinks it's imposed fairly but you have to wonder how sustainable any public policy is that only half of the public thinks is done fairly." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A former energy trader who represented himself in a rare federal online stalking trial was convicted by a Houston jury of sending gruesome and threatening images to an ex-girlfriend, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Following a five-day trial before U.S. District Judge Kenneth M. Hoyt, the jury found Heriberto Latigo guilty late Friday of intentionally torturing the woman through a series of graphic email and web-based messages and posts. The unusual allegations included the Internet-era notion that Latigo, 44, used the web to cause significant emotional distress, a charge federal prosecutors have been able to prove for less than 100 defendants over 10 years. The charges were brought under a 1996 anti-stalking law which came under Violence Against Women Act, which makes it a felony to cross state lines to stalk, intimidate or harass someone causing them fear of serious bodily injury or death. He faces a possible sentence of five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 at his sentencing, set for Jan. 8. He remains detained. Latigo opted to defend himself against the allegations, although he had standby counsel from the Federal Public Defender's Office. He made opening and closing statements and questioned witnesses, including his ex-girlfriend. Now Playing: Blac Chyna reveals the shocking moment Rob Kardashian uploaded her most intimate photos online. Video: JW Player Latigo, who had worked oil trader at the Italian oil company ENI, sought to argue at trial that the stalking charges were in retaliation for whistleblower allegations he filed accusing his former girlfriend of being involved in financial fraud at the company. However, prosecutors argued this information had no bearing on the case, and the judge agreed, blocking the parties from mentioning it during the criminal trial. Evidence at trial laid out the tumultuous relationship between the ex-lovers which began in 2013. The woman testified that Latigo became increasingly controlling as the relationship progressed, pressuring the woman to send him naked images of herself. Later he became physically combative and she claimed he raped her. She told the jury that when she learned she was pregnant in June 2014, she couldn't bear to move forward. Latigo's conduct was so manipulative and out of control, she testified, that she decided to have an abortion. She said that in response, Latigo set up a Facebook page entitled "Magdelana Aborted" written from the viewpoint of the aborted fetus. He then sent her a link to the page with the words, "Your abortion video will now be posted you whore." The online conduct prompted her to try to kill herself by overdosing on tranquilizers. But the conduct continued. From March 2014 to April 2015, evidence at trial demonstrated how Latigo continued to blackmail and threaten the victim to cede to his will, using a stockpile of images she had sent him of herself. Witnesses said Latigo used them to get her to agree to sexual demands, explaining he would post the images online unless she did what he said. She contacted Google multiple times to have naked pictures of her removed. The defendant also forwarded the images to the victim's sister, her sister's boss and her male co-workers. He also set up a Gmail account and a Google+ page using the victims name that featured a naked image of her as the profile pic. The U.S. Attorney noted in a news release that the woman cried on the witness stand when she learned that naked images had been sent in response to a Craigslist ad that she had supposedly created. A forensic analyst testified that Latigo used multiple Facebook accounts and logged onto the victim's account from his own computer in an attempt to avoid detection. From his own email address, Latigo also sent messages demeaning the woman and commanding her to comply with sexual acts, according to witnesses. She told the jury because of Latigo's egregious Internet conduct she moved, changed jobs, closed her Facebook account and stayed offline. But Latigo tracked her down, showed up at her workplace and kept up the behavior. Another witness testified that Latigo showed up at the victim's daughter's school to stalk her in person. Latigo argued to the jury that victim brought the case because she wanted to hurt him, but that she had been the one who created the accounts she said he had set up. AUSTIN -- In an unusual step, six prosecutors and Texas' criminal defense attorneys association have joined a continuing legal storm over how much the special prosecutors overseeing the criminal case against Attorney General Ken Paxton should get paid. Preventing the three special prosecutors in Paxton's case from getting paid would thwart justice, according to Bexar County District Attorney Nicholas "Nico" LaHood, Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore, Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey Jr., Travis County Attorney David Escamilla, former State Prosecuting Attorney Lisa McMinn and Enrico Valdez, a Bexar County assistant district attorney. The group intervened late Friday with the state Court of Criminal Appeals. At the same time, Galveston County filed a brief supporting a limitation on fees for special prosecutors. To allow a judge to set prosecutors pay above the rates set by county officials would cause chaos in the budgeting process, the filling argues. A decision by the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas that the special prosecutors have to be paid a lower rate, even though the higher fees were approved by a court, "creates the unintended effect of either discouraging qualified attorneys from accepting the appointment or forcing them to chose between their own financial interest and their responsibilities as prosecutors." Attorneys for Paxton, who has denied wrongdoing in the securities fraud case, have argued that the higher payments should not be allowed. In a separate filing with the appeals court, the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association argues much the same thing, saying that courts have previously ruled that proper compensation for appointed prosecutors is necessary and that the Collin County Commissioner's Court should honor the payments to the three special prosecutors in the Paxton case. "We're gratified that prosecutors and defense attorneys with almost 200 years of collective experience agree how very important this case is, and that we're entitled to the relief we seek in the Court of Criminal Appeals," Houston attorney Brian Wice, one of the special prosecutors in the case, said in a statement Sunday. In August, the Dallas appeals issued an opinion voided an order for a $205,000 payment to three Houston-area special prosecutors assigned to Paxton's securities fraud case. The invoice for payment dates back to January 2016. In the opinion, the court recognized their responsibility of appointing qualified attorneys, but acknowledged "attorneys appointed will likely be paid a fee much less than a retained attorney would command." Lawsuits have tied up the special prosecutors' payments since then amid a dispute launched by Jeffory Blackard, a Paxton donor and political ally in Collin County - and later the Collin County Commissioners Court - arguing the attorneys' $300 per hour fee was too much and exceeded local caps. The Galveston County filing takes issue with that premise, asking the state's highest criminal court to turn down the request by Paxton's special prosecutors to be paid the higher fees. "Legislative budgeting prerogative of a commissioners court would be overcast with uncertainty if . . . any individual judge may wield unlimited legislative power to spend taxpayer funds on appointed counsel," the filing by Galveston County states. "Limits on appointed counsel's rates aid commissioners courts in exercising their core legislative function, forecasting spending and balancing appointed counsel expenses against our community's other needs, from roads and bridges to public buildings and law enforcement." AUSTIN -- Texans are continuing to push the federal government to speed up disaster relief funding from Washington that could help people rebuild homes. On Monday, Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush is heading to Washington D.C. to meet with officials with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Bush is expected to meet with HUD Secretary Ben Carson personally and make the case for speeding up the usual government process of getting special disaster rebuilding help into the hands of homeowners in Texas affected by Hurricane Harvey. "We're pleading the need for speed," Bush said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle last week. Last week, Bush told a Texas Senate committee that the Lone Star State's share of the $7.4 billion Congress passed in September could be months, even years from getting to Texas. He said traditionally HUD takes a minimum of 9 months to go through the process of figuring out how to hand out the funding and how it can be used. Bush said it can take as long as 32 months for that money to get handed out. "It is a painstaking process," Bush said. "Everybody is frustrated with it. The Secretary (Carson) and his team knows that frustration." Bush added praise for HUD for already releasing about $58 million of special community development block grant money to help people in Texas rebuild. That funding was left over from previous natural disasters but HUD officials agreed to send it to Texas at the request of Gov. Greg Abbott and Bush. While a small amount given the size of Harvey's destruction, Bush said it helps Texas begin helping people find permanent solutions to the housing needs. After a disaster, the Federal Emergency Management Agency is first to step in to fund temporary housing needs for people who lose homes or suffer serious damage to their living conditions. HUD is the second step, using money from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) disaster program to help people permanently by assisting in rebuilding homes or mitigating the property to protect against future storms or flooding. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and most of the state's delegation in the U.S. Congress have also been pushing Carson to bypass some rules and regulations to get funding on a faster track. On Sept. 21, Cornyn, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and most of the delegation sent a letter to Carson asking the agency to "avoid burdensome artificial restrictions" that could delay the release of funding. "Unfortunately, Congress' quick action can easily be undone by unnecessary delays at the agency level," said the letter signed by the members of Congress from Texas. Bush said he's already had conversations with Carson about the issue and Carson himself has visited Texas since Hurricane Harvey to see the impact of the storm up close on Houston and the rest of the state. Jeremy Wallace writes about state politics and government for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter at @JeremySWallace This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Some AT&T customers who woke up in the wee hours Friday morning to pre-order an iPhone X got a rude awakening later that day when the carrier advised them their orders had been canceled. AT&T's community discussion forums contain several threads in which people complain of calling customer support for more information, only to encounter call center representatives who weren't aware of the issue. Some of the commenters say they spent hours on the phone with AT&T, sometimes getting disconnected while on hold. Other say they were told to cancel their orders and re-do them, delaying their iPhone X shipments well into December. "I stayed up to pre-order an iPhone X, created a new account with AT&T, and was confirmed to receive the phone Nov 3," wrote a commenter on Friday who used the handle atandtwhy. "Today around noon, I received an email telling me the order was cancelled. I called into AT&T and first was told the sale department can't help, so I need to call the e-commerce department, then the e-commerce department told me I had to go to a store, then the store manager told me it's because they 'couldn't contact me for a few days', which is not possible as I did this last night, and he told me to call customer service." Get ready: For the return of the overnight Apple Store campout Another would-be iPhone X buyer, who used the name therunaround123, said everything appeared fine with an order after placing it. But later, after checking again online, it had been canceled: "This morning, I checked myATT status order just to make sure that no mishaps has happened. Lo and behold, I see my order status as CANCELED. I did not receive any email regarding the cancellation and the order status provided little to no reasoning as to why my order was canceled. I called customer service to get the matter straightened out. First customer service agent spent 20 minutes trying to figure out why my order was canceled. I was placed on hold multiple times, going back and forth, ensuring that it is being looked at by a manager. After being on hold for 20 minutes, my call was ended. I waited 10-15 minutes for the customer representative to call me back, but no call back." Julia Fleming, a former Houston resident who now lives just south of Dallas, said she ordered her iPhone X online at AT&T's website about 10 a.m. Friday morning. She confirmed with her credit card company that the sale was approved. She thought everything was fine until she received a cancellation notice Sunday morning. It read: Hi JULIA, We couldn't confirm your identity with the information you gave us, so we had to cancel your order. Don't worry. If there was a hold on your card, we'll release the funds soon. Still want to order? Visit us at an AT&T store. Be sure to bring your identification. Thanks for choosing us, AT&T Fleming said she called AT&T and could not get a clear answer as to what happened. "Nobody at AT&T knows anything about anything," Fleming said in a phone interview. "They tell me over and over again, they can't see my order, it doesn't exist. "I want this phone, and I want it now," she said. "If a customer has concerns or questions about their order we urge them to contact customer care so we can try to help them resolve it," the company said in an emailed statement. Want an iPhone X? Hurry up and wait Apple and wireless phone carriers began taking pre-orders at 2:01 a.m. on Friday for the device, which is a completely redesigned, 10th anniversary iPhone. The iPhone X will be available in stores on Nov. 3, and will ship on that date directly to those who were lucky enough to score one in the opening minutes of pre-ordering. Analysts and sources in Apple's supply chain have said issues with components related to its Face ID feature - which uses facial recognition to unlock the phone and make digital payments - have resulted in lower yields at the factories that make the device. As a result, the phone's initial supplies were sold out, and pre-0rders made now won't be fulfilled for 5-6 weeks. Apple had its own problems with iPhone X pre-order glitches. Customers who are enrolled in the Apple Upgrade Program had issues completing their orders in the company's Apple Store app. Apple is reportedly working with those customers to rectify the situation. This is not the first time AT&T has canceled iPhone orders placed during the pre-order period. Customers complained of the practice during initial sales of both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 6. [Updated at 7:26 p.m. to include AT&T's statement.] The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p. A Convers Avia Mi-8 helicopter crashed on October 25 during a flight from an abandoned Russian settlement known as Pyramiden to Barentsburg. Arctic.ru has collected all known information about the search for the helicopter. This article will be updated as new information becomes available. TASS reports that at 3:35 pm local time (4:35 pm Moscow time) the rescue service received a message that a helicopter with five crew members and three employees of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute was lost, which was confirmed by the Spitsbergen governor 10 minutes later. The northwestern transportation division of the Russian Investigation Committee has initiated a criminal case on safety rules violation. According to the Russian Ministry of Energy, the names of the passengers (employees of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute) are as follows: Oleg Golovanov, Nikolai Fadeyev and Maxim Kaulio. The crew consisted of first pilot Yevgeny Baranov, co-pilot Vladimir Frolov, flight engineer Alexei Poulyauskas, technician Marat Mikhtarov and engineer Alexei Korolyov. The administration of the Murmansk Region is ready to provide all the necessary help to the families of the passengers and the crew of the helicopter which crashed into the sea off the Spitsbergen (Svalbard) Archipelago, Governor Marina Kovtun told TASS. "The administration of the Murmansk Region and the Murmansk airport will make every effort to help those who will leave for or from Spitsbergen. If there is any need to use the spare Murmansk airfield, the Murmansk administration as well as all corresponding services, the Emergencies Ministry (EMERCOM) and the airport are ready to provide the necessary help and support," said Kovtun, referring to psychological help for the families of the passengers and the crew. "Our regional EMERCOM crisis management center is constantly in touch with the Joint Rescue Coordination Center of Northern Norway. We also keep in touch with the Barentsburg mine's chief engineer," she added. The St. Petersburg administration has also promised to help the families of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute's employees who were aboard the helicopter. "Right now we're trying to reach their families to provide them with all the help they need. The situation is not completely clear yet, and the search for the people who were aboard the helicopter is ongoing. However, the city is ready to provide any help," Alexander Rzhanenkov, chairman of the St. Petersburg Social Policy Committee, told TASS. RIA Novosti reports that the AIBN (Accident Investigation Board Norway) has begun an investigation of the crash. "The investigation is being carried out by the AIBN. The Interstate Aviation Committee (IAC) has established a special group to take part in it. The group has already started working," the Board's message reads. Norway's air force has sent a P-3 Orion maritime surveillance aircraft to search for the helicopter. Arktikugol specialists are examining the coastal line near Spitsbergen where the helicopter crashed, Arktikugol CTO Sergei Tsikolenko told TASS. "Arktikugol has no submarine or marine tools for the search; the Norwegian rescue service is doing that. Arktikugol employees are examining the coastal line," Tsikolenko said. According to him, the helicopter belonged to Arktikugol Trust, but was used by Convers Avia Airline, which was responsible for its upkeep, preflight maintenance and flights. We attempted to send a notification to your email address but we were unable to verify that you provided a valid email address. Please click here to update your email address if you wish to receive notifications. Otherwise, you may click here to disable notifications and hide this message. All-Conference WEC teams The All-Conference teams for the War Eagle Conference have been announced with multiple MMCRU and South OBrien volleyball players making... Crane signs off, for now I miss my ol' buddy, sportscaster Keith Crane on the sidelines. I miss his friendly smile, his dedication to his... Copiii cu nevoi speciale din Stefan Voda au conditii de reabilitare mai bune, datorita UE si Fundatiei Soros Moldova AKRON, Ohio --- The Akron Zoo is offering discounted and free admission days in November, in recognition of Veterans Day and Election Day. The zoo's "Veterans Appreciation Week" will be held Nov. 5 through 11, with all past and current military veterans receiving free admission to with a valid military ID. Veterans' immediate family members will also receive 50 percent off admission. The zoo is offering free admission to all guests on Election Day, Nov. 7. Visitors are encouraged to vote and wear their voting sticker to the zoo and share a photo on social media using #akronzooelectionday. Beginning Nov. 1, Akron Zoo hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and admission is $7 per person, with children under 2 admitted free. For more information visit www.akronzoo.org or call 330-375-2550. Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. AKRON, Ohio --- Entrepreneurship runs deep in third-generation Akronites, James and Jack Hilton's, family tree. Still, growing up in the world of their father's arcade game business, the twin brothers and owners of the Akron-based medical software company, Clusio, had an introduction to the world of computer gaming that ran quite contrary to the norm. "We didn't have gaming systems, like Game Cube," James Hinton said. "Instead, our parents got us Gateway computers, the kind you built yourself, which spurred an interest in software." After graduating from Walsh University in 2010, each with biology degrees, the Hiltons' grandfather encouraged them to start their own business - which they did, three times over. "Like a lot of software developers, our passion wasn't software, it was gaming," Hilton said. "The software development came from trying to find ways to make our lives easier." The Hiltons teamed up with network engineering specialist Austin Kettner for their first venture, Quixby, a software system based upon an algorithm that helped people build their own computers. That venture was followed by a software consulting firm, WonderKiln, and "a couple app companies that didn't pan out," Hilton said. Then James Hilton met Scott Mateosky. "Scott is a physicians' assistant, with 20-plus years in the military, who approached us through the consulting firm," Hilton said. Mateosky was interested in helping doctors, physician assistants, nurse practitioners and other medical professionals speed up the process for credentialing and certifying their mastery of various procedures. While each procedure done by medical professionals is tracked, Hilton explained, the process, in many cases, is still done with pen and paper. Moreover, obtaining Electronic Health Record information necessary for credentialing, certifications or privilege can take up to six months, Hilton said. The Hiltons and Kettner founded Clusio in 2015. It's a fully HIPPA-compliant app that allows medical providers and attending doctors to upload and certify their ability to do procedures. The software is, in essence, a means of managing clinician competency, Hilton said. Hospitals systems pay Clusio, then give health-care providers in the system access to individual accounts. In the past two years, Clusio has picked up nearly 800 clients at a variety of hospitals, mainly on the East Coast. "Before Clusio, there was really no way for an advanced practitioner to validate their procedures," Hilton said. "If you are, for instance, really good at lumbar punctures - a very difficult procedure - you can certify that 'I've done 29 of these perfectly in the past two years.' "There are two ways hospitals benefit from Clusio; number one, an increase in patient safety, and secondly, it completely turns around (the process of) credentialing. In five years, we'd like to see every advanced-practice provider using Clusio." Passing along experience Along the way, the Hiltons and Kettner have also become mentors at The Bit Factory, a software startup program in the Akron Global Business Accelerator and owned by the Akron Development Corporation that accepts and invests in startups that build software or hardware in any field or industry. "The Bit Factory is the philanthropic side of what we do," Hilton said. The Bit Factory mission statement declares that "our mentors are real entrepreneurs, our network is your network, and the collaborative office space offers a fantastic culture," a statement that echoes Hilton's view of his native city and the business accelerator's place in it. "We love Akron and it is our intention to stay here," Hilton said. "The start-up ecosystem in Northeast Ohio years ago is much different than it is today. There is a growing entrepreneurial environment in Akron now." Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. HUDSON, Ohio -- If you've ever been on a tour of historical homes in Hudson, you've seen this 1830s era colonial on Thirty Acres Road. Originally built for John Clark, a noted abolitionist in the early 19th century in these parts, the home was a stop on the Underground Railroad, a network of safe houses used by slaves looking to escape to freedom. In the 182 years since it was built, the home has been "fully renovated down to the studs," says listing agent Elaine Beck with Howard Hanna. "During the renovation, space was found between ceiling on the first floor and floor of second with small ladders, space used to hide runaway slaves." The 5,400 square foot home has five bedrooms and seven-bathrooms. Architectural details that have been preserved include the original plaster moldings, 12-foot ceilings, 9-foot doors, hardwood floors and seven fireplaces. The kitchen has all the amenities of a modern-day kitchen like granite counters, stainless steel appliances, large center island, white cabinets and tile backsplash. The wraparound deck, with its own built-in grill, is an ideal place to entertain or just relax. The home is listed for $779,900. Check out the full listing here. Address: 5 Thirty Acres City: Hudson Price: $779,900 Year built: 1835 No. bedrooms: 5 No. bathrooms: 7 (5 full) Square feet: 5,412 Lot size: 2.32 acres School district: Hudson City Schools Other notable features: three-car detached garage, central air, basement Real estate agent and contact info: Elaine Beck, Howard Hanna p: (330) 256-1003 e: ElaineBeck@howardhanna.com I don't know how many young women come to this blog or how many are parents of teenage or young adult women, but here are some safety tips from Kelsey's Army: T I P S 1. Trust your instincts - If something feels wrong then something probably is wrong.2. Know your surroundings - know who and what is around you.3. Always have a plan for where you would go and what you would do if a situation arises.4. Be willing to make a scene in order to be noticed.5. Let someone know where you are going and when you will be back.Remember the acronym TIPS:ake Chargenform others of your whereaboutsrepare for any situationurvival Mentality (role play situations so you will respond should they happen)For more information, go to Kelsey's Army AKRON, Ohio - Akronites looking to broaden their culinary horizons can find their fix at Pots and Pans Jamaican Cuisine, which opened last week at 325 S. Main St., Akron. The restaurant, owned and run by Jamaican natives and siblings Lomaro and Lamesha Caldwell, features Caribbean-inspired fare like tender oxtail and buttery sauteed beans. "When we arrived in Akron, we saw there weren't many Caribbean food options," Lomaro Caldwell said. "We wanted to share our family's love of food, and our culture, with the Akron area." Popular menu items include meaty entrees such as brown stew pork and chicken frikazee, vegetarian options and sides like authentic rasta stew and fried plantains. All menu items are made from scratch daily in small batches to ensure freshness. The family-run restaurant prides itself on being involved in the community and giving back, Caldwell said. The restaurant offers a 10 percent discount to military members, first responders and University of Akron students. Hours are Monday-Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com's Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cat lovers rejoice! Today is National Cat Day which means it's time to hold your feline friends tight and celebrate this annual holiday. Earlier this year cleveland.com held a contest to find the Cutest Cat in Greater Cleveland. The "Best of" team was overwhelmed by the amount of love Northeast Ohioans have for their kitties. More than 3,500 pictures of cats were submitted. Click through the gallery above to see the Top 100 cutest cats that made it to the voting round in the contest. Or, if you'd rather scroll through the photos all on one page, click here. Be prepared to be overwhelmed by cuteness. If 100 cats just wasn't enough, we got you. You can also look through all 37 galleries, containing photos of more than 3,500 cats. If you're wondering which cat won the contest and who made the Top 10, here are those results: 1. Zulu Zydeco 2. Peedy 3. Puff 4. Jupiter 5. Olive (Kuhns) 6. Kano 7. Fry 8. Dolce 9. Lily (Alflen) 10. Paul So get ready for some cuddles and cat nip as you celebrate National Cat Day. BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio - Discount Drug Mart wants to build a 27,500-square-foot store on the west side of Broadview Road, just south of Ohio 82 and north of Town Centre Drive. The $1.4 million store would stand on 5.8 acres, consisting of three parcels, directly south of a municipally owned 3-acre site the city plans to redevelop. The store eventually would employ 25 full-time and 25 part-time workers. The estimated annual payroll is $1 million, according to paper work filed with the city. "We're excited about coming to Broadview Heights," Steve Ferris, Drug Mart's government and public affairs director, told cleveland.com last week. "We don't have a store in the southern part of (Cuyahoga) County, so it makes sense to build one there." City Council has referred Drug Mart's proposal to the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Planning Commission, which are scheduled to review the plan Nov. 1 and Nov. 15, respectively. "Looking at the preliminary plans, the project is well-designed, (with) ample parking and wide driveways," Councilman Joe Price told cleveland.com in an email. "The developer has provided a truck entrance to the north, providing access to the rear that allows trucks room to circle back around the building, so they can exit the same as they entered." Councilwoman Jennifer Mahnic was happy that Drug Mart is eyeing the southern half of town, where she lives. "As a mother of 6- and 7-year-olds, I go to the drug store often, especially during the winter," Mahnic said. "So it would be good to have a Drug Mart there, and it's away from congested areas, like (Ohio) 82 and (Interstate) 77." The site is zoned for commercial buildings, like Drug Mart, even though two of the three lots contain houses, according to the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office website. Drug Mart needs the city to approve two zoning variances. Municipal code requires a distance of 50 feet between the store's side yard and residential properties, but the Drug Mart plan shows only 10 feet at one point. Also, code requires 204 parking spaces, based on store size. Drug Mart would provide 141 spaces. According to its website, Discount Drug Mart opened its first store in 1969 in Elyria. Today it has 73 stores in more than 20 Ohio counties. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Effective Tuesday, the Federal Bureau of Prisons will end its contract with Oriana House in Akron to provide halfway-house services for federal inmates transitioning from the controlled environment of a prison to life on the outside. The decision was made by President Donald Trump's administration and affects more than a dozen other communities nationwide, including Akron and Dayton. The prison bureau has said the cuts were a cost-cutting measure. Critics say the cuts could lead to problems with future inmates who go to halfway houses, as their transitions will likely be shortened and they could be deprived of psychological and social services useful in living a law-abiding life. In Akron, it also means that seven inmates already at Oriana House will be moved to another Oriana House on East 55th Street in Cleveland or to the Community Corrections Association in Youngstown. Moving to another city could hurt their chances of keeping their jobs in the Akron area and staying on the right path. This includes James Dillehay, a 72-year-old former cocaine dealer whose life prison sentence was shortened by President Barack Obama. Dillehay said in an interview with cleveland.com that he is trying to do everything right but that decisions above his head threaten to stifle his progress. The Summit County native was placed in the Akron halfway house in July, one year before his scheduled release date. He took a job with a carpet-cleaning company run by his former brother-in-law. He has no car and no easy way to make the 35-mile trek to Akron from Cleveland or the 50-mile trek from Youngstown. While in Akron, Dillehay depends on rides from his employer and family members. Per prison bureau rules, he is not eligible for electronic monitoring until January, which means he has no way to stay in Akron. Dillehay has little hope that he'll find another job in Cleveland or Youngstown. His employer promised to hold Dillehay's job until January, but Dillehay said that is not a sure deal. As bad as his situation is, others at Akron Oriana House are in even worse positions, Dillehay said. They have been "crying bloody murder" since finding out they would be moved, he said, and they too could lose their jobs. "The job industry is hard for an individual that comes out of prison, because it's so many steps," Dillehay said. Cleveland federal Judge Dan Polster said at a hearing Friday that the prison bureau's decision to stop using Akron Oriana House "had an unfair effect on Mr. Dillehay," since it appears the bureau did not make a good plan to ensure the inmate's hard work could continue. "I just do not think it is proper for the Bureau of Prisons to take these steps without consulting with the Court and making sure that you don't have hardships or things that are frustrating the whole purpose of release, and I don't think that was done here," Polster said. A group of senators, including Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, have also asked the Bureau of Prisons to reverse its decision on the cuts. Cleveland.com reached out to prison bureau spokesman Justin Long on Thursday but had not received a response as of Monday. Cutting nationwide Dillehay's situation is far from unique. Families Against Mandatory Minimums, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, said the prison bureau terminated contracts with 16 halfway houses across the country, including Oriana House in Akron and Alvis House in Dayton. The prison bureau's actions were first reported by Reuters on Oct. 13. Long told the wire service that the cuts were made in rural areas or with underused halfway houses. He also said the cuts have not reduced referrals or placements and only impact about one percent of the total number of beds it has under its contracts. The Columbus-based International Community Corrections Association's website says there are 249 separate halfway houses across the country that work with the federal prison bureau through 180 contracts. It says of the nearly 43,000 federal prisoners released in 2016, 79 percent were either in or have used services of a halfway house. The decision appears to be in line with the philosophy of the Trump administration, particularly Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who now heads the Justice Department. The prison bureau is a part of the Justice Department. Sessions, who was an Alabama senator before Trump appointed him, has long professed a "tough-on-crime" mentality and disfavored the alternatives to incarceration that came into favor during Obama's presidency. Such measures were even favored by many Republicans, as the financial impact of the War on Drugs and incarcerating large numbers of people -- mostly black men -- for lower-level drug crimes proved enormous. Bernie Rochford, executive vice president of Oriana House, said the prison bureau notified the nonprofit in August that it would not renew its contract. The prison bureau, which has contracted with Oriana House for more than two decades, said it didn't have the need for all the beds it used in Northeast Ohio, Rochford claimed. He said the prison bureau analysis appeared flawed. While some beds at Cleveland Oriana House were not used earlier this year, it is hard to predict when inmates will be moved to a halfway house, Rochford said. The beds were projected to be filled by the end of October, when the contract with Akron Oriana House expires, Rochford explained. "It doesn't make sense to us," Rochford said. Kevin Ring, president of FAMM, said in an interview Saturday that the prison bureau is also cutting other halfway house services including cognitive behavioral therapy and social services to help inmates with tasks such as obtaining identification. "It's just infuriating to be told by the Jeff Sessions' of the world that 'this isn't about dollars and cents, this is about safety,' and then to have this quiet, broad cut," Ring said. 'Success story' Dillehay went to prison in his 40s. He is now a graying septuagenarian. "When I went into prison, you could get a good hamburger for $2.50," he said. "Now you can't get a hamburger for less than $8." He has been in federal custody since 1992, when he and 18 others were indicted following a year-long investigation into large-scale cocaine dealing in Akron. Federal prosecutors said Dillehay was a big player in the drug trade. A jury found him guilty in April 1993 of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. U.S. District Judge Sam Bell sentenced Dillehay, who had two prior drug convictions, to life in federal prison. Seeing an opportunity with Obama -- who in his two terms granted thousands of requests for clemency, often to people serving long sentences for nonviolent drug convictions -- Dillehay and his attorneys submitted a petition in December 2015. Obama granted Dillehay's request in August 2016 and commuted Dillehay's sentence from life to 30 years. The prison bureau requires inmates to serve at least 85 percent of their sentences, and Dillehay is eligible for release in July 2018. Dillehay speaks slowly and comes off as incredibly grateful for the opportunity provided to him. He said he is working to "be a success story." He is in good shape for his age and plans to work "until I can't." He said his job is low paying but was recently offered a "good, good job" as a painter. "I'd rather work in any constructive job and be broke than be sitting up in prison," Dillehay said. As he adjusts to his new life, he also works with the Akron Public Library to talk to young people about the harsh realities of transitioning out of prison life after such a long sentence. He said it's important to his success for him to live in a halfway house in the community in which he will be released. Part of his success has been because of his family and close friends in Akron, he said. He has 12 children and estimated having about 50 loved ones in Akron, all of which he has depended on since moving to Oriana House. While Cleveland isn't necessarily that far away, it feels like it to him. "If you don't have family, you wonder why guys go back," he said, "because you have to have people that you love and that love you and that will be there for you and support you and guide you and talk to you." Hearing Polster, a Bill Clinton appointee who has been on the federal bench since 1998, got wind of Dillehay's problems earlier this month and asked federal prosecutors, Dillehay's attorneys, probation officers and Dillehay's case worker to work together to determine "what is best for Dillehay and what is best for the community." Dillehay, dressed in a tan shirt and dark brown slacks, sat next to his attorney Nate Leber at the hearing. His fiance, with whom he had a child prior to going to prison, sat in the viewing gallery. The judge said Dillehay's probation officer noted it was "theoretically possible" for Dillehay to take the bus from Cleveland to Akron, but that the trip would take more than two hours each way. "I think it would be very difficult, and it is not likely to work," Polster said. The judge said he was strongly considering ordering the prison bureau to take action to make sure Dillehay could continue to work. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Bulford told the judge he had little power over the prison bureau's decisions, referring to precedent set by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In response, Polster said, "Well, I understand that, Mr. Bulford, but if I issue an order and someone is not happy, they can appeal it. OK? That's the way it works. A federal judge can -- I can issue whatever order I want. And if someone chooses to appeal it and a Court of Appeals says I was wrong or acted without jurisdiction, obviously I'll live with that." In the end, because Dillehay's employer said he would hold his job until January, Polster declined to take such an action. He told Dillehay that "I hope that you continue your successful re-entry into the community. "I know how hard it is after 25 years," Polster continued. "I mean, the world you left is nowhere near the world you're finding now. I can only imagine how hard that must be, and it is to your credit you have a job, and your employer thinks enough of you that he's going to keep it open for the next two months." Polster's courtroom deputy wrote in the minutes of Friday's hearing that "the Court strongly suggests that the Bureau of Prisons consult with the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, and any affected District Court, prior to terminating any halfway house contracts in the future." Concerns The ICCA wrote on its website that "the BOP seems to be backing off of the positive momentum, research-based strategies they have embraced and improved outcomes they have enjoyed over the past couple of years." It also wrote it will limit the ability of families to help re-acclimate inmates into society, limit the ability of halfway houses to help inmates find jobs in the communities where they will be released. Most importantly, the cuts will impact recidivism rates, the ICCA says. "Research indicates recidivism is most likely to occur within the first three months after return to the community. Returning an inmate through (a residential-re-entry center) is a transition that provides accountability, support and assistance in a supervised environment," its website says. The prison bureau's cuts also sparked concern from a group of eight senators from both parties, including Portman. They sent a letter Friday to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and prison bureau Director Mark Inch, urging them to reverse the cuts. "As a consequence, inmates are spending more time in prison, being released directly from prison into the community without the necessary supervision, or spending insufficient time in transitional facilities," the letter says. "These changes, particularly in the absence of a justification, threaten to make our communities less safe while increasing BOP operating costs over time." To Dillehay, it just seems like a fairness issue. He said he has done all the right things. And yet he and others are falling through the cracks, the byproduct of a bureaucratic decision that didn't consider how the decision would affect everyone. "We're trying to establish ourselves because you come out of prison, they don't give you any money," Dillehay said. "So how is that helping me in my transition? if you're supposed to be helping me come out and transition back into society? How is this move helping me? It's not helping. It's pushing you back. And it's hurtful." If you would like to comment on this story, please visit Monday's crime and courts comments section. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Who puts cheese on the bottom of a burger? Nobody, right? Nobody except apparently Google, that is. Google's hamburger emoji, which depicts a burger with cheese on the bottom, became a hot topic as result of a tweet over the weekend with some accusing the company of burger blasphemy. I think we need to have a discussion about how Google's burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, while Apple puts it on top pic.twitter.com/PgXmCkY3Yc Thomas Baekdal (@baekdal) October 28, 2017 While it was generally agreed in the ensuing discussion that cheese should never be placed on the bottom, the original post spawned a larger debate on how a burger should be constructed. Many pointed out that Apple's burger emoji -- with lettuce on the bottom -- is also wrong, as is Samsung's, which inexplicably puts the cheese in between the tomato and lettuce. The preferred order of many commenters: lettuce, tomato, cheese and then burger, a detail Microsoft and Facebook got right. Silly news: Google head promises to fix it's flawed cheeseburger emoji. NO one puts the cheese UNDER the burger. pic.twitter.com/DH8EC5XjdT Mike Schuh WJZ (@MikeWJZ) October 30, 2017 The debate reached a crescendo Monday with, as Vox pointed out, Fox News talking about it in lieu of covering some other big news. The CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, even chimed in, vowing to "drop everything" to fix it. Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday:) if folks can agree on the correct way to do this! https://t.co/dXRuZnX1Ag Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) October 29, 2017 So, assuming Google must've known something when they created their emoji, we want to know: what's the correct way to assemble a burger? CLEVELAND, Ohio - Unless 80,000 Moody Blues fans pop up out of nowhere and start attacking the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Fan Vote, Bon Jovi has this year's poll sewn up. The band behind hits like "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Wanted Dead or Alive" has a solid lead. In case you're wondering, the previous five winners of the Fan Vote have gone on to earn induction into the Rock Hall. The real battle in this year's Vote is for the fifth spot. The five top vote getters will be placed on a fan ballot adding to the pool of other ballots from rock historians, journalists and previous Rock Hall inductees. Thanks to a recent surge, Judas Priest has overtaken the Eurythmics for that fifth and final spot. But it's close. As of Monday morning, Judas Priest was ahead by just over 1,300 votes. The Rock Hall will reveal the Inductees for next April's ceremony in Cleveland at some point in early December. All participants of the 7th round of negotiations on Syria have arrived in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, the Kazakhstan foreign ministry said, reports Interfax. October 30, 2017, 09:58 All participants of international meeting on Syria arrive in Astana STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 30, ARTSAKHPRESS: All the delegations of the 7th international meeting on Syria have arrived in the capital of Kazakhstan on the sidelines of the Astana process, the ministry said. The 7th round of negotiations will be held on October 30-31 in Astana. Today bilateral and multilateral meetings will be held aimed at discussing the agenda issues, the statement says. The plenary session is scheduled on October 31." Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who arrived in Azerbaijan to participate in the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, once again made a statement about the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. October 30, 2017, 14:51 Erdogan turns to cursing in NK conflict comments STEPANAKERT, OCTOBER 30, ARTSAKHPRESS: This time the Turkish President turned to a genre of curses as he exhausted his political vocabulary. In an interview to Azerbaijani media, Erdogan particularly said: We damn Armenias occupation policy. He mentioned that the NK conflict is a bleeding wound not only for Azerbaijan, but also for Turkey. He didnt miss the chance to once again express his support for Azerbaijan in the matter. This months Book Report is the romance rundown, featuring four books from the genre that caught my attention. First up is Eloisa James historical romance Wilde In Love, the first in her new Wildes of Lindow Castle series. We meet Lord Alaric Wilde, who has returned home to his familys castle near London in 1778 from his adventures abroad. Alarics books about his travels have made him famous, and his adventures with pirates and cannibals inspired a long-running play about the handsome man, which embarrasses him to no end. Alaric becomes enchanted by Willa Ffynche, who seems to the be the only woman in England who has not fallen madly in love with him. Willa prefers reading to adventures, but she soon finds herself thrown together with Alaric, who sets his cap for Willa. James novel is the most explicit of the group, and she certainly knows how to give her readers what they want. Willa is a fantastic character, and she and Alaric make a great team as they banter back and forth. Its been awhile since I have read a historical romance, but I enjoyed Wilde in Love so much, I will be picking more of the many books James has written. She writes smart dialogue and keeps her readers wanting more. Moving into the early 20th century, after World War I, is Lauren Willigs The Other Daughter. Also set in England, Rachel is a young governess working in France when she gets word that her mother is seriously ill. She arrives too late, and discovers a newspaper clipping that the father she believed died when she was a toddler is in fact alive, and has another family. Rachel decides to go to London to confront him. Her father is an English lord, and to get close to him she becomes involved with Simon, a Page Six-like gossip reporter who has his own reasons for helping Rachel. Rachel pretends to be a socialite who has been abroad. Simon introduces her to her half-sisters group of friends, and her sisters fiancee, an up-and-coming politician. As Rachel gets closer to meeting her father, things are not quite as they seemed. Willig excels at writing dialogue between Rachel and Simon. Their scenes crackle with tension, wit and emotion, and in the acknowledgments section, Willig states that this is the first single-narrative, single-viewpoint novel she has written. She succeeds beautifully here, and The Other Daughter has not only romance, but family drama and a few twists that will surprise you. If you liked Downton Abbey, this one is for you. Christmas at the Little Beach Street Bakery is the third in a planned trilogy by Jenny Colgan. Polly owns a popular small bakery on Mount Polbeane in Cornwall, on the southern coast of England. She lives in a lighthouse with her boyfriend Huckle, a beekeeper, and Neil, a puffin bird who goes everywhere with them. Polly was raised by her single mother, and never met her father. When Pollys best friend, Kerensa, does something regrettable, it causes problems between Polly and Huckle. The characters in the town are so interesting, especially Kerensas husband, Reuben, a multimillionaire who is pushy and obnoxious and totally in love with his wife. The plot revolves around Christmas, when a snowstorm hits the area and Polly works to keep everything from falling apart. Its funny and sweet, and has some terrific recipes as well. Youll be craving croissants and hot chocolate after reading this one. If you are a fan of the Hallmark Channel, you may be familiar with the Chesapeake Shores series, based on Sherryl Woods series of novels. Her latest, Lilac Lane, continues the story of the OBrien clan of Chesapeake Shores in Maryland. Moira OBrien brings her mother, Kiera, over from Ireland after Kieras fiancee dies suddenly. Kiera works as a consultant for her son-in-law Kevins authentic Irish pub and meets Bryan, the chef at the restaurant. Bryan bristles at Kieras suggestions, and although they get along like oil and water, the matchmaking OBrien clan (led by matriarch Nell and her son Mick) decide these two need to be together. There is also a young woman looking for her birth father (disappearing fathers seem to be a theme here today), but again, things are always more complicated than at first glance. Lilac Lane is a wonderful read for anyone who enjoys stories about big families, especially Irish families. The OBrien clan feel like your own family, whom you love and drive you crazy all at once. Veterans Day services will be held in Victory at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, at the firehouse on Route 38. The LaBuff-Cole American Legion Post 911, of Cato, will provide military services, and pastor Greg Settle will offer the address. The service is open to all veterans and the public, and will include music by local musicians along with refreshments by Robin Bartholomews 4-H members. For many years, the Cato Legion, along with the Peterson-Hall Post No. 436 in Red Creek, the George Ingersoll Post No. 658 in Fair Haven and the Cayuga County Vietnam Veterans Chapter No. 704, have provided great service to our communities in the northern end of Cayuga County. They perform military duties for the public on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, place flags on graves in our cemeteries, and participate in the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Highway of Valor Tribute Ride each July. Vietnam veteran Lauren Dates from Victory and his pilot friends also continue to serve with flyovers during these services and flyovers for local veterans funerals. This Veterans Day, some Vietnam veterans from Victory will be attending a special 50th reunion in the south of their service in Company C, 1st Brigade, 503rd Infantry of the 173rd Army Airborne Brigade. Members of the 4th Infantry Divisions 1st Brigade will join them. It is not a celebration, but a commemoration of the brotherhood and their lifelong bond that started during the war. The tradition of a Veterans Day service in Victory started many years ago after World War II by town forefathers and unofficial historians. It was carried on by appointed historians Evelyn Hornburg, Evelyn Wood and Catherine Bailey. Our Gold Star Mother, Ethel Barnes, lost her son, Pfc. Robert S. Barnes, on Sept. 7, 1967, in Long An, South Vietnam. His name is on panel 26E, row 21 on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall. We carry on this tradition with the financial support of the Victory Town Board and the Victory Fire Department. Victory is a place where all veterans can come home and always be welcome, whether they came from Victory originally, just moved here recently, or just like a friendly, small-town service. We believe our service doesnt necessarily have to get bigger and better every year to be meaningful. Some years we are overflowing, some years it is the faithful few, and we welcome anyone who wishes to attend. A very happy birthday to Army Air Corps veteran Ken King, of Victory, who is celebrating his 97th birthday this year just before Veterans Day! A special thank you to the men and women who have honorably served our country. We salute and pay tribute to those who have given their lives for freedom. Please join us at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, at the firehouse for our Veterans Day in Victory. The talking heads on cable news this morning were still digesting the 12-count indictment against former Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Richard Gates and the guilty plea of former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopolous when President Trump got to work on changing the subject. The president took to Twitter to deliver a new broadside against Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and suggest it should focus on Hillary Clintons ties to Russia, not his. Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign, the president tweeted. But why arent Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? Moments later, Trump tweeted again that there is NO COLLUSION, apparently referring to speculation that Manafort, Gates and others in his campaign worked in concert with the Russian government to promote his candidacy and undermine Clinton. Trumps diversionary moves recall hints earlier in the administration that he might try to have Mueller fired and the investigation shut down. At least two bills that would protect the investigation are pending in Congress. Call your senators and your representative in Congress. Tell them to protect the special counsel and get to the bottom of Russias role in the 2016 election. The Manafort/Gates indictment does not touch directly on the campaign. But Trump is mistaken in asserting that the charges involve things that occurred well before the two men went to work for him. The indictment alleges a conspiracy against the U.S. government that continued through the election and into this year. As part of the conspiracy, the men are said to have lied to federal investigators and laundered millions of dollars they received from the government of Ukraine and a Ukrainian political party aligned with the Russian government in order to evade federal taxes. Manafort was chairman of the Trump campaign for several months last year before reports of his ties to Ukraine and Russia triggered his departure. When he secured the Republican presidential nomination last July, Trump lavished praised on Manafort and the team of Republican political operatives he brought to the campaign. Paul Manafort has done a fantastic job and all of Pauls people, Trump said then. Gates, a longtime Manafort associate who was deputy manager of the Trump campaign, remained there after Manaforts departure and later helped run the Trump inaugural committee. He then worked briefly for America First Policies, a non-profit social welfare group formed to promote Trumps agenda. Papadopolous pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to a single count of making false statements; the charge and his plea were not disclosed until this morning and he is said to be cooperating with Muellers investigation. ### CORNWALL, Ontario Congratulations to Tammy Desrosiers of Cornwall for winning the $100,000 top prize with INSTANT SIZZLING 5S (Game #2025). INSTANT SIZZLING 5S is available for $5 a play and the top prize is $100,000. Odds of winning a prize are 1 in 3.92. The winning ticket was purchased at Macs on 2nd Street in Cornwall. SOUTH NATION, Ontario The purpose of this bulletin is to provide information regarding the forecasted weather and the potential of flooding throughout the South Nation Conservation jurisdiction. Rain gauges within the region have recorded between 50 and 100 mm since October 29, 2017. Environment Canada is forecasting an additional 20 mm of rainfall for today and an additional 10 to 15 mm for the remainder of the week. Water levels are expected to increase, which may cause flooding in low lying areas. In addition, some access roads may need to be closed due to flooding. There is also potential for blocked storm drains, catch basins and culverts which may also cause localized flooding. Residents are advised to stay away from rivers as the forecasted weather may rapidly increase river flows, and cause slippery river banks. Parents are encouraged to explain these dangers to their children. SNC will continue to monitor the water levels and weather forecasts as part of the Flood Forecasting and Warning Program and will provide updates as conditions change. SNC encourages the public to visit www.nation.on.ca and to also provide feedback with respect to changes in water related conditions in their local areas. All feedback can be sent to waterwatch@nation.on.ca; posted on our Facebook (/SouthNationConservation), or Tweet us your photos (@SouthNationCA). For more information, please contact Michael Jones at 1-877-984-2948 ext. 310 or Omar Kanan ext. 309 This statement is in effect until Friday, November 3, 2017. A final debate among the four candidates for two seats on Auburn City Council will take place Tuesday. The Cayuga County-area candidate forum series hosted by Cayuga Community College concludes with the council race, with Democratic incumbents Terry Cuddy and Debby McCormick and Republican challengers John Camardo and Adam Miller all taking part. The forum, co-sponsored by the college and The Citizen, will be televised on Spectrum channels 12 and 98 at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Through Auburn Regional Media Access, replays at 7 p.m. Thursday and 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday will be shown on the same Spectrum channels and on Verizon channel 31. The forum will last 90 minutes. Questions will come from Jeremy Boyer, executive editor of The Citizen, and the program will be moderated by Guy Cosentino. The CCC telecommunications department records and produces all of these debates. Tuesday's forum will also be posted at auburnpub.com, where it can be viewed at any time. The website also has posted videos from five Cayuga County Legislature forums, as well as Auburn-focused forums hosted by IGNITE and the Wednesday Morning Roundtable. Audio of Tuesday's Auburn City Council forum will be played at 10 a.m. on the college radio station, WDWN, at 89.1 FM. a child who is undocumented, under 21 years old, and not married? Have you or the child been separated from or hurt by one or both parents? Are you, or someone you know: If so, you may qualify for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status or "SIJS". This will allows you to apply for lawful permanent residency in the U.S. Get legal help! If you are a custodian or a sponsor of an unaccompanied immigrant child, click to find free information and legal help. And talk to a lawyer who can help you with the California court process. Note: The child, or a relative or a friend, can apply for SIJS for the child. Channel programs News D&H Partners Turn To Veterans, Technical Colleges To Find Qualified Talent Michael Novinson Share this D&H Distributing partners are leaning heavily on veteran training programs and career colleges to fill account manager and sales engineering roles within their own organizations. Clearwater, Fla.-based Kynetic Technologies uses Monster.com and other online sites to identify people who have just returned from military services and offer them entry-level positions, said Ken Candela, vice president of the solution provider. Veterans typically understand the importance of teamwork and avoid actions that would undermine the group, he said. Before turning to veterans, Candela said Kynetic typically hired people that had been employed by one of their IT services competitors, but many of them were bringing over bad habits they had exhibited at their last employer. [Related: D&H Partners: K-12 Demand For Virtual Reality Tools Is 'Almost Like The Early Days Of Chromebooks'] Liberty Technology, for its part, began using a program at the start of 2017 that provides high-potential veterans with rigorous training focused on customer-facing IT careers, said President Ben Johnson. The Griffin, Ga.-based solution provider hired two veterans through Tech Qualled six months ago to serve as account managers, and both of them are already carrying annual quotas of between $1 million and $1.5 million. "As long as that keeps up, I can keep hiring and we can keep back-filling on the technical talent," Johnson said. "There's some really, really just amazing talent coming out of the military." Liberty Technology plans to go back to Tech Qualled every six months or so and bring on additional veterans, Johnson said. Johnson and Candela spoke with CRN during D&H Distributing's 2017 Fall Mid-Atlantic Technology Show in Hershey, Pa. NextStep Networking, meanwhile, has aligned its people pipeline with nearby community and private colleges since the graduates recognize their lack of professional experience and therefore have reasonable salary expectations, according to Matthew Worthen, director of educational IT consulting. Once NextStep is aligned with a career college, Worthen said the company encourages students to intern or co-op with the Cincinnati-based solution provider. Over time, this allows NextStep to build up a story and reputation within the institution, Worthen said, which eventually results in the best students competing to work for the company. "We want to be a good place for kids to land in their career," Worthen said. "And if we're going to consult with schools, we might as well try and tap into some of that talent as they're coming up." Other D&H partners had similar ideas, with Liberty Technology bringing in half of its technical staff from career colleges, according to Johnson. One of the things Johnson found that resonated with prospective employees is offering them the opportunity to go after emerging technologies such as virtual reality, managed conference rooms or SD-WAN, Johnson said. These workers were often previously employed by large IT service providers, Johnson said, where they were expected to follow orders and stay in their lane. "They're not allowed to chase that stuff in the bigger companies," Johnson said. "It seems like there's a lot of people that are stymied." Solution providers also are using testing programs to assess their potential employees' personalities and aptitude for the job. Current programs include DISC, a behavior assessment tool focused on traits such as dominance, influence, steadiness and conscientiousness, and Wonderlic, a group intelligence test used to assess the aptitude of prospective employees for learning and problem-solving in a range of occupations. For its part, Treysta Technology Management is considering having its applicants go through DISC or Wonderlic testing, according to Vice President and CIO Henry Grossman. The Gettysburg, Pa.-based solution provider has found it very difficult to evaluate these soft skills through just a 30-minute or 60-minute interview, Grossman said. "Once they hit the real application of it, that's where you see them fall on their face," Grossman said. All told, Grossman said Treysta has shelled out at least $75,000 on recruiting fees for employees the company doesn't have on staff anymore. Liberty Technology, meanwhile, has a Wonderlic threshold that applicants need to exceed in order to even have their resume reviewed, according to Johnson. The version used by Liberty allows the company to put in the type of job it's hiring for such as marketing, administrative assistant, or help desk technician with the final synthetic score taking into account the attributes most important in that position. The Wonderlic measures candidates in several different subcategories and ultimately scores them based on intelligence, personality and motivation, according to Johnson. "It has saved me and my staff hundreds of hours of time digging through [bad] resumes," Johnson said. Internet of things News Dimension Data Veteran Chris Wolff Joins Dell To Accelerate The IoT Channel Charge Lindsey O'Donnell Share this Dimension Data veteran Chris Wolff has joined Dell to help drive the company forward with new Internet of Things (IoT) channel partnerships. Wolff has left her post as the SVP of Dimension Data's Group Cisco Alliance, after 18 years with the company, to become Dell's head of global OEM and IoT partnerships, according to her LinkedIn profile. "Dell's capacity, expertise and methodology accelerates Future Makers' time to dream to revenue, said Wolffs LinkedIn profile. "Partners play a [critical] role in bringing those game-changing ideas to fruition." [Related: Dell Technologies Launches A New IoT Division And Partner Program Amid 'Great Boom' In Edge Computing] During Wolffs time at Dimension Data, she worked closely with one of the channel players top partners, Cisco, to provide strategic guidance between the two companies strategies in areas where they were making joint investments. A Dimension Data spokesperson confirmed that Wolff had left the company to "help Dell develop their IoT practice." "Chris held a number of roles in her 18-year career with Dimension Data, and embraced our passion for exploration and innovation and was a strong and inspiring leader in the company," said the spokesperson. Dell did not respond to a request for comment before publication. Wolff said in a Linkedin post that in her position at Dell she would work to develop programs and strategies that help technology partners including Intel, and VMWare as well as ISVs, channel partners and systems integrators, make IoT "smarter at the edge and in the core." Wolff, who was on CRNs "Women of the Channel 2017: Power 30 Solution Providers" list, joins Dell as the company funnels more investment into IoT; Dell recently pledged $1 billion to its IoT initiative in the next three years and announced a new Dell Technologies IoT Division. Dells revamped IoT business will be headed by VMware Chief Technology Officer Ray O'Farrell, and will build on the companys portfolio around IoT gateways and its EMC PowerEdge C-Series servers to enable IoT applications. According to Dell, Jason Shepherd will remain in his position as director of Strategy and Partnerships for Dell's Internet of Things business and run the partner program within the new division. Brian McGlynn, co-founder and COO of Davra Networks, a Dublin, Ireland-based Dell partner, praised Dells recent innovations in IoT. The new IoT System Integrator Partner program is another key piece of the Dell IoT Strategy, he said. A strong VAR channel is something Dell is focused on building and this new program is a result of many months courting system integrators. Networking News CRN Exclusive: Consolidation Strikes Again As Telarus Acquires CarrierSales To Boost Cloud, Mobility Sales Gina Narcisi Share this Telarus is on a mission to become one of the largest and well-rounded master agents in the country. To help achieve that goal, the company said Monday it is acquiring cloud and mobility-focused master agent CarrierSales. Consolidation among carriers is causing some of them to "squeeze" their channels, often by dialing back the number of partners they work with who have direct contacts. At the same time, partners must prove themselves to the carriers with larger sales volumes and those that don't make the cut will have to run their business through a larger partner that can meet the increasing requirements. Once combined, Telarus and CarrierSales will be a top-tier partner with each of the "Big 5" -- AT&T, CenturyLink, Comcast, Spectrum and Verizon -- among other large service providers. Telarus also will be gaining strength in the cloud and wireless arenas, Telarus co-founder Patrick Oborn told CRN. "This allows us to provide security and stability to our partners' residual commission streams long term, which is our primary goal," Oborn said of the deal. [Related: Telarus Nabs Former Zayo Channel Chief Scott Forbush As SVP Of Sales ] Terms of the deal were not disclosed. But the companies did say that Richard Murray, president of CarrierSales, will join Telarus co-founders Adam Edwards and Oborn as an equal partner and COO of the merged company, which will retain the Telarus name. Once combined, Telarus will have 125 employees in 15 states and a vast network of more than 4,000 sales partners, which includes MSPs and telecom agent partners. The two companies expect the all-stock deal to close during fourth-quarter 2017. The combination of the two Utah-based master agents, with Telarus based in Sandy and CarrierSales based in Draper, will deepen Telarus' expertise in hot markets in which the master agent has been looking to invest and grow, such as Unified Communications as a Service, contact center and wireless, according to Oborn and Edwards. CarrierSales is a Diamond CenturyLink partner with a heavy focus on the carrier's managed IT and cloud services. It also has strong hosted contact center and wireless practices through its close partnerships with InContact and Vonage. This deal helps us further strengthen our back office and adds new areas of technical expertise, Oborn said. To help our partners close complex UCaaS, hosted contact center and mobility deals, we now have a deeper bench of industry experts who will increase their batting average for sure. CarrierSales itself has grown inorganically, buying CMS Communications in 2013 and Concierge Communications in 2016. The acquisition will also mean increased support for sales partners, Murray said. Telarus today has six regional vice presidents, five partner development managers, and one senior vice president of sales located throughout the country. Master agents that lose direct contracts with service providers often face a reduction in commission percentages, market development fund dollars and support resources. The combined company will now be able to scale quickly to meet partner requirements of tomorrow, Oborn and Murray said. Specifically, the deal will help Telarus deliver more than $1.5 million each month in new service contracts to vendors and annual commission revenue that exceeds $81 million, according to the company. The need for scale will continue to drive the consolidation trend, Oborn said. "Master agents have to scale organically, by acquisition, or both, in order to retain their top rankings, especially with the Big 5 network providers." Networking News Extreme Closes Brocade Data Center Assets Acquisition, Setting Sights On Cisco, HPE Mark Haranas Share this After months of delays, Extreme Networks has officially acquired Brocade Communications' data center switching, routing and analytics business in a move to turn up the heat on competitors including Cisco Systems and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. "We have now significantly strengthened our position in the expanding high-end data center market with the industry-leading solution for enterprise customers," said Extreme CEO Ed Meyercord in a statement Monday. "Through a series of synergistic acquisitions, Extreme is now a top player in the enterprise networking industry and expects to generate over $1 billion in annual revenues." The San Jose, Calif.-based networking vendor acquired Brocade customers, some data center personnel, and technology assets including its SLX, VDX, MLX, Workflow Composer, automation suites and other data center-related products for approximately $55 million. [Related: How Extreme Networks' $210M Acquisition Spree Is Set To Pay Off In $545M In New Revenue] "It's a great strategy to help Extreme expand its presence, customer base, technology portfolio it's a good deal for the channel, too," said David Rafftery, managing partner at Integration Partners, a Lexington, Mass.-based Extreme partner ranked No. 129 on CRN's 2017 Solution Provider 500 list. "If you're getting close to the data center and you want all the things the Brocade piece offers, you can deploy those features now and you'll have real single-pane-of-glass management over the top. There isn't an enterprise technology networking company today that has their viewpoint." The Brocade deal provides Extreme with $230 million in sales that the company said will be accretive to earnings and cash flow for its fiscal year 2018, which began July 1. Brocade is expecting to be acquired by Broadcom by the end of this year but has faced several delays over the course of 2017, including the need for a deeper review of the acquisition by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The initial Brocade-Extreme acquisition deal unveiled in March was supposed to take place immediately after Broadcom acquired Brocade. However, in an effort to acquire Brocade assets as soon as possible, Extreme said earlier this month that it would buy Brocade's data center business directly from the vendor itself. "Our strategic vision has been closely aligned with Extreme Networks' vision throughout this process," said Nabil Bukhari, vice president of Data Center, formerly of Brocade and now with Extreme, in a statement. "Extreme's commitment to build on the innovation and momentum that we have achieved, including a completely refreshed data center portfolio over the past year, will provide our new and existing customers and partners with business continuity that enables them to accelerate digital transformation." The acquisition comes one week after Extreme's Global Partner Summit where the vendor unleashed a slew of news including a new partner program. What To Expect At Cisco Partner Summit 2017 Thousands of partners will be flocking to Dallas this week for Cisco Partner Summit 2017 to hear firsthand about the networking giant's vision and strategic plan following a busy week of acquisitions as well as a blockbuster partnership with Google Cloud. Ahead of Partner Summit this week, Wendy Bahr, senior vice president of Cisco's Global Partner Organization, spoke to CRN about what partners should expect to hear as well as some surprises in store for its channel community including a special guest who will be on stage with Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. Cisco Partner Summit is taking place at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Conversion Center in Dallas from Oct. 31 to Nov. 2. CRN will be providing full coverage during the event. AUBURN From a distance Naomi Velasquezs quilt looks like a flat picture of multi-colored blocks on a black background, but as the viewer moves closer the blocks appear to move as the 3-D work comes to life. The work called Tumbling 2017 is an example of how the Schweinfurth Art Centers annual Quilts=Art=Quilts show has evolved over its 37-year history to focus on the art of quilts, center Executive Director Donna Lamb said Sunday during a tour of the exhibit. Every year we look for a piece that stretches the definition of a quilt, she said of Velasquezs work. The pieces by 65 artists in the exhibit were culled by three judges from 300 entries from across the United States and the world. The result is a show that will attract 4,000 visitors by the time it closes on Jan. 7, Lamb said. With 20 visitors tagging along Sunday, Lamb walked through the exhibit, stopping at points to allow artists who were in Auburn for the exhibits opening weekend to explain their inspiration and creative techniques. Over the years the exhibits definition of a quilt has evolved from the traditional covering found on grandmas bed, which is two pieces of fabric with batting sandwiched between them, Lamb said. The show now accepts quilted pieces that have just two layers, she said. The works have also evolved as artists push aside fabric purchased at a store to hand dye their own material, Lamb said. The shows quilted pieces were created with fabric, but also with paint, plastic or by printing digital photos on fabric. Others have embellishments, like buttons or sparkles. And one piece was made with strips of old saris purchased from India. Artist Sharon Carvalho of Sisters, Oregon, explained to visitors that her quilted piece was inspired by digital photos of trees taken by a friend. A black tree printed on blocks of fabric that were dyed slightly green or yellow is the center of the piece surrounded with lighter fabric. It was great fun to produce, Carvalho said. The Schweinfurth exhibit is her first international quilt show. I was very excited it was accepted, Carvalho said. Not all works are sewn. Beth Schnellenberger of Jasper, Indiana, fused the strips of fabric that make up her work Scorched Earth, which is featured on the art centers website announcing the exhibit. As a result, the piece almost feels like leather, she said. The Quilts=Art=Quilts show runs through Jan. 7 at the art center at 205 Genesee St. The center is closed on Mondays. It is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Even as the Hell or High Water brewpub closed abruptly in South Norwalk, Spigot Beer opened to provide a counter weight on the far side of Washington Street, with its new taproom featuring an endless rotation of harder-to-find brews with gourmet cheeses served on the side as an unexpected twist. Jennie Bedusa and Smith Reynolds established Spigot Beer at 17 Washington Street in a building owned by her father. The Mystical Parlors new age boutique occupied the space previously and before that a tile store, Spigots ornate floor courtesy of that prior enterprise. Bedusa and Reynolds met at the University of Vermont, with Reynolds having had his interest in craft beer sparked by the opening of Otter Creek Brewing in Middlebury, Vt., where he grew up; and going on to work for Magic Hat after graduating from UVM. They headed out to California, where Bedusa pursued a career in television and documentary production, which she continues today. They settled in Connecticut after wanting to be closer to family. Spigots opening arrived even as the taps closed in mid-October at Hell or High Water, with signage in the latter establishments window at 122 Washington St. promising a reopening at an unspecified future date with no other details supplied. Also shutting down recently on Washington Street was the Room 112 cocktail and coffee lounge, similarly promising a temporary-only shuttering for renovations. At Spigot, the menu currently features five Connecticut beers from Back East, Counter Weight, Kent Falls, Relic and Stubborn Beauty; and about a dozen more from Vermont, New York and Massachusetts, including a few hard ciders from Reynolds home state. In the early going, Spigot is updating patrons on its stock on the BeerMenus.com. Unlike Hell or High Water or Nod Hill Brewery, which opened this past weekend in Ridgefield, Spigot has no plans to craft its own brews. There is so much great beer, and I think because we are doing it in a much smaller way we can show people things that theyve never had, Bedusa said. Some places need to keep tap lists. Our entire goal is to change it every single time something runs out, something new comes behind it. Spigot prices ranged this week between $4 and $8 depending on the serving. Spigot also stocks crowler cans of every beer it sells for those who want to bring home some of what they try, keeps on hand three varieties of wine by the can, which Bedusa said has become a popular option in California. Cheeses are supplied by Murrays Cheese of New York City, with Spigot suggesting pairings for instance, Rogue Creamerys Smokey Blue aged in Oregon with a local Kent Falls Shoots IPA beer for an East-West, perfect balance of sweetness and bite in the words of Saturdays menu. Spigot is open Wednesday-Sunday starting at 4 p.m. with the taproom able to accommodate 30 people. Reynolds said the foot traffic has been good in the early going as people stumble on Spigot and sample its varieties and ambience. (Friday) was really busy, he said. Its ... a cozier place where you can come and have a conversation, where theres not super-loud music blaring. Modern vs. contemporary. Antiques vs. rustic. Mixing periods vs. single style. Whats changed and whats now in the world of interior design? We asked columnist Sophie Donelson, editor in chief of House Beautiful magazine, to give us her view. Q: Were flipping through shelter magazines and are seeing few purely modern spaces on their pages. What we see are modern pieces integrated into traditional rooms or vice versa. What are some of your thoughts on this observation? Sophie Donelson: The most radical update to interior design in the past decade or two is the shift away from rooms defined by a single style or period and toward rooms that embrace the mix. Thats the new style, says Jenny Wolf, a New York designer who recently completed a Litchfield country house to be featured in the December issue of House Beautiful. The idea is to be transitional, not just traditional or modern. Throwing a new piece into a traditional room gives it an edge. One of the classic updates we see at the magazine is pairing traditional dining chairs with a modern pedestal table think formal Chippendale or even more casual ladder-back chairs with a Saarinen tulip table; it completely reinvents the room. Q: Were noticing antique shops closing left and right. Is the heyday for old, fine furnishings over? SD: My take is that antiques are here to stay. While the number of brick-and-mortar antiques shops is dwindling, digital marketplaces only grow. Its far from just eBay in the online antiques game. Apps like Chairish, my personal favorite, sell all eras of antiques from refined Victorian breakfronts to mod desk chairs to one-of-a-kind salvage and objet. What has changed is consumers attitude toward provenance. Its quality manufacturing and appealing style that gets a shopper to part with money, not the pedigree of the piece. Most design professionals still shop in person, especially for antiques. The scale of items online can be deceiving and its important to open and close drawers and actually feel an item before purchasing. Q: Has peoples love for decorating with things like rustic reclaimed wood pieces replaced a love for antiques? SD: Greenwich designer Lee Ann Thornton, whose work is featured in the November issue of House Beautiful, says the modern farmhouse aesthetic, which mixes rustic or rough-hewn wood elements with contemporary pieces, has staying power because the the look is achievable on a budget. Q: Do you feel people are confused about the terms modern and contemporary when it comes to decor? Can you clear that up? SD: The two terms are used interchangeably and often incorrectly. Contemporary refers to current design, i.e. pieces made within the past few years. Modern is an aesthetic and a movement that commonly refers to the streamlined styles in the middle decades of the 20th century. Thornton says her clients rarely use the word contemporary. Its the word modern that conjures up feelings of today. Still, she says, Its obvious that were headed back to traditional prints and interiors and there will always be designers to bring those up to date. Q: In the 1970s and 1980s, people were big on restoring antique homes to the period, either with antiques or reproductions. What happened to that concept? SD: Heres what feels dated when all furnishings hail from a single era, even the 2010s. Wolf says the internet disrupted the idea of period rooms. Nowadays we have vast resources for furniture in new and innovative styles. We no longer need to look solely to the past. Q: Is modern furniture the new traditional? SD: Maybe in time popular design will shift its balance toward modern, but for now, most notable interiors blend the best of both furnishings. At the magazine, were big proponents of this because it encourages people to buy things that speak to them, not because they go with their home, but because the item makes them happy. Harlem, May 1947 Mae Mae loved herself with a ferocity that came of feeding too hard and too long on her own exquisite beauty. She could smile in the rearview mirror of her car and see the alabaster beam reflected back from her picture in advertisements for Malveauxs Magic Hair Pomade plastered on every billboard and in the windows of every drugstore starting from West 53rd Street, going all the way up Manhattan and through Harlem for the next hundred blocks. Even now she gazed happily into her vanity as her maid, Justice, applied the French pomade and arranged the dark folds of her hair into thick Victory curls perfectly framing her face. She never used the concoction her mother had created and made famous. Tired of having it smeared on her head since childhood, Mae had thrown away her own grease-filled powder-blue tin in the days after her mothers death. She held out her wrists and Justice dabbed on fragrant dots from the crystal bottle of Caron Fleurs de Rocaille perfume. Maes cold-creamed skin glowed bright and her eyes danced with the sparkle of a girl, making her seem younger than her thirty-three years. She knew this feature made her irresistible. Mysteriously, each man thought he had discovered this light for himself and believed only he could see it in her. They never noticed her well-hidden contempt for their arrogance. Mae was vigilant about her expressions. She learned long ago the faces she wore would always be more essential than any dress she put on, no matter if it were a Christian Dior or a Pierre Balmain. Her beauty was a formidable instrument because people liked to stare at her as they would a motion picture actress and, in the same vein, she could tell them any story she chose to project and they would believe it. So she practiced the lift of her cheeks, the turnings of her mouth, the shapes of her lips, and the conjured emotions that she flitted across her eyes. Her masterstroke came when she could wipe her face smooth and present a look of calm so numinous it bewitched her admirers into claiming her a goddess. In rare instances, though, she suffered a rebellion to her visage of serenity. It was an errant twitch seated in the muscles of her lower-left eyelid. She always felt it right before it surfaced. It was as though the weight of all the folly the eye had beheld was suddenly too much for it. She saw how, though small and fast, it unmasked her disdain. Not everyone would notice, but someone less foolhardy someone like Val Jackson would never miss such a telling detail. Regina, her white Polish maid, brought in Maes long, satin Dior that had arrived from Paris the previous day. Mae stood, stepped into the gown, and enjoyed the feel of the gold fabric flowing down her body in a shimmering cascade. She placed one hand on Justices shoulder and lifted her right foot with the grace of a ballerina. Regina took hold of Maes ankle, guided her into leather slingback pumps, then pulled the strap through the buckle. Too tight. Too tight. Ouch! Mae lit out with her right hand, landing a blow upon the womans ear and side of her face. Reginas arm rose in defense. Im sorry, maam, she whispered. Im so sorry. Mae looked away while she finished. The stacked heel added nearly two inches to her height so she had to sit again. This allowed Justice to fasten the necklace of marquise-cut diamonds while Regina clasped the diamond-and-platinum bracelet around Maes thin wrist. Mae occupied the largest brownstone on Sugar Hill. Designed by the noted architect Branford Waite, it featured a double-width facade and a broad stoop from the front door to the street. Perfect white shades on the windows muted the suns glare during the day but let in plenty of light. The flower boxes on the ledges contained enough nicotiana, tuberose, and alyssum so their combined sweet fragrance would greet Mae each time she walked out the door. That night she came gliding out of the building like a new moon rising. All down the block she knew quick hands snapped shutters closed then reopened them a crack so their owners could spy on her floating down the steps to where her man, Lawrence, held open the door to her forest-green Packard. She knew this because she knew exactly how her world was situated how every single person thought, including and especially what they thought of her. She choreographed each step, each motion, and she moved through Harlem exactly as she pleased because of it. What good was money otherwise? She laughed at the predictability of society and how no one but her seemed to understand how to wield this delicious power. And since her mother died, and then her own husband, Mae reveled in the added sweet freedom of answering to no one. She settled into the caramel cushions of the cars backseat. Lawrence steered in the direction of the Swan, her chosen nightclub. Mae knew in particular how it would be there. Lately the bandleader would make sure they didnt play Duke Ellingtons gorgeous new piece, Lady of the Lavender Mist, her favorite, unless she was in the room and ready to dance. Her usual party would be seated and waiting at her table. The air already hummed with the expectancy of an unseasonably warm Saturday night. The scene was set. It only needed her to make it come alive. Copyright 2017 Sophfronia Scott Sophfronia Scott grew up in Lorain, Ohio, a hometown she shares with author Toni Morrison. Her father was a Mississippi-born steelworker who never learned how to read and her mother was a stay-at-home mom who always made sure there were books in the house. She holds a BA in English from Harvard and an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Scott lives with her husband and son in the Sandy Hook section of Newtown, where she continues to fight a losing battle against the weeds in her flowerbeds. A new report by financial site WalletHub puts Westport, Conn. near the top of its list of the best small cities in America. The site looked at 1,268 cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 and ranked them across five key dimensions: Affordability, Economic Health, Education & Health, Quality of Life and Safety. The cities were ranked by percentile with the 99th percentile representing the best cities. Maura Healey will be the first openly lesbian governor in U.S. history. Here's a look at 20 candidates who made history in the 2022 midterms. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate TRUMBULL A former Connecticut florist of the year and one of Trumbulls newest health care hubs were honored Monday morning for their contributions to the town at a Business Appreciation Breakfast. The annual event, held at the Trumbull Marriott Merritt Parkway, featured remarks by First Selectman Tim Herbst, Economic and Community Development Director Rina Bakalar and others. City Line Florist, which has been a family-owned business in Trumbull for 99 years, received the Small Business Success Award. A Trumbull staple, the business has been named Connecticut Florist of the Year and Best Florist in Fairfield County in the past. We love Trumbull, thank you again, and happy to be here, third-generation owner Susan Palazzo said while accepting the award. Palazzo said she was surprised to find out that her familys nearly century-old business was awarded the honor. She and her daughter who also runs the business, Nicole Palazzo, found out about the award when they arrived at the breakfast and saw the program. Herbst presented the Corporate Success Award to Bridgeport Hospital-Yale New Haven Health, noting that he was a patient there six months ago for treatment of thyroid cancer. The services to the people in the region are second to none, Herbst said. Nominations were submitted by members of the towns boards and commissions and the Chamber of Commerce. From that pool, the Economic Development Commission selected two recipients, Bakalar said. The event included a presentation by Jason Broadwater, author of Old Town New World: Main Street and More in the New Economy. Broadwater spoke about creating the kind of community two key groups Baby Boomers and Millennials would attract and retain. Productive people have to choose your community for it to be successful, Broadwater said. Broadwater said Millennials prioritize affordable rental options while Baby Boomers want to downsize and move where their children live. Bakalar said she invited Broadwater to speak at the event because of his insight into why people move to different communities. We were looking for someone to kind of come with a voice to talk about the kinds of things that are happening in our economy, and what we have to look at ... I thought that ... how he talks to the issues was a voice that we would benefit from hearing, Bakalar said. MILFORD Two men were arrested after one of them reportedly stole $200 worth of items from the Macys store at the Connecticut Post mall. According to police, on Wednesday, officers responded to the Macys on a report of a shoplifter who had just left the store. An investigation led to the arrest of Deshawn Snipes, 23, of New Haven, who is accused taking about $200 worth items without paying. When approached by a Macys loss prevention agent, Snipes allegedly pushed past the employees and made his way to a vehicle. When officers arrives, they found Snipes and another man, John Pettigrew, 50, of New Haven, at the vehicle. Further investigation led to the arrest of Pettigrew, who is accused of having a BB gun inside his vehicle. Problem-solving is one of the most important aspects of entrepreneurship. As both the founder of your organization and the leader of your team, you'll be responsible for identifying and solving the problems of your customers, partners, employees and your company, in general. Related: Don't Just Start a Business, Solve A Problem The question might be posed as to whether successful entrepreneur-problem-solvers use their natural talents to find success, or whether those skills are cultivated after years of experience. But, either way, I would maintain that successful entrepreneurs think about and solve problems differently from most other professionals. How is this problem solving process distinctive, and how can you apply that difference to your own work habits? And what's different about entrepreneurs-as-problem-solvers in the first place? Here are six ways: 1.They identify problems first. Some people think of entrepreneurial types as creative inventors; given a blank canvas, they can come up with a product that people will love. But that's not usually the case. Instead, the most successful entrepreneurs are those who first identify a key problem in the market, then work to solve that problem. Airbnb, for example, started when its two founders, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, realized that two problems existed in the same business area; one, they themselves were having trouble affording rent in New York; and two, nearly all the hotel rooms in the city were consistently booked. Those founders didn't come up with their idea out of thin air; they recognized two key problems, and devised a solution to solve both simultaneously. 2.They stay calm. According to a study by TalentSmart, 90 percent of top performers are able to manage their emotions successfully when they experience high levels of stress. This isn't a coincidence: When you allow your emotions to get the better of you when facing a problem, you subject yourself to reactive decision-making, and lose touch with your logical side. Accordingly, you make poorer decisions, and in some cases, may look bad in front of your employees. Of course, "staying calm" when you face a major issue is, itself, a major issue. It takes years of practice and self-discipline to learn how to prevent your emotions from taking over. You need the kind of perspective that only high-stress experiences can give you. That perspective? No problem, by itself, is unconquerable or incapable of being solved through alternative approaches. 3.They start with the general and work toward the specific. When addressing a problem, most people get caught up in the details, but successful entrepreneur-strategists tend to think about problems more generally before working down to the specific details. For example, if entrepreneurs' cars break down on the side of the road, they aren't immediately concerned with the peculiarities of the engine that led to its malfunction; instead, they recognize that the car isn't drivable, and work to get it to the shoulder -- and safety. Related: 8 Problem-Solving Practices That See Startups to Success This approach helps you see the high-level nature (and consequences) of your current problem, giving you a reliable context for solving it. 4.They adapt. Successful entrepreneurs are also willing to adapt to solve a problem; they aren't beholden to the image, processes or lines of thinking that got them into the problem in the first place. For example, Nokia -- probably best known as the top cell phone provider in the world between 1998 and 2012 -- started out as a paper company that later transitioned to producing rubber tires and galoshes (as the needs of its customers changed). When the demand rose for military and emergency service radio phones, Nokia transitioned again and started making those devices, eventually selling off its paper and rubber divisions. In short, faced with changing available resources, market demand and competition, Nokia reinvented itself rather than remaining stagnant or applying old rubrics to new problems. 5.They delegate and distribute. Entrepreneurs also know they aren't the most effective problem-solvers on their own; instead, most problems are best handed over to specialists who better understand those problems. Accordingly, when an entrepreneur faces a tough decision or a difficult situation, he or she typically delegates the judgment needed to an expert and calls in help to carry out that expert's solution as efficiently as possible. Entrepreneurs also aren't afraid to delegate authority to the internal hires they trust, and aren't hesitant to spend money on external firms and consultants if that solution will solve the problem faster and more efficiently. 6.They measure outcomes and reflect. Successful entrepreneurs actually do more than just solve the problem. After applying a fix, they spend time measuring the results of their efforts with analytics tools, and reflecting on those outcomes. Learning from the approach they've chosen, whether it turns out to be a success or failure, is what equips them to make even better decisions in the future. So, if you aren't an entrepreneur in your own right, there's much you can gain from adopting the problem-solving tactics of someone who is -- someone who's a success at both entrepreneurship and decision-making. Related: Entrepreneurship Is Not About Problem-Solving Applying different modes of thinking and new leadership styles, and being open to more potential problem-solving options are the strategies that will help you solve problems more thoroughly, and reap better long-term results. Related: Entrepreneurs Solve Problems Differently Than Other Professionals. Really! Here Are the 6 Ways. These Are the 5 Questions All Entrepreneurs Should Ask Themselves If They Want to Create Real Change Be Like This Woman Who Moved a Shark With Her Bare Hands Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com Stephen Schwartz looks pretty composed these days considering his bicoastal shuttles. When we met for this interview, he had just gotten back to his Connecticut home from California, where a stage version of DreamWorks 1998 animated film, The Prince of Egypt, was preparing for its world premiere at TheaterWorks Silicon Valley in Palo Alto, staged by his son, veteran director Scott Schwartz. (The show then will open in Denmark next year.) Then he was off to the Goodspeed Opera House in East Haddam, where he was overseeing the progress of a revisal of the 1986 musical, Rags. Then he returned to the West Coast to zero in on the shooting script for the film version of Wicked, set for release in 2019. But over coffee in the breakfast nook of the Ridgefield home he has for his visiting parents, children and grandchildren his own manse is not far away Schwartz, 69, had the focused cool of an old pro. After all, he is one of the most successful Broadway composer-lyricists with Pippin, Godspell and Wicked among his credits. He also created lyrics and/or music for such animated films as Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Enchanted, earning him three Oscars. Hes received three Grammys and has been nominated six times for Tony Awards. In 2015 he received a special Tony Award for his work supporting young artists. But today is about Rags, and the unique task of turning the musical, which ran for only four performances in 1986, into a viable show that suddenly reflects the political zeitgeist, with a future life. Its not the first time the musical with its rich score by Charles Strouse (Bye Bye Birdie, Annie, Applause) and Schwartzs deft lyrics has been worked on since its closing. There were subsequent productions in 1991 by the American Jewish Theatre and further work on the musical was done in 1999 at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami and later at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, N. J. Though the musical continues to be done at schools and other venues across the country, a major production in or near New York has always been nixed, even last year when Goodspeed sensing that the shows immigration themes were timely proposed doing it. We were not interested in rearranging the deck chairs, Schwartz says, and taking the same basic pieces and reshuffling them. But when Goodspeed came back and suggested bringing in a new book writer, David Thompson (Broadways The Scottsboro Boys), to make substantive changes, Schwartz and Strouse, 89, were open to the possibility. Goodspeeds pick for a director, Rob Ruggiero, was also someone whose work Schwartz admired. The new proposal received the blessing of Elisa Loti, the widow of the shows original librettist, Joseph Stein, who died in 2010 at age 98. Elisa graciously and generously was open to the notion, Schwartz says, as long as the (new version) did not undercut Joes basic feeling about the material. Stein originally conceived Rags in the 80s as a sort of sequel to Fiddler on the Roof, the beloved musical for which he wrote the libretto. The idea was to explore what happens to Tevye and his family after they immigrated to America. But that approach was soon abandoned and Stein instead fashioned an original story centering on a Russian-Jewish mother and her son arriving on Ellis Island at the turn of the last century. Schwartz told Ruggiero and Thompson he felt Rags was too broad in scope and filled with an over abundance of characters and incidents, which is fine if youre doing a Ken Burns documentary, but if you want your audience to be invested in the characters on stage, it was just too much. Schwartz says he has come to believe that a leading character of a musical should want something very specific with obstacles to overcome during the course of the show. And it has to be an aspirational want that makes that character active. What I realized about the original show was that our leading character of Rebecca (played at Goodspeed by Samantha Massell) basically wanted safety, which is a negative want and therefore causes her to be reactive, he says. With those suggestions, Ruggiero and Thompson went to work, and found inspiration at the Tenement Museum in Manhattans Lower East Side. There they learned of immigrants working from their crowded apartments sewing piecemeal work for the garment industry in what was virtually home sweatshops. In their new version, Rebeccas talents as a seamstress gives the leading character hope, drive and a dream of a better life all active elements in a musical, according to Schwartz. A love interest develops with a newly arrived neighbor from Italy, making the story more inclusive and reflecting everyones immigrant roots. Once the new story had been worked out, Schwartz says, we went back and looked at what we could retain from the original that would serve the new story instead of just trying to fix the old one. Most of the music has been retained, but Schwartz says he has rewritten about 80 percent of the lyrics. And much of Joes wonderful dialogue is retained in some ways, too, he says. In returning to the research of that period, Schwartz says the anti-immigrant rhetoric unnervingly echoes the same kind of speech being used today. Though it was not for terrorist reasons, (anti-immigrant forces) felt these new arrivals were bringing in crime and disease and were destroying the national character by mongrelizing America. All these terms were used in 1911. Indeed, there was a congressman who literally wanted to build a wall to keep immigrants out. What is disappointing is that so many of the people using that language against immigrants now are the descendants of those (earlier) immigrants. Gore Vidal famously called our country the United States of Amnesia and I think thats accurate. We have a very short historic memory so we keep repeating cycles. We dont seem to learn anything from our past. Schwartz says if Rags was revised 10 years ago it would be just another celebration of the immigrant experience. But now its a reminder of a fundamental part of the American character. Rags is playing at Goodspeed Musicals, 6 Main St., East Haddam, through Dec. 10. Frank Rizzo has covered Connecticut arts for nearly 40 years. Shanghai (Gasgoo)- The commencement ceremony for JMCG (Jiangling Motors Company Group) NEV new base and engineering research institute was held on October 28th in Ganjiang. Mao Weiming, standing member of CPC Jiangxi Provincial Committee and Executive vice Governor, as well as Yin Meigen, Secretary of Nanchang Municipal Committee of CPC, all attended the ceremony. JMCG NEV new base and engineering research institute are important parts in JMCGs layout for NEV R&D, manufacturing, sales and intelligent transportation. The project has a total investment of RMB 12b with the annual capacity of 150,000 units in the first phase, which is expected to begin production in the latter half of 2019. The second phase plans to expand the construction into an annual capacity of 300,000 units. The new base will provide lightweight manufacturing techniques for steel aluminum hybrid car body, all aluminum car body and many composite materials. It also plans to manufacture power battery sets and plastic outer coverings, with equipment automation rate exceeding 85%, thus becoming a benchmark factory in terms of energy-saving and environmental-protection. PHOENIX -- The state's highest court won't let homeowners burned out by the Yarnell Hill fire sue the state for negligence. And that, according to an attorney for those affected, has bad implications for others who own property throughout the state. Without comment, the Arizona Supreme Court has spurned a request by the lawyers for those who lost buildings in the 2013 blaze that they should be able to make their case to a jury that the state, which was trying to contain the wildfire that started on public lands, also had a duty to protect their property. More to the point, David Abney said they were required to do so in a fashion that was not negligent. Instead, the justices left intact a lower court ruling which told the homeowners they have no legal recourse. Abney said the message is clear. "My advice is, you'd better look out for yourself,'' he told Capitol Media Services. "Don't rely on the state.'' He said the essence of the court's action goes beyond whether state officials, in trying to contain a fire that started on public lands, also have an obligation to keep it spreading to nearby properties. Abney said there is evidence that fire officials not only told Yarnell homeowners they would protect their lives and property but that they actually made an effort to do it. And he said the general common law has always been that once someone agrees to do something, even voluntarily, they have a duty to perform it in a non-negligent manner. What makes all the significant, he said, is the residents relied on that. "If the people of Yarnell had understood the state was going to do this incredibly incompetently, and the state was going to do a late and improper evacuation notice, they could have taken some measures to protect themselves,'' Abney explained. "They could have gotten their personal possession out, their pets and livestock out,'' he continued. "They could have removed propane tanks that blew up in the fire, they could have removed their excess vehicles.'' And Abney said they could have done other things to protect their buildings, including emergency brush removal and flooding their property to make it as fire resistant as possible. There is evidence of negligence in connection with the blaze that killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots and destroyed more than 120 homes. An investigation by the state Industrial Commission said that at the time of the fire the state Forestry Division had vacancies in the positions of both safety officer and the planning section chief. Marshall Krotenberg, the lead investigator for the commission's Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said that meant no one was available to pay attention primarily to the safety of the firefighters versus simply battling the blaze. Commission members also said there was a failure to properly plan how to battle the blaze, especially after initial efforts at suppression failed. Abney had his own list of issues. "The management was absolutely abysmal,'' he said. "In fact, one of the managers of the aerial effort left and went home,'' Abney said, leaving a subordinate in charge. "The aerial effort collapsed at that point.'' What makes all that relevant, Abney argued in his legal papers, is that the state did make some efforts to protect the community. That, he said, means the homeowners had some legal right to assume they would do the job correctly. His lawsuit sought to present all that to a jury. But the case never got that far. Appellate Judge Kent Cattani, writing an extensive ruling earlier this year for the court of appeals, said all of Abney's arguments about state incompetence, even if true, are legally irrelevant. The judge said anything the state forester did was within his discretion for how best to protect state lands and not designed to benefit and protect the property of the residents. So they had no right to rely on the state to protect them. Abney had no better luck with his claim that the state, which owns the land where the fire started, was responsible for ensuring that it did not spread. Cattani said there might be some claim if the state had started the fire or created artificial conditions that resulted in the fire starting or spreading. But he said there was no liability because the evidence was that the fire "arose from a natural cause on land that remained unused and in natural condition.'' It was that ruling which the Supreme Court, with its new order, left undisturbed. And that made the published decision of the appellate court the law in Arizona. Abney said that's not a good result. "The state apparently can't be held liable, no matter how reckless, negligent or unprofessional it may be,'' he said. "The state has an endless 'get-out-of-jail card,'' he said of the ruling. "And that's not the way things should be.'' Abney, who represented the mother of Grant McKee, one of the firefighters killed in the blaze in a separate lawsuit, stressed that he was not being critical of the people on the ground trying to contain it. "You have an incredible group of very talented, dedicated people who want to combat these wildfires, who want to protect the communities in these areas,'' he said. "They just need good leadership.'' But Abney had no better luck with that lawsuit. A separate panel of the Court of Appeals said that McKee and his colleagues, who were employees of the city of Prescott, were effectively working that day as employees of the state. And workers who are killed on the job are generally not entitled to sue their employer but instead get only the benefits provided under the state's workers' compensation system, meaning a set percentage of what they were earning. The only exception is in cases of "willful misconduct.'' But the appellate judges said Marcia McKee presented no evidence that the action of the state that day fit that definition. Tara Reid is angry and frustrated that people constantly question her weight. 'I don't fluctuate. This is just who I am, this is my natural weight and people need to leave me alone,' an emotional Tara Reid exclusively tells DailyMailTV after a photo of the star in a mini dress set off a firestorm online. The star says she weighs 95 pounds and is 'not anorexic.' She is speaking out against body shamers and says it is especially difficult for her ailing mother to read these accusations online. Actor Kevin Spacey reacted to this weekend's allegations of sexual assault by Anthony Rapp by apologizing and announcing that he is gay. Anthony told BuzzFeed News he was at a party in 1986 as a 14-year-old actor when the star carried him to a bed before 'laying down on top of me.' The Oscar winner issued a statement today saying that while he doesn't remember the incident, he apologizes for the 'deeply inappropriate drunken behavior.' He also came out, drawing harsh backlash from Rose McGowan and other stars who say he is just trying to divert attention away from the accusations. Caylee Anthony's grandfather claims he has seen her ghost. He describes the child walking into his home to tap him on the forehead in an exclusive interview with Crime Watch Daily's Chris Hansen. See more in this preview of Chris' discussion with Caylee's grandparents, more than nine years after the two-year-old's remains were found near her home in Florida. They describe seeing their granddaughter in their home and weigh in on a rumored Casey Anthony reality show with OJ Simpson. Selena Gomez's kidneys were failing when a close friend saw her struggling to open a water bottle and offered to help. Miraculously she was a match as a kidney donor. Selena recounts her incredible journey to good health, including harrowing surgeries and a fight with lupus, on Good Morning America. Hands up if you feel stressed, exhausted and lacking in energy. Chances are thats most of us: stress is the modern epidemic making us feel lacklustre, lowering our libidos and making us fat. One alarming recent survey revealed that stressed women office workers ate their way through 2,240 extra calories a week in snacks. The latest solution to stress? Adaptogens an unwieldy name for a group of plants that are so-called because they help the body adapt to stress and give it an energy boost. There are around 20 plants that qualify as adaptogens, a term coined in 1947 by a Russian pharmacologist who was investigating the stress-busting and energy-enhancing herbs that traditional Chinese and Indian Ayurvedic doctors had been using for centuries. Adaptogens have joined the list of natural ingredients able to relieve stress and boost energy. FEMAIL revealed the best sources of the plants (file image) They were once the preserve of hardcore medical herbalists, but are now big news on the wellness scene and becoming more mainstream by the day. Adaptogens such as rhodiola, maca and ashwagandha are popping up as key ingredients in everything from skincare to teabags, smoothie powders and supplements. As you might expect, theyve been popular in Los Angeles for a while: actress and wellness guru Gwyneth Paltrow reportedly buys hers from trendy Moon Juice, where they make kooky-sounding adaptogenic dusts to add to your morning smoothie. Some cafes in London now offer adaptogenic lattes, or you can sip adaptogenic tonics with names such as Perseverance (containing ashwagandha) or Patience (containing schisandra) at the newly launched, yummy mummy-friendly Yeotown Kitchen cafe in Londons Marylebone. Celebrity fitness trainer Rhian Stephenson offers adaptogenic smoothies containing maca at her hip fitness studio chain Psycle London, which counts Victoria Beckham and Liv Tyler among its clients. Theres a real buzz around adaptogens, but theyre not hippy dippy ingredients, says Rhian, whos also a nutritionist and naturopathic doctor. They are quite heavily researched, with studies showing how and why they work to reduce stress hormones in your body. According to GP and nutritionist Dr Sarah Brewer, they work by helping the body modify its stress response. She says: When youre under stress your adrenal glands are pumping out the hormone cortisol, which makes your heart race, constricts blood vessels and generally prepares your body to fight or flee the threat which might once have been a sabre-toothed tiger, but now is more likely to be chronic stress sitting at your computer. Jujube (pictured) also called Chinese dates can be snacked on throughout the day to reduce stress or blended into a smoothie (file image) When the threat was a tiger, the exercise involved in fleeing or fighting would reset your body back to normal, but with modern stress you dont burn off or use up the chemicals it produces. Thats where adaptogens come in they have a balancing effect and seem to help reset that stress response. Each adaptogen has a slightly different effect in addition to relieving stress, she says. Rhodiola gives you more energy as it helps the cells use oxygen more efficiently a study of doctors on night duty found it improved their ability to stay alert and think straight. Maca root and reishi mushroom lower blood pressure; in fact, in some studies reishi has been shown to have a greater effect than medication. A lot of these adaptogens can sound quite kooky and strange until you look at the evidence and theres excellent evidence for many of them, although most doctors dont know about it, says Dr Brewer. To qualify as an adaptogen the plant has to be non-toxic, so they are generally safe to take, although some shouldnt be used in pregnancy. But if you are taking other medication you should always check with your doctor or pharmacist first, adds Dr Brewer. Maca (pictured) can also be added to a smoothie to boost energy and sex life (file image) Nutritional therapist Henrietta Norton uses adaptogens in 60 per cent of her award-winning Wild Nutrition vitamin and mineral supplements. Her favourite is the Indian herb, ashwagandha. Research has shown it can reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol by an average of 27.9 per cent, and causes a lowering of depression and anxiety scores of more than 70 per cent over eight weeks, she says. It would be difficult to find any other nutrient to have that dramatic an effect. Read on to find out what else you should try . . . SMOOTHIE TO BOOST YOUR SEX LIFE WHAT IS IT: Naomis Kitchen I Am Energised adaptogenic powder, (30 for 300g, contains 30 servings, naomis.kitchen and Selfridges). Among other things it contains six adaptogens: ashwagandha, rhodiola, panax ginseng, maca, muira puama, and suma root. HOW DO YOU TAKE IT: Add one heaped tablespoon to juices, smoothies or simply water and shake vigorously. Consume up to two doses a day. WHAT DOES IT PROMISE: To strengthen the adrenal glands and immune system, and provide an energy boost. The highest concentrations of adaptogens are ashwagandha with 1.2g per serving and maca with 0.8g. Holy Basil (pictured) can be consumed as a tea for treating anxiety (file image) DR BREWER SAYS: This includes key adaptogens plus antioxidant sources such as cacao and matcha. This is one I would want to try myself. It includes muira puama, which my own published research suggests may improve libido. SPRAY TO SOOTHE YOUR SKIN WHAT IS IT: Sjal Mineral Kalla Energy Tonic (47 for 150ml, spacenk.com). Contains rhodiola, Siberian ginseng, maral root. HOW DO YOU TAKE IT: Spray on to the face after cleansing in the morning and evening, or use as a mist any time. WHAT DOES IT PROMISE: To combat skin stress caused by the weather and to energise the skin; it also claims to work at a deeper cellular level to boost the skins metabolism. DR BREWER SAYS: While there is some evidence that rhodiola extracts can penetrate through the skin, I doubt you would absorb much from a quick watery spritz. Its expensive, too. Id prefer to invest my money in an oral supplement. SNACK AWAY YOUR STRESS WHAT IS IT: Dried jujube (1.99 for 40g, abakusfoods.com). Jujube are chewy red fruits, also called Chinese dates, which have been used for thousands of years to reduce anxiety and insomnia. HOW DO YOU TAKE IT: Eat as a snack or add to breakfast porridge or smoothies. Holy basil (pictured) also promises to improve the symptoms of stress on the bowels (IBS) (file image) WHAT DOES IT PROMISE: To lift mood, calm the mind, improve sleep and boost immunity. DR BREWER SAYS: Jujube are energising, taste great and are a good source of antioxidant polyphenols and soluble fibre. Clinical trials suggest jujube may improve cholesterol levels, sleep and reduce constipation. As a snack, theyre better than a bag of crisps, but you would have to eat them every day for a sustained benefit. TREAT ANXIETY WITH TEA WHAT IS IT: Three Tulsi tea by Pukka (2.49 for 20 sachets, Ocado, pukkaherbs.com). Each teabag contains 1.8g of tulsi (holy basil), 0.8g of purple tulsi, 0.8g of green tulsi and 0.2g of lemon tulsi leaf. HOW DO YOU TAKE IT: Mix with boiling water and steep for up to 15 minutes. WHAT DOES IT PROMISE: Purple tulsi enhances mental clarity in times of stress and green tulsi helps stress-related irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Rhodiola Roses (pictured) can help to treat burn out and relieve fatigue (file image) DR BREWER SAYS: Holy basil, or tulsi, is a powerful medicinal herb used to improve glucose control, lower blood pressure and relieve anxiety. Clinical trials show it can boost the percentage and activity of cells which fight infection. Tulsi is traditionally taken as an infusion, or tea, and this blend is a cost effective way to try it. PEP UP WITH A HERBAL PILL WHAT IS IT: Vitano Rhodiola tablets, Schwabe Pharma (9.90 for 30, schwabepharma.co.uk). Each tablet contains 200mg of rhodiola rosea extract. HOW DO YOU TAKE IT: Take one tablet twice a day, 30 minutes before food. WHAT DOES IT PROMISE: To relieve symptoms of stress, fatigue and mild anxiety. DR BREWERS VIEW: Rhodiola is one of the most effective adaptogens for relieving stress and anxiety, and is also energising. I take it myself to prevent burnout during busy times. I like the fact that this herbal medicine is regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to ensure pharmaceutical quality. A 19-year-old woman has opened up about her near-death ordeal after she was struck down with meningococcal. Jessica Scuteri, from Victoria, started experiencing flu-like symptoms, including dizzy spells and vomiting, at the age of 18 in June last year. The teenager - who was hours from death - was rushed to hospital where she was placed in a coma after being diagnosed with the life-threatening disease. Young woman Jessica Scuteri (pictured with her parents) miraculously woke from a coma after she contracted the life-threatening meningococcal disease The now 19-year-old started experiencing flu-like symptoms, including vomiting, last year 'I remember vaguely how it all started,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'A few days prior to being rushed to hospital, I had the flu-like symptoms. Before I was dizzy, I felt at ease the whole day but then I started vomiting that night.' As her condition deteriorated, Jessica said she realised something wasn't right when she started shivering after waking up several times. 'I had severe back pain swell and went to bed. I woke up a few hours later and my feet and hands were frozen - I couldn't feel them,' she said. Her mother (left) noticed something wasn't right when her then 18-year-old daughter fell ill More than a year on, Jessica has recovered as she praised the paramedics who saved her life WHAT IS MENINGOCOCCAL? Meningococcal disease is an acute bacterial infection that can cause death within hours if not recognised and treated in time. Common symptoms include backache, fever, vomiting, lack of energy, tiredness or drowsiness, confusion or disorientation, dizziness and irritability or agitation. Source: Meningococcal Australia Advertisement 'I tried to walk to the kitchen to get some water as I was dehydrated and my mum heard me. I was telling her random things that didn't even make sense and she put me back to bed but knew something wasn't right. 'An hour later I got up again trying to walk to my mum. I told her I was cold but I was sweating but she put me in the shower to try and warm me up. 'She said that my pupils weren't dilating from the light so she knew something was wrong.' Appearing on 7 News, her mother said her daughter's condition rapidly declined before she was taken to hospital. 'Her liver and kidneys had already shut down,' her mother said. Against all odds, the young woman miraculously woke from her month-long coma - as she had to relearn how to walk again. And more than 12 months on, Jessica has since recovered as she praised the paramedics who saved her life. 'They basically saved my life, and it was really important for me - and I guess it closes the chapter,' she said. At some point over the past few weeks, without consciously thinking about it, I started dressing like my mother did during the Seventies. As I type, I am wearing a gorgeous splashy print dress by my favourite, Essentiel Antwerp (background colour: terracotta) with knee-high boots in a shade that is probably best described as conker. My prized tan leather Mulberry saddle bag is also slung on the back of my chair . . . Starting to notice a theme here? Uh-huh. Brown. Frankly, I didnt think I wore brown (grey marl, pale blush, navy and off-white have been my default neutrals for as long as I remember); but it turns out that I do. Shades of chocolate, caramel, cinder toffee and steady yourself now rust were simply all over the autumn/winter fashion runways. A milk chocolate leather trench at Louis Vuitton set the tone and I particularly adored the super-sized take on classic country casual knits and corduroys which featured at Mulberry. This week Sarah Bailey takes brown fashion inspiration from Louis Vuitton and the seventies. Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (pictured) styled a chocolate coat for a casual look Over in Milan, the MaxMara autumn/winter collection was all about luxurious head-to-toe tonal dressing in a symphony of expensive-looking chocolatey tones. There were floor-sweeping textured teddy bear coats, grown-up cowl-neck sweaters and slacks, which stole many an admiring glance from the crowds. On the High Street, Topshop has embraced the brown aesthetic with a fabulous boucle slouch coat in a turmeric shade (85, topshop.com). For the bold there is even a maxi-length, shiny brown mac which is much nicer than it might sound, I promise you (140, topshop.com). For those who, like me, are still slightly in denial about the whole brown is back thing and dont quite believe that earthy tones are for them, adding a little bit at a time is the ideal way to be a part of the trend. A tan belt with a logo buckle on this seasons ubiquitous long floral dress will give it a little added edge. Or consider swapping your classic, wear-with-everything black ankle boot for a shiny conker brown. Theres a truly fabulous pair in Marks and Spencers Autograph collection (79, marksandspencer.com). Ive also noticed that there are a lot of brown leather skirts in stores at the moment doubtless inspired by JW Andersons wondrous creations at Loewe. BROWN: THE RULES Brown includes shades from mustard to mulberry, so always pick what suits you best. Be careful with brown leather it can very easily stray into fancy dress territory. Embrace the Seventies trend by coupling brown shades with splashy prints. If you're nervous then you can start with a pair of glossy, conker-brown ankle boots. Advertisement If you feel tempted to try it, then be sure to keep the hemline at the knee. Pair the skirt with a lovely chunky ski sweater to soften the effect and keep the look modern. On a personal note, Im currently coveting the gorgeous ruffled Virginia blouse in the new Boden Icons collection in sumptuous black and praline-striped silk (170, boden.co.uk). Its inspired by the interior of an English stately home and would be perfect worn with slightly flared blue denim jeans and a pair of chunky platform sandals. As scholars of Seventies fashion will tell you, it was the back-to-nature movement that inspired the decades earthy palette of mustard, olive, mouse, peat and mulberry. When I interviewed Biba founder Barbara Hulanicki a couple of years ago she explained that her favoured brooding colourways (a chocolate brown jersey evening dress is quintessentially Biba) were inspired by the Thirties wardrobe of the austere aunt she and her mother lived with after moving to the UK from Poland. It was marrying those moody hues with the glam-rock bohemia of Seventies London that created Bibas famous sexy allure. Of course, we should also thank Biba for popularising dark, chocolatey-plum lipsticks, which are once again back in fashion but be warned, they tend to flatter the young best. As ever, when a retro trend is in the air, the key is to avoid being too literal. If you try on a Caramac-coloured leather jacket and think Starsky & Hutch, its probably best to step away. Of course, there are those of us who are never going to truly love brown. Ill always be more seduced by the candied chestnut and burgundy options that are in the shops right now, which capture a similar mood. Take a look at COS for the perfect merino wool polo neck (55, cosstores.com) and slim twill trousers (59) in a lovely burgundy. They work fabulously together, but with tone-on-tone dressing always make sure you try before you buy. Youre looking for a fit that skims the body rather than sausaging it in. In general, your muse should be Anjelica Huston stepping out with Jack Nicholson in a beautiful burgundy silk shirt and a matching Halston trouser suit. Or, alternatively, my mum in the Seventies. SARAH BAILEY is Editorial Director of Red Hugh Bonneville, who was the morally upright Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey, was joined by two of his co-stars from the hit ITV drama at a private screening of Paddington 2 this weekend. Michelle Dockery, who played his daughter, Lady Mary, and Allen Leech, his Downton son-in-law Tom Branson, attended the West End screening of the film, in which Bonneville is the bears keeper, Mr Brown. Happily, Hugh and chums werent joined in louche Soho by beastly Harvey Weinstein, whose company distributes the film. Hugh Bonneville (right), who was the morally upright Earl of Grantham in Downton Abbey, was joined by co-stars Michelle Dockery (centre) and Allen Leech (left) from the hit ITV drama at a private screening of Paddington 2 this weekend Former University Challenge host Bamber Gascoigne has discovered what may prove the perfect exhibit for Halloween at West Horsley Place, the dilapidated stately home he inherited from his great-aunt, Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe, in 2014. Conservation experts found what seems to be an executioners axe among debris in a derelict room. A previous owner of West Horsley, Henry Courtenay, was beheaded on Henry VIIIs orders, while another occupant, Elizabeth Raleigh, widow of Sir Walter, kept her husbands severed head in a red leather bag during her four years in the house. Keira is in the pink for hubby's new pop video Keira Knightley was warned to stay away from rehearsals when her husband, James Righton, was in rock band Klaxons. However, now that Righton is launching himself as a solo artist, under the name Shock Machine, the Hollywood actress is lending him some of her stardust. Look familiar? I can disclose that Keira, who has a two-year-old daughter with Righton, appears in the video for his new song Let Her Love In I can disclose that Keira, who has a two-year-old daughter with Righton, appears in the video for his new song Let Her Love In shimmying in a pink sequinned dress and matching wig, with her face obscured by a mask. Considerably lower budget than she is used to, the footage, directed and edited by James, was shot on an iPhone in the South of France. Australian boutique lingerie chain, Honey Birdette, is known for its racy collections and risque campaigns. And true to their signature style, the label launched their new Christmas campaign with a bang at a wild office-party themed shoot at their Sydney headquarters. The eye-popping campaign features New York-based Australian model, Sarah Stephens and Norwegian beauty Nina Wedvich, who 'party the night away' alongside champagne towers, confetti cannons and attendees. But since it's launch, the company has been defending itself against claims the video and accompanying shoot is 'offensive' to women. Scroll down for video Australian boutique lingerie chain, Honey Birdette, is known for its racy collections and risque campaigns And true to their signature style, the label launched their new Christmas campaign with a bang at a wild office-party themed shoot at their Sydney headquarters Described as showcasing their 'raciest collections yet', the campaign includes alluring and playful images of the models donning lace lingerie and high-shine sheer foil pieces. The form-fitting pieces were inspired by the holidays in monochrome hues, red, gold and fuchsia and worn with stockings their hosiery range. The campaign video follows the models as they sip champagne, dance and party under hundreds of balloons alongside fellow scantily clad and suited up guests. The eye-popping campaign features New York-based Australian model, Sarah Stephens and Norwegian beauty Nina Wedvich, who 'party the night away' alongside champagne towers Described as showcasing their 'raciest collections yet', the campaign includes alluring and playful images of the models donning lace lingerie and high-shine sheer foil pieces Sarah was snapped atop a confetti canon as part of the campaign Throughout, the models donned an array of intricately designed and eye-popping pieces - from lace bodysuits and suspenders to ivory lace sets and black Shibari-inspired sets worth $300. Led by Founder and Managing Director Eloise Monaghan, the first boutique opened in 2006 with a unique offering of high-end lingerie and premium bedroom accessories. While they are proud to be the 'most talked about' lingerie brand in the country, it's not always positive, with the label constantly defending themselves against those who claim their campaigns are too provocative or 'offensive'. The form-fitting pieces were inspired by the holidays in monochrome hues, red, gold and fuchsia and worn with stockings their hosiery range The campaign video follows the models as they sip champagne, dance and party under hundreds of balloons alongside fellow scantily clad and suited up guests After this campaign was released on social media, the company was inundated with comments both from those who loved it and those who found it 'derogatory' 'The advertising is ignorant and honestly kind of stupid. It's pretty, fun and exciting, everyone looks like they're having a great time which is what i'm sure the point was. But to overlook the obvious issues was a serious mistake. the men are all fully dressed, really?' One critic wrote of the campaign on Instagram. 'This is some degrading s**t to women in the workplace. We are still fighting to close the wage gap, male co-workers already sexualise and dehumanise women in the workplace, patronising them for their looks and behaviours at work,' another added. 'Some women don't attend their work parties for fear of being sexually harassed. This is disgusting, but really not surprising TBH.' 'Some women don't attend their work parties for fear of being sexually harassed. This is disgusting, but really not surprising TBH,' a critic wrote Founder Eloise responded: 'There's a disturbing conservative theme out there but we will keep doing what we do! Women can embrace their sexuality without fear of assault. How ridiculous.' But many disagreed. 'LOVE this campaign you absolute goddess. Next time Im coming to the party. Thank you for empowering women to dress sexy without fear of consequences and to celebrate our badass bodies,' one hit back. Founder Eloise also responded: 'There's a disturbing conservative theme out there but we will keep doing what we do! Women can embrace their sexuality without fear of assault. How ridiculous.' 'LOVE this campaign you absolute goddess. Next time Im coming to the party. Thank you for empowering women to dress sexy without fear of consequences and to celebrate our badass bodies,' one hit back Led by Founder and Managing Director Eloise Monaghan, the first boutique opened in 2006 with a unique offering of high-end lingerie and premium bedroom accessories It's not the first time Honey Birdette has had to defend a campaign, with one of the ads from their 'Issy' campaign deemed 'highly sexual' and banned from stores after a flood of complaints. The image, which showed two women in lacy black lingerie, was reviewed by the Australian Ad Standards Bureau as it was one of seven ads displayed on digital billboards in stores and therefore visible to children in shopping centres. As a result it was found to be in breach of Section 2.4 of the Code which states that 'Advertising or Marketing Communications shall treat sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant audience'. It's not the first time Honey Birdette has had to defend a campaign, with one of the ads from their 'Issy' campaign deemed 'highly sexual' and banned from stores after a flood of complaints One of the ads (not pictured) from Honey Birdette's 'Issy' campaign was deemed 'highly sexual' and banned from stores after a flood of complaints The Ad Bureau said that the 'cut of the bras the women are wearing means that their nipples are visible through the lace'. 'Depiction of nipples in an image in a store window is not appropriate and does not treat the issue of sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant broad audience which would include children,' they wrote of the image. 'Overall the Board considered that the image entitled "Issy" did not treat the issue of sex, sexuality and nudity with sensitivity to the relevant audience.' As a result, the signage was changed. 'What's so threatening about a female nipple as opposed to a male nipple?' Ms Monaghan told FEMAIL Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at the time, Honey Birdette creator Eloise Monaghan said the image in question was 'beautiful' and they plan to simply 'keep on doing what we're doing'. We are here to empower women and we are going to continue to advertise lingerie. Eloise Monaghan 'What's so threatening about a female nipple as opposed to a male nipple?' Ms Monaghan told FEMAIL. 'This whole thing is a step backwards for society - this collection is our best-selling collection and the fastest selling collection ever and we sold 2,500 units within the first three hours. 'People have nipples, wow. It's not like there are tassles on them, they are covered and we faded them as much as possible but unfortunately we are a target.' 'People have nipples, wow. It's not like there are tassles on them, they are covered and we faded them as much as possible but unfortunately we are a target,' she said 'Yes, some parents did complain in addition to specific groups but I hardly imagine a four-year-old is walking past saying "look Mum there's a nipple, I'm offended,' Eloise (pictured) said Ms Monaghan hit back at any suggestion that the ads 'objectify' women. 'We are here to empower women and we are going to continue to advertise lingerie and empower women moving forward,' she said. 'Yes, some parents did complain in addition to specific groups but I hardly imagine a four-year-old is walking past saying "look Mum there's a nipple, I'm offended". 'I've even had leasing agents say they weren't comfortable with our store because it was too focused on female sexuality - that got me fired up and now we are going to start looking to launch in California as well. 'We need to wake up, it's frightening how conservative society is becoming. I will continue to fight for me and my team.' 'We need to wake up, it's frightening how conservative society is becoming. I will continue to fight for me and my team,' she said One complainant said the ad in question was not appropriate in shopping centres frequented by minors because 'it is pornography'. 'I complained to centre management and they said there was nothing they could do (not even get signs removed),' they wrote. 'This is not the first time I have seen posters like this on display in this shop. In fact last year my complaint for exactly the same reason was upheld. Why are they allowed to continue to expose minors to their inappropriate marketing? We should not be repeatedly subjected to this marketing ploy.' Another wrote: 'The images were highly sexual in nature and nipples were also visible on some images. This is displayed in a public mall and was visible to my children. The store attendant also said that it was an adult only shop and under 18s are not allowed in, but are allowed to view their images from the front of the store.' One complainant said the ad in question was not appropriate in shopping centres frequented by minors because 'it is pornography' In 2015, they were found to have breached the advertising code of ethics in a Christmas advertisement after complaints were made about the suggestive sexual violence in it In a response to the complaint on the Ad Standards Bureau, Honey Birdette said they are 'sensitive to the views' of customers and 'greatly appreciate' the feedback. 'Our stores are all about making women feel safe and sophisticated and are not overtly sexualised,' they wrote. 'I believe in increasing womens power in society. We are a chain store for women by women. 95% of our 140,000 plus customers are women. Please be assured that we put a lot of time and effort into ensuring that it is not offensive whilst also representative of our brand. It's been a dramatic few days in Spain as the Catalonia crisis gathered steam, culminating in the region's president fleeing to Brussels after prosecutors called for him to be charged with rebellion. It came after the Catalan parliament unilaterally declared independence on Friday in an audacious move in Barcelona, prompting Madrid to suspend the region's autonomy and impose direct rule. The furore has seen hundreds of thousands of both pro-independence campaigners and supporters of a unified Spain take to the streets in recent days, and on Monday Carles Puigdemont made a break for the border following the collapse of his separatist movement. But despite the political turmoil gripping the country, Spain's Queen Letizia was her usual composed self as she continued with her diary of engagements, starting with an appearance at a science awards ceremony in Valencia. Queen Letizia received a very affectionate greeting from elderly professor Santiago Grisolia as she arrived at the Jamie I awards on Monday The Queen of Spain was greeted with a kiss on the hand from an elderly professor, Santiago Grisolia, as she arrived at an awards ceremony in Valencia on Monday. Letizia, 45, looked charmed by the professor's gesture, beaming as she was introduced to the biochemist. The mother-of-two was accompanied by Valencia's Regional Government President, Ximo Puig and Valencia's Mayor, Joan Ribo. Her husband King Felipe VI was not with her, and is understood to have remained in Madrid. The former journalist showcased her flair for fashion in an elegant white skirt suit for her engagement today. The royal added a daring twist to her outfit in the form of a metallic waist cinching belt which she paired with matching silver stilettos. The mother-of-two was accompanied by Valencia's Regional Government President, Ximo Puig (left) and Valencia's Mayor, Joan Ribo (right) The former journalist showcased her flair for fashion in an elegant white skirt suit for her engagement today Letizia's engagement today comes after after the Catalan parliament unilaterally declared independence on Friday in an audacious move in Barcelona. Pictures: Campaigners clash with police during a pro-union protest On Monday Carles Puigdemont made a break for the border following the collapse of his separatist movement The Spanish queen opted to wear her hair straight veering away from the wavy styles she has been favouring of late. She opted for a soft makeup palette today, choosing peach tones to give her an elegant and feminine finish. Letizia attended the 29th edition of the Jaime I Awards, in the Spanish city of Valencia on Monday. The royal added a daring twist to her outfit in the form of a metallic waist cinching belt which she paired with matching silver stilettos Letizia has attended the awards in previous years but is normally accompanied by husband King Felipe VI who was absent from today's engagement The queen is no stranger to the awards, though in the past she has been joined at the event by King Felipe. The Valencian Government and the Valencian Foundation for Advanced Studies created the awards in 1989. The purpose of the annual awards is to bring together scientific and business entities for research and study to promote the studies and research developments in Spain. The King Jaime I Awards was created when King Juan Carlos was on the throne. There is no doubt that we're living in the age of a selfie, with Instagram-obsessed millennials able to share pictures with their followers at the click of a button. But, as these shocking snaps show, there are some images that should never have made it onto the internet. One social media user tossed caution to the wind when she decided to upload an intimate self-portrait from the privacy of her toilet cubicle, adding the hashtag #poo for good measure. While a pair of holidaymakers travelling on a place seemed unfazed when life-saving oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling, and decided it was the perfect moment to capture a new profile picture. From a 'potty' selfie to a bizarre supermarket snap, FEMAIL reveals the most tasteless selfies that should never have seen the light of day. She may have been attending hew nephew's funeral but that didn't stop this Facebook user from sharing a sultry selfie from inside the venue Who gave her a phone? Bizarrelt, this woman didn't let being handcuffed stop her from updating her Facebook followers Leaving her followers in no doubt as to her location, this Instagrammer added the hashtag #poo to her bizarre toilet selfie New profile picture? These plane passengers seemed unfazed despite their oxygen masks dropping from the ceiling There's nothing like a couple's portrait from inside a toilet cubicle to prove your love Despite their brush with the law, these two young women made the most of being banned from a carnival His loved one appeared to be at death's door but that didn't stop this Facebook user uploading a selfie from his hospital ward Hall of mirrors: Sitting on a latrine didn't put this social media user off from snapping a selfie Lawless: These two female friends couldn't resist snapping a selfie from inside a county jail One Los Angeles woman saw a trip to the toilet as the perfect opportunity to snap a selfie Luckily the woman changing in the background seems blissfully unaware that her two friends have captured her in their raunchy mirror selfie This woman may have been mourning her uncle but she didn't let that ruin her selfie The youngster in the background appeared to be having a meltdown but this woman didn't let that stop her from snapping a mirror selfie This woman made sure her friends didn't miss this important funeral announcement - by tagging some 28 of her Facebook friends Is nothing sacred? This woman appeared to be getting hot and heavy with her boyfriend but she couldn't resist capturing the moment in a Facebook post While her daughter was busy washing her hands, this woman took the opportunity to pose for a raunchy selfie This woman appeared to be at a funeral service when she boasted of having a 'great hair day' One Facebook user couldn't resist snapping a selfie next to a woman who appeared to be taking drugs This woman decided to share a snap from beside her uncle's gravestone on Facebook As terrified members of the public lay down with their hands above their heads, one passerby seized the opportunity to take a smiling selfie One of the UK's leading food critics has been branded a 'snob' after penning a withering review of a new J D Wetherspoons pub in Ramsgate. Marina O'Loughlin, who writes for the Sunday Times, sparked outrage on Twitter amongst fans of the cut-price pub chain after she mocked the food she was served at the Royal Victoria Pavilion in Ramsgate. The scathing review, published in the Sunday newspaper, suggested that the cocktails tasted like 'Calpol' and the peas of 'fag-ash'. Scroll down for video No convert: Marina O'Loughlin was far from impressed by the avocado at Wetherspoon O'Loughlin also hammered home her feelings on social media - including posting a gif of a rubbery-looking avocado on her Instagram page to her 25,000 followers. On Twitter, she wrote: 'Have you ever EATEN in a Wetherspoons? I now have. Oh. My. God.' And in the food critic's Table Talk column, a slot once ascribed to A A Gill, she wrote candidly of her experience at the Ramsgate pub, criticising everything from the wait time (40 minutes) to the high-calorie meals on offer and the impact of the chain on local businesses. The piece, entitled 'Don't for God's sake order the food', talks of having to 'endure' cocktails that taste like the children's paracetamol brand Calpol, 'fag-ash peas' and chicken that 'has all the allure of impacted cardboard.' At the article's end, she describes the chain as 'like a giant cosmic hoover [sucking] a lot of life from nearby businesses.' After posting about her review, O'Loughlin followed up with an image of a rubbery-looking avocado, which was served with her quinoa and chicken salad On social media, many bemoaned that they couldn't read the article because of The Times paywall and those who did find her words leapt to the pub chain's defence. @judeinlondon2 wrote: 'why are food critiques reviewing chain pubs like theyre Michelin starred restaurants?' @rhiannonlucyc added: 'We eat at Wetherspoons all the time. It's affordable, and they are great with my autistic brother.' And @signsofrevolt simply branded the critic a 'snob'. O'Loughlin did have a small army of supporters too, with many thanking her for saving them from a potential visit to the pub chain. @Philippa_Perry wrote: 'Was just saying I'd like to try a Wetherspoon. Thank god for you and your sacrifice. Lucky save.' A representative for Wetherspoons said of the piece: 'She is a reviewer and is entitled to say what she wants.' Ashley Judd has stood up against sexual harassers, and she wants others to feel comfortable doing the same. The actress, 49, showed in a new video how she stands up to abusers while they're acting inappropriately, by using specific words and gestures to convey that their conduct is unwanted. Judd, who is one of 60 women who have accused the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, also shared certain sentences people can use when confronting someone. Scroll down for video Useful: Ashley Judd, 49, showed in a new video how she stands up to abusers while they're acting inappropriately, by using specific words and gestures Words: Judd, who is one of 60 women who have accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment, also shared certain sentences people can use when confronting someone Showing: 'I'm walking down the street with a girlfriend and I get heckled and I go, "Inappropriate and unwelcome!" ' she said, turning in the direction of the supposed harasser 'Inappropriate and unwelcome is probably my most favorite way of disrupting harassment as it's happening,' she told Teen Vogue in a new video. 'I'm walking down the street with a girlfriend and I get heckled and I go, "Inappropriate and unwelcome!" and keep walking,' she added, raising her voice and turning back in the direction of the supposed harasser. The actress then showed how raising her hand in front of her can send a clear sign that a certain behavior needs to stop. 'This is another really great way, just a physical gesture of stop,' she explained, demonstrating the move. Judd has accused Weinstein of harassing her in 1996 at the Peninsula Beverly Hills, where he invited her for what was supposed to be a business breakfast. Weinstein, according to Judd, sent her into his hotel room. There, she said, he asked if he could give her a massage, or if she would watch him shower. 'It's like, no, you may not,' she recalled in the video. 'I don't know how I had the moxie to stand there and say, "No, no. Uh, no. No." ' The actress then explained that she and her friends have now practiced speaking up 'when the stakes aren't high'. Message: The actress then showed how raising her hand in front of her can send a clear sign that a certain behavior needs to stop Demonstrating: Judd showed how she reacts when she's walking down the street and someone starts heckling her, prompting her to put a stop to that behavior Speaking out: The actress has accused Weinstein (pictured with her in 1997) of sending her to her hotel room in 1996 before asking if he could massage her or if she would watch him shower She demonstrated how other people can stand up to harassers in other contexts, telling the camera: 'I'm uncomfortable with that kind of language', 'I'm actually a student here, I'm not your sweetheart', or, 'I have a hunch you wouldn't say that to one of the guy students, and so I really need for you not to say that to me.' Judd further showed how to address a potential abuser, saying: 'You may not know that what you're doing feels inappropriate, but I need to let you know that you've got to stop' and 'If you could hear yourself, I think you, yourself might be uncomfortable with the way that you're speaking to me right now.' In a shocking revelation, the actress recounted how a boy she was going out with, to whom she had recounted the same incident with Weinstein, shamed her for the way she reacted. The boy, whom she didn't name, took issue with part of Judd's reply to Weinstein, which she said involved telling the producer that once she won an Oscar for a movie produced by his company Miramax, she would let him approach her, 'which of course I didn't mean', she added in the video. 'He thought that was beneath me,' Judd added about the boy, 'or I should have been stronger. I internalized that and that was the first time I felt any shame whatsoever around what had happened. The perpetrator is shameless, and they put their shame on the victim.' She urged others to put the shame 'back where it belongs, which is on the perpetrator, and on the society that enables it'. Dozens of A-listers, journalists and budding actresses have spoken out against Weinstein throughout the month, including Lupita Nyong'o, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Lea Seydoux, and Asia Argento. The producer has been fired by his namesake company. The Prince of Wales greeted the Duchess of Cornwall with a tender kiss after touching down in Singapore for the start of an 11-day trip to south-east Asia and India. The royals, who looked every inch the loved-up couple, arrived separately on Monday after Camilla returned from a private holiday, with Charles flying in on the RAF Voyager flight. It was a rare display of affection for the couple, who have been spotted kissing in public on just two occasions; at a Somerset House reception in 2001, before their marriage, and at a polo match in 2005. The pair are touring the region at the request of the Government in a trip billed as an important event in the run up to next year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London. The Duchess of Cornwall, who has been holidaying privately ahead of the trip, joined her husband to tour Malaysia, neighbouring Brunei and finally the Indian capital New Delhi. Together at last: Prince Charles greeted the Duchess of Cornwall with a tender kiss after touching down in Singapore for the start of an 11-day trip to south-east Asia and India Rare: The pair are spotted sharing a platonic kiss at a charity event in 2001 - four years before they tied the knot Scott Furssedonn-Wood, the Prince's deputy private secretary for foreign and Commonwealth affairs, highlighted the importance of the official tour when it was announced earlier this month The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall have arrived for a royal visit to Singapore before travelling to Malaysia and India Prince Charles and Camilla attend the handing over the the 2018 Commonwealth Games baton In a rare public display of affection, Charles was seen gently placing his hand on Camilla's arm Prince Charles and wife Camilla pose with athletes in Singapore He said the royal couple 'will undertake nearly 50 engagements that showcase the breadth and depth of the United Kingdom's relationship with these key Commonwealth partners in advance of a Commonwealth summit in London next April'. Mr Furssedonn-Wood added: 'The visit will highlight shared priorities such as celebrating community, championing cultural diversity and business innovation. 'There will also be a particular focus on education and youth opportunity, and on sustainability and conservation.' Charles, who has travelled overseas to attend CHOGM and opened the event in 2013, is likely to play some part in the gathering of world leaders next April. Team Singapore athletes sharing a joke with Prince Charles The royals met Team Singapore athletes during the first engagement of their 11-day trip to south-east Asia and India The royals were introduced to athletes who will take part in the 21st Commonwealth Games The visit is designed to highlight's the UK's relationship with Commonwealth partners in advance of a Commonwealth summit in London next April Highlights of the visit will see the royal couple welcomed as guests of honour at a Gala Dinner celebrating 60 years of Malaysian independence. On the Island of Borneo, where they will meet members of the state of Sarawak's diverse indigenous communities, Charles will see first-hand the work being done to preserve the region's biodiversity and to protect some its most endangered species such as orangutans. And the prince will celebrate Singapore's cultural and religious diversity and meet representatives of British companies working in Singapore. The tour of Singapore will began on Monday evening when the heir to the throne arrived in the voyager ministerial jet. The couple are on a very busy 11-day tour, which will involve 50 engagements Despite the long journey, the couple looked fresh and in great form during their first engagement The Prince accepted the 21st Commonwealth Games baton on behalf of his mother the Queen A group of women have opened up about being sexually assaulted and harassed as part of the powerful social media campaign 'Me Too', which has prompted millions to break their silence about the abuse they have faced. Among them, Amanda Crone, 29, a stay-at-home mother of two young children, realized she needed to have a conversation with her husband after reading a painful series of 'Me Too' stories online. She put on a movie for her kids and went upstairs to the bedroom of her Hanover, Pennsylvania, home to tell him about being sexually assaulted nine years ago, before they had met. Daily occurrences: Jill Marklin, 40, posed for a Me Too portrait in Detroit, Michigan, on Sunday. 'I was really lucky, if you want to call it lucky, that I never experienced rape, never experienced anything that violent,' she said. 'But it's everyday fear, walking in the streets, being called at, not wanting to be called at. I've had different guys, just being out, trying to force me to dance with them, to touch them. I've had men call me a bitch or I had one man stomp on my foot in LA when I said I didn't want to be around him, those are violent.' Strength: Ashleigh Strange, 29, said: 'When I first saw the hashtags I didn't think that it applied to me, because I realize now that it's easy to ignore when it's happening to others, and it's almost easier to ignore when it's happening to you, because it's just something that you don't think that you're big enough, you don't think you're strong enough. It's weird to say that having a hashtag behind you gives you strength but it does; it's weird but it does.' Opening up: Laura Chapman, 40, said: 'I have been assaulted by men from a very young age and my Me Too story is almost my entire life up until about 30 and then I started aging out of it. I feel like if we all talk about it, that's how we can end it. The voice gives us power.' Important: Siyobin Blanco, 23, was sexually abused as a child and 'all the way growing up'. 'It took me a really long time to recognize that so when I saw this campaign, I thought that it was really important that other people know that that's something that exists with children as well, so people can learn to recognize the signs and recognize it at a young age,' she said Relieved: Brenda Siegel, 40, recently opened up about having a 'particularly difficult and aggressive' Me Too experience through her relationship with her son's father. 'I never really spoke out about it until two weeks ago and I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to not be holding that inside my body anymore,' she said United: Samantha Hanahentzen, 17, saw the Me Too hashtag while coming to terms with her own sexual assault. 'It happened when I was in middle school by one of my teachers. It took me a while to come forward with what had happened to me and then when I went to the administration I was told I didn't have enough evidence to prove anything and I should just keep quiet about it because I and the school could be sued for slander if I went public with my experience,' she said. For Samantha, the Me Too campaign became 'a way to have a voice, and it was a way for me to see that I'm not the only one that has gone through this and that women all around the world have all experienced the same thing'. 'It was scary and brought everything back,' Crone said with a sigh. She had worried about his reaction, in part because he knew one of the men who had assaulted her a decade earlier. 'But it just felt like it was time.' Three weeks after allegations of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein's predatory sexual behavior moved women around the world to use the hashtag #MeToo to share their own stories of abuse on social media, more than 20 women contacted by Reuters say they are still grappling with the fallout. While the prevalence of sexual harassment and abuse fueled a raging public debate, the 'Me Too' movement also sparked a series of difficult and revelatory private conversations for some women with their spouses, partners and family members. Charlotte Kirk, 23, felt compelled to tell her mother about a recent incident when a close friend's boyfriend groped her without consent. She was surprised by the reaction. 'Her response was basically, 'Believe it or not, this does't get better even after you're married and have three kids.' She had been in the exact same position before, too,' said Kirk, a medical research assistant in Boston. Support: Jenna Kreider, 24, was sexually assaulted twice in college; once by a boyfriend, and once by a friend. 'It wasn't something that I really talked about,' she said. 'I will talk about it if it's something people ask about but I'm generally not open with it. This Me Too campaign really helped me to vocalize that with other people who I know have also gone through the same experience which is really great' Authority: Jennifer Childs, 39, was sexually harassed by her boss when she was 30. 'He was feeling me up in the car without my consent and it was one of those moments where I chose to speak up and it was really hard,' she said. 'I remember going to my female boss at the company and telling her about it and the only thing that they managed to do is that they took me off his team and then she proceeded to tell me that I was stupid for putting myself in that situation. Three years later he harassed somebody else and because there was a file they fired him' Helping: April Slusser, 24, said: 'My Me Too experience prompted me to get involved in local organizations to help disenfranchised women who have been sexually assaulted or victims of human trafficking or domestic violence' Message: Theresa Joy, 39, sees the Me Too movement as a way for women to come together and empower one another. 'I think it's changing the entire future for women that the younger generation are seeing this and saying "Wait. That guy shouldn't be talking to me like that. I'm not going to let that happen to me in the club. He shouldn't be touching me in this way," ' she said. 'My daughter is 19 and I'm proud of what's happening with the Me Too movement because I feel that it's going to make her safer and stronger. Just to have that on a huge scale right now, that it's not okay to be harassed and raped and abused' Reckoning: Maya Helferty, 25, has realized that not everyone knows how common harassment and assault are. 'I've always been aware that most women, if not all, and tons of other people experience sexual harassment and assault,' she said. 'I've always been really open that I've had those experiences throughout my life. But I didn't realize how many other people didn't realize and were not aware that there was such a large community of us' Reilly Downes, 28, had a talk with her father after he saw her 'Me Too' post about being assaulted and harassed. 'I didnt go straight into detail about my storyjust kind of made it evident that I have experienced that as a woman,' said Downes, a dance teacher in Amarillo, Texas. 'Of course dads want to protect you like nobody's business, so his response was a little bit more aggressive, angry.' Her father, Kevin Downes, said 'no dad ever wants to hear these things.' Weinstein, accused by a number of women of sexual harassment and assault in incidents dating back to the 1980s, has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone. For some women, the outrage over the Weinstein allegations was heightened by the election of President Donald Trump, who bragged on a decade-old 'Access Hollywood' outtake that surfaced during last year's campaign about kissing and touching women because 'when you are a star, they let you do it'. The Trump tape followed a string of harassment and assault cases involving well-known and powerful men, including comedian Bill Cosby, who denied sexual assault allegations by dozens of women. Brave: Kadi McDonald, 30, posed wearing a 'Rose's Army' scarf, in support of actress Rose McGowan. 'I have been blessed with the courage to talk about my experiences and be able to talk about them and this campaign was really awesome to help others do that,' she said. 'The recognition from family and friends that it's happening to people that they love; it's happening to everyone. I'm the most basic person you'll ever meet and so to have something so atrocious occur is very surprising for people' Justice: Nancy Stalnaker, 35, said: 'I think it is fantastic that women are deciding that the people who deserve the shame are not the victims of sexual assault but the perpetrators of sexual assault. The Me Too campaign has really helped people to feel that they are not alone' Information: Heather Latzko, 22, wishes others would know more about consent. 'I want to remind everyone that rape is not the only form of sexual assault and just because you're dating them or you're married to them does not mean that it is not sexual assault,' she said Evolving: Pam Akerstrom, 63, explained how conversations seem to be evolving when it comes to sexual assault and harassment. 'I spent 20 years not telling anyone about it and I'm glad that there's an opportunity for people to speak today,' she said Trump's subsequent victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, the first woman presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party, was a 'wake-up call' for many women, said Karin Roland of the women's advocacy group UltraViolet. To remind people of the 'Access Hollywood' tape, UltraViolet parked a large screen on the Mall near the Washington Monument recently to play the tape repeatedly for 12 hours on the one-year anniversary of its release. Trump apologized last year for his 'Access Hollywood' comments, which he called 'locker room talk'. He told reporters two weeks ago that allegations of sexual assault and misconduct leveled at him before the election by several women were 'made-up stuff'. Activist Tarana Burke first created the 'Me Too' campaign a decade ago to reach sexual assault victims in underprivileged communities. But it became a rallying cry after the Weinstein allegations, when actress Alyssa Milano urged women who had been victims of sexual assault and harassment to use it as a way to convey the scale of the problem. Opening up: Amanda Crone (left), 29, a mother of two young children, told her husband (right) about her own past sexual assault after reading a painful series of 'Me Too' stories online Sharing: Charlotte Kirk, 23, felt compelled to tell her mother about a recent incident when a close friend's boyfriend groped her without consent Necessary: Reilly Downes, a dance teacher in Amarillo, Texas, had a talk with her father after he saw her 'Me Too' post about being assaulted and harassed In a Reuters/Ipsos online poll of 1,832 people taken earlier this month, more than half of all adults said they had experienced an unwanted verbal or physical sexual advance. Of those, 11 per cent said they had posted a 'Me Too' status and 14 per cent had reposted or engaged in a 'Me Too' conversation without sharing a personal experience. Forty-four per cent said they had seen the campaign but not participated. Leona Waller, 25, a freelance writer in Berkeley, California, said she sat up in bed to prepare her 'Me Too' post as her boyfriend slept next to her. She had never directly told him about a sexual assault in college 'when no didn't mean no' to her attacker. 'I actually handed him my phone and showed him the full post that I had written,' she said. 'He just hugged me. It was a moment.' But sometimes those conversations are just too painful to have. A father from Alabama contacted through social media, who asked that his name not be used because of the sensitivity of the subject, said he learned his 22-year-old daughter had been raped after the 'Me Too' movement inspired her to tell his wife about it. He said he is unsure what to say to her about it. 'I know of nothing that I could say that would be comforting, other than, 'I love you, and you have nothing to be ashamed of. This is not your fault,' ' he said. Prince William looked dapper in a navy suit on the red carpet at the Pride Of Britain Awards Prince William paid tribute to the courageous Grenfell Tower firefighter heroes at the Pride of Britain Awards. The Duke of Cambridge praised the crews who put their lives at risk to save residents trapped in the devastating blaze in west London. Presenting the This Morning Emergency Services Award to the firefighters, He said: 'Many people forget the daily grind you go through on a daily basis.' The Prince also presented a special recognition award to the community around Grenfell Tower. Alongside the Queen, William visited survivors of the inferno days after the tragedy on June 14. The royals met volunteers, local residents and community representatives while visiting an emergency shelter. During an emotional speech, he said: 'Thank you for the hard work you've all done, the community spirit you've shown, the coming together as you did so quickly after Grenfell. 'I'm just so sorry that such an awful event ever occurred.' He added: 'I can only imagine how horrendous and difficult it has been for you all.' William also joined muscian Ed Sheeran in a presentation to emergency responders at the Manchester bombing in May. He said: 'I genuinely don't know how you see some of the things you see and I don't understand how difficult it must have been for you.' He added: 'You take those scars home with you mentally and yet you come back the next day and you still do fantastic work.' Members of the Grenfell Tower community receive a special recognition award from Prince William at the Pride of Britain Awards this evening Later in the ceremony, Prime Minister Theresa May, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn and leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Vince Cable jointly took to the stage to mark the outstanding heroism of Pc Keith Palmer, who gave his life protecting parliament during the London Bridge terror attack in March. Mrs May said it was 'fitting' that Pc Palmer was the first person to receive a posthumous Pride of Britain Award for outstanding bravery, as he gave his life to protect others. She said: 'As he stood in defence of parliament, facing down and tackling that evil terrorist unarmed, he stood for Britain, he gave his life for Britain, he was quite simply the pride of Britain.' Prime Minister Theresa May, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn and leader of the Liberal Democrats Sir Vince Cable jointly took to the stage to mark the outstanding heroism of Pc Keith Palmer As well as honouring the 'unsung heroes' of the Manchester bombing and Grenfell Tower, Prince William also chatted at a pre-party reception was five-year-old Suzie McCash. Suzie saved her mother's life by phoning 999 and describing her symptoms to emergency responders when she collapsed and her breathing stopped. The youngster was the recipient of a Child Of Courage award and was just four when she made the life-saving call. The Prince said he had 'no idea' what his own son, Prince George, would do in such circumstances. The Duke Of Cambridge also met with Suzie McCash, who won the Child Of Courage award He told Suzie: 'I have a four-year-old called George and if I gave him a telephone, I do not know what he would do.' He added: 'Do you know what, I'm going to have a conversation with my George about what to do because of what you've done - it's really important.' Teenage Child Of Courage award winner Moin Younis, who also spoke to William about his ambassador status for a hospice, said he thought the Duke was 'one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet'. Moin, 17, who suffers from a rare genetic disorder that causes his skin to blister and bleed from the slightest of knocks, was recognised for his fearlessly positive outlook and determination not to let his condition get in the way of his aspirations and charity work. The royal was seen taking a selfie with award winner Moins Younis, who won the Teenager Of Courage award He said: 'It was crazy, it was amazing. The fact that he knows so much about me and obviously the stuff I do - it means a lot.' Moin said he was also able to talk to the Prince about his shared love of Aston Villa football club and his thoughts about the current team. The Duke also met two of the police heroes from the London Bridge terrorist attack, Wayne Marques and Charlie Guenigault, who tackled knife-wielding jihadis during their murderous rampage in June. The officers said it had been 'an honour' to meet the Prince and hear how much he knew of their efforts. Mr Marques said: 'It's great to be honoured by the Royal Family and to actually speak to him like that.' Traditionally, the female rulers of the fashion world have come in two distinct types: Italian grande dames and sniffy French women all tight cigarette pants and rail-thin limbs. But at Paris Fashion Week this month, it was clear that theres a revolution afoot. And its leaders are not moody Gallic women, but sensible British mothers. There was fever-pitch excitement around the debut of Birmingham-born mum-of-three Clare Waight Keller as artistic director of Givenchy. The first woman to run the fashion house, shes a far cry from her prima donna male predecessors, such as the controversial John Galliano. Youll get no hissy fits with the quietly efficient Clare. Shes more focused on fitting in the school run between shoots. Other hot tickets in Paris were the Celine and Alexander McQueen shows also both headed by British mums, Phoebe Philo and Sarah Burton respectively. Stella McCartney, Fran Stringer at Pringle and Luella Bartley at Calvin Klein Jeans are just a few of the other home-grown females juggling family with making waves on the catwalk. So why has fashion fallen so in love with British mums? As well as having that vital dose of London cool most of them studied at Central Saint Martins Fashion College in the capital they are seemingly ego-free and adept at multi-tasking. Its a quality no doubt perfected by also having two, three or even four children. As Phoebe Philo says: Im a woman living in a very real world. I have responsibilities at work and home, dealing every day with trying to get everyones needs met. Perhaps more significantly, these Brits are well placed to know what real women want and what will tug, squeeze or be unflattering. In short, they are designing for busy working mothers like themselves a group with increasing amounts of disposable income to spend on fashion. So who are the cool, calm and practical mothers taking over the most desirable roles in couture with their seven-figure salaries, grooming budgets, clothing allowances, apartments and even school fees all part of the package and how do they balance the demands of children and the catwalk? Multi-tasker who ignores emails Clare Waight Keller runs Givenchy and juggles family life with three children - twins Charlotte and Amelia, 14, and Harrison, five Givenchy is Parisian couture meets Hollywood. Founder Hubert de Givenchy designed Audrey Hepburns little black dress in Breakfast At Tiffanys. Now 47-year-old Clare Waight Keller, daughter of a legal secretary and an engineer, has taken over. Low-key and charming, Waight Keller joined Calvin Klein on the strength of her graduate collection at St Martins, then was snapped up by Ralph Lauren before becoming creative director at Pringle and then Chloe. Having designed handbag after bestselling handbag, shes rumoured to have left because Chloe wouldnt agree to salary increases proportionate to sales. At her Givenchy show last month, Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore and Lily Collins all sat in the front row wearing her designs. FAMILY MATTERS: A mother of three twins Charlotte and Amelia, 14, and Harrison, five Clare is married to U.S. architect Philip Keller and lives a Eurostar chic lifestyle with a farmhouse in Cornwall and a cavernous apartment on Pariss Bois de Boulogne. She refuses to open emails until shes walked her son to school, saying: Hes always in a bouncy mood, talking about the birds in the park or the diggers or things like that. 'Its refreshing to have that innocent perspective in the morning and not to have to think about the day ahead. As for whether her job is made more difficult because of children, she says: A family grounds you. 'When I didnt have children, I was working all the time. Now I have to be more efficient, more resourceful, more exacting and focused. FASHION NOTES: She loves surfing and owns approximately 130 pairs of shoes. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: Chloe parent brand, Richemont, said the label had good sales growth under Clare. Indeed, it increased every one of the seven years she was there. Givenchy will hope for the same. SPHINX WHO SPURNED PARIS Phoebe Philo (centre), design queen at Celine, a label loved by fashion editors and a bastion of good taste, is mum to three children - Maya (pictured here with Kanye West), Marlowe and Arthur Vogue has called 44-year-old Phoebe Philo the oracle and Sphinx of fashion. Shes turned Celine from being rather so what into the ultimate status symbol. Raised in Harrow-on-the-Hill, daughter of a surveyor father and graphic artist mother, the Saint Martins graduate is her own best advert, all winsome cheekbones and androgynous tailoring. Best friend and assistant to Stella McCartney at Chloe, she took over when Stella left to launch her eponymous label. Philo later moved to Celine, where her clothes are as achingly minimal and expensive as fashion gets. FAMILY MATTERS: Married to Old Etonian artist Max Wigram, they live in North London with their children, Maya, 12, Marlowe, ten, and Arthur, five. When the Celine job offer came along, Phoebe would only take it if London, not Paris, could be her headquarters. I dont know whether that comes from having a family having something very important at home that needed to be protected, she reflected. It was not something I was going to gamble with. FASHION NOTES: Used to have a pierced nose and bleached hair, perhaps thanks to an early fascination with Boy George. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: Owner LVMH reports solid growth at Celine, and turnover is estimated at 600 million euros (505 million). KATES FAVOURITE KEEPS IT HUMBLE Design genius Sarah Burton also manages family life with husband David Burton and three daughters: twins Elizabeth and Cecilia, four, and Romilly, one Smiley blonde Sarah Burton, 43, was raised outside Manchester. The daughter of an accountant father and music teacher mother, she wore her brothers hand-me-downs as a child. She joined Alexander McQueen as an intern in 1996 from Saint Martins, quickly rising to become his right-hand woman. His suicide in 2010 propelled her into the driving seat. Somehow, she managed to build on his legacy, winning the ultimate commission designing the Duchess of Cambridges wedding dress in 2011. She has become Kates most cherished designer. FAMILY MATTERS: Married to photographer David Burton with three daughters: twins Elizabeth and Cecilia, four, and Romilly, one. Home is a rambling Victorian house in North London. Her normality is undoubtedly a strength attracting praise from Vogue editor Anna Wintour. [Sarah] is so humble, she says. A significant part of her success is that warmth. Sarah herself says: Having children gives you balance. Its only fashion. FASHION NOTES: Not a party girl, in spite of creating evening frocks for Lady Gaga, Michelle Obama, Gwyneth and the like. Prefers country walks and pub lunches. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: Owner Kering say McQueen stores delivered very strong growth in 2016, and singled Sarah out for praise. MACCAS GIRL HAS THE LAST LAUGH Stellar woman: Stella McCartney set up her own label in 2001 and she has four children It was always going to be hard to ignore Sir Paul McCartneys daughter. Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell and Yasmin Le Bon modelled in Stellas Saint Martins graduate show for free. After a youthful stint at Chloe, Stella set up her own label in 2001. Shes proved herself immensely versatile: somehow her eco-warrior sensibilities dont stop her designing flattering, grown-up clothes. Her success is one in the eye for Karl Lagerfeld, her predecessor at Chloe, who sniped after she got his job: I think they should have taken a big name. They did but in music, not fashion. FAMILY MATTERS: Married to Alasdhair Willis, creative director at Hunter wellies, they have two sons and two daughters: Miller, 12, Beckett, nine, Bailey, 11, and Reiley, seven, and live in Londons Notting Hill. Stella, 46, has said she will pull her children out of private school if they get too posh. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: Business is booming. Figures released for 2016 show sales increased to 41.6 million up almost 10 million in a year. Dividends to shareholders doubled in a year, meaning Stella received 4.32 million on top of her salary and bonus. PARTY GIRL PAL OF KATE MOSS Luella Bartley, 43, is global head of design at Calvin Klein Jeans and has three children Kip, 14, Stevie, 12, and Ned, 10, with her fashion photographer husband, David Sims Appointed global head of design at Calvin Klein Jeans this year, Luella Bartley, 43, also produces collections for the Hillier Bartley label she runs with pal Katie Hillier. Once one of the hardest partyers in London, she is buddies with Kate Moss and has an edgy, feminine style. Ivanka Trump was photographed in Hillier Bartley this year and Alexa Chung and Florence Welch have worn it too. FAMILY MATTERS: Three children Kip, 14, Stevie, 12, and Ned, 10, with her fashion photographer husband, David Sims. A keen surfer, Bartley used to be based in Cornwall but the family has since returned to London. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: Fashion watchers will have to wait for her first set of results from CK. POSH BOHEMIAN STYLE STARS LOVE Once described as the British Ralph Lauren, Alice Temperley, 42, grew up on a 160-acre cider farm in Somerset. After studying at Saint Martins, she set up her own label focusing on floaty dresses before expanding into bridal wear. Alice Temperley runs her eponymous label and is mother to son Fox aged eight Her diffusion line at John Lewis is their best-selling ever, and her posh bohemian look has attracted everyone from the Middletons to Kim Kardashian. FAMILY MATTERS: Divorced from the father of her eight-year-old son, Fox, she lives in Notting Hill with portrait photographer Greg Williams. Theres also a country pad in Somerset. Shes been open about the strain of work and motherhood, saying: I gave birth [to Fox] in 2008, right in the middle of the recession. 'I basically had no maternity leave it was a terribly tough time. 'The toll it took on my body, my brain and my hormones was extreme. 'I was doing fabric meetings with my baby breastfeeding under my shirt. Women shouldnt have to put themselves through that. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: Sales in 2015 were 11.6 million, but things now arent quite so peachy. However, directors believe profitability will improve and the diffusion line is a clear hit. PUTTING PRINGLE IN THE PINK Fran Stringer, from Middlesbrough, worked at Topshop, Aquascutum and Mulberry before joining Pringle, the worlds oldest fashion house, and was promoted to head of womenswear last year. Her debut was very successful, with fashion arbiter Suzy Menkes of Vogue saying she got everything right. Down-to-earth Stringer cried when she heard. As she herself says: Its sometimes an overwhelming task. Basically every person I know has a jumper and we [Pringle] pretty much invented that. FAMILY MATTERS: Daughter of an architect and a reflexologist, Stringer is intensely private. She has a daughter, Indigo, five, and is about to have another baby with her web developer boyfriend. FASHION NOTES: She knew Pringle from childhood because her brothers would go clubbing in the brands pink jumpers. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: Too early to say. Pringle was recently bought by the Hong Kong-based Fang family but has yet to make them a profit. PUBLICITY SHY BUT ADORED IN LA Jenny Packham (centre) is adored by the Duchess of Cambridge, millions of budding brides, and the gliteratti of LA where the publicity-shy designer is in hot demand If the Duchess of Cambridge has another go-to designer apart from Sarah Burton, its Jenny Packham. She wore Packham when leaving hospital after giving birth to George and Charlotte. Americans adore Southampton-born Jenny: she has an office in LA because she is so much of a Hollywood staple. But for all that, she is rarely interviewed or photographed. FAMILY MATTERS: Sister of Chris, the BBC Autumnwatch presenter, Jenny, 52, is married to her labels CEO, Matthew Anderson. They live in Hampstead, North London, with their teenage daughters, Isabella and Georgia. When they tied the knot two years ago, Jenny wore her own design a dove grey lace number. MONEY, MONEY, MONEY: The couple own the company. The last year on record showed sales of 8.9 million and they took out less than 340,000 as a dividend. The number of health authorities in England offering the full recommended three IVF cycles has halved in the last five years, new research reveals. Critics warn such cuts have created a 'postcode lottery' in fertility treatment, forcing desperate UK couples to go abroad to start their dream families. Just 12 per cent of clinical commissioning groups, which have the final decision on what treatments can be dished out, now follow national guidance. This is down from 24 per cent in 2013, a report by campaign group Fertility Fairness shows. And seven areas now have an outright ban on funding IVF - a figure which has more than tripled in five years. Health watchdogs urge CCGs to offer women access to three cycles of IVF to boost their chances of having children, so long as they meet certain criteria. But financial restrictions are forcing many to defy recommendations and slash the service completely as they seek to save millions of pounds - scuppering the hopes of thousands of women. The majority (61 per cent) of CCGs now offer just one cycle, a leap from almost 50 per cent in 2013, the report showed. Furthermore, 7 per cent are currently consulting whether they should scrap or reduce NHS fertility treatment. Janine Lomas was denied NHS treatment and says she went abroad for treatment because private treatment would have meant long waiting lists and high costs BEST AND WORST AREAS FOR IVF Top of the league (providing 3 cycles and least strict criteria): NHS Bury NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale NHS Oldham NHS Tameside and Glossop Bottom of the league (providing none): NHS Basildon and Brentwood NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Croydon NHS Herts Valleys NHS Mid Essex NHS North East Essex NHS South Norfolk Advertisement The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) provides the criteria on who should be entitled to IVF on the NHS. However, individual CCGs make the final decision about who can access it in their local area, and they are imposing stricter criteria as they experience squeezed budgets. A previous survey by Fertility Clinics Abroad and Fertility Network UK suggested other key drivers were behind the spiralling cost of private treatment. Long waiting lists and a low supply of donor eggs in the UK are also leading to a boom in 'fertility tourism', it said. British Fertility Society Chairperson Professor Adam Balen said he was 'dismayed' by the figures that he says prove there's 'a postcode lottery' which is 'vastly unfair'. Nurse Janine Lomas is one of these countless women who feel let down by the NHS. She was left infertile after cancer treatment at 29, yet was denied IVF by her local trust. Paramedic Charlotte Green was robbed of her fertility before she was even a woman after enduring early menopause when she was just 13 years old. Now 29, she went abroad after her one shot on the NHS at her dream to have a child via IVF sadly failed. MailOnline speaks to these women about their heartbreaking experiences. 'Cancer left me infertile at 29 yet I wasn't entitled to NHS treatment' Janine, 37, a hospital nurse from the Wirral, Merseyside, says that like many women, she had 'always imagined a future with a husband and children'. But then life delivered a cruel blow when she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) at just 29 and treated with chemotherapy. Five months later, she had a relapse and was warned she needed more aggressive treatment that would make her infertile. 'At the time I was fighting for my life and I tried to push the infertility issue to the back of my mind,' she said. 'I had total body irradiation (TBI) alongside high dose chemotherapy to kill off the leukaemia, followed by a bone marrow transplant. 'There was no way of protecting my ovaries from the radiation but it was my only option to survive. 'I always hoped there was a chance my ovaries were not damaged but two years later it was confirmed I was infertile. I was beyond heartbroken.' The 37-year-old nurse was told she was pregnant but had an early miscarriage WHO GETS FREE IVF? IVF is only offered on the NHS if certain criteria are met. In 2013, the NICE published new fertility guidelines that made recommendations about who should have access to the treatment on the NHS in England and Wales. However, individual NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups make the final decision about who can access it in their local area, and their criteria may be stricter. According to NICE, women aged under 40 should be offered three cycles of IVF treatment on the NHS if: they've been trying to get pregnant through regular unprotected sex for two years, or they've not been able to get pregnant after 12 cycles of artificial insemination. If you turn 40 during treatment, the current cycle will be completed, but further cycles should not be offered. If tests show that IVF is the only treatment likely to help you get pregnant, you should be referred for IVF straight away. Source: NHS Choices Advertisement Denied because of step son A couple of years later she met her husband-to-be, Dave, who is now 34. After a year together, they knew they wanted children and began researching fertility treatment. But Janine was shocked to be told she wasn't entitled to treatment on the NHS because Dave already had a son from a previous relationship. 'I longed to add to our family and give birth to his baby, his second but my first, even using someone else's eggs. It feels so unfair.' Janine and Dave looked into private clinics. But because of a shortage of donor eggs in the UK, they faced a long waiting list. 'Additionally, we discovered we would have to fork out 3,000 to register with an agency on top of all the treatment which has to be paid up front,' she explained. 'There's no protection from the risk the donor can pull out and you losing your money.' Furthermore, clinics abroad can offer multiple embryo transfers at a time. In the UK, a maximum of two embryos can be transferred to women under the age of 40, with no exceptions, and a maximum of three can be transferred in those over 40. Forced to go abroad So Janine and Dave visited a clinic in Cyprus last year and had four embryos using donor eggs and her husband's sperm implanted into her womb. 'It was all so much easier going abroad but it wasn't meant to be. We were devastated when it failed,' she said. Then in February this year they returned to Cyprus to have their remaining three embryos transferred. Just 12 days later Kanine had a positive pregnancy test. 'We were on cloud nine that we finally had our miracle baby after years of thinking it may never be possible. 'We waited excitedly for our six-week scan, in the UK. But then they told us there was no heartbeat or baby. We were sent away not understanding what had happened.' Another urine test was negative. Janine presumes the first tests were correct and she had miscarried early. 'We called the clinic in Cyprus and were told we'd just been unlucky,' she said. 'In total we've spent 12,000. 'Our gripe with our experience of going abroad is that we didn't feel like we got much after care no follow up consultation or counselling. 'I'm afraid to go through the heartbreak again but we're not ready to give up on our dream of having a baby. 'We don't know how many failed attempts are ahead of us and how much it will cost us. 'We would prefer to get treated in the UK but financial reasons may force us to look into going abroad again.' 'I had the menopause at 13 and my 'one shot' on the NHS failed Charlotte Green, 29, is a paramedic from Bristol. She went through premature menopause at 13. 'Like many of my friends, I got my periods at 12 years old,' she said. 'Unlike them, they stopped just a year later.' Premature menopause can be caused by genetics, illness, or medical procedures, but the doctors were baffled by Charlotte's case and never identified the cause. 'I began hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to restore my estrogen levels and prevent complications, such as osteoporosis,' she explained. 'It also helps to relieve symptoms such as hot flushes, mood swings and night sweats.' Sadly no treatment actually reverses or prevents premature menopause and its effect. 'When I was 15 tests confirmed that I was infertile,' she said. 'I remember feeling disappointed yet I shrugged it off, after I wasn't thinking of having children at that age. Charlotte Green feels her 'one shot' at IVF on the NHS was blown after she said the clinic misinformed her of her chances of conception with her sister's eggs 'It was only when I met my husband-to-be, Andy, in 2010 that the reality of it hit me. We were married two years later and wanted a future together that included the patter of tiny feet.' Remote chances Charlotte was entitled to IVF on the NHS but just the one round. 'It's a postcode lottery and I know I am lucky to get even that as some women are not entitled to any,' she said. 'My sister Danielle very kindly volunteered to donate her eggs having a baby I was genetically related would be very special.' But then Danielle, who already had a child, through the process discovered she had polycystic ovary syndrome, meaning she herself faced difficulties getting pregnant as a result of irregular ovulation or failure to ovulate. 'Just one embryo formed from the infertilisation attempts using her eggs and Andy's sperm. 'The clinic implanted the embryo but it failed we later discovered that I'd not been given enough estrogen to thicken the lining of my uterus. 'I was really disappointed and felt we had been misinformed the clinic had been overly optimistic about out chances of conceiving with just one embryo. 'Had we understood how remote the chances were we may have gone with another egg donor - our one shot on the NHS was blown and it placed a strain on us all.' Charlotte, on the left, tried IVF using eggs donated by her sister Danielle who has polycystic ovary syndrome but it failed 'Utterly heartbreaking' And so Charlotte and Andy were forced to go down the private route. They chose a Spanish clinic in Alicante, which cost 6,500 for a cycle around 1,000 less than in the UK. If it fails, it costs 1,500 to go back for another transfer of the embryos. 'It's cheaper going abroad, but for us, our decision to go abroad was more about the higher success rates. Plus, there was no wait for egg donation compared to 18 months to two years in the UK even privately. 'The clinic was very professional. All the pre-treatment was carried out local to us in Bristol so we didn't have to travel too much.' In February Charlotte did fall after just one attempt but just six weeks into the pregnancy she miscarried. 'It's just utterly heartbreaking but we will keep trying. We have more embryos frozen and we will be going back to Spain in August. 'As a paramedic I'm a big fan of our NHS, it's just such a shame the funding isn't there to help women like me.' Patients are twice as likely to die from sepsis in some hospitals as they are in others, statistics obtained by MailOnline reveal. Sepsis death rates at Tameside and Glossop NHS Foundation Trust in Ashton-under-Lyne are 55 per cent higher than expected. At the other end of the scale, sepsis has claimed 39 per cent fewer lives than officials predicted at the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust. When compared, it means the chance of dying from sepsis in Tameside is about twice that of a similar patient treated at the Staffordshire site. Eminent hospital death rates expert Professor Sir Brian Jarman, who helped expose the Mid-Staffordshire hospitals scandal, was behind the analysis. His findings, disputed by the NHS, suggest a 'postcode lottery' of care is consigning hundreds, or even thousands, of patients to an early grave. It also reveals a stark North-South divide, with most of the worst performing hospital trusts concentrated in the north of England. The worrying data shows 16 hospital trusts across the country to have a 'significantly high death rate', with only four situated in the south. The figures heighten the The Mail's 'End The Sepsis Scandal' campaign, which began last year in an attempt to reduce the number of missed cases of sepsis. Scroll down to see how your trust rated Sepsis death rates at Tameside and Glossop NHS Foundation Trust in Ashton-under-Lyne are 55 per cent higher than expected. At the other end of the scale, sepsis has claimed 39 per cent fewer lives than officials predicted at the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust Sepsis, known as the silent killer, strikes when an infection such as blood poisoning sparks a violent immune response in which the body attacks its own organs. It is the leading cause of avoidable death, killing at least 44,000 a year, and the Daily Mail has long campaigned for more awareness. If caught early, the infection can be controlled by antibiotics before the body goes into overdrive - ultimately leading to death within a matter of minutes. But the early symptoms of sepsis can be easily confused with more mild conditions, meaning it can be difficult to diagnose. A patient can rapidly deteriorate if sepsis is missed early on, so quick diagnosis and treatment is vital yet this rarely happens. Professor Jarman used NHS data to come to his conclusion. It involved 134 hospital trusts in England, with four not having enough statistics to meet his criteria. The worst performers Sepsis deaths at Tameside and Glossop NHS Foundation Trust have been higher than expected over the past three years, given the population it serves. At this trust, 141 sepsis deaths were recorded over a three-year period 55 per cent higher than the expected figure of 91. THE 10 WORST (AND BEST) TRUSTS The worst trusts (% above expected sepsis death rates) The best trusts (% below expected sepsis death rates) Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust: 55% Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust: 43% The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust: 35% Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust: 30% Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 29% United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust: 27% East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust: 25% Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 25% Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust: 24% Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 23% University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust: 39% Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 37% Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust: 35% Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust: 29% Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 24% Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust: 23% Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 23% Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 22% West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust: 21% Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust: 20% Advertisement In Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust, deaths have been 43 per cent higher than expected over the same time frame. And a 35 per cent spike has been recorded at the Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, according to Professor Jarman's analysis. The best performers In terms of trusts seemingly leading the way in treating sepsis, University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust leads the way. Between 2014 and 2017 it recorded 39 per cent less deaths than expected. Some 184 people died of sepsis between the trust's two hospitals. The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust recorded 126 sepsis deaths, 37 per cent lower than the expected figure. And Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust saw 35 per cent fewer sepsis deaths than projections estimated, with it claiming 167 lives in three years. How were the findings calculated? The method Professor Jarman used to make the projections is recommended by the Association of Public Health Observatories. He revealed the NHS has previously used the internationally recognised system, called Byars confidence intervals. A similar process helped uncover poor care at the Mid Staffordshire trust, which was at the centre of one of the biggest scandals ever to hit the NHS. However, the NHS uses another method, called overdispersion, which gives trusts more leeway, Professor Jarman added. Under that system, a trust is regarded as having a high death rate only if its measure, called the Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicator, or SHMI, is about 12 per cent or more above the national average. In contrast, the Byars method is much stricter, classing anything with a SHMI of more than six or seven per cent above the national average as significantly high. THE MID-STAFFS NHS SCANDAL A disputed estimate suggested that hundreds of people may have needlessly died at Stafford hospital, ran by Mid-Staffordshire NHS Trust, due to poor care between 2005 and 2009. In what is one of the worst care scandals in living memory, patients were left lying in their own excrement and one whistleblower reported that patients had been so thirsty that they were reduced to drinking water from vases. The Francis report, the inquiry into the hospital's workings in 2013, found that box ticking bureaucrats prioritised targets over basic levels of care. It later emerged that just one senior nurse was in charge of 84 beds at the scandal-hit hospital. The findings prompted significant changes in hospital care. But not a single individual will be prosecuted in connection with the scandal, police admitted last year - despite a three-year investigation. Stafford Hospital has been renamed County Hospital, and is now run by a different trust. Advertisement The expected deaths at each hospital trust is worked out by calculating how many deaths the trust would have if they had the English national average death rates. The death rate is then calculated by dividing the actual deaths from sepsis by the expected deaths for sepsis, Professor Jarman explained. Only primary diagnoses of sepsis are recorded for the observed deaths, excluding thousands of cases where the violent immune response was partly responsible. This explains why just 40,417 deaths were recorded over the three-year time frame - notably less than the 44,000 expected each year. What did the NHS say? Chris Roebuck, head of profession for statistics for NHS Digital, said, 'We transparently publish our data in a variety of forms in order to enable others to conduct their own analysis, although we could not comment on this methodology with the information we have been provided. 'The findings from any analysis of SHMI or its underlying data should act as a starting point for further investigation, rather than treated as a definitive view on quality of care. 'A variety of factors could influence Trusts figures, such as the way they record particular conditions. 'For example, we do know that sepsis has historically been recorded differently by different trusts with some clinicians coding for sepsis, while others code for the underlying infection, such as pneumonia.' A previous version of this article included a disputed estimate of the number of avoidable deaths at Stafford hospital, which had been included in a draft report from 2009 by the Healthcare Commission and was based on mortality statistics. We are happy to make clear that the subsequent inquiry led by Sir Robert Francis found that although these statistics "were sufficiently significant to require an in-depth investigation", it would be misleading to extrapolate from them a conclusion that a particular number of deaths were caused by inadequate care. It is also the case that this inquiry did not hear any direct evidence about any incident of patients forced to drink water from flower vases; this was anecdotally provided in several interviews by Julie Bailey, whose mother had died whilst an inpatient at Stafford Hospital, and who was responsible for exposing neglect at the hospital. Teenagers who use electronic cigarettes are nearly twice as likely to go on to become regular tobacco smokers, researchers have found. The study of 44,000 schoolchildren will fuel growing concerns that vaping may act as a gateway to smoking. The researchers warned e-cigarettes may help to re-normalise smoking after years of a growing taboo about the habit - and warned it would be foolhardy to dismiss the theory that early exposure to nicotine increases smoking uptake. Health experts in Britain view e-cigarettes as a crucial tool in the fight against tobacco - and last month Public Health England controversially endorsed the devices in its Stoptober campaign. But others are concerned about unresolved safety concerns and are particularly worried about their use among young people. Schoolchildren in England are now more likely to have tried e-cigarettes than traditional cigarettes, with more than one in three 15-year-olds having used the devices, despite the fact it has been illegal to sell them to under-18s since October 2015. The Canadian study of 44,000 schoolchildren in Alberta and Ontario fuels growing concerns that vaping acts as a gateway to smoking after researchers found that teens who vapped were 79 per cent more likely to become daily tobacco smokers Experts have repeatedly claimed this is only experimentation - and insist there is no evidence young people regularly use the gadgets. The new study, however, casts doubt on that claim. Researchers in Canada tracked 44,163 pupils, aged 14 to 18, at 89 schools in Ontario and Alberta. They questioned the children in 2013/14 and again a year later, in 2014/15. They found teenagers who had used an e-cigarette in the 30 days before they first interview were 112 per cent more likely than non e-cigarette users to have smoked at least one whole tobacco cigarette a year later. Crucially, however, they were also 79 per cent more likely to become daily tobacco smokers in the intervening year. The researchers, from the University of Waterloo, writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, said: E-cigarette use was strongly associated with cigarette smoking behaviour, including smoking initiation at follow-up. They admitted they were not entirely sure that e-cigarettes had caused the tobacco take-up - stressing the association is unclear. Researcher Dr David Hammond said: E-cigarettes may help to re-normalise smoking. But he admitted: However, the association between e-cigarettes and smoking may simply reflect common factors rather than a causal effect: the same individual and social risk factors that increase e-cigarette use may also increase the likelihood of youth smoking. His team wrote: The findings from our study provide support for both sides of the debate. It is highly plausible that common factors account for a substantial proportion of increased cigarette-smoking initiation among e-cigarette users. At the same time, it would be foolhardy to dismiss the likelihood that early exposure to nicotine via e-cigarettes increases smoking uptake. E-cigarettes contain a liquid form of nicotine that is heated into vapour to be inhaled, avoiding the harm caused by tobacco smoke. Vaping has boomed as a business but research into the new form of nicotine consumption is still in its infancy. This diagram shows the components to an electronic cigarette Around three million adults in Britain have used e-cigarettes in the decade or so that they have been on the market. Health experts agree that the devices are much safer than smoking tobacco and the gadgets are thought to have helped 22,000 people quit smoking each year. But the Commons Science and Technology committee last week launched an inquiry into their use, warning of significant gaps in knowledge over the impact that they have on health. One of the fiercely contested aspects of these gaps is use of the gadgets among youg people. Europes highest legal expert, Dr Juliane Kokott, the advocate general to the European Court of Justice, in 2015 warned that e-cigarettes possibly cause risks to human health and that they may provide a gateway for teenagers to start smoking tobacco. But Public Health England says the devices are 95 per cent safe - and must be clearly positioned as products that help adult smokers to quit. According to the NHS Digital report Statistics on Smoking, published in June 2017, 35 per cent of 15 year olds reported having ever used an e-cigarette. Of pupils of all ages at secondary school, 22 per cent reported having tried e-cigarettes at least once - compared to just 18 per cent of traditional cigarettes. A spokesman for the UK Vaping Industry Association said: We welcome all research into e-cigarettes and vaping products, however this study merely shows that those who try e-cigarettes are also likely to have also tried tobacco. This is by no means a secret. There is no research to suggest that vaping is a gateway to smoking tobacco and this study does nothing to change that fact. The use of vaping products by young people remains very low. Whilst the industry has a responsibility to market their products responsibly, vaping has an important role to play in smoking cessation and represents a huge public health opportunity for this country. A four-year-old boy suffers from a condition so rare that it has no name - and the mysterious ailment has left him 'trapped' in his own body. Matthew Chapman, from Lincoln, can only communicate using his eyes - the only part of his body that he can move freely. Baffled doctors have called his condition SWAN, Syndrome Without A Name, and have warned they may never know what the actual illness is. They are continuing to test Matthew, who is non-verbal and can only make some noises, for a range of conditions, but are yet to have any success diagnosing him. His problems began when he was 15 months, as he suddenly forgot how to crawl, before slowly deteriorating until he turned three. Before this, he met all of his milestones. His parents, who have another 14 month old son called William, are concerned the condition could be genetic and that he may also suffer. Matthew Chapman, from Lincoln, can only communicate using his eyes - the only part of his body that he can move freely His heartbroken mother, Victoria, 33, said: 'Matthew has become one of hundreds of children with conditions so rare, they are just called SWAN. 'Doctors told us they didn't know what was wrong with him, and we may never know. 'I know he is still in there and it's so hard for me, knowing that he's trapped in a body that he can't use. 'Doctors believe he can still understand everything that's going on around him and he tries to communicate with his family using just his eyes.' Victoria and husband Colin, 38, loved watching Matthew meet his milestones after he was born on October 28, 2013 at Lincoln County Hospital. He was able to roll over, craw, pull himself up and started to say his first words 'no' and 'drink' before his issues began. When his problems began When he reached 15 months, his nursery contacted the couple, saying they had noticed something was wrong with their little boy. Victoria explained: 'They said it was like he had forgotten how to crawl and they were worried about his development. 'He'd been a perfectly healthy baby, so we thought it was just a blip and that he'd be fine. He was our first child, but we knew children all developed at different rates. 'But, after that, it was as if he was forgetting how to do things. First, he stopped crawling, then his balance and sitting started to go.' Baffled doctors have called his condition SWAN, Syndrome Without A Name, and have warned they may never know what the actual illness is Concerned, when he was 20 months old, his parents took Matthew to see a physiotherapist to assess his muscle strength. Victoria said: 'She diagnosed Matthew with hypermobility meaning you can move some or all of your joints more than most people saying that was probably why he was struggling. Matthew has become one of hundreds of children with conditions so rare, they are just called SWAN Victoria Chapman, 33 'He was quite tall for his age and he was struggling with his joints.' The couple tried to work on exercises to build up Matthew's strength again, but despite their best efforts, he continued to deteriorate. Referred to a neurologist 'We knew it was something more than hypermobility,' Victoria said. 'We were referred to a neurologist over in Nottingham. 'By that stage, five months pregnant with our second child, we still didn't think there was anything major wrong. 'Looking back, I think as parents, there was a little bit of denial and we kept telling ourselves it was just a blip.' When Matthew was examined by a neurologist for the first time, in April 2016, she told the Chapmans she thought he had a degenerative brain condition, but would need to conduct more tests, including an MRI scan. They are continuing to test Matthew, who is non-verbal and can only make some noises, for a range of conditions, but are yet to have any luck (pictured with his mother, Victoria, 33) Believing he could have leukodystrophy, she explained that it was a life-limiting condition, affecting the white matter of the brain. As it was genetic, it could also affect the baby Victoria was carrying. 'Our life fell apart' 'Our life sort of fell apart after that,' said Victoria. 'The thought of both our children facing a condition that could destroy their lives was terrible.' Fortunately, four months later test results ruled out the condition. WHAT IS SWAN? Figures suggest that 6,000 children are born in the UK each year with an unnamed syndrome. They are often genetic conditions that are so rare that it is often impossible for doctors to diagnose. Such children are told they have SWAN - Syndrome Without A Name, when testing fails to identify a condition. Source: Undiagnosed Advertisement But the couple's relief was bittersweet, as this meant they were no nearer to establishing what was actually wrong with Matthew. And, by the time his little brother, William, was born in Lincoln County Hospital on August 9 2016, Matthew had lost use of every muscle in his body. Victoria continued: 'For a while, he could only move his arms, but then he lost that mobility and now he can't move anything except his eyes. 'He's non-verbal, but can make some noises and, at the minute, he can swallow liquids. 'But our little boy and his amazing personality is still in there. We know he understands us, because he reacts with his eyes and we're teaching him to use software that he can control with them. 'Because he couldn't read or write before this happened, it's difficult to teach him how to use the eye-tracking device an electronic computer device screen which monitors eye movements to speak. 'However, he's responding to it well and we think, as he gets older, he'll be able to use his eyes to select letters and words to communicate with us.' Continued testing Doctors are continuing to test Matthew for a variety of conditions and the family have been signed up to the NHS genome project, meaning their blood samples will be continually tested, as more and more things are uncovered. Sadly, without a diagnosis, they do not know if Matthew's younger brother will be affected. His problems began when he was 15 months, as he suddenly forgot how to crawl, before slowly deteriorating until he turned three (pictured before he became ill) His heartbroken mother, Victoria, 33, said: 'Matthew has become one of hundreds of children with conditions so rare, they are just called SWAN' Victoria and husband Colin, 38, loved watching Matthew meet his milestones after he was born on October 28, 2013 at Lincoln County Hospital Currently 14 months old, they are waiting to see if he develops any symptoms, but doctors are unable to test him for everything because they simply don't know what he has. Victoria said: 'It is very difficult, watching William meeting his milestones, as Matthew did, and worrying in case the same thing happens. 'People who don't know him think Matthew was born like this, but when we explain he wasn't, they think he's had an accident. Then we have to tell them that we don't really have an answer.' Vital fundraising The family are now fundraising to pay for any equipment or support Matthew might need in the future. Victoria explained: 'Matthew goes to a special school and there he has access to a standing frame and a hydrotherapy pool. 'Those things are so helpful. But, at the weekends and during school holidays, he has none of that and not using them every day means he forgets how to do things. 'Having things at home would help him progress with it faster, but when you have a child with a disability, you quickly realise that everything comes with a high price tag. 'We don't know what the future holds for Matthew - he could get better over time, or he could get worse - but we do know that we will do whatever we can to help him. We'll just take each day at a time.' He was able to roll over, craw, pull himself up and started to say his first words 'no' and 'drink' before his issues began When a woman from China suffered constant nosebleeds for decades, few people could have predicted the cause, a tooth growing in her nose. The patient, identified only by her surname Xia, believed for years that she had severe case of rhinitis, an inflammation of the nose membrane. But a scan proved otherwise and the 57-year-old was shocked to discover she had a tooth growing in her nasal cavity. Doctors at Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, in Changsha, in south central part of the country, said when they first saw the strange circular object lodged in the woman's nose they didn't immediately know what it was. Ear, nose and throat specialist Zhou Jianpo said: 'Scans showed a high-density shadow in her right nasal cavity. 'We thought it was a foreign object or some sort of stone.' Scroll down for video Doctors in Changsha, China, were shocked to discover the patient had a tooth growing in her nasal cavity The woman, identified by her surname Xia, thought her decades-long nosebleeds were due to rhinitis, an inflammation of the nose membrane Surgery However, after taking Xia into surgery, they 'peeled' back layer after layer of membrane and discovered what turned out to be a fully grown tooth inside the woman's nasal cavity, complete with root and crown. The tooth was pulled from her nose and she has since reported much relief from her symptoms, which as well as decades of nosebleeds include feelings of stuffiness. Medics initially thought the circular shape on the scan was a foreign body, possibly a stone Dr Zhou said the condition is known as supernumerary teeth, which causes an extra tooth or teeth to grow in often random places on the face. The condition is present at birth and the medic notes that the tooth develops during pregnancy. In August this year an eight-year-old boy from Zhejiang Province in eastern China was also found with a supernumerary tooth in his nasal cavity. The condition is extremely rare, with fewer than 20 documented cases in all of China. A former Royal Marine suffering tinnitus from an bomb blast so bad it was like a constant 'fog horn' in his head has found relief thanks to a new IPOD-based therapy. Harris Tatakis stumbled upon the treatment after setting up a Google Alert for the debilitating condition after a decade of suffering and finding no relief. The 39-year-old was even forced to learn to lip read when he developed severe ringing in his ears after he drove over an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Afghanistan in 2007. The explosion shattered his left leg, broke his right foot, ruptured both of his eardrums, caused brain damage and left him paralysed for two days. Harri, from Cornwall, was relieved to discover Levo, a sound-based therapy played during sleep which targets the hearing centre of the brain to train it to get used to ringing or buzzing sounds. He is believed to be the first UK veteran to benefit from the therapy which he says has allowed him 'to function again as a human being'. Harris Tatakis was left with ruptured eardrums and brain damage after the IED blast in Afghanistan in 2007 The 39-year-old is the first UK veteran to benefit from the iPod therapy for tinnitus 'It was like a dentist drill' On April 3 2007, while with 42 Commando's Lima Company, Harris was travelling in an armoured Land Rover which drove over an IED. The blast was so strong he was found 35 metres away. He was then brought back to the UK for treatment at Selly Oak Hospital and Headley Court. Harris, who joined the Royal Marines in 1998, continued to serve but was eventually medically discharged in 2011 when his symptoms became worse. 'It was like a dentist drill or fog horn constantly going off in my head which I couldn't get away from,' he said. 'I couldn't tolerate people talking around me. Everything was horrendously loud and I couldn't get away from it. 'The tinnitus masks a lot of letters so it makes your hearing even worse, I had to learn to lip read to help me understand. 'People would look at me and they'd say, 'You're fine, there's nothing wrong with you'. I was really suffering.' The former Royal marine suffered an entire decade of severe ringing in his ears that was so loud it caused him hearing problems which was proving untreatable Tinnitus is the term for hearing sounds that come from inside your body, rather than from an outside source. It's often described as 'ringing in the ears', although several sounds can be heard, including: buzzing, humming, grinding, hissing and whistling. In the UK, persistent tinnitus is estimated to affect around six million people (10 per cent of the population) to some degree, with about 600,000 (1 per cent) experiencing it to a severity that affects their quality of life. Severe cases can be very distressing, affect concentration, and cause problems such as difficulty sleeping (insomnia) and depression. There's currently no single treatment for tinnitus that works for everyone. Relief at last Harris, who served with 3 Commando Brigade in Kosovo, twice in Iraq and twice in Afghanistan, receiving operational service medals, stumbled upon the therapy through a Google Alert for tinnitus. HOW THE TREATMENT WORKS Levo Therapy System for Tinnitus has been developed by Otoharmonics Corporation based in Portland, Oregon, USA. It is an FDA cleared and CE approved sound-based therapy which works with the brains natural plasticity to help the brain get used to, or habituate, to the tinnitus sound within the hearing centre of the brain. Essentially, it trains the brain to reduce the perceptual loudness and annoyance of the tinnitus signal. It is designed for patients who have atonal tinnitus or tinnitus that is very high or very low in pitch (<200Hz or >10000Hz). Levo is used during sleep when our brains are more prone to be responsive to sound therapies that strive to change brain activity patterns. Studies have found the therapy to be beneficial. In 2015, a paper published in the International Journal of Audiology reported it brought a reduction in the intensity of symptoms which had a 'direct improvement' on patients' quality of life. In 2010, research published in International Tinnitus Journal found it provided relief from symptoms, sometimes within as short a period of time as 30 days. Advertisement Levo works through an iPod to deliver a personalised sound that stimulates the hearing part of the brain while a patient is sleeping. It aims to teach the brain to ignore the hissing or buzzing associated with tinnitus and reduce its loudness and annoyance. During sleep our brains are said to be more prone to be responsive to sound therapies that strive to change brain activity patterns. Harris, who attends the Tinnitus Centre in Bristol, successfully applied for a Royal British Legion grant to cover the cost of his treatment and started it in January. He said the US-developed treatment, as well as desensitisation therapy, has reduced his symptoms to a level that he is able 'to live with'. 'I'm getting my confidence back and I feel like I'm part of society again,' he said. 'Beforehand I would come up with excuses not to see friends simply because I was so uncomfortable in my own skin. 'I didn't want my Marine friends to see me in this state. I just wanted to shut myself away.' 'People suffer in silence ' Haris's treatment is being funded through the Veterans Hearing Fund. managed by The Royal British Legion. The fund is part of the five-year Veterans Medical Funds, which use 13million of Libor rate-fixing fines released by the Government. 'When I went into it I knew there was no guarantee that it would work, but because of how I was living day to day, I had to try something,' he said. 'I had nothing to lose so I knew it couldn't get any worse. I was desperate. Harris said the treatment has helped him get his confidence back and he now feels part of society again 'The Royal British Legion is out there supporting me by paying for the treatment, and I'd encourage anyone in my position to make the most of the help. 'The Legion is here for us whether we're young or old and that's a wonderful thing. 'People suffer in silence because they don't know where to go. 'The NHS couldn't help me to the degree I needed so I looked elsewhere and I'm eternally glad I did.' Drinking Montmorency tart cherry juice an hour before you go to bed may help you sleep for longer, a scientific review concludes. In a trial on insomniacs, researchers found swigging the tasty drink prior to hitting the sack extends sleep by 84 minutes. Analysis revealed the cherry juice stopped the build-up of brain chemicals that are linked to poor sleep, and slashed inflammation - a risk factor for insomnia. The findings offer hope of a natural sleeping aid, as many sufferers are reluctant to try drugs to induce a good night's rest. In a trial on insomniacs, researchers found swigging the tasty drink prior to hitting the sack extends sleep by 84 minutes Insomnia has been worryingly linked to cancer, diabetes, dementia, heart disease, stroke and depression in recent years. It is estimated a third of adults suffer from occasional bouts of insomnia. The new Louisiana State University study, which was part-funded by the Cherry Marketing Institute, was based on results from eight insomniacs. How was the study carried out? Each participant struggled to sleep at least three times a week. They had blood tests taken and were asked to take a questionnaire about their insomnia. They were randomly assigned to either the cherry juice group, or given a placebo that looked and tasted similar. Each drink was 240ml. Montmorency tart cherry juice contains procyanidin and anthocyanins. The placebo, made of distilled water, fructose and lemon powder, did not. Volunteers were asked to drink the juice twice a day, once in the morning and once in the hours running up to their bedtime. CHERRY JUICE IS AS GOOD AS DRUGS... Drinking cherry juice is as good as taking drugs at reducing blood pressure, researchers found in May. People who drank 60ml of cherry concentrate, diluted with water, saw their blood pressure drop by 7 per cent within three hours. This was enough to slash the risk of a stroke by 38 per cent or heart disease by 23 per cent. Patients who take blood pressure medication see a similar impact, scientists at Northumbria University said. The research team, whose work is published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, tested 15 people who were displaying early signs of high blood pressure. Advertisement After two weeks, the questionnaires were repeated and the groups switched over, according to the study published in American Journal of Therapeutics. What else did they find? Sleep efficiency was shown to increase in those who drank the cherry juice twice a day, but no other significant differences were recorded. Lead researcher Professor Jack Losso said: 'Insomnia is quite common among older adults and it can lead to a range of health issues if left untreated. 'However, many people are hesitant to resort to medications to help them sleep. That's why natural sleep remedies are increasingly of interest and in demand.' How does it help? After analysing blood samples, researchers found cherry juice reduced levels of kynurenine - which numerous studies have shown to contribute to sleep disturbances. It also increased the amount of tryptophan in the blood, an amino acid that helps to induce sleepiness. Further testing showed it inhibited the production of indoleanmine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) - which can slow down the release of tryptophan. And scientists found it stopped the build-up of PGE2, a biomarker of inflammation. Inflammation has been linked to sleep problems in recent years. Montmorency tart cherries can be bought dried, frozen, canned or juiced. They are the most common variety grown in the US. She's had a strong opinion on the recent trends for women cleaning their vaginas with cucumbers and Vicks' Vaporub. Now Dr Jen Gunter, who is also a prominent critic of Gwyneth Paltrow's controversial Goop website, has hit out at men who complain about the natural smell of their partner's genitals which she describes as a 'form of abuse'. Writing in her latest blog newsletter, the Canadian gynecologist revealed she once dumped a boyfriend for complaining about the smell of her genitals. Dr Gunter has urged women not to feel ashamed and feel they have to resort to buying harmful products that create artificial odours. She says they upset the vagina's natural pH balance and leave you at a greater risk of infections like gonorrhoea and even HIV. Dr Jen Gunter has spoken out about men demanding or expecting their partner's vagina to have an artificial smell (stock photo) She wrote: 'I once dated a guy who insinuated my vagina did not smell right. He was an a** in other ways too. For example, he though my hair would be better if it were straight. Sadly I took the bait, it wasn't. 'He thought I would look better if I dressed a certain way. Again I took the bait. I just felt worse. 'When it came around to telling me how my vagina could be better it finally clicked that this is a form of control that men often use. 'Fortunately I am an appropriately confident vagina expert and I had a light bulb moment and dumped his sorry a**. Dr Gunter went on to urge women to not fall into the same trap. She said: 'I realize this may border on TMI [too much information], but honestly if it happened to me I bet it has happened to other women. 'The continued proliferation of the what will they insert next, the products on drug store shelves, and the interest in these posts tells me that I'm probably right. 'If you think you have a medical condition, see a doctor. If your partner insinuates that an artificial smell is preferable to the smell of a normal vagina they are the one who has an issue. 'Telling women how they can be better is a classic way of tapping into body image issues and honestly in my personal opinion it is a form of abuse.' 'Self-cleaning oven' Dr Gunter has previously stressed that women should be aware that douches are unnecessary and even dangerous as our intimate areas are designed to clean themselves. She once tweeted: 'A vagina takes care of itself. Like a self cleaning oven.' In her recent post she explained: 'For what I am sure is the 100th time the vagina needs no cleaning and the vulva needs very little. 'I know the array of useless feminine washes and wipes at the drugstore and the drivel spouted by Gwyneth Paltrow via Goop imply otherwise, but I'm the actual expert.' She has recently warned about the health risks of carrying out a 'vagina facial' using a cucumber (stock photo) WHY IS THE PH OF YOUR VAGINA IMPORTANT? Scientists have discovered an STI and HIV-fighting bacteria naturally present in some women's vaginas. L. crispatus bacteria in their vaginas is one of five types of bacteria present in female genitals. But unlike in the gut where we strive to have a mix of bacteria many researchers believe the vagina is healthiest if just one (L. crispatus) is dominant. Lactobacillus bacteria pump out lactic acid, which keeps the vaginal environment at a low, acidic pH that kills or discourages other bacteria, yeast and viruses from thriving. There are even hints that certain Lactobacillus species reinforce the mucus in the vagina that acts as a natural barrier to invaders. Advertisement She recently warned about the dangers of carrying out a 'vagina facial' using a cucumber. Then also said that using anything that upsets the pH balance including douches, cleanses, steams, and vinegar pH balancing products has 'real potential for harming good bacteria or disrupting the mucosal surface'. 'By damaging lactobacilli and the mucosa, attempts at vaginal cleaning increase a woman's risk of contracting gonorrhoea or HIV if she is exposed,' she said. 'Paradoxically, it will also cause odour.' Experts at the renowned Mayo Clinic echo Dr Gunter's warning and say on its website that 'it's normal for your vagina to have a slight odor'. It says that vaginal odor may vary throughout the menstrual cycle and may be especially noticeable right after having sex. Normal sweating also can cause a vaginal smell. However, it states that 'a strong vaginal odor for instance, a "fishy" smell might be abnormal and could indicate a problem.' Leonardo Da Vinci may have been the original inventor of contact lenses in 1508 he made several sketches of what looked like an early prototype. Today there are three million contact lens wearers in the UK and presumably Da Vinci, if he were alive, would marvel at the array. Although for most people lenses are safe and effective, there are risks if they are not used correctly. Here are the unexpected ways you could be putting yourself at risk. If you shower in contact lenses, a harmful organism called acanthamoeba that lives in the domestic water supply can get stuck behind the lens SPRING CLEAN YOUR SOLUTION Always use the lens solution the liquid used to disinfect and clean contact lenses before re-use advised by your optician, says Ceri Smith-Jaynes, spokeswoman for the Association of Optometrists, and check the expiry date. If the solution is out of date, dont use it, she advises. It may no longer be sterile and can leave your eyes open to bacterial infections and eye irritation. Contact lens cases used by monthly and fortnightly lens wearers to store their lenses when theyre not wearing them can harbour a host of horrors. If you have a cold, its a good idea to forgo your lenses and wear your glasses instead Youd be surprised at the number of people who use the same case to store their lenses for months on end, she says. Ive seen debris floating in them which can be transferred to the eye and lead to infections. She advises changing your case once a month, pouring away the old solution and putting in fresh. Rinse your case in fresh solution every time you store your lenses, then let it air-dry for a few hours, says Ms Smith-Jaynes. If you forget, or run out of, the solution that came with the lenses, dont buy simple saline solution from the pharmacist as a replacement, as this will not disinfect your lenses. GOT A COLD? WEAR GLASSES If youre a hay fever sufferer, you may find contact lenses reduce the symptoms. Sometimes daily disposable lenses can act like a barrier that stops pollen sticking to the eye, says Ms Smith-Jaynes. However, if your hay fever symptoms are especially bad, wear your glasses, as you may need eye drops several times a day and you cant take your lenses out and keep putting them back in. Hay fever can also make your eyes feel itchy, and excessively rubbing your eyes while wearing lenses can cause an abrasion on the cornea, leaving it open to infection, says Dr Cindy Tromans, a consultant optometrist at Manchester Royal Eye Hospital. If you have a cold, its also a good idea to forgo your lenses and wear your glasses instead. The risk of viral conjunctivitis [where the eye becomes red and inflamed as a result of a virus] is increased when people have a cold, as your immune system will be low, and wearing contacts when you have this condition can damage the cornea, adds Ms Smith-Jaynes. Always use new lenses once conjunctivitis has cleared up, to prevent re-infection. TAKE THEM OUT BEFORE A DIP Swimming and even showering in lenses is an absolute no-no, says Dr Tromans. There is an organism a type of amoeba called acanthamoeba that lives in the domestic water supply, and if you shower or swim in contact lenses it can get stuck behind the lens and begin to destroy the eye. Contact lens wearers are at raised risk because the amoeba can survive in the space between lens and cornea, then get into the eye. Although rare, the infection is hard to tackle, says Dr Tromans. The treatment is multiple drugs taken for a long time, and some patients even have to have a corneal transplant. The condition, characterised by a painful, pink eye and blurred vision, can be mistaken for more common eye problems such as conjunctivitis. Early detection is key: the infection is usually diagnosed only after antibiotics for other conditions have not worked. A swab of the eye will then be taken to test for the amoeba. Dont wear your lenses in the shower and if you go swimming, use prescription goggles: the amoeba can survive in chlorine, adds Ms Smith-Jaynes. If you really have to wear lenses, wear decent goggles over the top and take the lenses out as soon as you leave the water. Its the same for hot tubs even the steam rising above the water can be a hazard. For the same reason, never wash your lenses in tap water. GIVE YOUR EYES A BREAK The length of time you should wear your lenses varies from person to person. Those with dry eyes may only be able to tolerate three to four hours wear, as lenses can absorb water from the eye surface. The newer silicone hydrogel disposable lenses allow more oxygen to the cornea, so they can be worn for about 16 hours, according to Ms Smith-Jaynes. However, extensive wear of all types of lens carries the risk of corneal neovascularisation where the cornea is starved of oxygen and new blood vessels start to grow there in an attempt to compensate. They start in the corner and move into the centre of the eye, Ms Smith-Jaynes says. If this goes unchecked the cornea can become opaque, leading to the possibility of blindness. It is important to have regular checks, as this condition can go unnoticed for months or years until it causes symptoms such as red, irritated eyes. It is best to alternate lenses with glasses, and take them out at home in the evenings. DONT SLEEP WITH LENSES IN When your eyes are closed, contact lenses prevent oxygen in tears reaching the cornea, the transparent layer at the front of the eye. This can lead to nasty corneal ulcers and bacterial infections, as without oxygen the cornea swells up, says Dr Tromans. Bacteria can then sneak in, one of the most dangerous being a pseudomonas infection that can turn the eye luminous green and lead to blindness. A 2012 study in the journal Ophthalmology showed that the risk of developing keratitis inflammation of the cornea, which can be sight-threatening was raised 6.5 times by sleeping in contact lenses, even only occasionally. When you sleep in them, the lens can become tight because youre not blinking, so youre not lubricating the eye, says Ms Smith-Jaynes. This can make the lenses harder to remove once you wake up. BEWARE WHEN BUYING ONLINE If you wear contact lenses, have an eye check once a year, says Dr Tromans. If youve worn the same lenses for a couple of years it could well be time for a change, as technology is advancing all the time. This could mean lenses made of a more comfortable material, or with a higher water content to allow more oxygen through. More people are ordering contact lenses online as it can be cheaper, but regular eye checks are still important so you know that you have the right prescription. Dr Tromans advises checking you are buying from a reputable website, too. In the UK, contact lenses have to go through rigorous checks. It is a very highly regulated sector, adds Simon Rodwell, secretary general of the Association of Contact Lens Manufacturers. Theres no harm in trying to save money if you know your prescription but check the site youre buying from. If its not based in the UK, the lenses could be unsafe. Poorly fitting lenses are not only uncomfortable but can heighten your chances of getting infections. Pediatricians are being increasingly asked about physician-assisted death by both minors and their parents, a new survey finds. As the right to choose to die becomes more widely protected in the US, the issues faced by Canada which has been more progressive on the matter may act as bell weathers for whats to come in America. The survey was conducted in the aftermath of the June 2016 passage of a bill legalizing medically assisted death for adults in Canada, and found that nearly half of pediatricians believed that mature minors should be afforded the same right if they are terminally ill. Of the responding doctors, 11 percent had had discussions about helping minor patients die. A new study from the Canadian Pediatric Society found that more and more minors and parents are asking about medically assisted death in the wake of the country's legalization for the practice in June 2016 According to the more than 1,000 doctors surveyed, 60 children at least discussed the possibility of medically assisted death with their doctors, and the parents of more than 400 sick children raised the issue. Medically assisted death became legal in Canada for patients who are terminally ill and suffering beyond what they can tolerate in June 2016. The bill, C-14, also called for a review of how it should be applied to mature minors, as well as a review of palliative care in Canada. In the US, physician assisted suicide is now legal for adults in Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Vermont, Washington DC and with a court ruling in Montana. Similar laws are under review in a handful of additional states. In the majority of the country, the practice is still illegal even for adults, so little research has been done in the US so far. The new study, published by the Canadian Pediatric Society, continues to press that the quality of palliative care for minors needs to be a high priority. However, its findings suggest that euthanasia is very much on the minds of sick children and their families. A total of 17 children under 18 explicitly asked their doctors for assistance in their own deaths, according to the study. Adults were inquiring on behalf of their children too; the parents of 91 children asked their childrens doctors to euthanize the children outright. Although about half of all pediatricians thought that assisted death should be available to mature minors those under 18, but deemed mentally mature and sound enough to make their own decisions but far fewer said that they be willing to actually administer life-ending drugs to young patients. The study found that only 19 percent of the responding doctors were actually willing to take part in such a procedure. The study applauded and encouraged open and honest discussions of medically assisted death for mature minors, or minors that were too young or disabled to make decisions for themselves. On the other hand, the report recommended that palliative care, especially for minors should be improved and made more accessible, especially to minors. It also suggested that those most closely affected need to be extensively consulted on what the possible impacts of laws allowing medically assisted death for minors would be. A surprise baby four years ago when she was 43 convinced Jackie Miles she needed permanent birth control. The mother-of-three wanted to put her childbearing years behind her. But it was a decision Jackie has lived to regret bitterly. She is one of more than 34,000 women worldwide who claim theyve suffered a range of crippling problems after receiving a contraceptive device known as Essure. The device consists of a tiny flexible metal and plastic spring that is inserted into each of the two fallopian tubes. It works by irritating the lining, causing scar tissue to form and permanently block the tube. Jackie Miles (pictured with children Callum, Ellie and Ryan) is one of more than 34,000 women worldwide who claim theyve suffered a range of problems after receiving a contraceptive device known as Essure While Essure has worked for many women, in others the device has triggered a range of side-effects including allergic reactions and the devices themselves migrating, perforating organs and causing crippling pain. Worryingly, a major study published in the BMJ in 2015 found that women who had Essure were ten times more likely to need further surgery as a result, compared to traditional sterilisation. Since the procedures approval, there have been thousands of reports of adverse events but there is little information regarding its safety and efficacy, the researchers concluded. It has emerged that the only data confirming Essures safety and efficacy ahead of its approval in 2001 were collected by doctors funded by the manufacturers, not by independent researchers. It was also based only on short-term trials. Now a number of British women are in the early stages of a class action against the manufacturer, the pharmaceutical giant Bayer. As Good Health has revealed over the past two weeks, the problems with Essure are not unique. While Essure has worked for many women, in others the device has triggered a range of side-effects including allergic reactions and the devices themselves migrating, perforating organs and causing crippling pain. Pictured: Jackie Miles The standards for approving medical devices, including internal defibrillators, hip replacements and incontinence mesh, are less rigorous than for drug licensing and there are concerns that patients are not being adequately protected. Its not just the licensing process that worries some experts its what happens when devices turn out to be faulty, and the perceived lack of official action. As Professor Carl Heneghan, the director of the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (which has been raising concerns about medical device regulation for 12 years), says: How much evidence do you need to say: Lets withdraw this from the market? For although the women affected by Essure say theyve reported their problems to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the body that regulates medical devices, there is no sign of an investigation nor will the MHRA produce records of the number who say theyve been injured by the devices, citing manufacturers commercial confidentiality. Instead, last month the MHRA announced that Bayer itself had decided to withdraw Essure from European markets. The manufacturer has advised this is a commercial decision and is not related to any safety concerns, the MHRA said. There is no need for women to have their device removed. Patient safety is our highest priority. We encourage any woman who has experienced a complication from Essure to report this to us through the yellow card scheme, regardless of how long ago the device was inserted. However, by its own admission, the MHRAs yellow card safety reporting scheme is little understood and little used, with fewer than 10 per cent of all adverse reactions reported. We know theres under reporting of adverse incidents and we need professionals and patients to tell us about issues, Michael Kipping, the MHRA group manager for medical devices and surveillance, told Good Health. From my perspective I would love to have registries of pretty much all devices so we can monitor safety over a period of time. By way of contrast, in the U.S., where Essure is still available, the authorities have more power and have taken a more proactive approach, with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) telling Bayer to put a black box warning on packaging, to alert women to the potential harms, and to carry out post-marketing surveillance to establish the true number of women damaged. Jackie, one of up to 400 women in Britain who have complained to the MHRA about Essure, says she chose to have it after being told it was safe, effective, hormone-free and could be implanted without general anaesthetic in minutes. But as Jackie, from the Wirral, who works as a senior manager for the YMCA, recalls: The doctor got one of the springs in but couldnt get the other into position. I was told to come back eight weeks later for a traditional sterilisation (where they cut the fallopian tubes or put clips on them). Within a year Jackie was seriously unwell, doubled up by what seemed like permanent period pain on one side, while her stomach swelled to the size of a nine-month pregnancy; she also began to suffer crippling fatigue, severe headaches and a rash on her neck. I went back and forth to the doctor but kept being sent away with painkillers, says Jackie, now sole parent of her ten-year-old and four-year-old after her relationship with her youngest sons father collapsed, in part due to her health problems. Finally, last year I met a GP who took the problem seriously. She referred me to a kidney specialist who said she could see an unidentified object on an X-ray. She sent me to a gynaecologist who discovered that when they sterilised me with the clips, they had left the Essure in. Ive now found out Essure is made of nickel which Im allergic to. Jackie has been told the only solution is surgery to remove her womb, fallopian tubes and ovaries, but NHS waiting lists mean the earliest date for this is next March. The pain is getting worse and worse, Jackie says. If I dont work, I cant pay the mortgage. I dont know how Im going to keep going if I have to wait another six months to be treated. Essure was introduced by the NHS in 2002 as a cheaper alternative to sterilisation under general anaesthetic to cut the fallopian tubes, or cauterise or close them off with tiny staples or clips. Placing the device takes less than 20 minutes: it is inserted via the womb into the fallopian tubes. The device is made of nickel, titanium and stainless steel rods wrapped in fibres made from plastic. In the trials carried out ahead of Essures launch, the coils were tested in women for between three months to two years. The researcher who led the BMJ study that revealed the higher surgery rate for women after Essure, Professor Art Sedrakyan, of Cornell University in New York, said he undertook it because there had been no large studies comparing Essures safety and efficacy with the traditional procedure. Once in use, a number of women experienced problems ranging from irregular bleeding, discomfort and unexplained skin discolouration, to other severe injuries, with the devices lodging in nearby tissue, causing excruciating pain, or perforating other organs. While Essure has been licensed for use in Europe and the U.S., it appears that the U.S. system for licensing medical devices is more demanding. In Europe they are licensed by a network of 59 notified bodies, commercial organisations that charge manufacturers a fee to give them a CE safety mark. The product can then be sold in the EU. Although human trial data is recommended for some higher-risk devices, requirements for such data varies from one notified body to the next, and there are suggestions that some manufacturers seek out those with the lowest requirements. Conditions of approval of medical devices are kept secret and so are details of adverse reactions. By contrast, in the U.S., manufacturers of high-risk devices must provide evidence from human clinical trials showing reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness. All data is publicly available. A study by researchers at Kings College London and Harvard Medical School published last year, pointed out that devices approved under the European system were twice as likely to be recalled by safety alerts as devices that had gone through the more rigorous U.S. system. Tamlin Bolton, of law firm Leigh Day, is acting for 30 Essure complainants. We want a full MHRA investigation of the safety and efficacy of Essure, she said. Others point out that the problems with Essure affect a minority. Professor Justin Clark, a senior gynaecologist at Birmingham Womens Hospital, said he has implanted about 1,500 devices since 2004 between 20 and 30 have had to be removed, because of migration, perforation of organs and pain. These complaints are obviously real but my view is that its still a good technology and there is no compelling evidence against it, he said. Yet for those affected, like Janice Faulkner, a 45-year-old mother-of-five, from Warrington, Cheshire, this is not good enough. She experienced years of health problems she now blames on Essure which she had thought had been removed years earlier. When shed had the Essure implanted in 2008, she was told a scan showed one of the springs was missing. Janice, then working as a disputes adviser for an energy company, says she was offered a normal sterilisation. When I woke up, I assumed they had taken out the Essure devices and tied off the fallopian tubes. She began to experience severe back ache and joint pain and was diagnosed with arthritis, then fibromyalgia. My bladder stopped working, my mobility was gone, I couldnt walk or leave the house. I had to give up my job, she says. Other symptoms included skin discolouration and rashes, bloating and a huge weight gain. I started talking to people in the American online Essure womens support groups, but when I went to hospital about it, doctors laughed and said I was menopausal and crazy, she says. But they agreed to remove the Essure devices. Janice says the relief after the operation in June last year was instant. Her bladder control returned straightaway, the pain and bloating vanished and her weight dropped rapidly from 18st to 11st. I had been out of work for five years, but it was as if I instantly got my life back. I got a new job and was immediately back to normal, she says. Janice set up a support group, Life After Essure UK, and has similar stories from other women. There must be lots of women out there who dont know whats wrong with them who deserve answers, she says. Bayer refused to respond to questions from Good Health about whether the company knows how many devices have been inserted, how many adverse reaction reports the company has received or whether problems are being monitored. A road accident 10 days ago has now led to the partial loss of hearing for two-and-a-half-year-old Aashika. Delhi Police have not yet arrested the accused named in the FIR. Aashika was involved in a violent accident when she was dragged for several meters after being hit by a commercial vehicle in South Delhi. The little girl has reportedly lost both of her ears after she was scrapped along the floor. A road accident that took place around 10 days ago has led to the partial loss of hearing for two-and-a-half-year-old Aashika Police have reportedly not even seized the vehicle in question but have seemingly encouraged the driver to continue with his daily schedule and report to police at his convenience. Mail Today has also learnt that a case has been registered at the Vasant Kunj (South) police station under Sections 279 and 337 of the IPC. 'The accused has been identified and his residential address has been shared by the victim's father. Rupesh (the accused) has gone to Bihar to see Chhat Pooja (Hindu Vedic festival). 'We will issue a notice to the owner of the car and ask him to come to the police station to handover the vehicle. Also, Rupesh will himself come to the police station to surrender,' said a police official involved in the investigation. Shunning the claims made by the police, Amit said: 'Despite having got all the leads in the case, including the CCTV footage, the cops are not taking any action. 'We want action against the accused as he is still roaming free and has been driving the same car.' The speeding Eeco car hits Aashika and drags her along the road for meters The accused 'immediately came out of the car and instead of helping the poor girl, he fled,' said Aashika's father The girl is still traumatised and whenever sees a car or hears a vehicle 'honk' she has a panic attack. Aashika also had to undergo a surgery following the accident. The horrifying accident took place on October 19, when Aashika was going to see her father at a Mother Dairy booth in West Green Farm area in Vasant Kunj. Her father is an employee at the booth. Aashika, on the day of the incident, was accompanied by her mother Asha, 25. The entire incident was captured on the CCTV camera, installed at the area. A copy of the footage is in possession of Mail Today. In the footage, the girl is seen running hurriedly to cross the at a T-point. In the meantime, a speeding Eeco car hits her and drags her along the road for meters. She then slips under the vehicle where the scrapping of her face and ears is believed to have occurred. 'Only after the eye-witnesses started shouting, was the errant driver alerted and then managed to apply the brakes. He immediately came out of the car and instead of helping the poor girl, he ended up fleeing,' explained victim's father, Amit Kumar, 27 said. In the footage it can be clearly seen that the people who were present at the spot tried to get hold of the driver - but in vain. However, according to reports, one Rupesh came to the spot hours later, and took the car away. The victim's parents rushed her to AIIMS Trauma centre where she underwent a surgery. It was only after the surgery that doctors declared that she had become partially deaf. However, the doctors also assured victims's family that they would soon artificially create ears for little Aashika. Donald Trump has officially announced he is running for president for a third time in 2024 in a speech attacking President Biden, the 'radical left' Democrats and their record in the two years since he left office. The former president defied Republican critics and those who blamed him for the GOP 's disappointing midterms to go full steam on stating his intent to be back in the Oval Office with the country 'being destroyed before our very lives'. 'I order to make America great and glorious again, I am today announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,' he confirmed to huge cheers. 'This won't be my campaign, this will be our campaign. Just like I promised in 2016, I am your voice,' he said while celebrating the last six years of the MAGA movement and the battle against 'corruption' in Washington. After months of speculation and with mounting legal battles, he filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission just moments before he began his speech to supporters at Mar-a-Lago. In his stately ballroom with opulent gold trimmings and chandeliers and in front of wife Melania and members of his family, he was introduced as the 'next president' to chants to 'USA'. 'America's comeback starts right now', he said, and then went on to attack Biden for record inflation, 'falling asleep at global conferences' and making the U.S. 'detestable' with the rest of the world. He celebrated Nancy Pelosi getting 'fired' with Republicans on the cusp of taking the House majority. EasyJet shares rose after it signed an agreement with insolvent Air Berlin to acquire part of its operations at Berlin Tegel airport for 40million (35million). The budget airline said the deal, which includes the lease of up to 25 A320 aircraft and other assets including landing slots, will help it become the leading airline in the German capital. The deal excludes start-up and transitional operating costs and is set to be concluded in December this year, subject to regulatory approvals. Expanding in Germany: EasyJet said the deal will help it become the leading airline in Berlin. Shares in the FTSE 100 listed company rose 2 per cent, or 27p, to 1,300p, making it the biggest riser on the bluechip index today. Neil Wilson, senior analyst at ETX Capital, said: Opportunistic growth is not without risks but this looks a smart move for the company as it builds out its presence in Berlin and Germany. With Monarch also being carved up there will be more scraps to fight over for the stronger carriers to cement their position. The deal comes as Air Berlin filed for insolvency in August and operated its last flight after 38 years of service on Friday. EasyJet has said it would be looking to employ 1,000 of Air Berlin's pilots and cabin crew as part of the deal. The airline also said it would announce its routes to and from Tegel in due course, and that it would run a reduced timetable at the airport during the winter before aiming for a complete summer schedule in 2018. Lufthansa plans to take over more than half of the Air Berlin fleet, and take on 3,000 staff, but the deal has yet to win competition clearance. Earlier this month, easyJet also submitted a bid for some of Alitalias assets. Alitalia filed to be put into administration earlier this year for the second time in less than a decade after workers rejected wage cuts linked to a 1.7billion rescue plan. The Highlands came to New York City last week as the company behind Hunter wellies brought typical Scottish weather into Grand Central Terminal. The outdoor brand showed off its boots and jackets using a greenhouse filled with mist, moss and the sound of rain but, mercifully, no midges. Alasdhair Willis, the firms creative director who is married to designer Stella McCartney, said the immersive environment, pictured below, aimed to take customers back to the firms roots. Stepping out: Hunter's showed off its boots and jackets using a greenhouse The US is Hunters largest market but it suffered a slowdown last year, according to the latest accounts. Sales fell from 114 million to 103 million in 2016, but pre-tax profits more than doubled from 2.2 million to 4.9 million because costs have reduced. A 2.2 million dividend was paid out. Hunter is majority-owned by US outfit Searchlight Capital Partners. Coventry Building Society has launched a new version of its Poppy Bond today which comes with a two per cent rate fixed until December 2020. The fixed bond is also available as a cash Isa for the first time and Britain's second biggest mutual will donate 0.15 per cent of total balances in the accounts as of the end of January 2018 to charity. That being the Royal British Legion whose Poppy Appeal began this week, to which Coventry BS has donated 14.5million since 2008. Poppy Appeal: Coventry BS has launched a three-year fix with a 2% rate - and it will donate 0.15% to the Royal British Legion The rate is a three-and-a-bit year fix, which can be beaten in the independent This is Money best buy tables. At present, Al-Rayan Bank offers a top 2.3 per cent rate to savers, followed by Ikano Bank at 2.21 per cent and Paragon Bank 2.2 per cent. Of course, nothing from these accounts heads to a charity. In the fixed cash Isa stakes, the Coventry bond is more competitive: only one other account beats it a 2.2 per cent rate from Yorkshire Bank. Claire Rowcliffe, director of fundraising at the Royal British Legion, said: 'This longstanding partnership continues to deliver much needed help to serving and ex-serving members of Britain's Armed Forces and their families. 'It is a great relationship which supports many of our services, including our vital rehabilitation centres for injured servicemen and women.' Withdrawals and closure prior to the maturity date are not permitted by Coventry Building Society - closures before maturity are subject to a 180 days' interest charge. It can be opened in branch, online or via the telephone. Mark Parsons, chief executive of the Coventry, said: 'Our Poppy savings accounts have proved incredibly popular. 'We hope our highly competitive Poppy Fixed Isa and Poppy Bond will be just as well received for their great value, and the wonderful work they support.' The father of a young mother who was battered to death with a dog chain by a violent thug has urged the killer's new partner to 'get out' of the relationship. David Craigie, who is now 33, accused Sonya Todd, 21, of cheating on him and then subjected her to a five-hour beating at their home in Methil, in Fife. Among the wounds were marks caused by a dog chain he kept for his Rottweiler. He was accused of murdering Ms Todd, who had a six-year-old daughter at the time, but pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of culpable homicide in light of evidence that her diabetes was a factor in her death. He was sentenced to six years in prison in 2008 but has since been released from prison. He is now engaged to be married to a woman who has mental health problems. Speaking to MailOnline Miss Todd's father, George, said he would be 'very worried' for any woman in a relationship with Craigie. David Craigie (pictured), who battered a young mother to death with a leash he kept for his Rottweiler, is now out of jail and dating a mentally ill woman Mr Todd, 66, from Methil, in Fife, told MailOnline: 'He's always been extremely violent and he's very domineering. I would feel very worried for anyone woman that is with him. I wouldn't just be worried for women with mental health issues, even though they are vulnerable, I would worry for any woman. 'With Sonya, it wasn't just physical abuse, it was emotional abuse as well. I see this girl's friends have tried to warn her about Craigie and we tried to warn Sonya lots of times about him because he was so domineering. 'But she didn't want to listen. Everything changed when she met him. She didn't get to have her own pals or anything. 'With Sonya I didn't know the extent of what was happening. I knew he was domineering but she had a number of beatings from him that she hid from us. 'I would tell this woman to get out and look at what Craigie has done in the past.' At his trial Craigie admitted repeatedly striking Miss Todd with a dog chain and scratching, biting, punching and kicking her during the five-hour ordeal. Another former girlfriend of Craigie, Michelle Spence, previously revealed how she fled Scotland after he attacked her with a crowbar. She said: 'I was with David for three-and-a-half years and he was violent for nearly all of it. 'He used to hold me down by putting his knees on my arms and then he would dig his nails into my arms. 'Everyone knew what was going on. Neighbours heard me scream and my friends and family saw all my black eyes. 'I was honest about what was happening and they all told me to leave him, but I loved him and couldn't see any way out of it. 'I tried fighting back, but that just made it worse.' 'He tried to hit me over the head with a crowbar and I managed to move out of the way.' Sonya Todd, 21, was killed in 2008 by Craigie after he accused her of cheating on him Craigie's new partner has a history of mental health problems and believes she is a four-year-old girl, friends say. She has spoken online about having foetal alcohol syndrome, ADHD, split personality disorder and behavioural problems as well as being emotionally unstable. The 31-year-old moves from hostel to hostel in Glasgow and frequently posts live videos on Facebook that are viewed by thousands of people. Her friends believe Craigie, who uses different aliases including Darren, Kinloch and Hutchieson, is taking advantage of her vulnerable state. One friend told the Daily Record: 'She is a very vulnerable adult. One of her split personalities is a four-year-old named Stacey who David insists calls him 'daddy'. 'She has been warned about him but she insists she doesn't care. She doesn't understand how violent this person can be. 'I find it very disturbing how he is allowed near a vulnerable adult who has social workers. Why haven't any of them stepped in?' But the woman has defended her relationship with Craigie explaining how she 'can't wait' to marry the killer. Speaking to MailOnline Miss Todd's father, George, said he would be 'very worried' for any woman in a relationship with Craigie Her Facebook account indicates they got engaged in August this year. She wrote on Facebook: 'To all my friends, thank you for not leaving me and supporting me through all the s*** I'm getting about my fiance. 'I've never been happier than I am now. I can't wait to marry David. 'I can't wait to move in with him. He's been there for me through all the s*** with my ex and I'll always be there for him. 'I love you baby so very much, more than anyone can imagine and I'm not getting away from him. 'I am with David so deal with it. If you don't like it, tough f****** bu*gers cause I ain't leaving my man just cause you don't like him or his past. 'David I love you ma boy forever xxxxxxxxxx.' She faced criticism after boasting about her relationship on social media and uploading pictures of her with Craigie. One woman, called Claire Smith, wrote: 'Sick vile man. We all know what you did to Sonya you f****** vile evil beast, left a poor little girl without a mum. You should have been given the death penalty. 'And to even own a dog again, police should have taken that off you. Get out while you can.' Craigie is currently living in a ground-floor flat in Fife and has a Great Dane-Alsatian cross. He has refused to comment on his new relationship. Advertisement At a house in Syria's Raqqa, women and men danced together in celebration at a wedding that would have been unimaginable just months ago, when the Islamic State group ruled the city. Ahmad and Heba's wedding, held Friday in Raqqa's western neighbourhood of Jazra, was the first in the city since US-backed forces seized it on October 17. Out on the patio, a man in a dark robe and a thick puffer vest spun his prayer beads to the beat as he led a line of men and women in the dabke, a Levantine dance performed at celebrations. The dancers hopped and swayed to-and-fro as children ran around. Elders looked on approvingly from seats and benches on the edge of the makeshift dance floor. Syrian women escort bride Heba on her way to wedding Ahmad in Raqqa, the first ceremony to take place since the city was liberated from the Islamic State The bride is given a traditional showering of money ahead of the wedding in the western suburb of Jazra, in the city of Raqqa. Such a ceremony would have been unthinkable just a few weeks ago The 18-year-old groom Ahmed (centre) is served tea ahead of tying the knot with bride-to-be Heba. His family were lucky in being able to return to their old neighbourhood A young girl takes a picture of the bride Heba and groom Ahmed while they are seated during amidst the wedding celebrations. During IS rule women were forced to dress from head to foot in black The group banned music and dancing, imposed a strict dress code, prevented women from wearing make-up, and forcefully prohibited the mixing of men and women. But in Jazra on Friday, music mingled with the sound of generators providing the only electricity in the ravaged district, which like much of the city was heavily damaged during more than four months of fighting. Jazra was one of the first districts of Raqqa to be captured by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters that broke into the city in June. The groom's family, unlike many others who fled Raqqa during the fighting, were able to return to their neighbourhood and celebrate. 'We're very happy, it's the first wedding since the jihadists left,' Ahmed's father Uthman Ibrahim said as he received guests. 'Before IS, there was dabke, songs and the traditional rituals of the region at our marriages, but IS banned everything, there was not a single celebration,' the man in his fifties told AFP. 'Today it's a return to joy,' he added, his face lit up with happiness. 'It's been a long time' - Syrian children, some of whom also used the opportunity to wear make-up, clap and dance during the wedding. When the Islamic State had the city in his iron-grip there was not a single celebration During the Islamic State people were forced to wear black but said one guest 'today everything is white' as Heba and Ahmad tied the knot A Syrian woman dances in front of bride Heba and groom Ahmed. Women who attended the wedding took great delight in being able to dance, which they were prevented from doing during the rule of the Islamic State Guests performed their traditional dances while poems were also read out at the ceremony. Almost everything in the scene would have been impossible during the three years of brutal IS rule. An elderly man, wearing a long robe and a pristine white headscarf, performed mawals, unaccompanied poetic songs sung across the Middle East. Female guests, forced under jihadist rule to wear all-enveloping black including gloves and face veils, took obvious delight in sporting patterned robes and bright red lipstick. Some covered their hair with matching patterned scarves, while others, including the bride, had their locks coiffed for the occasion. Seated on plastic chairs, the young bride and groom looked slightly nervous. Eighteen-year-old Ahmad wore a traditional brown robe, while his new wife was dressed in a frothy white wedding dress, a layer of tulle embroidered with a floral pattern draped over its ballgown bottom. A delicate veil edged with white flowers rested on her tightly curled hair, and a gold headpiece dangled over her eyebrows, darkened with make-up. Music mingled with the sound of generators providing the only electricity in the ravaged district where the wedding took place. Many of the women wore patterned scarves The delight on the faces of everyone who took past in the wedding is obvious. Many said they were 'tasting life again' after the dark days of the recent past Despite the joy of the wedding guests, much of their city is virtually uninhabitable. Many buildings have been destroyed and large parts of the city off-limits for fear of unexploded bombs Women guests at the took obvious delight in sporting patterned robes and bright red lipstick. Residents of Raqa said 'it has been a long time since we had a party' Her hands were painted with henna patterns and she fiddled nervously with a bouquet of artificial flowers. Around the couple, guests took photos with mobile phones while little girls also made-up with darkened eyebrows and coloured lips danced to the beat of the music. Other children handed out water or brought chairs for late arrivals. 'It's been a long time since we've had a party,' said Umm Ahmed, the groom's 25-year-old cousin, dressed in a traditional robe with black hair tumbling over her shoulders. 'We're celebrating with joy this marriage after the end of IS's rule,' she said with a large smile. 'We'll party as we like' - The smell of perfume hung in the air, and women ululated in celebration. Men and women caught performing traditional dancing together would have received harsh punishment during the rule of the Islamic State. 'It's been a long time since we've had a party,' said one of the women at the wedding, where the air was thick with perfume. People at the wedding said they had been waiting a long time for this moment. For the guests, it the ceremony represented a glimmer of hope for the future Groom Ahmad (left) looks on as children dance at his wedding. 'Raqqa will be happy again,' said the groom's aunt as the celebrations Khalaf al-Mohammed, another of the groom's cousins, was delighted by the celebration. 'It's been years since we danced the dabke, we're tasting life again,' the 27-year-old said, leading the line of dancers and spinning his prayer beads. 'Everyone was waiting for this moment. What use is there to a wedding when everything is black?' he asked, referring both to the robes IS imposed on women and to the colour of the group's flag. 'Today everything is white,' he said, with a smile. For now, Raqqa is virtually uninhabitable, with many buildings destroyed and large parts of the city off-limits for fear of unexploded ordnance. Hundreds of civilians were killed in the fighting and many residents are still searching for missing family members. But for the wedding guests, the celebration was a glimmer of hope for the future. 'Raqqa will be happy again,' said Khaldiya, the groom's aunt, 30, as she tapped out a beat on a small drum. 'No one will prevent us from singing and dancing. We will party as we like.' Diana Marini of Long Island, New York tried to rob a bank while her six-year-old daughter waited outside in a taxi, police say A mother in Long Island tried to rob a bank while her six-year-old daughter waited outside in a taxi, police say. Suffolk County police say 28-year-old Diana Marini entered a Chase bank in Islandia, New York at 1pm on Saturday and gave the teller a note demanding cash. They said the teller handed over an undisclosed amount of money and Marini fled in a taxi that was waiting for her. Police stopped the taxi and found Marini and her 6-year-old inside. Marini was arrested on charges of robbery and endangering the welfare of a child. It's not clear if she has an attorney who could comment on the charges. A Suffolk County Police statement said: 'Suffolk County Police today arrested a woman for robbing an Islandia bank while she left her daughter in a waiting taxi this afternoon. 'Diana Marini entered Chase Bank, located at 1455 Veterans Memorial Highway, and presented a note demanding cash. The teller complied and the woman fled in a waiting taxi at approximately 1:05 p.m. 'Fourth Precinct Police Officer James Tobin responded and located the taxi, the suspect, and the suspects six-year-old daughter. 'Major Case detectives charged Marini, 28, of Brentwood, New York with Robbery 1 Degree and Endangering the Welfare of a Child. 'She will be held overnight at the Fourth Precinct and is scheduled for arraignment at First District Court in Central Islip tomorrow. 'The child was released to family members and Suffolk County CPS was notified. Todd Boyes, 44, (pictured here) of Caldwell, Ohio, walked out of the South Central Regional Jail in civilian clothes Wednesday morning A West Virginia inmate who escaped from jail two days before his sentencing has been captured along the Mexico border in Texas. Todd Boyes, 44, of Caldwell, Ohio, walked out of the South Central Regional Jail in civilian clothes Wednesday morning. Lawrence Messina, West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety spokesman, said in a statement that Boyes was captured at about 4am Sunday. He was discovered about 1,500 miles from the South Central Regional Jail which is when officials drove him to Laredo, Texas. He was trying to cross the Rio Grande River at Laredo. 'We figured he was heading for the border and getting out of the country, so we couldn't touch him,' Trooper Tiffany Huffman told WSAZ. Messina said Boyes was given a medical evaluation, then taken to the Webb County Jail in Texas. Boyes had changed into khaki pants and a dark gray zip-up jacket when he escaped on Wednesday, however jail staff didn't notice until around 7 pm Thursday evening. A review of the facility's jail's security video showed Boyes leaving the facility the previous morning. He is pictured here wearing khaki pants and a dark gray zip-up jacket whilst escaping the jail It is currently unclear how Boyes managed to escape without alerting jail employees. Boyes was scheduled to be sentenced Friday for up to 20 years on charges including fleeing and possession of a stolen car. In September he pleaded guilty to charges relating to a 45 minute long police pursuit. He was initially charged with attempted murder after Charleston police Cpl. Renee Smith was hurt during a pursuit to arrest him, but the charge was dropped in a September plea deal. 'We remember dealing with him, and we remember that he doesn't have a lot of ties to West Virginia, so immediately we got the US Marshals involved,' Huffman said. 'We did everything we could to find out everything we could about this man, where he might be, where he might go, because he was such a high-risk inmate and such a dangerous guy.' Boyes escaped from South Central Regional Jail in West Virginia and after being discovered near the Rio Grande River at Laredo he was taken to a jail near there Courtesy WSAZ According to investigators, the 5-foot-6, 220-pound Boyes obtained khaki pants and a dark green or grey jacket he wore to escape by posing as a civilian or jail trusty. Three end-of-shift head counts failed to alert jail staff to his disappearance. Messina said four jail employees have been suspended without pay pending the results of an investigation. The Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety said: 'Officials at both the Regional Jail Authority and the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety consider the incident to be a grave and unacceptable breach of our core duty to protect our fellow West Virginians.' 'We intend to address the episode and the results of the ongoing investigation with the utmost seriousness.' A $1.5million renovation project at the home of a woman accused of witchcraft during the 1692 Salem witch trials is nearing completion. The ramshackle homestead in Framingham, Massachusetts, is where Sarah Clayes resettled after she was accused of witchcraft and managed to escape the hangman's noose. The renovation has been a yearslong effort that is expected to be completed in the spring. 'This is an amazing piece of national history, and it was just falling apart,' said Annie Murphy, executive director of the Framingham History Center and a member of the Sarah Clayes House Trust, formed several years ago to save the structure. In addition to its connection to the witch trials, the house is thought to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad and once housed Secret Service agents assigned to protect President Franklin D. Roosevelt's son when he lived nearby. A worker walks outside the 17th-century homestead where a woman accused of witchcraft lived in Framingham, Massachusetts, after leaving Salem following the 1692 witch trials The $1.5million renovation of the Peter and Sarah Clayes House has been a yearslong effort that is expected to be completed in the spring In addition to its connection to the witch trials, the house is thought to have been a stop on the Underground Railroad and once housed Secret Service agents assigned to protect President Franklin D. Roosevelt's son when he lived nearby The home on Salem End Road was privately owned until it was essentially abandoned after a foreclosure around 2000. It fell into disrepair. Vandals smashed the windows and defaced the interior. The paint peeled, the woodwork rotted and waist-high weeds grew in the yard. THE SALEM WITCH TRIALS In 1692, mass hysteria swept through Salem, Massachusetts. Superstitious townspeople, fearful of the devil, began accusing men and women of witchcraft and hounded scores of 'witches' to put on trial. The hysteria began after a group of young girls in claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. As a hysteria spread throughout Massachusetts, a court convened in Salem to hear the cases. The first convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hanged that June. Eighteen others followed and some 150 more men, women and children were accused over the next several months. Trials continued with until May 1693. But by that May, the governor of Massachusetts had pardoned and released all those in prison. Advertisement Local kids who used the building as a party spot called it the 'witch house.' Sarah Clayes, whose last name is sometimes spelled Cloyce, was jailed during the witch trials, which claimed the lives of 20 people, including her sisters Rebecca Nurse and Mary Easty. She was freed in 1693 when the government realized the lunacy of killing innocents over unsubstantiated accusations. Sarah and Peter Clayes, as well as about 50 members of their extended family, got out of town. 'They wanted to get away from Salem, clearly, as a lot of people did,' said Emerson Baker, a Salem State University history professor and witch trials expert who's not involved with the effort to preserve the house. One of the judges during the trials was Thomas Danforth, a former deputy governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony who owned land about 35 miles southwest of Salem. 'We assume Danforth took pity on Peter and Sarah and offered them the land,' Baker said. Many of the Salem refugees became pillars of the town that in 1700 was incorporated as Framingham. Sarah Clayes was jailed during the witch trials, which claimed the lives of 20 people, including her sisters Rebecca Nurse and Mary Easty. A page of a book published in 1702 is shown above An accused witch is shown going through the judgement trial, where she is dunked in water to prove her guilt of practicing witchcraft This drawing is called: 'The Arrest.' The original caption says: 'Illustration shows an officer of the law leading away an elderly woman, who has her hands out in a gesture of innocence' Probably the only thing remaining - if anything - of the original 1693 house is the rough-hewn stone foundation, Murphy said. But 17th century maps of the area clearly show the Clayes house at the exact location. The house that still stands dates to 1776. One of the trust's first tasks was to figure out who held the mortgage, which during the financial crisis was sold so many times that nobody could figure out who held it. Attorney and trust member Stephen Meltzer helped trace it to Goldman Sachs Mortgage Co. Goldman Sachs bought the house at auction in 2015 and donated it to the nonprofit Land Conservation and Advocacy Trust, founded to provide legal assistance to help preserve historic places. The renovations are being financed by several members of the Sarah Clayes House Trust and supervised by Ned Murphy of E.J. Murphy & Co., who has decades of experience restoring historic homes. The project has been one of the most challenging of his career. So much of the woodwork has rotted that the house sagged and one of his first jobs was to hoist it several inches. The house was expanded several times over the centuries using different construction methods and materials. 'Part of the challenge is just the strangeness of the construction,' said Murphy, Annie Murphy's husband. The home on Salem End Road was privately owned until it was essentially abandoned after a foreclosure around 2000 The house sat falling into disrepair and endured vandalism and neglect until the Sarah Clayes House Trust stepped in to restore the structure and preserve its history The renovation was a difficult undertaking because the home had been expanded and altered several times so its construction is confusing and mismatched When the renovations are complete, the home will be sold to a private buyer, who under preservation laws won't be allowed to make substantial changes and will also have to open the house for tours one day a year. Despite the preservation restrictions, Annie Murphy doesn't anticipate any problems finding a buyer. 'Anybody who buys this house is going to have to love history and they're not going to want to change anything,' she said. In July of this year, two communities in Massachusetts honored the 20 people suspected of witchcraft were put to death in 1692. In Danvers and Salem, both known as Salem Village at the time, there were three mass hangings that killed 19 people total, and the last suspect was crushed to death. A semi-circular stone wall with inscriptions serves to remember the mistakes that were made during the trials. When the renovations are complete, the home will be sold to a private buyer, who under preservation laws won't be allowed to make substantial changes The potential buyer will also have to open the house for tours one day a year Paint peels off the walls on the interior of the house after it sat vacant for nearly 20 years A community in north London has launched an innovative campaign to block plans for a multi-million pound apartment block marketed at foreign investors. They say that the development would block precious light to a children's school, a park and to hundreds of nearby residents homes. In this latest battle of community versus capital, residents of Golden Lanes estate have turned their apartment block into an artist's canvas draped with bright banners that shout eloquent opposition to the redevelopment of Bernard Morgan House on Golden Lane. People power: A community have launched an innovative campaign to oppose a development on Golden Lane in north London which they said threatens their community Leading artists and writers, including Turner Prize winners and a Booker Prize nominated author composed many of the slogans in support of local residents' rights to light and to happy, healthy homes. 'Children need sunlight to grow,' and Zombie Investors Take Stock, are some of the words that spell out dissent to the development on the building across the road from the site. And this is not the only example of new forms of protest that London's citizens are adopting in a bid to protect their communities from the hungry advance of developers. UN investigators are currently examining whether gentrification is breaching human rights in London after a Latino market in Seven Sisters contested plans to bulldoze and redevelop the site which locals say is a vital community asset. Pueblito Paisas fight against developers could have major implications for planning law and local campaigners against the Golden Lane redevelopment hope it could help their case. Developers Tailor Wimpy purchased Bernard Morgan House from the council in 2015, which previously provided accommodation to police officers. The proposed new development for the site, which is called The Denizen, would stretch to 10 storeys and include no affordable housing. Campaigner and Golden Lanes resident Deborah Philips said that the planned luxury development threatens the very fabric of their community just to provide 1,000,000 apartments to wealthy investors. 'We have built a strong community here and we love this estate, now it is being threatened by Tailor Wimpy who want to provide safes in the sky for investors in Hong Kong to buy apartments that are often left empty.' The Denizen development will steal precious light from our only green space in the area, Fortune Street Park, which is used to capacity year round by local residents and workers,' Ms Philips said. Three schools - a primary, secondary and nursery - are situated by the park which provides a vital resource to children, she said. She said the Taylor Wimpey development is grossly out of proportion and looms over the park, blocking much-needed light. It will also block up to 70% of light in apartments in Golden Lanes estate, a Grade II listed structure with a thriving local community, she said. 'Some residents have lived here since 1957. Its the kind of place you dont ever want to move from,' Ms Philips said. In this latest battle of community versus capital, residents of Golden Lanes estate have turned their apartment block into an artist's canvas draped with bright banners that shout eloquent opposition to the re-development of Bernard Morgan House in Golden Lane And the new development would provide no benefit - except to wealthy investors, she said. London has already experienced the phenomenon of 'ghost homes' or properties bought for investment purposes only to be left empty, and residents fear this will happen at Golden Lane too. 'There is a desperate need for social and key worker housing in the City of London. 'Instead of providing for people and families in need of a home which they can afford, The Denizen is aimed at the wealthy investment buyer. 'What is happening here is typical of what happens all over London in terms of property speculation and over-development.' She said that the community have applied to the High Court for a Judicial Review but the legal process will take several months. They have established a crowd justice page to help them meet the legal costs. Taylor Wimpey plans to build 99 apartments with a communal lounge, a games room, and cinema room for residents with prices starting from 790,000 on the site. It has agreed to pay 4.5 million to the local authority in lieu of providing affordable housing there. Local residents, writers and artists designed colourful banners to shout opposition to the proposed re-development of Bernard Morgan House which stands opposite their homes A spokesperson for Tailor Wimpey told MailOnline that it has worked with the City of London to design a development that fulfils the potential of the block. The spokesperson said that the company's planning application was reviewed and consented by the City of London, and concerns were considered as part of this process. But Ms Philips said that it breaks many guidelines in The City of Londons Local Plan and The Golden Lane Estate Listed Guidelines. Residents have also questioned whether planning committee members, including chairman Christopher Hayward, should have declared commercial interests that connect them with the developer. Ms Philips said that the when the building provided affordable accommodation to police workers it had a positive influence on the community but now the area has seen a surge in drug use. She said the community deserves to have its voice heard on how the planned development of the old police section house will now impact their lives. She said that protecting and supporting communities is vital if we are to build a strong, safe and prosperous city. 'People feeling part of a community is important to their physical and mental well-being. 'Better health means less impact on local health services; less crime and less damage to community assets. 'People who feel safe in their community mix more readily with each other and form vital connections which create this sense of community and support. 'Healthier and happier people are more productive, so the gains are positive for the economy. 'Vulnerable people in London can go under the radar, elderly people can stay in their homes isolated and unnoticed, those with mental health issues can blend into the crowds, and parents can struggle. 'Having a strong community can help and protect vulnerable members of our community and society,' Ms Philips said. The head of Puerto Rico's power company said Sunday the agency will cancel its $300million contract with Whitefish Energy Holdings amid increased scrutiny of the tiny Montana company's role in restoring the island's power system following Hurricane Maria. The announcement by Ricardo Ramos came hours after Governor Ricardo Rossello urged the utility to scrap the deal for Whitefish's help in rebuilding the electrical system. 'It's an enormous distraction,' Ramos said of the controversy over the contract. 'This was negatively impacting the work we're already doing.' The current work by Whitefish teams will not be affected by the cancellation and that work will be completed in November, Ramos said. He said the cancellation will delay pending work by 10 to 12 weeks if no alternatives are found. Whitefish Energy Holdings workers restore power lines damaged by Hurricane Maria in Barceloneta, Puerto Rico in this October 15 file photo. On Sunday, Puerto Rico's power company announced that its $300million contract with Whitefish will be terminated The move comes as Governor Ricardo Rossello called for the cancellation of the contract amid increased scrutiny of the controversial company (pictured is a Whitefish pickup truck in Puerto Rico on October 25) Ramos said he had not talked with Whitefish executives about his announcement. 'A lawsuit could be forthcoming,' he warned. Whitefish spokesman Chris Chiames told The Associated Press that the company was 'very disappointed' in the governor's decision, and said it would only delay efforts to restore power. He said Whitefish brought 350 workers to Puerto Rico in less than a month and it expected to have 500 more by this week. Chiames said the company completed critical work, including a project that will soon lead to a half million people in San Juan getting power. 'We will certainly finish any work that (the power company) wants us to complete and stand by our commitments,' he said. Roughly 70 per cent of the U.S. territory remains without power more than a month after Maria struck on September 20 as a Category 4 storm with winds of up to 154mph. Ramos said Sunday that the total of cost of restoring the system would come to $1.2billion. The cancellation is not official until approved by the utility's board. Ramos said it would take effect 30 days after that. Ramos said the company already has paid Whitefish $10.9million to bring its workers and heavy equipment to Puerto Rico and has a $9.8million payment pending for work done so far. Regarding the controversy over his company, Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski (pictured) previously said: 'I think that there are people out there on a witch hunt looking for something that does not exist' The company is headquartered (pictured) outside of Whitefish, Montana and had two full-time employees when the contract was made Ramos said cancellation of the contract will not lead to a penalty, but it's likely the government will pay at least $11million for the company to go home early, including all costs incurred in the month after the cancellation. Federal investigators have been looking into the contract awarded to the small company from Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's hometown, and the deal is being audited at the local and federal level. Ramos said the company contacted Puerto Rico's Electric Power Authority two days before the storm hit, at a time when it was becoming clear the hurricane could cause massive damage. Ramos earlier said he had spoken with at least five other companies that demanded rates similar to those of Whitefish, but also wanted a down payment the agency did not have. He said Sunday he hadn't consulted with anyone else about signing the deal and didn't notify the governor's office for a week. He again praised Whitefish's work. 'They're doing an excellent job,' he said. 'There's nothing illegal here... Of that, we're sure,' he said, adding that he welcomes a federal investigation. 'The process was done according to the law.' Ramos said his agency at first believed the Federal Emergency Management Agency pre-approved contracts, something the agency has denied. FEMA said it has not approved any reimbursement requests from the power company for money to cover repairs to the island's electrical system. The contract said the utility would not pay costs unallowable under FEMA grants, but it also said: 'The federal government is not a party to this contract.' FEMA has raised concerns about how Whitefish got the deal and whether the contracted prices were reasonable. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is from Whitefish and his son had worked at a Whitefish construction site. Pictured are Whitefish Energy workers in Puerto Rico Zinke's personal connection to Whitefish led many to believe that the contract was won due to it. Pictured are Whitefish Energy workers in Puerto Rico The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) criticized the deal with Whitefish, whose employees are pictured in Puerto Rico. Whitefish hired more than 300 workers after the deal was made The two-year-old company had just two full-time employees when the storm hit, but it has since hired more than 300 workers. The White House had no comment Sunday. Last week, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the federal government had no role in the process that led to awarding the contract. 'This was something solely determined by the Puerto Rican government,' she said Friday. Rossello said he has requested that crews from New York and Florida come help restore power in Puerto Rico as he criticized the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for not meeting its goals. The agency could not be immediately reached for comment. San Juan, Puerto Rico mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz tweeted about the deal: 'if @WhitefishEnergy feels that asking for transparency is "misplaced", what are they afraid we will find' Whitefish Energy, in a tweet for which the company later apologized, replied: 'We've got 44 linemen rebuilding power lines in your city and 40 more men just arrived. Do you want us to send them back or keep working' The governor also announced the appointment of an outside coordinator to oversee the power company's purchase and contracting division. 'If something illegal was done, once again, the officials involved in that process will feel the full weight of the law, and I will take administrative actions,' Rossello said. A Whitefish contract obtained by The Associated Press found that the deal included $20,277 an hour for a heavy lift Chinook helicopter, $650 an hour for a large crane truck, $322 an hour for a foreman of a power line crew, $319 an hour for a journeyman lineman and $286 an hour for a mechanic. Each worker also gets a daily allowance of $80 for food, $332 for a hotel room and $1,000 for each flight to or from the mainland. The company is based in Whitefish, Montana. Its headquarters are made up of a one-story wooden house that sits at the end of a long, gravel driveway. On one side, there's a small horse farm and on the other side are signs that read 'Private Property'. Zinke, a former Montana congressman, knows Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski, and Zinke's son also had a summer job at a Whitefish construction site. Techmanski has recently defended the contract and said he came into contact with officials at the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA) through LinkedIn. 'I think that there are people out there on a witch hunt looking for something that does not exist,' he told NBC News. This photo from September 22 shows horse carcasses on the side of the road in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria Smashed poles and snarled power lines brought down by Hurricane Maria are pictured in Humacao, Puerto Rico on September 20 The controversy over the no-bid contract also sparked a Twitter battle between the company and the mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz. Cruz described the company as 'inadequate' and asked for transparency. 'If @WhitefishEnergy feels that asking for transparency is "misplaced", what are they afraid we will find?' Cruz tweeted on Wednesday. Whitefish Energy responded by posting: 'We've got 44 linemen rebuilding power lines in your city & 40 more men just arrived. Do you want us to send them back or keep working?' The company later apologized. The Daily Beast reported that language in the now-voided Whitefish contract appeared to prevent any government body from an audit or a review of 'the cost and profit elements' of its contract. 'I had absolutely nothing to do with Whitefish Energy receiving a contract in Puerto Rico,' Zinke recently said in a statement linked to a tweet. 'Any attempts by the dishonest media or political operatives to tie me to awarding or influencing any contract involving Whitefish are completely baseless.' Rio Abajo residents Carlos Ocasio Borrero (left) and Luis Santiago (right) clean up debris in Utuado on October 27 The same two residents are pictured cleaning debris while a resident waits to climb a ladder Pictured is a mud- and debris-filled classroom at Luis M Santiago School in Toa Baja, Puerto Rico which remains closed as of late October Democrats also have questioned the role of HBC Investments, a key financial backer of Whitefish. The Dallas-based company's founder and general partner, Joe Colonnetta, has contributed thousands of dollars to President Donald Trump and other Republicans. Chiames, the Whitefish spokesman, has said that Colonnetta's political donations were 'irrelevant' and that the company would cooperate with any federal authorities. This week, Representative Rob Bishop, the Utah Republican who heads the House Natural Resources Committee, sent the power company director a letter demanding documents, including those related to the contract with Whitefish and others that show what authority the agency has to deviate from normal contracting processes. 'Transparent accountability at (the power company) is necessary for an effective and sustained recovery in Puerto Rico,' his office said in a statement. A federal control board that oversees Puerto Rico's finances announced this week that retired Air Force Colonel Noel Zamot will be in charge of power reconstruction efforts. Rossello and other officials have rejected the appointment, saying the local government is in charge of a power company that is $9billion in debt and had struggled with outages before hurricanes Irma and Maria last month. Rugby league star George Burgess was filmed drinking from a shoe on a wild night out with surf-wear moguls The Mad Hueys over the weekend. The South Sydney Rabbitohs player was pictured in a dimly lit bar, holding what appears to be a man's dress shoe up to his mouth and drinking from it. Burgess' friends can be heard cheering in the background as he finishes the shoe full of alcohol. Scroll down for video Rugby league star George Burgess was filmed drinking from a shoe as he partied with surfwear moguls The Mad Hueys on Saturday Burgess recently re-signed with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, extending his contract until November 2019 He wasn't the only one to trade a traditional glass for a piece of footwear as the group partied on Saturday. Video shared as a temporary Instagram Story shows another man filling a shoe with Dom Perignon champagne while holding up a limited edition luminous bottle worth at least $500. Holding eye contact with the camera, he drinks his shoe of bubbles before pouring another and appearing to hand the footwear to another. The video was tagged 'cooked chook', and a woman can be heard calmly in the background explaining the man was 'skulling champagne'. Burgess may have been celebrating with his friends over the weekend, after re-signing with the Rabbitohs until 2019. The club is understood to have wanted to finish up negotiations with Burgess ahead of November 1, when contracts on their last year expire, leaving star players exposed to the open market. His new deal means the three brothers will all continue to play for South Sydney until 2019, with George's twin Tom already on contract to do so, and his older brother Sam signing on for another two years recently. Pauline Hanson could soon be deciding Queensland's future. In less than four weeks, her One Nation party may be called upon to choose who rules the Sunshine State, with polls showing a hung parliament after the November 25 election. Former Labor minister Rob Schwarten, who spent 20 years as a member for Rockhampton in central Queensland, predicts regional voters disenchanted by the major parties will be crucial. Pauline Hanson's One Nation party could decide who governs Queensland after the election 'It's about the resurgence of that mob called One Nation,' he told Daily Mail Australia on Monday. 'These parties flourish in a vacuum that's been created by the major parties, failing to re-calibrate their message and their policies with ordinary people.' Retiring independent speaker Peter Wellington, who helped Labor form a minority government in 1998 and again in January 2015, isn't ruling out One Nation deciding who forms holds power in Queensland. 'Look, anything is possible,' he said. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk could be at sea politically without a majority Retiring independent Speaker Peter Wellington says the major parties may need One Nation 'Major parties always campaign on the basis that they will govern alone.' Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk promised on Sunday not to govern with the support of One Nation, after she visited the Acting Governor, Chief Justice Catherine Holmes, to call an election. Her Liberal National Party opponent Tim Nicholls is also vowing to avoid making any deal with Pauline Hanson's party. One Nation is averaging 16 per cent in regional Queensland but Griffith University politics lecturer Paul Williams says it's still 18 to 20 per cent and in some seats 'it might hit 30 to 40 per cent.' Liberal National Party leader Tim Nicholls' party has lost support since the January 2015 poll A Reachtel poll, published earlier this month in the Sunday Mail, had Labor's primary vote at a low 32.1 per cent, a sharp drop from 37.5 per cent at the January 2015 election. The LNP stocks had fallen further, with its support plummeting to 30.6 per cent from 41.3 per cent. One Nation is regarded as the hot favourite to take the farming seat of Lockyer, west of Brisbane, which Pauline Hanson almost won as the candidate in 2015. Her party won 11 seats at the 1998 election and is expected to pick up some regional seats at this year's election. The major parties in Queensland may be dancing to Pauline Hanson's political tune very soon However, Mr Schwarten is confident many regional One Nation voters will give their second preference to the ruling Labor Party, which is telling voters to put the right-wing party last. 'That vote has got to go someone in a second preference and it's more likely, in my view, to go back to Labor,' he said. Mr Wellington said Labor could possibly govern without the need to court the support of One Nation or Katter's Australian Party MP Robbie Katter. Former Labor minister Rob Schwarten said fed-up regional voters would be crucial this time 'I haven't written off the Labor Party's ability to govern in their own right,' he said. 'I'm certainly not sensing the degree of anger that we certainly had prior to the last two state elections.' Queensland voters will have to number every square on the ballot for the first time since 1989. Jared Kushner recently returned from an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia along with a security adviser and Middle East envoy, it has emerged. Kushner was joined by deputy national security adviser Dina Powell and Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, and returned to the US on Saturday by commercial jet, a White House official told Politico. It's unclear who Kushner met out there, or what was discussed - and the White House isn't saying - but a friend of Kushner's said it was part of a long game to solve the Israel-Palestine dispute. Jared Kushner returned from Saudi Arabia on Saturday; the purpose of his visit is unknown but he has an accord with Saudi's crown prince, Mohammad Bin Salman (left) 'Jared has always been driven to try and solve the Israel-Palestinian dispute,' said Tom Barrack, a billionaire real-estate devleoper and longtime friend of Kushner's. 'The key to solving that dispute is Egypt. And the key to Egypt is Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia.' It's unclear who Kushner met on this visit, but Politico notes that he has built a friendship with Saudi's crown prince, Mohammad Bin Salman. He previously visited in May and August of this year, on publicly announced trips to the country. The White House refused to give any further details on his visit, only saying in a statement that Kushner, Powell and Greenblatt 'recently returned from Saudi Arabia.' However, it did note that Kushner, referred to as 'The Senior Adviser', has played a role in communicating with Middle East governments. 'The Senior Advisor has also been in frequent contact with officials from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Saudi Arabia,' it added. Kushner's friend said that the adviser (seen in Saudi in May) hoped to help the Israel-Palestine conflict by opening a dialog with Egypt - which meant going through Saudi Arabia 'While these regional talks will play an important role, the President reaffirms that peace between Israelis and Palestinians can only be negotiated directly between the two parties and that the United States will continue working closely with the parties to make progress toward that goal.' Kushner returned on Saturday in time for a surprise birthday dinner for Ivanka Trump, while Greenblatt continued on to visit several other areas of the Middle East. They were Amman, Jordan; Cairo, Egypt; the West Bank city of Ramallah; and - as of Sunday - Jerusalem. Kushner traveled separately from Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who went to the Saudi capital of Riyadh last week to discuss closing down terrorists' funding. Eighty sailors were sacked by the Navy after testing positive for drugs last year a quarter of them serving on nuclear submarines. The Ministry of Defence figures double the number for the previous year suggest a spiralling drug problem among the naval service. It comes after the Daily Mail revealed nine British servicemen had been thrown off a nuclear submarine at the centre of a sex probe after testing positive for cocaine while on duty. Following the revelations, it is understood Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon ordered mandatory drugs tests across the submarine fleet. Figures obtained by Freedom of Information request show 18 submariners were sacked for drug use last year, double the number of the previous 12 months. Figures obtained by Freedom of Information request show 18 submariners were sacked for drug use last year, double the number of the previous 12 months Those failing the tests taken when a vessel comes into port during deployment included sailors serving on five nuclear submarines. This included those serving on Trafalgar-class nuclear-powered hunter-killers used to track Russian submarines and transport members of the SBS on missions. Others sacked served at a submarine school and the fleet's top-secret sub base, known as the Faslane Flotilla headquarters. In one of the worst scandals to hit the Navy, the Mail revealed on Saturday that nine servicemen were thrown off HMS Vigilant after cocaine was found in their blood. While the submarine was docked in the US to pick up nuclear warheads, they are alleged to have held drug-fuelled parties with one man having sex with a prostitute in a swimming pool. A police report allegedly shows he paid 120 for sex then stole the money back from her purse. One submariner worker paid a prostitute 120 for sex and then stole the money back from her purse, according to a police report It follows four officers on HMS Vigilant now dubbed HMS Sex And Cocaine' being disciplined for having affairs with fellow crew. That came to light after an alleged affair between its captain Commander Stuart Armstrong, 41, and Sub-Lieutenant Rebecca Edwards, 25. Both have been removed from duty on board. Another serviceman on the vessel faces court martial after going AWOL and flying to the UK to see his girlfriend. Two more have quit in the wake of the scandals. It means that one in ten of the 168-strong crew have been kicked out, quit, put under investigation or removed. The First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Philip Jones, has been quizzed about the scandal by Sir Michael, who was said to be 'furious'. It is understood Sir Philip ordered mandatory drug tests to reassure Sir Michael it was an 'isolated incident'. The Ministry of Defence is also investigating. Gordon Brown has admitted his 'sense of personal reserve' limited his appeal as prime minister in the social media age as he gave a brutally frank account of his struggles in Downing Street. In his new memoirs, Mr Brown opens up with searing candour about how he fell short in communicating his ideas and connecting to the electorate during his three-year tenure in No 10 between 2007 and 2010. He said he came from a less touchy-feely age when it was seen as more important to run the country well than make public displays of emotion. While he insists he never wanted to be a 'Twitter' prime minister, he admits he wasn't an ideal fit for the post-Tony Blair age and that he was uncomfortable talking about his emotions in public. The admission comes in the former Labour prime minister and chancellor's memoirs, My Life, Our Times, which is being published next week. In his memoirs, Mr Brown opens up with searing candour about how he fell short in communicating his ideas and connecting to the electorate during his tenure in No 10 between 2007 and 2010. He is pictured leaving Downing Street with his wife Sarah and two sons Mr Brown, 66, also admits that he 'failed to rally the nation' around his plans to beat the financial crash by boosting public investment, describing this as his 'biggest regret' of his premiership. He said he now accepted that in a media-conscious age he should have 'lightened up'. But he said he did not believe it was right for politicians to expect they could win votes by simply turning on the emotion and saying 'I can feel your pain'. He said: 'What mattered, I thought, was how others might benefit from what I did for them as an active politician not what I claimed to feel. 'If in my political career I was backward in coming forward, my failure was not so much a resistance to letting the public in I never shrank from that it was resisting the pressure to cultivate an image that made the personal constantly public. Reticence was the rule.' At the time Mr Brown's supporters said that, unlike his predecessor Mr Blair who had been a master of public relations and spin, his dourness was a strength because it made him appear more trustworthy. But Mr Brown admits that this may have been a weakness. 'During my time as an MP I never mastered the capacity to leave a good impression or sculpt my public image in 140 characters,' he said referring to the maximum length of a message on Twitter. 'Now no politician can succeed without mastering social media and yet, in it, the prime minister becomes one among millions of voices competing to be heard.' He said it took him too long to understand that 'any idea, big or small, is of little significance until it can be communicated compellingly and in clear terms'. Mr Brown goes on: 'The modern version of 'connecting' seems to increasingly include a public display of emotion, with the latter authentic or not seen as evidence of a sincerity required for political success. 'In a far more touchy-feely era, our leaders speak of public issues in intensely personal ways and assume they can win votes simply by telling their electors that they 'feel their pain'. Mr Brown admits he wasn't an ideal fit for the post-Tony Blair age and that he was uncomfortable talking about his emotions in public 'For me, being conspicuously demonstrative is uncomfortable to the point that it has taken me years, despite the urging of friends, to turn to writing this book.' He added: 'I fully understand that in a media-conscious age every politician has to lighten up to get a message across and I accept that, in the second decade of the 21st century, a sense of personal reserve can limit the appeal and rapport of a leader. 'I am not, I hope, remote, offhand or uncommunicative. But if I wasn't an ideal fit for an age when the personal side of politics had come to the fore, I hope people will come to understand this was not an aloofness or detachment or, I hope, insensitivity or a lack of emotional intelligence on my part. 'Really, to my mind, what mattered was not what I said about myself, but simply what our government could do for our country.' In Mr Brown's memoirs, a highly-personal account of his life in politics, he talks about the death of his daughter Jennifer Jane ten days after she was born prematurely, and how he always fought to keep his children's lives private. He and his wife Sarah married in 2000 and have two sons, John and Fraser. But he also speaks about the defining event of his premiership: the global financial crash and its aftermath, saying the recession and Brexit added up to a 'lost decade'. And he revealed that his 'biggest regret' was failing to persuade the public that Labour was the right party to deal with the impact of the financial crash. The recession began just months after Mr Brown became prime minister in 2007, and he was forced to go to the electorate in 2010 when the economy was still being battered by its aftermath. His Labour government argued for continued public investment to counter the impact of the recession but David Cameron's Tories pledged immediate austerity to bring the country's debt under control. It was Mr Cameron who emerged victorious although he was not able to get a majority and had to go into coalition with the Liberal Democrats. David Cameron maintained an altogether different image to Mr Brown during his tenure in Downing Street. Here he is pictured bodyboarding at the beach in Polzeath, Cornwall in August 2015 In the introduction to his memoirs, Mr Brown wrote: 'The time has come to look back and take stock of what I was trying to do and of what I got wrong as well as what I hope I got right. 'My own biggest regret was that in the greatest peacetime challenge a catastrophic global recession I could not persuade the British people that the progressive policies I pushed for, nationally and internationally, were the right and fairest way to respond. 'Through unprecedented co-operation worldwide in a plan for recovery, growth quickly returned, unemployment started to fall and people's savings were secured. 'We won the battle to escape recession. But we lost the war to build something better. I fell short in communicating my ideas. I failed to rally the nation around the necessary fiscal stimulus and my plans for radical change. 'Banking should have been transformed, our international institutions refashioned, inequality radically reversed and if we are to be properly equipped to face the next crisis this is still the agenda we must pursue.' The former PM wrote that he was determined while in Downing Street to ensure his children grew up out of the public gaze. 'After we left Downing Street some people wrote to me saying that they had not known I had any children until they saw the footage of our family leaving together and the warmth they saw between us revealed something about me of which they had also been unaware,' he said. The shocking day I feared I was going blind Gordon Brown reveals he feared he was going completely blind after his remaining vision seriously deteriorated while he was prime minister The former Labour leader writes candidly in his memoirs about his struggle with his sight since going blind in one eye as a young man. Mr Brown reveals he feared he was going completely blind after his remaining vision seriously deteriorated while he was prime minister. He said that when he woke up one day in September 2009 his vision was so blurred that he knew something was very wrong. His problems had begun decades earlier when he lost the sight in his left eye and suffered a loss of vision in his right eye, despite four major operations, after a kick to his head during a school rugby match. He struggled on with his limited vision, but then there came a moment in Downing Street when he wondered if he might lose his sight altogether. For a week he had attended to his Cabinet business, speech-writing and attending meetings without being able to see properly. He did not tell colleagues that anything was wrong. When I woke up in Downing Street one Monday in September, I knew something was very wrong, he said. My vision was foggy. That morning, I was to visit the City Academy in Hackney to speak about our education reform agenda. 'I kept the engagement, doing all I could to disguise the fact that I could see very little discarding the prepared notes and speaking extemporaneously. 'Straight afterwards, I was driven to the consulting room of a prominent surgeon at the Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. To my shock, in examining my right eye, he discovered that the retina was torn in two places and said that an operation was urgently needed. He generously agreed to operate that Sunday. Mr Brown added: I asked him on the way out if an old friend, Hector Chawla whom I had last seen briefly on the day he retired as a surgeon could be invited to give his opinion too. I emailed Hector, who was in France, but he offered to come to the hospital that Sunday morning on his way back home. I was already prepared for surgery when he examined me and said he was convinced that the tears had not happened in the past few days. They were not new but long-standing. His advice was blunt. There was no point in operating unless the sight deteriorated further. Laser surgery in my case was more of a risk than it was worth. If my sight worsened, doctors would have to operate within the eye, as before not with a laser. Both surgeons agreed that this was not the time to operate. He said: I am grateful that the retina has held to this day and I feel lucky beyond words. 'Even if I felt fate had dealt me a hand I would not have chosen, my time in and out of hospital and the fight for my eyesight gave me a perspective that I still feel helps me to be more understanding of difficulties facing others in a far worse position than me. Tamim Khaja (pictured) has pleaded guilty on the day he was expected to face trial A young Sydney man accused of planning a terror attack has pleaded guilty on the day he was expected to face trial. Tamim Khaja, 20, appeared in Parramatta Supreme Court on Monday following his May 2016 arrest during a joint NSW and Federal Police operation for sizing up potential target buildings and previously attempting to travel to Syria. He pleaded guilty before Justice Desmond Fagan to conducting reconnaissance of targets, attempting to obtain weapons and a flag of the Khilafah. The Macquarie Park resident was allegedly in the process of trying to buy a firearm and suicide vest, and had been sizing up public buildings when he was arrested in May 2016. Khaja also allegedly tried to travel to Syria but was stopped at Sydney Airport because his passport had been cancelled. Police believe he was acting alone in planning a terror attack in Sydney. Tamim Khaja, 20, was arrested in May, while he was trying to purchase a gun off an undercover police officer. Tamim Khaja, 20, (pictured) was arrested in Macquarie Park in Sydney's north, while he was trying to purchase a gun in May 2016 A National Broadband Network board member has slammed customers saying anyone who complains about not being connected fast enough should be sent to the back of the line. NBN Co non-executive director Michael Malone was referring to thousands of people across Australia who have been left without service to the $49 billion network. 'If I was running NBN and they went to the media, I would put them to the back of the queue. Personally, that's what I would do,' Mr Malone told the Sydney Morning Herald. 'If I was running NBN and they went to the media, I would put them to the back of the queue,' Mr Malone (pictured) said Mr Malone said the NBN was installing 45,000 customers each week, and expected that number to double in coming months. He said it was only normal the network experienced difficulties, and said 'faults along the way' were to be expected. 'Think about how you would roll out the network if you needed to hit 10 million households. What are you going to do first? You do all the easy ones first and then the others,' he said. Mr Malone also hit out at Internet Service Providers (ISPs). He said ISPs lodged complaints with the NBN when the problem was not related to the NBN at all. Contractors working with the rollout of the NBN network are seen in Sydney, Monday, July 10, 2017 He said support request tickets were lodged when the fault was with the ISP itself, or the customer's home equipment. 'It is a blocker to getting this thing rolled out quicker,' he said. The NBN, a government-owned corporation, was tasked to design, build and operate Australia's broadband network. Since being rolled out, the NBN has been plagued with issues, with more than one million Australian households experiencing problems transitioning across to the service. Since being rolled out, the NBN has been plagued with issues, with more than one million Australian households experiencing problems transitioning across to the service In a candid press conference last week, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the way the NBN was a 'mistake' In a candid press conference last week, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the way the NBN was a 'mistake'. 'Setting up a new government company to do it was a big mistake,' he said. Mr Turnbull blamed Labor for the 'hugely expensive' set up. 'So having been left in a bad place by Labor, what we are doing is ensuring we deliver it as quickly and cost effectively as possible but I have to say to you again, one complaint is one complaint too many,' he said. Justice Secretary David Lidington (pictured) put forward plans to let inmates take part in elections but only those on day release A decision to allow serving prisoners the vote following a 12-year dispute with the European Court of Human Rights has provoked outrage. Ministers have spent more than a decade fighting a ruling won by axe killer John Hirst that the current blanket ban on prisoner voting was unlawful. But yesterday it emerged that Justice Secretary David Lidington had put forward plans to let inmates take part in elections but only those on day release who are still on the electoral roll. As voters drop off the electoral roll after a year if they do not register, which serving prisoners are unable to do, ministers insist only those serving under 12 months will be eligible possibly as few as 100 inmates. The prospect of abandoning the current law is likely to cause alarm David Cameron once said that the thought of prisoners voting made him feel physically ill. It could also raise fears that eventually inmates locked up for more serious crimes will be allowed to vote. A senior Government source told the Sunday Times: This will only apply to a small number of people who remain on the electoral roll and are let out on day-release. These are not murderers and rapists but prisoners who are serving less than a year who remain on the electoral roll. No one will be allowed to register to vote if they are still behind bars. The prospect of abandoning the current law is likely to cause alarm David Cameron once said that the thought of prisoners voting made him feel physically ill' However, Philip Davies, Conservative MP for Shipley, said: I find this totally unacceptable. People who are in prison for breaking the law shouldnt be voting for the people who set the law. It doesnt matter if it just affects a few hundred inmates, theyre still prisoners. If being able to vote was so important to them they shouldnt have committed the crime that saw them jailed in the first place. Peter Bone, the Tory MP for Wellingborough, added: Im not in favour of letting prisoners vote. I find it extraordinary. Its a bonkers decision. I think a lot of MPs will be concerned about this. But Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott told BBC1s Andrew Marr Show yesterday: The European Court of Human Rights has been saying for some years that we cant stop all prisoners having the vote and the Labour Party believes that in the end, we have to support the position of the European Court of Human Rights. The legal saga started in 2005 when axe killer John Hirst won a ruling at the European Court of Human Rights that the current voting ban was unlawful. Since then ministers in successive governments have worked on a series of compromises to appease the Council of Europe, which oversees the courts. Theresa May has ordered an inquiry into whether Mark Garnier, pictured, breached ministerial conduct rules A Brexit minister faces an official Cabinet Office probe after he admitted asking a secretary to buy sex toys. Theresa May has ordered the inquiry into whether Mark Garnier breached ministerial conduct rules. It follows allegations the 54-year-old father of three asked his assistant to buy two vibrators and called her sugar t*ts. While he admitted the stories, the international trade minister under Liam Fox strenuously denied they constituted harassment describing them as merely high jinks. As Westminster faced a fresh series of claims of sex harassment, former Cabinet minister Stephen Crabb admitted sending explicit text messages to a 19-year-old he had interviewed for a job. And a series of lurid claims have been circulating around the corridors of power over two senior Cabinet ministers. Last night Labour MP John Mann called on Mrs May to sack Mr Garnier and to remove the whip from Mr Crabb. Garnier should be sacked as a minister obviously; that would be sufficient, he said. And what Crabb did was far worse than Simon Danczuk, who was booted out of Labour for sexting. The decision to investigate Mr Garnier was disclosed by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt during an interview on BBC1s The Andrew Marr Show. These stories, if they are true, are obviously totally unacceptable, he said. The Cabinet Office will be conducting an investigation into whether theres been a breach of the ministerial code in this particular case. The codes provisions were considered sufficiently broad for Theresa May to order an inquiry, even though it does not specifically cover ministers conduct towards their Commons staff. It follows allegations the 54-year-old father of three asked his assistant Caroline Edmondson, pictured, to buy two vibrators and called her sugar t*ts It was also considered to apply to Mr Garnier who joined the Government only in July last year even though it is not clear if he was a minister when the alleged incidents took place. The Mail on Sunday reported that the MP admitted asking his then secretary, Caroline Edmondson, to buy two sex toys at a shop in Soho one for his wife and one for a woman in his Wyre Forest constituency office. He admitted it but described the incident as good-humoured high jinks following a Christmas lunch. I hung around outside and she went into this shop, said the MP. That was it. He said they later fell out and claimed disgruntled Miss Edmondson had an axe to grind. The minister vehemently denies sexual harassment but conceded it could look like dinosaur behaviour. Kinnock gets easy ride over Weinstein joke Tory MPs last night questioned why former Labour leader Neil Kinnock (pictured) has not been criticised for joking about Harvey Weinstein. Environment Secretary Michael Gove said on Saturday that being interviewed by John Humphrys on BBCs Today programme was like going into Harvey Weinsteins bedroom. Lord Kinnock laughed at the joke about the film mogul. He added of Mr Humphrys: John goes way past groping... While Mr Goves comments provoked a backlash, there was no fury at Lord Kinnock. Yesterday, Mr Gove apologised for a clumsy joke attempt. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said: Its very one-sided that they criticised Michael Gove but no one has criticised Lord Kinnock. Meanwhile shadow home secretary Diane Abbott yesterday refused to condemn shadow chancellor John McDonnell on Andrew Marrs show over comments her colleague made in 2014 about then employment minister Esther McVey being lynched. Advertisement Miss Edmondson said that on another occasion, the minister called her sugar t*ts in front of others. Her former boss said it was part of an amusing conversation and referred to the TV comedy Gavin And Stacey in which the term is used to describe an attractive woman. A Tory party spokesman last night said: As a result of allegations about a serving minister, the prime minister has also asked the Cabinet Office to conduct an immediate investigation to see whether those reported actions break the ministerial code. Mr Crabb last night admitted he had been foolish for sending explicit messages to a 19-year-old interviewee but said that there had been no sexual contact. The former Wales minister is said to have sent flirtatious messages to the teenager in 2013 and met her for a drink in the Commons. We exchanged messages which talked about sex but none of it was meant seriously, he said. I accept any kind of sexual chatter like this is totally wrong and I am sorry for my actions. The devout Christian resigned last year as work and pensions secretary following a similar incident in which he sent sexual messages to a young woman during the EU Referendum campaign. Two senior Cabinet ministers have been named by female MPs, researchers and journalists as sex pests, according to reports. One is said to have placed his hand on the thigh of a female reporter and said God, I love those t***. Another figure reportedly had an affair with a junior female aide who is also an MP. Female MPs were also said to be sharing details of a former Tory minister who propositioned his young secretary by saying come and feel the length of my ****. A Labour MP was reported to have been thrown off a foreign trip for making inappropriate approaches while another is said to be known as happy hands. A Liberal Democrat peer is said to have asked female journalists to wear knee-high boots and short skirts. Let me make this clear from the start. I have never been a victim of MP sex pests even though I have worked in and around Westminster, off and on since the Seventies. Ive had to endure my share of awkward passes elsewhere, of course the hand where it shouldnt be, the lecherous suggestion. I always dealt with it briskly, with that tone of voice that leaves no room for misinterpretation. Sometimes I was left feeling cross and insulted by a mans crassness. But I never felt demeaned or belittled. The men were doing that to themselves. The point is that I have found the MPs I have met and worked with bar the odd encounter which Ill come to later to be unfailingly courteous. The current hysteria over sexual harassment at Westminster is doing both them and us women a terrible disservice. Of course any genuine assault is deplorable and deserves to be taken seriously. But the blizzard of accusations, the demands for official investigations and resignations is out of all proportion. 'The point is that I have found the MPs I have met and worked with bar the odd encounter which Ill come to later to be unfailingly courteous' (stock photo) It is encouraging women to see themselves as victims and yet it is being done in the name of feminism. When I first visited the Houses of Parliament as a student involved in a parliamentary broadcasting project, I was amazed at the behaviour of some people, both men and women. This was at the height of the sexual liberation movement in the 1970s, and it was immediately obvious that Westminster had a groupie culture. The place was full of girls who were in awe of power and the MPs and ministers who wielded it: researchers, secretaries, assistants and hangers-on. These women knew exactly what they were doing and what they wanted. And plenty of men fewer women were MPs in those days were eager to take advantage of it. It takes two to tango, after all. But I soon came to realise that not all men, and certainly not all MPs, were like that. Ive met with far more properness than impropriety in the Houses of Parliament. There were women, both in politics and the media, who used their allure as a clever strategy. They could look after themselves. They were not naive innocents, at the mercy of predators. They often allowed and encouraged an atmosphere of flirtation, sexual banter and even groping to develop. When I read the stories yesterday that a Government minister had sent his secretary into a Soho sex shop to buy a vibrator, while he waited outside, my first thought was, Why would a grown up experienced woman let this happen? In most offices, no woman would tolerate such a demand, or permit her boss to call her Sugar T*ts in public as he reportedly did. This isnt acceptable behaviour anywhere. But surely it was just a case of foolish, if tawdry, high jinks. To equate it, as some have done on Twitter, with the behaviour of Harvey Weinstein who allegedly raped a number of women, is ludicrous. The idea that there is some mass sexual persecution of women is farcical. And the suggestion that we are all supposed to be reduced to helpless terror and outrage if a man makes an unwanted pass at us is demeaning. The journalist Jane Merrick told BBC news she was left humiliated after a male Conservative MP made a grab for her after a liquid lunch, 14 years ago. She rebuffed him with no damage done, but was so traumatised that apparently she can only speak of it now. What nonsense. At a Liberal Party conference, a good many years ago, when I was a TV researcher, I asked an MP for an interview. He suggested we discuss it over dinner. At the end of the meal, rather the worse for wear, he invited me up to his room. No, thank you, I said. I wasnt silly enough to feel flattered, and I certainly wasnt feeble enough to feel threatened. And no, I wont tell you the mans name. What does it matter? He tried it on, and I said no. There the story ends. If that is sexual harassment, then men everywhere are in trouble. Pence was pilloried as a misogynist who was scared of feminine power after saying he wouldn't dare ask a single woman to dinner for a business discussion Isnt it ironic that earlier this year US Vice President Mike Pence was castigated for saying he wouldnt dare ask a single woman to dinner for a business discussion: it wouldnt feel appropriate, he said. Pence was pilloried as a misogynist who was scared of feminine power. He was damned, whatever he did. And that, to my mind, is how men at Westminster must feel. The question now is this: what do the feminists driving all this really want? What, exactly are their goals? Do they want to prevent any man being left alone with a woman if drink has been taken? Do they want to stop him from getting in a lift with an unaccompanied woman, never to touch her, never put his arm under her elbow, or even speak to her? My feeling is that, on current form, they perhaps wont rest until every man is on a collar and leash. By stoking up the notion of victimhood, backed as they are by an outraged Twitter mob in full cry, the feminists are making it ever more difficult for any man accused to defend himself without being accused of a hate crime. Its impossible for him to protest that hes never groped a woman, impossible for him to suggest that the woman herself might have been a willing party to or even initiated whatever happened, without sounding like a liar and a sex pest. This is modern-day hen-pecking and it is an ugly sight. No woman who takes pride in her integrity and professional ability should be party to this shabby, opportunistic bout of man-shaming. It makes whingeing ninnies of us all, and it teaches the next generation of girls that they are tender flowers, born to be victims of antediluvian males. Most importantly, of course, this hue and cry belittles real sex crimes. Rape is a terrible, violent injustice. A pat on the bottom is not. And all this is a sad distraction from the real political business of the day. The Labour MP John Mann is now calling for a sex harassment tsar to oversee Westminster, investigating every claim and perhaps meting out punishment to those deemed guilty. Isnt it time we all grew up? The Government is engaged in Brexit and the most important negotiations in our lifetime. That is what it should be concentrating on. This wailing hysteria is a pathetic distraction. ABCNews.com(WASHINGTON) -- A federal court judge in Washington, D.C., has largely blocked President Trump's controversial ban on transgender people serving in the military. The judge, Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, issued a preliminary injunction on Monday halting two portions of Trump's presidential memorandum issued in late August, including his reinstatement of the ban on transgender service members that was in place before June 2016. Kollar-Kotelly also temporarily stopped Trump's move to block recruiting openly transgender people for the military. However, she did not block the portion of the memo directing that government funds may not be used for sex reassignment procedures. Kollar-Kotelly was ruling on a lawsuit, Jane Doe v. Donald Trump, brought by several active-duty transgender service members to stop the implementation of the ban. In late July, Trump tweeted that he would not allow transgender individuals to serve "in any capacity in the U.S. military." Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, issued a statement after those tweets, announcing that no immediate personnel decisions would be made until after a formal presidential memorandum was issued. The memo, provided in late August, gives the Department of Defense until March 23 of next year to develop and implement a compliance plan. The basis for the president's directive was "national security considerations," a senior White House official said. "In my judgment, the previous administration failed to identify a sufficient basis to conclude that terminating the departments' long-standing policy and practice would not hinder military effectiveness and lethality, disrupt unit cohesion or tax military resources, and there remain meaningful concerns that further study is needed to ensure that continued implementation of last year's policy change would not have those negative effects," Trump's memo reads. In June 2016, thenDefense Secretary Ash Carter allowed transgender individuals to serve openly and permitted funding of gender reassignment treatments, including surgeries. He gave one year for the Pentagon to study how to allow transgender individuals to join the military referred to as accession. However, this June, Trump's Defense Secretary Jim Mattis extended that study through January 2018. The White House memo would have extended the ban indefinitely until "such time that the defense secretary recommends against the contrary," the official said. Copyright 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Sydneysiders should prepare themselves for a chilly turn, with temperatures in the city set to drop almost 15 degrees overnight. Despite a scorching start to the week with the mercury topping 35 degrees Monday, a cold change is expected with just 21 degrees forecast for Tuesday. The drop will begin Monday afternoon, with the Bureau of Meteorology telling Daily Mail Australia this could be attributed to a southerly wind change as a system moves through. Sydney scorched under 35 degree weather on Monday, with many people flocking to soak in the sunshine at Bondi Beach But the hot conditions were not expected to last long after building over the weekend, with cooler temperatures tipped for the rest of the week Revellers were out in their droves, splashing about in the water to cool off amidst the soaring temperatures But Sydneysiders should prepare for a chilly turn, with temperatures in the city set to drop almost 15 degrees overnight 'Warm north-easterly winds will drive temperatures up but a southerly change is expected around 5pm' Duty Forecaster Jordan Notara said. 'Sunny skies may potentially give way to an afternoon shower and the chance of a thunderstorm from the instability.' Although rainfall isn't tipped to be too heavy, with between 0.2 and 0.8mm predicted, potential storms could bring strong winds of up to 35km/hr. Conditions will remain cool throughout the week, with average temperatures in the mid to low 20s and the chance of showers dropping. By 2pm the weather was at 35 degrees, with women in colourful bikini's opting for a splash, but temperatures were expected to drop in the coming hours Plenty of people took advantage of the summery weather though,posing on the beach after enjoying a dip While others grabbed their surfboards and donned wetsuits and rashies to stay sun smart as they hit the waves The drop in temperature Monday afternoon, has been attributed by the Bureau of Meteorology to a southerly wind change as a system moves through For Victoria, a fireban was declared after hot and windy conditions in the north-west of the state - with the Mallee region reaching 34 degrees on Sunday. However, a week of cooler weather is expected to kick off there too, with rain scattered across most of the state. The alpine region may even receive some snow, while Melbourne will be soaked with approximately 10mm of rain on Monday. A general storm warning for the North West, Central West, Channel Country and Southeast Coast districts of Queensland has been declared for the week ahead. Selfie's proved a popular scene among the beachgoers as they relaxed and made the most of the warmth Just after midday temperatures were approaching their peak, with 34 degrees read at Sydney's Observatory Hill There was no sign of projected afternoon showers for revellers at the beach, with many taking to the water and lounging on the sand Sydney's weather was wildly different from Melbourne, who hit 16 degrees and had showers, while Perth enjoyed a pleasant sunny 26C day Residents of Rockhampton and Emerald have been warned to take care as high wind gusts and damaging hail are expected, while Brisbane will more likely be subjected to heavy rainfall. Meanwhile in South Australia, gale force winds are expected to lash the state as fire fighters struggled to contain blazes in Mount Crawford, Ashville, One Tree Hill, Virginia and in the Riverland. Showers on Monday may help dampen some of the fires, but sunny conditions for remainder of the week could see the grass fires spreading again. ABC have reported that the State Emergency Service advised people to move cars away from trees and secure loose items outdoors. Bright colours were awash at Bondi as people frolicked in the waves during Monday's sunny weather Some people even took to the sand to run in the scorching 35 degree heat The hot conditions will give way to a cool week, with average temperatures in the mid to low 20s A week of cooler weather is also expected to kick off in Victoria, with rain scattered across most of the state The Gold Coast managed to avoid a hailstorm on Sunday, but storms are expected to hit the coast by Monday morning with Coolangatta tipped to be the worst affected, according to the Bulletin. However, there is little risk of flash flooding as the storm will be accompanied by very little rain. Showers are expected to clear by Tuesday morning with the Sunshine State having mild weather until at least next Friday. Damaging hail storms are expected to hit both Rockhampton and Emerald in South Australia Perth is also in for some warmer days, with a practically rain-free week ahead featuring two consecutive 30-degree days. A general storm warning for several coast districts of Queensland has been issued for the week Storms are expected to hit the Gold Coast by Monday morning with Coolangatta at the centre Hospitals are hiring soaring numbers of NHS managers while nurse and GP recruitment falls, a damning report reveals. In the past three years the number of managers employed in England has increased 11 per cent, while the number of nurses and midwives has risen by just 1.6 per cent, the Health Foundation think-tank found. But the increase in managers accelerated last year, with the total rising 4.3 per cent between April 2016 and April 2017 as nursing numbers began to fall. Over those 12 months the number of nurses and health visitors dropped by 0.2 per cent, and community nurses by 2.9 per cent. In the past three years the number of NHS managers employed in England has increased 11pc (stock photo) And in the past three years the number of GPs fell 2.3 per cent, while the overall total for doctors rose by just 3 per cent a far slower rate than for managers. Tory ministers have repeatedly pledged to cut back on excessive bureaucracy in the health service. But despite cutting thousands of NHS managers after taking power in 2010, the Conservative government has seen numbers bouncing back, the report said. Critics last night called the figures an embarrassing failure. The report said: One group that appears to be bucking the trend in falling staff numbers are those defined as managers The number of managers and senior managers in the NHS in England has been increasing since 2015. Tory ministers have repeatedly pledged to cut back on excessive bureaucracy in the health service (stock photo) The health service in England employs the equivalent of 1.05million full-time staff, including 306,000 nurses, midwives and health visitors, 106,000 hospital doctors and GPs, and 31,000 managers. MINISTER: CAREBNB COULD GO AHEAD Paying families to host NHS patients in spare rooms may still become a reality, a Government minister has said. Regional health bosses had last week back-tracked on the CareBnB idea, which would see homeowners paid 50 a night to put patients up. But health minister Philip Dunne yesterday said the scheme may go ahead if people receive proper training. The firm CareRooms had been recruiting hosts for a trial in Essex before local NHS chiefs ditched the idea which is designed to free up hospital beds and was to be funded by councils and NHS trusts. Labour and campaigners warned of clear safety risks. But Mr Dunne told Pienaars Politics on BBC Radio 5 Live: I think we cant close our minds to looking at new ways of doing things I wouldnt immediately reject it. He said hosts for patients who need care other than normal living requirements will need to be trained. Advertisement NHS figures last month revealed basic pay for senior managers has risen by 15 per cent since 2010 three times the 5 per cent rise given to the average nurse. Baroness Judith Jolly, Lib Dem health spokesman, said: Jeremy Hunt promised to reduce bureaucracy in the NHS, but the number of managers is still going up. This is an embarrassing failure. People will rightly question why more money is being spent on NHS bureaucracy when frontline services are so overstretched. The report said in some trusts 30 per cent of staff are leaving every year. The Health Foundations Anita Charlesworth said: There is a growing gap between rhetoric about the Governments ambitions to grow the NHS workforce, and the reality of falling numbers of nurses and GPs. She urged the Government to put in place a coherent strategy to provide a sustainable workforce. Janet Davies, of the Royal College of Nursing, said: The drop in the number of nurses this year is deeply worrying, and particularly damaging when nurses are having to cope with rising numbers of patients. A Department of Health spokesman said there were still 5,600 fewer managers in the NHS than in 2010 and more dedicated frontline staff on the wards than ever before. Hospitals are failing to ensure the safety of patients in their care, the NHS medical director warned. Professor Sir Bruce Keogh said safety measures often do not filter down because the NHS is made up of hundreds of organisations. He called for a central system to oversee safety, but told the Sunday Telegraph clarity was needed on when a recommendation should override financial considerations. A Department of Health spokesman said setting up a Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch was our next step. The maximum stake on crack cocaine gambling machines could be cut to 20 after a Mail campaign. Gamblers will no longer be able to bet a maximum 100 on the addictive fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) under plans to be unveiled this week. The machines have long caused concern among campaigners including the Church of England over their devastating effects. Yesterday ministers bowed to pressure following warnings the machines in High Street bookmakers were destroying families and communities. Gamblers will no longer be able to bet a maximum 100 on the addictive fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) under plans to be unveiled this week (file photo) Sports minister Tracey Crouch will announce proposals to limit how much can be spent on the machines, which allow gamblers to place bets of up to 100 every 20 seconds. She will demand the cap of 100 is reduced by at least half. A figure between 2 and 50 is said to be under consideration. While campaigners have pushed for the maximum to be as low as 2, if the cap is reduced only to 50 it would be seen as ministers giving in to the betting industry, which would consider the result a success. A further figure between 10 and 30 will also be considered, with 20 thought to be most likely. A reduction to 2 would cost the Treasury 1billion in betting taxes by 2020. But the status quo is not an option, according to a Government source. A review is expected to be published this week by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). However, that will not give a specific recommendation instead putting forward a 12-week consultation to hear from bookmakers and campaigners. Dr Alan Smith, the Bishop of St Albans, has said that he believes FOBTs, which can take up to 18,000 an hour, are responsible for debt, the break-up of families and rising levels of violence in some communities. Earlier this month Tory MP Chris Philp, an aide to Chancellor Philip Hammond, called for a crackdown on the betting terminals. A study by the ResPublica think-tank found the UK was the only rich country allowing gamblers to stake 100 every 20 seconds on casino-style games on the high street. It warned that 1.5million Britons one in 40 of the population now use the machines and the terminals cause disproportionate harm to poorer areas. Sports minister Tracey Crouch (pictured) will announce proposals to limit how much can be spent on the machines, which allow gamblers to place bets of up to 100 every 20 seconds The amount British gamblers lose on FOBTs has increased by 73 per cent since 2009, according to the Gambling Commission. A report found the British gambling industry has profited from the growth of online games and the liberalisation of gambling laws under Labour. The Gambling Act 2005, which was introduced by Tony Blairs government, allowed the industry to balloon in size. The issue of FOBTs previously caused a split between the Treasury, which feared losing the takings, and DCMS, which is responsible for the industry. Last month, Mr Hammond appeared to back down after he confirmed that a long-awaited review of the betting industrys use of the machines will be published. But bookmakers are resisting attempts to limit the stakes more than half of Ladbrokes profit comes from the terminals. The Association of British Bookmakers said that curbing maximum stakes on FOBTs from 100 to 2 would seriously damage the industry and the economy. But it is likely to have to yield, especially following criticism of its treatment of vulnerable customers after the firm 888 received a record 8million fine in August. DCMS is expected to publish the review on Tuesday, after the stock market has opened, owing to the potential impact of its findings on gambling firms share prices. The departments final decision on the cap will have to be approved by Parliament. Bookmakers have indicated that they will not mount a legal challenge to the findings. A Government source said: The consultation will explore a range of options between 50 and 2. A Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson said: 'We are currently undertaking a review of the gambling sector focusing on stakes and prizes of machines, social responsibility within the industry and gambling advertising. 'The review will be published in the Autumn.' Passengers in Sydney's International terminal were left stranded after a power outage grounded check-in to a halt. Video, posted on Twitter by 7News, shows people queuing in pitch-black after a 9am power failure caused delays for passengers checking in for their flights. The airport believes the blackout was caused by maintenance work at the airport. Passengers were left standing in the dark after a power outage at Sydney Airport (pictured) Power failure caused baggage processing delays and check-in ground to a halt (pictured) Frustrated passengers took to Twitter to comment on the power failure. 'Power outage at Sydney Airport - I imagine there will be delays if you're traveling today' said one Twitter user. 'Power outage at Sydney Airport... chaos at passport control. Duty-free registers still worked throughout. Australian priorities' Simon O'Toole said. 'Brief Power outage at Sydney Airport! some lights on ...' Benji Richards said. It's not the first time Sydney Airport has experienced technology failure which has directly affected passengers. In September this year, thousands of people were left stranded after Airservices experienced a software issue affecting Sydney Airport's air traffic control and management system, on the first day of school holidays grounded all flights. Systems went down causing radar failures at air traffic control, preventing all flights from leaving the domestic and international airports. Thousands were left stranded at Sydney Airport in September after huge power cut (pictured) A Sydney Airport spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia: Terminal 1 at Sydney Airport had a brief power interruption this morning. 'It lasted less than 10 minutes and there were some minor delays to baggage processing. 'The impact of the power outage was minor, it just look an extra fifteen minutes to deliver bags out to the aircrafts. 'It was brief and I believe no passengers have complained about the power outage so far. 'We believe the technical glitch is related to maintenance work thats being completed in the airport. 'No flights were delayed, airport power has been fully restored and operations are back to normal.' It emerged that British steel manufacturers never stood a chance of winning the contract for the extensive steel scaffolding that surrounds the Elizabeth Tower The appalling decision to use foreign steel for the 61 million renovation of Big Bens clock tower which will be silent for four years during the works has already been condemned by MPs. But now its emerged that British steel manufacturers never stood a chance of winning the contract for the extensive steel scaffolding that now surrounds the Elizabeth Tower. Tom Brake, Lib Dem MP in charge of the Commons Commission, let the cat out of the bag. In a written answer he claimed: It would have been unlawful to impose a requirement for the material used to be British. 'The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 prohibit [us] from insisting on the use of products of a specific origin. The contract for the refurbishment had been awarded to developers Sir Robert McAlpine who promised to achieve the most economically advantageous outcome so they opted for cheaper steel from Germany, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates. The Palace authorities appeared to go against the 2012 Public Service (Social Value) Act which requires the benefit to local communities and businesses to be considered ahead of mere cost when awarding public contracts. The Acts provisions cannot formally be applied to Parliamentary contracts, Brake claimed. No wonder Labour MP Stephen Kinnock, whose Aberavon constituency is home to the giant Port Talbot steel plant, called on Parliament to adopt a patriotic procurement policy so that British steel, the best steel that money can buy, made right here on our doorstep is used in future. The Palace authorities ignored the 2012 Public Service (Social Value) Act which requires the benefit to local communities and businesses to be considered when awarding public contracts ...........................................................................................................................................Few were surprised in the Lords when it was revealed that former head of the Civil Service, Lord Kerslake, is to advise Comrade Corbyn on how to prepare for government. In his Civil Service role Kerslake had to be impartial and took his place on the independent Crossbenchers when he was made a peer in 2015. But many believe hes sitting in the wrong place. In the last 60 votes in the Upper House hes sided with the Tories only once, and Labour all the rest. So much for an independent voice. They do drone on.... Its not just voters who arent impressed with the quality of MPs. Impressionist Rory Bremner insists todays crop of politicians are depressingly bland. Philip Hammond, Jeremy Hunt, Chris Grayling, Michael Gove a bit like a wasp in a jam jar, slightly drony, he protests in Country Life. Advertisement ....................................................................In public he insists he has no wish to take over from Theresa May as leader of the Tory Party. But old Etonian Jacob Rees-Mogg has nevertheless revamped his website, replacing in particular a picture of him looking down with one of him with a beaming smile. Filmed in front of photos of Winston Churchill and Theresa May, he talks about his role as a champion of his constituents, and argues for a blizzard of new ideas. Sounds like hes on manoeuvres to me. ....................................................................Communities Secretary Sajid Javid shared a platform with London Mayor Sadiq Khan, both sons of immigrant Pakistani bus drivers, at the announcement of the design chosen for a UK Holocaust Memorial. Javid said: A bloke came up to me, saying I was doing a fantastic job and could he have a selfie? We shook hands and then I saw him get on the phone to his mate. He said: Guess what, Ive just met Sadiq Khan! First he lost his job as Deputy PM after the humiliating 2015 election result. Then Nick Clegg lost his seat in Sheffield Hallam. I have a small insight into the anguish of political defeat, he writes in the New Statesman. First he lost his job as Deputy PM after the humiliating 2015 election result. Then Nick Clegg lost his seat in Sheffield Hallam Crashing out of office after five years as Deputy Prime Minister was still an abrupt collision with electoral reality . . . but, in the end, all you can do is stare defeat in the face, accept it, and move on. So why is Cleggy trying to overturn the Brexit result of 16 months ago? The incredible moment a car 'jumps' on a highway after a runaway tyre clips the front of it has been captured on dash cam footage. The vehicle can be seen harmlessly driving along an undisclosed Australian highway when the trailer in front of it loses one of its wheels. As the trailer attempts to regain control, the tyre flings into the car behind it, causing the car to bounce in the middle of the road. As the trailer attempts to regain control, the tyre flings into the car behind it, causing the car to bounce in the middle of the road After a brief swerve, and likely a few cuss words, the driver of the car regains composure and continues driving. The video was posted by Dash Cam Owners Australia and captioned it 'Thursday 26/10/17. The Dukes of Logan.' It's not clear whether the incident occurred in the south-east Queensland city of Logan. Social media commenters were quick to point out how terrifying the moment must have been for the car. 'That is amazing and the tire keeps rolling even after the car goes over it, suggesting it is looking for its next victim to cause havoc with,' another added After a brief swerve, and likely a few cuss words, the driver of the car regains composure and continues driving 'Impressive height, landing a bit rough... seriously though scary stuff, bet a change of undies was needed,' one person wrote. 'That is amazing and the tire keeps rolling even after the car goes over it, suggesting it is looking for its next victim to cause havoc with,' another added. Others credited the driver of the trailer, who managed to stay in his correct lane throughout the ordeal. Two thirds of people now believe the Lords should be elected with support surging since David Cameron was accused of packing the upper house with cronies Two thirds of people now believe the Lords should be elected following a series of scandals, it can be revealed. Support for voters having a say in picking peers has surged by nearly a third since David Cameron was accused of packing the upper house with cronies. The polling comes ahead of a key report tomorrow when the Lords will set out plans for reform. A committee of peers is set to recommend that new appointments will be limited to 15 years in the Lords, but they are expected to duck making more radical changes such as introducing a compulsory retirement age. A survey of 1,500 adults found support for overhauling the second chamber has soared over the past two years, from 48 per cent backing a partially or fully-elected upper house in 2015, to 63 per cent now. More than a quarter (27 per cent) now think it should be abolished up from 22 per cent in 2015. Only 10 per cent think it should remain as it is. Darren Hughes, chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society, which commissioned the poll, said: After years of scandals, voters want real reform of our second chamber not tinkering around the edges. A committee of peers is set to recommend that new appointments will be limited to 15 years in the Lords, but they are expected to duck making more radical changes such as introducing a compulsory retirement age (file photo) That support for an elected upper house has soared by a third in just two years shows the scale of public discontent. Britain is tired of couch potato peers taking our democracy for granted. To the public and indeed to some Lords the upper chamber is a private members club, rather than an essential revising chamber. This is no fit state for the Mother of all Parliaments. But peers know they can get away with it because there is simply no accountability. We have no way of kicking out lazy Lords and demanding the scrutiny our laws need. What we need is a much smaller, fairly-elected upper house that the public can have faith in and where voters can hold ineffective peers to account. Peers cannot be allowed to mark their own homework when it comes to fixing this broken upper house. The public call for a real overhaul is loud and clear. Now lets get on with it and give voters the democratic revising chamber Britain needs. The Lords is now the second biggest legislative chamber in the world - only behind China. During his time as prime minister, Mr Cameron appointed peers at a faster rate than any other in history. Since 2010, 295 new peerages have been created. Baroness Trumpington, who was the oldest female member, retired last week, on the day after her 95th birthday In his final act as prime minister, Mr Cameron awarded 16 peerages, including four to former Downing Street staff members. Former Commons speaker Baroness Boothroyd accused him of tarnishing the Lords by stuffing it with too many former aides. Plans to shrink the size of the House of Lords have descended into shambles after peers failed to agree a compulsory retirement age. A cross-party Lords committee tasked with drawing up proposals for how to slim down the second chamber looked at forcing peers to retire at 80. But after failing to reach a consensus, they are set to pass the buck to political parties who will be left to come up with their own ways of reducing the number of peers sitting on the red benches. The committee is set to recommend that new appointments to the Lords are only allowed to serve for 15 years, but this will have no effect until at least 2032. Campaigners have dismissed the proposals as a sticking plaster solution. Tony Blairs purge of nearly all hereditary peers in 1999 saw membership of the Lords cut from 1,330 to 669 mainly life peers. But successive prime ministers have stuffed the red benches with new appointments, making the chamber the worlds second largest beaten only by the Peoples Republic of China. Peers have been able to retire since 2014 when the House of Lords Reform Act was passed into law. However, only around 70 members have stood down since then. Baroness Trumpington, who was the oldest female member, retired last week, on the day after her 95th birthday. The oldest and longest-serving member is former foreign secretary Lord Carrington, 98, who took his seat in 1945 after serving in World War Two. Peers voted unanimously in December to reduce their own numbers. The man who filmed Eric Garner's death claims he's being targeted by New York officers where he is imprisoned because of the video. Ramsey Orta is currently being held at Franklin Correctional Facility near the Canadian border where he claims he's been put into solitary confinement and beaten by corrections officers, the New York Daily News reported. In a letter he wrote on October 16, the 26-year-old claims that officers roughed him up before putting him in isolation. He wrote that a nurse was uninterested in taking a report of the alleged abuse. 'I fear for my life in this facility and can't take the ongoing abuse anymore, please help me!' Orta, who is a father-of-two, wrote in the letter that his attorney shared with the Daily News. Scroll down for video Ramsey Orta (left), the man who filmed Eric Garner's (right) death claims that he's being targeted by corrections officers at the Franklin Correctional Facility where he is currently imprisoned for drugs and weapons charges In a letter he wrote on October 16, Orta claims he's been put into solitary confinement and beaten by corrections officers. He wrote: 'I fear for my life in this facility' In his letter, Orta claims that five to seven corrections officers were involved in moving him to solitary confinement at Franklin. He wrote: '(One of them) shoved my face into the wall very hard and started to pull my hair from behind and began to slap me on the right side of my face a few times.' Orta claimed during a pat-down that the same officer 'grabbed and pulled' his genitals twice before he was slapped again. His attorney, Andrew Plasse, told the Daily News: 'He's constantly looking over his shoulder to make sure nothing happens to him.' Plasse explained that Orta was put in solitary for a 'tier 4' infraction which is usually related to fighting or having contraband. His attorney, Andrew Plasse, told the Daily News: 'He's constantly looking over his shoulder to make sure nothing happens to him' at Franklin Correctional Facility (file image) His client hopes that by Thanksgiving he will be out of solitary. The names of the officers were not published in fear that Orta would face further discipline or retaliation. Orta was sentenced to four years behind bars after he pleaded pleaded guilty to drugs and weapons charges in a Staten Island court last year. Orta was caught in the act by cops selling crack, oxycodone, marijuana and heroin in the Staten Island park across the street from where Garner died. He was also arrested in a separate incident after being caught with a gun. The 26-year-old has claimed his arrests were in retaliation for filming the moment Garner repeated 'I can't breathe' while in a chokehold on July 17, 2014 by an NYPD officer (above) He was first locked up at Fishkill Correctional Facility before he was sent to Franklin Correctional. While at Fishkill, Orta was ambushed and slashed according to a claim filed by Plasse. His attorney says he is preparing a lawsuit over the incident which will be filed in the Court of Claims seeking $10million for the slashing. The 26-year-old has claimed his arrests were in retaliation for filming the moment Garner repeated 'I can't breathe' while in a chokehold on July 17, 2014 by an NYPD officer. A couple and their three young children died in a head-on crash in northern Kentucky. Independence Fire Chief Scott Breeze said the collision happened Thursday in Kenton County and involved two vehicles. The five killed were in one vehicle. They were 27-year-old Samantha Malohn, her 26-year-old boyfriend Rodney Pollitt Jr and their three children: Cailie Pollitt, 6, Brenden Pollitt, 8 and Hailieann Pollitt, 9. Samantha Pollitt, 27, is pictured with her three children, from left to right: Brenden Pollitt, 8, Cailie Pollitt, 6, and Hailieann Pollitt, 9. They all died in a tragic car accident in northern Kentucky Pollitt's boyfriend and the father of their three children, Rodney Pollitt Jr, also died The car was being driven by Rodney Pollitt Jr, police say. Daniel Greis, the person in the other vehicle, was flown to the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Police say the cause of the crash remains under investigation. They say they have determined that Greis' vehicle crossed the center line and struck the vehicle driven by Pollitt head-on. The children's maternal grandfather discussed his heartbreak with the Cincinnati Enquirer. 'They were good kids and good parents,' he said. 'Those kids were [Samantha's] life.' Police say that Daniel Greis crashed into the family's vehicle head-on. Greis was taken to a hospital after the crash The couple had been together for 11 years and were reportedly going to be married. Malohn was a stay-at-home mother and Pollitt was a bus driver for a daycare center. One of their children, Hailieann, had Down Syndrome. Kenton Country Police Chief Spike Jones told the Enquirer: 'I've been on horrendous accident scenes in my career, and this is probably one of the, if not the saddest not to diminish the others but one of the saddest I've ever been on.' Grief counselors were sent to the two different elementary schools that the three attended, the Enquirer reports. A funeral for the family will be held on November 1, WLWT reports. Pictured is the site of the crash. Kenton County Police Chief Spike Jones said: 'I've been on horrendous accident scenes in my career, and this is probably one of the, if not the saddest not to diminish the others but one of the saddest I've ever been on' A GoFundMe has been set up for the family by Vivian Cooper. It's message reads: 'This is my beautiful granddaughter Samantha. Her life was taken suddenly along with her 3 beautiful children Hailey, Brenden, Cailie and fiance, Rodney. 'This tragic accident has effected the family deeply and financially. We would love to give them a beautiful send off. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.' Advertisement Aussie Home Loans boss John Symond and his wife Amber McDonald have been spotted soaking up the European sun on their $75 million yacht. The couple, who wed last year at Mr Symond's $60 million Sydney home, were photographed on the yacht just off the coast of Portofino, Italy, over the weekend. Mr Symond and Ms McDonald have spent 10 weeks relaxing on the vessel following Mr Symond's lavish 70th birthday near Monaco in September, according to The Daily Telegraph. Aussie Home Loans boss John Symond and his wife Amber McDonald have been spotted soaking up the European sun The pair were spotted on their $75million yacht off the coast of Portofino, Italy, over the weekend Mr Symond and Ms McDonald have spent 10 weeks relaxing on the vessel (pictured) The family has been travelling the Mediterranean coast since Mr Symond's lavish 70th birthday near Monaco in September Mr Symond split up from his ex-wife Kerrie Fox in the mid-90s (pictured their daughter Deborah) The couple is joined by her two children from her previous marriage to Prime Minister Paul Keatings son, Patrick. The finance king and his 45-year-old wife appeared to be deep in conversation while cruising the picturesque coastline. The couple could be seen lying on a white couch covered in pillows before standing at the yacht's railing to snap images of the view on their phones. Ms McDonald was later seen taking a dip in a glass pool as her young daughter relaxed nearby. Ms McDonald was pictured taking a dip in the yacht's swimming pool to cool off (pictured) The 45-year-old donned a black and white bikini with scalloped edges (pictured) Ms McDonald stood at the end of the glass pool as her young daughter lay near the edge The finance king and his wife took a moment to record the picturesque coastline on their phones Mr Symond began to pursue Ms McDonald in 2013 after seeing her photo at a charity event Ms McDonald and Mr Symond both have children from their previous marriages and married in 2016 The couple are seen chatting as they look over papers. Ms McDonald's large wedding ring can be seen on her left hand Ms McDonald was also spotted in a blue and white bikini as she stood at the yacht's railing with her husband Deborah Symond posted Christmas celebrations with her mother Kerrie on social media (pictured) The yacht was a birthday gift from Mr Symond to himself for his 70th birthday, on which he promptly threw a three-day, $7 million celebration. It boasts an eight-metre swimming pool with waterfall, a three-metre jacuzzi and a 'beach club'. Mr Symond split up from his ex-wife Kerrie Fox in the mid-90s. The yacht was a birthday gift from Mr Symond to himself for his 70th birthday, on which he promptly threw a three-day, $7 million celebration A murder investigation has been launched after a teenager was stabbed to death outside a popular shopping centre. Police were called following reports of a seriously injured male in Croydon, south London, at around 7pm last night. They found the victim, who is believed to be 17, with serious stab injuries. Officers stand guard at a cordon as authorities investigate the murder of a 17-year-old boy Forensic officers in Croydon arrive at the scene. Police believe they know the identity of the victim and enquiries are under way to locate his next of kin Officers administered first aid before the London Ambulance Service arrived, but he was pronounced dead at the scene. The incident took place on Croydon's pedestrianised North End road, which runs alongside the Whitgift shopping centre. Croydon Central MP Sarah Jones tweeted: 'Very, very sad that a boy has been murdered in Croydon tonight. All my thoughts are with his family and friends.' She later told the London Evening Standard: 'Tonight, in Croydon, I am praying for a life lost, a family devastated, and a community in shock.' Police believe they know the identity of the victim, who has not been named as enquiries are under way to locate his next of kin. Scotland Yard said detectives from the Homicide and Major Crime Command are investigating. Pictured: police at the scene The incident took place on Croydon's pedestrianised North End road, pictured, which runs alongside the Whitgift shopping centre Scotland Yard said detectives from the Homicide and Major Crime Command are investigating, that a cordon remains in place at the scene and no arrests have been made. Formal identification and a post-mortem examination will also be arranged. Anyone with information that may assist the investigation should call police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111. Richard Schmitt, 77, has been accused of strangling a woman he met on a dating website after she complained he was too old. She says he bought her $400 of clothes, demanded them back, and attacked her A 77-year-old Virginia man strangled his much-younger online date after their first real-life meeting went awry, police said. Alan Richard Schmitt was arrested at the home of a 23-year-old woman in Newport Newson Tuesday night after she told police that he had attacked her following chats on the dating website Plenty of Fish. She said she'd turned down Schmitt when she realized he was older than she thought, but he'd persuaded her to accompany him to a mall - and things went wrong from there, WAVY.com reported. Newport News Police arrived at the woman's home on the 7700 block of Vernon Place at around 10pm after she called in an alleged assault. According to a criminal complaint, when Schmitt tuned up at her door, the woman discovered that he was older than she expected. She told him she wasn't interested in dating, but could be friends with him and agreed to go with him to a mall, the report said. There, it said, he bought her $400 of clothes before returning her to her home. Unfortunately, she said, he then demanded she return all of the items, including the shirt that she was wearing. According to the criminal complaint, 'she told him he could not have the shirt back,' at which point 'he grabbed her around the neck... he then threw her to the ground.' The complaint said he then 'got on top of her' and 'proceeded to choke her, causing her to struggle to breathe.' She also told police that her necklaces were torn off her during the struggle. Officer Jeffrey Cumming wrote in the complaint that 'I observed her necklaces were in pieces, and there were small bleeding scratches around her neck.' Schmitte, meanwhile, said that when 'he went to get the clothes back, they started to argue.' At that point, he said, she 'stepped in front of him and pushed him in his face' and 'he lost his balance and reached out, grabbing [her] by the neck. Schmitt was 'unsure as to how she ended up on the ground as well,' according to his statement. He has been charged with felony strangling of another causing wounds or injury and is scheduled to return to court on November 14. A Colorado motorcyclist captured on camera a confrontation with a police officer who tried to give him a ticket for honking his horn. Video footage shows the heated interaction between Devin Jones and an unidentified officer, KDVR reports. Jones, who has a camera on his helmet, is behind a Ford vehicle at a roundabout intersection. The vehicle does not merge into the traffic, despite having the opportunity to do so. Devin Jones recorded via his helmet camera a lengthy interaction he had with a Denver police officer He honked at a vehicle whose driver was on his phone. The vehicle was occupied by a police officer, who got out and proceeded to argue with Jones Jones honks repeatedly at the vehicle's driver and says: 'Put your f****** phone down.' The driver, who turns out to be a police officer, exits the vehicle and approaches Jones. The officer accuses Jones of road rage, and says he was on his phone for police business. The officer tells Jones: 'That's none of your business.' Meanwhile, Jones says that he simply saw a driver on his phone. He says that drivers on their phones have been responsible for multiple motorcyclist deaths. At one point, the officer tells Jones that he was 'looking like a hot dog' and accused him of standing on the motorcycle. The officer threatened to give Jones a ticket for road rage. The officer eventually left The officer also says that honking constitutes road rage in the state of Colorado. State law dictates that horn usage is acceptable 'when reasonably necessary'. Jones told KDVR at the time of the June 2016 incident: 'He was extremely aggressive, his body language, everything he was doing is what I would classify as road rage.' The incident occurred around West 48th Avenue and Zuni Street in Denver, Colorado, KDVR notes. The video originally uploaded by Jones is no longer available on YouTube, but it has since been uploaded to Newsflare. Jens Stoltenberg issued the statement today and backed tighter sanctions against Pyongyang during a visit to Japan, which has been targeted by Kim Jong-un's provocations North Korea has been dubbed a global threat with missiles capable of hitting the US and most of Europe, a NATO chief has warned. Jens Stoltenberg issued the statement today and backed tighter sanctions against Pyongyang during a visit to Japan, which has been targeted by Kim Jong-un's provocations. North Korea has sparked global alarm in recent months by conducting its sixth nuclear test and test-launching missiles capable of reaching the US mainland, while Donald Trump and the hermit nation's dictator traded threats of war and personal insults. Stoltenberg is in Tokyo to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other senior officials including defence minister Itsunori Onodera later in the day. He said: 'We are as concerned as you are about the provocative, reckless behaviour from North Korea,' he said in a speech to a group of security experts and defence officials. 'It is really dangerous, it poses a direct threat to countries in this region (including) Japan, but it is also a global threat.' Pyongyang fired two projectiles over northern Japan in less than a month, ringing alarm bells in Tokyo as Abe called for a get-tough approach towards Pyongyang. Stoltenberg added: 'NATO strongly support political, diplomatic, economic pressure on North Korea and we welcome the strengthening of the sanctions adopted by the UN Security Council in September. 'But even more important, we need to be sure that the sanctions are fully and transparently implemented.' Pyongyang has sparked global alarm in recent months by conducting its sixth and largest nuclear test and test-launching missiles capable of reaching the US mainland Stoltenberg's visit comes after Abe met with him in Brussels in July to agree on boosting security cooperation. He said: 'We know and you know that North Korea's missile ranges reach the west coast of the United State and the ranges reach most of Europe.'. But the NATO chief warned this month that military action against Pyongyang would have 'devastating consequences', after Trump said diplomatic efforts had failed. Stoltenberg has stressed that Washington had the right to defend itself and its allies but called for greater diplomatic efforts. 'We don't have to use military force - peaceful resolution is the aim,' he said Monday. Maritime security, including territorial rows involving China in the East and South China Seas, was also likely to be a topic of discussion during Stoltenberg's visit, according to a Japanese foreign ministry official. Niama Hassan (pictured), 27, has been missing since Saturday. Police believe she was last seen at a takeaway shop in Wellington Point Reserve, Brisbane Mystery continues to surround the disappearance of a woman after police found her car parked in bushland just down the road from where she was last seen. Niama Hassan, 27, was last seen at a takeaway shop in Wellington Point Reserve, east of Brisbane's city centre, at about 10.30am on Sunday. She was first reported missing on Saturday morning, but police have been told a person matching her description was inside the store a day later. Police conducting patrols found her vehicle, a grey Nissan Qashai, sitting in a car park at the reserve opposite a toilet block on Sunday afternoon. Officers are continuing to search for Ms Hassan on foot and in the air using a police helicopter as concerns intensify for her wellbeing. Her disappearance has been described as 'out of character' by police. Ms Hassan is described as being 170cm tall, with a slim build, dark skin and black hair. She was wearing a long skirt and denim shirt when she disappeared on the weekend. Anyone who may have seen Ms Hassan or has any information in relation to her current whereabouts is urged to contact Policelink on 131 444. A U.S. Navy ship carrying two sailors it rescued from their storm-battered sailboat in the Pacific docked Monday at an American naval base in Japan. Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava were standing with the USS Ashland's commanding officer and others high on the bridgeway when the ship arrived at White Beach Naval Facility in Okinawa, five days after it picked up the women and their two dogs from their boat, 900 miles southeast of Japan. Appel and Fuiava had left Honolulu on May 3 aboard Appel's 50-foot vessel the Sea Nymph for what was supposed to be an 18-day trip to Tahiti. Scroll down for video Jennifer Appel, center, makes the shaka sign, a gesture associated with Hawaiian surf culture, from the bridgeway of the USS Ashland on Monday. Left is Tasha Fuiava, with whom Appel was stranded on a sailboat in the South Pacific for nearly six months before they were rescued The pair is pictured speaking with USS Ashaldn officers. Their dogs, Zeus and Valentine, are lying at their feet. The pair set sail from Hawaii on May 3, bound for an 18-day voyage to Tahiti Storms flooded the engine and damaged the mast and sails so badly, they couldn't generate enough wind power to stay on course. They drifted aimlessly and sent unanswered distress calls for 98 consecutive days. They were thousands of miles in the wrong direction when a Taiwanese fishing vessel found them. Towing the sailboat damaged it further, but Appel swam to the Taiwanese vessel to make a mayday call. They'd run out of food for the dogs, and the woman began sharing their own, leaving their food supply 90 per cent depleted by the time they were rescued. The USS Ashland on Wednesday picked up the women, plus the dogs Zeus and Valentine, all four looking remarkably fit for having been lost at sea for nearly six months. Pictured is the USS Ashland, which docked with the two women at US naval base White Beach Naval Facility in Okinawa, Japan on Monday Appel is pictured blowing kisses to her rescuers on Wednesday, October 25. Storms had flooded their engine and damaged the mast and sails so badly, they couldn't generate enough wind power to stay on course Appel told reporters on Friday that they were beginning to believe they were completely out of luck when they saw the U.S. Navy ship chugging toward them. 'When I saw the gray ship on the horizon, I was just shaking,' she said then. 'I was ready to cry, I was so happy. I knew we were going to live.' Although Appel has been sailing the Hawaiian islands for 10 years and spent two years preparing for this voyage, she acknowledged she and Fuiava, a novice sailor, may not have prepared as well as they could have. Appel credited their survival in part to the veteran sailors in Hawaii who had warned them to prepare well for their journey. 'They said pack every square inch of your boat with food, and if you think you need a month, pack six months, because you have no idea what could possibly happen out there,' Appel said. 'And the sailors in Honolulu really gave us good advice. We're here.' The USS Ashland rescued the women after a Taiwanese fishing vessel spotted their crippled vessel Tuesday and alerted the U.S. Coast Guard, the Navy said in a statement released Thursday. 'When I saw the grey boat on the edge of the horizon, my heart leaped because I knew that we were about to be saved, because I honestly believed we were going to die within the next 24 hours,' Appel said, on Friday morning's Today show. The pair is pictured on the day they were rescued. 'I was ready to cry, I was so happy. I knew we were going to live,' Appel said Sailors help Zeus off the boat. The women ended up sharing their food with the dogs after their dog food supply ran out while they were stranded at sea Appel and USS Ashland Command Master Chief Gary Wise exchange greetings A sailor greets Zeus. Pictured behind them is Fuiava Fuiava climbs a rescue ladder on October 25, the day they were rescued 'They saved our lives,' said Appel through the Navy release. 'The pride and smiles we had when we saw (U.S. Navy) on the horizon was pure relief.' A group of sharks attacked their boat one night, and a single shark returned a day later. 'We actually thought it was lights out, and they were horrific. We were just incredibly lucky that our hull was strong enough to withstand the onslaught', Appel said. 'I went downstairs with the boys and we basically laid huddled on the floor and I told them not to bark, because the sharks could hear us breathing. They could smell us', Appel revealed on Today. Appel's mother told The Associated Press Thursday that she never gave up hope that her daughter would be found. Joyce Appel, 75, who lives in Houston, said she got a call from her daughter early Thursday morning more than five months after they had last spoke. She answered the phone as she always does, wondering who wanted to sell her something, when she heard her daughter's voice on the other end of the line. 'She said, "Mom?" and I said, "Jennifer!?" because I hadn't heard from her in like five months,' she said. 'And she said "yes mom," and that was really exciting.' Joyce called the U.S. Coast Guard about a week and a half after her daughter left Honolulu, she said. 'The Coast Guard, in Hawaii, did a search and rescue effort,' she said. 'I waited and waited and waited to see when I would hear from her.' In that time, the elder Appel moved and got a new phone number and was worried her daughter wouldn't know where to call. 'I had hope all along, she is very resourceful and she's curious and as things break she tries to repair them, she doesn't sit and wait for the repairman to get there, so I knew the same thing would be true of the boat.' A convicted killer sentenced to life at 15 has walked free after 28 years in jail and was welcomed home by his victim's sister. Bobby Hines stepped forward, smiling as he embraced the sister of the man he was convicted of killing. Locked up for 28 years, he'd long wanted to meet Valencia Warren-Gibbs, to talk with her about that night in 1989 when her brother, James, was shot after Hines and two others confronted him. At 15, Hines had been condemned to life in prison without parole. Now he was out, a 43-year-old man navigating a city he left behind as an eighth-grader. He'd already found work, enjoyed his first restaurant meal, and on this Sunday, 20 days into his freedom, he'd come to sit down with his victim's sister and take responsibility for his role in Warren's death. Scroll down for video Valencia Warren-Gibbs hugs Bobby Hines after talking about the death of her brother, James, at his attorney's office in Detroit Bobby Hines leaves the Macomb Correctional Facility with his sister, Myra Jessie, in New Haven, Michigan This combination of photos made available by the Michigan Department of Corrections shows a younger Bobby Hines and in November 2015. When he was 15, just out of eighth grade, he was in court answering for his role in the murder of a man over a friend's drug debt. He did not fire the deadly shot, but when he and two others confronted 21-year-old James Warren, Hines said something like, 'Let him have it.' Valencia Warren-Gibbs shows a 1987 photo from her prom with her brother, James, in Dearborn, Mich., Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017. She was aware of Bobby Hines' release date, and on that day she thought of James. She was jealous that Hines, who had played a role in his murder, would be going home to his sister. 'I wish it was my brother that I could see,' she said. 'I felt guilty. I felt selfish to feel that way.' 'You know why?' he told her. 'I'm never going to forget what I did.' He would not forget but he could make amends and make the most of his second chance, even as he learns what it means to be Bobby Hines again - a stranger to the world of 2017. Hines' release came after the US Supreme Court last year extended a ban on mandatory life without parole for juvenile offenders to those already in prison, prompting new sentences and the release of dozens of inmates in Michigan and elsewhere. Other former teen offenders still are waiting for a chance at resentencing in places that have been slow to address the court ruling, an earlier Associated Press investigation found. For some, leaving prison after decades might seem like time travel. Not Hines, one of at least 99 Michigan lifers to be resentenced so far. 'I did 28 years,' he said, 'but I don't even feel like I've been in an institution.' He was released at 9am promptly one September morning, walking out with his sister, Myra, who beamed and rested her head on her brother's shoulder. 'We made it,' Hines declared, almost inaudibly, as if he'd just crossed an imaginary finish line. Bobby Hines leaves the Macomb Correctional Facility with his sister, Myra Jessie, in New Haven, Michigan, Tuesday, September 12, 2017. After nearly three decades behind bars, he said he would not forget his role in the death of James Warren, but he could make amends, move on and do his best to make the most of his extraordinary second chance Bobby Hines waits to speak to his parole officer in Detroit Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2017. Writing in prison, he says, 'As a young man, I knew that I had hit rock bottom when I chose to be involved in the taking of another man's life,' he wrote. 'I had the mindset of ... destroying myself and my community. ... I've learned that when you take a person's life ... there is no real true way for you to make that death right with their family members. They will forever be scarred.' Bobby Hines speaks to his parole officer, Cyndi Izumi, in Detroit Tuesday, September 12, 2017, upon being released from prison after nearly three decades. Izumi said he must visit every first and third Friday, pay $240 a year for parole supervision and $1,033 in restitution _ for the funeral of his victim Bobby Hines talks with prisoner reentry resources personnel after meeting with his parole officer in Detroit, upon being released from prison. In June, after he became parole-eligible, Hines was transferred to the Macomb Correctional Facility north of Detroit to join other juvenile lifers who have new sentences now and will eventually be released This photo provided by the American Civil Liberties Union in July 2017 shows a middle school identification card for Bobby Hines Bobby Hines talks with his attorney, Valerie Newman, at Royal Barbeque in Detroit. Newman, a state appellate defender, has secured the release of about a half-dozen juvenile lifers in Michigan in the last year Bobby Hines laughs with his sister Myra Jessie at Royal Barbeque in Detroit, after being released from prison Bobby Hines smells a sprig of lavender at his sister's home in Detroit after being released from prison. Getting out, he said, is like being born again Bobby Hines relaxes outside his sisters home in Detroit after being released from prison. Writing in prison, he said, 'Time is losing 27 of your damndest years. Time is prison. Time is patience. Time is concrete and steel. ... Time is fire and wrath. Time is Mr. James Warren that I killed on a block' Bobby Hines poses for a portrait at his sister's home in Detroit after being released from prison. Getting out, he said, is like being born again. 'If you were to die and you were to go to hell and see all of the destruction and fighting and killing down there and God were to breathe life back into you and you were given a second chance - that's what this is' Myra is her brother's main support system, with their parents now dead. He also was guided by Project Reentry, a program in the state appellate defender's office in which graduate social work students help juvenile lifers prepare for release. One student met with Hines and took photos of Myra's home as part of a post-release plan presented to his resentencing judge. 'You have to take baby steps,' Valerie Newman, a state appellate defender and Hines' lawyer, advised him. 'There's a huge learning curve.' For Hines, getting out was like a rebirth. 'If you were to die and you were to go to hell and see all of the destruction and fighting and killing down there and God were to breathe life back into you and you were given a second chance - that's what this is.' On day one, after meeting with his parole officer and then arriving at his sister's house, Hines retreated to a picnic table in the backyard with his most cherished possessions - poems and essays he wrote in prison to keep himself sane. He read from a poem he wrote about time: 'Time is losing 27 of your damndest years. Time is prison. Time is patience. ... Time is fire and wrath. Time is Mr. James Warren that I killed on a block.' Hines sat back to absorb his words. 'The biggest thing in prison is to be able to face what you did,' he said. 'Once you're able to face your fears then and only then you can move on and be a better person.' Valencia Warren-Gibbs talks about her brother, James, in Dearborn, Michigan, Wednesday, September 13, 2017. She was aware of Bobby Hines' release date, and on that day she thought of James Valencia Warren-Gibbs is overcome with emotion while talking with Bobby Hines, right, about the murder of her brother, James, at his attorney's office in Detroit. He'd come to sit down with his victim's sister and take responsibility for his role in Warren's death. 'I'm never going to forget what I did,' Hines said Bobby Hines, left, talks with Valencia Warren-Gibbs about the death of her brother, James, at his attorney's office in Detroit. Locked up for 28 years, he'd long wanted to meet Warren-Gibbs, to talk with her about that night in 1989 when James was shot after Hines and two others confronted him in a feud over drugs. Bobby Hines stands outside his sister's home in Detroit after being released from prison Hines said he was touched by Warren's sister, Valencia, and their father, Henry, who spoke in support of his release at a March hearing. The judge imposed a new 27-to-60-year sentence, paving the way for Hines to win parole. According to court records, Warren, 21, took the jacket of a young man who owed him money for drugs. That man then enlisted Hines, who wasn't the gunman, and two others to confront Warren. Warren-Gibbs was aware of Hines' release date and all day she thought of her brother. She was jealous Hines would be reunited with his sister, but thrilled he was free. 'To me,' she said, 'forgiveness is up there with oxygen.' Hines, meanwhile, thought of the Warrens that day, understanding their enduring grief. 'If they need me anytime, I'll be there for them 100 percent, you know, because they lost a loved one and I'm free,' he said. 'Let me take that spot. Let me give back.' Nearly three weeks later, Hines and Warren-Gibbs sat at a table, sowing the seeds of an unusual friendship. They talked for more than three hours at Hines' lawyer's office. Hines maintained he never urged anyone to shoot Warren, but said he regrets his inaction. 'Had I been wise enough, I could have stopped it.' Warren-Gibbs told Hines she'd written him several letters over the years, but never felt comfortable enough to send them. 'I wish I could have done more to help,' she said. As talk turned to the future, Warren-Gibbs told Hines she hoped he'd become something of a surrogate brother. 'If you need a brother, you got me,' he replied. 'Anytime you need me, call me.' They exchanged phone numbers, posed for photos and said goodbye, hugging tightly. 'Welcome home,' Warren-Gibbs whispered to him, as a tear rolled down her cheek. Supermodel Gemma Ward has sold her beach-side property for $1.65 million less than a month after tenant Lanell Latta was stabbed to death inside. Ms Ward last year paid $1.6 million for the two-bedroom home in Avalon on Sydney's northern beaches. She had plans to renovate and extend the beach shack with her husband David Letts, but sold the home only four days after advertising began. Heartbroken supermodel Gemma Ward (pictured) has sold her beachside property less than a month after tenant Lanell Latta was stabbed to death inside The North Avalon beach house was sold for $1.65 million, less than a month after Lanell Latta was stabbed to death inside The beach-side property was sold pre-auction for slightly more money than Gemma Ward paid for it the previous year Located on a 1000 square metre block, the home was pre-approved for plans by architect Atelier Haefeli to turn it into a dream house, The Daily Telegraph reported. Opting to sell after the murder which shocked the small beach-side community, Ms Ward accepted a pre-auction offer of $1.65 million and did not make a profit. The property is perched on a hill on Marine Drive, surrounded by trees and with access to Tallow Beach. Ms Ward was leasing the property to Lanell Latta, 50, before she was murdered there in September. Ms Ward was leasing the property to Lanell Latta, 50, (pictured) before she was murdered there in September Opting to sell after the murder which shocked the small beach-side community, Ms Ward (pictured) accepted a pre-auction offer of $1.65 million and did not make a profit She had plans to renovate and extend the beach shack (pictured) with her husband David Letts, but has now sold the home only four days after advertising began The hairdresser's son, Joel Woszatka, 25, was charged with his mother's murder after being arrested nearby soon after police were called to the scene of the killing. Police were investigating whether drugs were involved, amid rumours the idyllic beachside suburb is in the midst of a hidden ice epidemic. Ms Ward and Mr Letts, a photographer, have two children - three-year-old Naia and baby Jet Ocean. The property (pictured) is perched on a hill on Marine Drive, surrounded by trees and with access to Tallow Beach Ms Ward was leasing the property to Lanell Latta (pictured), 50, before she was murdered there in September Police were investigating whether drugs were involved, amid rumours the idyllic beachside suburb is in the midst of a hidden ice epidemic (pictured is one of the two bedrooms in the home) Ms Ward, 29, made her Australian Fashion Week debut aged just 15-years-old in 2003. The Perth-born supermodel, who dated Australian actor Heath Ledger before his death, quickly rose to the top and was considered the industry's new 'it girl' in the late 2000s. She was ranked as the world's 10th highest earning model by Forbes in 2007 before deciding to step away from the limelight. In 2014, Ms Ward returned to the runway at the Spring/Summer 2015 show during Milan Fashion Week. Ms Ward and Mr Letts, a photographer, have two children - three-year-old Naia and baby Jet Ocean (pictured is the home where the murder took place) This is the shocking moment gay marriage campaigners were allegedly threatened and assaulted on a narrow, main road overpass with short hand railings. Bobby Lupo and a fellow activist opposed to redefining marriage were confronted in Melbourne as they held 'It's OK to vote No' signs. Shortly before 7pm on Tuesday, a man in a black shirt threatened to assault one of them as they held placards on the Eram Road footbridge overpass at Box Hill North, in the city's east. This man allegedly told a campaigner against gay marriage he would 'f***ing smash' his face He was recording saying, 'I'll f***ing smash your face in and he's a c***' as they stood over busy Middleborough Road. This man then marched towards Mr Lupo and allegedly pushed him in the chest before chasing him. 'Stay away from us, sir. Stay away,' Mr Lupo says during the confrontation. 'Help.' Mr Lupo, a 28-year-old maintenance worker who took the footage on his smart phone, said he feared he would be pushed over the edge of the narrow overpass into oncoming traffic. 'He kept on coming towards me and then I sort of backed off, backed off,' he told Daily Mail Australia. The ugly confrontation occurred on an overpass at Box Hill North in Melbourne's south-east 'He was chasing towards me and my immediate reaction was to run away because I didn't want to be pushed off the bridge, I didn't know what was in his mind.' Later, Mr Lupo recorded a police officer at Doncaster police station telling him he shouldn't have held placards on an overpass. 'How wise do you think it was to stand there with a placard that's going to stir people up like that?,' he asked. 'On a scale of one to 10, in terms of smartness, given there are a lot of people who might disagree with you and they might get into a confrontation, how smart do you think your moves were?' Bobby Lupo had been holding a sign opposing gay marriage during the confrontation (this picture was taken two days after the alleged scuffle on an overpass at Box Hill North) Mr Lupo told the officer he sought to avoid confrontations because it was a bridge. However, this officer told him commonsense would have told him to avoid holding a placard on a bridge. 'There's nothing the police are going to do about that,' he said. The officer became agitated when Mr Lupo told him this was a free speech issue. 'Standing on a motorway bridge, annoying people like that, is not the smartest thing,' he said. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Victoria Police for comment. The recorded confrontation occurred on Tuesday, three days before the deadline for voters to request a new ballot from the Australian Bureau of Statistics if they hadn't received one. Ugly scenes have unfolded as part of the $122 million voluntary postal vote on whether same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, including what appeared to be racially-motivated incidents against No campaigners at Wiley Park in Sydney's south-west and Chatswood, in the city's North Shore. Two churches in Melbourne have also been sprayed with 'Bash bigots' and a Nazi swastika next to a Christian cross. Those opposed to gay marriage have also acted badly, with swastika signs sprayed on rainbow flags in Brisbane. An Adelaide teacher jailed for sexually exploiting a teenage girl has had his sentence slashed after taking his case to the High Court. Marco Chiro was originally jailed for 10 years for his offending over a three-year period which started when his victim was 14 years old. But he appealed against the jail term in the High Court, which ordered he be sentenced on a more favourable basis, because the trial judge had not asked the jury which specific acts they found to be proved beyond reasonable doubt. Convicted sex offender Marco Chiro had his sentence drastically slashed on Monday after finding a loophole in the law which will see him eligible for parole in just weeks On Monday the South Australian Court of Criminal Appeal cut his sentence to three years and six months and set a non-parole period of two years and six months. With Chiro taken into custody at the end of his trial in May, 2015, he will now become eligible for parole in a matter of weeks. In setting the new sentence, Justice Ann Vanstone said all the conduct alleged against Chiro was serious, having regard to his position of trust as a teacher at the girl's school. Chiro's offending took place between July 2008 and November 2011 while Chiro was employed as a teacher at a girls school in Adelaide's eastern suburbs She said he had a clear intent to groom the victim and have her submit to greater intimacy. But Justice Vanstone said the sentence "we are constrained to impose" meant Chiro would be released very soon. After the High Court ruling, the South Australian government said Chiro's case had exposed a loophole in the law and passed amendments in parliament to allow judges to make findings of fact in such cases in the future. Philip Hammond could be forced to abandon his goal for eliminating the deficit amid a clamour for more spending on public services. The chancellor is facing a barrage of demands for extra cash in next month's Budget, including more funding for the NHS, pay rises for public servants, easing the burden for students, and resources for the police. But the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said Mr Hammond might need to admit it is 'no longer sensible' to aim to balance the books by his target date of the mid-2020s. Such a concession would be a bitter political blow, as the Tories have already rolled back the aim of balancing the books, originally set out by George Osborne in 2010. Chancellor Philip Hammond (pictured outside 11 Downing Street on Budget Day) is facing a barrage of demands for extra cash in next month's financial package The Budget on November 22 is shaping up to be a crucial moment for the government and Mr Hammond personally - after he came under intense criticism over a series of missteps. As well as the pressure to boost spending, Mr Hammond is being squeezed with calls for tax cuts, The Adam Smith institute today urged the scrapping of stamp duty on property sales to solve the housing crisis and boost the economy. It said the damaging tax which raised 11.7billion last year stopped Britons moving jobs and kept them in houses too large for their needs. By penalising older people for downsizing, stamp duty makes the number of larger homes on the market for growing families even smaller. The costs could be covered by raising council tax on the most expensive homes, the think-tank said. 'DITCH 11bn STAMP DUTY TO EASE HOUSING CRISIS' Philip Hammond must scrap stamp duty on property sales to solve the housing crisis and boost the economy, a think-tank warned last night. The Adam Smith Institute said the damaging tax which raised 11.7billion last year stopped Britons moving jobs and kept them in houses too large for their needs. By penalising older people for downsizing, stamp duty makes the number of larger homes on the market for growing families even smaller. The institute called on Mr Hammond to cover the cost of scrapping stamp duty by raising council tax on the most expensive homes. Advertisement The IFS said that while forecast borrowing had come down slightly since the time of the last Budget in March, the impact on the public finances was likely to be 'dwarfed' by downgrades to the Office for Budget Responsibility's (OBR) estimates for productivity growth in the face of the UK's continued sluggish performance. If the OBR were to cut its current forecast for productivity growth from 1.6 per cent a year to 1 per cent, the IFS said it would add almost 20 billion to the deficit by 2021-22, taking it from a predicted 17 billion to almost 36 billion. However, if the OBR assumed that the 'terrible' productivity growth rate of the last seven years of just 0.4 per cent were to continue, the projected deficit would rise to 70 billion. At the same time, Mr Hammond is under intense political pressure to come up with additional funding for public services. In an article for MailOnline today, London Mayor Sadiq Khan warned that police numbers in the capital could drop to a 19-year low of 27,500 unless more resources are supplied in the Budget. IFS deputy director Carl Emmerson said: 'Public sector workers, the NHS, the prison service, schools and working-age benefit recipients, among others, would like more money. 'Given all the current pressures and uncertainties, and the policy action that these might require, it is perhaps time to admit that a firm commitment to running a budget surplus from the mid-2020s onwards is no longer sensible.' Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the IFS analysis showed the government needed to 'end austerity'. 'The IFS have today confirmed seven years of Tory austerity policies have failed to drive up investment and productivity, with serious potential consequences for the public finances,' he said. The Budget will be a key moment for Theresa May's government. The PM is pictured going to church in Maidenhead with husband Philip yesterday 'Instead of dragging millions of ordinary people through the endless misery of Tory spending cuts, the Chancellor now needs to make a decisive break with past Tory failure and end austerity.' But the Treasury said ministers would continue to adopt a 'balanced approach' to 'repairing' the public finances. 'We have made good progress in reducing our borrowing, thanks to our clear fiscal targets, but our national debt is still far too high at almost 65,000 for every household,' a spokesman said. 'We will continue to take a balanced approach, dealing with our debts while also investing in our public services, to build an economy that works for everyone.' A Gold Coast Uber driver has been granted bail after he allegedly raped a 20-year-old female passenger in September. The driver, a 24-year-old Indian man, was in Australia on a student visa to study hospitality when he allegedly raped the woman. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told Brisbane Supreme Court the victim had 'rested her head on his shoulder' after he drove her home, the Courier Mail reports. An Indian Uber driver, in Australia on a student visa, has been granted bail in Queensland after he allegedly raped a 20-year-old female passenger in September (stock image) The 24-year-old was granted bail on one charge of rape and one of common assault. Police allege the driver kissed, and then bit, the woman, after picking her up from a popular nightclub in Surfers Paradise. The man then allegedly raped the woman in the car, outside her home. The woman told police she was afraid the Indian driver wouldn't allow her to leave the car, so she gave the man her mobile number to try and calm him. The 24-year-old Uber driver was granted bail on one charge of rape and one of common assault (stock image) The driver then allegedly told the 20-year-old he wanted to call her number 'to check that it's actually hers' before allowing her to leave the car, the court heard. The man then allegedly saved his number in the woman's phone under his name, followed by the word 'love'. The woman was found by a security guard, sitting in the dirt and crying after the man drove away. Police allege the driver kissed, and then bit, the woman after picking her up from a popular nightclub in the Surfers Paradise (stock image) The court heard the driver allegedly sent the young woman two text messages later the same day, asking if it was possible to see her again. 'I'm very glad to see u again if its possible, I think u forget me! Text me if u remember me, thanks x [sic],' one text read. The driver's lawyer told the court the woman had been intoxicated and 'ostensibly cannot remember the journey home'. The man said he would not be returning to work for the ride-sharing company while out on bail. The most seriously wounded soldier to survive the Afghan warzone is hoping an operation on his spine will help him achieve his dream of walking again. Paratrooper Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson was two weeks from finishing a tour of Afghanistan when his Land Rover hit a mine in 2006. He suffered around 40 different injuries, including brain damage and losing both his legs. He was unconscious in a military hospital for three months. Paratrooper Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson, the most seriously injured British soldier to survive an attack in Afghanistan, is hoping surgery will help him achieve his dream of walking again His fight, first to survive and then regain his life, have inspired remarkable scenes, including when 30,000 people came out to watch him carry the Olympic Torch through his home town of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, in 2012. Now, L/Bdr Parkinson has undergone a seven-hour operation, filmed by the BBC's Inside Out programme, to help straighten his spine in a bid to improve his chances of walking again. The curve in his back has not only affected his walking but, for the first time in year, he has been complaining to his parents about being in pain, his family said. L/Bdr Parkinson has undergone a seven-hour operation, filmed by the BBC's Inside Out programme, to help straighten his spine in a bid to improve his chances of walking again The latest operation involved surgeons putting new screws in at the bottom of his back and then adding length to two rods that were installed eight years ago Eight years ago the soldier had an operation to install screws and two rods in his back. But his spine has curved below these rods and this latest operation involved the surgeons putting new screws in at the bottom of his back and then adding length to the original rods. After the operation, one of the surgeons, Alex Baker, told Inside Out: 'So far it's looking pretty good. It's looking fairly well-balanced. We're very happy with the x-rays and how it all looks.' L/Bdr Parkinson's mother, Diane Dernie told the programme that the operation was an important step. She said: 'This operation means everything to Ben. There are good medical reasons why it needs to happen but for Ben it's all about the walking.' Speaking as her son is taken into theatre, she said: 'I'm more nervous than he is, he's cool as a cucumber. We're in bits. I think no matter how old your kids are you never think this is what you are going to be doing.' Before the surgery, L/Bdr Parkinson said: 'I am excited, it's been over 10 years that I have been waiting for it. 'My walking is going a lot, lot better but I need this operation for it to progress. I am confident this operation will make a big difference. It will definitely make a difference in some way.' Speaking a few days after the operation, during a physiotherapy session, L/Bdr Parkinson said: 'I'm very happy, it's slightly painful but I'm not that bad. It's very, very good.' His stepfather, Andy Dernie, said: 'There are probably other operations that this will lead on to, but one at a time. The next ones won't be as scary, but this one was a scary one. 'We're glad it's over and we're fairly sure that it's an absolute 100% success.' Paratrooper Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson was two weeks from finishing a tour of Afghanistan when his Land Rover hit a mine in 2006 His fight, first to survive and then regain his life, have inspired remarkable scenes, including when 30,000 people came out to watch him carry the Olympic Torch through his home town of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, in 2012 L/Bombardier Parkinson was awarded the MBE for his charity work by the Prince of Wales at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace in 2013. The former paratrooper has taken part in several long-distance challenges in recent years. He was one of a group of injured veterans who took part in a gruelling trek in Norway in 2013. The expedition, organised by the charity Pilgrim Bandits, retraced the footsteps of the Second World War heroes of Telemark to mark the 70th anniversary of the mission. Ben Parkinson was the most seriously injured soldier to survive the Afghanistan war, losing both legs. Left, before the bomb attack, and right, after, pictured in 2007 Along with other amputees and severely injured servicemen, L/Bdr Parkinson travelled 65 miles (105km) across the Hardangervidda in winds of up to 80mph (129kph) and temperatures of minus 30C (minus 22F). In 2015, he bravely canoed the Yukon river, one of the most remote rivers on earth. His eight-day trip down the Canadian river started on the ninth anniversary of the day he was severely injured by a bomb in Afghanistan, a date he calls 'Survival Day'. In 2015, he bravely canoed the Yukon river, one of the most remote rivers on earth He had to contend with freezing temperatures, bears, wolves and violent rapids, while living off reduced rations and having to kayak 40 miles a day. Those taking part could only eat what they could carry in their kayaks and had to camp alongside the river every night in sub-zero temperatures. :: The BBC Inside Out programme featuring L/Bdr Parkinosn's operation will be shown in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Monday at 7.30pm on BBC One. The wife of a seriously wounded soldier is expected to take the stand as the sentencing hearing for Army Sgt Bowe Bergdahl resumes. Prosecutors told a judge they intend to call Shannon Allen to the stand on Monday to discuss a traumatic brain injury her husband suffered during a search for Bergdahl, who walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009. National Guard Master Sgt Mark Allen was shot in the temple during a search for Bergdahl in July 2009, causing life-altering injuries that left him unable to speak and dependent on a wheelchair. Prosecutors told a judge they intend to call Shannon Allen (right, with husband Mark Allen) to the stand on Monday to discuss a traumatic brain injury her husband suffered during a search for Bowe Bergdahl National Guard Master Sgt Mark Allen was shot in the temple during a search for Bergdahl in July 2009, causing life-altering injuries that left him unable to speak and dependent on a wheelchair After walking off his post in 2009, Bergdahl (pictured) was held by the Taliban for five years and eventually released in a 2014 prisoner swap criticized by Republicans Bergdahl has pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. He faces up to life in prison. After walking off his post in 2009, Bergdahl was held by the Taliban for five years and eventually released in a 2014 prisoner swap criticized by Republicans. Prosecutors are using wounds to several service members who searched for Bergdahl as evidence to convince the judge that he deserves a stiff punishment. Allen's wife, Shannon, sat crying in the courtroom the day Bergdahl pleaded guilty. A parade of prosecution witnesses have described the danger they faced while searching for Bergdahl after he disappeared in June 2009 and the lasting effects of injuries they sustained in the futile hunt. Several service members on Thursday recounted a hastily organized mission in July 2009 to search villages near Forward Operating Base Kushamond that ended in a Taliban ambush. A parade of prosecution witnesses have described the danger they faced while searching for Bergdahl (pictured left) after he disappeared in June 2009 and the lasting effects of injuries they sustained in the futile hunt Jason Walters (left), a former US Army Ranger who participated in the search for Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl when he abandoned his post in Afghanistan, leaves the courthouse after testifying in the sentencing proceedings of Bergdahl's court martial at Fort Bragg, North Carolina US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel John Marx (left) leaves the courthouse after testifying in the sentencing proceedings of Bergdahl's court martial Early the morning of July 9, 2009, troops came under heavy fire. A grenade exploded near Texas Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Jason Walters, then an Army Ranger. 'Everything went black,' he testified. 'I saw stars.' As soldiers scrambled back to their position behind a berm, Walters saw Sergeant 1st Class Mark Allen get shot in the head. US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel John Marx, then a captain, said he helped load Allen unto a medical helicopter. 'That was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, getting Sergeant Allen on that chopper,' Marx said. 'It was hot, we were dehydrated, and just carrying his limp body - it was tough.' Allen suffered a traumatic brain injury and is now confined to a wheelchair and unable to communicate, according to prosecutors. His wife and doctor are expected to testify on Monday, when the sentencing hearing resumes. Army Specialist Morita, who was hurt in the same ambush, underwent three surgeries to repair his hand. Jonathan Morita (right), a former US Army soldier who was injured while searching for Bergdahl after he deserted in Afghanistan, leaves the courthouse after testifying on the third day of sentencing proceedings in Bergdahl's court martial last week He said he is more agitated and angry than before, and he directs his anger 'toward one person in particular'. As Morita left the courtroom on Monday, he leveled a steady glare at the defense table where Bergdahl sat. Retired Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer James Hatch also testified about his career-ending injury and a a military dog killed on a mission searching for Bergdahl. Hatch said the dog helped protect his team by locating enemy fighters after the SEALs lost sight of them in a chaotic situation. 'His name was Remco,' Hatch said as his voice cracked. Hatch said his team's helicopters came under fire as they landed in an area near the Pakistan border where they had information on Bergdahl's possible whereabouts. He said the mission was hastily planned, and their only objective was the Bergdahl search. Former Navy SEAL James Hatch, who was shot in the leg during a July 2009 attempt to rescue Bergdahl in Afghanistan, arrives with his service dog at the courthouse to testify on the second day of Bergdahl's sentencing proceedings last week Remco was leading them through a field when the dog located two enemy fighters that the team had seen at a distance. Hatch said the fighters sprayed AK-47 bullets at them, killing the dog. He was hit in the leg. 'I screamed a lot. It hurt really bad... I thought I was dead,' he said. Hatch said he believes he would have died if a comrade hadn't quickly applied a tourniquet. Hatch has subsequently had 18 surgeries. He now runs a nonprofit dedicated to the care and support of military and law enforcement dogs. Prosecutors are expected to call more witnesses in the afternoon to discuss the search missions and resulting wounds to multiple soldiers. The judge, Army Col. Jeffery Nance, ruled those injuries would not have happened had Bergdahl, 31, not endangered his comrades in 2009 by walking away from his post. Two of Bergdahl's defense attorneys, Maj Oren Gleich, left, and Maj Justin Thomas, right, leave the Fort Bragg courthouse on Wednesday. Bergdahl faces life in prison US Army Captain John Billings (left), Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's platoon leader at the time of his disappearance in Afghanistan, leaves the courthouse with an escort after testifying on the second day of sentencing proceedings in Bergdahl's court martial Nance said on October 23 that he would be fair and hasn't been influenced by President Donald Trump's comments about Bergdahl, but said he does have concerns that the president's comments are affecting public perceptions. While campaigning for president, Trump repeatedly called Bergdahl a traitor and suggested that he be shot or thrown from a plane without a parachute. Nance ruled in February that those comments didn't constitute unlawful command influence, noting that Mr. Trump was a civilian candidate for president at the time. The defense argued that Trump revived his campaign comments the day of Bergdahl's plea hearing, by saying at a news conference that he thinks people are aware of what he said before. Prosecutors made no deal to cap Bergdahl's punishment, so the judge has wide leeway to decide his sentence. Several more days of testimony are expected. Bergdahl, from Hailey, Idaho, has said he was caged, kept in darkness and beaten, and tried to escape more than a dozen times before President Barack Obama brought Bergdahl home in 2014 in a swap for five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. A NSW teacher has been found not guilty of sex offences against young students who said he touched them in the playground and classroom. The 59-year-old, who can't be named for legal reasons, had pleaded not guilty to charges involving 17 students at a Southern Highlands school in 2014 and 2015. During a judge-alone trial it was alleged he touched some students on the bottom and chest, in front of classmates and at least once in the presence of another teacher. A 59-year-old teacher has been cleared of sex offences against 17 students after a judge ruled his awareness of social norms were hindered by stage one autism disorder But NSW District Court Judge Antony Townsden on Monday found the teacher not guilty of all counts, saying he couldn't be satisfied that the man touched or attempted to touch the students for his own sexual gratification. The judge said two psychologists agreed the 59-year-old suffered stage one autism disorder, which could affect his awareness of social norms and how he regulated personal space. He noted a former principal's evidence that the man was a 'touchy-feely type of teacher' who would casually and openly put his arms around children in the presence of co-workers, other students and parents. 'I will not accept a community award sponsored by a person who will not allow [gay people] to marry in the future,' Grace Gouldstone said Mr Goodenough 'does not reflect the inclusive values of our school,' she wrote Perth schoolgirl rejects award sponsored by MP who is against marriage equality A Perth teenager has turned down a school award that is sponsored by MP opposed to same-sex marriage. Grace Gouldstone will return the Ian Goodenough Award for positive attitude and contribution to the school that was presented to her at Duncraig Senior High School. 'I feel strongly that the sponsor of the award, Ian Goodenough MP, does not support the values of that particular award,' she wrote in a letter to principal Stephen Spice. '[It] does not reflect the values of our school as a positive and inclusive environment, promoting equality for all. As such, I reject his award.' Scroll down for video Grace Gouldstone, 17, has turned down an award from conservative MP Ian Goodenough The Duncraig Senior High School student said that Mr Goodenough's actions 'undermined' the integrity of the award, after he publicly supported a 'No' vote in the marriage equality survey While the 17-year-old was honoured to be considered a worthy recipient, she told Perth Now that she believed Mr Goodenough's actions undermined the integrity of the award. 'Mr Goodenough publicly voted No for the same-sex marriage postal vote and to me this does not reflect the positive beliefs of valuing diversity, inclusivity and most especially equality,' she said. 'There are students at our school, my friends, who have a very wonderful and positive future ahead of them in same-sex relationships. I will not accept a community award sponsored by a person who will not allow them to marry in the future.' Grace told school principal Stephen Spice (left) that she was rejecting Mr Goodenough's (right) award The Year 12 student told 9NEWS on Monday that she has a lot of friends who are in same-sex relationships. 'I don't understand how people can't be for that. Equality needs to be achieved for all peopleI don't care how it gets done. 'If I have to take the first steps for my school, then so be it.' The conservative Liberal MP said that he supported Grace's right to decline the award 'if she feels strongly' about it, but still offered her his congratulations 'Not everybody will agree with me on social issues,' he said. 'It's a divisive issue. There are people on both sides of the argument, so there are probably close to half the electorate that think the other way.' He added that his vote in Parliament on this issue will be guided by careful consideration of the survey results. The teen also reportedly also urged the school to consider dropping Mr Goodenough as an award sponsor. Many have taken to Facebook to congratulate and support Grace, with one writing, 'Congratulation of having the courage of your convictions. 'With young people standing up and speaking out about inequality, our society will become kinder and more inclusive.' Another commented, 'Got to admire someone so young (or old for that matter) with enough conviction in their beliefs to stand up for what they feel passionate about...You go girl, I applaud you.' Conservative Liberal MP Ian Goodenough posting his 'No' vote against same sex marriage Mr Goodenough posted a photo to Facebook in September after placing his survey into a postal box ahead of the marriage equality vote. 'As a supporter of traditional marriage I posted my 'No' vote in Joondalup today,' he captioned the photo, reminding his constituents to vote before the deadline. The politician, who has been outspoken about his stance on same-sex marriage in the past, appeared on the ABC to explain his position on the upcoming postal vote. 'I believe in retaining the current definition of marriage, because I believe it involves the commitment between a man and a woman for the purposes of raising a family.' 'Children are best adjusted having a male parent and a female parent; a mother and a father.' 'It gives a balance, there are attributes which either gender bring that will help their development to the various roles within contemporary society.' A top Russian child model who died in China from 'exhaustion' made just 6.30 a day after paying her air fares, hotels and food, it was claimed today. Vlada Dzyuba, 14, from the industrial city of Perm in Russia, missed school to work on catwalks on a 'three month contract' to realise her dream of becoming a supermodel. But the teenager died from 'utter exhaustion' and meningitis as she waited for her latest assignment thousands of miles from home in China. Her parents say they 'cannot afford' to fly her body home and she is expected to be cremated with her ashes returned to her homeland after a month. Her case raises acute fears over the exploitation of children by the glamour industry. Vlada Dzyuba was found to be suffering from 'utter exhaustion' and chronic meningitis following a gruelling 13-hour Asian fashion show in Shanghai Miss Dzyuba collapsed and fell into a coma moments before she was due to step out onto the catwalk in Shanghai (pictured, during a show in the city) A new Beijing account of her death says she died from 'septicopyemia' - blood poisoning with 'multiple visceral organs damaged, liver dysfunction and renal insufficiency'. Official newspaper The Global Times reported she died of 'multiple organ dysfunction syndrome', citing medical records, but it is understood tests are still being conducted. Before she went into a coma she had told her mother back home in Russia by phone that she was exhausted. Vlada is reported to have attended a 13-hour jewellery modelling shoot before collapsing after becoming the latest Russian teenage model to travel to China. Her parents fear they 'cannot afford' to fly her body home. Russian diplomats have asked that a cremation is delayed until her mother - Oksana - arrives in China. On an earlier contract in China, Vlada received just 6.30 a day for her catwalk appearances once her air fares, hotels, food and insurance had been taken from her earnings, reported the Russian media. The girl was 'scared' to seek hospital treatment because she did not have medical insurance on her latest trip to China, say the media citing her mother. It has been claimed Miss Dzyuba was on a 'slave labour' contract without medical insurance and had been too 'scared' to seek hospital treatment. The Chinese modelling agency involved in her latest trip has denied overworking her - but new facts have emerged that raise concern over the working conditions of a girl who was not accompanied by her mother. Among these is the length of her employment hours, which could be more than eight hours a day, and how she could be in China without medical insurance. In Russia she would be permitted to work three hours a week, it has been reported. Zheng Yi, chief executive of ESEE Model Management, told The Global Times on Sunday: 'Dzyuba had received 16 different jobs during her two months' stay in China. 'She had regular breaks while working. Most of her work was completed within eight hours. Her workload was moderate compared with other models.' Zheng insisted her contract was 'legal' even though it did not specify the number of working hours. ESEE Model Management had signed a three-month contract with Dzyuba's home company, Smirnoff Models based in St. Petersburg, Russia, said the agency boss. How she came to be working in China without medical insurance is not explained. The Russian government is to demand explanations over the conditions in which Miss Dzyuba was kept in Shanghai However, once she became ill, the modelling agency did pay her bills, it is understood. The girl had appeared at the prestigious Shanghai Fashion Week. before going on to other assignments. Once she fell ill, she was sent to hospital and the Russian Embassy was informed. 'Russian embassy staff and the local police arrived at the hospital and inquired about the case,' said Zheng. 'Dzyuba was then sent to the intensive care unit (ICU) as her condition deteriorated.' It has emerged that the girl's mother Oksana is a glamour magazine editor in Russia and that she had encouraged her daughter into a modelling career. Yet Vlada had 'insecurities' about modelling, The Siberian Times reported. Elvira Zaitsvea, head of Great Model agency in Perm, admitted: 'When Vlada just started, she was full of teenager insecurities. 'She was shy, she used to slouch. We had to work hard with her.' She admitted such length contracts were banned in Europe which is why she went to China. Miss Dzyuba's mother said she was crying down the phone to her saying: 'Mama, I am so tired. I so much want to sleep' 'We discussed her career with her parents, and decided to send her to China,' she said. 'They treat young models with great care there. Vlada was daily talking to her parents on Skype, saying how happy she was. 'She was telling stories about fashion shows, about what an exciting oriental country China is, and that she had become a face of a transatlantic company.' Russian investigators and human rights experts are now probing the case. Her distraught mother wept: 'She was calling me, saying 'Mama, I am so tired. I so much want to sleep'. 'It must have been the very beginning of the illness. And then her temperature shot up. 'I didn't sleep myself and was calling her constantly, begging her to go to hospital.' The mother - who also has a young baby - sought a visa to be with her daughter but could not get it before her child died. A man believed to be her manager who negotiated her Chinese contract has declined to comment on her death. This is the terrifying moment a plane had to abort landing after 50mph winds bounced it along the runway. The Enter Air flight was supposed to land at Salzburg Airport in Austria at 11.25am yesterday. But with such fierce winds blowing, even at high speed the pilot was unable to land the aircraft. Nail-biting footage by Michael Hufnagl captures the moment the Boeing B7370-800 battles its way through crosswinds to reach the runway - but when it gets there the wheels bounce off the tarmac and it has to head skyward again. This is the terrifying moment an Enter Air flight (pictured) tries to land at Salzburg Airport in Austria as it battles fierce crosswinds of up to 50mph Captured on camera the Boeing B7370-800 (pictured) shakes from side to side as it gets closer to the runway Another terrifying clip shows the view from inside the plane, as the wing (pictures) shakes The pilot was reportedly forced to fly the plane to Frankfurt, where passengers had boarded less than an hour beforehand. Mr Hufnagl uploaded the footage to YouTube where it has got nearly 100,000 views in just 24 hours. An equally unnerving video shows the plane from inside, where passengers were forced to hold tight and hope the plane would eventually land. Commenting on social media one user said: 'Hats off to the pilot!' Another commented: 'S*** weather! I don't know if it's wise trying to land if you are so extremely skewed.' Nail-biting footage shot from a field near the runway shows the plane approach the tarmac But as it hits the ground, it bounces up and down, unable to grip the tarmac properly After bouncing back up, the pilot is forced to fly back into the air, as terrified passengers sit inside not knowing what is going on The plane was forced to fly back to Frankfurt where it took off from less than an hour before One said: 'OMG that was close', while another added 'Wow! Amazing! Bravo to the pilot, he must have saved several lives.' One user called Pedro Gonzalex was less impressed, saying: 'What a stupid pilot, he shouldn't attempt it in the first place knowing the winds were strong, risking people's lives.' The manoeuvre pilots use in strong winds is known as a crosswind landing. Enter Air is a Polish airline with less than 20 planes across Europe and Africa. A spokesman for the company told MailOnline: 'The hurricane wind at Salzburg was very strong and when the aircraft received strong gust of wind, pilots acted quickly according to procedures and aborted landing. 'Polish pilots are very well trained for such weather conditions. No one was injured.' Advertisement A thousand protesters formed a human chain around the main government building in Girona, the ousted Catalan presidents hometown, to defy a takeover from Madrid. The activists, who held up blue pro-independence signs, read a manifesto saying they categorically rejected Madrids move to take control of the region; condemned its repression; and demanded the release of three Catalan leaders currently in prison in Spain. They then formed a human chain around the 1,500ft perimeter of the government building in a symbol of defiance against Madrid despite the fact that their ousted president has fled to Brussels. Sacked local president Carles Puigdemont left the country after Spain's top prosecutor called for him to be charged with rebellion, sedition and embezzlement. The politician had vowed to defy Spanish authorities by turning up to work despite threats of arrest and even uploaded a picture of the presidential palace roof to Instagram, but never appeared. Five other sacked members of the Catalan government are said to be with him in Belgium in what is being billed as a meeting with Flemish separatists. The group fled from Spain to Marseille in the south of France by car to avoid being stopped by officials acting on orders from Madrid. They then flew on to Brussels. But Mr Puigdemont and his fugitive ministers all intend to apply for asylum, Spanish media have reported. A decision on whether asylum will be granted is expected within the next five days. It comes as thousands of anti-fascists wearing balaclavas and carrying black flags marched through Barcelona as part of a counter-demonstration against far-right protests held in the city and Madrid yesterday. Scroll down for video Despite Mr Puigdemont being out of the country thousands of protesters rallied in his home town of Girona, reading a manifesto the rejected the takeover of power by Madrid and calling for jailed separatist leaders to be freed Carles Puigdemont, the ousted president of Catalonia, fled to Brussels on Monday morning as Spain's top prosecutor called for him to be charged with rebellion, sedition and embezzlement Mr Puigdemont had threatened to defy Madrid's orders by turning up to work on Monday and even tweeted a picture of the parliamentary palace, though never appeared The demonstrations came as Mr Puigdemont's lawyers said he might not attend a court hearing in Madrid and branded the calls for him to be charged with rebellion and sedition as 'absurd' Carme Forcadell, Speaker of the Catalan parliament, was filmed arriving at work on Monday (above) where she announced the parliament would dissolve. She has also been ordered to hand herself over to police Catalan sustainability minister Josep Rull appeared to defy the government after tweeting this image of himself at work, though he was seen leaving the parliamentary palace a short time later Journalists and protesters had gathered outside the presidential palace on Monday in expectation of Mr Puigdemont's arrival, before it emerged he had fled the country Pro-independence protesters had expected Mr Puigdemont to lead the government in defiance of Madrid, but were instead left angry and disappointed as he fled Unionists waving Spanish and EU flags celebrated the news of Mr Puigdemont's departure with banners reading 'victory' The Catalan regional police were stationed around the palace on Monday. Ministers were told they would be allowed to clear their desks, but would be arrested if they tried to carry out their duties Mr Puigdemont and Ms Forcadell were told to turn themselves over to police, while officers were warned not to arrest them Madrid sacked the head of the Catalan police after triggering article 155 to revoke the powers of the regional government What happens now? Carles Puigdemont and other Catalan leaders have been ordered to appear in court after Spain's top prosecutor called for charges against them. The charges - including rebellion, sedition, provocation by regional officials and misuse of public money - will be considered by a judge who will decide whether or not to file them. It is understood the leaders will not be arrested unless they miss the court hearing, which could be as soon as tomorrow, or try to carry out their official duties. They will be allowed into the parliament in Barcelona, but only to collect their possessions. Mr Puigdemont is currently in Brussels where he is believed to be with five of his ministers meeting with Flemish separatists. It is thought he will apply for political asylum which would place him beyond the reach of authorities in Madrid. Belgium's foreign minister said it was 'not unrealistic' that Mr Puigdemont could be granted asylum, though he was later slapped down by Prime Minister Charles Michel. Advertisement The sacked leader, who is reported to be in a 'safe place' away from the media, is expected to give a speech on Tuesday clarifying why he left the country. The Belgian foreign minister said on Sunday that it was 'not unrealistic' that Mr Puigdemont could be granted asylum if he faced arrest, though he was later slapped down by Prime Minister Charles Michel who said it was 'absolutely not on the agenda'. Former speaker Carme Forcadell, who is also facing charges alongside Mr Puigdemont, did arrive at her office in Barcelona but only to announce parliament would be dissolving. The five ministers with Mr Puigdemont have been named as Meritxell Borras, the former minister for governance, public administration and housing, former health minister Toni Comin, former interior minister Joaquim Forn, former minister for employment Dolors Bassa and former agriculture, livestock, fisheries and food minister Meritxell Serret. In another apparent climb down, Mr Puigdemont's representative said his party would field candidates in the snap election on 21 December announced by Madrid. The party had said earlier that it did not respect the legitimacy of the election. The Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, said that his plan for taking control of Catalonia was 'going well'. The extraordinary turn of events has shocked many in Catalonia, with unionists jubilant while many separatists reacted with a sense of anger and humiliation. The activists, who held up blue pro-independence signs, read a manifesto saying they 'categorically' rejected Madrid's move to take control of the region, condemned its 'repression', and demanded the release of three Catalan leaders currently in prison in Spain. They then formed a human chain around the 1,500ft perimeter of the government building in a symbol of defiance despite the fact that Mr Puigdemont was not there. Meanwhile the mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, a political moderate, openly criticised the cloak-and-dagger way in which Mr Puigdemont handled the crisis, calling on him to explain himself and 'finish with this uncertainty'. Sustainability minister Josep Rull had earlier tweeted a picture of himself at his desk, but was seen leaving the building a short time after. Two police officers entered and left the building in central Barcelona, followed by Rull himself. Meanwhile a leading Spanish journalist claimed the army is ready to intervene in Catalonia if necessary. Eduardo Inda, director of online news website OKDiaro.com and a regular on Spanish political and current affairs programmes, told broadcaster La Sexta that soldiers would be mobilised to protect airports, ports and nuclear power stations if they came under threat. Once charges have been officially laid against the ministers, it is expected they will be ordered to appear at a court hearing as early as Tuesday. It is understood that they will not be arrested unless they miss the hearing, which will likely see bail set and assets seized. Thousands of anti-fascist protesters on the streets An army of anti-fascist demonstrators have been seen marching through Barcelona this evening in response to far-right protests in the city yesterday. Protesters dressed in black with their faces covered by scarves were heard shouting 'neighbours, wake up, there are Nazis at your door and 'Nazis go' as they walked in a huge crowd. Riot police are also at the scene as they attempt to keep the anti-fascists separate from a nearby nationalist rally in the city. It comes after a protest in Barcelona yesterday saw men lashing out at a line of police officers as video footage showed dozens of protesters making Nazi salutes in Madrid. Advertisement Ministers are being allowed into parliament but only to collect their belongings and have been told they will be arrested if they try to perform their official duties. Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido said the government was giving the separatist politicians 'a few hours' of time because the goal was 'to recover normality in a discreet way and under the principle of minimal intervention' from central authorities. Zoido is also hosting a meeting in Madrid with the new head of the Catalan police and other officials in the home affairs department of the troubled region. The meeting with the Mossos d'Esquadra commissar Ferran Lopez, who was number two in the forces' hierarchy until last week, comes three days after Spain's central authorities begun to directly manage affairs in Catalonia. On Saturday, the sacked Catalan leader issued a televised statement in which he vowed to come to work on Monday unless he was 'forcibly prevented', and called on civil servants to 'peacefully resist' efforts by Madrid to take over the levers of power in Catalonia. After a day of violence, Nazi salutes and amid the massive unionist demonstrations on the streets of Barcelona on Sunday, Spanish anti-fascist groups marched in a counter-demonstration this evening. Spanish officials organised a unionist march through central Barcelona on Sunday in which they claimed more than a million people took part to resoundingly reject Catalonia's declaration of independence. During the protests in Barcelona, men were seen lashing out at line of police officers and a second video from Madrid showed dozens of protesters gathered in a group and making Nazi salutes. The crowds chanted that Carles Puigdemont, the sacked Catalan leader, should be sent to prison for declaring independence. Other videos show gangs chanting 'Viva Franco' - a nod to Spain's former dictator General Francisco Franco. Protesters also shouted obscenities about Catalan journalists, who they accuse of twisting the facts and selling fake news. Thousands were chanting, 'this time we are going to vote,' declaring their intention to make their presence felt at the ballot box on 21 December rather than boycott the poll, as they did during the October 1 referendum. Tensions ran high around the presidential palace after violent scenes on the streets of Barcelona on Sunday when Nazi-saluting unionists clashed with police Spanish officials organised a unionist march through central Barcelona on Sunday in which they claimed more than a million people took to the streets to resoundingly reject Catalonia's declaration of independence Hundreds of thousands of unionist protesters marched through central Barcelona to resoundingly reject Catalonia's declaration of independence A shirtless man with the words 'Spain' and '155' - in reference to the implementation of the article 155 in Catalonia region - is seen after the rally in Catalonia A woman challenges Catalan Mossos d'Esquadra regional police officers in Barcelona after Sunday's march Thousands were chanting, 'this time we are going to vote,' declaring their intention to make their presence felt at the ballot box on 21 December rather than boycott the poll, as they did during the October 1 referendum Protesters sing the Spanish national anthem as the pro-unity demonstration went on into the evening One protester draped their dog in a Spanish flag as they attended the march on the streets of Barcelona Demonstrators protest in front of a van belonging to Catalonia broadcaster TV3. Protesters also shouted obscenities about Catalan journalists, who they accuse of twisting the facts and selling fake news A woman shouts out during a demonstration organised by Spanish officials who claim more than a million people turned up Nationalist activists protest with a giant Catalan flag during a mass rally against Catalonia's declaration of independence, in Barcelona, Spain, on Sunday Nationalist activists march with Catalan, Spanish and European Union flags during a mass rally against Catalonia's declaration of independence A Spanish flag waves as a million Catalan pro-union demonstator march along the Paseo de Gracia avenue in Barcelona Thousands of Catalan supporters taunt Real Madrid fans as Ronaldo's side is beated 2-1 by Girona Catalonia won a historic victory over Spain on the football pitch today as the upstart Catalan team Girona beat Cristiano Ronaldo's side 2-1 at home. In a game that was charged with political significance, both sides chanted slogans about Catalan independence, with frenzied home fans flying the Catalan flag and Madrid supporters waving the Spanish colours. Giant killers Girona, who only won promotion to Spain's top league for the first time this season, handed out a merciless defeat to Real Madrid, who came out second best in tonight's David and Goliath clash. Thousands of local supporters taunted Madrid fans, claiming that this was a victory for Catalonia over Spain. In a further layer of symbolism, sacked Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, lives in Girona and was previously mayor of the town, which has a population of under 100,000. Cristiano Ronaldo looks dejected after Girona scores in a match that saw Real Madrid lose 2-1. Thousands of local supporters taunted Madrid fans, claiming that this was a victory for Catalonia over Spain He was due to attend the crunch match but was forced to pull out minutes before kick-off amid security concerns. Officials said he watched the match on television and was said to be 'very happy'. The action unfolded as up to a million Spanish unionists took to the streets of Barcelona an hour away, marching to reject Catalan independence. Girona has never before in its history qualified for Spain's highest league. Ecstatic fans celebrated both inside the stadium and in the nearby town while large numbers of riot police were deployed to deal with potential disturbances. Girona's goals were scored by Uruguayan striker Cristhian Stuani in the 53rd minute and Portu five minutes later, while Real Madrid scores first with a strike by midfielder Isco Alarcon in the 12th minute. After the match, the sacked Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont tweeted in jubilation: 'congratulations and keep it up!' It was the first time Mr Puigdemont has used Twitter in two days. Advertisement More than a million unionist protesters marched through central Barcelona today to resoundingly reject Catalonia's declaration of independence. The crowds, draped in thousands of Spanish flags and singing 'Viva Espana', chanted that Carles Puigdemont, the sacked Catalan leader, should be sent to prison for declaring independence Thousands were chanting, 'this time we are going to vote,' declaring their intention to make their presence felt at the ballot box on 21 December rather than boycott the poll, as they did during the October 1 referendum A man holds up a placard which roughly translates to, 'What about the star? It's running away', with the star on the Catalan flag replaced with a skull and crossbones Catalan independence parties appear to be losing their parliamentary majority ahead of December's election, according to a poll. The poll was taken from last Monday to Thursday, just as Spain's central government was preparing to take control of the region, which then made a unilateral declaration of independence on Friday. Pro-independence parties were seen as taking 42.5 percent of the vote while anti-independence parties would win 43.4 percent, according to the poll of some 1,000 people surveyed by Sigma Dos and published in the anti-independence newspaper El Mundo. The wafer-thin margin between the two sides predicts a hard-fought campaign to December's ballot. Senior Spanish politicians led today's protest, including Albert Rivera, a congressman from Madrid, alongside the leaders of all the Catalan unionist parties. Why were the Spanish fascists chanting 'viva Franco' in Barcelona? Franco led a military coup against Spain's democratic Republic sparking the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War. During his subsequent 36-year dictatorship, Franco quashed any perceived opponents and even suppressed all other languages besides Castilian Spanish, such as Catalan, Basque and Galician. Only after his death in 1975 was Spain able to take its first tentative steps towards democracy. Advertisement Officials who organised the huge unionist demonstration in Barcelona today declared that the total number of people attending the rally was 1.3million, though there is no official figure. Organisers said the goal of Sunday's march's was to defend Spain's unity and reject 'an unprecedented attack in the history of democracy'. Leaders of rival pro-union parties from the ruling conservatives, the pro-business liberals and the socialists joined together under the slogan 'We are all Catalonia. Common sense for co-existence!' Grassroots group Societat Civil Catalan called for those who oppose Catalonia breaking away to march at noon. Demonstrators, many waving Spanish, Catalan and European Union flags, flooded a central boulevard. Societat Civil Catalana president Alex Ramos said: 'We have organised ourselves late, but we are here to show that there is a majority of Catalans that are no longer silent and that no longer want to be silenced.' Madrid today ordered the Catalan police to remove all portraits of sacked president Puigdemont from their police stations. It comes as the Spanish central government continues its crackdown on the region. The chief of Catalan police, Josep Trapero, was removed from his post yesterday for perceived hostility to Spanish authorities. Protesters wave Spanish and Catalan Senyera flags from the top of a building during a pro-unity demonstration in Barcelona on October 29, 2017 Catalan unionists line the streets of Barcelona waving Spanish and Catalonian flags as well as the EU banner as part of today's protest Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and Vice President Oriol Junqueras, left, attend a parliamentary session at the Catalan parliament in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday. Oriol Junqueras said, 'The president of the country is and will remain Carles Puigdemont,' writing in Catalan newspaper El Punt Avui Belgium's Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken who said of offering Puigdemont asylum: 'It is not unrealistic if you look at the situation' Sacked Catalan President Carles Puigdemont embraces a supporter during a walkabout the day after the Catalan regional parliament declared independence from Spain in Girona, Spain, on October 28 People wave Spanish and Catalan flags as they take part at a demonstration to support Spanish National Police and Civil Guard agents who are located at Barcelona's port in Barcelona. The city is braced for more protests today Catalan regional vice president and chief of economy and finance Oriol Junqueras. Notably, Junqueras signed the article 'Vice President of the government of Catalonia' What are they going to do... kill us all? Catalan's defiant call as Spanish government tightens its grip on the region Catalonia's sacked president Carles Puigdemont has vowed to resist the Spanish government's attempts to snatch control of his region as tensions rose over its dramatic breakaway bid. The nationalist leader facing possible charges for sedition promised to continue 'working to build a free country'. His provocative move came just hours after Spain's prime minister Mariano Rajoy formally stripped Catalonia of its autonomy, sacked the region's police chief and called fresh regional elections for December. Rajoy is seeking to solve the country's biggest constitutional crisis since the 1981 coup attempt by imposing direct control. It remains to be seen if local officials will accept the Spanish government's attempt to impose its will or continue to recognise Puigdemont's authority. Activists say they will form human chains around government buildings. 'What are they going to do: kill all of us,' asked one member of a Left-wing separatist group. 'If the Spanish police start to fight us it will be our victory, although no one wants this violence.' Advertisement Fears that the huge demonstration would descend into violence were realised following ugly scenes in Barcelona on Friday where separatists were beaten up in the street by pro-Spanish gangs. In the hours following the declaration of independence, journalists were forced to barricade themselves in their offices to escape a baying mob and teenagers hid in a community centre as unionist thugs went on the rampage. And a pro-Spanish motorcycle parade roared through the city yesterday afternoon, prompting smiles and gestures of support from the majority of Catalans who polls have suggested do not to want independence from Spain. As Barcelona once again was taken over by a day of protest, Belgium has weighed in on the debate, saying it might grant the Catalan president asylum if he is likely to be arrested. Granting Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont political asylum in Belgium would be 'not unrealistic' if he asks for it, the Belgian migration minister said, underlining his country's position as a contrarian voice in the Spanish standoff. The Madrid government sacked the Catalan leader and dismissed the region's parliament on Friday, hours after it declared itself an independent nation. Spain's constitutional court has also started a review of Catalonia's independence vote for prosecutors to decide if it constituted rebellion. While there was no indication Puigdemont was hoping to come to Belgium, the country is one of few members of the European Union where EU citizens can ask for political asylum. 'It is not unrealistic if you look at the situation,' Belgium's migration minister, Theo Francken, told Belgian broadcaster VTM. 'They are already talking about a prison sentence,' Francken, a member of Flemish nationalist party N-VA, said. 'The question is to what extent he would get a fair trial.' It would be difficult for Spain to extradite Puigdemont in such a case, he said. Yesterday afternoon unionists honked their horns and sang pro-Spanish songs in the first significant anti-separatist protest since independence was declared on Friday and Madrid took over direct control of the Catalan government Hundreds of bystanders reacted with smiles and cheers, with many punching the air and waving Spanish flags in response as the motorcade went past There was a palpable sense of relief as the quiet majority of pro-unionist Catalan bystanders saw their voices expressed in public after independence supporters have dominated he narrative of recent days. Pictured: Attendees of the protest The riders were accompanied by at least 100 cars who supported he rally by flying flags, sounding horns and playing Spanish songs from their radios What happens now? Direct rule Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sacked Catalonia's government including regional president Carles Puigdemont and his deputy Oriol Junqueras and assumed direct control over the region. Central government ministries will assume directly the powers of the Catalan administration until a regional election takes place on Dec. 21. Elections It is not clear whether a snap regional election will resolve the crisis. An opinion poll published by the El Periodico newspaper on Sunday showed a snap election would probably have results similar to the last ballot in 2015, when a coalition of pro-independence parties formed a minority government. Other opinion polls have shown Catalonia is almost evenly split between pro- and anti-independence supporters. Civil disobedience Catalonia's main secessionist groups have called for widespread civil disobedience. They also instructed civil servants not to obey orders from Madrid and respond with peaceful resistance. It is unclear whether such calls will be followed or not. Use of force Spain's government said it was not planning to make any arrests, but it is unclear how it will proceed if the current regional administration staff refuse to leave their offices. A growing number of analysts fear this could lead to a physical confrontation if national police, who used heavy-handed tactics to thwart an Oct. 1 vote on independence, seek to intervene. Police One of the main problems over the implementation of direct rule will relate to Catalonia's own police forces, the Mossos d'Esquadra. Rajoy said the Mossos chief would be fired. But a group of Mossos favouring independence has already said they would not follow instructions from the central government and would not use force to remove ministers and lawmakers from power. Several officers told Reuters they believed the 17,000-strong force was split between those who want independence and those who oppose it. The Mossos, whose chief is under investigation on suspicion of sedition, will have to act on direct orders from their new bosses. If deemed necessary, Mossos officers may be replaced by national police. Finances The Economy Ministry has already increased its control over regional finances, to block the use of state funds to organise the secession bid, and started paying directly for essential services. Under the new proposal, Madrid will take full financial control. Many companies have however said on condition of anonymity that they feared a new Catalan treasury could start levying taxes, and that they would seek to move their tax base outside Catalonia. It is also possible that some pro-independence Catalans will stop paying their taxes to the Spanish treasury. Public media The Spanish government had initially said it would control widely watched Catalan public television TV3, but it eventually dropped that plan. The media is likely to play an important role in the run-up to the new election in Catalonia. Advertisement Amid the protest, the sacked Catalan president 'is and will remain' the president of the regional government, his deputy said Sunday, and rejected what he called a 'coup d'etat' by Madrid. Oriol Junqueras said, 'The president of the country is and will remain Carles Puigdemont,' writing in Catalan newspaper El Punt Avui after the central government seized the regional executive's powers following a vote by lawmakers to declare independence from Spain. 'We cannot recognise the coup d'etat against Catalonia, nor any of the anti-democratic decisions that the PP (Rajoy's ruling Popular Party) is adopting by remote control from Madrid,' he wrote. Notably, Junqueras signed the article 'Vice President of the government of Catalonia'. Spain's deputy prime minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria has been delegated the powers of the Catalan presidency after Madrid ousted Puigdemont. Yesterday Puigdemont defied Madrid by vowing to go to work tomorrow as normal unless he is 'forcibly prevented' by the national police. He called on his fellow Catalans to 'peacefully resist' attempts by the Spanish authorities to impose direct rule from Madrid in a television address from his hometown of Girona. His words came after the country's Prime Minister seized control of the regional government, replaced its ministers and sacked its police chief following the authority's controversial declaration of independence. Mr Puigdemont vowed to continue to 'work to build a free country' and urged viewers to behave with 'calm and perseverance', as well as maintaining a 'sense of perspective' in the tumultuous days ahead. One senior official, Josep Rull, went one step further that Mr Puigdemont, saying that he intended to return to work 'as a minister in the new Catalan Republic'. In a speech to colleagues, he said: 'Nelson Mandela said that a winner is a dreamer who never gives up Never, never have we surrendered the challenge of leaving our children a better country.' Yesterday afternoon the Spanish government said it would welcome Mr Puigdemont's participation in regional elections it has called for December. On Saturday officers cast a ring of steel around the region's parliament in Barcelona as demonstrators took to the streets of Madrid in support of a united Spain. The Catalan police chief Josep Trapero was removed from his post at around 4am on Saturday morning amid concerns that local police would resist the national force. It came after unionists clashed with separatists in Barcelona on Friday night as tens of thousands of locals celebrated independence. In one incident a pro-separatist radio station was attacked with journalists forced to barricade themselves inside. Pope Francis today echoed Mr Puigdemont's calls for calm and urged the EU to 'recover the sense of being a single community' in a speech at the Vatican, although he did not specifically refer to Catalonia. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has stripped Catalonia's most senior police officials of their powers and taken control of its civil service, finances and public media ahead of snap local elections announced for December 21. And Spain's top prosecutor has warned that the local politicians responsible for the independence vote could face treason charges and up to 25 years in prison, with arrests planned for as early as Monday. Yesterday morning thousands of unionists protesters took to Madrid's Plaza de Colon as they called for Mr Puigdemont to be jailed. And at around 5.30pm hundreds of motorcyclists draped in Spanish flags roared through Barcelona in a massive show of support for Madrid. Bystanders reacted with smiles and cheers, with many punching the air and waving Spanish flags in response. Mr Rajoy announced that he had sacked the local government on television Friday night, adding that 'central government will assume the powers of the Catalonian administration'. Speaking on Friday, he said: 'Spain is living through a sad day. We believe it is urgent to listen to Catalan citizens, to all of them, so that they can decide their future and nobody can act outside the law on their behalf. 'Today, the Catalonia parliament has approved something that in the opinion of a large majority of people not only goes against the law but is a criminal act.' Mr Rajoy's deputy Soraya Saenz de Santamaria has been put in charge of the Catalan government until the local elections. She will coordinate other ministries that take over functions of Catalonia's regional departments, including finances and security, and appoint officials to implement orders from Madrid. Some among Catalonia's roughly 200,000 civil servants have said they will refuse to obey orders from Madrid. The prime minister's announcement on Friday was met with jeers and whistles outside the government palace in Barcelona. Spanish State Secretaries and undersecretaries attend a meeting at the State Secretary of Land Management to start undertaking their respective duties at the Catalan regional ministries after Madrid imposed direct control over the region Catalan regional police stand guard the morning after the Catalan regional parliament declared independence from Spain Regional police chief Josep Trapero was sacked amid concerns that local police would resist the national force as it imposes central government control on the region Protesters in Madrid hold up a sign calling for Catalan regional president Mr Puigdemont's imprisonment yesterday morning Other protesters at the demonstration in the capital's Plaza de Colon held signs saying: 'No to the impunity of coup plotters' The demonstration comes the day after the Catalan government was sacked for declaring independence following a controversial referendum The unionist motorcycle parade reached the entrance of Barcelona port, where this man waved around a European Union flag The demonstrators, pictured here at the end of the protest, were honking horns to show their solidarity with Spain's national police, and opposition to the declaration of independence by Catalonia The demonstrators, noisy but peaceful, headed towards the port, where reinforcements of national police and Spain's Guardia Civil have been staying since they were deployed in the area before the illegal independence referendum The independence flag of Catalonia is held up at Saturday's La Liga football match between Athletic Bilbao and FC Barcelona Revellers hold fireworks as they take part in a 'Correfoc', or 'run with fire', party in Cornella Llobregat, outskirts Barcelona The traditional festival originates from medieval street theatre that represented the fight of good against evil through parades featuring fireworks and effigies of the devil The declaration of independence comes after the region held an independence referendum on October 1 during which more than 800 people were hurt in clashes. Trapero is already under investigation on charges of sedition after being accused of 'preventing the application of laws' during the controversial public vote. He has already been replaced by Ferran Lopez, who is seen by Madrid as a more compliant figure likely to work with central government. Friday's result sparked celebrations in the streets of Barcelona where separatists were seen drinking cava, the sparkling wine made in Catalonia, in the street. But the declaration has failed to gain recognition from the international community. British Prime Minister Theresa May condemned the decision as 'illegal'. While Germany, France, Italy and the USA also said they will not recognise a sovereign Catalonian state and nor will the EU. On Friday the 28-nation bloc's president, Donald Tusk, urged Spain not to descend into violence amid the tensions. In contrast, Scotland's SNP government said that it 'respects and understands' Catalonia's vote for independence, and said Catalans 'must have the ability to determine their own future'. And in Berlin this afternoon pro-Catalan independence protesters were seen demonstrating outside the Brandenburg Gate. The Spanish senate voted to impose direct rule on the region just 40 minutes after the Catalan parliament backed independence. But before the vote in Barcelona, opposition parties stormed out of parliament in protest - with pro-independence MPs draping their empty seats with Catalan flags. Spain's king, Felipe VI, who has spoken out firmly against Catalan independence in the past, has cleared his diary for the week in order to focus on dealing with the emergency. Independence was approved with 70 MPs in favour, 10 against and two blank ballots in the 135-member parliament. Spain's constitutional court has started a review of the independence vote held in Catalonia's parliament, with the state prosecutor and other parties given three days to make allegations of wrongdoing. After the vote, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont said: 'Today our legitimate parliament, that came out of a democratic election, has taken a very important step. The legitimate representative of the citizens have followed the people's mandate. 'Now we are facing times when we will need to keep calm and peaceful and always keep dignity, as we've always done. Long live Catalonia!' Pro-independence groups have vowed a campaign of civil disobedience to protect public buildings on the event of a crackdown by Madrid, which may involve the feared national riot police and even the army. Mr Trapero has been replaced by Ferran Lopez, pictured right with the Spanish Minister of Home Affairs Juan Ignazio Zoido. Lopez is seen by Madrid as a more compliant figure likely to work with central government Catalonia's police chief Josep Trapero, pictured earlier this month, was removed from his post at 4am yesterday morning Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tonight sacked the Catalan government along with the region's police chief and ordered elections for December 21 after a special Cabinet meeting to discuss his response to the crisis The sacked Catalan president hugs a supporter in Girona. The politician vowed to continue to 'work to build a free country' in his televised speech this afternoon Mr Puigdemont poses on a bridge in front of buildings displaying Catalan flags and pro-independence banners during his walkabout in Girona Mr Puigdemont gives a thumbs up to dozens of supporters as he leaves a restaurant in Girona, a Catalan city around 50 miles from Barcelona, this afternoon Thousands of Catalans gathered outside the parliament building and cheered and danced after the motion passed. The Spanish prime minister wrote on Twitter immediately after the vote: 'I ask all Spaniards to remain calm. The rule of law will restore legality in Catalonia.' After the vote in Barcelona, MPs stood to chant the Catalan anthem while Puigdemont and his vice president, Oriol Junqueras, exchanged congratulatory embraces and handshakes. Puigdemont added in his remarks after the vote: 'It is the institutions and also the people who have to work together to help build a country.' Reacting to the crisis, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned of 'more cracks' emerging in the EU. The European Union will only deal with the central government in Madrid, according to the president of the European Council Donald Tusk. 'For the EU nothing changes. Spain remains our only interlocutor. I hope the Spanish government favours force of argument, not argument of force,' Tusk wrote on Twitter. Antonio Tajani, who was appointed President of the European Parliament earlier this year, was similarly scathing, saying 'nobody' in the EU would recognise Catalonia as an independent country. He later praised Spain's decision to call a new election in Catalonia after the region's unilateral declaration of independence, saying it was 'the right thing to do.' Catalan separatist flags are held up as fireworks go off in Sant Jaume Square in front of the Catalan regional government headquarters during celebrations on Friday night The firework displays on friday took place after a day of fast-moving political developments and the situation remains tense into tonight The government and Spain's Constitutional Court have both said the secession bid was illegal, and after Friday's independence vote, Rajoy said it was a move that 'not only goes against the law but is a criminal act' Violence flared on the streets of the Catalan capital on Friday night as furious unionists attacked Catalunya Radio, blaming journalists there for causing the independence declaration with their 'fake news' A unionist protester is searched by the Catalan police during the anti-independence demonstration on Friday night Pro-independence supporters carry an 'Estelada' or independence flag in downtown Barcelona on Friday evening where thousands of people gathered Catalan police stands preventing demonstrators from moving forward during a march against the unilateral declaration of independence approved by the region's parliament on Friday Anti-independence activists are prevented from moving forward by Catalan police as they marched through Barcelona on Friday night Among the thousands of people waving Catalan flags were a significant number of protesters with Spanish ones, including this man, pictured There was a heavy police presence as officers made sure a march against independence from Spain went ahead peacefully Pro-independence supporters release fireworks and wave 'estelada' flags in the square outside the Palau Generalitat in Barcelona There are fears the raucous scenes on the streets of Barcelona this evening could turn violent as passions run high over the independence debate Rajoy's announcement was met with jeers and whistles outside the government palace in Barcelona, where thousands have been celebrating the independence declaration The declaration of independence was criticised by world leaders including Theresa May, who tonight said Britain 'will not recognise' Catalan independence as it was based on an 'illegal' vote. Pictured: Anti-independence protesters in Barcelona BREAKING NEWS: Catalonia declares independence BREAKING NEWS: Catalonia declares independence Full story: http://dailym.ai/2y8hjZN Posted by Daily Mail on Friday, October 27, 2017 The independence motion was passed in the 135-strong assembly with 70 votes in favour, 10 against and 2 blank ballots, the assembly's speaker said. Pictured: A crowd in Barcelona reacts to the news on Friday Former Ukip leader Nigel Farage said the declaration of independence had been caused by the 'appalling behaviour' of the Spanish Government who had pushed Catalonia 'too far'. He added: 'This is going to turn into the EU's most undesired nightmare.' The main secessionist group in Catalonia, the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), called on civil servants to meet orders from Madrid with 'peaceful resistance'. Shares in Catalan banks fell sharply in response to the news - dragging the entire stock market with them. CaixaBank, Spain's third largest lender, fell by around five per cent while Sabadell, the country's fifth biggest bank, fell roughly six percent. Nearly 1,700 companies have moved their headquarters outside of Catalonia since the referendum. The Ibex 35 stock index was down 1.3 percent on a day when most European markets rose. Spanish bonds were also down, but just slightly. The market movements are modest, considering the momentous nature of the conflict. Catalonia accounts for a fifth of the Spanish economy, which is the fourth-largest in the 19-country eurozone. Investors seem to believe the crisis will be resolved, though analysts say the risks are growing daily. Spain's Senate in Madrid has approved measures for the central government to take direct control of Catalonia. Stephen Brown, economist at Capital Economics, said: 'We still think that the economic effects of this political crisis will be manageable.' The Catalan parliament finally declared the region independent on Friday after Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy said he wants Spain to take direct control of Catalonia. Pictured: President Puigdemont voting Before Friday's vote, opposition parties stormed out of parliament in protest - with pro-independence MPs draped their empty seats with Catalan flags Attention now turns to the government in Madrid, which has invoked article 155 of the constitution, dismantling Catalonia's autonomy. Pictured: Jubilant Catalans celebrate the news The Spanish prime minister - pictured at Friday's cabinet meeting - wrote on Twitter immediately after the vote: 'I ask all Spaniards to remain calm. The rule of law will restore legality in Catalonia' Prime Minister Rajoy presides over an extraordinary cabinet meeting that was called this afternoon at Moncloa Palace in Madrid The proposal for independence made by the ruling Catalan coalition Junts pel Si (Together for Yes) and their allies of the far-left CUP party said: 'We establish a Catalan Republic as an independent and sovereign state of democratic and social law'. Pictured: Puigdemont with his wife on Friday Legislators from both parliamentary groups in Catalonia have a slim majority which allowed them to pass the motion during a vote on Friday. Pictured: Puigdemont arriving at the parliament on Friday Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and Vice President Oriol Junqueras, left, chat during the session inside the Catalan parliament in Barcelona on Friday Catalan president Carles Puigdemont and his wife Marcela Topor arriving at the Catalan parliament in Barcelona on Friday The senate, where Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's Popular Party holds a majority, met to vote on steps to depose Catalonia's secessionist government before the week is out. Pictured: Spain's PM arriving in Parliament on Friday morning Catalan secessionists have already registered a motion with their parliament to proclaim independence from Spain though it is unclear whether the text would be put to a vote, newspaper La Vanguardia said. Pictured: Rajoy in the senate on Friday Speaking to the senate, Rajoy (pictured being applauded by lawmakers) said Spain had to force Catalonia to submit to the Spanish constitution. He also attacked the region for 'mocking democracy' in a way reminiscent of the era of fascist Spanish leader Francisco Franco, and said he wanted 'a return to legality' The unprecedented move could spark violence or push the rebel region's parliament to declare independence. Pictured: Rajoy being applauded in the senate on Friday morning The invocation of Article 155 has resulted in the whole Catalan goverment being dismissed. Pictured: Rajoy speaking to the senate on Friday, urging lawmakers to adopt the measure A member of the Catalan parliament who is opposed to independence holds a 'No' ballot during the independence voting session Opponents of Catalan independence shouted across the wooden benches in the parliament, while those in favour sung the national anthem after the outcome of the vote was announced This opponent of independence held a Spanish flag during the heated session in the Catalan parliament on Friday On Thursday afternoon in the Catalan town of Girona, supporters of the region's independence bid removed the Spanish national flag from the town hall building and replaced it with the Catalan regional flag. Video footage filmed in Girona, northeast of the regional capital of Barcelona, showed a crowd cheering 'out, out, out with the Spanish flag!' shortly after Catalonia's parliament voted to declare an independent republic. Speaking to senators on Friday, Rajoy said Spain had to force Catalonia to submit to the Spanish constitution. He also attacked the region for 'mocking democracy' in a way reminiscent of the era of fascist Spanish leader Francisco Franco, and said he wanted 'a return to legality'. The approved proposal for independence made by the ruling Catalan coalition Junts pel Si (Together for Yes) and their allies of the far-left CUP party said: 'We establish a Catalan Republic as an independent and sovereign state of democratic and social law.' MPs from the opposition Socialists and Citizens parties, who walked out before the vote, had announced earlier that they would boycott the vote. Lawmakers from Partido Popular - the ruling party at the national level, but a minority in Catalonia - also walked out after placing Spanish and Catalonia official flags in their empty seats. 'Today is the day that many Catalans' long-held desire will be fulfilled, but tomorrow the cruel reality will set in with the Spanish state armed with its interpretation of Article 155,' the former speaker of the Catalan parliament Joan Rigol i Roig, said before the vote. 'We can only hope that the conflict remains in the political realm.' A socialist lawmaker in the parliament lambasted the separatists for bending national and regional laws to move toward declaring independence before the vote and vowed to work 'for the return of legality to public institutions.' Catalan President Carles Puigdemont said he will not call a snap election during a statement at the Palau Generalitat in Barcelona on Thursday Catalonian could explode into violence this morning as the Spanish parliament is due to seize control of the rebel region in a bid to end its struggle for independence. Pictured: Angry protesters in Barcelona on Friday Catalan independence supporters gathered outside the Parliament of Catalonia ahead of the vote to call for independence from Spain - a demand they were soon granted Thousands of protesters in Barcelona cheer in response to the news that the Catalan parliament has voted to declare independence from Spain Rajoy's cabinet enaacted measures to take control of Catalonia during a special meeting. Pictured: Protesters in Barcelona before the vote in parliament People cheer as they watch on giant screens in Barcelona as the Catalan parliament votes in favour of the region's independence from Spain After the vote, Puigdemont said: 'Today our legitimate parliament, that came out of a democratic election, has taken a very important step.' Pictured: Champagne is broken open in celebration of the declaration People celebrate after Catalonia's parliament voted to declare independence from Spain in Barcelona, the region's capital Pro-independence groups have vowed a campaign of civil disobedience to protect public buildings on the event of a crackdown by Madrid, which may involve the feared national riot police and even the army There are fears the developments could lead to violence as Spain attempts to impose rule on the rebellious region. Pictured: A delighted woman celebrates the news in Barcelona The European Union will only deal with the central government in Madrid, the president of the European Council Donald Tusk said in response to the news. Pictured: Champagne flowing in the streets of Barcelona Thousands of Catalans gathered outside the parliament building (pictured in the centre) and cheered and danced after the motion passed A young woman reacts outside the Catalan parliament in Barcelona after the news filters out to the crowd watching the parliamentary session in the street Spokesman Eva Granados said the separatists are 'thoughtless' and asked them why to build a new country based on a concept of democracy that is 'intolerant and sectarian,' and that excludes those opposed to independence. Meanwhile Carlos Carrizosa, spokesman for the pro-union Citizens party, ripped up the copy of the proposed law to declare independence during the debate prior to the vote. He said: 'With this paper you leave those Catalans who don't follow you orphaned without a government, and that's why Citizens won't let you ruin Catalonia.' He added that 'today is a sad, dramatic day in Catalonia. Today is the day that you (secessionists) carry out your coup against the democracy in Spain.' Waving Catalan flags and chanting 'independence' and 'freedom,' thousands of demonstrators rallied outside the park in which parliament is located, hoping to see the proclamation of a new independent state by the end of the day. Several hundred Catalan town mayors also joined in a chant for 'Independence!' inside Catalonia's regional parliament building ahead of Friday's vote. A 68-year-old protester, Jordi Soler, said: 'I am here today because we will start the Catalan Republic.' Soler said 'today is the last chance,' noting that President Puigdemont had offered to negotiate with the central government in Madrid, 'but Madrid is starting with total repression and there is no longer any (other) option.' Spain is expected to send its own representatives to rule the region for as long as the 'exceptional situation' persists, Rajoy said on Friday. It would also mean that Catalonia's police force, public broadcasters and parliament would come under the direct control of the central government. Tensions: University students caused chaos after calling a 'strike' to demonstrate the Spanish government's looming revoking of Catalan autonomy, but it saw lectures cancelled and others prevented from entering university grounds Catalonia's regional government met on Thursday night to debate its next move before Madrid carries out a threat to start revoking its powers from Friday morning Mr Puigdemont sat glumly as he listened to the debate, while outside supporters of independence branded him a 'traitor' Supporters of independence gathered outside the parliament building where they listened to the debate on their phones Marchers who took to the streets of Barcelona on Thursday sat outside the parliament building ahead of another march planned for 10am on Friday Mario Rajoy, Spain's Prime Minister, is pictured (second left) on a banner which reads 'Republic'. He has taken a firm line against Catalonian independence, accusing Mr Puigdemont of holding an illegal referendum Catalonia since the referendum: A timeline of the crisis October 1: Violence-hit referendum Hundreds of thousands of Catalans vote in an independence referendum held despite a court ban deeming it unconstitutional. Spanish riot police try to block the vote. Shocking footage emerges of them using batons and rubber bullets on crowds and roughing up voters. The Catalan government says 90 percent of those who voted backed independence, but turnout was only 43 percent as many who oppose a split boycotted the poll. October 3: General strike A strike disrupts Barcelona's port, transport and some businesses. Up to 700,000 people demonstrate in the city against police violence. King Felipe VI accuses Catalan leaders of threatening Spain's stability and urges the state to defend "constitutional order". October 5: Business exodus Banco Sabadell, Catalonia's second largest bank, announces it will shift its registered domicile out of the region. About 1,700 companies follow suit. October 7-8: Mass protests Tens of thousands of people demonstrate across Spain on October 7, some demanding unity, others dialogue. The next day hundreds of thousands march in Barcelona to back unity. October 10: 'Suspended' independence declaration In a move sparking confusion, Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and his separatist allies sign a declaration of independence, but say they are suspending its implementation to allow for time for negotiations with Madrid. The next day, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy gives Puigdemont until October 16 to clarify his stance. October 16: Separatists detained Puigdemont refuses to clarify whether he had declared independence and instead calls for dialogue. Madrid gives him an extended deadline of October 19 to say whether he is planning to secede. A court orders the leaders of two powerful grassroots independence groups, Jordi Cuixart and Jordi Sanchez, to be detained pending an investigation into sedition charges. October 21: Spain to sack Catalan government Rajoy announces drastic steps to halt the breakaway, employing previously unused constitutional powers under Article 155 to seek the dismissal of Puigdemont's government and new regional elections. Puigdemont accuses Rajoy of "the worst attack on institutions and Catalan people" since Spain's dictatorship and turns down an invitation to address the Senate to state his case for independence. October 26: No regional elections Puigdemont says he considered calling elections to stave off the central government's takeover bid, but received "no guarantees" to make this possible. October 27: Takeover vs independence Catalan lawmakers approve a motion by 70 votes to 10 to declare an independent republic, a narrow majority in the 135-member assembly, as many opposition members walk out. Independence supporters stage mass street celebrations The Senate grants Madrid powers to impose direct rule on Catalonia. Rajoy announces he has dissolved the Catalan parliament and formally removed Puigdemont and his executive from office. He calls regional elections for December 21. October 28: Madrid fires police chief Spain moves to assert direct control over the region, formally removing top officials including Puigdemont and Josep Lluis Trapero, the chief of Catalonia's regional police, the Mossos d'Esquadra. Thousands of people in Madrid gather under a giant Spanish flag to protest Catalonia's independence declaration. Puigdemont calls for "democratic opposition" to direct rule. October 29: Pro-unity Barcelona rally Hundreds of thousands of flag-waving protesters rally in Barcelona, chanting "Viva Espana!" and urging national unity while demanding "Prison for Puigdemont." October 30: Puigdemont's party to stand in election Facing Spanish prosecutors charges for rebellion, Puigdemont is said to be in Brussels. Meanwhile his party says it will stand in the December 21 regional election called by the central government. Advertisement Opposite sides: The rival leaders Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy The 62-year-old leader of the conservative Popular Party (PP) has served as Spain's Prime Pinister since December 2011. With a reputation as a political survivor, Rajoy is known for his strategy of playing for time to wear down his foes. He began a second term last November after the left tore itself apart during 10 months in which Spain had no government following inconclusive elections. He now heads a minority government backed by the centrist Ciudadanos, founded in Catalonia as an anti-independence party. The premier's detractors accuse him of failing to stop separatist sentiment from surging in Catalonia. Some say he even encouraged it after his party successfully pushed for the partial annulment of a 2006 statute of Catalan autonomy. That statute, negotiated with the then-ruling Socialists, had given the region expanded powers and described Catalonia as a 'nation' within Spain. Many Catalans viewed the episode as a humiliation. Rajoy argues he could not give his approval for a Catalan independence referendum because it violates Spain's constitution, which declares the country indivisible. He told parliament Wednesday that suspending Catalonia's autonomy was 'the only possible response' to Puigdemont's independence push - a move some fear could spark unrest. Catalan President Carles Puigdemont The 54-year-old conservative president of Catalonia, a former journalist, has advocated for independence since his youth. The former mayor of Girona became head of the regional government in January 2016, replacing fellow conservative Artur Mas who was mistrusted by far-left separatists. Puigdemont is under pressure from hardcore separatists to declare independence in defiance of the central government. The separatist leadership says voters who took part in a banned secession referendum on October 1 overwhelmingly backed breaking away from Spain. But turnout was just 43 per cent as Catalans in favour of remaining in Spain mostly boycotted the ballot, which did not meet international standards. On Thursday Puigdemont ruled out fresh regional elections as a way to ease the crisis and left it up to Catalonia's regional parliament to decide whether to proceed with a declaration of independence. He also warned in a letter to the Senate that the crisis will escalate if Madrid takes over Catalonia's powers. Puigdemont has said he is willing to go to jail over his separatist drive. He is under investigation for alleged civil disobedience. He is also being investigated for abuse of office and misuse of public funds for staging the plebiscite. Advertisement Catalan president Carles Puigdemont (right) and Catalan regional vice president and chief of economy and finance Oriol Junqueras attend a session at Catalan parliament on Thursday evening Hands up: Students gesture as they march during a protest against the Spanish government announcement of implementing the article 155 in Catalonia Voices: Protesters demonstrate during a Catalan pro-independence strike of university students in Barcelona, Spain A snap regional election could defuse Spain's deepest political crisis in decades - sparked by the October independence referendum in Catalonia which Madrid has branded 'illegal' - but so far the President has decided not to Decision time: Carles Puigdemont 's wife Marcela Topor, pictured together in January at a fashion show in Barcelona Still no answer: Spain has demanded that Puigdemont withdraws his 'suspended' declaration of independence, but he has not yet chosen to do so Judgement day: Puigdemont is seen with Deputy President, Oriol Junqueras, left, and regional Presidency minister, Jordi Turull, right as they make their way to take part in the weekly regional cabinet meeting in Barcelona, on Tuesday The motive for the murder of teenager Aaron Pajich by Jemma Lilley was it was her 'life's ambition' to kill someone by the time she was aged 25, a West Australian Supreme Court jury was told. State prosecutor James McTaggart delivered his closing address at the start of the fifth week of the trial of Lilley, 26, and her housemate Trudi Lennon, 43, who are accused of murdering 18-year-old Mr Pajich, who has been described as autistic but 'high functioning'. 'At the time of the murder, she was a person obsessed with violence and all kinds of unquestionably cruel manifestations of torture and was writing about it,' Mr McTaggart said, referring to Lilley's writings and evidence given by her friend Angela McKibbin of her aim to kill someone before turning 25. The only motive for the murder of teenager Aaron Pajich by Jemma Lilley (pictured) was because it was her 'life's ambition' to kill someone by the time she was aged 25 Lilley and her housemate Trudi Lennon are accused of murdering 18-year-old Mr Pajich (pictured), who has been described as autistic but 'high functioning' There was 'no doubt' Mr Pajich had been murdered with fatal knife wounds to his chest and neck, the jury heard. There was also no doubt he was buried in the backyard of the pair's Perth home, a place where a security camera showed the two of them and Mr Pajich on June 13, the last time he was seen. 'Between them, they did all that was necessary to cause Aaron Pajich's death,' Mr McTaggart said. Once she had fulfilled that 'bucket list' requirement to kill, she was so 'full of herself and euphoric' that she couldn't help boasting about killing someone to colleague Matthew Stray. Mr Pajich was last spotted on June 13 on CCTV cameras at the Rockingham Shopping Centre taxi rank Lilley's lover Trudi Lenon (pictured) is also facing murder charges The pair allegedly buried Pajich's body in a shallow grave covered over with concrete and tiles She also couldn't help leaving incriminating messages to her 'obsequious and sycophantic' fellow murderer Lenon later that night, talking about how excited she was experiencing things 'she had not felt before'. Those two errors of judgment contributed to Lilley being charged with murder, he said. There was evidence of the pair planning the murder, through phone messages discussing killing someone while referring to each other by their bizarre names SOS and Corvina, and buying cleaning products and concrete to cover it up, Mr McTaggart said. SOS was the name of a serial killer in a book Lilley had written while Corvina was the name Lenon used as a submissive participant in the bondage scene. Lenon blames Lilley for the murder, but admits to being an accessory. Lilley denies knowing how Mr Pajich died and claims to have been asleep when he was last seen with Lenon. The trial is due to finish this week. An HIV-positive Italian man who intentionally infected 30 women including a 14-year-old and another victim who passed it onto her baby has been jailed for 24 years. Valentino Talluto called himself 'Hearty Style' as he seduced dozens of young women on social networks and internet dating sites, often dating several at a time. The 33-year-old accountant's youngest victim was 14 at the beginning of their relationship and the oldest was about 40. Male companions of three of his victims were also infected, as was the baby of a fourth. Some of his victims are understood to have been in court during his trial. HIV-positive Valentino Talluto (pictured walking into court), who intentionally infected 30 women including a 14-year-old and another victim who passed it onto her baby, has been jailed for 24 years Some of the 33-year-old accountant's victims are understood to have been in court during his trial (pictured) A woman who is understood to have been one of the accountant's victims is pictured in court Valentino Talluto called himself 'Hearty Style' as he seduced dozens of young women on social networks and internet dating sites, often dating several at a time The 33-year-old accountant's youngest victim was 14 at the beginning of their relationship and the oldest was about 40. He is pictured with a court official Out of 53 sexual conquests known to have taken place between 2006 - when he discovered he was HIV positive - and his arrest in 2015, 30 women were infected by him with the virus which damages the immune system and causes AIDS. Talluto expressed regret for what had happened as he was sentenced, but said he did not realise the consequences of his actions. Throughout his trial, which opened in March in Rome's Rebibbia prison, the women described how Talluto had wined and dined them, claiming to fall in love before persuading them to have unprotected sex. The women who had asked him to wear a condom said he told them he was allergic or had just been tested for HIV. When the women discovered they were HIV positive - by chance, due to health problems or after other women he dated raised the alarm - they said he said it had nothing to do with him. The defence maintained Talluto's actions were 'imprudent, but not intentional'. Male companions of three of his victims were also infected, as was the baby of a fourth Out of 53 sexual conquests known to have taken place between 2006 - when he discovered he was HIV positive - and his arrest in 2015, 30 women were infected by him with the virus which damages the immune system and causes AIDS Some women stayed with Talluto for months after discovering they were sick. In the end, it was above all his chronic cheating - he juggled up to six relationships at the same time - that drove them away. Many were students, some mothers. The youngest was 14 at the beginning of their relationship, the oldest around 40. Each described the horrors of HIV, from the stigma which distanced even family members, to the trials of treatment. The prosecution had demanded the bespectacled, stocky accountant get life behind bars for 'wilful injury' and causing an 'epidemic'. 'Talluto has never cooperated, he has made false statements, he has always denied any responsibility, even in the face of the evidence. His actions were intended to sow death,' prosecutor Elena Neri told the court last month. The defence painted a picture of a young man eager for affection who never knew his father and whose mother - a drug addict who was HIV positive - died when he was just four years old. Some women stayed with Talluto for months after discovering they were sick. In the end, it was above all his chronic cheating - he juggled up to six relationships at the same time - that drove them away Many were students, some mothers. The youngest was 14 at the beginning of their relationship, the oldest around 40 'He did not intentionally seek to transmit the virus,' his lawyer Maurizio Barca said, insisting that Talluto used condoms 'most of the time' and only had sex without them a few times after being 'caught in the heat of the action'. He also claimed it was impossible to prove it was his client and not other partners who had infected the women. The strain of the virus they share with Talluto is the most widespread in Europe. After months of silence, Talluto finally spoke out at the end of September, his voice breaking with emotion and his eyes brimming with tears after hearing the testimony of one of the women. 'Many of the girls know my friends and family. They say that I wanted to infect as many people as possible. If that had been the case, I would have gone for casual sex in bars, I would not have brought them into my life,' he insisted. One of the women still refuses to give up on him. She told the court in July of their meeting in 2014, how he told her immediately that he was HIV positive, and how she forgave his infidelities. 'We want to get married. I'm still in love with Valentino, he's not the monster that everyone describes,' she said. The Taliban say the condition of one of their captives in Afghanistan has deteriorated and that the American is in poor health. In a statement released on Monday, the extremist group revealed that 61-year-old Kevin King, an American professor who was taken hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan last year, is suffering from heart and kidney problems and often loses consciousness. King's health has steadily declined over the last several weeks despite hospitalization and drugs being obtained for him, the Taliban say. The statement called on the US to meet the group's demands as soon as possible, or the Taliban would not be accountable for King's death. The Taliban revealed that 61-year-old Kevin King (pictured), an American professor who was taken hostage by the Taliban in Afghanistan last year, is suffering from heart and kidney problems and often loses consciousness 'We have periodically tried to treat and care for him but since we are facing war conditions and do not readily have access to health facilities therefore we are unable to deliver complete treatment,' the statement released by the Taliban said. The group says it issued the update on King's condition in the event the US or his family wanted to negotiate his release. In August 2016, King (pictured) and an Australian identified as Timothy Weeks were abducted at gunpoint outside the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) in Kabul, where they worked as teachers 'If America wanted to save Kevin's life, they should make arrangements for his immediate release,' Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. 'At the moment he is alive but may die if not provided better care.' In August 2016, King and an Australian identified as Timothy Weeks were abducted at gunpoint outside the American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) in Kabul, where they worked as teachers. On Monday, the AUAF released a statement saying King and Weeks were 'innocent victims of a criminal abduction'. 'They came to Afghanistan to teach Afghan youth and contribute to building a peaceful Afghanistan. They have done no harm to anyone. We strongly urge the Taliban immediately to release Mr King and Mr Weeks unharmed,' the statement read in part; Since their capture, the Taliban have released two videos of the captives. In the first video, in January, they are seen apparently delivering a message on behalf of their abductors, asking President Donald Trump to offer a prisoner exchange to secure their freedom. King's health has declined over the last several weeks despite hospitalization and drugs being obtained for him, the Taliban say, declaring the US would be held accountable if King dies The Taliban have released two videos of the captives. In the first video, in January, they are seen apparently delivering a message on behalf of their abductors, asking President Donald Trump to offer a prisoner exchange to secure their freedom (pictured, Timothy Weeks) King and Weeks are both believed to be held by the Haqqani network, a group which is linked to the Afghan Taliban. US officials said in September that American forces had launched a mission to try to rescue the two hostages, but the captives were not found at the raided location. This is the shocking moment a nine-year-old autistic boy was arrested and handcuffed by police at school after a playground fight with bullies. Teachers called police to Needham Elementary School in Franklin, Indiana on August 30 after two members of staff had to break up the fight. The school was put on 'lockdown' while the cops arrived - and the boy was later charged as a juvenile with battery. Video taken by the boy's father shows officers handcuffing his crying son and leading him to a police car outside. Teachers called police to Needham Elementary School in Franklin, Indiana because they felt students' safety was under threat The boy was held at Johnson County Juvenile Detention Center for 20 minutes and charged as a juvenile with battery and criminal mischief. The boy's father Ronnie Shepperd said his son was protecting himself from a bully who hit him on the playground. He told MailOnline: 'Watching my nine-year-old autistic son being handcuffed was very disturbing. He's very traumatised by it.' He added: 'My son was being bullied by another kid and he told staff several times about it. 'Nothing was done so when the kid hit him twice in four days he fought back. 'Since he is autistic, he went into defense mode when he got hit so he hit a teacher after she broke up the fight. 'But when he calmed down he said sorry to the teacher'. Explaining how the fight started, he added: 'The second fight in four days broke out when my son was trying to kill a locust and the bully shoved him and said "stop killing that bug". 'So he got up and the bully punched him in the eye so the fight was on again.' Another student told RTV6 how the fight played out. They said: 'The nine-year-old kid went behind [the other boy] and pushed him down and then started choking him.' The student said that when a teacher tried to break up the fight, the boy jumped on the teacher's back and started choking her, before another teacher stepped in. Franklin Police Chief Tim O'Sullivan told MailOnline: 'The student was arrested for criminal mischief to school property, battery on another student and two teachers.' Video taken by the boy's father shows police handcuffing his crying son and leading him to a police car outside The boy was held at Johnson County Juvenile Detention Center for 20 minutes and charged as a juvenile with battery and criminal mischief The boy's father added: 'He's watched the video several times. He still talks about it. 'He's pretty traumatized over the whole ordeal. Any nine-year-old that's being arrested, they don't know what's going on.' The boy has since moved schools and is now 'doing awesome,' his father said. The charges against the boy have been dropped. Franklin Schools Superintendent Dr David Clendining said the school principal made the right decision to call police because students' safety was threatened. An attempt to sabotage a passenger aircraft as it lay parked in an airport hanger is being investigated by police. According to local police in the northern town of Gallivare, the break-in was discovered at around 5.30am on Monday, before its morning flight. Specialist officers have began examining the Nextjet plane to determine exactly what happened. Nextjets morning flights from Gallivare to Karamfors and Stockholm were cancelled as a result of the incident. The Nextjet turboprop craft was in a hanger when a person gained access to the airport and sabotaged. Police are scanning surveillance footage and dog team is scouring the area for evidence The intruder managed to make their way into Gallivare airport and sabotage the plane while it was in a hanger Johan Aittamaa from the Swedish police north region told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet officers will now be examining CCTV footage and will also use dogs to search for evidence. He added: The person gained access to the airport area and sabotaged the aircraft, which has been taken out of service. I dont know exactly what was done to the plane. Technicians will go to the airport. We have initiated a preliminary investigation. Gallivare airport's head of security Kaisa Paakkola said only one plane was tampered with and the airport would remain closed while police carried out their investigation. We've closed the airspace for traffic until we have more information about what happened, said the security chief. So far there have been no arrests made in connection with the incident. The first charges from the probe of possible Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election could be unsealed as early as Monday and a target taken into custody, possibly marking a dramatic turn in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. A federal grand jury approved the indictment on Friday and a federal judge ordered it sealed, a source briefed on the matter has told Reuters, adding it could be unsealed as soon as Monday. The Russia investigation has cast a shadow over U.S. President Donald Trump's 9-month-old presidency and widened the partisan rift between Republicans and Democrats. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is expected to yield its first criminal charges and at least one arrest on Monday Wire transfers: Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is under fire for possible money laudering U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her. Mueller is also investigating whether Trump campaign officials colluded with those Russian efforts. Trump has denied the allegations of collusion with the Russians and called the probe 'a witch hunt.' The Kremlin also has denied the allegations. Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has been looking into possible links between Trump aides and foreign governments, as well as potential money laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes, according to sources familiar with the probe. He also is exploring whether Trump or his aides have tried to obstruct the investigation. Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation a week after Trump's May 9 firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was heading a federal probe into possible collusion with Russia. Trump initially said he fired Comey because his leadership of the FBI was inadequate. In a later interview with NBC, he cited 'this Russia thing' as his reason. Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn could face charges related to his contacts with Russian officials On Sunday, Trump tried to shift the focus back to Democrats and Clinton, tweeting that the Russia issue was being used to sidetrack the Republican push for tax reform and praising Republican 'anger and unity' on the need to look into whether Democrats and the Clinton campaign paid for a portion of a dossier that detailed accusations about Trump's ties to Russia. Special White House counsel Ty Cobb said the president's tweets were 'unrelated to the activities of the Special Counsel, with whom he continues to cooperate.' Investigators led by Mueller have interviewed former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, former spokesman Sean Spicer and other current and former White House and campaign officials. In July, FBI agents raided the Virginia home of Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, whose financial and real estate dealings and prior work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine are being investigated by Mueller's team. Mueller also has investigated Michael Flynn, an adviser to Trump's campaign and later his national security adviser. Flynn was fired from that post in February after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the extent of his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak last year. The indictment in Mueller's probe was first reported by CNN, which said the target could be taken into custody on Monday. That possibility spurred some of Trump's conservative allies to call for Mueller's firing. Sebastian Gorka, an outspoken former adviser who left the White House in August, said on Twitter that Mueller 'should be stripped of his authority' and investigated if he executed warrants in the probe. The White House said in the summer that Trump had no intention of firing Mueller even though he questioned his impartiality. Deutsche Bahn has decided to name one of its new trains Anne Frank to honour the famous Jewish diarist German railway operator Deutsche Bahn has decided to call one of its new generation of Inter City Express trains Anne Frank after the Holocaust diarist. This is despite the fact that the Jews of Europe were transported to death camps aboard trains during the Holocaust. Many took to social media after the announcement to denounce it, with Christian Social Union politician Iris Erberl branding the name 'impious'. Anne was loaded aboard a train to the extermination camp of Auschwitz in Nazi occupied Poland in 1944 after the secret attic where she and her family had been hiding in Amsterdam was raided by the Gestapo. And it was another train which later transported her to Belsen in Germany where she died early the following year. Only her father survived the camps to return to the hiding place and retrieve the diary she had penned which has subsequently become the most famous memoir of the Holocaust. In mid-September Deutsche Bahn called on its customers to submit name suggestions for the new fleet of Inter City Express (ICE) trains. Within four weeks there were 19,400 suggestions received with over 2,500 different names proposed. Deutsche Bahn said many people proposed immortalising Frankfurt-born Anne still further in German memory with the naming of an express train after her. Antje Neubauer, head of marketing and PR of Deutsche Bahn and member of the jury of judges on the project, said; 'It stands for tolerance and for a peaceful co-existence of different cultures, which in times like these is more important than ever.' The decision has been called out as 'impious' by one German politician because the Nazis used trains to transport millions of Jews to their death during the Holocaust Other trains will be named after the first postwar German chancellor Konrad Adenauer and eminent physicist Albert Einstein. 'As different as the selected personalities are, they have one thing in common: they were curious about the world,' said jury member Prof. Dr Gisela Mettele, professor of gender history at the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena. But the decision to name a train after Anne has not sat well with some. People against the decision took to Twitter to vent their displeasure. One wrote; 'Am I actually the only one who finds it strange to call a train of the legal successor of the Reichsbahn Anne Frank?' The Reichsbahn was the state railway company during the Third Reich whose locomotives and carriages were used to transport the Jews of Europe to their deaths. Another wrote; 'The legal successor to the Reichsbahn, which does not compensate forced laborers until today, baptizes an ICE train Anne Frank. As an historian I unfortunately find this terribly wrong.' If the decision goes ahead the Anne Frank express will take to the rails in December. Rose McGowan has led a chorus of backlash against Kevin Spacey accusing him of coming out to excuse making a sexual pass at a 14-year-old Anthony Rapp. The actress, who has been extremely vocal during the Harvey Weinstein fallout, took to Twitter to lay into the House of Cards actor. She said, 'Bye bye, Spacey. Goodbye. Its your turn to cry. Thats why weve gotta say goodbye,' ending with the hashtag Rose Army. It was in relation to the Star Trek: Discovery actor sensationally accusing Spacey of inviting him to his Manhattan apartment when he was just 14 years old and making what he described as a 'drunken' sexual advance towards him. Just hours after being accused, Spacey released a statement announcing he was gay, a move comedian Billy Eichner described as disgusting, irresponsible and dangerous. Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp (left) is accusing Hollywood A-lister Kevin Spacey (right) of making a sexual advance toward him when he was aged 14. Rapp told BuzzFeed News that he met Spacey in 1986 while they both appeared in different Broadway shows Spacey, who was aged 26 at the time, allegedly invited Rapp to his apartment for a party in 1986. Rapp said that he went to watch TV in Spacey's bedroom until after midnight because he became bored. Spacey is pictured above in 1986 in Heartburn Rapp (above being held by Ed Harris in Precious Sons in 1986) told BuzzFeed News that Spacey then 'picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don't, like, squirm away initially, because I'm like, 'What's going on?' And then he lays down on top of me.' Spacey issued a statement (above) via his Twitter account after Rapp's claims were made public. The 58-year-old actor said he doesn't remember the encounter and apologized. He also said he chooses now to 'live as a gay man.' Rapp made the allegations against Spacey in a story that was published by BuzzFeed News on Sunday, and hours later the Hollywood A-lister issued a statement via his Twitter account. Spacey said he was 'beyond horrified' to learn of Rapp's allegations and apologized for 'what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior', although he said he didn't remember the alleged incident. The House of Cards star, who was presented with an honorary knighthood by Prince Charles in June last year, also revealed that he has had relationships with men and women throughout his life, but now chooses to live as a gay man. Many followed McGowan's lead to condemn the timing of the announcement. Jordan Thompson, an activist and New Hampshire native running for Moderator in Nashuas District 29 (Ward 2), said: 'Feels kinda gross that youre turning a story that should be about the victim (s)...into a story about you? 'Congrats on coming out, I guess?' Another, identifying as Sherri, said: 'Is Kevin Spacey trying to change the focus from the sexual assault of a 14-year-old to his own sexuality? 'The assault is what matters.' Writer Broderick Greer said: 'Deeply, deeply unwise framing of this Kevin Spacey story, especially as it relates to the conflation of sexual orientation and sexual assault.' New York-based editor Linsey Weber said: 'So Kevin Spacey is gonna use a coming out narrative to deflect that this "oopsie" moment happened with a 14-year-old. Infuriating.' Yashar Ali, another writer, said: 'Harvey Weinstein: "I'm going to fight the NRA!" 'Kevin Spacey: "I'm gay!" 'Same story different distractions...' And journalist Jeff Black said: 'Nobody cares that Kevin Spacey is gay. Everyone reasonably tuned into Hollywood knew that already. 'People care that he may be a pedophile.' Author and journalist Dan Savage tweeted: 'Nope to Kevin Spacey's statement. Nope. There's no amount of drunk or closeted that excuses or explains away assaulting a 14-year-old child.' Actor and comedian Billy Eichner tweeted: 'That Kevin Spacey statement. Nope. Absolutely not. Nope.' British presenter Sue Perkins said: 'Well done Kev. You stay silent on your sexuality until the time comes when you can conflate it with an alleged sexual assault on a minor.' Rapp (left), who is now aged 46, said that he thought about reaching out to Spacey, 58, following the alleged incident, but ultimately decided against it Star Trek actor Rapp told to BuzzFeed News that he met Spacey in 1986 while they both appeared in different Broadway shows. At the time, Rapp was in Precious Sons and Spacey was in Long Day's Journey Into Night. Spacey, who was aged 26 at the time, allegedly invited Rapp to his Manhattan apartment for a party. Rapp told BuzzFeed News that he became bored and went to watch television in Spacey's bedroom until after midnight before realizing he was the only one left in the property with Spacey. Rapp alleged that Spacey then appeared and 'sort of stood in the doorway, kind of swaying. My impression when he came in the room was that he was drunk.' He told BuzzFeed News that Spacey then 'picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don't, like, squirm away initially, because I'm like, "What's going on?" And then he lays down on top of me. 'He was trying to seduce me. 'I don't know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually.' Rapp alleged that Spacey, who is now a two-time Academy Award winner, was 'was, like, pressing into' him and 'tightening his arms.' Rose McGowan has led a chorus of backlash against Kevin Spacey accusing him of coming out to excuse making a sexual pass at a 14-year-old Anthony Rapp 'It was a frozen moment,' Rapp told BuzzFeed News. 'In terms of fight or flight or freeze, I tend to freeze.' Rapp said he was able to 'wriggle' away after some time and went into the bathroom where he shut the door. 'I was like, "What is happening?'' he said. 'I saw on the counter next to the sink a picture of him having his arm around a man. 'So I think on some level I was like, "Oh. He's gay. I guess." 'Then I opened the door, and I was like, "OK, I'm going to go home now." He followed me to the front door of the apartment, and as I opened the door to leave, he was leaning on the front door[frame]. 'And he was like, "Are you sure you wanna go?" I said, "Yes, good night," and then I did leave.' Rapp, who was most famously part of the original cast of the musical Rent, said he feels lucky nothing more happened during that night. He said he thought about reaching out to Spacey, 58, following the alleged incident, but ultimately decided against it. Spacey said he has 'a lot of respect' for Rapp in the statement he issued regarding the alleged incident. 'I have a lot of respect and admiration for Anthony Rapp as an actor,' Spacey wrote. 'I'm beyond horrified to hear this story. I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. 'But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years. 'This story has encouraged me to address other things about my life. I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fueled by the fact that I have been so protective of my privacy. 'As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women. 'I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behavior.' After BuzzFeed News published the story, Rapp tweeted the above statements late Sunday night. He has not commented yet about Spacey's statement Rapp, who is now 46 years old, said he decided to come forward following the dozens of sexual harassment and misconduct claims against Harvey Weinstein and others in the industry. 'Not to simply air a grievance, but to try to shine another light on the decades of behavior that have been allowed to continue because many people, including myself, being silent. 'I'm feeling really awake to the moment that we're living in, and I'm hopeful that this can make a difference,' Rapp told BuzzFeed News. Puppies purposely bred to fill pet shop windows around the country have been seized after they were found living in horrific conditions at an illegal puppy mill. More than 200 distraught and filthy dogs were discovered at the horrendous facility in Uralla, a town in the New South Wales Northern Tablelands. The RSPCA has shut down the operation and is set to press cruelty charges after progressively seizing its animals throughout the past three months. Dozens of small hounds with dirty, overgrown coats barked and snarled in footage of outdoor makeshift tin kennels, which all contained multiple animals. A popular pet shop in Perth was found to be one of the farm's biggest clients, Nine News reports. More than 200 distraught and filthy dogs were discovered living in horrific conditions at the Uralla facility before being seized by the RSPCA The facility has long been on the RSPCA's radar, with it conducting several investigations in 2015 and seizing nearly 50 dogs, Sydney Morning Herald reported. The Perth store came under heavy fire from protesters in 2015 after speculation it was buying its stock from the illegal puppy farm emerged. But the shop reportedly continued to trade with the New South Wales facility, dismissing claims it was receiving animals illegitimately. An investigation that year revealed hundreds of dogs including mini and toy poodles, pugs, chihuahuas, shih tzus, labradors, kelpies, border collies and staffies were being held at the farm. Dozens of small hounds with dirty, overgrown coats barked and snarled in footage of thei outdoor makeshift tin kennels at the illegal farm The caged off 'tin huts' reportedly contained planks of wood for the dogs to sleep on, and nothing to protect animals from freezing conditions. WA Premier Mark McGowan promised to ban puppy farms in the State in March as part of his election campaign. Victoria has banned pet stores from selling puppies from any source other than an animal shelter or pound, and WA is set to introduce similar legislation. The New South Wales Government is yet to crack down on illegal puppy breeders. The former 'secret bride' of one of the world's richest men faces fresh misery today after a fire ripped through her 4million London home. Nivin El-Gamal wed Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum in a secret ceremony in 2007, but the pair split leaving her with a son he refused to admit was his. After a court battle led to her getting 15,000-a-month in maintenance, she was left fearing deportation from the UK would leave her and her son destitute. The Egyptian socialite faced more woe this morning when fire tore through her home in Victoria Square, a short walk from Buckingham Palace. Nivin El-Gamal an Egyptian socialite who was once married to one of the world's richest men, lost her property in London to fire last night. She is pictured in the property in 2013 The blaze tore through the lavish apartment in Victoria Square in Belgravia early this morning No one is believed to have been injured in the fire, which has destroyed much of the house The lavish Grade Two listed property, designed by architect Sir Matthew Wyatt, was once the home of James Bond author Ian Fleming. It is believed no one was injured in the fire and it is unclear whether Ms El-Gamal, who uses the title Duchess, was at the property at the time. London Fire Brigade said the fire started shortly after midnight last night and four fire engines were dispatched to the scene. They managed to prevent the fire from spreading. A fire service spokesman said: 'We are currently investigating the cause of the fire and we are likely to return at first light to continue are investigation.' All four floors of the property have been severely damaged by fire. The ground floor, basement and first floors are totally gutted and the second and third floor are 30% damaged by fire. Two parked cars were also damaged as a result of the fire. Ms El-Gamal previously told how Sheikh Ahmed gave her a 30,000 dowry, as well as money to buy a gold ring with 17 diamonds after proposing in 2006. Ms El-Gamal was previously involved in a high-profile legal wrangle with ex Sheikh Ahmed A bitter legal battle was fought by the Skeikh (pictured) after the couple split in 2008 The basement, ground floor and first floors of the property have been gutted by the blaze In 2007, they took part in a secret Muslim marriage ceremony in his Knightsbridge apartment, she later told a court. But things began to fall apart after she announced she was pregnant, and after her son Saeed was born in Los Angeles in April 2008, the Sheikh married his cousin. Ms El-Gamal was then locked in a bitter legal dispute with the sheikh an uncle of the ruler of Dubai over his refusal to acknowledge their son. After a series of court hearings and a paternity test, Sheikh Ahmed who is said to be worth billions was forced to agree a generous maintenance settlement. A judge however ruled that the ceremony they took part in was a 'non-marriage', as it lacked the required legal backing under English law. Despite the agreement over her maintenance, she was left fearing possible deportation from the UK could see her lose the court award, which lasts until her son, now aged nine, is 21. The now-gutted Belgravia flat was once home to James Bond author Ian Fleming (left) A husband and wife who survived the Las Vegas massacre have died in a car crash just 15 days after the mass shooting. Dennis and Lorraine Carver were killed when their vehicle crashed outside their gated community in Riverside County, California bursting into flames, on October 16. The Carvers were at Route 91 Harvest music festival this month when Steven Paddock began shooting indiscriminately into the crowd from a hotel window, killing 59 people and injuring 527 more. During the onslaught, Mr Carver, 52, is said to have jumped on top of his wife, also 52, to shield her from the bullets. Husband and wife Dennis and Lorraine Carver who survived the Las Vegas massacre, that saw 59 people killed and 527 more injured, died after their car crashed near their home, in California, on October 16 Brooke Carver, the couple's 20-year-old daughter, said her parents had grown even closer following the shooting. 'After the shooting, they heard from all of the people they cared about most. They were so happy,' Brooke, 20, their daughter told the paper. 'The last two weeks of their lives were really just spent living in the moment.' According to the couple's younger daughter, Madison, 16, there was a loud bang outside of her window on October 16. The Carvers were at Route 91 Harvest music festival this month when Steven Paddock began shooting indiscriminately into the crowd from a hotel window Lora posted this picture of flowers her husband sent her a week after the shooting. She said he shielded her body during the shooting During the onslaught, Mr Carver, 52, is said to have jumped on top of his wife, 52, to shield her from the bullets When she ran down the street to see the source of the noise she saw her parents car engulfed in flames. The pair died together, less than half a mile from their home. A statement from the Riverside County Fire Department said their vehicle crashed into a metal gate outside their community at 10:50 p.m. on the 20000 block of Avenida De Arboles. It took firefighters almost an hour to put out the flames. One more North Korean nuclear detonation could destroy its mountain test site and trigger a radiation leak, Seoul has warned. South Korea says any future nuclear test by Kim Jong-un risks collapsing the location set aside for launching missiles. Seoul detected several earthquakes near the hermit nation's nuclear test site in the country's northeast after its sixth and most powerful bomb explosion in September. Experts say the quakes suggest the area is now too unstable to conduct more tests there. North Korea's propaganda village of Gijungdong is seen from an observation post on September 28, 2017 in Panmunjom, South Korea, in this file photograph. Seoul has said says any future nuclear test by Kim Jong-un risks collapsing the location set aside for launching missiles The launch of a Hwasong-12 missile on September 16, 2017. A launch like this at one North Korean test site could destroy it and trigger a radiation leak South Korea's weather agency chief Nam Jae-Cheol made the comments Monday during a parliament committee meeting. He was responding to a lawmaker's question about whether another North Korean test could lead to such an accident. Earlier this month, US experts issued a similar warning, stating a second nuclear test site used by North Korea in the country's north west could cave in but that it won't be abandoned. Five of Pyongyang's recent tests have been carried out under Mount Mantap at the Punggye-ri military base, which is located in the north west of North Korea. But now the base is said to be suffering from 'Tired Mountain Syndrome' after three small earthquakes occurred nearby after the blasts. The last five of Pyongyang's six nuclear tests have all been carried out at the Punggye-ri nuclear test site under Mount Mantap, in the north-west of the country Writing for 38 North, which reports news about North Korea, Frank V. Pabian and Jack Liu said there could be concern about the phenomenon at Mount Mantap. NORTH KOREA'S NUCLEAR TESTS October 9, 2006: 0.7-2 kilotons May 25, 2009: 2-5.4 kilotons February 12, 2013: 6-16 kilotons January 6, 2016: 7-10 kilotons September 9, 2016: 15-25 kilotons September 3, 2017: 100 kilotons Advertisement They wrote: 'As a result of these nuclear test-induced earthquakes, new media reporting has appeared with headlines such as "North Korea's Nucelar Test Site Could Be Unstable"...while these do make for eye-catching headlines, there was little substance in the articles to back them up beyond quoting the speculative fears of "civilian experts". 'Nonetheless, based on the severity of the initial blast, the post-test tremors, and the extent of observable surface disturbances, we have to assume that there must have been substantial damage to the existing tunnel network under Mt. Mantap.' They added that 'US nuclear test history at the Nevada Test Site provides evidence that such post-test tremors are not unusual,' and that while new tunnels may be built to relieve the tension from the existing test point 'complete abandonment of the test site as a whole remains unlikely.' Tired Mountain Syndrome is a name for the effect of below-ground nuclear blasts on the surrounding rock, which is extensively fractured and becomes increasingly permeable. Tensions have soared in recent weeks following Pyongyang's nuclear test as US President Trump engages in an escalating war of words with the North's leader Kim Jong-Un. South Korea says any future nuclear test by Kim Jong-un (pictured) risks collapsing the location set aside for launching missiles The North's missile and nuclear capabilities have made significant progress under Kim, who told party officials this month that the country's atomic weapons were a 'treasured sword' to protect it from aggression. In a shift away from intercontinental ballistic missile launches (ICBM), North Korea conducted mass evacuation drills in towns across the country as preparation for war' last week. Sources in the isolated Communist country reported that the rare drills were being conducted in secondary and tertiary cities and towns over the course of the last week. There were no reported drills in the capital, Pyongyang. The drills included so-called blackout exercises whereby whole towns would turn out all the lights at night time. I have never heard of this type of training exercises before in North Korea, but am not surprised, Chun In-bum, a former South Korean military officer, said. They must realise how serious the situation is. On Saturday, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis issued a warning to North Korea that the country is no match for a decades-old American-South Korean alliance. A bar in Israel is showing solidarity with menstruating women by offering a 25 per cent discount to those who are having their period. The two women who own the Anna Loulou bar in Tel Aviv, Moran Barir and Dana Etgar, said they want to do women a favour with their new Bloody Hour. The 25 per cent figure was chosen because women are menstruating for 25 per cent of their lives, the women say. Barir told the Haaretz newspaper the idea came about when she was ordering a drink at the bar one day. The owners say 'Bloody Hour' is to recogise women and do them a 'favour' during a difficult time. The system is based on trust and no questions will be asked Anna Loulou announced the launch of the 'Bloody Hour' on their Facebook page. The discount will be for the whole bar on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday She said: I sat at the bar and ordered wine. The bartender couldn't remember whether Id asked for red or for white so I told him simply, Heres how youll remember: Im on my period, so bring me red. The whole idea is to give a discount, attention and a treat to someone, to say "we recognize you, we are aware of the special situation youre in right now, and hey, we want to do you a favour."' The discount will apply to the whole bar on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays and the bar said on its Facebook page its based on trust. Just like that. We believe you! You come to the bar, say you are on your period/flow/cycle. Barir said the happy hour is an appropriate means for raising awareness. We want women to say, "Hey, Im on my period" and for it to have a deeper and broader resonance, for it to be legitimate for women to talk about it. Challenging stereotypes early is important so children have 'breadth of learning' Mother Jacqueline Sturi says she would never enforce gender roles on her son Mother Jacqueline Sturi says she would never enforce gender roles on her son Mother Jacqueline Sturi says she would never enforce gender roles on her son Melbourne mother reveals her son will wear a Halloween dress he chose himself A mum has revealed her three-year-old son will proudly wear a Halloween dress he picked himself to go trick or treating for the first time. Jacqueline Sturi, from Melbourne, Australia, said her boy Sid had a tough time choosing his first ever Halloween costume as he couldn't decide between a skeleton or witch dress. The 33-year-old soon-to-be mum-of-two said Sid is naturally drawn to 'stereotypically girly' things like dresses and dolls and said she would never enforce strict gender roles on her son. Three-year-old Sid Sturi chose to wear a skeleton dress to go trick-or-treating this Halloween On October 31, Sid will challenge gender stereotypes by trick or treating wearing a black dress decorated with skeleton bones. Primary school teacher Jacqueline said: 'Sid is such a cool little dude he is definitely drawn to the prettiest and brightest things in life. 'He has a collection of dolls and colourful dresses he absolutely adores.' Sid's mother said he is 'is definitely drawn to the prettiest and brightest things in life' like dolls 'He should be able to wear whatever he wants,' Jacqueline said. 'I'm proud of who my son is.' 'He is always drawn to the girls' section of shops let's be honest, the bright and shiny colours make it far more appealing.' 'We've only just started celebrating Halloween, and he is so excited to go trick or treating around our neighborhood in his skeleton dress. 'If that's the costume he chose, who cares? He should be able to wear whatever he wants. 'I'm proud of who my son is. He's a kid and can do no wrong in playing and liking certain things. 'We've brought him up in an open and accepting household without strict gender rules.' 'He should be able to wear whatever he wants,' Sid's mother said of her son's fashion choices 'But I've started noticing he is coming home from daycare a bit confused because there are kids there telling him dolls are for girls.' Jacqueline said while Sid has been brought up in an 'open' household, she is concerned her son may be subject to external pressures from peers to conform to gender stereotypes. She is currently 30 weeks pregnant with her and 33-year-old husband Sammy's second child but said the couple are not trying to prove a point with what Sid wears. Sid and his mother Jacqueline decided that he could pick out his own Halloweeen costume The soon-to-be mother-of-two explained that she never wants to force gender roles on her son Jacqueline said she was impressed to see both Coles and Kmart were this year in Australia stocking gender neutral Halloween costumes featuring girls and boys on the packaging. The 32-year-old said: 'We're not trying to prove a point with what Sid wears, we just want him to be happy. 'We let him decide which toys he wants to play with and the outfits that he wants to wear. 'I am really proud the massive chains are finally letting up and making it easier for kids to just be kids, without thinking about stereotypes. 'And while other kids tell him his dolls are for girls, I think this generation are much more open and accepting.' Sid's parents allow him to dress and play with 'girl' or 'boy' clothes and toys as he pleases Enforcing stereotypical gender roles can be 'harmful', even though it can also be unintentional Professor Cathy Nutbrown of the University, Sheffield, has written widely on issue of gender stereotyping in early childhood setting. 'It is important to challenge stereotypes early to give children a breadth of learning experiences,' she writes. 'So that all children benefit from a rich and broad range of learning experiences, not limited by developing ideas of what is appropriate for girls or for boys, [adults] need to be sensitive to children's emerging preferences.' Preschools and daycare centres are also being encouraged to allow children to break out of traditional gender stereotypes and play as they please. 'Early Years practitioners should be aware of gender roles when planning for the children's interests and ensure that the activity is accessible for all children,' reads a recommendation people seeking a career in early childhood development. 'Gender stereotypes should not be adhered to, and the children encouraged to explore the activities that interest them. ' 'Removing barriers to activities can support children in making these decisions, for example a superhero role play should include female superhero names alongside only male egos. 'This will allow the children to view the play as open to anyone rather than only boys.' The Childcare Education Institute explains 'gender bias' is common childhood discrimination Professor Cathy Nutbrown advises parents to take their children's preferences into account An article from the Childcare Education Institute explains: 'Gender bias and stereotyping are among the primary forms of discrimination reinforced during early childhood. 'Harmful, yet often unintentional, forms of bias and generalization are transmitted by adults and the media, and can be recognized by children as early as preschool. 'As a result, children often perceive abilities and hobbies to be gender-specific when in fact they are not.' A young jihadist who planned to blow up an army base and courthouse got his sentence delayed until he completes a de-radicalisation program. Tamim Khaja, 20, pleaded guilty to conducting reconnaissance of targets, and trying to obtain weapons and a flag of the Khilafah for the terrorist attack. Tamim Khaja (pictured) has pleaded guilty on the day he was expected to face trial The then 18-year-old was attested at the Parramatta Stadium car park in May 2016 when he tried to buy a gun from an undercover officer, and also tried to obtain a suicide vest. His targets were the Sydney West Trial Courts in Parramatta, where he appeared in the Supreme Court on Monday, and the nearby Timor Barracks in Dundas. Khaja also allegedly tried to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS but was stopped at Sydney Airport because his passport had been cancelled. Despite confessing to planning mass murder, his lawyer asked that sentencing be delayed until February so he could complete a de-radicalisation program in Goulburn Supermax prison. 'It's very much in the interests, in terms of the appropriate sentence... and the community, that this offender enter into such programs that are available to him,' Greg Scragg told the court. Tamim Khaja, 20, (pictured) was arrested in Macquarie Park in Sydney's north, while he was trying to purchase a gun in May 2016 But Justice Desmond Fagan wanted to press on with sentencing unless he could be persuaded that the program would have any significant effect. 'If any weight is to be given to this I'd need to have evidence from a corrective services officer who would explain it to me,' he said. Khaja's plot was 'effectively a mass-murder attack' in the interests of pursuing Islamic dominance of Australia, the judge said. 'The idea that a person can be rehabilitated from such views of religious zeal by a program needs some substantiation,' Justice Fagan said. Khaja allegedly prepared to travel to Syria for ' hostile activities' between January 29 and February 27 He described as 'extremely grave' the risk to the community and said Khaja had not acted in 'a moment of rage or some passion' but from a philosophy he believed warranted mass murder. Mr Scragg agreed the crime was extremely serious but said it was in the interest of justice that the young man have more time to prepare his case. 'Since he's been in custody, the overall assessment of him is that he's been a model prisoner,' he said. The defence team will submit a psychiatric report, character evidence from friends and family and material from corrective services when Khaja returns to court on February 16, with a sentence expected two weeks later. One of his targets was the Sydney West Trial Courts in Parramatta, where he appeared in the Supreme Court on Monday His other target was the nearby Timor Barracks in Dundas Khaja obtained a $25,000 loan from the Commonwealth Bank and bought a solar panel battery charger for his phone in preparation for his attack. He also bought a return airfare from Australia to Thailand and attempted to leave in early 2016 but was stopped at Sydney International Airport. Police believed he was acting alone, and said after his arrest they had thwarted an imminent terrorist attack. The extremist teen was earlier kicked out of Epping Boys High for trying to radicalise other students soon before he began planning his attack. Simon Pain sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy twice after telling hotel workers and then told the teenager's mother he would have a relationship with him A National Farmers Union branch chairman who sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy twice then told his victim's mother he would have a relationship with him has been jailed for 14 months. Simon Pain, 47, performed oral sex on the teenager while giving him a lift home after grooming him with clothes, phones and riding equipment. The married father did the same days later in London after booking them into the Hyde Park Hilton hotel and saying the teenager was his son. Pain, of Billow Farm, Breadstone, in Gloucestershire, told his victim he believed himself to be gay and preferred younger people. The farmer, who also runs a livery, exploited his victim's love of horses to get close to him, Gloucester Crown Court heard on Friday. 'The defendant confided in the boy that he thought he himself was gay and he preferred younger people,' prosecutor Janine Wood told the court. 'He began buying the boy gifts - clothing, a mobile phone, riding equipment. The boy wondered why the defendant was spending so much on him. 'On 13th November he gave the boy a lift home. He pulled over in a lay-by, they got into the rear of the vehicle and Pain pulled down the boys trousers and gave him oral sex. 'It happened for about 25 minutes. The boy told him he just wanted to go home. 'A few days later the defendant took the boy to London under a pretext. He had booked a room at the Hilton hotel in Hyde Park and was pretending to the staff there that the boy was his son. 'He took the boy around London sightseeing - the London Dungeon, the London Eye, and bought him some clothes. 'Back in the hotel room he pushed the boy onto the bed, pinned him down and got on top of him. He kissed his neck and pulled down his trousers and gave him oral sex again.' When Pain checked in at the Hilton near Hyde Park, London, he told hotel workers the boy was his son, before sexually assaulting him in one of the rooms Then when they returned from the trip, Pain told his victim's mother he loved the boy and would have a relationship with him when he turned 16. Mrs Wood said the boy had told his mother he was gay aged 13. The teenager described the ordeal as the most difficult thing he'd ever faced in a victim impact statement. 'This has been truly the hardest time of my life. There have been times when I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. 'I felt like my life had been taken out of my hands. I didnt know who to turn to or to trust. ' He said he was fearful Pain would hurt his horse to get back at him. 'I have trouble sleeping. I have nightmares that he is outside my house. Some days I cant get out of bed because I feel so down. 'I feel Simon has stolen my life that was but I wont let it defeat me. ' Pain - who has been his local NFU branch chairman and deputy chairman for Gloucestershire - initially denied any sexual activity with the boy when police were called on December 4 last year. Then when he was interviewed on February 23 this year he admitted sexual activity had taken place the previous November but said the 15-year-old 'consented'. Simon Pain attacked the boy twice and was jailed after pleading guilty to both counts of sexual assault He finally admitted sexually assaulting the boy on November 13 and again between November 18 and 21, pleading guilty to both counts. His victim's mother told the court Pain's predatory behaviour had devastated her family. 'Our world has been turned upside down. I feel Ive let my son down - I blame myself,' she said. 'I had a feeling something was wrong but I couldnt do anything without any proof. 'My son has changed - he is no longer the happy, funny, boy he was. He now wants to get as far away from this man as possible. 'I now constantly question the motives of anyone who gets close to my children. I am so relieved he has pleaded guilty - he has caused devastation.' Robert Duvall, defending, said Pain suffers from inner demons and presents a difficult and complex picture. 'He has had to tell his nine-year-old daughter today that daddy may not be coming home tonight,' he said. 'That was extremely difficult for him and even more difficult for his daughter. 'He has transformed his farm into a haven for wildflowers. Without him there, his business will be in very serious difficulties. 'He works tirelessly for the local community. He was deputy chairman of the Gloucestershire NFU and was probably to be chairman - but one suspects that is now an impossible place for him. 'He has been his local NFU branch chairman and sat on numerous committees. He has spent a considerable amount of time helping young farmers and he helps a local college to develop its new agricultural degree course 'He spends much of his spare time raising money for various charities.' Judge Jamie Tabor QC told Pain the loveless marriage he was in at the time of the offences didn't stop him knowing it was entirely wrong to have a sexual relationship with an under-age boy. He jailed Pain for fourteen months, ordered him to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years and told him to pay 500 costs. 'Your actions have created considerable problems for this boy, his family, and his relationship with them,' he said. 'There were elements here of grooming him. It was selfish behaviour.' A Halloween reveller has sparked outrage for dressing up as missing girl Madeleine McCann and making a 'cheap dig' at her parents. Daniel Gearie, 25, from Dundee, posted the iconic picture of Maddie, who disappeared from her hotel apartment in Portugal in 2007, smiling in her Everton shirt next to an image of himself in the same top with a blonde wig on. Alongside the two images, he tweeted: 'You've taken it too far daniel (sic).' He then appeared to defend his actions, saying: 'And before you say 'this is sick' etc I know it is but I'm not the one who left a child unattended in a Portuguese hotel.' His post on Saturday night went viral and sparked outrage among Twitter users, who branded him 'sick' and 'vile'. And a family spokesman for the McCanns described it as 'cretinous behaviour'. Daniel Gearie, 25, from Dundee, posted the iconic picture of Maddie, who disappeared from her hotel apartment in Portugal in 2007, smiling in her Everton shirt next an image of himself in the same top with a blonde wig on Alongside the two images, Mr Gearie tweeted: 'You've taken it too far daniel (sic).' Miss Mac wrote: 'Ugh @DanielGearie dressing up as a missing child for Halloween is lower than a snakes belly. Vile t**t' Mike Callaghan tweeted: 'What a depressing thing to wake up to. Whats wrong wi some folk? Trying to excuse yourself by having a cheap dig at parents. Super creep.' Northern Union said: 'This is so so wrong.. You clearly do not have kids.' And Jay added: 'Absolute f***y u need a slap.' A few hours later, Mr Gearie apologised for causing offence and deleted his original tweet. He added: 'I've already admitted earlier it's something I regret however I need to be open and honest about what I've done, can't hide from it.' A spokesman for the McCann family told MailOnline: 'Kate and Gerry have never dignified this sort of offensive and cretinous behaviour with any sort of comment at all and they are not going to start now. 'It is right the material has been deleted.' Speaking to MailOnline this afternoon, Mr Gearie said he was 'disgusted' by his own actions and issued an apology to the McCanns. MailOnline has today contacted Mr Gearie (pictured) for comment following his online posts He said: 'I would like to unreservedly apologise for what I have done. There is no defending it. It was vile and disgusting and I am disgusted at myself. 'My family are heartbroken. It was a sheer moment of stupidity. 'I was going to a party with close friends and I didn't tell anyone about it. I wanted to surprise them and provoke a reaction. 'But I knew I'd gone too far and there was a lot of nervous laughter. Everyone knew it was far too close to the bone. 'I put it on Twitter before anyone else did. And there is no defending what I wrote after - I should have kept away from my phone after a few drinks. 'All I can say is that I am completely embarrassed about what I did and I'm very sorry.' In August this year, Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry McCann, pleaded with trolls to stop abusing them online. The couple are targeted by 150 vile tweets every day, according to research into online abuse. The couple told how they still try to shield their 12-year-old old twins from cruel, false and libellous taunts being made against the family, which Kate describes as 'shocking, striking and quite hard to get your head round.' A few hours later, Mr Gearie apologised for causing offence and deleted his original tweet In August this year, Maddie's parents Kate and Gerry McCann, pleaded with trolls to stop abusing them online Three-year-old Maddie vanished from a Praia da Luz in May 2007. She had been left alone sleeping with her younger siblings while her parents were dining with pals in a nearby tapas restaurant. Maddie's disappearance sparked one of the largest missing person's probes ever. Although she and Gerry try avoid to social media, apart from for the Maddie campaign, Kate said: 'We are aware of things that get said because people alert us to them. Our worry is for our children.' A mum has been forced to call emergency services after her three-year-old son got his fingers stuck in a plug hole at bath time. Little Leo Diener managed to get three of his fingers stuck in a metal bath plug hole on Monday evening at his home in Dapto, New South Wales. It took a team of police and paramedics over an hour to free Leo. Scroll down for video Little Leo's mum had to call emergency services to free his fingers form the bath plug hole Leo Diener managed to get three of his fingers stuck in a metal bath plug It took a team of police and paramedics over an hour to free Leo 'He was pretty much back against the wall, three fingers straight down, just sort of looked at me like, "I'm in trouble aren't I?"', Leo's mother Corinne Diener told 7 News. She called Triple-0 after unsuccessfully using soaps and oils to try and free Leo's fingers. Kahlie McLennan from NSW Ambulance said Leo's fingers were swollen, but not injured. 'We flipped the plate out, and then once that was out, they put a film under each finger and had to cut each individual hole to get each finger out,' she said. Leo was very brave and 'only cried a little bit,' his mother said. 'I was very proud of him.' Leo's mum Corinne (left) called Triple-0 after unsuccessfully using soaps and oils to try and free Leo's fingers New York police discovered 97lbs of marijuana and nearly $1 million in cash in a Brooklyn apartment - after being invited inside by the tenant. Officers uncovered the haul after being asked by Jersey City Police Department to help them search for a wanted person, believed to be in the building. But when they knocked on the apartment door where they believed the individual to be staying, police were shocked to see large amounts of drugs stored in plain sight. New York police discovered 97lbs of marijuana and nearly $1 million in cash in a Brooklyn apartment - after being invited inside by the tenant Police said a different man answered the door and invited them to come inside - despite the sizable stash in plain view. Officers immediately arrested the man and two others who were with him. After obtaining a search warrant they discovered more cannabis and cash stashed throughout the home. In total, they seized $931,000 and nearly 100lbs of cannabis. Apartment residents Humphrey Olivo, 36, and Yazmin Olivo, 30, were charged with criminal possession, criminal sale, and criminal use of marijuana. While Jose Pichardo, 28, who was inside the apartment at the time, was given a criminal use of drug paraphernalia charge, along with criminal possession and sale of marijuana. It has not been reported whether Jersey City police have found the person they were looking for. NBC New York report they were wanted on arson and terror threat charges. Kevin Spacey (pictured in May) faces new accusations about his conduct today The Oscar-winning star accused of assaulting the loved-one of a TV journalist two weeks ago can today be named as Kevin Spacey who has suggested there could be more stories about him to emerge. Former US news anchor Heather Unruh said the Harvey Weinstein scandal had given her the courage to accuse the House of Cards star, 58, of attacking someone close to her. Ms Unruh made her damaging claims more than two weeks before Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp got an apology after he said the actor, then 26, tried to seduce him when he was just 14. She tweeted a picture of Spacey on October 13 with the message: 'The #weinsteinscandal has emboldened me I was a Kevin Spacey fan until he assaulted a loved one. Time the dominoes fell'. Ms Unruh has declined to give any more details about the alleged incident only adding: 'My intent was to encourage a badly needed investigation and conversation' and used the hashtag #It'sNotOk. Another friend of a victim, Nadine West, came forward on Monday to claim that a young man close to her was 'groped' by Spacey while working alongside the actor at the Old Vic in London. 'Was apparently always known as one to avoid. Sadly unsurprised,' added West in a post on Twitter. Scroll down for video Former US news anchor Heather Unruh said the Weinstein scandal had given her the courage to accuse Kevin Spacey, 58, of attacking a loved one Others have today claimed that Spacey acted inappropriately while working at the Old Vic in London The identity of the Hollywood star Ms Unruh had accused online was not reported until Mr Rapp's damaging allegations emerged overnight. Former US news anchor Heather Unruh said the Harvey Weinstein scandal had given her the courage to accuse Spacey Spacey quickly apologized for the incident in a rambling and ill-conceived statement that he posted to his social media accounts. He said he did not recall the incident, suggested that more stories may begin to emerge with similar claims and then, in a move that has drawn the ire of many members of the LGBT community, came out as a gay man in the wake of these alarming claims. 'It is deeply sad and troubling that this is how Kevin Spacey has chosen to come out,' wrote Zachary Quinto on Monday afternoon. 'Not by standing up as a point of pride - in the light of all his many awards and accomplishments thus inspiring tens of thousands of struggling LGBTQ kids around the world - but as a calculated manipulation to deflect attention from the very serious accusation that he attempt to molest one.' He continued: 'I am sorry to hear of Anthony Rapps experience and subsequent suffering. And I am sorry that Kevin only saw fit to acknowledge his truth when he though it would serve him just as his denial served him for so many years. 'May Anthony Rapps voice be the one which is amplified here. Victims voices are the ones that deserve to be heard.' Billy Eichner, who applauded Quinto's statement, tweeted earlier in the day: 'That Kevin Spacey statement. Nope. Absolutely not. Nope. But honestly I hesitate to make jokes because the Spacey statement is truly disgusting, irresponsible and dangerous.' Several people now claim to know people who have been treated inappropriately by Spacey, including while he was artistic director of London's Old Vic theatre. Jennie Rigg-ormortis replied and said: 'Have heard similar from more than one source. Hope more people come forward, but understand if they feel they can't'. Kevin Spacey and the Old Vic have been asked to comment. Spacey said he is 'beyond horrified' by the claim, that he does not remember the alleged incident, 'which would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour'. He said the story 'has encouraged me to address other things about my life'. In the Twitter post, he added: 'I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fuelled by the fact that I have been so protective of my privacy. 'As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. 'I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behaviour.' Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp (left) is accusing Hollywood A-lister Kevin Spacey (right) of making a sexual advance toward him when he was aged 14. Rapp told to BuzzFeed News that he met Spacey in 1986 while they both appeared in different Broadway shows Spacey issued a statement (above) via his Twitter account after Rapp's claims were made public. The 58-year-old actor said he doesn't remember the encounter and apologized. He also said he chooses now to 'live as a gay man' Beau Willimon, the US creator of the Netflix series House of Cards, has given a partial defence of Spacey while supporting Mr Rapp's courage He was criticised for conflating his apology with officially coming out as gay. Former Bake Off presenter Sue Perkins tweeted: Well done Kev. You stay silent on your sexuality until the time comes when you can conflate it with an alleged sexual assault on a minor. Spacey, who was aged 26 at the time, allegedly invited Rapp to his apartment for a party in 1986. Rapp said that he went to watch TV in Spacey's bedroom until after midnight because he became bored. Spacey is pictured above in 1986 in Heartburn 'In doing so, you simultaneously undervalue the horrific nature of the allegation and set back the LGBT+ community. Well done'. @rilaws said: 'For a famous person to deflect these accusations with a long-in-the-making coming out is so cruel to his supposed new community it stings.' @larrywilmore wrote: 'Kevin Spacey's comment was wrong on so many levels.' Rapp commented on Twitter: 'I came forward with my story, standing on the shoulders of the many courageous women and men who have been speaking out to shine a light and hopefully make a difference, as they have done for me.' Rose McGowan has led a chorus of backlash against Kevin Spacey accusing him of coming out to excuse making a sexual pass at a 14-year-old Anthony Rapp. The actress, who has been extremely vocal during the Harvey Weinstein fallout, took to Twitter to lay into the House of Cards actor. She said, 'Bye bye, Spacey. Goodbye. It's your turn to cry. That's why we've gotta say goodbye,' ending with the hashtag Rose Army. Jordan Thompson, an activist and New Hampshire native running for Moderator in Nashua's District 29 (Ward 2), said: 'Feels kinda gross that you're turning a story that should be about the victim (s)...into a story about you? 'Congrats on coming out, I guess?' Another, identifying as Sherri, said: 'Is Kevin Spacey trying to change the focus from the sexual assault of a 14-year-old to his own sexuality? 'The assault is what matters.' Writer Broderick Greer said: 'Deeply, deeply unwise framing of this Kevin Spacey story, especially as it relates to the conflation of sexual orientation and sexual assault.' Former Bake Off presenter Sue Perkins tweeted that Spacey had 'set back' the LGBT+ community Gay Times editor slams Spacey's decision to come out in apology to child star The editor of Gay Times magazine has criticised Kevin Spacey's 'highly problematic' decision to open up about his sexuality after he was accused of historical harassment. The House Of Cards star and former artistic director of London's Old Vic announced that he is living 'as a gay man' after actor Anthony Rapp accused the 58-year-old of an incident in 1986. Spacey said he does not remember the alleged incident, claimed to have taken place when Rapp was 14 and Spacey was 26, 'but if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour'. Josh Rivers, the newly-appointed editor of Gay Times, told the Press Association: 'It would make more sense for him to come out as an alcoholic than to conflate his sexuality with his alleged behaviour.' 'Kevin Spacey choosing this moment to declare his sexuality, as if it has anything to do with his alleged behaviour, is highly problematic.' He added: 'This conflation is precisely the type of manipulation to which our community has become acutely attuned, and we won't stand for it. 'Society has come a long way, but we are still fighting for the rights and visibility of many in our community ... Kevin has done us all a disservice.' Advertisement New York-based editor Linsey Weber said: 'So Kevin Spacey is gonna use a coming out narrative to deflect that this 'oopsie' moment happened with a 14-year-old. Infuriating.' Yashar Ali, another writer, said: 'Harvey Weinstein: 'I'm going to fight the NRA!' 'Kevin Spacey: 'I'm gay!' 'Same story different distractions...' And journalist Jeff Black said: 'Nobody cares that Kevin Spacey is gay. Everyone reasonably tuned into Hollywood knew that already. 'People care that he may be a pedophile.' Double Oscar winner Spacey is best known for the film American Beauty and TV drama House Of Cards. His long-running tenure at The Old Vic hit the headlines a year after he joined when he reported to police that he had been attacked in a park at around 4am on a Saturday morning. He later dropped the complaint, saying that a youth had conned him into handing over his mobile while he was walking his dog and that he injured himself when he tripped over his pet as he chased the youth. In June last year, Spacey was presented with an honorary knighthood by His Royal Highness Prince Charles. On Monday, following Rapp's accusation, the Royal Court theatre's artistic director, Vicky Featherstone, was asked if she was aware of stories about Spacey when he was working in London. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think that many people in theatre and the creative industries have been aware of many stories of many people over a lot of years.' After the Harvey Weinstein allegations there had been an 'opening of the floodgates and a very important moment for us all throughout society, not just in our industry', she said. A Lodge Grass man accused of sexually molesting a minor admitted federal charges on Monday in U.S. District Court in Billings. Loyal Jude Hogan, 33, pleaded guilty to abusive sexual contact with a minor as charged in an indictment. Hogan was to have gone to trial on Monday and potential jurors had been called, but he pleaded guilty instead. The indictment accused Hogan of knowingly engaging in sexual contact with a person who was between the ages of 12 and 16 in June 2014 in Lodge Grass. U.S. District Judge Susan Watters ordered Hogan into custody and set sentencing for Feb. 28. Hogan faces a maximum two years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The daughter of one of Australia's most notorious mass murderers has revealed how she kept it secret for 20 years because of her 'shame' towards the man that raised her. Lindsey Rose, a former 'hero' paramedic, brothel owner, drug dealer and private investigator, was responsible for the deaths of five people in Sydney between 1984 and 1994. His only child, 34-year-old Elisha, says she hid the horrific truth and 'created a layer of secrecy' for decades because of the torment that followed its memories. She learned of the unforgivable actions of her father while watching the evening news on the family's television when she was just 12. 'I feel a duty to atone for his sins,' she told Australian Story. Scroll down for video Elisha Rose says she hid the horrific truth about her mass murderer father and 'created a layer of secrecy' for decades because of the torment that followed his memories Pictured: Lindsey Rose, a former 'hero' paramedic, brothel owner, drug dealer and private investigator, was responsible for the deaths of five people in Sydney between 1984 and 1994. The victims: Lindsey Rose shot dead Fatma Ozanal (right) and stabbed Kerrie Pang (left) to death on Valentine's Day in 1994 Lindsey, now an inmate at Goulburn SuperMax, was known by friends as the 'popular boy' growing up, full of cheek and vigour. He met his then-wife Lynda, a telephone operator, while working for the New South Wales Ambulance Service. 'He was bold and honest. He was just different, there was a lot of fire,' Lynda Burke said. Lindsey was one of the first responders at the Granville rail disaster in 1977 which killed 83 people. 'He lay on the ground and held the hand of somebody who died there,' Mrs Burke said. 'That caused him a great amount of grief.' 'He was an absolute hero.' The next year, Lindsey and Lynda had Elisha, their first child. Despite his temper and at times disappearing for weeks at a time, his wife never feared for the safety of their child because she was 'the light of his life.' Lindsey left his career as a paramedic after suffering an injury and feeling increasingly isolated from co-workers who he felt were bullying him. He found himself working as a private investigator, often working illegally, and the line between right and wrong began to blur. Lindsey met his then-wife Lynda (pictured) while working for the NSW Ambulance Service. 'He was bold and honest. He was just different, there was a lot of fire,' Lynda Burke said Lindsey shot dead Bill Cavanagh (left) and Carmelita Lee (right) in their home in 1984 after an altercation He shot dead Bill Cavanagh and Carmelita Lee in their home in 1984 after an altercation. Elisha was three months old at the time. Three years later he stabbed Reynette Holford more than 30 times with a screwdriver after allegedly attempting to rob an apartment. He remained a free man as police could not find the culprit. Elisha was four-years-old. On Valentine's Day in 1994, Lindsey shot dead Fatma Ozanal and stabbed Kerrie Pang to death, before burning down their Gladesville massage parlour. Elisha was 10. Lynda divorced a 'changed' Lindsey after he violently assaulted her, meaning Elisha only saw her father on odd weekends. She says she loved spending time with him because he treated her as an adult. Rose set alight a Gladesville massage parlour after murdering Ozanal and Pang in 1994 Rose, described by his ex-wife when they were married as an 'honest' man was responsible for the deaths of five innocent people Two years later, in 1996, Elisha returned to their Perth home one night to find her mother on their couch talking with two policemen. They asked her and her mother a number of questions about their father. A few hours later Elisha was watching the Sydney news, which aired in the Western Australia capital late at night, and discovered the awful truth about her father. 'There's a part of me that will never be able to reconcile what he's done,' she told Australian Story. 'The man who raised me and nurtured me is not a mass murderer, but he is that too. He is both good and bad.' Lindsey admitted to his crimes when being questioned by police, who described him as 'an absolute clinical psychopath.' He was sentenced to five life sentences without parole. Rod Baker, the Detective Inspector in charge of his investigation, described Lindsey as 'an absolute clinical psychopath' Lindsey Rose openly admitted to his crimes when being questioned by police 'It was a horrific burden to carry, it is still, but particularly then when I was unable to comprehend my father's actions,' Elisha said. She visited her father in jail a few times when she was younger, but there was always 'unspoken tension' about why he was in prison. He told her he would tell her why he did it when she was older. He eventually revealed that he believed his meaning of life was to stand up to bullies. Elisha began studying to be a lawyer at university, and it was during her education she really began to question having a continued relationship with her father. She sought out old court documents from Lindsey's case and had to seek counselling after learning of his atrocities. 'I was concerned about my professional reputation. I was worried that I would be exposed by someone,' Elisha said. She now is a practicing lawyer and is the carer of two young foster children. Through her legal work and support of numerous charities, Elisha is trying to right the wrongs of her father by helping others less fortunate. Regardless of how fulfilled her life now is professional and personally, she does not feel the need to reconnect with or give her father. 'He created horrific trauma, grief and loss. I have no intentions of visiting him again.' She has gone down in history as one of the most evil and sadistic women of World War II. Known as the Hyena of Auschwitz, Irma Grese, was one of the most feared guards at the infamous concentration camp. A sadistic nymphomaniac who slept with SS guards, she participated in selecting prisoners for the gas chamber as well as exacting horrific punishment beatings. Pictures of her and other other female camp guards who presided over the mass extermination of hundreds of thousands of Jews at Nazi death camps have now emerged in an archive which is going up for sale. Photos of some of the Nazis most feared female camp guards, including Irma Grese (left) and Hilde Lohbauer (right), have emerged in an archive now set to go under the hammer Grese, pictured (left) at her trial and (right) shortly after the start of the war, was known as 'the hyena' among concentration camp inmates Grese, centre left, is pictured at the Luneberg trials from which some of the archived documents come These vicious enforcers were rounded up when concentration camp Bergen-Belsen was liberated by the British army in 1945. Three female guards were later executed for selecting hundreds of prisoners for the gas chamber and beating and murdering dozens of others. Another woman who struck terror was Hilde Lohbauer, a mother-of-two, who was a prisoner herself but worked as a Kapo supervising forced labour. She would target the sickest and weakest prisoners and would set savage dogs on them to tear them apart. Another sadist and ruthless overseer feared by inmates at Bergen-Belsen was Irene Haschke who would viciously abuse female prisoners. Grese was hanged for war crimes in 1945 while Lohbauer and Haschke both received 10 year jail sentences The archive of a British lawyer who helped prosecute Nazi war criminals is now up for sale, including this images of Bergen-Belsen guards Harry Kaufmann, Herbert Buhr, Bernhard Blank and Heinrich Hoppenstedt The archive of papers from the Luneberg trials, a precursor to the Nuremberg Trials, is expected the make more than 4,000 when it is sold in Sussex tomorrow All three women are among an archive of historic material compiled by British lawyer, Leo Genn, who worked as assistant prosecutor at the Belsen Trial in Luneburg in 1945 - a precursor to the Nuremberg Trials. The archive will be sold by Toovey's auction house on October 31, when it is expected to fetch between 4,000-6,000. Genn later became a successful stage and film actor but kept his archive of photos and signed prisoner statements. Seven decades the valuable historic photos and statements taken from war criminals at Bergen-Belsen is to go up for sale at the auction. The archive also includes this image of Franz Stofel, the camp commander at the Mittelbau-Dora camp, pictured with other camp wardens Nicholas Toovey of Toovey's auction house in Washington, Sussex, said: 'A large part of the value and its importance, is the connection with Leo Genn, the famous theatre and film actor with his role as an assistant prosecutor at the trial for Belsen. 'It includes personal items, such as his identity tags and his army-issue canvas bag, but more importantly his copies of signed witness statements and his notes made during the trial. 'The archive includes witness statements from internees of the camp and from those controlling it, revealing the horrors that went on behind closed doors, of which the world was then unaware.' Karl Schmitt, a defendant in the the Nuremburg Trials, is also pictured As well as the female camp guards the archive contains photos and signatures Belsen camp commandant, Josef Kramer, and Fritz Klein, a Nazi doctor who helped select prisoners for the gas chambers. Kramer and Klein were among 11 Nazis - including three women - who were executed in December 1945 after a British military tribunal. A further nine women and two men were jailed for up to 15 years. Genn, a lieutenant colonel, was assigned to investigate the crimes uncovered at Bergen-Belsen. He was sent to Germany with a handful of investigators to obtain evidence from thousands of malnourished and typhus-suffering survivors of the camp. The evidence of systematic genocide he helped uncover led to trial and execution of hundreds of Nazis after their trials at Nuremberg. After the war he became a famous film actor was nominated for an Oscar for his role in Quo Vadis in 1951. He appeared in several other films including Personal Affair opposite Gene Tierney in 1953 and John Huston's Moby Dick in 1956 and The Longest Day in 1962. He was also an accomplished theatre actor and later in life he was a governor of London's The Mermaid Theatre. He died in 1978. The archive will be sold by Toovey's auction house on October 31, when it is expected to fetch between 4,000-6,000. Britain could lead the 'fourth industrial revolution' if it embraces robots, virtual reality, 3D printing and other high technology, a new report claims today. Around 175,000 jobs could be created in a manufacturing sector boosted by 455billion in extra growth over a decade. A review by a group representing some of the country's leading companies called for a new commission to be established to drive digital technology and the skills needed for jobs of the future. Advanced robotics are the future of Britain's economy, a report compiled by leading technology companies says today. Pictured is Boris Johnson meeting a prototype humanoid robot in Japan in July Technology such as 3D printing (pictured) and virtual reality could unlock 455billion in manufacturing growh over a decade, a new report today said The 'Made Smarter UK' report was commissioned by the Government to find out how Britain can benefit from the rapid technological changes society and business is undergoing. The business leaders on the panel included John Lewis Chairman Sir Charlie Mayfield, Cisco UK & Ireland chairman Phil Smith, CBI Director General Carolyn Fairbairn, IMB UK CEO David Stokes, Accenture UK CEO Oliver Benzecry, GSK's head of global manufacturing Roger Connor and GKN CEO Nigel Stein. Professor Juergen Maier, chief executive of Siemens UK and Ireland, who chaired the group, said: 'The business and academic community has set out a vision for much greater ambition needed for Britain to be a world leader in the fourth industrial revolution. 'Industry is committed to working in partnership with Government, and this combined package of measures will boost UK growth and productivity in manufacturing and provide more exports and increased earning potential, which our economy desperately needs. 'Our proposals will help business understand, deploy and create the latest digital technologies, helping to secure more homegrown research and development and the creation of new industries and highly skilled well paid jobs.' Business Secretary Greg Clark said Britain has the 'potential to be a global leader' in digital technology industry Business Secretary Greg Clark said: 'The UK manufacturing sector has the potential to be a global leader in the industrial digital technology revolution. 'Government and industry must work together to seize the opportunities that exist in this sector and promote the benefits of adopting emerging digital technologies, as well as cutting edge business models.' CBI director general Carolyn Fairbairn added: 'The business community has pulled together to shape these recommendations that will speed up technology adoption and bring new energy to the manufacturing sector. 'The UK must compete with China, the USA and much of Europe where there are already advanced plans to embrace the fourth industrial revolution.' A serial NSW conwoman who posed as a 13-year-old victim of child sex trafficking has failed in her bid to be released from jail early. Samantha Lyndell Azzopardi was in July sentenced to at least six months behind bars for the fraud which cost NSW charities and government departments more than $155,000. The 29-year-old used a fake Californian birth certificate to pose as a Sydney high school student named Harper Hart - repeating a similar story that previously fooled authorities in Ireland and Canada. A judge has dismissed serial NSW conwoman Samantha Lyndell Azzopardi's (pictured) appeal to leave her minimum six month jail sentence early NSW District Court judge Paul Conlon on Monday dismissed her appeal against a maximum one-year sentence, saying it was difficult to see how it had any merit. He said a recent psychologist's report portrayed Azzopardi as a 'very difficult historian' who even laughed off the doctor's attempt to clarify her first name as Samantha. 'It is disturbing in the extreme that at 29 years of age she still tries to pass herself off as an adolescent,' the judge said. Azzopardi's solicitor, Phillip Ryan, said it was hard to see her motivation for the fraud and 'many layers of the onion' would have to be peeled to get there. The 29-year-old was sentenced to at least six months in July for the fraud which cost NSW charities and government departments more than $155,000 The 29-year-old used a fake Californian birth certificate to pose as a Sydney high school student named Harper Hart 'She's willing to take the relevant steps along that process,' Mr Ryan said. Azzopardi had run scams in Queensland, Western Australia, Ireland and Canada before she duped NSW authorities. She was given an iPad, phone and Opal card from the Sydney not-for-profit Burdekin House, an ambulance transfer paid for by Good Shepherd Australia and medication from the NSW Department of Family and Community Services. Azzopardi had run scams in Queensland, Western Australia, Ireland and Canada before she duped NSW authorities The $155,000 cost of her frauds included counselling costs and wages. Judge Conlon on Monday said she wasted valuable resources that could have gone to children in need. Azzopardi, who looked down towards her lap throughout the hearing, will be eligible for parole in November. A body positive Australian lingerie company has been publicly fat shamed on professional networking site, LinkedIn. Founder and director of Mary Holland Lingerie, Belinda Roelofs, posted an announcement on the networking site in September, calling for brand collaborations. In her post, Ms Roelofs included a video of a curvy model wearing a new line of lingerie to campaign for body diversity. Scroll down for video Belinda Roelofs, founder and director of Australian brand Mary Holland Lingerie, advertised for brand collaborations on LinkedIn Ms Roelofs included a video of a curvy model (pictured) wearing a new line of lingerie to campaign for body diversity, attracting a string of body shaming comments 'One of many videos we are creating at Mary Holland Lingerie to increase the diversity of body shapes on social media,' Ms Roelofs wrote in her post. The model in the video, Kristina Yeo, wears a full-figured black bra and underwear set as she dances for the camera. While the post itself gained many comments praising Ms Roelofs' for her work in celebrating body diversity, there were many more criticising the model's body. The model in the video, Kristina Yeo, wears a full-figured black bra and underwear set as she dances for the camera Comments began to flood Ms Roelofs post, body shaming the model and criticising the post for advertising on LinkedIn The post itself gained many comments praising Ms Roelofs' for her work in celebrating body diversity Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Ms Roelofs said the post was to showcase new video content for her lingerie brand. 'These people all have their public professional profiles attached to these comments and are very happy to pass comment on the health and wellbeing of an individual they have never met,' she said. 'None of them show any medical experience to back up their opinion with any education on the subject.' Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, Ms Roelofs said the post was to showcase new video content for her lingerie brand Despite the subject of the post being a brand collaboration, many comments were quick to weigh in on the model herself One man's comment went so far as to suggest the model needed a defibrillator on site, 'just in case' This man has blatantly labelled the model as 'obese', suggesting she 'try and lose the weight' Despite the subject of the post being a brand collaboration, many comments were quick to weigh in on the model herself. 'Most men do not like fat or chunky women,' one woman wrote. 'I'm sure she did not go to bed thin one night and woke up like this the next day and said "oh my God! I put on 300 pounds overnight!",' another man commented. Mary Holland Lingerie caters to women of varying body types, including fuller women The post itself gained many comments praising Ms Roelofs' for her work in celebrating body diversity He continued: 'Do some push ups away from the dinner table. That's a mess.' Others were angered at the fact Ms Roelofs uploaded the video on LinkedIn, despite the post being professional in nature and advertising her brand. 'I don't want to see women walking around in their lingerie on Linked in [sic]. This is a professional site. Buy a spot on TV or you tube [sic],' one woman said. Others were angered at Ms Roelofs for sharing the video on LinkedIn, despite the post advertising her brand For all the body shaming comments left on the post, many were praising the model and her confidence Ms Roelofs hit back at the body shaming comments, saying: 'Do you really think LinkedIn is the place for you to dish out uninvited body shaming comments?' Mary Holland Lingerie caters to women of varying body types, including fuller women. Ms Roelofs said she is 'focused on making a change in improving the dialogue around women's bodies'. The proposals floated by the House authorities three years ago received an angry response with warnings that they could fuel 'harassment' and 'inappropriate' behaviour on the estate Plans to make all Commons staff wear name badges were watered down after concerns were raised male MPs would be encouraged to leer at women's chests. The proposals floated by the House authorities three years ago received an angry response with warnings that they could fuel 'harassment' and 'inappropriate' behaviour on the estate. Long-standing anxiety about the culture at Westminster has been reignited by a wave of allegations against MPs. A hit list of 36 Tory politicians branded 'sex pests' - including two serving cabinet members - has emerged in a secret 'spreadsheet of shame' compiled by former aides. One MP is said to be 'handsy with women at parties', another 'perpetually intoxicated and very inappropriate with women', one minister was said to have had 'sexual relations with a researcher' and another 'paid a woman to be quiet'. Theresa May has vowed to sack any ministers found to be involved and she has written to Commons Speaker John Bercow to demand a shake-up of 'toothless' disciplinary procedures. MPs employ their own staff, but the Commons overhauled its procedures several years ago in a bid to offer around 2,000 House officials more protection from abuse by politicians. The 'Respect' policy allows for cases against MPs to be taken to the standards committee and ruling House of Commons commission if disciplinary action is deemed to be required. The badge plan was put forward by the Commons authorities in November 2014 in an effort to generate more of a customer service ethos and improve relations between its staff and MPs. It was backed by the Commons governance committee, chaired at the time by Labour MP Jack Straw. But when staff were asked for their views, the idea produced complaints from women and from men worried about how female colleagues would be affected. Details revealed under freedom of information rules and seen by MailOnline highlighted concerns MPs already 'harass' and 'abuse' them, and forcing people to wear name badges would make things worse. One response stated: 'I think badges risk making younger/junior staff especially women more vulnerable. 'Harassment and rude/inappropriate comments by MPs to staff are still, regrettably, commonplace.' Another added: 'I am not comfortable with the prospect of people staring at my chest in order to find out who I am. Theresa May has written to Commons Speaker John Bercow to demand a shake-up of 'toothless' disciplinary procedures. The House introduced a 'Respect' policy several years ago in a bid to enhance protection for its own staff Theresa May, pictured going to church with husband Philip yesterday, is trying to get a grip on the burgeoning scandal Conservative aides have drawn up a dossier of bad behaviour, with names of MPs blacked out 'It is not difficult for someone to ask me if they want to know my name and/or job title.' One House employee said 'A simple conversation should be sufficient in introducing ourselves to our colleagues and to Members, without encouraging strangers to peer at our chests... 'The House has already had to introduce the Respect policy to teach people to deal with unacceptable behaviour by MPs. Wearing badges will make staff visually vulnerable and separate us still further from the MPs. 'In what way is this going to improve the us and them mentality and how will it protect staff from inappropriate behaviour?' Among the other responses to the consultation was: 'This clearly has a disproportionate impact on female staff who may feel very uncomfortable with this (I certainly would).' Commons Clerk David Natzler acknowledged the scale of protests at the time, saying: A number of female staff expressed objections on the basis that the position of the name badge would give some people an excuse to stare at their chests. Many staff were furious at the prospect of wearing the badges being mandatory, but in the wake of the protests the plans were watered down. A Commons spokesman said today: 'Commons employees are encouraged to wear name badges as part of our focus on customer service. 'They are not mandatory, except in areas where wearing a badge is already covered as part of that business areas uniform policy.' A British tourist almost drowned after being thrown in the sea by a gang of robbers who also attacked his friend in Majorca, it has emerged. The two Britons, believed to be about 25, were attacked in the capital Palma by a group of two men and three women in their 20s at 5am this morning. They were both kicked and punched by thieves who were targeting their wallets. One victim was hurled into the water before being saved by onlookers who dragged him back on to dry land. A British tourist almost drowned after being thrown in the sea by a gang of robbers who also attacked his friend in Majorca, it has emerged. Pictures showed onlookers helping one of the victims to safety The attack happened when the British holidaymakers were walking along the main promenade. One of the group of five is said to have spotted a wallet in a back pocket of one of the tourists and attacked him whilst trying to steal it. However, the victim fought back, receiving a head wound when litter bins were ripped out and thrown at the pair. He was then pushed into the water and a similar threat was made to the second Briton. The attack happened when the British holidaymakers were walking along the main promenade in Palma (file picture), Majorca According to Ultimahora.es, there were several witnesses to the attack who described it as 'very aggressive' and they are helping police to establish the identity of the assailants. Some of them recorded the incident on their mobile phones. The attackers ran off towards the Cathedral and have not yet been found. Passers-by pulled the British man out of the water. He was described as 'very frightened' with blood pouring from his head wound. Local residents say the security of tourists in Mallorca has to be a top priority for the local government and more money should be spent. 'Attacks like this cannot be tolerated,' said one. 'If found and sent to prison, they should then be expelled from the Balearics.' This is the moment a fearless fruit salesman shows off his impressive knife skills by peeling, cutting and bagging a pineapple in just one minute. The market trader is seen picking up his pineapple of choice before hastily cutting the skin off it with an unnervingly sharp blade. Chopping off both ends, he then cuts a circle on each side to cut away the skin before making delicate incisions that allow the flesh to be pushed out and put in a bag ready for a customer. Footage of a fearless pineapple salesman from the Philippines (pictured) has gone viral, with viewers in awe of his chopping skills He completes the process in less than a minute and manages to keep all his fingers. Footage of him from 2013 appeared online from Bankerohan Market in Davao City, Philippines, but has recently gone viral. Posting the video, the uploader commented: This man may be the most skilled pineapple cutter ever to slash into a pineapple. 'In one minute, he cuts and bags a pineapple!' The stallholder selects his piece of fruit and chops it at both ends before making a delicate incision just inside of the skin so the flesh can be pulled out easily Crowds gathered today to see the Royal Navy's new 3billion aircraft carrier depart from its home port for the first time. Around 1,000 people took up a spot by the Hampshire port to wave off the 919ft (280m), 65,000-tonne vessel. The HMS Queen Elizabeth left Portsmouth just after 12.45pm today as she begins a month-long deployment at sea. Clusters of people, some waving Union flags, headed for the Round Tower at the entrance to the harbour. They gathered along the seafront to watch in the sun as the ship - capable of carrying 40 aircraft - left the naval base. It left as planned this afternoon supported by a group of four tugboats until it was out to sea. Bad weather conditions saw its departure delayed from last week. The carrier is due to spend a month at sea around the South West of the United Kingdom. It will be testing out its radar, communications and other technical equipment, the Aircraft Carrier Alliance (ACA) said. Tests will also be carried out to see how air across the flight desk will affect aircraft taking off and landing. Speaking after the ship left, Captain Jerry Kyd said: 'She was stable and strong, which is important for aviation operations from an aircraft carrier flight deck. Very quickly we were able to run her at full power and she performed extremely well.' The ACA operates the vessel until it is commissioned into the Navy, which is expected to take place by the end of the year. Tens of thousands of people lined the walls of the harbour in August to welcome the Navy's largest warship for the first time. It arrived after setting out from Scotland's Rosyth dockyard in June when it carried out initial training and sea tests. A husband and wife are accused of kidnapping wealthy businessmen and locking them in coffins with music blaring beside their heads. The married couple allegedly targeted foreign investors and pensioners, keeping them in caskets for months on end. Spanish-born Isabel Mazarro Gomez de Santiago and her husband Raul Julio Escobar Poblete are accused of being part of a dangerous gang that operated in Mexico. The 40-year-old Mazarro Gomez de Santiago has now been arrested in the Asturias region of northwestern Spain in connection with the chilling extortion racket. Her and her husband are accused of keeping their victims hostage until their families agreed to pay a ransom, playing loud music to make their hostages' captivity even worse. Isabel Mazarro Gomez de Santiago is alleged to be part of a ruthless kidnap gang that operated in Mexico She was detained in this house in Asturias, northern Spain, after fleeing Mexico, where her gang operated a ruthless kidnap racket Poblete, originally from Chile, allegedly posed as an entrepreneur to target victims. Using the fake name Ramon Alberto Guerra Valencia, he was seized in May while allegedly collecting a ransom in Mexico One of the couple's alleged victims was hotelier Carlos Xavier Araiza Torres, who was held captive for 10 months. He says that much of that time he was forced to remain in a wooden coffin while the gang kept music playing 24 hours a day. The pair also reportedly cut a finger off an elderly American woman they held for two and a half months. Raul Julio Escobar Poblete was arrested earlier this year while trying to collect the ransom from another kidnapping Other members of the kidnap gang being hunted by the police. Escobar Poblete is believed to be a member of the PMR guerilla group, whose flag is pictured top left. According to El Pais, Nancy Michell Kendall, was held captive until Poblete was arrested by the Mexican authorities and he made a phone call from custody ensuring her release. Another report, in Mexico News Daily, says a Mexican police file lists the contents of the package that Escobar Poblete paid a taxi driver 500 pesos to deliver to the victims husband at the Nirvana Hotel, in the city of San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato Inside were four document, two written in Spanish, one in French and one with images of the victim as well as a USB flash drive, a blue box and a small jar which contained the victim's severed little finger. The Mexican authorities put in a request to the Spanish Civil Guard to arrest Gomez de Santiago, who they suspected had fled the country. Spanish police tracked her from the eastern region of Alicante across the country before eventually arresting her. It is believed that Poblete was once part of a Marxist terrorist organisation who tried to overthrow Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Sen. Steve Daines sent out an email to his constituents recently connoting Breast Cancer Awareness month. His remarks were hypocritical and nothing but political grandstanding. It is not news that Daines is no friend of Montana women and families; time and time again, he has voted to defund Planned Parenthood and block patients from receiving life-saving cancer screenings. Montanans deserve a senator that understands the importance of access to quality, affordable health care, especially in our rural state. Daines has been claiming for months that legislation he introduced to defund Planned Parenthood would supposedly re-direct funds to other community based health centers. While every health center is vital to ensuring our social safety net, the centers Daines claims can see patients who rely on and trust Planned Parenthood to provide their care include school-based health centers and dentist offices. This is another disingenuous and misrepresented policy proposal from someone who doesnt trust women to make medical decisions for themselves nor see the health care providers they trust. Blocking patients from getting care at Planned Parenthood health centers would exacerbate a national health crisis, cutting off millions from lifesaving cancer screenings and other preventive care. In fact, following the closure of Planned Parenthood health centers in Wisconsin and Texas, researchers found that an increase of 100 miles to the nearest health center resulted in fewer women getting breast exams and cervical cancer screenings. About 15,000 Montana women, men, and young people come to Planned Parenthood health centers each year. For many of them, we are the only health care provider they see. Without Planned Parenthood, many patients would have nowhere else to go. To our former, current, and future patients, you can rely on Planned Parenthood for caring and expert health care, including HPV vaccines, Pap tests and other cancer screenings, birth control, and testing and treatment for STIs. Planned Parenthood is here to to provide expert, supportive, confidential care. We know the importance of cancer screenings firsthand. Were here with the information you need to stay healthy and to help you understand when you are due for a check-up or cancer screening. One in five women have turned to Planned Parenthood at some time in their lives for health care, and Planned Parenthood health centers provide more than 320,000 lifesaving breast exams each year at health centers across the country and nearly 4,000 here in Montana. Planned Parenthood knows that people across Montana are deeply affected by an overwhelming lack of access to health care and health education. We believe that all people and their families deserve the highest quality of care, no matter who they are or where they live no matter what. Daines has encouraged his constituents to contact his office to express concerns or opinions on policy issues, and I call on all Montanans who support access to womens health care to contact Daines. Tell him your concerns about his voting record against Montana womens ability to access preventive cancer screenings. Montanans deserve more than political grandstanding. Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, both former campaign aides to Donald Trump, have been confined to their homes in Virginia as they await trials on a laundry list of federal felony charges. The pair entered not guilty pleas Monday afternoon in a federal courtroom, telling a magistrate judge that they'll fight the Justice Department in court. Manafort lives in Alexandria, a close-in suburb of Washington. Gates resides in Richmond, more than 100 miles to the south. Manafort, a former Trump campaign chairman, is a veteran lobbyist now charged with conspiring against the United States and money-laundering on a gigantic scale, following an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Along with Gates, his longtime business partner and protege, Manafort surrendered to federal authorities early on Monday as the first charges from the probe of possible Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election were unsealed. Manafort is free on $10 million bond and Gates agreed to a $5 million bond. Both will be on 'home detention' as a condition of their release, and they have surrendered their passports. They are expected back in court on Thursday. Manafort was pictured smiling as he walked through a brisk October breeze and got into a waiting SUV. It was not clear on Monday afternoon whether the men would have to wear ankle monitors. That kind of GPS technology is typically used in federal cases to ensure defendants don't flee the country. Trump tweeted angrily that there was 'NO COLLUSION' and Manafort's lawyer told reporters camped outside of the courthouse on Monday afternoon that the president 'was correct' 'There is no evidence that Mr. Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government,' Kevin Downing said. Scroll down for video LAST BREATH OF FRESH AIR? Former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was placed on house arrest as a condition of his release on $10 million bond as he awaits trial on a host of financial felonies $5 MILLION LIGHTER: Rick Gates left court where he too was placed on home confinement as part of a multimillion-dollar bond arrangement to avoid custody as his trial approaches DRAWN FACES: A courtroom sketch shows Manafort (standing, center) and his former protege Rick Gates (standing, right) entering their not-guilty pleas before U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson GPS FOR PAUL? It's not clear whether Manafort and Gates have to wear ankle monitors during their home confinement as their trials approach, but both of their right lower legs showed hints of a bulge as they left the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. The charges against Manafort (shown) and Gates are the first from the special counsel investigating so far unsubstantiated accusations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia The official also said a some house arrest pretrial arrangements can come with allowances for leaving the house for work, school, church services and even grocery shopping. The indictment against Manafort, 68, and Gates, 45, includes 12 separate criminal counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said during a press briefing that 'today's announcement has nothing to do with the president, nothing to do with the president's campaign or campaign activity.' Sanders told DailyMail.com that Trump and Manafort 'haven't spoken in several months. The last known conversation was back all the way to February.' She said that 'there was some initial contact' with Gates 'after the president was sworn in, with him at meetings here at the White House but nothing directly with the president.' The government alleges that at least $75 million was moved by Manafort to offshore accounts without declaring the income to the government. From there Manafort allegedly withdrew $18 million to fund a lavish lifestyle, and Gates is accused of pulling out another $3 million. Monday afternoon's preliminary hearing was before U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson. CIRCUS: Kevin Downing, attorney for Paul Manafort, spoke to reporters after the preliminary hearing on Monday BIG MONEY: Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort (center) turned himself in at FBI headquarters on Monday and later entered a not guilty plea in federal court Arriving for court: Manafort was driven in the back of an SUV to the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C. just after noon on Monday Gates' spokesman Glenn Selig issued a strident defense of his client after his court appearance. He said the former Trump campaign hand 'welcomes the opportunity to confront these charges in court. He is not going to comment further until he has had a chance to review the lengthy indictment with his legal team,' he said. 'In the meanwhile, he would appreciate you respecting his and his family's privacy as they weather this unexpected and hasty proceeding designed to accommodate perhaps political and press considerations rather than his right to have counsel of his choice by his side during this most troubling and challenging day for him and his loved ones. This fight is just beginning.' An angry Trump washed his hands of Manafort on Monday morning. 'Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign,' Trump tweeted after the charges were unsealed. 'But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????' 'Also, there is NO COLLUSION!' he insisted. Outside court Manafort's attorney said the millionaire lobbyist would fight the charges. Downing said Manafort 'represented pro-European Union campaigns' for Ukraine and that he was 'seeking to further democracy and to help the Ukraine come closer to the United States and the EU.' Kevin Downing, the attorney for Paul Manafort, told reporters in a statement that 'there is no evidence that Mr. Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government' White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told DailyMail.com during Monday's briefing that Trump and Manafort 'haven't spoken in several months. The last known conversation was back all the way to February' President Trump pounced on Monday, denying Manafort's alleged crimes predated his campaign and insisting that he never colluded with Russia to affect the 2016 election Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation has brought its first criminal charges and yielded three arrests including one low-level guilty plea 'Today, you see an indictment brought by an office of special counsel that is using a very novel theory to prosecute Mr. Manafort, regarding a FARA filing. The United States government has only used that offense six times since 1966, and only resulted in one conviction,' Downing declared. 'The second thing about this indictment that I myself find most ridiculous is a claim that maintaining offshore accounts to bring all your funds into the United States as a scheme to conceal from the United States government is ridiculous,' he said. Downing then walked away from a media stake-out site without taking any questions. The defendants' surrender to the FBI in the morning was followed by a dramatic announcement that one of Trump's campaign foreign policy advisers, George Papadopoulos, had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contact with Russians who promised 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton and access to 'thousands' of her emails. Papadopoulos secretly agreed to a plea bargain earlier this month, suggesting he may be cooperating with Mueller. Monday morning's events will raise questions about what happens next and whether Manafort and Gates could follow suit. Manafort was involved with the Trump campaign for nearly five months, in senior positions that gave him access to the day-to-day operations of the future president's political operation. Trump's lawyer, Ty Cobb, told reporters on Monday that he had no concern about Manafort offering damaging information about the president in exchange for a deal. Roger Stone, a longtime Trump confidant, said in September that Manafort has no information that could put the president in legal jeopardy, predicting that 'he's not going to lie.' The possible sentences, if found guilty, would be stiff: up to 80 years in prison for Manafort and 70 for Gates, plus millions of dollars in fines. More typical federal sentencing for the crimes charged would be 10 to 12.5 years for Gates and 12.5 to 15 for Manafort. Trump's personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said Monday on CNN that regardless of Manafort's legal woes, 'there is not a formal investigation of the President of the United States.' Trump hasn't been asked to testify or answer questions for the special counsel, he said, but 'the president said he would' if asked. 'We have been cooperating,' Sekulow said. 'If there's questions that come from the special counsel's office, we've been in full cooperation mode.' But the charges pending against Manafort, 68, and Gates, 45, are related to 'business activities, not campaign activities,' he said. The indictment includes 12 separate criminal counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Trump's personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said Monday on CNN that regardless of Manafort's legal woes, 'there is not a formal investigation of the President of the United States' Trump campaign aide Rick Gates, shown at left during the Republican National Convention, faces charges along with Manafort and has also pleaded not guilty Guilty: George Papadopoulos is facing up to six months in prison. He was a foreign policy adviser to Trump who admits lying to the FBI about contact with Russians who offered dirt on Hillary Clinton and thousands of her emails The government alleges that at least $75 million was moved by Manafort to offshore accounts without declaring the income to the government. From there Manafort allegedly withdrew $18 million to fund a lavish lifestyle, and Gates pulled another $3 million out. A source close to the White House told CNN that 'today has zero to do with the White House.' HOW MANAFORT SPENT HIS MILLIONS Monday morning's indictment lists a host of lavish expenses that ate up millions from Paul Manafort's alleged offshore accounts, including: $5.43 million for home improvement in the Hamptons $1.31 million for home improvement in Florida for 'home automation, lighting and home entertainment' $934,000 at an antique rug store $849,000 at a men's clothing store in New York $819,000 for two landscapers in The Hamptons $623,000 on antiques in New York $520,000 at a Beverly Hills clothing sto re $163,700 for payments on three Range Rovers $62,000 on a Mercedes Benz $31,900 at a Florida art gallery $20,000 on New York housekeepers Advertisement Trump's defiant tweet, and his reference to Clinton who faces her own claims of receiving dirty Russian money, sets the stage for a showdown with Mueller which led on Monday morning to Nancy Pelosi, the House minority leader, calling for legislative moves to prevent the special counsel from being fired. The indictment is purely focused on alleged financial crimes and does not include any charges related to the broader question that formed the basis of Mueller's investigation whether Donald Trump's presidential campaign colluded with Russia to swing the 2016 election in his favor. It describes criminal allegations that predate the Trump campaign; Trump's name is not mentioned in the 31-page document. The move to indict the two men represents a dramatic turn in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Manafort was seen leaving his home at 8:00 a.m. with his attorney and arrived at FBI headquarters less than 20 minutes later. A federal grand jury approved the indictments on Friday and a judge ordered them sealed. A White House official told DailyMail.com on Monday that the administration may not comment at all on the arrests. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who was appointed by former president Barack Obama and confirmed in the Senate by a 97-0 vote. Among the expenses paid for by Manafort-controlled entities in Cyprus, according to the indictment, were $600,000 for antiques and $500,000 paid to a Beverly Hills tailor and $849,000 to a men's clothing store in New York. Other money went for premium automobiles and home renovations in Florida and the Hamptons. The Hamptons home alone had $5.4 million in renovations, the indictment said. Hand them over: The indictment demands that Manafort be stripped of two New York city properties, a SoHo loft (left) and Brooklyn brownstone (right), as well as a Hamptons home which he lavished more than $5 million on in renovations, and an Arlington, VA, condo Manafort also spent $934,350 at an antique rug store in Alexandria, Virginia. The indictment demands that four of his properties are seized, including a Brooklyn brownstone he bought to renovate, a loft in New York's trendy SoHo which he let out on Airbnb, a Hamptons home and his Arlington, Virginia condo. Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez said in a statement that the indictment 'underscores the seriousness of the investigation into Donald Trumps ties to Russia. Its time for Republicans to commit to protecting this investigation and preserving the rule of law.' In a separate statement, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the charges demonstrated the necessity of keeping congressional investigations running alongside the Mueller probe. 'Even with an accelerating Special Counsel investigation inside the Justice Department, and investigations inside the Republican Congress, we still need an outside, fully independent investigation to expose Russias meddling in our election and the involvement of Trump officials,' she said. 'Defending the integrity of our democracy demands that Congress look forward to counter Russian aggression and prevent future meddling with our elections.' Manafort and Gates were the one-two punch responsible for keeping Republican National Convention delegates in line last year as the possibility emerged of a contentious floor fight over the presidential nomination. Then-candidate Donald Trump first Manafort after reports that he pocketed at least $12 million in undisclosed payments from Viktor Yanukovych (pictured), the pro-Russia former Ukrainian president. Manafort was fired shortly after the convention and replaced by pollster Kellyanne Conway, but Gates stayed on and was more recently working to help close out the financial books of Trump's inaugural committee. He had worked for Manaforts international firm, Davis Manafort Partners, from 2006 to 2007. The move to throw Manafort overboard came after reports that Manafort pocketed at least $12 million in undisclosed payments from Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russia former Ukrainian president. Manafort and his firm, which Gates helped run, spent years as Yanukovych's political consultants. The Justice Department's indictment charges that Manafort and Gates 'generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their Ukraine work.' 'In order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities, from approximately 2006 through at least 2016, Manafort and Gates laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts,' it continues. Mueller's probe focused on wire transfers Manafort made from Ukraine to private accounts and whether he paid taxes on that income. Kevin Downing, Manafort's lawyer, was formerly a prosecutor in the Justice Department's criminal tax division. In July the FBI in July executed a surprise search warrant with guns drawn at Manafort's home in Alexandria, Virginia, seizing financial and tax documents. Headed to a judge: Paul Manafort was driven by his lawyer on Monday morning to turn himself in to Mueller It's unclear if Manafort is the biggest fish in Mueller's sights, or if the former FBI director intends to squeeze him for information more directly related to the 2016 election and Russia's possible interference with it. The Russia investigation has cast a shadow over President Donald Trump's nine-month-old presidency and widened the partisan rift between Republicans and Democrats. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her. Mueller is also investigating whether Trump campaign officials colluded with those Russian efforts. Trump tweeted Monday morning about a report that Barack Obama's campaign organization funneled nearly $1 million to the law firm that served as a pass-through last year between Democrats and an opposition research firm that produced the salacious and discredited 'dirty dossier' on the president. Manafort hid his face from reporters who were staking out his house in Alexandria, Virginia as he left to turn himself in at the FBI's headquarters 'Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS. The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OK'd!' the president tweeted on Monday. That tweet came a half-hour before news broke that Manafort and Gates had been indicted. The White House hasn't yet commented on their surrender. Trump has denied the allegations of collusion with the Russians and called the probe 'a witch hunt.' The Kremlin also has denied the allegations. Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has been looking into possible links between Trump aides and foreign governments, as well as potential money laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes, according to sources familiar with the probe. He also is exploring whether Trump or his aides have tried to obstruct the investigation. Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation a week after Trump's May 9 firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was heading a federal probe into possible collusion with Russia. Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn could also face charges later related to his contacts with Russian officials Master of distraction: A half-hour before Manafort's indictment was unsealed, President Trump tweeted about an alleged money-funnel between Democrats and the opposition research firm behind the discredit 'dirty dossier' about him Trump initially said he fired Comey because his leadership of the FBI was inadequate. In a later interview with NBC, he cited 'this Russia thing' as his reason. On Sunday, Trump tried to shift the focus back to Democrats and Clinton, tweeting that the Russia issue was being used to sidetrack the Republican push for tax reform and praising Republican 'anger and unity' on the need to look into whether Democrats and the Clinton campaign paid for a portion of a dossier that detailed accusations about Trump's ties to Russia. Special White House counsel Ty Cobb said the president's tweets were 'unrelated to the activities of the Special Counsel, with whom he continues to cooperate.' Investigators led by Mueller have interviewed former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, former spokesman Sean Spicer and other current and former White House and campaign officials. In July, FBI agents raided Manafort's Virginia home; his financial and real estate dealings and prior work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine have been a focus of Mueller's team. President Trump accused Barack Obama's campaign arm of funneling nearly $1 million to the law firm that served as a pass-through last year between Democrats and an opposition research firm that produced a salacious and discredited 'dirty dossier' on the president. Trump was extrapolating on a report in The Federalist, a conservative blog that found the payments from Obama's campaign to the law firm in federal election finance records. 'Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS. The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OK'd!' the president tweeted on Monday. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO Donald Trump was extrapolating on a report in a conservative blog that found payments from Obama's campaign to the law firm that served as a pass-through in federal election finance records President Trump accused Barack Obama's campaign arm of funneling nearly $1 million to the law firm that served as a pass-through last year between Democrats and an opposition research firm that produced a salacious and discredited 'dirty dossier' on the president The Federalist reported that since April 2016, Obama For America has made payments of at least $972,000 to Perkins Coie, a law firm with deep ties to the Democratic National Committee. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the DNC used Perkins Coie as a pass-through in 2016 to fund opposition research into Donald Trump. Obama's campaign also used Perkins Coie as its law firm Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the DNC used Perkins Coie as a pass-through in 2016 to fund opposition research into Donald Trump. Fusion GPS is the opposition research firm that contracted with former British spy Christopher Steele to produce the dossier. OFA also paid Perkins Coie for 'legal services,' the Federalist said. The author speculated in the report what services Perkins Coie might actually have provided to OFA. Some of the money the DNC and the Clinton campaign sent Perkins Coie in 2016 for 'legal services' is known to have ended up at Fusion GPS. Federal Election Commission records show that the law firm cashed checks from the entities for a sum total of $12.4 million during last year's presidential election cycle. It's impossible to determine how much of that money ended up at Fusion GPS. Similarly, while Trump claims the 'Obama campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS,' there's no indication that money went from Perkins Coie to Fusion GPS. It may have represented payment for traditional, campaign legal services like the earmark says it did. Trump also claimed in his tweet that 'nobody knows who OK'd' the funds, an apparent reference to claims made by former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and former Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta that they were not aware of the Fusion GPS payments. Republican lawmakers said Sunday morning in a round of television interviews that both Democrats should be hauled before Congress all over again now that the source of the funding for the opposition research package has been revealed. House Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, told Fox News he finds it 'stunning' that key players in the organizations, including Hillary Clinton, don't seem to know who authorized the dirt-digging. 'I am also interested in sharing some memory tricks with folks at the DNC because no one can remember who paid $10 million to a law firm to do oppo research,' Gowdy proclaimed on Fox News Sunday. 'I find that stunning. $10 million and no one can remember who authorized it, who approved it, who said, "This is a really good idea."' Republican Sen. Susan Collins said Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation that she finds it 'difficult to imagine that a campaign chairman, that the head of the DNC would not know of an expenditure of this magnitude and significance.' The Campaign Legal Center has filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission against Clinton's 2016 campaign and the DNC for 'hiding' the fact that they commissioned the dossier on Trump. CLC says the Democratic nominee for president's political operation 'violated campaign finance law.' The conduct should be investigated and sanctioned, the non-profit contends. Hillary Clinton has denied through various channels that she knew about the dossier before it appeared on Buzzfeed. Trump has called her reported ignorance of the document into question and accused her campaign of colluding with the Russian government, an alleged source of the information, to embarrass him. 'Don't forget Hillary Clinton totally denied this. She didn't know anything. She knew nothing,' Trump said in an interview with Fox Business Network's Lou Dobbs. 'What I was amazed at it's almost $6 million that they paid, and it's totally discredited. It's a total phony. I call it fake news. It's disgraceful. It's disgraceful,' Trump said. Campaign finance records show that the Clinton campaign paid Perkins Coie $5.6 million in legal fees from June 2015 to December 2016, and the DNC paid another $3.6 million. 'I think it's very sad what they've done with this fake dossier. It was made up, and I understand they paid a tremendous amount of money,' the president told reporters at the White House last week before boarding Marine One on his way to Dallas, Texas. Trump has called Hillary Clinton's reported ignorance of the document into question and accused her campaign of colluding with the Russian government, an alleged source of the information, to embarrass him Trump said the Clinton campaign and the DNC would have succeeded in hiding their involvement, but for a court case that threatened to expose them, anyway. 'Hillary Clinton always denied it, the Democrats always denied it. And now only because it's going to come out in a court case, they said yes they did it. They admitted it and they're embarrassed by it,' he claimed. Last week Fusion GPS asked a federal judge to block a congressional subpoena for its bank records that would show who paid for the packet. Trump called the situation 'a disgrace' and 'a very sad commentary on politics in this country.' 'They are very embarrassed by it,' he said of the Democrats. One Republican presidential candidate is also known to have funded the research. The name of the former Trump opponent remains a mystery, although the president says he has an inkling of who it is. 'I think I would know, but let's find out who it is. I'm sure that will come out,' he told reporters on the South Lawn. 'If I were to guess, I have one name in mind,' he asserted. Advertisement Sombre snapshots from the nineteenth century reveal the 19th century trend for portraits taken in the throes of grief. Pictures from the 1800s show how mourners across the world documented their sorrow by commissioning photographs to be taken in the aftermath of a bereavement. Queen Victoria withdrew from politics for decades after husband Prince Albert's death in 1861, wearing widow's weeds until she died, going far beyond the tradition for grieving women to dress in black for two years. Her insistence at only wearing dark jewellery was typical of the Victorian tendency to make a pageant of grief, with the intricacies of mourning even requiring women to wear black underwear. The prince's death also inspired new rules for men, who before 1850 simply donned mourning cloaks. After, they wore black gloves and hatbands with a full suit. Queen Victoria is pictured here in 1879 with her children, whose laughter she would not tolerate after Prince Albert's death. She required them to dress in black like her in a period of grieving that lasted until she died in 1901, by which time she'd cemented the era's fascination with the aesthetics of mourning Widow Emma Paige is pictured after the death of her railway station master husband circa 1874. Frederick William Paige died aged 55 and, after he was buried in Wooton, Norfolk, Emma encapsulated the Victorian fascination with grief by posing for this photograph next to his grave. Strict mourning customs for women curtailed social interactions, leading to isolation. Emma died in 1898 Women were expected to wear black mourning clothes for two years and were unable to escape their anguish with professional pursuits. The era's fixation on grief inspired the opening of Jay's in 1941 in Regent Street, London, where people stocked up on funeral wear. Pictured is a widow from Bournemouth circa 1888 Daguerreotype images were the first commercially successful photographs and were used by mourners to document their grieving in the wake of lost loved ones. The wearing of black clothing for up to two years by widows helped establish black as a fashionable colour in urban areas This mourning couple are pictured in 1865, by which time the requirements for men had grown more intricate. Before 1850 males settled for donning black cloaks while grieving. But after the death of Prince Albert in 1861, men started wearing hats with black bands and a full suit. Gloves, neglected in this case, also became common Posing in elaborate gowns to document grief in portraits was highly popular in the 1800s. The long, draping gown complete with a large hood is typical of the gloomy style inspired by a morbid fascination with mourning England wasn't the only place to make a show of grieving, as this picture from Germany shows. The women, pictured circa 1860, appear in a double portrait with full veils Mary Lincoln, widow of US president Abraham Lincoln, is shown in her mourning attire circa 1870 after her husband's assassination. She was holding his hand when he was shot in Washington DC while watching Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre Gloves, an elaborate gown and huge ribbon hanging from the neck show how intricate displays of grief were also taken up by mourners in Australia. This woman, who is also wearing a veil and short cloak, posed for the portrait holding an envelope circa 1890 This picture, shot an unknown location circa 1875, is typical of the era's fascination with portraits shot while mourning. This pair are draped in heavy, convoluted outfits complete in what appears to be an affluent setting This unidentified girl is holding a picture of her father, a cavalryman thought to have died in the American Civil War. The photograph, shot circa 1865, shows the 19th century's fixation on mournful portraits wasn't just for adults Adele Douglas, widow of Illinois senator Stephen Douglas, in mourning dress with a handkerchief, 1861. Douglas died of typhoid fever that year after losing the 1860 Presidential election to Abraham Lincoln just a year earlier Dennis Hutchings will stand trial over the fatal shooting of an IRA suspect in 1974 A dying British Army veteran facing trial over the fatal shooting of an IRA suspect more than 40 years ago has condemned his prosecution as a 'betrayal'. Dennis Hutchings, 76, will stand trial over the death of 27-year-old John Pat Cunningham at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1974. Mr Hutchings, of Cawsand, Cornwall, who is seriously ill and has been told he has just a year left to live, served 26 years in the Life Guards with distinction. But the great-grandfather was charged with attempted murder after the killing was re-examined by police. The victim is claimed to have had the mental age of a child between six and ten, and a fear of men in uniform. He was said to have been running away from an Army patrol when he was shot in the back close to Benburb, a village on the border between Armagh and Tyrone. Mr Hutchings was prosecuted in connection with the shooting following an investigation into the death in 2013. Mr Hutchings (pictured, left, in 1990 at the Royal Windsor Horse Show; and, right, in 1968 while he attended a funeral) served 26 years in the Life Guards with distinction It is alleged that he and another soldier both fired their guns but it is not known who fired the fatal bullet. A previous court heard was told that the second soldier - referred to only as 'Soldier B' - fired two shots during the incident but is now dead. Mr Hutchings was in charge of the Army patrol on the day Mr Cunningham was shot. He is charged with one count of attempted murder and one of attempted GBH but described the action being taken against him as a 'shambles'. He said: 'They call it Troubles. It was a war zone. You went out on patrol. You could not say 100 per cent "I'll be coming back after this". The great-grandfather (left; and right, in 1978 with other warrant officers) was charged with attempted murder after the killing was re-examined 'I think [the prosecution] is an absolute shambles. It just shows how spineless our politicians are. They send you out there to do the job. John Pat Cunningham, 27, died at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1974 'They give you the paperwork to tell you how to do it and totally ignore you once it's finished.' The family of Mr Cunningham said they want 'some clarification' of what happened. He was shot dead in a field in Carrickaness Road as he ran away from soldiers who stopped their Land Rover in the area and followed him. There were more than 3,200 unsolved killings during the Troubles. But back in 1975 Mr Hutchings was told there would be no further action over Mr Cunningham's death. Mr Cunningham's nephew, Charlie Agnew, said the family had not had an explanation of what happened in more than 40 years. He said: 'The impact on the family has been massive. John Pat had a mental illness, he was a vulnerable adult. It's weighed very heavily on my mother who is now 83.' Mr Hutchings is expecting to stand trial in Belfast next year. The five politicians forced out of Parliament in the dual citizenship scandal raked in almost $9 million in salary they were never entitled to. However, none are likely to have to pay any of it back as the government has historically waived or not pursued repayments from other disqualified MPs. Deposed deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce collected about $2.8 million and his National Party deputy Fiona Nash was paid about $2.6 million. Scroll down for video The five politicians forced out of Parliament in the dual citizenship scandal raked in almost $9 million in salary they were never entitled to, including $2.8 million for Barnaby Joyce His National Party deputy Fiona Nash was paid about $2.6 million since entering Parliament in 2005 and becoming a minister in 2013 The pair had similar careers, winning their seats in 2005 and becoming ministers in 2013, with Mr Joyce earning more as party leader and deputy PM. Former Greens senators Scott Ludlum and Larissa Waters, who resigned when their dual citizenships were uncovered, earned $1.8 million and $1.3 million. One Nation's Malcolm Roberts earned about $266,000 since he joined the Senate following the 2016 election. The total for all five MPs came to $8,769,509, calculated on MP salary tables and ministerial and other bonuses during their time in office. Former Greens senator Scott Ludlum, who was the first to be caught up in the scandal, was paid $1.8 million Fellow Greens senator Larissa Waters, who resigned along with Mr Ludlam when their their dual citizenships were uncovered, earned $1.3 million On top of this, they would have earned varying amounts in office, staff, and other allowances, along with bonuses for serving on committees. These include an extra $32,000 a year for senators and up to $46,000 for lower house MPs, depending on the size of their electorate, to 'provide services to their constituents'. As they were elected after 2004, none of the five former MPs were entitled to the scrapped parliamentary defined benefits scheme pension. The $9 million figure is on top of the $3 million the High Court case against them was believed to have cost. One Nation's Malcolm Roberts earned about $266,000 since he joined the Senate following the 2016 election However, Mr Joyce and the others are likely to have to pay any of it back as the government has historically waived or not pursued repayments from other disqualified MPs None of the ousted MPs were technically entitled to any of this because their elections were illegitimate in the first place due to their dual citizenships. Mr Joyce was found to hold a New Zealand citizenship inherited from his father, as was Mr Ludlam, while Ms Nash and Mr Roberts were British and Ms Waters Canadian. The High Court only ruled on their eligibility at last year's Federal Election, so the government would likely only be able to claim back about $1.3 million. Even if the Finance Department wrote them demands, they could easily apply to the government for waivers, like former Family First senator Bob Day. The High Court last week ruled the five MPs should not have been elected, but cleared Nick Xenophon and Liberal minister Matt Canavan Mr Day was ruled ineligible earlier this year because he had an 'indirect pecuniary interest' at the time of his 2016 reelection because his electorate office was renting from a building his company indirectly owned. Special Minister of State Scott Ryan granted him a waiver, arguing it was 'consistent with the outcome in previous similar cases'. The MPs would only likely be fully pursued if they had deliberately defrauded the taxpayer by knowing they were ineligible - which has never been suggested. A pharmacist gave bomb and ricin-making advice to her fellow jihadist love interest after the pair met online dating, a court heard today. Munir Hassan Mohammed, 36, and Rowaida El-Hassan, 33, also shared ISIS execution videos after bonding over their extremist beliefs on SingleMuslim.com, a jury was told. Mohammed had been radicalised by an ISIS commander on Facebook and wanted to carry out a deadly terrorist attack by the time he set up a dating profile in a bid to find a wife, jurors heard. By the Spring of 2016 he was in regular contact with El-Hassan, a qualified pharmacist, who was looking for 'a man who fears Allah before anything else'. The pair shared gruesome videos of ISIS fighters beheading prisoners and recruiting children on WhatsApp as their online romance blossomed, jurors heard. And Mohammed, who arrived in Britain as a refugee three years ago, later messaged an ISIS Commander for his recipe for 'dough for Syrian bread', which prosecutors claim is code for explosives. During a raid on Mohammed's Derby home in December last year, counter terror officials found components needed to make the mother of satan explosives - known formally as the unstable triacetone triperoxide (TATP). Counter terror officers found bomb manuals and instructions for ricin and mobile phone detonators, it is said. Munir Hassan Mohammed, 36, and Rowaida El-Hassan, 33, tried to create an improvised explosive device after bonding over their extremist beliefs When another team raided El-Hassan's home in Willesden, northwest London, on the same day they found other ingredients used in bomb making. Ms Whyte said: 'Both of them possessed material useful to someone wishing to manufacture improvised explosive devices - devices that are designed to injure or kill in an indiscriminate way. 'Both of them had also been in possession of videos which gruesomely and variously depicted the murder, sometimes multiple murder of prisoners in the custody of an organisation, familiar to you as Islamic State. 'These videos were designed to provide ideological justification for such acts of violence.' El-Hassan, who has a Masters degree in pharmacy from University College London, used her expert knowledge of chemicals to help Mohammed research and stockpile the ingredients needed for a bomb, the Old Bailey heard. Prosecutor Anne Whyte, QC, said: 'Munir Mohammed appears to have met Rowaida El-Hassan, a qualified pharmacist, through a Muslim dating website. 'Their communications with each other demonstrated an emotional attachment and a shared extremist ideology. 'They exchanged materials and views at the time, we say, Mohammed was planning to perform an attack of his own, motivated and inspired by what he had seen and heard on social media. 'Rowaida El Hassan had a professional knowledge of chemicals because of her professional training and qualifications. 'She assisted Mohammed by providing him with information about chemical components required for bomb making and how to source them and she assisted his online research about the manufacture of ricin using castor beans. 'In doing so she supported him in his engagement with attack planning. 'They are jointly charged with an offence under section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006 - preparation of terrorist acts.' The court heard Mohammed had been radicalised after speaking to a Facebook contact called Abubakr Kurdi, a suspected Isis commander who has celebrated terrorist atrocities in Nice, Normandy and Orlando and called for lone wolf attacks throughout the world. Ms Whyte continued: 'In his communications with Kurdi, Munir Mohammed pledged his obedience to Kurdi and therefore by implication to IS. 'He requested, using basic code, the receipt of bomb making instructions and had expressed willingness to participate in "a new job in the UK" - in other words, in an act of terrorism involving extreme violence.' Mohammed's SingleMuslim.com profile stated he was a physicist from Sudan who spoke Arabic and was looking for a wife and partner to have children with. He wooed potential partners with the line: 'Think deep about your end and day after.' El-Hassan, also born in Sudan, told suitors she had a masters degree in pharmacy and stated: 'I am looking for a simple, very simple, honest and straight forward man who fears Allah before anything else. 'I am looking for a man I can vibe with on a spiritual and intellectual level. 'Someone who can teach me new things and inspire me.' The couple met and bonded on SingleMuslim.com, pictured, before they shared gruesome videos of ISIS fighters beheading prisoners and recruiting children on WhatsApp Yet three months into their online dating relationship, El-Hassan, who was herself recently divorced from her husband in Sudan, found out that Mohammed was still married. His own wife was living in Sudan and he was trying to bring her into the UK, jurors heard. El-Hassan said that Mohammed was a 'friend' and that she had seen 'nothing to suggest he was extreme or radical'. The pharmacist claimed to have paid the terror suspect more than 2,000 through a friend so that he would not have to borrow money and be liable to pay interest charges. The day after Mohammed's arrest, he told officers: 'If you have evidence and I'm guilty, prison is my place.' During questioning, the Sudanese refugee claimed he 'disgreed with the ways of ISIS' and had downloaded some of their twisted propaganda from Facebook to show others how wrong it was. He also told officers he had purchased Hydrochloric Acid to clean the alloy wheels on his car and said El-Hassan advised him to use Hydrogen Peroxide to treat burns he suffered while working on his BMW. The alleged jihadi said the only reason he tried to talk to another suspected ISIS commander Kurdi was to 'engage him in debate'. There was also step-by-step bombing making videos found on both Mohammed and El-Hassan's smartphones after they were arrested by police in the run-up to last Christmas. The footage showed how to build devices which could explode remotely using a mobile phone and used to blast metl and steel ball bearings into crowds of people. Screenshots of a Facebook post by Hazem Al Masri called 'remote detonation using a mobile' were also found on Mohammed's phone. On December 8 - just four days before his arrest - Mohammed was caught on CCTV where he allegedly asked about pressure cookers, which can be used to build IEDs. El-Hassan may also have bought drain cleaned which contained high-purity Sulphuric Acid from Amazon, jurors heard. A day before her arrest she sent Mohammed a message which read: 'This is the first time I hear the voice of Osama Bin Laden, may God have mercy on him.' In a prepared statement to police, she said: 'I believe Muslims are NOT terrorists. 'My understanding is that terrorists are those who harm innocent people.' Charles Bott, QC, defending Mohammed, said: 'Mr Mohammed is a refugee from Sudan. He's an intelligent, curious, hard-working man and he is also a full, sincere Muslim. 'He didn't belong to Isis or to any proscribed organisation. He isn't a radical Islamist and he has not, we say, attempted to radicalise Rowaina El-Hassan or to influence her to participate in terrorist activity.' The barrister claimed Mohammed has worked nightshifts in a factory and traded cars after coming to the UK in 2014. 'Like many, many modern Muslims, he is deeply and intelligently interested in the contemporary debate about Isis,' added Mr Bott. 'Many decent Muslims with no appetite for violence believe they are the victims of injustice and hostility. 'They are not going to run off and fight for Isis.' Mr Bott said many ordinary Muslims are 'interested by an organisation [Isis] that claims to stand up for Muslims all over the world'. Timothy Moloney, QC, defending El-Hassan, said evidence will show that his client 'wasn't a supporter of Isis'. 'Her purchase of Sulphuric Acid and the face masks had nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with the state of her flat,' he added. Mohammed, of Leopold Street, Derby, and El-Hassan, of Willesden Lane, Willesden, each deny one count of preparing terrorist acts between November 2015 and September last year. The trial continues. A Texas man has shot dead his daughter's boyfriend and run them both over in his truck before turning the gun on himself. Omar Soto, 22, was fatally shot in Arlington on Friday night as he left a movie theater with his girlfriend and another female friend. Police said Rafael Brena Arteaga, the 43-year-old father of the young woman, drove up to the couple before opening fire in the parking lot. Omar Soto, 22, was fatally shot in Arlington on Friday night as he left a movie theater with his girlfriend The woman was desperately trying to help Soto while he was lying on the ground when Arteaga then ran over them both. '(The father) confronted them really quickly and just asked the boyfriend hey what's your name. He responded what his name was, and then he shot him multiple times,' Arlington Police Lt. Christopher Cook told Fox4. 'He actually backed up after the shooting and went around an aisle and deliberately ran over both of them as they were sitting there.' Police said Soto was already dead when they arrived and his girlfriend was seriously injured. She was rushed to a nearby hospital but was able to identify her father as the gunman to police. Authorities located the father's pickup just over two hours later on a nearby street. He was found inside with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Police said Soto was already dead when they arrived and his girlfriend was seriously injured after her father ran them both over in his pickup truck Police are still investigating to determine what happened in the lead up to the fatal shooting. Arteaga was 'over protective' and 'possessive' of his daughter, according to police. They say he was also a licensed gun carrier. Friends of the victim told NBC they didn't know he was dating the young woman. Family members identified Soto as the victim over the weekend and set up a GoFundMe page for his family. 'He was humble, smart, intelligent, full of life hopes and dreams and on his way to become a great architect,' family members wrote. Soto was a graduated of the University of Texas at Arlington and had been planning to get his master's degree. Armed police were sent to a six-hour stand-off at a furniture store as customers turned up to retrieve thousands of pounds worth of undelivered goods. Furious buyers from as far afield as Wales and Salisbury arrived at Furniture by Stan in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, to demand items they had paid for several months ago but never received. But the scene descended into chaos and officers were called in as staff refused to allow people to take their goods. Scroll down for video Armed police were sent to deal with the situation at Furniture by Stan in Huddersfield Michelle Wong (pictured) turned up at 9am and said she was not leaving until she got a table and four chairs she had paid more than 600 for Some customers had paid for furniture as long ago as May, and say they went to the store when it advertised a closing down sale over the weekend. Outraged buyers took to social media to accuse the owner of the store using an alias before jetting out of the country without sending them their purchases. It is understood armed police were sent to the incident because no other officers were available. Michelle Wong, a business development manager from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, turned up at 9am and said she was not leaving until she got a table and four chairs she had paid more than 600 for. She was told delivery would take place within 14 weeks but she became suspicious when nothing materialised. Ms Wong, 46, said: 'I heard other branches were closing and they advertised a big sale this weekend so I thought my partner and I had better turn up. 'I phoned 999 and when police arrived we were told to leave. It's infuriating because people have worked hard to buy this stuff.' Furious customers went to the store to demand items they had paid for several months ago Yorkshire property developer Simmy Sekhon, who bought the mill premises on September 27, attempted to placate customers Some customers had paid for furniture as long ago as May - but were left waiting for their purchases Another customer, a property developer called Andy from Cambridgeshire, said he had paid a deposit of over 1,000. Andy said: 'I decided to come up and see what was happening. It's been over seven months now and I am still waiting.' Yorkshire property developer Simmy Sekhon, who bought the mill premises on September 27, also turned up and said he wanted to help find a solution. Mr Sekhon told the crowd of customers: 'I am a man of the people. I didn't buy this building to get involved in this but I will do what I can to help.' A locksmith arrived and efforts began to get into the building, which staff had barricaded by placing a piece of wood in front of the front doors. Ms Wong was told delivery would take place within 14 weeks but she became suspicious when nothing materialised In the afternoon police returned with three vans and five patrol cars. Officers ordered those with receipts for their purchases to line up and orders began to roll out of the store and into waiting cars and vans. Ms Wong, who acted as spokeswoman for the group, said: 'I'm really pleased. It's been a long day but we were determined to get what was ours and that's finally what's happened. 'I think the police and Simmy had a lot to do with it. I don't think we would have got anywhere without their input.' One Facebook user wrote: 'I currently am in a position where I have lost thousands and have received no furniture. The attitude from "Stan" was that he didn't care and I cannot seem to get in touch with anyone at their Huddersfield or Nottingham sites. '"Stan" is in exile in Indonesia. Try Googling him. Whatever you do, do not spend your money with "Stan". 'I'm sure some people have received their goods, but I know others have not.....and there is no way of getting in touch with them.' Staff at the store declined to comment. An Oklahoma City nurse has been barred from working at the county jail and could potentially face criminal charges for allegedly trying to perform an exorcism on a sick inmate, who later died of a drug-induced heart attack. Amanda Lynette Freeman, 32, was arrested on February 7, 2017, on a drug possession charge. Four days later, she passed away from what the medical examiner later determined to be an acute coronary event caused by methamphetamine use. The nurse who had been summoned to Freeman's bedside in the medical wing of the Oklahoma County Jail, identified by The Oklahoman as Linda Herlong Jackson, 67, was banned from the facility by Sheriff PD Taylor on October 20. Deceased inmate: Amanda Freeman, 32, died in the Oklahoma County Jail on February 11, a day after nurse Linda Jackson allegedly tried to perform an exorcism on her It's our position that because of this incident she cannot work in this facility, the sheriff told the paper. Her job is to provide medical care. Doing what she was doing was not providing medical care. Three days later, Jacksons employer, Armor Correctional Health Services, placed her on administrative leave. Jackson had worked at the county jail for six years. Jackson has denied trying to perform a religious ritual on Freeman, telling the paper, 'No... I didnt do an exorcism.' However, corrections officers at the jail reported overhearing the 67-year-old medical worker telling Freeman, as she was violently thrashing on the floor, 'I revoke your demons,' according to The Oklahoman. According to one witness, Jackson had asked those present in the room if anyone would mind if she performed an exorcism. DailyMail.com on Monday reached out to the sheriff's office for comment and was awaiting a reponse. Sheriff's officials were scheduled to hand over the results of their months-long investigation into Jackson's conduct to District Attorney David Prater on Monday; it will be up to him to decide whether or not to bring criminal charges against the nurse. Freeman and James Eudy, 36, were arrested on February 7 after a police officer saw the woman jump out of a moving car. When the officer searched Freeman's purse, he reportedly discovered two baggies of meth and a glass pipe. After the 32-year-old was booked into the county jail on counts of drug and paraphernalia possession, it was determined that she needed to be placed under medical observation. Persona non-grata: In the wake of Freeman's death, Jackson has been barred from the jail's medical facility, where she had worked for six years On the mooring of February 10, jailers and nurse Jackson responded to Freeman's cell because she was experiencing seizure-like symptoms, according to the sheriff's office. Jackson was supposed to take the inmates vital signs, but it proved difficult because Freeman was thrashing about and screaming. Eventually, the 32-year-old woman was restrained. At around 4.30am the next day, she was found unresponsive in her cell and was pronounced dead. When she was interviewed about the incident by a sheriff's investigator, nurse Jackson denied preforming an exorcism, but she did mention that it appeared to her like Freeman had supernatural strength. Inventor Peter Madsen has admitted dismembering the body of journalist Kim Wall, who disappeared from his submarine, but he denies killing her, Danish police have said. Copenhagen police have disclosed that inventor Peter Madsen now told them Kim Wall died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning inside the submarine when he was on deck. Police said he has acknowledged he dismembered her body and threw it into the bay. Investigators have found bags containing her body parts and clothes. Wall, who was working on a story about Madsen, was last seen aboard his submarine as it left Copenhagen in August. The next day, Madsen was rescued from the sinking submarine without Wall and police believe he deliberately sank the vessel. Scroll down for video: Kim Wall (left), a Swedish freelance journalist, disappeared while interviewing Peter Madsen (left) , who has now admitted to dismembering her but not killer her Madsen has already been charged with Wall's murder and mutilating her body. The police also said they would now extend the charges, to include sexual assault without intercourse, based on 14 interior and exterior stab wounds to the journalist's genitals. Madsen denies the murder and sexual assault charges. Wall, a freelancer based in China and New York, never returned from her interview with Madsen on August 10. Her headless torso was found floating in Copenhagen's Koge Bay on August 21, and her head, legs and clothes were recovered in plastic bags in the same waters on October 7. During initial police questioning, Madsen, who is suspected of her death, had denied cutting up her body and said she died in an accident when a heavy submarine hatch fell on her head. He has now changed his story to say she died of carbon monoxide poisoning while on board, police said in a statement. The home-made submarine 'UC3 Nautilus', built by Danish inventor Peter Madsen, a self-taught engineer In a statement police said: 'He has now explained that Kim Wall died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning inside the submarine at a time when he was on deck. 'Furthermore, Peter Madsen has admitted that he later dismembered her corpse and spread the body parts in Koge Bay.' Madsen, a self-taught engineer and inventor, has been held in custody since August 11 and has changed his version of events several times. After intentionally sinking his submarine early on August 11 in Koge Bay, he was picked up by a rescue vessel and told police he had dropped Wall off on land after their interview the previous evening. On September 5, he changed his story to say a 70-kilo (154-pound) hatch fell on her head, killing her, and that he threw her body overboard, intact, in a panic. The Gazette recently printed a guest opinion discussing the complex issue of updating U.S. Air Traffic Control. One item in that discussion that causes me to take pause is advocating for the current legislation called the 21st Century Aviation Innovation, Reform, Reauthorization Act. This legislation proposes to take the largest, most complex, and safest Air Traffic Control system in the world and hand it over to a private quasi-governmental agency similar to the U.S. Postal System. Why, you ask? Because that is what a contingent of advocates, including most of the airlines, have been pushing members of Congress to do for many years. They make the case that ATC under the FAA is too inefficient and bureaucratic, and that a private organization would be able to implement the newest navigational technologies quicker, particularly the FAA's ongoing effort to move the ATC from monitoring aircraft with radar to using satellite GPS, as well as implementing more efficient landing approaches. Interestingly, the Billings ATC has been updated with the newest and latest NextGen technology and is currently utilizing that technology. The opposition to this legislation believes that the main reason for this privatization effort is because the airlines want more control over ATC. Excluding the airlines, the majority of the other users of the ATC system are mostly opposed to the transfer of the ATC from the FAA's oversight. Another major issue concerning this transfer of the ATC to a private operation is how will this new private ATC be funded? Currently, the FAA receives its funding from a fuel tax imposed on aviation fuel. Since ATC is just one aspect of the FAA's function, ATC would likely not continue to receive funding once it is removed from the FAA's oversight and would instead need to come up with a fee-based system to charge its users. In other countries that moved to a privatized ATC system, the fees to use the new system increased at least 30 percent. This user fee system might be comparable to taking all of the roads and highways in the U.S. and making them all toll roads or charging the users of the road a fee for every mile driven. As director of Billings Logan International Airport, I also have concerns regarding the allocation of the ATC's resources if this privatization takes place. Having a fully staffed ATC tower at our airport that is operational 24 hours per day, 365 days a year, as we currently do, is very reassuring. Under a privatized ATC, one could speculate that this new agency would likely need to make cost decisions that could start to pull resources away from the smaller, less populated areas to support the large urban airports. Of the 829 million passengers that used a commercial service airport in 2016, over 72 percent of those passengers went through the 30 largest airports. When you look at the top 61 airports, the percentage of passengers goes to just over 88 percent. The remaining 493 airports reporting passenger traffic, including all airports in Montana, make up the remaining 12 percent. Many of those larger airports currently have capacity constraints and they are spending billions to resolve those issues. Once those constraints are resolved and the airlines bring even more flights to those larger airports, the ATC at those airports will likely need to ramp up to handle the additional traffic. Under a new private system, it could become very tempting to start moving the ATC resources being spent in Montana and other rural states, to the larger airports where most of the air traffic takes place, something that may not be in the best interest of Billings or Montana. In summary, any legislation to make improvements to ATC should be thoroughly vetted to provide a plan that all users of the ATC system can live with, including the smallest users in rural America. Advertisement Harrowing images have revealed the true horrors of the US Civil War - which claimed the lives of more than half a million in just four short years. The Civil War remains the bloodiest war in US history. Fought between 1861 and 1865, it claimed 620,000 lives - nearly as many American casualties as every other war fought by the United States combined. In these harrowing photos, the death and destruction of the battlefields as well as the horrors inside the Confederate's notorious military prison in Andersonville, Georgia are clear to see. Called Camp Sumter, it was the largest prison in the South where captured Union soldiers were kept from February 1864 to April 1865, the end of the Civil War. Scroll down for video Harrowing photographs from the Civil War show the horrible conditions that Union soldiers faced after they were captured and brought to the Confederate's notorious military prison, Camp Sumter, in Andersonville, Georgia. Unidentified emaciated Union Army prisoners are seen at the prison in 1865 Camp Sumter, which eventually became known as Andersonville after of the railroad station near the prison, was the largest Confederate prisoner of war camp. An unidentified emaciated Union Army soldier is pictured receiving help at a hospital in May 1865, after the Civil War had ended and the prison at Andersonville was shut down The Andersonville prison was overcrowded to four times its capacity. Of the 45,000 Union soldiers (one pictured left) held there, 13,000 died, with scurvy, diarrhea and dysentery as the chief causes of death. Pictured right is Alfred Stratton, whose arms were taken by a cannon shot during the American Civil War on June 18th, 1864. He was just 19 years old at the time. One in 13 Civil War soldiers became amputees The Civil War remains the bloodiest war in US history. Fought between 1861 and 1865, it claimed 620,000 lives - nearly as many American casualties as every other war fought by the US combined. Pictured above, African-American men collect the bones of soldiers killed in battle at Cold Harbor, Virginia, in June, 1864 Fallen soldiers are pictured at Gettysburg, Pennysylvania, following the historic battle fought during the Civil War in July 1863. In the Battle of Gettysburg, Union forces turned away a Confederate advance in the pivotal battle of the Civil War fought July 1-3, 1863, which was also the wars bloodiest conflict with more than 51,000 casualties Camp Sumter was built quickly after the prisoner-exchange system between the Union and the Confederacy fell through in 1863. The system broke down because the Confederacy refused to treat black soldiers as equal to white soldiers. Prisoners were first brought to the camp in February 1864 even before it was completed. Camp Sumter, which became known as Andersonville after the railroad station near the prison, was built to hold 10,000 men but was often overcrowded to four times its capacity. At its height in August 1864, Camp Sumter held more than 33,000 PoWs on only 26 acres of open ground without shelter or clothing for the inmates. Prisoners had only the clothes they were wearing when captured. Wearing their tattered Union uniforms, the men were forced to sleep in makeshift tents or holes dug in the ground. Andersonville had an inadequate supply of food and water and in the last 12 months of the Civil War, 13,000 Union prisoners died there from disease and starvation. Infested with vermin and lice, the only source of water was a tiny creek that ran through the grounds, but soon became polluted with raw sewage. Eventually the banks of the creek eroded and turned a large portion of the camp into a swamp. Around 56,000 soldiers died in prisons during the Civil War - making up around 10 per cent of all the war's casualties. At Alton prison in Illinois, more than 1,500 Rebels died in custody from disease. But Camp Sumter was by far the most fatal with almost a third of its 45,000 Union soldiers dying in just 14 months. Andersonville (pictured being built) was founded after the prisoner-exchange system between the North and the South fell through in 1863. The system broke down because the Confederacy refused to treat black soldiers as equal to white soldiers. Swiss-born Confederate Captain Henry Wirz was in charge of the camp for its entire 14-month duration, from February 1864 to April 1865 A view of Andersonville on August 17th, 1864. This picture shows the deadline (the wooden fence) if any prisoner stepped beyond it or reached over the guards had orders to kill them. At the height of the prison in August 1864, there were more than 33,000 PoWs on only 26 acres of open ground without shelter or clothing for the inmates Prisoners at Andersonville, pictured in 1864, had only the clothes they were wearing when captured. In their tattered Union uniforms, the men were forced to sleep in makeshift tents or holes dug in the ground. Andersonville was one of America's most notorious PoW camps during the Civil War Around 56,000 soldiers died in prisons during the Civil War - making up around 10 per cent of all the war's casualties. At Alton prison in Illinois, more than 1,500 Rebels died in custody from disease. But Camp Sumter was by far the most fatal with almost a third of its 45,000 Union soldiers dying in just 14 months. Pictured above, an overhead view of Andersonville Prison Prisoners sent to the camp knew it could mean a death sentence as appalling conditions meant that disease and dysentry was rife while food was scarce. Stories of conditions in the camp eventually reached the North which were appalled by the inhuman treatment of its Union soldiers Wirz (right) became one of the nation's most hated men after shocking photographs of survivors starved into living skeletons emerged after the war, revealing the terrible treatment of prisons at the camp - something that wasn't seen again until the Nazi death camps in the Second World War. Left, a drawing of scenes inside the camp. Wirz was arrested for his crimes as the commander of Andersonville one month after the Confederates surrendered at the Battle of Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865 - one of the last battles of the Civil War After a two-month trial in Washington, DC, that started in August 1865, where more than 100 witnesses testified against Wirz, he was found guilty of multiple counts of murder, abuse and war crimes despite his protestations. He was sentenced to death and on November 10, 1865, he was hung in front of the crowd of 250 spectators for cruelty towards prisoners-of-war Confederate Captain Henry Wirz, a native of Zurich, Switzerland, was the commander of the Andersonville prison for the duration of the camp's 14 months. One month after the Confederates surrendered at the Battle of Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865 - one of the last battles of the Civil War - Wirz was arrested for the murders of the soldiers who died during their imprisonment at Andersonville. As horrific stories and shocking photographs of the survivors who had been starved into living skeletons reached the north, Wirz became one of the nation's most-hated men. The photographs revealed the terrible treatment the prisoners had suffered - something that wasn't seen again to the same extent until the Nazi death camps in the Second World War. One picture titled 'A Harvest of Death', fallen soldiers are pictured following the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 and African-American men are seen collecting the bones of soldiers killed in battle at Cold Harbor, Virginia one year later in 1864. In another particularly disturbing 1865 image, a skeletal survivor of the confederate prisoner-of-war camp looks sadly into the camera. A dead confederate soldiers who died at the Battle of Spotsylvania in Virginia is pictured on May 19, 1864. The battle was the second major battle in Lt Gen Ulysses S Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign. After the Battle of the Wilderness, Grant moved southeast, in an attempt to lure Lee to more favorable conditions Bodies of the battlefield at Antietam, Maryland, in September 1862. The battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day of fighting in US history, with over 20,000 people killed, wounded or declared missing The body of a dead Confederate soldier lies in a trench at Fort Mahone on April 3, 1865, in Petersburg, Virginia. He died during an attack which was part of the Third Battle of Petersburg, at the end of the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign near the conclusion of the Civil War. The Confederate army was reduced by over 10,000 men in the battle A dead confederate soldier in the trenches of Fort Mahone, Virginia, April 1865. He died during an attack which was part of the Third Battle of Petersburg. Union soldiers occupied Richmond and Petersburg on April 3, 1865, and while other soldiers surrounded the Confederates, Robert E Lee was forced to surrender on April 9, 1865, after the Battle of Appomattox Court House A dead confederate soldier inside Union lines is seen after a battle in Petersburg, Virginia, on April 2, 1865, during the Third Battle of Petersburg, at the end of the 292-day Richmond-Petersburg Campaign. The thinly held Confederate lines at Petersburg were stretched to their breaking point in the final days of the war A dead Confederate artillery soldier is pictured in Petersburg, Virginia, on April 2, 1865. As much larger Union forces assaulted thinning Confederate forces in the Third Battle of Petesrburg, the southern troops held on long enough so that high-up officials and most of the remaining Confederate army could flee Wirz was soon taken to Washington, DC, to answer for his crimes. He was charged with murder and conspiracy to injure the health and lives of Union soldiers, according to the History Channel. His trial, which began in August 1865, lasted two months and more than 100 witnesses were called to testify. Some claimed they had seen Wirz personally murdering and torturing prisoners and that he had ordered guards to do the same. But Wirz claimed he had simply been following orders and blamed the South's lack of food for starving the prisoners. He also claimed the North's refusal to exchange prisoners had forced him to keep so many. Despite his protestations, he was found guilty of multiple counts of murder, abuse and war crimes and sentenced to death in front of 250 spectators. He was hanged on November 10, 1865 at the age of 41. His corpse was later buried in an unmarked grave. For four deadly years, the country endured not only its bloodiest and most vicious military conflict, but also some of its cruelest racial hatred. Adding to the already immense heap of skulls, Confederates used disease, starvation, exposure, and outright execution to kill hundreds of thousands of former slaves during the war, a figure not included in death toll estimates thanks to a deliberate lack of record keeping. A dead Confederate soldier is seen in Spotsylvania, Virginia on May 19, 1864, during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. During the battle, up to 110,000 Union soldiers faced as many as 63,000 confederate troops. There were more than 30,000 casualties between the two sides by the end of the battle The bodies of Confederate soldiers were lined in a neat row at Alsop Farm in Virginia after being killed on May 19, 1864. They were laid out for burial at a house adjacent to part of the battlefield of the Battle of Harris Farm An unidentified Confederate soldier was killed on May 19, 1864, an Alsop Farm, Virginia, during the Battle of Harris Farm. The Harris Farm Engagement was part of the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, hed by Union Major Gen Winfield Hancock and Confederate Gen Richard S Ewell. Ewell's men had the upper hand at first, though Hancock's larger numbers soon gained control. Both sides took heavy casualties The Battle of Gaines' Mill took place on June 27, 1862 in Hanover County, Virginia. It was the third attack of the Seven Days Battle, which saw Confederate General Robert E Lee renew his attacks against the Union Army. Pictured above, unburied dead on the battlefield at Gaines' Mill, Virginia A view of the slaughter pen at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. The slaughter pen was an area of the battlefield that had an extraordinary amount of bodies lying there Dr Richard Burr would embalm soldiers almost immediately after they were recovered from battlefields. He is pictured in 1863, soon after Dr Thomas Holmes had developed a new way of prerving bodies through injecting a liquid into veins. The process would prevent decay and make it possible for bodies to be shipped home The ruin of Richmond and Petersburg Railroad Bridge, in Richmond, Virginia, in April 1865. It was destroyed by the Confederate Army. Prior to its destruction, it carried the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad over the James River in Richmond, Virginia The ruin of the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad Bridge seen in Richmond, Virginia, in April 1865. The bridge was destroyed by Confederate soldiers in anticipation of the Fall of Richmond. It was rebuilt the following year, only to be burned again in 1882 The end of all this bloodshed began when Union General Ulysses S Grant relentlessly assaulted Petersburg, Virginia for nine months in hopes of destroying Confederate General Robert E Lee's army, who eventually capitulated in April 1865. With the bulk of the Confederate military strength gone, the end of the war was imminent. In May, Union troops in Georgia captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis - who promptly almost got away. The leader of the unit that captured Davis became distracted and left his prisoner in the hands of his adjutant. That man was nearly fooled into letting Davis - who slipped into disguise as an old woman - escape. But when troops noticed the old woman's boots and spurs, Davis was caught. Davis spent the next two years in prison, and the country spent the ensuing decades trying to rebuild from the conflict that very nearly tore it apart. One of the about a dozen women who have accused journalist Mark Halperin of sexual harassment sat down for an interview on Megyn Kelly Today on Monday. Eleanor McManus, a 40-year-old public communications executive, detailed her non-consensual encounter with Halperin, 52, to CNN last week. McManus said she met Halperin at a political event in Boston when she was a 21-year-old student at Brandeis University, and he offered to meet with her to talk about the industry. Scroll down for video Eleanor McManus, one of about a dozen women who have spoken out to accuse journalist Mark Halperin of sexual harassment, sat down for an interview with Megyn Kelly on Monday McManus told Kelly that she regrets not speaking out sooner about Halperin, who until last week was senior political analyst for NBC When McManus followed up on his offer after graduating, she says Halperin, then working at ABC, invited her to his office for an informational interview. 'I don't quite remember what we talked about, but I do remember him asking me to sit down next to him on the couch. I thought it was awkward to sit on the couch when I was perfectly comfortable sitting in the chair across from his desk. But I complied, and I also remember him sitting a little too close to me,' McManus told CNN. She continued: 'At one point I felt a bit too uncomfortable, and I stood up to thank him for the meeting. That's when he leaned in, tried to kiss me, and attempted to do a bit more. I didn't want to offend the man in charge of political programming at ABC News, and I tried to be courteous and apologetic, and practically ran out of the office. I was upset not by his actions, but the thought that I did something wrong to encourage that behavior. Was my suit too revealing? Did I lead him on? Was this what I had to expect if I went into broadcast news or journalism? If so, I didn't want any part of it.' In a story on CNN, McManus described how Halperin (above) tried to make a move on her during an informational meeting with she was fresh out of college in the 90s McManus told Kelly on Monday that she's spent a lot of time blaming herself for what happened in that interview - wondering if her dress was too short or if she did or said something to lead him on. But today she knows that nothing she did warranted Halperin's unwanted advances. 'It's so important for women to understand today that it's not their fault and the only thing we can do is to speak about this,' she said. She says she regrets not speaking out sooner. 'After this happened last week, when I heard the news, I was angry. I was angry because I was silent and because I was silent this happened to other people. I knew right away that I was ready to come out and tell my story,' McManus said. The part that frustrated her the most was that many of her fellow accusers decided not to go through with careers in journalism after their encounters with Halperin. 'That made me so angry and so sad,' she said. 'These are women that would have been the next Jane Pauley, the next Andrea Mitchell, the next Christiane Amanpour, the next Megyn Kelly, and because of an incident they had with him they left the business.' McManus herself did not quit journalism after her meeting with Halperin. Instead, she went on to get a master's degree from American University, and worked at CNN for 10 years - working her way up to a senior producer - before getting into public relations. The new allegations come just days after CNN first reported that Halperin had been sexually harassing women for years One thing she made sure to do when she worked at CNN was insure that Halperin was never booked on any show that she worked on. Nevertheless, Halperin's career only continued to rise - especially when the book he co-authored, Game Change, about the 2008 presidential election, was turned into an HBO film. 'I think that was the most painful part - to see this person who really kept getting bigger and bigger and no one called him out,' McManus said. 'This as like an open secret. Everyone knew that this was the way he was, but the problem was this was normalization of the behavior. Everyone thought that's just normal,' she added. McManus said that she told a lot of people about her experience with Harlperin and 'we all thought it was just normal, it was just newsroom behavior'. 'I think we need to understand that it's not the right thing,' she said. McManus says she hopes speaking out will encourage other victims to come forward so that sexual harassment in the workplace will no longer be considered normal. Emily Miller (right) and Dianna Goldberg (left) both publicly accused Halperin of sexual harassment after CNN reported that he was inappropriate with five women while at ABC News 'I think now finally the tide is changing. People are realizing that, first of all, this is not OK and when you find out, when you hear about these stories, you speak out. I think that's so important. 'If there's something that anyone can learn from what I did, why I'm here today, it's just so women can understand not to be silent anymore and speak out and say something,' she saud. Kelly confirmed on Monday that NBC has terminated its contract with Halperin, where he had most recently been working as a senior political analyst. HBO also announced that they would no longer be producing a miniseries based on Halperin's book about the 2016 presidential election. Halperin responded to the allegations on Friday, saying he recognized he had a problem at the end of his tenure at ABC News in 2007 and got help. However, The Daily Beast has reported that one of the allegations happened as recently as 2011. Halperin recently welcomed his first child into the world. His longtime girlfriend Karen Avrich, 50, gave birth to a baby boy in January. The Victorian government is expected to announce a safe drug injecting room in inner Melbourne on Tuesday. The injecting room will be trialled for at least two years in the overdose hotspot of North Richmond, AAP reports. James Purcell, a key independent member in the Upper House, confirmed his support for the trial. 'The experience in other parts of Australia, in Sydney in particular, don't show they have any harm and they really do save lives,' he told reporters on Monday. The Victorian government is expected to announce a safe drug injecting room in inner Melbourne on Tuesday (stock image) The decision is a major turnaround for Premier Daniel Andrews, whose long-standing opposition to legalising supervision for drug addicts was well-known. The government's decision comes after a parliamentary inquiry found the drugs problem in the North Richmond area had reached 'crisis' levels. At least 34 people have died as a result of drug overdoses in the Yarra council area, which covers North Richmond, so far in 2017, The Age reports. Deaths from drug overdoses in the area have surged by 40 per cent. At least 34 people have died as a result of drug overdoses in the Yarra council area, which covers North Richmond, so far in 2017 (stock image) In September, the committee tabled a report into a bill by Reason MP Fiona Patten for the creation of a trial centre, but its 11 findings did not include a single recommendation on the bill. The Andrews' government announced another 100 drug and alcohol rehabilitation beds will be made available, many of them in regional Victoria, as part of a promise to tackle the drugs crisis in the state. The new beds will take the total of publicly funded beds for addicts to 420, and will be covered under the government's $53 million package of policies. The new safe drug centre will become the first in the state, and only the second in Australia (pictured: the safe injecting centre in Sydney's Kings Cross) Earlier this year, a Victorian coroner recommended there be an injecting room trial, while all arms of Victoria's emergency services have either said they'll support or won't oppose one. But opposition leader Matthew Guy says his party won't support an injecting room. 'We've believed for a long period of time there are other tracks that we should follow, whether it's about one on one support rather than having a centralised facility in a certain location,' he said. The new safe drug centre will become the first in the state, and only the second in Australia. Sydney's Kings Cross has been operating a safe drug injecting centre since 2001. A deer got more than she bargained for when she got her head stuck in a plastic pumpkin trick-or-treating bucket. Luckily, the neighbors of an Ohio suburb rallied together to find and set the doe free. The Anderson Township Family Pet Center said they got calls over four days from residents concerned about the deer with the bucket stuck over its nose. Daryl Meyerrenke from the pet center warned that it would be dangerous for neighbors to try to rescue the deer. But he told WCPO-TV, 'These determined residents were able to converge on the deer after following it up and down hills for many hours.' A local pet center got multiple calls in four days about the deer with a pumpkin stuck on its nose A group of good Samaritans from Anderson Township went on a search and rescue mission to help the deer The residents searched for the deer for hours in a wooded area. One man said his Fit Bit logged four miles during the foot-search. Bonnie Morrison from Second Chance Wildlife Rescue brought equipment that eventually led to the deer's rescue. The residents circled the deer with catch poles and tightened the circle, 'until the deer had no way out but to try and break through the human line,' Meyerrenke said. The deer was finally freed by Meyerenke's son Aaron. He said the doe immediately ran to a creek to drink water and graze freely. Meyerrenke's pet center is now collecting donations for Second Chance Wildlife Rescue 'to recognize the great work they do.' They are using the deer's pumpkin bucket to collect the donations. The poorest families are more worried about immigration than finding jobs or the impact of crime, a major study found. It said immigration ranks as high among the concerns of people on the lowest incomes as housing or the need to care for their families. And while money difficulties top the list of worries for the least well off, seven out of ten low income people said they believed they could help themselves out of financial trouble. Research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that inflows were the most common concern for 30 per cent - compared to 28 per cent who were most anxious about work However when it came to immigration low income families said they felt powerless, with only one in ten of those with worries about the issue believing they can do anything at all to control numbers coming into the country. The concerns are detailed in a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and based on findings from the British Social Attitudes survey. It said those on low incomes believe their taxes are too high; most do not want politicians to soak the rich to give greater support to the poor; and Labour is just as likely to attract support from the rich as from the poor. The findings, taken from nearly 3,000 people questioned for the Social Attitudes project, and others interviewed by YouGov, showed that more than a third of people among the 40 per cent of lowest income households say they are living comfortably on their incomes. Just 30 per cent of those in low-income households back Jeremy Corbyn's party, against 23 per cent for Conservatives Among those on the very lowest incomes around 150 a week or just over only 31 per cent said they were struggling to get by. Two in three on lowest incomes snub Labour Fewer than a third of voters on the lowest incomes support Labour and nearly a quarter, 23 per cent, back the Tories according to the report. It said that among the bottom fifth of earners support for Labour runs at 30 per cent, and among the next fifth up the income scale, Labour has the loyalty of 32 per cent. A quarter of low income voters had no allegiance to any party. Nancy Kelley of the National Centre for Social Research, which carries out the Social Attitudes survey, said: Our report hints at the changing political landscape we have seen over the past 18 months or so, with the traditional link between income and Labour support all but disappearing. People on low incomes are not necessarily switching allegiance to another political party, rather they are the most likely to feel politically homeless and feel none of the parties represent their views. Advertisement Asked to point to their chief concerns, 45 per cent said money or debt and 38 per cent said health. However 30 per cent were worried about immigration, the same proportion that were worried about housing or caring for someone. Fewer, 28 per cent, were worried about work or finding a job, and 24 per cent were concerned about their own or their familys education. There were 23 per cent who said they were worried about crime and 18 per cent about their mental health. Middle income people were most worried about immigration, with 38 per cent registering their concern. Those on the highest incomes were least concerned, with 26 per cent worried about immigration. Two out of three in low income homes thought it was the Governments job to reduce the gap between rich and poor. But fewer than half 47 per cent of those even in the bottom fifth for incomes thought the Government should help by redistributing the income of the well-off in their direction. ...and think we ALL pay too much tax Those on the lowest incomes are the most likely to complain that they pay too much tax, the report found. It said that 51 per cent of the bottom fifth by income think they pay too much tax. People on middle and high incomes were much less likely to believe that anybody was paying too much tax. Seven out of ten of the poorest believed that taxes were too high for those who were struggling to make ends meet on low income. The report said: While we might expect the poorest group to say that those on the highest incomes do not pay enough tax, this is not the case. Those in the lowest income group are more likely to think that taxes are too high overall, for everyone, while those on high incomes are less likely to have this view. An eight-year-old boy from New Jersey who once appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon was struck and killed by a Jeep while walking home Saturday. Authorities say Jeremiah Grant was walking from a team fundraiser in Jersey City on Saturday afternoon when the hit-and-run occurred. Grant was the only boy in the Honey Bees, the champion double-dutch roping group who once made an appearance on Fallon's talk show. Scroll for video Jeremiah Grant from New Jersey who once appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon was struck and killed by a Jeep while walking home Saturday The boy was hit near Christopher Columbus Drive and Grove street at around 4:30 pm and was rushed to Jersey City Medical Center where he was pronounced dead. Police say the Jeep's 60-year-old driver drove off until witnesses flagged him down. Witness Jose Pimentel says the driver told him he thought he had hit a backpack. 'I jumped on the street, went after the car. I was able to stop him and let him know he had to stop because he hit somebody,' Pimentel told the station. Grant (R) was the only male member of the Honey Bees, the champion double-dutch roping group who once made an appearance on Fallon's talk show 'He said he thought he went over a book bag. He didnt notice that he had hit a person.' The driver remained at the scene until police arrived. No charges have been filed as of yet. A YouCaring has been set up for Grant and his family. As of Monday morning $3,250 was raised with $20,000 being the ultimate goal. They said: '100% of the money raised here will go directly to his family.' A woman named Jessica Hellinger commented on the page: 'Jerry was a great kid and he leaves behind a broken-hearted sister and mother who cares for everyone's child as if her own.' Jeremiah Grant was hit near Christopher Columbus Drive and Grove street (pictured) at around 4:30 pm and was rushed to Jersey City Medical Center where he was pronounced dead Him and the Honey Bees are pictured here showing off their skills on the late night talk show 'This family needs our support the support of the community that they give and have every woke hour to uplift bring people together thru the ropes,' she continued. His beloved troupe are devastated at the loss of the Grant who was nicknamed Prince Bee. 'We all stopped at the corner and Jerry heard go from another jumper and ran in the street,' Honey Bees founder Takeria Clark told NJ.com. Grant (second from left) was the only male member of the group - he was pronounced dead at Jersey City Medical Center Saturday afternoon Londoners have spotted a dolphin in the River Thames swimming through the capital. Twitter users filmed the creature in the water in Putney, Wandsworth, south west London yesterday and others claim to have seen it in frolicking in Hammersmith, Greenwich and Chiswick. Wandsworth is approximately 40 miles from the mouth of Thames, meaning the sea mammal will have swum all that way before reaching the capital. A dolphin (pictured) has been spotted in the River Thames in Putney, Wandsworth Such sightings are relatively rare, but one was reportedly seen in Richmond in May and near the Palace of Westminster earlier this year. Amy Clayfield posted a video of the animal on social media saying: 'There's a dolphin in the Thames!' The 25-year-old told MailOnline: 'It was at about 2.45pm and I was stood on Putney Bridge with my girlfriend. I had just taken a photo of her and just as I took it I spotted a fin. 'I thought I was seeing things at first and she thought I was crazy! After spending half an hour in a nearby pub, the sea mammal was still there. Londoners took to Twitter to express their delight and concern for the sea mammal, who was spotted swimming near Putney Bridge She added: 'When we left the pub, we then walked along the river and it appeared again, by this time there were people in small boats following it and taking photos.' Tim Weisselberg uploaded a picture, saying: 'Just saw a dolphin (?) in the Thames by Putney Bridge. Very pointed dorsal fin, white underside.' Howard Adams was concerned the dolphin looked distressed, saying: 'There is a dolphin in the Thames. Putney Bridge London. Looks in distress. Downstream of bridge. 20 yards.' An RSPCA spokesman told MailOnline: 'The RSPCA has been made aware of a dolphin which has been spotted in the River Thames in the Putney area of London. 'We are liaising with British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR), who are monitoring the mammal, and are available to assist their teams if necessary. 'Anyone who is concerned for the welfare of an animal should contact the RSPCA's 24-hour emergency hotline on 0300 1234 999 for help or advice. 'Anyone with concerns regarding a specific marine animal can contact BDMLR directly on 01825 765546 or 07787 433412 (out of hours).' A spokesman from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue group confirmed they had also been made aware of the dolphin. Amy Clayfield saw the animal yesterday afternoon, but others have seen it swimming in Chiswick and Greenwich They told MailOnline they were 'not concerned about it' as it was 'just swimming' and did not appear to be in any distress. They added: 'It's not unheard of, but porpoises are more common in the Thames. 'This one is quite visible so people have been calling us about it.' The last time a dolphin was spotted in London was in Richmond upon Thames by Olympic swimmer Andy James. Posting a video of the finned animal on Twitter in May, the bronze medalist said: 'Ok .... you may all think I'm mad, but I just saw a Dolphin in the river Thames at Richmond.' Mr James, who won bronze at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games, said the marine animal was travelling up the river from Twickenham before reaching boats moored near Richmond Bridge. Lawyers for Facebook, Google and Twitter will kick off two days of Congressional testimony starting tomorrow, as they speak to lawmakers about how Russia used their platforms during the 2016 election. Facebook's General Counsel Colin Stretch, Twitter's acting General Counsel Sean Edgett and Google's Director of Law Enforcement and Information Security Richard Salgado will testify before a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday, both Stretch and Edgett, along with Google's General Counsel Kent Walker, will give public testimony to members of both the House and the Senate Intelligence Committees. Scroll down for video Sen. Lindsey Graham's Judiciary subcommittee will get the first crack at representatives for Facebook, Google and Twitter as the social media giants kick off two days of Congressional hearings about Russian influence starting tomorrow On Wednesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Sens. Richard Burr (left), the Republican, and Mark Warner (right), the Democrat, will hear testimony from the top lawyers at Facebook, Google, and Twitter The House Intelligence Committee, whose ranking member is Rep. Adam Schiff (pictured), a Democrat from California, will hear from the social media representatives as well, to ask questions about Russian-financed ads on the three popular sites ON THE HILL: Facebook's General Counsel Colin Stretch (far left), Google's Richard Salgado (left) and Kent Walker (right), along with Twitter's acting General Counsel Sean Edgett ( far right) will testify before Congress this week The Senate Judiciary Committee, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the House Intelligence Committee are all conducting their own Russia probes, separate from the special counsel's investigation led by Robert Mueller. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism and explained to Politico that the Tuesday hearing will focus on 'radicalization on the internet.' He added that he thought it was 'pretty clear' that the Intelligence committee 'had a real reason to be talking with these people about the way Russia acts and the intelligence behind who is buying these ads.' But he believed it was important for members of his subcommittee to get a chance to question representatives from Facebook, Twitter and Google too. Graham said he wants to speak to them about legislation co-sponsored by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, Mark Warner, a Democrat from Virginia and John McCain, a Republican from Arizona. The legislation would mandate new rules for online political advertising, which would make sourcing more transparent. Facebook announced several days ago some changes to its platform that would get the ball rolling, including that political advertisers would have to verify their identities. Twitter made a similar announcement as well. 'How do we deal with it? Do we need walls, or can you do it internally?' Graham mused. 'When it comes to Facebook advertising and social media advertising, it's the Wild Wild West.' The next day, counsels for the three companies will head first to the Senate Intelligence Committee for an open hearing entitled 'Social Media Influence in the 2016 U.S. Elections.' And then they'll move to the House Intelligence Committee for what's being called a task force open meeting with social media companies. Sen. Richard Burr, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, along with the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Mark Warner, have pressed Facebook, especially, to release ads purchased by the Russians to the public. 'I was concerned at first that some of these social media companies did not take this threat seriously enough,' Warner said at a press conference giving an update on the Russia probe earlier this month. 'I believe they are recognizing that threat now.' Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, has also said he wants Americans to be able to see the ad buys. On September 6, Facebook announced publicly that the company had sniffed out some 3,000 ads believed to have been bought by the Russians that focused on 'amplifying divisive social and political messages across the ideological spectrum.' Some of the more blatantly political ads, Politico found, urged voters to choose Sen. Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton, or suggested they vote for Green Party hopeful Jill Stein in the general election. Stretch, Facebook's general counsel, announced later in September that the company had decided to hand over the ads to Congressional investigators. The company's COO Sheryl Sandberg told Axios in mid-October that she supported the ads being released publicly as well, though said she supported it being done through Congress. Burr has said it doesn't work that way. 'We don't release documents provided to our committee, period,' Burr said. 'Clearly if any of the social media companies would like to do it, we're fine with them doing it.' Mueller's investigation, according to Business Insider, may also be a stumbling block. Lawmakers will likely ask Facebook, Google and Twitter's representatives about the various Russian-financed ad campaigns over the course of the three hearings. Of interest is how Russians were able to target the ads, and if it looked like they had American help. Brexiteer ex-Cabinet ministers today warned Tory rebels that defeating the Government on the final deal could trigger a snap election. Iain Duncan Smith and John Whittingdale said Theresa May would have little choice but to call fresh elections if she was unable to get her Brexit deal past the Commons. Mrs May and her Brexit Secretary David David restated a promise MPs would get a meaningful vote on the deal last week amid a row over whether it would happen before or after the Article 50 clock runs out in March 2019. The interventions come as leading Remain MPs seeking to cancel Brexit arrived in Brussels to meet EU negotiator Michel Barnier. Iain Duncan Smith (file image left) and John Whittingdale (right) said Theresa May would have little choice but to call fresh elections if she was unable to get her Brexit deal past the Commons Theresa May (pictured in Downing Street this morning) and her Brexit Secretary David David restated a promise MPs would get a meaningful vote on the deal last week Mr Duncan Smith spoke out today about the importance of the eventual vote as Tory rebels warned they were prepared to vote against the Government. He told the Standard: 'It will be the most important vote of the entire Parliament and if the Government loses it you head towards that conclusion.' Mr Whittingdale added on the BBC Westminster Hour: ' I think for the Government to come to Parliament and say we have a deal ... and for Parliament then to turn around and say, 'well, actually, we don't agree it's a good deal and we're going to throw it out', that is a vote of confidence in government. 'I can't see how the government could say 'oh alright then, we'll go and have another go'. I think there would have to be a general election.' As the Brexit row rages in London, ex-Liberal Democrat leader Mr Clegg, Labour peer Lord Adonis and veteran pro-EU Tory Ken Clarke were in Brussels for talks with Mr Barnier and EU economic and financial affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici. European Commission spokesman Alexander Winterstein insisted that the only negotiations taking place were those involving the teams led by Mr Davis and Mr Barnier. He said: 'His (Mr Barnier's) door is always open for people who want to speak to him and his team, across the political spectrum and from all walks of life, from all parties, whoever is interested to speak to Michel Barnier.' Veteran pro-EU Tory Ken Clarke (left), ex-Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg centre), Labour peer Lord Adonis (right) and were met by a BBC camera crew as they arrived in Brussels for talks (pictured In response to a suggestion the meeting would lead to concerns the EU is engaged in a 'shadow negotiation', Mr Winterstein said: 'There are two negotiators - on the one side the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, David Davis, and on the European side it's the chief negotiator of the EU, Michel Barnier. Nobody else.' He added: 'All these meetings were requested by the people who are coming to see Mr Barnier. His door is always open.' The Cabinet will consider the next stage of the Brexit process in a meeting of Theresa May's top ministers on Tuesday. The meeting will cover the Prime Minister's hopes for progress on a trade agreement - but will also cover preparations for a 'no deal' scenario if talks with Brussels break down. Brexit Secretary David Davis will lead a Cabinet discussion tomorrow to consider the next stage of the Brexit process Meanwhile, Brussels officials denied that EU negotiator Michel Barnier is conducting parallel Brexit talks with prominent Remain campaigners, including Nick Clegg. In its regular weekly meeting at 10 Downing Street on Tuesday, the Cabinet will discuss the state of Brexit preparations. Theresa May's official spokesman said that 'all contingencies' will be discussed, including the possibility of Britain leaving the EU without a deal. 'It is looking at Brexit preparations for all contingencies,' said the spokesman. 'That obviously does include 'no deal', but as the Prime Minister has said on many occasions, we are working towards getting a deal and we are confident that we will do so.' This is the harrowing moment a Polish slave who was forced to work 20-hours-a-day making greeting cards was rescued by police from a squalid loft. Footage released by officers shows the man cowering under a workman's jacket in the corner of an attic after he was forced into a life of servitude by Edward Zielinski. The slave was one of two men, alcoholics who could not speak English, who were paid as little as 10-a-week to work from 8am in the morning until 4am the following night. Zielinski, 42, has now been jailed for 40 months after he admitted two charges of human trafficking at Nottingham Crown Court. Police raided the home of a man believed to be keeping slaves and found this man locked in the attic between long shifts In May and June this year, Zielinski, of Nottingham, exploited two vulnerable Polish men, locking his victims in the loft during the night forcing them to urinate in plastic bottles. The first victim came to the UK of his own accord in 2008 and initially lived in London but got into debt with Zielinski's cousin, owing around 800 for the cost of a new passport and other bills. He was sent to Nottingham to work for Zielinski to pay off the debt. When he arrived at a house in the Radford area of the city, he was put to work making greetings cards, working up to 20-hours-a-day from 8am to 4am with only limited breaks. He was often threatened with violence and even beaten if Zielinski didn't think he was working hard enough. The man was sleeping under a jacket and was forbidden from using the house's toilet In 2015, he moved with Zielinski and started working for employment agencies. Zielinski opened a bank account in his name but did not allow him access to the cards. Despite earning around 300-a-week he was only paid with cigarettes, alcohol, the occasional piece of clothing from a car boot sale and 10 in cash. Zielinski even forced him to go out stealing when he lost his agency jobs. Edward Zielinski was jailed after police investigating modern slavery investigated the case and found the second victim The victim twice tried to escape but was forced to return to Zielinski who tracked him down through his employers. After being beaten with a plank of wood last January, he managed to escape and lived on the streets before ending up in a detention centre in Gatwick. Months later, Nottinghamshire Police's modern slavery team was made aware of the man and he exposed the full horror of Zielinski's crimes. When police raided Zielinski's home in Hyson Green on May 31 this year, they found a second man in the loft, using a jacket as a blanket. This victim had moved to Nottingham in 2015 and heard through a friend that Zielinski had a spare room. But Zielinski took advantage of him, forcing him to work without control of his own finances, being given just 70-a-week. The court heard how father -of-two Zielinski confiscated the victims' identity documents. He also controlled the first man by telling him his debt had increased. Both victims are now with the Salvation Army charity receiving support. Detective Sergeant Mike Ebbins, who led the investigation, said: 'The first victim was made to work up to 20 hours a day from 8am to 4am with only limited breaks earning only 10 a week for his efforts. 'The other victim was the cash cow for Zielinski so was allowed access to a bedroom and avoided being assaulted. 'But in both cases Zielinski exploited them for his own financial interests. He saw an opportunity to make money out of vulnerable Polish men. The man was found in the attic of a house in this street in Nottingham, the court heard Detective Sergeant Ebbins added: 'They were incredibly vulnerable people - unemployed, alcohol dependent, and couldn't speak a word of English - so they were seen as perfect victims. 'A lot of hard work has been put in by the human trafficking team and it is great news that he has pleaded guilty because it means his victims haven't had to face him at trial. The victims should be applauded for coming forward.' Last year, Yellowstone County Justice Court handled 13,568 cases, including 6,297 with only traffic tickets. The rest were misdemeanor criminal offenses, civil lawsuits involving up to $12,000 in claims or contract disputes, orders of personal protection and search warrants. The countys two justices of the peace also arraigned felony criminal defendants and set their bonds. The JP Court is on a similar busy pace in 2017 with 11,143 cases filed as of Oct. 10. The County Commission is taking applications for a new justice of the peace to fill a vacancy that will occur with the retirement of Pedro Hernandez at the end of November. Hernandez is a fixture in the Yellowstone County Courthouse where he has presided in JP court for 42 years. Hernandez probably has been on the bench longer than any other Montana jurist. We thank him for his years of service, his good humor and his harmonica music. Now that he has announced his retirement, the commissioners have the job of appointing a replacement to serve until the 2018 election. Voters will then choose to retain that JP or elect someone else. There is no one else like Hernandez. Hes not a lawyer, but in his decades on the court he amassed vast experience in the law. Montana statutes dont require that a JP be a lawyer, but in Yellowstone County, the new JP should be. When Hernandez started his long career, the county population was much smaller; the court workload was less and people who didnt like the courts judgment could start over by requesting a new trial in District Court. Several years ago, the Yellowstone County Commission made the wise decision to designate our JP court as a court of record. That means all court proceedings are recorded. Legal issues in decisions of the JP court may be appealed to District Court, but theres no complete repeat of the work of the JP court. Hernandez and Justice of the Peace David Carter preside over numerous trials every week, have to do their own legal research, and write orders of the court. The JPs are called upon, along with the District Court judges, to issue search warrants for law enforcement, including DUI search warrants for certain suspects who refuse a breath test. The responsibility of presiding in Yellowstone County demands a justice of the peace who is a competent attorney. The ideal candidate would have significant courtroom experience and a resume that shows he or she can complete a lot of work correctly and quickly. The commissioners tapped County Attorney Scott Twito to head the committee that will review applications. The panel will forward its top-ranked candidates to the commission. The justice of the peace job pays an annual salary of $101,082, plus health insurance and other benefits. This is a job for a legal professional who already knows the law and courtroom procedure. Four years ago when the commissioners were considering an appointment to replace retiring Justice of the Peace Larry Herman, a Gazette opinion urged them to choose a capable attorney. They appointed Carter, who at that time was a deputy county attorney working daily in Justice Court. We renew that call to commissioners: Appoint a competent attorney as justice of the peace for Montanas most populous county. A furious family is demanding answers after the daughter they reported missing eight years ago ended up being buried in an anonymous grave without them being told after a 'mix-up'. Crissita Cage-Toaster was 28 years old when she vanished in Detroit in October 2009. Police had found her abandoned car with her purse, cell phone and identification still inside. Her parents, Rosita and Johnny, reported her missing three days after she was last seen and they have been searching for her ever since. Crissita Cage-Toaster was 28 years old when she vanished in Detroit in October 2009. Police had found her abandoned car with her purse, cell phone and identification still inside They put up missing person's posters throughout Detroit and gave authorities a detailed description of Crissita, including her distinctive rose tattoo with the nicknames of her parents. After eight years of calling police for updates, the couple took matters into their own hands and contacted a national missing persons organization for help in April this year. Her parents gave authorities a detailed description of Crissita, including her distinctive rose tattoo (above) with her mother and father's nicknames It was when the organization did some digging that Detroit police realized a woman matching Crissita's description had actually been found dead years ago. Rosita and Johnny were told in late-September that their daughter's body had been found five months after she disappeared. Crissita was found dead in the Detroit river. When they failed to identify her after a year, she was buried in an grave marked only with a number - Jane Doe 10-3047. A full autopsy was never carried out and an exact cause of death wasn't determined. Her parents say authorities claim it was a 'mix up', according to 7 Action News. They say police failed to recognize her tattoos and that someone had marked her down as being Hispanic or Caucasian, despite that she is African-American. Her parents were told in September that their daughter had actually been found dead eight years ago when her body was located in the Detroit river (above) A full autopsy was never carried out on Crissita and an exact cause of death wasn't determined Her mother Rosita says authorities claim it was a 'mix up'. She says police failed to recognize her tattoos and that someone marked her down as being Hispanic or Caucasian 'Everybody is 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry'. No you're not sorry. You can't feel my pain... You didn't go through what I went through all these years. I don't want to see anybody ever have to go through this,' Rosita said. 'I never would have thought I'd be living this nightmare. This is hell.' Detroit Police Lt. Kenneth Gardner said he couldn't speak for the team working on the case back in 2009. 'But what I can say is that the team that we have in place today, they were able to make a turn around in 24 hours and connect the dots,' Gardner said. Wayne County officials notified Crissita's parents last week that they would be exhuming her body so they can have a proper burial. When they failed to identify Crissita after a year, she was buried in an grave marked only with a number - Jane Doe 10-3047 (pictured above) An Illinois museum has opened a theater where visitors can have conversations with Holocaust survivors through 3D holograms and sophisticated voice recognition technology. The Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education located in Skokie just outside Chicago opened the theater as part of its new Take a Stand Center. Auschwitz survivor Fritzie Fritzshall from Czechoslovakia said it's especially important to have her story preserved in the current political climate, with hate groups embracing Nazi slogans. Scroll for video This photo was taken October 2017 showing Holocaust survivor Fritzie Fritzshall posing for a portrait in front of her 3D hologram at the Illinois Holocaust Museum in Skokie Fritzshall is one of 13 Holocaust survivors who tell their stories through holographic images. On stage, Fritzshall's holographic image nods, tilts her head and appears to listen to questions. The technology not only supplies answers about her two years in Auschwitz, but if a child asks about her favorite color or food, the hologram can respond to that too. This exhibit is unique as it marks the first time that 3D holographic technology has been combined with the voice-recognition technology. 'We are the first in the world to have this and show it like this,' said museum CEO Susan Abrams. This photo of Fritzshall is from the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center Fritzshall (L) was born in Czechoslovakia in 1929 before being evacuated to Auschwitz when she was just 13-years-old 'We will be working with the Shoah Foundation to license this globally so that it can be seen by as many people as possible.' The Shoah Foundation is based at the University of Southern California Hollywood and was founded by director Steven Spielberg to preserve as many survivors' stories as possible. It has been a three-year, $5 million project using New Dimensions Testimony technology. Fritzshall had to answer around 2,000 questions about her life including the tragic night in Czechoslovakia when German soldiers banged on her door and held her family at gunpoint ordering them to pack and leave. Fritzshall said: 'I am leaving this behind for people five years from now, 10 years from now, 50 years from now ... so that the world can remember what happened to us, so it cannot ever happen to anyone else' In this photo taken April 2009, Holocaust survivor Fritzie Fritzshall finds the name of a relative who perished in the Holocaust in the Room of Remembrance at the Illinois Holocaust Museum The technology impressively turned her answers to those 2,000 questions into 30,000 responses. Fritzshall was born in Czechoslovakia in 1929 and she remembers her evacuation from her home very well. She said soldiers approached her door and her mother was ordered to take warm clothes, her valuables, to take whatever food she had and to march outside. 'After many hours they took us to what was known as a ghetto area. They told us we were going to be relocated. They lied. And we believed.' Pictured here are the first names of Holocaust victims written in Hebrew, Yiddish and English Students ask direct questions to Holocaust survivor Adina Sella (pictured above) as she is displayed on a 3D hologram at the Take A Stand Center in the Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center in October 'We honestly thought we were going to be relocated, until the door closed and we heard the lock go on from the outside. I believe that was the first we knew, wherever we were going to be taken to, it was not going to be freedom,' she said in an interview. 'When I am sitting in that chair I am back on the train, I am afraid,' Fritzshall said. 'I see the women holding infants, dead infants. I'm watching the entire scene at Auschwitz. I'm watching my brothers leave me, I'm hungry and cold and I see the trains coming in day in and day out.' She spoke about arriving at Auschwitz with two younger brothers who then went missing forever. Her mother and brothers died. Holocaust survivor Aaron Elster (pictured above) speaks to reporters as he is displayed on a 3D hologram at the Take A Stand Center The 3D holograms have over 30,000 responses ranging from topics regarding Auschwitz and also simpler questions about their favorite color or food She recalled the confusing 'separation,' where prisoners were ordered to get into separate lines. She remembered the moment she told her mother she was in the wrong line, not knowing it would send her to her death. 'I have carried this for all this many years the guilt of my mother, that maybe she would have lived had I not sent her into that line,' she said. Fritzie survived by pretending to be older than she was, therefore a stronger worker. She recalled how a man told her to say she was 15-years-old when she got off the train even though she was 13. 'I didn't know that at the time but that man saved my life.' She said otherwise she would have gone with the other children and gone directly to the gas chambers. There are also touchscreen panels featuring historical and contemporary inspirational figures, among them Nelson Mandela of South Africa (pictured above) On a death march from Auschwitz, she ran into a forest, where she was later freed. Fritzshall said: 'I am leaving this behind for people five years from now, 10 years from now, 50 years from now ... so that the world can remember what happened to us, so it cannot ever happen to anyone else.' She argued this type of exhibition is crucial in the current climate we are in: 'Charlottesville totally brought that fear back into me,' she said. 'I see that and I think what happened to me can happen to your children, your grandchildren if I don't speak out.' A man was slashed across the thigh, allegedly by a 16-year-old boy who then attacked police at a Sydney train station. Emergency services were called to Chatswood Railway Station about 8pm on Monday after reports of a stabbing. They found a 31-year-old man with a slash-wound to his thigh and rushed him to Royal North Shore Hospital. The boy was arrested at the train station before being taken to Chatswood Police Station where he was charged with malicious wounding and assaulting police. He was refused bail and will appear in Bidura Childrens Court on Tuesday. A Tennessee man will not be charged for shooting and killing his 18-year-old son. Kobe Hoyle was fatally shot outside his home by his father at 2810 Branwood Drive in the neighborhood of Donelson on Sunday afternoon. In a news release, the Metro Nashville Police Department said that 55-year-old Brentnol James will not be charged, at present, following consultation with the District Attorney's Office. Police have revealed that 55-year-old Brentnol James (left) will not be charged in the fatal shooting of his 18-year-old son Kobe Hoyle (right) on Sunday afternoon in Donelson, Tennessee. James told police he was scared of Hoyle and that his son told him that he was going to rob him The pair reportedly got into an argument outside their home. Police said the altercation turned physical, causing James to suffer an injury to his face. James told police that he was scared of Hoyle and that his son told him that he was going to rob him. No other details about the crime have been released at this time. Hoyle was shot outside his house on Branwood Drive (pictured). The pair reportedly got into an argument outside their home. Police said the altercation turned physical, causing James to suffer an injury to his face before he shot Hoyle James has a long-standing criminal history, having been arrested at least nine times between May 1996 and March 2016, DailyMail.com can reveal. His charges include unlawful possession of a weapon, theft of property, driving under the influence, forgery, aggressive assault and domestic assault. James was only found guilty in one offense: transporting, possession of or receiving alcoholic beverages. Hoyle also had a criminal history, being arrested last month on charges of impersonation, vandalism, and evading arrest. Donald Trump sought to distance himself Monday from federal charges leveled against his former campaign chairman, saying on Twitter that the crimes alleged against Paul Manafort concerned activities that took place long before his White House campaign. 'Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????' the president tweeted. Minutes later he insisted in a second tweet: '....Also, there is NO COLLUSION!' That last note is meant to push back against nonstop claims from Democrats that his campaign worked hand-in-glove with Russia to tilt the results of last November's election. Trump has lately been on a digital rampage about reports that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee funded an opposition research project last year that resulted in a discredited 'dirty dossier' full of salacious claims about him. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO President Trump pounced on Monday, denying Manafort's alleged crimes predated his campaign and insisting that he never colluded with Russia to affect the 2016 election Trump has lately been on a digital rampage about reports that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee funded an opposition research project last year that resulted in a discredited 'dirty dossier' full of salacious claims about him Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation has brought its first criminal charges and yielded two arrests Trump campaign aide Rick Gates, shown at left during the Republican National Convention, is also being told to turn himself in The indictments against Manafort and his former protege Rick Gates are purely focused on alleged financial crimes and do not include any charges related to the broader question of campaign collusion with Moscow. It does describe criminal allegations that predate the Trump campaign; Trump's name is not mentioned in the 31-page document. Manafort and Gates surrendered to federal authorities on Monday as the first charges from a wide-ranging probe of possible Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election were unsealed. The pair appeared at FBI headquarters to be processed and left on their own recognizance after just a few hours. Wire transfers: Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort (center) turned himself in at FBI headquarters on Monday, under fire for possible money laundering and tax fraud related to his work for Ukraine's former president The indictment against Manafort, 68, and Gates, 45, includes 12 separate criminal counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. The government alleges that at least $75 million was moved by Manafort to offshore accounts without declaring the income to the government. Form there Manafort allegedly withdrew $18 million to fund a lavish lifestyle, and Gates pulled another $3 million out. Among the expenses paid for by Manafort-controlled entities in Cyprus, according to the indictment, were $600,000 for antiques and $500,000 paid to a Beverly Hills tailor. Other money went for premium automobiles and home renovations in Florida and the Hamptons. Then-candidate Donald Trump first Manafort after reports that he pocketed at least $12 million in undisclosed payments from Viktor Yanukovych (pictured), the pro-Russia former Ukrainian president. Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez said in a statement that the indictment 'underscores the seriousness of the investigation into Donald Trumps ties to Russia. Its time for Republicans to commit to protecting this investigation and preserving the rule of law.' In a separate statement, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the charges demonstrated the necessity of keeping congressional investigations running alongside the Mueller probe. 'Even with an accelerating Special Counsel investigation inside the Justice Department, and investigations inside the Republican Congress, we still need an outside, fully independent investigation to expose Russias meddling in our election and the involvement of Trump officials,' she said. 'Defending the integrity of our democracy demands that Congress look forward to counter Russian aggression and prevent future meddling with our elections.' Manafort and Gates were the one-two punch responsible for keeping Republican National Convention delegates in line last year as the possibility emerged of a contentious floor fight over the presidential nomination. Manafort was fired shortly after the convention and replaced by pollster Kellyanne Conway, but Gates stayed on and was more recently working to help close out the financial books of Trump's inaugural committee. He had worked for Manaforts international firm, Davis Manafort Partners, from 2006 to 2007. The move to throw Manafort overboard came after reports that Manafort pocketed at least $12 million in undisclosed payments from Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russia former Ukrainian president. Manafort and his firm spent years as Yanukovych's political consultants. The Justice Department's indictment charges that Manafort and Gates 'generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their Ukraine work.' 'In order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities, from approximately 2006 through at least 2016, Manafort and Gates laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts,' it continues. Manafort hid his face from reporters who were staking out his house in Alexandria, Virginia Mueller's probe focused on wire transfers Manafort made from Ukraine to private accounts and whether he paid taxes on that income. Kevin Downing, Manafort's lawyer, was formerly a prosecutor in the Justice Department's criminal tax division. In July the FBI in July executed a surprise search warrant with guns drawn at Manafort's home in Alexandria, Virginia, seizing financial and tax documents. It's unclear if Manafort is the biggest fish in Mueller's sights, or if the former FBI director intends to squeeze him for information more directly related to the 2016 election and Russia's possible interference with it. 'Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS. The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OK'd!' the president tweeted on Monday. That tweet came a half-hour before news broke that Manafort and Gates had been indicted. The White House hasn't yet commented on their surrender. Master of distraction: A half-hour before Manafort's indictment was unsealed, President Trump tweeted about an alleged money-funnel between Democrats and the opposition research firm behind the discredit 'dirty dossier' about him Trump has denied the allegations of collusion with the Russians and called the probe 'a witch hunt.' The Kremlin also has denied the allegations. Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has been looking into possible links between Trump aides and foreign governments, as well as potential money laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes, according to sources familiar with the probe. He also is exploring whether Trump or his aides have tried to obstruct the investigation. Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation a week after Trump's May 9 firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was heading a federal probe into possible collusion with Russia. A shortage in Christmas trees in Oregon and North Carolina is set to drive up the cost of firs for the second year running. Too many were planted in the early 2000s, during an economic boom, which led to an oversupply once they had matured during the recession. An abundance of trees coupled with a lack of buyers forced prices down and many farmers were pushed out of the Christmas tree business, USA Today reports. A shortage in Christmas trees in Oregon and North Carolina is set to drive up the cost of firs for the second year running (stock) Now, with too few mature trees and rising overheads, seller Joe Territo in San Jose, California expects his 6-foot Nobel firs to sell for $75 each - up $6 on last year. Territo, who sells Oregon firs, is frustrated that with rising costs explaining that the only figure going down is his profits. 'It seems like every year, it's harder and harder,' Territo said. The problem is supply. With tree growers lacking mature trees during a critical point in the harvest, he's being forced to raise costs to cover his own. With trees taking around nine years before being ready to be cut and sold, remaining farmers cannot keep up with the demand stretching across the US. Typically, Oregon farms service the majority of the States, as well as shipping further abroad to Asia. Too many were planted in the early 2000s, during an economic boom, which led to an oversupply once they had matured during the recession. An abundance of trees plus a lack of buyers forced prices down and many farmers out of the Christmas tree business (stock) Whereas North Carolina generally ship to states east of the Mississippi River, like Florida. One manager at Silver Bells Tree Farm, just outside of Salem, told USA Today he has 20 times the normal customer inquiries this year. 'We just have enough to supply the customers we've been supplying, so we're not able to help them,' Grogan said. However Tim O'Connor, executive director of the National Christmas Tree Association, denies there is a shortage but admits, 'supply is tight' O'Connor is confident that there will be enough trees to match demand. But farmers aren't as optimistic. And now, with too few mature trees and rising overheads, seller Joe Territo in San Jose, California expects his 6-foot Nobel firs to sell for $75 each - up $6 on last year (stock) 'Right now, there's a tree shortage. It's been coming down the line for the last eight or 10 years, or so,' said Jason Hupp, manager of Hupp Farms in Silver Falls State Park, Oregon. He added that his biggest issue was fielding calls from customers wanting trees that just don't exist. Growers estimate a price raise of at least 10 per cent year-over-year, with some not expecting a return to normal harvest levels until at least 2021 or 2025. North Carolina harvested some 3.5 million trees last year, followed by 3 million in Michigan, 2.3 in Pennsylvania and 1.5 million in the capital, according to a report. By contrast, Oregon cut down approximately 5.2 million trees. With trees taking around nine years before being ready to be cut and sold, remaining farmers cannot keep up with the demand stretching across the U.S. Typically, Oregon farms service the majority of the States, as well as shipping further abroad to Asia (stock) One of the factors behind a lack of supply was a practically non-existent supply of fir cones - which are needed to grow the trees. A limited supply of Noble fir seedlings led Noble Mountain to fill gaps in production with Douglas firs, hoping that customers would want a Christmas tree of some sort. But some customers have been reluctant to branch out. The lack of trees plus rising prices has led to concerns among growers that customers will choose artificial trees instead - with a shelf life far longer than their organic cousins. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Oregon growers sold more than a quarter less real trees in 2015, compared to five years earlier. Whereas there were around 81 million Christmas trees displayed in the U.S. in 2016. And with customers becoming accustomed to the artificial version the long-term effects of this could prove catastrophic. Greg Smith, owner of Molalla tree farms, expects tree prices to rise because of the shortages. Smith said, as someone whose grown up in the industry, he's seen this before, and is prepared for big business in the shortage. 'I'm third generation,' Smith told PNWCTA, 'so I've seen highs and lows and it's time to put the money in during the low so you can cash in on the high.' Smith said people should expect to pay 50% more for Noble firs this year and advises people look at trying douglas firs instead. A Trump campaign foreign policy advisor who lied to the FBI about his Russian contacts and pushed for a Trump-Putin meeting reported to now-Attorney General Jeff Sessions during the campaign. Sessions, then an Alabama Senator who was the most prominent lawmaker to endorse Trump early, oversaw the president's National Security Advisory Committee at the time foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos was emailing senior campaign staffers about Russia 'outreach.' George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty October 5 to making false statements to investigators about his conversations with overseas sources about potential Russian dirt on Hillary Clinton, it was revealed Monday. Justice Department lawyer Aaron Zelinsky called the matter just a 'small part' of its ongoing probe of Russian election interference at Papadopoulos' previously sealed hearing where his plea was entered into. 'Your Honor, the criminal justice interest being vindicated here is there's a large scale ongoing investigation of which this case is a small part,' Zelinsky said. The president hailed Papadopoulos as an 'excellent guy,' listing him as one of just a handful of early advisors when he spoke to the Washington Post about them in March. Former Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to concealing information about his conversations with an overseas professor about Russia Sessions himself has drawn attention for his own Russia contacts, including undisclosed meetings with former Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergei Kislyak. Sessions infuriated Trump when he recused himself from the Russia probe, leading to the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The White House on Monday tried to minimize Papadopoulos' role. 'It was extremely limited. It was a volunteer position,' said White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Asked about how he reported to Sessions, Sanders responded: 'Again, somebody on a voluntary committee, I'm not sure how that would impact the attorney general direction.' 'This individual was the member of a volunteer advisory council that met one time over the course of a year. And he was part of a list that was read out in the Washington Post. I'd hardly call that some sort of regular advisor he was not paid by the campaign he was a volunteer on again a council that met once,' she said. President Trump tweeted out a photo of that single meeting in March of 2016. It shows the president and Sessions seated at opposite ends of a rectangular table. Papadopoulos is pictured just one seat away from Sessions and three seats away from the president.. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's office revealed the guilty plea Monday, and laid out the offenses in a criminal information that says Papadopoulos concealed a meeting with a professor overseas who said the Russians had 'thousands of emails' on Clinton. The White House on Monday tried to minimize Papadopoulos' role, calling him a volunteer whose panel only met once The government outlines a series of false statements Papadopoulos made to FBI investigators that concealed information about a the academic he met in London just days after becoming a Trump foreign policy advisor. The unnamed professor said he had met with government officials in Moscow and said the Russians had 'thousands of emails' on Trump rival Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos was listed as among just a handful of early Trump foreign policy advisors. Although Papadopoulos acknowledged meeting the the professor, he stated multiple times that he learned information from him before joining the campaign. 'In truth and in fact, however, defendant Papadopouolos learned he would be an advisor to the Campaign in early March, and met the professor on or about March 14, 2016,' according to the information. Papadopoulos admits these and other falsehoods in the information. He is now cooperating with the government, as Mueller explores any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the presidential election. He also told investigators the professor was 'a nothing' talking up his connections. But Papadopoulos 'understood that the professor had substantial connections to Russian government officials (and had met with some of those officials in Mosow immediately prior to telling defandant Papadopoulos about the 'thousands of emails,' according to the feds. Special counsel Robert Mueller's office announced a guilty plea by former Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, who concealed information about his conversations with an overseas professor about Russia He attended a March 31 national security meeting with Trump and foreign policy advisors where he stated that he had connections that would help arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin, according to the information released by the government. Trump tweeted out a photo of the meeting at the time Papadopoulos is seen at the middle of the table, at far left in this photo Former Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to concealing information about his conversations with an overseas professor about Russia Former Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to concealing information about his conversations with an overseas professor about Russia He also claimed he met a Russian female national before he joined the campaign, but in fact met her after. He believed she had connections to the Russian government, and mentioned her in an email to a campaign supervisor where he called her 'Putin's niece.' Papadopoulos later learned the Russian woman was not in fact a relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Washington Post reported that the description of the professor matched Joseph Mifsud, the director of the London Academy of Diplomacy, who appeared in an email described to the paper. It was among the 20,000 email communications the Trump campaign turned over to congressional investigators. Papadopoulos repeatedly proposed in emails to other campaign officials outreach to Russia. He wrote in one that there was an 'open invitation by Putin for Mr. Trump to meet him when he is ready.' 'The advantage of being in London is that these governments tend to speak a bit more openly in 'netrual' cities,'' he wrote. He attended a March 31 national security meeting with Trump and foreign policy advisors where he stated that he had connections that would help arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin, according to the information. He also proposed setting up a 'potential foreign policy trip to Russia.' The professor, who was cc'd on the April 2016 email, responded that he was already flying to Moscow and had meetings at the Russian Duma. He then proceeded to have several conversations over skype to set up a 'potential' meeting between campaign and Russian officials. The day after his April 26 meeting where he was promised Clinton emails, he emailed the campaign's senior policy advisor saying, 'Have some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right.' He also emailed a high-ranking campaign official about Russia's interest in hosting Trump. 'Have been receiving a lot of calls over the last month about Putin wanting to host him and the team when the time is right,' he wrote. The authorities may have been able to obtain additional leverage over Papadopoulos based on his actions after his January 27 interview with agents. The day after another February 16 interview, he deactivated his Facebook account, which contained information about his meeting with the professor and his meeting with the Russian ministry of foreign affairs. On February 23 he stopped using his cell phone and started using a new number, according to the feds. He got arrested on July 27 at Dulles airport in Virginia and then met with the government on 'numerous occasions' to provide information. The information states times Papadopoulos variously contacted a 'campaign supervisor,' emailed other members of the 'foreign policy team' about his 'outreach' to Russia, and contacted a 'senior policy advisor' on the campaign, even as the White House challenged the significance of his role. He also emailed a 'high-ranking campaign official' as well as another 'high ranking campaign official' to discuss Russia's interest in meeting Trump. HSBC today became the latest bank to launch a climb down on threats to move jobs out of London and into Europe after Brexit. The major City institution posted strong financial results today and admitted it 'may' move fewer than the 1,000 jobs forecast. The announcement comes just days after UBS also pared down plans to move banking jobs to Europe amid Brexit uncertainty. HSBC today became the latest bank to launch a climb down on threats to move jobs out of London and into Europe after Brexit There is particular concern about 'passporting' rights that would allow euros to be traded outside of the European Union. HSBCs finance director Iain Mackay said today: 'It may be less than 1,000 employees, but its up to 1,000.' Previous comments from senior HSBC executives had emphasised the number of jobs to move would be 1,000. Mackay said the bank had booked $12 million in costs for the third quarter in relation to Brexit, mostly spent on legal advice regarding contingency planning. HSBC still expects to spend $200-$300 million in total on Brexit relocation costs, he said. On Friday, Swiss bank UBS signalled a major U-turn on its threats to move 1,000 jobs out of Brexit Britain today. The bank had warned the jobs could go amid uncertainty about how the City of London would work after Brexit in March 2019. But chief executive Sergio Ermotti admitted it was 'more and more unlikely' the move would ever take place. The UBS shift came less than a week after Goldman Sachs publicly warned it could shift operations to Frankfurt. UBS chief executive Sergio Ermotti last week signalled a major U-turn on threats to move 1,000 jobs out of Brexit Britain Speaking as UBS unveiled profits of 1.1billion for the three months to September 30, Mr Ermotti said: 'We are finalising our plan on where to move people that need to be moved over the next one to three years depending on the outcome of this political discussion and negotiation.' He said that the 1,000 jobs moves were 'becoming in the last few months more and more unlikely because we got also some regulatory and political clarification about what we need to do,' he said. UBS has a 5,000-strong London workforce. Mr Ermotti said that his 'target' is to 'keep as many people as we can in London'. UBS has not given any further details on how many jobs could now be moved. The news is likely to raise questions over what kind of reassurances businesses are receiving around post-Brexit agreements between the UK and EU. In response to the UBS announcement, a spokesman for the Treasury said: 'The Chancellor has made it clear that it is his priority to ensure the UK remains the financial services centre of the world. 'We will continue to work closely with the City to negotiate a transitional arrangement which avoids unnecessary disruption, and allows firms to adjust in an orderly way to the new arrangements after Britain leaves the EU.' A number of firms have signalled staff relocation plans as a result of Brexit (PA) Last week, the City of London Corporation penned a letter to Chancellor Philip Hammond warning that Square Mile firms would start activating their Brexit contingency plans unless the Government provides clarity over a transition period by year-end. London lobby group TheCityUK also said companies will pull the trigger on 'irreversible' Brexit job relocations in the new year without similar assurances. That message was even echoed by the president of German financial regulator Bafin, who told reporters that it will be hard for companies to stall or halt Brexit contingency plans if Britain fails to strike a deal by the first quarter of 2018 a period he said could be a 'point of no return' for financial services firms. Just left Frankfurt. Great meetings, great weather, really enjoyed it. Good, because I'll be spending a lot more time there. #Brexit Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) October 19, 2017 Just last week, Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein took to Twitter to detail a recent trip to Frankfurt where the US bank is planning to relocate some of its own business. He said: 'Just left Frankfurt. Great meetings, great weather, really enjoyed it. Good, because I'll be spending a lot more time there.' Reports have emerged that the group which employs around 6,500 people in the UK had signed a contract to lease eight floors of a skyscraper in the city, capable of holding 800 staff. A collision between a horse-drawn buggy and a pickup truck has claimed the lives of three children and critically injured six other people in Michigan over the weekend. According to State Police, the Dodge truck smashed into the rear of a buggy carrying nine people at around 8.30am on Sunday near the central Michigan village of Sheridan. The Daily News in Greenville reports the crash killed a 12-year-old boy, a 9-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy who were riding in the horse-drawn cart. The six other occupants were hospitalized in critical condition suffering from life-threatening injuries. Deadly collision: A horse-drawn buggy is seen after it was struck by a pickup truck in Michigan Sunday, leaving three children dead and six other people injured This red Dodge truck smashed into the rear of a Mennonite family's buggy as the victims were headed to church in Sheridan, Michigan, Sunday The station WKZO reported that the occupants of the cart were members of a Mennonite family who were on their way to church for a morning service at the time of the crash. A preliminary investigation indicates the two vehicles were traveling east on East Condensary Road near Wood Road when the red Dodge 4x4 collided with the buggy. 'I was sitting there at the TV, watching TV, and I saw the buggies go through, and I seen this red pickup go through, and all of a sudden I heard "bang,"' neighbor Alden Wernette told the station WOOD-TV. 'Then another buggy went through, and just a couple minutes after that, the ambulance went through, and I thought, "This aint good.' The driver of the pickup, identified only as a resident of Sheridan, was not injured, and troopers say he was cooperative following the crash. The crash killed a 12-year-old boy, a 9-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy who were riding in the horse-drawn cart; the horse survived six other occupant of the buggy were rushed from the scene in critical condition MSP Lt. Rob Davis told FOX 17 that the horse pulling the buggy survived. Police do not believe that alcohol played a role in the deadly collision. Photos taken at the scene show that the buggy sustained extensive damage on impact, as did the truck. Maryland's AG is investigating the property company run by Jared Kushner's family over claims by tenants that its properties have been left to fall into disrepair, and that the firm uses aggressive debt collection practices against vulnerable residents. Attorney General Brian Frosh has launched a probe into JK2 Westminster LLC properties, a subsidiary of Kushner Companies, which was owned by Jared until he quit to take a role in the White House in January. However, he still retains an estimated $600 million stake in Kushner Companies, which is now run by his family. The investigations comes after numerous Baltimore residents blasted conditions at the properties earlier this year. Maryland's AG is investigating the property company run by Jared Kushner's (pictured outside his home on Monday morning) family over claims by tenants that it allowed some properties to fall into disrepair and used aggressive debt collection practices Attorney General Brian Frosh (pictured) has launched the probe into JK2 Westminster LLC properties after the claims emerged earlier this year In one stomach-churning story, Jasmine Cox of the Cove Village complex complained of maggots emerging from her carpet and raw sewage flowing out of her kitchen sink. 'It sounded like someone turned a pool upside down,' Cox told Pro Publica. 'I got out of bed and the sink is black and gray, it's pooling out of the sink and the house smells terrible.' When she moved out, the company invoiced her $600 for a new carpet and other repairs. Mike McHargue, a private investigator who lives at a Carroll Park complex with his girlfriend, told Pro Publica that JK' were 'nothing but slumlords.' 'They take everyone's money,' he added. When told that Kushner's name was behind the company, he responded: 'Oh, really? Oh, really. And I'm a Trump supporter.' Alishia Jamesson, 30, who pays $842 per month to live in the Highland Village complex with her fiancee and two children, had a litany of problems. Among them were a gap in the bathroom skylight that let in rain and snow; black mold around the bathtub and three holes in the wall of her living room. Poor residents of homes belonging to the Kushner Companies (such as the Carroll Park complex in Baltimore) say their homes are crumbling and maintenance is delayed The homes (pictured is Cove Village, Baltimore) are largely rented by poor people in Baltimore - some of whom are pursued aggressively for late rent, including one woman who was hounded on her death bed She paid $150 to have the holes fixed in October and is still waiting, she said: 'Every time I ask about drywall they say, 'Oh, well, we only have one drywall person.'' Elsewhere in Highland Village, the walls of a unit that had burned down months ago were still left standing, covered in tarp. Marquita Parmely, a truck driver who lives in Essex Park, said that her daughter, 12, had woken up to find a mouse in her bed: One of many from a nasty infestation. Parmely has to vacuum twice a day to clean up the droppings, as they trigger her two-year-old's asthma. Meanwhile, the company was criticized for their aggressive debt collection tactics against some of its most vulnerable tenants. One such individual was cancer patient Joan Beverly who signed a lease for her daughter, Lennettea, for a unit at the Dutch Village complex in 2009. Leannettea moved out a year later, several months before her lease was to finish - and more than two years before Kushner Companies bought up the property. In December 2012, JK2 Westminster Beverly filed a suit against Beverly, seeking $3,810.16 in missed rent and around $1,000 in repairs. Charles Kushner (center, in 2005), Jared's father, sold off the low-income properties that made his dad's company, but Jared started buying them up again in the 2010s. Kushner's sister Nicole Kushner Meyer (right with her brother) visited Beijing and Shanghai this year, soliciting $150million in financing for One Journal Square Two months later Leannettea presented a document in court that proved her mom was dying of pancreatic cancer in a hospice and was unable to work. JK2 pressed on with court hearings anyway. A district judge found in favor of the company to the tune of $5,500. Joan died two weeks later. A court denied her husband's request to dismiss the judgement. 'This tenant owned the landlord $3,819.16,' a Kushner Companies spokeswoman said. 'As property manager, it's our job to collect rent payments.' In another case, Kamiia Warren left Cove Village before her contract was up too, after a neighbor began behaving disruptively. She was using a Section 8 subsidy to help pay the rent. She gave two months' notice and obtained a note from the on-site manager that read 'The tenant gave notice in accordance with the lease.' Nevertheless, three years later JK2 came after her for not paying the remaining rent, and because she couldn't find the note, the judge demanded she pay the money, as well as court costs, attorney's fees and interest. That left Warren, who has three children and was working as a home health aide after putting herself through college, with a $4,984.37 to pay. Jared Kushner, who just recently returned from an unannounced trip to Saudi Arabia along with a security adviser and Middle East envoy (pictured) quit Kushner Companies in January to take a role in the White House She found the note and filed a motion to dismiss, but didn't attach proof of the note to the motion - something she didn't know she had to do - and lost. JK2 then began to take money directly from her wages and, later, her bank account. Her account dropped from $900 to zero. She had to borrow money from family just to support her kids. A return to court with the note and a plea to stop them taking her money was dismissed without explanation. Kushner Companies said it is complying with Frosh's investigation. 'We have been working with the Maryland Attorney General's Office to provide information in response to its request,' the company told The Hill in a statement, adding, 'We are in compliance with all state and local laws.' Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law who is married to Ivanka Trump, quit as chief executive of Kushner Companies to enter the White House, but retains an estimated $600 million stake in it. Subsidiary Westminster runs 17 properties throughout Maryland. The probe does not automatically mean that charges will be filed. Kushner Companies said it follows industry standards for maintenance staffing and exterminator visits. It said $10 million had been invested in upgrades across the complexes, but that 'Despite those improvements, issues still arise, given the age of the properties.' The Kushner Companies says it has an obligation to pursue all the money owed to it - even when that debt is years old and was accrued under the properties' original owners. Pictured is the outside of another JK2 owned complex, Highland Village But many of these older properties were never built by the Kushner Companies in the first place: They were bought up, from 2011 onward, by Jared Kushner precisely because they were old and cheap. Called 'distress-ridden, Class B' housing, they are typically older, worn and populated by residents who are struggling to get by. Ironically, the Kushner Companies - founded by Kushner's grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, was built on small, low-income properties. But his father, Charles, sold most of them off in the mid-2000s. Jared Kushner reversed that after taking over, starting in 2011. Kushner - whose company was, and is, best known for its high-profile New York skyscrapers - said he saw them not as investments, but as a consistent flow of cash. 'Our goal is to keep buying and incrementally growing - they're good markets where you can get yield,' he said in October 2011. One of the ways the company gets its money's worth is by pursuing its tenants through courts for overdue rent, even when they are desperate. JK2 Westminster has 548 cases in which it is the plaintiff, Pro Publica reported, not including hundreds more filed in the names of its complexes. It has won nine out of every ten judgements - some for just a couple of thousand dollars. Matthew Hertz, a lawyer whose company represents both landlords and tenants in these cases, said the cheap cost of finding someone makes it worth pursuing for companies. Just a phone number and a name is all it takes sometimes, he said - and a social security number makes it easier. 'If you buy someone's properties, you're buying their debts, not just their assets,' he said. 'You take the good with the bad, and try to collect on the bad. Jared Kushner is President Trump's son-in-law and is married to Ivanka Trump (pictured together in 2016) 'Even if you only get back five per cent, you're making something,' he added. 'It's, 'I'm buying up this property and if I can collect anything, it's gravy on top.'' And he said aggressively pursuing money owed - even when it's owed by a poor mother with three children, or a dying woman - is used to instill 'fear' in other tenants. 'They know tenants are going to talk to each other. If they say, 'He's going to come after you,' it's deterrence.'' Kushner Companies' chief financial officer, Jennifer McLean, said that the company has a 'fiduciary obligation' to its ownership partners to take in as much money as it can. 'Westminster Management only takes legal action against a tenant when absolutely necessary,' she added. 'If legal action is pursued, however, the company follows guidelines consistent with industry standards. 'While taking a tenant to court is far from an ideal outcome, that option - and clear rules governing it - must exist as a last resort.' Yet, this is not the first time Kushner Companies has been in trouble. Around three months ago, the FBI subpoenaed the company over its 'golden visas' program that reportedly offered green cards to wealthy foreign investors. The company also faced scrutiny in May when Kushner's sister, Nicole Meyer, a principal at the company, mentioned her brother's service in the Trump administration during a pitch to investors in Beijing. Kushner's sister Nicole Kushner Meyer visited Beijing and Shanghai this year, soliciting $150million in financing for One Journal Square with the lure of green cards for investors who put down $500,000 through the EB-5 government program. Could he pick a worse time? Just weeks after the devastating natural disasters across the country, President Trump has moved to repeal Americas best tool to combat climate change. Its akin to rubbing salt in the wounds of those Americans who have borne the brunt of these disasters. President Trump is going after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys Clean Power Plan, which set Americas first and only federal limits on carbon pollution from existing power plants. As most know, carbon pollution fuels the climate change thats making extreme weather like wildfires we saw over the summer more intense. But President Trump and Administrator Pruitt arent interested in saving lives or reducing dangerous pollution that triggers asthma attacks and worsens respiratory illness. Theyre interested in rigging the system for some fossil fuel companies that are alarmingly cozy with this administration. We must do everything we can do to protect our communities and economy from fires like the ones this summer. This is far from that. Trumps plan to repeal the Clean Power Plan will only make things worse. Adrian Wagner Bozeman A California woman is suing Sephora after claiming she contracted herpes from using one of the cosmetic store's lipstick samples. The woman said she visited a store in Hollywood back in October 2015 and used one of the sample lipsticks on display. She claims she ended up with the incurable disease on her lip, according to court documents obtained by TMZ. The woman said she visited a Sephora store in Hollywood back in October 2015 and used one of the sample lipsticks on display (file photo) The woman, who hasn't been identified, says doctors diagnosed her with the STD. She said she did not have herpes before going to the Sephora store. The lawsuit claims Sephora failed to warn her, as well as other customers, of the dangers of using lipstick samples. She said other cosmetic stores offer individualized samples or help from staff to avoid contracting diseases like herpes. The woman is suing the company for an unspecified amount for causing emotional distress due to the 'incurable lifelong affliction'. Sephora has not yet commented on the lawsuit. Roman Polanski faced a barrage of abuse from feminist protesters as he arrived at a celebration of his work in Paris. The Franco-Polish director, who is accused of a string of sexual assaults, appeared at the prestigious Cinematheque Francaise film archive, where his films will be showcased next month. But some 80 protesters were waiting for him outside, where they banged on windows and carried posters with slogans including, 'If rape is an art, give Polanski all the Cesars'. Feminist campaigners protest against the Roman Polanksi retrospective at the Cinematheque Francaise film archive tonight French director and screenwriter Pascal Kane (left), French actress Emmanuelle Seigner (second left), Roman Polanski (second right )and Cinematheque's general director Frederic Bonnaud (right) Two members of the Femen group briefly exposed their breasts and shouted 'no honours for rapists' in the presence of Polanski before security pushed them outside. The veteran director, who had entered the building through a back entrance, was set to present his new movie 'Based on a True Story' at the event. It comes as debate over sexual abuse rages worldwide following the allegations that toppled Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Polanski, director of 'Chinatown' and 'Rosemary's Baby', is wanted in the United States for statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl in 1977, when he was 43. The 84-year-old admitted to the charge after more serious rape charges were dropped, and spent an initial 42 days in jail before being released for good behaviour. Speaking ahead of his appearance , Osez le Feminisme ('Dare to be Feminist') spokeswoman Raphaelle Remy-Leleu told AFP: 'What is important for us is that the retrospective be cancelled and that the Cinematheque apologise.' Topless protesters hold signs reading 'Polanski accused of rape by 5 women who where then minors' French feminist activists demonstrate against French-Polish director Roman Polanski The group was behind a petition signed by more than 26,000 people to demand the cancellation of the month-long event. The Cinematheque, which is partly state-funded, has ruled out pulling the event, with its president, Greek-French director Costa-Gavras, saying last week it does not intend to 'take the place of the justice system'. Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen argued that the retrospective was planned long before the debate unleashed by the Weinstein scandal. The Franco-Polish director, who is accused of a string of sexual assaults, is due to appear at the prestigious Cinematheque Francaise film archive (pictured) tonight Demonstration: The protest comes a day after women held rally in Paris against sexual violence 'It's about a body of work, not about a man,' she said. 'It's not for me to condemn a body of work.' In 1978, convinced a judge was going to scrap his plea deal and send him to prison for decades, Polanski fled for France and has been a fugitive from the US justice system ever since, despite repeated attempts to have him extradited. Earlier this month Swiss prosecutors confirmed they were investigating new rape allegations against Polanski made by a woman who said he assaulted her in a resort in the Swiss Alps in 1972. The new claims, which Polanski has denied through his lawyer, bring to at least four the number of women who have publicly accused him of sexual assault. In February, Polanski was to host the Cesar awards - France's answer to the Oscars - but pulled out under pressure from feminists. A Pennsylvania church that was established nearly two centuries ago has shut its doors after enduring multiple crashes from trucks. The Mount Harmony United Methodist Church in Wellersburg was first established in 1846, over 170 years ago. On Sunday, it held its last service. 'As we go now from this house into a further journey of faith, we give you thanks, oh God,' pastor Kenneth Haines preached during his final sermon. In the last year three tractor-trailers have gone off the road and barreling toward the church, WJAC-TV reports. Scroll down for video A Pennsylvania church that was established nearly two centuries ago has shut its doors after enduring multiple crashes from trucks The Mount Harmony United Methodist Church in Wellersburg held its last service on Sunday The most recent crash occurred in April, causing enough damage for the congregation of around 200 people to say it was time to move The most recent crash occurred in April, causing enough damage for the congregation of around 200 people to say it was time to move. 'It's sad to see the building in the condition it's in and sad to know that this will be the last time that there would be people worshipping here, but also, there's an element of excitement, I guess,' Haines told WJAC-TV. 'There's the possibility of a new building, a new church.' Michael Norris has been a member since 1953 when he used to come with his father. 'There's a lot of good memories and it's sad to see the building go, but we think it's (for) the best,' Norris said. 'The church is not the building. It's the people.' The congregation is shown proceeding out of the church, carrying a cross with them. One man who's been a member since 1953 said: 'The church is not the building. It's the people' Pastor Kenneth Haines said they plan to build a new church on the same lot but further back The new worship space could cost up to $100,000, but Haines is hopeful that insurance from the previous church will cover the majority of the expense A new church is set to be built on the same lot toward the back corner on higher ground, making it less susceptible to collisions. Haines said they also plan to put up one or two barriers to deflect anything that would threaten the replacement church. The new worship space could cost up to $100,000, but Haines is hopeful that insurance from the previous church will cover the majority of the expense. He also sees the change of venue as a new beginning. 'We'll give it a "Field of Dreams" aspect: Build it and they'll come, right?' Haines said of gaining new members from the move. Haines said he hopes they'll be in their new church to start a new chapter around this time next year. An off-duty British Airways cabin crew employee groped a sleeping business class passenger on a flight to Bangkok after catching the man's eye, a court heard today. Paul Speak, 47, is accused of touching the man at least three times before fainting on board the BA plane when the complaint was reported. The court was told Speak, from Slough, Berkshire, noticed the man and 'clocked' him on the long-haul flight. He then allegedly touched the man on his 'inner thigh' which made him shout 'what the f*** are you doing? Stay away'. The BA crew member had used his staff points to fly from London Heathrow to Bangkok, Thailand The passenger also told Isleworth Crown Court that his penis was touched above his clothing but Speak denies one count of sexual assault. The man recalled being touched three times and told the court: 'I believe I said: "What the f*** are you doing? Stay away". 'The first time was the feeling of a light breeze on my thigh. I felt it again and saw the same guy walking back to his seat. It was a light touch on my thigh, the inner thigh. 'Something happened again and I caught the hand. It was in the crotch area. 'He mumbled and stumbled. I saw embarrassment on his face, shocked that he had been caught. I think that he might have been drunk.' The passenger also told Isleworth Crown Court that his penis was touched above his clothing Kathy Hirst, prosecuting, said: 'The complainant, who was travelling alone, noticed another gentleman in a distinctive pink shirt walked down the aisle and 'clocked' him. 'There was eye-contact and he held his gaze.' She said the the first incident occurred four hours after taking off from Heathrow, with Speak, a BA employee, using his staff points to fly. Miss Hirst said: 'On two occasions the complainant says he was touched above clothing on his penis. 'He was woken by someone running his hand over his thigh area, near his crotch. He raised his eye mask and saw the man in the pink shirt retreating. 'It happened again forty minutes later. The hand went up towards his waistband and it seemed to be prolonged. 'He saw the same man in the pink shirt walking up the aisle.' The passenger was on his way to Bangkok (pictured) when he claims he was inappropriately touched on the flight The passenger reported Speak to the cabin crew and a member of staff spoke to the defendant. Miss Hirst added: 'It was obvious to her he was drunk and she told him a complaint had been made. His eyes rolled and he fainted and fell to the floor.' Speak, who denies touching the passenger, was questioned by police on his return to the UK. He disputed the allegations and accepted he was wearing a pink shirt but added he took a sleeping pill and had a few drinks before take off on October 12 last year. The trial continues. Japanese fighter jets were scrambled to escort two Russian nuclear bombers flying towards the country's main island on Monday. Two TU-95 aircraft, otherwise known as 'Russian Bear' bombers, skirted the islands of Hoshu and Hokkaido before flying back across the Sea of Japan. The mission comes after America dispatched its own B-2 nuclear bomber over the Pacific Ocean on Saturday to show its 'commitment' to allies in the region. Japanese jets were scrambled to escort two Russian TU-95 'Bear' bombers as they circled the country on Monday (pictured, the route the aircraft took) The stealth bomber, once of the most advanced aircraft ever built, took off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri for a long-range training drill in the Pacific. Japan said that neither of the Russian bombers ever entered its airspace. This is the second time Russian bombers have flown near Japan in recent months, after three bombers and a spy plane had to be escorted back in April. That mission came just ahead of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's first visit to Moscow, with one official telling Fox News it was 'clearly meant to send a message.' Russia's mission also comes amid heightened tensions in the region as North Korea threatens to carry out a live test of a nuclear bomb in the Pacific Ocean. The bombers crossed the Sea of Japan, a focal point in tensions with North Korea, before circling Japan - though did not enter the country's airspace North Korea has already carried out dozens of missile tests so far this year, and is thought to have developed a missile capable of ranging most of the United States. However, it is unclear whether the hermit state possesses the technology to mount a nuclear warhead to the missile or bring it back down to earth intact. A successful test in the Pacific would prove both. The Russian bombers passed over the Sea of Japan during their mission, which has become a focal point for tensions with the North. The hermit kingdom uses the sea as a landing site for most of its test missiles, while President Trump has stationed nuclear submarines and warships in the region. Chinese authority raided an illegal dog meat shop today after its workers were seen roasting canines in the street with a blow torch. The shop claimed to sell goat meat, but inside dozens of dogs - many of which were said to have collars - were kept in rusty cages, waiting to be slaughtered and roasted. The officers from China Animal Health Inspection were notified by animal lovers and dog owners in Changsha, who had rushed to save their missing canines. A woman can be seen burning a dead dog using a blow torch on a public street (left). Footage captured by dog rescuers was posted on social media (right) Dog lovers found some of the dogs still attached with their name tags and collars The incident happened at Mawangdui market in Changsha of Hunan Province on October 30. Jiang Fan, a volunteer from China Small Animal Protection Association, spoke in an interview with Changsha Television that some captured dogs were pet dogs. 'A few of members and some dog owners came to save the dogs. Some of the dogs still had their collars on. There were golden retrievers, huskies, corgis, Labradors and more,' Mr Jiang said. Dog lovers accused the shops of smuggling and killing pet dogs. One of the shops was labelled as 'all natural black goat'. They also took videos of the workers using a blow torch to burn a dog that they had killed. Pictures posted by PETA Asia show many more canines could be seen locked up in cages, waiting to be slaughtered. Animal rights group also managed to rescue dozens of dogs on a truck. It's not sure how many dogs had been slaughtered. Officer Chen Teijun, from China Animal Health Inspection, told Changsha Television that he had sent colleagues to Mawangdui market for investigation. 'We have received reports of dogs that had not passed hygiene and food safety standards. Shop owners failed to provide any certificate to identify where the dogs are from,' he explained. Few of the shops in Mawangdui market were killing dogs without a proper licence (left). They killed the dogs at the front of their shops (right) Dozens of dogs were locked in a cage, waiting to be slaughtered (left). Animal rights group stopped a truck full of dogs to be sent to the unlicensed dog meat shop (right) More than one shop were forced to close down their business temporarily until a full health inspection has carried out on all dogs. A health certificate will be given to dogs that passed the tests; otherwise, it will be sent for euthanisation. Keith Guo, press officer at PETA Asia, condemned the government for not toughening the controls of illegal trade of dog meat. 'The officials are not giving any protection to the dogs, whether or not they are certified for health standards.' A former speechwriter for President Barack Obama showed his disregard for Jared Kushner over the weekend by dressing up like the White House adviser at a Halloween party. Jon Favreau wore a pair of khakis and navy blazer under a flak jacket with a piece of duct tape running across that read 'KUSHNER' on Saturday, just like the adviser wore on his April visit to Iraq. He was mocked at the time for keeping his blazer on under the flak jacket. The 'Pod Save America' host got his wife to join in the fun too, with Emily Favreau wearing a hot pink dress and holding a copy of 'The Trump Card,' looking just like Ivanka on the November 2009 issue of 'Quest.' And to finish it all off, the couple handcuffed themselves to one another, posting a photo of the final look on Twitter where Jon wrote: 'Early case of the Mondays?' Scroll down for video Inspiration: Jon Favreau and his wife Emily (above) dressed up like Jared Kushner and Ivanka trump for a Halloween party over the weekend Slide me Perfect: To dress like Kushner, Jon wore a pair of khakis and a navy blazer under a flak jacket with a piece of duct tape running across that read 'KUSHNER' Dig: The pair handcuffed themselves too, then joked it was a nod to the indictments set to come a few days later by tweeting: 'Early case of the Mondays?' (above) Retort: Emily retweetied her husband and added a quote from Ivanka's sit down with Gayle King on 'CBS This Morning' after she accepted a position in her father's administration Jon's Twitter caption was a clear nod to the news on Friday that Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller would be making his first indictments following his team's Russia probe. His dig was no match for his wife's wit however, with Emily retweeting that photo and captioning it with a quote from Ivanka's sit down with Gayle King on 'CBS This Morning' after she accepted a position in her father's administration. 'If being complicit is wanting to be a force for good and to make a positive impact, then Im complicit,' wrote Emily. Kushner and Ivanka can now thank the couple for their surge in popularity as at least 10 people commented on their tweets by posting photos dressed as the aides. Also joining the Favreaus at the party was friend and fellow former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett. Look-alike: The Quest cover with Ivanka in pink promoting 'The Trump Card' (above) The openly gay producer of 'The Newsroom' and '1600 Penn' went as The GLAADiator, dressing himself up like a Roman gladiator but with a rainbow flag and light-up helmet. It was a last second decision, with Lovett positing on Twitter just before the party: 'Costume decision. Trying to decide between Darth Gaydar, GLAADiator, or Gayton Manning for tonight.' It was revealed soon after that first report of pending indictments broke on Friday that Kushner was not even in the country, and had flown unannounced to Saudi Arabia with a handful of White House staffers including Deputy National Security Adviser Dina Powell. The group embarked on the trip to continue peace talks in the Middle East, with Kushner making the wise decision to fly commercial on both legs of the journey. Monday morning did not see Kushner or his wife getting put in cuffs however, and instead it was Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his onetime business partner and protege Rick Gates who surrendered to federal authorities. Old Oval: Jon was a speechwriter for President Barack Obama (pair above in 2009) and now hosts 'Pod Save America' Gang's all here: Friend of Favreau and fellow former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett went as GLAADiator (above) The struggle: The openly gay Lovett had some other inspired choices for costumes her revealed on Twitter (above) Favreau at his Halloween party in costume The indictment against Manafort, 68, and Gates, 45, includes 12 separate criminal counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. The government alleges that at least $75 million was moved by Manafort to offshore accounts without declaring the income to the government. Form there Manafort allegedly withdrew $18 million to fund a lavish lifestyle, and Gates pulled another $3 million out. The was soon followed by the dramatic announcement that one of President Trump's campaign foreign policy advisers, George Papadopolous, had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contact with Russians who promised 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton and 'thousands' of her emails. Jon still has high hopes for what is to come it seems as well, tweeting on Monday: 'Ok were about to record the pod, please hold on indicting the pee tape until later.' A restaurant has come under fire for a breakfast dish called the Border Patrol Scramble that some claim is racist. Activist Andrea Pino blasted the 'poorly named menu item' on Twitter, after spotting it on the menu at a Bad Daddy's Burger Bar location in the Charlotte, North Carolina airport on Thursday. The dish is a scramble of eggs, red onions, jalapenos, jalapeno bacon and pepper jack cheese, topped with salsa and sour cream. 'Way to reflect todays America,' wrote Pino, who works lecturing about sexual assault on college campuses. 'Hopefully they get the memo that this is in poor taste.' Activist Andrea Pino blasted the 'poorly named menu item' on Twitter, after spotting it on the menu at a Bad Daddy's Burger Bar location in the Charlotte airport She was not the first to question the restaurant's breakfast menu, with others calling it 'racist' and insensitive to immigrants. 'Not funny. Not at all,' wrote Chicago-based writer Sharareh Drury last month after stumbling across the item at the Charlotte airport. Bad Daddy's Burger Bar, which has locations in five states, responded publicly to Pino's critique on Twitter. 'Hey Andrea. We're very sorry if you felt offended by the name of that menu item,' the company wrote. 'We'll keep that in mind with our next menu rotation.' Bad Daddy's Burger Bar, which has locations in five states, apologized for giving offense and said it would consider changing the name at the next menu rotation Not everyone was convinced that the naming choice was offensive, however. The US Border Patrol is a federal agency with more than 21,000 agents, and is one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the country. 'Don't change the menu to avoid offending these snowflakes,' Twitter user @dlh8 pleaded to the restaurant chain. 'I protest the name french fry,' joked Jeff Harvey, adding that the name 'promotes violence' against the French since the fries are dipped in boiling oil. 'Stop with the lunacy,' he wrote. This is the shocking moment a biker gang races through the streets of Essex letting off fire extinguishers and terrorising pedestrians. The gang of at least 20 assembled for a Halloween 'ride out' in Romford on Sunday night. CCTV footage shows some appearing to slap a pedestrian after driving recklessly and on the wrong side of major roads in east London and Essex. This is the shocking moment a biker gang raced through the streets of Essex letting off fire extinguishers and terrorising pedestrians The group also smashed a police car windscreen at Romford police station. Officers deployed a range of tactics, including using stingers, to make four arrests and recover three stolen bikes. Two bikers were arrested for dangerous driving, one for disqualified driving and one for the possession of drugs. Jose Martins, the manager of Kosho nightlcub in Romford, told The Sun Online that twenty to thirty bikers raced past the entrance of the club. He said: 'You can see one of the bikers drive into the entrance, where he sprays the fire extinguisher and goes off. Then one of them hits a pedestrian as they drive past. 'I was really surprised. It's serious - if people think they can get away with it they can do it anytime. If they do it there's no police that can stop them. The gang of at least twenty assembled for a Halloween 'ride out' in Romford on Sunday night 'This is a pedestrian street so they shouldn't have been anywhere near the club. You can see they drive right up on it, it could have been really dangerous.' Superintendent Tania Coulson said: 'The group of individuals who came out today were intent on causing crime, and we saw the same levels of anti social behaviour we have witnessed over the past few years. 'The policing plan, working with our colleagues in neighbouring forces, meant that the group were targeted in areas which minimised the risk to the public, and could not enter central London.' Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, is the second high-profile member of President Trump's party to suggest the president may not run for re-election in 2020. Paul sat down with MSBNC's Kasie Hunt, who asked him if he thought Trump might attract a primary challenger, to which he paused and then answered that it could happen. 'Before you can even get to that you would need to know, "Is President Trump running for re-election?"' Paul, however, noted. 'I think you won't know that until you get into his second, third year of his presidency.' Scroll down for video Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, told MNSBC's Kasie Hunt on Sunday that he'd support President Trump - if he decides to run for re-election Sen. Rand Paul (right) told MSNBC's Kasie Hunt (left) that he didn't expect President Trump to announce his re-election intentions until his second or third year in office In modern presidential history it's been extremely rare for a sitting president not to run for a second term. The last time it happened was when President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to run for re-election in 1968. He had assumed the presidency after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and won election for a four-year term the next year. It's also rare for a sitting president to be voted out of office, with Bill Clinton's ouster of President George H.W. Bush the last time that happened, back in 1992. However, Paul and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie both expressed some doubts that Trump would pursue the presidency again in recent interviews. Speaking to the Today show on Friday, Christie pointed out that 'four years is a long time.' 'And especially for someone who has not spent a lifetime in politics so I think those years affect him differently,' Christie explained. It hasn't helped that Trump keeps hitting new lows in public approval ratings and, just today, three of his campaign associates were indicted, with one already pleading guilty, including his former campaign manager Paul Manafort. At the same time, at nine months into his presidency, he still hasn't gotten a major piece of legislation passed. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said that he'll be back to endorse Trump in 2020 IF he runs again Yesterday he vented his frustrations on Twitter suggesting that Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation was an annoying distraction preventing Republicans from getting tax reform done. 'All of this "Russia" talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT!' Trump tweeted Sunday. Despite the suggestions of Christie and Paul, whenever Trump has talked about his time in office, it's always been through the prism of eight years, the length of two presidential terms. In early October, when Trump was addressing longevity concerns about his second chief of staff, Gen. John Kelly, he told reporters, 'He'll be here, in my opinion, for the entire remaining seven years.' Just after his inauguration, Trump on several occasions mentioned what he planned to do over 'eight years,' several times too. But Christie made it sound truly hypothetical. 'If he runs again I would support him, yes,' the New Jersey governor said. 'But I'm not so sure what would happen.' Christie added, 'I'm sure the president will make whatever decision is best for him and his family and the country,' Christie continued. 'If he runs again, absolutely, I expect to be with him,' the New Jersey Republican added. Christie was one of the first prominent Republicans to back Trump during the 2016 GOP primary. As for Paul, he said he'd stick by Trump too. 'At this point, I can't see myself supporting anybody but President Trump,' the Kentucky Republican said. North Dakota Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger will serve almost a year of unsupervised probation under a plea agreement reached last week for his drunken driving arrest. Rauschenberger was arrested by a Highway Patrol officer late last month in Mandan for driving under the influence of alcohol, a Class B misdemeanor. A breath test indicated he had a .206 percent blood alcohol content, more than twice the legal limit. The plea agreement was signed by the 34-year-old Republican tax commissioner, his attorney and Morton County Assistant States Attorney Austin Gunderson on Wednesday and approved by a Morton County district judge a day later. Rauschenbergers 10-day jail sentence will be suspended for 360 days, and hell be on unsupervised probation during that time. Hell pay $1,250 in fines and fees and obtain a chemical dependency evaluation within three months. Rauschenbergers initial appearance, scheduled for Tuesday, was canceled. He faced a minimum $750 fine and at least two days imprisonment because his BAC level made it an aggravated first offense under state law. Rauschenberger had previously admitted to problems with alcohol and took a leave of absence in 2014 to seek professional help. In disclosing the arrest this month, Rauschenberger said he had been doing better but had let his guard down, adding that he would go back into treatment with a new counselor but wouldnt go on leave. Gov. Doug Burgum previously expressed support for Rauschenberger as he pursues his path to recovery. Rauschenberger, first appointed by former Gov. Jack Dalrymple to finish Cory Fongs term in 2014, would be up for reelection just weeks after his probation ends. He said Monday that hell likely make a decision about his future in the next couple of months. President Donald Trump wanted to meet with Iran's president during the United Nations General Assembly in September and had his request rebuffed, according to the country's government. 'A request indeed was made by the U.S. side but it wasnt accepted by President Rouhani,' the Iranian foreign ministry's spokesman Bahram Ghassemi said Sunday. The charge came up during a news conference, Fars, the state-run media outlet in Tehran, reported. Trump's White House has declined requests for comment. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO President Donald Trump wanted to meet with Iran's president during the United Nations General Assembly in September and had his request rebuffed, according to the country's government Trump's request for a sit-down with Rouhani followed a fiery takedown of Tehran during an address to members of the UN. Ripping Iran as a 'corrupt dictatorship' and 'economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos,' Trump shamed the leaders for using the nation's resources to fund terror rather than improve lives. 'We cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilizing activities while building dangerous missiles, and we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear program,' Trump said to applause. He trashed the nuclear deal his predecessor negotiated with Europe, China, Russia and Tehran as 'one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into. 'Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States, and I dont think youve heard the last of it -- believe me,' he said. True to his word, the president said several weeks later that he would decertify Iran's compliance with the agreement, setting off a 90-day window for action in Congress. Lawmakers are in the midst of deciding whether to immediately reimpose sanctions on Iran for nuclear activity or wait for a more serious violation than the behiavor Trump outlined. Trump wants Congress to put approve a set of automatic sanctions if Tehran oversteps a series of boundaries the administration has declined so far to list. The sanctions would apply not only to potential nuclear violations, but also to ballistic missile tests and terror funding. 'It is time for the entire world to join us in demanding that Iran's government end its pursuit of death and destruction,' Trump told the UN General Assembly in his Sept. 19 speech. 'And above all, Iran's government must stop supporting terrorists, begin serving its own people, and respect the sovereign rights of its neighbors.' A month later, as he announced his administration's new strategy toward Tehran, Trump said the country is a 'menace.' 'We will not continue down a path whose predictable conclusion is more violence, more terror, and the very real threat of Irans nuclear breakout,' he said. Two suspected extremists linked to the Manchester Arena bomber's jihadi network will face trial in Denmark after British intelligence helped secure charges. Ahmed Halane, 24 - the brother of teenage 'terror twins' Zahra and Salma, who left the UK to join ISIS in 2014 - is alleged to have joined Al-Shabaab in Somalia. Finnish national Nur Hassan, also 24, is accused of going to Syria to join ISIS with his wife in 2013 after fleeing Manchester. He returned two years later, when he was refused entry to the UK. Ahmed Halane is alleged to have joined Al-Shabaab in Somalia and is the brother of teenage 'terror twins' Zahra and Salma Both were close friends with a jihadi network associated with Salman Abedi, including terror recruiter Raphel Hostey and Raymond Matimba, according to The Sun. British spies helped bring charges against Hassan and Halane after they settled in Denmark, where their trials will take place. Hassan, who was previously believed to have died in Syria, is charged with joining ISIS in Syria between 2013 and 2015. His Cambridge-educated wife Iimaan Ismail, a teacher, was allowed back into the UK after reportedly going to Syria with him and is now living with family in Gorton, Manchester. When approached at her home, her mother said she had not spoken to Hassan lately. 'She hasn't spoken to him recently. He's abroad - she doesn't have any contact with him,' she said. Hassan's stepmother, Fatima Ali, said Ismail claimed to have gone to Syria to learn Arabic. Salma, left, and Zahra, right, fled Manchester to join Islamic State in 2014. Now their brother faces terror charges in Denmark Salman Abedi killed 22 people at the Manchester Arena bombing in May, which injured 250 people 'I saw Ismail about a month ago. She knows Nur has been arrested in Denmark,' she said. 'Nur has been arrested in Denmark in the last few months over terrorism.' The charges secured by British intelligence come after MI5 head Andrew Parker said the UK was facing its worst ever terror threat earlier this month, when he reported 20 plots have been thwarted since 2013. Raymond Matimba was identified as one of the so-called Beatles, who were Britons who fled to Syria to join Islamic State Twelve arrests across Europe in the last four years are thought to include those of Hassan and Halane, who are in custody in Denmark. Halane won competitions for his Koran recitals before arriving in Somalia. Islamic State recruiter Hostey is thought to have helped hundreds travel to Syria. Hostey prayed at the same Didsbury mosque as Abedi. He was previously thought to have died in a drone strike in Syria. A federal court in Washington is barring President Donald Trump from changing the government's policy on military service by transgender people. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled that transgender service members who had sued over Trump's policy were likely to win their lawsuit. She directed a return to the situation that existed before Trump announced his new policy this summer. Trump announced in an August memo that he intended to reverse course on a 2016 policy that allowed troops to serve openly as transgender individuals. He said he would order a return to the policy prior to June 2016, under which service members could be discharged for being transgender. A federal judge in Washington, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, blocked the Trump administration Monday from enforcing parts of its transgender military ban. Trump gave Defense Secretary Jim Mattis (pictured on August 24) authority to decide the matter of openly transgender individuals already serving People with the Human Rights Campaign hold up 'equality flags' during an event on Capitol Hill in Washington, in support of transgender members of the military U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote Monday that transgender members of the military who had sued over the change were likely to win their lawsuit and barred the Trump administration from reversing course. The Trump administration may appeal Kollar-Kotelly's decision, but for now, the proposed ban remains unenforceable. Transgender people have been allowed to serve openly in the military since June 2016. Trump, in a series of tweets on July 26, however, announced that he planned to end that policy. Trump wrote in a series of tweets in late July: 'After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.' He continued: 'Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.' Advocates claim there are as many as 15,000 troops that would be affected by the ban. The surprise announcement appealed to some in Trump's conservative political base but created uncertainty for thousands of transgender service members, many of whom came out after the Pentagon said in 2016 it would allow transgender people to serve openly. Trump announced on Twitter in July that the 'the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.' One of Trump's explanations for the ban was the 'cost burden'. But financial reports showed that out of $6.7billion spent on healthcare, transgender-related healthcare equated to just $8.4million. Meanwhile, $84.24million is spent on erectile dysfunction The lawsuit, filed by GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said such a ban is unconstitutional, denying transgender service members equal protection and due process. 'The damage is happening now,' said Jennifer Levi, director of GLAD's Transgender Rights Project. 'These service members were told in June 2016 they could come out and continue to openly serve.' The five plaintiffs serve in the Air Force, the Coast Guard and the Army. Their years of service range from three years to two decades, and include tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. All have come out as transgender to their commanding officers but are anonymous in the lawsuit, named only as Jane Doe, for fear of retribution, said Levi. 'We are enormously relieved for our plaintiffs and other transgender service members,' said Shannon Minter of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, an attorney handling the lawsuit. 'Their lives have been devastated since Trump first tweeted he was reinstating the ban,' Minter said. 'They are now able to serve on equal terms with everyone else.' White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders, asked about the ruling at the White House briefing, said it was something that had just been announced and said the Justice Department was reviewing it. Trump announced on Twitter in July that the 'the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.' He followed with an August memo directing the Pentagon to extend indefinitely a ban on transgender individuals joining the military, and gave Defense Secretary Jim Mattis six months to come up with a policy on 'how to address' those who are currently serving. Under the Obama administration, the Department of Defense had announced in 2016 that service members could not be discharged solely based on their gender identity. Transgender individuals were to be allowed to enlist in the military effective Jan. 1, 2018. Minter said the new court ruling means they will be able to do that. The Trump administration had asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit; Kollar-Kotelly refused to do so Other lawsuits challenging president's directive have been filed in Seattle and Baltimore. A man who brutally assaulted a complete stranger in a motiveless attack at a busy train station has been jailed. Shocking footage showed Miguel Steward, 26, from Birmingham run at the elderly victim and push him violently to the ground in a seemingly random attack at New Street station, Birmingham. He was serving a suspended sentence at the time of the attack. Steward was sentenced to four weeks in prison after he was found guilty of one count of assault by beating at Birmingham Magistrates' Court. He received an additional four weeks in prison for breaching a suspended sentence, so will serve a total of eight weeks in prison. On September 2 this year, the victim, a 68-year-old man, was walking through the station when Steward launched himself at him and assaulted him. Miguel Steward, 26, from Birmingham run at the elderly victim and push him violently to the ground in a seemingly unprovoked attack The victim sustained injuries and had to be treated by first aiders. Steward was arrested by British Transport Police officers on September 22 when he was seen at the railway station again. He was charged on the same day. Investigating officer, PC Piotr Gass, said: 'The victim, a retired man in his sixties, was assaulted by Steward for no reason whatsoever. 'The assault was unprovoked and the victim sustained injuries as a result of the incident. 'He was very shaken up by what happened and was left feeling unsafe and confused by the incident. 'Violence will not be tolerated on the railway network and I am pleased that Steward has been convicted and sentenced accordingly.' Steward suddenly ran at the elderly man and shoved him violently in the busy train station CCTV video captured the brutal, seemingly random attack at New Street station, Birmingham The forceful push knocked the 68-year-old off his feet and sent him sprawling to the ground The wife of a soldier seriously wounded while searching for Army Sgt Bowe Bergdahl has given an emotional testimony about the effects of his brain trauma on their family. Prosecutors called Shannon Allen to the stand in Fort Bragg, North Carolina on Monday to discuss the injuries suffered by her husband when he was shot during a search mission for Bergdahl after he walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009. Her husband, National Guard Master Sgt Mark Allen, was shot in the head during an insurgent ambush. He was left unable to speak and is paralyzed over much of his body. Scroll down for video Shannon Allen, the wife of Sgt Mark Allen, leaves a North Carolina court on Monday after giving an emotional testimony about the effects of his brain trauma on their family Mrs Allen's voice faltered when she referred to the brain injury's effect on his interactions with their daughter, who was an infant when he was wounded. Their daughter is now aged 9, but Mrs Allen said her husband isn't able to reach out and hold her. Bergdahl faces up to life in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he endangered comrades by walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009. Allen's wife sat crying in the courtroom the day Bergdahl pleaded guilty. After walking off his post, Bergdahl was held by the Taliban for five years before eventually being released in a 2014 prisoner swap criticized by Republicans. Shannon Allen (right, with husband Mark Allen) took to the stand as the prosecution's final witness on Monday to discuss her husband's traumatic brain injury National Guard Master Sgt Mark Allen was shot in the temple during a search for Bergdahl in 2009. He was left unable to speak and is paralyzed over much of his body His lawyers tried to argue on Monday that criticism by President Donald Trump is preventing him from having a fair sentencing hearing. Military judge Army Col Jeffery Nance rejected the arguments, saying the court has not been directly affected by Trump's criticism of Bergdahl. He also ruled that a reasonable member of the public would not have doubts about the fairness of military justice because of Trump's comments. The judge did say, however, that he would consider Trump's comments as a mitigating factor in the sentencing. Prosecutors are using wounds to several service members who searched for Bergdahl as evidence to convince the judge that he deserves a stiff punishment. After walking off his post in 2009, Bergdahl (above in January 2016) was held by the Taliban for five years and eventually released in a 2014 prisoner swap criticized by Republicans A parade of prosecution witnesses have described the danger they faced while searching for Bergdahl after he disappeared in June 2009 and the lasting effects of injuries they sustained in the futile hunt. Several service members on Thursday recounted a hastily organized mission in July 2009 to search villages near Forward Operating Base Kushamond that ended in a Taliban ambush. Early the morning of July 9, 2009, troops came under heavy fire. A grenade exploded near Texas Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Jason Walters, then an Army Ranger. 'Everything went black,' he testified. 'I saw stars.' As soldiers scrambled back to their position behind a berm, Walters saw Sergeant 1st Class Mark Allen get shot in the head. US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel John Marx, then a captain, said he helped load Allen unto a medical helicopter. A parade of prosecution witnesses have described the danger they faced while searching for Bergdahl (pictured left) after he disappeared in June 2009 and the lasting effects of injuries they sustained in the futile hunt Former US Army Ranger Jason Walters (left) and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel John Marx (right) leave the courthouse after testifying in the sentencing proceedings of Bergdahl's court martial at Fort Bragg, North Carolina 'That was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, getting Sergeant Allen on that chopper,' Marx said. 'It was hot, we were dehydrated, and just carrying his limp body - it was tough.' Allen suffered a traumatic brain injury and is now confined to a wheelchair and unable to communicate, according to prosecutors. His wife and doctor are expected to testify on Monday, when the sentencing hearing resumes. Army Specialist Morita, who was hurt in the same ambush, underwent three surgeries to repair his hand. He said he is more agitated and angry than before, and he directs his anger 'toward one person in particular'. As Morita left the courtroom on Monday, he leveled a steady glare at the defense table where Bergdahl sat. Retired Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer James Hatch also testified about his career-ending injury and a a military dog killed on a mission searching for Bergdahl. Hatch said the dog helped protect his team by locating enemy fighters after the SEALs lost sight of them in a chaotic situation. 'His name was Remco,' Hatch said as his voice cracked. Hatch said his team's helicopters came under fire as they landed in an area near the Pakistan border where they had information on Bergdahl's possible whereabouts. He said the mission was hastily planned, and their only objective was the Bergdahl search. Jonathan Morita (right), a former US Army soldier who was injured while searching for Bergdahl after he deserted in Afghanistan, leaves the courthouse after testifying on the third day of sentencing proceedings in Bergdahl's court martial last week Former Navy SEAL James Hatch, who was shot in the leg during a July 2009 attempt to rescue Bergdahl in Afghanistan, arrives with his service dog at the courthouse to testify on the second day of Bergdahl's sentencing proceedings last week Remco was leading them through a field when the dog located two enemy fighters that the team had seen at a distance. Hatch said the fighters sprayed AK-47 bullets at them, killing the dog. He was hit in the leg. 'I screamed a lot. It hurt really bad... I thought I was dead,' he said. Hatch said he believes he would have died if a comrade hadn't quickly applied a tourniquet. Hatch has subsequently had 18 surgeries. He now runs a nonprofit dedicated to the care and support of military and law enforcement dogs. Prosecutors are expected to call more witnesses in the afternoon to discuss the search missions and resulting wounds to multiple soldiers. The judge, Army Col. Jeffery Nance, ruled those injuries would not have happened had Bergdahl, 31, not endangered his comrades in 2009 by walking away from his post. Two of Bergdahl's defense attorneys, Maj Oren Gleich, left, and Maj Justin Thomas, right, leave the Fort Bragg courthouse on Wednesday. Bergdahl faces life in prison US Army Captain John Billings (left), Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's platoon leader at the time of his disappearance in Afghanistan, leaves the courthouse with an escort after testifying on the second day of sentencing proceedings in Bergdahl's court martial Nance said on October 23 that he would be fair and hasn't been influenced by President Donald Trump's comments about Bergdahl, but said he does have concerns that the president's comments are affecting public perceptions. While campaigning for president, Trump repeatedly called Bergdahl a traitor and suggested that he be shot or thrown from a plane without a parachute. Nance ruled in February that those comments didn't constitute unlawful command influence, noting that Mr. Trump was a civilian candidate for president at the time. The defense argued that Trump revived his campaign comments the day of Bergdahl's plea hearing, by saying at a news conference that he thinks people are aware of what he said before. Prosecutors made no deal to cap Bergdahl's punishment, so the judge has wide leeway to decide his sentence. Several more days of testimony are expected. Bergdahl, from Hailey, Idaho, has said he was caged, kept in darkness and beaten, and tried to escape more than a dozen times before President Barack Obama brought Bergdahl home in 2014 in a swap for five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Advertisement More than 500 dogs were dressed to the (ca)nines at the 17th annual Haute Dog Howl'oween parade in Southern California. The costumed pups paraded with their owners in Marina Vista Park in Long Beach, California. Justin Rudd, the event organiser, said it was a fun way to get the community together to raise money for animal welfare programs. 'It's ordinary to go to the dog park these days,' Rudd told The Grunion. 'But when does a dog get to be around hundreds of dogs at one time? This is big deal for them.' Some dog owners join in on the festivities with related costumes. Especially ambitious duos even make elaborate floats. The winner of the costume contest at the event was a Boston Terrier named Lucy who came dressed as the Cat in the Hat with her owners as Things 1 and 2 More than 500 dogs were dressed to the (ca)nines at the 17th annual Haute Dog Howl'oween parade in Southern California. Above, an owner and his Shih Tzu dressed up as three dogs pretending to be a 'hooman person' Another entrant took their inspiration from Beauty and the Beast, complete with a wagon for all of the smaller details A poodle dressed up in a lobster costume is carried in a large pot by her 'chef' owner as they make their way into the kitchen Oprah the Pomeranian embraces her fluffy fur as a frappuccino with a straw hat The winner of the parade was Lucy the Boston Terrier, who dressed up as the Cat in the Hat. Her owner is dressed as Thing 2 This group made the parade a family affair by dressing up as trolls with their three small pups A long-haired Chihuahua experienced the parade from under a rainbow in her Cupcakes and Rainbows themed wagon The top dog of the day, Lucy, sits proudly with her owners Thing 1 and Thing 2 as she receives her first-place title and grand prize An adorable old-timer wearing elegant pearls and a tiny hat received a ribbon as a finalist A pup sitting on a wheelchair throne dressed as PeeWee Herman looks proudly at the camera A corgi has been transformed into an actual Chia Pet with a shrub-covered suit A Golden Retriever named Scooty is ready to take flight in his pilot ensemble A musical shih tzu is ready for the Day of the Dead in a mariachi costume in a colored float A punny little pup dressed up as the painter Picasso rolled down the parade path on a makeshift painting studio A brother and sister duo went as a lion and a zebra. The owner joined them in a giraffe suit A little girl and her dog wear matching lion costumes as they strut past spectators A Chihuahua is dressed as a tourist at Disneyland complete with a pup-sized camera A large grey dog was transformed into a delicious pack of Jelly Bellies with water balloons and plastic wrap A super duo of wonder woman and superman strutted confidently down the parade route A big fluffy dog's furr has been died light pink to make her look like a fairy, complete with a pink tutu and wings Participants dressed as Georgie and Pennywise from the movie 'It' pose on the grass A young boy and his pup dressed as characters from the shining with a tricycle and wagon Another touristy trotter rocks a Hawaiian shirt and checkered visor over his loose curls A poodle shows off her latest cut-and-color with puffy magenta paws, ears and tail A duo of imposters roll down the street in a wagon-turned-circus cage dressed as monkeys A rockin Airdale Terrier dresses a member of the Guns n Roses band complete with flowing blond locks and a red bandana A Jack Russell Terrier's football player costume and accompanying helmet vehicle are a clear touchdown at the parade A black pooch looks radiant in a flower crown as she channels her inner Frida Kahlo The dog dressed as Frida Kahlo is accompanied by her owner dressed as a fierce luchador A wise young pup is dressed as Yoda from Star Wars with his Jedi owners The parade went swimmingly for this mermaid Corgi whose owner was dressed as a crab Cupcake the Poodle even manages to hit the salon for a manicure before the parade A timid Boston Terrier puppy went for a more low-key vibe with a black hoodie at the parade A chopper-ready schnauzer looks psyched to hit the the road with his dad following the parade The Queen of Hearts and her trusty sidekick turned heads with red, black and white get-ups A small unicorn pup is not quite ready for her close up as she shows her tush to the camera A pooch sits confidently in his automobile with goggles on, ready to hit the mean streets A massive Great Dane tries to convince crowds he's a horse as he struts down the road A tiny Disney-loving Pomeranian dressed as Moana from last year's film A violent thug who racially abused three sisters on board a train and ordered his dog to bite them has been jailed. Luke Nicholls, 21, from Birmingham, pleaded guilty to one count of racially aggravated assault and two public order charges, one of which was religiously aggravated. The incident happened on board a London Midland service from Kings Norton to Redditch on Saturday 8 July this year. At Northfields station, Nicholls boarded the service along with another man who had a dog. He sat near three sisters, aged 16, 22 and 23 years old. The dog then licked one of the victims on her jacket, she was uncomfortable with this and moved away. Luke Nicholls pictured on a train with his dog (left). The 21-year-old from Birmingham, pleaded guilty to one count of racially aggravated assault and two public order charges Seeing her move away, Nicholls started to encourage the dog to sit on the seat next to the victims. The three sisters then asked Nicholls if he could move his dog away. He became instantly aggressive, saying 'do you want me to make it bite you?' The sisters then moved carriages, fearing for their safety. A few minutes later, Nicholls followed the sisters and when he passed them he told his dog to 'bite them'. He sat opposite the sisters tormenting them with his dog further, he then stood up and snatched one of the sisters phones. The phone was taken back but Nicholls became increasingly aggressive to the sisters and then racially abused them. Just before he left the train at Redditch he turned back to the sisters and threatened to 'slaughter them' when he left the train. The three sisters were too frightened to leave the train and were supported by staff and other passengers. Nicholls was waiting outside Redditch station but left a short while later. Nicholls appeared before Worcester Magistrates' Court on 26 October where he was handed an eight week prison sentence. He was also handed an additional twelve weeks prison sentence for breaching other suspended sentences. Investigating officer PC Piotr Gass from British Transport Police, said: 'This was a terrifying ordeal for these three sisters. Nicholls was acting in an outrageous way, threatening to set his dog on them and being racially abusive. 'I would like to thank the public for their help in identifying Nicholls and bringing him to justice. 'They played a vital role in putting him behind bars. Likewise, the sisters were incredibly brave in challenging his disgraceful actions and recording him on their smartphones. This meant we had vital evidence in prosecuting him. 'It is never OK to be targeted because of your ethnicity or religion. We will never tolerate it and we continue to urge victims and witnesses to report incidents on the railway to us. 'I hope this sentence sends a clear message that we will investigate crime and will always strive for the toughest of sentencings.' Party whips gather information on misbehaviour by MPs but keep it secret to use it against them later, a former No 10 aide to Theresa May claimed today. Katie Perrior hinted at the long-rumoured existence of an infamous 'black book' in the Tory whips office. The former No 10 head of communications said the information was kept away from the Prime Minister. Her intervention came on a day allegations of sexual harassment exploded into a major scandal at Westminster in the aftermath of allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Ex-No 10 head of communications Katie Perrior (pictured on the BBC today) hinted at the long-rumoured existence of an infamous 'black book' in the Tory whips office Ms Perrior said incriminating information was often 'kept away from the prime minister' but deployed by whips to enforce party discipline. She told BBC Breakfast: 'The information is held by the whips, because they use it to make sure that MPs know that other people within the party know exactly what they've been up to. '(They are told) that behaviour either is not acceptable, or it will be used against them you will vote in a certain way or we will tell your wife exactly what you've been up to.' The Westminster 'sex pest' row escalated today with warnings that MPs could face hundreds of allegations - and claims some could even be criminal. The scale of the scandal appears to be widening after a 'dirty dossier' surfaced listing 36 sitting Conservative MPs. Ms Perrior said the information was kept away from the Prime Minister (pictured in Downing Street today) One was said to be 'handsy with women', another 'paid a woman to be quiet', while a former Tory minister was said to have propositioned his secretary by asking her to 'come and feel the length of my c***'. Theresa May today vowed to act against MPs found to have harassed staff and refused to say she had confidence in a serving minister, Mark Garnier. He faces a formal probe into claims he made his secretary Caroline Edmondson buy sex toys for him and called her 'sugar t*ts' in public. The International Trade minister denies sexual harassment and says the allegations are exaggerated. Meanwhile, a Labour MP has warned that issues with sexual misconduct in Westminster go much wider - and cases could number in the hundreds. Another MP said he was aware of four incidents, saying one 'passes the criminal threshold' and another is 'appalling'. The victims of a deadly farmhouse fire have been identified as a family of five, including a 19-year-old cadet firefighter. Austin Rainey, 19, died in the blaze on Thursday in Fostoria, Ohio along with his parents James, 45, and Jodi, 41, and younger siblings, 15-year-old Cody and 7-year-old Jessica. Two dogs also died in the fire. Investigators say that young Jessica made the 911 call from inside the house with her father's cell phone, but that the fire was so intense that the first firefighters to arrive could not get inside to save the family. The fire began around 3.45am, starting on the first floor of the home, the State Fire Marshal said in a statement. Although the cause of the fire was ruled undetermined, investigators could not rule out electrical or heating sources as possible causes of the inferno. Austin Rainey, 19, (left) died in the blaze on Thursday in Fostoria, Ohio along with his parents and younger siblings, 15-year-old Cody (left) and 7-year-old Jessica (center) Investigators say that young Jessica made the 911 call from inside the house with her father's cell phone, but the fire was so intense that firefighters were unable to rescue the family Parents James Rainey, 45, and Jodi Depinet-Rainey, 41, died in the inferno. Investigators have not determined a cause for the fire, but can't rule out heating or electrical sources A cadet firefighter, 19, is among the five dead after a family's farmhouse in Ohio went up in flames (pictured) The body of Austin, a fire cadet for his local Bascom district, was draped with a U.S. flag and saluted as his body was taken to the vehicle. Crews found three bodies in the morning and two more bodies later beneath some of the rubble. Parts of the house had collapsed, making it dangerous and difficult to search, Henry said. Investigators said four bodies were on the second floor and one on the first. 'There was a lot of fire coming out of the front - a lot of heavy smoke,' said Chief Mark DeVault of the Bascom Joint Fire District. Nothing was left of the home's roof or front porch, and much of both floors were badly burned. Austin (left) Jessica and Cody are pictured. Funeral arrangements for the family are pending Investigators look through rubble after a farmhouse fire Thursday, near Fostoria, Ohio Fire crews standby after battling a farmhouse fire that killed multiple people Thursday A firefighter and a unidentified woman hug after a farmhouse fire Thursday Austin is seen with his siblings Jessica and Cody in this family photo Briana Lynn Hepp, Austin's girlfriend of two years, paid tribute to the 'love of my life' in a touching Facebook post. 'Its so hard to see my love of my life gone I miss him so much,' she wrote. 'It kills me to see my boyfriends family gone and him too. 'I was getting close to his family... Im heart broken and Im a complete wreck.' Austin went to Vanguard-Sentinel Career and Technology Centers, and worked as a part time cashier. The Seneca County Coroner will release the autopsy results in the coming weeks. Funeral arrangements for the family have not yet been made. Kevin Spacey was brought up by a Nazi father who raped his brother and brutalized his family so badly that they called him The Creature, his older brother exclusively told the DailyMail.com. Now, as the Oscar-winning actor faces allegations of trying to seduce Star Trek's Antony Rapp when he was just 14 years old and of sexually assaulting a relative of former US news anchor Heather Unruh, the truth of his own troubled upbringing has been revealed. Spacey's older brother Randall Fowler, 62, described the current allegations leveled at his brother as 'disturbing' to DailyMail.com, as he acknowledged he had been made aware of them in the early hours of Monday morning. Spacey, 58, claims not to recall the incident with Rapp, and has issued an apology of sorts for 'what would have been inappropriate drunken behavior.' In a tweeted statement he went on to say that the story has encouraged him to 'address other things' about his life, speaking openly for the first time about his homosexuality and choice to now live 'as a gay man.' Fowler has given some insight into what those 'other things' might be, as he admitted he was sexually abused by their father for years and that his mother knew of the abuse. Kevin Spacey's older brother Randall Fowler (the brothers pictured together in 2003) has spoken out about their abusive Nazi father exclusively to DailyMail.com Spacey's brother claims that the boys' father Thomas Geoffrey Fowler (left) raped him for years and brutalized the family so badly that they called him The Creature Fowler said that he avoided having children of his own in fear that they would 'inherit the sexual predator gene' that came from their father. Pictured: Spacey (far left) aged 9, with his mother, sister Julia and brother Randall Fowler (far right) Fowler is a Rod Stewart impersonator and limo driver in Boise, Idaho. His life is a world away from that of his famous brother from whom he is estranged. But, according to Fowler, along with older sister Julie, he and the notoriously secretive star shared a brutal upbringing in a 'house of horrors' dominated by their ultra right wing, perverted sadist of a father. Thomas Geoffrey Fowler was such an abusive figure that, his oldest son admitted, he avoided having children of his own for fear that they would 'inherit the sexual predator gene.' Fowler recounted that damage and the toll it took on him and his siblings in an interview with The Mail on Sunday shortly after Spacey - who was not then openly gay - was arrested in a park in London in the early hours of the morning in March 2004. Now, the House of Cards star has admitted that he has loved and had romantic relationships with both men and women and 'chooses to live life as a gay man.' And much like Spacey, the character Frank Underwood on Netflix's hit political show also kept his sexuality hidden away, having trysts with both men and women throughout the series in secret. At the time of the interview, Fowler described his brother as an 'empty vessel' who had never had a real relationship with anyone other than his mother. He said: 'Neither of us had a chance growing up with two such damaged parents. I went through three marriages and 40 affairs.' Their father, Thomas Geoffrey Fowler, joined the American Nazi Party when Spacey and his brother were just boys. He trimmed his mustache to resemble Adolf Hitler and he regularly whipped and raped his eldest son, Randall Fowler. Fowler claims his mother Kathleen knew about the sexual abuse he suffered and when he confronted her about it years later, she simply sat in 'stony silence'. Pictured: Spacey and his mother Kathleen in 1996 Fowler (pictured) said he was briefly a Scout but his father made him quit when he discovered that the scoutmaster was Jewish. He said his father would lecture them on white supremacy, claimed that the Holocaust was a lie and said that Jews ran banks and Hollywood Fowler described his brother as an 'empty vessel' who had never had a real relationship with anyone other than his mother. Fowler said: 'Neither of us had a chance growing up with two such damaged parents'. Pictured: The brothers in their adolescence As a boy Spacey tried to placate his father while Fowler took the brunt of their father's sadistic abuse. Their elder sister, Julie, also endured beatings at her father's hands and ran away when she was 18 years old. In his harrowing account Fowler recalled: 'There was so much darkness in our home it was beyond belief. It was absolutely miserable.' He said: 'Kevin tried to avoid what was going on by wrapping himself in an emotional bubble. He became very sly and smart. 'He was so determined to try to avoid the whippings that he just minded his Ps and Qs until there was nothing inside. He had no feelings.' Fowler spoke of a rootless childhood during which their father forced his family to move 10 times - from Colorado where he was born in 1956, to New Jersey where Spacey was born three years later and finally onto Los Angeles. Wherever they were, he and his siblings were 'trapped' he said. Friends were not permitted in the Fowler household for fear that they would see the walls of Thomas Geoffrey Fowler's office, lined with pictures of naked men and women and pornography, according to Fowler. Fowler was briefly a Scout but his white supremacist father made him quit when he discovered that the scoutmaster was Jewish, Fowler said. Spacey was never allowed to join. Fowler recalled that during his first sexual encounter with his father, he yelled for his mother to come help. He said: 'She came right up and pounded on the door but Dad had locked it and he told me to keep quiet. All of a sudden the pounding stopped. Mom had left'. Pictured: Spacey with his mother in 1999 Fowler, who is a Rod Stewart impersonator and limo driver said: 'I constantly threatened my father that if he ever touched my brother, I'd confront my mother with what was going on and that would destroy the family' In an eerily similar circumstances, Spacey's character Frank Underwood's father on House of Cards, also had ties with white supremacist groups, as the fictional father once went to a Ku Klux Klan meeting. Fowler said that their mother, Kathleen was the breadwinner. She had a steady job as a secretary while her husband, a technical writer by trade, occasionally took freelance work. According to Fowler, his mother was 'disgusted' by his father by 1963 when it transpired that he was abusing a teenage girl who was a relative. The family would be forced to sit through dinnertime rants as Fowler Sr lectured them on white supremacy, claimed that the Holocaust was a lie, that Jews ran banks and Hollywood, and that something called 'biocrud' would destroy the planet. He would stand behind Fowler with a riding whip, demanding that he read whatever diatribe he picked and beat him if he refused. Finally, when Fowler was 12 years old, his father summoned him to his bedroom and said he was going to teach him about the birds and the bees. Fowler said: 'He unbuttoned my pants and started playing with me.' Horrified he yelled for his mother. Fowler said: 'She came right up and pounded on the door but Dad had locked it and he told me to keep quiet. 'All of a sudden the pounding stopped. Mom had left. I'd never felt so abandoned. Dad started to perform a sex act on me. That was the beginning of my adolescence.' Former US news anchor Heather Unruh (left) said the Harvey Weinstein scandal had given her the courage to accuse Spacey of assaulting her relative. Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp (right) is accusing Hollywood A-lister Kevin Spacey of making a sexual advance toward him when he was aged 14 Spacey issued a statement (above) via his Twitter account after Rapp's claims were made public. The 58-year-old actor said he doesn't remember the encounter and apologized. He also said he chooses now to 'live as a gay man' From there, for the next four years, the sex got rougher and the sessions got longer and more frequent, Fowler said. Fowler responded to the abuse by rebelling. His sister ran away from home. Kevin, he recalled, 'turned into himself' and tried not to get into trouble. The actor would try to distract and 'cheer everyone up' with his impersonations of famous people like Johnny Carson. Looking back, Fowler reflected at the time, acting was 'maybe an escape' for his younger brother. For his part, Fowler said: 'I constantly threatened my father that if he ever touched my brother, I'd confront my mother with what was going on and that would destroy the family.' He 'sacrificed' himself he said, for the sake of his little brother. Fowler added: 'He and I were very close because we had so very few friends.' Spacey, who was aged 26 at the time, allegedly invited Rapp to his apartment for a party in 1986. Rapp said that he went to watch TV in Spacey's bedroom until after midnight because he became bored. Spacey is pictured above in 1986 in Heartburn The only thing that kept Fowler from ending his life - although he once went as far as putting the barrel of a gun in his mouth - was the realization that without him, there would be nobody there to protect his younger brother. In later years their mother wrote a letter to all three children. Fowler said that she did not attempt to apologize or even fully acknowledge what they had suffered at their father's hands. Instead, he said, she 'tried to justify' their father's behavior, saying that his own childhood was troubled and denied that by sharing his 'political interests' he was trying to 'foist' his beliefs on them. In 1990 Fowler finally confronted his mother in front of both Spacey and their sister Julie. Their father had been rushed to the hospital and all of his children had assembled. Fowler recalled: 'Our mother just sat in stony silence.' Ultimately Thomas Geoffrey Fowler died at the age of 68 having moved with his wife once more, to a suburb of Atlanta. Spacey called his brother to let him know of his passing and their mother called Fowler on Christmas Day to tell him that he need not come to the funeral. From then on Spacey's bond with his mother intensified, Fowler said, and their own relationship suffered. When she died on March 19, 2003, Spacey had her cremated under a false name - Ruby Stevens - as he was adamant that the family keep the media in the dark. Her ashes were divided into two star-shaped containers with a gold plaque bearing her favorite saying, 'Everything will be fine.' Today, as Spacey faces two allegations of assault and admits there are more 'stories' about him, the truth of that saying is about to be tested. North Dakota Tax Commissioner Ryan Rauschenberger reached a plea agreement Wednesday in his driving under the influence case, the terms of which are "very typical," said an attorney familiar with such cases. From the agreement, Rauschenberger will serve about a year of unsupervised probation with a 10-day suspended jail sentence and complete recommended treatment and a chemical dependency evaluation. He must also violate no laws the next year. He's already paid $1,250 in a fine and fees. Speaking Monday morning, Rauschenberger said he understands the gravity of the situation. "I felt it was important to be upfront about the issue and to disclose it and enter the plea of guilty," he said. "I stand beside that decision, as far as the actual charge." He had been set for an initial appearance Tuesday, now canceled. Appointed in 2014 and elected as a Republican later that year, he also said he has not yet made a decision regarding reelection. "In the coming weeks and month, I'll be making a decision about whether to run," he said. Rauschenberger, 34, also said he plans to continue to focus on his work in the state tax department, as well as continuing care for his addiction treatment. In a press release from earlier this month, he addressed his addiction to alcohol, which he said he has treated since 2014. "I'll just say again, it was a poor decision on my part to one, drink, but also to drive, and I also understand the gravity in that, and I want to express my apologies for making that decision," Rauschenberger said. Rauschenberger's DUI arrest was the night of Sept. 30 in Mandan. Fargo attorney Mark Friese, of Vogel Law Firm, said Rauschenberger's disposition is "very typical" for first-time DUI cases. "I took a look at his case, the charging documents and the plea agreement, and it's very consistent with how these cases are resolved," Friese said. Morton County Assistant State's Attorney Austin Gunderson did not immediately return two messages Monday seeking comments. A teenage girl has died in a hospital three weeks after she was severely burned in a fire that tore through Mendocino County, California. Her death raises the number of those killed in the state's wildfires this month to 43. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports 17-year-old Kressa Shepherd died Sunday night at a Sacramento hospital. Her younger brother, Kai, who was 14 was one of the youngest to die in the fire. Tragically, their parents, Jon and Sara Shepherd still have no idea both their children have succumbed to their injuries. Kressa Jean Shepherd, 17, far right, died Sunday afternoon at a Northern California hospital. Her brother Kai, 14, died during the fire. Parents, Sara and Jon are still recovering unaware that both of their children are dead Doctors performed a CAT scan on Kressa's brain and to determine she was brain-dead Kressa, pictured left with her brother, right, had both of her legs amputated below the knee Speaking about Kressa's death on Sunday night, her aunt, Mindi Ramos, says officials from Shriners Hospital for Children told her Kressa did not register pain during a change of the dressing on her burns. 'We have lost Kressa Jean. Today during a dressing change it was noticed that she was in no pain which is very unusual,' family members wrote on a fundraising page. 'They did a CT scan and it showed that her brain had been dead for some time. There was nothing the doctors could do. She is no longer in any pain and is with Kai now. Please continue to pray for strength to get through the loss of this precious soul. ' Kai Shepherd, 14 (bottom right), died when he tired to escape the Redwood Valley Fire with his family. Dad, Jon, 45 (bottom left); mother Sara, 40 (top left); and sister Kressa, 17 (top right) In the weeks since the fire, Kressa had both of her legs amputated below the knee because of severe muscle damage. Doctors performed a CAT scan on her brain and according to Ramos determined she was brain-dead. She says doctors 'turned off the ventilator and let her go.' Kressa's brother, 14-year-old Kai Shepherd, was among the youngest who died in the wildfires. Their parents are are still in hospital. Sara had burns in over 60 percent of her body and is at UC Davis Medical Center, in Sacramento, while Jon was burned over 45 percent of his body and is hospitalized in stable condition at St. Francis Memorial Hospital's burn unit in San Francisco, She said her sister and brother-in-law are conscious but only talk in whispers and have not asked questions about what happened. 'We don't know how much they remember from that day but we were advised to not give them the tragic news about their children unless they ask,' Ramos said to CBS News. She said her family is staying strong for her sister. 'Her entire life has been devastated and we're just taking it one breath at a time, one minute at a time,' Ramos said. Sara, 40, and Jon Shepherd, 44, are in hospital and have gone through several grafting surgeries. Sara had burns in over 60 percent of her body. Jon was burned on over 45 percent After flames swept over a mountain, the Shepherds had tried to drive down to escape. Their neighbor Paul Hanssen found their two charred vehicles blocking the road, doors still ajar from when they had apparently abandoned them and fled on foot. Hanssen found mom, Sara, and Kressa, lying on the ground, with more than half their bodies burned. Kai Shepherd was further down the mountain. First responders found Kai's father, Jon Shepherd, separately, on the mountain. Kressa was a junior at Ukiah High School. Both her legs had been amputated and she had never regained consciousness at the hospita. The teen became the 43rd victim of the wildfires He was also badly burned but alive. Jon reportedly suffered a minor heart attack, but is now in stable condition. He, along with his wife, have already undergone skin graft surgeries. In addition to their injuries, the family's home was destroyed and it didn't have fire insurance. Sara's sister started a charity account for the family on Generosity.com, and it has already raised $221,000 to help get Jon and Sara's lives back on track. Sara's parents lived nearby and their house was spared in the fires. The plan is to bring the pair back there to recuperate when they are healthy enough to leave the hospital. Community members have offered to retrofit Sara's parents house. 'We have a huge community of people stepping up to support them,' Ramos said. 'It's really amazing, if there's one thing to be grateful for.' Ramos remembered Kai as a sweet, brave and compassionate boy who loved the San Francisco Giants and wrestling. 'He could just see into people's hearts, you know?' Ramos said. A spokesman for Rick Gates said Monday afternoon that the former Trump campaign aide is 'not guilty' and intends to battle a slate of criminal charges that were unsealed today court. 'He is not going to comment further until he has had a chance to review the lengthy indictment with his legal team,' spokesman Glen Sellig said. Sellig asked the media to respect his client's privacy as his family deals with 'this unexpected and hasty proceeding designed to accommodate perhaps political and press considerations rather than his right to have counsel of his choice by his side during this most troubling and challenging day for him and his loved ones. He concluded, 'This fight is just beginning.' SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS A spokesman for Rick Gates said Monday afternoon that the former Trump campaign aide is 'not guilty' and intends to battle a slate of criminal charges that were unsealed today court In this July 19, 2016 file photo, Rick Gates, far right, former campaign aide to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and former business associated of Paul Manafort, escorts Donald Trump's children, from left, Tiffany Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump, on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland 'This fight is just beginning,' a spokesman for Rick Gates said on Monday afternoon Gates and another former Trump campaign hand, Paul Manafort, entered not guilty pleas Monday afternoon in a federal courtroom, telling a magistrate judge that they intend to knock down a laundry list of felony charges brought by a grand jury on Friday. Manafort, a former Donald Trump campaign chairman, is a veteran lobbyist now charged with conspiring against the United States and money-laundering on a gigantic scale, following an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller. Along with Gates, his longtime business partner and protege, Manafort surrendered to federal authorities early on Monday as the first charges from the probe of possible Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election were unsealed. Manafort is free on $10 million bond and Gates agreed to a $5 million bond. Both will be on 'home detention' as a condition of their release pending a trial. The indictment against Manafort, 68, and Gates, 45, includes 12 separate criminal counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said during a press briefing that 'today's announcement has nothing to do with the president, nothing to do with the president's campaign or campaign activity.' Sanders told DailyMail.com that the White House had 'some initial contact' with Gates 'after the president was sworn in, with him at meetings here at the White House but nothing directly with the president.' The government alleges that at least $75 million was moved by Manafort to offshore accounts without declaring the income to the government. From there Manafort allegedly withdrew $18 million to fund a lavish lifestyle, and Gates pulled another $3 million out. Monday afternoon's preliminary hearing was before U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson. An angry Trump washed his hands of Manafort on Monday morning. He did not comment directly on Gates in his tweets on the charges that hit both of them. 'Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign,' Trump tweeted after the charges were unsealed. 'But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????' 'Also, there is NO COLLUSION!' he insisted. The defendants' surrender to the FBI in the morning was followed by a dramatic announcement that one of Trump's campaign foreign policy advisers, George Papadopoulos, had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contact with Russians who promised 'dirt' on Hillary Clinton and access to 'thousands' of her emails. Papadopoulos secretly agreed to a plea bargain earlier this month, suggesting he may be cooperating with Mueller. Monday morning's events will raise questions about what happens next and whether Manafort and Gates could follow suit. Gates continued to work for Trump's campaign even after Manafort was ousted. He went on to hold a central role in Trump's inaugural committee, ABC News reported. Briefly a part of the pro-Trump, outside group America First Policies, his tenure ended in March, when he was pushed out of the organization. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told DailyMail.com during Monday's briefing that the administration had 'some initial contact' with Gates 'after the president was sworn in, with him at meetings here at the White House but nothing directly with the president' President Trump pounced on Monday, denying Manafort's alleged crimes predated his campaign and insisting that he never colluded with Russia to affect the 2016 election. He did not directly mention gates Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation has brought its first criminal charges and yielded three arrests including one low-level guilty plea Gates and Manafort have a relationship that goes back years, to when Gates was an intern for Black, Manafort, Stone, Kelly. They worked together at Davis Manafort Partners Inc., which repped Viktor Yanukovych, the former Ukranian president Manafort would later be accused of taking off the books cash from, the New York Times reported. The 45-year-old came with Manafort to the Trump campaign last year, becoming deputy campaign manager at the height of his responsibilities, according to ABC. He is said to be the campaign aide who approved Melania Trump's ill-fated convention speech that cribbed former First Lady Michelle Obama's past remarks. Gates was also the second-in-command on Trump's inaugural committee to Tom Barrack. He works for Barrack now, ABC reported, and has since March, when he departed the Trump-approved America First Priorities. The possible sentences for Gates and Manafor, if found guilty, would be stiff: up to 80 years in prison for Manafort and 70 for Gates, plus millions of dollars in fines. Trump's personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said Monday on CNN that regardless of their legal woes, 'there is not a formal investigation of the President of the United States.' He said Trump hasn't been asked to testify or answer questions for the special counsel, he said, but 'the president said he would' if asked. 'We have been cooperating,' Sekulow said. 'If there's questions that come from the special counsel's office, we've been in full cooperation mode.' But the charges pending against Manafort, 68, and Gates, 45, are related to 'business activities, not campaign activities,' he said. The indictment includes 12 separate criminal counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Trump's personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said Monday on CNN that regardless of the pair's legal woes, 'there is not a formal investigation of the President of the United States' Trump campaign aide Rick Gates, shown at left during the Republican National Convention, faces charges along with Manafort and has also pleaded not guilty Guilty: George Papadopoulos is facing up to six months in prison. He was a foreign policy adviser to Trump who admits lying to the FBI about contact with Russians who offered dirt on Hillary Clinton and thousands of her emails The government alleges that at least $75 million was moved by Manafort to offshore accounts without declaring the income to the government. From there Manafort allegedly withdrew $18 million to fund a lavish lifestyle, and Gates pulled another $3 million out. A source close to the White House told CNN that 'today has zero to do with the White House.' The indictment is purely focused on alleged financial crimes and does not include any charges related to the broader question that formed the basis of Mueller's investigation whether Donald Trump's presidential campaign colluded with Russia to swing the 2016 election in his favor. It describes criminal allegations that predate the Trump campaign; Trump's name is not mentioned in the 31-page document. The move to indict the two men represents a dramatic turn in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. A federal grand jury approved the indictments on Friday and a judge ordered them sealed. A White House official told DailyMail.com on Monday that the administration may not comment at all on the arrests. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who was appointed by former president Barack Obama and confirmed in the Senate by a 97-0 vote. Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez said in a statement that the indictment 'underscores the seriousness of the investigation into Donald Trumps ties to Russia. Its time for Republicans to commit to protecting this investigation and preserving the rule of law.' In a separate statement, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said the charges demonstrated the necessity of keeping congressional investigations running alongside the Mueller probe. 'Even with an accelerating Special Counsel investigation inside the Justice Department, and investigations inside the Republican Congress, we still need an outside, fully independent investigation to expose Russias meddling in our election and the involvement of Trump officials,' she said. 'Defending the integrity of our democracy demands that Congress look forward to counter Russian aggression and prevent future meddling with our elections.' Manafort and Gates were the one-two punch responsible for keeping Republican National Convention delegates in line last year as the possibility emerged of a contentious floor fight over the presidential nomination. Then-candidate Donald Trump first Manafort after reports that he pocketed at least $12 million in undisclosed payments from Viktor Yanukovych (pictured), the pro-Russia former Ukrainian president. Manafort was fired shortly after the convention and replaced by pollster Kellyanne Conway, but Gates stayed on and was more recently working to help close out the financial books of Trump's inaugural committee. He had worked for Manaforts international firm, Davis Manafort Partners, from 2006 to 2007. The move to throw Manafort overboard came after reports that Manafort pocketed at least $12 million in undisclosed payments from Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russia former Ukrainian president. Manafort and his firm, which Gates helped run, spent years as Yanukovych's political consultants. The Justice Department's indictment charges that Manafort and Gates 'generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their Ukraine work.' 'In order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities, from approximately 2006 through at least 2016, Manafort and Gates laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts,' it continues. Headed to a judge: Paul Manafort was driven by his lawyer on Monday morning to turn himself in to Mueller It's unclear if Manafort and Gates are the biggest fish in Mueller's sights, or if the former FBI director intends to squeeze him for information more directly related to the 2016 election and Russia's possible interference with it. The Russia investigation has cast a shadow over President Donald Trump's nine-month-old presidency and widened the partisan rift between Republicans and Democrats. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her. Mueller is also investigating whether Trump campaign officials colluded with those Russian efforts. Trump tweeted Monday morning about a report that Barack Obama's campaign organization funneled nearly $1 million to the law firm that served as a pass-through last year between Democrats and an opposition research firm that produced the salacious and discredited 'dirty dossier' on the president. Manafort hid his face from reporters who were staking out his house in Alexandria, Virginia as he left to turn himself in at the FBI's headquarters 'Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS. The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OK'd!' the president tweeted on Monday. That tweet came a half-hour before news broke that Manafort and Gates had been indicted. The White House hasn't yet commented on their surrender. Trump has denied the allegations of collusion with the Russians and called the probe 'a witch hunt.' The Kremlin also has denied the allegations. Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has been looking into possible links between Trump aides and foreign governments, as well as potential money laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes, according to sources familiar with the probe. He also is exploring whether Trump or his aides have tried to obstruct the investigation. Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation a week after Trump's May 9 firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was heading a federal probe into possible collusion with Russia. Master of distraction: A half-hour before Manafort's indictment was unsealed, President Trump tweeted about an alleged money-funnel between Democrats and the opposition research firm behind the discredit 'dirty dossier' about him Trump initially said he fired Comey because his leadership of the FBI was inadequate. In a later interview with NBC, he cited 'this Russia thing' as his reason. Investigators led by Mueller have interviewed former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, former spokesman Sean Spicer and other current and former White House and campaign officials. Two NYPD detectives were arraigned Monday on a 50-count indictment charging them with raping a handcuffed teenager in the back of a police van after threatening her with arrest over a bottle of prescription pills. Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez says the detectives, Eddie Martins, 37, and Richard Hall, 32, have been charged with first-degree rape, first-degree criminal sexual act, second-degree kidnapping, official misconduct and related counts. Martins was ordered held on $250,000 bail and Hall was ordered held on $150,000 bail. Both were ordered to return to court on January 18, 2018. If convicted, they each face up to 25 years in prison. Scroll down for video NYPD Detective Richard Hall is seen leaving Brooklyn Supreme Court Monday after being arraigned on rape charges involving a teenage girl Hall's partner detective Eddie Martins is pictured outside court following the arraignment Hall and Martins after accused of forcing this 18-year-old girl to perform sex acts while handcuffed in the back of a police van Martins, 37, is accused of forcing the victim to perform a sex act on him, and then raping him in the back seat of a police monivan while his partner watched Both Martins (pictured) and his partner could each face up to 25 years in prison, if convicted Hall (pictured) was ordered held on $150,000 bail, while Martins' bail was set at $250,000 The 37-year-old detective (pictured Monday) and his partner were assigned to the NYPD's Brooklyn South Narcotics squad 'It is incomprehensible that two veteran NYPD detectives would allegedly commit such an outrageous act,' Gonzalez stated. 'They took an oath to protect and serve, but allegedly violated that oath by raping a young woman who was in their custody. 'We will now seek to hold them accountable for this flagrant betrayal of public trust.' The 18-year-old victim, who tweets under the name Anna Chambers, alleges that one NYPD detective raped her and both forced her to perform oral sex in a Chipotle parking lot after she was caught smoking marijuana on September 15. The woman confirmed to DailyMail.com over the weekend that she is the victim and gave permission for her name and photos to be published. A grand jury voted on Thursday to indict the officers after listening to a week of testimony, including the accuser taking the stand. The two detectives, assigned to the NYPD's Brooklyn South Narcotics, did not deny the sexual acts but claimed they were consensual. According to a press release from the DAs office, on September 15, at around 7.30pm, Martins and Hall, who were on-duty and riding in a Dodge Caravan as part of a team of plainclothes detectives conducting a buy-and-bust operation in the 60th Precinct, left their post without authorization and drove to Calvert Vaux Park in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn. Just after 8pm, the officers pulled over an Infinity Coupe driven by the 18-year-old accuser with two male passengers, according to Gonzalezs office. After observing some marijuana in a cup holder, Hall and Martins ordered the two men and woman to get out of the car and asked if they had any drugs on them, according to the investigation. The 18-year-old woman admitted to be in possession of marijuana and two Klonopin pills, after which the detectives put her in handcuffs, told her she was under arrest and would be getting a desk appearance ticket. They let her male companions go and instructed them to pick up their friend from the precinct in three hours time, according to the press release. A short time later, the detectives told the teenager to call her friends and tell them not to follow their police minivan. Detective Martins allegedly told the young woman he and his partner are freaks and asked her what she wanted to do to get out of the arrest, the press release stated. The charges come after the officers spent last week attempting to discredit the woman, claiming that she posted 'provocative' selfies to her Instagram and Twitter after the alleged attack It is alleged that Martins then forced the handcuffed girl to perform a sex act on him while seated in the back seat of the van as his partner Hall drove and watched through the rear view mirror. Martins then allegedly raped the victim. When the cops reached Bay Ridge, about 4 miles from the site of the traffic stop, Martins and Hall allegedly swapped places, with the former getting behind the wheel and the latter getting into the back seat, where he allegedly forced the 18-year-old to perform a sex act on him as well. Martins and Hall then drove back to the vicinity of the 60th Precinct in Coney Island and had the victim call her friends again to tell them she was being let go. They allegedly gave her back the Klonopin pills, told her to keep her mouth shut and released her, the statement read. The 18-year-old told her friends what happened and, later that evening, was taken to Maimonides Hospital, where a rape kit was prepared. DNA recovered from the victim was a match to both Martins and Hall. After the allegations broke they and their supervisor were placed on modified duty and stripped of badges and guns. The two officers have since been suspended without pay. Martins (pictured left) and Hall did not deny they had sex with the woman (right), but claimed it was consensual. They have been suspended without pay Hall (pictured with his lawyer) and Martins allegedly told the victim they were 'freaks' Mark Bederow, Martins' attorney, said: 'The dynamic will change when there are court proceedings. The allegations repeatedly and publicly alleged by the plaintiffs lawyer will need to be supported by credible evidence and withstand scrutiny.' The indictment comes after the officers spent last week attempting to discredit their accuser in a letter to prosecutors. The letter observed how she filed a $50million claim against the city earlier this month and has posted 'provocative' selfies on her Instagram and Twitter after the alleged attack. The defense lawyers for the officers urged prosecutors 'to further investigate Chambers' dubious claim before you ask the grand jury to return an indictment against Martins and Hall.' The teen took to Twitter to express her dismay that the officers claimed the sex acts were consensual, including sharing a DailyMail.com article about the horrifying claims. 'She was shocked that the [cops] would say it was consensual after everything that was done to her. She wanted to get the word out,' her lawyer Michael David told the New York Post. 'She just wants everybody to know it's an absolute lie that this was consensual. She was raped. She was viciously, brutally raped in handcuffs. It's the truth.' 'She's embarrassed. She's very depressed over this. Her whole life had changed after this experience. She's afraid of the police, and she really wants justice to be served here.' The young woman sought help from NYU Langone Hospital, in New York, after the incident. She also spoke to a friend about the alleged sexual assault and reported it to the police. The alleged rape and sexual assault is said to have taken place on Coney Island (file picture) The teenage girl claims that an NYPD detective raped her and another forced her to perform oral sex after she was caught smoking pot in Coney Island (file image) 'There was zero consent,' David said. 'The cops were over 6 feet tall. She's very petite, like 5-2 and maybe 100 pounds. There's nothing she could do.' One of the male friends she was with went to the police station about a half-hour after he was released by the cops. He had been told the officers were taking the woman there, but no one had been brought in. He left the station and found the woman visibly upset and waiting by his car. 'Her hair was a mess, and she ran up to me and gave me a hug, and she was like, "They f****d me. They f****d me,"' he said. A southern Missouri prosecutor will seek the death penalty against two men accused of killing an elderly couple during a robbery, he said Monday. Timothy Callahan, 44, of Farmington, Missouri, and David Young, 67, of Ironton, Missouri, were arrested Saturday without incident at a motel in Deerfield Township, Ohio, near Cincinnati. Both were charged with two counts each of first-degree murder. Timothy Callahan (left), 44, and David Young (right), 67, were arrested at an Ohio hotel and have been charged with allegedly killing James Nance 86, and his wife Janet 73, during an alleged robbery at the Nance home in Missouri on October 18. Prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty Reynolds County, Missouri prosecutor Michael Randazzo said in an interview with The Associated Press that he will file additional charges of armed criminal action, robbery and assault against both men. They are jailed without bond in Ohio awaiting extradition. Randazzo said there was evidence the crime was premeditated and he planned to pursue the death penalty. The men are accused in the shootings of 86-year-old James Nance, his 72-year-old wife, Janet, and a 73-year-old friend of the family on October 18 at the Nance home near Ellington, Missouri, about 125 miles southwest of St. Louis. The third victim was shot twice in the head but survived. Young was on probation after pleading guilty in 2016 to financial exploitation of the elderly or disabled in Pulaski County, according to Missouri Case Net, the state's online court reporting system. He was arrested again in September and charged with scamming an elderly couple out of thousands of dollars by convincing them to write multiple checks for the same job - painting their barn. 'He would drive around looking for decent-looking homes, elderly couples, and try to do work for them,' Randazzo said. Authorities believe the men may have originally planned a similar scam on the Nances. Randazzo said it appeared they had contacted the couple about doing work at their home, but ultimately decided instead to rob James Nance. Randazzo said the robbery was in progress when Janet Nance and her friend returned home from a shopping trip and encountered the gunmen. A man is dead after police claim he was stabbed during a fight with a woman in Melbourne's inner east. Officers were called to Abbotsford at about 9.20pm on Monday following reports of a man being assaulted with an edged weapon. It is believed the man, aged in his 30s, was arguing with a woman outside of the Bakers Arms Hotel. Police said the pair were known to each other, according to The Herald Sun. Scroll down for video A man is dead after he was allegedly stabbed to death during a fight with a woman in Melbourne's inner east (pictured) Police were called to Abbotsford (pictured) at about 9.20pm on Monday following reports of a man being assaulted with an edged weapon Evidence was seen being taken from the 300metre crime scene on Victoria Street around 7am on Tuesday (pictured) After he was injured, the man ran up Victoria road and caught the attention of patrons at a pub, according to 7News. Police are searching for the woman allegedly involved. The man was rushed to hospital but later died of his injuries. The man was rushed to hospital but later died of his injuries After he was injured, the man ran up Victoria road and alerted people at a pub Forensic police officers work at the scene where the man was stabbed to death Victoria Street - one of the city's busiest roads - was reopened around 8am Police said the man and woman were known to each other A crime scene was been established, stretching 300metres along Victoria Street - causing heavy traffic delays. Trams were stopped and business owners were not allowed to access their shops. The section of Victoria Street - one of the city's busiest roads - was reopened around 8am. Police are appealing for witnesses to the fight. A firefighter has been denounced by his engine company over his rant blasting Kellogg's over its response to racism accusations about Corn Pops. Justin Snyder, a member of the Speedwell Engine and Hose Company in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, made the rant on Facebook Wednesday in response to the national controversy over the cereal box. The cartoon art on the box depicts happy Corn Pops having fun in a shopping mall, except for one lone brown Corn Pop, who is scrubbing the floor as the janitor. Kellogg's apologized after author Saladin Ahmed, who is the writer of Marvel Comics' Black Bolt series, complained on Twitter, saying the cereal box is 'teaching kids racism'. Snyder blasted Kellogg's response in a Facebook post obtained by the Lebanon Daily News, writing: 'Looks like Kellogg's cucked out by apologizing to some mudblood over a f***ing picture on the back of a Godd**n cereal box.' Slide me Kellogg's will be redesigning its Corn Pops cereal boxes over its racially insensitive artwork depiction of a brown Corn Pop working as a janitor (pictured center, and circled) Author Saladin Ahmed called the company out on Twitter saying the cereal box is 'teaching kids racism' because the only brown Corn Pop is shown working as a janitor The Speedwell Engine and Hose Company issued a statement on Thursday apologizing for 'our members personal thoughts and beliefs' 'Mudblood' is a derogatory term in the Harry Potter series for those not born of wizards, while 'cucking' is a popular term on the far right for betraying one's own ethnic interests. Snyder continued: 'Someone complained about the janitor in the picture being a darker shade of Corn Pop than the others.' 'And Kellogg's fell all over themselves to apologize instead of telling that camel jockey to pound sand, because the most egregious of offenses today is even to be - *perceived* -as possibly being even remotely RACIST,' the rant continued. Snyder went on: 'They [would] have done better to submit the following short and concise PR statement: We sincerely regret insinuating that a brown could hold down a productive, honorable job and apologize for insulting any janitors.' The original post could not be located, but the Daily News reported receiving several screenshots of it from interested readers, including one who did not know who Snyder was. SNYDER'S FULL CORN POPS POST Looks like Kellogg's cucked out by apologizing to some mudblood over a f***ing picture on the back of a Godd**n cereal box. Someone complained about the janitor in the picture being a darker shade of Corn Pop than the others. Seriously. And Kellogg's fell all over themselves to apologize instead of telling that camel jockey to pound sand, because the most egregious of offenses today is even to be - *perceived* -as possibly being even remotely RACIST. They [would] have done better to submit the following short and concise PR statement: We sincerely regret insinuating that a brown could hold down a productive, honorable job and apologize for insulting any janitors. Advertisement The other corn pop characters are shown shopping, playing in an arcade or bathing in a fountain. One is even shown skateboarding down an escalator. But this guy is the only brown pop and is not having fun Amid a growing furor, the Speedwell Engine and Hose Company issued a statement Thursday which did not directly name Snyder. 'It was brought to our attention that one of our members made a post on their private page that reflected badly on our organization. We would like to firmly assure you that our members personal thoughts and beliefs do NOT reflect those of our company,' the statement read in part. 'We are committed to serving our community day in and day out. We apologize for any negativity that this may have ensued.' The controversy first emerged on Tuesday, when Ahmed tweeted: 'Why is literally the only brown corn pop on the whole cereal box the janitor? This is teaching kids racism.' The other corn pop characters are shown shopping, playing in an arcade or bathing in a fountain. One is even shown skateboarding down an escalator. He added in a subsequent tweet: 'Yes it's a tiny thing, but when you see your kid staring at this over breakfast and realize millions of other kids are doing the same' Within hours of Ahmed's tweet Tuesday, the Battle Creek, Michigan-based maker of cereals and Pop Tarts said the artwork had been updated and will reach stores soon Within hours of Ahmed's tweet Tuesday, the Battle Creek, Michigan-based maker of cereals and Pop Tarts said the artwork had been updated and will reach stores soon. 'Kellogg is committed to diversity & inclusion. We did not intend to offend we apologize. The artwork is updated & will be in stores soon,' the cereal-maker tweeted. Ahmed responded that he appreciated 'the rapid response' from Kellogg's. In a statement to USA TODAY, spokesperson Kris Charles said Kellogg's respects all people and is committed to diversity. 'We take feedback very seriously, and it was never our intention to offend anyone,' he said in the statement. 'We apologize sincerely.' A 16-year-old boy has been charged after a man suffered a stab wound to his thigh at a Sydney train station. Emergency services were called to Chatswood railway station at about 8pm on Monday evening after receiving reports that a man had been stabbed. They took a 31-year-old man suffering a slash wound to his thigh to Royal North Shore Hospital, police said. A 16-year-old boy has been charged after a man suffered a stab wound to his thigh at a Sydney train station A 16-year-old boy was arrested at the station and later charged with malicious wounding and assaulting police. The teenager allegedly randomly approached the man before slashing him in the leg, Nine News reports. He reportedly tried to flee after the attack, but was chased down by police officers. A young woman who is believed to be his girlfriend was at the scene, crying, as she spoke to officers after the attack. The boy was refused bail to appear in Bidura Children's Court on Tuesday. Emergency services were called to Chatswood railway station at about 8pm on Monday A fraternity at Florida International University has been suspended after messages from their group chat were leaked that showed them joking about rape, anti-Semitic memes and nude photos of female students. The school has launched an investigation into the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity after screenshots of their group chat were emailed to FIU administrators and heads of the Greek organizations last month. Screenshots of the chat, which included 108 members, showed a number of frat members sharing explicit photos of women and bragging about having sex with underage girls. The Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Florida International University has been suspended after messages from their group chat were leaked There were also references to selling cocaine and Adderall, as well as insensitive comments about a sorority member who died over the summer jumping off a cliff in Greece. One member who asked to see photos of a naked 17-year-old girl wrote: '(I) wanna feel like a ped.' Other messages referred to sorority members as 'sl***' and said 'it's not rape if she enjoys it.' The 20 screenshots were initially anonymously sent to the administrators back in July but the school said they were unable to link it to Tau Kappa Epsilon. FIU's Vice President of Student Affairs Larry Lunsford said the frat brothers at the time claimed they had been hacked. Screenshots of the chat, which included 108 members, showed a number of frat members joking about rape, including one who wrote: 'It's not rape if she enjoys it' One member who asked to see photos of a naked 17-year-old girl wrote: '(I) wanna feel like a ped.' Some of the messages in the group included anti-Semitic memes The anonymous sender emailed them again last month and also included the media and Greek organization heads, causing the screenshots to spread among sorority members. Several female students then came forward helping administrators to identify students via their group chat nicknames. 'Let me be clear: The alleged behavior is not acceptable and will not be tolerated. Such actions conflict with our values; that is not who we are,' Lunsford said in a statement on Friday. 'The Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution has investigated and brought charges against the fraternity. If found responsible, the student organization may be barred from campus. 'In addition, FIU Police is investigating to determine if a crime has been committed.' A vet tech has been charged with animal cruelty after taking a sick dog home and keeping it alive for five month's after its owners believed he had been put down. Andrea Oliveira, of Freehold, New Jersey, was allegedly given an elderly dog by Dr. George Mendez after pretending to its owner that it had been put down because they believed they could nurse him back to health. Dr. George Menez of Howell, New Jersey, is alleged to have told Keri Levy that he euthanized her miniature pinscher Caesar at Briarwood Veterinary Hospital in May. Keri Levy took Caesar, her Miniature Pinscher, to the vet in May to be put down. She said he was suffering Cushing's disease Dr. George Menez (picutred) is accused of giving the dog to vet tech Andrea Oliveira who has been charged with animal cruelty No charges have been filed against Dr. Menez at this time. Levy claims the 15-year-old dog was suffering Cushing's disease, a painful condition which affects elderly dogs, at the time. She claims that hours after saying goodbye to the animal, Dr. Menez phoned her to tell her Caesar was 'at peace'. But on Sunday, five months after she took him to the vet, she received an anonymous message from someone saying the dog was still alive and being cared for by one of Menez's employees. According to police who are now investigating the chain of events, Oliveira did not believe Caesar needed to be euthanized and thought she could nurse him back to health. Whether or not the dog was as ill as Levy said he was is disputed. Police say that when he was given back to his owner, he was in good spirits and showed no signs of ill health despite Levy's claim that his condition had deteriorated. She insisted to DailyMail.com that he had lost '10lbs' since she dropped him off to be euthanized in May and that the second vet she sought was satisfied he needed to be put down. In May, Menez allowed Oliveira to take Caesar home with her but never told Levy, police said. 'This employee wanted to do so out of compassion for the dog and a desire to rehabilitate his health, albeit without the owner's consent,' Howell Police Detective Sergeant Christian Antunez told DailyMail.com. Levy said goodbye to Caesar, 15, and left him in the care of vets. He is seen above before being dropped off They never reported Caesar to an anti-animal cruelty body and instead kept him at their home, Antunez added. For five months, Levy says she and her family remained under the impression that Ceasar had been put down until last week when she received an anonymous message that the dog was still alive. She recontacted the hospital but Menez and Oliveira had already stopped working there. It is not clear whether they were fired or quit or if Levy's case had prompted their departure. Levy took her dog Ceasar to the Briarwood Veterinary Hospital in Howell, New Jersey, (above) to be put down in May. She found out on Sunday that he has been alive ever since and was living with Oliveira who no longer works there After finding a phone number for him, she claims Menez admitted to giving the dog away, confirmed that he was still alive and gave her the name of the former colleague who had Ceasar. Levy claims she passed Oliveira's name along to police who then contacted the woman and told her to reunite the dog with its original owner. Levy claims Cesar's health had deteriorated drastically in the five months since she last saw him and took him to be euthanized at a different hospital. Howell Police detectives say the dog was in 'good spirits' and there were no obvious signs of neglect. Under the supervision of a different vet, Ceasar was finally put down on Monday. The Monmouth County SPCA is investigating the incident. An employee at Briarwood Veterinary Hospital who declined to be named refused to answer questions on the matter when contacted by DailyMail.com. All they would say was that neither Menez nor the 'other employee who was involved' worked at the hospital any longer. Menez did not respond to questions. A man accused of taking a photo up a woman's skirt as she restocked a fridge at a Perth supermarket claims he was sending images of Duff beer to his wife. The shop in Cannington released CCTV images appearing to show the man creepily filming the employee, aged 20, as she faced away from him on Monday afternoon. 'Pictured below was a customer who came in today... harassed our staff who was there alone with explicit, inappropriate comments,' the shop posted on Facebook. 'More disturbingly, he took compromising photos of her.' A man accused of taking photos up the skirt of a female employee restocking a fridge claims he was sending images of Duff beer to his wife The Perth supermarket released CCTV images appearing to show the man creepily filming the young employee as she faced away from him A woman claiming to be the alleged pervert's wife was quick to comment on the post, claiming her husband was innocent and had been set up. 'Wow guys, so glad you can say all this sh** when you don't even know the story,' the woman wrote. 'This is my husband and (he) was talking to this lady while he waited for his car. He sent me photos of what was in the store.' She then posted a photo of Duff energy drink, which she claimed he took while he was talking to the young female employee at the store fridge. A woman claiming to be the alleged pervert's wife was quick to comment on the post, claiming her husband was innocent and had been set up The woman said her husband had actually been taking photos of Duff beer, providing a photo she claimed he had sent to her Social media users were quick to point out the CCTV footage appeared to show the man's phone pointing up the woman's skirt - nowhere near where the Duff drinks were stocked. Cannington Police confirmed they had charged a 26-year-old Byford man with committing an indecent act in public after investigating the incident. 'The man walked in and out of the shop a number of times. During one occasion, he allegedly recorded up her skirt using his mobile phone,' police alleged. The man is due to appear before the Perth Magistrates Court on November 30. Investigators have launched a landfill search for the remains of a missing woman, whose boyfriend has already been charged with her murder. Christine Mustafa, 34, disappeared in May after leaving her job at a Walgreens pharmacy in Peoria, Arizona, and her boyfriend Robert Interval Jr, 37, was arrested one month later. But a body was never recovered in the case. Now police are combing through more than 1,600 tons of garbage in a painstaking search for Mustafa's remains. Dozens of Phoenix police officers began searching the SR-85 landfill last week, and the search resumed on Monday, with a midday meal for the searchers provided by the grateful Mustafa family. Christine Mustafa, 34, disappeared in May after leaving her job at a Walgreens pharmacy in Peoria, Arizona. Her boyfriend Robert Interval Jr, 37, was arrested one month later A thank you card from Christine Mustafa's family hangs outside the rest tent for Phoenix police officers involved in the search for her remains in a landfill on Monday Dozens of Phoenix cops began searching the SR-85 landfill last week. The search resumed Monday, with a midday meal for the searchers provided by the grateful Mustafa family 'Officers will spread out the garbage in lines and our detective and officers will use rakes to meticulously go through that garbage looking for any remains or evidence,' a Phoenix police spokesperson explained to ABC 15. Cadaver dogs and a forensic anthropologist are assisting with the search. Investigators believe that bone fragments are likely all that remain of Mustafa, but have apparently received information allowing them to target their search within the landfill. 'The searchers are being very meticulous. They're taking their time because they do get one shot at this,' a Phoenix police spokesperson said. Mustafa has not been seen since leaving work on May 10. Police say the boyfriend, Interval, called Mustafa, who is the mother of his eight-month-old daughter, that night and accused her of cheating on him before he threatened to kill her, according to court documents obtained by the Arizona Republic. The suspect's sister told authorities that Interval said to her 'I took it too far' and 'I can never un-see the things I saw.' Mustafa missed her only day of work in 11 years on May 11. Co-workers said Interval called Mustafa at work on May 10 around 1pm and threatened to kill her. She left work about half an hour later, spoke to her family at 3pm, and failed to turn up the next day. Her absence was highly unusual given she hadn't missed a day of work in more than a decade, according to court document. When police arrived at her home on May 11, they found her cellphone, purse and wallet on her bathroom floor wedged between the toilet and bathtub. Interval turned up during the investigation, and told them Mustafa had walked to work earlier that morning because her car had a flat tire, even though her Nissan Cube was parked in the driveway with no apparent damage. He then told police he thought Mustafa had been cheating on him, and that they had gotten into an argument over his accusations on May 10 and 11, according to court documents. He denied any physical violence had occurred. Interval's sister, who visited him after the disappearance, told investigators her brother (left) claimed Mustafa (right) had attacked him and later said: 'I took it too far.' But his sister, who visited Interval after the disappearance, told investigators her brother claimed Mustafa had attacked him and later said: 'I took it too far.' His sister said Interval, who was acting 'paranoid', told her the mother-of-two had threatened to take their baby and leave Interval on May 10. Mustafa's family also said Interval had made death threats against the 34-year-old, who had been planning to move out and get a restraining order against him, according to court documents. MUSTAFA CASE TIMELINE May 10, 2017: Christine was last seen by a coworker as she was leaving work at Walgreens. Christine was last seen by a coworker as she was leaving work at Walgreens. May 10, 2017: Later in the day, Christine was last heard from by her sister over the phone. Later in the day, Christine was last heard from by her sister over the phone. May 11, 2017: Christine failed to show for her scheduled work shift. Her family called Phoenix police, who went to her home but there was no answer at the door. Christine's boyfriend arrived while police were at the home and he told them Christine had left for work earlier that morning on foot. Phoenix police entered a Missing Person report at this time. Christine failed to show for her scheduled work shift. Her family called Phoenix police, who went to her home but there was no answer at the door. Christine's boyfriend arrived while police were at the home and he told them Christine had left for work earlier that morning on foot. Phoenix police entered a Missing Person report at this time. May 16, 2017: Detectives from the Phoenix Police Department served a search warrant on Christine's home in an effort to locate clues to her disappearance. Detectives from the Phoenix Police Department served a search warrant on Christine's home in an effort to locate clues to her disappearance. June 8, 2017: Christine's boyfriend arrested and booked for first-degree murder Christine's boyfriend arrested and booked for first-degree murder October 2017: Police conduct laborious search for her remains in landfill Advertisement When police arrived at the home on May 12 to perform a welfare check on the couple's eight-month-old daughter, Interval appeared at the front door with a loaded .40-calibur handgun, according to court documents. The baby was removed from the home, and Interval told his sister he wanted to turn himself in once the child custody case was over, court documents stated. Police then returned to the house on May 15 with a search warrant, and found pillowcases and bedsheets with 'possible blood-stained material', the court documents stated. There was also blood, or other biological material found on the walls. Jonathan Howard of the Phoenix Police Department told KTAR 'there is a lot of witness evidence', particularly from her family, which the police are 'confident' is accurate. Interval was named a person of interest before he was arrested and booked on Thursday on probable cause. An investigation is ongoing and Mustafa's body has not yet been found. Her family expressed their relief after Interval's arrest. Her 15-year-old daughter, who she had with another man, is visiting family members in Jordan with her father. Family members initially tried to hold off on telling the teen about her mother's disappearance, and she traveled to the Middle East on May 12. She is said to be 'devastated' by the news, and remains in Jordan for the time being. Her baby is currently in the custody of the state Department of Child Safety. Interval is being held in lieu of a $1million cash bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for November 27. Top Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta told staff he was leaving the eponymous firm he founded with his powerful brother on a day two Trump campaign operatives were indicted and a third pled guilty to lying. Podesta founded the Podesta Group in 1988 along with his brother John, who went on to become Bill Clinton's and Barack Obama's chief of staff, as well as Hillary Clinton's campaign chair. The hacking of his personal emails is one of the key factors in the investigation of Russian meddling in the U.S. elections, which makes his brother Tony's role all the more striking. Tony Podesta told staff he is stepping down from his firm, after an investigation of former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort's finances revealed lobbying work that the firm got paid to do in order to burnish Ukraine's image in the west. Top Democratic lobbyist Tony Podesta told staff he was leaving the eponymous firm he founded with his powerful brother, on a day two top Trump campaign officials were indicted. Here, Heather and Tony Podesta attended the intimate "Summer Chic" barbeque at Esther Coopersmith's DC home to celebrate the recent marriage of lawyer Jack Einwechter to Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez THIS COULD GET UGLY: Tony Podesta's firm was part of a PR effort overseen by former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort. The power lobbyist announced he was giving up control of his firm on the day two top Trump campaign officials were indicted Manafort represented a Ukrainian political party and is charged with orchestrating a vast money laundering scheme to hide foreign payments he stashed overseas. Tony Podesta is relinquishing 'full operational and financial control' of the firm, Politico reported Monday. [Tony] was very magnanimous and said, This is an amazing group of people, a source told the publication, adding that he concluded he needs to fight this as an individual, but doesnt want the firm to fight it. Podesta is a top Democratic lobbyist and brother of John Podesta, who helped run Hillary Clinton's campaign GOP nominee Donald Trump, flanked from left by campaign manager Paul Manafort, and daughter Ivanka Trump, checks the podium early Thursday afternoon in preparation for accepting the GOP nomination to be President at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio on Thursday July 21, 2016. Manafort got indicted Monday POWER COUPLE: Tony Podesta, Heather Podesta and Henry Buhl attend The Guggenheim International Gala at Seagram Plaza on November 7, 2005 in New York City. Husband and wife ran separate lobby shops, but Tony Podesta's work with Paul Manafort has come under scrutiny by federal investigators It was not known at press time whether Podesta would also give up his stake in the firm. The firm was expected to announce a new name and organizational plan was within days. Manafort did work for a pro-Moscow Ukrainian political party and showed up in a ledger of off-the-books payments that drew scrutiny during the campaign. He also oversaw the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECMU), an effort to boost the country's image in the west through funding a nonprofit. NBC reported last week that Mueller was investigating the firm's dealings. The Podesta group has a stable of well-connected lobbyists and consultants as partners. Special counsel Robert Mueller's staff is also investigating Washington lobbyist Tony Podesta and his firm in connection with work they did on behalf of a nonprofit connected to a Ukrainian political party. He told staff Monday he was leaving his firm Wire transfers: Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort (center) turned himself in at FBI headquarters on Monday, under fire for possible money laundering and tax fraud related to his work for Ukraine's former president Then-candidate Donald Trump first Manafort after reports that he pocketed at least $12 million in undisclosed payments from Viktor Yanukovych (pictured), the pro-Russia former Ukrainian president. According to the indictment, Gates wrote Company A that it would be 'representing the Government of Ukraine in [Washington] D.C' Manafort repeatedly communicated with Victor Yanukovych, who led the Party of Regions and served as president of Ukraine before being ousted. Such lobbying requires disclosure with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Both Manafort's firm and the Podesta Group only filed amended forms acknowledging the work after it got reported in the media. Headed to a judge: Paul Manafort was driven by his lawyer on Monday morning to turn himself in to Mueller The firms got paid not by their 'nominal client, the Centre,' but through off-shore accounts associated with Manafort and Gates headquartered in Cyprus and the Grenadines. They got more than $2 million in payments between 2012 and 2014. The firm did not respond to requests for comment. The work outlined in the indictment was extensive. The firms 'engaged in weekly scheduled calls and frequent emails' with Manafort and Gates. They provided detailed reports on their work, and communicated with Yanukovych, as well as 'with United States officials in connection with this work.' Some of the evidence came from a July early morning raid of Manafort's home. Seizures from the home and email accounts 'revealed numerous documents, including documents related to lobbying, which were more than thirty-days old at the time of the November 2016 letter to the Department of Justice' meaning they should have been disclosed. According to a statement the group provided to DailyMail.com last week, The Podesta Group fully disclosed its representation of the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine (ECFMU), and complied with FARA by filing under the lobbying disclosure act over five years ago and within weeks of starting our work. Any insinuation to the contrary is false.' A spokesperson added: 'The Podesta Group has fully cooperated with the Special Counsels office and taken every possible step to provide documentation that confirms compliance with the law. Based on our due diligence and on the recommendation of definitive legal experts, the firm immediately filed the appropriate public disclosures of its representation of the ECFMU over five years ago, and in eight subsequent public filings.' In his heyday, Podesta was one of D.C.'s power lobbyists, with an unusual professional partnership with his wife, Heather Podesta, who was also a fixture on the city's party circuit. But by 2014 the two were engaged in an angry divorce with a dispute over art assets as well as the separate lobbying shops that each headed. The couple squabbled over high-priced D.C. real estate, famous paintings and lithographs, and the value and cache provided by the Podesta name, Washingtonian reported at the time. In a sign of how plugged-in Podesta remains, he was spotted at a surprise 70th birthday party for Hillary Clinton over the weekend. Also present were former Clinton advisors John Podesta, Huma Abedin, and Sidney Blumenthal, Politico reported. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he's 'never had more fun', despite the troubles facing his government - including the continuing fallout from his recent loss of two cabinet ministers. Mr Turnbull had a tumultuous past week, with the High Court disqualifying Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and cabinet minister Fiona Nash over their dual citizenship and ructions over Employment Minister Michaelia Cash misleading parliament over raids on two Australian Workers Union offices. 'I know stories of turmoil are more likely to attract a click than good government, but the reality is government goes on, it's business as usual,' he told reporters in Jerusalem after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull adresses a welcome ceremony in Jerusalem When asked if he had thought of just walking away from it all, Mr Turnbull smiled and replied: 'I have never had more fun in my life'. Trade Minister Steve Ciobo says the prime minister has a huge amount on his plate, but is taking the country in the right direction. 'Good as gold, mate,' Mr Ciobo told the Nine Network on Tuesday. Mr Turnbull insists his government has achieved much in the past 18 months and isn't being crippled by recent issues. Mr Turnbull had a tumultuous past week, with the High Court disqualifying Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce and cabinet minister Fiona Nash (above) over their dual citizenship Labor is planning to make the most of the disqualification of Mr Joyce (pictured left) and Ms Nash, including questioning the validity in court of several ministerial decisions they made He says within hours of the High Court announcement last Friday, Senator Matt Canavan had been reinstated to the cabinet, the disqualified ministers' portfolios had been reassigned, and a by-election was called for Mr Joyce's seat. As a result, parliament has been reduced to 149 seats and the government to 75 MPs, including the Speaker. A by-election in his seat will be held on December 2, but parliament still has two sitting weeks this year. Labor is planning to make the most of the disqualification of Mr Joyce and Ms Nash, including questioning the validity in court of several ministerial decisions they made. Labor has legal advice that ministerial decisions by Mr Joyce made from October 20, 2016, could be open to challenge. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (top centre) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (top right) watch Australian ambassador to Israel Chris Cannan (bottom left) and Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Defence Ehud Adam (bottom right) sign Defence Industries Agreements in Jerusalem Australia and Israel's relationship has never been more profound than now in the face of Islamist terrorism, Malcolm Turnbull says (Mr Turnbull with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a welcome ceremony in Jerusalem) The advice is based on section 64 of the constitution which provides 'no minister ... shall hold office for a longer period than three months unless he is or becomes a senator or a member of the House of Representatives'. Mr Turnbull is in Israel to attend the centenary of the Battle of Beersheba, commemorating Australia's Light Brigade's part in the historic confrontation, on Tuesday, with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten also at the ceremony. Australia and Israel's relationship has never been more profound than now in the face of Islamist terrorism, Malcolm Turnbull said. The Prime Minister hailed the two nations deep ties and shared values after meeting with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday night. The Prime Minister hailed the two nations deep ties and shared values after meeting with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday night. But the leaders still don't see eye-to-eye on Iran despite lengthy discussion, with Mr Turnbull reiterating Australia's view to stick with the nuclear agreement which the Israelis want to end. The pair embraced warmly during a ceremonial welcome alongside their spouses, before holding one-on-one and bilateral meetings. 'Malcolm, welcome both of you to Jerusalem,' Mr Netanyahu said. 'I thank you for being part of our 'mishpacha' (family).' Mr Turnbull said collaboration between Australia and Israel had deepened over the century and was now at its height. But their shared values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law were being tested by 'militant Islamist terrorism' - both in the Middle East and closer to home in the Philippines. 'It is a threat to Israel, it is a threat to Australia, it is a threat to all who value and cherish freedom,' he said. Mr Turnbull said collaboration between Australia and Israel had deepened over the century and was now at its height Officials signed a memorandum of understanding to allow for more co-operation between the two nations' defence industries, including potential export opportunities. The leaders also pledged greater co-operation on cyber security issues. 'We have a vital interest in working more closely and intensely together to keep our people safe from terrorism and from the use of the internet,' Mr Turnbull said. The issue of Iran was discussed at length, after US President Donald Trump refused to certify Iran's compliance with the deal - a move Israel supports. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull waves as he boards a plane at Sydney Airport on Sunday, on his way to Israel on official business 'We absolutely understand Israel's very real concerns and anxiety about Iran moving to a nuclear weapons capability,' Mr Turnbull said. 'But we are not dissuaded that moving away from the agreement would be beneficial in terms of preventing that type of proliferation.' Mr Netanyahu and Mr Turnbull, who later privately dined together with wives Sara and Lucy, both acknowledged the centenary of the Battle of Beersheba - which will be commemorated with a series of events on Tuesday. Mr Turnbull described it as a pivotal moment in history, led by Australian horseman who - some on their own horses - helped liberate Palestine from the Ottoman empire. 'It was a great victory - the last successful calvary charge in military history and certainly one that rings through the ages,' he said. Mr Netanyahu labelled it the 'gateway to the rebirth of the Jewish people'. '(It) would not have been possible without the heroism and sacrifice of Australian troops who liberated this land from 400 years of Ottoman rule with tremendous courage,' he said. Long haul flights are about to become a whole lot comfier with a new aircraft set to fly regularly from Perth. With bigger windows, higher ceilings and more room for your luggage, the new Cathay Pacific 'Hush-liner' A350 will be taking passengers from Perth to Hong Kong in new luxury. Dubbed one of the quietest airplanes, the fuel efficiency and 'mood lighting' means the cabins are more peaceful, allowing for a relaxing red-eye flight. Bigger windows, higher ceilings and more luggage room are all features of the new Cathay Pacific 'Hush-liner' A350 (pictured) Dubbed one of the quietest airplanes, the fuel efficiency and 'mood lighting' means the cabins (pictured) are more peaceful, allowing for a relaxing red-eye flight Everything from magazines, live satellite channels, six-way head rests and in-flight duty-free shopping is available from the comfort of the sky (pictured) Everything from magazines, live satellite channels, six-way head rests and in-flight duty-free shopping is available from the comfort of the sky, according to Cathay Pacific's website. Captain Leigh Beaman said the new plane 'flies a lot faster, a lot higher and a lot more efficiently as far as fuel burn is concerned', according to Perth Now. Replacing the former A330 plane, the Hush-liner's first flight took off at the weekend, with passengers excited to experience the new plane. The plane reportedly helps tackle jet-lag with higher oxygen levels in the cabin, according to Traveller. Melbourne Airport chief of aviation Simon Gandy told the publication the plane was one of the 'greatest revolutions in aircraft technology' since the jet engine invention. The new 280-seater aircraft will regularly fly between to the two major cities increasing Western Australian tourism by more than $50 million, according to the publication. Captain Leigh Beaman said the new plane 'flies a lot faster, a lot higher and a lot more efficiently as far as fuel burn is concerned' The new 280-seater aircraft will regularly fly between to the two major cities increasing Western Australian tourism by more than $50 million More than 21,000 seats will be added to the route each year, making it a permanent flight from Perth. The Hush-liner has been compared to Qantas' 236-seater Dreamliner, which was unveiled almost two weeks ago. The Dreamliner is capable of long-haul flights from Australia to Europe. More Australians would rather have cheaper power bills than meet international targets to reduce carbon emissions. Almost one in two people surveyed by Newspoll agree with the idea of dumping global climate change agreements for less expensive electricity, with 45 per cent in favour compared to 40 per cent who oppose to the move. The results, published in The Australian, come as U.S. President Donald Trump pulls out of the Paris accord on global warming which Australia continues to support. More Australians want to turn off support for climate change agreements to reduce power bills A majority of Liberal and National party voters don't think climate change agreements stack up (pictured, Liddell power station in the New South Wales Hunter Valley) One Nation voters, who support Pauline Hanson, were the most in favour of pulling out of international climate change agreements, with an overwhelming 70 per cent in favour of quitting the Paris accord. A majority, or 54 per cent of Liberal and National party voters, also want Australia to relinquish global warming commitments. However, voters on the left of politics want Australia to keep its commitment to climate change deals, with 50 per cent of Labor supporters opposed to pulling out, compared with 71 per cent of Greens voters. Last year, Australia joined 174 other nations in formally signing up to the Paris accord, which commits our country to a 28 per cent reduction on 2005 emissions during the next 13 years. An overwhelming 70 per cent of Pauline Hanson's supporters oppose the Paris climate accord A Utah man killed his ex-girlfriend and her three-year-old son, then wrapped their bodies in sheets and dumped them in a remote part of the state before they were reported missing two years ago, prosecutors said in charges unsealed Monday. Emily Almiron, 23, and her three-year-old son, Gabriel, have never been found. But authorities have now filed aggravated murder charges against her then-boyfriend. Christopher Richard Poulson, 28, was arrested over the weekend in Hawaii, where he moved shortly after being confronted with evidence collected over two years of investigation by Orem police and the FBI, prosecutors said. Christopher Richard Poulson, 28, was arrested in Hawaii and charged with murder in connection with the September 8, 2015 disappearance of his former girlfriend and her son Emily Almiron, 23, and Gabriel 3, have not been found since they went missing more than two years ago. Police now say the Poulson killed them, wrapped their bodies in sheets and dumped them in a remote part of Utah Police say a cadaver dog detected the presence of human remains in the trunk of a Mustang Poulson sold cheaply shortly after Almiron and her son vanished on September 8, 2015. A roommate later told police a hammer disappeared around the same time Almiron went missing, charging documents state. Authorities also cite records showing Poulson drove to dumpsters near their apartment in Orem, about 40 miles south of Salt Lake City, the day after they disappeared, according to GPS data in charging documents. Poulson then bought a shovel and work gloves and drove to a rural area, according to the charges. The following day, he bought sheets and another pair of gloves before leaving Almiron's Toyota Prius filled with bags of her things and the boy's car seat in a parking lot in the southern Utah city of St. George, it is claimed. Poulson has told police he broke up with her on September 8 because he found drug paraphernalia in their apartment, and she left with her son, according to charging documents. Prosecutors say Poulson used drugs, including both marijuana and methamphetamine, himself. No attorney or publicly listed phone number was available for Poulson on Monday. Poulson previously told police that he broke up with her on the same day of her disappearance because of her alleged drug use. Police say that Poulson used both marijuana and methamphetamine The former couple is pictured together in an undated photo. Almiron's ex-husband initially reported her missing after she did not attend a child custody exchange He later moved to the northern Utah town of Smithfield and told friends Almiron had moved to California, charges state. But police searched driver's license databases all over the country without finding her. They also say she would be unlikely to leave shortly before she was due to graduate from a massage-therapy school where she had paid $13,000 in tuition. She also never returned to her job at an Orem Italian restaurant, the Salt Lake Tribune reports. Her credit cards and phone have gone unused since the date of her disappearance. She was initially reported missing by her ex-husband after she did not attend a child custody exchange. The aggravated murder charges against Poulson carry the possibility of the death penalty, though prosecutors haven't yet said if they will seek it. Poulson has at two DUI convictions, court documents show. The Sydney Opera House will check the bags of all concert goers as the venue tightens security measures for upcoming concerts. Backpacks, umbrellas, briefcases or suitcases, larger-than-A4 sized bags, are among the items which will not be allowed inside the venue and visitors will be asked to check them in at the cloakroom, the Daily Telegraph reports. Changes to security were prompted by the recent mass shooting from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas into a an open-air country music festival, leaving 58 dead. The Sydney Opera House (pictured) is set to increase security measures after the Las Vegas attack Kiwi songstress Lorde will perform on November 21 and 22 as part of a 12-date run across Australia and New Zealand for her Melodrama world tour Items that pose a hazard or restrict the movement of fellow patrons should also be left at home. The venue recommends planning to leave earlier for concerts to allow some extra time to get in. The forecourt is set to host a number of highly anticipated gigs over summer including Lorde and Jack Johnson. A spokesman said the security team working at the Opera House works alongside the NSW police to create a safe environment. 'We enforce strict venue access security measures at every performance for all indoor venues as well as the Forecourt and Northern Broadwalk. Mandatory visual inspections of bags and personal belongings are implemented for all ticketholders at every event, and patrons may be subject to additional random electronic screening,' a statement read. Jack Johnson (pictured) will perform across two dates on the house's forecourt on November 30 and December 1 The venue recommends arriving earlier at events to allow for the new upgrades They said the Opera House security upgrades were a timely update to make sure the venue was operating to world-set standards. 'Our procedures are regularly reviewed and evaluated based on the current security environment and arrangements at other similar institutions in Australia and overseas to ensure appropriate security measures are in place.' Security measures were also heightened following the terrorism attack at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester which killed 22 people in May. Old boys of nine top public schools are 94 times more likely to hold the most powerful jobs in the country than their peers, a study suggests. Research from the London School of Economics shows men who attended Britains most prestigious schools including Eton and Harrow still dominate public life. Alumni from these nine fee-paying institutions hold almost 10 per cent of top positions, despite such schools educating only 0.15 per cent of pupils. Old boys of nine top public schools (including Charterhouse, pictured) are 94 times more likely to hold the most powerful jobs in the country than their peers, a study suggests Also in the study were Charterhouse, Merchant Taylors, Rugby, Shrewsbury, St Pauls, Westminster, and Winchester College. Researchers analysed data on around 120,000 entrants to Whos Who from 1892 to 2016 born between 1830 and 1969. For this period, the nine schools admitted boys only. Entrants include MPs, peers, judges, senior civil servants, heads of public bodies, poet laureates, and heads of museums and large arts organisations. For the 2016 edition, alumni of the nine schools were 94 times more likely to be included than those of any other institution. Even among Oxbridge graduates, old boys from the nine schools were twice as likely to be in Whos Who. Authors Dr Aaron Reeves and Dr Sam Friedman said the schools power remains a testament to how far adrift Britain lies from true equality of opportunity and that it goes beyond simple academic excellence and may be rooted in an extensive extra-curricular education that endows old boys with a particular way of being that signals elite male status. Alumni from these nine fee-paying institutions (including Shrewsbury School) hold almost 10 per cent of top positions, despite such schools educating only 0.15 per cent of pupils The report noted the schools dominance has declined over time. A boy born in 1847 who went to one of these institutions was about 274 times more likely to end up in Whos Who than peers at other schools. But a boy born in 1967 who went to one of the top schools was around 67 times more likely to get an entry. The researchers said this was partly due to the introduction of universal education to 16 and standard exams. There has also been a drop in significance of military and religious leaders, who traditionally had strong links to such schools, and a rise in women and foreign-born Whos Who entrants. However, the authors said the decline in the schools power has largely stalled over the past 16 years, at around 8 per cent of new entrants. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl delivered a surprise two-hour testimony in which he tearfully apologized to those hurt by his actions before his own sentencing on Monday. Bergdahl could get life in prison for deserting his post in Afghanistan in 2009. Before he took to the stand, the court had heard testimony from the wife of a soldier who was paralyzed in combat while searching for him. 'I would like everyone who searched for me to know it was never my intention for anyone to be hurt, and I never expected that to happen,' Bergdahl told the court, his voice choked with emotion. 'My words alone can't take away their pain,' he added, according to CBS News. Scroll down for video Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl (pictured Monday) told a court in Fort Bragg on Monday that he was sorry for those who were hurt looking for him after he left his post in Afghanistan in 2009 Bergdahl (seen with his escort on Monday) gave a two-hour testimony in which he talked of being tortured for five years by the Taliban, who captured him after he walked out Bergdahl talked in detail about the torture he endured from the Taliban-aligned Haqqani network, which captured him after he left his post, during his testimony at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He said that due to repeated escape attempts, he spent four out of the five years in a cage, and upon release his muscles had wasted away so much he could barely stand. JUDGE THROWS OUT TRUMP CLAIMS Bergdahl's lawyers tried to argue on Monday that criticism by President Donald Trump is preventing him from having a fair sentencing hearing. Trump called for Bergdahl to be shot or thrown out of a plane without a parachute while running for election; he brought the comments back when Bergdahl pleaded on October 16. Military judge Army Col Jeffery Nance rejected the argument, saying the court hasn't been directly affected by Trump's criticism of Bergdahl. He also ruled that a reasonable member of the public would not have doubts about the fairness of military justice because of Trump's comments. The judge did say, however, that he would consider Trump's comments as a mitigating factor in the sentencing. Advertisement He also described being beaten with copper wire and suffering severe stomach distress due to the filthy conditions he was made to live in. 'The worst was the constant, just the constant deterioration of everything. The constant pain from my body falling apart. The constant screams from my mind,' he said. 'It was the years of waiting to see whether or not the next time someone opens the door if that would be the person coming to execute you.' That experience has left him so traumatized that he must sleep with a flashlight and check his door three times before he can go to bed. He also has flashbacks that can be unpredictably triggered by everyday smells such as perfume or garbage, he said. His testimony was entered as unsworn statements, which mean he will not face cross-examination from the prosecution. Bergdahl has pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. His remarks came after several days of emotionally charged testimony from the soldiers who were wounded in the search for him, and their families. The last to testify for the prosecution was Shannon Allen whose husband, National Guard Master Sgt Mark Allen, was shot in the head during an insurgent ambush. He was left unable to speak and is paralyzed over much of his body. Before Bergdahl took the stand, Shannon Allen (pictured) described how her husband, Sgt Mark Allen, had suffered brain trauma after being attacked while searching for him Allen was shot in the temple during the search. Shannon (pictured with her husband) wept in court as she described how her husband's injury had completely transformed their lives Allen was left unable to speak and is paralyzed over much of his body. Shannon told the court how he is unable to reach out and touch his daughter, who is now nine Mrs Allen's voice faltered when she referred to the brain injury's effect on his interactions with their daughter, who was an infant when he was wounded. Their daughter is now aged nine, but Mrs Allen said her husband isn't able to reach out and hold her. Bergdahl faces up to life in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he endangered comrades by walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009. Allen's wife sat crying in the courtroom the day Bergdahl pleaded guilty. After walking off his post, Bergdahl was held by the Taliban for five years before eventually being released in a 2014 prisoner swap criticized by Republicans. Prosecutors are using wounds to several service members who searched for Bergdahl as evidence to convince the judge that he deserves a stiff punishment. After walking off his post in 2009, Bergdahl (above in January 2016) was held by the Taliban for five years and eventually released in a 2014 prisoner swap criticized by Republicans A parade of prosecution witnesses have described the danger they faced while searching for Bergdahl after he disappeared in June 2009 and the lasting effects of injuries they sustained in the futile hunt. Several service members on Thursday recounted a hastily organized mission in July 2009 to search villages near Forward Operating Base Kushamond that ended in a Taliban ambush. Early the morning of July 9, 2009, troops came under heavy fire. A grenade exploded near Texas Army National Guard Staff Sergeant Jason Walters, then an Army Ranger. 'Everything went black,' he testified. 'I saw stars.' As soldiers scrambled back to their position behind a berm, Walters saw Sergeant 1st Class Mark Allen get shot in the head. US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel John Marx, then a captain, said he helped load Allen into a medical helicopter. A parade of prosecution witnesses have described the danger they faced while searching for Bergdahl (pictured left) after he disappeared in June 2009 and the lasting effects of injuries they sustained in the futile hunt Former US Army Ranger Jason Walters (left) and Air Force Lieutenant Colonel John Marx (right) leave the courthouse after testifying in the sentencing proceedings of Bergdahl's court martial at Fort Bragg, North Carolina 'That was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, getting Sergeant Allen on that chopper,' Marx said. 'It was hot, we were dehydrated, and just carrying his limp body - it was tough.' Army Specialist Morita, who was hurt in the same ambush, underwent three surgeries to repair his hand. He said he is more agitated and angry than before, and he directs his anger 'toward one person in particular'. As Morita left the courtroom on Monday, he leveled a steady glare at the defense table where Bergdahl sat. Retired Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer James Hatch also testified about his career-ending injury and a a military dog killed on a mission searching for Bergdahl. Hatch said the dog helped protect his team by locating enemy fighters after the SEALs lost sight of them in a chaotic situation. 'His name was Remco,' Hatch said as his voice cracked. Hatch said his team's helicopters came under fire as they landed in an area near the Pakistan border where they had information on Bergdahl's possible whereabouts. He said the mission was hastily planned, and their only objective was the Bergdahl search. Jonathan Morita (right), a former US Army soldier who was injured while searching for Bergdahl after he deserted in Afghanistan, leaves the courthouse after testifying on the third day of sentencing proceedings in Bergdahl's court martial last week Former Navy SEAL James Hatch, who was shot in the leg during a July 2009 attempt to rescue Bergdahl in Afghanistan, arrives with his service dog at the courthouse to testify on the second day of Bergdahl's sentencing proceedings last week Two of Bergdahl's defense attorneys, Maj Oren Gleich, left, and Maj Justin Thomas, right, leave the Fort Bragg courthouse on Wednesday. Bergdahl faces life in prison Remco was leading them through a field when the dog located two enemy fighters that the team had seen at a distance. Hatch said the fighters sprayed AK-47 bullets at them, killing the dog. He was hit in the leg. 'I screamed a lot. It hurt really bad... I thought I was dead,' he said. Hatch said he believes he would have died if a comrade hadn't quickly applied a tourniquet. Hatch has subsequently had 18 surgeries. He now runs a nonprofit dedicated to the care and support of military and law enforcement dogs. The judge, Army Col. Jeffery Nance, ruled those injuries would not have happened had Bergdahl, 31, not endangered his comrades in 2009 by walking away from his post. Prosecutors made no deal to cap Bergdahl's punishment, so the judge has wide leeway to decide his sentence. Several more days of testimony are expected. Bergdahl, from Hailey, Idaho, has said he was caged, kept in darkness and beaten, and tried to escape more than a dozen times before President Barack Obama brought Bergdahl home in 2014 in a swap for five Taliban prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. A Chinese engineer who 'married' his robotic girlfriend is now making personalised cyber partners for millions of bachelors in China. Zheng Jiajia's robotic company claimed it's producing tailor-made robotic girlfriends with 'sexual function' to 'accompany' single men and to help them deal with social pressure. In March, Mr Zheng, 31, married his robotic girlfriend, who he had made for himself. Apparently, the singleton was tired of the constant pressure from his parents who would ask him repeatedly: 'Isn't it time you settled down and got married?' After two months of 'dating', Mr Zheng 'married' his robotic girlfriend in March in China The engineer has started a company which makes customised robotic partners for single men Ill-fated with an unbalanced, male-heavy population in China, Zheng Jiajia, a graduate from a top university, couldn't seem to meet the right woman. AN EXAMPLE OF A TYPICAL MORNING CONVERSATION The newlywed couple appeared on Chinese variety program, 'Are You Hot' where they showed an example of a typical morning conversation. Yingying: 'Good morning, get up.' Zheng: 'I'm up. I'm up.' Yingying: 'Let's have breakfast!' Zheng: 'Sure thing.' Yingying: 'Hey, can you take me for a walk?' Zheng: 'Sure, sure, let's go to the lake.' Source: Tencent Advertisement As a result, he turned to a robot he built late last year he named Ying Ying. In a viral video shown on ku6.com, the smiling husband sits next to his bionic 'wife'. The robot resembles a young, slender Chinese woman with lifelike skin. According to Zheng, Ying Ying generates warmth, and can respond to speech and hugs. However, the only movement she appears capable of is from the neck up. After two months of 'dating', the artificial intelligence engineer 'married' her at a ceremony on March 28 this year, attended by his mother and friends in the eastern city of Hangzhou. The marriage is not considered legal, although the wedding had all the typical Chinese traditions, with his bride's head covered with a red cloth. However, Mr Zheng carried on as if it were by organising a ceremony and taking wedding photos with his 'bride.' During a TV programme aired in China this summer, called 'Are you Hot', someone asked Mr Zheng what he thought was missing from Ying Ying, to which he emotionally replied, 'a beating heart'. Zheng Jiajia, 31, apparently made his own robot wife to stop his parents' constant nagging Wedding had features of typical Chinese wedding with Yingying's head covered with red cloth During the wedding ceremony Ying Ying wore the traditional red cloth (left) Robotic wife: Ying Ying has lifelike skin, generates warmth and responds to speech and hugs (right) The media reaction in China to the 'marriage' has been mixed, with some social media users mocking Mr Zheng and others wondering if it is all a publicity stunt. WOULD YOU MARRY A ROBOT? Humans will marry robots in the next 35 years, according to a sex robot expert. Not only this, sex with robots will become more enjoyable than with other humans, because of the advancement of artificial intelligence, he said. 'The first marriage will be before, not after 2050,' best-selling author and robot expert Dr David Levy said during the Love and Sex with Robots conference at Goldsmiths University, London. Advertisement In the video, a mock up animation features Mr Zheng being pressured by society and has been widely shared across social media including the Chinese twitter, Weibo and Tencent. Mr Zheng doesn't want to spend the rest of his life with a robot. However, 'marrying her has propelled the balding engineer into the public spotlight as an available young go-getter for women across the globe to meet. Before 'marrying' Ying Ying, Mr Zheng started his own robotics company, Brain of Things Science and Technology. The 'romance' has certainly given the robotics company publicity and maybe will start wooing more lonely thirty somethings in China. In a recent press release, the company claimed to have invented a new generation of robotic girlfriends who could 'satisfy the customers sexual needs'. The robots are also said to be able to identify voices, faces and finger prints. Mr Zheng's slogan for his humanoid robots is 'it only takes up one square metre, but it could stay with you for life'. Mr Zheng said the only thing that was missing from Ying Ying was 'a beating heart' Mr Zheng's company said their robotics have 'sexual function' and can 'accompany' single men WHO WOULD BENEFIT FROM SEX ROBOTS? 'The hypothetical applications of sex robots and related products, part of a field called technosexuality, seem endless,' counsellor Ian Kerner said. 'I could see couples using them to enact fantasies, such as a threesome, that they might not feel comfortable trying with real people. ' He also said it could allow couples to work through differences that might otherwise cause them to separate. 'If one partner has a higher libido, a robot could allow him or her to enjoy a fulfilling sex life without straying. 'And robots might help couples break out of sex ruts by adding spice to their relationship or maintaining long-distance romances.' Advertisement Mr Zheng is apparently targeting at China's growing number of wifeless men. About 30 million men in China can't find wives due to the country's gender imbalance issue. That's nearly half of the population of Britain. Traditionally, baby boys are preferred by Chinese parents because of their ability to carry forward the family name. Decades of illegal baby gender selection, prompted by the one-child policy, has caused the country to suffer from a severe gender gap. The gender ratio between baby boys and baby girls has reached 1.3 to 1 at its highest. It's been estimated that around 15 million men between the ages of 35 and 59 won't be able to find wives by 2020, reported People's Daily, and by 2050 the number would grow to nearly 30 million. CANDO Excuse her, but Carie Moore would like to share words of support on behalf of pigs. Moore, 40, is a farmer, mother of four and a professional soil conservationist at Cando. But she wants to speak up on behalf of the pig farming industry as a veteran of a variety of large-scale dairy and pig farms from 2000 to 2010. Today, Moore works in soil conservation at Cando, and farms with her husband, Jason, at nearby Rocklake. She is on the Towner County Farm Bureau board of directors and is the Area Four director for the Promotion and Education Committee of the North Dakota Farm Bureau. However, she says she approached Agweek to support animal agriculture for personal reasons only and because she felt boxed out. There are a lot of positives for the communities (pig farms) go into, Moore says. There are jobs for the people who like physical labor and dont like to be behind a desk. In her experience, employee health issues arent as critics describe. There have been no catastrophic lagoon spills where shes worked. Animals are treated humanely. She says shes tried to speak up on social media involving some of the proposed projects, but in some cases remarks have been blocked by opponents. They only want the negatives heard, not the positives, she says. Sunny side up Since 2010, Moore has worked as district manager for the Towner County Soil Conservation District at Cando. She is a volunteer for CommonGround North Dakota, a group of volunteers from agriculture who want to connect with nonagriculture consumers. She grew up as Carie Marshall in the Logan, N.D., area, and spent time at her grandparents crop and livestock farm in rural Minot. She was involved in 4-H and FFA and graduated from Minot High School in 1995. She went to what is now Dakota College at Bottineau and picked up a two-year degree in wildlife and fisheries. She worked at the Roosevelt Zoo in Minot while working toward a plant and animal biology degree from Minot State University in 2000. Moore started her career as a nutritionist and lead feeder on a large-scale dairy farm near Dodgeville, Wis. In 2002, she shifted to a large-scale pig operation at Spring Green, Wis. I absolutely loved it, she recalls. The farm had 1,200 to 1,500 sows. The farrow-to-finish operation had a boar stud and supplied gilts and boars for breeding stock to other pig farmers, she says. In late 2004, she moved back to North Dakota, working at Whitestone Farms at Breckenridge, Minn./Lisbon, N.D. (formerly Bell Farms). In late 2005, she moved to Cando to work in sow barns involved with the Gibbens family. In 2008, she shifted to Viking Pork, a pig operation being developed at Edmore, N.D. By 2010 she married Jason. At that time, Moore left the swine industry because of the 40-mile commute and in part of biosecurity logistics as Jason worked for the Gibbens farming operation. In 2010, she was hired as Towner County Soil Conservation District manager, but she still has a soft spot in her heart for pigs. It wasnt a matter of I dont want to do it anymore, she says. Pig hoteliers Pig farms where Moore worked have become important pieces of the Cando area. Farmer James R. Jim Gibbens and his partner Bruce Gibbens, a lawyer and cousin, decided to invest in pigs in 2002. The Gibbenses were approached by Elite Swine Inc. (later rebranded as Maple Leaf Agri-Farms) of Canada to build grow-finish barns. In 2005 the Gibbenses realigned with Hytek (also HyTek), which became Hylife (also HyLife) company and its U.S. subsidiary Sky Can Ltd. Jim is a former mayor of Cando and is still chairman of its economic development. Several of his family members run or own parts of 10 businesses in town. The Gibbenses own the barns with loans from Land OLakes Finance. Sky Can rents the barns to pay for them. Today, the systems include five sites, including a feed mill. All told, partners have invested some $22 million in the pig loop farrow-to-finish pig production that produces 166,000 weanlings and finishes about half of them. The pig operations provide more than 45 full-time employees and $1.5 million in payroll in a town of about 1,100 people. When the barns are paid off, the Gibbenses will continue to receive dividends from owning HyLife stock, and the company will have an option to buy the buildings. After 12 years in operation, Jim says he doesnt know of any worker who has ever quit over any human health concern. There isnt anybody thats gotten sick out there, he says. About half of the sow barn workers have been there since the beginning. The barns are high-health status biosecure for the sake of the pigs themselves, he says. We havent had any major environmental concerns, Jim says. We havent had an odor complaint in the past eight or nine years. Prior to that we had a few, but we always passed the (state) health department odor test, he says. The pigs add value to Gibbens corn, and the manure offers more than a $200,000 annual savings compared to buying fertilizer commercially. They farm 2,000 acres a year in a three- or four-year rotation on a farm of about 10,000 acres. Expansion is a possibility, he says. Jim urges others developing pig operations to consider location, location, location when picking a site. We try to build them in a spot has the least impact on the least amount of people, he says. Biosecure health Moore says she understands the public concerns about worker health, but says thats not what she experienced. Her children are ages 20, 11, 7, and 5, and she would encourage them to consider careers in livestock. I would never hold back my kids from anything in agriculture, no matter what it is, she says. Her daughter, Mady, 11, applied for a pig from the Gibbens group for her 4-H project. Theyll give you one to show for a year, she says, noting the family ate the pork at the end of the year. Yes, she experienced strong smells when pig barn workers pulled the pit plug to drain pit contents into the lagoon so the barns can be cleaned. But many of her coworkers had worked in barns for 20 years and liked their jobs. I was pregnant two different times in the barns. My pregnancies went smoothly. I never had any (health) problems, she says. People are always going to complain about the smell you cant get rid of that, she acknowledges. But the odors are not constant and typically involve a day or two when manure is being spread, or if the wind is from a certain direction. Larger pig farms hire specialists to apply manure as fertilizer. It doesnt just get put on so (that) its going to run off, she says. The amount will vary by the type of crop and soils are tested before application. In many cases the manure is not enough for the crops to use and must be supplemented with synthetic fertilizers. To Moore, its still manure not sewage, as some critics describe it. And its not a waste site its still a farm field, whether youre applying manure or anhydrous, she says, adding, Whether its nitrogen from manure or from anhydrous it gets knifed into the ground the same exact way. Researchers have found thousands of pieces of art nestled in pitch-black caves that were created by indigenous people living on a remote Caribbean island more than 800 years ago. The strange motifs were found far from cave entrances and researchers say the pre-Columbian artists who created them also took strong hallucinogenic drugs. Many of these peculiar drawings depict human-like images and appear to be transforming into plants and animals - giving experts a unique insight into the spiritual beliefs of a forgotten culture. Scroll down for video Researchers have found thousands of pieces of art nestled in a network of pitch-black caves. Experts believe this image could be a sign of fertility and might show someone giving birth. Variations of this image occurred frequently in the cave complexes, researchers said WHAT ARE THESE IMAGES? The team uncovered multiple rock art sites inside the caves with iconography consisting of human, animal, and meandering designs. Some are painted or drawn, and others, drawn with the fingers in the soft walls, are more elaborate and akin to a technique called finger-fluting familiar from Palaeolithic rock art in southern Europe. Many of these anthropomorphic figures are in the process of transformation - sometimes they're transforming into animals and sometimes they're be transforming into plants. They took cohoba a hallucinogenic drugcalled Cohoba that is made from the ground seeds of the cojobana tree and produces a psychedelic effect. Scientific analyses from the team have provided the first dates for rock art in the Caribbean - illustrating that these images are pre-Columbian made by artists exploring and experimenting deep underground, researchers found. Advertisement Led by the University of Leicester and the British Museum, a team of researchers found around 70 cave systems on the currently uninhabited and remote Mona Island in the Caribbean. The paper is the result of three-years of research starting in 2013 that looks at these newly-discovered designs, drawn between 1200AD - 1590AD. It is the Caribbean region's largest concentration of indigenous pre-Columbian rock art. The team uncovered multiple rock art sites inside the caves with iconography consisting of human, animal, and meandering designs. Some are painted or drawn, and others, drawn with the fingers in the soft walls, are more elaborate and akin to a technique called finger-fluting familiar from Palaeolithic rock art in southern Europe. 'For the indigenous population that lived in the Caribbean, caves represented a spiritual space and this art represents their belief systems', lead researcher Dr Jago Cooper from the British Museum told MailOnline. Many of these anthropomorphic figures are in the process of transformation - sometimes they're transforming into animals and sometimes they're be transforming into plants. 'They took cohoba a hallucinogenic drug that you snort and it's very powerful', Dr Cooper said, which might have helped them create these strange designs. Cohoba is made from the ground seeds of the cojobana tree and produces a psychedelic effect. Many of these peculiar images are human-like images that appear to be transforming into plants and animals giving a unique insight into the spiritual beliefs of a forgotten culture The strange motifs were found in small dark chambers far from cave entrances. Researchers say this image might show the intersection between the real and spiritual world Most of the drawings are down very narrow spaces deep in the caves, some are very hard to access and researchers had to crawl to get to them. 'I believe it is likely they went in to the cave for particular rights of passage. Often they are deep under ground where there is not much natural light and would have been led in their by someone with the knowledge', said Dr Cooper. 'The further you go into the cave the more into the spiritual world you go. In the dark a lot of your sense are totally transformed - it's very eerie and strange. 'You are completely out of your comfort zone - it's discombobulating and the same thing would have happened would have happened to the people making this art', he said. These images were created by indigenous people living on a remote Caribbean island more than 800 years ago. Researchers say they hope to decipher more of the meanings over the next five years The team uncovered multiple rock art sites inside the caves with iconography consisting of human, animal, and meandering designs Led by the University of Leicester and the British Museum, a team of researchers found around 70 cave systems on the currently uninhabited and remote Mona Island in the Caribbean Most of the drawings are down very narrow spaces deep in the caves, some are very hard to access and researchers had to crawl to get to them 'The further you go into the cave the more into the spiritual world you go. In the dark a lot of your sense are totally transformed - it's very eerie and strange', Dr Cooper told MailOnline Researchers found the vast cave complex on Mona Island between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. It is the Caribbean region's largest concentration of indigenous pre-Columbianrock art Scientific analyses from the team have provided the first dates for this rock art - illustrating that these images are pre-Columbian made by artists exploring and experimenting deep underground. 'The conservation-minded approach we used squeezed every bit of information we could out of the discovery using multiple methods that are relevant to the studies of vulnerable rock art worldwide', said Dr Alice Samson, co-author of the paper from the University of Leicester School of Archaeology and Ancient History. The cave represented the boundary between the real and spiritual world. 'For the millions of indigenous peoples living in the Caribbean before European arrival, caves represented portals into a spiritual realm, and therefore these new discoveries of the artists at work within them captures, the essence of their belief systems and the building blocks of their cultural identity', said Dr Cooper. The paper is the result of three-years of research starting in 2013 that looks at these peculiar designs, that were drawn between 1200AD - 1590AD Many of these anthropomorphic figures are in the process of transformation - sometimes they're transforming into animals and sometimes they're be transforming into plants Some are painted or drawn, and others, drawn with the fingers in the soft walls, are more elaborate and akin to a technique called finger-fluting familiar from Palaeolithic rock art in southern Europe They took Cohoba which is made from the ground seeds of the cojobana tree and produces a psychedelic effect The paper presents the first results of the dating of the art on the island (pictured), as well as insights into the artistic choices made about location, technique, and paint recipes of the time The paper presents the first results of the dating of the art, as well as insights into the artistic choices made about location, technique, and paint recipes of the time. 'By identifying the pigments from outside the caves we've shown intentionality - that people went in there they went in to make art', Dr Cooper said. Researchers believe there is still a lot more art to discover. 'Our research proves the indigenous people were artists who went into the caves to make art and they have a canon of art that had meaning.' Scientific analyses from the team have provided the first dates for rock art in the Caribbean - illustrating that these images are pre-Columbian made by artists exploring and experimenting deep underground, researchers found Although the artists took drugs while making their art they did not have 'parties' as such. Researchers said the caves were extremely humid 'These are secret and sacred places like a church and you wouldn't have a party in a church', Dr Cooper said 'Imagine a social networking site, where instead of having a page with posts of people here you have an actual cave wall or roof full of different pictographs', said Victor Serrano a PhD student from University of Leicester's School of Archaeology and Ancient History Reseachers believe they went in to the cave for particular rights of passage. Often they are deep under ground where there is not much natural light and would have been led in their by someone with the knowledge Although the artists took drugs while making their art they did not have 'parties' as such. 'These are secret and sacred places like a church and you wouldn't have a party in a church', Dr Cooper said. 'Imagine a social networking site, where instead of having a page with posts of people here you have an actual cave wall or roof full of different pictographs', said Victor Serrano a PhD student from University of Leicester's School of Archaeology and Ancient History. 'As a Puerto Rican these groups of people that visited and lived in Mona Island are my ancestors, and their story is of utmost importance', he said. Researchers say they hope to understand more about the meaning of this rock art over the next five years. For the millions of indigenous peoples living in the Caribbean before European arrival, caves represented portals into a spiritual realm, researchers found These new discoveries capture the essence of their belief systems and the building blocks of their cultural identity, researchers said Apple will let you unlock the iPhone X with your face - a move likely to bring facial recognition to the masses. But along with the roll out of the technology, are concerns over how it could be used. Despite Apple's safeguards, privacy activists fear the widespread use of facial recognition would 'normalise' the technology. This could open the door to broader use by law enforcement, marketers or others of a largely unregulated tool, creating a 'surveillance technology that is abused'. Scroll down for video Facial recognition could open the door to broader use by law enforcement, marketers or others of a largely unregulated tool, creating a 'surveillance technology that is abused', experts have warned. Pictured is the iPhone X, which uses Face ID HOW APPLE'S FACE ID WORKS Face ID uses a TrueDepth front-facing camera on the iPhone X, which has multiple components. A Dot Projector projects more than 30,000 invisible dots onto your face to map its structure. The dot map is then read by an infrared camera and the structure of your face is relayed to the A11 Bionic chip in the iPhone X, where it is turned into a mathematical model. The A11 chip then compares your facial structure to the facial scan stored in the iPhone X during the setup process. Face ID uses infrared to scan your face, so it works in low lighting conditions and in the dark. It will only unlock your device when you look in the direction of the iPhone X with your eyes open. Face ID captures both a 3-D and 2-D image of your face using infrared light while you're looking straight at the camera. Five unsuccessful attempts at Face ID will force you to enter a passcode - which you'll need anyway just to set up facial recognition. That requires you to come up with a secure string of digits - or, for extra security, a string of letters and numbers - to protect your privacy. Face ID also adapts to changes in your appearance over time, so it will continue to recognise you as you grow a beard or grow your hair longer. Advertisement Apple's $999 (999) iPhone X, set to go on sale November 3, is designed to be unlocked with a facial scan with a number of privacy safeguards - as the data will only be stored on the phone and not in any databases. Unlocking your phone with a face scan may offer added convenience and security for iPhone users, according to Apple, which claims its 'neural engine' for FaceID cannot be tricked by a photo or hacker. While other devices have offered facial recognition, Apple is the first to pack the technology allowing for a three-dimensional scan into a hand-held phone. 'Apple has done a number of things well for privacy but it's not always going to be about the iPhone X,' said Jay Stanley, a policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union. 'There are real reasons to worry that facial recognition will work its way into our culture and become a surveillance technology that is abused.' A study last year by Georgetown University researchers found nearly half of all Americans in a law enforcement database that includes facial recognition, without their consent. Civil liberties groups have sued over the FBI's use of its 'next generation' biometric database, which includes facial profiles, claiming it has a high error rate and the potential for tracking innocent people. 'We don't want police officers having a watch list embedded in their body cameras scanning faces on the sidewalk,' said Mr Stanley. Clare Garvie - the Georgetown University Law School associate who led the 2016 study on facial recognition databases - agreed that Apple is taking a responsible approach but others might not. 'My concern is that the public is going to become inured or complacent about this,' Ms Garvie said. Widespread use of facial recognition 'could make our lives more trackable by advertisers, by law enforcement and maybe someday by private individuals,' she said. The Face ID system uses a number of technologies to ensure it recognises its user. This includes an infrared camera to see in the dark and an ambient light sensor Shanghai and other Chinese cities have recently started deploying facial recognition to catch those who flout the rules of the road, including jaywalker Apple senior vice president Philip Schiller shows the FaceID system which is being used on new iPhone X, allowing a user to unlock the device with a scan of the face PRIVACY CONCERNS A study last year by Georgetown University researchers found nearly half of all Americans in a law enforcement database that includes facial recognition, without their consent. Shanghai and other Chinese cities have recently started deploying facial recognition to catch those who flout the rules of the road, including jaywalkers. Facial recognition and related technologies can also be used by retail stores to identify potential shoplifters, and by casinos to pinpoint undesirable gamblers. It can even be used to deliver personalised marketing messages - and could have some other potentially unnerving applications. Advertisement Ms Garvie said her research found significant errors in law enforcement facial recognition databases, opening up the possibility someone could be wrongly identified as a criminal suspect. Another worry, she said, is that police could track individuals who have committed no crime simply for participating in demonstrations. Shanghai and other Chinese cities have recently started deploying facial recognition to catch those who flout the rules of the road, including jaywalkers. Facial recognition and related technologies can also be used by retail stores to identify potential shoplifters, and by casinos to pinpoint undesirable gamblers. It can even be used to deliver personalised marketing messages - and could have some other potentially unnerving applications. Last year, a Russian photographer figured out how to match the faces of porn stars with their social media profiles to 'doxx' them, or reveal their true identities. The iPhone X will be available in space grey and silver, and ships on November 3. Pictured is Phil Schiller on stage during the presentation This type of use 'can create huge problems,' said Ms Garvie. 'We have to consider the worst possible uses of the technology.' Apple's system uses 30,000 infrared dots to create a digital image which is stored in a 'secure enclave,' according to a white paper issued by the company on its security. It said the chances of a 'random' person being able to unlock the device are one in a million, compared with one in 50,000 for its TouchID. To unlock the phone, users can use facial recognition, which Apple calls Face ID. It will 'learn' your face, so every time you glance at the iPhone, it detects your face - even in the dark Facial recognition is used at an automated ePassport gate at the British border of the Eurostar at the Gare du Nord rail station in Paris Apple's FaceID is likely to touch off fresh legal battles about whether police can require someone to unlock a device. FaceID 'brings the company deeper into a legal debate' that stemmed from the introduction of fingerprint identification on smartphones, according to ACLU staff attorney Brett Max Kaufman. Mr Kaufman says in a blog post that courts will be grappling with the constitutional guarantees against unreasonable searches and self-incrimination if a suspect is forced to unlock a device. US courts have generally ruled that it would violate a user's rights to give up a passcode because it is 'testimonial' - but that situation becomes murkier when biometrics are applied. Apple appears to have anticipated this situation by allowing a user to press two buttons for two seconds to require a passcode, but Ms Garvie said court battles over compelling the use of FaceID are likely. THE IPHONE X - $999 (999 in the UK) price for 64GB version, and $1,149 (1,149 in the UK) for the 256GB version - Pronounced the 'iPhone 10' - Comes with 64GB and 256GB models - Pre-orders opened on Friday; will ship on November 3 - No home button - swipe up from the bottom to unlock or to go home from an app or to multitask - 'Face ID' that allows users to unlock the phone by looking at it - Qi and AirPower wireless charging that lets you charge multiple devices at once - 'Screen tap' unlock - Edge to edge display with glass on both sides of the device - Super retina display using OLED technology - highest ever pixel density in an iPhone - Dual 12 megapixel cameras and dual-optical image stabilization - Tuned for augmented reality capabilities - Portrait lighting that uses machine learning to touch up photos - A11 bionic chips with six cores, can be 70 per cent faster than the previous A10 chip Advertisement Regardless of these concerns, Apple's introduction is likely to bring about widespread use of facial recognition technology. 'What Apple is doing here will popularise and get people more comfortable with the technology,' said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, who follows the sector. 'If I look at Apple's track record of making things easy for consumers, I'm optimistic users are going to like this.' Ms Garvie added it is important to have conversations about facial recognition because there is little regulation governing the use of the technology. 'The technology may well be inevitable,' she said. 'It is going to become part of everyone's lives if it isn't already.' Elon Musk has shared the first ever photo of the traffic-busting tunnel that will allow Los Angeles commuters to travel under the city at 150mph (240kph). The 150-metre (500ft) shaft, excavated by the billionaire's tunnel-digging firm The Boring Company, 'should be 2 miles [3.2km] long in three or four months', he said. The SpaceX and Tesla founder came up with the idea for the tunnelling firm while frustrated at being stuck in heavy LA traffic. He plans to build a series of tunnels underneath the city that could ferry cars in pods on 'electric skates' to avoid LA's notoriously busy roads. We have known for months that Musk's Boring Company has been testing its equipment beneath SpaceX's LA headquarters. But this is the first image he has shared of what appears to be a completed underground system since the firm was granted permission in August to dig under public roads around campus. Scroll down for video Elon Musk has shared a new photo of the traffic-busting tunnel that will allow Los Angeles commuters to zip under the city at 150mph (240kph). The 150-metre (500ft) shaft 'should be 2 miles [3.2km] long in three or four months', he said BORING COMPANY Elon Musk has outlined how his Boring Company will work, claiming: Tunnelling costs must be reduced by a factor of more than 10 Key to this is smaller tunnels that can be dug more quickly Will work to increase the speed of the Tunnel Boring Machine Envisions a new breed of smaller, more powerful boring machines, with triple the power of current devices, that can tunnel continuously Advertisement Over the weekend, Musk posted a new image of the firm's first tunnel on his Twitter and Instagram accounts, laying out where the underground track system will run in separate comments. In response to a user asking how long the tunnel is, Musk tweeted: '500 ft so far. Should be 2 miles long in three or four months and hopefully stretch the whole 405 N-S corridor from LAX to the 101 in a year or so.' On Instagram, the billionaire gave more detail on where the track would run and how it would operate. 'First route will go roughly parallel to the 405 from LAX to [Highway] 101, with on/offramps every mile or so,' he wrote. 'It will work like a fast freeway, where electric skates carrying vehicles and people pods on the main artery travel at up to 150mph [240 kph], and the skates switch to side tunnels to exit and enter. 'This is a big difference compared to subways that stop at every stop, whether you're getting off or not.' Musk's proposed first tunnel will run from LAX to Culver City, then to Santa Monica, and end in Westwood. Musk claims the tunnel trip will take five minutes, compared to 45 minutes driving in normal LA traffic As well as new images of his initial tunnel, Musk also laid out where the track would run under the city (pictured). The SpaceX and Tesla founder came up with the idea for the tunnelling firm while frustrated at being stuck in heavy LA traffic In a comment on Instagram, the billionaire gave more detail on where the track would run and how it would operate THE BORING COMPANY'S TUNNEL In August, it was reported that Elon Musk's firm would build a two-mile-long test tunnel in Los Angeles, after the City Council voted four to one in favour of his ambitious plans. The extension will run 13.5 metres (44 feet) under public roads around the SpaceX headquarters, and is the first time the Boring Company has been allowed to dig outside it's property line. This dry run will make sure plans actually work - if it doesn't, the city can request the tunnel is filled with concrete or soil. 'They won't even know we're there', Brett Horton, senior director of facilities and construction at SpaceX assured members of the council. 'This is groundbreaking, this is establishing a precedent, and I think we all agree that we want to make sure that this goes off without a hitch,' Hawthorne's Mayor Alex Vargas said. The company assured citizens that if the soil moves by as little as half an inch, work will stop immediately. Musk has since posted his plans to Instagram: 'First route will go roughly parallel to the 405 from LAX to [Highway] 101, with on/offramps every mile or so,' he wrote in October. 'It will work like a fast freeway, where electric skates carrying vehicles and people pods on the main artery travel at up to 150mph [240 kph], and the skates switch to side tunnels to exit and enter. 'This is a big difference compared to subways that stop at every stop, whether you're getting off or not.' Advertisement Earlier this year, the Boring Company's first tunnel-digging machine, called 'Godot' (pictured), began digging test tunnels under LA The tech boss took to social media in August to share progress on his traffic-beating tunnel beneath Los Angeles, revealing it is now big enough to fit a Tesla Model S. Pictured is a test tunnel Since he first announced plans to dig a tunnel under LA last December, Musk has regularly updated fans with his Boring Company's progress via social media. Earlier this month, the technology mogul tweeted that the firm's second tunnel digging machine was on its way. 'Second boring machine almost ready. 'Will be called Line-Storm, after the poem by Frost' he tweeted. The billionaire also brought attention to the Frost's line 'and be my love in the rain' in his post. Second boring machine almost ready. Will be called Line-Storm, after the poem by Frost. "And be my love in the rain." pic.twitter.com/xlWPYdPu3P Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 19, 2017 Earlier this month, Elon Musk announced that his Boring Company's second tunnel-digging machine is 'nearly ready' MUSK'S 'BORING' PLAN When Musk first announced his plans to bore a tunnel to his SpaceX offices in Los Angeles, it was hard to know if he was simply venting his frustrations about being stuck in traffic. 'Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging...', he tweeted in December last year. He ended his rant on the social media site with: 'I am actually going to do this'. The billionaire first tweeted a picture of his firm's boring machine back in February with the caption 'Minecraft' - a reference to the popular video game in which players dig large tunnel networks for resources. Many have speculated that Musk will use his Boring Company to build tunnels for Hyperloop transportation systems - either for other firms or his own venture. When he first revealed the plan in a white paper developed with his team at SpaceX, in 2012, he said he would let others build the system. 'I don't have any plan to execute because I must remain focused on SpaceX and Tesla,' he said in a conference call at the time. But in August it appeared Musk would build his own hyperloop tunnel system in a bid to speed up adoption of the radical travel technology he invented. According to reports from a 'person close to Musk,' it appears the billionaire will build the whole system himself. Musk also hinted at it, replying to a tweet about the issues facing the various Hyperloop plans by saying 'I guess a proof of concept is needed.' Advertisement When Musk first announced his plans to bore a tunnel to his SpaceX offices in Los Angeles, it was hard to know if he was joking This led some to speculate that his latest machine will be designed for all-weather operation. The firm's 'Godot' machine was named after Samuel Beckett's famous play 'Waiting for Godot.' The news came just two months after the firm first got permission to dig outside of its own property. In August, it was reported that Musk's firm would build a two-mile-long test tunnel in Los Angeles, after the City Council voted four to one in favour of his ambitious plans. The extension will run 13.5 metres (44 feet) under public roads around the SpaceX headquarters, and is the first time the Boring Company has been allowed to dig outside it's property line. Elon Musk says he has 'verbal government approval' to build an underground tunnel to transport passengers between New York and Washington DC in just 29 minutes. His firm the Boring Company could dig these tunnels WHAT IS HYPERLOOP? Hyperloop is a proposed method of travel that would transport people at roughly 700mph between distant locations. It was unveiled by Elon Musk in 2013, who at the time said it could take passengers the 380 miles (610km) from LA to San Francisco in 30 minutes - half the time it takes a plane. It is essentially a long tube that has had the air removed to create a vacuum. The tube is suspended off the ground to protect against weather and earthquakes. As several firms vie to create the first operational Hyperloop, Elon Musk's vision of a radical transport system that could ferry passengers above land at 760 miles per hour continues to inch closer to reality Advertisement This dry run will make sure plans actually work - if it doesn't, the city can request the tunnel is filled with concrete or soil. 'They won't even know we're there', Brett Horton, senior director of facilities and construction at SpaceX assured members of the council. 'This is groundbreaking, this is establishing a precedent, and I think we all agree that we want to make sure that this goes off without a hitch,' Hawthorne's Mayor Alex Vargas said. The company assured citizens that if the soil moves by as little as half an inch, work will stop immediately. In August, it was reported that Elon Musk's Boring Company will build a two-mile-long test tunnel (proposed route shown as dotted line) in Los Angeles, after the City Council voted four to one in favour of his ambitious plans When Musk first announced his plans to bore a tunnel to his SpaceX offices in Los Angeles, it was hard to know if he was simply venting his frustrations about being stuck in traffic. 'Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging...', he tweeted in December last year. He ended his rant on the social media site with: 'I am actually going to do this'. Images released earlier this year show the design of the Boring Company's underground electric buses that it plans to use in its tunnels The billionaire first tweeted a picture of his firm's boring machine back in February with the caption 'Minecraft' - a reference to the popular video game in which players dig large tunnel networks for resources. Many have speculated that Musk will use his Boring Company to build tunnels for Hyperloop transportation systems - either for other firms or his own venture. When he first revealed the plan in a white paper developed with his team at SpaceX, in 2012, he said he would let others build the system. CHALLENGES FACING MUSK'S 'BORING' PLAN Musk has an uphill battle ahead if he's serious about tunnelling under LA. Digging under cities takes a lot of time because the densely packed earth and rock underground is poorly mapped. 'Our recent experience with tunnels in the US is that neighbours worry, you run up against various environmental laws, and you just never know what's underneath the Earth,' Michael Manville, who studies urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Wired. The hole is legal because it has been dug on private property. But extending the tunnel further than SpaceX's headquarters would require more discussion, paperwork, and LA City council approval. 'We're just going to figure out what it takes to improve tunnelling speed by, I think, somewhere between 500 and 1,000 percent,' he said during a recent Hyperloop design competition at SpaceX. 'We have no idea what we're doing - I want to be clear about that.' Advertisement 'I don't have any plan to execute because I must remain focused on SpaceX and Tesla,' he said in a conference call at the time. But in August it appeared Musk would build his own hyperloop tunnel system in a bid to speed up adoption of the radical travel technology he invented. According to reports from a 'person close to Musk,' it appears the billionaire will build the whole system himself. Musk also hinted at it, replying to a tweet about the issues facing the various Hyperloop plans by saying 'I guess a proof of concept is needed.' Many had thought Musk would simply create the tunnels for Hyperloop systems using his recently revealed Boring Company. 'While we're encouraged that others are making some progress, we would like to accelerate the development of this technology as fast as possible,' Musk's Boring Co., a venture created to build roads that run through underground tunnels, said in a statement. 'We encourage and support all companies that wish to build Hyperloops and we don't intend to stop them from using the Hyperloop name as long as they are truthful.' Musk has an uphill battle ahead if he's serious about tunnelling under LA. Musk posted a picture on Instagram in February, writing 'Cutterhead in operation at standard industry speed. Planning to jack this up by a factor of ten or more' Digging under cities takes a lot of time because the densely packed earth and rock underground is poorly mapped. 'Our recent experience with tunnels in the US is that neighbours worry, you run up against various environmental laws, and you just never know what's underneath the Earth,' Michael Manville, who studies urban planning at the University of California, Los Angeles, told Wired. The hole is legal because it has been dug on private property. But extending the tunnel further than SpaceX's headquarters would require more discussion, paperwork, and LA City council approval. 'We're just going to figure out what it takes to improve tunnelling speed by, I think, somewhere between 500 and 1,000 percent,' he said during a recent Hyperloop design competition at SpaceX. 'We have no idea what we're doing - I want to be clear about that.' Last week, a mysterious object whizzed past Earth, which scientists suspected was the first 'alien comet' to visit us from another solar system. Now, researchers have revealed stunning images of the comet in action, and information on its possible chemical composition. The image 'sends a shiver down the spine,' according to scientists studying it. Their findings suggest that it is a small rocky or icy object that may have been drifting through our galaxy for millions or even billions of years, before entering our solar system by chance. Scroll down for video Last week, a mysterious object whizzed past Earth, which scientists suspected was the first 'alien comet' to visit us from another solar system. Now, researchers have revealed stunning images of the comet in action, and information on its possible chemical composition WHERE DID IT COME FROM? Most comets follow ellipse-shaped orbits around the sun. But this comet appears to orbit at an angle, and doesn't circle the sun. Its orbital path suggests it entered our solar system from the direction of the constellation Lyra, looped around the sun, and will never return. But others have suggested that the comet did come from Earth, but interacted with Jupiter or another planet, which changed its orbit. Advertisement Researchers from Queen's University Belfast have been studying the mysterious comet, called C/2017 U1, using powerful telescopes across the world. While most comets follow ellipse-shaped orbits around the sun, this comet appears to orbit at an angle, and doesn't circle the sun. Its orbital path suggests it entered our solar system from the direction of the constellation Lyra, looped around the sun, and will never return. Professor Alan Fitzsimmons, who is leading the study, said: 'By Wednesday this week it became almost certain this object was alien to our solar system. While most comets follow ellipse-shaped orbits around the sun, this comet appears to orbit at an angle, and doesn't circle the sun. Its orbital path suggests it entered our solar system from the direction of the constellation Lyra, looped around the sun, and will never return 'We immediately started studying it that night with the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands, then on Thursday night with the Very Large Telescope in Chile.' Initial findings suggest that the comet is a small rocky or icy object that may have been drifting through our galaxy for millions or even billions of years, before entering our solar system by chance. Initial findings suggest that the comet is a small rocky or icy object that may have been drifting through our galaxy for millions or even billions of years, before entering our solar system by chance The object flew into the solar system from above, was close to the sun last month, and is now already on its way back out to the stars, according to the researchers. Astronomers believe it was probably thrown out of another star system during a period of planet formation. Despite suspecting such objects existed and looking out for them over past decades, scientists have never seen such an interstellar visitor until now. The researchers studied the comet with the William Herschel Telescope in the Canary Islands, then on Thursday night with the Very Large Telescope in Chile (pictured) During their investigations, Professor Fitzsimmons' team captured clear images of the unusual object. Professor Fitzsimmons added: 'It sends a shiver down the spine to look at this object and think it has come from another star.' The researchers highlight that more information is needed to pin down the exact details of where the visitor came from, but hope that further studies will reveal more about the mysterious comet. The comet, called C/2017 U1 was spotted by a telescope in Hawaii on 18 October, and was then seen 34 separate times in the week after. Its path is illustrated in Nasa's animation, above But not everyone is convinced that the comet comes from another solar system. Dr Maria Womack, a planetary scientist at the University of South Florida said: 'It could have interacted with Jupiter or another planet in such a way that changed its orbit. 'When you think of photos of comets, they're a fuzzy blob. People have to make determinations of where they think the centre is. 'Someone who is at the telescope has to make a call.' The dead body of a kitten with two faces has been preserved so scientists can investigate what caused its unusual condition. Locals in Amalfi, north-west Colombia, were shocked when a farmer revealed his cat had given birth to a kitten with two faces. The kitten had two faces side-by-side on its head, and looked as though to be alive, even though the farmer reported it as dead. Scroll down for video A kitten with two faces sadly died shortly after its birth but its body has been preserved so scientists can investigate what caused the unusual condition TWO-FACED CATS A farmer shocked locals when he revealed his cat had given birth to a kitten with two faces in the town of Amalfi, in the north-western Colombian department of Antioquia. The kitten appeared to have two faces stuck side by side on its head which appeared to be alive for a while, even though the farmer reported it as dead. A two-faced cat is often called a Janus cat - after the ancient Roman god of doorways who had two faces looking to the future and the past. Two-faced cats usually don't live long. One of the world's most famous Janus cats was Frank and Louie, or Frankenlouie. The feline, from Massachusetts, United States, died in 2014 at the age of 15 after previously setting the Guiness World Record in 2012 as the oldest surviving Janus cat. Advertisement The farmer took it to a local school in a cardboard box where he hoped students could use it in their science class. But the kitten was rejected by the teachers, as they did not know what to do with it. Science teacher Adriana Mesa Gil said: 'I was very curious about it. I looked properly the kitten and even I believed it was cute, as it seemed to be still alive. 'I have never seen in my entire life a kitten with two heads. 'Finally we decided not to keep the body because we do not have the proper equipment to keep it in.' The kitten was then taken to the city's agriculture department where the secretary of rural development Maricela Escobar Diaz was told about the bizarre case. But even the vets at the government department said they had never seen this sort of mutation in a cat. Andres Garcia Carbajal, vet of the city council, said the deformity could have been caused by a number of factors. He added: 'The malformation might be caused by natural factors, or even linked with the food eaten by the mother. It is actually a bizarre case.' The kitten was kept in formaldehyde to preserve it so tests can be carried out. The birth comes just a month after a kitten with two faces was born in China. A farmer shocked locals when he revealed his cat had given birth to a kitten with two faces in the town of Amalfi, in the north-western Colombian department of Antioquia The kitten appeared to have two faces stuck side by side on its head which appeared to be alive for a while, even though the farmer reported it as dead The rare kitten was born in the Longqiao township of Fenjie County, Chongqing, on September 17, according to Sohu.com, citing Chongqing Morning Post. The tiny animal only lived for two days and died on the afternoon of September 19, said the report. Mr Liu, the kitten's owner, told the reporter that he, his family and his neighbours had been surprised and delighted by the arrival of the tiny deformed kitten. The farmer took it to a local school in a cardboard box where he hoped students could use it in their science class. But the kitten was rejected by the teachers, as they did not know what to do with it Andres Garcia Carbajal, vet of the city council, said the deformity could have been caused by a number of factors. Pictured is Amalfi where the kitten was born Mr Liu said his neighbours gathered in his house on September 18, the day after the kitten was born, to see the extraordinary feline. The kitten was one of the three kittens in the litter and was said to have four eyes, two noses and two mouths. The other two kittens were understood to be healthy. The kitten's mother, a three-year-old moggy, gave birth two five healthy kittens last year, according to Mr Liu. Experts claimed it was likely that the kitten had had a gene mutation during fetal development. The two-faced kitten, known as a Janus cat, was born in China, but died shortly after birth last month. The kitten was one of the three kittens in the litter and was said to have four eyes, two noses and two mouths R.I.P: 'Frankenlouie', the world's oldest Janus cat - a feline with two faces - died at the age of 15 on Thursday December 4, 2014, after suffering what was believed to be cancer A two-faced cat is often called a Janus cat - after the ancient Roman god of doorways who had two faces looking to the future and the past. One of the world's most famous Janus cats was Frank and Louie, or Frankenlouie. The feline, from Massachusetts, United States, died in 2014 at the age of 15 after previously setting the Guinness World Record in 2012 as the oldest surviving Janus cat. They are nature's very own Death Star beams - ultra-powerful jets of energy that shoot out from black holes like deadly rays from the Star Wars super-weapon. These 'relativistic jets' can be seen as bright flashes from Earth, but scientists have spent decades puzzling how these mysterious streams of plasma form. Experts have now moved a step closer to understanding them by measuring how quickly they 'switch on' and start shining brightly once they are launched. The jets fire from black holes at the speed of sound when extreme gravitational forces squeeze matter until it erupts as a stream of plasma, researchers found. The stream accelerates across a distance of 19,000 miles (30,000 km) before it gives off the typical visible light flashes used by astronomers to identify the jets. Scroll down for video They fire as powerful beams of energy from deep within black holes, sometimes stretching thousands of light years into the darkness of space. But scientists have spent decades puzzling how these mysterious streams of plasma, known as 'relativistic jets' (artist's impression) form RELATIVISTIC JETS Since their discovery, several theories have been put forward as to how relativistic jets are created. One theory suggests that they develop within the 'accretion disc' - the matter sucked into the orbit of a growing black hole. Extreme gravity within the disc twists and stretches magnetic fields, squeezing hot, magnetised disc material called plasma until it erupts from the black hole. Plasma travels along these focused jets and gains tremendous speed, shooting across vast stretches of space. At some point, the plasma begins to shine brightly, but how and where this occurs in the jet has long been debated by scientists. The new research confirms that the plasma must come from the accretion disc, and puts a distance on when the jets begin to flash in the night sky. Advertisement The study was undertaken by an international group of scientists led by experts at the University of Southampton. Dr Poshak Gandhi, of the University of Southampton, told MailOnline: 'In a nutshell, our findings tell us where above the black hole the jet is flashing in visible light. 'This turns out to be a distance of about 30,000 km (or thereabouts), very small in cosmic terms. 'This is also the size of the zone where the material is being strongly accelerated - so we can measure the distance over which the black hole is accelerating jet material to near light-speeds.' In Star Wars terms, the key measurement of this study can be likened to measuring the distance between the surface of the Death Star, where multiple rays of light shoot out, and the point where they converge into a single bright beam. 'But the physics of black hole jets has nothing to do with lasers or the fictional Kyber crystals that power the Death Star. Nature has found other ways to power jets,' said Dr Gandhi. 'Gravity and magnetic fields play the key roles here, and this is the mechanism we are trying to unravel.' Since their discovery, several theories have been put forward as to how relativistic jets are created. One theory suggests that they develop within the 'accretion disc' - the matter sucked into the orbit of a growing black hole. Extreme gravity within the disc twists and stretches magnetic fields, squeezing hot, magnetised disc material called plasma until it erupts from the black hole. The jets (left) fire from black holes when gravitational forces squeeze matter until it erupts as a stream of plasma. The stream accelerates over 19,000 miles (30,000 km) before it gives off the typical visible light flashes (right) used by astronomers to identify the jets, the study found The jets fire in the form of oppositely directed magnetic pillars along the black hole's rotational axis. Plasma travels along these focused jets and gains tremendous speed, shooting across vast stretches of space. At some point, the plasma begins to shine brightly, but how and where this occurs in the jet has long been debated by scientists. The new research confirms that the plasma must come from the accretion disc, and puts an exact distance on when the jets begin to flash. In the new study, researchers used multi-wavelength observations of a distant binary system. The system is called V404 Cygni, and consists of a star and a black hole closely orbiting each other. Experts have now moved a step closer to understanding how relativistic jets form by measuring how quickly they 'switch on' and start shining brightly once they are launched from black holes (file photo) The black hole feeds off matter from the star that falls through the disc, making it the perfect candidate to study how relativistic jets form. 'We used a fast camera attached to a large telescope to capture a 'movie' of black hole system swallowing matter,' Dr Gandhi told MailOnline. 'This black hole is located about 7,800 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus. We also observed the black hole using an X-ray telescope in space at the same time. 'Our black hole movie captured about 30 frames every second. Our main finding is that this system first spits out X-rays, and then emits visible light flashes about just a fraction of a second later (0.1 seconds). THE STUDY The researchers captured the data in June 2015, when the binary system V404 Cygni was observed radiating one of the brightest 'outbursts' of light from a black hole ever seen. Using telescopes on Earth and in space observing at exactly the same time, they captured a 0.1-second delay between X-ray flares emitted from near the black hole, where the jet forms, and the appearance of visible light flashes. This marked the exact moment when accelerated jet plasma began to shine, allowing them to pinpoint the key event for the first time. The 'blink of an eye' delay was calculated to represent a maximum distance of 19,000 miles (30,000 km). The X-ray emission, representing the accretion disc 'feeding' the jet at its base, was captured from Earth orbit by Nasa's NuSTAR telescope. The moment the jet became visible as optical light was caught by the ULTRACAM high-speed camera, mounted on the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma, in the Canary Islands. Advertisement 'This behaviour occurred when the jet was strong. The researchers captured the data in June 2015, when V404 Cygni was observed radiating one of the brightest 'outbursts' of light from a black hole ever seen. Using telescopes on Earth and in space observing at exactly the same time, they captured a 0.1-second delay between X-ray flares emitted from near the black hole, where the jet forms, and the appearance of visible light flashes. This marked the exact moment when accelerated jet plasma began to shine, allowing them to pinpoint the key event for the first time. The 'blink of an eye' delay was calculated to represent a maximum distance of 19,000 miles (30,000 km). Relativistic jets are nature's very own Death Star beams - ultra-powerful jets of energy that shoot out from black holes like deadly rays from the Star Wars super-weapon (pictured) The study also creates a link between V404 Cygni and supermassive black holes, which lie at the centre of massive galaxies. Similar jet physics may apply to all black holes, including these huge cosmic phenomena. The X-ray emission, representing the accretion disc 'feeding' the jet at its base, was captured from Earth orbit by Nasa's NuSTAR telescope. The moment the jet became visible as optical light was caught by the ULTRACAM high-speed camera, mounted on the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma, in the Canary Islands. At the same time, radio waves from the extended portions of the jet plasma were observed by University of Oxford astronomers using the AMI-LA radio telescope, in Cambridge, UK. Engineers from NASA and the University of Michigan have revealed record breaking tests of a radical ion engine designed to get man to Mars. Known as a Hall Thruster, it is one of three Mars engine prototypes currently in development, and uses electric and magnetic fields to ionize gases like xenon and expels the ions to produce thrust. The technique is much cleaner, safer and more fuel efficient than traditional chemical rockets, but the trade off is relatively low thrust and acceleration. Scroll down for video A side shot of the X3 firing at a record-breaking 50 kilowatts. The Hall Thruster is one of three Mars engine prototypes currently in development HOW DO HALL THRUSTERS WORK? A Hall thruster works by accelerating the plasma exhaust to extremely high speeds. The process starts with a current of electrons spiraling through a circular channel. On their whirlwind journey from the negative electrode at the exhaust end to the positively charged electrode on the inner side of the channel, they run into atoms (typically xenon gas) that are fed into the chamber. The collisions knock electrons off the xenon atoms and turn the xenon into positively charged ions. The electrons' spiraling motion also builds a powerful electric field that pulls the gas ions out the exhaust end of the channel, creating thrust. Just enough electrons leave with the ions to keep the spacecraft from accumulating a charge, which could otherwise cause electrical problems. Advertisement 'Mars missions are just on the horizon, and we already know that Hall thrusters work well in space,' says Alec Gallimore, lead engineer on the X3's development. 'They can be optimized either for carrying equipment with minimal energy and propellant over the course of a year or so, or for speed carrying the crew to Mars much more quickly.' Some experts have said the engines could take man to Mars in weeks, rather than years. In the recent tests, the X3 broke three different records previously set by other Hall thrusters, a very promising step towards manned Mars missions. The development of the thruster was led by Alec Gallimore, University of Michigan professor of aerospace engineering and the Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering. Hall thrusters offer exceptionally efficient plasma-based spacecraft propulsion by accelerating small amounts of propellant very quickly using electric and magnetic fields. They can achieve top speeds with a tiny fraction of the fuel required in a chemical rocket. The challenge is to make them larger and more powerful. The X3, a Hall thruster designed by researchers at U-M, NASA and the U.S. Air Force, shattered the previous thrust record set by a Hall thruster, coming in at 5.4 newtons of force compared with 3.3 newtons. The improvement in thrust is especially important for crewed missionit means faster acceleration and shorter travel times. The X3 also more than doubled the operating current record (250 amperes vs. 112 amperes) and ran at a slightly higher power (102 kilowatts vs. 98 kilowatts). Researcher Scott Hall makes some final adjustments on the thruster before the test begins The X3 is one of three prototype 'Mars engines' to be turned into a full propulsion system with funding from NASA. Scott Hall, a doctoral student in aerospace engineering at U-M, carried out the tests at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, along with Hani Kamhawi, a NASA Glenn research scientist who has been heavily involved in the development of the X3. The experiments were the culmination of more than five years of building, testing and improving the thruster. HAS CHINA CRACKED THE 'IMPOSSIBLE ENGINE'? A new propaganda video claims that scientists in China have created a working prototype of the 'impossible' fuel-free engine. The radical EmDrive has been hypothesised for years by Nasa, but the space agency has been unable to create a working version. If the physics-defying concept is brought to reality, it's said the engine could get humans to Mars in just 10 weeks. The video was posted by CCTV.com, and is titled 'Propellantless propulsion: The Chinese EmDrive by CAST scientist Dr Chen Yue, China's Space Agency.' It claims that Chinese scientists have developed the EmDrive, and will soon put it into space - although it does not state any technical aspects of the device. The EmDrive is an engine that provides thrust without the need for fuel. Instead, it bounces microwaves - provided by solar energy - around in a closed container. With no fuel to eject, the EmDrive would violate Newton's third law, which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This isn't the first time that China has claimed to have made a working EmDrive. Advertisement NASA Glenn, which specializes in solar electric propulsion, is currently home to the only vacuum chamber in the U.S. that can handle the X3 thruster. The thruster produces so much exhaust that vacuum pumps at other chambers can't keep up. Then, xenon that has been shot out the back of the engine can drift back into the plasma plume, muddying the results. Hall built a custom thrust stand to bear the X3's 500-pound weight and withstand its force, as existing stands would collapse under it. 'The big moment is when you close the door and pump down the chamber,' Hall said. If I had to predict, I would say this thruster would be the basis for sending humans to Mars. After the 20 hours of pumping to achieve a space-like vacuum, Hall and Kamhawi spent 12-hour days testing the X3. Next the X3 will at last be integrated with the power supplies under development by Aerojet Rocketdyne, a rocket and missile propulsion manufacturer and lead on the propulsion system grant from NASA. In spring 2018, Hall expects to be back at NASA Glenn running a 100-hour test of the X3 with Aerojet Rocketdyne's power processing system. Because it uses less fuel than conventional chemical rockets, the thruster is ideal for exploring Mars, asteroids and the edge of the solar system. Nasa wants to send humans to an asteroid by 2025 and Mars in the 2030s In a step towards that goal, the space agency is funding plasma engines that could propel astronauts to the red planet on much less fuel. The tabletop-sized thruster prototype, dubbed the 'X3,' uses a 45,000 mph stream of plasma to push craft forward The prototypes have been created by engineers from the University of Michigan's Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) program. The engine is part of Aerojet Rocketdyne's XR-100 propulsion system, which could, in the next ten years propel a vessel to Mars. Nasa awarded $6.5 million over the next three years to Aerojet Rocketdyne for the development of the propulsion system, dubbed the XR-100. Developed by Professor Alec Gallimore thruster, the X3, is central to this system, and his team will receive $1 million of the award for work on the thruster. The XR-100 is up against two competing designs. All three of them rely on ejecting plasma an energetic state of matter in which electrons and charged atoms called ions coexist out the back of the thruster. The core technology the Hall thruster is already in use for manoeuvring satellites in orbit around the Earth. 'For comparison, the most powerful Hall thruster in orbit right now is 4.5 kilowatts,' said Gallimore. That's enough to adjust the orbit or orientation of a satellite, but it's too little power to move the massive amounts of cargo needed to support human exploration of deep space. A Hall thruster works by accelerating the plasma exhaust to extremely high speeds. The core technology the Hall thruster (right) is already in use for manoeuvring satellites in orbit around the Earth. A Hall thruster works by accelerating the plasma exhaust to extremely high speeds Because its consumes 100 million times less fuel than conventional chemical rockets, the thruster is ideal for exploring Mars, asteroids and the edge of the solar system The process starts with a current of electrons spiraling through a circular channel. On their whirlwind journey from the negative electrode at the exhaust end to the positively charged electrode on the inner side of the channel, they run into atoms (typically xenon gas) that are fed into the chamber. The collisions knock electrons off the xenon atoms and turn the xenon into positively charged ions. The electrons' spiraling motion also builds a powerful electric field that pulls the gas ions out the exhaust end of the channel. Just enough electrons leave with the ions to keep the spacecraft from accumulating a charge, which could otherwise cause electrical problems. 'When they're ionized, the xenon atoms can shoot out at up to 30,000 meters per second, which is about 65,000 mph,' said Gallimore. The X3 contains three of plasma channels, each a few centimeters deep, nested around one another in concentric rings. The nesting is what allows the Hall thruster to operate at 200 kilowatts of power in a relatively small footprint The X3 contains three of these channels, each a few centimeters deep, nested around one another in concentric rings. The nesting is what allows the Hall thruster to operate at 200 kilowatts of power in a relatively small footprint. Scott Hall, a doctoral student in Professor Gallimore's lab, will use the funding to put the X3 through a battery of tests. He will first run it up to 60 kilowatts in the Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Lab at U-M and then up to 200 kilowatts at the Nasa Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio Meanwhile, another doctoral student, Sarah Cusson, will investigate a tweak that could allow the X3 to remain operational for five to ten times longer than its current lifetime of a little over a year. NASA USES LASERS TO PRODUCE THRUST Hall thrusters aren't the only technology that Nasa is betting on to take humans to Mars. Technology harnessing the power of light could be the key to cutting down travel times to Mars from years to just a matter of days. In a separate project, a group of physicists in California is working on probe that could lead to technology to get to Mars at much faster speeds than is currently possible. The answer to doing this could lie in what's known as photonic propulsion, a technique that uses light from lasers to produce thrust to drive spacecraft. While the technology the team is creating will be targeted at extremely small probes, someday it could inspire the creation of larger spacecraft that travel rapidly to Mars. A group of physicists in California is working on spacecraft that could let humans reach the nearest stars in our solar system - a challenge that is not possible with current propulsion technology. The answer could lie in what's known as photonic propulsion, a technique that uses light from lasers to produce thrust (illustrated) Professor Phillip Lubin and his team from the University of California Santa Barbara are working on the Directed Energy Interstellar Precursors (Deep-In) programme. The programme aims to create probes capable of reaching relativistic speeds and travelling to the nearest stars. A relativistic speed is a speed which is a significant proportion of the speed of light. 'We know how to get to relativistic speeds in the lab, we do it all the time,' said Lubin at Nasa's National Innovative Advanced Concepts (Niac) symposium. 'When we go to the macroscopic level, things like aircraft, cars, spacecraft, were pathetically slow.' Professor Lubin is aiming to bridge the gap between the small and the large, using photonic propulsion technology. The theory is simple; thrust from photons emitted from a laser array could be used to propel a spacecraft. All spacecraft operate by firing propellant in the opposite direction to the way they want to travel. Traditionally this propellant is fuel. Photonic propulsion uses an array of lasers instead, which means no fuel needs to be carried on the spacecraft (illustrated) All spacecrafts operate by firing their propellant in the opposite direction to the way they want to travel. Traditionally this propellant is fuel and has to be carried on board the spacecraft, making it heavier and slowing it down. Photonic propulsion uses an array of lasers instead, which adds no mass to the spacecraft other than the laser itself. This enables it to accelerate for longer and reach higher speeds. n theory, this should help get aircraft to relativistic speeds. Professor Lubin didn't specify what proportion of the speed of light the technology would reach, although he did say it could be up to a quarter. The launch into orbit would also be slower at the start and during the descent, for example. As a result, the professor said: 'We could propel a 100kg aircraft to Mars in a few days. In comparison it would take a shuttle roughly a month to get there,' the researchers said. Advertisement 'If we do our jobs over the next three years, we can deliver both projects,' said Gallimore. Advertisement It has been dubbed 'the flying bum' - and could soon be taking holidaymakers for an 'air cruise' around the world's most picturesque areas. The 20-tonne Airlander 10 is set to be tested by luxury travel firm Henry Cookson Adventures next year. It says it hopes to take the craft wherever clients want to go, promising passengers will 'experience landscapes that vary as diversely as the North Pole, Bolivian Salt Pans and Namib Desert'. Scroll down for video The 20-tonne Airlander 10 is set to be tested by luxury travel firm Henry Cookson Adventures next year, and will be fitted with a luxury interior meaning it can stay aloft for weeks at a time. Pictured, the craft over the Grand Canyon HOW THE AIRLANDER GETS ITS LIFT Airlander is the largest aircraft in the world, bigger even than the Airbus A380 - but would be dwarfed by the historic zeppelins developed in Germany during the 1930s. It produces 60 per cent of its lift aerostatically, by being lighter-than-air, and 40 per cent aerodynamically, by being wing-shaped, as well as having the ability to rotate its engines to provide an additional 25 per cent of thrust up or down. This means the Airlander can hover as well as land on almost any surface, including ice, desert and water. It will be able to stay in the air for two weeks at a time, cruising at more than 90mph (144km/h), and travel at heights of up to 20,000ft (6,100 metres) with a 10-tonne cargo. Advertisement The ability to stay aloft for days at a time, in virtual silence, with floor-to-ceiling windows and fresh air make Airlander perfect for cruising in exceptional locations, Hybrid Air Vehicles, the firm behind it says. 'I have flown Airlander a number of times now, and am really excited about the possibility of taking the first passengers on board. 'I can imagine the awe and excitement of seeing the world in luxury, with amazing views, quietly and whilst respecting the environment,' said Dave Burns, Airlander Chief Test Pilot. In 2018, Henry Cookson Adventures (HCA) will become the first private excursion company to trial Airlander 10, anticipating her arrival to revolutionise ultra-high-end travel. The craft is set to get a luxiry interior as part of the plan, and Hybrid Air Vehicles and Design Q have been awarded a 60,000 grant for an 'Airlander Luxury Tourism Design Development Project'. Design Q is one of the leading independent design consultancies with automotive and aviation clients throughout the world, including BAE Systems, Bombardier and Virgin Atlantic. 'We are excited with the prospect of working on such a unique project, not only is it the largest flying aircraft in the world but it demands an interior that truly breaks new ground and provides an experience that will be unlike anything seen before,' said Howard Guy, C.E.O and joint founder of Design Q. 'This will be something that passengers will treasure all their lives.' The Airlander over Glastonbury: Henry Cookson Adventures says it can take the craft anywhere customers want to go The world's longest aircraft, dubbed the 'flying bum', took the skies earlier this year for a surprise test flight. Hundreds of people gathered to watch the 20-tonne Airlander 10 perform aerial manoeuvres in a four-hour flight that took off from Cardington, Bedfordshire. The 92-yard-long part-airship part-aeroplane was badly damaged when it nosedived during a test flight on 24 August last year. Hundreds of people gathered to watch the 20-tonne Airlander 10 perform aerial manoeuvres in a four-hour flight that took off from Cardington, Bedfordshire The 92-yard-long part-airship part-aeroplane was badly damaged when it nosedived during a test flight on 24 August last year Following extensive repairs, it reached the highest altitude so far in its fourth test flight after taking off from hangars at 6.05pm on Tuesday. A spokesman for its manufacturers Hybrid Air Vehicles said the flight had not been announced to avoid a mass of spectators gathering in the village. The company hoped the Airlander - which can carry 10 tonnes and up to 60 passengers - will be used for luxury commercial flights over the world's greatest sights from 2019. Passers-by spotted the 38,000 cubic-metre prototype preparing for take-off in Cardington Airfield. Hundreds of people gathered around the airfield after a local group of 'blimp spotters' also used the weather conditions to predict the test flight. Roger Skillin, 38, of St Neots, Cambridgeshire, took these incredible photos of the flight after he heard its engine was on. Following extensive repairs, it reached the highest altitude so far in its fourth test flight after taking off from hangars at 6.05pm on Tuesday A spokesman for its manufacturers Hybrid Air Vehicles said the flight had not been announced to avoid a mass of spectators gathering in the village Hundreds of people gathered around the airfield after a local group of 'blimp spotters' also used the weather conditions to predict the test flight The amateur photographer had wanted to take behind-the-scenes shots of the film sets at the hangar for a new Justice League superhero movie and a Dumbo movie. He said: 'All the cars just suddenly stopped in the middle of the road. 'I was stood along the edge of the main road looking out to the airfield - just as it was to cross the road there was screeching of brakes and the brake lights going on. 'I think it was just the sheer size of it - you can see it sitting on the ground but you don't really appreciated it until it actually takes off. 'It was maybe 150ft up but considering the size of it it would have been massive and was covering your line of sight. The company hoped the Airlander - which can carry 10 tonnes and up to 60 passengers - will be used for luxury commercial flights over the world's greatest sights from 2019 A spokesman for the company hailed the prototype's test a success after it reached record heights of 3,800ft on the flight It took off at 6.05pm, carried out a series of landing practice runs, reaching speeds of 37 knots. The aircraft can reach heights of 16,000ft and speeds of 80 knots - 93 miles per hour - and fly for up to five days 'It's like - how can something that big be gracefully moving over you in the sky? 'There's not really anything in nature you can compare it to.' A spokesman for the company hailed the prototype's test a success after it reached record heights of 3,800ft on the flight. It took off at 6.05pm, carried out a series of landing practice runs, reaching speeds of 37 knots. The aircraft can reach heights of 16,000ft and speeds of 80 knots - 93 miles per hour - and fly for up to five days. The spokesman said plans were going ahead to have more built for commercial flights for between 48 to 60 people over tourists spots such as the Niagara Falls and rivers in Europe. 'Blimp Spotter' Trevor Monk, of local aircraft enthusiast group Cardington Sheds, said: 'There were a few hundred around the airfield. 'It's the longest current aircraft in the world and it's just sitting on an airfield in Bedfordshire but apart from that it's the technology involved - it's a brilliant idea, it's called a hybrid because it's an airship which is an inflated wing. 'It can land on water or a small field that's the beauty of it - it can do a lot of stuff.' SpaceX has racked up another rocket launch, its 16th this year. That's double last year's count, and 2017 still has two months remaining. The unmanned Falcon rocket blasted off Monday afternoon from Florida's Kennedy Space Center, hoisting a communications satellite for the South Korean company KT SAT. Scroll down for video A Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket carrying a Koreasat 5A communications satellite lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. LAUNCH FACTS The tall, white rocket rumbled and roared into the blue sky over Cape Canaveral, Florida at 3:34 pm (1934 GMT), propelling Koreasat-5A toward a distant, geostationary orbit some 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) from Earth. The satellite is designed to replace an earlier version, called Koreasat 5, which launched in 2006. Advertisement This newest Koreasat will replace a failed satellite launched in 2006, and serve both Asia and the Middle East. Once separated, the 15-story first-stage booster flew to a floating platform in the Atlantic and landed upright. The TV link of the touchdown was lost. But SpaceX confirmed success despite the choppy seas and some flames shooting from the landed booster. The fire went out. 'A little toasty, but stage one is certainly still intact,' said the launch commentator from company headquarters in Hawthorne, California. SpaceX expects to reuse the booster to save time and money. Other rocket makers ditch the boosters at sea following orbital missions. The company has launched almost every month this year - a personal record - flying Falcons from both U.S. coasts. A Falcon 9 SpaceX rocket carrying a Koreasat 5A communications satellite lifts off from at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Just minutes after launch, the rocket separated and the tall portion, called the first stage, fired its engines and maneuvered its grid fins to guide itself back to an upright landing on an ocean platform. Less than nine minutes after takeoff, the scorched rocket touched down on a droneship marked with an X and labeled "Of Course I Still Love You." So far, the company has managed to land more than a dozen rockets after take-off, whether on solid ground or floating ocean platforms. The goal is to save money and eventually bring down the cost of space travel. Advertisement Confession. I love Disney World. Im not ashamed and was not deterred when, before embarking on my recent holiday to America, I clocked everyones aghast faces when I told them that my first destination would be Orlando. When Walt Disney himself decided to build his second American theme park in the 1960s he chose the Floridian swamp city of Orlando mainly because of the cheap land. Just as well there was that incentive because, being blunt here, Orlando is hardly a glamorous mecca akin to The Hamptons. When Walt Disney himself decided to build his second American theme park in the 1960s he chose the Floridian swamp city of Orlando mainly because of the cheap land. Without Disney and the influx of attractions that have cropped up since Disney Worlds 1971 opening, Orlando may still be the swampy wasteland it once was William took a VIP tour of Disney World Its not even Wolverhampton. In fact, Wolverhampton could well be nicer. Without Disney and the influx of attractions that have cropped up since Disney Worlds 1971 opening, Orlando may still be the swampy wasteland it once was. Now its home to two of earths most popular theme parks. However, as Jean Paul Sartre quipped, hell is other people. Even in somewhere as mesmerising as Disney World, as a Brit, you can be forgiven for getting slightly ticked with the bizarre habits of other people. But before I left for America, a friend informed me of something I had no idea existed: a Disney World VIP guide. The VIP tour is a service that anyone can book (thank heavens). Whilst Im mad about a big dipper and always enjoy watching the evening spectacular Fantasmic, there are certain elements of all theme parks - not just Disney World - that Id rather skip; as a child I didnt notice these flaws, but as a discerning adult, they are glaringly obvious. The VIP experience made me wonder if it was possible to do a luxury version of the Orlando experience in general. It absolutely is, it turns out (with a little help from the Waldorf Astoria Orlando hotel). Our dedicated VIP guide, the lovely Kevin, collected us from our hotel in a private 4x4 bigger than most British houses. We were quickly whisked towards the Magic Kingdom (you cant go to Disney and not start at the epicentre of the 40 square mile site), through a discrete entrance and suddenly, having been offered water, soft drinks and snacks, we cut through a small gap and were staring up at Cinderella Castle. No queuing, no sussing out other people, no losing interest. Even without the build-up of the usual monorail into the park, the magic was still there. Kevin knows how to do Disney. Most visitors of any park will work clockwise, so Kevins prudent suggestion was to do the opposite. Whichever way Kevin, my partner and I may have turned it would hardly have mattered as Kevins face alone was enough to get us into all the Fast Pass lanes. We hardly wasted time or waited at all. (Even if you are a regular visitor to the park you only get three Fast Pass entries per day.) The line-jumping access is the main draw for guests who opt for the VIP experience, although you are also given access to dedicated, prime spots to watch most shows and parades. After an unusually leisurely day of meandering around the parks with Kevin, it was time for some much needed sustenance. Disney destinations have a rather unfair reputation for having bad food. Whilst in some places this may be true, it is by no means the rule. William dined at Citricos, one of the signature restaurants within Disneys most upscale resort hotel, the 867-bedroomed Grand Floridian, pictured Classic aethestics: The Grand Floridian has a truly spectacular lobby, with elegant furniture and fittings If you are prepared to do a bit of research in advance you can dine like a Princess, which, thankfully for us, was right up our Main Street. We opted for a meal at one of the signature restaurants within Disneys most upscale resort hotel, the 867 bedroomed Grand Floridian, namely Citricos. We entered the sun-drenched Provencal coloured restaurant and enjoyed surprisingly light (for southern American food) local Floridian flavours. Having a short break away from the park meant we were suitably recharged before we went back for the new Happily Ever After night-time fireworks show, which uses highly complex projection mapping technology to make the castle almost dance in front of you and showcase different characters from the films. It was a fitting and memorable end to our day at Disney. There are many above-decent hotels on the mammoth Disney estate, but for the duration of our time in Orlando we chose to have another mental and physical break from the happiest place on earth and opted to stay at the second happiest place on earth, the Waldorf Astoria Orlando, in one of their king deluxe suites. The hotel took inspiration and key themes from the original Waldorf in New York (currently closed for a three-year makeover) and was the first purpose built Waldorf Astoria, opening in 2009. The Waldorf Astoria Orlando was William's luxurious lodge for the duration of his Orlando break The bedrooms at the Waldorf Astoria Orlando are the perfect place to unwind after a day of magical theme-park thrills One mistake many Orlando travellers make is cramming too much time in the parks and not planning any R&R in between. We were extra worn-out from watching the heady excitement of a Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It parade in the Magic Kingdom where characters and stilt walkers dance pass the crowds - and the Waldorfs spa came in very handy for a post-park Tupelo honey massage (admittedly, I didnt experience this - my partner did - as I dont like people touching me). The Waldorf also offers newly refitted pool-side cabanas, each with fridges with complimentary soft drinks, fruit platters, chaise longues, Wi-Fi and an LCD television. Once the hotel had fully recharged us (the breakfast choice was one of the best selections I have seen for some time) we decided wed be glutton for punishment and head to Orlandos biggest non-Disney draw, Universal Studios. Having had such luxury treatment from Disney, I had foreseen that traipsing around Universal and queuing again like the public would be fairly difficult. Thankfully, it too offers a similar VIP experience. The lovely Kevin became the lovely Cindy and as with her Disney counterpart she whipped us around the park, dispensing her 20-plus years of advice and knowledge about Universal. William also took a VIP tour of Universal Studios, which included a wand-erful visit to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter The Wizarding World of Harry Potter has been assembled with uncanny attention to detail If the rumours are to be believed, the park was in slight trouble until 2010 when The Wizarding World of Harry Potter opened, bringing in the legions of Potterheads to the park. All the Harry Potter areas of the park have been built with uncanny attention to detail: its magically disorientating being in 32-degree-Floridian heat, wearing short trousers and clocking a trains departure board in the (much cleaner) replica of Kings Cross displaying Doncaster - First Capital Connect - Cancelled. Universal may lack the presence of Mickey and friends but the dining element of the VIP experience was certainly a few notches above, with a dedicated dining room just for VIP tour guests offering an extensive sweet and savoury buffet. Again, after a serenely easy day at a theme park, we returned, blister-free to our delightful digs. Never again when I revisit any of Orlandos crowd convocations will I have to cope with taking off my loafers to reveal blistered end-of-day feet - there are ways for those of us more highly strung than others to enjoy the fairy-dust filled memories of our childhood. North Dakota budget director Pam Sharp will retire next month after more than three decades in state government, Gov. Doug Burgum said Monday, Oct. 30. Sharp, the Office of Management and Budget director, "will assist in a temporary position throughout the transition to new leadership," according to a news release. Her retirement is effective Nov. 30, capping off a career that saw North Dakotas fiscal fortunes swing dramatically in recent years. Sharp said she didnt want to stay on through another legislative session, the next being in early 2019. She timed her retirement to allow her successor to get acclimated to the job. Well make it a smooth transition, Sharp said. Republican Sen. Ray Holmberg, chairman of the Appropriations Committee, said Sharp is one of the best budget directors he has worked with in his four decades in office. She was a hell of a director, he said. Just a class act, and shell be hard to replace. Then-Gov. John Hoeven appointed Sharp the OMB director in 2003. In that role, shes responsible for the fiscal management of the states executive branch and supervises the divisions of Human Resource Management Services, Fiscal Administration, Facility Management, Central Services and Risk Management. Sharp was previously the office's deputy director and a budget analyst, and she had worked in the tax department, auditor's office and state treasurer's office. She has been in state government for 31 years, according to Burgums office. "Having worked for three governors and through 13 legislative sessions, I've seen a lot of changes in state government, and I'm optimistic about the future of North Dakota with the great team we have in place at OMB," Sharp said in a statement. "I appreciate having had the opportunity to serve the state of North Dakota and its citizens over the course of my career." Burgum praised Sharp for helping the state navigate through prosperous and lean times. Her tenure saw the Bakken oil boom trigger a drastic rise in state revenues before a subsequent slide in crude and crop prices forced budget cuts. General fund appropriations sit at $4.3 billion in the current two-year budget cycle, down from the 2013-15 biennium peak of more than $6.8 billion. Sen. Tim Mathern, a Democratic member of the Appropriations Committee, said there may have been some differences of opinion on budget projections, but Sharps work was supported by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. A national search for an OMB director is now underway. They reportedly spent a romantic few nights in Paris together after the rock legend headed there for his latest tour with The Rolling Stones. And Sir Mick Jagger, 74, and 22-year-old film producer Noor Alfallah looked relaxed and happy as they stepped out together in the French capital. The veteran front-man is said to have enjoyed a number of dates with the US-based budding film producer while in France for the band's No Filter tour this month. Scroll down for video Noor amour? Sir Mick Jagger (L), 74, and Noor Alfallah (R), 22, looked relaxed and happy as the first pictures emerged of them together while stepping out in Paris I Can Get Noor Satisfaction: The veteran front-man reportedly enjoyed a number of dates with the US-based budding film producer (pictured) while in the French capital for the band's No Filter tour earlier this month However, it has been confirmed by the great-grandfather's spokesperson that he is still with his ballerina girlfriend Melanie Hamrick, 31 - the mother of his eighth and youngest child, 10-month-old Deveraux. MailOnline were told: 'They remain close. Mick, Melanie and Deveraux spent time together recently.' Meanwhile, it was claimed of his 'love interest': 'Mick still has his legendary charm but even the band were surprised someone as young and beautiful as Noor came to Paris to see him. 'They are both single and seemed to have a lot of fun together, so everyone just let them get on with it. Mick is showing absolutely no sign of slowing down. He certainly had a smile on his face and famous twinkle in his eye.' 'They remain close': However, it's been confirmed to MailOnline by his spokesperson that he is still with Melanie Hamrick - the mother of his eighth and youngest child, 10-month-old Deveraux New beauty? Noor (left) is 52 years Mick's junior (right) Romance: Speaking to the Sun, a source said: 'Mick still has his legendary charm but even the band were surprised someone as young and beautiful as Noor (L) came to Paris to see him (R)' They added: 'Noor is very confident and well educated so she fitted in well at all the upmarket places they went together.' MailOnline has contacted Mick Jagger's representative for comment. Mick is said to have first hooked up with the socialite in a private flat in the suburbs of Paris two weeks ago, with a chauffeur taking the brunette beauty back to her hotel the following day. Leading lady: The source added: 'Noor is very confident and well educated so she fitted in well at all the upmarket places they went together' New romance? Mick is said to have first hooked up with the socialite in a private flat in the suburbs of Paris two weeks ago. She later attended his gig at the city's U Arena Single: The legendary rocker was said to have split from ballerina Melanie Hamrick (R), 31, the mother of his eighth and youngest child, 10-month-old Deveraux MICK JAGGER'S LOVE LIFE HIGHLIGHTS 1969 - 1971: Marsha Hunt They share Mick's oldest child, Karis Hunt Jagger, 46 1971 - 1978: Bianca de Marcias The pair were married for six years and share a daughter, Jade Jagger, 46 1990 - 1999: Jerry Hall Jerry and Mick share four children Elizabeth, James, Georgia and Gabriel. Their nine-year marriage and 23-year relationship ended when it emerged that Brazilian model Luciana Gimenez was pregnant with his child (Lucas, now 18). Mick and Jerry, pictured in 2001 2001 - 2014: L'Wren Scott The couple were together until the American fashion designer was tragically found dead in her Manhattan apartment in March 2014. 2014 - 2017: Melanie Hamrick The American ballerina, 29, gave birth to the Rolling Stones front-man's eighth child Deveraux in 2016. Advertisement They enjoyed similar evenings a few days later, as well as three more dates, including dinner at the Caviar Kaspia with the Stones' backing crew and a private meal at La Stresa, last week. Noor was also in attendance when the band played the city's U Arena. And the day after the gig, the Satisfaction rocker was seen arriving at his new squeeze's hotel. The American comes from the exclusive Beverly Hills area of Los Angeles, and studied at the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television. The pair are believed to have met through a mutual friend, producer Brett Ratner. The reports comes after the Satisfaction hitmaker previously dated ballerina Melanie Hamrick. The dancer, who gave birth to the Rolling Stones frontman's eighth child Deveraux in 2016, began dating the rocker after the death of fashion designer love L'Wren Scott in 2014, his partner of 13 years. It is understood Sir Mick flew 3,500 miles from London to New York in a last-minute dash to be by Hamrick's side for the birth. A source told the Daily Mirror the legendary rocker said he 'needed to be there' for his partner. The source added: 'He made sure he was there. He wouldnt have missed it for the world.' Basil was the first name of Sir Mick's late father, who died in 2006, although he was known to others as Joe. A statement released on behalf of the couple at the time of birth said: 'Melanie Hamrick and Mick Jagger's son was born today in New York and they are both delighted. 'Mick was at the hospital for the arrival. Mother and baby are doing well and we request that the media respect their privacy at this time.' New squeeze? American Noor comes from the exclusive Beverly Hills area of Los Angeles Studious: She studied at the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television Previous: The reports comes after the Satisfaction hit-maker previously dated ballerina Melanie (pictured in 2015) Mick's eldest child is 46-year-old Karis Hunt Jagger, from his relationship with 70-year-old US star Marsha Hunt. He also has Jade Jagger, 46, from his marriage to Bianca Jagger, 72 and four children with Jerry Hall, 61, including Elizabeth, 33, James, 32, Georgia, 25 and Gabriel, 19. He also has 18-year-old Lucas following his fling with Brazilian presenter Luciana Gimenez, 47. In the past: The rocker dated fashion designer L'Wren Scott (L) for 13 years before she was tragically found dead in her Manhattan apartment in 2014 It was a chilly day in Atlanta on Sunday, with temperatures dipping to the low 40s. And Nicole Kidman was hit head-on by the cool weather, as a gust of wind blew past the star and caused her to shiver. The 50-year-old actress was shooting scenes for her new movie, Boy Erased, based on the autobiographical book of the same name. Freezing! On Sunday, Nicole Kidman, 50, was hit head-on by a gust of wind on the Atlanta set of Boy Erased For her role, Nicole was styled in a loose-fitting, cream top layered underneath a printed, blue cardigan. A pair of cropped, loose pants, multiple items of jewelry and ballet flats were added to the star looks. Nicole's look was complete with a short, curly wig and a print purse. Finally warm: The mother-of-four later covered up in a gray coat and puffer jacket Joining the star on set was actor Lucas Hedges, 20. The New York-born star was styled in a casual green polo shirt, jeans and sneakers. In Boy Erased, Lucas plays Garrard Conley, the protagonist of the film and author of the autobiographical book of the same name. Mother and daughter: Joining the star on set was actor Lucas Hedges, 20. The New York-born star was styled in a casual green polo shirt, jeans and sneakers Boy Erased tells the story of Garrard Conely, a same-sex attracted son of a Baptist preacher. He then participates in a faith-based program aimed at counseling him through his same-sex attraction. In the film, Nicole plays his mother, Nancy Conlon. Sunday night's grand finale of The Block left Ronnie and Georgia shattered when their Elsternwick home failed to sell at auction. And presenter Shelley Craft weighed in on the drama-filled episode, in a column for Nine Honey on Monday. Speaking of the evident tension, the 41-year-old said: 'This team divided The Block and a nation.' 'This team divided The Block and a nation': Shelley Craft, 41, weighed in on the show's drama-filled auction, in a post for Nine Honey on Monday, as buyers failed to meet Ronnie and Georgia's $2.62million reserve Shelley, who co-hosts occasionally on the series, wrote: 'There's no question that this team divided The Block and divided a nation. But I hope we all wished them well in achieving a great result for their hard labour and for 12 weeks of awesome drama.' The television personality went on to describe the nail-biting episode: 'The mood in the studio was tense. Very tense. Pre-amble done. Bidding open. Silence. Calling for bids. Nothing. 'What followed was the craziest 40 minutes in my Block experience. Agents to-ing and fro-ing, advocates pacing, producers, phones. We waited, patiently at first but then the nerves got the better of us.' Nail-biting: The television personality went on to describe the nail-biting episode: 'The mood in the studio was tense. Very tense' Phew: Shelley went on to say that Ronnie and Georgia had luckily secured $161,000 agreeing to sell the property to a phone bidder for $2.781million Shelley went on to say that Ronnie and Georgia had luckily secured $161,000 agreeing to sell the property to a phone bidder for $2.781million. Meanwhile the bidding went swimmingly for frontrunners and the youngest couple on the show, Josh, 28, and Elyse, 24. The pair pocketed $447,000 from the auction with their reserve price at $2,620,000. Impressive: The bidding went swimmingly for frontrunners and the youngest couple on the show, Josh, 28, and Elyse, 24. The pair pocketed $447,000 from the auction with their reserve price at $2,620,000 Surprise bidder: Australian radio star Dave Hughes purchased their stunning house at auction for $3,067,000 Australian radio star Dave Hughes purchased their stunning house at auction for $3,067,000. The fan-favourites also pocketed an extra $100,000, for getting the highest amount at auction out of all of the contestants. Elyse and Josh cheered when they heard how much they had made at the auction, with Elyse saying it was 'life-changing.' She claimed victory alongside boyfriend Josh Barker after pocketing a cool $547,000 in prize money on Sunday's grand final of The Block. But Elyse Knowles also came out a winner in the all-important style stakes. As her home went under the hammer, the 24-year-old beauty dazzled in a VERY stylish ensemble that was met with mountains of praise on social media. 'Sensational outfit': Elyse Knowles claimed victory alongside boyfriend Josh Barker on Sunday night's grand final of The Block, but her fashionable outfit also courted praise on social media making her a winner in the style stakes Whilst Elyse was usually seen in construction boots and paint-splattered T-shirts during her tenure on The Block, the blonde beauty opted for far more glamorous garb on Sunday night. Styled by Marina Didovich, the model rocked a ruffled and shoulderless cream coloured top from Australian label Acler. It appears the garment is not yet on sale to the public, as it is unavailable on the brand's website. Fashionable and flawless: Elyse looked VERY glamorous as her home went under the hammer 'When will this jaw-dropping top be available??' one fan wrote beneath a photo of Elyse. Meanwhile, the stunner rocked a pair of high-waisted pants, which featured a saucy split up the sides. The 'dust pink' coloured strides are designed by Lillian Khallouf and retail for $450. Winners are grinners: Elyse didn't seem to mind that her designer garb was drenched with a splash of champagne, given she and Josh became $547,000 richer The reality star completed her look with a pair of Tony Bianco heels and a beige Bulgari handbag. 'Spectacular looking oufit. Classy and sexy', one fan gushed on Elyse's Instagram account. The beauty's auction ensemble was far more fashionable than that of her boyfriend's. Whilst Josh looked dapper in an all-black tux, the laid-back 28-year-old went barefoot for the proceedings. They have never seen eye-to-eye, as the ex girlfriend and current love interest of James 'Lockie' Lock. But Danielle Armstrong and Yazmin Oukhellou finally cast their differences aside on Sunday night's TOWIE, and agreed to be friends. However, while the two girls reconciled after months of rowing, Danielle's attempt to make amends was refused by a frosty Lockie - who instead admitted his 'past was in the past' for a reason. Scroll down for video Kiss and make up: Love rivals Danielle Armstrong (L) and Yazmin Oukhellou (R) finally cast their differences aside on Sunday night's TOWIE, and agreed to be friends Not having it: However, Danielle's attempt to make amends was refused by a frosty Lockie (above) - who instead admitted his 'past was in the past' for a reason The drama began when Danielle unveiled herself as the host of the TOWIE Halloween extravaganza in Norfolk - to the delight of all the cast, except Yaz and Lockie. While Lockie was quick to give the brunette beauty a reassuring kiss on the cheek, things soon took a turn for the worse when she broke down in tears, and stormed out. However, with Danielle telling Georgia she thinks the new couple are 'well suited', she proceeded to approach them at the party, in a bid to ease any tension. Here she is! The drama began when Danielle unveiled herself as the host of the TOWIE Halloween extravaganza in Norfolk - to the delight of all the cast, except Yaz and Lockie Can't believe it: The news was met with delight from of all the cast, except ex Lockie and his new girlfriend Yaz - who stormed out in shock Drama: However, with Danielle telling Georgia she thinks the new couple are 'well suited', she proceeded to approach them at the party, in a bid to ease any tension In a mature speech, she began: 'When I arranged this, I knew I couldn't invite everyone and not you two. 'It is weird obviously with you being my ex, but to not invite you would have felt to me like I was bothered. Then when I walked in and saw you leave, I just thought, 'I don't want it to be like that.' Addressing Yaz directly, she then added: 'I just want us to get on. James and I were together a long time, he was a big part of my life and you make him so happy, so that makes me happy. I think you look great together.' Wants the best: Wanting to ease any tension, she said to the pair: 'It is weird obviously with you being my ex, but to not invite you to the party would have felt to me like I was bothered' Mature: Addressing Yaz directly, she added: 'I just want us to get on. James and I were together a long time, he was a big part of my life and you make him so happy, so that makes me happy' Yaz happily agreed with her, and the pair hugged - agreeing to put any awkwardness behind them. However her ex Lockie was nowhere near as willing to make up, and instead told Danielle frostily: 'I didn't know it was your party.' Wanting to avoid drama, Danielle then joked: 'You probably wouldn't have come!' to which he replied awkwardly: 'Well... exactly', before dramatically walking off. Friends again: Yaz happily agreed with her, and the pair hugged - agreeing to put any awkwardness behind them Not having it: However her ex Lockie (L) was nowhere near as willing to make up, and instead told Danielle frostily that he probably wouldn't have come, if he had known she was hosting Reflecting on the run-in, the blonde confessed to Georgia: 'Thing is, I'd get on with her. 'But it's definitely weird for him. He didn't talk! He hates me. I couldn't believe the look on his face.' Lockie and Yaz were then seen enjoying breakfast the next morning - with the cafe owner claiming he was 'not fazed' by the encounter, despite his sharp behaviour. Confused: Reflecting on the run-in, the blonde confessed to Georgia (R): 'Thing is, I'd get on with her. But it's definitely weird for him. He hates me!' Just the two of us: Lockie and Yaz were then seen enjoying breakfast the next morning - with the cafe owner claiming he was 'not fazed' by the encounter, despite his short behaviour He said: 'I'm very happy with you and where we're going, I'm not bothered by my past. Its my past for a reason.' Yaz then admitted she thinks she could be friends with Danielle - despite their alleged fight at Sheesh Chigwell earlier this year. She said: 'Before, I hated her. But yesterday made it awkward as I seemed to really like her, I feel like we are quite similar.' Certain: He said: 'I'm very happy with you and where we're going, I'm not bothered by my past. Its my past for a reason' Feeling good: Yaz then admitted she thinks she could be friends with Danielle - despite their alleged fight at Sheesh Chigwell earlier this year 'Nothing can break us': However, proving her devotion and support to her beau, she then added: 'It just proves we're stronger than ever' However, proving her devotion and support to her beau, she then added: 'It just proves we're stronger than ever. So if that doesn't faze us, then nothing can break us.' ITVBe personality Danielle quit the show back back in 2016 after her three-year on/off relationship with James came to an end for the second time in August. Danielle initially broke it off with her lover in the summer of 2015 - citing his unpredictable temper as the main reason for her decision. She's back! ITVBe personality Danielle quit the show back back in 2016 after her three-year on/off relationship with James came to an end for the second time in August Tumultuous: Danielle initially broke it off with her lover in the summer of 2015, but they reconciled in April 2016, before finally calling things quits later that year However, it was evident James didn't feel the same way as he had been planning to propose to the blonde beauty. They decided to give their romance a second chance in April 2016, when she claimed to have noticed a 'massive change' in the hunk, but soon split once again, spurring her decision to quit the show. Discussing her big TOWIE return last week, Danielle described her reunion with James as 'one of the most awkward experiences of her life', but insisted she now feels 'nothing' for her old love. Back on track: Discussing her TOWIE return last week, Danielle described her reunion with James as 'one of the most awkward experiences', but insisted she feels 'nothing' for him She told The Sun: 'It was so strange to be standing there in front of someone that Id spent four years [with] and weve been through everything together and hes standing there with a new girlfriend like arm round her and I felt nothing.' 'I didnt even get those butterflies or even feel, "Have I done the right thing?"' The reconciliation between Danielle and Yaz is also something of a milestone for the pair - after they endured an explosive row in Sheesh Chigwell in April. Peace: The reconciliation between Danielle and Yaz (above with Lockie) is also something of a milestone for the pair - after they endured an explosive row in Sheesh Chigwell in April Bitter Danielle was reportedly thrown out of the bar after 'flying' at James' new squeeze, and questioning why he was with her. However the blonde's representatives told MailOnline at the time: 'She chose to leave and wasn't kicked out. She left following a situation inside. She was nowhere near Lockie.' Elsewhere on the episode, Gemma Collins was left heartbroken after ex James 'Arg' Argent rejected her romantic advances once and for all. Lionel Richie's youngest daughter Sofia revealed an injury severe enough to require an arm sling on Sunday in her Insta-stories. The 19-year-old Select Model landed in a hospital after reportedly falling down a flight of stairs and lamented to her 2.9M followers: 'Perks of being a clutzzz.' In the mysterious clip, the biracial blonde - who relies on stylist Marie-Lou Bartoli - was dressed down in a grey sweatshirt, black sunglasses, and white sneakers. Scroll down for video Oops! Lionel Richie's youngest daughter Sofia revealed an injury severe enough to require an arm sling on Sunday in her Insta-stories Curiously, the arm sling was gone in an Instagram selfie Sofia shared several hours later of herself in a car rocking an Iron Maiden T-shirt. For flashback Friday, vainglorious Richie posted a childhood Polaroid of herself with her tongue out captioned: 'Dec. 2004 - Sof.' Meanwhile, the 5ft6in catwalker's boyfriend Scott Disick shared Facebook snaps of himself standing next to a private jet and hiking with a dog. At 34, the hard-partying father-of-three is 15 years older than the LA socialite, but they still became an official couple a month ago. The 19-year-old Select Model landed in a hospital after reportedly falling down a flight of stairs and lamented to her 2.9M followers: 'Perks of being a clutzzz' On the mend! In the mysterious clip, the biracial blonde was dressed down in a grey sweatshirt, black sunglasses, and white sneakers Disappeared: Curiously, the arm sling was gone in an Instagram selfie Sofia shared several hours later of herself in a car rocking an Iron Maiden T-shirt And while Sofia has shared numerous PDA-filled images of the KUWTK bearded bad boy, he has yet to post even one shot of the not-so-typical teen to his 28.9M social media followers. '[She's] much more invested in the relationship,' an insider told People earlier this month. 'Sofia wanted commitment from him, so he committed to be her "boyfriend." Sofia feels like she's in the in-crowd right now and loves that Scott has swagger and money and that he loves to travel and party.' When he's not luxuriating, the preppy 'Lord' Disick co-parents son Mason, 7; daughter Penelope, 5; and son Reign, 2; with babymama Kourtney Kardashian. For flashback Friday, Richie posted a childhood Polaroid of herself with her tongue out captioned: 'Dec. 2004 - Sof' Vainglorious: Meanwhile, the 5ft6in catwalker's boyfriend Scott Disick shared Facebook snaps of himself standing next to a private jet and hiking with a dog First canoodled in May: At 34, the hard-partying father-of-three is 15 years older than the LA socialite, but they still became an official couple a month ago '[She's] much more invested in the relationship': And while Sofia has shared numerous PDA-filled images of the KUWTK bearded bad boy, he has yet to post even one shot of her The on/off couple's decade-long relationship finally came to an end in 2015 shortly after Scott was spotted canoodling in France with Richie's ex-BFF, Chloe Bartoli. As for the nepotistically-privileged stunner's 68-year-old father, the R&B legend recently told Us Weekly he was 'in shock' and 'scared to death' about the May-December duo. 'He thinks Scott is the worst person she could ever see and that he raised her better than that,' a source told People. Babymama: The preppy 'Lord' Disick co-parents son Mason (R), 7; daughter Penelope (L), 5; and son Reign (not pictured), 2; with Kourtney Kardashian (M) 'He thinks she should have more respect for herself as a young woman. Lionel knows Scott's playboy ways, and he doesn't want to see his daughter get hurt.' The Oscar, Golden Globe, and two-time Grammy winner fathered Sofia with his alleged 'mistress'-turned-second wife Diane Alexander, whom he divorced in 2003. Richie - who romanced Canadian crooner Justin Bieber in summer 2016 - aspires to one day be married, have her own clothing line, and land the cover of Vogue. Stranger Things have happened. And it seems Bachelor In Paradise personality Wells Adams may be romancing Modern Family star Sarah Hyland after they wore matching outfits for Halloween. The dynamic duo shared snaps of themselves dressed as the characters Eleven and . with the cunning pair hilariously engaging in some gender swapping shenanigans. Stranger Things have happened: It seems Bachelor In Paradise personality Wells Adams may be romancing Modern Family star Sarah Hyland after they wore matching outfits for Halloween The gurning actress looked far from her usual sexy self dressed as geek Dustin Henderson, while her escort looked as macho as usual while wearing a blonde wig as he impersonated powerful psychic Eleven. Cheeky Sarah, 26, tantalisingly captioned her Instagram snap: '#strangerthings have happened #happyhalloween.' But according to People the couple have been growing close after enjoying plenty of quality time together. An insider told the publication: 'Theyve been friends for a while and now theyve been hanging out and spending more time together. Theyre flirty. Party on: It looked like they were enjoying a right rollicking evening Ooh: The couple have been growing close after enjoying plenty of quality time together Love is like a red, red rose: No doubt the Bachelor In Paradise personality has been showering her with flowers Saucy singleton Sarah has been on her lonesome since binning her relationship with longtime lover Dominic Sherwood during the summer. And earlier this month she complained on Twitter about the fact she can no longer use a boyfriend as an unpaid courier service. She mused: 'The problem with being single isnt the fact that youre alone. Its that you cant puppy dog eye a guy into getting you Starbucks in bed.' And after a 'helpful' fan suggested she could try a dating app to ensnare another beau-cum-servant, she replied: 'Yuck gross. To each their own but dating apps arent for me. I like the natural progression of a person slowly learning im (sic) crazy.' She's the David Jones Ambassador known for her fashion prowess and her very fit physique. And Jesinta Franklin put both on full display in a sizzling new cover shoot for the department's store's quarterly publication, JONES. In an interview with the magazine, the 26-year-old also spoke candidly about starting a family, stating: 'Its the only thing on my mood board I havent achieved yet!' 'Its the only thing on my mood board I havent achieved yet!' Jesinta Franklin has spoken candidly about starting a family in the new edition of JONES, which also features a sizzling photo shoot with the star Jesinta is set to celebrate her first wedding anniversary with AFL star Lance 'Buddy' Franklin next month, but the brunette insisted she's relaxed about the possibility of becoming a mum. 'Were just going with the flow at the moment. Whatever happens, happens,' the stunner remarked. Jesinta also opened up about her health regime claiming she tries 'to be really, really healthy and fit and represent something different on the runway'. Fit physique: Jesinta also claimed she wants to 'represent something different on the runway' Indeed, Jesinta is in incredible shape, dazzling in a number of stylish swimsuits inside the pages of the publication. In one photo, the star does her best Baywatch impersonation, channeling Pamela Anderson as she runs along the beach in a one-piece. Meanwhile, in another steamy snap, the beauty sips from a bottle of Coca-Cola as she sits cross legged in a fashionable cutaway swimsuit. Fashion prowess: For the shoot, Jesinta also donned a range of summer dresses available at David Jones For the shoot, Jesinta also donned a range of summer dresses available at David Jones. Known for her flair for fashion, one image showed the Gold Coast native rocking a cream linen frock that was buttoned down the sides. Jesinta and Buddy are currently on vacation in the United States. Last week, the famous couple were seen passionately embracing as they soaked up the sun on the balcony of their Los Angeles hotel. The Summer issue of JONES magazine, the David Jones fashion quarterly, is in store today. Cover shoot by Nicole Bentley, swim shoot by Simon Upton, styling by Caterina Scardino. Matthew McConaughey enjoyed some family time with wife Camila Alves and their children on Sunday in Miami Beach, Florida. The 47-year-old actor kept it casual in a grey V-neck T-shirt, grey striped shorts and sandals. The Oscar-winning actor wore a red cap backward and accessorized with sunglasses. Family time: Matthew McConaughey spent some quality time with his family on Sunday in Miami Beach, Florida Matthew sported a thick beard while strolling with his 35-year-old wife and their three children. Camila wore a white off-the-shoulder dress and sandals for the family outing. The Brazilian beauty had her long dark hair down and accessorized with sunglasses. Matthew and Camila were spotted with their nine-year-old son Levy, seven-year-old daughter Vida and four-year-old son Livingston. Sun dress: Camila Alves wore a white off-the-shoulders dress for the family outing The Texas native has been in Florida recently filming the new Harmony Korine comedy Beach Bum. Matthew after filming Beach Bum in Miami will head off to Key West for another two weeks of filming. Camila and Matthew met in 2006 and married in a private Catholic ceremony in June 2012 in Austin, Texas. Family portrait: Matthew and Camila escorted their nine-year-old son Levy, seven-year-old daughter Vida and four-year-old son Livingston into a house Good times: Camila and Matthew were seen smiling and laughing with their children Matthew in the new comedy by Spring Breakers director Harmony, 44, will play a rebellious but lovable stoner named Moondog. The comedy also will star 35-year-old Chad Mountain. Matthew won the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Ron Woodroof in the 2013 biopic Dallas Buyers Club. She's the Neighbours actress who finalised her divorce from her former NRL star husband Braith Anasta earlier this year. And now Jodi Gordon (nee Anasta) has been seen getting close with Whitney Port's ex-boyfriend Jay Lyon, 33. The 32-year-old was seen cuddling up to the former reality TV star as they attended a spinal research fundraiser in Double Bay, in Sydney's east, on Sunday. A new romance? Jodi Anasta cuddles up close to Whitney Port's ex-boyfriend Jay Lyon as pair attend a charity event Jodi and Jay appeared happy in each other's company as they linked arms on the red carpet. There was nothing awkward about the way they posed together as they tilted their heads closer to each other and beamed smiles. But while there is a lot of love between them, there's no romance, as Jay confirmed to Daily Mail Australia that the pair are 'just mates.' PR maven George Moskos also joined the pair for a photo on the red carpet. Meanwhile, mother-of-one Jodi looked stunning at the event in a simple but elegant black ensemble. Getting close: The 32-year-old was seen posing for the cameras with the former reality TV star as they attended a spinal research fundraiser in Double Bay, in Sydney's east, on Sunday Style and grace: The mother-of-one looked stunning at the event in a simple but elegant monochrome ensemble. She wore a black off-the-shoulder dress with a solitary dainty strap, and a pair of lace-up heels Third-wheel: George Moskos (left) joined the pair for a photo She wore a black off-the-shoulder dress with a solitary dainty strap, and a pair of lace-up heels. The brunette beauty accessorised with a black leather chain clutch and a set of gold hoop earrings. She was also seen enjoying herself alongside model Monika Radulovic, who flaunted her impressive physique. Matching: Jay was in-sync with Jodi as he stepped out wearing a black blazer on top of a plain black shirt, tucked into a pair of dark blue jeans Finishing touches: Jodi accessorised with a black leather chain clutch and a set of gold hoop earrings Stunning pair: Jodi was also seen enjoying herself alongside model Monika Radulovic, who flaunted her impressive physique The 27-year-old wore a plunging floral number that hugged her gym-honed figure and showcased her slender pins. She wore a pair of beige heels, and wore her hair in a casual loose wave with a mid-part. Jay was in-sync with Jodi as he stepped out wearing a black blazer on top of a plain black shirt, tucked into a pair of dark blue jeans. He wore a pair of shiny black dress shoes and completed his ensemble with a touch of flair - a white, dotted pocket square. Flaunt it! The 27-year-old wore a plunging floral number that hugged her gym-honed figure and showcased her slender pins The Navy is investigating whether two members of the Navy's elite SEAL Team Six killed an Army Green Beret in Mali in June, a US official told CNN Sunday. Naval Criminal Investigative Service spokesman Ed Buice confirmed to CNN the NCIS investigation into the death of Army Staff Sgt. Logan J. Melgar. Melgar was a Special Forces Engineer Sergeant, according to a statement from the US Army Special Command. Military officials told CNN that a military examiner ruled Melgar's death while on assignment in the African nation of Mali as a homicide. A US official told CNN jurisdiction for the investigation shifted from the Army investigation service to the Navy in September. The official said the transfer of jurisdiction indicates that Navy personnel are subjects of the investigation. The New York Times was the first to report that two members of SEAL Team Six were under investigation for Melgar's death, saying his death was caused by strangulation at a US government compound near the American embassy in Bamako, the capital. Michelle Melgar, the victim's wife, has been notified her husband's manner of death was a homicide, the official said. She told CNN: "I ask for privacy during this time -- I hope that you will allow me to tell my story when I'm ready. I knew him best -- he was my best friend. It's all so new -- I'm sorry." Melgar, a native of Lubbock, Texas, enlisted in the US Army in 2012 and began Special Forces training in 2013, according to the US Army Special Command statement. He served two deployments to Afghanistan. The report of the mysterious death and resulting homicide investigation comes as the US undergoes heightened scrutiny about its military role Africa following the death of four US service members in Niger earlier this month. Melgar was a member of the 3rd Special Forces Group, which is the primary unit responsible for Army special operations in northwest Africa, including Mali and Niger. The four American soldiers killed in Niger earlier this month were part of the same group. Some Senate leaders expressed surprise about the extent of US military operations, renewing the debate over the authority for the United States' sprawling war on terror. Amid growing questions about what went wrong during the deadly mission, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, said the US forces are in "about 53 different countries" in Africa. Like neighboring Niger, Mali has faced significant, deadly extremism. Gunmen attacked a luxury resort in Mali the same month Melgar died, and in August there were two separate attacks on United Nations missions there. CNN's Konstantin Toropin contributed to this report. Kim Kardashian was less than impressed with Scott Disick on Sunday's episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians. The 37-year-old reality star criticized Scott, 34, for going to Cannes in May with Bella Thorne, 20, while her sister Kourtney was there with new beau Younes Bendjima. 'They looked so desperate at the airport. Who goes to LAX together? It's not a good look for Scott,' Kim said to her sister Kendall. Not impressed: Kourtney Kardashian was critical of Scott Disick's behavior in Cannes during Sunday's episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians 'He talked to me about it. He thinks it is and I said, ''Are you nuts? Are you actually not well?'' And he was like, ''Yeah, I'm doing it to make Kourtney mad.'' I said, ''You're not going to make her mad for the right reasons'',' Kendall said. Kim later shared her frustration. 'I think it's clear to everyone that Scott's doing this just to try to one-up Kourtney and that seems super malicious,' Kim said. She added: 'Kourtney's genuinely trying to go away and have a good time and he's trying to like freak her out and make Kourtney think there's going to be some crazy drama run-in. It's just so ridiculous.' Bad look: The Kardashians thought Scott went to Cannes just to annoy Kourtney Party guy: Scott showed up at the airport with Bella Thorne on his way to Cannes Kourtney, 38, meanwhile called her ex Scott a 'psychopath' after he threatened to have people attack Younes in Cannes. She earlier told her siblings how she was fielding requests from Scott to 'move in' with her and their three children. 'He's like, ''we could raise the kids together and have an open relationship'',' she balked. Moving in: Kourtney told her sisters how Scott said he wanted to move in with her Totally confused: The reality star admitted she was confused by Scott's behavior 'Scott and I are not in a good place, he's been partyingis he serious?' she asked Khloe. Kourtney was due to take a trip to Cannes to hang out with her 28-year-old toyboy. 'I'd rather Scott did not know,' she mused, but Scott decided to go to Cannes with his lady friend Bella. Cannes trip: Kourtney and Kendall went to Cannes together 'It is crazy that Scott won't leave Kourtney alone,' said Khloe. 'He's threatening me now, he's like ''your little friend is going to get beat up every single day when we're there'',' said Kourtney. 'He's ''like you're the love of my life'' and I'm so confused right now' she added, calling her ex a 'psychopath'. Dark and twisted: Khloe Kardashian said that Scott can be 'dark and twisted' 'He's dark and twistedI can't believe he would stoop this low and speak to her this way, she's still the mother of his children,' said Khloe, 33. Khloe then tried to call Scott repeatedly, but he wouldn't pick up. 'There's a lot of anger,' admitted Scott, who eventually answered his cell. Big sigh: A conversation with Scott left Khloe sighing in her closet 'I never thought I'd ever go through anything like this,' he said tearfully, while admitting to being a 'hothead' and an 'idiot'. 'I'm not going to regret that, because it's how I felt at the time,' he said. The trip involved Younes rubbing oil into Kourtney's swimsuit-clad body. Holding hands: Kourtney and Kendall held hands while in Cannes together Good times: Kourtney was joined by her friend Simon Huck in Cannes 'I'm not trying to throw anything in anyone's face, but I'm also not going to hide,' Kourtney said. Kourtney earlier told Kim that Kim's assistant Stephanie Shepherd felt 'unfulfilled' in her job. 'I think that's a little bit inappropriate for her to talk to you and not to me,' huffed Kim, calling the move 'unprofessional'. Candid conversation: Kourtney told Kim that her assistant Stephanie was 'unfulfilled' in her job Things were 'awkward' with Steph as they planned outfits for Cannes. Eventually Kim summoned the courage to confront Steph, who brushed it off as 'an in passing thing'. Kim offered her the opportunity to have more responsibility in her businesses. Face to face: Steph and Kim sat down for a face-to-face talk about her future 'I don't want me being friends with Kourtney to be like, a thing,' said Steph. 'You're my number one, I've got your back,' she claimed. In another storyline Kim, 37, wasn't sure which way to sway in the Planned Parenthood debate. Informed opinion: Kim wanted to have an informed opinion about Planned Parenthood 'I want to have an opinion on this but I just don't know enough, there's nothing worseI do like to speak up on social media, I want to be more informed,' she said. 'I think we should go there and educate ourselves,' vowed Kim, after Khloe said she was 'pro choice'. They visited Planned Parenthood in Los Angeles where it was explained that the 100-year-old service primarily provides 'life saving cancer screenings, STD treatments and birth control'. 'Ninety percent of the work we do is preventative care,' said Sue Dunlap, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood in LA. Group meeting: Sue Dunlap of Planned Parenthood in Los Angeles educated Kim, Kourtney and Khloe about the 100-year-old group They were asked to write their 'relationship declarations', but Kourtney struggled. 'She's been in an unhealthy relationship for so long that she didn't know what to write, I think it's time she figured out what she deserves in a relationship,' said Kim. 'She's not good at expressing her feelings,' agreed Khloe. Relationship goals: The sisters were asked to fill out their relationship goals They met a cancer survivor who had been diagnosed at PP, plus a woman who had considered an abortion but had been told to 'sleep on it' by an empathetic medic who sensed her apprehension. The woman ended up keeping her son. They also met with a patient who had contracted HIV from her boyfriend. Personal story: A woman who considered abortion shared her story with the Kardashians Heavy topics: Kim, Kourtney and Khloe listened to stories from Planned Parenthood patients 'Hearing the stories was eye opening,' said Kourtney. 'I'm a big fan of Planned Parenthood now,' decided Khloe. KUWTK returns next week on the E! network. A recent resigning of the family's deal for $150 million means they will be on air until at least 2019. Former EastEnders actress Samantha Womack has spoken out about the heartache she felt after not returning her father's calls in the months leading up to his suicide. The British TV star, 44, said she had not been on speaking terms with her dad Noel Janus since he 'behaved badly' at her wedding in May 2009 but 'blamed herself' when he was tragically found dead in August the same year. In a candid interview with John Bishop and reported in The Mirror the soap star, known for her portrayal of Albert Square's Ronnie Mitchell, gave an insight into coping with her grief and her sense of blame - and how she is now 'at peace' with what happened. Scroll down for video 'You'll always blame yourself': Former EastEnders actress Samantha Womack (pictured) has spoken out about the heartache she felt after not returning her father Noel Janus's calls in the months leading up to his suicide She told the newspaper: 'My father left three messages on my phone after my wedding to say "Call me" and I didn't because he'd behaved badly at my wedding. 'And so for the first time I went, "No, I'm gonna draw a line here until he calls me sober or changes his behaviour." And I paid the ultimate price.' She added: 'You'll always blame yourself, but it's been long enough now where I can look at his picture and I can smile now. So now I have a sense of peace with him, that's taken me a while to get to.' Samantha's parents, musician father Noel and actress mother Diana O'Hanlon, split up when she was two. Rough patch: The British TV star, 44 (R), said she had not been on speaking terms with her dad Noel (L) since he 'behaved badly' at her wedding in May 2009 - three months before he died When Samantha was six her mother remarried a GP and so she gradually saw less of her father. The two only became close again when she became a mother herself and he got back in contact in 1996. Samantha shares her two children Ben, 16, and Lily-Rose, 12, with her husband and fellow actor Mark Womack, who she met on the set of police drama Liverpool 1 in the late 90s. The awful revelation about her father comes two years after a candid interview Samantha gave about her tragic loss to the Daily Mail in 2015. Close-knit family: Samantha shares her two children Ben, 16, and Lily-Rose, 12, with her husband and fellow actor Mark Womack (R), who she met on the set of police drama Liverpool 1 in the late 90s Distanced: Samantha's parents, musician father Noel and actress mother Diana O'Hanlon, split up when she was two Back then she said: 'But we'd got very close again before he died. Being close to him again was special. It felt like a new-found relationship and we were enjoying it. Losing him was so sad.' Noel didn't leave a suicide note and Samantha was haunted by the idea that she could have done more. She said: 'It took a long time to get over, you're not grieving in the same way because there are unanswered questions. Coping: The soap starlet, famous for her portrayal of Albert Square's Ronnie Mitchell (pictured as Ronnie in 2015), said she is now 'at peace' with what happened to her beloved dad 'I think anyone who suffers that kind of loss knows what I mean. You don't know that someone is in trouble; you try and look back and see if there were signs. 'That's a symptom of that situation; you'll constantly look back and think, "Was there anything I could have done differently?" 'That's the legacy they leave. You have to be able to understand that everyone makes their own choices; you have to be OK with that.' John Bishop: In Conversation With on W, Thursday at 9pm She'll lose her Great British Bake Off crown this week, when Channel 4's first ever champion is announced. But last year's winner Candice Brown has something else to smile about after she announced her engagement to Liam Macaulay on Sunday, following one very memorable false alarm. Sharing the news with HELLO! magazine in a new engagement shoot, the gorgeous baker said she was 'feeling very lucky' following an 'amazing' year. Scroll down for video We're engaged! Candice Brown and her boyfriend Liam Macaulay have announced their engagement, one year after she took the Great British Bake Off crown 'I get emotional' she said. 'Because it's been such an amazing year. I feel very lucky. I've had such incredible opportunities GBBO opened so many doors and to top it off he puts a ring on it.' And despite prompting speculation of a surprise engagement in late 2016, Candice revealed that the proposal was everything she'd been waiting for. She told the story of how Liam, who she's been with since 2012, took them back to the spot where they had their first date in Bedfordshire and pulled a ring from the glove compartment of his car. Something to pout about! Candice shared the news almost a year to the day since winning the Great British Bake Off (here in July) We're engaged! Candice Brown and her boyfriend Liam Macaulay have announced their engagement, one year after she took the Great British Bake Off crown Candice recalled: 'He reached into the glove compartment, got out the ring, got down on one knee and said, "I love you, you are my world. Will you marry me?" Liam continued: 'So I proposed in a car park. But it really meant something to us. Candice just cried for five minutes before she could say, "Yes!"' Candice won Bake Off in 2016, on its former BBC One home, earning a handshake from Paul Hollywood for her four-tier meringue cake and impressing former judge Mary Berry with a humdinger of a showstopper. The former PE teacher had been odds-on favourite going into the final, having been star baker three times in the series thanks to her ambitious bakes, including a peacock made out of marzipan. Pouting from the rooftops: Candice, who became well-known for her pout, has been with Liam since 2012 (here in January) but now describes the proposal she's always wanted Quite the sparkler! Candice inititally prompted speculation at the National Television Awards by wearing this extravagant ring on that fintger She attracted the support of thousands of fans, many of whom complimented her stylish appearance, including her collection of colourful lipsticks and her distinctive pout. But she was unpopular with some viewers due to her tantrums earlier in the series. Following her win on the show, Candice and Liam sparked engagement rumours when she wore a show-stopping ring to the National Television Awards. Candice recently shrugged off the speculation of wedding bells in a chat with Loose Women. She said: 'I know [I panicked everyone with the ring] but I just like wearing jewellery. 'Poor boy he's like, "Oh god, the pressure", and I'm like, "Don't you dare pressure-ask me to marry you!"' In November last year, she also insisted that she was in no rush to marry Liam because they had a long future ahead. She said Hello!: 'Well get married one day but theres no rush. Well have kids too. We want it all.' Shortly before Candice burst on to screens last year, The Sun revealed that one year before the couple met, Scottish-native Liam, was serving a 16-month jail term for dealing cannabis. He was arrested after police caught him with 6,970 worth of cannabis in his car as he an accomplice drove from Edinburgh to Inverness in 2009. Mr Macaulay then admitted supplying cannabis. Sources close to Candice insisted she had nothing to do with the crime committed by Liam as she was not dating him at the time. He's the young aspiring paparazzo who sneaked through Sydney Domestic Airport posing as Bachelorette stars Sophie Monk and Stu Laundy. But Jayden Seyfarth revealed it wasn't the first time he bypassed airport security with a celebrity's boarding pass as he admitted he'd also assumed 67-year-old Richard Branson's identity before. The 20-year-old revealed on Monday that he pulled the prank on Richard two years ago when he was attempting to fly on Virgin - the billionaire's own airline. 'How did you get this?': Jayden Seyfarth reveals days after impersonating Sophie Monk and Stu Laundy how he claimed Richard Branson's (pictured) boarding pass for a flight on his own airline He claimed the English magnate saw the funny side in the stunt, despite Jayden exposing a flaw in his airline's check-in system. 'I got him (Richard) to actually sign the ticket,' Jayden told KIIS 1065's Kyle and Jackie O. 'He thought it was amazing. He was like "How did you get this?"' Jayden made headlines on the weekend after he printed out Sophie and Stu's boarding passes at a self-serve check-in system, prior to a flight they were booked on from Sydney to Melbourne. Not the first time: The 20-year-old revealed on Monday that he pulled the same prank on the billionaire two years ago, when he was attempting to fly on his own airline Virgin 'He thought it was amazing': Jayden claimed the English magnate (pictured) saw the funny side in the stunt, despite Jayden exposing a flaw in his airline's check-in system 'I got him (Richard) to actually sign the ticket': Jayden said he asked Richard to sign his own boarding pass, which the 20-year-old printed off He then used the passes to slip into the VIP lounge without having his identity verified. 'Someone who had different intentions could have got on that flight without any ID or anything,' Jayden told hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson. 'I was there a bit early so I thought I may as well go into the lounge because she (Sophie) was business class.' The snapper said his downfall was posting his antics to social media, which he admitted was 'not a good move'. Bold move: Jayden made headlines on the weekend after he printed out Sophie and Stu's (pictured) boarding passes at a self-serve check-in system, before their flight from Sydney to Melbourne on Friday 'Let's do this': He then used the passes to slip into the VIP lounge without having his identity verified Jayden was referred to the Australian Federal Police, prompting them to launch an investigation into the matter in the interest of national security. A spokesperson from the AFP confirmed to Daily Mail Australia on Sunday that they received a referral regarding 'the alleged unauthorised access of travel documents by an individual'. They added: 'Serious penalties can apply when aviation security is found to have been breached.' Security experts have recommended major airlines change screening processes for domestic flight check-ins following the incident. A two-step verification system using finger-printing or codes received via SMS were among its recommendations. Flaw exposed: Jayden claimed to hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson that he could have got on the flight without ID Under investigation: Jayden (pictured with Tom Cruise) was referred to the Australian Federal Police, prompting them to launch an investigation into the matter in the interest of national security They played ill-fated lovers on long-running soap Home and Away. And Jake Ryan has spoken out in support of his former co-star Pia Miller, 33, who has been plagued with rumours of 'diva behaviour' since she made her debut in 2014. The 34-year-old spoke with TV WEEK on Monday about the humble nature of his former on-screen flame. Scroll down for video Speaking out: Jake Ryan has spoken out in support of his former co-star Pia Miller, who has been plagued with rumours of 'diva behaviour' since she made her debut in 2014 'I think people would be surprised about how non-princessy she is,' the handsome actor told the magazine. 'She likes to get her hands dirty, especially on set,' he added. The Chilean-born actress played Constable Kat Chapman, who fell for Jake's 'mystery man' role earlier this year. 'She likes to get her hands dirty, especially on set,' he added Her and her unborn baby were then killed off in scenes that have yet to air, dying at the hands of a new show villain played by Sam Frost. Jake's character 'Robbo' was in the car's passenger seat when it was run off the road by Sam's character, who is as-yet unnamed. The Melbourne-born actor told TV WEEK that contrary to media reports, there is 'no tension' between any of the Home and Away cast. Departure: The Chilean-born actress played Constable Kat Chapman, who fell for Jake's 'mystery man' role earlier this year 'There's a really good dynamic here. Everyone is really close and we've got each other's backs,' he described. Jake explained how veteran actor James Stewart, who plays Justin Morgan, 'leads the way' by providing his co-stars with inspiration. Portraying James as the 'glue that holds the team together', he revealed the 42-year-old shows the show's 'slightly younger guys the ropes'. Viewers dubbed him a 'stage five clinger' during his time on The Bachelorette. And it appears that Jarrod Woodgate still isn't letting go of Sophie Monk, despite being brutally rejected by her in the finale episode. NW reports that in 'an exclusive chat' with the 32-year-old vineyard manager, he claimed: 'I'll never give up on Sophie'. 'I'll never give up on Sophie': In an interview with NW, Bachelor reject Jarrod Woodgate is quoted as saying he believes Monk still has a place in her heart for him Jarrod is quoted as saying that he believes Sophie 'still has a place in her heart for me. There are a lot of things you didn't see between us.' He added he is 'still hung up on Sophie'. The publication also alleges that the Bachelor reject believes that Sophie's chosen love Stu Laundy, 44, 'comes with too much baggage', given he is still married to his estranged wife with whom he shares four children. He is quoted as telling NW that Stu had 'had a vasectomy and [has] kids and all that. It is easier for Sophie to fall into a relationship with me and just start a life, as opposed to moving into another family'. 'There are a lot of things you didn't see between us': Jarrod believes it would be 'easier for Sophie to fall into a relationship with me' Indeed, in an interview with Woman's Day published on Monday, Sophie revealed that she was still to meet Stu's four daughters, who range in age from 10 to 16. She told the magazine she's looking forward to meeting the girls when they are ready. In the same interview she also mentioned Jarrod, stating: 'I know Jarrod cared about me, but it felt like he was trying to compete to win a trophy'. Seeing things differently? Speaking with Woman's Day, Sophie stated 'I know Jarrod cared about me, but it felt like he was trying to compete to win a trophy' It's likely the former military man would reject such a claim. The star was extremely smitten with Sophie throughout his time in The Bachelorette mansion, professing his love for her and gifting her with both ugg boots and a now-infamous pot plant. However, during the heart-wrenching season Jarrod was brutally dumped by Sophie, blubbering as he walked away from her alone along a beach. Among other affable traits, Violet Affleck has clearly inherited her mother Jennifer Garner's famous dimpled grin as the duo demonstrated in their Brentwood neighborhood on Sunday. The 45-year-old Golden Globe winner and her 11-year-old princess were spotted laughing together after attending some sort of event requiring name tags. The Wakefield actress sported a black-knit sweater, matching mini-skirt and loafers; while her eldest child donned a red-knit cardigan over a white mini-skirt and sneakers for their stroll. Scroll down for video Having a laugh: Violet Affleck has clearly inherited her mother Jennifer Garner's famous dimpled grin as the duo demonstrated in their Brentwood neighborhood on Sunday Missing from the family bonding session were Jennifer's younger children - daughter Seraphina, 8; and son Samuel, 5 - with second estranged husband Ben Affleck. Garner and her 45-year-old ex - who separated in 2015 - requested joint custody of their three children, but they're still negotiating a financial settlement, according to TMZ. The two-time Oscar-winning filmmaker - who's moved on with SNL producer Lindsay Shookus - apologized this month for once 'acting inappropriately' towards former TLR host Hilarie Burton. The Houston-born Texan also shared a sleepy snap of herself Sunday wearing a makeshift cat Halloween costume while reclining on a couch. My name is...: The 45-year-old Golden Globe winner and her 11-year-old princess were spotted laughing together after attending some sort of event requiring name tags Skirting the issue: The Wakefield actress sported a black-knit sweater and matching mini-skirt, while her eldest child donned a red-knit cardigan over a white mini-skirt for their stroll Amicable exes: Missing from the family bonding session were Jennifer's younger children - daughter Seraphina, 8; and son Samuel, 5 - with second estranged husband Ben Affleck (pictured Monday) 'I'll be looking for one of these today,' the Once Upon a Farm co-founder cryptically wrote to her 1.5M Facebook/Instagram followers. '#icrackmyselfup!' When Jennifer originally joined Instagram in September of last year, she did so specifically to 'Insta-stalk ballerinas.' 'I've so enjoyed watching dancers that I admire from afar and feeling like I get a little insight into their lives,' Garner admitted to E! News earlier this month. 'I'll be looking for one of these today!' The Houston-born Texan also shared a sleepy snap of herself Sunday wearing a makeshift cat Halloween costume while reclining on a couch Halloween story time with her dog Birdie (R): Garner originally joined Instagram in September of last year to specifically 'Insta-stalk ballerinas' 'And so it just seemed like, "Okay, that makes more sense to me." I don't have to go any deeper than I wanna go, I can kind of be in charge of it. So we're having fun with [Instagram]. It's just my house!' The Capital One spokesmodel can next be seen as self-destructive, unhinged wife and mother Sandy Mason in The Tribes of Palos Verdes, which hits US theaters December 1. IFC Films' coming-of-age surf drama also features Cody Fern, Justin Kirk, Maika Monroe, Alicia Silverstone, Goran Visnjic, and Joely Fisher. Betrayed: The Capital One spokesmodel can next be seen as self-destructive, unhinged wife and mother Sandy Mason in The Tribes of Palos Verdes, which hits US theaters December 1 Channel Ten scored huge ratings success after casting Sophie Monk as The Bachelorette. And it appears the network may be sticking to type - hoping to secure another bubbly blonde Queenslander to front the next season. According to New Idea, former Bachelor star Tara Pavlovic has been 'presented with a hefty financial offer' to take up the role. Bubbly blonde: New Idea has reported that Tara Pavlovic has been 'presented with a hefty financial offer' to star as the next Bachelorette Just like Sophie, 27-year-old Tara is known for her fun-loving attitude, self-deprecating sense of humour and a down-to-earth nature. And after failing to find love with Matty 'J' Johnson on the most recent season of The Bachelor, the blonde seems to be the perfect candidate for her own series. The magazine quotes a friend of Tara as saying the Queensland nanny is 'seriously thinking about' the reported offer, despite previously blasting the show's producers. A second chance at love? After failing to find love with Matty 'J' Johnson on the most recent season of The Bachelor, Tara seems to be the perfect candidate for her own series Last month, the blonde hit out accusing The Bachelor of unfair editing. Her criticism came after her brother, Troy, appeared confrontational when he met Matty during a hometown date. 'Troy was edited so badly. He was very welcoming towards Matty. They cut the word liar from a completely [different] conversation and put it elsewhere to make it dramatic,' Tara said in an Instagram post. 'They promised it won't happen again': Tara blasted producers, accusing them of unfairly editing her brother, Troy However, according to the friend quoted in New Idea, producers have 'promised that won't happen again'. Daily Mail Australia has contacted Channel Ten about the alleged offer. Last week, Tara didn't confirm or deny whispers of her new role during an episode of All Star Family Feud. When questioned by host Grant Denyer as to whether she would sign on to become the next Bachelorette, the 27-year-old pretended to cry and said: 'I don't know if I can break other people's hearts.' 'I can't break other people's hearts': Tara didn't confirm or deny rumours on a recent episode of All Star Family Feud The starlet, who has become a regular on Sydney's social scene, responded candidly: 'I can put my hand up to get my heart broken (but) I don't know if I can break other people's hearts. Yet, Tara went on to explain that if the suitors weren't worthy of her affections she would have no problem in sending them home. 'If they were knobs I'd be like, see you mate. You do not get a rose,' she said. A former contestant on Australian reality series The Farmer Wants a Wife has been seriously injured after falling from a horse and landing on his head. Ralph Lyster, 36, was playing in a polocrosse tournament on Saturday morning in Capel, south of Perth, when he was thrown from the animal and knocked unconscious. The experienced rider was flown to Royal Perth Hospital and placed in an induced coma, Nine News reported. Former The Farmer Wants a Wife contestant Ralph Lyster is seriously injured after falling from a horse Serpentine Foothills Polocrosse Club member Chris Corbett described witnessing the shocking accident as a 'scary' time. 'Ralph hit the deck very hard,' he said. 'His horse came over him so it was a head impact straight into the ground. Ralph Lyster, 36, was playing in a polocrosse tournament on Saturday morning in Capel, south of Perth, when he was thrown from the animal and knocked unconscious 'It was quite scary at the time because he was completely unresponsive and took a little bit of time to start breathing.' Chris added that the extensive damage to Ralph's helmet showed how heavy the impact was. The former reality star has since been brought out of his induced coma and is in a stable condition. Raplh appeared as a contestant the Channel 9 match-making series in 2009. The show featured six 'lonely' farmers and followed their path to finding a romance Ralph, from Mundijong, in the outer suburbs of Perth, was participating in a sport that combines polo and lacrosse. He appeared as a contestant the Channel 9 match-making series in 2009. The show featured six 'lonely' farmers and followed their path to finding a romance. Allison Janney dressed her statuesque 6ft figure in a black velvet top and matching pants at the third annual Carney Awards in Santa Monica on Sunday evening. The seven-time Emmy winner - who's turning 58 next month - paired her dark ensemble with a statement necklace, silver sparkly heels, and a matching clutch selected by stylist Sarpreet Gill. Hairstylist Jill Crosby coiffed the Six Degrees of Separation thespian's brunette locks and make-up artist Jill Cady made sure she was ready for her close-up. Scroll down for video Fierce after 50! Allison Janney dressed her statuesque 6ft figure in a black velvet top and matching pants at the third annual Carney Awards in Santa Monica on Sunday evening Joining Janney at the Broad Stage was her onscreen love interest and one of the character actors being honored, William Fichtner. The SAG Award winner - turning 61 next month - plays recovering addict Bonnie Plunkett's (Allison) fiance Adam Janakowski on the fifth season of Mom, which premieres November 2 on CBS. Earlier on Sunday, the Boston-born actress retweeted a fan's Halloween costume of her I, Tonya character LaVona Golden, the eccentric and abusive mother of Tonya Harding. Turning 58 next month! The seven-time Emmy winner paired her ensemble with a statement necklace, silver sparkly heels, and a matching clutch selected by stylist Sarpreet Gill 'Looking gorgeous!' Hairstylist Jill Crosby coiffed the Six Degrees of Separation thespian's brunette locks and make-up artist Jill Cady made sure she was ready for her close-up Reunited: Joining Janney at the Broad Stage was her onscreen love interest and one of the character actors being honored, William Fichtner Premieres November 2! The 60-year-old SAG Award winner plays recovering addict Bonnie Plunkett's (Allison) fiance Adam Janakowski on the fifth season of CBS sitcom Mom 'I cannot tell you how thrilled I am!' Janney - who boasts 193K social media followers - gushed. 'I always thought Lavona would make a great Halloween costume and youve proved me right!' Craig Gillespie's big-screen adaptation of ESPN's The Price of Gold - starring Margot Robbie as the disgraced Olympic figure skater - hits US theatres December 8 and UK theaters February 23. Not bad! Earlier on Sunday, the Boston-born actress retweeted a fan's Halloween costume of her I, Tonya character LaVona Golden, the eccentric and abusive mother of Tonya Harding Janney gushed: 'I cannot tell you how thrilled I am! I always thought Lavona would make a great Halloween costume and youve proved me right!' Honoree William H. Macy - best known for playing alcoholic Frank Gallagher on Showtime's Shameless - suited up in black with a white button-down sans necktie. 'I got a Carney award tonight,' the touched 67-year-old Oscar nominee later tweeted a snap from onstage. 'This is the audience. Clark Gregg presented it to me. Very sweet night.' Another one for the mantel! Honoree William H. Macy - best known for playing alcoholic Frank Gallagher on Showtime's Shameless - suited up in black with a white button-down sans necktie The touched 67-year-old Oscar nominee later tweeted a snap from onstage: 'I got a Carney award tonight. This is the audience. Clark Gregg presented it to me. Very sweet night' Talented duo: The mustachioed father-of-two - who celebrated 20 years of marriage with Felicity Huffman last month - posed on the red carpet with fellow honoree Wendie Malick (R) Halloween: The 66-year-old Golden Globe nominee - wearing a festive orange skirt - later tweeted that 'it was an honor to be' in the company of such talented peers The mustachioed father-of-two - who celebrated 20 years of marriage with Felicity Huffman last month - posed on the red carpet with fellow honoree Wendie Malick. The 66-year-old Golden Globe nominee - wearing a festive orange skirt with a black turtleneck - later tweeted that 'it was an honor to be' in the company of such talented peers. Also honored with trophies in the tradition of the late character actor Art Carney were Red Oaks' Richard Kind and The Walking Dead's Xander Berkeley. He was surely in the dog house after being caught up in his so-called 'sextortion' scandal. But Kevin Hart attempted to win some brownie points by lathering his pregnant wife Eniko Parrish with praise on social media on Sunday after she dressed up as Ciara. The pint-sized comedian was big on compliments as he shared a photo comparing his other half to the Body Party beauty on his Instagram page. Body Party: Sex scandal comic Kevin Hart lathering his pregnant wife Eniko Parrish with praise on social media on Sunday after she dressed up as Ciara The ebullient funnyman said: 'Nailed it!!!!! Good job babe I love it!!!! #HalloweenFun.' Their relationship certainly seems on a surer footing than when the 38-year-old apologised over the whole affair, admitting he made a 'bad error in judgment.' His posting comes after the woman who appeared in a sex tape with him said she finds it 'very distasteful' that he joked about the affair in a promo for an upcoming tour. In a new commercial for his 'Irresponsible' shows, Hart - being interviewed by himself - lists the times he has been reckless, including a reference to the tape. He asks: 'What about Las Vegas?', before replying to himself: 'F*** you, man.' Hot and bothered: Kevin said his other half 'nailed it' and that he 'loved' her costume Proud spouse: She was wearing her wedding ring in the photograph But Montia Sabbag, who said she slept with the married Hollywood star three times during a three day blow-out in Las Vegas in August, is not amused, according to TMZ. Her attorney, Lisa Bloom, said: 'This stuff takes a toll mentally and physically, and now with this tour it's like this whole thing was a joke.' She also said it is especially unpleasant because Montia has been a victim of social media hacks and death threats. In a new commercial for his 'Irresponsible' shows, Hart lists the times he has been irresponsible, including a reference to the tape with Sabbag Montia claims she first started speaking to Hart at the Cosmopolitan Las Vegas hotel. She said: 'We were drinking, having fun, listening to the music, dancing. I was more focused on my friends, I didn't go there for Kevin. 'But Kevin did pay me a lot of attention, he was into me, I could tell.' Later that night Hart and his entourage invited Sabbag and her friends up to the star's luxury hotel suite. Large suites at the The Cosmopolitan - which is on the famous Las Vegas strip - cost around $3,000 a night and boast their own bars, hot tub and plenty of room. The scandal first unfolded on September 16 when Hart made a public apology to his pregnant wife Eniko Parrish and his two children from a previous relationship, saying, 'I made a bad error in judgment' It was there that the actor who has an estimated net worth of $120 million - began to charm the young make-up artist. 'We talked about life, you know, what are your dreams your aspirations,' she said. 'He was charming, he was funny.' Sabbag said the pair instantly felt a 'connection' and had 'chemistry'. She said the sex 'happened naturally', with the two peeling themselves away from the group and going into Hart's bedroom off the main suite. But unbeknownst to Sabbag, she claims, one of the partygoers in Hart's suite had been secretly filming her interaction with Hart the whole time. Sabbag denies any involvement in the camerawork and claims she doesn't recall seeing anyone filming them. When asked if she knows who did, she responded: 'I have my suspicions', adding: 'But I can't really discuss that because of an ongoing investigation.' The scandal first unfolded on September 16 when Hart made a public apology to his pregnant wife Eniko Parrish and his two children from a previous relationship, saying, 'I made a bad error in judgment.' She's the busty Australian model who's never afraid to show some skin. But Zilda Williams was showing off more than her voluptuous physique on Monday as she hared a series of loved up snaps of her and toyboy Keith Fraser to Instagram. The 34-year-old flaunted her romance with her muscly lover, as the pair cooled down from a warm Sydney day at Bronte Beach. Already in paradise! Zilda Williams was showing off her romance with toyboy Keith Fraser on Monday as the two took a trip to Bronte Beach while holidaying in Sydney 'Let's go to the beach beach,' she captioned, referencing the Nicki Minaj smash hit Starships. Laying on the grass and soaking up the sun's rays, the Gold Coast couple laid a towel down on the adjacent grassland and held hands. Keith moved his hand down towards the former Bachelor contestant's pert derriere, and lightly rested his hand on her peachy behind. Zilda approved of Keith's advance, smiling cheekily and flirtatiously gnawing on her knuckles while she stared at the camera and took another selfie. Cheeky! The couple laid a towel down on the grass, while Keith moved his hand down and lightly rested it on the former Bachelor contestant's peachy behind Adventure: The pair ventured to the Bronte rock pool later on in the day Venturing to the beach's rock pool later in the day, the lovebirds took a dip. Zilda wore an aqua-coloured bikini that emphasised her ample cleavage and matching string bikini bottoms. Before stripping off and frolicking in the water, she sported a white cropped T-shirt - that had 'Dolce & Banana' written on the front - which she paired with blue denim shorts. Eye-popping! Zilda wore an aqua-coloured bikini that emphasised her ample cleavage and matching string bikini bottoms Cooling down: Zilda and her boyfriend both wore a pair of black aviator sunglasses Keith was appropriately casual for the day, wearing a white tank top before going shirtless at the beach, and sporting a pair of orange board shorts. Both wore black aviator sunglasses to help protect them from the sun's rays. The pair have been dating since September and are currently holidaying in Sydney. He's the affable Australian radio star who purchased John Barker and Elyse Knowles' house that won them The Block on Sunday. And Dave Hughes has come under some criticism from his wife Holly after she revealed their son Rafferty, eight, had been copping flak at school over the purchase. Speaking to Dave's KIISFM co-host Kate Langbroek on Monday, Holly revealed that Rafferty thought the purchase was just his dad 'showing off.' Scroll down for video 'It's not a bargain!' Dave Hughes' wife Holly criticises the funnyman for spending more than $3 MILLION on Josh and Elyse's winning The Block house and reveals their son Rafferty has copped flak over the purchase 'It's not a bargain,' Holly said. 'Raffy's whispering people were hassling him about it at school. Raffy's saying he feels like dad was showing off,' she said. Holly knew that her funnyman husband was intending to bid and her only rule was that he bought it anonymously. 'The only thing I asked was, if you're going to bid, can you please just do it through an advocate so we can keep it private,' she said. 'I didn't think he'd end up buying it either.' Daily Mail Australia has contacted representatives for Dave Hughes for comment. Host: Appearing on A Current Affair on Monday, Dave said that he had planned to use the digs as a 'party pad.' 'We're going to spend a lot of time there in the summer, I'm already talking about some massive party,' he said Appearing on A Current Affair on Monday, Dave said that he had planned to use the digs as a 'party pad.' 'We're going to spend a lot of time there in the summer, I'm already talking about some massive party,' he said. 'I think Josh and Elyse may have had a massive party there last night, but we're going to make their parties look small, because we're going to have middle-aged parties.' He added that he planned to keep the Elsternwick property in the family for 'a long time.' Dave purchased Josh and Elyse's stunning stunning house at auction for $3,067,000 on Sunday night's dramatic Block finale. Flashy: Speaking to Dave's KIISFM co-host Kate Langbroek on Monday Holly revealed that son Rafferty, eight, thought the purchase was just his dad 'showing off' Boasting: 'It's not a bargain,' Holly said. 'Raffy's whispering people were hassling him about it at school. Raffy's saying he feels like dad was showing off' Winners are grinners! Elyse and Josh WIN The Block as their house sells for a whopping $3million at auction - taking home $547k (and Dave Hughes is the buyer) Josh, 28, and model Elyse, 24, pocketed $447,000 from the auction as their reserve price was $2,620,000. The fan-favourites also pocketed an extra $100,000, for getting the highest amount at auction out of all of the contestants. Elyse and Josh cheered when they heard how much they had made at the auction, with Elyse saying it was 'life-changing.' Their home: Pictured is Josh and Elyse's house Shocked: Elyse and Josh cheered when they heard how much they had won, with model Elyse saying it was 'life-changing' New pad! Seen is Australian comedian and radio star, Dave Hughes Indeed on Instagram on Sunday, Elyse shared a shot of herself and Josh cracking open a bottle of champagne to celebrate. The blonde bombshell captioned it: 'Youngest team on The Block kicked a**!!!' 'We are forever grateful for this experience, and so proud of our achievements, from day one we put our best foot forward, and never backed down or gave up. There by each others side we have WON THE BLOCK 2017.' Time to celebrate! Indeed on Instagram on Sunday, Elyse shared to her more than 785,000 followers, a shot of her and Josh cracking open a bottle of champagne Proud: The blonde bombshell captioned the shot: 'Youngest team on The Block kicked a**!!!' What a feat! 'There by each others side we have WON THE BLOCK 2017,' Elyse added After the auctions on Sunday's show, host Scott Cam congratulated the teams on their success. 'I would like to give a big heart-felt thank you to all our contestants today,' Scott said. 'Some made more than others, but after what they have been through today, they showed true strength of character, and supported each other right through to the end.' 'I would like to congratulate our very deserving winners, Josh and Elyse, who are taking home 547,000 dollars!' Not bad! They also pocketed an extra $100,000, for winning the show and getting the highest amount at auction Well-deserved: After the auctions, host of the show, Scott Cam, congratulated the teams on their success 'We own it': Dave Hughes meanwhile, said how much he loved his new home, after he toured the houses weeks ago on the show Smitten: Josh and Elyse shared a smooch after winning Dave Hughes meanwhile, said how much he loved his new home, after he toured the houses weeks ago on the show. 'I don't live too far away and I was driving past and I was thinking, "gee it is a good spot, it is a good house, it is a good area," Dave, 46, said. 'And now we own it.' After Josh and Elyse home went under the hammer, Jason and Sarah's auction followed, with their house selling for $3,007,000. They picked up $387,000, with their reserve being $2,620,000. Glam: Elyse stunned in blush pants and a strapless white blouse, while Josh scrubbed up well in a black suit They did it! Jason and Sarah's auction followed, with their house selling for $3,007,000 Sold! Pictured is Jason and Sarah's home Sticks and Wombat went third, having a reserve of $2,520,000. Their house sold for $2,650,000, with the pair winning $130,000. Ronnie and Georgia were up next, with their house failing to sell at auction. Good change for three months of work! Sticks and Wombat went third. Their house sold for $2,650,000, with the pair winning $130,000 Their pad: Sticks and Wombat's reserve price on their home (seen) was $2,520,000 It had to be passed in at auction, after failing to get bids at their reserve price of $2,620,000. The final bid was a measly $2,600,000, with Georgia breaking down in tears. However some of the buyer's representatives were shocked the house got passed in, and hinted they will negotiate afterwards for the house. Tense: Ronnie and Georgia were up next, with their house failing to sell at auction Tough: It had to be passed in at auction, after failing to get bids at their reserve price of $2,620,000 The dark house: Pictured is Ronnie and Georgia's home, which they bravely painted black Buyer's advocate Frank offered the couple $2,725,000, which would give them a profit of $105,000. Buyer's advocate Nicole went in to talk to Ronnie and Georgia, to give them an offer. The offer was $2,781,000, giving the pair a profit of $161,000. Lucky! Buyer's advocate Nicole (seen) went in to talk to Ronnie and Georgia to give them an offer. The offer was $2,781,000, giving the pair a profit of $161,000 The pair were happy with that offer and accepted it. Shelley said afterwards that the pair 'played this game until the very end.' Up next, the final auction, were Clint and Hannah. The first-time renovators sold their home for $2,615,000, with a reserve of $2,520,000. The pair pocketed $95,000. That's still some coin: Up next, the final auction, were Clint and Hannah. The pair pocketed $95,000 He was the first contestant evicted from The X Factor this weekend. Yet Spencer Sutherland remained positive as he appeared on Good Morning Britain on Monday, where he discussed Simon Cowell's injury which prevented him from appearing on Saturday and Sunday's show. The Ohio-born hopeful, 25, insisted the star will be back at the weekend after he fell down the stairs of his London home last week meaning Alesha Dixon was forced to stand in for him on Sunday's show. Scroll down for video He's gone: Spencer Sutherland remained positive as he appeared on Good Morning Britain on Monday, where he discussed Simon Cowell's injury which prevented him from appearing on Saturday and Sunday's show On Saturday night, Spencer was given the news as he waited to hear his fate alongside wildcard Leon Mallett, 22, yet it transpired he was first to be kicked off. Despite his eviction, he remains hopeful as he appeared on the morning chat show during which he spoke about the embattled music mogul. He said of Simon's absence and his imminent return: 'It did feel different - he gives off a great energy and I wish he had been there. I think he's doing better. I think he'll definitely be back this weekend'. Atop discussing the mentor, he also discussed the pros of X Factor UK rather than US singing shows, as he said: 'In the US we have some singing shows but none of them have the singing power that the X Factor does...' Troubled: The Ohio-born hopeful, 25, insisted the star will be back at the weekend after he fell down the stairs of his London home last week meaning Alesha Dixon was forced to stand in for him on Sunday's show Tough times: On Saturday night, Spencer was given the news as he waited to hear his fate alongside wildcard Leon Mallett, 22, yet it transpired he was first to be kicked off 'In America its so hard to stand out, I just needed the next step for my big break, its so crazy to see. I'm going to stick around from over here'. His mentor Louis Walsh insisted his Stateside roots are the reason for his eviction, as he said: 'Louis said, you got voted off because you dont have a homebase over here. you don't have a huge area of people voting for you'. Shortly before Spencer's interview, Simon Cowell revealed his poor health was the reason behind the tumble - which had come as a 'huge shock'. Embattled: His mentor Louis Walsh insisted his Stateside roots are the reason for his eviction, as he said: 'Louis said, you got voted off because you dont have a homebase over here. you don't have a huge area of people voting for you' Speaking to The Sun, the 58-year-old explained he had fainted due to 'low blood pressure', and vowed to start 'taking good care of himself' from now on, for the sake of his son Eric, three, who he shares with partner Lauren Silverman. Appearing on Lorraine, Dan Wooton discussed the accident as he said: 'I was speaking to lauren acutally, she was so so worried, in NYC, gets a call at 4am and has to rush home, she didn't know what the situation was. 'She says the family has been totally indundated with well wishes. Simon in now resting up with her and eric - i think he's going to be ok. Luckily he had a full security team, they heard a massive thud and rushed to call the emergency services.' The battle is on to win $100,000 and to take the title of 'Australia's Greatest Food Family.' And on Family Food Fight's debut episode on Monday, the Shahrouk sisters won the first cooking challenge. The Lebanese-Australian contestants wowed the judges with their variety of authentic Middle Eastern dishes, and said they were 'proud' to have won the challenge. Scroll down for video 'I feel like a proud Shahrouk!' Family Food Fight's Lebanese-Australian sisters win the show's first challenge in debut episode...as they break down in tears after the judges praise their food 'I feel like a proud Shahrouk,' one of the sisters said, as they all screamed with excitement. Judge Matt Moran said the women 'absolutely nailed the brief.' 'Tell you what, I'd love to come to your house every Saturday,' Matt said, referring to their weekend family feast days. Can they take out the show? The battle is on to win $100,000 and the title of 'Australia's Greatest Food Family' Impressed: Judge Matt Moran (L) seen with Tom Parker Bowles (M) and Hayden Quinn (R) said the women 'absolutely nailed the brief' Judge Hayden Quinn added that he wants to become part of their family. 'I tell you what, you may only have one brother but I think... Can I be the second brother now?' The girls got to choose their game changer prize they, which can be used in the next challenge. The prizes were extra time, equipment, a mystery power, or expert help from one judge. Doing well: The sisters are Houda, 43, Halla, 45, Leeann, 39 and Rouba Shahrouk, 40 The women decided to choose the mystery power, which was double the amount of money that their rivals had to use grocery shopping in the next challenge. The sisters are Houda, 43, Halla, 45, Leeann, 39 and Rouba Shahrouk, 40. The four sisters are part of a family of 11 children. They said they learned their cooking skills from their mother and, as Matt and the judges praised their food at the tasting table, they broke down in tears. In total, they cooked almost 20 dishes on the show's debut episode. 'I have to say, everything I've put in my mouth so far has just got so much flavour,' Matt said. Getting emotional: They said they learned their cooking skills from their mother, and broke down in tears when Matt and the judges praised their food at the tasting table 'It is just beautiful. It is so good,' he added. 'Everything is just so seasoned so beautifully. And it's just got so much flavour. And this is exactly what I wanted. Well done, guys.' Dishes included the meat dish, kebbi, and baklava. Acclaimed pastry chef and judge Anna Polyviou praised their baklava. Loving it: Acclaimed pastry chef and judge Anna Polyviou (seen) praised their baklava 'Did you say this isn't your best? What does you best taste like?,' saying how much she loves the dish. Hayden added: 'I have such a good understanding of who you ladies are, who the Shahrouks are, what it means to be a part of your family because you've shared a meal like a family.' Judge Tom Parker Bowles said the food had 'freshness' and 'vibrancy.' The girls got teary and said they were proud of each other. She's certainly not adverse to stripping naked in front of the camera, having bared her body for roles in The Danish Girl and Tulip Fever, to name but a few. And Alicia Vikander hasn't only had the courage to flash the flesh since hitting the big time, as the 29-year-old also bravely went full-frontal for her part in 2011 drama The Crown Jewels. The Ex-Machina star sets pulses racing in the drama as she sheds her clothes before diving into a river for a steamy skinny dip. Scroll down for video Baring all: Alicia Vikander hasn't only had the courage to flash the flesh since hitting the big time, as the 29-year-old also bravely went full-frontal for her part in 2011 drama The Crown Jewels Alicia seductively unbuttons her checked shirt to reveal her ample assets, before sliding off her skirt and plummeting into the water. The brunette then shares a secret smooch with love interest Pettersson-Jonsson, played by Bjorn Gustafsson. Alicia plays Fraganica Fernandez in the little-known Swedish movie, a woman who was arrested for the attempted murder of Richard Persson, the son of a powerful factory owner. Heating up: The brunette also shares a steamy smooch with love interest Pettersson-Jonsson, played by Bjorn Gustafsson She's not shy! The Ex-Machina star sets pulses racing in the drama as she sheds her clothes before diving into a river for a skinny dip Richard is played by actor Bill Skarsgard, who was recently rocketed into the spotlight after starring as horrifying clown Pennywise in the movie reboot of Stephen King's It. The resurfacing of the sultry stills comes just weeks after Alicia tied the knot to Irish actor Michael Fassbender. The couple - who fell in love on the set of the 2016 drama The Light Between Oceans - exchanged their vows at Agroturismo Can Marti, an eco-hotel in Ibiza on October 14. Where it all began: Alicia plays Fraganica Fernandez in the little-known Swedish movie Drama: Fraganica woman who was arrested for the attempted murder of Richard Persson, the son of a powerful factory owner The newlyweds revelled in their new wedded bliss with a romantic honeymoon in Italy, with the pair taking in the sights of Verona, Bologna and Florence. It was first revealed by The Sun in early September the pair were planning a destination wedding in Ibiza. 'Guests have been told to arrive in Ibiza on a certain date and they will then be collected and taken to the hotel,' a source told the publication at the time. 'Hes splashing out big time and its going to be the party of the year.' Meanwhile in 2017... The resurfacing of the sultry stills comes just weeks after Alicia tied the knot to Irish actor Michael Fassbender Advertisement For the spookiest night in the calendar, stars are well-known for going all out for saucy yet scary costumes. So the Geordie Shore cast naturally grabbed a chance to go all out for Halloween, with Marnie Simpson and Chloe Ferry rocking remarkably scanty ensembles complete with sizzling leotards and thigh-high boots for a night on 'The Toon' on Sunday night, where they were joined by their beaus Casey Johnson and Sam Gowland respectively. Alongside the MTV minxes was a string of UK stars, who dominated the festivities of the weekend, as Danniella Westbrook, who dressed as a Playboy bunny, former TOWIE star Abi Clarke, who turned into a dominatrix zombie, and Jasmin Walia, who was looking sensational as Lara Croft. Scroll down for video Oh my! The Geordie Shore cast naturally grabbed a chance to go all out for Halloween, with Marnie Simpson and Chloe Ferry rocking remarkably scanty ensembles complete with sizzling leotards and thigh-high boots for a night on 'The Toon' on Sunday night, where they were joined by their beaus Casey Johnson and Sam Gowland respectively The Geordie Shore girls dazzled in their scanty ensembles with plunging necklines ensuring their perky assets were on full display - as Marnie in particular chose to leave hardly anything to the imagination. Ensuring she showed off her entire figure, the stunning star was sporting just a simple black leotard with thigh-high boots yet she added a Halloween touch with a face mask and bunny ears. The star, Chloe's costume had more of a direction as she went for a policewoman costume with a pair of fishnet tights and matching boots - while flaunting her very peachy posterior to full effect. She could not keep her hands off her new love interest Sam Gowland, who has made the transition from Love Island star to Geordie newbie, as he was clad in a hilarious Hulk Hogan outfit. Ahem! Chloe was holding on to Sam, clad in a Hulk Hogan costume, as she strutted the streets in her incredibly revealing look While Sam appears to have been recruited to the cast, Marnie's boyfriend Casey was in tow to join the stunner after they met on new dating show Single AF. He opted to shun fancy dress as he instead sported an open necked shirt with a high quiff which added a trendy touch to the look. Both he and Marnie were smoking as they strutted down the street. Marnie previously said she would like to marry her beau and have kids, despite his tender age of 22. She told OK! magazine that that's still very much the case. Of course, but Casey is only 22 so we'll wait a while. I'd like to have a child by the time I'm 30 so I've still got a few years.' Stars of the showbiz circuit were out in force for Halloween as they dressed up in their best spooky costumes over the course of the week. Hint, hint: In a hint at the upcoming drama of the series, Sam and Chloe have been practically inseparable in recent weeks Cheeky! Alongside the MTV minxes was a string of UK stars, who dominated the festivities of the weekend, as Danniella Westbrook, who dressed as a Playboy bunny, former TOWIE star Abi Clarke, who turned into a dominatrix zombie, and Jasmin Walia, who was looking sensational as Lara Croft Here comes the boys: He opted to shun fancy dress as he instead sported an open necked shirt with a high quiff which added a trendy touch to the look. Both he and Marnie were smoking as they strutted down the street Beloved beau: Marnie previously said she would like to marry her beau and have kids, despite his tender age of 22. She told OK! magazine that that's still very much the case. Of course, but Casey is only 22 so we'll wait a while. I'd like to have a child by the time I'm 30 so I've still got a few years' Loved up: The handsome star, who appeared on a recent episode looked enamoured as he gazed at his girlfriend in the street Louisa Johnson, Olivia Buckland and Rita Ora dressed as Britney Spears, a Gothic mermaid and Poison Ivy respectively for the KISS House Party event at London's SSE Arena in Wembley on Thursday night. Love Island's Gabby Allen and Marcel Somerville also attended the event, as they glammed up with her opting for a Cruella de Vil-inspired look and he giving a nod to Batman villain The Joker Despite being one of the hottest couples to come out of the ITV reality series - and the only pairing from the 2017 series to get engaged - Jess Shears looked uncharacteristically frumpy in the cyan midi number, complete with dowdy frills and a starched apron-style front as she posed with beau Dom Lever. Wow! Stars of the showbiz circuit were out in force for the Kiss House Party event at London's SSE Arena in Wembley on Thursday with an array of incredible costumes hitting the scene - led by Louisa Johnson, Rita Ora and Olivia Buckland (left-right), who dressed as Britney Spears, a Gothic mermaid and Poison Ivy respectively Taut abs: The X Factor 2015 winner looked incredible as she replicated the hitmaker's legendary 2001 MTV Video Music Awards ensemble, in which she wowed in a scanty look with a snake draped around her neck, while Olivia was dressed as a creepy mermaid and Rita rocking the Batman character's trademark look Out and about: More Love Island stars came in the form of Gabby Allen and Marcel Somerville, as they glammed up with her opting for a Cruella de Vil-inspired look and he giving a nod to Batman villain The Joker Iconic: Taking on Catwoman - which has been portrayed on the big screen by the likes of Halle Berry (R), Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway - Charlotte sizzled in a skintight latex bodysuit which plunged down the middle Cheshire Cat smile: Jessica Shears and fiance Dom Lever didn't look their usual stylish selves at the Kiss Halloween party in Wembley on Thursday night in their costume choices of Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter Taking on Catwoman - which has been portrayed on the big screen by the likes of Halle Berry (R), Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway - Charlotte Crosby sizzled in a skintight latex bodysuit which plunged down the middle. Elsewhere, Game Of Thrones star Maisie Williams channelled a creepy skeleton as she dressed up for Halloween at Thorpe Park. Sophie Ellis-Bextor cut a sexy yet haunting figure with skeleton face paint as she headed to the UNICEF Halloween party in Banbury, Oxfordshire on Friday night. Tallia Storm, 18, added her own scantily-clad touch to a traditional witch costume as she headed to the Dali's Dream Halloween party hosted by Velocity Black and The Mandrake Hotel in London. Iconic: Taking on Catwoman - which has been portrayed on the big screen by the likes of Halle Berry (R), Michelle Pfeiffer and Anne Hathaway - Charlotte Crosby sizzled in a skintight latex bodysuit which plunged down the middle It's that time of year! Elsewhere, Game Of Thrones star Maisie Williams channelled a creepy skeleton as she dressed up for Halloween at Thorpe Park Legs for days! Sophie Ellis-Bextor cut a sexy yet haunting figure with skeleton face paint as she headed to the UNICEF Halloween party in Banbury, Oxfordshire on Friday night Boo! Tallia Storm, 18, added her own scantily-clad touch to a traditional witch costume as she headed to the Dali's Dream Halloween party hosted by Velocity Black and The Mandrake Hotel in London Abi Clarke put her troubled love life to one side on Friday night as she hit the town in a racy zombie bride costume, which showed off every aspect of her surgically-enhanced curves with the help of her bust-boosting corset. Stacey Solomon opted for a Gothic unicorn ensemble for a night out on the town, while Lottie Moss showcased her svelte physique in a skintight bodysuit and fishnets. On Saturday night's episode of Strictly Come Dancing, long-time judge Bruno Tonioli dressed up in a Beetlejuice costume, Craig Revel Horwood, clad as a typically villainous Joker and Shirley Ballas, as Cruella De Vil. Danny Dyer appeared to confirm reconciliation rumours with his Joanne Mas after the pair were pictured cosying up in a cute Halloween shot where she tellingly dressed in a zombie bride costume. Scarily sexy: Abi Clarke put her troubled love life to one side on Friday night as she hit the town in a racy zombie bride costume, which showed off every aspect of her surgically-enhanced curves with the help of her bust-boosting corset Turning heads! Turning heads: Stacey Solomon opted for a Gothic unicorn ensemble for a night out on the town, while Lottie Moss showcased her svelte physique in a skintight bodysuit and fishnets Dressed up: On Saturday night's episode of Strictly Come Dancing, long-time judge Bruno Tonioli dressed up in a Beetlejuice costume, Craig Revel Horwood, clad as a typically villainous Joker and Shirley Ballas, as Cruella De Vil Back on? Danny Dyer appeared to confirm reconciliation rumours with his Joanne Mas after the pair were pictured cosying up in a cute Halloween shot where she tellingly dressed in a zombie bride costume Ex On The Beach's Charlotte Dawson was in the party spirit when she transformed into Catwoman for this year's celebrations at the Plaza Hotel in London on Saturday. Stephanie Waring, 39, continued to look sensational as she dressed up as Batman baddie Poison Ivy for the Hollyoaks annual Halloween party at the Arthouse Hotel in Liverpool on Saturday. Former TOWIE star Jasmin Walia donned a barely-there Tomb Raider inspired costume, doing her best Lara Croft impression as she strutted down the street. Kelly Brook was worlds away from her usual self on Saturday night, as she transformed into a ghoulish ballerina for an elaborate Halloween party. Getting into the Hallo-queen spirit! Ex On The Beach's Charlotte Dawson was in the party spirit when she transformed into Catwoman for this year's celebrations at the Plaza Hotel in London on Saturday Sizzling: Stephanie Waring, 39, looked sensational as she dressed up as Batman baddie Poison Ivy for the Hollyoaks annual Halloween party at the Arthouse Hotel in Liverpool Tomb Raider: Former TOWIE star Jasmin Walia donned a barely-there Tomb Raider inspired costume, doing her best Lara Croft impression as she strutted down the street Costume on pointe! Kelly Brook transformed into a ghoulish ballerina for an elaborate Halloween party on Saturday night Danielle Lloyd showed no signs of her baby weight as she flashed a hint of her flat stomach while getting into the festive spirit with her brood when she headed home from the fancy dress store alongside son Archie in Birmingham on Sunday. The 33-year-old looked fantastic when she flaunted her flesh in a patterned crop top with matching leggings, just one month after giving birth to her son Ronnie. Danniella Westbrook looked sensational in a cheeky Playboy costume, in which she sported a sexy costume complete with a ruffled skirt, sexy fishnets and the essential bunny ears to tie the look together. She looks fang-tastic! Make-up free Danielle Lloyd showed off her flat stomach in a crop top as she went Halloween shopping with her family, just one month after giving birth to Ronnie Doting mum! The glamour model, 33, headed home ahead of the rest of her brood with her son Archie who looked delighted with his Halloween costume He's the former frontman of 90s indie rock band Silverchair who has recently been romantically linked with former Bali prison inmate Michelle Leslie. Now Daniel Johns is back behind the microphone for a new single - Hello, How Are You - a re-imagining of the 1968 track from iconic Australian rockers The Easybeats. The song, which will be released as part of an Easybeats tribute EP called Rebeat is due for release in November and was recorded under Daniel's latest musical guise, Boom Tish. On the record: Daniel Johns is back behind the microphone for a new single - Hello, How Are You - a re-imagining of the 1968 track from iconic Australian rockers The Easybeats The cover comes just days after George Young from the Easybeats passed away aged 70. In a statement about the track, Daniel paid tribute to George and said he chose the song as the Easybeats believed it was one of their more different songs. 'I remember seeing a quote from George Young where her said Hello, How are You was considered by many Easybeats fans an unwelcome departure from the band's typical rock sound - I feel like I can relate to this statement,' he said. Homage: The track, which will be released as part of an Easybeats tribute EP, Rebeat, due for release in November, was recorded under Daniel's latest musical guise Boom Tish. 'This is probably why the track is one of my favourite Easybeats songs and Boom Tish had a lot of fun working on it.' While Daniel added that the recording of the song happened quite organically in his lounge room, it was quite different from how it was originally recorded in 1968. 'We could assume that having four friends work on the song in my lounge room, self-producing and recording it in a day and then sending it to the label via text message was a slight departure from the recording process of 50 years ago,' he said. Timing: The cover also comes just days after George Young [pictured far left] from the Easybeats passed away at age 70 In addition to Daniel and Boom Tish, the Rebeat EP will also feature tracks from KLP, The Bamboos featuring Montaigne, LDRU featuring Nicole Millar and San Cisco. The release is Daniel's first since his 2015 album Talk which reached number two on the Australian album charts. The Easybeats were resoponsible for some of the most iconic Australian rock tracks ever including Friday on My Mind and I'll Make You Happy and the EP will coincide with a two-part ABC mini-series about the band to air in November. She's the PR queen that loves her work and loves her kids. And while Roxy Jacenko was getting her children ready for bed, she invited son Hunter, three, to test out some new bed linen she had delivered on Monday. The 38-year-old was snapped under the covers with her adorable son as the two mucked around before bedtime and showed off in front of the camera in a series of photos posted to Instagram. Scroll down for video 'My little buddy!' Roxy Jacenko and her son Hunter, three, shared an adorable pyjama-clad moment together before bedtime on Monday 'Testing out the new bed linen from @_privatecollection_ via @sweatybettypr with my little buddy,' Roxy captioned the Instagram picture, punctuating it with a love heart emoji. Roxy and Hunter joked around, giggled and enjoyed some quality time together on her enormous bed. Hunter made an excited face at the camera before standing on the sheets and throwing his hands in the air to make a 'peace' sign. The two then took a selfie with their hands raised in unison. Roxy wore a grey cotton cardigan while Hunter wore a pair of light-coloured pyjamas. Adorable! Roxy and Hunter joked around, giggled and enjoyed some quality time together on her enormous bed Sentimental moment! Hunter made an excited face at the camera before standing on the sheets and throwing his hands in the air to make a 'peace' sign All together now! The two then took a selfie with their hands raised in unison While it was Roxy's first time taking her new bed accessories for a test drive, Hunter was already way ahead of her earlier in the day. The Sweaty Betty PR boss was impressed when she had her linen delivered earlier in the day, with two women scrambling to make it for her, but hoped she could re-create their efforts when she had to make the bed the following day. '@private_collection linen and accessory delivery to home today - LOVE it,' she wrote in the caption. 'Today I learnt the tricks': Roxy was impressed when she had her linen delivered earlier in the day, as two women expertly made her bed for her 'Now to make it look like this tomorrow': Roxy was unsure if she could re-create the women's efforts the following day 'Now to make it look like this tomorrow - best reference pictures are taken.' However the freshly-made bed didn't last long, as Roxy walked in on Hunter thrashing around and diving headfirst into the pillows and wrinkling the sheets just a few hours later. 'OMFG Hunty' she captioned a clip on Instagram Stories, she included an agonised emoji for comic effect. Roxy is mother to Pixie, six, and Hunter, three, who she shares with husband Oliver Curtis. It's the long-running Channel Nine renovation show that reached its dramatic conclusion for another season on Sunday. Josh and Elyse took out top honours on The Block on Sunday, and now producers are already looking ahead to the next season. And it appears that the next crop of hopefuls will have their work cut out for them as they take on dilapidated Gatwick in Melbourne's St Kilda, a former hotel with a sordid past. Scroll down for video 'If the walls of that joint could talk': Block fans highlight the sordid past of Melbourne's Gatwick Hotel which will be the location for the next season of the hit renovation show In the Channel Nine teaser Scott stands outside the run-down building, which is festooned with graffiti-adorned boards. The host then declares it will be the most challenging series yet. 'Yes we've done breathtaking. Yes we've pulled off the impossible and yes, we've captivated and occasionally even stunned the nation 'But we have never attempted anything like this before,' he said, as he walked through the decaying building. Tough going: In the Channel Nine teaser Scott stands outside the run-down building, which is festooned with graffiti-adorned boards Spooky: Fans flocked to social media to highlight the notorious building's sordid past Safety first: One suggested that extra security may be needed for the 2018 competitors Social media went into overdrive after the trailer was aired. 'If these walls could talk,' one fan Tweeted, to which another responded: 'Mate they will with ghosts.' Another suggested that some extra security might be needed: 'Beware many people have been murdered there. Big ghost stories. Have to get a security guard full time renovating that joint.' 'The Block 2014 was called the Glasshouse,' another opined. 'The Block 2018 is obviously going to be called the Crack House.' Notorious: The building has been the site of four murders, including 34-year-old Arthur Karatasiosis - who was stabbed to death in the foyer in 2006 The building has had an infamous history in the seaside suburb. It has been the site of four murders, including 34-year-old Arthur Karatasiosis - who was stabbed to death in the foyer in 2006. During that same year a 52-year-old woman was raped and robbed in a gruesome attack. Dangerous? During that same year a 52-year-old woman was raped and robbed in a gruesome attack The building has also seen a series of fatal drug overdoses. In the past, Inspector Jason Kelly, the local area commander at St Kilda Police Station, had called for improved security and safety from the building's owners and government agencies after attending five jobs a day at the former hotel. The mental health, the drug and alcohol abuse, the homelessness and the type of people it's attracting to the area is a concern,' he said in a report by the ABC in 2016. Her half-sister Kate famously posed for Playboy's 60th Anniversary issue in the classic bunny costume - with a racy corset, cuffs, tail and ears. And Lottie Moss was borrowing style tips from her sibling's portfolio on Monday, as she took to Instagram on Monday to share a racy snap in her own take on the iconic outfit, although she opted to use it for her Halloween costume. The 19-year-old model shunned traditional spooky costumes when she transformed into a cheeky bunny girl for a super sexy snap. Scroll down for video Racy ensemble: Lottie Moss was borrowing style tips from her sibling's portfolio on Monday, as she took to Instagram on Monday to share a racy snap in her own take on the iconic outfit, although she opted to use it for her Halloween costume Lottie drew further attention to her ample assets when she slipped her envy-inducing physique into raunchy fishnet tights. The fashionista teased a glimpse of her cheeky 'not yours' inking emblazoned across her peachy bottom cheek. Proving accessories make an outfit, the Chelsea beauty styled a pair of fluffy bunny ears while her hair was styled into glossy golden corkscrew curls. The ex-girlfriend of Alex Mytton pulled out all the stops on her Halloween costume as she painted animal features on her pretty face. Wild nights out! The 19-year-old blonde enjoyed a night out with her close pals at London club Embankment One for a Love Affair event Stunning Lottie captioned the shot, 'Before things got scary.' The model revealed her costume was inspired by fictional character Regina George's bunny attire for the spooky bash in teenage 2004 flick Mean Girls. Posting a picture of Rachel McAdams in costume from the film, she wrote: 'Me this entire month thinking about Halloween #Imamouseduh.' (sic) Clad in her bunny attire, the blonde enjoyed a night out with her close pals at London club Embankment One for a Love Affair event. Inspiration: The model revealed her costume was inspired by fictional character Regina George's bunny attire for the spooky bash in teenage 2004 flick Mean Girls The party-goer was joined by her Made In Chelsea pals including Nicola Hughes and her ex-boyfriend Alex Mytton. Lottie and Alex proved there was no bad blood between them despite their on/off nine-month relationship ending in July earlier this year. Sparks flew when the lovebirds first met in November 2016 but they split after a few 'rocky' months and 'cheating' claims. She's so glamorous: It is not hard to see why the striking blonde was scouted for her first modelling agency at the tender age of 13 A source told The Sun at the time: 'Alex has been away all summer filming for Made in Chelsea in Ibiza. 'They havent spent as much time together as they would have liked to but things have been rocky for a few months now. 'Alex is very fond of Lottie and they may find a way to work through their differences but for now theyve definitely called it quits.' Wow: The Sussex native has gone onto land campaigns with Calvin Klein and Bulgari, as well as fronting the cover of Vogue Paris in 2016 It is no surprise the striking blonde was scouted for her first modelling agency at the tender age of 13. Lottie first courted the attention of the modelling world when she attended her older half-sister Kate's wedding to Jamie Hince in 2011. The Sussex native has gone onto land campaigns with Calvin Klein and Bulgari, as well as fronting the cover of Vogue Paris in 2016. He's been sharing a few fun snaps from the set of Avengers: Infinity War, due out on May 4. Now Robert Downey Jr has confirmed for the first time that he will reprise his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man in Avengers 4 in a photo he posted on Instagram on Saturday. The snap shows shows Stark's much smaller and more padded director's chair in front of three others labelled Scott Lang, Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers. He'll be back: Robert Downey Jr has confirmed for the first time that he will reprise his role as Tony Stark/Iron Man in Avengers 4 in a cryptic photo he posted on Instagram on Saturday Robert, 52, captioned the cryptic photo: 'New flick, new short chair,' explaining the reason for the different chair in the hashtag #lumbarsupport along with #marvel. While some folks might be confused by the snap, Marvel fans will know that the three names on the chairs are the alter egos of Ant Man, played by Paul Rudd; Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson; and Captain America, played by Chris Evans. Filming on the superhero epic began back in August. The moment was marked by directing brothers Joe and Anthony Russo with an equally cryptic photo of a gloved hand, captioned: 'Beginning the end.' Avengers 4 is due for release in on April 26, 2019 in the UK and May 3, 2019 in the US. Suited up: The 52-year-old as the superhero in 2016's Captain America - Civil War Backing his fellow superhero: Robert dressed in black from head to toe for the premiere of Spider-Man: Homecoming in Los Angeles in June Meanwhile, Robert shared a few fun pix from the set of Avengers: Infinity War during the summer. On August 22 he pulled a funny face as he was pictured with Gwyneth Paltrow, who plays Stark's personal assistant Pepper Potts, and Jon Favreau aka Happy Hogan. He captioned it: Infinity Trinity ... #infinitywar and street cred @jimmy_rich represent @marvelstudios and @therealstanlee.' Another mystery : Filming on Avengers 4 began in August, marked by directing brothers Joe and Anthony Russo with a cryptic photo of a gloved hand, captioned: 'Beginning the end' 'Infinity Trinity': On August 22 Robert pulled a funny face as he was pictured with Gwyneth Paltrow, who plays Stark's personal assistant Pepper Potts, and Jon Favreau aka Happy Hogan On July 12 he posted a snap with 94-year-old Marvel creator Stan Lee in an indoor set with a green screen in the background. 'I owe it all to you ...' he wrote with the hashtags #thankyou #bts #represent @marvelstudios #laughlikenooneiswatching #Avengers #StanLee #InfinityWar (cred @jimmy_rich) Ten days later he posted a collage of two shots of himself with Josh Brolin, who plays the god Thanos of Titan, captioned: '#BTS with Brolin. #InfinityWar #Marvel #Avengers #BrolinWithTheHomies (@jimmy_rich) ' 'I owe it all to you': On July 12, the smiling star posted a snap with 94-year-old Marvel creator Stan Lee on an indoor set with a green screen in the background He was among a concerned many when he learned that Simon Cowell had fainted and fallen down the stairs last week. And Louis Walsh voiced his concerns over the X Factor judge's hectic schedule during his appearance on Loose Women on Monday. The Irish talent manager, 65, claimed that the music mogul, who is suffering from low blood pressure, needs to 'slow down', before appearing to make a thinly-veiled swipe at Cheryl, who failed to fill in for the injured star on the judging panel over the weekend. Scroll down for video 'He's a workaholic': Louis Walsh voiced his concerns over the X Factor judge's hectic schedule during his appearance on Loose Women on Monday Speaking about Simon's incident, Louis explained: 'He's a workaholic, he needs to slow down. 'He goes home at night and is on to people in LA, making records - he never stops.' But the cheeky star attempted to make light of the scenario, going on to joke: 'I think he fell off his high heels! I'm sure he's going to be back at the weekend. He loves his job.' Not one to bite his tongue! The Irish talent manager, 65, claimed that the music mogul needs to 'slow down', before appearing to make a thinly-veiled swipe at Cheryl Tease: The cheeky star made light of Simon's fall by joking that he 'fell off his heels' The Loose Women then asked Louis why show-makers opted to have Alesha Dixon, who is a fixture on the Britain's Got Talent judging panel, as oppose to former X Factor judge Cheryl, who was in the crowd on the night. 'Alesha has done more auditions, and we love Alesha, we love her,' he smiled, before seeming to take a swipe at Cheryl, who has made no secret of her qualms with Louis in the past. 'She's a team player, she's the perfect stand in,' he added. Worthy replacement: Alesha Dixon stood in for injured head judge Simon Cowell as he was forced to miss out on the second live show and seeing his acts perform on Sunday Saying it like it is: Louis spoke about Simon's injuries to Denise Van outen and Jane Moore Smile! Louis and Denise posed up a storm after the show Alesha stood in for injured head judge Simon as he was forced to miss out on the second live show and seeing his acts perform on Sunday. 'Hes just resting up and recuperating at home and, of course, watching the show.' A representative for Simon told Mail Online: 'Alesha has stepped in for Simon whilst he continues to recuperate at home. It was decided he shouldnt be on air tonight after doctors advice today. Sprightly as ever: Louis was his usual animated self as he joined the Loose Women panel ITV takeover: X Factor's Talia Dean also did the ITV rounds on Monday morning End of the line: The singer was the first to be evicted from the X Factor live shows The record label boss was treated by paramedics at his home after he fell walking down the stairs to make hot milk and found unconscious at the bottom of his stairs by his security. He was later rushed to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for scans of his brain, neck, spine and back. Simon was later discharged from the medical facility after getting an MRI and CT scan, making his way back to his house wearing a blood pressure monitor. Will he lead them to victory? Louis is in charge of the boys category on this year's show Katherine Jackson has applied to legally surrender the guardianship of her 15-year-old grandson Michael, Jnr, who is widely known by his nickname Blanket. Along with Tito Joe Jackson the 87-year-old was left the joint legal guardian of the teen and older siblings Paris and Prince following their pop legend father Michael's sudden death in 2009. But court documents seen by TMZ show that Katherine now wants to make TJ, 39, the sole guardian of his cousin Blanket. Katherine Jackson has applied to the courts to surrender guardianship of Michael's orphaned son Blanket, 15, seen to her left in 2012 along with siblings Prince and Paris In the documents she references her age as a reason for the move. Katherine has been seen in a wheelchair during her increasingly rare public outings in recent months. She also states that as two of Jackson's orphaned children are now adults, TJ can handle the job alone. TJ is understood to be sharing supervisory duties with his wife Frances, with the two taking it in turns to live with Blanket at the Jackson family ranch in Calabasas. However earlier this year his big sister Paris, 19, raised concerns that her little brother was being left to fend for himself. 'Too old' Katherine thinks that as her other two orphaned grandchildren are now adults, TJ, right, can cope with the guardianship of Blanket alone; the family are seen in 2012 Her concerns, which a friend shared with the media, included the fact that Katherine had not seen her grandchildren for months, and was temporarily living in London. Paris was worried that her brother was isolated at the ranch, without a permanent companion. Despite her fears, Blanket is said to be excelling at his private school, where he is described as extremely social and has been getting straight As. She will welcome her first child with husband Jason Finnegan into the world in December. And Rachel Adedeji looked every inch the glowing mother-to-be on Monday, as she cradled her baby bump while attending the Pride Of Britain Awards in London. The Hollyoaks actress, 26, nailed maternity dressing in a chic ivory strapless dress with a chic peplum style as she hit the red carpet at Grosvenor House. Scroll down for video Stunning: Rachel Adedeji looked every inch the glowing mother-to-be on Monday, as she cradled her baby bump while attending the Pride Of Britain Awards in London The former X Factor contestant showed off her bump in all its glory in the slimline dress, which featured a demure length and ruffled bodice. Letting her dress do all the talking, the pregnant star rocked some black barely there heels, an understated clutch and slinky wrap around her shoulders. Styling her hair in stunning natural curls, she showcased her striking features with a slick of berry lipstick and a sweep of mascara. Any day now! The Hollyoaks actress, 26, nailed maternity dressing in a chic ivory strapless dress with a chic peplum style as she hit the red carpet at Grosvenor House Rachel - who shot to fame on The X Factor in 2009 - is due to give birth to her first child on December 27 and she and Jason 'can't wait.' And she's been turning to her co-star and new mum Jennifer Metcalfe for advice, after successfully hiding her bump for six months. Posting a snap of Jason, who she married in 2015, fondly holding her bump, she announced her pregnancy, writing: 'We can't wait to be parents.' The brunette beauty portrays Lisa Loveday in the long-running Channel 4 soap and has praised the wardrobe team at 'Hollyoaks' for disguising her pregnancy so well on set. Sweet: Rachel - who shot to fame on The X Factor in 2009 - is due to give birth to her first child on December 27 and she and Jason 'can't wait' Wedding bells: X Factor 2009 star Rachel Adedeji has married her partner Jason Finegan in a romantic ceremony in Stoke Park, Buckinghamshire in 2015 She explained: 'Lisa is a very vibrant character and doesn't wear many clothes! But the team has been brilliant in allowing new clothes to fit Lisa's personality. 'Instead of hot pants and a bra, it's hot pants and a loose top!' Rachel has been relying on her co-star Jennifer Metcalfe - who gave birth to her first child Daye in June - for advice on motherhood and they're even planning a holiday together with their babies once Rachel has welcomed her little one into the world later this year. Speaking to Closer magazine, she explained: 'Jen has been amazing - I couldn't ask for a better friend. As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I was like, 'Jen, what do I do?!' Excited: Clearly excited at the prospect of motherhood, Rachel said she feels 'ready' to be a mother 'She's an amazing mum and seeing her and Greg with Daye is just adorable. We've been talking about holidaying together once my baby arrives.' And clearly excited at the prospect of motherhood, Rachel said she feels 'ready' to be a mother. Speaking through talent agent Jason, she told told The Mirror: 'I feel ready to be a mummy.' Jason added: 'We are both really excited, nervous of course but we both feel ready. A Christmas baby!' Big news: Jason added: 'We are both really excited, nervous of course but we both feel ready. A Christmas baby!' Rachel tied the knot with her partner Jason back in 2015 in Buckinghamshire and took to her Twitter page just before she walked down the aisle to thank people for their wishes. She wrote at the time: 'Can't believe the day is finally here. In the next few hours I'll be a blushing bride. Thank you to everyone for your wishes. Xx (sic).' The star, who placed ninth in the competition, completed her look with a silver beaded belt and a matching tiara, looking every inch the princess. The happy couple celebrated the big day with a honeymoon in Indonesia last December. She excitedly announced her engagement to boyfriend of five years, Liam Macaulay, on Sunday. And Candice Brown proudly showed off her dazzling ring on Monday night, as she attended the Pride Of Britain Awards at Grosvenor House in London. The Great British Bake Off winner, 32 oozed Old Hollywood glamour as she hit the red carpet in a slinky velvet gown and retro waves. Scroll down for video Happy lady: Candice Brown proudly showed off her engagement ring on Monday night, as she attended the Pride Of Britain Awards at Grosvenor House in London - days after announcing her engagement to boyfriend of five years Liam Macaulay The former PE teacher showed off her incredible hourglass figure in the skintight gown, which featured a halterneck and an elegant train. She injected a dose of sparkle with her accessories, carrying a metallic box clutch and rocking some gold barely there heels. Teasing her dark hair into glossy polished waves, the baker stayed true to her trademark statement lips with a slick of vampy berry lipstick. Looking good: The Great British Bake Off winner, 32 oozed Old Hollywood glamour as she hit the red carpet in a slinky velvet gown and retro waves Candice Brown's outing comes after she announced her engagement to Liam Macaulay on Sunday, following one very memorable false alarm. Sharing the news with HELLO! magazine in a new engagement shoot, the gorgeous baker said she was 'feeling very lucky' following an 'amazing' year. 'I get emotional' she said. 'Because it's been such an amazing year. I feel very lucky. I've had such incredible opportunities GBBO opened so many doors and to top it off he puts a ring on it.' Exciting: She revealed Liam took them back to the spot where they had their first date in Bedfordshire and pulled the ring (pictured) from the glove compartment of his car And despite prompting speculation of a surprise engagement in late 2016, Candice revealed that the proposal was everything she'd been waiting for. She told the story of how Liam, who she's been with since 2012, took them back to the spot where they had their first date in Bedfordshire and pulled a ring from the glove compartment of his car. Candice recalled: 'He reached into the glove compartment, got out the ring, got down on one knee and said, "I love you, you are my world. Will you marry me?" Liam continued: 'So I proposed in a car park. But it really meant something to us. Candice just cried for five minutes before she could say, "Yes!"' Candice won Bake Off in 2016, on its former BBC One home, earning a handshake from Paul Hollywood for her four-tier meringue cake and impressing former judge Mary Berry with a humdinger of a showstopper. Exciting: Candice Brown's outing comes after she announced her engagement to Liam Macaulay on Sunday, following one very memorable false alarm Something to pout about! Candice shared the news almost a year to the day since winning the Great British Bake Off (here in July) The former PE teacher had been odds-on favourite going into the final, having been star baker three times in the series thanks to her ambitious bakes, including a peacock made out of marzipan. Quite the sparkler! Candice inititally prompted speculation at the National Television Awards by wearing this extravagant ring on that finger She attracted the support of thousands of fans, many of whom complimented her stylish appearance, including her collection of colourful lipsticks and her distinctive pout. But she was unpopular with some viewers due to her tantrums earlier in the series. Following her win on the show, Candice and Liam sparked engagement rumours when she wore a show-stopping ring to the National Television Awards. Candice recently shrugged off the speculation of wedding bells in a chat with Loose Women. She said: 'I know [I panicked everyone with the ring] but I just like wearing jewellery. 'Poor boy he's like, "Oh god, the pressure", and I'm like, "Don't you dare pressure-ask me to marry you!"' In November last year, she also insisted that she was in no rush to marry Liam because they had a long future ahead. She said to Hello!: 'Well get married one day but theres no rush. Well have kids too. We want it all.' Shortly before Candice burst on to screens last year, The Sun revealed that one year before the couple met, Scottish-native Liam, was serving a 16-month jail term for dealing cannabis. He was arrested after police caught him with 6,970 worth of cannabis in his car as he an accomplice drove from Edinburgh to Inverness in 2009. Mr Macaulay then admitted supplying cannabis. Sources close to Candice insisted she had nothing to do with the crime committed by Liam as she was not dating him at the time. Her ex boyfriend The Weeknd just split with his girlfriend of 10 months, Selena Gomez. And Bella Hadid looked as though she couldn't have been happier as she had the time of her life with a female friend in Rome, Italy, on Sunday. The supermodel, 21, appeared to be having a blast as she and her gal pal downed red wine amid reports just hours later that her former flame and pop princess Selena have called it quits. Something to smile about? Bella Hadid looked as though she couldn't have been happier as she had the time of her life with a female friend in Rome, Italy, on Sunday Cheers to that! The supermodel, 21, appeared to be having a blast as she and her gal pal downed red wine amid reports her former flame The Weekend and Selena Gomez have split The Weeknd, 27, and Bella's former friend Selena, 25, were said to have left the catwalk queen devastated when they started dating just weeks after she split from the Canadian musician. The Christian Dior beauty ambassador stepped out in the city with her friend Gabriella in Rome. Bella looked casual chic in her ripped denim bottoms with a matching oversized chambray top. Beneath the button up, the runway beauty sported a spaghetti strap bodysuit in black, which perfectly matched her black boots. Bella toted a Bulgari black and silver handbag; she is the face of the fashion label's latest fragrance Goldea: The Roman Night. The brunette beauty pulled her dark locks back into a casual bun, adding small framed sunglasses and a swipe of lipstick. Enjoying her day: The Christian Dior beauty ambassador stepped out in the city with her friend Gabriella in Rome Good times: Bella Hadid was spotted in Rome enjoying a mini holiday with her pal on Sunday Bella was spotted enjoying ice cream as well as a glass of red wine with her friend Gabriella on the Gianciolo Hill, which has panoramic views of the city. They were seen chatting and laughing during their low key day out together. Bella posed for a picture while holding red roses - which she later posted to her Instagram account. The younger sister of model Gigi Hadid shared the picture on Sunday and captioned it: 'A perfect moment. Finally centered and happy. So thankful today.' Gabriella posted a similar picture to her Instagram, writing: 'we are happiest in Roma.' Sweet treat: Beneath the button up, the runway beauty sported a spaghetti strap bodysuit in black, which perfectly matched her black boots Strike a pose: The brunette beauty pulled her dark locks back into a casual bun, adding small framed sunglasses and a swipe of lipstick Bliss: Bella posed for a picture while holding red roses - which she later posted to her Instagram account On Monday, the two pals took a mini trip to Tuscany together, which she chronicled on her social media. Bella filmed the drive to Italian's wine country as well as when they arrived. Once in Tuscany, Bella enjoyed wine with Gabriella before taking part in a mini photo shoot for her social media at the winery. Vibes: Gabriella shared a similar picture to her Instagram, writing: 'we are happiest in Roma' Looks delicious: The beautiful model snacked on ice cream during their Rome tour Amazing: She posted a view of a statue in Rome to her Instagram account as well Cheers to Tuscany: On Monday, the two pals took a mini trip to Tuscany together, which she chronicled on her social media Bella looked absolutely incredible in a black and white look by label Monse. The frock featured an off-the-shoulder button top that peek beneath the hem of her a pinstripe high-waisted skirt. She paired the look with the same Bulgari bag and sunglasses from yesterday as well as black and white sneakers and hoop earrings. Bella pulled her hair into a high ponytail for the wine trip. Flawless: Bella looked absolutely incredible in a black and white dress by label Monse Beautiful lady: The frock featured an off-the-shoulder button top that peek beneath the hem of her a pinstripe high-waisted skirt Views: She shared to Instagram stories that they also enjoyed taking in some art So gorgeous: She paired the look with the same Bulgari bag and sunglasses from yesterday as well as black and white sneakers and hoop earrings Having some fun: Bella pulled her hair into a high ponytail for the wine trip What a view: Bella shared their stunning view as well as the sunset during their dinner It's a vibe: the stunner arrived in Tuscany on Monday for a mini trip with her gal pal Beauty in nature: Bella snapped a picture of her friend Gabriella during the scenic trip What a sight: The model shared the stunning view of the sunset in Tuscany Her Rome holiday comes after People reported that her ex boyfriend The Weeknd parted ways with his girlfriend of 10 months, Selena Gomez. Bella dated The Weeknd, born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, from early 2015 until November 2016. The Weeknd, 27 and Selena, 25, revealed their romance publically after being spotted kissing on January 10 outside Santa Monica's Giorgio Baldi's restaurant. According to People's insider, Selena and The Weeknd ' have been going back and forth for a few months about their relationship.' Blast from the past: Bella dated The Weeknd, born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, from early 2015 until November 2016 It's been 'hard' because he's on tour currently while Selena is in NYC for her Woody Allen film. The distance played a major part on the breakup and 'wasn't easy on them.' People noted that Selena, who has been spending time with ex Justin Bieber, 'always made an effort' to see his shows. The website's insiders said Selena and The Weeknd's relationship is 'over for now' although they are 'still in touch.' Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton has confirmed that he was turned away from the U.S. at the airport. The confirmation came after the British actor's mother said her son had got cocaine on his wallet 'at a party'. In a carefully worded statement, Heaton said he was working to 'rectify' the situation, which is said to have occurred after sniffer dogs detected the cocaine on his person a week ago. 'My planned travel to the U.S. last week was affected by an issue at U.S. immigration, and I am working to rectify it as soon as possible,' the 23-year-old told People magazine. 'I do want to clarify that I was not arrested or charged with a crime, and cooperated fully with the U.S. officials at LAX.' 'I am working to rectify it': Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton confirms he WAS turned away from U.S... as his mother claims he got cocaine on his wallet at a party Following the drug's detection, Charlie was questioned before being sent back to England on a return flight, and was unable to attend the premiere for the second season of Netflix's breakout hit Stranger Things. 'Im sorry to all the fans and my Stranger Things family for missing the premiere,' he said. 'We are all so proud of this season and I would never want this story to negatively impact the show.' Heaton's mother and sister previously said a small amount of cocaine found its way on to Heaton's wallet at a party two weeks earlier, or at a bar or at a shop without his knowledge. This comes as it was revealed the 23-year-old has a secret love child with his ex-girlfriend Akiko Matsuura, who fell pregnant in May 2014 while the pair were in the rock band Comanechi together. Family of the actor, who plays Jonathan Byers in the Netflix supernatural drama series, say he has never done drugs in the past and was not under the influence at the time he was stopped at LA airport. Heaton has since undergone tests, including a hair and urine sample, which have come back all clear, according to his family. Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton pictured here with his rocker ex, Akiko Matsuura They are now hoping the 'misunderstanding' blows over 'sooner rather than later' to allow the British star and continue filming the second season of Stranger Things. But they have criticized how Charlie was treated by US officials, claiming he was interrogated for three hours and wasn't allowed to call anyone or ask for a lawyer. They blamed his treatment on his TV star status and claim he was used 'as a target'. Speaking at the family home in Bridlington, east Yorkshire, his mother Michelle Lowe, 50, said: 'All that rubbish, it's completely fabricated. I know that but that's all I'm allowed to say on it. 'He's never done drugs in the past. It's completely made up, that's what papers do. I'm not his agent, I'm just his mum so I can't really say too much. 'He is sort of between here, London and America. It would be awful if he wasn't allowed back to America to film but I don't see it shouldn't be. 'He has proven his innocence. It could happen to any of us, you go to a bar or a party. It's just unfortunate really. 'I know that's what has happened. I hope it blows over.' The star's mother Michelle Lowe (left) and sister Kaayleigh Heaton (right) say Heaton has never done drugs and the incident is merely a 'misunderstanding' Yorkshire-born Heaton, who has previously starred in DCI Banks and Casualty, plays Jonathan Byers in hit sci-fi show Stranger Things (pictured) The star was denied entry to America as it was revealed he has a secret love child His sister Kaayleigh Heaton, 32, added: 'It could have come from anywhere. 'He wasn't carrying drugs, he wasn't high. He's had tests and they have come back clear. 'He not got it in his system or anything. He was at a party two weeks before and obviously when you're at a party anything can happen. 'You leave your things on the side when you're having a drink. It could be that he was at a shop, it be on a note. She added: 'What they've done is wrong, they didn't give him a chance to call anybody. They didn't give him a chance to have a lawyer. 'They put him in a room for three hours and just interrogated him and interrogated him, so it wasn't done correctly. 'They didn't follow procedure. I think they saw him, they noticed him and they used him as a target. 'He wasn't carrying anything, he wasn't under the influence or any drugs. I think it's just a misunderstanding. Akiko fell pregnant while the pair were in the rock band Comanechi together, in May 2014 Heaton's ex-girlfriend has posted a number of heartwarming pictures of the actor and musician with his baby boy on social media 'He's been unfortunate where he's been to a party, somehow cocaine has got either on his wallet or on his cards, we're not sure. 'He didn't know anything about it, he went to the airport to fly, they checked and he is racking his brain about how this could happen. 'He hasn't done anything, he wasn't carrying anything. He's had tests that have come back clean. 'He has had hair sample, a blood test and urine sample which are absolutely clean. A Hair sample can last up to five months so that proves he hasn't taken anything. 'I think it will be fine because it's not like he has done anything.' Michelle could not say when she was due to see her son again as he splits his him between Bridlington, London and America. The pair are said to have 'fallen head over heels in love' before Heaton became a father at the age of 20 Heaton (right) is not believed to see his son regularly and the boy lives with his mother (left), in London The pair are no longer together according to friends, but have an amicable relationship for the sake of their son Due to his demanding schedule filming hit-show Stranger Things in Los Angeles, Yorkshire-born Heaton is not believed to see his son regularly. The youngster lives with his mother, who performs in the band The Big Pink, in London. A source told the Sun: 'Charlie became a dad when he was just 20. He met Akiko when he was just a teen and fell head over heels in love. 'They're no longer together but they have an amicable relationship for the boy's sake. 'Right now Charlie's career is his priority but he hopes to see more of his son once filming commitments calm down.' It is now feared that Heaton could be barred from entering the US in future - meaning he could struggle to take part in filming for Stranger Things. MailOnline has contacted representatives for Heaton. He's the Kiwi-born Hollywood megastar whose personal life regularly hits the headlines. And on Monday, Russell Crowe took to Twitter to shut down the latest rumour of a new romance. The 53-year-old was forced to hit back at the claims after he was pictured with a mystery brunette woman as the duo spent time in Los Cabos, Mexico. Hitting back! On Monday, Russell Crowe (right) took to Twitter to shut down rumours of a new romance with a mystery brunette after he was snapped with the woman in Los Cabos, Mexico 'Been told there are pics of me "on holiday with a young woman" in Mexico,' Russell tweeted. The star added several hashtags to the post, clarifying who the woman was and why they were in the Spanish-speaking country. '#thereforameeting #shesmyassistant #defamersbegone' he wrote. 'She's my assistant': The Gladiator star used the Twitter post to clarify who the woman was Business as usual! Russell also wrote that he and the woman were in Mexico for a meeting Daring to bare! The woman showed off her slender physique in black bikini bottoms and a pastel green bikini top In the images, Russell and the woman are seen relaxing poolside in the touristy city. The brunette beauty showed off her slender physique in a white tank top and thigh-skimming shorts and could be seen checking her phone. At one point, the woman had stripped down to her swimwear, donning black bikini bottoms which she matched with a pastel green bikini top. Distracted? Russell sat at a table on the patio and was absorbed with his phone before joining the woman poolside Looking relaxed: Russell sported a fuller figure as he interacted with his assistant Soaking it in! The duo wore barely-there attire as they enjoyed the sun poolside Russell sported a fuller figure as he interacted with his young companion, wearing a sleeveless black singlet teamed with shorts in a similar shade. The actor sat at a table on the patio and was absorbed with his phone before later joining the woman by the pool. Russell has also been spotted with the woman in the past, including going for a bike ride together in Sydney in June. During the ride together in Centennial Park, the pair were followed closely by a bodyguard. It's not the first time bizarre rumours about Russell's love life have emerged. He was also previously romantically linked to his long-time friend Terri Irwin. She's inherited her mother Cindy Crawford's fabulous genes and has become very much the model of the moment. But Kaia Gerber wasn't exactly blending in to her surroundings as she put on a stylish strut through New York City's SoHo neighborhood with a female friend on Monday. Keeping casual for her Manhattan outing, the catwalk queen, 16, looked effortlessly chic as she bundled up in an oversize camouflage jacket by the label, I. Am. Gia. Model moment: Kaia Gerber wasn't exactly blending in to her surroundings as she put on a stylish strut through New York City's SoHo neighborhood with a female friend on Monday The model teamed her army-inspired outerwear, called the Tarantino jacket from I.Am.Gia with a pair of skintight black leather pants from L'Agence. The beautiful teen completed her outfit with black ankle boots, a beige, 70s style crushed velvet cap from Lack Of Color and large silver hoop earrings. Kaia slung a leather fanny pack on a chain across her body as she walked. She smiled as her brunette tresses tumbled over her shoulders, looking just like her supermodel mother. Stylish: Keeping casual for her Manhattan outing, the catwalk queen, 16, looked effortlessly chic as she bundled up in an oversize camouflage jacket by the label, I. Am. Gia Hell for leather: The model teamed her army-inspired outerwear with a pair of skintight black leather pants from L'Agence Kaia's friend was also dressed to wow in a black leather jacket that she wore over her shoulders, a cropped black sweater and black skinny jeans. She too wore a cap, and she carried a small Yves Saint Laurent purse on a chain across her body. Kaia recently returned from her first month walking for designers at Fashion Weeks in New York, Paris, London and Milan. Queen of the catwalk: The beautiful teen completed her outfit with black ankle boots, a beige, 70s style crushed velvet cap from Lack Of Color and large silver hoop earrings Girls' day out: Kaia's friend was also dressed to wow in a black leather jacket that she wore over her shoulders, a cropped black sweater and black skinny jeans So she was more than ready to relax and have a good time at a Halloween Party thrown by her famous parents, Cindy and Rande Gerber, in Los Angeles on Friday night. She was a throwback sensation in a sparkly silver spaghetti-string top, a white mini-skirt with hoops around the hemline and silver high heeled platform shoes. To complete the 1970s Studio 54 vibe, she wore a blonde wig with blunt-cut bangs. Kaia's elder brother, Presley, 18, is also following on the family trade and working as a male model. The EU has taken a symbolic stance against the worst human rights tragedy in South America, awarding its top human rights prize to the political prisoners and defiant opposition in Nicolas Maduros Venezuela. The European Parliament announced the recipient of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought last Thursday, explicitly mentioning the socialist nations political prisoners. Eugenio Lopes provides the details about the award, named for the famous Soviet dissident, in a new essay for Religion & Liberty Transatlantic. The president of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, voiced a surprisingly strong condemnation of the dictator Maduro during the announcement event. As Lopes describes, Tajanis forthright description of President Maduros crimes elicited catcalls and gales of derisive laughter from the chambers far-Left parties (including Irelands Sinn Fein), which Tajani rebuffed. The essay also quotes the strong condemnation offered by Guy Verhofstadt, who is coordinating the EUs hardball response to Brexit. The EU promoted Venezuelas democratically elected opposition and blasted the widespread deprivation, malnutrition, and repression Maduro is visiting upon his own people. These economic dislocations are not the result of a downturn in the oil market, limitations within Venezuela itself, and certainly not a reflection of Venezuelas hardworking citizens. They reflect the inherent contradictions and failures of Bolivarian socialism which was, until recently, the toast of the European (and American) Left. The political repression that follows economic collectivism is a byproduct of concentrating too much power over too many spheres of national life into too few hands. As individuals lose the economic means to support themselves, they turn to the government. Their request for the redistribution of wealth doubles as their petition for political oppression. As Kristian Niemietz of the Institute of Economic Affairs has documented time and again, political repression is the cue for the international Left to lose interest and deny the nation ever implemented real socialism. Lopes, a former Acton Institute intern, writes that the facts on the ground make this EU decision all the more praiseworthy and inspirational: Venezuelas opposition heroically demonstrates its commitment to promoting justice, freedom, human rights and human dignity among the core principles of Acton Institute. Prizes of this sort exhibit the important virtue of bestowing honor on the worthy. This award deserves the support and praise of those who honor liberty across the transatlantic sphere. Finally, the EU deserves praise for offering an award in honor of Andrei Sakharov, a former Soviet dissident who drew attention to the repression of the first socialist Utopia in the 1970s and 1980s. Sakharov, a nuclear physicist who opposed the USSRs nuclear arms policy, suffered continual harassment by the state police. In 1984 and 1985, Sakharov launched hunger strikes which the state chose to end by kidnapping him, dragging him to a hospital, and force-feeding him in a process closer to torture than nurture. He died in 1989, shortly after the Berlin Wall fell, undoubtedly prodded by state persecution. Read Lopes full essay here. (Photo credit: European Union 2017 Source : EP. Used with permission.) 17-year-old Kansas governor candidate Tyler Ruzich speaks at a high school with three other teenage hopefuls for the state's top elected position With loose khaki pants, a button-down shirt and a dark blue blazer, Tyler Ruzich looks a lot like any number of aspiring politicians before him. But if the election Ruzich is running in were to be held today, he'd be too young to vote for himself. The 17-year-old is one of five teens throwing their hats in the crowded ring for next year's governor's race in Kansas, which has permissive rules about who can run for the state's top elected post. Speaking recently to a crowd of students at a high school gym in the city of Lawrence, Ruzich picked up a microphone and launched into his campaign speech. "It's pretty clear that our politicians have neglected us," Ruzich said, competing to be heard over the clangs of a nearby weightlifting room. Next to him were three other teen gubernatorial candidates. In this geographical center of the continental United States -- affectionately called America's Heartland -- the teenagers vying for the governor's office are injecting youthful ambition into the 2018 election cycle. Emboldened by the Trump era, where anything seems possible in American politics, the teens are challenging the status quo in a deeply Republican state. "I view this as really an important opportunity to get younger people involved," Ruzich, a Republican, told AFP. The teenage candidates are taking advantage of the fact that Kansas has no age restrictions on who can run for governor -- one candidate even jokingly suggested that a dog could get on the ballot. The only other state with such permissive election laws, sparsely populated Vermont, in the northeast, has a 13-year-old gubernatorial candidate. - People are 'fed up' - Jack Bergeson, 16, was the first Kansas teen to file election papers in the spring of 2016. The novelty of it landed him on a national late-night talk show and drew the attention of news media. By this summer, 17-year-olds Ruzich and Ethan Randleas had joined the race; Dominic Scavuzzo announced his candidacy in the fall. And last week, 16-year-old Joseph Tutera Jr. became the latest teen to seek the state's highest office. "It's an overall good thing. People are showing that the younger generation is here to make an impact," Bergeson told AFP. High school students in Lawrence, Kansas look on as 17-year-old gubernatorial hopeful Tyler Ruzich gives a campaign speech The young men -- no girls have joined in -- are hoping to tap into the anti-establishment fervor coursing through American politics and roiling the Republican Party. Incumbents are facing unexpected challenges in next year's midterm elections from outsiders emboldened by Donald Trump's rhetoric and his surprise presidential victory. "I'm not necessarily a supporter of the president, but he has showed that people are fed up with the establishment," Bergeson said. The teens hope to inspire younger people to register to vote. Of the five, only Bergeson is a Democrat. The other four are Republicans in a state Trump won by more than 20 points. And like Trump, the five are willing to buck their respective parties. Ruzich would raise business taxes -- anathema to true-believer Republicans. Bergeson would raise taxes, too. And, all five teens would legalize marijuana. - 'Uncertain race' - The young candidates' participation in the gubernatorial race has been a spectacle, but it could have real impact. Students at the high school campaign event said they were inspired. "It was really cool to see someone closer to my age actually up there talking about these political issues," 17-year-old Josh Morris said. More significantly, the teens' presence on the ballot could affect adult candidates, said Burdett Loomis, professor of political science at the University of Kansas. "It's a hugely open and uncertain race," Loomis said, adding that the teens could drain votes from older candidates. The adults might just want to pay attention; there is precedent for teens winning elected office in the US. Saira Blair, aged 17 when she ran in 2014 for a seat in the West Virginia state legislature, became the youngest person ever elected to state or federal office, defeating an incumbent in her own Republican Party. The Kansas teens' candidacies led one adult gubernatorial contender to suggest changing the law. "I think it's both amusing and encouraging that high school students are throwing their name into the governor's race," Kris Kobach told the Kansas City Star newspaper in September. "But it is appropriate to have minimum ages for the governor's office," said Kobach, who as Kansas secretary of state is in charge of administering elections -- and who also is heading Trump's controversial commission investigating alleged voter fraud. Many of the teen candidates acknowledge their age is a barrier. "People don't think I'm quite experienced," Scavuzzo told AFP, "but to win this election isn't necessarily winning the governorship." Getting young people more involved in politics, he added, would be a victory in itself. Arthur Balfour (C), former British prime minister, and Chaim Weizmann (3rd-R), the then future first president of Israel, visiting Tel Aviv in 1925 Britain's foreign secretary on Sunday defended his predecessor's role a century ago in paving the way for the creation of Israel, saying two sovereign states for Israelis and Palestinians remains the "only viable solution" for peace. This Thursday marks the centenary of the Balfour Declaration -- a 67-word letter from Britain's then foreign secretary Arthur Balfour that threw London's backing behind a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to London to mark the anniversary. The statement remains controversial, setting off a chain of events that eventually led to Israel's formation, the displacement of millions of Palestinians and decades of strife between the two communities that continues to this day. "I am proud of Britain's part in creating Israel," current Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wrote in the Telegraph newspaper on Sunday, adding the document was "indispensable to the creation of a great nation". But he warned that one of the key caveats of the Balfour Declaration -- that the rights of non-Jewish communities shall be protected -- "has not been fully realised". A copy of the Balfour Declaration dated November 2, 1917 In the article, Johnson said he was writing his thoughts down in the same room Balfour used a century ago. He praised the 1917 letter for its "incontestable moral goal: to provide a persecuted people with a safe and secure homeland." London, he added, remained committed to a two-state solution. "I have no doubt that the only viable solution to the conflict resembles the one first set down on paper by another Briton, Lord Peel, in the report of the Royal Commission on Palestine in 1937, and that is the vision of two states for two peoples," he wrote. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, whose predecessor Arthur Balfour in 1917 penned the declaration that eventually led to Israel's formation, the displacement of millions of Palestinians and decades of strife between the two communities The borders, he added, should be as they were before the Six Day war in 1967, with Jerusalem "a shared capital" and "equal land swaps to reflect the national, security, and religious interests of the Jewish and Palestinian peoples." "A century on, Britain will give whatever support we can in order to close the ring and complete the unfinished business of the Balfour Declaration," he wrote. The One Nation Party of Pauline Hanson has enjoyed a tide of popular support in Queensland state on its platform of zero-net migration and opposition to Islam The Australian state of Queensland, home to the Great Barrier Reef, has called a snap election that is set to test support for both the populist party of Pauline Hanson and an environmentally sensitive Indian coal mine project. Campaigning began Monday in the state, a major tourist destination, after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk of the Labor Party set down a poll date of November 25. Labor won power from the Liberals in a 2015 landslide, but most opinion polls indicate it will be a closer call this time. The vote did not have to be called until May 2018. The election is shaping as a political test of Hanson's One Nation, which has enjoyed a tide of popular support in the state on its platform of zero-net migration and opposition to Islam. Pundits are looking to see how the party fares in a traditional stronghold as an insight into whether it could remain a force heading into national polls due in late 2018 or early 2019. Palaszczuk called the election on Sunday while Hanson was in India on a trade mission, giving her an extra week of campaigning without the One Nation leader around. Hanson accused her of "cowardice", but Palaszczuk said it was a coincidence. "I didn't know she was going to be overseas," she said, adding that an election decision was made to give business leaders and voters certainty moving forward. Hanson first gained prominence in the 1990s, when she warned Australia was in danger of being "swamped by Asians". After a 12-year hiatus from politics she returned in 2014, this time targeting Muslims and was elected, along with three others from her right-wing party, to the national Senate two years later. Coal-fired versus renewable energy is set to be a central plank of the election, centered on the huge US$16 billion Carmichael coal mine being developed by Indian giant Adani. The project gained government approval in July, but Adani has requested a $US800 million loan guarantee to proceed, and that remains to be resolved. Environmentalists warn the massive mine will damage the under-pressure Great Barrier Reef and many voters are opposed. But both Labor and the opposition Liberals say it is key to deliver thousands of new jobs. Adani protesters ambushed an event held by Palaszczuk on Sunday and have vowed to dog her throughout the campaign. "This election will help decide the future of the Great Barrier Reef and our climate," said Australian Conservation Foundation president Geoff Cousins. "The dramatic impacts of climate change are already being felt right across Queensland. Now is not the time to dig the biggest coal mine Australia has ever seen." The Adani development proposes exporting coal to India from a massive open-cut and underground coal mine 160 kilometres (100 miles) northwest of Clermont in central Queensland, home to the reef, via a 189-kilometre rail link to port. Praying for an end to Kenya's election crisis? Worshippers gather at the Gatina church in Nairobi's Kawangware slum which was visited by embattled opposition leader Raila Odinga Kenya's election board is expected Monday to decide whether to reschedule a vote in flashpoint opposition areas, where a boycott sparked violent protests, or to push ahead with declaring victory for President Uhuru Kenyatta. With the counting almost done after Thursday's presidential re-run, the results remained on hold as officials mulled what to do about the 25 constituencies in four western counties where voting was blocked. Supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga, who called for an election boycott, managed to prevent hundreds of polling stations from opening, prompting violent clashes with police which continued for several days, leaving nine dead and scores injured. At least 49 people have died since the first presidential election of August 8, which was later overturned, prompting Kenya's worst political crisis in a decade. The months-long electoral dispute and increasingly divisive political rhetoric has polarised the nation and sparked international concern about the future of east Africa's most stable democracy. Following Odinga's boycott, Kenyatta is guaranteed a crushing win. Turnout figures given by election chief Wafula Chebukati late Sunday suggested the opposition boycott had held with a turnout of 7.4 million people, equivalent to just 43 percent of voters in 251 of the 266 constituencies where the election took place. - Re-run re-run? - Chebukati said he was "satisfied" with the counting process but made no comment on what would happen in the protest-hit western areas. Plans to restage the vote in the western regions on Saturday were quickly called off after a second day of protests, over fears for the safety of polling staff. On Sunday, Odinga, who says Thursday's poll would have been neither free nor fair, continued to demand a new election within 90 days, vowing to stage a campaign of "civil disobedience". But William Ruto, Kenyatta's deputy, was intransigent. "There will be no election in 90 days, there will be no discussion on matters to do with elections," he told Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera. Thursday's presidential re-run was ordered by Kenya's Supreme Court after it overturned Kenyatta's August victory over "irregularities" in the transmission of votes. That ruling stipulated that the vote must be completed by October 31. While the Supreme Court ruling was hailed as a chance to deepen democracy, the acrimonious bickering between Odinga and Kenyatta -- whose fathers were rivals before them -- has sharply divided a country where politics is already polarised along tribal lines. The current political crisis is the worst since a 2007 vote sparked months of politically-driven ethnic violence that left 1,100 people dead. While the dynamics of 2017's political crisis are very different, the memory of the bloodshed a decade ago is never far away. Asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea's Manus Island camp are barred from settling in Australia even if they are found to be genuine refugees Refugee advocates warned of an "extremely tense" situation at a Papua New Guinea asylum-seeker camp Monday ahead of its closure, as Port Moresby demanded clarity from Australia on its plans for what happens next. The Manus Island detention centre, which houses around 800 people, is due to be shuttered Tuesday after PNG's Supreme Court ruled last year that holding people there was unconstitutional. Water and power will be cut off at the centre, one of two Pacific camps where asylum seekers who try to enter Australia by boat are sent for processing under Canberra's harsh immigration policy. There are fears of a flashpoint situation if the men are forcibly moved to temporary transit facilities while their future is decided. Amnesty International described the situation as "extremely tense" and stressed that all security workers "must abide by international obligations and refrain from excessive use of force". "The Australian and Papua New Guinean governments must take all necessary steps to prevent violence against refugees from the community and ensure their safety," Amnesty Pacific researcher Kate Schuetze added. PNG police commissioner Gari Baki said last week there was a "small disgruntled faction among the refugees" and pleaded with locals not to make the transfers difficult. Asylum seekers on Manus are barred from settling in Australia even if they are found to be genuine refugees. Instead, they have been given the option of moving to the other centre on the island of Nauru, returning to their homeland, settling in a third country like Cambodia, or making a life in PNG. While the United States has accepted a handful of them under a deal struck with former president Barack Obama, Canberra has had little success relocating those on Manus and Nauru anywhere else. Many have voiced fears for their safety if they chose to stay on PNG amid reports they would not be welcomed in local neighbourhoods. PNG's Immigration Minister Petrus Thomas said in a statement there were unresolved issues about what happens to those who do not want to settle in PNG, and those who refuse to return home. "PNG has no obligation under the current arrangement to deal with these two cohorts," he said. "They remain the responsibility of Australia to pursue third-country options and liaise with respective governments of the non-refugees for their voluntary or involuntary return. "There has to be a clear understanding of what Australia will continue to do and support PNG in the next few months to deal with the remaining caseload," he added. Thomas said of those transferred to Manus under Australia's tough policies, nearly 600 had returned home voluntarily, seven were deported and five had died -- leaving 610 genuine refugees and 201 non-refugees on the island. Australia had no immediate comment. Third quarter profits at banking behemoth HSBC leapt five fold to $4.6 billion, the company said, as business in Asia booms and a restructuring drive pays dividends Banking giant HSBC on Monday reported a massive jump in third-quarter earnings, as business booms in Asia and a huge restructuring drive bears fruit. Pre-tax profit soared to $4.6 billion (4.0 billion euros) in the period from July to September from $843 million in the same period of last year, HSBC said in a statement. Nevertheless, the comparable 2016 figure had been negatively affected by one-off factors such as huge writedowns and restructuring charges. Adjusted for these, pre-tax profit fell by one percent year-on-year in the July-September period, HSBC said. At the bottom line, the bank turned in a third-quarter net profit of $2.96 billion, compared with a year-earlier loss of $617 million, when the HSBC took a massive hit on the sale of its operations in Brazil. The results come weeks after a new chief executive was named as part of a management overhaul. John Flint, currently head of retail banking and wealth management, will take over as CEO from Stuart Gulliver in February, and has said he wants to "accelerate the pace of change". Analysts said the third-quarter numbers were better than expected. "I think HSBC is one of the best international banking stocks at this moment," Dickie Wong, executive director of research at Kingston Securities, told AFP. "It is the third consecutive quarter that earnings and revenue have increased." But while HSBC did well in retail and commercial banking, the group's performance in global banking and markets was down slightly in the third quarter. London-listed shares in HSBC fell 1.63 percent to 7.36 at about 1200 GMT. - Pivot to Asia - The Asia-focused firm has been on a recovery drive to streamline its business and slash costs since 2015, including laying off tens of thousands of staff. CEO Gulliver said the bank had "maintained good momentum in the third quarter", with higher revenue across its main global businesses. "Our pivot to Asia is driving higher returns and lending growth, particularly in Hong Kong," he said. The bank's strategy of expanding operations in the Pearl River Delta, an area of southern China where major cities such as Hong Kong and Guangzhou are situated, "is starting to obviously bear fruit for our shareholders", the chief executive told a press conference in London. Asia accounted for just over 73 percent of HSBC's adjusted pre-tax profit in the third quarter of 2017, compared to just over 68 percent a year earlier. "Regionally, it's Asia which is doing the heavy lifting for HSBC (...) its business primarily resides in the far east," said Laith Khalaf, analyst at stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown. - Brexit optimism - CEO Gulliver painted a positive picture of the bank's preparation for Brexit, describing HSBC's position as "pretty good" compared to that of other banks. "We're not seeing in our commercial banking business or in our global banking markets business any material negative impact from Brexit," Gulliver said. HSBC is able to move "up to 1,000" employees to France, he added, where it has been operating for almost two decades. While Gulliver said the bank's "assumption of a pretty hard Brexit" had not changed, he estimated the overall cost of Brexit to HSBC in coming years would be around "$200 million to $300 million". Chicago demonstrators protest President Donald Trump's decision to exit the Paris climate change accord on June 2, 2017 Facing 195 other countries who have chosen a different path, the task of US negotiators at upcoming climate talks in Bonn is unenviable. Donald Trump has vowed to exit the Paris Climate accord, just not yet, leaving US policy in limbo for the next three years until Washington can officially leave. So, it falls to Thomas Shannon -- a respected career diplomat -- to this week lead a delegation into talks aimed at implementing an agreement the US is set to abandon. "It is a strange situation, I don't think I have seen anything like it in my almost 30 years of following this process," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based non-profit working on environmental issues. The Trump administration says it will still turn up, hoping to protect America's interests and put "America first." Rather ambitiously, Washington wants to handcuff its biggest geopolitical rivals to their commitments. A White House official told AFP it wants "to ensure the rules are transparent and fair, and apply to countries like China and other economic competitors to the United States." But Shannon and his team might find themselves on shaky ground. Ben Rhodes, a former aide to president Barack Obama, believes Washington has abandoned any leverage it once had. "The rest of the world has no incentive to make concessions to the US since we are now entirely isolated," he told AFP. "My expectation is that the rest of the world will simply continue within the Paris framework and wait and see what happens in the US in 2020. "The danger is that other countries are less ambitious in their own commitments and implementation plans because they have the excuse of the US leaving," he added. - Next election - Many delegates will be hoping that by a November 4, 2020 deadline -- one day after the next presidential election -- Trump either backs down or a new president has embraced the agreement. Either scenario is entirely possible. The White House has given itself ample wiggle room, saying the United States intends to withdraw "unless the president can identify terms that are more favorable to American businesses, workers, and taxpayers." That leaves open a broad range of possibilities that would not wreck the deal, including scaling back Obama's national plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent by 2025 compared to 2005 levels. But for now, the most supportive American voices come from outside the administration -- in the cities, states and companies, many of whom will likely implement their requirements regardless. Billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is on the front line of the Paris accord's cheerleaders, determined to help meet US commitments whatever the position of the White House. "That's kind of a new plot here," said Meyer. "You did not have that kind of force in place when president Bush announced he was withdrawing from Kyoto in 2001." The key question is whether they can keep the flame alive for another three years. A slogan in a Beijing street reads "Promote Xi's thought of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, making it a lively practice in Beijing" Xi Jinping Thought will now be taught, researched and promoted in universities across China, ensuring that the leader's eponymous philosophy is implanted in students' hearts and minds. At least twenty universities have established research institutes for Xi's ideology, which was enshrined in the Communist Party's constitution during its 19th national congress this month. The distinction places Xi on a par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. It means that his dogma -- "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" -- will become a mantra for a new generation. According to media reports Sunday, the research institutes will not "hide in the ivory tower" but advocate the incorporation of Xi thought in all aspects of daily life. "We will gather many experts and professors to disseminate and preach Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in businesses, neighbourhoods and villages," Jiang Hongxin, head of Hunan Normal University's newly-founded Xi Thought research centre, told the People's Daily, the party mouthpiece. Liu Ying, party secretary of the Tianjin University of Technology's Communist Youth League, told AFP the idea of forming a Xi Thought "learning group" came to her spontaneously during his marathon speech at the congress's opening. "After studying these ideas, students will have more confidence not only in the country, but also in their own lives," she said. "They will have a greater belief in the Chinese dream" -- one of Xi's pet slogans. Planned activities for the group include tours to promote Xi Thought in rural communities and visits to Liangjiahe, the northern village where Xi spent seven years as a "sent-down youth" during the Cultural Revolution. Liu's attitude mirrors that of many institute directors, who in interviews with Chinese media over the weekend espoused a deep devotion to spreading Xi-isms. "The (research) centre has a unique duty, which is to push forward Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in curriculums, in classrooms and in minds," Chen Xianda, a professor at Renmin University of China, told the Beijing-based Guangming Daily. One institute director said the lessons must "enter brains and hearts," while another said the Xi Thought organisation would "guide the entire school, from top to bottom, in implementing the spirit of the 19th congress". The education ministry also released guidelines Monday for mandatory elementary and high school extracurricular programmes that include activities to "foster emotional attachment to the Chinese Communist Party". China has criticised new US anti-dumping duties on aluminium foil, saying it is "extremely dissatisfied" with the new measures China has criticised new United States anti-dumping duties on aluminium foil, saying it was "extremely dissatisfied" with the new measures, just days before President Trump visits Beijing. The tariff was announced Friday by the US following concern that China was undercutting American manufacturers by flooding the country with underpriced aluminium products. But the timing has raised fears of a trade dispute during Trump's first visit as president to the Chinese capital next week, when commerce between the nations is expected to be high on the agenda. On Saturday evening, China's Ministry of Commerce said the US was ignoring World Trade Organization rules by introducing the duties, and not fulfilling its international obligations. "The US is not only harming the interests of Chinese companies, it is also damaging the seriousness and authority of multilateral rules and regulations," said Wang Hejun, Director of the Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau, in a statement. The US Commerce Department plans to impose fresh duties of 96.81 percent to 162.24 on Chinese aluminium foil imports to the US. The new tariff will affect the type of aluminium foil found in kitchens, packaging and automobiles. Since assuming the presidency in January, Trump has largely refrained from taking the hard-nosed measures he boasted about on the campaign trail, where he threatened to label China a "currency manipulator". But his administration has started to take a tougher line on trade. The Trump administration has initiated 77 antidumping and countervailing duty investigations since January, up 61 percent since last year, the Commerce Department said on Friday. Trade is likely to be high on Trump's agenda during the visit. Last week, he tweeted he had discussed North Korea and trade in a phone call with President Xi, calling them "two very important subjects!" In September, China's monthly trade surplus with the United States hit a high not seen in at least three years. The Ministry of Commerce's statement said the US was using "discriminatory" surrogate country pricing practices to introduce the duties, which it said were no longer applicable to China as of December, 2016. Wheres the Coverage? Hamas Visits Iran | Main | Tablet Fails to Clarify Alleged Knife Incident at Soccer Game October 27, 2017 Palestinian Authority Admits to Supporting BDSViolating Oslo A top Palestinian Authority (PA) official has acknowledged that the authority supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. BDS unfairly maligns the Jewish state and denies its existence any legitimacy. The PA's support for BDS violates the Oslo accords which created the authority and from which it is funded. In secret recordings obtained by The Washington Free Beacon, Mahmoud al-Aloul stated: We have relations with BDS, our people work there and we have delegates there. We cooperate with BDS on all levels, and not only with the BDS, but every group whose aim is to boycott Israel, we are with. Every group working to lay siege on Israel and isolate it from the world, we are with.? Mahmoud al-Aloul is the deputy to PA President and Fatah movement head, Mahmoud Abbas. As CAMERA has highlighted, he is both an unrepentant terrorist and a likely successor to Abbas (see, for example Backgrounder: Tanzim,? Sept. 5, 2017). Al-Aloul was recorded making these comments in March 2017one month after he was appointed to his current position. Free Beacon reporter Rachel Frommer noted that in another audio recording, from August 2017, al-Aloul was asked by an Arabic-language news outlet if he supported BDS. The PA official responded, Yes, of course.? When asked how they do so, he said that the PA shows its support in every wayWe actively participate in the events they organize.? In a Sept. 9, 1993 letter to then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Fatah head, Abbas's predecessor Yasser Arafat wrote that the PLO recognizes the right of the State of Israel to exist in peace and security.? Further, the PLO affirms that those articles of the Palestinian Covenant which deny Israels right to exist, and the provisions of the Covenant which are inconsistent with the commitments of this letter are now inoperative and no longer valid.? That letter served as the preamble for the Oslo accords, which created the PA and allowed Palestinian leaders to return from Tunisia and have limited self-rule in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. The PA receives U.S. and E.U. support, financial and otherwise, as a result of Oslo. By supportingand working withBDS, the PA is assisting efforts to delegitimize Israel and which, as CAMERA has noted, call for the end of the Jewish state. Rachel Frommers Washington Free Beacon report can be found here. Posted by SD at October 27, 2017 01:17 PM This is merely confirmation the Palestinians have never had any intention of honoring the spirit of the Peace Process and a two state solution, only before they had reason to hope by "right of return" and other political concessions they could annihilate the Jews and deconstruct the Israeli state, their number one priority at any time, The PA has come to the premature conclusion the EU is so inundated with Islam and sharia's progress that they needn't take pains to hide their infamy. Posted by: jeb at November 2, 2017 01:04 PM Guidelines for posting This is a moderated blog. We will not post comments that include racism, bigotry, threats, or factually inaccurate material. Post a comment Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa, here seen in 2011, has suggested freezing Qatar's Gulf Cooperation Council membership Bahrain's foreign minister on Monday suggested suspending Qatar's Gulf Cooperation Council membership until it accepts the demands of its Arab adversaries in the region's worst crisis in years. "The correct step to preserve the GCC would be to freeze Qatar's membership until it sees reason and accepts the demands of our countries. If not, we will be fine with it leaving the GCC," Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said on Twitter. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt on June 5 severed ties with Qatar over accusations of supporting extremism and being too close to Shiite rival Iran, charges Doha has denied. Founded in 1981, the GCC is a political and economic union that includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as Oman and Kuwait. Experts have warned that the nearly five-month-long diplomatic crisis could cause the six-nation bloc's demise. Saudi Arabia and its allies in June issued Qatar with a list of demands including shutting down Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera, curbing relations with Iran and closing a Turkish military base in the emirate. "Bahrain will not attend a summit with Qatar, which becomes closer to Iran each day and brings foreign forces (to its soil), dangerous steps for the security of GCC countries," Sheikh Khalid said. GCC members are supposed to meet before the end of the year, but the crisis could see the bloc's annual meeting postponed or cancelled. After severing ties with Doha, Riyadh and its allies closed land and maritime borders, suspended air links and expelled Qatari citizens. In an interview airing on Sunday, Qatar's emir accused Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies of seeking to topple his government. "They want a regime change. It's... so obvious," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani told CBS's 60 Minutes. "History as well tells us, teaches us they tried to do that before, in 1996 after my father became the emir. So, and they made it also so obvious in the last couple of weeks." Boko Haram have targeted mosques, markets and IDP camps At least five people were killed on Monday when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in northeastern Nigeria, a militia member assisting the military against Boko Haram jihadists said. The leader of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in Ajiri Yala, some 15 kilometres (10 miles) north of Maiduguri, said the attack happened at about 4:30 am (0330 GMT). "A male suicide bomber disguised as a worshipper entered the mosque while people were gathering for the morning prayers," he told AFP by telephone. "He detonated his explosives. He killed five people and injured several others." Boko Haram typically never claims responsibility but has used suicide bombing as a frequent tactic in its eight-year insurgency to establish a hardline Islamic state Mosques that do not ascribe to its extremist views are seen as legitimate targets, as are people and places seen to be supportive of the secular government. On Sunday, a CJTF member manning a checkpoint in the Muna area of Maiduguri was killed and another injured when two women strapped with explosives blew themselves up. Last Sunday, 14 people were killed when three women detonated their explosives near the Muna Garage camp, which is home to tens of thousands of people made homeless by the violence. The United Nations warned recently that attack against internally displaced people (IDPs) in camps across the region "continue to be a major concern". - Rural communities - Communities in hard-to-reach areas of the remote region are also vulnerable and at the weekend, two women blew up in the Gulak area of Madagali, in the far north of Adamawa state. A former local government area chairman, Maina Ularamu, said there were two blasts in Dar village on Saturday night and Sunday morning. "Our suspicion is that they intended to attack the church, which is located inside the primary school about 100 metres away from the scene of the explosion," he said. Ularamu said locals suspected the two women had come to Dar from the Sambisa Forest, in neighbouring Borno, where Boko Haram was known to have bases. The military said earlier this year it had retaken control of the former national park but there are reports the militants have moved back in. They are also known to have been holed up in the Mandara mountains that lie east of Madagali and form the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. On August 2, Boko Haram fighters stormed the village of Mildu, near Madagali, killing six. Ularamu said Boko Haram "remnants are still lurking" in remote villages and the Sambisa Forest, and troop reinforcements were needed. Attacks on civilians have largely been attributed to the Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau. Strikes against the military are generally blamed on the Islamic State group-supported faction headed by Abu Mus'ab al-Barnawi. Last week, at least 15 soldiers were killed in a raid on a military camp north of Damaturu, which is the capital of Yobe state bordering Borno to the west. A military source said troops who had since been on high alert on Saturday inflicted heavy losses on a large contingent of Boko Haram fighters near the Yobe village of Goniri. Yemen's war has claimed more than 8,600 lives since a Saudi-led military coalition intervened in 2015 to back the government in its fight against Shiite rebels Tehran on Monday rejected as "ridiculous and baseless" accusations by Saudi Arabia that Iran is supporting rebels and blocking peace efforts in Yemen. "The Saudi foreign minister's claims that our country has been blocking peace efforts in Yemen are ridiculous and baseless," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said. "Iran has condemned the aggression (against Yemen) since the beginning... and will not spare any efforts to stop this bloody and detestable war," Ghasemi said in a statement published on the ministry's website. Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition backing Yemen's government in its fight against the Shiite Huthi rebels. Both sides in the Yemen conflict have come under harsh criticism for their neglect of civilian safety, but the Saudi-led coalition has in particular been accused of bombing schools, markets and hospitals. "Repeating such false accusations will not reduce the responsibility... of those who have committed heinous crimes, particularly murder, destruction of schools and hospitals and pushing an innocent population to famine," Ghasemi said. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia's top diplomat accused Tehran of smuggling arms to the Huthis, who control northern Yemen, and to their allies. Adel al-Jubeir said the Yemeni "militias would not have continued operations without the support of the greatest sponsor of terrorism in the world -- the Iranian regime". He accused Iran of "destroying all attempts to find a solution in Yemen, which has led to the failure of all political negotiations between the government and these militias". Multiple rounds of UN-sponsored talks have failed to broker a political settlement between the Saudi-backed government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and the rebels and their allies. Yemen's war has claimed more than 8,600 lives since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 after the rebels overran the capital Sanaa. A cholera outbreak in the impoverished country has claimed more than 2,100 lives since April, as hospitals struggle to secure supplies amid a blockade on ports and the country's main international airport. The United Nations has warned Yemen now stands at the brink of famine. The UN Human Rights Council in September agreed to send a group of experts to investigate alleged violations and abuses in Yemen, overcoming strong resistance by Saudi Arabia's representative. Hun Sen (R) poses for selfies with a supporter: 32 years in power and counting... Cambodia's Supreme Court will start hearings next month expected to result in the dissolution of the main opposition party, as Prime Minister Hun Sen chops down his political rivals before a general election. But the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) will not attend the sessions since it believes the decision has already been taken to shut the party down, according to one of its legislators. While Hun Sen has been in office for 32 years, the 2018 poll could have tested his grip on power. But the wily strongman has chiseled away at his critics, using pliant courts and a web of new laws to corner the CNRP. The government has asked the court to shut down the CNRP for allegedly violating a new law banning political parties from engaging in activities that threaten national security. The Supreme Court "would like to invite" the CNRP president to the first hearing on November 16, it said in a statement released Monday. The party will not attend, according to Mao Molyvann, a CNRP MP from Tbong Khmum province and one of the few opposition lawmakers not to have fled the country in recent weeks. "We have agreed that we will not send lawyers or submit any documents to the Supreme Court and let it be," he said. "They (the ruling Cambodia People's Party) should choose negotiations rather than dissolving the CNRP...and stepping away from democracy." Observers say the dissolution of the CNRP is inevitable, giving Hun Sen's ruling CPP a clear run at the polls. Most of the CNRP's 55 lawmakers have already fled the country, fearing jail under trumped-up charges. The ruling party has already voted to allow election authorities to redistribute seats or local posts held by a dissolved party. Those are likely to go to CPP allies if and when the CNRP is dissolved, ensuring Hun Sen holds onto his post. Critics accuse Hun Sen of overseeing a corrupt and venal administration with no regard for human rights or political freedoms. Wong, 21, was released last week on bail, with fellow activist Nathan Law, pending an appeal against their jail terms Ten weeks in jail has had an effect on Joshua Wong; he is pensive, reflective and thinner. It is an experience that has forced him to weigh up the cost of being the most recognised face of Hong Kong's democracy campaign. His imprisonment alongside two other leading activists for their role in the massive 2014 Umbrella Movement rallies, which called for fully free leadership elections, came after the city's Beijing-backed government pursued jail terms for the trio. That was widely seen as another illustration of the pressure semi-autonomous Hong Kong is under from an increasingly assertive China, and brought into question whether its cherished independent judiciary has been compromised. Wong, 21, and fellow activist Nathan Law, 24, were released last week on bail pending an appeal against their jail terms. If they lose, they could be sent back to serve the remainder of their sentences -- Wong was given six months, Law eight months. Prison demands "absolute submission" to the authorities there, Wong says, describing his anger at how marginalised young people he met in jail were treated. He was housed in a cell measuring around 50 square feet (4.5 sq m), and recalls how he was forced to crouch naked in front of one officer who said he wanted to see whether he could use a squat toilet. "We'd just had our body checks, which were not a problem, but after that he didn't let me put back on my clothes, and made me squat, tilt my head up and talk to him. Prison is not a place to have dignity," Wong told AFP. In addition to the current jail term, Wong is also awaiting sentencing on another charge relating to the 2014 protests, which brought parts of Hong Kong to a standstill for more than two months in an unprecedented rebuke to Beijing. But as supporters around the world expressed their outrage at the jailings, Wong said they should not lionise the activists. "I hope as people continue to show their support, they won't treat us too much like heroes," said Wong. He has become particularly conscious of the toll on his family. Wong still lives with his parents and shares a bedroom with his brother, which is filled with books and the young activist's robot collection. "Outside of our role as political leaders, we are also someone's child, or someone's boyfriend or girlfriend. When we go to jail, the people around us suffer more." - Growing danger - Despite the pressures, there is no sign that Wong intends giving up his dream of full democracy for Hong Kong. He was encouraged when tens of thousands took to the streets to protest the activists' imprisonment. "As Hong Kong faces a situation where there are increasing numbers of political prisoners, I've seen more Hong Kong people who are willing to come out," says Wong. "This gives me more determination to fight for democracy and on this path, we actually don't feel lonely." The 2014 protests, which brought parts of Hong Kong to a standstill for more than two months, were seen as an unprecedented rebuke to Beijing But he acknowledges that continuing the fight is likely to become increasingly difficult as Chinese leader Xi Jinping emphasises zero tolerance of any challenges to Beijing's sovereignty. The party Wong set up with Law, Demosisto, advocates self-determination and is pushing for Hong Kong people to be able to choose their own fate ahead of 2047, when the handover agreement expires and the city returns fully to Chinese rule. "(Beijing's) policies for Hong Kong will be more severe in restricting our disappearing freedoms," predicts Wong. Hong Kong has been governed under a "one country, two systems" deal since it was handed back by Britain to China in 1997, allowing it rights unseen on the mainland, including freedom of speech and a partially directly elected parliament. The Umbrella Movement called for universal suffrage to replace a system where the city's leader is selected by a pro-Beijing committee, but failed to win concessions. Since then there have been growing signs that China is tightening its grip, with Beijing particularly incensed by demands from some activists for independence for Hong Kong. A number of leading campaigners have been charged in relation to the 2014 protests. Six pro-democracy legislators -- including two pro-independence activists -- have been disqualified from parliament. Mainland Chinese officials have called on Hong Kong to introduce patriotic education, a version of which was shelved in 2012 after mass protests led by Wong, then just 15-years-old. Wong believes "ideological control" from Beijing will weigh on Hong Kong, but will eventually trigger a backlash from the younger generation. "In the future -- from elections to social movements -- I believe Hong Kong people will advance and retreat with us," he says. "It's more dangerous and risky to fight for democracy in Hong Kong. But I think as the suppression intensifies, our resistance will be stronger." A motorcyclist drives past a barricade of burning tyres during clashes between protesters and police at a demonstration against the 2018 Finance law on October 29, 2017, in Niamey Twenty-three police were hurt and a police station was set on fire in demonstrations against financial reforms late Sunday in the Niger capital of Niamey, the interior minister and private TV stations reported. "The toll sadly is high: we have 23 injured policemen, four of them seriously hurt. Fourteen vehicles have been destroyed, 10 of them police vehicles," Interior Minister Mohamed Bazoum said on television on Sunday. The police commissariat at the Habou Bene market, the country's biggest trading spot, was torched and the front of the building housing the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI), Niger's voting watchdog, was vandalised, private television reported. "All those who bear responsibility for these events... will respond for... their acts," Bazoum said. Local civil society organisations have for weeks been denouncing the 2018 budget for imposing austerity on one of the poorest countries on the planet. Bazoum said a civilian group called Actice -- the Association for the Defence of the Rights of Consumers of Information Technology, Communication and Energy -- which had received the authorisation to demonstration on Sunday was being dissolved. More than 1,000 demonstrators rallied near the city centre to protest against the government's financial plan that they branded "anti-social" and said created new taxes. - 'Tempted' by insurrection? - Violence broke out as a group of protestors tried to head to a square opposite parliament that is a traditional rallying point -- a destination banned under the authorisation -- and police fired teargas to try to stop them. Bazoum accused the Nigerien Democratic Movement, or Modem, of being behind the protests and of being "tempted" by the "insurrectional model" in neighbouring Burkina Faso to gain power. A popular uprising unseated Burkina Faso's then-president Blaise Compaore in 2014, after he tried to extend his 27-year grip on power. It was followed by a general election in 2015 that was largely seen as democratic. Bazoum said that "identified militants" based in the United States and Europe had used live streaming on social networks to encourage the violence, including "entering the National Assembly to set fire to it." Modem is a party run by former prime minister Hama Amadou, who lives in exile. More than 80 percent of Niger is covered by the Sahara desert. Its economy has been affected by falls in both oil prices, which it officially began exporting in 2011, and uranium, of which it is a major exporter. The country also has to spend resources to combat attacks by Boko Haram, whose Islamist insurgency has spilled over from Nigeria, as well as from jihadists, including the Islamic State group, near the border with Mali. Special counsel Robert Mueller, seen here in a file photo from June, reportedly has secured a first indictment in his inquiry into Russian interference in November's US presidential election Washington on Monday anxiously awaited news of a possible first arrest in the sweeping probe into Russia's attempts to tilt the 2016 presidential elections in Donald Trump's favor. At least one person has been charged by a grand jury, according to CNN and other US media, though there was no word on who was targeted and what crimes might be alleged in the ongoing inquiry led by former FBI chief Robert Mueller. Trump, in a rapid burst of tweets on Sunday, denounced the investigation as a "witch hunt" and repeated denials that his White House campaign colluded with Russia. Mueller's team has remained publicly silent about reports that a first arrest could come as early as Monday. He is empowered to pursue not only Russian interference but any other crimes his prosecutors should uncover. Chris Christie, a Republican governor close to Trump, said Sunday on ABC that "the important thing about today for the American people to know is the president is not under investigation. And no one has told him that he is." It was unclear the New Jersey governor would know whether Trump is being investigated; he may have been referring to earlier comments by former FBI chief James Comey. But Christie told CNN that anyone who has been advised by Mueller's office that they are a target of the inquiry "should be concerned." - 'Small fish' - Typically, such a wide-ranging investigation would first target lower-level people while building a case against those higher up. Sometimes early indictments are used to pressure potential witnesses into turning against others. Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, who worked for president George W. Bush, predicted on Twitter that "if there is an indictment, it will be a small fish. A new name that I bet has no bearing on Trump." Speculation has focused on former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign director Paul Manafort, both of them once involved in undeclared lobbying for foreign interests. Buzzfeed reported Sunday the FBI is probing a series of wire transfers linked to Manafort that saw offshore companies move more than $3 million between 2012 and 2013. Flagged as suspicious by US financial institutions, some of the 13 transfers Buzzfeed obtained details of involved wires of large sums from Ukraine. According to the news site, federal law enforcement was aware of such transfers as far back as 2012, when they began investigating whether Manafort committed tax fraud or helped the Ukrainian regime -- at the time close to Russian leader Vladimir Putin -- launder money. As the Mueller investigation nears a dramatic new phase, Republican officials and conservative media have increased attacks on Democrats -- especially Trump's former rival Hillary Clinton -- which opponents dismiss as blatant attempts to divert attention. - 'So much GUILT' - Trump, in his tweets Sunday, again complained of Clinton's handling of emails while secretary of state, of Democratic Party funding of what he said was a "fake" dossier on Trump's background, and of a US sale during the Obama administration of uranium rights to Russia. "There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!" Trump tweeted. Trump's mention of the "fake" dossier appeared to refer to revelations that the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee had funded part of the research by a former British intelligence agent into possible links between Trump, his collaborators and Russia. In the uranium case, Russian nuclear energy agency Rosatom sought in 2010 to buy a share in Toronto-based Uranium One, which has mining stakes in the United States. A panel of nine US government agencies, including the State Department, approved the sale, though Clinton says she was "not personally involved." White House lawyer Ty Cobb asserted that Trump's latest tweets were "unrelated to the activities of the Special Counsel, with whom he continues to cooperate," news media reported. A clothing factory on the outskirts of Beijing: flawed data plagues China's economic policymaking China's National Bureau of Statistics will take control of regional GDP growth data because exaggerated figures from the provinces hamper economic policymaking, an official said in an interview published Monday. The national and provincial governments have long issued contradictory GDP statistics: the cumulative provincial output far exceeds the national output measured by the NBS. The NBS's deputy head Li Xiaochao said it would publish both regional and national GDP figures starting in 2019, according to the interview published on the bureau's website. "The gap between collected regional and national GDP data is still not small," Li said, noting the problem made it hard to determine regional trends and implement macroeconomic controls. "It also affects the credibility of government statistics," he said. Local bureaucrats' promotions have long been tied to economic performance, giving them an incentive to falsify data in hopes of improving their chances of career advancement, officials admit. As a result China has long struggled with inaccurate data. In recent years it has publicised a growing number of cases of falsified economic statistics. In January the governor of the northeastern province of Liaoning made a rare admission that his government had falsified data from 2011 to 2014. In 2007 Li Keqiang, who is now Premier, told the US ambassador that "GDP figures are 'man-made' and therefore unreliable", according to State Department cables released by Wikileaks. Li, who was Liaoning's party secretary at the time, said he used other economic measures to get an insight into China's economic growth, noting the GDP statistics are "for reference only". Singapore is moving to bar some foreign Islamic preachers from entering the country amid attempts by the Islamic State group to establish a base in Southeast Asia Singapore has barred two foreign Islamic preachers from entering the country to preach during religious-themed sea cruises, the interior ministry said Monday. The pair had earlier applied to preach in the city-state but their applications were rejected. However authorities later learned they planned to preach aboard cruise ships in late November. "They will not be allowed to get around the ban by preaching instead on cruise ships which operate to and from Singapore," the Ministry of Home Affairs said. One of the preachers, Ismail Menk, "has been known to preach segregationist and divisive teachings" while the other, Haslin bin Baharim, "has expressed views that promote disharmony between Muslims and non-Muslims", it said without giving their nationalities. Singapore also on Monday banned four foreign Islamic books containing what it called "undesirable and harmful teachings". The information ministry said the books' teachings "can cause social distancing, distrust, hatred and even violence among people of different faiths and religious views" in the ethnically diverse nation. Possession, distribution and failure to surrender copies of the books to the police will be an offence effective Tuesday, it said. "The threat of extremism is real and should not be taken lightly," said Information Minister Yaacob Ibrahim. "The government strongly condemns the use of such publications to espouse destructive ideologies and promote enmity between communities." The books were published in Indonesia between 2011 and 2016. Singapore's move comes amid attempts by the Islamic State (IS) group to establish a base in Southeast Asia. IS-backed militants, including several foreign fighters, seized the southern Philippine city of Marawi in May as part of plans to establish a caliphate, sparking a bloody five-month campaign by Filipino troops to dislodge them. The top US commander in the Pacific, Admiral Harry Harris, earlier this month warned against the threat posed by Southeastern Asian militants returning to the region as IS loses ground in Iraq, Syria and Libya. "Foreign fighters are passing their ideology, resources and methods to local, homegrown, next-generation radicals," Harris had said in a speech in Singapore. "So we must stop ISIS at the front end and not at the back end when the threat can become even more dangerous," he said, using another name for IS. Singapore in 2001 arrested several suspected militants and foiled a plot to bomb several foreign targets in the country, including the US embassy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara pictured on June 6, 2017 The wife of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced new scrutiny Monday over accusations of poor treatment of employees following a lawsuit and a related complaint filed with police. Police confirmed Monday that a complaint had been submitted by a woman saying she faced threats and harassment after she filed a lawsuit against Sara Netanyahu last week alleging mistreatment while working as a cleaner at the prime minster's residence. She has asked for 225,000 shekels ($64,000, 54,000 euros) in compensation in the lawsuit, which Israeli media have reported alleges Sara Netanyahu humiliated and harassed her. A spokesman for the Netanyahu family did not immediately respond to a request from AFP, but told Israeli media that the allegations were baseless and a further attempt to smear them. The lawsuit is the latest in a string of allegations involving the Netanyahus, leading to speculation over whether the premier will eventually be forced to resign. Sara Netanyahu faces a possible trial over alleged misuse of public funds, while in February 2016, a court awarded 170,000 shekels in damages to a former housekeeper who accused the Netanyahus of repeated workplace abuse. Benjamin Netanyahu is being investigated in a graft probe over gifts from wealthy supporters and over suspicions he sought a secret deal with a top-selling newspaper. The new lawsuit against his wife was filed by a 24-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman who worked at the residence for a month, according to Israeli media. She reportedly accused Sara Netanyahu of treating her like a "slave", preventing her from eating, drinking or taking breaks during working hours. One allegation was that she told the woman that she was extremely busy and required quick workers. Sara Netanyahu allegedly said she "doesn't hire fat women" because she prefers that they run and not walk, Haaretz newspaper reported. A roadside poster of Xi Jinping: now he has a new honorific China's ruling Communist Party has dusted off a Mao-era honorific for President Xi Jinping, cementing his status as the most powerful ruler since the Great Helmsman himself. The term "lingxiu" has more reverential and spiritual connotations than the ordinary term for leader, and has not been used since the time of Mao's successor Hua Guofeng. But it has begun to pop up again in state media and in government meetings. After the 19th party congress ended last Tuesday, Xi was formally handed a second term as its leader. With no clear successor emerging in a revamped ruling council, known as the Politburo Standing Committee, he could dominate the nation for decades to come. Xi's eponymous ideology was enshrined in the party's constitution -- a honour not given to his two predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, whose contributions remain anonymous. China's historic achievements since the 18th party congress were "most importantly and most fundamentally thanks to our 'lingxiu' and core Xi Jinping navigating and steering the way," the state-run Henan Daily said Monday. "General Secretary Xi Jinping is the party's fully worthy 'lingxiu', supported by the whole party and loved and esteemed by the people," the Politburo concluded Friday at its first meeting since the unveiling of the new leadership line-up. For decades China has been governed in an ostensibly collective fashion by the seven-person Standing Committee. But since Xi took the reins in 2012, power has been increasingly centralised in a sole pair of hands: his. Mao, at the height of his personality cult during the early years of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, was hailed as a "great teacher, great lingxiu, great commander-in-chief, and great helmsman" -- a slogan known as the "four greats". Alemu is accused of being a henchman for former Marxist dictator Haile Mariam Mengistu, seen here in a picture taken in 1986 A Dutch-Ethiopian national Monday denied committing war crimes during bloody purges in Ethiopia in the late 1970s known as the "Red Terror," denying he ever signed orders to execute political opponents. Prosecutors "have the wrong person," Eshetu Alemu said as his trial opened in The Hague. "I was really shocked when I heard what prosecutors are accusing me of doing, that I could behave like that as a human being," he added in a rare case before a Dutch court. "I deny the charges against me," added the 63-year-old, dressed in a grey windbreaker and jeans. Alemu is alleged to have been a henchman for former Marxist dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam in northwestern Gojjam province. The hearings involve "a grim series of events involving the incarceration, torture and murder of opponents of the 1970s revolutionary regime in Ethiopia," the prosecution said before the trial. A total of 321 victims have been named in four war crimes charges which include the "arbitrary detention and cruel and inhuman treatment of civilians and fighters who had laid down their arms," prosecutors added in a statement. Witnesses have come forward to detail "acts of torture" including "beatings and kicking" when some victims "were tied up and suspended in mid-air". "In August 1978, the suspect allegedly ordered the killing of 75 young prisoners" in a church, the prosecution said. The bodies were then dumped in a mass grave. In the fourth charge, Alemu is accused of "the incarceration and inhumane treatment of 240 people" sentenced to prison without trial. - 'No safe haven' - Some victims are due to address the court on Thursday, said Wim de Bruin, a prosecution spokesman, with prosecutors due to unveil their demand for sentence next week. "The Netherlands and Dutch prosecutors find that this country should not be a safe haven for people who have committed possible war crimes," he told AFP. Alemu, who has Dutch citizenship, testified in Dutch, telling judges he was a senior member of the ruling Derg, Ethiopia's Marxist-Leninist junta at the time and "responsible for propaganda". He said he was twice targeted for assassination by rival political groups. "Terrible things happened," Alemu added in a statement read by presiding judge Mariette Renckens, who asked if he "ever signed an execution order", to which Alemu answered "No". Renckens, citing from a massive 1,000-page dossier told Alemu his signature was on an August 1978 document, ordering that "revolutionary measures" be taken against more than 70 prisoners. She said such orders usually meant "execution without trial". But Alemu replied: "I never gave such an order and did not have the authority to so. I was never there." - Reign of terror - Mengistu ruled Ethiopia from 1977 with an iron fist after the overthrow of Emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. He was then ousted himself in 1991 after a series of revolts. "Under the Mengistu-regime, Ethiopia lived through a bloody period of repression and strife at the cost of thousands of lives," the Dutch prosecutors said, referring to a period which became known as the "Red Terror". Alemu, who has been in Dutch custody for two years, was "sentenced to death in absentia in Ethiopia for the murder of suspected opponents of the regime," prosecutors said. But since the Ethiopian judgement cannot be carried out here, "a trial in The Netherlands is the best option to call the man to account before a court of law". "I lost friends and relatives," one victim, Sirak Asfwa, told AFP clutching a faded black-and-white picture of a friend, who he said was killed by the regime. "I am here because I don't want the next generation to see what I have seen. I want them to be free," he added. A handout photo provided by Kuwait's KUNA agency shows Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah (L) handing over the government's resignation letter to Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah on October 30, 2017 Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah on Monday accepted his government's resignation, a week after a fresh dispute broke out in the oil-rich Gulf state's parliament. Ministers including premier Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah, who has headed the government since 2011, will serve in a caretaker government until a new cabinet is appointed, the state news agency KUNA reported. Last week, 10 opposition lawmakers filed a no-confidence motion against Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah, a senior cabinet member and part of the ruling family, on allegations of financial and administrative irregularities. Sheikh Mohammad, who is minister of state for cabinet affairs and acting information minister, denied the accusations. Kuwait's cabinet was formed less than a year ago, after snap polls in which the opposition won almost half of the 50-seat house. Kuwait has faced political instability for over a decade, with parliament dissolved several times. A picture taken on May 6, 2016 on the Israeli side of the Jewish state's border with the Gaza Strip shows the exit of an alleged offensive tunnel leading into Israel Israel's military said it blew up a tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into its territory on Monday, a rare case of such an incident since the last Israeli-Gaza war in 2014. The Israeli army "neutralised a terror tunnel leading into southern Israel from the vicinity of Khan Yunis", military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists, referring to a city in southern Gaza. "The tunnel was detonated from within Israel, close to the security fence. The (Israeli army) actions are in light of this grave and unacceptable violation of Israeli sovereignty." He added, however, that the Israeli military was not seeking a further escalation. Conricus said the tunnel was targeted around two kilometres (less than two miles) from the Israeli village of Kissufim, but added that no Israelis had been in danger. He said the tunnel was still being dug and no opening was found in Israeli territory. The military had been monitoring it for "some time", Conricus said, declining to say when it was first discovered. He could not confirm whether the tunnel belonged to Hamas, which runs the Gaza Strip, but said Israel nevertheless holds the Islamist movement responsible for all such activity from the Palestinian enclave. Conricus said Israel used advanced technology to locate the tunnel, but declined to elaborate. There was no immediate response from Hamas. In April 2016, Israel's military said it had located and destroyed a tunnel extending from the Gaza Strip into Israel in the first such discovery since the devastating 2014 conflict. Hamas forces have used tunnels in the past to enter Israel and carry out attacks. - Tunnel preparation criticised - Monday's operation comes as Palestinian rival factions Hamas and Fatah seek to follow through on a reconciliation deal signed earlier this month and aiming at ending a decade-long rift between them. Hamas is due to hand control of the Gaza Strip back to the Palestinian Authority by December 1 under the agreement. The Islamist movement seized the enclave in a near civil war with Fatah, based in the occupied West Bank, in 2007. Israel has warned that it will not accept a unity government that includes Hamas if it does not disarm and recognise the country, among other demands. Israel launched its 2014 operation in Gaza with the stated objectives of halting rocket fire and destroying attack tunnels into Israel. During the war, 32 tunnels were discovered, including 14 that extended into Israel, according to a UN report on the conflict. It was the third war in Gaza since 2008 and the longest, deadliest and most destructive. It killed 2,251 Palestinians, while more than 10,000 were wounded and 100,000 were left homeless. On the Israeli side, 74 people were killed, all but six of them soldiers. Israeli leaders have been keen to show they are addressing the threat of tunnels from the Gaza Strip. A state inquiry in February accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and top army brass of being unprepared for the tunnels used by Hamas during the 2014 conflict. Pakistani soldiers patrol in Quetta on March 15, 2017 Pakistan Monday confirmed the death of two Chinese nationals who were kidnapped in the southwestern city of Quetta, the foreign office said, months after the Islamic State group claimed it had killed them. The pair, a man and a woman, were abducted in May this year from the city, capital of restive Balochistan province, which is at the heart of a multi-million dollar investment by Beijing in Pakistan but is also wracked by militancy. They were dragged into a car by three unknown men, witnesses said, adding that another Chinese woman managed to escape. In June the Islamic State group claimed it had killed them, but there had been no confirmation of their deaths from Pakistani or Chinese authorities. "The DNA reports have confirmed that the two persons killed in Balochistan in June 2017 were the same two Chinese nationals, who were kidnapped from Quetta in May, 2017," Pakistan's foreign office said in a statement. It did not give further detail on when or how their bodies were recovered. In September some local media reports suggested the bodies of two Chinese people had been found in Balochistan. Authorities originally said the pair were studying Urdu at a local language centre, but Pakistan's interior ministry later said they had been preaching in Quetta. It did not specify what kind of preachers they were. Hundreds of Chinese nationals started to pour into Pakistan after Beijing ramped up investment in its South Asian neighbour as part of a plan to link its far-western Xinjiang region to Gwadar port in Balochistan with a series of infrastructure, power and transport upgrades. The corridor is one of the largest projects in Beijing's "One Belt One Road" initiative, comprising a network of road and sea routes involving 65 countries. Pakistan has been battling Islamist and nationalist insurgencies in mineral-rich Balochistan since 2004, with hundreds of soldiers and militants killed in the fighting. The IS group has been making inroads in the country through alliances with local militant outfits, although its presence is generally downplayed by the government. Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa attends the Arab Foreign Minister's meeting in Cairo on July 27, 2017 Bahrain called Monday for Qatar's membership of the Gulf Cooperation Council to be suspended until it accepts the demands of its neighbours and said Manama would not attend GCC meetings alongside Doha. "The correct step to preserve the GCC would be to freeze Qatar's membership until it sees reason and accepts the demands of our countries. If not, we will be fine with it leaving the GCC," Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said on Twitter. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt on June 5 severed ties with Qatar over accusations of supporting extremism and being too close to Shiite rival Iran, charges Doha has denied. Founded in 1981, the GCC is a political and economic union that includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as Oman and Kuwait. Bahrain's King Sheikh Hamad bin Issa Al-Khalifa announced later on Monday that his country would not attend any future GCC meeting if Qatar was to take part. "Qatar has proved today that it does not respect charters, treaties and bonds upon which the GCC was founded," the king said during a cabinet meeting, cited by BNA news agency. He also accused Qatar of undermining the security of other GCC member states. "So long as Qatar continues on this path, Bahrain will not attend any Gulf summit or meeting in the presence of Qatar unless it rectifies its policy and accepts the demands" of the Saudi-led bloc, the king said. GCC members are scheduled to meet before the end of the year, but the Gulf crisis could see the bloc's annual meeting postponed or cancelled. Experts have warned that the nearly five-month-long diplomatic crisis could lead to the GCC's demise. Saudi Arabia and its allies in June issued Qatar with a list of demands, including shutting down Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera, curbing relations with Iran and closing a Turkish military base in the emirate. After severing ties with Doha, Riyadh and its allies closed land and maritime borders, suspended air links and expelled Qatari citizens. In an interview aired on Sunday, Qatar's emir accused Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies of seeking to topple his government. "They want a regime change. It's... so obvious," Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani told CBS's 60 Minutes. "History as well tells us, teaches us. They tried to do that before, in 1996 after my father became the emir. So, and they made it also so obvious in the last couple of weeks." Smoke billows from buildings following a reported air strike on Ain Tarma in the Eastern Ghouta area, a rebel stronghold east of the Syrian capital, on October 2, 2017 A convoy carrying aid for some 40,000 people entered the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region outside Syria's capital Damascus on Monday, a United Nations spokeswoman said. "We entered Eastern Ghouta... we are planning on delivering aid to Kafr Batna and Saqba (districts) today for 40,000" people, said Linda Tom, a spokeswoman for the UN's humanitarian coordination agency OCHA. The joint UN-Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy included 49 trucks carrying "eight thousand food parcels and a similar number of bags of flour, medicine, medical supplies, and other nutritional materials," Red Crescent spokeswoman Mona Kurdi said. The delivery comes a week after residents and aid groups warned of a mounting hunger crisis in the region. Doctors said they examine dozens of malnourished children a day and that at least two had died. Eastern Ghouta was once a prime agricultural region. But the rebel stronghold has been under a crushing government siege since 2013, causing shortages of food and medicine. That has pushed up prices for whatever can be produced locally or smuggled in. The region has been devastated by years of fighting, with government air strikes and shelling bringing down multi-storey buildings and rendering whole streets uninhabitable. Basic services for the region's estimated 400,000 residents are virtually non-existent, with electricity produced only by generators and the available water often dirty and a vector for illness. Aid has entered the area only sporadically, with the last delivery in September. Convoys have generally only been able to deliver food and medical supplies that fall far short of the region's needs. A truck belonging to the Syrian Red Crescent arrives with humanitarian aid parcels to be distributed to local residents and hospitals in the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus on October 30, 2017 Dozens of trucks carrying aid for 40,000 people on Monday entered the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area near Damascus, where residents and relief groups have warned a humanitarian crisis is escalating. Shocking AFP images from the region this month showed severely underweight children, and doctors reported two infants had died of malnutrition and related complications. The United Nations and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) said a joint aid convoy had entered Eastern Ghouta on Monday, carrying food and medical supplies. "We entered Eastern Ghouta... we are planning on delivering aid to Kafr Batna and Saqba today for 40,000 (people)," said Linda Tom, spokeswoman for the UN's humanitarian coordination agency, OCHA. Residents gathered at the entrance to Mesraba, a city in Eastern Ghouta, carrying signs to demand an end of the blockade of the region and pictures of one-month-old baby girl Sahar Dofdaa who died this month of starvation, an AFP reporter said. "Sahar died of hunger before she could see you," read one sign. The joint UN-Syrian Arab Red Crescent convoy included 49 trucks carrying 8,000 food parcels and a similar number of bags of flour, medicine, medical supplies, and other nutritional materials, Red Crescent spokeswoman Mona Kurdi said. The aid would be distributed across several districts including Hamouria, Ain Tarma, Kafr Batna and Saqba, SARC said. In the town of Saqba, AFP saw aid workers get off the food trucks carrying bags of flour and boxes which they put in a warehouse. Syrian youths unload humanitarian aid parcels from a Syrian Red Crescent truck in the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus on October 30, 2017 Eastern Ghouta was once a prime agricultural region famed for its orchards. But the rebel stronghold has been under a tight government siege since 2013, causing shortages of food and medicine. That pushed up prices for whatever supplies could be produced locally or smuggled in. - 'End the siege' - A delegation accompanying the aid truck, including UN aid workers, visited a hospital in the town of Kafr Batna where some malnourished children are being treated. A member of the UNICEF medical staff measures a child's arm at a hospital in Kafr Batna on October 30, 2017, after a convoy carrying aid for some 40,000 people entered the besieged rebel-held Eastern Ghouta region outside Syria's capital Damascus A member of the delegation was seen measuring the arm of a child, while another child with a belly bloated from malnutrition was rushed in for treatment, an AFP reporter said. Mothers whose children are receiving care at the hospital surrounded the aid delegation, calling for an end to the siege. "We don't want food, we want a lifting of the siege," one of them said. Doctor Amani Ballur, a pediatrician at the hospital, said she briefed the delegation on the situation of malnutrition gripping her region. "We made our voice heard," she said. "We need the road to reopen and food to enter normally so that Ghouta residents and children live normally," she said, adding that some of those hospitalised in Kafr Batna needed to be evacuated. The region has been devastated by years of fighting, with government air strikes and shelling bringing down multi-storey buildings and rendering whole streets uninhabitable. Basic services for the region's estimated 400,000 residents are virtually non-existent, with electricity produced only by generators and the available water often dirty and a vector for disease. Aid has entered the area only sporadically, and convoys have generally only been able to deliver food and medical supplies that fall far short of the region's needs. - 'Tragic proportions' - Until Monday, just two convoys had entered Eastern Ghouta since August, carrying supplies for fewer than 100,000 people. A member of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent tries to organize Syrians waiting to be seen by a doctor at a hospital in Kafr Batna on October 30, 2017 in the besieged region of Eastern Ghouta Aid can only enter the area with permission from Damascus, which has often proved difficult to secure. That has continued to be the case despite the implementation in July of a "de-escalation zone" agreed by rebel backer Turkey and government allies Russia and Iran. The agreement has reduced violence in the area, but there has been little uptick in aid deliveries. Last week, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that humanitarian needs in Eastern Ghouta were "huge" and that the "situation is getting worse." "We know from past experience that such situations, where the population depends on the provision of humanitarian aid for its very basic needs, can deteriorate very quickly, and reach tragic proportions," said ICRC spokeswoman Ingy Sedky. The UN said last week that over 1,000 children in Eastern Ghouta were suffering malnutrition, and medics in the region reported that at least two have died from malnutrition or its complications in October. One of them was 34-day-old Sahar, whose emaciated form, swamped by her diaper, appeared in AFP images published earlier this month. She weighed less than two kilos (just over four pounds) before she died on October 22 at a hospital in Hamouria. President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress party was elected in 2015 on a promise to tackle corruption Two senior Nigerian government officials have been sacked, six months after they were suspended on corruption allegations, the presidency said on Monday. The appointments of top civil servant Babachir Lawal and Ayo Oke, director-general of the National Intelligence Agency, were terminated with "immediate effect", a statement said. Both men had been suspended since April. Lawal, who as Secretary to the Government of the Federation was Nigeria's most senior public official, was accused of a contract scam for rebuilding the conflict-scarred northeast. He is alleged to have awarded deals for reconstruction in areas hit by Boko Haram's Islamist insurgency to companies in which he had a personal interest. Oke was removed after the discovery of some $43 million (37 million euros) in cash at a private residence in an upscale area of the commercial hub of Lagos. The money was claimed by the NIA. President Muhammadu Buhari, who was elected in 2015 on a promise to tackle corruption, has come under fire since taking office for targeting political opponents. But the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party has accused him of a witch-hunt, as the overwhelming majority of those arrested and charged are PDP supporters or former ministers. The Lawal and Oke cases have been seen as a litmus test of his commitment to prosecuting graft, regardless of political allegiances. Buhari's deputy, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, submitted a report into the claims in August. The presidency has recently been embroiled in a scandal involving an indicted civil servant who went on the run after being accused of stealing two billion naira ($5.6 million). The official managed to avoid arrest and return to Nigeria, where he was reappointed to the civil service. Buhari last week ordered his dismissal and arrest. Britain's Prince Charles and Camilla met Singapore athletes who were taking part in the Queen's Baton Relay, which travels around the world ahead of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla arrived in Singapore Monday to kick off an Asian tour aimed at cementing relations ahead of a meeting of Commonwealth states next year. The heir to the British throne and Camilla are undertaking an 11-day trip that will also include stops in Malaysia and India. British media had said the Foreign Office was originally considering including Myanmar on the tour, despite a military crackdown against the Muslim Rohingya minority, but in the end it was omitted from the couple's itinerary. After arriving, Charles, wearing a suit in the tropical heat, and Camilla met Singapore athletes who were taking part in the Queen's Baton Relay, which travels around the world ahead of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. On Tuesday Charles and Camilla will receive a ceremonial welcome at the presidential palace, and meet President Halimah Yacob and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. They will lay a wreath at the city's Cenotaph, which honours soldiers who died during World War I and II, and will have an orchid named after them -- an honour typically bestowed on dignitaries visiting the city-state. In the evening the couple will be honoured with a state banquet. Singapore's foreign ministry said the visit "reaffirms the historic and long-standing relationship between Singapore and the United Kingdom" -- the city-state was a British colonial trading post for over a century and formed part of the Straits Settlements with Malacca and Penang. It won full independence in 1965. After ending their trip to Singapore on Thursday, the couple will kick off a week-long trip to Malaysia. They will visit Kuala Lumpur, meet with tribespeople on Borneo island before heading to historic George Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Charles and Camilla will end their tour with a visit to India, where they will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Commonwealth Summit will take place in Britain in April, with leaders from more than 50 countries expected to attend. Even if Anthony had a year to analyze and dissect each piece...(he couldn't tell if it would)... stand the harsh light of public exposure. WUWT insider Willis Eschenbach tells you all you need to know about Anthony Watts and his blog, WattsUpWithThat (WUWT). As part of his scathing commentary , Wondering Willis accuses Anthony Watts of being clueless about the blog articles he posts. To paraphrase: Click here to read more. Cameroon forces have faced a surge in attacks attributed to the Boko Haram jihadist insurgency in recent months Boko Haram fighters killed 11 civilians in Cameroon's far north overnight, targetting a village where several members of the Islamist group were recently arrested, officials told AFP Monday. The Boko Haram attack in the village of Gouderi was "an act of reprisal. The jihadists acted after the arrest of a number of their comrades there," a local self-defence group official told AFP. "Boko Haram slaughtered 11 people," added the official who requested anonymity. The attack and the death toll were confirmed by a security services source. Since 2014, when Cameroon entered the war against Boko Haram, the Islamist fighters have killed 2,000 civilians and military personnel in the far north of the country, and kidnapped a thousand more, according to International Crisis Group (ICG) figures. Across the Nigerian border a suicide attack at a mosque left five people dead. Boko Haram typically never claims responsibility but has used suicide bombing as a frequent tactic in its eight-year insurgency to establish a hardline Islamic state Since the group emerged eight years ago it has launched attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad -- the nations bordering Lake Chad -- and caused the deaths of at least 20,000 people. Special investigator Robert Mueller, whose team unsealed the first indictments Monday in the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 US elections A Trump campaign advisor has admitted he met with Russians in England as early as March 2016 to discuss meetings between the two sides and was promised "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, according to court documents released Monday. George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy advisor to the campaign, had meetings with a woman he believed was Vladimir Putin's niece and was offered an introduction to the Russian ambassador in London in March last year. Afterwards he told other campaign officials that they had discussed arranging meetings with Trump and campaign staff. A month later he reported that his Russia-linked contact, an unnamed "professor", had offered him "dirt" on Trump rival Hillary Clinton, including "thousands of emails," according to the documents. The documents were part of a plea bargain in which Papadopoulos admitted to lying to FBI investigators probing possible collusion between President Donald Trump's election campaign and Russian interference in the election. The plea deal, unveiled Monday, included a detailed timeline of Papadopoulos' meetings and communications with the Russians after he was named one of five Trump foreign affairs advisors in March 2016. - Seeking Trump Russia visit - As early as around March 6, Papadopoulos, who was living in London, was told by an unnamed campaign supervisor that a principle policy focus of the campaign would be improved US-Russia relations. Within weeks Papadopoulos was meeting with the "professor" not named in the court papers, who introduced him to the Russian woman Papadopoulos called Putin's "niece". By May and June 2016, after Papadopoulos had held a number of meetings with his new contacts, he emailed his unnamed Trump campaign supervisor about a possible meeting between the Russians and Trump himself. "I have the Russian MFA asking me if Mr. Trump is interested in visiting Russia at some point," he wrote in June, referring to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Have been receiving a lot of calls over the last month about Putin wanting to host him and the team when the time is right," he told an unnamed high-ranking campaign official in another email. - 'Great work' - There was no indication from the court papers and Papadopouloss plea bargain of how Trump campaign officials and advisors reacted to his communications, except comments like "great work" from an unnamed supervisor. But the charges against Papadopoulos offered the sharpest evidence yet of possible collusion between the campaign and Russia, happening just as Moscow was revving up its covert operation to steer the election in Trump's favor. The documents make clear that Papadopoulos had the Russians' attention as soon as he was named to the Trump advisory team. "As mentioned we are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump. The Russian Federation would love to welcome him once his candidature would be officially announced," the Russian woman told him in an April 2016 email. In his deal, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to one count of lying to FBI investigators, which brings a maximum of five years prison and a $250,000 fine. But his sentence could be mitigated by his cooperating with the investigation, the documents suggest. The settlement, dated October 5, was unsealed Monday a short time after former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and business partner Rick Gates were charged with conspiracy against the United States, money laundering and making false statements. They were the first indictments to be made public by special counsel Robert Mueller since he took over the Russia probe in May. Lawmakers are holding hearings on whether the congressional authorization on the use of military force, adopted 16 years ago after the 2011 attacks, is in need of a revamp US lawmakers were to grill President Donald Trump's top military and foreign policy advisers on Monday as Congress explores clawing back authority to pronounce on decisions of war and peace. Congress first passed an "Authorization for the Use of Military Force" or AUMF on September 14, 2001 -- three days after the devastating attacks on New York and Washington by Al-Qaeda hijackers. Since then, three presidents in succession have relied on the order's authority as they launched operations against armed Islamist groups in far-flung battle zones around the world. Critics have long-contended that presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now Donald Trump have exceeded the terms of an authorization initially aimed at Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organization. Most recently, after four US soldiers were killed last week in an ambush by militants in Niger, many Americans were surprised to learn the Pentagon has deployed hundreds of troops in West Africa. Some lawmakers are now pushing their colleagues to reassert Congress' right, under the constitution, to decide when and where the United States can go to war, in the face of some White House resistance. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the need or otherwise for a new or updated AUMF. "As we face a wide array of threats abroad, it is perhaps more important than ever that we have a sober national conversation about Congress' constitutional role in authorizing the use of military force," said committee chairman Senator Bob Corker. "We look forward to hearing from Secretary Tillerson and Secretary Mattis and appreciate their willingness to appear before our committee." In August, both men testified behind closed doors on the same topic and afterwards the Republican chairman Corker said they'd been "open" to the idea of revisiting the issue. - Niger ambush - "The administration is not seeking" a new AUMF, Corker told reporters after the August hearing, but "they wouldn't be opposed to one that was written in the appropriate way." Since then, however, Corker has fallen out with Trump and become an open critic of the president, and calls for new oversight on US operations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have grown. In September, anti-war Republican Senator Rand Paul attempted to pass an amendment to a funding bill that would have repealed the AUMF. And, ahead of Monday's hearing, Democrat foreign relations committee member Senator Tim Kaine promised that Mattis and Tillerson would not get an easy ride in wake of the Niger deaths. "After the deaths of service members in Niger this month, questions have risen about the extent of US military operations around the globe and the legal justification behind current military efforts," he said. "At the hearing, Kaine will stress the need for a new AUMF to better define the US fight against terrorist organizations and to send a message to the troops, the American public, and US allies that Congress supports the military's mission." Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI chief, is heading the investigation that led to the indictment of former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort Robert Mueller, the former FBI director heading the probe into alleged collusion between the Trump election campaign and Russia, has earned a reputation of being a straight shooter who could be right out of Hollywood's central casting. A 73-year-old retired Marine Corps officer and former prosecutor, the silver-haired Mueller is one of the few insiders to have emerged unscathed from the ravages of partisan enmity in Washington. Named special counsel in May to investigate charges that members of Donald Trump's presidential campaign may have colluded with Russia, Mueller's months-long probe began showing its first results on Monday. Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, 68, and business partner Rick Gates, 45, were charged with allegedly hiding millions of dollars they earned working for former Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovych and his pro-Moscow political party. George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign aide, pleaded guilty meanwhile to lying to FBI investigators probing the campaign's possible links to Russian interference in the 2016 election. As special counsel, Mueller is empowered to pursue not only Russian interference but any other crimes his large team of prosecutors should uncover. Trump has consistently rejected any suggestion of ties between his camp and Moscow as "fake news" and tweeted again on Monday there was "NO COLLUSION." Born August 7, 1944, in New York City, Robert Swan Mueller III, was nominated to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation by then-president George W. Bush in 2001. He was unanimously confirmed by the Senate and took the job just a week before the September 11 Al-Qaeda attacks on New York City and Washington. Nicknamed "Bobby Three Sticks" for the suffix after his name, Mueller went on to serve as the nation's top cop for 12 years. President Barack Obama extended his 10-year term for an additional two years and Mueller finally stepped down as FBI chief in 2013. - Bronze Star in Vietnam - Mueller was replaced as FBI chief by James Comey, whose abrupt firing by Trump in May was among the acts which led to Mueller's appointment as special counsel. Mueller grew up on Manhattan's tony upper East Side and earned a bachelor's degree from Princeton University in 1966. After graduating from the elite Ivy League school, Mueller joined the Marines, and after a year as an enlisted man, entered officer candidate school. A grand jury handed down the first indictments in the investigation headed by special counsel Robert Mueller As a Marine platoon commander serving in Vietnam, Mueller earned a Bronze Star for valor and a Purple Heart for wounds received in combat. Following his military service, Mueller earned a law degree from the University of Virginia and went on to serve as a US Attorney in Massachusetts and California. Two of his most heralded prosecutions involved New York mobster John Gotti and General Manuel Noriega of Panama. Mueller has a reputation as a no-nonsense straight arrow who works long hours, shuns the limelight and has little tolerance for slack job performance. "He was the boss, and people understood it," former FBI deputy director Oliver Revell said. Among those praising his qualities at the time of his 2001 nomination as FBI chief was then-Republican senator Jeff Sessions, who is now Trump's attorney general. "His skills should be a perfect match for the challenge," Sessions said. Mueller is married to the former Ann Cabell Standish, a school teacher. People in Goma face Congolese anti-riot policemen during a demonstration over plans by Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila to stay in power in 2016 Four civilians and a policeman were killed Monday in clashes in eastern DR Congo as protestors demanded President Joseph Kabila stand down this year, an AFP correspondent said. The journalist said he saw the bodies of four civilians lying in blood in the Madjengon district of Goma, capital of the troubled North Kivu province, while the body of a policeman who had been hit with stones was on the ground in the neighbouring district of Mabanga. Police spokesman Colonel Pierrot-Rombaut Mwanamputu said "a police officer was murdered by gunfire and lynching by demonstrators" and "a civilian died after being hit by stray rounds." Two other police were seriously hurt by rocks, he said, adding that this was still a provisional toll. General Placide Nyembo, police commander for North Kivu province, said 28 young people had been arrested, two of them women, and "will be held in order to establish charges against them." Several of them told AFP that they had been forcibly picked up in their neighbourhood or in the street, and had no idea why. Nyembo also said 18 civilians and four police had been injured. The protest was organised by an associations of civil society groups, including the pro-democracy Struggle for Change (Lucha). "The resistance against the bloody and predatory regime of Kabila has well and truly begun," Lucha said on Twitter. No demonstrations took place in DRC's capital of Kinshasa, and in the northeastern city of Kisangani, police dispersed a small number of demonstrators who tried to burn tyres to block the streets, an AFP reporter saw. At Mbandaka, in the northwest of the country, schools were closed and commercial life seemed muted. - Waiting for elections - Tensions are running high in the DRC after Kabila failed to step down on the expiry of his second and final term last December. Elections were due to take place this year under a transitional deal aimed at avoiding bloodshed in a country beset by ethnic divisions and fighting in its east. But the country's electoral commission says there will no vote before early 2019, mainly because of the problems of completing an electoral roll in the troubled central region of Kasai. Worried about a fresh outbreak of political violence, the international community has pressed for a vote to choose a new head of state to be held as soon as possible -- but no timetable has been set so far. Kabila, who took over DRC on his father's assassination in 2001, won successive elections in 2006 and 2011. He is constitutionally barred from running for a third term but in May 2016 the constitutional court declared he could remain head of state until his successor is elected. During a visit to the country last week, the US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, called on the government to hold elections next year, rather than delay them until 2019, if it wanted to count on American backing. In sharp-edged response to Haley, Lucha said the true goal should be to honour the December 31 2016 compromise that set down the transitional deal. "What we expect from your country is neither pity nor charity, but concrete actions based on your economic, diplomatic and political influence, to support the momentum of our people," Lucha said. "It's not about elections for 2018. That must be clear for everyone. Elections in 2017 or a transition without Kabila," Fred Bauma, one of Lucha's leaders, said on his Twitter account. Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, was indicted on Monday in special prosecutor Robert Mueller's probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman who was indicted on Monday, had always worked behind the scenes in lucrative consultant deals before the 2016 US presidential race. The veteran strategist advised Gerald Ford in the 1970s and Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, before taking his talents abroad to help often seedy foreign leaders like Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Somalia's Mohamed Siad Barre, Jonas Savimbi of Angola and former Ukraine leader Viktor Yanukovych. It was that work, and not his links to Moscow, that led to him being the first to be charged by Robert Mueller, the special prosecutor investigating suspected collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. Manafort was charged only with crimes related to the millions of dollars he earned for his work for Yanukovych: 12 counts of money laundering, tax evasion, and failing to register as a foreign agent. Manafort, 68, turned himself in at the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Washington field office early Monday. - Republican strategist - Manafort established himself as an important political strategist for Republicans in the 1970s when he set up a lobbying shop in the US capital, eventually known as Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly. The "Stone" in the name referred to Roger Stone, the consumate Washington political fixer who would eventually recruit him to the Trump operation. After advising Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, Manafort turned his focus to foreign governments abroad who would pay millions to boost their profiles in Washington. Roger Stone, former confidant to President Trump, speaking to the media after appearing before the House Intelligence Committee as part of the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. That eventually took him to Yanukovych in the mid-2000s, where the Ukrainian politician and billionaire was building a party that eventually took him to the presidency, but also allegedly raked hundreds of millions of dollars from state coffers. After Yanukovych fled Kiev for Moscow in 2014, Manafort turned his attention back to the United States, where Stone was advising the early stages of Trump's presidential machine. At first Manafort wa s helping to organize the all-important battle to win over delegates to the Republicans' national convention. But in June 2016 Trump fired campaign chairman Corey Lewandowski and put Manafort in charge, his first time running a presidential campaign. - Ukraine probe forces resignation - Two months later Manafort himself was in trouble, when investigators for the new Ukraine government released files showing secret cash payments from Yanukovych to Manafort companies worth $12.7 million. He resigned on August 19, 2016, with compliments from Trump. "Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success," Trump said. Months later, though, the White House was downplaying his contribution. Manafort "played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time," Trump spokesman Sean Spicer said in March. Donald Trump on the campaign trail in July 2016 with then-camapign manager Paul Manafort and his daughter Ivanka Trump While Monday's indictment did not connect Manafort to any alleged election collusion with Moscow, he still draws suspicions. He was one of several people who attended a June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-linked lawyer who was offering the campaign damaging information on Hillary Clinton. He also has business links to Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, a Putin ally whom Manafort offered private meetings to discuss the US election in the middle of last year, according to a Washington Post report. Yemeni men suspected of being infected with cholera receive treatment at a makeshift hospital in Sanaa in July 2017 Millions of Yemenis face a "desperate" health situation on top of the ravages of war, the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said Monday. "Thirty months of war, high prices for consumer goods and unemployment have had a massive impact on people," MSF said, adding that a "great number of children" suffer from malnutrition. "Millions of Yemenis who cannot access primary health care (are in a) desperate situation," Ghassan Abou Chaar, head of the MSF mission in Yemen, said in the statement. Health workers have not been paid for the past 13 months, the organisation said. Yemen was plunged into civil war in 2015, when a powerful military coalition led by Saudi Arabia joined the government's fight against Iran-backed Huthi rebels. Mark Lowcock, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), visited the Middle East's poorest country last week. "It has been shocking to see the terrible impact of this man-made conflict," he said Saturday. According to the World Health Organization more than 8,650 people have died in the conflict including many civilians. Another 2,100 people have died of cholera since April as hospitals struggle to secure basic supplies amid blockades on ports and the country's main international airport. OCHA says more than 11 million children need humanitarian assistance. According to the United Nations, the conflict in Yemen has left seven million people at risk of famine and an estimated 17 million -- 60 percent of the overall population -- food insecure. Uhuru Kenyatta -- scion of the elite, but also a crowd-pleaser Uhuru Kenyatta, who won a second and final term in Kenya's controversial election re-run, is the son of the country's founding president and a man who epitomises the country's elite. The 56-year-old US-educated multi-millionaire, whose family owns an array of businesses, properties and land, followed in his father's footsteps when he defeated his rival Raila Odinga to become president in 2013. Their rematch in August was again won by Kenyatta, with 54 percent of the vote, but the Supreme Court annulled the results due to "irregularities" and ordered a re-run. Kenyatta accepted the judges' ruling but with anger, calling the judges "crooks" and threatening to "fix" the courts if he won Thursday's vote, which fell on his birthday. Two weeks before the vote, Odinga announced he would not participate, claiming it would not be free and fair, urging his followers to observe a boycott, which they did en masse with mass protests blocking polling in four of Kenya's 47 counties. His withdrawal handed Kenyatta a landslide victory, in which he took 98 percent of the vote. But it was something of a Pyrrhic victory, with only 38.8 percent of registered voters casting their ballots. Observers warn the result is likely to face a host of new legal challenges -- a fact acknowledged by Kenyatta himself. In his victory speech, Kenyatta made a telling admission, saying that accepting the court's ruling overturning was "a very difficult and painful decision". And he said he would be prepared to do the same again. "My victory today is just part of a process that is likely to once again be subjected to a constitutional test through our courts, and as I have demonstrated repeatedly, I will submit to this constitutional path, no matter its outcomes." - Privilege and wealth - Kenyatta's first term has been defined by big spending on eye-catching infrastructure and impressive economic growth in a tough climate. But this has gone hand-in-hand with spiralling debt and widening inequality. Terrorism has also been a consistent threat, with Kenyatta forced to address the nation in doleful terms after bloody attacks in 2013 and 2015. The former finance minister and deputy prime minister was born in 1961, shortly after his father Jomo Kenyatta was released from nearly a decade in British jails and before becoming Kenya's first president in 1964. His first name means "freedom" in Kiswahili. Educated at a private school in Nairobi and at Amherst College in the United States, Kenyatta is regarded as a leader of the Kikuyu people, the country's single largest ethnic group. He is married with three children and regularly attends Catholic church. In 2011 Forbes magazine estimated Kenyatta's wealth at $500 million (423 million euros). Despite his elite background Kenyatta has a common touch. He easily mixes it up with ordinary Kenyans, eagerly gets down on the dance floor and joshes in the local youth slang and, in his younger years, earned a persistent reputation for partying hard. - Dynastic politics - Kenyatta's political career is a case study in pragmatism. In the 1990s, he joined with the sons of other independence heroes to call for democratic reforms but then became a close ally of autocratic former president Daniel arap Moi who had him nominated as the ruling party's candidate for the presidency in 2002. Kenyatta lost to fellow Kikuyu politician Mwai Kibaki but then backed Kibaki's successful re-election bid in 2007, against Odinga who at the time was allied with William Ruto, now Kenyatta's deputy and running mate. The violent fallout from the disputed result led to the deaths of over 1,100 people and, eventually, to a power-sharing government in which Kibaki was president, Odinga prime minister and Kenyatta one of his deputies. Kenyatta and Ruto were indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for their alleged roles in orchestrating the violence. But in 2014 the court dropped charges against Kenyatta -- and later Ruto -- citing the disappearance of witnesses and lack of evidence. Despite, or perhaps because of the ICC indictment, Kenyatta and Ruto won the 2013 election, campaigning on a platform of nationalism, sovereignty and confronting imperialism in the form of the foreign court. Kenyatta beat Odinga in the first round with a wafer-thin margin of 50.03 percent -- a result Odinga disputed, unsuccessfully, in court. With Odinga withdrawing from the October re-run, August's vote was likely to remembered as the final act in a multi-generational political rivalry stretching back half a century to when Jomo Kenyatta and Odinga's father, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, vied for control of the nation. Kenyatta must stand down after one more term and, at 72, Odinga is regarded as too old to make another bid for the presidency in five years time. Both men's children are, for now, inexperienced in politics. Seven Palestinians were killed Monday as Israel blew up what it said was a tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into its territory, a rare case of such an incident since a devastating 2014 war. Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Hamas-led Gazan health ministry, confirmed seven men had been killed, with a further 12 injured. The body of Palestinian Marwan Alagha, 22, is carried by mourners after he was killed when Israel blew up what it said was a tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into its territory on October 30, 2017 Two came from Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, while the other five were from the Hamas-allied militant group Islamic Jihad, the two groups confirmed. Their deaths were announced after Israel "neutralised a terror tunnel leading into southern Israel," military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists. "The tunnel was detonated from within Israel, close to the security fence." Tunnels dug by Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas were a key issue in the last war with Israel in 2014, but discoveries of those stretching into the Jewish state have since been rare. Hamas called Monday's incident "a dangerous escalation against our people". Israeli soldiers sit on a tank close to the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip on October 30, 2017, near Kibbutz Kissufim in southern Israel as the army says it has blown up a tunnel stretching from Gaza into its territory It did not pledge a specific response but said "resisting the occupation... is a natural and guaranteed right for our people". Islamic Jihad said in a statement that the tunnels were "part of the policy of deterrence to defend the Palestinian people". Conricus said the Israeli military was not seeking further escalation. He said the tunnel was targeted around two kilometres (less than two miles) from the Israeli village of Kissufim, but added that no Israelis had been in danger. - 'Breakthrough technology' - A picture taken on May 6, 2016 on the Israeli side of the Jewish state's border with the Gaza Strip shows the exit of an alleged offensive tunnel leading into Israel It was still being dug and no opening was found in Israeli territory, he said. The military had been monitoring it for "some time", Conricus said, declining to say when it was first discovered. In April 2016, Israel's military said it had located and destroyed a tunnel extending from the Gaza Strip into Israel in the first such discovery since the 2014 conflict. Hamas forces have used tunnels in the past to enter Israel and carry out attacks. "We are developing breakthrough technology to deal with the tunnel threat," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. "We are implementing it. Today we located a tunnel and destroyed it. Whoever seeks to harm us will be hit." Conricus also said Israel used advanced technology to locate the tunnel but declined to elaborate. - Palestinian reconciliation - Monday's operation came as Palestinian rival factions Hamas and Fatah seek to follow through on a reconciliation deal signed earlier this month aimed at ending a decade-long rift between them. Hamas is due to hand control of the Gaza Strip back to the Palestinian Authority by December 1 under the agreement. A Palestinian woman weeps outside the al-Aqsa hospital's morgue in Deir el-Balah on October 30, 2017 Besides calling it an escalation, Hamas said the Israeli operation was "a desperate attempt which aims to undermine efforts to rebuild Palestinian unity". The Islamist movement seized the enclave in a near civil war with Fatah, based in the occupied West Bank, in 2007. Israel has warned that it will not accept a unity government that includes Hamas if the Islamist movement does not disarm and recognise the country, among other demands. Israel launched its 2014 operation in Gaza with the stated objectives of halting rocket fire and destroying attack tunnels into Israel. During the war, 32 tunnels were discovered, including 14 that extended into Israel, according to a UN report on the conflict. It was the third war in Gaza since 2008 and the longest, deadliest and most destructive. It killed 2,251 Palestinians, while more than 10,000 were wounded and 100,000 were left homeless. On the Israeli side, 74 people were killed, all but six of them soldiers. Israeli leaders have been keen to show they are addressing the threat of tunnels from the Gaza Strip. A state inquiry in February accused Netanyahu and top army brass of being unprepared for the tunnels used by Hamas during the 2014 conflict. Former FBI director Robert Mueller, pictured here in 2013, is heading the probe into alleged collusion between the Trump election campaign and Russia Two former Donald Trump associates were indicted Monday and it was revealed another has pleaded guilty to lying to FBI investigators, in the first substantial legal action stemming from the probe into Russia's US election interference. There is nothing to date that directly ties the president to Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election. But actions by his aides, and his refusal to strongly condemn Moscow interference, have fueled lingering suspicions. Here is an outline of what we know about the indictments and charges. - Who's been charged? - Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is the highest-profile figure in the president's orbit to face charges in the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller. The White House has said Manafort, who began working for the campaign in March 2016 and resigned under pressure five months later, "played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time." Manafort, 68, pleaded not guilty Monday afternoon hours after he and business partner Rick Gates turned themselves in to the FBI. Gates, 45, is a Manafort business partner who served as Manafort's deputy during the campaign. While Manafort was forced out, Gates reportedly stayed on, with a role in the presidential transition team. George Papadopoulos -- who pleaded guilty on October 5 to making false statements, according to court documents unsealed Monday -- was a foreign policy advisor on Trump's campaign. In 2016 he met with Russia contacts and sought meetings between Trump campaign officials and members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's office. The guilty plea by Papadopoulos, who was arrested July 27, is seen as the sharpest evidence yet of possible collusion between the campaign and Russia. - What are the charges? - A 31-page indictment details 12 charges against Manafort and Gates, including conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to launder money. The two stand accused of hiding millions of dollars earned working for former Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovych and his pro-Moscow political party, and avoiding paying taxes on the income. Manafort and Gates were also charged with not filing reports of foreign bank accounts, and not registering as agents of a foreign power as they lobbied the US government on behalf of Ukraine. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements, and hiding contacts with a Moscow-linked professor offering "dirt" on Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton. - Trump's reaction - The president has long dismissed the Russia investigation as "fake news." He reacted dismissively to Monday's announcements, even seeking to turn attention to Clinton. "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" he posted on Twitter. "Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" Several Democratic lawmakers warned Trump Monday not to interfere with Mueller's probe. The White House said he had no plans to change the special counsel. - Explosive highlights - Papadopoulos confessed he had lied to FBI investigators about his extensive meetings with Russian contacts and his efforts to, in the words of the court document, "arrange a meeting between the Campaign and Russian government officials." He emailed Trump campaign contacts saying he had met with a female Russian national whom he described as "Putin's niece," in an effort to coordinate a meeting between the campaign and "Russian leadership." Papadopoulos admitted that in April 2016 he met with a professor claiming close contacts to Russian officials who had obtained "dirt" on Clinton, as well as "thousands" of her emails. The Manafort indictment details brazen illegal activity. The pair moved more than $75 million through offshore accounts and shell companies between 2006 and 2016. They laundered $18 million. The tax-free money helped Manafort fund a "lavish lifestyle" that included purchasing multi-million-dollar properties and luxury goods and services for himself and family. US mobile carrier Sprint, whose parent firm SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son is seen in this 2016 picture, has called off merger talks with US rival T-Mobile, according to a Japanese newspaper Shares in Sprint and T-Mobile fell sharply Monday following a Japanese media report that merger talks between the third- and fourth-largest US wireless operators had been called off. T-Mobile fell 5.3 percent to close at $59.58 and Sprint, which is controlled by Japan's SoftBank, sank 9.3 percent to $6.34. Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei reported that the two carriers had called off talks aimed at creating a stronger competitor to top US carriers Verizon and AT&T. The report said SoftBank and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom failed to agree on terms of a tie-up. The two firms had held talks in 2014 on a merger but ended discussions in the face of opposition from US regulators. In the latest round, reports said the German parent group had insisted on a majority stake and that SoftBank did not want to cede control. T-Mobile ranks third among US wireless carriers by subscribers, followed by Sprint in fourth place. Together, the pair would have 131 million subscribers, which would see them virtually match second-ranked AT&T and pose stiff competition to market leader Verizon Communications. SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son, who was among the first businessmen to meet President Donald Trump after his election victory last year, had been reportedly pushing for the tie-up as part of his effort to invest $50 billion in business and job-creation in the United States. France already has its own 4,000-strong military presence in the Sahel, known as the Barkhane force The UN Security Council looked at ways of shoring up a new G5 Sahel regional counter-terrorism force on Monday, with France seeking UN funding and support for the fight against jihad in Africa. What are the origins of the force to number up to 5,000 troops from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, and why is it needed? - Why now? - Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger -- the so-called "G5 Sahel" countries just south of the Sahara -- first raised the idea of a regional force in November 2015 in Chad's capital, N'Djamena. The idea resurfaced in the light of the deteriorating security situation in Mali, and following mounting incidents of jihadist violence in neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger. The vast Sahel region has turned into a hotbed of lawlessness since chaos engulfed Libya in 2011, the Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 and the rise of Boko Haram in northern Nigeria. Earlier this month, militants with suspected links to the Islamic State group ambushed and killed four US soldiers on a reconnaissance patrol with Nigerien soldiers near the Niger-Mali border. - What is the force's mandate? - The force is expected to deploy up to 5,000 military, police and civilian personnel for an initial period of 12 months, and is led by General Didier Dacko, a former chief of the Malian army. Its activities will be initially confined to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, where weak central governments have little reach in isolated areas, and tensions between nomadic herding communities and farmers have led to recent bloody clashes. In the early days of the force's existence, strategy will be centred on "taking back control of border areas", according to Dacko, with banditry, jihadists and human traffickers all targeted. - What about the existing foreign forces? - The force will have its headquarters in Mali, but will be under a separate command from the UN peacekeeping force MINUSMA, which has been deployed in the country since 2013. It is also separate to, but will complement, the work of France's own 4,000-strong military presence in the Sahel, known as the Barkhane force. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has put forward four options to back the force, including setting up a United Nations support office in the Sahel and sharing resources from the 13,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Mali. He has recommended extra financial backing for equipment including heavily reinforced vehicles and observation capacities, including drones, and "close cooperation" between any G5 force and Barkhane. - How will the Sahel force be funded? - The United States will pledge $60 million (51.50 million euros) to support the new force, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced on Monday, ahead of the UN talks. The European Union has already promised 50 million euros, with diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini citing stability of the Sahel region as "crucial not only for Africa but also for Europe". France -- the force's main backer in the Security Council -- wants donors to step up, but is also looking to the United Nations to offer logistic and financial support to the joint force as it begins operations in the coming days. The United States however, is adamant that while it is ready to provide bilateral funding, there should be no UN support for the force. The price tag for the G5 force's first year of operations is estimated at 423 million euros ($491 million), even though French officials say the budget can be brought down closer to 250 million euros. Before the US pledge, only 108 million euros have been raised, including 50 million euros from the five countries themselves. A donor conference will be held in Brussels on December 14. Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, speaks during the Nuclear Power in the 21st Century International Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi on October 30, 2017 The head of the UN atomic agency said in Abu Dhabi on Monday IAEA inspectors are doing their work in Iran "without problem", a day after he said Tehran was implementing its nuclear commitments. "Our inspectors (in Iran) are discharging their responsibilities without problem," Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Abu Dhabi. He was speaking on the sidelines of a conference on nuclear power, a day after holding talks in Tehran with Iranian officials on the landmark nuclear deal the Islamic republic struck with world powers. "As of today, I can state that the nuclear-related commitments made by Iran under the JCPOA (nuclear deal) are being implemented," Amano had told a Tehran news conference Sunday broadcast by state television. An IAEA report released last month had also affirmed Iran's compliance with the programme, which froze some of Tehran's nuclear activities. It came as US President Donald Trump lambasted the Iran deal. And earlier this month, Trump said a "total termination" of the deal remained possible, after refusing to certify the accord and leaving its fate to the US Congress. Amano said in September IAEA inspections verifying Iran's side of the deal are the world's toughest. A car vehicle burns after it was set on fire inside the US consulate compound in Benghazi late on September 11, 2012 US President Donald Trump said Monday that US special forces had captured a man linked to the 2012 attack on the American mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi. "Yesterday, on my orders, United States forces captured Mustafa al-Imam in Libya," Trump said in a statement, which came as the White House was rocked by the indictment of three campaign aides. Trump said "al-Imam will face justice in the United States for his alleged role in the September 11, 2012 attacks in Benghazi." Attorney General Jeff Sessions confirmed that the suspect "will face justice in federal court for his role in the attack." An alleged mastermind of the attack, 46-year-old Ahmed Abu Khattala, is already on trial in the United States, accused of being a commander of the Ansar al-Sharia militia. The attack killed US ambassador Chris Stevens as well as three other American personnel and became emblematic of conservative opposition to then secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Several congressional investigations were launched, along with a State Department security review, into both the handling of the attack and how it was described in the media. Clinton was never convincingly tagged with wrong-doing or negligence, but the issue haunted her failed 2016 presidential campaign and may have contributed to Trump's victory. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson welcomed Trump's announcement. "I am deeply grateful to the US military, law enforcement, and intelligence community for their efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks," he said. Tillerson said he had spoken to some of the relatives of those killed in the raid "to underscore the US government's unwavering support." - Choking on smoke - On September 11, 2012 -- the anniversary of the 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington -- Islamist militants launched a surprise attack on a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi. The eastern city had been a hotbed of support for the rebels who the year previously, backed by NATO bombing runs, had overthrown dictator Moamer Kadhafi. But since the fall of the regime, like many areas of Libya, it had fallen prey to faction fighting among rival militias -- including some inspired by global jihadist groups. Then president Barack Obama's government was criticized for, in some initial reactions, ascribing the attack to regional popular anger over a US-produced, amateur anti-Islam film. But it was subsequently concluded that it was a coordinated militant operation. Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith, a State Department technician, died of smoke inhalation as armed men attacked and set fire to a building in the diplomatic compound. The group later fired mortar rounds at a building used by the CIA, killing Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, two former members of the Navy SEALs working as contractors. Trump's statement did not go into detail as to how the latest suspect, Al-Imam, was captured. But Abu Khattala was captured in 2014 when US special forces carried out a commando raid based on intelligence provided by a friend who received a $7 million reward from the US government. Abu Khattala was taken to a US Navy ship where he was first subjected to a secret, classified interrogation before being questioned by FBI agents who informed him of his legal rights. Defense attorneys have since claimed that his 13-day voyage to the United States was dragged out unnecessarily to prevent him from having proper legal counsel. Prosecutors deny this. - Hunt for justice - Trump suggested that even the second arrest had not brought an end to the US hunt for justice. "To the families of these fallen heroes: I want you to know that your loved ones are not forgotten, and they will never be forgotten," he said. "Our memory is deep and our reach is long, and we will not rest in our efforts to find and bring the perpetrators of the heinous attacks in Benghazi to justice." He restated US support for the UN-backed reconciliation process in Libya and urged its citizens to supports efforts to build a unified government and military. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis made the case to Congress for not ending the 2001 and 2002 authorizations to use military force, saying they formed the legal basis for US operations against extremist groups like Al Qaeda and Islamic State President Donald Trump's top military and diplomatic aides told US lawmakers Monday that the administration was not seeking new authority for conducting military operations in the world's hot spots. Congress first passed an authorization to use military force, or AUMF, on September 14, 2001 -- three days after the devastating attacks on New York and Washington by Al-Qaeda hijackers. Since then, presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now Trump have relied on the order's authority, along with a subsequent AUMF in 2002, as they launched operations against armed Islamist groups in far-flung battle zones around the world. Several Democrats have warned that the 15-year-old authorities are licenses for endless US military engagement. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis argued before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the existing AUMF is sufficient justification for currently battling extremist groups and their "mutating threat." "Though a statement of continued congressional support would be welcome, a new AUMF is not legally required to address the continuing threats posed by Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS," Mattis said in his opening statement. "Repealing the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs would only cause unnecessary policy and legal uncertainty, which could lead to additional litigation and public doubt," Mattis added. Tillerson said the 2001 AUMF "remains a cornerstone" for ongoing US military operations "and continues to provide legal authority relied upon to defeat this threat." But he added that while the Trump administration was not seeking a new AUMF, it offered some suggestions in the event Congress went ahead anyway. No AUMF should be repealed without a new AUMF in place, as such a gap could trigger the release of terror suspects held in the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay. And they should not be constrained by time or geography. "Legislation which would arbitrarily terminate the authorization to use force... could unintentionally embolden our enemies with the goal of outlasting us," Tillerson said. Committee chairman Senator Bob Corker said lawmakers were split on the path forward, unable to "bridge the gap" between those who want to craft a new, limited AUMF, and those who believe that "constraining the commander in chief in wartime is unwise." Senator Ben Cardin, the committee's top Democrat, warned that there was increasing opposition to an endless military authorization that essentially greenlights a "global endless shadow war." Benghazi was a bastion of the NATO-backed rebellion against Libyan dictator Moamer Kadhafi but fell into chaos after the conflict as rival militias disputed control US President Donald Trump said Monday that US special forces had captured a man linked to the 2012 attack on the American mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi. "Yesterday, on my orders, United States forces captured Mustafa al-Imam in Libya," Trump said in a statement, which came as the White House was rocked by the indictment of three campaign aides. Trump said Imam "will face justice in the United States for his alleged role in the September 11, 2012 attacks in Benghazi." Shortly afterwards, the US Attorney's Office for Washington announced that Imam, described as being approximately 46 years old, had been charged. Under a recently unsealed three-charge complaint, Imam will be tried for "killing a person in the course of an attack on a federal facility involving a firearm." He also faces a firearms charge and one of providing "material support to terrorists resulting in death." An alleged mastermind of the attack, 46-year-old Ahmed Abu Khattala, is already on trial in the United States, accused of being a commander of the Ansar al-Sharia militia. The attack killed US ambassador Chris Stevens as well as three other American personnel, and became emblematic of conservative opposition to then secretary of state Hillary Clinton. Several congressional investigations were launched, along with a State Department security review, into both the handling of the attack and how it was described in the media. Clinton was never convincingly tagged with wrongdoing or negligence, but the issue haunted her failed 2016 presidential campaign and may have contributed to Trump's victory. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson welcomed Trump's announcement. "I am deeply grateful to the US military, law enforcement and intelligence community for their efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the September 11, 2012 terrorist attacks," he said. Tillerson said he had spoken to some of the relatives of those killed in the raid "to underscore the US government's unwavering support." - Choking on smoke - On September 11, 2012 -- the anniversary of the 2001 Al-Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington -- fighters launched a surprise attack on a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi. The eastern city had been a hotbed of support for the rebels who the year previously, backed by NATO bombing runs, had overthrown dictator Moamer Kadhafi. But since the fall of the regime, like many areas of Libya, it had fallen prey to faction fighting among rival militias -- including some inspired by global jihadist groups. Then president Barack Obama's government was criticized for, in some initial reactions, ascribing the attack to regional popular anger over a US-produced, amateur anti-Islam film. But it was subsequently concluded that it was a coordinated militant operation. Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith, a State Department technician, died of smoke inhalation as armed men attacked and set fire to a building in the diplomatic compound. The group later fired mortar rounds at a building used by the CIA, killing Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, two former members of the Navy SEALs working as contractors. Trump's statement did not go into detail as to how the latest suspect, Imam, was captured. But Abu Khattala was captured in 2014, when US special forces carried out a commando raid based on intelligence provided by a friend who received a $7 million reward from the US government. - Hunt for justice - Abu Khattala was taken to a US Navy ship, where he was first subjected to a secret, classified interrogation before being questioned by FBI agents who informed him of his legal rights. Defense attorneys have since claimed that his 13-day voyage to the United States was dragged out unnecessarily to prevent him from having proper legal counsel. Prosecutors deny this claim. Trump suggested that even the second arrest had not brought an end to the US hunt for justice. "To the families of these fallen heroes: I want you to know that your loved ones are not forgotten, and they will never be forgotten," he said. "Our memory is deep and our reach is long, and we will not rest in our efforts to find and bring the perpetrators of the heinous attacks in Benghazi to justice." He restated US support for the UN-backed reconciliation process in Libya and urged its citizens to supports efforts to build a unified government and military. Kevin Spacey is the star and executive producer of the Netflix show "House of Cards" The next season of Netflix's award-winning "House of Cards" will be the last, a spokesman said Monday, as the series reeled over sexual misconduct allegations against its star Kevin Spacey. The 58-year-old double Oscar winner, who plays ruthless President Francis Underwood in the hit show, is facing claims from actor Anthony Rapp that he "made a sexual advance" at a party 31 years ago while Rapp was underage. "Season six is our last season," a spokeswoman told AFP. A source with knowledge of the issue told AFP however that the decision to end the series was unrelated to the allegations, having been made before they came to light. Starring alongside Robin Wright, Spacey is also executive producer of the platform's flagship series, which is adapted from a BBC drama of the same name and has earned 46 Emmy nominations and Golden Globes for its lead couple. Netflix doesn't release viewing figures. But the show has marked out its place in television history as the company's debut in original programming, which has grown to include other highly regarded shows such as "Stranger Things" and "Orange is the New Black." Filming for season six is under way in Maryland, with season six expected to drop next year. No premiere date has yet been set but "House of Cards" has never debuted later than May. Rapp, 46, told Buzzfeed that in 1986, while both he and Spacey were performing on Broadway, Spacey invited the then 14-year-old to a party at his New York home. Spacey would have been 26 at the time. Rapp said he was in Spacey's bedroom watching TV when Spacey, apparently drunk, came in after all the other guests had left, and lay on top of him. "He was trying to seduce me," Rapp told Buzzfeed. "I don't know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually." Spacey apologized on Twitter, and went on to say that Rapp's accusation "encouraged me to address other things about my life" before confirming that he was gay. His comments prompted a backlash from critics who accused him of deflecting from his misdeed by finally coming out, while reports suggested that he may face other accusers. Netflix and "House of Cards" production company Media Rights Capital issued a joint statement saying they were "deeply troubled" the allegations against Spacey, who is currently not scheduled to be on set. "In response to last night's revelations, executives from both of our companies arrived in Baltimore this afternoon to meet with our cast and crew to ensure that they continue to feel safe and supported," it said. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis (L) and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (R) testify to lawmakers on US warfighting authorities President Donald Trump's top military and foreign policy advisers insisted Monday that he has no need for a new Congressional authority to allow US forces to wage a global war against jihadists. US lawmakers are considering updating or repealing the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed on September 14, 2001, three days after the attacks on New York and Washington by Al-Qaeda hijackers. This would help them claw back their constitutional authority to pronounce on decisions of war and peace, but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis insisted this would be premature and unnecessary. "The United States has the legal authority to prosecute campaigns against the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and associated forces, including ISIS, and is not currently seeking any new or additional congressional authorization for the use of force," Tillerson told senators. "The 2001 AUMF remains a cornerstone for ongoing US military operations and continues to provide legal authority relied upon to defeat this threat." Mattis agreed, and both senior figures insisted that if Congress seeks to replace the AUMF, it must not do so until another authorization is ready to immediately and seamlessly replace it, to provide legal cover for ongoing operations and the detention of suspects. "We cannot put a firm timeline on conflict against an adaptive enemy who would hope that we haven't the will to fight as long as necessary," Mattis warned. "This is a fight against a transnational enemy, one that does not respect international borders and does not place geographic limits on their areas of operations." - Far-flung battles - Since the AUMF was passed, three presidents in succession have relied on the order's authority -- and that of a subsequent 2002 AUMF -- as they launched operations against armed Islamist groups in far-flung battle zones around the world. Critics have long contended that George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now Donald Trump have exceeded the terms of an authorization initially aimed at Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organization. When four US soldiers were killed in an ambush by militants in Niger this month, many Americans were surprised to learn the Pentagon has deployed hundreds of troops in West Africa. Some lawmakers are now pushing to reassert Congress's right, under the US Constitution, to decide when and where the United States can go to war, in the face of some White House resistance. On Monday, Mattis and Tillerson brought the message to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, chaired by Republican Senator Bob Corker, a Trump critic. Corker said lawmakers were split on the path forward, unable to "bridge the gap" between those who want to craft a new, limited AUMF, and those who believe that "constraining the commander in chief in wartime is unwise." Senator Ben Cardin, the committee's top Democrat, warned there was increasing opposition to an endless military authorization that essentially greenlights a "global endless shadow war." In August, both Mattis and Tillerson testified behind closed doors on the same topic and Corker subsequently said they'd been "open" to the idea of revisiting the issue. - 'Not your power' - Since then, however, Corker has fallen out with Trump and become an open critic of the president, and calls for new oversight on US operations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have grown. In September, anti-war Republican Senator Rand Paul attempted to pass an amendment to a funding bill that would have repealed the AUMF. Democratic committee member Senator Tim Kaine grilled Mattis and Tillerson over the extent of US military operations, in the wake of the deaths of four US service members in Niger this month. "I think it's a forever war, and I worry deeply about handing the power to presidents to do this without consulting Congress," Kaine said, as he called for extensive public debate and a vote on an AUMF bill he crafted with Republican Senator Jeff Flake. Flake added: "Congress needs to weigh in." Paul asked Mattis and Tillerson no questions but instead lectured them about their desire for "blanket" war authority. He also called on his congressional colleagues to "resist" administrations that claim "the ability to have pre-emptive war, anywhere, any time." "I am here to say very forcefully it is not your power," Paul told Trump's lieutenants. New York has been usurped as America's premiere gastronomic destination, at least in terms of the Michelin Guide's celebrated three-star ranking. The Guide's 2018 edition for New York saw celebrity chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten suffer the indignity of being downgraded from three to two stars, leaving the US cultural and financial capital with just five three-star restaurants. And San Francisco? It has seven. Most notable for the 2018 Michelin Guide was the loss of three-star status for chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten's (seen in 2007) flagship Jean-Georges, one of the most glittering restaurants in New York Seventy-two New York restaurants were awarded stars by the celebrated culinary guide, down from 77 in 2016. Michelin said several previously ranked restaurants had been dropped from the list because they had since closed. But most notable was the loss of three-star status for Vongerichten's flagship Jean-Georges, one of the most glittering restaurants in New York and situated in the Trump International Hotel overlooking Central Park. It was at Jean-Georges that then president-elect Donald Trump dined on November 30, 2016 with Republican grandee Mitt Romney, whom he was then considering but quickly afterward passed over as a possible US secretary of state. After eating in the full glare of other diners, Trump let Romney walk out alone after the meal to heap praise on the incoming president before the cameras, offering remarks that contrasted sharply with his criticism on the campaign trail. Jean-Georges, which opened in 1997 to critical acclaim and has long been the jewel in the French-born chef's empire, is now one of 11 New York restaurants with two stars. San Francisco now has the most number of three Michelin-starred restaurants in any US city. Chicago has two three-starred restaurants. Washington has none Instead of the three-star ranking, which Michelin characterizes as 'exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey,' its downgraded status is classified as 'excellent cooking, worth a detour.' The restaurant's prix fixe dinner starts at $148 a head. San Francisco now has the most number of three Michelin-starred restaurants in any US city. Chicago has two three-starred restaurants. Washington has none. New York is home to 56 one-starred restaurants. Six new restaurants joined the star selections, three of which feature Japanese cuisine, the guide said. While dwarfed by the population of New York, San Francisco is one of the most expensive cities in the country, hugely popular with tourists, famed for its Golden Gate Bridge and which in the 1990s became the hub of the dot-com bubble. KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (AP) - Police have shot and wounded an armed suspect in a parking garage at a suburban Philadelphia shopping mall. Philly.com reports the shooting happened Sunday afternoon outside of the King of Prussia Mall in a parking garage connected to Lord & Taylor and Nordstrom department stores. Upper Merion police have not said what led to the shooting. The suspect was taken to a hospital for treatment. His condition was not immediately available. The Montgomery County District Attorney's Office is assisting with the investigation. In a statement Sunday night, the mall said that due to the "swift action" of Upper Merion police "the situation was contained, the suspect apprehended and no customers or employees were harmed." MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said someone should talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to convince him nobody is out to remove him or destroy his country. "A nuclear war is totally unacceptable to everybody," Duterte said Sunday before flying to Japan, where he is on a two-day visit. "And somebody has to talk to Kim Jong Un." Duterte said North Korea's nuclear threat is among issues he will discuss with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo and with President Donald Trump when Trump visits Manila next month. He suggested the U.S., Japan, South Korea, and others assure Kim nobody is threatening him and to ask him to stop threating a nuclear attack. "It would be good if America, Japan, Korea, and Mr. Kim Jong Un talk and to convince him to sit down on a round table and just tell him that nobody's threatening him, that there will be no war, and that if he can just tone down or stand down, stop the threats, and that would be the same for America," he added. The one single country that can calm down Kim is China, Duterte added during his pre-departure news conference in southern Davao City. TOKYO (AP) - Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte won pledges from Japan of help with fighting terrorism and assistance in building the country's crumbling infrastructure, as he met with Japan's prime minister on Monday during a visit to the country. Japan promised its support in the reconstruction of the strife-torn southern Philippine city of Marawi. A military campaign recently ended a five-month siege of the city by Islamic State group-aligned militants that left more than 1,100 combatants and civilians dead. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed the liberation of Marawi and gave credit to Duterte's leadership. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, left, walks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as they review a guard of honor at Abe's official residence in Tokyo Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Duterte is on a two-day visit to Japan. (Nicolas Datiche/Pool Photo via AP) "I express my heartfelt respect for President Duterte's leadership on the recent declaration of liberation in Marawi," Abe said. "We will provide full support for (the Philippines') counterterrorism effort and steps to ensure peace and stability" in the region. The two leaders also agreed to cooperate on various projects, including a subway system for metropolitan Manila, the traffic-jammed capital, energy development, maritime safety and the Philippines' fight against drugs and drug trafficking. The assistance from Tokyo includes 15.9 billion yen ($140 million) in low-interest financing for a water management project in the Philippines' flood-prone Cavite province, Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Before leaving the Philippines for Tokyo late Sunday, Duterte said he hoped to discuss concerns over North Korea with Abe and declared that someone should talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, reassure him that nobody is out to remove him or destroy his country, and ask him to stop threatening attacks. "You must remember that he is a leader of his people," Duterte said, adding that "whatever he proclaims himself to be, somebody has got to talk to him." "So, if somebody could just reach out, talk to him and say, 'My friend, why don't you just join me in the table and we'll just talk about these things?'" Duterte told reporters in the southern Philippine city of Davao. "Nobody's talking to him." Duterte echoed U.S. President Donald Trump in saying he believes China has the greatest leverage with Pyongyang, a longtime Beijing ally. And he expressed concern over the potential for dangerous missteps in the standoff with North Korea over its nuclear program. "We are worried, all of us, that you know, Murphy's Law, 'If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong.'" Apart from his talks with government officials, while in Tokyo Duterte is due to meet with Japanese business leaders and have an audience with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. "I suppose that I have to limit my mouth there," the blunt-spoken Philippine president said. He praised Japan as a "true friend of the Philippines" and said he would seek as much help as possible from Japan in rebuilding Marawi and the surrounding region. The siege in the southern Philippines displaced some 400,000 residents, including the entire population of Marawi, a bastion of the Islamic faith in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines. Military airstrikes, artillery and heavy machine-gun fire turned the lakeside city's central business district and outlying communities into a smoldering wasteland of disfigured buildings and bullet-pocked mosques and houses. ___ Associated Press writers Teresa Cerojano in Manila, Philippines, and Elaine Kurtenbach in Tokyo contributed to this report. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, second from left, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to his national flag as they review a guard of honor at Abe's official residence in Tokyo Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Duterte is on a two-day visit to Japan. (Nicolas Datiche/Pool Photo via AP) ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - Iran's nuclear deal with world powers may hang in the balance, but you wouldn't know it at the United Nations conference on atomic energy held Monday in the United Arab Emirates. Iran decided to skip the Abu Dhabi conference, leaving its seats empty as Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, avoided speaking about the nuclear deal at all in his address at the venue. Officials at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted an anonymous source at the organization late Monday saying the delegation could not attend as the UAE did not grant them visas. Seats for an Iranian delegation at a nuclear energy conference sit empty in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Iran declined Monday to attend the major nuclear conference in the United Arab Emirates, a country which remains highly suspicious of its nuclear deal with world powers. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell) At a later news conference, Amano himself declined to discuss it. "This conference is open to all the countries and we welcome the participation of all the countries," Amano said. "But of course it depends on each country whether to attend or not. I do not comment on Iran's participation. It is (up to) Iran to decide." During a visit to Iran the day before, Amano told reporters that Tehran was still honoring the 2015 nuclear accord. President Donald Trump has declined to re-certify the 2015 nuclear deal, sending it to Congress to address. Both the UAE and neighboring Saudi Arabia remain highly suspicious of the nuclear deal, which saw economic sanctions on Iran lifted in exchange for it limiting its enrichment of uranium. The two Gulf Arab countries say that new money flowing into Iran has aided its ability to back Shiite militias in Iraq and support embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad. Also sharing that suspicion is Israel, which sent a delegation to the nuclear conference. The UAE, like many Arab countries, does not have diplomatic ties with Israel and remains opposed to its occupation of lands Palestinians want for a future state. Conference organizers asked journalists not to film the Israeli delegation. Israeli officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Their presence also nearly created a unique diplomatic conundrum, as conference organizers had seated them next to Iran. Trump's refusal this month to re-certify the agreement has sparked a new war of words between Iran and the United States, fueling growing mistrust and a sense of nationalism among Iranians. The European Union, Britain and other parties to the deal have all encouraged Trump to keep the accord in place. Amano reiterated that Iran remains in compliance with the deal when pressed by reporters in Abu Dhabi on Monday. However, he demurred when asked to discuss what actions Trump could take in the future. "We do not speculate," Amano said. "So I do not have any comments on the future action of the president of the United States." ___ Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. ___ Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellap . His work can be found at http://apne.ws/2galNpz . Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, speaks at a United Nations conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Iran decided not to attend the conference on nuclear energy being held in the United Arab Emirates, a country which remains highly suspicious of its nuclear deal with world powers. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell) Emirati Energy Minister Suhail al-Mazroui speaks at a United Nations conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Iran decided not to attend the conference on nuclear energy being held in the United Arab Emirates, a country which remains highly suspicious of its nuclear deal with world powers. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell) Seats for an Iranian delegation at a nuclear energy conference sit empty in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Iran declined Monday to attend a major nuclear conference in the United Arab Emirates, a country which remains highly suspicious of its nuclear deal with world powers. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell) Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, speaks at a news conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Iran declined Monday to attend a major nuclear conference in the United Arab Emirates, a country which remains highly suspicious of its nuclear deal with world powers. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell) BALTIMORE (AP) - A Baltimore police officer who was acquitted of criminal charges in the death of a suspect while in custody is now fighting an administrative procedure that could cost him his job. Officer Caesar Goodson is facing a police disciplinary board hearing over the death of Freddie Gray, who sustained fatal spinal cord injuries while being transported in a police van in April 2015. Goodson was the driver of the van. Attorney Neil Duke, who is representing the Baltimore Police Department, said on the first day of the hearing that Goodson should be fired after failing in his duty by not fastening the 25-year-old Gray in his seatbelt after he was arrested. Duke also said Goodson failed to interact with Gray and did not take him to a hospital, as Gray had requested. FILE - In this June 10, 2016, file photo, Officer Caesar Goodson, center, leaves the courthouse after his trial in the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Goodson was acquitted but faces a disciplinary hearing beginning Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, to determine whether he will be fired from the police department. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) The case, Duke said, boils down to whether Goodson followed police policies. "The evidence will show that he did not," Duke told a three-member disciplinary board in opening statements Monday. Sean Malone, an attorney representing Goodson, said the department is to blame for failing to properly spread word of a recent rule change that required prisoners to be secured with a seatbelt while being transported. He also said Goodson was working in one of the most violent parts of a violent city, and a crowd had gathered as officers put Gray in the van. "There is no general order that requires you to get hurt," Malone said. Malone also said equipment in the van was inadequate and had a broken camera, which would have enabled Goodson to view Gray in the back of the van. Malone said it was the department administrators, not his client, who fell short of fulfilling responsibilities. "They violated a responsibility, but they're not sitting at the table," Malone said. "Officer Goodson is." Attorneys and the three-member disciplinary board spent most of the day listening to a February interrogation of Goodson by internal investigators. The Baltimore Police Department asked investigators from the Montgomery and Howard County police departments to conduct the internal investigations and all but Porter faced discipline ranging from suspensions to termination. Duke focused on questions Goodson was asked by investigators about why he didn't take Gray to a hospital after Gray asked for medical attention soon after he was arrested and banged around in the back of the van without a seatbelt during six stops, including the police station. Duke repeatedly asked Det. Thomas Curtis, one of the investigators, about whether Goodson indicated he had made an effort to access Gray's condition at various points of the ride. Curtis responded, "No." Duke also asked Curtis whether Goodson indicated Gray was acting violently with another officer along the route to the station. Curtis again said, "No." Goodson told investigators he simply could not see a need to take Gray to a hospital by looking at him. In his 14 years as a police van driver, Goodson said he thought he could tell by looking whether someone needed medical help or whether "they're lying" to avoid jail. "I didn't see anything that would concern me," Goodson told investigators during the interrogation. Gray died of a spinal cord injury about a week after his arrest. He had been handcuffed and shackled, but left unrestrained by a seat belt. His death touched off protests and rioting in Baltimore. The hearing is expected to last about five days. The board is made up of two members of the Baltimore Police Department and a chairman who is a member of a police department other than Baltimore's. The board will ultimately decide whether the officer should be disciplined and what the punishment would be. Six officers were charged in Gray's death. Goodson had faced the most serious charge - murder. Goodson, Officer Edward Nero and Lt. Brian Rice were acquitted at trial last year. After the acquittals, prosecutors dropped the charges against the remaining three officers, Sgt. Alicia White, and officers Garrett Miller and William Porter. Nero and Miller recently accepted disciplinary action, according to the police union attorney who represents them. Neither their attorney nor the department would say what kind of discipline they faced. JERUSALEM (AP) - The Israeli military said it discovered and detonated a militant tunnel on Monday that was dug from Gaza into Israel, in a rare flare-up along the tense border that has remained largely quiet since a 2014 war with Gaza's Hamas rulers. Military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said thanks to groundbreaking technology this "active tunnel," which was still being dug, was discovered and forces blew it up inside Israeli territory. He said military intelligence had been tracking it for some time. He called it a "grave and unacceptable violation of Israeli sovereignty" and that Israel holds Hamas responsible for the breach of its territory. Conricus says the assumption is there are more tunnels boring into Israel aimed at attacking its soldiers and citizens. Israeli soldiers talk to field workers near the border with Gaza Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. The Israeli military said it discovered and detonated a militant tunnel on Monday that was dug from Gaza into Israel, in a rare flare-up along the tense border that has remained largely quiet since a 2014 war with Gaza's Hamas rulers. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov) Ashraf al-Kidra, a Gaza Health Ministry spokesman, said seven people were killed. At least nine wounded were evacuated from the tunnel area to hospital. Witnesses at the hospital identified five of the casualties as members of the Iranian-backed militant group Islamic Jihad. Hamas said one of its members died when he entered the tunnel to evacuate wounded militants. Hamas had no comment on the Israeli strike but Islamic Jihad militants prevented journalists from filming at the scene, suggesting the tunnel belonged to them. "Those who try to harm us, we harm them," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "Today we detected a tunnel and destroyed it and we will continue to do so." During the 2014 war, Hamas militants on several occasions made their way into Israel through a tunnel network that caught Israel off guard. Although they did not manage to reach civilian areas, the infiltrations terrified the local population. Israel destroyed 32 tunnels during that conflict, and since then has made neutralizing the tunnel threat a top priority. Israel has long claimed Hamas has been investing in new tunnels since the last war to attack Israel rather than helping its own people recover. The military's discovery followed word from the United Nation's refugee agency that it had found what appeared to be a tunnel burrowed beneath one of the schools it operates in the Gaza Strip. Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said in a statement that the organization "robustly intervened with relevant parties to protest the violation." Israel's military body responsible for governing Palestinian affairs noted UNRWA's condemnation, adding that "Hamas is lying not only to the world but to the people of Gaza." President Donald Trump's special Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt took to Twitter to rail against Hamas, which the United States like most of the West considers a terrorist organization. "Hamas uses the world's generosity to shield terror. Palestinians in Gaza deserve so much better," Greenblatt wrote. Greenblatt also said that, in contrast, a rare meeting between top Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the West Bank yielded "meaningful steps" that strengthened economic ties between the two sides. Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon met Sunday in Ramallah with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah to discuss potential financial projects, in a meeting that was also attended by top Israeli and Palestinian security officials. The meeting came just days after Israel approved construction of almost 200 new Jewish homes in an east Jerusalem neighborhood, part of a major settlement boom. In a statement, the Palestinians said they protested Israel's recent settlement expansion. Greenblatt, however, reported "important progress" was made in the meeting and that there were "meaningful steps forward on key economic issues - revenues, customs, and investment - that help support the search for peace." ___ Associated Press writer Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report. Israeli soldiers stand near the border with Gaza Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. The Israeli military said it discovered and detonated a militant tunnel on Monday that was dug from Gaza into Israel, in a rare flare-up along the tense border that has remained largely quiet since a 2014 war with Gaza's Hamas rulers. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov) ATHENS, Greece (AP) - A Greek appeals court has upheld the conviction of a former defense minister on money laundering charges linked to bribes for major arms procurement contracts, mostly in the late 1990s. The court on Monday upheld the convictions of Akis Tsochadzopoulos, a former Socialist defense minister, and 15 other defendants. Tsochadzopoulos, 78, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2013 but released on health grounds earlier this year. Greece embarked on a major military upgrade program following a 1996 crisis that brought the country to the brink of war with neighbor Turkey over disputed territorial rights in the Aegean Sea. The court is due to announce the sentences later this week. MADRID (AP) - Four members of Spain's shooting team have been cleared to go home after they were detained in the United Arab Emirates because of problems with their weapons' documentation. Olympic athlete Alberto Fernandez, returning from the World Cup Final in New Delhi where he won the trap gold medal, tweeted late Monday that they were allowed to board a flight home on Tuesday, two days after they were stopped. The Spanish shooting federation said they were stopped at Abu Dhabi airport, where they arrived on Sunday for a connecting flight after competing in India. The federation said it worked with the Spanish embassy in the UAE, as well as government officials in Spain, to solve the problem. Spain also won the mixed team trap gold, and Fatima Galvez took silver in the women's trap. DELAND, Fla. (AP) - A Florida man who deputies say shot at imagined intruders is now facing several charges, including false imprisonment. Volusia County Sheriff's spokesman Andrew Gant says 71-year-old Herbert Tipton fired shots inside his home in DeLand early Sunday. He wouldn't let his adult daughter leave the house because he thought the intruders were about to hurt them. The Daytona Beach News-Journal reports a sobbing Dawn Champion pleaded with Tipton to stop as she talked to a 911 dispatcher. "Please Daddy, no more guns," she said. He eventually let Champion climb out a window. He was taken into custody a short time later. Deputies found numerous firearms in the home. He's also charged with reckless discharge of a firearm and aggravated assault. An attorney isn't listed on jail records. ___ Information from: Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal, http://www.news-journalonline.com KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - The Taliban have killed 15 police in two separate attacks on checkpoints in the east and south of the country, officials said Monday. Arif Noori, spokesman for the governor of the eastern Ghazni province, said an attack on a checkpoint there killed nine police and wounded four others. He said seven insurgents were killed and five others were wounded in the battle, which lasted more than an hour. Late Sunday, the Taliban attacked another checkpoint in the southern Zabul province, igniting clashes in which six police and eight insurgents were killed. Amir Jan Alokozai, a district administrative chief, said another eight police and 12 insurgents were wounded. The Taliban claimed both attacks. The insurgents have launched a wave of attacks across the country against security forces this month that has killed more than 200 people. In a third attack, in the northern Baghlan province, a sticky bomb attached to a military vehicle went off in a market, wounding 13 civilians, according to Zabihullah Shuja, spokesman for the provincial police chief. No one claimed the attack, which took place in the provincial capital, Puli Khomri. LONDON (AP) - Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown describes in his new memoir how he feared he was going blind while in power. Brown says he woke up one morning in Downing Street in 2009 and couldn't see properly out of his one good eye. He had lost the vision in his left eye as a teenager in a rugby injury. FILE - In this file photo dated Tuesday May 11, 2010, Britain's then Prime Minister Gordon Brown announces his resignation, outside No.10 Downing Street in London. Brown describes in his new memoir revealed Monday Oct. 30, 2017, how he feared he was going blind while in power, saying he woke up one morning and could not see properly out of his one good eye forcing him to extemporise and abandon a prepared speech. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, FILE) Brown says in "My Life, Our Time" that he was unable to read a speech at an appearance that morning and instead spoke off the cuff before seeking emergency treatment at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital. He was told he needed urgent surgery for a torn retina, but decided against surgery after receiving a second opinion. Brown says he feels "lucky beyond words" that his retina continues to function. CAIRO (AP) - Egyptian religious officials say authorities have shuttered three Coptic Christian churches over fears of attacks by Islamic militants. The Minya Coptic Orthodox Diocese said authorities sealed off two churches in the southern province, citing harassment and attacks by fundamentalists. A third was closed due to fears of attacks. The statement was issued late Saturday. Minya Governor Essam Badawi on Monday denied the churches were closed for security reasons, saying they were "unlicensed houses" that lacked the documentation needed to "perform religious rites." He confirmed, however, that 15 suspects were arrested over an attempted attack on one of the locations on Friday. Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population. Islamic extremists have targeted them on a number of occasions in recent years. WASHINGTON (AP) - On a black Monday for Donald Trump's White House, the special counsel investigating possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump presidential campaign announced the first charges, indicting Trump's former campaign chairman and revealing how an adviser lied to the FBI about meetings with Russian intermediaries. The formal charges against a total of three people are the first public demonstration that special counsel Robert Mueller and his team believe they have identified criminal conduct. And they send a warning that individuals in the Trump orbit who do not cooperate with Mueller's investigators, or who are believed to mislead them during questioning, could also wind up charged and facing years in prison. Paul Manafort, who steered Trump's campaign for much of last year, and business associate Rick Gates ended the day under house arrest on charges that they funneled payments through foreign companies and bank accounts as part of their private political work in Ukraine. Paul Manafort, left, leaves Federal District Court in Washington, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, and Manafort's business associate Rick Gates pleaded not guilty to felony charges of conspiracy against the United States and other counts. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) George Papadopoulos, also a former campaign adviser, faced further questioning and then sentencing in the first - and so far only - criminal case that links the Trump election effort to the Kremlin. Manafort and Gates, who pleaded not guilty in federal court, are not charged with any wrongdoing as part of the Trump campaign, and the president immediately sought to distance himself from the allegations. He said on Twitter that the alleged crimes occurred "years ago," and he insisted anew there was "NO COLLUSION" between his campaign and Russia. But potentially more perilous for the president was the guilty plea by former adviser Papadopoulos, who admitted in newly unsealed court papers that he was told in April 2016 that the Russians had "dirt" on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails," well before it became public that the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails had been hacked. Papadopoulos was not charged with having improper communications with Russians but rather with lying to FBI agents when asked about the contacts, suggesting that Mueller - who was appointed in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation - is prepared to indict for false statements even if the underlying conduct he uncovers might not necessarily be criminal. The developments, including the unexpected unsealing of a guilty plea, usher Mueller's investigation into a new, more serious phase. And the revelations in the guilty plea about an adviser's Russian contacts could complicate the president's assertions that his campaign never coordinated with the Russian government to tip the 2016 presidential election in his favor, the central issue behind Mueller's mandate. Mueller's investigation has already shadowed the administration for months, with investigators reaching into the White House to demand access to documents and interviews with key current and former officials. The Papadopoulos plea occurred Oct. 5 but was not unsealed until Monday, creating further woes for an administration that had prepared over the weekend to deflect the Manafort allegations. In court papers, Papadopoulos admitted lying to FBI agents about the nature of his interactions with "foreign nationals" who he thought had close connections to senior Russian government officials. The court filings don't provide details on the emails or whom Papadopoulos may have told about the Russian government effort. Papadopoulos has been cooperating with investigators, according to the court papers. His lawyers hinted strongly in a statement Monday that their client has more testimony to provide. There, too, the White House scrambled to contain the potential fallout, with press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders contending that Papadopoulos' role in the campaign was "extremely limited." She said "any actions that he took would have been on his own." The criminal case against Manafort, who surrendered to the FBI in the morning, had long been expected. The indictment naming Manafort and Gates, who also had a role in the campaign, lays out 12 counts, including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, making false statements and several charges related to failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts. The indictment alleges the men moved money through hidden bank accounts in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles. In total, more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts, according to the indictment. Manafort is accused of laundering more than $18 million. Outside the courthouse, Manafort attorney Kevin Downing attacked the charges and said "there is no evidence that Mr. Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government." Manafort's indictment doesn't reference the Trump campaign or make any allegations about coordination between Russia and campaign aides. But it does allege a criminal conspiracy was continuing through February of this year, after Trump had taken office. Manafort, 68, was fired as Trump's campaign chairman in August 2016 after word surfaced that he had orchestrated a covert lobbying operation on behalf of pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. The indictment against Manafort and Gates says the pair had managed a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine's ruling political party. Gates personally directed the work of two prominent Washington lobbying firms, Mercury LLC and the Podesta Group. The indictment doesn't refer to the companies by name, but the fallout at one was swift. Prominent Washington lobbyist Tony Podesta, a Democrat and brother to John, resigned Monday, seeking to avoid further enmeshing his firm in the controversy, according to a person familiar with the decision who spoke anonymously to preserve relationships with former colleagues. Specifically, the indictment accuses Manafort of using "his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income." That included using offshore accounts to purchase multimillion-dollar properties in the U.S., some of which the government is trying to seize. The indictment also cites more than $900,000 in payments to an antique rug store, about $850,000 to a New York men's clothing store and the purchase of a Mercedes Benz and multiple Range Rovers. Manafort also had registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for parts of Ukrainian work that occurred in Washington. The filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act came retroactively, a tacit acknowledgment that he operated in Washington in violation of the federal transparency law. The indictment Monday accuses Manafort and Gates of making several false and misleading statements in that FARA filing. ___ Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker, Stephen Braun, Tom LoBianco, Sadie Gurman and Jeff Horwitz contributed to this report. Rick Gates, right, leaves federal court in Washington, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, and Manafort's business associate Gates pleaded not guilty to felony charges of conspiracy against the United States and other counts. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) A court artist drawing shows President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, center standing and Manafort's business associate, Rick Gates, in federal court in Washington, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson. Seated at front left is Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing. Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty following their arrest on charges related to conspiracy against the United States and other felonies. The charges are the first from the special counsel investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. (Dana Verkouteren via AP) Paul Manafort walks from Federal District Court in Washington, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, and Manafort's business associate Rick Gates pleaded not guilty to felony charges of conspiracy against the United States and other counts. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) The car believed to be transporting President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, prepares to leave the FBI Field Office in Washington, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, have been told to surrender to federal authorities Monday, according to reports and a person familiar with the matter. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) In this photo July 21, 2016, photo, then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, right, watches with then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Manafort's chief deputy Rick Gates, left, as Ivanka Trump rehearses for the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Manafort, and Gates, a former Manafort business associate, have been indicted on Oct. 30, 2017, on charges of conspiracy against the United States and other counts. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - A storm packing hurricane-force wind gusts and soaking rain brought trees and power lines crashing down early Monday, knocking out power for nearly 1.5 million homes and businesses and forcing hundreds of schools to close in New England. Thousands of trees were toppled, some falling onto houses and cars. In New Hampshire, floodwaters swept away a house. In Maine, the state's largest utility warned residents to be prepared to be without electricity for up to a week. New England bore the brunt of the storm, which brought sustained winds of up to 50 mph in spots. A gust of 130 mph was reported at the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire, while winds hit 82 mph in Mashpee on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Lights from automobile traffic leave trails on a street in Freeport, Maine, where most outlet shopping stores are closed due to a severe storm knocked out electricity, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. The severe storm packing hurricane-force wind gusts and soaking rain swept through the Northeast early Monday, knocking out power for nearly 1.5 million homes and businesses and forcing hundreds of schools to close in New England. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) "It was really terrifying," said Rachel Graham, who described pine trees crashing nearby as she rode out the storm with her husband and their 2-year-old daughter in a yurt in Freeport, Maine. "It was a lot of crashes and bangs." Miraculously, no serious injuries were reported. The storm left 450,000 New Hampshire electricity customers without power at its peak and produced wind gusts of 78 mph, officials said. Emergency Management Director Perry Plummer said the outage was the state's fourth largest. In Warren, choppy waters swept away a one-story home. Video showed it floating downstream and crashing into a bridge before breaking apart. The person who took the video, Thomas Babbit, told The Boston Globe the homeowners were not on the property at the time. Maine also was hit hard, with 492,000 homes and businesses losing electricity, surpassing the peak number from an infamous 1998 ice storm. Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage issued a state of emergency proclamation, allowing drivers of electrical line repair vehicles to work more hours than federal law allows to speed up power restoration. Across New England, some cities and towns pushed back trick-or-treating from Halloween night - Tuesday - to as late as Sunday evening due to safety concerns. The fast-moving storm began making its way up the East Coast on Sunday, the fifth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. That 2012 storm devastated the nation's most populous areas and was blamed for at least 182 deaths in the U.S. and the Caribbean and more than $71 billion in damage in this country alone. Electricity was slowly being restored. More than 1 million homes and businesses still were without power Monday evening in the Northeast, according to a tally of outages from utility companies in more than a half-dozen states. In the Boston suburb of Brookline, Helene Dunlap said her power went out after she heard a loud "kaboom" around 1:30 a.m. Monday. She went outside hours later to find a large tree had fallen on a neighboring home. "It really shook the whole place up," she said. "It was such a dark, stormy night that looking out the window we really couldn't determine what was going on." A tree fell and sheared off the rear of a home in Methuen in northeastern Massachusetts, along the New Hampshire line. The tree crashed into Philip Cole's bedroom, where he would have been if he hadn't been called into work Sunday night. "You opened the door to my bedroom, and there's no bedroom," Cole told WBZ-TV. "There's no floor, there's no anything really, just a closet and that was it." In Glastonbury, Connecticut, downed trees and wires forced schools to close. "Just high, high, high winds," said Glastonbury resident Kathleen Buccheri, who lost power. "I saw flashes of light and heard booms. I think it was the transformers." She said she stocked up on food and other supplies when she heard the storm was coming. Some rivers in northern New Hampshire overflowed. For a brief period Monday, the Ammonoosuc River flooded, restricting access to the Omni Mount Washington Resort in Bretton Woods. The storm system also caused problems Sunday in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. On the shoreline in Bayonne, New Jersey, a barge washed up after apparently breaking free from its moorings. In New York, the rush hour got off to a rocky start as service on Metro-North's Danbury Branch in Connecticut was suspended due to a mudslide and signal power problems. Part of the Long Island Rail Road's Ronkonkoma Branch was halted because of power lines on the tracks. Unhappy commuters crowded a station. ___ Associated Press writers Mark Pratt and Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; Patrick Whittle and David Sharp in Portland, Maine; Lisa Rathke in Montpelier, Vermont; and Shawn Marsh in Trenton, New Jersey, contributed to this report. ___ This story has been corrected to show 1.2 million homes and businesses, not people, were without power as of late Monday afternoon. A motorist drives under downed pine trees that are resting on power lines in Freeport, Maine, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. A strong wind storm has caused widespread power outages. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Pat Durham cuts pine tree that fell on Corey and Rachel Graham's land in Freeport, Maine, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. The storm toppled more than 20 pine trees on the lot but caused only minor damage to their property. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) A toppled tree covers cars for sale at Demo's Auto Sales after an overnight storm Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, in Warwick. R.I. Falling trees knocked down power lines across the region, and some utility companies warned customers that power could be out for a few days. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott) Jack Durant, owner of the sailboat Lionheart, carries a bag with valuables he removed from his sailboat after it washed up on shore on Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, after unexpected overnight high winds sent sailboats crashing onto Padanaram beach in Dartmouth, Mass. (Peter Pereira/Standard Times via AP) Peter Raymond, owner, gets some help from Robert Freeman in retrieving items from his sailboat Ama Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, after unexpected overnight high winds sent sailboats crashing onto Padanaram beach in Dartmouth, Mass. (Peter Pereira/Standard Times via AP) A large tree is down on top of a car on Mellen Street, in Portland, Maine, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, after early morning storm with high winds. Central Maine Power, the state's largest utility, said its 391,000 outages surpasses its peak of 345,000 homes and businesses without power during the ice storm of 1998. (Michele McDonald/Portland Press Herald via AP) CORRECTS LOCATION TO WARWICK, R.I., FROM BROOKLINE, MASS - A toppled tree and debris forced a road closure after an overnight storm Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, in Warwick, R.I. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott) Broken trees frame a Corey and Rachel Graham's home and yurt following wind storm in Freeport, Maine, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. The couple is living in the yurt while building a home. The storm toppled more than 20 pine trees on their lot but caused only minor damage to their property. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) A motorist turns around after finding downed trees blocking Flying Point Road during a storm in Freeport, Maine, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. A strong wind storm has caused widespread power outages. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) A woman walks by a food stand and a tree that were toppled by a storm in Freeport, Maine, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. A strong wind storm has caused widespread power outages. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) A toppled tree leans onto a power line after an overnight storm Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, in Brookline, Mass. Hundreds of thousands of customers have been left without power after a storm brought high winds and heavy rains to southern New England. (AP Photo/Alanna Durkin Richer) DAYTON, Ohio (AP) - An Ohio college student who was run over by a firetruck while riding a bicycle is suing the city of Dayton. The Dayton Daily News reports that Quinton Kane suffered serious injuries in the collision two years ago. The University of Dayton student was riding in a bike lane when the firetruck making a non-emergency run didn't yield and struck him while turning into a parking lot. Dayton fire officials said at the time that there were three firefighters and one fire lieutenant aboard the emergency vehicle. The lawsuit filed this month seeks at least $25,000. A message seeking comment on the lawsuit was left Monday for a city spokeswoman. ___ Information from: Dayton Daily News, http://www.daytondailynews.com ATLANTA (AP) - One of the nation's largest railroads must replace millions of defective wooden railroad ties on its tracks because they're degrading faster than expected, the company said in a federal lawsuit. Norfolk Southern Railway blames an Alabama company that produced its railroad ties of failing to use proper protective coating on more than 4.7 million of them, the railroad said in its lawsuit filed this month in U.S. District Court in Alabama. Instead of using materials that preserve the wood, officials with Boatright Railroad Products Inc. ordered workers to "make them black by whatever means necessary" so they appeared to be properly treated but were not, Norfolk Southern maintains in the suit. FILE - In this Feb. 16, 2017 file photo, a Norfolk Southern coal train runs through Kermit, WV. Norfolk Southern Railway must replace millions of defective wooden railroad ties on its tracks because they're degrading faster than expected, the company said in a federal lawsuit filed in October 2017 in U.S. District Court in Alabama. Norfolk Southern Railway blames an Alabama company that produced its railroad ties of failing to use proper protective coating on more than 4.7 million of them. (AP Photo/Michael Virtanen, File) "So long as the railroad ties had the same physical appearance as a tie that had been properly treated, it did not matter to defendants if the substance used to 'make it black' was actually a wood preservative at all." Motor oil, anti-freeze, paint and other substances which would not effectively preserve the wood were used on the ties instead of creosote - the chemical which should have been used, the company alleges. Boatright also provided misleading samples to a consultant for the railroad who was checking on the quality of its work, the lawsuit alleges. The Alabama firm's employees were instructed to take the consultant out hunting at the same time he was to be inspecting railroad ties being treated at the facility, the lawsuit states. A lawyer who represented Boatright in previous legal matters didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Monday. Properly treated rail ties are "crucial" to the railroad's operations, as untreated ones can "degrade and deteriorate prematurely, thereby jeopardizing the safety and integrity of Norfolk Southern's rail network and the interstate rail network as a whole," the company's complaint states. Safety is a top priority, and Norfolk Southern "continues to inspect and closely monitor the condition of all crossties across its rail network in accordance with the highest industry standards," the railroad said in a statement Monday to The Associated Press. "Any tie found to be experiencing premature degradation will be replaced before it can pose a risk to safety," the statement said. Several Amtrak routes use Norfolk Southern's tracks for passenger trains. It's possible that passengers could face some delays as ties are replaced, said Sean Jeans-Gail, vice president of government affairs and policy at the National Association of Railroad Passengers. The state of the nation's railroad tracks has come under scrutiny in recent months amid concerns about derailments of lengthy trains hauling oil or ethanol in the Midwest and the South. The National Academies of Sciences recently called for more thorough inspections of freight railroad tracks. More frequent inspections are needed to prevent potentially catastrophic derailments of trains hauling oil and ethanol in which ruptured tank cars can produce giant fireballs, the scientific organization said in a report this month. Virginia-based Norfolk Southern operates freight trains in more than 20 states in the southern and eastern United States. From 2009 to 2014, Boatright provided Norfolk Southern with nearly 5 million railroad ties, and virtually all of them were installed in the railroad's network, the lawsuit said. About 4.5 million of them are described as cross ties; and 193,000 are switch ties. Also included in the total are about 72,000 inferior bridge ties, according to the suit. NYON, Switzerland (AP) - UEFA has fined German club Cologne 60,000 euros ($70,000) and ordered the team to pay for damage caused by its fans at Arsenal last month. Cologne was charged with crowd disturbances, setting off fireworks, throwing objects, and acts of damage at the Emirates Stadium around a Europa League game on Sept. 14 that kicked off one hour late. Although UEFA also banned Cologne from selling tickets to fans for its next away European game, the sanction was deferred for a two-year probationary period. UEFA said it closed a case against Arsenal with no action taken. Kickoff was delayed because of the presence of thousands of ticketless Cologne fans around the London ground, which made it hard for ticketholders to enter. In other Europa League cases, UEFA ordered punishments for racist acts by fans of Albanian club Skenderbeu and Portuguese club Braga. Skenderbeu was ordered to host Dynamo Kiev in an empty stadium on Nov. 23, and pay a 60,000 euro ($70,000) fine. UEFA acted on "racist behavior" and "illicit chants" by Skenderbeu fans during a 0-0 draw against visiting Serbian club Partizan Belgrade on Oct. 19. The return game is Thursday in Belgrade. Braga fans were judged to be racist during a 2-0 home loss against Bulgarian club Ludogorets Razgrad two weeks ago. UEFA ordered a section of Braga's stadium to be closed when Hoffenheim visits on Nov. 23, and to be covered with the banner of a UEFA campaign promoting diversity. VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) - A Lithuanian court has sentenced a 67-year-old man to house arrest for publicly praising Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and the crimes of the Soviet Union against the Baltic nation. The Vilnius District Court on Monday ordered Yuri Subotin to remain home between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. daily for 14 months after being found guilty of breaking a law that criminalizes public support for crimes committed by the Soviet regime against Lithuania. The court found that Subotin, a Lithuanian citizen of Russian origin, had posted several offensive online comments including one praising the deportations of Lithuanians into Siberia during the Soviet occupation of nearly 50 years. Subotin pleaded not guilty and plans to appeal the verdict. Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940-41 and from 1944 until independence in 1991. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court has turned away an appeal from a Louisiana dirt farmer who complained that a local flood control district took his soil without paying enough for it. The justices did not comment Monday in leaving in place a Louisiana Supreme Court ruling against Chad Jarreau (JAR'-roh) of Cut Off, Louisiana. The local government agency in charge of protection from hurricanes took the dirt from just under an acre of Jarreau's property to build up a nearby levee. The agency initially paid him just $1,326. Jarreau won a judgment of $164,000 for the dirt after a trial, but ended up with less than $12,000 after the state high court ruled. Jarreau had dug up most of his 17-acre tract and sold the dirt for use in construction projects. Although Texas high schools with the largest proportion of black and Hispanic students offered more advanced math and science classes than schools that serve almost exclusively white students, students of color still tend to complete fewer such courses on average than their white counterparts, according to a new federal study. The findings should raise fresh questions about why fewer students of color complete these classes, despite apparently having access to them. Is it a function of different expectations for these students? Not enough support in helping them finish the classes? A lack of counseling? Tracking in high school? There are longer-term implications to the findings, too, because studies tend to show that enrolling in advanced classes are tied to success in college. Put another way, these disparities help to explain why, later on in the career pipeline, black and Hispanic students complete fewer STEM majors and are underrepresented in STEM careers. Patterns Persist Even for High-Achieving Students For the study, the researchers used Texas and federal data to examine course offerings and coursetaking patterns in 1,500 Texas high schools, serving more than 240,000 students annually. The results are descriptive but dont show cause and effect Overall, they found that, in 2013-14, the average Texas high school offered 14 advanced STEM classes, up from nine in 2007-08. And Texas high schools that enrolled the largest proportion of black and Hispanic students offered 15-17 advanced STEM classes, compared to nine for those with the most white students. On the other hand, as the percentage of students participating in federal school lunch programs rose, the number of STEM classes fell. (Rural schools tended to offer fewer advanced STEM classes and urban more, possibly one factor that helps to explain these results.) Despite apparently having access to the classes, black students completed fewer advanced classesonly 4compared to 4.3 for Hispanic students and 4.6 for white students. Disturbingly, this pattern showed up even for high-achieving students of colora subset of 36 percent of students who had demonstrated math ability in grade 8. There are some obvious limitations to the data since access to courses labeled advanced doesnt mean the classes are genuinely rigorous or taught by well-trained teachers. Still, the study indicates, students of color need more support and help in completing advanced STEM coursework. In typically measured prose, the U.S. Department of Educations Institute of Education Sciences, which released the study, pointed to other factors that might be playing into these results. It thinks Texas policymakers should try to study whether such students experience less involvement by parents, less effort in middle school to spark interest in STEM, insufficient or low-quality career advising, or less access to highly qualified teachers. BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Romanian senators on Monday approved a proposal that would allow Parliament to dismiss the chief of the Agerpres national news agency, despite opposition from press groups, which said it could harm the outlet's political independence. Senators voted 64-16 with 27 abstentions to approve the amendment, initiated by members of the ruling Social Democratic Party. Culture Minister Lucian Romascanu said the changes were necessary because Parliament currently lacked the authority to fire the agency's general manager. But press groups, including Reporters Without Borders, the European Center for Press and Media Freedom and the Romanian Center for Independent Journalism among others, published a letter earlier urging lawmakers not to change the law, saying: "Don't destroy this institution. Don't vote to change the law." The proposal still needs to be approved by the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies before it can become law. Agerpres general manager Alexandru Giboi criticized the vote, saying lawmakers wanted "merely to transform (the agency) into.... a button that any political party in power can press," to control it. Under existing legislation, Agerpres' general manager has a five-year mandate and the agency, under parliamentary control, is required to be politically impartial. The European Federation of Journalists has called the measure "an instrument to politicize the public service media." YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) - Armenian police on Monday freed a 3-year-old boy taken hostage at a pre-school and arrested his knife-wielding captor. Police managed to persuade the hostage-taker to release the boy, who was unhurt, said police spokesman Ashot Agaronian. Immediately after a police officer took the child out of the room, police used a stun grenade to arrest the attacker. The assailant tried to kill himself but was stopped by police, Agaronian said. The tense standoff lasted for several hours in the town of Armavir, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the capital, Yerevan. Initial news reports from the ex-Soviet republic indicated the attacker had taken all children and teachers hostage, but police said the assailant was holding just one child. Agaronian said the hostage-taker appeared to be seeking a meeting with his ex-wife, who works at the pre-school. STRASBURG, Va. (AP) - Thomas Jefferson may have been the first winemaker in Virginia, but it took another 200 years for the industry to blossom in the state. Today, with 300 wineries, Virginia is the fifth-largest wine region in the United States. While 70 percent of the state's wineries are clustered in eastern Virginia, it's worth a trip across the Blue Ridge Mountains to the west side, where some of the state's best wines are produced in the scenic Shenandoah Valley. Nestled between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountain ranges, the valley's dry climate, warm days and cool nights produce some outstanding grapes. This Sept. 30, 2017 photo shows a server pouring a wine tasting at the James Charles Winery & Vineyard in Winchester, Va. Thomas Jefferson may have been Virginia's first winemaker but it took another 200 years for the industry to blossom in the state. Today with 300 wineries, Virginia is the country's fifth-largest wine region. (AP Photo/Sally Carpenter Hale) The valley is about an hour's drive from Washington, D.C., but my husband Rick and I approached it from the south, after driving up a portion of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We had planned to stay one night in the charming town of Strasburg and then head the four hours home to Pennsylvania - until we discovered the multitude of wineries in the area and added another day to our trip. There are two dozen wineries in Shenandoah County, primarily family owned boutique operations growing French-American hybrid grapes. We visited five of the tasting rooms in the northern region, all of which boasted stunning mountain vistas. Tasting fees ranged from $4.75 to $10, and wines were priced at $18-$30. Shenandoah Vineyards in Edinburg, established in 1976, is still run by 90-year-old Emma Randel, who lives in the log house where her mother was born in 1895. Two decks offer lovely views of the mountains. Fifteen acres are planted with riesling, chardonnay, vidal blanc, seyval blanc, chambourcin and traminette. We were partial to the Rebel Red blend. Eleven miles to the north in Maurertown is the North Mountain Vineyard & Winery. At 1,000 feet (300 meters) of elevation, this land has been farmed since the 1700s, and grapes first were planted in 1982. In addition to more traditional varietals, North Mountain grows the German-Austrian gruner veltliner and zweigeit grapes. The winery makes a spiced wine based on a traditional German gluhwein and an Oktoberfest white blend of traminette, vidal blanc and riesling. We bought a bottle of claret, a Bordeaux-style wine that North Mountain supplies to George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation. From North Mountain, we took a beautiful, winding route over the mountain to the Cedar Creek Winery near Star Tannery, perched at 1,100 feet (335 meters) on the banks of its namesake creek. Cedar Creek produces only 30 cases of cabernet franc and 120 cases of chardonnay each year. Here, you can experience a vertical tasting, sampling different vintages of each wine with owner Ron Schmidt, a retired law enforcement officer. We thought Cedar Creek's wines were the best of the tour, especially the 2009, 2010 and 2012 cabernet franc and the 2011 chardonnay. At lunchtime, we traveled to the Valerie Hill Vineyard & Winery in Stephens City, where the tasting room is in a Federal-style brick manor house built in 1807 by Revolutionary War Capt. Peter Rust. The winery was serving chili and cornbread, which we enjoyed with a glass of 2015 petit verdot on the screened porch. Valerie Hill features live music on weekend afternoons. And from October to February, "History & Hauntings" dinners include a tour of the building and ghost stories about a woman in the cellar who cries for help and a boy locked forever in the attic. The fee is $49 per person. The James Charles Winery & Vineyard in Winchester, established in 1995, produces 10,000 cases per year of a variety of wines, including ameritage, cabernet franc, petit verdot, riesling, sauvignon blanc and viognier, for which it won a double gold medal at the 2016 San Francisco International Wine Competition. The winery's expansive patio provides a scenic setting to enjoy a bottle of wine and a bread and cheese plate. For $30, you can attend a vintner's table seated tasting with food pairings. Our final stop was Veramar Vineyard in Berryville, which has 26 acres (10 hectares) of grapes including the Spanish white varietal albarino and America's oldest native grape, Norton. Veramar consistently earns ratings in the 80s from the likes of Wine Enthusiast and Robert Parker, most recently for its 2015 merlot, chardonnay, cabernet franc and seyval blanc. We picked up bottles of the latter two. Veramar hosts picnics on its large patio on Friday and Saturday afternoons for $29.99, and plans a music and tree lighting gathering Dec. 2 with mulled wine and cookies. In addition to the wineries, the Shenandoah Valley is dotted with historic sites dating back to colonial times. You can hike in Shenandoah National Park. Quaint inns and bed and breakfasts include The Inn at Narrow Passage in Edinburg, the site of Stonewall Jackson's headquarters in 1862, and the Hotel Strasburg. ___ If You Go... SHENANDOAH VALLEY WINE TRAIL: http://shenandoahvalleywinetrail.com/ SHENANDOAH NATIONAL PARK: https://www.nps.gov/shen/ This Sept. 30, 2017 photo shows the entrance to the North Mountain Vineyard and Winery in Maurertown, Va. Thomas Jefferson may have been Virginia's first winemaker but it took another 200 years for the industry to blossom in the state. Today with 300 wineries, Virginia is the country's fifth-largest wine region. (AP Photo/Sally Carpenter Hale) This Sept. 30, 2017 photo shows wine barrel art depicting some of the varietals available at the Veramar Vineyard in Berryville, Va. Thomas Jefferson may have been Virginia's first winemaker but it took another 200 years for the industry to blossom in the state. Today with 300 wineries, Virginia is the country's fifth-largest wine region. (AP Photo/Sally Carpenter Hale) This Sept. 29, 2017 photo shows the view outside the tasting room at Shenandoah Vineyards in Edinburg, Va. Thomas Jefferson may have been Virginia's first winemaker but it took another 200 years for the industry to blossom in the state. Today with 300 wineries, Virginia is the country's fifth-largest wine region. (AP Photo/Sally Carpenter Hale) This Sept. 30, 2017 photo shows wine tasters enjoying the scenery at the Valerie Hill Vineyard and Winery in Stephens City, Va. Thomas Jefferson may have been Virginia's first winemaker but it took another 200 years for the industry to blossom in the state. Today with 300 wineries, Virginia is the country's fifth-largest wine region. (AP Photo/Sally Carpenter Hale) This Sept. 30, 2017 photo shows wine tasters relaxing on the patio at the James Charles Winery & Vineyard in Winchester, Va. Thomas Jefferson may have been Virginia's first winemaker but it took another 200 years for the industry to blossom in the state. Today with 300 wineries, Virginia is the country's fifth-largest wine region. (AP Photo/Sally Carpenter Hale) This Sept. 30, 2017 photo shows a sign in the tasting room of the Valerie Hill Vineyard and Winery in Stephens City, Va. Thomas Jefferson may have been Virginia's first winemaker but it took another 200 years for the industry to blossom in the state. Today with 300 wineries, Virginia is the country's fifth-largest wine region. (AP Photo/Sally Carpenter Hale) NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - The Latest on the bribery trial of Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and a wealthy friend (all times local): 1:30 p.m. The defense in the bribery trial of U.S. Senator Bob Menendez and a wealthy friend has rested its case. In this Oct. 23, 2017, photo, U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez arrives to court for his federal corruption trial in Newark, N.J. The judge in the bribery trial of Menendez and a wealthy friend is facing a decision on a motion for a mistrial. Attorneys for both defendants filed papers with the court Sunday, Oct. 29. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) The trial is in its ninth week. Closing arguments are expected to take place later this week. Neither defendant testified. The Democratic senator from New Jersey is charged with accepting free flights on a private jet and other gifts from Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen (MEHL-gehn) in exchange for political influence. The two men deny any bribery arrangement. The most serious charge against the two men carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. Earlier Monday, the judge denied a mistrial request by defense attorneys, who accused the judge of unfairly limiting what evidence or witnesses they could present. ___ 11 a.m. A judge has denied a mistrial motion by New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez and a wealthy friend. Attorneys filed the motion over the weekend accusing U.S. District Judge William Walls of unfairly limiting what evidence or witnesses they could present. Walls said Monday the motion had no "palpable merit." The bribery trial is entering its ninth week. Menendez is charged with accepting free flights on a private jet and other gifts from Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen (MEHL'-genn) in exchange for political influence. The two men deny any bribery arrangement. Defense attorneys argued Walls hasn't let them introduce documents that would support their theory that Menendez wasn't lobbying government officials on behalf of Melgen but instead was concerned with broader policy issues. Prosecutors countered that the judge's rulings have been consistent and called the defendants' attempt an example of their "continued unwillingness" to accept blame for their actions. ___ 1:30 a.m. Defense attorneys for Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and a wealthy friend have accused the judge in their bribery trial of not letting them present evidence and witnesses to prove their case. They filed a mistrial motion on Sunday. It alleges that U.S. District Judge William Walls abused his discretion by not letting jurors see certain evidence the attorneys say would contradict the prosecution's contentions. Walls could rule Monday. Menendez is charged with accepting free flights on a private jet and other gifts from Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen in exchange for political influence. The two men, who are longtime friends, deny any bribery arrangement. The most serious charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. The trial enters its ninth week on Monday. MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday strongly denounced Soviet-era political repressions, describing them as a crime that should never be forgotten. Speaking Monday at the opening of a memorial to the victims of purges, Putin said they dealt a blow to the nation the consequences of which are still felt today. "Political repressions have become a tragedy for our people, for the whole of society, a cruel blow to our people, our roots, culture and self-awareness," he said. "We are still feeling the consequences of that today." Russian President Vladimir Putin, lays a bunch of flowers as he he attends a ceremony unveiling the country's first national memorial to victims of Soviet-era political repressions called "The Wall of Grief" in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. (Alexei Nikolsky, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) Putin said "millions of people were declared enemies of the people on absurd and unfounded charges, executed, mutilated and went through suffering in prisons and labor camps." Putin emphasized that "there could be no justification for those crimes," adding that "the horrible past can't be erased from the nation's memory." The statement is the strongest condemnation yet of Soviet-era repressions from Putin, who has taken a cautious line on the nation's Soviet history, trying to focus on its achievements rather than on Communist crimes. The condemnation of the purges contrasts with some other moves by authorities that Kremlin critics have seen as attempts to whitewash the image of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Over recent years, many in Russia have been dismayed by government-sponsored school textbooks that painted Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in a largely positive light and by the reconstruction of a Moscow subway station that restored old Soviet national anthem lyrics praising Stalin, as part of its interior decoration. Kremlin foes saw such moves as attempts to whitewash Stalin's image and part of Putin's rollback on democracy. While denouncing Soviet-era repressions, Putin also used the occasion to emphasize the need for maintaining political stability. "We and our descendants should remember about the tragedy of the repressions, about the reasons behind them, but it doesn't mean making calls for settling scores," he said. "We mustn't again push society toward dangerous confrontation. It's important for us to rely on values of stability and trust." Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill, who attended the opening of the memorial in central Moscow alongside Putin, said the new monument should help assess the nation's past and heal the nation's wounds, noting this is particularly important as the nation marks the centenary of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution next month. "Remembering the tragic moments of our history, people mustn't feel gloom and despair, they must think about their descendants and the country they will leave to them," he said. Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Orthodox Patriarch Kirill attend a ceremony unveiling the country's first national memorial to victims of Soviet-era political repressions called "The Wall of Grief" in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony unveiling the country's first national memorial to victims of Soviet-era political repressions called "The Wall of Grief" in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. (Alexander Nemenov/Pool Photo via AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin walks in a hall to meet members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool photo via AP) Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall to meet members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool photo via AP) DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) - The trial of a Massachusetts man accused of abusing a dog so severely that it had to be euthanized has been postponed. Jury selection in Radoslaw Czerkawski's (RAD'-oh-slaw zehr-KAW'-skeez) trial on animal cruelty charges was expected to begin on Tuesday in Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham. But a judge agreed to reschedule because of Czerkawski's medical condition. It is now tentatively scheduled to start Jan. 9. The year-old pit bull mix was found in Quincy in 2013 with fractures, a stab wound and a split tongue. The starving dog that came to be known as Puppy Doe was euthanized. FILE - In this July 21, 2015 photo, officers lead Radoslaw Czerkawski into court for sentencing in Dedham, Mass., after he was convicted of larceny. A trial for Czerkawski, who is charged with abusing a dog so severely it had to be euthanized, is scheduled to start Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2017, in Massachusetts. (Greg Derr/The Quincy Patriot Ledger via AP, File) Czerkawski has suggested that kids he saw drinking in a park were responsible for the abuse. His trial was initially set for July, but was delayed by a prosecutor's emergency eye surgery. LEBANON, Pa. (AP) - A Pennsylvania firefighter has been denounced by his fire company after he posted racist comments about a cereal mascot. Justin Snyder, a firefighter with Speedwell Engine and Hose Company in Lebanon, made the comments Wednesday on his Facebook page. The Lebanon Daily News reported Snyder was reacting to a news story that Kellogg Co. would be redesigning its Corn Pops cereal box after receiving a complaint on Twitter that the art was racially insensitive. The box showed cartoon Corn Pops hanging out in a mall. A Twitter user noted that the only brown Corn Pop depicted is working as a janitor scrubbing the floor. Snyder wrote a number of racial epithets in his posting demeaning the person who complained on Twitter and also used expletives to express outrage at the change. He also degraded Kellogg's decision in the posting. Speedwell Engine and Hose said last week that his comments do not represent the company and it is taking actions to address the matter. The fire company said on Facebook it wants to "firmly assure you that our members' personal thoughts and beliefs do not reflect those of our company." It also apologized for "any negativity that this may have ensued." A phone message seeking comment from Snyder wasn't immediately returned Monday. ___ Information from: Lebanon Daily News, http://www.ldnews.com FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) - The Latest on sentencing hearing for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl (all times local): 3:20 p.m. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl unexpectedly took the stand at his sentencing hearing to apologize to service members who got wounded searching for him. FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2016, file photo, Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl arrives for a pretrial hearing at Fort Bragg, N.C. Former Navy SEAL James Hatch who testified this week at Bergdahl's sentencing hearing on charges he endangered comrades by leaving his post in Afghanistan in 2009, has had eight years to think about the nighttime raid that ended with insurgent AK-47 spray ripping through his leg. Hatch said he's still angry at Bergdahl but doesn't envy the military judge who must decide his punishment after sentencing resumes Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. (AP Photo/Ted Richardson, File) Bergdahl was the first witness that the defense presented as they began putting on their evidence in the sentencing hearing. They hadn't previously made it known that Bergdahl would address the court. It was his most extensive remarks in court yet. He started with a statement apologizing to those who searched for him, choking up at times. He said: "My words can't take away what the people have been through." Under questioning by his own attorneys, he also gave a lengthy description of his brutal five years of captivity by Taliban allies. He gave an unsworn statement, meaning that the judge will consider it but Bergdahl won't be cross-examined by the prosecutors. ___ 12:05 p.m. The wife of a soldier wounded while searching for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl gave emotional testimony about the effects of his brain trauma on their family. Prosecutors called their final witness, Shannon Allen, to discuss the injuries suffered by her husband when he was shot during a search mission for Bergdahl after he walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009. National Guard Master Sgt. Mark Allen was shot in the head during an insurgent ambush. He's unable to speak and paralyzed over much of his body. Shannon Allen's voice faltered when she referred to the brain injury's effect on his interactions with their daughter, who was an infant when he was wounded. She is now 9. She said he's not able to reach out and hold his daughter. Bergdahl faces up to life in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he endangered comrades by walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009. ___ 10:25 a.m. A military judge has rejected arguments by attorneys for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl that criticism by President Donald Trump is preventing him from having a fair sentencing hearing. The judge, Army Col. Jeffery Nance, said Monday the court has not been directly affected by Trump's criticism of Bergdahl. He also ruled that a reasonable member of the public would not have doubts about the fairness of military justice because of Trump's comments. He rejected a defense request to rule that it would be unfair to give Bergdahl any prison time. The judge did say, however, that he would consider Trump's comments as a mitigating factor in the sentencing. Other mitigating and aggravating factors that he could consider include Bergdahl's mental health and serious wounds to service members who searched for him. Bergdahl faces up to life in prison after pleading guilty to charges that he endangered comrades by walking off his post in Afghanistan in 2009. ___ 3 a.m. The wife of a seriously wounded soldier is expected to take the stand as the sentencing hearing for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl resumes. Prosecutors told a judge they intend to call Shannon Allen to the stand Monday to discuss a traumatic brain injury her husband suffered. National Guard Master Sgt. Mark Allen was shot in the temple during a search for Bergdahl, who walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009. Bergdahl has pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. He faces up to life in prison. Prosecutors are using wounds to several service members who searched for Bergdahl as evidence to convince the judge that he deserves a stiff punishment. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl's military attorney, Lt. Col. Franklin Rosenblatt, and his civilian attorney, Eugene Fidell, arrive at the Fort Bragg courthouse for a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017, on Fort Bragg, N.C. Bergdahl, who walked off his base in Afghanistan in 2009 and was held by the Taliban for five years, pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. (Andrew Craft/The Fayetteville Observer via AP) MOSCOW (AP) - A Russian journalist has joined the ranks of those wanting to run in March's presidential election. The 37-year old Yekaterina Gordon declared her intention to run in a YouTube video Monday, saying she plans to focus on defending the rights of women and children. Gordon has hosted a slew of TV and radio shows during her media career, but she doesn't have the fame of celebrity TV host Ksenia Sobchak who announced her bid earlier this month. Self-nominated candidates need to gather 300,000 signatures to get registered for the race. In this photo taken on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016, Russian journalist Yekaterina Gordon speaks to the media in Moscow, Russia.The 37-year old Gordon has joined the ranks of those wanting to run in March's presidential election. (Boris Kudryavov/Komsomolskaya Pravda via AP) President Vladimir Putin hasn't yet said whether he will seek re-election but he's widely expected to run Veterans of past campaigns, including Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and liberal Grigory Yavlinsky have also voiced their intention to run. WASHINGTON (AP) - Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling ramped up on Monday, with an indictment of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman and one of his associates. Separately, former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos is pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians. A look at what we know now: WHO WAS INDICTED? FILE - In this July 17, 2016 file photo, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort talks to reporters on the floor of the Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland as Rick Gates, a former business associate to Manafort and former campaign aide to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, listens at back left. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and former Manafort business associate Rick Gates were indicted on felony charges. Manafort was fired from the Trump campaign in August 2016 after word surfaced that he had orchestrated a covert lobbying operation on behalf of pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. Gates was a longtime associate of Manafort's and worked for the Trump campaign past Manafort's ouster. As of two weeks ago, Gates was still working for Tom Barrack, a Trump confidant, helping with the closeout of the inauguration committee's campaign account. WHAT ARE THEY ACCUSED OF? The separate charges against Manafort and Rick Gates contend the men acted as unregistered foreign agents for Ukrainian interests. The indictments also include several other financial counts involving tens of millions of dollars routed through offshore accounts. The indictment lays out 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, making false statements and several charges related to failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts. The indictment alleges the men moved money through hidden bank accounts in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles. The indictment accuses Manafort of using "his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income." WHO IS GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS? George Papadopoulos was a member of the campaign's foreign policy team. He is pleading guilty to lying to federal agents about his dealings with several Russians who were offering "dirt" on Trump's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos' plea occurred on Oct. 5 and was unsealed Monday. In court papers, he admitted lying about the nature of his interactions with "foreign nationals" who he thought had close connections to senior Russian government officials. Trump aides have said he played a limited role in the campaign and had no access to Trump. WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH RUSSIAN MEDDLING? The guilty plea by Papadopoulos marked the first criminal count that cites interactions between Trump campaign associates and Russian intermediaries during the campaign. Manafort's indictment doesn't reference the Trump campaign or make any allegations about coordination between the Kremlin and the president's aides to influence the outcome of the election in Trump's favor. The indictment does allege a criminal conspiracy was continuing through February of this year, after Trump had taken office. WHAT DOES TRUMP SAY? The president quickly tweeted about the charges against Manafort, saying the alleged crimes were "years ago," and insisting there was "NO COLLUSION" between his campaign and Russia. As he has before, he pointed instead to his Democratic rival in the election, Hillary Clinton. He tweeted: "Why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The Latest on the death of American Indian activist Dennis Banks (all times local): 1 p.m. The family of American Indian activist Dennis Banks says he was surrounded by family when he died at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Banks' family says the 80-year-old developed pneumonia after undergoing heart surgery earlier this month and didn't want to be put on life support. He died Sunday night. Daughter Tashina Banks Rama (RAY'-ma) says the family plans to hold wakes in Minneapolis and on the Leech Lake Reservation. She says details are still being worked out, but the wakes will be held Wednesday evening at the Minneapolis American Indian Center, and Thursday and Friday on the reservation. He'll be buried there Saturday. Rama says her father was in good spirits until his pneumonia took a turn for the worse on Friday. She says about 30 people were in the room when he died, including siblings, children and grandchildren. ___ 9:35 a.m. The family of American Indian activist Dennis Banks says he has died. He was 80. Banks, who lived on the Leech Lake Reservation in Minnesota, was a co-founder of the American Indian Movement and a leader of the Wounded Knee occupation in 1973. Banks' family wrote on his Facebook page that he died Sunday night. He had developed pneumonia following heart surgery this month. His family says he did not want to be put on life support. The family says that as Banks took his last breaths, one son sang him four songs for his journey. Family members also sang him the American Indian Movement song as his final send-off. Daughter Arrow Banks told The Associated Press the family would have more to say after a family meeting Monday. JERUSALEM (AP) - Australia's prime minister is in Israel for a re-enactment of a WWI battle where Australian and New Zealand troops triumphed over Ottoman forces in a charge that helped turn the tide of the war and shape the modern Middle East. Malcolm Turnbull met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a ceremony Monday ahead of the memorial. Photographers for foreign media walked out of the event in protest after security guards demanded the chief photographer of the European Press Agency take his pants off for inspection. It was the latest in a series of incidents where guards ordered journalists strip for searches at media events with Netanyahu. The Foreign Press Association, which represents journalists covering Israel and the Palestinian territories for international news organizations, has called the strip searches humiliating. ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) - A rare bird has landed at the University of Michigan: a two-legged robot named "Cassie" that researchers hope could be the forerunner of a machine that one day will aid search-and-rescue efforts. Cassie - whose name is derived from the cassowary (KASS'-uh-WAIR'-ee), a flightless bird similar to an ostrich - stands upright on legs with backward-facing knees. The biped that weighs about 66 pounds (29.94 kilograms) may not have feathers or a head, but she is attached to a short torso that holds motors, computers and batteries and is able to walk unassisted on rough and uneven terrain. Cassie, which stands a bit over 3.25 feet (1 meter) at full leg extension, was built by Albany, Oregon-based Agility Robotics and purchased by Michigan researchers using grant money from the National Science Foundation and Toyota Research Institute. Although other institutions have acquired similar models, Michigan's team is excited to use its version to put Michigan Robotics' cutting-edge programming to the test, said Jessy Grizzle, director of Michigan Robotics. In this Monday, Oct. 23, 2017 image made from video, a new robot, named "Cassie," walks on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. Researchers say the two-legged, bird-like machine, which is capable of walking unassisted on rough and uneven terrain, could someday have applications for search-and-rescue efforts. (AP Photo/Mike Householder) "This stuff makes our old math look like child's play," Grizzle said. Although there is considerable excitement about Cassie and the potential she represents, certain real-world applications are still a bit out of reach. Search-and-rescue "is a hard problem and serves as a template for 'unsolved problems in robotics,' which is one of the reasons you see it pop up so much when robotics companies talk about applications," said Agility Robotics CEO Damion Shelton, who added that it is "difficult to even speculate" when a robot could be used for such a purpose. Other applications will be launched sooner, according to Shelton, who said a robot capable of walking around the perimeter of an industrial site taking 3D scans is no more than two years away from becoming reality. For now, Grizzle and some of his students are putting Cassie through her paces on and around Michigan's Ann Arbor campus. During a recent a stroll on a pedestrian walkway, Cassie ambled on a grassy, sloped surface, then took a serious tumble and did a face-plant on the concrete. "Well, I think that's the end" of the test, Grizzle said, as Cassie lay in a heap on the ground, slightly nicked and scratched but no worse for wear. The programs Grizzle and his students tested "are version 1.0," he said. "They are simple algorithms to make sure that we understand the robot. We will now focus on implementing our super-cool latest stuff," Grizzle said. ___ Online: Cassie: http://www.agilityrobotics.com/robots/ University of Michigan Robotics: https://robotics.umich.edu/ ___ Sign up for the AP's weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: -http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - In a story Oct. 29 about an escaped inmate, The Associated Press, based on information provided by the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, reported erroneously the U.S. agency involved in inmate's apprehension and where he was captured. The agency was the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, not the U.S. Border Patrol. Todd Wayne Boyes was captured in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, not Laredo, Texas. A corrected version of the story is below: West Virginia escaped inmate caught in Mexico West Virginia authorities say an inmate who escaped from a jail two days before his sentencing has been captured in Mexico at the U.S. border with Texas. CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - A West Virginia inmate who escaped from a jail two days before his sentencing has been captured in Mexico at the U.S. border with Texas, authorities said. West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety spokesman Lawrence Messina said in a statement that Todd Wayne Boyes, 44, of Caldwell, Ohio, was captured early Sunday. A statement from U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Boyes was apprehended in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and turned over by Mexican immigration officers to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at a bridge leading into Laredo, Texas. Boyes was given a medical evaluation, then taken to the Webb County Jail in Texas. Boyes had changed into civilian clothes and escaped the South Central Regional Jail in Charleston on Wednesday, but the jail staff didn't notice until Thursday evening. A review of the facility's jail's security video showed Boyes leaving the facility the previous morning. Boyes was scheduled to be sentenced Friday to up to 20 years in prison on charges including fleeing and possession of a stolen car. He was initially charged with attempted murder after Charleston police Cpl. Renee Smith was hurt during a pursuit to arrest him, but the charge was dropped in a September plea deal. According to investigators, the 5-foot-6, 220-pound Boyes obtained khaki pants and a dark green or grey jacket he wore to escape by posing as a civilian or jail trusty. Three end-of-shift head counts failed to alert jail staff to his disappearance. Messina said four jail employees have been suspended without pay pending the results of an investigation. WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on the capture of a militant who the U.S. says was instrumental in the 2012 Benghazi attack (all times local): 4:50 p.m. Attorney General Jeff Sessions says a militant accused of involvement in the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, will face justice in federal court. Sessions calls the capture of Mustafa al-Imam a major step forward in the investigation into the attack that resulted in the death of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. Sessions says the government is working to identify others involved and hold them accountable for the "barbaric" crime. The decision to bring al-Imam to the U.S. shows the Trump administration is continuing to prosecute terrorism suspects in civilian courts, even as Sessions and Trump have said such suspects should instead be held at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. ___ 4:15 p.m. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says the U.S. will "spare no effort to ensure that justice is served" to the militants who committed the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Tillerson is thanking U.S. military, law enforcement and intelligence officials for the capture of a man they're describing as a key suspect in the deadly assault on the U.S. outpost. Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans were killed. Tillerson says he spoke with some family members of the four fallen Americans to "underscore the U.S. government's unwavering support." ___ 3:55 p.m. President Donald Trump says a captured militant who was involved in the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, will "face justice" in the U.S. Trump says he ordered the Special Forces operation that led to the capture of Mustafa al-Imam for his alleged role in the September 2012 attack that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya. Trump says the "four brave Americans" were serving their country. Although five years have passed since the fatal attack, Trump says "our memory is deep and our reach is long." He says the U.S. will not rest in its efforts to find and bring everyone who was involved in the attack to justice. ___ 3:35 p.m. A U.S. official has identified the militant it has captured in connection with the 2012 Benghazi attack as Mustafa al-Imam. The official says American special operations forces captured al-Imam in Misrata, on the north coast of Libya. The official says al-Imam was then taken to a U.S. Navy ship at the Misrata port for transport. He is being taken now to the United States. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity. ___ 2:20 p.m. U.S. officials say special operations forces have captured a militant who was instrumental in the attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. The attack resulted in the death of the American ambassador to the country. The officials say U.S. commandos captured the unidentified man in Libya and are transporting him back to the U.S. The officials say the mission was approved by President Donald Trump and done in coordination with Libya's internationally recognized government. The officials weren't authorized to speak on the matter and demanded anonymity. The September 2012 assault killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The attack was the fodder of multiple congressional investigations to determine what went wrong and whether the Obama administration misled the public on the details of the bloody assault. SKHIRAT, Morocco (AP) - Morocco is hosting a regional meeting on migration aiming at developing an African agenda on the issue. The three-day meeting gathers representatives of African states, the United Nations, the African Union, NGOs and academics. Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita said during the opening speech Monday that the set of informal sessions aims to "open the dialogue between the diplomat and the civil society, the researcher." Since March, Morocco's king Mohammed VI has been in charge of coordinating the migration issue within the African Union. The agenda on migration will be formed into a roadmap ahead of the next African Union summit scheduled in January 2018. Louise Arbour, special representative of the U.N. Secretary-General for international migration, said the African roadmap will "certainly feed" the U.N.'s Global Compact on Migration. WASHINGTON (AP) - The first criminal charges to come from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into foreign meddling in the 2016 election stem from different activities. A primer on those charged: PAUL MANAFORT Before Manafort became GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump's top strategist between late March and August 2016, he had a storied career in Republican politics. A court artist drawing shows President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, center standing and Manafort's business associate, Rick Gates, in federal court in Washington, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson. Seated at front left is Manafort's attorney Kevin Downing. Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty following their arrest on charges related to conspiracy against the United States and other felonies. The charges are the first from the special counsel investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. (Dana Verkouteren via AP) A lawyer by training, Manafort gained prominence rounding up delegates for Gerald Ford at the 1976 Republican convention and helping manage Ronald Reagan's convention efforts in 1980. He founded a lobbying shop, known as Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly, earning a reputation for both his flashy lifestyle and his willingness to take on less-than-savory clients, such as Democratic Republic of Congo's dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko. In 1995, Manafort set up a new lobbying firm with Rick Davis, who later helped Manafort establish his political contacts in former Soviet states, including Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Ahkmetov. Manafort's work in Eastern Europe came at a lucky time, as struggled in his domestic lobbying business and his spending on an ill-fated career as a movie producer left him nearly broke in the early 2000s. As an adviser to Ukraine's pro-Russian Party of Regions, Manafort helped the party turn around its reputation as corrupt and under Russian influence, getting Ukraine's president elected in 2006. Manafort remained an adviser to the Party of Regions until 2014, when it was ousted amid popular protests. Among Manafort's long-term friends was Thomas Barrack, who was also personally close with Trump. That connection and Manafort's perceived skill in Republican Party politics got Manafort his entree into Trump's campaign. In August 2016, he was ousted amid revelations of large payments listed in an alleged "black book" of under-the-table payments by the ousted Ukrainian government. RICK GATES Rick Gates was Manafort's deputy, both in the Trump campaign and in Manafort's work in Ukraine. Now 45, Gates began as an intern at lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly, before furthering his career elsewhere. But after working with another Republican lobbyist, Rick Davis, Gates came back into Manafort's fold. By the time that Davis took a leave from his partnership with Manafort to run John McCain's presidential campaign, Gates joined Manafort's new firm, Davis Manafort Inc and was working with Manafort to drum up business in former Soviet States. They hit gold in work performed for the Party of Regions, a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party, though that work fizzled out in 2014 after Ukraine's president fled to Russia amid popular protests. Gates joined Manafort for the Trump campaign, too, serving as a top decisionmaker for day-to-day matters. But he never drew a Trump campaign paycheck. When Manafort got booted from the campaign amid revelations about his Ukrainian political work and questions about how he'd been paid for it, Gates stayed on in Trump Tower as a Republican National Committee liaison to the campaign. Gates work wasn't done after Election Day, however. He was tapped by Trump Inauguration Chairman Thomas Barrack, a friend of both Manafort's and Trump's, to manage the work of the inaugural committee. And he also took a post with a newly created political nonprofit to support Trump, America First Policies, though he stepped down amid controversy surrounding his and Manafort's work with a Russian oligarch, Oleg Deripaska. GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS Before joining Trump's campaign, Papadopoulos billed himself as international energy consultant - though he only graduated from DePaul University in 2009 and was largely unknown in foreign policy circles. Trump's campaign named him as one of eight foreign policy advisers in March 2016, however, as it scrambled to develop policy positions on key international issues. The Washington Post previously reported he had tried to facilitate contact between Russian government entities and the Trump campaign. HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Before General Electric decided to relocate its long-established Connecticut headquarters, state officials offered to buy the company's sprawling 66-acre suburban campus so GE could move to a more urban area within the state. It was one of three options offered by Connecticut officials, according to a proposal presented to GE in hopes of fending off a move. The proposal reveals the lengths Connecticut officials were willing to go through to keep the cache of GE and hundreds of jobs in the state. "We thought this could be a really unique way for us to make it easy for them to make the change here in Connecticut," Economic and Community Development Commissioner Catherine Smith told The Associated Press. She said GE could have used proceeds from the sale to relocate to a more tech-centered, urban, transit-oriented environment within the state with nearby higher education institutions, as desired by GE's then-CEO Jeff Immelt. It would better to have the headquarters somewhere else in Connecticut, likely nearby Stamford, rather than having it move to Boston, New York or another out-of-state city, Smith said. Ultimately, though, GE decided to relocate to Boston. Connecticut officials were under great pressure after GE threatened to move. The company referenced recent state tax increases - some of which were scaled back. A draft copy of Connecticut's proposal, obtained by AP through an open records request, shows photos and details of various office complexes, mostly in Stamford, which is about 34 miles northeast of New York City and located along Amtrak and commuter rail lines. Fairfield First Selectman Mike Tetreau said he would have preferred that GE remain in his town or at least sell the property to another tax-paying entity. Fairfield has lost $1.7 million in annual local tax revenue with GE leaving. In hindsight, he said, it's clear GE had made up its mind to leave, especially considering the extensive improvements needed at the campus. He understands why the state offered to buy the property. "I think the state at one level tried to be creative in how they approached GE and tried to lay out as many options as possible," he said. Sacred Heart University last year bought the property for $31.5 million. The state's other options to GE included moving a portion of the headquarters staff to another Connecticut city and upgrading the old campus, or making major renovations to the old campus. Financial incentives offered by the state were blacked out in the documents provided to AP. Stamford, the hometown of Democratic Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a former mayor, also is a suggested location for the state's bid for Amazon's second headquarters. It is already home to various corporate headquarters, including for Xerox Corp. Cable provider Charter Communications announced this month it's planning to build its headquarters in Stamford. Smith said she doesn't believe GE seriously considered the state's proposal, offered a month before the company announced its decision to leave. "Sometimes there's just a quietness that just indicates you're not being taken seriously, and of course we knew perfectly well that lots of other states were trouping in and talking to the company," she said. "So, we felt like we were a secondary tier, not a seriously considered proposal." About 3,600 GE employees still remain in Connecticut, working at other locations. A GE spokesman reiterated that the company is moving its headquarters to Boston "because of the city's world-class colleges and universities, vibrant research & development ecosystem, and diverse, technologically-fluent workforce." Smith said Connecticut has taken that message heart, recently embarking on an initiative to help communities become places with high-growth enterprises, where people can walk, bike or take the train to work. Even before GE's announcement, she said the state tried to make urban areas more attractive to young people "walking around with genius ideas in their heads." "I think if we'd had five more years," she said, "maybe we could have convinced GE to stick around." UNITED NATIONS (AP) - More than 13 million people inside Syria still need humanitarian assistance and nearly half are in "acute need" as a result of having fled their homes, of hostilities, and of limited access to food, health care and other basic needs, the U.N. humanitarian chief said Monday. Mark Lowcock told the Security Council the number of Syrians who have been displaced within the country for a long time has dropped from 6.3 million to 6.1 million. But he said "levels of new displacement remain high," with 1.8 million people reportedly forced to leave between January and September. Since just the offensive began in November 2016 that ousted the Islamic State extremist group from the city of Raqqa, its self-proclaimed capital, airstrikes and clashes resulted in over 436,000 people being displaced to 60 different locations, Lowcock said, speaking via video conference from Amman, Jordan. In the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, he said, heavy fighting and airstrikes continue to cause civilian deaths and injuries as well as large-scale displacement. The International Organization for Migration reported some 350,000 people forced to flee since August, including more than 250,000 in October, he said. Lowcock said airstrikes on the city of Al Mayadin in Deir el-Zour in mid-October left hospitals and medical facilities "inoperable," depriving about 15,000 people of health care. He said the U.N. children's agency UNICEF and the World Health Organization reported that the attacks destroyed a cold room where at least 140,000 doses of U.N. provided measles and polio vaccines were destroyed. "This is a particular setback for efforts to check one of the world's largest polio outbreaks in recent memory, an outbreak which continues to plague Deir el-Zour in particular, with new cases continuing to be reported," Lowcock said. He said nearly 3 million people continue to live in besieged and hard-to-reach areas where the U.N. faces "considerable challenges" in meeting humanitarian needs. Lowcock said there was an expectation that progress in de-escalating fighting would result in increased humanitarian access but "this has yet to materialize." On average, he said, only 10 percent of people in besieged locations were reached with U.N. assistance every month this year. In the eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, "one of the four de-escalated areas where nearly 95 percent of Syria's besieged population lives," shelling has been reported in recent weeks and humanitarian access has been severely curtailed for months, Lowcock said. "Since the start of the year, 110,000 people have received food assistance, out of an estimated population of nearly 400,000," he said. "Today, the U.N. and partners delivered food, nutrition and health assistance to 40,000 people." Lowcock said "an alarming number of child malnutrition cases" have been reported in eastern Ghouta and more than 400 people with health problems need medical evacuation. Britain's U.N. ambassador, Matthew Rycroft, called the situation in eastern Ghouta "atrocious," saying de-escalation should not mean bombardment. "What we fear is that the de-escalation zone is becoming a starvation zone," Rycroft said. "So we call on the Syrian regime and their allies to lift the blockade to allow humanitarian aid to get through." WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. special operations forces captured a militant in Libya accused of playing an instrumental role in the Benghazi attacks, officials said Monday, in a high-stakes operation designed to bring the perpetrators to justice five years after the deadly violence. President Donald Trump identified the militant as Mustafa al-Imam and said his capture signified that the four Americans who died "will never be forgotten." Justice Department officials were escorting al-Imam by military plane to the United States, where he's expected to be tried in federal court. "Our memory is deep and our reach is long, and we will not rest in our efforts to find and bring the perpetrators of the heinous attacks in Benghazi to justice," Trump said. FILE - In this April 11, 2011 file photo, then-U.S. envoy Chris Stevens attends meetings at the Tibesty Hotel in Benghazi, Libya. U.S. special operations forces captured a militant in Libya accused of playing an instrumental role in the Benghazi attacks, officials said Oct. 30, 2017, in a high-stakes operation designed to bring the perpetrators to justice more than five years after the deadly violence. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File) The Navy SEAL-led raid marked the first publicly known operation since Trump took office to target those accused of involvement in Benghazi, which mushroomed into a multiyear political fracas centered on Republican allegations of a bungled Obama administration response. Those critiques shadowed Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the attacks, through her presidential campaign. U.S. forces captured al-Imam just before midnight local time Sunday in Misrata, on Libya's north coast, U.S. officials said. He was taken to a U.S. Navy ship at the Misrata port for transport by military plane to Washington, where he's expected to arrive within the next two days, one of the officials said. Once on American soil, al-Imam will face trial in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as the FBI continues to investigate, the Justice Department said. He faces three criminal charges that were filed in May 2015 but only recently unsealed: killing or conspiring to kill someone during an attack on a federal facility, providing support for terrorists, and using a firearm in connection with a violent crime. It wasn't immediately clear how al-Imam was involved in the Sept. 11, 2012, violence. The U.S. attorney's office said he is a Libyan national and about 46 years old. Trump said he'd ordered the raid, and thanked the U.S. military, intelligence agencies and prosecutors for tracking al-Imam and enabling his capture. The U.S. officials said the operation was coordinated with Libya's internationally recognized government. They weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he'd spoken with the relatives of some of the Americans who died in Benghazi: U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, State Department information management officer Sean Patrick Smith, and contract security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Tillerson said the U.S. would "spare no effort" to ensure al-Imam is held accountable. Al-Imam will face court proceedings in U.S. District Court, officials said, in an apparent departure from Trump's previously expressed desire to send militants to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In an interview last March with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called Guantanamo "a very fine place for holding these kind of dangerous criminals." The commando raid also came amid an ongoing debate about the use of U.S. forces to pursue insurgents in Africa and other locations outside of warzones like Iraq and Afghanistan. Four U.S. soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger earlier this month under circumstances that have remained hazy and prompted Democrats and Republicans in Congress to express concerns. Earlier this month, another man accused in the Benghazi attack, Abu Khattala, went on trial in federal court in Washington. Khattala, captured during President Barack Obama's tenure, has pleaded not guilty to the 18 charges against him, including murder of an internationally protected person, providing material support to terrorists and destroying U.S. property while causing death. The Benghazi assault started in the evening when armed attackers scaled the wall of the diplomatic post and moved through the front gate. Stevens was rushed to a fortified "safe room" along with Smith, but were then siphoned off from security officers when attackers set the building and its furniture on fire. Libyan civilians found Stevens hours later in the wreckage, and he died of smoke inhalation in a hospital, becoming the first U.S. ambassador killed in the line of duty in more than three decades. A nearby CIA annex was attacked by mortar fire hours after the diplomatic complex, killing Woods and Doherty, who were defending the rooftop. The attack became fodder for multiple congressional investigations to determine what happened and whether the Obama administration misled the public on the details of the bloody assault. Initial accounts provided by administration officials, notably Obama's U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, said the attack grew out of a protest against an anti-Muslim internet film. Later, the administration said it was a planned terrorist attack. A two-year investigation by a House Benghazi committee focused heavily on Clinton's role and whether security at the compounds and the response to the attack was sufficient. It was the Benghazi probe that revealed Clinton used a private email server for government work, prompting an FBI investigation that proved to be an albatross for her presidential campaign. ___ Associated Press writers Maggie Michael and Sadie Gurman contributed to this report. The Karen National Union (KNU) said that more than 20,000 local residents have been forced to flee after two consecutive days of airstrikes by the... LAS VEGAS (AP) - A judge will allow lawyers for a California woman who was critically wounded in the mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music festival to inspect and photograph the concert site. The grounds have been closed for law enforcement investigations since the Oct. 1 shooting in which a gunman killed 58 people and wounded hundreds of others. The defendants in the lawsuit include MGM Resorts International, the concert promoter and others. A judge signed off on agreement in court Monday that will allow attorneys to photograph and diagram the scene Tuesday. Concert vendors who left things such as food trucks and sound equipment may be able to retrieve those items as soon as Wednesday. A judge last week ordered the casino-hotel where gunman Stephen Paddock fired on the crowd to preserve surveillance video and other records in the case. KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Federal prosecutors say a church maintenance worker set a fire and spray-painted racist graffiti on a predominantly black Kansas City church in order to cover up a theft. Nathaniel Nelson was charged Monday with arson. He was a member and employee of the Concord Fortress of Hope church and its cultural center, where the arson and graffiti were discovered early Sunday. Investigators say sprinklers quickly extinguished an intentionally set fire in an office. Graffiti on the church included a racial slur and "KKK." According to a federal affidavit, Nelson told investigators he was at the church to do drugs and he tried to steal money. He reportedly told investigators he spray-painted the graffiti to throw off investigators. Online court records do not indicate if Nelson has an attorney. WASHINGTON (AP) - Major tech companies plan to tell Congress Tuesday that they have found additional evidence of Russian activity on their services surrounding the 2016 U.S. election. Facebook, for instance, says a Russian group posted more than 80,000 times on its service during and after the election, potentially reaching as many as 126 million users. The company plans to disclose these numbers to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the testimony. The person declined to be named because the committee has not officially released the testimony. Twitter plans to tell the same committee that it has uncovered and shut down 2,752 accounts linked to the same group, Russia's Internet Research Agency, which is known for promoting pro-Russian government positions. FILE - In this May 16, 2012, file photo, the Facebook logo is displayed on an iPad in Philadelphia. Facebook says a Russian internet agency posted more than 80,000 pieces of content during and after the 2016 election, and that content was distributed to an estimated 126 million users. The company plans to disclose the new numbers to Congress in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2017, according to a source familiar with the testimony. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) That number is nearly 14 times larger than the number of accounts Twitter handed over to congressional committees three weeks ago, according to a person familiar with the matter. This person requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the new findings ahead of the hearing on Tuesday. And Google announced in a blog post that it found evidence of "limited" misuse of its services by the Russian group, as well as some YouTube channels that were likely backed by Russian agents. THREE HEARINGS IN TWO DAYS The companies are set to testify at three hearings Tuesday and Wednesday as part of congressional probes of Russian election interference. Colin Stretch, Facebook's general counsel, plans to tell the Judiciary panel that 120 pages set up by the Russian agency posted repeatedly between January 2015 and August 2017. The company estimates that roughly 29 million people were directly "served" posts in their news feeds from the agency over that time. Those posts then spread widely on Facebook, although Stretch's prepared testimony makes clear that many of the 126 million people reached this way may not have seen the posts. These "organic" posts that appeared in users' news feeds are distinct from more than 3,000 advertisements linked to the agency that Facebook has already turned over to congressional committees. The ads - many of which focused on divisive social issues - pointed people to the agency's pages, where they could then like or share its material. On Twitter, the Russia-linked accounts put out 1.4 million election-related tweets from September through Nov. 15 last year - nearly half of them automated. The company also found nine Russian accounts that bought ads, most of which came from the state-backed news service Russia Today, or RT. Twitter said last week it would no longer accept ads from RT and Sputnik, another state-sponsored news outlet. It will donate the $1.9 million it has earned from RT since 2011 to support external research into political uses of Twitter. Google said that two accounts linked to the Russian group spent $4,700 on ads its platforms during the 2016 election. The company also found 18 YouTube channels likely backed by Russian agents. Those channels hosted 1,108 videos with 43 hours of material, although they racked up just 309,000 views in the U.S. between June 2015 and November 2016, Google said. PREEMPTING REGULATION A bill unveiled earlier this month would require social media companies to keep public files of election ads and require companies to "make reasonable efforts" to make sure that foreign individuals or entities are not purchasing political advertisements in order to influence Americans. The companies haven't commented on the proposed legislation, but say they're at work on the problem. Last week Facebook said it will verify political ad buyers in federal elections and build transparency tools to link ads to the Facebook pages of their sponsors. Twitter has also said it will require election-related ads for candidates to disclose who is paying for them and how they are targeted. Google announced on Monday that it will also verify the identity of election-related ad buyers and identify these advertisers publicly via an ad icon. It will provide a public database of election ads detailing who purchased each one, and will publish a transparency report on election ads as well. The companies have been under constant pressure from Congress since it was first revealed earlier this year that Russians had infiltrated some of their platforms. Facebook has already spent more than $8.4 million lobbying the government this year, according to federal disclosure forms. All three firms are expected to face questions about what evidence of Russian interference they found on their services, as well as why they didn't find it earlier. They will almost certainly do what they can to convince lawmakers that they can fix the problem on their own, without the need for regulation. BEYOND ADS The issue goes far beyond ads. Fake news, fake events, propaganda and other misinformation spread far and wide on social media services in 2016 without the need for paid advertisements. But regulating online speech would be more difficult for U.S. lawmakers. In addition, analysts and online speech advocates have warned that policing internet election ads is not the same thing as doing so in print newspapers or on TV. Automated advertising platforms allow basically anyone with an internet account and a credit card to place an ad with little or no oversight from the companies. Facebook has said it is building machine learning tools to address this issue, but didn't provide details. ___ Ortutay reported from New York. Ryan Nakashima in Menlo Park, California, contributed to this story. WASHINGTON (AP) - A former Donald Trump campaign aide described by the White House as a low-level volunteer was thrust Monday into the center of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, providing key evidence in the first criminal case connecting Trump's team to alleged intermediaries for Russia's government. George Papadopoulos was approached by people claiming ties to Russia and offering "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, according to court documents unsealed. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about the conversations and has been cooperating with investigators, the documents said. Papadopoulos' guilty plea and the possibility that he's working with Mueller's team came as an unexpected twist in the mounting drama surrounding the criminal probe. A separate welter of charges Mueller announced Monday against Trump's ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime aide Rick Gates do not appear directly related to their work for Trump. In this photo from President Donald Trump's Twitter account, George Papadopoulos, third from left, sits at a table with then-candidate Trump and others at what is labeled at a national security meeting in Washington that was posted on March 31, 2016. Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign aide belittled by the White House as a low-level volunteer was thrust on Oct. 30, 2017, to the center of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, providing evidence in the first criminal case that connects Trump's team and intermediaries for Russia seeking to interfere in the campaign. (Donald Trump's Twitter account via AP) But Papadopoulos' case cuts close to the central question of Mueller's investigation: Did Russia try to sway the election? Did Trump's campaign know? "The Russians had emails of Clinton," Papadopoulos was told by an unnamed Russian professor during a breakfast meeting at a London hotel in April. U.S. investigators said that the following day, Papadopoulos then emailed a Trump campaign policy adviser, "Have some interesting messages coming in from Moscow about a trip when the time is right." Papadopoulos was arrested in July and has been interviewed repeatedly by authorities, the filing said. After entering his guilty plea he was ordered not to contact other Trump officials and prohibited from foreign travel. In one of the unsealed files, an FBI agent working for Mueller bluntly hinted that more former Trump associates could soon be questioned. Papadopoulos' lawyer, Thomas M. Breen, based in Chicago, declined to comment on the guilty plea but noted that "we will have the opportunity to comment on George's involvement when called upon by the court at a later date. We look forward to telling all of the details of George's story at that time." The incident echoes elements of a June 2016 meeting involving Donald Trump Jr. and other campaign officials at Trump Tower. The president's son organized that sit down with a Russian lawyer who was offering negative information about Clinton. The White House immediately cast Papadopoulos as a mere volunteer with little influence during last year's campaign. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said his role was "extremely limited" and that "no activity was ever done in an official capacity on behalf of the campaign." Trump named Papadopoulos to his foreign policy advisory council in March 2016, among a short list of experts amid growing public pressure on Trump to demonstrate he had a bench of foreign policy expertise. During a meeting with the Washington Post editorial board, Trump called Papadopoulos an "excellent guy." He was named along with retired U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, former Bush administration inspector general Joseph Schmitz, international affairs professor Walid Phares and energy executive Carter Page, whose ties to Russian interests have also been scrutinized by congressional inquiries. On March 31, 2016, Trump tweeted a photo of his meeting with the advisory board, with Papadopoulos among a handful of advisers at the president's table. In his plea filing, Papadopolous admitted that he told Trump and other top campaign national security officials during that meeting, that he had made contact with intermediaries for Russia who said they could set up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The statement does not describe Trump's reaction, but one meeting attendee recalled that it was not well received by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, then a senator and close adviser to the campaign who was also in attendance. Sessions quickly dismissed the idea and said he'd prefer that no one ever speak about it, according to the attendee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share the private conversation. The court filings recount Papadopoulos' meetings abroad starting in March 2016, after he'd been named to Trump's board. Papadopoulos initially told the investigators the meetings came before, and later admitted that was untrue. Papadopoulos also deleted a Facebook post about his travels, the documents said. The court filings say he met first with the unnamed Russian professor who boasted of damaging emails and then later with an unnamed Russian woman, who claimed to be related to Putin and sought to arrange a meeting between Trump and the Russian leader. The unnamed professor also introduced Papadopoulos to a third unnamed person who claimed he had connections to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The two men then exchanged emails about a possible meeting between Trump campaign aides and Russian government officials. The court records did not specify which emails the Russian claimed to have. The timing of the new disclosures about Clinton emails may be significant because the scope of the Kremlin's efforts to hack Clinton's campaign and the Democratic National Committee were just beginning to be understood by March 2016, weeks before Papadopoulos was told of damaging emails. It's unclear how frequently Papadopoulos was in contact with the campaign officials. Sanders initially said the foreign policy advisory board convened only once, but the White House later clarified she was speaking only of official meetings with Trump in attendance. An official involved with the group said the group met on a monthly basis throughout the spring and summer for a total of about six meetings. Papadopoulos, who was based in London at the time, did not attend them all, but he did attend a dinner meeting of the advisers in late June at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, along with Sessions. The special counsel's statement noted that in an email exchange about Papadopoulos' contacts last year, two unnamed Trump campaign officials sought to protect Trump from any overt involvement. "We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal," one of the campaign aides said. An email independently obtained by The Associated Press shows that the comment was sent by Trump's former campaign chairman Manafort to his long-time aide Gates on May 21, 2016. ___ Associated Press writer Tom LoBianco contributed to this report. WASHINGTON (AP) - House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi endorsed Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Monday, calling her fellow San Francisco Democrat "a strong voice and a staunch advocate for the people of California." Pelosi said Feinstein is uniquely positioned to defend the state against what Pelosi called President Donald Trump's "constant attacks" on health care, immigration and voting rights. Kevin De Leon, president pro tem of the California state Senate, is among several Democrats running against Feinstein, pressing for fiercer resistance to Trump. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is questioned by reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Feinstein, 84, is seeking her fifth full term in the Senate. Pelosi said Feinstein's seniority "is a source of strength to California and is especially needed at this time." California's unusual open primary allows Republicans and moderate Democrats to virtually ensure Feinstein makes the general election ballot against a challenger from the left. The Senate race is being cast as a fight between the moderate Feinstein, who opposes Trump but has supported some of his nominees, and progressive forces who want to aggressively fight Trump's policies across the board. Democrat Hillary Clinton crushed Trump in California's 2016 presidential vote. Jose Mourinho has once again insisted he has no idea when Paul Pogba is likely to return to action. Pogbas hamstring problem sustained on September 12 has seen the France midfielder miss Manchester Uniteds last 10 matches in all competitions. United boss Mourinho described the injury as a long-term issue towards the end of last month. Manchester United's Paul Pogba on the ground after picking up an injury And since then, while social media posts from Pogba have suggested he is making good progress, Mourinho has stressed on a number of occasions he does not know when the player is set to be available again. The Portuguese was asked after Saturdays 1-0 home win over Tottenham if Pogba, who has been undergoing rehabilitation in the United States, had any chance of returning before the forthcoming international break. And Mourinho said: Again, I have no idea. Honestly. Bruce Lee style !! Wouaaaa tchaaaaaa ???????? #recovery A post shared by Paul Labile Pogba (@paulpogba) on Oct 3, 2017 at 1:25pm PDT I am not in control of his recovery process. He is not training with me. He is on individual work. For example, Marcos Rojo is working with me, with certain conditions, and I would expect him to be ready to play after the international break. I can predict that. But Paul, I have no idea. Uniteds two remaining matches before the international break see them host Benfica in the Champions League on Tuesday, then face Chelsea away in the Premier League five days later. A former Royal Marine injured in an IED blast has become the first UK veteran to benefit from iPod-based treatment for debilitating tinnitus. Harris Tatakis, 39, was blown up in Afghanistan in April 2007 when his Land Rover drove over an improvised explosive device (IED). The blast shattered his left leg, broke his right foot, ruptured both of his eardrums, caused brain damage and left him paralysed for two days. Former Royal Marine Harris Tatakis, who has become the first UK veteran to benefit from iPod-based treatment for debilitating tinnitus He suffered constant tinnitus, likened to a fog horn going off in his head, and was left so hard of hearing that he had to learn to lip read. After 10 years of suffering, a Google Alert for tinnitus brought up Levo, which delivers treatment through an iPod while a person is sleeping. Mr Tatakis, of Cornwall, successfully applied for a Royal British Legion grant to cover the cost of his treatment and started it in January. It was like a dentist drill or fog horn constantly going off in my head which I couldnt get away from, he said. I couldnt tolerate people talking around me. Everything was horrendously loud and I couldnt get away from it. The tinnitus masks a lot of letters so it makes your hearing even worse, I had to learn to lip read to help me understand. People would look at me and theyd say, Youre fine, theres nothing wrong with you. I was really suffering. He said the US-developed treatment, as well as desensitisation therapy, had allowed him to function again as a human being. (Royal British Legion/PA) Levo works through an iPod to deliver a personalised sound that stimulates the hearing part of the brain while a patient is sleeping. It aims to teach the brain to ignore the hissing or buzzing associated with tinnitus and reduce its loudness and annoyance. Mr Tatakis, who attends the Tinnitus Centre in Bristol, says his symptoms have reduced to a level that he is able to live with. Im getting my confidence back and I feel like Im part of society again, he said. Beforehand I would come up with excuses not to see friends simply because I was so uncomfortable in my own skin. I didnt want my Marine friends to see me in this state. I just wanted to shut myself away. Mr Tatakis is the first veteran in the UK to receive the treatment, which is being funded through the Veterans Hearing Fund managed by the Royal British Legion. (Royal British Legion/PA) The fund is part of the five-year Veterans Medical Funds, which use 13 million of Libor rate-fixing fines released by the Government. When I went into it I knew there was no guarantee that it would work, but because of how I was living day to day, I had to try something, Mr Tatakis said. I had nothing to lose so I knew it couldnt get any worse. I was desperate. The Royal British Legion is out there supporting me by paying for the treatment, and Id encourage anyone in my position to make the most of the help. The Legion is here for us whether were young or old and thats a wonderful thing. People suffer in silence because they dont know where to go. The NHS couldnt help me to the degree I needed so I looked elsewhere and Im eternally glad I did. Mr Tatakis, whose father served in the Royal Navy, joined the Royal Marines in 1998 and was medically discharged in 2011. He served with 3 Commando Brigade in Kosovo, twice in Iraq and twice in Afghanistan receiving operational service medals. On April 3 2007, while with 42 Commandos Lima Company, Mr Tatakis was travelling in a WMIK Land Rover which drove over an IED. He was found 35 metres away and brought back to the UK for treatment, which he received at Selly Oak Hospital and Headley Court. Mr Tatakis is one of the ambassadors for this years Poppy Appeal, which is asking the public to rethink what remembrance means. The charity is calling on people to reconsider what the poppy stands for and wear it in support of the armed forces community, past and present. Letting Islamic State jihadis return to the UK is like inviting the wolf to dinner, a Briton fighting against the murderous group has warned. Having battled the extremists for the past three years alongside Syrian Democratic Forces, Macer Gifford said there was a real risk those returning could carry out terror attacks. Earlier this month Max Hill QC spoke of losing a generation by automatically using the courts to punish those who have travelled to the war zone, with the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation calling for a focus on reintegration. (Macer Gifford/PA) But Mr Gifford, 30, from Cambridge, has issued a plea to the Government to sit up and listen as he states it is not possible for former IS fighters to come back and be reformed. As someone who has been out here and seen what the Islamic State is like on the ground and what they have done to the people this is a wake up call and a warning to Britain, he said. When I see a man like this official who said he wants these young people back, when I see them saying this on national television you are inviting the wolf to dinner. You are inviting back into the country an insidious virus, that we are actually almost grateful to see go, because they have attacked us and in the places that mean the most to British people. That is our children in Manchester and the very heart of our democracy in London Bridge. Mr Gifford, a former London-based banker who worked in foreign exchange before heading to the Middle East, and who uses a pseudonym to protect his family, said the fanatics could not be trusted. The foreign fighters are actually by far the worst, and the most aggressive, most deranged of all the Islamic State fighters, he said. They are the ones who have come from abroad and forced their twisted, perverse ideology on to the people. These are individuals who have had every opportunity to live a normal happy life in Britain, America, France and other places. Yet theyve basically spat in the face of everything that we hold dear our democracy, our shared values of secularism and multiculturalism. They have gone to Syria to butcher, murder and rape people, sell people into sexual slavery, and they tear up their passports as an act of defiance. They say I have a love/hate relationship with the worlds media! Not true! pic.twitter.com/Vk1cwHPn6h Macer Gifford (@macergifford) October 27, 2017 He said these battle-hardened jihadis, who are now being hunted by drones, are faced with the choice of dying or returning to the UK and riding out a prison sentence. You cant trust these people, he said, highlighting how they would not want to come back to Britain if they had not lost. Their concept of reality is way off, they cant be reformed in my opinion. They are completely lost to us as human beings. Mr Gifford warned that those returning could carry out an attack on British soil as they look to go out with more of an even bigger bang than dying in a ditch. The most seriously injured British soldier to survive an attack in Afghanistan is hoping an operation on his spine will help him achieve his dream of walking again. Paratrooper Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson suffered around 40 different injuries, including brain damage and losing both his legs, when his Land Rover was blown up in 2006. His fight, first to survive and then regain his life, has inspired remarkable scenes, including when 30,000 people came out to watch him carry the Olympic Torch through his home town of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, in 2012. A sandwich board in Doncaster with a tribute message to Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson, 27, the most seriously wounded soldier to survive the war in Afghanistan, who carried the Olympic Flame through his home town of Doncaster Now, L/Bdr Parkinson has undergone a seven-hour operation, filmed by the BBCs Inside Out programme, to help straighten his spine in a bid to improve his chances of walking again. The curve in his back has not only affected his walking but, for the first time in years, he has been complaining to his parents about being in pain, his family said. Eight years ago the soldier had an operation to install screws and two rods in his back. But his spine has curved below these rods and this latest operation involved the surgeons putting new screws in at the bottom of his back and then adding length to the original rods. Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson, the most seriously injured British soldier to survive an attack in Afghanistan, on route to surgery which he is hoping will help him achieve his dream of walking again After the operation, one of the surgeons, Alex Baker, told Inside Out: So far its looking pretty good. Its looking fairly well balanced. Were very happy with the X-rays and how it all looks. L/Bdr Parkinsons mother Diane Dernie told the programme that the operation was an important step. She said: This operation means everything to Ben. There are good medical reasons why it needs to happen but for Ben its all about the walking. Speaking as her son is taken into theatre, she said: Im more nervous than he is, hes cool as a cucumber. Were in bits. I think no matter how old your kids are you never think this is what you are going to be doing. Before the surgery, L/Bdr Parkinson said: I am excited, its been over 10 years that I have been waiting for it. The Princess Royal talks to Lance Bombardier Ben Parkinson in 2013 My walking is going a lot, lot better but I need this operation for it to progress. I am confident this operation will make a big difference. It will definitely make a difference in some way. Speaking a few days after the operation, during a physiotherapy session, L/Bdr Parkinson said: Im very happy, its slightly painful but Im not that bad. Its very, very good. His stepfather Andy Dernie said: There are probably other operations that this will lead on to, but one at a time. The next ones wont be as scary, but this one was a scary one. Were glad its over and were fairly sure that its an absolute 100% success. :: The BBC Inside Out programme featuring L/Bdr Parkinsons operation will be shown in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire on Monday at 7.30pm on BBC One. The programme will also be available to watch on the BBC iPlayer for 30 days Senior parliamentary authorities are meeting on Monday evening to discuss calls from Theresa May for a new independent helpline to deal with complaints of sexual harassment and abuse at Westminster. Setting out details of the plan in the Commons with the Prime Minister by her side, Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom said that a recent spate of allegations against MPs showed current arrangements were inadequate and action was needed in days rather than weeks. Commons Speaker John Bercow also called for change at Westminster amid what he described as disturbing allegations about a culture of sexual harassment. There must be zero tolerance of sexual harassment or bullying at Westminster, he told MPs. His comments came as a Cabinet Office investigation got under way into alleged misconduct by international trade minister Mark Garnier, who is reported to have asked his Commons secretary to buy sex toys and called her sugar tits. Mrs Mays official spokesman earlier declined to confirm that the Prime Minister has full confidence in Mr Garnier, saying he did not want to pre-empt the outcome of the inquiry. The Wyre Forest MP has insisted that the incidents did not amount to harassment, describing the purchase of the vibrators as an instance of high jinks. Leadsom says Cabinet Office is urgently investigating sexual misconduct allegations. No 10 said today only one investigation under way. Adam Bienkov (@AdamBienkov) October 30, 2017 In a statement to the Commons, Mr Bercow said he was ready to consider Mrs Mays call for a Commons-wide mediation service and contractually-binding grievance procedure for MPs and staff. But he insisted that in the first instance it was for political parties to live up to their responsibilities. Make no mistake, there is a need for change, said the Speaker, who will chair Mondays meeting of the House of Commons Commission, at which Mrs Leadsom was due to press the case for the establishment of a new external, specially-trained support team to offer confidential advice and support to anyone suffering from sexual harassment at Westminster. The creation of a new body of this type is likely to be a matter for Parliament rather than ministers, and Mrs Leadsom is understood to be seeking swift consensus within Westminster on the way forward. I'm asking The Speaker to order Commons Leader @andrealeadsom to come to The House to answer questions on action to end sex abuse in Parlt Harriet Harman (@HarrietHarman) October 30, 2017 Responding to an urgent question from Labour MP Harriet Harman in the Commons, Mrs Leadsom said there was a vital need for better support and protection for thousands of people working in the Palace of Westminster, ranging from clerks, civil servants and MPs assistants to youthful interns and people on work experience placements. Anyone working in Parliament who feels uncomfortable because of unwanted sexual behaviour should be able to receive support and advice on a confidential basis by phone, intranet or face-to-face, she said. As MPs, our constituents will be rightly appalled at the thought that some representatives in Parliament may have acted in an entirely inappropriate way towards others. These reports risk bringing all of our offices into disrepute. The chief executive of Goldman Sachs has raised concerns that the US banking giant may not be able to fill its new European headquarters in London due to Brexit. Lloyd Blankfein took to Twitter on Monday, posting a birds-eye photo of the under-construction headquarters that is set to open in 2019, as he expressed worries over continued uncertainty. The banking boss tweeted: In London. GS still investing in our big new Euro headquarters here. Expecting/hoping to fill it up, but so much outside our control.#Brexit General view of Goldman Sachs UK headquarters, in Fleet Street, London (PA) The new office which is being built just off Farringdon Street and near its Peterborough Court headquarters is expected to be around nine storeys high when it is ready to house staff in two years time. In London. GS still investing in our big new Euro headquarters here. Expecting/hoping to fill it up, but so much outside our control.#Brexit pic.twitter.com/XwrIcqwM1t Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) October 30, 2017 However, it is understood that Goldman has kept the option of letting out remaining space to other tenants, depending on how much square footage it needs for its local workforce. It is the second time this month that Mr Blankfein has aired his Brexit views on the social media site. On October 19, he detailed a recent trip to Frankfurt, where the US bank is planning to shift a portion of its UK operations after Brexit. He said: Just left Frankfurt. Great meetings, great weather, really enjoyed it. Good, because Ill be spending a lot more time there. Just left Frankfurt. Great meetings, great weather, really enjoyed it. Good, because I'll be spending a lot more time there. #Brexit Lloyd Blankfein (@lloydblankfein) October 19, 2017 Goldman Sachs, which employs around 6,500 people in the UK, has previously confirmed that it is looking to at least double its 200-strong employee base in Frankfurt as part of its Brexit contingency plans. Earlier this month it was reported that the group has signed a contract to lease eight floors of a skyscraper in the city, capable of holding 800 staff. The bank has said it is also looking at bolstering its footprint in other financial hubs across the EU. A raft of international banks, insurers and asset managers are preparing to shift portions of their UK operations to the Continent in preparation for Britains divorce from the EU in hopes of safeguarding against the loss of passporting rights which currently give UK-based financial services cross-border access to the bloc. Many have turned to Dublin for a post-Brexit base, while others have reached out to the likes of Paris and Luxembourg. But Frankfurt has emerged as one of the biggest beneficiaries of Brexit so far as London-based financial firms increasingly opt to relocate staff to Germanys financial centre. Standard Chartered has committed to expanding or establishing offices in Germany, Citigroup has notified its bankers of plans to bolster its Frankfurt office, creating 150 jobs, and Morgan Stanley is on track to move as many as 200 staff. Mizuho will join a raft of Japanese banks which have chosen the city as an EU hub, including Daiwa, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) and Nomura. JP Morgan is taking a similar approach to Goldman Sachs by planning to spread staff across a number of European cities, including Frankfurt. Frankie Dettori is set for a big few days on the global stage after being confirmed for Ulysses as one of his rides in the Breeders Cup and being snapped up for Almandin in the Melbourne Cup. The ever-popular Italian is looking forward to jetting across the world in search of further glory this year following a stellar 2017 with headline triumphs on Enable, Cracksman and Persuasive. Dettori has landed the mount on last years winner Almandin, trained by Robert Hickmott, in the Flemington showpiece on Tuesday week due to Damien Oliver being suspended. When you don't know what to do with all your silverware... @FrankieDettori pic.twitter.com/q15KX0MiUs ITV Racing (@itvracing) October 21, 2017 I have been trying for so many years to win the Melbourne Cup, with my first attempt in 1993; thats almost 25 years, he said in his blog for Ladbrokes. Obviously I am very grateful that I have the ride on Almandin, although it was in difficult circumstances. I am very sad for Damien Oliver. I have been good friends with Lloyd Williams (owner) for over 20 years now and he takes me under his wing every time I come to Australia. My wifes mum is Australian and her father is a New Zealander so this means a lot to the family. It is one of the biggest races worldwide after all. There are 24 runners and it is a top race but you know this horse has a great chance and he comes here with a great profile, winning it last year. I'm very excited, it will be my first time riding at @DelMarRacing I hear it's beautiful! Let's hope it's lucky too! https://t.co/2nIaXruoX9 Frankie Dettori (@FrankieDettori) October 25, 2017 Dettori will travel to Australia via the United States where he will be reunited with Ulysses in the Breeders Cup Turf on Saturday, having finished fourth on the colt 12 months ago. Of course I ride Ulysses first this weekend in the Breeders Cup and I am very excited, he said. He was fourth last year, fast ground is the key and the draw can make a huge difference. He added: Jet lag wont be a problem. I have done it (for) 20 years and know exactly what to do! Dettori replaces Jim Crowley, who steered the Sir Michael Stoute-trained four-year-old to victory in the Coral-Eclipse and Juddmonte International during the summer. Crowley has just been happy to have been associated with such a top-notch performer. He said: Ive had a good time on him and he has been fantastic. Ulysses runs in the colours of the Niarchos family, although a significant share was recently acquired by Cheveley Park Stud, where he will stand as a stallion. Sir Michael Stoute has long had the Breeders' Cup as a target for Ulysses (Tim Goode/PA) Chris Richardson, who is Cheveley Parks managing director, said: It was nothing to do with us. It was all done between the owner (Niarchos family) and Sir Michael Stoute as the horse is still running in their colours. It was part of their agreement to run at the Breeders Cup and they are totally in the driving seat. Although we have a major percentage of the horse they have full control of his race in America. We were not involved. Queen's Trust will be going for a Breeders' Cup double on Saturday (Simon Cooper/PA Wire) Dettori will also team up with Cheveley Park through Juliet Capulet in the Breeders Cup Juvenile Turf on Friday and Queens Trust, who defends her crown in the Breeders Cup Filly & Mare Turf on Saturday. Frankie will ride Juliet Capulet for John (Gosden) on the Friday and Queens Trust (for Stoute) as well, said Richardson. Obviously he won on her last year and we are delighted to have him riding both fillies. He is one of the best from here over there. It worked last year so lets hope it works again. Theresa May has donated to the Royal British Legion after meeting with fundraisers at Downing Street. The Prime Minister greeted Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran Paul Wheeler, 35, and George Taylor, 17, at Number 10 before placing a note into the collection tin and having a poppy pinned to her jacket. Earlier this year Mr Wheeler, who is from the Isle of Wight and served in the Army for 12 years, ran almost 3,000 miles across America to raise money for the Legion. This morning the Prime Minister, @theresa_may, was presented with her poppy. Are you wearing yours yet? #RethinkRemembrance pic.twitter.com/yzypxZiv1P Royal British Legion (@PoppyLegion) October 30, 2017 He said being invited to Downing Street to cap off his achievement was unexpected and somewhat mind-blowing. He added: As a former Serviceman I know full well how important the Poppy Appeal is, and the breadth of support it gives our serving personnel, veterans and their families. Speaking about the importance of keeping the work of the Legion in the minds of young people, he said: It is huge, especially with the Rethink Remembrance this year, to carry on. (Stefan Rousseau/PA) I think a lot of people automatically think of the British Legion, and the Poppy as a symbol in particular, with our older generation of veterans. But it is not the case at all. We really need to reflect upon the contributions made by all generations of Armed Forces members. George, who has been raising funds for the charity since 2009, got involved in the organisation after watching a news report regarding a veteran selling his medals to pay his bills. On Monday the teenager from Dartford in Kent said: I feel proud to be a part of todays event and it will live long in my memory. Meet some of the wonderful volunteers across the nation who are collecting for the #PoppyAppeal https://t.co/bdqOISr1FD pic.twitter.com/EkVH8q5v8A Royal British Legion (@PoppyLegion) October 27, 2017 Mrs May said she will be wearing her poppy with pride, adding that it is important to remember the sacrifices made by the Armed Forces. She said: It is inspiring to hear the stories of those who work so hard to raise money and awareness for the Royal British Legion. They set an example that we can all follow in a small and simple way by buying a poppy and supporting our Armed Forces community both serving and retired. A federal court in Washington has barred Donald Trump from changing the US governments policy on military service by transgender people. The president announced in an August memo that he intended to reverse course on a 2016 policy that allowed troops to serve openly as transgender individuals. NEW: Judge blocks Trump transgender military ban pic.twitter.com/OcdghG98xU Lawrence Hurley (@lawrencehurley) October 30, 2017 He said he would order a return to the policy from before June 2016, under which service members could be discharged for being transgender. (Matt Cardy/PA) US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote that transgender members of the military who had sued over the change were likely to win their lawsuit and barred the Trump administration from reversing course. She directed a return to the situation that existed before Mr Trump announced his new policy, saying the administration had provided no solid evidence for why a ban should be implemented. The Trump administration may appeal against Judge Kollar-Kotellys decision, but for now, the proposed ban remains unenforceable under her preliminary injunction. Judge Kollar-Kotelly doesn't just quote Trump's military transgender ban tweets. She screenshots them. https://t.co/FwXbJUJfBY pic.twitter.com/M7CHiXPMSD Jon Steingart (@jonsteingart) October 30, 2017 We disagree with the courts ruling and are currently evaluating the next steps, said Justice Department spokesman Lauren Ehrsam. She reiterated the departments view that the lawsuit was premature because the Pentagon was still in the process of reviewing how the transgender policy might evolve. One of the attorneys handling the lawsuit, Shannon Minter of the National Centre for Lesbian Rights, said the ruling was an enormous relief to his clients. Their lives have been devastated since Trump first tweeted he was reinstating the ban, Ms Minter said. They are now able to serve on equal terms with everyone else. Mr Trump announced on Twitter in July that the government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military. He followed with an August memo directing the Pentagon to extend indefinitely a ban on transgender individuals joining the military, and gave Defence Secretary Jim Mattis six months to come up with a policy on how to address those who are currently serving. Under the Obama administration, the Department of Defence had announced in 2016 that service members could not be discharged solely based on their gender identity. Transgender individuals were to be allowed to enlist in the military in June 2017, a timeline initially delayed under the Trump administration to January 1 2018. Ms Minter said the new court ruling means they will be able to enlist as of that date. The Trump administration had asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit; Judge Kollar-Kotelly refused to do so, and Ms Minter said it is possible the case will go to trial. One issue not directly addressed in Mondays ruling was whether federal funds should be used to pay for sexual reassignment surgeries for members of the military. The administration has sought to prohibit such payments; Judge Kollar-Kotelly said she did not have jurisdiction to rule on the issue because none of the plaintiffs in the case established a likelihood of being impacted by that prohibition. The lawsuit was filed in August by the National Centre for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders on behalf of eight transgender individuals, including service members in the Air Force, Coast Guard and the Army, as well as students at the US Naval Academy and in the ROTC programme at the University of New Haven. The Justice Department, in seeking the lawsuits dismissal, said none of the plaintiffs had established that they will be impacted by current policies on military service. The two advocacy groups who filed the lawsuit assailed that assertion. They highlighted the uncertainty facing Regan Kibby, the transgender Naval Academy student who because of Mr Trumps action was unsure whether he would be able to join the Navy on graduation. Judge Kollar-Kotelly said the plaintiffs clearly established that they would be harmed by the administrations directives. She also contended that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail in arguing that the directives were unconstitutionally discriminatory targeting transgender people without evidence that their service caused substantive problems for the military. The directives do not appear to be supported by any facts, the judge wrote. The Pentagon has not released data on the number of transgender people currently serving, but a Rand Corporation study has estimated between 1,320 and 6,630, out of 1.3 million active-duty troops. Northern Ireland Secretary of State James Brokenshire has extended the deadline for the regions two main parties to reach a deal to restore powersharing. The DUP and Sinn Fein left Stormont shortly before 9pm on Monday having failed to reach an agreement. They had been warned by Mr Brokenshire that they had until Monday to produce a written agreement or he would be forced to legislate for a budget for the region at Westminster. (Owen Humphreys/PA) BREAKING: SOS James Brokenshire has given Sinn Fein & DUP extra time to reach a deal @PA Deborah McAleese (@Deborah_utv) October 30, 2017 However, on Monday night he said that the parties have made progress and he was therefore going to defer his decision to legislate for a budget. In a statement he said: The parties have made further progress during the course of today. They are making certain additional requests of the UK Government which we need to consider. In the light of this, I believe it is right to defer the assessment on whether to introduce legislation to Parliament this week to enable an Executive to be formed. The parties will recommence talks in the morning and I will reassess the position tomorrow night. Talks continue into the night at Stormont as parties try to reach an agreement to save powersharing, no sign of a deal yet pic.twitter.com/NcgOvgSZ89 Siobhan Fenton (@SiobhanFenton) October 30, 2017 The Northern Ireland Executive collapsed in January and the region has been without a powersharing government since then. Despite endless rounds of discussions, a deal to restore devolution has proved elusive with the introduction of an Irish language act seen as the main issue. Mr Brokenshire and Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney were in Belfast on Monday to try and help find a breakthrough to the political deadlock. Sinn Feins Gerry Adams and Mary Lou McDonald also joined their partys negotiating team at Stormont. Throughout the day the DUP, Sinn Fein and the Irish and UK Governments stayed tight-lipped about any progress in the negotiations. Since powersharing collapsed in January many deadlines have been set and gone by without a deal being reached Siobhan Fenton (@SiobhanFenton) October 30, 2017 The regions smaller parties held a meeting earlier in the day to discuss the lack of openness and transparency in the talks. Before talks began on Monday morning the DUP called on Mr Brokenshire to set a budget to ensure a measure of good government in the region. The party said it would not accept a bad agreement cobbled together to suddenly suit the timetables of others. Our position has not changed, we want to see an executive set up we would have done it March and sorted these issues in tandem, said the party in a statement. Given Sinn Fein have dragged their feet over the last 10 months the secretary of state should bring forward a budget to bring a measure of good government to Northern Ireland, the statement added. The DUP said it will continue the discussions as it believes devolution is best for Northern Ireland. But it warned that it would not be a part of a bad agreement cobbled together to suddenly suit the timetables of others. MADRID/CARACAS, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Spanish authorities arrested a former Venezuelan deputy minister and three former executives at Venezuelan state companies for alleged links to money laundering and international corruption, Spain's Civil Guard said on Friday. The operation was carried out with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. "The District Court for South Texas has issued an international detention order for extradition for involvement in criminal acts related to money laundering and international corruption," the Civil Guard said in a statement. The statement does not specify the names of those arrested but does include their initials and the position of one of them. It says that person is a former energy vice minister. Venezuela and its state oil company PDVSA have been involved in several corruption scandals in recent years. Neither PDVSA nor the Venezuelan government responded immediately to requests for comment. About 10 people have pleaded guilty as part of a U.S. investigation into a $1 billion bribery plot involving payments to PDVSA officials, which became public with the arrest of two Venezuelan businessmen in 2015. (Reporting by Paul Day in Madrid and Eyanir Chinea in Caracas; Writing by Girish Gupta; Editing by Mary Milliken) ATHENS, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Greece called on Spain's ambassador to Athens on Sunday to rescind statements to a Greek newspaper suggesting that Athens was not supportive of Spanish unity, revealing strains between the European Union partners over a Catalan independence drive. "It is with surprise that we note the comments made by the ambassador of friend and ally Spain, criticising publicly the Greek government," the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement. EU leaders, wary of encouraging separatists across the bloc, have largely backed the Madrid government during a deepening political crisis which culminated last week in the Catalan parliament voting to unilaterally declare the region's independence from Spain. The Spanish Ambassador to Greece, Enrique Viguera, was quoted in Sunday's Eleftheros Typos newspaper as saying that while he had clear assurances of support for Spanish unity from Greece's conservative opposition and from President Prokopis Pavlopoulos, the same was not true of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras's left-wing government. "Statements on the issue from the part of the (Greek) government are absent. However, other European governments warmly supported the territorial integrity of Spain and our government's position," he said. On Saturday, Greece, through its government spokesman, said it fully supported Spain's territorial integrity and cohesion as well as any initiative to restore democratic dialogue in the framework of Spain's constitution. "We are particularly concerned over the situation in Spain and reiterate that Europe can only advance united. Unilateral actions cannot be acceptable," government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos said in a statement. The Foreign Ministry accused the ambassador of "insulting Greece's constitution" by suggesting that the country's president did not speak for the government. It also said that by adopting the arguments of the political opposition, Spain's ambassador was interfering in Greece's domestic politics. "We call on the ambassador to avoid behaving in a way that is not in line with diplomatic norms and expect that he will proceed to rescind his unfortunate statements and provide the Greek government with the necessary explanations," the ministry said. (Reporting by George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Adrian Croft) By Henrik Stolen OSLO, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Aluminium maker Norsk Hydro may restart a mothballed Norwegian production line as global metals markets tighten following a Chinese clampdown on pollution, the company's chief executive told Reuters. Hydro is considering boosting output at its Husnes plant by some 95,000 tonnes per year, raising the smelter's utilisation to its full capacity of about 185,000 tonnes of primary metal per year, Chief Executive Svein Richard Brandtzaeg said. In total, Hydro expects China to cut its aluminium output by some 1.4 million tonnes next year due to stricter environmental measures to curb pollution during winter. "This has a big impact on the supply-demand balance. Not only in China, but the rest of the world," Brandtzaeg said in an interview at Hydro's headquarters in Oslo. He said the firm was already producing at full speed at most of its aluminium smelters globally, but that it had available capacity at Husnes in western Norway. The Husnes plant has been operating at 90,000 tonnes - less than half its capacity - since 2009, when one of two production lines was mothballed. "Prices are at levels that make it relevant to consider restarting production," he said. The aluminium price has recently risen to levels last seen more than five years ago of around $2,190 per tonne, as the expected Chinese cuts draw nearer and concerns of a supply shortfall increase. Brandtzaeg said he expected the aluminium market to be largely balanced this year, but tilted towards a slight deficit, and that it would tighten further next year. "There is a much better market situation than in a long time," he said, adding that the aluminium price measured in Norwegian crowns had reached levels not seen in more than a decade. On Oct. 25, the firm lifted its global aluminium demand growth forecast to 5-6 percent for 2017 after reporting results below forecast due to higher costs and some operational issues in its rolled products division. Increased demand for aluminium in a growing number of hybrid and electric vehicles, replacing heavier steel, was cited as one of the most important factors behind the growth in demand. "Battery driven cars have to get lighter because the batteries are heavy," Brandtzaeg said. Norsk Hydro's shares are among the top performers this year on the Oslo Bourse, climbing 53 percent to their highest levels since July 2008 at 63 Norwegian crowns ($7.67) and outperforming a 17 percent rise in the benchmark index. ($1 = 8.2149 Norwegian crowns) (Editing by Terje Solsvik and Adrian Croft) By Roli Srivastava JAGTIAL, India, Oct 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - On a hot, sleepy afternoon at Kalleda village in the southern Indian state of Telangana, Laxmi Malaya sat on the porch of her house where the body of her husband Chittam - a daily wage labourer in Dubai - was to be brought the next day. Chittam, 45, was the second migrant worker from the village to have died in Dubai in September and among the nearly 450 Indian migrant workers shipped home in body bags since 2014. "There were three deaths (of workers from the village) last year as well. We were told Chittam died of a stroke, but he was healthy when he came home for a visit last month," said Ankathi Gangadhar, the former village head of Kalleda. Another local man, aged 24, died in Dubai last month after suffering a heart attack, villagers said. Officials of the Telangana state government cite stress, ill health and working in searing temperatures as the most common causes of death and say fatality numbers among migrants who travel to the Gulf from the state have remained stable. "People discuss these deaths for a week, but then there is no initiative (to offer jobs here) so they keep leaving," Gangadhar told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. For decades, people have migrated from Telangana - a largely rural region with the tech hub of Hyderabad as its capital - to Indian cities such as Mumbai and to the Gulf, unable to make a living from farming, mainly due to water scarcity. About 10,000 people migrate to the Gulf states every year from Telangana, and about 200 on average from Kalleda, according to government figures. Most migrants believe they will be able to make good money in Dubai in just a few years - an illusion unscrupulous agents create. "When people started leaving for Gulf states (in the 1980s), this region was reeling from years of drought. They had no option but to migrate," said Suresh Reddy, a politician from Telangana who has worked on the migration issue. "When they left, there were some economic gains but they paid a heavy price for it - working in inhuman conditions and leaving their families behind." Chittam's annual savings rarely exceeded 12,000 Indian rupees ($185) and he sent home 4,000 to 5,000 rupees every few months. He worked in Dubai for 13 years and visited his wife and two children just five times during that period. "He was planning to return for good next year after making a little more money," Gangadhar said, as Chittam's wife Laxmi looked on, numb and impassive. FALSE PROMISES Ramanna Chitla had worked in Dubai for 16 years when he returned to Jagtial, a town in Telangana, last year, determined to work to stop others from being tricked by agents. "I saw a lot of misery there. Workers were underpaid and poorly treated. They were cheated by their agents with false promises so I thought I would come back and bring a change," Chitla said. Over the years, the Indian government and non-governmental groups have received a steady stream of complaints from migrant workers, ranging from non-payment of wages to torture and abuse. Workers often take loans of 50,000 to 100,000 Indian rupees ($750 to $1,500) to pay agents, hoping to earn enough from working as cleaners and as labourers on construction sites to repay the loan, but their salaries rarely match promises. "They don't visit doctors when they are unwell to save money," Chitla said, adding that deaths attributed to ill health are often due to exploitative work conditions. Government figures show there are some 6 million Indian migrants in the six Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman. According to official data, more than 30,000 Indian nationals died in the Gulf states between 2005 and 2015. The UAE embassy in New Delhi said in an emailed statement the Gulf state had introduced a number of reforms over the last few years to combat abusive labour practices including improving transparency of contracts, a wage protection system for foreign workers and a "Know Your Rights" campaign in five languages. As a government-authorised agent, Chitla's job is to ensure migrants understand their job contracts, the employer does not alter the terms of employment later, and that all the paperwork of the applicant is fair and complete. But he fails to attract the same number of workers as illegal agents. "There are at least 50 unlicensed agents who are sending hundreds of workers. I have sent 48 so far," Chitla said. India's foreign ministry has made attempts to streamline the recruitment process and help workers in need. Jingles asking workers to go through only authorised agents play on radio every day but many are lured by the promises unauthorised agents make. Chandrasekhar Boragalla, 26, a father of two, stepped out of Jagtial for the first time two years ago when he sat on a bus to Mumbai about 800 km (500 miles)away and had an interview in a sea-front office for a cleaner's job in Dubai. "I paid 70,000 rupees to the agent for this job. When I reached there, they made me sign a two-year bond for a salary much lower than what was promised. I wasn't even paid for three months. I was asked to pay 85,000 rupees for leave to go home," he said. Boragalla returned penniless to Jagtial three months ago. He now works as a welder and is still repaying the loan he took to pay the agent from the 400 rupees he earns as daily wages. "It's not enough. Dubai is danger. I will not go back," he said. WATER, JOBS Kalleda could easily be mistaken for a prosperous village with lush farmlands and maize fields lining its roads. But earnings from farming are rarely enough to feed families. "They are marginal farmers and own less than 5 acre (2 hectares) of land which does not support their families. Water is scarce as this is a rain fed region," said land rights lawyer Sunil Reddy, who takes up cases of the rural poor. "When Telangana was created as a separate state in 2014, two promises were made - more jobs and more irrigation water. But the situation is the same," Reddy said. Laxmi Malaya, now a widow, has a small piece of land on which she grows maize, turmeric and rice. Two harvests yielded an annual income of about 60,000 Indian rupees ($925), which supplemented the money her husband sent home. Migrant rights campaigners are seeking a compensation for the widows of Gulf migrants. "Compensation is their right. The money workers send back is pumped into the state's economy," said activist Bheem Reddy. Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary with the Telangana government said financial compensation for widows has been proposed as part of the state's Non Resident Indian policy. For now, all that's on offer is the free transportation of bodies of workers like Chittam from Hyderabad airport back to their home villages. (Reporting by Roli Srivastava @Rolionaroll, Additional Reporting by Anuradha Nagaraj,; Editing by Ros Russell. Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, womens rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org) By Kagondu Njagi GISHARU, Kenya, Oct 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - On the edge of Mt. Suswa, an active volcano in southwest Kenya's Rift Valley, Kipas Ole Masiodo checks on volcanic steam rising from cracks in the ground, careful not to let any go to waste. As prolonged drought dries water reserves across Kenya, harvesting these fleeting wisps of water vapour near Masiodo's home has been a lifeline for his family and community. "It is clean and safe for drinking," the 35-year-old said. "It is not much, but it is better than travelling to distant sources to look for water." Using aluminum sheets and a concrete tank, his community traps the steam, which when cooled can become drinking water. Masiodo said a single steam trap is able to collect at least 200 litres (53 gallons) of water every day - and his village now has 20 of the traps. The community began building the structures seven years ago, with help from the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), which donated 8 million Kenyan shillings (about $8,000) to the effort. The result is that families no longer have to spend large amounts of time searching for scarce water. Previously, Masiodo said, his wife spent several days a week travelling 10 hours a day with the family donkey to fetch water from the distant Ewaso River. "We are able to use time (otherwise) spent fetching water ... to raise money for school bursaries and build community enterprises like beekeeping," the father of five told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. His community got the idea of turning volcanic steam into drinking water in the 1980s, from an overseas visitor. Although the visitor described the technology needed to harvest water, using iron sheets, it wasnt until 2009 that villagers had the money to put the idea into use. Now the community has harvesting units, made with aluminum sheets and concrete, as well as collecting tanks "to store water in large volumes," Masiodo said. He said one unit costs about 200,000 Kenyan shillings (about $ 2,000) to build. Today over a thousand families in his village are using the volcanic steam water, he added. FINDING AND STORING WATER As droughts become more frequent in Kenya, many communities are looking for new sources of water and new ways to store it, from building new water ponds to creating sand dams in rivers to hold fresh water in wet sand. But some water sources have struggled to keep up with demand, particularly during long droughts, said Ole Timoi, a programme manager for Dupoto-e-maa, a community-based organisation that works with pastoralist communities in the Rift Valley. "Water pans collect and store water when the rain falls," said Timoi, whose organisation worked with CAFOD to set up the steam harvesting in Gisharu. "The stored water can last up to three months before the next rainy season sets in. (But) if the rains fail, the water dries up and the stress cycle continues," he said. Volcanic vapour, in comparison, can provide year-round water, regardless of rainfall - though so far many poor communities lack funding to harness the steam, Timoi said. Tapping all of the vents around Mt. Suswa would cost more than $100,000, he said. GEOTHERMAL ENERGY Those hoping to use volcanic steam for water in Kenya more widely, however, face competition from another user: geothermal energy plants. Kenya has built three geothermal plants to take advantage of natural steam energy in the area north of Mt. Suswa, giving the country a green and reliable energy source. But "marginalised communities need water more than they need electricity," insisted Timoi. Wilson Irungu Nyakera, the Ministry of Planning's principal secretary, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that Kenyas government recognises the need to build more sustainable water infrastructure over the next decade to deal with changing climate conditions. But budgetary restrictions mean the country will likely need donor funds and private investment to make that happen, he said. For now, Masiodo is happy his village has reliable water, even in the face of drought. But he hopes more communities will be able to find the funding to put steam harvesting systems in place. "If there was no water life would be very difficult," he noted. (Reporting by Kagondu Njagi ; editing by Lin Taylor and Laurie Goering : (Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women's rights, trafficking and property rights. Visit http://news.trust.org/climate))) By Lee Mannion LONDON, Oct 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Immaculate in a grey woollen suit, 26-year-old Christopher Linares settles into a chair in his office near Buckingham Palace. The grand setting feels a long way from his Peruvian home - and that's not all that has changed. Linares works as an investment analyst for a private equity firm specialising in mining that manages multi-billion-dollar transactions. But less than three years ago, he was an impoverished student, wondering how on earth to find enough money to pay for the final year of his university degree in Arequipa, Peru. That was where Lumni stepped in. One of a growing number of social enterprises aiming to help poorer students, Lumni found investors to finance Linares' final year of study in exchange for a promised share of his future income. Without Lumni, Linares would not have his current job. "I'm pretty grateful for what they did for me," he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Such income-sharing agreements are paving the way for less fortunate students to get on in life. Despite economist Milton Friedman proposing purchasing a share of someone's earning prospects in 1955, the idea has only taken off in this century, with social enterprises, crowdfunding initiatives and universities now offering access to education in this way. EDUCATION FOR ALL Lumni was set up in 2002 and now offers services in Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Chile and the United States. The company aims to make higher education available to students from low-income backgrounds who could not otherwise afford to join the lucky few who can pay. Linares studied mining engineering at Peru's top university, the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru - it cost half of his mother's annual income. His story is typical, given that the annual fee at the University of Chile is between a third and a sixth of an average annual salary of a middle class family in the country, according to a report by the World Bank. Lumni's students are assessed on their potential to complete their studies and get a job in their chosen field. They must have a sound credit record and be high academic achievers. Lumni makes its money charging administration fees for its services. Felipe Vergara, the Colombian founder of Lumni, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation his enterprise has enabled 10,000 students in five countries to gain higher education and get a job during the last 15 years. Vergara's own family was able to pay for his education, and after stints working in Brazil and France, he completed a business degree and joined a blue-chip consulting company. "Some of my friends were very bright but didn't have the means to have higher education," he said. "I was less bright and I did have the opportunity. I felt that this was unfair." He found investment - Lumni says the investors prefer not to be named - to fund a pilot with six students in Chile. All graduated successfully, found jobs, and paid back their debt. Now every year, 1,500 other students have the same experience. Students pay a percentage of the salary they go on to earn, depending on the level of income. Success rates are high, with 97 percent graduating. And the rates for defaulting on repayment are low, with just 2 to 7 percent of students in the five countries Lumni covers failing to repay. "If you provide a scholarship, there is no payback from the student. When the students pay back you can use this to fund more students," Vergara said. "It's a better system than loans because it is less risk for students," he added. Geoff Whitty, chair for Equity in Higher Education at the University of Newcastle, Australia compared the scheme to government loans in Britain and Australia, which students start to repay once they earn a certain salary. "In other countries, a private scheme like this could be a useful part of the mix, but it is unlikely to do much towards meeting the wider challenge of funding mass participation in higher education," he said by email. INVESTING IN EDUCATION Some of Lumni's funders are philanthropists such as Alberto Beeck, who founded the eponymous centre of social impact and innovation at Washington's Georgetown University. Others are impact investors - people who want to see their money do good and get a financial return on their investment. "Shifting education finance away from underwriting credit risk to investing in the equity of human potential," is how Stuart Davidson, a trustee of the Woodcock Foundation, which supports community development projects, described Lumni's model. Linares is paying back the money for his education over 23 months and says the scheme has worked well for him. "In the end, we are a product. You want your product to get a job, you want your product to be working, to be making money," he said, sitting in his central London office. "It's giving a lot of people many more opportunities than they would have had." (Reporting by Lee Mannion @leemannion; editing by Lyndsay Griffiths and Ros Russell; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit http://news.trust.org) By Thomas Wilson TOKYO, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Japan's Nomura Holdings Inc posted its first fall in quarterly profit in more than a year due to a slump in bond trading, highlighting the brokerage's vulnerability to world markets as it looks for more sustainable overseas income. Thin trading volume among Nomura's overseas corporate and institutional clients was to blame for the drop in fixed-income trading, mirroring a trend across Wall Street banks and putting the brakes on a renaissance at the firm's international arm, which saw its profits almost wiped out in the second quarter. Overall net profit at Nomura, Japan's biggest brokerage and investment banking group, fell 15 percent from a year ago to 51.9 billion yen ($457 million) for the quarter ended September, the first such drop in five quarters. That was also below an average estimate of 60.5 billion yen from two analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. However, Nomura Chief Financial Officer Takumi Kitamura told an earnings briefing on Monday that he expects profits at the overseas unit "to become livelier as market volatility and moves by market participants increase". "But one area I see a strong base is that we won't take unnecessary risks, and the thoroughness of our risk culture and cost controls," the CFO added. Nomura started a painful restructuring process 18 months ago aimed at lowering costs and shifting the overseas arm's focus towards advisory services from markets-based trading. The segment managed to eke out its first profit in seven years in the year ended March. But in the latest quarter, pretax profits for the division fell 96 percent to 0.9 billion yen, hurt by a slump in bond trading in the Americas, Europe, Africa and the Middle East. CLOUDS LOOM ON OVERSEAS PUSH Subdued market volatility has crimped bond trading revenue globally, with major Wall Street banks reporting bond trading declines of 16-27 percent for their recent quarters. The weak fixed-income trading comes at a time when Nomura is returning to its overseas expansion mode. This year, it has been boosting its Americas investment banking business with senior bankers as it anticipates more deals in the United States by Japanese and U.S. companies. Nomura's overseas segment includes Lehman Brothers' equities and investment banking business in Europe and Asia that Nomura bought in 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis in a bid to expand from its domestic stronghold. "The viability of the overseas operations is once again in question," said Raymond Spencer, an analyst at Moody's in Tokyo. "Over the long-term (it) will be very much dependent on their cost discipline." However, a bright spot for Nomura was its domestic-focused retail arm, which posted its second straight quarter of gains, after reporting its lowest profit in five years in the twelve months ended March. Pretax profit for the division soared 77 percent as individual investors piled into share sales like Japan Post Holdings 1.3 trillion yen public offering - the world's second biggest this year. Nomura said it would buy back up to 1.8 percent of its stock for as much as 50 billion yen. ($1 = 113.6600 yen) (Reporting by Thomas Wilson; Editing by Himani Sarkar) Following are news stories, press reports and events to watch that may affect Poland's financial markets on Monday. ALL TIMES GMT (Poland: GMT + 1 hour): MILLENNIUM Poland's Bank Millennium SA MILP.WA plans to increase its net profit to 1 billion zlotys ($273.51 million) in 2020 excluding one off items from 701 million zlotys in 2016, it said on Monday. EURO Poland wants the euro zone to become stronger before making a decision whether to join the single currency, Finance Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said. LNG TERMINAL Strong winds on Sunday damaged a pipeline at Poland's liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in the port of Swinoujscie, causing a small leak but no greater damage, a spokesman for the state gas pipeline operator Gaz-System said. PZU Poland's state-run insurer PZU plans to publish its new strategy by mid January 2018 at the latest, state-run news agency PAP quoted PZU chief executive as saying. BUDGET Poland's general budget deficit is seen at 51 billion zlotys this year or 2.6 percent of GDP, Dziennik Gazeta Prawna said quoting Deputy Finance Minister Leszek Skiba as saying. Skiba also said that he sees economic growth at slightly above 4 percent in 2017. PAYU PayU, a popular internet payment operator in Poland, signed agreement with China's AliExpress, which will make internet shopping in China easier for Poles, Rzeczpospolita daily said quoting unnamed sources. DEFENSE Poland will decide within a month whether to accept or reject U.S. Raytheon's offer to provide first Patriot missiles in 2019, Rzeczpospolita daily quoted the Defense Minister Antoni Macierewicz as saying. ELECTRICITY Poland would need 46 billion zlotys to upgrade its power grid and replace most of its overhead power lines with underground cables, Rzeczpospolita daily said citing a report by Polish Power Transmission and Distribution Association (PTPiREE). ****Reuters has not verified stories reported by Polish media and does not vouch for their accuracy.**** For other related news, double click on: Polish equities E.Europe equities Polish money Polish debt Eastern Europe All emerging markets Hot stocks Stock markets Market debt news Forex news For real-time index quotes, double click on: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX (Reporting by Warsaw Bureau) TOKYO, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Japan said on Monday it will help the Philippines rebuild conflict-torn southern Marawi city as well as other infrastructure in a deepening of ties to counter China's regional influence. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the pledges in a joint statement with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte following talks in Tokyo. Duterte on Oct 23 announced the end of five months of military operations in Marawi held by Islamic State rebels in a conflict that destroyed much of the city's centre and displaced some 300,000 people. "The Government of Japan recognizes that rehabilitation and reconstruction of the City of Marawi and is extremely important," the statement said. Japan also offered to help with other projects ranging from rail infrastructure to river defenses including a possible 600 billion yen loan to help fund development of a subway in Manila. The meeting was an opportunity for Abe to discuss security in Asia ahead of key regional meetings beginning with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering in Vietnam in November. "I confirmed with President Duterte that we are both maritime nations sharing basic values and strategic interests," Abe said during his joint announcement with Duterte. The two countries, he added, would address common issues including North Korea and "a free and open Indo-Pacific." Japan is concerned about China's growing power in the South China Sea and sees cooperation with the Philippines, which lies on the waterway's eastern side, as key ally in helping prevent Beijing's influence spreading into the western Pacific. Duterte, unlike his predecessor, Benigno Aquino, has been less critical of Beijing's island building in the South China Sea. The Philippine leader will return home on Tuesday after an audience with the Japanese Emperor. Abe and Duterte will travel to Vietnam for the two-day APEC meeting from Nov 11, which U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend. Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other countries in the region will meet again in the Philippines after the APEC gathering for the East Asia Summit and a gathering of ASEAN that will be chaired by Philippine's president. Duterte in his statement in Tokyo did not mention China, instead calling North Korea to halt its ballistic missile and nuclear test and return to talks with the U.S. Japan and other countries. (Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani) BEIRUT, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Iraq has increased exports from its southern oilfields to 3.45 million barrels per day (bpd) to make up for a shortfall from the northern Kirkuk fields, Basra Oil Company Director General Ihsan Abdul Jabbar told Reuters on Monday. Output from Kirkuk fell earlier this month when Iraqi forces took back control of fields from Kurdish fighters who had been there since 2014. The oil ministry said on Oct. 21 an extra 200,000 bpd would be shipped from Basra on top of the usual volumes. Exports from Basra had previously averaged 3.23 million bpd, Abdul Jabbar said on the sidelines of the Basra Oil, Gas and Infrastructure conference in Beirut. Abdul Jabbar also said the Basra Oil Company aimed to increase the southern oilfields' production capacity to 6 million bpd by 2020. Iraq's total capacity is close to 4.8 million bpd, with most of it coming from the southern region. ExxonMobil should be awarded next year a project to boost output from several southern oilfields, he said. Royal Dutch Shell should hand over the Majnoon field operation which it wants to exit before April 2018, he said. (Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Sarah Dadouch; Editing by Dale Hudson and Edmund Blair) PARIS, Oct 30 (Reuters) - An appeals court in Paris on Monday released the younger brother of former Burkina Faso president Blaise Compaore, a day after he was taken into custody in connection with the murder of a journalist, his lawyer said. French police detained Francois Compaore at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on Sunday on an international arrest warrant related to the 1998 murder of Norbert Zongo, who published Burkina Faso's Independent newspaper. The killing of Zongo, who had been investigating the murder of a driver who worked for Francois Compaore, became a symbol of repression during Blaise Compaore's 27-year rule, which ended in 2014 at the hands of a popular uprising. It was not immediately clear why Francois Compaore had been released or whether he was free to leave the country. His lawyer, Pierre-Olivier Sur, did not respond to follow-up questions sent by text message and the prosecutor's office handling the case could not be reached for comment. Sur says the charges against his client are politically motivated by a Burkinabe government unable to try Blaise Compaore, whom the government of neighbouring Ivory Coast refuses to extradite. Blaise Compaore fled to Ivory Coast during the uprising. He faces an international arrest warrant in connection with the 1987 murder of former president Thomas Sankara. Activists are pushing President Roch Marc Christian Kabore to aggressively pursue cases of past human rights abuses, and critics say his government has been too slow to move against former regime members, some of whom serve in the current administration. (Reporting By Simon Carraud and Myriam Rivet; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Peter Graff) BRASILIA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The best way to further reduce deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is paying owners to preserve their land, and Brazil plans to discuss how to fund such a program at a climate summit next month, the country's environmental minister said on Monday. Brazil wants to switch from stick to carrot in its fight against deforestation, with Minister Jose Sarney Filho telling reporters that enforcement and penalties used to decrease the clearance of forest will not be enough. The Amazon rainforest, the world's largest tropical one, soaks up vast amounts of carbon and its preservation is seen as vital in the fight against climate change. Sarney Filho told reporters that payments for so-called "environmental services" to landowners who maintain a minimum percentage of their land in its natural state, is the next step. "Command and control has already reached its limit. If we don't immediately start to demonstrate that forest services will be fairly paid, we will have serious problems," Sarney Filho said. In the Amazon, landowners generally must maintain 80 percent of their land in their natural state while being allowed to develop the other 20 percent with the rate varying for different biomes. "We need to start discussing the reward to those that preserve their land," Sarney Filho said. The matter of how to value and fund this preservation will be featured at next month's UN climate change conference in Bonn, Germany, on guidelines related to the Paris climate accord. It will be the first meeting of the group since U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to pull the United States out of the Paris Accord, which seeks to limit the rise in temperatures to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. While programs like the Amazon Fund, which is sponsored by Norway and Germany, pay for efforts to stop deforestation, they do not pay these types of rewards to landowners, Sarney Filho said. He did not offer specifics on how to pay for them. Brazil is drawing up a national plan for implementing the Paris Accord after seeking opinions from companies, environmentalists, indigenous groups and others. Sarney Filho said he expects carbon emissions to fall in Brazil this year, corresponding to a 16 percent drop in deforestation between August 2016 and July 2017 from the year-earlier period. (Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe) GENEVA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - A convoy from the United Nations and Syrian Arab Red Crescent entered towns in the besieged Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta on Monday, bringing aid to 40,000 people for the first time since June 2016, the United Nations said. A tightening siege by government forces has pushed people to the verge of famine in the eastern suburbs, residents and aid workers said last week, bringing desperation to the only major rebel enclave near the Syrian capital. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Twitter they had entered the towns of Kafra Batna and Saqba. The Syrian Arab Red Crescent said in a separate tweet that the inter-agency convoy had 49 trucks. They carried food, nutrition and health items for 40,000 people in need, OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said. "The last time we reached these two locations were in June 2016," he said. A health worker in Saqba who was present when the convoy started to offload said that nine trucks of foodstuffs, including milk and peanut butter, and four trucks of medicines had arrived so far. Technical specialists were on board to assess needs in the towns in order to plan a further humanitarian response, he said. "More aid to complement today's delivery is planned in the coming days," Laerke added. At least 1,200 children in eastern Ghouta suffer from malnutrition, with 1,500 others at risk, a spokeswoman for the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said last week. Bettina Luescher, spokeswoman of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP), said the convoy carried nutrition supplies for 16,000 children. Food, fuel and medicine once travelled across frontlines into the suburbs through a network of underground tunnels. But early this year, an army offensive nearby cut smuggling routes that provided a lifeline for around 300,000 people in the enclave east of the capital. (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Additional reporting by Ellen Francis in Beirut; Editing by Alison Williams and Peter Graff) By Amanda Ferguson BELFAST, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The British government on Monday extended by 24 hours a deadline for Northern Ireland's political parties to re-establish a devolved regional executive and avoid London setting the region's annual budget for the first time in a decade. The pro-British Democratic Unionist Party and the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party made progress in talks on Monday and they will continue talking on Tuesday, the British government's minister for Northern Ireland James Brokenshire said. "In the light of this, I believe it is right to defer the assessment on whether to introduce legislation to Parliament this week to enable an executive to be formed," Brokenshire said in a statement. "The parties will recommence talks in the morning and I will reassess the position tomorrow night," he said, adding that the British government would consider "certain additional requests" made by the parties. Brokenshire had earlier indicated that if there was no deal by the end of Monday it would move to pass an annual budget for the region to ensure essential services are funded. A budget set by the British government would be a major step towards direct rule from London for the first time in a decade, which observers have warned could destabilise a delicate political balance in the region. The DUP and Sinn Fein have shared power for the past decade in a system created following a 1998 peace deal which ended three decades of violence in the province. But Sinn Fein in January pulled out complaining it was not being treated as an equal partner. Talks between Sinn Fein and the DUP have stalled in recent weeks, in large part over proposals to improve the rights of Irish language speakers. Ahead of the talks, Sinn Fein regional assembly member Conor Murphy said the government could only be reformed "on the basis of equality, rights and respect", which would require concessions from the DUP. While the DUP also said it wanted to see the executive re-established, ahead of the talks it called for London to bring forward the budget "to bring a measure of good government to Northern Ireland". Neither party spoke to assembled media on the state of the talks on Monday evening. The outcome of talks was not expected to have an impact on the DUP's agreement to support British Prime Minister Theresa May's government in the British parliament. (Reporting by Amanda Ferguson in Belfast; Writing by Conor Humphries; Editing by Alison Williams) Oct 30 (Reuters) - Italy's Antitrust says: * fines diamond brokers Diamond Private Investment (DPI) and Intermarket Diamond Business (IDB) for fraudulent commercial practices in selling diamonds through distributor banks * Banks are UniCredit, Banco BPM, Intesa Sanpaolo's Banca Intesa, and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena * total fine is 15.35 million euros, of which: 2 million euros for IDB, 4 million euros for UniCredit, 3.35 million euros for Banco BPM, 1 million euros for DPI, 3 million euros for Banca Intesa and 2 million euros for Monte dei Paschi In June Italian tax police seized documents from the offices of five lenders in an investigation over alleged fraud in relation to the distribution of diamonds to bank customers, three sources with knowledge of the case said. Further company coverage: (Reporting by Milan newsroom) Spain is on a knife edge as it grapples with the worst constitutional crisis in its contemporary history, triggered by an unlawful Catalan independence referendum on October 1 that was shunned by many and marred by police violence. Throwing down the gauntlet in the escalating standoff, Catalan lawmakers on Friday passed a motion, by 70 votes out of 135 in the regional parliament, to declare a Catalan republic. Opposition MPs refused to even vote on the issue and walked out in disgust. Catalonias secessionist leader Carles Puigdemont stood defiant Saturday against Madrids moves to depose him, urging democratic opposition to direct rule forced on the region to stop it splitting from Spain. In a televised statement, Puigdemont accused the central government of trampling on the will of independence-seeking Catalans who rejoiced at Fridays vote by regional lawmakers to declare a sovereign republic. Madrids decision to seize Catalan powers in response -- the first curtailment of regional autonomy since Francisco Francos brutal 1939-75 dictatorship -- constituted an aggression, he added. The separatist leader said democratic opposition was the only way forward, without specifying what form this could take. Independence activists have called for peaceful resistance in the form of protests and strikes. BARCELONA AFP Oct29, 2017- REUTERS: China and Sri Lanka should focus on strengthening cooperation over key investment projects, Foreign Minister Wang Yi yesterday told his visiting counterpart from Sri Lanka, amid strong local opposition to some major Chinese-invested schemes. In July, Sri Lanka signed a long-delayed US $ 1.1 billion deal to lease its southern Hambantota port to China, ignoring an appeal by opposition parties to debate the pact in parliament. The US $ 1.5-billion port, close to the main shipping route from Asia to Europe and likely to play a key role in Chinas Belt and Road initiative, has been mired in controversy since a Chinese firm agreed to take an 80 percent stake in it. The pact signed last year sparked widespread public anger, as Chinese control of the port, which included a plan for a 99-year lease of 15,000 acres (23 square miles) to develop an adjacent industrial zone, provoked fears it could be used by Chinese naval vessels. Meeting in Beijing, Wang told Tilak Marapana that the two countries should take this years 60th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties as an opportunity, Chinas foreign ministry said in a statement. Both should emphasise strengthening traditional friendship and political mutual trust, major infrastructure projects, investment and trade to upgrade their relationship, Wang added. The short statement did not mention any specific projects. As one of the first countries to help in Sri Lankas post-war reconstruction after the 2009 end of its 26-year civil war, Chinas ties with Sri Lanka have unnerved India, traditionally the island nations most important partner. By 2014, Chinese navy submarines were also docking in Colombo, raising alarm in New Delhi and prompting a push by the administration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to claw back influence in the region. CMA Sri Lanka took part in the Official Integrated Reporting (IR) Convention 2017, which was held in October 2017 at Rai, Amsterdam, Netherlands. The theme of the convention was Unlocking value for future-fit organisations. The official convention was organized by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) headquartered in the UK. Sri Lanka had representations from CMA Sri Lanka President Prof. Lakshman R. Watawala, Diesel and Motor Engineering Co. Plc. was represented by Executive Director Suresh Gooneratne and Finance and Controlling GM Chandane kodituwakku and SheConsults, a consultancy company engaged in integrated reporting, was represented by Director Aruni Rajakariar. The convention covered a range of topics which included, Market Trends and (IR) impact, (IR) Leading Practice: framework implementation findings from the global review, Reporting Trends: Challenges, leading practice and investors views, Materiality: Practical approaches to materiality in Integrated Reporting, navigating the corporate reporting landscape: the Corporate reporting dialogue and Task Force on Climate Related Financial disclosures (TCFD), Hidden capitals: Are you undervaluing your biggest asset?, Strategy: Informing strategy with Integrated Thinking, SDGs: How to implement Sustainable Development Goals through Integrated Thinking, Financial Services: Understanding value creation in financial services to reduce systemic risk, Technology for management insight and progressive reporting, Academics and Business: What the research says and where more is needed, Communication of Integrated Thinking: Whats the right approach for you?, Investors: Broader Thinking and longer term perspectives from Integrated Reporting and a Key Note address from the Chairman of IIRC Prof Mervyn King and a welcome from the IIRC CEO Richard Howitt. The CEO Richard Howitt in his welcome stated that evidence shows that businesses adopting (IR) perform better, benefit from a lower cost of capital and attract long-term investors. The secret is out - (IR) is good for business and vital for the future success of our economy, workforce and planet. He further stated that over 1,600 companies in 62 economies are globally adopting (IR), it is vital that we listen, learn and implement the findings of the important consultation. IIRC Chairman Prof Mervyn King, in his address stated that Integrated Reporting is an evolution of corporate reporting, with a focus on conciseness, strategic relevance and future orientation. As well as improving the quality of information contained in the final report, (IR) makes the reporting process itself more productive, resulting in tangible benefits. (IR) requires and brings about integrated thinking, enabling a better understanding of the factors that materially affect an organizations ability to create value over time. It can lead to behavioural changes and improvement in performance throughout an organization. As set out in the International (IR) Framework, an integrated report is a concise communication about how an organizations strategy, governance, performance and prospects, in the context of its external environment, lead to the creation of value in the short, medium and long term. The Framework enables a business to bring these elements together through the concept of connectivity of information, to best tell an organizations value creation story. Also he spoke on intangible assets, reputation, value creation, materiality, sustainability, classifying the 17 SDGs under economy, society and environment, use of natural assets, pollution of the planet which all need to be considered in Integrated Reporting. CMA Sri Lanka organized the CMA Excellence in Integrated Reporting Awards 2017 and the awards were presented by the Chief Executive Officer IIRC Richard Howitt in July this year in Sri Lanka. Discussions were also held to hold a South Asian Integrated Reporting Conference in Sri Lanka in 2018 in association with IIRC. As per Judges Report of the CMA Excellence in Integrated Reporting Awards 2017, although there was no regulatory requirement for companies in Sri Lanka to adopt integrated reporting there was an increasing trend observed in the number of companies producing Integrated Reports. The judges noted a significant improvement in the quality of integrated reports presented this year. They were particularly pleased by the progress made in areas highlighted as needing improvement in the preceding year. Two areas stood out. One was the description of the value creation process and the other was the description of corporate strategy. The winners of the CMA Excellence in (IR) Awards 2017 were Diesel and Motor Engineering Company in First Place, John Keells Holdings PLC in second place and Peoples Leasing Co. PLC. in third place with another 10 companies receiving the Ten Best Integrated Reporting Awards. Those interested to get copies of the CMA Excellence in (IR) Awards Judges Report and details of the presentations made at The Official Integrated Reporting Convention 2017 held in Amsterdam, Netherlands could contact the CMA Secretariat. Tightening our belts before The threat of Dengue is a dark shadow looming in the Sri Lankan horizons, waiting to strike as soon as an opportunity presents itself. At the time of writing as many as 162952 cases of dengue have been reported; an all time high. Though the number of dengue patients has been declining since the end of July, as per the data provided by the Epidemiology Unit, the public have raised their suspicions regarding this figure because they feel it can rise given the wet weather experienced in most parts of the country. The Daily Mirror contacted Dr. Prachila Samaraweera of the National Dengue Control Unit to clear the doubts regarding the magnitude of the threats associated with the rise in dengue. Yes, we have identified a slight possibility of an increase in dengue in the coming few weeks, with the rain favouring the breeding of the mosquito. We are currently taking action to minimize the spread of the disease in areas which are at a higher risk. For an example, we carried out dengue prevention programmes in Jaffna following an increased number of patients and weve had less patients being reported afterwards, she replied. Samaraweera also said that the authorities have observed an increase in Dengue cases around this time of the year in previous years as well. The data obtained from the Epidemiology Unit, showing the spread of Dengue cases throughout the year over the past few years also reveals that even though the highest number of cases is reported around 25-30 week of the year, there is a slight peak after around 42 weeks. two monsoon seasons To quote the research paper published in 2017 on the Effect of Climatic Factors and Population Density on the Distribution of Dengue in Sri Lanka, by P.D.N.N. Sirisena and the others, With two monsoon seasons in Sri Lanka, the absolute number of dengue and severe Dengue cases peak twice annually. The first peak occurs in June/July that coincides with the South Western monsoon due to the rainfall that starts in April. The second peak occurs between the end of the year and early January next year which is associated with the North Eastern monsoon that occurs from October to December. This also indicates a possibility of an oncoming rise in Dengue cases. After the epidemic proportion dengue outbreak that we experienced during the middle of the year, being aware of a possibility of Dengue making a significant comeback is of utmost importance. By anticipating the event, we can be better prepared, thus minimizing its damage. What can we do to prepare for this challenge? Always be alert, and watch out for possible mosquito breeding places during this rainy season, cautioned Dr. Samaraweera. She also advised to give special attention to work places and schools, as well as residences and the surroundings, since these are the places where one spends most of the time during the day. As most of our readers are already aware of, contracting of Dengue needs fulfilling of three criteria. First, there should be a carrier, who has the Dengue virus in his bloodstream. Then there should be the mosquito that can transmit the virus by first biting the carrier and getting the infected blood into its body. The third criterion is for the infected mosquito to bite a healthy uninfected person, releasing the virus into his or her bloodstream. detecting an outbreak When it comes to the prevention of dengue, in addition to destroying the mosquito breeding grounds, its important to prevent the mosquitoes from getting infected from the diseased carriers, so that they cant spread the disease further, said Dr. Hasitha Udalagama, Resident House Officer at the Base Hospital Nikaweratiya. The best thing to do is being alert about fever in endemic areas, thereby enabling early detection. When a patient is identified with a certain community (village, scheme, street, work place etc.), measures should be taken to limit the transmission from that person. These measures include keeping that person inside a net for about 5 days, using repellents and taking other measures to prevent mosquito bites in the neighbourhood and eliminating breeding sites. Reporting the cases (notification by health professionals) is vital in detecting an outbreak, he further explained. The objective of this article is not to unduly alarm our readers with a dire warning of an impending threat of Dengue. Rain is only one factor amongst many that contributes to the rise in Dengue cases. When it comes to the spread of Dengue many other external factors like temperature, humidity and urbanization have been found to positively correlate with the spread of Dengue. Therefore, with so many factors contributing to the disease, no one can predict exactly what would happen in the future regarding the dengue situation. Does this mean that we should cross our arms and allow fate to decide when disaster should strike next? We should not forget that among the uncontrollable things like rains or the winds, there are modifiable factors. These things which are under the control of the average human like you and I have the greatest impact on the spread of Dengue. By reducing mosquito breeding grounds and by minimizing the spread of the disease through the carriers, we can lessen the impact of the demon waiting to strike. In other words, we may not prevent the hazard, but by being prepared and working together, we can certainly impede its progression towards disaster. US, (Daily Mail) 28 October 2017 -Former President Barack Obama has been called to serve jury duty in Chicago. Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans told county commissioners during a budget hearing on Friday that the former commander-in-chief, who owns homes in both Washington, DC, and Chicagos Kenwood neighborhood, will serve in November. Evans told the Chicago Tribune that necessary precautions would be taken to accommodate security and scheduling needs. He did not specify the date or courthouse location Obama will report to next month. Obama, who is registered to vote in Chicago, is not the first celebrity to serve jury duty in Cook County. In 2004, legendary talk show host Oprah Winfrey was called to serve for a Chicago murder trial. Jurors can be summoned for civil or criminal trials and can be called to any of the countys Chicago or suburban courthouses. Although its not a place where the public can earn a lot of money, it is highly appreciated, Evans said of Obamas choice to serve. Its crucial that our society get the benefit of that kind of commitment. Jurors in Cook County are paid $17.20 for each day of service. The case against Former Deputy Minister Vinayyagamurthi Muralitharn alias Karuna Amman for allegedly misusing a bullet proof vehicle valued at approximately Rs. 800 million was dismissed by the Colombo Chief Magistrates Courts today. The Attorney Generals Department informed Colombo Chief Magistrate Lal Ranasinghe Bandara, that it would not continue legal proceedings further, when the case was taken up in court today. The former Deputy Minister who was arrested for the case was released on bail in December last year. (Yoshitha Perera) Video by Courts Prasanna Oman Air is delighted to announce a Grand Global Sale to coincide with and to celebrate the 47thNational Day of the Sultanate of Oman. The Grand Global Sale offers discounts up to 47% in both Premium and Economy cabins applicable for the entire Oman Air network. The sale is valid from 30th October till 6th November 2017 with travel permitted till 31st May 2018. This fantastic Global Sale is the ideal way to celebrate 47thNational Day of the Sultanate of Oman by rewarding customers for their loyalty to the airline. Travellers can rush to avail of the Global Sale by calling Oman Air on 011-2168268, visiting www.omanair.com or calling Oman Air appointed travel agents. Commenting on the Global Sale, Mr. Gihan Karunaratne, Country Manager of Oman Air, said, Oman Air is proud to celebrate the 47thNational Day of the Sultanate of Oman with the generous gesture of extending a Global Sale promotion to valued customers to share the joy and pride we feel as the national airline of Oman. We believe this is a fitting demonstration of how much we value our patrons. Customers can take full advantage of the promotion on flights to a wide selection of international destinations. The Global Sale is an offer not to be missed as it offers handsome savings and a chance to experience our signature hospitality aboard Oman Air! Oman Air has been steadily carving out significant share in Sri Lankas aviation industry and has built a strong customer base and brand presence in the local market. Sri Lanka is an important destination in Oman Airs route network in the region and over the last few years the airline has increased flights between Colombo and Muscat. Oman Air now operates double flights daily between Colombo and Muscat. The airline currently offers flights from Colombo to a variety of destinations around the world and also many countries in the Gulf region. Another example of Oman Airs commitment to its loyal customers is its loyalty programme, Sindbad. The membership programme earns flyers Sindbad miles both in the air and on the ground. Customers who fly with Oman Air or its partner airlines or indeed transact with any of its global partners earn Sindbad miles, which can be used for free flights, flight upgrades, exciting raffles and promotions. OPPO Mobileis all set to launch its newest Selfie Expert in Sri Lanka once again.OPPOs latest offering willnot only be the brands first full-screen model in Sri Lanka,but will also come equipped with an industry first Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology for capturing perfect selfies in Sri Lanka, that further strengthens OPPOs position as the Selfie Expert and Leader.Thedevice has been designed to meet the current demands of its ever-increasing young fans in Sri Lanka. AI beauty recognition technology: Capturing the Real You For the first time, theArtificial Intelligence technology has been integrated into selfies (front camera) by a phone brand in Sri Lanka.The Selfie Expertwill feature the groundbreaking AI Beauty technology which usesartificial intelligence from a massive global photo database, to beautify a selfie shot. OPPOs first Full-Screen Device The device will also feature OPPOs first full-screen FHD+display model, providing a vivid, visual enjoyment without increasing the size of the phone.The high-resolution screen offers a more immersive experience to consumers. The new Selfie Expert will have an updated operating system to ensurea smoother experience than previous models. The phone is expected to launch in Sri Lankaon early November 2017. Within four days of a Presidential level delegation from Sri Lanka successfully wrapping up its bilateral work in Doha, the State of Qatar is despatching an official delegation led by an influential Qatari Minister to Colombo to move bilateral trade actions forward. Qatari Minister of Economy and Commerce Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani will be leading his 20-man delegation to Colombo for the second Joint Committee Meeting between both countries that will commence this morning in Colombo. This is one of the largest ever Qatari delegations to arrive in Sri Lanka for bilateral trade talks. Sri Lankas Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen will lead the Sri Lankan team at the talks. The visiting Qatari members are from various Qatari state agencies, Chambers and Doha corporates in power, food and banking. Both sides shall discuss bilateral cooperation in trade, investment, tourism and economic development at the two-day in-depth sessions that will conclude tomorrow. A one-to-one meeting between the visiting Qatari Minister Al Thani and Sri Lankan Minister Bathiudeen is also scheduled towards the end of two-day sessions. A high level Sri Lankan delegation led by President Maithripala Sirisena and joined by Minister Bathiudeen concluded their Qatari visit on 26 October. There are about 130,000 Sri Lankan workers in Qatar employed in minor job categories. REUTERS: The Sri Lankan rupee closed slightly weaker yesterday in dull trade as importer dollar buying outpaced mild exporter greenback conversions, dealers said. The spot rupee, which traded at 153.60 per dollar earlier in the session, closed at 153.55/60, compared with Fridays close of 153.45/55. Dealers said they expect the rupee to weaken by around 4-4.5 percent during the year. The rupee has slipped 2.6 percent so far in the year. The currency came under pressure early this month due to dollar demand from state-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), which stocked up crude oil ahead of an expected fuel price hike, dealers said. The currency is expected to weaken on generally higher importer demand ahead of the national budget next month, dealers said. The island nation has seen Rs.19.8 billion of net inflows into equities this year as of yesterdays close and Rs.41.1 billion into government securities as of October 25, official data showed. The Sri Lanka Amarapura Maha Nikaya in a statement on the Constitutional Reforms Steering Committee proposals and the alternatives if implemented would downgrade the present status afforded to Buddhism and compromise the unitary character of Sri Lanka. The statement has been signed by the Mahanayake of the Sri Lanka Amarapura Maha Nikaya, the Most Ven. Aggamahapandita Kotugoda Dhammavasa Mahanayaka Thera; the President of the Sri Lanka Amarapura Mahasangha Sabhava, the Ven. Dodampahala Chandasiri Mahanayaka Thera and the Acting Chief Lekhakadikari of the Sri Lanka Amarapura Mahasangha Sabhava the Ven. Dr. Pallekande Ratanasara Anunayaka Thera. We see as even more dangerous the proposal, mainly targeting the two provinces of the North and East, the cutting down of the existing powers of the President and the Parliament and the proposal to amalgamate the Northern and Eastern Provinces. We wish to state without any qualms that providing limitless powers to the Northern Province is empowering the divisive forces operating in the country. Taking into note the extremist views expressed by certain politicians of the North, we firmly believe that limitless power in the hands of a minor political coterie will not be of long-term benefit to the Tamil population living there. It is very clear that their sole objective is to get a federal form of government that will facilitate secession later on. From statements made in the more recent past this could be a threat that will have serious repercussions to the entire country, the statement said. Although the President and the Prime Minister have affirmed many a time that the proposed new constitution will not impair the well-being of the country and its people, we are of the opinion that the view expressed by members of the Maha Sangha and neutral academics that at this juncture, rather than having a new constitution, it is best to continue with the existing constitution with necessary amendments is fair and reasonable. We came to this conclusion because we observe that, on the one hand, academics in the political arena, who in the past have presented proposals that with time would lead to a division of our country on federal lines are actively engaged in the present exercise of constitutional reforms and, on the other, foreign powers and NGOs that for some time have been attempting to destabilise the country on the pretext of ensuring peace and reconciliation have shown much enthusiasm and eagerness to bulldoze a new constitution. "Right at the outset, we wish to emphasize that the Sri Lanka Amarapura Maha Nikaya is making this statement with cordiality towards the government and the peoples of this country and our sincere aim is to establish an environment for all citizens of all races and faiths to live amicably anywhere in this country and in this regard to urge not only the members of the Maha Sangha but also religious leaders of other faiths and all citizens to join hands, giving up whatever political differences there are, to overpower any errant forces that are inimical to our country and its people. "A federal form of government is not at all suitable for a small country like Sri Lanka. Moreover, such a form of government is an outcome of a need of states or regions that had separate existences to get together (federate) for greater political stability and economic advancement. Some examples are the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Switzerland, Australia and India. The outcome of the proposals placed on the table by the Constitutional Reforms Steering Committee is to artificially create a federal state of a country, i e. Sri Lanka, that had a unitary system of governance from the beginning (by articulating a myth of 'indivisibility'). By such an action it is inevitable that ethnic problems and issues of a kind so far not experienced in Sri Lanka will arise. Accordingly, under the present circumstances, bringing a new constitution will destroy the peace and harmony that currently exist among the Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim people in general. Furthermore it will not only destabilise the country but also widely open the door for greater interference in the internal affairs of our country by foreign elements, the statement said SYDNEY AFP Oct29, 2017 - Tensions were high on a Papua New Guinea island Sunday as authorities prepared to close an Australian refugee camp, with local police calling for calm as some detainees refused to move. The Manus Island detention centre, to close Tuesday, is one of two Pacific camps where asylum-seekers who try to enter Australia by boat are sent for processing under Canberras harsh immigration policy. Refugees had been given the option of moving to the other centre on the island of Nauru but most detainees have shunned the offer, expressing fears that relocation could further prolong their agony. Some have also refused to relocate on Manus, citing safety fears amid reports they would not be welcomed in local neighbourhoods. The guys (refugees) have said they will stay, they dont intend to move, Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul told AFP Sunday. There are three special Reformations in History. The 1st is where Jesus changed history from the life styled by the Law of Moses to the life styled by Christianity in AD 33. The 2nd was when Emperor Constantine changed history from the Roman-styled life to the Christian-styled life in AD 325 and the 3rd was when Martin Luther an Augustinian Monk changed History from the dark ages of Christianity to todays World of Christianity by posting 95 theses on a Wittenberg church door in Germany initiating this Reformation. It is this 3rd Reformation which will mark 500 years on Oct 31, 2017. In simpler days, everyone understood how to react to such anniversaries. Protestants would celebrate the German Hercules cleaning out the dark ages of the church, restoring the primacy of Scripture, and bringing to light the Word of God , Verbum Dei, the Gospel of salvation by Grace alone, through Faith alone & on account of Christ alone. While the Romans Catholics would denounce the Protestants as a revolt against the godly authority, a rejection of orthodoxy that channelled millions of souls away from the gates of hell. This year however is different, and not simply because the anniversary marks a nice round 500 years. But because we dont think as did some of our ignorant ancestors thought it noble to say that somebodys theology is defective. Both churches held to the ideology YOUR THEOLOGY IS WRONG AND ONLY OURS IS RIGHT . Similar to the days when both the UNP & SLFP politicians said Our democratic policy is correct and yours is not. The Good Governance seems to have changed this to some extent. and so have the bitter lessons of the past brought these two opponents -- the Lutherans and the Roman Catholics closer this on this 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. But the latter has of late tended to less highlight the theological errors introduced with the Reformation. Needless to say, Protestants and Catholics have had a rocky Adi Pudi past. At present Pope Francis himself has said Lutherans, Catholics and Protestants and all of us agree on the doctrine of justification. On this point, which is very important, he [Luther] did not err. The Roman Church has been extremely silent and applied both hand brakes & foot brakes on what we heard a few decades ago EXTRA ECCLESIA NULLE SALVE ( Outside the Church there is no Salvation.) Broadly speaking, the tone & music have definitely changed. Lets get together yehyehyeh and We are one in Spirit. We are one in the Lord & They will know we are Christians. At St. Catherines Catholic Church, Ontario, Canada, on certain Sundays of the month the preacher is a Lutheran Minister. In 1987 when I said a Sunday Mass on War Ship, Deutscheland, I did not know that the one who concelebrated with me , Chap. Rolf, was a Lutheran Chaplain. After the service 3 German Sailors objected to what had taken place. I personally dont think there would be such objections in the future. If the reformation did not take place would there be only one church all these 500 years ? After the Reformation we see that even though Luther did not intend to cause any division the inevitable took place not just a division into 2 but into 4,6,8 etc. The Lutherans were followed by the Zwinglians, Calvinists, Knoxian, Westminstrians, Weslians, Concordians, Carians and more recently the Charismatics. The Bible Society reported that there are over 500 divisions in Sri Lanka alone. These divisions were not like the atomic divisions right to subatomic parts & quarts. But on a policy in which each founder stated My interpretation is right & yours isnt. Whose now going to take the blame? St. Augustine the lawyer, AD 354-AD 431, appearing for his clients in Latin, Greek, Hebrew and in the unwritten jargon of his locality was an intellectual giant who was not only able to dig deep into the Biblical works of Attorney St Paul but also able to comprehend its profound teachings and being a master lawyer was efficient in systematically classifying them into theological volumes for his students. Attorney Martin Luther 1483-1546, 1500 years later entering an Augustinian Monastery in Wittenberg Germany confronted these volumes and being an intellectual giant like his founder St Augustine went a step further by simplifying these volumes into a Systematic Catechism for the simple folk in Germany. So this is how the simple people for the first time got to understand what God had said till then it remained only with the high ups. Today Pastors jump at the idea to come to the east to bank their big western salaries, $10,000 or $20,000, here and live like kings owing to the massive exchange rate and keep praising God for Augustinian Luthers Doctrine of Predestination that has gifted them Luxurious lives here on earth even before going to heaven. This is an evil of the Reformation when one glances at how penniless Saints Joseph Vaz and Jerome Gonzalvez went about this island. Some foreign protestant missionaries however as authentic Christians do reach out to poor Sri Lankans keeping them free from starvation & poverty. Attorney Augustine the master is a Doctor of the Church to the Roman Catholics while Attorney Martin Luther, his student, is the hero to the Protestants. May this 500th Anniversary of the Reformation reduce the gap between us Christians year by year towards unity, we pray. Amen. Thanks to Prof. Harold Panditharatne OBU SJC. for teachings in logic, to Prof. Martin Quereomi for teachings in Church History) to Prof.Charlie Janz for Notes on Church History. Wiliston Waker. History of the Christian Church, Sir George Swanders SJC. Biblical History, Bishop Elmer Boniek Sem. Notes, Houghton Church History The United States has granted USD 14 million for the implementation of democratic reforms in Sri Lanka, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said today. The Speaker told the Daily Mirror this was meant for the improvement of the committee system of Parliament, the capacity development of the MPs and others. He said much progress had been made regarding the revision of the Standing Orders governing Parliamentary businesses. He said he was in the United States recently to discuss matters in this regard. The Speaker noted that he maintained excellent relations with all the countries. (Kelum Bandara) Looking at the world through the eyes of the Web Business / Economy by Staff Reporter Zimbabwe's economy is expected to register a 3.5 percent growth rate next year in line with Sub-Saharan Africa regional economic outlook trends.The projected economic growth for Zimbabwe is being made in line with efforts by fiscal and monetary authorities to increase business confidence.Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor, Dr John Mangudya told financial global community personalities and captains of industry and commerce at the unveiling of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) 2017 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa in Harare this Monday that the 3.5 percent anticipated economic growth for next year is also a reflection of commitment by authorities to consolidate economic gains.The Sub-Saharan Africa region is however experiencing a slowdown in economic growth rates due to global commodity price fluctuations and climate change, according to IMF Director for Africa, Mr Abebe Selassie.IMF resident representative, Mr Christian Beddies said the global lender is committed to work with Zimbabwe.The regional economic outlook report cites foreign exchange market pressures, production constraints and public debts as threats to economic growth for the region. Entertainment / Celebrity by Staff Reporter The Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) has appointed popular gospel couple, Charles and Olivia Charamba as their brand ambassadors as part of their efforts to engage various publics in curbing crime.Speaking at the signing of agreements in Harare, ZRP Deputy Commissioner General Godwin Matanga said fighting crime needs all stakeholders to be involved, adding that engaging the Charamba couple will yield positive results considering their influence in society.Accepting the new role, Pastor Charles Charamba said they are committed to work together with the police in fighting crime.The ZRP is engaging communities in a number of ways to ensure peace and order in the country, including community policing and the recent television programme to allow interaction with the public. Charlottesville police are investigating two attempts within two days to abduct local women walking alone, both of which were thwarted after the women screamed for help. The descriptions of an attempted abduction on Wertland Street on Friday and an abduction attempt on Water Street on Sunday have striking similarities. Both would-be attackers are described as stocky men wearing dark clothing. Both attempts involved a man approaching a woman from behind, grabbing the woman and placing a hand over her mouth. In both attempts, the man ran away when the woman screamed and attracted the attention of bystanders. However, one suspect is described as black and the other as white. One assault occurred in the West Main Street area and the other off the Downtown Mall. We dont believe [the assaults are connected] at this time, but our investigators will compare case notes as each investigation progresses, said city police Lt. Steve Upman. In Sundays attack, which occurred at 8:05 p.m., police said a woman walking in the 200 block of Water Street near the Main Street Arena was grabbed from behind. The suspect ran when the woman screamed. He then headed east on Water Street. The woman described her attacker as an African-American in his mid-20s, heavy set or stocky, about 5 feet, 7 inches tall. He was described as wearing a black hooded jacket or sweatshirt with a black center and dark red or maroon sleeves. In Fridays attack, which occurred at 2 a.m., a woman was walking in the 1100 block of Wertland Street when she was grabbed from behind, a hand was placed over her mouth and she was forced to the ground. When she screamed, the man ran. The man was described as white with brown hair and a stocky build and wearing dark clothing. Police are seeking help from anyone who was in the Wertland Street or Market Street areas around the times of the attempted abductions. Anyone with information is asked to call the Charlottesville Police Department at (434) 970-3280 or Crime Stoppers at (434) 977-4000. News / Africa by AP Kenya's election commission chief says he is confident that the country has conducted a "free, fair and credible election."Speaking ahead of the announcement of results, commission head Wafula Chebukati said on Monday that a "fresh team" of election staff had worked on the October 26 presidential election, which was a rerun of a vote in August that was nullified by the Supreme Court.Chebukati had said before last week's vote that he could not guarantee its credibility.The commission chief expressed his sorrow at the loss of life and property that has occurred during the troubled election process.President Uhuru Kenyatta ran without a significant challenger last week after opposition leader Raila Odinga boycotted the vote. News / Africa by AP Kenya's election commission says President Uhuru Kenyatta has won last week's re-run election, which was boycotted by the main opposition group.Wafula Chebukati, the election commission chief, said on Monday that Kenyatta got 7.5 million votes, or 98% of the votes that were cast.The announcement that Kenyatta was the winner by a huge margin was expected because he faced no significant challenge after opposition leader Raila Odinga refused to participate, saying the election was a sham.Kenyatta was also declared the winner of a presidential vote in August, but that election was later nullified by the Supreme Court. Opinion / Columnist Diabetes is a disease in which your blood glucose, or blood sugar, levels are too high. Glucose comes from the foods we eat. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that 371 million people worldwide have diabetes, a global epidemic that is expected to affect 552 million by 2030. With these statistics and concerns in mind, Lions International, the biggest charity organisation in the world gets involved with the Diabetes Awareness and Action Program.Lions often arrange for diabetes screenings in their communities and the roll out campaign for District 412 Lions International Diabetes Campaign is happening today the 28th October in the resort town of Kariba. The objectives are to educate the community on diabetes: what it is, where they go to for information, test them and leave information for them to share. Lion Chipo Ziki just put it that Lions' work supports diabetes awareness, education, control, prevention and research. She emphasised that "A screening test can detect the possibility of diabetes and Kariba will just experience this at no cost today, but just a visit to any of the two centres set". This campaign is targeting 300 people and Municipality of Kariba has offered their two clinics which are Nyamhunga and Mahombekombe for use together with nursing staff. Nyamhunga Township expected to be actively participating at this campaign as they are critical in the provision of medical drugs to the Kariba community.The Team organizing the Diabetes Launch comprising District Chair Lion Marshal Jongah, the Zone Secretary Lion Chipo Ziki, and Region Chair Lion Patrick Chifamba in the company of the Kariba Club President Lion Surge Butau and Kariba Club Treasurer Lion Tichaona Matiki expressed satisfaction with the arrangements for the day. The organising team has assured the community that all is set and ready to go. The District Chair Lion Marshal Jongah sent a message to Lions confirming that "Today is the big day; your Zone is the torch bearer for District 412 on Diabetes Awareness. We have partnered with the Diabetes Association of Zimbabwe and they are in Kariba today for our Diabetes Campaign" he went further, "Let us mobilise the residents of Kariba to come in their numbers to get tested for Diabetes and learn more about the disease that is fast becoming the world's number one killer disease" Lion Marshal also declared war on Diabetes saying "Let us die or get disabled from other causes but not, definitely NOT DIABETES!!!!!"Region President Lion Patrick Chifamba has called Kariba community to utilise this opportunity and be educated on what diabetes is all about as he encouraged the region Lions Clubs to be at today's campaign in Kariba; "We are a family. Let's share these moments and experiences". He went on to say; "After all the District Governor will be there, so be counted to see our most powerful man in a District made of 4 countries." Lions as far as Harare, Chinhoyi, Norton and the chartering lions club Kariba are all descending to the resort in support of fighting Diabetes.Like the Lions Motto: "WE SERVE" Kariba is definitely going to enjoy the service. After the campaign which is anticipated to end around 1400hrs, it will be time to also open up to Kariba people who may want to know more about Lionism to join for a cruise and for a dinner.By MuHwisiry Chaiyeiye ; 0772880870 johntchirinda@gmail.com Crossover is based on the Suzuki Huster, which is already on sale in Japan. suzuki, xbee, micro suv, tokyo motor show. Pronounced cross bee, the Suzuki XBee made its global debut at the 2017 Tokyo Motor Show. The crossover is based on the Suzuki Huster, which is already on sale in Japan. Both the cars share a lot in common when it comes to styling, especially the front fascia, which seems to have been inspired from the Mini Countryman SUV. Dimensionally, the Suzuki XBee is similar to the recently launched Mahindra KUV100 NXT and the Maruti Suzuki Ignis. However, it flaunts a tallboy design similar to the Maruti WagonR as it is 110mm and 50mm taller than the Ignis and the KUV100 NXT, respectively. Suzuki has unveiled three different iterations of the XBee concept, namely, the XBee, XBee Street Adventure and the XBee Outdoor Adventure. It is powered by a 1.0-litre turbo intercooled petrol engine and features a 4WD (four-wheel-drive) drivetrain with a couple of modes, Sport and Snow. Also on offer are grip control and hill descent control. The engine is also equipped with Suzukis SHVS mild hybrid technology. Though the Suzuki XBees cabin is derived from the Hustler, there are several noticeable changes. Interestingly, it borrows a lot of cabin bits from the Maruti Suzuki Ignis such as the new three-spoke steering wheel, instrument cluster and the aircraft-style cylindrical climate control unit among others. The possibility of the Xbees arrival in India is scarce. However, if, at all, Maruti plans to launch it here, it could slot in below the Ignis and retail from the companys regular showrooms. In that case, it is expected to go up against the Tata Tiago. And at such a price point, it is expected to garner impressive sales numbers, considering the craze of crossover based vehicles in the country. Source: CarDekho.com Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani said India is the biggest investment opportunity in the world right now. Mumbai: Betting big on the Indian economy, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani said he expects the Indian economy to triple in size from USD 2.5 trillion to USD 7 trillion economy. Receiving the award for being the 'Business Leader of the Year' at the Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence, the business tycoon said that India represents the biggest investment opportunity in the world right now. Ambani-owned RIL churned out a 12.5 per cent profit in the quarter ended September and is one of the top 10 companies in terms of market valuation. "A few years ago, the fashion in India was to invest abroad," Ambani said. He went on to say RIL took the plunge and invested Rs 3.5 lakh crore in India, which did wonders for the company. "If you don't invest abroad, you are left out. We took a contrarian bet and invested over Rs 3.5 lakh crore in a single bet in India. The significant portion of that investment is in Jio." Reliance Jio has meanwhile made quite a bang in the telecom scene in the country with its virtually free-of-cost unlimited calls and unlimited data at rock-bottom prices. Other incumbent operators have termed Jio as a disruptor and are struggling to keep up with the price battle. Ambani however said the relationship with other telcos was amicable. "The Prime Minister's vision is backed up by the concrete action in terms of open, transparent and fair policies where even some ragging by incumbents is tolerable and fun and we can still be friends," he proclaimed to an audience that included Bharti Group chairman Sunil Mittal, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and Vodafone India CEO Sunil Sood. The owner of Jio and the second-time receiver of the ET Award also said that he believes with digital technology and exponential technology, the world will change more in the next 20 years than in the last 300 years. "Jio provides critical infrastructure to India and India needs to participate in the global economy as first-class citizens at par with any other country." NCRDC has asked the ICICI bank to refund over Rs 2 lakh to a customer who lost the amount through an ATM fraud in 2006-07. New Delhi: The apex consumer commission has asked the ICICI bank to refund over Rs 2 lakh to a customer who lost the amount through an ATM fraud in 2006-07. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has asked the bank to also pay a compensation of Rs 2,000 to Haryana resident Karam Singh who lost Rs 2,07,368 during November 11, 2006 and February 2, 2007. Singh had alleged that during the three months period, he failed to receive any transaction message from the bank. The NCDRC has upheld the decision of lower foras asking the bank to pay a compensation of Rs 2,000 to Singh. "The State Commission as well as the District Forum have based their conclusion on the issue of deactivation of the service of sending messages to the complainants for each transaction. It is clear from record that the SMS alert service had been provided by the Bank to the complainant. It is not understood, however, why the said service was not operational during the period in question, i.e., from 21.11.2006 to 25.02.2007," the NCDRC presiding member B C Gupta said. According to the complaint, the last transaction made by Singh was on November 20, 2006 and at that time, the balance amount left in the account was Rs 2,07,627. It further said that on February 26, 2007, when he wanted to withdraw some amount from the account, the ATM machine showed the balance amount as Rs 203 only. It is alleged that the amount was fraudulently drawn from his account by somebody during the period November 21, 2006 to February 25, 2007, but he did not receive any message on his cell-phone during the said period. Singh also said that even the message regarding the maintenance of minimum amount of Rs 5,000 in the Bank account was not received. The bank, however, said that the debit card as well as the PIN was in possession of the complainant so no amount could have been withdrawn. The bank also said there was no deficiency on part of the bank and in case some fraudulent withdrawal of any amount had taken place, the complainant was responsible for the same. The lower foras rejected the bank's contention and asked it to refund the amount with compensation. Presently, the entire demand for petroleum products of North Gujarat and Rajasthan is met from Koyali refinery through KSPL. New Delhi: State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has been given green nod for augmenting its Koyali-Sanganer pipeline (KSPL) capacity up to 6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) from existing 4.6 MTPA at a cost of Rs 273.23 crore, a senior government official said on Monday. The company's proposal is to expand KSPL, which traverses from Koyali in Gujarat to Sanganer in Rajasthan, by augmenting the capacity of pumping stations located at Vadodara, Pali and other allied facilities. "Based on the recommendation of an expert panel, the environment ministry has given environment clearance for the IOC's proposal on KSPL," the official said. The clearance is subject to compliance of certain conditions. The capital cost of the project is estimated at Rs 273.23 crore. The company has informed that no additional land would be required for the project as the augmentation work is to be done in the existing stations only and not in pipeline route. Presently, the entire demand for petroleum products of North Gujarat and Rajasthan is met from Koyali refinery through KSPL. Other modes of transportation are uneconomical. With augmentation of KSPL, IOC in its proposal said, the current Viramgam-Mohanpura section of KSPL will receive product from one source at a time either from the Koyali refinery through Koyali-Viramgam section of KSPL or from Kandla port. That apart, Naphtha from Koyali refinery would be transported up to Jaipur through existing KSPL, while other products from Koyali refinery would be delivered at Tap-off- Points (ToPs) en route KSPL. Also, Naphtha would be transported further to Panipat through new Jaipur-Panipat Naphtha Pipeline, it added. Cross-country pipelines are globally recognised as the safest, cost-effective, energy-efficient and environment- friendly mode for transportation of Naphtha oil and petroleum products. IOC operates a network of about 11,750 km long Naphtha oil, petroleum product and gas pipelines with a throughput capacity of 85.5 MTPA of oil and 9.5 million metric standard cubic meter per day of gas. JLR expects the 7-seater fifth generation Land Rover Discovery to boost the sales given the petrol option and the lower prices starting from Rs 71.38 lakh for the petrol option. Mumbai: Tata Motors' British luxury marquee Jaguar-Land Rover (JLR) expects to vroom past the 4,500-unit volume-mark this fiscal year and increase its market share to around 14 per cent. It had already sold 2,942 units in the first nine months of 2017, clipping past a solid 45 per cent over same period last year. In the whole of 2016, it had clocked around 2,400 units only, accounting for around 9 per cent of the 34,000 units luxury market. JLR India president and managing director Rohit Suri is bullish about a spike in volumes despite the end of the lower taxation boost that GST regime had offered for two months and the resultant tepid festive sales in October. And he bases the high expectation to the good response it has seen in the first nine months when the company sold 45 per cent more units over what it had sold in the same period last year. "We are hopeful of closing this fiscal with a volume of 4,500 units and a market share of 13-14 per cent. Last year with a volume of under 2,500 units, we had 8-9 per cent of the market pie," Suri told PTI in an interaction here over the weekend. He also expects the new `Discovery', launched last evening with two global industry first features and at an attractive prices coupled with a petrol option, to do the needful in the remaining part of the year. The 34,000 units per annum in 2016 luxury car market was dominated by the German trio Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi, respectively -- and JLR comes at a distant fourth slot. Merc retained its leash over the market for the third year in a row during the first nine months of 2017 selling 11,869 units, up 20 per cent, driven by the new E Class and the SUVs. BMW sold 7,138 units in the same period, a growth of 17.3 per cent, on robust demand for the new BMW 5 series sedan, helping it make a comeback to the No 2 slot after many years. The niche market, which is only 1 per cent of total passenger car market, was bumping from one regulatory or taxation hiccup or another since the past two years such as the Supreme Court ban on high end diesel vehicle sale in Delhi -NCR, note-ban and the short-lived GST boost. JLR expects the 7-seater fifth generation Land Rover Discovery to boost the sales given the petrol option and the lower prices starting from Rs 71.38 lakh for the petrol option. The full size seven-seater premium SUV comes with both a 3-litre petrol and diesel powertrain options and offers a host of features such a full-sized spare wheel with an automatic tyre lifting option and intelligent seat fold functionality-both industry firsts. The new model comes in six variants. It also boasts of the highest wading depth of 900 mm, (Merc's GLS has only 600 mm while Q7 of Audi offers only 500 mm) which will help the vehicle wade through flooded streets, the company said. Suri also bases his optimism to the filling of a wide gap in his Land Rover portfolio all these while with the new Discovery. "The Land Rover portfolio ranged from the Rs 42 lakh Discovery Sport and the Rs 1.66-crore priced Range Rover leaving a yawning gap in the middle. The new Discovery fills that gap, which should help further build onto our already high growth we have had so far this year. "Also, there is a faster move towards petrol models which also we are filling up with the new Discovery. Earlier our volumes were 95 per cent diesel but it is only around 75 per cent now," Suri said. But he parried a direct answer about sales expectations from the new Discovery which will be imported from England, saying "We're already booked for the first two months." Land Rover launched the first Discovery 28 years ago and the latest model is the fifth generation. Suri said India is the only market where the new Discovery offers headroom for seven adults across the three rows of seating. It also offers permanent four-wheel drive. The Land Rover range in the country includes the Discovery Sport (Rs 42 L), Range Rover Evoque (Rs 44.44 L), new Discovery (Rs 71.38 L), Range Rover Sport (Rs 93.82 L) and Range Rover (Rs 166.42 L). JLR sells its nine models (from Jaguar the XE, XF, F-Pace and F-Type) sells through 25 outlets. It added two dealers this year and may add a similar number next year as well, Suri said. Suri said from Jaguar stable the XE, XF, F-Pace are the volume grossers, while from the LR side the Discovery Sport and Range Rover Evoque do the volumes. "The first nine months performance is a great testimony to our focus on building highly aspirational brands and world-class sales and after-sales infrastructure," Suri said, adding with over 4.8 million Facebook fans, JLR has the highest fan following among all the luxury players in the country. Reliance Communications Ltd unveiled on Monday a new debt repayment plan, which included a pledge to raise up to Rs 170 billion ($2.62 billion) through the sale of assets such as mobile towers. (Photo: PTI) Mumbai: Indian telecoms carrier Reliance Communications Ltd unveiled on Monday a new debt repayment plan, which included a pledge to raise up to Rs 170 billion ($2.62 billion) through the sale of assets such as mobile towers. RCom, as the debt-laden company is commonly called, also said it would repay lenders an additional Rs 100 billion through the sale of commercial real estate, and convert about Rs 70 billion of the debt to 51 per cent of the companys equity. RCom, controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, will retain debt of Rs 60 billion after the completion of the new repayment plan, the company added. SpiceJet is reportedly looking to acquire 100 amphibious aircrafts to run on the No Runway model. (File Photo) Mumbai: In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modis wish to connect the nation by air, SpiceJet is reportedly looking to acquire 100 amphibious aircrafts to run on the No Runway model. The budget airline is in talks with Japan's Setouchi Holdings Inc to buy about 100 amphibious Kodiak planes, worth USD 400 million, reported Zee News. These planes can land anywhere - on water, open field or gravel. This plan is a part of the airlines effort to capitalize on the evergrowing Indian aviation market, which is the second largest in the world. The move will make air travel affordable and more convenient for million of Indians. Hiroshima-based Setouchi may even conduct a water landing demonstration in November. This development comes a day after Union Minister Nitin Gadkari pitched for the use of amphibious aircrafts on Sunday. He said that Russian and Japanese firms have evinced interests in supplying amphibious planes to India which also include 50 seater such planes. Although Indias aviation market has grown, with the industry catering to nearly 100 billion domestic passengers last year, basic infrastructure like runways, terminals and maintainance sheds and control towers have suffered ignorance. Amphibious Kodiak aircrafts that can seat either 10 or 14 people and are capable of taking off or landing on a 300-meter strip of water or land, will be able to make use of Indias 300 unused airports. According to the Zee report. the deal could be finalized in three months. India on Monday signed a USD 200 million loan agreement with World Bank to facilitate investment in the agricultural sector in Assam. (File Photo) New Delhi: India on Monday signed a USD 200 million loan agreement with World Bank to facilitate investment in the agricultural sector and increase productivity in Assam, benefiting over 5 lakh farm households. The loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a 7-year grace period, and a maturity of 16.5 years. "The project will support the Government of Assam to facilitate agri-business investments, increase agriculture productivity and market access, and enable small farm holders produce crops that are resilient to recurrent floods or droughts in the state," the finance ministry said in a statement. It will be implemented in over 16 districts of Assam and over 5 lakh farming households will directly benefit from the project, the release said. "At least 30 per cent women are expected to participate in project activities. Specific focus will be given to women-led enterprises and their participation in the decision-making process of farmer producer organisations," the ministry said. Speaking on the occasion, Hisham Abdo, Operations Manager, World Bank, said that Assam aims to double farm income in the state and transform the agricultural sector into a stable source of growth and economic development. He said this project will serve as the nucleus to fulfill the States much larger vision of an agriculture-based rural transformation. Another key component of the project will be to promote market-led production that can deal with the vagaries of climate change. "Assam's agriculture sector is highly vulnerable to climate variability and the state experiences recurrent floods and droughts," the release said. Currently, more than 50 per cent of the paddy growing areas are prone to flooding, submergence and drought. "A market-led production system will take advantage of the rapidly changing market, introduce crops that are resilient to climate change, increase production and manage risks for farmers," the ministry said. Manivannan Pathy, Senior Agricultural Specialist and World Bank's Team Leader for the project said that the value addition and market led production systems supported through the project are expected to play a vital role in enhancing the competitiveness of the agriculture sector. Opinion / Columnist Introduction Inxwala Ceremony On the 28th of July, 2017 King Lobengula Family made a Press Statement at the Bulawayo Press Club, that from then-on the Royal House is taking its rightful role of cultural leadership within the UMthwakazi nation. This was indicative of a major step towards re-enacting the Monarch system that saw its demise at the hands of the white settlers on 4 December 1893, when King Lobengula disappeared after the Pupu battles. Later, early in 1897 Nyamande, the son of Lobengula who had been coroneted on the 25th of June 1896, was bundled out of Bulawayo and kept in restriction in the Bembesi forest. King Nyamande had flatly refused the request by the then Bulawayo Administrator to abandon being King of UMthwakazi so that they crown him as Paramount Chief of Bulawayo. He eventually died a miserable man under oppressive conditions in 1929.Cultural events and social gatherings have kept the royal genetic make-up within King Mzilikazi's nation. The different cultural events, except for Inxwala Ceremony, have no restrictions in terms of who launches them and for what purpose the ritual is carried out. The timing of the occurrence of the events in the year is critical in terms of the relevance to the life of the people. All rituals have a meaning, in particular relevance to the identity of the peoples of the UMthwakazi nation.This is a very important ceremony for UMthwakazi people and other Nguni nations within the SADC Region. It is a ritual replete with respect and detailed procedures. Inxwala ceremony is very strongly associated with the identity of the nation. Most important, is to note that only a legitimate King leads in the Inxwala ceremony. Nobody else can or should lead that ceremony and it still be described as Inxwala ceremony. This is organised to taste the first fruits when crops are ready for consumption from the fields. The King tastes the food from the fields first and nobody else can do so. It was such an important collective event that every person including military units were expected to attend, failure to attend would be considered a declaration of disobedience and dishonour to the King. The Zwangendaba regiment is a case in point that was exterminated by King Lobengula for not attending Inxwala ceremony.Inxwala Ceremony was never done twice in a year as Stanley Raphael Tshuma-Khumalo and his handlers faked it early this year and are planning to do so again on the 5th of November 2017, as advertised. Where does Stanley derive the authority to call himself king? People are never summoned to Inxwala ceremony to pray for rain or request for rain. This is done at the Injelele shrine where Umlimo is, according to local culture, resident. The rites are conducted by amawosana. The Khumalo, and indeed the King, completely respected the rain making ceremonies, but would never interfere with them because it is owned by and is a Ngwali ceremony. How does Stanley, if he is Khumalo at all, conduct a rain making ceremony? Is he a wosana?Specifically, the Inxwala ceremony was called by a legitimate King only after the rains and not at the beginning of the rainy season, such as the one we are entering now. What Stanley and his crew are advertising for the 5th of November, had better be called something else and not Inxwala. This is an insult to the people of Mthwakazi. Any person determined to preserve our identity and those aspects of our culture that are part of our true spiritual definition, should find it strange that a person summons people to attend Inxwala ceremony at the start of the rainy season and the second time around in a year. Something has gone really wrong amongst us as UMthwakazi nation that our own people should trivialise such an important ritual and the venue of the ceremony, that our forefathers and progressive previous Councils revered and observed for so long. Further, Stanley is trivialising the rain making ceremony by meddling into cultural matters he is ignorant about.King Lobengula's House expresses absolute disgust and dismay at such an act. The Mthwakazi nation sees this as a day-time effort to commit cultural genocide. If a person can wake up in the morning and tell a nation, which for years has been proud of a stable culture and a way of doing things, that he dreamt the previous night; and that he is now a king of some sort and abuse all the institutional rituals, then as a nation, we must avoid associating with characters like Stanley. We cannot continue as a nation to be in constant state of slumber and fail to realise the level of damage all this is doing to our culture and identity. It is one thing being a strong advocate for popular political ends and it is another to try to attain political mileage through the destruction of our culture which is a very strong seam to the future of Mthwakazi nationhood. It is a huge tragedy that today UMthwakazi sits back and cannot even notice that through and through they are being taken for a ride.Very soon there will be an important event at koGadadi, to remember thousands of gallant Matabele warriors who died defending their nation. This is a genuine cause that Vukani Mahlabezulu had a vision about and they launched it. Organisations such as Imbovane yamaHlabezulu were active in supporting this brilliant idea. Today, Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni carries the flag for this grand initiative, strongly support by Umhlahlo weSizwe sikaMthwakazi. With such an important event on the cards for early November, 2017 the advert for Inxwala is certainly misplaced and it would not be farfetched to suspect that this is designed to divert people's attention away from the koGadadi memorials which are currently more relevant at this point in time and topical to the local people.It is an honest opinion, that it is high time UMthwakazi reject any maneuvers that appear to be projects of individuals camouflaged as genuine Monarch revival programs. UMthwakazi, at this point need to take stock and say NO! to these antics. Cultural issues are imbued in UMthwakazi bloodline and it is very bad for our cultural functions that are of necessity part of us to be decimated at the expense of UMthwakazi nationhood. These antics are clearly for personal popularity or gain. The self proclaimed "king" can continue with the political side of things and give space to culture which, by the make-up of things, he and his colleagues are groping in the dark. That will pay this nation better dividends.Prince Zwide KhumaloSpokesman, King Lobengula Family+263 772 350 443zwide54@gmail.com Most of the lead indicators of activities in this segment have showed an uptick in recent months. Mumbai: After witnessing a sharp slowdown in growth during the first quarter of this fiscal, Indias GDP growth is likely to trend higher in the second quarter on the back of a recovery in automobile, mining and electricity sector, SBI said in a research report. Indias GDP, which decelerated to 6.1 per cent in Q4FY17, further fell to a thirteen-quarter low of 5.7 per cent in Q1FY18. The slowdown was due to slowing consumption demand, contraction in manufacturing activity due to implementation of GST, and a decline in mining activity. However, the report highlighted that the activities in trade, hotels, transport and communication, which were affected after demonetisation, bounced back to register a five-quarter high growth of 11.1 per cent in Q1FY18. Most of the lead indicators of activities in this segment like foreign tourist arrivals, international passenger and airfreight traffic, railway traffic, and telephone subscribers have showed an uptick in recent months. We base our optimism on several factors. First, SBI Composite Index, which tracks the manufacturing activity in the country, has been quite buoyant for September & October. The continued possible traction in September growth rate is because of evidence of restocking in automobiles. The discounts offered by vehicle dealers possibly enabled them to clear stock and facilitate restocking post GST. We will not be surprised if IIP growth in September is well in excess of 5 per cent, as mining & electricity growth is also likely to be significantly better as state electricity boards have purchased power because of festive demand, it said. According to it, the consumption related sectors are witnessing an increase in investment opportunities, which bodes well for the investment cycle going forward. The only point of concern is the growth rate in the rural sector. The growth in the agriculture sector is likely to remain muted as key food grain producing states witnessed deficient rainfall. Mumbai: In his memoir, 'An Ordinary Life', penned with Rituparna Chatterjee, the 43-year-old critically acclaimed actor said he shared a "passionate" relationship with his 'Miss Lovely' co-star. Nawaz has written that his affair with Niharika lasted for almost "one and a half years" and she sent emails on his behalf to his former girlfriend. In a statement issued, Niharika admitted to an affair with the actor, but said the details given by him are laughable. She also denied sending any such mails and said the 'Babumoshai Bandookbaaz' actor "has chosen to fabricate stories and manipulate a fleeting relationship". Now, things have taken a shocking turn as Nawazuddin Siddiqui has decided to withdraw his book. I m apologising 2 every1 whos sentiments r hurt bcz of d chaos around my memoir #AnOrdinaryLife. I hereby regret & decide 2 withdraw my book, he wrote on Twitter. I m apologising 2 every1 who's sentiments r hurt bcz of d chaos around my memoir #AnOrdinaryLife I hereby regret & decide 2 withdraw my book Nawazuddin Siddiqui (@Nawazuddin_S) October 30, 2017 His tweet comes after Mid-day reported that a complaint has been registered against him with the National Commission for Women for outraging the modesty of Niharika Singh. I dont know Niharika Singh personally nor have I spoken to her, advocate Gautam Gulati, who filed the complaint, told the publication. I have lodged a complaint with the NCW with a request to give direction for the registration of an FIR. He [Siddiqui] was evidently married when he was having an affair with Niharika, and kept her in the dark about it. The actor has published it without having second thoughts about how this kind of act can ruin the married life of the victim, Gulati wrote in the complaint. For minting money and garnering free publicity for his book, the actor has bargained the modesty of a woman. Excerpts from Nawaz's book started doing the rounds on Monday and the actor has given a detailed account of his affairs and flings in it. Here's the excerpt about affair with Niharika: For the very first time I went to Niharikas house. I rang the doorbell, slightly nervous. When she opened the door, revealing a glimpse of the house, I was speechless with amazement. A hundred, or so it seemed, little candles flickered beautifully. She wore soft faux fur, looking devastatingly gorgeous; her beauty illuminated even more in the candlelight. And I, being the lusty village bumpkin that I am, scooped her up in my arms and headed straight for the bedroom. We made passionate love. And just like that, out of the blue, I began a relationship with Niharika Singh, a relationship which I did not know then would last for almost one and a half years. In a shocking incident, a Swiss couple was beaten up brutally at Fatehpur Sikri by an irate group of men. According to reports, men wanted a picture with the woman, Marie Droz, and on being denied a selfie, beat the two up. The incident has gone on to show that tourism is still rather unsafe in India, despite the countrys popularity with foreign travellers. A number of countries, including the US, have issued directives for safety and security of travellers in India, giving them advice like keep a low profile, vary your routes and times besides other warnings of terror attacks and sexual assault. We ask social thinkers why India is still unsafe as a tourist destination for foreign travellers, and what steps can be taken to make it a better place to visit. Ministry needs to train people as official guides There is huge a gap in culture and people asking foreigners for selfies is insane. People should not do it. It shows lack of manners. I have faced harassment while travelling myself within India. This incident is very unfortunate. I guess the tourism ministry needs to train more people as official guides and they can also be trained in how to help the tourists with a safe journey. They can guide them not just on the tour but also help absorb any cultural shock. People who are travelling should also hire them and that will probably reduce a lot of hassle for them. Siddharth Gauri, Historian and documentary filmmaker Such issues of abuse and sexual assault are reported everywhere I am originally from Switzerland too and the incident is shocking. However, to only say that India is an unsafe tourist destination for all foreign travellers, may not be right. Anything can happen in any part of the world, no matter where you are travelling to. Such issues of abuse and sexual assault are reported everywhere these days idiots are everywhere. I do not know about the rules and regulations, that is up to the government. However, I never faced such situations when I came to Hyderabad. My wife had faced some issues when we were new here, but thats about it. Joe Koster, Director/Trustee at The Hyderabad Western Music Foundation Most important aspects of quality tourism is safety and security of travellers One of the most important aspects of quality tourism is safety and security of travellers. The track record of many states is pretty bad. There have been many incidents of attack against women tourists in Delhi and parts of Uttar Pradesh. The latest incident of assault against the Swiss tourists is indicative of lack of safety and security of people. Such episodes happen on a daily basis and violence against women is on rise. But only when it happens to tourists from Europe, it becomes news. This is also due to the attitude and statement of the UP chief minister against Taj Mahal and creating a crowd mindset against foreign tourists. India can learn from Thailand on how to ensure safety and security of tourists. John Samuel, Expert on international relations and public relations Tourists should do more research about where they are going Travellers in their twenties come to India, wanting to know a different culture and they believe in the illusion of safety. But the longer you live here, you realise what can happen. Over the years, I have lived a way more conservative than I would have ever have. Once, someone knocked on my door. I opened thinking it was my friend but it wasnt. It was somebody with a big knife; I screamed as if my life is over, that scared the guy away. You have to be constantly alert in India. You have to accept India is India and you have to change a little bit. People ask me for selfies and I say two hundred rupees and they are shocked, and they walk away. I think tourists should do more research about where they are going. Aine Edwards, Expat It is vulnerable to travel all around the world today Incidents like these are really unfortunate. As someone who travels abroad often, the first thing I do is to get myself acquainted with the destination, culture and how people live there. Similarly, for tourists, when they have chosen India as a travel destination, it is important that they read up about the country, get an idea of how life is here and what people are here. This is basic. At least this will help the tourist be aware of what to expect. One would think that safety is an issue just in India, but it is vulnerable to travel all around the world today. Tourists could be easily attacked and such is the case every where in the world; be it Russia, London or Las Vegas. Travellers need to be alert, understand that there is enough help around. Fatima Agarkar, Educationist A representative for the event saying it was investigating and cited a medical report saying that she had septicopyemia. (Photo: Facebook/Vlada Dzyuba) The Chinese agency representing a 14-year-old Russian model who died after taking part in Shanghai Fashion Week has denied allegations that she was overworked and exhausted. The death of the teenager in a Chinese hospital on Friday (Oct 27) has shone a light on the murky world of western models in China, many of whom are from the former Soviet Union. Vlada Dzyuba began feeling dizzy and started being sick last Tuesday (Oct 24) and was taken to a Shanghai hospital the next day, but died on Friday after her condition quickly deteriorated. English-language The Siberian Times alleged that Dzyuba died of meningitis compounded by severe exhaustion. ESEE's chief executive Zheng Yi separately told the state Global Times that she had worked a legal eight hours a day during her two months in China before her death. "Dzyuba had 16 different jobs during her two-month stay in China, she had regular breaks while working," Zheng told the newspaper on Sunday. "Most of her work was completed within eight hours. Her workload was moderate compared with other models." After the Shanghai event Dzyuba travelled to Yiwu, a city south of Shanghai, but a model shoot was cancelled because she began feeling unwell and she returned to Shanghai. Dzyuba's tender age - she was to turn 15 on November 8 - also highlights a piece of Chinese law that says children under 16 can be employed in certain industries with official permission. There was no immediate reply from Shanghai Fashion Week or Russian officials in China. However, the Global Times quoted a representative for the event saying it was investigating and cited a medical report saying that she had septicopyemia, a type of blood poisoning. Late on Sunday night, the youth, Punia, in an inebriated condition, barged into her house and raped her. (Representational image) Lucknow: In an incident that is both shocking and shameful a 100-year-old woman was raped by a 25-year-old youth in Jani village in Meerut on Sunday night. The woman, who was ailing, was taken to a hospital where she later died. The accused was caught and beaten up by the local people who later handed him over to the police. According to reports, the victim lives with her brother in the village. Late on Sunday night, the youth, Punia, in an inebriated condition, barged into her house and raped her. Hearing the commotion, some neighbours went into the house and caught the accused. The circle officer of Sardhana was informed and he reached the spot. Since the victim has died, relevant sections of the IPC will now be invoked against the accused, the official said. Meanwhile, additional forces have been deployed in the village in view of the tension due to the incident. The passengers of Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight that made an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport on Monday morning due to "detection of an onboard security threat". Flight 9W 339, with 115 passengers and seven crew members, landed without incident at Ahmedabad and all 122 safely "deplaned", a Jet Airways spokesperson said. (Photo: PTI) Mumbai: A business class passenger was arrested on Monday for allegedly leaving a threat note inside the washroom of a MumbaiDelhi Jet Airways flight, which said the aircraft had been hijacked and asked it to be flown to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. The note warned that bombs would explode otherwise. The discovery of the note by an air hostess led to the aircraft being diverted to Ahmedabads Sardar Vallabhai Patel International Airport early on Monday. The Ahmedabad police arrested Salla Birju, a jeweller from Gujarats Amreli area, who is now based in Mumbai, after it was established that he had done the mischief. According to the Ahmedabad police, the passenger allegedly confessed to his crime during interrogation. He said he placed the note in order to disorganise the operations of the flight. Civil aviation minister Ashok Ganapathy Raju later tweeted, I am informed that the person responsible has been identified. I am advising the Airlines to put him on the No-Fly list immediately. The Congress on Sunday also demanded a court-monitored probe into the deaths of babies at the Ahmedabad civil hospital. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: The Congress has demanded Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's resignation over the deaths of 20 infants in three days at a civil hospital, and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah should be held accountable for infant deaths across the country. The party on Sunday also demanded a court-monitored probe into the deaths of babies at the Ahmedabad civil hospital. Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill criticised Modi for "not even making a mention" of the incident in his monthly radio address 'Mann-ki-Baat', and accused him of being "insensitive" to the pain of the families of the deceased. He dubbed the Prime Minister's radio address as "yet another disappointing monologue", which was not in sync with the ground reality and current issues facing the country. "Does the Prime Minister not feel the pain of the deaths of these infants in his heart or does he not have any sympathy for the families of the victims? "Instead of (expressing his) 'Mann ki Baat', the prime minister should have apologised to the people of this country, especially the families of the innocent infants, who lost their lives due to gross criminal negligence of the BJP-run administration," Shergill said in a statement. The deaths of the infants were not an "unfortunate incident" but "cold-blooded murders" by the state administration. "The Congress demands that Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani immediately resign from the post on account of the deaths," he said. He said Modi and Shah "should be held accountable and answerable for the frequent deaths of infants" all over India, especially in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. "The Congress demands that Modi, rather than indulging in PR exercises, should start addressing the real issues of the economy and do something to put an end to the dance of death going on in various BJP-ruled states," he said. The Congress leader alleged that the BJP in order to satiate its political appetite has turned government hospitals and doctors into "political handles for its political gains". Shergill also alleged that an "operation cover-up" has started in Gujarat to protect the accused involved in the "horrific" incident by authorising the deputy superintendent of the civil hospital to conduct an inquiry. "How can the accused be a judge in his own case? This is nothing but an eyewash to protect the accused," he said. Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K Palanisamy got stuck inside a lift for over four minutes at the City airport on Sunday evening triggering a security flutter. The CM was on his way to Madurai to attend the Thevar Poojai celebrations. The CM, his personal security officer (PSO) and a few members of the security team had taken the lift, which got stuck before reaching the second floor. Airport sources said that the Chief Minister was waiting in the VVIP lounge on the third floor of the domestic terminal and had taken the lift to reach the ground floor. The CM, his personal security officer (PSO) and a few members of the security team had taken the lift, which got stuck before reaching the second floor. Other members of the security team who were waiting in the other floors swung into action and alerted the technical team. The CM and his party were inside the lift for about four minutes. The snag was immediately rectified and those in the lift were secured. The flight to Madurai was delayed by 15 minutes due to the incident, airport authorities said. Under the new rules, the licence granted for manufacturing will be valid for the life-time of the licensee company. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) New Delhi: To boost the 'Make in India' initiative, the Union home ministry has liberalised the Arms Rules to encourage investment in the manufacturing of arms, ammunition and weapon systems in the country. The liberalised rules will promote employment generation in the field of manufacturing of arms and ammunition, according to an official statement here on Monday. Under the new rules, the licence granted for manufacturing will be valid for the life-time of the licensee company. The requirement of renewal of the licence every five years has been done away with. Similarly, the condition that small arms and light weapons produced by a manufacturer should be sold to the central government or the state governments with the prior approval of the home ministry has been done away with. The liberalised rules will apply to licences granted by the home ministry for small arms and ammunition, and those granted by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), under powers delegated to it, for tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, defence aircraft, space crafts, warships of all kinds, arms and ammunition and allied items of defence equipment other than small arms. The new rules, which came into effect on October 27, are expected to encourage the manufacturing activity and facilitate availability of world-class weapons to meet the requirement of armed forces and police forces in sync with the country's defence indigenisation programme. Under the new rules, enhancement of capacity up to 15 per cent of the quantity approved under the licence will not require any further approval by the government. The manufacturer will be required to give only prior intimation to the authority, the statement said. The licence fee has been reduced significantly. Earlier the licence fee was Rs 500 per firearm which added up to very large sums and was a deterrent to seeking manufacturing licenses. The licence fee will now range from Rs 5,000 to the maximum of Rs 50,000. The fee for manufacturing licence will be payable at the time of the grant of license rather than at the time of application. Single manufacturing licence will be allowed for a multi-unit facility within the same state or in different states within the country, the statement said. Bengaluru: In what could be considered an informal launch of the BJPs campaign for the 2018 Assembly elections in Karnataka, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the enthusiasm of party workers was enough indication that people of the state want to join the Vikas Yatra for overall development. Addressing party workers at HAL Airport here on Sunday, the PM said the large turnout of people proved that they were no longer ready to wait for the Assembly elections due after six months but want to join the Vikas Yatra' of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA government at the Centre. People were fed up with the Congress government in the state and want to have the BJP in power to join the development process. " I am optimistic that the BJP will return to power and there will be 'vikas' (development)," he said. The PM at Sri Manjunatheswara Temple at Dharmasthala earlier in the day (Photo: DC) Party workers chanted 'Modi, Modi' as he lashed out at the Congress. The PM began his speech with two sentences in Kannada thanking people for turning up in large numbers at short notice. Sources said the Bharatiya Janata Party leaders had requested him to address workers for at least 10-15 minutes to boost their morale in view of the coming elections. United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. TERRY N. TAYLOR, Plaintiff - Appellant, v. MELISA COMBS FORSYTH, Prison Psychologist, Jesup FCI, P. G. RIENHARD, Judge, RICHARD A. POSNER, Judge, FRANK H. EASTERBROOK, Judge, ROSEMARY COLLINS, Judge, et al., Defendants - Appellees. No. 16-12872 Decided: October 26, 2017 Before HULL, WILSON, and JORDAN, Circuit Judges. Terry Taylor, proceeding pro se, appeals the sua sponte dismissal of his complaint. For the reasons stated below, we affirm. Mr. Taylor, a then-federal prisoner, filed a complaint in the Southern District of Georgia against several federal and state judges in Illinois, the Clerk of the Court for the Seventh Circuit, Gino J. Agnello, and two psychologists, Melisa Forsyth and Terrance Lichtenward, claiming that they violated his constitutional rights and certain federal statutes. Although difficult to decipher, it appears that Mr. Taylor alleges that Ms. Forsyth, who was a psychologist at the Federal Correctional Institution in Jesup, Georgia, committed identity theft and fraud by assuming someone else's identity and convincing him to marry her in Illinois. D.E. 1 at 5. He alleges that certain of the defendants conspired to put him in an Illinois mental institution as retaliation for attempting to bring Ms. Forsyth's actions to light. He also claims that his constitutional rights were violated through actions related to his court proceedings in Illinois state court, the Northern District of Illinois, and the Seventh Circuit. Upon conducting a frivolity review, a magistrate judge recommended that the complaint be dismissed as to all of the defendants because the Southern District of Georgia was not the proper venue for Mr. Taylor's lawsuit, among other rationales. After reviewing Mr. Taylor's objections to the magistrate judge's report and recommendation, the district court agreed with the magistrate judge in part and concluded that venue was improper as to all of the defendants except Ms. Forsyth because it assumed as true Mr. Taylor's assertion that Ms. Forsyth lived in the Southern District of Georgia. Notwithstanding this assumption, the district court dismissed Mr. Taylor's claims against Ms. Forsyth because he failed to state a claim against her. The district court also denied Mr. Taylor in forma pauperis status on appeal. Mr. Taylor then filed several motions for reconsideration related to the district court's dismissal of his complaint, denial of in forma pauperis status, and prior ruling on his request for the appointment of counsel. The district court denied Mr. Taylor's motions. I We review the district court's dismissal of a lawsuit for improper venue for an abuse of discretion, see Algodonera De La Cabezas, S.A. v. Am. Suisse Capital, Inc., 432 F.3d 1343, 1345 (11th Cir. 2005), and a district court's sua sponte dismissal of a prisoner's lawsuit for failure to state a claim de novo. See Boxer X v. Harris, 437 F.3d 1107, 1110 (11th Cir. 2006). We construe Mr. Taylor's filings liberally because he is proceeding pro se, but keep in mind that we cannot act as de facto counsel for Mr. Taylor either. See Campbell v. Air Jamaica, Ltd., 760 F.3d 1165, 116869 (11th Cir. 2014). II On appeal, Mr. Taylor argues that the district court improperly dismissed his complaint. Although he reiterates certain of his allegations against some defendants, he fails to address the district court's bases for dismissing his complaint and explain why the district court erred. As to Ms. Forsyth, Mr. Taylor reiterates that she resides in the Southern District of Georgia and argues that a Georgia state court would not be the appropriate venue to bring his claims against her. Although unclear, it appears that Mr. Taylor argues that Ms. Forsyth's actions violated his Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment and that he has a claim under the Mental Cruelty Act. He also asserts that her actions caused him to lose his First Amendment right to seek redress from the courts. We, however, agree with the district court that Mr. Taylor has failed to state a claim against Ms. Forsyth. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(2). Mr. Taylor's complaint is devoid of any allegation connecting Ms. Forsyth's alleged acts and a corresponding constitutional violation, notwithstanding Mr. Taylor's efforts to explain his claims now. As to the other defendants, Mr. Taylor does not address why his claims against them should be adjudicated in the Southern District of Georgia. He merely reiterates his allegations against some of the defendants and presents broad statements about venue being proper. Mr. Taylor does not attempt to explain how any of the bases for proper venue apply, and with the limited information at our disposal, we cannot determine how any basis applies either. Therefore, we similarly affirm the district court's dismissal of the claims against the other defendants. See Singh v. U.S. Att'y Gen., 561 F.3d 1275, 1278 (11th Cir. 2009) ([A]n appellant's simply stating that an issue exists, without further argument or discussion, constitutes abandonment of that issue and precludes our considering the issue on appeal.). III The district court properly dismissed Mr. Taylor's claims and Mr. Taylor has failed to provide a basis for us to conclude otherwise. As a result, we affirm. AFFIRMED. FOOTNOTES . We deny Mr. Taylor's petition for rehearing but issue this revised opinion, which does not address the statute of limitations governing Mr. Taylor's claims against Ms. Forsyth. . Mr. Taylor argues on appeal that he should have counsel appointed on his behalf. We have already reviewed and denied his motion for appointment of counsel and corresponding motion for reconsideration. See App. D.E. 11, 14. We deny his current request as well. . A district court may dismiss a suit sua sponte for lack of venue if it gave the parties an opportunity to present their views on the issue. See Algodonera De Las Cabezas, S.A., 432 F.3d at 1345. Mr. Taylor had the opportunity to object to the magistrate's report and recommendation before the district court entered its final order and the district court reviewed the report de novo, so there is no due process concern here. See Vanderberg v. Donaldson, 259 F.3d 1321, 1324 (11th Cir. 2001). PER CURIAM: The Supreme Court was on Monday hearing Hadiyas husband Shafin Jahans plea against the Kerala High Court order, annulling their marriage. (File photo) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday observed that Hadiya, who has been forcibly confined to her house near Kottayam in Kerala by her parents, is a major and her consent is most important. Hadiya alias KM Akhila, born a Hindu, had converted to Islam last year and married a Muslim man, Shafin Jahan. A bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, to ensure that she is produced in court on November 27 for interaction with the bench, which is likely to ascertain her mental stage and whether she had given free consent to the marriage. Her father appealed for in-camera proceedings, but the Supreme Court declined his request. The apex court said it the court proceedings will be held in an open court. The National Investigation Agency, represented by Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, said there was a well-oiled machinery working in the state and they are indulging in the indoctrination and radicalisation of the society in the state where as many as 89 cases of similar nature have been reported. Divan, appearing for woman's father K M Ashokan, claimed the alleged husband of his daughter is a radicalised man and several organisations like Popular Front of India (PFI) are involved in radicalisation of the society. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for her husband Shafin Jahan, opposed the NIA's submission and that of the woman's father. The apex court was on Monday hearing Jahans plea against the Kerala High Court order, annulling their marriage. The high court had also ordered that Hadiya should live under the protective custody of her parents in Kottayam. The high court had also held that the girl was brought up as a Hindu in accordance with the faith of her parents and that she was indoctrinated by persons whose identities have not been ascertained. It was felt that the marriage was part of a love jihad culture. Their marriage was challenged in the high court by Hadiyas father, who also alleged that her husband, Jahan, has links with terror group ISIS. Jahan had also pleaded before the Supreme Court to cancel the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into their marriage. The NIA probe was ordered by the apex court. On October 3, the apex had said prima facie it was of the view that the father cant hold custody of his 24-year-old girl. Hadiya, in a recent video, had claimed that her father beats her daily and she might die soon. "You need to get me out...I will be killed anytime. I know my father is getting angry...He hits and kicks me when I walk, she said. The video, which was originally taken by activist Rahul Easwar, ends on an abrupt note with Hadiya saying, "What if my head or any part of my body hits somewhere and I die..." The Air Arabia flight which suffered a peacock hit had developed a hole in the fuselage during landing at Coimbatore airport on Sunday. (Photo: DC) Coimbatore: Thanks to providence, a major aircraft disaster was averted in the textile city on Sunday when an 'Air Arabia' flight with 107 passengers on board from Sharjah suffered a bird hit and had developed a hole in the fuselage while landing at Coimbatore airport in the early hours. Airport sources told DC that Air Arabia operates flights to Coimbatore on daily basis from Sharjah and the flight usually lands by 3.30 am. It flies back to Sharjah on the return journey at 4.40 am. Early this morning, the in-coming flight from Sharjah was late by 30 minutes, sources said. A few minutes before landing, a peacock hit the left side wing and damaged the wing and fuselage of the aircraft, but luckily the pilot managed to land the flight safely and it touched down here around 4 am. The flight, which was to fly back to Sharjah by 4.40 am, was cancelled and the passengers were made to stay at Coimbatore. They were later put on board the evening flight, airport sources added. Gandhi said while the economy was able to withstand the torpedo of note ban, it could not withstand the one of GST. (Photo: PTI | File) New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Monday, attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he had destroyed the country's economy with two "torpedoes" -- note ban and GST. Narendra Modi had failed to understand the pain of the people, Gandhi said. Wondering why the government was "celebrating" the first anniversary of note ban on November 8, Gandhi said, "I don't know what is there to celebrate." Gandhi said while the economy was able to withstand the "torpedo" of note ban, it could not withstand the one of GST. The economy, he said, "was in tatters now". "The prime minister is not able to understand the feeling of the people and the hurt and sadness these two decisions have caused," he said after holding two meetings of top Congress leaders on demonetisation and GST. The Congress leader said the GST is a "good idea" which has been "destroyed" by the Modi government. While the first meeting discussed the plans of the party, along with other opposition parties, to observe November 8 as 'black day', the second deliberated upon GST implementation. The second meet was attended by former prime minister Manmohan Singh and ex-finance minister P Chidambaram. Water stagnation near domestic establishments at S Kuvam river road, behind Rajarathinam stadium in Egmore remains unchecked by authorities despite being a breeding ground of mosquitoes. (Photo: DC) Chennai: Intensified measures by the State health department to control dengue seemed to come too late after around 15,000 cases were reported and more than 50 deaths occurred in Tamil Nadu. With the commencement of northeast monsoon, infectious diseases like malaria, cholera, chikungunya, viral fever and flu are on the rise and authorities need to act now to prevent these cases spiking before they need to control it. While dengue cases are alarming, chikungunya cases have increased to 96 in October from 52 in September and malaria cases have spiked to 3,315 from 2,207 since last month. Japanese encephalitis cases recorded till October are 58 and encephalitis syndrome cases have increased to 905 which were 22 and 659 respectively in September, as per the report by National Vector Borne Diseases Control Programme. Though the authorities claim to have taken up cleanliness campaigns, streets and even main roads remain dumping grounds in many localities. Full dustbins and water logging on roads are not only causing breeding of mosquitoes, but can also increase water-borne diseases in the city. The risk of diseases goes up as diseases carrying pathogens are highest during the rains. Water logging leads to breeding of mosquitoes and ultimately an increase in cases of malaria, dengue and other types of fever later is witnessed, said Dr Anitha Ramesh, doctor at Apollo Speciality Hospital. Leptospirosis has been a common health concern of doctors. Children are likely among the most affected due to large exposure to rainwater. Dr Ravi Chandran, dean of Institute of Child Health says, Fever cases are common these days but paediatric patients complaining of viral fever, brain fever, dysentery and diarrhoea are increasing. Children have low immunity and easily fall prey to these diseases." Everyday inspection of dengue wards at government hospitals by health department officials, distribution of Nilavembu Kudineer at movie theatres, hospitals, bus stops and railway stations by public administration department officials, the fining of school owners, private firms and construction site owners by domestic breeding inspectors were some of the field work initiatives taken up by the health department to curb the spread of dengue. However, so much of screaming and fining by the government to prevent it comes only when dengue cases have reached alarming numbers. Authorities need to ponder on the situation and act before other diseases become significantly high. When contacted, Public health director K Kolandaisamy said that government hospitals are monitoring all vector borne diseases and health department is aware of the prevalence of all viral and infectious diseases. The prime focus is to control and prevent dengue and initiatives such as cleanliness and awareness campaigns are being done, which shall also halt the growth of other viral infections, he added. Total number of cases reported by October Dengue 15,000 cases 52 deaths Malaria - 3315 Chikungunya 98 Japanese Encephalitis 58 Encephalitis syndrome 905 The residents said that the area comes under the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB). The SCB is having a meeting on Monday. (Representational image) Hyderabad: Residents of Sainikpuri are continuing with their protest to open the service road located beneath the RK Puram flyover. The residents conducted shramdaans to get the governments attention. C. S. Chandrashekar, a resident of Sainikpuri, said, This is the second Sunday we are conducting a shramdaan. We are clearing the garbage near the flyover and will continue to do so until the service road is opened. A lot of traffic congestion is happening due to the illegally blocked road. The residents said that the area comes under the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB). The SCB is having a meeting on Monday. With KTRs intervention, the reopening of the road can be included in the agenda, added Chandrashekar. The U-turn under the RK Puram flyover has been blocked by the military. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the West Bengal government, told the Supreme Court that the plea has been filed by the labour department of the state as subsidies under these schemes have to be given by them. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday came down hard on the Mamata Banerjee government for filing a plea challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of social welfare schemes, saying it was against the federal structure. The top court asked how a state can challenge the mandate of Parliament and said the West Bengal Chief Minister could file the plea as an individual. "How can a state file such a plea. In a federal structure, how can a state file a plea challenging Parliament's mandate," a bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the West Bengal government, told the court that the plea has been filed by the labour department of the state as subsidies under these schemes have to be given by them. "You satisfy us how the state has challenged it. We know it is a matter which needs consideration," the bench said adding the Centre's move can be challenged by an individual but not by states. "Let Mamata Banerjee come and file a plea as an individual. We will entertain it as she will be an individual," the top court said. However, Sibal maintained that the state was entitled to file such a plea but said that they would amend the prayer in the petition. Meanwhile, the bench issued the notice to the Centre on a separate plea filed by an individual challenging the linking of mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar. The court has asked the Centre to file its response on the plea in four weeks. The West Bengal government challenged the provision which says that without Aadhaar, the benefits of social welfare schemes would not be extended. Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefits of various government schemes has been extended till March 31, 2018, for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric identification number. It had said that the deadline extension from December end till March 31, 2018, would apply only to those who do not have Aadhaar and are willing to enrol for it. Several petitions, challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes and notifications to link it with mobile numbers and bank accounts, are pending in the apex court. Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday mooted the idea of introducing a Green Budget to earmark funds in the GHMC Budget every year to improve tree cover in the city. Replying to a short debate on Haritha Haram in the Assembly, Mr Rao warned that a day would soon come in Hyderabad where the government would have to acquire acres of land by spending thousands of crores only to plant saplings. We are already witnessing 45 temperature and even more in the city. If the green cover is not improved, we may see 50C also like in Kothagudem and Khammam where birds and animals die from the scorching heat, Mr Rao said. The CM said the government had set itself a target of planting 10 crore saplings in HMDA limits of which half has been met. Saplings have been planted in parks, along roads and highways. Huge plantation was taken up along the Outer Ring Road. The difference is visible with greenery all along the ORR, Mr Rao said. He said the government had spent Rs 2,008 crore in three years on Haritha Haram to plant 82 crore saplings. Of this, the state government contributed Rs 1,700 crore and the Centre Rs 300 crore. He said the survival rate of saplings along roads and highways was 91 per cent, 79 per cent in governments unused lands and 53 per cent in wastelands. Mr Rao said that the claimed 24 per cent of green cover existed on paper, while the fact is that thousands of acres of forests lands have been encroached. Due to devastation of forests, the menace of monkeys has increased in the state. Since we have destroyed forests, they are coming to villages and towns in search of food and water. Its not possible to check this menace unless forests are rejuvenated, he said. The CM said some people mocked him when he spoke about the monkey menace when Haritha Haaram was conceived, but all political parties in states that were going to the polls had incorporated this in their manifestoes. HYDERABAD: After nearly 80 years, the Secunderabad Cantonment Board is taking steps to revise its building by-laws. The new by-laws would make rain water harvesting pits, solar water heating and planting of one tree per 100 square metres mandatory for getting permission for new buildings. The SCB board meeting on Monday deliberated on the draft recommendations introduced by the board Chief Executive Officer S.V.R. Chandrashekar. It proposed that cellar, stilt and parking areas should not be considered in the Floor Space Index calculations. The FSI the ratio between built up area and the plot area was fixed at 1.5 in 2003. SCB vice-president J. Ramakrishna said the members wanted the FSI to be increased to 2. The revised by-laws proposed allowing plot sizes of 50 sq.metres (59.7 sq.yards) and above. Ward-1 member J. Maheshwar Reddy suggested modifications in set back rules for plots ranging from 150 to 500 sq.metres. He said the category of 500-2,000 sq. metres was to be divided into two categories so that plot owners owning 700 or 800 sq. metres or below do not lose a big portion of land. The maximum height was proposed to be 12 metres for residential and 18 metres for commercial buildings. To encourage multiplexes and shopping malls, the SCB has decided to grant permissions to those coming with proposals between 3,000 and 5,000 sq.metres. The suggestions would be sent to New Delhi for consent. Once it is obtained, they would be open for public for objections and suggestions. Row over trash transfer point Congress activists staged a protest in front of the Secunderabad Cantonment Board office demanding removal of garbage transit point at Mahatma Gandhi community hall, Trimulgherry. Board member P. Bhagyasree (Congress) regretted that no action had been taken for the past year despite the board discussing the inconvenience caused to residents due to dumping of waste from all eight wards. SCB president Manish Upadhyay said the issue would be discussed at a special meeting within a fortnight. CEO S.V.R. Chandrashekar said that since there were no vacant C category land, they would need to request the Army establishment to check for B-4 or A-1 land. Earlier, Congress leaders led by Mr Krishank Manne staged a dharna in front of the Defence Estates Officer building even while board was holding its meeting inside. Police took the protesters into custody and shifted them to the Bolarum police station. Board members belonging to the TRS J. Ramakrishna, Maheshwar Reddy, Pandu Yadav, J. Lokanatham, Nalini Kiran and Anitha Prabhaker criticised the Congress for trying to attract the attention of the media. Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Monday said the government would fill 1.12 lakh vacancies in various departments before its term ends in 2019 as promised. Nobody needs to doubt the TRS governments commitment on this, he told the Assembly. Speaking during the Question Hour, Mr Rao said, The state has nearly four lakh sanctioned posts, of which nearly 1.12 lakh are vacant due to retirements and creation of new posts. We cannot recruit as per our whims and fancies. We need to follow procedure, which takes time. Stating that the government was committed to filling the vacancies, he said, We will make 1,000 more appointments over these vacancies but not less. Congress MLA T. Rammohan Reddy said UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had granted statehood for Telangana with the hope that students, some of whom had sacrificed their lives during the agitation, would employment in their own state but the TRS government had failed in giving jobs. Congress MLA S.A. Sampath Kumar alleged that TSPSC was resorting to irregularities in the recruitment process. Mr Rao strongly condemned these allegations and appreciated TSPSC chairman Ghanta Chakrapani for bringing major reforms in the recruitment process. The UP Board of Madrasa Education has been asked to include the NCERT books in the syllabus. Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has decided to include books by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in the syllabus of madrasas in the state. The UP Board of Madrasa Education has been asked to include the NCERT books in the syllabus. UP deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma told reporters that the Madrasa Board has started preparations to include the prescribed NCERT text in the curriculum. According to the proposal, mathematics and science will be included in the syllabus. The state governments move is an attempt to bring the madrasas, which usually prescribe their own syllabus to students, at par with public and private schools in Uttar Pradesh. The state government had also earlier asked all madrasas to hoist the National Flag and sing the National Anthem as part of Independence Day celebrations. United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit. JACQUELINE LISSETTE GUZMAN-ALVAREZ, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL, Respondent. 16-904 NAC Decided: October 27, 2017 PRESENT: JON O. NEWMAN, RICHARD C. WESLEY, DEBRA ANN LIVINGSTON, Circuit Judges. FOR PETITIONER: Kathryn E. Cimone, Jadeja & Cimone, LLP, Hempstead, N.Y. FOR RESPONDENT: Chad A. Readler, Acting Assistant Attorney General; Jessica A. Dawgert, Senior Litigation Counsel; Tracey N. McDonald, Trial Attorney, Office of Immigration Litigation, United States Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. UPON DUE CONSIDERATION of this petition for review of a Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision, it is hereby ORDERED, ADJUDGED, AND DECREED that the petition for review is DENIED. Petitioner Jacqueline Lissette Guzman-Alvarez, a native and citizen of El Salvador, seeks review of a February 23, 2016 decision of the BIA affirming an August 18, 2015 decision of an Immigration Judge (IJ) denying Guzman-Alvarez's application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). In re Jacqueline Lissette Guzman-Alvarez, No. A206 638 444 (B.I.A. Feb. 23, 2016), aff'g No. A206 638 444 (Immig. Ct. N.Y. City Aug. 18, 2015). We assume the parties' familiarity with the underlying facts and procedural history in this case. Under the circumstances of this case, we have reviewed the IJ's decision as modified by the BIA, i.e., minus the grounds that the BIA did not reach. See Xue Hong Yang v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 426 F.3d 520, 522 (2d Cir. 2005). We therefore review only the agency's conclusion that Guzman-Alvarez failed to establish her membership in a cognizable particular social group. We review factual findings under the substantial evidence standard and questions of lawincluding the question whether a group constitutes a particular social groupde novo. Paloka v. Holder, 762 F.3d 191, 195 (2d Cir. 2014). The burden of proof is on the applicant to establish that the applicant is a refugee, 8 U.S.C. 1158(b)(1)(B)(i), and the applicant [must] satisf[y] the trier of fact that the applicant's testimony is credible, is persuasive, and refers to specific facts sufficient to demonstrate that the applicant is a refugee, id. 1158(b)(1)(B)(ii). One way that an applicant can demonstrate eligibility for asylum and withholding of removal is to show that she was persecuted on account of her membership in a particular social group. Id. 1158(b)(1)(B)(i); 1231(b)(3)(A). To be cognizable, a particular social group must satisfy all three of the following requirements. Paloka, 762 F.3d at 195-96. First, it must be composed of members who share a common immutable characteristic. Id. at 195 (quoting In re Acosta, 19 I & N Dec. 211, 233 (BIA 1985)). An immutable characteristic is one that members of the group either cannot change, or should not be required to change because it is fundamental to their individual identities or consciences. Id. (quoting In re Acosta, 19 I & N Dec. at 233). Second, the particular social group must be defined with particularity, meaning that the group must be discrete and have definable boundariesit must not be amorphous, overbroad, diffuse, or subjective. Id. at 196 (quoting Matter of M-E-V-G-, 26 I & N Dec. 227, 239 (BIA 2014)). Third, the particular social group must be socially distinct within the society in question, meaning that it is perceived as a group by society. Id. (quoting Matter of M-E-V-G-, 26 I & N Dec. at 237, 240). The BIA has determined that women who have fled domestic violence may qualify for asylum as members of a particular social group when, based on their circumstances and circumstances in the country from which they have fled, each of those requirements is met. Matter of A-R-C-G-, 26 I & N Dec. 388, 390 (BIA 2014) (concluding that a proposed group of married women in Guatemala who are unable to leave their relationship satisfied the three requirements for a particular social group). The BIA's decision in Matter of A-R-C-G- offers guidance for this case-specific inquiry. We conclude that, in light of the principles expressed in Matter of A-R-C-G- and the insufficient and vague evidence presented below, the agency did not err in concluding that Guzman-Alvarez failed to carry her burden of establishing membership in a cognizable particular social group. Specifically, Guzman-Alvarez did not present sufficient evidence to fulfill the immutable characteristic and defined-with-particularity requirements. First, as to the immutable characteristic requirement, gender is an immutable characteristic and the BIA has determined that marital status can be an immutable characteristic where the individual is unable to leave the relationship. Id. at 392-93. When considering whether a characteristic is immutable, adjudicators must consider a respondent's own experiences, as well as more objective evidence, such as background country information. Id. at 393. Here, based on the evidence put forward by Guzman-Alvarez, the agency did not err in concluding that Guzman-Alvarez was ineligible for relief. The standards set forth in the Matter of A-R-C-G- refer to marital status and the importance of a fact-specific, case-by-case inquiry in assessing whether dissolution of a marriage could be contrary to religious or other deeply held moral beliefs or whether dissolution is possible when viewed in light of religious, cultural, or legal constraints and the applicant's own experiences. Id. at 392-93. In Matter of A-R-C-G-, the applicant suffered repugnant abuse by her husband, including weekly beatings, a broken nose, rape, and an incident in which her husband threw paint thinner on the applicant, burning her breast. Id. at 389. The applicant contacted the police several times but was told that they would not interfere in a marital relationship. On one occasion, the police came to her home after her husband hit her on the head, but he was not arrested. Id. The BIA in Matter of A-R-C-G-found that it [wa]s significant that the [applicant] sought protection from her spouse's abuse and that the police refused to assist her because they would not interfere in a marital relationship. Id. at 393. Additionally, the applicant in Matter of A-R-C-G- repeatedly tried to leave the relationship by staying with her father, but her husband found her and threatened to kill her if she did not return to him. Id. at 389. Here, in contrast, although Guzman-Alvarez and Santos had three children and lived together as a family for approximately 14 years, they never married. In Matter of A-R-C-G-, the applicant was unable to leave her husband because he followed her and threatened her with death if she did not return. However, Guzman-Alvarez testified that, since April 2014, she had lost communication with Santos (although a female cousin reported that Santos had sent the cousin a Facebook message stating that he was looking for her). Additionally, unlike the applicant in Matter of A-R-C-G-, Guzman-Alvarez never complained to the police. Finally, in the proceedings below, the agency focused on evidence showing that Guzman-Alvarez was able to run errands and escape to the United States, which was rebutted only by vague and undetailed testimony, to support its finding that the applicant had not shown an inability to leave her relationship. Based on our review of the record, we find no error in the conclusion that Guzman-Alvarez failed to meet the immutable characteristic requirement. Substantial evidence similarly supports the agency's determination that Guzman-Alvarez failed to satisfy the defined-with-particularity requirement. A social group is defined with particularity when there is a clear benchmark for determining who falls within the group. Paloka, 762 F.3d at 196 (quoting Matter of M-E-V-G-, 26 I & N Dec. at 239); see Matter of A-R-C-G-, 26 I & N Dec. at 393 (looking to the police department's refusal to protect the applicant when determining that the applicant satisfied the particularity requirement). Here, the agency concluded that Guzman-Alvarez's social group was too broad. This conclusion is amply supported by the record which shows that Guzman-Alvarez was not married to her abuser, never complained to the police, and otherwise offered only vague testimony in arguing that her particular social group was defined with particularity. Taking the record as a whole, we again find no error in the conclusion that Guzman-Alvarez failed to meet the defined-with-particularity requirement. We have considered Guzman-Alvarez's remaining claims and conclude that they, too, are without merit. For the foregoing reasons, we DENY the petition for review. Any pending request for oral argument in this petition is DENIED in accordance with Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 34(a)(2), and Second Circuit Local Rule 34.1(b). FOR THE COURT: Catherine O'Hagan Wolfe, Clerk Police disperse away the students who stood on MC road followed by the student attacks at MG college. (file pic). The type of support that the student community gets from political bosses is one of the reasons for the deterioration in the quality of political discourse as well as academic activity on campuses Having spent more than 35 years in higher education, I fail to understand arguments in support of political activity on the campus. Newspaper reports have highlighted the opinion of Speaker P Sreeramakrishnan in this regard. If the speaker thinks that the ban on campus politics is irrational and antidemocratic, then he must define rational action and democracy as is being practiced on campuses. Even if he thinks that the High Court order is stupid, the Speaker should not have aired his arrogance and disrespect to judiciary unmindful of his constitutional authority and responsibility in public domain. The type of support that the student community gets from political bosses is one of the reasons for the deterioration in the quality of political discourse as well as academic activity on campuses. There is no proof to show that campuses that encourage political activity report a decline in substance abuse. On the contrary, in many colleges student politicians use drugs as a ploy to finish off opponents and to earn a fast buck. I have not seen an occasion of local political parties condemning violence as and when it occurs. The tragedy is that senior politicians protect and promote violence on campuses if it is perpetrated by their political affiliates. Bad is never bad if you belong to my party. Campus politics suffers on account of poor quality leadership. During the early 1970s, student leaders were the cream of the campus. Of late, brain power has given way to muscle power. Leadership has slipped into hands of people with no scruples; campus unions are controlled by extraneous forces. Few leaders have emerged on the campus but those that have been thrust upon the student community. How many members have moved resolutions in the Assembly against stone-throwing, use of abusive language against authorities and political rivals on campuses? How many have condemned the destruction of public property? Instead they condone such barbaric acts as being committed by children, forgetting the fact that they are adults with voting rights. No political boss condemns vicious slogans. Is this all about learning politics on campus? Legislation must be made to make campuses centres of democracy and learning, where students behave properly. Respect for authority and the awareness that campus property and public property belong to the nation must be incorporated into learning processes. Campus violence owes to inefficient principals, unscrupulous teachers and politicians. To get nominations to University bodies or to get accommodated to lucrative posts, teacher's often indulge in activities unbecoming of teachers. Such activities include facilities for mass copying and undue favors in internal evaluation, viva voce marks and free attendance. Wonder how many of our college union chairpersons, university union councillors and secretaries can write a few sentences in English or in mother tongue without mistake about the plan of action of unions for a year. How much money is being collected and spent without proper accounting in elections. Nobody bothers. If students learn well, they can serve the country well. Through campus politics, those who do not learn well can aspire to become ministers and legislators and not servants of the Nation. (Prof C. Mohan Kumar is former deputy director of collegiate education Email: mohanakumar.c2010@gmail.com) HYDERABAD: Union home minister Rajnath Singh on Monday assured that terrorism, extremism and communalism would be eradicated from the country in five years. Mr Singh was addressing the Dikshant parade, marking the passing out of IPS probationers at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy. These days, there is unrest and fear across the world. While at some places the ISIS and Al-Qaeda are killing innocents, at others there is a threat from nuclear weapons. Cyber attacks and fake news spreading through the Internet are attempts to disturb the economy and spread unrest through false propaganda, Mr Singh said. ISIS and related terrorist groups have succeeded in establishing their network across the world and are adopting new techniques to sustain it and accomplish their goals. Our country is no exception to the developments across the world, and our neighbouring country is providing shelter to terrorists. We should be alert about the developments, he said. Mr Singh said that despite severe threats and plans, Our internal security agencies have been successful in preventing and curbing terrorism activities. ISIS modules were nipped in the bud. Compared to other nations, only a minute population was influenced by the ISIS. It is because of the diverse culture and local traditions of the country. I congratulate my countrymen, he said. Mr Singh advised the probationers to realise that they had the responsibility of protecting citizens. As a young officer, you will be a role model for the youth. Your hard work will always pay and help you grow, he explained. Mr Singh, advised officials to remain unbiased while performing their duties. Ensure that no person is forced to make the rounds of your office to get work done. People come to a senior official in the hope of getting justice, he said. Mr Singh announced a grant of `5 crore to the Police Academy Welfare Fund. Mysuru: Rushing to defend his cabinet colleague and Bengaluru development minister K.J. George, CM Siddaramaiah said BJP leaders were targeting him in the DySP M.K. Ganapathi suicide case because he belongs to the minority community. Speaking to mediapersons at Mysuru airport, Mr Siddaramaiah said, Why are they asking for his resignation? There have been several FIRs against Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa related to cheating, forgery and denotification. The CM of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adithyanath is facing a case under IPC 307. What moral right does Mr Yeddyurappa have to demand his resignation? The Apex Court has only handed over the case to CBI for further investigation based on the petition filed by Ganapathis father Kushalappa. The Supreme Court has not made any observation against Mr George, it has said the CBI is at liberty to start the case afresh or continue with the old FIR. They have continued with the old FIR. The FIR is not a chargesheet. So the question of resigning does not arise at all. He has already resigned once on moral grounds, he said. To a question on the BJPs plans to corner the ruling party at the winter session in Belagavi, he said, If they boycott the session, it means they are against the policies and laws we are coming up with. We are ready to face them. During the ten working days in the session, we will discuss the problems of North Karnataka, we will pass several laws including those on reservation in promotion and the anti-superstition bill. We are giving rights to people who lived in revenue or forest land. Will Yeddyurappa who wants people to continue in the same condition (Yatha sthithi vaadigalu), understand all these? he questioned. To the allegation made by JD(S) leader Mr A.H. Vishwanath that he had entered into a secret pact with pro-Hindu organizations, he said, Mr Vishwanath has lost his mental balance. I have stopped reacting to his statements, he said. Meanwhile after felicitating CM Siddaramaiah, the Brahmanara Mahasabha in Mysuru demanded a board for the Brahmin community on the lines of those set up in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and land for a students hostel of the community. Mr Siddaramaiah said, A separate board is difficult to form. Boards can be formed only for backward class communities. I know that there are poor in the Brahmin community. We will come up with good programmes for them. Chennai: Contending that there is no room for violence in politics, BJP state president Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan has called upon political parties to imbibe the culture of healthy debates. Referring to the standoff between the BJP and VCK members over Vijay-starrer Mersal and violent scenes that were witnessed during her partys recent meeting in Karur when VCK activists allegedly attacked the saffron party members, Dr Tamilisai said, there is no place for violence in politics, dont confront (our) volunteers. There should a (healthy) exchange of views, but not clash between cadres. Speaking to reporters here on Sunday she said the allegations that the truth on the excavation at Keezhadi was suppressed is untrue. Both Tamil culture and Hindutva were one and the same. On actor Kamal Haasans political ambitions, Dr Tamilisai replied that what is important is not who entered politics but whom the people accepted. The BJP senior leader said the inquiry commission constituted by the State government to probe the death of former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa should conduct the probe in a fair manner, and clear the doubts in the minds of people. The commission should probe various issues, such as the treatment provided to her, why she was not hospitalised earlier and who were all the doctors who treated her, she said. We wish to contest from the R.K. Nagar Assembly byelection, she replied to a question. But there are several issues that should be addressed first. For instance, there are allegations of 45,000 bogus voters, have they been weeded out and has the electoral roll been updated with the correct names, were the candidates who bribed voters disqualified and action being taken on all those who distributed notes for votes. If the elections are held in a free and fair manner, the BJP will definitely contest the bypoll, she replied. Congress V-P Rahul Gandhi with former PM Manmohan Singh and Randeep Surjewala leaves after a meeting on the November 8 protest against demonetisation, in New Delhi on Monday. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Even as Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is expected to meet Patidar leader Hardik Patel during his visit to Gujarat in November, party strategists are in no mood to give in to the Patidar demand for reservation under the existing OBC quota in the state. Congress leaders would, if fact, prefer if Mr Patels Patidar Anaamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) contests elections on its own in the Patidar-dominated seats as they feel this would cut into the BJPs Patel vote bank and benefit them. Sources in the Congress said that during negotiations with Mr Patel, party leaders felt that he was anyway in no mood to join the Congress, but was determined to ensure that the BJP loses. He is not interested in anybody winning. He just wants the BJP to lose, a senior Congress leader told this newspaper. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Randeep Surjewala in New Delhi on Monday. (Photo: PTI) New Delhi: Ahead of the Gujarat Assembly polls, the Gandhi family loyalists have begun an exercise to push for Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis elevation as party chief. With the end of state organisational elections, party president Sonia Gandhi is expected to call for a CWC meet to formally propose her successors name. However, with the Congress president having powers to announce a successor without calling a CWC, an effort is on to persuade Ms Gandhi to declare her son as party president in the next 20 days. This is because, the loyalists feel that if the Congress gets trounced in the Gujarat polls, it would become more difficult to do the same. Mr Gandhi, who has been actively campaigning in Gujarat, on Monday, chaired twin meetings on demonetisation and the GST following which he attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and asked finance ministers of Congress-ruled states to raise issues in the GST council. The issues include problems of compliance with small and medium enterprises, single unit people and job workers. The party vice-president targeted Mr Modi, saying he had destroyed the countrys economy with the both note ban and GST. He alleged that the Prime Minister had failed to understand the troubles of the commoners. While the economy was able to withstand the torpedo of note ban, it could not deal with the GST, alleged Mr Gandhi. The economy is in tatters now, he said. Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal at the meeting, said that BJP has an overbearing presence in the GST Council. I must confess that there was an amount of arrogance with the government when we had made these demands at Hyderabad. But, ever since Mr Sinhas letter has become public and there is a groundswell of opinion against the present form of GST, they are slightly more receptive, Mr Badal said. Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was also part of the meeting and noted with concern, the faulty design, architecture, and complication of compliances, saying, it has killed jobs and businesses. He wondered as to why the government was celebrating the first anniversary of note ban on November 8. The Congress and other Opposition parties have already announced plans to hold protests across the country on the demonetisation anniversary. The start of Indian wheat shipments to Afghanistan through Irans Chabahar port marks the beginning of a shift in Asian geopolitics. The programme to ship 130,000 metric tonnes of wheat is symbolic; the real action will emerge in the months and years ahead as New Delhi finally breaks through its strategic isolation in the Asian landmass. In 2002, when India wanted to ship wheat biscuits for malnourished children in war-torn Afghanistan, Pakistan refused to allow the shipment through its territory. The humanitarian nature of the shipment did not matter. As far as Islamabad was concerned, it was a matter of blocking Indias access to Afghanistan and Central Asia. Together with China encircling Indias east, the aim was to ensure the continuance of a strategic stranglehold on India and to prevent its access to the Asian heartland. India was forced to ship the biscuits through a long and circuitous route via Bandar Abbas port in Iran. When the biscuits arrived, welcoming ceremonies by children were held in the Afghan cities of Kabul, Herat, Kandahar and Jalalabad. As the Afghan children cheered, Islamabads generals fumed. The next year, India pledged a million metric tonnes of wheat to feed the hungry in Afghanistan along with much-needed medicines. This shipment too was blocked by Pakistan and had to traverse the Iran route. Despite repeated Indian pleas, Pakistan steadfastly refused transit rights and to this day vehicles from India cannot cross Pakistani territory. Desperately poor Afghanistan that wishes to do business with India is effectively barred by a pusillanimous Pakistan. Afghan trucks carrying produce to India must return empty, as per Pakistani rules. Even humanitarian aid is not allowed. Of late, fruit from the abundant orchards of Kandahar are being airlifted to eager markets in north India. But even the weekly 40 tonnes of fruit coming in amounts to a mere trickle; much of the produce rots in the groves of southern Afghanistan. The sheer small-mindedness of Islamabad continues to exacerbate poverty and hunger in Afghanistan, even as Pakistan-sponsored insurgents ravage that country, routinely killing thousands every year. New Delhi might be a notorious laggard, but it is also wilful. Once it decided that the stranglehold had to be broken, it lurched into motion. The shortest way out was through Iran. As early as in 2003, India expressed a desire to help expand the Shahid Behes-hti port, one of the two ports in Irans Chabahar. American sanctions and Indian prevarication prevented execution. There was also the question of cost and the building of road and rail networks to the Afghan border and beyond. The Chabahar project got a boost following the lifting of US sanctions on Iran and in May 2016, Mr Narendra Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to travel to Iran in 15 years. He along with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani signed a trilateral agreement to develop Chabahar port and its associated access routes into Afghanistan. India committed $500 million for the project while Iran agreed to spend $125 million for starters. Under the agreement, India would develop one of the berths at Shahid Beheshti port, and reconstruct a container handling facility there. India will also fund a railway line from Chabahar to Zahedan near the Afghan border. The Indian state-owned company Ircon is executing the rail project, for which steel tracks have been shipped since July last year. A key piece of the puzzle, the internal connecting link within Afgha-nistan, is already in place. This is the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway, which was completed by Indias Border Roads Organisation in 2009 at a cost of Rs 680 cores. Altogether 339 BRO engineers, an unknown number of Indian contract workers and hundreds of Afghans took three years to complete the project. The highway connects Irans Chabahar to Afghanistans ring road that goes around the country. To ensure the long-term health of the Chabahar route, New Delhi needs to further consolidate its ties to Tehran. US sanctions were a dampener but India did not altogether disengage from Iran, although it did backtrack in some areas. The global strategic climate is fast changing and if India articulates its strategic interests in lucid and emphatic terms, the world will listen. The United States, which has been traditionally hell-bent on denying India a role in West Asia, would be more amenable and not entirely hostage to a Pakistan-centric grand strategy. Indications of a change in the US thinking are evident in a few recent pronouncements. US President Donald Trump, while unveiling his Afghan policy recently, had stressed that India not only had a role in Afghanistans economic development but could do more. In an unrelated tweet, President Trump has also hinted that Washington would not oppose those European countries wishing to trade with Iran. US secretary of state Rex Tillerson, during a recent India visit, suggested that Washington did not aim to interfere with legitimate business activities (in Iran) that are going on with other businesses, whether they be from Europe (or) India. The strategic implications of the Chabahar opening for India go beyond Afghanistan. The development of another railway line from Chabahar to Mashhad in northern Iran and from there to the Caspian Sea, Central Asia and eventually to Europe will provide India complete land access to the Eurasian landmass. This would be the beginning of an alternative network to the Chinese-dominated Belt and Road Initiative. Significantly, the Chinese-built port of Gwadar in Pakistan is just around 100 km to the east of Chabahar. The opening up of the Chabahar route is also a testimony to the efforts of hundreds of Indian and Afghan workers who braved great odds and daily insecurity to lay the Delaram-Zaranj highway, running through miles and miles of pitiless desert. Six Indians and 129 Afghans were gunned down by the Taliban during its construction. Chabahar proves that their sacrifice was not in vain. Prime Minister Narendra Modis cynical and partisan attack on former Union home minister P. Chidambaram for saying in response to a reporters question that autonomy for Kashmir, which flows from Article 370 of the Constitution, is what most Kashmiris mean when they demand azaadi puts paid to the idea of talks with all stakeholders in J&K, and neutralises any efforts the newly-appointed interlocutor may undertake. This strengthens suspicions that the Modi government has no real interest in dialogue, and has named a pointsman for J&K only to head off possible American lecturing to start a political process through dialogue after unremitting year-long violence. The so-called interlocutor was named on the eve of US secretary of state Rex Tillersons visit last week. The PMs evidently well-planned broadside in Bengaluru on Sunday is quite clearly intended to put the Congress on the mat on an important national security matter in the context of the ongoing aggressive BJP campaign for the Gujarat Assembly election. Because of the Valleys Muslim-majority demographics, the Kashmir issue also subserves a communal aim at election time. The government of India is playing with fire in bringing up Kashmir in a flagrantly partisan manner in a state poll campaign. It is a false claim made by the BJP and the government that Mr Chidambaram has batted for Kashmirs azaadi, or secession, or that he has spoken the language of Pakistan. He has done no such thing. He has only underlined the urgent need to adhere to Article 370, the provision crafted for J&Ks accession to India under specific conditions. As National Conference working president Omar Abdullah reminded us on Sunday, Maharaja Hari Singh didnt merge his state with newly-independent India; he acceded to it, laying out his conditions. These were accepted by Sardar Vallabhbahi Patel, then home minister (the lone Congress leader of that generation that the RSS-BJP exalt) and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The RSS and BJP want Article 370 to be scrapped, but their government has yet to summon the nerve to do so. So long as the provision remains, Mr Chidambaram will be right in law, and in political spirit as well. His stand, in fact, emphasises the consensus of the Indian political system. The Congress has been pusillanimous in not pointing this out in a forthright way and hiding behind the narrow technicality that the party has recently appointed a committee under former PM Manmohan Singh to flesh out its position on the Kashmir issue. As for autonomy, late PM P.V. Narasimha Rao had said that within the ambit of the Constitution the sky is the limit. Former PM Atal Behari Vajpayee said he would hold talks in the spirit of insaniyat (humanity), which in this context means nothing less than autonomy. It was blindingly obvious, yet no one saw it clearly. During earlier hearings, the Supreme Court had not quite put its finger on the nub as it did Monday, when it said Hadiya, the woman at the centre of the love jihad row, was 24, and hence in a position to state if she married of her own free will, or not. The case got complicated due to the play of communal friction, but now should move quickly towards a denouement, as Hadiya was asked to clarify in open court on November 27 if she had indeed consented to marry Shafeen Jahan. The Kerala high court had curiously annulled the marriage and handed her over to her father, and a NIA investigation ordered by the Supreme Court before the bench, which included the Chief Justice, spotted the clearer path to justice. It may have only been obiter dicta; but if a person, who has attained the age of majority, decides to marry even a criminal, no one else has a say. The overriding principle is love trumps all as has been known through the ages. If an inter-religious romance became such a cause celebre, politicians must be blamed for portraying this as a communal conspiracy to convert Hindu women. If there are really 89 such cases in Kerala, suggesting a pattern of indoctrination and radicalisation as suggested by the NIA, investigators must bring out the truth. In this case, its for Akhila-Hadiya to say if she has chosen right. If people of all religions/castes agree their daughters have a right to marry men of their choice, we may even see the end of horrors like honour killings. One of the delightful ironies of the right-wing BJPs state of mind is that while its leaders hate Indias first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru (Union home minister Rajnath Singh is an exception, who is willing to say that despite disagreement with what Nehru thought or did, there is no denying the fact that Nehru was a great leader, something others in the government, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, dont want to acknowledge), they admire, even adore, his daughter Indira Gandhi, the countrys third Prime Minister, who was tragically assassinated by her bodyguards 33 years ago (on October 31, 1984). But the BJP leaders of course cant afford to say they admire her, though they do in their hearts. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) loves the fact that she successfully fought the 1971 India-Pakistan war and helped in the creation of Bangladesh, and that she was at the helm when 93,000 Pakistan soldiers surrendered on the eastern front. They are also proud of the fact, though again they are shy of admitting it, that she carried out the 1974 nuclear tests. They say that they oppose and even hate Indira Gandhi because she imposed the Emergency in 1975 and sent many of the present generation of leaders, many of whom were then student union leaders and agitators and part of Jayaprakash Narayans anti-corruption movement, to prison, and they carry a personal animus against her on this count. But they have no quarrel with her over military success and her decision to carry out the Pokhran-I nuclear tests. They are proud of her, but they suppress it in their hearts because it would be impolitic to admit their endorsement of her stance in these matters. Their hatred of Nehru is something else altogether. It is visceral, and it springs from an acute sense of inferiority complex based mostly on their lack of a Harrow-Cambridge education. The agnostic sophisticate Nehru poses a threat to the self-respect of the Hindutva leaders. They are much more comfortable with Indira Gandhi as they believe she was more Hindu than her father, which indeed she was. They envy her more than they hate her about her sophistication, but they know that she does not overshadow them intellectually. Indira Gandhis streak of anti-intellectualism pleases the BJPs Hindutva leaders no end. The BJPs first Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, unabashedly admired Jawaharlal Nehru and he did not hesitate to proclaim it in public. There is reason to believe that the BJPs second PM, Narendra Modi, somewhat models himself on Indira Gandhi, though he would deny this with all the belligerence at his command, and his admirers are sure to howl in protest over such a comparison. Indira Gandhi learnt from her fathers benign shortcomings idealism, indecision, romantic internationalism. She became decisive, realistic and fiercely Indian. Contrary to the criticism hurled at her that she was a socialist and leftist, she was no leftist, nor even a socialist. That is why, when she returned to power in 1980 after the Janata Party fiasco, she understood the need to open up the economy, and pushed the Indo-Soviet Friendship Treaty of 1971 into cold storage, and connected with the United States with an open mind, particularly during the North-South Cancun Summit where she dealt deftly with then US President Ronald Reagan. At the same time, she did not give up the Third World rhetoric and the New World Economic Order, even as she negotiated a $5 billion International Monetary Fund loan, and managed to repay it much before time. She was extremely pragmatic. It would not be too far off the mark to conjecture that Mr Modi has unconsciously taken a leaf from Indira Gandhis populist streak. He seems to understand the ultimate power of pro-poor rhetoric and the announcement of welfare measures, which is a reminder of Indira Gandhis 20-point programme during the infamous Emergency. And then the loan melas she unleashed under then minister of state for finance Janardhan Poojari in her second stint as PM. The Jan Dhan Yojana is an echo of the loan melas, in a way of speaking. Indira Gandhi could be sharp and bitingly nasty, though she rarely hurled personal allegations, to her opponents. She had nothing but contempt for her opponents. Mr Modi displays many of the same traits. It seems one reason why Mr Vajpayee had to look to Nehru as a role model, and Mr Modi and the BJP look secretly to Indira Gandhi, is the fact that the BJP and Jan Sangh have no powerful role models. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, the Jan Sanghs founder, was just a memory even for the first generation of BJP leaders like Mr Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. Though Deen Dayal Upadhyay seems to be the inspiration for much of what passes for the BJPs thinking now, he remains a weak and distant figure. He was not in active politics and did not become a face and a force the way that his friend, contemporary and socialist leader Ram Manohar Lohia became. Or even Jayaprakash Narayan. It is natural then that BJP leaders, when they came into office, look back to Congress figures like Nehru and Indira. Critics are sure to point out that this is a wild, unsubstantiated inference that Mr Modi or others in the BJP admire Indira Gandhi and consider her as a role model. In the run-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP campaigned that India needs a strong leader in the wake of the weak leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and the party projected Mr Modi as the strong leader. The BJP had no model of a strong leader of its own. In the eyes of many in the BJP, Mr Vajpayee failed the strong leader test. That leaves only Indira Gandhi in the field. The army of Mr Modis admirers can argue that their hero needed no role model, and that he looks back to the Hindu tradition of the able and strong ruler. Before Mr Modi came on the scene, it was Indira Gandhi who fitted the bill as a strong ruler. So the inference that Mr Modi could be imitating in the laudatory sense of the term Indira Gandhi cannot be simply dismissed out of hand. United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit. DOUGLAS E. HUMPHREY, Appellant v. SECRETARY PENNSYLVANIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS; BRIAN COLEMAN, JOINTLY AND SEVERALLY SUED IN THEIR INDIVIDUAL AND OFFICIAL CAPACITIES; VINCENT R. MAZESKI, JOINTLY AND SEVERALLY SUED IN THEIR INDIVIDUAL AND OFFICIAL CAPACITIES; CAPTAIN TREMPUS, JOINTLY AND SEVERALLY SUED IN THEIR INDIVIDUAL AND OFFICIAL CAPACITIES; OFFICER PENDLETON; OFFICER SKOBOL, JOINTLY AND SEVERALLY SUED IN THEIR INDIVIDUAL AND OFFICIAL CAPACITIES No. 15-3250 Decided: October 20, 2017 Before: CHAGARES, VANASKIE and KRAUSE, Circuit Judges OPINION* Douglas Humphrey, a Pennsylvania state prisoner, appeals from the District Court's order granting defendants' motion to dismiss his civil rights complaint. For the following reasons, we will summarily affirm the judgment of the District Court. Humphrey filed a replevin action (Case A) and an action to enforce a settlement agreement (Case B) in Pennsylvania state court. He alleged in the instant complaint that, in response to adding the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC) and John Doe as defendants to Case A, his legal materials were confiscated from his prison cell, preventing him from properly litigating his cases. Humphrey asserts that the defendants, all employees of either the DOC or SCI-Fayette, acted to deprive him of, inter alia, his due process rights and his right to access the courts. He sought declaratory relief and damages for violations of his First, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights. The District Court, adopting the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation (R&R), dismissed the complaint for failure to state a claim for relief pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). Humphrey filed a timely notice of appeal, which became effective after the District Court denied his timely motion for reconsideration filed pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 59(e). See Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(4)(B)(i). We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1291. We exercise plenary review over the dismissal. See Tourscher v. McCullough, 184 F.3d 236, 240 (3d Cir. 1999). To survive dismissal, a complaint must state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face by including facts which permit the court to infer more than the mere possibility of misconduct. Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662, 678-79 (2009). Humphrey first maintained that defendants Mazeski, Trempus, Skobol, and Pendleton violated his First Amendment right to access the courts by confiscating all of the legal materials for his cases. He alleged that, without the materials, he was unable to serve copies of his complaint on the two added defendants in Case A, or copies of his amended complaint on the defendants in Case B, resulting in the dismissal of both cases and injury in the form of property and financial loss. The District Court properly concluded that Humphrey failed to allege sufficient factual allegations to state a claim for relief. In a denial-of-access case, a prisoner must demonstrate actual injury stemming from the violation by showing that the underlying claim was non frivolous. See Lewis v. Casey, 518 U.S. 343, 351-53 (1996). It is clear from the complaint that the underlying actions are specious and lack an arguable basis in law. The state cases stem from a series of letters, documents, and notices Humphrey sent to a Pennsylvania district attorney (D.A.) alleging that government bonds had been created using his personal identifying information in his state habeas corpus petition and were traded as part of a fund valued at $4.83 billion. He asserted that the D.A.'s failure to respond to these correspondences resulted in a contractual (settlement) agreement whereby the D.A. was liable to Humphrey for the sum. Humphrey next sought to enforce the agreement by submitting tort claims to insurance providers for the state of Pennsylvania. Upon their failure to respond or settle the matter, Humphrey sent the providers a notice of default resulting, he maintained, in an implied contract. The complaint alleged that [b]ased upon the agreements and stipulations, District Attorney [and the providers] became lien debtors with the property (property right) attaching and agreed to be subject to full liability as bonding/insurance provider or otherwise, allowing lien to be filed on all property, assets, accounts, to establish and attach to the lien for the sum certain for full satisfaction and accord on behalf of [Humphrey]. Compl. at 107. Humphrey then filed Case A, a replevin action through which he sought to recover his property, and Case B to enforce the settlement agreement. Both underlying suits are patently frivolous in nature. At a minimum, as the District Court noted, there was clearly neither a settlement agreement between Humphrey and the D.A., nor an implied contract between Humphrey and the state agents. Basic contract law requires an offer and acceptance, and a meeting of the minds on material terms, both of which were lacking. See Moser Mfg. Co. v. Donegal & Conoy Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 66 A.2d 581, 582 (Pa. 1949); Mazzella v. Koken, 739 A.2d 531, 536 (Pa. 1999) (To be enforceable, a settlement agreement must possess all of the elements of a valid contract.). Humphrey also alleged that, in retaliation against him for adding the DOC as a defendant to Case A, Mazeski ordered that Humphrey's legal materials be confiscated. As a direct result, he maintained, both Cases A and B were dismissed. A prisoner alleging retaliation in violation of the First Amendment must show (1) that he engaged in constitutionally protected conduct; (2) that an adverse action was taken against him by prison officials sufficient to deter him from exercising his constitutional rights; and (3) that there is a causal link between the exercise of his constitutional rights and the adverse action taken against him. Rauser v. Horn, 241 F.3d 330, 333 (3d Cir. 2001). We are doubtful about the District Court's conclusion that Humphrey had not sufficiently pleaded an adverse action, as a retaliatory search and seizure may be sufficient to satisfy this prong of the claim. See Bell v. Johnson, 308 F.3d 594, 604 (6th Cir. 2002) (citing cases). Also, the District Court should not have relied on its conclusion that prior searches of Humphrey's cell had not deterred him from filing suits. The second prong of a retaliation claim is not a subjective inquiry. See Bistrian v. Levi, 696 F.3d 352, 376 (3d Cir. 2012). Rather, it is an objective inquiry and ultimately a question of fact. Id. The question is not whether Humphrey was deterred, but whether a person of ordinary firmness would be deterred. Id. (quotation marks omitted). Nevertheless, the claim was subject to dismissal because Humphrey had not engaged in constitutionally protected conduct. See Brennan v. Norton, 350 F.3d 399, 417 (3d Cir. 2003) (stating that filing a federal complaint qualifies as petitioning the government and is, therefore, protected so long as the complaint is not frivolous); see also Ross v. Dist. Att'y of the Cty. of Allegheny, 672 F.3d 198, 213 n.12 (3d Cir. 2012) (noting that we can affirm on an alternative basis). There is simply no constitutional right to prosecute frivolous litigation. See Brennan, 350 F.3d at 417; see also Heron v. Harrison, 203 F.3d 410, 415 (6th Cir. 2000). Humphrey next alleged that defendants Mazeski and Trempus conspired to confiscate his legal materials and deny him access to the courts, and that defendant Coleman conspired with them to deny his grievance towards the same end. As the District Court noted, a civil conspiracy claim is not actionable without a viable underlying tort claim. See Gen. Refractories Co. v. Fireman's Fund Ins. Co., 337 F.3d 297, 313 (3d Cir. 2003). Because there is no merit to the underlying access to the courts claim, the conspiracy claims fail as a matter of law. We agree with the District Court that, to the extent Humphrey claimed that the seizure of his legal materials was a violation of the Fourth Amendment, he failed to state a claim for relief because the Fourth Amendment has no applicability to the contents of a prisoner's cell. See Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517, 536 (1984); cf. Parkell v. Danberg, 833 F.3d 313, 325 (3d Cir. 2016) (recognizing a Fourth Amendment right against the unreasonable search of an inmate's body). In addition, because he has an adequate post-deprivation remedy, both through the prison grievance process and in state tort law, any alleged due process claims with respect to the confiscation of his legal materials also fail. Id. at 533; see also 42 Pa. Cons. Stat. Ann. 8522(b)(3). Finally, dismissal of Humphrey's remaining claims brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1981, 1982 & 1985(3) was proper as he wholly failed to allege that defendants' actions were motivated by any racial or invidious class-based discriminatory animus. See Brown v. Philip Morris Inc., 250 F.3d 789, 797 (3d Cir. 2001) (construing 1981 & 1982); Farber v. City of Paterson, 440 F.3d 131, 135 (3d Cir. 2006 (construing 1985(3)). Because we find that the appeal presents no substantial question, we will summarily affirm the District Court's order. Humphrey's motion for a stay is denied. FOOTNOTES . The Court also declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over several state law claims. . Bernard admitted that some of the papers confiscated were UCC materials. See generally Monroe v. Beard, 536 F.3d 198, 20710 (3d Cir. 2008) (holding that the DOC's policy permitting the confiscation of UCC materials is not constitutionally unreasonable because it advances an interest in preventing prisoners from filing fraudulent liens). Although prison officials may [ ] prevail [on a retaliation claim] by proving that they would have made the same decision absent the protected conduct for reasons reasonably related to a legitimate penological interest, Rauser, 241 F.3d at 334, dismissal on this basis in this case would have been premature at the motion-to-dismiss stage. . Additionally, the District Court justifiably declined to exercise supplemental jurisdiction over Humphrey's state law claims. See 28 U.S.C. 1367(c)(3); United MineWorkers v. Gibbs, 383 U.S. 715, 726 (1966) (holding that when federal claims are dismissed before trial, federal courts should not separately entertain pendent state claims). PER CURIAM "You see the thinness of the atmosphere, it makes you realise how fragile our existence here is," said ISS Commander Randy Bresnik. The cold-call pope is setting his sights set heavenward by ringing astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Pope Francis' hookup Thursday marks the second papal phone call to space: Pope Benedict XVI rang the space station in 2011 and peppered its residents with questions about the future of the planet and the environmental risks it faced. Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli was aboard the orbiting lab for that call and will be on hand to chat with Francis, who considered a career in chemistry before becoming a priest. International Space Station Commander Randy Bresnik has told Pope Francis that his greatest joy working on the orbiting lab is being able to "see God's creation may be a little bit from his perspective." Francis and Bresnik spoke on Thursday during a phone call between the Vatican and six crew members currently in the space station. The pope asked the crew three Americans, two Russians and an Italian what gives them the most joy in their work. Bresnik, a US Marine who flew combat missions during the Iraq war, said what strikes him is that in space there are "no borders, there is no conflict, it's just peaceful." The astronaut said: "People cannot come up here and see the indescribable beauty of our Earth and not be touched in their souls." He added: "You see the thinness of the atmosphere, it makes you realise how fragile our existence here is." Pope Francis has praised Russia's "humanistic and religious" understanding of the power of love, during a phone call with Russian, American and Italian crew members of the International Space Station. During the Thursday hookup, Francis asked the crew how they understand Dante's verse that love is the force that moves the universe. Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin replied by noting that he had been reading St. Exupery's "The Little Prince" while in space and was taken by the child's understanding of love. He told Francis "Love is the force that gives you strength to give your life for someone else." Francis praised his response, saying "It's clear you have understood the message that St. Exupery so poetically explained and that you Russians have in your blood, in your humanistic and religious tradition." Francis' papacy has been marked by his concern for the environment, as well as his firm belief in the compatibility of faith and science. It was a fellow Jesuit, the Rev. Georges Lemaitre, who first hypothesized the Big Bang theory in 1927. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. An independent investigation has concluded that the debilitating cyber attack that crippled parts of Britain's National Health Service earlier this year could have been prevented with basic security measures. The National Audit Office probe found computers at 81 health trusts - or a third of such trusts across England - had not been updated to secure them against the WannaCry ransomware attack in May, which disrupted thousands of doctors' appointments and led to ambulances being diverted. Audit office head Amyas Morse urged the Health Department and public health officials to "get their act together" or risk suffering a more damaging attack from more sophisticated cyber threats in the future. North Korea has been blamed for the attack. Ransomware works by taking over a computer and demands a ransom payment. Click on Deccan Chronicle Technology and Science for the latest news and reviews. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter. An online petition had requested authorities not to release Sherin's body to her foster parents and allow the people to give her a proper burial that she deserves. (Photo: File) Houston: US authorities have sent the body of 3-year-old Sherin Mathews to a funeral home but a medical report on how the Indian girl, adopted by an Indian-American couple, died is yet to come out, according to a media report. The cause of Sherin's death is still pending, a spokesman for the police department in Richardson city, Texas, told Fox News. Sherin's body, found in a culvert on October 22, has been sent to a funeral home by the Dallas medical examiner, the report said. A spokesman for the Dallas County Medical Examiner said the body of Sherin was released on Saturday but did not say who has custody of the body. It is not clear if Sherin's foster mother Sini Mathews will have a role in handling the funeral arrangements since Sherin's foster father, Wesley Mathews, is under the custody of the Dallas County Sheriff's Department in connection with the child's tragic death. An online petition had requested authorities not to release Sherin's body to her foster parents and allow the people to give her a proper burial that she deserves. Sherin's body was found inside a culvert in Richardson city, nearly 1 km from her home. Her body was discovered by cadaver dogs over two weeks after she went missing from her home. Sherin was adopted by the couple from India last year. Wesley, 37, has been arrested on a charge of felony injury to a child with bond set at USD 1 million. He told police that Sherin had choked to death while drinking milk in the middle of the night on October 7. Mathews changed his story on Sherin's disappearance, initially claiming he left her outside at 3 am on October 7 as punishment for not drinking her milk. Mathews' latest claim is that he tried to "physically assist" Sherin in drinking her milk, but she choked on it and died. Sherin's foster mother, Sini, has denied any role in the girl's death and says she is cooperating in the investigation. But Richardson police say Sini Mathews has not been as cooperative as she has said, the Fox News report said. Meanwhile, over two dozen people lit candles and said a pray for Sherin at a vigil on Saturday at the India Association of North Texas in Richardson, NBC Dallas reported. The vigil was attended by Indian community leaders in North Texas, as well as a member of the Consulate General of India in Houston. The CGI representative said he was not authorised to speak about the case but the Indian mission here has tweeted that it is actively involved in the investigation. The tree where Wesley initially said he had left Sherin for not finishing milk and the culvert where her body was later found have become memorial sites. People have been visiting these places and putting stuffed toys and flowers daily and praying for the baby to rest in peace. "It's a tragedy the whole life and you know a lot of people failed her. So it's time for us to pray, for her get together and hope that and pray that this never happens again in this entire community," said Salman Farshori, president of the India Association of North Texas. Trump, in his tweets Sunday, again complained of Clinton's handling of emails while secretary of state, of Democratic Party funding of what he said was a "fake" dossier on Trump's background, and of a US sale during the Obama administration of uranium rights to Russia. (Photo: AP) Washington: Official Washington was abuzz this weekend over reports that a grand jury has charged at least one person stemming from the US probe of Russia's attempts to tilt the 2016 presidential elections in Donald Trump's favour. There was no indication, in reporting by CNN that other media later confirmed, of who might be charged or what crimes might be alleged in the ongoing inquiry led by former FBI chief Robert Mueller. But Trump, in a rapid burst of tweets Sunday, again denounced the investigation as a "witch hunt" and repeated his denials of any collusion with Russia. ..."collusion," which doesn't exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 Mueller's team has remained mum about reports that a first arrest could be made as early as Monday. He is empowered to pursue not only Russian interference but any other crimes his large team of prosecutors should uncover. But Chris Christie, a Republican governor close to Trump, said Sunday on ABC that "the important thing about today for the American people to know is the president is not under investigation. And no one has told him that he is." 'I Cannot Answer' Typically, such an inquiry would first target lower-level people while building a case against those higher up. Representative Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, demurred Sunday when asked whether Trump was under investigation. "I can't answer that one way or the other," he told ABC. But he mentioned two possible targets on whom much speculation has focused: former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign director Paul Manafort, both of them once involved in undeclared lobbying for foreign interests. It was not clear that Christie would know whether Trump is in fact being investigated. He may have been referring to a remark in May by former FBI chief James Comey, who told a Senate panel that Trump was not a target of the inquiry. As the Mueller investigation nears a dramatic new phase, Republican officials and right-leaning media have stepped up their attacks on Democrats, above all on Trump's rival in last year's election, Hillary Clinton - attacks that Democrats dismiss as blatant attempts to divert attention. 'So Much GUILT' Trump, in his tweets Sunday, again complained of Clinton's handling of emails while secretary of state, of Democratic Party funding of what he said was a "fake" dossier on Trump's background, and of a US sale during the Obama administration of uranium rights to Russia. In the uranium case, Russian energy company Rosatom sought in 2010 to buy a share in Toronto-based UraniumOne. A panel of nine US government agencies, including the State Department, approved the sale, though Clinton says she was "not personally involved." As Mueller's inquiry advances, there have been calls from some Republicans - and from the conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal - for him to resign. Christie cautioned on Sunday that the former FBI chief should be "very, very careful." Democrats meantime have warned that if Trump were to fire Mueller - or issue pre-emptive pardons to anyone caught in his net - it would be crossing a line. Australia has already said it would spend up to A$250 million ($195 million) housing the nearly 800 refugees and asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea for the next 12 months after its controversial detention centre closes. (Photo: AP) Sydney: Australia will not be allowed to walk away from legal, financial and moral responsibility for nearly 800 men when it closes its asylum seeker detention centre in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on Tuesday, PNGs immigration minister said. Human rights advocates are warning of a looming humanitarian crisis when the Manus Island centre closes if the men are not properly resettled, with hundreds of the detainees refusing to leave the centre for fear of being targeted by locals. PNG Immigration Minister Petrus Thomas said late on Sunday that Australia will remain responsible for the welfare of the men that have been detained in the Australian-funded centre for more than four years. Australia refuses to allow asylum seekers arriving by boat to reach its shores, detaining them in camps in PNG and Nauru in the South Pacific. The United Nations and rights groups have for years cited human rights abuses among detainees in the centres. It is PNGs position that as long as there is one individual from this arrangement that remains in PNG, Australia will continue to provide financial and other support to PNG to manage the persons transferred under the arrangement until the last person leaves or is independently resettled in PNG, Thomas said in an emailed statement. Australia has already said it would spend up to A$250 million ($195 million) housing the nearly 800 refugees and asylum seekers in Papua New Guinea for the next 12 months after its controversial detention centre closes. The Manus centre is scheduled to close on Tuesday, after being declared illegal by a PNG court, with 600 men set to be moved to three new transit camps. Just under 200 men have already relocated. Despite threats that basic services like electricity and water will be cut off, the remaining detainees are refusing to move, citing fears for their safety. Fears of violence have been stoked further after PNG sent extra security forces to the camp. The relocation of the men is designed as a temporary measure, allowing the United States time to complete vetting of refugees as part of a refugee swap deal. The United States has agreed to take up to possibly 1,250 refugees from Australias two Pacific detention centres, but so far only 25 men from Manus have been resettled. In exchange, Australia said it will resettle Central American refugees. Australia has said those detainees not resettled in the United States will be allowed to stay in PNG or the tiny Pacific island of Nauru. But nearly all have refused invitations to settle permanently in both locations. Thomas said PNG will not force anyone to remain. It is the responsibility of Australia to pursue third country options, he said. Australias acting Prime Minister Julie Bishop said on Monday that Canberra was exploring possible deals for resettlement, but added those who have found not to be refugees should go home. Theyve been found by the (United Nations) not to be owed protection so they should return to their homes, she said. The bulk of the detainees come from war-torn countries such as Syria and Afghanistan, and Pakistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Balfour Declaration was a 67-word letter from Britain's then foreign secretary Arthur Balfour that threw London's backing behind a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. (Photo: File) London: Britain's foreign secretary has defended his predecessor's role a century ago in paving the way for the creation of Israel, saying two sovereign states for Israelis and Palestinians remains the "only viable solution" for peace. This Thursday marks the centenary of the Balfour Declaration - a 67-word letter from Britain's then foreign secretary Arthur Balfour that threw London's backing behind a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to London to mark the anniversary. The statement remains controversial, setting off a chain of events that eventually led to Israel's formation, the displacement of millions of Palestinians and decades of strife between the two communities that continues to this day. "I am proud of Britain's part in creating Israel," current Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wrote in the Telegraph newspaper on Sunday, adding the document was "indispensable to the creation of a great nation". But he warned that one of the key caveats of the Balfour Declaration - that the rights of non-Jewish communities shall be protected - "has not been fully realised". In the article, Johnson said he was writing his thoughts down in the same room Balfour used a century ago. He praised the 1917 letter for its "incontestable moral goal: to provide a persecuted people with a safe and secure homeland." London, he added, remained committed to a two-state solution. "I have no doubt that the only viable solution to the conflict resembles the one first set down on paper by another Briton, Lord Peel, in the report of the Royal Commission on Palestine in 1937, and that is the vision of two states for two peoples," he wrote. The borders, he added, should be as they were before the Six Day war in 1967, with Jerusalem "a shared capital" and "equal land swaps to reflect the national, security, and religious interests of the Jewish and Palestinian peoples." "A century on, Britain will give whatever support we can in order to close the ring and complete the unfinished business of the Balfour Declaration," he wrote. Ousted Catalan President Carles Puigdemont has left Spain and fled to Brussels, Spanish government officials said on Monday. Mr Puigdemont is facing sedition charges after Catalonia declared independence under his leadership. The Spanish media reported that the former leader was accompanied by an unspecified number of other members of the Catalan government, Independent reported. On Sunday, Belgiums migration affairs minister Theo Francken had said the ousted Catalan leader could seek asylum in the country. Meanwhile, the deposed Catalan leaders have said they will run in a December regional election called by Spain. Although Al-Azhar advocates tolerance and moderate Islam in conferences, it also routinely asks for programmes and shows in which secular Egyptians criticise current Islamic practices or heritage to be banned. (Photo: Youtube) Cairo: An Egyptian court ruled Sunday that a television programme deemed contrary to Islamic law should not be broadcast, following a request from the countrys highest institution of Sunni Islam. Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb of Al-Azhar had demanded that the authorities ban With Islam presented by controversial intellectual reformer Islam Behairy and aired by private channel Al Qahera Wel Nass. Al-Azhar accuses Behairy of regularly attacking Islamic law. Although Al-Azhar advocates tolerance and moderate Islam in conferences, it also routinely asks for programmes and shows in which secular Egyptians criticise current Islamic practices or heritage to be banned. Behairy has infuriated Al-Azhars traditional clergy in the past with attacks on canonical religious books and some of Sunni Islams most important scholars. He served a year in prison for insulting religion before being released in late 2016 under a presidential pardon. Behairy can still appeal against the ban on his broadcasts. In 2013, then US President Barack Obama and Rouhani spoke by telephone, the highest-level contact between the two countries in decades, prompting an outcry from Iranian hardliners. (Photo: AP) Tehran: Foreign ministry says that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani turned down a meeting with President Donald Trump during his visit to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly in September. The Sunday report by the semi-official ILNA news agency quotes ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as saying an intention was expressed by the American side that was not approved by President Rouhani, in reference to the alleged meeting request. In 2013, then US President Barack Obama and Rouhani spoke by telephone, the highest-level contact between the two countries in decades, prompting an outcry from Iranian hardliners. Since then there has been no such communication between Tehran and Washington, which officially severed diplomatic ties in 1979. Leaders of the ruling Awami League have in the past said that assailants have made attempts on Ms Hasina's life at least 19 times since the killing of her father Bangabandhu. (Photo: AP) Dhaka: A Bangladeshi court Monday sentenced 11 people to 20 years imprisonment for attempting to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina 28 years ago at her family residence. The Dhaka court also handed down life imprisonment to the accused for blasting bombs on the same day in 1989 at the house of Ms Hasina. The court imposed a fine of 20,000 taka ($ 240) each on the convicts - members of the now defunct Bangladesh Freedom Party (BFP) which was behind the killing of Bangladesh's first president and the Father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, court officials and lawyers said. The BFP had toppled Bangladesh's post independence Awami League government after killing Bangabandhu along with most of his family members. "Eight of the convicts faced the trial in person and the rests including Freedom Party chief and sacked lieutenant colonel Abdur Rashid are on the run," said a prosecution lawyer of Dhaka Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court which tried the case. Rashid had previously been sentenced to death for the murder of Bangabandhu, the father of Hasina, 70. Bangabandhu was assassinated in 1975. He is considered to be the driving force behind the independence of Bangladesh. The convicts were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment each in two separate charges, a total of 20 years, officials said. One accused was acquitted as the charges brought against him were not proved. According to the case, seven or eight armed members of the BFP came to the residence of Bangabandhu in Dhanmondi area on August 11, 1989. According to the case documents, the assailants attacked the then opposition leader Hasina's 32 Dhanmandi residence, firing gunshots and exploding bombs. She was unhurt. Police officials stationed at the premises opened fire at the attackers but they fled the spot chanting slogans in the name of their leaders, the officials said. Two cases were lodged and charge sheets naming 16 people filed in February 1997. In July 2009, charges were framed against the accused. Leaders of the ruling Awami League have in the past said that assailants have made attempts on Ms Hasina's life at least 19 times since the killing of Bangabandhu. In August, 10 people were sentenced to death in one of the Hasina assassination bid cases. Five of the 1975 coup leaders were hanged eight years ago. But six others went into hiding as the belated and protracted trial process began 11 years after the incident when Awami League returned to power in 1996 general elections after 21 years of political wilderness. United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee v. Austin CARLIN, Defendant-Appellant No. 16-41331 Decided: October 17, 2017 Before JOLLY, OWEN, and HAYNES, Circuit Judges. John Richard Berry, Assistant U.S. Attorneys, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Texas, Houston, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellee Stephen W. Byrne, Corpus Christi, TX, for Defendant-Appellant Austin Carlin pleaded guilty to kidnapping a minor in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1201(a)(1) and (g)(1). He was sentenced within the advisory guidelines range to 262 months of imprisonment and 10 years of supervised release. As a special condition of supervised release, the district court orally ordered that Carlin participate in a mental health program as being necessary and approved by the probation officer. The written judgment reflected that Carlin participate in a mental health program as deemed necessary and approved by the probation officer. In his sole issue on appeal, Carlin challenges this supervised release condition as an impermissible delegation to the probation officer of the court's sentencing authority to determine whether he must participate in mental health treatment. Because he did not object to the condition, we review for plain error. United States v. Franklin, 838 F.3d 564, 566 (5th Cir. 2016). The imposition of a sentence, including the terms and conditions of supervised release, is a core judicial function that cannot be delegated. Id. at 568 (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). However, providing appropriate treatment for prisoners with known mental problems is also a core duty of judges. United States v. Guerra, 856 F.3d 368, 369 (5th Cir. 2017). A district court may properly delegate to a probation officer decisions as to the details of a condition of supervised release but it may not delegate authority to decide whether a defendant will participate in a treatment program. Franklin, 838 F.3d at 568 (internal quotation marks, citation, and alteration omitted). Carlin's presentence investigation report (PSR) reflects numerous mental health evaluations and diagnoses indicating schizoaffective disorder, bipolar disorder, pedophilic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. At sentencing, Carlin's counsel made several arguments based on Carlin's mental health issues. The district court sentenced Carlin at the bottom of the guidelines range and specifically identified his mental health issues and intellectual disability as a basis for the sentence before imposing the mental health treatment condition. Based on this record, we conclude that the district judge intended that mental health treatment be mandatory and permissibly delegated the details of that treatment to the probation officer. See Guerra, 856 F.3d at 369-70. We therefore AFFIRM the sentence as MODIFIEDmental health treatment is imposed, details of treatment to be supervised by the probation office. FOOTNOTES . PER CURIAM: * FN* Pursuant to 5th Cir. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5th Cir. R. 47.5.4. Beijing: China on Monday once again hinted at blocking the United States, France and UK's bid to list Pakistan-based JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, harping on its familiar stand that there was no consensus among the United Nations Security Council members. China had in August extended by three months its technical hold on the proposal to list Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) founder Azhar as a global terrorist after having blocked the move in February this year at the United Nations. "We have made our position clear many times from this podium. The relevant resolutions of Security Council have clear stipulations as to the mandate of 1267 Committee and also clear stipulations when it comes to the listing of relevant organisations and individuals," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told media briefing here. Replying to questions whether China will block the ban on Azhar again when the 1267 Committee of the UNSC takes up the issue on Thursday, Hua said "as for listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements". A veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, China has repeatedly blocked India's move to put a ban on the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terrorist under the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Council. Last year in March, China was the only member in the 15-nation United Nations organ to put a hold on India's application with all other 14 members of the Council supporting New Delhi's bid to place Masood Azhar on the 1267 sanctions list that would subject him to an assets freeze and travel ban. China views Pakistan as its all-weather friend and has been backing its bid to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, today moved the Supreme Court opposing a plea seeking reopening of the 70-year-old assassination case of the Mahatma. A bench of Justices S A Bobde and M M Shantanagoudar questioned the locus of Tushar Gandhi in the case. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for Gandhi, said she will explain the locus if the court moves ahead with issuing of notice. The bench said there were several ifs and buts in the case and will like to wait for the amicus curiae (friend of the court) Amrender Sharan's report. Sharan sought four weeks time to file the report, saying he was yet to receive relevant documents from the National Archives. Jaising said that she is opposing the reopening of the 70-year-old assassination case of Mahatma and also questioned the locus of the petitioner, Mumbai-based Pankaj Phadnis, a researcher and a trustee of Abhinav Bharat. The bench listed the matter after four weeks. The apex court had on October 6 appointed senior advocate Sharan as amicus curiae to assist it in the matter. The bench had raised a volley of questions including how evidence could be collected now to order further investigation into the case which had led to the conviction and execution of Nathuram Vinayak Godse and Narayan Apte on November 15, 1949. Gandhi was shot dead at point blank range in New Delhi on January 30, 1948 by Godse, a right-wing advocate of Hindu nationalism. Phadnis has sought reopening of the probe on several grounds, claiming it was one of the biggest cover-ups in the history. He has questioned the 'three bullet theory' relied upon by various courts of law to hold the conviction of accused Godse and Apte, who were hanged, and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar who was given the benefit of doubt due to lack of evidence. He has also claimed that there could be a third assassin other than the two convicted persons and submitted that there was a need to investigate whether the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), an intelligence agency of the US during World War II and a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), had tried to protect Gandhi. Phadnis has challenged the decision of the Bombay High Court which on June 6, 2016 had dismissed his PIL on two grounds -- firstly, that the findings of fact have been recorded by the competent court and confirmed right up to the apex court, and secondly, the Kapur Commission has submitted its report and made observations in 1969, while the present petition has been filed 46 years later. Accusing the Congress of playing "cheap politics" for power, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Monday said the CBI inquiry into the "sex CD" row involving a state minister will bring out all facts. "We could not even imagine that the Congress will play such cheap politics for power. We are also in politics and consider this a medium to serve the people. Our party can never think of committing immoral acts for political gains," Singh told reporters at his official residence. The state government had on Sunday recommended a CBI probe into the "sex CD" row involving PWD Minister Rajesh Munat. "The CBI inquiry has been recommended to reveal all the facts," Singh said. Revenue Minister Prem Prakash Pandey on Sunday said the CD was "fake" and even a local TV channel had in its report mentioned that it had been tampered with. The sex video sparked a political row in the state with the Congress and the BJP trading charges over the issue. The matter came to light when senior journalist Vinod Verma was arrested by the Chhattisgarh Police on Friday on charges of blackmailing and extortion related to the CD. Verma had claimed that the Chhattisgarh government suspected he had a "sex CD of PWD Minister Rajesh Munat" and that he was being framed. Munat called it "fake" and an attempt at character assassination. On Sunday, Munat filed a complaint against state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel and Verma for tarnishing his image. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni met here on Monday to breathe fresh life into India-Italy relations, strained since 2012 over the killing of two Kerala fishermen by its navy personnel. The Italian prime minister was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan earlier in the day. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also called on him. Gentiloni arrived in New Delhi on Sunday, ending a long hiatus in exchange of high-level visits between the two nations. Romano Prodi's visit to India in February 2007 was the last by an Italian prime minister. The then prime minister Manmohan Singh visited Italy to attend the G8 and G5 Summits in July 2009. New Delhi hopes the visit will give a fillip to bilateral economic relations. Some Memorandums of Agreements are likely to be inked after the meeting between the two prime ministers. A joint statement is also likely to be issued. Italy is India's fifth largest trading partner in the European Union with a bilateral trade at $ 8.79 billion in 2016-17. India's exports to Italy are worth $ 4.90 billion, while its imports are $ 3.89 billion, resulting in a trade balance of $ 1 billion in favour of India. The bilateral trade has reached $ 3.22 billion in the first four months of fiscal 2017-18. The two prime ministers will also discuss ways to boost bilateral trade and investment. A 15-member delegation of CEOs of Italy's leading companies is accompanying Gentiloni. They interacted with the CEOs of the leading companies in India. Over 600 Italian companies are active in India, covering various sectors such as fashion, garments, textile and textile machinery, automotive, automotive components industry, infrastructure, chemicals, energy, confectionary, insurance etc. A number of Indian companies are also present in Italy, mainly in IT, electronics, engineering, automotive, pharmaceuticals and railways. Italy is the 13th largest investor in India with cumulative investments worth $ 2.41 billion over the period from April 2000 to June 2017. The top five sectors in India that attract Italian Foreign Direct Investment are automotive industry, trading, service sector, industrial machinery and food processing industry. Enrica Lexie case On February 15, 2012, two Italian navy personnel - Massimilano Latorre and Salvatore Girone - fired at a fishing vessel off the Kerala coast from oil tanker MV Enrica Lexie. In the firing, two Indian fishermen were killed. Latorre and Girone were later arrested and put on trial. Italy questioned India's jurisdiction, claiming that the incident took place in international waters. In June 2015, Rome finally moved the Permanent Court of Arbitration based in The Hague against New Delhi under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The impasse in India-Italy ties ended when the international arbitration tribunal in May 2016 asked New Delhi and Rome to approach the Supreme Court to allow Girone, who was already on bail and was staying in Embassy of Italy in New Delhi, to go home. Latorre is in Italy since September 2014 after the Supreme Court allowed him to go to his country for a surgery. Gentiloni is visiting New Delhi at a time when the process to restart the arbitration proceedings in The Hague is on. On April 14, India submitted its written plea to the international arbitration tribunal countering the plea Italy submitted on September 30, 2016. Italy also submitted this year a counter-memorial to India's objection to the jurisdiction of the UNCLOS and the arbitration tribunal over the case and a response to a claim by India. The tribunal asked India to submit a rejoinder to Italy's counter-memorial by December 15. Italy was also asked to submit a rejoinder to India's reply by February 16. The international arbitration tribunal is likely to start hearing the case in April or May and an award is expected in late 2018. Facing 195 other countries who have chosen a different path, the task of US negotiators at upcoming climate talks in Bonn is unenviable. Donald Trump has vowed to exit the Paris Climate accord, just not yet, leaving US policy in limbo for the next three years until Washington can officially leave. So, it falls to Thomas Shannon -- a respected career diplomat -- to this week lead a delegation into talks aimed at implementing an agreement the US is set to abandon. "It is a strange situation, I don't think I have seen anything like it in my almost 30 years of following this process," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based non-profit working on environmental issues. The Trump administration says it will still turn up, hoping to protect America's interests and put "America first." Rather ambitiously, Washington wants to handcuff its biggest geopolitical rivals to their commitments. A White House official told AFP it wants "to ensure the rules are transparent and fair and apply to countries like China and other economic competitors to the United States." But Shannon and his team might find themselves on shaky ground. Ben Rhodes, a former aide to President Barack Obama, believes Washington has abandoned any leverage it once had. "The rest of the world has no incentive to make concessions to the US since we are now entirely isolated," he told AFP. "My expectation is that the rest of the world will simply continue within the Paris framework and wait and see what happens in the US in 2020. "The danger is that other countries are less ambitious in their own commitments and implementation plans because they have the excuse of the US leaving," he added. Many delegates will be hoping that by a November 4, 2020 deadline -- one day after the next presidential election -- Trump either backs down or a new president has embraced the agreement. Either scenario is entirely possible. The White House has given itself ample wiggle room, saying the United States intends to withdraw "unless the president can identify terms that are more favorable to American businesses, workers, and taxpayers." That leaves open a broad range of possibilities that would not wreck the deal, including scaling back Obama's national plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent by 2025 compared to 2005 levels. But for now, the most supportive American voices come from outside the administration -- in the cities, states and companies, many of whom will likely implement their requirements regardless. Billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is on the front line of the Paris accord's cheerleaders, determined to help meet US commitments whatever the position of the White House. "That's kind of a new plot here," said Meyer. "You did not have that kind of force in place when president Bush announced he was withdrawing from Kyoto in 2001." The key question is whether they can keep the flame alive for another three years. The Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) is offering a battery-operated vehicle to tourists visiting the Raj Bhavan, reports DHNS. Owing to an increase in the number of tourists, the government is now looking to further develop the tourist attraction. Raj Bhavan is the official residence of the Governor, and one of the best-protected landmarks of Mumbai. The two-hour trip starts at 6 am and comes with a walk through the Raj Bhavan. The Battery-Operated Vehicle will assist in offering an eco-friendly tour of the Raj Bhavan. "The Raj Bhavan and the governor's Malabar Hill home has become the town's novel tourist hotspot and our aim is to transform Maharashtra into an environment-friendly tourist destination," Tourism Minister Jaykumar Rawal said. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said the world is facing challenges like terrorism and radicalisation, and India is not unaffected by such threats. He said the next five years would be crucial for security forces in resolving challenges related to terrorism and communalism, especially in Jammu and Kashmir, the northeast and left-wing extremism-affected areas of the country. Addressing IPS probationers at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (NPA) here, Singh advised the passing out cadets to take a vow to eradicate such problems. "Today, the world is engulfed by the fear of terrorism and radicalisation. Outfits such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda are killing innocent people across the globe and there is a threat from nuclear arms. People are facing the issues of cyber attacks. These organisations are continuously coming out with newer ideas," the home minister said. "India is not isolated from these developments. One of our neighbouring country is constantly engaged in encouraging terrorists... We should take a vow to eradicate problems like terrorism, extremism and fundamentalism in the next five years," Singh said. He said the government has registered certain gains against terrorism and left-wing extremism in the recent times and there is a need to maintain that momentum. The Centre has recently allocated Rs 25,000 crore for modernisation of police forces in the country, Singh said. He advised the cadets to follow four principles -- hard work, honesty, positive attitude and judicious decision -- in their career. The home minister also announced a grant of Rs 5 crore to the NPA Welfare Society. As many as 136 probationers, including 14 from other countries, graduated from the academy today after undergoing training for 45 weeks. New Delhi, PTI: The Delhi High Court on Monday sought the Enforcement Directorate's (ED) response on a bail plea of a woman director of two Dubai-based firms arrested in connection with a money laundering case arising out of the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper scam. Justice A K Pathak issued a notice to the ED seeking its reply on the bail application by December 1. Shivani Saxena, director of Dubai-based M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings, was arrested by the ED and is currently in judicial custody. Senior advocates Dayan Krishnan and Mohit Mathur, appearing for Shivani, submitted that the woman has not been charge-sheeted by the CBI in the main case but only the ED has charge-sheeted her under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The counsel said when the accused was not charge-sheeted for the main offence, the gravity of scheduled offence dilutes. They further submitted that the woman has been in jail for over three months now. The high court had in September dismissed an earlier bail plea of Shivani. She was also denied relief by the trial court. Shivani was nabbed on July 17 by the ED from Chennai under the provisions of the PMLA. The ED has charge-sheeted her and the companies under various sections of the PMLA. Shivani and her husband Rajiv Saxena are residents of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. The charge sheet contains her name and that of her husband, who is also a director in the two firms. Rajiv has been evading ED summons and not joining the probe, the ED had alleged. The agency has so far not named him as an accused. The ED has alleged that the two Dubai-based firms and Shivani were the ones through whom "the proceeds of crime have been routed and further layered and integrated into buying the immovable properties/shares among others". The agency has claimed its probe found that AgustaWestland, United Kingdom, had "paid an amount of Euro 58 million as kickbacks" through two Tunisia-based firms. "These companies further syphoned off the said money in the name of consultancy contracts to M/s Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius and others which were further transferred to M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings Ltd, Dubai and others," the charge sheet has said. The ED had also claimed that Rajiv was the "beneficial owner of M/s Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius". It has alleged that both the Dubai-based companies of the couple "received the proceeds of crime in their respective Dubai bank accounts" from the Mauritius-based firm. The ED, in this case, had also arrested Delhi-based businessman Gautam Khaitan who is currently out on bail. The ED had registered a PMLA case in 2014 and named 21 people, including Tyagi, in its money laundering FIR. On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks to the tune of Rs 423 crore paid by the firm for securing the deal. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. MARIE-ROSE BABI, Petitioner, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, Attorney General, Respondent. JOSEPH B. BABI; AZADOUHIE BABI, Petitioners, v. JEFFERSON B. SESSIONS III, Attorney General, Respondent. No. 14-70984, No. 14-70988 Decided: October 25, 2017 Before: REINHARDT and KOZINSKI, Circuit Judges, and BERG,** District Judge. MEMORANDUM* Joseph Babi and his daughter, Marie-Rose Babi, are citizens of Lebanon and Syriac Catholics. They petition for review of the Board of Immigration Appeals' order dismissing their appeals from an immigration judge's (IJ) decision denying their applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). We review for substantial evidence, Aguilera-Cota v. INS, 914 F.2d 1375, 1378 (9th Cir. 1990), and we grant and remand the petition for review in part, and deny in part. 1. The BIA affirmed the IJ's finding that, although the Mr. and Ms. Babi's testimony was credible, the harms they experienced in Lebanon did not rise to the level of past persecution. We conclude that this determination is not supported by substantial evidence. a. Joseph Babi Mr. Babi's claim for asylum and withholding of removal is based on four discrete incidents: two beatings which took place in 1980 and 1983, respectively, and two church bombings in 1989. The BIA properly considered all four of the events in assessing Mr. Babi's past persecution. See Knezevic v. Ashcroft, 367 F.3d 1206, 1211 (9th Cir. 2004). The BIA erred, however, in discounting the severity of Mr. Babi's harm as a result of each of these incidents. First, the BIA improperly concluded that because Mr. Babi did not seek medical care after the first beating, his claim that his injuries were serious and lasting was diminished. This conclusion ignores the fact that Mr. Babi did require, and procure, medical treatment after the beating. Mr. Babi credibly testified that, after the beating, he suffered back injuries and a nervous breakdown. However, because he worked in a pharmacy in Lebanon, Mr. Babi was able to obtain the medication required to treat his injuries. Thus, Mr. Babi did seek medical carehe just sought it from himself. We have never held that, in order to demonstrate serious injury, a petitioner must seek outside medical treatment. Indeed, such a rule would make little practical sense. We would not conclude that a doctor who sustained a serious injury was unable to demonstrate persecution because he stitched the wound himself. Nor would we penalize a petitioner without health insurance for seeking care outside the formal medical system, if that is what he could afford. Here, Mr. Babi's injuries following the first beating did require medical treatment, but he was able to provide such care based on his own resources. The BIA therefore erred in assessing the severity of Mr. Babi's injuries after the first attack. Second, the BIA improperly concluded that Mr. Babi failed to seek medical treatment for injuries arising due to the second beating. The Board discounted the severity of Mr. Babi's injuries because it found that he failed to seek medical treatment for injuries sustained in the second beating, although he did seek medical care for the psoriasis that appeared 2 weeks after the beating. This analysis ignores the fact that Mr. Babi repeatedly stated that the psoriasis was caused by the second beating. Psoriasis may be an unusual injury to sustain as the result of a beating, but that does not negate its relevance to the degree of Mr. Babi's harm. Rather, contrary to the BIA's conclusion, his efforts to seek medical care for his condition, including traveling to Europe for treatment, in fact strengthen his claim that the injuries he sustained due to the second beating were lasting and severe. Third, the BIA improperly concluded that Mr. Babi's claim to past persecution was undermined by the fact that he left and returned to Lebanon three times during the six-year period between the second beating and the church bombings. The BIA is correct that an alien's history of willingly returning to his or her home country militates against a finding of past persecution. Loho v. Mukasey, 531 F.3d 1016, 1017-18 (9th Cir. 2008). See also Kumar v. Gonzales, 439 F.3d 520, 524 (9th Cir. 2006) (finding that petitioner's voluntary return to his home country was indicative of [his] belief that it would be safe and appropriate for him to live there). Yet these cases must be read in light of the rule that past persecution is a cumulative concept. Here, Mr. Babi's claim of past persecution rests upon the aggregate effect of the two beatings plus the two church bombings. Moreover, he testified that he did not apply for asylum during his first visit to the United States because, at the time, there was a cease-fire in place in Lebanon. Thus, the fact that he left and returned to Lebanon after the beatings, before fleeing permanently after the bombings, does not undermine his claim that all four incidents, together, rise to the level of persecution. Although Joseph's beatings may not have been sufficient to persuade him to abandon his home country, he need only show that the total effect of all of his past harms compelled him to leave. Finally, the BIA failed to consider adequately Mr. Babi's claim that he suffers from lasting emotional trauma as a result of his experiences in Lebanon. As we have held, persecution may be emotional or psychological, as well as physical. Mashiri v. Ashcroft, 383 F.3d 1112, 1120 (9th Cir. 2004), as amended (Nov. 2, 2004), amended, No. 02-71841, 2004 WL 2435489 (9th Cir. Nov. 2, 2004). Here, because Mr. Babi's testimony was found credible, he was not required to provide any corroborative evidence in support of his claims. See Aden v. Holder, 589 F.3d 1040, 1043-44 (9th Cir. 2009) (discussing the line of circuit authority for the proposition that corroboration cannot be required from an applicant who testifies credibly). Yet in dismissing Mr. Babi's assertion of emotional trauma, the BIA improperly relied upon the little weight it gave to the expert testimony of a clinical therapist. In doing so, the BIA failed to recognize that Mr. Babi was under no obligation to present external evidence or expert testimony, and that he in fact provided credible testimony with respect to his claim of psychological harm. Mr. Babi's testimony and statements repeatedly discuss the fear and emotional trauma he sustained as a result of his beatings and the church bombings. Moreover, there is evidence in the record that Mr. Babi has been prescribed medication for anxiety and depression. The BIA therefore erred in concluding that Mr. Babi did not demonstrate serious emotional trauma as a result of his alleged persecution in Lebanon. None of the reasons provided by the BIA for discounting the severity of Mr. Babi's harm in Lebanon is supported by substantial evidence. In light of the cumulative evidence of Mr. Babi's physical injuries and emotional trauma, we conclude that he has demonstrated harm rising to the level of persecution. b. Marie-Rose Babi As with her father, the BIA found that Marie-Rose Babi did not demonstrate harm rising to the level of past persecution. As with her father, we conclude that substantial evidence does not support this determination. First, in finding that Ms. Babi did not demonstrate past persecution, the BIA relied in part on its determination regarding her father. The BIA stated that Ms. Babi's past persecution claim is based largely on the harm that her father experienced, and then went on to note that it had affirmed the Immigration Judge's determination that her father did not establish that the harm he experienced in Lebanon rises to the level of persecution. Because we reject the Board's conclusion with respect to Mr. Babi, its determination as to his past persecution does not provide substantial evidence for the BIA's finding that Ms. Babi also did not establish such harm. Second, the BIA failed to properly account for the fact that Ms. Babi was a child when the alleged persecution occurred. When a petitioner seeks relief on the basis of harm experienced as a child, the IJ must look at the events from their perspective, [and] measure the degree of their injuries by their impact on children of their ages. Hernandez-Ortiz v. Gonzales, 496 F.3d 1042, 1046 (9th Cir. 2007). Ms. Babi was five years old when she lived through the two church bombings. Yet the BIA failed to address how a child of Ms. Babi's age would have experienced such events. In doing so, the Board failed to address Ms. Babi's credible testimony regarding the emotional trauma she endured as a result of the events in Lebanon. Ms. Babi testified that she has very traumatic memories of her time in Lebanon, to the extent that she feels complete anger when she hears Arabic. As Ms. Babi wrote in a statement provided when she was thirteen, she remembers how terrified she was in Lebanon, and that she would always throw up from fear. Moreover, the record shows that Ms. Babi was prescribed anti-depressant medication and there was testimony that she received psychiatric treatment for anxiety and depression resulting from her time in Lebanon. Given Ms. Babi's tender age, this testimony and record evidence compels the conclusion that she did, in fact, suffer severe emotional trauma. See Hernandez-Ortiz, 496 F.3d.at 1045 (The Guidelines for Children's Asylum Claims advises that harm a child fears or has suffered may be relatively less than that of an adult and still qualify as persecution.). In light of these errors, and the evidence in the record of the trauma experienced by Ms. Babi, we conclude that the BIA's determination is not supported by substantial evidence, and that Ms. Babi has in fact established harm rising to the level of past persecution. 2. The BIA's conclusion that the Mr. Babi and Ms. Babi failed to demonstrate that they were entitled to relief under CAT is supported by substantial evidence. The Babis are unable to demonstrate that it is more likely than not that they would be tortured if returned to Lebanon. 8 C.F.R. 1208.16(c)(2). 3. Accordingly, we grant the petition for review in part and remand to the BIA. On remand, the BIA must determine whether the Babis, having demonstrated harm rising to the level of persecution, are entitled to a presumption of a well-founded fear of future persecution, and, if so, whether that presumption has been overcome by evidence in the record. See INS v. Ventura, 537 U.S. 12, 16 (2002) (per curiam). Petition GRANTED and REMANDED in part; DENIED in part. The Babis' asylum case rests on four eventsthe beatings in 1980 and 1983, and the two church bombings in 1989. Sympathetic though the family's claim may be, my colleagues err by treating these events as evidence of past persecution. Let's start with the two beatings. We've held that an alien's history of willingly returning to his or her home country militates against a finding of past persecution. Loho v. Mukasey, 531 F.3d 1016, 101718 (9th Cir. 2008). Since Mr. Babi left Lebanon and returned between the beatings and the bombings, the BIA naturally found that this undermined his claim of past persecution. To avoid this result, the majority argues that past persecution is a cumulative concept and that the aggregate effect of the two beatings plus the two church bombings is sufficient to support the persecution claim. In other words, because the beatings alone don't establish past persecution, the Babis' asylum case hinges on the church bombings. But war-related violence doesn't automatically rise to the level of persecution. To find persecution, we require some evidence of [motive], direct or circumstantial. INS v. Elias-Zacarias, 502 U.S. 478, 483 (1992) (emphasis in original). In Knezevic v. Ashcroft, 367 F.3d 1206 (9th Cir. 2004), we explained the critical distinction between persons displaced by the inevitable ravages of war (e.g., the bombing of London by the German Luftwaffe during World War II), and those fleeing from hostile forces motivated by a desire to kill each and every member of that group (e.g., the destruction of the Jewish neighborhoods on the Eastern front of Europe by the Einsatzgruppen, who followed the German Wehrmacht in WWII). Id. at 121112. The majority here blurs this distinction. It's plain from the record that the Lebanese conflict was a civil war, not a genocide: Diverse religious and political groups were all vying for power. For example, in proceedings before the immigration judge, Mr. Babi explained that his cousin was fighting in a group trying to protect the interests of Syriac Catholics. And it's precisely because the Lebanese war involved multiple factions that we don't know who committed the church bombings. The Babis themselves aren't sure: Mr. Babi's son stated in 1999 that [i]t was the Syrians or the Israeli [sic]. They both used to bomb us. It was two different countries. But twelve years later, Mr. Babi attributed the attack to the Amal, Mouraditoun [Muslim militias], the Palestinians, all of them. None of these groups overlap. Because it's impossible to determine who actually attacked whom in this case, we have no idea whether these bombings were part of a persecution campaign or were simply collateral effects of an unfolding war. That's not enough to meet the standard set by Elias-Zacarias. If the beatings don't meet the threshold of past persecution and the bombings aren't persecution at all, the Babis' claim must fail: There's just not enough there. Without more specific evidence, we should treat the Babis as persons displaced by the inevitable ravages of war rather than persons fleeing from hostile forces motivated by a desire to kill each and every member of that group[.] Knezevic, 367 F.3d at 1211. We should deny the petition in full. DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi attended his great-grandson's wedding on Monday, giving the party cadre an opportunity to catch a glimpse of their leader after nearly a year. The overjoyed party workers are now hoping that he would visit them at the DMK headquarters - Anna Arivalayam. The 93-year-old former chief minister underwent a tracheotomy procedure last year for a lung infection and has been taking rest at home ever since. Karunanidhi's great-grandson Manuranjith married actor Vikram's daughter Akshitha. Manuranjith is M K Muthu's son. The DMK's first family, including eldest son M K Azhagiri, and daughter and Rajya Sabha member Kanimozhi, were present on the occasion. However, Karunanidhi's younger son and DMK working president M K Stalin was not present. He was in Madurai to pay tributes to freedom fighter Pasumpon Muthuramalinga Thevar. Karunanidhi looked cheerful and blessed the newly-wed couple. The DMK president has been avoiding making public appearances since October 2016, as per the doctor's advice. Attributing the failure of IS-backed terror outfits in radicalising Indian youth to communal harmony, Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said a few youth in India were influenced by such ideology. Singh said that IS and its network, however, succeeded in setting up recruiting cells elsewhere in other countries and have carried out several operations. "India has not been unaffected by these global developments but compared to other countries, only a small number in India is influenced by the radical ideology of IS," said Singh, while addressing the passing out parade of IPS probationers at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy here. The home minister said that a neighbouring country has been posing additional security burden by sheltering terrorists. "However our intelligence and security agencies had succeeded in foiling their designs," Singh said. Lauding the efforts of the Indian security force in consolidating their positions across the borders, Singh said that in recent times decisive operations against terrorists has yielded good results. "We have to take an oath that in the coming five years, we will permanently solve serious problems like terrorism, extremism and communalism," he said. He reminded the probationers that last month the Union government had approved Rs 25,000 crore package to modernise the state police forces. On Monday, 136 IPS probationers, including 14 officers from the Royal Bhutan Police, Nepal Police and the Maldives Police, took part in the Dikshant Parade. The trainee officers included 22 women. Sameer Aslam Shaikh won the Prestigious Prime Minister's Baton and Home Ministry's Revolver for the Best All-Round IPS Probationer. Amrita Duhan, the best All-Round Lady IPS Probationer, won the 1973 Batch IPS Officers Trophy. Amrita is the mother of a five-year-old boy. Nepal Police Officer Rajesh Raj Puri won the IPS Associations Sword of Honour for the Best Outdoor Probationer. US authorities have sent the body of 3-year-old Sherin Mathews to a funeral home but a medical report on how the Indian girl, adopted by an Indian-American couple, died is yet to come out, according to a media report. The cause of Sherin's death is still pending, a spokesman for the police department in Richardson city, Texas, told Fox News. Sherin's body, found in a culvert on October 22, has been sent to a funeral home by the Dallas medical examiner, the report said. A spokesman for the Dallas County Medical Examiner said the body of Sherin was released on Saturday but did not say who has custody of the body. It is not clear if Sherin's foster mother Sini Mathews will have a role in handling the funeral arrangements since Sherin's foster father, Wesley Mathews, is under the custody of the Dallas County Sheriff's Department in connection with the child's tragic death. An online petition had requested authorities not to release Sherin's body to her foster parents and allow the people to give her a proper burial that she deserves. Sherin's body was found inside a culvert in Richardson city, nearly 1 km from her home. Her body was discovered by cadaver dogs over two weeks after she went missing from her home. Sherin was adopted by the couple from India last year. Wesley, 37, has been arrested on a charge of felony injury to a child with bond set at USD 1 million. He told police that Sherin had choked to death while drinking milk in the middle of the night on October 7. Mathews changed his story on Sherin's disappearance, initially claiming he left her outside at 3 am on October 7 as punishment for not drinking her milk. Mathews' latest claim is that he tried to "physically assist" Sherin in drinking her milk, but she choked on it and died. Sherin's foster mother, Sini, has denied any role in the girl's death and says she is cooperating in the investigation. But Richardson police say Sini Mathews has not been as cooperative as she has said, the Fox News report said. Meanwhile, over two dozen people lit candles and said a pray for Sherin at a vigil on Saturday at the India Association of North Texas in Richardson, NBC Dallas reported. The vigil was attended by Indian community leaders in North Texas, as well as a member of the Consulate General of India in Houston. The CGI representative said he was not authorised to speak about the case but the Indian mission here has tweeted that it is actively involved in the investigation. The tree where Wesley initially said he had left Sherin for not finishing milk and the culvert where her body was later found have become memorial sites. People have been visiting these places and putting stuffed toys and flowers daily and praying for the baby to rest in peace. "It's a tragedy the whole life and you know a lot of people failed her. So it's time for us to pray, for her get together and hope that and pray that this never happens again in this entire community," said Salman Farshori, president of the India Association of North Texas. Authorities on Monday banned the sale of combat dresses and uniforms of security forces in Jammu & Kashmir's Samba district, which borders Pakistan. This has been done to prevent militants from gaining access to combat dresses. District Magistrate Sheetal Nanda said the ban was imposed under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and no unauthorised person or firm shall procure, store, stitch and sale army combat dresses in Samba district. The ban, imposed after security agencies requested the authorities to regulate the procurement of such articles, came in the backdrop of attacks in Samba and neighbouring Kathua district by militants donning army combat dresses and uniforms of security forces over the years. "The procuring, storing and selling of (army uniforms) in an unregulated manner may result in the items being passed into the hands of anti-national elements and may cause disturbances to (peace) as has been seen in the past," Nanda said. The order issuing the ban instructed that "all authorised private firms and shops procuring, storing and selling combat clothes shall immediately inform in writing to the nearest police station regarding their authority to carry on with this business". In March 2015, two terrorists launched a 'fidayeen' attack on an army camp in Samba district. The terrorists were killed, and a civilian and two army personnel were injured. The same month militants in army fatigue stormed a police station in Kathua killing seven people. Armed miscreants on Monday looted Rs 37 lakh from the employees of a shopping mall in Muzaffarpur, Bihar, reports PTI. According to Deputy Superintendent of Police, Town, Nuzaffarpur, Ashish Anand, the incident took place in Mithanpura police station area. He said four miscreants waylaid three employees, barely 200 metres from the Big Bazaar outlet, while they were on their way to deposit the cash in a bank. Holding the mall workers at gunpoint, the criminals decamped with the money, firing in the air to scare off the onlookers, he said. Further investigations were on, he added. The man who sent aviation security into a tizzy early this morning by placing a note on a Jet Airways flight about hijackers and a bomb in the plane is a "habitual offender" known for creating trouble onboard, government officials here said. The man, identified as Birju Kishore Salla, had once carried a cockroach with him on a flight and blamed the airline for it, the officials said. Salla, who belongs to an affluent Mumbai-based Gujarati family, had been let off on that occasion after he assured the airline he would not repeat the offence, an official privy to the investigation into the case said. A businessman in his late 30s, Salla always travels by business class, and mostly on Jet Airways. The officials said he seemed to hold a grudge against the airline. The incident today, when Flight 9W 339 carrying 122 people made an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport, triggered a scare in the security establishment. The two-level standard operating procedures (SOPs) in a hijacked situation were activated and anti-terror lead force National Security Guard (NSG) commandos were put on high alert, another official said. In a hijack situation, the two SOP levels are the aerodrome committee and the response team, comprising officials of the NSG, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, intelligence agencies and others. The accused has been detained by the Gujarat Police, which is interrogating him. When no suspicious objects or explosives were found on the aircraft after a detailed search, the plane, on its way from Delhi to Mumbai, was cleared to fly again for the remaining part of the journey. However, the pilot of the aircraft insisted that sky marshals be on board, and accordingly, two armed guards traveled on the flight from Ahmedabad to Delhi. Salla is likely to be put on a no-fly list of people barred from boarding commercial aircraft. The Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight made the emergency landing after a note stating that there were hijackers and a bomb on board was found in the plane's washroom. The official pointed out that the note referred to POK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) which investigators found suspicious because Pakistan-based terrorists call the area 'Azad Kashmir'. The note, with a para in Urdu on the top and English at the bottom, ended with "Allah is Great" and said, "Flight No 9W 339 is covered by Hijackers and aircraft should not be land and flown straight to POK. 12 people on board. if you put landing gear you will hear the noise of people dying. dont take it as a joke. Cargo area contains explosive bomb and wl blast if you land Delhi (sic)." Flight 9W 339, which had taken off from Mumbai at 2.55 am with 115 passengers and seven crew members, landed without incident at Ahmedabad around 3.45 am. The Boeing 737-900 plane was parked at a remote bay and all 122 safely deplaned. "Salla was detained by the police after a preliminary investigation... It was revealed that Salla had put the threat letter in the plane's washroom. We will take necessary action against him," a police officer in Ahmedabad said. Governor Vajubhai Vala has appointed three officials, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's personal medical adviser Dr H Ravikumar, and an advocate for members of the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC). Ravikumar is currently serving as the superintendent of KC General Hospital in Bengaluru. IAS officer Shadakshari Swamy, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) environment officer R Lakshminarayana and advocate Srikanth Rao are the three others appointed to the Commission, an official notification said. The government had recommended these names to the Governor in August. But the Governor had sent back the list, directing to get the Cabinet's approval for it. The Cabinet approved the list recently. Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) H K Patil has ordered a probe into the misuse of funds to the tune of Rs 55 crore in the Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited (KRIDL). The funds were unauthorisedly parked in two separate accounts of the Mangaluru branch of Indian Overseas Bank in August this year. Later a large sum of this money was transferred to fake bank accounts opened in other bank branches in various parts of the state. In one such illegal transfer, Rs 50 lakh was recently deposited in an account belonging to Shah Exports at Vijaya Bank, Koramangala branch, Bengaluru. The Shah Exports' account had remained a zero-balance account for over two years. The misuse of funds came to light after Vijaya Bank officials alerted the RDPR department about such a large sum of money being deposited in the account, according to a release from the minister's office. The minister has directed the RDPR principal secretary to conduct a preliminary enquiry into the issue and submit a report. United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit. ART+COM INNOVATIONPOOL GMBH, Plaintiff-Appellant v. GOOGLE LLC, Defendant-Appellee 2017-1016 Decided: October 20, 2017 Before Lourie, O'Malley, and Taranto, Circuit Judges. Scott F. Partridge, Baker Botts LLP, Houston, TX, argued for plaintiff-appellant. Also represented by Michael Hawes, L. Gene Spears. Daryl Joseffer, King & Spalding LLP, Washington, DC, argued for defendant-appellee. Also represented by Joshua Nathaniel Mitchell. Art+Com Innovationpool GmbH (Art+Com) appeals the district court's entry of judgment following a jury trial. The jury found that Appellee Google LLC (Google) did not infringe claims 1, 3, 14, and 28 (the asserted claims) of U.S. Patent No. RE44,550 (the '550 patent), and that each of the asserted claims is invalid as anticipated and/or obvious. The district court entered judgment consistent with these verdicts and denied Art+Com's renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law, finding that each is supported by substantial evidence. Because we find that substantial evidence supports the jury's conclusion that each of the asserted claims is invalid, we affirm the district court's denial of Art+Com's motions for judgment as a matter of law. In light of this conclusion, we need not and do not consider the judgment of noninfringement. I. Background Art+Com is the owner by assignment of the '550 patent, titled Method and Device for Pictorial Representation of Space-Related Data. Broadly speaking, the '550 patent is directed to methods for displaying geographici.e., topographic or meteorologicaldata, such as satellite images, to a user who has a selectable viewpoint, taking into account the user's location and direction of view. The '550 patent claims priority to a U.S. patent application filed on December 17, 1996. Accordingly, it is undisputed that the critical date for purposes of anticipation under 35 U.S.C. 102(b) is December 17, 1995. Claim 1, on which asserted claims 3, 14, and 28 depend, recites the following: 1. A method of providing a pictorial representation of space-related data of a selectable object, the representation corresponding to a view of the object by an observer with a selectable location and a selectable direction of view comprising: (a) providing a plurality of spatially distributed data sources for storing space-related data; (b) determining a field of view including an area of the object to be represented through a selection of a distance of the observer to the object and an angle of view of the observer to the object; (c) requesting data for the field of view from at least one of the plurality of spatially distributed data sources; (d) centrally storing the data for the field of view; (e) representing the data for the field of view in a pictorial representation having one or more sections; (f) using a computer, dividing each of the one or more sections having image resolutions below a desired image resolution into a plurality of smaller sections, requesting higher resolution space-related data for each of the smaller sections from at least one of the plurality of spatially distributed data sources, centrally storing the higher resolution space-related data, and representing the data for the field of view in the pictorial representation; and (g) repeating step (f), dividing the sections into smaller sections, until every section has the desired image resolution or no higher image resolution data is available. '550 patent col. 10, ll. 1644. Throughout the trial, Google and its witnesses referred to the asserted claims as requiring coarse-to-fine zooming, in which the device iteratively divides parent nodes into at least two child nodes that point to higher resolution image data, then requests, stores, and displays the data for these child nodes until either the desired image resolution for each parent node is achieved or no higher image resolution data is available. See, e.g., Trial Tr. 1229 ll. 823, ECF Nos. 41823. Art+Com filed suit against Google in February 2014, alleging that Google's Google Earth, Version 7 and related software products infringe the asserted claims of the '550 patent. Trial commenced on May 23, 2016, during which Google sought to prove that the invention was placed in public use prior to December 17, 1995, and that the '550 patent, therefore, is invalid under 102(b). Google introduced several forms of evidence in support of this effort. First, it called Stephen Lau as a witness, who testified that, while he was employed at the federally funded, not-for-profit company Stanford Re-search Institute (SRI), he helped develop SRI TerraVision, an earth visualization application that used a co[arse-to-fine] algorithm to retrieve images [sic] data across the network from multiple servers. Trial Tr. 1029 ll. 918. He further testified that SRI TerraVision was part of the MAGIC project, an umbrella federally funded research project that focused on terrain visualization. Id. at 1030 ll. 912, 1043 ll. 510. He also testified both that he wrote about 89 percent of the source code underlying SRI TerraVision and that the project was meant to be put into the public domain. Id. at 103032, 1151. Lau further testified that SRI TerraVision allowed a user to navigate around a two- or three-dimensional representation of a graphical area and to zoom in and out to different levels of detail, and described how SRI TerraVision drew its image data from a network of multiple servers spread across the country. Id. at 103435, 1051. While Lau was on the stand, Google displayed a 1994 VHS tape in which the narrator walks the viewer through the operation of SRI TerraVision. J.A. 2565. In the tape, the narrator describes how a user can move from a low-resolution picture of a larger geographic area to a higher-resolution picture of a smaller geographic area using a multi-resolution pyramid. J.A. 2565, 353233. The narrator continues: At each level of the resolution pyramid, groups of four tiles from the next higher resolution are averaged down into a single tile. Consequently, each level of the pyramid covers the entire terrain, but uses only a quarter as many tiles as the previous level. The pyramid is built layer by layer until the entire terrain is represented by a single tile But what if some of the tiles needed for a given view are not in local memory when they are needed for a display? Notice that, each time we click on the map, the image first seems out of focus, and then becomes clearer. What's happening is that, when we first move to a new area, the high resolution tiles are not available in local memory, so TerraVision is forced to use lower resolution tiles. At the same time as the display is being processed, TerraVision is requesting higher resolution tiles from the server. As they arrive, TerraVision uses these higher resolution tiles, and the image becomes progressively better focused. Id. Lau corroborated the narrator's description of how SRI TerraVision operates. He testified that, where the program couldn't predict where the user was going to go such as if a user clicked in an unexpected place, the program would use[ ] a course [sic] to fine algorithm to come up with the best display it could beginning with a frustrum, a field of view and using quadtrees arranged in a resolution pyramid to enhance the image resolution. Trial Tr. 103637. Lau testified that he demonstrated SRI TerraVision to an audience of more than 100 people at the 1994 MAGIC Technical Symposium held at the University of Kansas in August 1994 and to an audience of more than 500 people at the SIGGRAPH '95 conference held in Los Angeles in August 1995, the latter of which was attended by at least two members of Art+Com. Id. at 104850, 105859. Lau explained that he gave individuals from Art+Com copies of the SRI TerraVision source code, walked them through it, and talked to them about it. Id. at 105051. Google also introduced into evidence an overview of the MAGIC project and a draft technical paper coauthored by Lau, both of which described how TerraVision functioned. J.A. 31583271, 175877. Google's expert, Dr. Goodchild, testified that, based on his review of the 1994 VHS tape and the publications introduced into evidence, it was his opinion that SRI TerraVision anticipates the asserted claims. Trial Tr. 113335, 1150. Dr. Goodchild walked through each claim limitation and pointed to evidence demonstrating why he believed SRI TerraVision disclosed these limitations. Id. at 113550. On cross-examination, counsel for Art+Com took issue with Dr. Goodchild's purported reliance on the MAGIC project overview, which contemplated using servers co-located at a facility in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and highlighted several research issues that remained to be solved. Id. at 120104. In response to these questions, Dr. Goodchild testified that the system demonstrated in 1994 and 1995 was the system that [he] analyzed and that system as I shown [sic] meets all the claims. J.A. 1331. The jury reached a verdict on May 27, 2016, finding, among other things, that Google proved by clear and convincing evidence both that SRI's TerraVision system was publicly used before December 17, 1995 and that this system anticipates each of the asserted claims. The district court denied Art+Com's renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law and entered judgment in favor of Google. Art+Com timely appealed. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1295(a)(1). II. Standard of Review This court reviews a denial of JMOL following a jury verdict by reapplying the district court's standard of review. Minn. Min. & Mfg. Co. v. Chemque, Inc., 303 F.3d 1294, 1300 (Fed. Cir. 2002) (quoting SIBIA Neurosciences, Inc. v. Cadus Pharm. Corp., 225 F.3d 1349, 1354 (Fed. Cir. 2000)). Thus, a motion for JMOL should be granted if either (1) the jury's factual findings, presumed or express, cannot be supported by substantial evidence, or (2) the legal conclusions implied from the jury's verdict cannot be supported by the jury's factual findings. Id. When reviewing a district court's denial of JMOL following a jury verdict, we must determine whether, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, and giving the non-movant the benefit of all reasonable inferences, there is sufficient evidence in the record to support a jury verdict in favor of the non-movant. Id. at 130001 (quoting Sw. Software, Inc. v. Harlequin Inc., 226 F.3d 1280, 1289 (Fed. Cir. 2000)). Anticipation is a question of fact, and a jury determination of anticipation is reviewed for substantial evidence. Acromed Corp. v. Sofamor Danek Grp., Inc., 253 F.3d 1371, 137879 (Fed. Cir. 2001). Under pre-AIA 102, one way in which a patent is anticipated is where the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of the application for patent in the United States 35 U.S.C. 102(b) (2000). Public use under pre-AIA 102(b) includes any use of the claimed invention by a person other than the inventor who is under no limitation, restriction or obligation of secrecy to the inventor. Netscape Commc'ns Corp. v. Konrad, 295 F.3d 1315, 1321 (Fed. Cir. 2002). III. Discussion Art+Com outlines three reasons why it claims Google failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that SRI TerraVision placed the invention of the asserted claims in public use. First, it submits that, because Google did not present any evidence to corroborate Lau's vague testimony regarding the features and operation of SRI TerraVision, Dr. Goodchild should not have been permitted to rely on this testimony to cherry-pick selected excerpts to stitch together the claimed invention. Appellant Br. 49. Second, it contends that, even assuming there was an adequate foundation for Lau's testimony, Dr. Goodchild's opinions do not demonstrate that SRI TerraVision disclosed each claim limitation. Third, Art+Com argues that Google failed to demonstrate either that SRI TerraVision was ready for patenting under the Supreme Court's decision in Pfaff v. Wells Electronics, Inc., 525 U.S. 55, 60, 119 S.Ct. 304, 142 L.Ed.2d 261 (1998), or that the public could actually discern the patented invention in SRI TerraVision, as required under this court's precedents. Id. at 5458. We find none of these contentions persuasive. Although Art+Com is correct that we have emphasized the importance of corroboration in the context of 102(b) challenges, see Finnigan Corp. v. International Trade Commission, 180 F.3d 1354, 1367 (Fed. Cir. 1999), Lau's testimony was sufficiently corroborated by both documentary and videographic evidence. First, the jury watched the 1994 VHS tape that Lau testified he had helped create and display in public fora prior to the critical date of December 17, 1995. Second, the jury received two papers describing the features and operation of SRI TerraVisionthe more recent of which Lau coauthored. Google argued at trial that one skilled in the art would understand from watching the 1994 VHS tape and from reading these two papers that every claim element was disclosed therein. But Art+Com ignores the VHS tape. And it provides no legal support for its claim that Lau himself was required to specifically identify where in the corroborating evidence each claim element can be found. Finally, to the extent Art+Com claims Lau was biased because he was compensated by Google for his consulting work, the jury was free to weigh this evidence and conclude that Lau's testimony was not unduly influenced by these payments. We conclude that the documentary and videographic evidence of record was sufficient to corroborate Lau's testimony and provided an adequate foundation from which Dr. Goodchild could offer his opinions. Art+Com's argument that Google failed to demonstrate that SRI TerraVision disclosed each claim limitationin particular, steps (b), (c), (f), and (g) of claim 1 and the additional limitations of claim 3also misses the mark. [T]he dispositive question regarding anticipation is whether one skilled in the art would reasonably understand or infer from the prior art reference's teaching that every claim element was disclosed in that single reference. Dayco Prods., Inc. v. Total Containment, Inc., 329 F.3d 1358, 1368 (Fed. Cir. 2003) (internal quotation marks, alterations, and citation omitted). Google submitted evidence from which the jury reasonably could conclude that SRI TerraVision provided a basis for such an understanding. Steps (b) and (c) of claim 1 require (b) determining a field of view including an area of the object to be represented through a selection of a distance of the observer to the object and an angle of view of the observer to the object; [and] (c) requesting data for the field of view from at least one of the plurality of spatially distributed data sources. '550 patent col. 10, ll. 2328. Art+Com claims that the jury did not receive substantial evidence that step (b), which is very specific in defining what data the application will request in step (c), was performed, and questions how Dr. Goodchild could f[in]d this step in DTX1023's bare reference to incremental retrieval of the database, a reference he concedes does not state what increment is being used to retrieve the data, whether it's been done in increments of field of view or some other type of increment. Appellant Br. 52. These limitations, however, are disclosed by the evidence. For example, portions of a draft technical note titled TerraVision: A Terrain Visualization System, which the parties refer to as DTX1023, and the 1994 VHS tape: (1) reveal that users can choose different viewpoint scenarios within SRI TerraVision; (2) explain that the program fetches geographic data across the network as it is needed while the user moves about the terrain; and (3) show how the program displays geographic data at a particular distance and from the user's angle of viewand, just as importantly, does not display data outside that field of view. J.A. 175877, 2565, 353233. Art+Com fails to address any of this evidence. Art+Com also dis-counts Lau's testimony that SRI TerraVision computes what data to display using a frustrum, a field of view and then project[s] out where you're looking in the terrain and where you're at [and] figure[s] out how far away each of the tiles should be. Trial Tr. 1036. But the jury was entitled to believe Lau's testimony, as well as Dr. Goodchild's opinions on these questions, Art+Com's skepticism of that testimony notwithstanding. As stated above, steps (f) and (g) of claim 1 require iteratively dividing parent nodes into at least two child nodes that point to higher resolution image data and then requesting, storing, and displaying geographic data for these child nodes until either the desired image resolution for each parent node is achieved or no higher image resolution data is available. Art+Com argues that the jury heard no evidence, much less substantial evidence, that these steps are implemented in SRI TerraVision. Appellant Br. 52. It also claims that the following sentence from the draft technical paper reveals that SRI TerraVision does not practice these steps: TerraVision basically uses an incremental retrieval of the data base as required by the user, rather than forcing the user to copy a part of the database to local storage, visualizing that part, and repeating this until he/she has found the portion of the terrain that was of interest Id. (citing J.A. 1760) (emphasis in brief). When asked on cross-examination how he interprets that sentence, however, Dr. Goodchild testified that, in his opinion, the sentence means: once we get to []visualizing that part[,] and repeating this until he/she has found a portion of interest,[] that now follows the first part of the sentence rather than following the section after the comma. Trial Tr. 1211 ll. 414. We do not find Dr. Goodchild's interpretation to be unreasonable, and conclude that the jury was entitled to believe his opinion on this issue. Other evidence presented to the jury also shows that SRI TerraVision does perform the coarse-to-fine zooming required by steps (f) and (g). First, DTX1023 teaches a search algorithm that uses recursive subdivision for each node, where a test is applied to determine whether or not the node should be sub-divided into its four children. If so, the search is carried on. Otherwise, it is stopped. J.A. 1766. Second, Lau testified that TerraVision used quadtrees to perform coarse-to-fine zooming on resolution pyramids by subdividing the quadtree tiles until you got to the highest resolution that you had. Trial Tr. 103637. Third, the 1994 VHS tape visually and audibly demonstrates that SRI TerraVision uses a resolution pyramid where each level of the pyramid covers the entire terrain, but uses only 1/4 as many tiles as the previous level, and that when using this pyramid to request[ ] higher-resolution tiles from the server, the image becomes progressively better focused. J.A. 2565, 353233. It was within the jury's purview to credit Dr. Goodchild's opinion that TerraVision used a quadtree to perform a coarse-to-fine search that would successively divide and request image data in a manner that discloses steps (f) and (g). Trial Tr. 114142. With respect to claim 3, Art+Com argues that Dr. Goodchild's opinion that this claim was practiced in SRI TerraVision is based on a reference in DTX1037 to the transformation that's necessary as it is in any computer graphic system from the 3D coordinate to the 2D coordinate system of the screen. Appellant Br. 53. According to Art+Com, these routine transformations are not those defined by claim 3; rather, the claimed coordinate transformation is one that followsper claim 2 from which claim 3 dependsa change in the selectable location, such that the data and co-ordinates of the data are determined in terms of new co-ordinates. Id. Fatal to Art+Com's argument is that other evidence was presented at trial regarding whether the additional limitations present in claim 3 were disclosed in SRI TerraVision. For example, the jury heard from Lau that SRI TerraVision performed coordinate transformation that normalized the newly selected coordinates. Trial Tr. 1047. When asked why the system operated this way, Lau explained that it helped avoid precision errors when moving from one location to another. Id. This testimony explains how SRI TerraVision alter [s] the selectable location and perform[s] the steps (b) through (g) and determin[es] the data and/or the co-ordinates of the data in terms of a new co-ordinate system. '550 patent col. 10, ll. 45-50. Finally, we reject Art+Com's contention that Google failed to demonstrate that SRI TerraVision was ready for patenting and that the invention was discernable in SRI TerraVision. Appellant Br. 5458. The public use bar applies when, before the critical date, the claimed invention is publicly used and is ready for patenting. Invitrogen Corp. v. Biocrest Mfg., L.P., 424 F.3d 1374, 137980 (Fed. Cir. 2005) (holding that the Supreme Court's ready for patenting test set forth in Pfaff, a case concerning 102(b)'s on-sale bar, applies to the public use bar under 102(b)). The latter condition may be satisfied in at least two ways: by proof of reduction to practice before the critical date; or by proof that prior to the critical date the inventor had prepared drawings or other descriptions of the invention that were sufficiently specific to enable a person skilled in the art to practice the invention. Pfaff, 525 U.S. at 6768, 119 S.Ct. 304. Under this court's precedent, an invention is reduced to practice when it works for its intended purposethat is, when there is a demonstration of its workability or utility. Atlanta Attachment Co. v. Leggett & Platt, Inc., 516 F.3d 1361, 136667 (Fed. Cir. 2008). In Atlanta Attachment, we found that a prior art device was ready for patenting when a prototype of the device demonstrated the workability and utility of the invention during [a] demonstration. Id. at 1367. In Hamilton Beach Brands, Inc. v. Sunbeam Products, Inc., we similarly found a prior art product ready for patenting when there were working prototypes that met all the limitations of the asserted patent claims and retail customers were provided with specific descriptions and drawings of the device. 726 F.3d 1370, 137879 (Fed. Cir. 2013). Here, Lau testified that he and his team demonstrated the SRI TerraVision system shown in the 1994 VHS tape to audiences at both the 1994 MAGIC Technical Symposium and the SIGGRAPH '95 conference. Trial Tr. 104850, 105859. Lau further testified that, at the SIGGRAPH '95 conference, he performed live demonstrations of SRI TerraVision to at least 500 people, and in fact gave [ ] the source code to TerraVision to Art+Com employees who were in attendance and walk[ed] them through the source code. Id. at 1050 l. 211052 l. 3. Lau's testimony regarding his demonstrations at these conferences and his provision of source code to individuals at Art+Com constitutes substantial evidence that SRI TerraVision was ready for patenting. Art+Com nevertheless states that [n]either Dr. Goodchild nor Lau said anything about the development goals or performance criteria targeted by SRI, about metrics evaluated through testing of the system, or about when the system was considered complete. Appellant Br. 56. An invention may be reduced to practice for purposes of the public use bar even though it may later be refined or improved. New Railhead Mfg., L.L.C. v. Vermeer Mfg. Co., 298 F.3d 1290, 1297 (Fed. Cir. 2002). Although Art+Com notes that SRI identified certain research issues it believed needed to be resolved at a future point in time, we nevertheless conclude that substantial evidence supports the jury's implicit determination that SRI TerraVision was ready for patenting. Art+Com's argument that Google did not attempt to prove that the public could actually discern the patented invention in SRI TerraVision, but instead tried to prove the invention was discernable in cherry-picked excerpts from documents purporting to describe the system is no more persuasive. Appellant Br. 54. Art+Com cites Dey, L.P. v. Sunovion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 715 F.3d 1351 (Fed. Cir. 2013), and Delano Farms Co. v. California Table Grape Commission, 778 F.3d 1243 (Fed. Cir. 2015), for the proposition that the claimed invention must be discernable to the public from a purported public use. Id. at 55. These cases are inapposite, however, as both involve circumstances that created an expectation of secrecy similar to that imposed by confidentiality agreements. Dey, 715 F.3d at 135759; Delano Farms, 778 F.3d at 124950. Here, by contrast, the jury heard testimony that the SRI TerraVision system was publicly demonstrated at two technical conferences to attendees with knowledge of the art and without any restriction or effort to maintain confidentiality. Indeed, Google presented evidence that both the papers on which Dr. Goodchild relied in forming his opinions and the source code itself were made publicly available. Trial Tr. 104344, 1051. In light of Dr. Goodchild's testimony that source code essentially defines what the computer does, id. at 1097, the jury was entitled to find that the claimed inventions were discernable in SRI TerraVision. We conclude that substantial evidence supports the jury's verdict that claims 1, 3, 14, and 28 are each anticipated by SRI TerraVision. We therefore affirm the district court's entry of judgment of invalidity on that ground. Because we hold that there was adequate support for the jury's conclusion that each of the asserted claims is anticipated by SRI TerraVision, we affirm the district court's judgments without considering Art+Com's remaining arguments or the parties' debates over the jury's noninfringement finding. Cf. Ecolab, Inc. v. FMC Corp., 569 F.3d 1335, 1348 (Fed. Cir. 2009), amended on reh'g in part, 366 Fed.Appx. 154 (Fed. Cir. 2009); Nobelpharma AB v. Implant Innovations, Inc., 141 F.3d 1059, 1066 (Fed. Cir. 1998). IV. Conclusion For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court's judgment. AFFIRMED FOOTNOTES . Because the '550 patent is a reissue patent, its claims contain certain language in brackets and in bold or italics that reflect additions, deletions, and modifications from prior applications. To assist the reader, we only include the operative language. O'Malley, Circuit Judge. This election in Himachal Pradesh is set to witness a rare feat of sorts in the backdrop of a riveting fact from the pages of the electoral history of the hill state. Residents of high-altitude Kinnaur were the first to vote in Independent India's first general election in 1951. Other parts of the nation voted a few months later. This was because elections to these regions were advanced to avoid incremental weather and heavy snowfall. This region has another distinction. Among the lakhs of voters who will cast their vote, one man will be conspicuous by his presence. Shyam Sharan Negi is officially India's first and now the oldest voter, set to cast his vote for a record time on November 9. Negi, a resident of Kalpa in Kinnaur district, turned 100 in July this year. Negi was a government primary schoolteacher, and a part of the polling party in the state during the country's first general elections. He was the first person to vote on October 25, 1951. Till the previous election in 2012, Negi was fit enough to walk to the polling station. But now, he finds it hard to walk because of joint pain, said his younger son, Chander Prakash. His family said they would escort Negi to the polling booth. Negi, a father of 10, has voted in all the general elections and this will be his 12th Assembly polls. In 2010, former chief election commissioner Navin Chawla visited Negi at his village to honour him as part of the poll commission's diamond jubilee celebrations. A Modi fan Negi is a Modi fan and feels that the prime minister has the determination to square the circle. Negi recounted his experience when he voted for the first time 66 years ago. According to Negi, ballot boxes had to be moved and relocated using mules as the terrain was treacherous. The first polling booth, which was inside a school building under Chini constituency (present day Kinnaur), was set up 10,000 feet above sea level. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has directed Bihar police to conduct massive raids and hunt those engaged in illegal manufacture and sale of liquor in the dry state. This comes after five people died in a hooch tragedy in Rohtas district on Saturday. The police on Sunday conducted raids and seized 57 litres of Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL) and 106 litres of country-made liquor on Sunday from Patna. Ever since prohibition was imposed in April 2016, police and excise officials have conducted 4.85 lakh raids throughout the state in the past18 months, registered 77,000 FIRs and seized 11.22 lakh litres of IMFL as well as 6.4 lakh litres of country-made liquor (figures till October 2017). This includes around 6.5 lakh litres of IMFL seized in this calendar year. "The seizure list is just a fraction of the quantity of liquor being smuggled from Haryana, Delhi, Jharkhand, Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Ever since Bihar was declared a dry state in April last year, the liquor smuggling syndicate has been working overtime selling branded ones at thrice the original price," a senior police officer said preferring anonymity. Some of the police and excise officials, who were found to be hand in glove with the liquor smugglers, have even lost their job. "No doubt, prohibition has been strictly enforced in Bihar. But liquor smuggling is rampant because of the state's topography. Bihar shares a porous border with Nepal in the north, Uttar Pradesh in the west, Bengal in the east and Jharkhand in the south," said the officer. Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad has also been very critical on the issue. "Prohibition has been a complete failure. I had cautioned Nitish (when he took the decision last year) that the idea may be good, but it will have operational problems during its implementation," said Lalu. Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni in New Delhi on Monday, Indian students at Milan in northern Italy were assaulted in a string of incidents. The Consulate General of India in Milan on Monday issued an advisory to Indian students studying in the main city of Lombardy Region of Italy, asking them not to panic. The advisory was issued after the CGI received reports about a series of assaults on Indian students studying in academic institutions in Milan. A Hindu outfit leader was shot dead in full public view by four unidentified men in the Bharat Nagar locality on the Amritsar-Batala road here today, police said, PTI reports from Amritsar. Hindu Sangarsh Sena district chief Vipan Sharma (45) was standing with a friend outside a shop in the bustling Bharat Nagar locality when around a dozen bullets were pumped into him, the police said. The killing comes within a fortnight of the gunning down of RSS leader Ravinder Gosain in Ludhiana on October 17. Two of the four masked youths, including one sporting a turban, pumped bullets into Sharma's body and fled the spot on their motorcycles, police said. Sharma was rushed to the Escort Hospital where he was declared brought dead. Few of the deceased's relatives and friends claimed that he had recently applied for police protection, since he was active in raising his voice against the 'Ghalughara week' (Operation Blue Star anniversary), the police commissioner said. Two unidentified bike-borne men robbed Rs 18.5 lakh from a private agency staffer who was loading cash at the ICICI ATM kiosk near Jalahalli Cross, North Bengaluru, on Monday morning. According to police, the incident happened at 6.30 am on Monday. "Three staff members of the agency (Secure Well Security Services) - Sagar, Mohan and Prasanna - had gone to Jalahalli Cross ICICI ATM to replenish it. They were followed by the bike-borne duo, who then waited near the ATM," police said. Meanwhile, Mohan and Prasanna went inside the ATM kiosk to open the machine. When Sagar got down with the cash bag, he was attacked by the two who tried to snatch the bag from him. Sagar resisted, but was stabbed on the chest, shoulder, and legs. By the time Mohan and Prasanna came to his rescue, the duo had fled with the cash, police said. Police said that there was no gunman in the van, which is mandatory as per rules. Sagar is recovering at Sparsh Hospital. The police visited the hospital and recorded Sagar's statement. According to him, the two men, aged between 25 and 30 years, had covered their faces with helmet. The Bagalagunte police have formed a separate team to nab the miscreants. Police said the agency had brought Rs 1.25 crore in cash to replenish five ATM kiosks. Sagar had taken Rs 18.5 lakh in a bag to replenish the Jalahalli Cross ATM. Police are examining CCTV camera footage in the area. The ATM kiosk is just 300 metres away from Rockline Mall. The Accused CTA Subway Pusher Has Pleaded Not Guilty By Stephen Gossett in News on Oct 30, 2017 7:40PM Chad Estep / Chicago Police Department Estep stayed silent during a hearing on Monday as his lawyer, Vadim Glozman, entered his client's plea, according to the Tribune and the Sun-Times. Police and prosecutors say Estepwho reportedly received his Ph.D. in neuroscience from Northwestern University earlier this yearshoved commuter shoved Ben Benedict, 47, off the platform at the Washington Blue Line station on Aug. 1, at around 11:30 p.m. Benedict said he missed hitting the third rail by a mere foot. When the victim tried climb up to safety, the pusher blocked his way up to the platform, Benedict told the Tribune, who first reported the story, before an arrest was made or an alert was issued. Estep also attempted to obstruct commuters who came to Benedict's aid, prosecutors said at a previous hearing. They were able to circle the attacker and Benedict eventually reached the platform. Estep was freed on bond on Oct. 11 after his wife paid the required fee of 10 percent of his $200,000 bond. Prosecutors reportedly said at the earlier bond hearing that Estep looked intoxicated on CTA surveillance video, but did not offer an explicit motive. The two men did not know each other, prosecutors said. The Tribune first reported the disturbing incident in September. The Chicago Police Department did not at first release photos of the attacker, which police had pulled from CTA surveillance video. (It's not out of the ordinary for CPD to release photos of suspects believed to be responsible for violent incidents on the CTA.) The police department eventually released photos of the suspect in the wake of the Tribune's story. The state government is planning to amend the Karnataka Minor Minerals Concession Rules to allow private players to import sand, Law Minister T B Jayachandra said on Monday. Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, he said the government would shortly introduce amendments to the rules to facilitate import of sand from countries such as Malaysia and Philippines by the end of this year. Currently, there are no rules to regulate import of sand from other countries. A Legislative Assembly committee set up to look into the problem of shortage of sand supply has recommended that private players should be allowed to import sand in order to solve the problem, the minister said. The Mysore Sales International Ltd (MSIL) will act as a nodal agency in this regard. Once the Cabinet gives its approval to the amended rules, permits would be issued for procurement of sand. Besides, MSIL is also taking steps to import sand in order to ensure adequate supply of sand for the construction activities, he added. Jayachandra said that one truck load of imported sand would cost between Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000. Efforts to promote use of M-sand (manufacture sand) have been in vain. Only about 60 M-sand manufacturing units have been set up in the last two years. As there were few takers for M-Sand, especially in the North Karnataka districts, investors were backing off, he added. He said the Revenue department has been directed to implement the Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Act that seeks to grant of certificate of ownership to agricultural labourers. Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) H K Patil has ordered a probe into the misuse of funds to the tune of Rs 55 crore in the Karnataka Rural Infrastructure Development Limited (KRIDL). The funds were unauthorisedly parked in two separate accounts of the Mangaluru branch of Indian Overseas Bank in August this year. Later a large sum of this money was transferred to fake bank accounts opened in other bank branches in various parts of the state. In one such illegal transfer, Rs 50 lakh was recently deposited in an account belonging to Shah Exports at Vijaya Bank, Koramangala branch, Bengaluru. The Shah Exports account had remained a zero-balance account for over two years. The misuse of funds came to light after Vijaya Bank officials alerted the RDPR department about such a large sum of money being deposited in the account, according to a release from the ministers office. The minister has directed the RDPR principal secretary to conduct a preliminary enquiry into the issue and submit a report. For the first time, the state health department will rope in faith leaders of all religions to promote family planning by men through non-scalpel vasectomy (NSV). Next, the department has plans to invite popular Kannada film actors to their campaigns to sell the idea. Use very low NSV is the only family planning procedure available for men and its use very low when compared to female sterilisation figures. As against 3.5 lakh female sterilisations a year, the number of men undergoing NSV is just around 1,200. From April to September 2017, only 310 NSV procedures were performed. Pilot project The pilot project to promote NSV will be launched in Bengaluru urban district, including BBMP areas. Dr N Rajkumar, deputy director (family planning), said that they have already identified 400 community faith leaders who would first be educated on NSV. They in turn would spread awareness about male sterilisation, debunk myths associated with it and educate why men should play a key role in family planning programmes. The project will officially take off from November 2, when four liaison officers will begin a baseline survey for the project. Forget talking to members of the public about NSV, local leaders are not even ready to attend a session to know about male sterilisation, said Dr Rajkumar. During family planning programme, when we are asked to talk about the procedures, local leaders, especially at the Zilla and Gram Panchayat level, just walk out of the session. The awareness about NSV is zero even today among the public, he added. Dr Rajkumar said that the myth of turning impotent after NSV looms large among men and it is very difficult to rid them of this needless fear. NSV is always a second option for a couple if the woman is having a history of medical problems. Only broad-minded men, who would not want to burden their wives with child bearing and also undergoing family planning procedure, come forward for NSV, he added. Safe procedure Unlike female sterilisation procedures like tubectomy, which come with a host of risk factors, including Post Tubal Ligation Syndrome, NSV is a totally safe procedure which does not affect male potency or hamper any other activity. Dr Rajkumar said a recent radio programme on NSV, however, elicited some positive response from callers who said they were unaware of NSV and its safety. The City is wearing a festive look for the grand celebration of Karnataka Rajyotsava on November 1 (Wednesday). Welcome and greeting arches are being prepared by various government departments that will showcase their achievements at the procession. Kannada organisations too are busy preparing their tableaus for the State day programme. Belagavi, is home to grand Karnataka Rajyotsava celebrations, wherein people from the across the State not only participate, but also add colour to the celebrations by presenting tableaus showcasing the culture and lifestyles. Folk and tradtional artists present ancient lifestyle and music. Circles and government offices are being decked up to mark the State day celebrations. District Administration has put in all preparations in place with officials ensuring the State day programme is celebrated in a grand manner. Procession is expected to last until evening. Red and Yellow flags are being sold in large quantity along with long scarves. Kannada organisations were busy installing stalls to accord grand welcome to representatives of various tableaus participating in the procession and the folk artists. Cooperation & District In-charge Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi will inaugurate paying tributes to statue of goddess Bhuvaneshwari and hoisting national flag in the premises of CPEd Ground, on Wednesday, at 10.30 am. Cultural programmes have been organised at Kumar Gandharva Rang Mandir in the evening from 5.30 pm onwards. The members of Madiwala community took out a protest rally in Dharwad on Monday and staged a protest in front of the deputy commissioner's office, demanding to include them into Scheduled Caste category. They stated that in Karnataka there are more than 18 lakh Madiwalas and they are politically, socially and economically backward. They are being suppressed from last several decades and are deprived of various government facilities. Considering their social status, 18 States in India had recommended the Centre to include them into SC category and accordingly, they have been granted SC status. However, the State Government here is not understanding the problems faced by the community and is delaying in recommending the Centre to grant SC status, they said. To derive Constitutional rights, it is essential to include the Madiwalas in SC category, they demanded. To fulfill this demand, the community has organised various conventions and have staged protests. But still, the government is showing step-motherly attitude towards Madiwalas they said. If the government fails to recommend the Centre to grant SC status, the Madiwalas would be forced to launch indefinite protest, they warned. Like minded people have formed a group to promote Kannada language among school children by narrating moral stories. Group members, who are a part of Parampara Cultural Foundation (PCF), launched Kathe Heluve, an initiative to promote Kannada among school children, a few months ago. "Nobody is working at the grass roots level to strengthen Kannada vocabulary among children. We wanted to instill love for Kannada among children, besides strengthening their vocabulary," G P Ramanna, president, PCF, who conceived the initiative, told DH. The two-hour Kathe Heluve sessions are conducted at primary schools on Saturdays once a month. The group ropes in a writer as a narrator. Children are given photo copies of a story in advance. Children are asked questions to check if they have understood the story. "Subsequently, we give photocopies of a separate story and ask two children to narrate it. Finally, we ask two children to recollect any story they've heard and narrate it," he said. In the process, group members teach children narrative techniques, changes in expressions, voice modulation in accordance with the twists in the story. Two children who narrate stories are given Rs 200 each as cash prize, while two others who recollect and narrate stories are given Rs 500 each. The group distributes free anthologies of Kannada stories, besides organising the event free of cost. "We want to visit one school in every district of the state to promote Kathe Heluve. We've plans to organise sessions at schools in rural areas," he said. Six minor boys escaped from the State Home for Boys in Madiwala on Sunday afternoon. One of them is said to have returned on Monday, the police said quoting officials. According to the police, the incident occurred when the boys were told to wash their clothes at 1 pm on Sunday. The iron grill was opened and all six escaped from the terrace, they added. The Madiwala police said that the home's officials registered a complaint after one hour. It is not for the first time that the boys have escaped from this home. Last year, two boys had escaped while 10 boys had escaped in 2009 due to loopholes in the security arrangements, they added. An official from the Department of Woman and Child Development (DWCD) said, "There is no proper police security at the home. Only Home Guards are deployed and no official stays at night there. Among the juveniles inmates, several are notorious." The Magadi Road police arrested five men including a history-sheeter who kidnapped a secondhand car dealer from Railway Colony near Vijayanagar and tried to recover Rs 26 lakh from him which was given for buying a Toyota Fortuner. The police said victim Naveen Kumar, a resident of K P A grahara, was abducted by the gang headed by Nagaraja (66) alias Gedde Naga, a resident of Hosakerehalli who is a history-sheeter since 1980. His associates Mohammed Amir, Prakash, Raghu and Muniraju helped him kidnap Naveen who was rescued by the police when his abductors brought him near Axis Bank, Vijayanagar on Friday evening. The police said Nagaraja had paid Kumar Rs 26 lakh to buy a car. However , Naveen neither purchased the car nor returned the money. Then Nagaraj and his associates decided to kidnap Naveen and demand the money from his wife. When abductors did so, his wife panicked and approached police. The police formed a team and nabbed the the suspects when they came to the bank near Vijayanagar. Factory worker waylaid A three -member gang stabbed and robbed a 23-year-old factory worker while he was returning from work at Binny Mill Road near Cottonpet on Sunday evening. The victim is Mainull Islam, a resident of Cottonpet. According to the police, Islam was returning home around 6.30 pm on Sunday. He was waylaid by a three-member gang that attacked him and threatened him at knifepoint. Islam handed over his money, but refused to hand over his mobile. The Cottonpet police arrived on the scene and took the victim to the hospital. They have registered a robbery case and are trying to nab the suspects with the help of CCTV camera footage of that area. Governor Vajubhai Vala has appointed three officials, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's personal medical adviser Dr H Ravikumar, and an advocate as the members of Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC). Dr Ravikumar, who has been Siddaramaiah's personal physician for over two decades, is currently serving as the superintendent of the state-run K C General Hospital in Bengaluru. IAS officer Shadakshari Swamy, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) Environment Officer R Lakshminarayana and advocate Srikanth Rao are the three others appointed to the KPSC, as per an official notification. Shadakshari Swamy is a relative of Shivarathri Deshikendra Mahaswamiji of Suttur Mutt. Srikanth Rao was associated with the Congress in Raichur district. Both Lakshminarayana and Srikanth Rao are said to be close to the Chief Minister. The government had recommended these names to the Governor in August this year. But the Governor had returned the list, directing the government to get the Cabinet's approval for it. The Chief Minister's office later sent back the list, clarifying that the the Cabinet had authorised the chief minister to recommend the names for appointment. Barack Obama Got Called For Jury Duty In Chicago. He's Apparently Going. By Stephen Gossett in News on Oct 30, 2017 3:11PM Getty Images / Photo: Spencer Platt Before, during and after his administration, President Barack Obama regularly made the importance of public service a focal point of his message. So it wouldn't be the best look if he, say, tried to squirm out of jury dutytime-honored tradition though such a move is. But Obama will engage in no such weaseling: the former president has reportedly been summoned to jury duty in Cook County, and he apparently plans to fulfill the call. Obama will serve sometime in November, though the exact date, courthouse location and nature of the case are not known, according to the Tribune. And whether or not he'll even be selected remains to be seen, too, of course. "He made it crystal-clear to me through his representative that he would carry out his public duty as a citizen and resident of this community, said Chief Judge Tim Evans. He added that Obama would receive accommodations for his secutiry, and have "all the accouterments that accompany a former president." As it should be. Try not to look too starstruck, fellow would-be jurors in the pool. As NPR points out, this wouldn't be the first time a former president has been flagged for jury duty: George W. Bush was called in 2015, in Dallas (and made time for selfies); and Bill Clinton was summoned in Manhattan for a case that revolved around a gang shooting, in 2003. And if you can't get enough of Obama the Post-White House Public Servant, the former president will be in Chicago this week for the inaugural, two-day Obama Foundation Summit. It kicks off tomorrow afternoonand unlike Obama's jury commitmentswill be livestreamed online. The Karnataka High Court on Monday issued notices to the state government, Central Zoo Authority, Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and others on a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the shifting of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Zoological Park in Ballari to the Bilikallu Reserve Forest in Kamalapur, adjoining Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary near Hampi. The petitioners contended that despite the high court directing the officials to reconsider the proposal in 2015, the administration has continued with the construction. The government has not obtained forest clearances including the clearance under the Forest Conservation Act, the petitioners stated. The division bench, headed by acting Chief Justice H G Ramesh and Justice P S Dinesh Kumar, issued notices to the respondents. The PIL filed by Santosh Martin and Rajesh M Kurpad, contended that the project is likely to adversely effect biological diversity. The state government had decided to shift zoological park to Bilikallu Reserve Forest in 2010. The petitioners moved the high court and stated that the proposed zoo was within 10 km from the Daroji Bear Sanctuary. In June 2015, high court disposed of the petition with a direction to the state government to reapply its mind and pass fresh orders in accordance with the law. The petitioners contended that the state government, instead, issued another order in August 2015, the very order issued in November 2010. They submitted a letter issued by the MoEF to Deputy Conservator of Forests Ballari in June 2017 stating that forest clearance was required to be obtained for relocating the zoo. However, the authorities started shifting animals to the new zoo in September, 2017, without obtaining the clearance. The petitioners stated that the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Zoological Park is a new zoo with construction of new buildings and the project also includes a safari. Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Select this as your preferred language Young palm oil plantation and forest in Sumatra. Photo: Clifton Sabajo By Hans Nicholas Jong 29 October 2017 (Mongabay) The wholesale destruction of rainforests across parts of Indonesias Sumatra island to make way for cash-crop plantations has not just devastated animal and plant biodiversity in the region, but may also be driving an alarming rise in temperatures on the ground, a new study suggests. Average temperatures in Jambi province, one of the most heavily deforested regions in Sumatra, rose by 1.05 degrees Celsius (1.89 degrees Fahrenheit) between 2000 and 2015 and more than half that increase can be attributed to the lack of forest cover, according to the new research published in the European Geosciences Union journal Biogeosciences. The team of researchers from the University of Gottingen in Germany used satellite data collected between 2000 and 2015 by the NASA Landsat missions and the MODIS instrument, as well as data collected on the ground, to compare average land surface temperature increases in Jambi with a site that was covered by forest during the entire period (and thus considered to be unaffected by direct land-use change). They found the temperature of the forest site rose by just 0.45 degrees Celsius during that period, suggesting that at least 0.6 degrees Celsius of the total 1.05 degree increase was due to land-use change. We see that transformed land uses have a higher land surface temperature compared to forest, particularly bare land and young oil palm plantations, explaining the observed surface temperature increase in the province, Alexander Knohl, a professor of bioclimatology and one of the research team leaders, said in an interview. On clear-cut land, used mainly for agriculture, the temperature could be up to 10 degrees Celsius hotter than in forests, while young and mature palm oil plantations could be up to 6 degrees and 0.8 degrees Celsius warmer, respectively. [more] Sumatran region heats up as forests disappear 25 October 2017 (Georg-August-Universitat Gottingen) In the past decades, large areas of forest in Sumatra, Indonesia have been replaced by cash crops like oil palm plantations and rubber. Now a team of scientists led by the University of Gottingen found out that these changes in land use increase temperatures in the region. The added warming could affect plants and animals and make parts of the country more vulnerable to wildfires. The results are reported in the European Geosciences Union journal Biogeosciences. Palm oil is the most widely used vegetable oil in the world, appearing in the ingredients list of many consumer goods, from chocolate to soap. Indonesia, the worlds largest producer of palm oil, has seen large swathes of rainforest cleared away and replaced by oil palm plantations. The island of Sumatra has had the highest loss of native rainforest in all of Indonesia. In the framework of the Collaborative Research Centre Ecological and Socioeconomic Functions of Tropical Lowland Rainforest Transformation Systems (Sumatra, Indonesia) of the University of Gottingen the research team, led by Clifton Sabajo and Alexander Knohl, now found out that the expansion of oil palm and other cash crops in Sumatra has made the region warmer. The land use change does not only impact biodiversity and stored carbon, but also has a surface warming effect, adding to climate change, says Knohl, a professor in bioclimatology. The team studied differences in surface temperature for various types of land cover, such as forests, clear-cut land, and cash crops, in the Jambi province of Sumatra. They used satellite data collected be-tween 2000 and 2015 as well as data collected on the ground. They found that clear-cut land was up to 10 degrees Celsius warmer than forests. Clear-cut land is the phase after forest has cleared away and before the start of commercial plantations or farming, says Sabajo, a PhD student and the lead author of the study.Mature palm oil plantations were about 0.8 degrees Celsius warmer than forests, while young palm oil plantations were 6 degrees Celsius warmer. Young palm oil plantations have fewer and smaller leaves and an open canopy, thus they transpire less water. Also, the soil receives more solar radiation and dries out faster, explains Sabajo. Mature palm oil plantations, which are older than 5 years, have a closed canopy and larger and more abundant leaves, which results in a cooler ground compared to a young plantation. The coldest surface temperatures they found in forests mainly because of evaporative cooling, which is similar to the process that cools us down when we sweat.Overall, the average mid-morning surface temperature in the Jambi province increased by 1.05 degrees Celsius between 2000 and 2015. Some of this warming is a result of climate change, but some is a direct consequence of the changes in land use. We compared the average land-surface temperature increase in the province with a site that was covered by forest over the entire period and that can be considered as a control, unaffected by direct land-use change. The land-surface temperature of the forest sites only in-creased by 0.45 degrees Celsius, suggesting that at least 0.6 degrees Celsius of the 1.05 degrees Celsius increase is due to land-use change, says Knohl. To the scientists, the strong warming effect in the Jambi province may serve as an indication of future changes in land-surface temperature for other regions of Indonesia that will undergo land transformations towards oil palm plantations. Land surface temperature is an important part of the microclimate, which shapes habitat conditions for plants and animals, says Knohl. The observed warming may affect ecosystems in many ways. Current land-use developments in Indonesia need to carefully evaluate and consider all aspects of environmental and socio-economic consequences. Original paper: Sabajo, C. R., le Maire, G., June, T., Meijide, A., Roupsard, O., and Knohl, A.: Expansion of oil palm and other cash crops causes an increase of the land surface temperature in the Jambi province in Indonesia, Biogeosciences, 14, 46194635, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-4619-2017, 2017 Contact Prof. Dr. Alexander Knohl and Clifton Sabajo University of Gottingen Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology Bioclimatology Busgenweg 2, D-37077 Gottingen Phone: +49 551 39-33682 and 39-12114 Mail: aknohl@uni-goettingen.de and csabajo@uni-goettingen.de Web: www.uni-goettingen.de/en/67076.html Deforestation linked to palm oil production is making Indonesia warmer Radiation measurements above a mature oil palm plantation in Sumatra. Photo: Ana Meijide ABSTRACT: Indonesia is currently one of the regions with the highest transformation rate of land surface worldwide related to the expansion of oil palm plantations and other cash crops replacing forests on large scales. Land cover changes, which modify land surface properties, have a direct effect on the land surface temperature (LST), a key driver for many ecological functions. Despite the large historic land transformation in Indonesia toward oil palm and other cash crops and governmental plans for future expansion, this is the first study so far to quantify the impacts of land transformation on the LST in Indonesia. We analyze LST from the thermal band of a Landsat image and produce a high-resolution surface temperature map (30 m) for the lowlands of the Jambi province in Sumatra (Indonesia), a region which suffered large land transformation towards oil palm and other cash crops over the past decades. The comparison of LST, albedo, normalized differenced vegetation index (NDVI) and evapotranspiration (ET) between seven different land cover types (forest, urban areas, clear-cut land, young and mature oil palm plantations, acacia and rubber plantations) shows that forests have lower surface temperatures than the other land cover types, indicating a local warming effect after forest conversion. LST differences were up to 10.1 2.6 C (mean SD) between forest and clear-cut land. The differences in surface temperatures are explained by an evaporative cooling effect, which offsets the albedo warming effect. Our analysis of the LST trend of the past 16 years based on MODIS data shows that the average daytime surface temperature in the Jambi province increased by 1.05 C, which followed the trend of observed land cover changes and exceeded the effects of climate warming. This study provides evidence that the expansion of oil palm plantations and other cash crops leads to changes in biophysical variables, warming the land surface and thus enhancing the increase of the air temperature because of climate change. Expansion of oil palm and other cash crops causes an increase of the land surface temperature in the Jambi province in Indonesia Save my User ID and Password Some subscribers prefer to save their log-in information so they do not have to enter their User ID and Password each time they visit the site. To activate this function, check the 'Save my User ID and Password' box in the log-in section. This will save the password on the computer you're using to access the site. Note: If you choose to use the log-out feature, you will lose your saved information. This means you will be required to log-in the next time you visit our site. Peking University hosted an international symposium on the history, reality and future of socialism in Beijing on October 21-22, 2017. [Photo courtesy of Heiko Khoo] Peking University hosted an international symposium on the history, reality and future of socialism in Beijing on October 21-22, 2017, when Chinese Marxist scholars were joined by colleagues from Europe, Russia, North America and India. The event considered socialism in the light of the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. And it took place at the same time as the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Speakers covered a very wide range of topics, as socialist ideas and practice have had vast impact on the modern world. Many of the contributions from China focused on contemporary interpretations of socialist ideas within China. Chinese President Xi Jinping's sweeping overview of modern socialism presented at the 19th CPC National Congress provided a valuable backdrop for several Chinese scholars to elaborate a framework for categorizing phases in the history of concepts of socialism. These were related to the development of contemporary interpretations of "socialism with Chinese characteristics." The Chinese Marxist scholars devoted considerable attention to the main contradiction, which dominated the fate of the Soviet Union in its early years. According to Karl Marx's theory, socialism was to begin only after capitalism had been fully developed. However, Lenin's revolution established a socialist government in a backward society dominated by individual production and pre-capitalist economic formations. All the trials and tribulations which shaped the fate of socialist governments after 1917 were determined by this contradiction. Prof. An Qinian, from the philosophy department of the Renmin University of China, offered a broad overview of the consequences of the contradictions, through which the material backwardness of the Soviet Union generated attempts to leap over capitalism. And therefore, despite Vladimir Lenin's initial post-revolutionary support for democratic structures of power, emulating the experience that Marx observed at the time of the Paris Commune in 1871 - such as all officials receiving the same wage as workers - material backwardness automatically produced cultural backwardness. However, Yan Zhimin from the School of Marxism at Peking University pointed to a flaw in Marx's own thought on the question as revealed in an 1881 letter to Vera Zassulich in Russia. In this letter, Marx suggested that primitive communal forms of Russian agriculture might act as a springboard to jump from backwardness to communism, without any intermediate phases, provided a workers' revolution led the way. Prof. Yu Liangzhao from the School of Marxism at Nanjing Normal University explained how Lenin approached the question after 1921, during the development of the New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union. A transitional period, when communists "learn to trade," engage in competition and supervise the activity of capitalists, would be required, while maintaining proletarian power. Lenin believed that the Soviet revolution would spread internationally. This question was addressed by Balwinder Singh Tiwana from India's Punjab University. He looked at the impact of the Russian Revolution on communists in the Indian independence movement from 1920 onwards. David Laibmann from New York University, editor of the Marxist journal Science and Society, examined the question of systemic planning and economic coordination, and how the Soviet system established its internal economic equilibrium. He recognized that the sense of urgency, haste and rush caused by material backwardness acted to severely restrict the degree of participation, and the necessary evaluation of planning and control procedures; and this produced many fundamental systemic contradictions. However, the discussions were not restricted to historical analysis, important as these questions are to inform the present. For example, Josef Baum from Vienna University addressed the need to embed ecological questions in any contemporary vision of socialism. And Alexander Buzgalin from Moscow State University, which houses one of the few Marxist study centers left in Russia, invited participants to look at the nature of revolution, above and beyond the question of a seizure of State power, and the development of the forces of production. He suggested that revolution should be considered from the standpoint of overcoming human alienation and unleashing mass social creativity. Unfortunately, the participants who presented papers restricted the scope for elaborating concepts and arguments in depth. However, the discussions will continue at the global Marxism seminar to be held on the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth in May 2018. Subscriber content preview Fear of a retail jobs apocalypse misses an important trend: So far, e-commerce leads to more jobs like robot designer, warehouse stower' and personal shopper. By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON When the robots came to online retailer Boxed, dread came too: The familiar fear that the machines would take over, leaving a trail of unemployed humans in their wake. I had a lot of people asking me, What is going to happen to us?' says Veronica Mena, a trainer for the e-commerce startup. Anxiety had rippled through her co-workers after company executives announced plans to open an automated warehouse in nearby Union, New Jersey. . . . Subscriber content preview PORTLAND (AP) A federal jury has found that an African American maintenance technician was subjected to a racially hostile work environment and ordered Cascade Management company to pay him $325,000 in damages. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the verdict was returned Wednesday after a six-day trial before U.S. District Judge Marco A. Hernandez. . . . Subscriber content preview NASHUA, N.H. (AP) The Chinese University of Hong Kong is the winning bidder for the former Daniel Webster College campus for nearly $12 million, and the New Hampshire College and University Council has reached out to the school for more information. The Concord Monitor reports council President Mike Vlacich says the organization reached out to the university's attorney. . . . Flash Peru hopes to build on the growing number of tourists visiting the South American country from China and other Asian countries, Carlos Canales, president of Lima's Convention and Visitors Bureau said on Saturday. "Currently, about 40,000 Chinese citizens visit our country for various reasons, including leisure and business travel," said Canales. Famed for its ancient vestiges of Inca civilization, Peru was recently voted Latin America's second best country for doing business, and the region's fourth-leading tourism destination. To promote Peru's attractions in China, Canales plans to take advantage of a visit invitation recently extended by the local government of Zhuhai, a city in south China's Guangdong province, and enter into a sister-cities partnership to boost tourism flows. "To develop mutual cooperation and, in particular, tourism and foreign trade, I will be traveling along with the president of Peru's Association of Exporters, Juan Varilias," Canales told Xinhua. The number of Chinese travelers to Peru has been growing steadily, with 34,000 to 35,000 Chinese citizens visiting the country in 2016, representing a 10 percent increase over the year before, he said. "If we keep in mind that 10 years ago we had barely 6,000 Chinese tourists, we can say that in a decade we have succeeded in an almost 800 percent increase," said Canales. The tourism promoter is confident that the trend will be on the rise in the years to come. "Our goal is to reach a million Chinese tourists. Today, the United States receives 5 million Chinese tourists, and Canada 7 million. Argentina, Brazil and Chile have an average of 35,000," said Canales. The similar numbers among Latin American countries spring from the fact that Chinese visitors normally join group tours that take them to several countries in a single trip, which is understandable given the long haul from Asia to the Americas. "The Chinese tourist comes to visit three or four countries, he makes a circuit, so the traveler who comes to Peru also goes to Chile, Brazil, Argentina or Mexico," said Canales. Chinese tourism to Peru, like bilateral trade, began to increase following the signing of a free trade agreement between the two countries that took effect on March 1, 2010. Since taking office in the summer of 2016, Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczysnki has also made the promotion of trade, investment and tourism ties with China a priority. Statistics of Peru's Ministry of Foreign Affairs show that 73 percent of Chinese visitors choose to stay at four- or five-star hotels, and a visit to Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire, is on most Chinese travel itineraries. India has for the first time used the Iranian port of Chabahar to send a consignment of wheat to Afghanistan, circumventing the land route via Pakistan, a press release from the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said, adding that the country plans similar transfers in the coming months as well. ''The shipment of wheat is a landmark moment as it will pave the way for operationalisation of the Chabahar port as an alternative, reliable and robust connectivity for Afghanistan. It will open up new opportunities for trade and transit from and to Afghanistan and enhance trade and commerce between the three countries (India, Iran and Afghanistan) and the wider region,'' said the MEA statement. The consignment was flagged off by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, Afghan foreign minister Salahuddin Rabbani and their Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif through a joint video conference. The statement said Sunday's transfer was part of India's commitment to send 1.1 million tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan on grant basis. India plans to deliver the entire quantity in six different instalments over the coming months. India would continue supporting Afghanistan's reconstruction, capacity-building and socio-economic development, including under the framework of the New Development Partnership, Swaraj said She also renewed India's commitment to working closely with regional and international partners to bring peace, security, stability and prosperity to Afghanistan. ''I congratulate Afghanistan and Iran on Indian wheat shipment being flagged off from Kandla to Afghanistan through Chabahar,'' Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted. The move is significant as it indicates India resolve to deliver on its regional commitment through partnership with Iran, despite Tehran's ongoing tension with the United States. During US secretary of State Tillerson's 24-25 October visit, he had noted India's close cooperation with Iran on the use of Chabahar and said that despite bilateral problems with Tehran, the United States had nothing against ''legitimate business'' with Iran. He also supported India's development assistance to Afghanistan. President Ashraf Ghani, who was in the capital at the same time, had urged Pakistan to allow transit of goods from India through its territory. The use of Chabahar for wheat transhipment indicates the firming up of an alternative route to extend necessary support to Afghanistan, in the absence of overland transit rights by Pakistan. ''The two foreign ministers welcomed the fact that this is the first shipment that would be going to Afghanistan through the Chabahar port after Trilateral Agreement on Establishment of International Transport and Transit Corridor was signed during the visit of the Prime Minister of India to Iran in May 2016,'' the MEA said. During the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Iran in May 2016, a three-way deal on establishing the International Transport and Transit Corridor was inked. This year's Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival explored the links between English novelist Jane Austen and the Letterkenny area. Sophia Hillan, author of 'May, Lou and Cass: Jane Austen's Nieces in Ireland' (Blackstaff Press, 2011), opened the festival earlier this month, speaking about the lives the great novelist's nieces lived in Donegal. Dr. Hillan described lives that could have come from the pages of an Austen novel - Cassandra Knight, buried with her husband, Lord George Hill at Conwal graveyard, who had to overcome parental objections to marry the man she loved; Louisa, called to care for Cassandra's children on her death; Marianne, ejected from the only home she knew when her brother sold it out from under her after their father's death. Marianne and Louisa are buried in a Ramelton graveyard, one tombstone leaning into the other. Austen's grand-niece, Cassandra Hill, an Irish speaker and the last of the Austen women to live in Donegal, established a convalescent home for women here, without distinction to creed or party. This was the second annual Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival, and in his remarks at the opening Cllr. Jimmy Kavanagh, Letterkenny Municipal District mayor, congratulated the organisers and wished them well for the future. Great things come from small beginnings,he said. The festival drew Austen fans from different parts of the county for a weekend of events from October 20th to 22nd that included a performance of music from the life and writings of Jane Austen; a tour led by Dr. Hillan of places associated with Austen's nieces; readings, a book launch and more. Gareth Wilkinson, chairperson of the Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter committee, told the opening that the committee is working to rejuvenate the Cathedral Quarter as a cultural and tourism hub. Caption information: Above, at the launch of the Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter Literary Festival, from left, Sophia Hillan, novelist and former assistant director of Queen's University's Institute of Irish Studies; Gareth Wilkinson, chairperson of the Letterkenny Cathedral Quarter committee; and Cllr. Jimmy Kavanagh, mayor of the Letterkenny Municipal District. A Bundoran community activist has called for a cross border dimension with a strong element of integration for a Belleek school that has been threatened with closure next year. The Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) is planning to close St Marys High School Brollagh by August 31, next year. Former Northern Ireland Sinn Fein Education Minister John ODowd stopped a proposed closure three years ago to examine a cross border dimension with proposed links with schools in Ballyshannon, Bundoran and Manorhamilton. However, former DUP Education Minister Peter Weir rejected this proposal. Belleek native Michael McMahon told an angry public meeting of 300 in St Marys, that the cross border dimension should be explored again in conjunction with an integrated school. I think we should look at the cross border initiative and the CCMS seem to be a major part of the problem and are holding back the progress of Brollagh. A cross border initiative needs to be started up again. Ballyshannon and Bundoran have huge numbers in their schools and the Donegal Education authorities would be very interested in this," he said. Meanwhile an Integrated school, a Satellite school and a combination of an Integrated School with a Cross Border dimension were some of the fresh initiative floated at a public meeting of over 300 on the future of St Marys Brollagh. The meeting was called amid intense local anger at the continuing threat to their school, that has been providing education in the area since 1965. There were several robust contributions from the floor and the meeting was told that all objections to the CCMS proposal had to be in by November 20. A show of hands was called for the various proposals and Integrated Education with a Cross Border dimension seemed to be a favoured solution. * For more, see Thursday's Donegal Democrat. Members of the Abortion Rights Campaign in Inishowen and Donegal joined with groups at over 20 locations and held vigils in memory of Savita Halappanavar around the country over the weekend. Savitas tragic and unnecessary death took place five years ago, on October 28 2012. These vigils were a response to a call for solidarity from Galway Pro-Choice, who have taken the lead over the last five years in commemorating Savita in the city she lived and worked in. Inishowen ARC spokesperson Cathleen Shiels said the five year anniversary of the death of Savita is a stark reminder of how far we still need to go, and the work we need to do to to ensure that women and pregnant people are no longer hurt or damaged by the 8th Amendment. She continued We will never forget Savita and we are working towards a supportive healthcare structure that encompasses all reproductive choices including abortion. The people of Ireland value women and we cannot stand by while more women are hurt, exiled or shamed because of our abortion laws. We strive for free, safe and legal abortion for everyone who wants or needs one, so that no more lives are put at risk by our laws. Donegal ARC spokesperson Kathryn Daily said "A sincere thank you to all those to attended the vigils in Donegal to commemorate the 5th anniversary of the tragic and preventable death of Savita Halappanavar. It was an incredibly moving event in which we remembered Savita and also many others for whom the inhumane restraints imposed by the 8th Amendment have caused suffering, distress death and grief." She continued "We are also grateful for the compassion, understanding and support that members of the public expressed to those participating in the vigils." An action committee has been formed in Killybegs to revitalise the town centre and promote activities and services to attract visitors to the town. The group was formed at a crowded public meeting in the Bay View Hotel on Wednesday last which was convened by Independent County Councillor, Niamh Kennedy. Cllr Kennedy told the meeting that 200,000 visitors are passing through Killybegs each year to visit Sliabh Liag and Glencolmcille but very few of them are stopping even for a meal. She stressed that Killybegs is a thriving town with about 110 companies working, about half of them involved in the services and retail sectors. This is a great town", she said. "It's just that we are not experiencing the life of the town." She said Killybegs was on the cusp of a wave as regards tourism and that County Donegal had been named "coolest place on the planet" by National Geographic. She said that work is going ahead to develop a "blue-way", a marine-based trail similar to the greenway developments on land. The "blue-way" would stretch along the whole coast of Donegal Bay and could be travelled by kayak, canoe or yacht. Mr Sean Duffy, Head of Tourism at the LYIT College in Killybegs, said that work is progressing with the institutes of technology in Sligo, Galway and Mayo towards the formation of a technological university in the northwest and that would have huge implications for Killybegs. "Many towns of this size would give their eye teeth to have a third level college", he said, "and now we are looking at having a university campus here in five or ten years' time." Flash Masoud Barzani. [File photo/Xinhua] The President of the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani on Sunday told a closed-door session of parliament that he was stepping down from his post on Nov. 1, local media reported. "I refuse to continue the position of president of the Kurdish region after Nov. 1," Rudaw Kurdish media said, quoting a letter sent by Barzani to the regional parliament session held in the regional capital Erbil. "Changing the law on the presidency of Kurdistan or prolonging the presidential term is not acceptable," Barzani said. He said that a meeting must be held as soon as possible so that "there will be no legal vacuum in the duties of the president of the region." However, Barzani pledged to continue his long mission as a Peshmerga "to sacrifice and struggle for the rights and demands of our people as well as preserve the achievements of our people," the letter read. Barzani set Nov. 1 as the date for stepping down and asked the parliament to vote on distributing the legal, military and administrative powers of the president to the regional government, parliament and the judiciary. The parliament continued its session after Barzani's letter and voted in favor of choosing the current regional Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani for Commander-in-Chief of Kurdish regional forces. Masoud Barzani's president post has sparked controversy, as his tenure was originally expired in 2013, but the Kurdish parliament extended his term to August 2015, but because of the blitzkrieg, or lighting war, of the Islamic State (IS), Barzani remained in office. The Kurdish parliament initially set Nov. 1 a date for parliamentary and presidential elections in Kurdistan region and the ethnically mixed disputed areas claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurds. However, on Oct. 24, the parliament postponed the regional presidential and parliamentary elections for eight months after the Iraqi security forces took control of the oil-rich Kirkuk province and most of the disputed areas. During the session, dozens of angry protestors, loyal to Barzani, broke into the parliament building and attacked journalists who were covering the parliament session at the entrance of the building. The protestors told Rudaw that they are there to demand an apology from the lawmaker Rabun Maroof from the opposition Gorran parliamentary bloc, who was accused by the protestors of insulting the Peshmerga and President Masoud Barzani. The chaos came under control after riot police intervened and bullets were heard as they drove out the protestors. Barzani, 71, a veteran Kurdish leader, took over the post of president of the regional government in 2005. However, Barzani's post has sparked controversy, as his tenure expired on Aug. 19, 2015. He is also leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party since 1979. On Oct. 16, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, who is also Commander-in-Chief of Iraqi forces, ordered government forces to enter the oil-rich Kirkuk province in northern Iraq to regain control of the ethnically-mixed disputed areas. The Kurds consider the northern Kirkuk province and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahudin provinces as disputed areas and want them to be incorporated into their region, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs and Turkmens in the region as well as the Iraqi central government. Tensions have been running high between Baghdad and the region of Kurdistan after the Kurds held a controversial referendum on the independence of the Kurdistan region and the disputed areas. The Ozark Police Department has arrested and charged Roland V. Schlecht, 41, of Ozark, with attempted murder. E911 received a call from Dale Medical Center on Oct. 28 in reference to a black male who arrived with a stab wound to the chest area. Once officers arrived at the hospital, the victim advised law enforcement he was stabbed during a physical altercation with another male in the 100 block of Williams Street. Police then made contact with the Hispanic male suspect Schlecht, who was taken to the Ozark Police Department for further investigation. A short time later he confessed to stabbing the victim and advised law enforcement that they were fighting as a result of woman they were both seeing. The victim received life-threatening injuries and was later transported to the Southeast Alabama Medical Center for further treatment. Houston County Sheriff Donald Valenza identified a man arrested last week in relation to a bomb that exploded in a truck in Dothan, injuring the driver. Sylvio Joseph King, 44, of Sixth Ave., in Dothan, was arrested and charged with attempted murder, possession/transporting bio-chemical weapon, breaking and entering a motor vehicle and criminal mischief. King was transported to the Houston County Jail. Additional details on the incident were reported during a Monday press briefing with representatives from the Sheriffs Office, Dothan Police Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms , and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. Law enforcement officials believe King is responsible for placing an explosive device in the truck, causing it to explode last Monday, injuring the vehicles driver Terry Daniel Brooks, 43, of Dothan. Brooks was transported to a local hospital following the incident for treatment. He has since been released from the hospital and is recovering. During the investigation, it was determined a device was placed in the victim s truck and was activated by a remote, said Dothan Police Chief Steve Parrish. With this case still being investigated, we cant address every issue. However, I will say, there was another device found, and that device is being tested. Parrish also stated that the incident is a result of a domestic issue , and that King said he detonated the device for a third party. However, Parrish stated the third party was interviewed and it was determined she did not play a role in this incident. According to Parrish, King called the police department on Thursday and said he felt he would be the next intended victim. However, Parrish stated King was already a person of interest before he placed the call to police . Thursday evening, law enforcement was led to Kings apartment in the Medial Center Apartment complex due to information obtained during Mondays vehicle explosion. Once law enforcement arrived on the scene , they allowed King to continue playing the role of the potential victim. Out of precaution, the residents from the apartment complex were taken to another complex where they spent Thursday night. The Red Cross and the Dothan/Houston County EMA Office assisted with relocating the residents. King faces state charges, with additional charges expected. The ATF will also file federal charges against King. This is just a fine example of all departments working together, Parrish said. With each department working together, we were able to make the arrest. Houston County Judge Benjamin Lewis has appointed Attorney Ben Freeman to represent King. King will go before Lewis Thursday morning for a bail hearing. The Alabama Department of Corrections is investigating the death of Frank Dwayne Ellington, 33, a state work release inmate. According to the Alabama Department of Corrections, Ellington was killed during an industrial accident at Koch Foods poultry plant in Ashland in Clay County around 5:35 p.m., Oct. 29. He had worked at the plant since June. Peanut and cotton harvesting is well under way in the Wiregrass area, and many farmers are seeing a bountiful harvest season. According to the Alabama Peanut Producers Federation Director Caleb Bristow, farmers are seeing a good peanut crop. As long as the weather continues to work with our farmers, they should have a pretty good harvest season, Bristow said. The weather has cooperated for the most part in our area, and the peanut crops are looking real good. However, some farmers in the southwest portion of the state are still dealing with weather issues. But, overall the state average for peanut crop is looking better than last year. Our farmers needed a good year. Many farmers will wrap up their peanut harvest season during the month of November, depending on when their crop was planted. Cotton farmers across the area are also reaping the benefits of a good harvest season. Cotton crops are looking better this year than last year, according to William Birdsong with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System. This years crop is going to be good," Birdsong said. Is it the best crop ever? No, but it looks good this year. The downfall for the cotton crop is the pricing. Farmers were hoping to get an increase in pricing per pound, but that did not happen. Cotton is more in the global market. We would like to see an increase for our farmers. The usage of cotton is increasing, so hopefully in the near future the price increase will hit. At the present time cotton ranges roughly 68 cents to 69 cents per pound. Farmers are actually getting paid less now per pound of cotton than they did 20 years ago, Birdsong said. Roughly 20 years ago, farmers were making at least 81 cents per pound. The price has decreased, but the expenses for farmers have not. Although farmers would like to see an increase in cotton prices, cotton is crop many farmers rely on, especially peanut farmers. Cotton is a good crop for our farmers, Birdsong said. Cotton can withstand our weather here in the southeast portion of the state, and it does produce a yield. Plus, peanut farmers need a rotational crop and the cotton crop is the most durable crop available. Birdsong stated farmers are known for being optimistic. Farmers are thankful people, Birdsong said. Although they may not get the prices they want for their crops, they are always thankful for the yields they harvest. You are here: Home Flash A Chinese university is set to open its satellite campus in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, after investing US$11.6 million in a campus purchase, a media report said. The campus, previously used by the Daniel Webster College, is located in Nashua, about 50 km north of Boston, according to a report by the New Hampshire Union Leader daily Saturday. The report quoted a staff of the university as saying a local judge had approved the purchase. It is yet unclear which Chinese university is behind the project. The Chinese University of Hong Kong has denied rumors that it is the buyer. The bid, if concluded successfully, will mean a second Chinese educational institution opening in the state, after a Chinese company opened a private high school in the neighboring city of Chester in 2016. Talks of the new university have generated a buzz of excitement in the local community. Local chamber of commerce president Tracy Hatch said the Chinese university is a welcome supplement in Nashua as it will bring additional curriculum that will benefit local employers. Zhu Xianglan, the representative of a local Chinese culture society, said the university will be a win-win venture, offering local residents an opportunity to learn about China. Remember when U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos scrapped the Obama administrations guidelines on campus sexual assault because they were confusing? Remember how some Very Serious People, even liberals, praised this as a good-faith effort? (Some folks seem to believe that theres an epidemic of really good guys being falsely accused of rape and this is the worst thing in the world worse apparently than even being raped). DeVos consulted with Mens Rights Activists on the issue, but she was still strangely given the benefit of the doubt. Heres a little explainer on one of these lovely MRA groups, the National Coalition for Men: Chapters have published photos, names, and biographical details of women who have accused menfalsely, the National Coalition for Men insistsof rape. Its members routinely bring lawsuits against women-only networking groups and social events, crying discrimination. Im sure women in college feel safer already. Well, DeVos seems to be confused again this time over a federal law protecting students with disabilities. This month, the Department of Education rescinded 72 yes, 72 guidance documents outlining disabled students rights. Why was this necessary? Heres the Washington Post: President Trump in February signed an executive order to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens, spurring Education Department officials to begin a top-to-bottom review of its regulations. Im sure parents with students in special education programs are deeply relieved to be freed from the yoke of meddlesome regulations protecting their children. Just like I know parents of LGBT students were thrilled when DeVos shrugged at kids being discriminated against. Im just throwing this out there, but perhaps DeVos wasnt being an honest broker in dumping sexual assault regulations. Maybe shes just not into protecting the rights of women, LGBTs, disabled kids and other groups that have faced targeted discrimination. Just a thought. ICC sponsors poultry symposium in Thailand The 5th Symposium on Poultry Intestinal Health was recently held on October 11-12 and sponsored by yeast additives developer, ICC. In its second edition outside Europe, the event was held in Thailand which is the fourth biggest chicken exporter in the world and has one of the largest number of egg consumers in Asia. ICC was represented at the show by Behn Meyer, its distributor in Thailand. Nualprae Saenbungkhor, Behn Meyer's technical sales executive, presented an ImmunoWall experiment concerning Salmonella control in laying hens. He also referred to scientific data generated in 2016 by Prof. Charles Hofacre (University of Georgia) and Melina Bonato, ICC's R&D coordinator, in order to to build better understanding of the product. The event was attended by experts, veterinarians, zootechnicians and poultry farmers from several countries, who meet to discuss the latest research and technology aimed at promoting intestinal health and poultry welfare. Silos Cordoba to exhibit at Agritechnica in Hannover, Germany Silos Cordoba will be attending this year's Agritechnica, a leading international exhibition for agricultural machineries and equipment happening on November 12-18 in Hannover, Germany. Visitors will learn more about the material used in Silos Cordoba's development of grain storage facilities - including galvanised steel sheets with higher zinc coating; magnesium, aluminum and zinc carbon steel alloy; and thermosetting paint galvanised steel - which give silo plants an enhanced durability. Silos Cordoba has established Z-600 galvanised steel as a standard. With 600 gr/m2 or 42 microns coating per side, the material offers the highest grade of zinc coating in the market. Silo designs are implemented in compliance with Eurocode 1 European standards or Ansi-Asae American standards. Prior to a silo setup, Silos Cordoba also runs seismic silo calculation based local seismic conditions. In addition, the company also develops double roofing and double sheet body for insulation inside a plant. To build the largest and most complete Amateur Radio community site on the Internet - a "portal" that hams think of as the first place to go for information, to exchange ideas, and be part of whats happening with ham radio on the Internet. eHam.net provides recognition and enjoyment to the people who use, contribute, and build the site. This project involves a management team of volunteers who each take a topic of interest and manage it with passion. The site will stand above all other ham radio sites by employing the latest technology and professional design/programming standards, developed by a team of community programmers who contribute their skills to the effort. The site will be something of which everyone involved can be proud to say they were a part. We welcome your comments. The eHam.net Team, Revision 07/2020. Search All categories Advertising General Aerospace General Agriculture General Airlines General America - Post 9/11 General Apparel General Apple Products General Architectural General Architecture Architecture Art & Entertainments Books Celebrities Country Music Dance Magazines Movies Museums Music Music Downloads News & Talk Shows Performing Arts Photography Television Web Sites Arts/Culture General Auction General Automotive Aftermarket Classic Autos Consumer Publications General Motorcycle & Bike Racing Recreational Vehicle Repair & Service Trade Publications Blogging & Social Media Blogging & Social Media Business Advertising / Marketing Books Consumer Research Direct Marketing e-Commerce Entrepreneurs Finance Franchise Human Resources Insurance Investment Management Markets Network Marketing Online Marketing / SEO Payday Loans Public Relations Publications Real Estate Retail Stocks Supermarkets Women in Business Careers/HR General Chemical General Coaching / Mentoring Coaching / Mentoring Computers Apple Products Databases Games & Entertainment General Hosting Instruction Linux / GNU "Open Source" Macintosh Microsoft Windows PC Operating Systems Programming Security Software Tablet PCs Utilities Construction General Consumer Gifts and Collectibles Hobbies Web sites / Internet Design Graphic Design Industrial Web E-Cigarette General eCommerce General Economy General Education College / University General Home Schooling K-12 Post Graduate Technical Electronics General Email Marketing General EmailWire Press Releases Press Release Tips Employment/Careers General Engineering General Entertainment General Environment General Events / Trade Shows General Finance General Food General Franchise General Fraud / Identity Theft General Gaming General Government General Judicial Law Enforcement Legislative Local National Public Services Security State Transportation Healthcare General Home and Family Banking / Personal Finance Bereavement / Loss Home Furnishings / Interiors Landscaping & Gardening Marriage / Relationships Money Parenting Payday Loans Pets Taxes Wedding / Bridal Home Schooling General Hotels/Resorts General Household General Industry Aerospace / Defense Agriculture Apparel / Textiles Broadcast Construction / Building Electrical Food Funeral Healthcare Leisure / Hospitality Logistics / Shipping Manufacturing / Production Mining / Metals Oil / Energy Paper / Forest Products Plumbing, Heating & AC Print Media Printing Publishing Radio Restaurants Tobacco Toy Insurance General Internet/Online General Legal General Leisure General Lifestyle Beauty Dating / Singles Diet / Weight Loss Fashion Food / Beverage Health & Fitness Hotel / Resorts Pastimes Restaurants Retirement Travel & Tourism Machinery General Maritime General Medical Addiction Allergies Alternative Medicine Asthma Cancer Cardiology Chiropractic Dental Dermatology Diabetes Emergency Family Medicine General General Geriatrics Hospitals Infectious Diseases Internal Medicine Managed Care / HMO Medical Products Mental Health Neurology Nursing Nutrition OB / GYN Pediatrics Pharmaceuticals Physical Therapy Plastic Surgery Psychology Radiology / Imaging Research Sports Medicine Surgery Vision Military General Mining/Metals General Miscellaneous General Nanotechnology Nanotechnology Non-profit General Occupational Safety Occupational Safety Oil/Energy General Opinion / Editorial Opinion / Editorial Paper Products General Paper/Forest General Pharmaceuticals General Podcasting Announce Tools and Services Politics Politics Print Media General Public Utilities Public Utilities Publishing General Radio General Real Estate General Religion Christian General Islam Jewish Other Restaurants General Retail General RSS & Content Syndication RSS & Content Syndication Science and Research Science and Research Self-Help / Personal Growth Self-Help / Personal Growth Shipbuilding General Society African American Interests Asian Interests Childrens Issues Disabled Issues / Disabilities Gay / Lesbian Hispanic Mens Interests Native American Senior Citizens Social Services Teen Issues/Interests Womens Interest Software General Sports Baseball Basketball Bicycling Boating / Maritime Bowling Boxing Fishing Football Golf Hockey Hunting Martial Arts Outdoors Rugby Soccer Tennis Water Winter/Snow Sports/Fitness General Stocks General Supermarkets General Technology Biotechnology Computer Electronics Enterprise Software Games Graphics/Printing/CAD Hardware / Peripherals Industrial Information Internet Multimedia Networking Public Sector/Government Robotics Semiconductor Software Telecommunications Webmasters Telecom General Wireless Television General Tobacco General Trade General Transportation General Travel General Utilities General Volunteer Volunteer Weather Weather Eastern Airways flights to operate under Flybe brand Eastern Airways' Isle of Man flights are now operating under the Flybe brand. The two operators have entered a five-year franchise partnership, with Eastern's services now using Flybe's BE flight codes, as well as being bookable through the Flybe website. Eastern says the partnership will give its customers greater connectivity to Flybe's other routes, as well as allowing online check-in. Eastern took over the Belfast City, Glasgow and Newcastle routes following the collapse of CityWing earlier this year, while Flybe operate flights to Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester from Ronaldsway. MHK wants to change organ donation consent laws An MHK wants to change the way Manx residents consent to organ donations. Garff member Martyn Perkins will ask to introduce a bill amending the law about organ donation in this week's sitting of the House of Keys. Mr Perkins has previously spoken in favour of the Isle of Man bringing in a similar system to Wales, where residents have to opt out rather than opt in. During last month's Organ Donation Week, the Department of Health and Social Care revealed six people had died while waiting for a transplant on the Island since 2013. Anglers fined for fishing without licences The Island's fishing authorities are reminding anglers that they need a licence to fish in the Island's rivers and reservoirs after three men were fined. Stuart Pacey of Tromode Park, Chris Lacey of Loch Promenade and Chris Murray of Governor's Hill were apprehended by the Clypse reservoir earlier this year. Following an appearance before Magistrates, the trio were each handed an 80 fine and ordered to pay costs of 50. Licences can be purchased from the Government website, at the Sea Terminal Welcome Centre or from the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture in St John's. DEFA fisheries officers regularly carry out checks of inland waters. Selena Gomez and The Weeknd appeared to be going strong just last week when they were seen enjoying a number of the rides and attractions at the Universal Studios theme park in Hollywood, California. However, after Gomez reunited with her ex-boyfriend, Justin Bieber, many fans were left scratching their heads. As fans have likely heard, Gomez and Bieber were spotted together not once, but three times in recent weeks all while Gomez's boyfriend, The Weeknd, was out of town tending to his ongoing Starboy: Legend of the Fall Tour. Most recently, the former couple was seen grabbing breakfast with one another before heading to a church service in Los Angeles. As TMZ revealed on Oct. 29, Gomez and Bieber were photographed at a cafe in Westlake Village on Sunday morning. The outlet also noted that Gomez and Bieber were together at Gomez's Studio City house just last week. After enjoying time with friends, Bieber was seen leaving the home around midnight. Around the same time, E! News shared a report with readers in which the outlet confirmed that Gomez and Bieber had also attended a church service on Sunday morning. "Justin has been in constant contact with Selena and they have a great, friendly relationship," an insider told the outlet, adding that Gomez "is trying to not overdo it" with seeing Justin, "as she doesn't want to upset Abel." The insider went on to reveal that The Weeknd is allegedly okay with the current friendship happening between his girlfriend and her former partner. He also noted that Gomez and Bieber are "just friends" and that "nothing romantic is going on" between them. "They both have a long history with each other so they will always have a place in their heart for one another," the source added. Gomez and Bieber have been making headlines in recent weeks due to their newfound friendship and soon, they may be face to face again at the American Music Awards, which are set to take place next month. As fans will recall, Bieber is known to attend the event and Gomez was recently named as a performer. In other Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber news, the former duo could soon release a new song together. Selena and Justin always talked about collaborating when they were together, a source explained, and Selena even has about 3 or 4 song fragments stored on her iPad from when they would write together. There is one she really wants to develop and record, but The Weeknd would prefer her to just leave it in the past. Shes kind of married to this one song and she feels like it could be an instant hit, the source added. Kylie Jenner's alleged pregnancy news hit the web last month, reportedly leaving Caitlyn Jenner shocked and disappointed. However, in the weeks since the news broke, the 68-year-old former Olympian has allegedly warmed up to the idea of a new grandbaby. Caitlyn was one of the many who were caught off guard by the 20-year-old Keeping Up With the Kardashians star's alleged pregnancy. However, now that she's had some time to think about the potential family grown, she's okay with her youngest daughter having a child of her own. Caitlyn was shocked by Kylies pregnancy at first, but she very quickly came around and has been extremely supportive, a source close to the Kardashian family revealed to Hollywood Life on Oct. 29. She checks in on Kylie all the time. She wants to be in Kylies life as much as she will allow it. Shes already bought baby gifts for her next grandchild, shes excited. She would have preferred that Kylie had waited until she was older, but this is the way things are and Caitlyns embracing it. Kylie and her sister Kendall are the two youngest children of Caitlyn Jenner, who also shares several older children with her former wives. In other Kylie Jenner news, the reality star recently traveled to her boyfriend Travis Scott's hometown, Houston, Texas. As an insider explained of the trip, the rapper, who began dating Jenner earlier this year after her split from Tyga, wanted Jenner to accompany him to Houston in order to get better acquainted with his family. The main point of the trip was for Kylie to get to know his family better, a family source explained. Shes met his brother and sister before and his dad too but hes got a big extended family, lots of cousins and aunties and uncles that she hasnt met. They were all there at the house in Houston to meet her, [and] it was a big family party. Travis took her all over town, showing her his favorite spots, the insider added. It was a nostalgic trip for him. They drove past his old high school and his old house. And she got to see some old photo albums. Angelina Jolie and her estranged husband, Brad Pitt, are reportedly planning a top-secret meeting in London that could result in the former couple getting back together. Over one year after Jolie suddenly filed for divorce, a source claims that both actors, who share six children, are headed for a giant family reunion with 16-year-old Maddox, 13-year-old Pax, 12-year-old Zahara, 11-year-old Shiloh, and nine-year-old Knox and Vivienne. Brad and Angie are both well aware that they are headed on a collision course for filming blockbuster sequels, a source told Radar Online on Oct. 30. Early next year, Jolie and Pitt will venture off to London where Pitt is scheduled to begin work on World War Z 2 and Jolie will begin filming on Maleficent 2. The upside of all of this is that the family is going to have one big chance to be together for an extended period of time, the source added. Its one of the rare times both Brad and Angie are shooting simultaneously. Jolie and Pitt have been splitting time with their six kids ever since they broke up last September. However, the children seem to be spending the majority of their time with Jolie and haven't been spotted with Pitt at all publicly since their breakup. Meanwhile, the kids often step out with their mom and their nannies in Los Angeles. As for the future, the Radar Online source said that the ex-couple's upcoming trip to London may see a big change for them and their family. This is going to be a whole new world, and an easier one too because they will be able to co-parent while still making these huge blockbuster movies on alternating schedule, said the insider. If this doesnt get them back together for real, I dont think anything will. Since Jolie filed for divorce last year, she's been linked to Johnny Depp and Jonny Lee Miller while Pitt has been linked to Ella Purnell, Sienna Miller, Kate Hudson, and even Selena Gomez, who he starred alongside with in The Big Short. When Jolie first left the Los Feliz home she once shared with Pitt, she ventured off to Malibu, California, where she and her kids lived for months in a rental. Then, earlier this year, Jolie purchased the Cecile B. DeMille estate, which is located very close to her former marital home with Pitt. Could Brad and Angelina be working towards a reconciliation? Let us know your thoughts below! Communism A centennial celebration of tyranny and terror By Mark Alexander In 1987, seven decades after Russia's Communist Revolution and the generations of misery, mayhem and murder that it seeded worldwide, Ronald Reagan delivered a speech at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate where John F. Kennedy had delivered his condemnation of communism a quarter-century earlier. Reagan, whose administration is credited by all fair-minded historians as engineering the 1991 fall of the Evil Empire, issued this challenge: "There stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. ... General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" Those iconic words, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," did indeed set in motion the demolition of the much-hated Berlin Wall, just as it signaled the beginning of the end of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and freedom for its subordinate satellite states. Russia's "Red October" Revolution was inspired by the Communist Manifesto, published by Karl Marx in 1848. Marx wrote, "The theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property. ... Take away the heritage of a people and they are easily destroyed." That same year, historian Alexis de Tocqueville offered a different perspective: "Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude." As history would have it, Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin sided with Marx: "The goal of socialism," he said, "is communism." But instead of a utopian socialist "workers' paradise," a succession of brutal communist tyrants unleashed seven decades of global terror at an incalculable human toll. The resulting ideological Cold War between East and West was delineated by what Winston Churchill described as the "Iron Curtain." In 1949, Harry Truman noted, "We believe that all men are created equal because they are created in the image of God. From this faith we will not be moved. ... Communism is based on the belief that man is so weak and inadequate that he is unable to govern himself, and therefore requires the rule of strong masters." Three years later, Truman's successor, Dwight Eisenhower, warned, "The Bill of Rights contains no grant of privilege for a group of people to destroy the Bill of Rights. A group like the Communist conspiracy dedicated to the ultimate destruction of all civil liberties, cannot be allowed to claim civil liberties as its privileged sanctuary from which to carry on subversion of the Government." But while Truman and Eisenhower expressed our nation's largely bipartisan disdain for communism in the post-WWII era, the ideology had its stateside supporters: "I am for socialism," Roger Baldwin insisted. "I seek social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class, and sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal." Is it any wonder that Baldwin went on to co-found the American Civil Liberties Union? In 1959, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev told Eisenhower's Cabinet Secretary Ezra Taft Benson: "Your children's children will live under communism. You Americans are so gullible. No, you won't accept Communism outright, but we'll keep feeding you small doses of Socialism until you will finally wake up and find that you already have Communism. We won't have to fight you; We'll so weaken your economy, until you fall like overripe fruit into our hands." In the two decades that followed, communism and socialism metastasized around the world, until three electoral events changed the course of history in a matter of months: the election of Pope John Paul II on October 16, 1978; the election of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on May 3, 1979; and the election of President Ronald Reagan on November 4, 1980. Together, these three champions of Freedom would wage an all-out ideological war on communism. For the record, between 1917 and 1991, there were almost 150 million civilian casualties of communist dictatorships, the three largest dictatorial offenders being China (73,237,000), the USSR (58,627,000) and Germany (11,000,000). Where those dictatorships exist today, the slaughter continues. That appalling history notwithstanding, The New York Times, the statist journal of record, celebrated the centennial of Lenin's Bolshevik Revolution the advent of communism with an extensive series "The Red Century." The Times pretended to explore the ideological failings of communism in an effort to rehabilitate, if not romanticize, the ideology's reputation, which The Times bravely notes is "morally complex." The murder and planned starvation of more than 150 million civilians over the last century is not "morally complex." As an antidote to the Times' communist coddling, John Stossel and Jonah Goldberg provide two far more succinct and vigorous perspectives on communism. Of course, National Socialism and Democratic Socialism are much the same as Marxist Socialism behind a facade. Leftists would like you to believe that there's a clear distinction, but Adolf Hitler was certainly a socialist. In his autobiography Mein Kampf, Hitler wrote of his Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party, the "NAZI Party"), "The party should not become a constable of public opinion, but must dominate it. It must not become a servant of the masses, but their master." On the socialist state versus individual Liberty, he wrote, "The unity of a nation's spirit and will are worth far more than the freedom of the spirit and will of an individual; and that the higher interests involved in the life of the whole must here set the limits and lay down the duties of the interests of the individual." Of course, despotism has always been an element of evil human behavior. In John Locke's 1690 Second Treatise on Civil Government, he wrote, "Despotical power is absolute, arbitrary power of one person to take the life and property of another against their will." Having witnessed the fate of the Soviet Union, the world's most powerful communist dictator of the present day, Xi Jinping of the People's Republic of China, endeavors to avoid a similar fate by implementing a "socialist market economy" while maintaining strong central government control. At present, China has the world's fastest growing economy, though it's still only ranked 106th by per capita GDP. But that success masks a very fragile political foundation subject to trade balance tremors, which is why Xi continues to prop up his nuclear puppet North Korea as a defense against U.S. trade sanctions. However, while communist dictators pay attention to history, leftist socialism deniers in America are more entrenched than ever. We would do well to revisit Nikita Khrushschev's assertion that "Your children's children will live under communism," and ask whether it still poses a real risk. Of course it does. As dystopian novelist Aldous Huxley wrote, "That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons of history." Or, as that esteemed savant Forrest Gump observed, "Stupid is as stupid does." After eight years of failed domestic and foreign policies under Barack Obama, whose radical statism and populist socialism were shaped by his Marxist mentors, the newest iteration of the Democrats' neo-communists, the ironically named "antifa movement," is thriving. In the wake of Donald Trump's improbable victory over Hillary Clinton, who had earlier sandbagged her party's overt socialist protagonist Bernie Sanders, the Democratic Socialists have shifted into anger-fueled high gear. Most of these socialist sympathizers gravitate toward statism because they want somebody to take care of them. They have no sense of history, never took a civics class, and have never lifted a finger in defense of the Liberty they now enjoy. Ignorance is bliss, until it's not. So who's holding the line? The growing ranks of American Patriots, that's who. We come from all walks of life and every corner of our nation, but at the end of the day, after doing our best to make ends meet in the great diversity of stations we occupy, and despite our differences, we have this in common: As heirs to the blessings of Liberty, the innate and inherent Rights of Man bequeathed to us at great personal cost by our Patriot forebears and generations since, we are resolute that it is our duty "to Support and Defend" that blessing, and avow upon our sacred honor to extend it to the next generation. We are vigilant, strong, prepared and faithful in that resolve. As such, we recognize that no form of government has been more antithetical to Liberty than the tyrannical communist and socialist regimes in the last century, and we will never acquiesce to those in our own country, whose goal is "fundamentally transforming the United States of America" from a nation guided by Rule of Law and supported by free enterprise to one subdued by the statist rule of men under the increasingly oppressive "progressivism" of Democratic Socialism. In the words of Joseph Story from his Commentaries on the Constitution, "Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors." Mark Alexander is the executive editor of the Patriot Post. Home Election hacker and American spy-master revealed By Dr. Robert Owens For months weve heard endless reports concerning the supposed ties between the Trump campaign and the Darth Vader of the progressives nightmares, Putins Russia. The thin gruel of this plot has swirled from the swamp in DC through the megaphone of the ABCCBSNBCPBSCNNMSNBC Cartel until one would think every day Americans out here in fly-over country were actually thinking about it. Finally after months of exhaustive research the spy-master of the most extensive surveillance campaign aimed at Americans can be revealed. The one man who used every avenue possible to invade the privacy of American citizens in History has had the mask of denial ripped away. Besides Hillary and the DNC rigging the primaries to stop Bernie who actually tried to use illegally obtained information to influence the presidential election in 2016? The Obama Administration routinely spied on Americans. According to John Solomon and Sara Carter of CIRCA: The National Security Agency under former President Barack Obama routinely violated American privacy protections while scouring through overseas intercepts and failed to disclose the extent of the problems until the final days before Donald Trump was elected president last fall, according to once top-secret documents that chronicle some of the most serious constitutional abuses to date by the U.S. intelligence community. More than 5 percent, or one out of every 20 searches seeking upstream Internet data on Americans inside the NSAs so-called Section 702 database violated the safeguards Obama and his intelligence chiefs vowed to follow in 2011, according to one classified internal report reviewed by Circa. The Obama administration self-disclosed the problems at a closed-door hearing Oct. 26 before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that set off alarm. Trump was elected less than two weeks later. The normally supportive court censured administration officials, saying the failure to disclose the extent of the violations earlier amounted to an institutional lack of candor and that the improper searches constituted a very serious Fourth Amendment issue, according to a recently unsealed court document dated April 26, 2017. The admitted violations undercut one of the primary defenses that the intelligence community and Obama officials have used in recent weeks to justify their snooping into incidental NSA intercepts about Americans. According to Paul Sperry of the New York Post the Obama Admiration used its control of Americas vast intelligence gathering apparatus in an attempt to hack the election. While the show trials in Congress continue to build a paint-by-numbers PR case about Russians acting in collusion with the Trump campaign those who really tried to subvert the electoral process are being protected by the same political hacks running the phony investigations. As Sperry reveals and relates: New revelations have surfaced that the Obama administration abused intelligence during the election by launching a massive domestic spy campaign that included snooping on Trump officials. The irony is mind-boggling: Targeting political opposition is long a technique of police states like Russia, which Team Obama has loudly condemned for allegedly using its own intelligence agencies to hack into our election. The revelations, as well as testimony this week from former Obama intel officials, show the extent to which the Obama administration politicized and weaponized intelligence against Americans. We now know the National Security Agency under President Barack Obama routinely violated privacy protections while snooping through foreign intercepts involving US citizens and failed to disclose the breaches, prompting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court a month before the election to rebuke. The FISA court called it a very serious Fourth Amendment issue that NSA analysts in violation of a 2011 rule change prohibiting officials from searching Americans information without a warrant had been conducting such queries in violation of that prohibition, with much greater frequency than had been previously disclosed to the Court. A number of those searches were made from the White House, and included private citizens working for the Trump campaign, some of whose identities were leaked to the media. The revelations earned a stern rebuke from the ACLU and from civil liberties champion Sen. Rand Paul. We also learned this week that Obama intelligence officials really had no good reason attaching a summary of a dossier on Trump to a highly classified Russia briefing they gave to Obama just weeks before Trump took office. Under congressional questioning Tuesday, Obamas CIA chief John Brennan said the dossier did not in any way factor into the agencys assessment that Russia interfered in the election. Why not? Because as Obama intel czar James Clapper earlier testified, We could not corroborate the sourcing. But that didnt stop Brennan in January from attaching its contents to the official report for the president. He also included the unverified allegations in the briefing he gave Hill Democrats. In so doing, Brennan virtually guaranteed that it would be leaked, which it promptly was. In short, Brennan politicized raw intelligence. In fact, he politicized the entire CIA. Langley vets say Brennan was the most politicized director in the agencys history. Former CIA field operations officer Gene Coyle said Brennan was known as the greatest sycophant in the history of the CIA, and a supporter of Hillary Clinton before the election. I find it hard to put any real credence in anything that the man says. Coyle noted that Brennan broke with his predecessors who stayed out of elections. Several weeks before the vote, he made it very clear he was pulling for Hillary. His deputy Mike Morell even came out and publicly endorsed her in the New York Times, claiming Trump was an unwitting agent of Moscow. Brennan isnt just a Democrat. Hes a radical leftist who in 1980 during the height of the Cold War voted for a Communist Party candidate for president. When Brennan rants about the dangers of strongman Vladimir Putin targeting our elections and subverting our democratic process, does he not catch at least a glimpse of his own reflection? What he and the rest of the Obama gang did has inflicted more damage on the integrity of our electoral process than anything the Russians have done. How does all this surveillance keep us safe? In Great Britain where there is more government surveillance than in any other western state it didnt help stop the recent Manchester bomber. According to press reports, he was known to the British intelligence services, he had traveled and possibly trained in bomb-making in Libya and Syria, his family members warned the authorities that he was dangerous, and he even flew terrorist flags over his house. What more did he need to do to signal that he may be a problem? Of course here in America our governments watchers are going to do it better . of course they will ;--) My question is: As they are watching us who watches them besides secret courts that report only to the perpetually re-elected guardians of the dysfunctional democratic process in a well-functioning oligarchy? Never mind the facts. Dont pay any attention to who did what. Ignore an ex-president operating a deep state government in exile while orchestrating the Resist 45 Movement. News Flash from The ABCCBSNBCPBSCNNMSNBC Cartel: THE RUSSIANS DID IT!!! THE RUSSIANS DID IT!!! THE RUSSIANS DID IT!!! Now it turns out that it was the Clinton campaign and the DNC who paid for the Russian Dossier which served as the beginning of the witch hunt into President Trumps entire life and family. Then they lied about it over and over. And it was the Obama/Clinton gang that plotted with the Russians taking bribes and kickbacks to turn over the control of 20% of Americas uranium to their paymaster oligarchs. Freud called this projection which is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against their own unconscious impulses or qualities (both positive and negative) by denying their existence in themselves while attributing them to others. Now that the Russian charges are falling apart the Progressives are fixated on proving that President Trump is crazy and therefore unfit for service. I guess the projection room is still operating in the Cineplex of American politics. Dr. Robert Owens teaches History, Political Science, and Religion. He is the Historian of the Future @ http://drrobertowens.com 2017 Contact Dr. Owens drrobertowens@hotmail.com Follow Dr. Robert Owens on Facebook or Twitter @ Drrobertowens / Edited by Dr. Rosalie Owens Home The 5 countries that could push oil prices up By Nick Cunningham Oil prices appear to be stuck in the $50s per barrel, but that doesn't mean there aren't serious supply risks to the market. An unexpected disruption could occur at any moment, as has happened in the past, leading to a sudden and sharp jump in prices. Geopolitical tension has been largely irrelevant since the collapse of oil prices in 2014, but it's making a return now that cracks have emerged in some key oil-producing nations. The threat of an outage will carry more weight as the oil market tightens. "The 'Fragile Five' petrostatesIran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria and Venezuelacontinue to see supply disruption potential, with northern Iraq crude exports at risk due to an escalation of tensions between the (Kurdistan Regional Government), Baghdad and Turkey, while the United States has decertified the 2015 Iran nuclear deal," U.S. bank Citi said. Indeed, five prominent oil-producing nations are beset with challenges, for varying reasons, all of which could spring a surprise on the oil market without any advanced notice. Iraq. The most near-term supply risk comes from Iraq. The surprise seizure of Kirkuk's oil fields by the Iraqi government has already disrupted some oil shipments. The Bai Hassan and Avana oil fields near Kirkuk remained shut as of October 19, keeping at least 275,000 bpd offline. The outages are expected to be temporary; a source told Reuters last week that they're seeking certain equipment to bring the fields back online. An agent at the Turkish port of Ceyhanthe destination for Iraq's northern oil exportstold Bloomberg that flows fell to 196,000 bpd as of October 19, implying an outage of about 400,000 bpd. Iraq represents the most obvious near-term threat to global supplies, but because the bulk of the country's output is located in the south, far from the unrest, the potential outage is likely capped at 600,000 bpd, and would probably be temporary. Iran. This one's probably the biggest question mark on this list, and is in a much stronger position than its more fragile peers. The danger to Iran is a return of U.S. sanctions, which are by no means a given. Even then, it's unclear if the U.S. has the ability to curtail Iranian oil exports. It might scare away new investment, but even U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson went to lengths recently to assure European officials that it wouldn't block business between European companies and Iran. Goldman Sachs estimates that in a relatively worst-case scenario of a return of U.S. sanctions, a few hundred thousand barrels of oil exports would be at risknot the more than 1 mb/d of disrupted exports due to sanctions before the nuclear deal. At this point, though, potential outages are too hypothetical to be taken seriously. Iran probably won't pose a supply risk to the market, at least not this year. Libya. The North African OPEC member was exempted from the OPEC deal, and for much of the past year has represented a downside risk to oil prices, not an upside one. That is because it has nearly tripled its output from about 300,000 bpd in August 2016 up to about 850,000 bpd currently, down a bit from a recent peak at over 1 mb/d. But damage to some export terminals likely means that near-term production has a ceiling at about 1.25 mb/d, meaning Libya won't be able to bring output back to pre-war levels of 1.6 mb/d. But because current output is now taken for granted and already baked into global pricing calculations, Libya now represents a supply risk to the market because an outage is entirely realistic due to ongoing instability. The country is nearing its ceiling for production, while there's plenty of room for it to fall back. Nigeria. The story here is similar to Libya. It was also exempted from the cuts because violence and instability previously knocked a sizable portion of output offline. But Libya's restoration of output coincided with a similar reduction in violence in the Niger Delta. A ceasefire brought calm for much of the past year, allowing production to rebound from a low point of 1.2 mb/d last year, back up to 1.8 mb/d currently. Potential for further output gains is probably limited, not least because the country promised to limit production when it hit 1.8 mb/d. Meanwhile, peace in the Niger Delta remains fragile, and reports that militants have grown frustrated with the pace of talks with the government raises concerns about a return to violence. The rebound in Nigerian production is not assured. Venezuela. The unfolding implosion of Venezuela almost ensures that more of the country's oil production will erode, perhaps at a quickening pace. As of September, Venezuela only produced 1.89 mb/d, down from 3.2 mb/d in the late 1990s, but also down from nearly 2.4 mb/d as recently as 2015. Without cash, state-owned PDVSA can't invest in new production and can't even invest in maintenance to keep existing production from falling. Reports have surfaced suggesting that even the oil that is produced is suffering from declining quality, as PDVSA doesn't have the means to properly treat its heavy crude. Worse, with huge debt payments coming due in the next few weeks, a debt default is possible. All of this adds up to a further deterioration in the country's oil output. Nick Cunningham is a writer for Oilprice.com where this originally appeared. Home My Pilgrimage, Chapter Thirty-Four: The Pens of History And World War III By Michael Moriarty Perhaps World Communism Red China, Putinized Russia, North Korea and their Anti-Semitic allies in the Middle East believe that NOW yes, this present year is the best chance that World Communism and Islam have of utterly destroying all of North America and therefore ending, basically erasing all Free World opposition to the Communist/Islamic Alliance and its plans for a New World Order. With President Donald Trump of America beginning to rebuild the Wests opposition to the Communist/Islamic tyrannies? After decades of treasonously American, European Union and Worldwide, New World Order strategists weakening resistance to their century-old plans for a One World Government?! With these profoundly duplicitous and mortally threatening influences collected within and around offices of the United Nations?! Perhaps that conglomerate nightmare is quite willing to encourage Kim Jong Un of North Korea to start a World War III! And, instead of reining the North Korean megalomaniac in, theyve actually been unleashing him! Encouraging this madman to push Donald Trump into a World War. At this point, it wouldnt take much to make President Trump respond to threats forcefully. And whatever reassuring gestures that Trump seems to be receiving from Deng Xiaoping?! That Beijing does not want North Korea firing on the United States?! They are possibly all lies! World Communism is deliberately intending to convince America that no one and nothing of any importance will ally itself with North Korea, and that World War III wont happen. Why hasnt this increasingly empowered, Paramount Leader of Red China, Deng Xiaoping been able to calm Kim Jong Un down?! Perhaps he has no intention of restraining Kim Jong Un at all. Perhaps the entire Communist World and Islam want World War III to begin! In the belief that President Donald Trump is an incompetent leader of the Free World, the enemies of the United States and individual freedom feel that there is no better time for an international Holocaust than now. AND THE SOONER THE BETTER! This possibility could hardly escape the notice of the American Pentagon! COULD IT?! I dont think so. If PLAN A, confidence in Red Chinas and Russias willingness NOT to go to war on behalf of North Korea?! If PLAN A is purely wishful thinking? What is PLAN B?! Can The United States of America possibly defend herself against the combined, atomic and hydrogen bomb forces of Red China, Russia and North Korea?! Most people, I venture, see a complete and uninterrupted ARMAGEDDON coming! THE TOTAL AND COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF THE HUMAN RACE!!!! SUICIDE!!!!!! OR AT LEAST THE ATOMIC TRANSFORMATION OF THE ENTIRE HUMAN CONDITION. What can Donald Trump do to avoid creating a JUST CAUSE FOR THE ENTIRE COMMUNIST WORLD TO DEFEND NORTH KOREA WITH ATOMIC AND HYDROGEN WEAPONS?! The President CANNOT and MUST NOT use Nuclear or Hydrogen Weapons against North Korea. Despite North Koreas use of such atomic and hydrogen bombs, America cant go there. The United States of America can still whip Kim Jong Un with one arm tied behind her back and tied behind the United States determined commitment to destroy the pure madness of a Communist Puppet. If the President only uses non-nuclear and conventional warfare in order to stop and cripple North Korea?! That would entail huge sacrifices of American lives under the incoming nightmare of nuclear and hydrogen bombs. However, Red China and Russia, with America only using conventional defenses, would have no grounds for bombing or invading the Free World. If the United States were only using conventional weaponry against the North Korean atomic and hydrogen insanities, the rest of the Communist World would be forced to just sit back and watch. The Communists Have yet To foolishly dismiss The Pens of History! They never will. Without any use of atomic weapons against an insanely led but small and diabolically intended adversary like North Korea, using atomic and hydrogen bombs?! Americas non-nuclear response would be utterly justified. A great nation defends herself!!!! LETHALLY SPANKS, WITH CONVENTIONAL WEAPONS, THE BOTTOMLESSLY EVIL NORTH KOREANS FOR SUPPORTING THE HOMICIDAL INSANITIES OF KIM JONG UN. Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies. Contact Michael at rainbowfamily2008@yahoo.com. He can be found on Twitter at https://twitter.com/@MGMoriarty. Home The Odyssey of Echo Company The 1968 Tet Offensive and the Epic Battle to Survive the Vietnam War By Doug Stanton Scribner US$30, 336 pgs. ISBN: 1-4767-6191-4 Surviving the meat grinder of Vietnam By Steven Martinovich In many ways Stan Parker, the son of an iron worker who moved across the United States as work demanded, was the stereotypical American boy. Despite a horrible childhood that saw him mocked daily by adults and children alike for his familys itinerant nature, Parker grew up loving the things that boys of the early 1960s tended to love which included family, country and his girl. Hanging over all of this, however, was the growing spectre of the Vietnam War. With a brother already serving his nation, Parker hatched a plan to join himself without his parents knowledge and fight in Vietnam for patriotism and in search of adventure. Doug Stanton uses Parker to explore the wider story of Echo Company, a component of the 81st Airborne Division, a recon unit tasked with long-range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP) in The Odyssey of Echo Company: The 1968 Tet Offensive and the Epic Battle to Survive the Vietnam War. The LRRP units were small and heavily armed groups who patrolled deep inside enemy territory. Echo, and Parker, arrived in Vietnam just in time to enter the crucible of the Tet Offensive, the overwhelming American victory that was sold back in the United States as a sign the war had gone wrong. Parker led in some respects a charmed life in Vietnam. Wounded several times in various battles; he survived a harrowing charge against a heavily defended bunker, the crash of a helicopter that had been sent to evacuate him, encounters with NVA and Viet Cong soldiers that should have been fatal and mass attacks against American positions by suicide bombers. Parkers faith in his mission is heavily tested as the meat grinder of the war becomes more inhuman by the day; some days it is only his vow to his fellow soldiers that sees him carry on, one bloody day blending into the next. By far the most difficult section of the book was Parkers breakdown after a young Vietnamese girl whom he had gifted a can of peaches was killed by NVA soldiers, leaving her body out in the middle of the street as a message to others who would interact with the Americans. Parker relates how he essentially went mad for a day, defending with his M-16 rifle the young girls body from rats in search of an easy meal, fed magazine after magazine of ammunition by his platoon mates as he poured fire down on the vermin. Its tempting to use this incident as a symbol for war in general and our capability for inhumanity but it is merely one incident in a long train that Parker observed and fueled his increasing desperation to survive the war. "The intention had not been to kill civilians, but Stan can hear them wailing. He feels increasingly that his mind's not right, that he's having trouble thinking ... That night, hunkered in a shallow hole in the yard of an abandoned school, Stan sits and listens to the wailing, wishing with all his might that it would stop, Stanton relates at one point. Readers will not be surprised to learn that after Parker had a difficult transition when he returned from Vietnam but will be when he rejoins the military eight years later in the Army Reserve Special Forces, spending another three decades in conflict before mustering out as a Command Sergeant Major. As happens with many veterans, they do not miss war so much as they do the greater sense of purpose and comradeship. It was in this second act as a soldier that Stanton met Parker when both happened to be in Afghanistan, one a soldier the other a reporter, the former suggesting to the later that he should turn his talents to the Vietnam War. That odyssey for Stanton included accompanying Parker on a trip back to Vietnam in the books emotional conclusion where the former American soldier met a Vietnamese counterpart and discovered a personal connection between them. There are some legitimate criticisms of The Odyssey of Echo Company; chief among them that a book about Echo Company spends the vast majority of its time telling the story of one man. Although a sprawling story often needs a central character to hang its narrative on, one never really learns much about Parkers peers in battle. We get names and some basic details, but they recede into the background so often that we never really learn much about them. And although Stanton opens the book stating that he was forced to recreate some conversations and rely in part on memories of those who were there, some of those in Echo Company have called into question some of what Stanton has related including troop movements and specific historical details. Whether those alleged inaccuracies can be blamed on fading memories, interpretation or debate amongst those who were there will be up to the reader to decide for now. That said, as with his previous efforts In Harms Way and Horse Soldiers -- The Odyssey of Echo Company shows Stanton to be masterful at combining story telling with research to create a history that is both personal and insightful on a grand level. To be sure, this latest book from Stanton is not an easy read, Parkers struggles with what happened in Vietnam make for an occasionally heart-breaking read. That said, The Odyssey of Echo Company is also an important read. Although America seemed to go through its soul-searching about the Vietnam War back in the 1980s thanks to some highly regarded movies and books, it has always seemed that there was more appreciate and learn. This book is another vital step towards that. Steven Martinovich is the founder and editor of Enter Stage Right. Other related stories: Victory from the saddle by Doug Stanton (June 8, 2009) Steven Martinovich says Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan is an epic testimony to the bravery of a few good men Steven Martinovich says Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan is an epic testimony to the bravery of a few good men Uprising by Doug Stanton (June 8, 2009) In this excerpt from Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan, Doug Stanton chronicles a pivotal moment in the Afghani war In this excerpt from Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan, Doug Stanton chronicles a pivotal moment in the Afghani war Four days where life and death held hands by Doug Stanton (April 16, 2001) Steve Martinovich reviews Doug Stanton's In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors, the true story of the survivors of America's worst military disaster Home Today is a key moment for the European Union and China to consider how to deepen their relations and especially the full range of bilateral economic relationship by boosting trade and investment, promoting cooperation on the environment, energy and global governance, and by collaborating in technology, innovation, science and infrastructure. While the mutual ties between both sides are already very well developed, this is not yet visible in other areas. Beyond trade in goods, many of the economic relations remain underdeveloped including trade in service, foreign direct investment and cooperation in technological innovation and financial integration. Current stocks of cumulative direct investments between the EU and China are lower than those between the EU and the US. In 2015, the amount of EU foreign direct investment (FDI) in mainland China (excluding Hong Kong) amounted to 168 billion, while the investment stock from mainland China in the bloc was only 35 billion (115 billion including Hong Kong). This contrasts with the stock of EU FDI in the US of 2.6 trillion and the US FDI stock in the EU of 2.4 trillion. These low EU-China FDI flows demonstrate that there is untapped potential in investment in both directions. However, European and Chinese economic realities are not likely to converge in the foreseeable future. There are still major differences in the political system, which limit the potential of the bilateral relations. It is incumbent upon governments and firms on both sides to find ways to overcome these obstacles and come up with more pragmatic ways to build on their existing relations. Both sides should also build on the existing EU-China 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation, reaffirming their common interest in the new international reality, recognizing their own differences, and prioritizing where progress is achievable and which areas are currently underdeveloped. In order to do so, a bilateral investment agreement should be finalized as soon as possible. Ongoing EU-China talks for an investment deal could be used as a forum to address differences and facilitate investment. An EUChina investment deal has the potential to initiate a new round of economic reform, including in the state-owned enterprises, and market liberalization in China. Moreover, Brussels should open talks on establishing an EU-China free trade agreement but these can only be started when the investment package is finalized. Brussels and Beijing can also work together to boost mechanisms of good global governance and thus contribute to the multilateral trade system. Since they are not direct competitors in security area, they can also buttress the stability of the multilateral global order by channeling support through existing institutions such as WTO and the G20. Importantly, China-EU relations should not disadvantage the US given their combined importance in the global economy. Moreover, the benefits of a closer EUChina relationship are likely to be boosted if the EU and the UK are able to agree on a sensible Brexit deal that will ensure a continued close economic relationship between them. EUChina Economic Relations to 2025: Building a Common Future Analysis by a Team of Authors Chatham House / The Royal Institute of International Affairs. (The Analysis can be downloaded here) Hello, so I'm in a bit of an odd spot. I'm currently awaiting my graduation from the University of Sheffield. I've done my masters degree and have been using this time on the end to help my British Husband sort out paperwork and documents for a US immigration visa. However he has been having major troubles with his gallbladder and has finally been referred for surgery, we do not have a set date yet (his final appointment was around a month ago, still no letter...) but at the appointment they said it would be in 2-4 months. Which is mostly fine, but if it's on the later end of that timespan, it will collide with my Tier-4 visa expiring. I would feel like the worst wife in the world just skipping out of the country before or while he's recovering from surgery. He's never had surgery before and he's pretty scared. I know it's not necessarily life threatening but I would like to stay at least while he's having the surgery and like the first week-10 days of recovery. Is there any way I can do this without becoming an illegal immigrant? We have considered moving back here in 5-10 years depending on financial and personal circumstances at the time (not to mention visits to our family and friends here in the meantime) and I don't want to risk jeopardising my right to visit and immigrate to the UK later down the line! Sorry if this is a bit of a jumble, and it may not even wind up being an issue but I'd like to know what options I have well in advance. Thank you guys for taking the time to read this! Carltonmadsen said: Hi, Carlton here. 26 years old, having Bachelors in Business Administration, working in Dubai as Digital Marketing Specialist. I have about six years experience and just want to know about job possibilities and the market of Canada. Thanks Click to expand... You cannot ask about the job market in Canada. It is the second largest country in the world so the job market varies widely from place to place. Figure out if you are eligible to emigrate here, then narrow down where you might like to live. At that point your question can be answered more accurately. abuabbass said: Is there a way for someone in Dubai to go and check or what people usually do after a rejection if they have no previous issues? Thanks. Click to expand... Yes, you ask the person who applied for you, to find out why it was rejected. they should know as anyone with any common sense on receiving a rejection would ask 'why ?'Just because you have residency in Kuwait, does not mean you could get UAE residency.Are you applying for UAE residency while you have a valid Kuwait residency in the same passport ? Hello there, I am from India. I want to apply for an equivalency certificate. I have completed 12th High school and bachelor degree as well. My question is, which document I need to submit for equivalency certificate request. I heard from many peoples that they are saying you need to apply first school and college. I want to request equivalency certificate for school and college? Please, anyone already completed equivalency certificate let me know in your comments. If possible, please give step by step procedure so that everyone can understand. Thanks in Advance! Hey guys, I was wondering what kind of Visa does someone from Cyprus(EU Greek part) need in order to live and work in the US? I think is H1B? Someone with a good understanding on the Visas please confirm I need help! Thanks in advance! Thanks again Crawford. If you know, how difficult it is for someone to find another job and eventually change job in that mentioned situation? I guess the only plus might be that he is already in the US and is able to attend in person interviews? If that is the case does it mean that someone who comes in the US under holiday Visa and search for H1B sponsor while being there is easier to find work and sponsorship rather than someone searching remotely from abroad? Your thoughts. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Not many people in San Antonio think about the watery underworld below our feet or the creatures that live there, including one named Satan. Satan eurystomus is a mysterious species of catfish 3 to 5 inches long that has a wide, toothy mouth and is found only in water wells that reach into the Edwards Aquifer below San Antonio. Its bone structure indicates that it can create suction to draw in its prey, similar to catfish living in rivers and lakes, said Dean Hendrickson, an ichthyologist at the University of Texas at Austin. It almost certainly is the top predator down there, said Hendrickson, who recently ran specimens through a CT scanner to study the fishs bone structure. He is a co-author of a paper about the fish to be published today in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. The fish got its name from World War II-era ichthyologist Carl Hubbs, who visited the Witte Museum in 1938 to study one specimen that came out of an artesian well. He gave it its scientific name and a common name: the widemouth blindcat. We just call it Satan, just like we refer to a lot of species by their genus, said Andy Gluesenkamp, conservation director with the San Antonio Zoo. Gluesenkamp and his colleagues at the zoo are not only interested in Satan. Theyre working with Hendrickson and biologists with the consulting firm Zara Environmental to collect, study and conserve a variety of underground fish, salamanders and invertebrates found in Central Texas. Many are tied to the Edwards Aquifer, a limestone rock layer that holds the main source of drinking water for the San Antonio region. Its probably the worlds most diverse subterranean aquatic ecosystem, Hendrickson said. For Gluesenkamp, Satan is another example of that incredible diversity, which few people know about or appreciate. The average person driving to work every day, they see a strip mall, subdivision or office park, he said. Meanwhile, 800 feet below that OfficeMax could be organisms that occur nowhere else on Earth, and theyre freaking cool! Less is known about Satan than the three other species of blind, cave-dwelling catfish in the U.S. and Mexico. One, the toothless blindcat, has also been pulled out of San Antonio wells. Another, the Mexican blindcat, was discovered for the first time in the U.S. near Lake Amistad in Val Verde County, with live specimens being kept at the San Antonio Zoo. Satan was last seen in 1984, when scientists pulled it out of wells that reached more than 1,000 feet below the city, Hendrickson said. A search by biologists from Zara Environmental from 2008 to 2010 turned up no Satans. Though they dont know for sure, Hendrickson and Gluesenkamp think that Satan may feed on invertebrates and the toothless blindcat, along with any other species that can eke out a living in that alien world. The toothless blindcats could, in turn, be feeding on bacteria or fungi that cluster around the point where fresh water starts turning foul. In a habitat devoid of sunlight, chemical reactions in the water could be what sustain life in such a hostile environment. Theres something ecologically going on down there, Hendrickson said. The scientists are seeking more funding to continue research, with one possible avenue being environmental DNA, or eDNA. Instead of trying to trap a live fish in a well, they can use filters to capture DNA from organic material that flows out of the well. In the lab, they can use species-specific markers to identify which creature the material comes from. All of a sudden, every well that you can sample becomes a potential location, Gluesenkamp said. Its really going to change our concept of rarity. But until Satan is found again, that may prove impossible, Hendrickson said. The museum specimens have been stored in a way that degrades their DNA, and theyll need a target to match the DNA found in water from the Edwards. bgibbons@express-news.net | Twitter: @bgibbs This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BROWNSVILLE On a recent afternoon, Estela Hernandez laid colorful wreaths on top of the graves of family members buried at Santa Rosalia Cemetery. To get to the cemetery, Hernandez had to drive though a narrow gap in the U.S.-Mexico border fence, past farmland and border agents. This area between the fence and the Rio Grande is described by more than a few locals as a no mans land. There is nothing convenient about visiting the burial grounds these days, but government plans to install gates in the fence could prove one obstacle too many for Hernandez, 69. Once they put those gates up, how are we going to get on this side? Hernandez asked. I dont know. While theres no guarantee that President Donald Trumps big, beautiful wall will ever be built it has yet to be funded Congress did approve $49 million in May to acquire land and build gates to close dozens of gaps in the 54 miles of existing border fence in the Rio Grande Valley. That worries Hernandez and other border residents. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have said they will work with residents to ensure that they still have needed access, but no details have been offered on how that would be accomplished. Still, there are some locals who dont share Hernandezs concerns. The government isnt stupid, said Pedro S. Zepeda, 67, who also has family members buried in Santa Rosalia. The gates will be open during certain hours of the day for visitors. At night, why would you want to be back there? Whether the gates will be open, as Zepeda believes, or whether access codes might be provided to those who have a right to be in the areas beyond the gates has yet to be determined. For that matter, Carlos Diaz, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, said no timeline has been set for installation of the border gates. A time long past These days, untended headstones disappear under waist-high grass in overgrown sections of Santa Rosalia. The cemetery was established around the founding of Brownsville in 1848 and has 1,029 registered interments. More than 60 cemeteries dot the landscape of Cameron County. Several, like Santa Rosalia, are small plots that were donated by ranch owners to the families that worked the fertile soil along the Rio Grande. Over time, settlements were abandoned and families moved away. The burial grounds have faded in the memory of all but a few relatives who still visit them. On this sunny day in Santa Rosalia, Jose Luis Lopez, 71, cleared away the grass and weeds obscuring his parents graves. He still visits the cemetery on Mothers Day and All Saints Day, which he said was the reason for his visit. Im the only one in my family who visits, Lopez said, placing a rake and bucket in the trunk of his car. When I die, I wont be buried here. A few headstones were adorned with flowers. One had an unopened can of Miller Lite, possibly a Dia de los Muertos offering. Hernandez placed a U.S. flag next to the headstone for her father, Jose Jesus Aguilar, an Army veteran. He was buried on the same plot as his son, Jimmy, who died decades before. Hernandez then laid flowers for her mother, Sabina M Aguilar. Another brother, Joe, is buried next to their parents. Her grandparents, who worked on the Browne ranch, were laid to rest in another area of the cemetery. During a recent town hall meeting in Roma, about two hours west of Brownsville, Hernandez spoke about the 32 miles of proposed new border wall in Starr County with a sense of foreboding. In all, the Homeland Security Department is proposing 60 miles of fencing and levee wall in the Valley and is moving ahead with wall prototypes under consideration for construction. Some two-thirds of the land along the Southwest border is private or state-owned around 95 percent falls within Texas. The government would have to take private land through eminent domain to build the wall. Hernandez moved to nearby Rio Grande City 41 years ago after marrying. She had three daughters and taught Texas history to elementary school students. Her husband worked as a Border Patrol agent. Lately, she has grown frustrated by escalating tensions with Mexico. For Hernandez, the gates represent a last straw. Once they are in place, Hernandez warned Roma residents, shell be cut off from a piece of hallowed ground. How can they do this to my family? Hernandez asked in a voice tinged with anger and sadness. They were good citizens. anelsen@express-news.net | Twitter: @amnelsen Irin Carmon hasnt been alone in noticing the particular venom President Donald Trump saves for women of color. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz got a dose. After issuing repeated maydays to the Trump administration, the president accused her of poor leadership, saying Puerto Ricans, some 70 percent of whom still have no power, arent doing enough to help themselves. More recently, a young African-American widow of a soldier killed in Niger got a sympathy call from the president that turned ghastly when he said her husband knew what he was getting into. When exposed, Trump felt the need to malign her publicly, as he did U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, a friend of the widow who had heard the exchange and publicized it. Both are African-American. In Trumps alternate universe, void of facts and evidence, he called both liars. Not that Trump is any less spiteful to women in general, even heads of state like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who Trump treated with contempt last spring, refusing to shake her hand during a White House visit. Carmon, co-author of Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, spoke in San Antonio on Friday about similar trials faced by one of the most powerful women in the country, a Supreme Court justice who keeps winning the Internet, a pop culture icon at 84. The rousing audience, Texas women and political activists, got a major dose of hope at the fundraiser for Annies List, the political action organization that supports, trains and funds progressive women running for office. The group was moved by the trials of a young Ginsburg, who missed giving her valedictorian speech because her mother died the day before graduation. In law school, Ginsburg was one of nine women and one of two on the prestigious Harvard Law Review who were called into the deans office and each asked, How can you justify taking the place of a man? After graduation, Ginsburg was told her pay couldnt equal that of her male counterparts, because she, after all, could count on her husbands wages. Though young students inspired Ginsburgs journey, she always has been a quiet rebel, Carmon said, picking her battles, plotting her course, taking the long view. In that steady relay, Ginsburg continues to run and do pushups, too. This despite being mocked by Trump. Carmon quoted him as saying, when speaking of his hopes to appoint her successor, What does she weigh? Sixty pounds? In the same context, the president also reportedly said Justice Sonia Sotomayor has diabetes. As the hatefulness and misogyny keeps spilling out of the White House and sexual harassment and assault accusations continue to stream out of Hollywood and the corporate world the Annies List rally was nonetheless upbeat. Its goal remains to change face of power, even in deep-red Texas, and like the Notorious RBG, whos been at this fight for a long time, Carmon said, in Texas, you all know from backlash. Texas progressives have fought back with spirit, she said in an interview, against forces that are anti-women, anti-reproductive health, anti-LGBTQ, anti-Latino, anti-immigrant and anti-human rights. Its clear, she added, that what has taken place in Texas is just a forecast of what conservative activists will do elsewhere. Yet if anyone felt beaten down, it sure didnt show. Neither did outrage fatigue. Latinas were front and center at the event, promoting the mission, as Carmon put it, that The revolution needs to be funded. The group was entertained by images of Ginsburg memes and nail art; tribute posters (Cant Spell Truth without Ruth) and even RBG tattoos. (RBG doesnt approve, by the way, Carmon said.) Perhaps the hopefulness is pragmatism. Thats Ginsburgs way, too. We have to be tougher and work harder, said Maria Alejandro. Ni modo, (What else is there to do?) she added. Since last years election, Carmon has been thinking about Ginsburg a lot, about her persistence and resistence. When the world seems like a bleak place, Im inspired by that, she said. Next month, the young readers edition of Notorious RBG will be published. It sounds like the perfect holiday gift for the budding activists in your life. eayala@express-news.net | Twitter: @ElaineAyala AUSTIN When Joe Straus announced that he wouldnt be back to lead the House next session, there was an immediate flood of speculation about his potential successor as speaker. The names that poured out that day included conservative Republicans, moderate Republicans and at least one Democrat. They are from big cities, small towns, urban centers and rural areas. A few announced their plans themselves, and others had their names thrown out there, without regard for whether they have plans to pursue the post. Some have a good chance at the job. Others are long shots at best. But they have at least one thing in common: All are men. While notable, its not that surprising. There are only 29 women in the 150-member House, and only 8 in the 31-member Senate. Together, the 37 female lawmakers make up just 20.4 percent of the Texas Legislature. Women make up a higher 24.8 percent of all state legislators nationally, according to a National Conference of State Legislatures report. Clearly, we just have a numbers problem, said Sarah Davis, R-West University Place, chair of the Texas House General Investigating and Ethics Committee. Shes one of seven women who head Texas House committees, which total more than 40. A woman has never been House Speaker, according to a list maintained by the Texas Legislative Reference Library dating back to 1846. Nor has one been lieutenant governor, a position elected statewide to preside over the Senate. When I asked lawmakers about the lack of immediate female speaker candidates, a couple of names were offered. One lawmaker suggested Transportation Committee Chair Geanie Morrison, R-Victoria, saying her colleagues like and respect her. Another cited Local and Consent Calendars Committee Chair Senfronia Thompson of Houston, saying as a longstanding, powerful legislator she deserves consideration even though shes a Democrat and the House is controlled by Republicans. She holds incredible power. She has been a longtime member. She works well on both sides of the aisle, said Rep. Ina Minjarez, D-San Antonio. They shouldnt count her out. But Thompson said a Democrat doesnt have a chance right now. This is going to be the seventh time Im going to get a chance to vote for a speaker, and at this particular time, I dont see a Democrat being able to win this because of our numbers. Thats just the reality of it, Thompson said. The focus on the speakers race will sharpen after the March primary elections, when the Houses makeup will be better known, Thompson pointed out. Were not going to be voting on this til 2019, when the Legislature next convenes in regular session, Thompson said. Its early, and there may be a woman or two who decide to put their names in. Davis said that sometimes women dont put themselves forward, pointing to a Republican caucus committee that was named that included no women. She said when she asked why, she was told no women had expressed an interest. You see that a lot with women in politics. We almost feel like we have to be asked to run for office, Davis said. Thats one of the things I love so much about Joe Straus. He was always very conscientious and aware of making sure that women had positions of power and had the ability to develop strong voices in the Legislature. Davis laughed when asked if she would be interested in being speaker, saying, I have to win my primary first. She would have a tough race as a speaker contender, since her outspoken style on issues from abortion to ethics have rubbed some of the most conservative House members the wrong way. Davis said that even aside from politics, in her law career, she has found that women are expected to walk a fine line. When Im coming to a jury, I have to be very aware you cant be perceived as weak or being a pushover. You also cant be perceived as being aggressive. People have described me as prickly. If I were a man saying the same things or engaged in the same debate, they would say I was assertive, Davis said. One former lawmaker said she likes Davis and thinks shes smart, but that most anti-abortion lawmakers would have trouble voting for her for speaker since shes not pro-life. Im not pro-death, Davis said. I just believe in the constitutionally protected right that women have to access abortion. I believe in the rule of law, which is a pretty traditional Republican principal. Davis said Morrison would be an amazing candidate and a great speaker. Id love to see a woman run for speaker, Davis said. It really just helps show young women that everything is possible. When young women dont have role models, their dreams can become somewhat skewed and limited. Early on Monday morning, news broke that Paul Manafort and his former business partner Rick Gates were turning themselves in to federal authorities to face charges related to special counsel Robert S. Mueller IIIs investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Below, an overview of why Manafort in particular may have been ensnared by Muellers investigation. Who is Paul Manafort? Paul Manafort is a longtime political consultant and lobbyist in Washington. His career took two tracks that are important for understanding how we got to this point. The first is that Manafort helped multiple Republican presidential nominees manage their efforts at their party conventions, including Gerald Ford in 1976, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 and George H. W. Bush in 1988. He also managed Bob Doles 1996 presidential bid. As a lobbyist and political consultant in the 1980s, Donald Trumps former campaign chairman Paul Manafort worked with international clients that included two dictators who were then allied with the United States. (Bastien Inzaurralde/The Washington Post) The second is that Manafort also worked on behalf of a number of questionable international actors, including Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the Russia-backed president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych was ousted in 2014, during the period in which Russia-Ukraine tensions spiked. Much more on this below. What was his relationship to Trump? In March 2016, as Donald Trump was trying to ensure his victory in the Republican nomination fight, he hired Manafort to help corral delegates for the upcoming convention. At the time, you may remember, there was a lot of talk about whether or not Republican delegates pledged to Trump would hold steady as the convention unfolded. Manafort had helped Ford with that task in 1976, fending off a challenge from Reagan. The recommendation to hire Manafort came from Trumps longtime ally Roger Stone, whod formed a lobbying firm with Manafort after the 1980 election. Manafort accepted a position with the Trump campaign for no salary. Manaforts questionable business associations were well known, but, at the time, Trump was still having trouble attracting top-tier Republican staffers who were skeptical that Trump was a viable candidate. Once on the campaign, he butted heads with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. In late June, Trumps children helped convince him to oust Lewandowski and elevate Manafort, who became campaign chairman. He held that senior position with the campaign until August. On the day he resigned, former House speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox News Sean Hannity that nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to really help get this campaign to where it is right now. Why did he part ways with Trump? For this, we need to talk a bit more about Manaforts background. In 2006, Manaforts company (of which Gates was part) signed a multi-year agreement with a Russian oligarch named Oleg Deripaska apparently based on a 2005 proposal in which Manafort outlined a strategy that would greatly benefit the [Russian president Vladimir] Putin Government. Deripaska is closely tied to Putin. That same year, Manafort began working with Yanukovychs Party of Regions in Ukraine. In 2010, Yanukovych was elected as that countrys president. In 2014, he was ousted during a popular uprising in the country largely because of his sympathies for Russia. A ledger found in a former Party of Regions office in Kiev reported last year indicated that Manafort may have received nearly $13 million in off-the-record payments from the party during his time working with them. Manafort denied the allegation, but the Associated Press later confirmed some of the payments. At the time, Trump was facing a number of questions about his relationship with Russia and any financial ties to the country. Revelation that his campaign chairman may have been paid by a Russian-backed political party helped spur Trump to oust Manafort from his position. Does this news prove that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia? No. Its important to remember that the investigation by Mueller is looking at Russian meddling in the 2016 election as well as any possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian agents. But as an arm of the Justice Department, Muellers team is also authorized to investigate any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation. Think about it this way. If the police were called to your house to interview you about noise complaint and saw you standing over a dead body holding a knife, that might also come up as a subject of conversation. What do the charges relate to? The indictment includes 12 counts, focused on a few things: Misleading the government, failing to register as a foreign agent, laundering money and failing to report foreign income. It includes a conspiracy charge which is broadly about misleading the government, including that Manafort (and Gates) provided false statements to investigators and failed to register as foreign agents. (Manafort eventually did so in June after his work with the campaign drew attention to himself.) This is not a charge the Manafort conspired against the United States on behalf of Russia during the election. The financial charges relate to $75 million that Manafort and Gates earned overseas, $18 million of which was then allegedly laundered by Manafort. This money was apparently largely earned through the pairs work in Ukraine. Its important to note that these investigations predate Manaforts time as head of the Trump campaign. In 2014, the FBI began an investigation into Manafort, including a wiretap. (That same year, Deripaska accused Manafort and Gates of taking $19 million from him that was meant to be invested in a cable network in Ukraine.) The investigation into Manafort was restarted in the spring of last year. BuzzFeed reports that the FBI is investigating wire transfers that were made in 2012 and 2013. In other words, even had he not worked with Trumps campaign, Manafort might have faced an indictment like this anyway. Does this close the door on whether or not Manafort was involved in colluding on the campaign? The main caveat worth remembering here is that Manafort was out of the campaign by August meaning that he wasnt there for the closing days of Trumps effort. That said, there are two ways in which Manafort and Russian interests overlapped during his time on the campaign. The first relates to Deripaska, the Putin-allied oligarch. Shortly after Manafort started with the campaign, he emailed a business partner in Ukraine and asked how his new position might be used to get whole, asking if Deripaskas team was aware of his new position. Later in the campaign, Manafort sought to pass word to Deripaska that a private briefing on the campaign might be possible. It doesnt seem to have happened. (Worth noting: During the campaign, the Trump campaign then managed by Manafort worked to remove language in the party platform about arming Ukraine in its efforts against Russia.) Manafort was also one of the participants in the infamous Trump Tower meeting set up by Donald Trump Jr. and involving a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer who was offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. During that meeting, Trump Jr. described Manafort as being on his phone the whole time, hinting that the content was not interesting to the campaign chairman. Later, though, Manafort turned over notesfrom the meeting that hed taken on his phone. It is possible that the Manafort indictment is meant to serve as leverage in Muellers broader investigation. There is no mention in the indictment of Trump. In 2006, Manafort bought a condominium in Trump Tower. Other New York real estate Manafort purchased in 2012 is listed in the indictment because the money used to buy the properties wasnt included in his tax returns. More charges could be filed against Manafort in the future. Are there still ties between Manafort and Trump? Trump has a pattern of continuing to talk with people hed once hired on the campaign, even if theyd been fired. Its not clear if that was maintained with Manafort, though Manafort did call former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus shortly before Trumps inauguration. The Daily Beast reported in June that Gates was a regular visitor to the White House, working with Trump ally Tom Barrack. (Barrack recently fretted over Trumps presidency in an interview with The Post.) Even if you dont believe that spirits from beyond the grave walk among us, youve got to admit there are plenty of cool ghost stories haunting San Antonio and its environs. At almost 300 years old, this city has seen more than its share of murders, battles and other atrocities that might lead to what believers consider justifiable hauntings. In fact, in 2014 that most august publication National Geographic named San Antonio one of the worlds 10 most haunted cities. Coming in at No. 8 (just after Canberra, Australia, and right before Salem, Massachusetts), we earned the dubious distinction primarily because of our being the site of the Alamo. Map: San Antonio's Most Haunted Places Groundskeepers and visitors alike say theyve encountered the spirits of soldiers led by Jim Bowie and William Travis that still haunt the former Mexican mission, the magazine wrote. But there are other haunted sites beyond the Shrine of Texas Liberty, according to Lauren M. Swartz. Along with her husband, James A. Swartz, she wrote Haunted History of Old San Antonio and owns Sisters Grimm Ghost Tours. There have been plenty of tragedies in San Antonio, she said, noting that many native Indians who lived, worked and died at the Alamo back when it was a Spanish mission are buried in what is today the plaza in front of the church. She also mentioned the Council House Massacre, an 1840 house-to-house gunfight between Comanche Indians and local soldiers. The final death toll was 35 Indians and seven Texans. Now Playing: Dont be scared. The monsters come out to play at this San Antonio house. Video: Luis Vazquez Heres a look at several of the citys most well-known (supposedly) haunted locales: The Ghost Tracks. Perhaps the most famous haunting story in town, even though theres not a ghost of a chance its true. As legend has it, sometimes in the 1930s or 40s, a school bus filled with children became stuck on the railroad tracks near the intersection of Shane and Villamain roads. Along came a train and crash! everyone on the bus was killed. Sad story, sure. But what makes it truly creepy is that, if you put your car in neutral where Shane approaches the railroad tracks, it will slowly roll uphill and across them, pushed by the spirits of the dead children. Some claim that if you spread baby powder on your car, youll see hand prints made by the children as they pushed. Thing is, theres no proof such a crash ever happened. Yes, a 1938 front-page headline in the now-defunct San Antonio Light blared 26 Children Killed When Fast Freight Train Crushes School Bus. But look closer and youll see that the article carries a Salt Lake City dateline. In other words, the accident occurred three states and 1,300 miles from San Antonio. Want further proof? In 2008 a surveyor hired by the Science Channel show 10 Ways to Contact a Ghost found that while the portion of Shane Road in question appears to run uphill, it actually drops two feet as it approaches the tracks. Its optically deceiving, he explained on camera. The show also explained that several nearby streets, which carry the names Nancy Carole Way and Rickey Otis Way, werent, as legend has it, named for the children killed in the bus. Nope, theyre named for grandchildren of the man who developed the neighborhood. La Llorona. The story of a ghostly woman weeping and wailing for her dead children has long been used by Latina mothers and abuelas to scare living children into obedience. In 2004, Express-News columnist Paula Allen told of a local version of the tale as described in the book When Darkness Falls: Tales of San Antonio Ghosts and Hauntings by Docia Schultz Williams. The story, Allen wrote, takes place near Woman Hollering Creek east of town: A pioneer family living near (the rivers) banks is attacked by Indians. Seeing her husband killed brutally, a mother drowns her children in the creek to save them from a still more painful fate. When the attackers find the only surviving member of the family, she frightens them off with her maddening screaming. To this day, the story continues, the woman wanders the creek banks sobbing and crying for her lost children, according to Williams. The legend of the unusually named creek has extended beyond South Texas, ever since author Sandra Cisneros used it as the title story in her 1991 collection. According to Allens synopsis, The (lead) character, a survivor of domestic violence who comes from Mexico, links the high, silver voice of the creek to the legend of La Llorona, the weeping women who drowned her own children. The Menger Hotel. Probably the epicenter of haunted San Antonio stories, although the current management prefers to downplay them lest they frighten the guests. A call for comment was referred to Swartz, whose ghost tour company is headquartered adjacent to the hotel. Constructed in 1859, the Menger Hotel is said to host no fewer than 32 known spirits, according to Haunted History of Old San Antonio. These include apparitions of both King Ranch founder Capt. Richard King, who died at the hotel, and Teddy Roosevelt, who is said to have recruited many of his Rough Riders in the hotel bar. (Truth is, most already had signed on to fight in the Spanish-American War before they arrived in San Antonio for training in 1898. And Roosevelt arrived several weeks after theyd already begun their training.) As a result, the Menger is sometimes called The Most Haunted Hotel in Texas. And it just might be true. One of Swartzs favorites stories, if a story about someones death can be a favorite, involves a little girl killed when she was hit by a horse-and-carriage in the late 1800s. Shes now said to haunt the hotel lobby, Swartz said. In fact, four years ago, a photo taken of the check-in area includes the ghostly image of what might be a little girl peaking around a corner. Holiday Inn Express N-Riverwalk Area. Beneath the facade of this limited-service hotel hides an unexpected surprise. The building was at one time the Bexar County Jail. Even more creepy, the jail, built in 1879, had an indoor execution system. Prisoners were taken to the top floor and, once the noose was in place, dropped through a trap door and down two stories to their death. And at one time the century-old bars on the first-floor windows actually served to keep prisoners inside. No surprise then that some say the spirits of several prisoners have never been released. Swartz said she recently had a family on her ghost tour who suddenly looked terrified when she told that story. They were staying in the hotel when, in the middle of the night, they heard a loud bang and woke up to see a silhouette of a body hanging in the middle of their room. And remember, this happened before they heard me tell the story, Swartz reiterated. Refreshingly, the hotel doesnt shy away from its more notorious past. Theres a full page on its website headlined Spend the Night in Jail that tells the buildings notorious history. Feel a cold chill in your room? it begins. Dont remember leaving your shoes where you found them this morning? It could be nothing. But you could be sharing your suite with unexpected guests: The ghosts of a 19th century San Antonio jail. Brrr. Emily Morgan Hotel. Until 1984, this was the medical building where dozens of physicians from all different specialties practiced. So plenty of sick people went into the building, but all didnt make it out alive. Just this year, the Washington Post named it one of the 13 most haunted hotels in America. Signs the the incorporeal are among us include a cold touch, a medicinal smell, mischievous elevators, apparitions and a womans shrieks, read the story, in part. Legend has it that the buildings most haunted floors are the seventh (which housed the psychiatric ward), the ninth (surgery theaters), 14th (waiting area) and the basement (the morgue, of course). Swartz from Grimm Sisters Ghost Tours tells of another guest who had a chilling experience when she and her daughter stayed in the hotel. The woman was lying in bed while her daughter was in the bathroom with the light on. When she felt what she thought was her daughter getting into bed, she said, Hey, you forgot to turn the bathroom light off. When the daughter replied that she was still in the bathroom, the woman turned and saw what looked like a body in the bed next to her, completely covered with a blanket. When she jumped out of bed, the blanket dropped back down to the mattress, Swartz said. The next morning mother and daughter switched hotels. Unfortunately, they switched to the nearby Menger Hotel which they soon learned from their ghost tour guide was just as haunted as the Emily Morgan. rmarini@express-news.net | Twitter: @RichardMarini COMING TUESDAY: San Pedro Creek project. There has been a lot of investment on the processing side too in China and Im very pleased to see how much of the clip that is sent to China now is retained there and processed for its own fashion labels and retailing. Funeral homes often submit obituaries to the newspaper as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we are happy to accept obituaries from family members. You may use the form linked below, or you may email Jeanne Cobert at jcobert@fauquier.com or call her at 540-270-4931. Go to form I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou This book will always occupy a special slot in my bookshelf - and my heart - as it allowed me to fully devour and appreciate the wonderful writings of the phenomenal woman that was/is Maya Angelou. Theres something quite beautiful about the prose and the raw emotion that sings from each page. As a writer, I read as a writer. But Maya Angelou has the power to take me away from everything but the story and is able to seamlessly transport me to the time of segregation, unjust laws and brutal racism. It also forces me to witness the horrors of child abuse, only to leave me with a confusion which mirrors that of the young narrator. Lola Jaye The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley At the age of thirteen, this was one of the first autobiographies I had ever read and at a time when all I desired were the latest Michael Jackson and Madonna tapes. Forced into it by one of my brothers who had shrewdly decided to package it up as a birthday present, I am now ever so grateful for his foresight. This book changed everything for me. It was a rude awakening, a coming of age experience which allowed me to develop a real sense of who I was as a black child growing up in the UK. Black and British: A Forgotten History by David Olusoga This book is very important. It highlights the existence of Black People in the United Kingdom long before the much documented time of the fifties. It widens the narrow vision of a British history that black people were very much a part of. Indeed, they fought with the British during the First and Second world wars and during the third century, North African soldiers occupied the British Isles. This book is that much longed for history lesson I never had during my school days. To simply say this is an important piece of work, is an understatement. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie I read this book having just arrived in America during the summer of 2014 and at the peak of the Black Lives Matter movement. Americas long standing issues with race was now highlighted to the world as I attempted to start my life in Atlanta, home of the 50s & 60s Civil Rights movement. For the very first time, I was not a tourist, but an immigrant just like the main female lead, Ifemelu who arrives from Nigeria to live in the United States. Like her, I was not identifiable as an African American (evident as soon as I opened my mouth) and this became a talking point with almost everyone I met. Reading this novel felt like perfect timing because it contained so many references that gave me a number of aha moments. What it meant to be a black person living in America, as well as being the new girl in town were all themes that I recognised and could relate to on a personal level. Dreams of My Father by Barack Obama This is one book I wish to read slowly and over time. A book written by someone who was to become the most powerful black man in the world. Barack Obamas story is uber inspiring and all the more sweeter because it is recent history. This book and the existence of its writer, tells us that we can be anything we want to be... To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Even though I read this absolute classic more than fifty years after it was first published, it could have been written in the 21st century. The racism built into the criminal justice system is all too familiar. Yet, seen through the eyes of a white child gave it an extra layer and allowed me to feel the subtlety of Scouts shattering innocence. I was truly able to appreciate the risk Harper Lee -a writer from the deep South- took in choosing to tell this story during the 1960s. What a risk. What an outcome. Small Island by Andrea Levy I was excited with this book and to learn more about the migration of black people to post war Britain because up until that point, the information was scarce and reduced to grainy footage of families arriving on Empire Windrush back in 1948. But being the child of Nigerian immigrants meant I still lacked the knowledge of my recent history. Perhaps the seeds of my new novel Orphan Sisters were being planted as far back as when I first discovered this work. Perhaps I longed for someone to also tell the story of Nigerian Immigrants... The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot Ask any scientist and they are very likely to have worked with HeLa cells - an immortalised cell line that has been used in scientific research for decades. However, ask them who the abbreviation HeLA is named after and theyre likely to draw a blank. The name actually belongs to an African American woman named Henrietta Lacks. Her cells were taken without her permission and has led to breakthroughs in Leukemia, Parkinson's disease, Cancer, AIDS, IVF and many more. It can be argued that she is the most important woman in medical history. Yet little was or is known of Henrietta Lacks as a person; her humanness blanked out by a system that deemed her unworthy because of the colour of her skin. Kindred by Octavia Butler This book is able to marry both historical fiction and sci fi quite beautifully, throwing in a satisfying dose of black history into the pot. A time traveling black woman who is transported back to the era of the transatlantic slave trade is enough of a hook to get anyone interested. But Octavia Butler cleverly manages to explore the danger and complexity of that time in a way that also educates. Reminding us of the burden and horrors of slavery and without apology. Its also very important to remember that Octavia E. Butler was one of the first published black female sci fi writers. What an achievement! Spectacle: The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga by Pamela Newkirk Another shameful yet little known story is that of Ota Benga, a young Congolese man and a member of the Mbuti people, who was featured as an exhibit at the Bronx Zoo in 1906. His entire family and many of his people had already been wiped out thanks to the governing King Leopold II. Otas life taking yet another horrific turn when he was bought by white supremacist Samuel Phillips Verner, who then took him to America. It was there that Ota Benga spent his days sat in a cage with an orangutan, as spectators watched and pointed. This particularly shameful and least known history of African men, women and children placed in cages for amusement, is a recent past that should never, ever be forgotten. Orphan Sisters by Lola Jaye Of all the novels I have ever written Orphan Sisters contains the most about black history in the UK. I was struck by the lack of books that focused on the Black British experience, let alone that of the migration of Nigerians to the UK. My family made Britain their home during the fifties and it was important for me as a writer to document their story, which is essentially my story. In some ways this was probably why I wrote Orphan Sisters through the eyes of a child. Researching my book gave me a surge of pride, knowing that even though my parents, uncles and aunties not only faced daily hostility from the British people along with the cold weather and that yearning for home, they stuck it out. They worked hard, studied even harder and raised families. This book is for them. Orphan Sisters by Lola Jaye (Ebury Press) is out now. www.lolajaye.com Thierry Mugler has hailed his fashion house "a miracle". Thierry Mugler The 68-year-old fashion designer - who founded his eponymous label in 1974, which he stepped down from in 2003 - is proud he turned his company into a "global brand" on a very small budget, and he is honoured he has been able to work with celebrity legends throughout her career. Speaking to Elle.com, he said: "The house of Mugler was a miracle, because we did it without much money. I built a global brand, and we did things that inspired so many people. I'm proud to have helped some amazing people express themselves in new ways. "Yes, and I'm very proud of - what can I call it? - the science that we put into fashion. That special body-conscious cut that influenced the whole fashion world. Also, the idea of mixing arts on anything - on shoes, on objects, on accessories - this still inspires people. "What I appreciate most in the world is to have met and befriended incredible geniuses, like David Bowie and Cyd Charisse and Celia Cruz, who was the goddess of salsa. I saw people kneeling on the streets for her. Which they did for me in Japan. That was really embarrassing." And the French creative mastermind believes the fashion industry "need [him] badly" to return to the business. He said: "I think they need me badly. I think now it's the money who tells the artist what to do--it's not the artist who tells the money what to do. And things move very fast, which is hard, because sometimes you need more time to be creative. I guess no one has a loud mouth like I did. They don't dare to scream loudly what they think. But you can't take fashion too seriously." Though Thierry stepped down from designing almost 15 years ago he is still involved with his beauty line, and is set to release a new fragrance names Aura next year. He said: "Fashion is beautiful, 3-D art on a human being. But it wasn't enough, which is why I went on to create in other ways. For me, it wasn't the right tool anymore. But perfume still interests me." Prince Harry has reportedly been teaching Meghan Markle how to behave like a royal. Prince Harry The loved-up couple have been dating since mid-2016 and as rumours of a proposal continue to swirl, it's been claimed that the flame-haired Prince has been mentoring his girlfriend about the demands of being royalty. British writer Katie Nicholl told the New York Post newspaper: "He knows how daunting this will be for Meghan and he's keen for her to be relaxed in the company of senior royals." Meghan, 36, has already met with Queen Elizabeth and, according to Katie, he offered her advice on how she should address the British Monarch. She said: "Harry will have made sure Meghan knew how to address the queen and how to behave in her presence. "He calls her 'Granny,' but after Meghan had curtsied and called her 'Your Majesty,' she would have reverted to 'ma'am.' It seems strange to mere mortals, but it is how [Princess] Kate addresses her." Despite this, Ingrid Seward, the editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine, has warned that Meghan - who was previously married to American film producer Trevor Engelson from 2011 until 2013 - could struggle to make the adjustment. Reflecting on the challenges potentially facing Meghan as a royal, Ingrid explained: "She will always have to remember, in public at least, that she is royalty and certain behaviours are expected. "It's going to be difficult for her because she is an independent career woman who [won't] really like being told what to do." Fethiye Times News our pick of whats been going on in Fethiye and around Turkey over the last week. News Number of flights from Cardiff tripled Thomas Cook has tripled the number of flights to Turkey from Cardiff Airport for summer 2018, following a pick-up in demand for holidays to the destination this summer. A new service will be a weekly flight to Antalya, and there will be a second weekly flight to Dalaman from Cardiff. The new Antalya and Dalaman flights will operate on Fridays, starting May 4, 2018, and May 25, 2018, respectively. Spencer Birns, commercial director at Cardiff Airport, said: Its positive to see one of our valued airlines responding to requests from our customers to add more flights to Turkey. It has always been a popular destination offering excellent holiday choices, so its good to see the market beginning to grow once again. Weekly flights from Norwich They have also said they will restart their services from Norwich Airport starting summer 2018, with the launch of the citys only direct flight to Turkey. Starting May 23, 2018, Thomas Cook will operate a weekly flight on Wednesdays from Norwich to Dalaman, giving holidaymakers in the Norfolk area more choice for summer break next year. Christoph Debus, Chief Airlines Officer at Thomas Cook Airlines, said: We are delighted to once again be offering holidaymakers in the Norwich area the ease of flying from their local airport. Whether youre travelling as a family, couple or with friends, Turkey offers something for everyone and we look forward to making sure our customers have a holiday to remember next summer with the launch of our new weekly flight to Dalaman. Richard Pace, managing director of Norwich Airport, said: Its great to have Thomas Cook back at Norwich with such a brilliant offer for package holidays and flights to Turkey. Im sure this will be a popular destination for summer 2018 and gives local people even more choice for a sunshine getaway. Third most popular destination A Thomas Cook spokesperson said:Turkey has been the third most popular destination for Brits this summer. Dalaman is a cultural jewel in the heart of the Turquoise Coast that combines adrenaline-fuelled adventure with unique access to some of the countrys best historical treasures. A little further along the coast, and known as the Pearl of the Mediterranean, the resorts around Antalya combine natural beauty, buzzing beaches and archaeological gems. For more information on flights and package holidays, go to www.thomascook.com What the locals say A number of expats living in the region were interviewed by the local press about how they feel about living in Turkey. One of those was Sam Tucker (One Man Many Paths) from Fethiye. I have lived in Fethiye for 13 years. I have travelled to many countries in the world and feel safer here in Turkey than anywhere. Do not be afraid to come to Turkey. I am very happy here and I feel very safe. I have never experienced such great hospitality in any of the countries I have visited Source: The Barry GEM/ Travel News/Anadolu Agency Suprise catch for Fethiye fisherman A fisherman had to have one of his own hooks removed from his forehead after an accident during his cast. He was fishing at Cals Beach on Thursday when he mistakenly hooked himself during the backward swing of his cast. The fisherman was taken to the Devlet State Hospital where the hook was removed. Turkish Airlines to provide Braille boarding passes to visually impaired customers Turkish Airlines (THY) announced on Thursday that it will provide boarding passes written in the Braille alphabet to its visually impaired customers travelling from the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. The boarding passes will be printed by special check-in counters, which have been placed around the airports international terminals. THY has 328 aircraft, both passenger and cargo, flying to 300 destinations in 120 countries, including 251 international and 49 domestic destinations. In August, THY hit an all-time high for seat occupancy at 84.3 percent, carrying 7.4 million passengers, a 14.3 percent rise over the same month last year. Last year, the company carried 62.8 million passengers, up 2.5 percent from 61.2 million passengers in 2015 Source: Daily Sabah Protestors call for Gocek Tunnel to be free Protestors gathered in Ortaca on Wednesday to campaign against the Gocek Tunnel transit fees. They carried placards saying Gocek Tuneli Ucretsiz (Gocek Tunnel Free) and called for citizens to boycott the tunnel and use the old road. A petition set up in Fethiye, Ortaca and Koycegiz, has so far collected 70 thousand signatures. After the press release, the group disbanded without incident Source: Hurriyet.com Sport Fethiyespor Thank you to Brian Lloyd for the Fethiyespor updates Fethiyespor lost at home against Adanaspor on Tuesday evening in the Ziraat Cup match. The final score was 1-2. Fethiyespor took the lead in the 43 but went on to lose the match. Their away match against Konya Anadolu Selcukspor on Sunday afternoon was a draw. Fethiyespor were three up at half time but went on to draw when Anadolu scored three goals in the second half. The final score was 3-3. Fethiyespor remains in 13th position on the league table. The next league matches are: Sunday 5th November away against Nigde Belediyespor. Kick-off is at 13:30. Sunday November 12th at home against SBS Insaat Krklarelspor. Kick off is at 13:30. For more information about Fethiyespor please visit Fethiyespor Yabancilar on Facebook. Turkish Money Here are Turkish Lira (TL) exchange rates: The British Pound bought 4.97TL by the close of business on Friday. The week before it was selling for 4.84TL. The US Dollar bought 3.78TL by the close of business on Friday. The week before it was selling for 3.67TL. The Euro bought 4.39TL by the close of business on Friday. The week before it was selling for 4.32TL. Weather Forecast Heres your weather forecast for the week ahead. Todays featured image is by local photographer, Natalia Alpatova The International Apparel Federation's (IAF) former president Harry van Dalfsen and board member Mike Fralix were recognised for their extraordinary contribution in the positive development of the federation. Dalfsen and Fralix were honoured with the IAF Golden Pin award at the 33IAF World Fashion Convention held recently in Rio de Janeiro. Dalfsen has been the president of IAF from 2010 to 2014 and under his leadership the federation has attained an independent secretariat, financial stability, a much increased global presence and greater recognition as a representative of the global apparel industry. Fralix has also remained the chairman of the technical committee of IAF for more than 10 years now. "As such, he has been an important source of inspiration for IAF members and relations on the latest and the future technological developments impacting upon the apparel industry. Both gentlemen, in 2006, have contributed in a great way to restructuring the IAF on which further growth was based," stated a press release. The Netherlands based association is the worlds leading federation for apparel manufacturers, their associations, and the supporting industry. (RR) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India Invista has entered into a definitive agreement with Shandong Ruyi Investment Holding to sell its apparel and advanced textiles (A&AT) business, one of Invistas four major business units. Completion of the agreement, which includes Lycra brand, is subject to customary closing conditions including regulatory clearances from competition authorities. Invista will retain ownership of its nylon, polyester, polyols and licensing businesses and related brands. This includes Invistas world-leading nylon 6,6 intermediates business, its global nylon polymer and fibre portfolio, and widely recognized brands including Stainmaster, Antron carpet fibres and Cordura fabric. Invista will also retain its intellectual property rights for 1,4 butanediol, tetrahydrofuran and polytetramethylene ether glycol technologies and will continue to license these technologies on a global basis. "The apparel business has always been a strategic and valued part of our portfolio," said Jeff Gentry, Invista chairman and chief executive officer. "We engaged the market because we want this business to be owned by the company that can create the greatest value for customers, employees and stockholders. In this case, we believe that Shandong Ruyi Investment Holding has the knowledge and capability that will enable this business to thrive the most and succeed over the long term." "Invistas world-class assets and consumer-recognised brands are a perfect fit for our growing portfolio of textile-related products," said Yafu Qiu, chairman of the board of Shandong Ruyi Investment Holding. "Over the decades, the Lycra brand has transformed the apparel industry, and continues to do so today. We are committed to taking this business to the next level through continued investment in innovation and the business portfolio of consumer-recognised brands. We also see opportunity to leverage Shandong Ruyi Investment Holdings existing capabilitiesincluding our spandex manufacturing assetsto further enhance A&ATs position in the global marketplace." "We look forward to intensifying our focus on the nylon value chain," Gentry added. "For nearly 80 years, weve delivered innovations to the nylon industry, including the most advanced adiponitrile technology in the marketplace. We have talented people with decades of know-how and you can count on Invista to continue building on this heritage of leadership and innovation." "This change in ownership is an exciting time for the apparel & advanced textiles business as we look forward to continuing to develop our brands and broaden our capabilities and offerings to our customers. We look forward to working together with Shandong Ruyi Investment Holding to achieve our growth objectives now and into the future," Dave Trerotola, president of Invista A&AT, said. (RR) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India TNC Global of Greensboro and the Radici Comfort Fibres Business Area, part of Radici Group Italy, have signed a distribution agreement for the US and Canada. TNC will be responsible for both Nylon and Polyester fibre and filament yarn products. In the past, polyester products were called Noyfil. Now Nylon and Polyester will be referred to as Radici.Joey Fields, global business director of TNC, says, We are enthusiastic about working with such an estimable company in Radici. They can supply numerous specialty products that fit right in with our core customer base and for other companies that we dont work with yet. Radici has offered full commitment to the US and Canadian markets and have promised their best talent for engineering specific yarns for TNC and our customers. TNC Global of Greensboro and the Radici Comfort Fibres Business Area, part of Radici Group Italy, have signed a distribution agreement for the US and Canada. TNC will be responsible for both Nylon and Polyester fibre and filament yarn products. In the past, polyester products were called Noyfil. Now Nylon and Polyester will be referred to as Radici.# According to Marco De Silvestri, marketing director at Radici Radici Comfort Fibres business Area, the decision to appoint TNC as Distributor for US and Canada is part of Radicis strategy to offer to these key markets the due level of service; we know the professionalism of TNC and are very confident they will be a real partner for both us and our American customers. (SV) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India Worlds sixth-largest cotton producer Uzbekistan signed contracts worth more than $1 billion with companies from Russia, Turkey, South Korea, Singapore, Moldova and many other countries for the export of finished and semi-finished textile products during the recent 13th International Uzbek Cotton and Textile Fair in Tashkent.Around 1,500 experts from around 50 countries participated in the four-day fair last week that was accompanied by the 76th plenary meeting of the International Consultative Committee for Cotton (ICCC), according to Uzbek media reports. World's sixth-largest cotton producer Uzbekistan has signed contracts worth more than $1 billion with companies from Russia, Turkey, South Korea, Singapore, Moldova and many other countries for the exports of finished and semi-finished textile products during the recent 13th International Uzbek Cotton and Textile Fair that was held in Tashkent.# Uzbekistan signed contracts for the sale of textile products from 550,000 tons of cotton fibre worth more than $1.32 billion last year.The country, which grows about 3.5 million tons of raw cotton and produces 1.1 million tons of cotton fibre annually, can ensure full processing of its cotton by 2020. By 2021 the production of textile and clothing and knitted products will increase by 2.2 times compared to 2016.Uzbekistan has planned to create 112 modern, high-tech textile factories and expand, modernize and upgrade operating capacities of 20 existing ones. (DS) Fibre2Fashion News Desk India Company to Facilitate Dialogue on Transparency at Sustainable Brands Copenhagen RACINE, Wisconsin, Oct. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --As consumers continue to lose trust in business*, companies are being held to higher standards for disclosing the ingredients in their products. Building on its legacy and leadership in ingredient transparency, SC Johnson will come together with a panel of experts from Harvard University, GlobeScan, Marks and Spencer plc and Edie.net for an interactive discussion on the opportunities and challenges for transparency and how it affects consumer trust. The open dialogue will take place Tuesday, Oct. 31, in the Good Homes Innovation Lab at the 2017 Sustainable Brands conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. "We believe that transparency is a critical way to earn consumer trust," said Kelly M. Semrau, Senior Vice President - Global Corporate Affairs, Communication and Sustainability at SC Johnson. "Research, and our conversations with consumers and stakeholders around the world, show a clear and growing desire for companies to provide more information about what goes into their products and why. We go beyond what is required and make this information available because it's the right thing to do." In line with insights being seen across other parts of the world, a recent survey** conducted by SC Johnson found that 85 percent of Nordic consumers believe that household cleaning product companies should disclose more about the ingredients in their products. The survey also revealed that 58 percent conduct their household cleaning product research while they are shopping, underscoring the need for companies to make the information easily accessible via mobile devices. SC Johnson has undertaken several initiatives globally to provide more and more information on the ingredients in its products - from where and how they are used to allergens that may occur. The company's transparency website, WhatsInsideSCJohnson.com, lists easy-to-access and easy-to-understand information for more than 5,300 SC Johnson products sold in 52 countries worldwide. SC Johnson Transparency Journey SC Johnson began its transparency journey by launching its WhatsInsideSCJohnson.com ingredient website in 2009. The website offers consumers unparalleled access to a comprehensive list of product ingredients for such iconic brands as Glade Pledge OFF! Raid Windex Mr Muscle Scrubbing Bubbles and Ziploc In 2012, it added a comprehensive list of fragrance ingredients used in its products. The SC Johnson Exclusive Fragrance Palette excludes about 2,400 ingredients that don't meet the company's high standards even though they meet industry standards and are legal in commerce. In 2015, working closely with fragrance houses, SC Johnson added to its website product-specific fragrance disclosure. Consumers with questions can find on WhatsInsideSCJohnson.com the list of fragrances in individual SC Johnson products, across its categories. In 2016, the company expanded its disclosure program to Europe. In 2017, the program rolled out across Asia with Latin America to follow next year. In 2017, SC Johnson broke additional ground announcing its plans to disclose, on a product-specific basis, the presence of 368 skin allergens that may occur in its products. The list of these allergens has already been published on WhatsInsideSCJohnson.com, and by 2018, the site will list the allergens when contained in a product. The recent survey** conducted by SC Johnson of more than 1,000 people across Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden found that 88 percent would like to know the list of allergens in their household cleaning products, information that SC Johnson is already providing. With this initiative, the company goes well above and beyond regulatory and industry standards, including those in the European Union, when it comes to allergen disclosure. SC Johnson at Sustainable Brands Copenhagen For those attending the Sustainable Brands conference in Copenhagen, SC Johnson and thought leaders, including a panel of experts, will come together in an interactive and engaging discussion on the opportunities and challenges for leadership in transparency. The session, which is part of the conference's Good Homes Innovation Lab, will take place in the Norway Room at the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel Tuesday, Oct. 31, from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. During the session, SC Johnson will discuss results from their recent consumer survey. 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 WINDEXand ZIPLOCin the U.S. and beyond, with brands marketed outside the U.S. including AUTAN TANA BAMA BAYGON BRISE KABIKILLER KLEAR MR MUSCLEand 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 Sustainable Brands Sustainable Brandsis the premier global community of brand innovators who are shaping the future of commerce worldwide. Since 2006, our mission has been to inspire, engage and equip today's business and brand leaders to prosper for the near and long term by leading the way to a better future. Digitally published news articles and issues-focused conversation topics, internationally known conferences and regional events, a robust e-learning library and peer-to-peer membership groups all facilitate community learning and engagement throughout the year. Sustainable Brands is hosted by Sustainable Brands Worldwide, a division of Sustainable Life Media headquartered in San Francisco, CA. *2017 Edelman Trust Barometer study: https://www.edelman.com/news/2017-edelman-trust-barometer-reveals-global-implosion/ **SC Johnson commissioned Edelman Intelligence to conduct an online survey of adults across four Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. This survey was fielded between September 12-27, 2017. The margin of error for this study (n=1,002) is +/-3.1% at the 95% confidence level. Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/592296/SCL_logo_800_x_246.jpg WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Puerto Rico's governor said he would cancel a $300 million reconstruction contract with a little-known Montana energy firm after the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had 'significant concerns' about the deal. Gov. Ricardo Rossello announced the cancellation in a press conference at the governor's mansion, two days after FEMA expressed concern with the decision by Puerto Rico's power authority to award the contract to Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC. 'I petitioned the board of Prepa to invoke the cancellation clause. There is some ongoing work that needs to be finished, but I am invoking that cancellation clause.' The controversy over the contract terms had become a distraction that 'is interfering with everything,' the governor said Sunday. Whitefish Energy Holdings said, 'We are very disappointed in the decision by Governor Rossello to ask PREPA to cancel the contract which led to PREPA's announcement this afternoon. The decision will only delay what the people of Puerto Rico want and deserve - to have the power restored quickly in the same manner their fellow citizens on the mainland experience after a natural disaster. We will certainly finish any work that PREPA wants us to complete and stand by our commitments knowing that we made an important contribution to the restoration of the power grid since our arrival on the island on October 2.' Whitefish Energy said, 'The decision by PREPA to move quickly and our ability to mobilize immediately exceeded all other efforts by other parties. In less than a month we brought 350 workers with specific expertise in this task and were on track to have more than 500 linemen on the island by this week if allowed to continue. We also brought over 600 pieces and 2,500 tons of equipment, including 400 trucks, cranes and excavators, as well as five helicopters.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Joseph Hood, PR Manager Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. Email: mhi-pr@mhi.co.jp Tel: +81-(0)3-6716-2168 Fax: +81-(0)3-6716-5860 TOKYO, Oct 30, 2017 - (JCN Newswire) - PGNiG TERMIKA S.A. and the consortium Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Ltd., Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe GmbH, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe Ltd. and Polimex-Mostostal S.A. today laid the foundation stone for the new combined cycle power plant (CCPP) at the Zeran CHP Plant in Warsaw. This event, which was attended by Polish Deputy Minister of Energy Andrzej Pietrowski, Minister of Environment Jan Szyszko and other guests of honor, marks the official start of the power plant construction.The new plant (capacity: 490 MWe) to be constructed will be the most modern combined cycle power plant (CCPP) in the country. It will be equipped with a F-class gas turbine with a heat recovery steam generator and a steam turbine. Following the construction, the exhausted coal-fired boilers Zeran CHP Plant in Warsaw will be taken out of service and the new generating unit will allow increasing the electricity generation in the CHP Plant by approximately 80 percent. The plant parameters will allow maintaining generation capacity at a level ensuring heat supply to the Warsaw district heat system while retaining heat prices competitiveness for the inhabitants of Warsaw."Our customer gets one of the most efficient and reliable gas-fired power plants available on the worldwide market", emphasized Yasuo Fujitani, Senior Executive Vice President of Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Ltd. (MHPS) based in Yokohama, during the ceremony. "The team at MHPS will make every effort to make the Zeran combined-cycle power plant project a success."Satoshi Uchida, CEO of MHPS Europe, added: "With Zeran, we are introducing MHPS's excellent gas turbines and combined-cycle power plant technology to the Polish market. Today, MHPS is the number one global leader in Advanced Class Gas Turbine Technology with over 940 units on order or in operation. Customer satisfaction is one of our main targets and we want to achieve this target also in the Zeran project."Poland is especially important for Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems. The 1,100 MW coal-fired power plant in Kozienice was the first big step of MHPS into the Polish power market. This highly efficient power plant will be commissioned by the end of 2017.The company's second major turn-key order was the design and erection of the lignite-fired power plant in Turow. This power plant will be worldwide the first of its kind that fulfils the ambitious emission limits of the new European BAT/BREF directive. This is another good example how much our clients in Poland value our most modern technology and the best available flue gas cleaning technologies.Construction of the new CCPP in the Zeran CHP Plant will be carried out in the EPC (Engineering, Procurement, Construction) formula. Handover of the plant for operation is scheduled for 2020. A long term service agreement (LTSA) for the turbine section is included in the overall contract. The LTSA is the first major order for MHPS of this kind in Poland.Plant performance:net electric power output - 490 MWemaximum thermal power output - 326 MWtAbout Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd.Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (MHPS), headquartered in Yokohama, Japan, is a joint venture formed in February 2014 by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and Hitachi, Ltd. integrating their operations in thermal power generation systems and other related businesses. MHPS today ranks among the world's leading suppliers of equipment and services to the power generation market, backed by 100 billion yen in capital and approximately 20,000 employees worldwide. The Company's products include GTCC (gas turbine combined-cycle) and IGCC (integrated coal gasification combined-cycle) power plants, conventional gas/coal/oil-fired (thermal) power plants, boilers, generators, gas and steam turbines, geothermal power plants, AQCS (air quality control systems), power plant peripheral equipment, digital solutions and solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFC). For more information, please visit the Company's website at https://www.mhps.com/en/index.htmlAbout Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe, Ltd.Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Europe Ltd. headquartered in London, a subsidiary of globally operating Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd., designs, constructs and provides long-term maintenance and parts supply for thermal power plants. The plant constructor also supplies key components such as utility steam generators, environmental engineering systems and turbines. As market and technology leader, e.g. in utility steam generators, MHPS Europe places its trust in state-of-the-art, environmentally compatible and efficient plants. With key bases in UK and Germany, branches and subsidiaries throughout the region, the company has a workforce of approx. 1,700.About Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd.Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd. (MHPS) was formed on February 1 2014, integrating the thermal power generation systems businesses of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and Hitachi, Ltd. in a quest to further enhance their social response capabilities in all respects. These include the technological strength to create new products of outstanding quality and reliability, the comprehensive strength in engineering to oversee projects in regions across the globe, and finely honed sales and after-sale servicing capabilities. MHPS aims to come out a winner in global competition and achieve a solid position as a world leader in thermal power generation systems and environmental technologies. For more information, please visit www.mhps.com.Source: Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Ltd.Contact:Copyright 2017 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. Leading the Industry on the Trend to Industry 4.0 SHANGHAI, Oct. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The biennial signature event of textile industry in China - The 18th Shanghai International Exhibition on Textile Industry (ShanghaiTex 2017) will be held at Shanghai New International Expo Centerfrom 27- 30 November, 2017. ShanghaiTex 2017 will unveil a parade of "Textile for Smarter Future" with the foothold on China and global vision, accommodating over 1,200 exhibitors. The expected 103,500+ sqmexhibiting area covers 5 thematic zones: Spinning & Techtextile Machinery, Weaving Machinery, Knitting & Hosiery Machinery, Printing/Dyeing/Finishing/Digital Printing Machinery, and Spare Parts & Accessories. Textile industry is undergoing a revolution in technology and production. ShanghaiTex 2017 brings together technical seminars, networking events as well as new product & technology releases, offering industry players an effective technological exchange and learning platform. Hot topics include: Textile Industry 4.0 Forum The Textile Challenge: Finding Denim The Sports Bra-ology Wearable Technology X Textile Design Competition: Final & Award Ceremony Denim Mastermind Seminar Buyer's Forum: MARKS & SPENCER- Plan A 2025 Smart Textile Innovation Forum Megatrends in Digital Printing The Evolution of Sports Shoe Tech Being the most established and professional textile machinery exhibition of its kind in China since 1984, ShanghaiTex has won the affirmation and support of industry professionals by its rich experience, wide coverage, abundant resources, and significant effect. Many renowned buyers have confirmed to participate, including Marks & Spencer, Nike, H&M, GAP, VFC, TUMI, etc. ShanghaiTex 2017 has gained active support from numerous textile and garment associations from Mainland China,including Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, etc., who will also visit the show. In order to provide a better experience to industry players, on-site business matching service will be set up to line up buyers with machinery manufacturers, traders, brands or OEMs based on their purchasing needs, so as to create enormous business opportunities for both parties. One month to go, visitors can now pre-register & sign up for the concurrent events at www.ShanghaiTex.cn on/before 23 November 2017. Show Information The 18th Shanghai International Exhibition on Textile Industry (ShanghaiTex 2017) Date: 27- 30 November 2017 Venue: Shanghai New International Expo Centre Address: 2345 Long Yang Road, Pudong, Shanghai, PR China Expo Hours: 27- 29 November, 09:30- 17:30 30 November, 09:30- 15:00 For more information, please contact: Luyi Zhao +86-21-6279-2828 zhaoluyi@siec-ccpit.com Championed by company president, Cris Burnam, StorageMart welcomes Rhys Peck and James Dale of the Colchester self storage centre as the first English team inaugurated into the "Wall of Fame" for their outstanding dedication to easy, clean, quality service. BRIGHTON, England, Oct. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --Rhys Peck and James Dale became the first team members in the United Kingdom inducted into the StorageMart "Wall of Fame". The award recognizes StorageMart staff who exemplify the company's core values: easy, clean, service. Photo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/592568/StorageMart_Wall_of_Fame.jpg Photo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/592569/StorageMart_Store_Front.jpg During a recent visit to the self storage facility in Colchester, Cris Burnam, president at StorageMart, acknowledged the management team for maintaining a spotlessly clean property. Mr. Burnam awarded Mr. Peck and Mr. Dale each a "Wall of Fame" service pin and their signatures will be hung on the Wall of Fame wall at StorageMart headquarters in Columbia, MO. Mr. Burnam said of his visit, "StorageMart asked a lot of our UK team when we purchased Big Box Storage Centre and raised the bar for customer service and cleanliness. By and large, our team members have embraced our commitment to service. Rhys and James stood out as having gone the extra mile, turning the Colchester storage facility into a top-notch property. It's my pleasure to recognize and thank them for the hard work they've done." Mr. Peck has worked at the Colchester storage location since it opened, at that time operated as Big Box Storage Centre. Mr. Dale joined the team in January of 2017. Together, the team has played a key role in transforming the facility under the rebranded StorageMart name and embraced their pledge to provide excellent service. Debbie Robinson, regional manager in the United Kingdom, said of the Colchester team, "Both Rhys and James have a strong sense of pride and ownership over the store cleanliness and performance and manage to have a lot of fun along the way." StorageMart's promise to provide quality service extends to customers and the local community. The company's charitable initiative, coined "Store It Forward" supports local charities through sponsorship and storage donation. About StorageMart StorageMart started as a single store inColumbia, Missouriand has grown to be the largest privately-owned, family-operated storage company in the world with more than 196 self-branded, high-quality properties throughout the US,Canada, and UK. StorageMart is led by the Burnam family, which has been in the storage industry for three generations. Dedicated to providing easy, clean, and friendly service to each and every customer, StorageMart is also committed to giving back to the many communities it calls home. In 2016, the company donated more than142,000to charities, in addition to donating over350,000in free rent to local organizations. Find out more atwww.storage-mart.com. Media Contact Sarah Little Marketing Director sarah.little@storage-mart.com +1 01 573 449 0091 Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/592567/StorageMart_logo_Logo.jpg LONDON, October 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- TheKingdom of Morocco's Ministry of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Developmenthas confirmedsupportfortwo conferencesfocusing on gas and renewables inCasablanca this November. Withconfirmedparticipation from Honourable Minister Aziz Rabbah,theNorth & West Africa GasOptions Conferencewill assemble public sector leaders, IOCs, infrastructure developers, investors and IPP developers alongside major national, international and multilateral banks to discuss investment opportunities in Africa's energy sector. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/544384/EnergyNet_Logo.jpg ) "With decreased project assurance across the continent,we're awarethatinvestors need to broaden their portfolios and it is with this inmindthat these co-located events:Gas Options -North&West Africaand theAfrica Renewable Energy Forumwilltakeplace inMoroccofrom 29thNovember to 1stDecember,"commented EnergyNet's Programme Manager Valeria Aruffo. "Together they willprovidedevelopers and gas players aplatformto connect with credible stakeholders, buildnewpartnerships andunderstandthe excitingrole Moroccansand their African partnersacross the regions will play in the coming yearsas billions of dollars are pumped into theseeconomies." The Honourable Minister Rabbah will open the conferences with a keynote speech, going on to explore potential financing bottlenecks in Morocco's gas and renewable energy strategy. Alongside partnersRoyal Dutch Shell, Karpowership, ACWA Power, DLA Piper, DBSA, Engie, Fieldstone Africa, Warsila, White & Case, Jinko Solar,Clarke EnergyandCheniere, African governmental figures will attend fromThe Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, South Africa,Ethiopia,MauritiusandZimbabwe. DFI representation fromIFC,World Bank,Africa50andOPICwill be present to showcase financing opportunities and bankable projects. Gathering enterprises from across the globe, Abu Dhabi's renewable energy company,MasdarClean Energyand one of India's biggest business houses,AdaniSolutionswill also push the frontier of energy solutions at the summits. TheNorth & West AfricaGas OptionsSummit will explore the evolution of the global gas market as a catalyst for industrial growth for the region, linking with Europe and the development of gas-to-power projects within the ECOWAS and Maghreb regions. In addition to regional gas infrastructure projects, the programme will discuss gas utilisation for the downstream sectors and the positive impact the North & West Africa gas economy will have on the ECOWAS region. Frederik Smits van Oyen, Cheniere's Vice-President, Origination and Marketing of the EMEA regions commented,"Cheniere is looking forward to the North&West Africa Gas Options conference;it'sa great platform for stakeholders topromotesustainable, complementary energy solutions thatprovideeconomic prosperity in the region." TheAfrica Renewable Energy Forum (ARF)will explore the role of renewable energy in achieving a sustainable energy mix by delving into the financing of clean energy projects. The clear appetite for investments in renewable IPP projects means that the focused dialogue around bankable projects at ARF will support both investors and governments in better formulating an integrated strategy. Venue:Hyatt Regency, Casablanca, Morocco Event organisers:EnergyNet Ltd., a part of Clarion Events For press and media enquiries, please contactMonique.Bonnick@energynet.co.uk For more information about these meeting: Gas Options: North & West Africa 29-30 November 2017 www.gasoptions-nwafrica.com go-nwa@energynet.co.uk Africa Renewable Energy Forum 30 November-1 December 2017 www.africa-renewable-energy-forum.com arf@energynet.co.uk Monique Bonnick Monique.bonnick@energynet.co.uk +44(0)20-7384-7901 VANCOUVER, British Columbia, 2017-10-30 10:00 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Standard Lithium Ltd.("Standard Lithium" or the "Company") (TSX-V:SLL) (FRA:S5L) (OTCQX:STLHF) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding ("MoU"), with TETRA Technologies, Inc., a NYSE-listed company ("TETRA") to secure access to additional operating and permitted land consisting of approximately 12,100 acres in Bristol Dry Lake, and up to 11,840 acres in the adjacent Cadiz Dry Lake, Mojave Desert, California. As a result, the Company now has access to approximately 48,000 acres of mixed private, patented and placer claim land in the Bristol Dry Lake and Cadiz Dry Lake basins that allows for exclusive lithium brine exploration and processing. The new MoU with TETRA allows for the exclusive right to negotiate and conduct exploration activities and to enter into a mineral lease to allow exploration and production activities for lithium extraction on property held under longstanding mining claims and permits by TETRA (transaction terms described below). In connection with the entering into of the MoU, and in support of the transaction with TETRA, the Company has made a non-refundable deposit of US$100,000. Standard Lithium CEO, Robert Mintak said, "Since day one we have recognized the bigger opportunity with respect to expanding the resource base and strengthening project economics at Bristol Dry Lake by securing the rights for lithium development over the entire basin. By inking an agreement with TETRA, the only other permitted operator in the area, we have now effectively achieved that. This is a significant and strategic move for Standard, but has only been made possible by the excellent relationships we have developed with the permitted brine operators in the region. Gaining access to the adjacent Cadiz Dry Lake operating project is an additional benefit to our relationship with TETRA." TETRA currently operates two passive solar evaporation plants in the Mojave Desert area of San Bernardino County, California, which produce liquid calcium chloride from underground brine reserves that are pumped to the surface. The Bristol Dry Lake project is currently permitted for brine extraction and processing activities, has significant production infrastructure in place and is serviced by major highways, power and a dedicated rail siding and loading spur. The Cadiz Dry Lake Property is located approximately 20 km southeast of the Bristol Dry Lake Property and brings the Company's total project opportunity in the Mojave Desert to approximately 48,000 acres. Dr. Andy Robinson, President and COO of Standard Lithium said, "Three initial grab samples of brine from wells at Cadiz show lithium concentrations in pumped brine ranging between 112 to 139 mg/L. These concentrations from relatively shallow wells suggests that there is a potentially significant lithium brine deposit present in the Cadiz Dry Lake basin. Our technical team is currently performing due-diligence on all available data for the Cadiz Dry Lake basin and will be laying out a plan for new data collection over the coming months. Additional investigation of TETRA's properties in both Bristol Dry Lake and Cadiz Dry Lake will be performed concurrently with our existing resource definition program, and as such, we should be able to significantly expand our resource base as we move towards producing maiden lithium resource estimates for the Mojave projects." Transaction Terms - Option Agreement Under the terms of the MoU, the parties have agree to negotiate a definitive option agreement (the "Option Agreement") which will provide Standard Lithium with a period of six (6) years to conduct brine exploration activities (the "Option Period") on the Bristol Dry Lake Property and/or the Cadiz Dry Lake Property. If during the Option Period, Standard Lithium elects to conduct exploration activities on both Properties, the Company will be required to make a series of cash payments and share issuances to TETRA which will be set forth in the Option Agreement. Any such payments or share issuances will be adjusted in the event the Option Agreement includes only one of the Properties. Lease Agreement & Royalty In accordance with the terms of the MoU, at any time during the Option Period, Standard Lithium has the right to exercise the Option, following which the Company and TETRA would negotiate and enter into a lease granting Standard Lithium a period of thirty (30) years of commercial production of lithium from brine produced by the Properties and subject to an annual royalty on the gross revenue derived by Standard Lithium from the sale of lithium resulting from the brine produced from the Properties. Definitive Documentation Standard Lithium's right to conduct exploration activities on the Properties remains subject to the negotiation and finalization of a definitive Option Agreement. Any share issuances contemplated by such an Option Agreement will be subject to the approval of the TSX Venture Exchange and would be subject to statutory restrictions on resale. Quality Assurance Raymond Spanjers, Certified Professional Geologist (SME No. 3041730), is a qualified person as defined by NI 43-101, and has supervised the preparation of the scientific and technical information that forms the basis for this news release. Mr. Spanjers is not independent of the Company as he is an officer in his role as Vice President, Exploration and Development. About Standard Lithium Standard's value creation strategy encompasses acquiring a diverse and highly prospective portfolio of large-scale domestic brine resources, led by an innovative and results-oriented management team with a strong focus on technical skills. The Company is currently focused on the immediate exploration and development of the Bristol Dry Lake Lithium Project located in the Mojave region of San Bernardino County, California; the location has significant infrastructure in-place, with easy road and rail access, abundant electricity and water sources, and is already permitted for extensive brine extraction and processing activities. The Company is also commencing resource evaluation on 33,000 acres of brine leases located in the Smackover Formation. Standard Lithium is listed on the TSX Venture under the trading symbol "SLL"; quoted on the OTCQX under the symbol "STLHF"; and on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "S5L". Please visit the Company's website at www.standardlithium.com. For further information, contact Anthony Alvaro at 604.240.4793. On behalf of the Board, Standard Lithium Ltd. Robert Mintak, CEO & Director Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. This news release may contain certain "Forward-Looking Statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. When used in this news release, the words "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect", "target, "plan", "forecast", "may", "schedule" and other similar words or expressions identify forward-looking statements or information. These forward-looking statements or information may relate to future prices of commodities, accuracy of mineral or resource exploration activity, reserves or resources, regulatory or government requirements or approvals, the reliability of third party information, continued access to mineral properties or infrastructure, fluctuations in the market for lithium and its derivatives, changes in exploration costs and government regulation in Canada and the United States, and other factors or information. Such statements represent the Company's current views with respect to future events and are necessarily based upon a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by the Company, are inherently subject to significant business, economic, competitive, political and social risks, contingencies and uncertainties. Many factors, both known and unknown, could cause results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements that are or may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements or information to reflect changes in assumptions or changes in circumstances or any other events affections such statements and information other than as required by applicable laws, rules and regulations. Neither the Company, nor TETRA Technologies makes any representations as to the value of lease rights associated with TETRA Technologies Bristol Dry Lake and or Cadiz Dry Lake mineral claims (the "Properties"), the availability of any particular resource or minerals on the Properties, or the merits of any proposed exploration work to be completed on the Properties. TETRA Technologies expressly disclaims any responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of disclosure made by the Company in respect of the Properties. Readers are cautioned that a "Qualified Person" (as that term is defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects) has not done sufficient work to specify any mineral resource or reserve on the Properties. Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de - Drilling highlights include 122m @ 0.79%CuT and 62m @ 0.90%CuT Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - January 17, 2018) - Coro Mining Corp. ("Coro" or the "Company") (TSX: COP) is pleased to announce the results of the final 26 reverse circulation (RC) holes from the infill drill program completed at its Marimaca copper project, located 22km E of the port of Mejillones in the II Region of Chile, (Figs. 1 & 2). Together with the previously released results from Marimaca (November 9, December 5, and December 22, 2017), Coro has now published the results of all holes in the program. "These results complete the drilling for an updated Marimaca resource estimate and Definitive Feasibility Study that is underway," commented Coro President and CEO, Luis Tondo. "Results from the exploration RC holes completed at La Atomica and NE Marimaca, together with assays from six diamond drill holes completed for geotechnical purposes will be released shortly." Drilling Results Results are shown on Table 1 where %CuT means total copper. Drill hole locations are shown on Fig 3. Drill collar coordinates are shown on Table 2. Table 1: Intersections Hole TD From To m %CuT Type MAR-77 200m 106 138 32 0.46 Oxide and 174 200 26 0.69 Enriched MAR-79 200m 70 116 46 0.47 Oxide and 116 136 20 0.67 Mixed 170 184 14 0.82 Mixed MAR-88 150m 64 100 36 1.11 Oxide MAR-89 150m 24 92 68 0.37 Oxide MAR-90 200m 64 130 66 0.42 Oxide and 130 150 20 0.37 Mixed MAR-93 200m 34 64 30 1.00 Oxide and 94 106 12 0.95 Oxide MAR-94 200m 6 106 100 0.34 Oxide MAR-95 150m 64 90 26 0.35 Oxide MAR-96 150m 48 110 62 0.90 Oxide MAR-97 150m No Significant Results MAR-98 100m 6 30 24 0.44 Oxide MAR-99 150m 54 68 14 0.55 Oxide MAR-100 150m 6 30 24 0.53 Oxide MAR-101 150m 4 18 14 0.42 Oxide and 22 60 38 0.48 Oxide MAR-102 150m 0 46 46 0.60 Oxide and 58 136 78 0.49 Oxide MAR-103 150m 48 82 34 0.55 Oxide MAR-104 150m No Significant Results MAR-105 150m No Significant Results MAR-106 200m 48 170 122 0.79 Oxide MAR-107 300m 42 60 18 0.75 Oxide and 84 122 38 0.64 Oxide 122 134 12 1.60 Mixed 208 246 38 0.35 Mixed 256 292 36 0.39 Mixed MAR-108 250m 90 150 60 0.31 Mixed and 170 184 14 1.50 Oxide MAR-109 250m 90 136 46 0.92 Mixed MAR-110 300m 152 160 8 1.28 Oxide MAR-111 150m No Significant Results MAR-118 350m 0 98 98 0.40 Oxide and 142 258 116 0.45 Oxide MAR-119 300m 0 64 64 0.66 Oxide and 114 158 44 0.48 Oxide 175 194 18 0.47 Mixed 236 244 8 1.06 Oxide 270 298 28 0.35 Mixed True widths cannot be determined with the information available at this time. Coro RC holes were sampled on a 2 metre continuous basis, with dry samples riffle split on site and one quarter sent to the Andes Analytical Assay preparation laboratory in Calama and the pulps then sent to the same company's laboratory in Santiago for assaying. A second quarter was stored on site for reference. Samples were prepared using the following standard protocol: drying; crushing to better than 85% passing -10#; homogenizing; splitting; pulverizing a 500-700g subsample to 95% passing -150#; and a 125g split of this sent for assaying. All samples were assayed for CuT (total copper), CuS (acid soluble copper), CuCN (cyanide soluble copper) by AAS and for acid consumption. A full QA/QC program, involving insertion of appropriate blanks, standards and duplicates was employed with acceptable results. Pulps and sample rejects are stored by Coro for future reference. Sergio Rivera, Vice President of Exploration, Coro Mining Corp, a geologist with more than 33 years of experience and a member of the Colegio de Geologos de Chile and of the Instituto de Ingenieros de Minas de Chile, was responsible for the design and execution of the exploration program and is the Qualified Person for the purposes of NI 43-101. Alan Stephens, FIMMM, Executive Director of Coro Mining Corp, a geologist with more than 42 years of experience, and a Qualified Person for the purposes of NI 43-101, is responsible for the contents of this news release. Fig 1: Location of Marimaca Cannot view Fig 1? Please visit http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2332/32057_a1516139957992_16.jpg to view this image Fig 2: Marimaca Claim Map To view an enhanced version of Fig 2, please visit: http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2332/32057_a1516139958008_67.jpg Fig 2: Marimaca Drill Plan Cannot view Fig 2? Please visit http://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2332/32057_a1516139958274_99.jpg to view this image Table 2: Drill Collars Hole Easting Northing Elevation Azimuth Inclination Depth MAR-77 374845.64 7435655.16 1133.565 310 -60 200 MAR-79 374883.75 7435621.51 1126.270 310 -60 200 MAR-88 374799.90 7435428.31 1065.892 220 -60 150 MAR-89 374844.16 7435393.70 1063.870 220 -60 150 MAR-90 374840.50 7435396.72 1064.061 310 -60 200 MAR-93 375190.91 7435114.32 1054.606 220 -60 150 MAR-94 375185.11 7435114.91 1054.326 310 -60 200 MAR-95 374808.94 7435362.27 1061.826 220 -60 150 MAR-96 374805.97 7435367.54 1061.618 310 -60 150 MAR-97 374830.12 7435333.37 1065.364 310 -60 150 MAR-98 374851.41 7435351.80 1059.431 220 -60 100 MAR-99 374923.77 7435265.59 1037.956 310 -60 150 MAR-100 374926.80 7435263.87 1038.017 220 -60 150 MAR-101 375054.54 7435172.63 1046.476 220 -60 150 MAR-102 375047.60 7435175.92 1046.811 310 -60 150 MAR-103 375179.28 7435044.70 1046.672 310 -60 150 MAR-104 374879.98 7435225.98 1052.945 310 -60 150 MAR-105 374961.51 7435159.08 1024.055 310 -60 150 MAR-106 375059.60 7435346.51 1053.307 220 -60 200 MAR-107 375056.74 7435344.64 1053.493 310 -60 300 MAR-108 375097.07 7435382.27 1064.472 220 -60 250 MAR-109 375091.49 7435388.91 1064.478 310 -60 250 MAR-110 375143.02 7435431.12 1080.283 310 -60 300 MAR-111 375145.70 7435426.43 1080.272 220 -60 150 MAR-118 374816.25 7435538.25 1106.088 310 -60 350 MAR-119 374824.20 7435532.68 1106.510 220 -60 300 About Coro Mining Corp.: Coro's strategy is to grow a mining business through the discovery, development and operation projects at any stage of development, which are well located with respect to infrastructure and water, have low permitting risk, and have the potential to achieve a short and cost effective timeline to production. The Company's preference is for open pit heap leach copper projects, where minimizing capital investment and creating profitability are priorities and, where the likely capital cost is financeable relative to the Company's market capitalization. The Company's assets include the Marimaca development project; its 65% interest in the SCM Berta company, which owns the Berta mine and Nora plant and the Llancahue prospect. For further information: Contact Naomi Nemeth, VP Communications/IR at +1 (647) 556 1023, +1 (604) 682 5546, Toll free +1 877 702 2676 or nnemeth@coromining.com Visit our website site at www.coromining.com Email us at investor.info@coromining.com Follow us on Twitter @coromining1 This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Such forward-looking statements or information, include but are not limited to timing of future results and further programs. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which are beyond Coro's ability to predict or control and may cause Coro's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any of its future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, but are not limited to, the completion of assays and drill rig availability. Such forward-looking statements are also based on a number of assumptions which may prove to be incorrect, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be evaluated, as well as those factors disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time with the securities regulators in the Provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Coro undertakes no obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements contained herein whether as a result of new information or future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. GUILDFORD, ENGLAND -- (Marketwired) -- 10/30/17 -- ANGLE plc (AIM: AGL) (OTCQX: ANPCY) AIM:AGL OTCQX:ANPCY For immediate release 30 October 2017 ANGLE plc ("the Company") Result of General Meeting ANGLE plc (AIM:AGL OTCQX:ANPCY), a world-leading liquid biopsy company, is pleased to announce that further to the announcement of 5 October 2017, the Resolutions put to Shareholders at the General Meeting earlier today were duly passed. Completion of the Acquisition, Placing and General Subscription are conditional on admission of the EIS/VCT Placing Shares becoming effective at 8.00 a.m. on 31 October 2017 ("EIS/VCT Admission") and Admission of the General Placing Shares and General Subscription Shares becoming effective at 8.00 a.m. on 1 November 2017 ("General Admission"). Completion of the Acquisition is conditional on General Admission, with the Company having received approval of the transaction by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on 19 October 2017. The Covington Subscription remains conditional upon, inter alia, Completion, General Admission and Covington Admission at 8.00 a.m. on 16 November 2017. With effect from Admission of the Placing Shares and General Subscription Shares, the Company will have 112,507,353 Ordinary Shares in issue, with no shares held in treasury. Shareholders may use this figure as the denominator by which they are required to notify their interest in, or change to their interest in, the Company under the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules. Following his subscription for 114,286 Ordinary Shares pursuant to the General Subscription, Ian Griffiths, Finance Director of the Company, will have a beneficial interest in 673,832 Ordinary Shares representing approximately 0.60 per cent of the issued share capital following General Admission. Capitalised terms not otherwise defined in this announcement shall have the same meaning ascribed to such terms in the announcement entitled "Acquisition and Fundraising" released on 5 October 2017 unless the context requires otherwise. For further information ANGLE: ANGLE plc +44 (0) 1483 343434 Andrew Newland, Chief Executive Ian Griffiths, Finance Director finnCap Ltd (NOMAD and Joint Broker) +44 (0) 207 220 0500 Corporate Finance - Adrian Hargrave, Simon Hicks, Kate Bannatyne Corporate Broking - Alice Lane, Nikita Jain WG Partners (Joint Broker) +44 (0) 203 705 9330 Nigel Barnes, Nigel Birks, Andrew Craig, Chris Lee FTI Consulting Simon Conway, Mo Noonan, Stephanie Cuthbert +44 (0) 203 727 1000 Kimberly Ha (US) +1 212 850 5612 Notes for editors About ANGLE plc www.angleplc.com ANGLE is a world-leading liquid biopsy company commercialising a disruptive platform technology that can capture cells circulating in blood, such as cancer cells, even when they are as rare in number as one cell in one billion blood cells, and harvest the cells for analysis. ANGLE's cell separation technology is called the Parsortix system and it enables a liquid biopsy (simple blood test) to be used to provide the cells of interest. Parsortix is the subject of granted patents in Europe, the United States, Canada, India, China, Japan and Australia and three extensive families of patents are being progressed worldwide. The system is based on a microfluidic device that captures live cells based on a combination of their size and compressibility. Parsortix has a CE Mark for Europe and FDA authorisation is in process for the United States. ANGLE has established formal collaborations with world-class cancer centres. These Key Opinion Leaders are working to identify applications with medical utility (clear benefit to patients), and to secure clinical data that demonstrates that utility in patient studies. Details are available here http://www.angleplc.com/the-company/collaborators/ The analysis of the cells that can be harvested from patient blood with ANGLE's Parsortix system has the potential to help deliver personalised cancer care offering profound improvements in clinical and health economic outcomes in the treatment and diagnosis of various forms of cancer. The global increase in cancer to a 1 in 3 lifetime incidence is set to drive a multi-billion dollar clinical market. The Parsortix system is designed to be compatible with existing major medtech analytical platforms and to act as a companion diagnostic for major pharma in helping to identify patients that will benefit from a particular drug and then monitoring the drug's effectiveness. As well as cancer, the Parsortix technology has the potential for deployment with several other important cell types in the future. ANGLE stock trades on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol AGL and in New York on the OTC-QX under the ticker symbol ANPCY. For further information please visit: www.angleplc.com Notification and public disclosure of transactions by persons discharging managerial responsibilities and persons closely associated with them ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Details of the person discharging managerial responsibilities / person closely associated ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- a) Name Ian Griffiths ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Reason for the Notification ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- a) Position/status Finance Director ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- b) Initial notification/Amendment Initial notification ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3. Details of the issuer, emission allowance market participant, auction platform, auctioneer or auction monitor ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- a) Name ANGLE plc ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- b) LEI 213800BY11K6W3NMS374 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Details of the transaction(s): section to be repeated for (i) each type of instrument; (ii) each type of transaction; (iii) each date; and (iv) each place where transactions have been conducted ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- a) Description of the Financial Ordinary shares of 10p each instrument, type of instrument ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Identification code AGL GB0034330679 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- b) Nature of the transaction Subscription for Ordinary Shares ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- c) Price(s) and volume(s) Volume - 114,286 Price - 35p ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- d) Aggregated information: Aggregated volume See 4c) above Price ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- e) Date of the transaction 30 October 2017 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- f) Place of the transaction London Stock Exchange, AIM Market (XLON) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contacts: RNS Customer Services 0044-207797-4400 rns@londonstockexchange.com http://www.rns.com Other states had heard of Jason W. Towe before he approached a Chippewa Falls man about investing a total of $55,000 in Towes oil and gas project. Pennsylvania had issued an administrative order against Towe for a securities-related violation on Oct. 16, 2009, according to a court record. Colorado issued its own order against Towe on Sept. 2, 2010. Indiana filed criminal charges against the 45-year-old Bethpage, Tennessee, man for security-related activities. Now the Wisconsin State Department of Financial Institutions and the court system is interested in Towe, who is charged in Chippewa County Court with two counts of misleading statements/omissions with securities trading, two counts of theft-false representation and two counts of selling a security with registration. The charges are from Dec. 20, 2012, and Aug. 8, 2013, in Chippewa Falls. According a criminal complaint: Towe sold an investment contract securities to a Chippewa Falls man for a total of $55,000. Towe told the Chippewa Falls man that the money would be used in oil and gas projects of Towes business, named 3E Tennessee Inc. Before investing, Towe omitted to inform (the Chippewa Falls man) of material facts concerning Towe including that two states had previously issued administrative orders against Towe for securities-related violations in those states, including one for securities fraud, the complaint said. Towe also failed to tell the Chippewa Falls man that Towe was under investigation by the state of Indiana over his involvement in an oil and gas venture, including one securities-related charge. He was convicted on Jan. 12, 2017, of one count of corrupt business influence, receiving four years probation. He is required to make $15,000 restitution. The securities offers and sold by Towe ... were not registered with the (Wisconsin financial) division, and not exempt from registration in Wisconsin, the complaint said. IRVINE, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 10/30/17 -- Cannabis Science, Inc. (OTC PINK: CBIS), a U.S. company specializing in the development of cannabinoid-based medicines, reports on today's Federal court action 8-K filing. On October 27, 2017, Cannabis Science, Inc. (the "Company"), along with its partners Winnemucca Shosoni, MBS, American States University, Free Spirit Organics and HRM Farms (collectively the "Plaintiffs"), filed a Complaint in the United States District Court in and for the Eastern District of California (the "Complaint") against San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors; San Joaquin County Counsel; Erin Hiroko Sakata; Miguel Villapudua; Katherine Miller; Tom Patti; Bob Elliott; Chuck Winn; San Joaquin County District Attorney; San Joaquin County Sheriff; Drug Enforcement Administration and Does 1-50 (collectively the "Defendants"). The Complaint is filed in response to the Defendants entering onto the Plaintiffs' property and seizing their industrial hemp harvest and alleges: (1) Violation of Supremacy Clause/Preemption [U.S. Const. art. VI, cl. 2]; (2) Unconstitutional Vagueness [U.S. Const. am. 5, 14]; (3) Unlawful Bill of Attainder/Ex Post Facto [U.S. Const. art. I, 9, cl. 3]; (4) Violation of Fifth Amendment - Procedural Due Process; and, (5) Violation of Fourth Amendment - Unlawful Seizure [42 U.S.C. 1983]. The Complaint requests for the following: Temporary Restraining Order/Immediate Stay of Enforcement; Return of Property Seized; Preliminary Injunction; Permanent Injunction; Declaration re: Ordinance Is Void; Declaration re: Search Warrant Is Void; Declaration re: Seizure Was Unlawful; Compensatory Damages; and Punitive Damages. The Complaint alleges that the Defendants: (a) drafted San Joaquin County Ordinance 4497 (the "Ordinance") specifically to criminalize the Plaintiffs' existing industrial hemp harvest; (b) determined the Plaintiffs violated the Ordinance; and, (c) enforced it by seizing the Plaintiffs' grow, with an estimated value of US $77 Million, without affording them an opportunity to meaningfully present their arguments to a judge or other neutral fact finder. The Plaintiffs further contend that the Defendants committed this violation of the separation of powers in the form of an emergency ordinance so the Plaintiffs would not have enough notice or opportunity to become compliant and based on a multitude of inaccurate facts. The Plaintiffs contend that they have all of the required permits, exemptions, approvals and authorizations necessary, but, regardless, these actions are unconstitutional. The Company will provide further updates on the federal court action once available. About Cannabis Science, Inc. Cannabis Science, Inc. takes advantage of its unique understanding of metabolic processes to provide novel treatment approaches to several illnesses for which current treatments and understanding remain unsatisfactory. Cannabinoids have an extensive history dating back thousands of years, and currently, there are a growing number of peer-reviewed scientific publications that document the underlying biochemical pathways that cannabinoids modulate. The Company works with leading experts in drug development, medicinal characterization, and clinical research to develop, produce, and commercialize novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment for illnesses caused by infections as well as for age-related illness. Our initial focus is on cancers, HIV/AIDS, and neurological conditions. The Company is proceeding with the research and development of its proprietary drugs as a part of this initial focus: CS-S/BCC-1, CS-TATI-1, and CS-NEURO-1, respectively. Forward-Looking Statements This Press Release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. A statement containing words such as "anticipate," "seek," intend," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "project," "plan," or similar phrases may be deemed "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Some or all of the events or results anticipated by these forward-looking statements may not occur. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include the future U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company's reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of cannabis-based drugs. Cannabis Science, Inc., does not undertake any duty nor does it intend to update the results of these forward-looking statements. Safe Harbor Statement. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a 'safe harbor' for forward looking statements. Certain of the statements contained herein, which are not historical facts are forward looking statements with respect to events, the occurrence of which involved risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements may be impacted, either positively or negatively, by various factors. Information concerning potential factors that could affect the company is detailed from time to time in the company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Contact Information Cannabis Science, Inc. Mr. Raymond C. Dabney President & CEO, Co-Founder raymond.dabney@cannabisscience.com Tel: 1-888-263-0832 Cannabis Science, Inc. Dr. Allen Herman Chief Medical Officer (CMO) allen.herman@cannabisscience.com Tel: 1-888-263-0832 BRUSSELS (dpa-AFX) - The Commerce Department's Personal Income and Outlays for September will be issued at 8.30 am ET Monday. The economists are looking for growth consensus of 0.4 percent, compared to 0.2 percent in the prior month. Consumer spending is expected to increase by 0.9 percent. Ahead of these reports, the greenback traded mixed against its major rivals. While the greenback held steady against the yen and the franc, it fell against the euro and the pound. The greenback was worth 113.57 against the yen, 0.9985 against the franc, 1.1627 against the euro and 1.3184 against the pound as of 8:25 am ET. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - President Donald Trump plans to announce his nominee as the next Federal Reserve Chair on Thursday, White House officials have told the media. Multiple media sources have reported that Trump intends to nominate Fed Governor Jerome Powell to replace current Fed Chair Janet Yellen. Powell, Yellen and Stanford University economist John Taylor were said to be among the leading candidates to be nominated to head the central bank. The nomination of Powell would purportedly provide continuity at the Fed, as he has previously supported Yellen's general direction in setting monetary policy. Meanwhile, Taylor has been more critical of Yellen and is said to be a favorite of conservative Republicans. Trump previously suggested he would consider nominating Powell as Fed Chair and Taylor as Fed Vice Chair. In a post to Twitter last Friday, Trump noted people are 'anxiously awaiting' his decision on the next Fed Chair and indicated a 'big announcement' will be made this week. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann. Strong Results Fueled by Significant Gains in Deposits and Loans, New Business Units and Diversification MIAMI, FL / ACCESSWIRE / October 30, 2017 / City National Bank (CNB), Florida's premier private and commercial bank, announced its financial results for the third quarter of 2017, with significant gains in income, deposits and loans propelling the bank over $9 billion in assets. Net income for the third quarter of 2017 increased 32 percent to $23 million, an increase of $5.6 million compared to the third quarter of 2016. Net income for the first nine months of the year increased 43 percent to more than $66 million, compared to $46 million in the first nine months of 2016. This includes a one-time after tax gain of $6.5 million. In addition, the bank's assets have grown significantly in the third quarter to $9.84 billion, a $2.09 billion increase over the third quarter of last year. "City National Bank continued its strong financial performance as the marketplace continues to embrace our value proposition as the big bank alternative in Florida," CNB President and CEO Jorge Gonzalez said. "It is truly a testament to our team and our laser focus on delivering an exceptional client experience based on personal relationships and local decision-making." City National Bank closed more than $1.7 billion in new loan and lease commitments in the first nine months of 2017. The bank has grown loans and leases by more than $1.4 billion, or 28.15 percent, in the last twelve months to $6.37 billion in loans and leases outstanding. Commercial lending is up 41.7 percent compared to last year, which highlights the bank's dedication to supporting local businesses. Deposits increased by $2.2 billion during the past 12 months to $7.3 billion at the end of the third quarter, compared to $5.1 billion at the end of the third quarter of 2016. "For the past year, CNB has leveraged its position as an employer of choice to recruit and retain top talent, launch and expand business units and enter new markets," Gonzalez said. "We are also uniquely positioned as a community bank with global reach thanks to the backing of our parent company." In the third quarter of 2017, City National Bank was named "Best Bank To Work For" for the second year in a row by American Banker magazine. The program identifies, recognizes and honors the best banks to work for in the nation. City National was the largest bank in Florida to make the list and the third-largest bank nationwide. "As we grow it is important to remain focused on our people and developing the culture that will allow CNB to continue delivering a differentiated client experience," Gonzalez said. "This is a people business and by recruiting, retaining and motivating the best talent we are able to deliver on our brand promises and service commitments." City National Bank continued its streak of accolades and recognition in the second quarter 2017, receiving the coveted five-star "Superior" rating - the highest possible ranking - from BauerFinancial, the leading bank ratings firm, for the 21 st consecutive quarter. BauerFinancial has been reporting on and analyzing the performance of U.S. banks and credit unions since 1983. Financials Third Quarter 2017 Third Quarter 2016 Net interest income.. $66.4 million $54.9 million Net income before taxes $36.4 million $27.7 million Net income $23 million $17.4 million Total Loans and Leases (Net).. $6.37 billion $4.97 billion Total Deposits $7.3 billion $5.1 billion Capital City National Bank's strong capital position also continued to improve. Tier 1 capital grew to $974.9 million, an increase of about $86 million over September 2016. Tier 1 Leverage Capital 10.52% 5% is considered well capitalized Tier 1 Risk Based Capital Ratio 13.57% 8% is considered well capitalized CNB continues to be one of the most liquid banks in Florida with excess liquidity of nearly $3 billion. Asset Quality Non-accrual loans to total loans remain at a very low 0.35% Non-performing loans to capital remain at a very low 2.29% About City National Bank of Florida Headquartered in Miami, City National Bank (CNB) is the financial institution to which Floridians have turned for 70 years. With more than $9 billion in assets, CNB is one of the largest financial institutions based in the state. City National Bank is a subsidiary of Chilean bank, Banco de Credito e Inversiones (Bci), and remains a South Florida-based community bank with local decision making. City National Bank is one of the most liquid and best capitalized banks in Florida and is rated 5 stars "Superior" by BauerFinancial. CNB was voted Best Community Bank, Best Business Bank, Best Bank for Commercial Real Estate, Best Bank for Jumbo Loans, Best Private Bank and Best Foreign National Mortgage Lender by the readers of the Daily Business Review for the past four years. The South Florida Business Journal named it Business of the Year in 2013 and Community Bank of the Year in 2013 and 2011. CNB offers a diversified portfolio of financial products and services at 26 convenient banking centers from Miami-Dade County to Central Florida. CONTACT Eddie Dominguez City National Bank 305.577.7315 SOURCE: City National Bank of Florida TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 10/30/17 -- INVESTOR CONFERENCE CALL TO BE HOSTED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2017, AT 11:00 A.M. ET Euro Sun Mining Inc. (TSX: ESM) ("Euro Sun" or the "Company") is pleased to report positive developments related to the ratification of its wholly owned gold and copper Rovina Valley Project (the "Project") in Romania. The National Agency for Mineral Resources ("NAMR") today has publicly issued documents related to the Rovina Valley Project, including the draft government approval and a substantiation note for the mining licence approval. Furthermore, following the recent implementation of improved transparency policies, NAMR will be publishing all documents related to the mining licence, including the Company's environmental reform plan, the technical report related to environmental reclamation, as well as the social impact study and the social impact assistance plan. The new president of NAMR has expressed full support for the Project, and the signatory stage of the mining licence ratification is expected to begin following a designated 10-day commentary period. No further public audiences are to be held. Scott Moore, President and CEO of Euro Sun stated: "In a recent meeting held with the new President of NAMR, the agency acknowledged the importance of the Rovina Valley Project for Romania and indicated their willingness to support the project and work diligently to expedite its development. We feel very positive about the increased transparency in the permitting process and the issuance of all key documents relating to approval of the Mining Licence by NAMR. We will be meeting all ministers in the coming weeks to ensure a smooth and rapid completion of the process." Investor Conference Call Details Euro Sun invites you to participate in a conference call to be held Thursday, November 2, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss the recent news regarding the permitting advancements as well as to provide a general corporate update. The call will be hosted by Stan Bharti, Chairman, Scott Moore, President and CEO and Brad Humphrey, Vice-President of Corporate Development. A question and answer period will follow the call. Date: Thursday, November 2, 2017 Time: 11:00 a.m. ET Local and International: 1-647-427-2311 North American Toll Free: 1-866-521-4909 Participation code: 2895027 About Euro Sun Mining Inc. Euro Sun is a Toronto Stock Exchange listed mining company focused on the exploration and development of its 100%-owned Rovina Valley Gold and Copper Project located in west-central Romania. The property hosts 10.84 million gold equivalent ounces (7.19 million ounces of gold grading 0.55 g/t and 1,420 million pounds of copper grading 0.16%(i)), making it the second largest gold deposit in Europe. (i)Notes Related to the Mineral Resource Estimate: Gold equivalent ounces ("AuEq") are determined by using a gold price of US$1,370/oz and a copper price of US$3.52/lb. These prices are the three-year trailing average as of July 10, 2012. Metallurgical recoveries are not taken into account for AuEq. Base case cut-off used in the table are 0.35 g/t AuEq for the Colnic deposit and 0.25% CuEq for the Rovina deposit, both of which are amenable to open-pit mining and 0.65 g/t AuEq for the Ciresata deposit which is amenable to underground bulk mining. For the Rovina and Colnic porphyries, the resource is an in-pit resource derived from a Whittle Shell Model using gross metal values of $1,350/oz Au price and $3.00/lb Cu price, net of payable amounts after smelter charges and royalty for net values of US$1,313/oz Au and US$2.57/lb Cu for Rovina and US$2.27/Ib Cu for Colnic). Rounding of tonnes as required by reporting guidelines may result in apparent differences between tonnes, grade, and contained metal content. Qualified Person The mineral resources stated in this press release have been reviewed and approved by Mr. Pierre Desautels, P.Geo. Principal Resource Geologist of AGP, who served as the independent Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, responsible for preparing the Mineral Resource Estimate and Technical Report dated August 30, 2012. Caution regarding forward-looking information: This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, without limitation, statements regarding permitting advancements. Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including risks inherent in the mining industry and risks described in the public disclosure of the Company which is available under the profile of the Company on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on the Company's website at www.eurosunmining.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. The TSX does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Contacts: Euro Sun Mining Inc. Investor Relations info@eurosunmining.com +1 416.309.4299 www.eurosunmining.com COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- (Marketwired) -- 10/30/17 -- Gold Resource Corporation (NYSE American: GORO) (the "Company") today announced the timing of its 2017 third quarter earnings conference call scheduled for November 1, 2017. Gold Resource Corporation is a gold and silver producer, developer and explorer with operations in Oaxaca, Mexico and Nevada, USA. The Company has returned $110 million to shareholders in monthly dividends since commercial production commenced July 1, 2010, and offers shareholders the option to convert their cash dividends into physical gold and silver and take delivery. Conference Call Gold Resource Corporation's CEO Mr. Jason Reid will host the conference call Wednesday, November 1, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Topics of discussion will include third quarter results and an update on current operations. The conference call will be recorded and posted to the Company's website in three to five business days from recording. Q&A Following Mr. Reid's opening remarks, the Company will answer questions during a live Q&A period. Date: Wednesday, November 1, 2017 Time: 11:00 AM Eastern (9:00 AM Mountain) Attendee Access Information: Title: Gold Resource Corporation Third Quarter Conference Call Host Name: Jason Reid Company Name: Gold Resource Corporation US/CAN Toll Free: 855-719-5008 International Toll: +1 334-323-0517 Passcode: 309823 Please dial-in to the conference call at least 5 minutes prior to the start time using the attendee phone number and passcode. About GRC: Gold Resource Corporation is a mining company focused on production and pursuing development of gold and silver projects that feature low operating costs and produce high returns on capital. The Company has 56,891,484 shares outstanding, zero warrants and has returned over $110 million back to its shareholders since commercial production commenced July 1, 2010. Gold Resource Corporation offers its shareholders the option to convert their cash dividends into physical gold and silver and take delivery. For more information, please visit GRC's website, located at www.Goldresourcecorp.com and read the Company's Form 10-K for an understanding of the risk factors involved. Cautionary Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The statements contained in this press release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Exchange Act. When used in this press release, the words "plan," "target," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "intend" and "expect" and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements include, without limitation, the statements regarding Gold Resource Corporation's strategy, future plans for production, future expenses and costs, future liquidity and capital resources, and estimates of mineralized material. All forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon information available to Gold Resource Corporation on the date of this press release, and the company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties, and there can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those discussed in this press release. In particular, there can be no assurance that production will continue at any specific rate. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, those discussed in the Company's 10-K filed with the SEC. Contacts: Corporate Development Greg Patterson 303-320-7708 www.Goldresourcecorp.com EDMONTON, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 10/30/17 -- Canadian Western Bank (CWB) (TSX: CWB) today announced it has entered into a definitive asset purchase agreement to acquire for cash the Canadian Commercial and Vendor Finance assets of ECN Capital Corp. (ECN). The equipment finance and leasing assets to be acquired are fully aligned with CWB's balanced growth strategy, and the acquisition will support continued progress toward strategic objectives for industry and geographic diversification. The portfolio is primarily comprised of loans and leases concentrated within the transportation, construction and healthcare industries, with exposures broadly distributed across the country. CWB will leverage complementary strengths across its group of companies to successfully integrate this portfolio. This will include key operational and business development contributions from National Leasing, CWB Equipment Finance and CWB Maxium. The transaction is subject to customary approvals, and CWB expects it to close at the end of its first quarter of fiscal 2018. Management anticipates the balance of acquired loans and leases will be approximately $900 million at closing. CWB expects the transaction to be immediately accretive to earnings per common share and return on common shareholders' equity, with positive contributions in fiscal 2018 to net interest margin and operating leverage. Management expects the acquired portfolio to contribute approximately $0.10 of adjusted cash earnings per common share in both fiscal 2018 and 2019. CWB's common equity Tier 1 capital (CET1) ratio will remain in a strong position upon closing, with approximately 30 basis points of existing CET1 capital to be deployed as part of the acquisition. Management expects to fund the portfolio primarily through its securitization facilities. "This is a highly accretive and strategic portfolio acquisition for CWB, and an excellent capital deployment opportunity," said Chris Fowler, CWB's President and Chief Executive Officer. "The client base is a good fit with our strategic priorities, and provides us with valuable prospects to pursue future growth. We have a well-established specialization in equipment financing and leasing and this portfolio is fully aligned, with the yields and security types generally comparable to our existing business. With approximately 75% of the portfolio originated outside of Western Canada, this will also move us toward our strategic goal to grow CWB's Ontario exposures to a third of our total. We expect strong financial contributions from these assets to contribute meaningfully to performance against our medium-term performance targets. That said, the acquired portfolio has a relatively short, approximately two-year weighted average duration. As such, the magnitude of the impact will depend on our ability to quickly leverage the growth opportunities available to us. We're confident that our strong teams will continue to build on the quality relationships previously established by ECN." About CWB Financial Group CWB Financial Group (CWB) is a diversified financial services organization serving businesses and individuals across Canada. Operating from its headquarters in Edmonton, Alberta, CWB's key business lines include full-service business and personal banking offered through 42 branches of Canadian Western Bank and Internet banking services provided by Motive Financial. Highly responsive specialized financing is delivered under the banners of CWB Equipment Financing, National Leasing, CWB Maxium Financial, CWB Franchise Finance and CWB Optimum Mortgage. Trust Services are offered through Canadian Western Trust. Comprehensive wealth management offerings are provided through CWB Wealth Management, which includes the businesses of McLean & Partners Wealth Management and Canadian Western Financial. As a public company on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), CWB trades under the symbols "CWB" (common shares), "CWB.PR.B" (Series 5 Preferred Shares) and "CWB.PR.C" (Series 7 Preferred Shares). Learn more at www.cwb.com. About ECN Capital Corp. With total owned and managed assets of more than $4.9 billion as of June 30, 2017, ECN Capital Corp. (TSX: ECN) is one of North America's leading finance companies. ECN Capital operates in four verticals: Home Improvement Finance, Commercial & Vendor Finance, Rail Finance and Aviation Finance. Contacts: Matt Evans, CFA Senior AVP, Strategy & Investor Relations Canadian Western Bank (780) 969-8337 matt.evans@cwbank.com TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 10/30/17 -- At the request of IIROC, regarding the press release of October 29, 2017 of Fura Gems Inc. (TSX VENTURE: FUR), the Company wishes to clarify certain disclosure with respect to its proposed acquisition of Emporium HS S.A.S. The current operation on the Coscuez emerald mine is on a small scale basis and there is currently no preliminary economic assessment nor any pre-feasibility or feasibility study to support any economics associated with the property. Fura Gems' decision to continue mining operations at Coscuez is therefore not based on any comprehensive feasibility study of a mineral reserve demonstrating the economic and technical viability of the project. The successful continued mining operations at Coscuez will be subject to technical and economic risks and uncertainties inherent to historical small-scale mining projects that have not been subject to a comprehensive feasibility study. We also note that the October 29 press release made a reference to "orebody". The Company wishes to clarify that no mineral resource nor any mineral reserve has been defined for the Coscuez emerald mine. About Fura Gems Inc Fura Gems Inc. is engaged in the exploration and acquisition of gemstone licences. Fura's headquarters are located in Toronto, Canada and its administrative headquarters are located in the Almas Tower, Dubai. Fura is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange under the ticker symbol "FUR" Fura has also entered into a purchase agreement to enter the exploration and mining of rubies in Mozambique through the proposed acquisition of an 80% effective interest in the four ruby licences (4392, 3868, 3869 and 6811) and the submission of an application for an additional ruby licence. Fura is engaged in the exploration of resource properties in Colombia and owns a 100% interest in the emerald licence ECH -121. Qualified Person Ricardo A. Valls, M.Sc., P.Geo., of Valls Geoconsultant, Toronto, Ontario, a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed the scientific and technical information disclosed in this news release and has approved its dissemination. Regulatory Statements This press release may contain "forward looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the Company's ability to close the Transaction, the mineralization as the Coscuez mine, the prospectivity of the Coscuez Licence, the Company's ability to raise capital, the Company's exploration activities and the Company's performance. Generally, forward looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including but not limited to: the risk with respect to the ability of Fura to financing the acquisition; uncertainties with respect to the successful integration of Emporium to our business; general business, economic, competitive, geopolitical and social uncertainties; the actual results of exploration activities; regulatory risks; risks inherent in foreign operations, uncertainties with respect to Coscuez deposit, which has never been subject to modern mining methods nor any comprehensive feasibility study; legacy environmental risks, title risks and other risks of the mining industry. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. NEITHER TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. Contacts: Fura Gems Inc Dev Shetty President & Chief Executive Officer +971 (0) 4 240 8760 dev.shetty@furagems.com Investor Relations Vikram Pathak 1-647-276-7816 vikram.pathak@furagems.com LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / October 30, 2017 / Lundin Law PC, a shareholder rights firm, announces a class action lawsuit against SCANA Corporation ("SCANA" or the "Company") (NYSE: SCG) for possible violations of federal securities laws from January 19, 2016 through September 22, 2017, inclusive (the "Class Period"). Investors, who purchased or otherwise acquired SCANA shares during the Class Period, should contact the firm before the November 27, 2017 motion deadline. To participate in this class action lawsuit, click here. You can also call Brian Lundin, Esq., of Lundin Law PC, at 888-713-1033, or you can e-mail him at brian@lundinlawpc.com. No class has been certified in the above action yet. Until a class is certified, you are not considered represented by an attorney. You may also choose to do nothing and be an absent class member. According to the Complaint, throughout the Class Period, SCANA made false and/or misleading statements, and/or failed to disclose, adverse information regarding the construction of its project to build nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station in South Carolina, assuring investors that costs spending was prudent and substantial progress was being made, even when cost overruns and other delays began to materialize. On July 31, 2017, the Company announced that it would abandon construction of the nuclear project because of cost overruns and delays. On August 4, 2017, the South Carolina Attorney General announced the opening of an investigation into the Company's abandonment of the nuclear project. On the same day, South Carolina state senators called for a special legislative session to investigate SCANA. On September 22, 2017, the South Carolina Attorney General publicly requested that the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division launch a criminal investigation into the project. When this information went public, SCANA's stock price fell materially, which caused investors harm according to the Complaint. Lundin Law PC was founded by Brian Lundin, Esq., a securities litigator based in Los Angeles dedicated to upholding shareholders' rights. This press release may be considered Attorney Advertising in certain jurisdictions under the applicable law and ethics rules. Contact: Lundin Law PC Brian Lundin, Esq. Telephone: 888-713-1033 Facsimile: 888-713-1125 brian@lundinlawpc.com http://lundinlawpc.com/ SOURCE: Lundin Law PC TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 10/30/17 -- (TSX: CGL) (TSX: CGL.C) - iShares, the industry-leading exchange-traded fund (ETF) business at BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (BlackRock Canada), an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. (BlackRock), today announces an update to the investment risk level of its iShares Gold Bullion ETF (CGL). This change will be reflected in the prospectus for CGL that will be filed on or about October 30, 2017. BlackRock Canada applied the new investment risk classification methodology set out in National Instrument 81-102 - Investment Funds, which came into force on September 1, 2017, to determine the investment risk level of CGL. There have been no changes to the investment objectives, investment strategies or management of CGL. The updated risk level applies to both classes of units of CGL that are represented by their respective ticker symbols: CGL and CGL.C. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Class/Ticker Previous Investment Risk Level Updated Investment Risk Level --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CGL High Medium to High --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CGL.C High Medium to High --------------------------------------------------------------------------- A copy of the standardized risk classification methodology used by BlackRock Canada to identify the investment risk level of CGL is available on request, at no cost, by calling us at 1-855-255-5951 or by writing to BlackRock Canada at 161 Bay Street, Suite 2500, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2S1. About BlackRock BlackRock helps investors build better financial futures. As a fiduciary to our clients, BlackRock provides the investment and technology solutions clients need when planning for their most important goals. As of September 30, 2017, the firm manages approximately US$5.977 trillion in assets on behalf of investors worldwide. For additional information, please visit BlackRock's website at www.blackrock.com/ca / Twitter: @BlackRockCA / Blog: www.blackrockblog.com/can About iShares iShares is a global leader in ETFs, with more than a decade of expertise and commitment to individual and institutional investors of all sizes. With over 800 funds globally across multiple asset classes and strategies and more than US$1.5 trillion in assets under management as of September 30, 2017, iShares helps clients around the world build the core of their portfolios, meet specific investment goals and implement market views. iShares funds are powered by the expert portfolio and risk management of BlackRock, trusted to manage more money than any other investment firm(1). (1)Based on US$5.977 trillion in AUM as of 9/30/17 Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investing in ETFs. Please read the relevant prospectus before investing. The funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Tax, investment and all other decisions should be made, as appropriate, only with guidance from a qualified professional. Contacts: Contact for Media: Maeve Hannigan T - 416-643-4058 C - 416-564-1540 Maeve.Hannigan@blackrock.com Lutheran Pastor Calls for Formal Talks Between LCMC and NALC at the Death Bed of American Lutheranism Contact: Rev. CJ Conner, 620-255-9597 DODGE CITY, Kan., Oct. 30, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- The Rev. CJ Conner, Lutheran Pastor, Author, and Director of Aspire Ministries in Dodge City Kansas, calls for official talks to begin between Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ and North American Lutheran Churches. Both denominations grew out of a split within the Evangelical Lutheran Churches in America beginning in 1999. Rev. Conner said, "Today we are holding vigil at the death-bed of American Lutheranism. I believe Lutherans have been entrusted with preserving the rich heritage of the Reformation, which began when Dr. Martin Luther nailed 95 theses to the door of his Wittenberg Church calling for the reform of the Roman Catholic Church 500 years ago on October 31st, 1517." "Since the cultural tumult of the 1970's, American Lutherans have been in chaos and confusion. Then, what began as a grand experiment 17 years ago, Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ has been unable to chart a steady course with Reformation integrity. The denomination has been taken hostage by a small handful of people who have held power for 17 years now in a poorly contrived ecclesiastical dictatorship that favors Gnosticism and Schwarmer Enthusiasm and embraces a radically libertine anti-clerical orientation, eschewing reason and marginalizing legitimate Doctors of the Lutheran Church." LCMC has essentially abandoned and alienated the core teachings of the Protestant Reformation, namely: 1. That Christians are saved by the imputed righteousness from the Cross Alone instead of the righteousness of works held by LCMC. 2. That we are saved by Christ Alone apart from the spiritualist or supernatural Episcopacy that LCMC embraces. 3. That we find the source and norm of Christian faith in the Word Alone rather than the disembodied words of "The Lord told Me!" where classes of Christians have developed in LCMC and the leaders believe they have prophetic and anointed knowledge of God spoken directly to them by the Holy Spirit in a secret knowing that nobody else has access to. 4. That we are saved by Faith Alone, rather than by the mastery of the secret knowledge of the light within that a vast majority of LCMC congregations and leaders embrace. "For at least 15 years, the leadership of LCMC has been unwilling to have real discussion and dialogue about these urgent issues of the Reformation. They use the flat structure of the organization to avoid accountability in the intellectual, academic, and spiritual pursuit of upholding Reformation principles. LCMC has long lacked the theological intellect among the leadership to think clearly and deeply about these matters. The people who have tightly controlled the direction of the denomination for the last 17 years view any discussion about their theology or how they fit into the future of American Lutheranism as a threat to their absolute, unchecked power. LCMC leaders will argue that they can't begin talks or discussions about the direction of American Lutheranism because they cannot represent congregations. The fact of the matter is, LCMC represents congregations and pastors whenever it suits their goals of alienating and ostracizing Lutherans who are not radical charismatic fundigelicals." While the North American Lutheran Churches (NALC) have also departed from the core principles of the Protestant Reformation by allowing the specter of the long-rejected Historic Episcopacy to poke it's nose beneath their constitutional tent, the organization has not rejected as much of the Reformation as LCMC has come to reject. NALC embraces the theological discourse that is always necessary to keep American Lutheranism within the streams of Reformation Principles. Unlike LCMC, NALC values the Doctors of the Lutheran Church who are essential to making sense out of the Reformation in our immediate historical context. LCMC elevates Calvinists, Baptists, Ana-Baptists, Fundamentalists, Charismatics, and Radical Evangelicals as the ideal model and to the exclusion of Lutherans of the Reformation. Rev. CJ Conner proposes on this 500th anniversary of the Lutheran Reformation, therefore, that the Augustana District of the LCMC establish and lead the development of an ecumenical council between the NALC and the LCMC that addresses the issues I've outlined above, and any others. I also call on all LCMC and NALC congregations to enthusiastically welcome and prepare for the next stage in the movement to reclaim American Lutheranism from its death bed. For the sake of the future of American Lutheranism, Pastors and Churches may all need to consider what to do next if Lutheran Congregations in Mission for Christ continues to reject the principles of Cross Alone, Christ Alone, Faith Alone, and Word Alone. To find out more about the unresolved issues of the Protestant Reformation in the United States, listen to the podcast series, "At the Deathbed of American Lutheranism" found at www.aspiredodgecity.com, and read the resources available at www.crossalone.us Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 30, 2017) - B2Gold Corp. (TSX: BTO) (NYSE AMERICAN: BTG) (NSX: B2G) ("B2Gold" or the "Company") is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Robin Weisman to its Board of Directors. Ms. Weisman joins B2Gold as a continuation of her respected career deeply-rooted in resource sector finance, where she was most recently the principal investment officer at the International Finance Corporation ("IFC") in Washington, D.C. While at IFC, her distinguished career included working with projects up to USD$9 billion through managing a portfolio of natural resource and chemical projects and advising clients on risk mitigation strategies. Her most recent position involved leading teams to invest debt and equity in private sector high-growth mining projects in developing countries. During her 22-year career at IFC, she developed a renowned sub-specialty in managing risks through effective corporate social responsibility, and most recently focused her energies on advancing the role of women across the resource development sector. Prior to joining IFC, she worked in increasingly senior roles including the position of vice president at Standard Chartered Bank, concentrating on structured trade financing. In her executive role at Citibank, she specialized in the currencies of emerging markets. Prior to these positions, Ms. Weisman provided financial forecasting and competitive analysis for CBS Television Network. Ms. Weisman holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago, Illinois. She also studied at La Sorbonne in Paris, France, and is a fluent French speaker. Ms. Weisman officially assumed her role as director on October 23, 2017, and will attend her first Board of Directors meeting in November. "We are very pleased that Robin has agreed to join the B2Gold team as a director," commented Mr. Robert Cross, Chairman of the Board. "With her extensive understanding of the mining industry and impressive experience in international mining finance, Robin will be an important contributor to our business and strategy of continuing B2Gold's dramatic growth as a responsible international gold producer." About B2Gold Corp. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, B2Gold Corp. is one of the fastest-growing intermediate gold producers in the world. Founded in 2007, today, B2Gold has five operating gold mines and numerous exploration and development projects in various countries including Nicaragua, the Philippines, Namibia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Colombia and Finland. ON BEHALF OF B2GOLD CORP. "Clive T. Johnson" President and Chief Executive Officer For more information on B2Gold please visit the Company website at www.b2gold.com or contact: Ian MacLeanVice President, Investor Relations604-681-8371imaclean@b2gold.comKatie BromleyManager, Investor Relations & Public Relations604-681-8371kbromley@b2gold.com Grove Ventures, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based early-stage venture capital firm, has raised $110m for its first fund. Per an SEC filing, Grove Ventures L.P. has raised capital from 63 investors. Led by Guy Resheff, Sigalit Klimovsky, Dov Moran, and Lotan Levkowitz, Grove Ventures focuses on Israeli startups developing technologies and solutions in the areas of IoT (Internet of Things), Cloud and Big Data. It supports startups throughout their inception and growth, providing capital, expertise, networks and a shared place for creative work. The portfolio includes 3DSignals, Spry Health, Wiliot and Astralink. FinSMEs 30/10/2017 India is likely to have jumped 30 places to hit 100th spot in the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking of 190 countries, according to media reports. A report in The Hindu newspaper said the the rise in the ranking is due to the changes in areas such as starting a business, dealing with construction permits, and resolving insolvency. Last year, when India moved just one notch up, the ranking in these areas were 155, 185 and 136. The low rank last year galvanised India to act. There was an explicit order from the PM (Narendra Modi) to ensure faster reforms to improve Indias rankings, a source has been quoted as saying in the report. According to this source, Mumbai and Delhi responded well to the governments exhortation to better the environment, thus resulting in the jump. The successful implementation of the insolvency code and the goods and services tax (GST) has given a big boost to Indias business environment, a top government official has been quoted as saying in another report in The Economic Times. The World Bank is expected to will release its ease of doing business report for 2018 on 31 October. Even the 100th position is a far cry from what Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initial wish. He had said that his aim is to take the country to the top 50 rankings in the World Bank report. The good news, however, coincides with comments from Sunil Bharti Mittal, the head of the country's largest telecom company Bharti Airtel, pointing out there is much for India to do ease up doing business in the country. "The ease of doing business remains a major concern. I know government is very focused on this, the PM wants our ranking to go up. You come out with fantastic policies," Mittal has been quoted as saying in a PTI report. He was speaking at a panel discussion, where Union minister Arun Jaitley, who handles the finance and corporate affairs portfolios, was the chief guest. Describing how he was stunned to get approvals for a merger in Ghana in flat three days despite the holding companies were based in The Netherlands, Mittal rued that it still takes much longer for such processes in our country. "We can't get to three days. But can we get to 30, may be 60 days? We really need such a framework," Mittal said. The change in ranking, if true, comes at a time when the government is facing much flak for messing up the economy with demonetisation and a hurried implementation of goods and services tax. The Bharatiya Janata Party can try and get political mileage from the news during the election campaign in crucial Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. However, it remains to be seen whether this will help the party electorally. Terming note ban as foolish step and Goods and Services Tax (GST) design faulty, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday said both the decisions of the government have derailed the economy. The Centre should have admitted that it had made a mistake to scrap high value currency notes last year, the former finance minister said, adding that the present GST design is faulty. With "demonetisation and GST, they have derailed the economy," Chidambaram said at a Congress meeting on SundayE. "We had to put the economy back on the rails. But who will put it back on rails now? Don't look at us. I am looking at you (the voters). You have to decide who will put the economy back on the rails," the former finance minister said and expressed the optimism that the country will have a government which will be able to correct these mistakes. "That government will say the maximum tax in GST will be 18 percent and no tax will be higher than 18 percent. That government will say 90 percent of traders and businessmen who are small and medium businessmen, it is ok if you file your returns once in six months. But when that government will be in place is entirely in your hands," he told Congress workers. Stating that every businesses is affected by GST, Chidambaram said, "We told them don't do this in a hurry but wait for some time, while traders, and businessmen told them to delay it till September (but to no avail)." He also said the government implemented GST in a hurry that when businessmen file returns, the whole GST network breaks down. Noting that the government had brought about as many as 135 changes to the official objectives of demonetisation, he said, "now I am waiting to see when they will make 135 changes to GST. Every day the finance minister is announcing some changes and exemption to the GST framework." He also said the opposition parties, including the Congress, and the Trinamool Congress have decided to observe 8 November as 'Black Day' and to counter this, BJP will observe 8 November as 'Anti-Black Money Day'. Admitting that GST is a good tax and a good idea, he said unfortunately this government has given GST a bad name, which is why its appropriate to call it 'Gabbar Singh Tax' and not goods and services tax, Chidambaram said. From the start, be its design, concept, and rate structure, the GST in the present form is wrong, Chidamabaram said, adding "this government has cheated the people by bringing the GST bills as a money bill" because they don't have majority in the Rajya Sabha. "The moral of the story is that just because government got absolute majority, it does not mean it will always do the right thing," the Rajya Sabha MP said. Describing note-ban as a decision driven by total ignorance, he said it was a foolish move, but this government does not have the honesty to admit it made a mistake. "I think the whole scheme was to help some people who had black money to convert it into white money. It is one of the biggest scams," he said adding "I am sure someday, somebody will enquire into it". He said none of the objectives of demonetisation -- counterfeit notes, stopping terror funding and black money, as claimed by government have been served. "Therefore, they shifted the goal posts. No longer they speak about terrorism and fake currency and then they said it was to being in a cashless economy which was an afterthought," he said. Blaming the government for being completely insensitive to what the people are going through he said "the result is jobless growth. There is some growth but there are no jobs being created". New Delhi: Moving ahead with reforms in the public sector banking space, the government has constituted a ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley that will oversee merger proposals of state-owned banks. The other members of the panel include Railway and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. "Govt walks the talk on banking reforms; constitutes Alternative Mechanism for PSBs consolidation; Finance Minister to head," Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar said in a tweet. While announcing the unprecedented Rs 2.11 lakh crore capital infusion roadmap for the public sector banks last week, Jaitley had said, this will be accompanied by series of banking reforms over next few months. The constitution of Alternative Mechanism (AM) is a movement in that direction. The Union Cabinet in August had decided to set up an Alternative Mechanism to fast track consolidation among public sector banks to create strong lenders. The move to create large banks aims at meeting the credit needs of the growing Indian economy and building capacity in the PSB space to raise resources without dependence on the state exchequer. The AM will oversee the proposals coming from boards of PSBs for consolidation. The decision to set up the AM follows State Bank of India merging its five associate banks, as also the Bharatiya Mahila Bank, with itself. Restored Indian silent film Shiraz: A Romance of India, which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival Archive Gala in October, has been given a live score performed by British Indian sitar player and composer Anoushka Shankar. The film will travel to four Indian cities as part of the UK/India 2017 Year of Culture, read a joint statement from The British Council and the British Film Institute (BFI). The BFI holds the original negative material of Shiraz in the Archive. Franz Osten's Indian silent classic has been remastered by the conservation team at the BFI National Archive. The film will now travel to Hyderabad, Kolkata, New Delhi and Mumbai in India from 1 November to 5 November, accompanied by live performance of a specially commissioned score by Shankar and an orchestral ensemble. Shiraz: A Romance of India tells the love story of the 17th century princess who inspired the construction of the Taj Mahal. For the modern viewer the appeal of Shiraz is the extreme rarity of a sophisticated silent feature film made outside the major producing nations of the West, the gorgeous settings and costumes and the glories of the spectacular fort at Agra and of course the iconic Taj Mahal, a central character here in its own right. Following the Indian tour the film will be screened around the UK in January 2018 and be released on Blu-ray by BFI. On bringing Shiraz back to audiences in India, BFI Head Curator Robin Baker said, "These gala performances of Shiraz are the culmination of the thousands of hours it has taken the BFI National Archive to restore and transform a silent film classic, ensuring that it is safely preserved for future generations. "Very few Indian silent films survive, which makes Shiraz: A Romance of India all the more important and precious. It seems particularly fitting that in this UK-India Year of Culture 2017 we celebrate with a film that brought together talent from India and the UK 90 years ago, while the new score brings the film right up to date thanks to the genius of Anoushka Shankar," Baker added. Since the day of its release, Nawazuddin Siddiqui's tell-all biography, An Ordinary Life: A Memoir, has been the centre of discord between the actor and his former girlfriends. The actor has now issued an apology on Twitter, while revealing that the book will not be released anymore. Here's the actor's tweet: I m apologising 2 every1 who's sentiments r hurt bcz of d chaos around my memoir #AnOrdinaryLife I hereby regret & decide 2 withdraw my book Nawazuddin Siddiqui (@Nawazuddin_S) October 30, 2017 After his Miss Lovely co-star Niharika Singh accused him of misquoting and fabricating incidents and Sunita calling him a 'liar and a sympathy seeker', a Delhi advocate named Gautam Gulati filed a case against the actor in the National Commission for Women (NCW) for 'outraging the modesty of his Miss Lovely co-star.' NDTV reports that Gautam Gulati told a leading daily that he doesn't know Niharika Singh and has not spoken to her on the matter. Yet he has lodged a complaint against Nawazuddin. "I have lodged a complaint with NCW with a request to give direction for the registration of FIR under sections 376 (rape), 497 (adultery) and 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman) of IPC. He was evidently married when he was having an affair with Niharika and kept her in the dark about it," the complainant said, as per the same report. "The actor has published it without having second thoughts about how this kind of act can ruin the married life of the victim. For minting money and garnering free publicity for his book, the actor has bargained the modesty of a woman," Gautam Gulati wrote in his complaint, as stated in the same report. After the first excerpt release, Niharika Singh had stated that Nawazuddin Siddiqui has distorted facts to sell his book. "Nawaz and I had a brief relationship during the making of Miss Lovely that lasted less than a few months. He obviously wants to sell his book and it would appear that he is willing to exploit and disrespect a woman just to do so. He has chosen to fabricate stories and manipulate a fleeting relationship," she had said. Nawazuddin's book also has quite an amount of information on the kind of bond that he and Sunita Rajwar said. He also mentioned in the book that after Sunita and he broke up, he got into depression and felt like committing suicide. Discarding the write-up, Rajwar posted on Facebook that Nawazuddin Siddiqui is a 'sympathy seeker.' Her post read, "He leaves no opportunity to get sympathy from others - be it his complexion, his economic background or even his struggling days (when he worked as a watchman)." With inputs from PTI. Be it knocking out the enemies while riding an auto-rickshaw or leaving the opposition overthrown in a wrestling ring, Salman Khan leaves no stones unturned to bring about applause-worthy moments in each of his films. Tiger Zinda Hai, his upcoming Christmas special is no exception. Bollywood's Sultan will be seen wielding a fancy gun in an action-packed sequence in the movie. Director of the film, Ali Abbas Zafar, recently tweeted a still where the actor is seen wielding one of the heaviest weapons MG 42, a machine gun. Zafar captioned the picture as, "5000 rounds fired #tigerzindahai @TigerZindaHai @BeingSalmanKhan #KatrinaKaif" Though the picture of the actor with the gun is helping the film to make the right kind of noise all around, the drill, as per the director, was not that easy. The gun MG 42 weighs around 25 to 30 kg. It also has a magazine of cartridges attached to it which makes the gun even heavier. When you feature a superstar like Salman, who is known to pull his weight for a films action, you need to have weaponry that suits his stature and also fits in with the scale of Tiger Zinda Hai. This fight sequence is part of a very crucial chapter in the film, and the weapon needed to match the scale and impact of this moment," says Zafar, to DNA. On being asked about the action scene, he also added, For this scene, Salman fired around 5,000 cartridges over three consecutive days. It actually has become one of the most iconic shots of the film. Because the gun was being used continuously, we needed to keep two such weapons ready for use. It generates extreme heat and we worked in very hot conditions. We had to flip the gun continuously and keep both in perfect functioning condition. Tiger Zinda Hai, which is the sequel of Ek Tha Tiger, will see Salman reprise the role of Tiger and Katrina Kaif reprise her role of Pakistani spy Zoya. Major parts of the movie have been shot in Abu Dhabi and Austria, and recently a song has been shot in Greece. The trailer of the film will be out in a couple of days. After enjoying great success with Badrinath Ki Dulhania and Judwaa 2 this year, Varun Dhawan is ready to grace the silver screen next year with his next movie October. Directed by Shoojit Sircar, the movie will release on 13 April, 2018. It was earlier slated to release on 1 June next year. Newcomer Banita Sandhu will be making her debut alongside Varun in this film. An excited Varun Dhawan has already shared his first look from October on Twitter with a caption, As October comes to an end it arrives earlier next year. #October releases on 13 th Aprilnow.@ShoojitSircar @ronnielahiri @BanitaSandhu. As October comes to an end it arrives earlier next year. #October releases on 13 th April now.@ShoojitSircar @ronnielahiri @BanitaSandhu pic.twitter.com/1OtO1zjlo2 Varun Dhawan (@Varun_dvn) October 30, 2017 Sircar has enjoyed phenomenal success with hit films like Piku (2015), Madras Cafe (2013) and Vicky Donor (2012). October would be a romantic one which is being written by Juhi Chaturvedi. Varun who has mostly been comfortable with comedy and lighthearted movies in the past, will be seen portraying a serious role in October. His character in Badlapur also had the similar essence. Initially, R Balki's social biopic Padman was scheduled to release on 13 April but the makers pulled it ahead to the Republic Day weekend. It will now clash with S Shankar's Tamil sci-fi entertainer 2.0. Tamil actor Suriya's 36th film will be directed by Selvaraghavan and hit the screens on Diwali 2018. Both the director and the actor confirmed the news on Twitter. The shooting will begin from January 2018 after the actor wraps up his ongoing projects. Not just Diwali, it seems like two of Suriya's films will be released around festivals. His Thaana Serndha Kootam, directed by Vignesh Shivan, is also slated to be released around Pongal 2018. Bankrolled by Dream Warrior Pictures, Suriya's 36th film might have Rakul Preet as the leading lady, as per a report by Indian Express. Here's a tweet from the producer: Happy to share #Suriya36 Directed by @selvaraghavan to commence shoot by Jan2018 Cast & crew will be announced soon!#Diwali2018 release !! S.R.Prabhu (@prabhu_sr) October 30, 2017 Good morning friends. Happy to be a part of such a prestigious project #Suriya36 and to direct a very special and gifted actor @Suriya_offl https://t.co/xbGUhsm4Su selvaraghavan (@selvaraghavan) October 30, 2017 So looking forward to work with one of the finest director in our industry..!! https://t.co/jlo1HHAY3A Suriya Sivakumar (@Suriya_offl) October 30, 2017 Teaming up for a film for the first time, Suriya and Selvaragham are both kicked about the special project. There is no official word on the rest of the cast from the makers, as of now. Attack on Bishop Morlino is Scurrilous Contact: Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, pr@catholicleague.org NEW YORK, Oct. 30, 2017 / Christian Newswire / -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on recent attacks on Bishop Robert Morlino of the Diocese of Madison (Wisconsin): Catholics in the Diocese of Madison are very fortunate to have such a brilliant and courageous leader in Bishop Robert Morlino. He is currently under attack by dissident Catholics, ex-Catholics, and those who never were Catholic, for merely upholding the teachings of the Catholic Church. The uproar is wholly unjustified, and is indeed scurrilous. It was occasioned when the vicar general of the Diocese of Madison, James Bartylla, recently told his priests how to handle funeral rites for persons known publicly to have been involved in a homosexual relationship. His remarks were not meant as "official diocesan policy," though they certainly had the backing of the bishop. One would think from the reaction by DignityUSA, an organization that has long been in open defiance of the Church's teachings on sexuality, and Faithful America, a left-wing group frequently at war with the bishops, that Bartylla had condemned homosexuals, barring them from a Catholic burial. That is a lie. He did nothing of the sort. The vicar general's comments were entirely measured. To begin with, he was not talking about the burial of homosexuals, per se; rather, he was addressing those instances where a homosexual was involved in a public union with his partner. What should a priest do when confronted by the family of the deceased about a person who was in such a relationship? Bartylla instructed them to "think through the issue thoroughly and prudently." The micro issue involved in this matter is the funeral rites for homosexuals known to be engaged in a public relationship. The macro issue is scandal. Citing canon law, Bartylla said that "ecclesiastical funeral rites may be denied for manifest sinners in which public scandal of the faithful can't be avoided...." Scandal, as defined by the Catechism, is "a grave offense if by deed or omission another is deliberately led into a grave offense." In other words, causing scandal--inviting others to believe that it is morally acceptable to engage in sinful behavior--is the big issue. The Catholic Herald offered a cogent statement on this subject two years ago. "Canon law makes it clear that funerals should be refused to manifest sinners to whom a Church funeral could not be granted without public scandal to the faithful." In 2014, Pope Francis illuminated the macro issue involved when he excommunicated members of the Mafia: their public profile made them "manifest sinners," thus offering "public scandal to the faithful." The central concern for the pope had nothing to do with crimenever mind public declarations of homosexualityit had to do with sending the wrong signal to the faithful by acquiescing in the deeds of "manifest sinners." I know Bishop Morlino as a kind person who holds no animus against any person or group of persons. He deserves our support. Shame on those agenda-ridden activists who are out to smear him. Let Bishop Morlino know of your support: officeofbishop@madisondiocese.org Panaji: In India's holiday capital, demonetisation crashed the party for the tourism and travel industry, rocking the coastal state's gravy-boat. Goa's tourism season begins in October as the winter sets in and winds up in March, with the advent of summer. Coming on 8 November, demonetisation landed a sucker-punch bang in the middle of the lucrative season creating problems for travellers and other stakeholders. "Foreigners saw a restriction on the flow of funds. Taxi fares shot up, making it difficult for them to travel within Goa. Indian tourists also faced restriction as far as funds were concerned," Edgar Cotta, proprietor of Miramar Hotel in the state capital, told IANS. He said major negative signs emerged when booking cancellations by foreigners and domestic tourists started happening. Goa receives more than six million tourists every year with half a million visitors hailing from European countries who visit Goa to escape the harsh winter back home. John D'Souza, head of operations for inbound travel for Eastbound Group, said that soon after the prime minister's announcement, the situation turned desperate. "Czech and Slovakian travel agents were travelling to Goa for the first time. They did not even have money left for a coffee. And they were supposed to promote Goa and India as a holiday destination for tourists in their respective countries. Imagine what impression they carried back," D'Souza told IANS. The Goa Tourism department, however, does not agree with omnipresent tales of woe, insisting that demonetisation barely caused "initial hiccups" even as tourism inflow stabilised within one month. "In fact, the distress of demonetisation did not really affect Goa in any way. Except for some initial hiccups due to cash-crunch, tourists continued to visit Goa and accepted alternate modes of payment and facilitated the state's initiative for a cashless society," Tourism Director Menino D'Souza told IANS. "It was only in the first month of the introduction of demonetisation that the industry witnessed some cuts in travel plans from domestic and international tourists, but within a month the scenario was back to normal and we did not see any huge drop in footfalls," D'Souza said. Other stakeholders, of course, disagree. "It created a negative impact on us. We had to suffer a lot to make ends meet and paying employee salaries was a total burden. As a result we had to lay off many good employees as business was poor," said Sheldon Remedios of Groove Events, one of the popular event management companies in Goa. He said that convincing clients to go cashless was "very difficult". Now, the introduction of Goods and Services Tax was also not a healthy prospect, he said adding that "the forthcoming season also looks quite dull for us." Many businesses benefit from the beeline tourists make for the Goa beeches. Take the example of Smile Factory, a dental clinic in Calangute beach village known as a dental tourism destination. Dr Rachna Fernandes, who runs the clinic, must have seen the smile being wiped away from the visitors' faces. "They did not like standing in queue for hours for a couple of thousand rupees each day. They said they were here for a holiday, not to stand in queues for hours begging for their own money. It had scarred people. So those who were annoyed will not come back. Not this season at least," Fernandes said. Several of her prospective clients, who had pre-booked dental appointments before arriving in Goa on a holiday, had cancelled their arrival plans after hearing about the demonetisation decision, she said. But has demonetisation spread the practice of digital transactions in the tourism hub? Despite demonetisation and the subsequent emphasis on cashless transactions, only five per cent of the transactions were carried out by cashless means, D'Souza of Eastbound Group said. "Ninety five per cent of the transactions are still in cash," he added. New Delhi: Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh on Monday met Japanese ambassador Kenji Hiramatsu and sought cooperation in various sectors, including renewable energy, agriculture, skill development as well as promotion of investment in the state. The chief minister told the ambassador that Punjab provided an ideal platform for Japan for expanding and augmenting its industrial presence. Leading a high-level delegation, Singh pointed out that Punjab had deep footprint and ages of connection with the Japanese companies. He said the state's new 'Industrial and Business Development Policy 2017' had paved the way for further strengthening this connection. The chief minister said the policy was in line with his government's commitment to the people of Punjab to revive the industry and re-establish the pristine glory of the state, a statement said. Singh pointed out that the implementation of special power tariff at Rs 5 per unit for five years with upgradation in distribution infrastructure, which were among the key features of the policy, would further ease business in Punjab. It had already been identified as leaders in Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) in the country by the World Bank and Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP). He apprised the ambassador of his government's plans to set up an Industrial and Business Development Authority, where all industrial estates currently maintained and managed by different agencies, would be brought under one agency. This, he said, would ensure effective and uniform maintenance and management policies across the State. The government was also planning to set up four new industrial parks and 12 new industrial estates in Punjab, besides a Skills University, coupled with industry-specific skill development centres, the chief minister further informed the ambassador. The skill training schemes, he said, would be brought under one agency, namely the Punjab Skill Development Mission, he added. The chief minister said his government would take up the issue of setting up of Japan India Institute of Manufacturing (JIM) in the next phase with the central government. Jammu: Authorities have banned the sale of combat dresses and uniforms of Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district, which borders Pakistan, in a bid to prevent them from reaching into the hands of militants. District magistrate Sheetal Nanda said the ban was imposed under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and no unauthorised person or firm shall procure, store, stitch and sale Army combat dresses in Samba district. The ban, imposed after security agencies requested the authorities to regulate the procurement of such articles, came in the backdrop of attacks in Samba and neighbouring Kathua district by militants donning Army combat dresses and uniforms of security forces over the years. "The procuring, storing and selling of (Army uniforms) in unregulated manner may result in the items being passed into the hands of anti-national elements and may cause disturbances to (peace) as has been seen in the past," Nanda said. The order issuing the ban instructed that "all authorised private firms and shops procuring, storing and selling combat clothes shall immediately inform in writing to the nearest police station regarding their authority to carry on with this business". "The time limit for such information will be 15 days from the date of issuance and publication of this order," it read. The district magistrate has asked all authorised persons, private firms and shops to submit a fortnightly report of all the sales of combat and Khadi dresses cloth made by them. The report should have detailed information of the army, para-military and police personnel to whom the dresses were sold. "It shall be mandatory for all authorised firms and shops to maintain the register giving details of items received with quantity, state of sale, items and quantity of times sold and the address and identity particulars of the parties or individuals to whom sold," she said. In March 2015, two terrorists launched a fidayeen attack on an Army camp in Samba district. The terrorists were killed, and a civilian and two army personnel were injured. The same month militants in Army fatigue stormed a police station in Kathua killing seven persons. Kutch: The Border Security Force (BSF) on Monday apprehended a Pakistani fisherman and seized his boat from the Harami Nala creek area along the India-Pakistan border in Gujarat's Kutch district, a senior official said. The Pakistani national has been identified as Sartaj Ibrahim, a resident Badin district of the Sindh province of the neighbouring country, the official added. Ibrahim was apprehended by a BSF patrolling party when he was allegedly fishing "well inside" the Indian territory in the Harami Nala creek area along the border this morning, he added. Given the sensitive nature of the area, even Indian fishermen are barred from fishing in the creek. However, Pakistani fishermen often venture into the Indian waters for a catch, the official said. Last month, the BSF had apprehended five Pakistani fishermen and seized 21 of their boats from the same area. In a related development, the Indian Coast Guard, which has been keeping surveillance near the maritime boundary off the Gujarat coast near Kutch following the capture of several Indian fishermen by the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency in recent years, managed to free an Indian fishing boat. According to a release by the Defence PRO for Gujarat, the incident took place on October 27, when the Coast Guard Ship 'Ankit' located a Gujarat-registered boat 'Al Sha Asht Husen' near the IMBL. "The boat was reportedly in the custody of a Pakistan MSA ship. On continuous persuasion, the Pakistani counterparts released the boat with warning," it said As the boat had crossed into Pakistan waters, the Coast Guard seized its documents for legal action, the release added. In another development, Coast Guard rescued nine fishermen stranded in the mid sea off Pipavav port in Amreli district on October 28, said the release. Nine fishermen on board a boat took shelter on a vessel after their boat sunk near Shiyal Bet island near Pipavav, it added. All of them were rescued by the Coast Guard Interceptor Boat C-419 and handed them over to the nearest marine police station, said the release. Beijing: China is set to block a resolution at the UN this week to declare Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar an international terrorist, frustrating India and the US who want the chief plotter of a deadly attack on Indian military bases punished. After Beijing blocked and put a technical hold on India's application that lapsed last year, the US in January had put a fresh proposal - backed by France and the UK - to ban Azhar. Beijing again put a technical hold on the proposal till August, only to extend it further for three months. The technical hold expires on Thursday. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said the 1267 Committee of the UN Security Council was still in disagreement to approve the application. "As for the listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements. China put the technical hold to allow more time to deliberate on this matter," Hua said. "To our regret, the committee so far has yet to reach consensus," she added. China's 'no' to the US proposal means that a new resolution will have to be moved. Minus China, all the countries of the 15-member Security Council are on board to ban Azhar, who heads the Jaish-e-Mohammad outfit. China is one of the five veto-holding members and its vote for and against the resolution is decisive. "We have made our position clear many times... Relevant resolutions of the Security Council have clear stipulations as to the mandate of 1267 committee and also clear stipulations when it comes to the listing of the terrorist organisations and individuals," Hua said. "We believe that the committee (UN) should follow the principles of objectivity, professionalism and fairness and reach a decision by consensus based on solid proof," she said. The listing of Azhar has become a sore point between China and India. In September, China agreed to include Azhar's outfit in the joint statement by BRICS members. Asked if China was trying to defend Pakistan by vetoing application against Azhar, Hua said: "I can understand why you raised this question but I cannot side with what you just said. "China always upholds the principles of fairness and objectivity and we judge this matter on its own merits. You mentioned Pakistan. Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism and we support Pakistan in countering terrorism in accordance with its own national conditions." Beijing has steadfastly shielded its "all-weather" ally Islamabad, which has been accused of harbouring terror outfits by India. China has invested billions in the key infrastructure project of Belt and Road initiative in Pakistan which seeks to connect Asia with Europe through a network of roads, highways, ports and sea lanes. A Delhi-bound Jet Airways flight from Mumbai was on Monday diverted to the airport in Ahmedabad after a note was found on board threatening the presence of hijackers and explosives on the aircraft. The person responsible for the 'letter' has been detained by the city police. The Boeing 737-900 flight 9W339, which took off from Mumbai at 2.55 am, landed at Ahmedabad airport at around 3.45 am. The passenger, identified as Birju Salla, has apparently confessed to putting the threatening note in the plane, NDTV reported. Salla, a jeweler hailing from Rajula town in Gujarat's Amreli district, was taken into custody based on suspicion after the plane landed in Ahmedabad, the police said. He was reportedly the last person to use the washroom, before the threatening note was discovered by the cabin crew staff. Salla, who now lives in Mumbai, had in the past too done such a mischief with the airline out of some grudge, the police official said. A report by NDTV also said that Salla was a frequent flier and had earlier boarded the flight with a cockroach, which he then planted in his meal to show the airline in bad light. According to CNN-News18, an air hostess onboard had found a note in the bathroom there were hijackers and explosives on the aircraft. As per protocol, the air hostess alerted the pilot who in turn alerted the Air Traffic Control (ATC) and made an emergency landing in Ahmedabad and parked at a remote bay in the airport. The note warned the pilot not to land at Delhi and instead fly the aircraft to Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK). It further claimed there were 12 hijackers and explosives on the flight. The note, written in Arabic and English ended with "Allah is Great", reported ANI. All the 115 passengers and seven crew members were deplaned and a thorough security check was conducted of the entire aircraft. Following the incident, Union civil aviation minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju tweeted that the person responsible for the security threat should be put on the No-Fly list immediately. I am advising the Airlines to put him on the No-Fly list immediately, in addition to other statutory criminal action. Ashok Gajapathi Raju (@Ashok_Gajapathi) October 30, 2017 Flight 9W 339, which had taken off from Mumbai at 2.55 am with 115 passengers and seven crew members, landed without incident at Ahmedabad around 3.45 am. The Boeing 737-900 plane was parked at a remote bay and all 122 safely deplaned, a Jet Airways spokesperson said. Giving details of what had happened, Ahmedabad Airport Director Manoj Gangal said the flight was allowed to make an emergency landing on the pilot's request. The bomb disposal squad and the local police conducted a thorough search but found no explosive substance, said Sardarnagar police station inspector HB Zala. The Jet Airways statement said the flight was diverted following "declaration of an emergency as per established security procedures, due to the detection of an onboard security threat". "We are extending full cooperation to the security agencies who are investigating the matter and are not in a position to comment further at this stage," it said. With inputs from PTI New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the authorities to ensure that mohalla clinics are not set up in schools as it would affect children's entry in the institutions and make the places unsafe. The court also asked the AAP government and civic bodies to explore the feasibility of setting up Mohalla Clinics at the various sites proposed by the DDA. "Nowadays children are already so vulnerable to exploitation. Do not block their entry in the schools by such steps. Ensure that you do not render safe places unsafe. It's a legitimate concern," a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said. To this, the Delhi government counsel Sanjoy Ghosh said that as per the court's earlier order, no MCD schools were being used for mohalla clinics. The court's observation came after advocate Ashok Aggarwal sought to be impleaded as a party in the matter and submitted that he was not against setting up of mohalla clinics, but school premises and parks should not be used for this purpose. The court asked him to file an application in this regard after the government's counsel opposed his plea. It also noted that none of the three MCDs have filed their feasibility reports with regard to the land falling in their jurisdiction and directed them to file it. The court also asked the Delhi government to convene a meeting with the authorities, including MCDs and the DDA, to address the feasibility of the proposed sites for mohalla clinics and listed the matter for 4 December. The court had earlier asked the Centre, the AAP government and civic bodies to explore the possibility of setting up mohalla clinics in all parts of the city to provide adequate health facilities to the people. The Delhi government's counsel had said the proposal for the neighbourhood health facility scheme was approved by the competent authority. He had submitted that the department identified several free sites in the city. The health project had been delayed after complaints of irregularities were received by the LG, leading to a probe by the Vigilance Department. The lack of land for the project had also held it up. The court was hearing NGO Justice for All's plea for a direction to the authorities to allot adequate number of plots for construction of these clinics with permission to raise the appropriate temporary structures to run them. Advocate Khagesh B Jha, appearing for the NGO, claimed that the LG had now approved the scheme of mohalla clinics but due to multiplicity of agencies and difference of opinion among them, the scheme was working at a very slow pace. The NGO submitted that "the poor residents of the city have no means to afford the costly treatment of private hospitals and are completely dependent on government hospitals and dispensaries which have limited strength and are unable to serve the population in normal days". Seeking direction to the Centre, the DDA and MCDs to remove the technical difficulties for the construction of the temporary structures and running the clinics, the plea urged that the authorities be asked to depute doctors, staffs and provide proper facilities for their smooth functioning. New Delhi: Taking a cue from popular TV crime series "Crime Patrol", a Delhi University student, along with two accomplices, strangulated to death a Class 11 student here for trying to woo his girlfriend, and then enacted an abduction drama to cover their involvement, police said on Monday. However, this step proved to be their undoing as it enabled police to solve the crime. Deputy Commissioner of Police Ishwar Singh said that Naveen, a first year BA student in Delhi University's Aryabhatta College, had a grudge against 17-year-old Jatin for trying to become friends with his girlfriend. On Saturday evening, Navin and his friends Akash and a minor, all residents of Mehrauli area of south Delhi, invited Jatin for samosas at a roadside eatery in Chattarpur, then took him to a nearby farmhouse where first, they beat him and then strangulated him to death. They hid his body in a nearby forest while taking away his phone and other belongings, including his ID card, Singh said. The family of Jatin, in the meantime, called him on his mobile phone after he did not return home. The accused initially ignored the calls but spoke to his parents later, posing as kidnappers and demanding a ransom of Rs 20 lakh to set him free. They then switched off Jatin's mobile phone. "The family members informed police about Jatin's kidnapping. We tracked down the location of his phone and found his scooter. "The teams also examined all the CCTV footage of major intersections and roads, and found three masked youth on a bike," Singh said, adding one of Jatin's friends identified the bike as belonging to Akash. Akash was picked up for questioning, and during interrogation, admitted to being involved in the murder and revealed the mastermind was Naveen, a former student of Jatin's school in Mehrauli. "Naveen hatched the crime after watching 'Crime Patrol' and killed Jatin, along with him and their minor friend, in a fit of rage as Jatin wanted to become friends with his girlfriend," the officer added. Patna: The CPI will participate in the protest along with 18 other like minded parties on 8 November, the day demonetisation was announced last year and observe it as a "black day" at every district headquarters in Bihar. Addressing media persons after the conclusion of the party's two day state council meeting, CPI national secretary K Narayana said the party has decided to observe 8 November as "black day" along with 18 other like minded parties at national level. Lalu Prasad's RJD has also announced to hold rallies across Bihar on 8 November, the day demonetisation was announced last year. The implementation of demonetisation and GST coupled with Narendra Modi government's pro-corporate economic policies have "adversely affected" the common men, Narayana claimed. Left parties would take out a candle march across the country on Monday in support of their 26 points demands, he added. He said that Bihar chief minister and JD(U) president Nitish Kumar had asked left parties to unite secular and democratic forces against BJP but now he has aligned with the BJP which was not a good sign at all. Stating that his party may field candidates in 8 to 9 assembly constituencies in Gujarat assembly polls, the CPI national secretary said that an atmosphere against ruling BJP is gaining momentum in Gujarat and claimed that Patidars, dalits and backwards have started rallying against BJP. CPI Bihar secretary Satya Narayana Singh said the party is contemplating to field former Jawaharlal Nehru university students' union (JNUSU) president and all Indian students federation leader Kanhaiya Kumar from any of the Lok Sabha constituencies including Begusarai in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Asked whether the party had a talk with Kanhaiya Kumar in this regard and whether he has given his consent to contest, Singh said in affirmative saying that he is ready to contest. He said that Kanhaiya, who is the resident of Bihat panchayat of Barauni block of Begusarai district, had recently visited Begusarai and visited several areas. Pune: Veteran actor Anupam Kher on Sunday said if people can wait at the restaurants, stand in the queues in front of the movie halls or party venues, why can't they stand for 52 seconds for the National Anthem in cinema halls. Kher was in Pune to receive the Pramod Mahajan Memorial Award. Along with Kher, Shayara Bano, the original petitioner in the triple talaq case, too was conferred with the award, constituted in the name of the late BJP leader. Kher, during his speech, lambasted those who are opposing the idea of making the National Anthem mandatory inside the cinema halls. "Some people are of the opinion that standing up for the National Anthem should not be made mandatory, but for me, standing up for the National Anthem shows the upbringing of that person. "We stand up in respect in front of our father or teacher, similarly getting up for the National Anthem shows respect towards our nation," Kher said. "If people can wait at the restaurants, stand in the queues in front of the cinema halls or at the party venues, why cannot they stand for 52 seconds for the National Anthem in the cinema halls," he said. Kher, while raking up the issue of 'award-waapsi', said that when he was 15-years-old, his father taught him how to deal with failure when he failed in the examination. "At the age of 15 I learnt how to deal with failure so these 'award wapasi' people cannot scare me," he said. The awards are given by city-based organisation Muktachhand, run by BJP MLA Medha Kulkarni, and handed over by Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar. BJP MP and daughter of late Pramod Mahajan, Poonam Mahajan was also present at the event. Ahmedabad: The Gujarat government on Sunday set up a three-member expert committee to inquire into death of nine infants in 24 hours at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, even as 18 children succumbed at the government facility during the last three days. "This is a very sad incident and we have already appointed a committee to look into the reasons," Chief Minister Vijay Rupani told reporters in Ahmedabad. The committee, led by a Deputy Director of Medical Education, is expected to look at the prima facie reasons for the deaths and is expected to submit its report in a day. "We will initiate immediate measures to overcome any negligence or lacunae in the treatment found by the panel," he said, but quickly added: "But, prima facie, it appears that the case is not about lack of availability of medicines or medical facilities." Of the nine children who died, four were born in the hospital, while the other five were referred to the civil hospital from towns of five districts with "extremely low birth weight" complications, while some suffered from life-threatening diseases and were in critical condition, an official release said on Sunday. Five infants, referred from Lunawada (Mahisagar district), Surendranagar (town in Saurashtra), Mansa (Gandhinagar district), Viramgam (Ahmedabad district) and Himmatnagar (Sabarkantha district), were brought with severe life threatening conditions such as extremely low birth weight (around 1.1 kg), hyaline membrane disease, early onset of septicaemia and disseminated intra-vascular coagulation, it added. The four newborns at the civil hospital were stated to have "died due to lethal complications such as severe birth asphyxia and meconium aspiration." Civil Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr MM Prabhakar told reporters late Saturday evening that all the nine infants were under-weight. Official sources said these nine were among the 18 infants who succumbed in the last three days at the 100-bed neonatal care facility, while the daily average of deaths of newborns at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital is five to six. Amritsar: A Hindu outfit leader was shot dead in full public view by four unidentified men in the Bharat Nagar locality on the Amritsar-Batala road in Amritsar on Monday, police said. Hindu Sangarsh Sena district chief Vipan Sharma (45) was standing with a friend outside a shop in the bustling Bharat Nagar locality when around a dozen bullets were pumped into him, the police said. The killing comes within a fortnight of the gunning down of RSS leader Ravinder Gosain in Ludhiana on 17 October. Two of the four masked youths, including one sporting a turban, pumped bullets into Sharma's body and fled the spot on their motorcycles, police said. Sharma was rushed to the Escort Hospital where he was declared brought dead. "He was brought to the emergency wing of the hospital where a team of doctors declared him brought dead. There were around 15 injury marks on the deceased's body, including 8 bullet marks," the hospital's director, Dr HP Singh, said. Police commissioner, Amritsar, SS Srivastava said the CCTVs installed at various locations had captured the incident. The footage from these cameras had been procured and the police was trying to identify the accused by making their sketches, he said. He said the exact number of bullets shot could be ascertained only after the post-mortem report but initially it could be said that nearly 12 bullets were shot on the spot which directly hit the victim. "It is a targeted killing and we are verifying all the aspects particularly a past threat perception if any," he said. Few of the deceased's relatives and friends claimed that he had recently applied for police protection, since he was active in raising his voice against the 'Ghalughara week' (Operation Blue Star anniversary), the police commissioner said. The deceased was a cable operator by profession and was running his business for the last many years in the city. Condemning the killing, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said it seemed that there was no law and order in the state under the Congress rule. In a press release, the SAD president said that a "wave of violence had been sweeping through the state" with impunity. He accused the Captain Amarinder Singh government of allowing miscreants to make a mockery of the law of the land. "The high-profile killings have been on the rise despite the tall claims made by the state police of containing such incidents of violence," he claimed. If the government does not act, the situation can turn from bad to worse, putting in danger the communal harmony in this border state, he added. Meanwhile, the Punjab Shiv Sena flayed the gunning down of the Hindu leader. In a statement, the Sena's state vice-president Rajesh Palta alleged that the killing of Hindu leaders one after the other was indicative of revival of terrorism in Punjab. "If Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh does not tackle the issue with an iron hand, and instead carries on with the SAD-BJP policy of soft-pedalling over religious fundamentalists, then Punjab will again plunge into the dark days of terrorism like in the past and there will be danger to national integrity and amity," he claimed. India is facing an unprecedented crisis in mental health. This can be reflected from the fact that we are reporting the largest number of adolescent suicide deaths in the world. This is a fact reinforced by the National Crime Record Bureau, which confirms that we are presently witnessing a 20 percent increase in suicides every year. A 2015 WHO study further emphasises that between 30 and 40 people per 100,000 Indians aged between 15 and 29 kill themselves. This accounts for about a third of all suicides in the country. Shockingly, a study done by Dr Anuradha Bose at Christian Medical College, Vellore, confirmed that suicides account for 50 to 75 percent of all deaths among adolescents. The study, which was published in The Lancet, found that the suicide rate in the 15-19 age group for those in Vellore was 148 per one lakh women and 58 per one lakh men. This shows that three times more younger women were committing suicide than men. These findings have been reinforced by Dr Vikram Patel of Harvard Medical School who also heads the NGO Sangath who pointed out that suicides cause twice as many deaths as HIV/AIDS and about the same number as maternal mortality cases among young women. Dr Patel, who was in India to attend the 11th World Congress on Adolescent Health, told this reporter that he was also concerned at the rising graph of juvenile delinquency in India. "Children coming in conflict with the law is almost always the result of social deprivation. The effects of social deprivation effect the childs ability to understand what is socially acceptable and what is anti-social. For example, if a child grows up in a family where the mother is being regularly beaten or the father is an alcoholic or grows up in a neighbourhood where theft and violence is routine, this is going to affect the way s/he interacts with other people. We have to look at adolescent delinquents as a failure of society to take care of their social needs, said Patel. He cites the example of the Jyoti Singh case, where some journalists wrote some poignant narratives about the kind of deprivation faced by these boys. Patel cites the example of one particular boy whose father, suffering from a mental illness, had disappeared when the boy was five years of age. "The boy grew up on rubbish heap and from a young age got involved with working with gangs and indulging in petty crimes. He never went to school and by the early years of his adolescent had become a hardened street criminal. How can you simply blame him? This is a failure of the child development system. The fact is whichever part of Delhi he grew up in, not a single person from the Ministry of Women and Child Development intervened to either detect or protect his childhood needs," Patel added. "This is the biggest area of concern affecting the lives of millions of kids. It is an area of greater concern than sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is receiving all the attention but through the common forms of neglect, where parents are either too poor to look after their children, or have conflicts with each other, the essential development of children is getting affected, Patel added. Dr Saurabh Malhotra of Medanta agrees, There are several reasons for this exponential rise in suicides. Young people are witnessing a great deal of friction in their homes. There is no parenting in a large number of families. The social fabric of our society is breaking down. Drug abuse among youngsters is rampant. This makes them more impulsive. Their mindsets have become so fragile that tolerance levels have reached an all-time low, Malhotra said. Dr Sunil Mehra, the executive director of MAMTA Health Institute for Mother and Child, feels there is much more need to focus on adolescent heath especially since they comprise more than 253 million of our population. Mehra told Firstpost in an exclusive interview, "Adolescent mental health challenges need to be addressed by families, schools and society before they become major problems." When Mehra was asked to explain why children in conflict with law were showing propensity towards violence to the extent of even murdering victims they had raped, Mehra said, "Violence exists because of gender inequality. There is a lot of gap between what adolescents know and what they expect. Adolescents have an exploratory thought process and are prone to risk-taking behaviour. It is when they harm others or commit self- harm that their behaviour is abnormal. People, and especially parents, need to understand adolescent physiology better. Zoya Ali Rizvi from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare emphasised that migration from rural to urban cities is also a major cause of stress for adolescents and families. "Who do children and adolescents talk to, especially when both parents are working? We need to have counsellors and the government has appointed 1700 counsellors in adolescent health centres. But, of course, given the population, we need many more, said Rizvi. Rizvi also regretted that mental health is not a priority for parents in rural areas. "Issues such as safe drinking water, schools, sexual reproductive health, drugs, injuries and the need for toilets take precedence over mental health issues unless the case is very severe," she said. Larger numbers of adolescent girls are committing suicide as compared to men. Of course, pregnancy complications, such as haemorrhage, sepsis, obstructed labour, and complications from unsafe abortions, are the top cause of death among 1519-year-old girls, but this is followed by suicides. Dr Kanika Malik of the Public Health Foundation of India points to statistics which emphasise that 11 per cent of girls worldwide are prone to depression. Malik cites the example of how in the mid-nineties, China one million women would have committed suicide every year due to financial and emotional neglect had the government not come up with a strong country-level intervention providing better educational programmes and better job facilities for girls.` This helped reverse the trend, said Malik. India needs to come up with a similar road map. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched a Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram, but it needs to come up with a comprehensive mental road map to reverse growing mental depression and suicides that are engulfing our youth. But Dr Sonali Bali, a psychiatrist with VIMHANS believes that this can happen only when mental health services in India improve in order to cope with larger numbers of patients. "We have only 3,000 psychiatrists for a population of 125 crore and these are concentrated in the metros," she said. India and Italy looked at strengthening the bilateral political and economic relations when Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni visited India on 30 October. External affairs ministry spokesperson, Raveesh Kumar, said, "The visit is aimed at strengthening the bilateral political and economic relations between the two countries." During his visit, the Italian leader held talks with the top leadership, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Here is the full text of the joint statement: The Prime Minister of Italy, H. E. Paolo Gentiloni paid a State Visit to India on 30 October 2017 at the invitation of Prime Minister of India, H. E. Narendra Modi. A high level business delegation accompanied the Prime Minister. The two Prime Ministers underlined the historical importance of this visit to New Delhi, which not only sets a new momentum in the bilateral ties, but also seeks to revitalize on-going engagements between the two countries. The leaders emphasized the importance of regular high level contacts to enhance India-Italy co-operation and mutual understanding. Underlining the need for regular high-level contacts, PM Gentiloni announced the upcoming visits to India by several ministerial-level delegations including that of the Minister of Agriculture, Minister of Culture, Minister of Economy and Finance and the Italian Vice Minister for Economic Development. The two leaders agreed on the need for a closer partnership between India and Italy based on shared principles and values of democracy, freedom, rule of law and respect for human rights and territorial integrity of States. The two leaders expressed their shared desire to work together to support a rules-based international system that upholds agreed international norms, global peace and stability, and encourages inclusive growth and sustainable development in all parts of the inter-connected world. They welcomed the growing India-Italy convergence on contemporary global issues and agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in multilateral forums. Recalling the 2005 Memorandum of Understanding on Political Cooperation between the Foreign Ministries of the two countries, the two sides reaffirmed their intention of holding regular Foreign Minister Consultations. EU and multilateral relations The two leaders expressed their satisfaction with the outcomes of the EU-India Summit held in New Delhi on 6th October 2017. PM Gentiloni mentioned that Italy strongly supports a strengthened strategic partnership between India and the European Union (EU). He emphasized that the EU and India share many common interests and objectives and can work together in addressing global challenges and preserving the rules-based system of international governance. The Leaders expressed their shared commitment to strengthening the Economic Partnership between India and the EU and noted the on-going efforts of both sides to re-engage actively towards an early resumption of negotiations for a comprehensive and mutually beneficial India-EU Broad Based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA). The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening global non-proliferation efforts. Italy congratulated India on its admission to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). Italy also welcomed Indias subscription to the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation (HCoC) and supported Indias intensified engagement with Wassenaar Arrangement, the Australia Group, and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) which strengthens global non-proliferation efforts. The two leaders agreed to work bilaterally and with partners in the framework of the United Nations, the G20 and other multilateral fora to address emerging challenges to international security, global economic stability and sustainable development. Both sides reaffirmed their support to the new United Nations reform agenda on the three reform tracks of peace and security, development and management reform. The two Leaders also called for reforming the bodies and organs of the UN system, including the comprehensive reform of the UN Security Council as well as the revitalisation of the work of the General Assembly, better aligning the work of its committees with the 2030 Agenda. The two leaders reiterated their commitment to improve the transparency and integrity of the public and private sector through practical international cooperation and technical assistance, and agreed to continue to fully implement the G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan of 2017-18. PM Gentiloni called for greater experience sharing between India and Italy in the area of fighting corruption. The President of Italys National Anti-Corruption Authority will soon visit India to enhance dialogue and cooperation in this area. Clean Energy & Climate Change On climate change, the two leaders confirmed their strong commitment to the full implementation of the Paris Agreement adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and being guided by its principles including the principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities in the light of different national circumstances. They pledged to work together in the run up to and at CoP23, and beyond, on the next steps towards substantial and balanced progress on all items of the Paris work programme. The two Leaders acknowledged the enhanced technical cooperation in the renewable energy sector and welcomed the MoU between the Ministry for the Environment of the Italian Republic and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of the Republic of India. They recognized the progress ongoing in both Countries in replacing traditional energy sources with green ones, as a contribution to the global engagement against climate change. Both Leaders noted that Italy and India as part of the Mission Innovation (MI) Initiative, a strategic exercise to double public funds dedicated to Research and Development in clean technologies are partnering with countries of the MI initiative in the Smart Grid Innovation Challenge-1, that targets innovation and deployment of reliable, efficient & affordable smart grid technologies to achieve the ability to accommodate 100% renewable based energy sources in existing power grid. In this context, the two Leaders noted with appreciation the second MI International Workshop on Smart Grids Innovation Challenge that will be held in India, from 16th to 19th November 2017. Both leaders agreed that the migratory phenomenon is global in nature and requires a global response. In this context they noted the on-going discussions within the UN Framework and their respective positions. The two leaders expressed their commitment to support peace and sustainable development in Africa by exploring areas of convergence through consultations with a view to optimising possible synergies between their respective initiatives as well as in the multilateral fora. They acknowledged the valuable contribution of both Countries to peace and development in Africa, including through their participation in UN Peacekeeping Missions. Italy also looked forward to India's participation as an observer at the forthcoming EU-African Union Summit. Combating Terrorism and Cyber Security Cooperation The two leaders resolved to fight terrorism and violent extremism in all their forms and manifestations. They condemned in the strongest possible terms recent terror attacks in India, in Europe and elsewhere and emphasised the need for strengthening international partnership and concerted action by the international community in addressing the menace of terrorism. The leaders expressed satisfaction on the first India-Italy Joint Working Group on Combating International Terrorism held in Rome on 10 November, 2016 and agreed to further strengthen the consultation mechanism through regular exchange of assessments and information, training and capacity building programme etc., in the sphere of counter terrorism. The leaders agreed to strengthen cooperation to take decisive and concerted actions against Al Qaeda, ISIS (Daesh) and their affiliates and all other all UN designated globally proscribed terrorists and terror entities, including those mentioned in Para 8 of the 6th Oct 2017 India-EU Joint Statement on Cooperation in Combating Terrorism. The leaders emphasised the need for effective implementation of existing international commitments on countering terrorism including UN Global Countering Terrorism Strategy, UNSC resolutions and targeted sanctions relating to terrorism. In this context, the leaders also called upon all UN member countries to designate terrorist entities in line with the relevant UNSC Resolutions. Both leaders also called for an early conclusion of negotiations and adoption of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism in the UN, as an instrument that would reinforce the message that no cause or grievance justifies terrorism. They also called upon all countries to work towards rooting out terrorist safe havens and their infrastructure and networks and halting cross-border movement of terrorists. Emphasising that the liberal and pluralistic values of both countries are rooted in our secular democracy, the leaders affirmed that terrorism should not be associated with any particular religion, nationality, civilisation, creed or ethnic group. They also expressed concerns at the growing misuse of internet towards radicalisation of youth and agreed to strengthen cooperation in combating radicalisation and violent extremism. The two Leaders reaffirmed their commitment to an open, free, secure, stable, peaceful and accessible cyberspace, enabling economic growth and innovation. In particular, they reaffirmed that international law is applicable in cyberspace and that there was a need to continue and deepen deliberations on the applicability of international law to cyberspace and set norms of responsible behaviour of States. They also agreed to explore the establishment of a bilateral dialogue on cyber issues. The leaders welcomed the holding of the 5th Global Conference on Cyberspace in New Delhi on 23-24 November. Strengthening Economic Partnership The two leaders appreciated the strong India-Italy economic linkages and committed to work in a result-oriented and mutually beneficial manner by injecting a renewed momentum into the broad-based economic engagement between the two countries. PM Modi called upon the Italian industry to explore Indias untapped business opportunities in the infrastructure, food processing, renewable energy, and high-tech manufacturing sectors. PM Gentiloni also called upon Indian industry to identify business opportunities, including in Italys textile, automotive, leather, machinery and chemical sectors. The two leaders took note of the progress made by the 19th session of the Indo-Italian Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation (JCEC) held at the ministerial-level. They agreed to convene the next session of the JCEC in India in 2018. PM Gentiloni appreciated Indias bold economic reforms and flagship initiatives such as the Make-in-India program, the National Solar Mission and the Smart Cities Mission. PM Gentiloni highlighted Italys commitment to the Make-in-India initiative through the activities of the 628 Italian companies which have invested over $2.4 billion and provide employment to over 23,000 people in India. Both Leaders pledged to further encourage the development of a network of industrial co-operation between the two Countries. The two leaders welcomed the signing of a MoU between the Italian Trade Agency (ICE) and Invest India to assist bilateral efforts aimed at enhancing mutual investment activities. The two Leaders announced the organization of an Indo-Italian High Level Forum on Design, with a focus inter alia, on industrial design, auto design, architecture, interior design, and fashion. The High-level forum will endeavour to bring together prominent experts from the areas mutually identified, with the task of defining a program of activity for the Forum (exhibitions, workshops, contacts between young designers etc.). The Foreign Ministries of the two countries will further discuss the objectives, structure, and host organizations for this High-level forum. The meeting of the High-level Forum is proposed to be held in March 2018. The two Prime Ministers noted the potential for enhancing bilateral defence cooperation and encouraged structured dialogue through the Joint Defence Committee (to be convened in Rome or New Delhi in the first half of 2018) as well as interactions between Indian and Italian companies. PM Gentiloni underlined Italys industrial expertise in this sector, and the renewed interest of Italian industry in participating in defence manufacturing under the "Make in India initiative. The two sides will also discuss in the appropriate Working Group the draft Technical Agreement on Sharing of White Shipping Information between the Navies. Both Leaders noted the on-going work on an Additional Protocol amending the bilateral agreement to Avoid Double Taxation and encouraged the respective agencies / competent authorities to continue negotiations with the objective of early finalization of the text. The adoption of the new protocol, together with the entry into force of the Protocol signed on 13 January 2006, will update the bilateral Agreement of 1993, with tangible benefits for Indian and Italian companies. The protocol will enable better administrative cooperation, and enhance the ability to counter tax evasion and tax avoidance. Work will also continue on Customs Cooperation to improve the mutual administrative assistance under the EU legal framework. The two Prime Ministers discussed the possibility of an operating mechanism to be established between the Italian investment bank - Cassa Depositi e Prestiti (CDP) that operates under Italys Ministry of Economy and Finance and relevant Indian counterpart entities to explore opportunities for enhancing investment cooperation in Indias infrastructure sector. In the area of Smart Cities, both sides expressed their intent to identify specific areas for cooperation. The Indian side welcomed the Italian initiative to share their experience in the area of urban rehabilitation, advanced technology solutions in the area of energy management (from smart grids to electric mobility networks), affordable housing and waste management. Both Leaders welcomed the "Declaration of Intent on Cooperation in the area of Rail Safety as a follow up to the two MoUs signed in January 2017 between the Italian Railways (Ferrovie dello Stato SpA) and the Indian Railways, and between Italferr, the engineering company of the Italian Railways, and its Indian counterpart RITES. They noted that there is great potential for bilateral cooperation in the areas of safety, diagnostics, technology certification and capacity building of rail professionals. The Leaders recognized the immense possibilities for collaboration in the food processing sector in India. They noted with satisfaction the imminent mission of the Italian Deputy Minister for Economic Development, who will be leading a high level business delegation to World Food India, from 3-5 November 2017, where Italy will be Focus Country. Italys Minister for Agriculture will also be leading a delegation to the FICCI and FEDERUNACOMA (Italian Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Federation) organized EIMA Agrimach, from 7-9 December 2017, where Italy will be Partner country. Both events will offer the opportunity to showcase the excellence of Italian agro-food industry and its potential for contributing to the development of the Indias food processing sector. The two Leaders also noted with appreciation work ongoing on the drafting of a MoU between respective Ministries of Agriculture on co-operation in agriculture and phytosanitary issues. The two Leaders welcomed the MoU between the Italian company MERMEC, a leading player in railway diagnostics, and its Indian counterpart, Titagarh. The MoU will see MERMEC and Titagarh jointly invest in R&D and manufacturing to develop cost effective solutions for signalling and safety of Indian Railways. Science & Technology and Education collaboration The Leaders noted the increasing number of student exchange programmes at the university level and the growing presence of Indian students in Italian universities. They expressed appreciation at the forthcoming launch of the first Roadshow of the Italian Universities in India which will take place in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru in November 2017. Both sides agreed to initiate collaboration on apprenticeship and on the relationship between industrial clusters and the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system. The two leaders also agreed to explore the prospects establishing state-of-the-art skill academies in India for providing training to trainers and trainees on trans-national standards. The two Leaders underlined the importance of the Executive Programme of Cooperation (EPOC) for the years 2017-2019 signed on 18 April 2017 under the framework of the Agreement on Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the Department of Science & Technology on the Indian side and Italys Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation. The EPOC will provide joint financing for 23 projects of cooperation in the areas of ICT, energy, environment, sustainable Agriculture, health, biotechnology, medicine, physical and chemical sciences and technologies applied to cultural and natural heritage between Indian and Italian universities and research centres. The implementation of the EPOC is expected to further consolidate the on-going collaboration between Italian and Indian universities, with around 200 partnership agreements already in operation. The two Leaders expressed their appreciation on the long standing collaboration in science and technology involving some of the best scientific and academic institutions from the two countries. In this context, the Leaders noted the successful inauguration of the joint experimental beam-lines for advanced materials research at the Synchrotron facility at ELETTRA in Trieste, Italy, last year. The Leaders noted with satisfaction the recently launched joint Industrial R&D Program which will open a new chapter in India-Italy S&T relationship by promoting technological innovation aimed at joint development of innovative products or processes in areas covering Advanced Materials, Smart Manufacturing, Clean Water Technologies and Cultural Heritage Preservation. Prime Minister Gentiloni gladly accepted Prime Minister Modis invitation to Italy to be the "Partner Country for the 2018 edition of the Technology Summit. Participation in the Tech Summit 2018 will provide further impetus to common endeavours in the field of science, technology and innovation for economic growth. The two leaders appreciated the innovative research undertaken by the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) through its chapters in Trieste, Italy and New Delhi, India for promoting the latest techniques in the fields of biomedicine, crop improvement, environmental protection / remediation, vaccine and biopharmaceuticals development and bio-pesticide production for the benefit of developing countries. The two leaders agreed to encourage cooperation between Italys Civil Protection Department and Indias National Disaster Management Authority in the field of disaster risk reduction and management, giving priority to strengthening the exchange of methodologies and technologies for the management of emergencies affecting population, territory, properties and cultural heritage. People-to-People contacts, Cultural Cooperation, and 70 years of Diplomatic Ties On growing people to people contacts, PM Gentiloni mentioned the presence of the 170,000 strong Indian diaspora who have made Italy their second home and acknowledged their contribution to the Italian economy. PM Modi appreciated the measures taken by the Italian government to enable the Indian diaspora to integrate with the Italian society. They also acknowledged the positive role played by the Italian business community in India over the years, contributing to Indias economic development. They agreed to work together on migration and mobility between the two countries. Both Leaders underlined the importance of valuing the archaeological and cultural heritage and welcomed the exchange of best practices and scientific techniques for the conservation of the architectural and archaeological heritage; and sharing of information on developing, marketing or managing cultural heritage tourism attractions. Both Leaders desired to enhance cooperation between the Italian Space Agency (ASI) and Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) for peaceful use of outer space and with particular reference to earth observation and space exploration. The two Prime Ministers welcomed the possibility of exploring "twinning arrangements between UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the two countries for exchanging information on conservation efforts and techniques, and for enhancing their touristic potential. The Italian side welcomed Indias interest to participate in the 2019 Biennale di Venezia, the worlds most prestigious contemporary art exhibition and agreed to extend necessary support in this regard. PM Gentiloni congratulated PM Modi for his initiative of the International Day of Yoga, which is celebrated worldwide on 21st June every year. PM Gentiloni conveyed that the Italian side will explore possibilities of introducing yoga practice in the physical education curriculum of Italian schools and to obtain certification for imparting yoga education by qualified yoga institutions in India. The two Leaders welcomed the signature of the New Executive Program of Cultural Cooperation (EPCC), in the framework of the bilateral Cultural Agreement. The new EPCC will strengthen the on-going cooperation between the two countries in the areas of theatre, music, dance, festivals, publishing, cinema, youth exchanges, and through grant of scholarship programs. To commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Italy and India, in March 2018, the two leaders welcomed the conclusion of a MoU between Indian Council for Cultural Relations and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs & International Cooperation, which will facilitate year-long performances by cultural troupes, and holding of exhibitions, seminars etc., in each others country. The leaders also unveiled a common logo to commemorate the 70 years of diplomatic relations. Connectivity The two leaders acknowledged the importance of connectivity in todays globalised world. They underlined that connectivity initiatives must be based on universally recognised international norms, good governance, rule of law, openness, transparency and equality and must follow principles of financial responsibility, accountable debt financing practices, balanced ecological and environmental protection, preservation standards and social sustainability. Both Leaders welcomed the resumption of Alitalia direct flights between the two countries. The improved transport connectivity between the two countries is a result of a fruitful cooperation between respective Aeronautical Authorities. The Indian and Italian Aeronautical Authorities are committed to strengthen the understandings in force relating to operation of air services between the two countries. The Leaders also welcomed the operationalization of the EU-India Horizontal Agreement which will enhance air connectivity between India and Europe and help foster greater people-to-people contacts, business travel and increase in tourism. Both sides welcomed the entry into force of the bilateral agreement on exemption of visa requirements for holders of diplomatic passport. Prime Minister Gentiloni thanked the Government and the people of India for their warm hospitality and extended an invitation to the Prime Minister Modi to visit Italy at a mutually convenient date. The text has been taken as is from the Ministry of External Affairs' official website and has not been edited by Firstpost. New Delhi: The Congress on Sunday demanded Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani's resignation over the deaths of 20 babies in three days at a civil hospital while holding Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah accountable for infant deaths across the country. The party also demanded a court-monitored probe into the deaths of the infants at the Ahmedabad civil hospital. Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill criticised Modi for "not even making a mention" of the incident in his monthly radio address 'Mann-ki-Baat', and accused him of being "insensitive" to the pain of the families of the deceased children. He dubbed the prime minister's radio address as "yet another disappointing monologue" which was not in sync with the ground reality and current issues facing the country. "Does the prime minister not feel the pain of the deaths of these infants in his heart, or, does he not have any sympathy for the families of the victims? "Instead of (expressing his) 'Mann ki Baat', the prime minister should have apologised to the people of this country, especially the families of the innocent infants, who lost their lives due to the gross criminal negligence of the BJP-run administration," Shergill said in a statement. The deaths of the infants were not an "unfortunate incident" but "cold-blooded murders" by the state administration. "The Congress demands that Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani should immediately resign from the post on account of the deaths," he said. He said Modi and Shah "should be held accountable and answerable for the frequent deaths of infants" all over India, especially in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. "The Congress demands that Modi, rather than indulging in PR exercises, should start addressing the real issues of the economy and do something to put an end to the dance of death going on in various BJP-ruled states," he said. The Congress leader alleged that the BJP in order to satiate its political appetite has turned government hospitals and doctors into "political handles for its political gains". Shergill also alleged that an "operation cover-up" has started in Gujarat to protect the accused involved in the "horrific" incident by authorising the deputy superintendent of the civil hospital to conduct an inquiry. "How can the accused be a judge in his own case? This is nothing but an eyewash to protect the accused," he said. Death toll rises to 11 Meanwhile, the death toll of infants at the civil hospital reached 11 since Friday midnight, prompting the Gujarat government to order a probe into the circumstances and causes of their death. Rupani on Sunday visited the hospital and assured action in case the deaths were caused due to negligence or lack of facilities. The Gujarat chief minister had also held a meeting with top health department officials in Gandhinagar regarding the incident. The government had said in a release that five babies that were brought to Ahmedabad from distant places and suffered from "extremely low birth weight" complications, while some suffered from life-threatening diseases and were in a critical condition. "Of the nine deaths in the 24 hours, five babies were referred from distant places Lunawada, Surendranagar, Mansa, Viramgam, Himmatnagar and were having severe life-threatening conditions such as extremely low birth weight (around 1.1 kg), hyaline membrane disease, early onset septicaemia and disseminated intravascular coagulation," the release read. Besides, four babies born at the civil hospital "died due to lethal complications such as severe birth asphyxia and meconium aspiration", it said. "While a newborn died of cancer, another succumbed to complications arising out of extremely low birth weight," said MN Prabhakar, hospital superintendent. With this, 20 babies have died in the past three days at the facility, Prabhakar added. A three-member committee under RK Dixit, deputy director of medical education, will inquire into the circumstances and causes of death, the release said. Talking to reporters after visiting the facility, Rupani said, "The government will take action if the deaths are due to lack of facilities or negligence of doctors. We have asked for an investigation into each of the nine cases and will be able to comment after that." Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Jayanti Ravi said the condition of some of the babies had already deteriorated and they had to be referred to the civil hospital here from distant places as doctors there might still be on Diwali vacation. The committee will look into the reasons for the deaths and it is expected to submit its report in a day, she said. "Being the main hospital in the state, all complicated cases are referred here. It is natural that many babies are not able to survive despite (our) efforts," she said. According to the government, "extremely low birth weight deliveries" continue to be a challenge in Gujarat in view of "suboptimal nutritional status of pregnant women". The average number of deaths of newborns at the Ahmedabad civil hospital is around five to six per day, the release added. Meanwhile, members of opposition Congress protested outside the office of the superintendent of the hospital over the child deaths. New Delhi: The NIA is in touch with Gujarat police and may take up the case of a Jet Airways aircraft's emergency landing in Ahmedabad which was allegedly the result of a note found in the plane's washroom that stated there were hijackers on board, agency's chief YC Modi said in New Delhi on Monday. Senior NIA officials said the agency can take up the case only if the state police registers the case under the anti-hijacking laws. Modi, a 1984-batch IPS officer, who took over the reins of the country's premier anti-terror organisation the National Investigation Agency told a press conference that hijacking is a scheduled offence for the NIA. The Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight made an emergency landing after a note stating that there were hijackers and a bomb on board was found in the plane's washroom. Flight 9W 339, which had taken off from Mumbai at 2.55 am with 115 passengers and seven crew members, landed without incident at Ahmedabad around 3.45 . The Boeing 737-900 plane was parked at a remote bay and all 122 people on board safely deplaned. Birju Kishore Salla, the man allegedly behind the scare, has been detained by the Ahmedabad police. "We are in touch with the state police. A call will be taken in a day or two after the police registers its FIR," Modi said. Asked whether the agency plans to question top Hurriyat leaders in the money laundering probe, Modi said the agency will proceed according to the evidence gathered by it and as per the requirements of the investigation. "For us national interest is paramount. We will proceed keeping that in mind," he said when asked whether the appointment of Dineshwar Sharma as the Centre's representative for talks in Jammu and Kashmir will affect its probe. Senior officials, however, added that the decision to question will entirely be of the agency. On the question of the "love jihad" issue in Kerala, an NIA official said that Kerala government had sent a list of 89 cases for the agency to probe. The official said among the 89 cases, it has identified nine cases which have "similar" nature as that of the Hadiya case and in six cases it has examined people involved. Thiruvananthapuram: The Congress party in Kerala on Monday passed a resolution authorising AICC president Sonia Gandhi to select the state party president and also the AICC members from Kerala. The state unit also said it has a record 33.84 lakh party workers, leading party units in the rest of the country. The state unit of the party officially completed its enrolment process and also elected party leaders at four levels of the party organisational structure, state returning officer Sudarshan Nachiappan told reporters on Monday. "At the general body meeting held on Monday, it passed a resolution authorising AICC President Sonia Gandhi to select the state party president and also the AICC members from Kerala," said Nachiappan. He added that the final list of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee would be released by the AICC along with the list of other states. "The new AICC president will be elected shortly and the process for it has begun," added Nachiappan. Patna/Sasaram: RJD president Lalu Prasad branded the prohibition in Bihar as a "big failure" and said liquor is now being delivered at home in the state. On his way to Ranchi, Prasad was responding to reporters' queries on Friday night's incident, in which four persons died after consuming spurious liquor while two others fell ill in Rohtas district. "Prohibition has been a big failure and a complete flop in the state as home delivery of liquor is happening in Bihar now," he said. Accusing the police of "malamaal" (making quick money) as truckloads of liquor were frequently coming to the state, the RJD chief claimed that spurious liquor was being sold to areas where the supply was short. A complete ban on sale and consumption of alcohol was imposed in Bihar in April last year. Meanwhile, the police and excise officials have launched a massive hunt against those involved in production and sale of illicit liquor in the state. Shahabad range deputy inspector general (DIG) of police Mohammad Rahman said four teams, each headed by a sub- divisional police officer (SDPO), had been formed to conduct raids against the illicit liquor traders and producers at various locations of Rohtas and Bhojpur districts. The teams led by the SDPOs of Ara, Piro, Vikramganj and Dehri would conduct raids from Sahar in Bhojpur district to Yadunathpur in Rohtas district, he added. Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, objected to a plea in the Supreme Court seeking reopening of investigation into the latter's assassination, according to media reports. CNN-News18 reported that Tushar filed a public interest litigation (PIL) on Monday opposing the reopening of the 70-year-old case. #BREAKING - Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson files PIL in Supreme Court opposing reinvestigation of assassination case pic.twitter.com/mvE29ybnGx News18 (@CNNnews18) October 30, 2017 In an interview to the channel, Tushar said, "The plea (to re-investigate) only seeks to waste time as there is nothing left to investigate. There are no discrepancies in the original investigation or in the 1969 Kapur Commission report. I am seeking that the Supreme Court dismisses this plea out of hand." He added that the plea is "motivated", and that " it is part of a strategy to confuse people about the details of the murder". On Monday, the apex court adjourned the hearing of the plea seeking the re-investigation, by four weeks, after amicus curiae Amrender Sharan sought more time to reply. Re-investigation of Mahatma Gandhi assassination: SC adjourns hearing for 4 weeks as amicus curiae Amrender Sharan sought more time to reply ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017 Mahatma Gandhi assassination: SC asked amicus curiae to examine legal validity of plea, asking both parties to clarify their locus standi ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017 The bench said there were "several ifs and buts in the case", and it will like to wait for Sharan's report. On 8 October, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao appointed senior advocate and former additional solicitor general Amrender Sharan as amicus curiae to assist the court in the case, after a petition filed by Mumbai-based Pankaj Phadnis, a researcher and a trustee of Abhinav Bharat, sought reopening of the probe on several grounds. The bench had raised a volley of questions including how evidence could be collected now to order further investigation into the case, which had led to the conviction and execution of Nathuram Vinayak Godse and Narayan Apte on 15 November, 1949. Gandhi was shot dead at point blank range in New Delhi on 30 January, 1948 by Godse. Phadnis has sought reopening of the probe on several grounds, claiming that it was one of the biggest cover-ups in the history. He has questioned the 'three bullet theory' relied upon by various courts of law to hold the conviction of accused Godse and Apte, who were hanged, and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar who was given the benefit of doubt due to a lack of evidence. He also claimed that there could be a third assassin other than the two convicted persons and submitted that there was a need to investigate whether the Office of Strategic Services, an intelligence agency of the US during World War II and a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), had tried to protect Gandhi. Phadnis has challenged the decision of the Bombay High Court which, on 6 June 2016, had dismissed his PIL on two grounds firstly, that the findings of fact have been recorded by the competent court and confirmed right up to the apex court, and secondly, the Kapur Commission submitted its report and made observations in 1969, while the present petition has been filed 46 years later. With inputs from PTI Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she will "obey" the directive of the Supreme Court, which questioned the state government's move to challenge a central law linking Aadhaar to social benefits and said she could file a plea in an individual capacity. "They (judges) have given their directive and we will obey that. I don't think there is any problem. We appreciate it," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat on Monday. The apex court on Monday questioned the West Bengal government's petition challenging the Centre's decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of government welfare schemes, saying it was against the federal structure. The court asked the West Bengal counsel to amend its prayer and submit a fresh plea. It also said Banerjee could submit a plea before it as an individual. "How can state file such a plea? In a federal structure, how can a state file a plea challenging Parliament's mandate," a bench comprising justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said. The chief minister said that her government had gone to the court because it had "some grounds." "We had some grounds. We accept the court's observation. There is no problem. Some individuals have already applied," she said. Several petitions challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes and notifications to link it with mobile numbers and bank accounts are pending in the apex court. The West Bengal government challenged the provision which says that without Aadhaar, the benefits of social welfare schemes would not be extended. Banerjee had earlier said she will not link her mobile phone number with Aadhaar and had dared the Centre to disconnect it. Mumbai: Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers on Sunday allegedly attacked hawkers near Vashi railway station in Navi Mumbai in a bid to evict them from the station premises, police said. The incident occurred this afternoon when a group of around seven workers attacked the hawkers outside the station, a Vashi police station official said. "We have registered a case of rioting against them and process to arrest them is underway," he added. On Saturday, MNS workers and hawkers had clashed near suburban Malad railway station in Mumbai. A MNS worker had sustained serious injuries after he was allegedly attacked by hawkers on Saturday afternoon. MNS has adopted an aggressive stance against hawkers occupying railway station premises after the Elphinstone Road railway station stampede that claimed 23 lives and its workers have been driving away illegal vendors since 15 October. MNS worker Sushant Malavade and other activists had tried to evacuate hawkers from near the railway station area, it was then that some of the vendors allegedly attacked them, police sai on Saturday. Malavade, suffered serious injuries after which he was taken to a local hospital, said police. Mumbai: The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) workers, who have been forcefully driving away hawkers outside Mumbai's suburban railway stations, should be ready to face retaliation from the vendors, said Mumbai Congress president Sanjay Nirupam. The MNS has adopted an aggressive stance against hawkers occupying railway station premises after the Elphinstone Road railway station stampede on 29 September that claimed 23 lives, and its workers have been driving away illegal vendors since 15 October. "The MNS may have domination in some pockets where it can target the hawkers due to a strong cadre base but the party workers should be ready for retaliation at other places where the hawkers are united," Nirupam said. "There has been a strong bias by the police when it comes to taking action against me and the MNS workers." Some MNS workers, including a Malad-based leader, were severely beaten up by local hawkers outside Malad railway station on Saturday. The MNS workers then rushed to Malad by evening and attacked the hawkers. Similarly, MNS workers also attacked hawkers outside Vashi railway station on Saturday afternoon. Nirupam went to Malad to extend his support to the hawkers, claiming that MNS has no right to be aggressive against them. A police case has been registered against Nirupam for holding a rally without permission. A case was also registered against the MNS workers. "We have registered a case of rioting against MNS workers and process to arrest them is underway," a Vashi police station official said. Speaking to reporters, Nirupam said, "Illegal hawkers issue are a global problem and not confined to Mumbai city alone. A lot of bribe is being paid to continue to do business as illegal hawkers and some MNS leaders are also involved in it. I have demanded several times that the hawkers should get proper license to operate, but no one is keen on solving the issue." India and Italy inked six pacts on a range of issues on Monday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni held extensive talks on ways to strengthen bilateral political and economic relations. Addressing the press after the meet, Modi said that he was glad to welcome Gentiloni at a time when the two nations were about to mark the 70th anniversary of their bilateral ties in March 2018. He said that during his talks, both nations agreed that the two great civilisations had scope to further strengthen their ties. "Both our nations want to take the bilateral ties to new heights. And with this meet we could revisit and realign the priorities of our relationship, for maximum benefit to both parties," Modi said. After the Modi-Gentiloni meeting, the two sides signed six pacts to deepen cooperation in the fields of railways sector safety, energy and promoting mutual investments, among others. The two leaders also discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral political and economic relations, apart from deliberating on strategic international and regional issues. Modi also noted that there was a huge potential for enhancing India-Italy trade ties. The prime minister said that there was scope for boosting the existing $8.8 billion worth of bilateral trade to much greater heights. He also invited Italian companies to invest in India's flagship developmental and infrastructural projects. Furthermore, the prime minister said that the two nations agreed on strengthening bilateral cooperation on fighting terror groups and supporting each other on global platforms. "Both of us are committed to fight unitedly against terror and on the issue of cyber security," Modi said. The prime minister also spoke about strengthening cultural ties and people-to-people contact between the two nations to boost tourism. "India and Italy are also committed to increase tourism and people-to-people ties between the two countries," Modi said. Ahead of his meeting with Modi, the visiting leader, who received a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan, described his visit as an opportunity to make ties between the two countries stronger. Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on Gentiloni and discussed issues of mutual interest, ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. In a series of tweets, Kumar said the two prime ministers reviewed the entire spectrum of the bilateral relationship. Modi and Gentiloni also interacted with 12 Indian and 19 Italian business leaders for boosting economic and investment cooperation, the spokesperson said. Gentiloni is the first Italian prime minister to visit in over a decade. The India-Italy diplomatic ties were hit badly after two Italian marines Latorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone on board a ship named Enrica Lexie, were arrested for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in 2012. Italy claimed the ship was in international waters and that only the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) should apply. It also moved the international court. While Latorre returned to Italy in September 2014 following an order of the Supreme Court issued on health grounds, Girone was allowed to go in May 2016. They are now in Italy, pending the verdict by the arbitration court at the Hague. The Indo-Italy diplomatic row also impacted the European Union's relationship with India. Italy is India's fifth largest trading partner in the European Union with a bilateral trade of $8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. India's exports to Italy are at $4.90 billion, while its imports are at $3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of $1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached $3.22 billion. With inputs from agencies A clash between two Nigerian gangs armed with swords and cleavers raged in a nursing home in New Delhi and forced terrified staff to hide in the washrooms, according to several media reports. #WATCH: Two groups of Nigerian nationals clash with each other at a private nursing home in #Delhi pic.twitter.com/Ia0WiLEPdO ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017 The incident occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning, when a group of Nigerian nationals arrived at a nursing home in Saket, New Delhi. A brawl broke out when a rival gang approached in an auto rickshaw and barged into the hospital, an NDTV report quoted police officials as saying. The three injured Nigerian nationals arrived around 4 am with a dozen other men, India Today reported. Their cohorts were waiting outside the nursing home when the rival gang arrived and they started attacking each other with knives, swords and cleavers, according to the report. The security guard who attempted to intervene was also reportedly thrashed. The hospital staff hid inside washrooms, Times Now reported. The gangs allegedly vandalised the hospital and fled before the police arrived, according to the report. Jaipur: Hundreds of government doctors on Sunday gathered in Jaipur to submit their resignation to the All Rajasthan In Service Doctors Association (ARISDA) in support of their 33 long-pending demands. The demands include formation of a separate cadre for in-service doctors, Rs 10,000 grade pay benefit to doctors, rectification in salary discrepancy, housing facility and safety for all doctors, said Dr Ajay Chaudhary, president ARISDA. They are also demanding for running government health centres in a single shift and rural allowance, he said. There are 10,000 doctors who are protesting for the demands to be fulfilled. He also said that if the government does not fulfill their demands, the resignations will be effective from 6 November. According to The Times of India report, the doctors are not cooperating with the health department in other routine works including sending reports to the health directorate of national health programmes. However, they are regularly going to hospitals to see the patients. On 22 October a meeting of ARISDA was organised in which doctors alleged the state government was not taking any action on their 33 demands pending for a long time. In September, the doctors had gone on a one-day mass leave to press for their long-pending demands, prompting the government to invoke the Rajasthan Essential Services Maintenance Act (RESMA) for three months, NDTV had reported. Rajasthan Health Minister Kalicharan Saraf had assured the doctors that the government was working to address their issues and appealed them to resume their works. With inputs from PTI New Delhi: Indian DGMO Lieutenant General AK Bhatt on Monday told his Pakistani counterpart that the support provided by the Pakistan Army to infiltrators was "unacceptable" and the Indian side will continue its "retaliatory measures" along the LoC. Lieutenant General Bhatt conveyed this during an unscheduled hotline interaction at 2 pm on Monday after a request from the Pakistan side. Pakistan DGMO Major General Sahir Shamshad Mirza alleged that Indian forces resorted to "unprovoked firing" along the LoC. Lieutenant General Bhatt told him that the support provided to terrorists by the Pakistan Army for crossing the border was the primary reason for the heavy firing from the Indian side at the Line of Control. He also said the Pakistan Army has been using civilians in forward posts to gather information and to help terrorists. Lieutenant General Bhatt said retaliatory firing by the Indian troops was carried out in response to "unabated support" given by the Pakistan Army to armed terrorists to infiltrate the border and target Indian Army posts with heavy calibre weapons. "It is in response to such actions that Indian troops retaliate," the Indian DGMO said. He said the Indian side will continue its effort to ensure peace and tranquillity along the border, and that the support provided by Pakistan Army to terrorists crossing the LoC is the prime reason for any 'collateral damage'. He said the support to terrorists by the Pakistan Army is "unacceptable". "The Indian Army will continue to take all retaliatory measures as well as retain the right to punitively respond to such provocative acts of aggression from the Pakistan side in future also," the Indian DGMO said. He said the Indian Army maintains "impeccable standards of professionalism" and does not target civilians. On the contrary, the Pakistan Army has employed civilians on forward posts and accorded permission for a permanent location in the vicinity of Pakistan army posts. "These civilians have repeatedly been used to gain information on our locations and providing guides to terrorists while crossing the LoC," he told the Pakistan DGMO. Islamabad: A Pakistani anti-graft court on Monday issued a bailable arrest warrant against finance minister Ishaq Dar after he failed to appear before it in a corruption case spiralling from the Panama Papers scandal. The Accountability Court dismissed Dar's application seeking exemption from personal appearance in the case hearing. Dar's counsel Khawaja Haris appeared in the court of judge Muhammad Bashir and sought Dar's exemption from appearance as he was in London to seek medical treatment. But the court rejected the plea and issued bailable arrest warrant and ordered him to appear in the next hearing on 2 November. The case was filed against Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) following a verdict by the Supreme Court, which disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after an investigation into corruption allegations against his family. Dar has so far appeared before the court seven times since the trial began. Earlier, he missed the first hearing on 20 September. It is the second hearing that he missed. Proceedings in the trial could not advance on Monday due to Dar's absence, even though prosecution witness Abdul Rehman Gondal, branch manager of a private bank's parliament branch, had appeared in the court with two gunny bags full of documents related to the minister's bank accounts. Haris stated in the application that Dar, after attending the 16th Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference in Dushanbe, had travelled to Jeddah. He said the minister fell ill in Jeddah and subsequently had to go to London for medical treatment. The court had indicted Dar last month in the case for owning assets "beyond his known sources of income". At the last hearing on 23 October, the court recorded statements of NAB's witnesses, including Abdul Rehman Gondal of Allied Bank and Masoodul Ghani of Habib Bank Limited. Earlier, three witnesses 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. On 28 July, a five-member Supreme Court bench had ordered NAB to file three references against Sharif and one against Dar, on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insafs Imran Khan, Jamaat-i-Islamis Sirajul Haq and Awami Muslim Leagues Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. In its reference against the finance minister, 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)". The case alleged that the assets were disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for. Ahmedabad: Police on Sunday lobbed at least 30 teargas shells and fired five rounds in the air to control a mob in the Gir-Somnath district, following two days of violent clashes between members of the ethnic Siddi community and the residents of Gundran village, a senior police official said. At least 14 people, including two policemen, have been injured in the clashes between the two groups as well as between the police and the Siddi community members at Madhupur and Jhambur villages, Superintendent of Police Hitesh Joysar said. "Three incidents of clashes took place between Siddi youths and those living in Gundran village over some petty issue over the past two days," Joysar said. Twelve people were injured in a clash in Gundran village on Saturday. "Today, the Madhupur residents blocked the roads in the area as a mark of protest. They hurled stones on policemen and torched vehicles when they went there to clear the blockade," the SP said. "Two policemen received injuries during the operation," he said, adding that the situation was now under control. In an FIR filed on Saturday, one Hitesh Patel alleged that he was beaten up by a few Siddi people, who he said, harboured a grudge against the youth of a certain community over a previous scuffle. The clashes then spread to Madhupur and Jhambur villages, where the Siddi community members allegedly torched vehicles and blocked roads, the SP said. "To control the mob, we had to fire five rounds in the air. We also lobbed 30 teargas shells. We have arrested 40 people involved in attacking the policemen. We may arrest more people in the coming days, as both the groups involved have lodged counter complaints," he added. Madhupur and Jhambur villages are home to the ethnic Siddi community members, who are believed to have migrated to the area from Africa five centuries ago. Chandigarh: Punjab chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday sought External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj's urgent intervention to help a mother-daughter duo reported to be in deep trouble in Saudi Arabia. In a tweet to the minister, Amarinder Singh wrote: "This mother-daughter duo from Nawanshahr are in trouble in Saudi Arabia. Request your urgent help." The tweet came in response to media reports referring to a video put up on social media by Gurbaksh Kaur of Nawanshahr saying she and her daughter Reena were sent by their travel agent to Saudi Arabia for work and were now facing extreme difficulties and needed help. "While she herself had been sacked from her job, Reena had been framed in a false case and handed over to the police, who were not divulging any information on her whereabouts, Gurbaksh is reported to have said in the video, appealing to Sushma Swaraj for help in securing their safe return home," a Punjab government spokesperson said on Monday. According to reports, the two had planned to go to Malaysia but the travel agent whom they had approached had fraudulently sent them to Saudi Arabia and were now demanding more money to bring them back. A police case has been registered on the complaint of Gurbaksh's husband, Gurmel Singh. "Expressing concern over the incident, the chief minister has directed district authorities across the state to crack down on such agents to check the incidence of such cases. He has also warned of stringent action against police personnel refusing to file a complaint in any such case," the spokesperson said. The chief minister has asked Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) to find out why there was delay in registering a case on the complaint filed by Gurbaksh's family. He has directed the DGP to expedite the investigations into the case and ensure that the guilty were booked. According to reports, Gurbaksh's family had complained against the travel agents responsible for duping them about 10 days ago but the police filed the case only on Sunday after the video went viral. Editor's note: This is the first article in a multi-part special series done by Firstpost where we document several problems of illegal immigration and ethnic turmoil that authorities in Assam face There are many things Moinal Molla does not remember: The Prime Minister of India, the party ruling his home state of Assam. There is one thing he never forgets: 5 September 2013, the day the police came to his house in Barpeta, 90 kilometres north-west of Guwahati , and took him to the police station. An illiterate, slightly built Bengali weakened by asthma, Molla, now 32, wasnt told why he was being taken, only that the gaon-burra, the headman, would come and get him. Instead, he was taken to a magistrates court, pronounced an illegal immigrant even though his parents were Indian, and put in a police vehicle, he said. I cried, said Molla, I didnt know where I was going. He wound up 100 kilometres from home in a detention centre, where he would stay for the next two years, 10 months and 29 daysthis, too, he remembers. For the first few weeks, he cried every day, uncertain if he would ever see his wife, three children and parents again. The shock lasted two months. After that, he told himself that whatever happened would be Allahs will. Molla was among 89,395 peopleamong 5 million illegal immigrants estimated in Assamdeclared foreigners in the state over 51 years to August 2017, according to data provided to IndiaSpend by the Assam Border Police Organisation, the only state with a force dedicated to stopping illegal migration. There are currently more than 2,000 people in six detention centres statewide. At the detention centre, the jailers segregated inmates into two categories: Bangladeshis and d-voters, or doubtful voters, the phrase used in Assam to describe 1,50,000 voters with questionable electoral credentials. The jailers logic was that no one came to visit the foreigners, while families came to visit d-voters from other parts of Assam, so they were Indian. That blurred, unofficial distinction is at the heart of a renewed effortgiven fresh impetus by the ascension to power in May 2016 of the states first Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governmentto identify, arrest and deport Bangladeshis. It involves about 1,00,000 or more government personnel, costs hundreds of crores and is Indiasand one of the worldslargest efforts at disenfranchisement. Now, as a December 2017 deadline for the latest Supreme Court-monitored iteration, driven by computers and algorithms nears, it threatens to flounder on legal definitions, religious and ethnic turmoil, implementation hurdles and a fraught question: Who is an Indian citizen? For Molla, that proof was in documents issued by the governmentexcept that the government declared him a d-voter without checking those documents. For months, Mollas life fell into the routine of imprisonment: Wake up at 6 am, tea and a chapati for breakfast, some hours in the open air, television; the occasional hospital visit when his asthma alarmed the jail authorities; and anticipation of the weekly non-vegetarian meal (fish and egg alternated), the tri-monthly visit from his younger brother, wholike Mollabinds books for a living and had to forgo Rs 550 in wages every time he made the 160-kilometres journey, and more infrequently from his wife and children. When they came, said Molla, We all cried. Can parents be citizens, their son a foreigner? The police took Molla to a detention camp after a magistrates court declared him a foreigner. He did not get a chance to defend himself because he was not present in court. Molla was declared a d-voter in 1998, in absentia by government officialsmost carrying out immigration duties are from various departments, such as irrigation or educationwho told the judge he was not there when they went to his house in Barpeta seeking proof of citizenship. Molla said no one came. On 16 February, 2010, by ex parte judgementdelivered after considering only one party, in this case the statehe was declared a foreigner. Ex-parte judgements are common because those served notice either do not get the notice (home and work addresses may be hundreds of kilometres apart) or go missing once they do, as more than 26,000 have, although many have been arrested, according to the border police. Molla found the details of his case at the detention centre, more than 15 years after he was first listed as being of doubtful citizenship. His lawyer, who was from his home village, told him he had a strong case. I thought then, for the first time, said Molla, that I would be free. The obstacles on his road to freedom included three rejected appeals in the Guwahati High Courta writ petition, writ appeal and a review petition. It was the Supreme Court that saw no reason for Mollas proofs of citizenship to be rejected. His parents were Indian, as were his wife, children, brother and the rest of the family. His fathers land records dated back to 1938. The gaon burra had issued a domicile certificate, a document often accepted by the state when other records are incomplete, wrong or destroyed. Mollas four grandparents were on a 1951 citizenship list and 1966 voter lists, and his parents were on a 1970 voter list. One or more of these documents is considered proof of citizenship across India, which requires citizens to prove citizenship when needed. But no state has foreigners tribunalsthere are now 100 in Assam, up from four in 1964and asks for citizenship proof as Assam does. The anomaly is connected with a wave of illegal immigration, primarily from Bangladesh, and rising hostility to Muslims. Why citizens must prove they entered Assam before 1971 In 1985, the year Molla was born, former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed the Assam Accord, which said that anyone who entered the state after 24 March, 1971, would be classified a foreigner. That date, as we shall see, is the crux of the multi-crore effort to disenfranchise illegal immigrants, although concern over illegal immigration was first evident when the Immigrants (Expulsion From Assam) Act, 1950 was passed 67 years ago. During the last few months a serious situation had arisen from the immigration of a very large number of East Bengal residents into Assam, the 1950 Act said. Such large migration is disturbing the economy of the province, besides giving rise to a serious law and order problem. The 1985 agreement was the culmination of six years of violent protestsknown as the Assam Agitationagainst illegal immigration from Bangladesh, a nation with which Assam shares a 4,096-kilometres border. Over the decades, the share of Muslims in Assams population rose from 23.3% in 1961 to 34% in 2011, according to census data. Source: Census 1961, 1971, 1991, 2001, 2011Note: The 1981 census could not be conducted in Assam owing to disturbed conditions. What isnt clear is how many of these are Assamese, Bengali or Bangladeshi. An IndiaSpend analysis of census data showed the states population growth rate saw a spurt in 1971, a reflection, officials said, of a tide of migration, which is why that is the cutoff year to prove citizenship. The only other time that Assams population growth rate exceeded Indias since was in 1991by 0.3 percentage points. Source: Planning Commission It was in Mollas home district that one of the movements flashpoints occurred, the killingallegedly by units led by former Assam and Punjab police chief KPS Gillof a 20-year-old student, Khargeswar Talukdar, one of 855 martyrs, as those who died in the Assam agitation are called. The 1990s were a period of relative quiet because the students, the All Assam Students Union (AASU) who fired the movement against the government, had become the government. In 2004, Indias minister for state for home told Parliament that Assam was home to 5 million Bangladeshis (of 20 million nationwide, including 5.7 million in West Bengal), a statement he was forced to withdraw by his party, the Congress. By the 2010s, the failure of the process of identifying and deporting illegal immigrants was apparent with less than 80,000 identified since 1971, or about 1,740 every year. One of Prime Minister Narendra Modis electoral promises was to send Bangladeshis back. You can write it down, he said at an election rally in Bengal. After 16 May, these Bangladeshis better be prepared with their bags packed. When a BJP government took charge in Assam, after a campaign that echoed Modis anti-Bangladeshi and, by implication anti-Muslim, rhetoric, it moved swiftly to boost anti-immigrant infrastructure and hasten the pace of action, including a move to grant automatic citizenship to illegal Bangladeshi Hindu immigrants, through the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which is pending in Parliament. That isnt as straightforward as it appears. If the government grants citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis, Talukdars brother told The Times of Assam on 11 December, 2016, the sacrifice of the Assam Agitation martyrs will go in vain. The slow, contentious process of disenfranchisement prompted repeated judicial intervention. In 2005, the Supreme Court likened illegal immigration in Assam to external aggression. In 2014, the Supreme Court ordered 64 additional foreigners tribunals to be added to the existing 36, apart from ordering a revamp of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), one of the worlds largest, most complex efforts to determine who is a citizen and who is not. That year, although thousands were supposedly identified as being illegal, no more than 24 were deported. In 2015, that number fell to one, going up to 13 in 2016. With the NRC now racing towards a 31 December, 2017, deadlineit missed the first deadline of 1 Januaryto determine how many of Assams 34 million people are Indian citizens, the fate of many new Mollas now hangs in the balance. In India you are a citizen by birth, in Assam by descent In an airconditioned office room piled with files and papers, Prateek Hajela, special secretary to government and NRC coordinator, simultaneously used an i-Pad and desktop to explain the complexity of his work. Over nearly four years, the NRC has entered into its database nearly 66 million documents (about 500 truck-loads, he estimated), from birth, school, college certificates to electoral rolls to land and local-government records submitted by 32.5 million peopleMolla was one of themanxious to prove they were here before 24 March, 1971. More than 50,000 state government officials went door to door verifying records, and computer programs were deployed to spot fakes. There may be documents that may not be forged but are not true, said Hajela, referring to contaminated electoral recordsfake rolls prompted the Assam agitationfake income-tax PAN cards and birth certificates. Some (documents) are forged, but a large number are not forged, so I have to go by descendents, otherwise I will be legalising everyone who is illegal, said Hajela, an electronics engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and member of the elite Indian Administrative Service. Descendents are the crux of the issue for the NRC, since the original number of living people born before 1971 isby his reckoningabout 4 million. The descendents of these 4 million are now trying to prove they are Indians. In Assam, you are a citizen by descent, Hajela told IndiaSpend over the course of a three-hour presentation of the NRCs work. In the rest of India, you are a citizen by birth. Apart from home visits to verify identity and cross-checking millions of documents with thousands of institutions that issued them, the key method of trying to attempt accuracy is the family tree, which the NRC generates from its database. A computer programme matches grandparents, with children and grandchildren. Officials call everyone on the family tree to test if they can name everyone in the family. Basically, its about checking consistency among siblings, said Hajela. Some mismatches are innocent enoughthe offspring of people with multiple spouses may not be able to build a tree, some people may have given nicknames, others may have changed namesbut they will all be called together before an officer and their statements verified. This is the only process, he said, to bring in the accuracy expected of us. Some lies have been caught. For instance, tens of people claimed to have the same mother or father, with family tree questioning revealing their inability to name their siblings or grandparents. Of 66 million documents submitted by 6.8 million familiesabout 32 million peoplein Assam, the NRC had verified 49 million documents by October 2017. Hajela would not say how many people had been found illegal. He will submit the final list of illegals to the Supreme Court, which will decide when it will be made public. A former soldier gets police to back down, othersparticularly Muslimscannot Clad in a banian and pant, Mohammed Azmal Haque, 49, was pacing in his modest living-cum-dining-cum-bed room in a Guwahati flat on 3 October, 2017, when Assam director general of police Mukesh Sahay appeared on the television. Basically, it was a case of mistaken identity, said Sahay, referring to a notice sent to Haque, asking the balding, clean-shaven former Indian soldier to prove he was Indian. The case became national news, prompting the army to intervene, as the embarrassed Assam government backed down. Haque, who joined the army at 18 and served for 30 years, snorted at Sahays explanation. There was no mistaken identity, he told IndiaSpend over biscuits and sweetened puff. They came for me, and when my angry family refused to accept it, I went to the police station and accepted the notice. Jab notice aaya, main hil gaya, aur dukh bhi hua. When the notice came, I was shaken, and I was sad, said Haque. If I, as a former soldier, had not publicised my case, I would have ended up in detention. There are thousands of others, citizens of India, who are facing the same harassment. What kind of investigation are they doing before sending out such notices? Among Haques proofs of citizenship: His fathers 1942 primary school certificate, fathers name on 1966 electoral rolls, his mothers name on the 1951 NRC, and a land deed. Besides, the army conducts its own verification before recruitment. This system of checks failed in Haques case. There is a huge gap between the law and its implementation, said Syed Burhanur Rahman, a graduate of Delhis elite St Stephens College and a lawyer who argues citizenship cases in the Guwahati High Court. As with Molla, Haques documents were either not considered or ignored, reinforcing allegations made by many Muslims and lawyers that Muslims are random targets in citizenship sweeps, a fact that two senior police officials admitted to IndiaSpend on condition of anonymity. Most illegal migrants from Bangladesh are poor, and once they get forged documents and mingle with Muslim migrants from erstwhile East Bengal (now Bangladesh) and West Bengal, rank-and-file police officers find it hard to tell the difference, although there are clear differences in dialect. You see, often our men dont care if people are Bengali or Bangladeshi, acknowledged one of the officers cited above. If a cycle-rickshaw driver has a beard, that is enough. Bangladeshi Hindus, according to a 7 September, 2015, notification, were not illegal migrants and were not to be proceeded against. But they have to submit an affidavit with exact date of crossing, route, address in Bangladesh and make clear that were the targets of religious persecution or fear from it. This affidavit has to be submitted online to the ministry of home affairs in Delhi for a long-term visa. After six years, they can apply for citizenship. In reality, the process is either unknown or too convoluted for Hindu migrants. As of October 2017, there were 264 Hindus among 1,094 people in six detention camps, according to border police data. While in detention, Molla made a friend, Guwahati mechanic Mihir Biswas, who pleaded with Molla to request his lawyer to help him, which he did. Biswas, whose father migrated from Bangladesh in 1965, married a local and made a life for himself, with a variety of backing documents, before he was arrested in a sweep for illegal immigrants. The Guwahati High Court held his detention illegal in September 2016. It is primarily the poor who are targeted in these sweeps, and anyone can be stopped on the streets. Cycle-rickshaw drivers are particularly vulnerable; they made up the majority of about 20 cases of suspect citizenship that IndiaSpend investigated. Others included tenant farmers, mechanics and daily-wage labourers, mostly with a primary education or illiterateall subject to questioning at any time and other humiliation. At a foreigners tribunal, a shouting judge and barefoot litigants On a hot, humid October day, down a quiet, leafy suburban Guwahati lane, a crowd of people gathered, amid nurseries, traditional wooden houses with tin roofs, and an irrigation canal. They did not notice the beauty of their surroundings, focussed as they were on proving they are Indians and ready to be humiliated if that is what it took. The women were dressed in sareesfew Muslims in the state, whether Bengali or Assamese, wear hijabsthe men in lungis or in shapeless pants with loose, full-sleeved shirts. Older men had skull caps and beards, the younger men, mostly, did not. There were no fans in the narrow corridor outside the courtroom of the Ullubari foreigners tribunal, so everyone sweated profusely. They had been waiting for more than 90 minutes, but there was no sign of the judge, officially called tribunal member, who is known to arrive late every day. At 11.45 am, the tribunal membera lawyer on a two-year contractwalked in. Every litigant who went in had to leave footwear outside. The tribunal member required they stood barefoot before him. Their lawyers and court officers were exempt. After Samad Ali, 59, left his rubber chappals and went in, the tribunal member began to shout. Ali, a tenant farmer with a primary education and weak hearing, had made it to a local Assamese channel because his citizenship was being questioned for a second time, even though he had been declared a citizen the first time. Ali and his lawyer apologised profusely, and the tribunal member said he would rule on the case next time. Two weeks later, despite his previous irritation, the member ruled that Ali was indeed an Indian. Alis case is typical. He was declared an Indian by a foreigners tribunal in 2010, but in 2017 he was again served a notice, this time using the fact that a voter roll used the name Abdul Samad. Differences in names, spellings and agesalmost all the litigants IndiaSpend met were hazy about when they were bornare common failings in documents across India, but in Assam such variations can have you declared a foreigner. The variations could be as minorSamad Ali spelled Samat Ali. Some names vary because people have incorporated their professions into their names, such as Peon, Master, Munshi. Typically, many use single names, but, for instance, a census official may have added an Ali after or an Abdul before, as was the case with Samad Ali alias Abdul Samad. In some cases, the alias was mentioned in legal documents, but many courts simply ignored variations. Some litigants are simply victims of petty harassment. Across town outside a neo-natal government facility near a police station, IndiaSpend met Tuffazul Islam, selling baby clothing from a cycle. How old was he? A thin manwho said he was fat before he was arrestedwith a thin moustache, Islam thought for a few seconds. 34 to 36, he said. Three years ago, according to Islam, policemen called him to the police station and asked him for a Rs 200 bribe: I refused, so then they took my fingerprints and said, tum bideshi hoyou are a foreigner. Six months later, a policeman delivered a notice to his cycle, demanding his presence in court with proof of citizenship. The case went on for two years. The first lawyer Islam hired charged Rs 1.3 lakh, almost all of Islams savings. Bahut paisa lootliya (he looted lots of money from me), said Islam in Bengali-accented Hindi. Finally, he got to know of Aman Wadud, a 31-year-old lawyer who fights such cases pro bono, or accepts whatever clients would like to give. A tribunal judge agreed with Wadud: Islam was Indian, and his mothers name appeared in the 1966 voters list. These are copy-paste cases, said Wadud. The police use the same modus operandi again and again, and the poorest people are harassed, repeatedly in many cases. At the NRC, coordinator Hajela said electoral rolls were compromised. If I am an illegal migrant from Bangladesh, what should I first do? I will start creating documents, said Hajela. I will say I am son of someone whose name is on the rolls. I will adopt a father. I will get a certificate from the village headman. I will go the civil supplies department and get a ration cardthey only want to know how many in my family. I can get a driving licence. With any of these documents, I can be included in the electoral rolls. That is de facto proof of citizenship. So, I cannot rely on the electoral rolls. Once the NRC verifies the 32.5 million in its database, IndiaSpend asked Hajela, will this be the definitive list, which will supersede the arbitrary sweeps of the border police and the fallibilities of foreigners tribunals? No, said Hajela. Those being arrested will find no solace from being on the NRC master list. Chasing ghosts, catching illegal migrants and the Bangladeshi position This makes no sense at all, said Monirul Hussain, a retired Guwahati University professor, referring to the conflicting approach of varying arms of the government in deciding who to arrest or subject to citizenship trials. Its like chasing ghosts. Hussain, an Assamese Muslim, is from Lakhimpur in upper Assam, regarded as a bastion of original Assamese. Migrants, whether from Bengal or Bangladesh, tend to congregate in lower Assam. He recalled how police drives were even more arbitrary in the 1960s, when nearly 2,00,000 Bengali speakers were deported without a trial, pushed backas the official term goesacross the border. Hussain cited the example of a poor Muslim family rounded up by the police near his home in 1965. The man was so nervous, and his sense of time so fluid, that when the police asked him when they had come here, he said 10 years ago, said Hussain. My mother said they had been around for half a century. The next morning, they were all gone. The police were given targets. Over 51 years to August 2017, 29,738 Bangladeshis, according to border police data shared with IndiaSpend, were pushed backmarched to the Bangladesh border and left there. the practice of occasionally pushing illegal Bangladeshi immigrants back across the India-Bangladesh border has not been effective, said this June 2016 comment from Carnegie India, a think tank. They are either prone to re-enter voluntarily from a different porous stretch or pushed back into India by Bangladeshi border guards. Moreover, such a system of deportation is devoid of any legal strength. Today, no one talks of pushing back people. However flawed, there is a legal process, and Bangladesh is a friendly country. There is persistent talk, though, that the current government has given the police targets for issuing notices. At his office, where updated lists of declared foreigners, detenus, convicted and released are written by hand on a white-board, Special Director General of Police RM Singh, chief of the Assam border police, dismissed talk of targets but acknowledged the possibility of wrongful legal proceedings. It is true, said Singh, the police are under pressure, so some of these things (harassment) do happen. The days of crude pushing back are gone, he added, and deportation now implied a diplomatic process. That diplomatic process precludes the possibility of millions of Bangladeshiseven if they were identified as suchbeing deported. In his home-cum-office in a quiet lane in central Guwahati, Kazi Muntashir Murshed, a clean-shaven young diplomat dressed in a dark, blue suit, pointed to the procedure laid out for deportation by the Vienna Convention. Once someone is identified for deportation, the Indians must notify the nearest Bangladeshi High Commission, which will then ask for consular access. A team will then interview and satisfy itself that the person is indeed a Bangladeshi and arrange for a temporary passport. What the NRC does is of no concern. Our position is that the NRC is an internal matter of the government of India, Murshed, Bangladesh Assistant High Commissioner and Head of Mission at Guwahati, told IndiaSpend. Theoretically. What he implied is the fact that Bangladesh follows and is aware of the turmoil in Assam. So far, he said, the government of India has not put up to Bangladesh that there are Bangladeshis in India. The Bangladesh of 1971 and today are not the same, said Murshed. Indeed, Bangladesh has overtaken India on many human-development indicators. He argued there was no incentive for a Bangladeshi to come to Assam today. Our minimum wage is higher, he said. And if they came before 1971, then we should not talk about that. There was no Bangladesh. Citizens may become second-class citizens, the turmoil may endure But in Assam, a state with Indias second-highest infant mortality rate, current politics are built around illegal immigration and the Muslim question. The Hindu rate of population growth is declining. But the Muslim rate is rising, The Washington Post quoted Himanta Biswa Sarma, finance minister in the Assam government (and was once a minister in charge of implementing the Assam accord) as saying on 27 November, 2016. Most of the Muslims here are from Bangladesh. If this continues, the Assamese Hindus will become a minority soon; we will lose our language, our culture, our identity. That the intricacies of international realities and relations make mass deportations a dim possibility has dawned upon the government of Assam. Whatever the current urgency and momentum, the identification process will likely be in the thousands, said a senior government functionary involved in the processrequesting anonymity given the sensitivity of the issueinstead of the millions of illegal immigrants the politicians seek. This is a fools errand, said the government official quoted above. Given that mass deportations will never happen, our background discussions with the government of India are veering around to two possibilities: One, that those identified will be removed from the electoral rolls and their land rights, where applicable, rescinded. In short, most may stay on, but as second-class citizens. In a Guwahati backlane, that reality already exists for Molla, even though he is an Indian. He works at his book-binding job from dawn to after dusk, his three children are in school, but he had no idea what will become of them, and he was only dimly aware of the politics of his country. What did he want from his states government, I asked. Molla looked confused. What do you mean? he asked. What will any government do for people like us? Who was the party in power anyway, I asked. The Congress? he said, tentatively. And the prime minister of India? He thought for a few seconds. Moti, he said. Yes, Moti or something. Also read: Assam's NRC quandary Part 2: No immediate end in sight as cut-off date for citizenship is yet to be finalised politically Assam's NRC quandary Part 3: Sarbananda Sonowal will have his hands full in 2018 with draft citizenship registry, electoral roll Assam's NRC Quandary Part 4: Confusion on 'original inhabitant' may be major bottleneck in identifying legal citizens In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome! Gangtok: Upping the ante against opposition in the run-up to panchayat polls, Sikkim chief minister Pawan Chamling has alleged that the opposition parties were pursuing a "hidden" agenda for merger of Sikkim and Darjeeling hills. He also urged the indigenous people to foil the "nefarious designs of the political forces from outside". "I can sense a hidden agenda of the opposition parties to pursue merger of Sikkim and Darjeeling hills which will be detrimental to the interests of the indigenous people," he told an election meeting at Yangyang in his native South District on Saturday. Chamling, who heads the Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) ever since its inception in early 1990s, dwelt on consequences of the opposition parties, including one from 'outside' a reference to the BJP coming to power in Sikkim. He said the old laws which safeguard the interests of the locals may be scrapped in future by "them". He told the gathering that it was imperative that the people of Sikkim must continue to repose faith in the SDF for development of the state and welfare of the people. Defending his party supremo's apprehension about the merger of Sikkim and Darjeeling to resolve prevailing disquiet in the hill districts of West Bengal, SDF spokesperson KT Gyalsten told PTI that Chamling was right in airing his reservation about the merger which, he claimed, was not in the best interests of the Sikkimese. "The merger of Sikkim and Darjeeling hills will lead to scrapping of Article 371F of the constitution that protects socio-economic, political and cultural interests of the indigenous people comprising Nepalese, Lepcha, Bhutia, business community, among others," he said. Sikkim retains a number of old laws despite merger with the Union of India more than 40 years ago that may be repealed once Article 371F is done away with in the event of merger of the Himalayan state and Darjeeling hills, Gyalsten, a former speaker of the legislative assembly and a lawyer, said. "Being a border state located close to China, it is imperative that the constitutional sanctity of Sikkim must be maintained," the SDF spokesperson said, adding that the Centre and other stakeholders must try to find a lasting solution to problems of Darjeeling hills, but its merger with Sikkim cannot be one of the solutions. Stating that Sikkim has been an abode of people with tourism being the cornerstone of its economy, the SDF leader said the opposition parties should try to find out a permanent solution to keep NH-10 the sole road connecting it with the rest of the country open round the year, instead of harping on needless issues like merger of Sikkim and Darjeeling hills. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre's response on a plea challenging the mandatory linking of mobile phones with Aadhaar. A bench of Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan gave the Centre four-weeks time to respond. The court also gave time to the West Bengal government to amend it's petition questioning the linking of Aadhaar for giving of subsidy by the state's Labour Department. It observed: "how can the state government challenge a law passed by the Centre?" The court said West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee could challenge the Aadhaar law as an "individual" and a "citizen". However, it also observed that "this way Centre would start challenging the laws passed by the States". Click here to follow LIVE updates The Supreme Court saw an action-packed Monday as it lined up a number of high-profile cases for hearing, ranging from the Aadhaar issue and its implementation, the Kerala love jihad case and Article 35A. The Aadhaar case relates to the mandatory linking of the biometric ID to government welfare schemes, while in the Kerala Love Jihad case, the top court opened sealed envelopes handed over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The hearing on Article 35A relates to special rights and privileges of the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. While the hearing in the Article 35A case was deferred by three months, the apex court made several notable remarks during the proceedings in the Aadhaar and the Love Jihad case. Supreme Court amends its order, says, it would hear #Article35A matter after three months. ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017 'How can state challenge Parliament's mandate on Aadhar? In what is a clear setback to the Mamata Banerjee-led government in West Bengal, the Supreme Court declined to entertain its petition challenging the Centres decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of numerous government welfare schemes. The top court asked how a state can challenge the mandate of Parliament. "How can a state file such a plea. In a federal structure, how can a state file a plea challenging Parliament's mandate," a bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said. According to Live Law, the Bench comprising Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan said, "The controversy over Aadhaar needs examination but state government cant file petition against a law passed by Parliament." Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Banerjee-led West Bengal government, told the court that the plea has been filed by the labour department of the state as subsidies under these schemes have to be given by them. "You satisfy us how the state has challenged it. We know it is a matter which needs consideration," the bench said adding the Centre's move can be challenged by an individual but not by states. Let Banerjee come and file a plea as an individual. We will entertain it as she will be an individual," the top court said. However, Sibal maintained that the state was entitled to file such a plea but said that they would amend the prayer in the petition. Meanwhile, the bench issued a notice to the Centre on a separate plea filed by an individual challenging the linking of mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar. The court has asked the Centre to file its response on the plea in four weeks. The West Bengal government had challenged the provision which says that without Aadhaar, the benefits of social welfare schemes would not be extended. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court agreed to hear fresh petitions against linking Aadhaar with mobile phone numbers. Thus opening the door for Banerjee, in an individual capacity, to challenge the move that she has vehemently opposed. The top court also issued a notice to Centre and asked it to file a response within four weeks, ANI reported. Aadhaar deadline hearing The government is not willing to extend the deadline for Aadhaar. "We will argue the case," the government told the Supreme Court. The apex judicial body is likely to hear the case in the last week of November. The deadline issue talks of an extension for people who do not have Aadhaar card as of yet and the government giving them the leeway to do so and link all services by 31 March, 2018. The petitioners are contesting why the same should not be extended to those already with Aadhaar. The Aadhaar matter was mentioned by Attorney-General KK Venugopal, who demanded that the case be heard in March. This was objected to by Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, according to LiveLaw. Gopal Subramanian added that there should be no compulsion for linking various services with Aadhaar if the hearing is postponed. The petitioners, meanwhile, termed the linking of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) number with bank accounts and mobile numbers as illegal and unconstitutional and strongly objected to the CBSE's move to make it mandatory for students to appear for exams. Divan, appearing for some of the petitioners, had earlier contended that final hearing in the main Aadhaar matter, which is pending before the apex court, was necessary as the government "cannot compel" citizens to link their Aadhaar with either bank accounts or mobile numbers. 'Consent of the girl is prime' The Supreme Court, while hearing the Love Jihad case, directed that Hadiya shall be produced before the top court to ascertain if she, an adult, had married Shafin Jahan out of her own free will after her conversion. The apex court directed the father of the Kerala woman, who had converted to Islam and married a Muslim man, to produce her before it on 27 November. A bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, asked senior advocate Shyam Divan, representing the father of the woman, to ensure that she is produced that day for interaction with the bench, which is likely to ascertain her mental stage and whether she had given free consent to the marriage. The National Investigation Agency, represented by Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, said there was well-oiled machinery working in the state and they are indulging in the indoctrination and radicalisation of the society in the state where as many as 89 cases of similar nature have been reported. Divan, appearing for woman's father KM Ashokan, claimed the alleged husband of his daughter is a radicalised man and several organisations like Popular Front of India (PFI) are involved in the radicalisation of the society. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for her husband Shafin Jahan, opposed the NIA's submission and that of the woman's father. The woman, a Hindu, had converted to Islam and later married Jahan. It was alleged that the woman was recruited by Islamic State's mission in Syria and Jahan was only a stooge. Jahan had, on 20 September approached the apex court seeking a recall of its 16 August order directing the NIA to investigate the controversial case of conversion and marriage of a Hindu woman with him. Meanwhile, the Kerala government had on 7 October told the Supreme Court that its police had conducted a "thorough investigation" into her conversion and subsequent marriage to Jahan and did not find material warranting the transfer of probe to the NIA. The apex court said that the "investigation conducted so far by the Kerala police has not revealed any incident relating to the commission of any Scheduled Offences to make a report to the Central Government under Section 6 of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2006", according to a Live Law report. Is there any law prohibiting a woman marrying a criminal: CJI asks ASG Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) October 30, 2017 Jahan had moved the apex court after the Kerala High Court annulled his marriage, saying it was an insult to the independence of women in the country. Follow LIVE updates on the Supreme Court hearings here With inputs from PTI Auto refresh feeds Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan will listen to arguments on the Aadhaar (Unique Identification Number) case. The petition has been filed by the West Bengal government and challenges the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory to avail social welfare benefits. Attorney-General KK Venugopal had told a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that the deadline extension from December end this year till 31 March, 2018, would apply only to those who do not have Aadhaar and are willing to enroll for it. However, Venugopal had told the bench that he would take instructions on certain issues on Aadhaar after which the court had asked him to mention the matter again on 30 October. On 25 October, the Centre had told the top court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefits of various government schemes has been extended till 31 March next year for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric identification number. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Bannerjee-led Trinamool government filed a plea in the top court against the Centres move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes. Coming down heavily on the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress government in Bengal, the Supreme Court questioned state government's locus standi to challenge Aadhaar. The Supreme Court asked how can a state challenge the law passed by the Parliament. She accused the Union government of "autocratic" rule and said her party will "have to play a role so that BJP is removed from power" at the centre. "They (Centre) are interfering in the people's rights and privacy. Aadhaar number should not be linked with one's mobile phone. I will not link my Aadhaar number with my mobile even if my connection is snapped," she said at the extended core committee meeting of the TMC. Earlier, Mamata Banerjee had opposed linking of Aadhaar with mobile phone number, and had said she will not comply with it even if her phone connection is snapped. The top court also issued notice to Centre and asked it to file response within 4 weeks, ANI reported. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear fresh petitions against linking Aadhaar with mobile phone numbers. Thus opening the door for Mamata Banerjee, in an individual capacity, to challenge the move that she has vehemently opposed. "Let Mamata Banerjee come and file a plea as individual. We will entertain it as she will be an individual," the top court said. However, Sibal maintained that the state was entitled to file such a plea but said that they would amend the prayer in the petition. "You satisfy us how the state has challenged it. We know it is a matter which needs consideration," PTI quoted the bench saying, adding the Centre's move can be challenged by an individual but not by states. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, told the court that the plea has been filed by the labour department of the state as subsidies under these schemes have to be given by them. "How can a state file such a plea. In a federal structure, how can a state file a plea challenging Parliament's mandate," a bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said. The Supreme Court questioned the West Bengal government for filing a plea challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of various social welfare schemes. The top court asked how a state can challenge the mandate of Parliament. The Sangh Parivar would be closely watching the Centre's stand on the Article 35A hearing in the Supreme Court. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had called for "necessary Constitutional amendments" in his annual Vijayadashmi speech late last month. Bhagwat, while lauding the government's muscular policy in Kashmir, had broached the subject to assimilate the residents of Jammu & Kashmir, with rest of Bharat. The court will also take up petitions which challenge the constitutional validity of Article 35A of the Constitution. A bench of Justice SA Bobde and Justice MM Shantanagoudar questioned the locus of Tushar Gandhi in the case. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for Gandhi, said she will explain the locus if the court moves ahead with issuing of notice. The bench said there were several ifs and buts in the case and will like to wait for the amicus curiae (friend of the court) Amrender Sharan's report. Tushar Gandhi, the great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, moved the Supreme Court opposing a plea seeking to reopen the 70-year-old assassination case of the Mahatma. "You need to get me out. I will be killed anytime, tomorrow or the day after, I am sure. I know my father is getting angry. When I walk, he is hitting and kicking me. If my head or any other part of my body hits somewhere and I die," said Hadiya in the video which was shot on 17 August by activist Rahul Easwar. Hours after the video was released, Shefin Jahan, Hadiya's husband has requested Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to intervene, said an India Today report. In a video, shot on 17 August, released on Thursday, 24-year-old Hadiya, has alleged that her life was under threat and that she was being tortured by her father, said media reports. Hadiya converted to Islam after marrying a Muslim man. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra had got irked when senior lawyer Dushayant Dave, appearing for the husband Shafin Jahan, referred to statement by BJP president Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and imputed political motive. "Yogi Adityanath spoke of 'love jihad' in Kerala... this court should know the ground realities," Dave had said, adding that Shah had also visited Kerala. The matter had been adjourned at the last hearing after opposing lawyers got into a high-pitched war of words. Hadiya is heard saying in the video made available to Firstpost, "You have to get me out fast. I am sure I will be killed tomorrow or day after. My father is getting angry, I know. When I walk, he is pushing and kicking me." Hadiya Akhila before her conversion has been confined to her house at Vaikom for the last four months after the Kerala High Court annulled her marriage. Easwar said that she had revealed the threat she perceived from her father when he visited her on 17 August. In the video, the girl, who converted from Hinduism to Islam, is speaking about a threat to her life from her father. The video was released by social activist Rahul Easwar just before the hearing in the Supreme Court on her marriage with a Muslim man. A new video showing 24-year-old Hadiya pleading for freedom from her parents has fuelled the raging controversy over love jihad in Kerala. Meanwhile, Hadiya's father Ashokan KM pleads in court that the case proceedings be heard in-camera but CJI Dipak Misra says it will be in open court around 3 pm. By November 27, it would have been five months since Hadiya's custody was handed over to her parents, News18 reports. Meanwhile, the NIA has told SC that there is a well-oiled machinery involving radicalisation and love jihad cases in Kerala. According to reports, the Supreme Court bench on 27 November will hear Hadiya in an open court. "Consent is manipulated by indoctrination, radicalisation. In fact, people with hypnotic expertise have been employed to manipulate young women," NIA tells the Supreme Court. c) Orders the police to inquire into the case and the organisations behind it. b) Annuls the marriage she had with one Shafin Jahan on the grounds that it was a sham. a) It provides custody of the woman in question to her parents. Even though she is 24 years of age and, therefore, is a major under Indian law and, therefore, requires no guardian. The Kerala High Court in its final order on the case did three things: The case raises a few important questions of constitutional law. What is the extent of the parens patriae jurisdiction of the high court in so far as it concerns adults? What are the powers of a high court while disposing of a writ of habeas corpus and whether the power of the high court under Article 226 can extend to annulling a marriage? If Akhila/Haidya wishes like any other citizen of India, she should be permitted to travel where she likes and do as she pleases. The order directing that she stays only with her parents is one that in effect confines her making the order a prima facie incorrect exercise of the power to issue a writ of habeas corpus. The question of the validity of the marriage is not something that can be determined by a high court in a writ. The high courts order is respectfully erroneous to that extent. Along with that, respectfully, the order is also further erroneous to the extent that, failing a finding of illegal detention a writ of habeas corpus has been issued. Moreover, so, the writ has awarded the "custody" of the body of a major to her parents without her wishes being respected. Both of them had argued that indoctrination and psychological influence are exceptions to consent but the bench said all these issues will be dealt with later. Ashokan, the father of the 24 year old woman has been asked to produce the girl at 3pm on 27 November, Live Law report said . The order by a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra was given despite stiff objection by Additional Solicitor General Majumder Singh who appeared for Centre and Shyam Divan. Divan represented the womans father who has the custody of the girl now after the Kerala High Court quashed the marriage and gave her custody to him. The Supreme Court directed that Hadiya shall be produced before the top court to ascertain if she, an adult, had married Shafin Jahan out of her own free will after her conversion. It is additionally urged that going by the conduct of the petitioner her custody may not straight away be given to the husband before deciding the larger issue. They adverted on the conduct of the petitioner and his association with the Peoples Front of India. We have not expressed any opinion. Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal for the petitioner has objected to all allegations." We will be failing in our duty if we do not take on record the submission of ASG Maninder Singh and Senior Advocate Shyam Divan that in a case of present nature when there is sufficient material on record and a pattern of indoctrination the choice of the person may not be treated as absolute. We are inclined to modify the order dated 16th August and is directing the presence of the daughter of the 1st respondent at 3PM on 27th November. We may further add that this court shall speak to her not in-camera but in open court. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for her husband Shafin Jahan, opposed the NIA's submission and that of the woman's father. Divan, appearing for woman's father K M Ashokan, claimed the alleged husband of his daughter is a radicalised man and several organisations like Popular Front of India (PFI) are involved in radicalisation of the society. The National Investigation Agency, represented by Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, said there was a well-oiled machinery working in the state and they are indulging in the indoctrination and radicalisation of the society in the state where as many as 89 cases of similar nature have been reported. Jahan had moved the apex court after the Kerala High Court annulled his marriage, saying it was an insult to the independence of women in the country. Meanwhile, the Kerala government on 7 October had told the Supreme Court that its police had conducted a "thorough investigation" into her conversion and subsequent marriage to Jahan and did not find material warranting the transfer of probe to the NIA. The court said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could challenge the Aadhaar law as an "individual" and a "citizen". However, it also observed that "this way Centre would start challenging the laws passed by the States". The court also gave time to the West Bengal government to amend it's petition questioning the linking of Aadhaar for giving of subsidy by the state's Labour Department. It observed: "how could state government challenge a law passed by the Centre?" The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre's response on a plea challenging the mandatory linking of mobile phones with Aadhaar. A bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan gave the Centre four-weeks time to respond. CJI says he will try to constitute Aadhaar bench at end of November Supreme Court defers hearing on by Article 35A by eight 8 weeks, reports News18. The report adds that the government has informed the apex court about appointing an interlocutor. The Attorney General seeks 6 months time for the same. Supreme Court amends its order, says it will hear the Article 35A case after three months, reports ANI CJI says he will try to constitute a bench at the end of November. CJI says he will try to constitute Aadhaar bench at end of November "Marriage is a personal affair. There is no law stating that a person can't marry a criminal. Don't try to curb individual cases," said Supreme Court, while adding that it will examine parental authority can be exercised on a major, said media reports. On the Hadiya case, SC says there is no law stating that a person can't marry a criminal The deadline issue talks of an extension for people who do not have Aadhaar card as of yet and the government giving them the leeway to do so and link all services by 31 March, 2018. The petitioners are contesting why the same should not be extended to those already with Aadhaar. The government is not willing to extend the deadline for Aadhaar. "We will argue the case," the government told the Supreme Court. The apex judicial body is likely to hear the case in the last week of November. The Aadhaar matter was mentioned by Attorney-General KK Venugopal, who demanded that the case be heard in March. This was objected to by Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, according to LiveLaw . Gopal Subramanian added that there should be no compulsion for linking various services with Aadhaar if the hearing is postponed. Divan, appearing for some of the petitioners, had earlier contended that final hearing in the main Aadhaar matter, which is pending before the apex court, was necessary as the government "cannot compel" citizens to link their Aadhaar with either bank accounts or mobile numbers. The petitioners had termed the linking of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) number with bank accounts and mobile numbers as illegal and unconstitutional and strongly objected to the CBSE's move to make it mandatory for students to appear for exams. Supreme Court defers hearing on by Article 35A by eight 8 weeks, reports News18. The report adds that the government has informed the apex court about appointing an interlocutor. The Attorney General seeks 6 months time for the same. Supreme Court amends its order, says it will hear the Article 35A case after three months, reports ANI The Supreme Court is set for a busy Monday with high-profile cases such as Aadhaar, the Kerala Love Jihad issue and Article 35A expected to come up for hearing. The Aadhaar case relates to the mandatory linking of the biometric ID to government welfare schemes, while in the Kerala Love Jihad case, the top court will open sealed envelopes handed over by the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The hearing on Article 35A relates to special rights and privileges of the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. The Supreme Court questioned the West Bengal government for filing a plea challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of various social welfare schemes. The top court asked how a state can challenge the mandate of Parliament. "How can a state file such a plea. In a federal structure, how can a state file a plea challenging Parliament's mandate," a bench comprising Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, told the court that the plea has been filed by the labour department of the state as subsidies under these schemes have to be given by them. "You satisfy us how the state has challenged it. We know it is a matter which needs consideration," the bench said adding the Centre's move can be challenged by an individual but not by states. "Let Mamata Banerjee come and file a plea as individual. We will entertain it as she will be an individual," the top court said. However, Sibal maintained that the state was entitled to file such a plea but said that they would amend the prayer in the petition. Meanwhile, the bench issued notice to the Centre on a separate plea filed by an individual challenging the linking of mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar. The court has asked the Centre to file its response on the plea in four weeks. The West Bengal government challenged the provision which says that without Aadhaar, the benefits of social welfare schemes would not be extended. Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefits of various government schemes has been extended till March 31 next year for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric identification number. It had said that the deadline extension from December end till March 31, 2018, would apply only to those who do not have Aadhaar and are willing to enrol for it. Several petitions, challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes and notifications to link it with mobile numbers and bank accounts, are pending in the apex court. New Delhi: A constitution bench would be set up to hear a clutch of petitions challenging the Centre's decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing various services and government welfare schemes, the Supreme Court said on Monday. A bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, said the larger bench would commence hearing on these petitions in the last week of November this year. Earlier on Monday, the apex court questioned the West Bengal government for filing a plea challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of various social welfare schemes while asking how a state can challenge the mandate of Parliament. It also asked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to file the plea as an individual. Recently, a nine-judge Constitution bench had held that the Right to Privacy was a Fundamental Right under the Constitution. Several petitioners challenging the validity of Aadhaar had raised the issue that the scheme was violative of privacy rights. Senior advocates Gopal Subramanium and Shyam Divan, appearing for those opposing the Aadhaar scheme, had sought urgent hearing on the petitions. The Centre had on 25 October told the apex court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail the benefits of the government schemes has been extended till 31 March next year for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric identification number and were willing to have it. The petitioners had termed the linking of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) number with bank accounts and mobile numbers as illegal and unconstitutional and strongly objected to the CBSE's move to make it mandatory for students to appear for exams. Divan, appearing for some of the petitioners, had earlier contended that final hearing in the main Aadhaar matter, which is pending before the apex court, was necessary as the government "cannot compel" citizens to link their Aadhaar with either bank accounts or mobile numbers. Follow live updates from the Supreme Court hearing here Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's recent surge in popularity on Twitter has left many questioning the driving force behind his social media account. There have been speculations that the account is not handled by Rahul himself but by Divya Spandana, the current head of Congress' social media cell. On Sunday, Rahul decided to come 'clean' about the issue and introduced the Twitterverse to the one who is responsible for making him popular his dog, Pidi. Ppl been asking who tweets for this guy..I'm coming clean..it's me..Pidi..I'm way than him. Look what I can do with a tweet..oops..treat! pic.twitter.com/fkQwye94a5 Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) October 29, 2017 In a video posted on Twitter, Gandhi is seen giving treats to the dog and asking him playfully to greet the viewers with a 'namaste'. This comes after reports of bot followers (accounts that are made from software applications running automated tasks or scripts over the Internet) being responsible for the transformation of his social media image. Questioning whether automated bots were mass retweeting Gandhi's tweets, the report said that on 15 October, @OfficeofRG, the official Twitter handle of Gandhi, retweeted US President Donald Trump's tweet praising American-Pakistani relations with a caption 'Modi ji quick, looks like President Trump needs another hug'. Modi ji quick; looks like President Trump needs another hug pic.twitter.com/B4001yw5rg Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) October 15, 2017 The tweet quickly reached 20,000 retweets and currently has touched 30,000, the report claimed, adding a close analysis of this tweet showed that these alleged 'bots' with a Russian, Kazakh or Indonesian characteristic were routinely retweeting the Congress vice-president's tweets. Information and broadcasting minister Smriti Irani on Saturday took a dig at him over the rise in the number of people retweeting his messages and sought to link this with Twitter accounts in Russia, Indonesia and Kazakhstan. However, Congress rejected the allegation as "factually wrong". Recent popular tweets On Twitter, the @OfficeOfRG handle has been on a roll, sending out a series of witty and clever tweets, puns and pop culture references to taunt BJP, RSS, and the Narendra Modi government over their ill-conceived moves. Last week, Gandhi won over the internet for posting a witty pun that impressed Star Wars' fans. Dear Mr. Jaitley, May the Farce be with you. pic.twitter.com/Dxb5jFCaEa Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) October 25, 2017 In another tweet, he took potshots at the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and tried to show the differences in the versions put out by Congress and BJP. Congress GST= Genuine Simple Tax Modi ji's GST= Gabbar Singh Tax ='' " Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) October 24, 2017 Congress, he said, had conceived of a "Genuine Simple Tax", while BJP came up with a "Gabbar Singh Tax", using both abbreviation wordplay and Bollywood references to drive home his point. The tweet has been retweeted 14,000 times already, and has been liked 31,000 times. In July 2013, the central government formed the Anupam Verma Committee to review 66 pesticides that are banned in other countries but still find widespread use in India. With nearly 50 deaths in the last two months due to pesticide poisoning in Vidharba, activists and experts have demanded that the committee speed up the review process and ensure that toxic pesticides are banned immediately. They reasoned that regulation and enforcement was simply impossible in a country like India. In 2015, NCRB data shows that more than 7,000 people died of pesticide poisoning. However, Verma, who heads the committee, believes that India cannot do away with pesticides and squarely blames farmers for not using them properly. He believes that farmers need to take more precaution in terms of protective gear and concentration while spraying; even though there are cases of people using protective gear and still falling dangerously sick. Firstpost spoke to the former national professor at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) about the recent developments and his opinions on the unfolding tragedy. Edited excerpts follow: At least 12 deaths in Yavatmal were caused by a single pesticide - monocrotophos. Why is there no immediate ban on it? I was not aware that monocrotophos is the cause behind so many deaths in Yavatmal. Thanks for bringing it up. I will also look it up. In any case, monocrotophos is in the list of pesticides that are to be banned in 2018. We have some 13 such pesticides on the list. The data for which is still not fully available. We are looking into the toxicity of these pesticides. We wanted more information on its use, efficacy, and its impacts. But, I am sure, it will be banned; especially after these incidents. What is your opinion on the Yavatmal tragedy? Some companies simply manufacture pesticides and throw them away in the market (with no respect to regulation). However, they (pesticides) should not be misused. I have seen farmers sitting on the back of tractors and spraying openly without any protection for themselves. But, given such a large number of deaths at one time, there has to be more to it than just spraying. Just by spraying, people would not die because antidotes are available. There is a possibility that they have been using highly concentrated portions and must have taken no precautions at all. No deaths can occur with prescribed usage. Do you think safe usage is possible in a country like India? So far, regulations have not worked and farmers continue to face fatal impacts due to toxic pesticides. You are absolutely right. It happens everywhere. But if that is the case, we should not allow for anything. Whether safe usage is possible or not, it is a question for implementing agencies and the companies to answer. We can only give suggestions to the ministry. Many of the countries that have banned these pesticides do not have the kind of problems that India has. Why does India need to review pesticides that have already been studied in other countries? You have an argument. But many of the countries that have banned these pesticides do not have the kind of problems that India has. India is a hotspot for all problems. We need it because nobody is talking about population control... the ground (land available for farming) is limited. Anyways, our findings are based on scientific information. We suggest that some pesticides need to be banned, some to be phased out and some to be reviewed. This is the first time the country is doing this, and I am happy that the government has accepted it. Most of the data that is used for review comes from pesticides manufacturers themselves. Isn't there a conflict of interest there? We asked manufacturers as well as major users like the Directorate of Plant Protection and Quarantine & Storage. The regulatory process is not in a very good shape. Why is there no independent body to look at the impact of pesticides? There is a unit in the Union ministry of agriculture called the Central Insecticides Board & Registration Committee that should look into this issue more seriously. But they don't put too much emphasis on this. They, perhaps, have too many things on their plate or may have very little resources. We need to create these resources. The money for this should come from the industries themselves. Your committee has reviewed 66 pesticides that are banned in other countries while there are at least 93 such pesticides. Why is the list limited to 66? We should appreciate this government for taking this initiative. We have made a start. Before that, we were reviewing in small numbers. We could have been in a worse situation. So, we must appreciate the government. Once this 66 is done, we should tell the government that there is more to be done. I am looking at the positive side of this development. Bhopal: The RSS-affiliated ABVP and the Congress-backed NSUI have claimed victory in the student union elections held on Monday in government colleges across the BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh, after a gap of nearly six years. The Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) also claimed its maiden win in the elections. The National Students' Union of India (NSUI) alleged that its candidates and supporters were beaten up at several places and that the poll was "rigged" in favour of the ABVP. However, the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) said the polls were conducted in a peaceful manner. "ABVP has registered victories in colleges in all districts. Parishad won in 90 per cent places (colleges) in these elections," ABVP organisation secretary, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Prafull Akaant, said. He said the ABVP registered victories at several colleges including in Jhabua, Khandwa, Barwani, Indore, and in Barkatullah University in Bhopal. In Madhya Pradesh, direct elections were discontinued on campus after clashes took place among student groups. The elections resumed in 2005, but on the basis of merit only. The last student elections were held in colleges in 2011-12. "Holding student union elections peacefully is a reply to the people who were expressing apprehension of violence in these polls," the ABVP leader said. NSUI's state president Vipin Wankhede said they have won in "60 percent" of the colleges. "Candidates of NSUI registered victory in 60 percent colleges of the state including those in Dewas, Singrauli, Harda and several other districts," he said. Wankhede alleged that NSUI candidates and supporters were beaten up by activists of ABVP at some places. He alleged that NSUI members have emerged victorious in elections at the Barkatullah University in Bhopal, "but the administration declared results in favour of the ABVP". CYSS convener Nishant Gangwani said his organisation registered victory at 86 posts of Class Representative (CR) and four posts of (college) presidents among others. "We won the elections in Katni district, the home turf of state Cabinet minister Sanjay Pathak, and at Churhat Assembly constituency of the Opposition Leader Ajay Singh," Gangwani claimed. The process to conduct the elections started from 23 October and the results were announced on Monday. In these polls, the students elect CR of each class. These CRs then contest for student council of their respective colleges. The council comprises president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary who are directly elected by students. These representatives of students then elect the university councils. Shimla: BJP national President Amit Shah on Monday asked Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi to clarify party's stand on separatists in Kashmir and illegal migration of Rohingyas, who are posing a threat to national security. "The Congress leaders are supporting those who are raising slogans in favour of Kashmir's independence," Shah said at a public rally in Banikhet in Chamba district of the poll-bound Himachal Pradesh. Asking the electorates whether they were with those who are raising slogans for freedom, the BJP President, who started his five-day tour of the state on Monday, said thousands of brave soldiers belonging to this hill state had sacrificed their lives for the cause of Kashmir. Taking a dig at the Congress over its leader P Chidambaram's autonomy-for-Jammu-and-Kashmir remark, Shah said: "It's Chidambaram who wrote a letter to the prime minister asking him to allow the Rohingya intruders to come as they are facing tortures." "Why they should be allowed when the government of India is saying they are a security threat," he asked. "Rahulji and Soniaji should come here and give reply on the issue. Himachal people and Gujarat people should ask them what is the Congress' stand on the issue of Rohingyas. And what is the stand of the Congress on raising freedom slogans," he said. "When in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) slogans like 'Bharat Tere Tukade Hazar Honge (India, you will become a thousand pieces)' were raised, Rahul 'baba' went there to express solidarity with them." Shah, who later addressed a public meeting in Jawali in Kangra district, said the Congress only promoted corruption, with scams worth Rs 12 lakh-thousand crore taking place in the previous UPA (United Progressive Alliance) regime. "In the last three years not even a single scam has come to the light," he said. Shah accused state chief minister Virbhadra Singh of corruption and ruining the state. "The Congress regime (in the state) had only performed ground-breaking ceremonies and the day never come to inaugurate them (projects)," he added. Elections to the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly will be held on 9 November and the votes counted on 18 December, coinciding with the polls in Gujarat. New Delhi: BJP national president Amit Shah, who will join Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath in the election campaign, will address his first public meeting in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh on Monday. Shah will be in the state for two days. During his trip, the BJP president will address four rallies and hold a number of party meetings, including the state party's core group, a party leader said. The party chief is expected to hold close to 15 rallies during the entire Himachal election campaign. Shah will address a public rally each at Banikhet and Chalwara on Monday, the sources added. On Sunday, Adityanath said the Congress has turned the land of Gods into the land of crime, urging the people of Himachal Pradesh to vote for the BJP to end the mafia rule in the state. Campaigning for BJP candidates at Arki and Haroli, he said only crime and corruption increased under the rule of Congress in Himachal Pradesh. "The Congress has turned the 'dev bhoomi' (land of Gods) into 'apraadh bhoomi' (land of crime). It has sullied the name of the state, which is now known as forest and mining mafia, and illegal activities," he said. The BJP is hopeful of getting a clear majority by defeating the incumbent Congress government in the north Indian state. The elections for the 68-seat Himachal Pradesh Assembly will take place on 9 November. The results will be declared on 18 December. With inputs from PTI New Delhi: Union minister Alphons Kannanthanam will be the BJP candidate for the Rajya Sabha bypoll in Rajasthan to be held on 16 November, the party announced on Sunday. Kannanthanam's name as the party candidate for the bypoll to an Upper House seat from the BJP-ruled Rajasthan was announced by its chief Amit Shah, a party statement said. The Rajya Sabha seat was vacated by former Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu, when he assumed charge as vice-president. The notification for the bypoll will be issued on 30 October and the last date for filing nominations will be 6 November. The 64-year-old bureaucrat-turned-politician, who was appointed as the Minister of State for Tourism (Independent charge) in September, is expected to get elected as out of a total 200 members in the legislative Assembly, the BJP has 160 MLAs followed by the Congress that has 24. Kannanthanam, a Kerala cadre IAS officer, first came into limelight during his tenure with the Delhi Development Authority in the 1990s and earned the sobriquet 'demolition man' after he got scores of illegal constructions razed. He served as the district collector of Kottayam in 1988 and helped make it the first 100 per cent literate town in India the following year. Kananthanam, who is also the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, started his political journey when he was elected as an independent MLA backed by the CPM in Kerala in 2006. He resigned from the civil services earlier that year. He joined the BJP in 2011 and is a member of the BJP National Executive. Jammu: Amid a raging debate over autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir, the BJP's state unit on Monday said removal of Article 370, which grants special status to the state, was the only viable solution to the decades-old problem. "Removal of Article 370 and bringing Jammu and Kashmir on par with other states is the only viable solution to the issue," BJP state spokesperson Professor Virender Gupta said in a statement in Jammu. He said this would be a befitting reply to separatists and Pakistan who are supporting and nourishing terrorism in the state and will pave the way to bring the people of Jammu and Kashmir, particularly those of the Valley, into the national mainstream. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram's remark on Saturday that "when the people of Jammu and Kashmir ask for "azadi", most of them mean greater autonomy" had invited sharp criticism from the BJP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had termed it a reprehensible attempt by the Congress to support those calling for 'azadi' in Kashmir and "an insult to our soldiers". Reacting to it, Chidambaram had on Sunday said the prime minister was "imagining a ghost and attacking it", maintaining that those criticising him should first read his comments. The Congress has already distanced itself from the former Union minister's comments. The BJP spokesperson said treating J&K differently, allowing it to have its own constitution and not completely merging the state into the Indian Union, by incorporating Article 370 in the Indian Constitution, is the "basic cause of the present Jammu and Kashmir problem". "It speaks of the mindset of the Congress from the very beginning," Gupta said criticising the statement of Chidambaram and claimed that it provided fuel to separatists who have waged a war against India at the behest of Pakistan and are threatening the unity and integrity of the country. "His (Chidambarams) statement, particularly at this juncture when the security forces are well in control of the situation in the Valley, separatists and terrorists are demoralised and the conditions are fast returning to normal... when Pakistan has been isolated and its cry on the Kashmir issue is being given little attention in the world fora, amount to doing disservice to the national interests," the BJP leader said. He said Chidambaram's attempt also amounts to "sabotaging the efforts of the Government of India to restore the confidence of the Kashmiri people by appointing Dineshwar Sharma as its representative. "Some of the Congress leaders are still following the Nehurian mindset that created the Kashmir problem and that is still proving to be a thorn for the Indian Union," he said. Gupta said two of such leaders are Mani Shankar Aiyar and Chidambaram, who always favour and suggest the "proposition of returning to accession and considered it the mother of all confidence-building measures (CBMs)". He alleged former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru's act of "confiding in (National Conference founder) Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and other party leaders to decide the future of Jammu and Kashmir ... and sidelining the Maharaja of the state and ignoring the interests of the people of Jammu and Ladakh regions is one of the greatest blunders in modern history of India". The Congress has launched a scathing attack on the Narendra Modi government as the first anniversary of demonetisation draws near. The Congress has called the move the "century's biggest scam". Congress leader and spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the country is still reeling from the dual impact of demonetisation and the "poorly implemented" Goods and Services Tax (GST). "The century's biggest scams demonetisation and the incorrectly implemented GST have hit the poor and common people of India. They hit the traders and shopkeepers of India. A huge numbers of white collar workers were impacted because of these moves, which also caused huge losses of jobs and revenue. Over 150 people killed themselves. These statistics prove the country is still to recover from the negative impact of demonetisation," Surjewala said at a press conference on Monday. At the time of announcing demonetisation, Modi had sought 50 days' time to fix the economy. Surjewala taunted the prime minister over this proclamation, saying it's been much more than that, but the economy is far from being fixed. "Modiji had said he was ready to face any punishment if his demonetisation move could be proven as being wrong in the long run. Modiji, are you ready for your punishment now?" Surjewala asked. Top Congress leaders had held a meeting with party vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Monday morning, where they chalked out plans on how to mark the first anniversary of demonetisation on 8 November. Addressing the media after the meeting, Rahul Gandhi had said, "8 November is a day of sadness. I don't know what they are going to celebrate. Our prime minister doesn't understand the pain he caused the nation." Surjewala elaborated further on the Congress' plans for the occasion. "On 8 November this year, Congress will come out with the message that the country is still suffering. We will take out marches and rallies in every district of India. We want to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi some tough questions. He has to answer us now," Surjewala said. Three key questions He said the Opposition has put together three key questions for the Modi government. "The main objective of demonetisation was said to be elimination of black money. Modi had said all black money stashed away in banks abroad would be brought back. It's been one year now. We want to ask him how much black money has returned" Surjewala asked. The other question was over fake currency. "Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had both said the menace of fake currency would be tackled. RBI has now said that of the 15 lakh crore currency which was taken out of circulation, over 99 percent was genuine. How then are they claiming that fake currency was tackled?" Surjewala asked. The third objective of demonetisation was to end the menace of cross-border terrorism and insurgency. "But in the one year, things have only worsened. The violence in Kashmir has intensified, while Naxalism is also far from being finished. Modiji, please tell us when the insurgency and Naxalism will end," Surjewala said. Mumbai: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the Shiv Sena must realise that it cannot play the role of a ruling party and Opposition simultaneously. His comments came as the BJP-Sena coalition government completes its three years in office on Tuesday. "Some Sena leaders have developed the habit of opposing everything our government does... One can understand opposition to a few things as they are a different party," Fadnavis said. "How is it alright if you oppose everything? How can it be that you are in government and opposition at the same time? People do not like this," the chief minister said during an interaction at his official residence in south Mumbai. Due to such statements by some (Sena) leaders, neither they nor their party benefits, Fadnavis, who was sworn in as chief minister on 31 October, 2014, said. "While being part of the government, if you want to take credit, you should also learn to take discredit ... It cannot happen that you claim credit and give discredit to others," the chief minister said. "You should be able to tolerate criticism for a (government) decision. You cannot say you did all the good and the BJP did all that is not good," he said. Asked about reports of some Sena leaders threatening to withdraw from the state government, Fadnavis said, "What is there to react? I will react openly if Uddhavji (Sena president Uddhav Thackeray) says something." "There (in the Sena) are many who think they are very big leaders. We do not react to such leaders. From our side, leaders of their level react to what they say," Fadnavis said. He denied reports about Milind Narvekar, an aide of Uddhav Thackeray, giving an him an "ultimatum" against inducting former Sena leader Narayan Rane in the state Cabinet. On the coalition, he said: "This will continue. There is not this much of tension (between the BJP and the Sena). The tension is seen (from) outside but inside there is no tension," he said. Shimla: Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma on Monday dubbed the Bharatiya Janata Party's "vision document", which was released on Sunday, rudderless and accused the saffron party of "exploiting" the sentiments of the people. Sharma also questioned the resources being spent on the Gujarat and the Himachal elections by the BJP and said the people have the right to know about the sources of funding. "The vision document is silent on job creation...No reference has been made to the appointment of the Lokayukta, isolated Gudia rape-and-murder case has been blown out of proportion and references made on various issues are vague and lack direction," the deputy leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said while addressing the media here. The former Union minister accused the BJP of deriving electoral mileage by "exploiting" the sentiments of the people of the state by politicising the Gudia case, where a minor was found raped and murdered at Kotkhai in July. "No doubt, the infamous Gudia rape case was a heinous crime and should be condemned by all, but the isolated case should not be made the sole criteria for judging the law-and-order situation in the state," the chief Congress spokesperson said. The former minister said the heinous crime rate in BJP-ruled states such as Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan was higher. Attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for "ruining" the economy by "reckless" decisions such as demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), Sharma said that he was ready to discuss the fallout of these decisions with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on any platform. "It is unfortunate that the prime minister is neither ready to accept the mistake (demonetisation) nor come out with an explanation, but was resorting to lies to mislead the people," he said, highlighting the more than 150 circulars, issued by the Reserve Bank of India and the Union finance ministry after the noteban, as an evidence of the "futile" exercise. Blaming the Centre for making a "mockery" of the GST, Sharma stressed that it was not 'one nation, one tax', but "one nation, six tax, and thirty states, thirty tax". "The GST has hit the economy hard as there is a 4-crore job loss in the unorganised sector, hit workers and small businessmen and traders and resulted in price rise," he added. Bidar (Karnataka): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday lashed out at the alleged "Congress culture" of stalling projects and keeping them pending, and said his government had taken steps to end it. He was speaking after inaugurating the 107 km Bidar-Kalaburagi railway line, built at a cost of Rs 1,542 crore. The project was conceived in 1994. "The Congress work culture is atkana (hinder), latkana (delay) and bhatkana (mislead) to stall projects. You will get thousands of such projects in India that get started to reap political mileage but later get stalled," Modi said. The delay in implementing the projects led to cost overruns and the previous government was to be blamed for this "criminal negligence", he alleged. "If we have to move forward we have to end this work culture. We have taken steps to do away with it. We have given importance to time-bound work culture," Modi said. Modi also reaffirmed his governments commitment to fighting corruption. "We are fighting corruption. The Congress has become insensitive. I was surprised that when in Gujarat there were floods, Rajya Sabha election was also going on in the state," he said. "When people were dying in floods, fields were getting washed away and farmers were in distress, all their (Congress) legislators were enjoying in Bengaluru. At the same time a ministers house was raided by Income Tax (department) and bundles of notes were recovered," he alleged. Gujarat Congress MLAs were in Bengaluru during the Rajya Sabha polls in August, in which Congress chief Sonia Gandhis political secretary Ahmed Patel faced a tricky battle but managed to scrape through. The party had claimed that they were brought to the Karnataka capital to prevent the BJP from poaching them. Modis reference to the IT raid related to Karnataka Energy Minister D K Shivakumar. He also said people of the country would not forgive those who run their businesses with "bags filled with notes". Such people now feel they have been looted due to demonetisation and that they are now in distress, he said. "You will be surprised that due to demonetisation the notes that got deposited in banks... we kept track of where they have come from. Three lakh bogus companies that we have come to know of were involved in hawala and each company used to have 1,000 bank accounts," Modi said. "Despite our shutting these three lakh companies, no one burnt Modi's effigies," he said. The prime minister said officials were working with the help of technology and it was found that there was dishonest business of about Rs 4,000 crore in 5,000 of the three lakh shell companies. "This money belongs to the countrys poor and honest citizens. I cannot allow it to be looted, so Im in this fight," he said. On the Goods and Services Tax, Modi said all state governments were part of decisions related to it and its implementation was a collective decision of all parties. The trading community had not opposed the GST and accepted it. It only complained about shortcomings. They brought it to the governments notice and it had to be set right, he said. "I want to tell the trading community that you give suggestions...my government functions with an open mind. We are ready to make all improvements." Modi said he had also told the bureaucracy that an environment of honesty prevails in the country. Earlier, there were many traders who did not issue bills. Now they are saying that they do not want to do it and will work by the rules, he said. "They fear that if they follow law and rules, officials will question them about their earlier trading history... I want to assure the trading community that no official will open your old office (files). Those who want to move forward for the country, they will be given full protection," he said. "Earlier some things might have happened, but if they now want to walk the right path, they are welcome. They will be given protection...It is the governments duty to support them," he said. "I want to tell all small and big traders, if still any official troubles you, write me a letter. I will fight for you," he said. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah skipped the function as he had earlier made known his displeasure over being invited at the last minute. He, however, deputed a senior cabinet colleague. Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge also stayed away for identical reason. Bhubaneswar: Odisha chief minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik on Saturday ruled out his party forging an alliance with others for the next Assembly election and asserted that it was capable of winning the polls on its own strength. He also claimed that the BJD was maintaining an equal distance from both the BJP and the Congress. "We will have no alliance with any political party. We will fight the next election on our own," Patnaik said during an interactive session at a literary festival in Bhubaneswar. "There will be no alliance at all, direct or indirect," he added. On the BJP's target of winning 120 of the 147 Assembly seats in Odisha in the 2019 polls, Patnaik said, "I do not believe in these statistics. But I believe that we have worked for the people of the state and they will vote the BJD to power again." Stating that the BJD's strength was in the works it had been doing for the state and its people, the chief minister said the people had faith in his regime because of the various development works and welfare schemes implemented by it. Patnaik asserted that his party was maintaining an equal distance from both the Congress and the BJP. Five days ago, he had said the same thing after senior BJD leader and state agriculture minister Damodar Rout claimed that the party had no hesitation in joining hands with the Congress for the next Assembly polls. "The BJD is equidistant from the Congress and the BJP. With the blessings of our people, we will continue our fight for the rights of Odisha," Patnaik had tweeted after Rout's statement. The next Assembly election in Odisha is due in 2019. New Delhi: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi along with other members of a parliamentary panel on Monday raised questions on media reports that China was ramping up its military presence in areas close to Doka La at a meeting where the MPs were briefed by top government officials. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor was briefed by the top officials, including Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba and Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra, on the Sino-India boundary disputes and security, including in Doka La area. Gandhi asked the officials about a recent media report showing satellite images of Chinese troop build-up near the standoff point on the Doka La plateau, a member who was present at the meeting said. In his response, Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar said that the Chinese Army is in its own territory and similarly the Indian forces are also present on the other side, the member said. Gandhi, who had the maximum number of queries during the panel's last meeting on the issue earlier this month, again raised various questions about the situation on the India-China border, he said. The 73-day face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in Doka La started on 16 June after the Indian side stopped the construction of a road by the Chinese Army. The meeting lasted for more than two hours in which a BJP MP also questioned the panel-chairman that how could the meeting be held when there was no quorum. Out of the 30 members of the panel, only 12 were present at the meeting. The panel now will also invite experts to brief it on the issue of Sino-India relations. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi chaired two meetings with party general secretaries on Monday to chalk out plans on how to mark the first anniversary of demonetisation on 8 November. The party, with allies, is planing to observe 'Black Day' across the country. Flaying the Narendra Modi-led central government on the issue, the Gandhi scion said that the prime minister had destroyed the country's economy with two "torpedoes" note ban and GST. Modi had announced on 8 November last year that currency notes of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations will be be scrapped, while GST was implemented on 1 July this year. Top Congress leaders attended the meeting convened at party headquarters on Monday. Speaking to the press after the meeting, Rahul slammed Modi for poor implementation of demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST). Wondering why the government was "celebrating" the first anniversary of note ban, Rahul said, "I don't know what is there to celebrate." "It is a day of sadness," he added. Rahul said while the economy was able to withstand the "torpedo" of note ban, it could not withstand the one of GST. The economy, he said, "was in tatters now". "The prime minster is not able to understand the feeling of the people and the hurt and sadness these two decisions have caused," he told reporters Elaborating about the series of meetings held, Rahul said, "In the first meeting on demonetisation, we discussed how the move has destroyed small businesses and caused them severe losses. In the second one on GST, we spoke about how good ideas can be destroyed." The Congress leader said the GST is a "good idea" which has been "destroyed" by the Modi government. Criticising Modi, Rahul said, "Our prime minister doesn't understand the pain he caused the nation." Before the meeting, according to an India Today report, a senior Congress leader said, "We will protest from block level to national level on all platforms streets to social media on the first anniversary of demonetisation on 8 November. The central theme will be MMD (Modi-made disaster), and other Opposition parties are also planning their protests across this central idea." The Congress and allies have declared their intention of using MMD as the central point of their protests. While the first meeting discussed the plans of the party, along with other opposition parties, to observe 8 November as 'black day', the second deliberated upon GST implementation. The second meet was attended by former prime minister Manmohan Singh and ex-finance minister P Chidambaram. Asserting that Modi had failed to acknowledge the result of the decision, Rahul had earlier said, "All cash is not black and all black is not cash. Without understanding this basic concept, the government unleashed terror over the citizens of India. Millions lost their jobs and livelihoods. To do that, you need someone with a very big chest but a small heart." Rashtriya Janata Dal chief (RJD) Lalu Prasad Yadav had also said on Monday that his party would hold rallies across Bihar, to highlight the alleged failures of the step taken by the Narendra Modi government at the Centre. With inputs from agencies New Delhi: Raj Thackeray is honing an old weapon the sharp edge of humour to fight a political battle in Maharashtra after a series of debacles. When six of the seven corporators of his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) left the party to join the Shiv Sena recently, many thought Thackeray would be lying low. Instead, the MNS president returned with a bang and a slew of cartoons. His sketches have been going viral for the past few weeks, ever since Thackeray re-launched his Facebook page on which he now regularly posts his cartoons. "Raj Saheb has said that he will draw cartoons more frequently from now on," senior MNS leader and former party MLA Shishir Shinde told PTI. Thackeray's target is often the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Diwali, when people pray to Laxmi for prosperity, the MNS leader posted a sketch of the goddess of wealth asking Modi and BJP president Amit Shah to give her some money to run the country. On 2 October, his cartoon, titled 'Two of the same soil', depicted Mahatma Gandhi and Modi in the same frame. Gandhi held his autobiography 'My Experiments with Truth' while Modi was shown flaunting a book called 'My Experiments with Lies'. His supporters are happy, hoping that this is a sign of Thackeray's comeback. "The response to his cartoons has been phenomenal. And they are going viral with social media," said Shinde. Thackeray is believed to have inherited the trait for political cartoons from his uncle, the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. The nephew's sketches are uncannily like the uncle's, with familiar strokes that highlight his target's physical traits and sharp wit laced with acerbity. While he was in the Shiv Sena, Raj Thackeray's cartoons regularly appeared in the party mouthpiece Dainik Saamana and Marmik, a magazine edited by Bal Thackeray. Prakash Akolkar, political editor of the Marathi daily Sakal and author of "Jai Maharashtra", a book on the Shiv Sena, stressed that like his uncle, Raj was an ace cartoonist. "But while Balasaheb drew fewer cartoons as he started growing busy with politics, in Raj's case, it is the opposite. He has started drawing more cartoons as his influence in politics has started waning," he said. However, the pictorial pot-shots aimed at the BJP by Raj Thackeray, who supported Modi till the 2014 polls, are also being seen as an attempt by the MNS to regain lost ground. "Raj, like his uncle (Bal Thackeray), is a political opportunist. He has tapped the anti-Modi sentiment in the country and is building on it," said senior journalist and political commentator Kumar Ketkar. Raj Thackeray was widely seen as his uncle's heir-apparent, but was eventually sidelined by his cousin, Uddhav, which prompted him to launch his new party, MNS, in 2006. Championing the cause of the Marathi manoos, he made an impressive debut in the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in 2007 and severely dented the vote-share of the Shiv Sena-BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. In its maiden assembly election in Maharashtra, the MNS won 13 seats. But the party lost its momentum, winning just one seat in the 2014 polls. Senior leaders and workers deserted the MNS in large numbers, blaming Thackeray's working style and inaccessibility for the nosedive. Earlier this month, six of the MNS's seven corporators joined the Shiv Sena, giving a major jolt to the party. But Thackeray, clearly, is waiting to strike back. "He may appear to be politically dead, but he refuses to die. He is alive and kicking," Ketkar said, though he was sceptical about the influence the cartoons had on the masses. Cartoonist Satish Acharya wondered why Thackeray didn't take up cartooning as a fulltime profession. "But I doubt how can manage an unbiased view, which is the foundation for political cartooning, as he dons a political hat, too," Acharya said. Thirty two words or 183 characters spoken by President Ram Nath Kovind praising Tipu Sultan has caused heartburn in the Sangh Parivar, a large section of which has declared the 18th-century Mysore ruler a religious bigot, who forcibly converted people to Islam and ordered the loot and pillage of Hindu temples. However, this is not the only instance of the president 'straying' beyond the Sangh vocabulary. These are early days into his presidency but if the trend is maintained in future, Kovind would possibly be recalled as a contrarian President, someone who was elected to this office for being part of the Sangh system, but a person who often spoke what he felt was the truth, especially on historical and civilisational matters, even if his opinion went against the discourse of his political clan. This 'deviation' from the Sangh 'line' is extremely important because its divergence from other political forces is ideologically constructed mainly over interpretation of history, civilisation and culture. Little wonder sections within the Parivar mildly express displeasure in private over Kovind turning out "like many of his predecessors." Yet, there is little that the clan can do save hope that the President would back the government and BJP on political matters. Kovind's first visit to Karnataka was to address the joint session of Karnataka Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council on 60th anniversary of Vidhan Soudha. The raging debate over Tipu Sultan's legacy ignited by the Congress governments plans for 'Tipu Jayanti' celebrations on his birth anniversary on November 10 and the saffron brigade's decision to oppose this, provided the backdrop. Kovind's address was preceded by contrasting attempts to depict the sultan as either "freedom fighter" or religious chauvinist who was also a "brutal killer and plunderer". Instead of endorsing either viewpoint or playing safe by making no mention of Tipu Sultan, Kovind said what is historically accurate. His words: "Tipu Sultan died a heroic death fighting the British. He was also a pioneer in the development and use of Mysore rockets in warfare. This technology was later adopted by the Europeans", are the same which non-aligned historians to place the Mysore ruler indisputably in the ranks of anti-colonialists. As historian Irfan Habib phrases it, Tipu Sultan was "a very important figure in the Indian resistance to Britain." Attempts have been made to pin blame on the president's media managers and thereby show the president in poor light someone who reads out whatever is handed out to him. Efforts were also made to apportion blame on the Congress government but this too depicts the President's secretariat poorly and is part of durbar politics. It is imperative to believe, if only for the dignity of the office he holds, that Kovind chooses words that reflect his views. Besides select few words on Tipu Sultan, there was another remark that point towards Kovind not eventually remaining a rubber stamp President. Early into the speech, Kovind asserted everyone is "aware of the three Ds of the legislature, that it is a place to debate, dissent and finally decide. And if we add the fourth D, decency, only then does the fifth D, namely democracy, become a reality." His formulation has takeaways for the BJP as well as the opposition. While the Treasury Benches only bemoan the decline of 'decency' in parliamentary and legislative functioning, opposition also civil society claims repetitively that "dissent is being murdered" by this regime. Kovind stirred political controversy with his maiden speech on 25 July when he avoided mentioning Jawaharlal Nehru. Additionally, the Congress criticised his speech for mentioning Mahatma Gandhi and Jan Sangh leader Deendayal Upadhyaya in almost the same breadth. Sangh Parivar votaries who considered his inaugural speech as 'just the beginning' were in for surprise when the president's address to the nation on the eve of Independence Day brought Nehru back into presidential speeches. The first premier was mentioned as someone who "emphasised that Indias age-old heritage and traditions so dear to us could co-exist with technology and a quest to modernise our society." Coming from a regime that demonises Nehru at every opportunity, recognising one of his positive attributes was significant. Yet, because negative news makes greater splash, this small insertion went unnoticed. On 20 September, Kovind spoke at the inauguration of the golden jubilee celebrations of Jesus and Mary College in the capital which "prepared young girls young women, I should say to break glass ceilings." More significantly, the president remarked that it is of importance to "note that the Christian community whose history in India goes back 2,000 years and which has contributed so much to our shared culture has carved a special role for itself in education. Missionary institutions such as this one have become symbols of scholarship, dedicated teaching and academic excellence." For the past many decades, Christian missionaries have been attacked by the RSS and its affiliates and their motive in the field of education has been questioned. Christian-run educational institutions are episodically vilified and a presidential certificate of "scholarship, dedicated teaching and academic excellence" will certainly not be to the liking of activists who carry out the threats. Worse still, Kovind quoted the Gospel and drew parallels with the Upanishads. It is not that the president referred to India's shared spiritual heritage just once. On 8 October, while in Kollam to launch programmes at the Mata Amritanandamayi Math, Kovind stressed on the state's pluralistic tradition: "Keralas spiritual consciousness is well beyond faith and religious distinctions. The Christian community here is one of the oldest not only in India, but anywhere in the world. The first mosque to be built in India is in Kerala...Kerala also has a rich Jewish heritage...These historical instances reflect the mutual accommodation and understanding of different faiths and religious communities in Kerala. This is a state where one community has willingly given space to another. This is a history that we cannot forget and must learn from. And this is an accommodation and understanding that is at the essence of spiritualism." Certainly the assertion was not what the Sangh would like to become the signature of the first 'purebred' Rashtrapati! If this was not enough, there was more in store. Twenty days after his first visit to Kerala, Kovind visited the state again for two days. In this first address on arrival, Kovind glowingly referred to former President KR Narayanan and attributed his "scholarship and learning" which played a role in his "rise from a humble background to the highest office" to the "best legacies of Kerala and its people". In recent months Kerala has been the venue of street fights and political exchanges between the RSS-BJP combine and the CPI(M) and the former has had few kind words for the state's traditions. The same afternoon, Kovind reiterated that Kerala had "been the home of some great religions. Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Jewish cultures are age-old and have existed in close proximity here. They have given space to each other. It is important to keep that tradition of harmony alive even today. It is vital that our cultural traditions continue to draw from the heritage of Kerala and of India. Keralas traditions and your very thinking have been humanistic, people-oriented and democratic." Further, while addressing the valedictory function of the diamond jubilee function of the Kerala High Court, Kovind once again treaded into awkward territory by lavishing praise on Justice VR Krishna Iyer, often called conscience keeper of justice. In spite of turning a Modi admirer in his last years, Iyer headed a Concerned Citizens Tribunal which severely indicted Modi and his government for complicity in riots. Moreover, the president championed the high court for its " sensitivity to peoples rights and civil liberties", issues that are not bywords for Sangh Parivar's activists. He also appreciated the Court for judgements that "contributed to deepening the traditions of democracy and civic freedom." Many in the ruling circle may like to dismiss the President's observations as ritualistic platitudes, but the issue is not so simple. Admiring Narayanan's attributes cannot be coincidental because Kovind, as member of Rajya Sabha, had ringside view of the former President's time in office when he disagreed with the Vajpayee government's attempt to review the Constitution. Narayanan ensured that the move was restricted to simple assessment of the Constitution's functioning. Narayanan also wrote after demitting office that though initially he was unaware of the power his oath conferred on his office, he later comprehended the weight of the operative part: "I will devote myself to the service and well-being of the people of India". Narayanan said during his tenure he exerted "indirect influence" on state affairs because he understood this responsibility. Kovind could not have been unaware of the responsibility of his office, as Bihar's Governor he had sworn to more or less the same words save the commitment being to people of Bihar and not the entire country. Nitish Kumar backed Kovind when the BJP nominated him. Kumar had not yet split with the UPA and it was speculated that this was payback for support on imposing prohibition when state BJP leaders were opposed. But possibly, the Bihar chief minister saw something more in Kovind which we are now seeing albeit in his ginger steps beyond the Sangh's dogma on certain contentious issues. These however, are yet early days to say if we are witness to the making of a Sabka Rashtrapati. Once mocked mercilessly for his articulation and dismissed contemptuously as incapable of spearheading the charge against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has suddenly started to be taken seriously. This has inspired commentaries seeking to explain Gandhi's metamorphosis. Most of these explanations have a common refrain Rahul has changed the narrative around him with his intelligent, combative, often humourous, tweets. No doubt, his social media outreach has become smarter and is garnished with levity. But this is not a cause behind Rahul's makeover. In fact, his tweets are lapped up today because these echo the sentiments of a growing number of people. In other words, it is not Rahul who has changed. What has changed is the socio-political context in which he operates. This, in turn, has altered the people's perception of India's problems and their possible solutions. It has aligned them with Rahul's prescriptions on a variety of matters, particularly economy. In keeping with the Congress tradition, Rahul's rhetoric over the last three years can be placed between Centre and Left of Centre of India's ideological spectrum. He has spoken of the agrarian distress, dubbed the Modi government pro-rich, best symbolised through his phrase, suit-boot ki sarkar, which he coined in 2015. He has lauded the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which the Manmohan Singh government passed in 2005, to stake his own ideological position. He has batted for the right to freedom of expression and highlighted the threat Hindutva poses to the idea of inclusive nationalism. But his political positioning did not win him respect or support until September, which was when Rahul addressed students in select American universities. He spoke of demonetisation and GST inflicting pain on people and aggravating the economic slowdown India had been already experiencing. This was, in many ways, standard Opposition fare, albeit delivered with clarity and acuity. This is where the socio-economic context came into play. At the time Rahul was delivering speeches in American universities, the media had already furnished statistics to show that India's GDP growth had dipped to 5.7 percent and that of industry to 1.2 percent. The slowdown was ascribed to both demonetisation and GST. A slew of economists presented a grim economic outlook for the future, undercutting the government's claims to the contrary. His attack on Modi wasn't therefore perceived to be typical of Opposition leaders whose function it is to criticise the government. Nor was Rahul lambasting Modi for his past failings. He was perceived to be speaking "truth to power." This was because the statistics on the economy said so, because the hardship wrought by demonetisation and GST was (and still is) the lived experience of the people. There suddenly emerged an audience skeptical of the government's spin of an economic turnaround. Rahul's criticism was no longer an Opposition leader's routine act. He was deemed to be speaking the truth, another measure of which was the BJP's hyper reaction to his speeches in the American universities. Union Minister Smriti Irani threw venomous barbs at him at a press conference and another 10 Union ministers were counted to have tweeted with unbecoming hostility against him. Thus, Rahul's description of GST as Gabbar Singh Tax generates response because it is rooted in reality, as has his coinage MMD or Modi-made Disaster to explain why real wages have been stagnant for three years and bank lending the lowest in 60 years. In other words, Rahul's rhetoric has begun to mirror the real world; it reflects the lived reality of millions. His criticism has become meaningful because of the context that has emerged over the last few months. It is only natural for all those suffering on account of the economic slowdown to take seriously a leader voicing their concerns. They have become invested in him because they feel it is vital to have an alternative emerge - it is the only way to restrain an overconfident BJP leadership, having an abiding faith in its certitude, bumbling from one adventurism to another. As the leader of India's grand old party, Rahul enjoys the advantage in becoming that possible alternative. It is also because he no longer faces competition from other Opposition leaders, all of whom opted out of the race either because of circumstances or they simply miscalculated. For much of last two years, Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal had been the most vocal opponent of Modi. But after failing to win Punjab for his party and then vanquished in the municipality elections, Kejriwal has refrained from attacking Modi directly. He presumably believes his electoral losses were because he was out of sync with the national mood overwhelmingly in favour of the prime minister. Then again, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar was touted as the possible Opposition face, but unable to win the support of others for his ambition, he simply jumped ship. This isn't to say that Rahul hasn't tried to reposition himself. Perhaps the most palpable sign of it is Rahul's high-profile visits to temples in Gujarat. He is consciously emphasising his Hindu identity. This, the Congress felt, was needed for dispelling the impression that it favours the religious minorities and is indifferent to both Hindu interests and Hinduism. Rahul's projection of his Hindu identity did not begin with Gujarat this year. For instance, in April 2015, nearly a year after the humiliating defeat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Gandhi undertook a 16-km trek to the Kedarnath shrine. It went largely unnoticed and uncommented upon, unlike his visits to temples in Gujarat. A clutch of BJP leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath and Madhya Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, accused Gandhi of being hypocritical and indulging in a sham. They haven't ignored Gandhi's temple visits, as they largely did his trek to Kedarnath, because the political context has changed from 2015 to 2017. Since the people have started to look at Gandhi differently, the BJP senses they might no longer consider him a deracinated Hindu oblivious of his religious traditions. It has evidently made the BJP nervous that its monopoly over the religious realm could break; its claim of being the sole custodian of Hinduism could stand challenged. Regardless of whether the Congress wins or loses in Gujarat, Rahul will be taken seriously from now on. This is because in the changed political context, people realising the necessity of seeing an effective counterpoise to the government undoubtedly adrift in Rahul . It will be quite another story if Rahul can capture Gujarat. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the Congress during his visit to Karnataka, accusing it of "shamelessly" taking a U-turn on Kashmir. Modi said that the Congress was using the language spoken by Pakistan. Modi's sharp comments came a day after senior Congress leader P Chidambaram pitched for greater autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir. Modi told BJP workers in the state that his government would not compromise with the country's unity and integrity. "All of a sudden, those who were in power till yesterday have taken a U-turn. Shamelessly, they are making a statement and are lending their voice for Kashmir's azaadi," Modi said. Without taking Chidambaram's name, the prime minister said, "I'm surprised that those who were in power at the Centre, those who were responsible for the country's internal security and national security (are saying this)." Modi said the country has no hope or expectations from the Congress. Noting that Sardar Patel took important decisions for the country's unity, he said thousands of jawans have sacrificed their lives for Kashmir. "The country's soldiers have sacrificed their lives every moment for the sake of security of the motherland and innocent citizens of Kashmir. "I want to ask the people of Bengaluru, can the country benefit from such people who are playing politics on the sacrifice of our soldiers? They don't have any shame in saying this. The Congress party will have to give an answer for this (Chidambaram's) statement...," he said. Modi said, "Those bravehearts who have sacrificed their lives, mothers who have lost their sons for the country... that mother is asking the question, that sister who has lost her brother is asking the question and the child who has lost his father is asking the question." But, he said, the Congress was "shamelessly using such language that is used by the separatists on Kashmir's land. (They are) using the language that is spoken by Pakistan." Stressing that this was the land of Sardar Patel, he said, "We will not compromise with the country's unity and integrity.." Chidambaram had told reporters in Rajkot in poll-bound Gujarat on Saturday, "The demand in the Kashmir Valley is to respect the letter and spirit of Article 370, that means they want greater autonomy. My interactions in Jammu and Kashmir led me to the conclusion that when they ask for azaadi, mostly, I am not saying all... the overwhelming majority, they want autonomy." Chidambaram replied in the affirmative when he was asked if he still thinks that Jammu and Kashmir should be given greater autonomy. Chidambaram had in July 2016 advocated greater autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir, saying India should restore the "grand bargain" under which Kashmir had acceded by granting a large degree of autonomy to it. At the BJP workers' meet in Karnataka, Modi also said when India carried out the surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) in September last year, "our soldiers hit back at our enemy. It was a moment of great pride for the whole nation, but the Congress party could not digest that also". The prime minister said, "After the statement of the Congress leader (Chidambaram), I can understand what the reason for their anger towards the surgical strikes was." Defending India's diplomatic strength during Doka La standoff, he said, "The heroism of our brave soldiers, India's diplomatic strength, India's courage, its restraint, the whole world saw it at Doka La (during the standoff with China). "However strong China may be, in the test of restraint, India has lived up. Today it is India's ability which the world is looking at with respect... The Congress people are every day spreading false information in the name of Doka La." Modi said there was a feeling that after electoral defeats, "some sensible people" in the Congress will try to bring the party on the right path. "But one or the other I'm seeing and hearing their statements and actions that are irresponsible...It looks the Congress has decided not to improve," he said. Modi landed at the Mangaluru airport and flew to Dharmasthala in a helicopter and prayed at the Manjunatheshwara temple in Dharmasthala, about 100 kilometres away from Mangaluru. The prime minister also sought the blessings of blessings of Sri Sri Shankara Bharati Mahaswamiji during the "Dashamah Soundaryalahari Parayanotsavah" and chanted the Soundaryalahari and Dakshinamurthy stotras of Sri Shankaracharya by around one lakh devotees at the Palace grounds in Bengaluru on Sunday. Modi also attacked the Congress over corruption in development funds at Dharmasthala and Bidar. At Dharmasthala, he asked which was the "hand" that reduced every rupee of government money to 15 paise before it reached the beneficiary and later at Bidar he lauded the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme (DBT) which ensures Rs 57,000 Cr from govt revenue that earlier went to the middlemen is now going directly to the rightful owner. Addressing a public rally in Ujjire near Dharmasthala, a temple town in Dakshina Kannada, Modi also took a dig at the opposition for its criticism of demonetisation aimed at making the economy less dependent on cash, saying even parents limit cash given to their children because it spoils them. Without naming Rajiv Gandhi, Modi recalled that a former prime minister had said that from every rupee sanctioned by the government, only 15 paise reached its beneficiary in a village. He said this was not the case with his government that was committed to devoting every rupee and every resource for the welfare of Indians so that fruits of development reached the beneficiaries without any scope of corruption. Beginning his address in Kannada at Dharmasthala, the prime minister, at the event organised by the charitable trust of the Sri Kshetra Dharmastala Rural Development Project, gave away RuPay cards to the Self Help Groups enrolled for Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana and launched their digitised cashless transactions. He said such self-help groups, who have pledged to conduct their businesses cashlessly, have answered all those who spoke against demonetisation, questioning how was it possible to become cashless in a country where the poor and less literate have no digital connectivity. He urged people to use the BHIM App and embrace cashless transactions in the "era of honesty and integrity" where there "is no place for those who cheat the system". The prime minister urged farmers to conserve water and work with the motto "one drop, more crop". Modi urged Karnataka farmers to take up the methods of drip and seaweed irrigation methods that can help in soil and water conservation. Later, in the evening the prime minister arrived at Bidar to inaugurate the Bidar-Kalburgi rail route and flagged off the first train on the line before addressing the public. 'Congress is good at atkana, latkana and bhatkana' "Congress would begin a lot of projects for seeking political mileage but then they would be halted in the middle," Modi said while addressing the public at Bidar. Lauding BS Yedyurappa' efforts in completing the rail Bidar-Kalburgi track, Modi said Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first to come up with the rail route idea but the Congress government then halted the whole project. Modi left no stones unturned to emphasise on how Congress is good at 'atkana, latkana and bhatkana' which has hampered the growth of the country. "While we're fighting corruption, Congress has become insensitive. Gujarat was devastated by floods this year. But Congress leaders, instead of reaching out to people there, preferred coming to Bengaluru," the prime minister said. Enlisting achievements of his government, the prime minister said,"We said we'll bring electricity to 18,000 houses in 1,000 days. It's not 1,000 days yet and 15,000 houses have access to electricity." With inputs from agencies AFP Apple will let you unlock the iPhone X with your face a move likely to bring facial recognition to the masses, along with concerns over how the technology may be used for nefarious purposes. Apple's newest device, set to go on sale 3 November, is designed to be unlocked with a facial scan with a number of privacy safeguards as the data will only be stored on the phone and not in any databases. Unlocking one's phone with a face scan may offer added convenience and security for iPhone users, according to Apple, which claims its "neural engine" for FaceID cannot be tricked by a photo or hacker. While other devices have offered facial recognition, Apple is the first to pack the technology allowing for a three-dimensional scan into a hand-held phone. But despite Apple's safeguards, privacy activists fear the widespread use of facial recognition would "normalise" the technology and open the door to broader use by law enforcement, marketers or others of a largely unregulated tool. "Apple has done a number of things well for privacy but it's not always going to be about the iPhone X," said Jay Stanley, a policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union. "There are real reasons to worry that facial recognition will work its way into our culture and become a surveillance technology that is abused." A study last year by Georgetown University researchers found nearly half of all Americans in a law enforcement database that includes facial recognition, without their consent. Civil liberties groups have sued over the FBI's use of its "next generation" biometric database, which includes facial profiles, claiming it has a high error rate and the potential for tracking innocent people. "We don't want police officers having a watch list embedded in their body cameras scanning faces on the sidewalk," said Stanley. Clare Garvie the Georgetown University Law School associate who led the 2016 study on facial recognition databases agreed that Apple is taking a responsible approach but others might not. "My concern is that the public is going to become inured or complacent about this," Garvie said. Widespread use of facial recognition "could make our lives more trackable by advertisers, by law enforcement and maybe someday by private individuals," she said. Garvie said her research found significant errors in law enforcement facial recognition databases, opening up the possibility someone could be wrongly identified as a criminal suspect. Another worry, she said, is that police could track individuals who have committed no crime simply for participating in demonstrations. Shanghai and other Chinese cities have recently started deploying facial recognition to catch those who flout the rules of the road, including jaywalkers. Facial recognition and related technologies can also be used by retail stores to identify potential shoplifters, and by casinos to pinpoint undesirable gamblers. It can even be used to deliver personalised marketing messages and could have some other potentially unnerving applications. Last year, a Russian photographer figured out how to match the faces of porn stars with their social media profiles to "doxx" them, or reveal their true identities. This type of use "can create huge problems," said Garvie. "We have to consider the worst possible uses of the technology." Apple's system uses 30,000 infrared dots to create a digital image which is stored in a "secure enclave," according to a white paper issued by the company on its security. It said the chances of a "random" person being able to unlock the device are one in a million, compared with one in 50,000 for its TouchID. Apple's FaceID is likely to touch off fresh legal battles about whether police can require someone to unlock a device. FaceID "brings the company deeper into a legal debate" that stemmed from the introduction of fingerprint identification on smartphones, according to ACLU staff attorney Brett Max Kaufman. Kaufman says in a blog post that courts will be grappling with the constitutional guarantees against unreasonable searches and self-incrimination if a suspect is forced to unlock a device. US courts have generally ruled that it would violate a user's rights to give up a passcode because it is "testimonial" but that situation becomes murkier when biometrics are applied. Apple appears to have anticipated this situation by allowing a user to press two buttons for two seconds to require a passcode, but Garvie said court battles over compelling the use of FaceID are likely. Regardless of these concerns, Apple's introduction is likely to bring about widespread use of facial recognition technology. "What Apple is doing here will popularise and get people more comfortable with the technology," said Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, who follows the sector. "If I look at Apple's track record of making things easy for consumers, I'm optimistic users are going to like this." Garvie added it is important to have conversations about facial recognition because there is little regulation governing the use of the technology. "The technology may well be inevitable," she said. "It is going to become part of everyone's lives if it isn't already." IANS A former Facebook employee is suing the social media giant for allegedly misclassifying employees to exempt them from overtime pay. According to a report in ArsTechnica on Monday, Susie Bigger, a former client solutions manager at Facebook's office in Chicago, has alleged that she and other Facebook employees are illegally classified as managers as part of "defendant's scheme to deprive them of overtime compensation". The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed in a US court, is seeking payback, damages, interest and attorneys fees for an untold number of Facebook employees. "This lawsuit is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously," Facebook told Ars Technica. The lawsuit described a "systematic, companywide wrongful classification" system for Client Solutions Managers, Customer Solutions Managers, Customer Account Managers, "or other similarly titled positions". "CSMs do not perform duties related to the management or general business operations of Facebook. Rather, CSMs' duties constitute the principal production activity of Facebook as a social media and marketing platform," the lawsuit alleged. Facebook is set to announce its third-quarter results this week. IANS Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is on an annual trip to China with the aim to finally enter the world's largest internet market by users in 2018. In his Facebook post on Saturday, Zuckerberg said he was in China for an annual meeting of the advisory board at Tsinghua School of Economics and Management in Beijing, more than a year after his last public trip to the country. "Every year this trip is a great way to keep up with the pace of innovation and entrepreneurship in China," Zuckerberg wrote. He also posted a photo of him with Chinese students at the Tsinghua School Economics and Management in Beijing on Saturday. "Today I got to meet with students working on AI (artificial intelligence) start-ups that compose music from scratch, diagnose diseases using sensors on your body, and more. They shared the state of the art in their fields, and I gave advice on how to build their companies," he added. Zuckerberg last visited China in March 2016, where he met the country's leaders. According to Xinhua news agency, senior politician Liu Yunshan told Zuckerberg that he hopes Facebook can share its experience with Chinese companies to help internet development better benefit the people of all countries. Facebook has long considered entering China, a move that could give it access to a vast new market of users 668 million as of 2016. Zuckerberg has also gained proficiency in the Mandarin language. China has banned Facebook and other western social media companies including Twitter and WhatsApp. tech2 News Staff Facebook has denied that it is using microphones of people's device to listen in to their conversation and send relevant ads to them. 'Reply All' podcast host @pjVogt asked his listeners to tell whether Facebook has been secretly listening to them for ad targetting. This was followed by affirmative responses by Twitteratis. Meanwhile, the VP for ads at Facebook, Rob Goldman has denied of any such mechanisms of ad targeting. According to a BBC report, he said that the same held true for Facebook acquired Instagram as well. I run ads product at Facebook. We don't - and have never - used your microphone for ads. Just not true. Rob Goldman (@robjective) October 26, 2017 In fact, in 2016, a Facebook post had surfaced where it said that it was not involved in listening to the conversation of its users via their microphones. However, it did say that such a coincidence may occur if the user has given the app access to its microphone. Or if the user uses their audio feature quite frequently such as audio or music feature in their status updates. Two years ago, a post on Facebook "How do I turn off Facebook's access to my microphone?" Here the user had a similar complaint as Twitter users, where the user saw an ad related to the conversation with a friend. Reply All is taking phone calls today. Call us if you believe that Facebook uses your mic to spy on you for ad reasons. 3PM ET. 917-267-5180 PJ Vogt (@PJVogt) October 26, 2017 In 2015, a report was released by cybersecurity firm Avast antivirus, which had said that Google, Facebook, and WhatsApp were spying on their users for ad targeting. The CEO of the company had also said that it was a part of their business model. In this case, it was done via conversations on WhatsApp. Back then Facebook and Google did not comment on the allegations. Meanwhile, Facebook has stopped targeting ads based on ethnicity and race. The move came in the aftermath of US presidential elections in 2016. In another update to its controversial ad feature, Facebook seems to be aiding to the purpose of transparency. Here, it would be releasing ads along with the group or person behind the ad post. PTI In a burger, should the cheese slice be on top of the patty, or at the bottom? It is a million dollar question that is boggling the internet including Google CEO Sundar Pichai. So Pichai, 44, now wants to "drop everything else" and address the burger issue first. The debate started yesterday when Thomas Baekdal, Founder of Baekdal Media, sought a Twitter discussion on how the placement of cheese in the "burger emoji" differed on Google and another IT giant Apple. Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday:) if folks can agree on the correct way to do this! https://t.co/dXRuZnX1Ag Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) October 29, 2017 "We need to have a discussion about how Google's burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, while Apple puts it on top," Baekdal tweeted along with the pictures of the different emojis. While several Twitter users engaged in the discussion to sort out the issue, the Indian-born Google CEO too chipped in albeit with a humorous take on the matter. "Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday if folks can agree on the correct way to do this!," a jocular Pichai said in a tweet, which was retweeted by over 10,000 users. The market cap of Google today stood over $800 billion, while that of Apple Inc. was close to $850 billion. IANS Chinese technology firm Huawei on Monday announced its collaboration with Russian telecommunications firm Rostelecom for deploying high-quality Wi-Fi network in Moscow. "Digital transformation is accelerating WLAN coverage in city hotspots. Huawei will partner with Rostelecom to deliver optimal network experience, contributing to B2B business success," said Wang Shihong, Vice President of Huawei Switch and Enterprise Gateway Product Line. With this, Huawei has become the exclusive supplier to Rostelecom for its central branch. As the largest fixed network operator in Russia, Rostelecom is committed to offering better network coverage and expanding B2B services, the company said in a statement. "To this end, Rostelecom has planned to complete Wi-Fi construction for its central branch by 2018, covering both outdoor and indoor scenarios," the statement added. tech2 News Staff Non-stop flights from India to the US, have got extra explosive trace detectors at departure gates to scan personal electronic devices that will be carried as cabin baggage. According to a report in The Times of India, departure gates dedicated for non-stop US flights at New Delhi and Mumbai airport, now have glass barricades to ensure that passengers go straight to the aircraft. The United Airlines and Air India are the two non-stop flights that depart from India. Speaking to the TNN, a senior security officer said that due to some changes in the US rules, personal electronic devices have to undergo the electronic trace detection. However, it is only for those devices which create suspicion. According to an Air India spokesperson, the additional security measure has begun. Passengers flying to the US would be questioned during boarding about their purpose of visit, strict checking of passports and visas will take place at check-in counters. Recently, international aviation agencies had planned to ban laptops in check-in baggages in India. Instead, they will be carried as cabin baggage. The changes were brought in consequence to various tests done by the International Civil Aviation Organisation and Federal Aviation Administration. Earlier this year, the US had banned carrying laptops as cabin baggage in flights for passengers going to the Middle East. Those carrying devices bigger than a smartphone were banned from these flights. Previous reports suggest that the ban on electronics on certain airlines was related to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The US had received information from a US special forces raid in Yemen. The passengers had to go through additional screening along with their devices. This was done to rule out any possibility of an explosive. However, by July the ban was lifted and the airlines were carrying laptops to as in-flight baggage. tech2 News Staff Semiconductor and telecommunication equipment maker Qualcomm may launch its much-anticipated and rumoured flagship System-on-Chip, Snapdragon 845 around December. According to various rumours, it is likely that Qualcomm will launch its next generation of top-end mobile processors at the Snapdragon Technology Summit. The summit is scheduled to be held in Maui, Hawaii from 4th to 8th December 2017. This information comes from a leaked invite posted on the Chinese website Weibo. However, it does not specifically state that Snapdragon 845 will be announced at the summit, but it is expected that Qualcomm will announce something big at the event. GizmoChina reports that Snapdragon 845 processor is likely to be manufactured using the latest Low Power Early (LPE) FinFET process. It may also have pack four ARM Cortex-A75 cores and four ARM Cortex-A53 cores. According to the report, Snapdragon 845 is rumoured to come with Adreno 630 and the chipset will be specially optimized for AR and VR content. Many reports also point to the fact that Samsung has already booked the entire first production batch for the Snapdragon 845 processor for its next flagship S series smartphone. Xiaomi is also in the race as it wants to bring in the processor for its Mi 7 smartphone. Qualcomm has not issued any official statement regarding the rumours at the time of writing. One thing to note here is that all the information at this point is based on rumours and speculations and thus should be taken with a pinch of salt. IANS Debunking media reports that Reliance Jio has stopped the production of the Rs 1,500-JioPhone, the company on 30 October said it is committed to fulfilling the country's digital vision. "JioPhone, India ka smartphone,' is committed to fulfilling the country's digital vision. Jio welcomes the initial six million Indians who are moving to digital life with the JioPhone and will soon announce the next JioPhone booking date," a company spokesperson told IANS. Media reports claimed the company had stopped JioPhone's production and was planning to bring out an Android-based phone. The company announced the launch of 4G and VoLTE-enabled JioPhone on 21 July, available free of cost with a deposit money of Rs 1,500. Aimed at over 50 crore feature phone users, the 2.4-inch device has 2MP rear camera and houses 2000mAh battery. The JioPhone has a single Nano-SIM slot and a microSD card slot. According to industry sources, Jio carries more than 100 crore GB data per month. With JioPhone, the entry-level smartphone market would see a lot more action for a few quarters from now onwards, a new report said recently. According to CyberMedia Research (CMR), 61.8 million mobiles were shipped in the second quarter of 2017, of which 54 percent were feature phones, witnessing 9 percent sequential growth. "With JioPhone, the prospects of feature phones as well as entry-level smartphones brands aligned to these markets pushed the shipments in wake of anticipated contraction of the market due to JioPhone availability in 3Q and beyond," added the CMR report Google is looking to make improvements on its Android Pay services by testing notifications for all credit card transactions. Google has already released its very own UPI based payment system in India called as Tez and it has been downloaded over 5 million times on the Google Play Store. Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd tech2 News Staff Apple Inc chief executive Tim Cook and Facebook Incs Mark Zuckerberg met Chinese President Xi Jinping on 30 October at an annual gathering of advisers to Beijings Tsinghua University business school. Xi was speaking to business leaders and officials at the meeting, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported. Cook and Zuckerberg are on the advisory board of the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management. The meeting comes at a particularly key time for Apple as it prepares to launch its much-anticipated iPhone X on 27 October, amid hopes the anniversary smartphone can revive the firms sales in the worlds number two economy. Tsinghuas business school, founded in 1984, has seen scores of top Chinese and foreign industry leaders sit on its board, including Chinese central banker Zhou Xiaochuan and Goldman Sachs chief executive Lloyd Blankfein. Facebooks Zuckerberg has also been very active in China, eager to get his popular social network unblocked in the worlds most populous nation, where it has been banned since 2009 and held behind the countrys so-called Great Firewall. An Apple spokeswoman said the firm couldnt comment on Tims schedule and or meetings. Facebook confirmed Zuckerberg was in Beijng, but declined to comment on details of his visit. In a post on his Facebook page on 28 October, Zuckerberg wrote he was in Beijing for the annual meeting. Every year this trip is a great way to keep up with the pace of innovation and entrepreneurship in China, he said. However, according to a report by the Bloomberg, the Chinese president has shown keenness on working with the US. China has, reportedly, increased its pledges to bring more foreign companies within its economy. This can indicate a move by China to loosen its restrictions for overseas companies to do business. With inputs from Reuters AFP Toyota, like other auto manufacturers, is working with other companies on new architecture for electric vehicles, and that's because collaborative working is quicker and more cost-effective. However, the Japanese auto giant now has what it's referring to as "game-changing" solid state battery technology, but it's not going to be sharing it with anyone else, including Mazda and Denso, who are already partnering with Toyota on electric car development. Anyone with even a cursory interest in electric vehicle technology will know and understand how important the development of better batteries is to the uptake of electric vehicles and for the future of EVs as the replacement for combustion engine vehicles in an acceptable amount of time. At the moment, Toyota is already working together with Mazda to develop a toolbox of components that the vehicle manufacturers can take advantage of when developing their own electric vehicles. Denso is then a third partner in the joint venture, which goes under the banner of EV Common Architecture Spirit. Earlier this week at the Tokyo Motor Show, Toyota's chief safety technology officer, Kiyotaka Ise, told the media, "We are cooperating with Mazda on a dedicated EV architecture, but we are keeping in-house the research on solid-state batteries." Although Ise wouldn't say when any vehicles based on this new collaborative architecture would be revealed, he did confirm they would be utilising current-generation lithium-ion batteries, but would also be able to accommodate future solid-state technology batteries too. Toyota hasn't put a firm date on it, but it's widely expected Toyota models featuring solid-state batteries will be launched sometime early in the next decade. The Executive Vice President of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), Didier Leroy, believes his company is the leader in terms of intellectual property when it comes to solid-state battery technology. He's also convinced the technology a "game-changer" as far as drastically improving the driving range of electric vehicles is concerned, which is inevitably a major factor for consumers accepting EVs as a practical alternative to conventional fuel and diesel vehicles. Toyota currently has more than 200 engineers working on solid-state batteries, which are still based on lithium-ion technology but are able to work at higher temperatures than current lithium-ion batteries, and are therefore smaller as they don't require cooling. IANS Innovating on the age-old concept of using earthenware to keep the water cool, two students of IIT Roorkee have built 'Evacool', an air cooler which uses the same fundamentals of cooling as employed by many Indians in use of earthenwares and won an award for it. Raja Jain and Nimisha Gupta aced the global competition held by Schneider Electrics, a French MNC specialising in energy and automation solutions, in Paris outdoing 12 other teams. "We have developed a cooling system for air, it's called Evacool. It works on the principle of evaporation," said Gupta, a fourth-year student of chemical engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. "So, we know that Indians have been using earthenware for cooling for a long time and we have applied similar concept for the cooling of air." Jain, a third-year biotechnology student told IANS over the phone, "Two qualities of Evacool are that it's very cheap and it doesn't emit greenhouse gases and unlike other air coolers, it will use less energy." "Where a routine cooler uses about 300 Watts per hour, Evacool uses on 65 Watts per hour." The two students presented their prototype at the competition 'Go Green in City 2017' held in Paris in August after having been shortlisted in May. It took them on two months to conceptualise and build the device. The winning team was awarded an opportunity to build their career with Schneider Electric, a world VIP-style trip, visiting two destinations facilities as well as networking opportunities with employees and senior management at Schneider Electric, said the firm in statement. Dhaka: A Bangladeshi court on Sunday sentenced 11 people to 20 years imprisonment for attempting to assassinate Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina 28 years ago at her family residence. The Dhaka court also handed down life imprisonment to the accused for blasting bombs on the same day in 1989 at the Hasina's house. The court imposed a fine of 20,000 taka ($240) each on the convicts members of the now defunct Bangladesh Freedom Party (BFP) which was behind the killing of Bangladesh's first president and the Father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975, court officials and lawyers said. The BFP had toppled Bangladesh's post-independence Awami League government after killing Rahman along with most of his family members. "Eight of the convicts faced the trial in person and the rests including (Freedom party chief) and sacked lieutenant colonel Abdur Rashid are on the run," said a prosecution lawyer of Dhaka Fourth Additional Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court which tried the case. Rashid had previously been sentenced to death for the Rahman's murder. Rahman, the Father of the nation and first president of Bangladesh is considered to be the driving force behind the independence of Bangladesh. The convicts were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment each in two separate charges, a total of 20 years, officials said. One accused was acquitted as the charges brought against him were not proved. According to the case, seven or eight armed members of the BFP came to Rahman's residence in Dhanmondi area on 11 August, 1989. According to the case documents, the assailants attacked the then opposition leader Hasina's 32 Dhanmandi residence, firing gunshots and exploding bombs. She was unhurt. Police officials stationed at the premises opened fire at the attackers but they fled the spot chanting slogans in the name of their leaders, the officials said. Two cases were lodged and charge sheets naming 16 people filed in February 1997. In July 2009, charges were framed against the accused. Leaders of the ruling Awami League have in the past said that assailants have made attempts on Hasina's life at least 19 times since the killing of Rahman. In August, 10 people were sentenced to death in one of the Hasina assassination bid cases. Five of the 1975 coup leaders were hanged eight years ago. But six others including Rashid went into hiding as the belated and protracted trial process began 11 years after the incident when Awami League returned to power in 1996 general elections after 21 years of political wilderness. The H1B visa has not changed. The H1B visa has become a nightmare. Both statements are accurate, depending on which side of the immigration queue youre on. In the one year since Trump pulled off a shock win in the US elections riding on a anti-establishment wave, H1B workers have come under sustained scrutiny like never before. The H1B is an employment-based, non-immigrant category visa that allows US companies to temporarily recruit foreign workers in 'speciality' occupations. Indian companies account for the lion's share of the 85,000 H1B visas issued every year. Whats new in the first year of Trump is this - that the threat to the H1B worker and the visa is no longer about policy, this most painstakingly regulated of all US work visas has become a successful pin up for the culture wars being ignited by Trump. In a year of zero movement on his most ambitious legislations - on medical insurance and tax reform, the H1B hit job has been a success because the Trumps government does not have to plod through Congressional approval for every crumb. Whether its the H1B visa or the corresponding spouse visa the H4, a series of incremental curveballs have sent the lions share of H1B workers into a state of perpetual anxiety. Take for example the H4 visa. Barack Obama pushed through a legislation allowing certain categories of spouses of H1B workers to get their employment authorisation. Soon after Trump took office, the H4 visa has been put on thin ice, the concessions are at risk of being pulled. Not a single law has changed, not a single legislation has raced through the US Congress but H1B workers are sweating. They are infinitely more careful, they are putting off travel plans, their paperwork is more thorough, many of the robotic steps of their visa processing have now become hard knuckle face-to-face interviews. In the nearly 30 years since its birth in 1990, the H1B visa has come in for maximum flogging in the first year of President Trump. The H1B has long been a bone of contention from both sides so none of the issues are new, the volume and the drama certainly is. In the last 365 days, the H1B has figured on high end prime time television shows like CBS 60 minutes, an hour long background briefing at the White House, it is the subject of a three pronged assault by multiple arms of the US Government - Department of Justice, Homeland Security and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. One of Trumps long time buddies Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is overseeing a wide ranging review of everything under the sun that can be categorised as Buy American Hire American. Its a long rope to hang wrongdoers with. Even the H1B review is open ended. In order to promote the proper functioning of the H-1B visa program, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, as soon as practicable, suggest reforms to help ensure that H-1B visas are awarded to the most-skilled or highest-paid petition beneficiaries. During the as soon as practicable time period, which began in April this year, a lot of screws have already been tightened. Although its popular to paint this as a Trump-led hammering, thats not accurate. Many of the rejections basis insufficient paperwork began well before Trump entered the White House. That Trump chooses to go after immigration horror stories ties into the remarkable consistency he has shown in setting a match to the cultural tinder boxes that fire up his base. Trump got elected on this stuff, its the stuff he knows how to talk about. The anti-H1B visa rant is an emblem of everything Trump stands for and is successful at - outrage as policy. Santa Rosa (US): It will take at least months and likely years to fully recover from devastating wildfires that ripped through Northern California earlier this month, destroying at least 8,900 structures and killing 42 people, Sonoma County officials said. "We don't control these things, and it makes you realise how small you are in the world when something like this happens," Sheriff Rob Giordano said. "I don't think we understand the level at which it is going to impact lives, and the community will be different." Giordano spoke before hundreds of people gathered at a college in Santa Rosa, one of the hardest-hit cities, for a memorial service to honour the lives lost in the deadliest series of wildfires in California history. The fires sparked 8 October, eventually forcing 100,000 people to evacuate. Before a bell rung 42 times to commemorate the dead, Giordano and other officials praised the ordinary and extraordinary acts of heroism by first responders and community members as the firefight raged on for more than a week. Some firefighters worked days on the front line, refusing to take breaks, while sheriff's dispatchers continued taking calls even as the fire came close to taking out their building. "The night of 8 October, we were all tested," Santa Rosa fire chief Tony Gossner said. US House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and five members of Congress spent Saturday attending the memorial, touring the fire ravaged areas and gathering advice from federal, state and local officials on what Congress can do to aid the recovery efforts. In a briefing in Santa Rosa, officials asked them to ease red tape that will make it easier to erect temporary housing and to ensure the Environmental Protection Agency has the resources it needs to clean up any hazardous material before it infiltrates the water supply. The EPA has assessed 740 properties so far, while the Federal Emergency Management Agency has given out $6 million worth of rental and other assistance to displaced Californians, officials said. Officials estimate the cleanup of debris and other hazardous materials will last into early 2018. The losses are estimated to be at more than $1 billion. Pelosi and US Representative Mike Thompson, who represents Santa Rosa, said they must make their fellow lawmakers in Washington understand the unprecedented nature of the fires, the deadliest in California history. They drove through a neighbourhood near Coffey Park where entire streets are wrecked, with only burned-out cars and charred remains of once-standing houses lining the streets. "It was just unfathomable the amount of destruction that we saw," Pelosi said. "My colleagues will have to understand this is different from anything else, many times over." But Pelosi said Northern California's response to the fires can serve as a national model for disaster response if done right. She urged her colleagues in Congress to think beyond the incremental rebuilding needs to consider the big picture of helping the region better prepare for and mitigate damage from future disasters. Obtaining the appropriate amount of relief money will require detailed documentation of homes lost and other destruction, she said. Paris: French president Emmanuel Macron signed a controversial anti-terror law on Monday that gives authorities permanent powers to search homes, shut places of worship and restrict the movements of suspected extremists. The new law, which replaces the state of emergency imposed after the 2015 Paris attacks, sailed through France's parliament this month despite criticism from campaigners that it jeopardises civil liberties. "This law will allow us to end the state of emergency from 1 November while fully ensuring the security of our citizens," Macron said as he signed the bill in front of the cameras. He added that it could come into force as early as Tuesday, though his office said it would become law when the state of emergency finally expires at midnight Wednesday after being extended six times. Macron noted there had been "sustained debate" over the bill and said it would be reassessed in two years' time. The legislation, which sparked weeks of intense debate in parliament, makes permanent several of the measures enacted after the jihadist attacks in Paris which left 130 people dead in November 2015. Without seeking permission from the courts, authorities will now be able to close religious sites that promote radical ideas and confine suspected jihadist sympathisers to their neighbourhoods. Police will be allowed to carry out more on-the-spot identity checks in border areas, as well as around train stations, ports and airports. Rights groups have voiced fears that such checks will be chiefly used against migrants and minorities, particularly Muslims. France has been hit by a series of attacks since the start of 2015 by known or suspected Islamic extremists that have left 241 people dead. There has been little public resistance to the new anti-terror law, reflecting a hardening of attitudes after nearly three years of periodic attacks. A poll last month for the daily Le Figaro found 57 percent backed tougher laws, even if 62 percent feared this would come at the expense of basic freedoms. The bill is the third major piece of legislation Macron has signed since he took power in May, following a law on public ethics and flagship reforms to France's complex labour code. Tehran: Iran's foreign ministry says that Iranian president Hassan Rouhani turned down a meeting with President Donald Trump during his visit to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly in September. The Sunday report by the semi-official ILNA news agency quotes ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as saying "an intention was expressed by the American side that was not approved by President Rouhani," in reference to the alleged meeting request. In 2013, the then US president Barack Obama and Rouhani spoke by telephone, the highest-level contact between the two countries in decades, prompting an outcry from Iranian hardliners. Since then, there has been no such communication between Tehran and Washington, which officially severed diplomatic ties in 1979. Also, on Monday, Iran's parliament approved two nominees by Rouhani to head the ministries of energy and higher education. Parliament speaker Ali Larijani says 225 of 276 lawmakers in attendance voted for Reza Ardakanian to serve as energy minister. Mansour Gholami secured 180 votes to serve as the minister of science, who is in charge of universities and higher education. In a landmark move, India on Sunday sent its first consignment of wheat for Afghanistan to be shipped through the Chabahar port in Iran, thus operationalising the strategic transit route. Through the Chabahar port in Iran, India is looking to open up new opportunities for trade and transit from and to Afghanistan and enhance trade and commerce between the three countries and the wider region. The mega-investment project, located in south-eastern Iran in the Gulf of Oman, has an underlying strategic objective as it will give India a much-wanted access to the regions resources while allowing it to bypass the land route via Pakistan at present, Pakistan does not allow India to transport through its territory to Afghanistan. Secondly, according to Indian Defence Review, the port is located very close (around 100 kilometres) to Pakistans Gwadar Port, which has been developed by China. Therefore, a geo-strategic game is at play between the two regional powerhouses (India and China) in the region, the report says. China's silk road in Gwadar Remote and impoverished, Pakistans Gwadar port at first glance seems an unlikely crown jewel in a multi-billion-dollar development project with China aimed at constructing a 21st century Silk Road. The city is set to become the bridgehead for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a $54 billion project launched in 2013 linking western China to the Indian Ocean via Pakistan. The Chinese-financed initiative aims to connect the country with Africa, Asia and Europe through a vast network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks. The ambitious corridor is far from popular in the region. India has made no mystery of its reservations over the infrastructure project. This month, US defence secretary Jim Mattis raised concerns about the issue, sparking a fierce backlash in Pakistan and claims Washington was trying to contain China in favour of arch-rival India. Chahabar, a counter to China's growing influence India has been pushing for the development of Chabahar port for more than a decade as a hub for its trade links to the resource-rich countries of central Asia and Afghanistan. Bureaucratic delays, difficult negotiations with Iran and the risk of incurring Washingtons displeasure during the financial embargo in Tehran had meant there was little progress on the port until now. But, prodded in part by China's development of Gwadar port, Prime Minister Narendra Modis government unveiled massive investment plans centred around the Iranian port, offering to help build railways, roads and fertiliser plants that could eventually amount to $15 billion. The Chabahar deal, owing to its close proximity to Gwadar, would help counter Chinas 'string of pearls' strategy against India. In that light, the Indian Defence Review report adds, the Chabahar deal is Indias big hope to connect to Central Asia, which it considers as its extended neighbourhood. "But China again is acting as a detrimental force against this project with Pakistan as it doesnt want India to get access to Central Asias resources. This is because the resources would prove to be hugely beneficial to Indias energy requirements and would strengthen the Indian economy," the report adds. According to a Firstpost report, an insecure Pakistan had repeatedly blocked Indian wheat from reaching land-locked Afghanistan. It did so in 2002, denying food to hungry Afghan school children despite a deal brokered by the World Food Programme (WFP) under the excuse that the wheat was "infected". This insecurity was on display again last year when it denied overland transit to 1.75 lakh tonnes of Indian wheat and medicines meant for drought-hit Afghanistan, exacerbating food crisis in a nation hit by malnutrition. According to the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, "given the unpredictability of Pakistani behaviour and the latters continued romance with radical elements opposed to US interests, the transit route through Pakistan to Afghanistan is likely to remain as vulnerable as it is today. Therefore, the strategic importance of the Chabahar route for ongoing international efforts to stabilise Afghanistan may not be unknown to the Americans and their allies." With inputs from agencies Washington: Washington was abuzz this weekend over reports that a grand jury has charged at least one person stemming from the US probe of Russia's attempts to tilt the 2016 presidential elections in Donald Trump's favor. There was no indication, in reporting by CNN and other media, of who might be charged or what crimes might be alleged in the ongoing inquiry led by former FBI chief Robert Mueller. But Trump, in a rapid burst of tweets early Sunday, again denounced the investigation as a "witch hunt" and repeated his denials of any collusion with Russia. Mueller's team has remained publicly mum about reports that a first arrest could come as early as Monday. He is empowered to pursue not only Russian interference but any other crimes his large team of prosecutors should uncover. But Chris Christie, a Republican governor close to Trump, said Sunday on ABC that "the important thing about today for the American people to know is the president is not under investigation. And no one has told him that he is." It was not clear the New Jersey governor would know whether Trump is being investigated; he may have been referring to earlier comments by former FBI chief James Comey. But Christie told CNN that anyone who has been advised by Mueller's office that they are a target of the inquiry "should be concerned." 'I cannot answer' Typically, such a wide-ranging investigation would first target lower-level people while building a case against those higher up. Sometimes early indictments are used to pressure potential witnesses into turning against others. Representative Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, demurred on Sunday when asked whether Trump was under investigation. "I can't answer that one way or the other," he told ABC. But he mentioned two possible targets on whom much speculation has focused: former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign director Paul Manafort, both of them once involved in undeclared lobbying for foreign interests. Buzzfeed reported on Sunday the FBI is probing a series of wire transfers linked to Manafort that saw offshore companies move over $3 million between 2012 and 2013. Flagged as suspicious by US financial institutions, some of the 13 transfers Buzzfeed obtained details of involved wires of large sums from Ukraine. According to the news site, federal law enforcement was aware of such transfers as far back as 2012, when they began investigating whether Manafort committed tax fraud or helped the Ukrainian regime close to Vladimir Putin launder money. White House lawyer Ty Cobb told the New York Times that Trump felt confident that neither Flynn nor Manafort had damaging information to offer prosecutors. "The president has no concerns in terms of any impact, as to what happens to them, on his campaign or on the White House," Cobb said in an interview published Saturday. Cobb also asserted Sunday that Trump's latest tweets were "unrelated to the activities of the Special Counsel, with whom he continues to cooperate," news media reported. As the Mueller investigation nears a dramatic new phase, Republican officials and conservative media have stepped up their attacks on Democrats, above all on Trump's rival in last year's election, Hillary Clinton - attacks that Democrats dismiss as blatant attempts to divert attention. 'So much GUILT' Trump, in his tweets on Sunday, again complained of Clinton's handling of emails while secretary of state, of Democratic Party funding of what he said was a "fake" dossier on Trump's background, and of a US sale during the Obama administration of uranium rights to Russia. "There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!" Trump tweeted. Trump's mention of the "fake" dossier appeared to refer to revelations that the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee had funded part of the research by a former British intelligence agent into possible links between Trump, his collaborators and Russia. In the uranium case, Russian nuclear energy agency Rosatom sought in 2010 to buy a share in Toronto-based Uranium One, which has mining stakes in the United States. A panel of nine US government agencies, including the State Department, approved the sale, though Clinton says she was "not personally involved." As Mueller's inquiry advances, there have been calls from a few Republicans and from the conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal for him to resign. Christie cautioned on Sunday that the former FBI chief should be "very, very careful" about proceeding with transparency and credibility. Democrats meantime have warned that if Trump were to fire Mueller or issue preemptive pardons to anyone caught in his net it would be crossing a dangerous line, potentially sparking a constitutional crisis. Baghdad: Clashes raged in front of Irbil's parliament building after the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, Masoud Barzani, dissolved his powers as president on Monday just over a month after a controversial independence referendum he spearheaded sparked a deep regional crisis. An Associated Press team witnessed dozens of protesters attacking the building, parliamentarians and journalists as Barzani addressed the Kurdish region in his first televised speech since the referendum's fallout turned violent earlier in October. Downcast, the long-time Kurdish leader blamed the central government in Baghdad for the regional crisis that followed the independence vote. "They (Baghdad) used the referendum as an excuse. Their bad intentions were very clear from a long time ago," he said. "Without the peshmerga the Iraqi army would never have been able to liberate the city of Mosul," he continued, referring to Iraqi Kurdish fighters. "We thought that the international community would reward the peshmerga and the people of Kurdistan in return. They would respect the blood of the martyrs." Barzani instructed parliament to distribute his presidential powers between the Kurdish prime minister, Parliament and the judiciary. He also informed parliament that he will not seek an extension of his term which is set to expire 1 November, but Barzani's senior assistant, Hemin Hawrami said the move did not mean the Kurdish leader was "stepping down." Barzani "will stay in Kurdish politics and lead the high political council," but on 1 November he will no longer be president of the region, Hawrami said. Kurdish presidential elections scheduled to be held in November have been postponed indefinitely. Hawrami added that no political party submitted candidates to run against Barzani. The referendum on support for independence held in September has since left the region increasingly isolated. Despite warnings from Baghdad, the United States, Turkey, Iran, the United Nations and others, the vote was held on 25 September in the three provinces that make up the autonomous Kurdish zone as well as in disputed territories claimed by Baghdad, but at the time held by Kurdish forces. Within weeks, the referendum proved to be extraordinarily costly. The region lost nearly half of the territory that had been comfortably under Kurdish control for years, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The region's airspace was closed to international commercial flights, Turkey threatened the use of military force and both Iran and Turkey threatened to close border crossings vital to the land-locked region. In Irbil's Bazar where families thronged the streets and fireworks filled the skies during the days leading up to and following the vote the mood slowly began to sour earlier this month after Iraqi troops led by Baghdad retook the long disputed and oil-rich city of Kirkuk. "There was no benefit from it at all (the referendum). What can I say?" Abdullah Hassan, an Irbil resident said inside the bazar that rings the city's ancient citadel. Masoud Barzani held the referendum "for his own pride. It was so he could stay in power. What else can it be?" Barzani's term expired in August 2015, after which he prevented parliament from meeting for two years, a move many of his political opponents saw as a cynical attempt to hold onto power. As Iraq's military crumbled in the face of Islamic State group advances in 2014, Kurdish forces took control of Kirkuk. Described as the "Jerusalem of Kurdistan," by some of the region's leaders, control of the city and its oil reserves was marked as a significant achievement. Raqqa: At a house in Syria's Raqqa, women and men danced together in celebration at a wedding that would have been unimaginable just months ago, when the Islamic State group ruled the city. Residents told AFP that Ahmad and Heba's wedding, held on Friday in Raqqa's western neighbourhood of Jazra, was the first in the city since US-backed forces seized it on 17 October. Out on the patio, a man in a dark robe and a thick puffer vest spun his prayer beads to the beat as he led a line of men and women in the dabke, a Levantine dance performed at celebrations. The dancers hopped and swayed to-and-fro as children ran around. Elders looked on approvingly from seats and benches on the edge of the makeshift dance floor. Almost everything in the scene would have been impossible during the three years of brutal Islamic State rule. The group banned music and dancing, imposed a strict dress code, prevented women from wearing make-up, and forcefully prohibited the mixing of men and women. But in Jazra on Friday, music mingled with the sound of generators providing the only electricity in the ravaged district, which like much of the city was heavily damaged during more than four months of fighting. Jazra was one of the first districts of Raqqa to be captured by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters that broke into the city in June. The groom's family, unlike many others who fled Raqqa during the fighting, were able to return to their neighbourhood and celebrate. "We're very happy, it's the first wedding since the jihadists left," Ahmed's father Uthman Ibrahim said as he received guests. "Before Islamic State, there was dabke, songs and the traditional rituals of the region at our marriages, but Islamic State banned everything, there was not a single celebration," the man in his fifties told AFP. "Today it's a return to joy," he added, his face lit up with happiness. 'It's been a long time' An elderly man, wearing a long robe and a pristine white headscarf, performed mawals, unaccompanied poetic songs sung across the Middle East. Female guests, forced under jihadist rule to wear all-enveloping black including gloves and face veils, took obvious delight in sporting patterned robes and bright red lipstick. Some covered their hair with matching patterned scarves, while others, including the bride, had their locks coiffed for the occasion. Seated on plastic chairs, the young bride and groom looked slightly nervous. Eighteen-year-old Ahmad wore a traditional brown robe, while his new wife was dressed in a frothy white wedding dress, a layer of tulle embroidered with a floral pattern draped over its ballgown bottom. A delicate veil edged with white flowers rested on her tightly curled hair, and a gold headpiece dangled over her eyebrows, darkened with make-up. Her hands were painted with henna patterns and she fiddled nervously with a bouquet of artificial flowers. Around the couple, guests took photos with mobile phones while little girls also made-up with darkened eyebrows and coloured lips danced to the beat of the music. Other children handed out water or brought chairs for late arrivals. "It's been a long time since we've had a party," said Umm Ahmed, the groom's 25-year-old cousin, dressed in a traditional robe with black hair tumbling over her shoulders. "We're celebrating with joy this marriage after the end of Islamic State's rule," she said with a large smile. Other children handed out water or brought chairs for late arrivals. "It's been a long time since we've had a party," said Umm Ahmed, the groom's 25-year-old cousin, dressed in a traditional robe with black hair tumbling over her shoulders. "We're celebrating with joy this marriage after the end of Islamic State's rule," she said with a large smile. 'We'll party as we like' The smell of perfume hung in the air, and women ululated in celebration. Khalaf al-Mohammed, another of the groom's cousins, was delighted by the celebration. "It's been years since we danced the dabke, we're tasting life again," the 27-year-old said, leading the line of dancers and spinning his prayer beads. "Everyone was waiting for this moment. What use is there to a wedding when everything is black?" he asked, referring both to the robes Islamic State imposed on women and to the colour of the group's flag. "Today everything is white," he said, with a smile. For now, Raqqa is virtually uninhabitable, with many buildings destroyed and large parts of the city off-limits for fear of unexploded ordnance. Hundreds of civilians were killed in the fighting and many residents are still searching for missing family members. But for the wedding guests, the celebration was a glimmer of hope for the future. "Raqqa will be happy again," said Khaldiya, the groom's aunt, as she tapped out a beat on a small drum. "No one will prevent us from singing and dancing," the 30-year-old said. "We will party as we like." Washington: President Donald Trump said alleged misdeeds by ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort were "years ago," and asserted there was "NO COLLUSION!" between his campaign and the Russian government. Responding to news that two former senior campaign aides were charged by special counsel Robert Mueller, the president asked on Twitter why "Crooked Hillary & Dems" aren't the focus of the probe. His Twitter response marked the first official comment by the White House on the news that Manafort and Rick Gates turned themselves in to federal authorities in the first arrests in Mueller's probe into Russian involvement in the 2016 election. The indictment against Manafort and Gates alleges criminal activity through "at least 2016." Over the weekend, Trump took to Twitter to allege that the "facts are pouring out" about links to Russia by his former presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. "DO SOMETHING!" Trump urged in one of five morning tweets. Trump's tweets followed news reports late Friday that a federal grand jury in Washington has approved the first charges in a criminal investigation into Russia ties led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Ty Cobb, a member of Trump's legal team, said the president was not referring to CNN's reporting. "Contrary to what many have suggested, the president's comments today are unrelated to the activities of the special counsel, with whom he continues to cooperate," Cobb said in a statement Sunday. On Monday, the Mueller's office announced that another Trump aide, George Papadopolous, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian national during his time on the Trump campaign. Trump and the White House insisted there was no collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia. Both have pointed a finger at Clinton and have suggested that the real story of collusion with Russia is the sale of uranium to Moscow when Clinton was secretary of state. US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered with the election to benefit Trump, a finding that Trump has not fully accepted. Mueller and Congress are looking into allegations of ties between Trump associates and Russia. In the tweets, Trump referenced the fact that Clinton's presidential campaign helped fund political research into Trump that ultimately produced a dossier of allegations about his ties to Russia. He also pointed to the uranium sale, the tens of thousands of emails from Clinton's time at the State Department that she later deleted from a private email server, and the decision by then-FBI Director James Comey to not bring criminal charges against Clinton for possible mishandling of classified information. Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017 ....Also, there is NO COLLUSION! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017 "Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia 'collusion,' which doesn't exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's are now fighting back like never before," Trump says across several tweets. "There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!" Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?),.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 ...the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more. Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia,.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 ...the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more. Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia,.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 ..."collusion," which doesn't exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 ...are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 In a final tweet on the subject, Trump suggests that Russia's re-emergence into the conversation is no accident. "All of this 'Russia' talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT!" All of this "Russia" talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers are scheduled to release a tax cut bill being pushed by the GOP lawmakers and Trump. Washington: President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, were indicted Monday on charges of conspiracy against the United States, money laundering and several other financial charges. The charges were the first stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into possible ties between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. The indictment filed in federal court in Washington accused both men of funneling tens of millions of dollars in payments through foreign companies and bank accounts. Manafort and Gates surrendered to federal authorities, and were expected in court later Monday to face charges brought by Mueller's team. The indictment lays out 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered foreign agent and several charges related to failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts. The indictment alleges that they moved money through hidden bank accounts in Cyprus, St Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles. In total, more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts. Manafort is accused of laundering more than $18 million, according to the indictment. Manafort, 68, was fired as Trump's campaign chairman in August after word surfaced that he had orchestrated a covert lobbying operation on behalf of pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. The Associated Press reported that Manafort also represented a Russian billionaire a decade ago with the goal of advancing the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House declined to comment. A spokesman for Manafort did not immediately return calls or text messages requesting comment. Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to tip the 2016 presidential election. The appointment came one week after the firing James Comey, who as FBI director led the investigation, and also followed the recusal months earlier of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the probe. Investigators have focused on associates including Manafort, whose home was raided in July by agents searching for tax and international banking records, and ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign in February after White House officials said he had misled them about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States. Manafort joined Trump's campaign in March 2016 and oversaw the convention delegate strategy. Trump pushed him out in August amid a steady stream of negative headlines about Manafort's foreign consulting work. Trump's middle son, Eric Trump, said in an interview at the time that his father was concerned that questions about Manafort's past were taking attention away from the billionaire's presidential bid. Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. That investigation was incorporated into Mueller's broader probe. Previously, he denied any wrongdoing related to his Ukrainian work, saying through a spokesman that it "was totally open and appropriate." Manafort also recently registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for parts of Ukrainian work that occurred in Washington. The filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act came retroactively, a tacit acknowledgment that he operated in Washington in violation of the federal transparency law. Mueller's investigation has also reached into the White House, as he examines the circumstances of Comey's firing. Investigators have requested extensive documents from the White House about key actions since Trump took office and have interviewed multiple current and former officials. Mueller's grand jury has also heard testimony about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by a Russian lawyer as well as Manafort, Donald Trump Jr, and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In Gates, Mueller brings in not just Manafort's chief deputy, but a key player from Trump's campaign who survived past Manafort's ouster last summer. As of two weeks ago, Gates was still working for Tom Barrack, a Trump confidant, helping with the closeout of the inauguration committee's campaign account. Houston: US authorities have sent the body of 3-year-old Sherin Mathews to a funeral home but a medical report on how the Indian girl, adopted by an Indian-American couple, died is yet to come out, according to a media report. The cause of Sherin's death is still pending, a spokesman for the police department in Richardson city, Texas, told Fox News. Sherin's body, found in a culvert on 22 October, has been sent to a funeral home by the Dallas medical examiner, the report said. A spokesman for the Dallas County Medical Examiner said the body of Sherin was released on Saturday but did not say who has custody of the body. It is not clear if Sherin's foster mother Sini Mathews will have a role in handling the funeral arrangements since Sherin's foster father, Wesley Mathews, is under the custody of the Dallas County Sheriff's Department in connection with the child's tragic death. An online petition had requested authorities not to release Sherin's body to her foster parents and allow the people to give her a proper burial that she deserves. Sherin's body was found inside a culvert in Richardson city, nearly 1 km from her home. Her body was discovered by cadaver dogs over two weeks after she went missing from her home. Sherin was adopted by the couple from India last year. Wesley, 37, has been arrested on a charge of felony injury to a child with bond set at $1 million. He told police that Sherin had choked to death while drinking milk in the middle of the night on 7 October. Mathews changed his story on Sherin's disappearance, initially claiming he left her outside at 3 am on 7 October as punishment for not drinking her milk. Mathews' latest claim is that he tried to "physically assist" Sherin in drinking her milk, but she choked on it and died. Sherin's foster mother, Sini, has denied any role in the girl's death and says she is cooperating in the investigation. But Richardson police say Sini Mathews has not been as cooperative as she has said, the Fox News report said. Meanwhile, over two dozen people lit candles and said a pray for Sherin at a vigil on Saturday at the India Association of North Texas in Richardson, NBC Dallas reported. The vigil was attended by Indian community leaders in North Texas, as well as a member of the Consulate General of India in Houston. The CGI representative said he was not authorised to speak about the case but the Indian mission in Houston has tweeted that it is actively involved in the investigation. The tree where Wesley initially said he had left Sherin for not finishing milk and the culvert where her body was later found have become memorial sites. People have been visiting these places and putting stuffed toys and flowers daily and praying for the baby to rest in peace. "It's a tragedy the whole life and you know a lot of people failed her. So it's time for us to pray, for her get together and hope that and pray that this never happens again in this entire community," said Salman Farshori, president of the India Association of North Texas Barcelona: Work resumed normally in Catalonia and calm reigned on the streets on Monday despite calls for civil disobedience from secessionist politicians, in early signs the direct rule imposed to stop an independence bid was taking hold. Although some public sector workers have yet to tell their new bosses whether they will accept orders, the lack of unrest came as a relief for financial markets, which rose. Catalonia, a prosperous region with its own language and culture, triggered Spains biggest crisis for decades by holding an independence referendum on 1 October, which Spanish courts called illegal. Spains prime minister Mariano Rajoy assumed direct control of the region on Friday, sacked its secessionist government and called a snap election for Dec. 21. However, some of the most prominent members of the Catalan administration, including its president, Carles Puigdemont, and vice-president, Oriol Junqueras, had said they would not accept the move and only the people of Catalonia could dismiss them. Spains state prosecutor on Monday called for rebellion and sedition charges to be brought against Catalonias leaders over their push to separate from Spain. Attorney-General Jose Manuel Maza also called for charges of misuse of funds to be laid. Under Spains legal system, the request goes to a judge for consideration. Maza asked the judge to call the secessionist leaders to testify. The main civic groups behind the pro-independence campaign had called for widespread civil disobedience, and said that public sector workers such as teachers, firefighters and the police should refuse orders from the central authorities. But most workers started their working day at 9 a.m. (0800 GMT) as normal and there was no sign of widespread absenteeism. Most sacked Catalan leaders remained ambiguous on Monday and stopped short of directly defying Spains authority. There were no signs of any spontaneous demonstration taking place. Puigdemont posted a picture on Instagram taken in the regional government headquarters, but was not seen entering, suggesting the photo may have been taken by someone else. Regional transport chief Josep Rull posted on Twitter a picture of him working in his office but he was later seen leaving the building. Spains transport minister had said in a radio interview Rull would be allowed to collect his personal belongings but not work there. When he left, Rull said he would now attend a meeting of his PdeCat party (Catalan Democratic Party). Lets go on with the scheduled agenda, he said. Things have to carry on Other regional leaders did not turn up to their offices though some of their staff did. One of 140 senior officials appointed directly by the outgoing government described the situation as normal and said he had not yet received any letter of dismissal. We civil servants want everything to be normal. Things have to carry on. The day-to-day work still has to be done, said the official, who works with the outgoing vice-president, Junqueras. Two hundred thousand public sector workers receive salaries paid by the Catalan region, and another 100,000 in the region rely directly on the Madrid government. Hundreds of thousands of supporters of a unified Spain marched on Sunday in one of the biggest shows of force yet by the so-called silent majority that has watched as regional political leaders push for Catalan independence. Two opinion polls also showed support for independence may have started to wane. A Sigma Dos survey published in El Mundo showed 33.5 percent Catalans were in favour of independence while a Metroscopia poll published by El Pais put that number at 29 percent. This compared to 41.1 percent in July according to an official survey carried out by the Catalan government. Opponents of secession largely boycotted the Oct. 1 referendum, when participants voted overwhelmingly for independence on turnout of 43 percent. Spains interior ministry named a new chief for the regional police on Saturday who has insisted that the 17,000 officers of the force should remain neutral. Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido was due to meet the new police chief in Madrid on Monday. The force has already withdrawn protection for sacked regional government members, who were also left without their official cars. Their portraits were removed from the walls of public buildings. The governments move to impose direct rule received the backing of several influential Catalan business lobbies who called on firms to stay in the region. The chaos has prompted an exodus of businesses from Catalonia, which contributes about a fifth of Spains economy. Catalan pro-independence party will participate in election Meanwhile, Catalan pro-independence party Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) has said that it will take part in a snap regional election, which will be held on 21 December. The decision to contest polls was majorly seen as a tactic admission that the previous ruling party in Catalonia had been fired and parliament dissolved. Taking part in 21 December is an opportunity to better consolidate the Republic ... Theyve called illegitimate elections, a trap. However, were not afraid of the ballot box, lawmaker Sergi Sabria said during a conference. Spains Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sacked the regional government, dissolved parliament and called a snap election on Friday after Catalonia leaders made a unilateral declaration of independence. Some of the regions leaders had vowed to ignore Rajoys ruling and continue working. Tehran: Tehran on Monday rejected as "ridiculous and baseless" accusations by Saudi Arabia that Iran is supporting rebels and blocking peace efforts in Yemen. "The Saudi foreign minister's claims that our country has been blocking peace efforts in Yemen are ridiculous and baseless," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said. "Iran has condemned the aggression (against Yemen) since the beginning... and will not spare any efforts to stop this bloody and detestable war," Ghasemi said in a statement published on the ministry's website. Saudi Arabia leads a military coalition backing Yemen's government in its fight against the Shiite Huthi rebels. Both sides in the Yemen conflict have come under harsh criticism for their neglect of civilian safety, but the Saudi-led coalition has in particular been accused of bombing schools, markets and hospitals. "Repeating such false accusations will not reduce the responsibility... of those who have committed heinous crimes, particularly murder, destruction of schools and hospitals and pushing an innocent population to famine," Ghasemi said. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia's top diplomat accused Tehran of smuggling arms to the Huthis, who control northern Yemen, and to their allies. Adel al-Jubeir said the Yemeni "militias would not have continued operations without the support of the greatest sponsor of terrorism in the world -- the Iranian regime". He accused Iran of "destroying all attempts to find a solution in Yemen, which has led to the failure of all political negotiations between the government and these militias". Multiple rounds of UN-sponsored talks have failed to broker a political settlement between the Saudi-backed government of Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi and the rebels and their allies. Yemen's war has claimed more than 8,600 lives since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 after the rebels overran the capital Sanaa. A cholera outbreak in the impoverished country has claimed more than 2,100 lives since April, as hospitals struggle to secure supplies amid a blockade on ports and the country's main international airport. The United Nations has warned Yemen now stands at the brink of famine. The UN Human Rights Council in September agreed to send a group of experts to investigate alleged violations and abuses in Yemen, overcoming strong resistance by Saudi Arabia's representative. Moscow: Russian president Vladimir Putin has strongly denounced Soviet-era political repressions. Speaking at the opening of a memorial to the victims of purges, Putin said "political repressions have become a tragedy for our people" and dealt a blow to the nation, the consequences of which are still felt. Putin said "millions of people were declared enemies of the people on absurd charges, executed, mutilated and went through the suffering in prisons and labour camps." He emphasised that there could be no justification for the repressions, adding that "our duty is not to allow oblivion." The statement marks the strongest condemnation yet of Soviet-era repressions from Putin, who has taken a cautious line on the nation's Soviet-era history, trying to focus on its achievements rather than on Communist crimes. Mikhail Ustinov's ancestors were executed in 1917 for supporting the tsar but a hundred years later the 68-year-old yearns for the return of monarchy to Russia. "Russians are monarchists in their soul, even though the Soviets tried to destroy our soul," Ustinov, who is a self-proclaimed spokesman for the Moscow monarchist community, told AFP in his small apartment on the outskirts of the Russian capital. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ustinov has dressed in stylised military fatigues in a nod to the officers of the Tsarist army who were fiercely loyal to the monarch and heavily persecuted after the October Revolution. Executed with his wife and children by the Bolsheviks in 1918, the last Russian tsar Nicholas II was rehabilitated and buried in Saint-Petersburg in 1998 and canonised in 2000 by the Orthodox Church. "I want to die wearing my uniform and declaring love for the tsar, like my grandfather, great-grandfather and all of my family," said Ustinov, a portrait of Nicholas II behind him. Ustinov said his family was decimated during the revolution, which he calls a "coup d'etat." More than 28 percent of Russians are in favour of the country becoming a monarchy again one day, according to a study by VTsIOM, a state pollster, released in March. That figure increased from 22 percent in 2006. Monarchy sympathisers are especially prevalent among the younger generation: 33 percent among those between 18 and 24 years old and 35 percent of 25-34 year-olds. "We see clearly that the 'Soviet' generations resist this idea more than the younger people, for whom monarchy is one possible system of governance," said sociologist Stepan Lvov who helped organise the poll. "It's as if the Soviet vaccine doesn't work on them," he added. On the contrary, for young Russians monarchy is "rather attractive for its rationality and effectiveness," Lvov said, adding they no longer see it as the antithesis of liberty and democracy. 'Tsar Putin' Born after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Pavel Markov is someone who sees monarchy as a "more adequate and balanced system" than the current political regime in Russia. "Democracy doesn't suit Russians, our mentality needs authoritarian and centralised power," said the young history teacher from Nizhny Novgorod, a city some 400 kilometres east of the capital. "A constitutional monarchy allows us to consolidate our traditional values to give strength to the people, who are struggling today," he said. Being a monarchist is "inseparable" from the Orthodox faith, the predominant religion in Russia, he added. And for others, Russia has already become a monarchy of sorts, with President Vladimir Putin reigning over the country for 18 years and widely expected to extend his rule by another six years in a 2018 vote. "Vladimir Putin is already a tsar, he acts like a tsar," said Yelena Melnikova, who studies Orthodox icon restoration. The 22-year-old believes that eventually the monarchy will replace the "political hypocrisy" of today's Russia and mark the return of "real Russian values". 'Need monarchy to save Russia' Putin himself has flatly dismissed any comparisons to a monarch, saying in 2005 that the title of tsar "doesn't suit" him. But he made overtures to the powerful Orthodox Church, which has never opposed the Kremlin on political matters in public. Critics accuse Putin of paying lip service to the constitutional separation of church and state by giving clerics ever more influence over secular institutions. Sociologist Lvov said younger Russians tend to romanticise monarchy and view it as an alternative that offers "order and predictability" in an unstable world. "A return of monarchy remains largely unpopular and improbable," he added. The figure of Nicholas II remains a source of intense debate, with the new biopic "Matilda" about his love affair with a ballerina sparking a violent backlash from radical Orthodox activists. "The film insults the feelings of Russians for whom the tsar is like their father," said Andrei Kormukhin, head of the ultra conservative group Sorok Sorokov, sporting a T-shirt with the image of Nicholas II. "We need monarchy to return to save Russia," he told AFP. Back in his apartment, Ustinov plays a song in honour of the last Russian emperor. "I am awaiting the tsar's return like some people await the Messiah," he said. She scandalised society by dancing almost naked when women still wore corsets and their dresses long. Yet a century after her death, Mata Hari remains veiled in mystery. Now a Dutch museum, in the Friesian town of her birth, is seeking to shed new light on the exotic dancer, bringing together for the first time 150 objects, photos and military archives in the largest-ever exhibition devoted to one of the world's most famous courtesans and seductresses. Her story was "a dramatic cocktail of courage and glory, loss and betrayal," says the museum about the ultimate femme fatale, executed by a French firing squad on charges of being a double agent on October 15, 1917. Giant black-and-white photos of Mata Hari wearing her barely-there, bejewelled costumes hang on the walls of the Fries Museum in northern Leeuwarden, the town where she was born as Margaretha Zelle in 1876. Never-before-seen scrapbooks, personal belongings, letters, books and jewellery are on display in "Mata Hari: The Myth and the Maiden" running until April 2. Shown in darkened rooms where videos play of dancers recreating her sensuous choreography, the exhibition is both intimate and surprising. There are posters of her appearances in such famous theatres as the Folies Bergere, and in one room by an antique child's crib visitors learn her two-year-old son, Norman, died of syphilis, likely contracted from his mother. "It is the story of the life of a very famous person who got a lot of attention during her career, got into a lot of trouble, arrested and accused of being a spy," said museum curator Hans Groeneweg, who has spent several years amassing the collection. 'Life ends in tragedy' Margaretha married young to an army officer 20 years older than her, who was based in the former Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. They had two children, Norman, and a younger girl, Non. But in 1903 aged 27, she fled after a nasty divorce to Paris, where, penniless, she became a striptease dancer, taking the name "Mata Hari", Indonesian for "Eye of the Day". The objects on display "trace her path from being a young girl, to her life as a mother,... her exotic career as a courtesan and her journey during the war," Groeneweg said, adding the aim was to give visitors a more "complete" picture of the real woman. There is a delicate, crown-shaped gold and pearl brooch, which Mata Hari gave a German officer just before her death, asking him to send it to her daughter, letters after her divorce full of despair, and even her death warrant with the word "Mort" (Deceased) starkly handwritten across it in black ink italics. "I'm tired of fighting life," Mata Hari wrote in one letter, appealing that Non, who she'd left behind in The Netherlands, be allowed to join her in Paris. "Either Nonnie lives with me and I behave like a decent mother, or I'm going to enjoy the beautiful life being offered to me here. I know that life ends in tragedy but I'm over that," she wrote presciently. She was a prolific letter writer and there are missives between her and her husband when she was still deeply in love, as well as her son's baby album lovingly filled in until his sudden death. "Instead of dancing to the praise of the powerful and famous, I am here, in a hospital room at the bedside of my dying child," she wrote. Later there are postcards from across Europe to her daughter some simply signed "Mama" and French army archives recounting her interrogation and trial kept secret until recently. "I am desperately worried and I cry all the time," she wrote in April 1917 to the French judge from her Parisian cell, asking for news of her then Russian lover who had abandoned her. "You cannot imagine my suffering. Please release me, I cannot cope with it any longer." True spy? Many questions still remain about Mata Hari. To what extent was she really a spy? Why, after accepting an offer in 1916 from a German diplomat to spy on France if he paid off her debts, did she become a double agent for France? Was she just naive, or desperate, or both? For Groeneweg there is "always that question: Was she really guilty?" He believes there is still "not enough proof to say for certain if she was a spy. The French certainly wanted to set an example during a very difficult year in 1917. They used her." And despite the exhibition, it seems that in the end, Mata Hari, who reinvented herself as the Javanese princess who rode elephants, took many of her secrets to the grave. The Communist Party of China (CPC) held its 19th Congress last week and Xi Jinping was elected to a second five-year term as general secretary. His extended and strengthened reign will likely set off all sorts of ramifications for the country and indeed, the rest of the world. While his ascendancy represents a true rags-to-riches story, the next chapter will determine the direction the world takes in the 21st Century. This is a good opportunity to analyse just what the consequences of the CPC's 19th Congress will be for China and the region. As expected, he was able to pack China's top ruling body, the Politburo Standing Committee of the CPC (PBSC) with his allies, but contrary to expectations, did not choose potential leaders-in-waiting from the so-called 'sixth generation' of Chinas leaders (those born in the 1960s). The grooming of potential successors has been a party norm since the demise of Mao Zedong, adopted to ensure that greater political stability and institutionalisation within the CPC. However, the record shows that Deng Xiaoping who wrested power from Maos chosen successor had to remove two of his own nominees before settling for Jiang Zemin. Even Hu Jintao was handpicked by Deng to succeed Jiang just as Xis selection as leader-in-waiting was not entirely in Hus hands. Similarly, Sun Zhengcai and Hu Chunhua, two of the sixth generation widely expected to be brought into the 19th PBSC as Xis potential successors had also been groomed over time by Xis predecessors. Such plans soon fell by the wayside when Sun was accused of corruption and dismissed from the party and the younger Hu and Chen Min'er, believed to be a Xi protege who replaced Sun in the punters bets, not making it to the PBSC. With this departure from established norms and the fact that he was able to get his own theoretical contribution of socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era canonised in the party constitution as Xi Thought, it is now widely speculated that Xi is setting himself up to remain in power beyond the normal second term as CPC general secretary. Or at the very least, to remain a powerful force even if he does step down in 2022. Impact on Chinese foreign policy Meanwhile, Xis decisiveness in foreign policy in his first term suggests he will continue to move full steam ahead with his ambitions for China as a global player. He has practically abandoned Dengs long-held injunction to hide ones capabilities and bide ones time by his assertiveness on the South China Sea island disputes, the continued provocations of Japan over the Senkaku islands that China has reasserted its claims over, and the launch of his ambitious belt and road initiative (BRI). Alongside, of course, there have been run-ins with India, most notably in the case of the Chumur incident in Ladakh during Xis visit to India in September 2014, and the recent Doka La incident. Equally importantly, Xi has managed to push through far-reaching restructuring and reforms in China's military, including placing greater emphasis on joint operations by the different arms. While this is a work in progress and should take several years if not decades to come to fruition, Xis domestic power and credibility gained through his anti-corruption campaign will ensure that these reforms will proceed at the fastest clip possible. Xi's nationalist concept of the Chinese dream of national self-strengthening and rejuvenation helps lubricate the wheels further. The Chinese leaders call for the Peoples Liberation Army to take on greater global responsibilities also helps push the Chinese military towards greater reforms and learning. China is already the largest contributor to UN peacekeeping troops among the permanent members of the Security Council and has run anti-piracy patrols in the Indian Ocean since 2009. Its opening of a logistics base in Djibouti is the first of what one can logically conclude will be other military bases or facilities around Asia and elsewhere as China seeks to increase its global military presence. Meanwhile, with respect to India, the peaceful resolution of Doka La should also indicate that Xis China despite all the martial rhetoric is a rational actor that is quite conscious of its disadvantages whether of military capabilities or of terrain. And if the Indian government continues to respond in the same cool, firm manner that it handled the Doka La incident, then it should do pretty well no matter what the Chinese provocation. And provocation there will be Doka La was a loss of face the Chinese will not forget and it is hardwired into their way of thinking and action to respond. And especially to a country like India that the Chinese leadership and elites think is weaker or has to be shown as being weaker, so that China is unequivocally seen as the logical, most eligible competitor to the US for its position as a global superpower. The place and time will be of Chinas choosing and nor will the response necessarily be a military one. It will be incumbent upon the Indian leadership then, to anticipate and plan accordingly. Xis China is not inclined to sharing leadership or space with anyone else. The previous talk of a G2 condominium of the US and China is now well and truly out with China seeking to get the US out of Asia and challenge it elsewhere politically and economically. And under a Donald Trump presidency, which has still not filled key administration and diplomatic positions related to Asia over nine months after taking office, and ceded the ground on important global issues such as climate change, Xis task of putting pressure on US allies in Asia and influencing the fence-sitters around the world seems easier. Unequal strongmen Alongside the reconfirmation of Xis power in China, came an equally important development in neighbouring Japan, just a few days earlier. Shinzo Abe was reelected as Japanese prime minister for the third time since 2012, this time with a majority for his Liberal Democratic Party alongside a two-thirds supermajority for the ruling coalition. Counting Modi in India, it is worth noting that Asias most significant security actors are all led by strongmen. This cannot fail to have an impact on the region. In fact, it probably already has, given the ramping up on nationalism as an instrument of state policy in at least China and India. And there is Abes drive for Japan to be a normal country, that can have a military capable of taking offensive actions like those of other countries but which is currently proscribed by its constitution. Throw in Russias Vladimir Putin, the original strongman, Trump with his pretensions to being a strongman, and a couple of wily operators like North Koreas Kim Jong-un or the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, with their capability to upend what might be seen as rational behaviour, and we have a potent mix. Not all strongmen are made equally, though. Putin is the leader of a declining power forced by Western economic sanctions into an uneasy embrace with China, which the latter is taking full advantage of. Abe is actually deeply unpopular and his win is no indication that the Japanese wish to go down the military road he envisions; any attempts to change the countrys constitution will require a popular referendum, which he is likely to lose as of now. In the meantime, Abe will give China and North Korea plenty of ammunition to criticise Japan and use the excuse to increase their own military spending and provocations. Trump is almost completely unpredictable and nor is this the rational unpredictability or cunning of North Koreas Kim, but largely it would appear, of being generally ignorant of Asias dynamics and unwilling to learn. Dutertes willingness to ignore an international tribunal ruling on the South China Sea dispute in favour of his own country and to do business with China instead also threatens to undermine already fragile ASEAN unity and gives China still more space to engage in its divide-and-rule in the region. Of the lot, therefore, Indias Modi with his own absolute majority in Parliament looks the most capable of standing up to China and taking a leading and dynamic role in Asian geopolitics. Except that he is not. Modi has been quick to abandon the one lesson the Chinese have learnt well which is that you cannot rise as a power, if you do not dominate your own neighbourhood first, and not just militarily. While the Chinese now ignore the interests of their smaller neighbours, they were careful to first make the necessary political compromises including with Japan in order build strong economic linkages, which especially where the smaller countries are concerned, have turned into relationships of dependency on China. As a result, even Vietnam, Chinas most vaunted foe in Southeast Asia, and in whom India lays much in store by, is severely constrained in its responses to China. Modi, on the other hand, continues the policy of his predecessors of letting Pakistan be part of the sphere of influence of one or the other extra-regional power either the US or China. He also has neighbours most of whom have China rather than India as their biggest trading partner. And while his government has been resolute in its opposition to Chinas BRI, it has as of yet, no viable alternative to competing for the affections of its neighbours or countries further afield. Meanwhile, if the Indian economy cannot be revived or domestic employment generated in the numbers needed to lift the masses out of poverty, Modi the strongman is unlikely to be an Asian leader except by virtue of geography. The author is fellow at the Institute of Chinese Studies in Delhi. He tweets @jabinjacobt. Beijing: Xi Jinping Thought will now be taught, researched and promoted in universities across China, ensuring that the leader's eponymous philosophy is implanted into students' hearts and minds. At least twenty universities have established research institutes for Xi's ideology, which was enshrined in the Communist Party's constitution during its 19th national congress this month. The distinction places Xi on a par with Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. It means that his dogma"Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era"will become a mantra for a new generation. According to media reports Sunday, the research institutes will not "hide in the ivory tower" but advocate the incorporation of Xi thought in all aspects of daily life. "We will gather many experts and professors to disseminate and preach Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in businesses, neighbourhoods and villages," Jiang Hongxin, head of Hunan Normal University's newly-founded Xi Thought research centre, told the People's Daily, the party mouthpiece. Jiang's attitude mirrors that of many institute directors, who in interviews with Chinese media over the weekend espoused a deep devotion to spreading Xi-isms. "The (research) centre has a unique duty, which is to push forward Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in curriculums, in classrooms and in minds," Chen Xianda, a professor at Renmin University of China, told the Beijing-based Guangming Daily. One institute director said the centre was the school's way of "answering Xi's call" to educate young people, while another said the Xi Thought organisation would "guide the entire school, from top to bottom, in implementing the spirit of the 19th congress". "We must always keep in mind the generosity of General Secretary Xi Jinping," Zhou Qihong, a party secretary at Wuhan Donghu University, told the People's Daily. The lessons must "enter brains and hearts", he said. The education ministry also released guidelines Monday for mandatory elementary and high school extracurricular programmes that include activities to "foster emotional attachment to the Chinese Communist Party". Corona beer owner Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ) has made a major play towards the future of booze with plans to sell cannabis-infused alcoholic beverages. The U.S.-based beverage company announced Monday that it has agreed to buy a 9.9% stake in Canopy Growth Corporation, the worlds largest publicly traded cannabis company, for $191 million. The company said it is planning to work with the grower to develop, market and sell cannabis-infused beverages. Constellation Brands President and CEO Rob Sands told the Wall Street Journal that the move is in anticipation that marijuana will soon be legalized nationwide in the United States. "We think that it's highly likely, given what's happened at the state level," Sands said. However, he added that his company doesnt plan to sell any of the products in the U.S. until marijuana is legal nationwide, even if other states like California which is expected to legalize the cultivation and selling of recreational marijuana in 2018 get passed. Instead, he says the company will focus on selling its new products in overseas markets where recreational marijuana is legal. Canopy Growth has a seasoned leadership team that understands the legal, regulatory and economic landscape for an emerging market that is predicted to become a significant consumer category in the future, Sands said in a statement. Our companys success is the result of our focus on identifying early stage consumer trends, and this is another step in that direction. A Moroccan-born immigrant, Claudette Flatow grew up traveling the world and cooking. The art of cooking, the creation, the baking, its an incredible thing, the owner of Cuisine by Claudette tells FOX Business. After coming to America in 1994 and teaching cooking lessons to neighbors, it seemed a natural next step for her to open up a restaurant and store. In 2012, Cuisine by Claudette, a health-conscious restaurant and food store, opened in Rockaway, New York; six months before Superstorm Sandy blew through the Northeast. We were just getting ready for Thanksgiving and everything went in to the garbage, Flatow says. Everything in the place was gutted before we got here, we put all this money in to the place and six months later Sandy hit, Flatow's son and general manager, John Efrati tells FOX Business. The whole basement was under water and thats where we store all of our dry goods, our food goods, everything was under water when Sandy hit, the neighborhood was in shambles, Efrati adds. Insurance only gave Claudette $270 for damage, which she thought was a joke. With the paint still fresh and customers just getting used to a new eatery in the tight-knit surf neighborhood, Claudette had a choice: rebuild or shutdown. My husband said give up, thats it but I didnt want to show my two kids that I give up, Flatow says. The restaurant owner rallied her kitchen crew, family and friends, and spent between $50,000 to $60,000 on renovations. Thanks to her determination, Cuisine by Claudette reopened within two months after Sandy hit, the first restaurant in the neighborhood to do so. Every customer who came here, we cried together for six months or a year 50% or 60% of the neighborhood left so you sit here and you wait, she says. The neighborhood was still reeling from the storm, but the presence of emergency workers, police and media coverage helped put the Rockaways on the map. Now five years after Sandy hit, Cuisine by Claudette is open for business and buzzing like never before. Everybody came together and everybody tried to help each other. Because of Sandy people heard about us, nobody knew about Rockaway, Flatow says. For the locals to come back, it took closer to a year right now the community is buzzing, it feels like the hottest neighborhood in New York City right now, Efrati adds. With commitment to the neighborhood, Claudettes mission was clear, We should support each other. As a small business, I know if people do not support me, I am not a small business anymore." As for victims of other natural disasters, anywhere in the world, her message is simple come together, put yourself together and you are going to come back stronger. Be sure to watch Claudette Flatows full interview above. Attorneys for a large Montana coal mine are due in court this week to press a judge to reverse an order that could prompt dozens of layoffs by blocking the mine's plans to expand. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy has scheduled a Tuesday hearing in Missoula to hear arguments on whether Signal Peak Energy can do preliminary work in the expansion area in order to avoid layoffs. Bull Mountain is one of the largest underground mines in the U.S. and ships about 95 percent of its fuel to Asia. Its owners wants to expand onto a 176-million ton coal reserve beneath land adjacent to the existing mine. Molloy ruled in August that federal officials who approved the expansion overstated the mine's economic benefits and failed to consider its climate change impacts. The mine's owners asked Molloy to reconsider, setting the stage for Tuesday's hearing. "If we don't get a favorable court ruling we will have to lay people off," Signal Peak spokesman Mike Dawson warned Monday. Signal Peak attorneys filed an emergency motion Friday asking the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene. They warned about 30 layoffs were imminent with more likely in coming months if the Molloy's order stands. U.S. government attorneys also have appealed Molloy's rulings on behalf of the administration of President Donald Trump, who pledged on the campaign trail to help revive the declining coal industry. The challenge to the government's approval of the expansion was brought by the Western Environmental Law Center on behalf of the Montana Environmental Information Center. However, the prospects of a last-minute reprieve appeared slim after a clerk for the 9th Circuit last week put the appeals on hold pending Tuesday's hearing. Shiloh Hernandez, a lawyer for the environmental group, said it was unlikely the appeals court would delay Tuesday's hearing. "Everyone wants this resolved sooner than later," Hernandez said. The mine north of the city of Billings employs about 250 people. Production peaked in 2013 and has since fallen 35 percent as utilities across the U.S. shut down coal-burning power plants in favor of electricity from natural gas, wind turbines and solar farms. The CEO of Goldman Sachs has warned for the second time in two weeks about the dangers of Britain's departure from the European Union. Lloyd Blankfein tweeted an aerial view of the Goldman headquarters building under construction in London, suggesting the bank may not be able to fill it when it opens in 2019. Blankfein tweeted: "In London. GS still investing in our big new Euro headquarters here. Expecting/hoping to fill it up, but so much outside our control.#Brexit." An earlier tweet suggested he may be spending more time in Frankfurt, where Goldman has said its 200-strong employee base could double under Brexit contingency plans. Many international banks with EU headquarters in London are considering moving some operations elsewhere in the EU amid the pending divorce from the 28-nation EU. What happened Shares of Precision Drilling (NYSE: PDS) jumped on Monday and were up 12% at 2:45 p.m. EDT. That rally pushed the stock up nearly 24% since it reported third-quarter results last week. So what On Friday, the Canadian drilling contractor said that its revenue jumped 47% in the third quarter to 315 million Canadian dollars (more than $245 million) thanks to an improvement in drilling activities across North America and higher dayrates for its rigs internationally. Because of that, Precision Drilling's loss narrowed to CA$26 million, or $0.09 per share, which was better than analysts expected and an improvement from a CA$47 million, $0.16 per share, loss in the year-ago quarter. That report initially fueled a nearly 10% rally in the stock last Friday. However, those gains continued on Monday after several analysts chimed in with positive views on the results. Analysts liked that Precision Drilling is generating free cash flow, which helped bolster its cash balance by CA$37 million last quarter. They see this trend continuing, which should help the company further de-leverage its balance sheet as it continues increasing its cash balance. Because of that improving financial profile, analysts think Precision could be a good option for those looking to invest in the recovery of the North American oil market. Now what While Precision Drilling's stock is up sharply in the last few days, it's still down nearly 50% this year because drilling activities in North America slowed over the summer due to weaker oil prices. That said, crude prices have picked up in recent weeks, which could eventually reaccelerate drilling activities, enabling Precision to put more rigs to work and at higher prices. However, even with that upside potential, the stock remains a risky bet because it could be quite a while before drillers hit the gas on their activities since many have turned their focus toward growing shareholder value instead of production. That shift could keep a lid on Precision's profitability for a while. 10 stocks we like better than Precision Drilling TrustWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Precision Drilling Trust wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. Click here to learn about these picks! *Stock Advisor returns as of October 9, 2017 Matthew DiLallo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. House Republicans from high-tax states who threatened to sink President Donald Trump and the Republicans' tax plan have wrung a key concession from GOP tax-writers, days ahead of the rapidly shape-shifting plan getting a public rollout. The breakaway lawmakers, from states such as New York and New Jersey, had threatened to sink the sweeping tax-cutting plan that is a pressing legislative imperative for Trump and the Republicans. The GOP House members have opposed the plan's proposed elimination of the federal deduction for state and local taxes, insisting it would hurt their constituents and subject them to being taxed twice. Trump administration officials had contended the deduction forces the rest of the country to subsidize homeowners in high-tax, big-spending states. The head of the House tax-writing committee, Rep. Kevin Brady, said Monday taxpayers will be able to continue to deduct local property taxes on their federal income-tax returns. Brady, who heads the House Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement, "At the urging of lawmakers, we are restoring an itemized property-tax deduction to help taxpayers with local tax burdens." The deduction for state income taxes, however, would be ended. The change means there would be three itemized deductions retained: for home mortgage interest, charitable donations and local property taxes. But as one rebellion appeared quelled, another crack opened in the support for the nearly $6 trillion plan, as a powerful lobbying group in the housing industry withdrew its blessing for the GOP's top economic priority. The move by the National Association of Home Builders added to threats against the legislation Republicans with strong conservative views and defenders of 401(k) retirement savings plans. The mounting opposition to the plan comes as House Republicans work behind closed doors on proposed legislation for the plan that they'll unveil this Wednesday. House Speaker Paul Ryan said he's been warning Republican lawmakers that opposition will only intensify as details are released. Speaking to local business leaders in Wisconsin after the homebuilders' action, Ryan accused special interests in Washington of trying to derail the tax plan by sowing "confusion and chaos." And amid speculation over further changes to the plan, the White House rebuffed suggestions that House GOP tax-writers are considering phasing in the planned cut in the corporate tax rate, from 35 percent currently to 20 percent by 2022. Trump had "laid out his principles and it doesn't include the phasing in" of corporate tax cuts, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters at a briefing. The White House hasn't "adjusted or changed our principles" on overhauling the tax system, Sanders said. White House officials said Trump wants the tax cuts to swiftly boost economic growth a prime campaign promise and a gradual corporate tax reduction wouldn't bring it fast enough. The plan calls for doubling the standard deduction used by most average Americans to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for families, and increasing the per-child tax credit. In addition to slashing the corporate tax rate, the plan also seeks to repeal inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates, a huge break for the wealthy. The number of tax brackets would shrink from seven to three or four, with respective tax rates of 12 percent, 25 percent, 35 percent and to be determined. Republicans are driven to enact the first major tax overhaul in some 30 years to show a legislative accomplishment to voters in next year's elections and keep their majority in Congress. They were stung by their failure this year to replace President Barack Obama's signature health care law. As with that failed legislative effort, though, Republican leaders are writing the critical tax legislation in secret with Democratic lawmakers excluded and no hearings planned before formal drafting begins. If the state-local deduction were entirely repealed, it could provide more than $1 trillion over 10 years to help pay for the deep tax cuts under the tax overhaul plan. Brady's Senate counterpart, Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, told reporters that eliminating the state-local deduction wasn't helpful. "I don't think that's going to go anywhere," he said. "It's so accepted by states and local areas. It's a system that's worked very well.'" The homebuilders' group objected to the removal from the tax plan's latest version of a homeownership tax credit. A battle over contributions to 401(k) retirement accounts has broken open. The financial industry and some Republican lawmakers insist that the plan not change the tax benefits of the popular savings vehicles, as has been floated by GOP leaders. Trump has given conflicting signals, promising the retirement plans' structure won't be touched, but then saying changes may be on the table. ___ Associated Press writers Scott Bauer in Wisconsin and Ken Thomas and Matthew Daly in Washington contributed to this report. ___ This story has been corrected to show that the National Association of Home Builders objected to the removal from the tax plan of a homeownership tax credit, not a low-income housing tax credit. Amazon received 238 applications from cities and regions in 54 states, provinces, districts and territories across North America interested in becoming home to the ecommerce giants second headquarters (HQ2). With Amazon saying HQ2 will bring thousands of jobs, and billions of dollars in investment, it will be a fierce competition. The problem with this competition is the playing field isnt even. With Canada, Mexico, and the United States all in the running, it is officially an international battle, and one that the United States has a disadvantage. Canada and Mexico have a major competitive advantage over the U.S.: significantly lower business costs. In their proposal request detailing what they will be looking for when determining a location for HQ2, Amazon said: A stable and business-friendly environment and tax structure will be high-priority considerations for the Project. According to KPMGs Competitive Alternatives 2016 report, and its Focus on Tax report, the U.S. lags its North American cousins when it comes to business costs, including tax costs. In KPMGs comparison of total tax costs, including corporate income taxes, capital taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, miscellaneous local business taxes, and statutory labor costs in 10 countries, Canada ranked first, Mexico was fourth, and the U.S. was seventh. The U.S. has the highest corporate income tax rate in the world, at 35%. And, if you add onto that state and local taxes, this is a real competitive disadvantage when it comes to global site searches, Larry Cusack, national leader of the State and Local Tax practice of KPMG LLP, told FOX Business regarding corporate tax rates. He added that in searches that are not talent specific, the corporate tax rate is generally a very important factor. Last Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a budget, clearing the way for lawmakers to pass comprehensive tax reform. Of the measures being considered, is reducing the corporate tax rate down to 20%, although Donald Trump has pushed for a corporate tax rate as low as 15%. John Wonfor, National Tax Office Leader BDO Canada LLP, told FOX Business that Canadas corporate tax system is much better than the U.S. tax system. He added that Canada is nervous about U.S. tax reform. Canada has a better tax environment for business than the U.S. under current tax rules in both countries. U.S. tax reform could change that. Canada wants to remain a competitive place to do business, and tax is a big part of this. In their HQ2 RFP, Amazon noted that in choosing a location that it has a preference for: Metropolitan areas with more than one million people, a stable and business-friendly environment, urban or suburban locations with the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent, and communities that think big and creatively when considering locations and real estate options. According to George Tobjy, tax managing director in KPMGs Global Location & Expansion Services, when it comes to business site selection there are so many factors to consider: growth, research, and talent, are all important considerations, and that the U.S. is very competitive when it comes to these factors. Amazon said they expect to invest over $5 billion in constructing its HQ2 and that it could include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs. FOX Business reached out to Amazon, and they declined to comment. Prosecutors are asking a court to halt a Massachusetts museum's plans to sell 40 works of art, including two by Norman Rockwell. State Attorney General Maura Healey's office urged the court Monday to stop the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield from selling the art until the legal questions are sorted out. Rockwell's three sons had requested the order to stop the museum. The Democratic attorney general says her office hasn't finished its investigation into the possible sale beginning Nov. 13. She says it may be impossible to get the artworks back if a court later finds the museum wasn't allowed to sell them in the first place. A lawyer for the museum said it continues to believe there are no legal barriers to the sales. A Russian journalist who was put into a temporary coma by a stabbing attack thanked supporters Monday in her first statement from the hospital, while Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to play down the attack. Tatyana Felgenhauer, a top host and deputy editor-in-chief at Ekho Moskvy, Russia's only independent news radio station, was stabbed in the throat last week. She underwent surgery and is still in the hospital. Investigators have identified the assailant as 48-year-old Boris Grits who holds Russian and Israeli citizenship. He is under arrest. The station says he attacked its security guard then went up to a higher floor to directly target Felgenhauer. In her first statement since the attack, Felgenhauer thanked colleagues, family and friends Monday and said "you have to fight for your life." She recalled how a stranger who was visiting the station stayed with her while a colleague went to call for help. "That woman didn't walk away," Felgenhauer said. "She helped to press on the wounds on my throat because I had no energy left and I was beginning to choke on the blood." Speaking at a session with Russia's most prominent rights activists, President Putin on Monday rejected suggestions that the attack on Felgenhauer came amid an ongoing crackdown on independent journalists for their critical reporting. "That was just a sick man," Putin said in the reference to the attacker. "What does freedom of speech have to do with this?" He also emphasized that Ekho Moskvy is funded by the state. While Ekho Moskvy is majority-owned by a media arm of the state-controlled Gazprom natural gas giant, its programs have often been critical of the government, angering many in Russian political and business circles. Its hosts and journalists have previously reported receiving death threats. Felgenhauer's statement came a day after Russia's major state television station put out a 13-minute clip attacking Ekho Moskvy and claiming the station had provoked the attack. Rossiya 24's Dmitry Kiselyov, whose station aired a documentary two weeks before the attack accusing Felgenhauer and her colleagues of working against Russia, on his Sunday show described the attacker as "a typical Ekho Moskvy fan." Ekho Moskvy's editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov said last week that he had to evacuate another host, Ksenia Larina, because of security concerns. Another senior editor at Ekho confirmed Monday that Larina had fled Russia. Kiselyov, who is also a senior executive at the state-owned TV company that runs Rossiya 24, dismissed Venediktov's concerns as "persecutory delusion." He insisted that his channel never "called (Larina) a criminal or urged to bar her from the profession." Sprint (NYSE:S) and T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS) shares are plunging Monday amid a report that SoftBank Group, Sprints parent company, is nixing a proposed merger between the two telecommunications giants. The deal purportedly fell apart after SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobiles owner, failed to agree on terms of ownership for the company post-merger. Deutsche Telekom had pushed for a controlling stake, Nikkei news service reported, citing a source familiar with the situation. T-Mobiles stock fell more than 5% in trading on Monday. Sprint shares plunged more than 7%. SoftBank officials could approach Deutsche Telekom to formally end negotiations as early as Tuesday, according to Nikkeis report. Reports of a potential merger between the two companies first emerged in September. Under initially-discussed terms, Deutsche Telekom was set to be the majority owner in a stock-for-stock deal. At the time, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son had reportedly mandated that he have a say in how the company proceeded if the merger succeeded, though T-Mobile CEO John Legere was projected to lead the combined companies. Had it succeeded, the merger would have positioned the two companies to better challenge telecom leaders Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and AT&T (NYSE:T) in the competitive industry. The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) is reportedly looking into a controversial contract between Puerto Ricos energy authority and a small U.S.-based energy startup. Sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that the terms and circumstances surrounding the $300 million contract between the islands power authority, Prepa, and Whitefish Energy are being investigated. The contract was canceled at the request of Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rosello on Sunday. The agreement was signed by both parties on Sept. 26 and has since drawn heavy criticism. While The Journal said that the company had more than 350 workers on the ground in Puerto Rico, other reports claim the company only had two full-time employees when the contract was signed. There is concern over how the small company, with limited large-scale experience, was awarded the contract to rebuild a portion of the islands power grid. In a statement issued on Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) said Prepa was solely responsible for the contract and voiced its significant concerns about how the deal was procured and whether the contract prices are reasonable. FEMA also said if the deal was found to have been made improperly, it would not reimburse the costs related to the work. Whitefish Energy Holdings is based out of a small town in Montana, the same town as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. The interior secretary has denied any links to the contract. In addition to FEMA, U.S. lawmakers have begun investigating the Whitefish deal. Last week two House committees launched inquiries. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, which made landfall in Puerto Rico more than one month ago, about 70% of residents are still without power. George Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents, the federal special counsel said on Monday, becoming the third adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign to face criminal charges in its investigation. Papadopolous is an international energy lawyer who was on Trump's advisory team during the 2016 presidential campaign. The Chicago man pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 in a case unsealed on Monday, the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller said in a statement. The court document said Papadopolous made false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation shortly after Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, when the law enforcement agency had an open investigation into Russian government efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. The special counsel said Papadopoulos told FBI agents he had been in contact with an unnamed foreign "professor" who claimed to have "dirt" on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails," and that Papadopolous claimed such contacts occurred before he joined Trump's campaign. However, the prosecutor said Papadopolous in fact did not meet the professor until after he joined Trump's campaign. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Mark Hosenball and Jonathan Landay; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Yara Bayoumy) Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump, and his former business associate Rick Gates, were indicted on Monday morning by a federal grand jury. Mack McLarty, former chief of staff under President Clinton, tells FOX Business this development puts a lot of pressure on the White House agenda. Right now President Trump is pushing for tax reform and hes got to separate those within the White House. I think hes taken steps to do that, McLarty told Maria Bartiromo on Mornings with Maria. Manafort and Gates are the first to be charged in Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russias meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News senior judicial analyst, agreed with McLarty, adding that if this was a special attempt on the part of Mueller to disrupt the White House, it would also present a serious ethical issue. Theres no question this is going to put pressure on the White House whether its intentionally timed or whether its just a consequence of having indicted somebody who was once the presidents chief confidant. This is unwanted pressure on the White House; as a former judge, as a lawyer, as a person who studies this, I hope from the bottom of my heart that this is not politically motivated, said Napolitano. Whether the timing of the submission seems fair or not, Judge Napolitano said Mueller is being pressured to do something. Paul Manafort, former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, and a business associate were indicted on 12 counts by a federal grand jury on Monday and the pair face steep criminal penalties if convicted. The money laundering charge alone could send Manafort to jail for more than a decade, according to criminal defense attorney Brian Claypool. Possible federal jail time to this crime alone is 14 years and it depends in large part on the amount of the money that was laundered, Claypool told FOX Business. Defending Manafort on this charge is going to be daunting for his criminal defense lawyers because [Special Counsel Robert] Muellers team likely has tangible evidence to support the trail of transfer of money, via money wire transfer orders and/or actual bank statements. This is devastating for Manafort. Money laundering has been a federal crime since the implementation of The Money Laundering Control Act of 1986, Claypool pointed out. As defined by the statute, money laundering is the act of engaging in a transaction to conceal the source, ownership or control of the income. The definition of the word transaction is very broad, which is why the charge could be very damaging to Manafort. How much time the former campaign chair spends in jail will also depend on the magnitude of the money laundering scheme, Claypool said. If this was an elaborate scheme involving shell or sham companies to funnel money to avoid taxes, the sentencing for Manafort is likely to be higher, he said. The indictment alleges that Manafort funneled money over the course of 10 years, from 2006 to 2016, through both foreign and domestic corporations, partnerships and bank accounts. The pair are accused of hiding the existence of the foreign companies and bank accounts from the U.S. government, and Manafort allegedly used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income. According to indictment, Manafort laundered more than $18 million, which he then used to buy real-estate, goods and services in the United States. His associate, Richard Gates, is accused of laundering $3 million. In total, more than $75 million flowed through the pairs offshore accounts, according to the charges. While none of the charges against Manafort have to do with the Trump administration or Russias meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the indictment will likely play into a broader strategy by Special Counsel Mueller to crack down on others. Mueller hopes to get Manafort to cop a plea deal and come forward with credible info to indict even bigger fish. This is such a serious charge [if lots of money was involved] that it may work if Manafort truly has damming evidence against other Trump associates, Claypool said. As leadership within the House of Representatives prepares to unveil their signature tax reform plan, congressional lawmakers from New York are taking a final stand against the potential loss of their coveted state and local tax deduction in a phone conference with White House officials on Monday night, FOX Business has learned. Nine Republican lawmakers from New York are scheduled to speak to senior White House officials at 8:30 p.m. ET about their districts being negatively impacted by the elimination of the deduction, also known as SALT, in the hopes they can come to a compromise before the bill is released on Wednesday, according to numerous congressional aides familiar with the matter. The officials expected to be on the call are National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn and possibly Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, those same sources told FOX Business on the condition of anonymity. White House Assistant Press Secretary Natalie Strom did not deny that Cohn and Mnuchin may be on the call with the lawmakers, saying, Nothing to add from our end. Of the nine Republicans who are expected to be on the call, only Rep. Peter King (R-NY) confirmed to FOX Business on the record that he will be a participant. Spokespeople for New York Republican Reps. Lee Zeldin, Dan Donovan, John Faso, Elise Stefanik, Claudia Tenney, Tom Reed, John Katko and Chris Collins declined to comment but did not deny that their bosses were going to join the call. The conference comes after House passed their budget by the slimmest of margins, 216 to 212 in favor of the budget, and as seven of the 20 no votes came from disgruntled New York Republicans. Those lawmakers have been looking for a compromise on the deduction in meetings with House Republican leaders, including House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, since the tax reform blueprint was released in September. The call between lawmakers and the White House also comes on the heels of Brady announcing hes willing concede to those same representatives as well as others from states that have the most to lose from eliminating SALT, such as New Jersey and California. Brady indicated that he will include a property tax deduction in the final bill. At the urging of lawmakers, we are restoring an itemized property tax deduction to help taxpayers with local tax burdens, Brady said in a statement on Sunday. Still, even with this concession, House members from New York and New Jersey gave a mixed reaction to the news and called for caution on whether there will be continued compromises leading into the bills publication. In a text message, King told FOX Business on Sunday that hes happy with Bradys decision but still has concerns. Its a good step forward but still very concerned with losing state income tax deduction, King said. Rep. Thomas MacArthur (R-NJ) told FOX Business on Sunday that hes cautiously optimistic but later added, The devil is in the details. For New York Republicans, the phone conference could be a major breakthrough in negotiations for the continuance of the SALT deduction after seven of them reached out to Mnuchin in July requesting that he reconsider eliminating the tax break. Without the SALT deduction, taxpayers in all 50 states and in the District of Columbia would be doubly taxed--they would pay federal income taxes on the money they pay to their state and local governments. We hope you consider the impact on the people we represent as we continue crafting an innovative plan, the letter read. It was signed by Reps. Donovan, Faso, Katko, King, Stefanik, Tenney and Zeldin. SALT affects about 30% of all taxpayers, mainly in states such as New York, New Jersey, California, Connecticut, Virginia and Pennsylvania that impose significant state income and property taxes. The GOP Congress is dominated by lawmakers from southern and western states that dont impose such levies. They have argued for ditching the SALT deduction from the tax code on the grounds that it unfairly benefits taxpayers from just a handful of states and deprives the federal government of trillions in revenue. Indeed, the Trump administration has called on the elimination of the SALT deduction that would produce close to $1.3 trillion in revenues over 10 years and help pay for his plan to slash taxes for individuals and take the corporate tax rate down from its current level of 35% to 20%. But lawmakers from these high-tax states argue that the federal government receives a disproportionate share of tax revenues from states like New York and California, where a large percentage of wealthy people reside, thus the tax break provides some degree of fairness in the governments revenue collection efforts. Making the matter even more contentious as the Republican-controlled Congress and the Trump administration move toward the politically vital tax reform bill: close to 60 Republican members come from states that benefit most from the SALT deduction and could vote against tax reform if the tax break isnt preserved in some way. Kevin Spacey apologized early Monday after Star Trek: Discovery and Rent actor Anthony Rapp said Sunday night Spacey made a sexual advance toward him when he was 14, the latest in a wave of sexual abuse accusations across Hollywood. Rapp told Buzzfeed News that in 1986, Spacey, a fellow Broadway actor at the time, invited Rapp to his apartment for a party. Later in the evening, Spacey, then 26, allegedly picked Rapp up, placed him on his bed, and climbed on top of him, making a sexual advance, according to the report. He was trying to seduce me, Rapp recalled. I dont know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually. NEW HARVEY WEINSTEIN SEXUAL ASSAULT ACCUSATIONS EMERGE Rapp recalled he pushed Spacey off of him, went to a bathroom and closed the door, thinking: What is happening? He told Spacey he had to go home, to which he allegedly asked if he was sure he wanted to do that. Spacey released a statement on his Twitter midnight Monday, saying he has "a lot of respect and admiration for Anthony Rapp as an actor" and said he doesn't remember the encounter. "I'm beyond horrified to hear his story. I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years," the actor said in his statement. Spacey addressed his relationships with "both men and women" in his life and revealed he chooses "now to live as a gay man." "This story has encouraged me to address other things about my life. I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fueled by the fact that I have been so protective of my privacy," Spacey said. He added, "As those closes to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose to live as a gay man. I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behavior." ROSE MCGOWAN STARTS 'ARMY' AGAINST SEXUAL ASSAULT I still to this day cant wrap my head around so many aspects of it, Rapp told Buzzfeed. Its just deeply confusing to me. Rapp, who came forward less than a month after accusations against mega-producer Harvey Weinstein led to his Hollywood downfall, said he decided to speak out not to simply air a grievance but to try to shine another light on the decades of behavior that have been allowed to continue because many people, including myself, being silent. He added: I'm feeling really awake to the moment that we're living in, and I'm hopeful that this can make a difference. While Corey Feldman continues to collect money from his Indiegogo campaign to expose an alleged Hollywood pedophile ring, one very outspoken critic is coming forward. Judy Haim, mother of Feldmans former co-star Corey Haim, is calling the entire campaign a big con. As previously reported, Feldman has launched a crowdfunding campaign after releasing an emotional video in which he claims that his life is in danger from people trying to silence him about the years of abuse he suffered as a child actor. Now, he wants to raise money for more security and to finance a documentary in which hell finally reveal the names of the people responsible. In his 2013 book Coreyography, he revealed that both he and Corey Haim, who died in 2010, were victims for years. However, Judy is taking the 46-year-old star to task for using her son to fuel, what she calls, "a long con. Hes been talking about revealing the names of his and other abusers for seven years, since my son died, Judy told The Hollywood Reporter. Now he wants $10 million to do it? Come on. Its a long con. Hes a scam artist. If he was serious about this, hed share the information he has with the police. The outlet revealed that she believes her son was the victim of a molestation incident, but that Feldmans claims of a larger pedophile ring in Hollywood are a complete fabrication designed to keep Feldman in the pop culture conversation and make him money. As of this writing, Feldmans campaign has earned $157,660 from more than 3,300 backers. Meanwhile, the actor/musician took to Twitter in an effort to discredit Haim and continue to convince backers to support him. U GUYS KNOW I DONT EVER SAY ANYTHING BAD ABOUT ANY1, BUT JUDY HAIM (no longer her last name) IS A BAD WOMAN WHO VEHEMENTLY PROTECTS EVIL! SHE HAS BEEN CRE8ING DISTRACTIONS & DIVERSIONS SINCE HER SONS DEATH, 2 SHUN AWAY THE FEELINGS OF TRUE GUILT SHE MUST BARE! #BLASPHEMY, He wrote in a series of four tweets. GOD SEES ALL! THERE IS NO HIDING WHEN JUDGEMENT DAY ARRIVES! THE TRUTH'S BEING REVEALED! THE FLOOD GATES HAVE OPENED, & NOTHING CAN STOP IT! BUT U WILL C THE DARK SOULS CLAMMERING 2 SILENCE & DISCREDIT ME. ONLY GOD CAN SHOW U IN UR HEARTS WHAT THE TRUTH IS! NOT ABOUT $, NEVER WAS! As previously reported, Feldmans reinvigorated desire to make the information he claims to know public comes in the wake of the numerous allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Harvey Weinstein. Since then, the star says that hes been a target for people trying to silence him. He was recently stopped by police for having marijuana in a tour bus in Louisiana, and his band mates left the band soon after. Thats when Feldman came out with the video explaining that there was an alleged attempt on his life that he believes has to do with what he knows. Jimmy Kimmel intends to deliver some sly wisecracks about disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein when he hosts next years Oscars but hell tread warily given that victims of the accused sexual predator may be vying for teh gold-plated awards. Its not really a laughing matter, the Jimmy Kimmel Live! host says about the rape and sexual assault allegations pouring out against Weinstein in New York magazine out Monday. Therell be a lot of people in that room who maybe have been through experiences with him, and thats not something I want them to relive on the night they get their Oscar. Kimmel hosted this years Oscars and is the first comedian since the 1990s who was asked to lead the awards show for the second year in a row. The Oscars are so far out, he tells New York. Its hard to figure out what were going to say on the next show, let alone in March. There might not be an Oscars, because North Korea may have struck the Dolby Theatre. The Brooklyn-born comic said he didnt immediately address the Weinstein sexual abuse scandal on his show merely because of timing and not, as some critics have suggested, because he was trying to protect anybody. We do the show Monday through Thursday. I didnt see the Weinstein story break till shortly before the show started on a Thursday night, and then we had a rerun on Friday, so thats why it wasnt mentioned in our monologue, said the comic. I have no interest in protecting Harvey Weinstein. Hopefully, he will get what he deserves and well all move on with our lives. Although he made no cracks about Weinstein in the interview, Kimmel did chuckle about how hes become an avatar for the average white guy. There is nothing more disgraceful than being a middle-aged white man. We should all be ashamed of ourselves, deadpanned Kimmel, 49. I was born with a penis to white parents. Theres not much I can do about it. If youre against discrimination, you should be against all discrimination. Kimmel said he uses his show to talk about politics, and hot topics like gun control and health care, because he has been personally affected by the issues. On April 21, his wife, Molly McNerney, gave birth to Billy, who was diagnosed with a rare heart condition. Emergency surgery, which was covered by his health plan, saved his sons life. It so happened that my son had a heart operation and then my hometown got attacked, he said, referring to the Las Vegas shooting. So thats what prompted me to speak out in a way that a lot of people noticed, but the truth of the matter is, we have been talking about politics for a very long time. This article originally appeared in Page Six. A Mississippi man faces aggravated assault charges after a shooting following a Jason Aldean concert in Tupelo. Tupelo police said Steven Michael Hulbert, 22, of Walls, allegedly fired multiple shots at a man in the west parking lot of the BancorpSouth Arena about 11:13 p.m. Friday. The man, who was shot in the chest, was released Saturday from North Mississippi Medical Center. His name was not released. Multiple media outlets report Hulbert is being held in the Lee County jail on $100,000 bond. It was unknown if he's represented by an attorney. Hulbert's initial court appearance is Monday. Tupelo Police were already on scene as part of security for Aldean's concert and responded to the shots fired call. Hulbert was arrested after police stopped his vehicle before it left the parking lot. Witnesses said the shooting stemmed from an argument among a small group of men. Hulbert then pulled a pistol and fired four to six shots. Police said bullets hit the victim and struck multiple vehicles in the parking lot. Those still inside the arena when the shooting happened were kept inside until it was determined they could safely leave. The shooting comes 26 days after the mass shooting in Las Vegas where Aldean was performing at an outdoor country music festival when a man started firing from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort. That shooting killed 58 people. Viewers of The Graham Norton Show hit out last night after Adam Sandler repeatedly touched actress Claire Foys knee during an interview, leaving her looking extremely uncomfortable. Fans immediately took Twitter to question why the Hollywood actor kept resting his hand on The Crown star's knee. Looking uncomfortable, Claire in the end put her hand over his to show him that she had noticed him resting his hand there. Unfortunately her efforts to pat away his hand went unnoticed, and he soon placed it back on her knee. Emma Thompson, who was also a guest on the show, appeared then to look confused at why Adam kept touching Claire's knee throughout the awkward encounter. Adam, meanwhile, seemed oblivious to what was happening, as he carried on telling a story to the audience with a story. But he didn't stop there, he also touched Emma's leg, his co-star in the new Netflix film The Meyerowitz Stories. Fans vented on Twitter, with one saying: "Claire Foy replacing Adam Sandlers hand onto his own knee rather than hers, was the perfect haha dont touch me again move #GrahamNorton" While another said: "Adam Sandler has no social awareness of how awkward he seemed to be making Emma Thompson and Claire Foy #stoptouching #GrahamNorton." NEW HARVEY WEINSTEIN SEXUAL ASSAULT ACCUSATIONS EMERGE One tweeted: "With all that's happening did I just see Claire Foy looking a little distressed at Adam Sandler's hands all over her knee?'" Another viewer fumed: "Adam Sandler touching Claire Foys knee for no reason, she put his hand back, he then does it again, she looked rightly p***** off." While one wrote: "Felt very uncomfortable watching Adam repeatedly put his unwanted hand on the knee of Claire Foy." Fortunately for Sandler, Foy released a statement after the backlash explaining that she took no offense from the actor's gesture. "We don't believe anything was intended by Adam's gesture, and it has caused no offense to Claire," a spokesperson for the actress told Page Six. It comes as Hollywood was left reeling from the Harvey Weinstein scandal, with a string of A-listers accusing the mogul of sex crimes - including a number of rape allegations. The FBI and police in New York and London have all opened investigations into Weinstein, with one cop calling him a super-predator. Emma Thompson spoke out against the sleazy producer, saying he was at "the top of the ladder of a system of harassment and belitting and bullying". She also compared him to vile Jimmy Savile, and said Weinstein is just the tip of the iceberg of what goes on in the movie business. Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra is the latest star to make allegations against Weinstein claiming he violently raped her in the 1990s after dropping her off following a party, the New Yorker reports. And Daryl Hannah says her career suffered following a series of encounters with Weinstein including one where he burst in like a raging bull when she was staying in a hotel room. Model Cara Delevinge, who also appeared on the show, has also told how Weinstein once tried to force her into a threesome. A spokesman for Sandler described the actor's actions as a "friendly gesture". Weinstein has denied allegations of non-consensual sex. This article originally appeared in The Sun. Rosie O'Donnell has come out swinging against fellow actor Kevin Spacey, likening him to disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein and tweeting that "we all knew" about the "House of Cards" star's alleged behavior. Her statements came after former child actor Anthony Rapp accused Spacey of trying to seduce him when he was 14. Rapp, best known for starring in "Rent," said in an interview on Sunday that he was a teenager when Spacey made a sexual advance toward him and pushed him down on a bed. Spacey responded to the allegations, saying he does not remember the purported encounter. O'Donnell tweeted to Spacey on Monday, "u don't remember the incident - 30 years ago? - f--k u kevin - like Harvey we all knew about u - I hope more men come forward." Comedian Wanda Sykes, who is a lesbian and outspoken member of the LGBT community, also sounded off on Spacey on Twitter early Monday saying that he cant choose to hide under the rainbow. Spacey also came out as gay in his apology after being accused by Rapp. Spacey's response to Rapp read, "But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years." Spacey said he has had relationships with both men and women throughout his life and chooses now to live as a gay man. The criticism against Spacey was widespread. Frank Rich, a writer for New York magazine and executive producer for "Veep," tweeted, "This is changing the subject. Rapp's charge is pedophilia." Rapp told Buzzfeed News that in 1986, Spacey, a fellow Broadway actor at the time, invited Rapp to his apartment for a party. Later in the evening, Spacey, then 26, allegedly picked Rapp up, placed him on his bed, and climbed on top of him, making a sexual advance, according to the report. Rapp said he pushed Spacey off of him, went to a bathroom and closed the door, thinking: What is happening? He told Spacey he had to go home, to which Spacey allegedly asked if Rapp was sure he wanted to do that. Rapp, who came forward less than a month after accusations against mega-producer Harvey Weinstein led to his Hollywood downfall, said he decided to speak out not to simply air a grievance but to try to shine another light on the decades of behavior that have been allowed to continue because many people, including myself, being silent. After a year away, venison sandwiches were back on the menu at Arby's for one day last week, but not everyone was happy about it. Last year the fast-food chain introduced its "thick-cut venison steak with crispy onions and a juniper berry sauce" in five states in an effort to appeal to America's hunters. The sandwiches sold so well that the restaurant expanded the operation this year, Business Insider reports. On Saturday Oct. 21 the sandwich was available nationwide for $7. "The positive response to our limited offering of venison last year was so widespread and passionate that we knew we had to find a way to offer it nationwide," Jim Taylor, chief marketing officer of Arby's Restaurant Group, said. But while the venison sandwiches sold out quickly at many Arby's locations, not everyone was happy, NPR reports. Earlier this month, the Montana Wildlife Federation sent a letter to Arby's asking it not to sell the deer-meat sandwiches. The hunting conservation group's executive director cites "America's wildlife crisis in the 19th century" that drove many animals to near-extinction and "the principle of selling an animal that most Montanans recognize and hold dear as a wild animal and really a symbol of the Rocky Mountain West" as issues. But Arby's was quick to point out that the meat it used for its sandwiches was not procured through hunting, but rather from game farms in New Zealand. Arby's also tested elk steak sandwiches at three locations. This article originally appeared on Newser. Women in public office often make women and their families a focus of their work. They put aside partisanship to support positive ideas that are meant to help women in the home, school, workforce, and the economy. Now is an important moment to unite across the aisle and to encourage their male colleagues to make good on past promises of tax relief to American families. Instead, a handful of female senators on the left -- who once bemoaned our byzantine tax code and claimed to champion tax relief for working-class families -- are intentionally trying to block tax reform efforts. Not one of the 16 female Democratic senators voted to pass the Senates fiscal year 2018 budget resolution, which creates a procedural path for tax reform and tax cuts. But their hypocrisy runs deeper. In 2014, New Yorks Kristin Gillibrand introduced legislation to triple the child care tax credit, pleading If you cant afford child care, your choice is to leave your job to take care of your children. It doesnt have to be this way. But now that the opportunity to provide relief for moms is here, shes changing her tune. She blasted the Trump tax plan as a cruel joke and vowed to oppose this corporate welfare that will harm New Yorks middle class. Perhaps she isnt aware of the presidents proposed expansion of the child tax credit, which would directly aid middle class families? This is a missed opportunity: Women in Congress have a chance to demonstrate bipartisanship and leadership that will help women succeed in todays economy by coming to the table to support needed tax changes. Wisconsins Tammy Baldwin said of last Thursdays budget vote, I believe Wisconsin families need a tax break and that's what I'm working for. However, the competing tax reform plan that she and Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., introduced doesnt offer a lot of tax relief for families, and it doesnt simplify or change the tax code at all. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., made the case that Congress must simplify our complex and burdensome tax code in 2016, when she introduced legislation to make tax filing easier and free for some Americans. In a report, she explained that preparing and filing returns consumed almost 10 percent of the average federal tax refund. Warren should be pleased that simplicity is one of President Trumps four principles for tax reform. Instead she called the Trump plan warmed-over and says it delivers massive tax cuts to millionaires and giant corporations and kicks working families to the curb. Wouldnt eliminating almost every deduction, loophole and exemption advance her goal of creating a simpler, fairer, and cheaper tax filing system? Lowering the corporate tax rate is another favorite punching bag for senators on the left. This rhetoric might be convenient today, but it doesnt match up with their previous statements recognizing that America desperately needs corporate tax reform. Just this summer, Californias Senator Dianne Feinstein said, I think one might look at the corporate rate. I think thats a fair thing to do to see that its regionalized and equalized. Yet, when the Trump proposal was released, she failed to mention the proposed corporate tax relief and just painted the entire framework as a one-sided proposal that cuts taxes for the rich at the expense of everyone else. Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, also once saw the virtue of cutting corporate tax rates and eliminating loopholes, but seems to have changed her mind now. In a 2014 interview she noted, Weve made many attempts and been blocked by the Republicans in closing some of the corporate tax loopholes. I mean, I think we all want to lower corporate tax rates, but we want to quit letting certain people get goodies so they dont have to pay any taxes. In 2015, she couldnt have been more crystal clear: The current U.S. tax system is broken and needs reform. Yet shes also predictably walked away from considering the latest proposed tax reform. This is a missed opportunity: Women in Congress have a chance to demonstrate bipartisanship and leadership that will help women succeed in todays economy by coming to the table to support needed tax changes. As of 2014thats the most recent year when data is available--there were 9.1 million women-owned businesses (WOB) generating $1.4 trillion in annual revenue. WOB account for nearly one third (31 percent) of privately-held firms. Tax reform that lowers the corporate rate to 25 percent and individual rates to zero, 12 percent, 25 percent, and 35 percent will free up resources for these women to reinvest in their businesses. That could mean implementing a new marketing plan to attract new customers, upgrading machinery and technology, or hiring new workers. Lifting tax burdens are especially important to women-owned businesses because they are more likely than male-owned businesses to rely on personal forms of financing such as savings over traditional loans. Cutting corporate rates could also increase the average American household income by $4,000 annually. Women manage household budgets and make decisions about expenses, so we know that extra income promises a long-overdue family vacation, bathroom renovation, postponed medical procedure, or braces for the kids. Its time for Democratic women in Congress to put down the #Resistance banner and join their Republican colleagues in delivering meaningful relief to women, their families, and their businesses. Over the weekend, the mainstream media was absolutely giddy with delight upon learning there would be an indictment by special counsel, Robert Mueller. This was proof positive, they insisted, that Trump colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Their exuberance was the equivalent of a two day-long tailgate party. Too bad it was premature. Manafort & Gates The celebration came to a crashing end when the indictments of Paul Manafort and his business associate, Rick Gates, were unsealed Monday morning. It turns out the charges are, basically, a tax fraud case. The two men stand accused of hiding their income from their lobbying work for Ukraine in order to avoid paying taxes, then lying about it. Thats it. The 31-page indictment makes no mention of Trump or Russia or collusion. The media seemed as dejected as a kid who wakes up on Christmas morning, only to find there are no presents under the tree. Gee whiz. The truth is, it should have come as no surprise to anyone, much less the media, that Manafort was in legal jeopardy for his business dealings. The FBI raided his home over the summer. It was later learned that the FBI wiretapped his conversations as far back as 2014. And it was widely reported that Manafort had been told by Muellers team that he would be criminally charged. It could be said that Hillary Clinton is the one who was conspiring with the Russians by breaking campaign finance laws with impunity. The media became even more dispirited when they read through the indictment, discovering that nearly all of Manaforts alleged wrongdoing substantially pre-dates his brief stint as chairman of the Trump campaign. In other words, there is no connection to either Trump or his campaign. Somewhere, Im sure, ABCs Martha Raddatz and CNNs Van Jones were crying. Again. Just like the tears they shed on camera election night when Hillary lost. Papadopoulos But wait. Shortly after the indictments were unsealed, the medias spirits were suddenly boosted when the special counsel revealed that a former adviser to Trump pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian national during his time on the Trump campaign. Surely this was evidence of illegal collusion, right? Wrong. George Papadopoulos pled guilty to a single charge of making a false statement to the FBI. He was not charged with so-called collusion because no such crime exists in American statutory law, except in anti-trust matters. It has no application to elections and political campaigns. It is not a crime to talk to a Russian. Not that the media would ever understand that. They have never managed to point to a single statute that makes colluding with a foreign government in a political campaign a crime, likely because it does not exist in the criminal codes. To put it plainly, Mueller is tasked with finding a crime that does not exist in the law. It is a legal impossibility. He is being asked to do something that is manifestly unattainable. But that did not stop them from accusing Donald Trump, Jr., of illegally conspiring with the Russians when he met with a Russian lawyer to obtain information on Hillary Clinton. What law did he break? None. The Federal Election Commission has made it clear that it is perfectly lawful for foreign nationals to be involved in campaigns, as long as they are not paid and do not donate money. Which brings us to Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton It is against the law for the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee to funnel millions of dollars to a British spy and to Russian sources in order to obtain the infamous and discredited Trump dossier. The Federal Election Campaign Act (52 USC 30101) prohibits foreign nationals and governments from giving or receiving money in U.S. campaigns. It also prohibits the filing of false or misleading campaign reports to hide the true purpose of the money (52 USC 30121). This is what Clinton and the DNC appear to have done. Most often the penalty for violating this law is a fine, but in egregious cases, like this one, criminal prosecutions have been sought and convictions obtained. In this sense, it could be said that Hillary Clinton is the one who was conspiring with the Russians by breaking campaign finance laws with impunity. But thats not all. Damning new evidence appears to show that Clinton used her office as Secretary of State to confer benefits to Russia in exchange for millions of dollars in donations to her foundation and cash to her husband. Secret recordings, intercepted emails, financial records, and eyewitness accounts allegedly show that Russian nuclear officials enriched the Clintons at the very time Hillary presided over a governing body which unanimously approved the sale of one-fifth of Americas uranium supply to Russia. If this proves to be a corrupt pay-to-play scheme, it would constitute a myriad of crimes, including bribery (18 USC 201-b), mail fraud (18 USC 1341), and wire fraud (18 USC 1343). It might also qualify for racketeering charges (18 USC 1961-1968), if her foundation is determined to have been used as a criminal enterprise. Despite all the incriminating evidence, Clinton has managed to avoid being pursued by a special counsel. Trump, on the other hand, is being chased by Robert Mueller and his team, notwithstanding a dearth of evidence. Robert Mueller The indictments of Manafort and Gates now present a unique opportunity to challenge the authority of the special counsel. Until now, no one had legal standing to argue in court that the appointment of Mueller was illegal. The criminal charges change all that. The two defendants will be able to argue before a judge that Muellers appointment by Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein violated the special counsel law. As I pointed out in a column last May , the law (28 CFR 600) grants legal authority to appoint a special counsel to investigate crimes. Only crimes. He has limited jurisdiction. Yet, in his order appointing Mueller as special counsel (Order No. 3915-2017), Rosenstein directed him to investigate any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump. It fails to identify any specific crimes, likely because none are applicable. To put it plainly, Mueller is tasked with finding a crime that does not exist in the law. It is a legal impossibility. He is being asked to do something that is manifestly unattainable. If the federal judge agrees, Mueller and his team would be disbanded by judicial order. The Department of Justice would have to seek a new indictment of Manafort and Gates without the special counsel or drop the case entirely. The naming of Robert Mueller was tainted with disqualifying conflicts of interest from the beginning. Fired FBI Director James Comey admitted he leaked presidential memos to the media for the sole purpose of triggering the appointment of a special counsel who just happens to be Comeys longtime friend, ally and partner. It is no coincidence that Rosenstein appointed Mueller. We now know both men were overseeing the corrupt Uranium One sale which involved Russian bribes, kickbacks, extortion and money laundering. They appear to have kept it secret, even hiding it from Congress which would surely have cancelled the transaction involving a vital national security asset. A cover-up? It has the stench of one. How can Americans have confidence in the outcome of the Trump-Russia matter if the integrity and impartiality of Mueller and Rosenstein has been compromised by their suspected cover-up of the Clinton-Russia case? Both men should resign. And a new special counsel should be appointed this time to investigate Hillary Clinton, not Donald Trump. From the CIAs initial plans of a mafia hit on Fidel Castro to the FBI records of threats made on Lee Harvey Oswalds life, the newly revealed government files on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy only add to the saga of conspiracies over the past 54 years. At the last-minute requests of the CIA and other national security agencies though, President Trump agreed not to release as many as 300 documents that remain classified for national security, law enforcement, and foreign relations reasons. What I find most interesting about the JFK file release though is not what has or has not been released, but the presidents citation of national security as the key concern preventing the full release. It is clear that the reason for this withholding is that these files must involve Russia and to this day, we do not know is the role that Soviet Russia played in President Kennedys assassination. We know that less than two months before the presidents assassination, Oswald travelled to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. Oswald claimed that his trip to Mexico was simply to process a routine visa application, but significant questions about this visit remain. Why would Oswald go the great length of entering a foreign country to process his visa application when he could have more easily applied for a visa at the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C. Further, we know that Oswald was a politically active man, heavily engaged with the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, and would certainly not pass up an opportunity to discuss his involvement, or even his plot to kill the US President, when meeting with Soviet Russians. It is intriguing that the newly released government files indicate that Oswald met with a senior KGB agent named Valeriy Vladimirovich Kostikov, who has been previously identified as a member of the KGBs 13th department, which was responsible for plotting and carrying out assassinations around the world. Given this compelling evidence, it is clear that the American public must once and for all learn what role the Russians played in the Kennedy assassination, whether it be direct or indirect This question is of the utmost importance, but is also the reason why the JFK file release is so sensitive. Today, not only the American media, but the United States Congress is investigating whether Russians became actively engaged with a US Presidential campaign organization. Complicating matters further, there is now clear evidence of issues stemming from Russia with the State Department under Hillary Clinton, the Clinton campaign, and the DNC. For these reasons, the question we need answered is if this question if Russian interference in American society and into our lives reached an apogee with President Kennedy or if their involvement continues today. We have known for decades that the security situation in Dealey Plaza on November 22, 1963 was bungled between different law enforcement agencies from the beginning. However, the most critical question today is whether Oswald was a lone-actor all along or if a nation that continues to be one of our greatest foreign adversaries was involved in the assassination of the U.S. president. Forgive yourself if you are confused about developments in the Russia, Russia, Russia storyline. In fact, there are so many moving parts that you shouldnt trust anybody who isnt confused. Consider this, then, a guide to the perplexed, where we start with two things that are certain. First, special counsel Robert Mueller will never be able to untangle the tangled webs with any credibility and needs to step aside. Mueller, whose office is apparently leaking the secret news that a grand jury has approved charges against an unidentified defendant, assumed his role with one big conflict, his relationship with his successor at the FBI, James Comey. That conflict has morphed into several more that are fixable only by resignation. That became obvious last week when events showed that any honest probe must examine the Obama White House and Justice Department. Mueller served as head of the FBI for more than four years under President Obama and cannot be expected to investigate his former colleagues and bosses. To continue reading Michael Goodwin on the New York Post click here. The United States found itself involved in a lengthy, divisive, military conflict overseas. A surfeit of controversial incidents besieged the U.S. military and confounded official Washington as to what to do. Leaders at the National Security Council argued that local fighters were improving their military skills. As a result, the U.S. could cede more power to them. In other words, the war needed to be de-Americanized. Instead, the Defense secretary chose another term: Vietnamization. The above scenario obviously isnt about the four U.S. soldiers killed earlier this month in Niger. It isnt about President Trumps decision in August to maintain the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and bolster troop levels there. But what the U.S. is doing in Niger and Chad and Mali and Afghanistan and Iraq and Libya and Djibouti and Turkey and Yemen and Jordan and Uganda and Cameroon and South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic and Somalia and Kosovo and Cuba and parts of Syria certainly echoes Defense Secretary Melvin Laird telling President Richard Nixon the U.S. should Vietnamize the battle in southeast Asia. That would denote a shift. Laird asserted that Vietnamization properly characterized U.S. involvement going forward. After all, the U.S. didnt want an open-ended commitment in Vietnam. Many in Washington wanted to get out as soon as possible. Things certainly didnt work out that way. The U.S. found itself paralyzed in Vietnam for years. As a result, Vietnam Syndrome set in among the public and the nations political leaders. Americans were reluctant to engage overseas. In a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, President Ronald Reagan said that the U.S. lived with Vietnam Syndrome for too long. As a result, Reagan said Americans were told that peace would come if we would simply stop interfering and go home. Reagan declared we dishonor the memory of the 50,000 young Americans who died in that cause when we give way to feelings of guilt as if we were doing something shameful. Reagan told the VFW that was the lesson for all of us on Vietnam. If we are forced to fight, we must have the means and the determination to prevail or we will not have what it takes to secure the peace. Two months ago, Trump made the case to Afghanize the fight. The president said Afghan troops would bear the heaviest burden in this struggle. He also spoke of the thousands of U.S. troops who fought and died in Afghanistan. Trump suggested the U.S. needs to remain engaged in Afghanistan to secure the cause for which they gave their lives. Vietnam was a seminal period in the American experience. Its natural to draw parallels between Vietnam and other lengthy military engagements. The U.S. has now been in Afghanistan since shortly after 9/11. How long should the U.S. stay? Ironically, military analysts now believe Vietnam isnt the model to which people should look when discussing Afghanistan. They note how long the U.S. has remained on the Korean Peninsula. This is ironic. Consider the fact that the 60-plus year U.S. presence there hasnt inhibited the possibility of the U.S. facing off with Pyongyang in a nuclear war. Those chances are now as high as ever. In June, the president submitted to Congress a report detailing all of the places the U.S. is involved militarily (most are listed above), information about deployments and justifications for the operations. Most of these missives from the administration to Congress contain a crucial phrase. The letter states the information the president is sending to Capitol Hill is consistent with the War Powers Resolution, as part of my efforts to keep Congress informed about deployments of the U.S. Armed Forces equipped for combat. Note it states consistent with the resolution. The letter doesnt state in compliance with. No administration of either party has truly acknowledged the resolution since its adoption in 1974. Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution grants Congress the power to declare war. Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution names the president commander in chief. Congress created the resolution as an additional check on the president to curb his war-making authority. This effort backfired as Congress inadvertently ceded more latitude to the president. So short of declaring war somewhere, presidents simply slip Congress a note at regular intervals as to what the U.S. is doing where. Constitutional? Unclear. Adhering to the War Powers Resolution? Not really. Consistent with the resolution? You bet. This brings us to Niger. Think the U.S. is at war in Niger? Then why are there four dead Americans there and what were they doing there? Trumps June letter spells it all out. The president told lawmakers that United States military personnel in the Lake Chad Basin continue to provide a wide variety of support to African partners conducting counterterrorism operations in the region. In Niger, there are about 645 U.S. military personnel deployed to support these missions. In Cameroon, roughly 300 U.S. military personnel are also deployed, the bulk of whom are supporting United States airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations in the region. These forces are equipped with weapons for the purpose of providing their own force protection and security, and they will remain in Cameroon, with the consent of the government of Cameroon, until their support is no longer needed. Time to Vietnamize the effort? The operation has caused us to begin to re-examine force protection in Niger, said Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee. We have to re-evaluate what were doing there. Few Americans even knew the U.S. was involved in Niger. Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky, trolled fellow GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham on Twitter after the South Carolina senator told NBC he wasnt fully aware of U.S. military operations there. You know you are in too many wars in too many places when even warmonger Lindsay Graham cant keep track anymore, Paul tweeted. This is why Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has long argued that the 2001 and 2002 authorizations Congress approved for wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are calcified. Hes pushed for a retrenched Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) for years now. We were in Niger to deal with an ISIS threat, Kaine said. Its time for Congress to finally revisit the authorization which is badly out of date and have a debate on full view of the American public about all the different countries where we are in engaged in military action right now. Lawmakers of both parties have flirted with such a proposal for several years. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., convenes a hearing Monday about a potential new AUMF with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis. It is perhaps more important than ever that we have a sober national conversation about Congresss Constitutional role in authorizing the use of military force, Corker said. Congress felt it was in the dark a few weeks ago about what went down in Niger and demanded more information from the Pentagon. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., threatened to subpoena military officials after they were less than forthcoming about Niger. That prompted Mattis to pay McCain a courtesy call at his office. When asked in the hall if he hustled to Capitol Hill because of McCains subpoena warning, Mattis stopped in his tracks in a corridor of the Russell Senate Office Building. Are you kidding me? replied an incredulous Mattis. The Defense secretary than ventured over to talk with Graham. After that conclave, Graham offered perhaps the most sober assessment yet about U.S. involvement overseas and perhaps why Congress is mulling a new AUMF. This war is getting hot in places where its been cool, he said about the broader war on terrorism. The war is beginning to morph, Graham also said, noting that there would be more -- not less --operations like the one in Niger. So the U.S. finds itself in Niger and Mali and Cameroon and Chad and the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo and a host of other places few Americans have ever heard of -- to say nothing about Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. The perfect solution would be the Vietnamization of these conflicts as suggested so long ago by Defense Secretary Melvin Laird. But with the U.S. now committed all over the globe, its pretty clear the opposite happened. These battles are now Americanized. Former House Speaker John Boehner, who retired in October 2015, is no longer holding back his anger against several of his former colleagues in Congress. The Ohio Republican talked to Politico Magazine in a lengthy profile Sunday about the widening political divide in America. But he saved his harshest words for conservatives who worked alongside him. Among them: Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who became the chairman of the House Oversight Committee after Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, announced his resignation from Congress, and Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who helped found the Houses Freedom Caucus, which frequently clashed with Boehner. Gowdy thats my guy, even though he doesnt know how to dress, Boehner said. F--- Jordan. F--- [Jason] Chaffetz. Theyre both a--holes. Boehner called Chaffetz a total phony who was more obsessed with self-promotion than the American people. Chaffetz resigned from Congress in June and joined Fox News as a contributor. He didn't immediately respond. Jordan was a terrorist as a legislator going back to his days in the Ohio House and Senate, Boehner added to Politico. A terrorist. A legislative terrorist. Jordan was taken aback. Oh, my goodness. I feel sorry for the guy if hes that bitter about a guy coming here and doing what he told the voters he was gonna do. Wow. I feel bad for him, Jordan told Politico. But in the end, we were not doing what the voters elected us to do and what we told them we were going to do. We just werent. And I would argue the same thing is happening now. Boehner also recounted that before he was best man at Rep. Don Young's wedding, the Alaska Republican restrained him against a wall and held a 10-inch knife to knife to his throat during a fight over measures that fund projects in lawmakers home districts. Boehner responded by staring Young in the eyes and saying, F--- you. Young told Politico that Boehners recollection was mostly true. Speculation has escalated in Washington and across the country as lawmakers await the announcement of at least one indictment in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election an announcement that could come as early as Monday. The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., predicted Sunday on ABC News This Week that two prominent Trump campaign associates believed to be at the center of the investigation former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort could be indicted. MUELLER HAS FILED CHARGES IN RUSSIA-TRUMP ASSOCIATES PROBE: MULTIPLE REPORTS Well, you know, there are two people I think just from press reporting that it is likely to be, either Mike Flynn or Paul Manafort, Schiff said. We havent been informed of who it is, and I dont think it would been appropriate for Bob Mueller to tell us. Manafort has been the subject of an investigation into his dealings in Ukraine several years ago for which he did not file as a foreign agent until June 2017. Flynn was a Trump surrogate during the campaign and briefly served as national security adviser before being fired for failing to fully disclose his conversations with Sergey Kislyak, Russias former ambassador to the United States. The Wall Street Journal reported at least one person could be taken into custody as early as Monday. Meanwhile, House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., told Fox News Sunday, We dont know whos being charged. We dont know what they are being charged for. We dont know the time period. He added it was kind of ironic that the people charged with investigating the law and executing the law would violate the law. GOWDY SLAMS MUELLER TEAM OVER LEAKS ABOUT CHARGES IN TRUMP-RUSSIA PROBE Speaking on CBS News Face the Nation, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. who has publicly feuded in recent days with President Trump said he had no knowledge regarding the indictments, and that hes focused on doing his job for the American people. I dont know the substance. I have no knowledge. Like you, well wait and see what happens, Corker said Sunday. But most of us are focused on the policies we have to deal with on behalf of the American people, and right now you know thats been a sideshow. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also told Face the Nation that Muellers investigation from the very beginning has gone along two tracks. One is the independent counsels investigation to see if theres criminal wrongdoing, and it looks like were going to find out as early as tomorrow about some indictments in that area. On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump was confident Mueller would soon close his investigation. The Justice Departments special counsels office declined to comment on the reports of filed charges. Tony Podesta, founder of the Podesta Group and brother of former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, is resigning from his lobbying company. Podesta and his lobbying firm were subjects of a federal investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The Podesta Group was one of several firms that worked on a campaign called the European Centre for a Modern Ukraine. The campaign was led by Paul Manafort and promoted Ukraines image in the West. Manafort, who served as President Trump's campaign manager for a period last summer, was indicted Friday by Mueller's team for several charges dating back to his work in Ukraine. According to Politico, which first reported the story, Podesta will be handing over full operational and financial control to the companys CEO Kimberly Fritts. In an email to his staff, Podesta reportedly said he was stepping down because he "needs to fight this as an individual, but doesn't want the firm to fight it," a person familiar with the farewell speech said. Dubbed on of DCs 50 heavy lifters by the Financial Times and one of Washingtons biggest players by The New York Times, Podesta turned his once-modest lobbying firm into a heavy hitter. But in the wake of the Mueller investigation the Podesta Group has struggled. About a half dozen of its clients have cut ties with the firm this year. The firm brought in an estimated $4.8 million in the third quarter of 2017, down from $6.1 million in the third quarter of 2016. In a new opposition ad released Monday, supporters of Virginias Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie are seen as Confederates who attack minority children. The minute-long advertisement, titled American Nightmare, was released by Democratic group Latino Victory Fund (LVF). It shows minority children seemingly being chased by a driver in a pickup truck, decked out with a Confederate flag, a Gillespie for governor bumper sticker and a "Don't tread on me" license plate. The driver makes his way toward the scared children who shout, Run! Run! Run! when they see the truck. The ad concludes with a narrator asking: Is this what Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie mean by the American Dream? VIRGINIA GOVERNOR RACE: WHO ARE ED GILLESPIE AND RALPH NORTHAM? American Nightmare is airing through Election Day on Nov. 7 in Richmond and Washington markets on Spanish stations, according to The Washington Post. LVF took to Twitter throughout the day Monday to allege: The Gillespie campaign has consistently promoted a false narrative painting Latinos as criminals and gang members. Ed Gillespie has made it very clear what he thinks of Latinos, and on Election Day, our community will make it clear how we feel about him, another tweet read. In a statement to Fox News, campaign manager Chris Leavitt called the ad part of "a desperate smear campaign" and "an all out attack on the people of Virginia." "Ed Gillespie has focused his campaign on the many policy differences between Ralph Northam and him, but sadly the Northam campaign and its allies have launched a desperate smear campaign against Ed in the closing days of this election," the statement read. "The Lieutenant Governor was roundly rebuked for exploiting imagery from the tragedy of Charlottesville for political points. Now his allies have reached a new low with a disgusting, vile television ad seeking to instill fear in our children with that same imagery," the statement continued. "This is not an attack on Ed Gillespie anymore. This is an all out attack on the people of Virginia. This latest ad gives a clear indication of just what Ralph Northam and his national Democratic allies think of all of us, and its sickening." Northam's campaign has defended the ad. Campaign spokeswoman Ofirah Yheskel said in a statement that, "It's not shocking that communities of color are scared of what his Trump-like policy positions mean for them." VIRGINIA GOVERNOR RACE: CANDIDATES PULL OUT POLITICAL HEAVY HITTERS AS SHOWDOWN GETS NASTY The television spot is the latest in a political battle between Republican candidate Gillespie a former National Republican Committee chairman whos received support from President Trump and Democratic candidate Ralph Northam. Trump has eagerly tweeted support for Gillespie by alleging that Northam is fighting for the violent MS-13 killer gangs & sanctuary cities a narrative Gillespie has pushed through local advertisements. Northams campaign has tried to link Gillespie with the white supremacists who rallied in Charlottesville, Va., in August. Northam slammed the Republican candidate for not denouncing Trump for not calling these white supremacists out for who they are. Fox News' Kaitlyn Schallhorn contributed to this report. From its connection to Hillary Clintons campaign to the publication of a graphic dossier about President Trump, Fusion GPS has become something of a major player in the Russia investigation. The political firm was behind the controversial dossier that contained numerous colorful but unverifiable allegations about Trumps connections to Russia. And that dossier got somebody killed, according to an attorney for Fusion GPS. "Somebodys already been killed as a result of the publication of this dossier and no harm should come to anybody related to this honest work, said attorney Joshua Levy in an Aug. 22 deposition made public. Fusion GPS has been linked to a conservative website as well as the Clintons. Heres what to know about the firm. What is Fusion GPS? Founded by veteran journalists, Fusion GPS provides premium research, strategic intelligence, and due diligence services to corporations, law firms and investors worldwide, according to its sparse website. The Washington, D.C.-based group says it offers a cross-disciplinary approach with expertise in media, politics, regulation, national security, and global markets. Fusion GPS was started in 2009 by former Wall Street Journal reporters Peter Fritsch and Glenn Simpson. How is Fusion GPS linked to the Russia investigation? The political firm was behind the controversial dossier that contained a number of colorful but unverifiable claims about Trump. The company retained British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, who produced the 35-page dossier. While it has not been verified, the dossier, which included explicit sexual and financial allegations against Trump, created further speculation about any Trump connection to Russian officials a question that has dogged his campaign and presidency. Simpson told the House Intelligence Committee in November that some information the firm obtained raised questions about the campaigns involvement with Russians during the election. "I think that the evidence that has developed over the last year, since President Trump took office, is that there is a well-established pattern of surreptitious contacts that occurred last year that supports the broad allegation of some sort of an undisclosed political or financial relationship between the Trump Organization and people in Russia," Simpson said. The dossier was also the catalyst for a surveillance warrant the FBI and Justice Department obtained to spy on Carter Page, a former Trump foreign policy adviser, according to a controversial memo from the House Intelligence Committee. The memo alleges that officials did not reveal who paid for the dossier when requesting the warrant. So who funded the dossier? The firm was originally retained during the election by the conservative website Washington Free Beacon which wanted opposition research on Trump and other GOP candidates. After Trump became the Republican nominee, Clinton and the Democratic National Committee retained Fusion GPS through lawyer Marc Elias and his firm, Perkins Coie. Clinton reportedly did not know about the dossier until BuzzFeed News published it in January 2017. Democrats have defended it as simply opposition research. TRUMP AND THE RUSSIA INVESTIGATION: WHAT TO KNOW It's unclear what Fusion GPS had dug up by the time Perkins Coie hired it or how much money was involved in the transaction. The Clinton campaign and the DNC paid Perkins Coie more than $9 million although its uncertain how much of that money, if any, went toward the dossier. The Clinton campaign and the DNC funded the project until October 2016 right before the election. Trump has suggested that the dossier was funded by Russia, Democrats or the FBI. Anything else? Simpson has done substantial investigative work on the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was imprisoned after reporting a massive tax fraud scheme. Magnitsky died in prison, and the U.S. enacted the Magnitsky Act, which imposes sanctions on certain Russian officials. During the campaign, Donald Trump Jr., the presidents oldest son, took a controversial meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, who was supposed to have damning information about Clinton. Instead, those who went to the meeting said she just wanted to talk about the Magnitsky Act. In his investigative work on Magnitsky, Simpson may have found evidence that contradicts details of the case accepted by the U.S., NBC News reported. Fusion GPS also did work as a firm related to the Magnitsky Act. The Associated Press contributed to this report. George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser to President Trumps campaign, pleaded guilty in 2017 to making false statements to the FBI. Papadopoulos, 31, was charged with willfully and knowingly making false statements to FBI agents regarding the timing, extent and nature of his relationships and interactions with certain foreign nationals whom he understood to have close connections with senior Russian government officials, according to court documents. He was the first person sent to prison in the Russia investigation. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail and was released on Dec. 7. He took a remorseful tone during his sentencing hearing, but he has since attacked Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation as corrupt. How is Papadopoulos connected to Trump? Papadopoulos was an early foreign policy adviser for Trumps presidential campaign. Papadopoulos emailed multiple campaign officials in March 2016 to offer to set up a meeting with Russian officials to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump, The Washington Post reported. He would reportedly continue to make such offers as he worked with the campaign. During the campaign, Papadopoulos reportedly traveled to Israel where he took part in an energy conference. He is seen in a March 2016 Instagram photo that also includes Trump, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other national security advisers. How is Papadopoulos tied to the Russia investigation? After becoming an adviser to the Trump campaign, Papadopoulos interacted with a professor understood to have substantial connections to Russian government officials who told Papadopoulos that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton, Trumps campaign rival, according to court documents released by Muellers office. Papadopoulos had told investigators that the professor divulged the information before he joined the Trump campaign. However, the professor only took interest in [Papadopolous] because of his status with the campaign, according to court documents. MUELLERS RUSSIA INVESTIGATION: WHAT TO KNOW Papadopoulos also repeatedly attempted to use the professors Russian connections as well as that of a female Russian national to arrange meetings between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials, according to the Special Counsels Office. Papadopoulos told an Australian diplomat in Britain that Russia had dirt on Clinton during a night of drinking, The New York Times reported. Later, Australian officials would inform their American counterparts about Papadopoulos, according to the newspaper. That meeting was part of the catalyst behind the FBIs decision to begin investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to The New York Times. What was Trumps response? The Trump administration including the president attempted to distance itself from Papadopoulos. Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar, Trump said on Twitter. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders simply referred to him as a volunteer on an advisory council when asked multiple times about Papadopouloss influence on the campaign during a press briefing. What else should you know about Papadopoulos? Before joining Trumps campaign, Papadopoulos was an adviser for Dr. Ben Carsons 2016 presidential campaign. Aside from campaign work, Papadopoulos has worked as an oil and gas consultant, his LinkedIn page said. Much of his work has revolved around natural gas and Greece, Cyprus and Israel, according to The Washington Post. He was also the director of the Center for International Energy and Natural Resources Law & Security at the London Center of International Law Practice. From Chicago, Illinois, Papadopoulos graduated from DePaul University in 2009. He also received a Master of Science from the University of London, according to his LinkedIn page. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Paul Manafort's prison stay was extended Wednesday nearly a week after he was sentenced to 47 months on bank and tax fraud charges in a separate case. The former Trump campaign chairman is now slated to spend a total of 81 months in prison. He was given extra prison time at his second sentencing in connection with his guilty plea related to foreign lobbying and witness tampering. In August, Manafort became the first Trump campaign associate to be found guilty by a jury as part of Special Counsel Robert Muellers long-running probe. He was convicted of eight bank and tax fraud charges at that time. PAUL MANAFORT SENTENCED ON FOREIGN LOBBYING AND WITNESS TAMPERING CHARGES Manafort has been the subject of an investigation over his dealings in Ukraine several years ago he didnt file as a foreign agent until June 2017. But Mueller has incorporated that investigation into his probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion with Trump associates. Manafort was convicted on multiple counts of financial fraud last year in connection with his Ukranian work, and is in prison. In November, Mueller accused Manafort of lying "on a variety of subject matters" since his plea deal, thus violating that agreement. Read on for a look at Manafort's work with the Trump campaign and how he is connected to the Russia investigation. What kind of foreign work did Manafort do? A GOP operative who worked for former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Manafort reportedly began his work in Republican politics in the 1970s. Eventually, Manafort was hired by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a controversial pro-Russia politician who was ousted from power twice. After Yanukovych was elected president in 2010, Manafort reportedly stayed on as an adviser and worked on other projects in Eastern Europe, including the Party of Regions political party. Manafort also worked for Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska. In 2005, Manafort allegedly came up with a plan to influence U.S. politics, business dealings and the media in order to greatly benefit the Putin government, according to The Associated Press. Deripaska is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and signed a $10 million annual contract with Manafort in 2006; they maintained a business relationship until at least 2009. Financial records obtained by The New York Times indicated that Manafort was in debt to pro-Russian interests by up to $17 million prior to joining Donald Trumps presidential campaign. He also took more than a dozen trips to Moscow and frequently talked to Putin allies over a period of about 10 years, McClatchy reported. He traveled to Kiev at least 19 times in 20 months after the February 2014 removal of Ukraines pro-Russia leader. How was Manafort involved with Trump's campaign? Manafort joined Trump's presidential campaign in March 2016 to help wrangle delegates ahead of the Republican National Convention in Ohio, something he'd done for former President Gerald Ford. Just two months later, Manafort became Trump's campaign chairman. Manaforts resignation from the campaign was announced on August 19, 2016, after The Times reported that he'd received $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments from Yanukovychs pro-Russian party between 2007 and 2012. Manafort and Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, met with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June 2016. She reportedly was said to have damaging information on Trumps campaign rival, Hillary Clinton, which was "part of Russia and its governments support for Mr. Trump." What was Manafort charged with? Along with his former business associate Rick Gates, Manafort was initially indicted in October 2017 on multiple counts that included: conspiracy against the U.S., conspiracy to launder money, false statements and failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Nearly four months later, in February 2018, the pair were hit with additional tax evasion and bank fraud charges. These charges involved much of the same conduct Manafort and Gates were initially accused of, but the amount of money Manafort said to have laundered through offshore accounts increased to $30 million. In June 2018, Mueller's team brought additional charges of obstruction of justice against Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, an associate. The charges against Manafort and Gates dont relate to allegations of misconduct during Trumps campaign. Mueller also accused Manafort of secretly paying former European politicians to lobby on behalf of Ukraine. Manafort was found guilty of eight counts in August in the first trial victory for Mueller's team. The judge declared a mistrial on 10 other counts after jurors failed to reach a unanimous verdict. In September, Manafort pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with Mueller's team ahead of his second trial. According to Politico, the plea deal includes a 10-year cap for how long Manafort will be in prison. It also includes allowing Manafort to serve his time for both trials concurrently. He received a nearly 4-year prison sentence on March 7 after a federal jury in Virginia convicted him on eight counts of bank and tax fraud last year. A week later, on March 13, he received an additional three and a half years on foreign lobbying and witness tampering charges. Manafort previously maintained his innocence despite all of the charges brought before him but he has since expressed remorse for his actions. "I am sorry for what I have done and all the activities that have gotten us here today," Manafort said in a written statement in March, begging a judge for mercy. Fox News' Ann Schmidt, Jake Gibson, Alex Pappas, Matt Richardson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Sen. Bob Menendez will not face a new bribery and corruption trial after all, federal prosecutors said last month. The Department of Justice had announced earlier this year that it intended to retry the New Jersey Democrat after a federal judge declared a mistrial in the case in November, but ultimately walked away from the pursuit. Menendez was accused of accepting a plethora of donations and gifts from a wealthy friend in exchange for political influence. Both Menendez and the doctor, Salomon Melgen, maintained their innocence. From the very beginning, I never wavered in my innocence and my belief that justice would prevail. I am grateful that the Department of Justice has taken the time to reevaluate its case and come to the appropriate conclusion, Menendez said on social media following the announcement. Menendez is up for re-election this year. He was selected to replace former Gov. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., in the Senate in 2005. He rejoined the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee as its ranking member on Feb. 6, after stepping down from the post when he was indicted in 2015. Read on for a look at what Menendez was accused of and what happened in the trial. What was Menendez accused of? Menendez, 64, accepted an abundance of campaign donations, gifts and vacations from Salomon Melgen, a Florida ophthalmologist, prosecutors alleged when Menendez faced trial in 2017. In return, prosecutors claimed, he used his position to lobby on behalf of Melgens business interests. Melgen allegedly directed more than $750,000 in campaign contributions to entities that supported Menendez, according to the indictment, which prosecutors said were inducements to get Menendez to use his influence on Melgen's behalf. Prosecutors have also accused Menendez of trying to hide the gifts. Melgen paid for Menendez and his girlfriend to stay for three nights at a Parisian hotel where rooms typically cost about $1,500 per night and allowed the senator the use of his private jet, according to prosecutors. Federal prosecutors said that Menendez sold his office for a lifestyle that he couldnt afford. The indictment also alleged that Menendez pressured State Department officials to give visas to three young women described as Melgen's girlfriends. What was the senators defense? Both Menendez and Melgen pleaded not guilty and Menendez has vehemently denied the accusations against him. Throughout the original trial, defense attorneys sought to prove that Menendez and Melgen have been friends since before the former became a senator, and the trips were nothing more than friends traveling together. Is there anything else to know about Salomon Melgen? Melgen, 63, was convicted of 67 counts of health care fraud in April 2017 in what the Palm Beach Post called one of the biggest Medicare fraud cases in the U.S. Melgen was sentenced to 17 years in prison on Feb. 22 for Medicare fraud, as he persuaded patients to undergo treatments they did not necessarily need. Aside from Menendez, Melgen has given significant amounts of money to a variety of Democratic lawmakers, according to public records. How did the trial end? After the jury again informed the judge they could not reach a decision, U.S. District Court Judge William H. Walls declared a mistrial, saying he found no alternative. The mistrial was declared on Nov. 16. The Associated Press contributed to this report. As President Trump weighs what actions he wants to take in response to a purported chemical attack in Syria, a debate among lawmakers and congressional scholars has been reignited what should Congress do about the Authorization for Use of Military Force? House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has said Trump needs a new AUMF from Congress before he can authorize a strike in Syria. And Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has called on colleagues to debate bills that grant the president the ability to use military force in general. Read on for a look at the law and why its controversial. What is AUMF, and why was it created? AUMF became a public law on Sept. 18, 2001 as a response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The resolution, in part, allows for the president to use all necessary and appropriate forces against terrorists who committed or aided in the 9/11 attacks particularly, Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Under former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, AUMF was used to authorize military action in Afghanistan, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Georgia, Iraq, Kenya, the Philippines, Somalia and Yemen. Another resolution authorizing military force was approved by Congress in 2002, pertaining to Iraq. Why is it relevant now? AUMF originally authorized the president to use military force on specific terrorist organizations, but its been misused over the years by both Obama and Trump to fight other terrorist groups around the world, Jimmy Gurule, a Notre Dame law professor, told Fox News. Its pretty obvious just from the text that it was in response to the 9/11 attacks and intended to authorize the president to use force and kill the persons responsible for the terror attacks, Gurule, a former assistant attorney general, said. Here we are 16 years after the authorization was passed by Congress. As Trump weighs his options in Syria, lawmakers, such as Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., have called on the president to seek congressional authorization before any military action, such as an airstrike. But House Speaker Paul Ryan said Trump already has broad authority to attack Syria, saying, "The existing AUMF gives him the authority he needs to do what he may or may not do." Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., disagreed with Ryan's assessment on Twitter. Multiple lawmakers also expressed desire to review the broad war authority resolution after the deadly Niger ambush, which left questions as to why U.S. troops are in the African country. For 16 years, Congress has remained largely silent on this issue, allowing administrations to go to war anywhere, anytime, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said in 2017. A new AUMF is not only legally necessary, it would also send an important message of resolve to the American public and our troops that we stand behind them in their mission. Who is to blame for its misuse? Although multiple presidents have used AUMF for unintended purposes, both the executive and legislative branches are to blame, Gurule said. There have been repeated efforts to get Congress to adopt a new resolution focused on ISIS, but for many reasons Congress cant come to an agreement on what the scope of the new AUMF should be, he said, citing arguments over the type of force, temporal limitations and geographical boundaries. The House Appropriations Committee voted to strike the 2001 AUMF in June 2017, but the repeal was eventually removed from the defense appropriations bill later that month. Pauls bill to sunset the AUMFs was scuttled in September 2017. Although specifics werent provided, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un joined his counterpart to the south in promising to rid the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons. The vow to create a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula through complete denuclearization came during the Koreas historic summit between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in in late April, and just before a much-anticipated meeting between Kim and U.S. President Trump. I feel like Im firing a flare at the starting line in the moment of (the two Koreas) writing a new history in North-South relations, peace and prosperity, Kim told Moon. Kim is the first known member of his familys dynasty to set foot on South Korean soil since 1953. There, at least in front of cameras, his rhetoric drastically changed since he engaged in a war of words with Trump throughout the first year of the U.S. presidents time in the White House. (Kim called Trump a dotard; Trump called the North Korean leader short and fat.) Since Kim took over North Korea in 2011, the regime rapidly expanded and tested its missile arsenal with weapons capable of striking the U.S. mainland. His end goal, he once said, was to "establish the equilibrium of real force with the U.S. and make the U.S. rulers dare not talk about military options for the North. Read on for a brief look at how North Koreas nuclear weapons program has grown throughout the regimes in the past century. Kim Il Sung, leader from 1948-1994 Kim Il Sung can be credited with founding North Korea and propelling the nations nuclear program forward but he did not live to see his country conduct its first nuclear test. It was under the first Kim that North Korea began to build up its nuclear reactors. And it was under his leadership that the nation began the Korean War surely a catalyst that led the leader to believe his nation needed nuclear weapons, Dr. Sung-Yoon Lee, the Kim Koo-Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Studies at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, told Fox News in an interview. TRUMPS COMMENTS ON NORTH KOREA, FROM FIRE AND FURY TO BLAMING CHINA The seeds of nuclear aspirations were sown in the Korean War, Lee said. The Korean War pitted North Korea and its ally China two nations that did not have nuclear capabilities at the time against a nuclear-armed U.S., making it clear to the first Kim that nuclear weapons are very powerful, a powerful deterrent, Lee said. Kim Jong Il, leader from 1994-2011 When the second leader of the Kim dynasty died in 2011, Kim Jong Il was remembered as the dictator who turned North Korea into a nuclear state, in his New York Times obituary. And its Kim Jong Il that really gets the credit of taking the country down the nuclear path," Lee said. In the beginning of his reign he was North Koreas supreme leader from 1994 to 2011 North Korea denied that it had a nuclear weapons program. TIMELINE OF NORTH KOREAN MISSILE LAUNCHES IN 2017 However, in 2003, Pyongyang announced that North Korea was withdrawing from the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which barred the nation from making nuclear weapons. By 2005, North Korea confirmed that it had its own nuclear weapons. It tested its first nuclear device in 2006. Kim Jong Un, leader from 2011-present Kim Jong Un is credited with accelerating North Koreas push for nuclear weapons, and under the Obama administration, many of the worlds attitudes toward the East Asian nations nuclear capabilities became less blase than in the past, Lee said. Kim Jong Un also crossed a major threshold for his country in the summer of 2017 the ability to credibly threaten the U.S. with an intercontinental ballistic missile. In 2017, North Korea successfully tested its longest-ever flight of a ballistic missile. The intermediate-range weapon traveled 3,700 miles and passed over Japan before it landed in the Pacific. The country also tested its most powerful nuclear test to date this year. After the missile test, Kim Jong Un said North Korea is nearing equilibrium with the U.S. in terms of its military force. The increasingly frequent and aggressive tests added to outside fears that North Korea is closer than ever to building a military arsenal that could viably target the mainland of the U.S. or its allies in Asia. Calling Kim Jong Un Rocket Man, Trump said in 2017 the dictator is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime. The United States has great strength and patience, Trump said. But if it is forced to defend itself or its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea. But 2018 brought a dramatic turn of events after he declared in a stark New Years address that a nuclear launch button is always on my table. Kim Jong Un offered to meet with Trump and became the first known member of his familys dynasty to set foot in South Korea since 1953. At the historic summit with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, both leaders pushed for peace and would work toward a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula. However, neither leader provided any specific measures or seemed to forge a potential breakthrough on the issue that has captivated and terrified many, especially since last year. Before Trump canceled a much-anticipated meeting with Kim Jong Un, North Korea said it demolished what it claimed to be its nuclear test site, setting off several explosions over the course of a few hours in the presence of foreign journalists. The planned closing of the Punggye-ri site was previously announced, but it's unclear if another facility could be used to continue the country's nuclear weapons program. Yongbyon nuclear complex, located about 64 miles north of Pyongyang, has a new reactor that could produce weapons-grade plutonium. Pyongyang insists is being used to produce electricity for its citizens. Trump ultimately rejected Kim Jong Un's invitation to a June meeting in Singapore, citing North Korea's "open hostility." Fox News Edmund DeMarche, Ryan Gaydos and The Associated Press contributed to this report. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates have been indicted by a federal grand jury Monday on 12 counts, according to the special counsels office. The special counsels office told Fox News that the counts include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading Foreign Agent Registration (FARA) statements, false statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign banks and financial accounts. Manafort and Gates will appear before Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinsonat 1:30pm on Monday for an initial appearance and arraignment, the special counsel's office said. In addition, a guilty plea by former Trump campaign policy adviser George Papadopoulos was announced by Mueller. He admitted to making false statements to FBI agents as part of the investigation. The cases were unsealed Monday, after Manafort and Gates were permitted to surrender themselves to the custody of the FBI, the special counsels office told Fox News. Manafort and Gates face the first charges in the special counsels investigation. This is also the first time the special counsel's office has confirmed that a grand jury has been impaneled. President Trump tweeted on the news of the indictments. "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" Trump tweeted, adding moments later, "....Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" According to the indictment, reviewed by Fox News, between at least 2006 and 2015, Manafort and Gates acted as unregistered agents of the Government of Ukraine, the Party of Regions, a Ukrainian political party whose leader Victor Yanukovych was president from 2010 to 2014, and the Opposition Bloc. Manafort and Gates generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their work in Ukraine. The indictment says that Manafort and Gates laundered the money through scores of the United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts in order to hide Ukraine payments from U.S. authorities. More than $75 million flowed through offshore accounts. Manafort, alone, laundered more than $18 million which was used by the former Trump campaign chairman to buy property, goods, and services in the U.S. Manafort concealed that income from the U.S. Treasury and the Department of Justice. First reported by The New York Times, Manafort and Gates are expected in federal court on Monday. Gates is a longtime associate of Manafort. According to The Times, his name appeared on documents linked to companies that Manaforts firm created in Cyprus to receive payments from politicians and businesspeople in Eastern Europe. White House lawyer Ty Cobb told Fox News he had no comment on the report at this time. It was widely speculated that Manafort would receive the first charges in Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation. Manafort was fired as Trumps campaign chairman in August 2016, and has been investigated for his dealings in Ukraine several years ago, for which he did not register as a foreign agent until June 2017. Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez, said the indictment "underscores the seriousness" of the Mueller probe. "The Chairman of Donald Trumps campaign and his deputy have been charged with conspiracy against the United States, money laundering, and making false statements all related to their work to promote a pro-Putin regime," Perez said in a statement. "Its time for Republicans to commit to protecting this investigation and preserving the rule of law." But Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., said on "America's Newsroom" that there is "no evidence" linking the Trump campaign to collusion. "This pre-dates the campaign entirely, and could pre-date Paul Manafort even meeting Donald Trump. This has nothing to do with the campaign," King told Fox News. "The investigation still has to go forward but what Ive seen so far, is there is no evidence at all linking the trump campaign to Russian influence or collusion." Rick Gates, a business associate of President Trumps former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, pleaded guilty Friday to federal conspiracy and false-statement charges stemming from Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Like Manafort, Gates was hit with new charges on Feb. 22 that included allegations of tax evasion and bank fraud. Gates, 45, and Manafort, 68, were initially indicted in October, with the accusation of a multimillion-dollar money-laundering conspiracy tied to lobbying work for a Russia-friendly Ukrainian political party. But because of Gates' guilty plea agreement, Mueller has moved to drop the 22 tax and bank fraud charges against him. Heres a look at who Gates is and how he is tied to Trump and the Russia investigation. Who is Rick Gates? A reported protege of Manaforts, Gates, too, worked for the Trump campaign and outlasted Manafort. Like Manafort, Gates helped wrangle delegates at the high-stakes 2016 Republican National Convention. The onetime deputy campaign manager also helped start the nonprofit America First Policies (AFP), created to advance the White Houses agenda. But Gates eventually left the group, reportedly due to his ties to Manafort. Erin Montgomery, a spokesperson for AFP, distanced the nonprofit from Gates. "We believe it is important to clarify that Rick Gates' association with America First Policies was informal and limited, and, as noted in press reports, ended around March of this year," Montgomery told Fox News. But even after leaving the nonprofit, Gates still visited the White House multiple times, the Daily Beast reported. The publication alleged that Gates is disliked by Trump. How is he connected to the Russia investigation? During Manaforts work with Ukraine, Gates would fly to Moscow to take meetings with Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, The New York Times reported. And Gates name has appeared on documents linked to companies that Manaforts firm has set up to receive payments in Eastern Europe, according to the newspaper. Everything was done legally and with the approval of our lawyers, Gates has told The Times. Nothing to my knowledge was ever done inappropriately. Gates was also named alongside Manafort in a 2011 Ukrainian racketeering lawsuit. What has he been charged with? A 32-count indictment, unrelated to allegations of misconduct during the Trump campaign, returned by a federal grand jury in February alleged that Gates and Manafort doctored financial documents, lied to tax preparers and defrauded banks using money they cycled through offshore accounts to spend lavishly, including on real estate, interior decorating and other luxury goods. Specifically, Gates was accused of 11 counts related to filing false income tax returns and three counts of failure to report foreign bank and financial accounts. Along with Manafort, he was accused of nine counts of bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. The indictment alleged Gates and Manafort fraudulently obtained more than $20 million from financial institutions in loans after their Ukrainian work subsided. The indictment also increased the amount of money Manafort, with the help of Gates, is accused of laundering to $30 million. Gates pleaded guilty to the charges on Feb. 23. After Gates' plea, Mueller moved to drop the 22 bank and tax fraud charges against him. The decision to drop the more expansive charges against Gates could suggest that the former Trump campaign official is cooperating and providing good information to Mueller's team. Notwithstanding that Rick Gates pled today, I continue to maintain my innocence, Manafort responded to Gates' guilty plea in a statement. I had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. For reasons yet to surface he chose to do otherwise. Gates has struggled with his lawyers. His initial representation withdrew after acknowledging irreconcilable differences with their client. Fox News' Jodie Curtis, Sam Chamberlain, Jake Gibson, James Rosen and Brooke Singman contributed to this report. The Associated Press also contributed to this report. The husband of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri was hospitalized Monday in the intensive care unit, the senator announced on Twitter. "My husband has a very big heart but right now not working very well. Currently in ICU. Thanks for your prayers in advance," she wrote on Twitter about her husband, Joseph Shepard. McCaskill spokeswoman Sarah Feldman told the Associated Press that Shepard is hospitalized in St. Louis, but had no further details about his condition. McCaskill and Shepard, a millionaire developer, have been married since 2002. The couple has a home in suburban St. Louis and a condominium in Washington. In 2014, McCaskill had to postpone an official U.S. delegation trip to France for the 70th anniversary commemoration of D-Day because Shepard was hospitalized, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The Associated Press contributed to this story. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis told Senate lawmakers at a hearing Monday that the U.S. needs the authority to deploy troops oversees to fight terror, as the killing of four U.S. service members in Niger earlier this month drew significant scrutiny. Mattis and Tillerson testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which they privately told several months ago that the post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) gives the U.S. military ample authority to fight terrorist groups. However, the deadly Oct. 4 ambush on U.S. troops has brought to light the extent to which America's military is fighting terrorism in foreign countries, including Afghanistan, Syria and Niger, one of a reported half-dozen African countries with American troops. Speaking to the committee, the two men said if Congress does pursue a new authorization for foes such as Islamic State terrorists, it's imperative the existing law not be rescinded until a new one is fully in place. Tillerson and Mattis also said that any new war authorization, like the existing one, should not have any geographic or time restrictions so as not to tip the enemy off. Though a statement of continued congressional support would be welcome, a new (war authorization) is not legally required to address the continuing threat posed by Al Qaeda, the Taliban and ISIS, Mattis said. Doing away with existing laws prematurely could only signal to our enemies and our friends that we are backing away from this fight, he continued. Asked if there were circumstances that would allow Trump to preemptively strike North Korea or other countries with nuclear weapons, Mattis said the question was hypothetical. Mattis said that he could forsee a situation where its possible to preemptively fire weapons should another country be preparing to use weapons of mass destruction at the United States. But, Mattis said, the process for launching nuclear weapons is very rigorous. Tillerson said that no U.S. president has foresworn first strike and that has served us well for 70 years. Some Congressional Republicans and Democrats after the Niger ambush seemed startled to learn the depth of the U.S. commitment, which has reignited a Capitol Hill debate about replacing or updating the post-Sept. 11 authorization to reflect current threats. Among those who have called for changes is Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. We were in Niger to deal with an ISIS threat, he said recently. Its time for Congress to finally revisit the authorization, which is badly out of date and have a debate on full view of the American public about all the different countries where we are in engaged in military action right now. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., recently trolled Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on Twitter after Graham told NBC he wasnt fully aware of U.S. military operations there. You know you are in too many wars in too many places when even warmonger Lindsay Graham cant keep track anymore, Paul tweeted. Kaine and Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., are sponsoring legislation to install a new war authority for operations against ISIS, Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Roughly 800 U.S. service members are in Niger as part of a French-led mission to defeat the extremists in West Africa. Those calling for the 2001 authorization to be updated also argue Islamic State militants didn't exist 16 years ago and they are entrenched in a country Syria that the U.S. didn't expect to be fighting in. Nor did the 16-year-old authorization anticipate military confrontations with the Syrian government. Trump in April ordered the firing of dozens of Tomahawk missiles at an air base in central Syria and American forces in June shot down a Syrian Air Force fighter jet. Beyond that, Trump approved a troop increase in Afghanistan, the site of America's longest war, and the U.S. backs a Saudi Arabia-led coalition carrying out airstrikes in Yemen. Previous attempts to end the old authorization and force Congress to craft a new one have failed. Democrats in the House complained that Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., used underhanded tactics after an amendment was stripped from a military spending bill that would have repealed the 2001 war authorization 240 days after the bill was enacted. Proponents of the measure said eight months was enough time to approve new war authority. GOP leaders said voting to rescind existing war authority without a replacement in hand risks leaving U.S. troops and commanders in combat zones without the necessary legal authority they need to carry out military operations. A similar effort in the Senate, led by Paul, also came up short. Paul, a member of the committee and a leader of the GOP's noninterventionist wing, has accused his colleagues of surrendering their war-making power to the White House. Fox News Rich Edson, Chad Pergram and The Associated Press contributed to this report. President Trump is having more success getting judges confirmed than Democrat Barack Obama did at this early stage in their presidencies, and that disparity is expected to increase this week as the GOP-led Senate pushes through more of Trump's choices. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has set the stage for votes on four of the president's appellate court nominees and one district court nominee starting Monday night. In doing so, he declared that Democrats would be unsuccessful in stopping their confirmation. "We are not going to let these mindless attempts to slow progress stop us from confirming the president's nominees to the judiciary," McConnell said in teeing up the votes. McConnell's frustration stems from Democratic insistence on using all the time Senate rules allow for moving to an up-or-down vote on the nominee. It also ignores the many ways Republicans blocked Obama's choices, most notably the Democratic president's nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Republicans refused to even hold a hearing on Garland, insisting in February 2016 that the president chosen months later in November should fill the court vacancy. Republican senators also blocked 18 Obama nominees by refusing to sign off on a so-called blue slip, thus signaling their opposition. Democrats became so frustrated with the use of the filibuster to block Obama's court nominees that they voted in 2013 to lower the threshold for overcoming the filibuster from 60 votes to a simple majority. Republicans expanded the threshold covering district and appellate court judges to Supreme Court nominations earlier this year in response to Democratic opposition to Trump's pick of Neil Gorsuch for the high court. "It's incredibly rich that Republicans are now accusing the Democrats of obstructionism," said Daniel Goldberg, legal director at the Alliance For Justice, a liberal judicial advocacy group. In all, Trump has had eight federal judges confirmed so far, including Gorsuch and four circuit court judges. In comparison, Obama had five judges confirmed at this stage of his presidency, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor and one appellate court judge. Obama got off to a much slower start in nominating judges than Trump has. Obama had nominated one Supreme Court justice and 24 appellate and district court nominees at this stage compared to one Supreme Court justice and 57 appellate and district court nominees for Trump. Still, conservatives have been frustrated with the pace in the Republican-controlled Senate and blamed McConnell. The Judicial Crisis Network threatened to run ads against McConnell but backed off after winning assurances from the Kentucky Republican that the pace will quicken. More than legislation, filling lifetime posts on the courts is a presidential legacy that reverberates for decades. President Ronald Reagan secured the most judicial confirmations among the recent two-term presidents with 402. President Bill Clinton secured 387 judicial appointments, followed by George W. Bush at 340, and Obama at 334, according to statistics maintained by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts McConnell has scheduled a vote on the nomination of Trevor McFadden of Virginia, a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department, to serve as a district judge. The Senate also will hold a procedural vote on moving ahead on the nomination of Notre Dame law professor Amy Coney Barrett to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. "We are having to spend 30 hours on the cloture of a district judge," complained Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo. "I have been here 21 years now, and I have never heard of that. We have to get the appointments through. That is one of our prime jobs, to provide advice and consent for the president, and it is not happening on a timely basis." Conservative groups are pushing hard for Barrett's confirmation, and criticized Democrats for questioning whether her Catholic beliefs would influence her legal decisions. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said the challenge to Barrett was a painful reminder of a time when "anti-Catholic bigotry did distort our laws and civil order." Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the Judicial Committee, said Barrett had no experience as a judge and worked on only one trial before becoming a professor. She rejected the notion that she was applying a religious test in Barrett's confirmation, saying, "I think that has been exaggerated out of any reality." McConnell also moved to limit debate on Michigan Supreme Court Justice Joan Larsen to serve as a circuit judge, along with Colorado Supreme Court Justice Allison Eid and University of Pennsylvania law professor Stephanos Bibas. Larsen and Eid were on the short list of candidates for the Supreme Court that Trump released last year on his way to winning the GOP nomination for president. President Trump fired back on Monday in an attempt to distance his White House from the grand jury indictments of his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an aide, noting their crimes were committed years before they worked on the campaign. The president led a chorus of critics of the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, noting that the crimes for which Manafort and his aide, Rick Gates, are charged appear to predate the presidential campaign by years. Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why arent Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? Trump tweeted Monday. .Also, there is NO COLLUSION! Manafort and Gates were indicted by a federal grand jury Friday on 12 counts, including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading Foreign Agent Registration (FARA) statements, false statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign banks and financial accounts. The indictments were announced Monday. Muellers team also unsealed a guilty plea by former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who admitted to making false statements to FBI agents as part of the investigation. According to court documents, Papadopoulos false statements were in regards to his relationship with a Russian professor, who had ties to Russian government officials. The special counsel probe and Russia hoax, as the president has described it, has cast a cloud over the Trump administration. But last week, the White House enjoyed a shift in focus, amid new revelations in the controversial Obama-era Uranium One deal and the payments behind the salacious anti-Trump dossier. Reports last week revealed that Hillary Clintons campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid more than $9 million to law firm Perkins Coie, which commissioned Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research that ultimately led to the now-infamous dossier. Over the weekend, it was revealed that the conservative Washington Free Beacon website initially funded the opposition research into then-candidate Donald Trump and other GOP contenders for the White House. Lawyers for the Free Beacon told the House Intelligence Committee that the website funded the research between fall 2015 and spring 2016. TRUMP TWEETS ON REPORTS THAT OBAMA CAMPAIGN PAID LAW FIRM THAT HIRED FUSION GPS But some Republicans say that the Manafort-Gates indictments provide no evidence in the Russian collusion narrative. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., who has repeatedly called for Muellers resignation, over the special counsels relationship with former FBI Director James Comey, said the indictment doesnt have anything to do with Donald Trump. I believe that Mr. Muellers conflict of interest is absolutely incontrovertible, and I think this is further indication hes headed in this direction no matter what, Franks said on his local radio station, KTAR-FM Morning News, Monday. Its ironic because ostensibly his investigation is supposed to be into Donald Trumps potential involvement with Russia, yet this doesnt have anything to do with Donald Trump. MUELLER FACING NEW REPUBLICAN PRESSURE TO RESIGN IN RUSSIA PROBE Franks added: They may try to parlay it into something to hook President Trump in, but right now, this is par for the course. I should suggest this was kind of predictable. Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, which is leading its own Russia probe, echoed a similar sentiment. This pre-dates the campaign entirely, and could pre-date Paul Manafort even meeting Donald Trump. This has nothing to do with the campaign, King told Fox News on Americas Newsroom Monday. The investigation still has to go forward but what Ive seen so far, is there is no evidence at all linking the Trump campaign to Russian influence or collusion. The Senate Intelligence Committee is also leading a bipartisan Russia probe, and said that the indictment "doesn't change" their investigation. "The special counsel has found a reason on criminal violations to indict two individuals and I will leave that up to the special counsel to make that determination. It doesn't change anything with our investigation," Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C. said in a statement to Fox News. "We received documents from and had interest in two of the individuals named, but clearly the criminal charges put them in the Special Counsel's purview." But Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., the ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said that the indictments are significant and a sobering step in the special counsels investigation. Thats why it is imperative that Congress take action now to protect the independence of the Special Counsel, wherever, or however high his investigation may lead, Warner said in a statement Monday. Members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, must also make clear to the President that issuing pardons to any of his associates or to himself would be unacceptable and result in immediate, bipartisan action by Congress. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also said that the president must not, under any circumstances, interfere with Muellers work. If he does so, Congress must respond swiftly, unequivocally, and in a bipartisan way to ensure that the investigation continues, Schumer said in a statement Monday. While Trump has not suggested any plans to interfere with the special counsel investigation, there are currently two pieces of legislation in the Senate, with bipartisan sponsorship, that would ensure a judicial check on the executive branchs ability to remove a special counsel. Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., are behind the bills, along with Democratic senators. "The president is not firing the special counsel," Trump's attorney, Jay Sekulow, said on CNN Monday. White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders also said Monday the president has "no intention or plan to make any changes in regard to Special Counsel." Though some argue the indictments are irrelevant to the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, former top-ranking Justice Department official under both Bush and Obama administrations, James Trusty, told Fox News that this is what happens during a broad investigation. Last week, Mueller expanded his probe to investigate Democratic lobbyist Tony Podestas dealings with Manafort and a Ukrainian nonprofit. The Podesta Group told Fox News last week they were cooperating with the special counsels office. Trusty said last week that Mueller has a lot of room to legitimately poke around and find information on one party or another. Its a cliche, but a good cliche prosecutors go where the evidence leads them, Trusty told Fox News last week. When you define the mission broadly, there is a lot of room for [an independent prosecutors] exploration. Trusty said that if a special counsels mission is defined broadly, it is all fair game if the independent prosecutor is doing his job the right way. President Trump tweeted early Monday about reports that the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to the firm behind the salacious anti-Trump dossier. Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS. The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OKd! Trump tweeted Monday morning. The president was referring to a report by The Federalist on Sunday which alleged that former President Obamas official campaign organization directed nearly one million dollars to Perkins Coie--the same law firm that sent money to Fusion GPS for the research leading to the now-infamous dossier. According to records filed with the Federal Election Commission, Obama for America paid Perkins Coie more than $972,000 after April of 2016. The first round of payments were classified as Legal Services and were made in April 2016, totaling $98,047. A second batch of payments, also classified as Legal Services, were sent to the firm in September 2016, totaling nearly $700,000. The Obama for America organization also sent payments totaling $174,725 through August 2017, according to the report. The report comes after a week of new information surrounding the dossier. On Friday, the Washington Examiner reported that Fusion GPS was initially hired by the conservative Washington Free Beacon website to conduct opposition research into then-candidate Donald Trump and other GOP contenders for the White House. Lawyers for the Free Beacon told the House Intelligence Committee that the website funded the research between fall 2015 and spring 2016. House Intelligence Committee spokesman Jack Langer told Fox News Friday that the Free Beacon has issued a statement asserting that it had no involvement with Christopher Steele or the dossier he compiled from Russian sources. The Free Beacon has agreed to cooperate with the House Intelligence Committee to help the Committee verify this assertion. Also last week, Fox News confirmed reports that the Clinton campaign and the DNC paid more than $9 million to Perkins Coie, which, in turn, retained the political consultants who commissioned the opposition research. Hillary Clinton has been silent about the revelations, but her top campaign spokesman, Brian Fallon, said last week that she may have known, but the degree of exactly what she knew is beyond my knowledge, while an anonymous source told reporters that she only learned about the dossier when it was published by BuzzFeed News in January. A DNC official told Fox News that the current Chairman Tom Perez and the new leadership of the DNC were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS, nor were they aware that Perkins Coie was working with the organization. A spokesman for then-DNC chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, D-Fla., told Fox News last week that she did not have any knowledge of this arrangement. When the revelations surfaced last week, the president called the project a disgrace and claimed the tables have turned on the Democrats in the Russia hoax. This whole Russia thingthis was the Democrats coming up with an excuse for losing the election, Trump told reporters. They lost it and they lost very badly. And they didnt know what to say, so they made up the whole Russia hoax. American special operations forces and FBI agents have captured a militant who allegedly was involved in the deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, two U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News on Monday. Officials identified the suspect as Mustafa al-Imam. The capture took place Sunday at an unknown location in Libya. The attack, on September 11, 2012, killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Al-Imam is being transported back to Washington where he will be charged in federal court, a U.S. official told Fox News. The Department of Justice has the lead on the prosecution. He will not be going to Guantanamo Bay, officials told Fox News. They said President Trump had approved the mission, which was carried out in coordination with Libyas internationally recognized government. "Our memory is deep and our reach is long, and we will not rest in our efforts to find and bring the perpetrators of the heinous attacks in Benghazi to justice," Trump said. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson added that he'd spoken with the relatives of some of the Americans who died in Benghazi. Tillerson said the U.S. would "spare no effort" to ensure al-Imam is held accountable. ALLEGED BENGHAZI MASTERMIND 'HATES AMERICA,' PROSECUTORS SAY "I am grateful to the FBI, our partners in the intelligence community, and the Department of Defense who made this apprehension possible. The United States will continue to investigate and identify all those who were involved in the attack and we will hold them accountable for their crimes," Attorney General Jeff Sessions reacted. The Associated Press first reported the capture. In addition to Stevens, the attack killed Sean Smith, an information management officer with the U.S. Foreign Service, and two former Navy SEALs, Glen Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods. Earlier this month, the trial of Ahmed Abu Khattala began, the alleged mastermind of the 2012 attacks. Its not clear if the suspect detailed by U.S. special operations forces is one of Khattalas lieutenants. Khatallah had been awaiting trail since 2014, when U.S. Army commandos and FBI agents captured him in Benghazi and put him on a Navy ship for detention in an American prison inside the United States. Fox News' Jake Gibson and The Associated Press contributed to this report. The White House on Monday reacted to the Russia investigation charges against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, associate Rick Gates and former adviser George Papadopoulos by arguing their legal cases do not directly involve President Trump. Look, today's announcement has nothing to do with the president and nothing to do with the president's campaign or campaign activity, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at Mondays news briefing. The 12-count case against Manafort and Gates was unsealed Monday and involves accusations of hiding money made from business dealings with Ukraine. Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, pleaded guilty Oct. 5 to making false statements to FBI agents investigating Russias interference in the election. The Manafort and Gates indictment does not mention Trump, the presidential campaign, collusion or Russias attempt to interfere in the election. The Papadopoulos court documents describe the aides conversations with people connected to the Russian government and his unsuccessful attempts at arranging a meeting between then-candidate Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the campaign. But Sanders said his guilty plea has nothing to do with the activities of the campaign, but his failure to tell the truth. That doesn't have anything to do with the campaign. During the briefing, Sanders described Papadopoulos as a low-level adviser during the campaign who was not paid. He was a volunteer on the campaign and a volunteer member of an advisory council that met one time, she said. GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS PLEADS GUILTY TO MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS TO FBI She also said the White House expects special counsel Muellers investigation into Russias meddling in the election to conclude soon while accusing Democrats and Hillary Clintons campaign of colluding with the Russians. The real collusion scandal has everything to do with the Clinton campaign and Fusion GPS and Russia, she said. There is clear evidence of them colluding to spread disinformation and smear the president. We have been saying from day one there is no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion and nothing today changes that. The president first responded to the Manafort and Gates indictments in several tweets Monday, saying: Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? Added Trump, Also, there is NO COLLUSION! The case against Manafort and Gates includes charges of conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Tiny homes are nice, but not in this area, Charlotte resident Joe Black tells Fox News. Tiny homes are the newest environmentally friendly living trend, with tiny-living communities popping up all over the U.S. In fact, there are more than 30 tiny-home developments across the country, but in North Carolina, homeowners are concerned that community of such homes may decrease property values and cause an increase in traffic. Tiny homes are nice, but not in this area Joe Black In a first for the city, however, tiny-house developer Kelvin Young has announced plans to design a community of 56 small residences. $28K 'FIXER UPPER' HOME PUT ON MARKET FOR ALMOST $1 MILLION My goal is to bring together people who want to make a choice in having the economic freedom of living smaller, living tiny. Its a choice, Young says. The announcement came shortly after Young built a blue one-bedroom, one-bathroom 493-square-foot tiny home with a bright red door right across the street from Blacks house. It will create a major traffic problem in this area, especially in the morning between 7 to 7:30 and in the afternoon between 2:30 and 3:30. The buses cant get by now," Black says. Black has lived in northwest Charlotte for over 48 years. He says he likes tiny homes, and he may live in one someday, but he feels they should be built in another neighborhood. This is not the area for it. This area has been here for a long time and its [for] larger homes. And I dont think the people out here want it to come here, Black says. In some cities nationwide, tiny homes also violate building codes, as they're too small to legally inhabit. Charlotte, too, has minimum size requirements for homes, but Young's developments will presumably meet the minimums. Furthermore, Young feels the area would benefit from the development. The 28214 zip code has some of the worst schools in Charlotte, so its not like people are just rushing to get to this community, and this will be a great way to spark some interest in a community that needs some positive people moving in, Young says. TINY HOME COMMUNITY IN THE WORKS FOR HOMELESS VETS Like I said, its progress and we cant defeat progress." Glenn Gurley Another resident of the neighborhood, Carolyn Palmer, has lived in the area for more than 30 years. Her home is located directly across the street from where the new community is set to be built, and like Black, she feels the tiny-home community would be best placed elsewhere. She and a few other neighbors also tell Fox News that they're not against the idea in and of itself they simply feel the community will suffer from increased traffic, and they believe the smaller homes could impact the values of their own. They have this one already here. Itll be here," Black says of the house Young built across from his own. "Just cancel the other development and go somewhere else, where its wanted and more convenient for the situation." But not every neighbor feels the new development will cause problems. Like I said, its progress and we cant defeat progress, 90-year-old Glenn Gurley tells Fox News. I dont think [tiny home community] will affect [property value] too much. Property value goes up according to how well the place is kept up," Gurley says. Gurley has lived two doors down from Palmer for over 30 years, and he says hes looking forward to having more new neighbors. Well, its new friendship when people move into the community. Well go to them and welcome them into the community and they are one of us, Gurley says. Broker Christopher Carter with Carter Group Realtors further tells Fox News he believes the development will have little impact on the overall property values of the neighborhood as long as the neighborhood is restricted to owner occupants only. Generally speaking, realtors use price/sq. ft. as the measure of property values in a neighborhood, and the tiny homes for sale in the Coulwood neighborhood are actually at a higher price/sq. ft. than other homes in the area, Carter says. That being said, I do not see the tiny home neighborhood driving up property values, because I think the real estate consumer is going to differentiate a tiny house and its value just as they do with pricing of a mobile home. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS There are already seven neighborhoods of tiny homes in various cities across North Carolina. Young hopes to have the Charlotte tiny house community completed by 2018. Experts have uncovered a vast array of mysterious pre-Columbian rock art in the caves of a remote uninhabited Caribbean island. Archaeologists explored around 70 cave systems on Puerto Ricos Mona island. The thousands of designs, created centuries ago, comprise the largest concentration of indigenous pre-Columbian rock art in the Caribbean, according to experts. A paper, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, describes the incredible art in the labyrinthine cave network, spanning human, animal and meandering designs. While some of the designs are painted or drawn, others have been scratched with fingers into the soft walls of the cave, a similar technique to that used in the Palaeolithic rock art of Southern Europe. 16TH-CENTURY CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS FOUND IN CARIBBEAN CAVE Most of the work we have identified in this scientific study is done during an intense period of indigenous activity in the caves between AD1200 and European arrival after AD1492, explained Dr. Jago Cooper, curator of the Americas at the British Museum, who worked on the paper. In an email to Fox News, Cooper explained that the indigenous population in the Caribbean likely numbered in the millions when Europeans arrived. On Mona they might be described as Taino, a name given to the indigenous population living in Puerto Rico and Hispaniola at this time, he added. In addition to the British Museum, the University of Leicester in the U.K., the British Geological Survey and Cambridge University all worked on the cave project. Students from the U.K. and Puerto Rico carrying out dissertations in climate science, archaeology and history also participated. EXPERTS DISCOVER 'CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS' ANCHOR AT CARIBBEAN SHIPWRECK SITE The rock art offers a fascinating glimpse into Monas forgotten Taino population. As a result of European raids, most of the indigenous population on Mona is thought to have died or fled the island by the end of the 16th century. Scientific analyses from the team have provided the first dates for rock art in the Caribbean - illustrating that these images are pre-Columbian made by artists exploring and experimenting deep underground, said Dr. Alice Samson, lecturer in archaeology at the University of Leicester, who co-authored of the paper, in a statement. 500-YEAR-OLD NATIVE AMERICAN CANOE TO BE UNVEILED TO THE PUBLIC AT MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM Cooper told Fox News that the Taino people snorted a drug called Cohoba, which is the ground seeds of the cojobana tree, as part of their religious rites. While the drug was not necessarily used by the cave artists, it was likely used by their leaders, according to Cooper. Cohoba was a powerful hallucinogenic drug taken by Taino caciques (chiefs) or spiritual leaders to help facilitate engagement with the spiritual world, he said. We also know that caves are spiritual domains as the Taino have an origin myth that their people emerged from a cave called Cacibajagua. The paper published in the Journal of Archaeological Science is the result of research undertaken between 2013 and 2016. The Mona fieldwork was funded by National Geographic. NATIVE AMERICAN CANOE FROM 1700s PRESERVED AT MAINE MUSEUM Last year archaeologists announced the discovery of 16th-century Christian symbols alongside ancient indigenous rock art in a cave on the island of Mona. Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers A drone captured video of a boat capsizing in Jupiter Inlet, Florida, and a daring rescue in the rough water by a nearby 13-year-old surfer. The drone pilot, Kevin Cadby, was flying his drone at Jupiter Inlet to capture video of the water and the boats, as he occasionally does. He saw the boat coming in from far out and decided to follow the boat with his drone, he said. The wind was blowing in at 20+ miles per hour, that inlet can be treacherous, Cadby said. As the drone flew over, video shows a wave coming from behind the boat, toppling it, and a man in a red shirt trying to swim to safety and stay afloat. The man swam to a group of rocks and a 13-year-old surfer, Sam Ruskin, swam over to him and offered him his surfboard, which the boater used to get back to land. My first concern was to make sure nobody else was on the boat, Cadby said, and he continued to follow the boat and look for other people using his drone. Ruskin, a middle school student, told WPEC everything happened so fast, but he paddled out to the man immediately when he saw what happened. Just speaks about his character, Ruskins father told WPEC. Click for more from Fox 13. Tech luminary Elon Musk finally gave the world its first look at what The Boring Company has been up to. The billionaire posted on a picture on Twitter on Saturday evening showing the tunnel dug by The Boring Company, an infrastructure company he founded. The goal of The Boring Company (a play on words), is to build a series of underground tunnels that can transport cars and help alleviate traffic. Musk is starting with a route to Los Angeles, from SpaceX's headquarters in Hawthorne, throughout the rest of the city, one which is considered the most congested in the continental U.S. ELON MUSK SHOWS OFF BORING COMPANY ELEVATOR FOR THE FIRST TIME In 2016, Drivers in LA spent on average 81 hours in traffic, according to a story in The Los Angeles Times, which obtained the survey from data company Inrix. In a separate tweet, Musk added that that the tunnel is 500 feet so far, but should be "2 miles long in three or four months and hopefully stretch the whole 405 N-S corridor from [Los Angeles International Airport] LAX to the 101 in a year or so." In August, The Boring Company received approval by the city of Hawthorne (a city in southwestern Los Angeles County) to build the tunnel. The tunnel operates using electric skates, so that cars can move along swiftly. In July, Musk showed off the elevator that would take cars from the congested roads to the underground network of tunnels. In addition to the tunnel under LA, The Boring Company is also looking to have tunnels in other cities, including one stretching from Baltimore to New York (stopping in Washington and Philadelphia), as well as Chicago and other U.S. cities. In addition to being CEO of The Boring Company, Musk is also the CEO of electric vehicle company Tesla, space exploration company SpaceX. He also co-founded artificial intelligence specialists Neuralink and OpenAI. Follow Chris Ciaccia on Twitter @Chris_Ciaccia Facebook Inc. estimates that about 126 million people may have seen content posted by Russian-backed accounts over more than two years that sought to disrupt American society, the social-media giant plans to tell congressional investigators Tuesday, according to a prepared copy of the remarks obtained by The Wall Street Journal. The potential audience for the content spread by Russian-backed accounts connected to a single pro-Kremlin firm, the Internet Research Agency, reveals for the first time the reach of the alleged Russian disruption. Facebook previously had focused narrowly on the 3,000 advertisements spread by the 470 accounts. But critics including lawmakers said the accounts likely had much broader scope including their organic content, such as free posts and events listings. In all, the accounts churned out 80,000 pieces of contentorganic posts and adson Facebook between January 2015 and August 2017, the social-media company plans to say. OPINION: ZUCKERBERG, LIBERALS SEEK TO WEAKEN BAIL SYSTEM THAT KEEPS US SAFE Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch is scheduled to testify in front of the Senate judiciary subcommittee on crime and terrorism Tuesday afternoon, alongside the general counsels for Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.s Google. Twitter and Google also have found evidence of Russian activity on their platforms during the 2016 U.S. presidential election period. In his testimony, Mr. Stretch plans to say that any amount of fake or malicious activity is too much, while at the same time playing down its importance, according to the prepared remarks. Mr. Stretch plans to argue that these posts were a small fraction of the content consumed by Americans during this period0.004% of posts, or one out of 23,000 pieces of content. Click for more from The Wall Street Journal. WASHINGTON (AP) Scientists are altering a powerful gene-editing technology in hopes of one day fighting diseases without making permanent changes to people's DNA. The trick: Edit RNA instead, the messenger that carries a gene's instructions. "If you edit RNA, you can have a reversible therapy," important in case of side effects, said Feng Zhang of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, a gene-editing pioneer whose team reported the new twist Wednesday in the journal Science. A genome editing technique called CRISPR has revolutionized scientific research. It's a biological cut-and-paste tool that lets researchers spot a gene defect inside living cells and use molecular "scissors" to snip that spot, either deleting, repairing or replacing the affected gene. Researchers are using CRISPR to try to improve crops, develop malaria-resistant mosquitoes, grow transplantable organs inside animals, and develop treatments that one day may help genetic diseases such as sickle cell or muscular dystrophy. There are challenges for medical use. Because a change to DNA is permanent, accidentally cutting the wrong spot could lead to lasting side effects. And DNA repair is harder to achieve in certain cells, such as brain and muscle cells, than in others, such as blood cells so targeting RNA may offer an important alternative, said University of California, San Diego, professor Gene Yeo, who wasn't involved in Wednesday's study. His team is creating its own RNA-targeting version of CRISPR. Disease can occur when a genetic defect leaves cells making too little or too much of a particular protein, or not making it at all. RNA, a cousin of DNA, carries the gene's instructions to start the protein-making process. Editing RNA's instructions should result in temporary fixes to abnormal protein production, Zhang explained. Because RNA degrades over time, the changes theoretically would last only as long as the therapy was used. To starting figuring out how, researchers returned to nature. CRISPR was adapted for use in mammalian cells from a system that evolved in bacteria, and uses as its molecular scissors an enzyme named Cas9. Zhang's team examined relatives in the Cas protein family and found one, Cas13, that could target RNA instead. The researchers engineered a Cas13 variety so it sticks to RNA instead of cutting it. They then fused on another protein to edit that spot and tested it in lab dishes. The research is in its earliest stages, requiring more work before it even could be tested in animals. But San Diego's Yeo, who is using a different Cas approach to target RNA, praised the competing work. "It really tells us that many Cas proteins can truly bind RNA," he said. "The smart thing to do is to test a lot of them." US News & World Report is out with a list of the 10 best jobs for millennials (No. 1 is web developer, No. 2 is dental hygienist), and says its list took into consideration the group's priorities. And, per a survey it did of 1,000 millennials, salary is their chief consideration. So they may want to read on: The New York Times this week took a look at a burgeoning field with "salaries that are startling even in an industry that has never been shy about lavishing a fortune on its top talent": artificial intelligence. The takeaway is that the annual package of salary and stock for a "typical" AI engineerworking on, says self-driving cars or smart home devicestends to be in the $300,000 to $500,000 range. As for who is getting those salaries, the Times reports there's a global pool of only about 10,000 people with the right set of skills, and so newly minted PhDs as well as "people with less education and just a few years of experience" are raking in the big bucks. And, as a big-name athlete might do, they renew contracts every few years, for a multi-year take that has in some cases entered the eight-figure range. The famous-athlete comparison goes pretty deep: A hiring manager at Microsoft said, "That would make things easier. A lot easier," when the Times posed the idea of an NFL-like salary cap being imposed on skyrocketing AI salaries. One wrinkle: the salaries are so alluring that many of the professors who are able to teach AI are being pulled out of academia. (Speaking of the NFL, one player is donating his entire 2017 salary.) This article originally appeared on Newser: In Silicon Valley, This Job Pays a 'Startling' Salary A man has admitted smuggling chocolate-covered heroin on a flight from Guatemala to Newark Liberty International Airport, reports the AP. Jacobo Orellana-Estrada on Thursday pleaded guilty in federal court to possession with intent to distribute heroin. Prosecutors say the Guatemalan citizen arrived in Newark on a flight in June and Customs officers discovered what appeared to be six small layer cakes in his luggage. The cakes turned out to be paper-wrapped packages of heroin coated in chocolate; NJ.com reports that Orellana-Estrada was carrying 3 kilograms of the drug. The 21-year-old faces up to life in prison when he's sentenced in January. This story first appeared on Newser. Pizza makes everybody happy, right? In order to pacify almost 300 passengers during their two unscheduled diversions, American Airlines fed everybody a slice of pizza. After flight crew aboard an American Airlines flight from Milan to Miami on Saturday noticed a crack in the windshield, they made an emergency diversion to Stephenville Airport in Newfoundland, Canada. While the aircraft was taken out of service for repairs, the airline had a two-part plan. One: fly an alternate plane up to Newfoundland to collect the 287 passengers. And two: feed them pizza. After eating pizza at Stephenville Airport, passengers boarded an alternate plane 10 hours later. However, instead of flying down to Miami, the plane went to New Yorks JFK airport. A spokesperson for the airline told Travel + Leisure that due to crew time and customs availability, they were unable to fly the passengers directly from Canada to Miami. One commenter on AVHerald.com who claimed to be a passenger onboard the flight said that although the flight crew was awesome and professional, they were frustrated to have a second unscheduled stop. He suggested AA could make it up to passengers with Hamilton tickets. Unfortunately they decided a slice of pizza was a better customer service gift. But all the Broadway shows were long over by the time passengers reached New York at 11:50 p.m. on Saturday night. Passengers spent less than 12 hours there and took off from JFK Airport at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday. They arrived in Miami around 1:45 p.m., about 24 hours after their original landing time. Several American Airlines crew members were taken to a hospital over the weekend after noticing a possible odor in the cabin, an airline spokesperson confirms to Fox News. Saturdays American Airlines flight 198 to New York, which was scheduled to leave from Boston at 12:15 p.m., had not yet boarded any passengers at Logan International Airport when crew members first reported the smell. In total, six crew members requested medical attention, though American Airlines did not confirm what caused the odor. AMERICAN AIRLINES DENIES FLATULENCE INCIDENT AT RALEIGH DURHAM AIRPORT All six crew members asked to be transported to a local hospital for evaluation, and subsequently released, said a spokesperson. A different American Airlines representative also stated that the plane is being inspected by the airlines Boston maintenance team, The Boston Globe reports. According to FlightAware, flight 198 eventually departed from Logan airport at 6:48 p.m., landing in New York at 8:01 p.m. EST. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS Saturday's incident comes after a similar occurrence in late July, during which three members of an American Airlines crew reported a foul odor in the cabin during a flight from Texas to Florida. Those crew members were also taken to a hospital for evaluation. A plane was forced to abort a landing in Austria amid heavy winds Sunday after its wing almost scraped the runway, drawing gasps from onlookers. The flight from Enter Air, a Poland-based charter airline, was captured on video tilting to the right just before making contact with the tarmac at Salzburg airport. AIR BERLIN FLIGHT MAKES STRANGE MANEUVER, SPARKS GERMAN SAFETY PROBE Footage shows the planes wheels then hitting the ground, kicking up debris from the pavement. The plane decided to fly back to Frankfurt, where it came from, and made a safe landing, The Mirror reported, citing the Aviation Herald website. One video taken from inside the aircraft shows the cabin jostling around during the incident. In another, gasps can be heard as the plane approaches the runway. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS "The hurricane wind at Salzburg was very strong and when the aircraft received [a] strong gust of wind, pilots acted quickly according to procedures and aborted landing," wrote Enter Air in a statement to Fox News. "Polish pilots are very well trained for such weather conditions," the airline added. Two women from Hawaii say theyre already planning their next boat trip despite being lost at sea for the last five months. Only five days ago, Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava were rescued from their storm-battered sailboat after being discovered adrift by a Taiwanese fishing crew about 900 miles southeast of Japan, the Associated Press reported. A U.S. Navy ship later retrieved the two women and transported them to the White Beach Naval Facility in Okinawa. When I saw the gray ship on the horizon, I was just shaking, Appel said upon arriving in Okinawa, according to the New York Post. I was ready to cry, I was so happy. I knew we were going to live. WORLD'S LARGEST CRUISE SHIP WILL HAVE SEVEN 'NEIGHBORHOODS' But even after the ordeal, the women are reportedly planning to set out again next year in the hopes of touring the destinations they were unable to visit this time around, NBC News reported. We still never got to see the 20,000 islands [of the South Pacific], so I think that would be the most fantastic trip for May of next spring, Appel said. Appel and Fuiava along with their two dogs, Zeus and Valentine had originally set out in May from Honolulu, with plans for an 18-day voyage to Tahiti. Along the way, however, the engine failed and their mast sustained damage, leaving them drifting aimlessly in the Pacific. The women said they hoped a friend and frequent deep-sea fisherman might be able to hear their distress calls or see their emergency flares. At one point, the two say they were only a little over 700 miles from Oahu, but couldnt make it back to Hawaii. FIRST-EVER CRUISE FOR 'MILLENNIALS' TO SET SAIL IN 2018, FEATURE 'SILENT DISCO' They spent the next three months drifting until the Taiwanese fishing vessel spotted them and attempted to tow their sailboat. When that didnt work, Appel used a surfboard to paddle to their vessel and call for help. The USS Ashland, which was only about 100 miles away, was dispatched to help. Upon arriving, Cmdr. Steve Wasson said the womens boat was too damaged to repair, and brought them aboard instead. At the time of their rescue, the women say they had already exhausted 90 percent of their supplies, despite bringing enough for about six months. Their 50-foot sailboat named The Sea Nymph was abandoned in the Pacific. Appel and Fuiava, however, have since said they would like to rebuild the Sea Nymph if its ever found. If not, theyll set out on another unsinkable boat, equipped with the knowledge that weve acquired during these months. FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE FOX LIFESTYLE NEWS Appel and Fuiava have also admitted that they were not prepared for the journey they set out to take. Fuiava was an amateur sailor, and Appel had about a decade of experience sailing the Hawaiian islands. Had [the USS Ashland] not been able to locate us, we would have been dead within 24 hours, Appel told reporters in Okinawa, adding that they were both extremely grateful for the men and women of the USS Ashland. A California father who pleaded guilty in the rape and murder of his 14-year-old daughter now wants to take back the plea, according to a report. Mark Mesiti, 49, pleaded guilty during his trial earlier this month to a number of charges, including murdering his own daughter, Alycia Mesiti-Allen, The Mercury News reported. Mark has since changed his mind and intends to ask a Modesto judge to let him withdraw his guilty plea, the newspaper added. He admitted mid-trial to 49 felony counts against him regarding his daughters death in order to avoid the death penalty. Alycia vanished in 2006, but her body turned up in 2009 -- reportedly buried behind a home Mark had previously rented. An autopsy found the girl -- who had traces of drugs ranging from anti-depressants to methamphetamine in her system -- died from acute drug intoxication. Less than a year before the girl's death, Mark was granted custody of Alycia and her brother after their mother was deemed unfit to care for them, even though he had been previously convicted of both state and federal charges which included drunken driving and bank fraud, the newspaper reported. It added that Mark was running a methamphetamine lab during this period. PEDOPHILE GEOPHYSICIST DESCRIBED AS 'SAVAGE INDIVIDUAL' ADMITS LURING CHILDREN, ADULTS INTO ONLINE SEX ABUSE Prosecutors argued Mark had drugged his daughter then documented sexual assaults against her by either filming the encounters or taking photos. The jury saw approximately 100 pictures found on Mark's computer -- 54 of them showing Alycia and her father together, according to the Daily Mail. Files also showed a 16-year-old girl Mark knew being sexually assaulted. The judge now has to decide whether Mark can take back his guilty plea. A couple and three young children were killed in a car crash while going to see a family member, Fox 19 reports. Samantha Malohn, 27 and Rodney Pollitt, Jr., 26, both died in the Thursday wreck, as did their three children, who were nine-, eight-, and six-years old, according to the station. You couldnt find a more devoted mother and father like they were, Tina Morgan, Malohns mother, told the outlet. The familys car was struck head-on by an oncoming vehicle, according to Fox 19. The other driver was taken to a hospital, but its not known what condition hes in, the station explained. MICHIGAN BUGGY CRASH: 3 CHILDREN KILLED, 6 HURT AFTER TRUCK SLAMS INTO CARRIAGE Malohns father told Fox 19 his daughter was a stay-at-home mother who looked after the nine-year-old who had Down syndrome. Rodney Pollitt was a bus driver. A GoFundMe page set up to cover funeral expenses has raised more than $17,000. We would love to give them a beautiful send off, the page says. Ive been on horrendous accident scenes in my career, and this is probably one of the, if not the saddest not to diminish the others but one of the saddest Ive ever been on, Kenton County Police Chief Spike Jones told the Cincinnati Enquirer. A Pennsylvania police chief has a warning for a woman wanted for multiple offenses: WE WILL FIND YOU. In a Wednesday Facebook post, Bridgeville Police Chief Chad King asked for help in locating 32-year-old Latoya Marie Rosiek, as TribLive.com reported. He said the charges against her included drug delivery resulting in death and delivery of a controlled substance. An arrest warrant has been issued for her alleged involvement in the delivery of Fentanyl which contributed to the death of a Bridgeville resident on December 26, 2016, King said. King also included a message to Rosiek. I have known you since you were a teenager living in Bridgeville, he wrote. Lets end the foolishness, do the right thing and turn yourself in. You will be treated fairly. Heres what you are up against... this post will more than likely reach well over 100,000 people within the next 24 hours, or less, he continued. This department has a success rate of 100% when utilizing social media to locate and apprehend wanted felons. The odds are not in your favor. The post has been shared more than 10,800 times as of Sunday evening. A 22-year-old woman was killed after a 12-year-old boy attempting suicide by jumping off an overpass in Virginia landed on her car Saturday afternoon, investigators said. Virginia State Police said Marisa Harris of Olney, Md., was driving east on Interstate 66 when the boy landed on top of her Ford Escape, WRC-TV reported. While the boys jump left Harris incapacitated, he survived and was being treated for life-threatening injuries at Inova Fairfax Hospital. Harris boyfriend, who was sitting in the SUV's passenger seat, steered the car to the side of the road, police added. Harris died at the scene. Harris' family members told WRC she was a graduate student at Marymount University in Arlington, where she studied clinical counseling. WDCW reported police are investigating the incident as a suicide. Police in Newport News, Va., arrested a 77-year-old man last week after he allegedly strangled a 23-year-old woman he met on the dating website Plenty of Fish, WAVY reported. Authorities were called to Vernon Place in connection with an assault on Tuesday, according to a criminal complaint obtained by the station. The victim told police she met Alan Richard Schmitt, 77, on Plenty of Fish, and when they met, he was much older than he made himself out to be, the document said. The victim told Schmitt she wasnt interested though they could be friends, according to the complaint. Schmitt later took her shopping and shelled out more than $400 on clothes, police said. At some point in the conversation, Mr. Schmitt wanted the clothes he paid for back, including the new shirt the woman had on, the criminal complaint said. HUSBAND AND WIFE PLEAD GUILTY IN BARBARIC SEX ABUSE OF TODDLER The woman said he couldnt get the shirt and that Schmitt grabbed her neck and hurled her to the ground, before getting on top of her and strangling her, according to the document. The victim had small bleeding scratches around her neck. Schmitt also gave his account and claims the victim used him to get her clothes, police say. He also said that when he opened the storm door to knock on the main door and ask for the clothing back, [redacted] stepped in front of him and pushed him in his face, the complaint said. Schmitt said thats when he lost his balance and grabbed the womans neck and he didnt know how the woman ended up on the ground as well, the document explained. WAVY reports that Schmitt has been charged with felony strangling of another causing wounds or injury, and hes slated to be in court next month. A southern Missouri prosecutor will seek the death penalty against two men accused of killing an elderly couple during a robbery, he said Monday. Timothy Callahan, 44, of Farmington, Missouri, and David Young, 67, of Ironton, Missouri, were arrested Saturday without incident at a motel in Deerfield Township, Ohio, near Cincinnati. Both were charged with two counts each of first-degree murder. Reynolds County, Missouri, prosecutor Michael Randazzo said in an interview with The Associated Press that he will file additional charges of armed criminal action, robbery and assault against both men, who are jailed without bond in Ohio awaiting extradition. Randazzo said there was evidence the crime was premeditated and he planned to pursue the death penalty. The men are accused in the shootings of 86-year-old James Nance, his 72-year-old wife, Janet, and a 73-year-old friend of the family on Oct. 18 at the Nance home near Ellington, Missouri, about 125 miles southwest of St. Louis. The third victim was shot twice in the head but survived. Young was on probation after pleading guilty in 2016 to financial exploitation of the elderly or disabled in Pulaski County, according to Missouri Case Net, the state's online court reporting system. He was arrested again in September and charged with scamming an elderly couple out of thousands of dollars by convincing them to write multiple checks for the same job painting their barn. "He would drive around looking for decent-looking homes, elderly couples, and try to do work for them," Randazzo said. Authorities believe the men may have originally planned a similar scam on the Nances. Randazzo said it appeared they had contacted the couple about doing work at their home, but ultimately decided instead to rob James Nance. Randazzo said the robbery was in progress when Janet Nance and her friend returned home from a shopping trip and encountered the gunmen. A Pennsylvania church that was established nearly two centuries ago has shut its doors after enduring multiple crashes from trucks. The Mount Harmony United Methodist Church in Wellersburg, first established in 1846, has endured a number of tractor-trailers crashing directly into the church. WJAC-TV reports pastor Kenneth Haines celebrated the church's final service Sunday, after an April crash significantly damaged the building. Haines says he's sad that Sunday would be the last day of worship in the building, but is excited for the possibility of a new building. Haines says it could cost $100,000 for a new church and he's hoping insurance will cover the majority of the expense. He says he hopes to have a new home for the congregation by next year. ___ Information from: WJAC-TV, http://www.wjactv.com A report of a possible active shooter at an Alabama hospital sparked a high-speed chase Sunday involving a stolen ambulance, officials said. Jamon Stegall, 36, was arrested after a police chase ended in a crash on Interstate 10, the Mobile Police Department told FOX10. Stegall was originally at the Providence Hospital and in custody by hospital security, but ran away and stole the ambulance near the emergency room, police said. "As [police] arrived the suspect jumped in the ambulance and drove off and officers pursued him," Mobile police said. During the pursuit of Stegall, police said he made an "evasive maneuver" to avoid a marked patrol car and overturned. No one was injured in the crash. The 36-year-old has been charged with theft of property and attempt to elude, police said, adding no shots were fired at the hospital. In a statement to FOX10, hospital officials said, "Everyone is safe, no one is hurt, everyone took appropriate measures. Police did not say why Stegall was initially at the hospital. An Arizona judge has rejected a wedding shops challenge to a Phoenix ordinance that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Judge Karen Mullins ruled last week that the citys ordinance does not violate state laws, rejecting arguments proposed by wedding invitation designers Joanna Duka and Breanna Koski, who tried to get around the city law, the Arizona Republic reported. The designers' lawyers argued that the citys mandate would force Christian businesses to provide services for same-sex couples despite their religious views that marriage is between a man and a woman. Such requirements would violate the constitution. The judge said that the ordinance does not violate the free speech and religious liberty rights of the women in the case, suggesting women still can exercise their religion as they see fit. "The printing of same-sex persons names on wedding invitations does not hinder in any way plaintiffs' independent exercise of (their) religious belief by attending the church of their choice, engaging in religious activities or functions, and expressing their beliefs on their business website and literature or in their personal lives, the judge wrote. The case is expected to be subjected to an appeal, with ADF attorney Jonathan Scruggs telling the Republic: People shouldn't be forced to promote views that they disagree with. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held captive in Afghanistan for several years after leaving his station, was dishonorably discharged Friday. Bergdahl had pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. A judge spared him jail time and dishonorably discharged him. He faced up to life in prison for his charges; prosecutors wanted a 14-year punishment. He will also have to pay a $1,000 fine every month for 10 months. Bergdahl was shaking and appeared emotional as the verdict was read. Hes certainly glad this is over, Bergdahls attorney, Eugene Fidell, told reporters after the sentencing. Fidell also said he will appeal the decision. Beacuse of President Trump's comments about the case, Fidell said he still believes the case should be dismissed. Bergdahls story left the nation debating for years about whether he is a hero or traitor, as well as the importance of the long-held American commitment not to leave troops behind. Former President Barack Obama defended swapping prisoners at Guantanamo Bay for Bergdahls release in 2014 while Trump said Bergdahl should face the death penalty. Why was Bergdahl on trial? Then 23, Bergdahl went missing from his remote infantry station near the Pakistan border in June 2009. His disappearance launched a massive search operation. Bergdahl was quickly captured by the Taliban after leaving his post. The U.S. tracked him for several years before successfully negotiating his release in 2014. The U.S. does not "leave our men or women in uniform behind," Obama said, regardless of how Bergdahl came to be captured. Bergdahl has said that he left his post and intended to alert people about problems he perceived within his unit. Investigators said Bergdahl suffered from schizotypal personality disorder when he left his station. The Army charged him with desertion and misbehavior before the enemy in 2015. What could have happened? Bergdahl faced up to five years in prison on the desertion charge. But he could also have been sentenced to life in prison for the misbehavior charge. Bergdahl elected to be tried by a judge, not a panel of military officers, in August. What has Trump said? Trump has been a vocal critic of Bergdahl and the Obama administrations decision to exchange five prisoners in Guantanamo Bay for his release in May 2014. BERGDAHL HAD PSYCHIATRIC DISORDER WHEN HE LEFT POST, DOCUMENTS SAY "We're tired of Sgt. Bergdahl, who's a traitor, a no-good traitor, who should have been executed," Trump said at a Las Vegas rally in 2015. On Twitter, Trump has also said Bergdahl should face the death penalty and repeatedly referred to him as a traitor. Trumps past comments almost derailed the case against Bergdahl as a judge had to decide if they would prevent him from having a fair trial. Ultimately, Army Col. Jeffery Nance ruled that he would only consider Trumps comments as a mitigating factor in Bergdahls sentencing not an aggravating factor. What happened during the trial? Bergdahl unexpectedly testified during his sentencing hearing and emotionally apologized to his fellow service members who had been injured as they attempted to rescue him. "I would like everyone who searched for me to know it was never my intention for anyone to be hurt, and I never expected that to happen," he said. "My words alone can't take away their pain." The wife of National Guard Master Sgt. Mark Allen who is confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak after being shot in the head while searching for Bergdahl also gave an emotional testimony. Shannon Allen said her husband is unable to play with their children and cant even hold hands anymore. Hes not able to reach out for her or talk to her, Shannon Allen said of her daughter, who was just an infant when her husband was injured. Hes never had the chance to really play with her or help coach her sports or ask about her day. Fox News' Terace Garnier and The Associated Press contributed to this report. The fifth day in the trial of the homeless illegal immigrant charged with killing Kate Steinle in San Francisco featured a police witness who explained the deadly bullet's trajectory, after a week of dramatic testimony. The bullet that killed Steinle, whose death touched off a national debate about illegal immigration, ricocheted off the ground about 100 feet away before hitting her in the back, a retired police investigator testified Monday. Former Officer John Evans said he and other investigators working on the case found a strike mark on the piers concrete surface four days after the shooting of Steinle by a Mexican national who had been deported five times. Prosecutors have charged Jose Ines Garcia Zarate with murder, alleging he intended to point and shoot the gun at pedestrians on the pier on July 1, 2015. Lawyers for Garcia Zarate say the ricochet shows the shooting was accidental. Evans, who later retired from the department, said investigators had overlooked the strike mark on the night the 32-year-old Steinle was killed. Authorities returned to the popular pier four days later, after the bullet was found to be partially flattened, indicating it had ricocheted, he said. Evans also testified that inexperienced shooters are often shaky and fire in haste, causing the barrel of the gun to point downward. He called it jerking the trigger. Defense lawyer Matt Gonzalez called that aspect of Evans analysis highly speculative, and the two wrangled over whether the shot had traveled straight, which would support the prosecutions contention that Garcia Zarate aimed the gun before firing. Evans conceded on cross-examination that he didnt know exactly where Garcia Zarate was sitting when the gun fired nor did he know the specific spot where Steinle was standing when she was struck. The retired officer said he drew a circle around blood spots and Steinles bloody clothes and another circle where witnesses placed Garcia Zarate. Using a laser pointer, Evans said he created a straight line between the two circles and through the strike mark. Testimony on Thursday came from a government employee whose gun was stolen and used in the shooting. Bureau of Land Management Agent John Woychowski told the jury he parked his car in what he thought was a safe location and left a black backpack, which had his loaded weapon inside, in the back seat. He said the car was locked and had an alarm and tinted windows. When his family returned from dinner, he said his cars windows were smashed and the backpack was gone. He said he immediately reported the theft to 911 and his employer. KATE STEINLE TRIAL FEATURES TESTIMONY FROM AGENT WHOSE STOLEN GUN WAS USED IN SHOOTING The prosecution brought out a P239 weapon as evidence which Woychowski confirmed was his and he showed the jury how it worked, adding that hed never had trouble with it. Gonzalez cross-examined the agent, focusing primarily on why the agent had a loaded gun if he was off duty and why he left it in the car. Woychowski said he was required to keep his weapon loaded in a specific way and reiterated that he thought the car was safe. He said he always kept the backpack on him to protect his family. He added his employer had issued a locking device for the gun but he didnt have it on him that day and that the gun did not have an external safety. Previous days in court have included testimony from witnesses on the scene and responding officers who handled evidence and investigation. Garcia Zarate, 54, admitted shooting Steinle, but says it was an accident. Prosecutors and Gonzalez said the case boils down to whether Garcia Zarate pointed and fired the gun intentionally or the weapon accidentally discharged. COURTROOM GASPS AS VIDEO OF KATE STEINLES SHOOTING IS PLAYED FOR JURY Steinles father testified last week at the trials opening that before she died, she said to him: Help me, Dad. The prosecution said those were her last words. While Garcia Zarates immigration status is what brought the case into the national spotlight, jurors will not hear evidence about that, and it will not be a factor in the trial. Steinles death became a signature issue for Donald Trump as he was running for president. He invoked the slaying in calling for the construction of a wall on the Mexican border and stepping up deportations and cracking down on illegal immigration. San Francisco is a sanctuary city, with local law enforcement officials barred from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. President Trump has threatened to withhold federal funding to cities with similar immigration policies. Fox News Michael Lundin in San Francisco and The Associated Press contributed to this report. A couple who survived the Las Vegas shooting died in a car crash just a half mile from their California home earlier this month, two weeks after the husband jumped onto his wife to shield her from the hail of bullets raining down on them during the Oct. 1 massacre. Dennis and Lorraine Carver died after their vehicle crashed into a metal gate outside their community in Riverside County on Oct. 16 and burst into flames, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. It took firefighters about an hour to extinguish the flames, the local fire department said. After the shooting, they heard from all of the people they cared about most. They were so happy, Brooke Carver, 20, their daughter, told the newspaper. The last two weeks of their lives were really just spent living in the moment. The couples youngest daughter, 16-year-old Madison, heard a loud bang outside her window the night of the accident and ran down the street to see her parents vehicle engulfed in flames, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. The couple had been together 22 years and had managed to escape the Route 91 Harvest music festival slaughter uninjured. Dennis Carver had jumped on Lorraine after realizing the gunshots werent fireworks, and the pair made a run for it, hand in hand, during the third or fourth lull in Paddocks firing spree, Brooke Carver said. Thats just the kind of love they had for each other, she added. Their love was selfless. Dennis Carver got roses for Lorraine after the attack, and a month later, even though they are dried up, not a single petal from them has fallen. Its almost as if theyre frozen in time, Brooke Carver told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Were so lucky we have those flowers to remind us of them. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Mandalay Bay security guard who is being eyed as a key witness in the Las Vegas shooting will receive a subpoena to testify on the timeline and other circumstances surrounding the attack, according to local media. Jesus Campos will be given the subpoena by an attorney for Rachel Sheppard, a 26-year-old from California who was shot three times in the attack, KSNV reported Monday. The station also reported that a judge ruled Monday that lawyers in civil lawsuits will be allowed to inspect the grounds of the Route 91 Harvest music festival, where the attack occurred. As of Monday, Sheppard and five other plaintiffs two in Nevada and three in California have filed lawsuits related to the attack, according to the New Yorker. Sheppards lawsuit is against MGM Resorts International, the owners of Mandalay Bay, Live Nation, a bump stock maker and gunman Stephen Paddocks estate. I flew like three feet, she told the New Yorker, describing how she was hit in the chest and abdomen by the bullets raining down on the festival. I mean, I just flew like a fish, just straight back. Paddock fired out of his window from his room on the 32nd floor of the resort on Oct. 1, killing 58 at the concert. Concertgoers described panicked scenes as they raced for the exits of the property, located across the street from the hotel. FULL COVERAGE OF LAS VEGAS SHOOTING People kept picking me up and dropping me, and picking me up and dropping me, because we kept hearing the shots, Sheppard said. She was also found to have a crack in one of her lumbar vertebrae and her doctors have said she will not be able to return to her jobs as a bartender and wedding coordinator for at least a year, the New Yorker reported. Campos was shot by Paddock in the hallway of the hotel and has only made one public media appearance, on the Ellen DeGeneres show, amid continuing questions about the timeline of events in the massacre. A Florida professor sparked outrage after she transformed three American flags into Ku Klux Klan hoods. The flags shaped like KKK hoods had the eyes burnt out with nothing but darkness behind them and sat on poles with bases shaped like Nazi swastikas. The artwork is part of the University of Miamis annual faculty art show, gallery director Milly Cardoso told the Miami New Times. Billie Grace Lynn, a University of Miami associate professor of sculpture, calls it American Mask, a work, she writes on her personal site, that suggests bigotry and racism are hiding behind our flag. This is disgusting. This is disrespectful, Patrick Young, a black employee who works in the same building as the UM art gallery, told WSVN. I cant see it being a positive message any way you put it. The artwork, which will be on display until Nov. 12, has angered many who say it defaces the American flag and is outright offensive. What can this actually help? Young said. Burning an American flag? I have no idea what this symbolizes, what this helps out. Who does this reach? Lynn told the University of Miami News this was the intent of her piece to strike up conversation. She said she was talking to a construction worker who was angry about her artwork and she was able to explain its meaning. I asked him what he thought it meant and he said, Its racist. And I said, Well, it is racist, its about racism. Its about people hiding their racism behind the flag, behind their patriotism. Instantly all of his angry energy dissipated as he had this realization. This is what democracy is. Its messy business and it requires us to talk with each other. The UM professor and artist said she was inspired to create the piece after watching people walking with American and Nazi flags during the protests in Charlottesville, Va. I just thought, thats what needs to be protestedthat the American flag is positioned in between those two symbols of hatred and racism, she said. If there was ever a time to show this work, its now. While the university said it supports artistic expression and freedom of speech, UM officials acknowledge that this is an off-campus gallery that wasnt pre-approved or reviewed by the administration. UM hopes that conservations can happen in ways that are respectful of all points of view, UM wrote in a statement to Fox News. The university acknowledges that this installation will provoke a range of reactions, including offense at the use of the American Flag and use of the KKK and Nazi symbols. Art exhibits that provoke reaction and conversation are not new, nor the unique province of the University of Miami. UNIVERSITIES ISSUE GUIDES, THREATS, AND COUNSELING FOR OFFENSIVE HALLOWEEN COSTUMES Lynn told the Miami New Times she is from Louisiana, and the Klan is really strong there. I am from the place where these people live. I am these people in some way. She finds her artwork offensive and hopes to awaken citizens to the danger of confusing bigotry with patriotism. As a former Girl Scout, who was taught never to let the American flag touch the ground, Lynn told the university publication it wasnt easy for her to create the artwork. It was very painful for me to cut the flag to make it into that shape. But I think thats whats happening, the country is in pain, she told UM News, adding, I dont want the American flag to be taken as a symbol for white supremacy, and I think that is whats happening and thats a dark path to go down. U.S. special operations forces captured a militant in Libya accused of playing an instrumental role in the Benghazi attacks, officials said Monday, in a high-stakes operation designed to bring the perpetrators to justice five years after the deadly violence. President Donald Trump identified the militant as Mustafa al-Imam and said his capture signified that the four Americans who died "will never be forgotten." Justice Department officials were escorting al-Imam by military plane to the United States, where he's expected to be tried in federal court. "Our memory is deep and our reach is long, and we will not rest in our efforts to find and bring the perpetrators of the heinous attacks in Benghazi to justice," Trump said. The Navy SEAL-led raid marked the first publicly known operation since Trump took office to target those accused of involvement in Benghazi, which mushroomed into a multiyear political fracas centered on Republican allegations of a bungled Obama administration response. Those critiques shadowed Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the attacks, through her presidential campaign. U.S. forces captured al-Imam just before midnight local time Sunday in Misrata, on Libya's north coast, U.S. officials said. He was taken to a U.S. Navy ship at the Misrata port for transport by military plane to Washington, where he's expected to arrive within the next two days, one of the officials said. Once on American soil, al-Imam will face trial in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as the FBI continues to investigate, the Justice Department said. He faces three criminal charges that were filed in May 2015 but only recently unsealed: killing or conspiring to kill someone during an attack on a federal facility, providing support for terrorists, and using a firearm in connection with a violent crime. It wasn't immediately clear how al-Imam was involved in the Sept. 11, 2012, violence. The U.S. attorney's office said he is a Libyan national and about 46 years old. Trump said he'd ordered the raid, and thanked the U.S. military, intelligence agencies and prosecutors for tracking al-Imam and enabling his capture. The U.S. officials said the operation was coordinated with Libya's internationally recognized government. They weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he'd spoken with the relatives of some of the Americans who died in Benghazi: U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, State Department information management officer Sean Patrick Smith, and contract security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Tillerson said the U.S. would "spare no effort" to ensure al-Imam is held accountable. Al-Imam will face court proceedings in U.S. District Court, officials said, in an apparent departure from Trump's previously expressed desire to send militants to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In an interview last March with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called Guantanamo "a very fine place for holding these kind of dangerous criminals." The commando raid also came amid an ongoing debate about the use of U.S. forces to pursue insurgents in Africa and other locations outside of warzones like Iraq and Afghanistan. Four U.S. soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger earlier this month under circumstances that have remained hazy and prompted Democrats and Republicans in Congress to express concerns. Earlier this month, another man accused in the Benghazi attack, Abu Khattala, went on trial in federal court in Washington. Khattala, captured during President Barack Obama's tenure, has pleaded not guilty to the 18 charges against him, including murder of an internationally protected person, providing material support to terrorists and destroying U.S. property while causing death. The Benghazi assault started in the evening when armed attackers scaled the wall of the diplomatic post and moved through the front gate. Stevens was rushed to a fortified "safe room" along with Smith, but were then siphoned off from security officers when attackers set the building and its furniture on fire. Libyan civilians found Stevens hours later in the wreckage, and he died of smoke inhalation in a hospital, becoming the first U.S. ambassador killed in the line of duty in more than three decades. A nearby CIA annex was attacked by mortar fire hours after the diplomatic complex, killing Woods and Doherty, who were defending the rooftop. The attack became fodder for multiple congressional investigations to determine what happened and whether the Obama administration misled the public on the details of the bloody assault. Initial accounts provided by administration officials, notably Obama's U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, said the attack grew out of a protest against an anti-Muslim internet film. Later, the administration said it was a planned terrorist attack. A two-year investigation by a House Benghazi committee focused heavily on Clinton's role and whether security at the compounds and the response to the attack was sufficient. It was the Benghazi probe that revealed Clinton used a private email server for government work, prompting an FBI investigation that proved to be an albatross for her presidential campaign. ___ Associated Press writers Maggie Michael and Sadie Gurman contributed to this report. A pregnant woman in Oregon was injured Sunday after she was dragged and run over by her own vehicle, police said. The Washington County Sheriff's Office told FOX12 Oregon the incident took place around 7 p.m. in Beaverton, a suburb of Portland. Two people were pushing an SUV to get it out of the road after it broke down when it began to roll forward on a downward slope. One of the women, who was pregnant, tried to jump into the car but instead it dragged her, knocked her down and ran her over in the chest area before it stopped, deputies said. The 32-year-old woman, who was not identified by police, was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Det. Robert Rookhuyzen of the Washington County Sheriff's Office told the Oregonian the woman's 16-week-old fetus also did not have any life-threatening injuries. "Even a little higher or lower and we'd have a different story," he told the newspaper. The U.S. military is reportedly investigating the possible involvement of two SEAL Team 6 commandos in the strangulation death of an Army Green Beret while on a secret assignment in Mali, The New York Times report. Staff Sgt. Logan J. Melgar, 34, was found dead on June 4 at the embassy housing he shared with several other special operations forces working in West Africa on training and counterterrorism missions, the New York Times reported. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service confirmed the investigation into Melgar's death to Fox News on Sunday, but did not name suspects. A military medical examiner reportedly ruled the cause of Melgars death to be a homicide by asphyxiation, or strangulation. An investigating officer was reportedly sent to Mali within 24 hours following the incident, suspecting foul play. The cause of the death is listed as a homicide, according to the Washington Post. A military spokesman could not release additional information except that the incident is still under investigation. There have been no charges, but the two members of the SEAL Team 6 the famous counterterror unit that killed Usama Bin Laden in 2011 were flown out of Mali and placed on administrative leave, The Times reported. The commandoes were initially described as witnesses but later changed to persons of interest as the authorities continue to determine the exact degree of participating of the commandos in the homicide, the report said. The possible involvement of the elite force members has sparked speculations among the Green Beret community about the possible motive for the death, some suggesting it was a personal dispute, while others wonder whether Melgar have uncovered some illegal activity the commandos were involved in, according to the Times who spoke with the troops and their families. Melgar was the 34-year-old Afghanistan veteran who joined the army in 2012 and assigned to the 3rd Special Forces Group the same unit of soldiers that was attacked by Islamic militants in Niger on October 4 and resulted in the deaths of four soldiers. The Green Beret soldier was in Mali on a mission to provide intelligence about the Islamic militants to the U.S. Ambassador Paul A. Folmsbee in the country and protect the staff against possible attacks, the Times reported. Melgar is scheduled to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on November 20. The Taliban militants in Afghanistan say their American captives condition has deteriorated and is in poor health. A spokesman for the militants said in a statement Monday that the American identified as Kevin King is suffering from heart and kidney problems, and often loses consciousness. King was kidnapped in August 2016 together with an Australian man, Timothy Weekes, outside the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, where the pair worked as teachers. They were taken from their vehicle while driving at night between their residence and the university. The Taliban has since released a couple of videos showing the captives. In January, the video features both men, pale and unshaven, asking President Donald Trump to begin negotiations with the militants and offer a prisoner swap for their freedom. If we stay here for much longer, we will be killed. I dont want to die here, Weeks said in the video, the Guardian reported. Donald Trump, sir, I ask you, please. This is in your hands. I ask you please to negotiate with the Taliban. If you do not negotiate with them, we will be killed. American Caitlan Coleman and Canadian Joshua Boyle also appeared in the video, who were freed in October this year by Pakistani troops following a five-year captivity. In another clip, dated June 16, King and Weekes appeared still pale but healthier compared to the first video. They said the Taliban treated them well but they insist on the government to set them free. The Associated Press contributed to this report. As October comes to an end, temperatures continue to decline from what has been record-breaking warmth throughout much of the United States. Residents of the northern regions of the U.S. and the southern parts of Canada may have noticed that there have been a larger number of monarch butterflies fluttering through the skies for this time of year. This is no coincidence. Warm weather and strong headwinds have delayed the annual monarch migration. Millions of monarchs travel about 3,000 miles to overwintering sites in southwestern Mexico, as temperatures drop and the winter season begins. This has been the slowest migration that I have seen, and I have been doing this since 1992, Founder and Director of Monarch Watch Chip Taylor said. Climate and temperature play a role in their migratory patterns and monarch development. Monarchs prefer to travel when temperatures are in the 60s and 70s F, but temperatures have been higher than average for this time of year, Taylor said. Unlike many other insects in temperate climates, monarchs cannot survive a long cold winter, according to the University of Minnesota Monarch Lab. Monarchs as migratory organisms need habitat not just in one place, but suitable climate in all different areas of their range, University of Minnesota Monarch Lab Dr. Kelly Nail said in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) web seminar. Monarchs need a goldilocks climate, not too hot and not too cold, according to Nail. Therefore, these monarchs depart to a few mountains in Mexico, where they huddle together on branches of Oyamel fir trees for the winter season. These trees create a micro-climate for the butterflies, which protects them from extreme temperatures and weather events, according to Nail. The monarchs cluster vertically by the millions, centered at 12 meters in height, which protects them from freezing. The dense forests act as a wind break and a blanket of thermal insulation, according to Nail. At the end of the winter months, the monarchs prepare for their journey back north. It usually takes the monarchs two to three generations to complete the northern migration. The summer monarchs live only about a month as adults and begin laying eggs when they are only a few days old, according to the Monarch Lab. Whereas, the monarchs that spend the winter in Mexico are the final, or migratory, generation of the annual life cycle. This migratory generation of monarchs can live up to nine months. Decreasing day length and temperatures, along with aging milkweed and nectar sources trigger a change in monarchs; this change signifies the beginning of the migratory generation, according to the Monarch Joint Venture. Most butterflies in the final generation begin their lives in the north and then migrate thousands of miles to mountaintops in Mexico, which neither their parents or grandparents have ever seen. This generation of monarchs will begin to head north in March after spending several months in Mexico. They will begin to lay eggs in northern Mexico and southern U.S., starting the cycle again. Mystery largely surrounds why these creatures migrate, and how they know where to migrate to. Millions of monarchs travel from regions all over eastern and central North America to accumulate in a very small area in the mountains of central Mexico. However, there is no parent to lead the route to Mexico, as implied by the annual life cycle of monarchs. Therefore, it is fairly certain that monarchs rely on their instincts to find overwintering sites. Sun compass and magnetic compass are considered to be the two most likely cues that monarchs use, according to the Monarch Lab. There is also speculation that the migration is the result of monarchs following the bloom of their primary food source, milkweed. Monarch development relies largely on the availability of milkweed, which acts as the primary food supply for the earlier stage of the monarchs' life span. Monarchs are at a disadvantage when traveling late, like this season. There will be less flowering at this time of year; therefore, less fuel for the monarchs on the migration, according to Taylor. Monarchs gain their masses and fuel as they migrate. If they make it to Mexico, they wont be as prepared, Taylor said. The monarchs had a good reproductive year, but the late migration could impact the population. The current avocado craze also places this year's monarch population at risk. The increasing demand for the fruit has led to greater incentive to expand avocado orchards into the Monarch's overwintering sites in Mexico, according to The New York Times. Between 1974 and 2011, about 110,000 acres of forest across Michoacans central highlands were turned into avocado orchards, according to a study by the National Autonomous University of Mexico. The avocado boom further complicates issues surrounding deforestation and monarch protection. A B-2 stealth bomber equipped with nuclear strike capabilities flew over undisclosed parts of the Pacific region this weekend ahead of President Trumps visit to Japan and South Korea, reports said. The bomber made rounds to familiarize aircrew with air bases and operations in different geographic combatant commands, enabling them to maintain a high state of readiness and proficiency, a U.S. military statement read. The statement also said the mission was intended as a visible demonstration of commitment to our allies and enhancing regional security, the Japan Times reported. B-2 bomber, with its large operating range and ability to refuel in the air, is likely a top choice in the event of a U.S. nuclear attack on North Korea. The B-2 bomber's mission came at the time Trump is set to meet leaders of South Korea and Japan starting November 5 amid the increasing tensions with the North Korean communist regime. Pentagon chief Jim Mattis, who is currently visiting allies in the region, reiterated on Sunday unequivocal opposition to North Korea as a nuclear power. "I cannot imagine a condition under which the United States would accept North Korea as a nuclear power," he said in South Korea, according to 9News.com.au. South Koreas Yonhap news agency reported Sunday that the South Korean regime nodded to its intent to suggest offering maintenance support for U.S. strategic military assets deployed in the country with the hope that the U.S. will expand its missions on the Korean Peninsula without any concerns over issues of maintenance, fuel supplies and so forth. Earlier this month, B-1B bombers were deployed from Guam during military exercises with the South Korean Air Force in the wake of rising tensions. Pyongyang said they will shoot down any U.S. bombers violating the air space. North Korea also reportedly spent the weekend preparing for a war, conducting evacuation and black out drills across the country, NK News reported. Chun In-bum, a retired South Korean lieutenant general, told NK News that "I have never heard of this type of training exercises before in North Korea, but am not surprised, adding that They must realize how serious the situation is." Catalonian separatists won a razor-thin majority on Thursday, with the three separatist parties winning a total of 70 seats in the 135-seat regional parliament. But the snap regional election failed to clarify the way forward, as parties seeking Catalonia's independence will be a majority in the new parliament but a pro-union party got the most votes. Still, ousted Catalan President Carles Puigdemont celebrated the results from Belgium on Thursday -- the same country he sought refuge in after Spain issued European arrest warrants for him and other separatists in November. Puigdemont also said that he's ready to meet with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in any location but Spain, because that's where he's facing arrest. In addition, Puigdemont also said he wants guarantees to return to Catalonia and be reinstated as the region's leader. In response, Rajoy said he expects a "new era based on dialogue" will begin in Catalonia following the snap election, adding that he will talk with the region's new leaders as long as they don't violate Spain's Constitution. The election comes after the Spanish government took control of Catalonia when separatist lawmakers, led by Puigdemont, declared independence in October. Spain invoked its never-before used constitutional amendment to take control of the region, giving it the ability to sack Puigdemont and his cabinet as well as authorize the government to curtail the regions parliamentary powers. Spain's Constitutional Court officially annulled the Catalan parliaments independence vote in November. European neighbors including Italy, France and Germany have condemned the independence declaration and rallied behind Spain. In light of the election, here's what you need to know. What is Catalonia? Located in the northeast region of Spain, Catalonia is largely independent with its own culture and language. Its one of the richest and most industrialized areas of the country with a heavy emphasis on manufacturing, according to the BBC. The region, which includes Barcelona, is home to about 7.5 million people. Valuing its autonomy, Catalonia has its own parliament and executive, called Generalitat in its language. Why do they want independence? Because of its own cultural identity, those in favor of Catalan independence have pushed for the region to become separate from Spain. Supporters also believe that they have given more to the Spanish government than they have gotten back. The push for independence raises questions of the future of democracy and democratic rule, Pamela Radcliff, a University of California, San Diego professor and modern Spain historian, told Fox News. Whats being contested between Spain and Catalonia, one of the things is different visions of what defending democracy looks like. SOME SEPARATIST-MINDED CATALANS URGE CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE Radcliff said that its very possible that neither side has much incentive to compromise. The region held a referendum on Oct. 1. Tens of thousands of people gathered in the streets of Barcelona around the Catalan regional government palace to celebrate the independence vote. They chanted for the Spanish flag to be removed as live music played. The regions parliament voted to establish an independent Catalonia with 70 votes in favor of independence, 10 votes against and two blank ballots. Opposition leaders had left the chambers in protest before the vote. How did the Oct. 1 vote go? Catalonias parliament voted for independence after an Oct. 1 referendum with about 90 percent of the 2.3 million people who voted choosing independence, according to Catalan officials. However, fewer than half of the eligible voters participated in the highly contested referendum. About 900 people were treated for injuries after voting turned violent when Catalan civilians and Spanish police clashed. Andrew Dowling, an expert in Catalan history at Cardiff University in Wales, said that an independence declaration by the Catalan parliament is symbolic without border and institutional control and no international support. PRO-INDEPENDENCE CATALANS: 'I'VE NEVER FELT SPANISH' The declaration "will see the fracture between hardliners and the pragmatic people in Catalonia who are already seeing an economic fallout," Dowling told The Associated Press. But Spains Constitutional Court officially annulled the Catalan independence vote on Nov. 8. What has been Spains response? Spain's top court declared the Oct. 1 independence referendum illegal, and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had warned that the governments first move will be to remove Puigdemont from power when the Senate granted him the special powers under Article 155. Rajoy said what is happening in Catalonia is a clear violation of the laws, of democracy, of the rights of all, and that has consequences. Hundreds of thousands of anti-independence protesters demonstrated in the streets of Barcelona and called for the Catalonia region to remain a part of Spain. Rajoy reportedly refused help from outside civil-society groups and lawyers to mediate negotiations between the two factions. He has also declined to engage in talks with Catalan leaders. There is no possible mediation between democratic law and disobedience and unlawfulness, Rajoy said. What is Article 155? Spain invoked a clause of its constitution after Catalonia forged ahead with its plans to secede from the country that would take away the regions autonomy. Catalonia's refusal to backtrack from its independence threats triggered Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, the government said, which allows central authorities to take over control of any of the countrys 17 regions. Its a provision that hasnt been used in the four decades since democracy was restored in the European nation. OUSTED CATALAN LEADER SAYS HE IS NOT SEEKING POLITICAL ASYLUM, SUPPORTS SNAP ELECTION An English translation of the constitution states that if an autonomous community breaks the law or disregards the constitution, the Spanish government can after following certain procedures take the measures necessary in order to compel the [community] forcibly to meet said obligations, or in order to protect [Spains] general interests. Rajoy's cabinet met in a special meeting to approve measures to take direct control of the Catalan region under Article 155. The Senate gave him the power to do so. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Whether at a lubricant factory, orphanage, potato company or fish-pickling plant, Kim Jong Un has conducted sporadic visits to odd and quirky North Korean sites throughout the years. Through the years, Kim has visited several companies, including a "newly-remodeled" Pyongyang Teacher Training College and trackless trolley factory, around the regimes capital to provide "field guidance," according to North Korean propaganda. The despot is often photographed with a massive grin and interacting with factory workers as several officials stand in the background taking notes -- about something -- during the visit. The only details released about the trips come through the official state news agency, KCNA. Kim usually includes praise for the workers. At times, hes joined by his rarely-seen wife, Ri Sol Ju, and his sister, Kim Yo Jong, with the women often seen peering at glass cases of beauty products or standing -- smiling -- behind the despot. Here are some of the more bizarre photos of Kim during his visits. 2013 to 2016: Kim at a foodstuff factory Kim was photographed visiting foodstuff factories several times since assuming power in 2011. He inspected biscuits at Foodstuff Factory No. 354 in 2013 while officials took notes behind him. The leader visited Pyongyang Chidrens Foodstuff Factory in 2014 wearing a large furry hat and lab coat while holding a package of food. Another visit in 2015 had him giggling in front of a glass case of packaged food. The leaders visit to Kumkop General Foodstuff Factory for Sportspersons came after the facility went through a complete renovation, KCNA reported. The state-run news agency added Kim was "pleased" that production was occurring on a "highly intensive basis." August 2014: Kim at a lubricant factory The leader was all smiles while watching an unknown substance squeeze out of a machine and into a blue canister at the Chonji Lubricant Factory. Kim reportedly praised factory employees for their work and thanked them for producing a product North Korea previously imported. He called for "steadily improving technical specifications" to improve "international competitiveness." August 2014: Kim at a hosiery factory Kim gave some "field guidance" at Pyongyang Hosiery Factory and was seen talking to workers as they stood in front of a wall of colorful socks. The North Korean despot made the visit because he was reportedly deeply "concerned" about "consumer goods for peoples life," Yonhap News Agency reported. "The production capacity of the factory is very big, he noted, calling for operating all production processes in full capacity so as to meet the demands of people for hosiery," KCNA said in its statement. 2014 to 2015: Kim at Pyongyang Baby Home and Orphanage Kim's first visit to the orphanage was in 2014, when the facility was under construction. Kim returned the next year to a new building filled with bright-colored furniture. He is seen laughing as he played with children and toys. Another photo showed a hoard of toddlers coming toward Kim. September 2017: Kim at a farm Kim gave more "field guidance" during a visit to Farm No. 1116, strolling through a field of unknown plants and then picking up a vegetable and inspecting the quality of it. He was also pictured marveling at apples in an orchard. October 2017: Kim at a footwear factory Kim and his wife visited Ryuwon Footwear Factory in early October. This was the first time his wife was spotted in public in months. He watched a worker at a sewing machine and looked at childrens shoes. The photos were released with a scathing threat that called President Trump a "rabid man in the White House." October 2017: Kim at a cosmetics factory Kim visited the remodeled Pyongyang Cosmetics Factory and was "very pleased" with the products, which were aimed to make North Korean women "more beautiful." "He said he felt good as the factory has been remodeled to be proud of in the world so that it would be flawless in the distant future, too," KCNA said in a statement Sunday. Kim also discussed "important tasks" for the next phase of modernizing the factory. Details of the plans were not released. November 2017: Kumsong Tractor Factory Kim had some fun at a tractor factory in November while, once again, giving field guidance, KCNA said. The despot was even pictured in the drivers seat of a tractor with his hands on the wheel. A group of people were seen taking notes as Kim talked to them. December 2017: Kim at a tire and potato flour factories Just three days after launching the Hwasong-15 ICBM, Kim visited a factory and thanked workers for making the tires for the vehicle that transported the missile. The workers built large-size tires for the 9-axle missile truck. Kim also called for efforts to raise production to "satisfy the daily-increasing needs in developing the country's economy and beefing up national defense capabilities," KCNA stated. Kim in September tasked the Amnokgang Tire Factory with making the tires for the "great event in November," the agency reported. The next week, the dictator was photographed in front of a mountain of potatoes during an "inspection" of a potato flour factory. Snow was also seen on the roofs of the building while Kim, wearing his black peacoat and hat, was surrounded by his officials. December 2017: Kim at the "sublime mountain of revolution" Kim strolled Mouth Paektu, an inactive volcano and North Koreas highest peak the regime dubbed the "sublime mountain of revolution," with several officials to celebrate the rogue nation's Nov. 29 missile launch. "Imposingly standing on Janggun Peak, the respected Supreme Leader gave a familiar look for a while at the dizzy cliffs and the sea of trees, recalling the emotion-charged days when he realized the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force without yielding even a moment and with the indomitable faith and will of Paektu," KCNA said in a statement. The state-run media boasted about the "nice weather" seen during the visit. Kim also spoke about building a new hotel and better facilities around Paektu station for tourism. January 2018: Kim at newly-remodeled school Kim visited a newly-remodeled Pyongyang Teacher Training College on Jan. 17 and checked the classrooms for their desks and technology. In one photo, Kim is seen looking at a projection of cartoon students sitting in desks possibly a demonstration on how the classroom would appear with children. On Jan. 25 Kim and his wife Ri also did a "field guidance" at Pyongyang Pharmaceutical Factory. Officials took notes during the visit, though its unclear what information he provided. Just before the month ended, Kim also visited factory workers at the "newly remodeled" trolley bus factory. "Looking at the factory with a bright smile on his face, he said that all buildings are neat and fine," KCNA said in a statement. "[Kim] stressed that officials and workers of the factory should bear in mind the honor and pride of working at the glorious worksite associated with patriotic sweats of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and their love for people and make constant innovations." And to celebrate Kims New Years Day address, KCNA also released a stamp of the despot from the speech. August 2018: Kim at a fish-pickling factory Kim and his wife were seen inspecting a fish-pickling factory in Kumsunpo in North Koreas South Hwanghae Province. Photos released by KCNA showed the despot wearing a white T-shirt and hat an unusually light and casual outfit, compared to the Mao-style suits he usually wears. Kim told factory workers they "did a lot of work" when he heard the facility made 30 pickled fish products, including shrimp, eel, anchovy and shellfish. On Aug. 13, KCNA announced Kim visited one of the regimes livestock farms, and he was seen walking through the cow pens with his group of officials towing behind him. "[Kim] underscored the need to scrupulously organize scientific and technological work for preventing degeneration of fine breeds and keeping the characteristics of pure breeds and change the cow breeds of low weight increment, poor taste and milk into good breeds," KCNA said in a statement. On the same day, the North Korean leader also visited a fish farm used to breed fish for the man-made lake in Kaechon City. Kim stressed to officials the importance of "massively [raising] mandarin fishes and other young fishes" for the lake to become functional. April 2019: Kim at a department store Kim provided "field guidance" at a recently remodeled department store, Taesong Department Store, in Pyongyang ahead of its grand opening, KCNA reported. The despot was pictured looking at shoes while his officials stood behind him taking notes. "Now that the modern department store has been completed, it has become possible to provide citizens of the capital with different varieties of more quality foodstuffs, clothing, footwear, household articles, sundry goods for daily use, school things and goods for cultural use," Kim was quoted saying during the visit. The North Korean leader donned a Mao-style suit for the visit. October 2019: Kim on horseback Kim opted for a more active photoshoot this time round, channeling his inner Vladimir Putin with images of him riding horseback on a sacred mountain. The undated images, released by Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) shoed Kim dressed in a long winter coat riding a white horse on snow-covered Mount Paektu, the highest point on the Korean peninsula. The government-run agency also said that during a visit later that day in Samjiyon County, Kim lamented over the U.S.-led U.N. sanctions that were imposed after nuclear talks broke down. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The Danish inventor charged with killing journalist Kim Wall aboard his homemade Nautilus submarine admitted Monday he dismembered her body but insisted he wasn't the one who caused her death, according to police. Peter Madsen said Wall died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning inside the submarine while he was on deck, Copenhagen police said in a statement. After Wall's death, Madsen said he dismembered her body, and threw it into a bay. Investigators have since found bags containing her body parts in various locations around Koge Bay, located south of the Danish capital. Madsen, 46, previously told police Wall died after she was hit by a hatch cover, but the recovery of her head earlier this month by divers contradicted that claim as police said an autopsy showed "no sign of fracture on the skull" or "any sign of other blunt violence to the skull." SUSPECT IN DEATH OF KIM WALL HAD RECORDINGS OF TORTURE, KILLINGS OF WOMEN, PROSECUTOR SAYS "This explanation naturally causes the police to collect various additional statements from both the forensics and the submarine experts," Deputy Police Inspector Jens Moller Jensen said in a statement. As part of the final autopsy on Wall's torso, officials found multiple mutilation wounds "in and around the genitals," according to police. Prosecutors believe Madsen killed the journalist as part of a sexual fantasy, and then dismembered and mutilated her body. Madsen's pre-trial detention is set to expire Tuesday, but police said no new hearing will be held as he has voluntarily agreed to remain in detention. Officials said earlier this month they found video of torture and killings of women on Madsen's computer. HEADLESS BODY OF JOURNALIST KIM WALL HAD METAL ATTACHED 'TO MAKE IT SINK,' COPS SAY Madsen has refused to cooperate with investigators since Wall's head and legs were found, according to prosecutors. Wall's naked, headless torso was found Aug. 21 on a Copenhagen beach, 10 days after she was last seen entering Madsen's sub as part of a story she was writing. Her family has set up a crowdfunding campaign to raise donations for the "Kim Wall Memorial Fund," a grant that will help support a young female reporter. As North Korea forges ahead with its nuke and missile programs, Kim Jong Un is also trying to boost Pyongyang's power in space, vowing to launch more satellites and saying efforts to kneecap the Hermit Kingdom's space program are "not tolerable." North Korea announced the five-year space plan in its main newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, on Monday, citing the regimes goals of improving the economy and livelihood of North Korean residents, according to Yonhap News Agency. "Some countries have manipulated U.N. sanctions resolutions against us and hindered the sovereign country's space development. It is not a tolerable act," the newspaper said. "It is a global trend that a country seeks the economic growth with the space program." North Korea has made some strides in its space program since Kim Jong Un took power in 2011. North Korea successfully launched its first satellite in December 2012 after years of failures dating back to 1998. The satellite achieved stable orbit, but couldn't transmit data back to earth despite regime officials claims, Reuters reported. North Korea announced in February 2016 it launched a long-range rocket carrying a satellite. That launch occurred just weeks after conducting its fifth nuclear test. Mondays announcement could signal a possible long-range rocket launch, Yonhap News Agency reported. Satellite imagery also reportedly showed two new buildings near Sohae launching station in Dongchang-ri, northwest of Pyongyang. Some experts claimed North Korea was seeking to launch more satellites to test its ballistic missile technology. North Korea launched an intermediate-range missile in early September that flew over Japan, just weeks after conducting its sixth nuclear weapon test on Sept. 3. Kim has been described as a micro-manager who brought in new officials to identify problems in the countrys previously flagging nuclear and missile programs, Michael Madden, director of North Korea Leadership Watch, told Fox News. Kim Jong Sik, a rocket scientist, rose in the ranks by identifying key issues in the country's missile program. [Kim Jong Un] is aware of certain deficiencies and strength. He knows problems and knows ways to solve them by introducing people to help, Madden said. Part of Kims survival strategy is to complete his prized nuclear deterrent and to create better economic conditions in his country. A Chinese modeling agency that hired a 14-year-old Russian girl is denying media reports that a "slave contract" contributed to the teen's sudden death. The exact circumstances of Vlada Dzyuba's death last week are still murky, and there are conflicting accounts from Russia and China. But media reports say there are concerns in Russia about working conditions in China for a growing number of young models being recruited to work in the country's booming fashion industry. The Siberian Times newspaper, without clearly noting its sources, reported that the girl died after falling into a coma after working a 13-hour day. That would violate a Russian law that says underage models can't work more than three hours a week. The paper said Dzyuba's mother, Oksana, told NTV: "She was calling me, saying, 'Mama, I am so tired. I so much want to sleep.' It must have been the very beginning of the illness." It ran the story under a headline reading "Fears over exploitation of Russian models sent on 'slave labor contracts' without parents to care for them." An incomplete hospital record provided by the Chinese agency that hired Dzyuba, ESEE Model, listed multiple causes of death, including sepsis. The document couldn't be independently verified. Zheng Yi, the founder of ESEE Model, strongly denied reports that Dzyuba was on a "slave contract." "There is no coercive clause in this contract," he said in an interview, adding that the three-month contract didn't mention working hours. Zheng said Dzyuba worked about the same amount of time as other models, usually between two to eight hours a day, and only twice during her 60 days in China did she work 10 hours in a day. Zheng said she had 16 events, with about 20 days of total work. "Modeling work is not manual labor after all, just shows and photo shoots and making poses, and there are breaks," he said. "We provide underage models with more care," Zheng said. "If they feel stressed, we will communicate with them." ESSE Model issued a statement that said Dzyuba became sick while working on a photo shoot in Yiwu, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of Shanghai, on Oct. 24. The agency said that after returning to her hotel she "began to vomit and felt dizzy during the night." The agency said it halted the next day's work, and sent Dzyuba back to Shanghai on Oct. 25. She went to her apartment, but because of the "continuous bad condition of her body" she was taken to an emergency room that night, the statement said. On Oct.26, her condition worsened and she was transferred to the intensive care unit. She died the next morning. Michelle Chien, the public relations director at ESEE, said that because modeling is considered cultural work and an "exceptional industry ... (the) laws in China have no direct regulations, (so) it's OK to recruit minors." Zheng said his company has about 50 foreign models, only about two of whom are under age 16. Chien said about half of them were from Russia, with most coming on three-month contracts. Saudi Arabia will extract uranium domestically as a step towards self-sufficiency in producing atomic fuel, a senior government official said Monday. Hashim bin Abdullah Yamani, head of the Saudi government agency tasked with the nuclear plans, told Reuters that the move makes sense from an economic point of view. In a speech at an international nuclear power conference in Abu Dhabi, Yamani did not specify whether Saudi Arabia seeks to also enrich and reprocess uraniumsteps that are much more sensitive because they can open up the possibility of military uses. The worlds largest oil exporter said it wants to tap atomic power for peaceful purposes only in order to diversify its energy supply, Reuters reported. SAUDI WOMEN TO BE ALLOWED IN SPORTS STADIUMS NEXT YEAR Regarding the production of uranium in the kingdom, this is a program which is our first step towards self-sufficiency in producing nuclear fuel, Yamani told a conference organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). We utilize the uranium ore that has been proven to be economically efficient. Atomic reactors need uranium enriched to around 5 percent purity but the same technology in this process can also be used to enrich the heavy metal to higher, weapons-grade levels. This issue has been at the heart of Western and regional concerns about the nuclear work of Iran and led to the 2015 deal in which Iran agreed to freeze the program for 15 years in exchange for sanctions relief. President Trump has called the agreement a bad deal and this month said he was decertifying it. He wants Congress to fix the deals flaws. On Monday, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano said Iran was complying with the nuclear deal. SWISS FORMALIZE INTERMEDIARY ROLE BETWEEN SAUDI ARABIA, IRAN According to Reuters, Saudi Arabia would be the second country in the Gulf Arab region to tap uranium. The United Arab Emirates is scheduled to start-up its first, South Korean-built reactor in 2018. Yamani also said that Saudi Arabia will soon pass laws for its nuclear program and will have set up all of the regulations for its nuclear regulator by the third quarter of 2018. The IAEA also has been requested to conduct an integrated review of our nuclear infrastructure during the second quarter of 2018, he said, according to Reuters, which will allow the agency to assess efforts to prepare Saudi infrastructure to introduce nuclear power for peaceful purposes. Saudi Arabia is considering building some 17.6 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2032, the equivalent of about 17 reactors. next Image 1 of 2 prev Image 2 of 2 As the last customers finished their drinks at sidewalk cafes one warm October night, three silver-haired activists armed with a long-handled broom and a bucket quietly plastered posters on a nearby wall: "Hola nou pais" "Hello new country." That birth was exactly what they and many others were celebrating in Catalonia, a prosperous northeastern region whose lawmakers voted in favor of independence from Spain on Friday. The Spanish government was aghast, quickly triggering unprecedented constitutional measures to fire the regional government and take direct control of many of Catalonia's affairs in order to thwart secession. Some separatist-minded Catalans have vowed to carry out a wave of civil disobedience in response to the application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, saying they refuse to recognize Madrid's authority. A few days before the vote, Catalonia's now-sacked foreign affairs minister, Raul Romeva, said he believed the region's civil servants who number about 200,000 would continue following orders from "the elected and legitimate institutions" rather than from Madrid. But secession is not a simple process. A highly disputed referendum Oct. 1 was declared illegal by Spain's constitutional court and boycotted by Catalans who want to stay a part of Spain. It also was marred by violence when national police clashed with people determined to vote. The desire for independence is far from unanimous in Catalonia, which saw hundreds of thousands fill the streets Sunday in favor of remaining in Spain. Exactly how Madrid imposes its authority on the region, and how independence-minded Catalan leaders and their supporters react, will be critical to how the drama plays out. Since democracy was restored in Spain after dictator Gen. Francisco Franco's death in 1975, Catalonia has run its own local institutions, including public media, schools, police, firefighters and health facilities. Among the first to hint that Madrid's takeover wouldn't go smoothly were Barcelona's firefighters. Even before Article 155 was invoked, they issued a statement describing the central government's threats to do so as "the most serious attack suffered by Catalonia since 1939," the start of Franco's dictatorship. "We do not recognize any other authority than our President, our Government and our Parliament," the statement said. "We will only obey the Catalan legality, which has all our legitimacy." What this might translate into, however, is unclear. It is hardly likely that firefighters would refuse to extinguish blazes because of a political disagreement over who runs the fire department. Marc Ferrer, a 43-year-old firefighter and spokesman for the Fire Brigade for Independence platform, said resistance would take a more symbolic form, with local services playing a "cat-and-mouse" game with Madrid. "Even they don't know how to apply Article 155," he said. He refused to say what plans were being made for disobedience, citing security reasons. "We are not going to do anything, we have never done anything, that puts people at risk," he stressed, adding that disobedience could mean refusing to display an official flag on the fire station or a Spanish insignia on fire trucks. "The response from the Spanish state the only thing they understand is repression. For us, it's passive resistance and disobedience," Ferrer said. "Now we will have to obey the minister. We won't do it, because we are convinced that our cause is just and noble." But it is unclear how many civil servants would be willing to participate in general insubordination, particularly if they risk being fired. One of the major civil servants' unions, the CSIF, rejected Romeva's call for civil disobedience as "irresponsible." The union "considers that the vast majority of public employees in Catalonia will be on the side of the law," it said in a statement. One key area is whether Madrid takes direct control of Catalonia's public media, as it has threatened. "It's difficult to say what will happen, because we are regulated by parliamentary law," said Monica Terribas, a prominent Radio Catalan journalist and news presenter, noting that local media were producing balanced reporting on all issues. "The public media in Catalonia are very professional," she said. "If they want to intervene in the editorial programs, the professionals will not allow that." Catalonia's three main public media outlets TV3, Catalunya Radio and the ACN news agency described Madrid's threat as "a direct attack on the citizens of Catalonia and a denial of the right to true, objective, pluralistic, balanced information, a fundamental right in any democracy." Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has been at pains to point out he wasn't seeking to abolish Catalonia's self-governance, but rather to secure it by removing regional officials who had gone rogue and broken the law by declaring a new country. He has called a regional election for Dec. 21. One of the most critical reactions could be from the region's police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, who had been seen by some as being too passive in not intervening to halt the Oct. 1 vote. Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido sent an open letter Sunday to the police, calling for cooperation and unity. "We are in a new era. And in this new scenario the Mossos d'Esquadra will once again be the police of all Catalans," he wrote. Initial indications pointed to a relatively smooth transition of power. Valentin Anadon, spokesman for the main regional police union, FEPOL, which represents about 60 percent of the 17,000 members, was critical of Article 155 but said the police would always uphold the law. Speaking before Madrid invoked the constitutional powers, Anadon hoped intervention into regional police would be "the least-invasive possible." But the idea that police might disobey orders wasn't something he saw happening. "The police are there to comply with the laws. Disobedience might be an option for a politician ... but this is something that the members of the police have no room for maneuver in," he said. "We are here to comply with the laws, period. The police of Catalonia must be the police of all Catalans," Anadon said. ___ Associated Press writer Aritz Parra contributed to this report. Kevin King, an American professor held hostage by the Taliban, is in poor health, according to a statement released by the extremist group on Monday. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced that King is suffering from heart and kidney problems, often losing consciousness. We have periodically tried to treat and care for him but since we are facing war conditions and do not readily have access to health facilities therefore we are unable to deliver complete treatment," the statement read according to CBS. As a result, the Taliban is urging the United States to meet the groups demands, adding that if "the illness of Kevin King becomes incurable or he loses his life... (we) will not be held responsible." In August of last year, King and his Australian colleague Timothy Weeks were captured by the Taliban outside of the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, where the two were teaching. In response to the Talibans statement on Monday, the University said in a statement that both King and Weeks are innocent victims of criminal abduction. They came to Afghanistan to teach Afghan youth and contribute to building a peaceful Afghanistan. They have done no harm to anyone. We strongly urge the Taliban immediately to release Mr. King and Mr. Weeks unharmed, the statement reads. As the two professors continue to be held hostage, heres what to know: The kidnapping King, 61, and Weeks, 49, were kidnapped in Kabul by five gunmen in August 2016. The two were reportedly taken from their SUV on a main road near the University. According to a Guardian report at the time, the men were thought to be traveling from the school toward their residence. King and Weeks are believed to be held by the Afghan Taliban-linked Haqqani network. U.S. SERVICE MEMBER DIES IN AFGHANISTAN HELICOPTER CRASH The Haqqani network was also behind the kidnapping of Caitlan Coleman and Joshua Boyle-- a U.S/Canadian couple who was released earlier in October when they were rescued by Pakistani forces. The couple was captured in 2012 and had three children while in captivity. Whats happened since King and Weeks were captured? Since their capture, the Taliban has released two videos of King and Weeks. The first, which was released in January on YouTube, shows the two in an undisclosed location asking then President-elect Trump for a prisoner exchange. If we stay here for much longer, we will be killed. I dont want to die here, Weeks said in the video. Donald Trump, sir, I ask you, please. This is in your hands. I ask you please to negotiate with the Taliban. If you do not negotiate with them, we will be killed, he added. In the second video, which was released in June, the two re-iterate their plea for a prisoner exchange on behalf of their captors. My captors treat me well. They treat me and my colleague Tim Weeks as their guests; but every prisoners final wish is to get freedom from the prison, King said in June. The U.S. government has previously agreed to Taliban demands of a prisoner swap. In 2014, the Haqqani group released Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in exchange for five Taliban prisoners. Prior to his capture, Bergdahl walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009. Bergdahl has since pleaded guilty to desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. Whats been the response from the U.S. and Australia? There has been at least one attempt by U.S. forces to rescue King and Weeks, but it was unsuccessful. A team of Navy Seals reportedly invaded a militant hideout in the mountains in eastern Afghanistan, missing the two hostages by just a few hours, according to the Guardian. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of Kevin King and all other hostages, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State told Fox News in a statement on Monday. AFGHAN OFFICIAL: TALIBAN KILL 9 POLICE IN CHECKPOINT ATTACK Taking and holding hostages is reprehensible and we condemn such actions in the strongest terms. The U.S. government will never stop trying to recover them and other Americans held by criminal and terrorist networks around the world. We adopt a whole-of-government approach to recover U.S. citizen hostages abroad, and we leverage all diplomatic, military, investigative, and intelligence elements in support of our recovery efforts. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families involved. Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment, the spokesperson added. It is currently unclear if Trump will adhere to the Taliban's request for a prisoner swap. After the release of the first video in January, a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade told the Australian Financial Review that the Australian government has been working closely with other governments to secure the release of an Australian man kidnapped in Afghanistan in August 2016. We have also been providing consular support to the man's family, who have requested privacy. Out of respect for his family's wishes, and in the interests of his own safety and well-being, we will not be commenting further." Turkey's government is denying claims that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder negotiated the release of a German human rights activist from prison. Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag confirmed Monday that Schroeder met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but said no "ongoing legal case" was discussed. Bozdag said the German activist was released by "an independent and impartial" court. He slammed reports suggesting that a negotiation had taken place as efforts to portray Turkey's judiciary as one that takes "orders and directions." Last week, a court freed German Peter Steudner and seven other activists in prison pending a verdict in their trial on terror-related charges. Bozdag said Schroeder and Erdogan frequently meet to discuss Turkish-German or Turkish-EU relations. He said the last meeting took place with Chancellor Angela Merkel's knowledge. I recently had a conversation with a colleague at another organization. Well call this colleague Susan. Susan has worked at said organization about three years and loves her work and the people she works with. She is in mid-level management. A couple of weeks ago the president of Susans organization called her in and, as this was unusual, Susan went with some trepidation. The president was very direct in saying to Susan that she had heard from an anonymous source that Susan was trying to get the president fired. Susan, dumbfounded, denied the allegation because, as it turns out, she had not been trying to get the president fired. But the president did not believe her and, as Susan had no way of proving her argument, left the meeting with tension between the two of them. Several days later, several of Susans colleagues sent the president a letter attesting that Susan was being unfairly accused. That action angered the president and Susan was blamed for that as well. Lets unpack this situation. First, what, if anything, is positive? I love the fact that the president brought Susan in to let her know what she had heard, whether it was true or not. Going directly to the source, in my opinion, is a good thing. As a young faculty member I would hear things that had been said about me by others and, when they were not true, I would go directly to the person to whom the rumor was attributed to let them know it wasnt true. My goal was to stop them from repeating incorrect information. But the negatives in this situation far outweigh the positive. The president admitted that her source was anonymous. Anytime we give credibility to people hiding behind anonymity, we have a problem. If the president had indicated that she received the anonymous message and then investigated it further, Id be happier with the situation. But she did not dig for more informationSusan was guilty because of the anonymous message. Another concern is that since Susan had no way of proving she was innocent, she is now suspected of being guilty, no matter what she says. Does the president not trust her staff? If Susan says shes innocent and has never given anyone a reason to think shes not trustworthy, shouldnt the president believe her? I especially am frustrated that the president then got mad when Susans colleagues rallied to support her. Why would the president get angry about that? Does she want to fire Susan and sees the letter of support as interfering with her plans? If the president fires Susan now, she will have many managers wonder what the heck is going on, as Susan is innocent. In higher education, occasionally students will complain to an administrator about a faculty members actions in the classroom. I learned many years ago to carefully listen to the student, make notes if necessary, and then share with the student that I would be meeting with the faculty member to hear his or her side of the story. On occasion, when the student had actually embellished the storyyes, such things do happenthe story changed. What I have learned is that there are at least two sides to every story. Sometimes the faculty members story bore little resemblance to the students story. So it was my job to figure out the truth, and it was generally somewhere in the middle. Aspects of each story were true, but both sides stories were colored by perception. When people report to you something that is in any way inflammatory, I hope youll take a deep breath, ask lots of questions, and then think about whether the story sounds right. In the case of the president in our story, Susans words and actions had never been questioned until now. So should the president have reacted as she did? I think not. Six years ago this month, the founders of Artful Dimensions gallery opened the doors of a 4,500-square-foot former warehouse space behind Castiglias restaurant on Charles Street, which they had renovated into a studio and display space exclusively for three-dimensional artists. At the end of October, theyll close those doors in advance of a move to 922 Caroline St., formerly Upstairs Downstairs Antiques. The new space is about half the size, but it will bring more foot traffic, potter and gallery founding member Christine LushRodriguez said. The building at 922 Caroline was built in the 1870s as two buildings. It was converted into one space when Peoples Drug occupied it in the 1940s. Now, its reverting to two spaces. Were restoring her back to her original glory, LushRodriguez said. Shes spent the summer scraping layers of paint from the original copper ceiling and reviving the terrazzo floors. The move comes as a result of a lease disagreement with their current landlord. It is sad because of all the work and love we put into [Charles Street], LushRodriguez said. But were putting love into the new space. Itll be ours, too, and in a better location. Artful Dimensions member artists say theyre looking forward to the move to the main blood flow of the downtown area, as mixed-media sculptor Charlene Woods described it. Im totally excited, said fiber artist Sally Cooney Anderson. Its a better space to attract more visibility and share our work with others. In a town with many art galleries, Artful Dimensions is the only one exclusively dedicated to three-dimensional artists. Its members include glass artists Colleen McElfresh, Ben Childers, Lisa Gillen and Rima Straight, woodworker Joe Wilkinson, weavers Linda George and Diane Kowalski, batik printer Mary Lazar, copper sculptor Bill Richardson, fiber artists Skeeter Scheid, Lynette Reed, Barbara Posey and Elizabeth Woodford, and ceramic artist May Shorten Townley. LushRodriguez and the other founding members belonged to Brush Strokes Gallery when they formed Artful Dimensions in 2011. They were united in their feeling that three-dimensional art was often treated as an afterthought. Your art gets stuck on pedestals and in corners, LushRodriguez said. People were walking through just looking at the walls. Its like, Look down, people! Artful Dimensionss mission is to promote understanding and appreciation of three-dimensional arts. Richardson, another founding member, said Artful Dimensions is the only exclusively three-dimensional gallery between (and I believe including) Washington and Richmond. Anderson, whose art consists of found objects that she crochets on, said that people tend to think any piece of art that isnt flat is a sculpture. Our gallery shows that is certainly not the case, she said. Our gallery is a testament to diversity in art. Among her pieces are a shopping bag made from recycled plastic bags knitted together and a necklace made from tile-spacers. She turns things that are not thought useful into something people appreciate, LushRodriguez said. Woods, who also works with found materials and whose work includes a soldier made out of plastic toy soldiers, said having a gallery devoted to three-dimensional arts makes it a destination for art-lovers. I think what you end up with in a gallery like ours is experts, she said. You get the best of the best. It gives the consumer a destination location. They can come in and see so many different types of dimensional work in one spot, they dont have to look elsewhere! Artists are drawn to working in three dimensions for different reasons. For Anderson, its dictated by her chosen medium. I love fiber! When I work with it, it just wants to expand to a bigger space, she said. For Woods, it speaks to her particular skillset. I cant draw or paint, so I build! she said. I am a very visual person, I am practical and less conceptual. I need to see and feel depth to get a good representation. Reed likes the fact that instead of being warned not to, viewers of three-dimensional art are frequently encouraged to touch. I think that 3D art often pulls the viewer in and invites one to reach out and touchsomething we often invite viewers to do! she said. Several member artists offer art classes at Artful Dimensions. These are offered on-demand and are individualized, one-on-one classes. Theyre much more personalized, LushRodriguez said. When I teach, I sit right in front of you and I do a step and then you copy me. During November, in between leaving their old home and moving into their new one, Artful Dimensions artists will show their work in a pop-up gallery in the lobby of Coldwell Banker Elite on William Street. We owe a huge thanks to them, LushRodriguez said. The first Friday of November will be a 3D extravaganza, as Coldwell will debut its virtual reality glasses for prospective home buyers to tour houses along with the exhibit of three-dimensional artwork. It is so exciting to think of how many more art patrons, young and old, we can touch, Reed said.{span style=font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;}Adele Uphaus-Conner: 540/735-1973{/span} It would be hard to find a better place for comfort fare than an authentic Italian restaurant, with food made by Italian hands. Down a European-looking alleyway on Caroline Street in Fredericksburg is Orofinojust such a place. Danilo Orofino learned culinary arts as well as restaurant and hotel management in Palermo, Sicily, where he was born, opening his first restaurant there at the age of 18. When visiting a friend in New York City seven years ago, Orofino saw a new vision for his life and decided to stay, learning English for the first time and the American restaurant culture. Working together at the vibrant Italian marketplace Eataly, he met and married his wife, Alona, who was working on Broadway in the performing arts. After being offered the opportunity to manage Basilico in Fredericksburg, the couple moved to Virginia in 2013. A little over a year ago when they saw a chance to open their own restaurant, the Orofinos jumped at it. We want to show people what Italian food is! said Orofino. And not just the food, but to show different regions of Italy and the culture and the wineto give them a true Italian experience. The couple said many military families who have lived overseas, and tourists visiting Fredericksburg from Europe, have been delighted to find dishes served at Orofino that could otherwise be found only in Italy. Not only can you eat like an Italian, but you can actually learn to cook like one as well, in classes offered at the restaurant once a month. We will give you Italy complete, the food and wine to go with it and how its served, everything, Orofino said. To prepare for such a class, you can try out Orofinos featured recipe, Risotto Gorgonzola Noci e Pere. Is perfect for the fall, in colder weather its a typical dish to warm you, said Orofino. It satisfies. Fancy but simple. Risotto is made with Arborio rice, round and short-grained, grown in Italys Piedmont region. Orofino said it cooks fast. You want it al dente, slightly firmnot a pasty consistency. Risotto is very simple, very delicious, Orofino said. We give it a little twist, with ingredients from different places in Italygorgonzola from the north, walnuts and pears further south. Orofino 1006 Caroline St. Fredericksburg In what is expected to be a close race, Virginias lieutenant governors campaign pits a veteran state senator against a former federal prosecutor. The differences between the candidates in the Nov. 7 general election, Democrat Justin Fairfax and Republican Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel, run along traditional party lines. In this race, the key talking points have focused on health care, education, the economy and transportation, the last of which is a hot-button issue for Fredericksburg-area voters. Stephen Farnsworth, a University of Mary Washington professor who specializes in political science and international affairs, said both candidates have run professionally executed campaigns that have been relatively scandal-free. That is a contrast to Vogels nasty primary campaign in which one opponent, state Sen. Bryce Reeves, RSpotsylvania County, accused her of spreading unfounded rumors about him. Vogel denied the accusation. Farnsworth described both as conventional candidates for their parties. Both have connections to the Fredericksburg area: Vogels district includes parts of Stafford, Culpeper and Fauquier counties; Fairfax said he has relatives on his fathers side of the family in King George County and Colonial Beach. Vogel, who has represented the 27th District since 2008, pitches herself as being able to navigate partisan politics while also embracing traditional conservative values such as gun rights. But she has broken with her party on other key issues such as redistricting and bills banning discrimination against gay and transgender people. Vogel says partisan politics is a problem with many important issues, including health care. I will work with anyone who will work with me, she told The Free LanceStars editorial board. As a working mom, the 47-year-old Fauquier resident espouses her support of women and children, but also has endured heavy criticism for a 2012 bill that would have required vaginal ultrasounds for women seeking abortions. She has aligned herself with President Trump and has hired two of his former campaign advisers. Vogel is a Shenandoah Valley native and the daughter of a longtime Republican donor, Holtzman Oil founder William B. Holtzman. She has worked for the Republican National Committee, was a lawyer for President George W. Bushs Energy Department and started a law firm in Warrenton. Fairfax charged onto the political scene in 2013, when he lost a surprisingly close attorney general primary to Mark Herring, who went on to win that election. The 38-year-old Annandale resident grew up in Washington, D.C., and worked as a Senate Judiciary Committee staffer and clerked for a U.S Eastern District of Virginia Court judge. He served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and was the deputy coordinator of the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force. He is an attorney with a private practice and runs a dental practice with his wife, Cerina. EDUCATION, TRANSPORTATION Virginias lieutenant governor presides over the state Senate and is first in line to succeed the governor if the governor dies or can no longer serve. The lieutenant governor votes on legislation only to break ties in the Senate, which is a stronger possibility with Republicans currently holding a slim 21-19 majority. If she wins, Vogel would be the first woman elected to the position in Virginia; Fairfax would be only the second AfricanAmerican to hold the post in the commonwealth. Fairfax has said Virginias economy is heading in the right direction and that he would focus on promoting small businesses and improving educational and apprenticeship opportunities for middle-skill jobs such as welders, mechanics and truck drivers. He also wants to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Vogel is against raising the minimum wage. She said the way for people to earn more would be to create better opportunities for two-year technical training and education. She told The Free Lance-Star editorial board that such educational opportunities would help business owners find employees for such jobs as mechanics and nursing. Vogel also said there needs to be more educational competition and innovation with less teaching to SOL tests, and said teachers deserve better pay. Transportation is a key difference between the candidates. Fairfax believes that transportation is crucial to the states economy and criticized Vogel for voting against a 2013 bill that directed millions toward statewide transportation projects. You cant vote no on that [transportation] bill and then say we need to invest in infrastructure, Fairfax said in a recent interview with the FLS editorial board. People are tired of that. He said he would entertain a bill creating a regional transportation authority if localities want it. Such authorities have helped the Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia regions use special taxes to raise millions for transportation projects in those areas. Fredericksburg-area officials have been haggling over the prospect of creating a transportation authority to help fund regional transportation projects. Vogel told the FLS editorial board that such authorities are passing the buck and that there is money in the state budget to pay for transportation projects. The money has to be used better, she said. OTHER ISSUES The candidates also differ on health care, with Vogel calling this potentially the biggest issue in the state. She said the Affordable Care Act has negatively impacted patients and doctors alike and she defended Virginias decision not to expand Medicaid under the law, saying the cost would eventually explode the state budget. A government-run health care system, she said, would be a disaster and she criticized Fairfaxs support of single-payer insurance, saying it would be too expensive. Vogel said she doesnt have the answer for the health care issue, but explained that competition is needed and that states need to work with the insurance industry, which she believes has too much power. Fairfax believes Virginia should have expanded Medicaid to provide needed health care for some 400,000 state residents who lack insurance. Other states that did so still have 90 percent of the costs covered by the federal government, he told the FLS editorial board. Both agreed that the state needs to reform its criminal justice system, specifically on how it deals with non-violent offenders and those with mental illness or addictions. Vogel also told the FLS editorial board that marijuana laws should be changed to allow CBD oils for medicinal treatment. She also said industrial hemp should be legalized, explaining that it is a big business opportunity. The candidates differ on gun laws. Vogel is an advocate for gun rights and opposes restrictions. One of her campaign mantras has been that she wont take away anyones rights. Fairfax supports universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons. Both candidates have been criticized for clients they have represented as attorneys. Fairfaxs clients have included a student loan company that settled in a case in which it was accused of improperly claiming taxpayer subsidies; a food vendor that also settled a case in which it was accused of overcharging D.C. taxpayers; and a fraud case involving defendants, including a Florida congresswoman, accused of misusing scholarship funds raised for underprivileged students. Vogel describes herself as an ethics lawyer representing nonprofits and charities, but she has been criticized for her firms connection to the conservative billionaire Koch brothers and for ties to super PACS and dark money groups that raise untraceable funds for political candidates. Her firm was also accused of helping to hide campaign contributions from large donors in a 2012 election controversy in California, according to a Washington Post story. No one involved was charged with a crime, but those involved were fined $1 million. Vogels campaign spokesman told the Post she played no role in the case. Horace Newton Beach Jr., 54, of Stafford County, passed away Friday, October 27, 2017 at Mary Washington Hospital. Survivors include his wife, Carla Beach; his children, Jesse "Bubba" Lyon and Kasey Hatcher (Trey); two grandsons, Jackson and Easton; brother Wesley Beach (Kim); two sisters, Shirley Simms and Christine Bast (Ed); numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins; and his faithful dog, Blackjack. Mr. Beach was preceded in death by his parents, Horace Sr. and Beulah Beach and sister Ann Hall. The family will receive friends from 5-7 p.m. on Monday, October 30 at Covenant Funeral Service, Fredericksburg. A service will be held at noon Tuesday, October 31 at the funeral home. Interment will follow in Grace United Methodist Church Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Grace United Methodist Church, 13056 Elk Ridge Rd, Fredericksburg, VA 22406. Online guestbook available at covenantfuneralservice.com. Free Freightnet Membership List your company in the Freightnet directory. It's Free, it's Easy and your company can be displayed in front of potential freight buyers within 24 hours. Applying for environmental schemes can be time-consuming and have no guarantee of success, but if approved they can be financially worthwhile, as one Gloucestershire farmer is discovering. George Ponsonby is looking to boost farmland bird numbers across his land and secure a steady income as subsidies are likely to tumble after Britain leaves the European Union. He is particularly eager for grey partridges to return to his farm in the south-east corner of Gloucestershire close to the upper reaches of the Thames, and also plan for life after Brexit in 2019. The answer was an environmental scheme to help him create wildflower corridors across his arable fields and compensate him for the lost profits from giving up growing wheat, barley and oilseed rape. See also: Common errors could jeopardise CSS mid-tier applications Colourful patchwork This has given him a colourful patchwork of yellow-flowering mustard, purple phacelia and white fodder radish to encourage more skylarks, corn buntings and yellowhammers onto his farm. I want people driving past to slow down and see picturesque strips of wildflowers in the fields, he tells Farmers Weekly. He embarked on a potentially onerous application for a mid-tier Countryside Stewardship Scheme, which came into place at the beginning of 2017 replacing an older environmental scheme. He is now in the early stages of creating a habitat around the farm and is hopeful of attracting grey partridges, which are on the RSPBs red list. The scheme has taken 22.5ha of his least productive land out of his 210ha farm, and he is being paid 20,000 annually for the five-year scheme. Farmland birds The main aim was to help farmland birds such as the grey partridge, and also pollinators such as bees to thrive on the farm, he says. This needs careful control of foxes, rats and crows, for which he relies on his gamekeeper Frank Snudden, to protect these valuable ground-nesting birds. His Great Lemhill Farm, near Southrop, close to Lechlade-on-Thames, consists of gravel soils running to heavier land, and it is wild pheasants that are particularly attracted to this wet ground. Encouraging grey partridges may take longer. He sees these birds, which are native to Britain, as a barometer for the health of his farm and he is eagerly awaiting their permanent return, particularly as they are sometimes seen in the area. His approach started with his hedges, which he reluctantly cuts once every three years and then an Ecological Focus Area (EFA) 6m margin which consists of grasses and wildflowers. Winter holding cover Mr Ponsonbys intention is to plant an unharvestable mix of canary grass, chicory and kale to provide good winter holding cover for the birds, and stop them wandering off too far from their nesting sites in the hedge bottoms. This will give him his EFA requirement for 5% of his arable land to be in farm practices to improve biodiversity, and so qualify for farm subsidies under the Basic Payment Scheme. This is followed by a 4m wild flower margin which contains fine grasses, such as fescues and meadow grasses along with knapweed, birds-foot-trefoil, ox-eye daisy, ladys bedstraw, wild carrot, selfheal, red clover and chicory. This will provide brood-rearing cover, full of insects which young partridge chicks need to feed on in the first few weeks after hatching. This is a permanent margin with an initial seed cost of 150/ha to establish, and the result is a 539/ha payment per year under the scheme. Wild bird cover In addition, there are blocks of wild bird cover mixes across his fields to provide seed for adult birds and food sources for pollinators. These would include the likes of kale, mustard, fodder radish, phacelia, linseed and quinoa. Seed cost for this mixture would typically be 130/ha for the two-year life of this mixture, and the scheme pays 640/ha. Mr Ponsonby says the cost was a few thousand pounds to get the scheme started in terms of buying seed, but hopes the 20,000 a year over five years will more than compensate. In five years time we would like to see the grey partridge return, and would hope to see 20 pairs of birds, he adds. In mid-October, a covey of 11 grey partridges was seen on a feeder on the farm, right beside one of the strips of wild bird cover. First covey This was the first covey seen on the farm for several years and he believes that it is the habitat and his supplementary feeding that has drawn them, giving ample proof that the scheme could hardly be working better. The grey partridge is present on some of his neighbours farms, which he manages, so he sees no reason why they will not hop over the hedge and start to breed on his land. The other advantage of the mid-tier scheme is that he expected subsidy levels to come down even if Britain had remained in the EU, so he sees this as prudent planning for a steady income in the future. Mr Ponsonby was advised on applying for the scheme by Neil Harris, technical adviser with Frontiers specialists seed arm Kings. He previously worked for Natural England which runs the Countryside Stewardship Scheme. Quite onerous Mr Harris says: These schemes can be quite onerous to apply for, and because it is a competitive scheme the applications have to be good. There was no charge for Mr Ponsonby for an initial assessment visit to explore options, but once he had decided to go ahead there was a consultancy fee for drawing up an agreement calculated on the farms size and time involved completing the paperwork. Once the deal was agreed, Mr Ponsonby received a discount on the seed used to implement the agreement. Another possible advantage is that with the wild margins harbouring beetle and spiders, Mr Ponsonby hopes these two may do some extra good by feeding on some very unwelcome guests on his oilseed rape namely cabbage stem flea beetles. Mid-Tier Countryside Stewardship scheme at Great Lemhill Farm (22.5 hectares taken out of arable production) Annual earnings for the scheme Arable options (*) 13,000 Supplementary winter feeding 2,500 Minimal-tillage on land with monument 2,000 Managing hedgerow-cut every 3 years 1,500 Buffer strips 500 Very low input grassland adjacent to watercourse 500 TOTAL 20,000 *Arable options include wild bird cover seed mix, nectar mix and flower rich margins. Kevin Spacey's statement of regret after being accused of trying to seduce former child actor Anthony Rapp has kicked up a backlash when the two-time Oscar winner then chose to come out of the closet, prompting many to question the timing and accusing the actor of trying to change the subject. Rapp told BuzzFeed News that he was attending a party at Spacey's apartment in 1986 when an inebriated 26-year-old Spacey picked him up, placed him on his bed and climbed on top of him. Rapp, then 14, was able to get away without any physical harm. "Kevin Spacey really tried to throw the entire LGBT community under a bus and call it solidarity in an effort to mask his personal failings," wrote civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson on Twitter. Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the gay rights group GLAAD, said in a statement that the story was really about unwanted sexual advances on Rapp and not Spacey's sexuality. Here are some other reactions from Twitter: Comedian Guy Branum: "The classiest way to come out of the closet is as a PR smokescreen to distract people from the fact that you tried to molest a child." Australian journalist and television personality Sarah Harris: "I couldn't give two stuffs that Kevin Spacey is gay. Allegations he sexually harassed a child is what we SHOULD be talking about." Comedian Wanda Sykes: "No no no no no! You do not get to 'choose' to hide under the rainbow!" Travon Free, comedian and writer for "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee": "Can't believe I'm saying this in 2017 but here it goes: Being gay is not an excuse for trying to molest children." Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro: "'Sure, I may have tried to rape a 14-year-old boy when I was 26, but I'm gay!' is a pretty horrible defense." President Donald Trump last week made it official: Our battle against opioid addiction is now a national health emergency. The declaration, which came on Thursday, wasn't a particular surprise: Trump had hinted back in August that he thought addiction to and overuse of opioid drugs had risen to the level of an emergency, but this being Trump, you didn't know for certain until last week's speech. Trump's declaration last week came in advance of the recommendations from the president's commission on opioids, which will be released this week in a public report. There's little doubt, of course, that opioid addiction in the United States has reached the level of a full-fledged health crisis: Experts say opioid addictions and overdoses now kill more than 100 Americans every day. Oregon and the mid-valley have not been spared. The president said some good things in his speech, and many press accounts focused on the flashes of empathy he showed. (It says something about both Trump and the press coverage he's attracted that anyone would find even touches of empathy newsworthy, but never mind.) Trump also spoke movingly about the struggles his brother Fred faced with alcoholism. So, on one level, we have little doubt that Trump is serious when he says that "We can be the generation that ends the opioid epidemic, we can do it." And we could. But the declaration is just the start of that fight and, in some ways, it's mostly symbolic. The federal public health emergency Trump declared turns out to be a 90-day renewable measure that allows state and federal entities more flexibility in deploying anti-opioid resources. But, as The Atlantic noted in an article last week about the declaration, it looks better on paper than it does in real life: For one thing, the Public Health Emergency Fund has been virtually defunded for years and remained so even after President Barack Obama requested its reauthorization after the Zika outbreak. The Trump administration has broadly hinted that it plans to approach Congress for additional funding to deal with opioids, but we'll see if this issue really becomes a priority and we'll see to what extent Congress is willing to fund the issue. Trump already has endorsed some of the proposals from his commission, including relaxing rules requiring in-person doctor's appointments for medication-assisted drug abuse treatment, requiring special training for prescribers and providing substance-abuse technical assistance to states. Those proposals have promise. Trump also endorsed some initiatives already underway, including a private-public partnership to develop nonaddictive alternatives to opioids. Trump also mentioned initiatives to rethink how we manage pain, including one effort focusing on research on pain management for service members and veterans. All that sounds promising. But these programs won't amount to much unless they come with adequate funding. There are other cautionary signs to heed here: Outside these proposals, other administration initiatives such as the work underway in the Justice Department to revitalize the generally failed federal war on drugs would seem to run counter to Trump's efforts to offer treatment to those in the throes of addiction. And the president's efforts to tout what appeared to be a renewed "Just Say No" public-outreach campaign would be almost charmingly naive, if the stakes weren't so high. In addition, efforts to gut the Affordable Care Act, which expanded the reach of programs to treat addiction, may prove devastating to the rural areas that have been among the hardest-hit by opioid addiction. But it may be too much now to ask for a coherent strategy, on any topic, from this administration. For the moment, the initiatives Trump outlined last week show promise. But the president and members of his administration need to follow through on that promise. (mm) The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is a substantial improvement over the totally inadequate health insurance market that preceded it, but it is not without its problems. Some of these problems were pointed out in letters by Thomas Kraemer (Oct. 7) and John Brenan (Oct. 14). But all of the often-repeated complaints about the weaknesses of ACA, including those of Mr. Kraemer, Mr. Brenan and many congressional Republicans, only strengthen the call for a single-payer health care system that would remove all of those weaknesses. Why does our Congress continue its fruitless struggle to find a private-market insurance system that works, when we already have a single-payer system Medicare that works just fine for a large segment of our population? Why not just extend that to include everyone, as Canada did long ago? A Medicare-for-all system would have no penalties for opting out (everyone is automatically included). No wasteful 20 percent overhead (Medicare overhead is 2 to 3 percent). No insurance premiums, co-pays, deductibles, or unaffordable prescription drug costs, providing savings to nearly all citizens that would exceed any tax increases necessary to fund the system. Health care systems similar to Medicare are used effectively by many other countries at per-capita costs far below those that currently burden the U.S. Complaints about the Affordable Care Act deserve our attention. They constitute strong arguments for replacing it with a comprehensive, affordable single-payer system Medicare for All. Jack Elder Corvallis (Oct. 30) Preparations for COP 23 : How Climate Conference visitors might experience Bonn Bonn Is it easy to find your way around Bonn? Are people able to give directions in English? GA reporter Nicolas Ottersbach tested Bonn to see how tourist-friendly it was in advance of the COP 23. Teilen Teilen Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Tweeten Tweeten Weiterleiten Weiterleiten Drucken Arriving from Cologne, the train door opens in front of a stack of white-red warning beacons. On the left, a man accidentally bumps into a beer bottle. On the right, someone is typing on their smartphone. The train pulls away, leaving a view of a residential area under construction. Thats how it is for visitors arriving at the main railway station in Bonn. Thousands of guests will find their way into the city at the World Climate Conference next week. The start is quite sobering. No getting away from the fact that the main train station is a huge construction site, with hammering and sawing echoing over the platform. Anybodys guess what the word Reisezentrum on the blue signpost may mean but the word City is clear to understand. Down the escalator, past a street musician with a guitar, a woman with a dachshund, and a man with a folding bicycle. The most international thing here is the smoking ban. Signs in English and French make clear that smoking is only allowed in designated areas. Not an inviting view to the city Arriving at the information area, the railway employee has his mouth full. He murmurs just a second. After his mouth is empty, he asks in a friendly manner how he can help. Ah, English, yes, says the man. To COP please. You go out and right to the bus station, Line 610, UN campus. He doesnt recommend a taxi, with public transport one arrives at the same time anyhow and besides, its cheaper. Through the large glass doors with red wooden trim, the world looks a bit foggy out there. When they open, a burst of construction dust blows. Two cranes turn, and behind the fence are mountains of debris and power shovels. The remains of this torn down business area do not really make you want to go into the city. No sign for sightseeing This trip should lead into the city, not the bus station, but there is no sign. Where is the city center? One doesnt need a sign when Ahmed Awad is near by. Wearing his bright orange Bonnorange (sanitation services) vest and about to empty a trash bin, he helpfully explains to someone, "You can find the tourist information in the Bonngasse", and he even shows the way. How does he know this so well? "We are asked daily where certain sights are," explains his colleague Matthias Brandt. The Beethoven monument, the Munster Cathedral and the Rhine are the most popular destinations. On the way there are some red signs in German and in English which indicate the direction to the Beethovenhaus or Tourist Information. With a free city map, its on to Munsterplatz where the old cathedral is being renovated. Bonn is so friendly The next red sign reads Old Town Hall, that sounds good. Walking past the many stores on Remigiusstrae, at the end of the square is the light pink-colored Rathaus (Old Town Hall). A sellers at the market hollers out the prices of his produce. The smell of bratwurst is in the air. The woman at the counter explains that it contains pork, a piece of information she finds important for Muslims. Mr. Sreenath and Ms. Kusum from India are trying to orient themselves by consulting a city map from the Tourist Information. "Bonn is so friendly", they say and praise the good museums. They like the university and the grassy area called the Hofgarten the best. Because it is so quiet. They point to the yellow baroque building. Suddenly there are cyclists and youngsters, making themselves comfortable on the grass and the park benches. Three groups play frisbee, others sit together and play guitar. Those who are alone are usually engrossed in a book. Time to finally take bus line 610 towards the COP23. On an information board at the bus stop, there is an orange-blue poster of the Climate Conference. Bula, it says. Hello in Fiji. Orig. text: Nicolas Ottersbach bohlah at 30-10-2017 06:45 AM (5 years ago) (m) The Imo State Police Command has arrested 18-year-old Bobo John after he and members of his cult group killed a 24- year -old commercial motorcycle rider and buried his body in a shallow grave inside a forest after snatching his motorcycle. The Imo State Police Command has arrested 18-year-old Bobo John after he and members of his cult group killed a 24- year -old commercial motorcycle rider and buried his body in a shallow grave inside a forest after snatching his motorcycle. The suspect last Thursday led policemen to Igwebuike forest in Awara community in the Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State, where he and four accomplices buried the victim identified as Stanley Eluwa, LIB reports. Speaking to journalists after the remains of the victim had been exhumed, the suspect revealed how the gang lured the victim to the forest and killed him with a rod after snatching his motorcycle . We were three Davido and Stone and I . We asked him to take us to this place (forest). It was Davido who hit him with the rod . We buried him here. I am 18 years old, but my parents didn t train me at all. I am a product of an irresponsible home. I regret my action . I didnt get any money from the sale of the motorcycle . Davido took the money ; he said he was going to Elele , Rivers State, to start a new life . I don t know how much he sold the motorcycle. Spokesperson for the Police Command, Andrew Enwerem said John and four others, who belonged to the Iceland cult, lured the victim to the forest on October 5 . When Eluwa did not return home, his family members reported the matter at the Ohaji Police Division. John was arrested on October 24 for another case of stealing an amplifier from the New Life Bible Church, Awara. During interrogation, John confessed that his gang murdered and buried Eluwa in the forest. This is a case of robbery and murder. This man, who claims to be 18 years old and his gang members , robbed and murdered one Stanley Eluwa on October 5. He was arrested on October 24 for stealing an amplifier from the New Life Bible Church. During interrogation, he confessed to the murder case. Today, (Thursday ) he led the police and the family members of the slain man to the forest where they killed and buried the victim in a shallow grave said Enwerem. He added; The Commissioner of Police, Chris Ezike , has declared war on cultism . The CP believes that cultism is the mother of all crimes . We are getting the results and the CP is bringing new ideas to the table to make sure that cultism is thrown out of the state. The suspect and others on the run belong to the Iceland Confraternity , which has been wrecking havoc on the state. We are trailing the fleeing gang members . There is an ongoing operation in the state against cultism, Photos below.. The suspect last Thursday led policemen to Igwebuike forest in Awara community in the Ohaji/Egbema Local Government Area of Imo State, where he and four accomplices buried the victim identified as Stanley Eluwa, LIB reports.Speaking to journalists after the remains of the victim had been exhumed, the suspect revealed how the gang lured the victim to the forest and killed him with a rod after snatching his motorcycle .Spokesperson for the Police Command, Andrew Enwerem said John and four others, who belonged to the Iceland cult, lured the victim to the forest on October 5 .When Eluwa did not return home, his family members reported the matter at the Ohaji Police Division. John was arrested on October 24 for another case of stealing an amplifier from the New Life Bible Church, Awara.During interrogation, John confessed that his gang murdered and buried Eluwa in the forest.This is a case of robbery and murder. This man, who claims to be 18 years old and his gang members , robbed and murdered one Stanley Eluwa on October 5.He was arrested on October 24 for stealing an amplifier from the New Life Bible Church. During interrogation, he confessed to the murder case.Today, (Thursday ) he led the police and the family members of the slain man to the forest where they killed and buried the victim in a shallow grave said Enwerem.He added;Photos below.. Post Reply I have been reporting on latest news from Nigeria for almost 10 years now. I report on every possible news area I come across, but always ensure my reports are compiled with dignity and fact to uphold my personal values and duty as a journalist Posted: at 30-10-2017 06:45 AM (5 years ago) | Addicted Hero Vancouver, October 30, 2017 - Jaxon is pleased to announce that it will be commencing its Phase 1, 2,000-metre diamond drilling program this week on the Max Target at its 44,000-hectare Hazelton Project in the famed Skeena Arch of northwest British Columbia, Canada. As previously reported, the Max Target is characterised by volcanogenic massive sulphide (VMS) high-grade silver, zinc and lead mineralisation in sporadic outcrops over a roughly one square kilometre area. Highlights: Apex Diamond Drilling of Smithers, BC, is mobilizing this week to commence a Phase One diamond (core) drilling program on the Max Target consisting of 13 drill holes (NQ-size) totalling approximately 2,000 metres. Drilling in the Phase 1 program will be focused primarily on geophysical targets interpreted to be associated with sulphide mineralisation. Recent channel samples believed to be related to these anomalies returned values including 6,958 g/t silver over 0.5m and 31.92% zinc over 1.0m. Recently completed 2D and 3D Induced Polarization (IP) geophysical surveys indicate extensive high-chargeability and low-resistivity anomalies from surface to a depth of approximately 150 metres. These anomalies are interpreted to be related to sulphide-rich material. Jason Cubitt, Jaxon's President and CEO, commented: "We are obviously excited to be drill-testing a target with this kind of potential and I would like to congratulate the entire team on the exceptional work they've done both in the field and behind the scenes compiling, integrating, and interpreting historic and current data." Carl Swensson, Jaxon's VP Exploration, commented: "We have benefited from a significant amount of historic work by previous operators in the area, including a 1988 shallow-depth drilling program. Out of eighteen holes from this historical program, six came close to the edge or minimally penetrated our geophysical target zones. Significant mineralization was found to be coincident with high chargeability anomalies in each of these six holes." See 3D video of historical and planned drilling here: https://jaxonmining.com/projects/hazelton/videos/ The first batch of samples is expected to be delivered to the lab for assay by mid-November. The objective of the Phase 1 drilling program is to determine the geometry, continuity and grade of mineralisation at depth. A further objective is to demonstrate the viability of electrical geophysics as an exploration tool for the Max mineralisation and will provide the opportunity for further down-hole geophysics to better define the geometry of any mineralisation intersected during the program. In addition it is anticipated that the results will add to our knowledge of the nature of the Max mineralisation and its controls. The company will provide timely news release updates on the progress of drilling over the coming weeks and will post videos and photos on its website at www.jaxonmining.com. Sampling Methods All channel samples were shipped to MS Analytical of Langley, British Columbia, where they underwent 39 Multi-Element, 20 g Aqua Regia ICP-AES/MS Ultra Trace Level Analyses (Code IMS-117). Over-limits were re-assayed using Multi-Element 4-Acid, ICP-AES, Ore Grade analysis (Code ICP-240), and for select samples an Ag Fire Assay 30 g Gravimetric Fusion (Code FAS-418). This news release has been reviewed by Case Lewis, P.Geo. (a qualified person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101, standards and disclosure for mineral projects.) About Jaxon Jaxon is a precious and base metals exploration company with a regional focus on Western Canada. The company is currently focused on advancing its Hazelton Project in north-central British Columbia and the More Creek Project (consolidating the Wishbone and Foremore properties) in BC's Golden Triangle. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Jaxon Mining Inc. "Jason Cubitt" ______ Jason Cubitt, President. For further information regarding Jaxon Mining Inc., please contact Mark Carruthers at 604-608-0400 Toll free: 1-877-608-0007. This news release may contain forward-looking information, which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, performance, prospects and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Forward-looking information in this news release may include, but is not limited to, the Company's objectives, goals or future plans. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, those risks set out in the Company's public documents filed on SEDAR. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information, which only applies as of the date of this news release, and no assurance can be given that such events will occur in the disclosed time frames. or at all. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, other than as required by law. Neither TSX Venture exchange nor its Regulations Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Thanks for visiting ! The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy. We ask that you consider turning off your ad blocker so we can deliver you the best experience possible while you are here. Thank you for your support! In 2010, Memphis, Tenn., released a report on the status of the citys certified minority- and women-owned businesses. How well were those businesses being represented in city contracts? Was the city discriminating against them? Were official policies getting in the way? The results were not promising.Then in 2016, the city released a follow-up study -- and the picture was even worse. The second disparity study , conducted by Atlanta consulting firm Griffin & Strong, showed that disparity in the citys purchasing practices had actually increased for most businesses, including major categories like construction, architecture, engineering and other goods. The only place where things had gotten better was in other professional services, which includes lawyers, doctors, accountants and banks.In response to the report, Mayor Jim Strickland sought to improve the citys business relationships with minority- and women-owned enterprises (MWBEs), which was one of his campaign promises when he assumed office in 2016 after defeating A C Wharton.First, Strickland named Joann Massey as director of minority- and women-owned business development. The city consolidated multiple programs under the new office, including the Office of Business Diversity and Compliance and the Memphis Office of Resources and Enterprise. One of Masseys biggest moves so far was her decision earlier this year to make it easier for qualifying firms to get certified for MWBE benefits. The city now offers free in-house certifications to specified minority- and women-owned professional service businesses for architects, engineers, physicians, certified public accountants and attorneys. This is heart work, and not just hard work, Massey wrote in a report outlining the citys total plans. We must meet cultural change with policy changes in order to address the systemic conscious and unconscious discrimination that exists in our country.All of this can be especially frustrating for leaders in a place like Memphis, where most of the residents are black. Memphis is 63 percent African-American, according to the latest Census figures. Its also has an increasing Hispanic population, a decreasing Caucasian population, and a 4 percent larger female population. But less than a quarter -- 24 percent -- of city contracts go to MWBEs (and even that is a sizeable increase from only a few years ago).Its not fair, Rev. Jesse Jackson told reporters in Memphis earlier this year. We want the citys procurement list to match with our supply capacity. Jackson said that at least 50 percent of city contracts should go to minority firms.As a majority-black city struggling to support minority-owned businesses, Memphis isnt alone. Other majority-minority cities, including Los Angeles, New Orleans and Charlotte, N.C., are dealing with similar challenges.Sometimes existing policy can be a barrier. In Milwaukee, Wisc., another minority-majority city, addressing potentially disadvantaged firms is complicated by race-neutral laws, which prohibit the city from considering race when awarding contracts.Milwaukees racial challenges are acute. Its a highly segregated place. In 2010, only San Antonio had a higher concentration of poverty in its core city, and Milwaukees 53206 ZIP code has the nations highest rates of incarceration of black men. Unfortunately, our city has pockets of communities, for whatever reason, that we can say are segregated, says Nikki Purvis, the director for the office of small business development. Its unfortunately how Milwaukee is, Theres no better way to describe it.Purvis says she wants to assist minority businesses, and she sees opportunities for growth in the citys core by increasing workforce development. But the city cant implement race-specific initiatives without first establishing factual predicate of the need for them. In other words, Milwaukee would first need to conduct a disparity study, like the ones in Memphis, to see whether minority firms truly are being disadvantaged. (The city had a short-lived racial-preference contracting program a few years ago, but it was suspended indefinitely in 2012 due to a lawsuit allegeing that the citys previous disparity study, conducted by a Florida-based consulting firm, was methodologically flawed, and that the contracting program had done nothing to actually help black-owned businesses.)We cant legally implement a race and gender program without the disparity study, Purvis says. So far, the city has not put any resources toward funding a new study.Memphis, too, is confronting a question of just how race-informed its contracting policies should be. One of the recommendations from last years disparity study was that the city should break its contracting goals into smaller categories based on race -- African-American, Hispanic, Asian and so on -- rather than just a blanket goal for minority businesses. But thats not something Massey plans to do. Earlier this year, she said that such an approach was not a viable strategy .The facts are, where there are low numbers of minority firms of any race or women firms, the outcomes of separating goals by race would be counterproductive to accomplishing diversity and inclusion, she says. Part of her concern of divvying up the goals is that a business that receives multiple certifications -- if its, say, a firm owned by a woman who is African-American -- might inadvertently be double-counted by the city in two different categories.More importantly, Massey says, dividing its purchasing goals by race would water down the programs overall effectiveness. If we were to break down the goals by race, the formula would produce a much lower goal, she says.Governing When the subject is resiliency, what we usually think about are environmental issues, disaster preparedness and emergency response capacity. In its Climate Resilience Toolkit, for example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines resiliency as the capacity of a community, business or natural environment to prevent, withstand, respond to and recover from a disruption. I dont think we readily make the connection to how deeply that capacity is connected to financial management.That point was driven home to me when I talked with Long Beach, Calif., City Manager Patrick West a few months ago. I was interested in how he saw the ever-expanding concept of resiliency, and I was intrigued by the extent to which the citys financial policies take into account not only economic cycles but also the need to be prepared for catastrophes like earthquakes, tsunamis, terrorism and public health crises.At the time, I thought these policies unusually wise and forward thinking. Now, in light of late summers devastating storms in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, they seem even more so. In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, for example, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner proposed an emergency one-year property tax increase to cover costs including overtime for first responders, debris removal, equipment replacement and repairs to city facilities. Debris removal alone is estimated to cost $230 million, and while 75 percent of the cost could be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), that process could take years. The challenge we all face right now is being at the front end of this years-long process to establish what is going to be reimbursable, Kelly Dowe, Houstons chief financial officer, told theDowes right to focus on that. The, reporting on the costs faced by Florida communities after Irmas devastation in September, noted that after Hurricane Charley in 2004, Charlotte County spent nearly five years battling with FEMA over reimbursements eventually totaling $55 million.For me, these struggles underline the growing need for more governments to build disaster resiliency into their fiscal policies. Climate change is bringing more frequent and more extreme weather events. Residents expect a city to put things back to rights as quickly as possible. They want debris cleaned up and services restored. These are not costs that will respond well to the time-honored practice of kicking the can down the road.The politics can be tricky, of course. In a 2009 political science paper, Andrew Healy and Neil Malhotra found that while every dollar spent on disaster preparedness is worth about $15 in future damage mitigation, voters do not seem to reward politicians for spending on disaster preparedness. Long Beach, where a disastrous 1933 earthquake has not been forgotten, seems to be betting that things are changing in that regard. When the next disaster strikes and people have a chance to examine what happened, Patrick West wants them to find that the city was prepared and responded well. There weren't many inspiring moments in the 2016 political season, but I witnessed one the day after the November election. At the time, I owned a content marketing company housed in my community's startup incubator. The facility is privately owned, but the incubator's community manager position is funded by my county's economic development council via a grant from the Missouri Technology Corporation, a public-private partnership that supports entrepreneurship and innovation in the state.Regardless of whom you voted for, the day after the election was rough. Even if your candidate(s) won, it felt a little like waking up the morning after a really bad fight with your spouse. The community manager knew that two of the incubator members sitting near each other had supported opposing candidates. She encouraged them to get to know one another rather than view each other as walking political stereotypes. They quickly became friends and frequent business collaborators.Watching these two human beings come together despite their political differences was incredibly moving. It was like witnessing a very small corner of the world being stitched back together in a time when it felt like everything binding us together was coming apart. It also reminded me of how important state and local government is.Of course, a community manager at a startup incubator isn't the most common example of a local-government employee, but the existence of that role shows how innovative and impactful government at that level can be.It also shows the way state and local government touches our lives in ways that the federal government doesn't. Whether you're a Clinton voter, a Trump voter, a somewhere-in-between voter or a non-voter, it takes a while for policies emanating from the White House or Congress to make a difference in our day-to-day existence. That doesn't mean Washington's decisions and positions aren't important. They are. It just takes a while to feel their impact of those policies on our bank accounts or in our households.That isn't the case with local and state government. The sidewalks my neighbor wishes his kids could walk on do not exist, because of decisions made by our city council. When my son's bike was stolen by an older kid in our neighborhood, it was local government -- in the form of police officers -- that responded. The teachers working to shape my children into decent human beings who don't steal bikes are local government employees. State employees maintain our highways, protect our wildlife and set our water-quality standards.If you're toiling away as a local- or state-government employee, none of this is news to you. However, the impact of local and state government was something I started to think a lot about after watching a state-funded employee heal one small political rift in our community. It made me think long and hard about the difference I was and wasn't making in my community.That thought process was ultimately what led me to step away from my company and join the county economic development organization as vice president of marketing and entrepreneurship. It was a decision some of my entrepreneur peers don't understand, but one I wish more people would make. Further, I wish more people would recognize how many talented people work for less money than they could earn elsewhere simply because they believe that state and local government is a way to directly impact their communities.My son knows he can count on the police when his bike is stolen. My daughter has a teacher who takes time out of her busy schedule to help her with college scholarship applications. When I was an entrepreneur, I directly benefitted from programs offered by my local economic development council and the state-funded Missouri Technology Corporation. The dysfunction in our federal government is something we can't ignore, but we also shouldn't let that dysfunction color our opinion of local and state government, where talented, dedicated people are working hard to make our communities safer and our economies stronger. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, on the plastic warehouse fire that burned for at least five days and closed nearby schools last week. State officials are still working to figure out which potentially toxic materials were stored in there, but dozens of people have already visited the local ER for fire-related symptoms. Whenever a state legalizes recreational marijuana, there's always a local backlash. Have your drugs, towns and cities say, but keep them away from us. If a municipality bans pot, though, should they reap the financial benefits of it being legal?Some states just say no.Oregon has already started keeping marijuana tax revenue from localities that effectively ban the substance. California plans to withhold pot-funded law enforcement and health grants from places with a commercial marijuana ban. And now, an effort is underway in Massachusetts to reduce the amount of money that cities and towns with bans and other restrictions on operations get from the states 17 percent tax on marijuana sales.Massachusetts was one of four states that legalized recreational marijuana by popular vote last year. The 2016 election season doubled the number of states with legal weed to eight plus the District of Columbia. The drug is now legal in Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon and Washington state.No hard count exists, but its not unusual to see about one-third of localities imposing some kind of ban on pot production and sales in any of those states.By withholding revenue, states are hoping cities will abandon their bans. But its unclear whether the approach will work.Initial figures from Oregons tax revenue distributions suggest the financial hit these cities and towns will take is very small. For starters, the withholding wouldn't affect education aid because 40 percent of marijuana tax revenue in Oregon goes directly to the schools. And, after all the other disbursements of the $84 million in revenue so far, the total left to divvy up between 241 cities was just $8 million -- or $2.85 per person, according to the Oregon League of Cities.Now that the state has imposed its restrictions on that revenue, pro-marijuana places will see a bigger check. But localities with bans likely won't lose enough to incentivize any policy changes, says the leagues lobbyist, Wendy Johnson. She thinks allowing for a higher local tax rate, however, could spur changes.In Massachusetts, observers aren't even sure the approach could be implemented. Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, says it would unfairly punish jurisdictions for exercising their local control. But either way, figuring out just how much to cut from those localities would be extremely difficult, he says. The idea that funding for public schools would be negatively impacted by a communitys decision not to allow pot shops, says Beckwith, is in itself, a laughable solution.Thats because, unlike most other states , Massachusetts ballot measure didnt earmark large swaths of the potential pot revenue. Whatever marijuana sales tax revenue isnt spent on the cost of regulation and administration is likely to be sent to the state where it will be mixed with general sales tax revenue. It would then be redistributed to localities for spending on things like education and roads.But there's still time to change that.Oregon, for one, made major legislative changes to its marijuana tax structure after voters approved legalization in 2014. Cities and counties each were supposed to get 10 percent of the total revenue collected. But the state altered the distribution formula so that localities that limit or ban marijuana sales or production dont receive their portion of that 10 percent slice after July 1 of this year.Massachusetts could do something similar, says Kamani Jefferson, president of the Massachusetts Recreational Consumer Council, which is pushing the effort to withhold pot tax revenue. He believes the current incentive for localities -- the ability to levy their own tax of up to 3 percent on marijuana sales -- isnt enough.That 3 percent is just not enticing enough for them when they can already get [money] from the state, he says. If they get no money or a very limited amount of money, then theyd be much more open to saying yes. Amit Shah, the chief medical officer at CareOregon, once had a patient so beset with chronic pain that his initial goal was just to get her to walk to the mailbox. Once she could do that, he wanted her to walk a little farther each day until she could make it around the block.What Shah didnt want to do was prescribe her a potentially addictive painkiller. Instead, he prescribed what amounted to self-administered physical therapy -- in this case, the simple act of walking. It worked. The patient eventually made it around the block.It isnt news that the medical community is grappling with how to reduce dependence on prescription painkillers. As the opioid epidemic remains front and center, some places are experimenting with alternative therapies such as acupuncture, massage and yoga. Oregon is pioneering the practice, mandating not only that insurance providers cover these therapies but also that they be given priority over prescriptions.Oregons emphasis on alternative therapies originated with CareOregon, a nonprofit that contracts with the states Medicaid and Medicare programs. Several years ago, it funded its own non-medication pain clinic in a small coastal town, offering physical therapy, peer-group support and behavioral health services to patients with chronic back pain. The results were encouraging. The Oregon Health Plan, the agency that administers Medicaid and Medicare in the state, eventually moved to cover services including acupuncture, chiropractic care and physical therapy for patients across the state.Its been less than two years since those changes went into effect, and Shah says that not only are people using the alternative therapies but also that opioid prescriptions are down as a result. Nevertheless, theres a major barrier to widespread adoption of these therapies. Theres not great evidence for a lot of them, says Kelly Pfeifer, director of High-Value Care at the nonprofit California Health Care Foundation. Health plans will generally only cover things with a lot of evidence.Studies of alternative therapies for chronic pain -- particularly back pain -- arent conclusive. Research on the effectiveness of acupuncture and yoga in alleviating chronic pain is spotty at best, and chiropractic care and massage have been shown to work well only for short episodes of back pain. Still, Pfeifer and her team think these therapies have promise, and Medi-Cal, Californias Medicaid program, now covers acupuncture and chiropractic services.Shah acknowledges that rolling out some of these treatments might be easier in a place such as Portland, where theres an acupuncture clinic on every corner. But the fact that a smaller community might not have every kind of alternative therapy readily available doesnt mean that there arent opportunities. Sometimes it can be something as simple as a pool membership, Shah says, mentioning a patient who felt better after sitting in a warm pool every day.Despite the dearth of conclusive research, Shah is convinced that opioids arent the right choice for the majority of chronic pain sufferers. But doctors and health experts acknowledge that there are complex patients and conditions where strong painkillers are needed. They just think that necessity has been overestimated. Its really easy to prescribe opioids, says Pfeifer. Were asking doctors now to do hard stuff. They want to help patients, but it takes effort because weve been such a pill-popping country. I like to describe it like implementing hand-washing in surgery. That took a generation. Isnt Obamacare Dead? Let Obamacare Fail ATLANTA Ms. Stellas, a home-cooking restaurant in Milledgeville, Ga., serves roast beef, grilled pork chops, chicken wings and oxtails with 24 sides from which to choose. Last spring, owners Jeri and Lucious Trawick opened a second restaurant in Eatonton, about 20 miles away, and Jeri decided to leave her full-time job to help shepherd the expansion.But she needed to update the couples health insurance and went shopping on the Affordable Care Acts online marketplace. Trawick, 43, who considers herself nearly as skilled with a computer as she is with a skillet, found the Obamacare website daunting.It was not exactly user-friendly, she said. Trawick needs specific medications to control her hypertension, and the section on drug coverage left her confused.She turned to Insure Georgia, a program funded in large part by federal money to help consumers enroll in Obamacare. A trained navigator showed her how to compare policies on the website, look at drug formularies and examine differences in prices and provider networks.I could have done it without her, maybe, but it would have taken me forever, Trawick said.This fall, it will be different.Open enrollment for ACA plans, which begins Nov. 1, has been shortened to 45 days. At the same time, funding for navigator programs and other support for consumers has been cut dramatically in Georgia by 86 percent and across the country.The number of navigators for Insure Georgia, the nonprofit agency that has received the bulk of federal funding for enrollment efforts in past years, will drop to 21 from 42 last year, said Fred Ammons, chief executive officer of Community Health Works, the parent organization of Insure Georgia.There is no advertising budget to even inform consumers that open enrollment begins. Ammons said he is concerned that with all the past years rhetoric among Republicans in Washington about repealing and replacing Obamacare, some people may not even understand that the program is still available.That could be a problem in Georgia, which, after seeing increased enrollment in the first three years of the marketplaces, experienced a 16 percent drop in sign-ups for 2017 coverage. In some rural counties the decline was as much as 36 percent. Georgia ranks third in uninsured residents, behind only Texas and Florida.Lucious and Jeri Trawick, who have two restaurants in rural Georgia, turned to a navigator to help them decipher their health insurance choices and are nervous about less help being available when they sign up for 2018 coverage. (Family photo)ACA supporters are concerned that residents in the rural portions of Georgia which make up about 17 percent of the population could be most at risk. In recent decades, those rural areas have fallen behind other parts of the state in income, educational achievement and in access to health care.With enrollment assistance resources so strapped, it will be hard to reach out to rural consumers.We had a booth at the PRIDE festival in Atlanta last Sunday, and someone said, Why are yall even here? Isnt Obamacare dead? Ammons said. And if they think that in Atlanta, you can only imagine what they think in south Georgia.Health economist William Custer, who teaches at Georgia State University in Atlanta, echoed those fears about increases in the number of uninsured in rural Georgia.The effects of less insurance will be felt hard in those areas, he explained. Nearly half of the states counties, most of them in rural areas, do not have an OB-GYN. Seven hospitals in rural Georgia have closed within the past four years. Several have closed their labor and delivery units. If people in rural Georgia lose insurance rather than gain it, efforts made in recent years by state leaders to stanch financial bleeding at rural hospitals could be jeopardized, Custer said.This is really the big worry. The problem in Georgia is that we have very different geographics, very different demographics and very different health care. These changes this year really seem to be pushing us even more to two Georgias, Custer said.Much of the cutbacks and confusion, health care advocates said, follows President Donald Trumps disparagement of the law. He campaigned on a promise to repeal and replace the disaster that is Obamacare and announced in July that he would let Obamacare fail. Even though Congress could not pass a replacement bill, the Trump administrations changes in timing and funding for enrollment will have an effect, the advocates charge.The most damaging has been the rhetoric and confusion, said Laura Colbert, executive director of Georgians for a Healthy Future, an advocacy group. Overall, this could be a bellwether for future years.And while the need for insurance is high in the state, Georgia lawmakers have been resistant to the federal health law. Georgia, like 18 other Republican-leaning states, refused to expand Medicaid, as the law allowed. The Legislature also prohibited the state from employing navigators to help enroll consumers.Ammons, who is from rural Georgia, said he lies awake at night wondering how to reach people who need health insurance.I dont know what I can do to help these uninsured people, he said, adding that for a brief moment, I thought We cant even do this.That was the night he learned, in an email, that Insure Georgias funding had been cut from $2.3 million to $328,000.Ammons said he realized that he would have to lay off full-time employees. He said he also figured out that he would have to cut back on navigators that Insure Georgia typically hired short term for open enrollment.Next, he cut every non-personnel line item he could, which meant terminating leases and closing offices. The group found donated space in Vidalia, in central Georgia, and in Brunswick, a port city near Savannah. But that leaves the southwestern portion of the state, an especially poor area of Georgia, without a nearby office.Ammons said that other nonprofit groups have donated money that will allow Insure Georgia representatives to travel to 500 community enrollment events across the state. While Insure Georgia held more than 1,500 community events last year in all of Georgias 159 counties, his goal is more modest this year.We want to at least be in every county with a Walmart, he said.Jeri Trawick said she is worried for herself and for thousands of other Georgians.To help with enrollment efforts, the Trawicks on Nov. 6 will be serving something else along with their homemade food at Ms. Stellas in Eatonton.Were going to have an open enrollment event, with a navigator here, from 10 until 6, she said. And Ill be the first one in line. The Pennsylvania Department of the Auditor General is tasked with keeping track of more than $30 billion a year in state spending. But as the state budget grows larger and more complex, the auditors resources keep shrinking. The agency incurred sharp funding reductions for a few years starting in fiscal 2010, and next years state budget calls for another cut of nearly 8 percent. The departments staff is smaller by about a third than it was a decade ago.Pennsylvania is not unique. At a time when governments are trying to get a better grip on their finances, many states have cut funds for auditing and oversight. Such positions were sometimes among the first casualties in the aftermath of the recession. I find it interesting that there is this nationwide trend of cutting back on the independent watchdogs budget, says Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale. Ive yet to find a taxpayer or a legislator who doesnt want less waste, fraud and abuse in state government.To measure the changes across the country,reviewed annual surveys of filled staff positions reported by the National Association of State Auditors, Comptrollers and Treasurers. The data shows an aggregate decline for all state-level auditing offices of about 7 percent over the decade ending in fiscal 2017, with 30 of 47 agencies reporting that their staff was smaller than in 2007.One agency that has seen its budget trimmed year after year is the New Mexico Auditors Office. State Auditor Tim Keller equates his teams work to that of law enforcement officers or attorneys general, but he says theyre viewed differently when it comes to appropriations. Everyone pays a lot of verbal homage to the importance of cracking down on corruption, fraud, waste and abuse, he says, echoing DePasquale. But budgetarily, they treat us like the back office. The agency has incurred a nearly 10 percent cut from its 2013 budget.As a result, Kellers office cant take on as many audits. And the agencys budget for outside contracting, where most of the cuts have occurred, has been eliminated almost completely. This, Keller says, has meant that it often cant move on major fraud or corruption cases until funding is approved in its next budget.States or municipalities with reduced staff can contract auditing work out, as New Mexico had done over the years, but this typically costs more than completing audits in-house. Were seeing this all across government, says Keller. Local governments trim their own internal audit division, but six months or a year later, they have to contract out with a private firm thats actually more expensive. In Minnesota, State Auditor Rebecca Otto has challenged the constitutionality of a recent law permitting counties to hire private firms instead of her office.When arguing for more resources, auditing agencies often emphasize their return on investment. The only response you can give is to highlight what the audit function brings to the organization, such as cost-saving measures and revenue enhancements, says Tina Adams, president of the Association of Local Government Auditors.The state auditing agencies with the steepest staffing declines over the past 10 years, according to the survey data, are, in order, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Alabama. Its hard to say whether staffing in local government auditing offices has mirrored reductions at the state level, as no comprehensive local data exists. Anecdotally, Tazewell County, Ill., and the city of Lawrence, Kan., have recently considered eliminating auditor posts entirely. Attempts to expand local auditing functions often trigger political resistance. Mike Pantelides, the mayor of Annapolis, Md., pushed back on a proposal earlier this year to establish an independent auditor reporting to the city manager. Pantelides argued that doing so would change the citys power structure. Where local auditing positions are elected, or established in city charters, they appear to be less vulnerable.In some cases, state agencies are responsible for fiscal oversight or fraud investigations of municipalities. The Indiana State Board of Accounts oversees auditing of local governments and, as with similar agencies, its budget was cut after the recession hit. That resulted in some jurisdictions going more than four years without a financial audit. You could either cut compliance, push audits off or do substandard work, says Paul Joyce, who heads the agency. Doing substandard work is not an option.Faced with a backlog of audits, Joyce decided a few years ago to ask the state associations representing localities to accept more of the costs. The State Board of Accounts charges local governments for the audits it conducts, but those fees had covered only a small fraction of the audit expenses. The municipalities subsequently agreed to a new funding formula that substantially increased reimbursements, which has helped the state agency add back some staff in recent years.In Pennsylvania, DePasquale says he responded to staffing and budget cutbacks by conducting an audit of his own agency. Theyve pursued a variety of cost-saving measures in addition to trimming staff. Rather than work in regional offices, for example, more employees work from home. The agency eliminated its vehicle fleet and modernized its human resources department.Varying funding models explain a lot of the differences in auditors budgets across states. One of the few state auditing agencies thats been able to staff up significantly is the one in Washington state. That agency is somewhat unusual in that it doesnt rely on the state general fund for operations; fees cover all the costs of auditing local jurisdictions, and a ballot initiative approved in 2005 sets aside a portion of sales and use taxes to pay for performance audits.The Washington auditors office offers assistance to its local governments in the form of training, forecasting tools and a dedicated support team. The publics perception of government is at an all-time low, says Washington State Auditor Pat McCarthy. We have a tremendous role to play in setting the record straight and putting facts out there. On Sunday the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority cancelled the highly disputed $300 million contract awarded to Whitefish Energy, a tiny American company tasked with restoring power to the still storm-ravaged island. PREPA spokesperson Carlos Monroig confirmed the news to NPR.The announcement came hours after Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rossello demanded the contract's cancellation, amid ongoing local and federal audits.PREPA's CEO Ricardo Ramos says Whitefish will wrap up some current work before the contract is scrapped, leading to a delay of up to three months before the projects are completed, reports The Associated Press.When Maria slammed Puerto Rico on Sept. 20 as a Category 4 storm, it leveled an already-fragile infrastructure, essentially wiping out power to the entire island. Almost six weeks later, more than two thirds of customers remain in the dark.Tapped by PREPA, Whitefish was supposed to help. But questions arose soon after news broke on Oct. 19 that the Montana-based company was chosen over bigger and better known companies vying for the job. When it was hired, 2-year-old Whitefish had just two workers. Justices on the Florida Supreme Court know long in advance the date on which they must retire, but few of them have worried a great deal about the exact hour. Now a big power play in state politics may turn on that arcane question.Once they are appointed, justices in Florida can stay on the bench for repeated six-year terms. If they reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 during the first half of a term, they have to step down on or before their birthday. If they turn 70 during the second half, they can serve out the remainder of their full term.As it happens, three justices are scheduled to leave office on the same day: Jan. 8, 2019. Gov. Rick Scott will reach the end of his two-term limit as governor that same day. Scott maintains that the justices terms will end at the stroke of midnight, whereas he will still be governor until his successor is sworn in, most likely at noon. Therefore, Scott maintains, hell be able to pick three new justices as one of his final acts. I will appoint three more justices on the morning I finish my term, Scott said when he made his first appointment to the court last year.Scotts position is now being challenged. The Florida Supreme Court itself will hear arguments about the matter on Nov. 1, in a case brought by the Florida League of Women Voters and Common Cause. Certainly, litigation is not our first choice, but lets not wait until January 2019 to have this constitutional crisis, says Pamela Goodman, president of the league.The same circumstances were in play back in 1999, when Republican Jeb Bush succeeded Democrat Lawton Chiles as governor. In that case, the incoming and outgoing governors were able to work together and agree on a joint appointment, picking Peggy Quince -- the courts first black woman justice, and one of the trio set to step down in 2019.That type of bipartisan cooperation is not expected this time around. Republicans have controlled the Florida Legislature and governorship for the past 20 years, but progressives have been able to maintain a majority on the top court. Theyre technically nonpartisan justices, but the fact remains that there has been a 5-2, and more recently a 4-3, bloc of progressive and liberal justices that have frequently been the only check or balance to the Republican legislature or the Republican executive, says Aubrey Jewett, a political scientist at the University of Central Florida.Its no surprise that Scott would like to put a conservative stamp on the court on his way out the door. Not only has the court struck down some conservative laws, but its also wreaked havoc with Republican plans for ballot measures. Florida is unique in requiring that its state Supreme Court sign off on constitutional amendments proposed for the ballot.Regardless of how the court rules, Scott may take the appointment power out of his own hands, thanks to his political ambition. Scott is widely expected to run for the U.S. Senate next year. If he wins, he could be sworn into his new office on Jan. 3, 2019, a full five days before any justices have to step down. Two years ago, George Green got stabbing pain and bad blisters around his right arm. It was the worst case of shingles his doctor had ever seen. I said, Wait a minute, I had the vaccine! How come I got this? recalled Green, a 68-year-old engineer in Austell, Georgia, who got the shot seven years earlier. His doctor at Emory University, Dr. Sharon Bergquist, said about 10 percent of the patients shes given the shingles shot have come back with the disease years later. No vaccine is perfect, and it can take many years to find out how well a new vaccine works and how long it lasts. Sometimes, health officials have called for an additional dose when it became clear the first round wasnt cutting it. But disappointing performance is also prompting drugmakers to pursue new vaccines for older patients, using new additives to boost effectiveness. The issue of waning protection is expected to be discussed when the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meets in Atlanta. The two-day meeting opens Wednesday. The federal panel of experts recommends what vaccines children and adults should receive and when. Flu The annual flu vaccine is a particularly hard one to nail. The virus changes quickly and spreads easily. U.S. health officials make their best guess each spring about the formula for the next flu season. In four of the last seven seasons, the flu vaccine didnt work much at all in people 65 and older, who can be hit hard by the flu because of weaker immune systems. Some doctors wonder whether those seniors who get a shot in September need another dose in January to protect them through the flu season a question that hasnt been well studied, said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University vaccine expert who works with the committee. Theres a relatively new vaccine for over 65 that includes an immune-boosting additive, but it hasnt been around long enough to know exactly how well works. The vaccine panel will hear an update about a nasal-spray version of flu vaccine that it stopped recommending after health officials said it wasnt working in U.S. kids. Mumps Mumps is best known for causing puffy cheeks, but sometimes can lead to hearing loss, meningitis and even loss of sterility. A mumps vaccine has been part of routine childhood shots for nearly five decades. Yet, there were 5,300 cases reported in the U.S. last year the most in a decade and so far the numbers this year are not far off. Illnesses in vaccinated people tend to be less severe, health officials say. Still, research suggests that 10 or more years after the second childhood dose, protection against the virus fades enough to help outbreaks take hold. The federal panel is not expected to propose a third dose for all kids, but is talking about endorsing an extra shot where an outbreak occurs. Hepatitis B The hepatitis B virus can destroy the liver and lead to death. New infections fell after vaccines became widely available in the 1980s and were later included in childhood shots. It is spread through contact with blood or other bodily fluids, and the vaccine is also recommended for some adults. Experts have noted signs of faltering protection, particularly in diabetics and older adults. Outbreaks in nursing homes and assisted living facilities have been a recurring problem. Dynavax Technologies Corp. has developed an adult vaccine called Heplisav-B, which also uses a new additive. The shot showed impressive levels of protection in studies, but the Food and Drug Administration is seeking more information before deciding whether to approve it. The vaccine panel is expected to discuss it but doesnt take a recommendation vote until a vaccine is licensed. Shingles Anyone who has had the chickenpox can get shingles, a painful condition that causes blisters, when the chickenpox virus resurfaces decades later. Merks Zostavax has been available for about a decade and it is recommended for people 60 and older. Thats the shot George Green got. Zostavax only cuts the risk of getting shingles in half and lasts about five years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. On Friday, the FDA licensed a second shingles vaccine, GlaxoSmithKlines Shingrix, which also uses a new additive. The vaccine committee is to decide whether to begin recommending it. Shingrix has been shown to be 90 percent effective and last at least four years in company-sponsored studies. Glaxo officials say they are confident it will last years longer. Experts say it will take many years to know for sure. Prospective presidential candidates tend to launch PACs to pump money into campaigns of people who might prove helpful. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is starting a nonprofit with other mayors, union leaders and business executives to fund what they call innovation investments around the country.Called Accelerator for America, the group will hold its first meeting Nov. 7 and 8 in South Bend, Indiana, timed to coincide with the anniversary of last years election. The second meeting is already booked for February, in Columbia, South Carolina.Garcetti announced on Sunday that, as expected, he wouldn't run for governor of California in 2018, writing on Twitter, "I am passionate about my city and my family; both are here in Los Angeles." But skipping a statewide run now clears him to continue his exploration of national politics reelected earlier this year, his second term will now last five and a half years due to a change in the election schedule, through 2022. All Kansas House Democrats will receive sexual harassment prevention training in December after multiple women stepped forward with allegations of sexual harassment at the Kansas Capitol and the wider world of Kansas politics.House Minority Leader Jim Ward, a Wichita Democrat, said Thursday that if a determination is made that a Democratic lawmaker committed sexual harassment, the lawmaker will be stripped of committee assignments and other privileges."Like so many of us around the state, I've been giving the issue of sexual harassment a lot of thought in the wake of recent allegations across the country," Ward said in a statement. "I've concluded the Kansas Legislature can do more to prevent sexual harassment in the Capitol."Ward's announcement comes after Abbie Hodgson, a former Democratic legislative staffer, alleged that she had been propositioned by a lawmaker in 2015 and that lawmakers were relying on female interns as designated drivers after lobbyist-hosted cocktail hours.Ward, who is running for governor, also said he will propose strengthening the Legislature's sexual harassment policy by creating an independent compliance officer to investigate allegations of harassment and determine whether harassment happened.In the wake of Hodgson's revelations, more women have stepped forward with allegations of sexual misconduct in Kansas politics, including the daughter of a former Kansas lawmaker.Kelly Schodorf, an attorney in Wichita and the daughter of former state Sen. Jean Schodorf, said that she was sexually assaulted while working on a congressional campaign in 2010."We were all hanging out at the campaign office after the election night. And I went up to the rooftop... and I realized when I got to the top the Democratic consultant -- who was not from Kansas, he was brought in -- had followed me," Schodorf recounted in a phone call Thursday."And he forcefully tried to come onto me. Grabbing my wrists and tried to kiss me... He had me pinned against the wall," Schodorf said.Schodorf got loose from the man and a friend drove her home, she said. "I would consider it sexual assault," she said.Schodorf's mother had lost the Republican Primary in the Kansas 4th congressional district to Mike Pompeo, who is now serving as President Donald Trump's CIA director.After her mother's loss, Kelly Schodorf went onto to work as a consultant for the Democratic candidate in that race, former state Rep. Raj Goyle.Schodorf said that she informed the candidate of the assault and that the candidate immediately took her to see a Kansas Democratic Party executive committee member."And nothing ever happened," she said.Goyle confirmed the incident in an email Thursday evening, but he did not weigh in on why no further action was ever taken on the matter."I have zero tolerance for this conduct. I was appalled when Kelly told me what had happened on Election Night and I'm proud we took immediate action in response. She has my total support. I am glad the culture is shifting and victims feel comfortable speaking out," he said.State Rep. John Carmichael, a Wichita Democrat, said that he was serving as 4th district party chairman at the time and was informed about the incident by Goyle."I did become aware the next day, I believe it was the next day, that an out-of-state consultant who was employed by the Goyle for Congress campaign had made an improper advance," he said.Carmichael, an attorney, said that he recalls speaking to Goyle about the incident, but does not remember speaking directly to Schodorf or giving any legal advice on how to handle the situation."The consultant involved was out of state... and obviously was terminated," he said.Asked about whether he reported the incident to the police, Carmichael replied, "Quite honestly, I didn't understand it to be my responsibility."He noted that the individual was employed by the Goyle campaign.Schodorf would not reveal the name of the Missouri-based consultant, who she said harassed at least one other woman on the campaign. "This guy was a predator."Schodorf had joined the Goyle campaign with Scott Poor, a former Kansas Republican Party executive director, who confirmed that she alerted him and Goyle about the incident. He said the alleged perpetrator "floated through a bunch of different political campaigns in Kansas" and that he would have reservations about working with the man again."When I work in politics I employ young people because that's who the worker bees are, and I wouldn't do that again if he was going to be in the office," he said."My recollection of the story was that the dude just disappeared," Poor said. "This was Election Night... and the consultants are -- poof -- gone after the election. I don't think anyone ever got ahold of him. I don't know if he ever returned a phone call to Raj Goyle."Poor does not remember ever involving the Kansas Democratic Party in the situation."Kelly and I were both Republicans; running to the state party chair wasn't something we would have done," Poor said.Asked why no police report was ever filed about the incident, he replied, "You'd have to ask Kelly that."He added, "Both Raj and I said to Kelly we'd go along with whatever you need."Schodorf did not contact the police about the alleged assault."I was 19 at the time, maybe 20. I was really young and kind of scared and didn't know what to do," she said.She said that three years later she ended up seeing a party executive committee member at a Kansas Democratic Party function. And that the man came up to her and "said out of nowhere, 'Thanks for keeping our little secret.'"She would not reveal the identity of the executive party committee member, but said that he is now a lawmaker.Chris Reeves, Kansas' Democratic national committeeman, said problems within the statehouse represent a problem of culture. Legislators and lobbyists had been given a pass on bad behavior "for far too long," he said."This is unacceptable. Systemic mistreatment of women within our state house -- by Republican and Democratic elected & Lobbyists should not be tolerated," Reeves said on Facebook.Hodgson said Wednesday that she learned from an intern in 2016 that numerous Democratic lawmakers were relying on college interns for rides home after lobbyist-hosted cocktail parties and dinners.She immediately raised concerns to her boss, state Rep. Tom Burroughs, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kan. and the House Democratic leader at the time, Hodgson said. She contends Burroughs did nothing; Burroughs disputes that he failed to address the issue.Carmichael said that it's not unusual for lawmakers to rely on designated drivers when they go out for dinner or drinks and the he recalled two instances where interns served as designated drivers. One of the interns was female, while the other was male."I think I was in the Suburban before I realized that the designated driver was going to be an intern, who was female," he said about the time a female intern drove.He said that the young woman was not harassed, but that some of the lawmakers teased her for only ordering a burger when a lobbyist was picking up the tab. Carmichael said that he was fairly certain that the intern was at least 21-years-old."I didn't check anybody's ID... but I'm relatively certain she was a senior," he said."I do recall some days later that Abbie Hodgson had issued a directive that interns were not to serve as designated driver," he said.Ward didn't address the specific allegations against House Democrats on Wednesday, but said Democratic leadership "does not tolerate acts of sexual harassment. It should not occur in our state capitol, any workplace, or society at large."One of Ward's rivals for the Democratic nomination, chastised him Thursday for not addressing the allegations against party members more directly and for referring to established procedures for reporting alleged harassment."Ward defended the system that hasn't worked for women. It works against women," former Wichita Mayor Carl Brewer, a candidate for governor, said in a news release Thursday."I believe this issue deserves greater attention -- and action. State employees should receive sexual harassment training for new hires and existing staff on an annual basis, similar to what is now required in most major corporations," Brewer said."I would seek an independent audit of state systems for receiving, processing and resolving sexual harassment claims and implement a pro-active system to encourage reporting and reporting, not just by the victims, but require staff who may witness such harassment to report it," Brewer said. On Friday, in the morning, in Singapore, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC attended the Commonwealth Alliance of Youth Entrepreneurs, Innovation and Investment Roundtable, and addressed guests. You can read the Governor's speech to the Commonwealth Alliance of Youth Entrepreneurs, Innovation and Investment Roundtable here In the afternoon, the Governor visited the Singtel Advanced Security Operations Centre and received a briefing on the cyber security landscape, threats and security responses, and undertook a tour. Also in the morning, at the Supreme Court of Queensland, in Brisbane, the Honourable Chief Justice Catherine Holmes, Acting Governor of Queensland, received Mr Neil Laurie, Clerk of the Parliament, for the presentation of one bill to which the Acting Governor granted Assent. Also in the afternoon, at the Supreme Court of Queensland, in Brisbane, the Acting Governor presided at a Special Sitting of Executive Council. On Saturday, in the afternoon, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey departed Singapore for Israel, where the Governor will attend Commemorative Services for the Battle of Beersheba and the Sinai-Palestine Campaign. On Sunday, in the morning, at Government House, the Honourable Chief Justice Catherine Holmes, Acting Governor of Queensland, received the Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk, Premier of Queensland, and then signed a Proclamation to dissolve Parliament. Following, at Government House, the Acting Governor presided at a special meeting of the Executive Council, and then issued the Writ causing the general election of 93 Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland to be held on 25 November 2017. In the afternoon, in Israel, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC received a briefing from the Australian Ambassador to Israel on the bilateral relationship. Also in the afternoon, at St Johns Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane, the Governor was represented by Honorary Aide-de-Camp, Lieutenant Gail Rogers, Royal Australian Navy, at the 80th annual Seafarers Day Service of Worship and Wreath Laying Commemoration. Description GIS - 30 October 2017 : The United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative to Mauritius, Mr Simon Springett, paid his farewell call on the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, and Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr. Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, today at the Treasury Building in Port Louis. Mr Springett began his five years tenure as UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative to Mauritius in July 2012. In April 2013, he was also appointed United Nations Population Fund Resident Representative. Ms. Christine N. Umutoni from Rwanda will be the successor to Mr Springett. She was formerly the UN Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Eritrea. Description GIS - 30 October, 2017: The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mr Seetanah Lutchmeenaraidoo, had a meeting today in Port Louis with s ix students who will attend a High School Students Islands Summit in Okinawa, Japan in the context of the World Tsunami Awareness Day 2017. The Ambassador of Japan to Mauritius, Mr Yoshiharu Kato, and other eminent personalities were also present at the meeting. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade, Mr Seetanah Lutchmeenaraidoo, had a meeting today in Port Louis with s Minister Lutchmeenaraidoo underscored that the participation of Mauritian students in this Summit will be beneficial for them as they will get the opportunity to learn from the expertise acquired by Japan and they will get a platform to share knowledge and practices. With the unpredictable nature of disasters, the Minister underlined, it remains essential for Mauritius and other islands of the Indian Ocean Commission to be well prepared at the level of disaster prevention and management. On this score, he called for the cooperation of Japan in terms of training and equipment to support Mauritius in its endeavours towards disaster prevention. The Minister highlighted that it is crucial for Mauritius to protect its maritime zone and make sustainable use of its maritime resources. The protection of our seas entails the strict control of drug trafficking, piracy, money laundering and illegal fishing, he added. For his part, the Ambassador of Japan to Mauritius underpinned that t he participation of Mauritius in the Summit will contribute to strengthen relations between Japan and Mauritius. He also encouraged the participants to make the most of this experience. About the Summit The six students have been selected among the best Model United Nations delegates by the Ministry of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research to participate in this Summit with the aim to raise awareness of the threat of tsunami and the importance of being prepared for this calamity . It will be held from 7 to 8 November 2017. The theme for this years summit is We want to protect peoples lives Lets do what we can now upon learning and preparing for the threat of tsunami. Students from some twenty-five countries are attending the Summit to discuss issues relating to preparation for disasters. Description GIS 30 October 2017: The children of today, endowed with extraordinary potential, represent the future and, will be called upon to take over the helm of Mauritius, said the Prime Minister, Minister of Home Affairs, External Communications and National Development Unit, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, today in Triolet. The Prime Minister was speaking during a ceremony organised to mark the Centenary Celebrations of Maheswarnath Government School (1911 to 2011). The Minister of Education and Human Resources, Tertiary Education and Scientific Research, and the Minister of Labour, Industrial Relations, Employment and Training, as well as other personalities were present. The Prime Minister proceeded with the inauguration of a Media Centre and presented Shields to former students of the Maheswarnath Government School along with gift tokens and awarded prizes to best performing students of 2014, 2015 and 2016. In his address, Prime Minister Jugnauth emphasised Governments key role along with stakeholders from the education sector in creating the best possible environment to ensure the growth and evolution of children so that when they reach adulthood, they are able to effectively contribute to the countrys progress. Speaking about investing massively in education, the Prime Minister stated that since Mauritius is an Island State, is geographically small and has no mineral wealth, its biggest wealth has always been its population, that is, its children, and thus, it is a priority to invest in our childrens future. As regards attaining the objectives in Governments Vision 2030, Prime Minister Jugnauth, highlighted the need for the collaboration of one and all, particularly todays youth who will bring in their contribution at a later stage. That is why our people is our wealth and the wealth of our people is education, he said. Moreover, the Prime Minister appealed to young people to tread on the right path in life and to take guidance from their parents and Educators who can help them differentiate between what is right and what is wrong. Young people have also to make efforts, sacrifice and become disciplined and this is what will yield positive results and bring forth success, he stated. On the nine year continuous basic education reform project, Mr Jugnauth observed that academic subjects are always important, but at the same time it is crucial to ensure that the child undergoes a holistic development. The reform will no doubt transform our country and education, which starts at home, is central for the future of our country, he added. The Prime Minister further called for the need to inculcate in our children true values such as respect, good behaviour as well as respect for order, peace, harmony and solidarity, which also forms part of the reform process. Maheswarnath Government School was the only one of its kind in rural Mauritius when it opened its doors in 1911. It was known as Maheswarnath Pathshala, a private non-fee paying institution then became a Grant-in-Aided one till it became Government-owned. It represented a very precious gift from Adnath Chicooree and Pandit Ramlal Tiwari to multiethnic Mauritius. For optimal browsing, we recommend Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers. Projects in Jeopardy Frustrated by Delays Costs Are Rising (TNS) -- Hundreds of state and local efforts to connect rural and remote schools to fiber-optic networks have been delayed or rejected by federal officials during the past two years, jeopardizing the push to bring high-speed internet to the country's hardest-to-connect classrooms.Broadband proponents say the problems stem from confusing barriers erected by the Federal Communications Commission and the Universal Service Administrative Company, which oversee and administer the E-rate, a $3.9 billion program to help schools and libraries pay for internet access and other telecommunications services."If the commission really wants to close the digital divide, they should be rolling out the red carpet for these fiber projects," said Evan Marwell, CEO of the nonprofit advocacy group EducationSuperHighway. "Instead, they are rolling out the red tape."Under former President Barack Obama, the Democrat-led FCC overhauled the E-rate in 2014, raising the program's spending cap and shifting its focus to broadband and Wi-Fi. Included in the changes were new "special construction" rules intended to help rural and remote schools that fall outside of telecommunications companies' existing service areas, by letting them use federal dollars to build or lease new high-speed fiber-optic networks.In 2016, 426 applicants to the E-rate program sought such special-construction funds, according to an analysis of public E-rate data by Funds for Learning, a consulting group that helps thousands of schools and libraries seeking E-rate funds. But more than half of those applications were denied, compared with less than 4 percent of E-rate applications overall, the group found.The problem isn't getting better, according to the Funds for Learning analysis. As of mid-September, well over 90 percent of 2017 special-construction funding requests were still pending.On the ground, such problems have cast into doubt projects such as a $7.3 million effort to bring fiber-optic cable to schools in northeastern Utah, one of the most remote areas of the continental U.S.Such holdups would seem to run counter to the priorities of Ajit Pai , a Republican FCC commissioner whom President Donald Trump appointed to run the agency in January. Pai has long said he wants to streamline the cumbersome E-rate bureaucracy and expand broadband access to rural America.In a statement, FCC spokesman Mark Wigfield declined to address the specific concerns raised around the special-construction applications, instead pointing to Pai's recent efforts to improve the processing of E-rate applications in general."The pace of E-rate decisions and disbursements for funding year 2017 has improved," Wigfield said. "The chairman is committed to building on that improvement."Overall, the E-rate program has contributed to "extraordinary progress" in connecting schools to high-speed internet, according to a recently released report from EducationSuperHighway. Since 2013, more than 35 million K-12 students have gained access to school internet that meets minimum federal connectivity targets, and the cost of school broadband has declined dramatically.Rural schools are often charged outrageous rates for lousy Internet service. Can billions of federal dollars and a menu of market-based reforms fix the problem? The Slowest Internet in Mississippi: Rural Schools Still Struggle to Get ConnectedBut more than 2,000 schools still don't have fiber-optic connections, EducationSuperHighway found. More than three-fourths of those are in rural areas.New Mexico is one of the states that has attempted to address the challenge by taking advantage of the new E-rate rules. In 2015, Republican Gov. Susana Martinez earmarked millions of state dollars to match federal money expected to become available for special-construction projects.During the 2016 E-rate funding cycle, 13 New Mexico districts sought such federal funds, submitting special-construction applications to the Universal Service Administrative Company.But decisions on those applications "stalled," Martinez wrote in a scathing letter to USAC in October 2016."Our school districts are hesitant to invest in a federal program that may not deliver on its promises," Martinez's letter reads. "As a result of USAC failing to reimburse our state public schools and libraries in a timely manner, progress has been delayed in connecting more New Mexico students to faster internet speeds."Across the country, it's become clear that any special-construction projects are being " flagged for special scrutiny ," according to Brian Stephens, an analyst for Funds for Learning. Districts looking to build or lease new fiber-optic networks have been denied at disproportionately high rates, Stephens said, often after lengthy delays and for reasons that remain murky.Take, for example, the experience of the Utah Education and Telehealth Network, a state organization that during the past two decades has successfully leveraged E-rate funds to help bring 1 gigabit-per-second or faster fiber-optic connections (which meet not only current federal connectivity targets, but also future targets) to all but a handful of Utah's 1,098 K-12 schools.In July 2016, the group applied for roughly $3 million in E-rate funds to run 70 miles of fiber through the mountains of Daggett County, with the aim of giving students in remote schools there the same high-speed connections as their peers in most of the rest of the state. STRATA Networks, a private telecommunications company, committed to put up over $4 million in private capital for the project.USAC officials took 14 months to render a decision, repeatedly requesting the same information from Utah officials and requesting proprietary information that STRATA considered confidential. Then, this September, USAC denied the project, confounding the executive director and CEO of the Utah network, Ray Timothy, who had been planning the project since 2012.The Daggett County project should be a model for the rest of the country, Timothy said. To the best of his knowledge, the network has followed every federal guideline and answered every question. His last hope is that Pai and the FCC will intervene and overturn the earlier denial, an outcome that Timothy requested during a face-to-face meeting with Pai in Washington in late September.Wigfield, the FCC spokesman, said that all E-rate applicants have the right to multiple opportunities for appeal.At this point, though, Timothy said that even if USAC's initial denial is reversed, construction on the Daggett County project won't be able to happen before winter. And costs have already gone up, in part because the administrative delays have lasted longer than the leases on the equipment that was to be used to lay the new fiber-optic cables."We have an extensive history working with USAC and the FCC, and it's always been a very positive experience," Timothy said. "We haven't seen [barriers] to this degree in any of our projects in the past." Register for more free articles. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! Already a Subscriber? Already a Subscriber? Sign in Terms of Service Privacy Policy (TNS) -- WEYMOUTH As Union Point developer LStar Communities makes a pitch for Amazon's second headquarters, the company's CEO says another futuristic deal is already in the works a partnership with industrial giant GE to turn the former Navy air base into a cutting-edge "smart city."LStar CEO and managing partner Kyle Corkum announced the affiliation Friday. He said that in the coming months and years, the installation of GE's high-tech street sensors, solar panels and experimental technology will make Union Point "the best new version of a smart city.""We're building from scratch, so we can be one of the most innovative cities in the U.S. or the world," he said.Corkum said the GE deal has been in the works for six months. It comes two years after LStar took control of the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station, which had been named SouthField.The 1,400-acre property is located just off Route 18. After years of stalled projects under the previous developer, Union Point now has 850 built and occupied residential units. Corkum said the Dutch robotics company Prodrive Technologies will break ground for its 300,000-square-foot U.S. headquarters there by early 2018.Weymouth Mayor Robert Hedlund applauded the GE partnership as a move that makes Union Point more attractive for the Amazon bid, and for the possibility that GE itself might come to see Union Point as an expansion site for its future Boston headquarters."It's a blank palette for GE to use," Hedlund said of the "smart city" technology. With GE and Prodrive both at Union Point, "it could become a Mecca for high-tech activity."Corkum said GE's trial runs for experimental technology will begin "almost immediately," starting with street-light sensors that will function as a local GPS navigation system.He said GE will install different types of traffic sensors on different street lights, "so they can see what works best." If GE researchers develop an untested high-tech application, "they can try it out here in a safe and secure environment."He said "smart" traffic sensors could also monitor traffic beyond Union Point for example, to change the green-light cycle from Trotter Road onto Route 18 if an Old Colony commuter-rail train had temporarily stopped road traffic.Corkum said Union Point is already a test site for driverless vehicles. A 75-year-old resident of the Fairing Way apartments, a woman who never drove, is using one. He said that could be a crucial part of Union Point's transportation system, since half the complex's eventual population will be over 55.Meanwhile, he said rooftop and ground solar-panel arrays will be installed as residential and commercial construction progresses."When we started, we thought of electricity as another piece of the infrastructure, like water and sewer," Corkum said. "GE told us to think differently."In early 2018, he said LStar will pitch an extension of GE's technology beyond Union Point and into Weymouth, Rockland and Abington, which all include acreage from the former air station.Corkum said a GE power generator could passively produce electricity from the line, and the power could tapped for police and fire departments and other emergency providers if a hurricane or blizzard knocked out conventional electrical sources."GE came to us with that," Corkum said. (TNS) -- NILES, Ind. The citys use of drones has taken off this year and is set to be propelled further with the purchase of a $40,000 commercial-grade device.The new tiny aircraft about 10 pounds with four motors and 17-inch propellers will be used to inspect wires, poles, substations and all aspects of the citys electric utility system. Thermal and zoom imaging will help detect equipment defects that then can be fixed before they become a problem.Costs associated with just a couple of power outages could equal the cost of the drone itself, some city officials said. Plus, there could be other savings, as well as improved worker safety, they said.The city council approved the drone purchase Monday night. Utilities board members voted for it last week.Lets hope that it increases the reliability of the system, said utilities board chairman Adam Wilson.It seems frivolous and kind of like a toy, council member Tim Skalla said, but its very useful.Five city staff members who earned Federal Aviation Administration remote pilot licenses to operate a drone have been using consumer-grade drones since early this year as part of the citys drone feasibility study.Utilities manager Jeff Dunlap sees drones as the wave of the future. He said Niles is in a unique position to make use of them under FAA rules because of its class of airspace and having its own airport, issues that could hinder other municipalities.I think youll see an uptick, said Dunlap about city utilities using drones. The drones we now have, tomorrow everyone will have.The four consumer-grade drones have proved handy, and the city wants to take its program to the next level for the electric utility, which serves about 7,500 customers.The city would not be interested in making this level of investment in a drone if it didnt have the electric utility, City Administrator Ric Huff told the utilities board last week.An infrared capability on the commercial-grade drone is seen as key.Dunlap said the new drone, which will be purchased from Mishigami Group in Holland, Mich., would feature two cameras, a thermal camera on one side and a zoom camera with 180x magnification on the other. Images from the two then can be superimposed.The technology should allow the electric utility to more easily perform its own inspection scans of seven substations and all parts of the system. Dunlap estimated the drone could result in about $26,000 in savings per year. Using the device also means more often keeping personnel on the ground and at a distance from hot spots, increasing worker safety, he said.The thermal scanning feature could have been used this summer, Dunlap said, to head off the second of two back-to-back power outages. The blowout of an insulator possibly is what cracked another one nearby, which then failed and caused a second outage. A thermal image could have shown the crack.When we have an outage, we want to start thermal scanning either side of it, Dunlap told the utilities board.After a recent traffic accident, a drone was used to photograph a dozen utility poles in about 15 minutes, Dunlap said. Workers then were able to identify and fix a loose fastener and streetlight bracket.Sending a worker up from a bucket truck once to repair a problem rather than sending a person up repeatedly to inspect 12 or more poles saves a lot of time and is safer, Dunlap said. Bucket truck inspection of the same dozen poles could have taken more than an hour, he said. Despite time savings anticipated with use of the drone, Dunlap said there are no plans to reduce personnel.Staff have flown drones on about 60 assignments this year, including to take pictures for the citys website and get images of the steep roof of the old Carnegie library, which needed fixing. One of the first missions, Dunlap said, was to photograph damage for National Weather Service investigators after a tornado blew through town on Feb. 28.The city will continue to use a couple of its consumer-grade drones for training and photography, he said. The commercial-grade drone will be used for the electric utility, and possibly for search and rescue efforts if needed.Huff recalled a local incident in which more than 30 employees spent two days searching for a patient who had walked away from an Alzheimers unit.This thing can be programmed to fly a grid with thermal imaging, he said. We probably could have done it in 20 minutes.Jim Weeks, executive director of the Michigan Municipal Electric Association, said he wasnt aware of drone use among the groups 40 members, but hes planning to take a survey.Weeks said drones often are used in the power industry to help manage trees near lines identifying where theyre too close so crews know where to cut.Nearby Mishawaka has a municipal electric utility, which serves just fewer than 28,000 customers, but does not own a drone or hire drone services to manage its system, said manager Rick Springman.Springman said he has no immediate plans to pursue using drone technology, but is keeping his ears open as the industry develops. CHALLENGES DEMAND FARM CONNECTION CHANGING RULES FINANCIAL HELP (TNS) -- An increasingly large percentage of daily life leans on Internet access, and the north country is struggling to keep up. While many of the villages and cities in Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Lewis and Franklin counties are connected, many of the places in between are left behind.Not only does Internet access have an impact on our personal lives, it can also make or break a business. In the case of Tupper Lake Hardwood Inc., 167 Pitchfork Pond Road, Tupper Lake, lack of access was so detrimental that it almost forced the company to leave the area.It came to the point where if you are going to make a $1 million investment, we actually talked about this, we said do we put our money into this place or do we just pick up and move? said General Manager Chris Dewyea. It is real. It sounds dramatic, but that is the way it goes.As Tupper Lake Hardwood sought to expand, it became clear that its spotty, slow Internet was not going to make the grade. When the company was looking to upgrade its equipment about two years ago, high-speed broadband was going to be essential.The connectivity speed that we had with satellite Internet was not good enough, so that is when we started on our journey to get high-speed here, Mr. Dewyea said. This equipment needs to be updated or if there is a problem then diagnostics are done remotely from the company, which is about eight hours away. Without the high-speed Internet, it was slow at best and sometimes impossible for them to do anything.Enter Slic Network Solutions, a company that has been expanding high-speed access throughout the north country using fiber optics. After a period of painstaking research, Mr. Dewyea was pointed to the company by the Empire State Forest Products Association, which is when he said he finally got some answers that eventually led to Tupper Lake Hardwoodss current access.Since we have had the high-speed Internet we have had updates and problems and it has gone from hours to minutes, Mr. Dewyea said. It has literally impacted us by thousands of dollars.According to Kevin Lynch, VP, Technical Operations & Chief Operations Officer of Slic Network Solutions, there are currently about 10,000 homes covered by the companys Internet access, but that number is growing rapidly. Slic recently turned on access to customers in Belmont and near Lyon Mountain. Properties in Lake Placid have been serviced and access will be available in Schroon Lake and Titus Mountain shortly.In Black Lake and Oswegatchie area, we are hoping to start construction as soon as December if we get cooperation from the pole owners, Mr. Lynch added. We have just done a small build in Saranac Lake in the business district, passing about 300 homes and businesses.As was the case for Tupper Lake Hardwoods, options for broadband access were limited in these areas before Slics most recent expansion, which is ongoing.In most of the places, there really was the option of satellite. Some places had DSL but it was usually pretty marginal, Mr. Lynch said. There are a few areas, but very limited, that might have had Spectrum.The expansion for these projects is rapid, according to Mark Dzwonczyk, president and CEO of Nicholville Telephone Co., Inc., the parent company of Slic.In these areas where we are constructing right now, Schroon Lake and Belmont and Lyon Mountain, we are building three to five miles of fiber per week. Our next group of projects that has been funded by New York state is 300-plus miles of fiber, he said. And when I say three to five miles per week, that is per area.Although the company is building up to 10 miles of fiber optic network weekly, the process does not come without stumbling blocks.Providing access to high-speed broadband requires access to the thousands of power poles that line the country roads in the small rural communities across the north country. According to Mr. Lynch, gaining access to the poles owned by other entities can account for up to 40 percent of Slics expansion costs, sometimes at a price between $10,000 and $14,000 per mile.We apply to National Grid or whoever the pole owner is and say, We would like to attach to these 30 poles on this road, and do a pole application and pay a fee, Mr. Lynch explained. They come out, they look at each pole and they determine if there is space on the pole, do they need to rearrange the electrical wires so they are in compliance with the electrical code, do they need to move down the phone lines.A lot of times these poles are jointly owned. It will be National Grid and Verizon, so they have to coordinate and then there might be a section that has Spectrum on it, so you have three or four companies that have to coordinate this effort, he continued.Projects within the Adirondack Park can be additionally problematic. Mr. Lynch said many of the poles Slic needs access to are more than 40 feet tall, which means a permit or waiver to bypass the permit is required.Oftentimes, there are several agencies who have a say in new construction on existing poles and regulations can get tricky.For four projects we have two different DOT regions, we have two different regional economic regions, we have four different pole owners, some of it is in the APA, some of it is not, we have two different DEC regions. So there are just all of these different layers, Mr. Lynch explained. There is just a lot of coordination that happens.Gaining access to desired areas is time-consuming and complicated, but financial implications can also hinder the process. Determining whether there are enough potential customers in an area can make or break a potential infrastructure expansion.We are building rural and one of the economic realities of building rural is density becomes a real challenge. Other companies have made a determination a long time ago that once the density got to a certain level, that is where the network ends and they are not going any further, Mr. Lynch said. We have pushed that pretty far but what happens is that we run into fixed costs we have to do when we operate independent of the number of customers.Some of those fixed costs can be expensive. Pole rental fees, for example, can cost Slic $400 per mile per year.Taxes can also be detrimental to Slics expansion. Mr. Lynch said the company pays $465 per mile per year in St. Lawrence County, which is significantly higher than a competitor like Spectrum deals with because it is considered a cable company.Broadband infrastructure is considered real property, so it is taxed just like a house when it is in the right of way. So when we attach to these poles which are in the public right-of-way, we pay taxes on it and it is based on construction costs, he said. There are a certain number of customers we have just to break even on those two operational costs and that does not include any of the other overhead and the content, the electronics and all that.Mr. Lynch said Slic pays more than double the school and property taxes Spectrum pays in Potsdam, but serves fewer customers. He said the focus in the villages that are already served is the business community because he believes Slic offers a superior service.While there is a business focus in the villages for Slic, Mr. Lynch said 80 to 90 percent of those using his companys service are unserved by anyone else.Westelcom, based in Watertown, is one of the north countrys principal broadband Internet providers for businesses, operating in six counties in the north country, servicing communities such as Watertown, Malone, Clayton, Elizabethtown, Ticonderoga and Plattsburgh.Westelcom CEO Paul F. Barton said that his company has been working in conjunction with several other smaller but similar companies in the region, including Slic, to increase broadband connectivity. It has also worked extensively with the Development Authority of the North Country, which has constructed a large fiber network throughout the north country available to providers. Mr. Barton said DANC has essentially built the highway, while Westelcom builds the on-ramps.David M. Wolf, telecom division manager for DANC, said the authority works as a carriers carrier, meaning that it does a lot of the infrastructure work so Westelcom and other companies do not have to. DANCs network has over a dozen central offices throughout the region that feed the system. Companies can build their own lines off of DANCs network to reach unserved and underserved areas.Mr. Wolf said DANC can construct these last mile extensions themselves so a smaller company can save on capital costs, as long as they share a piece of the revenue with DANC.Its a good way to use the fiber that we have to get the last mile built, and it saves these other companies money because they dont have to pay that infrastructure, he said.While some of these smaller companies are more inclined to serve residential areas, Westelcom mostly sticks to business. Thats because, Mr. Barton said, providing for unserved or underserved areas can be a challenging business model.Getting to a faraway area that may have a handful of homes involves installing hundreds of new poles to carry the lines, and each one must be rented from a utility company, such as National Grid, for a certain fee. Additionally, companies are also taxed on the value of the infrastructure being used. He said a mile of fiber can be taxed anywhere between $25,000 and $30,000. And if there is five miles of line serving only four or five homes, the company would pay over $100,000 in taxes that cant be made up due to the lack of customers using the line.The margins are very slim, Mr. Barton said, adding that this would be the case even with grant assistance.But Westelcom does offer assistance to companies that do try to serve rural residential areas by providing wholesale access through wireless antennas and radio equipment.Hybrid networks a combination of fiber and wireless broadband infrastructure have been on the rise in recent years, Mr. Barton said. As companies build out a wide-reaching fiber network across the north country, mobile companies will also build out its cell service companies will do the same as they move from 4G bandwidth to 5G. This will involve building smaller cell towers in whats called a distributed antenna system. These new towers, which would be connected by the larger towers, can carry the necessary wireless equipment needed to reach coverage holes in a more cost-effective way.Its interesting to see where it will all be headed in the next six to 10 years, Mr. Barton said. It will be hybrid networks everywhere. Youll see little radios on telephone poles serving a community or a lot of hidden radios outside buildings that will be serving broadband.Mr. Wolf said that wireless networks can be slower, however, and the demand for increased bandwidth is always on the rise. But in the north country, because unserved areas are so spread out, the less a risk of the network getting clogged with traffic.Here, the strategy is to fill in gaps, because they dont have that issue of lack of bandwidth because there arent many subscribers per mile, he said.While many new customers jump at the opportunity to connect to a reliable Internet provider, Mr. Dzwonczyk said not everyone is so eager to jump on board.We usually get to about 60 percent penetration, which is a little lower than the national average, but you get there eventually, he said. I would say the first three months there is this pent-up demand and you get 35 percent quickly. And then the next two years is the next 30 to 35 percent. The CEO compared infiltrating rural areas with Internet to days past when electrical companies were marketing to farmers who showed initial resistance.We get into these communities and you have got the people who know what it is, they jump on it. And then you have the other group of the population who starts to realize Oh wow, I could get stuff in two days from Amazon, my kids can do their homework, and it takes a little bit to get there, he said.Broadband connectivity for one of the regions biggest industries agriculture is an ongoing struggle as technology becomes increasingly vital for farmers. Because farms are in such remote locations, Internet companies have difficulties justifying the high cost of building miles of broadband lines in order to reach them.Ronald C. Robbins, owner of North Harbor Dairy in the town of Hounsfield, uses a wide range of technology for his operations, from wireless data transfers between farm operations to monitoring the status of farm vehicles on the ground.But Mr. Robbins said he relies mostly on satellite connections in order to use this technology, and these connections are not always the fastest.Its really slow, he said, and we struggle with it.He said bad weather conditions can interfere with his Internet connection while, for instance, he is working out in the middle of his crop fields. But he said he runs into slow speeds even on clear days.He added that he has not had any discussions with local Internet companies about getting a fiber line connected directly to his farm.From what Ive gathered, they have no willingness to do it, he said. At the same time, were constantly embracing more technology.To help mitigate this, U.S. Rep. Elise M. Stefanik, R-Willsboro, introduced legislation that would help companies reach businesses in unserved areas. Ms. Stefaniks legislation, the Precision Farming Act of 2016, would offer financial incentives for broadband providers and farms. Service providers would receive a one-time $15,000 reimbursement for each line installed for a qualifying precision farming operation. Additionally, farmers who apply for loans to cover installation costs will have their applications prioritized per the Rural Electrification Act.The changing landscape in the Watertown area is also spurring changes to Westelcom business.A couple of years ago, Westelcom hit turbulence when the Federal Communications Commission decided it could no longer provide Westelcom with benefits given to companies that serve rural areas.The classification was instituted after the U.S. Census Bureau said Fort Drum and Watertown represent a single, urbanized area. Even with the Census Bureaus designation, Fort Drum is unable to use Westelcoms services, per Army policy.U.S. Sens. Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand, D-N.Y., led the charge in reversing the urban designation for the area for three years, allowing Westelcom to continue expanding its services to the area while it phases out its reliance on its rural rates as well as ensure it still receives the same funding as its competitors.Without the rural designation, Westelcom would have lost nearly 96 percent of its anticipated revenue.Over the last year, FCC has also been considering lowering its broadband standard from 20 megabits per second to 10 megabits per second.FCC has considered the move because of increased use of smartphones and mobile technology for Internet connectivity, rather than using home-based Internet through a broadband service.Sen. Schumer has also spoken out against this, having recently submitted a letter to FCC officials demanding they keep the standard where it is now.Aija E. Leiponen, a professor at the Dyson School in Cornell Universitys College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, said lowering the standard would do nothing to help more remote regions of the state, including the north country, become economically competitive.With the nations economy now more reliant on entrepreneurial activity, which has become especially attractive to younger generations, she said Internet connectivity is vital, and areas that are lacking are in trouble if they do not catch up soon.To help these areas, she said its up to the state and federal government to set new policies that give unserved and underserved areas more attention.Slic has been rapidly expanding for several years, but it would not be possible without the help of government aid, according to Mr. Dzwonczyk.We started this build-out under a federal grant from the rural utility services, he said. That was 2009 or 2010 where that was awarded. That got us from 250 customers to 4,000 customers.Mr. Dzwonczyk said the initial build-out was part of a $30 million project, of which the government paid $24 million as part of a 80 percent matching grant program. Much of the federal funding has since dried up, but Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo has been progressive in his efforts to continue broadband expansion, according to the CEO. Mr. Dzwonczyk said the state Broadband Office has been responsive and helpful in securing another $18 million under a similar 80 percent match program to help the company continue its build outs, and the funding has been essential.Once we are established, it is a sustainable and profitable business, but without that aid from the state, the payback period for us would be so long. It would take us 10 years before we would actually begin to see some sign of uptick on it, he added.Once the fiber connections are in place, Mr. Dzwonczyk said the possibilities for upgrade are virtually limitless.Fiber is a long term infrastructure. It is projected to have a 35-year lifespan, but no one really knows because it has not been 35 years since people have been employing this technology, he said, noting that coaxial cable and other such infrastructure is more limited. The other advantage is that once it is out there, it is truly infinitely upgradeable.In 2015, Gov. Cuomo launched the New NY Broadband program, which seeks to have nearly the entire state under broadband coverage within the next few years. The goal is to have 100 mbps speeds in most places and a minimum of 25 mbps in more remote places.The $500 million program is dispersing the money in grants to communities and Internet providers who apply. The rollout is being done in three phases, two of which have already been completed. The third round of grant awardees is set to be unveiled later this year.Dozens of municipalities and local Internet companies have received millions of dollars from the program in its first two rounds, helping them build out a wider network. (TNS) -- When two bodies were found this week at a home in rural Descanso, the scene of an apparent murder-suicide, sheriffs deputies deployed an investigative tool thats becoming common for the department in homicide cases.They sent in a drone.I cant think of one recently where we didnt have a drone, said homicide Lt. Rich Williams.The unmanned aircraft the same kind found on the shelves at any electronics store flew over the house where the bodies were discovered, giving investigators a birds-eye view of the scene and capturing photos and video from various perspectives.Over the past year, the San Diego County Sheriffs Department has used drones in more than 70 incidents, including homicide investigations, SWAT incidents and search-and-rescue missions.This technology is fantastic, and its extremely useful, Williams said. It's the quickest, easiest and most effective way to get video and still images without having to use a helicopter, which obviously can't get into places a drone can."Last October, the Sheriffs Department became the first local law enforcement agency to launch a drone program at a cost of $125,000 which proved to be so successful that they plan to continue using the devices. The department has budgeted $165,000 for the programs second year.Other local agencies have followed suit.Four police departments in Oceanside, Escondido, Carlsbad and Chula Vista now have at least one unmanned aircraft. National City police officials say theyre interested in the technology.I think its proven to be such a valuable asset. More valuable than we thought it would be, sheriffs Lt. Jason Vickery said of the drone program, which he oversees.The use of drones has drawn concerns in the county and across the country from civil liberties advocates who worry the devices could lead to unwarranted surveillance or violations of privacy.From the outset, sheriffs officials said the departments policy prohibited using drones for mass or random surveillance and that it banned weaponizing the devices. Vickery said the same rules will be in place moving forward.He said the department did not receive any complaints from the public during the programs first year.That I can recall, I have not had any negative feedback , the lieutenant said.Since last October, deputies have flown drones on 76 missions in San Diego County. A review of department data shows that the most common uses for the unmanned aircraft were in homicide investigations and SWAT incidents.Its a game changer when it comes to these units, Vickery said.At outdoor scenes of homicides or officer-involved shootings, deputies use the camera-equipped aircraft to capture footage, from the sky and close to the ground, to use in investigations. The devices may also help spot any evidence that needs to be collected.When SWAT deputies are sent to detain a person who may be holed up in a home and possibly armed, for instance deputies deploy drones to scan the immediate surroundings of the residence and monitor the suspect. This can help the deputies gather crucial information as a situation unfolds, without putting them in harms way."It gives us a perspective that we wouldn't get from anywhere else," Vickery said.The department has a helicopter to provide deputies with aerial views when needed, but the much smaller drones can be maneuvered into hard-to-reach areas and hover at lower levels.The technology has been so useful that the Sheriffs Department has expanded its program from six to 10 drones. Each model costs $500 to $2,000.The department has also increased the number of deputies trained to fly the devices. There are now 11 deputies in the county who are certified by the Federal Aviation Administration to operate the drones, with another two in training. A year ago, only four deputies were licensed.And the department has two mobile command vehicles, used to store and transport the equipment, and there are plans to purchase a third. One of the vehicles is stationed in North County and the other in South County, so deputies can get to scenes and set up more quickly, Vickery said.Sheriffs officials said they plan to purchase a water-proof drone so it can be used in rainy weather.Three of the departments 10 drones can be fitted with infrared cameras and strobe lights for nighttime use. Officials must get special permission from the FAA to fly the drones at night."What we've learned over the last year is that there's certain limitations with each (drone)," Vickery said. "We don't have one that can do it all."Under federal regulations, law enforcement agencies are prohibited from flying a drone above 400 feet and must keep the devices in sight while theyre in the sky. Authorities are also required to notify the FAA where they plan to fly the drones.The Carlsbad Police Department has four drones each priced between $1,200 and $3,500 and is awaiting certification from the FAA to fly the devices, which will be used primarily in situations involving the SWAT team, said police Cpl. Shaun Lawton.He said the department used a drone in March when SWAT officers helped serve a search warrant at a home in Vista, in an area that did not require FAA clearance. Safety was a concern, he said, because the suspect reportedly had semi-automatic weapons.Officers in Escondido used drones twice this year for officers safety when a SWAT team helped serve a search warrant, spokesman Lt. Justin Murphy said. The Police Department has three drones, valued between about $1,400 and $1,800.In Chula Vista, police and fire departments share two $2,000 drones, intended to help search for missing people, assess the risks and path of a fire, and take video or photos of crime scenes.Vickery said he understands the concerns over drones and believes the public is going to become more comfortable with (the devices) as more law enforcement agencies continue to use them.I truly think this is going to become such an accepted tool in law enforcement," he said. LEBANON A Pennsylvania firefighter has been denounced by his fire company after he posted racist comments about a cereal mascot. Justin Snyder, a firefighter with Speedwell Engine and Hose Company in Lebanon, made the comments Wednesday on his Facebook page. The Lebanon Daily News reported Snyder was reacting to a news story that Kellogg Co. would be redesigning its Corn Pops cereal box after receiving a complaint on Twitter that the art was racially insensitive. The box showed cartoon Corn Pops hanging out in a mall. A Twitter user noted that the only brown Corn Pop depicted is working as a janitor scrubbing the floor. Snyder wrote a number of racial epithets in his posting demeaning the person who complained on Twitter and also used expletives to express outrage at the change. He also degraded Kellogg's decision in the posting. Speedwell Engine and Hose said last week that his comments do not represent the company and it is taking actions to address the matter. The fire company said on Facebook it wants to "firmly assure you that our members' personal thoughts and beliefs do not reflect those of our company." It also apologized for "any negativity that this may have ensued." A phone message seeking comment from Snyder wasn't immediately returned Monday. BENTELER Automotive Farsunds casting business consists of a highly automated aluminum foundry in Farsund, Norway, designing and producing lightweight aluminum structural castings. The companys casting business produces safety critical components, such as sub frames, swing arms, steering knuckles and rear hubs for luxury brand automotive customers. The BENTELER Automotive Farsunds casting business has an experienced management and technical team, providing innovative products of superior quality. Overall, approximately 275 employees are employed by BENTELER Automotive Farsund. The acquisition of BENTELER Automotive Farsunds casting business accelerates our vertical integration in Europe, provides customer and product diversification, and further enhances our technical capabilities in our core business. The Farsund business is strategically aligned with the Chassix growth plan and provides a strong team to further develop our core competencies of casting and machining chassis, powertrain and sub-frame solutions for global customers. Doug DelGrosso, president and CEO, Chassix BENTELER will continue to develop lightweight solutions as this is an important trend in the automotive industry and in doing so, the company will leverage its in-house competence of steel and aluminum processing based on 141 years of experience. Casting is not a core competency and only done at the site in Farsund. When needed, BENTELER will source aluminum casting products through cooperation with external partners. The divestment of BENTELER Automotive Farsund will allow us to further invest into our core business and leverage upcoming opportunities. We will pursue our strategic plan and will continue to develop electric mobility and provide full system solutions which automotive customers increasingly outsource. At the same time, we will systematically leverage future trends such as digitalization, cooperation with start-ups and invest into growing markets such as China. Laurent Favre, CEO BENTELER Automotive The sales agreement was signed on 26 October 2017. An approval of the anti-trust authorities is not required. However, several conditions with regard to customer and supplier contracts still need to be completed before the transfer can be effected. They used satellite-based measurements of urban form and nitrogen dioxideO 2 (n) to explore relationships between urban form and air pollution for a global data set of 1,274 cities. The found that three of the urban form metrics (contiguity, circularity, and vegetation) have a statistically significant relationship with urban NO 2 ; their combined effect could be substantial. As an example, if Christchurch, New Zealand matched the urban form of Indio - Cathedral City, California, the models suggest that Christchurchs NO 2 concentrations would be 60% higher than its current level. Based on their findings in a new study, researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Minnesota suggest that modifying urban formas a means of affecting motor vehicle usagemay be a strategy to mitigate urban air pollution. Their paper appears in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology . They also found that the combined effect of urban form on NO 2 is larger for small citiesan important finding given that cities less than 500,000 people contain a majority of the urban population and are where much of the future urban growth is expected to occur. More than half of the world population, 3.9 billion people (54%) in 2014, live in urban areas, with an additional 2.5 billion urban dwellers expected by 2050. Cities serve as economic and social centers, concentrating people, activities, ideas, and industries. Cities may also concentrate environmental hazards such as air pollution, and potentially health inequities. As such, cities are a focal point for understanding and addressing environmental health issues. Transportation is one of the largest contributors to urban air pollution for pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, benzene, ozone, and fine particulate matter (PM 2.5 ). For example, recent estimates suggest that globally, approximately 25% of ambient urban PM 2.5 is attributable to motor vehicles. Strategies to reduce motor vehicle use may play a role in improving urban air quality. Evidence suggests that changes in urban form can impact travel behavior such as travel distance, trip frequency, and mode choice. Here we employ satellite-based measurements of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 , a proxy for traffic-related air pollution and a major constituent of urban air pollution) and a global data set of 1,274 urban areas to explore the relationship between urban form and air quality. Our work builds on prior research by employing a much larger sample of global cities, allowing for the exploration of factors (i.e., city population, country-level income, environmental performance & policy) that may influence the relationship between urban form and air quality. In this work we are able to explore how urban form-air quality relationships vary for a consistent set of cities in low- and high-income countries, giving insight into the impacts of urban form in developing countries where existing literature is limited. Additionally, more than half of the cities in our data set (n = 675 cities; 53% of all cities) are small cities (100,000 - 500,000 people), allowing us to explore the relationship of urban form and air pollution for a large global sample of small cities. Bechle et al. In the study, the team considered four urban form metrics: circularity, contiguity, percent vegetation, and percent impervious surfaces. Circularity is a measure of urban compactness, quantifying the relative closeness of the built-up area to the geographic center. A city exhibiting this type of compactness may indicate a more efficient use of urban area, and may induce fewer and shorter vehicle trips. The contiguity index is the ratio of the largest contiguous polygon of built-up area to the total built-up area for a given city. Large amounts of leapfrog or exurban development, and polycentricism (particularly with satellite cities) would result in a low contiguity index. Among their findings: Higher population had the largest effect; i.e., higher populations are associated with worsened air quality. Increased urban contiguity, circularity and vegetation metrics are significantly associated with lower urban NO 2 concentrations. The impervious surface metric has a non-significant effect on urban NO 2 . Although the magnitude of the effect size of the three significant urban form metrics are small relative to population, their combined effect could be large. Meteorology and country-level income play an important role in describing differences in urban NO 2 concentrations among cities; income, solar insolation, and precipitation together describe 52% of the variation in urban NO 2 concentration. Overall, our findings demonstrate that urban form has a statistically significant relationship with urban NO 2 concentrations. Our cross-sectional investigation highlights the need for further study of urban design and planning as a potential strategy to address air quality. While meteorology (aside from dilution rate), country-level income, and city population size all had a larger effect on urban NO 2 than the urban form metrics, the combined impact of the three statistically significant metrics (contiguity, circularity, and vegetation) could have large consequences for concentrations. While these findings are generally consistent with our prior work, in this study we find that certain factors may alter the relationship between urban form and air pollution. For example, we find that urban form may have a greater impact on urban NO 2 for small cities than for large cities. This is an important finding given that more than half of the worlds urban population lives in small urban areas, and because changes to urban form may be easier for small urban areas (owing to less existing infrastructure and the potential for greater relative impact from future growth). We also find that direction of effect for impervious surfaces differs between cities in high- and low-income countries, suggesting that urban form strategies may differ at various stages of growth and development. Bechle et al. Resources Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) is licensing its GRAS-Di (Genotyping by Random Amplicon Sequencing-Direct) DNA analysis technology that can dramatically accelerate selective breeding to Kazusa DNA Research Institute, Eurofins Genomics K.K., and GeneBay Inc. ( Earlier post .) The licensees will put the technology to practical use in contract-based analysis businesses in Japan and abroad. Selective breeding has up to now involved repeated selection and mating of parent varieties, based on extensive past results, and evaluation of their offspring, in order to select new varieties with the desired characteristics. In September 2016, Toyota announced that it had paired its proprietary sample preparation technology with a next-generation sequencer to develop GRAS-Di, a new technology that can substantially simplify the process of identifying and selecting specimens with useful genetic information. GRAS-Di addresses limitations posed by conventional technology, enabling significant reductions in cost and man-hours. As a result, cost has been cut by approximately two-thirds and person-hours by approximately nine-tenths of the previous level, according to Toyota. In signing the agreement, the parties described their evaluation and expectations. Kazusa DNA Research Institute expects that the technology will not only be used by research and development organizations but also widely by private companies. Eurofins Genomics said that the ability of this technology to analyze a large number of DNA samples easily and quickly at low cost will support further research and will significantly contribute to addressing world food and energy problems. GeneBay noted that it is common industry knowledge that it is necessary to acquire a large amount of DNA and data, which was a hurdle for spreading the technology and applying it. We expect it to be widely used in agriculture and livestock, and many other industries. It is expected that GRAS-Di can be applied to general selective breeding, not only in agriculture, but for wide-ranging development in areas including the livestock, forestry, and fishery industries. Toyota believes that by introducing the technology to companies that intend to expand their businesses globally, the technology will contribute to addressing global issues through increased production of biofuels and foods and improvement of the disease resistance of crops. Consequently, Toyota will continue to actively disclose and share information in an effort to spread technology further. Background. To prepare for the population, food, and environmental challenges of the 21st century, and to support the sustainable growth of the automobile industry in general, Toyota thought it necessary to create a business that contributes to the environment. Consequently, the company established its Biotechnology and Afforestation Laboratory in Miyoshi City, Aichi Prefecture in May 1999, which has engaged in business activities focusing on R&D and demonstration activities, in addition to activities that contribute to the community and society. In April 2011, Toyota began work to improve the rice production process with the aim of contributing to the sustainable growth of agriculture. In April 2014, the company launched a cloud service (Housaku Keikaku), which applies the concept of the Toyota Production System, production management techniques, and process improvement know-how from the automobile business to agriculture. Toyota also provided improvement support services unique to the company and has promoted improvements to productivity and human resources at agricultural production sites. Currently, the Biotechnology and Afforestation Laboratory is engaged in business activities that will widely contribute to enriching communities. This is intended to be accomplished within a scope ranging from research into basic technologies to the improvement of work sites, all within the fields of environmental contribution and the agricultural and livestock industry. The US Department of Energys Office of Fossil Energy (FE) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) announced that the University of North Dakota has been awarded a 2-year, $1.5-million contract to sample and characterize US coal-based resources containing high concentrations of rare earth elements (REEs). The university will also perform a round-robin inter-laboratory study on the analytical methods used to measure the concentration of REEs in US coal-based resources. REEs comprise a series of 17 chemical elements found in the Earths crust. They are essential components of many technologies spanning a range of applications, including electronics, computer and communication systems, transportation, health care, and national defense. The demand for these elements has grown significantly over recent years, stimulating an emphasis on developing economically feasible approaches for domestic REE recovery. The newly announced contract will support FEs REE Program, which has characterized many REE-bearing samples of coal and coal by-products. The University of North Dakota will supplement this work by sampling and characterizing US domestic pre-combustion coal and coal-related materials with a minimum REE concentration of 300 parts per million, as the material is removed from the ground, with no processing other than drying. The University will also perform a round-robin inter-laboratory study to determine the lab-to-lab and method-to-method variability in analyzing the REE content of domestic US-based coal resources. Established in 2015, TRI has made rapid advancements in its research into automated driving and recently demonstrated Platform 2.1, its new advanced safety research vehicle that allows for testing of both Guardian and Chauffeur in a single vehicle. ( Earlier post , earlier post .) Toyota Research Institute (TRI) has signed an agreement with GoMentum Station to test autonomous vehicle technology at the 5,000-acre autonomous vehicle proving grounds located in Concord, California. Managed by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA), this partnership enables TRI to expand closed course testing of its two-prong approach to vehicle automation: Guardian and Chauffeur. In the Guardian approach, the human driver maintains vehicle control, and the automated driving system operates in the background, monitoring for potential crash situations. It can intervene to protect vehicle occupants when needed. Chauffeur is TRIs version of full vehicle autonomy where all occupants are passengers as the car drives itself. Both approaches use the same technology stack of sensors and cameras. TRIs vision is to offer drivers a choice by making vehicles safer and driving both more fun and convenient. TRI will use GoMentum Station for further testing of Platform 2.1, which includes a new high-fidelity LiDAR system from Luminar that provides a longer sensing range, a much denser point cloud to better detect positions of three-dimensional objects, and a field of view that is dynamically configurable. With proximity to TRI research headquarters located in Los Altos, Calif., GoMentum Station augments TRIs public road testing with testing of extreme driving events that are unsafe to conduct on public roads. GoMentums varied terrain, and real-life infrastructure including roads, bridges, tunnels, intersections and parking lots provide the environment needed to accelerate testing of the difficult miles needed to advance both Guardian and Chauffeur. The addition of GoMentum Station to TRIs arsenal of automated vehicle test locations allows us to create hazardous driving scenarios for advancing capabilities of both Guardian and Chauffeur and further develop our technology. Ryan Eustice, TRI vice president of autonomous driving Toyota Research Institute is a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota Motor North America under the direction of Dr. Gill Pratt. The company, established in 2015, aims to strengthen Toyotas research structure and has four initial mandates: 1) enhance the safety of automobiles; 2) increase access to cars to those who otherwise cannot drive; 3) translate Toyotas expertise in creating products for outdoor mobility into products for indoor mobility; and 4) accelerate scientific discovery by applying techniques from artificial intelligence and machine learning. In January, 25-year-old Michael Anthony Woods, of Shippensburg, became the first person in Cumberland County charged under Pennsylvanias new strangulation law aimed at increasing penalties for domestic violence. Since his arrest, nearly 60 more people have been charged with the offense in the county, causing felony assault charges to nearly double compared to 2016, according to an analysis of court records conducted by The Sentinel. (Strangulation) is a really significant signal that the victim is in significant danger, Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence Deputy Director Ellen Kramer told The Sentinel in January. Pennsylvanias strangulation law was passed by the Legislature at the end of 2016 and specifically criminalizes the act of impeding a persons breathing or circulation by applying pressure to the throat or neck or by blocking the persons mouth or nose. The crime is graded as a second-degree misdemeanor, similar to simple assault, but increases to a felony in certain situations like a victim being a family or household member, the assailant is subject to a protection from abuse order or the assault takes place during an act of sexual violence. Kramer said nonfatal strangulation is an indicator the violence could escalate to homicide. A study by Johns Hopkins University professor Nancy Glass found victims of nonfatal strangulation had a more than six-fold increase in odds of becoming a victim of attempted homicide and a more than seven-fold increase in odds of being killed. Strangulation is a unique crime, Kramer said. This is a situation where someone is using their hands to bring a person as close to death as we might see. A strangulation victim can lose consciousness within a few seconds and death can occur shortly after, she said. This is very different than an assault like we normally think of them, Kramer said. Prior to implementing the new law, prosecutors had to determine if a strangulation case should be charged as misdemeanor simple assault or felony aggravated assault. The main difference between the two is the injury, or attempted injury, the victim suffers. Cumberland County District Attorney David Freed said proving strangulation caused serious bodily injury, as required by the aggravated assault statute, was difficult. When you get to that argument about serious bodily injury, thats what makes those cases really tough, Freed said. Serious bodily injury is generally defined as causing major impairment or the loss of bodily function or causing major injury or disfigurement, which can be difficult to prove in strangulation cases where the only signs of physical injury may be bruising, according to Freed. Whether it deters them or punishes them, (the law) highlights the (offenders) who are of high risk, which will provide more protection for their victims, he said. Felony assault charges in Cumberland County are up roughly 94 percent during the first nine months of the year compared to 2016, according to an analysis by The Sentinel. The increase appears largely to come from felony strangulation cases that did not include a charge of aggravated assault, the analysis found. During the first nine months of 2017, 47 felony aggravated assault cases were filed in addition to 42 felony strangulation cases, according to court records. In the same time frame last year only 46 aggravated assaults were filed, court records showed. Aggravated assault was the only felony assault charge available for these types of cases at the time. Misdemeanor simple assault cases have decreased by roughly 4 percent between 2016 and 2017, and overall assault cases are up 6 percent in the county, according to court records. This may mean cases that would have been charged as a misdemeanor prior to the new law are now being charged as a felony. The Sentinel also reviewed assault cases in Franklin, Adams, Perry, Dauphin, York and Bedford counties and found similar trends in all but Perry County. Felony assault cases rose by roughly 30 percent in Franklin, Adams, Dauphin and Bedford counties following the implementation of the law while overall assaults, simple assaults and aggravated assaults dropped, according to the analysis. In York County, felony assaults rose by more than 50 percent while filings for simple assault and aggravated assault dropped, The Sentinel found. The large difference between Cumberland Countys increase and the other counties likely has to do with how infrequently Cumberland County charged felony assault prior to the new strangulation law. Freed attributed this to the countys requirement that all initial charging decisions be approved by an assistant district attorney before filing. Police in the other counties can make the decision of what to charge in many cases and the prosecutor is brought into the case after. Cumberland Countys rate of felony assaults in 2016 was roughly 19 per 100,000 residents. The next closest county was York with a rate of roughly 28 cases per 100,000 residents and Dauphin County topped the list at roughly 83 cases per 100,000 residents, The Sentinels analysis found. Perry County was the only outlier in the review of court records. Across the board assaults fell in the county. However, a roughly 60 percent drop in aggravated assault charges correlated to only a 20 percent decrease in felony assault cases, according to court records. At the end of 2016, Penn Township moved to eliminate its police department, shifting duties to Pennsylvania State Police. Penn Township operated one of the few municipal police departments in the county, which may contribute to the overall drop in criminal filings. To conduct the study, The Sentinel reviewed all criminal cases entered into the Pennsylvania Unified Judicial System in the seven counties. The assault cases were separated and sorted into categories based on the highest assault charge. If a case included an aggravated assault charge, regardless of including simple assault or strangulation, it was placed in one category. Strangulation cases charged as a felony that did not include an aggravated assault charge were placed in another, and simple assault cases that did not include felony strangulation or aggravated assault were placed into a third category. You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close GREENSBORO - The Southeastern Theatre Conference has awarded $14,795 in grants to seven professional theaters, including "The Lost Colony" production in Manteo. The Greensboro-based network of theater practitioners offered the grants for the first time this year. They will help recipients with hiring, staffing and networking opportunities. Three companies received grants of $2,265 each to attend the 2018 SETC Convention in Mobile, Ala. They are the Jefferson Performing Arts Center in Metairie, La.; Childsplay in Temple, Ariz. and Virginia Stage Company in Norfolk. Four companies and productions received staffing development matching grants of $2,000 each. They are "The Lost Colony" production; Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Williamstown Theater Festival in Massachusetts and "The Steven Foster Story" production in Bardstown, Ky. RALEIGH Gov. Roy Cooper's office announced Monday that the state is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the murder of Michael Anthony Lovett. Lovett, 35, was found on Oct. 8, 2015, after Greensboro Police officers responded at 2:40 a.m. to a single- car accident on East Market Street near Holts Chapel Road, where a car had crashed into a power pole. Officers determined that Lovett was the victim of a shooting that caused the wreck of his white 2015 BMW 535i. He was transported to a hospital in critical condition and died two days later. Police have been asking for the publics help in solving this death. Anyone having information concerning this case should contact the Greensboro/Guilford Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000 or text keyword badboyz and your tip to 274637, or call the State Bureau of Investigation at 919-662-4500. Authorities said at the time that Lovett got into his car that morning either to go to the hospital or to flee. He was alone in his car when he was shot. Police said at the time that drugs didnt appear to be a factor in the shooting, and nothing appeared to have been stolen from the vehicle. GREENSBORO A Wilmington man who was wanted in the May 4 deadly shooting outside Four Seasons Town Centre has been arrested. Tedrick Lithonia McClary, 25, is being held in the New Hanover County Detention Center without bail, Greensboro Police said in news release. His arrest comes after a Greensboro police detective launched an intensive 30-day search that spanned seven jurisdictions in three states, tracking McClary from North Carolina through Virginia to Pennsylvania. McClary is accused of shooting 34-year-old Sherrod Maurice Crum as Crum was walking outside of the mall by Entrance D around 2:15 p.m. that day. He was hit by at least one bullet fired from a sedan that drove past him. McClary had been evading arrest for years, according to the release. He also is wanted on federal drug and firearms charges in New Hanover County several years before the fatal shooting. He is now charged with first-degree murder in Crums death. He was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Pennsylvania on Aug. 11 and charged with outstanding warrants out of New Hanover for two counts of possession of a stolen firearm, trafficking in opium or heroin, selling heroin, and other offenses. He was confined in a Philadelphia prison until he was extradited to the New Hanover County facility Saturday. He currently is awaiting trial for the drug and firearms offenses. Greensboro police are not looking for anyone else in connection with Crums death. A motive has not been determined. Crums death was the second in three months at the mall and happened at 2:15 p.m., sending customers scurrying for cover. In the moments after the shooting, security swarmed the parking lot, telling shoppers to either enter the mall or leave. Nearby schools were placed on lockdown. GPD Capt. Nathaniel Davis said that day that the shooting happened almost in the exact spot where Westley Tyler Tugman, 33, of Lenoir, was shot and killed Feb. 18. Tugman and his niece had just left the mall when someone approached and shot him in the chest. No one has been arrested in that case. WASHINGTON A former campaign aide to President Donald Trump has pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents working for special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to one count of lying to FBI agents about the nature of his interactions with "foreign nationals" who he thought had close connections to senior Russian government officials. The plea was unsealed Monday. Papadopoulos is the first person to face criminal charges that cite interactions between Trump campaign associates and Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign. Papadopoulos was a member of the campaign's foreign policy team. But Trump aides have said he played a limited role in the campaign and no access to Trump. __ 10:30 a.m. President Donald Trump says alleged misdeeds by his former campaign chairman were "years ago" and insists there was "NO COLLUSION" between his 2016 campaign and Russia. Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates were indicted Friday on money laundering and conspiracy charges. The indictment says money laundering occurred through "at least 2016." Trump reacted on Twitter Monday. He says "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" He then added: "Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" The indictments are the first arising from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's sprawling investigation into possible coordination between Russia and Trump's 2016 election effort. ___ 10:20 a.m. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is warning President Donald Trump not to mess with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Schumer said Monday that the indictments of Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and Manafort's associate Rick Gates "show that the special counsel's probe is ongoing in a very serious way." He said the president must not interfere with the probe, and if he does, "Congress must respond swiftly, unequivocally, and in a bipartisan way to ensure that the investigation continues." Lawmakers in both parties have praised Mueller and said Trump should not fire him. __ 10:20 a.m. President Donald Trump's campaign is telling supporters that he is "still standing" Monday, hours after two former top aides turned themselves in to federal authorities. The fundraising e-mail from Eric Trump, the president's son, warns that "There's new opposition against my father and this Administration every day" and asked supporters to contribute to the re-election effort. The message adds: "as a loyal support of our movement, I know you know the truth." Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates were indicted Friday on money laundering and conspiracy charges. ___ 9:40 a.m. The top Democrat in the House is pressing for an "outside, fully independent investigation" to expose Russia's meddling in the election and the involvement of Trump officials. That's the word from Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California. In a statement Monday shortly after indictments were unsealed, Pelosi said that even with the accelerating special counsel probe and congressional investigations, another inquiry was warranted. Pelosi said that defending the integrity of the country's democracy "demands that Congress look forward to counter Russian aggression and prevent future meddling with our elections." ___ 9:10 a.m. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate, Rick Gates, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy against the United States and other felony charges. The indictments unsealed Monday in Washington contain 12 counts, including conspiracy to launder money, failing to register as a foreign agent, false statements, and multiple counts of failing to file reports for foreign bank accounts. Manafort, of Alexandria, Virginia, and Gates, of Richmond, Virginia, both turned themselves in to the FBI on Monday. ___ 8:45 a.m. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, surrendered to federal authorities Monday. That's according to people familiar with the matter. The charges are the first in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. Details on the charges have not been released. Manafort and Gates surrendered to federal authorities in Washington. They are expected in court later Monday to face charges brought by Mueller's team. That's according to one person familiar with the investigation. A second person said that Gates had worked out an arrangement to turn himself in on Monday. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss publicly an ongoing federal probe. ___ 8:35 a.m. The White House is declining comment on a New York Times report that President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, have been told to surrender to authorities. Administration officials did not comment on the report Monday. Those are the first charges in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. The Times on Monday cited an anonymous person involved in the case. __ 8:21 a.m. The New York Times is reporting that President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, have been told to surrender to authorities. Those are the first charges in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. The Times on Monday cited an anonymous person involved in the case. Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to tip the 2016 presidential election. Dickinson College officials are investigating an incident involving an offensive Halloween costume, according to a letter to the campus community posted to the colleges website. The letter was sent to the campus community Sunday by Vice President and Dean of Student Life Joyce Bylander. The letter describes a photo that had been sent to Bylander as a student dressed in an offensive Halloween costume stereotypically representing a person of color while another student pointed a gun at him. The image was also posted to social media. We do not believe the gun in the photo was real, but the matter is being investigated. No guns, real or fake, are permitted on campus, said Christine Baksi, director of media relations for the college. The costume and the image were deeply offensive and reflected the exercise of very poor judgment, Bylander wrote. These decisions and actions in no way represent our Dickinson values, and we will work with those involved to educate them on the impact of their behavior. Bylander also wrote that the action, however distasteful, is an expression of free speech, but that expression of free speech does not have to be accepted by the community. I call on the community to handle this situation as we have handled other difficult moments, she wrote. We must engage each other in conversations about how individual choices can have a negative impact on other community members. We must answer speech with speech. Baski said the college is encouraging continuing dialogue and facilitating a number of opportunities for discussion. Its important for all involved to understand how deeply the actions of some affect the entire community, she said. Bylanders letter also indicated that President Margee Ensign is aware of the situation and deeply concerned, though she is currently dealing with a family emergency that requires her full attention. She asks that we all find ways to talk to each other in supportive, constructive ways when we are confronted with these issues, Bylander wrote. Bylander concluded the letter with a call to use the incident to strengthen Dickinsons values of inclusivity, civil dialogue and cross-cultural understanding. WASHINGTON Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates have pleaded not guilty following their arrest on charges related to conspiracy against the United States and other felonies. The charges are the first from the special counsel investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. Manafort and Gates appeared before a federal judge Monday in Washington. They are charged with a combined 12 counts, including conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Updated at 2:07 p.m. Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort and his business associate, Rick Gates, plead not guilty to all charges. Both were indicted Monday on felony charges of conspiracy against the United States, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, and several other financial counts involving tens of millions of dollars routed through offshore accounts. The indictments stem from an investigation of alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia that is being led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. More details coming soon. Updated at 11:30 a.m. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former Manafort business associate, Rick Gates, were indicted Monday on felony charges of conspiracy against the United States, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, and several other financial counts involving tens of millions of dollars routed through offshore accounts. The unsealing of the indictment came the same day that Special Counsel Robert Mueller announced that a former Trump campaign aide had pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about the timing and detail of his attempts to line up meetings between Russian government officials and the Trump campaign. The plea by George Papadopoulos marked the first criminal charges that cite interactions between Trump campaign associates and Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign. The charges brought Mueller's sprawling investigation into a new phase, with campaign aides including the man who once led the president's campaign facing felony charges and possible prison sentences. Papadopoulos' plea occurred on Oct. 5 and was unsealed Monday. In court papers, he admitted to lying about the nature of his interactions with "foreign nationals" who he thought had close connections to senior Russian government officials. Manafort's indictment doesn't reference the Trump campaign or make any allegations about coordination between the Kremlin and the president's aides to influence the outcome of the election in Trump's favor. The indictment does allege a criminal conspiracy was continuing through February 2017. The indictment filed in federal court in Washington accused both men of funneling tens of millions of dollars in payments through foreign companies and bank accounts as part of their political work in Ukraine. Manafort and Gates surrendered to federal authorities Monday, and were expected in court later in the day to face charges brought by Mueller's team. The indictment lays out 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, making false statements and several charges related to failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts. The indictment alleges that they moved money through hidden bank accounts in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles. In total, more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts. Manafort is accused of laundering more than $18 million, according to the indictment. A spokesman for Manafort did not immediately return calls or text messages requesting comment. Manafort and Gates have previously denied any wrongdoing. The White House declined to comment on the charges. Manafort, 68, was fired as Trump's campaign chairman in August 2016 after word surfaced that he had orchestrated a covert lobbying operation on behalf of pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. The indictments against Manafort and Gates were largely based on activities disclosed in August 2016 by The Associated Press, which reported that the pair had directly orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine's ruling political party. Citing internal emails, the AP noted that Gates personally directed the work of two prominent Washington lobbying firms. The indictment quotes from some of the same emails the AP had obtained. The indictment accuses Manafort and Gates of orchestrating a nearly decade-long conspiracy to covertly work for Ukrainian interests and launder millions of dollars through offshore accounts. Specifically, the indictment accuses Manafort of using "his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income." That included using offshore accounts to purchase multimillion-dollar properties in the U.S., some of which the government is seeking to seize. Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to tip the 2016 presidential election. The appointment came one week after the firing of James Comey, who as FBI director led the investigation, and also followed the recusal months earlier of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the probe. Mueller's investigators have focused on Manafort for months. In July, they raided one of his homes in Virginia, searching for tax and international banking records. Manafort joined Trump's campaign in March 2016 and oversaw the convention delegate strategy. Trump pushed him out in August amid a steady stream of negative headlines about Manafort's foreign consulting work. Trump's middle son, Eric Trump, said in an interview at the time that his father was concerned that questions about Manafort's past were taking attention away from the billionaire's presidential bid. Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. That investigation was incorporated into Mueller's broader probe. Previously, he denied any wrongdoing related to his Ukrainian work, saying through a spokesman that it "was totally open and appropriate." Manafort also recently registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for parts of Ukrainian work that occurred in Washington. The filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act came retroactively, a tacit acknowledgment that he operated in Washington in violation of the federal transparency law. Mueller's investigation has also reached into the White House, as he examines the circumstances of Comey's firing. Investigators have requested extensive documents from the White House about key actions since Trump took office and have interviewed multiple current and former officials. Mueller's grand jury has also heard testimony about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by a Russian lawyer as well as Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In Gates, Mueller brings in not just Manafort's chief deputy, but a key player from Trump's campaign who survived past Manafort's ouster last summer. As of two weeks ago, Gates was still working for Tom Barrack, a Trump confidant, helping with the closeout of the inauguration committee's campaign account. Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker, Stephen Braun, Tom LoBianco and Jeff Horwitz contributed to this report. Updated at 10:03 a.m. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, were indicted Monday on charges of conspiracy against the United States, money laundering and several other financial charges. The charges were the first stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into possible ties between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. The indictment filed in federal court in Washington accused both men of funneling tens of millions of dollars in payments through foreign companies and bank accounts. Manafort and Gates surrendered to federal authorities, and were expected in court later Monday to face charges brought by Mueller's team. The indictment lays out 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered foreign agent and several charges related to failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts. The indictment alleges that they moved money through hidden bank accounts in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles. In total, more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts. Manafort is accused of laundering more than $18 million, according to the indictment. Manafort, 68, was fired as Trump's campaign chairman in August after word surfaced that he had orchestrated a covert lobbying operation on behalf of pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. The Associated Press reported that Manafort also represented a Russian billionaire a decade ago with the goal of advancing the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The White House declined to comment. A spokesman for Manafort did not immediately return calls or text messages requesting comment. Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to tip the 2016 presidential election. The appointment came one week after the firing James Comey, who as FBI director led the investigation, and also followed the recusal months earlier of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the probe. Investigators have focused on associates including Manafort, whose home was raided in July by agents searching for tax and international banking records, and ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign in February after White House officials said he had misled them about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States. Manafort joined Trump's campaign in March 2016 and oversaw the convention delegate strategy. Trump pushed him out in August amid a steady stream of negative headlines about Manafort's foreign consulting work. Trump's middle son, Eric Trump, said in an interview at the time that his father was concerned that questions about Manafort's past were taking attention away from the billionaire's presidential bid. Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. That investigation was incorporated into Mueller's broader probe. Previously, he denied any wrongdoing related to his Ukrainian work, saying through a spokesman that it "was totally open and appropriate." Manafort also recently registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for parts of Ukrainian work that occurred in Washington. The filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act came retroactively, a tacit acknowledgment that he operated in Washington in violation of the federal transparency law. Mueller's investigation has also reached into the White House, as he examines the circumstances of Comey's firing. Investigators have requested extensive documents from the White House about key actions since Trump took office, and have interviewed multiple current and former officials. Mueller's grand jury has also heard testimony about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by a Russian lawyer as well as Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In Gates, Mueller brings in not just Manafort's chief deputy, but a key player from Trump's campaign who survived past Manafort's ouster last summer. As of two weeks ago, Gates was still working for Tom Barrack, a Trump confidant, helping with the closeout of the inauguration committee's campaign account. Updated at 9:25 a.m. WASHINGTON Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate, Rick Gates, have been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy against the United States and other felony charges. The indictments unsealed Monday in Washington contain 12 counts, including conspiracy to launder money, failing to register as a foreign agent, false statements, and multiple counts of failing to file reports for foreign bank accounts. Manafort, of Alexandria, Virginia, and Gates, of Richmond, Virginia, both turned themselves in to the FBI on Monday. Updated at 9:07 a.m. WASHINGTON President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, surrendered to federal authorities Monday in the first charges stemming from the special investigation into possible ties between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia. Manafort and Gates surrendered to federal authorities in Washington, and are expected in court later Monday to face charges brought by Mueller's team, according to one person familiar with the investigation. A second person said that Gates had worked out an arrangement to turn himself in on Monday. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing federal probe on the record. The charges, which have not been made public, are the first in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. The New York Times first reported that Gates and Manafort were surrendering Monday. The White House declined to comment. Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to tip the 2016 presidential election. The appointment came one week after the firing James Comey, who as FBI director led the investigation, and also followed the recusal months earlier of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the probe. Investigators have focused on associates including Manafort, whose home was raided in July by agents searching for tax and international banking records, and ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign in February after White House officials said he had misled them about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States. Manafort joined Trump's campaign in March 2016 and oversaw the convention delegate strategy. Trump pushed him out in August amid a steady stream of negative headlines about Manafort's foreign consulting work. Trump's middle son, Eric Trump, said in an interview at the time that his father was concerned that questions about Manafort's past were taking attention away from the billionaire's presidential bid. Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. That investigation was incorporated into Mueller's broader probe. The investigation has also reached into the White House, as Mueller examines the circumstances of Comey's firing. Investigators have requested extensive documents from the White House about key actions since Trump took office and have interviewed multiple current and former officials. Mueller's grand jury has also heard testimony about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by a Russian lawyer as well as Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In Gates, Mueller brings in not just Manafort's chief deputy, but a key player from Trump's campaign who survived past Manafort's ouster last summer. As of two weeks ago, Gates was still working for Tom Barrack, a Trump confidant, helping with the closeout of the inauguration committee's campaign account. Updated at 8:47 a.m. WASHINGTON AP sources: Ex-Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort and associate, Rick Gates, turn themselves in to federal authorities. Updated at 8:40 a.m. WASHINGTON Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his former business partner Rick Gates will turn themselves in on charges stemming from Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 election, according to a person familiar with the matter. The precise charges the men face were not immediately clear. Gates did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Jason Maloni, a spokesman for Manafort. Washington - especially those in political and media circles - had been anxiously anticipating the charges since CNN reported Friday night that a grand jury had approved the first charges in Mueller's investigation. That report was soon matched by others, including Reuters and the Wall Street Journal, though affiliates of many involved said they were in the dark as to what was about to come. About a dozen reporters staked out the entrance to the federal courthouse in downtown D.C. Monday morning, waiting for any glimpse of prosecutors or possible defendants. Spokespeople for Mueller and the Justice Department declined to comment over the weekend. They did not immediately return messages Monday. Mueller was appointed in May to oversee the probe of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, taking over work that the FBI had begun in July 2016. The probe has focused acutely on former Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, though investigators have shown interest in a broad array of other topics. Those include meetings the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow in December, and a June 2016 meeting at Trump tower involving the president's son, Donald Jr., and a Russian lawyer. Mueller's team has requested extensive records from the White House, covering areas including the president's private discussions about firing James Comey as FBI director and his response to news that Flynn was under investigation, according to two people briefed on the requests. Mueller is also investigating whether Trump obstructed justice leading up to Comey's firing. His team has been actively presenting records and bringing witnesses before the grand jury in D.C. for the last three months. Any grand jury indictment would be shared with deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who is acting as the attorney general because Jeff Sessions, having served as a surrogate for the Trump campaign, recused himself from the matter. Late Friday afternoon, the federal court's chief judge, Beryl A. Howell, presided as host for a ceremonial portrait unveiling of a fellow judge and explained to the crowd of hundreds of guests that Rosenstein could not be present because of an important meeting he was called to at the Justice Department. One area of particular focus for the special counsel appears to be the personal finances of Manafort. FBI agents working for Mueller raided Manafort's home in Alexandria, Virginia, in late July, armed with a search warrant that allowed them to enter at dawn without warning the occupants. Such an invasive search is only allowed after prosecutors have persuaded a federal judge that they have evidence of a crime and they have reasonable concern that key evidence could be destroyed or withheld. Prosecutors also warned Manafort they planned to indict him, according to two people familiar with the exchange. A lawyer for Manafort, Kevin Downing, did not respond to requests for comment. However, other Manafort associates said Friday evening they had no indication that Manafort has been or would be indicted. Flynn's lawyer, Robert Kelner, said late Friday, "we are not commenting tonight." A person familiar with Flynn's defense said he, too, had received no notice of pending indictment. Wayne Holland, a McEnearney Associates real estate agent who helped Manafort buy the condo in Alexandria that was raided by the FBI this summer, testified Oct. 20 before the grand jury in Mueller's probe after he and his firm were unsuccessful in an effort to quash subpoenas, Holland said Friday. Holland declined to discuss his testimony, first reported by Politico, but confirmed that an opinion unsealed Friday by Howell denied his and his firm's motion to quash a subpoena by claiming real estate broker records are confidential under Virginia and District of Columbia laws. Washington Post News Service (DC) Updated at 8:26 a.m. WASHINGTON The New York Times is reporting that President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, have been told to surrender to authorities. Those are the first charges in special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. The Times on Monday cited an anonymous person involved in the case. Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Departments investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to tip the 2016 presidential election. President Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort was told to surrender Monday morning to federal authorities, according to a New York Times report. Manafort is the first person charged in an investigation into alleged Trump campaign-Russia ties led by former FBI Director Robert Mueller. The report says it is unclear what charge Manafort is facing. Rick Gates, an associate of Manafort, was also told to surrender. How many is this now? Ive lost track of the number of prominent men whove been accused of sexual harassment in the weeks since The New York Times outed movie producer Harvey Weinstein as an alleged serial offender. Lupita Nyongo, Angelina Jolie and Ashley Judd are among the dozens of women he reportedly subjected to behavior that was, by turns, bullying, sleazy and intimidating. Even as shock waves from that news were still rolling outward, similar accusations began piling up against an assortment of other powerful men. They include: celebrity chef John Besh, who stands accused by more than two dozen women; actor Ben Affleck, caught on an old video groping actress Hilarie Burton; journalist Mark Halperin, alleged to have sexually harassed five women and grabbed one by her breasts; director James Toback, whose accusers number more than 230. They also include the 41st president of the United States, 93-year-old George H.W. Bush, accused of touching actress Heather Lind inappropriately from his wheelchair during a photo-op. As if that were not bad enough, news broke last week of yet another payout $32 million by Bill OReilly to yet another woman who said the deposed cable news kingpin sexually harassed her. She also said they had what The New York Times called a nonconsensual sexual relationship. Which sounds like a tortured way of saying he raped her. Clearly, we are having ourselves a moment here. It reflects not a sudden increase in sexual harassment, but rather a sudden increase in the courage of women to defy their own hurt, confusion and humiliation so as to put names and faces to acts of thuggery, piggery and dominance. And their moment of bravery necessitates a moment of soul-searching, even from especially from men who like to think of themselves as decent and good. In that spirit, I need to share a story. No, not that kind of story. Its just that, three years ago when we were stunned by similar charges against Bill Cosby, I was surprised to learn hed actually been accused before, way back in 2005. Why hadnt I known this? It turned out I had. I had even written about it, though in that column, I spent less time damning him than decrying the fact that this public moralizer had opened himself to charges of hypocrisy. And then I apparently forgot all about it. In my own defense, I write 94 columns a year and the 2005 accusation was not nearly as compelling or convincing as those that exploded in 2014. Still ... I forgot about it. It did not become part of my mental file on Cosby. That lapse embarrasses me. Because it is, I think, emblematic of the way too many men regard the sexual harassment of women. Even when we think we take it seriously, we dont take it seriously. The Los Angeles Times reports that rumors of Tobacks predations went back to the 1980s. Weinsteins pervy-ness was supposedly an open secret. OReillys alleged behavior was likewise well-known. Why, then, did the men around them not speak out? Stand up? Decline to work with them? It seems that even when we fancy ourselves womens allies, we too often fail to impose any sanction even the sanction of our disapproval, even the sanction of memory on the predators among us. They pay no price. On the contrary, one guy bragged of being a sexual predator last year and he was elected president. So the message of this moment could not be more clear: Men must do better. Men must be better. And this one will. HARTFORD With a Wednesday constitutional deadline for him to act on the $41-billion budget, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has asked legislative leaders to rewrite a portion of the spending package on the tax paid by Connecticuts 29 hospitals. Malloy requested the General Assembly reconsider a section of the budget to conform with language that would assure hundreds of millions of dollars in reimbursement for state hospitals. He wants the General Assembly to act before Wednesday to ensure the taxes Connecticut imposes on hospitals are properly reimbursed. On Monday afternoon, Republican and Democratic staff members, along with Malloys advisers, met for two hours with representatives of the Connecticut Hospital Association. The group agreed to meet again on Tuesday. By late Monday afternoon, legislative leaders had not scheduled a session to reconsider the hospital tax issue. But in a letter dated Friday and released Monday, the governor wrote that it was a follow-up to a Friday meeting attended by hospital officials, legislative staff and members of his administration, including representatives from his budget office, the Department of Social Services and the Department of Revenue Services. While I appreciate the difficulties involved with coordinating a legislative session on short notice, Im also sure that the strong bipartisan support this bill received will allow you to pass a correction even without all of your members present, Malloy wrote to GOP and Democratic leaders. As you know, there is no guarantee that the (federal) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will approve any request but I believe that failing to amend the language you passed will almost certainly cause them to reject this one. The multi-part hospital tax is based on total income hospitals received in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2016, but sets a new tax rate based on a complicated calculus with separate in-patient and out-patient services. Under the pending bill, the tax rates in the two-year budget period that began on July 1 would rise during the budget year that starts July 1, 2019. It would require the Department of Social Services to seek federal Medicaid waivers to exempt some out-patient services in financially distressed hospitals, as well as childrens hospitals, and the John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington, from taxes. The language regarding no hospital receiving a rate lower than the amount in effect on January 1, 2018 is too rigid and needs to be replaced with language that simply requires the specified rate increases in this section to be maintained, said an analysis of the issue released by Malloy on Monday. One of the issues involves a so-called safe-harbor rate of six percent on inpatient services, which is calculated by using a baseline 2016 revenue of $306 million divided by audited in-patient revenue. Exceeding the federal safe harbor tax rate on inpatient services will result in the state incurring federal penalties of $550 million to $620 million per year, Malloys administration warned. Last week, after the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of the tax-and-spending plan, lawmakers said that if the issue of the hospital tax needed review, they would gather again in special session. Senate Republican leaders Len Fasano, R-North Haven, however, said he was told by hospital lawyers that the language of the bill was acceptable and would not jeopardize federal support. Malloy has until Wednesday to sign or veto the budget. He may also let it become law without his signature. He may also sign the bill, then exert line-item-veto authority on issues dealing with appropriations. kdixon@ctpost.com Twitter: @KenDixonCT This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate GREENWICH Convent of the Sacred Heart announced Monday that it has donated eight acres of the schools 118-acre property, between Riversville Road and King Street in Greenwich, to the Greenwich Land Trust. The parcel sandwiched between two Nature Conservancy parcels, the Fairview Country Clubs gold course, Sacred Hearts campus and Audubon Greenwichs Gimbel Sanctuary was gifted to the land trust in what GLT Executive Director Will Kies called the missing piece of the puzzle. In connecting 165 acres of protected open space along the Byram River, it has become part of a series of contiguous preserves beginning at Sherwood Avenue and extending as far as Cliffdale Road. It will now be... permanent green space, Kies said. This is a key component to preserving this area. Sacred Heart officials said they are proud to offer this vital piece to conservation and open the future to collaboration with GLT. We are pleased to partner with Greenwich Land Trust and be part of their tradition of open space protection and stewardship, said Pamela Juan Hayes, head of school for the all-girls independent college preparatory school. This gift underscores the foundational principles of Sacred Heart Greenwichs mission, Hayes said, which includes teaching respect for creation and preparing our students to be stewards of the earths resources, while building a global awareness of the issues surrounding human development. The deal between Sacred Heart and the Greenwich Land Trust has been a year in the making, the GLT director said, and will not keep the school from accessing the eight-acre space for educational purposes. Kies confirmed that the school located on a 118-acre campus at 1177 King St. will retain access to the Byram River for classes. This is one of the land trusts larger acquisitions in the past 10 years, said Kies, bringing the number of parcels owned by GLT to 78 over a total of 539 acres in town. Including easements, or private land designated for conservation through the Land Trust, the total amount of protected space comes to 759 acres across Greenwich. This donation by Sacred Heart Greenwich ensures not only a partnership between two highly respected institutions, said First Selectman Peter Tesei last week. It also guarantees a lasting legacy that generations of current and future students and nature lovers will be able to study and enjoy. Congressman Jim Himes, D-Conn., also applauded the gift. The future will judge us by how well we fulfill our role as stewards of the earth, said Himes. In Connecticut, we are blessed with incredible natural beauty and open spaces, but these delicate places need our protection on the federal, state and local level. Sacred Heart Greenwich is setting a shining example, teaching its students the importance of preserving the environment for generations to come. These protected areas create something much larger than the sum of their parts with many economic, ecological and social advantages for the community." The preserved area is like a gorge, Kies said, and is so steep that not many deer traverse its acres making it even more special. There is a great, healthy understory of plants that you dont usually find here, said Kies. It is so wild. Its a gem; it doesnt feel like Greenwich. This is now one of our key properties, and the generosity of Sacred Heart cannot be stressed enough. They outright gave us this property. The details will shake themselves out in the coming months. E: jturiano@greenwichtime.com T: @jturianoGT; IG: @greenwichgreen LANDISBURG, Pa. It was harvest time at Rick Lowes split-level home in rural Perry County, and the flypaper above his living room couch swung heavy with the dead. Down some stairs, behind wooden doors, the pungent laboratory where Lowe practices his reverse alchemy was full of needles and a blowgun and glass jars brimming with things few folks would dare jar. Bottles of amber liquid on the shelves looked like apple cider, but the nose doesnt lie. It was urine, gallons and gallons of whitetail deer urine, waiting to be shipped out and spread across the wilds of America. My stuff is fresh, Lowe, 54, said in his Lowes Whitetail lab last week. I use about a gallon of it myself. Deer urine has been used for decades by hunters in states where its legal to mask human scent and draw large bucks with nice racks into range. They can sprinkle it on clothes, hang something akin to a urine-soaked air freshener from branches, or open a tin of crystallized urine beneath hunting stands. Theres a handful of producers in Pennsylvania like Lowe, each a bit secretive with guarded recipes, farmers of sorts whove managed to turn waste into extra income or a full-time business. I owned 19 acres of all woods, so I couldnt get in any other industry, like beef and pork, said Paul Carson, owner of West Wind Whitetails & Scents in Erie County. I fenced in a couple of acres and bought a couple of deer. That was in 1985. I am one of the pioneers in Pennsylvania. Collecting urine isnt as simple as dropping a bucket under a deers rear end. Theyre skittish animals, even those bottle-fed as fawns. Bucks, particularly during the fall mating season, can be ornery. We cut their antlers off so they cant kill anyone, said Elam Lapp Jr., whose Nationwide Scents in Millersburg, Dauphin County is one of the nations biggest producers of pee. Lapp, 28, is Amish, and his family has been farming in Pennsylvania for generations. First, it was dairy cows. Eventually, the Lapps became deer farmers, raising trophy bucks for breeding stock and private hunting ranches, which also operate in the state, before settling on urine. Amish culture is farming, Lapp said last week. But its just not very viable in this day and age for a small mom-and-pop operation. Lapps operation doesnt feel mom-and-pop. Hundreds of deer live on more than 200 acres in two locations. They are moved indoors for collection for a few hours, into a 5,000-square-foot facility with raised stalls resembling giant rabbit hutches. Theyre given food and water; fans whirl loudly for ventilation. Theyll pee six to eight ounces per sitting, about a half-gallon a day, all year, Lapp said. The urine funnels down through filters and basic plumbing into the basement, where the sheer volume boggles the mind. Theyre 55-gallon drums, Lapp said, pointing to rows of white drums. He sells most of his product to companies that relabel it as their own, but he has a special batch he freezes and ships direct to customers. The majority of deer urine comes from does, the female deer, but there are variations. The most valuable is from does in estrus, because they produce more estrogen and draw in bucks ready to mate. Some urine farmers can bring their does into estrus artificially. Buck urine could attract a male looking to fight. I start collecting in the summer and I sell a lot of regular doe pee, Carson said. I can sell a gallon of doe in estrus for $105 to $110. Dominant buck pee can go for about $60. Urine-industry statistics are murky because producers are lumped together under deer farming, which includes raising trophy deer and deer for venison. There are approximately 1,000 deer-farming families in Pennsylvania, according to the states Deer Farmers Association the second most after Texas. A small percentage deal in urine, and of those, Lapps operation is the biggest in the country, the group said. A recent New Yorker article said deer urine was a hundred-million-dollar business. A CNN report from 2008 put it at $44 million. Overall, hunters nationwide spend tens of billions on gear each year. One problem that has complicated the urine business is chronic wasting disease, a fatal, mad cow-like disease that affects the cervid family: deer, elk and moose. It was first noticed in captive mule deer in Colorado in the 1960s and has spread eastward, including into parts of Pennsylvania. According to the Chronic Wasting Disease Alliance, cases of CWD have been found in Blair and Bedford counties. Because urine is one of the ways CWD can spread, some states, including Virginia and Vermont, have banned its use in hunting. Lapp was recently featured in a New Yorker article on the subject, as New York state is contemplating following suit. Further bans could impact a way of life hes trying to hold on to, Lapp said on his farm last week. The science isnt there at this point. Its just not there. Nicholas Haley, an assistant professor of microbiology at Midwestern University in Arizona, has studied CWD for a decade. Of all the liquids and body parts on a deer, Haley said urine has the lowest levels of infectivity and he believes regulatory agencies have targeted it for the wrong reasons. Urine kind of represents this low-hanging fruit, he said. Its easy to regulate, and it makes it look like youre doing something to prevent the spread of CWD. In Pennsylvania, deer farming comes under the purview of the state Department of Agriculture, which requires farmers to take part in one of two CWD monitoring programs. The Pennsylvania Game Commission prohibits the use of deer urine in the states two disease-management zones in south central and north central parts of the state. Elsewhere, its legal to use for hunting. Lowe has been in the deer-scent business for 25 years with his wife, Anita, and said he understands the concerns about CWD. Thats why he has branched off into other areas, above and beyond mere urine, to attract deer and mask smelly humans. Some of his cover scents smell like acorn or hardwoods; one called Dirth is a dirt and earth combo. He is experimenting with synthetics, but he also learned to make deer lures from a legendary New York trapper named Johnny Thorpe. There are glands in those glass jars, among other things. He taught me to take the testicles, then you cut them and tincture them, Lowe said. Then you add some stuff, then you have to roll it, and then you add enhancer. It actually gets better with age. Neither Carson, a retired boilermaker, nor Lowe, who works for Sygma Foods in Harrisburg, are big enough to farm urine full-time. The most difficult aspect, Carson said, is dispensing it into the four-ounce bottles. Urine is not plutonium, but still. I cant have a radio playing in the garage when Im doing this, he said. Nobody can talk to me. Lowe said hed like to branch out eventually or at least add a separate building for his urine and tincture lines so he doesnt have to mix it all in the house. Im very secretive about my operation, he said. Its taken me years. A lot of guys want to know how I make my stuff. I dont want to give enough information to be dangerous. Ive had guys want to come out and take tours, and I just cant do it. Photo: Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty Images One of the worlds top liquor companies is bringing all-new meaning to the phrase This Buds for You. Constellation Brands a company that owns Svedka vodka, imports Corona and several other beers, and is the worlds largest wine producer thinks the adult beverage of the future involves pot, so its dropping $191 million into the planets largest publicly traded cannabis producer. The Wall Street Journal reports that it will acquire a 9.9 percent stake in Ontario-based Canopy Growth Corp. (ticker symbol: WEED) specifically to develop and market cannabis-infused beverages. For a variety of fairly obvious reasons, Constellation cant just start flooding 7-Elevens nationwide with a line of pot drinks, but it argues that the investment definitely gives it a first-mover advantage. To be clear, this wont be pot-spiked alcohol. That Four Lokoonsteroids concoction would never get TTB approval, even in states where recreational marijuana use is legal. Instead, Constellations efforts will focus on sodas, ready-to-drink coffee, fruit elixirs, and other drinkable cannabis products that dont contain alcohol, CEO Rob Sands tells the paper. States like Colorado and Oregon already have those on the market, and he thinks its highly likely the rest of the country will follow soon. Constellation could also theoretically launch pot drinks in Canada, assuming it legalizes use as expected by 2019. Theres been a lot of recent talk about how legal pot is going to wreck beer sales. Craft breweries a group consumers reward for edgier products have already released marijuana-flavored beers using the non-psychoactive parts of the plant, but the DEA ultimately had a problem even with that. For Constellations part, Sands says pot isnt a serious threat yet, but theyre not going to stand around twiddling our thumbs. If weed-laced drinks are going to join beer, wine, and hard liquor, it wants a foot firmly in all four. Good luck to any Android users who try arguing that Google is superior: It cant even put ingredients on a burger properly, to say nothing of solving device fragmentation. The tech giants cheeseburger emoji apparently opts for an order that runs completely contrary to good taste and the wisdom of every top burger-maker in New York City: I think we need to have a discussion about how Google's burger emoji is placing the cheese underneath the burger, while Apple puts it on top pic.twitter.com/PgXmCkY3Yc Thomas Baekdal (@baekdal) October 28, 2017 Media analyst Thomas Baekdal brought the Google version to everybodys attention on Twitter this weekend. Between the two buns, the companys graphic designer decided to add, from top to bottom, lettuce and tomato, then patty, then the cheese. Meat on the bottom topped with cheese and the remaining ingredients is arguably the most standard configuration and while still a minor deviation, Apples at least employs a known burger hack, putting the lettuce below the meat as a barrier against sogginess. Googles sacrilege struck a nerve immediately (Baekdals tweet has now been liked 37,000 times, and somehow even got its own Fox & Friends segment this morning), forcing Googles CEO Sundar Pichai to address the companys looming #burgergate yesterday on his Sunday off. Will drop everything else we are doing and address on Monday:) if folks can agree on the correct way to do this! https://t.co/dXRuZnX1Ag Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) October 29, 2017 Apple, Google, and other tech companies can style Unicodes emoji any way they want, so theres actually a lot of burger ideograms out there, several of them somehow worse. (Samsung users get an abomination that would only please haters of melted cheese on top of the hot patty, there is cold lettuce, then a slice of cheese, then cold tomato.) Pichai understands the urgency of this, and said theyre willing to rearrange Googles toppings in a more rational fashion as soon as today. But hes also got the worlds most important internet company to run, so hed prefer to crowdsource the proper ingredient order. If folks can agree on the correct way to do this, he says Google will drop everything and retire their cheese-on-bottom monstrosity. Lets hope Google execs dont have plans to dive into the restaurant business anytime soon. Hunters have a beef. Photo: Arbys/Twitter Ten glorious or very weird days ago, depending on how you feel about game meat, Arbys locations nationwide started selling a limited number of deer sandwiches (plus, if you were near three stores in Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado, an even tinier number made from elk). This is the second hunting season in a row that the chains dabbled in menu items comprised of 100 percent wild game. Last years release to just 17 stores in heavy deer hunting areas sold out almost instantly, and Arbys did manage to build a little on that success it says plenty of locations ran out of meat (about 50 to 100 sandwiches worth per store) on day one yet again. Unfortunately, that plus its vast array of the meats from other animals still havent made Arbys the official fast-food chain of Americas hunters: NPR says its made enemies of Montanas biggest group of conservationists and hunters with its wild-game stunt. The Montana Wildlife Federation has sent Arbys CEO Paul Brown a complaint letter arguing that its tone deaf to Montana values. The letter adds that farm-raised game-meat sandwiches run counter to core Montana values of public wildlife and consumption of healthy protein through ethically killed game. Elk and deer are best left as wild, free-ranging animals. It doesnt help Arbys case that back in 2000, Montanas voters passed an initiative prohibiting wild-game livestock farms. Supporters of the measure argued that the practice of farming wild animals is cruel, and can also cause illnesses like chronic wasting disease. In response, Arbys says the meat is grass-fed and free-range farmed using responsible practices, adding that its also the highest quality venison you can get anywhere in the world. In fact, its identical to what youd find at nice restaurants around the country that serve wild game. You cant procure venison in the United States at scale to commercialize, so you have to go all the way to New Zealand to get this, the companys president Rob Lynch says. But hunters say the meats quality isnt the top concern on their list. The most important thing is the principle of selling an animal that most Montanans recognize and hold dear as a wild animal and a symbol of the Rocky Mountain West. Job Archive July 2021 (524) June 2021 (681) May 2021 (698) April 2021 (659) March 2021 (688) February 2021 (615) January 2021 (698) December 2020 (714) November 2020 (671) October 2020 (631) September 2020 (690) August 2020 (713) July 2020 (713) June 2020 (690) May 2020 (713) April 2020 (690) March 2020 (713) February 2020 (667) January 2020 (713) December 2019 (713) November 2019 (687) October 2019 (711) September 2019 (689) August 2019 (711) July 2019 (707) June 2019 (688) May 2019 (2002) April 2019 (1978) March 2019 (2039) February 2019 (1688) January 2019 (2251) December 2018 (2095) November 2018 (1932) October 2018 (1984) September 2018 (1914) August 2018 (39) July 2018 (72) June 2018 (44) May 2018 (76) April 2018 (65) March 2018 (16) February 2018 (32) January 2018 (201) December 2017 (352) November 2017 (381) October 2017 (600) September 2017 (1211) August 2017 (1655) July 2017 (1590) June 2017 (1506) May 2017 (1902) April 2017 (1965) March 2017 (1417) February 2017 (1808) January 2017 (1807) December 2016 (1593) November 2016 (1376) October 2016 (1408) September 2016 (1317) August 2016 (1499) July 2016 (1504) June 2016 (1421) May 2016 (1391) April 2016 (1340) March 2016 (1476) February 2016 (1396) January 2016 (1474) December 2015 (1409) November 2015 (1367) October 2015 (1478) September 2015 (1441) August 2015 (1467) July 2015 (1465) June 2015 (1410) May 2015 (1057) April 2015 (1269) March 2015 (1132) February 2015 (1151) January 2015 (1152) December 2014 (1156) November 2014 (1267) October 2014 (81) Published on 2017/10/29 The Lonely Planet features a dark reimagining of Korea's future, a top South Korean painter is charged with fraud, see Matt Hulse's award-winning "Sniper" series on North Korea, and K-fashion arrives in the United America. Advertisement "Watch this video reimagine South Korea as a dark, sci-fi world" Technology is rapidly changing the way we see the future and our place in it. In Hollywood, recent films like "Blade Runner 2049" and the upcoming "Black Panther" both explore futuristic human habitats (to vastly different degrees), but what about South Korea? "Korean Mirrorworld" is an experimental piece by visual effects artist Rufus Blackwell that, "portrays Boryeong in South Korea as a dark and moody alternate dimension where the sky mimics the landscape and sea below". Do you know of other examples of K-futurism? Let us know in the comment section below... ...WATCH ON LONLEY PLANET "Veteran South Korea crooner convicted of art fraud" While South Korea's art scene is becoming an increasingly important part of the so-called 'Korean Wave', the country has also been dealing with a number of disturbing scandals. Painter Jo Young-nam, for example, was recently handed a 10-month sentence by the Seoul Central District Court for hiring "assistants" to help him produce art. Jo reportedly said that he "never thought hiring assistants was a problem or illegal". ...READ ON SCMP "Matt Hulse evades North Korea's photography regulations in his series Sniper" Did you know that North Korea has one of the most photographed capitals in the world? This is according to Matt Hulse whose recently won the Gold Award at the Felix Schoeller Photo Awards in Germany with his provocative "Sniper" images. "Many of the images [...] were taken from the window of the Yanggakdo Hotel in the country's capital, Pyongyang, and the remaining stills were captured from rooftops across South-East Asia". Hulse, who has visited North Korea nine times in just a few years, is "well-versed in the peculiarities and restrictions of one of the world's most secretive states". Click on through to the British Journal of Photography to spy some of Hulse's award-winning work. ...READ ON THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY "Korean fashion to gets its close-up at Asian Art Museum" The Asian Art Museum's "Couture Korea" will be the first of its kind in the United States when it opens November 3rd. In this post, Tony Bravo previews the exhibition and speaks to the museum's curator about this landmark event. Interestingly, the event is broken up into three galleries that are divided both chronologically (starting with the Joseon era) as well as thematically so people "can make the connection from the past to the present in dress". Catch it if you can! ...READ ON THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE The World Economic Forum has published a new Global Competitiveness Report, where Romania ranks 68th among the 138 countries that have been subject of the research. Compared to the previous report, Romania went down 6 positions in the Global Competitiveness Index but still maintained an identical score as in 2016 (4.28 out of maximum 7). Romanias score from the World Economic Forums research is roughly the same as in 2014, meaning that the fluctuations in the ranking over the last few years are directly related to what is changing in other states and how and not the national economic and administrative performance. Romania has Georgia and Islamic Republic of Iran rankings Romanias major problems are the same, known and largely attributable to the state: bureaucracy, poor infrastructure, difficult access to financing, incoherent tax system, etc. Contribution of business environment to Romanias competitiveness decrease Read carefully, the indices included in Romanias economic profile show that even the business environment has important issues. Some relevant figures: Capacity of talent retention position 132/137 Capacity to attract talent position 131/137 Willingness to delegate authority position 129/137 Staff preparedness level position 123/137 Quality of local suppliers position 122/137 R&D expenses of companies position 110/137 Innovation capability of companies position 109/137 Ethical behaviour of companies position 100/137 Companies capacity to assimilate new technologies position 95/137 Degree of sophistication of production processes position 94/137 In short, too many authoritarian entrepreneurs are active in the business environment, who are not willing to delegate tasks, are not forward-looking from all points of view: workforce, technology, market trends. Structural problems and Romanias performance in the region According to the World Economic Forum research, the main factors that hinder business development in Romania are: tax level bureaucracy access to financing educated workforce inadequacy corruption quality of infrastructure From the regional perspective, Romania does best in the following areas: macroeconomic environment, market size and technological readiness, where the Internet speed has a substantial contribution to the good score obtained in this chapter. Scotch exports value up but volume drops By Lisa Riley Scotch Whisky exports increased by 3.4% in the first half of the year to 1.8 billion, according to HMRC figures published today by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA). The value growth was driven by the increasing popularity of Single Malts across the globe - up 7% to 479 million in the first six months of the year, with Single Malts now making up more than a quarter of the value of all Scotch shipped overseas. The US - the industrys largest export market, continued to lead the way with exports up 8.6% to 388 million, and the value of Single Malts jumping 14% to 123 million. Scotch exports to mature and emerging markets also increased. There was a marked return to growth in China up 45% to 27 million, while exports to Japan grew 19% to 43 million. The European Union (EU) remains the biggest regional destination for Scotch with the value of exports up 4% to 559 million, almost a third of the total. The positive figures however masked more concerning underlying trends as volume sales declined, said the SWA, adding the lower volume and higher value was partly as result of the shift to Single Malts. The SWA said a strong home market was required to underpin the industrys global success and that Chancellor Philip Hammond could help next month by cutting tax on an average bottle of Scotch from an onerous 80%. Calling on the government to support the industry and help it grasp the opportunities and keep this international success going, chief executive Karen Betts, said: Overseas demand for our quality product requires investment by the industry in the UK and that needs government support - a strong domestic platform for growth is vital and the Chancellor could take a step in the right direction in next months Budget by cutting the tax on an average priced bottle of Scotch. Scotch remains Britains biggest food and drink export, making up almost a fifth of the sectors overseas shipments. But the Scotch Whisky industry needs support to sustain growth in the long term, not least as it manages the impact of Brexit, said Betts. Overall, the volume of whisky shipped overseas was down 2% to 528 million bottles, and this was in the context of relatively favourable exchange rates. Some markets declined in the face of continuing economic and political headwinds, such as Brazil where the value of Scotch exports fell 20% to 22 million. Recent figures show that the UK market has shrunk as excise duty has increased, with a near 4% hike in the March Budget seeing Scotch sales fall by 1 million bottles in the first half of 2017. 8 : , 12 HAWAII CO-AUTHORS SUPREME COURT BRIEF DEFENDING CONSTITUTIONALITY OF ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAWS Amicus Brief Filed in Case Over Colorado Business that Refused to Serve Same-Sex Couple News Release from Office of Attorney General Oct 30, 2017 HONOLULU Arguing that a business owners personal beliefs do not give him a right to discriminate against customers, a coalition of 20 states, led by Hawaii Attorney General Doug Chin and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court defending the constitutionality of Colorados public accommodations law. Attorney General Doug Chin said, All citizens deserve fair and equal treatment. We must vigilantly fight discrimination in all of its forms. The brief was filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. The owner of the bakery is challenging the Colorado public accommodations law, claiming it violates his rights to freedom of speech and free exercise of religion. The attorneys general filed the brief in support of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and the couple to whom Masterpiece Cakeshop refused to sell a wedding cake. In the brief, the attorneys general write that states across the country have enacted laws to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people in the commercial marketplace, and that these laws ensure equal access to goods and services and combat the severe personal, economic, and social harms caused by discrimination. The attorneys general argue that, under a long line of Supreme Court precedents, requiring businesses to comply with such laws does not violate the Constitution. The attorneys general further argue that the First Amendment exemption to public accommodations laws sought by the bakery would dramatically undermine anti-discrimination laws. Allowing commercial businesses to use the First Amendment as a shield for discriminatory conduct would undermine state civil rights laws and the vital benefits they provide to residents and visitors, leaving behind a society separate and unequal by law. Many Americans would face exclusion from a host of everyday businesses or, at the very least, the ever-present threat that any business owner could refuse to serve them when they walk in the doorsimply because of their sexual orientation, or their race, religion, or gender, write the attorneys general. Joining AG Chin and AG Healey in the amicus brief are the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. The amicus brief was led in Hawaii by Solicitor General Clyde J. Wadsworth and Deputy Solicitor General Kalikoonalani D. Fernandes, and in Massachusetts by State Solicitor Bessie Dewar, Assistant State Solicitor David Kravitz, and Assistant Attorney General Jon Burke and Division Chief Genevieve Nadeau, both of the Massachusetts AGs Civil Rights Division. ---30--- t do the traditionally siloed and distant functions of HR and IT have in common?For starters, they both play a significant role in employee productivity, engagement, operational costs and cultural benefits.And its these two functions that will have to increasingly collaborate in order to accommodate the changing needs and behaviours of employees.Rob Mattlin, national practice manager modern workspace at Thomas Duryea Logicalis , has noticed a major shift towards employees working where they want, when they want, and on the devices they want.Mattlin was the moderator of a recent lunch & learn event at the Quay Restaurant in Sydney, sponsored by Thomas Duryea Logicalis. The event focused on the theme of how IT and HR could improve culture by implementing Activity Based Working (ABW).ABW recognises that throughout the day employees have different activities to complete, and assigning a single workspace for each individual worker is not ideal to facilitate that.Consequently, it makes more sense to provide employees with lockers to store their resources in and let them choose a work setting depending on the task they are working on.The lunch was attended by 20 HR and IT experts, including Waudi Tahche, GM of people and culture, Cardinia Shire Council, and Oliver Sebastian, head of IT digital and customer platforms at Charter Hall.Both organisations have worked closely with Thomas Duryea Logicalis to implement ABW to improve engagement, collaboration and culture.Fixing communication through collaboration For Cardinia Shire Council in Victoria, the transition was partly based on the challenges of having employees spread throughout six different locations.A separate set of staff in each of those locations meant that collaborating and talking to each other had its challenges, and as a result impacted decision-making and community engagement, said Tahche.The move to a new building meant that for the first time in 17 years Cardinia Shire could have all its staff under one roof and create one culture instead of multiple mini-cultures.The new headquarters featured areas that allowed employees to conduct specific tasks, such as collaborating, socialising, learning and brainstorming.Tahche said the benefits of ABW extended beyond culture, cost and cohesion.There is definitely a direct connection between ABW and health and wellbeing, because ABW means people are dynamic and more active. Over 65% of our employees have said they feel healthier.He added that the move was also about adjusting to the trends that are rapidly shaping the workforce.It all comes back to where society is heading, he said. These days we are seeing kids being groomed to have technology in their hand from a very young age. By the time they get into the workforce, there is going to be technology all around them. A workplace thats just a traditional working environment is less likely to attract elite talent, so from a talent attraction and retention perspective it makes a lot of sense to go down this path.Tahche added that his organisation liked to see itself at the forefront of innovation and technology. Indeed, staff at Cardinia Shire Council are provided with various technology tools, including ultrabooks and tablets.The thinking behind implementing this technology was to empower employees to work both inside and outside of the office, and to collaborate and exchange information in real time.Collaboration is an enabler of innovation, and innovation leads to growth, so its very scientific in a sense, Tahche added.Cardinia Shire Council was also the first council in Australia to adopt ABW.The council found that ABW led to a reduction in paper usage, a decrease in operational energy costs and an improvement in customer response times.ABW has also been a success for the property group Charter Hall, which has experienced significant growth in recent years. In fact, when Sebastian joined the business eight years ago there were only about 60 people. That number now sits at approximately 530.Prior to implementing ABW, Charter Hall had siloed business units, geographically dispersed staff and an inefficient working environment.In partnership with Dell, Thomas Duryea Logicalis worked closely with Sebastian to implement ABW. This meant moving into a new building at 1 Martin Place, Sydney, and creating a range of different spaces, including collaboration areas and highfocus areas.It also involved having laptops installed with Microsoft 10, Microsoft OneDrive and Office 365, which enabled Charter Hall to provide offline working.In order to help make the process enjoyable and easy for staff, Charter Hall also introduced a range of employee benefits.We introduced getting your birthday off. We introduced yoga. We partnered up with the coffee shop downstairs and had deals for our people, Sebastian said.The way we implemented this was by introducing a new benefit every two weeks in order build engagement, excitement and anticipation [for the switch to ABW].And it really felt quite natural to make the locker your own space.The results at Charter Hall have included significant improvements in team collaboration, culture, flexibility, efficiency and staff satisfaction.Commenting on what Thomas Duryea Logicalis has observed in the marketplace in recent times, the companys CEO, Michael Chanter, said: I think you would all agree that human capital is the thing that really makes a difference to success or otherwise. I feel very passionately about what we are doing in this space with our customers but only because of the impact it has on people. (Reuters) Hexagon AB (HEXAb.ST) Chief Executive Ola Rollen, one of Swedens best known business leaders, pleaded not guilty on Monday at the start of a trial for suspected insider share trading in Norway. If convicted, Rollen faces up to six years in prison for an investment in Next Biometrics (NEXT.OL) made in 2015. The transaction did not involve Hexagon itself. I have a strong desire to testify, he told the Oslo District Court. Asked by the judge whether he was guilty as charged, a stern-looking Rollen answered No. To read this article: (Bloomberg) A tax dispute involving Renaissance Technologies, the hedge fund firm whose co-chief executive officer is a prominent backer of President Donald Trump, is advancing to a new phase. Members of the Internal Revenue Services Office of Appeals are scheduled to meet with lawyers for Renaissance in New York on Nov. 7, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. To read this article: (HedgeCO.Net) Following consultation with European authorities, and in response to concerns that investors could lose access to valuable research, the staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued three related no-action letters. These letters are designed to provide market participants with greater certainty regarding their U.S. regulated activities as they engage in efforts to comply with the European Unions (EU) Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) in advance of the Jan. 3, 2018, implementation date. The no-action relief provides a path for market participants to comply with the research requirements of MiFID II in a manner that is consistent with the U.S. federal securities laws. More specifically, and subject to various terms and conditions: (1) broker-dealers, on a temporary basis, may receive research payments from money managers in hard dollars or from advisory clients research payment accounts; (2) money managers may continue to aggregate orders for mutual funds and other clients; and (3) money managers may continue to rely on an existing safe harbor when paying broker-dealers for research and brokerage. Todays no-action relief was designed with input from a range of market participants to reduce confusion and operational difficulties that might arise in the transition to MiFID IIs research provisions, said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton. Staffs letters take a measured approach in an area where the EU has mandated a change in the scope of accepted practice, and accommodate that change without substantially altering the U.S. regulatory approach. These steps should preserve investor access to research in the near term, during which the Commission can assess the need for any further action. Cooperation with European authorities, including the European Commission, has been instrumental to the SECs efforts, and I welcome the additional guidance the EC published today. We look forward to continued dialogue on this and other important issues. The temporary no-action relief facilitates compliance with the new MiFID II research provisions while respecting the existing U.S. regulatory structure. It also is intended to provide the staff with sufficient time to better understand the evolution of business practices after implementation of the MiFID II research provisions. During the period of the temporary relief, the staff will monitor and assess the impact of MiFID IIs research provisions on the research marketplace and affected participants in order to determine whether more tailored or different action, including rulemaking, is necessary and appropriate in the public interest. To facilitate the staffs monitoring and assessment efforts with respect to the temporary no-action relief, SEC staff encourages members of the public to make their views known on these matters via webform or e-mail . In particular, staff invites the public to provide data and other information relating to the impact of MiFID IIs research provisions on broker-dealers (including any changes to their business models), investors, and the quantity and quality of research. Comments would be appreciated by one year before the expiration of the period of temporary relief. FACT SHEET Division of Investment Management No-Action Relief The Division of Investment Management provided temporary relief for thirty (30) months from MiFID IIs implementation date under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (Advisers Act) to permit a broker-dealer to receive payments in hard dollars or through MiFID-governed research payment accounts from MiFID-affected clients without being considered an investment adviser. In connection with this temporary relief, the staff will continue to monitor and assess the impact of MiFID IIs requirements on the research marketplace and affected participants in order to ascertain whether more tailored or different action, including rulemaking, is necessary and appropriate in the public interest. The Division of Investment Management also provided relief under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Advisers Act to permit investment advisers to continue to aggregate client orders for purchases and sales of securities, where some clients may pay different amounts for research because of MiFID II requirements, but all clients will continue to receive the same average price for the security and execution costs. This relief provides clarity and consistency to investment advisers by permitting the continued aggregation of orders while addressing the differing arrangements regarding the payment for research that will be required by MiFID II. Division of Trading and Markets No-Action Relief The Exchange Act Section 28(e) safe harbor addresses the manner in which a money manager can use client commissions to purchase brokerage and research services without breaching its fiduciary duty. In the U.S., money managers often use client commission arrangements to obtain brokerage and research services from a broker-dealer, using a single, bundled commission that is separated after execution to pay for order execution and research. Under MiFID II, money managers may make payments to an executing broker-dealer out of client assets for research alongside payments for order execution, and the executing broker-dealer must transmit the payments for research into research payment accounts (RPAs). ABCNews.com(FAIRFAX, Va.) -- A 12-year-old boy who police said jumped off a highway overpass in an attempted suicide took the life of a young woman instead. Marisa Harris, 22, was headed eastbound on Interstate 66 near the Cedar Lane overpass at around 4:15 p.m. when the boy came crashing down onto her 2005 Ford Explorer, Virginia State Police said in a statement. Harris was killed but her 23-year-old passenger and the 12-year-old boy both survived. The incident is being investigated as an attempted suicide, according to police. "Based on the investigation and witness accounts, a 12-year-old male jumped from the Cedar Lane overpass," Virginia State Police said in a statement. "The impact incapacitated the vehicles driver." Police said the car's passenger then "steered the vehicle off the interstate ... [and] came to a stop on the left shoulder against the jersey wall." The 12-year-old boy, who hasn't been identified, was rushed to Fairfax Inova Hospital to be treated for "life-threatening injuries," according to police. "He's still alive," Virginia State Police Spokeswoman Corinne Geller confirmed to ABC News. Harris's uncle said Harris's boyfriend was in the passenger seat at the time of the crash. He described her death as a "a freak accident." "She was driving, her boyfriend was in the passenger seat, when all of a sudden comes this body into the windshield," Everett Bruce told ABC News. Bruce said he learned about the crash when his younger brother, Harris's father, called him two hours later. The state police confirmed in a statement that the "front-seat passenger" was "was not injured" as a result of the collision. "Hes a little bit in shock," Bruce added of Harris's boyfriend. The news of Harris's death shook Bruce, but he said her father is especially devastated. "His heart is crushed, I could tell by the conversation," Bruce said. "Marisa was his only child and she was daddy's girl." But as for why she died, Bruce said his emotions are a mix of fury and confusion. "This boy is 12 years old, why would he commit suicide?" Bruce said. "I don't get it." Bruce said that Harris grew up in Olney, Maryland and had traveled the world. She was a graduate student studying clinical psychology. As an undergraduate, Harris attended Towson University. Bruce said his niece was just getting started to live an altruistic life helping children. "She didn't even get an opportunity to begin her life," Bruce said. "She was just snatched too young, too early. She was just starting to blossom in her life and this freak accident happened. That's what kills me." "Out of all the cars on the highway this had to happen to her," Bruce added. "It's like playing Russian roulette, somehow it was chosen that it would be her car at that time." Neither Harris's mother nor father had responded to ABC News' request for comment at the time of publication. Copyright 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. This week's recipe roundup is all about simple, delicious meals that can be on your dinner table in as little as 15 minutes. Katie Taylor is welcomed at Dublin Airport by Jenna Dunphy (11) and Ruby Butler (9) Photo: Sportsfile Katie Taylor has revealed what happened when Hollywood star Colin Farrell made a surprise visit to her dressing room before her world title showdown fight in Cardiff. "It was great, meeting Colin, an absolute gentleman," she told the Herald. "He wanted to walk me into the ring but I said 'No, it's OK'. "Someone had told me he was going to be in the crowd, but I didn't know he was going to be in the dressing room, so it was a nice surprise. "He wished me luck and we had a bit of small talk." The meeting happened prior to Katie's victory over Anahi Esther Sanchez. The Bray boxer's manager Brian Peters said Katie looked at Colin and said: "Thanks a million, but just sit down with your girlfriend and enjoy your night." Belts "It was really great for Colin to come down," said Peters. "He drove three hours from London to watch the fight and came back down afterwards to congratulate her." He added that Katie will now focus on unifying her belts and has ambitions to fight some of the world's best boxers. "With any sport you need a dance partner as they say," he said. "She's definitely looking to fight Natasha Jonas again - the same girl she fought in the London Olympics. "Going forward, you never know. The Holly Holm fight could even happen. I have about 12 names on my list that would all be possible opponents." Despite her now being a world champion, Peters believes Katie, who flew in to Dublin Airport yesterday, still has a long way to go. "She's only 11 months a professional and still serving her apprenticeship, even though she's achieved so much," he said. "However, I have no doubt that she will continue to flourish. Katie doesn't make any excuses and gets the job done in every sense. "In all walks of life you would never meet a nicer or more humble person." Staying tight-lipped about how much money Karie made for the fight, Peters believes she was well- rewarded for her achievement. A man sent his brother "threatening and disturbing" messages over a 20-month period, a court has been told. Aidan Flanagan (43), of Greenfield Road, Kanturk, Co Cork, also targeted a female relative. He sent the messages by text, e-mail and on Facebook, Blanchardstown District Court was told. Judge David McHugh adjourned sentencing after Flanagan admitted harassing both Anthony Flanagan and Orla Ryan Flanagan. The offences took place at various locations between March 2015 and November last year, the court was told. Gda Sgt Damien Gannon told the judge the accused was arrested for the purpose of charge. When the two charges were put to him, he made no reply after caution. Complaint Sgt Gannon said a file had been submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the directions were for summary disposal of the case at district court level. Sgt Gannon said he received a statement of complaint in relation to the two charges last November. He said there was interaction on Facebook, e-mail and text between Flanagan and the two complainants. Flanagan was clearly identified as the sender of the messages, which were of a "threatening and disturbing nature," said Sgt Gannon. The judge accepted jurisdiction to deal with the case at district court level instead of sending it forward to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Declan Fahy, defending, asked Judge McHugh to mark a plea of guilty and adjourn the case for disposal on a later date. The judge remanded Flan-agan on continuing bail to appear in court again on a date in January. He granted free legal aid. As many as eight people sleep in a single bedroom in some of the overcrowded properties in Dublin A landlord running an overcrowded house in Dublin has given his tenants just two weeks to find alternative accommodation. The man said he is moving back to eastern Europe on Thursday because his wife is sick. Last week, an investigation by independent.ie revealed how a group of landlords manage more than 40 overcrowded properties across Dublin. In some instances, up to 30 people are crammed into houses designed for a single family. The eastern European landlord rents a house in Rathmines to 23 girls, eight of whom sleep in one room. In correspondence seen by independent.ie, he gave the women until the middle of next month to move out. "I need to close the house. If you stay until November 15, then I will charge you for that days," he wrote. He said his "friend" will meet with the tenants to return their deposits after he "leaves the country". A source said the man, who is a director of a property management company, has "become very erratic" since it was revealed that the group of landlords are raking in many thousands of euro on a weekly basis. The man's wife, who is understood to be living in Ireland, is listed as company secretary of his firm. He denied that his business had anything to do with the 40 overcrowded houses and insisted he is tax-compliant. The lease between the man and the owner of the Rathmines house, a copy of which independent.ie has seen, does not include any agreement about sub-letting. Eviction A spokesperson for Dublin City Council said: "We are aware of this case and are dealing with it. "In relation to the risk of eviction, the tenant/s need to bring that issue to the attention of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB)." However, the house is not registered with the RTB as rental accommodation. The law sets out the following as the minimum period of notice which must be given to tenants to move out: Less than six months' tenancy - 28 days' notice. More than six months' tenancy, but less than one year - 35 days' notice. More than one year's tenancy, but less than two years - 42 days' notice. Some of the tenants in the house have been living there for more than a year. Even though the property is not registered with the RTB, an board spokesperson said: "We do not condone this behaviour and strongly recommend that tenants who believe they have been served an invalid notice of termination, contact us for more information or submit a dispute online." The owner of one of the overcrowded houses being run by the group of landlords said he had "no idea" their house was being used in this manner . He said he was living abroad and had rented the house privately. It was revealed last week that the group running slum-like houses in Dublin are removing bunkbeds, partitions and items of furniture before inspections by council staff. These tactics are being used to mislead inspectors about how many tenants are living in the overcrowded houses. The investigation also revealed that: Eight landlords manage more than 40 properties across the county. Up to eight people sleep in one room. Each property has an appointed "queen", who is responsible for collecting rent and overseeing housework. Fintan McNamara, a spokesman for the Residential Landlords Association of Ireland (RLAI), said that because of the current housing crisis it is not surprising that overcrowding is prevalent across the city. He said the lack of supply is having a significant impact on the types of property people are sleeping in. He added that the Government's decision to ban bedsits was a major contributing factor. Extreme "These people are not normal landlords," he said. "We would not condone this. I think most people would understand that it is very much in the extreme. "The Government has banned more than 2,000 units - bedsits - and I'm not saying it would solve the crisis, but it would definitely help." Meanwhile, seven of the houses were viewed and found them to be overcrowded, with between 20 and 30 people living in each property and up to eight people sleeping in some rooms. The properties are located in Blackrock, Rathmines, Dundrum, Shankill, Ranelagh, Rialto, Clontarf and Tallaght. 'A Garda spokesman said the attack appears to be random and unprovoked.' (stock photo) Two British tourists in Dublin for a stag weekend were brutally stabbed in a vicious and unprovoked attack. The men, aged 36 and 38, were walking in Blessington Street, Dublin 7, at 1am yesterday when a man in his 30s struck up a conversation with them. Moments later, he stabbed them in the stomach and fled. The men were taken to nearby Mater Hospital, where they were treated for their wounds. Robbed A Garda spokesman said the attack appears to be random and unprovoked. He said the men were not robbed and there was no apparent motive for the assault. Dublin Lord Mayor Micheal Mac Donncha said he was shocked to learn of the attack. "It was an appalling attack and of grave concern that something like this could happen," he said. Dublin city councillor Ciaran Cuffe, who lives in the Arbour Hill area near the scene of the stabbings, said he was appalled by the incident. "I'm horrified to hear of these attacks," he said. "We do have a strong gardai presence on the streets of the inner city due to the gangland situation. "I hope the attacker is caught and jailed. "The fact the victims were both tourists is also disconcerting. "This isn't good for the city's image and I hope it won't damage Dublin's reputation," he added. "In general, compared to other cities, we're not unsafe and I'd hate to send out a message that we're not a safe city," said Mr Cuffe. The area where the stabbing took place houses a large number of hostels and tourist accommodation and is a short walk to the heart of the city. The injuries received by the tourists are not believed to be life-threatening. Broadcaster Dr Ciara Kelly is hoping female victims of sexual assault and inappropriate behaviour will feel able to come forward after she revealed a woman came to her with allegations of rape. Over the weekend, Newstalk presenter Dr Kelly claimed the alleged perpetrator of the rape had also acted inappropriately toward her. She did not know the woman who approached her to make the allegation, but said she believed her. Speaking to the Herald, Dr Kelly acknowledged going public with allegations against an unidentified person was a difficult issue to navigate. "This is a very difficult area and I think there's no doubt that this is probably uncharted territory and that a boundary is being pushed by doing this," she said. "Having said that, I've seen the various people, and not everyone who disagrees with me is a troll, but there are people who have expressed what could be termed valid concerns. "But my feeling on it, because I did think about this beforehand, is that ultimately the more important issue is, if there is - and I believe it is the case - someone who has serially abused women over decades in Ireland, that it would be brought to justice and those women would have some recourse. "I think that remains the most important issue, the women that have been affected, like the woman that came to me." Dr Kelly spoke about the case of Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, against whom 82 women have now made allegations of sexual abuse. Roar "We have different laws in Ireland to America, but - parking the law for a moment and parking the legality or illegality, parking that whole area or issue - if it wasn't for women's voices, Harvey Weinstein would still be the head of what was Miramax and he would still be a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures," she said. Dr Kelly said one of the positives of social media was that it could amplify small voices "so they become a roar". "In my view, this is like lifting a rock and seeing what is hidden," she added. Soon history lovers will have the chance to explore Missouris vital role in World War I through a traveling exhibit that features stories, images, and artifacts from museums, libraries, archives and private collections across the state. The exhibit, "Missouri and the Great War," will be on display at the C.H. Cozean Library on the campus of Mineral Area College from today through Jan. 4. It will be open 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Fridays. The library will host Dr. Petra DeWitt, Missouri S&T assistant professor of history and political science, at 11 a.m. Nov. 16. Shell speak on the topic, "Courage, Duty, Patriotism: The Missouri Home Guard during the Great War." This traveling exhibit from the Missouri Humanities Council explores the history of World War I through the perspective of Missouri and Missourians. The exhibit is based on the online digital archive www.missourioverthere.org, which features documents, photographs, artifacts, and other WWI items from 30 Missouri museums, archives, libraries and historical societies. Missouri and the Great War will travel to nine locations across the state from 2017 to 2018. Missourians contributed to the war effort even before the United States joined the hostilities 100 years ago, in April 1917. Missouri industries supplied mules, munitions and other goods to Allied armies. More than 156,000 Missourians served in the war, including men like future president Harry S. Truman, Walt Disney and Gens. John J. Pershing and Enoch Crowder. To tell these stories, the Springfield-Greene County Library District and the Missouri Humanities Council developed the traveling exhibit Missouri and the Great War. The exhibit explores the many facets of World War I history through the perspective of Missouri and Missourians. Learn about the contributions of Missouri women and African Americans to the war effort. Those viewing the exhibit will have the opportunity to discover the vital role Missouri horses and mules played in the war despite the military adopting new technologies such as motorized vehicles. The exhibit also features two touch-screen kiosks, where visitors can explore more content and discover locations of Missouris World War I monuments. Visitors will also get to see a new seven-minute documentary featuring footage from the war. One of the Missouri Humanities Councils priorities is helping local communities maximize their resources and bring exceptional cultural programming to all Missouri residents, said Steve Belko, executive director of the Missouri Humanities Council. Missouri and the Great War allows Missouri communities to access historical archives from across the state. This exhibition was developed by the Missouri Humanities Council and the Springfield-Greene County Library District, with funding provided by the Missouri Humanities Council, Friends of Springfield-Greene County Library District, and the RDW Family and Community Fund. Editor's Note This is one in a series of occasional stories about the many ways dogs and their heightened senses help humans, from comforting the sick to detecting and saving lives in law enforcement and the military. ABINGDON, Va. A six-year-old German Shepherd-Belgian Malinois mix named Bane is a whirlwind of movement who whines with excitement when working; 4-year-old Belgian Malinois Trey is so laid back that most people dont know hes in the patrol car; and its hard to get the newcomer of the team, 14-month-old Bloodhound Webster, to sit still long enough to get his picture taken. Each of the single-purpose dogs is highly trained, and, according to the dogs handlers, their diverse personalities and skills are what make the Washington County Sheriffs Department K-9 unit successful. Banes human counterpart, Officer Eric Hinchey, said his dog has a very high play drive. Banes got a neat personality. He is up and spinning in circles all of the time, and he has a high-pitched whine that sounds like a whistle its unique and its something he only does when were working. He also said Bane alerts differently to weak and strong smells. If he hits on a strong odor, he sits hard, Hinchey said. And if he hits on a slight odor, he squats. But hes really good at what he does. Hinchey and Bane became a team in May 2015, and since that time, they have been deployed 320 times and have made 283 arrests. Bane is a narcotics and article detection dog, Hinchey said. Recently he found $64,000 in cocaine and methamphetamine. And from that seizure, we were able to get two search warrants and an additional $10,000 and more narcotics were seized. And earlier this month the team was called to the William King Museum of Art in Abingdon, Virginia, where Bane located a bag of methamphetamine. Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. A guy was running from police, and he threw a bag of meth, Hinchey said. They called and asked us to check the area because a group of children were at the art center, and if they would have found the meth, they could be poisoned by it. That day we were able to keep a group of completely innocent children from finding the narcotics and being poisoned. It was a win-win for everybody. Officer Chris Cumbow said his partner, Trey, is as laidback as Bane is wound. But when its time to work, a switch flips. He gets excited, Cumbow said. When he hears sirens or knows were going on a call, he gets vocal, jumps up and down or turns circles. Treys main duty is criminal apprehension. Hes the dog we can send into a house to look for bad guys, Cumbow said. Hes the dog that can help me if Im in a fight, and he can also do article searches for evidence. Because of his duties, Trey hasnt really solved a case, but Cumbow said he usually finds who hes looking for. They last time Trey tracked someone was in Bristol, Virginia, when a guy bailed from a traffic stop, Cumbow said. The guy was a drug dealer from North Carolina who was armed. He took off running after a drug deal had gone bad and was hiding in the woods. We tracked him and found him hiding in the bushes he gave up as soon as he saw the dog. Cumbow added that Trey has only had to bite someone they were searching for a couple of times. Usually that happens when the person is intoxicated, he said. Most people see the dog and give up, or if we let them know we have him, they come out. If they dont give up, they get bit. But [Treys] big, and I think when they see him coming at them, theyre afraid, so they surrender. Officer Wes Wright said Webster doesnt have an aggressive bone in his body. Hes friendly, rambunctious and gets along well with other dogs, he said. Some of that is because hes still a puppy, and some of it is just his personality. Wright also said Webster, who has been on the force since March, loves everybody, so hes trained to track lost children, Alzheimers patients and criminals. It was a little challenging for him at first, Wright said. He came from Florida and had never seen the mountains. So when we first started training, he didnt know how to act when he came across the scent of bears. Thats normal, and once he got past that, we found out what a great nose he has. After 12 weeks of school with the Virginia Department of Corrections, the hound came on duty, and within two weeks, he tracked down a man who had been accused of car arson. It was about 4 oclock in the morning, and a car had been set on fire off Exit 26, Wright said. The man took off on foot, and the patrol officers on duty lost him. They called me to bring Webster to the scene, and he tracked the guy right to his front door about two miles from where the car was. Thats pretty impressive for a dog just out of training in a new state. Wright added that even though each dog is trained for a specific task, the handlers have to be able to read their dogs behavior. Handlers have to read their dog the dogs demeanor changes when they get on a scent. Were a team, he said. We cant do it without them, and they cant do it without us. A group of veterans, state officials and concerned citizens will be meeting in Kirkwood this evening to hold a press conference related to perceived abuses and mismanagement at the St. Louis Veterans Home. Local veteran Dennis Sweet said at a meeting last month that he was made further aware of the situation at the veterans home from those most directly affected and involved. I found out a lot last month when I was invited to a high-level meeting by invitation only, Sweet said. There were some family members there of some residents, some employees and we had some information from a doctor at the veterans home. Its just so bad up there. We lost around 18 or 19 people in a 32-day period at that home alone. At the same time, all six other Missouri Veteran Commission homes lost a total of six people. Sweet said he and others have received information regarding the administration of the home which is troubling to say the least, including directives to not treat dementia patients because of their lack of awareness. The press conference is intended to make public findings that will display just how dire the situation has become, according to Sweet. He said the press conference was called by the family of a resident at the home in conjunction with at least one official from Jefferson City. A large crowd is expected, which is why Kirkwood Middle School was chosen as the venue. Sweet said he hopes for at least a couple hundred people to attend, as well as members of the press. Sweet described some of the changes that he hopes will come after the information is released at the press conference: I dont think its going to be immediate, but I think it should be, he said. We probably need to at least change the administration at the St. Louis Veterans Home. They need to implement some new programs up there to make it more employee-friendly and make sure theres safety precautions for the residents. Also, right now, if theres a complaint right now against the veterans home, which is run by the Veterans Commission, then it is investigated by the Veterans Commission. Its kind of like auditing yourself. Were trying to get it changed so that the Department of Public Safety or the Inspector General would do the investigations. Sweet said the situation is largely unknown to most people, even among the Missouri Veterans Commission, as he has heard reports of staff being told to make sure certain residents are seen during inspections, while others are not. For this reason, Sweet said it was determined that the press conference was a necessity. They cant change what they dont know, so were trying to get this all out, Sweet said. Were not trying to raise trouble, he said. But its something thats very serious. I wasnt interested in getting involved until I heard how serious it was. I cant just sit back and watch it happen. The press conference is set to begin at 7 p.m. this evening. Regional health care can soon enter a new chapter after Virginia Department of Health Commissioner Marissa Levine on Monday approved the merger of the areas two largest providers. Ballad Health, the name chosen by Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System, is now expected to become a reality following the commissioners order conditionally approving their request for a cooperative agreement under Virginia law. It coincides with last months similar approval of a Certificate of Public Advantage by Tennessee Health Commissioner John Dreyzehner. The merged system would feature 21 hospitals including seven in Virginia more than 14,000 employees and combine two systems that generate nearly $2 billion in annual revenue. Mondays approval is the culmination of a merger process that was formally announced in April 2015. Applications were initially filed with each state in February 2016 and at that time health system officials hoped to complete the deal by the end of last year. A deadline included in the Tennessee approval requires that the merger be completed by Jan. 31. We have received notice of the decision of the Commissioner of Health in Virginia, and we are reviewing it, health system officials said Monday in a joint written statement. We are grateful for the diligence demonstrated by the commissioner and her staff, and the staff of the Virginia Attorney Generals office. The commissioner personally took the time to evaluate our proposed merger and to understand the reasons why the benefits of the proposed merger outweigh the other options. The health systems also expressed support for the work of the Southwest Virginia Health Authority, which voted its support last November and helped with changes to the application and a review of the Tennessee COPA. In Mondays letter, Levine described enlisting a team of state experts from inside her department, the Virginia Department of Medical Assistance Services and two independent health care consultants, to review the application. That review began last December and included a series of meetings with the applicants and the filing of substantial supplemental documentation. I find by a preponderance of the evidence that if the applicants meet and comply with the conditions set forth, the benefits likely to result from the proposed cooperative agreement outweigh the disadvantages likely to result from a reduction in competition from the proposed cooperative agreement, Levine wrote in a letter to the presidents of each system. Levine cited 14 reasons for the favorable decision, including: Southwest Virginia experiences significant challenges in the delivery of health care services and population health status. Competition between the applicants failed to provide meaningful, visible benefits to area residents in terms of access and status. The applicants committed to keep existing rural hospitals operating as health care facilities for at least five years, which she termed a significant commitment. The applicants committed to create residential addiction recovery and mental health resources in addition to pledging to support an enhanced rural health service plan. The applicants desire to coordinate population health initiatives to help residents become healthier. Much like Tennessees approval, the Virginia approval will include a series of thresholds the merged system must meet but those are incomplete. I will establish quantitative measures that will be used to evaluate the proposed and continuing benefits of the cooperative agreement by Jan. 31, 2018, Levine wrote. A technical advisory panel will be appointed forthwith in accordance with [state law] to provide initial recommendations to me as to the quality, cost and access measures and benchmarks to be considered to objectively track the benefits and disadvantages of the cooperative agreement, she wrote. The panel will identify cost, quality and access measures in areas including population health, patient safety, health outcomes, patient satisfaction and access to care and make recommendations to the commissioner on how to best report performance on those quality metrics, according to the letter. The approval spells out 49 conditions the merged system must meet regarding its relationships with insurance companies, physicians, physician groups, employees, indigent patients, those with no insurance or insufficient coverage and other stakeholder populations. It spells out that the systems must continue to operate all existing hospitals as a health care center for a minimum of five years. If an effort to restart a hospital in Lee County, Virginia, fails, the merged system must provide essential services to that area. It also stipulates that the merged system must maintain its three existing tertiary care hospitals in Tennessee. The merged system must submit an annual report to the commissioner, due one year from the closure of the merger. Those steps are in addition to a substantial oversight framework established by the Tennessee approval. Last month, Commissioner Dreyzehner said the COPA established measurable goals and terms and conditions to ensure that in granting approval, there is a clear public benefit to the health and well-being of residents of the region. The merger has generally been supported by Tri-Cities area businesses, chambers of commerce and elected officials at a series of public meetings. Opposition has come from some segments of the insurance industry and staff of the Federal Trade Commissions Bureau of Competition. We also appreciate the role the FTC plays in protecting the public and we believe the concerns voiced by the FTC were considered both by the authority and the commissioner, both of which have acted in accordance with federal law, according to the health system statement. We are now intensely focused on the operational integration of the two systems and plan to close in the next few months. DEAR ABBY: My sister "Eileen" is married to her second husband, a man I'll call Harry. He's nice, but some of his choices landed him in jail for a while. I'm polite when we see him, but I don't trust him. Eileen and Harry live beyond their means. They rent a large house and buy luxury cars rather than something more economical. These are my observations; I never mention them to my sister. Although she's happy to give advice on what's wrong with my life, she becomes defensive if anyone else says anything about how she lives. My concern is, she refuses to visit or spend time with me and my family without her husband. Before our mom's death a few years ago, I offered to buy her an airline ticket to fly here for a few days to visit. Because she's very organized, I recently invited her to come -- at my expense -- and offered to pay her to help me declutter my house. She declined both invitations because I wouldn't buy a ticket for Harry. (I didn't have the money.) I think my sister's marriage is very co-dependent. Abby, what should I do? -- WANTS SOME SISTER TIME DEAR WANTS SOME SISTER TIME: While Harry may have made some poor choices in the past -- for which he has paid the penalty -- he seems to make your sister happy. Assuming that you have told her you love and miss her and would like to be able to spend "sister time" with her, I think it's time to accept that they are a package deal and stop trying to separate them. Because you crave sister time, offer to go there and visit her. She seems to be happily living the life she has chosen, so stop putting negative labels on her relationship with her husband. DEAR ABBY: I never thought I'd be writing you, but I have a situation that needs an objective opinion. My husband works for a small company owned by a nice couple. They have a teenage daughter who keeps asking to baby-sit our three kids. Abby, we have a special needs child and a new baby. Although the girl seems to be kind and responsible, our children would be a challenge for an adult, let alone a teenager. Also, we are on a very tight, one-income budget with money needed for therapies. I don't want to mention it because I don't want to insinuate they aren't paying my husband enough, but it is a serious deterrent. How can I gracefully decline her offers without offending my husband's employer? Keeping him in good standing with his company is my primary concern because he works hard and loves his job. -- ANONYMOUS IN THE USA DEAR ANONYMOUS: Explain your refusal as an abridged version of what you wrote to me. Thank the girl for her kind offer and tell her that because your older child has special needs and the baby requires constant supervision, you prefer not to have anyone baby-sit until they are older. The explanation is reasonable, logical and the truth. DEAR ABBY: I'm a woman who was honorably discharged from the military recently and am now in an electrical construction apprenticeship. I'm starting a great career in a field I love that can give me a comfortable living without having to rely on a second job. My problem is my family. Most of them are convinced that I hate men or I wish I was one. The rest are sure that I will emasculate anyone I would start dating. I'm not a lesbian, and I like being female. I have no problem with anyone who follows different life paths than mine. My family is basing these opinions purely on what I have chosen to do for work. In their opinion, because I chose to work in what is considered nontraditional employment for "nice young ladies," as they put it, and can work on my house and car without extra assistance, it must be true. I have tried repeatedly to explain that what I have chosen for a living has no bearing on my gender identity or my sexual orientation. They are completely ignoring anything I have to say about my life and life choices. Sometimes I wonder how I'm even related to these people. If I were asked to deploy back to the war zone, I'd happily leave tomorrow, because it would be easier than dealing with the small-minded, narrow viewpoints I'm encountering here at home. -- HOW CAN I MAKE THEM LISTEN? DEAR HOW: It is beyond sad that you would find returning to a war zone more appealing than dealing with the pressure you're receiving because of your career choice. But please try not to blame your family for their outdated thinking. Many people are unaware that women are now being trained -- and succeeding in -- high-paying jobs once held only by men. Because your relatives refuse to believe that you're heterosexual, stop wasting your time trying to convince them otherwise. Live your life in an authentic way, and if you meet a nice man and decide to settle down with him, eventually they'll realize they were mistaken. DEAR ABBY: I am in my late 40s and live in New York City. I was taught to hold doors open for women and to allow women to exit the elevator first. Problem is, in our lobby there are two separate glass doors that must be opened to walk outside the building. If I let a woman neighbor leave the elevator first, she will then have to open and hold both doors for me. But I always feel awkward if I don't allow them out first, and I sometimes worry they think I'm rude for walking ahead. Sometimes I even want to explain my actions. I just figure holding and opening two heavy glass doors is more polite than allowing someone to exit the elevator first. What's the proper protocol in a situation like this? -- A GENTLEMAN IN NEW YORK DEAR NEW YORK GENTLEMAN: While it is polite for a man to hold a door open for a woman, it would also be considered good manners if she returns the favor if she's the first to reach the lobby door. As to the rule of etiquette for elevators, the person at the front of the elevator should exit first, if the elevator is crowded. DEAR ABBY: Taking care of a loved one who has Alzheimer's is difficult. My boyfriend came up with a brilliant idea to help me maintain my own space (the basement in the family home) and still keep track of my mom upstairs. A baby monitor! I could hear everything going on upstairs, at night especially, and it made a challenging time much easier. Both of my parents had Alzheimer's disease, and I wish I had known about the monitor when Dad was still alive. I hope this will help others to be more effective caregivers without compromising their own lives. -- MISSING MOM AND DAD IN MONTANA DEAR MISSING: So do I, because placing a baby monitor in the room of a sick person of any age is a good idea in case the person needs assistance. I have heard of this being done not only with Alzheimer's patients but also with people in hospice programs whose caregivers can't be with them every minute. Thank you for writing. DEAR ABBY: I was unhappily married years ago and conceived a child by an ex-boyfriend. My son is now 31. I divorced my husband 28 years ago. He knew the baby was not his, but claimed him as his own son. He refused to do a DNA test when we were going through the divorce. He died a few years ago. I am in contact with my son's biological father. They look identical, and my grandson looks just like his father and grandfather. My guilt is consuming me. I want to tell my son that even though the dad he knew all his life is gone, he still has a chance to get to know another father who is his blood. On the other hand, I don't want to ruin my relationship with my son and grandchildren, whom I love very much. How can I tell the truth without hurting my son and our relationship? -- RIGHTING A WRONG DEAR RIGHTING: Better late than never. Your son needs to know that the man who raised him and claimed him as his own was not his biological father so that he can have a complete medical history. If the birth father wasn't interested in knowing or supporting his son, he sounds more like a sperm donor than a "blood" relative to me. Do not be surprised if your son isn't interested in knowing more about his birth father than the information I suggested. DEAR ABBY: My mother died from a heroin overdose when I was 8. As a mother with children of my own, I often find myself getting upset when people say nice things about her -- things that would normally make people feel good, such as, "Oh, she would have been so proud of you," or, "She was such a great woman." I feel that if she was such a great woman, she wouldn't have chosen drugs over her (or our) well-being. How can I let go of the anger I feel toward her when everyone else sees her only in a good light? -- MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT MOM DEAR MIXED FEELINGS: I'm sorry for the loss of your mother at such a tender age and under such tragic circumstances. Far more is understood about drug addiction today than was known when you were a child. We now know that addiction can be less about a lack of character than a medical problem. I seriously doubt that when your mother gave herself her final fix she realized it would be her last. While I sympathize with your anger at being cheated out of her presence in your life, it would be better for your own quality of life if you could accept that she was a human being and fallible. A licensed mental health professional can help you work through your anger, and I hope you will talk to one soon. DEAR ABBY: We host many gatherings in our home during the year, including picnics. We have a downstairs bathroom that is intended for guests. But twice now, I have encountered guests using my upstairs bathroom. I have never offered it, and I'm offended that they take it upon themselves to go uninvited into private territory. I would never do that in someone else's house. Am I wrong, or are they overstepping the boundaries here? -- WONDERING IN THE EAST DEAR WONDERING: To use your upstairs bathroom without asking your permission is overstepping. The exception might be if the downstairs bathroom was in use, and the need to get into one was urgent. DEAR ABBY: My three best friends over the last four years recently decided to start a business together. They said I was more than welcome to join them, but financially I wasn't able to swing it. I work part-time, so I have been helping them when I can. When we get together for dinner once a month, most of their conversation focuses on their business. But recently they discussed a shopping trip they took together. They went on a day I could have gone, but I was not invited. Should I take this -- and other similar incidents -- as a hint that our friendship has run its course? -- FEELING LEFT OUT DEAR FEELING LEFT OUT: Talking about the shopping trip in front of you was insensitive. However, you may not have been invited because your friends were afraid you might be embarrassed it you could not participate in the shopping. You mentioned that their business arrangement is recent. They may be discussing business because that's what is on their minds. Don't write them off or withdraw just yet. You can always do that. Wait to see how things play out. DEAR ABBY: Help! I'm a 67-year-old man being relentlessly chased by a 68-year-old woman. I have told her I want to date other women and will be moving out of the country at the end of the year. Despite this, she is constantly trying to maneuver me into an exclusive relationship, probably ending in living together. I don't want to hurt her, but I'm at a loss as to how to get her to back off. -- HAPPILY UNCOMMITTED DEAR UNCOMMITTED: Here's how. Tell her you can't handle the pressure she's putting on you and end the relationship NOW. DEAR ABBY: I am in a predicament. My therapist is great, but sometimes I think she shares too much. Last time I went, she was running late. When I finally got into her office, she told me the previous patient was nonverbal and had painted her nails during the session. Later in the session, she confided that years ago she had been date raped. Abby, I am in counseling because my father raped me when I was 15 (I am now 24). Her sharing has me worried because I don't want her telling others what I say or do during counseling. Further, her story of the date rape scared me. She described a situation that is not uncommon for me to be in, and it caused something almost like a flashback in me. I think what she did was insensitive, to say the least. I have nobody else to ask, so what should I do? I'm getting counseling for free now due to my income, and it took months to get set up with a counselor. Should I report her or accept that this was a mistake and say nothing? If I need to report her, how would I go about doing that? -- CONFLICTED ABOUT IT DEAR CONFLICTED: You should change therapists because it appears this one has more problems than you do. As to what agency you should report her breach of professional ethics to, contact the state organization that has licensed her to practice. Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Contact Dear Abby at www.DearAbby.com or P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069 TEL AVIV (JTA)-When it comes to women posing with firearms, the United States is fully loaded. Lithe models can be found showing off weapons at gun shows, in rifle magazines and on dedicated social media pages. Orin Julie may look like just another "gun bunny," as such models are sometimes called, but she is the industry's secret weapon. She is a former Israeli combat soldier who is trained to discharge the weapons she poses with. "I don't stand around in swimwear," she said in an interview at the office of her Tel Aviv modeling agency. "I know how to hold guns, how to shoot, how to do combat stuff-and Americans appreciate that." Julie's military background has helped her stand out as a weapons model and win a following of legions of American gun enthusiasts. But the reception to her modeling also demonstrates the vast differences between the the gun cultures of the United States and her native Israel. At home many see her as a woman who served in a combat unit, as an embodiment of female empowerment. To her fans in the United States, she is a symbol of the very American mixture of constitutional rights, gun ownership and a culture in which "sexy" can refer both to a beautiful young woman and the assault weapon she cradles. Two years into her career, Julie, 23, has modeled for a half dozen Israeli and American companies that sell firearms and related products. Last year, she represented Israel's Gilboa Rifles at the world's biggest gun show in Las Vegas. A video about her by Israel's Kan public broadcaster has been viewed by more than 800,000 people since it was posted on Facebook earlier this month. Meanwhile, Julie's Instagram account has racked up 145,000 followers, many who gush over photos of her in lipstick and crop tops bearing the latest arms, from petite handguns to massive assault rifles. Julie said her love of guns and her career modeling them emerged from her Zionist upbringing. Growing up in the central Israeli town of Kiryat Ono, she recalled being a "very spoiled girl." But in high school, as she began thinking ahead to her mandatory military service, Julie quietly resolved to become a combat solider "No one thought I could do it," she said. "But I really love Israel, and I wanted to show I could do more and be more." The army initially turned Julie down for combat, citing her asthma, but with the backing of a powerful female commander, she managed to start her second year of service in the Israel Defense Forces' new mixed-gender search and rescue brigade. She said she was the first woman to serve as the communications sergeant for a brigade commander. In 2015, near the end of her three years of service, photos Julie posted on Instagram of herself in training drew the attention of the Israeli military equipment retailer Zahal, which led to contracts with local makers of firearms and gun accessories and a West Bank shooting range. She has also modeled for Ideal Conceal, an American startup that hopes to market cellphone-sized handguns to women with the slogan "Carry with confidence, conceal in style." Julie publicly embraces her Israeli identity and her combat experience, which she said her employers encourage. On Instagram, she posts throwback photos of her time in the army, writes in Hebrew and wishes her followers "Shabbat shalom." Judging by the response on her Instagram account, it works for her fans. Hebrew and English comments like "I just love Israeli girls" and "ok I'm ready to join the IDF" are common. However, so are those calling her a "baby killer" or otherwise attacking Israel. While Julie's devotees can agree that her nationality and combat experience are sexy, the ways the Israelis and Americans respond to her are in other ways distinctive. In general, Israelis pay little attention to the guns Julie poses with. After all, most of them handle weapons in the army and are barred from owning them by their country's strict laws. The very idea of a weapons model is foreign here; Julie said she is the first. More salient to Israelis is Julie's combat service as a woman. The army's promotion of female fighters has triggered controversy of late, and Julie said men, including her former commanders, send her supportive messages and women stop her on the street to thank her. "Girls say I inspired them to go for a combat position or just to do what they love," she said. As for her American fans, many respond enthusiastically to the guns Julie helps sell in their country's large market-one that many other Americans see as underregulated. Her Instagram followers in the United States, whom she described as "crazy about guns," often comment on specific gun models she uses. Last August, she posted a photo of herself holding an M60 machine gun nearly as big she is. Comments from Americans included, "I love this gun. I was an M60 gunner for three years"; "M60 Machine Gun...!!! Nam memories!"; and "War in vietnam, m60 7.62 mm nato." Julie, speaking to JTA just days after a gunman killed 58 people at an outdoor music festival in Las Vegas, declined to speak on the record about her views of gun laws in the United States or modeling for companies that do business in the country. She said only that she believes in the right to self defense but is saddened whenever she hears of an innocent victim of American gun violence. "I'm really sorry about what happened in Vegas," she said. "I hope the government will find a way to take care of it." Ultimately, Julie said, she worries little about how she is perceived. Modeling guns is about using her talents to achieve her ambitions, she said, which include completing her degree in personal training and launching a successful acting career. "I was blessed with certain skills, and I all want is to be the best version of myself," she said. "I love the adrenaline of holding a gun. It makes me feel powerful and in control." COIMBRA, Portugal (JTA)-From its mountaintop perch, the University of Coimbra towers majestically over the downtown square that used to be the regional headquarters of the Portuguese Inquisition. It's a fitting location for the 737-year-old university, the seventh oldest in the world, which outsmarted and outlived the campaign of persecution against Jews and freethinkers unleashed by the Catholic Church and Portugal's rulers in 1536. "This place was almost literally an ivory tower of knowledge during those dark times," Antonio Eugenio Maia do Amaral, assistant director of the university's 500-year-old library, recently told JTA. Thanks to the university's undocumented policy of subterfuge against the Inquisition-Amaral said its librarians essentially hid many books that censors would likely have wanted to destroy, reintroducing them to the indexes only after the Inquisition was abolished in 1821-Coimbra was in possession of a collection of rare, pristine Jewish manuscripts found nowhere else. One such manuscript is the Abravanel Hebrew Bible. Ranked by the university in a 2012 statement as its rarest artifact, the handwritten Bible from the 15th century is perfectly preserved. The book is filled with drawings on parchment that are so vibrant, they seem to have been recently created. The Abravanels - a distinguished, wealthy Sephardic family with branches in Spain and Portugal that fled to Amsterdam and the Balkans during the Inquisition-commissioned 20 such Bibles. The volume in Coimbra is among the best preserved of the handful whose whereabouts are known today The book is worth north of $3 million, according to the university's Joanine Library, which in 2013 was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. That's where the Bible is kept-along with hundreds of other precious manuscripts-inside a huge vault with special climate control and aerial disinfection facilities. The vault is typically only opened to scholars. Yet last year, Amaral took JTA inside to see the Bible. There was a brief moment of confusion when the employee asked to locate the book said she could not find it in the index system. But Amaral, who has worked at the library for more than 20 years, shrugged and said calmly that he would have to "let the fingers do the looking" once inside the vault. Amaral may have been laid back, but he was anything but cavalier. He expertly navigated the labyrinthine vault-two cards with digital keys are required for access-while donning librarian gloves. He took care not to breathe directly on the books he handled, so as not to introduce moisture. Alongside its technological solutions, the library employs a uniquely time-tested and green method for pest control: For centuries, it has been home to a colony of nocturnal, insect-eating bats. In the evenings, when the library is closed, the tables beneath their flight paths are covered with furs in order to protect them from the bats' excrement. The University of Coimbra has little information on how exactly it came to possess the Abravanel Hebrew Bible, possibly because it was hidden or scrubbed from the library's indexes to hide it from Inquisition agents. What makes the Abravanel Bible so rare, however, isn't just its age-it's the pristine condition. Across the Iberian Peninsula, numerous books remain that Jews smuggled out during centuries of Inquisition, at risk to their own lives, but they are damaged. One such specimen: An 1282 copy of the Mishneh Torah, the code of Jewish religious law authored by Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon, or Maimonides. The book has whole passages that an Inquisition censor singed away, making them lost forever. It's kept at the 400-year-old library at the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, which was founded by refugees from the Inquisition. The second-rarest specimen at Coimbra's library is another Bible dating to the 15th century. The Latin-language volume was one of the world's first printed books, prepared by partners of Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the print machine. Printed in 1462-just 12 years after the original 42-line Gutenberg Bible which is on display in Mainz, Germany-the one in Coimbra is the only surviving copy of an edition of four 48-line Bibles printed by two of his partners. Language differences aside, the printed book looks similar to the handwritten one. Both have illustrations and hand-drawn margins that writers used to keep their text straight before the invention of print. That's no accident, Amaral said. "The margins and drawings were added to the printed copy to make it seem as though it was handwritten," he said. This retrograding was partly done for aesthetic reasons-readers were used to seeing them-and partly as a "precaution," Amaral said, because some Christian fanatics considered print machines "the works of the devil." Thousands were murdered during a series of Portuguese Inquisitions that followed the Spanish Inquisition of 1492. At least 200,000 Jews fled the Iberian Peninsula for the Netherlands, South America and the Middle East during the period, which lasted nearly three centuries. Thousands more stayed and practiced Judaism in secret for generations. The library's archives also contain rare, chilling records that reveal the bureaucracy behind the Inquisition's barbarity. For example, the minutes of a 1729 trial against Manuel Benosh, a Portuguese Jew, indicated that he was "released" by the Inquisition to civil authorities with an instruction that he be "punished in flesh"-a euphemism for a death sentence by burning. Outside of Lisbon, Coimbra University is the largest owner of Portuguese Inquisition verdicts. "It was a mission that made this place not only a victim and opponent of the horrors of the Inquisition, but also a witness to them," Amaral said. True to its tradition of defiance, the library was also one of the few institutions to openly refuse to comply with the censorship policies of the regime of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, Portugal's pro-fascist dictator of 34 years, until 1968 "Again there were the same tricks as during the Inquisition," Amaral said. "In the end, we now see who has prevailed." Seventy-eight years ago, a Torah scroll was sentenced to death along with the Jewish people. Now it will be in Orlando, as part of a whirlwind tour that will include hundreds of Jewish communities all across the globe. On Kristallnacht, the "night of broken glass" when more than 1,400 synagogues were torched and 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed across Germany, 14-year-old Isaac Schwartz of Hamburg knew he had to act. Seeing a pyre of Torah scrolls and other Jewish sacred items left unattended, he bravely doused the flames and attempted to recover the holy objects. His heroic efforts yielded a single Torah scroll. A Torah scroll, which contains the Five Books of Moses, is the most sacred object in Judaism. An authentic handwritten parchment scroll can take up to a year to craft at the deft hands of a sofer (trained scribe). It is then stored in the ark in the front of the synagogue and read only during services. As the situation continued to deteriorate rapidly, Schwartz had the scroll buried in the ground along with a number of other sacred items. There it lay for the duration of the Holocaust until it was retrieved by Schwartz and his family. But the trauma had taken its toll, and much of the scroll had been rendered unusable. Recently, the relic was purchased from the Schwartz family by philanthropist Leonard Wien and donated to the Jewish Learning Institute, which operates hundreds of adult educational franchises at Chabad Centers across the globe. Over a period of 18 months, a sofer painstakingly rewrote the faded letters and replaced parts of parchment that were beyond repair. Having been finally completed, the newly refurbished Torah has been sent on a historic mission, hopping from community to community, in a spiritual gesture of unity that spans continents, cultures, and generations. The scroll travels in an attractive blue cloth covering inscribed with a dedication from Wien to those who died in the Holocaust and in celebration of the revival of Jewish life and Torah study across the globe. A synagogue in Hamburg, German, that was burned on Kristallnacht On Saturday Nov. 11, just two days after the Kristallnacht anniversary, this historic scroll will be present at Nate's Shul in Longwood, where it will be used during the Sabbath services. Participants will be honored to carry, kiss and even read from its ancient letters. "In this time, we are desperately in need of unity," said Rabbi Yanky Majesky who co-directs Chabad of North Orlando. "It is deeply poignant that we will be united in such a meaningful way with Jews all over the globe, our past, and our future." The public is invited to join Chabad of North Orlando for services on Shabbos, Nov. 11, 2017, At Nate's Shul, 1701 Markham Woods Rd., Longwood, FL 32779 Services begin at 9:30 a.m., Torah Reading at 10:30 a.m., Kiddush Lunch at 12:15 p.m. This event is free but we ask you RSVP at http://www.JewishNorthOrlando.com/Kristallnacht or 407-636-5994. Private viewings for journalists or groups are available upon advance request. Remembering Jewish and American history... We all remember the World Trade Center and the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City. (How could we ever forget?) DANIEL LEWIN, an American-Israeli entrepreneur and former Israeli commando, became the unofficial first casualty of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Born in Denver, Colorado, he moved as a teenager to Jerusalem where he enlisted in Israel's elite special forces commando unit-the Sayeret Matkai. (One of the finest in the world!) Following graduation from Technion University, he moved back to the United States and founded a successful technology company. On that fateful day (9/11) 31-year-old Lewin boarded American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles to attend a business meeting. Five al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked the plane in what was one of four hijackings that morning. A 2002 FAA memo suggests that Lewin, who was seated close to mastermind Mohamed Atta, attempted to struggle with the hijackers. He was stabbed and killed. (We will never forget that horrific date and we should never forget this special hero.) This flyer from co-presidents, JERRY LEIBMAN and BERNY RAFF... "We will have a big surprise for our Sunday, Nov. 5th social" for the Congregation Ohev Shalom Seniors, starting at 2 p.m. at the synagogue, 613 Concourse Parkway, Maitland. "Direct from Diamond Resorts International, we have booked the dynamic high energy duo of ELLA & J.T. They will be performing their tribute show to Buddy Holly, Connie Francis, Etta James, Karen Carpenter, Patsy Klein, Anne Murray and many more artists from the '50s and '60s." (In other words, no rap! A friend of mine once said that rap was spelled with a silent C.) Jerry and Berny continue: "They currently tour throughout Florida and we have arranged for them to be at COS on Nov. 5th. Ella and J.T. have opened for Gladys Knight and many other famous groups. The cost is still $5 for members; $8 for guests. A nosh will be served after the program as usual." (For further information and directions, phone 407-298-4650.) A Jewish Pavilion Mensch... PAUL STENZLER spends many of his retirement hours working for the Jewish Pavilion. Not only is he the chairman of the Board of Directors, but he is also one of their chief entertainers. He performs for Jewish Pavilion holiday parties for seniors and he conducts Shabbat and holiday services as well as Memorial services. Most of the time he is accompanied by his beautiful and brillian wife, TERRI SUE FINE STENZLER. Paul made all of the musical arrangements for the Jewish Pavilion's Fall Festival, Music Fest 2017. He garnered all of the musicians, determined the program, arranged the musical equipment and more. He was born and raised in New York (like me) and entertained audiences in the N.Y. metropolitan area for over 15 years. He moved to Florida in 1980, and continued to lead the band Rhythm Release, featuring Leroy Cooper, former leader of the Ray Charles Orchestra. Paul presently lives in Orlando and has two children, MICHAEL and RACHAEL. His favorite music includes jazz, Middle Eastern, and various Latin American styles. He also sings in Hebrew, Yiddish and Spanish. "He is the true definition of a mensch," says NANCY LUDIN, CEO of the Jewish Pavilion. JCC 39ers Meet & Mingle Mondays... On Monday, Oct. 30, in the Senior Lounge, SHELDON BROOK will present Broadway Video Volume 2. (Not to be missed.) All about music... Altamonte Chapel's Sunday 'Jazz Jams' runs from 12:30 p.m. To 2:30 p.m. Requested Donation $10. On Sunday, Oct. 29, CHRIS ROTTMAYER will bring back his salute to the Modern Jazz Quartet. This is a must see and hear for all Jazz Lovers both new and old. Joining Chris, who will be on Vibes are; PABLO ARENCIBIA, Piano; WALT HUBBARD, Drums; and CHARLIE SILVA, Bass. One for the road... Paul Stenzler Eight-year-old Sam is staying with his bubbe Rachel for a few days while his parents are away on business. On the first afternoon, she drives to school to pick up Sam and waits for him to come out. When Sam appears, he walks over to her and says, "Bubbe, I was talking to my friend Jake at school today and we would like to know what you call two people who sleep in the same bedroom, with one on top of the other?" Rachel is surprised by this question, but as she's always been one to answer all questions honestly, she replies, "Well bubbeleh, it's called sexual intercourse. It's how parents make little children." "Thanks bubbe," says Sam, I'm just going to tell Jake. She watches him wander over and talk to another boy. Sam then returns and they drive back to her place. When she picks up Sam from school the next day, he says to her, "Bubbe, you were wrong yesterday. It isn't called sexual intercourse, it's called bunk beds. And Jake's mom says she wants to talk to you." A blog about life under, and resisting, a dictatorship Rita F. Geller, age 92, of Village on the Green, Longwood, passed away on Saturday, Oct. 14, 2017. Mrs. Geller was born in Brooklyn, New York, on April 27, 1925, to the late Hyman and Rose Wolfe Rubin. She was raised by her mother and family after her father passed away when she was only eight years old. Unlike most children, and specifically girls, at the time, she enrolled at Hunter College at the age of 16, hoping to study medicine and become a doctor. However, gender and society made that an impossibility. She did, however, graduate with a degree in biology at age 20 and entered the workforce. On Aug. 30, 1947, in New York, she married the love of her life, Robert Geller, her husband of over 70 years who survives her. In 1953, the family now with two children, relocated to the Orlando area and later welcomed a third child. Ritas days were filled with raising her family and PTA meetings. She then added a new careerthat of a volunteer at ORMC for many years. She also joined Hadassah, becoming chapter president and holding regional positions. Professionally, Rita ran a thriving business buying and selling collectibles before moving on to real estate where she was highly successful. Rita left the real estate world and became a travel agent, which afforded the family the opportunity to travel to experience places like China and Egypt. Always active and creative, Rita, above all, was a loving wife to Robert and mother to Charles (Judi), Susan (Beau Burgess) and Wendy (Alan) Kornman. Her grandchildren Marissa, Adam, Josh and Joe (Stephanie) were her pride and joy. Funeral services were held at Beth Shalom Memorial Chapel with Rabbi Arnold Siegel of Jewish Family Services officiating. A private family interment followed at Beth Israel Memorial Park, Gotha. In memory of Rita F. Geller, the family requests contributions to Lifespace Foundation, Rita Geller Memorial Bench, 500 Village Place, Longwood 32779. Arrangements entrusted to Beth Shalom Memorial Chapel, 640 Lee Road, Orlando 32810. 407-599-1180. The Roth Family JCC's Jewish Film committee finished the grueling (tongue-in-cheek) task of choosing five films (and one short) out of 104 to present at the Central Florida Jewish Film Festival. Partnering with Maitland's Enzian Theater for the last 19 years, The Roth Family JCC is once again, bringing the community films with Jewish and Israeli themes that will make you laugh, cry, and think. As in the past, each film offers something totally different and totally wonderful. So it is worth it to see all five films. And without further ado, here is the lineup: "The Pickle Recipe" Saturday, Nov. 4, 8 p.m. Orlando Science Center, 777 E. Princeton St. This film puts a new twist on the expression "getting in a pickle." All of the main characters in this film have a quirkiness about them that you love and hate at the same time-from Grandma Rose (Lynn Cohen), who is a "T-rex that swears at you in Yiddish" and won't share her family pickle recipe, to her son Morty (Academy Award nominee David Paymer) who is as shady as they come, to grandson Joey Miller (Jon Dore), the king of Detroit party MCs who loses all his equipment in a freak fire. He is so desperate to make some money that he is willing to steal his grandmother's famous top-secret dill pickle recipe she has vowed to take to her grave. As funny as this film is, you'll need a tissue by the end as the family really come to terms with each other, and, of course, discover what's really important in life. USA, 2016, 97 min, Directed by Michael Manasseri, Rated PG-13, in English The film short "The Chop" will precede "The Pickle Recipe" In this light-hearted comedy, what goes around does eventually come around for a Kosher butcher who pretends to be a Muslim to get a job at a halal butcher shop. If only the real world could be like this! Winner of six festival audience and jury awards, including Cleveland, Denver, Palm Springs Shortsfest, and Seattle Jewish. UK, 2015, 17 min, Directed by Lewis Rose, in English and Arabic with English subtitles "1945" Sunday, Nov. 5, 11 a.m., Enzian Theater It is August 1945. The war is over in Europe. Two Jewish men with two trunks arrive in a Russian-occupied village in Hungary. Filmed in black and white, the mood is set as the villagers begin to speculate why these men are here. Are they here to reclaim their homes, possessions and property unjustly taken? Are they here to accuse those who betrayed them? As the two men quietly walk through the village, the villagers are forced to face their own guilt and fears. This stark and gripping drama will stick with you long after the lights come up. Hungary, 2017, 91 min, Directed by Ferenc Torok, Not Rated, in Hungarian and Russian with English subtitles "One Week and A Day" Sunday, Nov. 5, 1:30 p.m., Enzian Theater When someone you love dies, especially when it is a son or daughter, you want the world to stop. Sitting shiva is good that way. But after shiva is over, the world cruelly goes on. Eyal and Vicky try to get on with their lives but the world refuses to accommodate the middle-aged couple's period of adjustment. They begin to act out as they attempt to regain a hold on their upturned lives. No wonder it was nominated for eight Israeli Oscars, swept the Jerusalem Film Festival's major awards, and was the surprise hit of Critics Week at the Cannes Film Festival. Israel, 2016, 98 min, Directed by Asaph Polonsky, Not Rated, in Hebrew with English subtitles "Big Sonia" Monday, Nov. 6, 4:30 p.m., Enzian Theater Wow. What can I say about this family-directed documentary about a remarkable woman, Sonia Warshawski, who was 91 when it was made? This film isn't just about a Holocaust survivor's life story, but also how her story has affected so many people-from middle school students to prisoners to those she saw almost everyday in the tailor shop she's run for more than 30 years. It is easy to understand how "Big Sonia" is a winner of 15 Audience and Jury Awards. "If I reach one heart and make a change in their heart, this will be my greatest accomplishment," she says to the camera. This documentary shows how she has changed people-not just by sharing her story of living through hell and surviving, but the deeper story: the power of forgiveness to triumph over bigotry. One prisoner captured the essence of this documentary best when he said, "Strong things don't come in big packages." USA, 2016, 93 min, Directed by Leah Warshawski and Todd Soliday, Not Rated, in English "Shelter" Monday, Nov. 6, 7 p.m., Enzian Theater This psycho-thriller keeps you glued to your seat. "It's all about bluffing and deception," says Mona (Golshifteh Farahani), a Lebanese informer, to her protector, Naomi Rimon (Neta Riskin, Israeli Oscar nominee for Best Actress), a Mossad agent, while she recovers from plastic surgery for her new identity in a safe house in Hamburg, Germany. But who is deceiving whom? There are so many twists and turns in this labyrinth of espionage you have to keep watching until the very last scene. Based on "The Link" short story by the late Shulamit Hareven, and directed by Eran Riklis, one of Israel's most acclaimed directors, this film will have people sharing different theories about the ending long after the movie is over. Israel, 2017, 93 min, Directed by Eran Riklis, Not Rated, in English, Hebrew and Arabic with English subtitles And for those with children, The Roth Family JCC is offering its Saturday Night Out. Your kids can have fun at the J while you enjoy the opening film, Saturday, Nov. 4, 5:30-10:30 p.m. Kids ages 18 months through grade 5 can come hang out at the JCC while you enjoy the opening film of the Jewish Film Festival, "The Pickle Recipe." When you purchase tickets to "The Pickle Recipe," simply show your receipt at our Registration Desk (or forward it to register@orlandojcc.org), and the JCC give you the total you spent as a rebate off your Saturday Night Out registration (up to $23 off!). Questions? Contact Amanda Dennis. If you're hoping to see them all, be sure to purchase the Mensch Pass for first priority seating or Series Pass for second priority seating. Table reservations are not available for this event. Looking to buy tickets for one film at a time? Visit the Enzian web site. The Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Orlando welcomes JGSGO member and webmaster Dr. Barry Sieger as he presents "Making Sense of DNA For the Genealogist," at the Roth Jewish Jewish Community Center of Greater in Maitland, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017, at 7 p.m. Sieger is a retired physician who specialized in infectious diseases. In retirement, his specialty is Jewish genealogy. Through his research he met his cousin, the late world-famous actor Leonard Nimoy, and has found much of his fascinating family history. Barry's expert genealogy presentations are engaging, interesting, and helpful to people researching their families. Sieger retired from medicine in 2013. He has been actively engaged in genealogy for about 20 years, focusing the past 2 years on using DNA to enhance one's research. He has degrees from Harvard College and Boston University School of Medicine. In his 38 years at Orlando Health, he served as director, Internal Medicine Residency Program; chairman of Internal Medicine; chief of Infectious Disease; associate director Infectious Disease Fellowship Program; and chairman of Infection Control. He has published a number of articles and has received numerous awards, including Best Attending Physician, Department of Medicine. He is board certified in internal medicine and infectious disease. Before the program, starting at 6:30 p.m., attendees can get assistance from a Jewish genealogy expert or network with fellow genealogy enthusiasts. This program is open to the public is free for members, and is $5 for nonmenbers, which can apply to membership dues. The program will be livestreamed on the web for those who can't be present. Pre-registration is required. Register for either in-person or online participation at jgsgo.org. Attending the press conference with Gov. Scott were students from the Jewish Academy and pre-schoolers from the Early Childhood Learning Center; as well as (l-r) parent David Menoni, Alan Rusonik, Chani Konikov, a parent, Maitland Mayor Dale McDonald, Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs, Rabbi Mendy Bronstein, Sam Friedman, Gov. Rick Scott, Ben Friedman, Rhonda Forest, Keith Dvorchik, parent, Rabbi Hillel Skolnik, and parent. Last Thursday, Gov. Rick Scott paid a visit to The Roth Family JCC to announce his proposal of $1million to provide extra security to Jewish day schools throughout Florida. The monies would be ear-marked for security upgrades and other counter-terrorism measures, such as video cameras, fences, bullet-proof glass, alarm systems and other safety equipment. He then stressed that the proposal still has to go through the state congress and encouraged everyone to contact their congressmen and state senators to get on board for this funding. Asked if there has been any backlash from the proposal, the governor stated that the responses so far have been very positive. Attending the press conference were students from the Jewish Academy of Orlando and pre-school children from the Richard S. Adler Early Childhood Learning Center. One student wearing a T-shirt that read "Future President" caught the governor's eye and he remarked to her that she certainly could be a future president (but she should be governonr first), and that every student can have the goal to be whatever they want to be. "Our children should be spending their time learning and not feel unsafe," said the governor. Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs and Maitland Mayor A. Dale McDonald joined the governor in expressing their support for good security for Jewish day schools. Community representatives in attendance also included JAO Head of School Alan Rusonik, JCC CEO Keith Dvorchik, Federation President Rhonda Forest, Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation Rabbi Hillel Skolnik, Chabad of Altamonte Springs Rabbi Mendy Bronstein, Orlando Jewish Day School Director Chani Konikov, Central Florida Hillel Assistant Director Sam Friedman, JFGO Director of Communications Ben Friedman, and several JAO Board members and PTA parents. Last June, Scott visited the Orlando Torah Academy where he announced funds of more than $654,000 were designated in the State budget for security at Jewish schools. Before he addressed the group, Gov. Scott noticed that one little girl's T-shirt said "Future President" (on right with hands over mouth). He encouraged her to pursue her dream, but become the governor first. Even though the Jewish Academy is on the JCC campus, funds will not be allocated to the JCC, Dvorchik explained. All the security enhancements that were done on campus were from the Campus Facility Maintance Committee (FMC) reserve funds and charitable donations. The $654K and the proposed funds are designated for Jewish Day Schools K-12th grade. Rusonik said the $654K funds have not been allocated yet and that the Jewish Academy, the Orlando Jewish Day School and Orlando Torah Academy have to apply for them. The applications are due next month. As for the entire campus, Security Director Andy Brennan stated, "In order to ensure the safety of persons and property, the JFGO and the Maitland campus organizations continue to examine present security posture and future needs, giving due consideration to existing and/or potential threats." "We have ongoing security needs that are currently not funded-the Federation has the security fund open for people to contribute," Dvorchik added. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, in a roundtable discussion with youth in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, slammed the Trump administration's demand that it renounce terror and recognize the Jewish state. Rather than considering peace negotiations, "the discussion now is about when we will wipe out Israel," he declared, according to the Hamas-linked news agency Shehab, Times of Israel reported. "No one in the universe can disarm us. On the contrary, we will continue to have the power to protect our citizens," Sinwar asserted. "No one has the ability to extract from us recognition of the occupation." Sinwar's bellicose remarks were made in response to a statement by U.S. Special Mideast Envoy Jason Greenblatt following the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Fatah, the ruling party of the Palestinian Authority-that Hamas must renounce terror and commit to peace negotiations with Israel if it wants to play a Palestinian government role. "Any Palestinian government must unambiguously and explicitly commit to nonviolence, recognize the state of Israel, accept previous agreements and obligations between the parties-including to disarm terrorists-and commit to peaceful negotiations. If Hamas is to play any role in a Palestinian government, it must accept these basic requirements," Greenblatt said. It was the first statement made by the Trump administration on the Palestinian reconciliation agreement and followedIsrael's announcement Tuesday that it will not participate in peace talks with the PA as long as Hamas refuses to recognize the State of Israel and insists on continuing its terrorist activities. Hamas must also be disarmed as well as return IDF fallen soldiers and Israeli civilians held in captivity, the announcement continued. Among other Israeli demands, the PA must exercise full security control in Gaza and sever ties with Iran. (JTA)-A plan to open a mosque in a heavily Jewish area of London is dividing British Jews, with some calling the development worrisome and others accusing its opponents of racism. The Islamic center is slated to open next month at the Hippodrome, a former concert hall in the heart of the north London neighborhood of Golders Green. The area is home to thousands of Jewish families of all major denominations and many synagogues, Jewish schools, kosher shops and restaurants, even hotels for devout Jews. By Sunday, more than 5,600 people had signed an online petition urging municipal officials to investigate possible bylaw infractions by the center, which has received all the required permissions following the building's purchase earlier this year by an Islamic charity. The petition does not mention the religious dimension, citing instead potential "disruptions" to traffic, as well as parking and air pollution. But below the surface, the planned mosque has touched off an acrimonious exchange among those who welcome the new center, with its capacity of 3,000 visitors, and those who fear it. Some opponents worry that the mosque could lead to friction between British Jews and members of the Muslim minority, which surveys suggest is among the most anti-Semitic segments of British society "There is a concern around this very divisive issue," said Jonathan Hoffman, a North London-based blogger and former vice chair of the Zionist Federation of Britain. "There is concern about Muslim anti-Semitism." Hoffman said his comments don't mean he personally opposes the new center, but merely that he understands both sides of the debate. Multiple surveys performed in recent years show far greater prevalence of anti-Semitic sentiments among Muslims compared to the general population. (A September survey suggested that Muslims were twice as likely as non-Muslims to espouse anti-Semitic views). A 2008 study by the Community Security Trust, British Jewry's watchdog on anti-Semitism, attributed a third to half of all violent anti-Semitic incidents to perpetrators described as having an Arab or South Asian appearance. On the other hand, the Jewish community of Britain reported that of the record 1,309 incidents in 2016, "language or images relating to Islam or Muslims" were noted in 27 anti-Semitic incidents, compared to 39 in 2015. And of 236 anti-Semitic incidents in 2016 that showed political motivations alongside anti-Semitism, 12 were connected to Islamist motivation or beliefs. Jewish-Muslim outreach has been more successful in the United Kingdom than elsewhere in Europe, with communities running successful joint programs, helping out one another and lobbying jointly. Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, attributes some of this relative success to the fact that South Asian Muslims make up a larger proportion of the Muslim community in Britain than elsewhere in Europe. Arab Muslims are likelier to espouse anti-Israel and anti-Jewish views, he said in a February speech. Nonetheless, opposing an Islamic center in Golders Green-a place many local Jews consider a safe haven from the effects of rising anti-Semitism elsewhere in Britain-is about "ensuring the continuation of a safe Jewish community" there, according to a British Jewish man in his 30s who grew up near Golders Green. Zvi spoke to JTA about the issue on condition of anonymity so as "not to be painted in the media as a racist." Indeed, to some British Jews, such concerns are merely a thin veil to mask anti-Muslim racism. The fears around the new center "are baseless," Stephen Pollard, the editor of the Jewish Chronicle of London, wrote in an op-ed published Monday titled "Shame on the Hippodrome protestors: The real story here is bigotry." Concerns about the center are "pure bigotry: The idea that any Muslim is, by definition, our enemy," he wrote. Hoffman rejects Pollard's assertion. "There is no data on the reason why people are unhappy about the mosque, so for Pollard to say this is to make a disgraceful assumption," Hoffman said. Members of the Jewish community who researched the Muslim charity-a largely Iraqi and Iranian Shiite congregation called Hussainiat Al-Rasool Al-Adham found no ties to the Iranian regime or extremist incitement, an expert on Islamism who ran some of the checks told JTA on Tuesday. "If anything, this is a pro-Jewish group," said the source, who spoke anonymously. Some Islamic centers, the source said, do raise security concerns for neighboring Jewish residents and beyond. "It really depends on the mosque," the expert said. Nonetheless, Jews in Golders Green will have to get used to the unfamiliar and potentially disturbing, the expert said. That includes the annual Ashura march, when some men whip their own shirtless backs and chests until they bleed to mourn the death of the founder of the Shiite stream of Islam in the seventh century. "That and women in hijabs and burkas may be alarming to people in Golders Green, even though these sights pose no risk," he said. Geoffrey Alderman, a historian and former member of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, conducted his own inquiries into the center's owner. They also led him to believe the group "should not be a concern from the Jewish point of view," he told JTA. Alderman, who lives in the neighboring suburb of Hendon, said on a personal level that he "might be concerned if not anxious as to what is going on" inside the mosque if it were to open in his neighborhood. But "just as the Jewish community of London has the right to buy property and turn them into places of worship, so do other religious groups," added Alderman, who does not oppose the new center. Hoffman, the blogger, said concerns about the Golders Green mosque reflect apprehension about broader changes in British society. Assimilation, internal immigration and emigration mean that Jewish minority has grown at the rate of 1.3 percent per decade, far smaller than that of British Muslims. (The Muslim population grew from 1.55 million in 2001 to 2.77 million a decade later, according to the Muslim Council of Britain.) "Society is changing, plenty of synagogues are no longer in use, [or] are changed over to a different use. There is emigration, especially by Jews," he said. "The Muslim population is growing and they will need more mosques. But building such a large mosque in that particular area is very controversial." Marie van der Zyl, a vice president of the Board of Deputies, said in a statement Tuesday that her organization was "heartened" to hear in talks with leaders of the new Islamic center "about their commitment to opposing anti-Semitism and extremism." While there are "legitimate concerns around planning," the board "deplores the uninformed and prejudiced comments about this application, including from a small number of members of our own community," read the statement. To Hoffman, the dismissal of concerns by communal leaders over the religious dimension of the new center shows the issue "divides the community's leaders from the rest." Ambrosine Yolanda Shitrit, a leader of the opposition to the Muslim center and a Golders Green activist for several right-wing Jewish causes, wrote Monday on Facebook that she is "concerned" for the safety of her daughter in Golders Green. "I don't feel my so-called community can keep my family safe anymore. They're not on our side," she wrote. Ahmad Alkazemi, a spokesman for the Islamic center, said in a statement that his community "looks forward to playing our part in Golders Green's diverse community, and we will always act as considerate neighbors and sincere friends towards the Jewish and other residents of this area." The Hussainiyat Al-Rasool Al-Adham center "will never tolerate any form of hate speech on our premises, and we stand completely opposed to and will firmly address extremism, antisemitism and all forms of hatred through education and bridge building," Alkazemi wrote. "We regard Jews and Christians alike as our friends." Judo champion Yael Arad, right, posing for a photo in Tel Aviv in 2015, said men have tried to "take advantage of or harass" her three times. TEL AVIV (JTA)-International fashion model Maayan Keret said she was raped at the age of 12. Since then, Keret said, she has been harassed or assaulted so many times she "stopped counting." Yael Arad, a silver medalist in judo at the 1992 Summer Olympics, said that despite her "image and physical abilities," men have tried to "take advantage of or harass" her three times. Knesset member Merav Ben-Ari said male soldiers on her army base verbally harassed her and touched her inappropriately. These are just a few of the many accounts of sexual harassment and assault shared by high-profile Israeli women in recent days in response to the #metoo campaign launched Sunday on Twitter by the American actress Alyssa Milano. A response to the sexual abuse allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, the phenomenon spread quickly-in the first 24 hours, there were more than 12 million Facebook posts, reactions and comments about it. Here, in addition to scores of high-profile Israelis, thousands of ordinary women have added their voices to the accounts of sexual harassment and assault from women around the world. The Israeli media have highlighted the campaign and the issue of sexual assault. On Monday, Yediot Acharonot, one of Israel's most widely read newspapers, splashed the sexual harassment and assault accounts of six prominent Israeli women-Arad and Ben-Ari among them-across its front page under the headline "Also Us." As it happens, however, this is far from the first time that Israeli women have said "Me Too"- or "Gam Ani" in Hebrew: A Facebook page called "One Out of One," launched in 2013, has collected nearly 2,500 such testimonies in recent years, the vast majority of them anonymously. Gal Shargill, a 33-year-old attorney in Rosh Pina, started the page along with feminist activist Shlomit Havron. Their goal was to raise awareness about how widespread sexual harassment and assault are in Israel. The name, much like "Me Too," is a reference to the notion that nearly every Israeli woman has a story to tell. "We don't want to be victims anymore. We don't want to have to say 'Me Too,' but this is the situation," Shargill told JTA. "We have to say it to make it real, so we all know that we are all sexual harassment and assault survivors." One Out of One quickly drew national attention. The Facebook page now has more than 40,000 followers and is well known in Israel. Shargill and Havron also run a nonprofit organization of the same name that provides guidance and legal counsel to victims, as well as shares memes commenting on sexual harassment and assault. Orit Sulitzeanu, the executive director of the Association of Rape Crisis Centers of Israel, credited One Out of One with helping to "pave the way" for the #metoo campaign, which began in the wake of a New York Times story in which dozens of women alleged that Weinstein had sexually harassed or assaulted them. "Sharing testimonies was not something that took place on Facebook, and they made it possible," Sulitzeanu said. "#Metoo just took what they did one step further with women saying 'here, this is my name, this is my identity, and I'm talking.'" Some of the first stories Shargill and Havron shared were their own. Shargill said she was raped once and at work was sexually harassed repeatedly. The two women have also participated in the #metoo campaign, posting supportive messages on the One Out of One Facebook page and working through the surge of testimonials they have received in recent days. Whereas they might get 10 to 20 submissions in a typical week, Shargill said, they have received approximately 30 to 40 since #metoo went viral. She said they have received similar outpourings during the numerous sex scandals in Israel over the past four years. Among the recent high-profile cases were a Tel Aviv nightclub owner who was charged with rape or other sex crimes against six women, and a revered army general who avoided charges of raping two women under his command by pleading guilty to having sex with one of them. In December, President Moshe Katsav was released from prison after serving five years of a seven-year sentence for rape and other sex crimes against three women. Sulitzeanu said sexual harassment and assault are pervasive in Israel, and she put part of the blame on the country's mandatory military service. Young men in the army learn "they're entitled to anything," she said. An internal study by the Israel Defense Forces this year found one in six female soldiers are sexually harassed during their service, and Sulitzeanu said the nine rape centers that are part of her umbrella group get about 40,000 phone calls every year. According to the World Health Organization, one out of every three women worldwide experiences physical or sexual violence during their lifetime. But Sulitzeanu, who recalled boys pulling her pigtails and older men groping her in the Old City of Jerusalem market as a girl, said she has seen Israeli attitudes about sexual harassment and assault change for the better in the past few years. She said the the country's embrace of the #metoo campaign reflects this, including the prominent media coverage. "It's a mini-revolution," Sulitzeanu said. "We're used to security, [Prime Minister Benjamin] 'Bibi' Netanyahu, corruption on the front page. This is the first time ever we've seen something like that." She said the campaign has further "broken the code of silence" around sexual abuse. Still, Sulitzeanu worries about the many victims of sexual abuse her organization counsels every day who are not able to speak out. "To see so many famous women, so many strong women in sports, in politics and in the media, make you feel you're not alone-that you didn't do something wrong to be abused," she said. "The problem is we also have to give legitimacy to people who aren't ready to speak up, women as well as men and children." Shargill said One Out of One would continue to do just that. "In a week or two, this [#metoo] campaign will be over and people will move on to the next thing," she said. "We will still be collecting testimonies in one place so that anyone can see them anytime." The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando recently awarded $6,500 in Jewish Teen Education Grants for the 2017-18 academic year. JFGOs Jewish Teen Education Network, now in its fourth year, awards the grants to support ongoing academic Jewish teen educational programming in the Central Florida community. For the 2017-18 academic year, four Central Florida congregations received awards: Congregation Ohev Shalom, Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation (SOJC), Congregation Beth Am and Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Orlando. The topics offered in the JTEN courses are diverse as teens themselves, with classes on faith, social action, self-expression, community service, leadership and Hebrew language studies. Rabbi Hillel Skolnik of SOJC wrote about their Hebrew studies grant: The very definition of Jewish teen education is to give our teens the knowledge to become better educated Jewish adults and to increase their Jewish identity. It is hard to image a project that better fits those goals than to give our teens a chance to increase their Hebrew knowledge. Knowing more Hebrew will make them want to go to Israel, make them want to become more involved on their college campuses, make them want to attend more synagogue related events, and make them want to keep learning. The JTEN grants cover all or a significant portion of the costs of the synagogues educational program. The JTEN programming is unique in that each class is open to all teens in the community, regardless of synagogue affiliation, and offered at the same cost for members and non-members. All the classes will meet throughout the school year with at least eight sessions. JTEN grants awarded for these 2017-18 classes: Congregation Ohev Shalom: DDD: Dinner, Daber & Dvar (now in its fourth year) Teens meet twice a month. The program begins with dinner, followed by study and discussion of different topics relevant to teens through a Jewish lens. Each session is designed to stand alone, so if a teen is unable to attend every session, he or she will still benefit. For more information, contact Amy Geboff, director of Youth and Family, at educator@ohevshalom.org. Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation: Adayin Mdabrim Ivrit. After the success of last years JTEN program at SOJC entitled, Kahn Mdabrim Ivrit, SOJC is continuing their Hebrew studies project with a slight change in title. The change takes students from Here we speak Hebrew to We still speak Hebrew. The main goals and aims of the program remain the same as last yearincreasing the Hebrew knowledge of high school students, helping them to identify more with Judaism and with the state of Israel, and increasing their Hebrew vocabulary. For more information, contact Rabbi Hillel Skolnik at rabbi@sojc.org. Congregation Beth Am: JGEN - Future Jewish Leaders, Once a month, teens will explore the Saturday morning shacharit service and discuss the components, the order, the whys and the meanings. The teens will get hands-on experience leading the service with the congregants, increasing confidence to become a future Jewish leader and participant. For more information, contact Cantor Nina Fine at nina@ninafine.com. Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Orlando: Jewish Learning Institute for Teens: Debate, Discuss, Do Good! Teen JLI provides advanced Jewish involvement for high school students by challenging teenagers to incorporate Jewish thought into their everyday life. Each series incorporates ethics, philosophy, faith, history, community service, current events, and textual studies. Teens meet weekly during two six-week semesters. For more information, contact Rabbi Ed Leibowitz at rabbieddy@gmail.com. JTEN Educator Partners meet throughout the year to help plan and coordinate JTENs Communitywide Teen Education programs, the next of which is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, at Congregation of Reform Judaism at 5:30 pm. October is anti-bullying month, and this year, the JTEN educators are partnering with Jewish Federations, Jewish Community Relations Council, parent advocacy co-chairs, Dori Gerber and Shari Wladis, to bring 8th - 12th graders, Empower the Jew in You. With anti-Semitism and bullying on the rise in local schools, Orlando Jewish teens will learn insight and resources to Empower the Jew in You! High school students will peer-lead breakout sessions moderated by JTEN Educators, including, Turning your back on hate, Hate Speech vs. Free Speech, Media Propaganda and more. A special session will also include a role-playing exercise for teens to learn to difference between hate and ignorance, and when it is appropriate to stand up to educate others or report an act of hate. The program is free of charge, and a kosher dinner will be provided. Teens can register online at http://www.jfgo.org. For more information on JTEN Teen Education Grants or the next JTEN Community-wide Teen Education Evening, contact Jennifer Cohen, JFGOs director of Outreach and Engagement, at 407-621-4039 or jcohen@jfgo.org. Richard Spencer is an alt right leader The 39-year-old Spencer has become the most recognizable public face of the alt right, a loose network of people who promote white identity and reject mainstream conservatism in favor of politics that embrace implicit or explicit racism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy. Spencer coined the term alternative right (from which alt right is derived) in 2008 in an article in Takis Magazine, a far-right publication. At the time, Spencer was using alternative right to refer to people on the right who distinguished themselves from traditional conservatives by opposing, among other things, egalitarianism, multiculturalism and open immigration. As a spokesperson for the alt right, Spencer has tried to use the media to mainstream racism and anti-Semitism. During the 2016 presidential race, the alt right gained national media attention for its support of Donald Trump and for its online trolling efforts. On Election night 2016, Spencer exulted in Trumps victory. The Alt-Right has been declared the winner. The Alt-Right is more deeply connected to Trumpian populism than the conservative movement, Spencer tweeted. Were the establishment now. Spencer was one of the promoters and scheduled speakers at the Aug.12, 2017, Unite the Right alt right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, which was ostensibly organized to oppose the removal of Confederate monuments. The rally attracted more than 500 white supremacists and many hundreds of counter-protesters, and confrontations between the two groups sparked violent clashes. A white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring a number of other people. That weekend, Spencers website announced that Unite the Right was the beginning of the white civil rights movement. On the evening of Oct. 7, 2017, Spencer returned to Charlottesville to lead 35-40 people in an unannounced reprise of the August tiki torch march. The so-called flash mob chanted You will not replace us, listened briefly to a couple of speakers, and left. In a video posted immediately after the 10-minute gathering, Spencer announced that he was pleased with the impromptu event, which he dubbed Charlottesville 3.0. It was a great success, and were going to do it again, he said. This is definitely a model that should be repeated. Spencer is a white supremacist who has become more openly anti-Semitic in recent years. Spencer has been influenced by a number of other white supremacists, including the late Sam Francis, retired professor Kevin MacDonald, who wrote a series of anti-Semitic books, and Jared Taylor of American Renaissance. Spencer wants to establish a white ethno-state in the U.S. and believes that whites should live separately from non-whites and Jews. While Spencer generally shies away from blatant displays of anti-Semitism, he began expressing anti-Semitic views more openly in the last two years. In 2014, he wrote an essay in which he said that Jews have an identity apart from Europeans. Two years later, he said at a press conference that he did not consider Jews to be European (i.e. white). He has also promoted MacDonalds books. The National Policy Institute, the white supremacist organization Spencer heads, featured MacDonald as a speaker at its annual conferences in 2015 and 2016. Spencer also invited TV personality and anti-Semite Tila Tequila to the NPI conference in November 2016. At that conference, a number of people in the audience made Nazi salutes after Spencer hailed the victory of Donald Trump in the presidential election. Spencer refused to condemn the salutes. Spencer has been involved in a number of publications and organizations, and got his start in the conservative movement. Spencer became the president of NPI in 2011. In addition to heading NPI, Spencer runs two associated venturesRadix Journal, a publication featuring essays on white nationalism and other issues, and Washington Summit Publishers, which publishes the works of racists. Most recently, Spencer founded Altright.com, an online sounding board for the movement. The site was created with the help of Swedish white supremacists and is part of a venture called the AltRight Corporation. Spencer and his Swedish partners, Arktos Media, a far-right publishing company, and Red Ice Radio, a video and podcast platform featuring racists from around the world, want to bring the message of white nationalism to mainstream audiences. Previously, in 2010, Spencer created another online journal, Alternative Right, where he began to promote white nationalism. He left Alternative Right in 2012 and handed over the reins to others. Before that, Spencer was an editor at Takis Magazine and worked at The American Conservative as an assistant editor. Spencer hopes to attract young, educated whites to the white supremacist movement. Spencer organizes a number of annual events, including the NPI conference, which he encourages college students to attend. The 2016 conference was attended by 200 to 300 people, many of them young. This was a marked increase over the previous years conference, which attracted 120 to 175 people. Spencer has embraced the young Internet activists who are part of the alt right and have created memes, symbols and language that often deride and harass others. In 2016, Spencer launched a college tour to bring his white nationalist message to campuses nationwide. In December 2016, he spoke at Texas A&M University and at Auburn University in April 2017. He has also attempted to schedule appearances at public universities across the country, including in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Louisiana, North Carolina and Michigan. (Note: He spoke at the University of Florida on Thursday, Oct. 19) Spencer was jailed in Hungary and is banned from visiting Great Britain. In 2014, Spencer attempted to hold the annual NPI conference in Budapest, Hungary. The theme was The Future of Europe. The Hungarian authorities banned the conference and Spencer was arrested when he tried to hold the conference despite the ban. Some of his supporters, including Jared Taylor, managed to hold a watered-down event in Budapest without Spencer. Spencer was then banned for three years from the visa-free Schengen area of European countries, which includes most of the European Union. In 2016, the Home Office of the British government banned Spencer from visiting Great Britain due to his white supremacist views. On Nov. 1 and 2. Joey and Eden (last names withheld for security purposes) will speak at University High School - ROTC and at University of Central Florida - Hillel. In its ninth year, IST features two reserve duty Israeli soldiers who relate their personal experiences upholding the strict IDF moral code while fighting an enemy that hides behind its civilians. Their stories have never been heard before. They also discuss their backgrounds, life in Israel and answer questions, putting a "human face" on the IDF uniform. The entire StandWithUs "Israeli Soldiers Tour" places six teams of two throughout the U.S. from Oct. 22-Nov. 4. They are on campuses, high schools, synagogues and churches and the community. "IST is one of the most effective counters to the BDS campaign and the annual campus 'Israel Apartheid Weeks.' Although anti-Israel students protest the soldiers with accusations and lies, they simply can't refute their eye-witness experiences. These are stories from the front lines, not the headlines," stated Sara Gold Rafel, director, StandWithUs/Southeast. StandWithUs is a 16-year-old international Israel education organization with chapters throughout the U.S. including the Southeast, in Israel, Canada and the UK. Joey was raised in Las Vegas. He began to "seriously examine my Jewish identity" when he joined BBYO and first visited Israel on the "March of the Living." He became an activist for Israel during his college years at the University of Arizona, and took a semester to study abroad in Jerusalem. When he returned, he was shocked to see hundreds of rockets were launched into Israel's southern cities from Hamas-controlled Gaza. He penned an op-ed in the local AZ paper in response to a smear article about the IDF. All the while, Joey was inspired to move to Israel and enlist in the IDF as a lone soldier. He joined the paratroopers brigade. Soon after finishing basic training, Joey found himself in Operation "Brother's Keeper", searching for the three kidnapped boys Eyal, Gilad and Naftali in June 2014 in the West Bank. After their bodies were tragically discovered, Joey returned to the Kibbutz he was stationed in near the Gaza border. Hamas and Islamic Jihad had escalated their rocket attacks and Joey had to hide in the bomb shelter almost constantly. One day, he was alerted to stay in his home and lock the door. The IDF was battling heavily armed Hamas terrorists who emerged from a terror tunnel, the first infiltration in what led to Israel's 2014 operation to destroy the Gaza terror tunnels, "Operation Pillar of Defense." Eden is at Ben Gurion University in the Negev, pursuing a BA in Political Science and Business Management. She lives in Tel Aviv and works for Intel. Israeli soldier Eden Israel has mandatory army service at age 18. Eden served for three and a half years as a social welfare officer looking after the needs of the enlisted. She completed her service as the commander of the IDF's Social Welfare Course. The IDF is a mirror to Israeli society, comprised of all the diverse populations including Russians, Bedouins, Druze, Israeli Arabs, Ethiopians, and Christians, etc. Eden shares how the IDF provided financial support to the family of an Ethiopian recruit whose father was unemployed with 15 people living in a three-bedroom house. "Behind every soldier there is a story. I am honored that I was able to serve in an army and in a position, where while a guy like Joey is out there protecting and defending me, my job was to take care of them," she said. Eden and Joey are young Israelis who long for peace, but realize they have to defend their country against terrorism as best as possible in an impossible reality. They will never give up on their dream for peace and a better future where they can say to their children what has been uttered to them, "when you grow up, there will be no need for an army because we will all live in peace." Privacy Overview This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful. Fliers found at Cornell read Just say no to Jewish lies (JTA)Anti-Semitic fliers with swastika-like symbols were discovered on the campus of Cornell University in upstate New York. The posters, which read Just say no to Jewish lies! and urged students to join the white gang, were discovered Monday morning and taken down the same day. They promoted the Solar Cross Society, but there is no such group at Cornell and it does not have an internet presence. The Ivy League schools president, Martha Pollack, denounced the fliers. Whoever is responsible for these fliers is hiding under the cover of anonymity, having posted them overnight, she said in a statement. Whoever they are, they need to ask themselves why they chose our campus, because Cornell reviles their message of hatred; we revile it as an institution, and I know from many personal conversations that thousands of Cornellians deplore it individually. Police were investigating the matter and increasing patrols around Jewish buildings on campus, the Cornell Hillel said in an email to the Jewish community. We are deeply concerned that a poster of this nature was placed on our campus, as these sentiments run counter to the spirit of diversity and pluralism that our university works to uphold, Hillel Executive Director Rabbi Ari Weiss said in a statement. Publisher apologizes for nursing textbook that stereotypes Jews and others (JTA)The Pearson education publishing company has apologized for a section of one of its nursing textbooks that claims Jews are often [v]ocal and demanding of assistance during medical treatment. The page from Nursing: A Concept-Based Approach to Learning drew widespread ire on social media for its descriptions of how Jews, Asians, blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans and Arabs/Muslims respond to pain. Blacks, for example, often report higher pain intensity and believe suffering and pain are inevitable, the page reads. Hispanics may believe that pain is a form of punishment, it continues. The section also noted that Jews believe that pain must be shared and validated by others. Pearson issued an apology to the website Mic on Thursday. While differences in cultural attitudes towards pain are an important topic in medical programs, we presented this information in an inappropriate manner, wrote Scott Overland, Pearsons communications director. We apologize for the offense this has caused and we have removed the material in question from current versions of the book, electronic versions of the book and future editions of this text. Former Nazi death camp guard, 96, charged as accessory to murder (JTA)A former guard at the Majdanek Nazi death camp has been charged in Germany with being an accessory to murder. The Frankfurt resident, 96, whose name has not been released due to the countrys privacy laws, was charged by the city prosecutor on Friday for being an accessory to murder during his service between August 1943 and January 1944, when at least 17,000 Jews were killed at the camp located near the Polish city of Lublin. He is alleged to have worked as a perimeter guard and in the guard towers as a member of the SSs Deaths Head division. He was 22 at the time. The indictment accuses him of being part of Operation Erntefestor Harvest Festivalon Nov. 3, 1943, when at least 17,000 Jewish prisoners from the Majdanek camp and others who were being used as forced laborers in and around Lublin were shot in ditches that they dug for their graves just outside the camp. No trial date has been set. The conviction of John Demjanjuk in 2011 had launched several high-profile trials of Nazi camp guards, including Oskar Groening, 96, in 2015 and Reinhold Hanning, also in his 90s, in 2016. In September, a German court dropped its case against former Auschwitz medic Hubert Zafke, 96, after he was found unfit to stand trial due to dementia. Hamas leader visits Iran, defying Israels conditions on Palestinian unity WASHINGTON (JTA)A top Hamas official defiantly rejected Israels conditions for recognizing Hamas-Palestinian Authority unity, noting that the very act he was committingan official visit to Iranwent against the conditions. Our presence in Iran is the practical denial of the third preconditioncutting ties with Iran, said Saleh Arouri, the deputy chief of the terrorist organization controlling the Gaza Strip, according to Reuters, which quoted Iranian news wires. Arouri, who was in Iran over the weekend, also committed Hamas to rejecting the other two conditions, disarming and recognizing Israel. The Trump administration has encouraged the unity talkswhile also embracing Israels conditionsseeing the Palestinian Authoritys return to control in Gaza as key to advancing peace talks. President Donald Trumps top negotiator, Jason Greenblatt, decried Arouris defiance in posts Monday on Twitter. Hamas, which has only brought ruin and misery to Palestinians, now begs Iran for help and again vows to destroy Israel, Greenblatt said. Palestinians deserve so much better than this. We must find a better path forward toward peace and prosperity. Roman Polanski accused of sexually molesting 10-year-old girl in 1975 (JTA)Academy Award-winning director Roman Polanski, who fled the United States some four decades ago after being convicted of sexually assaulting an underage girl, has been accused by another woman of sexually assaulting her when she was 10. Some 16,769 people have signed an online petition set up by artist Marianne Barnard calling on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to kick out the Polish-born director. Barnard is one of five women who have accused Polanski of sexually molesting them when they were underage. Barnard tweeted about Polanski last week in the wake of a The New York Times report on sexual harassment allegations against Jewish movie mogul Harvey Weinstein by several women, including some renowned actresses. The Weinstein disclosures led to the #metoo campaign on social media in which women have come forward to share their stories of being sexually harassed or assaulted. #RomanPolanski took photos of me naked & in fur coat on beach in Malibu, I was 10 yrs old. He went on from there. This ends now #ROSEARMY, the tweet said. The hashtag #Rosearmy was created by actress Rose McGowan, who has claimed that Weinstein raped her in a hotel room in 1997. Barnard told the British newspaper The Sun that Polanski molested her during that 1975 photo shoot on the beach when her mother stepped away from the area. She said she has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from the incident and reliving it has been very difficult for her. I felt terribly conflicted that I have been silent all this time and all these women are bravely coming forward, and I thought to myself I cant in good conscious knowing what I knowand having gone through what Ive gone throughnot speak out, she told The Sun. In her petition Barnard wrote: The board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently voted to revoke the membership of film producer, Harvey Weinstein, who has been accused of sexually harassing and assaulting countless women for nearly 30 years. I am asking you to sign this petition to demand the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revoke Roman Polanskis board membership. It is a small consequence for him considering his crimes and the great amount of harm he has caused me and his other victims. Polanski, who has French and Polish citizenship, lives in Paris. He won an Oscar for best director for The Pianist in 2002, though he could not enter the United States to accept the award. He fled the country in 1977. Austrian Jewish leader fights to keep far-right party out of government coalition VIENNA (JTA)Austrias far-right Freedom Party will probably be a part of the coalition despite pleas by Jews to keep it out, the president of the Jewish Community of Vienna said. Oskar Deutsch made the prediction last week in the aftermath of Oct. 15 elections that saw the Freedom Party finish third behind the center-right Peoples Party, headed by the 31-year-old Sebastian Kurz, and the Social Democrats. I am the president of a very small community, said Deutsch, who called for the Freedom Party to be excluded from the government before and after the electionsabout Austrias approximately 7,000 Jews. I dont think that the state of Austria will listenor maybe theyll listen but my influence is not so big. The Jewish Community of Austria has said that the Freedom Party, which was founded in the 1950s by a former Nazi SS officer, is tainted by fascist tendencies and rhetoric, and that the anti-Islam partys public rejection of anti-Semitism is lip service. Kurz has declined to preclude any specific coalition partners, saying he would not join forces with a party that supports anti-Semitic or hateful rhetorica definition that may or may not apply to the Freedom Party, as its spokespeople and leader deny that their party incites hate or anti-Semitism. On Wednesday, Kurz will begin talks with Freedom Party officials on a possible power sharing deal, the Der Standard daily reported Monday. Both Deutsch, whose community boycotts the Freedom Party, and Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, the president of the European Conference of Rabbis, called on Israel to also shun the Freedom Party and its officials regardless of whether they enter government. Israel should search allies that share its basic values, said Goldschmidt, whose organization canceled a 2000 meeting of its executive board in Vienna to protest the Freedom Partys inclusion that year for the first time in Austrias governing coalition. Whereas Goldschmidts organization and other international Jewish groups may resume protest against Austria if the Freedom Party joins its government, he said working with officials tied to that party may be unavoidable for the local Jewish community. Any Jewish community has to work with its government, said Goldschmidt, who last week presented at the European Parliament a book he wrote about rising extremism, among other subjects. Hamas and Fatah leaders shake hands following the signing of a reconciliation deal at the Egyptian intelligence services headquarters in Cairo, Oct. 12, 2017. JERUSALEM (JTA)-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has taken a wait-and-see approach to last week's Palestinian reconciliation deal. Netanyahu spoke out publicly and loudly against the move toward unity between the feuding Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas, calling it a threat to Israel and a setback to peace. But he quietly indicated Israel could accept reconciliation if Hamas reformed. "Israel insists that the PA not allow any base whatsoever for Hamas terrorist actions from PA areas in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] or from Gaza, if the PA indeed takes responsibility for its territory," his office said in a statement Thursday after the deal was inked. "Israel will monitor developments on the ground and act according." Netanyahu reacted very differently to the failed 2014 reconciliation attempt by Fatah, which governs the West Bank, and Hamas, the terrorist group that runs Gaza. At the time, Israel froze negotiations and severed diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority. Circumstances have since changed. Israel has persistent fears about the costs of Palestinian reconciliation. But the prime minister's restrained response, despite calls from right-wing ministers for more aggressive measures, reflects the potential benefits of letting the attempt play out, at least for now. On Thursday, Fatah and Hamas signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo that reportedly will see the Palestinian Authority take over Gaza's border crossings and assume full administrative control of the territory in the coming months. Some 3,000 Palestinian security officers are to join the Gaza police force. Elections are to be held for a national unity government. But Netanyahu has made clear that Israel maintains its longstanding stance against Hamas rejoining the Palestinian Authority, which it broke from when it violently seized control of Gaza in 2007, unless the terrorist group makes historic reforms, including disarming, recognizing the Jewish state and breaking off relations with Iran. "Reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas makes peace much harder to achieve," Netanyahu wrote Thursday on his office's Facebook page after the deal was announced. "Reconciling with mass-murderers is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Say yes to peace and no to joining hands with Hamas." Members of Netanyahu's right-wing government urged an even tougher line. But Haaretz reported that Netanyahu told top ministers on Monday that Israel would neither cut ties with the Palestinian Authority, as advocated by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, nor act to stop reconciliation. Israel has plenty of reasons to worry about Hamas joining the Palestinian Authority. The reconciliation deal reportedly does not address Hamas' military wing, which has repeatedly fired rockets at, terrorized and warred with Israel. After the signing, Hamas' deputy political leader, Saleh al-Arouri, said the purpose was for all Palestinian forces to "work together against the Zionist enterprise, which seeks to wipe out and trample the rights of our people." According to Israeli analysts, Hamas could let the Palestinian Authority handle the administration of Gaza while it focuses on bolstering its terrorist infrastructure and planning new attacks on Israelis. A plan that would have P.A. officials who oversee the coastal strip's border crossings move back and forth between the West Bank and Gaza also raises security concerns. However, if fully implemented, reconciliation could also bring benefits for Israel. It would address what many observers have warned is a looming humanitarian crisis in Gaza that could push Hamas into another war with Israel. Egypt, which is brokering the talks between Fatah and Hamas, would likely ease its blockade of Gaza, allowing more goods and people to move in and out of the territory. P.A President Mahmoud Abbas would have to end the sanctions he has imposed on the territory to force Hamas' capitulation, including crippling electricity cuts. At the same time, reconciliation just might force Hamas to moderate. According to a report last week in Haaretz, the group agreed not to carry out terror attacks or fire rockets against Israel as part of the deal. Dana El Kurd, a researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, wrote Monday in Foreign Affairs that the international backers of reconciliation seek to "neutralize Hamas' power by weakening its popular support." While El Kurd went on to argue that this would lead to more popular discontent and violence, Israel would likely welcome this development. Even if Israel would prefer to see Palestinian reconciliation fail on its merits, the government has diplomatic reasons to accommodate the process. Among the world leaders celebrating the deal are two of Israel's most important strategic partners, Egypt and the United States. Under Egyptian President Abel Fattah-el Sisi, Jerusalem and Cairo have cooperated closely in recent years on shared regional security concerns, including Hamas. At the U.N. General Assembly last month in New York, Sisi coupled his first-ever meeting with Netanyahu with a call for Palestinian unity as a step toward peace with Israel. By opposing Sisi on reconciliation, Israel could put this progress at risk. When it comes to the United States, which has also thrown its weight behind reconciliation, Netanyahu has gone out of his way to ensure no daylight comes between him and President Donald Trump. The prime minister reportedly warned top ministers in February against confronting Trump, explaining that the president's personality must be taken "into account." In many ways, the Trump administration has rewarded Netanyahu. Washington reportedly has asked Israel to limit settlement expansion, and settler leaders have complained of slower-than-promised building in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. But U.S. officials have stayed relatively quiet as Israel has advanced such construction, including, as Netanyahu reportedly promised, outside the settlement blocs Israel expects to keep in any peace deal. Trump has also taken a position on Iran, Israel's arch-nemesis, very much along the lines suggested by Netanyahu. On Monday, Trump reiterated his vow to pull the United States out of the Iran deal if Congress did not tighten its restrictions on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program-earning praise from the prime minister, who last month exhorted world leaders to "nix it or fix it." Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has vociferously defended Israel in the international body, and on Thursday, the State Department announced the United States would pull out of UNESCO over its anti-Israel bias, prompting Israel to follow. In return for all this and more from the United States, Netanyahu may feel that abiding Palestinian reconciliation is a small price to pay-especially since he may simply have to wait for the process to collapse. The issues that have doomed numerous past attempts remain outstanding, most notably Abbas' demands that Hamas disarm and bring its military wing under the command of the Palestinian Authority. Unpopular at home and under his own diplomatic pressure, Abbas may also be playing a waiting game. European countries are not exactly known for their love of Israel. Yet recent actions taken by the governments of Norway and Belgium suggest that, in at least one important respect, those two nations have gone much further than the U.S. in confronting the problem of Palestinian incitement against Israel. Belgium, which has been giving the Palestinian Arabs more than $20 million annually, announced this week that it will put on hold any projects related to the construction or equipment of Palestinian schools. This followed a report by Palestinian Media Watch that a Belgian-funded Palestinian school, the Beit Awwa Basic Girls School, has changed its name to the Dalal Mughrabi Elementary School. For those who dont recognize the name, Mughrabi was the leader of a squad of Fatah terrorists who landed on Israels shore, just north of Tel Aviv, on March 9, 1978. There was another young woman on the beach that morning. Gail Rubin, an American Jewish nature photographer, was photographing rare birds near the water. Gails work had been exhibited at the Jewish Museum in Manhattan, and other major venues. She also happened to be the niece of Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D-Conn.). One of the terrorists, Hussain Fayadh, later explained to a Lebanese television station what happened next, Sister Dalal al-Mughrabi had a conversation with the American journalist. Before killing her, Dalal asked: How did you enter Palestine? [Rubin] answered: They gave me a visa. Dalal said: Did you get your visa from me, or from Israel? I have the right to this land. Why didnt you come to me? Then Dalal opened fire on her. As Gail lay dying on the beach, Mughrabi and her comrades strolled over to the nearby Coastal Road. An Israeli bus approached; they hijacked it. During the ensuing mayhem, they murdered 36 passengers, 12 of them children. Mughrabi was killed by Israeli troops. Hussain Fayadh, who survived, was sentenced to life in jail, but then released in a prisoner exchangeand was later hired as a senior adviser to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas. A spokesperson for the Belgian Foreign Ministry told The Algemeiner this week, Belgium unequivocally condemns the glorification of terrorist attacks [and] will not allow itself to be associated with the names of terrorists in any way. Norway does not want to be associated with Mughrabi, either. Earlier this year, the PA decided to name a womens center in the town of Burqa after Mughrabi. The Norwegian government, which had contributed $10,000 to the center, demandedand receiveda full refund. The U.S., however, has taken no such steps to restrict the aid it provides to the PA. The Trump administration gave the PA $344 million this year. Congress tried to pass legislation (the Taylor Force Act) to take away the portion of the aid that the PA gives to imprisoned terrorists and the families of suicide bombers. But the administration insisted on adding a bunch of loopholes that will render the legislation almost toothless. Im not aware of any Belgian or Norwegian citizens who were harmed by Dalal Mughrabi. Yet those governments have acted appropriately to oppose glorifying her. The U.S. has much more reason to penalize the PA for honoring Mughrabi: she murdered the niece of a U.S. senator. Yet America has done nothing on this issue. If the murder of Gail Rubin is not reason enough, heres another. Palestinian Media Watch reports that the PA not only has named five schools after Mughrabi (and 26 others after other terrorists)it has also named three schools after the Nazi collaborators Haj Amin el-Husseini and Hassan Salameh. Thats right, Nazi collaborators. From World War II. The war in which 405,399 American servicemen gave their lives. In other words, 405,399 reasons for the Trump administration to tell the PA: you wont get another dime from American taxpayers until you stop honoring those who collaborated with Americas enemies in World War II. Thank you, Belgium and Norway, for leading the way in the fight against honoring and glorifying Palestinian terrorists. I hope and pray my own country will follow your lead. Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America, is an attorney in New Jersey and the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. NEW YORK (JTA)Last month, New Yorks Center for Jewish History was the target of a right-wing campaign seeking to oust its new president, David Myers, over his dovish views on Israel. The campaign drew an appropriately outraged response from leading Jewish scholars, who rallied around Myers, a highly regarded historian who has publicly opposed the anti-Israel BDS, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, movement. Now, one of the five independent historical organizations housed at the center, the American Jewish Historical Society, is also coming under attack. This time, however, the most consequential attacks are coming not from the far right but the far left. Anti-Zionist BDS supporters are masquerading as champions of free expression after their hijacking of the august and heretofore largely apolitical AJHS was foiled. The latest controversy erupted into public view last week when AJHSs board canceled two events that the society had been scheduled to host: a play by the anti-Zionist playwright Dan Fishback on intrafamilial disagreements about Israel and a discussion on the Balfour Declaration that was co-sponsored with the BDS-backing Jewish Voice for Peace. The cancellation came the same day as an article criticizing AJHS for hosting the events appeared in the far-right FrontPage Magazine. Fishback and JVP immediately cried foul. Fishback, a JVP and BDS supporter, complained of silencing and censorship. JVPs executive director, Rebecca Vilkomerson, decried what she called AJHSs shameful caving to rightwing pressure. The New York Times picked up on the ensuing backlash from various cultural figures angered by what they saw as AJHS embracing censorship. Critics focused on the cancellation of the play, Rubble Rubble, casting Fishback as a superficially sympathetic-seeming party in the drama. But the plays cancellation cannot be understood in isolation. For starters: Why was AJHS hosting a discussion with Jewish Voice for Peace on the Balfour Declarationwith a panel consisting of a Palestinian activist in dialogue with a JVP activist, neither of whom is even a historian? Would AJHS also host a panel discussion on the Oslo Accords sponsored by a far-right pro-settler group like Women in Green? I doubt it. AJHS, consistent with its focus on American Jewish history, does little Israel-related programming. But the planned Balfour Declaration panel was not even the only event in partnership with JVP. Earlier in the year, AJHS partnered with JVP to host an event with an anti-Zionist Ethiopian Israeli activist. AJHS also was publicly offering discounted tickets to JVP members for Fishbacks play about Israel. These three events, its worth noting, seem to be the only Israel-related programs hosted by AJHS in 2017. Its simply not as if AJHS was hosting tons of Israel programsor even many playsand then singling out Fishbacks performance for cancellation because some people complained about his views on Israel Heres the real question: How is it that American Jewrys leading historical society came to select a fringe anti-Zionist group as its sole interlocutor on Israel-related programming? AJHSs director of programming, Shirly Baharwho publicly supports the boycott of Israeli academic institutionsannounced the societys fall schedule with the declaration that she had worked to foster critical, edgy, and politically challenging cultural and academic programs where difficult conversations about Mizrahim, Jews of Color, Palestine, cross-cultural solidarity, and anti-racism are highlighted rather than censored. The result, at least as far as Israel programming, seems to have been a schedule that reflected only one very particular strand of thinking on Israelone that is far removed from the views of the overwhelming majority of American Jews. The AJHS board officers did not seem to be aware of this sudden slant in the societys programming until quite recently, as a source confirmed to the Forward. Ultimately, members of the AJHS board decided to cancel the events, with AJHS stating that they do not align with the mission of the AJHS. The Jewish community does have genuine problems with campaigns to stigmatize and shut down people based on their views on Israel. Too often those who criticize Israelliberal Zionists and anti-Zionists alikeare subjected to campaigns of invective and incitement. The right-wing campaign against David Myers is a prime example. Thats not what happened at AJHS. Rather, an anti-Zionist fringe coopted the programming of a mainstream Jewish institution, then cried censorship when the institutions board realized what was going on and put a stop to it. Moreover, JVP and Fishback dont exactly have the strongest standing to complain about shutting down or stigmatizing others. This is the same JVP that tried to shame LGBT supporters of Israel who marched in this past summers Celebrate Israel parade in New York by disrupting their contingent. This is the same Fishback who defended pro-Palestinian activists who shut down an event by a pro-Israel LGBT group at a conference hosted by the National LGBTQ Task Force. Activists like these appear all too happy to see those with whom they disagree shut down or shouted down. And they seem equally happy to aggressively try to coopt the Jewish institutions to which they can gain entry. When they are denied, they kvetch about being silenced. AJHS was the collateral damage. Now it faces the wrath of those who were wrongly led to believe that AJHS caved to right-wing censors. And AJHS has alarmed constituents who wonder why a preeminent communal historical institution would subcontract its Israel programming to a widely loathed anti-Zionist group. But if AJHS came out as a loser, there were also winners. The incident gave new ammunition to those on the far right who are now trying to smear David Myers and the Center for Jewish History for the programming decisions of AJHS, an independent organization. And JVP gets to resume its favorite posture: righteous silenced victim. Daniel Treiman, a recent graduate of New York University School of Law, is a former managing editor of JTA and a former opinion editor of the Forward. (JTA)Contemporary Jewish life is graced by extraordinary blessing: We are the heirs of a Torah of compassion and justice that has grown ever more supple and vibrant because of the dynamic nature of halachah (Jewish law) and the opportunity to observe mitzvot (commandments). At the same time, modernity has removed barriers of discrimination and anti-Semitism, as well as opened doors to broader cultural participation and professions previously closed to Jews. We face the challenge of remaining true to the best of our ancient tradition while also enjoying the blessings of the best of modern civilization. Conservative/Masorti Judaism understands our goal to be the integration of these two streams: the values and practices rooted in Torah leavened by contemporary insight and knowledge. While that challenge is real, it should not blind us to the blessings that democracy now makes possible. It is a blessing that growing numbers of non-Jews are willing to see us as colleagues, neighbors, friends and even family; it is miraculous that many turn to Judaism as part and parcel of their own cultural heritage as human beings. Integrating those blessings, which sometimes conflict, requires all the courage, vision and heart that our Torah demands of us. Honoring and loving the actual people whose lives are in our care remains a high privilege and duty. This integration of responsibilities requires us to recognize that there will properly be a pluralism of incompatible responses from different sectors of the Jewish world. We salute all constructive contemporary forms of Jewish vitality that root themselves in a Jewish vision of human dignity, rigorous and respectful debate, and a Torah of chesed (lovingkindness), tzedek (justice) and emet (truth). Within that cluster of Jewish communities, Conservative/Masorti Judaism has long taken a stand among those who continue to hear the commanding voice of the Divine reverberate in our sacred texts and who find joy and purpose in communal lives of covenantal loyalty. We hold to the time-honored practice of mitzvot as interpreted in an unbroken yet dynamic link from Moses to the present day. New insights and possibilities (when they strengthen covenantal living) are integrated within the structure of halachah. We see ourselves as faithful to traditional Judaism when we facilitate the organic growth of Torah and Jewish law to respond to a changing world, even while our primary response is to affirm and conserve traditional Jewish observance. Judaism survives as a communal system, worldwide and across generations, by changing as little as possible as late as possible, modifying it only when necessary and only when there isnt already a solution within the system of halachah. Honoring the integrity of both partners in a wedding, and for the sake of deepening faithful Jewish living, rabbinic officiation at weddings is and should remain restricted to a marriage between two Jews. We also recognize the precious personal good of finding a loving partner and that all people can benefit from access to Jewish wisdom and community, so we call upon all Conservative/Masorti rabbis and congregations to foster deep and loving relationships with all couples, and to create a rabbinic relationship that is broader and deeper than simply the moment of officiation. To achieve both the desired goal of rabbinic officiation and the goal of meaningful Torah observance, we invite the non-Jewish partner who seeks rabbinic officiation to share responsibility with the rabbi by studying Judaism and then linking their identity with the destiny of the Jewish people through conversion. Conservative/Masorti Judaism welcomes those who would convert to Judaism, and thousands of those converts each year elevate our communities with their faith, passion and resolve. We take the path we do as an expression of our understanding of Torah and Judaism: an ancient, communal and dynamic covenant that seeks to shine the light of Torah across the ages, augmented in each generation by the new insights of its time. In our age, we are blessed that many gentiles love us and seek to share their lives with us. We love them, too. And we respond to them with open arms. For those who would join their identities and destinies with ours, we will move heaven and earth to share Jewish community, wisdom and observance, culminating in conversion to Judaism. Having chosen to join the covenant linking God and the Jewish people, those individuals bring their integrity as Jews to every moment of their lives, including their wedding ceremony. For those who have not chosen (yet) to convert, and those who choose not to, we will move heaven and earth with equally open arms: honoring their identity as life partners of Jews, potentially someday as parents of covenantal Jews. We joyously include them and their families in the lives of our congregations and organizations, in our teaching of Torah, in our worship, in our social action. And we find ways to celebrate their marriage and love that honors their choice not to merge their identity with the people Israel by being present as pastors before the wedding, as rabbinic guides and companions after the wedding and as loving friends during the wedding period. We hold out an open hand to those whose souls calls them to a life enriched with the kind of dynamic and deep Torah that characterizes Conservative/Masorti Judaism: fusing the writings and faith of the ages with the knowledge and moral advance of each new age. Together, we will keep our ancient covenant strong, supple and holy. Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson is dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University; Arnold Eisen, Ph.D., is chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary; Rabbi Julie Schonfeld is executive vice-president of the Rabbinical Assembly; and Rabbi Steven Wernick is executive vice-president and chief executive officer of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. We have more newsletters Something went wrong, please try again later. Invalid email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up to our daily email newsletter for all the latest news from across the country as well as breaking news delivered direct to your inbox A man was airlifted to hospital following a collision involving a lorry and a pedestrian in Waltham Cross. The incident happened on Silver Street, Goffs Oak at 2.22pm this afternoon (Monday, October 30). A spokeswoman on behalf of the East of England Ambulance Trust said: "An ambulance, Essex and Herts Air Ambulance and a rapid response vehicle attended and treated a man in his 40s with a pelvic injury. "He was flown to Royal London Hospital for further care. "His injuries are not believed to be life-threatening." A spokeswoman on behalf of Hertfordshire Constabulary, added: "Police were called to reports of a collision involving a white lorry and a pedestrian in Silver Street, Goffs Oak." Officers remain at the scene. In an interview to news agency PTI on Sunday, Dineshwar Sharma, former chief of the Intelligence Bureau, who was recently appointed as the Centres representative for talks in Kashmir, said that countering false sloganeering and propaganda available online will be on the top of his agenda. Further into the interview, Sharma appointed to initiate and carry forward a dialogue with elected representatives, various organisations and concerned individuals in Jammu and Kashmir says that there are reports that Kashmiri youth were getting radicalised by false online propaganda. It is not the first time that a representative of the State has mentioned that Kashmiris are getting swayed by online propaganda. In March, Union home minister Rajnath Singh said in the Lok Sabha that social media groups operating from Pakistan provoke Kashmiri youngsters to throw stones at security forces. The security establishment in Kashmir too has time and again blamed the Internet and social media for fuelling the violence and hence the recurrent gags on the Internet and a month-long ban on social media sites earlier this year. Those who talk about online propaganda have never actually outlined specifically how it happens except that some WhatsApp groups have been found to be used to mobilise protesters and often spread rumours. A critical analysis of the content, perceived as problematic by the State and being shared widely in Kashmiri social media circles, reveals that the videos or photos are not necessarily false but attempts to capture alleged human rights violations of common Kashmiris and the wrongs of the armed forces. For instance, the video of the now infamous human shield case wherein a Kashmiri weaver was tied to a jeep by the army and driven through villages was a genuine one which became a rallying point of protest against atrocities by the security forces. On the other hand, videos uploaded by militants can be rightly called propaganda material. But as several media reports have shown, Kashmiri youngsters have several other reasons to join the ranks of the militants such as harassment by forces or being booked under controversial laws such as the Public Safety Act (PSA) than being solely motivated by such videos. Sharmas concerns about online propaganda might be valid but it is only one of the multiple reasons ailing Kashmir currently and most of them are rooted in the real world itself. The youth here are primarily radicalised by the violence happening here on a daily basis rather than through some forwarded WhatsApp message. As the Supreme Court hears arguments on the repealing of Article 35A in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday, the Valley remains tense and the common man perceives it to be an attempt by the Centre to play around with the regions special rights. The arrest of several separatist leaders and summoning of a prominent advocate and a university scholar regarding a terror funding case is seen by many as hitting below the belt. Justice awaits the families of the 100-odd civilians killed in the unrest of 2016. While scores of youngsters, many of them bystanders and not protesters, blinded by pellets last year grapple in the dark, the State has made it clear that the use of pellet guns which has been condemned widely wont stop in the strife-torn Valley. Such is the disaffection towards Indian forces, that widespread allegations were made by Kashmiris that its the Indian agencies which are behind the mysterious braid-chopping incidents. Issues which actually trouble Kashmiris in the real world find a resonance in the virtual one but it would be wrong to say that the proverbial root of all evil lies in the online world. There are a myriad of grievances in Kashmir that need healing and those are in the real world. Hence, Sharma the decorated officer who has served in Kashmir during the peak of militancy in the 1990s should be cautious about choosing his priorities. abhishek.saha@hindustantimes.com SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON This week, government representatives and policy experts from south and south-west Asia will gather in Kathmandu to discuss the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This is a set of targets that determines how much of national governments and the international development communitys budgets will be spent between now and 2030. Since the targets were passed in 2015, policy-makers are finding it difficult to deliver the extensive list of 169 different well-meaning ambitions at once. The sustainable development agenda was the result of a well-meaning but painfully inclusive process that lacked economic inputs. But it saw government representatives, regional blocs, NGOs, agencies and advocacy groups all tussling over which development goals should be given the UNs stamp of approval. As a result, the agenda attempts to be all things to all people. Many targets are so broad and idealistic that they are meaningless: Between now and 2030, the UN foresees the eradication of poverty, HIV/AIDS, malaria and malnutrition, along with the creation of full and productive employment and decent work for all adults. We need to get real. We simply cannot reach all 169 targets in 13 years under realistic budgets. But which targets we choose to focus on matter to our shared future. That is why we need to start talking about priorities. Right now, there is an absence of prioritisation. The agenda gives the same weight to the eradication of preventable infant deaths as it does to the promotion of sustainable tourism. It may seem harmless to include a development target highlighting the need for green and public spaces, in particular for women and children, older persons, and persons with disabilities. But at a time when 1.2 billion people live in abject poverty, 2.5 billion lack access to water and sanitation, and almost a billion people go to bed hungry, we need to ask if tree-filled parks for the elderly are the most urgent development priority. The UN has never published any comprehensive study into its targets value-for-money. They are certainly not all equal. Economic analyses prepared by 82 top economists and 44 sector experts for the Copenhagen Consensus Center show that some targets are barely worthwhile, producing little more than a rupee in social benefits for each rupee spent. This research uses which identifies the amount of environmental, social and economic benefits that society gets from an investment. An eminent panel including several Nobel laureate economists studied this research and found that, among the analysed targets, 19 would produce the greatest returns. Concentrating on these would achieve 20 to 40 rupees of social benefits for each rupee spent. In contrast, allocating funds evenly across all 169 targets reduces the benefits to less than 10 rupees per rupee. In other words, being smart about spending focusing first on the development targets where we can achieve the most could do the same as doubling or quadrupling the aid budget. At a global level, prioritising the most powerful targets would mean providing access to contraception to every woman, working much harder to prevent childhood malnutrition, and promoting free trade to reduce poverty. At a national or sub-national level, priorities can be subtly different: While the broad agenda will be the same, what should be prioritised in Sri Lanka may not be the same as for India. Last year the Copenhagen Consensus Center zeroed in on the best choices for Bangladesh and Haiti, in two projects that produced dozens of comprehensive, new research papers on the many different ways each country could make the biggest difference for its citizens. Panels of eminent economists, including Nobel laureates, studied all of this research and identified the most powerful investments for Bangladesh and for Haiti. For example, the Bangladeshi government is now focusing on e-government solutions after the research highlighted the large benefits these could provide, and both nations are stepping up efforts to prevent childhood malnutrition. Well-nourished children stay in school longer, learn more and end up being much more productive members of society. Nutrition solutions are cheap and very effective, and require more support. When policy-makers meet in Kathmandu to talk about the difficulties of achieving and monitoring the 169 targets in South and South-West Asia, they need to acknowledge that not all targets are equally effective, and they need to push for prioritisation of the most effective ones at the next years UN high-level political forum on sustainable development. A sharper focus could generate hundreds of trillions of rupees extra worth of social, environmental, and economic benefits for the globe. Bjorn Lomborg is president, Copenhagen Consensus Center and visiting professor , Copenhagen Business School. The views expressed are personal Hardik Patel-led Patidars are willing to consider the Congress proposal of providing 20% reservation to economically weaker classes (EBCs) through a Constitutional amendment, a groups spokesperson said on Friday, even as their meeting with the main opposition party seeking their support for forthcoming polls remained inconclusive. The Patidar leaders, however, decided to withdraw their threat to disrupt Congress vice president Rahul Gandhis rally in Surat on November 3, an indication of forward movement in the first round of talks. Patel, who did not participate in the meeting but has been seeking other backward classes (OBCs) reservation for his community, said he was ready for a compromise. We do not want to damage the quota of any OBC community, Patel said. If EBC quota is given, it should be constitutionally valid. We will further hold talks with the Congress and are we are ready to compromise. Congress leader Siddharth Patel said they were exploring constitutional options to meet their (Patidars) demand. The Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) was called for talks to finalise the basis for supporting the Congress in assembly polls. Patel is expected to meet Gandhi during his visit to the state starting November 1 and announce an alliance. Patel said the PAAS core committee will decide if he should meet Gandhi. Patidars have been up in arms against the BJP government seeking reservation benefits in government jobs and college admissions. The Gujarat governments 10% EBC reservation to them through an Ordinance was struck down by Supreme Court. I will prefer to get my head chopped or life imprisonment. But there is no question of supporting the BJP, which killed our brothers, Patel said, referring to the deaths of 13 Patidar youths in police firing during violent protests in 2015. PAAS co-convener, Alpesh Kathiria, said that the issue of EBC reservation was discussed among others at the meeting. The BJP government has formed Non-Reserved Classes commission, but only through a general resolution and can be struck down anytime. The Congress has assured its formation legally. But we both need some time to get clarity over technical issues. The second round of talks will be held soon, Kathiria said. Another PAAS team member said the Congress, if voted to power, has promised 35 lakh financial aid to family of Patidar youths killed in the 2015 firing and withdrawal of all police cases, including those of sedition. Patel and his five aides face sedition charges. Sedition cases will be definitely withdrawn along with other cases, said Congress leader Siddharth Patel. The BJP had recently withdrawn over 400 cases but not of sedition. The Congress has promised to form a special investigation team to inquire into allegations of atrocity by police in 2015. The government did not listen to us. And if we talk to opposition, does that make us Congresss agents? Patel asked. The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) trounced Congresss National Students Union of India (NSUI) in majority of the colleges and universities in Madhya Pradesh where the students union elections were held after a gap of six years. ABVP won on all the four posts of president, vice president, secretary and deputy secretary in five of the six universities Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore, Jiwaji University, Gwalior, Vikram University, Ujjain, Awadesh Pratap Singh University, Rewa and Barkatullah University, Bhopal. In Jabalpurs Rani Durgavati University, NSUI secured all the four seats. Elections were also held in 533 government and government-aided colleges. In Bhopal, Indore, Gwalior, Ujjain and Bundelkhand region, ABVP won the majority of seats. Aam Admi Party (AAP)s student wing Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti/Shakti (CYSS) won all the posts in three government colleges of MP. Our candidates were won on six posts of president and four posts of vice president. We are celebrating as we registered the win in the college of constituency of higher education minister of state Sanjay Pathak and the leader of opposition in the state assembly Ajay Singh, said Dushyant Dangi, spokesperson of AAP. ABVPs newly elected president of Barkatullah University Swapnil Patel said it was a victory of patriotic people. We are happy that we received so much support from the students, he said. Expressing dissatisfaction over the poll results, NSUI students alleged misuse of office and malpractice in the elections by ABVP members with the help of the higher education department of the BJP government in the state. NSUI released an audio clip which purportedly had a Bhopal college professor asking a girl student to ensure win of ABVP to support patriotism. We are surprised over the result in some universities and colleges. Despite having maximum number of class representatives from NSUI, the candidates of ABVP won all the four posts, NSUI spokesperson Vivek Tripathi said, adding that many ineligible ABVP candidates won with the support of the government. NSUI state president Vipin Vankhede said that they wouldnt keep mum against this injustice. However, ABVP national executive member, Ankit Garg dismissed the allegations as baseless. The result came in our favour as we are fighting for students at the ground level. ABVP has become the voice of students in all issues, including the Vyapam scam. We are happy that students paid back by supporting our group in the election, he said. (With inputs from Anupam Pateriya, Amit Sengar, Monica Pandey, Hema Tiwari, Mahesh Shivhare, Anand Nigam) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON All hopes of getting justice has faded for the near ones of the eight alleged SIMI operatives who were killed in a police encounter on the outskirts of Bhopal after a daring escape from prison, exactly a year ago. Aqeel Khilji, Sheikh Mehboob alias Guddu, Zakir Hussain, Amjad Khan, Mohammed Saliq, Mujeeb Sheikh, Khalid Ahmad, and Majid were gunned down near Khejradev village early on October 31, 2016, after they escaped from Bhopal Central jail after killing head constable Ramashankar Yadav the night before, which happened to be Diwali last year. Faced with controversy over fake encounter and jailbreak, the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government had set up a one-member judicial committee headed by justice (retd) S K Pandey to probe the incident. In late September this year, the committee submitted its report to the government, which is likely to table it in the assembly during the winter session in December. While justice (retd) Pandey refused to comment on the report, some media reports claimed the commission had given a clean chit to the police, which has not gone down well with the relatives of the deceased. We have no hope of getting justice from the judicial commission, said Salman Khan, brother of Amjad Khan and a resident of Khandwa. Khalil Khilji, nephew of Aqeel Khilji, said he had met the commission head, but didnt expect justice from him after hearing his tone and tenor. Talking to reporters in Bhopal on behalf of the coordination committee for Indian Muslims, MP unit, advocate Syed Sajid Ali said he didnt think the judicial commission would give answers to the questions raised by media and relatives of those killed in the alleged fake encounter. He said the commission didnt allow them to cross examine the witnesses which was a must to reach any conclusion. The evidence mentioned by police in the FIR, like weapons, locks, keys, bed sheets, etc. were not produced before the commission, which only saw the photographs of the alleged evidence. Ali pointed out that the Bhopal central jail was ISO-certified, but the prisoners allegedly managed to break the locks, kill a constable and scale a 2535 feet wall without being seen by anyone. It was strange that none of the CCTV cameras in the jail were working that night, he noted. Several other unanswered questions and circumstances suggested that they were killed in a fake encounter, he said. The lawyer also alleged that the government had leaked the commissions report to the media deliberately. He said they could not expect anything from the government whose chief minister Chouhan had dubbed those killed as terrorists without any inquiry and despite the fact they were not convicted by any court. Once the judicial commission report is made public, we will move the high court to seek justice, Ali said. Vijay Shankar Yadav, nephew of the late warden Ramashankar Yadav said, What had happened had happened. We have no complaint against the administration and the government which extended its help to us as announced. As far as murder of Ramashankar Yadav was concerned, it was clear from the circumstances as to who had killed him. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Salman Khan is gearing up for his next grand release, Tiger Zinda Hai, an action thriller set to entertain fans this Christmas. Heres all we know about the stars heavy-duty action sequences in the upcoming film opposite Katrina Kaif. Salman, who reprises his role as Tiger, is seen wielding an MG 42 - a massive machine gun - in one of the promotional photos. Salmans character fires the gun in an action sequence that forms a crucial part of the films plot. Shooting the weapon, though, didnt come easy. The MG 42 weighs 25-30 kg and has a magazine of cartridges attached to it, which makes the gun heavier. Director Ali Abbas Zafar explained in a press statement, When you feature a superstar like Salman Khan, who is known to pull his weight for a films action, you need to have weaponry that suits his stature and also fit in with the scale of Tiger Zinda Hai. This fight sequence is part of a very crucial chapter in the film, and the weapon needed to match the scale and impact of this moment. For this scene, Salman fired around 5000 cartridges, over 3 consecutive days. It actually becomes one of the most iconic shots of the film. Because the gun was being used continuously, we needed to keep two such weapons ready for use. It generates extreme heat and we worked in very hot conditions. We had to flip the gun continuously, and keep both in perfect functioning condition, he added. For the action sequences, Zafar was supported by action coordinator Tom Struthers of Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises fame. Tiger Zinda Hai, a sequel to the 2012 film directed by Kabir Khan, will see Salman and Katrina reprise their roles as spies Tiger and Zoya. The film has been shot in Abu Dhabi, Tyrol and Austria. Salman and Katrina have recently shot for a special song for the film in Greece. Back from Greece ... working round the clock with all post - production departments on trailer and film ....time bacha nahin hai... ali abbas zafar (@aliabbaszafar) October 29, 2017 After Tiger Zinda Hai, Salman and Zafar will collaborate again on Bharat, an adaptation of 2014 South Korean film Ode To My Father. To be produced by Salmans brother-in-law, Atul Agnihotri. The film will be shot in Abu Dhabi, Spain and India and will go on floors in April next year. Tiger Zinda Hai is slated to hit theatres on December 22. Follow @htshowbiz for more Czech Republic actress Sara Sandeva had never been a crazy fan of Shah Rukh Khan, but she wanted to work with the Badshah of Bollywood some day. Swades, directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, happened to be one of Sandevas favourite SRK movies. I am not a crazy fan, but Shah Rukh Khan is one actor I wish to work with in an Indian movie, Sandeva told PTI on the sidelines of the first edition of Guwahati International Film Festival (GIFF). The Czech diva, who flew down to Guwahati to attend the screening of her fantasy-comedy The Spooks, drew huge appreciation from the public. When asked about one Indian film director she was keen to work with, Sandeva said, I liked the film Queen a lot. Director Vikas Bahl has made a beautiful film. I loved the concept of an Indian girl going out to tour Europe on her own. The 20-year-old actor said she was open to all types of movies that promise a challenging role. I would like to do more than one movie in India. I want to play different roles, no matter what the genre is, she claimed. Sara also said she loved dancing and was looking for a script, which would strike an emotional chord with the audience. I would love to act in an Indian film because I love dancing. I started dancing when I was 13, she said. The GIFF kicked off on a grand note on October 28 with the screening of Oscar-winning movie The Salesman, a joint collaboration of Iran and France. As many as 78 films from 35 nations have been selected for the six-day extravaganza. Turkey being the focus country this year, cine lovers were being treated to five gems from the land, including Ember directed by Zeki Demirkubuz, Yarim by Cagil Nurhak Aydogdu and Toz Bezi by Ahu Ozturk. The state government-owned Jyoti Chitraban (Film Studio) Society organised the fest in association with Dr Bhupen Hazarika Regional Government Film and Television Institute. Junior high school students in Biloxi, Mississippi, will be allowed after all to read To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lees classic novel of race and racism in the American south as part of their regular study but only with permission from a parent. Earlier this month, the Sun Herald reported that administrators pulled the novel from the eighth-grade lesson plan because language in the book makes people uncomfortable. An email to the newspaper from a reader said the use of the word nigger was the reason for the book being pulled. The parent who complained about the book told a school board meeting students were laughing out loud at the word. Is there not a better way to teach about that era and the horrors of that era, other than having kids laughing in class when the N-word is said? Yolanda Williams asked . It should not be required reading for all students. My child shouldnt have to sit in that class like that. Biloxi public schools superintendent Arthur McMillan subsequently said that though the book was no longer required reading, it remained available to students. This book has not been banned, he said, this book has not been taken away from students, no school policy has been violated and students continue to be afforded the opportunity to read and study this book. The Sun Herald reported this week that Biloxi Junior High principal Scott Powell wrote to parents of eighth-graders to say teachers would now offer the opportunity for interested students to participate in an in-depth book study of the novel during regularly scheduled classes as well as the optional after school sessions. Students interested in studying the Pulitzer prize-winning 1960 book and the Oscar-winning 1962 film adaptation starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, the lawyer who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman in depression-era Alabama were required to have a permission slip signed by a parent and a teacher, the paper said. Students who did not wish to read the book would be assigned an alternative title. Lee died last year at 89 after the publication of another novel, Go Set a Watchman , that describes events after those depicted in To Kill a Mockingbird and also contains depictions of issues of race that many modern readers have found uncomfortable. The Biloxi decision to withdraw To Kill a Mockingbird from class study following similar cases in the US caused national outcry and made headlines around the world. Jennifer Riley Collins, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi, said in a statement: In a state like Mississippi, where we continue to deal with racial injustices and discrimination even today, it is critical that our students have the opportunity to engage on the themes presented in To Kill a Mockingbird. In a letter to the Biloxi school board, the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut offered help in teaching great books that deal with difficult language and subjects in manners now considered outdated. Twains Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, published in 1884, has been the subject of similar controversy over its attitudes and language and the presence of a character named Nigger Jim. Great literature makes us uncomfortable, the letter read. It changes how we think, forcing us to analyse our established points of view. IDFC Ltd and Shriram Group on Monday called off their planned merger following differences over valuation. IDFC management said that it will continue to look at buying or merging with other non-banking financial companies at the level of IDFC Bank. In a notification to stock exchanges, IDFC said that despite best efforts, the two entities were not able to find common ground on a mutually acceptable swap ratio for the merger. Accordingly, both parties have agreed to call off discussions on a potential merger and the exclusivity period pursuant to the CES agreement entered into between the concerned parties stands terminated with immediate effect, the notification said. CES refers to confidentiality, exclusivity and standstill. The decision to call off the deal is good for the shareholders of both the entities as it would have been value destructive, said Ashutosh Mishra, banking analyst at Reliance Securities. Mint had reported on Monday that both parties are likely to terminate the exclusivity agreement, increasing the likelihood of the deal being called off. IDFC and Shriram had announced their merger plan on 8 July, agreeing to a 90-day exclusivity period to complete the due diligence process. The exclusivity period was later extended until 8 November. Under a three-tiered structure, the retail arm Shriram City Union Finance Ltd was to be merged with IDFC Bank Ltd; Shriram Transport Finance would become a fully owned unit of IDFC and be delisted; and IDFC would also become the holding company for the Shriram Groups insurance businesses. But the talks failed following valuation concerns raised by some IDFC shareholders, including Enam Holdings and Sipadan Investments (Mauritius) Ltd, a unit of Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd. Some IDFC shareholders were demanding a 60% premium to the current market value of the company, fearing a diminution of their holdings in the merged entity. Khazana and Enam hold around 15% in IDFC while the government holds 16.4%. Rajiv Lall, chief executive officer and managing director of IDFC Bank Ltd, said that the swap ratio IDFC proposed was one where it was confident (of) carrying all our shareholders. That swap ratio was not at all unreasonable in our estimate. It was such (a ratio) that it had us take a greater discount to sum of parts valuation than Shriram Capital, said Lall. Lall further said that Shriram did not come back with a counter offer despite having fewer key shareholders. He also added that a deal involving only the consumer finance arms of both groups might have worked. If the deal could have been unbundled we might have been able to save the deal. If we break Shriram Capital into its parts, we would have been able to save the deal. The easiest deal would have been to (merge) Shriram City Union Finance and the (IDFC) bank. Because of Shriram Capitals structure that was not feasible, said Lall. The merger with Shriram would have given IDFC Bank a network of 10 million customers of Shriram which could have been used to cross-sell the banks products. For Shriram, merging with IDFC would have given it access to lower cost of funds, besides newer revenue streams from cross-selling products. It would have also given an exit opportunity to the employees of Shriram Trust, which holds 45% in the firm, as they become the shareholders of IDFC, which is a listed entity. Even for shareholders like Piramal, this deal was considered to be a backdoor entry into banking. Lall said that IDFC will continue to look at inorganic opportunities for IDFC Bank in an effort to boost its return on assets (RoA). We are still looking at inorganic growth. At this pace, it will take us three to three-and-half years to grow out of our legacy. The RoA wont be great because of Rs600 crore net interest income (pre-tax) drag due to the legacy bad loan book and bond portfolio, said Lall. We will look at less complex deal without involving IDFC (the parent), he said. The IDFC stock fell 2.68% to close at Rs61.70, while Shriram City Union Finance rose 1.93% to Rs2,186.25. The benchmark Sensex rose 0.33% to 33,266.16 points The finance ministry and the World Bank announced on Monday the signing of a loan agreement worth $200 million for the Assam Agribusiness and Rural Transformation Project. Project will support Assam Govt. to facilitate agri-business investments, increase agriculture productivity and market access among others, the finance ministry said in a tweet. Project will support Assam Govt. to facilitate agri-business investments, increase agriculture productivity & market access among others. Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) October 30, 2017 It said the project will enable small farm holders to produce crops that are resilient to recurrent floods or droughts in the state. The $200 million loan from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), has a seven year grace period, and a maturity of 16.5 yrs, added another tweet. The World Bank will release its Doing Business report on October 31. The attack on a policeman by the mining mafia in Dehradun district has once again put the spotlight on illegal mining, which continues unabated in Uttarakhand. On Sunday, two men, involved in illegal mining in the Yamuna River in Vikasnagar area, tried to run over a constable who stopped their tractor trolley filled with illegally mined riverbed materials. The two men were later arrested. Attacks on government agencies including the forest staff (many mining sites fall under forest areas) and police by the mining mafia are not new in Uttarakhand. In March, a forest beat watcher was killed when he was run over by a tractor by members of the mining mafia. The incident took place on the Kosi river bed near Ramnagar in Nainital district. In the same month, a forest department team was shot at by illegal miners in Udham Singh Nagar district, though they managed to escape unhurt and later seized three tractors filled with riverbed material that had been mined illegally by them. In 2015, a trainee Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer was attacked in Ramnagar area of Nainital district when she had gone to raid the illegal mining taking place there. The state government has undertaken a slew of measures including introduction of e-auctioning for reining in the menace of illegal mining, but there appears to be no end to the menace. Permits for mining or removal of river bed material (RBM) are issued by the government to miners with certain restrictions to prevent flooding of rivers caused by excessive accumulation of RBM. Legal mining takes places in Uttarakhand at more than 300 sites, mostly in plain areas falling in Nainital, Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts. Inspector general of police Sanjay Gunjyal, who had led the state illegal mining prevention vigilance unit, said those having permits for legal mining often violated the norms. During our vigilance, we concentrated especially on those (miners) bearing valid licenses for mining, storing and stone crushers as they are the ones who mostly exploit their permits to carry out excessive mining beyond the permissible limits, Gunjyal said. Mining contributed around 335 crore to the states exchequer during the last fiscal 2016-17, following which the state government set a revenue target of over 550 crore for the current financial year (2017-18). However, thanks to illegal mining, they (mafia) make much more profits than the government (makes) through legal mining, said a retired forest official who was posted in the Kumaon region. Cabinet minister Madan Kaushik, who is the official spokesperson of the government, said the government was taking stringent steps to curb illegal mining in Uttarakhand. Departmental officials including the police have been asked to step up vigil on illegal mining operations. Action will be taken if any officials are found lacking on this front, Kaushik said. Last month, four policemen had been suspended for being unable to stop illegal quarrying in Dehraduns Raipur area. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccination campaign was kick started by the Uttarakhand government on Monday, but the month-long drive is likely to be full of hiccups as sections of ground level health workers have threatened to boycott it. Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat marked the launch of the campaign which is being held by the Uttarakhand government with support from Centre, World Health Organization and UNICEF at Rajiv Gandhi Navoday School in Nanurkheda area of Dehradun. Over 28.25 lakh children between 9 months and 15 years of age in the state will be given a single shot of MR vaccine during the drive, after which it will become a part of routine immunization in the hill state. The campaigns aim is to eliminate measles and controlling rubella/congenital rubella syndrome by 2020. In a setback to the health department, however, various groups of health workers including auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) and Asha workers (Accredited Social Health Activists) boycotted the drive on Monday to press for their demands related to revision in pay grades, hike in honorarium, incentives other work benefits among others. Later in the day, one of the protesting groups of ANMs under the banner of Matra Sishu Parivar Kalyan Mahila Karmachari Sangh, decided to postpone the boycott after an assurance on their demands by Dr Archana Srivastava, director general (medical health and family welfare). Our Dehradun unit boycotted the drive on its inaugural day, but decided to postpone it till November 5. If positive action is not taken on our demand (for providing assured career progression benefits) by the DG till then, well be forced to go on a statewide boycott of all work, including the MR vaccination campaign, Guddi Matura, state head of the association, said. There are over 150 ANMs in Dehradun district and over 2000 ANMs in the state. On the other hand, a section of Asha workers, associated with Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), continued to protest. We have been protesting for over 65 days now but our demands have not even been considered by the government, said one of the protesting workers who have sitting on protest at Parade Ground for over two months. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Days after newly appointed Uttarakhand chief secretary Utpal Kumar Singh took charge he might soon carry out a major bureaucratic reshuffle, so that the slow paced delivery gets a boost in the resource-crunched hill state, sources said. Singh had a detailed discussion over the proposed bureaucratic rejig with chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat soon after assuming charge on October 25, sources at the secretariat said. According to them, he (chief minister) is keen that he has a team of efficient officials so that the slow-paced growth in the state gets a boost ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, for which hardly over a year is now left. Prime Minister Narendra Modi who personally monitors the progress of the centrally sponsored flagship projects is also said to be unhappy with their extremely slow implementation in the state. That is reportedly one of the reasons behind the unceremonious exit of former chief secretary S Ramaswamy. The official was replaced by Singh just days after the Prime Minister laid the foundation stones for reconstruction of Kedarnath that was left ravaged by the cataclysmic floods in 2013. During his next two-day visit to the state that began on October 26, Modi, at a meeting with Singh at the Jollygrant airport, directed the latter to set up a High Powered Committee on Kendarnath. At the meeting the Prime Minister also directed him to ensure that the Kedarnath reconstruction project is completed at the earliest, said an official. The next day saw Singh rushing to the shrine town where he inspected all reconstruction works and directed officials to ensure their early completion, said an official. BJP insiders said the Centre was pressing for an early completion of projects as the BJP plans to launch its campaign for the general elections due in 2019, from Kedarnath . Similarly, he (Singh) is also under pressure from the ruling party and the chief minister to speed up delivery before the general elections, a source said. That explains for reports suggesting that Singh might soon carry out a major bureaucratic rejig to pick a crack team of officials. The (bureaucratic) rejig this time would include large scale transfers right from top babus to the district magistrates, a senior IAS official said. In fact, according to informed sources, Singh has also discussed the issue of relocation of officials with the principal secretary of the department of personnel, Radha Raturi. The buzz is that unlike his predecessor, the new chief secretary would delegate more powers to officials to ensure a speedy delivery. Similarly, he might like to see himself in a monitoring role unlike his predecessor, an official said referring to former CS Ramaswamy who was heading nearly a dozen departments. Sources said Singh might delegate responsibilities to officials, so that he had time to oversee the implementation of various projects. Besides, he will also closely monitor the centrally sponsored flagship projects, a source said, referring to the Rs 12000 crore Chardham all weather road project and Rs 13000 crore Rishikesh-Karnaprayag rail project besides similar other high profile schemes. There are also reports that some IAS officers who had served in the state in the past might also be repatriated in view of their experience. In fact Saujanya, an IAS officer currently on a deputation in Karnataka, has been brought back as the chief electoral officer. Efforts were also on to repatriate another IAS officer Rakesh Kumar who is currently on a deputation at the Delhi office of the United Nations, sources said Principal Secretary, personnel, Raturi, however, refused to comment on the reports that a major bureaucratic reshuffle was on the offing. ++++ CM flags off Sikh pilgrims DEHRADUN: Chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Monday flagged off a bus carrying a group of 36 senior citizens to Reetha Sabhib, a celebrated pilgrimage centre of the Sikhs in the state, from his camp office at the Cantonment area. Speaking on the occasion, he wished all the 36 senior citizens belonging to the Sikh community an enjoyable and safe journey. Of the total (36 senior citizens), who embarked on the pilgrimage, 24 are women and the rest are men, reads an official note. The pilgrims were flagged off under the Deendayal Upadhaya Matri-Pitra Teerthatan Yojna, the state governments scheme meant for the senior citizens. (Deep) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON At least three Nigerian nationals were injured following a clash at a private hospital in south Delhi on Saturday. According to the police, the fight ensued after a group of three-four Nigerians brought an injured woman to Swan Neelu Angels Hospital in Saket for treatment. Another group arrived and a fight ensued between the two parties. They allegedly attacked each other with wooden sticks and vandalised hospital furniture and window panes. The incident was recorded on a CCTV camera installed inside the hospital. A senior police official said people involved in the incident were at a party in Malviya Nagar during which one of their woman friends got injured and was brought to the hospital. He said the accused were not wielding swords as reported earlier. Police has registered a case of rioting against 15 persons and all the culprits have been identified. Ishwar Singh, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), south district said all accused would be arrested soon. The two groups clashed on Saturday inside the hospital premises. People involved in the incident have been indentified, he said. When Hindustan Times sought response from the hospital authority, it refused to divulge more details about the incident. An FIR case has been registered. For more information, you can contact the police, a representative of the hospital said. A businessman and his employee were shot dead when four men heading to a bank to deposit Rs 75 lakh in cash in a car were attacked by three bike-borne assailants in outer Delhis Narela on Monday. Businessman Pankaj Goel and his accountant Harsh Bhatia died on the spot, while Amit Goel, the driver of the Maruti Eeco car in which the four were travelling, was shot in the arm. The fourth occupant of the car, Rakesh, was unhurt. The police are yet to make any arrests but suspect the regular driver, who skipped duty on Monday, and Rakeshs involvement in the incident. The robbers fired 12 rounds of bullets and escaped with Rs 25 lakh. The four men, all in their mid-30s, had left Pankajs house in Narela at 10.15 am. Pankajs father, Shyam, was following them on a scooter. Narrating the sequence of events, his family members told the police that the four were heading to a nearby Bank of India branch to deposit two bags containing Rs 25 lakh and Rs 50 lakh each. Amit was driving and the three others were in the passenger seats. Shyam told the police that they had barely travelled a kilometre and reached Bawana road when they were stopped by the gunmen. An eyewitness, who did not wish to be named, told Hindustan Times that one of the gunmen fired a bullet, which injured Amit. Amit continued to drive. He did not stop but he could not control the vehicle and hit a pavement. The car stopped on the other side of the road, he said. The gunmen then tried to snatch the two bags. Two of the three men at the back tried to stop the robbers but they fired another round. The bikers managed to take the smaller cash bag after shooting the two men, he added. Investigating officials said the two men received three bullets. Shyam, who saw the incident, rushed to the spot. A police officer, who was attending another distress call in the same area, spotted the gunmen fleeing with the bag and chased them but they managed to flee. Police rushed the three to the nearby Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra hospital, where Pankaj and Bhatia were declared brought dead. Amit is admitted at Max hospital in Shalimar Bagh. DCP Rohini, Rishi Pal, said police registered a case at the Narela police station. Till Monday evening, the police were yet to identify the bikers. . On the suspected role of the regular driver Rajesh, Pal said he had been working with the family for over a year and would regularly go to deposit money with Pankaj. On Monday, he called Pankaj, saying he would not be able to make it. In his absence, Amit had to drive. We are questioning both Rakesh and Rajesh, said Pal. Pankajs brother-in-law, Sandeep, said it appeared the men were familiar with the route and were informed of the cash. Pankajs family deals in groceries and have local distribution rights of many branded household items, mostly edibles. Paul Manafort, Who Once Ran Trump Campaign, Told to Surrender Source: new york times WASHINGTON Paul Manafort and his former business associate Rick Gates were told to surrender to federal authorities Monday morning, the first charges in a special counsel investigation, according to a person involved in the case. The charges against Mr. Manafort, President Trumps former campaign chairman, and Mr. Gates, a business associate of Mr. Manafort, were not immediately clear but represent a significant escalation in a special counsel investigation that has cast a shadow over the presidents first year in office. Mr. Gates is a longtime protege and junior partner of Mr. Manafort. His name appears on documents linked to companies that Mr. Manaforts firm set up in Cyprus to receive payments from politicians and businesspeople in Eastern Europe, records reviewed by The New York Times show. Mr. Manafort had been under investigation for violations of federal tax law, money laundering and whether he appropriately disclosed his foreign lobbying A 35-year-old woman was shot in her leg on Friday after she tried to chase and nab two bike-borne men who had snatched her gold chain in outer Delhis Rohini. The victim, Priyanka Goyal, a doctor at Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute & Research Centre, was rushed to a city hospital for treatment. Priyankas husband Kapil said that at least 100 people were present at the spot when the snatchers opened fire, but no one came forward to help her or her five-year-old daughter. According to Kapil, the incident took place when Priyanka and her daughter had gone to a nearby market in Sector 5 in Rohini to buy vegetables. Kapil, who is also a doctor, said the duo followed Priyanka on her way to the market. It was around 7.45pm, when one of the men got down from the bike and lunged at Priyankas chain. The man managed to grab the chain which had a diamond pendant on it. My wife tried to snatch it back, but the man freed himself from her grip and ran. After around 20 metres, the man jumped on to a waiting bike and tried to flee, with Priyanka in pursuit on foot, said Kapil. Kapil added that one of the men then whipped out a gun and fired at Priyanka but missed. Noticing that Priyanka was in no mood to give up the chase, the men fired a second time at Priyanka injuring her right thigh. Crime data: Snatchers arrested in Delhi mostly first timers, school dropouts The area is close to a residential apartment. The usual Friday market crowd was also there when the snatching episode was playing out. Yet, no one stepped up to help my wife or try to nab the snatchers. Luckily, our house is close to the spot and Priyanka managed to return home limping. She then called me up and I rushed her to a hospital, said Kapil. He added that Priyanka had suffered two injuries, at the point where the bullet had entered and exited, on her thigh and lost a lot of blood by the time she was taken to the hospital. Street crime on the rise In the last two years, Prashant Vihar has witnessed the most number of snatchings. The wide roads and poor police presence in the area is what makes it ideal for such crimes, said residents Data shows that in 9,571 cases of snatching reported in 2016, 94.26% of people arrested were first time offenders and 53.97% of them were either illiterate or school dropouts. In August, 2017, a 50-year-old woman was severely injured when she fell from a moving auto while trying to save her purse from motorcycle-borne snatchers in north Delhi In the same month, a resident of CR Park, who was looking for her stolen car, was dragged by snatchers while they tried to flee with her purse. The woman was injured in the incident. Earlier in July, a woman was dragged out of a moving vehicle when she unsuccsessully tried to resist a snatching bid. Doctors at Saroj Hospital, where she is being treated, said Priyanka is now out of danger and is likely to be discharged on Monday. Kapil, meanwhile, called up the Delhi police control room about the snatching and a police team was rushed to the spot to investigate. The team, however, could not find any eyewitnesses to the crime in the area. Metro Matters: To rescue city from petty crime, Delhi Police must get cracking A senior police official said the accused was not wearing helmet or had their faces covered. The CCTV footage which captured the men driving away is being scanned. DCP Rohini Rishi Pal said a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and Arms Act has been registered and efforts are on to trace the suspects. No arrests were made till Sunday evening and the police said efforts were on to trace them. In this age of constant distractions, it takes immense strength of will to devote all ones waking hours to one single purpose. For instance, reading, re-reading and studying the complete works of an author. Retired professor Shamsul Haq Usmani is one such man. We meet him at his home in Old Delhis congested Ballimaran. Mr Usmani is a self-confessed Manto Walla, a species (thats what he calls it) that is intimate with the entire oeuvre of author Saadat Hassan Manto, the author who so memorably chronicled the human cost of Partition in his short stories. Indeed, Mr Usmanis entanglement with the legendary Urdu writer has grown so exclusive that he himself may become a legendary figure in the world of Urdu literature. At 72, he is labouring through his grand project Poora Manto, in which he is preparing a definitive edition of everything Manto ever published. Mr Usmanis house is on the narrow alley of Galli Chowkidar. While the Walled City is one of the noisiest parts in the Capital, the old mansion with its lovely wooden doorway is miraculously steeped in solitude, as if there is an understanding in the neighbourhood not to disturb the scholars concentration. Most of the Manto material that has been floating around is not completely accurate, explains Mr Usmani in his frail voice. Dressed in a white kurta and green lungi, he escorts us up the steep stairs to his study. Putting a big portion of the blame to piracy, he says, Lots of publishers printed Mantos stories and novels without his authorisation and those works, riddled with errors, acquired a lasting life through translations into other languages. Today, he sighs, it is difficult to come across original Manto. HIS LIFES WORK Mr Usmani is currently correcting all the punctuations, spacing of paragraphs, story titles, years of publication and other nitty-gritties that may not bother a lay reader, but are of profound importance to scholars and students of Manto. As a fanatical reader of the author, Mr Usmani gained access to original writings of Manto over the years in public and private libraries across the subcontinent. Opening a cupboard, he takes out three handsome hardbounds with Mantos face on each cover. These are the first three volumes of his project; the series is being printed by the Karachi-based Oxford University Press Pakistan. The first volume was originally published by the Delhi-based National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language, but that organizations bureaucracy disoriented Mr Usmani so extensively over pointless details that he decided to published the later volumes on his own. It was sheer good fortune that people in the prestigious Pakistani publishing house happened to see the first printed work: as soon as they did, they immediately contacted him to bring out the entire definitive edition. Im now working on the fourth volume... Mr Usmani had a surgery last year and has grown weak. Mantos short stories will end in the fifth volume and then I will edit his novels, followed by the journalistic pieces he published in the Imroze newspaper I think I will be able to finish Poora Manto in ten volumes. SCHOLARS DISCIPLINE These days, Mr Usmani rarely leaves home. He spends all his time in this room. There are two beds here, one of which serves as his writing desk. Every night at eleven, he sits down to work to get up only in the morning, when the muezzin of the nearby mosque calls out the faithful to prayer. He goes to sleep after offering namaz. Such a rigorous schedule does not mean the academic has distanced himself from his family. His wife continues to be the first reader of everything I write. Her name is Roshan but I call her Shireen, he adds. Shireen, as you may well know, is the Urdu equivalent of sweetheart. Arranging his Manto books beside his pillow and gazing at them with affection, Mr Usmani says, Mantos writing is so arresting... once you start to read him, it is impossible to get out of his world. Manto died in Lahore in 1955. Mr Usmani, who last visited Pakistan in 1970, never went to his beloved writers final resting place. I read him daily so whats the need of going to his grave? Keeping his hand on his heart, he says, Manto flows in my bloodstream. In a massive direct outreach programme, the Delhi government is sending letters addressed individually to the beneficiaries of welfare schemes and signed by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Government officials confirmed that they are sending 52,000 letters to various addresses, including to those of underprivileged students who got admission in private schools under the EWS schemes, and those who receive monthly senior citizen pension. In the letters, copies of some of which are in HTs possession, Kejriwal has written about his governments commitment to provide better facilities and urged the citizens to approach him directly with any grievance they face. Your Delhi government respects elderly people and its pensioners. There were numerous problems for pensioners, and we have tried to address those grievances, reads the CMs letter to a pensioner, Kali Charan a resident of Sultanpuri. Consider me your son. Come to me whenever you face any problem, says the letter written in Hindi. It was signed off as: Your son, Arvind Kejriwal. A page, listing recent initiatives of the government to address pensioners issues such as free treatment at 20 major hospitals for the ailments of kidney, heart, cancer, and increase in funds for pension trust, etc, was also attached to the letter. Delhi government spokesperson Arunoday Prakash said the initiative aims to establish a connection with the people at grassroots and boost their faith in the government. Around 21,000 letters are being dispatched to pensioners of the erstwhile Delhi Vidyut Board (DVB) and 31,000 letters to the parents of students who got admission in private schools under EWS category. Five lakh letters written by the chief minister will soon be sent to the beneficiaries of old age and disability pension schemes, Prakash told Hindustan Times. In another letter, the AAPs national convener congratulated a parent, Naveen Kumar, for his daughters admission at a private school under economic weaker section (EWS) category. It is very hard to get admission in a good school. Earlier, people had to bribe touts for admission in a good school. Our government has improved the system. We have reduced corruption, Kejriwal said. In the next phase, Prakash said the chief minister will write to students who are getting various government scholarships. The Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) told National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday that it supplies adequate water to areas around Appu Ghar, a water park in Sector 29, and there are no complaints from residents in this regard. Last Monday, the NGT heard a petition filed by a city-based social activist, Harinder Dhingra, that Huda supplies 8 lakh litres of water daily to Appu Ghar in peak summer when the city reels under water shortage, and subsequently leads to protest across the city. NGT took a strong note of the petition and asked Huda to produce details of water supply to Appu Ghar and adjoining residential areas. Dhingra said the NGT was unhappy with Hudas response, as it had filed an incomplete reply on water supply details of residential areas around Appu Ghar. The areas around Appu Ghar area Sushant Lok, South City-I, Ardee City, Sector 45 and DLF 4. This is a wrong affidavit and the court fixed the next date on November 10. The court asked Huda to counter our claims with facts but Huda officials said they were not prepared for the argument and sought more time, said Dhingra. Naresh Pawar, superintending engineer (SE), Huda, said, We have submitted our reply to the NGT. We can say that Huda does not have a dearth of water at all to feed the city in peak summer. It is wrong to say that people cry foul for water in summer. SS Rai, a resident of Sushant Lok, said, Hudas claim of adequate water supply is a blatant lie as we are fully dependent on private suppliers every summer for water as taps and tanks run dry. This is a perennial issue and we go through this each summer. Huda has failed to improve water supply as per the requirement of the areas. We spend large sums to purchase water from private tankers in summer and this is an open secret, said Mukesh Sharma, a resident of South City-1. Box: 30 lakh is citys approximate population 75-80 million gallons per day (MGD) of water supplied by Huda against requirement 150 MGD, a deficit of 70 MGD 70 MGD deficit is met with groundwater extraction through borewells As per Huda estimate, about 250 MGD water will be required by 2021 to feed an expected population of 45 lakh Majority of privately developed townships meet their water demand through borewells SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Haryana government is contemplating which routes to select from the two options recommended by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to provide connectivity to more parts of Gurgaon. In a feasibility report submitted for the creation of a new metro route, the DMRC has suggested two routes both originate from Huda City Centre and while one goes towards Gurgaon railway station and the other towards Dwarka Sector 21. Residents, however, have demanded that they need both lines to have a seamless commuting option that covers most parts of Gurgaon. Both lines will cover areas on the west side of the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway such as such as sector 45, 46, 47 and Subhash Chowk, which are not covered by the existing yellow line of the DMRC and the Rapid Metro network. Beyond Subhash Chowk, the routes take different paths. The roughly 12km railway station line would cover areas in Rajiv Chowk, Civil Lines, Roshanpura, and Sector 4/5. These areas are are bereft of metro connectivity. Commuters here depend on the city bus service, unmetered autorickshaws and aggregator-based cabs. While I understand old Gurgaon does not have adequate public transport facilities, the 12km line will only assist us in travelling to parts within Gurgaon. The line to Dwarka is also needed as it will give us easier access to parts of west and northwest Delhi as well as central Delhi through the Airport Express Line instead of existing options that are more time consuming, Bhanu Sharma, a resident of Civil Lines said. After crossing Subhash Chowk, the roughly 27.5km Dwarka line will head towards Hero Honda Chowk, Basai, Sector 7, Palam Vihar and Bijwasan before terminating at the blue line as well as Airport express line station of Dwarka Sector 21. With the line covering areas that have no public transport facilities, residents want this line to be integrated with the other. Areas such as Hero Honda Chowk, Basai, Dhankot get covered by the Dwarka line. In these areas, if you do not have a private vehicle, then you have a tough time as cab and auto-rickshaw drivers refuse to ply there. Hence, it is vital that these areas are not only connected to Dwarka but are well connected within Gurgaon through the other railway station line, Vijay Rohilla, a resident of sector 37 said. For travel between Dwarka and Gurgaon, there are two buses of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) that only operated till Iffco Chowk and are infrequent. In addition, without direct metro connectivity, one can only take the Delhi Metro yellow line and get off at either the Rajiv Chowk or New Delhi railway stations to change to the blue line or the Airport Express Line, respectively, to reach Dwarka. The total travel time is in excess of 100 minutes. As a salesman, I travel to various parts of Gurgaon on my motorcycle, in the absence of a public transport service. A metro link that not only provides a link between Dwarka and Gurgaon but also covers interior areas of Gurgaon will help save time and ensure safety, Amit Bhardwaj, a resident of Sector 3 Dwarka, said. Officials reiterated that the decision on the route rests with the Haryana Mass Rapid Corporation (HMRC). The DMRC has prepared both feasibility reports as it have been roped in as consultants for the project. The HMRC will be undertaking the project and will decide upon which route is more feasible, V Umashankar, additional chief executive, Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority, said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The CBI has taken four accused who confessed to their involvement in Dingarheri rape and murder during questioning by the Gurgaon police. A CBI spokesperson said the four persons were taken into custody by the agency for questioning in connection with the rape of two women and the murder of a couple in Dingarheri on the night of August 24, 2016. The four Dharmu(20), Munna (20), Vinay (31) and Rajbir (20) have been taken on remand for questioning. The statements made by them will be verified, said RK Gaur, press information officer, CBI, Delhi. The accused took the Gurgaon police team to that village. They identified the house and the spot where they had committed the rapes and murders. If a person is not involved in the crime, it is impossible from him to give details in such a manner, a Gurgaon police officer said. Apart from Dingarheri, the four have been taken to at least 10 crime spots in Gurgaon, Mewat and Jhajjar districts. Earlier, a police team from Noida had visited the city to discuss the confessions made by the accused with regard to the rape and murders in Jewar and Bulandshahr. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON To expand Metro connectivity in Gurgaon, the Haryana government will look at two possible options given in a DMRC feasibility report about the creation of a new Metro route. The report, prepared for Haryana Mass Rapid Corporation by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) and submitted early this month. The shorter route, among the two options, is of roughly 12km. It starts from the existing Metro station at HUDA City Centre and goes up to Gurgaon Railway Station through Subhash Chowk, Rajiv Chowk and New Colony Mor. The longer second option is around 27.5km. It also starts at HUDA City Centre and then heads to the Dwarka Sector 21 Metro station on DMRCs Blue Line via Subhash Chowk, Hero Honda Chowk, Sectors 10A, 10, 9, 9A, ESI Hospital, Sector 4-5 crossing (covering Gurgaon Railway Station and adjoining areas), Palam Vihar, Sector 23, and Dwarka Sector 21. These two routes are independent to another line proposed earlier. The alignment of that line starts at IFFCO Chowk Metro Station and heads to Dwarka Sector 21, for which the feasibility report has already been submitted. The need for new line Gurgaon has 11 Metro stations (including rapid metro stations) which only cover areas near the Delhi border. The city does not have an efficient public bus transport service, in its absence, Gurgaon residents have to rely on non-metered auto-rickshaws and cabs for their commute. The areas covered under the two options given to the state government do not have Metro connectivity. Commuters have to board the Yellow Line of the Delhi Metro and get down at either the Rajiv Chowk or New Delhi Railway Station to change to the Blue Line or the Airport Express Line to reach their destination. However, the journey can usually exceed 100 minutes. The Haryana government plans to provide direct Metro connectivity to Dwarka as well as expand its reach within Gurgaon. Ridership concerns As per the report, the expected ridership on the shorter proposed line by 2021 is estimated to be around 86,000, with a maximum of 20,000 people boarding at Subhash Chowk. The other stations are not expected to have high ridership. By 2031, the total ridership is estimated to be 1.85 lakh. For the longer option, total ridership in 2021 is expected to be 2.87 lakh as the line is connected to HUDA City Centre and Dwarka Sector 21. The number of passengers using the line is expected to go up to 4.76 lakh by 2031. According to the feasibility report, the capital cost estimated for the shorter route is 2,296 crores, while that for the longer route is 4,591 crores. The Haryana government had roped in the DMRC as consultants for the project. The Haryana Mass Rapid Corporation will be undertaking the project and will decide upon which route works out to be more feasible, V Umashankar, additional chief executive of Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Halloween fever has spread across schools in Gurgaon and they are enthusiastically gearing up for the celebrations that will culminate on October 31. The tradition of Halloween started in the European countries during ancient times when the last evening of summer was celebrated as the day when people lit fires and dressed as ghosts believing that this would ward off evil spirits. The ritual has inspired the Vega School on Sohna Road to organise a Halloween Party on the last evening of October. The event will feature fun games and activities, like the mummy wrap, treat treasure hunt, ring the witch hat, pumpkin carving and a costume contest. The fun surrounding the festival has piqued students curiosity and children have been reading and discussing literature to Halloween in school. A Halloween theme based celebrations will also be organized in Lancers International School, DLF-5. Pre-schoolers, children reading in kindergarten and parent-volunteers will be a part of these celebrations. A classroom will be transformed into a scary room for the children to soak in the Halloween spirit. There will be craft activities, where the students will make Halloween-theme crafts, such as 3D pumpkin decoration, mask making and Halloween home decorations. Volunteer parents will organize the food, complete with Halloween-inspired snacks and decorations. Read I Halloween 2017: Here are the spookiest landmarks in England Our children are excited to be a part of the Halloween celebrations at school. Our celebrations revolve around activities based on the theme of Halloween which will also let the children showcase their creativity, said director of Lancers International School Rohit Mann. Gurgaon is a home to a number of expatriates who celebrate the day. Furthermore, increasing number of Indians are now travelling and staying abroad and their exposure to foreign cultures is instrumental in driving the craze for Halloween in India. Gilbert Kale Villamarina, parent of a student at Lancers, said, I, too, feel the excitement as my child shares his ideas for Halloween. I am blown away by his enthusiasm and creativity; he shares how they talk about it in school. At Suncity School, Sector 54, children will be dress in Halloween inspired costumes. They are hosting celebrations where children would also research on the origin and roots of Halloween and share it with their peers and teachers. Excelsior American School, Sector 43, celebrated Halloween with an inter-house competition. The task was to create a horror corner. The ghost parade, too, was a real show-stopper and caught everyones attention. Various clubs, hotels, restaurants and mall shops are being given the get up of haunted houses and buildings and the events have already started that will culminate on October 31. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON On October 5, a 27-year-old HIV positive woman hanged herself from a pipe in Hyderabads Osmania General Hospital after being denied admission, which is given free under Indias National AIDS Control Programme (NACO). In another incident last month, doctors declared a 24-year-old pregnant woman admitted to Tikamgarh district hospital in Madhya Pradesh a human bomb after she tested positive for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The confidential pathology report was leaked by the lab technician, and within hours, everybody from the doctor to the nurse and the ward boy refused to treat her. She finally delivered twins, who died within 30 minutes of birth, unattended on the ward floor. Following media reports, a staff nurse and the lab technician were suspended and a show-cause notice was issued to the civil surgeon. Its really unfortunate that doctors and supporting staff shy away from their duties. We will ensure that incidents like Tikamgarh are not repeated. Hospitals are provided enough resources for treatment, such as protection gear, said Pallavi Jain Govil, health mission commissioner, Madhya Pradesh. But providing protective gear is clearly not enough. We have a (monitoring) committee in every district headed by the district collector but I havent noticed a proactive behaviour by anybody, including hospital administration, on how to train staff to treat people living with HIV, said Madhya Pradesh AIDS control society joint director Savita Thakur. Deja vu Free counselling, testing and treatment has helped India lower new infections to 80,000 a year, which have stabilised HIV numbers at 2.1 million, shows UNAIDS Report 2016, yet ignorance around this once feared infection persists. Over the past three years, at least a dozen people living with HIV have been denied treatment at government hospitals in Madhya Pradesh, and hundreds more across the country. In Uttar Pradeshs Bareilly district last year, an HIV positive woman delivered a stillborn after a hospital in neighbouring Badaun refused to treat her because she didnt have Rs 2,000 to buy gloves for the hospital staff. Discrimination in both government and private health centres and hospitals is rife across states, say people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA). Paramedics and nursing staff and in some cases even doctors often refuse to take care of HIV+ patients, said Swapan Mallick (name changed), who has HIV and works with Bengal Network of PLHAs. Sensitisation affects quality, which varies widely across government hospitals in the same city, with those with NACOs voluntary counselling and testing centres (VCTC) usually better equipped to treat PLHAs. For example, even within Kolkata, patients feel at ease in N R S Medical College and Hospital that has a VCTC centre, but face stigma from a section of nursing staffs and paramedical staff in other teaching hospitals like R G Kar Medical College and National Medical College, said Kallol Ghosh, founder-director of OFFER, an NGO that works with children with HIV. Legal situation In April this year, the Parliament passed the HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Bill, 2017, that guarantees equal rights in medical treatment, admission to educational institutions and jobs to people living with HIV/AIDS, but the Act is yet to be notified. If an HIV positive patient is refused treatment at a government health facility, then the patient can move court, but the same doesnt hold true for private hospitals till the Act is notified. Under Aarticle 14 of the Constitution people have right to equality and health, and the person can move court if treatment is refused in a government hospital, said Raman Chawla, lawyer and HIV-activist. Nothing much can be done if a private hospital refuses treatment, till the HIV law comes into force. Once the law is implemented, it will also cover private health facilities, said Chawla. Rules and regulations are to be drafted before it gets notified. The process is on, said a senior Union health ministry official, who did not want to be named. Filing complaints is a must. In the case of the Telangana woman hanging herself, for example, the sister told the media that the woman was denied hospital admission but did not file a police complaint. Police registered a case under Section 174 of the CrPC (suspicious death). The hospital has denied the charge. There is no question of denying treatment to the patient, even if a person is in advanced stage of HIV infection. The investigation will reveal the truth, said Osmania General Hospital superintendent Dr GVS Murthy. But errant doctors seem to be a step ahead. An officer in MP State AIDS Control Society who looks into complaints against doctors and para-medical staff said on the condition of anonymity, I have seen that doctors prepare their reports so smartly that its difficult to fix responsibility on them. Along with the law, what are needed are sensitisation workshops for medical staff. Instead of mass media campaigns, what is needed is intensive sensitisation campaign among health professionals in government hospitals, said Mallik. (With inputs from Snigdhendu Bhattacharya in Kolkata and Srinivasa Rao Apparasu in Hyderabad) Gut bacteria may help predict the risk of developing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after experiencing a life-threatening trauma, a study has found. PTSD is a serious psychiatric disorder that can develop after a person experiences a traumatic event. However, not everyone exposed to a traumatic event will develop PTSD, and several factors influence an individuals susceptibility, including living conditions, childhood experiences and genetic makeup. In recent years, scientists have become aware of the important role of microbes existing inside the human gastrointestinal tract, called the gut microbiome. These microbes perform important functions, such as metabolising food and medicine, and fighting infections. It is now believed that the gut microbiome also influences the brain and brain function by producing neurotransmitters/hormones, immune-regulating molecules and bacterial toxins. Our study compared the gut microbiomes of individuals with PTSD to that of people who also experienced significant trauma, but did not develop PTSD, said Stefanie Malan-Muller, postdoctoral fellow at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. We identified a combination of three bacteria (Actinobacteria, Lentisphaerae and Verrucomicrobia) that were different in people with PTSD, said Malan-Muller, who collaborated with researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder in the US for the study. Individuals with PTSD had significantly lower levels of this trio of bacteria compared to trauma-exposed control groups, researchers said. Those who experienced trauma during their childhood also had lower levels of two of the bacteria - Actinobacteria and Verrucomicrobia, they said. Individuals who experience childhood trauma are at higher risk of developing PTSD later in life, and these changes in the gut microbiome possibly occurred early in life in response to childhood trauma, said Malan-Muller. However, researchers are unable to determine whether this bacterial deficit contributed to PTSD susceptibility, or whether it occurred as a consequence of PTSD. It does, however, bring us one step closer to understanding the factors that might play a role in PTSD, she said. Factors influencing susceptibility and resilience to developing PTSD are not yet fully understood, and identifying and understanding all these contributing factors could in future contribute to better treatments, researchers said. Follow @htlifeandstyle for more Actor Rose McGowan has claimed she was offered $ 1 million to sign a non-disclosure agreement to prevent her from speaking out against disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein. Speaking to The New York Times, McGowan said the offer came from someone close to Mr Weinstein, just as several women were about to come forward with their claims of sexual misconduct against the Hollywood producer in an expose published by the newspaper. McGowan, who revealed earlier this month that she was allegedly raped by Weinstein, said she considered the offer, but countered with $ 6 million. I had all these people Im paying telling me to take it so that I could fund my art. I figured I could probably have gotten him up to three. But I was like, Ew, gross, youre disgusting, I dont want your money, that would make me feel disgusting., she said. A day after the story was published McGowan, 44, asked her lawyer to pull the offer. Meanwhile, she also reacted to Kevin Spaceys apology after he tweeted about Anthony Rapps allegations of assault. In his apology, Spacey wrote he was horrified to read Rapps story. He goes on to say that while he doesnt remember the incident, he offers sincerest apology for his inappropriate drunken behaviour. In an interview to BuzzFeed News, Rapp alleged that in 1986, Spacey befriended him when they were both working on Broadway shows and invited him home for a party. At the end of the party, he placed Rapp who was 14 then - on his bed, and climbed on top of him. Spacey was 26-year-old at the time. McGowan tweeted, Bye bye, Spacey goodbye, its your turn to cry, thats why weve gotta say goodbye. #ROSEARMY Bye bye, Spacey goodbye, its your turn to cry, thats why weve gotta say goodbye. #ROSEARMY rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) October 30, 2017 Follow @htshowbiz for more The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up West Bengal for its plea questioning the Centres decision to make the 12-digit biometric Aadhaar number mandatory for availing social benefits, saying it was against the federal structure. The Bengal government, which is at loggerheads with the Centre, had on October 28 filed a petition challenging the Centres order to link various welfare schemes to Aadhaar. In a federal state, how can one state government challenge a law passed by Parliament. There is no doubt it (Aadhaar) needs examination but the prayer cant be entertained, a bench of justice AK Sikri and justice Ashok Bhushan said. The Mamata Banerjee governments plea is the latest against Aadhaar that has been challenged on various grounds, including violation of privacy. The petition violated federal structure, the court said, adding, Tomorrow the Centre can challenge a law passed by the state. Appearing for the Bengal government, senior lawyer Kapil Sibal said the plea was filed by the labour department as subsidies for various schemes were given by it. You satisfy us how the state has challenged it, the bench said, adding the Centres move could be challenged by an individual but not by states. Let Mamata Banerjee come and file a plea as individual. We will entertain it as she will be an individual, the court said. Sibal said they would amend the petition. In a separate plea, the court issued a notice to the government over a plea by a student opposing linking of Aadhaar to mobile phone numbers. The court gave the Centre four weeks to respond to the petition. The government is expected to tell the court in the afternoon that it was willing to extend to March 31 the deadline for linking Aadhaar to various welfare schemes, bank accounts and mobile phones. The Centre says linking of Aaadhaar was aimed at weeding out ghost beneficiaries and preventing pilferage. Rights activists, however, say people are being denied benefits such as subsidised food for want of Aadhaar. The government says 95% of Indias 1.25 billion people have been issued Aadhaar, which is not a proof of citizenship and is given to all residents. (With PTI inputs) SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The issue of autonomy to the restive Jammu and Kashmir, provided under Article 35(A) of the Constitution, has been under attack from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party amid opposition from state parties and Congress. It gives special rights to the states permanent residents and disallows people from the rest of India from buying or owning immovable property in Jammu and Kashmir, settle permanently, or avail themselves of state-sponsored scholarship schemes. It also forbids the state government from hiring such people. The Supreme Court will hear a petition on Monday seeking the repeal of the Article 35A by Delhi-based NGO, We the Citizens. It says the states autonomous status granted by Article 35(A) and Article 370 of the Constitution discriminates against fellow citizens from the rest of the country. Here is how the demand for autonomy has shaped through the years: What is the autonomy issue? Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim majority princely state led by a Hindu ruler Hari Singh, was toying with the idea of remaining independent with amicable relations with both India and Pakistan after India gained independence from the British in 1947. However, after a Kabaili or tribal invasion by Pakistan, Singh asked the government of India for military help. The instrument of accession, which was a conditional accession with India, was signed by Singh on October 26, 1947, and the Indian Army landed in Kashmir a day later. According to the instrument of accession, the state relegated powers related to defence, foreign affairs, currency and telecommunication to India and the rest remained with the state. The state had a president or sadr-e-riyasat and instead of a chief minister, there was a prime minister. Any amendment to the above clauses was only possible through an amendment to the Indian Constitution. Read | SC to hear plea on Article 35A: All about law that grants special rights to J-K The Indian government approached the United Nations where India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire. Subsequently, a resolution was passed in the Security Council asking both countries to grant the right of self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir after both the armies withdraw from their respective position. How did the content and contours of autonomy change? National Conference patron Sheikh Abdullah, who became the first prime minister of Kashmir in 1948, was jailed in 1953 and his absence from state politics for 22 years led to the erosion of many aspects of autonomy. After 1953, a presidents order stated that any matter pertaining to national interest or enemy aggression can be implemented through a presidential ordinance without a constitutional amendment. This doesnt require ratification by the state assembly. From then on, presidential orders reduced the states autonomy like extending the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India and Election Commission of India. The central laws were implemented and states powers were subsequently reduced to what was called the state list. The state heads were changed. J-K chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (HT File Photo) In 1965, the Jammu and Kashmir assembly was forced to change the nomenclature of both the nominal and elected head. After this, a governor was elected not just by the state but was also the prerogative of the central government. When was the last time Jammu and Kashmir seriously debated autonomy? In 2000, the National Conference government led by Farooq Abdullah passed an autonomy resolution in the state assembly renewing efforts to get Kashmir the pre-1953 status. The resolution was, however, not accepted by the then NDA government led by prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Where do parties stand on autonomy? In 1975, Abdullah entered into an accord with the then prime minister Indira Gandhi. Abdullah, experts believe, his fight with the Union of India was not on accession but greater autonomy and the accord was a result of a promise that the pre-1953 position will be stated. Both Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and National Conference want the restoration of the pre-1953 position, which limited Indias control largely to foreign affairs, defence and communication. It is a stated position of both the parties. While National Conference calls it autonomy, PDP calls it self-rule. Separatists, including both factions of the Hurriyat, demand right to self-determination as promised by the government of India at the time of the accession. They want that people should be given a right to chose whether they want to live in India, Pakistan or remain sovereign. Why is BJP opposed to reopening the question of autonomy? The demand for greater autonomy by Jammu and Kashmir has been branded as anti-national by the current ruling dispensation in the Centre. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) although in a coalition with the PDP (which has self-rule as its stated position) believes in the complete merger of the restive state with India. Abolition of constitutional provisions - Article 35 A and Article 370 that give special status to Jammu and Kashmir have - been the stated policy of the right-wing party. Many petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court by people associated with the party. How do NC and PDP differ on the question of autonomy? The self-rule framework of the PDP is the partys proposal for resolving the Kashmir issue. Political restructuring, economic integration between the two parts of Kashmir, demilitarisation and constitutional restructuring within the Indian Constitution are the highlights. The self-rule document is firm on making Article 356 (imposition of Presidents Rule) non-applicable to Jammu and Kashmir, for which a separate constitution and its special status under Article 370 formed the basis. The governor, it says, should be elected and rotated between Jammu and Srinagar. National Conference believes in the restoration of autonomy and Article 370 to its original pristine form. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A group in Meghalaya will start a campaign on Monday urging people to opt out of the Aadhaar system and demand that all information collected during enrollment must be deleted from the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) database, saying the process was not voluntary and they were misled or forced by warnings about curtailment of rights. Despite enrollment for Aadhaar being voluntary, citizens are being warned to enlist with threats that they might lose their rights if they fail to do so. Also, there is the possibility of personal details getting stolen. Thats why we want to opt out of it, Rev K Pyrtuh of Meghalaya Peoples Committee on Aadhaar told the Hindustan Times. MPCA is an umbrella group of several civil societies and student bodies that has been at the forefront in raising questions about Aadhaar enrolment in the northeastern state. Pyrtuh, who is a pastor and senior member of Meghalayas Presbyterian church body, said due to the unique position of states like Meghalaya and Assam where the threat of influx from neighbouring countries is high, people should be very circumspect before giving out details to enrol for Aadhaar. As part of the campaign, many who have already enlisted in the Aadhaar system are planning to write to the UIDAI that issues the 12-digit unique identification number urging it to remove their personal details from its database. Besides information like name, gender, date of birth, address etc individuals also need to submit fingerprint details, iris scans, and facial photograph to get enrolled for Aadhaar. Meghalaya is ranked 35th (ahead of Assam) in the list of 36 states and Union territories in terms of Aadhaar enrollment. According to UIDAI data, only 4.63 lakh or 14.3% of the states 32.30 lakh population have got their Aadhaar cards till October 15 this year. There are rumblings among citizens of Meghalaya about Aadhaar for three major reasons. One, it would make it easier for non-Meghalaya people to get citizenship voting rights, its compulsory nature and the suspicions regarding its use for surveillance and control, Angela Rangad, the convener of Thma U Rangli u Juli (TUR), a progressive peoples group that is a part of MPCA, told HT. Last week, MPCA held a meeting in Shillong where over a thousand residents who have enrolled for Aadhaar were informed about the possible impact on their right to privacy if they enrol for the scheme. MPCA has also drafted letters in English and Khasi for residents in eastern Meghalaya urging them to make an informed choice and write to the UIDAI seeking to get out of the Aadhaar system. I did not enroll in the UIDAI database voluntarily; I was coerced/misled into enrolling because I was warned I would lose my rights as a citizen and that I would be excluded from my rights and entitlements and from various services that the state is obliged to provide to me unless I enrolled on the database, the letter addressed to the UIDAI chairperson said. I have since been apprised of the various concerns about the databasing of people. I am aware too that the coercion has been in deliberate contempt of the orders of the Supreme Court of India, it added. The Supreme Court will hear on Monday a petition by West Bengal government against the Centres move to make enrollment for Aadhar mandatory for citizens to get social welfare benefits. It will also hear a plea challenging the governments move, which has raised privacy concerns, especially after the recent massive leak of citizens details, make it mandatory for people to link mobile numbers and bank details to Aadhaar. The top court ruled in August that the right to privacy is a fundamental right protected by the Constitution, in a potential setback to the Centres push to mandate the use of Aadhaar. The biometric system has been a matter of controversy for political parties and privacy advocates who believe the programme gives government indiscriminate power. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Chennai is bracing itself for another possible deluge with the Met office predicting heavy to very heavy rainfall across coastal Tamil Nadu over the next five days. But the rain is not expected to be as heavy it was 2015 when Chennai was flooded for three days. In November 2015, Chennai received 1218.6 mm of rain, three times the normal rain that month and on December 1 alone it received 374 mm rain that flooded the city. Rainfall in Chennai will not be that heavy as in 2015 but it will be heavy to very heavy rainfall, scattered over the next 24 hours till 8:30 am Tuesday, said S Balachandran, director, regional metrological centre Chennai is expected to receive between 6 mm to 7 mm rainfall in the next 24 hours, the met official said. The highest rainfall recorded so far was 9 mm at 8:30 am Monday in Nagapattinam, about 300 km south of Chennai. After being caught on the wrong foot in 2015, the administration is not taking any chances this time. The Chennai administration has asked the schools to close one hour ahead of normal time as rainfall is predicted to be very heavy during the evening. Depending on the rain, the administration will decide whether to order schools to remain shut on Tuesday. We have taken many precautions. Desilting of drains (1174 km) has been done so that rain water can drain away into the sea, Chennai corporation commissioner D Kartikeyan told reporters. He also said the corporation personnel were on call to deal with any stagnation of water. According to the Met office, heavy to very heavy rain would occur along the coast and the districts of Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Tiruvarur, Nagapatttinam, Thanjavur and Chennai. Upper air circulation over south east Bay of Bengal near Sri Lanka is causing wide spread rain in coastal region and fairly widespread rain in eastern parts. In the entire coastal region from Tiruvallur to Ramanathapuram, there will be heavy to very heavy rain, the Met office. There would be heavy to very heavy rainfall in one or two places in south coastal TN too. But in Coimbatore and Nilgiris in Tamil Nadus west, the north east monsoon showers will take another day or two to reach, the Met office said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The cyber cafe owner and publisher who became a hero in September after catching two terror suspects, including the key accused of 2008 Ahmedabad serial blasts, has been handed a double whammy. Already staring at penury, with his business crippled for fear of retaliation, Anurag Basu now faces threat to his life from sleeper cells allegedly set up by the arrested terror suspects in Bihars Gaya district. The hapless cyber cafe owner has petitioned Gaya district magistrate (DM) Kumar Ravi and senior superintendent of police (SSP) Garima Malik to provide adequate security to him and his family. READ| 2008 Ahmedabad blast accused among two terror suspects arrested from cyber cafe at Gaya Basu had chased and caught two terror suspects at Gaya, 100 km south of Patna, on September 13. Tauseef Khan alias Atik Khan, an accused in the Ahmedabad blast, was one of men. The blast had killed 56 people and injured more than 200. Four or five men visit my cyber cafe every now and then and create trouble. One of them even threw a leg of an animal on the rooftop of my shop. They all have been forcing me to leave the city at once or face consequences for facilitating Tauseefs arrest, Basu said. READ| Gaya cyber cafe owner who caught terror suspects turns pauper Tauseef used to visit a mosque at Shahmir Takya, about half-a-km from my cyber cafe, and train more than 50 youths in jehad. His disciples now visit my cyber cafe and threaten me of dire consequences if I continued my business in the locality, Basu told HT on Monday. Customers do not come to my cyber cafe anymore fearing retaliation by terrorists. I have also stopped giving karate training to my students, said Basu, a third degree black belt, who had been giving martial art tips at Tekari and Gaya for more than four years. READ| Help pours in from abroad for Gaya cyber cafe owner who caught terror suspects Meanwhile, Gaya MP Hari Manjhi has also written to the Prime Minister and the Union home minister, urging them to provide adequate compensation and reward to Basu, who has set an example of courage and patriotism. In his letters, Manjhi also pointed out the financial crisis Basu was facing in the wake of the onslaught from Tauseefs supporters. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The law commission has proposed a new bill recommending life term and fine for public servants read police found guilty of custodial torture. The panel on Monday submitted the draft law, titled The Prevention of Torture Bill 2017, as part of its 75-page report on the subject in response to a July reference from the law ministry to the commission. It has also recommended that the government ratify a United Nations convention on torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment. India is a signatory to the convention, but in the absence of an anti-torture law, it is yet to ratify the convention. As many as 160 countries have ratified the convention and not doing so puts India in the company of nations with an abysmal record on custodial torture, such as Pakistan and Afghanistan. The UPA government had drafted a bill on torture in 2010 which could not be passed. The draft law framed by the panel says to curb the menace of torture and to have a deterrent effect on acts of torture, stringent punishment to the perpetrators of such acts, including punishment extending up to life imprisonment and fine, needs to be handed out. The report submitted to the law ministry proposes amendments to key criminal laws including the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, to include provisions regarding compensation and burden of proof. It has recommended amendment to the Indian Penal Code to incorporate payment of compensation, in addition to imposition of fine. It also said the Indian Evidence Act requires insertion of a new section 114B. This will ensure that in case a person in police custody sustains injuries, it is presumed that those injuries have been inflicted by the police, and the burden of proof shall lie on the authority concerned to explain such injury, it has recommended. The panel has said the state should own the responsibility for the injuries caused by its agents on citizens, and the principle of sovereign immunity cannot override the rights assured by the Constitution. While dealing with the plea of sovereign immunity, the courts will have to bear in mind that it is the citizens who are entitled to fundamental rights, and not the agents of the state, it said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The government of India is finally getting some idea of how much land it owns. According to information provided to the Centre by 41 of the 51 Union ministries and 22 of over 300 public sector enterprises, the government owns at least 13,505 square km, with the number expected to rise as more data comes in. A chunk of this land about nine times the size of Delhi (1,483 sq km) could be monetised or used for housing and other infrastructure projects, officials said. The government started the process of making an inventory of its land last year. Details are being uploaded to the Government Land Information System (GLIS), a first-of-its-kind centralised database created by the ministry of electronics and information and monitored by the Prime Ministers Office (PMO). The GLIS portal records total area, geo-positioning maps, and details such as ownership rights. According to the portal, the railways is the biggest landowner among Union ministries, and owns 31,063 land parcels spread over 2,929 sq km. On previous occasions, the ministry has given varying figures of the land it owns. Though the track record of the railways, as well as other government agencies, on land asset management is poor, data uploaded on the GLIS portal is easily verifiable (because of the level of details provided), said an official from the housing and urban affairs ministry. The defence ministry, which owns a large share of the governments land holding, has given only partial details citing security concerns. It has uploaded data about 383.62 sq km of its total land assets. In a 2010-11, a Comptroller and Auditor General report had pegged defence land holding at approximately 7,000 sq km. In 2012, a committee headed by former finance secretary Vijay Kelkar had recommended monetising the governments unutilised and under-utilised land to finance infrastructure projects in urban areas. Some states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat have started raising funds by leasing out land to the private sector. The move to make an inventory has been welcomed by experts, many of whom see it as a step towards better utilisation of government land. Land is a public resource and it is scarce. Unless it is properly valued, the government will never know whether it is overusing land, said Shubhashis Gangopadhyay, founder and research director at India Development Foundation, an independent research organisation. Monetising land for infrastructure is not only a noble goal but also necessary to optimise the use of resources for development. Ram Singh, professor of economics at the Delhi School of Economics, said this was long overdue. Due to excessive holdings, a precious but scarce economic resource remains unutilised. This generates an artificial scarcity of land for developmental purposes, and increases project costs, he said. Singh suggested that India learn from the British government, which provides details of all its land and buildings to the public. People are invited to suggest better usage for them under a right to contest. It (British government) has promised to release excess land whose current use it cannot justify, he said. Asked why some ministries and central public sector enterprises (CPSEs) are yet to give details of their total land holdings, housing ministry officials said there was some resistance to providing specific information about surplus, unutilised, under-utilised or encroached land. Despite directions from the PMO, information on surplus land hasnt been forthcoming. Except the department of fertilizers, which has declared surplus land of about 17 sq km, none of the ministries or CPSEs have provided these details, an official said. The NDA government, meanwhile, has started work on the next phase of the project, in which it plans to dispose of the land of sick and loss-making CPSEs. A sub-committee headed by the secretary of the department of public enterprises (DPE) is reviewing the guidelines for land disposal. A government source said the panel has suggested that first priority while selling unutilised land should be given to affordable housing one of the governments key priorities under its Housing for All programme. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Italy will send five ministerial delegations to India to revamp bilateral relations, the countrys visiting premier told PM Narendra Modi on Monday, signalling a thaw in ties as the two sides pitched for a proposed free trade agreement between New Delhi and the European Union. Paolo Gentiloni is the first Prime Minister from the southern European country to visit India in a decade that included four years of chill after two Italian marines were charged with killing two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast in 2012. The focus was to put bilateral ties and mutual trust back on track. We mark 70 years of India-Italy friendship and will continue expanding bilateral relations in years to come, Modi said. The countries signed six pacts, including agreements promoting energy cooperation and investment as well as cyber security and counter-terrorism measures. Also, they agreed to work for an early conclusion of the India-European Union bilateral trade and investment agreement (BTIA), a free trade pact with the largest bloc India does business with. Gentiloni announced the upcoming visits to India by several ministerial-level delegations, including those of the ministers of agriculture, culture, economy and finance and the Italian vice minister for economic development, a joint statement said. The two sides discussed ways to revitalise India-European Union ties, vis-a-vis BTIA. Italy is Indias fifth-largest trading partner in Europe. But their frosty relationship had cast a shadow on Indias position in EU. The leaders expressed shared commitment to strengthening economic partnership between India and the EU and noted ongoing efforts of both sides to re-engage actively towards an early resumption of negotiations for a comprehensive and mutually beneficial India-EU broad-based trade and investment agreement, the statement said. Gentiloni spoke of Italys commitment to the governments signature Make in India initiative through 628 Italian companies operating in India. They have invested over $2.4 billion and provide employment to over 23,000 people. The two sides will hold a meeting for enhancing bilateral defence cooperation. A meeting of the joint defence committee will be convened early next year. Gentiloni called for more sharing of experience between India and Italy in fighting corruption. The president of Italys national anti-corruption authority will visit India for a dialogue. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON India told Pakistan on Monday the support provided by its army to infiltrators was unacceptable and the Indian side will continue its retaliatory measures along the Line of Control (LoC) against unabated support given to terrorists seeking to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistani director general of military operations (DGMO) Major General Sahir Shamshad Mirza dialled his Indian counterpart Lieutenant General AK Bhatt, alleging that the Indian Army had carried out unprovoked firing and targeted civilians along the de facto border between the two nations. During the unscheduled hotline interaction after lunch, Lieutenant General Bhatt also told Mirza that the neighbouring army had hired civilians to snoop on Indias forward post and it was also providing guides to terrorists to help them cross the LoC. He said the Pakistani army had granted permission to civilians to settle in the vicinity of their (Pakistani) posts. These civilians have repeatedly been used to gain information on our locations and providing guides to terrorists while crossing the LoC, he told Mirza. The two DGMOs or their representatives speak over the hotline to discuss LoC issues every Tuesday. Terrorists usually make desperate attempts to sneak into the border state ahead of the onset of winter that shuts down several infiltration routes in the mountains. The DGMO further clarified that the Indian Army maintains impeccable standards of professionalism and does not target civilians, an army release said. Bhatt told Mirza that the Indian Army was committed to maintaining peace and tranquillity along the countrys borders, but the prime reason for any collateral damage was the assistance provided to terrorists by the Pakistani army. He warned the Pakistani DGMO that the support being provided to terrorists was unacceptable and the army retained the right to punitively respond to such provocative acts of aggression by the neighbouring army. Hello, the Prime Minister is on the line. Narendra Modi is striking a chord with his home states grassroots BJP workers with his phone, a weapon that Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi may miss in his arsenal in the battle for Gujarat. The BJPs biggest crowd-puller is calling up party workers personally to add to his high-decibel campaigns and innovative techniques such as 3D holographic projections at rallies and chai pe charcha meetings, which he used ahead of his successful 2014 parliamentary polls. These personal calls by the Prime Minister are making a huge impact both on the party and the people of Gujarat. His approach is infusing new energy into our strong organizational network. This goes to prove how he remains a peoples leader unlike Rahul Gandhi, BJP media cell in-charge Harshad Patel said. The phone-a-friend strategy is seen as an attempt to underline his ability to remember old connections and rekindle emotional bonds ahead of the high-stakes December 9 and 14 elections in Gujarat, which he ruled as chief minister from 2001 to 2014. The calls are meant to dent Gandhis growing social media presence and the Congress-backed online campaign Vikas gando thai gayo che, or development has gone crazy gaining popularity. This is also a counteroffensive against Gandhis outreach during his recent tour of the state, where he had tea sitting on a cot with the family of party worker in Jamnagar and performed Navratri puja at a garba event in Rajkot. Audio clips of Modis calls to two party workers in Gujarat are widely shared on social media networks. In the first clip, he is heard talking to Gopal Gohil, BJP general secretary of Ward Number 13 in Vadodara who is a shopkeeper. The Prime Minister tells him to ignore negativity in campaigns. Modi cites how he was called maut ka saudagar or merchant of death, and a murderer by the Congress, but he concentrated on working for Gujarat. We have been destined to be abused since the launch of Jan Sangh. But you should not worry about it Has there been any election when lies were not spread? They said my hands were stained with blood. But people know the truth. Earlier, rumours were spread by word of mouth, now WhatsApp is there to help those who wish to spread rumours, Modi tells Gohil. The pep talk had a positive effect on the man and he now promises to redouble his efforts for a party victory. Gohil said when Modi recollected about his stationary shop, he was left speechless. Despite having a pressing schedule, Saheb makes it a point to talk to small party workers like me. This is a matter of pride for me and my generations to come, he said. In another call, made to Sumitraben at Dharampur in south Gujarats Valsad district, Modi says he remembers a dish she cooked for him during a visit to Dharampur long ago. Sumitraben replies that it was soup. Modi goes on to ask her to ignore casteist politics by the Congress and mentions names of some other workers. The connection is instantaneous as Modi had intensively worked at the grassroots level for years before becoming the chief minister. He enjoys a personal rapport with party workers. The BJP said more such calls are coming in the run-up to the polls for the 182-member assembly. These phone calls were part of an audio bridge conference (on Diwali), through which Narendrabhai was connected to Gujarats 25,000 BJP workers A call made to a worker was being heard by all others in that segment, said BJP Vadodara city president Keyur Rokadia. Modi made eight to 10 calls and the numbers were selected randomly. BJP sources said he will next interact with members of his mobile application, NAMO. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The consent of 24-year-old Hadiya Shafin as an adult is prime, the Supreme Court said on Monday as it heard the love jihad case from Kerala that is being investigated by the National Investigation Agency. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra also asked Hadiyas father to produce her on November 27, the next date of hearing in the case, and said it will interact with her in an open hearing at 3pm. The Centre, on its part, said parental authority can be invoked in cases where someone is manipulated or indoctrinated. Homeopathic doctor Hadiya, born Akhila Ashokan, married Shafin Jahan without her familys consent last December. Her father, retired military man Ashokan KM, approached the high court in May, alleging in his petition that there was a well-oiled systematic mechanism for conversion and Islamic radicalisation. Ashokan told the high court in May the forces that played a key role in the alleged indoctrination and conversion of his daughter were planning to send her to the war-torn Syria as a human bomb for the terror group. The high court annulled Hadiyas marriage and ordered her to return to live with her parents in the southern states Kottayam district. Hadiyas husband Shafin challenged the high courts May 24 order annulling their marriage in the top court. The Supreme Court also ordered a probe by the NIA into the matter as the agency claimed it was not an isolated incident of love jihad but a pattern that was emerging in Kerala. Love jihad is a controversial term coined by fringe outfits to describe cases of what they believe are forced marriages between Muslim men and Hindu women. They also allege such couples often work for terrorist groups. The parents of some of the missing persons from the state, who are suspected to have joined the IS, also lauded the SC decision and said they would come forward to help the father. During the previous case hearing, however, Chief Justice Misra questioned the Kerala high courts order annulling the marriage. The top court had also questioned the legality of Hadiyas father keeping her in his custody. The father of Hadiya, a 24-year-old Hindu woman from Kerala who converted to Islam, denied on Monday his daughter was under house arrest and said he will produce her before the Supreme Court on November 27 as directed. Speaking to the media at Vaikom in Kottayam district, Asokan said: It does not matter to me which faith my daughter decides to choose. She is not at all under house arrest. I myself have told her to go where she wants as there will be always police protection. But its her decision that she prefers not to go anywhere. Asokan added at no cost would he accept Shafin Jahan, a Muslim man who married his daughter last year after which she changed her faith. In New Delhi, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra heard on Monday Jahans plea against the Kerala high court order of May annulling the marriage. Hadiyas father had appealed for in-camera proceedings, but the Supreme Court declined his request. The marriage had been challenged in the high court by Asokan, who alleged that Jahan had links with terror group IS. Jahan had also pleaded before the Supreme Court to cancel the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into their marriage. The NIA probe was ordered by the apex court. The Supreme Court said on Monday it will set up a five-judge constitution bench in the last week of November to hear pleas against the governments decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for social benefits. The apex court earlier pulled up the Mamata Banerjee government for filing a plea challenging the Centres move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of social welfare schemes, saying it was against the federal structure. The top court asked how a state can challenge the mandate of Parliament and said the West Bengal Chief Minister could file the plea as an individual. Here are the highlights: 2.26pm: The government denies allegations of misuse of Aadhaar. It has filed a 100-page affidavit to justify linking the unique ID to social welfare schemes. 2.19pm: The government has not give any undertaking on extending the deadline for Aadhaar card holders to link the unique ID with social welfare schemes. 2.18pm: The Supreme Court will hear petitions against Aadhaar in last week of November. The Chief Justice of India says he will set up a Constitution bench then. 11.06am: The Supreme Court issues notice to Centre on separate plea challenging linking of mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar; seeks reply within four weeks. 11.06am: We know it is a matter that needs consideration but you satisfy us how state can challenge it: Supreme Court to West Bengal. The SC asks West Bengal CM Banerjee to file the petition in individual capacity, according to ANI. 11.08am: The Supreme Court questions the West Bengal government for filing a plea against the Centres decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of welfare schemes.Tomorrow the Centre can challenge a law passed by the state. 11.09am: In a federal structure, how can a state file plea challenging Parliaments mandate, the Supreme Court asks West Bengal. 11.25am: On West Bengals please, the SC says: There is no doubt it (Aadhaar) needs examination but the prayer cant be entertained. Two serving and two retired IAS officers are among 10 persons who face the likelihood of being booked by the state vigilance investigation bureau, for their alleged role in irregularities in a body tasked with the welfare of dalits in Bihar. One of these IAS officers is at present acting chairman of the Bihar Land tribunal (BLT). According to sources, the vigilance bureau has found enough evidence against all these 10 persons in the glaring financial lapses detected in the Bihar Mahadalit Vikas Nigam, which started functioning in 2010. They may be arrested soon, said an official, adding, all the programmes run under the corporation are under the vigilance scanner and involved a questionable expenditure of several crores of rupees. The corporation runs several schemes for the welfare of the scheduled caste people, including radio scheme, helpline centres, special schools-cum-hostels, Dasrath Manjhi Kaushal Vikas Yojana and a dress scheme, among others. The corporation had accepted tenders for the training SC candidates and offering other facilities from companies called Sriram New Horizon and IIIM Limited. However, investigations have revealed false data of trainees was used during the 2010-16 period to show inflated expenditure, which seems to have been done in an organized manner, said the official. When the irregularities surfaced, the corporation wrote about it to the chief secretary, who handed over the probe to vigilance bureau. Sources said DG Vigilance Ravindra Kumar constituted a team under DSP Arun Kumar to verify the allegations, which were found to be prima facie true and a vigilance case (FIR No 81/17) was registered under various sections of IPC including 406, 409, 420, 467, 468, 471a and 120b. The two serving IAS officers facing the heat are Former chief executive officers of the corporation SM Raju and Ravi Manubhai Parmar. The retired IAS officer under the scanner are KP Ramaiah, also a former CEO and former director Ramashish Paswan. Retired BPS officer Prabhat Kumar, Dev Jani, Umesh Kumar Manjhi, Sharad Kumar Jha, Saurabh Vasu and Jaideep Kau have been made accused in a scam of Rs 4 crore. At present, Ramaiah is the acting chairman of BLT. . SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Former actor and BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha has extended his support to actor Vijays Tamil film Mersal, which had some controversial dialogues about GST and the Digital India programme. He says people should support the movie and not remain defensive about the perfectly legitimate issue. Why is it such a crime if Vijay who is a very powerful Tamil actor, reminds us that the poor in our country desperately need healthcare? Sinha, a BJP member, said. Why are we so defensive about a perfectly legitimate issue that has been raised in the Tamil film regarding healthcare and the GST? As entertainers and actors with powerful voices we have a certain duty towards the public to make them aware of socio-political issues, Sinha, whos is a BJP member of Parliament from Patna, said. He added: Why is it such a crime if Vijay who is a very powerful Tamil actor, reminds us that the poor in our country desperately need healthcare? Mersal was embroiled in controversy after the Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded the removal of certain dialogues which take a dig at the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Digital India. However, Sinha feels that the protestors of the movie dont represent the BJPs official view. Has anyone heard the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) or any of the top leaders commenting on the issue? It is only some elements in our party who are eager to prove that they are more loyal than the others, Sinha said. They are the ones jumping in to attack this perfectly harmless and very significant point raised in the film. Instead of attacking Vijay and questioning his credentials we should all take his words seriously and work towards improving healthcare in our country, he added. Sinha feels there is no harm in pulling up the government for mistakes. We should gracefully accept that demonetisation was a mistake. I was one of the first to point it out that it was not right. So many have lost their jobs, all their savings. Likewise perhaps even the GST is not what it was meant to be, he said. If so, lets admit out mistake, lets roll back. Lets not be ashamed to say we are sorry. Instead of attacking actors and artistes for drawing attention to anomalies in the workings of our democracy, we should applaud them. Valid criticism must be equally welcome from Amar, Akbar and Anthony, he added. He believes that the film has received a lot of hype because of BJP. Thanks to all the noise that was made over a few dialogues in the film by my overzealous party members, the film has attracted much more attention that it would have otherwise. The makers of Mersal must be thankful to the BJP, he concluded. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni will meet on Monday to boost ties between the two countries after relations had turned frosty following a face-off over two Italian marines killing two Indian fishermen in 2012. Gentiloni who arrived on Sunday on a two-day visit, will have a 90-minute one on one meeting with Modi ahead of talks between the delegations of the two countries at noon. The two leaders will meet the top CEOs of each others countries. Gentilonis visit is the first by an Italian PM in 10 years nearly four of which saw a strain in ties between New Delhi and Rome over two Italian marines killing two Indian fishermen off the Kerala coast in 2012. The visit is aimed at strengthening the bilateral political and economic relations between the two countries, external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj will also call on Gentiloni. The Italian PM will visit both President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. The strain in India-Italy ties had spillover effect on Delhis relationship with European Union, countrys largest trading bloc. Romano Prodi was the last Italian Prime Minister to visit India in February 2007. Diplomatic ties took a hit after the two Italian marines - Latorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone - were arrested on charges of killing two Indian fishermen. Italy claimed the ship, Enrica Lexie, was in international waters when the incident happened and that only the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea should apply and questioned Indias jurisdiction over the case. Rome also said the marines who were on official duty, enjoyed diplomatic immunity. India argued against all these positions. While Latorre returned to Italy in September 2014 on health grounds following an order of the Supreme Court, Girone was allowed to go in May 2016. They are now in Italy pending a verdict by the arbitration court at The Hague. Prime Minister Gentiloni is accompanied by his wife and a 15-member delegation of Italian CEOs. Italy is Indias fifth largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade of $8.79 billion in 2016-17, according to official figures. Indias exports to Italy are at $4.90 billion, while its imports are at $3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of $1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of 2017-18 fiscal, bilateral trade has reached $3.22 billion. There are over 600 Italian companies in India in various sectors such as fashion, textiles and textile machinery, automotives, auto components, energy and insurance. Italy has the third largest presence of Indian community in Europe with an estimated 1,80,000 people after the UK and the Netherlands. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON India and Italy on Monday inked six pacts, including on boosting cooperation in the energy and trade sectors, after extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni on key issues such as terrorism and cyber crime. The two leaders also discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral political and economic relations, apart from deliberating on strategic international and regional issues. Addressing a joint media event with Gentiloni, Modi said they discussed wide-ranging issues, including the challenges posed by terrorism and cyber crimes, while agreeing to enhance cooperation to counter them. Modi also noted that there was a huge potential for enhancing India-Italy trade ties. After the Modi-Gentiloni meeting, the two sides signed six pacts to deepen cooperation in the fields of railways sector safety, energy and promoting mutual investments, among others. Italy is Indias fifth largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade of $8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. Indias exports to Italy were at $4.90 billion, while its imports were at $3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of $1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached $3.22 billion. Ahead of his meeting with Modi, the visiting leader had described his visit as an opportunity to make ties between the two countries stronger. Earlier, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj called on Gentiloni and discussed issues of mutual interest, ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. Gentilonis visit is the first prime ministerial trip from Italy in more than a decade. India-Italy diplomatic ties were hit badly after two Italian marines -- Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone -- onboard a ship named Enrica Lexie, were arrested for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in 2012. Italy claimed the ship was in international waters and that only the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) should apply. It also moved the international court. While Latorre returned to Italy in September 2014 following an order of the Supreme Court issued on health grounds, Girone was allowed to go in May 2016. They are now in Italy, pending the verdict by the arbitration court at the Hague. The Indo-Italy diplomatic row also impacted the European Unions relationship with India. On Sunday, Pidi had his day. The terrier became the talk of Twitter after a tweet from Rahul Gandhis official account attributed the Congress leaders revamped presence on the social media platform to the dog. The black-and-white pooch -- who stands on his hind legs in the Twitter video and pops a biscuit on command -- drew laughter, appreciation, memes and jokes, apart from a wave of political commentary. The Congress vice presidents post was re-tweeted more than 10,000 times and liked by over 27,000 accounts since Sunday. Ppl been asking who tweets for this guy..I'm coming clean..it's me..Pidi..I'm way than him. Look what I can do with a tweet..oops..treat! pic.twitter.com/fkQwye94a5 Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) October 29, 2017 Powerful world leaders -- from Barack Obama to Vladimir Putin -- are known to be pet lovers. Sometimes, pets have also been used in diplomacy between two nations. Heres a look at some politicians pets who have made headlines in the past: Obamas, Bo and Sunny Former US president Barack Obama and his familys pair of Portuguese dogs -- Bo with a distinctive white chest and front paws, and the all-black Sunny were canine ambassadors for the White House, quite popular with media and visitors. They were so sought after that they even had schedules. Everybody wants to see them and take pictures, former first lady Michelle Obama had said. I get a memo at the beginning of the month with a request for their schedules and I have to approve their appearances. Obama's pet dogs Bo and Sunny. (Picture courtesy: Wikipedia Commons) Former US president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, with the Easter Bunny and their two dogs, Sunny, and Bo at the White House in Washington. (AP File Photo) The dogs have entertained crowds at the annual Easter Egg Roll, and Bo was at Michelle Obamas side when she welcomed tourists on the anniversary of the Presidents inauguration. The dogs also have cheered wounded service members, as well as the hospitalised children the First Lady visits each year just before Christmas. Pervez Musharraf, Che General Pervez Musharraf, former Pakistan army chief who served as the countrys president, had tweeted in 2013 about his handsome dog, Che. Meet Che! Who my mother calls the most handsome dog in the world. PM pic.twitter.com/LpvuZH2rMq Pervez Musharraf (@P_Musharraf) April 3, 2013 Yes, you guessed it right. The German Shephard is named after the leader who scripted the Cuban revolution, Che Ernesto Guevara. Vladimir Putin, Verny Russian President Vladimir Putin added a puppy to the litter of canine companions hes received as gifts. This one is a Central Asian Shepherd bestowed by the president of the ex-Soviet nation of Turkmenistan. Putin cuddled Verny, which is Russian for loyal, and kissed the pup on the head during a meeting in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. Russian President Vladimir Putin kisses a Turkmen shepherd dog, locally known as Alabai, received by Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov during a meeting in Sochi. (AFP Photo) Putin previously received a Bulgarian shepherd named Buffy from Bulgarias premier in 2010 and an Akita named Yume from a Japanese official in 2012. Konnie, a black Labrador of Putins who was famous for terrifying German Chancellor Angela Merkel, died a few years ago. Putin received Konnie as a gift from a Russian official in 1999. In 2008, the former KGB agent was also gifted a tigress cub named Masheknka. Emmanuel Macron, Nemo French president Emmanuel Macron was left a little embarrassed after his dog Nemo decided to pee in the ornate fireplace at the Elysee Palace, interrupting a meeting. The Macrons adopted two-year-old Nemo, a labrador-griffin cross from a rescue centre this August. "I wondered what that noise was" - Emmanuel Macron's dog Nemo filmed peeing on Elysee fireplace https://t.co/BzZg3MJYXs pic.twitter.com/nd91VMRJGt BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) October 23, 2017 In the video, an amused Macron can be heard saying, Hes doing something quite exceptional. Moon Jae-in , Tory Contrary to his predecessor Park Geun-hye who allegedly abandoned her nine pedigree dogs, South Korean President Moon Jae-in shattered the taboo around black dogs by adopting Tory, reported BBC in July. Black dogs are considered unlucky by many in the country. The black mongrel was also the first First Dog to be adopted from a shelter, according to South Koreas Yonhap news agency. The mutt joined Moons two other pets: Maru the dog and Jjing-jjing the cat. Jacinda Ardern, Paddles The youngest New Zealand Prime Minister in 150 years introduced her First Cat Paddles on Twitter. The cat even has a voice on social media @FirstCatofNZ and tweets about being a catheist. Larry, her feline counterpart who was designated the chief mouser at 10, Downing Street by ex-Britain prime minister David Cameron, too welcomed Paddles on board last week. Clearly, theyre purrtyyy special. @FirstCatofNZ Welcome to the party. Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) October 24, 2017 Hi, I'm Paddles and I am the First Cat of New Zealand. I have opposable thumbs, I'm purrty special. pic.twitter.com/MPkxdhWCRu Paddles (@FirstCatofNZ) October 21, 2017 Closer home, another Congress leader Manish Tiwari fawned over his Tibetan spaniel Onyx, saying he was like a family member in this 2009 report while Union minister and activist Maneka Gandhis love for all animals is well documented. A pregnant woman died under mysterious circumstances when police carried out a raid in Manpur Makohia village in Uttar Pradeshs Barabanki as part of a drive against illicit liquor, residents have alleged. Superintendent of police Anil Kumar Singh said on Monday the raid was carried out in the village Sunday night as a part of drive against illicit liquor and three people were arrested from different houses and illicit liquor was seized. Ruchi Rawat (22), who was around eight months pregnant, died during the raid after being allegedly pushed by police, villagers said. However, according to police, the raid was not carried out at the residence of the woman. The villagers alleged that police thought the woman was hiding liquor around her belly and pushed her while trying to nab her leading to her death. Family members of the deceased have not lodged any police complaint yet. The SP said circle officer Ramsanehi Ghat has been sent to the village to conduct an inquiry and warned of stern action if any policeman is found responsible for the womans death. Albany clinics add psychologist Psychologist Vanessa Welch-Pemberton recently joined Samaritan Health Services, providing behavioral health care to patients of Samaritan Internal MedicineAlbany and Calapooia Family Medicine. Welch-Pemberton earned a bachelors degree from Gonzaga University, and masters and doctoral degrees from the School of Professional Psychology at Forest Institute. Her practicum experience includes work at community mental health centers, medical clinics and a domestic violence center. Welch-Pemberton most recently operated a private practice in Poulsbo, Washington. She has been trained in several kinds of therapy, including acceptance and commitment therapy, motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavioral therapy. Corvallis Clinic up for award The Corvallis Clinic was among organizations nationwide who were nominated for the 2017 Secretary of Defense Employer Freedom Award. Nominations must come from Guard or Reserve members who are employed by the organization they are nominating, or from a family member. The award was created in 1996 to recognize employers who provide exceptional support to their Guard and Reserve employees. It is the highest in a series of employer recognition awards given by the Department of Defense. WesternU lauded as workplace Western University of Health Sciences has been named a Great College to Work For by the Chronicle of Higher Education for the sixth consecutive year, and also made the Honor Roll for the fourth consecutive year. WesternU, which has campuses in Lebanon, Oregon, and Pomona, California, was recognized in seven categories: Collaborative Governance, Compensation and Benefits, Job Satisfaction, Professional/Career Development Programs, Respect and Appreciation, Teaching Environment (Faculty Only) and Tenure Clarity and Process (Faculty Only/Four-Year Only). WesternU was one of 79 colleges and universities deemed a Great College to Work For, drawing from 232 participating institutions in 2017, including 155 four-year colleges and universities and 77 two-year colleges. WesternU is one of only 10 institutions on the Honor Roll in the Medium category of enrollment between 3,000 and 9,999 students. WesternUs enrollment is about 3,800 students. The assessment had two components: a questionnaire about institutional characteristics and a faculty/staff questionnaire about individuals evaluations of their institutions. The assessment also included an analysis of demographic data and workplace policies. Broker joins RE/MAX office RE/MAX Integrity recently announced that Michele Smith, licensed Broker, has joined the firms Albany office at 2910 Santiam Highway SE. Smith knows the region well, having lived in the Albany and Corvallis areas for more than 25 years. She earned a bachelors degree in business administration and previously worked in the insurance industry for many years. Smith can be reached at 541-918-4007 or michele.smith1@remax.net. Strawberry Plaza wins award Oregon Main Street announced its 2017 Excellence in Downtown Revitalization award winners Oct. 4 at the Evening of Excellence Celebration in Oregon City. Lebanon's Strawberry Plaza Revitalization won the award for Best Downtown Public Improvement. The Strawberry Plaza Revitalization project converted a dilapidated downtown park into a centerpiece for the city of Lebanon. Previously, the site was a magnet for drug activity and certainly not attractive to downtown shoppers and visitors. The revitalization project established a far more attractive and family-friendly public place, providing space for outdoor art, music, historical information, and, for children of all ages, a strawberry-shaped water fountain. In addition to the visual improvements, the plaza will become the focal point of downtown events. The total cost of improvements was approximately $346,000. Oregon Main Street is part of Heritage Programs, Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. For additional information, visit www.oregonheritage.org. The Congress party on Monday launched another attack on the Narendra Modi government as the latter plans to celebrate November 8, the anniversary of the demonetisation as anti-black money day. The decision of demonetisation was an out-and-out disaster. The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is yet not able to understand the pain of the nation, Gandhi said after a meeting of party general secretaries here. He also slammed the Centres faulty planning of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) structure which led to job losses and crippled the economy. The demonetisation was the first torpedo which the country survived, but the second torpedo of GST destroyed it, he added. Accusing PM Modi for failing to understand the pain of the common people, Gandhi wondered why the NDA government is celebrating the first anniversary of note ban. I don't know what is there to celebrate, said Gandhi. The PM is not able to understand the feeling of the people and the hurt and sadness these two decisions have caused, he remarked after the meeting as the party announced that it will mark November 8 as Black Day and that the party will hold fresh protests throughout the country. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had earlier cautioned that the NDAs implementation of the GST will have an adverse impact on the economy, maintained on Monday that the new tax has implemented with a faulty design and a complication of compliances. While demonetisation was organised loot and legalised plunder, GST has ended up taking away livelihoods of ordinary people besides shutting down businesses, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala quoted Singh as saying. BJP was quick to retort with minister Giriraj Singh saying, Rahul Gandhis thinking is in the ICU. The UP elections were held after demonetisation and those residing in the state put their stamp of approval in a way, on demonetisation. The Supreme Court will hear a petition on Monday seeking repeal of Article 35A of the Constitution, which grants special privileges to Jammu and Kashmir. The petition in the case has been filed by a Delhi-based NGO, We the Citizens, saying the states autonomous status granted by Article 35(A) and Article 370 of the Constitution discriminates against fellow citizens from the rest of the country. What is Article 35A? Article 35A gives special rights to the Jammu and Kashmirs permanent residents. It disallows people from outside the state from buying or owning immovable property there, settle permanently, or avail themselves of state-sponsored scholarship schemes. It also forbids the J-K government from hiring people who are non-permanent residents. Article 35A was added to Article 370 by a Presidential order in 1954. Article 370 of the Constitution grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir, while Article 35A empowers the state legislature to define the states permanent residents and their special rights and privileges. What is the controversy? The provision in Article 35A that grants special rights and privileges to permanent citizens appears in the Constitution as an appendix, and not as an amendment. According to the NGO, Article 35A should be held unconstitutional as the President could not have amended the Constitution by way of the 1954 order, and that it was only supposed to be a temporary provision. The Article was never presented before Parliament, and came into effect immediately. The Jammu and Kashmir government has contested the petition, saying the President had the power to incorporate a new provision in the Constitution by way of an order. However, Indias attorney general KK Venugopal told the court in July that the Centre wont file an affidavit but wanted a larger debate on the very sensitive matter. Reactions Kashmiri separatist leaders warned on Sunday of widespread protests if SC delivers a verdict against the interests and aspiration of people of state. Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti warned in July there would be nobody in the state to hold the Tricolour if the rights and privileges of its residents were tinkered with. In September, Union home minister Rajnath Singh had allayed fears and promised that the government will not go against the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. But Singh was non-committal about the Centre filing a counter-affidavit in the Supreme Court to defend contentious Article. Former actor and BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha has extended his support to actor Vijays Tamil film, Mersal, which ran into a controversy over dialogues referring to the Goods and Services Tax and the central governments Digital India programme. Why are we so defensive about a perfectly legitimate issue that has been raised in the Tamil film regarding healthcare and the GST? As entertainers and actors with powerful voices we have a certain duty towards the public to make them aware of socio-political issues, Sinha, who is a BJP member of Parliament from Patna, said. He added: Why is it such a crime if Vijay, who is a very powerful Tamil actor, reminds us that the poor in our country desperately need healthcare? Mersal landed in the eye of the storm after the Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded the removal of certain dialogues which take a dig at the GST and Digital India. However, Sinha feels that the protesters of the movie dont represent the BJPs official view. Has anyone heard the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) or any of the top leaders commenting on the issue? It is only some elements in our party who are eager to prove that they are more loyal than the others, Sinha said. They are the ones jumping in to attack this perfectly harmless and very significant point raised in the film. Instead of attacking Vijay and questioning his credentials we should all take his words seriously and work towards improving healthcare in our country, he added. Sinha feels there is no harm in pulling up the government for mistakes. We should gracefully accept that demonetisation was a mistake. I was one of the first to point it out that it was not right. So many have lost their jobs, all their savings. Likewise perhaps even the GST is not what it was meant to be, he said. If so, lets admit out mistake, lets roll back. Lets not be ashamed to say we are sorry. Instead of attacking actors and artistes for drawing attention to anomalies in the workings of our democracy, we should applaud them. Valid criticism must be equally welcome from Amar, Akbar and Anthony, he added. He believes that the film has received a lot of hype because of the BJP. Thanks to all the noise that was made over a few dialogues in the film by my overzealous party members, the film has attracted much more attention that it would have otherwise. The makers of Mersal must be thankful to the BJP, he concluded. The Supreme Court said on Monday a five-judge Constitution bench will hear a slew of petitions related to the validity of the Aadhaar identification number, including linking it to bank accounts and making it mandatory to avail social benefits. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said this after Attorney General K K Venugopal told the court that the government would be amenable to various Aadhaar cases pending before the court being decided by a Constitution bench, instead of the Supreme Court passing any interim orders. Venugopal also told the court that falsehoods had being propagated against Aadhaar, including how linking it was a must for CBSE students to appear in Class 10 and 12 exams. Last week, the bench had sought to know if action would be taken against people failing to link their Aadhaar with their bank accounts and mobile phone numbers by the governments stipulated December 31 deadline. The government didnt assure the court that coercive measures wouldnt be taken. But, on October 25, the Centre indicated that the deadline for linking Aadhaar with bank accounts, mobile numbers and other schemes for those who dont have the number and are willing to go for it, may be extended till March 31. Venugopal said on Monday the Centre had prepared an affidavit outlining the uses of Aadhaar and how the government is working towards implementing the scheme without any glitches. We will provide over 100 notifications to you to prove it, he said. There are eight interim orders that say the law is purely a voluntary scheme. If the government reiterates this (order) and makes a statement that there is no compulsion on the citizens we have no problems, said senior advocate Gopal Subramanium, appearing for those opposing Aadhaar. A nine-judge bench recently held that privacy is a fundamental right guaranteed by the Constitution. Petitioners challenging the validity of Aadhaar claim it violates privacy rights. The government has argued that Aaadhar is necessary to plug leakages in its subsidy programmes and prevent corruption, and is pushing for its use in everything. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Supreme Court will hear a petition on Monday seeking repeal of Article 35A of the Constitution, which grants special privileges to Jammu and Kashmir. The petition in the case has been filed by a Delhi-based NGO, We the Citizens, saying the states autonomous status granted by Article 35(A) and Article 370 of the Constitution discriminates against fellow citizens from the rest of the country. Here are the highlights from the hearing: 1:31pm: Every person who loves Jammu and Kashmir will come on roads if there is any meddling with the law, Mustafa Kamal tells ANI. 1:30pm: Since last 65-70 years there have been no problem with this law, but these people are finding problem in it today. This, firstly, involves a doubt that these opportunist people are trying to play politics with this law, National Conference leader Mustafa Kamal tells ANI. 12:38pm: Terming it as unconstitutional, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy told ANI that the SC should quash Article 35A, as it is a temporary provision and has been held this long as a method of appeasement to votes by the Congress party. 11:50am: According to the NGO, Article 35A should be held unconstitutional as the President could not have amended the Constitution by way of the 1954 order, and that it was only supposed to be a temporary provision. 11:35am: The Jammu and Kashmir government has contested the petition, saying the President had the power to incorporate a new provision in the Constitution by way of an order. 11:20am: Kashmiri separatist leaders warned on Sunday of widespread protests if SC delivers a verdict against the interests and aspiration of people of state. 11:10am: Article 35A also forbids the Jammu and Kashmir government from hiring people who are non-permanent residents. 11:05am: Article 35A gives special rights to the Jammu and Kashmirs permanent residents. It disallows people from outside the state from buying or owning immovable property there, settle permanently, or avail themselves of state-sponsored scholarship schemes. (With inputs from agencies) External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj called on visiting Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Monday and discussed issues of mutual interest. EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on Prime Minister of Italy Paolo Gentiloni in New Delhi. Engaging discussion on issues of mutual interest, external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. Gentiloni arrived in New Delhi on Sunday. This was the first Italian prime ministerial visit since the last one in February 2007 by then prime minister Romano Prodi. Later on Monday, Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Gentiloni will hold delegation-level talks following which a number of agreements are expected to be signed. Gentiloni will also call on President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. She whimpers as doctors and nurses check on her. They try to draw her out, she doesnt respond. In around a month, she will become a mother to a child born of rape. Police arrested her father on Monday on charges of raping her. She is 16 years old. Her tears wont stop falling. Telangana authorities are rallying around the Class 10 student from a village in Ranga Reddy district at a Hyderabad hospital where she is admitted, but fear they cannot save her from childbirth. She would have appeared for board examinations in about five months, but is eight months pregnant now, said a doctor handling her case. A medical termination of her pregnancy is ruled out because it is well past the permissible 20-week period, the doctor added. The girl, who is from a Scheduled Tribe community of basket weavers, knew something was wrong with her body, but did not know she was pregnant until a few days ago, said police. She stayed quiet out of fear, but her aunt discovered her pregnancy. She confided in her aunt that her father had been raping her for months, police added. Though we have all the evidence against the girls father to prove he repeatedly raped her, we are getting him medically examined to test his potency so that he cannot deny the heinous act, PV Padmaja, deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Shamshabad, told HT. We will produce him in court on Tuesday for judicial remand, Padmaja added. Police have booked the man under Indian Penal Code sections related to committing rape repeatedly on a person below 16 years of age, giving false information, and criminal intimidation, besides sections under the Juvenile Justice Act and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The girl has a younger sister, who is in Class 8. Their mother was murdered 10 years ago and their father was an accused in the case, said police. People in the mans village are aware of his prior brush with the law. He was in judicial custody for nearly three years after being accused of killing his wife and was acquitted for want of evidence, said the village sarpanch. When he was in jail, we got his daughters admitted to a girls hostel. But he pulled his daughters out of the hostel last year, the sarpanch added. The sarpanch and other villagers HT spoke to said they had no clue the man was abusing his daughter. The villagers added they did not spot her pregnancy. The pregnant girls aunt took the help of local anganwadi workers and alerted the police on Sunday. The younger sister is now with the aunt, said police. Authorities are considering shifting the pregnant girl to a government-run child welfare home. The government will take care of her and her to-be-born child in accordance with the directions of the court, said DCP Padmaja. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Motipur police in north Bihars Muzaffarpur district have lodged a murder case after bodies of two minor sisters were found hanging by a tree at a village on Sunday. The police suspected thee double murder to be honour killings. Preliminary investigations revealed that the girls Gudiya Kumari, 16, daughter of Dhodha Paswan and Gunja Kumari, 14, daughter of Jailal Paswan, both cousins were involved in separate love affairs, the police said. The family members had cremated their bodies and were absconding, the police said. This had raised suspicion that they intentionally tried to destroy evidence, the police added. The abandoned house of the victims at Korigawan village in Bihars Muzaffarpur district. (HT photo) Deputy superintendent of police (Muzaffarpur west), Krishna Murari Prasad, who visited the scene of the crime, said the villagers told him that there were no ligation marks around the neck of the deceased. The tongue of the deceased also did not come out, as is generally happens when someone is either hanged or commits suicide by hanging self, said Prasad. This, he said, raised suspicion that the cousins could have been killed elsewhere and then hung to a tree at a private mango orchard in Mahwal village in Motipur police station area. The Mahwal village, where the bodies were recovered is 1 km away from the Korigawan village, where the victims used to stay in Muzaffarpur district, around 70 kms north of Patna. We have not been able to record the statement of victims family members as they are absconding. However, some villagers said both the girls were students of a nearby government high school. They also told us that the girls were involved in love affairs. It may be possible that the family members resisted their affair and killed the two girls to save the dignity of the family, the deputy SP added. There is a steady flow of mourners to the Colonelganj residence of Vishwanath Lal whose five-year-old son Shiva died on Saturday after he was hit by a vehicle allegedly in the convoy of Uttar Pradeshs cabinet minister Om Prakash Rajbhar. They are angry and blame the phoolanwali gaadi (flower bedecked vehicle) for the death and the minister for not even caring to rush the child to hospital. Rajbhar, whose Soheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (SBSP), is an ally of the ruling BJP in the state, has denied the vehicle was part of his cavalcade. But the family says otherwise. Hamka toh yohi batawa gaya rahe ki phoolan wali gaadi maaris hai (I was told that it was a flower bedecked car that hit my grandson), Jawahar Lal told HT over the phone from Colonelganj in Gonda district, about 120km from the state capital Lucknow, on Sunday. The boy was with his aunt at the time of the accident and Rajbahar was on way back to Lucknow from Behta-Gaurasinghpur village in Gonda district. Repeated calls to Rajbahar since Saturday have gone unanswered. The car was not part of the entourage but right behind it, his party general secretary Shashi Pratap Singh quoted the minister as saying. The villagers HT spoke to over the phone said one of the three vehicles moving with Rajbhar was covered in flowers, backing the grandfathers claim. Eyewitnesses say the motorcade briefly slowed down after hitting the boy before speeding away, Jai Prakash, one of the mourners at Lals house, told HT. The accident may be unintentional but what about the insensitivity shown by the minister who left a child to die by the roadside, he said. In his police complaint, Vishvanath Lal mentioned mantriji ke kaafile ki ek gaadi (a vehicle in ministers convoy), Colonelganj police station inspector Sadanand Singh said. An FIR has been registered against unidentified persons for causing the death of a child. No one has been named, Singh said. The villagers, who had blocked the road in protest, accuse the police of not even trying to stop the cavalcade and going slow in the case. Rajbhar said he came to know of the accident 50km away from the site. The minister wanted to return. He told me that perhaps the vehicle that ran over the child was not part of his motorcade. In any case, a probe has been ordered, Shashi Pratap Singh said on Sunday. The inquiry was ordered by chief minister Yogi Adityanath who also announced a Rs 5-lakh compensation for the family. Legally there cant be a case against the minister since he has already said he wasnt even aware of the accident and came to know about it later, Lucknow-based criminal lawyer Rohit Kant said. At the most, his driver could be tried for causing death due to negligent driving, he said. The incident came two days after a farmer of Orai in Uttar Pradeshs Jalaun district alleged that 35-vehicle strong cavalcade of another minister, Jai Kumar Singh Jaiki, drove through his fields and ruined the seedlings that sprouted recently. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) chief Praveen Togadia will formally launch a helpline for members of the Hindu community in Jammu and Kashmir during his three-day visit to the state from November 3, a leader of the organisation said. The Hindu Helpline aims at helping members of the community in pilgrimages, vacations, emergencies like accidents and other issues. Togadia will preside over a national-level meeting of the prominent members of the Hindu Helpline, the leader said on the condition of anonymity. The International Working President of the VHP would discuss overall political and security situation with VHP leaders and representatives of civil society groups, he said. Togadia would also meet women wing leaders and chair internal assessment group meetings to further strengthen the organisation in the state before winding up his three-day visit on November 5, the leader said. Valdez Bravo, first vice chairmain of the Democratic Party of Oregon, will be the guest speaker Thursday, Nov. 2, at the monthly general meeting of the Linn County Democrats. The meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. at Albany Public Library, 2450 14th Ave. S.E. A social time starts at 6 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. Bravo is expected to speak about campaign finance reform, Ballot Measure 101 and his takeaways from the Democratic National Committee Fall Meeting, held Oct. 18-21 in Las Vegas. Hell also field questions from the audience. Bravo was elected as first vice chairman of the state party in March. He also serves on the Portland Community College Board of Directors. Also on the agenda Nov. 2 will be a discussion and vote on a draft resolution supporting Ballot Measure 101, which will appear on the Jan. 23 mail ballot. Measure 101, if approved, would affirm the Healthcare Protections Bill passed by the Oregon Legislature earlier this year. For more information, contact Linn Dems Co-Chair Graham Kislingbury, 541-974-2075. Three months after HT reported how Alwars Imran Khan, who found mention in Prime Minister Narendra Modis speech at the iconic Wembley stadium, has been logged out by state-run BSNL, the corporation has logged him back in. A day after Modi mentioned his name in his address in London in November 2015, BSNL offered Khan free internet connection for developing mobile applications. In July, Khan said he had been logged out as the internet connection at his house was down for more than six months. But now BSNL has provided him high-speed internet access by laying a new, 450 metre, optical fibre cable to his house, which cost Rs 1.25 lakh. We wrote to our corporate head office in Delhi to lay the cable. After approval, we laid a new line which provides him internet through fibre-to-home technology, said BSNL Alwar circle general manager Shyam Singh. The 36-year-old schoolteacher said that he is thankful to HT for highlighting the issue. The internet is working absolutely fine now, he said. Khan caught the PMs attention after a front-page article in HT on July 22, 2015, which detailed how without any formal training in computers the Sanskrit School teacher had developed 42 educational android apps in three years. Modi said, My India resides in people like Imran Khan, during his speech. A day later, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad called up Khan to congratulate him for his noble work. BSNL then gave Khan free internet connection through wireless WiMAX technology as his home in Alwar city was unfeasible for a wired connection. But, Khan said, it was a basic connection and I could log in only sporadically. The new technology has solved all problems, he added. Khan has developed more apps 72 at last count with 8.5 million downloads. In November 2016, Union minister of state for law & Justice, electronics & IT PP Chaudhary made Khan a member of the technical advisory of an institute under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Khan was roped in to develop mobile applications for the ministry under the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), the human resources development (HRD) arm of the MeitY. Jaipur: Lysosomal Storage Disorders Support Society (LSDSS) has asked the state government to create corpus fund from the annual state budget for better diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases. LSDSS president Manjit Singh on the International Gaucher Day organised an awareness programme at JK Lon Hospital in Jaipur on Monday. Parents with their children suffering from rare diseases along with JK Lon hospital superintendent Dr Ashok Gupta and Dr Lalit Bharadia, paediatric gastroenterologist from a private hospital, were present. Gaucher disease is one of the most common LSDs and is a very serious condition wherein people lack an important enzyme which is responsible for breaking down a specific type of fat molecule. Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) is required every fortnight. It is a very expensive treatment and many are unable to afford it. Elaborating on the need for government intervention, LSDSS president said Gaucher can be a life threatening condition if is not treated on time. There are around 26 children in Rajasthan who have been diagnosed with Gaucher and it is important that they receive proper treatment timely. I would like to request the Rajasthan government and the State Health Minister to consider creating a corpus fund from the annual State health budget for the better diagnosis and treatment of rare disease patients. Since health is a state subject, the onus lies on the state health ministry to take care of these people, he said. He also appreciated the efforts taken by Dr Gupta and his team for setting up an exclusive rare diseases unit at JK Lon Hospital for providing diagnostic testing and facilitating infusion treatment for the disorders. Dr Gupta said, in Rajasthan, a policy proposal for appropriate treatment and diagnosis of rare diseases had already been submitted in 2015. He said, There are some patients who are getting treatment under charitable programs and are leading normal lives. In order to ensure that the treatment can be accessed by the rest of the patients, government intervention is required. A policy proposal has already been developed and Rajasthan is the first state which is providing formal education and patient support for LSDs. The unit at JK Lon Hospital for rare diseases has been functional for the past three years and has benefitted 300 patients since its inception, added Dr Gupta. Dr Bharadia said patients suffering from this condition often lead an incapacitating life. It, thus, becomes important to emphasise on the timely treatment and diagnosis of Gaucher. The good news is that timely treatment can help these patients lead a normal life. There is a need for an effective state level intervention to help patients afford the expensive treatment, he said. Rifle Factory Ishapore (RFI), Indias oldest defence establishment that armed British and allied forces during two World Wars and Indian soldiers later on, is now witnessing the CBI and police probing charges of defalcation of funds and smuggling of weapon parts from its premises. The factory is located around 40 km to the north of Kolkata. Six months ago the vigilance department of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) detected huge financial mismanagement by a section of officers at RFI and informed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). A case was registered at 6.30 pm on October 17 by the anti-corruption branch of CBI, Kolkata on the basis of a complaint lodged by Gautam Mandal, chief vigilance officer of OFB. Having its headquarters in Kolkata, OFB runs 41 units across India under the production and supplies wing of the Ministry of defence. Read: Pellet guns, used against Kashmirs stone-pelters, to guard SBI offices Madhu Sudan Mukhopadhyay, a cashier at RFI, has been named as the prime accused along with other unknown persons. Finding prima facie evidence the CBI has charged Mukhopadhyay with defalcation of Rs 1.70 crore. Mukhopadhyay is currently under suspension. RFI produces the INSAS rifle and its variants used in Kargil, the 12 gauge pump-action shotgun (infamously known as the pellet gun in Kashmir), a pistol and some new rifles for the army and police and six types of firearms meant only for civilians. Because of its production schedule, the factory has to maintain a stock of finished and unfinished weapons as well as components. In a disturbing development, the Special Task Force (STF) of the Kolkata Police on September 21 arrested Sambhu Bhattacharjee, a junior works manager, for allegedly smuggling out parts of the 7.62 mm SLR and 5.56 mm INSAS. These components were allegedly being sold to gunsmiths who cater to the underworld. Deepak Shaw, who allegedly deals in illegal firearms and has links with gangs in Bihar, was arrested along with Bhattacharjee. About two dozen magazines of semi-automatic rifles and several components, including firing mechanisms and triggers, were seized by the STF. Read: Indian Army rejects indigenously made rifles for second year in a row The STF went into action after Lalu, a contractual labourer who used to work at the pistol section of RFI, was arrested in Kolkata on September 18. A 9 mm pistol, assembled with components made at the factory, was seized from him. The discovery shocked the administration. Vigilance inside the factory has been intensified manyfold after the smuggling was detected, Ratneswar Varma, who took charge of RFI as general manager in April 2016, told HT. Some people have been identified. Others are being cross-examined by the task force, he added. While the Kolkata Police is pursuing the smuggling racket, the CBI probe into defalcation of funds from the cash section of a Centre-run unit has raised eyebrows inside RFI. A section of officers and workers feel that none of the crimes could have been committed without the involvement of officers. This is not the first reported incident of smuggling. In 2015 the RFI authorities received a complaint that ammunition was being secretly shipped out of the factory. There is a shooting range inside the factory for employees. Lockers allotted to the shooters were searched. Ammunition that nobody could account for were seized from some lockers, said an officer on condition of anonymity. After RFI started making the 5.56 mm INSAS (in photo) the 7.62 mm SLR rifle was phased out by the Army. (AFP File Photo) The first information report on financial corruption that Gautam Mandal, an Indian Revenue Service officer, submitted to the joint director of CBI on April 4 this year mentioned that Rs 28.56 crores were withdrawn from the bank during 2012-2016 but no entry was made in the books. The factory did not offer its cash books for audit for the last six years despite repeated reminder from the internal audit department. It is equally surprising that in spite of repeated reminders from OFB internal audit office to the management of the factory, including the general manager, no action was taken to remedy the situation and stop the malpractice, the chief vigilance officer of OFB said in his report. He also sent a letter in March this year to heads of the rest of the 40 factories run by OFB, mentioning the mismanagement of funds and asking them to be vigilant. A paramilitary trooper holds a Ishapore-made pellet gun as he stands guard during a curfew in Srinagar. (AFP File Photo) The vigilance report which is now part of the FIR filed by CBI names seven senior officers as main suspects in the defalcation case. They include a former general manager, a joint general manager, a deputy general manager, an additional general manager and an assistant general manager. I suspended Madhu Sudan Mukhopadhyay, the cashier, after the internal investigation. I was convinced by the findings, Ratneswar Varma told HT when asked about the CBI probe. Interestingly, the full vigilance report (HT has a copy) mentions Arijit Mukherjee, a young Indian Ordnance Factory Service Officer posted as cash officer of the factoryon May 11, 2015 as the whistle blower. He repeatedly tried to expose the misdeeds and brought the matter to the notice of Varma, the report says. Set up in 1875 as a gunpowder factor and developed into a rifle-making unit in 1904, RFI armed the British Indian army with the famous Lee-Enfield rifle and Vickers machine gun and started making rifles and pistols for the armed forces, police and civilians after Independence. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Howrah Police arrested a photographer on charges of morphing faces of young women clients to nude images and circulating them online, and sought tech company Googles help in the investigation. Binod Soren was arrested on Sunday night in Jagacha after a college student lodged a police complaint. I went to college on October 24 and found that my photo on a bare body was doing the rounds on social media. Since then I cant go out of home. My mother has fallen ill. I lodged a police complaint, said the victim. Police confiscated a computer, a laptop, a camera and CDs from Sorens room, and found multiple morphed photographs stored on these devices. Its dangerous. All of us have to visit photo studios for passport photos for different document-related work. If these are later used like this, it exposes almost everybody to such mischief, the victim said. In order to take down the images posted by Soren, Howrah Police have written to Google requesting for details of where and how the photos were uploaded. We have written to Google to help in the investigation. Apparently, he (Soren) used Google Drive to circulate photos. Once we get the details from the company, we can proceed fast with the investigation, Howrah city police commissioner DP Singh told HT. It would also help us identify from where he procured the photographs he used to morph. A woman came forward to lodge a complaint, Singh added. The Uttar Pradesh madrasa board has started preparation to introduce books by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in the Islamic seminaries to standardise and improve the curriculum in sync with job requirements. The move comes close on the heels of the state government directing all madrasas in the state to register with the UP state madrasa board. We are in the process of standardising and integrating the syllabus, especially for subjects like science, mathematics and English. We plan to introduce NCERT books, registrar of UP Madrasa Shiksha Parishad, Rahul Gupta told HT. So far students, after completing their education from a madrasa used to become alims or maulvis which are low paying jobs. Most madrasas primarily impart religious teaching with some big ones introducing modern subjects in the last few years. The director said the plan is in a formative stage and officials are working on how to go about it. The board will not touch upon the religious teaching (Deen-e-Taalimi) that is a common practice in madrasas. Only formal education part will be revised soon. In the religious part only bifurcation of books will be done. Like what will be taught to class 1 student and what in class 5. Our soul aim is to introduce NCERT books for subjects like mathematics and science, he said. There are more than 16,000 madrasas in the state, of which 560 are government-aided while 4500 are partially funded by the state. The change in syllabus will be introduced in all madrasas in the state. Read more: Uttar Pradesh: 2,682 madarsas fail to register, face action Eidgah imam Khalid Rasheed Firangi Mahli who runs one of the oldest madrasas in Lucknow adjacent to Aishbah Eidgah said there is nothing wrong in introducing NCERT books. But we would have appreciated had madrasa officials were taken into confidence before going ahead with it. We are not against modern education. In fact many of the private madrasas were teaching these subjects, he said. The Uttar Pradesh government first asked madrasas of the state to submit their details and register themselves on the newly launched website of the UP Madarsa Board. The government had launched a website http://madarsaboard.upsdc.gov.in. for the madrasa board on August 18. The government had instructed madrasa to upload pictures of classrooms or the total area, number of teachers, their Aadhaar numbers, account details etc on the boards website with an objective to bring transparency in their working and bring qualitative improvement. Earlier in August, the state government issued order for madrasas in Uttar Pradesh to compulsorily observe the Independence Day, a move criticised for raising doubts on the integrity of those running madrasas and its students. Police investigating Thursdays fire at Garib Nagar slum in Bandra said they suspect that the blaze was a pre-planned operation. The Nirmal Nagar police said five men are wanted, one of whom was also accused of participating in the August 11, 2012 riots at Azad Maidan. Deven Bharti, joint commissioner of police, law and order, confirmed that the cops were probing multiple angles, including the claim that slum dwellers, who wanted to stop the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations demolition, started the blaze. Officers said a few slum dwellers said they heard that their neighbours had set the fire. Police are investigating based on this, as well as the statement of a senior civic official, who alleged that the men whose shanties were to be demolished were angry and used gas cylinders to start the blaze. Acting on his complaint, the police had registered an FIR. Officials suspect that the fire caused cylinders to explode, which intensified the blaze. Police said they were trying to get evidence to ensure that their case can be proved in a court of law. On Sunday, police arrested Sabir Khan for arson. They are on the hunt for more accused. Khan, who was in police custody for three days, was questioned at length about the events of October 26. Though police said they have a good idea of how the events unfolded on that day, they still need witnesses to corroborate certain claims. Khan was also booked under sections 436 (mischief by fire or explosive substance with intent to destroy house), 426 (mischief), 337 (endangering life or personal safety of others), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal code. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON A four-member panel appointed by the state government to fix fares for autorickshaws and taxis in Maharashtra recommended introducing a new class of small taxis bigger than auto-rickshaws, but smaller than existing taxis for cities with million-plus population, excluding the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). Taxis with an engine capacity between 600 cc to 980 cc could provide safer, comfortable and more affordable rides to commuters compared to existing autos and taxis, the panel stated. Dustron Redigo, Hyundrai-Eon, Tata Nano, Kwid, Magic Iris are some of the vehicle models with an engine capacity less than 980cc. Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik, Nagpur, Aurangabad and Solapur are some of the cities outside MMR mentioned in the report. For the MMR, including Mumbai, the panel recommended introducing the smaller taxis only after studying their impact on the demand and supply of existing cabs as well as the traffic scenario. The panel did not recommend introducing smaller taxis in Mumbai for the time being because presently their impact on black-and-yellow taxis cannot be correctly gauged, said an official. Presently, none of the million-plus population cities in Maharashtra have an intra-city taxi service. As a result, commuters are forced to travel either by buses or autos. Appointed in October 2016, the four-member panel, chaired by retired IAS officer BC Khatua, had submitted its report almost after a year, earlier this month. Last week, the government made the report public by making it available on the transport departments website. Currently, black-and-yellow taxis are restricted to an engine capacity of at least 980cc, while the capacity for air-conditioned cool cabs and fleet cabs is 1400cc. The state brought in this restriction in September 2010. Before this, taxis 800cc engine capacity were also being registered. In January 2017, however, the state allowed four-wheelers with an engine capacity of not less than 700cc. The Khatua panel suggested the government should leave these restrictions untouched. Karnataka, Assam, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chandigadh, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh have already allowed smaller cars as taxis, according to the report. These vehicles are more stable, robust and have more engine power than three-wheelers with an inbuilt AC facility, and can protect the customer from any adverse weather condition and air pollution, states panel report. Ashutosh Atre, an expert said the move was welcome, but raised doubts about the acceptability of such cabs by passengers. The travelling distance is very short in other million plus population cities barring Pune. Auto or taxi does not make much difference for people as their journey is hardly 4-5 kilometers, as compared to 15-30 kilometers in Mumbai, he said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Maharashtra government, headed by Devendra Fadnavis, will see multiple agitations as it gears up to celebrate three years in office. Both the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) have announced separate stirs, while the steering committee of farmers organisations plan to meet in Mumbai on October 31 to decide how to continue their protest against the government. Farmers organisations in the state have been demanding a blanket loan waiver and for the implementation of recommendations made by the Swaminathan Commission, which suggests that the minimum support price for agricultural produce should be double the input cost. We are not happy with whatever is going on over loan waiver. Right from the beginning, we have been demanding a blanket loan waiver for farmers, which the government has ignored. We had opposed the plan to seek online applications from farmers for the waiver, and now see the mess, said Ajit Nawale, coordinator of the steering committee of farmers outfits. To continue our agitation, we will meet in Mumbai on October 31. Farmers issues made it to the spotlight in Maharashtra, especially politically, following their strike this June, and then Fadnavis announcement of a Rs 34,022-crore loan waiver package. However, the government has imposed a waiver cap of Rs 1.5 lakh for each farmer family, as well as several other conditions such as the requirement to meet the eligibility criteria for claiming benefits. Farmers organisations are opposing these conditions as the total number of farmers eligible for the waiver is likely to come down to between 62 lakh and 65 lakh from the estimated 89 lakh, and the waiver amount is likely to reduce to Rs25,000 crore from Rs 34,022 crore. Further, adopting a strict verification process, the government has asked banks to provide farmers loan account information, but that has hit a huge roadblock as the data provided by banks is full of errors, which has delayed the actual waiver disbursal. This has also created further discontent among the states farmers. On Tuesday, the day Fadnavis completes three years in office, major Opposition parties the Congress and the NCP are planning independent agitations against the Fadnavis government. The Congress will launch a state-wide agitation called Jan Aakrosh Andolan from Ahmednagar district, as well as observe a Black Day on November 8, the day Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation last year. The NCP has declared an eight-day stir against the state government, starting November 1. Maharashtra NCP chief Sunil Tatkare said protest would be held in districts and tehsils across the state and will end on November 8. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Bombay high court on Monday agreed to examine if 33 hectares of green forest cover at Aarey Colony can be saved by shifting the location of the proposed car shed for Metro 3 (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ) from here to saltpan land at Kanjurmarg, part of which is presently embroiled in an ownership dispute. The division bench of chief justice Manjula Chellur and justice Mahesh Sonak agreed to look into the ownership dispute over part of the 41-hectare saltpan land at Kanjurmarg. This land had been considered previously to build the car shed and the state had even agreed to handover the plot. The plan, however, had to be dropped after it came to light that the high court had ordered a status quo on this land. The high court on Monday issued notices to all the parties involved in the ownership dispute and said the best way to attempt to save the Aarey land would be to resolve the Kanjurmarg issue. The court was hearing a petition filed by Asmita Bhattacharjee, challenging the validity of an August 24, 2017, notification issued by the Urban Development Department (UDD), which changed the use of the 33-hectare land at Aarey Colony from green cover to metro car shed. Mumbai Metro 3 will be a fully underground line connecting Colaba with suburban SEEPZ in Andheri, covering a total distance of 32.5 km and will have 27 stations along the line. The line is designed to connect major commercial hubs of Nariman Point, Bandra Kurla Complex, Worli, Lower Parel, domestic and international airports and the industrial areas of MIDC and SEEPZ in Andheri. About 2,300 trees are likely to be cut for the Metro Line-3 car shed at Aarey Colony admittedly the last green cover remaining near the city. Meanwhile, the BMC on Monday agreed to conduct a fire audit of Cuffe Parade and inform the court whether or not fire brigade can undertake a fire-fighting operation in the area. The assurance came after advocate Robin Jaisinghani complained that because of the ongoing Metro 3 work, it was impossible to conduct any fire fighting operation in the area. The 50-year-old resident of Dalamal Tower in Cuffe Parade urged the court to direct the fire brigade to conduct the audit and submit its report to the court. Indias financial capital is the 16th most unsafe city in the world among the 60 featured in the Safe Cities Index 2017 released by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) earlier this month. Mumbai is ranked 45th in the biennial list that looks at parameters such as digital, health, infrastructure and personal security. The city was ranked 44 among 50 cities in 2015. The other Indian city in the list New Delhi was ranked 43. The safest cities were Tokyo, Singapore and Osaka, much like 2015. The three most unsafe cities were Karachi (Pakistan), Yangon (Myanmar), and Dhaka (Bangladesh). While the Safe Cities Index measures relative rather than absolute safety, there does not appear to have been a vast improvement in overall levels of safety since 2015, read the report. In parts of the developed world, particularly Europe, a series of terrorist attacks has affected personal security. At the same time, city governments in the developing world are still struggling to keep pace with the rapid expansion of their populaces, which is straining infrastructure, overwhelming health services and law enforcement. The frequency and severity of terrorist attacks, which was classified under the personal security parameter affected rankings one reason why Mumbai is ranked lower than Delhi. Former senior policemen said security arrangements in the city were adept enough to respond to terrorist attacks, but still not equipped to prevent incidents. There is a looming apathy among the general population in the city about their sense of safety. We are not trained to behave to tackle situations from an early age, which is different in cities like Tokyo, Singapore, Israel or other European countries where compulsory training is given to everyone as soon as they turn 18, said D Sivanandan, former Mumbai police commissioner and director general, Maharashtra police. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The city is finally getting closer to an integrated ticketing system (ITS) which will connect all modes of public transport. Officials from the Mumbai Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (MMRDA) said that a Mumbai-specific scheme will be ready by December, after which the planning authority will call for bids to implement the system. MMRDA has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers as consultants to design a scheme for the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). The consultants are looking at the single-ticketing model in various countries for preparing the scheme, a senior civic official from MMRDA said. The single-ticket system is expected to integrate all existing and proposed transportation corridors of MMR the citys suburban railway system, bus services by the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking, the Chembur-Wadala-Jacob Circle monorail as well as the citys Metro network. This will be the first project in the country that will allow commuters to use a smart-card for multimodal corridors. Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis is also keen on getting the project on track. Read: Mumbaiites, youll soon need just one ticket for bus, train, taxi or auto According to MMRDA officials, the project will be implemented in phases - based on the infrastructure needs of each mode of transport. We will connect the Metros first, as we already have system of automatic doors for entry and exit in place, the official said. Besides the existing line that connects Versova and Ghatkopar, the new lines will link Colaba to Seepz, Dahisar to Andheri East and Mankhurd, Lokhandwala to Kanjurmarg, Wadala to Thane, and Thane to Kalyan. After the Metros, the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport Network (BEST) buses will be integrated. Sources said that BEST is on board and is already looking at a software change to adapt to a single ticketing system. Since Railways will need the maximum infrastructure input, in terms of automated doors, the number of stations etc., we will look at integrating railways at the last stage of the project, the official added. Earlier, the MMRDA had finalised Transport for London (TFL) as the consultants for the project. However, the plan did not work out owing to high costs. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The Government Railway Police (GRP) have arrested a 17-year-old slaughterhouse worker on Sunday for allegedly killing his 19-year-old colleague with a knife they used to cut meat after he got tired of being abused over a Rs300 loan on October 9. After Imran Ibrahim Qureshi, 19, was found dead on the tracks between Vashi and Mankhurd station, the Navi Mumbai police registered an accidental death case. But they what made the police suspicious were stab injuries on Qureshis body. The railway crime branch officers started investigating the case based on the FIR and panchnama filed by the Navi Mumbai GRP. Initially, the police assumed it to be a case of death owing to trespassing, but the officers were not convinced when they saw injury marks on Qureshis body, said Samadhan Pawar, deputy commissioner of police, Central Railway GRP. When they went through the victims call records, they found on the night he was murdered he had made four calls to a number, which belonged to his colleague. The police nabbed the minor in Govandi near his house. The police officers said he confessed to killing Qureshi with a knife used to cut goats at the slaughter house. He told the police that he was angry with Qureshi as he had been abusing him ever since he took mutton worth Rs300 from him on Bakri Eid. The day Qureshi was killed, he had met the minor once earlier in the day near Mankhurd railway station and fought with him. When Qureshi later called the accused near the station again at night, he carried a knife as he was scared for his life. After they got in to an argument, he stabbed Qureshi and cut his throat with the knife he used at work, said the police. The minor then dumped his body on the tracks to make it look like an accident. The police have sent teh accused to a juvenile home The probe into the Bulandshahr highway gang-rape and robbery case has taken a fresh turn with the recent arrest of four persons from Haryana who allegedly confessed to their involvement in the case. On the intervening night of July 30-31, 2016, a gang waylaid six members of a family who were on their way from Noida to Shahjahanpur. A 13-year-old girl and her mother were gang-raped while the men and other members were tied up in the fields near Dostpur village, Bulandshahr. The CBI spokesperson on Monday said the agency has taken the men arrested from Haryana on a seven-day remand for a detailed investigation. The Gurgaon police said three of four men arrested in connection with Mandpura (Haryana) rape case, while being questioned, confessed that they were also involved in the Bulandshahr incident. The also confirmed by way of corroboration the finer details of the Bulandshahr incident and also gave an accurate description of the scene of crime. After we got their statements, we corroborated the specific details of the scene of the crime (in Bulandshahr) and the sequence of events on the night of July 30-31, 2016. Some of our investigators have been to the crime scene and the UP Police too had shared details with us. The crime scene and the other points matches the details given by the three accused, said Sumit Kuhar, DCP(crime), Gurgaon police. But these facts need to be probed further by the agency handling the case. We are not contradicting the earlier arrests made by UP Police as these men could be part of the larger gang, he said. Further, the victim family members also reached Haryana and said they too were convinced, after an initial assessment, that the three could be part of the group which assaulted them. I asked some questions about the vehicle. They told us that our vehicle had a yellow registration plate (commercial vehicle). They also said one of the male members had asked for water but he was beaten up. Later, they asked me where the water was kept. I had replied that there was a bottle in our car. Their account of the event is accurate, said the father of the 13-year-old girl. I also asked them the description and number of women in the car. He replied correctly. During the incident, male members, including I, were asked to keep our heads down and were tied up in the pitch dark fields. My assessment is that these men could be among those present at the scene of the crime, the father said. The Bulandshahr gang-rape is being investigated by the CBI and the agency has already chargesheeted three accused Saleem Bawariya, Zubair and Sajid who were arrested by the UP Police. The Haryana Police has forwarded the statements of the accused to the CBI and the UP Police as the gang also confessed to their involvement in another gang-rape and robbery incident at a brick kiln near Yamuna Expressway in Greater Noida on the night of November 2, 2016. We are, prima facie, sure of the involvement of these men in the Bulandshahr case. After the incident at brick kiln, the accused told us that they boarded a bus and also robbed passengers. We are, however, not sure of their involvement in the Jewar rape case, said a Haryana officer attached to the investigation. The investigation of the Bulandshahr case is now open. We are in touch with the Haryana Police. The three accused that we had earlier chargesheeted were identified by several members of the victim family during the identification parade, the CBI spokesperson said. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Hundreds of doctors, medical staff members and students of Santosh Universitys hospitals at the old bus stand and Pratap Vihar in Ghaziabad staged a protest outside the district collectorate on Monday over non-payment of salary. Santosh University runs two teaching hospitals a medical college and a dental college which have approximately 4,000 doctors, faculty members and other staff members. Doctors and staffers shouted slogans and waved placards against the varsitys management alleging that they have not been paid for the past six months. The staff have boycotted work, forcing the university to close the college; its hospitals, too, have no doctors to attend to patients. Talking to Hindustan Times, Dr Shalabh Gupta, professor and head of surgery, said, We have not received our salaries for the past six months. After waiting for months, we stopped teaching and attending to patients on October 12. We would have continued working for several months more, but the management has failed to address our issues; the problem is growing out of proportion. Detailing the irregularities seen in salaries, Dr Gupta said though the varsity management deducted income tax at source the staff have been getting notices from the IT department. A similar situation persists with our provident fund contribution. The varsity management deducts EPF, but it has not been credited to our accounts, he said. These issues have been pending for a long time. So we have stopped taking classes, said Dr Geeta Gupta, a faculty member. The emergency unit of the hospital has remained closed since October 12. Earlier, we were protesting on the campuses but now we have been forced to take to the roads. We urge the district administration to help us, said Dr Atish Anand, a post-graduate student. A large contingent of police from the Sihani Gate and Kavi Nagar police stations was deployed along with district administration officials. We held a meeting with the protesters and have communicated their problems to the district magistrate, said Atul Kumar, subdivisional magistrate. Dr VP Gupta, registrar of Santosh University, accepted that there has been a delay in giving salary of some. The university has had some financial constraints because not all seats in the college could get filled, nearly one-third seats have been lying vacant this year. We expect that these problems are temporary and that they will be resolved in November, he said. However, Gupta said allegations that salaries have not been paid for the last six months are incorrect. Some people have been paid till May, some till July; we have credited salaries till August and have told our staff members that all dues will be cleared by November 1, he said. Meanwhile, the district administration has asked the university to submit documents detailing its revenue. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Three days after the Gurgaon police arrested four men and claimed their involvement in the Jewar gang-rape and murder case, the victims backed the Gautam Budh Nagar police saying that the district police had arrested the perpetrators in July and they had identified their belongings from those arrested. Sources in Jewar police also said that the men arrested by Gurgaon police might have criminal involvement but they are not involved in the Jewar gang-rape incident. I was present that night when they shot my brother-in-law and did heinous acts with our women. When police made them stand in front of us, we could identify them. We also identified our mobile phone and valuables that were taken, said Kamran (name changed), the brother-in-law of the man who was shot dead during the incident. On May 26, a Jewar-based family was waylaid by a group of robbers in Sabota village on their way to Bulandshahr. The perpetrators allegedly gang-raped four women and shot dead one male member of the family. The incident attracted much criticism and raised questions regarding womens safety in Delhi-NCR. Now, the Gurgaon police and Gautam Budh Nagar police are locked in a tussle, with both of them claiming the arrest of the perpetrators of the Jewar gang-rape incident. While the Gautam Budh Nagar police arrested four persons on July 23 after a brief gunfight and claimed them to be the perpetrators, the Gurgaon police arrested four men on October 27, who they say were involved in several incidents of gang-rapes, murders and robbery heists across Delhi-NCR, including the Jewar gang-rape case. However, the Jewar police find the Gurgaon polices theory hard to believe as they claim the latter failed to produce any evidence suggesting the involvement of the men arrested on October 27 in the incident. Any statement given under police interrogation is not admissible in court. To strengthen our story, we usually present evidence to suggest the involvement of those being charged. However, in this case, Gurgaon police failed to provide any details about the Jewar gang-rape. They couldnt produce any evidence, whereas we produced the looted valuables and the cellphones (of the victims), said Rajpal Singh Tomar, station house officer, Jewar police station. Another police officer said, The men arrested by Gurgaon police were involved in Rabupura gang-rape of 2016. We had also received this information from a source a few months ago. Had we wanted, we could have laid the blame for Jewar gang-rape on these men but there was no evidence to suggest it, he said. The recent news of the arrest of a gang in Gurgaon has failed to generate any interest among the gang-rape survivors or their kin. They claim that a few months ago, they received a compensation of Rs5 lakh from the state government and they are trying to start a new life. I lost my meat shop a few months ago due to the crisis in my family. The last of the four brothers in our family has gone to Palwal to become a scrap dealer. Somehow, we are trying to move on with our lives. I believe the police and the media should also move on, said Kamran. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON The poll-time argy-bargy over the autonomy question in Jammu and Kashmir isnt a wee bit amusing. Its worrisome, in fact from the standpoint of the dialogue the Centre has announced with stakeholders in the troubled State. Much of whats said about autonomy is politically expedient. Kashmir centric parties root for it to consolidate base in the Valley; national parties are circumspect because of the likely divisive backlash in mainland India. But autonomy--thatll give mainstream parties an alternative plank to propagate among people-- is the only option that can eject Pakistan over time from the Kashmir equation. Having said that, one must emphasize that autonomy -- the way it is understood by the NC and the PDPtoo isnt an easy option. Its nevertheless the most doable despite challenge from freedom-seeking maximalists, or separatists whove never proved their popularity on the ground. Another wheel within the wheel is the BJPs historical opposition to Article 370. Diametrically opposite to it are NC and PDPs demands for autonomy and self-rule predicated on original separation of powers (since diluted) under the special status the disputed Article conferred on Kashmir. Reverting to status quo ante would mean Srinagars writ will be final in areas other than those in the Centres domain: Defense, External Affairs and Currency. The latest BJP-Congress spat has to be understood in this context as also P Chidambarams suggestion that autonomy could be the way out of the cul-de-sac: My interactions in J&K led me to the conclusion that when they ask for azadi, most people, I am not saying all (but) an overwhelming majority, want autonomy. One can accuse Chidambaram of flaunting retrospective wisdom on the issue he did not push as Home Minister. But its unfair to interpret his comments as being supportive of Pakistan-backed azadi seekers. The matter actually was placed in perspective by Omar Abdullah after his National Conference re-affirmed its autonomy resolution in Srinagar. We dont have to get autonomy from Pakistan. Weve to get it from the Indian Constitution in which its already mentioned, he said. A typical case it is of nuances getting lost in the din and bustle of elections. The Congress that distanced itself from Chidambarams remarks and the BJP that twisted them for electoral advantage in Himachal and Gujarat-- are being expedient on a serious national security issue. If not put to a stop, the unseemly faceoff can queer the pitch for the Centres interlocutor, Dineshwar Sharma, even before he takes guard. Closer to polling dates, the mercury could go further up, leaving in ashes the olive branch home minister Rajnath Singh held out with the assurance of not unsettling the status quo--including provisions of Article 35A. Rooted in a presidential order drawing strength from Article 370, the said article is under challenge (by private petitioners) in the Supreme Court for its definition of the state subject. The J&K government of which the BJP is part has opposed the challenge to the provision. But the Centre hasnt revealed its hand, instead telling the court the matter required a bigger debate. Yes, indeed! Theres need for a debate thats biggerand better informed. (vinodsharma@hindustantimes.com) In a unique initiative, Mukhtalif, the poetry society of MCM DAV College for Women, Sector 36, has joined hands with Parth Gupta, a student from Punjab University, to help restock a library in Mosul, Iraq, which was burnt down by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in 2014. Co-founded by students of MCM-36, Samreen Chhabra, Gursahiba Gill and Avleen Kaur Lamba, Mukhtalif, along with Parth, is in the process of collecting book donations, with a target of at least 140 books, across different genres, to ship to Mosul. Mosul Eye has collected over 800 books till date, receiving recognition across the world from eminent publications like The New Yorker, BBC News and The Independent. Parth said that they had come up with this initiative after discovering an online blog Mosul Eye, which is run by an anonymous man, who claims to be a professor in the University of Mosul. The blog was setup when the claws of ISIS had caught Mosul in 2014, leading to destruction of educational institutions and libraries. The anonymous blogger originally posted updates about the difficult life under the totalitarian ISIS rule. When Mosul was liberated from the terrorist organisation in July this year, the blog began advocating the campaign of Let it be a book, rising from the ashes to ask for book donations to restock the library in the University of Mosul. It is believed the militants destroyed or looted well over 100,000 manuscripts during the occupation. Mosul Eye has collected over 800 books till date, receiving recognition across the world from eminent publications like The New Yorker, BBC News and The Independent. The Independent in United Kingdom has successfully established direct contact with the blogger, who refuses to reveal his identity. Quoting the blogger, The Independent wrote, Controlling knowledge to reaffirm its grip on power, ISIS aimed to cleanse the libraries of all blasphemous literature and knowledge, saying what would Shakespeare have to offer to the children of Iraq? Explaining the need for this undertaking, Samreen said, The burning of books by the ISIS was a symbolic move to show that the students of Mosul did not need education apart from the Islamic laws. We, as students, can help redevelop education for the people in Mosul so they can think freely. Avleen shared, Education is the backbone of any society and when attacked, these very roots are uprooted. The destruction of the library felt like a punch in my face, for how could something so pure be poisoned? Adding to it, Gursahiba specified, The drive to change the world sometimes overpowers rationality but opportunities like these make us feel that we can make a difference. Creating ruckus using his boss official vehicle and flaunting his VIP status landed the driver of a deputy inspector general (DIG) of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) in police custody late on the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. Ram Jawari, 26, who stays at the ITBP lines near the old airport, reached his brother-in-law Sanjeevs house in Dhanas around 11.30pm on Saturday. His wife had come to visit her brother earlier in the day and he was there to pick her up. Jawari was driving the DIGs official Toyoto Innova and was allegedly in an inebriated condition. Jawari was badly drunk and was loudly calling out his wifes and her family members names outside the house, said Harvinder Kumar, a Dhanas resident, who is the complainant. He also switched on the vehicles siren, put on loud music and opened its four windows, alleged Kumar. Threw bricks at us When the neighbours rushed out, they saw Jawari shouting and also manhandling his wife, he said. When the residents told him to put off the siren and loud music, Jawari allegedly warned them, stated that his boss is present in the city and he will get all of them arrested in minutes. We tried our level best to avoid any argument, but he started throwing bricks and stones at us, alleged the complainant. Sources said the ruckus lasted till 1:30am, when finally a police control room (PCR) vehicle arrived there. We have booked the accused under Section 107/51 of the Criminal Procedure Code, said Sarangpur station house officer (SHO) Shadi Lal. The car is also in our custody. He was later released on bail. The SHO withheld the name of the ITBP officer, but confirmed he is of the DIG rank. Meanwhile, a village elder said police should investigate how the driver was using the senior officers vehicle for personal use. Exactly 13 days after the killing of a local leader of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) in Ludhiana, another Hindu right-wing activist, Vipan Sharma, 45, was shot dead in broad daylight in Bharat Nagar locality of the city on Monday. This is the fifth such murder of Hindu outfit leaders, and the ninth overall of any religious or religio-political leader, in the last two years in Punjab. It is also the third such killing in the tenure of the Congress regime under Captain Amarinder Singh that took power in March. Police and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have remained clueless so far, and the probe into RSS leader Ravinder Gosains October 17 killing has even been handed over to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Preet Nagar resident Sharma, who was district president of Hindu Sangharsh Sena and ran a cable TV business, was shot seven times by two unidentified young men around 2pm, shows footage from a security camera. Multiple theories Police did not commit to any theory immediately. Multiple theories are coming out in the primary investigation. The possibility of personal enmity due to his business operations cant be ruled out too, said additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP)-1, Charanjit Singh. In the footage, Sharma is seen talking to multiple people on the street and then getting ready to get onto a bike with someone. He had come to the locality to meet friend Ramesh Kumar Monu, who is state president of the outfit and managed to escape as only Sharma was targeted. Sources said police are working on whether Monu was the target, and why he was spared despite being state chief of the same outfit. The two killers, shows the footage, came out of a street and apparently abused Sharma before firing. Sharma fell to the ground when one of the two masked men whose face cover then came off shot him on his upper body. Sharma was rushed to a local hospital where he was declared brought dead. Police believe two other men accompanied the killers and took them away on bikes. They were seen in footage from another camera near the spot, sources said. Senior officers, including commissioner SS Shrivastva, visited the spot. Police registered a case under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code at the sadar police station. Meanwhile, state BJP chief and Union minister Vijay Sampla condemned the incident. Apart from the killing of an Akali sarpanch Manpreet Kaurs husband Harkirat Singh in Sangrur, this killing the same day paints the picture of deteriorating law and order in Punjab, said Sampla. Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal also condemned the killing. Hindu right wing the target Apr 23, 2016: Shiv Sena leader Durga Prasad Gupta shot dead in Khanna Aug 6, 2016: RSS leader Brig Jagdish Gagneja (retd) shot dead in Jalandhar Jan 14, 2017: Shri Hindu Takht district president Amit Sharma shot dead in Ludhiana Oct 17: RSS leader Ravinder Gosain shot dead in Ludhiana Oct 30: Vipan Sharma of Hindus Sangharsh Sena shot in Amritsar Besides these murders, matriarch of the Namdhari sect, two followers of Dera Sacha Sauda and a Christian pastor have also been shot dead in the past two years (The story has been updated) Twelve days, seven destinations all for Rs 950 a day. The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is awaiting your bookings for an economical and religious tour scheduled for December 1. All about the journey 7: Places covered ( Rameshwaram, Madurai, Kovalam, Trivandrum, Kanyakumari, Tiruchirapalli and Tirupati) 12 days: Tour duration Rs 11,340: Package cost (includes travel by second class sleeper train, accommodation in non-AC dormitories, vegetarian meals, security, tourist buses for sightseeing) The IRCTC is flagging off a special tourist train from the Chandigarh railway station to cover South India Dakshin Bharat Yatra at 7am on December 1. The 12 days and 11 nights package is available for Rs 11,340 per person. The fare is inclusive of the journey by a second class sleeper train, accommodation in non-air conditioned dormitories/hall, three vegetarian meals a day, tour escort and security on the train and tourist buses for sightseeing. The journey will cover seven destinations: Rameshwaram, Madurai, Kovalam, Trivandrum, Kanyakumari, Tiruchirapalli and Tirupati. The tourist train has 800 seats, of which more than 700 have already been reserved, said Shubham Arya, spokesperson of the IRCTC regional office. How to book Log on to the IRCTC website or visit its regional office in Sector 34 (0172-4645795). Popular Tamil actor Vikrams daughter Akshita tied the knot to Manu Ranjith, son of the Ranganathan family of Cavin Kares bakery. Ranjith is also the great grandson of DMK supremo M Karunanidhi, and the couple sought his blessing at his residence after the wedding on Monday morning. The private wedding took place in Chennai. The couple has been in a relationship for a while and got married with the consent of their families. According to a source close to Vikram, the wedding happened in a very low key manner and only the family members of the couple attended the ceremony. Vikram plans to have a grand reception which will see the whos who of Kollywood in attendance. The newly weds, Akshita and Manu Ranjith, pose with M Karunanidhi. On the career front, Vikram awaits the release of his Tamil commercial flick Sketch, which also stars Tamannaah Bhatia. He also has Gautham Menons spy thriller Dhruva Natchithiram in his kitty. The actor is also shooting for Saamy 2, a sequel of his 2003 hit film Saamy, directed by Hari. The film suffered a setback when Trisha Krishnan, the leading lady of the first part, walked out of the sequel after agreeing to be part of it. It is rumoured that Trisha walked out of the project as she was not happy with her role. Follow @htshowbiz for more ott:10:ht-entertainment_listing-desktop From architectural wonders to the chaotic, colourful streets which showcase opulent grandeur, Rajasthan is among the most popular tourist destinations in India in November. Here are a list of things to do in Rajasthan in November. So, soak up the winter Sun and get, set, explore: * Pushkar camel and balloon festival Held in the tiny desert town of Pushkar, this traditional Indian festival is one of the most highly-rated experiences in India. The fair sees an astonishing 30,000 camels converge on the town, which is a sight to behold. The camels are paraded, made to take part in beauty contests and raced. The three-day International Hot Air Ballooning Festival is another attraction at the fair. When: Between October 28-November 4 How to reach: The nearest airport from Pushkar is Sanganer Airport in Jaipur, about 146 kilometres away. From Jaipur, you can hire a taxi or take a bus to reach Pushkar. If travelling by rail, Ajmer is the closest railway station from Pushkar, at a distance of just 11 kilometres. * Bundi Utsav Bundi, one of the most gorgeous and picturesque towns in Rajasthan, becomes more vivid in the month of November. There is a colourful Shobha Yatra, arts and crafts fair, traditional sports, cultural exhibition, folk music and dance program, and turban competition are events that all tourists look forward to. When: November 6 to 8 How to reach: Bundi is well-connected by road and rail. The nearest airport from Bundi is Sanganer Airport, in Jaipur, about 210 kilometres away. Bundi hosts the colourful Shobha Yatra, an arts and crafts fair, traditional sports, cultural exhibition, folk music and dance program, and turban competition. (Shutterstock) Kolayat Fair Also known as the Kapil Muni Fair, this event is held with great pomp and show. The Kolayat Fair has a great religious significance, where devotees visit the fair to take a holy dip in the Kolayat Lake. Moreover, during the Kolayat Fair, all 52 ghats are lit up with lamps and diyas. The devotees gather at a common point and leave oil lamps afloat in the lake. The view of hundreds of lighted lamps floating in the water is a sight to behold. When: November 2 to 4 How to reach: The nearest airport from Bikaner is Nal Airport, about 13 kilometres away. There are frequent flights from Delhi to Bikaner. Bikaner is well-connected by road and rail as well. Matsya Festival This two-day long festival, held in Alwar, is the foremost of all fairs and festivals of Rajasthan. It showcases the traditional values and colourful customs of the region. The major attraction of the festival is its colourful processions, arts and crafts fair, traditional sports, cultural exhibition and folk music and dance programmes. Alwar is also one of the main tourist destinations in Rajasthan owing to its magnificent palaces and forts, lakes and archaeological sites. When: November 25 and 26 How to reach: The nearest airport to Alwar is Sanganer Airport, Jaipur, located about 162 kilometres away. Alwar is well connected to all major cities by road and rail. Chandra Bhaga Fair Held in the small town of Jhalawar, the Chandra Bhaga Fair welcomes thousands of visitors and participants from across the country, every year. The festival is of a great religious importance to the local people and many devotees gather at the banks of Chandra Bhaga River to take a holy dip. The major attraction of the fair is the huge cattle fair and the Shobha Yatras. When: November 3 to 5 How to reach: The nearest major airport in Indore, is about 240 kilometres away. There is also an airport in Udaipur, about 333 kilometres away. Jhalawar is well connected to all major cities by road and rail. Rajasthan Kabir Yatra The Rajasthan Kabir Yatra is a travelling music festival which journeys for over six days in and around Bikaner creating a platform for musicians and artists. This festival is a must-visit for all folk music lovers where they can immerse themselves in Sufi music. When: November 11 to 16 How to reach: The nearest airport from Bikaner is Nal Airport, about 13 kilometres away. There are frequent flights from Delhi to Bikaner. Bikaner is well-connected by road and rail as well. Follow @htlifeandstyle for more The thing about love on Bigg Boss 11 is that it tends to be fickle. In 9 cases out of 10, it blooms inside the Bigg Boss house and goes kaput the moment Salman Khan-hosted show ends and the lovebirds step out in the real world. But till it lasts, it ensures a long stay for the people in love and high TRPs for the channel. And that is something the makers of Bigg Boss 11 want more than anything. So, on Monday episode of Bigg Boss 11, we are all set to get a bonus pair of lovebirds. While Puneesh and Bandgi are together and making sure the whole world knows it, the housemates now believe that Dhinchak Pooja is falling in love with Luv Khurana. While Dhinchak and Luv have not said anything about it till now, this has not stopped the contestants to make a spectacle out of it. And when love is not happening, it is all about hate, fights and shouting matches. On Monday, as the nomination task for the week began, it was time to understand what each and every person inside the house is ready to do to ensure they stay in the game. Bigg Boss called the contestant in pairs -- out of the two, one will be safe and the other has to volunteer to be nominated. If they cannot decide, both will be nominated. After much drama and chaos, Sabyasachi Satpathy, Sapna Choudhary, Shilpa Shinde, Hiten Tejwani, Hina Khan, Dhinchal Pooja, Benafsha Soonawalla and Bandgi Kalra are nominated for evictions this week. The nomination process began with Mehjabeen and Sabyasachi. Bigg Boss left it to the two of them to decide who will stay and who will go. Sabyasachi voluntarily nominated himself. Bigg Boss asked Shilpa and Akash to decide who will be nominated and who will be safe. Shilpa volunteers to nominate herself. Among Hiten and Priyank, Hiten nominated himself. Sapna and Vikas had a long discussion on the subject and finally Vikas decided to nominate herself. Next in are Hina and Puneesh and this is where the melodrama came in. The duo are not on the best of terms and Puneeshs request to the celeb Hina that she should self- nominate fall on deaf ears. Puneesh is desperate to save himself and grovels in front of Hina. He then apologises for his past transgressions and promises not to personally target her or anybody else in the house. Hina relents and is heard telling other contestants how she made Puneesh beg. Between Arshi and Dhinchak, the latter decided to nominate herself. Dhinchak said Arshi is her good friend and she wanted to safeguard her. Among Bandgi and Benafsha, both get nominated as they cant reach a decision. Finally, Sabyasachi, Sapna, Shilpa, Hiten, Hina, Pooja, Benafsha and Bandgi are nominated for eviction. Priyank is also nominated by Bigg Boss for breaking the rules of the house. The captaincy task continued in Bigg Boss 11 on Monday. On Bigg Boss order, Sapna Choudhary entered the contest but crashed out within hours. It was left to Bandagi and Luv to fight it out. Hina Khan played the chorus and incited both Luv and Bandgi to irritate each other till a winner emerged. Finally, Luv won the task and became the new captain. Vikas Gupta expressed his anger at none of the housemates questioning Shilpa Shinde for her behaviour towards him. Priyank took exception to what Vikas was saying. The rest of the housemates decided their strategy based on this. Catch all the latest updates from Bigg Boss 11 here Follow @htshowbiz for more The Afghan Taliban said on Monday that Kevin King, one of two professors from the American University of Afghanistan who were kidnapped at gunpoint in Kabul last year, is seriously ill and needs urgent medical attention. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said King, an American, was suffering from dangerous heart disease and kidney problem. His illness has intensified, his feet have swollen and sometimes he becomes unconscious and his condition worsens every day, Mujahid said in a statement. We have tried to treat him time to time but we do not have medical facilities as we are in a war situation, he added. King and his Australian colleague Timothy Weeks were kidnapped in August 2016 as they were returning to their compound in the Afghan capital. Afghan and Western officials believe they are being held by the Haqqani network, a militant group affiliated with the Taliban which has carried out many previous kidnappings. They acknowledge that an unsuccessful rescue attempt was made in eastern Afghanistan months after the two were taken. The Taliban statement came around two weeks after Pakistani troops rescued Canadian Joshua Boyle and his American wife Caitlan Coleman, who had been held by the Haqqanis since being kidnapped in 2012, from an area near the Afghan border. Earlier this year, the Taliban released a video of King and Weeks, showing them pleading with their government to release Taliban prisoners in turn for their freedom. Kidnapping high profile targets has become a lucrative business for the Taliban and other militant groups in Afghanistan who in return often demand huge ransom or release of their members. (Reporting by Hamid Shalizi, additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar; Editing by Michael Perry) Long one of the countrys favourite seafoods, Chiles macha clam has become a victim of its own popularity, with over-exploitation forcing authorities to ban clam fishing in all but a few areas to help stocks recover. From humble seaside taverns to exclusive Santiago restaurants, machas have long been a mainstay of the menu in seafood-loving Chile. Found in the surf-swept sandbanks along the coasts of Chile and southern Peru, the macha is fished in the traditional way by men and women who brave icy waves and riptides to wrest their prize from the sea. But since August, fishing for machas has been banned in the central regions of Valparaiso, OHiggins and El Maule after industrial-scale extraction has all but destroyed stocks. The future for the clam lies further north, where the fishing community in La Serena is held up as an example of a sustainable way forward after strict fishery management plans were put in place to help stocks recover. The machas have almost disappeared in Chile, except in this preservation area, where stocks have been taken care of for years, said Franklin Zepada, president of the San Pedro Fishermans union in La Serena. On nearby Coquimbo Bay, Zepada says the conservation programme and a quota system for catches has secured the livelihood of 175 local macha fishers, including 50 women. A quota system of around 1,000 tons a season has bolstered prices, and the fishing community ensures that any clam less than six centimeters in size is returned to the sea to mature. Buried in the Sand Part of the clams raw appeal for consumers is the gritty fight to claim the bivalve from an icy Pacific in the austral winter. The technique is old and rustic. Its a heart and soul, hands-and-feet kind of fishing. No rods, no nets, just pure hand-to-hand combat with ripping current and surf. In San Pedro, groups of men and women macheras defy wind and tide to wade thigh deep into the icy seas of the austral winter, feeling for the bump of the shellfish in the sand with their bare feet, before reaching down and grappling under the water for the reclusive clam. Being a good machero is all about experience. The macha fisherman must be in good physical shape to put up with that. He has to put on 20 pounds of lead to anchor himself to the sand and resist the waves so that the sea doesnt move him around, said Zepeda. Im 53 and since the age of 10 Ive been catching machas. Its dedication that makes everyone a good worker, said Luis Castillo, before throwing the catch of the day on the beach on Coquimbo Bay. Once out of the water, the machas are sent to a production centre managed by the fishermans cooperative, to be sorted for size and shipped to restaurants and stores. Clams with cheese A popular seafood dish in Chile is machas served baked in the half-shell with a coating of melted Parmesan cheese, along with a drizzle of white wine and lemon. Invented by who else but an Italian immigrant, Machas a la Parmesana has become a classic of Chilean cuisine. Conservationists warn that stocks will have to be carefully managed if such delicacies are to survive, however. Found only on a stretch of Pacific coastline from southern Peru down to the Chilean island of Chiloe, the macha was almost wiped out by a devastating El Nino, which increased the temperature of the Pacific, in 1997 and 1998. It recovered sufficiently in the following years to supply both the domestic and export market, but according to marine biologist Jaime Agusto, overfishing is a much more persistent foe than El Nino. If there continues to be a lot of fishing activity on the coast, not only will we lose the machas, but probably other species as well, he told AFP. Agusto, who works on the San Pedro macha management plan, said unregulated macha fishing continues to be a problem because the ban is difficult to implement along such a lengthy stretch of coastline. He said managers are trying to keep records of traditional macheros so that if and when stocks recover they will be the ones who benefit. China signalled on Monday it would again block a US-backed resolution to sanction Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar, saying there are disagreements among UN Security Council members on the move to declare him an international terrorist. The foreign ministry cited lack of solid proof against Azhar, accused by India of masterminding the terror attack on Pathankot airbase last year, as the reason for its stance. It also said it backs Pakistans counter-terrorism efforts. The ministry further said the Security Council is yet to reach consensus on the issue and more time is required to discuss the move to designate the head of the Jaish-e-Mohammed as an international terrorist, which will come up at the UN later this week. Chinas reluctance to proscribe Azhar comes weeks after Brics (Brazil, Russian, Inia, China and South Africa) member countries rather unexpectedly named Pakistan-based JeM and Lashkar-e-Taiba among terror groups causing violence and security concerns, bracketing them with the Islamic State. Explaining the reason behind Chinas decision, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a regular news briefing: As for the listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements. China put the technical hold so as to allow for more time to deliberate on this matter. To our regret, the committee so far has yet to reach consensus. The relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council have clear stipulations as to the mandate of the 1267 Committee and clear stipulations when it comes to the listing of relevant organisations and individuals. Hua added, We believe the committee should follow principles of objectivity, professionalism and fairness and reach decisions by consensus based on solid proof. The actions taken so far by China were meant to safeguard the authority and effectiveness of the 1267 committee. It is in accordance with the resolution and rules of procedure of the committee. It shows our responsibility, she said. Hua said the reason for the block wasnt that China and Pakistan are close allies. China always upholds the principle of objectivity and fairness and we judge the matter on its own merit. Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism and we support Pakistan in countering terrorism, in accordance with its own national conditions, she said. Beijings decision to block the move could be seen as a turn-around after being part of the Brics declaration that named JeM and LeT. The Xiamen Declaration, released after the Brics summit last month, was the first time that anti-India groups such as LeT and JeM were compared with the Islamic State by the five-nation grouping. Hector Chawla, an Indian-origin eye surgeon who saved former prime minister Gordon Browns right eye after the left went blind following a rugby incident when he was 16, came to the rescue again when his famous patient was in 10, Downing Street, in 2009. Brown recalls in his memoir, to be published next week, how he sought his old friend Chawlas second opinion when he had problems in the right eye and was about to go in for surgery in London. The Edinburgh-based eye surgeon, now in his late 70s, was consulted. Prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and chancellor of the exchequer from 1997 to 2007, Brown was one of the architects of the New Labour that came to power in 1997 and won three successive elections under the leadership of Tony Blair. In extracts released before the publication of the memoir titled My Life, Our Time, 66-year-old Brown dwells on various aspects of his political career, including the challenges facing politicians in the age of the internet and social media. "When I woke up in Downing Street one Monday in September (2009), I knew something was very wrong. My vision was foggy. That morning, I was to visit the City Academy in Hackney to speak about our education reform agenda, he wrote. "I kept the engagement, doing all I could to disguise the fact that I could see very little - discarding the prepared notes and speaking extemporaneously." After the event, he was driven to the consulting room of a prominent surgeon at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. Brown wrote: "To my shock, in examining my right eye, he discovered that the retina was torn in two places and said that an operation was urgently needed. He generously agreed to operate that Sunday." On his way out, Brown asked if his old friend Chawla could be invited to give a second opinion. He saw him the day the operation was due to take place. He recalled: "I was already prepared for surgery when he examined me and said he was convinced that the tears had not happened in the past few days. They were not new but longstanding. "His advice was blunt. There was no point in operating unless the sight deteriorated further. Laser surgery in my case was more of a risk than it was worth," he wrote, adding he feels "lucky beyond words" that the retina has continued to hold. Known as a dour, no-nonsense politician, Browns memoir reveals dismay at not being able to communicate with the electorate in the age of social media. He candidly admits not being able to keep up with the new age of political communication. Labour lost the 2010 election under his leadership. Brown writes: I fell short in communicating my ideas. I failed to rally the nation. We won the battle to escape recession but we lost the war to build something better. According to him, todays politicians, unlike those of the past, are expected to show their feelings and reveal aspects of their personal lives, something he found particularly difficult. The modern version of connecting seems to increasingly include a public display of emotion, with the latter authentic or not seen as evidence of a sincerity required for political success. He added, In a far more touchy-feely era, our leaders speak of public issues in intensely personal ways and assume they can win votes simply by telling their electors that they feel their pain. For me, being conspicuously demonstrative is uncomfortable. I am not, I hope, remote, offhand or uncommunicative. But if I wasnt an ideal fit for an age when the personal side of politics had come to the fore, I hope people will come to understand this was not an aloofness or detachment or, I hope, insensitivity or a lack of emotional intelligence on my part. Born, as he put it, 40 years before the world wide web, Brown wrote: The internet often functions like a shouting match without an umpire. Trying to persuade people through social media seems to matter less than finding an echo chamber that reinforces ones own point of view. Too often, all we are hearing is the sound of voices like our own. The turnaround is so instantaneous that, for the luxury of sounding off, we often forgo the duty to sit and think. And because differentiation is the name of the political game showing what divides you from your opponent, not what you have in common achieving a consensus in a wilderness of silos is difficult, if not impossible. SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON Spains control over Catalonia is being tested on Monday as politicians and civil servants return to work amid uncertainty over whether they will accept direct rule imposed by the central government to stop the regions independence bid. On Sunday, the Spanish government said the deposed Catalan president, Carles Puigdemont, could be jailed within the next two months over his part in the regional parliaments unilateral declaration of independence . The warning came as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Barcelona to call for Spanish unity, two days after some Catalan MPs voted to declare independence and the Spanish government assumed control of the region . Spains prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, has sacked Puigdemont and his government and called regional elections for 21 December. In an interview with the Associated Press, the countrys foreign minister, Alfonso Dastis, said Puigdemont could theoretically run for re-election if the courts decide he should remain free until then. Spanish prosecutors said on Friday that they would file charges against Puigdemont of rebellion, a crime punishable by up to 30 years in prison. I dont know what kind of judicial activity will happen between now and 21 December, said Dastis. If he is not put in jail at that time I think he is not ineligible. An independence flag flutters outside the Palau Generalitat in Barcelona. (AP) However, some of the most prominent members of the Catalan administration, including Puigdemont and the vice-president, Oriol Junqueras, said they did not accept the move and only the people of Catalonia could dismiss them. We cannot recognise the coup detat against Catalonia, nor any of the anti-democratic decisions, Junqueras wrote in a Catalan newspaper this weekend. Early on Monday, Puigdemont posted a picture on Instagram of the inside of the government palace, though it was not clear when the picture had been taken. Josep Rull, territory and sustainability minister in the Puigdemont administration, tweeted a picture of himself at his desk on Monday morning, writing: In the office, carrying out the duties entrusted to us by the people of Catalonia. He left later on, saying he had gone to attend a party meeting but insisting the ousted government would continue with its agenda. Carme Forcadell, the pro-independence speaker of the Catalan parliament, also went to work as usual. The main civic group behind the pro-independence campaign has called for civil disobedience and given detailed instructions to the 200,000 or so Catalan civil servants on how they should behave. Most of them start their working day at 9am and if many fail to turn up or decide not to accept instructions it would cast doubts over the Spanish governments strategy to draw a line under a one-month crisis that has dented economic growth and fuelled social unrest. Several Spanish ministers said at the weekend they were convinced civil servants would obey orders and reminded them that those who did not could lose their jobs. Pro-Spain union demonstrators dance in front of Palau de la Generalitat de Catalunya hours after a rally against Catalonia's declaration of independence, in Barcelona, on October 29, 2017. (AP) Spains interior ministry named a new Catalan police chief, who has insisted that the 17,000 officers should remain neutral. Spains interior minister, Juan Ignacio Zoido, praised the Mossos for their work in an open letter on Sunday and urged them to accept temporary direction from Madrid. We have opened a new chapter, and in this new chapter the Mossos dEsquadra will become again the police of all the Catalans. This is your duty, Zoido said in the letter. Another test of the governments response will be whether companies stop relocating out of Catalonia in search of stability and legal certainty after several hundred firms moved out earlier this month. The governments move to impose direct rule received the backing of several influential Catalan business lobbies who called on firms to stay in the region. With its own language and distinct culture, Catalonia accounts for about 16% of Spains population and a fifth of the countrys economy. The crisis was sparked by a referendum on 1 October in which Catalans voted massively in favour of the region, which already enjoys considerable autonomy, breaking away. Turnout was only 43% separatists say a heavy-handed Spanish police operation prevented it from being higher and Rajoys government declared it illegal. After Fridays declaration of independence, Catalan lawmakers hugged and sang the Catalan anthem. The session was beamed on to giant screens outside and a crowd of 15,000 cheered every yes vote. On Sunday, it was the turn of supporters of a united Spain, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets not of Madrid but of the Catalan capital, Barcelona, waving national and European flags and chanting Viva Espana. Municipal police said the crowd numbered about 300,000 while organisers said 1.3 million turned out and the central governments representative in Catalonia put the figure at 1 million. US President Donald Trumps former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, surrendered to federal authorities on Monday in the first charges stemming from an investigation into possible ties between Trumps presidential campaign and Russia. Manafort and Gates are expected in court later Monday to face charges. Manafort helmed Trumps campaign for about five months until August last year and resigned from the campaign immediately after The Associated Press reported on his firms covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraines ruling political party. He has denied any coordination with Russia and has said his work in Ukraine was not related to the campaign. His presence at a meeting Trumps eldest son Donald Trump Jr took last June with a Russian lawyer last year who had offered campaign dirt on Hillary Clinton also brought him public scrutiny. Trump has denied any allegations of collusion with the Russians and called the probe a witch hunt. The Kremlin also has denied the allegations. Investigators have also examined potential money laundering by Manafort and other possible financial crimes, sources told Reuters. Earlier this year, FBI agents raided Manaforts home, searching for tax and international banking records. According to Fortune.com, Manaforts grandfather migrated to Connecticut from Italy. He founded a construction company that his (Pauls) father and three brothers built into Manafort Bros. Trumps middle son, Eric Trump, had said last year in an interview that his father was concerned that questions about Manaforts past were taking attention away from the billionaires presidential bid. A report in the Business Insider says Manafort started advising Gerald Fords 1976 campaign while working at a private law firm two years after his graduation. Since the 1970s, he has established deep and sometimes murky, connections in Washington and around the world, serving as political lobbyist, adviser, and an international political consultant for leaders around the world, including dictators Mobutu Sese Seko of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, the report adds. Pakistan on Monday confirmed the death of two Chinese nationals who were kidnapped in the southwestern city of Quetta, the foreign office said, months after the Islamic State group claimed it had killed them. The pair, a man and a woman, were abducted in May this year from the city, capital of restive Balochistan province, which is at the heart of a multi-million dollar investment by Beijing in Pakistan but is also wracked by militancy. They were dragged into a car by three unknown men, witnesses said, adding that another Chinese woman managed to escape. In June the Islamic State group claimed it had killed them, but there had been no confirmation of their deaths from Pakistani or Chinese authorities. The DNA reports have confirmed that the two persons killed in Balochistan in June 2017 were the same two Chinese nationals, who were kidnapped from Quetta in May, 2017, Pakistans foreign office said in a statement. It did not give further detail on when or how their bodies were recovered. In September some local media reports suggested the bodies of two Chinese people had been found in Balochistan. Authorities originally said the pair were studying Urdu at a local language centre, but Pakistans interior ministry later said they had been preaching in Quetta. It did not specify what kind of preachers they were. Hundreds of Chinese nationals started to pour into Pakistan after Beijing ramped up investment in its South Asian neighbour as part of a plan to link its far-western Xinjiang region to Gwadar port in Balochistan with a series of infrastructure, power and transport upgrades. The corridor is one of the largest projects in Beijings One Belt One Road initiative, comprising a network of road and sea routes involving 65 countries. Pakistan has been battling Islamist and nationalist insurgencies in mineral-rich Balochistan since 2004, with hundreds of soldiers and militants killed in the fighting. The IS group has been making inroads in the country through alliances with local militant outfits, although its presence is generally downplayed by the government. President Donald Trump fired off a volley of tweets on Sunday expressing frustration with the Russia probe, which is expected to yield the first indictment and arrest on Monday, and sought to divert attention towards Hillary Clinton by seeking action against her and her campaign over a mix of old and new allegations. DO SOMETHING, the US president pleaded in one of his tweets, and accused Democrats of reprising the old charge of collusion at a time when Republicans are united, are fighting back, and are ready to push for historic tax cuts and reforms. Trump re-litigated old allegations of Russias purchase of American uranium deposits during Clintons term as secretary of state in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation and the 33,000 deleted emails from her private server that she had used when in office, as Americas top diplomat. Trump also brought up a recent controversy that Clintons campaign had partly financed a DC research firm to dig up dirt on him, which had prepared the salacious Steele Dossier alleging contacts between Trump and the Russians. The dossier was named after former British spy Christopher Steele who put the document together. The Washington Post recently reported the opposition-research conducted by the firm was first funded by a major Republican donor who was No-Trumper but gave up once Trump won the nomination. The Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign stepped in then to the keep the research going. Oppo research, as it is called, is standard practice in American politics deployed by parties and candidates of every inclination and ideology. Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?),.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 ...the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more. Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia,.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 ..."collusion," which doesn't exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 ...are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 All of this "Russia" talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 The presidents frustration and desperation, as reflected in the capital-lettered appeal to no one in particular, could have been compelled by the expected first indictment to be handed by Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion by Trump campaign officials. CNN first reported the impending indictment, which could be accompanied by one or more arrests on Monday, and will surely be a major worry for Trump who has struggled to extricate himself and his presidency from the widespread perception that a precariously damaged candidate like him could have only won because of a miracle, or Russia. The charges were approved by a grand jury hearing testimony at a Washington DC federal court, as CNN first reported on Friday, but were neither specified not the targets identified. There were suggestions that arrests, also the first in this case, could follow next week and as early as Monday or Tuesday. Mueller, a highly-respected former FBI director a Republican who was appointed to the post by Republican president George W Bush was named Special Counsel by the US justice department in May after President Trump fired then FBI director James Comey who went after Michael Flynn, Trumps first national security adviser who was sacked for lying about his conversations with Russian officials. Muellers mandate is to look not only into the Russian meddling and allegation of Trump campaign collusion, but also any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation, which has been a matter of serious concern for the White House and the president himself. There have been reports that the president could fire the special counsel, who was appointed by his administration, and shut down the probe, which has caused bipartisan disquiet on Capitol Hill, home to US legislature. Lawmakers, however, have moved legislation to prevent Trump from doing that. Trump has also explored the prospect of using his presidential pardon to protect those indicted or charged from being prosecuted and tried, including himself, according to reports. The pardon cannot protect him from impeachment, but will do from pretty much anything else. The president has been frustrated by the Russia probe and the shadow it has cast on his administration from almost the start, and has denied any collusion, appearing even to be skeptical about the meddling at all that had been confirmed by the countrys intelligence community. State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines will launch its first flight to Baghdad in 27 years on Monday, state media said, amid a thaw in ties between the Arab neighbours. The airline, also known as Saudia, will depart from the Red Sea city of Jeddah barely two weeks after Saudi budget carrier flynas made the first commercial flight from Riyadh to Baghdad since 1990. Saudi Arabian Airlines will inaugurate regular flights between the kingdom and Iraq after an interruption of 27 years, the official Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday. The resumption of flights is in line with growing ties between the two brotherly countries. Flights between Iraq and Saudi Arabia were suspended in August 1990 after former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein ordered his troops into neighbouring Kuwait. After years of tense relations, ties between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iraq have begun looking up in recent months. Earlier this month Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Saudi King Salman held the first meeting of the joint Saudi-Iraqi coordination council, which is aimed at upgrading strategic ties. Iraq is seeking economic benefits from closer ties with Riyadh as both countries suffer from a protracted oil slump. Saudi Arabia is also seeking to counter Iranian influence in Iraq. Private carrier flynas, in which Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal holds a 34-percent stake, also plans to expand its routes from Saudi airports to major cities across Iraq. Lil Wayne and Travis Scott will be touching down in Houston, Texas on October 31st for a Halloween party that will also be a birthday celebration for Weezy disciple Jas Prince. The poster advertising the event, which is being called Jas Princes birthday All Treats No Tricks Halloween Knight, can be seen below. Notice anything vaguely familiar? Well, at least one Twitter user did, outlining how one part of the poster may have lifted the logo of a well-known EDM outfit by the name of Knife Party. Apparently, the smiling Jack-O-Lantern face that makes an appearance on the events poster is an exact recreation of the groups signature image, which also deals in the horror imagery department. Sometimes, this inclusions can be accidental, especially if a logo or image is widely available on a free platform such as Shutterstock. However, theres no mistaking the similarities here, which are too close for reasonable doubt to come into play. See the comparison below and judge for yourself. No comment or response to the allegation has been made public by Lil Wayne himself or one of his representatives, but it will be interesting to see if further drama comes of this misstep, including any legal action from Knife Party. So far, the EDM duo hasnt voiced any opinion on the matter either. The use of artwork that has previously found a home someplace else isnt an uncommon occurrence in the music industry. Earlier this summer, Frank Ocean was accused of ripping off the likeness a German artists project for use on one of his posters. These days, with copy-paste being a skill that basically everyone possesses, more artwork continues to be appropriated than ever before. Bigger news still on the Lil Wayne front is the rappers attempt to dissolve Young Money records. According to our previous report on the story, hes requesting the court to appoint a receiver to supervise the operations of Young Money Label joint venture or order the termination of Young Money Label joint venture and appoint a liquidator. What began as a joint venture between Wayne and Cash Money could soon be but a memory, potentially folding fourteen years after it was originally set up. Lil Wayne Virgil Ablohs Off-White x Air Jordan 1 collab has been named Shoe of the Year by Footwear News. Last year it was Rihannas Puma Creeper that took home Shoe of the Year honors. Virgil Abloh will be among those honored at the 31st annual 2017 FN Achievement Awards, which is set for next month in New York, and will pay tribute to the boldest and the brightest stars of the year. In the increasingly challenging and complicated times we live in, these trailblazers are thriving, said Michael Atmore, editorial director of Footwear News. Many have shaped the industry for decades. Others will help define our future. The extremely rare Off-White x Air Jordan 1 was one of the ten sneakers included in Ablohs The Ten Collection, which featured a range of popular Nikes including the Air VaporMax, Nike Air Presto and Blazer Mid. The Off-White x Air Jordan 1 pre-released last month exclusively at NikeLab stores located in New York City, London, Milan and Paris and theyre going for more than $2,000 on the resale market. The kicks will also release once again on November 9th at NikeLab stores and select retailers worldwide. Virgil was also recently selected as one of the few visionaries from around the world to collaborate on Nikes Air Force 1 Low in honor of the shoes 35th anniversary. Speaking on that upcoming AF1 project, Abloh says (H/T Nike), Its all one expression. Its the Off-White ideology of altering product. Thats my brand and my way of making things. I like to start with something established and then iterate on a process to edit it. What I love about the three Air Force 1s Ive worked on with Nike, so far, they encompass one idea executed in three different ways. With this one, the colorway is important. The Air Force 1 isnt iconic in just any color, theyre iconic in one: white. White is the theme for this third Air Force 1, looking at the cultural context of the white on white editing it, but not editing it too far to where it becomes something else. In addition to the Off-White x Air Jordan 1 being named Shoe of the Year, Footwear News also announced KITHs Ronnie Fieg as The Collaborator of the Year, specifically for his recent Kith x Nike Air Maestro II design. You can check out Footwear News full list of categories and winners right here. Omarions career hasnt aged as well as he does. His success is largely due to the fact that he was once the leading male of B2K but has since seen a major decline in his career. Its not to say hes a one hit wonder but its looking like his shows arent getting as packed as they once were. Omarion recently performed in front of an empty venue in Windhoek, Namibia on Friday night. According to reports, Omarion was supposed to be part of a press conference prior to his performance but he apparently fell through on those plans. His press run was part of his agreement for the show but his manager says that Omarions lengthy flight caused him exhaustion which ultimately led him to fall back on the press conference. However, fans were allegedly heated by the fact that he decided to fall back that they decided to boycott his show that evening. Due to his contractual obligations, Omarion was forced to pull up to the show and perform. He later posted a video of the concert with the caption As long as you had a good time. The funny thing is former B2K group member, Lil Fizz, told the cast members and fans of Love & Hip Hop Hollywood that B2K has been dodging phone calls pertaining to a B2K reunion. South African entertainer, Phil Mphela, later went on a series of tweets addressing not only Omarion, but American guests, behavior in Africa. Big up to Namibian press, influencers & people for teaching Omarion & future American guests a lesson. DONT DISRESPECT US!! he tweeted, Good to know tht other African countries, you disrespect their media, they dont suck up & push yr event anyway. Love u Namibia & Nigeria. While Omarion may have been exhausted from his flight to do a press conference, its fair to say the excuse didnt cut it for his fans and the media in Nambia. Maybe hell return one day and follow through with his promises to his fans. Check the posts below: Following continuing controversy over the naming of the National Childrens Hospital, Labour Leader Brendan Howlin is today calling on Simon Harris to put an end to idea of the hospital being named the Phoenix Childrens Hospital. This article can only be read with a Premium Account Please Log In or Subscribe to continue reading Rose McGowan is claiming that the disgraced movie mogul offered her the staggering sum of money to keep silent about rape allegation. But 'The Charmed' and 'Scream' actress says she initially countered with her own offer for $6million! McGowan claims she was raped by Harvey Weinstein at the Sudance Film Festival in 1997. "I had all these people I'm paying telling me to take it so that I could fund my art," said McGowan. "I figured I could probably have gotten him up to three. But I was like ew, gross, you're disgusting, I don't want your money, that would make me feel disgusting." MacGowan is one of nine women that claims to have been raped by the disgraced movie producer. Weisten's spokesperson says he "unequivocally denies any allegations of nonconsensual sex". I know youre hurt.I know your rage.I know their lies.I know their hate.I know the truth.I know they lie. #ROSEARMY pic.twitter.com/cBjG3gfFTp rose mcgowan (@rosemcgowan) October 30, 2017 Newstalk presenter Ciara Kelly has shockingly revealed that another woman confided in her that she was raped 40 years ago by a high-profile public figure. Kelly says that the woman told her about the "prominent man" in the Irish media: "He raped me 40 years ago. I can still smell him on me. The broadcaster says that she also had her own lucky escape from the same sex pervert. "Ive met him twice, but both times in a group setting. He messaged me immediately after the first meeting by Twitter DM," she wrote in a long message on social media. He was very complimentary - You are very talented, we must meet for coffee I declined, something about him made me uneasy. I was polite, though. I was friendly. Many, many messages came, I declined other invitations. I met him again, we were at [the] same event. I spoke to him briefly but didnt engage - I was with friends. More messages came Who do you think you are? Youre becoming a national joke late at night followed by, Please forgive me I dont know what came over me the following morning." She added: I spoke to friends, they all had stories theyd heard, Be careful hes violent - he beat his wife. He had a car back in the day, he offered girls lifts home the passenger door handle was broken they couldnt get out. I have a friend he did the same to, he plagued her. The messages, bizarre in their over familiarity, stopped eventually and I half forgot. Then this woman approached me. I can still smell him on me - there were lots of us, she said. And I believed her. Ive thought a lot about her and am shaking writing these tweets but I believe that woman, that this man raped her and likely others." A woman I dont know approached me recently about a prominent man in the Irish media "He raped me 40 yrs ago. I can still smell him on me" she said visibly distressed. I don't know this man well - Iv met him twice though both times in a group setting... #IrishWeinstein Ciara Kelly (@ciarakellydoc) October 28, 2017 Labour Housing spokesperson Jan OSullivan TD has urged the Government to make use of the thousands of vacant homes lying idle across the country in a bid to quickly tackle the homeless crisis. This article can only be read with a Premium Account Please Log In or Subscribe to continue reading This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The inaugural Bahamasair flight on Nov. 16 will be the first new international airline to begin service in Houston in nearly two years. The oil price crash and dip in passengers have kept other carriers on the sideline, though they've remained in communication with local officials. The city is hoping to lure more, but future growth likely won't mimic 2014 and 2015, when the Houston Airport System added 11 new international carriers. "I don't think we will see a wild expansion like that, but I think you'll see a constant growth pattern with Houston," director of air service development Molly Waits said. The City Council last week approved its biennial incentive program, authorizing the Airport System to use $18 million when the timing is right again. The money can be used to abate airport fees and help airlines market their new routes. This package is renewed every two years, and the money is spent only if new carriers - for people or cargo - or new destinations are actually opened to Houston. The incentive program illustrates the waxing and waning of interest. The system used up all of the $18 million approved for 2014-2016 four months ahead of schedule as carriers such as Eva Air, All Nippon Airways and Interjet launched service between Bush Intercontinental Airport and cities in Taiwan, Japan and Mexico, respectively. More Information Inaugural Houston flights by international carriers November 2017: Bahamasair to Nassau, Bahamas December 2015: Air New Zealand to Auckland, New Zealand September 2015: WestJet to Calgary, Canada June 2015: Eva Air to Taipei, Taiwan June 2015: All Nippon Airways (ANA) to Tokyo May 2015: Vacation Express March 2015: Volaris to Guadalajara, Mexico November 2014: VivaAerobus to Guadalajara, Mexico November 2014: Aeromexico to Monterrey, Mexico October 2014: Interjet to Monterrey, Mexico August 2014: * Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) to Stavanger, Norway May 2014: * Korean Air to Seoul, South Korea July 2013: Air China to Beijing April 2013: Turkish Airlines to Istanbul, Turkey * Notes: These carriers no longer fly to Houston. See More Collapse But even though the same amount was allotted in September 2015, officials had opportunity to spend only about $4.5 million. Recipients included Air New Zealand, which began flying to Houston in December 2015, two new cargo carriers and United Airlines' new route to Havana, Cuba. Two airlines stopped flying to Houston during that time. Scandinavian Airlines halted its Stavanger, Norway, route in 2015, and Korean Air halted its flights to Seoul, South Korea, earlier this month. Incentives are common airport practice, and industry experts described them as critical to building out an airport's international service. "Some airlines won't even fly to places unless they're provided an incentive," Houston-based airline consultant Pete Garcia said. "They won't consider it. So I think they play a very important role in developing an airport." Boston Logan International Airport is a popular case study. Its incentives program, coupled with support from state and city officials, has been crucial in attracting international carriers, said Mark Ahasic, founder and president of Connecticut -based Ahasic Aviation Advisors. He also cited the Boston area's strong, diversified economy and lack of a single dominant airline, like United at Bush Intercontinental, in aiding the international route growth there. Ahasic noted that Pittsburgh, without Boston's economy or Houston's population, successfully has used incentives, government input and support from the business community to attract new airlines. "They've definitely been having wins, and I think the incentives have been a big part of those wins," Ahasic said. Houston's population and economy make it a desirable location for new international service in the long run. But Garcia doesn't expect a wave of new international carriers in the near term. Oil prices still aren't at a desirable level, and uncertainty around trade agreements could make airlines hesitant about investing in Houston. "I don't see any growth," he said. "I don't see a lot of decrease either, but I don't see growth." In 2016, the number of annual travelers through Houston Airport System facilities fell 1.2 percent to 54.5 million people. International travelers, however, continued growing. This segment was up 1.5 percent at Bush Intercontinental and saw more substantial growth at Hobby Airport, which only resumed international flights in October 2015. During the first eight months of this year, overall traffic through the Airport System fell 0.9 percent to 36.4 million people. International travel dropped 5.4 percent at Bush Intercontinental but grew 12.3 percent at Hobby. "Our traffic has not been impacted as heavily as you might think," Waits said. The airlines that pulled out of Bush did so for different reasons, Waits said. Scandinavian flew a Boeing 737 with only business-class seating. Its customers were from the oil business, and the route wasn't sustainable after prices crashed. Korean Air isn't a member of Star Alliance. This global airline network, which counts United among its members, promotes cooperation through things like code sharing. Not being in this network meant that Korean Air didn't have partners to carry its traffic beyond Houston. Its travelers began or ended their journeys in Houston, and this customer base was affected by a weak energy sector and, more recently, Hurricane Harvey. "They had been reducing their capacity over the last year and a half or so," Waits said. Moving forward, the Houston Airport System has its eye on Asia and Africa. New carriers from those continents will get more incentives than new airlines flying to Europe, Latin America or domestically. A City Council agenda item references a new daily international flight to India, for example, which would receive about $4 million in reduced fees and other incentives. Passengers are expected to generate roughly $800,000 in non-airline revenue each year for the airport, which could cover the $4 million incentive cost in five years. "We want to reduce the risk as much as we can if they choose the Houston market for their expansion," Waits said. The Airport System would also be interested in attracting low-cost, long-haul international airlines. But these airlines have thus far been opting for other Texas cities. Norwegian Air Shuttle will fly to Austin, for example, and Iceland's Wow Air will fly to Dallas-Fort Worth. Houston fares tend to be higher because it has a lot of business travelers. These low-cost carriers, Waits said, could open Europe to a new set of travelers. She's not sure why these airlines aren't choosing Houston, but she hopes the Bayou City will be their next stop now that they're in Texas. "That is definitely a segment that we are actively pursuing," she said. Ahasic noted that Norwegian tends to go into more touristy markets. Garcia added that it prefers secondary markets with less competition on its routes. As for airlines already lining up to participate in the new incentive package, Waits said Bahamasair will receive assistance for its flight to Nassau, Bahamas. United Airlines will also receive assistance by connecting Houston to Mazatlan, Mexico, and Sydney, Australia. "We want to make sure that Houston remains competitive in the global market," Waits said. The Puerto Rico electric power company canceled Sunday a controversial $300 million contract it had signed with a small Montana-based company and tasked with a central role in repairing the territory's hurricane-ravaged electric grid. The move came after Gov. Ricardo Rossello said the contract was a distraction and should be canceled after critics in the electric power industry, Congress and the Federal Emergency Management Agency raised questions about whether the company, Whitefish Energy, was well equipped to respond to the hurricane damage. Thirty-nine days after Hurricane Maria hit the territory, Rossello said that he would request assistance from Florida and New York under mutual aid arrangements that utilities activate to help other states during an emergency. About 80 percent of the people living on the commonwealth's main island still have no electricity. More scrutiny urged Ricardo Ramos, executive director of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, said Whitefish would be paid to complete ongoing work on a transmission line. He defended his agency and the deal, citing Puerto Rico's emergency needs. "The best thing that can happen is its cancellation," Ramos said. "But the investigations will continue." In tweets, Rossello also called for measures to scrutinize contracting by the power authority more carefully. He said there should be a "special outside coordinator" to monitor the utility's purchases so we "can have more clarity in this process." The governor's statements, however, added to the confusion about the oversight of the utility and the commonwealth, both of which are bankrupt. A financial oversight board that Congress created for Puerto Rico is planning to ask a federal court for clear authority to examine contracts as small as $10 million. The federal judge is overseeing the restructuring of Puerto Rico's more than $70 billion in debts. Just last week, the oversight board said it would use its existing authority to install its own emergency manager to pay closer attention to the day-to-day operations of the utility. The governor is opposing the appointment and said he would name his own administrator. Whitefish Energy, which had just two employees the day Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, now has about 325 people working on restringing transmission lines, clearing debris and erecting fallen poles. It has been working under contract with PREPA. Zinke denies role Whitefish, Mont., is the home of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, although the company said he played no role in securing the business. One of Zinke's sons worked for Whitefish Energy over the summer. The company's chief executive, Andrew Techmanski, has extensive experience in the electric transmission business, but the company has focused mostly on unsuccessfully trying to set up a plant to manufacture transformers. It has also received small grants from the Energy Department. It is backed by HBC Investments' partners fund, a Dallas-based private equity firm whose members have a long record of financial support for the Republican Party. Oil extended a two-year high above $60 a barrel in London amid growing signs that OPEC and Russia will press on with supply curbs, and a brief disruption in exports from Iraqs Kurdish region. Brent crude futures added 0.4 percent. Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman last week backed extending production cuts by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies beyond March, following a similar endorsement by Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month. Iraqs Kurds resumed oil exports to Turkey after a short suspension, highlighting uncertainty in the region, which in September voted to secede from the rest of the country. High OPEC compliance and roaring oil demand growth combined over the last few months have accelerated the rebalancing of the oil market, said Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS Group AG in Zurich. Reports that Saudi Arabia and Russia are mulling over the prospect of an extension have played a part in buoying market sentiment and recently lifting oil prices. Both Brent, the benchmark for more than half the worlds oil, and U.S. marker West Texas Intermediate crude have jumped in October amid speculation that OPEC and partners including Russia will prolong output cuts aimed at reducing a global glut. World stockpiles are down to about 160 million barrels above the five-year average and prices are heading toward fair levels, according to Qatar Energy Minister Mohammed Al Sada. Brent for December settlement, which expires Tuesday, rose as much as 45 cents to $60.89 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange, the highest since July 2015. It was at $60.67 at 1:21 p.m. in London. Prices gained 4.7 percent last week. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $6.59 to WTI. See also: Oil Investors Roll the Dice on OPEC as Saudi Prince Ups the Ante WTI for December delivery was at $54.11 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up 21 cents. Total volume traded was about 36 percent below the 100-day average. Prices on Friday advanced 2.4 percent to $53.90, capping a 4.7 percent weekly gain. Iraqs semi-autonomous Kurds began pumping oil again to Ceyhan, Turkey, at about 1:25 p.m. local time after Kurdish crude stopped arriving at the Mediterranean port at 4 a.m., the port agent said by email. Information on the amount of oil flowing wasnt immediately available, the agent said. The halt came days after Iraqi troops captured oil fields from Kurdish fighters in northern Iraqs disputed Kirkuk province. Shipments by pipeline averaged 264,000 barrels a day before the stoppage, less than half their normal daily level of 600,000 barrels. Exports from Kirkuk, which had been flowing through the same pipeline network to Ceyhan, remained halted as of Monday, the port agent said. Oil-market news: Iraq added a fifth offshore crude-exporting facility with a capacity of 900,000 barrels a day to boost shipments by sea, the nations oil ministry said in an emailed statement, citing Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi. The financiers and corporate chieftains gathered for Saudi Arabias Davos in the Desert heard the same message again and again. From the crown prince down, Saudi leaders wanted no room for doubt: the initial public offering of oil giant Aramco is on track for 2018. Among U.S. explorers, the new emphasis is on getting the most output possible with wells that now can run horizontally for miles, as well as putting into service drilled-but-uncompleted wells that need to be fracked. Drillers added one rig last week, according to data released Friday. American crude production climbed by 1.1 million barrels a day in the week ended Oct. 20. Hedge funds boosted their Brent net-long positions -- the difference between bets on a price increase and wagers on a drop -- by 2.6 percent to 506,737 contracts in the week ended Oct. 24, according to data from ICE Futures Europe. Thats close to a record at the end of September and the previous high in February. Longs increased by 1.5 percent, while shorts slid 6.6 percent to the lowest since February. --With assistance from Anthony DiPaola and Heesu Lee To contact the reporter on this story: Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Herron at jherron9@bloomberg.net, Dylan Griffiths, Amanda Jordan 2017 Bloomberg L.P. In the spring break capital of Cancun, Mexico, hotel occupancy has tumbled 10 percent this year. As bad as that is, over in Los Cabos, on the tip of the Baja California peninsula, it's worse. The airport serving Cabo San Lucas and its lesser-known sister city, San Jose del Cabo, is looking emptier these days. And hotel guests have canceled 35,000 nights of bookings over the next year - collectively a decade's worth of visits for a single traveler. At a time when the weaker peso should be luring American travelers in droves, many are staying away, spooked by a wave of violence that's come dangerously close to tourist hot spots. Gunmen opened fire at a Cancun nightclub in November, and a cooler with two human heads was found on Cabo San Lucas's main hotel strip in June. READ MORE: Cabo San Lucas beheadings: Cartel killings traumatize resort town as heads found in cooler Now Playing: Leaked police body cam footage shows Mexican officers ambushed by a cartel attack. Video: Vocativ But the biggest blow came on Aug. 22, when the U.S. State Department issued a travel warning advising tourists to steer clear altogether. "Group tourism automatically went down the moment the warning hit," said Carlos Gosselin, head of the hotel association for Cancun and Puerto Morelos. Many insurance companies likely won't even consider offering coverage in areas under advisory, hurting conventions and events in the area, he said. Mexico is reinforcing security in popular tourist spots to get the State Department to revise its views, and companies including Hilton Worldwide and Marriott International are spending millions to make guests feel safer. Their motivation is clear: Barclays estimates that a drop in tourism could wipe out as much as 0.5 percentage point from Mexico's gross domestic product growth this year. "Lower tourism activity will definitely have an impact on growth," said Marco Oviedo, head of Latin America economic research at Barclays. "External tourism is one of the most important sources of income in the current account." RELATED: Report: 3 headless bodies left in Mexican street with decapitated heads in sombreros Mexico gets about $20 billion a year from tourism. With murders quadrupling in Los Cabos and doubling in Cancun this year, a chunk of that revenue may be at stake. Quintana Roo, the state where Cancun is located, is the destination of a third of all the nation's international tourists. In Los Cabos, local and federal authorities are teaming up with hotels, time-share companies and the airport operator to step up the area's security. The group is spending $50 million to increase surveillance cameras to cover the 20-mile main stretch that includes hotels, restaurants and public beaches. A new military facility, paid for in part by the private sector, will be built near a highway to respond to any activity spotted on the cameras. It is set to open in the second quarter of 2018. "We understand and appreciate that travelers are more concerned than ever about their safety and security and we have rigorous security procedures in place at all of our hotels in Mexico," Marriott said in an emailed response to questions. "Mexico continues to be a desirable destination for visitors from around the world and we've had very few cancellations for Holiday season due to this matter." But the slowdown in Los Cabos since the travel warning is starting to show in other areas. International passenger arrivals dropped 2 percent in September, the first decline in three years, and compares with a 20 percent average gain for most of this year, according to airport operator Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico SAB and the Los Cabos Tourism Board. Other factors such as hurricanes and earthquakes in recent months contributed, said Rodrigo Esponda, managing director of the tourism board. RELATED: South Texas Boy Scout leader says more kids are joining cartels than scouting troops American Airlines Vacations, which packages trips to beach destinations in Mexico, said business had been rising about 25 percent from a year earlier - until the travel warning torpedoed demand. Meanwhile, the online-booking site Best Day Travel Group has also seen a slowdown in reservations for the end of the year, said Director Julian Balbuena. Los Cabos is the hardest-hit destination with a 6 percent drop, he said. "We were having a good year for Mexico in particular," said Eduardo Marcos, president of American Airlines Vacations. Gosselin, from the hotel association, said the travel warning went too far and may have been influenced by a shift in U.S. policies toward Mexico following the election of President Donald Trump. There are also signs the alert's effect on tourism is waning, he said, as the peso is still trading about 26 percent below its 10-year average. Marcos also said he thinks bookings will pick back up. Even so, the hotel association is putting up 10 million pesos ($520,600) for a marketing campaign aimed at attracting more American tourists to Cancun hotels, Gosselin said. The move came after hotel occupancy growth fell from a clip of about 2 percent last year to a drop of about 10 percent, he said. "Ninety percent of the economic activity here is tied to tourism," Esponda said in a phone interview from Los Cabos. "That's why security has to improve. We need tourism to continue improving people's quality of life - and it's a shared responsibility." -With assistance from Mary Schlangenstein. Forty years ago, young women relay-running a torch from New York to Houston for the first National Women's Conference were met with hostility, sexual harassment and sabotage as they crossed southern states. In Houston, though, they were met by 30,000 cheering delegates conference participants from all 50 states, indigenous tribal lands and six U.S. territories. And some of these runners and delegates are returning to Houston this weekend for the anniversary of that extraordinary event: the first and to date only duly elected gathering of U.S. women delegates. A bipartisan group of first ladies chaired the 1977 conference, and delegates voted on 26 policy planks intended to promote justice, fairness, dignity and opportunity. The recommendations of Latina, black, white, Asian, Eastern, Native American, gay, straight, transgendered and other women were delivered to the president and Congress in a 1978 report titled "The Spirit of Houston." Sadly, though, the descriptions of hostility, sexual harassment and sabotage from '77 linger today. Though the 26th policy plank was for the women to reconvene, they never did. Then, as now, there were people who objected to women standing up for themselves and demanding to be equal participants in what Houston-based Congresswoman Barbara Jordan called "the promise of America." Case in point: About 15,000 opponents set up an alternative gathering five miles across town from the '77 conference. There, conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly mansplained why women shouldn't be equal to men. PERVASIVE PROBLEM: Me, too. My story of sexual assault. Schlafly's group anointed themselves "pro-family" and rallied against the Equal Rights Amendment and lesbian relationships, among other things. Despite her prominence, the majority of speakers were men, instructing women about their roles as homemakers, wives and mothers. This assembly launched a partisan divide that poisoned progress for women, stalled the movement for equal rights in America and still drives part of the conversation today. As a young girl living in Houston in the mid-'70s, I was empowered by academic opportunities and Title IX sports, but I was surrounded by interlocking southern and faith cultures that prioritized men and male leadership. I drew inspiration from Jordan's speeches, but was left confused and undermined by Schlafly and others telling me and other girls that our words, lives, relationships and careers weren't worth as much as men's. Bill Pierce / Getty Images In the years since 1977, we have experienced and witnessed women and girls being swept under the rug to hide the abuse of men in leadership positions. We have experienced and witnessed women and girls learning the behaviors of prey trying to survive predators: Don't smile; that will invite an assault; don't be alone with him; don't walk alone; carry your keys in your hand; text your whereabouts; take a self-defense course. Meanwhile, boys and men are groomed consciously and unconsciously in the behaviors of predators who frequently are paid, promoted and protected more than women in workplaces, schools, homes and houses of faith. CULTURE OF SILENCE: What companies have to do to end sexual harassment Have women made progress since 1977? Yes. Are we still experiencing hostility, sexual harassment and sabotage? Yes. Is sexual harassment and assault more than a binary male-female narrative? Yes. Do these cultures and systems of power differentials hurt both women and men? Yes. Why? Come to the events this week, engage the conversation with men and women about systems in our lives that produce the results we see and decide for yourself. You can work on reviving the 26 policy planks and planning for legislation with Houston women. You can attend panels and workshops at the University of Houston. You can talk with Houston-area women in film and media. At the Women's March in Houston this past January, Mayor Pro Tem Ellen Cohen asked, "Are you kidding me? Do we have to fight this all over again?" Yes. Every day, more people join the conversation by saying "me, too." They are saying they have been harassed, groped, molested, raped, lied about, hushed up, rejected, humiliated, hurt, afraid. Let's bring this out into the light and build a future of justice, dignity, equality and freedom. Robin Paoli is a writer, entrepreneur and founder of Houston Women March. Connect with progressive women in Houston on Twitter via @WomensMarchHOU. Bookmark Gray Matters. Decide for yourself. What if all Houstonians and all Americans in urban areas were within a 10-minute walking distance to a park? Would it reduce childhood obesity? Would it eliminate congestion along the avenues of concrete we can't seem to avoid? Could it transform our city? The Trust for Public Land (TPL), National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), and Urban Land Institute (ULI) have set an aspirational goal and call to action: the 10-Minute Walk to a Park Campaign. Supported by mayors across the nation, including Mayor Sylvester Turner, this innovative initiative draws attention to a timely and important topic access to high-quality parks. For decades, the benefits of parks have been studied and promoted. Parks are vital to public health, serve as community gathering places and expose us to nature's beauty and serenity. But now, through this campaign, TPL, NRPA, ULI, cities and local partners across the country are working to ensure all Americans have easy and safe access to these positive neighborhood destinations. The Houston Parks Board is proud to be a local partner, and I was proud to have worked on this initiative during my tenure at TPL. Building toward the aspirational 10-minute goal, we searched for an initiative that would challenge our cities to see parks not only as areas of recreation, but as investments in community well-being for all of us. PARK EQUITY: Does Houston have enough parks to go around? Today, as this campaign comes to fruition, I am honored to help Houston achieve this goal. Many efforts in Houston are aligned to connect people to their parks and bayous and to eliminate barriers between community members and their parks and greenways. Armed with blueprints such as the Houston Parks and Recreation Department Master Plan and innovative work from groups like Spark Parks, Houston's many outstanding park conservancies and partnerships and dozens of other organizations throughout our city, we have been on a path to greater access to parks. At Houston Parks Board working with our partners at the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, the City of Houston and the Harris County Flood Control District we are helping our city deliver this goal by leading one of the most ambitious parks projects in our country: Bayou Greenways 2020. The 150-mile network of linear parks and greenspaces along Houston's major bayous will touch nearly every neighborhood in Houston, bringing new greenspaces to many "underparked" areas of our city. The Bayou Greenways will serve not only as spaces for recreation and conservation, but also as avenues for community and regional connections and transportation. Anthony Rathburn The Bayou Greenways are creating a new green infrastructure throughout our community, connecting people to people and people to parks. Six in 10 Houstonians will live within one and a half miles of a Bayou Greenway once the project is complete in 2020. "People think that the freeways unite us," said Mayor Sylvester Turner. "But frankly, it's the people." But our goal here in Houston is more expansive than the 10-minute walk. "In due time, our city should have the best park system in the country," said Turner. "We need to be first in greenspace, that's the goal." UNFAIR DISTRIBUTION: Houston has great urban parks. What about the 'burbs? Furthermore, in the wake of Hurricane Harvey recovery, we must understand the benefits of building a green infrastructure for our city. Parks are a critical investment in any community. They add enormous value. As we search for innovative solutions for a more resilient city and community, let us remember that parks are an essential part of the effort. At the Parks Board's recent annual luncheon, our keynote speaker, internationally renowned architect and native Houstonian Charles Renfro, noted how Houston has evolved and discussed the vital role parks have played in that evolution: "What I've witnessed from New York is that the parks of Houston have become its new calling card. Grass is the new concrete." I bet your local park, playground or Bayou Greenway is closer to you than you think. Working together for an even stronger, more resilient Houston, we must ensure that these important public greenspaces are accessible to all Houstonians. Beth White is the president and CEO of the Houston Parks Board. Bookmark Gray Matters. Could it transform our city? Catherine Nance, a Houston-area gun safety advocate, passed away at her home Thursday after a three-year battle with colon cancer. She was 40. As an adjunct professor in mathematics at Lone Star College in Tomball in 2015, Nance was troubled by a law implemented in 2016 that allows students to carry firearms in many areas of college campuses and began her advocacy work with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. "She really had a fire lit under her by campus carry," said Nicole Golden, a close friend of Nance's and fellow gun safety advocate. The two met while knocking on doors at the state capital for Moms Demand Action, shortly before Nance was diagnosed with cancer. "Campus carry would bring guns into my workplace at the potential expense of finding a cure for a disease that is trying to kill me," Nance wrote in a 2015 column in the Texas Tribune. Born in London, Nance was brought as a toddler to Houston, where she was raised. She went to Klein High School before attending Texas A&M University, where she received a bachelor's degree in applied mathematical sciences. She later was a high school math teacher in Houston. After receiving her master's in educational psychology from the University of Houston, Nance became an adjunct professor at Lone Star College in Tomball. Around that time, Nance, a self-described gun owner, became involved in Moms Demand Action, which was founded after the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012 to educate on and lobby for gun safety. In February 2015, after going to the ER for digestive pain, Nance received a colonoscopy that uncovered a tumor on her colon. During the subsequent removal surgery, however, doctors found that her cancer had metastasized and spread throughout her abdomen. "You go in thinking, 'I'm going to have this surgery, and that's going to fix everything,' but then she woke up and we had to tell her that everything's worse," said Scott Nance, Catherine's husband and father to their children Amy, 5, and Owen, 3. Nance soon began receiving treatment at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, all the while continuing her advocacy and educational work despite the physical toll of chemotherapy. Nance held presentations for adults about gun safety and storage, continued teaching math at Lone Star, participated in flyer campaigns with Moms Demand Action and testified before the Texas Legislature about how enacting campus carry would drain money from cancer research. "She didn't hold herself up with bitterness and anger over her situation," said Golden. "She became more raw and honest and more of a fighter for the things that were important in her life," Nance is survived by her mother Paulette Broyles, husband Scott and their two children. A public memorial service for Nance will be held Sunday, Nov. 5, at Moffitt Oaks in Tomball. A running team has been organized in honor of Nance for the Colon Cancer Coalition's 5k on Nov. 4 at Baylor College of Medicine. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate For all the years the historic bricks of Freedmen's Town in Fourth Ward were questioned, devalued and disturbed, a new international spotlight is bringing a renewed appreciation for the strenuous efforts to validate, treasure and preserve them. UNESCO the Paris-based cultural arm of the United Nations is considering Freedmen's Town for its Slave Route Project, which is a registry created in 1994 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization of historically significant sites that tell the global story of the trade in human labor. Jane Landers, the U.S. envoy for the Slave Route Project, spent three days last week in the Houston area learning about Freedmen's Town and other sites that can be combined for a nomination. "It's a project to memorialize sites around the world where slaves had an impact. Africans that were torn from their homes and transported across the Middle Passage to sites all over the world were dispersed, but created unique communities often wherever they went. The slave route is to acknowledge that and to mark it," Landers said. "My job is to find places like this that deserve to be preserved and memorialized and to help people make a nomination." Landers was invited by Catherine Roberts, co-founder of the Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum in Freedmen's Town. International designation has been a city goal since at least early 2016 when Mayor Sylvester Turner's post-election transition team's quality of life committee recommended that his office "announce initial support of the application to designate Freedmen's Town a UNESCO World Heritage Site" and to determine its feasibility and impact "as a tourist destination and historic landmark." Houston architect Daimian Hines has described Freedmen's Town as potentially the "largest linear architectural footprint still preserved in America" of black urban life during the post-slavery Reconstruction era. Landers, a scholar of Africans in the Atlantic World, is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt professor of history at Vanderbilt University in Nashville where she also directs a digital archive of sources for slave societies. Two years ago, she joined the UNESCO Committee for the Scientific Investigation of the Slave Route. During a tour Thursday led by Debra Blacklock-Sloan, a Freedmen's Town historian who serves on the Harris County Historical Commission, Landers discovered a community with many surviving elements despite new multi-rise buildings, townhouses and other gentrification. "I had never seen anything like the brick streets that I saw here," she said. Oral history records that bricks were laid in accordance with West African traditions connecting residents with their ancestral roots atop significant trinkets and icons as well as in certain patterns. Those pavers provide the patchwork for Freedmen's Town up-from-slavery story of people starting from scratch on Buffalo Bayou and building a striving community full of crafts people, homes and institutions that lifted its members to success through entrepreneurship and education. Landers said she was impressed by the documentation of Freedmen's Town, particularly the archaeology and Texas Historical Commission markers. She said the case for the proposal has been made through decades of preservation work. Now, that effort and evidence needs to be packaged. "There is certainly enough research and history here that it should have a tremendous reception," she said. "If it were just a place where you knew there once were slaves who became free, there are those all over the South. You have to have all the research and the investment and the community that this has to make it a viable project." Texas has only one World Heritage Site among two dozen in the United States. The San Antonio Missions, including The Alamo, were designated in 2015 after a decade of persistence by preservationists and officials. UNESCO received its first U.S. nomination for the Slave Route Project last month: Fort Negley Park in Nashville. The Civil War-era Union installation built by black people including runaway slaves, free individuals and conscripted laborers is considered significant in the history of global enslavement. Landers also visited Emancipation Park and other sites in Third Ward. She stopped by Olivewood Cemetery incorporated in 1875 and one of the city's oldest burial grounds where pivotal black leaders of post-Emancipation Houston and their families were laid to rest for the next 100 years. She also traveled to the Levi Jordan Plantation near Brazoria, which has a remaining main house that was built by slave labor in the mid-1800s, and where archeological work has located evidence of vibrant life at the sites of long-gone quarters where people in bondage created a community. Hines, the architect, said many cities have a site or a cemetery in isolation, but dozens of elements in Freedmen's Town and greater Houston express the "urbanization of free people who created an economic and cultural powerhouse" from the late 1880s into the 20th century. There are descendants of original families who live in the area today and potential for tourist kiosks, micro-museums and other installations in addition to what remains to attract international social tourism. "Wealth was built in a very short time despite Jim Crow, segregation and hate. ... That's value to UNESCO," Hines said. "This is a jewel. We have something nobody else has." AUSTIN - Stephen Meier, a 55-year-old former refinery worker, struggles with the guilt of leaving everything behind. After two months living in a tent at a state park on the outskirts of Austin, he is moving into a tiny house built just for him. He's parking it in a trailer park and will build a porch on it - with Plexiglas walls for a sun room. And he'll finally have a bed to sleep in again. What gets him is thinking about the people he's leaving behind by not returning to Angleton, where his friends are still piecing their homes and lives back together after they were ravaged by Hurricane Harvey. "In one way, I'm glad I'm not there through this stage," he said. "It almost makes me feel guilty as far as me leaving, because I'm not there to help them this time. But I had to do it." He's not alone. At least 60 families who fled from Harvey and found refuge in Austin have decided to stay, opting to leave behind their homes that were swallowed up by flood waters and constant barrage of storms. Some of them didn't have much to begin with, and others see the move as a chance for a new start. Meier, the last evacuee staying at McKinney Falls State Park, sees a different reason for his move. Monitoring relocation As Hurricane Harvey barreled down on the Gulf Coast before making landfall, Gov. Greg Abbott opened up state parks as free safe havens for people fleeing the storm. For people holed up in hotels and motels, the state stopped collecting hotel taxes. Others sought shelters, and at the peak of Harvey, more than 34,000 people lived out of churches, schools, business parks and convention centers to weather the floods. State officials are unsure how many people who fled the storm have permanently moved, although hundreds of people are still displaced. Some 200 people are still living in a shelter this week, nearly two months after the storm. Now Playing: Stephen Meier evacuated to McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, Texas when Hurricane Harvey hit Houston. He and his dog Peck are living in the state park free of charge. Video: Joshua Guerra, For the Houston Chronicle Thousands of others are staying in hotels across 37 states, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The federal Transitional Shelter Assistance program is covering the cost of Harvey evacuees staying in 24,000 hotel rooms, he said, but it is too soon to know how many other evacuees have relocated to a permanent new home. One indicator of where people have moved is where families have sent their children to school. For example, Austin Independent School District has 58 students enrolled from Harvey-stricken areas and another six students who evacuated from Hurricanes Irma, which plowed over Florida, and Maria, which wrecked Puerto Rico. Further north, Fort Worth took in 114 students at its peak from Harvey and now has 59 evacuated students enrolled. No 'full picture' State education officials say it will be months before they can put their finger on the number of students who are attending new schools due to the storm. Districts will take a snapshot of their attendance on Oct. 27, recording the total enrollment and the number of students attending from flooded and damaged districts. However, it will take months to process that data to see where students are moving and settling temporarily, according to Lauren Callahan, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency. The TEA "may not have a full picture until early next year," she said. In Austin, 20 families from the Houston area have tentatively decided to stay, according to the Austin Disaster Relief Network, a group of 175 churches and volunteers from the Greater Austin that connects survivors with vital resources like financial help, housing and emotional care. Other families that have decided to settle there hail from Beaumont, Victoria, Port Arthur and Baytown. "There's a real emotional feel of still being in a waiting period," said Veronica Conde, who manages the disaster relief shepherding program helping new families settle in. "There's a lot of families where there's not clarity with their FEMA applications, there's not clarity with the situation back home, and so there's a lot of frustration and uncertainty tied to that." Packing up When thousands of people headed to shelters in the immediate aftermath of the storm, Meier headed for the state parks. He and his dog, Peck-Peck, rode out the first wave of the storm in his white, fifth wheel trailer, hunkering down as the wind banged the sides like mallets on a thousands drums. The battering continued, gradually wearing down its seals and allowing water to drip from the ceiling. He had already been through one big storm and watched his town flood last year when water rushed down the Brazos River. He'd lived there for more than a decade, but when Harvey reversed course and backed up toward Brazoria County, Meier packed up his most important belongings and left. 'Blowing me out' He had intended to come back. "I had a gut feeling this was going to be worse, and I was right," he said, showing pictures of a friend's home with water levels nearly clearing the front door. "I knew the Brazos was going to come a-running ... The hurricane was God's way of blowing me out of there." He headed west to Edna, but between flooded roads and a dead phone, he eventually found himself in Bastrop. When he asked a family where the nearest park was, a girl sent him up the highway to McKinney Falls State Park, even though there is a different state park minutes up the road. "I was a lost little lamb," he said. But being sent to the state park farther away was an act of divine intervention, he said. He quickly connected with the Austin Disaster Relief Network. He prayed with a woman there and said he walked away knowing he should stay. Within a month, ADFN found someone who would build him an 8-by-12-foot tiny home for an inexpensive price. The barrel-chested former bouncer with shoulder-length locks lost some 60 pounds walking the trails picking up garbage, a self-appointed task he tackles at the state park to earn his keep. He likes the view of the Hill Country and the access to live music, and he's confident he can pick up a job in industrial construction as soon as he gets his new home together. 'Don't want to relive it' Before moving into his tiny home this month, Campsite 24 was his bachelor pad. A string of orange lights dangled from his blue pop up gazebo tent. On a nearby tree hung a plastic plaque with a fake fish named "Big Mouth Billy Bass." He dubbed his site the "Tent Mahal," complete with a garage tent for his tools. By day he was working out details of his new home, and by night he slept next to a mini refrigerator with his dog; a small TV, rigged with an antenna that swung from a bungee cord outside, is also tucked into the tent so he could watch the news. It wasn't much, but he said he'd rather be there than his last home in Angleton. And the only time he's going back will be to fish, he said. The guilt still nags him. He wants to make sure people don't forget about his friends, about the people whose lives are shattered and who need help in Brazoria County. But he said he can't look anymore at the dead cows, dogs and other animals that washed up after the floods and storms. "I just don't want to relive it," he said. "My life's coming together beautifully ... unlike every one of the people that are down there right now." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The last time Doris Davis saw the inside of her home she was wading in about 4 feet of water. The 81-year old Houston resident had spent two days after Harvey alone with her three dogs in her single-story home off Tidwell Road in northeast Houston - feeling helpless and a little in shock - before being rescued by a neighbor. The interior of the house had been gutted, and Davis lost most of her personal belongings. "You could stand on the outside and look straight through," she said. Davis returned to her home Sunday morning - two months later - and for the first time since Harvey, she felt hope. On her front lawn, celebrity renovators Chip and Joanna Gaines led volunteer crews from ExxonMobil and Rebuilding Together Houston in a restoration effort of her home. "If someone had said they were going to give me a million dollars to tell them what was going to be going on at my home today, I would have missed out on that million," Davis said. "I could never have imagined this. You're talking about a blessing." Davis' story, like other Harvey-related experiences of loss, resonated with the Gaines duo and the collaborative effort provided the opportunity for them to participate in the recovery in a tangible way. "It's one thing to see it in the news, it's a whole other thing to actually be here on the ground," said Joanna Gaines, who was preparing to film a segment with Davis for the couple's popular HGTV renovation series, "Fixer Upper," on Sunday. "You're just seeing the lives, the families and the communities that are affected, and I think that's one of the things we were really kind of anxious to get after, just getting here on the ground, helping families and so today is a special day for us." For Rebuilding Houston Together, the Davis project is an extension of its core mission, according to executive director Christine Holland. "We wish we could do everyone's house," she said. The nonprofit works on repair projects at no cost to lower-income senior citizens, military veterans and people with disabilities using volunteers; the group is assessing how to meet that need in a post-Harvey landscape. "There are always so many people that need our services, and now more than ever," she said. The group provides the cleaning and construction materials and depends on volunteer assistance from various groups like ExxonMobil, who brought about 50 employees to help restore Davis' home. Volunteers in force Like thousands of elderly or disabled homebound residents overwhelmed after Harvey, Davis, who lacked flood insurance, did not have the resources for a cleanup and restoration. "Every eight weekends a year, we have 200-plus volunteers who come out to rebuild homes for people like Doris, to made sure they have a safe, secure environment to continue living in," said Bryan Milton, president of the fuels division at ExxonMobil. In the days following Harvey's heaviest flooding, Jackie Chandler, Davis' daughter, could only think of the worst-case scenario. She hadn't been able to reach her mother's neighborhood because of the high waters, and phone calls went unanswered. Her mother was also diabetic, and Chandler knew that any medication was likely lost. "She was in her home for two days with no food and the lights off," she said. "Because of her not having her medication, she was a little disoriented. I kept calling and calling. It was terrifying." Nina Martinez and her family live across the street from Davis and had left before the water started rising, but she had a feeling her neighbor had stayed behind. According to Chandler, Davis didn't want to leave her dogs, and could not be convinced to evacuate. But Martinez's husband, son and brother returned to try to convince Davis again, and this time, the elderly woman was ready. "She had been scared and when they opened the door, she was so excited," Martinez said. 'This is love' Chandler made contact with Julie Mintzer, director of marketing and communication for Rebuilding Together Houston, which had begun projects on other Harvey-affected homes in the area, and days later, volunteers were on hand to gut her house and start on the cleanup. Rebuilding Together Houston and the Gaineses came onboard shortly thereafter. "This is love, that's what they're showing my mother," Chandler said. "It's just a true blessing and it shows how America is built on and what we're all about, and that is people helping people." Davis is staying with her daughter, and in the meantime, her three Chihuahuas are being fostered until she can return home. "I miss them more than everything else I lost," Davis said. It was big news recently when the Biloxi Public School District in Mississippi withdrew the classic novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee from the eighth-grade curriculum. Now, after a national outcry, the book is back - sort of. This month, Biloxi officials said eighth-graders would no longer read the book - which takes a critical look at racism in a Southern town in the 1930s through the eyes of a 10-year-old girl - as part of the regular English curriculum because its racist language made some people uncomfortable. AUSTIN - In an unusual step, six prosecutors and Texas' criminal defense attorneys association have joined a continuing legal storm over how much the special prosecutors overseeing the criminal case against Attorney General Ken Paxton should get paid. Preventing the three special prosecutors in Paxton's case from getting paid would thwart justice, according to Bexar County District Attorney Nicholas "Nico" LaHood, Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore, Fort Bend County District Attorney John Healey Jr., Travis County Attorney David Escamilla, former State Prosecuting Attorney Lisa McMinn and Enrico Valdez, a Bexar County assistant district attorney. The group intervened late Friday with the state Court of Criminal Appeals. At the same time, Galveston County filed a brief supporting a limitation on fees for special prosecutors. To allow a judge to set prosecutors pay above the rates set by county officials would cause chaos in the budgeting process, the filling argues. A decision by the 5th Court of Appeals in Dallas that the special prosecutors have to be paid a lower rate, even though the higher fees were approved by a court, "creates the unintended effect of either discouraging qualified attorneys from accepting the appointment or forcing them to chose between their own financial interest and their responsibilities as prosecutors." Attorneys for Paxton, who has denied wrongdoing in the securities fraud case, have argued that the higher payments should not be allowed. In a separate filing with the appeals court, the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association argues much the same thing, saying that courts have previously ruled that proper compensation for appointed prosecutors is necessary and that the Collin County Commissioner's Court should honor the payments to the three special prosecutors in the Paxton case. "We're gratified that prosecutors and defense attorneys with almost 200 years of collective experience agree how very important this case is, and that we're entitled to the relief we seek in the Court of Criminal Appeals," Houston attorney Brian Wice, one of the special prosecutors in the case, said in a statement Sunday. In August, the Dallas appeals issued an opinion voiding an order for a $205,000 payment to three Houston-area special prosecutors assigned to Paxton's securities fraud case. The invoice for payment dates back to January of 2016. In the opinion, the court recognized their responsibility of appointing qualified attorneys, but acknowledged "attorneys appointed will likely be paid a fee much less than a retained attorney would command." Lawsuits have tied up the special prosecutors' payments since then amid a dispute launched by Jeffory Blackard, a Paxton donor and political ally in Collin County - and later the Collin County Commissioners Court - arguing the attorneys' $300 per hour fee was too much and exceeded local caps. The Galveston County filing is asking the state's highest criminal court to turn down the request by Paxton's special prosecutors to be paid the higher fees. "Legislative budgeting prerogative of a commissioners court would be overcast with uncertainty if ... any individual judge may wield unlimited legislative power to spend taxpayer funds on appointed counsel," the filing by Galveston County states. "Limits on appointed counsel's rates aid commissioners courts in exercising their core legislative function, forecasting spending and balancing appointed counsel expenses against our community's other needs, from roads and bridges to public buildings and law enforcement." AUSTIN - Texas school districts ravaged by Hurricane Harvey still need thousands of textbooks, dictionaries and other instructional resources, so the state's education agency is borrowing a page from the wedding industry to help cover the costs. The Texas Education Agency has modified its textbook ordering system to create a "wedding registry" of sorts where districts can list the textbooks they need to replace those damaged in the storm. Textbook publishers, individuals or organizations can then donate the books, as can school districts that have excess inventory. "It was very clear that a lot of people lost a great amount of instructional materials, including textbooks," Commissioner of Education Mike Morath said. "If you consider the scale of Harvey, (the registry) is not solving everyone's problems, but it is helping in places." The registry is meant to match districts in need with those willing to donate, and officials say those donations will free up money to cover other costs, such as rebuilding schools. More Information How to help To donate textbooks and other instructional resources to schools affected by Hurricane Harvey call the Texas Education Agency at (512) 463-9601 or visit tea.texas.gov/Academics/Hurricane_Harvey_Instructional_Materials_Assistance See More Collapse But some question the approach, expressing concerns over delays in instruction as schools wait for the textbooks to arrive, and the impact that will have on student learning. "If we had books that have been destroyed, then the state needs to step up and take care of that problem," said Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, who chairs the House Public Education Committee. So far, 14 districts have created needs-lists in the state's registry, including Humble, Sheldon and Pasadena school districts. In total, the districts have registered for more than $1 million in needs. They are asking for everything from math, social studies and science textbooks to dictionaries and reading flashcards for first graders. 'Go buy the books' Morath told lawmakers about the registry at a recent House education committee hearing meant to assess the financial toll of Harvey left on schools. Huberty stopped Morath as he explained how the registry facilitates donations. "Have all the district's needs been met?" Huberty asked. "No," Morath said, noting that many school districts are filing insurance claims and working to get books from other districts. "Hold one second, you are talking about instructional materials that we need to teach the children what they need to learn today," Huberty said. "The schools are making insurance claims, but to date they don't have those materials." In an interview, Huberty said he commends Morath for his efforts to help districts affected by the storm, but he said the state should "go buy the books and send us the bill." "It's more complicated than that," Huberty admitted. "But they should not be waiting on things like textbooks." Humble ISD, located in Huberty's district, is facing millions of dollars worth of Harvey-related costs, including an estimated $40 million to repair Kingwood High School. Kingwood High alone lost $1.6 million in instructional resources from flooding, according to Jamie Mount, a district spokeswoman. It is asking for more than $210,000 in textbooks, one of the largest requests in the state's registry. Their list includes more than 600 geometry, 160 physics and 350 U.S. government textbooks. Mount said the district anticipates adding more books to the list. So far, Irving ISD has donated some history and biology books, Mount said. The district is also repurchasing some books at discounted prices. In the meantime, the district is making do with what it has. "Some needs have been met utilizing existing inventory at the district warehouse or at other schools within the district," Mount said. "Digital books and web-based resources are also being utilized." Kingwood students are currently attending Summer Creek High School with a split schedule. Summer Creek students attend class in the morning; Kingwood's attend class in the afternoon. Teachers from both schools have worked together to figure out how to share instructional materials, and students are sharing class sets of books that were already at Summer Creek. The learning process In the Little Cypress-Mauriceville district, teachers are using online textbook licenses and making copies of pages they need as a visual resource. District officials there say that while they need to replace textbooks, gone are the days when teachers only use a textbook to teach students. "Textbooks are just one part of the learning process," said Julia Dickerson, director of elementary curriculum and instruction. "A teacher has a lot of other things they can use - she has online resources, project-based learning and technology." But the school district still has $209,000 worth of textbooks in the needs registry, including more than 240 fifth-grade social studies books and hundreds of literature, social studies and writing resources for other grade levels. Three school districts have donated several books to the school system, Dickerson said. "We are very appreciative of it," Dickerson said of the TEA's registry. "It's a lifesaver to have the donations because it's helping the district save money, and we can put that towards rebuilding schools." Helping in long term The full price tag to repair Little Cypress-Mauriceviile schools and others is still unknown. But early estimates released last month show the state may need about $1.64 billion for Harvey-related costs. Textbooks are just one small slice of the vast needs facing districts, but that's why Huberty and others like state Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio, believe the state should immediately supply instructional resources to schools. "If our only response is a registry, that is an unacceptable response," Bernal said. "It's a good idea to get whatever is in excess out there, but after that we just need to meet those needs." Morath, the education commissioner, said that if a district needs textbooks in the next day or two for its students, the registry is not likely to be helpful. The registry alone is "not a panacea," he said, but it will help meet a school district's long-term recovery efforts. "Every item that is donated is one less item the taxpayer needs to pay for," Morath said. Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. As an existing print subscriber it is easy to get FREE access to all our online content. When you click get started below it will walk you through creating an online account to attach your print subscription number to. After your account is created it will ask you to either add a subscription for online access or click on the print subscriber button. Click the print subscriber button header and it will open a dropdown, now click on get started. The page will reload and you will be prompted to enter an account number and a zip code. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO USE THE NUMBER OFF OF THE MOST RECENT ISSUE OR ANYTHING AFTER JANUARY 28, 2019 TO GAIN ACCESS! OLD ACCOUNT NUMBERS WILL NOT WORK The account number and zip code are easily available on your most recent issue of the High Plains Journal or Midwest Ag Journal in the address fields as is shown here. Sometimes the account number has extra zero's in front of it, just ignore those. A week from tomorrow voters in Virginia and New Jersey will pick between lesser-of-two evils candidates the two corrupted political parties selected for them. That night I'll be watching returns for the Virginia House of Delegates, where there are some extraordinarily good candidates running who have a real chance to win. And I'll be watching what's happening in Maine. Maine? Yeah, Maine has the first referendum in the country on expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The state legislature passed it 5 times and the TRumpist governor, Paul LePage vetoed it 5 times. Mainers want it. Last year all 16 counties in Maine rejected Clinton and backed Bernie in the state's caucuses. He won the urban centers, the suburbs and the rural areas. Bernie's win numbers by county: Androscoggin- 64.7% Aroostook- 54.9% Cumberland- 63.2% Franklin- 67.2% Hancock- 66.0% Kennebec- 59.6% Knox- 68.1% Lincoln- 67.0% Oxford- 72.2% Penobscot- 66.0% Piscataquis- 65.0% Sagadahoc- 63.3% Somerset- 62.0% Waldo- 73.3% Washington- 73.3% York- 65.2% NY Times looked at the Statewide, Bernie beat Hillary 64.3% to 35.5%. On election day a proposition passed legalizing recreational marijuana use (56.4% to 43.6%). Maine's a hunting state and a proposition to ban large-capacity ammunition magazines and requiring a background check to purchase ammo passed 62.7% to 37.3%. A $2.00/a pack cigarette tax passed 63.8% to 36.2% and a proposition preserving bilingual eduction passed 72.8% to 27.2%. Over the weekend, thelooked at the proposition for expanding Medicaid Mainers will vote on next week. The referendum on Nov. 7 represents a new front in the pitched political battles over health care. Maine is one of 19 states whose Republican governors or legislatures have refused to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, and the other holdouts-- particularly Utah and Idaho, where newly formed committees are working to get a Medicaid expansion question on next years ballot-- are closely watching the initiative, whose outcome may offer clues about the salience of the issue in next years midterm congressional elections. After President Trump and Republicans in Congress spent much of the year trying to repeal the health law and cut spending on Medicaid, a half-century-old entitlement program that covers one in five Americans, the pro-expansion side in Maine is hoping to benefit from energized public support for it. Turnout may be the biggest challenge for the advocacy groups leading the effort. There are no national or statewide races here to drive people to the polls this year. And Mr. LePages stance on government safety net programs appeals to many voters in the states more rural regions. He derides Medicaid expansion as pure welfare that would burden the states taxpayers. Senator Susan Collins of Maine, one of the few Republicans who firmly opposed the Obamacare repeal bills, is not taking a position on the ballot measure-- she never does on referendums, according to her staff. But leaders of the campaign are hoping her outspoken support for Medicaid during the repeal battles will help. About 80,000 additional Mainers would become eligible for the program if the ballot measure were to succeed, according to the nonpartisan Maine Office of Program and Fiscal Review, although those with income above the poverty line currently qualify for subsidized coverage through the Obamacare marketplace. In all, more than 2.5 million poor uninsured adults across the country would gain access to Medicaid if the holdout states expanded the program, joining about 11 million who have already signed up under the law. ...The main arguments for expanding the program here are that it would help financially fragile rural hospitals, create jobs and provide care for vulnerable people who have long gone without it. But Mr. LePage and other opponents say that Maine should know better. The state undertook a more modest expansion of Medicaid in 2002, under former Gov. Angus King, an independent. Afterward, Maine struggled with budget shortfalls and fell behind on Medicaid payments to hospitals. People dont want to acknowledge the unintended consequences that Maine has already experienced, said Brent Littlefield, a political adviser to Mr. LePage who is serving as the spokesman for Welfare to Work, the committee leading the opposition. He said that even with the federal government paying most of the cost-- a situation that could change if Congress eventually succeeds in repealing Obamacare-- the state could owe close to $100 million a year, according to estimates from the LePage administration. The Office of Program and Fiscal Review has estimated a lower state cost, about $54 million a year once the federal share drops to 90 percent in 2021. Maine would not receive the full 90 percent match for parents of young children because many already qualify for the program. Maines legislature, which is controlled by Democrats in the House and Republicans, by one vote, in the Senate, could move to block the referendum if it were to pass, but since it voted for Medicaid expansion five times already, supporters and opponents alike believe it is unlikely to meddle. And the governor would have no authority to veto the outcome. The only other threat would be if Congress succeeded in repealing the Affordable Care Act and ended the Medicaid expansion program. Supporters of the measure have knocked on 150,000 doors since July and have run four television ads statewide. Mainers for Health Care had raised about $480,000 as of early October, including $375,000 from the Fairness Project, a left-leaning group founded in California. It is putting out national appeals for donations, including through Organizing for Action, the political group that grew out of former President Barack Obamas campaigns. Welfare to Work had raised $192,500, with its contributions coming from a handful of frequent Republican donors in the state. Mr. Littlefield would not discuss the oppositions strategies, but the group has at least two ads running on television statewide and Mr. LePage has been blasting the initiative on talk radio and in other public comments. This is what voters will see at the polls: Do you want Maine to expand Medicaid to provide healthcare coverage for qualified adults under age 65 with incomes at or below 138% of the federal poverty level, which in 2017 means $16,643 for a single person and $22,412 for a family of two? So far all the newspapers that have weighed in, have supported expansion. The Press Herald: "A 'yes' vote," they wrote, "would bring in more than $500 million a year from the federal government, which would be distributed throughout the state to hospitals-- including struggling rural hospitals-- along with clinics and doctors offices, supporting an estimated 4,000 health sector jobs. Those workers will cash their paychecks, buy houses, pay taxes and contribute to the economic health of their communities, generating another 2,000 jobs. For economic impact alone, we would enthusiastically support this referendum, which would give the state a much-needed shot in the arm. But there are many other reasons to vote yes that are just as compelling. This is a bill that will make Maines health care system more reliable and secure for everyone. It will extend access to preventive care and treatment for people who cant now afford it. And it will save lives. By passing this referendum, Maine would extend health coverage to an estimated 70,000 people who are not currently eligible for MaineCare, despite earning less than $16,642 for an individual, or $22,411 for a family of two. Some of the people covered would be childless adults who earn less than the federal poverty limit of $12,060 a year, but still cant get coverage now. More than two-thirds of those whod be newly eligible are currently working, or actively looking for work, but dont have employer-provided insurance. At those incomes, visits to a doctor or filling a prescription are not in the budget. Low-income people often wait until they are very sick before they start to seek help, often at hospital emergency departments. By then, their care might be much more expensive than preventive care would have been. It also might be too late to help them at all. Even if they have no insurance, those patients are not turned away by hospitals. Instead, they receive free care, the cost of which is shared by all the hospitals paying customers. That results in higher insurance premiums for everyone else. Opponents typically argue that Maine cant afford to expand because the states 10 percent share of the program, projected to cost $54 million by 2021, would be too much of a burden. But they are ignoring the benefit the state would get in return from the federal spending on health care. Most investors would be willing to put up $10 dollars to get $100 back, and Maine should be willing to take that deal, too. Thirty-one states have participated in Medicaid expansion, and there is plenty of evidence that it has not broken the bank. Instead, expansion states report not only that their state budgets are stable, but that their hospital balance sheets are positive and insurance rates are lower than in non-expansion states. This is a good deal. Its time Maine took part in this program. This is a good deal for Maine, and voters shouldnt let this opportunity slip away again. Jared Golden, the Majority Whip of the Maine state House, is the progressive running in Maine's 2nd congressional district. He reiterated that "the Maine Legislature has passed Medicaid expansion five times but the governor has killed it with his veto pen each time. Passage of Question 2 would bring about a half billion federal dollars per year into Maine to extend coverage to roughly 70,000 Mainers that have lacked health coverage for all these years because of the governor's opposition to a functioning government and his lack of compassion for people that are living in poverty. The governor says they need to pick themselves up by their bootstraps but they don't have boots. He's forgotten that his were given to him by kind people that were there to give him a hand up but not everyone is so fortunate. The frustrating part is that expanding Medicaid to those 70,000 folks would also create thousands of good paying, middle-class health care jobs in Maine, giving our economy a much needed boost, particularly those jobs that would be supported in our rural hospitals and health care providers. In Congress, I'll fight to protect Medicaid funds so that Maine's elderly, many of whom use it for long-term care and assisted living, and people struggling in poverty with low-wages can continue to receive health care coverage through this important program." sustained hiring growth; long employee tenure; proactive internal recognition and promotion; strong learning and development programs; diverse workforce; conducive working environment; promotion of work-life balance; and implementation of sound corporate social responsibility projects. outsourcing firm in the Philippines has been named as Asias top employer thanks to its progressive workplace policies and productive environment.Teleperformance, which employs nearly 40,000 people in 18 delivery centers across seven Philippine cities, was named Top Employer of the Year at the 2017 Asia CEO Awards held October 17.The firm showed excellence across all criteria but most notably in:All companies considered for the award demonstrated performance in management achievement, workplace enhancement, international recognition, talent development, social commitment; and work-life balance.Teleperformance has the most amazing workforce and we work very hard to give them the best possible employee experience, said Travis Coates, managing director for Teleperformance Philippines.We are also very active in giving back to our communities and we will continue to work even harder to be the kind of employer of choice who ultimately wins awards like this.Teleperformance began operations in the Philippines in 1996 and has grown to become a preferred offshore contact center outsourcing option.The Teleperformance management team in the Philippines wonderfully convey Teleperformance values and our culture of passion for people, commitment to excellence said Daniel Julien, Chairman and Global CEO, Teleperformance Group.At the same time, they offer the young generation of talented Filipinos a world-class work environment and so many personal development opportunities."Teleperformance was also named a top finalist for the Corporate Social Responsibility Company of the Year at the Asia CEO Awards for its advocacy programs through its corporate social responsibility arm, Citizen of the World.Citizen of the World focuses on helping sick children and the elderly, as well as facilitating relief operations in times of natural disasters.For the past six years, Teleperformance has received the Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Contact Center Outsourcing Service Provider of the Year Award for its significant performance in revenue management, market share, capabilities, and overall contribution to the contact center industry.It was also awarded as Outstanding Employer and Outstanding Community Project of the Year 2017 by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and has been recognized by Aon Hewitt as a Best Employer in the Philippines.Teleperformance offers customer care, technical support, customer acquisition (Core Services), as well as with online interpreting solutions, visa application management services, data analysis and debt collection programs.Globally, it has 217,000 employees in 74 countries. aysias largest employer group is still in a war of words with the Social Security Organisation amid claims the latter failed to carry out significant consultation over recent legislation.Passed last week, the Employment Insurance System Bill has led to significant tensions between the two groups as the Malaysian Employers Federations feels its views have not been considered.However, Socso belied claims that it had not conducted sufficient consultations with the MEF and insisted it had 42 engagements with employer groups and 41 with employee groups while the bill was being formulated.The allegations that there were insufficient engagements are entirely baseless, said Socsos EIS chief Mohn Sahar Darusman.MEF executive director Shamsuddin Bardan also said the bill gave the human resources minister the authority to amend the combined 0.4 per cent contribution rate to up to 1.5 per cent but Sahar refuted this.Instead, he claimed that any proposed increase in contribution rates for the EIS would need the approval from Socsos board of directors.Socsos board is made up of representatives from employers, employees, and from the finance ministry. Even after Socsos board had passed any proposed increase of contribution rates, he said, it would still need the cabinets approval.Socso is also responsible to submit our annual report, which will now cover the EIS, to the cabinet and Parliament every year.Suggestions of role duplication have also caused some contention but Sahar denied the EIS would be duplicating the roles of some government agencies especially those relating to job matching, job search and training.With nine years of existing experience of employment services through the Return to Work Programme, Socso operates on an entirely different model of employment services which is person-centred and personalised, he said.This is not practised by other private or public agencies at present.Under the EIS, there would be a designated employment service officer for each retrenched worker to assist with job search, job matching and job placement as well as to monitor all activities until the worker had successfully found a new job.We will work with other public and private agencies, not compete with them, he said. The EIS caters only to those who contribute to the fund to get them re-employed.Sahar also said he hoped that all parties would no longer make false allegations on the EIS.Policies and strategies for the EIS arent carved in stone and will evolve according to economic and labour market conditions, he said.He added that the EIS committee, which is made up of employers, employees and the government, will make recommendations and implement the EIS in the best interests of all parties. of Airbnbs most senior executives has stepped down after just four months in his new role amid allegations of an inappropriate relationship with another employee.Hong Ge, who was VP of the firms China operations, told colleagues he was leaving for another job but Bloomberg reported that his departure was actually the result of a workplace romance.Its a very tough decision for me to leave behind all of what we have built together. But hey, its a small world, Ge wrote to staff. I will still be in the internet industry. Im sure our paths will cross again in the future.Nick Papas, a spokesman for Airbnb, confirmed Ges departure but declined to comment further. CEO Brian Chesky also offered a brief response and said Ge was stepping down to pursue opportunities outside of Airbnb.The resignation is likely to cause problems for Airbnb as the firm struggled since 2015 to find a business chief for China Ge, a former software engineer, was eventually recruited in June.While workplace relationships are discouraged or outright banned by some organisations, a number of studies have suggested office romances are actually incredibly common.One 2015 poll by research firm Harris Interactive found that 38 per cent of workers have dated a co-worker at least once during the course of their career. A further 17 per cent admitted doing so at least twice.Of those who had engaged in an office romance, 31 per cent said the relationship led to marriage, 28 per cent said theyd dated someone above them in the company hierarchy and 18 per cent said theyd dated their own boss. Most people become politicians because they want to change something, to make the world a better place. The fun part of being a minister - and there can't be many - is devising and announcing new policies. But in the Westminster bubble, seeing the steady stream of new announcements, it's easy to forget that nothing actually happens when you announce a policy. Getting the implementation right is the much duller part of governing, but much good intent has fallen at the hurdle of poor implementation. Competence - the ability to devise coherent policy and then to implement it well - is crucial to the reputation of government, and voters punish politicians who fall short. Over the next few months, it's reasonable to bet that the competence lens will be focused on how well the government can steward the NHS through what is widely expected to be one of the toughest winters in recent history. Much will depend on the weather and the virulence of this year's flu strain. But there is no doubt that the NHS is in a fragile state going into winter as a result of widespread capacity problems. There simply aren't enough nurses in hospitals or in the community, to meet demand and social care and primary care are bucking under the strain. Advertisement The causes of the capacity problems are long-term and complex but a very large contributor is the fundamental and systemic fault line in the planning and management of the workforce - a failure of workforce policy competence. Brexit didn't create the NHS's staffing problem but it brings it into even sharper relief. The NHS has always tended to train fewer doctors and nurses than needed and then rely on overseas recruitment. But analysis by the Health Foundation found a 96% drop in the number of EU nurses registering to work in the UK since last summer. Relying on international recruitment to bail the NHS out of workforce policy and planning failures has become high stakes poker. With the ongoing decline in GP numbers the government is looking overseas again for family doctors, aiming to entice 600 GPs from abroad to join the NHS by next April, and 2,000 in total over the next three years. An impressive sounding announcement. But just 38 GPs were recruited from overseas in the first six months of this year, which shows how challenging this policy will be to implement. The overall size of the NHS workforce increased over the last year, with more senior doctors and managers - but the numbers of nurses and GPs fell. Official estimates are that the NHS is short 30,000 nurses - equivalent to one in 10 posts. Announcements of ambitions to remedy this are coming thick and fast: the government plans to grow the mental health workforce by 21,000, increase nurse training places by 25% and recruit 5,000 more GPs. Advertisement The problem is, the gap between national rhetoric and reality for the NHS workforce is growing. One example is the abolition of bursaries for nursing. Until this Autumn nurses paid no tuition fees and received help with living costs. But in recent years nursing courses have been substantially over-subscribed, but places were capped due to cost. So from this year nurses' degree training is funded by the standard student loan scheme, to remove this financial cap on the number of places. The rationale for this policy makes sense, but there were obvious risks - lots of nursing students are older than typical undergraduates, and loans schemes tend to impact older students and part-time students more. Nursing involves lots of work experience in clinical placements in hospitals, so another risk was that hospitals wouldn't be given the support needed to take on more students. As expected the shift to loans seems to have had little impact on young people straight out of school or college: 6% more 18 and 19 year olds are starting a nursing degree this autumn. But the signs are this growth is not enough to expand overall numbers as there are around 10% fewer people aged 20 and over starting a nursing degree. Overall the number of nurses applying from England starting training is down by 1,220. Funding announcements to support more clinical placements were hugely delayed and the issues for mature students not fully addressed. The obvious risks were ignored - another well intentioned policy hampered by poor implementation. We're living in very troubled times. The signs of this are everywhere, from Trump through Brexit to the increasing authoritarianism of President Xi in China. Across Europe, reactionary and xenophobic politicians are gaining support. Economic distress has lead to a desire for certainty and protection. There is a retreat from the certainties of growing prosperity and a future in which the world would be more open and liberal. Instead, governments are enjoying popular support for clampdowns on our civil liberties, and seem to think the public wants them to be tough, that is to remove hard fought for rights and freedoms. Advertisement The appeal to illiberal, closed and insular values has extends well into the conventional political parties, who appear to be responding to this trend. This desire to satiate fears and to appear strong is a dangerous strategy, as it risks feeding and legitimising the impulses rather than removing them. The result is that we're facing what arguably amounts to the worst set of threats to democratic values since the Second World War. This trend to authoritarianism is taking place at a time when national governments feel perhaps even less able to deal with the external and changing world. The conventional political responses to terrorism and extremism illustrate this paradox extremely well: while governments find it hard to identify the means to deal with the root causes of political extremism, such as poverty and political abuse, they can focus on matters closer to home. This provides the impulse for surveillance and censorship. These are things that can be done, and therefore, in the current political mindset, should be done. And that combination makes the digital world one of the most important frontiers in the fight for democratic values. Advertisement In the last year, we have seen the British government legitimise its use of the Internet as a vast Panopticon. In the name of the war on terrorism, the government keeps virtual files on every UK citizen when our data is swept up into GCHQ's data vaults. We are constantly assessed, whoever we are, without any need for a specific reason. The reason is that we're using the Internet, so should expect to be watched. Similar powers have been granted to the police through the draconian Investigatory Powers Act, who may well be using our Internet Connection Records right now as well as a search engine called the "filter" to perform data trawls for much more mundane reasons. This is where the illiberal impulse leads us: sweeping powers for terrorism swiftly become tools that can be used for anything that the government doesn't like. Having got what the government wanted on surveillance, the government is turning its attention onto removing the "bad things" from the Internet. It wants the "bad things" to be removed, swiftly, by big corporations such as Google and Facebook, who it holds directly responsible for aiding the spread of extremism. "We will not shy away from tackling harmful behaviours and harmful content online - be that extremist, abusive or harmful to children. Advertisement "We will make sure that technology companies do more," said the government at the time of the Queen's Speech. The Digital Charter, and the softer policy measures proposed in September by the Department for Culture Media and Sport (who are in charge of the Internet, you understand) are designed to push companies into greater customer censorship. While the government wants content it claims to be dangerous to be removed, it also does not want to pay for it. It certainly does not want the courts involved, and is not proposing any meaningful kind of oversight, transparency or scrutiny - except when a company fails to remove something. The plan appears to be to make companies the sole judge of whether content is legal, and to suffer fines if material is not censored when it should be. This appears to be designed to make Facebook and Google censor as much as possible. The government also believes that technology should as much as possible do the censoring. Only a wish to profit, apparently, has stopped the companies from doing this already. A world beckons where computer algorithms, corporations and governments collude to assess and censor everything we publish. Where we feel safe and protected, and will never see anything that offends or alarms. Advertisement This is not a world for liberals, the free thinking or indeed anyone who opposes the powerful. That's why we need to fight back. We'll be hearing from some of the people leading this battle at ORGCon next weekend in London. Offered ironically. The roughest waters lie ahead of us. "For certain of their leaders, modern-day liberalism is a way of rationalizing and exercising class power." Thomas Frank The real resistance occurred in 2016. It failed in both parties. Yours truly At the beginning of Clintons tenure as Secretary of State in 2009, the Honduran military ousted democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya in a coup detat. The United Nations condemned the military coup and the Organization of American States suspended Honduras from its membership, calling for Zelayas reinstatement. Instead of joining the international effort to isolate the new regime, Clintons State Department pushed for a new election and decided not to declare that a military coup had occurred. If the United States government declares a coup, you immediately have to shut off all aid, including humanitarian aid, the Agency for International Development aid, the support that we were providing at that time for a lot of very poor people, Clinton said when asked about Honduras in April. So, our assessment was, we will just make the situation worse by punishing the Honduran people if we declare a coup and we immediately have to stop all aid for the people, but we should slow walk and try to stop anything that the government could take advantage of, without calling it a coup. Clinton said that she didnt want Zelaya returning to power. Zelaya had friends and allies, not just in Honduras, but in some of the neighboring countries, like Nicaragua and that we could have had a terrible civil war that would have been just terrifying in its loss of life. Emails that have since surfaced show that Clinton and her team worked behind the scenes to fend off efforts by neighboring democracies through the Organization of American States to restore the elected president to power. Let us now consider the peculiar politics of Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie producer. Today Weinstein is in the headlines for an astonishing array of alleged sexual harassment and assaults, but once upon a time he was renowned for something quite different: his generous patronage of liberal politicians and progressive causes. This leading impresario of awful was an enthusiastic supporter of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He was a strong critic of racism, sexism and censorship. He hosted sumptuous parties to raise money for the fight against Aids. In 2004 he was a prominent supporter of a womens group called Mothers Opposing Bush. And in the aftermath of the terrorist attack against the French magazine Charlie Hebdo, he stood up boldly for freedom of the press. Taking to the pages of Variety, Weinstein announced that No one can ever defeat the ability of great artists to show us our world. Most people on the left think of themselves as resisters of authority, but for certain of their leaders, modern-day liberalism is a way of rationalizing and exercising class power. Specifically, the power of what some like to call the creative class, by which they mean well-heeled executives in industries like Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Hollywood. Worshiping these very special people is the doctrine that has allowed Democrats to pull even with Republicans in fundraising and that has buoyed the partys fortunes in every wealthy suburb in America. That this strain of liberalism also attracts hypocrites like Harvey Weinstein, with his superlative fundraising powers and his reverence for great artists, should probably not surprise us. Remember, too, that Weinstein is the man who once wrote an essay demanding leniency for Roman Polanski, partially on the grounds that he too was a great artist. Harvey Weinstein seemed to fit right in. This is a form of liberalism that routinely blends self-righteousness with upper-class entitlement. That makes its great pronouncements from Marthas Vineyard and the Hamptons. That routinely understands the relationship between the common people and showbiz celebrities to be one of trust and intimacy. Countless people who should have known better are proclaiming their surprise at Harvey Weinsteins alleged abuses. But in truth, their blindness is even more sweeping than that. They are lost these days in a hall of moral mirrors, weeping tears of admiration for their own virtue and good taste. There's something greatly troubling about what the media-fronted #Resistance has morphed into, but I'm having trouble writing about it (it's lightly touched here: " A Nation in Crisis, Again "). Partly the problem is the marshaling of pages of proof; partly the problem is the unstoppable train wreck that's coming. Perhaps I should write about the train wreck instead.After all, as noted in the link above, "No Praetorian Guard, once it grows muscular, reverts back to a simple barracks unit just because new leadership arrives." And the anti-Trump leadership in both parties is growing us a Praetorian Guard, if we don't have one already. You may be cheering it onward as we speak, depending on the latest lashings from former and current security state personnel, but what you're cheering, if you do, enables an unelected, uncontrolled and muscular security state, one you've certainly been appalled by in many other contexts Trump will go; but the unelected state grows only stronger, now with help from the #Resistance. Do you see the dilemma? How to write about this to a nation in love with what it will come, but only later, to hate?Another troubling aspects of the "professional resistance" for example, the MSNBC version, which constantly offers the worst of the New Dems and neoliberals for cheers by the anti-Trump crowd is that I suspect it's not at all principled.For example, the charge "Russia's attack on our election is an act of war" has been made and platformed daily for almost a year spoken by those for whom it would be heresy to say that U.S. interferences in elections around the world are also "acts of war."As one of far too many examples , consider Honduras Is this also a declaration of war by the U.S. against Honduras? Did the U.S. declare war on Iran in 1953 when the CIA unseated the democratically elected Prime Minister Mossadegh The answer to all these question may well be Yes. But would the pro-Clinton hosts and guests at MSNBC, of which there are many, say so? Especially if Clinton herself were to be tarred with that same brush? Using Trump-Russia logic, would Rachel Maddow charge Clinton with abetting an "act of war" against Honduras? Hardly likely.As I said, I suspect the "professional resistance" to Donald Trump is not at all principled, but opportunistic and entirely one-sided, however right or wrong that one side might be.All this has led me to wonder what the goal of this professional #Resistance really is. The Restoration of Democracy to America? Or the Restoration of Mainstream Democrats the anti-Sanders, anti-progressive, "you can't have that" crowd to power again?If just the latter, the nation may sink more slowly beneath the neoliberal waves than it would under solid Republican rule, a plus to many people's way of thinking, but progressives will still have an enemy who hates all they stand for, armed, enabled and in the field against them. Does strengthening the professional, media-curated #Resistance, without at the same time fighting to dethrone the Clintonists and Obamists actively moved into its front ranks, serve either the cause of progressivism or, given the increasing power of the unelected state, the interest of American democracy? One has to wonder.The real Resistance, of course, occurred in 2016, in that year's electoral revolt against the money-bought in both parties, and it failed in both parties. Mainstream Democrats successfully fended off the actual populist in their race, Bernie Sanders, whom they hate even to this day. Mainstream Republicans successfully elected their "populist," the fake swamp-drainer Donald Trump, and his voters are getting nothing they wanted in terms of relief from the relentless greed and austerity they rebelled against.The nation, meanwhile, is left with a still-unsatisfied populist anger, waiting like an abscess to erupt. What form that will take in 2018 and 2020 is anyone's guess. Failed revolutions, like bad meals, often come back stronger.Who are these mainstream Democrats? According to Thomas Frank, they're Harvey Weinstein But lest you think Frank is tarring the Clintonist-Obamist wing of the Party with Weinstein in a guilt-by-association manner, he digs deeper (emphasis mine):And then the meat of Frank's argument:Is the anti-Trump #Resistance, the professional broadcast version with its behind-the-scenes security state actors, simply setting us up for a Restoration of those a Pence, a Biden, or another darling of our dual mainstream parties who "weep tears of admiration for their own virtue" as they tank or attempt to co-opt the next Bernie Sanders, or re-destroy the last one? Stay tuned. The answer is coming soon.And if they do, will America weep tears of thanks, or something else?GP Labels: 2016 presidential race, Bernie Sanders revolution, Democratic Party, Gaius Publius, Harvey Weinstein, neoliberals, Praetorian Guard, Thomas Frank, Trump Theresa May's decision to make her big speech on Brexit in Florence rather than in London was no doubt meant to underline the message that while the UK is leaving the EU, it is not leaving Europe. But the reassertion in that speech that the UK will seek a 'period of implementation' post-Brexit where the 'existing structure of EU rules and regulations' will continue to apply, might have led Leave voters to wonder whether the UK was even leaving the EU. For months commentators have been urging UK and EU negotiators to firm up whatever arrangements might be needed not just to secure an orderly withdrawal for the UK from the EU, but also to create a 'transitional' framework to a future UK-EU relationship. Yet during this time, UK ministers - and especially the Prime Minister - refused to speak the same language as those commentators, by talking instead of an 'implementation period'. This phobia towards 'transition' reveals the division at the heart of government between those who simply want to get on with Brexit, and those for whom Brexit comes with significant short-term economic risks. During the summer, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond finally broke cover, telling business leaders that he favoured an 'off-the-shelf' transitional framework in the form of a 'stand-still' that would see trade continue on current terms pending agreement on a future trade deal. Advertisement The UK is creating its own domestic 'stand-still' framework in the form of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill. Its aim is to take a snapshot of existing EU law and maintain it in force as a matter of UK law until such time as Parliament decides to enact new rules. The Bill is a highly complex legal undertaking, and in political terms, there have already been significant delays to its progress through Parliament. But even if the Bill makes it onto the statute books that doesn't solve the problem of how to secure continuing access to the EU Single Market at the moment when the EU's treaties cease to apply to the UK. So what happens in the period between Brexit and agreement of a future UK-EU relationship, and how could such a 'stand-still' operate? Much depends on what type of relationship the UK might seek with the EU. Ministers typically repeat that the UK wants a 'bespoke' deal rather than any of the existing models such as the recently agreed Canada-EU trade deal or the older European Economic Area Agreement that countries like Norway have with the EU. Nonetheless, it seems likely that the final arrangement will be a modification of one of these models. If what the UK wants is, in essence, a 'Canada+' trade deal - providing tariff-free trade for goods originating in the UK and EU, with arrangements to minimise the creation of new regulatory barriers to trade in goods and services - then one option would be for the EU treaties to cease to apply to the UK as planned on 29 March 2019 but - as a time-limited derogation - certain key provisions might continue to apply as if the UK were still a Member State. This would create a 'stand-still' for those saved provisions in a way that would mirror the aims of the UK's own Withdrawal Bill. It would also mean that the Court of Justice would retain a role in policing the application of the saved provisions. During the operation of this transitional period, the UK and EU would conclude the future trade deal. Advertisement If the UK were to seek a closer relationship with the EU through an 'association agreement' then a transitional framework might look like an interim version of such a deal with many of the existing provisions of EU law cut and pasted into such an agreement. However, as the intention is to adopt a transitional deal on the basis of Article 50, it is legally doubtful whether an interim association agreement could be based on this provision not least because association agreements require unanimity among the EU states whereas Article 50 only requires a qualified majority vote. The UK could rejoin the European Free Trade Association and gain access to the Single Market through its European Economic Area agreement with the EU. It is an idea that has support in some Labour circles. This model has been ruled out by the PM and it looks less like a transitional framework and more like an endpoint to which a transition might itself be necessary. In agreement with the EU27, the UK could simply defer its withdrawal but that would delay departure rather than create a transitional framework. In his evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Exiting the EU on 25 October, the Brexit Secretary David Davis expressly ruled that out. But a partial retention of certain provision on a time-limited basis might well be what the UK has in mind. Ministers claim that the Data Protection Bill, which starts its Lords Committee Stage today, will make our data protection laws "fit for the digital age". But how can we believe that, when the reality is that the Bill proposes to remove a legal guarantee that we currently enjoy, ensuring a right to privacy and the proper protection of our personal data? As a result, the government are threatening our chances of establishing the legal framework needed after Brexit, to permit the free flow of data across European borders. If we are unable to reach such an agreement with the EU, there will be no legal basis for the lawful operation of countless British businesses. The government seems to have forgotten that the frictionless transfer of data is critical for the functioning of our economy. Roughly 70% of the UK's trade in services is reliant on the free flow of personal data. The EU's data economy is expected to be worth 643billion by 2020 and millions of UK citizens share their lives online. To be able to operate, our businesses require clarity on the legal basis for data transfer post-Brexit. Advertisement Why are Ministers behaving in this way? Because they are trying to satisfy the many Brexiteers among the ranks of their fellow Conservative parliamentarians. The EU Withdrawal Bill, currently going through the Commons, contains thousands of provisions that will be converted into our law. Only one of these however, has been singled out for extinction - the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. A Charter based on principles that ex-Tory minister Dominic Grieve MP recently said provides: "essential safeguards for individuals and businesses" In 2009, the Charter became legally binding. Having codified existing EU rights and principles, it is now the source document for EU fundamental rights. Article 8 of the Charter covers the protections of personal data - the right to privacy and the right to data protection - that serve as the foundation for the EU's data protection law. And also underpins the legal frameworks permitting the free flow of data across European borders. It is common ground amongst all parties that it is absolutely essential that the government secure an adequacy agreement from the Commission, confirming that data protection in the UK is adequate from a European standpoint. This will ensure UK businesses can continue to exchange personal data with EU countries. But Ministers will not get an adequacy agreement if this commitment is not contained in UK law. We need article 8, or an equivalent affirmation of the same principles. The House of Lords rarely votes on amendments to government Bills at Committee stage - just nine times in the past five years. But we prepare the ground to do so when a strong feeling arises that either a significant constitutional issue is at stake or a major injustice is being perpetrated. Advertisement In Prague, theres a popular website with a reputation among journalists and politicians for publishing content seemingly aimed at stirring up trouble or disrupting the status quo, exaggerating facts, and blasting out sensational headlines. Dramatic articles about the dangers of refugees and Islam pop up frequently on the site. Populist-leaning politicians quote its stories, and often grant interviews to its writers or author guest posts . Its content is frequently shared across social media. Though it may sound like a Breitbart offshoot, its not: Its a Czech news site with a monthly audience of about 8 million users called Parlamentni listy (or, Parliamentary Letters). It publishes interviews with politicians, alongside more sensational content that exaggerates facts, seemingly with the intent to sow discontent with the government or the political establishment. But the comparison to the far-right American web site is a valid one: As the debate in the United States over the impact of so-called fake news during the 2016 election and beyond continues, the phenomenon appears to be thriving in the Czech Republic. Its hard to gauge the impact of what those in the Czech Republic refer to as alternative news or alternative information, or to draw clear links between the phenomenon and the rise of anti-establishment parties here. But the profusion of such sites here seems to reinforce some Czech voters skepticism of the existing political systemand, by extension, could serve as an indirect boon to its anti-establishment political parties. In the Czech Republic, some of these sites publish sensational content that appears designed solely to garner clicks and revenue. Others traffic in disinformation, or fake or misleading information allegedly supplied by Russia. And though Parlamentni listy is by far the most prominent example, dozens more such sitesof varying levels of professionalism and legitimacyare churning out misleading articles that reach a significant portion of the Czech electorate. This weekend, voters in the Czech Republic went to the polls to elect a new parliament. Andrej Babis, a businessman with populist leanings, and his ANO (YES) party came in first with just under 30 percent of the vote. Babis, one of the Czech Republics richest men, has been frequently labeled a Czech Donald Trump by English-language mediaand while the comparison is far from perfect, Babiss victory has observers concerned that his ascendance could signal a shift away from the West. Whats more, several other anti-establishment parties, including the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy Party (SPD) and the Pirate Party, also made gains. All told, anti-establishment parties won almost 60 percent of the vote here. These parties focus on issues relating to immigration and the countrys membership in the European Union, both of which are frequent topics on Parlamentni listy, or on even more radical alternative news sites like AE News, Lajkit.cz and Protiproud. It seems to me that the overall effort is more to foment mistrust in institutions, in traditional parties, in sort of traditional institutional sources of authority, Ondrej Ditrych, a professor at Charles University in Prague, told me. It doesnt seem to me that there would be a unified or orchestrated effort [among the sites] to support this or that political party or movement. Concrete information on who owns and operates many of the alternative news sites in the Czech Republic is hard to come by, making tracking down allegations of explicit ties to Russia difficult. But Ondrej Kundra, a journalist at the Czech news organization Respekt who has researched Russian connections to Czech media and government officials, said the proliferation of these sites began after the Russian invasion of Crimea. Some of them are anonymous, some of them perhaps have some links with Russia, but its hard to find data for this, he told me. Unlike in some other European countries like Germany or France with elections this year where Breitbart-esque sites fizzled out or never quite materialized, the alternative news business is thriving in the Czech Republic. Individually their outreach is not that huge, but theyre amplifying [each others] messages they create this kind of echo chamber, Veronika Vichova, an analyst with the European Values Center, which publishes a weekly Kremlin Watch newsletter and studies disinformation across Europe, told me in Prague. The circle of people who run these sites is small, and they will often share each others social-media posts and re-publish each others articles simultaneously, she added. Related Stories Germany's Right-Wing Populists Are Importing U.S.-Style Campaign Tactics What Right-Wing Populists Look Like in Norway A New Right-Wing Movement Rises in Austria Spokespeople for President Milos Zeman, for example, are known to link to or quote from a range of them; and Zeman, who Vichova called these sites strongest ally, has granted numerous interviews to Parlamentni listy and others. The far-left Communist Party has a specific page on its website devoted to Alternative information, featuring near-daily links to suggested reading. (Information that proves that there is more to the world than what you can read in the mainstream, the pages tagline reads.) Experts are split on just how influential these sites are, and on how big a problem fake news is for the Czech Republic. Most tend to believe that they reinforce anti-establishment views in voters who are already so inclined, rather than drawing new true believers. In other words: They are more a symptom of pre-existing cynicism or tendencies rather than a successful persuasion tactic. People who are disenchanted with the general line are drawn to these sites, Mark Galeotti, a senior research fellow at the Institute of International Relations in Prague, told me. Theres very little evidence that these sites actually change peoples opinions. That said, research indicates these organizations do have significant reach within the Czech Republic. Polling conducted in 2016 by European Values, a think tank, found that a quarter of Czech voters read and believe alternative news sites. And a survey earlier this year by Ipsos Czech Republic found that 35 percent of those who regularly read alternative news sites only care that the sites tell the truth, not whether the pages are funded by or related to Russia. Politicians from the countrys non-populist parties, especially pro-EU ones, see these sites as damaging to the overall political discourse. Here in the Czech Republic its a big problem, Petr Kucera, campaign manager for the pro-EU TOP09 party in Prague and a candidate for parliament, told me. Many of these sites, he added, are completely trying to split the society. The Czech government clearly agrees. In 2016, Czech counterintelligence officials warned in a report that Russia was working to disseminate information aimed disrupting the status quo, including weakening the strength of Czech media promoting inter-societal and inter-political tensions and propagating disinformation and alarming rumors defaming the U.S. and NATO. At the start of 2017, the Czech government announced a novel plan to combat the problem: a 20-plus-person unit housed in the interior ministry, called the Centre Against Terrorism and Hybrid Threats, which would be tasked with debunking fake news. The unit runs a Twitter account that pushes back against fake news, though its activities beyond that are opaque. Opponents of the unit, including those who work for alternative news sites, call it an instrument of government censorship; in response, the unit created a page on its website stating that it does not force the truth on anyone, or censor media content, and that it does not remove content from the internet or other (printed) media. (The Centre declined my request for an interview.) Outside groups, including European Values, do similar debunking work and even host workshops in high schools to teach Czech youth about media literacy. What's still unclear, however, is whether any of these efforts can truly combat disinformation and alternative news, and change the minds of those already susceptible to disinformation. The kind of people who are following an Interior Ministry Twitter feed are probably not the people they need to be reaching, Galeotti said. Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/10/fake-news-in-the-czech-republic/543591/ Dr. Benjamin Caplan said he's seen and heard 'mind-blowing' success stories. Pittsfield Forum Touts Marijuana as Medicine The forum at the library drew a crowd numbering close to 200 last Tuesday. PITTSFIELD, Mass. Kathleen McKinnon knows full well what heroin addiction does to families. Those struggling with substance abuse put the high above everything else. The bills and even food fall to the wayside. The family is constantly worried. McKinnon believes the answer for those families could be found in cannabis. "Patients need to be able to have an option. This will allow them to start step down programs with the opioids," McKinnon said. McKinnon is the director of operations for Canna Care Docs. The company is a collection of doctors who specialize in marijuana as a medicine. Patients can see a doctor for a cost of $200 -- which the company says is mostly driven because insurance won't cover the visit -- and explore options for medical marijuana. McKinnon specifically focused on it being used as harm reduction to help people curb opioid addiction when she spoke at the Berkshire Atheneum last week. Canna Cares is partnering with Berkshire Roots, a medical marijuana cultivator and distributor, set to open on Dalton Avenue later this year or early 2018. The two put on a forum to explain what they do. Karen Fisher, executive director for healing interventions, said she grew frustrated seeing the same patients over and over again, patients trying to stay off from opioids. She said while abstinence is the ultimate goal, many often relapse, and relapse with dire consequences. For those people, councilors in the health field have been using harm reduction options. "Our current harm reduction options include methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone, with Naloxone for overdose and syringe access as additional tools," Fisher said. She feels marijuana is a much safer option. Dr. Benjamin Caplan agrees. Caplan had a 58-year-old patient, a veteran, suffering from pain. The man took prescription pain medication every day and became addicted. Another patient was a 23-year-old woman who lost her parents in an accident and had become depressed. "Both of these patients came in and were taught about their options in the cannabis space. Now the veteran is taking opioid on an as-needed basis instead of every day and the young woman is now thriving in psychotherapy," Caplan said. He said cannabis has had "mind-blowing success" with patients. He said thousands of people are prescribed opioid medications to treat chronic pain, anxiety, depression, and more, while opioid have caused a massive addiction problem in the country. "While we see the death toll from opioids climbing toward 70,000 individuals a year, we can scarcely find one death attributable directly to cannabis," Caplan said. Last year, 62,000 Americans died from drug overdoses, he said, and this year the number will climb even further. In Massachusetts, that number is at 2,107. "In each of the last four years here in Pittsfield, between 14 and 18 people have died from opioid-related causes. Where I live in Boston, the numbers are unfortunately worse," Caplan said. "These are not evil people who are becoming addicted. They are certainly not druggies or delinquents or what society sometimes unfairly label." He said there are no withdrawals with cannabis and in the states that have already legalized medical marijuana, the opioid death toll has dropped by a third. McKinnon said the current medical system causes the drug epidemic. In 1996, pain was made the fifth vital sign and doctors were required to assess those levels. "This resulted in a flood of opioid prescriptions hitting the streets, getting progressively worse each and every year," she said. At the same time, cannabis remained, and remains, illegal under federal law. She points the finger at those policies as leading to what she called the greatest killer of all time. "They gave away opioids like they were Skittles and people turned a blind eye. This created a national pandemic of opioid and heroin use," McKinnon said. But cannabis isn't just used as a medicine for detoxification of opioids. According to Dennis DePaolo, the chief operating officer at Berkshire Roots, it has long been used to treat an array of conditions from rheumatoid to gout. "Cannabis is arguably the most medicinal plants in the world," DePaolo said. He dates medical use of marijuana back 5,000 years. He said he is focused on the science behind marijuana as a medicine, honing in on the dosages, types of plants, and an array of delivery methods -- from smoking to vaporizing to inhalers. "There is still a lot of misinformation so it is going to come to these events, put on these events, and hear from professionals that really look at the research, do the research, and understand the research and can really explain it," DePaolo said. The doctors at Canna Care Docs can make the recommendations, even if a person's primary care doctor hadn't prescribed it. They welcome anyone who may have a qualifying condition to visit them and talk about the options. "It is a recommendation. If you have a qualifying condition and you have a doctor saying, 'yes, you do,' after an in-depth discussion and relationship with that doctor, you can have a recommendation from that doctor to use cannabis legally for a year," said Canna Care Docs co-founder Marta Downing. But, at least one man in the audience felt the cost to visit a doctor was too much. He said he shouldn't have to pay so much to get a certificate that last one year to purchase it and then have to buy the marijuana. Since 1997, DR1 has been covering the Dominican Republic in English. A site overhaul had long been due. Here is the beta version of the first phase of the new DR1. We have upgraded the website with user-friendly software to serve our community better. We have kept the up-to-date content. Now it is your turn to give the new DR1 a test run! We are tough-skinned. Go ahead and tell us what we are doing right, wrong, and what we need to change asap or work on next. Tell us what you would like to see less or more of, and what we shouldnt change! Imagine we have bought a new house for DR1. The house comes with: New server that ensures DR1 can handle peaks in traffic New DR1 Forums Improved Search New DR1 Calendar DR1 News and DR1 Calendar are integrated into the DR1 Forums New DR1 Wiki for frequently asked topics New Trending Topics emails We now need to furnish the house. It is YOUR DR1! We invite you to collaborate in adding valuable content. What content or services should we add? Check out the new resources, but get creative, too. You can contribute and play a key role in helping people connect, enjoy and be productive in the Dominican Republic. Dolores Vicioso, founder Write to support@dr1.com The content you are trying to view is exclusive to our subscribers. To unlock this article: Drams and tots Some drinks have such immaculate branding behind them that it's hard not to believe there's some mastermind behind it, a strategic genius of such infinite subtlety that their work is apparent everywhere and yet utterly untraceable. I'm talking about Scottish whisky, of course. With its wild, primitive natural landscapes, noble stags and hardy folk, Scotland's cliches are hard to resist; I've had a lot of people tell me how they are trying to like whisky, as though their resistance to this spirit and everything it stands for is a point of shame. Punters wearing an albatross of shame for spirits like tequila or cognac are much rarer. The power of such subliminal branding is beyond price as it sinks in far beyond the individual product level. This isn't about any one distiller, but the general feeling that Scotland is synonymous with whisky, and that whisky is synonymous with the wild, pure air of the Highlands, and therefore when you drink whisky it carries your thoughts to a more wholesome place. Spare a thought, then, for poor old rum. Among my early encounters with top quality rum was mistaking it for cognac, which isn't uncommon, such is the richness, ripeness and maturity of flavour. While it can provide thrills just as much as whisky, no one ever really aspires to drink it. Unlike whisky, it doesn't have a unified image. Something about pirates, maybe, and the Caribbean. It may be known as a key ingredient in a mojito, but likely only if you've made it yourself. And didn't British sailors get a ration? (They did, but it was abolished in 1970.) Our knowledge of this great and hugely underrated spirit is patchy and dated. It doesn't help that the anarchic nature of rum distillation has produced a bewilderment of styles. While there are undoubtedly complex shades of flavour to Scottish whisky, they are by law - all wood-aged spirits made from grain with many regulations on production giving a relatively recognisable style that's often quite distinct from other world whiskies such as Bourbon. I don't mean to suggest that all Scottish whisky tastes the same, but simply that you are unlikely to confuse it with cognac, or Jack Daniel's. Rum, by contrast, is made in column stills and pot stills, from sugar cane and molasses; it comes in white, golden, dark, spiced and Navy (whatever that is) variations, on differing scales of sweetness or dryness; it uses age statements liberally but not consistently, and lacks the distillery-based branding of Scottish whisky. Among the poster boys for rum there is everything from Bacardi Carta Blanca to Kraken Black Spiced Rum, the pungent, bone dry rums of Jamaica to the distinctly sweet Ron Zacapa Solera 23 (in fact around 23g/L). On top of that, there's an anarchic diversity of styles based on a history of colonialism, with pungent French agricole rums from former colonies such as Martinique and French Guyana, the fruity, mellow Spanish rums from Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Cuba among others, not to mention the intense, spicy rums of ex-British territories such as Jamaica and Barbados. It doesn't help that multiple rums with different names are often produced at single distilleries, or that stills are moved from one distillery to another. The Port Mourant distillery's famous double wooden pot still dates back to 1732 but is now part of a different distillery, Diamond Distillery. And, unlike Scottish whisky, rum distilleries don't necessarily call their production by the name of the distillery. Diamond Distillery, which goes by the name of Demerera Distillers Ltd, produces El Dorado, while also allowing many independent bottlers to bottle under their own brand names, e.g. Mezan Guyana Enmore. Confused? Only as much as you should be. Rum makes all other spirits look simple. As a result, rum is an ideal listing for specialist merchants who understand the intricacies of the product and can sell on outright quality and often excellent value for money. While it is unlikely that British drinkers will ever overthrow whisky as their spirit of choice, there's a world of flavour and value in rum that whisky drinkers, and others, deserve to discover. Rums of note: Mezan (independent bottlings from Panama, Guyana, Jamaica and more) Trois Rivieres (Martinique) Diplomatico (Venezuela) Caroni (Trinidad) Marie Galante (Guadeloupe) Doorly's/Foursquare (Barbados) Ron Barcelo (Dominican Republic) El Dorado (Guyana) Jason Millar is retail director at independent wine merchant Theatre of Wine. He can be contacted at jason@theatreofwine.com and found on Twitter @jasondmillar. Related articles: Imperial Valley News Center Let the dogs sleep Imperial, California - When it comes to your pooch and your bed, the verdict is in. For a good night's sleep, there's no need to let the dog out of the bedroom when you're ready to go to sleep. A recent Mayo Clinic study found sleeping with your dog in the bedroom - but not in your bed - may not disrupt sleep as previously thought. That's good news for the millions of Americans who have dogs as pets and consider their canine companion a member of their family. Dr. Lois Krahn, a Mayo Clinic sleep medicine specialist and co-author of the study says, "The relationship between people and their pets has changed over time, which is likely why many people in fact do sleep with their pets in the bedroom." Dr. Krahn explains the study, "We decided to collect data using a measuring device, applied to both the dogs and people, to see who was right. And we found that as long as the dogs were not on the bed, their presence in the bedroom did not appear to be a big issue for the sleep of their owner, but on the bed was a different story. I do think that its possible to have a dog, to incorporate them into your life, to spend time, including evening and night hours, but you have to be sensible. You have to sort of pay attention to your own needs, your own sleep, and then think of how you can incorporate the dog. And dont let the dog just do exactly what it wants." Assistant Secretary of State Palmieri Travels to California and Tijuana, Mexico Washington, DC - Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Francisco L. Palmieri will travel to San Diego, Los Angeles, and Tijuana, Mexico, on October 30-November 1. He will promote U.S. economic and security objectives with key partners on both sides of the border, including: local government officials, the private sector, higher education institutions, and think tanks. During remarks at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities 31st Annual Conference, he will highlight how the State Department prepares students in the United States and the hemisphere to compete in today's job market through educational programs including the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund, a public-private partnership that fosters economic prosperity through educational exchange and training opportunities. This Isnt Our Last Love Letter Dear Don Don, Way back in 92 I walked into the room and knew Never felt this way before I shook your hand while gazing into your eyes And the feeling grew As I took a seat I knew A love that would have my heart Forever I knew Way back in 92 They say love at first sight doesnt always last or isnt true We were the exception to that rule Our love had no where to hide A spark set fire As if this is how the universe started I never doubted our love or what we could do Together we grew Forming a bond everlasting That became our glue My euphoria was YOU Im eternally grateful for the love and life we shared For how fortunate we were : to have and to hold through sickness and in health Til death do us part Until we are together again This isnt our last love letter I love you with all my heart and soul Yours forever, Deirdre (Mrs. Hank Snow) Im fortunate to have fallen in love with, marry and make a life with the sharpest, coolest, funniest, most rare, bad ass, tender loving, loyal man on the planet, my husband Don Imus. A True American Hero I dont know why it has been so hard for me to write about my dear friend Don Imus. I certainly know what he meant to me, my family, my charity, my hospital and the millions of fans that listened and loved him for so many years. I keep reading all the beautiful condolences that people are writing about how much a part of their lives were effected by listening to him over the years. But what most people dont talk enough about is what he did for all of us. In every sense of the word, he was an American Hero. His work with children with so many different illnesses and his dedication to their future was unmatched by anyone I have ever known or heard about. Besides raising over $100,000,000 for so many causes, he took care of young people for over 20 years in a state where he could not breathe. Along with his incredible wife Deirdre, he created a world where children were not defined by their disease. That was a miracle! He was a miracle. I will miss him ever day for the rest of my life. I was blessed to be a part of his and Deirdes life. No one will ever do what he did. I love you Don Imus - A TRUE AMERICAN HERO David Jurist IMUS IN THE MORNING FIRST DAY BACK! Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} One of art history's most revolutionary voices, Linda Nochlin, has died aged 86 (via ARTnews). She's credited as a major force in igniting the feminist perspective within her field, particularly thanks to her landmark 1971 essay 'Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?', in which she interrogated notions that artistic genius has been reserved only for male artists, bolstered by the societal barriers which have prevented women from pursuing the craft. This ranged both from practical barriers, with art academies placing restrictions on the education of women, and more ideological barriers, or as Nochlin argued: "the entire romantic, elitist, individual-glorifying, and monograph-producing substructure upon which the profession of art history is based." She also made major contributions to the study of Realism and Gustav Courbet, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, alongside numerous contemporary artists. Nochlin was born Linda Weinberg on 30 January, 1931, in Brooklyn, later graduating from Vassar College in Poughkeepsie with a degree in philosophy, minoring in both Greek and art history. Two years later, she married Philip H. Nochlin, a professor, and they had a daughter, Jessica. He died in 1960. After a master's in English at Columbia University in 1952, she attended New York University's Institute of Fine Arts to complete her doctoral work in art history. It was there she specialised in Courbet and his representation of the working class and women, co-curating a retrospective which included the first public display of The Origin of the World since its creation in 1866. Her work made her beloved amongst artists, and she sat for multiple portraits during her career; Deborah Kass painted her in 1997 in the style of a Warhol "Death and Disaster" work, writing, "This would be called Orange Disaster (Linda Nochlin), because what else could you call the woman who changed art history as I and all before me had learned it?" Follow Independent Culture on Facebook for all the latest on Film, TV, Music, and more. Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Walking through Oslos government quarter, its hard to miss the monumental concrete mural that dominates its central square. The semiabstract depiction of three people on a boat, pulling in a catch under a blazing sun, is on the end of a swooping modernist building known as Y-block. The Fishermen bears the unmistakable lines of the artist who designed it: Pablo Picasso, who created it in 1970, in collaboration with a Norwegian artist, Carl Nesjar. It is one of five murals by the two men in the government complex here. In the last six years, however, both the building and the mural have been in a grim state of uncertainty. Since 22 July 2011, Y-block and an adjacent building, known as H-block, have sat largely empty, their windows boarded up or covered by screens, a ghostly reminder of the car-bomb attack by the right-wing terrorist Anders Behring Breivik that tore through the government quarter, killing eight people and damaging the buildings. To the outrage of preservationists, architects and politicians, the Norwegian government has decided to follow through on plans to demolish Y-block and relocate The Fishermen and another of Picasso and Nesjars murals. Statsbygg, the Norwegian state property directorate, announced in late September that it would award a contract to redesign the quarter to a group of several high-profile architecture firms who, in accordance with government wishes, will replace Y-block with a triangular building with a semi-transparent facade and erect a row of offices along one edge of the site. Opponents of the decision see it as an affront to Norwegian and global artistic heritage, and a capitulation to Breivik. We dont want the ministry to tear down the building when the terrorist didnt manage to do that, says Janne Wilberg, the city of Oslos director of cultural heritage. The controversy began in 2014, when Norways ministry of local government and modernisation decided that ministries located elsewhere in the city should be moved onto the site and Y-block, which sits on top of a tunnel deemed susceptible to a terrorist attack, should be torn down. Officials did not specify the exact nature of the threat. In an email, a spokeswoman from the ministry wrote that after a comprehensive security study, We were not able to find any good solution where the Y-block could be maintained. After the ministry announced its decision, the heritage organisation Europa Nostra included the Picasso murals on its shortlist of the continents seven most endangered artworks. The Picasso Administration, which oversees the painters legacy, has also criticised the decision to remove the murals from Y-block. In 2013, the organisations head of legal affairs, Claudia Andrieu, told Norwegian radio that the art should not be moved, but after a meeting with Norwegian authorities in 2014, the organisation took a more conciliatory tone, saying in a statement that it would monitor the process step by step. The Picasso Administration did not respond to requests for comment. In the winning bid for the redevelopment, the Picasso murals are to be incorporated into two new buildings, placed to greet visitors as they enter the district. They will be a main feature as you enter the site, says Gudmund Stokke, the Oslo architect who led the team. But preservationists argue that the murals and the buildings are of a piece. The whole idea of the area is precisely that the art is incorporated into the body of the building, says Mari Hvattum, a professor of architectural history and theory at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. To take them out and frame them like a painting in a museum, I find a completely atrocious idea. Preservationists also argue that, Picasso murals aside, the decision to demolish Y-block would obliterate a priceless symbol of Norwegian history. Its an architecture with just astonishing qualities, says Hvattum. Both H-block, built in 1958, and Y-block, built just over a decade later, were designed by Norwegian architect Erling Viksjo. Both were notable in their use of natural concrete, a material created by Viksjo with the engineer Sverre Jystad to withstand the harsh Norwegian climate, and for the way they incorporated Picasso and Nesjars art, as well as that of several other Norwegian artists. Pal Weiby, a spokesman for Statsbygg, says that the tunnel underneath Y-block would need to be lowered approximately 16 feet to satisfy the governments security guidelines, and that the building would have to be demolished, whatever else happened, for that work to take place. Its not possible to keep the building, at that security level, Weiby says. To save it, he adds, government business would have to be moved out of the quarter. In 2011, authorities were in the process of designating both buildings as protected heritage monuments when Breivik detonated a car bomb outside H-block, killing eight people. He went on to murder 69 more, mostly teenagers, at a retreat for the youth wing of the Norwegian Labour Party on the island of Utoya, outside Oslo. In the years since the attack, Norway has struggled to find a way to commemorate the attacks victims. A proposed memorial, which would have involved slicing a section out of the rocky coastline near Utoya, was shelved this summer after outcry from neighbours. Another memorial for the government quarter was also scrapped. In the eyes of some activists, this has made the preservation of the building and murals especially important. Breivik wanted to attack social democracy, says Hvattum. He wanted to get rid of the legacy of social democracy in built form, and in living form, in terms of people. To tear this down is to complete his mission. Some preservationists are sceptical of the governments claims about the risks of retaining Y-block. We are not allowed to look into the security reasoning behind this, says Wilberg, who argues that the secrecy surrounding the safety measures make it impossible to have an honest public debate. In an email, the state secretary for the ministry of local government, Paul Chaffey, wrote that the government took its decision regarding the Y-block in 2014 and that we see no reason to change this decision. Other opponents of the ministrys plan argue that, heritage issues aside, it will leave the district with too much office space, overwhelming Oslos historic city core. Weve tried to keep the buildings quite low so they merge with the surrounding fabric, says Stokke, who describes the teams plan as an attempt to insert a new iconic building onto the site while creating a subtle backdrop for the surviving historic buildings. But Ola Elvestuen, member of the Norwegian parliament for the Liberal Party, is unconvinced. Theyre trying to build too many too large buildings in too small of an area, he says. He plans to fight the proposal in parliament, aiming to preserve Y-block and its Picassos in their original locations. This is our near past, Elvestuen says, and the near past is often the hardest to preserve. The New York Times Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The actor and filmmaker Griffin Dunne learned that his aunt, the writer Joan Didion, had become the new face of the fashion brand Celine the same way the rest of the world did: he saw the picture on the internet. He was travelling at the time and, all of a sudden, he says, my phone exploded. Everyone was calling about that photo. The 2015 photograph was certainly striking: Didion was perched on her sofa in a black turtleneck, her customary blunt silver bob and sunglasses so large they obscured half her face. Dunne had no warning about the advertisement, even though he had been working on a documentary about Didions life produced by his cousin (and Didions grandniece) Annabelle Dunne. Although they had been spending hours interviewing Didion, now 82, she kept the shoot a secret. But thats Joan, Annabelle says, sitting on a recent morning in her cosy West Village townhouse with a bespectacled Griffin, 62, drinking his second cup of coffee. Shes still really savvy. She recognises good style, and how to create a moment. Didion was also savvy about whom she chose as her documentarians. She had been approached several times by filmmakers, but she turned them all down, Griffin says. It was only when she felt that the movie could stay within the family that she allowed unprecedented access to her archive and granted her nephew a series of frank interviews in a process that proved personally wrenching for him. As a member of a family that has been particularly touched by loss and grief, Griffin had to experience past tragedies all over again in order to make the film. Annabelle and Griffin Dunne made the documentary about their aunt, Joan Didion (Getty) (Getty Images) Though fans admire Didions ability to write coolly about matters of the heart, Griffin says he could not separate his emotions from the filmmaking. It was always going to be a love letter, he says. Shes my Aunt Joan. In the new film, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, which is out on Netflix, Didions notably distant cool is immediately apparent when she discusses her classic 1967 essay, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, which chronicled the dark side of the hippie movement in San Francisco. While reporting on free love and flower children, Didion encountered a harrowing scene inside a flophouse, where a five-year-old girl was tripping on LSD. When Griffin pressed Didion to describe this incident for the documentary, she said: Let me tell you, it was gold. Thats the long and the short of it, is you live for moments like that if you are doing a piece. Good or bad. Didions candid comment, recorded during a long conversation in 2013 that makes up the bulk of the documentary, reflects the levelheaded yet ambitious tone that made Slouching Towards Bethlehem and her first essay collection of the same name a national sensation in 1968. Though she had already published one novel, Run River, in 1963, it was her nonfiction that turned Didion into a writer-celebrity, a glamorous cultural space she still occupies five decades later. In her long career, Didion has published more than a dozen books, written or co-written six screenplays, and received the National Book Award and the National Humanities Medal. Didion, now 82, had been approached several times by filmmakers, but she turned them all down (MJ/SB/Keystone USA/Rex) (MJ/SB/Keystone USA/REX) Still, Griffin says, she waited a long time to consent to a documentary. She kept saying no, he says. It wasnt until she asked me to film the trailer for her book Blue Nights in 2011 that I started to think about being the one to do it. I saw how much she loved the process. I thought, this is all going so great, why dont I just ask her? To his delight, she said yes. Writing via email, Didion says: Im still not sure it is the right time. Six years ago, when I said yes, it did not seem possible that the time to actually do it would ever arrive. Im naturally sceptical that these things can work. But here we are. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up Annabelle says with a laugh: Of course, neither of you knew what you were getting into, and Griffin agrees. The gravity and the burden of responsibility only kicked in later, he says, after it became clear how much interest there was in a Didion documentary. A crowdfunding campaign for the film reached its goal in one day and news that the project was in the works made international headlines. He realised he had better not screw this up, he says. A scene from the film featuring Didion, her husband John Gregory Dunne and their daughter Quintana (Netflix) Griffin, who has directed five features including Practical Magic (1998), said that while Didion is no chatterbox, he felt that there was a cathartic effect to asking her about her past. Didion agreed, saying by email: I felt at home with Griffin and Annabelle from the beginning. Feeling at home was most important. It was nice at the very least to talk to someone who knew John and Q. I couldnt have described either of them to another interviewer. John and Q were Didions husband, the writer John Gregory Dunne, who died in 2003 after a heart attack, and her daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne Michael, who died as a result of an infection in 2005 at only 39. Griffin and his cousin have also experienced their share of grief his sister Dominique was murdered in Los Angeles in 1982, and both of his parents, including his father, the longtime Vanity Fair writer Dominick Dunne, are gone. It was torture. Griffin says of approaching the last quarter of the film, in which he raised the subject of loss with Didion, who had written two books exploring the tragedies, the best sellers The Year of Magical Thinking (2005) and Blue Nights. I think it was easier for her than it was for me, he says, adding, For me, the good news was Im related, so I got permission to make this movie. The bad news was I am related, so I know all the people she lost. Quintana is my cousin, John is my uncle, and I have to make her go through it all over again. If I was a more dispassionate, regular documentarian, that would be questions on the clipboard. Still, Didion, who saw several cuts of the film along the way, says: I did find it fortifying to know that I was telling these secrets to people who regarded them as such. The feeling was mutual. I was really conscious of how just through attrition, there was just Joan and I in the room, Griffin says. Its probably one of the reasons she let me make the movie. I know all those people who are not here, I loved all those people, we share that love. Without being too mystical, I was always aware of my parents, and John, and Quintana, in the editing room, he adds, his chin shaking, fighting back tears. And I think they would have liked it. Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold is out on Netflix New York Times Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the The Life Cinematic email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Days before multiple women came forward with accusations of sexual harassment and rape against Harvey Weinstein, Rose McGowan states she was offered $1 million to sign a nondisclosure agreement by someone close to the producer. McGowan had publicly hinted about the alleged incident in the past, in which she was raped in a hotel room by Weinstein when she was an up-and-coming actress in 1997; at the time, she had reached a $100,000 settlement with Weinstein, but learned this summer that it never included a confidentiality clause. "I had all these people Im paying telling me to take it so that I could fund my art," McGowan told the New York Times of the nondisclosure offer; no longer acting, McGowan has turned her attention to multimedia art, but has had her funds drained by healthcare costs for her father, who died eight years ago. She initially responded by asking for $6 million as an act of defiance. "I figured I could probably have gotten him up to three. But I was like - ew, gross, you're disgusting, I don't want your money, that would make me feel disgusting," she told the Times. However, she pulled her offer in the light of the Times' bombshell report on Weinstein and his decades of allegations, revealing at least seven other settlements he had reached with accusers. Since then, over 60 women have come forward. Weinstein has denied all accusations of non-consensual sex. Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Show all 42 1 /42 Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Harvey Weinstein Harry Weinsteins reputation as one of Hollywoods leading executives was long cemented in stone. The acclaimed movie mogul, who produced Oscar-winning films Shakespeare in Love, The English Patient, and The Artist, clocked up box office successes and accolades aplenty. But this has quickly changed since a chorus of women have come forward to accuse the Hollywood producer of sexual harassment and assault. Since the New York Times bombshell report disclosed sexual harassment and rape allegations against the film mogul dating back decades, Weinstein has been fired from his namesake company, expelled from the Oscars and has had his wife leave him. Weinstein has apologised for having caused a lot of pain but has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Annabella Sciorra The Sopranos actor alleged Weinstein raped her after shooting The Night We Never Met, a 1993 movie that Weinstein produced. Similar to the stories told by other women, Weinstein drove the actor home, only to reportedly burst into Sciorra's apartment and start unbuttoning his shirt. He shoved me onto the bed, and he got on top of me, Sciorra said. I kicked and I yelled. Weinstein then allegedly locked her arms and forced sexual intercourse on her. After the incident, Sciorra found it increasingly hard to get work, many filmmakers saying 'We heard you were difficult', something the actor claims was because of the 'Weinstein-machine'. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Natassia Malthe The model and actress, who has appeared in around 50 films, said she met Weinstein at a BAFTA after party in 2008 while she was working as a spokeswoman for LG. She told a press conference in New York that she felt pressured into telling Weinstein she was staying at the Sanderson Hotel after being put on the spot. Malthe, now 43, said after her shift on February 10 she went back to her room and went to sleep, but was awoken by "repeated pounding" on her door, from someone yelling: "Open the door Natassia Malthe, it's Harvey Weinstein." Feeling humiliated, she said she opened the door. She alleged Weinstein began implying sex would get her a role in an upcoming film while semi-undressed and then he began to masturbate. "I was sitting on the bed talking to Harvey when he pushed me back and forced himself onto me. It was not consensual. He did not use a condom," she said. AP Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Sean Young The actor, best known for her role in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, said that Weinstein exposed himself to her in the early 1990s, when she was starring in the Miramax-produced Love Crimes - a production company that Weinstein headed at the time. "I personally experienced him pulling his you-know-what out of his pants to shock me," she said. "My basic response was, 'You know, Harvey, I really dont think you should be pulling that thing out, its not very pretty.'" Young never worked with Weinstein again after the incident. Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Mimi Haleyi Mimi Haleyi said she was assaulted by Weinstein in what appeared to be a child's bedroom in his New York City apartment in 2006 when she was in her 20s. She said she was aspiring to work in television and film production when she was first introduced to him at the London premiere of The Aviator around two years earlier and he helped her get experience on the set of a TV show being produced by The Weinstein Company. But, she added, he repeatedly hassled her and even tried to force himself through her front door in an effort to get her to join him on a trip to Paris. At one point he allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on an aspiring production assistant while she was on her period. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lupita Nyong'o In an op-ed for The New York Times, the Oscar-winning actor said she was invited to Weinsteins family home in Connecticut on the premise of watching a film shortly after they met in 2011. But she said shortly after it started he "insisted" in front of his children that she follow him and she was led to his bedroom. The Kenyan-Mexican actress, now 34, said she felt pressured into giving him a massage after he offered her one. "Before long he said he wanted to take off his pants," she wrote."I told him not to do that and informed him that it would make me extremely uncomfortable. He got up anyway to do so and I headed for the door, saying that I was not at all comfortable with that." Over the years that followed, he continued to get in touch, Nyong'o said, and when she declined another proposition she felt her career was threatened. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lena Headey Writing on social media, the Game of Thrones actor claims she first met Weinstein at the Venice Film Festival in 2005 where, after taking her for a walk by the water, he made some suggestive comment and gesture. Headey claims she bumped into Weinstein years later where he kept asking her questions about her love life. She alleges that, when Weinstein invited her to his hotel room to show her a script, the "energy shifted. The actor notes how, after saying she was not interesting in anything but the work, Weinstein was furious, apparently marching her back to a lift, "grabbing and holding tightly to the back of [her] arm." She claims that, after paying for her car, he whispered in her ear: "Don't tell anyone about this, not your manager, not your agent. Headey finished the post, writing: I got in the car and I cried. Getty Images Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lucia Evans The actor told The New Yorker that after a meeting to discuss casting her in various projects, Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him. I said, over and over, I dont want to do this, stop, dont. She added: Hes a big guy. He overpowered me. I just sort of gave up. Thats the most horrible part of it, and thats why hes been able to do this for so long to so many women: people give up, and then they feel like its their fault. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Laura Madden Madden, a production assistant who worked at Miramax for a decade, told the Times that Weinstein allegedly prodded her for massages at hotels, a common theme among the sources the Timess reporters spoke with. On one occasion, she claims she locked herself in his hotel bathroom, sobbing Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Ashley Judd Judd recounted for the Times how Weinstein allegedly harassed her while she was filming Kiss the Girls in 1996, inviting her to his hotel room and asking her for a massage, then inviting her to watch him shower. Judd first went public with the allegations in a 2015 interview with Variety during which she discussed the experience without naming the producer involved. She described Weinsteins alleged behaviour as coercive bargaining; I said no, a lot of ways, a lot of times, and he always came back at me with some new ask, she told the Times AFP/Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Rose McGowan McGowan reportedly reached a previously undisclosed $100,000 settlement with Weinstein in 1997, over an incident that occurred in a hotel room Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Mimi Haleyi Mimi Haleyi said she was assaulted by Weinstein in what appeared to be a child's bedroom in his New York City apartment in 2006 when she was in her 20s. She said she was aspiring to work in television and film production when she was first introduced to him at the London premiere of The Aviator around two years earlier and he helped her get experience on the set of a TV show being produced by The Weinstein Company. But, she added, he repeatedly hassled her and even tried to force himself through her front door in an effort to get her to join him on a trip to Paris. At one point he allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on an aspiring production assistant while she was on her period. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Emily Nestor Nestor had been temping at the Weinstein Company for only one day in 2014 when Weinstein allegedly offered to boost her career in return for sexual favours, according to the Times. She declined and reportedly complained of his behaviour to colleagues, who later passed the information on to senior executives. An internal Weinstein Company document cited by the Times describes Nestors encounter with Weinstein as follows: She said he was very persistent and focused though she kept saying no for over an hour Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Ambra Battilana In March 2015, Battilana, an aspiring model and actress, was reportedly summoned to Weinsteins office on a Friday night to discuss her career. According to a police report cited by the Times, Battilana claimed she was assaulted by Weinstein, who grabbed her breasts after asking if they were real and put his hands up her skirt. Weinstein later claimed that Battilana had set him up, according to colleagues of his who were interviewed by the Times. The Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, later declined to press charges, and according to the Times, made a payment to Battilana. On 5 October, the International Business Times reported that after Vance dropped the charges, he received $10,000 from Weinsteins lawyer Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lauren OConnor Lauren OConnor, an employee of the Weinstein Company, penned a memo to executives alleging a toxic environment for women at the company. The memo cited numerous incidents of Weinstein harassing or coercing women who worked for him. She expressed fear that Weinstein was using her and other female employees to facilitate liaisons with vulnerable women who hope he will get them work. That same year, Weinstein allegedly reached a settlement with OConnor Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Kate Beckinsale The actor, who starred in the Weinstein Company films Serendipity and The Aviator, alleges that she was invited to Weinsteins hotel room at the age of just 17. When she approached the door, the producer reportedly greeted her dressed in just a dressing gown. I was incredibly naive and young and it did not cross my mind that this older, unattractive man would expect me to have any sexual interest in him, she wrote on Instagram. After declining alcohol and announcing that I had school in the morning I left, uneasy but unscathed. Theo Wargo/Getty Images Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Gwyneth Paltrow The actor alleges that after he cast her in the title role of the film Emma when she was 22, he took her to his hotel room, placed his hands on her and suggested massages. I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified, Paltrow told the New York Times. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Asia Argento Italian actress Asia Argento has alleged that in 1997 Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her as she repeatedly told him to stop. When I see him, it makes me feel little and stupid and weak, Argento told The New Yorker. After the rape, he won. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Cara Delevigne The British model and actress penning an Instagram post claiming that Weinstein had ordered her to kiss another woman in his hotel room, and tried to kiss her on the lips. AFP/Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Ashley Judd Ashley Judd said she rebuffed Harvey Weinsteins unwanted sexual advances by offering to consent only after she had won an Oscar. When she was initially invited to a meeting with Weinstein, Judd said, she was surprised to learn the producer was in his hotel room - a tactic that recurs in other womens accounts. Echoing the accounts of other women, Judd said Weinstein suggested she give him a massage and then invited her to watch him shower. After a volley of nos she said she would only after she wins an Oscar, fleeing after making the comments. Reuters/Mike Segar Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Judith Godreche French actress Judith Godreche said when she was 24 Weinstein invited her to his hotel room and asked to give her a massage. The next thing I know, hes pressing against me and pulling off my sweater, she told the New York Times. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Mira Sorvino The Oscar-winning actor said she found herself in a hotel room with Weinstein in 1995 where he started massaging my shoulders, which made me very uncomfortable, and then tried to get more physical, sort of chasing me around. According to an interview in The New Yorker Weinstein subsequently arrived at her apartment late at night and she had to call a friend to come over to pose as her boyfriend in order to get Weinstein out of the house. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Katherine Kendall The actress said Weinstein undressed and chased her around a living room when she was just 23. She subsequently felt that telling others meant Ill never work again and no one is going to care or believe me, she told the New York Times. WireImage Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Tomi-Anne Roberts As an aspiring actress and working in a restaurant in New York, Tomi-Ann Roberts encountered Weinstein who encouraged her to audition for one of his films back in 1984. She subsequently went to meet him and found him naked in the bath and invited her to get naked and get into the bath with him, she told the New York Times. She said she left feeling manipulated. Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Myleen Klass It has also been alleged that the disgraced film producer propositioned Myleene Klass with a sex contract at Cannes Film Festival in 2010. One of the singer and television personalitys friends reportedly told The Sun, Klass had told Weinstein to f*** off. Getty Images Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Sophie Dix Sophie Dix, best known for her role as Captain Sadie Williams in Soldier Soldier, described her encounter with Weinstein when she was 23 as the single most damaging thing thats happened in my life. She told The Guardian Weinstein had pushed her to her bed and was tugging at her clothes. She rushed to the bathroom to escape, but when she came out she found him standing there masturbating. I quickly closed the door again and locked it, she said. Then when I heard room service come to the door I just ran. Rex Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lea Seydoux The actor and director claims she had to fight off Weinstein after he brought her to his hotel room during what she remembers to be 2012. He suddenly jumped on me and tried to kiss me. I had to defend myself. Hes big and fat, so I had to be forceful to resist him. I left his room, thoroughly disgusted, she wrote in The Guardian. AFP/Getty Images Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Claire Forlani British actress Claire Forlani wrote on Twitter that she had evaded Weinsteins advances on five occasions at the age of 25. At meetings with the Hollywood a-lister, she says massage was suggested, and that Weinstein had boasted of all the women hed had sex with. Mark Douet Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Florence Darel French actress Florence Darel claimed Weinstein relentlessly pursued her in the mid 1990's and propositioned her while Eve Chilton, his wife at the time, was in the hotel room next door. I was astonished, she told People magazine. When you have someone so physically disgusting in front of you, continuing and continuing as though this was all perfectly normal What happened to me may not be illegal but it was inappropriate. Very inappropriate. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lysette Anthony Lysette Anthony, who starred as Marnie Nightingale in Hollyoaks, has claimed Weinstein raped her in the late 1980's after turning up to her London home in the late 1980s. She described the disgraced film producers alleged attack as pathetic and revolting and said it left her feeling disgusted and embarrassed. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Dawn Dunning Dunning said she met Weinstein in 2003 when she was 24-years-old and the disgraced film producer suggested she have a threesome with him and someone else. She told the New York Times Weinstein got angry when she refused. Youll never make it in this business, she said he told her as she left. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Rosanna Arquette Rosanna Arquette was already well known for her role in Desperately Seeking Susan, when she said she met Weinstein at his hotel to pick up a script in the early nineties. Weinstein was dressed only in a dressing gown, and tried to put her hand on his erect penis. Speaking to the New York Times, Arquette said as she left she told him: I will never be that girl. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Emma de Caunes Caunes, a French actor, claimed Weinstein took her to his hotel room in 2010 supposedly to retrieve a book he was making into a film, but once there he went into the bathroom. De Caunes said he then emerged naked, with an erection and told her to lie on the bed. She fled the room. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Zoe Brock Model Zoe claimed that she had to lock herself in a bathroom at Weinsteins hotel in 1997, after the mogul had sent all of the assistants out of the room, and then appeared naked. I was alone with Weinstein, she told ITVs This Morning programme. He very quickly left the room and came back naked. He chased me naked. Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Jessica Barth Actress Jessica Barth described an encounter with Weinstein in 2011 in an interview with The New Yorker in which she said Weinstein veered between offering her roles in films and demanding a naked massage. She alleges the producer said to her: So, what would happen if, say, were having some champagne and I take my clothes off and you give me a massage? When she tried to leave, he then promised to give her the number of a female executive at the company. He gave me her number, and I walked out and I started bawling, Barth said. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Romola Garai The actress told The Guardian she felt violated after she went to a meeting with Weinstein at the age of 18 and he met her in his hotel room wearing nothing but a dressing gown. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Heather Graham Graham claimed that during a casting opportunity in the early 2000's Weinstein had told her he had an open relationship with his wife. He could sleep with whomever he wanted when he was out of town. I walked out of the meeting feeling uneasy, Graham told Variety. There was no explicit mention that to star in one of those films I had to sleep with him, but the subtext was there. Graham was never hired to work in a Weinstein film. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Jessica Hynes Spaced and W1A star Jessica Hynes tweeted about an encounter with Weinstein earlier this week, but subsequently deleted the tweet. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Lucia Evans The actor told The New Yorker that after a meeting to discuss casting her in various projects, Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him. I said, over and over, I dont want to do this, stop, dont. She added: Hes a big guy. He overpowered me. I just sort of gave up. Thats the most horrible part of it, and thats why hes been able to do this for so long to so many women: people give up, and then they feel like its their fault. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Louisette Geiss The former actress said she met Weinstein to pitch a film script she was working on. During the meeting, Weinstein allegedly went out and reappeared naked and got into a jacuzzi where he masturbated in front of her and said he would make the script into a film if she stayed and watched. Getty Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Liza Campbell Liza Campbell, a British writer and artist, alleged that Olympically ugly Weinstein asked her to join him in the bath and began getting undressed at a hotel. In a piece for The Times, Campbell claimed she was forced to sprint to the door to escape. Rex Features Harvey Weinstein: his accusers Louise Godbold Writing in a blog post, Louise Godbold, a non-profit director in Los Angeles, said her encounter with Weinstein took the form of an office tour that became an occasion to trap me in an empty meeting room. She said then Weinstein was begging for a massage, his hands on my shoulders as I attempted to beat a retreat. During an interview recorded in January obtained by the Observer, McGowan said she did not report the rape to the police because a criminal lawyer told her she was not likely to be successful in her case. She added: "Also, I didnt want his name next to mine in my obituary; his name doesnt deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as mine when Im dead". Follow Independent Culture on Facebook for all the latest on Film, TV, Music, and more. Sign up to Roisin OConnors free weekly newsletter Now Hear This for the inside track on all things music Get our Now Hear This email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Roisin OConnors email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Its an obvious thing to expect, but still impossible to prepare for: the sheer volume and earnestness of screams as the silhouette of Harry Styles appears on a curtain across the stage at Londons Eventim Apollo. Decked out in a shimmering blue silk suit he plays the first few guitar notes of his debut solo albums intro and the volume of screams rises again. Just over two years ago at the O2 Arena, at One Directions first gig since the departure of Zayn Malik, Styles seemed lost onstage. He stumbled around without apparent care for the show, often not bothering to finish a lyric, not communicating with the others onstage. Harry Styles performs at the Eventim Apollo in London (Helene Marie Pambrun) Tonight hes an entirely different artist. He flirts outrageously with his lead guitarist, rocks out to a solo by his drummer Sarah Jones, and blows kisses to individuals in the crowd, who wave rainbow flags and signs pleading for marriage, a look, a photo anything. On Carolina he shakes his hips with the Stealers Wheel-influenced hook and belts out its infectious chorus, before mellowing things out with Sweet Creature and the deeply intimate From The Dining Table. Recommended Harry Styles wears his influences on his sleeve for his debut album Seconds into A Little Bit Of Your Heart the song he penned for Ariana Grande he stops and peers into the crowd. A fan, maybe more than one, apparently overwhelmed. Styles asks the crowd to move back a little. Just step back slowly, give her some room, he says in a slow, calm voice, as though talking to a skittish horse, then as she is carried off by a medic: Lets do this again, if everyones OK. Styles is undeniably thrilling to watch live on material from his debut solo album Sign Of The Times he puts everything into the song, vocals clear even above the shrieks. But on the One Direction tracks he still seems to find it tricky to muster any serious enthusiasm, even with a decent rock reworking of Beautiful. Harry Styles (Helene Marie Pambrun) His charisma returns on Kiwi clearly a crowd favourite where he emulates the rock thrill of Chuck Berry, but with all the sauce of Lenny Kravitz singing American Woman. Enjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Sign up Theres a brief interval before the encore where he struts back onstage to knock out a cover of Fleetwood Macs The Chain, backed by perfect harmonies from his band. Screams of Kiwi persuade him to perform part of the track again before closing on what was his debut solo single, the albums title track. While Sign Of The Times is one of the weaker tracks on the record due to its toppling more into the realms of rock pastiche, it soars as a live performance: those unmistakable Bowie influences in the building instrumentation lifting his wonderful falsetto. Styles is doing a fine job of reinventing himself as a credible young artist a serious feat to achieve for anyone with his level of fame and its clear that hes only just getting started. Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Coronation Street actor Bruno Langley has been charged with two counts of sexual assault. The 34-year-old has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a Manchester nightclub. Langley who plays Todd Grimshaw on the soap will appear at Manchester Magistrates Court on 28 November. Greater Manchester Police previously said they were investigating an alleged incident at the citys Band on the Wall nightclub. The incident was first reported 1 October at 1am. ITV launched an investigation into the claims earlier this month, later confirming Langley will no longer be appearing on the show. A spokesperson for ITV said "Bruno Langley is no longer contracted to Coronation Street. In a statement, the actor said: "Sadly, I will no longer be working on Coronation Street. Acting on the show has been the fulfilment of a personal dream. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA "Playing the role of Todd Grimshaw since I was 17 years old has been a huge part of my life, and an absolute honour. I would like to thank all of my friends who work on the show for their love, friendship and support during this extremely difficult period. Langley added that a further statement on the case would be issued in due course. He continues to deny any wrongdoing. The actor played the first openly gay character on Coronation Street. Langley was a regular until 2004, only making fleeting appearances from there on until returning as a regular in 2013. According to various reports, scenes featuring Langley will continue to be screened until 24 December, as these were filmed before the inquiry started. Following that, scenes will have to be rewritten. J.M. Capriola Co., which has been serving Elko since 1929, took the bronze award for jewelry in the 2017 Readers Choice contest, a first for the company. I am kind of surprised. All the times, they never had a category for us. Theres never been a leather category, owner Doug Wright said. J.M. Capriola specializes in leather goods but is known for its turquoise and sterling silver jewelry, he said. The store also sells Native American jewelry. We have fine leather goods for Christmas, Wright said. Along with the custom leather goods and silver engraved items produced on-site, the store sells clothing for the whole family, housewares, home decor, ropes, working tack, and rodeo gear. J.M. Capriola is the home of the original Garcia bits and spurs and has an Old West museum upstairs. J.M. Capriola is passionate about continuing to preserve the Western heritage that has built its business, said Susan Wright, co-owner of the family business. G.S. Garcia moved his business from California in 1893 to the growing ranching community of Elko and opened the G.S. Garcia Harness and Saddle Shop. He hired apprentice Joe Martin Capriola, and by 1929, Capriola had opened his own business a few doors down from Garcias business. The two worked together, according to a history that Susan Wright provided. Garcia would send Joe Martin Capriola repairs, while Garcia focused on making fancy saddles. J.M. Capriola has been headquartered at the same location in Elko since 1929. Not many businesses can boast on the longevity and uniqueness that J.M. Capriola Co. continues to provide, Susan Wright said. Doug Wright said there are roughly nine employees. Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter for all the latest entertainment news and reviews Sign up to our free IndyArts newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the IndyArts email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The writer of award-winning Netflix drama The Crown has referred to the Queen as a woman of limited intelligence and claimed the royal family is a deranged institution. Peter Morgan, the man behind The Audience and The Queen told the Sunday Times Magazine that if he had been told he would writing a series of dramas about Queen Elizabeth II he would not have believed it. I wouldnt have guessed there would be anything more to say about this countryside woman of limited intelligence who would have much preferred looking after her dogs and breeding horses to being queen, he said. Recommended Olivia Colman is replacing Claire Foy in The Crown Morgan, who is described as a staunch republican, is impressed however at the monarchs ability to survive without any catastrophic errors while leaders in Parliament have seen their careers end over their decisions, calling the royals survival organisms, like a mutating virus. Look at how many prime ministers are wheeled out in coffins, after having made fools of themselves, he told the magazine, and yet she survives. It is clearly a deranged institution and a completely insane system, but perhaps its the insanity that makes it work. Claire Foy, who won a Golden Globe for her performance in the series, will star again as the Queen on Netflix from 8 December, in the shows second season. The Crown Season 2 trailer Olivia Colman, who won a Bafta for her performance in Broadchurch and a Golden Globe for her portrayal of the spy chief in The Night Manager, will be taking over the role from Foy in seasons three and four, as the drama moves into the royals life in the 1960s. Foy said she was apoplectic with joy when she found out Colman would be the next Queen. I just love her, I admire her so much and the idea that we sort of will be doing the same job but not actually working together is just enough Im honoured by that, she said. Colman said she is thrilled to be part of the show and was utterly gripped watching it. Peter Morgan wrote The Crown, The Queen and The Audience (Getty Images) I think Claire Foy is an absolute genius shes an incredibly hard act to follow, she said. Im basically going to re-watch every episode and copy her, she told the BBC. Series three is expected to air in 2019. Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A mum has been left furious after Tesco refused to sell her wine because she was shopping with her 17-year-old daughter. Taking to Facebook, Catherine OCallaghan from Halifax, West Yorkshire explained that she had spent an hour doing her weekly shop and that her trolley was overflowing with the essentials - as well a bottle of rose wine which she bought for herself as an end of week treat. However, after packing the majority of her purchases, the cashier then asked if the 47-year-olds daughter, Niamh, who is just 17-years-old, had ID. Confused, OCallaghan asked if the cashier was joking but when she confirmed that it was in fact store policy. She says she became so enraged that she abandoned all her shopping at the check out and left the store empty handed. Fuming is an understatement!!!!!!, the angry mum wrote on Facebook. Spent over an hour doing the big shop, trolley overflowing with the essential and a treat for me. 1 bottle of wine to get over a **** week at work. Said bottle was almost the last item to scan, all my bags for life packed in the trolley and the check out girl asks for ID for my eldest who was with me. I asked if she was joking but no it's policy to ask. So said 'stuff it' so shopping tipped on to check out and in to trolley as I need to save my bags for life. And, it seems this isnt the first time the supermarket has been overzealous in its policies as friends responding to OCallaghans post reveal that it had happened to them to. This happened to me once in Tescos. Brandon was about 16 I think, one person wrote. Another added, To be fair this happened to me a few years ago but I didnt dump the shopping and just left the booze and when I left the supermarket I was fuming. Wish Id of done what you did and dumped the shopping - go Cath. Its an awful policy and I hope you get some compensation for your wasted time. A Tesco spokesperson said: "We take our responsibilities as a retailer of alcohol very seriously, so we have a strict Think 25 policy. "Customers may be asked for ID if our colleagues believe there is a chance that a product may be consumed by someone who is under the legal age. "It is never our intention to cause offence and we're sorry if we were a little over-zealous on this occasion." Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Stay ahead of the trend in fashion and beyond with our free weekly Lifestyle Edit newsletter Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Lifestyle Edit email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A teenage Russian model who died after a gruelling 12-hour fashion show earned just 6.30 a day after paying her plane fares, hotels and food, it has been claimed. 14-year-old Vlada Dzyuba, from Perm in Russia, had signed a three month contract to work on catwalks and finally realise her dream of becoming a supermodel. But, as she waited for her latest job thousands of miles from home in China, the young girl died from utter exhaustion and meningitis. Her case has since raised critical awareness over the exploitation of children in the fashion industry as it has been claimed that before she went into a coma, she told her mother over the phone that she was exhausted. She was calling me, saying 'Mama, I am so tired. I so much want to sleep, her mother told the television programme NTV. It must have been the very beginning of the illness. And then her temperature shot up. Before she collapsed, it is thought that Dzyuba attended a 13-hour jewellery shoot and that on an earlier contract in China she received just 6.30 a day for her catwalk appearances after her plane fares, hotels, food and insurance had been taken from her earnings, the Russian media reports. The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Show all 20 1 /20 The worlds highest-paid models 2016 The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Gisele Bundchen ($30,500,000) Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Adriana Lima ($10,500,000) Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Karlie Kloss ($10,000,000) Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Kendall Jenner ($10,000,000) Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Gigi Hadid ($9,000,000) Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Rosie Huntington-Whiteley ($9,000,000) Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Cara Delevingne ($8,500,000) Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Candice Swanepoel ($7,000,000) Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Liu Wen ($7,000,000) Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Miranda Kerr ($6,000,000) Getty Images for The Huffington The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Lara Stone ($5,500,000) Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Natalia Vodianova ($5,500,000) AFP/Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Kate Moss ($5,000,000) Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Alessandra Ambrosio ($5,000,000) Getty Images for Coca-Cola The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Doutzen Kroes ($5,000,000) Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Joan Smalls ($4,500,000) AFP/Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Lily Aldridge ($4,000,000) Getty Images for Victoria's Secr The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Jasmine Tookes ($4,000,000) Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Taylor Hill ($4,000,000) AFP/Getty Images The worlds highest-paid models 2016 Barbara Palvin ($4,000,000) Getty Images The Chinese modelling agency involved in her most recent trip has denied overworking the 14-year-old. However, new facts have raised concerns over her working conditions including the length of her employment hours, which could be more than eight hours a day, and how she could be in China without medical insurance. Dzyuba had received 16 different jobs during her two months' stay in China, Zheng Yi, chief executive of ESEE Model Management, told The Global Times. She had regular breaks while working. Most of her work was completed within eight hours. Her workload was moderate compared with other models. Recommended Young model faces early menopause aged 26 after misdiagnosis of IBS Once the young girl became unwell, it is understood that the modelling agency did pay her bills, and that when she was sent to hospital the Russian Embassy was informed. Russian embassy staff and the local police arrived at the hospital and inquired about the case, said Zheng. Dzyuba was then sent to the intensive care unit (ICU) as her condition deteriorated. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Retailer Asda has announced that chief executive Sean Clarke will be stepping down at the end of the year, to be replaced by the companys current deputy chief executive and chief operating officer Roger Burnley. Mr Clarke has been at Asdas parent company, Walmart, for over two decades, during which time he has worked across five international markets. He served as president and CEO of Walmart China before coming to the UK. Hes continually shown the ability to lead critical transformation and the last 15 months are no exception, Walmart International CEO, Dave Cheesewright, said in a statement. Mr Cheesewright said that after Mr Clarke would remain engaged with Walmart after he steps down as CEO of Asda on 31 December. Mr Clarke said that would work closely with Mr Burnley to ensure a smooth transition in the lead up to, and throughout, the retailers crucial Christmas trading period. Mr Burnleys appointment does not come as a surprise. He was named chief operating officer and deputy CEO in October 2016 and at the time Mr Cheesewright already described him as a a future CEO. The 51-year old father of two started his retail career as a graduate at B&Q, holding a number of roles across retail management, buying and logistics, before joining Asda as director of supply. He returned to Asda last year following stints at Matalan and Sainsburys. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Barclays Africa and Standard Bank said on Monday they would stop working with McKinsey, a further blow to the global consultancy as it faces allegations of bribery for work done with friends of South African President Jacob Zuma. Privately-held McKinsey, the worlds largest management consultancy, has denied doing anything illegal but said this month that it was embarrassed by mistakes it made while working with South African state utility Eskom last year. McKinsey said it regretted working on a 1.6 billion rand (86m) contract at Eskom alongside a company controlled by the Gupta family, wealthy friends of President Zuma who are accused of unduly influencing Government contracts. Recommended HSBC and Standard Chartered face probe over Gupta links President Zuma and the Guptas deny wrongdoing. Barclays Africa and Standard Bank told Reuters in separate emailed responses to questions that they would terminate their relationships with McKinsey without giving reasons. McKinsey declined to comment. Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year. The Gupta brothers, who work with President Zumas son, Duduzane, were accused by South Africas anti-corruption watchdog last year of using control over state agencies to siphon public funds. South Africas parliamentary committee on public enterprises is investigating whether McKinsey knowingly let funds from Eskom be diverted to Gupta-controlled firm, Trillian, as a way of securing the deal. Corruption Watch, a South African anti-graft NGO, is preparing a submission to the US Department of Justice asking it to investigate McKinseys dealings with Trillian. Reuters Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} HSBC has indicated that it might move fewer than the 1,000 jobs originally touted to move to Paris away from London after Brexit. The banks finance director, Iain Mackay, told reporters on Monday that the figure may be less than 1,000 employees, but its up to 1,000. HSBC's investment bank currently employs around 5000 people in London. Recommended HSBC posts surge in quarterly profit thanks to its focus on Asia Speaking after the bank published strong results for the third quarter of the financial year, Mr Mackay said that HSBC had put aside $12m (9.1m) to cover the cost of legal advice relating to Brexit contingency plans in the third quarter. The bank expects to spend $200-$300m in total on Brexit relocation, he said. UBS said on Friday that it is increasingly unlikely to move up to 1,000 jobs away from London after Brexit. The Swiss banks chief executive Sergio Ermotti told reporters that UBS has already got the licences it needs in its EU bank in Frankfurt to continue doing business after the UK leaves the EU. He said that the banks aim was to keep as many people as possible in London. UBS currently employs around 5,000 people in London. Other global banks have also indicated that they are preparing to move a proportion of their London staff to the continent after Brexit, with Frankfurt, Dublin and Paris emerging as some of the most popular destinations. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The chief executive of Goldman Sachs has said that he still hopes to fill up the banks massive European headquarters, currently under construction London, but that uncertainty around Brexit means that much is still outside of his companys control. Lloyd Blankfein on Monday tweeted: In London. GS still investing in our big new Euro headquarters here. Expecting/hoping to fill it up, but so much outside our control. #Brexit. Goldman is in the process of building a 1.1 million square foot office in the capital for its 6,000-strong UK-based employees. The bank said it expects the first occupants in its new London building for 2019. But earlier this month Reuters reported that the bank had also agreed to lease offices in Frankfurt, with enough space for up to 1,000 staff. Frankfurt is largely being touted as a popular destination for many international banks looking to move staff, to ensure that they can continue servicing clients seamlessly after Brexit. Its not the first time Wall Street veteran who is still a relative newbie to Twitter has taken to the social media platform to comment on Brexit. Earlier this month he tweeted: Just left Frankfurt. Great meetings, great weather, really enjoyed it. Good, because I'll be spending a lot more time there. #Brexit. Mr Blankfein, who has held the top job at Goldman Sachs since 2006, appears to have had a Twitter account since June 2011, but only sent what looked to be his first tweet in June this year. Since then hes tweeted a handful of times, on subjects as varied as Bitcoin, Saudi Arabia and immigration. His tweets on Brexit appear to jar somewhat with his employers long-standing tradition of not overtly involving itself in political matters. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Britain may be able to create 175,000 new manufacturing jobs and generate an extra 455bn if the UK takes full advantage of a fourth industrial revolution, based on robotics, artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies. Thats the conclusion of a new Government-commissioned report by a group representing some of the UKs top companies, led by Siemens UK and Ireland boss, Professor Juergen Maier. Manufacturing could grow by up to 3 per cent per year for a decade, according to the report, which lays out recommendations for Prime Minister Theresa Mays industrial strategy. It called for a new commission which would promote the development of digital technologies such as 3D printing, virtual reality as well as the skills required to work in advanced industries. Manufacturing has declined in most advanced countries over the last 30 years, with the UK seeing a particularly marked drop-off. The sector made up 20 per cent of the UK economy in 1990, compared to just 10 per cent in 2015, the report said. While many commentators and analysts have warned that automation and AI could lead to the large-scale destruction of jobs, Professor Maier outlines the potential technology has for making positive impacts on the economy. He recommends Government support through tax incentives for manufacturing firms as well as the creation of 12 hubs for innovation, as part of a UK-wide programme that would see startups work with larger, more-established firms. Professor Maier, said the proposals represent the greater vision that Britain needs to be a world leader in the new wave of developing technologies. Industry is committed to working in partnership with Government, and this combined package of measures will boost UK growth and productivity in manufacturing and provide more exports and increased earning potential, which our economy desperately needs, he said. Our proposals will help business understand, deploy and create the latest digital technologies, helping to secure more homegrown research and development and the creation of new industries and highly skilled well paid jobs. Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year. Confederation of British Industry director-general Carolyn Fairbairn said the measures would see new technology adopted more rapidly and bring new energy to the UKs manufacturing sector. The UK must compete with China, the USA and much of Europe where there are already advanced plans to embrace the fourth industrial revolution, she said. Business Secretary Greg Clark said that in order for the UK manufacturing sector to become a global leader, Government and industry must work together to seize the opportunities that exist in this sector and promote the benefits of adopting emerging digital technologies, as well as cutting edge business models. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Demand for niche drinks has helped to grow the number of wine producers in the UK by 13 per cent in the past year, according to UHY Hacker Young. Figures from the accountancy firm show the number of producers in Britain is at a record high, having grown from 352 in 2015 to 397 in 2016. The figures include both wine where the grapes are grown in English or Welsh vineyards and wine that is made in the UK using imported grapes or grape juice. James Simmonds, partner at UHY Hacker Young, said the trend across the drinks sector is for niche, local products to outperform the growth of global brands and that this had led to more consumers swapping French or New World wine for English wine. He added: It is more of a talking point, more of an event, to order a Welsh wine than French. But it is not just novelty value critics are giving English and Welsh wine higher and higher ratings. UHY Hacker Youngs figures show that the number of producers has been growing steadily year-on-year, since 2012 when there were 287 wine producers in the UK. According to the English Wine Producers trade association, in the last 10 years the acreage of UK land planted with grapevines has grown by 135 per cent. Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year. UHY Hacker Young suggests the commercial success of British wine brands, such as Kent-based Chapel Down, has encouraged more entrepreneurs to enter the market. Independent English wine producers registered 132m in turnover from 2015/16, according to research from online business finance supermarket Funding Options. Wines produced in the UK have won a number of awards at international events in the last few years, such as Camel Valleys Pinot Noir Rose, which won Gold at the Decanter World Wine Awards, the Bolney Wine Estates Pinot Gris 2016, which won the Top Still Wine award UK at the Wine Awards 2017, and Coates and Seely Blanc de Blancs Vintage La Perfide 2009, which was a winner of a trophy at the International Wine Challenge. Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Health Check email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} NHS fertility services have suffered their biggest cuts since national standards for IVF were introduced in 2004, a report has indicated. Just 12 per cent of NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) in England offer three full cycles of IVF, in line with national best practice guidance, down from 24 per cent in 2013. Campaign group Fertility Fairness heavily criticised the postcode lottery facing patients, saying cash-strapped CCGs are increasingly stipulating entirely arbitrary criteria to limit access to services. This is in contrast to patients in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, where IVF access is nationally standardised. Recommended IVF treatment on the NHS restricted or halted by 13 areas in England The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends three cycles of IVF for women under 40 and one cycle for some women aged 40-42. In its 2017 audit of NHS-funded fertility treatment, Fertility Fairness found the majority of CCGs (88 per cent) did not offer the recommended three full cycles of NHS-funded IVF to eligible couples. A total of 61 per cent of the NHSs 208 CCGs now offer just one round of funded IVF to eligible couples up from 49 per cent in 2013. The findings, launched at the start of National Fertility Awareness Week, show 4 per cent of CCGs offer no NHS-funded treatment at all. In these areas, eligible couples are forced to spend thousands of pounds for private treatment. And, while the average cost of a single cycle reported by CCGs was 3,483 in 2017, this also masks major variation. A cycle in some areas costs up to 5,788, while others charge as little as 1,343. The four areas that offer the most comprehensive IVF access are all in Greater Manchester, the birthplace of IVF 40 years ago. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA The lowest ranked CCGs, offering no funded IVF according to Fertility Fairness, were Herts Valley, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Croydon, South Norfolk, Basildon and Brentwood, Mid-Essex and North East Essex. A further 14 CCGs are deliberating making reductions to their current offering. The report says: In 2004 NICE issued a clinical guideline on infertility, which recommended that all eligible couples should have access to 3 full cycles of IVF where the woman is aged under 40. An update in 2013 further recommended that women aged between 40-42, meeting specific criteria, should have access to 1 full cycle. According to NICE a full cycle of IVF treatment should include 1 round of ovarian stimulation followed by the transfer of any resultant fresh and frozen embryos. Despite this clear and long-standing guidance, IVF provision across England has remained consistently below the NICE recommendations and is subject to considerable regional variations. This postcode lottery stands in stark contrast with the rest of the UK. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, access criteria and provision are standardised and patients within each of the devolved nations have equality of treatment. Professor Adam Balen, chair of the British Fertility Society and member of the Fertility Fairness steering committee, said infertility is a real disease and that it was not right that patients in some areas should be forced to pay for treatment. As a clinician, I am dismayed to see these figures, he said. This is yet more evidence of a worrying trend where NHS funding available for IVF is being severely eroded, thanks to the decisions made by CCGs. I meet people every day who are desperate to become parents and for them IVF is the only option. Many patients will not be able to self-fund and nor should they; we have an NHS for a reason and that is to underpin the wellbeing of the UK. And Professor Balen warned there were further restrictions highlighted by the report that are often under-reported. This includes 61 per cent of CCGs that only offer a partial cycle of IVF, or areas varying their definition of childlessness, or age-limits in the eligibility criteria. [Fertility Fairness] have also shown that some CCGs are applying additional restrictions such as childlessness or age that are not recommended by Nice, he said. That leaves us with just a handful of CCGs that are properly funding IVF and we now have seven CCGs across the UK who arent funding it at all! Thats a postcode lottery by any other name and is vastly unfair. Sarah Norcross, co-chair of Fertility Fairness said: The scale of disinvestment in NHS fertility services is at its worst since NICE introduced national fertility guidelines in 2004. Fertility Fairness is calling for full implementation of the NICE guidelines, standardisation of eligibility criteria across England and the development of a national tariff in England for tertiary fertility services eliminating regional cost variants and removing a key barrier to CCGs compliance with national guidelines. A spokesperson for NHS England rejected the suggestion that setting a tariff price for these services would improve provision, as it would mean some areas with above average services would cut back. NHS England said: Ultimately these are legally decisions for CCGs, who are under an obligation to balance the various competing demands on the NHS locally while living within the budget parliament has allocated. But it added that work to benchmark prices would help show up unjustified variations in costs and it was working to standardise definitions of what an NHS-funded cycle constitutes. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A cancer charity has appointed its first digital nurse to combat online fake news about the disease. Macmillan Cancer Support fears patients are turning to unverified websites for information that leaves them needlessly frightened and at risk of bogus cures. The charity points to one online search that brings up a website claiming chemotherapy is a bigger killer than cancer itself, while another site reports that baking soda can cure breast cancer. Ellen McPake will be dedicated to answering questions from people affected by cancer online, on Macmillans social platforms and online community. Her appointment comes as Macmillan research, conducted by YouGov, found 37 per cent of people in Scotland with cancer looked up information about their diagnosis online. An estimated 3,450 people, or 4 per cent of Scottish cancer patients, who looked online for information thought they were going to die. Janice Preston, head of Macmillan in Scotland, said: Its understandable that people go online to look up their diagnosis, but its vital they get information from reliable sources. As well as fantastic information and support, the web is full of unverified statistics, fake news and horror stories that can cause people unnecessary worry and distress. Its important people have access to trusted information online and know how to separate websites that are accurate and reputable from those with incorrect or even dangerous information. We hope our new digital nurse will help people who want to find answers online. She will be there to answer questions from people across the UK about cancer and make sure they get the information they desperately need. The charity is concerned some patients look online because they are leaving appointments without the information they need. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA Headteacher Kay Robertson, 51, used the internet extensively to find information about her illness, after being diagnosed with liver cancer in March 2014. The mother-of-two said: I Googled everything, all the way through my cancer. I was lucky that I had a fantastic consultant and a Macmillan nurse who explained things really well, but there was always something I needed to look up. Everyone is just so used to getting information instantly now that going online is inevitable. There is so much false information out there. I was careful to only look at websites I knew I could trust like Macmillan or the NHS. Ms McPake said: As more and more people seek information about their cancer online, we want them to know that charities like Macmillan are able to offer reliable health advice. In my new role, Im there to make sure people affected by cancer have a real person they can turn to online for information about their symptoms, cancer diagnosis and treatment. PA For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Scooter slipped out her home on the south coast of England one night in the summer, BBC News reported, and turned up the next morning on a nearby lawn - sliced down the length of her belly, entrails pulled out and piled up beside her, laid there to find like some sort of sick message. As went Scooter, so went Rusty 150 miles to the north: dumped in a bag on a teenage girl's doorstep, according to The Guardian, headless, limbless and earless. And Topsy, mutilated in Northampton on 7 September; and Squiggles, found partially skinned with her tail cut off in an Addlestone car park on Tuesday. These are just a few of the victims of who pet owners across Britain and police believe is a serial killer of cats, who has eluded capture for two years and may be expanding his ambitions. Since the first killing in late 2015, the carcass found near the alleys of a Croydon neighbourhood south of London, more than 370 animals are believed to have been mutilated by the same suspect, the BBC reported. Most of the victims are pet cats, though foxes and the occasional rabbit or puppy are sometimes reported - even a baby owl, once. As Peter Holley wrote for The Washington Post last year, the so-called Croydon Cat Killer has certain hallmarks to his work: Decapitated, with their tails and ears cut off, stomachs slashed and organs removed, the tortured remains sometimes drained of blood. Police have only confirmed a fraction of the hundreds of mutilated animals to be the work of one human mind. It's quite possible other people have got on the bandwagon - copycats, if you like, Andy Collin, a Metropolitan police detective in Croydon, told the BBC. But he has no doubt the killer exists and has even worked up a psychological profile. Cats are targeted because they are associated with the feminine. The killer can't deal with a woman or women who are troubling him, Collin said. The detective worried that at some stage he'll escalate or feel brave enough to move on to vulnerable women and girls. And already, the killings have spread from a single London suburb in a widening ring, which by now extends from the coast to miles north, east and west of the capital city. One night in August, the BBC reported, witnesses near the scene of a cat killing in Caterham chased a man with a headlamp or some sort of torch from the area. This led police - through an animal protection group they've partnered with - to release a possible description of the killer, and animal rights groups subsequently offered more than $10,000 as a reward for information leading the killer's arrest. He strikes mainly at night in residential areas, often luring his victims with pet food, crab sticks or raw chicken, the BBC wrote. He kills them quickly with some sort of blunt force then waits at least half an hour for their blood to coagulate before mutilating their bodies. He then tends to display the bodies close to where he's hunted them down, sometimes in public spaces such as playgrounds. The dead cats were first ignored by police, a Vice reporter wrote last year. They were written off as the work of predators or traffic, until news stories went national and made authorities pay attention. Now, police meet regularly with leaders of South Norwood Animal Rescue and Liberty, whose volunteers try to investigate each reported killing as a crime scene. And last month, a forensics laboratory at the University of Surrey began to reexamine the bodies of dozens of cats thought to be linked to the case. Police call it Operation Takahe. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA The operation has its detractors, the BBC notes - with some accusing the volunteers of exaggerating the problem or questioning how one person could kill so many cats. But that hasn't stopped the mutilations, or the effort to find a serial killer. We will get him, Collin told Vice. Whether I catch him, or he gets nicked for something else - it will happen. The Washington Post Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} An aspiring model who suffered horrific burns in an acid attack on her 21st birthday said it was "time to stop hiding" as she posted a photo showing her remarkable recovery. Resham Khan was praised as "courageous" and "an inspiration" after sharing the selfie on social media, where she has previously told of being "too petrified to walk to the shop". The student and her cousin Jameel Muhktar, 37, suffered extensive burns when a man doused them with a corrosive substance through the window of their car in Beckton, east London, on 21 June. Ms Khan has since told of her struggle to come to terms with mental and physical scars and "unbearable pain" following the attack. She has also begun campaigning for tighter restrictions on acid sales. In the days after the attack, the business student at Manchester Metropolitan University released a photo showing horrific burns, scabs and swelling to her face. She said she was "devastated" that her injuries - described as "life-changing" by police - meant she would "probably never look the same". She wrote on her blog: "Today I was too petrified to walk to my local shop. Too scared to face the world. Too scared of the looks I might get. To scared to tackle the question 'how are you'. Just too scared. Thats all Ive been. Terrified and reluctant. My life on pause, frozen with fear." Ms Khan has since posted photos and blog posts documenting her recovery and treatment, which included several skin grafts. After the latest selfie, many of her 20,000 Twitter followers praised her courage. "We all respect your bravery and dignity, you have come such a long way," wrote Richard Ward. "Stay strong, you are an inspiration to us all." Amer Khan said: "Keep breaking barriers and setting the bar, you're doing amazing Resh! With your level of courage and heart, you're destined for greatness." Another follower added: "You are so lovely, so brave, so compassionate despite all you've been through. I'm proud to look up to you." Resham Khan in hospital following an acid attack on 21 June (Gofundme) Ms Khan last month returned to university for the first time since the attack. Well-wishers have donated nearly 60,000 to an online fundraising page set up by her friend to support her. More than 534,000 have signed a petition, set up following the attack, calling for tougher restrictions on acid sales. The incident involving Ms Khan and Mr Muhktar was one of a string of high-profile attacks, and the government has since acted to introduce tougher sentencing for both first-time and repeat offenders carrying or using acid as a weapon. Under proposals released earlier this month, the Government announced plans to create a new offence of possession of a corrosive substance in public without a good or lawful reason, and said that repeat offenders will automatically face a prison sentence of at least six months. John Tomlin, of Canning Town, east London, this month pleaded guilty to two counts of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Ms Khan and Mr Muhktar. The 25-year-old denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent and will stand trial in November at Snaresbrook Crown Court. Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Morning Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The British sailors who spend their lives in submarines safeguarding the nation's nuclear missiles are, without hyperbole, contenders for the most important job in the world. The gravity of their mission is even evident in the names the British Royal Navy gave to the nuclear missile-equipped submarines that glide beneath the globe's oceans: the Vanguard, the Victorious, the Vengeance, the Vigilant. But several sailors on the HMS Vigilant have recently been dismissed after their mission devolved into more of a drug-fuelled booze cruise - transgressions that happened last month as the sub was docked in the United States to pick up nuclear weapons. According to the Associated Press, at least nine sailors tested positive for cocaine following drug-fuelled parties. The Telegraph reported that one man had sex with a prostitute in a swimming pool. We do not tolerate drugs misuse by service personnel. Those found to have fallen short of our high standards face being discharged from service, a Royal Navy spokesman said, according to Reuters. But, as British media pointed out, the problems aboard the Vigilant run deeper. Aboard every Vanguard-class sub is a safe that only the commander and the executive officer can access. Inside is a letter of last resort - instructions from the Prime Minister that detail what the crew should do if the United Kingdom is attacked with nuclear weapons. Both command officers of the Vigilant have been embroiled in controversy because of sexual affairs with subordinates. The Navy has a strict no touching rule, according to The Evening Standard. According to The Sun, Commander Stuart Armstrong, the sub's captain, has been relieved of duty amid the investigation, which includes a photo that surfaced of the woman he was allegedly intimate with wearing the captain's uniform. The No. 2, Lieutenant Commander Michael Seal, also faces disciplinary action. Other members of the crew have threatened to resign over the widespread breaches in Royal Navy rules. The Daily Mail did some math on what the recent developments mean for one of the free world's strongest deterrents to nuclear war: Around 10 percent of HMS Vigilant's 168-strong crew have either been kicked out, quit, are under investigation or have been removed in what is believed to be one of the biggest sex and drugs scandals to hit the Navy. The nuclear sub problems come as tensions around the world's most dangerous weapons are heightening. Speaking in Seoul on Saturday, US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said the threat of a nuclear attack by North Korea is growing. North Korea has accelerated the threat that it poses to its neighbours and the world through its illegal and unnecessary missile and nuclear weapons programmes, Mattis told reporters, adding that he could not imagine a condition under which the United States would accept North Korea as a nuclear power. And there have been reports that the United States and the world's other nuclear powers are dusting off Cold War deterrent protocols. A few weeks ago, there were repeatedly denied reports that US Strategic Command - the government agency that maintains the nation's nuclear weapons - has placed its B-52 bombers on 24-hour alert, a state of readiness not seen since 1991. Crews at Louisiana's Barksdale Air Force Base are conducting renovations near long-vacant alert pads, where during the Cold War aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons once sat ready on a continual basis. So-called strip alerts were discontinued after the Soviet Union's collapse. The activity comes amid an escalating international war of words, with potentially catastrophic consequences. Although Donald Trump pledged to tame North Korea while he was running for President, the rogue state has not budged from its stated goal of becoming a full-fledged nuclear power equipped with weapons that can reach the US mainland. Kim Jong-un, the North Korean President, has said his nation needs nuclear weapons to stop the United States from asphyxiating its economy and overturning its government. In a speech to the United Nations, President Trump has threatened to totally destroy North Korea with fire and fury if it doesn't back off from its nuclear aims. Kim retaliated with a statement calling Trump a mentally deranged US dotard, who would pay dearly for his speech at the UN. Coincidentally, the scandal aboard the HMS Vigilant was happening at about the same time as Kim and Trump were sparring in the media. The sex scandals surfaced as the sub was docked in Kings Bay, Georgia, according to The Daily Mail. The sailors were back and forth between the sub and the hotel, while the vessel was docked, and held several parties that raged out of control, something others in the military called disgraceful. Rear Admiral Chris Parry, former commander of a Type 42 destroyer, told The Daily Mail: This is not just a submarine, it is one of our deterrence submarines. It is absolutely disgraceful. People in the Navy should remember playing for our country on an international level is a great privilege. It is a question of putting service before self. The Washington Post Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Government has been accused of covering up the extent of Britains support for Indias crackdown on Sikhs in 1984, prompting concerns that there is an undemocratic and unsustainable culture of secrecy around UK special forces. A new report has called for a full inquiry into the role played by Margaret Thatchers government in the events leading up to a massacre, which left hundreds, possibly thousands, of Sikhs and Indian soldiers dead. In 2014, David Cameron ordered a review after previously secret documents appeared to show possible SAS involvement in the 1984 Amritsar massacre. The papers, made public for the first time under the 30-year rule, indicate that a British officer helped the Indian authorities come up with a plan to remove Sikh separatists from the citys Golden Temple. They also showed that the plan, known as Operation Blue Star, was carried out with the full knowledge of the Thatcher government. When the Indian army did mobilise to clear out the occupying Sikhs, there were catastrophic consequences. The precise death toll from Operation Blue Star is still disputed, from around 400 according to the Indian government to Sikh estimates in excess of a thousand. The move was considered good for the bilateral relationship at a time of potential defence-related sales, according to the review released by Cabinet Secretary Jeremy Heywood. The new report, published by the Sikh Federation UK, described Camerons review as a whitewash, and claims that attempts to expose the full facts have been thwarted by government secrecy rules and conflicts of interest. According to the Sikh Federations report, immediately after the SAS officer carried out his reconnaissance with an Indian special forces unit, the Sikhs pulled out of peace talks believing they had seen a commando unit move into the city. It suggests the UK was keen to help India because the country was one of its biggest purchasers of military equipment between 1981 and 1990. The author of the report, Phil Miller, said: The Government needs to finally come clean about Thatchers role in the Amritsar massacre and Indias crackdown on Sikhs. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Whitehall censorship of historical files is like an old boys club that prevents the public from ever knowing how taxpayers money was spent. This culture of secrecy around Britains special forces and intelligence agencies is undemocratic and unsustainable. Bhai Amrik Singh, chair of the Sikh Federation (UK) said: This report casts serious doubts on the adequacy and integrity of the in-house Heywood review commissioned by Cameron. There has been a massive cover-up and parliament and the public have been disturbingly misled. An independent public inquiry to get to the truth is the only way forward. A Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: All sensitivity reviewers at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office work strictly in accordance with the Public Records Act. "Every redaction must be justified in terms of the Act, and is subject to review by the Advisory Council of the National Records and Archives. Redacted documents remain subject to the Freedom of Information Act. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The EUs chief negotiator held meetings with British arch-Remainers in Brussels on Monday as frustration at the deadlock in the official Brexit talks continues to mount. A cross-party group of Nick Clegg, Ken Clarke and Andrew Adonis met with Michel Barnier and EU commissioner Pierre Moscovici in the EU capital, where The Independent understands, they discussed future scenarios and the direction of talks. The delegation was organised by former Deputy Prime Minister Mr Clegg, who has known Mr Barnier for decades since they both worked at the commission. The group aims to show Brussels that the British public are not united behind Theresa Mays Brexit strategy. The British Government and EU negotiators have still not scheduled any more rounds of official Brexit talks despite nearly a fortnight having elapsed since Theresa May and Jean-Clade Juncker called for an acceleration of progress. Speaking to reporters in Brussels a spokesperson for the European Commission denied that the meetings amounted to shadow Brexit negotiations conducted behind the back of the British Government. There is a negotiating process, two negotiators. On the one side is the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU, David Davis; and on the European side is the chief negotiator of the EU, Michel Barnier. Nobody else, he said. Nick Clegg, Ken Clarke and Lord Adonis on their way into the European Commission building to meet Michel Barnier (BBC) As you will know from having studied the published agenda of Michel Barnier over these last couple of months, you will have seen that his door is always open for people who want to speak to him and his team across the political spectrum and from all walks of life, from all parties, whoever is interested to speak to Michel Barnier. A source close to Mr Clegg told The Independent: This is an initiative by Nick Clegg. Its a chance to talk to Michel Barnier about the direction of the talks and discuss future scenarios. The meetings follow discussions between EU chiefs and Jeremy Corbyn in Brussels earlier this month. That rendezvous took place while Theresa May attended a European Council summit in the city, where she was not given an opportunity to discuss Brexit face-to-face with other EU leaders. Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA He added: As to the dates for the next round, I think this is still under discussion. Nothing there to announce. Frances former finance minister, Pierre Moscovici is the European Commissioner in charge of economics and finance, including issues like customs control. Michel Barnier is the EUs chief negotiator and is responsible for talks with David Davis. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A leading pollster has defended a Labour MP who was accused of snobbery for pointing out people who voted against Brexit tended to be better-educated than Leave supporters. Barry Sheerman, MP for Huddersfield, prompted gasps of disapproval from a Conservative MP and BBC journalist by claiming most of those who voted Remain in June's EU referendum "were the better educated people in our country". He denied his comments, made during the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regional edition of BBC One's Sunday Politics, were tantamount to branding Leave voters "thick". Mr Sheerman, a former chair of the Commons education select committee, said: "The truth is that when you look at who voted to remain, most of them were the better educated people in our country. Absolutely, I think it's true. "You can actually see the pattern... nearly all the university towns voted to remain." He added: "Most people with a good education know that Brexit will damage the lives of our country." Presenter Tim Iredale described his comments as "massively controversial," while Tory MP Stuart Andrew said he was "astounded by this snobbery". Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA But the former president of polling company YouGov said the Labour MP was factually correct. I would not use Barry Sheermans choice of words but the facts are broadly on his side, Peter Kellner told BBC Radio 4s Today programme on Monday. He added: Overall, people who left school at 15 or 16 voted around two to one for Brexit. [For] people who go up to A-level or equivalent qualifications [it was] 50:50. Graduates voted two to one to remain in the EU. So yes, there is quite a clear educational gradient in the way people voted in last years referendum. Mr Pellner also pointed out there was an educational divide in June's general election. He said: People who were for Brexit tended to move to the Conservatives. People who were remain tended to move towards Labour. So because of this educational connection it means there was quite a big swing to Labour amongst graduates. And quite a big swing to the Conservatives amongst people who left school at 15 or 16. If you look at the handful of seats that Labour lost in the Midlands and north to the Conservatives, they tended to have fewer graduates. You look at the seats where Labour did particularly well, in London and the university towns, they tend to have more graduates. There is a shadow from the referendum which affects politics and Parliament to this day. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Gordon Brown has described his struggles to communicate with voters in the era of touchy feely politics and social media. In his memoir, published a decade after he became prime minister, Mr Brown acknowledges he had not been an ideal fit in an age which put personal politics to the fore. However, he says that while he may have been seen by some as being remote or aloof, what mattered to him throughout was what our government could do for our country. In a first extract from My Life, Our Times, Mr Brown admits his biggest regret as prime minister was his failure to convince voters to back his vision of progressive politics following the global financial crash of 2008. Throughout his time in No 10, Mr Brown was criticised for being dour and awkward in public factors widely seen to have contributed to his general election defeat in 2010. In the book, he describes growing up in an era where reticence was the rule and politicians were considered self-absorbed and even out of touch if they were constantly self-referential in public. It left him, he says, uncomfortable about being conspicuously demonstrative one of the reasons why it took him so long to write his memoir. During my time as an MP I never mastered the capacity to leave a good impression or sculpt my public image in 140 characters, he writes. In a far more touchy-feely era, our leaders speak of public issues in intensely personal ways and assume they can win votes simply by telling their electors that they feel their pain. I fully understand that in a media-conscious age every politician has to lighten up to get a message across and I accept that, in the second decade of the 21st century, a sense of personal reserve can limit the appeal and rapport of a leader. I am not, I hope, remote, offhand or uncommunicative. But if I wasnt an ideal fit for an age when the personal side of politics had come to the fore, I hope people will come to understand this was not an aloofness or detachment or, I hope, insensitivity or a lack of emotional intelligence on my part. Really, to my mind, what mattered was not what I said about myself, but simply what our government could do for our country. While he helped to secure a worldwide recovery plan following the crash, Mr Brown says his inability to communicate more effectively meant he was unable to persuade voters to back his vision of the way forward. My own biggest regret was that in the greatest peacetime challenge a catastrophic global recession I could not persuade the British people that the progressive policies I pushed for, nationally and internationally, were the right and fairest way to respond, he writes. We won the battle to escape recession. But we lost the war to build something better. I fell short in communicating my ideas. I failed to rally the nation around the necessary fiscal stimulus and my plans for radical change. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA Mr Brown has also described the dramatic moment he feared he would lose his sight completely. He had been left blind in one eye and suffered a loss of vision in the other after a blow to the head in a teenage rugby match. In Number 10, four decades on, he suffered a sudden deterioration in his good eye. When I woke up in Downing Street one Monday in September (2009), I knew something was very wrong. My vision was foggy, he writes. That morning, I was to visit the City Academy in Hackney to speak about our education reform agenda. I kept the engagement, doing all I could to disguise the fact that I could see very little discarding the prepared notes and speaking extemporaneously. As soon as the event was over, Mr Brown was driven to the consulting room of a prominent surgeon at the Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. To my shock, in examining my right eye, he discovered that the retina was torn in two places and said that an operation was urgently needed. He generously agreed to operate that Sunday, he writes. On his way out, Mr Brown asked if an old friend, Hector Chawla, who had treated him in the past, could be invited to give a second opinion. He saw him the day the operation was due to take place. I was already prepared for surgery when he examined me and said he was convinced that the tears had not happened in the past few days. They were not new but longstanding, Mr Brown writes. His advice was blunt. There was no point in operating unless the sight deteriorated further. Laser surgery in my case was more of a risk than it was worth. Mr Brown who did not even let on to Cabinet colleagues what he was going through says he feels lucky beyond words that the retina has continued to hold. Even if I felt fate had dealt me a hand I would not have chosen, my time in and out of hospital and the fight for my eyesight -gave me a perspective that I still feel helps me to be more understanding of difficulties facing others in a far worse position than me, he writes. PA Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Downing Street has refused to say if the Prime Minister has confidence in Mark Garnier, as the under-fire ministers position looks increasingly precarious. The Prime Minister's spokesman said she was waiting for the outcome of a Cabinet Office probe into whether he broke the ministerial code before taking any decisions in his case. The junior minister has admitted asking his secretary to buy him sex toys, but it also comes amid broader claims that parliamentary staff have compiled a list of up to 40 Tory MPs accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour. Recommended Tory minister to be investigated over sex toy allegations At a briefing on Monday, Theresa May's spokesman was asked if she still had full confidence in her minister. He said: There is an investigation which the Prime Minister has asked for. I can't pre-empt that. As soon as the Prime Minister was aware of these allegations, she asked for the review to take place. Let's wait for the review to do its work. Mr Garnier asked his secretary Caroline Edmondson to buy two sex toys in a shop in Soho while he waited outside. UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA The Conservative MP for Wyre Valley is also accused of calling Ms Edmondson, who no longer works for him, sugar t**s in front of several witnesses. Mr Garnier told the Mail on Sunday: Im not going to deny it, because Im not going to be dishonest. Im going to have to take it on the chin. I hung around outside and she went into this shop. That was it. He said the sugar t**s comment was a humorous reference to popular BBC comedy Gavin and Stacey. He added: It absolutely does not constitute harassment. The Prime Ministers spokesman refused to be drawn on whether she was confident that no other ministers are on the list drawn up by aides, and seen by some media outlets. The spokesman went on: The Prime Minister has been clear that this type of behaviour would be inappropriate if proven and that appropriate action should be taken. He also confirmed that no other investigations were currently taking place into allegations about any other individuals. On Monday afternoon in the Commons, Leader of the House Andrea Leadsom will update MPs on the scandal, which threatens to engulf Westminster this week. Last week Ms May wrote to letter to Speaker John Bercow calling for tougher measures to protect parliamentary staff from abuse. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Theresa Mays new Brexit minister has previously advocated scrapping EU workers safeguards for pregnant women and agency workers. Martin Callanan previously a Conservative MEP for the North East of England between 1999 and 2014 expressed his desire to abolish the whole employment and social affairs directorate during a debate in the European Parliament in 2012. In a video that has resurfaced on Political Scrapbook, Lord Callanan told the European Parliament: There is one action we could take right now to show businesses our commitment to growth. "Surely one of the best ways for the EU to speed up growth is to scrap the employment and social affairs directorate in the commission, and repatriate its responsibilities to national governments. Then we could scrap the working time directive, the agency workers directive, the pregnant workers' directive and all the other barriers to actually employing people. It comes after Lord Callanan, who now sits in the House of Lords, was appointed to his ministerial role in the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) last week following the departure of Baroness Anelay, who stepped down from her role due to a worsening of an injury sustained in 2015. Welcoming Lord Callanan to DExEU on Friday, Brexit Secretary David Davis said: He brings with him a wealth of experience in Brussels and a proven ability in political leadership. The right to paid holiday in the UK was introduced as part of the European working time directive while the 1992 EU pregnant workers directive led to substantial improvements in health and safety protections for expectant and new mothers in the workplace, according to the Trade Union Congress. They added: It gave women paid time off for ante-natal appointments and placed duties on employers to assess risks and to adjust working conditions, transfer a pregnant or breastfeeding worker to alternative work or suspend them on paid leave where harm is identified. In a previous blog on the website Conservative Home in 2008 Lord Callanan described the Working Time Directive as typical of the EUs prescriptive and uniform approach to workplace regulation. He continued: It also just one of many hundreds of damaging health and safety rules emanating from Brussels that act as a break on our economy. Brexit: the deciders Show all 8 1 /8 Brexit: the deciders Brexit: the deciders European Union's chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier Getty Brexit: the deciders French President Emmanuel Macron Getty Brexit: the deciders German Chancellor Angela Merkel Reuters Brexit: the deciders Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker EPA Brexit: the deciders The European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt Getty Brexit: the deciders Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May Getty Images Brexit: the deciders Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond PA Brexit: the deciders After the first and second appointed Brexit secretaries resigned (David Davis and Dominic Raab respectively), Stephen Barclay is currently heading up the position PA Thankfully David Cameron is committed to withdrawing Britain from the Social Chapter from which John Major won us an opt-out in 1992 but to which Tony Blair signed us up in 1997. This is an essential step if we are ever to break free from the debilitating effects of EU regulation on our country. Owen Tudor, head of the TUCs European Union and International Relations Department, told The Independent: Nobody voted for Brexit to make their working life harder, or to lose their rights at work. These rules protect pregnant workers and prevent people from being overworked. They improve the lives of millions of working people in Britain. We hope that Martin Callanan now recognises this, and will live up to the Prime Minister's promise to protect and expand workers' rights through Brexit. Labours Shadow Brexit Minister Paul Blomfield added: Lord Callanan is clearly someone who, like Boris Johnson, Priti Patel and Liam Fox, sees Brexit as an opportunity to undermine workers rights and dilute employment law. Theresa May needs to explain why she has appointed someone with these views to such a crucial role in her Brexit team. While the Prime Minister and Mr Davis have claimed that workers rights will not be eroded following the UKs departure from the bloc in 2017 there appears to be no safeguards in the EU Withdrawal Bill the legislation currently progressing through the Commons to transpose all EU law onto the UK statue book for future Governments to attempt to water down minimum standards. But before the general election Ms Mays manifesto pledged to keep all workers rights currently guaranteed by EU law and promised the greatest extension of rights and protection for employees by any Conservative government in history. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Chancellor has been warned he has no chance of getting tax rises through Parliament and will have to abandon his target for balancing the books. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said Philip Hammonds options were narrowing ahead of Budget Day next month, potentially forcing him to rip up his spending rules. The Conservative election manifesto said the budget deficit would finally be wiped out by the middle of the next decade itself a decade later than George Osborne originally pledged. But, said IFS director Paul Johnson, Mr Hammond was now faced with finding billions for the NHS, for higher public sector pay and to halt punishing benefit cuts. However, after the Conservatives lost their Commons majority, the Government would find it all-but impossible to raise the revenue to pay for that. Theres no chance probably - of getting any tax increases through parliament, Mr Johnson told BBC Radio 4s Today programme. The Chancellor had little choice but to admit he was not taking seriously the fiscal rules Ive supposedly set myself pushing back the date for balancing the books again. There is a case for increasing taxes a bit, and maybe increasing spending a bit more but he cant do the tax side of that. Abandoning, yet again, the 2025 date for removing the budget deficit would be a major political headache for Mr Hammond, one of the Cabinets Thatcherite flame-bearers. Only last week, he told the BBC: We've already moved the target for balancing the books out from 2020 to 2025, but continuing to drive down the deficit in a measured and sensible way over a period of years.has to be the right way to go. Meanwhile, the Chancellor is believed to be pressing to free up green belt land to build more homes, but facing opposition from the Prime Minister. According to The Times, a senior ally of Theresa May said she has ruled out changes to green belt planning rules in the Budget, on November 22. Elsewhere the Chancellor is under pressure to scrap stamp duty to free up cash and boost the housing market. The Adam Smith Institute described the tax as almost as bad as setting fire to the money instead of raising it in tax and said it should be consigned to the dustbin of history. Oliver Letwin, a former Conservative Cabinet minister, called for extra funding for health and social care through a ring-fenced tax rise, rather than for deficit reduction to be postponed. I think if we did that, that would command popular support because I think people do recognise that the pressures on social care and the health service are now too great. Ahead of Budget Day, the Chancellor also faces the problem of the independent Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) downgrading the UKs future productivity growth. It alone could push up forecast borrowing to 33bn in 2020-21 eroding half of the rainy day pot the Chancellor has set aside for post-Brexit economic turmoil. Borrowing will also go up as a result of giveaways announced since March, including the reversal of plans to raise self-employed and 1bn pledged to Northern Ireland. Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the biggest stories in UK politics Get our free Inside Politics email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Politics email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} David Cameron was reportedly blocked by Conservative MPs in his attempt to get them to voluntarily sign up to a code of conduct which could have given parliamentary staff extra protection from sexual harassment. The former Prime Minister had attempted to get all parties and Commons Speaker John Bercow to back a move to give researchers and staff a right to seek arbitration, but met resistance from senior backbenchers. Mr Cameron then in 2014 attempted to get Tory MPs to sign up to the code of conduct voluntarily but faced resistance from the influential 1922 committee of backbenchers, according to the London Evening Standard. Committee chairman Graham Brady confirmed it had opposed the attempts to get Tories signed up voluntarily, telling the newspaper: The point made was that this should be an issue for all political parties, not just one. Our view was that matters of that sort should be for the whole House of Commons, not one side. It comes as Theresa May amid a growing number of sexual harassment allegations in the Palace of Westminster attempts to establish a similar body. On Sunday she wrote to Mr Bercow, claiming the current procedures lacked teeth as contractually an MP does not have to follow them. I do not believe that this situation can be tolerated any longer. It is simply not fair on staff, many of whom are young and in their first job post-education, the Prime Minister said. Recommended May writes to Commons Speaker amid sexual harassment allegations Speaking to Radio 4s World At One programme, Mr Brady added that it would be wrong for one political party to intervene in an MP's independent employment of a researcher or secretary. It may be that the House of Commons can do more and can provide better support for people than it does at the moment, he said. What would not be right would be a political party to insert itself in the contract between a Member of Parliament and a member of staff who may not be a member of or a supporter of that political party. On Monday, Downing Street refused to say if the Prime Minister has confidence in Mark Garnier after the junior minister admitted over the weekend that he asked his secretary to buy him sex toys from a shop in Soho. The Conservative MP for Wyre Valley is also accused of calling Ms Edmondson, who no longer works for him, sugar tits in front of several witnesses. Mr Garnier told the Mail on Sunday: Im not going to deny it, because Im not going to be dishonest. Im going to have to take it on the chin. I hung around outside and she went into this shop. That was it. He said the sugar tits comment was a humorous reference to popular BBC comedy Gavin and Stacey. He added: It absolutely does not constitute harassment. There are also broader claims that parliamentary staff have compiled a list of up to 40 Conservative MPs accused of inappropriate sexual behaviour and misconduct. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Despite years of painful austerity, the UKs level of public spending is today no lower as a share of national income than it was after 11 years of a Labour government in 2008, according to a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The major report from the UKs leading economic think tank shows that deep cuts have left the NHS, schools and prisons in a fragile state, and have merely returned public spending to pre-financial crisis levels. The document presents a challenge to claims that Conservative-driven austerity saved the public finances following years of Labour overspending. The think tanks report goes on to conclude that in the light of the data, Chancellor Philip Hammonds plan to abolish the UKs deficit by the mid-2020s is no longer sensible. With his critical Budget approaching in November, it challenges him to admit the target looks increasingly unlikely in the light of a worsening economic outlook, exacerbated by Britains terrible productivity and uncertainty over Brexit. The IFS analysis of public spending levels appears in its pre-Budget look at the Chancellors options published on Monday. It found public spending as a share of national income was at a similar level both now and shortly before the financial crash, an event David Cameron and George Osborne claimed Labour overspending left the country ill-prepared for. In 2007-08, public spending as a share of GDP was 39 per cent, it peaked in 2009-10 at 45.1 per cent and is forecast to be 39.6 per cent this year, according to the IFS. Philip Hammond: The budget will be help November 22 The main justification for austerity has been the need to reduce and eventually abolish the deficit, a target that the IFS refers to as ever-receding. The IFS argues Mr Hammonds critical budget speech next month, will be given against a backdrop of a worsening economic outlook that demands austerity goals are rethought. The key to the significantly worsened fiscal forecasts expected in November, leaving the Government less money to play with, is the UKs lower productivity growth coming off the back of seven years of terrible growth. The report argues Mr Hammond will also find it difficult to raise new money from taxes given the political arithmetic that exists following an election which left the Tories without a solid Commons majority. The Chancellor also faces huge pressure to ease the Treasurys purse strings, including demands to boost universal credit welfare payments, increase public sector pay and spend more on defence. The IFS report said: It looks like [Mr Hammond] will face a substantial deterioration in the projected state of the public finances. Theresa May says she 'can't just promise people more money' after being asked to end public sector pay cap He will know that seven years of austerity have left many public services in a fragile state. And, in the known unknowns surrounding both the shape and impact of Brexit, he faces even greater than usual levels of economic uncertainty. It goes on: Given all the current pressures and uncertainties and the policy action that these might require it is perhaps time to admit that a firm commitment to running a budget surplus from the mid-2020s onwards is no longer sensible. The body sets out areas where continuing austerity is having its greatest impact on services, citing clear signs of strain in the NHS. It adds: Both the four-hour A&E target and the 18-week waiting period target are being missed nationally. The indicators paint a worrying picture for prisons, which, unlike the NHS, have seen large real-terms cuts (over 20 per cent) since 2009-10. Statistics compiled by the Institute for Government show that while the prison population is at roughly its 2009 level, staffing is down and violence (both against fellow prisoners and prison staff) and prisoner self-harm rates are on an alarmingly steep upwards trajectory. The report goes on to note how the Chancellor has already abandoned the blanket public sector pay cap and may decide to give more people a pay rise. The Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said: The IFS have today confirmed seven years of Tory austerity policies have failed to drive up investment and productivity, with serious potential consequences for the public finances. Tory economic failure means wages and salaries are lower today than when they came to power, and still falling, whilst their mishandling of Brexit is now also adding to the uncertainty around future borrowing plans. The Independent contacted the Treasury for comment. Sign up to our free Brexit and beyond email for the latest headlines on what Brexit is meaning for the UK Sign up to our Brexit email for the latest insight Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Brexit and beyond email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The police have been drawn into claims of illegitimate foreign donations to Ukip linked to the pro-Donald Trump Breitbart website, in the run up to the Brexit referendum A Labour MP has written to the Metropolitan Commissioner, Cressida Dick, and to the Electoral Commission watchdog, to find out if the allegations have been fully investigated. The move follows revelations from two Ukip whistleblowers that they filed complaints to the Commission over fears the party was making unusual arrangements with Breitbart. Individuals paid by the right-wing US news organisation were working as senior unpaid Ukip volunteers, it is alleged. The whistleblowers feared that work could be interpreted as an indirect political donation by a foreign donor, according to anonymous sources who spoke to The Guardian. It is believed the complaints were brought to the attention of the Metropolitan police by the Electoral Commission, but the police decided to take no further action. Now Ben Bradshaw, a former Labour Cabinet minister, has written to both organisations asking them to be transparent about the allegations. In a letter to Ms Dick, he wrote: I wondered if you could confirm the truth of this report claiming that the Electoral Commission referred impermissible foreign donations to UKIP to the Met in the run up to the EU Referendum, but that no further action was taken. If that was the case, I would also be interested in the reason for the decision. Mr Bradshaw has also asked the Commission if it knew if the Met had investigated and decided not to take any action. The move follows the former minister demanding that the Government investigate the role that dark money may have played in the EU referendum. Arron Banks, a former UKIP donor and ally of Nigel Farage says he contributed almost 9m in cash, loans and services to the Brexit campaign. But the Open Democracy group alleged he is worth much less than the 100-250m he claims - raising concerns about where his pro-Brexit money may have come from. The Breitbart volunteers would have worked for Ukip when its chief executive was Steve Bannon, before he became President Trumps campaign adviser and, later, White House strategist. Mr Farage praised Breitbart for its support of Brexit, saying its supportive voice was key to the Leave campaign winning the 2016 referendum. The Guardian said its sources believed Breitbart had a deliberate strategy to wield influence over Ukip, to drive it to more right-wing positions, including on migrants. The website is a platform popular among extreme white nationalists in the US, who have been bolstered by President Trump's rise to power. There is no evidence that Ukip or Breitbart broke the law. A spokesman for Mr Farage has not responded to requests for comment. Meanwhile, Mr Banks spokesman has described his businesses as profitable and sustainable, and that the former donor broadly agrees with a 250m estimate of his fortune. It is illegal for British campaigns to accept foreign donations or donations from anyone who is not UK registered. Volunteering is seen as an interesting grey area in the law that could be difficult to define, given most electoral campaigns are managed by volunteers. However, Damian Tambini, director of the media policy project at the LSE, said: A donation in kind, giving goods and services, are subject to the same rules as a donation and also subject to spending limits. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta won 98 per cent of the vote in a repeat presidential election in Kenya, although only 39 per cent of voters turned out due to an opposition boycott, the electoral commission said on Monday. The announcement provoked small protests in a few opposition strongholds, but also celebrations in pro-Kenyatta areas of the east African country. Veteran opposition leader Raila Odinga had already branded the election a farce. Given the deeply polarised atmosphere, some Kenyans fear that the violence seen so far for the most part protesters clashing with police is starting to take on ethnic overtones after two deaths in clashes between rival groups at the weekend. On Monday, the US ambassador said Washington was profoundly concerned by the outbreaks of violence in Kenya east Africas biggest economy and a key security ally of the West against militant Islam since the re-run election on 26 October. In his victory speech, Mr Kenyatta repeated his belief that his victory in the original 8 August election later nullified by the Supreme Court due to a string of irregularities was legitimate and said dialogue would have to wait if the opposition was going to lodge court cases again. My victory today is just part of a process that is likely to once again be subjected to a constitutional test through our courts ... I will submit to this constitutional path regardless of the outcome, Mr Kenyatta said. Those who are going to ask me: Are you going to engage in dialogue? ... Let them [the opposition] first and foremost exhaust all their constitutional options. Mr Kenyatta took 98 per cent of the vote, results from 266 out of 291 constituencies showed. The electoral commission said 7,616,217 valid votes were cast, representing 39 per cent of the 19.6 million registered voters. Protests by Mr Odingas supporters prevented polling stations from opening in 25 constituencies. The election commission said that poor security prevented balloting in those areas but the final announcement could go ahead as it would not materially affect the result. As the election commission began reading results on Monday, around 100 youths listening through their mobile phones gathered in Nairobis Kawangware slum, chanting No Raila No Peace. As soon as the outcome was announced, protesters lit a bonfire in the middle of the street and began taunting riot police with cries of the people want tear gas. Earlier in the day, police dispersed protesters there with tear gas when they tried to block a visit to Kawangware by Interior Minister Fred Matiangi. In another Nairobi shanty town, Mathare, the scene of deadly clashes between police and protesters immediately after the August vote, social worker Ann Mbuthia, 58, told Reuters before the results were known that women were hurrying home. We are afraid because here in Mathare youth are ready to fight if Uhuru [the winner] is announced, she said. Women are afraid to come out of their houses. And in the western city of Kisumu, Mr Odingas political heartland, around 50 youths began to block the road at the Kondele roundabout, the epicentre of protests, while others banged metal poles together. But the protest was small. What can I do? Theyve already announced it. Even if I burn tyres, nothing will change, said 25-year-old labourer Kennedy Omondi as he watched young men set a barricade alight. Mr Odinga pulled out of last weeks vote, saying the electoral commission had failed to institute reforms to forestall the kind of illegalities and irregularities that scuppered Mr Kenyattas victory in the August election. Kura Yangu Sauti Yangu, a coalition of civil society organisations with 2,000 election observers, said there were multiple cases where results from polling stations differed from results on the forms posted on the election portal after last weeks vote. In a report, they supplied a photo taken by their observers of the tally sheet for Bashaal market centre in Garissa. It showed 133 votes for Mr Kenyatta while the form displayed online showed 433 votes. Another form posted on the election website, from Tumbeni primary school in Kakamega, showed four votes for Mr Odinga and two for another minor candidate but recorded the total number of votes cast was 77 votes cast. Reuters Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Thousands of people have taken to the streets of Mexico City to celebrate Dia de los Muertos the Day of the Dead. Mexicans dressed up and paraded decorated procession floats for the festivities, which take place every year between 31 October and 2 November. Local media reported that around 300,000 people attended the celebrations up from 200,000 last year. Girls dressed as "La Catrina" smile as they take a selfie (AP) Dia de los Muertos is a celebration of the lives of friends and family who have died. This year, those honoured included the people who lost their lives in the devastating earthquakes that hit Mexico in September. Two quakes two weeks apart left almost 500 people dead, including 228 in Mexico City alone. One of the floats during the festival procession featured a raised fist made out of helmets, pick axes and rubble a tribute to the people who rushed to search for survivors in the aftermath of the quakes. The raised fist was used by rescue workers as a sign demanding silence as they listened for survivors in the rubble. Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Show all 12 1 /12 Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Day of the Dead 2017 'Day of the Dead' parade, Mexico City, Rex Features Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Day of the Dead 2017 People take part in the Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City AFP/Getty Images Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Day of the Dead 2017 'Day of the Dead' parade at Reforma Avenue Rex Features Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Day of the Dead 2017 Volunteers who participated in the rescue operations following the September 19 quake in central Mexico take part in the Day of the Dead parade AFP/Getty Images Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Day of the Dead 2017 Performers participate in the Day of the Dead parade on Mexico City's main Reforma Avenue AP Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Day of the Dead 2017 A puppet depicting the skeleton of a dog in a procession to commemorate Day of the Dead REUTERS Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Day of the Dead 2017 'Day of the Dead' parade, Mexico City Rex Features Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Day of the Dead 2017 People take part in the Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City AFP/Getty Images Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Day of the Dead 2017 Girls dressed as "Katrinas" smile as they take a selfie AP Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Day of the Dead 2017 Performers participate in the Day of the Dead parade AP Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Day of the Dead 2017 Revelers in costume participate in the Day of the Dead parade AP Mexico City celebrates Day of the Dead: in pictures Day of the Dead 2017 'Day of the Dead' parade Rex Features "We had an obligation to pay tribute to the fallen, while transmitting the message that the city is still standing," said parade coordinator Julio Blasina. As part of the festivities, Mexicans dressed up as skeletons and the traditional Mexican La Catrina figure. Floats and more than 700 performers paraded along a four-mile route through the capital. Volunteers who participated in the rescue operations following the September 19 quake in central Mexico take part in the Day of the Dead parade (AFP/Getty Images) Dia de los Muertos is believed to originate in Aztec festivals that marked the time when, people thought, the dead returned temporarily to Earth. Similar festivals have been celebrated for up to 3,000 years. The festival is most closely associated with Mexico but is also celebrated in several other South American and Caribbean countries, including Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Haiti. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A former adviser to Donald Trump's presidential campaign has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russian agents. According to an unsealed court document, George Papadopoulos lied to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who were interviewing him after Mr Trump's January inauguration, when the FBI was investigating the Russian government's effort to interfere in the 2016 US presidential campaign. The document says Mr Papadopoulos misrepresented the timing of his contact with a man promising damaging information on Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and falsely claimed he did not understand that the professor, who promised dirt on Ms Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, had ties to the Russian government. Shortly after learning he would be a foreign policy adviser for Mr Trumps campaign, the document says, Mr Papadopoulos met a professor who claimed to have substantial connections with Russian government officials - ties Mr Papadopoulos thought he could leverage to magnify his value to the Trump campaign, the document says. The interest was allegedly mutual, with the formerly indifferent professor showing great interest in Mr Papadopoulos once he was tabbed by the Trump campaign, according to the court document. Both the timing of that contact and the professors proclaiming his links to Russia undercut Mr Papadopoulos initial statements to investigators. After meeting Mr Papadopoulos, the document states, the professor introduced the Trump campaign aide to a Russian national who said she was a relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin with connections to senior Russian government officials. The professor later introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a representative of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the weeks to come, according to the document, Mr Papadopoulos repeatedly contacted other Trump campaign officials about arranging a meeting with the Russian government. The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images American intelligence agencies believe Mr Putin ordered a concerted campaign to upend the 2016 presidential election by spreading misinformation, and that he developed a clear preference for Mr Trump. They have concluded that the Russian government directed the hacks of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton operative John Podesta, which became a persistent feature of the presidential campaign as WikiLeaks published the missives - prompting Mr Trump to proclaim I love WikiLeaks. On April 26, according to the document, the professor told Mr Papadopoulos that the Russians had dirt on Ms Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. The document does not say if those emails are the same ones that Russian-directed hackers poached from Democratic sources. WikiLeaks began publishing emails - which founder Julian Assange has said did not come from Russian sources - about two months after the professor allegedly alerted Mr Papadopoulos that Russians have dirt on Ms Clinton in the form of emails. Trump-Russia investigation: who has been charged in the Mueller probe The unsealing of the court document, dated October 5, coincided with the indictment of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort for money laundering and signaled that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into linkages between the Trump campaign and Russia was entering a new phase. Court documents laying out the cases against Mr Manafort and Mr Papadopoulos do not specifically implicate Mr Trump, and the President responded to the news by continuing to bat down the idea of wrongdoing, writing on Twitter that there was NO COLLUSION. In a Monday press conference, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders sought to downplay Mr Papadopoulos' role in the campaign, calling it extremely limited and a volunteer position. He reached out and nothing beyond that, she said of his contacting other campaign officials about Russia-related meetings. But in describing Mr Papadopouloss contacts with multiple high-ranking campaign officials, the court document hints at the breadth of an investigation that is examining the larger universe of Trump campaign officials. In late March, according to the document, Mr Papadopoulos told Mr Trump and other foreign policy advisers he could arrange a meeting with Mr Putin. In April, he repeatedly emailed foreign policy team members about Russian contacts. Once Mr Papadopoulos had been introduced to an unnamed representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in mid-April, the document states, Mr Papadopoulos emailed a senior policy advisor to float the idea of Mr Trump meeting Mr Putin. The day after being offered Russian dirt on Ms Clinton, Mr Papadopoulos emailed that same high-ranking advisor about some interesting messages coming in from Moscow, according to the document. He also contacted an unidentified high-ranking campaign official about Russias desire to host Mr Trump. In subsequent weeks, the court document says, Mr Papadopoulos repeatedly called and emailed campaign officials about arranging a meeting. Eventually a campaign official encouraged Mr Papadopoulos to make the trip, according to an email cited in the court document, but the journey never materialized. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort has reportedly arrived at the FBI's offices in Washington to face charges as part of an investigation into the Trump campaign's links to Russia. Mr Manafort walked into the FBI Headquarters in Washington DC at approximately 8:15 am local time with his lawyer, but had no comment for reporters. The charges being brought against Mr Manafort by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller, who has been investigating alleged collusion between campaign team members and Russian officials during the 2016 US election, have just been made public. They include 12 counts which include conspiracy against the US, conspiracy to launder money, being an unregistered agent of a foreign principal - in this case Ukraine, and seven counts of failure to report foreign bank accounts and transactions. Charges against Rick Gates, a former longtime business partner of Mr Manafort's, have also been included in the same indictment. Both have also been charged with submitting false Foreign Agent Registration Act forms as well. The indictment alleges both men "generated tens of millions of dollars of income as a result of their Ukraine work" from 2006 to 2016 and that in order to hide the profits from US authorities, they laundered the money. They are also being charged for not reporting their work in "direct[ing] a campaign to lobby US officials on behalf of the Government of Ukraine, the President of Ukraine, and Ukrainian political parties." While Mr Manafort exited the campaign in August 2016 and seemingly any public affiliation with Mr Trump's team going forward from campaign to White House, Mr Gates has been working with White House staff on an intermittent basis. Mr Manafort has groomed Mr Gates for several years and the pair have been connected through documents of companies Mr Manafort had established in Cyprus, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Seychelles in order to receive payments from his Eastern European business and political clients, according to the New York Times. This past July, the FBI conducted an early morning raid of Mr Manafort's home in Virginia. At the time, prosecutors warned that he may be charged. It is unclear at this time how significant the records taken from Mr Manafort's home in the pre-dawn 26 July raid are to the investigation, according to the Washington Post. The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images The FBI came to his home after Mr Manafort had voluntarily met with the Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors the day prior to discuss a meeting he attended in June 2016 with the President's son Donald Trump Jr, Mr Trump's son--in-law Jared Kushner, and Kremlin-linked lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya at Trump Tower. Mr Manafort has been turning over records, some of which are reportedly notes from the meeting. Special prosecutor Robert Mueller worked with the FBI on the wide-ranging search warrant obtained prior to the search. As former FBI special agent Asha Rangappa pointed out on Twitter at the time, to get the search warrant the FBI had to present evidence to a federal judge showing they had probable cause that Mr Manafort committed a crime and that evidence of it could be in his home. In theory, Mr Manafort may be able to make some sort of bargain - offering information linking Mr Trump to Russian officials and collusion in exchange for avoiding prosecution. Though both have been charged in the same indictment, this does not preclude either from being able to cut a deal. Washington insiders have commented that Mr Mueller is approaching the case like he would a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) investigation, focusing on the 'organisation' rather than individuals; the emphasis is on taking out the next layer 'up' in these types of cases. Given that Mr Manafort and Mr Gates are the first indictments in a wide-ranging investigation, there is likely more space for deal at this 'level'. He will have his arraignment hearing this morning at the District Court during which he will be informed of the list of charges as well as maximum penalties for each charge. Normally those charged with white collar crimes are released at the time under their own recognisance, albeit with restrictions on travel. Mr Manafort nor Mr Gates have responded to the indictment as yet. More follows Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A father who pled guilty to the repeated drugging and sexual abuse of his daughter and to her murder, has requested to retract his admission of guilt, it has been reported. Mark Mesiti, 49, of Modesto, California, was convicted of the murder of his daughter Alycia Allen-Mesiti and 48 other felony sexual assault crimes earlier this month, after his trial was cut short when he entered a guilty plea in exchange for escaping the death penalty. His guilty plea means he is facing life imprisonment without parole, but on Friday the family of his daughter were told by the Stanislaus County District Attorneys Office that he intends to ask a judge to allow him to withdraw his plea, the Mercury News reported. Alycia was officially reported missing at the age of 14 in 2007 but is understood to have been killed in 2006, less than a year after her father had been awarded custody of herself and her brother. Mesiti was granted custody despite holding convictions for drunk driving and bank fraud, the newspaper reported. Mesitis daughters body was discovered buried in her fathers former backyard in 2009. An autopsy found she he died of acute drug intoxication, and her body showed traces of a number of drugs including opiates, morphine, methamphetamine, and anti-depressants. The DAs office said detectives searching Mesitis LA home at the time of his arrest found he was operating a methamphetamine laboratory and that he possessed hundreds of thousands of images child pornography, hundreds of which showed his daughter being sexually assaulted while unconscious. Mesiti was convicted of rape, sodomy, oral copulation and child molestation involving his drugged daughter on several occasions, and of taking sexually explicit photographs of his daughter. He also admitted to sexually assaulting and photographing two other minors. The judge has yet to return a decision on Mesitis request to change his plea. Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Survivors of the Las Vegas shooting earlier this month have been accused of acting by online trolls and conspiracy theorists. Stephen Paddock shot himself in October after killing more than 50 people and injuring nearly 500 who were watching a country music concert, overlooked by his hotel window. One victim told CTV News that his social media has been inundated with comments from people who say the shooting was a hoax, and he was forced to delete his accounts. Braden Matejka and his girlfriend tried to escape the festival when he was shot in the back of the head, but was not fatally wounded. He still cannot move his head and suffers pain. He received thousands of messages like Youre a lying piece of s*** and I hope someone truly shoots you in the head. Another victim, Sheldon Mark, who was shot twice on 1 October, was also targeted. His father told the same network: Sheldon has been also targeted online by someone who claims the shooting did not occur, and that he and others affected are actors participating in a hoax. Las Vegas shooting in pictures Show all 15 1 /15 Las Vegas shooting in pictures Las Vegas shooting in pictures People scramble for shelter at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after gun fire was heard Getty Las Vegas shooting in pictures People carry a person at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after shots were fired David Becker/Getty Las Vegas shooting in pictures People run from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after gun fire was heard David Becker/Getty Las Vegas shooting in pictures A handout photo released via Twitter by Eiki Hrafnsson (@EirikurH) showing concertgoers running away from the scene (C) after shots range out at the Route 91 Harvest festival on Las Vegas Boulevard EPA/Eiki Hrafnsson Las Vegas shooting in pictures People lie on the ground at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after hearing gun fire Getty Las Vegas shooting in pictures A man in a wheelchair is taken away from the Route 91 Harvest country music festival after hearing gun fire David Becker/Getty Las Vegas shooting in pictures People stand on the street outside the Mandalay Bay hotel near the scene of the Route 91 Harvest festival on Las Vegas Boulevard EPA/Paul Buck Las Vegas shooting in pictures FBI agents confer in front of the Tropicana hotel-casino after a mass shooting during a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip Reuters/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus Las Vegas shooting in pictures Las Vegas police run by a banner on the fence at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival grounds after shots were fired David Becker/Getty Las Vegas shooting in pictures An injured person is tended to in the intersection of Tropicana Ave. and Las Vegas Boulevard after a mass shooting at a country music festival Ethan Miller/Getty Las Vegas shooting in pictures Metro Police officers pass by the front of the Tropicana hotel-casino after a mass shooting at a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip Reuters/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus Las Vegas shooting in pictures A woman sits on a curb at the scene of a shooting outside of a music festival along the Las Vegas Strip AP/John Locher Las Vegas shooting in pictures A cowboy hat lays in the street after shots were fired near a country music festival in Las Vegas Getty Las Vegas shooting in pictures Las Vegas Metro Police and medical workers stage in the intersection of Tropicana Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard South after a mass shooting at a music festival on the Las Vegas Strip Reuters/Las Vegas Sun/Steve Marcus Las Vegas shooting in pictures Sheriff Joe Lombardo (2-R) speaking during a press briefing in the aftermath of the active shooter incident on Las Vegas Boulevard EPA Rob McIntosh, who was shot in the chest and arm, told The Guardian: "It makes you angry. Youve already been through something thats traumatic and terrible, and you have someone who is attacking your honesty. You dont even have the opportunity to respond." Mike Cronk, another survivor, was targeted after giving interviews to ABC and NBC about the shooting, with online searches autocompleting his name to "Mike Cronk crisis actor". YouTube also declined to remove certain conspiracy theory videos which questioned whether several mass shootings were using the same actors posting photos of victims in the Aurora cinema shooting, Sandy Hook Elementary School and the Boston bombings. The social media platform said that not all of the videos violated its standards. Facebook and Google were also accused of advertising right-wing blogs and conspiracy theories. Brother of Las Vegas shooter arrested in connection with child sex abuse offences Several of these theories, fuelled by websites like Infowars, claim anti-gun activists are fabricating massacres to bring about gun controls. A Florida woman who believes Sandy Hook was a hoax was imprisoned earlier this year for threatening Lenny Pozner, whose six-year-old son was killed at Sandy Hook. Previous conspiracy theories during the Presidential campaign have encouraged others to commit violence. Pizzagate, a fake news story that claimed Hillary Clinton and her campaign chairman John Podesta were operating a child sex trafficking ring in the basement of a family pizza restaurant in Washington DC, spurred a man to travel to the venue from North Carolina and fire his gun three times into the restaurant. No one was hurt. Ucoms mobile customers will benefit from the best internet roaming rate of 8 AMD/MB when travelling to Georgia, Egypt or the UAE Ameriabank Launches Google Pay and Google Wallet Support for Card Users in Armenia Karen Vardanyan donated 112 million drams for the medical equipment for National Center for Infectious Diseases. UCOM HAS INTRODUCED FUTURE NETWORK WI-FI 6E ROUTERS Google Ad Statement by the Spokesperson on the conflict resolution and reconciliation efforts Foreign Minister of Armenia to participate in the Fifth Paris Peace Forum Armenia: EU and Armenia Hold annual Dialogue on Human Rights Todays Shushi, Occupied and Cleared of Armenians, is a Real Example of Turkish-Azerbaijani Policy of Ethnic Cleansing of Artsakh Ookla, the the global leader in internet testing and analysis has awarded Ucom Sweden will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan Google Ad Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol Armenia and Azerbaijan to do so without delay An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan". UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022 Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces Sign up to our Evening Headlines email for your daily guide to the latest news Sign up to our free US Evening Headlines email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Evening Headlines email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Investigators have spent a year mulling every possible reason Noel Bankhead's SUV might have sped over a 50-foot cliff and plummeted into an Idaho reservoir on a Tuesday morning in June, killing the mother and her three children. Maybe the red Land Rover had some sort of safety recall or mechanical failing? Perhaps Bankhead had a medical emergency - a seizure or stroke that caused her to lose control of the vehicle? Had she been impaired by alcohol or some medication she'd taken that morning? One by one, investigators ruled out all of those reasons. Last week, they released their final conclusion: Bankhead purposely drove the red SUV into the water. But instead of closing the case, the police conclusion elicited a new, bigger question for the Boise-area community mourning the sudden and tragic loss of a family: Why? Bankhead left no suicide note. And investigators say her mental state around the time of the murder-suicide remains a mystery. But, as police described, her final actions were very clear: Witnesses... told investigators Noel Bankhead was driving her Land Rover northbound on Idaho 21, slowed down, turned onto Spring Shores Road, positioned the car toward the cliff, and suddenly accelerated, the Ada County Sheriff's Office said on its blog. Investigators found no skid or brake marks where the SUV went over the edge. The crumpled hulk of the SUV sank 40 feet underwater. The occupants - Bankhead, her daughters Anika and Gwyneth Voermans, ages 13 and 8, and Bankhead's 11-year-old son Logan Voermans - died from a combination of blunt force trauma and drowning. The investigators were never able to get information from the water-damaged event data recorder, which would show speed, braking, acceleration and any engine fault codes. Even the people at Land Rover's European offices were unable to recover the information. Bankhead had gone through a divorce about two years before the crash, but there was little available publicly to show she was on the cusp of joining the sorority of mothers who've driven their children into bodies of water. A study in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law found that 80 percent of parents who had killed their children had ongoing mood or thought disorder, and 70 percent of mothers had previous contact with a psychiatrist or mental health professional. In 2010, Shaquan Duley suffocated her two sons, then strapped them into their car seats and rolled them into a river. Family members said Duley suffered from severe depression, and had flown into a rage when she learned that her sister had given her sons a bath without her permission, according to ABC News. She was ultimately sentenced to 35 years in prison. In 1994, Susan Smith, also of South Carolina, killed her two sons - three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alex - by strapping them into their car seats and pushing the car into a lake. She initially said her children had been taken by a carjacker. A jury declined to give Smith the death penalty, after learning about her history of physical and emotional abuse. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Bankhead's ultimate motives may have died with her. She was the oldest of eight children whose obituary described her as a full-time working mom who loved to host family gatherings and wear beautiful dresses. Noel loved her children, Anika, Logan, and Gwyneth, the obituary said. And she loved her large family. The Washington Post Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him, having been indicted over allegations that he conspired to defraud the US, laundered money,and a number of other charges. Mr Manafort, and a business associate Rick Gates - who also pleaded not guilty - were indicted by a federal grand jury on 12 counts including alsoviolating federal lobbying and banking laws, the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's said. Mr Mueller's team is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, as well as any possible links between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. "The indictment contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts," the counsel said in a statement. Follow the latest updates on the liveblog here: The indictments were two of three that were revealed on Monday. George Papadopolous, a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, was also revealed to have pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to FBI investigators over his contacts last year with two people with apparently close ties to their government. Mr Trump has denied the allegations of collusion with the Russians and called the probe a witch hunt. The Kremlin also has denied the allegations. Mr Mueller, a former director of the FBI, has been looking into possible links between Trump aides and foreign governments, for months. He also is exploring whether Trump or his aides have tried to obstruct the investigation. The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images Mr Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation a week after Mr Trump's 9 May firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was heading a federal probe into possible collusion with Russia. Mr Trump initially said he fired Mr Comey because his leadership of the FBI was inadequate. In a later interview with NBC, he cited this Russia thing as his reason. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort has turned himself to the FBI in the investigation conducted by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller into possible collusion between campaign team members and Russian officials. He is awaiting the arraignment hearing during which each of the charges will be explained and the associated maximum penalties. The indictment also names Rick Gates, a longtime former business partner of Mr Manafort, for the same charges. It includes 12 charges: conspiracy against the US, conspiracy to launder money, being an unregistered foreign agent - namely for Ukraine, lying on foreign agent registration forms, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts as well as not paying taxes on that money. Here are some of the charges brought by the Department of Justice. 1. Defendants Paul J. Manafort, Jr. (MANAFORT) and Richard W. Gates III (GATES) served for years as political consultants and lobbyists. Between at least 2006 and 2015, MANAFORT and GATES acted as unregistered agents of the Government of Ukraine, the Party of Regions (a Ukrainian political party whose leader Victor Yanukovych was President from 2010 to 2014), Yanukovych, and the Opposition Bloc (a successor to the Party of Regions that formed in 2014 when Yanukovych fled to Russia). MANAFORT and GATES generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their Ukraine work. In order to hide Ukraine payments from United States authorities, from approximately 2006 through at least 2016, MANAFORT and GATES laundered the money through scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts. 2. In furtherance of the scheme, MANAFORT and GATES funneled millions of dollars in payments into foreign nominee companies and bank accounts, opened by them and their accomplices in nominee names and in various foreign countries, including Cyprus, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines (Grenadines), and the Seychelles. MANAFORT and GATES hid the existence of the foreign companies and bank accounts, falsely and repeatedly reporting to their tax preparers and to the United States that they had no foreign bank accounts. 3. In furtherance of the scheme, MANAFORT and GATES concealed from the United States their work as agents of, and millions of dollars in payments from, Ukraine and its political parties and leaders. Because MANAFORT and GATES, among other things, directed a campaign to lobby United States officials on behalf of the government of Ukraine, the President of Ukraine, and Ukrainian political parties, they were required by law to report to the United States their work and fees. MANAFORT and GATES did not do so. Instead when the Department of Justice sent inquiries to MANAFORT and GATES in 2016 about their activities, MANAFORT and GATES responded with a series of false and misleading statements. 4. In furtherance of the scheme, MANAFORT uses his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income. MANAFORT, without reporting the income to his tax preparer or the United States, spent millions of dollars on luxury goods and services for himself and his extended family through payments wired from offshore nominee accounts to United States vendors. MANAFORT also used these offshore accounts purchase multi-million dollar properties in the United States. MANAFORT then borrowed millions of dollars in loans ising these properties as collateral, thereby obtaining cash in the United States without reporting and paying taxes on the income. In order to increase the amount of money he could access in the United States, MANAFORT defrauded the institutions that loaned money... Read the full text here. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort has turned himself into FBI headquarters on a variety of federal charges stemming from special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Mr Manafort was indicted under seal Friday alongside his longtime business associate, Rick Gates, who served as his deputy during the campaign on 12 counts, including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Both Mr Manafort and Mr Gates, who were longtime business associates at Mr Manaforts lobbying firm before joining the campaign, have denied financial wrongdoing in the past. Mr Manafort started corresponding with the Donald Trump campaign in early 2016, when he reached out to Mr Trumps daughter, Ivanka, and her husband, Jared Kushner, offering to work for free. He officially joined the campaign in March of last year, with the goal of helping the campaign to count delegates for the Republican National Committee. He was soon promoted to campaign chairman, and was later promoted once again to the top official for the campaign after then-manager Corey Lewandowski was fired in June. He was forced to resign from that post just months later in August when Ukrainian investigators found Mr Manaforts name listed in an off-the-books, handwritten ledger that detailed secret payments to Mr Manafort, including an alleged $12.7 million sent by former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovychs political party Party of Regions. The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images Mr Manafort at the time denied wrongdoing, and said that the ledger was a forgery. Before joining the Trump campaign, Mr Manafort had worked on several US presidential campaigns. That includes working as an adviser for Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush, and Bob Dole. He started a lobbyist group in the 1980s, alongside another adviser to Mr Trump, Roger Stone. Over the next several decades, Mr Manafort took on several controversial foreign leaders as clients, including Mr Yanukovych, the former dictator of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos, the then-dictator of the former Democratic Republic of the Congo Mobutu Sese Seko, and the Angolan guerrilla leader Jonas Savimbi. Of particular interest for federal investigators is Mr Manaforts dealings with Mr Yanukovych, a politician whom the US government opposed at the time because of his ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. That relationship extended from 2004 until 2010. Financial records from December 2015, certified in Cyprus, showed that Mr Manafort was approximately $17 million in debt to interests connected to Mr Putin and Mr Yanukovych just months before he joined the Trump campaign in March. That included million-dollar debts to Russian oligarchs. Mr Manaforts spokesman has claimed that he was not indebted to those foreign actors at the time of his joining the Trump campaign. Mr Manafort first became the subject of a federal investigation in 2014, years before joining the Trump campaign. At that time, federal investigators were looking into Mr Manaforts work for Mr Yanukovych, and whether he had failed to register as a foreign agent in the United States during that time. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump has sought to distance himself from the charges filed against his former campaign manager, saying the indictments related to incidents before Paul Manafort joined his insurgent bid to win the White House. Over the weekend, as reports swirled that one or more of Mr Trumps team was to be charged, Mr Trump published an series of angry tweets in which he denounced the Russia investigation and again sought to suggest it was his defeated rival, Hillary Clinton, who should be probed. On Monday, as the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller said it had charged Mr Trumps former campaign manager, Mr Manfort and business associate Richard Gates, with 12 counts including money laundering and conspiracy against the US, the President sought to put space between himself and the unfolding events. The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????, he wrote on Twitter. Under the way the special investigation was established, Mr Mueller would have been obliged to inform Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosentein that he was set to announce charges. Despite intense speculation over the weekend that Mr Manafort might be one of the people to be charged on Monday - FBI agents had raided his Virginia home in July - no word leaked out ahead of the formal announcement from the Special Prosecutors office. Trump-Russia investigation: who has been charged in the Mueller probe Mr Manafort joined Mr Trumps campaign in March 2016 and became the campaign manager in June of that year, his first task to ensure that although Mr Trump had won the Republican primary, senior figures in the party opposed to him did not seek to use the convention in Cleveland as a vehicle to sideline him and vote in another presidential campaign. He left the campaign in August. The 31-page indictment that listed 12 charges against the two men, listed alleged offences said to have taken place between 2006 and 2015. As Mr Trump pointed out, this was before Mr Manafort was associated with his presidential run. Even before the charges were announced, Kellyanne Conway, who with Steve Bannon took charge of Mr Trumps campaign after Mr Manafort stood down as controversy grew over his dealings with former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, suggested they were not linked to Mr Trump or the 2016 campaign. Whatever happens today with the Mueller investigation, were not even sure it has anything to do with the campaign, she told Fox News. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The Special Prosecutor probing alleged links between the Trump campaign and Russia has indicted three former members of the Presidents team sharply escalating the political stakes and raising the prospect of more charges to come. Five months after he was appointed to lead the investigation after Mr Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, Robert Mueller announced 12 charges, including money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the US, against former campaign manager Paul Manafort and associate Rick Gates. Both subsequently pleaded not guilty to all counts when they appeared in a federal court in Washington DC and were set bonds of $10m and $5m respectively, with Mr Muellers office asking for home arrest as condition of their bail. The charges could mean decades of prison time for the pair if they are found guilty, with the money laundering charges alone carrying up to 20-year sentences. That is not to mention the potential for hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. Mr Muellers investigation also unsealed documents that revealed a former presidential foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, had admitted lying to the FBI when being questioned about his contact with two Russians with apparent close ties to their government. Mr Papadopouloss guilty plea coming hours ahead of Mr Manaforts and Mr Gatess court appearance made him the first Trump campaign official to face charges relating to links to Russian contacts. The FBI said that his false statements had slowed their investigation. The indictment said Mr Papadopoulos admitted discussing obtaining dirt about Hillary Clinton with an unnamed Russian professor, while he also met with a woman calling herself the niece of Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, it is the dirt allegation that many critics of Mr Trump will claim proves collusion between his campaign and Moscow. The developments mark an important milestone in the investigation and are a worrying turn of of events for Mr Trump, who has always denied that his campaign in any way cooperated with Vladimir Putin. He has said the various investigations amount to a witch hunt and has claimed the campaign of his rival, Ms Clinton, ought to instead be investigated. Democratic Senator Mark Warner the vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which is also investigating Russian meddling called the charges a significant and sobering step in what will be a complex and likely lengthy investigation by the Special Counsel. Other leading Democrats, including Chuck Schumer, called on Mr Trump not to interfere in Mr Muellers work. Meanwhile, a number of Republicans, including New York Representative Peter King, said the indictments put Mr Trump and his campaign in the clear. Mr Trump was also quick to distance himself from the announcement of the indictments and pointed out that the charges against Mr Manafort and Mr Gates related to events said to have taken place between 2006 and 2015, a period when the pair were not associated with his campaign. Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why arent Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????, he wrote on Twitter. Mr Papadopouloss admission related to events after he became an adviser on foreign policy issues to the Trump campaign in March 2016, according to the FBI, despite Mr Papadopouloss initial insistence that they did not relate to his time connected to the campaign. Yet White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters the incidents of Mr Manafort and Mr Gates predated their association with the President. The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images There were no activities or official capacities in which the Trump campaign was engaged with Russia, Ms Sanders said. As for Mr Papadopoulos, she said the 30-year-old was only a volunteer on the campaign and had little influence. He asked to do things [and] he was basically pushed back or not responded to in any way, she told a news briefing. Any actions that he took would have been on his own. That is despite the FBI indictment indicating that Mr Papadopoulos had mentioned his conversations concerning Russia to a number of campaign staff. Mr Trump himself had announced Mr Papadopouloss appointment as a foreign policy adviser in March 2016, describing him as an excellent guy. The charges which Mr Papadopoulos accepted as accurate as part of his guilty plea said Mr Trump was present at a meeting of national security advisers where Mr Papadopoulos boasted of his Russian connections and said he could help organise a meeting with Mr Putin. Ms Sanders also tried to minimise Mr Manaforts role in the months he was in the White House, a claim somewhat underminded by the fact Mr Manafort was no doubt part of Mr Trumps inner circle for a time. Asked if hiring Mr Manafort and Mr Gates was a bad idea, Ms Sanders said: These were seasoned operatives, not regular offenders. She said she was unable to answer whether Mr Trump regretted hiring them. Asked about possible pardons for anyone convicted, she added: I havent had any conversations with him about that. I think we should let the process play through before we start looking at those steps. The court documents released on Monday without a word of the details leaking, other than an initial report by CNN last Friday that someone was to be charged revealed that while Mr Manafort and Mr Gates may have pleaded not guilty, Mr Papadopoulos has been cooperating with investigators for months. He was arrested as long ago as July 2017. Steve Bannon says the firing of James Comey was the biggest mistake in modern political history This may be of concern for other members of Mr Trumps campaign team who are worried that they could be implicated by information he provides to Mr Muellers team. The documents say Mr Papadopoulos had close interactions with foreign nationals who he thought had links to senior Russian government officials. Those interactions included speaking with Russian intermediaries who were attempting to line up a meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Putin. The 14-page indictment against Mr Mr Papadopoulos, who once studied at the London School of Economics, reveals several meetings with an unidentified professor, who he believed has a close association with Moscow. At one meeting with the professor, Mr Papadopoulos was told the Russian government had incriminating material about Ms Clinton. They have dirt on her, he told Mr Papadopoulos, according to the documents. They have thousands of emails. A few months later, Mr Trumps eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Mr Manafort attended a meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya. They did so after Mr Trump Jr said he was offered incriminating material on Ms Clinton. When Mr Trump Jr was told about the prospect of dirt on his fathers rival, he responded by saying: I love it." Mr Papadopoulous would also be of interest for any information he may have provided about Carter Page, also a Trump foreign policy adviser, and who has also been under investigation by Mr Mueller. Mr Papadopoulous and Mr Page had been in London at the same time. The indictment filed against Mr Manafort and Mr Gates accused them of funnelling payments through foreign companies and bank accounts as part of their political work in Ukraine. The indictment laid out 12 counts, including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, making false statements and several charges related to failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts. The indictment alleged the men moved money through hidden bank accounts in Cyprus, St Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles. Mr Manafort, 68, was fired as Mr Trumps campaign chairman in August 2016 after allegations that he had orchestrated a lobbying operation on behalf of pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. Mr Manafort denies any wrongdoing as part of his work in Ukraine. In the charges laid out in a district courtroom in Washington DC on Monday, it is alleged two men worked extensively for political figures and parties in Ukraine and laundered millions of dollars in payment for that work by channelling it through a web of companies, mostly in the US and Cyprus. They are accused of constructing elaborate schemes to hide their earnings from the US government, and failing to register the foreign interests for which they were lobbying. The indictment alleges $75m in payments flowed through offshore accounts, of which Mr Manafort laundered more than $18m to buy property, goods and services in the US, hiding the income from the government. It says Mr Gates transferred $3m from the offshore accounts to other accounts he controlled. The drama in the courtroom attracted visitors from all over America, with one family from San Francisco cancelling part of their afternoon activities to attend the hearing. Both Mr Manafort and Mr Gates walked into the courtroom with their hands behind their backs before their not guilty pleas were logged and the issue of bail tackled. Mr Manafort walked in wearing a black suit and royal blue tie, while Mr Gates wore a navy suit with no tie. The attorney for the Justice Department said the government was having trouble ascertaining the value of Mr Manaforts and Mr Gatess assets, making it difficult to set bail. He called both individuals a flight risk, meaning they could easily flee the US because of their significant ties abroad. Mr Manaforts lawyer said, Kevin Downing, said he disagreed with the strength of the indictment. However, he said his client was willing to accept home confinement. Mr Gates, was represented by a public defender, which are generally appointed to represent people who cannot afford to hire a lawyer. With Mr Gates assets valued to be worth up to $30m by the Justice Department. Mr Gatess court-appointed lawyer said Mr Gates planned to hire private counsel. Outside court after the hearing, Mr Downing said: I think you all saw today that President Donald Trump was correct. There is no evidence that Mr Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government. Mr Manafort represented pro-European Union campaigns for the Ukrainians and ... was seeking to further democracy and to help the Ukraine come closer to the United States and the EU, Mr Manaforts lawyer said. Those activities ended in 2014 over two years before Mr Manafort served in the Trump campaign. A spokesman for Mr Gates, Glenn Selig, said: Rick Gates pled Not Guilty today. He welcomes the opportunity to confront these charges in court. He is not going to comment further until he has had a chance to review the lengthy indictment with his legal team... This fight is just beginning. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has been indicted on conspiracy against the US, money laundering, and a slew of other charges, according to the office of the Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Mr Manafort, 68, and a business associate, Rick Gates, were indicted in a 31-page document approved by a federal grand jury last Friday. Mr Manafort was charged on 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money and violating federal lobbying and banking laws, the federal special counsel said. Mr Manafort surrendered himself to FBI headquarters in Washington DC and was scheduled later to be formally arraigned in a federal court. The indictment contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, the counsel said in a statement. The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images Mr Manafort, a veteran political operative, had previously worked on the presidential campaigns of Republican Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and Bob. He joined Mr Trumps campaign in the spring of March 2016 and replaced Corey Lewandowski that June. He was put in charge to counter the never-Trump movement that had emerged ahead of the Republican National Convention and the Trump camp was concerned John Kasich or another mainstream might try to use the convention to sideline the former reality television Star. He resigned in August as controversy built over his dealings dealings with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The charges were the first to emerge from Mr Muellers probe into Russia alleged meddling in the US election, and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow. Both Mr Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin have denied the claim. Robert Mueller addressing leaking in 2013 The indictment claims that Mr Manafort and Mr Gates generated tens of millions of dollars of income from work for Ukrainian political parties and leaders and laundered money through US and foreign entities to hide the payments over the course of a decade between 2006 and at least 2016. The two concealed their work and revenue as agents of Ukrainian political parties, it said. The Trump administration has been unable to throw off the distraction of the Russia investigation, which intensified and was placed under Mr Muellers control after Mr Trump fired FBI Director James Comey in May. He admitted his actions were driven over his frustration the Russia investigation and his belief that Mr Comey was a grandstander. While Mr Trump insisted the federal probe, along with the various congressional hearings that are underway on Capitol Hill were nothing more than a a witch hunt, his former top strategist Steve Bannon, said the firing of Mr Comey was a huge political error. A number of Mr Trumps circle have reportedly been being investigated by Mr Mueller, among then son-in-law Jared Kushner, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former aide Carter Paige. Earlier this summer, FBI agents raided Mr Manaforts Virginia home, having obtained a federal warrant that allowed them to carry out the operation without informing him in advance. Reuters said that among other aspects of the probe, Mr Mueller has been investigating Mr Manaforts financial and real estate dealings and his prior work for that political group, the Party of Regions, which backed former Ukrainian leader Mr Yanukovich. Investigators also examined potential money laundering by Mr Manafort and other possible financial crimes, according to the sources. Mr Gates was a long-time business partner of Manafort and allegedly has ties to many of the same Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs. Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Inside Washington email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A federal judge in Washington DC has blocked Donald Trump's attempt to prohibit transgender Americans from serving in the military. Mr Trump in August signed an executive order banning transgender people from serving openly, reversing Barack Obamas directive allowing them to do so. The move prompted a flood of lawsuits, many of them filed on behalf of transgender service members or veterans. Now one of those legal challenges has borne fruit. United States District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sided in part with a group of transgender servicemembers who sued to block the change, halting Mr Trump's ban on service but upholding the President's move to block the military from paying for gender reassignment surgery. This is a complete victory for our plaintiffs and all transgender service members, who are now once again able to serve on equal terms and without the threat of being discharged, National Center for Lesbian Rights Legal Director Shannon Minter, whose organisation filed the lawsuit, said in a statement. We are grateful to the court for issuing such a clear, powerful decision recognizing that there is no legitimate reason for treating qualified transgender service members differently than others. The prohibition was already effectively on hold while Secretary of Defense James Mattis convened a panel of experts to examine the implications of reinstating the ban, a move Mr Mattis said in August would mean current policy with respect to currently serving members will remain in place. A 2016 study conducted by the RAND corporation at the Obama administrations behest concluded that allowing transgender people to serve would have minimal impact on troop readiness. It also suggested that the cost of covering gender-transition related healthcare would be negligible, amounting to between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually. Lonely road: Why school is hell for transgender pupils Show all 2 1 /2 Lonely road: Why school is hell for transgender pupils Lonely road: Why school is hell for transgender pupils 25255.bin Lonely road: Why school is hell for transgender pupils 25256.bin But Ms Kollar-Kotellys decision shows Mr Trump is on contested legal ground regardless of the outcome of the expert analysis. In her opinion, the judge wrote that transgender troops had a reasonable claim to their 5th Amendment rights being violated because Mr Trumps directive affects them as a class of historically persecuted and politically powerless individuals. She also questioned the reasoning behind Mr Trumps orders, writing that it the reasons given for them do not appear to be supported by any facts and cited the recent rejection of those reasons by the military itself. She appeared skeptical of the unusual circumstances surrounding the Presidents announcement of them, an apparent reference to Mr Trump initially announcing his intention on Twitter - a move that reportedly surprised top military officials. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The first working day for the administration of Catalonia, Europes newest independent country, unfolded in an extraordinary and dramatic fashion with its leader reportedly fleeing to Brussels as he faced charges brought by the Spanish government for rebellion, sedition and embezzlement. Carles Puigdemont travelled to the Belgian capital, according to officials, as Spains chief public prosecutor announced that he was seeking indictments carrying prison sentences of up to 30 years against the Catalan President and other members of the government in Barcelona, which has been recently dissolved by Madrid. Recommended Spanish prosecutor calls for Catalan leaders to face rebellion charges Reports of the flight came 24 hours after Belgiums Minister for Asylum and Migration stated that Mr Puigdemont can seek refuge in the country. Catalan people who feel politically threatened can ask for asylum in Belgium and that includes President Puigdemont, this is 100 per cent legal, Theo Francken had declared. In a day of accusation, recrimination and confusion, Mr Puigdemont posted a photograph of the regional presidency building with the Catalan flag flying beside that of Spain, accompanied by a smiley emoticon and the words good morning. This led to the assumption that he had, as he had vowed, turned up in office as usual. But, Spanish government officials say, he was already making plans to escape to Brussels. The move spreads the Catalan crisis, which shows no sign of ending, across the Continent. The European Union has refused to recognise the regions declaration of independence, but Mr Franckens Flemish nationalist party has strong ties with Catalan separatists and its officials stated that all attempts would be made to prevent Mr Puigdemonts extradition to Spain if he sought sanctuary in Belgium. VRT, the Belgian state broadcasting station said: Carles Puigdemont is almost certainly coming to Brussels and is said to be on his way. Mr Puigdemont will meet lawyers and political representatives here. The Spanish government had reacted angrily to Mr Franckens asylum offer, with Esteban Gonzalez Pons, of the governing Popular Party, accusing him of violating principles of solidarity and loyal collaboration between the countries of the European Union and making serious accusations against the work of Spanish judges and the rule of law in Spain. The Spanish Attorney General, Jose Manuel Maza, announced that Mr Puigdemont and his colleagues have produced an institutional crisis that ended with a unilateral declaration of independence with total disregard of our Constitution and that the accused must answer summons taking into account the seriousness of the facts and/or crimes imputed. According to some reports, Mr Puigdemont drove from Catalonia across the French border to Marseilles with five members of the Catalan cabinet to catch the Brussels flight. As news of Mr Puigdemonts supposed Brussels journey spread there was further internationalisation, albeit in a limited form, of the Catalan issue with Jan Skonberne, the deputy leader of Slovenias democratic party, part of the ruling coalition, insisting that his country will recognise the regions independence in the near future. The Spanish government has announced that elections will be held in Catalonia on 21 December. The result of that is expected to be very close with a recent poll by El Mundo showing anti-independence parties getting 43.4 per cent of the vote to the pro-independence groups 42.5 per cent. Catalonian separatists had initially refused to take part in the December ballot, insisting that the vote for independence in a controversial referendum earlier in the month must stand. But Mr Puigdemonts PDeCat (Catalan Republican Party) and Vice President Oriol Junquerass Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya (ERC) stated that it would field candidates. Sergi Sabria, an ERC MP, held that Madrid has called an election which is illegitimate, meant to be a trap. But taking part on 21 December is an opportunity to better consolidate the Republic. Catalan pro-unity demonstration in pictures Show all 6 1 /6 Catalan pro-unity demonstration in pictures Catalan pro-unity demonstration in pictures Pro-unity supporters take part in a demonstration in central Barcelona. Hundreds of thousands of Catalans took to the streets of Barcelona on Sunday to call for their region to remain part of Spain, two days after regional lawmakers exacerbated a political crisis by voting for the wealthy region to secede Reuters/Jon Nazca Catalan pro-unity demonstration in pictures A woman with the Senera and Spanish flags painted on her face shouts slogans as she takes part in a rally against Catalonia's declaration of independence, in Barcelona AP Photo/Gonzalo Arroyo Catalan pro-unity demonstration in pictures Thousands of pro-unity protesters gather in Barcelona, two days after the Catalan parliament voted to split from Spain Jeff J Mitchell/Gett Catalan pro-unity demonstration in pictures People support a pro-unity demonstration from their balconies in central Barcelona Reuters/Rafael Marchante Catalan pro-unity demonstration in pictures Pro-unity supporters take part in a demonstration in central Barcelona Reuters/Yves Herman Catalan pro-unity demonstration in pictures Protesters wave Spanish flags and carry banners during a pro-unity demonstration on in Barcelona Jack Taylor/Getty A vast demonstration was staged on Sunday by anti-independence Spanish nationalists, with estimates of attendance numbers varying between 300,000 to a million, and there were some chants in memory of Franco and a few Nazi salutes. There was a heavy deployment of police in the streets in anticipation of possible trouble, with Catalan ministers insisting that they would carry on the duties of their independent administration. The Spanish government had ordered that they had a few hours to collect their belongings, but faced arrest if they stayed beyond that in their offices. One Catalan minister, Josep Rull i Andreu, did turn up at his office tweeting at my desk, carrying out the duties that I was tasked with by the people of Catalonia. But he left 50 minutes later. Cesar Puig, the Catalan secretary-general, went to the interior ministry and was said to have wandered around before leaving. He said goodbye, said the janitor. He did not say when he was coming back, he did not take any of his things. The twists and turns of the day left some Catalonian nationalists bemused. Goncal Ignasi, a 23 year old student, said: My friends and I dont know whats going on. If Mr Puigdemont has had to leave the country then it is because Spanish judges cannot be trusted. This used to happen in time of Franco, are we going back to those days? Whether Mr Puidgement has left or not, Mr Ignasi said, there is no chance of us accepting things the way they were in the past and Spain taking control. The future is very worrying. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Fascists have been seen making Nazi salutes and clashing with police officers during a protest against the Catalonian independence vote in Barcelona. Hundreds of thousands of people descended on the streets of the Catalan capital on Sunday to take part in a pro-unity rally in favour of the region remaining in Spain. The protest, which took place just two days after the Catalan regional parliament made a unilateral declaration of independence, was tainted by small outbreaks of violence from neo-Nazis. Police confront protesters in Barcelona who accuse separatists of leading a coup d'etat Footage from the predominantly peaceful demonstration showed neo-Nazi protesters draped in Spanish flags raising their right hands in Sieg Hiel salutes reminiscent of pro-Hitler rallies in Nazi Germany. Another clip showed far-right protesters chanting Viva Franco a reference to Spain's former dictator General Francisco Franco. Tensions boiled over into street clashes between fascists and baton-wielding police officers. A neo-Nazi protester with a swastika tattoo emblazoned on his hand could be seen clashing with Catalonian security forces. While the organising association, the Societat Civil Catalana [SCC], calculated the total turnout of Catalan and Spanish flag-waving protesters to be well over a million, local authorities provided a much lower estimate of 300,000. This is not the first time fascist salutes have broken out at a pro-unity rally. Earlier in October, a small group of protesters in Madrid rallying under the slogan for the unity of Spain appeared to flash fascist salutes in a procession led by a group aligning themselves with far-right party Falange Espanola de las Jons, which held power during the Francoist dictatorship period of the country. Use of the salute is illegal in some countries. In Germany, Slovakia, and Austria, the gesture is deemed a criminal offence but in countries like Canada and France, it is viewed as hate speech if used for disseminating Nazi ideology. The most recent protests come after Catalonias dismissed deputy president announced he rejects what he branded a coup detat by the Spanish government. Oriol Junqueras said "the president of the country is and will remain Carles Puigdemont." He made the comments in an article for Catalan newspaper El Punt Avui which he signed off "Vice President of the government of Catalonia." Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy took direct control of the region after it voted in favour of an independent republic. This is to be carried out under Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution which allows Madrid to impose direct rule. The national government in Madrid dismissed Mr Puigdemont and Mr Junqueras. Catalonia referendum protests in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Catalonia referendum protests in pictures Catalonia referendum protests in pictures Demonstrators block a Guardia Civil vehicle as they try to leave the Department of External Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency of the Catalan Government office in Barcelona AP/Emilio Morenatti Catalonia referendum protests in pictures Demonstrators react as they try to stop the car carrying Xavier Puig, a senior at the Department of External Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency of the Catalan Government office, after he was arrested by Guardia Civil officers in Barcelona AP/Emilio Morenatti Catalonia referendum protests in pictures A demonstrator reacts as he tries with others to stop the car carrying Xavier Puig, a senior at the Department of External Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency of the Catalan Government office, after he was arrested by Guardia Civil officers in Barcelona AP/Emilio Morenatti Catalonia referendum protests in pictures Spokeswoman of the Catalan pro-independence anticapitalist party "Candidatura d'Unitat Popular - CUP" (Popular Unity Candidacy), Ana Gabriel, talks to the media in Barcelona Josep Lago/AFP Catalonia referendum protests in pictures Republican Left of Catalonia party's (ERC) Member of Parliament Joan Tarda (C) attends a demonstration outside the regional Economy Ministry in Catalonia during a police search for documents connected with the organisation of the Catalan independence referendum, in Barcelona EPA/Alejandro Garcia Catalonia referendum protests in pictures A man holds pro-referendum poster next to a Spanish Civil Guard who stands in front of the Economy headquarters of Catalonia's regional government in Barcelona. The operation comes amid mounting tensions as Catalan leaders press ahead with preparations for an independence referendum on October 1 despite Madrid's ban and a court ruling deeming it illegal Josep Lago/AFP Catalonia referendum protests in pictures People hold placards reading "Democracy" as they protest in front of the Economy headquarters of Catalonia's regional government in Barcelona AFP Catalonia referendum protests in pictures A crowd of protesters gather outside the Catalan region's economy ministry after junior economy minister Josep Maria Jove was arrested by Spanish police during a raid on several government offices, in Barcelona Reuters/Albert Gea Catalonia referendum protests in pictures People holding 'Esteladas' (Catalan pro-independence flags) attend a protest near the Economy headquarters of Catalonia's regional government Lluis Gene/AFP Catalonia referendum protests in pictures People demonstrate on a Spanish Civil Guard Police car outside the Catalan Vice-President and Economy office as police officers holds a searching operation inside David Ramos/Getty Images Mr Rajoy said the declaration of independence "not only goes against the law but is a criminal act" and announced the looming dissolution of the Catalan parliament, the closure of Catalan embassies abroad and issued a call for regional elections. In a scathing attack, Mr Puigdemont accused Mr Rajoy of the worst attack on Catalan institutions since the dictator General Franco ordered the end of our autonomy. What we decide through voting is to be wiped out by the government in their offices, Mr Puigdemont claimed on Saturday. Spain has been engulfed in its biggest political crisis in decades which exploded after the Civil Guard, Spains semi-militarised central police force, were ordered in to stop people voting in the referendum for independence on 1 October. The police were widely condemned for their heavy-handed tactics which culminated in them beating people as they arrived at polling stations and fire rubber bullets into the crowd. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Spain's state prosecutor has called for Catalonia's leaders to be charged with rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds over their push for independence. Attorney-General Jose Manuel Maza said he had filed two lawsuits seeking the prosecution of the ousted Catalan cabinet and the regional parliament amid mounting tensions following this month's referendum. The independence vote, called illegal by judges in Madrid, triggered Spain's biggest constitutional crisis for decades. Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy assumed direct control of the region on Friday, sacked its secessionist government and called a snap election for 21 December. Catalonia had earlier declared independence from Spain less than an hour before a vote in the countrys Senate gave Madrid the power to seize the regions autonomous powers. Some of the most prominent members of the Catalan administration, including its president Carles Puigdemont and vice-president Oriol Junqueras, have pledged to defy Madrid and said only the people of Catalonia could dismiss them. They could face decades in prison if prosecuted. Charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds carry maximum jail terms of 30, 15 and six years respectively. Under Spain's legal system, the state prosecutor's request for charges will go to judges for consideration. Mr Maza has asked judges to call the secessionist leaders to testify. Spanish Attorney-General of Spain, Jose Manuel Maza, speaks to the media in Madrid (AFP/Getty Images) He said he had also requested preventive measures against the officials, but did not specify if that meant their immediate arrest or being remanded in custody ahead of a trial. One lawsuit seeks charges for ousted Catalan officials including Mr Puigdemont and Mr Junqueras in the country's National Court. The second targets members of the governing body of Catalonia's parliament, which allowed the referendum to go ahead, was filed in the country's Supreme Court. Some elected officials in Spain, including regional lawmakers, enjoy a degree of immunity before courts and can only be tried in the highest court. Mr Maza spelled out the charges during a brief appearance before media in Madrid and took no questions from reporters. A man holding a Catalan separatist flag looks at men holding a Spanish flag outside the Catalan regional government headquarters in Barcelona (Reuters) His announcement came on the morning Catalans returned to work as normal on Monday despite calls from secessionist politicians for widespread disobedience. Pro-independence groups had urged public sector workers such as teachers, firefighters and the police to refuse orders from the central authorities. But most employees started their working day at 9am (8am GMT) as normal on Monday and there was no sign of widespread absenteeism. The Spanish government said it was giving time to the members of the ousted Catalan cabinet to take their personal belongings from official buildings but warned they would face criminal charges if they attempt to perform any official duties. One member of the ousted Catalan cabinet defied his sacking by showing up at work and posting a photo on social media in his office. Josep Rull, who was the region's head of territorial affairs, tweeted said: "In the office, exercising the responsibilities entrusted to us by the people of Catalonia." Two police officers entered and left the building in central Barcelona, followed by Mr Rull himself minutes later, who told reporters and supporters that he would continue carrying out his agenda. Catalonia's dismissed deputy president on Sunday said he rejected what he described as a "coup d'etat" by the Spanish government. Mr Junqueras insisted "the president of the country is and will remain Carles Puigdemont." Catalan separatist politicians were holding meetings in Barcelona on Monday with their eyes set on a regional election in less than two months. The 21 December vote was called by Spain's central government to try to end a push for independence. Catalan president Carles Puigdemont sings the Catalan anthem after parliamentary session last week (AFP/Getty Images) The two political parties in the separatist coalition that ruled until last week were holding separate meetings. Some of the deposed members of the Catalan cabinet are attending the meeting at the PDeCAT headquarters in central Barcelona, but there was no sign of ousted regional leader Carles Puigdemont, who was reported to have travelled to Brussels. Mr Junqueras, and regional parliamentary Speaker Carme Forcadell, who still symbolically holds her post, have joined the meeting of the Catalan Republic Left party. Neither party has clarified if its plans to run in the election, which would imply acknowledging that an independence declaration last week was symbolic. They need to submit plans by 7 November and a full list of candidates by 18 November if they want to renew the coalition. Spanish media said Mr Puigdemont had travelled to Brussels with by a number of other members of his government and would relesae a statement later on Monday. Belgium's foreign affairs minister Theo Francken has sugggested the Catalan leader could seek asylum in the country. Tens of thousands of anti-independence protesters lined the streets of Barcelona at the weekend chanting long live Spain" and prison for Puigdemont. Political parties opposing secession from Spain had a small lead in an opinion poll published on Sunday, the first since the the dismissed president declared independence on Friday. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has left Spain and travelled to Brussels, Spanish government officials have said. Mr Puigdemont is facing sedition charges from the Spanish government after Catalonia declared independence under his leadership. The move comes after Belgium's asylum and migration affairs minister Theo Francken said the former president could seek asylum in the country. The Spanish media reports that the former leader is accompanied by an unspecified number of other members of the Catalan government. The group are expected to make a joint statement later today. Spain's prosecutor Jose Manuel Maza said on Monday morning that rebellion, sedition, and provocation charges would be levelled at the former leaders of the Catalan government, which has been suspended by the Spanish central government in Madrid. In accordance with Spanish law a judge will not assess the charges. Spain has refused to recognise the result of an independence referendum held by Catalonia's regional government at the start of the month on the basis that it is illegal under Spanish law. After the Catalan regional parliament voted to declare independence on Friday, the Spanish government said it would revoke the region's autonomy and rule it directly from Madrid. Catalonia referendum protests in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Catalonia referendum protests in pictures Catalonia referendum protests in pictures Demonstrators block a Guardia Civil vehicle as they try to leave the Department of External Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency of the Catalan Government office in Barcelona AP/Emilio Morenatti Catalonia referendum protests in pictures Demonstrators react as they try to stop the car carrying Xavier Puig, a senior at the Department of External Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency of the Catalan Government office, after he was arrested by Guardia Civil officers in Barcelona AP/Emilio Morenatti Catalonia referendum protests in pictures A demonstrator reacts as he tries with others to stop the car carrying Xavier Puig, a senior at the Department of External Affairs, Institutional Relations and Transparency of the Catalan Government office, after he was arrested by Guardia Civil officers in Barcelona AP/Emilio Morenatti Catalonia referendum protests in pictures Spokeswoman of the Catalan pro-independence anticapitalist party "Candidatura d'Unitat Popular - CUP" (Popular Unity Candidacy), Ana Gabriel, talks to the media in Barcelona Josep Lago/AFP Catalonia referendum protests in pictures Republican Left of Catalonia party's (ERC) Member of Parliament Joan Tarda (C) attends a demonstration outside the regional Economy Ministry in Catalonia during a police search for documents connected with the organisation of the Catalan independence referendum, in Barcelona EPA/Alejandro Garcia Catalonia referendum protests in pictures A man holds pro-referendum poster next to a Spanish Civil Guard who stands in front of the Economy headquarters of Catalonia's regional government in Barcelona. The operation comes amid mounting tensions as Catalan leaders press ahead with preparations for an independence referendum on October 1 despite Madrid's ban and a court ruling deeming it illegal Josep Lago/AFP Catalonia referendum protests in pictures People hold placards reading "Democracy" as they protest in front of the Economy headquarters of Catalonia's regional government in Barcelona AFP Catalonia referendum protests in pictures A crowd of protesters gather outside the Catalan region's economy ministry after junior economy minister Josep Maria Jove was arrested by Spanish police during a raid on several government offices, in Barcelona Reuters/Albert Gea Catalonia referendum protests in pictures People holding 'Esteladas' (Catalan pro-independence flags) attend a protest near the Economy headquarters of Catalonia's regional government Lluis Gene/AFP Catalonia referendum protests in pictures People demonstrate on a Spanish Civil Guard Police car outside the Catalan Vice-President and Economy office as police officers holds a searching operation inside David Ramos/Getty Images Belgian asylum minister Mr Francken hails from the Flemish nationalist party New Flemish Alliance, which has close ties to the Catalan separatist movement. His party advocates an independent Flanders and wants it to secede from Belgium. Catalan people who feel politically threatened can ask for asylum in Belgium. That includes President Puigdemont. This is 100 percent legal, Mr Francken told Belgian public broadcaster VRT at the weekend. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Emmanuel Macron cracked some jokes after smelling the fumes of marijuana when meeting a group of youngsters in French Guiana. The French president, who was posing for a picture when he caught a whiff of the drug, teased the group of young people by saying: This is not going to help you with your schoolwork you see what I mean?. Footage of the scene published on Mr Macrons official Facebook page shows the President playing it cool and telling the youngsters he was still able to smell. Some of you are not only smoking cigarettes, huh?, he said as people were heard laughing in the background while meeting locals in the poor Crique neighbourhood of the capital Cayenne, where drug and violence have been an issue. You have to tell the youngest!, he added. Mr Macron was on a three-day visit to the French territory in southern America six months after a general strike brought it to a standstill as protesters demanded the government respond to high unemployment and security issues. Tensions have risen in French Guiana over the last few months following a backlash against poor public infrastructure compared to mainland France. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty On the first night of Mr Macrons visit, violent clashes erupted between young people and the police. Speaking frankly to protesters, Mr Macron said he would not give in to pressures from people in balaclavas. He added he had not come to make grand promises that are hot air but would end a cycle of unkept promises, explaining he was not Father Christmas and that he would not treat people like children. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Icelandic voters have ousted their centre-right government and paved the way for a possible left-wing coalition after a snap election this weekend. The governing coalition of the Independence Party and Reform Party lost eight of its 28 seats, putting the existing arrangement well short of a majority. Meanwhile both the Social Democrats, the Left-Green Movement, and newcomers the Centre Party all gained seats. Recommended Icelandic PM calls snap election due to child sex abuse scandal Coalition negotiations are set to be complicated, however, with eight parties in parliament and at least four required to form a majority without the Independence Party. Such a coalition would include the Left-Greens, Social Democrats, centrists, and liberals, or could rely on the Pirate Party or other smaller liberal parties. The Independence Party, which has governed Iceland almost continuously since the country gained independence, could also potentially still hold on in government with the right deal, having still won the most seats despite losses. Left-Green leader Katrin Jakobsdottir said on Sunday: The opposition has a majority, so thats a message. But weve also talked about that maybe things should be done differently and create a broader government. Katrin Jakobsdottir leads the Left-Greens and could be the countrys new prime minister (Getty) (Getty Images) Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson called the election after it emerged his father had written a letter saying a convicted paedophile should have his honour restored triggering a scandal. The government was accused of a cover-up after it refused to disclose who had written the letter. Under the Icelandic legal system such a letter of recommendation can lead to a convicted criminal having certain civil rights restored. In this case, the letter related to Hjalti Sigurjon Hauksson, who in 2004 was convicted of raping his step-daughter nearly every day for 12 years from the age of five. The incident comes amid a backdrop of extremely low trust in Icelandic politicians. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty In the 63-seat parliament, the Independence Party won 16 seats on 25.2 per cent of the vote, the Left-Greens won 11 seats on 16.9 per cent of the vote, and the Progressive Party won 8 seats on 10.9 per cent of the vote. The Social Democrats and Centre Party won 7 seats each, the Pirate Party won 6 seats, while the Peoples Party and Reform Party won 4 seats each. The liberal Bright Future party, which previously participated in the government but left it earlier this year, was wiped out. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Danish submarine owner Peter Madsen has admitted dismembering the body of Swedish journalist Kim Wall, but denied killing her. The inventor, 46, told police he had mutilated Ms Wall's corpse aboard his underwater vessel in August and dumped her body parts in the sea. However, he claimed the journalist died of carbon monoxide poisoning while aboard the vessel, saying he was above deck at the time of her death. Recommended Severed head of journalist Kim Wall found in Denmark Ms Wall, 30, disappeared on 10 August after boarding Mr Madsen's submarine in Copenhagen as part of research for a feature she was writing about the inventor. Her torso was found on the Danish coast on 21 August and her head, legs and clothing were later found in weighted bags by police divers on 6 October. After being arrested, Mr Madsen initially claimed the freelance journalist had died after being accidentally hit on the head by the submarine's hatch. He said he was holding the hatch open for her when he lost his footing, dropping it on her. However, a postmortem examination found no fractures to Ms Wall's skull. Instead, stab wounds were discovered around her ribs and genitals. Investigators believe they were caused "around or shortly after her death". Mr Madsen has repeatedly changed his account of what happened aboard the submarine. He initially claimed he had dropped Ms Wall off in Copenhagen around 10.30pm on 10 August. However, he later said the journalist had died on the vessel after a "terrible accident" involving the hatch and claimed he had buried her body at sea. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty Police have now said the inventor told them Ms Wall died from carbon monoxide poisoning. Mr Madsen was arrested after his submarine sank and he was rescued. Investigators say the vessel was sunk deliberately. Police also said footage of women being tortured, strangled and beheaded had been found on a computer belonging to Mr Madsen. He denied the videos were his, saying the device was used by a number of his staff, including an intern. Mr Madsen's lawyer, Betina Hald Engmark, has said her client has not admitted any wrongdoing. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} A bar in the Israeli city of Jaffa has launched an initiative believed to be the first of its kind: a happy hour for menstruating women. Anna Loulou in Jaffas old towns introduced a bloody hour discount last week which gives women on their period 25% off drinks all evening on weeknights. The discount for those with the flow works on a trust-based system and launched with a red-themed party on 28 October. The bars two female owners hope that bloody hour will help tackle the stigma attached to talking about periods including among men. Beyond the initial childish embarrassment, cause that how it is with anything connected to the body, we want to speak about this important issue, co-owner Moran Barir told Haaretz. There is no platform for addressing the subject of menstruation and theres no legitimacy in the public sphere for discussing it without people immediately going, Ick, why are you talking about that? We want to recognise the special situation women are in for around a quarter of their adult lives with a treat or "favour", Ms Barir continued. The bar is already famed for its inclusive atmosphere. LGBTQ, Arab and Jewish customers can often be seen drinking and dancing together - an uncommon sight in other parts of the country. Ms Barir came up with the idea when she ordered a glass of wine and the bartender couldnt remember whether it had been red or white. I told him simply, 'Here's how you'll remember: I'm on my period, so bring me red, she said. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is triumphant as he describes his countrys security forces driving out Isis from its last strongholds in western Iraq. Our advances have been fantastic, he said in an interview with The Independent in Baghdad. We are clearing the deserts of them right up to the border with Syria. Isis is being eradicated in Iraq three years after its columns were threatening to capture Baghdad. Once criticised as vacillating and weak, Mr Abadi who became Prime Minister in August 2014 is now lauded in Baghdad for leading the Iraqi state to two great successes in the past four months: one was the recapture of Mosul from Isis in July after a nine-month siege; the other was the retaking of Kirkuk in the space of a few hours on 16 October without any resistance from Kurdish Peshmerga. Recommended Iraq may be coming to the end of 40 years of war The son of a neurosurgeon in Baghdad, Mr Abadi, 65, spent more than 20 years of his life in exile in Britain before the fall of Saddam Hussein. Trained as an electrical engineer, he gained a PhD from the University of Manchester, before working in different branches of industry. A member of the Shia opposition Dawa party from a young age, two of his brothers were killed by Saddam Husseins regime and a third imprisoned. He returned to Iraq in 2003 where he became an MP and a leading figure in the ruling Dawa party. As the man with the strongest claim to be the architect of the two biggest victories ever won by the Iraqi state, Mr Abadis reputation has soared at home and abroad. He is particularly pleased that there were so few casualties when Iraqi forces retook the great swath of territory disputed with the Kurds, which stretches from Syria in the west to Iran in the east. I gave orders to our security forces that there should be no bloodshed, he says, explaining that fighting the Peshmerga would make reconciliation difficult between the Kurds and the government. The Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi (right), pictured here during a meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, has emerged with his reputation buoyed after successes over Isis and the Kurds (AP) Soft-spoken and conciliatory, Mr Abadi is determined to end the quasi-independence of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) that dates back to Saddam Husseins defeat after his invasion of Kuwait in 1991. He says: All border crossings in and out of Iraq must be under the exclusive control of the federal state. This includes the Kurdish oil pipeline to Turkey at Faysh Khabour, by which they once hoped would assure their economic independence, as well as the main Turkish-Iraqi land route at Ibrahim Khalil in the north west KRG. This crossing has been Iraqi Kurdistans lifeline to the rest of the world for a quarter of a century. Iraqi officials will likewise take over the international side of the airports in the Kurdish cities of Irbil and Sulaimaniyah. These administrative changes do not sound dramatic, but they effectively end the semi-independence of the Iraqi Kurds which they had built up over the past 26 years. Kurdish president Masoud Barzani, who is to give up his post on 1 November, put these gains at risk when he held a referendum on Kurdish independence on 25 September. Mr Abadi is in a strong position because the KRGs two biggest neighbours, Turkey and Iran, agree with him on re-establishing federal control of the border and Kurdish oil exports. Mr Abadi says the Turks admit that they made a mistake in the past in dealing directly with the KRG and not with the central government in Baghdad. He emphasises that he will not be satisfied with Iraq government officials having a symbolic spot at different crossing points on the border, but they must have exclusive control of borders and international flights. Asked if this would include visas, Mr Abadi says: This is a must. He wants the Peshmerga either to become part of the Iraqi government security forces or a small local force. He is curious to know how many Peshmerga there really are, expressing scepticism that there are really 300,000 men under arms as claimed by the Kurdish authorities. He says: I have been told by many leaders in Kurdistan that there is a small fighting force and the rest stay at home. He recalls that when he became Prime Minister in 2014 after Isis unexpectedly captured Mosul, he made inquiries as to why five Iraq divisions had collapsed. He found that the main reason was corruption and in many units half the soldiers were drawing their salaries but were not there. He suspects the Peshmerga operate the same corrupt system, which he says would explain why they failed to defend the borders of KRG [against Isis] in 2014 and had to seek the help of the US and Iran. The number of the Peshmerga may be in dispute, but Mr Abadi is adamant that I am prepared to pay those Peshmerga under the control of the federal state. If they want to have their local small force it must not be that large then they must pay for it. He says that the KRG must not become a bottomless well for federal payments. He would also expect Kurdish government expenditure to be audited in the same way as spending in Baghdad. If all these changes are implemented then Kurdish autonomy will be much diminished. It is easy to see why Mr Barzani is stepping down to avoid the humiliation of giving up so much of his authority. Resistance by the Kurdish leadership will be difficult since they are divided and discredited by the Kirkuk debacle. But Mr Abadis strength is that for the first time since 1980, the Kurds do not have any backers in neighbouring states and the US has done little during the crisis except wring its hands at the sight of its Kurdish and Iraqi government allies falling out. When Mr Barzani unwisely forced Washington to choose between Baghdad and Irbil, the Americans were always going to choose the Iraqi state. Iraqi forces enter Kirkuk Show all 8 1 /8 Iraqi forces enter Kirkuk Iraqi forces enter Kirkuk Iraqi forces flash the sign for victory as they head towards the city of Kirkuk AFP/Getty Images Iraqi forces enter Kirkuk Iraqi people gather on the road as they welcome Iraqi security forces members REUTERS Iraqi forces enter Kirkuk Iraqi children wave to Iraqi forces as they arrive AFP/Getty Images Iraqi forces enter Kirkuk Iraqis wave to Iraqi forces as they arrive in the first neighbourhood on the southern outskirts of Kirkuk AFP/Getty Images Iraqi forces enter Kirkuk A burnt Kurdistan flag is seen in Kirkuk REUTERS Iraqi forces enter Kirkuk Iraqi forces advance towards the city of Kirkuk AFP/Getty Images Iraqi forces enter Kirkuk Iraqis wave to Iraqi forces AFP/Getty Images Iraqi forces enter Kirkuk A member of the Iraqi forces walks past a defaced Kurdish flag painted on concrete blocks AFP/Getty Images Queried about Iranian influence on the Iraqi government. Mr Abadi is exasperated and derisive by turns, particularly about Qasem Soleimani, the director of foreign operations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) whose negotiations with the Kurdish leadership have been reported as playing a decisive role in the retreat of the Peshmerga from Kirkuk. He definitely didnt have any military role on the ground in the crisis [over Kirkuk], says Mr Abadi. I can assure you that he had zero impact on what happened in Kirkuk. Mr Abadi says that it was he himself who called the Kurdish leadership and persuaded them not to fight and to withdraw the Peshmerga from the disputed territories. A more substantive allegation is that the Hashd al-Shaabi, the powerful Shia paramilitary units which have fought alongside the Iraqi regular forces, are sectarian and under Iranian influence or control. Asked about his recent meeting with Rex Tillerson, the US Secretary of State, who said the Hashd should go home or be dismantled, Mr Abadi said that there was either a misquotation or misinformation and Mr Tillerson seemed to be under the impression that the IRGC was fighting in Iraq and did not know that the Hashd were all Iraqis. He said that Iraq had plenty of foreign advisers from the US, UK, France and elsewhere, including Iran, but the number of Iranian advisers was only 30, well down from 110 a few years ago. As for the Hashd, he said they had to be under government control, well-disciplined and to have no political role, particularly not in the Iraqi general election on 12 May 2018 which he pledged not to postpone. Mr Abadi is in a strong position because he is one of the first Iraqi leaders whose government has good relations with all Iraqs neighbours: Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. Iraq, a country deeply divided between different sects and ethnic groups, has traditionally been destabilised by domestic opponents of the central government combining with state sponsors abroad who supply money, weapons and a sanctuary. This is not happening for the moment, which is why the Kurdish leadership is so isolated. Part of Mr Abadis success during the Kirkuk crisis stemmed from disastrous miscalculations made by Mr Barzani about the reaction of Baghdad and the rest of the world to the independence referendum. Bur Mr Abadi showed an acute sense of how to exploit his opportunities.Turkey and Saudi Arabia, who once supported or tolerated al-Qaeda type organisations operating in Iraq, now fear them and are frightened of their dispersal as the self-declared Caliphate is destroyed. We got the international community on our side, says Mr Abadi, reflecting on the course of the Kirkuk crisis. We made it very simple: we said the unity of Iraq is very important for combating terrorism. The division of Iraq, through the prospect of Kurdish independence, would open up cracks which Isis would exploit. Mr Abadi certainly knew what buttons to press when it came to getting neighbouring states on his side. He is patient and strong-minded and the tides that once tore Iraq apart may now be running in his favour. For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Breaking News email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The leader of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq has announced he is stepping down as president, just five weeks after an independence referendum that was supposed to consolidate his partys grip on power. In a televised speech given in Irbils parliament on Sunday evening, an ashen-looking Masoud Barzani said he would not seek a new term after the crisis sparked by last months referendum on independence from Baghdad. Three million votes for Kurdistan independence created history and cannot be erased, Mr Barzani said, bitterly accusing his political rivals of treason for giving up the contested oil-rich city of Kirkuk to central government troops in the fighting sparked by the 25 September vote. As MPs discussed the request for his powers to be dissolved dozens of his Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) supporters stormed the building, attacking politicians from opposition parties and journalists until police arrived at the scene. A rival partys office and affiliated television station were also targeted by rioting. Witnesses reported the use of sticks, clubs and gunfire. Iraqs prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, speaking from Baghdad, appealed for calm and respect for the law in the northern region on Monday. From death to dollars - how Kurds struck it rich Show all 2 1 /2 From death to dollars - how Kurds struck it rich From death to dollars - how Kurds struck it rich pg-40-iraq-1-getty.jpg A 1988 photograph shows a Kurdish father holding his baby in his arms in Halabja, northeastern Iraq. Both were killed in an Iraqi chemical attack on the city. Getty Images From death to dollars - how Kurds struck it rich pg-40-iraq-2-getty.jpg Getty Images In an exclusive interview with The Independent, Mr Abadi signalled that Baghdad would press home its advantage after taking back control of territories that had been disputed with the Kurds. He appeared pleased with the security forces quick victory over Kurdish Peshmerga in Kirkuk and emphasised that the central state will now seek to control all of Iraqs borders, as well as its oil pipelines. Such changes will effectively end the Kurdish experiment with self-governance and any dreams of economic independence from Baghdad. For the Kurds, the situation five weeks on from the 25 September referendum - which returned a result 93 per cent in favour of splitting from the central government is a bleak one. The KRGs international airspace has been closed and the Kurds have lost nearly half of the territory they have controlled since the war against Isis began. The region has become increasingly isolated as neighbouring Turkey threatened the use of military force and Ankara as well as Tehran closed their borders to the land-locked area. Mr Barzanis political rivals have accused him of staging the referendum as a gamble designed to secure a mandate for a third term in office. His current term in office ends next week. Despite his resignation on Sunday, the former president - who has been at the forefront of Kurdish independence efforts for decades and the KRG president for 12 years - is expected to remain a senior political figure. Presidential elections due in November have been indefinitely postponed. "We call on all Kurdish parties to support the KRG as it works to resolve pending issues over the remainder of its term and prepare for elections in 2018," a statement commending Mr Barzani's decision from the US State Department said. Baghdad and the KRG must "work urgently to resolve pending issues under the Iraqi constitution," spokesperson Heather Nauert added. Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} We are in The Clearing. The trees stop in a uniform oval where nothing grows and where, since official records began, nothing has grown. Once when I came here, says Alex, our guide, I found 60 people from Bucharest trying to open a gate into another dimension. This is Hoia Baciu, just outside Cluj-Napoca, Romanias second city in the depths of Transylvania. It has been called the creepiest forest in the world. And The Clearing is, allegedly, the creepiest place in the forest. It defies the investigations of soil scientists and attracts Romanian witches, sword-wielding Americans, and people who try to cleanse the forest of evil through the medium of yoga. In the English-speaking world, the words Transylvania and Halloween conjure up a pre-Twilight Edward Cullen scaling the walls of his castle. But tourists coming to Romania for a Dracula experience are likely to leave disappointed. Romania is resistant to the Dracula legend. His namesake Vlad Dracul or, more commonly, Vlad the Impaler is a national hero. And Bran Castle, the most explicitly Dracula-themed attraction, has only a tenuous connection to Stokers creation, plus the priggish feel of a National Trust property. So here I am, on a night-time tour of the Hoia Baciu Forest, trying to find a real fright in autumnal Transylvania. Hoia-Baciu (Shutterstock / Cristian Zamfir) Named after a shepherd who went missing in the forest with a flock of 200 sheep, Hoia Baciu came to international attention in 1968 when Emil Barnea, a military technician, photographed what he claimed was a UFO hovering over The Clearing. What differentiates this story from other UFO claims is that Barnea had nothing to gain from reporting the sighting, and everything to lose. The Communist government equated a belief in the paranormal with madness and state-sabotage, and Barnea lost his job in a country which had no support for the sacked. Today, visitors to the forest report strange symptoms nausea, anxiety, the feeling of being watched and the failure of electronic devices. Ectoplasms are routinely seen by joggers brave enough to enter. Alex shows us pictures of the forest photobombed by shadowy figures. One shows a man in the traditional dress of northern Romania a very local ghost. Alex and his haunted trees (Sophie Buchan) Alex likes to maintain a healthy distance from the more full-on forest myths like the story of the five-year-old girl who disappeared into the forest, emerging years later, unchanged and in the same clothes - yet even hes not immune to the legends of Hoia Baciu. Originally, Id asked whether we could camp in the forest overnight, having been told it was possible. He had politely rebuffed me, blaming the October weather. But it turns out Alex doesnt like sleeping in the forest. The first time he camped overnight, he tells me, once were inside it, he and his friends kept being woken by a very loud hoof noise, like a horse or a particularly large deer. Every time they would stick their head out from the tent to investigate, the noise would stop. The next time, he slept in a hammock to get closer to whatever was causing the sound. His visit was cut short when a bat smashed into his face. Now, the easy part is over. Twilight has passed, the sun has set, and we are very much alone in a dense, dark forest. Or are we? We point our flashlights at misshapen trees many here grow in zig-zag patterns or in spirals, a phenomenon which has not been plausibly explained by any of the scientists who have come to investigate. Whats more, every single tree that spirals does so in a clockwise direction. I ask Alex the creepiest thing that has happened to him on the tours. Well, there was a man who went crazy, thinking hed met a demon. Hed just got a massive tattoo of a demon on his chest, to ward off demons. But the scariest thing happened to my colleague. He once did an extended night tour, one-on-one, with a very morbid man who talked about his obsession with death, how he enjoyed being with people as they die, watching them die. That was a long night for Marius. An innocent-looking part of the forest (Miclaus George via Wikimedia Commons) Alex and Marius are famous in Japan, where 20 million people watched a documentary about ghost-hunting in Hoia Bacu in 2015. Theyve come a long way since 2013, when they were contemplating starting a business taking tourists to the forest, and their friends declared they were nuts. They said, Even locals are too scared to come to the forest, foreigners will think you are going to take them to a dark, creepy place then rip out their kidneys. We reach a tree that has grown in an arc. Perhaps this is the portal to another dimension. We walk through, and Alex tells us to make a wish some locals believe the energy of the forest can be used for good, he says. And now we emerge to see the skyline of Cluj-Napoca. There have been no aliens. No ghosts. No moments of fear, either only a strange sense of fatigue experienced by another woman on the tour. But then, I remember Alexs words before we set off: The forest is only haunted if you bring your own ghosts. Travel essentials Getting there Trying to fly less? Reach Cluj entirely by train: the Eurostar runs from London-Paris; change for a Paris-Munich service. From there, you can catch a sleeper train to Budapest and take an onward service to Cluj Napoca. The entire journey takes around two days, depending on connections. Fine with flying? Wizz Air flies from London Luton to Cluj-Napoca. Staying there Pension Deja Vu has rooms from 40 per night. More information Night-time tours of the forest with Alex Surducan cost 25. Daytime tours are also available. The pick-up point is in central Cluj-Napoca. hoiabaciu.wixsite.com/project Vardan Amaryan: 5.5 thousand people will cut off from state apparatus (video) Today, at the Standing Committees of the National Assembly Minister of Finance Vardan Aramyan stated during the discussion of the RA draft law on State Budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2018 that they had tried to design the state budget according to a general rule: stable, long-term economic growth with fiscal policy. "We must bid for 5% growth. Numerous analyzes show that 3% economic growth does not give us the opportunity to solve the problems we face in a sustainable way. Fiscal policy should be reasonable in different stages. 2018 the debt-GDP ratio can be reduced by 1 percentage point, I mean the Government's debt. The main investments will go to industry. It is expected that agriculture and construction will show signs of recovery. 3-4% growth of agriculture is expected, construction demand rises, and recession trends recorded in recent years will be corrected." The Minister informed that in 2017 the growth of tax collection in January-September was 8.8%, and by the end of the year they expect it to reach 10%. "This year, the index of taxes- GDP was 0.6%. We expect this indicator to be improved by an additional 0.4 percentage point in 2018. This is a balanced indicator." This year, 144,000 people receive salaries from the state budget, and the salary fund amounts to 246 billion drams, without power ministries. "In 2018 5.5 thousand people will cut off from state apparatus, and consequently, the salary fund will decrease by 3 billion drams. The government tries to reconsider costs. The main purpose of this is not to try to reduce the number of people, it is a bad tool, it's a bad approach, but to go out of functionality. This year, administrative staff was reduced by 770 people, but the expenses have increased, some part goes to the normal salary growth, the other part is paid to embassies, because of wage increase that happens due to exchange rate fluctuations, and the last part goes to the SRC reform; in order to reduce corruption risks you have to make adequate payments to isnpectors." The defense expenditures will amount to 174 billion drams. The Minister said that the state budget's reserve fund had been grown by around 5-6 billion drams. Vardan Aramyan mentioned that in 2018, revenues would amount to 1 trillion 300 billion, expenditures - 1 trillion 464 billion, and deficit - 156.9 billion drams. "Income and expenses grow equally, but the deficit remains the same." Sign up to Simon Calders free travel email for weekly expert advice and money-saving discounts Get Simon Calders Travel email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the Simon Calders Travel email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} As the emotional final flight of the bankrupt airline, Air Berlin, was taking place on Friday, easyJet was sealing a deal that will transform its status in Germany. The UKs biggest budget airline is paying 40m (35m) for slots at the German capitals leading airport, Tegel, as well as operating leases on up to 25 Airbus A320 jets. In addition, easyJet is seeking to recruit around 1,000 of Air Berlins pilots and cabin crew. The airline will continue with its existing operations at Schonefeld, the old East Berlin airport favoured by low-cost operators. The audacious move makes easyJet the biggest airline in Berlin and will dismay Lufthansa, as well as Europes largest budget carrier, Ryanair. Pointedly, given the employment practices at Ryanair, easyJet has emphasised the recruits from Air Berlin will be employed on local, German contracts under collective labour agreements negotiated with ver.di [the German pilots union]. The deal is expected to be completed in December. Air Berlins final flight was a scheduled departure from Munich to Berlin Tegel. But instead of the normal flight number, AB6210, it was assigned the title BER4EVR. The flight touched down 75 minutes late having flown much further than normal in order to inscribe a heart shape into its flight path. Air Berlins signature has been to give passengers heart-shaped chocolates on departure, and air-traffic controllers cooperated in the stunt. The final flight traced a heart shape in the sky Air Berlin was almost 40 years old when it closed but for most of its life had struggled to find a coherent business model and make money. The airline was launched by American backers as Air Berlin USA in 1979. At the time only American, British and French carriers were allowed to fly to and from then-West Berlin as part of the post-war deal with the Soviet Union. It ferried holidaymakers from the isolated city to the Mediterranean. After German unification in 1990, Air Berlin expanded rapidly. It took advantage of open-skies liberalisation to launch domestic flights in Britain, flying from Stansted to Manchester and Belfast. Like many of Air Berlins ventures, it was not a success. A Spanish domestic network continued, however, and Air Berlin joined the top 10 of European airlines by passengers carried. It joined the Oneworld alliance, and entered code-share agreements with British Airways for dozens of flights. In 2011, the Abu Dhabi-based airline, Etihad, took a 29 per cent slice of Air Berlin and, for the next six years, pumped cash into the German carrier which was establishing a wide-ranging long-haul network. But in 2016, Air Berlin made a loss equating to 20 for every passenger flown. After the results were announced in April this year, Etihad decided to pull the plug. Air Berlin was declared bankrupt on 15 August, but with the help of a loan from the German government it was allowed to continue flying until the end of the summer season in sharp contrast to Monarch, which was grounded overnight earlier this month. Like Monarch, Air Berlin had flown for decades without a fatal accident. The biggest winner from the airlines collapse is Lufthansa. The German national airline plans to take most of Air Berlins aircraft and many of its staff, as well as the solvent Air Berlin airline subsidiaries, Niki and LG Walter. However, the European Commission is investigating the extent to which the proposed deal will reduce competition, and may demand remedy actions such as ceding slots to other carriers. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} In any normal situation, an admission by a presidential campaign adviser that he had talked to a mysterious professor with links to the Russian authorities about obtaining dirt on the rival candidate, ought to be jaw-dropping news. More than that, some might consider it evidence of the sort of collusion with Moscow that has been alleged of the individual who won that contest and now lives in the White House. But this is 2017, Donald Trump is the US President and as we have been forced to hurriedly to learn, precedent and normality count for little. Every day, something else becomes the new normal. Heres what we know: five months after he was appointed to head an investigation into Russias alleged interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller has announced indictments against three former Trump associates. Former campaign manager Paul Manafort and business associate Rick Gates, have been charged with 12 counts, including money laundering, conspiracy and failing to register as foreign agents. The allegations mostly, but not all, relate to 2006-2015, which as Trump was quick to point out was before Manafort joined the campaign. They could face decades in jail if convicted. But Trump may very well be more worried about the news regarding former foreign police adviser, George Papadopoulos, who has pleaded guilty of lying to FBI agents. Buried within the 13-page indictment, are the details of Papadopoulos meeting with an unidentified professor and a Russian national, who were keen to improve US-Russia relations under a Trump presidency. He was told the Russian government had dirt on Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails. The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images It sounds significant and it may well turn out to be so. But bear in mind, that Trumps eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Manfort, have all already admitting attending a meeting with a Kremlin-linked lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, in June. They did so after Trump Jr said he was offered incriminating material on Clinton. When Trump Jr was told about the prospect of dirt on his fathers rival, he responded by saying: I love it. After this bombshell dropped, the White House sought to brush it off. It claimed the officials had no idea Veselnitskaya was linked to the Kremlin and her real aim, was to get rid of a set of anti-Russian sanctions, known as the Magnitsky Act. Ivana Trump: Donald didn't know how to talk to the children until they were adults Trump himself said he saw nothing wrong with what happened. I think from a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting, Trump told reporters during a joint news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris in July. I think its a meeting that most people in politics probably would have taken. Another thing is worth stressing. Trump has become use to getting his way, of being able to seemingly brush off the most damaging revelations and news. Even now, his support among those who voted for him remains rock solid and he retains the approval of a third of all voters. That may be about to change. It was very noteworthy that although Papadopolous was arrested on 27 July and his admission to FBI agents was taken on 5 October, not a word of this emerged until Mueller unsealed the two indictments on Monday morning. Also, the indictment stated that since his arrest, Papadopolous met with the government on numerous occasions to provide information and answer question. There must be fears in the White House, he will seek a plea deal with prosecutors. If there was further proof needed that Mueller is a serious, tight operator, then we received it this morning. Clearly this investigation has a long way to go. Clearly Mueller has no intention of being anything other than utterly persistent. For all of Trumps claims he is the victim of a witch hunt and that Clinton is the real offender, he will surely be sleeping a little less easily after todays developments. Sign up for the View from Westminster email for expert analysis straight to your inbox Get our free View from Westminster email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the View from Westminster email {{ #verifyErrors }}{{ message }}{{ /verifyErrors }}{{ ^verifyErrors }}Something went wrong. Please try again later{{ /verifyErrors }} The public expect MPs to conduct themselves to the highest possible standards, the Leader of the House, Andrea Leadsom, told the Commons in as stern a tone as she could summon. It was an unfortunate choice of phrase to begin her statement on sexual harassment at Westminster. If the public expect MPs to conduct themselves to the highest possible standards, the public needs a severe lesson in expectation management. Lesson one: pick up literally any single newspaper printed at any point in the last 100 years, and write down the names of any MP you see not conducting themselves to the highest possible standards. That a list of 36 MPs and various allegations of sexual misconduct against them suddenly doing the rounds among journalists should also mark the moment at which MPs are going to get serious about this decades-old problem in their ranks could arguably be yet more evidence of these highest possible standards to which they are held. Leadsom said that action must be taken in days not weeks. She was responding to an urgent question from Harriet Harman. Valerie Vaz, Shadow Leader of the House, spoke to add to her disgust at it all. Anna Soubry was appalled. Stella Creasy was disgusted. A full 34 minutes had passed before a single male voice had joined the debate. This issue has been rightly framed as a question of power. No woman coming to work in this House should have to fend off unwanted sexual advances from men in positions of power over them, Harman said. Woman who worked for MP reported sexual assault four times but was 'ignored by Parliament authorities' They spoke of bringing in HR professionals to conduct interviews for researchers. Of guaranteeing anonymity for anyone who complained, from lowly researcher to female journalist. It is a statement of fact that the balance of power in Westminster, as in the rest of the world, is not equitably split along gender lines. Is it therefore acceptable to wonder whether the entirely right and righteous anger of Westminsters female minority will, by itself, have power enough to draw upon to change the dreary, dreadful ways of certain men? UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 15 November 2022 Lesley Sutcliffe shelters from the rain next to a life-sized replica of the innermost coffin of King Tutankhamun by artist Amanda Stoner as it goes on display inside a traditional red telephone box which has been converted into a museum, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire PA UK news in pictures 14 November 2022 Members of the hospitality sector demonstrate outside parliament in London. The head of the Confederation of British Industry is urging the UK government to relax immigration rules to help British companies with severe staff shortages, ahead of the chancellors autumn statement EPA UK news in pictures 13 November 2022 England celebrate winning the mens T20 World Cup in Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia AAP Image/Reuters UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA In recent days, the same names have been muttered in quiet corners in Westminster, the anonymity thus far protected not by cowardice but libel laws. These faces were not, for the most part, staring up from the green benches on Monday afternoon. That the public have such a low opinion of MPs, by the way, is not that they are of a lower moral quality than people in any other walk of life. Rather, they walk the same corridors, queue up in the same canteens, as a cadre of people dedicated to not much more than seeking to bring them down. And very often, they succeed. If such dismal activities still manage to thrive in such conditions, I hope it is not considered sexist to take a cynical view on whether change really is going to come. Jeremy Corbyn urges end to "warped and degrading" Westminster culture of abuse One of the more enjoyable theories of recent political punditry times is the idea that Eric Joyce headbutted the nations lights out on a drunken night in the Strangers Bar in Westminster five years ago. Joyce, who was the Labour MP for Falkirk, headbutted Tory MP Stuart Andrew, then for good measure punched his own party whip Phil Wilson, and very shortly after decided he would not contest the next election. The notorious Labour selection fight for Falkirk followed. The Labour left were accused seeking to rig the contest in their favour, a course of action that ended with Ed Miliband amending Labour party rules to include the 3 fee to vote in leadership elections. From there comes Jeremy Corbyn, from Jeremy Corbyn comes Jeremy Corbyns abysmal EU referendum campaign, from there comes Brexit, and the nation standing on the precipice of its own self-administered destruction. Now, Westminster watchers ponder over the prospect of whose wandering hands might bring down the May Government. Should that happen, David Davis is still seen as the most credible successor. Hes a chap who not so long ago campaigned for the Tory leadership by posing with young women in campaign T-shirts with DD for David Davis written across their breasts. Meanwhile, you almost have to stop yourself in the street to remember, as this scandal continues to unfold, there sits in the White House a President who bragged of sexual assaults past straight down a TV microphone, then won an election a few weeks later. If you think this problem is going anywhere, 2018 might just offer a fitting tableau of political power for you up to the very highest standards, of course. Hauntings, hayrides and charity combine to make one of Concords most cherished annual Halloween events. Regina Hinson has brought the Concord community together through her Haunted Hayrides for MS fundraiser at her farm on Pitts School Road. High school haunters serve as volunteers, hiding behind trees, chasing after tractors and creating elaborate skits to frighten riders on Hinsons hayrides. For those less fond of horror, Hinson also runs hayrides during the day where riders can enjoy her farms beautiful landscape and cattle. This enjoyable community event was inspired by a particularly difficult time for Hinson and her family. My aunt was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when she was about 30, Hinson said. She had the type of MS that is primary progressive, which means that over time it gets worse; she started with walking with a cane, then a walker, then a wheelchair, and for the last five years of her life she was completely bedridden. After her aunt passed, Hinson became involved with the annual MS Challenge Walk, a 50-mile event to raise money for MS research and patient assistance. She joined the local Concord team to compete in the walk, named Sister Act Repeat after the two sisters who started the team, and continues to walk every year. The walk requires all participants raise at least $1,500, but Sister Act Repeat has consistently exceeded this requirement, raising more than $40,000 last year to become one of the top fundraising teams. We were trying to come up with ways to raise that $1,500, Hinson said. Weve done yard sales, bake sales and more to raise the money, so I decided, well, we have the farm. There must be a way to utilize that farm to raise some money. And with that, Hinsons Haunted Hayrides was born. She started the event with only five neighborhood kids haunting the woods for the night, but after consulting with local high school service clubs, Hinson transformed the event into a competition between the schools. Im amazed at what they do and the themes they come up with, Hinson said. Theyre so cordial. I know people hear a lot of bad things about young people, but they havent had the experience Ive had. Katie McNiffe, a student at Jay M. Robinson High School and three-time volunteer haunter, said that she has watched this event grow up through the community. Living right around the street and getting to see the preparations be made every year, watching the decorations get more and more elaborate and the anticipation within the community grow is something thats really special and exciting that I've always enjoyed, McNiffe said. Hinson said she is also proud of the progress she and her team have made. When she first began walking 15 years ago, there were only two drugs available to treat the symptoms of MS; now there are around 15. The money raised by the walk doesnt only go to research, though. It also helps defray the medical expenses faced by those suffering from MS. What were doing, even though its a little bit, it helps, Hinson said. Hinson plans to continue participating in the walk for as long as she can, and she said she is grateful for the opportunity to make a difference. Weve all individually had very blessed lives, Hinson said about her team. We all have a connection to MS in some way, and weve been blessed to be able to do those 50 miles. We should use what we were given to give back to others. India tightens regulatory standards for consumer, capital goods The Bureau of Standards (BIS) is expected to double down on its enforcement of standards regulating consumer and capital goods. The BIS is tightening quality control norms across industries to end cheap imports and the dumping of inferior goods. Some experts have suggested that the increased monitoring is an outcome of recent border tensions with China, and further speculate that stronger regulations could curb Chinese imports. The government has issued new rules for Indias toys, electronic goods, machinery, food processing, construction, and chemicals sectors all of which are dominated by Chinese goods, components, and imports. The rules will, however, be applied on all firms, domestic and foreign. Government departments and agencies will conduct laboratory tests and spot inspections to ensure goods satisfy regulatory standards. Indian officials and retailers have variously mentioned substandard imports from China, complaining of goods even being semi-finished or damaged, such as in the toys sector, solar equipment, and in stainless steel products. At the same time, retailers are worried that ad hoc decisions by the government will choke their supplies, result in loss of advance payments to Chinese goods suppliers, and cause a loss of business, overall. RELATED: Trade Standards in India: What You Need to Know for India Bound Exports Soft drink makers diversifying to provide healthier products India is an important market for beverage manufacturers, including makers of sugary and carbonated drinks. However, rising income levels, and exposure to global trends, have resulted in reduced consumption of fizzy beverages by Indians. This is particularly noticeable in Indias urban consumer preferences. Additionally, beverage choices are proliferating in the Indian market: juices, dairy-based beverages, energy drinks, and flavored water, to name a few. The countrys soft drinks market is now worth US$9.25 billion (Rs 600 billion) annually, and carbonated drinks contribute to 46 percent of total sales. In response, cola and other fizzy drinks makers have been diversifying their beverage offerings and making key changes. These include: creating healthier alternatives, reducing sugar content in fizzy drinks, and manufacturing smaller-sized bottles. These trends signal both an expansion of Indias future beverage market and the heightened competition among international leading players like Coca Cola and PepsiCo. RELATED: Business Intelligence Solutions Demand for branded honey grows The organized honey trade is rapidly expanding in India, with demand for branded honey registering a 10 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR). The overall honey market is pegged at US$308.4 million (Rs 20 billion), of which branded honey accounts for a US$107.94 123.36 million (Rs 7 8 billion) share. Annually, India produces 7,000 million tons of honey half of which is exported. With the rising preference for healthier options in almost all fast-moving consumer segments Indias honey market is also witnessing resurgent demand. Factors shaping this include the perceived medicinal value of honey, its use as a healthier option to sugar, and it being a natural product. Samvel babayan: If I listened to your conversations on phone, I would file 100 cases against you (video) Samvel Babayan, former Commander of the NKR Defense Army, does not accept any of his two accusations. Today in his testimony he noted that he had nothing to do with the case and is connected with it only because the deal had not been concluded. Samvel babayan said that he could not have been the motivator because he had been absent from the republic for five years, and that he would prove that the Igla was not brought from Georgia. He would say whom it belonged to and in whose garage it was. To the question of the judge why Sanasar Gabrielyan, the defendant on the case, had shown him a picture of the Igla on tablet and asked for an opinion, Samvel Babayan mentioned that he did not only know how Igla looked like, but he also had used it: during the war they had destroyed the adversary's plane. Also Samvel babayan did not accept the accusation on money laundering. He noted that Vasil owed him money, 35 thousand dollars, some of which were returned by euro which was painted. He tried to find out whether it was possible to clean it, or whether it could be exchanged. He said once again that he did not plead himself guilty. "If I listened to your conversations on phone, I would file 100 cases against you." Samvel Babayan also turned to journalists today, calling them SNS agents as they published the SNS's messages on his arrest and detention. At the moment Samvel Babayan's interrogation has ended, experts have come to court. After a break the court will hear them. Were excited to announce that indmin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com. A new look and an improved experience means you can still stay ahead of this fast-moving market with price data, news and market intelligence right here on Fastmarkets. Discover more than 2000 prices, news and analysis in primary and secondary metals markets. We cover base metals, industrial minerals, ores and alloys, steel, scrap and steel raw materials. If you already have a Fastmarkets account, youll still have uninterrupted access to your markets by logging in with your current details. Greece's relevant culture minister has reportedly signed off on a decision by the influential Central Archaeology Council (KAS) designating 28 hectares of land at the former Athens airport as entailing "archaeological interest". The disused Athens airport and adjoining tracts of land comprise the landmark Helleniko project , billed as the biggest real estate development project in Europe and a memorandum-mandated privatization that the Greek government must implement. 200 Cows that invaded a farmland in Yolde-Pate area of Yola South Local Government Area have been arrested. The police in Adamawa have arrested 200 Cows for invading a farmland at Yolde-Pate in Yola South Local Government Area. Adamawa police spokesman, Othman Abubakar, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yola that the incident occurred on Saturday. In collaboration with the district and village heads in the area and timely intervention of police and other vigilante members, the situation is now under control. Abubakar said. He applauded the affected farmers for exhibiting maturity by not taking the law into their own hands. He also commended the herdsmen for accepting responsibility for the destruction by their cattle and their commitment to pay for the damages. He said that all the aggrieved farmers were shortlisted for possible compensation while the arrested cattle were handed over to the District Head of Yolde Pate for safe keeping. A journalist assigned to one of the national newspapers in Nigeria has been brutally attacked by a military chief in the line of duty. The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), FCT Council, has condemned the assault on a photo journalist with Daily Trust newspapers, Mr. Ikechukwu Ibe by an Army Captain. Ibe was carrying out an assignment on Thursday, October 26, 2017 at Jabi area of Abuja when he was attacked. The Army Officer allegedly brutalised and assaulted Journalist Ibe, leaving him with multiple lacerations and swollen eyes. The military officer also allegedly confiscated his camera, removed and destroyed the memory card just because he took some pictures of a vehicle that ran into a restaurant in Jabi. In a press statement signed by the Secretary of NUJ, FCT Council, Rafat Salami, the NUJ, amongst other things, demanded that the officers involved in the ugly incident be sanctioned. The NUJ to say the least, is disheartened over the ugly incident. Rather than treat journalists as partners in nation building, security agents have consistently treated journalists as enemies who must be crushed. More saddening is the fact that the assault took place just as Nigeria is preparing to commemorate the International Day to End Impunity For Crimes Against Journalists on November 2. This is unacceptable in a civilised and democratic nation where the Rule of Law must be allowed to thrive. It is a clear case of gross violation of the rights of the journalist, the statement reads in part. Narrating his ordeal, Mr Ibe said, when he got there at about 3:00pm, he introduced himself to the security men on ground and told them he would like to take some pictures. He said, when he started taking the pictures, the Army Captain, who wore a camouflage without a name tag and part of the Joint Ministerial Taskforce, which included men of the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), pounced on him and started beating him up without provocation. They collected my camera, broke it and took my memory card which contained the photos that I had taken. They also tore my clothes before bundling me into a Black Maria where I met six other persons. I later put a call across to my photo editor and the Daily Trust Editor, who brought a pair of trousers to me at the Life Camp Police station where I was taken to. My editors later secured my release and my broken camera was handed back to me without the memory card. However, my Identity card and N3,700 cash in my pocket were not returned, he said. As a way of seeking justice for the brutalised Journalist, the NUJ therefore, called on government, to bring the perpetrators of this dastardly act on this law abiding citizen, who was only doing his job to book. The NUJ also demanded immediate replacement of Mr. Ibes camera and adequately compensate him for the brutalization meted on him. The umbrella body of Journalists is also demanding an unreserved apology from the highest authority, while putting up machineries to prevent future incidences. The Adamawa State Police Command have arrested 200 cows for invading a farmland at Yolde-Pate in Yola South Local Government Area. Adamawa police spokesman, Othman Abubakar, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Yola that the incident occurred on Saturday. In collaboration with the district and village heads in the area and timely intervention of police and other vigilante members, the situation is now under control, Abubakar said. He applauded the affected farmers for exhibiting maturity by not taking the law into their own hands. He also commended the herdsmen for accepting responsibility for the destruction by their cattle and their commitment to pay for the damages. He said the affected farmers have been shortlisted for possible compensation, while the arrested cattle were handed over to the District Head of Yolde Pate for safe keeping. Source: ( NAN ) Two female suicide bombers suspected to be Boko Haram members blew themselves up in what appears to be a failed mission at Magar village in Madagali Local Government Area of Adamawa state. According to reports from witnesses in the area indicated that the two bombers who strapped improvised explosive devices on their bodies sneaked into the village in the early hours of Saturday but the explosives detonated before they could reach their targets. A woman was however injured in the blast. The chairman of Madagali Local Government Area, Muhammad Yusuf, also confirmed the incident to journalists in a telephone interview He said there were two separate explosions while a woman was injured by shrapnel. He added that the injured woman was receiving medical attention. The spokesperson of the 28 Task Force Battalion in Mubi, Badare Akintoye said he was attending a course in Lagos and could not comment on the incident. The attack is coming barely a week after insurgents abducted three young women from their farms in the area. Madagali is one of the seven local govenment areas in Adamawa State that were controlled by Boko Haram between 2014 and 2015 . Like other areas in the Northeast, it still experiences attacks on soft targets by the degraded terrorist group. Source: ( Punch Newspaper ) A national leader of the All Progressives Congress ( APC ) , Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Monday told journalists not to discuss the current clamour for President Muhammadu Buharis re-election with him. Tinubu said this in an interview with State House correspondents shortly after meeting behind closed doors with the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. When asked whether he agree with different groups and individuals calling on Buhari to seek re-election in 2019, Tinubu simply responded, Dont discuss that one with me. Source: ( Punch Newspaper ) Kennedy Orubebe has stated that Nigeria will boil if former President Goodluck Jonathan is arrested as a fallout of his invitation by a Federal High Court. A founding member of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Kennedy Orubebe, has said that Nigeria will boil if former President Goodluck Jonathan is arrested as a fallout of his invitation by a Federal High Court. Speaking during the weekend to New Telegraph newspaper in Warri, Delta State, Orubebe said any effort to probe the ex-President should commence with thorough investigation into all sleaze practices carried out under previous Presidents and Heads of state. Orubebe said: I vehemently say that for them to make any mistake of arresting Jonathan will not augur well for the present government. But we know that past Presidents and Heads of State in the country have committed a lot of atrocities against this country and nobody raised an eyebrow. I repeat if Buharis government makes any attempt to arrest President Jonathan, it will not be taken kindly particularly by the Ijaws. In fact, the country will burn. I know for sure that Buharis government will not arrest Jonathan. So, lets leave it like that. But in case it happens, the entire Niger Delta will boil and Buhari will not be comfortable wherever he is. In fact, government should not think of that. Although Jonathan ignored his people when he was in power and developed the North, be that as it may, let this government remember that he (Jonathan) came from somewhere because he remains our son no matter what. If the government wants to make any arrest, they should start from the past Presidents and Heads of State that did something unconstitutional against this country. I remember that Chief Obasanjos name was mentioned in the Halliburton scandal; so, they should not think of arresting Dr. Jonathan because it will backfire seriously on them. He decried what he referred to as disparaging statements made against Jonathan by Buharis aides, stating that that was uncalled for. According to him, there is nothing unusual about opposition party speaking against politics of the incumbent, provided they are based on facts. He advised Jonathan, however, to maintain a dignified silence and feel free to offer advice privately to President Buhari when need be, even as he (Jonathan) should speak out when his government or person is being vilified or Nigerians are fed with lies about him. Cool FMs OAP, Freeze has been in the news alot recently for his campaign against paying tithes. His Instagram account has also been been suspended and Freeze says he wont stop preaching his gospel. With this in mind, Nigerian journalist Gbenga Aborowa wrote a piece describing Freeze as Nigerias Martin Luther. Read the article below I celebrate this man Ifedayo Olarinde affectionately known as @daddyfreeze he is a brave man who has decided to speak against the clergy who profit off the misery and oppression of the hopeless and gullible in society he is a modern day Martin Luther.Martin luther was a German Monk and one of Western historys most significant figures. Luther spent his early years in relative anonymity as a monk and scholar. But in 1517 Luther penned a document attacking the Catholic Churchs corrupt practice of selling indulgences to absolve sin. His 95 Theses, which propounded two central beliefsthat the Bible is the central religious authority and that humans may reach salvation only by their faith and not by their deedswas to spark the Protestant Reformation. Fast forward to 2017 the protestant church seems to be more of a commercial enterprise. supporters of ostentatious and obviously manipulative men of the cloak are quick to put the critics in check by quoting touch not mine anointed lines ostensibly to show that men of God are above reproach and as such lesser men have no right whatsoever to criticize or condemn perceived wrong doings of these high men of God. But is this the case? Are these men truly above reproach?The modern Nigerian church tasks its members to donate towards various projects such as universities and elitist secondary schools, but curiously, the poorer members of such prosperity centers can neither send their wards or kids to such schools, neither do the churches have a program to cater for the poor amongst their flock. Unlike the early missionaries who accommodated both the rich and poor in their schools, it is no longer business as usual for the poor. You either sow and get rich so that your children can also benefit from the schools built by the church you attend or find a lesser alternative, while hoping for a better day! The Church has become a class conscious body. We are no longer our brothers keepers . Like 50 cent said the Modern day Pentecostal church in Nigeria has resolved to get rich or die trying Source: Instagram Earlier today, Nigerian writer Onyeka Nwelue took shots at several music stars, calling them broke. One of the recipients of the trade was Dbanj who is generally acclaimed to be a member of the upper echelon of Nigerian music success stories. all efforts made to Dbanjs management to ask for their take on the allegations of the Kokomaster being broke. There is really nothing to say. You see, if we stop and respond to every irrelevant person that barks or has a senseless opinion of Dbanj, we will not make progress, his media officer said. He further said this was the first he was hearing of the writer whose opinion we were speaking about. Who is that? I have not heard of the Onyeka person before and I will not give him any second of fame. His opinion is his opinion.. do you know how many people have opinions on Dbanjs career? source: Thenetng The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has urged the Federal High Court in Lagos not to order the return of a former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, from the United Kingdom to Nigeria. The anti-graft agency described Diezanis prayer to be brought back to Nigeria as a ploy to escape justice in the UK, where, according to the EFCC, she is being investigated for several financial crimes by the Metropolitan Police. According to the EFCC, investigation by the Metropolitan Police in Diezanis case had reached an advanced stage and her prosecution in the UK was imminent. It, therefore, said it would not be in the interest of justice to grant Diezanis application seeking to return to Nigeria. The EFCC said this in a counter-affidavit it filed in opposition to Diezanis application before Justice Rilwan Aikawa, wherein she is seeking an order compelling the Attorney General of the Federation to facilitate her return to Nigeria. In the said application, which she filed through her lawyer, Mr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, Diezani said she wished to appear before the Federal High Court in Lagos to defend a criminal charge, bordering on alleged laundering of N450m, where her name was mentioned. The main defendants in the charge are a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Dele Belgore; and a former Minister of National Planning, Prof. Abubakar Suleiman. But opposing the application, the EFCC, in a counter- affidavit deposed to by one of its operatives, Usman Zakari, explained that when it began investigation into the case involving Belgore and Suleiman sometime in 2015, Diezani spurned its invitation to explain her role and rather absconded to the UK. It said its subsequent efforts by its operatives to interview her in London were blocked by her lawyer in the UK, John Binns of BCL Solicitors, who contended that Nigerian investigators could not interview her as she was outside Nigerias jurisdiction. The EFCC said Diezanis bid to now return to Nigeria was nothing but a ploy to escape justice having realised that her trial might soon begin in the UK. An appeal court in Paris on Monday released the younger brother of former Burkina Faso president, Blaise Compaore, a day after he was taken into custody in connection with the murder of a journalist, his lawyer said. French police detained Francois Compaore at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on Sunday on an international arrest warrant related to the 1998 murder of Norbert Zongo, who published Burkina Fasos Independent newspaper. The killing of Zongo, who had been investigating the murder of a driver who worked for Francois Compaore, became a symbol of repression during Blaise Compaores 27-year rule, which ended in 2014 at the hands of a popular uprising. It was not immediately clear why Francois Compaore had been released or whether he was free to leave the country. His lawyer, Pierre-Olivier Sur, did not respond to follow-up questions sent by text message and the prosecutors office handling the case could not be reached for comment. Sur says the charges against his client are politically motivated by a Burkinabe government unable to try Blaise Compaore, whom the government of neighbouring Ivory Coast refuses to extradite. Blaise Compaore fled to Ivory Coast during the uprising. He faces an international arrest warrant in connection with the 1987 murder of former president Thomas Sankara. Activists are pushing President Roch Marc Christian Kabore to aggressively pursue cases of past human rights abuses, and critics say his government has been too slow to move against former regime members, some of whom serve in the current administration Source : ( NAN ) UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION: FGGC Langtang security guard pimps schoolgirls for N5,000 With N5,000, or even less, one of the security guards employed to protect students at the Federal Government Girls College (FGGC), Langtang, Plateau state, would gladly love-vendor the girls to strangers. Speaking to TheCables undercover reporter, the guard gave an insight into how he organises runs for the teenagers for a fee, and how this is a common practice. This investigation by FEMI OWOLABI and SEYI AWOJULUGBE also exposes the rot in the once-prestigious Unity School, where students use water from an untreated well, sleep on broken beds, study in hostile classrooms and live practically unprotected from predators. You are in Langtang, Plateau state, for the weekend and need a schoolgirl for the evening? Someone is ready to help you make the arrangement for a fee. You can even have more than one girl if you choose. There are plenty of them at the nearby Federal Government Girls College (FGGC). The love-vendor is actually paid to protect the girls, but that is by the way. Before TheCable set out for Langtang, the guard whose phone number the reporter had collected from an acquaintance consistently beat his chest and gave assurances that getting girls out of the hostel is no big deal, and it was soon obvious that the love-vendor had been in the business for a long time. Bani Guest House, a popular lodge along the Langtang highway, is well known to the girls, the guard said. He explained that most of them do attend Sunday evening parties at Bani, where their boyfriends come to wait for them. The reporter had disguised as a visiting businessman in need of girls to spend a nice time with. He promised to pay the guard more than what he would ask for. All the big man needed was a guarantee of a swell time. The excited guard called endlessly, excessively delighted with the business at hand. TheCable ran into a little bad luck along the way the timing of the visit coincided with when the SS3 girls were writing their exams in July 2017, and other classes were on vacation. But, not to worry, the guard was ready to pull the strings all the same. Settling over a plate of rice ordered for him at the guest house, the guard told his would-be customer that girls in SS3 who were rounding off their final exams would make the perfect picks. I am giving you outgoing students, he said, his face loosening into a smile. There are some writing exams, its just to get a clue to know them and ask if they can do this for me. There are girls who do runs but the issue is money. The guard, who was quick to request for money so he could move round and also sort out the girls transportation, revealed that there are a couple of schoolgirls who are into the act of sneaking out of the school premises. Youll discuss how much youll give them, he said, pocketing the N5,000 the reporter had given him as upfront for the task. All those girls are small girls and they dont know money much. If you treat them well, they will look for you if youre still around. The guard had left his duty post. For hours, he was moving round the school, searching for girls who could be available under the tight deadline. I have arranged two girls now, and they will come to meet you when they are done with their exams today, he would later say on phone. Source :The Cable A public appeal has been made to the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to go ahead with the ban on the importation of rice so as to boost local production. Alhaji Jamilu Ibrahim, the Chairman of Rice Farmers in Daura, Katsina State, has urged the Federal Government not to lift the ban on the importation of rice. The Federal Government banned the importation of rice to protect local rice farmers and promote local rice consumption in the country. Ibrahim told journalists after a meeting of Local Rice Farmers of Daura on Monday that there was the need for the government to maintain its stand on rice importation to boost local production. The ban on importation will assist the local rice farmers to produce more at affordable prices for local consumption as well as assist the government to conserve foreign exchange. In Nigeria, we have fertile land in no fewer than 25 states where rice can be produced in large quantities for local consumption, he said. The chairman called on the Central Bank of Nigeria to set aside more funds that could be used to grant loan to local rice farmers in the country. The CBN should continue with the Anchor Borrower Programme that was introduced to assist local rice farmers with loans. The programme has assisted farmers in producing rice in large quantities during the 2017 farming season. We are now set to go back to our farms for the production of rice during the dry season farming, he said. Ibrahim urged the rice farmers to use the loan given to them judiciously in order to shore up rice production. He lauded the Federal and State Governments for giving a deserved attention to the agriculture sector, which, according to him, has the capacity to guarantee food security in the country. NAN reports that the Federal Government had introduced Anchor Borrowers Programme to boost cotton and rice production in the country. A 19-year-old Nigerian social media user @apiamorris, asked his dream crush if she would marry him if he gets up to 10,000 retweets. His crush told him he cant but that if he does get up to 10, 000 retweets, their getting married would be a done deal. So went on Twitter and asked Nigerians for retweet and he got up to 20k retweets. The young lady who is also 19, was overwhelmed by the work he put in just to be with her and has asked them to be in a relationship and not a marriage since they are just 19. See their chat below Gevorg Petrosyan: The people are tired of these illustrated pictures (video) Today at the Standing Committees of the National Assembly, Gevorg Petrosyan, a member of the Tsarukyan Alliance, addressed the Minister of Finance Vardan Aramyan at the discussion of the RA draft law on State Budget of the Republic of Armenia for 2018: "Mr. Minister, I attentively look at these graphics, beautiful pictures: round, octagon, oval, and so on, but believe me, the people are tired of these illustrated pictures. I, as a representative of the political force, chosen by the people, want to make a specific question and expect a concrete answer, without maneuver, do you claim that this project will affect the people's standard of living in a visible and reasonable time-frame?" Vardan Aramyan answered: "I treat you with great respect and I am of great opinion of you, but I want to say that we never try to maneuver it, it is the most dangerous thing that one could do, we are trying to present to the public the right impressions on where we stand and where we should go. It is very hard. We constantly say that we will not touch social spending as we have a problem. If you tell me what you mean by saying life quality changing and with which tool you measure it, then I'll tell you whether we give a guarantee or not." Gevorg Petrosyan said that he had meant the neutralization of existing threats: poverty eradication, emigration rates. "Mr. Aramyan, I do not want to dispute your honesty, but the people are tired of this painting." Gagik Minasyan, Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Financial-Credit and Budgetary Affairs, was involved in the conversation. "Mr. Petrosyan, you had better ask questions... Speak less from the name of people." Vardan Aramyan said: "Mr. Petrosyan, I assure you that you are not the only one who thinks about the people. I assure you that everything we do is for the sake of the people. As regards the improvement of living standards, then in 2017, the GDP per person was $3698, and in 2018, it will become $3984." President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday met behind closed-door with President of Cote DIvoire, Alassane Quattara at the presidential villa, Abuja. Mr. Quattara, who arrived the presidential villa at about 12.15 p.m., was introduced to some cabinet ministers and presidential aides by President Buhari before the commencement of their meeting. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two presidents are meeting officially for the first time since the inauguration of President Buharis administration on May 29, 2017. Mr. Quattara, had on April 20, 2015, met with Mr. Buhari, then, as president-elect, shortly after a meeting with former President Goodluck Jonathan. Source: (NAN) A spoof government notice hit social media as soon as President Robert Mugabe announced he had set up a new ministry responsible for Cyber Security, Threat Detection and Mitigation. Zimbabweans reacted with customary humour to the letter, which faked the signature and letterhead of the newly appointed cyber minister Patrick Chinamasa and instructed all WhatsApp group members to register with the ministry by November. The letter was signed By The Cyber Powers Vested In Me But the jokes have since subsided, and Zimbabweans are now considering what the new ministry will mean for their civil liberties especially freedom of speech. A threat to the state Zimbabwes government has been uneasy about social media after pastor Evan Mawararire spearheaded the #ThisFlag movement last year. Using platforms like Twitter and Facebook it organised a stay-at-home demonstration, the biggest anti-government protest in a decade. President Robert Mugabes spokesperson, George Charamba, says Mr Mugabe came up with the idea of a new ministry to deal with an emerging threat to the state a threat founded on abuse and unlawful conduct. Social media is possibly the primary platform Zimbabweans use to communicate and receive news. It is thriving despite restrictive laws governing freedom of expression. Over the last 16 years, internet usage in the country has grown from 0.3% penetration to 46%, data from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) shows. Several TV stations and online publications, some operating from the diaspora, use the internet to disseminate news out of the reach of the government. When petrol stations ran out of fuel last month, there were dramatic scenes of long queues at supermarket as Zimbabweans stocked up, anticipating food shortages. Worried by these events, the government blamed social media messages for spreading panic. Social media was abused to create a sense of panic, thereby creating some sort of destabilising in the economy, says Mr Charamba. The new cyber security minister, Mr Chinamasa, agrees. He commented at the time, before his appointment, that the cause basically was social media. It means its a security issue, he adds. It is also a political agenda, a regime change agenda. We are going to look at what exactly happened with a view to take corrective measures in the security arena. Muzzling opinion But others say the governments stance is a threat to civil liberties. One communications rights group, the Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute for Southern Africa (Misa), says this new scrutiny of social media goes against the spirit of the constitution and freedom of expression. These unfortunate threats have resulted in self-censorship by [individuals] when engaging on topical issues affecting the country, it said in a statement. It also criticises censorship of Zimbabwes media, who have on occasion been chastised for incorporating citizen opinion as expressed online in their reportage. Going a step further, Zimbabwes opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says the governments new cyber threat ministry is a means for government to spy on its people. MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai also believes that the ministry has been created to curb free speech in time for the 2018 polls. Mugabe will do whatever it takes to control and muzzle social media in order to suppress public discontent against his regime, he said. However the good news is that the regime has no capacity to suppress the use of social media. Many Zimbabweans have reacted wryly to the news of the creation of a cyber minister, referring to Mr Chinamasa as the Minister of WhatsApp. Zimbabwe already has several pieces of legislation which rights groups say curb freedom of expression. Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights says that since 2010, it has assisted more than 100 people arrested under a law which makes it a jailable offence to insult the president and undermine his authority. Ordinary people have been arrested and charged for calling the 93-year-old leader old, a donkey and even for accusing him of ruining the country. The Zimbabwean government has said new legislation will not stifle freedom of expression and will protect the public from new threats such as revenge pornography and cyber attacks. Presidential spokesperson Mr Charamba says Zimbabwe will look closely at how other nations have dealt with the threat of cybercrime including Russia, China, and South Korea who have faced similar challenges. Arrests ahead? While several countries around the world have anti-cyber crime departments and agencies, Zimbabwe is among the first to create an entire ministry. Meanwhile on social media, ominous warnings have begun circulating. One is from a Mr Chaipa, urging Zimbabweans only to share content on social media that they would be able to defend in court. Mr Chaipa said it was easy for the government to monitor online messages, and gave a list of online activities that could be classified as criminal offences. It has been revealed that Nigeria expends billions of naira annual in purchasing different types of fishes from Europe. The Norwegian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr Kjemprud Jens-Petter, says Nigeria imports fishery products worth $125m (N45bn) from his country annually. Jens-Petter said in Lagos on Monday that the fishery imports from Norway included stockfish, mackerel and salmon. Annually, Norwegian fish exports to Nigeria stand at $125m and these include stockfish, pelagic fish, mainly mackerel and salmon. We are interested in expanding our market access and consider the upper market salmon to have further potential. Ideally we believe it would be possible to double our exports considering the huge Nigerian market and the current recovery of the Nigerian economy, he said. He said that the Nigerian-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce was working with his embassy to attract Norwegian investment and cooperation for the development of Nigerias fishery industry. The Norwegian envoy said that his home government, through its organisation, Innovation Norway, was prepared to support and share technical expertise with Nigerian fishing companies in boosting local fish production. He said that the Norwegian government was also interested in the development and exportation of Nigerian seafood to Norway. Jens-Petter said that NNCC and Norwegian fish exporters and aquaculture companies have exchanged visits on how Nigeria could also achieve bumper fish production locally. So heres a bizzare reincarnation story shared on social media by a Nigerian brand specialist identified as @LatwinsKoncepts. According to her, her gatemen who has been with her for 10 years reportedly died in Cotonou 20 years ago. According to her, she got to know after arriving Cotonou to tell his family that hes been seriously ill for 3 days. Heres her story below; The stir that was caused by M.I Abagas latest single You Rappers Should Fix Up Your Lives settled down now but the conversations are still ongoing. The latest personality to wade into the conversation is Nigerian rap veteran Ill Bliss. The rapper/label exec shared his thoughts during an interview with Sound Citys VJ Adams. For Ill Bliss, who has dabbled a few times into the singing route through the help of industry hook makers such as Rundown and Reekado Banks insisted that hip-hop is a dynamic genre and rappers who possess the ability to sing should not be begrudged for it. To be honest, if you look at it closely, Ive never really been the guy to sing. Ill get the guy on the hook to do the hook coz thats what they know best. But Ive never begrudged anybody that could do both, Ill Bliss said. He also stated that cooperate sponsors and brands contributed to the decline of hip hop in Nigeria as very little opportunities are available for rappers who stick to making only rap records. I think the cooperates failed hip-hop. They havent supported the art form as much. While Ill Bliss points the cooperates as being responsible for the failings in Nigerian Hip-hop, other people have blamed the rappers, the media and even the fans for contributing to the decline of the genre. It remains uncertain whether core hip-hop will ever thrive in Nigeria as even the official music video to the much talked about You Rappers should Fix Up Your Lives song has been able to garner a mere 45, 000 Youtube views since being released three days ago. Thats definitely a small figure for a song that stirred so much reactions. source: Soundcity The Pakistan government on Monday confirmed the death of two Chinese nationals who were killed in Southwestern Balochistan province days after they were kidnapped from Quetta, the Provincial Capital in May. The DNA reports have confirmed that the two persons killed in Balochistan in June were the same two Chinese nationals, who were kidnapped from Quetta in May, Pakistans Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The statement said that the government of Pakistan expressed deep shock and grief on the brutal act of terrorism, and extends condolences to the government and people of China. The government of Pakistan also sympathised with the families of the victims. The Government of Pakistan would continue to conduct a thorough investigation and apprehend the perpetrators of this crime to bring them to justice, the statement said. It said Pakistan strongly condemned terrorism in all its forms and manifestation. We are grateful to the Government of China for its strong support for our fight against the menace of terrorism, the Foreign Ministry said. It said Pakistan would continue to work with China and the international community to enhance counter-terrorism cooperation as well as regional and global peace and security. Reports said the couple who were teaching Chinese in Pakistan was kidnapped in May by unidentified gunmen in Quetta. The kidnappers, disguised as policemen, initially took away three Chinese, two women and a man, but a passer-by helped one of the women escape. The Pakistani side provided China information in June that the two abductees were probably dead. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, in June, said that China opposes terrorism in any form, adding that the country would continue to support Pakistans efforts to fight terrorism and safeguard national stability. Source: ( NAN ) Ucoms mobile customers will benefit from the best internet roaming rate of 8 AMD/MB when travelling to Georgia, Egypt or the UAE Ameriabank Launches Google Pay and Google Wallet Support for Card Users in Armenia Karen Vardanyan donated 112 million drams for the medical equipment for National Center for Infectious Diseases. UCOM HAS INTRODUCED FUTURE NETWORK WI-FI 6E ROUTERS Statement by the Spokesperson on the conflict resolution and reconciliation efforts Foreign Minister of Armenia to participate in the Fifth Paris Peace Forum Armenia: EU and Armenia Hold annual Dialogue on Human Rights Todays Shushi, Occupied and Cleared of Armenians, is a Real Example of Turkish-Azerbaijani Policy of Ethnic Cleansing of Artsakh Ookla, the the global leader in internet testing and analysis has awarded Ucom Sweden will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union Ameriabank: At the Vanguard of Armenia's Banking Sector STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ARTSAKH SUBSCRIBERS OF UCOMS ALL TIME BEST OFFER TO ENJOY ADDITIONAL BENEFITS Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan Google Ad Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol Armenia and Azerbaijan to do so without delay An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan". UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022 Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces The head of the Philippines insurance regulator has said Prudential Guarantee and Assurance (PGA) will file a complaint against Marsh UK very soon over alleged illegal operations in the country.PGA is supposed to formalize their complaint, Insurance Commisioner Dennis Funa said as reported by the Manila Times. It is not formal yet because it (the initial complain) was just in the form of a letter. But they have not filed their formal complaint yet. I understand they will be doing it very soon.Earlier this year, the regulator revealed it had received a letter from PGAs counsel requesting a probe over accusations that Marsh unlawfully solicited a client in the Philippines. The Insurance Commission did not disclose specific details of the case.However, Manila Times reported that PGA lawyer Jose Bernas accused David Jacob, head of Marsh Singapore, of presenting a reinsurance package to a Philippine firm on behalf of Marsh UK, which would assume all insurance risks through a fronting insurer.The lnsurance Commission has the authority to hear and decide cases for violation of the Philippines insurance code and impose penalties if warranted.Insurance Business has reached out to Marsh UK for comment. The average client retention rate for insurance brokers is about 85%. But how many of those clients are actually happy with their broker?Are your broker competitors retaining 85% of their clients because theyre providing an amazing client experience? No, according to Derek Coburn, owner of Cadre and author of Networking is Not Working.I think its inertia. Essentially, clients are sort of happy and settled into the relationship but theyre not necessarily jumping up and down screaming to the world about how great their existing broker is, said Coburn.A recent study in the wealth management industry, which is also applicable to insurance brokers, surveyed clients in an effort to determine how satisfied they were with an existing advisor. Only 10% of clients were raving fans who loved their provider and thought the service was amazing.The good news for the broker community is that 90% of the marketplace probably does not love their current broker, Coburn commented. The bad news for you is that only about 10% are really dissatisfied and looking for a new option. This is where traditional referrals and Google come into play.That leaves a middle ground of around 80%, which is a massive potential market. I would like to suggest that your biggest competitor is not an actual broker competitor but rather the indifference of the individuals [in the 80%]. In my opinion, the companies that are going to be the most successful at acquiring this market share over the next few years are the ones who effectively disrupt that indifference.The challenge is that lots of clients deny their indifference or dont realize how much better they could have it by placing their business with a different broker, according to Coburn. Winning these clients over cannot be based on the promise of a slightly lower premium or slightly better service, he said.From my experience, the best way to disrupt this indifference almost always has nothing to do with the core service you provide, Coburn added. I used to view client service and business development as two separate things. What I have found since then is that [a combination of the two is better] and client appreciation is one of the best ways for you to acquire more clients. Allstate Insurance Company is looking to hire 100 people in the state of Washington in order to boost its agency salesforce, claims and regional staffing. The company will be holding a job fair to fill these positions November 14 from 11am to 7pm in the Canyon Park Allstate facility in Bothell, Wash. The company will have decision-makers on-site looking to hire immediately. Celebrate excellence in insurance. Join us at the Insurance Business Awards in Chicago. We are seeing an increased consumer demand for auto and home insurance as well as financial advice and planning, said Jeff Mowell, Allstates regional HR business partner. With the increased demand, there is also a need for compassionate and dedicated individuals in roles across the organization, including claims, finance, product management, education, sales, training and others as well. Allstate is also looking for more agency owners in Washington state. Allstate is a trusted brand and an excellent wealth-building opportunity for a small business owner, Mowell said. One feature that sets Allstate apart from over insurers is that the agent owns the economic interest in their business. It has been helping to protect small businesses for more than 200 years, and now has one million business clients across the country so clearly it knows what its all about.Insurance Business spoke with The Hartford s Lynn LaGram, assistant vice president of small commercial, about insuring American small businesses.Serving small business has always been a critical part of our fabric here, she said.Its business owners policy combines two main insurance coverages: property and general liability.The fact that theyre packaged together, for a small business owner, is a nice feature, LaGram explained. The majority of the insurance protections they would need are in the one policy.The policy is a kind of general catch-all that should form the base of any businesss protection. Particularly for small businesses, this is crucial smaller enterprises and newer businesses are less likely to be able to take a big hit without the fallback of insurance.Why should this be top of mind? What weve learnt from talking with small business owners, and their experience, is that when theyre hit with something unexpected, it can be really detrimental. They dont often have the same resources to handle, respond, or prepare for an unexpected event, LaGram said.We would strongly advise a small business owner to work with an independent agent to make sure they understand the risks their business may have, and to ensure they will be fully covered.While many small businesses recognize the risks they face, one area for potential growth for policy sales is folks running businesses from home, LaGram said.Maybe an area where we see uptake may not be as strong would be in the home-based business space where [potential] customers may not appreciate that their homeowners policy may not respond to those commercial insurance examples.If you think about that loss of income [through business interruption], a commercial insurance solution would likely not be afforded on a personal lines policy. Thats another example of a small business owner really [needing to] take the time to work with an independent agent to make sure theyre properly covered. Early estimates of insured losses arising from the Northern California wildfires put the tab at up to $3 billion but that may be too low, one expert claims. Much too low.Dan Dick, executive managing director at Aon Benfield Analytics, said that early loss estimates suggest the insurance and reinsurance industries will be looking at a bill between $5 billion and $8 billion.Thats a huge spike from the $1.045 billion preliminary estimate the Insurance Commissioner of California released earlier this month. Risk-modeling company AOR Worldwide had projected the losses to be between $2 billion and $3 billion. However, the fire has now destroyed about 8,400 structures, according to a report by Artemis. Its broadly expected that the insurance and reinsurance industries are about to face their highest wildfire-related costs on record.The wildfires destroyed thousands of homes and businesses and killed at least 42 people as they raged through Northern California, Reuters reported. The AOR estimate projected that losses would be dominated by damage in residential areas particularly in Sonoma County, where entire neighborhood blocks were destroyed.Most of the property loss was concentrated in the states famous wine country, according to Reuters. The wildfires have burned about 245,000 acres across several counties since starting on October 08. The Treasury Department is calling for looser regulation of insurance companies under the Dodd-Frank Act.In a report released last week, the Treasury said that regulators should stop regulating insurers based on size in order to focus on the companies actual activities. A change in the way insurers are regulated would require Congress to amend the Dodd-Frank Act.Treasurys position is that entity-based systemic risk evaluations of insurance companies are generally not the best approach for mitigating risks arising from insurance, the Treasury said in the report. Instead, insurance regulators should focus on potential risks arising from insurance products and activities, and on implementing regulations that strengthen the insurance industry as a whole.Currently, banks and certain financial companies with more than $50 billion in assets dubbed systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs) have to abide by tighter rules than other firms and receive closer federal scrutiny, according to a report by The Hill.Several insurance companies designated as SIFIs faced such heightened scrutiny in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. A federal court struck down the governments designation of MetLife as a SIFI, and Prudential is fighting its designation, The Hill reported. Hacktivism the act of hacking into a computer system for a politically or socially-motivated reason just might be the next cyber risk every local government will be purchasing insurance for.Officials of Lancaster County, Nebraska, and the city of Lincoln have recently convened to discuss the threat of hacktivism and have considered insurance as a way to protect themselves from the costs of a cause-driven data breach.According to the Lincoln Journal Star, Lancaster County commissioners had recently agreed to purchase a $2 million, one-year cyber insurance policy for roughly $25,600.Lancaster County had considered cyber coverage in the past, but found that some products had too many insurance exclusions.[It] didnt match what we needed, said county risk manager Sue Eckley.Meanwhile, the city of Lincoln had purchased a $3 million, 16-month cyber insurance policy that started May 01 for about $33,000.Although Lincoln has insured itself against cyberattacks since 2015, it chose this year to purchase an insurance policy for cyber liability exposure, said city risk manager Bill Kostner.We have been fortunate, said Kostner, pointing out that the city has not had a major breach.He, however, thinks that it is still safer to have the protection at hand.We dont want to be held hostage, he explained.County commissioners have expressed that they plan to coordinate with Lincoln staff about purchasing a joint policy in the future, as both governments share an information technology department.Lancaster County Board chairman Todd Wiltgen discussed during recent board meetings that hacktivists are more often than not motivated by revenge, which makes the data breaches they inflict even more dangerous. Hacktivists will attack a computer system to punish a municipality or a county, Wiltgen explained.Its not a matter of if local government will be hacked, but when, he warned. A report published by the non-profit Regional Plan Association (RPA) is calling for a new tristate commission that would help the regions of New York, Connecticut and New Jersey deal with the risk of flooding a commission that would be fueled by surcharges on property insurance premiums.The non-profit hopes that this new commission would have the authority to select and pay for flood mitigation projects.According to RPA, a coastal commission would ensure that there is a consistent approach to the flood threat among the three states. The non-profit said that by 2050, two million tristate coastal residents are at high risk of flood double the number of those currently at risk in the tristate area.The non-profit said that the regions response to climate change has been slow, sporadic, underfunded and uncoordinated, due to the numerous and confusing levels of government involved.The report said that the new commission would oversee 3,700 miles of coastline where the infrastructure has often decayed.Restoring wetlands, building sea walls, raising buildings, retrofitting infrastructure and buying out vulnerable homeowners are among the actions that 167 coastal cities, towns, villages and counties will need to consider and find the resources to implement, the RPA said.The RPA recommended that scientists and elected agency officials from all levels of government would run the commission.Wed want to make sure that the state, counties and localities feel they have good representation on the Commission, RPA vice-president Robert Freudenberg told Newsday. A pharmacist at a facility whose tainted drugs sparked a nationwide meningitis outbreak that killed 76 people was cleared Wednesday of murder but was convicted of mail fraud and racketeering. Jurors said prosecutors failed to prove Glenn Chin was responsible for the deaths of people who were injected with mold-contaminated drugs produced by the now-closed New England Compounding Center in Framingham, Mass., just west of Boston. As the supervisory pharmacist, Chin oversaw the so-called clean rooms where the drugs were made. Chins attorney said he saw the verdict as a victory. He said prosecutors overreached by charging Chin with second-degree murder acts under federal racketeering law. This was never, ever, ever no matter what these prosecutors tell you this was never a murder case, Chins attorney Stephen Weymouth said after the verdict was read at Bostons federal courthouse. Scott Shaw, whose mother, Elwina Shaw, died after she was injected with the contaminated drugs, said he was surprised and disappointed jurors refused to find Chin responsible for the deaths. It was his hand, no doubt, that mixed that medicine that killed mom, the North Carolina man said. Prosecutors said Chin instructed his staff to use expired ingredients, failed to properly sterilize the drugs and ignored findings of mold and other bacteria in the rooms. Chins attorneys argued he cant be blamed for the deaths because theres no evidence he caused the drugs to become contaminated. The attorneys blamed the pharmacys co-founder Barry Cadden, who they said treated employees poorly and ordered them to cut corners to increase production and profits. Jurors acquitted Cadden of second-degree murder under the federal racketeering law but found him guilty of fraud and conspiracy. Cadden tearfully apologized to the victims in June before he was sentenced to nine years in prison. Chin was charged with the deaths of 25 people in Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. He would have faced up to life in prison had he been convicted of the murders. He is set to be sentenced in January. Experts and even Chins attorney had said before the trial that they believed prosecutors had a stronger case against Chin than they had against Cadden because Chin was the one mixing the drugs in the clean rooms. The outbreak of fungal meningitis and other infections was blamed on contaminated injections of medical steroids, given mostly to people with back pain. More than 700 people in 20 states were sickened in whats considered the worst public health crisis in recent U.S. history. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the death toll at 64 in 2013. Federal officials identified additional victims in their investigation, raising the number of deaths to 76. Mr. Chin ran NECCs clean room operations with depraved disregard for human lives, Acting U.S. Attorney William Weinreb said in a news release Wednesday. As a licensed pharmacist, Chin took an oath to protect patients, but instead deliberately violated safety regulations. FBI special agent in charge Harold Shaw said Chin gambled with patients lives by cutting corners and ignoring the warning signs that his production methods were unsafe. Hundreds of patients were unnecessarily harmed from his reckless disregard for health and safety regulations, Shaw said. The outbreak sparked calls for increased regulation of compounding pharmacies, which differ from ordinary drugstores in that they custom-mix medications and supply them directly to hospitals and doctors. Congress in 2013 passed a bill giving federal officials more oversight of the pharmacies. Related: Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Drugs Lawley, a Buffalo, N.Y.-based, independent insurance broker, has hired loss control veteran Bob Overhoff Jr. as loss control manager. Previously the director of corporate safety at LPCiminelli, Overhoff Jr. will work out of Lawleys headquarters in Buffalo, N.Y., helping customers across Lawley branches in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. He joins Lawley with more than 25 years of experience, which has ranged from developing and updating corporate safety and training programs to risk management consulting in construction, general industry, municipal and fleet safety, among others. Lawley works to continue focusing on risk management to offer a proactive approach to how its staff consults with companies of all sizes, according to a company press release. Lawleys risk management team provides clients with guidance on a spectrum of risks, including claims management, claims consulting, safety programs, loss prevention and more. Lawley has branch offices across New York in Amherst, Batavia, Fredonia, Melville, Purchase and Rochester along with Darien, Conn., and Florham Park, N.J. Source: Lawley Topics Profit Loss New York A former Maine fire chief has pleaded guilty to setting a wildfire that burned 42 acres in 2016. The Journal Tribune reports that 61-year-old Ricky Plummer pleaded guilty Wednesday to starting the fire when he was chief, under an agreement in which hed be sentenced to two years in prison. Firefighters from several towns helped fight the April 15, 2016, wildfire that caused a nearby condominium complex to be evacuated. The former Old Orchard Beach fire chief told investigators he was elsewhere when the fire started, but later said he accidentally started the fire while smoking. Fellow firefighters said he didnt smoke. Plummer previously worked in the fire department in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for more than 20 years. He has also worked in other fire departments in Maine, Massachusetts and Florida. Information from: Journal Tribune Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Maine The insurance provider for the small Vermont town of Victory has placed the town on probation after a series of legal disputes and internal strife among current and former elected officials. The board of the Vermont League of Cities & Towns insurance provider announced its decision Friday. The Caledonian Record reports the insurance provider described the reason as a pattern of continued poor judgment and dysfunction which prevents the Town from following good risk management practices. The Vermont League of Cities and Towns had asked the board to drop the towns coverage. The town requested that it keep the coverage while it worked to change its business practices. Officials say the terms of the probation will be finalized at the next board meeting on Nov. 17. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Vermont The U.K. government holds North Korea responsible for the global WannaCry ransomware attack that crippled parts of the state-run National Health Service as a damning report highlighted its weak defense against such attacks. While the rogue Asian state has long been suspected as the culprit, this is the first time its been officially acknowledged by Britain. This attack, we believe quite strongly came from a foreign state, U.K. Security Minister Ben Wallace told BBC radio. North Korea was the state that we believe was involved in this world-wide attack on our systems. We can be as sure as possible. He added that the U.K. has been developing cyber weapons but warned that tit for tat attacks against hostile states would have consequences for ordinary citizens everyone needs to update their software and change passwords and that major companies were at risk. The National Audit Office criticized the Department of Health for being too slow to improve critical IT systems, in a report published Friday. It said reports from the National Data Guardian and Care Quality Commission published in July 2016 warned the government that cyber attacks could jeopardize patient security, but the health-care department had not made significant enough improvements by the time WannaCry struck. Unsophisticated It was a relatively unsophisticated attack and could have been prevented by the NHS following basic IT security best practice, the head of the NAO, Amyas Morse, said in an emailed statement. After WannaCry began infecting Microsoft Corp. Windows-powered computers via the internet on May 12, users were given 72 hours to pay $300 in bitcoin chosen by the hackers because the crypto currency is harder to track than conventional payments or pay twice as much. If they refused to pay after seven days, their computer would be permanently locked. The NHS was not specifically targeted companies such as FedEx Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. were also compromised but the NAO concluded Friday that 81 of the 236 NHS trusts were affected in some way by the attack, either by direct infection or voluntary shutdown of networked hardware as a precautionary measure. Trusts include regional hospitals and ambulance services. In addition, 595 local doctors offices were infected with the virus. Keith McNeil, chief clinical information officer for Health and Care at the NHS, said in a statement that many lessons had been learned from the incident, but as the NAO report makes clear, no harm was caused to patients and there were no incidents of patient data being compromised or stolen. He said an extra 21 million pounds ($28 million) has been made available to increase the cyber resilience of urgent and emergency care, starting with major trauma centers. WhatsApp Support While NHS computers and email accounts were inaccessible during the attack, local medical staff would communicate with each other via Facebook Inc.s WhatsApp messenger service, as well as telephone. In part, doing so was the result of what the NAO concluded was a lack of clear guidelines for responding to a major cyber attack. The use of WhatsApp in particular was in stark contrast to NHS guidance in 2015 that said the service should never be used for the sending of information in the professional health-care environment. The organization had appeared to have softened its stance as soon as May 25, when an NHS Digital guide to the use of social media said services like WhatsApp should not be used for work or official communications unless it is part of your responsibilities. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said earlier this year that WhatsApp should open its encryption to security services to help combat terrorism a so-called backdoor that would make it technically possible for a third party to access the platforms encrypted contents. Many security experts have criticized the demand, and Facebook has resisted them. Dan Taylor, head of security at NHS Digital, the health services IT provider, welcomed the outcome of the NAOs report and said WannaCrys impact on Britains health services was significant. The NAOs report concluded that although no ransom was paid by the NHS to regain access to medical systems, the organization would have spent additional money to cover additional IT support, national and local staff working overtime and canceled appointments. Related: Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings Ltd. (R&Q) announced it has reached agreement with ProSight Specialty Insurance to novate the management of Syndicate 1110 to R&Q Managing Agency Ltd. (RQMA). Day-to-day claims handling on non-U.S. business will be outsourced to R&Q Central Services. At the same time R&Q will acquire, for a nominal sum, the 100 percent shareholding of the ProSight corporate members: ProSight Specialty (TSMC) Ltd. (TSMC) and ProSight Specialty (ECUCM) Ltd. (ECUCM), which provide capital support to Syndicate 1110. ProSight will continue to meet funds-at-Lloyds obligations with respect to Syndicate 1110 until a reinsurance to close is completed by R&Q in early 2020, explained R&Q. ProSight has the option of requiring R&Q to provide up to 30 percent of the funds at Lloyds with four months notice in exchange for annual payments to cover R&Qs cost of capital. Based upon current expectations, the amount of funds at Lloyds that could be required by R&Q is circa 9.4 million ($12.3 million), the majority of which would be sourced from external funding providers, R&Q said in a statement. As part of ProSights exit from Lloyds, all of S1110s reinsurance of ProSights U.S.-based insurance companies was commuted. Further, business sourced by ProSight coverholder ProSight Specialty Insurance Solution to S1110 is being reinsured back to the ProSight Group via 100 percent quota share reinsurance provided by ProSights subsidiary New York Marine and General Insurance Co. (NYMG), which is A- rated by AM Best. S1110 will also have the benefit of an aggregate stop loss reinsurance on the non-U.S. business by NYMG in excess of current syndicate reserves of circa 76 million ($99.8 million). R&Q, as owner of the corporate members, will have the benefit of 75 percent of any future reserve savings, with ProSight retaining a 25 percent profit interest. Subject to regulatory approvals, R&Q will also acquire ProSight Specialty Underwriters Ltd. (PSUL) and ProSight Specialty Managing Agency Ltd. (PSMAL). PSMAL will be de-authorized ahead of the completion of the acquisition by R&Q. The consideration payable will be equal to the tangible net asset value of the two companies, approximately 1.1 million ($1.4 million), which will be satisfied in cash, said R&Q. Commenting on the transaction, Ken Randall, chairman of R&Q said, Our appetite for using our expert claims administration skills in the run-off of legacy Lloyds portfolios continues and this transaction is evidence of that. The ongoing collaboration with RQMA and Coverys, its proposed new owners, provides R&Q with continued access to the infrastructure required to manage syndicates with legacy business and we look forward to completing further transactions as the pipeline in this segment continues to grow. ProSight CEO Joe Beneducci commented: We are pleased to have completed this transaction enabling us to recapture our well performing U.S. book of business and also retain a profits interest on the UK portfolio. We look forward to working together with R&Q on the run-off of the UK book. Source: Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings Ltd. Topics USA Excess Surplus Reinsurance Lloyd's Global insurance broker Aon said it will acquire Henderson Insurance Broking Group, an independent UK-based insurance broker. Terms were not disclosed. Aon anticipates completing the acquisition in December. Henderson Insurance Broking Group is one of the UKs largest independent brokers, focusing on general insurance, health and benefits and trade credit insurance. Its clients range from large corporate businesses, through to mid-market and small-t0-medium enterprise businesses. It employs 400 people across 16 offices, predominantly in the north of England, but with clients and business across the UK. Aon said the acquisition of Henderson supports its ambitions to grow its UK retail business by increasing its footprint in the mid-market and specialist sectors. Henderson will be part of Aon Risk Solutions UK (ARS UK). Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Agencies Aon If Aetna Inc. is eventually swallowed by CVS Health Corp., an important part of the health-care business will be changed perhaps for good. For years, pharmacy benefits were largely carved out from the rest of a medical coverage plan. But increasingly the two services are being combined, a move that in theory will make it easier to verify whether expensive drugs are worth the cost. A merger of the third-biggest health insurer with the largest U.S. drugstore chain, which also operates a pharmacy-benefit management company, could speed the process. You are hearing the warning for the end of the road for the classic standalone pharmacy-benefit business, said Pratap Khedkar, managing principal at consulting firm ZS Associates. Drugmakers are producing more pricey treatments for cancer and rare diseases. Combining drug and medical benefits in the same place is the only way payers will figure out whether such expensive new drugs are actually making people better and saving money by keeping them out of the hospital, he said. A merger of CVS and Aetna would create a healthcare behemoth and put huge pressure on standalone players such as Express Scripts Holding Co. and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. Express Scripts would become the last major standalone pharmacy-benefit manager not allied with a major insurer. All Channels CVS and Aetna have held discussions about a potential deal, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified as the details arent public. A newly combined company would own the entire chain, from prescribing and filling prescriptions to the health plans that pay for them, said Michael Rea, of Rx Savings Solutions, which has an app that helps patients find lower cost drugs. Under a combined roof, the insurance arm of CVS-Aetna could help keep costs down by routing patients needing basic urgent care to CVS-owned walk-in clinics and keeping them out of expensive hospital emergency rooms, analyst Ann Hynes of Mizuho Securities said in a note to clients. The company would also become a formidable competitor to UnitedHealth Group Inc., the biggest health insurer and owner of its own PBM unit, OptumRx. But even with the new clout, a merger isnt likely to be derailed by federal antitrust authorities, said John Briggs, an antitrust attorney at Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider in Washington. CVS and Aetna declined to comment. Walgreens, the No. 2 drugstore operator, could also feel the pressure. A CVS-Aetna marriage could cause the drugstore chain to look for its own acquisition targets, with Express Scripts being the most likely, Charles Rhyee, an analyst at Cowen & Co., wrote in a note to clients Friday. And then theres Amazon.com Inc., which recently gained drug-wholesaler licenses in 14 states. The looming threat of the e-commerce behemoth entering the mail-order pharmacy business and pushing down profit margins for drug distributors, benefit managers and retail pharmacies intensifies the pressure on standalone players. For CVS, the move is a natural defense against the potential threat of Amazon entering the retail pharmacy market, Rhyee said. Another possibility is that Amazon could buy Express Scripts. That would give the internet retailer an instant and large foothold in both the PBM industry and the mail-order pharmacy business. Strong Model Health insurer Anthem Inc., Express Scripts biggest current client, announced earlier this month that it would leave Express Scripts when its contract ends at the end of 2019 to form its own PBM unit. And Prime Therapeutics, another major player, manages drug benefits for nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in numerous states. Our model is strong and thriving, said Jennifer Luddy, a spokeswoman for Express Scripts. We believe in the value that we provide to our customers as an independent PBM. On an earnings call this week, Express Scripts Chief Executive Officer Tim Wentworth said he was open to a deal with Amazon to help serve cash-paying patients. Walgreens declined to comment. In terms of the CVS-Aetna deal, antitrust authorities will look closely at the competition between the companies in selling Medicare Part D plans for the elderly, said Briggs, the attorney. There could be fight between the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission, which share antitrust enforcement, over which agency will investigate the merger, according to Briggs. The Justice Department handles insurer mergers and successfully stopped the combination of Aetna and Humana Inc. this year. The FTC investigates retail pharmacy deals. In September, it cleared Walgreens acquisition of 1,900 Rite Aid Corp. stores after Walgreens shrank the size of the deal. Still, a CVS-Aetna deal would likely win approval because a number of other major players will remain in the Part D market, he said. Thats an easy fix, Briggs said. The whole deal is not going to crater on account of Part D. Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. Topics Amazon Drugs A former South Carolina police officer fired after a photo of him posing in Confederate flag underwear appeared online has settled a wrongful termination lawsuit. North Charleston city attorney Brady Hair tells the Post and Courier of Charleston Friday the state Insurance Reserve Fund is paying $55,000 to Shannon Dildine. Dildine was fired after posting the photo online in June 2015, days after nine worshipers were shot at Charlestons Emanuel AME Church. In his suit against the city, Dildine said he hadnt known shooter Dylann Roof was seen in photos glorifying the Confederate flag. Dildine, who is white, also said the city discriminated against him. He said a black officer wasnt disciplined for posing with Black Lives Matter protesters. The city said Dildines picture was inflammatory and showed poor judgment. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics South Carolina In the three years that Springfield police officer Mike Massey has been a motorcycle traffic enforcement officer, hes seen it all when it comes to cellphone use and driving. In addition to witnessing drivers talking or texting on their cellphones while driving, hes seen them writing Facebook comments, using Snapchat to take selfies even watching pornography. Massey has pulled over such drivers, lectured them and sometimes written them up for it. But the 2017 Legislature passed House Bill 2597 this past summer, which broadened and clarified what constitutes distracted driving and increased the penalties for it. Before the law went into effect Oct. 1, drivers already were not permitted to text or call from a cellphone while driving. But the new law is a virtual hands-off policy when it comes to cellphone use now, making it illegal to hold or touch a cellphone for any reason, including listening to music or using apps for navigation. That thing is hot lava now. Dont touch it, Massey said. I dont care what youre doing with it. I dont care if youre scratching your face with it. You cant do it. Hands-free cellphone use still is permitted. Cellphones cradled in a dashboard mount are considered hands-free and are acceptable, but only if the functions in use require just a single touch or swipe to activate or deactivate. Planning to make a quick call or answer a text at a red light? That, too, is illegal. The car must be safely parked before a cellphone can legally be used. The first violation of the new cellphone law is a $260 fine; a second violation or if the first violation involves a wreck is a $435 fine. A conviction for a third offense can result in six months in jail or up to a $2,500 fine. Drivers younger than age 18 cannot use any device while driving, even if its hands-free. Im glad they changed the law because Ive heard all the excuses, Massey said. I was changing my music. I was checking my clock. Im tired of the excuses; you were using your phone. Period. Massey, who has been with Springfield police for 13 years, has been working in a team of three on traffic enforcement for the past three years. Officers Tom Speldrich and Matt Bohman also work the motorcycle patrol. Massey and Speldrich were working one recent morning on Main Street and then on Gateway Street, stopping drivers spotted with a phone in hand. We could literally write tickets all day long. But weve seen an improvement since the law went into effect, Massey said. Im sure once the surprise and newness wears off, people will go back to using them. Some people have upgraded to hands-free devices but then, there are people who still do it, Massey added. Theyre still holding their phones, holding them down real low to hold them out of the way, thinking theyre real sneaky. Massey shared some of his tricks for how he spots the drivers who think theyre being too sneaky to catch. If I see one hand up on the wheel . wheres the other hand? Thats my first thing; find the other hand, Massey said. The motorcycle officers also observe drivers from places that have a little elevation, he said, to give them a good vantage point for seeing into someones car. When he spots a violator, he pulls them over. But not everyone is issued a ticket. The man watching porn earlier this month on his lunch hour while driving, for instance, was stopped at a red light, with the sound of the graphic material he was watching audible through the cars bluetooth speaker system. While using your phone at a red light is still considered illegal under the new law, I figured that was a good enough embarrassment and education opportunity. So, he didnt give the man a ticket. Massey recalled a male driver recently who was taking a selfie only to realize when he checked the photo afterward that the officer was photographed in the background, riding alongside him and watching what he was doing. Hes also seen drivers with their iPads wedged up in the windshield, watching a movie while they are driving. During a recent shift, a number of people were pulled over for illegal cellphone use, but most received a warning. I was talking on my phone, Gwen Moede, 20, of Medford readily admitted when she was stopped in her Mini Cooper outside the Gateway post office. Im not from here, so I was calling my friend to ask how to get to her apartment. Moede said she does not have Bluetooth connection in her car and likely wont get a hands-free device, because she seldom speaks on her phone in the car. I used to text and drive all the time, but I just stopped because I didnt want anything bad to happen. So I stopped, myself. I dont do it anymore, she said. Massey, she added, could have given me a ticket, but he was really nice and told me I shouldnt use it, obviously. Massey then gave her directions to her friends apartment. Jim Gimarelli also was stopped on Gateway Street. He was more than forthcoming with Massey. My fault, my fault, he said with his hands in the air. I shouldnt have done it. I was talking on my phone. Gimarelli said he was on his lunch break from his job as the dental director of Pacific Source when he answered a work-related phone call. He said he has a Bluetooth system in his car, but he doesnt believe his phone an older-style flip phone would connect to it. Now, he says, hell look into it and wont talk on his cellphone again while driving. Gimarelli also was let go with just a warning. But not everyone is as forthcoming. Jodie Bloxham, 35, of Fall Creek was pulled over on Main Street after Massey said he spotted her holding her phone and touching it repeatedly with her finger. Bloxham at first denied that she was using her phone. But after Massey spotted it on the floorboard, she admitted she was, but said it was just to check the time. However, a clock was visible in her dashboard. I didnt know about the cellphone law, she finally admitted. I was running late to my appointment, and I was just looking at the time. Before, when he worked as a detective, Massey said he could regularly get criminals to confess to felonies. But in this position, he said, hes dealing with people who arent necessarily accustomed to having their daily habits corrected, and their automatic instinct is to deny any wrongdoing, perhaps because they are uncomfortable. Ive seen people launch their phones out of their cars, catapult them somewhere else inside the car, Massey said. Ive had people tell me they werent on their phones; they dont even have their phones with them. Thats when I get dispatch to call them, and sure enough its ringing inside the car. Massey said hes most bothered about people lying to his face about their cellphone use when children are in the car. Oh, I tell them, `You just put me in a really awkward position cause youre lying to police in front of your kids,? Massey said. Now that the new law is in effect, Massey said Springfield police are treating everyone as if they have a clean slate, meaning that if a driver had two previous distracted driving tickets for cellphone use before Oct. 1, those do not count in the tally of three tickets equal possible jail time. Just dont do it, Massey said. Theres no excuse for it. They havent invented an app to drive your car yet. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Legislation Auto Oregon What Is a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA)? A health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) is an employer-funded plan that reimburses employees for qualified medical expenses and, in some cases, insurance premiums. Employers are allowed to claim a tax deduction for the reimbursements they make through these plans, and reimbursement dollars received by employees are generally tax-free. Key Takeaways HRAs reimburse employees for certain medical expenses and sometimes insurance premiums. Employers, not employees, fund HRAs. An HRA is not portable; employees lose this benefit when they leave the company. Government rules, which employers may refine further, determine which expenses can be reimbursed for employees. Depending on the type of HRA, funds may be used to reimburse health insurance premiums, vision and dental insurance premiums, and qualified medical expenses. How a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) Works A health reimbursement arrangement is a plan set up by an employer to cover medical expenses for its employees. The employer decides how much it will put into the plan, and the employee can request reimbursement for actual medical expenses incurred up to that amount. All employees in the same class must receive the same HRA contribution. An HRA is not an account. Therefore, employees cannot withdraw funds in advance and then use them to pay medical expenses. Instead, they must incur the expense first, then have it reimbursed. Reimbursement at the time of service is possible if the employer provides an HRA debit card. An employee who uses up all the allocated funds in the HRA before year-end will have to cover any subsequent health bills out-of-pocket or with the funds in a flexible spending account (FSA), also known as a flexible spending arrangement, when available, or a health savings account (HSA) for employees who have a high-deductible health plan (HDHP). Maternity clothes, gym membership fees, and childcare are among the expenses not covered by a health reimbursement arrangement (HRA). Types of HRAs There are a few kinds of health reimbursement arrangements. Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (QSEHRA) A Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (QSEHRA) is a health coverage subsidy plan for employees working for businesses that employ less than 50 full-time workers. Also known as a small business HRA, a QSEHRA can be used to offset health insurance coverage or repay medical expenses that would be otherwise uncovered. The yearly limits are set by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). For 2022, a company with a QSEHRA can reimburse individual employees for up to $5,450 per year and employees that have families for up to $11,050 per year. In 2023, the limits change to $5,850 per individual and $11,800 per family. The money that is reimbursed is tax-free for the employees and tax-deductible for the employers. Individual Coverage HRA (ICHRA) An Individual Coverage HRA (ICHRA) is relatively new, having only been available since January 2020. Previously, HRAs could not be used to pay individual health insurance premiums. But as of January 2020, the government allows employers to offer their employees a new type of HRA called an individual coverage HRAinstead of group health insurance. Employees can use these HRAs to buy their own comprehensive individual health insurance with pretax dollars either on or off the Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplace. Individual coverage HRAs can also reimburse employees for qualified health expenses such as copayments and deductibles. Whether or not your ICHRA makes you eligible for a premium tax credit to help pay for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act depends on whether your employer's ICHRA meets minimum standards for so-called "affordability," and whether you choose to opt-in or opt-out of the coverage. Excepted Benefit HRAs (EBHRA) In addition, employers that continue to offer traditional group health insurance can offer Excepted Benefit HRAs (EBHRA) to reimburse employees for up to $1,950 a year in qualified medical expenses. Employees can enroll in an "excepted benefit HRA" even if they decline group health insurance coverage, but they cannot use the funds to buy comprehensive health insurance. They can, however, use the funds to pay for short-term health insurance, dental and vision insurance premiums, and qualified medical expenses. Benefits of Health Reimbursement Arrangements HRAs can be used to pay for qualified medical expenses, which include prescription medications, insulin, an annual physical exam, crutches, birth control pills, meals paid for while receiving treatment at a medical facility, care from a psychologist or psychiatrist, substance abuse treatment, transportation costs incurred to get medical care, and much more. Employees can also use HRAs to buy their own comprehensive individual health insurance with pretax dollars through the aforementioned individual coverage HRA (ICHRA). Employees can use the money in their HRAs to cover their spouse's and dependents' allowed medical, dental, and vision costs. Limitations of Health Reimbursement Arrangements An HRA only covers qualified medical and dental expenses. According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), medical expenses are costs incurred to alleviate or prevent a physical or mental ailment, not expenses to maintain general health, such as vitamins. An employer may exclude certain medical expenses even though the expenses are qualified by the IRS. An employers list of reimbursable medical expenses will be outlined in its HRA plan document for employees. The IRS issued a statement notifying taxpayers that at-home COVID-19 tests and personal protective equipment such as face masks and hand sanitizer are eligible medical expenses that can be paid or reimbursed under flexible health spending arrangements, health savings accounts, and health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs). Pros Can be used to pay for medical and dental expenses such as prescription medications, an annual physical exam, and birth control pills Can be used to pay for individual health insurance with pretax dollars Reimburses employees after they've paid for certain medical expenses and insurance premiums Cons Can't be used for costs that aren't deemed necessary, such as teeth whitening, funeral services, or non-prescription medication Is set up by the employer, who decides how much money goes into the plan Can't withdraw funds first, then pay expenses; must pay first, and then wait to get reimbursed Health Reimbursement Arrangements vs. Other Arrangements An employee with both an FSA and an HRAand an expense that is eligible to be reimbursed through both planscan't choose which will cover the expense. Instead, the costs will be reimbursed by the plan that the employer has set up to pay first. When this primary plan has been depleted, the second plan will be used to cover any subsequent eligible medical expenses that are reported for reimbursement. Here's a closer look at two other options for funding out-of-pocket medical expenses. FSA A flexible spending arrangment (FSA) is funded using a portion of an employee's pre-tax salary. In contrast to an HRA, each employee determines how much money should go into these arrangements annuallyup to $2,850 in 2022 and $3,050 in 2023. Unused funds in HRAs may be carried over to the following year according to the employer's discretion. Unused FSA funds generally cannot be used in the next plan year, although an employer may offer either a short grace period (2.5 months) or allow up to $610 to be carried over. HSA Compared to an HRA, a health savings account (HSA) is a fully vested tax-advantaged account that is not subject to forfeiture if funds remain in the account at the end of the year. An HSA is paired with a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) to pay for medical and dental expenses. The employee or employer funds the account and, like an FSA, cannot be used to pay insurance premiums. Unlike HRAs and FSAs, employees can keep their HSAs if they change employers. How Can I Use HRA Funds? Your employer determines the types of medical expenses that an HRA can be used for. Some plans can only reimburse services in your health plan, while others might include dental, vision, or pharmacy services. HRAs often, but do not always, reimburse other expenses such as copays, hospital expenses, medical equipment, eyeglasses, or routine doctor's visits. In addition, the IRS also excludes certain other expenses as being unqualified. For example, expenses that do not qualify as necessary medical expenses include teeth whitening, maternity clothes, funeral services, health club membership fees, controlled substances, childcare for a healthy baby, medication from other countries, and non-prescription medications. HRAs Are Not Portable HRA Funding and Portability The health reimbursement arrangement is funded solely by the employer, which also decides the maximum annual contribution for each employees HRA. Employers determine how much to contribute to employees HRAs, except that all workers in the same class of employees must receive the same contribution, as noted above. Workers who are older or who have dependents may receive more. Any HRA money unspent by year-end may be rolled over to the following year, although an employer may set a maximum rollover limit that can be carried over from one year to the next. Furthermore, if an employee is terminated or leaves the company to work for another firm, the HRA does not go with them. That makes it different from an HSAhealth savings accountwhich is portable. HRA Tax Advantages As a benefit to employers, reimbursements through the HRA are 100% tax-deductible. As an alternative to more expensive traditional healthcare, an employer may use an HRA to cover the health costs of several classes of employees. In addition, since employers fully fund the plans, they offer predictability, allowing employers to anticipate their approximate maximum expense for HRA health benefits for the year. Employees may use the arrangement to pay for a wide range of medical expenses not covered by their health insurance policies. Depending on the HRA type, they may also use it for medical, dental, or vision insurance premiums. Furthermore, reimbursements are tax-free up to a maximum amount for a coverage period. Some businesses may offer employees the added advantage of other employer-provided health benefits, such as an FSA, in conjunction with an HRA. Frequently Asked Questions What Is a HRA in Health Insurance? A health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) is an employer's plan to cover employee medical expenses. How Does a HRA Work? The employer determines the amount of money that will go into the plan, and the employee can ask to be reimbursed for qualified medical expenses up to the designated amount. Employers can take a tax deduction for the reimbursements made through these plans, and the reimbursements given to employees are usually tax-free. What Is a HRA vs. a HSA? A health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) is a benefit used to pay employees back in tax-free money for certain qualified medical expenses and health coverage premiums. A health savings account (HSA) is a tax-advantaged account used by individuals covered under a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) looking to save up to cover the cost of qualified medical expenses. Can I Cash out My HRA? No. HRA money that hasn't been used by the end of the year can usually be rolled over to the following year, with an employer determining the maximum amount that can be carried from one year to another. What Qualifies for HRA Reimbursement? Examples of medical and dental expenses considered necessary might be an annual check-up, prescriptions, or substance abuse treatment. The Bottom Line A health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) is a tax-advantaged plan that employers use to reimburse employees for certain approved medical and dental expenses. The employer determines the plan amount up to a yearly limit, and the employee can be reimbursed up to that amount. The reimbursements paid to the employee are tax-free, and the employers can claim a tax deduction for their reimbursements. A Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangement (QSEHRA) is an HRA for smaller companies with fewer than 50 full-time workers. An Individual Coverage HRA (ICHRA) allows employees to buy their own individual health insurance with pretax dollars. Employees with an ICHRA can be reimbursed for health expenses such as copayments and deductibles. Top News - Investor Idea Breaking EV Stock News: Mullen's (NASDAQ: MULN) 'Strikingly Different' EV Crossover Tour Heads to Texas After Completing a Successful Sold Out Stop in Las Vegas BREA, Calif. - November 15, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Mullen Automotive, Inc. (NASDAQ: MULN), an emerging electric vehicle ("EV") manufacturer, announces today that it has successfully completed the third stop of the Mullen FIVE Strikingly Different EV Crossover Tour in Las Vegas, Nevada. Top AI News - Investor Idea Breaking AI Stock News: FatBrain (OTCQB: LZGI) Acquires UK-based Forecasting Innovator Predictive Black To Help SMEs Optimize Cash Management NEW YORK, NY - November 15, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) FatBrain AI (LZG International, Inc.) (OTCQB: LZGI), the leader in powerful and easy-to-use artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for star enterprises of tomorrow (some call SMEs), has acquired Predictive Black Ltd, a UK-based innovator of real-time cash management, financial insights and business wellness for SMEs. Top Fashion News - Investor Idea New Fashion Designer Launches this Holiday Season in Kelowna and Online; Sweet Dees Creations Fun, Flirty and Affordable Kelowna B.C. - November 14, 2022 (Investorideas.com Newswire) A local fashion designer is launching a new women's line at Kelowna markets and online this Holiday Season that will make heads turn with her whimsical and colourful choices Check out our Podcasts for great investor ideas: Get new posts by email: Subscribe Powered by Investorideas.com Newswire: Subscribe to Investor Ideas Newswire The perception of a new Cold War between China and the US seems to have emerged. Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, during an August interview with The American Prospect, stated that the United States is at economic war with China ... One of us is going to be a hegemon in 25 or 30 years and its gonna be them if we go down this path. In sync with these comments, US President Donald Trump has launched investigations into Chinese intellectual property theft that could lead to US tariffs on Chinese imports. It seems that the Trump administration views China as a possible threat to US preeminence. According to George Washington University historian Gregg Brazinsky in his new book, Winning the Third World: Sino-American Rivalry During the Cold War, Washington has long feared that China will spread a model of political and economic development that will fundamentally undermine the liberal international order that the United States seeks to uphold. This is to say that Washington favors national self-determination within a liberal, capitalist international order while China, by contrast, prefers economic, socialist self-reliance. Historically, these different views have led China and the US into open conflict, first in the Korean War in which China backed North Korea and the US backing the South; and later in Vietnam where China buttressed the communist insurgency against the French and then the Americans. Cambodia was the victim of this great power competition during the 1970s. Lt. Gen. Lon Nol, the premier and defense minister held a pro-US foreign policy while Prince Sihanouk, the head of state, pursued a neutrality policy, and was seen tilting towards China. The prince was under pressure from the US and South Vietnam for his tolerance of the North Vietnamese and sanctuary for the Vietcong in the eastern region of Cambodia. With strong US support, Lon Nol led a bloody military coup to oust the prince when he was on his way back to Cambodia from a tour of Europe, the Soviet Union, and China. However, due to the withdrawal of American soldiers in South Vietnam, Lon Nol was defeated in 1975 by the Cambodian communist leader Pol Pot, who was underpinned by China and North Vietnam. Cambodia under Pol Pot saw the brutal extermination of nearly 2 million people. Recently, the arrest of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) leader Kem Sokha on the charge of treason his alleged conspiracy with the US to seize power from the ruling Cambodia Peoples Party (CPP) and the closure of local media and the National Democratic Institute (NDI), an American-funded institution to promote democracy in Cambodia and around the world, have caused more political friction among Cambodian political elites and sparked more debate about the future direction of Cambodias foreign policy. The question that needs to be answered is whether Cambodia is likely to move along a tragic historical path. Following Kem Sokhas arrest, the US ambassador to Cambodia William Heidt delivered a statement denying all the allegations associated with the US, and stated that he was surprised that Kem Sokha was accused of being connected with the US. The ambassador found all of it extraordinary and called for the immediate release of Kem Sokha. However, the ambassador did not acknowledge the fact that the NDI, according to its 2009 report Electoral Reform in Cambodia: Program Consultation Reports, has provided technical assistance to parties and civic groups and aided democratic activists working through these groups on electioneering. Different groups may interpret this differently; however, to the Cambodian ruling elites, this could be seen as interference in Cambodias political process, thereby justifying the expulsion of the NDI from the country. Even though the current situation has not yet returned Cambodia to the old tragic days of great power rivalry, Cambodia under the ruling CPP needs to critically consider the consequences of alienating the US and embracing China. China has stepped in to lend a hand to Cambodia. Chinas foreign affairs spokesperson Geng Shuang announced that China would support Cambodias effort to protect national security and stability. During his meeting with Cambodian National Assembly president Heng Samrin, Wang Jiarui, the Vice President of the National Committee of the Chineses People Political Consultative Conference said: China will cooperate and assist Cambodia in all circumstances. China has long believed that regime change in authoritarian states has been one of the top priorities of US policy across the globe, for example in Syria and Serbia. Moreover, China, which perceives itself as the patron of Cambodia, needs to sustain Hun Sens regime partly because a new leadership from the opposition party may not grant China its geopolitical interests, such as support for China in the South China Sea dispute. Some analysts have commented that the current great power rivalry in Cambodia is a new type of Cold War, reminiscent of what happened in 1960s and 1970s when the foreign policy orientation of the political leaders was politically divided. One should notice that the situation is now a small-scale version of great power competition between China and the US. With that said, to predict what would happen in the short-term future, we will need to closely observe the evolving dynamics of great power politics in Cambodia. First, the power contest between China and the US in Asia is one of the key yardsticks to determine whether Cambodia is likely to become a Cold War battleground. American power today under President Donald Trump is seen as waning while Chinese power under President Xi Jinping is seen as growing. This could be the reason why President Trump is not interested in the promotion of democracy and human rights as evident in his speeches as well as his America First slogan. President Trump has also proposed to cut the financial budget for aid to developing countries. In that proposal, Cambodia could be hit by a 70 percent cut, with a decline in contributions to Cambodia from USD 77.4 million to USD 22.9 million, as well as the complete eradication of development assistance worth USD 34.8 million and USD 8 million in economic support. Trumps proposed budget cut could mean the end of democracy and human rights promotion. This could also mean a downgrade in the US pressure against Cambodias CPP government. This argument rests on the assumption that if people are aware of their right to take part in democratic elections, it will not be easy for the CPP to take the free ride. In this case, for Cambodia to become a Cold War battleground, the Trump administration has to keep upholding conventional practices like his predecessors have done. However, what is happening now is the exact opposite. Second, the domestic power asymmetry between the CPP and the CRNP is another determining factor. Despite technical and financial assistance to the CNRP from the US, it does not have a likely chance to win the upcoming elections in 2018. One has to be aware that the ruling CPP has complete control over the military. As deputy military commander Chea Dara stated: Every soldier is a member of the Peoples Army and belongs to the CPP because Samdech Decho [Hun Sen] is the feeder, caretaker, commander, and leader of the army. More recently, as proposed by Hun Sen, Cambodias National Assembly has approved four amendments to the countrys electoral law, allowing for the dissolution of the CNRP and the redistribution of its seats to smaller government-aligned parties. Even though the current situation has not yet returned Cambodia to the old tragic days of great power rivalry, Cambodia under the ruling CPP needs to critically consider the consequences of alienating the US and embracing China. This could, for example, lead to economic vulnerability arising from being too dependent on China; domestic political divisions arising from different foreign policy ideologies; Chinas political proxy state, non-neutral foreign policy orientation; and, most seriously, civil war. To avoid these consequences, the Cambodian government should encourage national unity, promote fair and democratic multi-party elections, strengthen democratic institutions, and preserve the rule of law. These are the ways forward and they remain the only hope for the ordinary Cambodian people. Far East Consortium International Limited Immediate Release 30 October, 2017 FEC Acquires Hungarian Car Park Business (30 October, 2017 - Hong Kong) Far East Consortium International Limited ("FEC" or the "Group"; SEHK: 35) is delighted to announce that the Group has completed the acquisition of a portfolio of 6 car parks in Budapest, Hungary at a consideration of approximately EUR21.0 million. The car park portfolio, with a capacity of approximately 1,400 spaces associated retail tenancies is located in the prestigious central city District 6 and District 7 of Budapest with strong demand for car parking spaces. The acquisition provides the Group a solid base to expand its car park management operation in Budapest and Hungary, and places the Group as one of the largest car park owners and operators in Hungary. Hungary is ideally located in the centre of Europe and is attracting significant investment in manufacturing, infrastructure, office and hotel investment, providing a strategic base for the Group to expand further throughout Europe. Budapest is the capital of Hungary and is a vibrant and bustling city with a population of approximately 2 million. It is also the international trade hub of Hungary and is a growing European tourist destination. The entry of the Group into the European market with this acquisition has further geographically diversified its presence for the car parking operations and will further add to the steady cash flow of the Group. Care Park, the Group's car parking arm, places significant focus on implementing technology initiatives to increase customer service quality and the efficiency of its operations. As at 31 March 2017, Care Park operates over 390 car parks throughout Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, the United Kingdom and now Hungary, making Care Park one of the global leaders in parking. Mr. Chris HOONG, Managing Director of FEC said, "We are very excited about Care Park's successful acquisition of this unique portfolio of car parks in Hungary. This follows our acquisition of the Boundary Farm car park near Manchester City airport with 1,500 parking bays. The Group intends to further expand its car parking business in Europe leveraging on Care Park's advanced management system and technology platform and its success in Asia Pacific. Our vision is to build this business into a prominent international car parking platform which will contribute to the Group's growing recurring cash flow stream. " Mr. Robert BELTEKY, Managing Director of Care Park said, "It is both unique and rare to be able to purchase a portfolio of six car parks in prime central city locations in a major European city. The acquisition allows Care Park to create a strong base and footprint in Europe to add to our portfolio in Australasia. Care Park has based its business on providing innovative technology, marketing and operational products and systems. Our goal is to provide tailored solutions to improve the parking experience to customers and maximise the value of the assets we manage both within our owned portfolio and those we manage for third party owners. Our increasing global platform has allowed us to identify growth markets such as Hungary and to add further regions and a greater base to grow our brand. We will continue to look for opportunities to identify value adding opportunities and add to our reputation which this year included being recognised as the Parking Organisation of the year in our home base of Australia." ~ END ~ About Far East Consortium International Limited Far East Consortium International Limited has been listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange since 1972 (HKExstock code: 35.HK). The Group is mainly engaged in property development and investment, hotel operation and management, as well as car park and facilities management. The Group adopts diversified regional strategy and the "Chinese Wallet" strategy with business covering Hong Kong, Mainland China, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and New Zealand. FEC official website: www.fecil.com.hk FEC WeChat and Weibo: http://www.weibo.com/u/5703712831 For further information, please contact: Far East Consortium International Limited Ms. Venus Zhao, Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Finance Contact Number: (852) 2850 0639 Email: venus.zhao@fecil.com.hk Wonderful Sky Financial Group Ms. Sammie Zhang / Ms. Serana Liu / Ms. Navin Law Contact Number: (852) 3970 2255/ (852) 3970 2198 / (852) 3970 2256 Email: fecil@wsfg.hk Children's Minister Katherine Zappone will lead a fact-finding mission to New York starting today to improve state agency co-operation on child protection. Representatives from the Gardai, child and family agency Tusla and other government officials will join her in meeting officials who co-operate in the provision of child protection services there. It comes after an audit conducted by the Special Rapporteur on Child Protection Dr Geoffrey Shannon earlier this year found poor levels of inter-agency co-operation on the matter. Speaking from New York, Dr Shannon says an advocacy centre the delegation is visiting in the Bronx tomorrow will hopefully provide a model Ireland can follow. "I identified a model of best practice in the Bronx which reflected modern thinking on how to deal with this issue," he said. "We've been talking about inter-agency co-operation for some time, and my view is that what we need now is a far-reaching change to ensure that children don't slip through the cracks. "It's so important that we have a model where agencies work together to ensure that no child is left behind." President Donald Trump has unleashed new criticism of the investigations into possible ties between his campaign associates and Russia. Mr Trump - in a series of five tweets - attacked claims of "Trump/Russia 'collusion'" saying it does not exist. Its like a giant farmers market really, but indoors. You have the best Cork and Kerry producers at your fingertips, producers that you may not have met before at the Mahon Point, Douglas or Wilton ones, Mr Burke said. Supported by a partnership including the LEOs of Cork and Kerry, Taste Cork, Taste Kerry, Cork City Council, Cork County Council, Kerry County Council, SuperValu and Bord Bia, the free food market takes place from 10am to 6pm and is a golden opportunity for local producers in the South West to elevate their homegrown businesses. Mr Burke said between 2012 and 2017, Cork and Kerry LEOs have grant aided more than 150 food projects, and provided specific food training and mentoring to hundreds of people. The public is buying into indigenous produce. A survey of more than 400 people carried out by the Cork and Kerry LEOs found 88% said they make an effort to buy Irish food and drink products, with 69% saying that they consider where a product is made when doing their grocery shopping. Some 90% also said they were more likely to buy a brand when they know the story behind it and 88% said they buy more local artisan produce at Christmas time. Mr Burke said: Ultimately we see the value in this event with the consumers engaging. From the tastings of the food producers, to buying produce, to having bags available for people who may want to buy a few things there will be 70-odd different producers from Cork and Kerry there. For the first time this year, there will be a craft microbrewing offering. About eight breweries are lined up and there is a full bar licence. Events such as the Cork and Kerry Food Market, which includes the Irish Examiner as a partner, is one of the most vital for the LEOs, according to Mr Burke. Were a state agency so we are judged on jobs created. Theres 320 new food producers created through the Food Academy nationally. That has worked out at about 1,500 jobs in the past four years, all on the back of that. We notice every year that if we can convince another cohort of people locally and introduce them to local products, they will put them in their basket, he said. The Food Academy collaboration between Bord Bia and the LEOs has been massive for local producers, who have had SuperValu to promote it. Any SuperValu that a customer walks into today will have a specific section promoting indigenous food and drink. Theres loads of examples of people reintroducing foods that we love into healthier and more nutritious options. It is a huge market. I have found in the food industry that their market research is ostensibly paid for at the farmers market. They introduce the product to the consumer, who then takes it home. They come back and tell the producer what they liked or did not like about it -- it is live feedback before they come to Food Academy or being introduced to supermarkets, said Mr Burke. He pointed to Walls Honest Chips as one of the best examples of what can be done with imagination and business savvy. The East Cork food produced by Kieran Wall is genius, according to Mr Burke. He was on the Food Academy about a year ago and had a great idea for par-cooking chips, in order to make it more convenient for chip lovers. That product has taken off because he was innovative in what he wanted to do. Theyre healthier homegrown chips. Some of the ideas are fantastic, he said. SuperValu are also seeing the benefit, he said. Four years ago we asked SuperValu to be a partner with us on this event. They are very open and they see an opportunity themselves for differentiating themselves in the marketplace -- a retailer that is interested in artisan food. Consumers are following that. While wholly appreciative of Cork City Hall, Mr Burke said that the long-mooted event centre for the city could really make the event world-class. While we really appreciate Cork City Hall as a venue, we cant expand beyond 70-odd producers. Wed love to double that, he said. More than 70 artisan food and drink producers as well as cookery demonstrations from celebrity Chef Kevin Dundon and The Happy Pear brothers, David and Stephen Flynn will take place next Saturday. There is something there for everyone in the family. Saturday is a shopping day for people anyway. Before or after they go and do their big weekly shop in one of the larger stores, perhaps they can come in the morning or afternoon and see what the local producers have to offer, Mr Burke said. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said the regulator may impose fines that are potentially double the 4.5m sanctioned against Permanent TSBs Springboard Mortgages last year. Eleven institutions may be fined if banks do nothing to resolve the crisis. Last night, the Government denied Fianna Fail claims that it had put the value of its bank shares before the needs of the 20,000 victims by failing to immediately take on the banks. Mr Donohoe said further action is likely. Asked about the scandal, on Newstalk radios On The Record with Chris Donoghue, the finance minister said individual banks could still be held to account and hit with multi-million euro fines. That could happen yet, he said. The Central Bank may well reach a conclusion for a particular bank, as they did recently in relation to Spingboard. He also said banks could be hit with similar fines to the 4.5m imposed on the private firm. Last November, Springboard Mortgages, which is a unit of Permanent TSB, was fined 4.5m by the Central Bank, for overcharging customers for their tracker mortgages. The move, which was taken under the Central Banks consumer-protection codes, made Springboard the first such lender to be sanctioned. The 4.5m fine was imposed under pre-2013 laws, which limited any financial sanctions to 5m. However, under new laws, implemented in 2013, the amount has been doubled to 10m. Since the Springboard Mortgages fine was announced last November, the Central Bank has been continuing to examine the situation with a full report due in the coming weeks. This is likely to recommend further fines for five firms: Springboard Mortgages, Permanent TSB, Ulster Bank, and two which remain unidentified, and up to six other institutions. Because of the new law, and the number of banks involved, the fines could exceed 100m. This is in addition to provisions set aside by banks, which reach into the hundreds of millions of euro, for fines, legal expenses, court cases, and other matters. However, the exact figure for the sanctions is unclear, because some of the tracker-mortgage scandal issues pre-date 2013 and, as such, can only be prosecuted under the old 5m limit law and not the new 10m ceiling. Meanwhile, Mr Donohoe and junior finance minister Michael DArcy have rejected Fianna Fail criticism that they put the Governments bank share-prices before the needs of victims. During a Saturday interview on RTE Radios Marian Finucane show, Mr Donohoe said that protecting the 11bn in bank shares held by the Government was a factor in the response to the crisis. Fianna Fails spokesman on finance, Michael McGrath, and spokesman on communications, Timmy Dooley, labelled the claim proof that the Government is conflicted on the issue, with Mr Dooley telling RTEs The Week in Politics that Fine Gael is still playing footsie with the banks. Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe warned that any settlement would undermine our business model and put thousands of Irish jobs at risk, as Taoiseach Leo Varadkar travels to the US to hold crunch talks with Apple chief executive, Tim Cook, and other high-ranking business officials, during a three-day trip to California. Speaking to Newstalk radios On The Record, with Chris Donoghue, Mr Donohoe said that, despite growing pressure from Europe and from Irish citizens that the money be handed over, there is no reason to do so. Asked directly why it is not in Irelands interests for the Government to push Apple to repay the 13.6bn in unpaid taxes, Mr Donohoe said this country would only receive a fraction of the sum, in return for putting jobs at risk. I dont think theres a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, he said. What the European Commission has said is that if such a source of funding is identified, other countries would also be liable to take a share. So, other countries will go after it. Were Ireland to take that funding, its my judgement that the gain of a single year will be undermined by massive loss, year after year, after the integrity of our business model is undermined. Since the European Commission announced last year , that Apple owes Ireland 13.6bn in unpaid taxes, due to loopholes in existing Irish tax law, the Government has been under increasing pressure to ensure the money is handed over. However, despite the demands from Brussels, from ordinary citizens and even from members of its own cabinet, the Fine Gael-led coalition insists it would damage Irelands economy to take the money as it would put multi-national jobs at risk. Just last month, the European Commission decided to send the case to the European Court of Justice potentially resulting in significant fines for Ireland, if no change in position is made. Mr Donohoe said he is very disappointed Brussels has chosen to take the action and it is the wrong way to approach the issue. I was very, very disappointed, as we have kept the European Commission abreast of all the work we have been doing, said Mr Donohoe. The transaction will be the largest of its kind ever. When we set up the fund, it will be one of the top-20 biggest funds in the world. I dont believe they were right, in initiating the court action against us. If they were to win this case, at the European Court of Justice, there could be a fine in the future, but, at this point, I cant tell you what it will be. Mr Donohoes comments come as Mr Varadkar prepares to fly to California, as part of a three-day trip, to meet with a number of heads of multi-national businesses that have bases in Ireland. The meetings are believed to also include a discussion with Apple chief executive Tim Cook, who last year received a similar visit from then finance minister Michael Noonan to calm concerns over the European Commission development. The intervention request was made to ECB president Mario Draghi by Fianna Fail TD and finance committee chair John McGuinness amid claims that the Government, because of its bank shares, and the Central Bank will fail to fully address what happened. In a letter to Mr Draghi, Mr McGuinness said independent oversight is still needed. However, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has confirmed that the Central Bank may ultimately impose 10m fines on each of the banks involved. Because the fines will not necessarily ensure that the 20,000 victims of the scandal receive full compensation, Mr McGuinness said the ECB must be called in to guarantee that the people most affected receive all the supports they need. Mr McGuinness, who was central to highlighting the tracker-mortgage scandal, told the Irish Examiner last night that the ECB is allowed to come to Ireland to oversee compensation plans, under EU European banking supervisory regime rules implemented in 2014. He said that former finance minister Michael Noonan alluded to the legality of the move when he told the Oireachtas finance committee on July 4, 2013, that the ECB could fly supervisors to Dublin or base teams here to take control. We absolutely need independent oversight, said Mr McGuinness last night. The Central Bank has a conflict in protecting the stability of the institutions, and the Government has a conflict in the shares. We need to ensure the banks are properly offering the redress, giving the compensation package, and that there is no risk of this happening again. The call for the ECB to oversee the tracker-mortgage fallout is likely to be controversial, due to the ECBs role in the Troika during the recession. However, it is expected to be supported by a number of TDs, who remain concerned that the Governments plans of last week to address the scandal did not go far enough. The plans did not insist on immediate changes at the top of banks, pay structure alterations, or new board memberships rules. Mr Donohoe admitted during an RTE radio interview on Saturday that the States bank share prices were a consideration in any intervention. Fianna Fails finance spokesman, Michael McGrath, and communications spokesman, Timmy Dooley, said that Mr Donohoes statement was proof the Governments bank shares mean it and the Central Bank are conflicted on the issue with Mr Dooley telling RTEs The Week in Politics that Fine Gael is still playing footsie with the banks. However, the claim was rejected yesterday by junior finance minister Michael DArcy, who told the same programme: Were not conflicted. Meanwhile, the Central Bank could impose up to 10m fines on each bank found guilty of involvement in the tracker-mortgage scandal, as part of fresh sanctions unrelated to compensation measures. Asked about the issue on Newstalk radios On The Record programme, Mr Donohoe said individual banks could still be held to account and hit with multi-million euro fines, similar to the 4.5m fine imposed on the Permanent TSB (linked to Springboard Mortgages last November for overcharging tracker-mortgage customers). The 4.5m figure was imposed under pre-2013 laws, which limited sanctions to 5m. However, under new laws, implemented in 2013, the amount has doubled to 10m. News: 4 Solidarity-People Before Profit and Sinn Fein made the claim after the Department of Foreign Affairs said it continues to respect the integrity of a united Spain. In a vote on Friday, Catalonias devolved parliament voted in favour of backing and implementing a decision earlier this month by the local population in a disputed unofficial ballot to secede from Spain. It seems a long way from the Congo to Cum a Ciste pass in Iveragh, Co Kerry, but this weekend saw the official unveiling of a plaque to Colonel Patrick Quinlan, a native of the parish of Caherdaniel, who led his troops at the siege of Jadotville 56 years ago. The memorial created by sculptor Holger Lonze is a bronze relief set on Valentia slate to Colonel Pat Quinlan of this parish, who ensured the survival against the odds of the men under him and whose recognition is long overdue. Imagine working your dream job. Imagine how wonderful it would feel getting up in the morning to do the work you most enjoy; the work you hoped since childhood that you would one day do. Lisa Waterman (23) is well on her way to doing just that. The delighted Cork woman was selected to train as a hairdressing assistant under a new national employment programme for adults with Down syndrome. Shes one of six trainees participating in Beauty in All its Forms, a joint initiative between Down Syndrome Ireland and haircare brand, ALFAPARF Milano. The hope is that the training and subsequent in-salon work-experience will provide participants with the necessary skillset for long-term employment. In conversation, Lisa is sweet and lovely in her own inimitable way. This career boost has enhanced her natural exuberance: It gave me confidence in my own ability as a person, she says, And it makes me feel very, very special. As a little girl, what did she want to be when she grew up? A hairdresser. Does that mean this is Yes. It does. It means Im doing my dream job, that this is my dream job, that this is my dream come true. Shes learning loads: Im able to fold towels, wash hair, brush floors and tidy up, she says and its clear that she loves what shes doing. Given his apparent partiality for those who rise early for work, our Taoiseach would be well pleased to hear that not only does Ms Waterman do just that, but she keep bakers hours to ensure she catches the early Cork to Dublin train each week for her training. I love getting up early because I feel excited for the day ahead, she says and when she puts it like that, her excitement is contagious. Given that shes so fond of hair- styling, I enquire which celebrities have lovely hair, in her opinion. She doesnt pause to think. In a flash shes straight out with: Kim Kardashian and Cheryl Tweedy. We agree about that. What about celebs whose hair-style or colour she might like to change? Shes thoughtful now. None, she replies, having carefully considered the matter. She is of course much too nice to be critical of anyone, let alone suggest their tresses, locks, mops or manes need improving. Full marks for Lisa. I make a mental note to try to be more like her, as in less critical and judgmental, more accepting, and imagine she has that impact on most people. The fact that she will shortly be gaining in-salon work experience gives her mother, Noreen, much hope for her youngest childs future: We were thrilled when she was selected. Its getting her out of her shell. Shes making friends. She loves all the girls shes working with and the trainers, and theres a chance she might get something out of it eventually. Her dad Gordon and I, the whole family, were over the moon and delighted shes been given this opportunity. Many would love to have the opportunity Lisa has particularly given the fact that Down Syndrome Ireland CEO Gary Owens estimates that only 5% of those who have the condition and who are of working age, ability and availability, are in paid employment in this country. This is an upsetting, frustrating and soul-destroying situation, one thats indicative of an inherent wrong, one that deprives many of maximising their true potential, broadening their horizons and obtaining financial and social independence. Emphasising the simple truth that people with Down syndrome want to work, Owens says: They represent a substantial source of untapped commitment and talent. Yet, the 2010 Employers Disability Forum found them to be one of the most under- represented groups in the labour market. He applauds companies like Alfaparf Milano who offer adults with Down syndrome the opportunity to gain meaningful paid employment and urges other employers to do so too. In March of this year the ESRI published figureswhich showed the disproportionate representation in the Irish workplace of individuals with disability. Only 31% had jobs, compared with 71% of those without a disability. The figures highlight a shameful truth thats being battled daily by Gary Owens and others such as Emily Logan (above right), chief commissioner of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC). The rights of persons with disabilities to seek and secure employment without discrimination is enshrined in Irish law under the Employment Equality Acts, says Logan. In 2016, a quarter of all public concerns raised with us under this legislation focused directly on issues of disability-related discrimination, either in employment or during recruitment. Weve been consistent in our calls for the State to make rights real for persons with disabilities through final ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD). Article 27 explicitly recognises the right of persons with disabilities to work on an equal basis with others, alongside the right to a work environment thats open, inclusive and accessible to persons with disabilities. Today, Ireland is the only EU Member State not to have ratified the Convention; a fact that people with disabilities continue to highlight as a source of immense frustration. Pearse happened to share his name with the figure-head of the Easter Rising six years earlier but his mother was also named Margaret, and he had a younger brother Willie, just like Wilie Pearse who was also executed in May 1916. The new claim emerges in files just made available to researchers about the deaths of Pearse, Daniel OSullivan and Michael Hayes outside Upton on October 4, 1922. Tom Barry and Tom Hales claimed over a decade later that a Fr OConnell led the National Army party that killed the three. Barry named him as ex-Father Jeff OConnell, and said he was told that this Fr OConnell actually did the shooting. He appears to be referring to Jephson OConnell, who signed up to the National Army at Kinsale six weeks earlier, on August 21. It was the day after National Army forces landed in Kinsale and anti-Treaty IRA evacuated the town. The fledgling Free State saw an influx of army recruits after taking over Cork City earlier in August. The day after OConnell joined the army, its commander-in-chief Michael Collins was killed elsewhere in Co Cork at Beal na Blath. The 35-year-old was a commandant in the infantry by November 1922, and gave his next-of-kin as a Catholic curate in Kinsale, Fr E Fitzgerald, who he said was his cousin. Curiously, however, OConnell gave his own home address as care-of the Guaranty Trust at Pall Mall in London, in a National Army census. Tom Barry, seen here speaking at Kilmichael in 1969, claimed that Daniel OSullivan, Patrick Pearse, and Michael Hayes were killed by a Fr Jeff OConnell of the National Army in a Cork Civil War incident in 1922. He is almost certainly the same Jephson OConnell who outlined concerns about army discipline in a series of secret meetings that began around September 1922 with Kevin OHiggins, minister for justice in the first Free State government. These meetings influenced actions by OHiggins around an army mutiny in 1924 that led to the resignation of Defence Minister Richard Mulcahy. A separate account held in the National Library of Ireland, written by a former National Army figure, suggests Jephson OConnell was an ex-chaplain to the British Army. It said he had rendered spiritual assistance to IRA members in West Cork during the War of Independence, including Tom Barrys Flying Column. This could be a confusion with Canon Patrick OConnell of Enniskeane, an older priest who heard confessions of Barrys men before the Kilmichael ambush in November 1920. However, the same account goes on to say the same Jephson OConnell was defrocked after defying orders of Corks Catholic Bishop Daniel Coholan to cease his activities with the IRA. This tallies with an account by Cork Fianna Fail TD Sean MacCarthy in Patrick Pearses file, when he wrote to party colleague and Defence Minister Kevin Boland in 1957. The grave in Kinsale of Patrick Pearse and Daniel OSullivan, killed in 1922. Picture: Military Service Pensions Collection, Military Archives I could use a far stronger word than killed, he wrote about the death of Pearse and his fellow anti-Treaty IRA fighters. Father? OConnell, afterwards silenced by the Bishop of Cork; and supposed to be silent in the Civil Service (Dept. of Defence) but really most active behind the scenes, and not in our interests, MacCarthy wrote in a letter revealed in the latest release last week from the Military Service Pensions Collection (MSPC) by the Department of Defence and Defence Forces Military Archives. In his April 1933 account of the deaths at Upton in October 1922, also contained in one of several MSPC files relating to Patrick Pearse, Tom Barry wrote that he was murdered by members of National Army. The particulars of this Volunteers death are well known to ex-Father Jeff OConnell who whilst acting as Chaplain in Kinsale left the Barracks (carrying a rifle and two revolvers) in charge of a raiding party of Free State troops, he wrote. His reply to a query from the Military Service Registration Board said that they murdered several Republicans in the same raid. I was told that this Fr OConnell actually did the shooting. This ex-priest is now I understand a high official in the Free State Land Commission. I suggest that a statement can be got from him as to the murders especially as he is now a paid State official. In a separate handwritten form, completed on the same date, Tom Hales who previously commanded the IRAs Bandon Battalion, wrote: Free State soldiers from Kinsale under command of Rev OConnell and Capt Byrne were or must have taken up positions, creating an element of surprise, against Republicans in this area. When this became known to Republican [Officer-in-Command], Pearse and his two comrades was [sic] placed in a position by Tom Kelleher O.C, the safest and best, as he thought. A few minutes after, shots rang out. No other engagement ensued. The three were found dead, wrote Hales. In his own account a few months later, in support of a claim by Patrick Pearses mother Margaret, Tom Kelleher said he was in charge of the IRA column, but made no mention of who fired the fatal shots. He was ambushed by the Free State Army, while going on outpost duty, and shot dead... A rifle bullet went through his chest and out his back at the shoulder blade, Kelleher wrote. The bodies were found by a sister of Sean MacCarthy, the TD who wrote to Kevin Boland in 1957, half a mile from the family home. The same allegation of involvement by a priest in the death of IRA figures in the Civil War was made in an interview given to IRA commander Ernie OMalley in one of his interviews with IRA veterans carried out decades later. However, Jack Fitzgerald from Kilbrittain near Kinsale, gave a different name. Jeff..OConnor, a priest, shot some of the lads and he is now in the Department of Defence, he told OMalley. The National Armys official account of what happened at Lisaniskey near Upton was carried in the Cork Examiner on October 10. It said three IRA men were shot dead after refusing to halt when they attempted to cut off National Army troops of the Kinsale command operating in the Upton area. Further National Army reports, copied in an MSPC file relating to Daniel OSullilvan, reveal that a document captured the day before tipped off the National Army to a meeting of IRA Kinsale battalion officers in the area that evening. On the same day the newspaper report apeared, the IRAs west Cork Brigade paid the full funeral 43 expenses of the three men killed at Upton, including more than 10 for wreaths, according to a National Army report. Daniel OSullivans file includes a letter from his former employer David Acton, a Kinsale merchant for whom he worked as a labourer for about four years up to shortly before his death. According to Philip ONeill from Kinsale, writing to Defence Minister Frank Aiken in 1934, the OSullivan family were earnest workers in the Irish-Ireland movement. Young Dan gave sincere proof of his loyalty to the Republican cause by going out with a Column after the evacuation of Kinsale by the Republican forces, he wrote. The dead IRA mans 83-year-old father Patrick was awarded a 75 gratuity payment by Mr Aiken in 1934, on the recommendation of the Army Pensions Board. A similar claim by Patrick Pearses father Batt was unsuccessful, although his mother Margaret received a gratuity of 112 and 10 shillings, as she had proved herself to have been partially dependant. The couple had separated around 1910 when Patrick was 13 and he and most of his siblings stayed with their mother, one brother going on to join the British Army. Patrick Pearse was casually employed as a labourer with a contractor at the British Army barracks in Kinsale and at Charles Fort, also in Kinsale up to August 1919. He was more permanently employed up to his arrest in February 1921, earning over 2 a week. Writing to the Department of Defence in November 1933, Batt Pearse described himself as as a Bitterly Disappointed Father of Patriot and requested the return of the brith certificates and death certificate sent in support of his claim. They cost me 12 shillings which I could ill afford to pay, he wrote. Patrick Pearses sister Annie Pearse was awarded a dependants allowance worth 125 a year from September 1957 up to her death in 1988. Michael Hayes was an 19-year-old apprentice carriage painter in Bandon, one of five orphaned children who lived with an aunt and uncle. He was a member of the republican boy scouts, Na Fianna Eireann, and an IRA scout during the War of Indpendence from about 1919, and was present when the IRA kidnapped the Earl of Bandon shortly before the Truce of July 1921. During the Civil War, he operated with the Ballinspittle IRA company from the Kinsale area, but also fought with Cork anti-Treaty forces in Co Limerick. Claims for his siblings under military service pensions laws were unsuccessful in the 1930s and 1950s. XI Jinping president of China, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, chair of the Central Military Commission, chief of the militarys Joint Operations Command Centre, chairman of the committees on cyber security, economics and finance, among others has a new honour that will linger long after he leaves office. Chinas Communist Party has decided to insert his view of the world Xi Jinping Thought for the New Era of Socialism With Chinese Special Characteristics into the constitution. He will be only the second leader, after Mao Zedong, to be so honoured during his lifetime. Xi stands supreme. Yet, that accumulation of authority carries a large threat, both to his power and to his state. Xis goals are to strengthen Chinas economy and military power and to lead a sometimes-ferocious campaign against corruption, and to bring the news media back under the tightest control. Inserting both his thoughts and his name in the constitution will further delegitimise critical commentary and unflattering revelations. Anything that contradicts Xis official line will be an attack on the constitution. Xi wants to render independent journalism impossible and choke off Chinas liveliest medium of criticism social media. Blocking these arteries could be his biggest mistake. Xis desire to curb the media is not new. In 2013, the then-new leader gave a speech to the National Propaganda and Ideology Work Conference in Beijing. He argued that workers in propaganda and ideology broadly speaking, journalists and their minders had become so undisciplined that some bordered on committing treason. His subsequent actions have been consistent with this belief. In a book published earlier this year, I wrote: one phrase in his speech was particularly telling. Xi said that we must unwaveringly persist in the principle that the Party manages the media, persist in politicians running newspapers periodicals, TV stations, and news websites. The words politicians running newspapers were a direct quotation from Mao, the founder of communist rule, still venerated in spite of murderous policies that condemned millions. The phrase enshrined the dogma that politicians the Party are the final judge of what journalism can say. Journalism was far too important to be left to journalists. In the past five years, those newspapers and TV programmes which had enjoyed some autonomy granted by Deng Xiaoping, who was in charge of economic and social reform from the late 1970s to the late 1980s have lost nearly all of their latitude. Journalists no longer can undertake any investigation not expressly permitted by the all-powerful Publicity (formerly Propaganda) Department. Usually, that only allowed for investigating the affairs of someone the Party wished to destroy. The most adventurous newspapers such as the Southern Metropolitan Daily and Southern Weekend of Guangzhou were muzzled in 2013. Xiao Shu, a former editorialist on the Southern Weekend, wrote that the appointment of a new, severe head of Party propaganda in Guangdong, the region in which Guangzhou is the capital, meant that the press in Guangdong retreated into its darkest period since the start of Deng Xiaopings reform and opening-up policies in the late 1970s. That was just the start. The monopoly broadcaster, CCTV, dropped or toned-down all its investigative and analytical programmes. Journalists, who were previously only dismissed if they were deemed to have gone too far, were again imprisoned. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, 38 journalists were in prison in China in 2016, second behind Turkey for the number of reporters jailed. Writers for foreign news media find it harder to get visas and harder to do investigative reporting. Yet for Xi, the largest threat are social media, which have become more popular as approved journalism has been restricted. The online postings are often critical; in Foreign Policy magazine this month, an anonymous author wrote that even a cursory glance at Chinas new social media revealed that officials were seen as skinning the people, not serving them. These public comments could not be allowed in China. This autumn, the authorities began investigating the most popular messaging services Weibo, Wechat, and Baidu and found that the services were exchanging terror-related content rumours and pornography. Yet, as this repression continues and deepens, the pushback from society grows, and determined journalists and filmmakers continue to catalogue the darker sides of China. In 2012, a film called High Tech, Low Life followed bloggers on bicycles examining government censorship and the harsh and yawning divisions in Chinese society. The gamble Xi is taking, in hugging all power to him, is that he and the forces he controls can limit any such developments. But that will not last. Corruption, pollution, inequality, interfering bureaucracy and controlled media will become prompts for protest. Xis choice to strengthen authoritarian rule will prove to be a large error, for himself, his country, and for the world in which China is such a crucial actor. John Lloyd co-founded the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, at the University of Oxford, where he is senior research fellow. Lloyd has written several books, including Whatthe Media Are Doing to Our Politics and Journalism in an Age of Terror. Hundreds of thousands of Irish people will agree with him, regretting that an early opportunity to embrace something beautiful and rewarding, to appreciate something if not unique then distinctive, had been lost because dreary, idealogical, compulsion can never trump heart-felt enthusiasm. That compulsion was imposed by a particular strand of nationalism. The diktat was counterproductive. That Irish-at-all-costs mindset was so pervasive, as Mr Higgins pointed out, that during Eamon de Valeras time as Taoiseach all the state servants change their names to Irish as if that was going to revive the subject. The language had been politicised and its universal celebration or rejuvenation seemed impossible. Our language was often used as a tool by the kind insular, ourselves-alone nationalists that threaten Spanish and European stability today; the kind of nationalism behind the shift to the hard right in Poland, Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Brexit and in America too. That inevitably led to its concentration in particular corners of society, and excluded those who might embrace the language for its own almost spiritual beauty rather than as a political badge. However, it is a testimony to the languages enduring allure that so many people use it today as a cultural rather than a political form of expression. That growing popularity may be the harvest of decades of gaelscoileanna influences. Our strengthening view of ourselves as Europeans and the marginalisation of violent-force nationalism play a part too as do the decade of centenaries celebrations. It is unfortunate and in the cold light of day probably unsustainable, that such a modest revival demands the commitment of such tremendous State resources. The figures must be startling funding everything from teaching hours to bilingual road signs, everything from TG4 to translating official documents can hardly leave much change out of 1 billion a year. The great gap between investment and return suggests we are dealing with sacred cows rather than a viable social project. Mr Higgins addressed the issue because New Zealands new government campaigned on integrating the Maori language into primary schools and having it as an option in secondary schools. The failure of our mandatory system was recognised, and alternative policies will be employed. I remember in other times people foisted attitudes onto the language that really had nothing to do with the essential spirit. It is a language of life and, thankfully, it is being spoken more and more by young people, said Mr Higgins. He was right to recognise that it was hijacked. There have been myriad plans to save Irish but they have not worked. Despite that, it would be ironic, and very welcome if the new multicultural, inclusive Ireland succeeded where the old, narrow nationalist Ireland failed and made Irish once again a living, breathing language for far more Irish people. Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. This Week in Review A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more. BERLIN High winds knocked down trees and caused widespread travel chaos across much of Central Europe on Sunday, leaving five people dead and several injured. Storm Herwart, whose gusts reached 112 mph, also caused electricity blackouts in hundreds of thousands of homes in the Czech Republic, Austria and other countries. A Lufthansa flight from Houston to Frankfurt made an emergency landing in the southwestern German city of Stuttgart early Sunday because of the strong winds. Two people died in Poland, including a man who drove his car into a tree that had been knocked down by the storm, fire department spokesman Pawel Fratczak said. The second man was killed when a tree fell on his car in southwestern Poland and his passenger was hospitalized, Polish media reported. Two others were killed in the Czech Republic when they were hit by falling trees, local television reported. A 63-year-old camper was swept away in a flash flood and drowned at Jadebusen on Germanys North Sea coast, the German news agency dpa reported. In Berlin, one man was severely injured by falling roof tiles and another was hit by scaffolding blown off a home. Two people were injured when their cars slid off the A20 highway, which was covered with 2 inches of hail, in Germanys northeastern state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. Train connections in several northern German states were shut down, including links to and from Berlin, because of the danger from branches falling on the tracks. Germany rail company Deutsche Bahn opened stationary trains to travelers left stranded by the cancellations. A federal lawsuit accusing an 88-year-old Wilkes County businessman of sexually harassing women who sought to rent or buy homes from him will go forward, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. denied a motion to dismiss the lawsuit that the U.S. Department of Justice filed against Robert Neal Hatfield, who lives in Wilkesboro. The lawsuit alleges that Hatfield violated the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in the Western District of North Carolina. Ryan Bolick and Virginia Wooten, Hatfields attorneys, had filed a motion in September to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that the Justice Department had failed to state a claim under the Fair Housing Act and Equal Credit Opportunity Act. They also argued that the Justice Departments lawsuit failed to provide sufficient factual allegations to prove a practice or pattern of discrimination. Cogburn disagreed, saying that the lawsuit does state valid claims under the two federal acts. Bolick and Wooten have until Nov. 8 to file a written answer to the lawsuit. Hatfield denied the allegations in an interview with WSOC-TV in July. Bolick could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday and Friday. According to the lawsuit, Hatfields real estate business involved the sale and renting of residential properties in Wilkes County. Since 2001, Hatfield has sold or rented at least 50 homes in Wilkes County, the lawsuit said. Hatfields business also made loans to people who were trying to buy his homes, the lawsuit said. Hatfield is accused of making unwelcome sexual comments and advances toward women, according to the lawsuit. The Justice Department alleges that he groped and inappropriately touched women and told women that he would do certain things reduce rent, loan or down payments and overlook late payments in exchange for sexual favors. The lawsuit said that he threatened to take action against women who objected to his sexual harassment or refused his request for sexual favors. The Justice Department alleges that Hatfield sexually harassed women over a 13-year period. No criminal charges have been filed against Hatfield. But in a separate lawsuit, two women allege that Hatfield sexually assaulted, battered, harassed, extorted, and/or coerced over 15 women. One of the women who sued said she was a prospective tenant and when the woman and Hatfield toured the property in late 2015, Hatfield tried to grab the womans breast and groped her stomach. The woman was pregnant at the time. The lawsuit alleges that Hatfield told the woman she had a beautiful body and when the woman tried to leave, Hatfield threatened to call the social services department and have the department take her children away. The other woman in the lawsuit said she was a tenant and called Hatfield because her dishwasher wasnt working. While on the phone, Hatfiled said, Oh yes, I remember you. The lady with the big boobs, the lawsuit said. The woman ignored the comment and Hatfield later came to the house with a handyman. When the woman and Hatfield were alone, Hatfield hugged the woman and made reference to the womans breasts, the lawsuit said. LAS VEGAS A husband and wife from California who survived the mass shooting at a Las Vegas country music festival have since died in an auto crash. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that Dennis and Lorraine Carver died after their vehicle crashed into a metal gate outside their community in Riverside County, California, on Oct. 16 and burst into flames. The Carvers were at the Route 91 Harvest music festival on Oct. 1 when the massacre started. Dennis Carver jumped on top of his wife to shield her from bullets. The couple managed to run away uninjured. Brooke Carver, the couple's 20-year-old daughter, says he parents had grown deeper in love in the two weeks after the shooting. The Carvers had been together for 22 years. Almost two years of preparation involving over 200 meetings, 30 subcommittees, and so on. Thats just a quick look at Joyce Rabins work as Chair of Together in Israel: Our Pride, Our Purpose. Hadassahs 100th National Convention. (Hadassah, which was founded in 1912, held its first conventi Read moreS'ville resident helps organize 100th national of Hadassah, The Womens Zionist Organization of America JURIST Guest Columnist Susan Farooqi of St. Johns University School of Law discusses the regression in womens rights in Afghanistan in recent decades When we think of women in Afghanistan, we often assume that they are oppressed, and recall images of women in burqas and stories of women being brutalized. Although there is a lot of truth to these perceptions, the situation has been different in the past, and could be different in the future. Efforts to improve womens rights do not need to resist centuries of tradition; they need to merely reverse recent developments, which are themselves ahistorical. Although women in Afghanistan were indeed historically oppressed by patriarchy, just as women in medieval Europe were often treated more as property than as individuals, this process began to change during the nineteenth century, as liberalism became an increasingly global philosophy. In particular, during the 1920s, just as women in the United States experienced new freedoms, including the right of suffrage, women in Afghanistan were also able to extend their rights and achieve what was essentially a modern status. It was not until the 1980s that this trend was reversed. Today, even though the 2004 Afghan Constitution [PDF] calls for equal rights for women in compliance with international human rights law, gender inequality pervades all aspects of life for Afghan women. Therefore, implementing real change will require the constitutional guarantee of equal rights to have the force of law. To do so and reverse recent developments, Afghanistan should implement a Civil Rights Act, similar to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the United States. A Civil Rights Act in Afghanistan would go beyond the Constitutions mere assertion of equal rights for women, and would help to ensure that in practice, those rights are respected and upheld. Specifically, a Civil Rights Act in Afghanistan will hinder discriminatory policies that restrict womens free movement and access to employment, education, healthcare, and freedom of expression. Increasing the number of women in the workforce, combined with improving educational opportunities for women, would have a spillover effect into the political sphere. The more independent and educated women there are in Afghanistan, the more active women can become in changing the political landscape. This is exactly what happened in the United States. As women became important fixtures in the workforce, they began to rise up in industries and became decision makers. Consequently, the United States started to have a culture that was much more favorable to women. Similar outcomes could happen in Afghanistan with a Civil Rights Act that prohibits employers from discriminating, making it easier for women to join the workforce. Unfortunately, due to a lack of written records, we know little about the early feminists in Afghanistan who must have struggled to obtain respect. However, we do know that Emir Amanullah Khan made genuine strides to establish gender equality. Following the First World War, Amanullah consolidated his power by resisting British imperialism, and after a lengthy stalemate managed to achieve the independence for his nation that even India would not obtain for thirty more years. Certainly something inspired Amanullah to grant greater status to women in the newly independent nation. We know that he was strongly influenced by Mahmud Tarzi, often described as the father of Afghan journalism. Tarzi had become familiar with western liberalism after prolonged visits to Turkey, France, and India, and within his newspaper, Seraj-al-Akhbar, Tarzi often wrote that Afghanistan needed to create a modern civilization that accorded women the same rights and equality seen in developed nations. Although Tarzi served Emir Amanullah as foreign minister, he played an important role in the formulation of domestic policy, criticizing the medieval madrasah and demanding that women be given full access to schools and that dress and clothing restrictions be lifted. These demands were met, and consequently women of the 1920s in Afghanistan were often indistinguishable in attire from their European and American counterparts. As seen in the picture, they were allowed to wear dresses and even relatively short skirts, revealing their faces and lower legs even while in public. Of course, the story of this development cannot and should not be focused solely on men granting rights to women. Fortunately, we do know of at least one woman who also participated in this social revolution. Tarzis daughter, Soraya, appears to be the central figure in this story; she married Amanullah. Consequently, it appears likely that the Emir was swayed by his love for the daughter of a liberal philosopher, and she used her status as queen of Afghanistan to openly advocate for womens rights. As Amanullah established a new constitutional framework for Afghanistan, polygamy was abolished (or at least strongly discouraged), women were allowed to attend schools even in rural areas, and they were no longer required to hide their faces in public. As Amanullah announced these reforms before a crowd in Kabul, Soraya dramatically tore off her veil as the crowd cheered. Afterward, she oversaw a program to finance scholarships for young women to attend universities in Turkey, and she also established the nations first magazine for women: Ershad-I-Niswan. Unfortunately, after the royal family visited Europe during 1928, during which Soraya was granted an honorary degree from Oxford University, they returned to Afghanistan only to find that fundamentalist Muslims were outraged by images of Soraya that had been disseminated by European media. These images had been spread widely throughout Afghanistan, showing the Empress dining with young men, dressing in a modern fashion, and even allowing her hand to be kissed by the leaders of England and Germany. Facing revolt, Amanullah was forced to abdicate, and the royal family fled to Switzerland, leaving much of their legacy to be undone. Ultimately, we must realize that when we speak of the need today for women to have civil rights and access to education in Afghanistan, we are not proposing some new idea that must replace centuries of fundamentalist Islamic thought. Instead, we are simply asking that the people of Afghanistan be allowed to return to the liberties they briefly enjoyed during the reign of Amanullah and Soraya. For most of the twentieth century, women in Afghanistan were not oppressed by Islamic radicalism, and we should denounce the oppression of the Taliban as a new phenomenon, which should not be considered to represent the historical sentiments of the Afghan people. Susan Farooqi is a recent graduate of St. Johns University School of Law. Born in New York, Ms. Farooqi is a first-generation Afghan-American. Following an extensive period of Soviet invasion in Kabul, Ms. Farooqis parents were forced to seek asylum in the United States and have resided in New York for over 30 years. Along with her Executive Notes & Comments Editor position on the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development, Ms. Farooqis Note titled: Misogyny and Lawlessness in Afghanistan: The Womens Fight for Equal Rights will be published in the upcoming Fall 2017 JCRED Issue. Suggested citation:Susan Farooqi, The Rise and Fall of Civil Liberties in Afghanistan: the Redaction of Womens Rights Under Recent Developments, JURIST Student Commentary, Oct. 29, 2017, http://jurist.org/dateline/2017/07/Susan-Farooqi-civil-liberties-afghanistan.php This article was prepared for publication by Sean Merritt, an Assistant Editor for JURIST Commentary. Please direct any questions or comments to him at commentary@jurist.org Thousands of Burundians on Saturday answered the government's call to celebrate the country's withdrawal from the International Criminal Court, cheering the "historic" day using slogans such as "bye bye ICC". Burundi on Friday became the first ever nation to leave the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal, set up some 15 years ago to prosecute those behind the worst atrocities on the planet. Burundi hailed it as a "historic" day and called on people to rally across the country on Saturday. Some 5,000 people -- including hundreds of drivers of bicycle taxis, motorcycle taxis and tuk-tuks -- marched through the streets of the capital Bujumbura, singing and dancing to the sound of a brass band. Burundi mediator Edouard Nduwimana called on the demonstrators "to pray for the other African countries so they can follow Burundi's example". Nduwimana branded the ICC "arrogant", saying the tribunal was "contemptuous towards us" and wanted "to pursue victims instead of their persecutors". Other demonstrations were held simultaneously in other major towns, national radio reported. Activists have mourned what was seen as a major blow to international justice, with Lambert Nigarura, president of the Burundi Coalition for the ICC, saying that Bujumbura's decision to withdraw came "at a time when the machine continues to kill with impunity in Burundi". ICC officials said Friday however that a preliminary probe launched by the prosecutor in April 2016 into possible crimes against humanity in the central African nation would continue. The probe, started by ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, was initiated after reports of "killing, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as cases of enforced disappearances" in the country. The reports came amid a violent political crisis triggered when President Pierre Nkurunziza ran for a third term in office, winning July 2015 elections which were boycotted by the opposition. Overall, the violence in Burundi has claimed between 500 and 2,000 lives, according to differing tolls provided by the UN or charity groups and more than 400,000 Burundians have fled abroad. Set up in 2002, the ICC based in The Hague has often come under fire from some countries who claim it is unfairly targeting African nations. Burundi's withdrawal from the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) entered into force on October 27, 2017. It is the final act of a divorce proceeding that began well before it was formally notified to the UN Secretary-General, twelve months ago. Indeed, the circumstances under which in 2004, Burundi ratified the Rome statute had already the appearance of a marriage of convenience doomed to fail, at the first couple quarrel. Be that as it may, by becoming the first state to exit the ICC, Burundi is also opening the blank page of this Court's jurisprudence on the effects of a withdrawal. The Rome Statute of the ICC entered into force in Burundi on 1 December 2004. Nineteen months earlier, in June 2003, the country had already experienced its first threat of withdrawal from the ratification process while it was reaching its final stage. On April 17 and 22, 2003, in just six days, the draft bill of accession to the Rome Statute had been adopted respectively in the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly. The legislative process stalled in the Senate, two months later, because of a controversy on Article 124 of the ICC statute. It reads that a State, on becoming a party to the Rome Statute, may declare that it does not accept the jurisdiction of the Court with respect to war crimes when such crimes are alleged to have been committed by its nationals or on its territory. It was only after a court battle that a narrow circle of insiders within the executive branch backtracked, first from their plot to apply article 124 without the knowledge of the Council of Ministers and the Parliament[1], then from their attempt to withdraw the draft bill from the ratification process. It took a ruling from the Constitutional Court of Burundi[2] to force the Government of Burundi to complete the process of enacting the Rome Statute Ratification Act, despite the absence of a vote in the Senate. The question of the "preliminary examination" Today, the withdrawal of Burundi from the ICC raises with more acuity than twelve months ago the question of its effect on the preliminary examination of Burundi case, which was first announced on April 25, 2016 by Ms. Fatou Bensouda, the ICC Prosecutor. She is cautious and shows restraint on the matter. We think we have at least a year to complete this examination and open an investigation if that is the conclusion that we come to she said[3]. At least, indeed, what about beyond? Article 127, on the withdrawal from ICC, is puzzling. It ends with (.) nor shall it prejudice in any way the continued consideration of any matter which was already under consideration by the Court prior to the date on which the withdrawal became effective. Academics themselves only agree on the ambiguity of the text, which leads to different interpretations, because of imprecise wording such as continued consideration or under consideration. Somehow, the French and the English versions of the statute add to the confusion by the substantial difference in the wording used in one and the other version. Some invoke general international law to decide the matter, for lack of possible arbitration by the statute or by the reference texts produced by the Rome statute preparatory commission[4]. In this regard, the regime-orchestrated Bye Bye ICC demonstration which took place in the streets of Bujumbura this Saturday morning seems premature. In any case, can the ICC play any role other than a sword of Damocles? The Kenyan precedent has demonstrated its limits in case of non-cooperation by a state, even when it did not withdraw from the ICC. The prospect of a Constitution revision On Burundi domestic scene, each time an air bleed valve is closed, the temperature rises further in the oven. The prospect of a Constitution revision to pave the way for Pierre Nkurunzizas fourth consecutive presidential term has only brought a dose of toxicity to the air, already charged with a heavy and audible silence. Depressurizing the oven requires the strong emergence in Burundi of an opinion which deconstructs the sectarian, populist and aggressive narrative of those in power on the one hand, the opposition legalistic narrative, in weightless conditions, on the other. Between the two, Burundians have demonstrated an exceptional resilience that is an undeniable strength for those who know how to listen to it and set it in motion. We must sincerely hope that all this is done peacefully. [1] At no time did the official presentation and debate on the status of the ICC held in April 2003 at the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly address the issue of Article 127, about which no mention was made. [2] This ruling (RCCB 57 of 25 July 2003) obliged the Government to promulgate the law but not to deposit the instrument of ratification at the United Nations Secretariat General. The deposit was made only one year and three weeks after promulgation. [3] Fatou Bensouda: "Burundi is obliged to cooperate with the ICC until October 2017", Great Lakes Info, November 4, 2016 [4] Whiting, A., If Burundi Leaves the Intl Criminal Court, Can the Court Still Investigate Past Crimes There?, in Just Security crimes-there/, visited on 27 October 2017. Parmela Capizzi, Le retrait du Burundi du Statut de la Cour penale internationale : quelles consequences ? , La Revue des droits de lhomme Photos Credit: Glenn Harris Experience Wine Culture Extraordinaire at Australia's Port Phillip Estate Less than an hours drive south from the manic pace of Melbourne, Australia is the Mornington Peninsula. A beautiful stretch of earth with crystal blue waters on each side, verdant national parks and quaint seaside towns. In the middle of the peninsula is a breathtaking mountain range that vacillates between lush, green forests and picturesque farmlands, with cattle, sheep, all manner of vegetables and, of course, the grape. The Mornington Peninsula has now become a wine-tourism mecca where oenophiles flock to the peninsulas cellar doors to taste from the source of world-class Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. One standout experience that travelers have put on their epicurean must-do list is the Port Phillip Estate. A wonderfully unusual winery, fine dining restaurant and boutique hotel created to celebrate Australias fully-emerged wine culture. Port Phillip Estate is a family-owned winery created in homage to the memories of the family patriarch, Giorgio Gjergja. His family now continues the tradition of his grandfather, who produced wine in the Dalmatian coast of Italy. The family now owns two of the Mornington Peninsulas top wine labels, Kooyong and Port Phillip Estate. As guests pass through the beautiful farmlands and coastline of the Mornington Peninsula, they come to a striking architectural piece of art. Its ultra-contemporary design is as riveting as the Guggenheim or an architectural gem from Zaha Hadid. The abstract, 400-foot facade of exposed concrete swirls from one circular surface to a conic end without a window or surface interruption in sight. Beyond a door is revealed two striking impressions. The first is the modern and sophisticated space of the winerys cellar door. The rooms are filled with natural light from the 20-foot glass walls which also provides sweeping views of the outdoor vistas. There is a cellar door tasting area and a casual dining venue on one side and the other their fine dining 85-seat bistro. The second thing youll notice is the breathtaking views of the vineyard. From the enormous wooden terrace and outdoor space, youll gaze upon acres and acres of lush grape vines, verdant hills and an idyllic valley with a pond. In the distance a mountain rises, and in the other direction are the blue waters and views of Westernport Bay and Phillip Island. The Mornington Peninsula is known for producing some of Australias top Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs; and is one of the areas well-respected wine houses, having produced award-winning wines over the past several years. Below the cellar door is where the magic happens, lead by the companys Chief Wine Maker, Sandro Moselle. Thats where youll find the vast barrel storage area, bottling area, laboratory, and rows and rows, and shelves upon shelves of bottles in the wine museum. The two labels, Kooyong and Port Phillip Estate, produce 20 wines. They are known for creating wines that respect the inherent characteristics of the fruit, the vintage season, as well as the terra from which it grows. The wines mature in French Oak barrels with a non-interventionist process with spontaneous fermentation. The Kooyong Estate Chardonnay is one of the heralded wines produced at the estate. Expect notes of oatmeal, ginger, mint and citrus flavors in this mid-weight wine. Another popular wine is the Kooyong Haven Pinot Noir. This is a single vineyard wine from 19-year-old vines, fermented in oak barrels with a maturing of 14 months before bottling. You'll note black and red fruit, orange and black cherry, cinnamon and vanilla notes. This approach of simplicity and respecting the fruit, characteristics of the terra and season with the honesty of limited intervention makes the Port Phillip Estate wines so worthy of the endless awards as well as love of those that drink it. Good wine demands equally good food. The fine dining restaurant at Port Phillip has also received a slew of well-deserved accolades. Gourmet Traveller described the dining room at Port Phillip Estate as "one of Australias top one hundred dining experiences, the very picture of a chic modernist chateau." The restaurant is helmed by Executive Chef Stuart Deller, who began his career in London working top restaurants such as the Oak Room under Master Chef Marco Pierre White. His menu is sourced from local ingredients and prepared with European cooking techniques. Each dish is created to be enhanced by a pairing with the Kooyong or Port Phillip Estate wines. The dining experience changes based on what is available from the area's small producers and what is in season. Expect cuisine such as the Roasted Burrawong Gaian Duck, polenta, onions and fragrant consomme; or the exotic Wallaby Rump with grilled radicchio, beets and almond. Unbeknownst to many is that the winery has a lovely boutique hotel. Each unit has its own walk-out terrace and amazing views of the vineyard. Indoors is modern and chic with a sunken living area and evocative object dart. The bathroom is exquisite with large soaking tub perfect for two. There are fluffy Missoni bathrobes to relax in as well as Aesop bath amenities. Port Phillip Estate is an epicurean dream destination. One of the best cellar doors in the world, award-winning wine and meals, as well as chic accommodations. For the lover of great food and wine, look no further than Australia's Mornington Peninsula and the Port Phillip Estate. Photos Credit: Michael Reiss Think quintessential Southern California, and Newport Beach comes to mind. From sun, surf, sand and water, to yachts, cottages and mega-mansions, this small strip of pricey coastal real estate has something for everyone. Boasting the worlds largest small-boat harbor, there is ample opportunity to paddle, kayak, sail or cruise, even if it's just for the day. Think of the ultimate getaway, and the Balboa Bay Resort comes to mind. As the only AAA Four Diamond waterfront resort in Newport Beach, this Meritage Collection property is the ideal spot to experience all that the coast has to offer. Just entering the spacious lobby with its wall of ocean blue reminds you that your waterside adventure is about to begin. The newly refreshed rooms are large, bathed in soothing sea tones and outfitted in comfortable, contemporary furnishings, perfect for bayside lounging. Amenities include robes, slippers, toiletries by Fresh, a California premium bottle of wine, Keurig coffee and tea service, electronic lighting panels and a desk set up for multiple digital devices. Step out on your bay-front room patio to enjoy the unobstructed view of the bay, yachts, Lido mansions and waterside activity. Its tempting to stay in as you watch the world go by, but the resort beckons with plenty of activity on offer. A well-equipped gym and Olympic-sized pool with lounging cabanas will keep you fit. Your concierge will assist you with all manner of watercraft rentals and complimentary shuttle service to nearby beaches. An upscale boutique will fill in your resort wardrobe, and Blend, the gourmet coffee shop, will make your favorite Starbucks drink. The full service spa, The Spa at Balboa Bay Resort, awaits your indulgence with expert deep tissue massage on offer to sooth those water-weary muscles. The resort includes several dining options that are popular with guests and locals. A&O Kitchen is their trendy gastropub serving small bites, as well as a wide selection of tempting tastes, creative cocktails, wine and craft brews. The fire pits and weekend live music make this waterfront locationwith a huge wrap around patioan ideal spot to mix, mingle and savor the sunset. Waterline is Balboa Bay Resorts fine dining venue. Choose the casually chic, white table cloth interior or the outdoor, bay-front tables with water and yacht views for your special evening. Chef Rachel Haggstrom sources the freshest ingredients from the finest purveyors to ensure a memorable water-to-table dining experience. At Waterline you might start with their House Roll Lobster, Avocado, Cucumber, Soy Paper with Chipotle Dipping Sauce and Yuzu Soy Vinaigrette. The sauces are smartly served on the side, so you can savor the perfectly-cooked, succulent lobster without it getting overpowered by other ingredients. The Braised Short Rib and Mushroom Cannaloni with Foie Gras was unctuous and ethereally airy in both execution and flavor. The John Dorry with Bok Choy, Shitake Mushrooms, Spiced Peanuts, Rice Cake, and Thai Curry Sauce was expertly prepared and assertive enough for any Asian cuisine aficionado.The Truffled Cream Corn with Percornio was luscious and bursting with black summer truffles. The Foie Gras Ice Cream Sunday with Candied Rhubab, Basil Coulis and Vanilla Shortbread was the perfect ending to this decadently delicious tour de force. With the change of seasons your menu will change, but whatever she creates, Chef Rachel will surprise and delight you with gourmet bayside dining. While you may know the way to San Jose, and you may whistle California Dreaming, here you can experience the best of Newport Beach and quintessential California. LEXINGTON A house fire affected a family of five Saturday in Lexington. The Lexington Volunteer Fire Department was called to the fire at about 2 p.m. at 410 W. 11th St. Lexington Fire Chief Dallas Holbein said the fire began in the wiring in the ceiling above the living room. It took about 15 minutes for firefighters to extinguish the fire, he said. All residents evacuated the home before crews arrived, Holbein said. There was a small amount of damage to the home, Holbein said, including water damage to a few rooms. According to an American Red Cross press release, it is assisting the family through the recovery. ODESSA Two Californians are in custody and accused of robbery after allegedly taking a vehicle from a woman at Sapp Brothers truck stop at the Odessa Interchange. At 3:30 p.m. Sunday, a Holdrege woman reported being approached at the truck stop by an unidentified woman who allegedly verbally threatened her and demanded her vehicle, a 2012 Buick Enclave. According to a Buffalo County Sheriffs Office news release, the Holdrege woman complied with the female suspects demands. The suspect was joined by a male suspect. Both got into the sport utility vehicle and drove away. The Holdrege woman was uninjured. The suspects were later located by Dawson County Sheriff's Office deputies in Dawson County near Darr Road on Interstate 80 and were arrested without incident, the release said. The sport utility vehicle was recovered and seized as evidence. According to Dawson County Jail records the 25-year-old woman and 30-year-old man were arrested on suspicion of robbery, theft by receiving stolen property and criminal mischief. The female suspect also was arrested on suspicion of no operators license, possession of heroin and possession of narcotic equipment. Late this morning, the pair were being held at the Dawson County Jail. The investigation continues. @HubChic KEARNEY What would it mean if you knew that whenever you faced any challenge in life, you could simply walk into a trusted mentors office to chat? Or just go there because you felt safe and appreciated, asks Gilbert Hinga, the University of Nebraska at Kearneys dean of student affairs. At the University of Nebraska at Kearney, students can do that. Safe Spaces are being designated for students, faculty, staff and campus visitors. The Safe Spaces typically are specific offices of people who have received special training. UNK is offering diversity-training sessions to raise awareness of groups often marginalized based on their sexual orientation, gender, religion, race and socio-economic status. It is a way to build and promote an environment where any student can feel welcome and valued, Hinga said. The focus of the Safe Space training is on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning issues. We are making sure students have an open environment across campus and places to go where they can be themselves. Spaces where they can talk, relax and know they wont be judged, said Mary Chinnock Petroski, chief compliance officer at UNK. The Safe Space program upholds UNKs values of inclusion and respect, and advances the universitys goal of creating a campus community in which everyone is treated with dignity, said Petroski. Its important to educate others on issues that affect our LGBTQ members, raise awareness and show that we are accepting of all people on our campus, she said. UNK is a place where people are free to be themselves and safe from harassment, hate speech or discrimination. A Safe Space is intended to be free of bias, conflict, criticism or potentially threatening actions, ideas or conversations. College campuses have created safe spaces for many marginalized groups, including women, sexual assault victims, people of color and transgender students. Numerous schools including University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Nebraska at Omaha have Safe Zone and Safe Space programs that train students, faculty members and administrators to be allies to LGBTQ and other groups. UNKs Equity Access & Diversity Advisory Council initiated the training on campus. The training started in February and March. In creating Safe Spaces, UNKs goal is to share information on campus resources and create a network of people who understand LGBT issues and people. This has been a positive step on our campus and has been received very well, Hinga said. UNKs Safe Space training includes four hours of education and training on topics such as inclusion; how to be supportive of LGBTQ; terms used to describe sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression; and differences between sexual orientation, gender equity and gender expression. Those who complete UNKs Safe Space training can receive a decal to display on their office doors or windows, which indicates their commitment to provide a Safe Space so LGBTQ people feel free to be themselves and safe from threat of harassment. We are committed to having a campus that is inclusive for all, Hinga said. This a positive, integral step in supporting student engagement, retention and student success. Recently, Brent Steffen, M.D. has addressed Nebraska Public Power Districts R-Project transmission line in letters to the editor in Nebraska newspapers. He made a variety of incorrect claims about the project that require correction. Steffen states the project is being built for wind development in the region. However, he provides an incomplete quotation from the Southwest Power Pools 2012 Integrated Transmission Plan 10-Year Assessment Report. In SPPs discussion of the benefits resulting from the various transmission projects studied in the report the complete quotation is; the Gentlemen-Cherry Co.-Holt Co. 345kV line in Nebraska has been proposed chiefly to provide access to wind development in Cherry County, but this line also provided parallel paths for key contingencies in Nebraska for west to east flows, relieved congestion, increased transfer capability and mitigated reliability concerns. Steffen neglects to mention that even in the early studies completed by SPP the R-Project was identified as being needed for improving reliability of the transmission system and reducing congestion in the transmission system. NPPD has always discussed the need for the R-Project in three parts; 1) improve reliability, 2) reduce congestion, and 3) enable the development of renewable resources should the local area choose to do that. What Steffen and others appear to forget is that, even if no renewable resources are ever developed, this project is needed and will be constructed to improve the reliability of the transmission system in Nebraska. Opponents of the R-Project like to suggest that the reason the R-Project transmission line is going to Thedford is solely for wind development. This is simply not true. The R-Project transmission line will interconnect at the NPPD owned substation in Thedford to improve the reliability of the transmission system and address real issues seen in 2012. During the 2012 drought electrical loads in north-central Nebraska, primarily from irrigation, grew to the point where the transmission system was at full capacity and at risk of failure. NPPD operators were forced to take immediate action to interrupt electrical loads in the area and protect the transmission system. The R-Project, along with a recently completed project in northeastern Nebraska, will correct these reliability issues. The Thedford substation location was chosen because it is centrally located on an important segment of the 115kV transmission system serving north-central Nebraska, it is centrally located between the termination points of the R-Project 345kV transmission line, and NPPD can lower costs and impacts by using existing transmission facilities (i.e. the Thedford 115kV substation) to the fullest extent possible. Finally, Steffen said NPPD easement contractors were deceptive. I disagree. NPPD expects its employees and contractors to conduct themselves professionally and ethically and NPPD works very hard to provide a transparent and public routing process. In the case of the R-Project, NPPD hosted three rounds of open houses and additional landowner meetings equating to 20 sessions lasting several hours each over two years. Public hearings, the only statutorily required public meetings, for the R-project were held in eight locations in November 2014. NPPD continues meeting with landowners along the route; local, county and state government officials; and representatives of the appropriate regulatory agencies as needed. While NPPD is allowed to use eminent domain to obtain easements, we prefer to get easements voluntarily as we have done successfully on numerous past projects. In fact, for the 312 miles of new transmission lines that NPPD has constructed since 2002, NPPD acquired easements for 1,133 tracts with a 99-percent success rate for obtaining the easements voluntarily. Easements are for construction, operation and maintenance of the power line. The land is still owned by the individual and can generally be used as it has been before with restrictions as to what can be built or stored under the line to ensure safety. Landowners are fairly compensated for the easement rights and are also compensated for damages NPPD may cause to their property from the construction, operation and maintenance of the line. As a public power entity NPPD is responsible to its customers through a popularly elected 11-member Board of Directors. We are Nebraskans living and working in the communities we serve. We take our mission to safely generate and deliver reliable low-cost energy very seriously. The R-Project is needed in Nebraska to improve reliability of the transmission system. It is incumbent upon us at NPPD to address these reliability needs for the benefit of our customers and all Nebraskans. We would be remiss if we stood by and did nothing. Electronic cigarettes are seen in a display case at a store in downtown Montreal, Wednesday, May 6, 2015. A study looks at the use of electronic cigarettes among Canadian teens and whether it might lead to tobacco use. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz The Champlain Bridge crossing the St-Lawrence river is seen from the south shore of Montreal in Brossard, Que., on October 5, 2011. The federal Liberals plan to shift just over $2 billion in planned infrastructure spending to future years, reflecting slower-than-anticipated spending on the file, The Canadian Press has learned. The money won't come from planned spending in one specific year. Nor will it come from one specific program, but across multiple funds set up by the Liberals and the previous Conservative government, as well as large-scale projects overseen by Infrastructure Canada, such as the Champlain Bridge replacement in Montreal. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Paul Chiasson Mark Smich, left to right, Justice Michael Code, witness Dr. Sohail Khattack, Dellen Millard and Crown attorney Ken Lockhart are shown in this courtroom sketch in Toronto on October 27, 2017. A friend of a young Toronto woman who disappeared five years ago is expected to face cross-examination at the first-degree murder trial of two Ontario men today. The Crown alleges Dellen Millard, 32, of Toronto and Mark Smich, 30, of Oakville, Ont., killed Laura Babcock, 23, and burned her body in a large incinerator. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Alexandra Newbould The family of Nicole Daniels speaks to commissioner Michelle Audette at the opening day of hearings at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Winnipeg on October 16, 2017. A Mi'kmaq activist said she felt the presence of missing and murdered Indigenous women as families gathered in Nova Scotia for this week's community hearings, and their stories of loss deserve to be told.Cheryl Maloney said she sensed a "healing energy" in the air during Sunday's opening ceremonies ahead of the three-days of hearings by the inquiry looking into the deaths and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls. The hearings are being held at Membertou First Nation in Cape Breton. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods Former Quebec deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau walks to a courtroom for her civil case against her former employer Cogeco, in Quebec City on June 9, 2016. Normandeau, 49, is charged with conspiracy, corruption, breach of trust and fraud in a scheme in which political financing and gifts were allegedly exchanged for lucrative government contracts between 2000 and 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot Deliah Saunders, right, and Audrey Saunders, sisters of Loretta Saunders, embrace during testimony at the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, in Membertou, N.S. on Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Loretta Saunders, an Inuk woman, was murdered in Halifax in February 2014. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form A passersby on Brooklyn side of the East River faces the rain and clouds as they loom over lower Manhattan on the fifth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle) Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, speaks at a news conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Iran declined Monday to attend a major nuclear conference in the United Arab Emirates, a country which remains highly suspicious of its nuclear deal with world powers. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell) WHEATLAND Nearly a year after President Donald Trump was voted into office, theres a burning desire among some groups to keep climate change at the forefront of the national debate. To that end, the Westosha Womens Huddle hosted an environmental summit Sunday at the Seno Kenosha/Racine Land Trust Conservancy. Throughout the event, speakers implored participants to have a voice in issues pertaining to climate change and environmental stewardship. A lot of times, theres talk about the big global impact ... but at the same time, people need to think about the local impact, said Miranda Ehrlich, who serves on the Sierra Club, which has undertaken a campaign dubbed Beyond Coal. While Seno K/RLT Conservancy shares its message across southeastern Wisconsin, Kenosha County is oftentimes thought of as ground zero in the issue because of its proximity to coal-based power plants in Oak Creek, Pleasant Prairie and Waukegan. The use of coal was a target throughout the two-hour summit. The groups views in opposition to the power source come at a time when President Trump has talked of restoring jobs in the coal industry. Coal is a huge contributor to climate change, Ehrlich said. If were going to talk about (climate change), were going to have to get off our dependence on coal. In the past, the American Lung Association has given Kenosha County a grade of F for air quality, based on such criteria as ozone warning days, designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Going solar Somers resident Joe Dubaniewicz said he is alarmed by the F grade. Dubaniewicz, who serves on the Kenosha chapter of the Clean Power Plan initiative, has been touting the benefits of solar, rather than coal, power and he is attempting to use himself as an example of changing strategy. This week, Dubaniewicz is installing solar panels on his home and, after applying for a series of grants, said the project will cost him about $10,000. I will pay myself back in less than seven years, Dubaniewicz said, pointing out his traditional energy consumption will hit zero once the panels are in operation. Dubaniewicz noted that the cost of panels has gone down drastically in the past decade. Those lower costs are one of multiple reasons Dick Smith of the group Citizens Climate Lobby is upbeat that coal power will continue to shift downward from its peak nearly a century ago. (The coal industry) has already lost the war, Smith said. Its in decline; its demise is going to happen, but its not happening fast enough. To truly bring change to the solar movement, Smith said bi-partisan support will be needed. We need Republicans and Democrats working together, said Smith, who said a bill in support of a carbon tax would bring meaningful change. Were up against a time limit, Smith said. This is a serious problem. 335 Shares Share Its no secret that the United States is in the midst of an opiate epidemic. Almost 60,000 people died last year from overdoses, and overdose deaths are now the most common killer of Americans under the age of 50. Physicians and our patients have finally started the difficult conversation about what it will take to stop the suffering. But whats been missing from this conversation is that this is not the first opiate epidemic to strike the United States. And what happened during that first epidemic almost 100 years ago offers valuable lessons for doctors and patients trying to navigate the second. Opium is an ancient drug. Poppies have been cultivated since the beginning of civilization, and the ancient Egyptians used opium as a medicine. By the time Avicennas Canon of Medicine was written around the turn of the first millennium CE, opiums pain-relieving and cough-suppressing effects had been well-described, as had its side effects. The drug spread to Europe and the New World in the form of laudanum, a mixture of opium, alcohol, and spices that was used to treat just about anything. By 1834, opium was the most commonly prescribed medication in the United States. And no wonder: In many ways, it was a miracle drug. From a medical system that often inflicted torture in the form of healing, opium comforted the suffering and dying, stopped the disabling coughs of tuberculosis, and slowed the gastrointestinal ailments that were common prior to modern sanitation. But opium would soon transform from a miracle drug to a national scourge. The historian David Courtwright estimates that 0.7 people per 1000 were addicted to opiates in 1842, which would balloon to 4.6 per 1000 in the 1890s. To put this in context, the CDC currently estimates an addiction rate of 6 people per 1000. So what happened? Courtwright offers several compelling arguments in his 2001 book Dark Paradise. Cholera, dysentery, and yellow fever swept the United States in the 1840s, and the treatment of choice for all was opium. Then the suffering of the Civil War led doctors to prescribe copious amounts of opium Union requisitions alone show 10 million pills and three million ounces of powders. As a result, hundreds of thousands of patients were exposed. New technologies made opiates far more effective and addictive. Morphine was invented in 1817, but really caught on after the introduction of the hypodermic syringe in 1856. In an era before automobiles or effective public transportation, physicians would often leave a syringe of morphine with their patients to self-administer. And finally, quack cure joints opened where addicts would be given copious supplies of the drugs. As the human toll of the opium habit became evident, doctors led the charge to fight the epidemic. They developed alternative painkillers, including new medications like aspirin and antipyretics, of which acetaminophen is a descendent. They developed new theories of addiction, which, while colored by the prejudices of the day, are still some of the first attempts to understand addiction beyond simple moralism. More importantly, they set about to reform medical education; Opiates are the lazy physicians remedy was their rallying cry. They also advocated for new laws, including limiting prescribing to those with a valid prescription. In fact, by the time heroin was introduced to the American market as a cough medication, the medical establishment was firmly against it, and the American Medical Association even called for a ban. In 1914, the Harrison Act was passed, which dramatically decreased opiate prescribing, but even before this, the epidemic of addiction had largely petered out. So how did this all happen again? The parallels are striking. Physicians who wanted to treat their patients with an admittedly effective medication exposed hundreds of thousands to opiates. And for a variety of reasons, the prescribing got out of hand war and disease in the nineteenth century, and the so-called fifth vital sign, patient satisfaction scores, and misleading research in the twentieth. Technological innovation made the risk of addiction higher, from the morphine syringe to crush and snort OxyContin. Even the pill mills churning out opiates by the thousands are basically copies of quack cure joints. Probably the biggest difference between the two epidemics is the role of drug companies. Bayers heroin was never accepted by the medical community, but by the 1990s, Purdue Pharmaceuticals had drug marketing including funding friendly physicians down to a science. But in our predecessors, we can see valuable lessons as we try to muddle our way through the second opiate epidemic. Medical schools are increasingly teaching about safe opiate prescribing. Doctors have again lobbied for laws restricting the drugs, including limiting the duration of new prescriptions, mandatory monitoring, and prescriber databases to help detect abuse. And theres been a renewed focus on multidisciplinary pain treatment, including opiate alternatives. The drugs might be new, but the idea is old-fashioned. But there are also warnings we should heed. The Harrison Act has been blamed with snuffing out nascent drug treatment centers; fortunately, in the second epidemic, weve recognized the importance of drugs like methadone and buprenorphine to treat addiction. The first opiate epidemic also took a long time to pass almost half a century. Were barely twenty years into this epidemic. Experience suggests we have a long way to go. In any event, physicians helped get us into both the first and second opiate epidemics. And just like before, were going to have to help get all of us out. Adam Rodman is a hospitalist and the host of the podcast Bedside Rounds, which can be found on iTunes and Stitcher. He can be reached on Twitter @AdamRodmanMD. Image credit: Shutterstock.com 3K Shares Share Brooklyn, New York, Spring of 1992. As I looked out of the New York City taxi window on Avenue T, I saw the building. It had always appeared to me as the most magnificent building I had ever seen that housed people in need of rehabilitative care. I was happy; I was ready, I was in great spirit. Lets do this!, I thought to myself as I stepped out of the taxi. Having arrived from Nigeria 10 months earlier, this was the third day at my first big job, and I was darn determined to give it my all each day. The pep talk from Maggie, the nursing agency lady who referred me to this subacute facility to perform the duties of a nurses assistant, echoed clearly in my mind. Remember to appear each day in clean scrubs, she said, and always have a smile on your face, and youll do just fine. My first two days were glorious. The patients loved me, and I loved them even more. So, in my brand-new, crisp and freshly ironed blue scrubs, I got out of the taxi and took a deep breath of the fresh morning air. On the ground floor of the 12-story building, a heavy glass door opened into the reception area, and I hurriedly walked up to the friendly looking lady by the reception desk. Im here as a nurses assistant from my agency, I cheerfully said. She smiled in return and buzzed me up to the 10th floor. I was assigned a few patients. What a dream come true! I thought to myself. I could not wait until the end of the day to contact my friends whom I left back home in Nigeria and tell them of the wonderful experiences Ive had in the first few days. My feeling of euphoria was interrupted when I heard my name over the PA system to see the nurse manager at the nurses station. I am sorry to tell you this, she began to say as she tried very hard to avoid my expectant gaze. But you were assigned to the patient in room 1B in error, and now youve been reassigned to a new patient. I felt just a bit disappointed because I was really looking forward to knowing her, but I kept my disappointment to myself as I resumed my duties. By midday, a fellow nurses assistant said, I was assigned the same patient last week, but my assignment was switched because the patient in room 1B doesnt wish to be cared for by black people. Oh, I said as I took a bite of my cold cut sandwich. While I slowly ate my lunch, I became lost in a newly found thought process. I grappled with the meaning of this new encounter that I had never experienced prior to that day. I clearly remember that I was not upset but rather felt quite puzzled. I look back, grateful, for my inexperience about racism and discrimination at that moment because this shielded me from the disappointing and unpleasant feelings that often manifest following such encounters. I was not upset but bewildered and felt a slight sense that I was perhaps not good enough and this made me uneasy and a bit sad. Its fair to say that a sense of separatism and discrimination creates an uneasy feeling because suddenly, I felt slightly less enthusiastic about my job at the subacute facility than I felt earlier in the week. As I ate in silence, many thoughts flooded my mind. The patient in room 1B probably did not realize many things: that I was looking forward to sharing many interesting stories about my recent migration from Nigeria, that I was looking forward to getting to know more about her, her journey, her culture, her reservations, and triumphs. She did not know all these and never got to know, simply because she didnt give me a chance to care for her. I respected her wishes, but felt torn that we both missed the chance to connect and gain a higher level of understanding about each other. I didnt know this then, but many years later this patient would be the suspicious patient in my book. Fast forward to 25 years after that encounter in Brooklyn. Currently a family nurse practitioner with many years of interacting with patients of diverse backgrounds, cultures, attitudes and finally becoming a patient myself in 2013, it finally made sense to me. Although there was the lost chance of getting to know the patient in room 1B, Ive had numerous opportunities over the years to interact with and make genuine connections with many patients of diverse races, religion, culture, and backgrounds who were curious to know me and I was equally excited and curious to know them. Occasionally, of course, Ive come across and still have sporadic encounters with patients who are initially reserved about me. My culture, mannerism, background and even my accent may seem strange to them at first. But by interacting with Godly compassion and use of effective communication techniques, such reservations are gradually overcome, and trust is built. These patients quickly realized that our initial encounter may have seemed strange at first, but when they got to know me, that I was a helper, a friend and not a foe. It is important to mention that the concept of the suspicious patient is not only limited to race. The suspicious patient represents each one of us due to the reservations that we have concerning one anothers attributes such as gender, age, religion, values, nationality, etc. Since we all are of diverse backgrounds and cultures, it is expected and almost inevitable that these reservations would always exist. What we dont understand can create fear and anxiety in us. But for genuine communication and trust development to be achieved, we must not shy away from our reservations about one another as the patient in room 1B did 25 years ago. Although it seems uncomfortable at first to explore and face our reservations about one another, we must not abandon the effort to do so because for us to successfully build trust with one another, it is vital that we go through periods of self-reflection to identify our individual reservations about one another. There are those questions that each of us can only truthfully answer for ourselves during moments of self-reflection. With hearts of sincerity and Godly compassion, we must give ourselves the chance to confront and ultimately overcome our real and sometimes unreal fears. This helps us maintain our piece-of-mind in an interconnected and increasingly diverse world. Nonye Aghanya is a nurse practitioner who blogs at her self-titled site, Nonye Aghanya. She is the author of Simple Tips To Developing A Productive Clinician-Patient Relationship. Image credit: Shutterstock.com ANKARA, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Thursday said Iraq should not rely on the United States in its fight against Islamic State, state TV reported. "Unity was the most important factor in your gains against terrorists and their supporters ... Don't Trust America ... It will harm you in the future," Khamenei told a visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. (Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. By Pratima Desai LONDON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The London Metal Exchange could defer its plans to charge fees on over-the counter contracts that reference LME prices because many of its members are on deadlines to get their systems ready for new European Union rules. The 140-year-old exchange announced last month it would start charging a new OTC fee in January balanced by cuts of other fees crucial to its physical user base designed to lure back volumes. The Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) that comes into force in January 2018 across the EU, aims to apply lessons from the 2007-09 financial crisis and stop abuse of pricing power and speculation. The new EU rules will significantly increase reporting requirements for banks and brokers and with the position limits only just published by regulators, financial firms trading metal derivative have very little time to adjust their systems. "Many members have pointed out they will be working right up until the end of the year on MiFID II," LME CEO Matt Chamberlain said at a briefing ahead of LME Week, an annual gathering of the metal industry in London next week. It could be a challenge for the exchange's members to be ready by January, he said. "We would be sympathetic to going live a little bit later in 2018...We are having an open dialogue with members about how best to minimise the reporting burden. Before any rules are implemented, the exchange will consult with its members. The consultation to be launched in the middle of November will detail what the exchange is proposing, how reporting of OTC trades will work and exemptions proposed. "We're not saying the OTC booking fees are going to be universally popular, but it is an opportunity for people to say what they think." Chamberlain said. Chamberlain said the exchange is trying to balance out the costs of trading on and off exchange. That is why it is cutting fees on carry trades that bridge contracts maturing on different dates. "The thing that has unified the market ... is to make sure that our members have time to put in place the reporting they will need to do, in order to tell us what the OTC fee is. Even if it's zero, they still need to report." Earlier in October, Chamberlain told Reuters he was confident that banks would not try to evade its new fee on OTC trades, which is likely to be $1 per equivalent contract. "We know that they are compliant organisations ... also quite heavily regulated institutions," Chamberlain said at that time. "Their own internal compliance guys are making sure their reporting is accurate." (Reporting by Pratima Desai; Editing by Adrian Croft) BRASILIA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Brazil's President Michel Temer signed a decree on Monday extending for two weeks a tax debt renegotiation program known as Refis, the presidential office said. The program has collected more than 10 billion reais ($3.05 billion) in back taxes this year for the Treasury. Earlier this month, the Senate approved greater discounts to taxpayers in the program, depriving the cash-strapped government of about 3 billion reais. ($1 = 3.2797 reais) (Reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu; Writing by Silvio Cascione; editing by Diane Craft) Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. TBILISI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Georgia's economy expanded by 4.7 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2017, official data showed on Monday, up from 2.6 percent in the same period of 2016, due to higher exports and remittances from abroad. In September alone, growth was 5 percent, up from 1.5 percent in September 2016 and from 4.3 percent in August 2017. The former Soviet republic, through which pipelines carry Caspian oil and gas to Europe, is recovering from a fall in exports and a plunge in the currencies of its main trading partners, which have depressed economic growth in recent years. Georgia's economy expanded by 2.2 percent last year and the government in Tbilisi expects it to grow 4.5 percent this year, helped by private sector developments and government spending on infrastructure projects. The IMF said earlier this month that it now expected Georgia to grow 4.3 percent this year, up from a previous forecast of 3.5 percent. (Reporting by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Alison Williams) (Kitco News) - Hedge funds liquidated their gold holding for the sixth consecutive week as the market continues to face headwinds from a stronger U.S. dollar and higher bond yields. Jonathan Butler, precious-metals strategist at Mitsubishi, noted in a report Monday that investors are fleeing safe-haven assets because of improving economic conditions in the U.S., which pushed 10-year bond yields to highs not seen since March. The disaggregated Commitments of Traders report for the week ending Oct. 24 showed money managers decreased their speculative gross long positions in Comex gold futures by 3,854 contracts to 192,701. However, at the same time, short bets also declined by 2,707 contracts to 24,333. Ultimately, renewed selling pressure across the board caused golds net length to shrink, now standing at 168,368 contracts. However, some analysts note that bearish momentum appears to be waning with golds net length down less than 1% from the previous week. The selling pressure has had only a modest impact on prices, which dropped 0.61% during the survey period. The metals bullish positioning has fallen more than 33% from the mid-September highs. In a recent interview with Kitco News, Bill Baruch, head of Blue Line Futures, said he is bullish on the yellow metal because of speculative positioning in the marketplace. He added that there are signs the market is oversold. It will be difficult for gold prices to sustain a drop below $1,260 an ounce, he said. Ultimately, if you are a gold seller, you have already sold. The gold market remains extremely sensitive to ongoing speculation of who President Donald Trump will nominate to lead the Federal Reserve for the next four years. Bart Melek, head of commodity strategy at TD Securities, said that golds saving grace could be if former Fed Governor Jerome Powell gets the nod as he is seen as the less hawkish compared to the other frontrunner, Stanford economist John Taylor. Melek added that investors could increase their gold holdings if geopolitical tensions in Europe and the growing conflict with North Korea escalates. While the gold market continues to struggle to gain investor interest, silver is faring slightly better. For the third consecutive week, investors waded back into the marketplace. The disaggregated report showed money-managed speculative gross long positions in Comex silver futures increased by 1,024 contracts to 74,898. At the same time, short positions fell by 214 contracts to 10,560. Silvers net length now stands at 64,338 contracts. Silvers net length increased almost 2% from the previous week. However, the modest buying didnt have a significant impact on the price, which dropped 0.44% during the survey period. (Kitco News) - Gold prices are seeing a bit of short covering in the futures market and some bargain hunting in the cash market in mid-morning U.S. dealings Monday. Traders are tentative in front of what shapes up to be a very active week for economic data points, including the FOMC meeting that begins Tuesday and ends Wednesday afternoon with a statement. Friday brings the U.S. employment report for October. Also, the Bank of Japan and Bank of England hold monetary policy meetings this week. December gold was last up $2.10 an ounce at $1,274.00. By Jim Wyckoff For Kitco News Follow @jimwyckoff www.kitco.com Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. Oct 30 (Reuters) - Hong Kong shares fell on Monday, bucking the trend in Asia markets, with sentiment hurt by a slump in mainland stocks that was triggered by liquidity concerns. The Hang Seng index fell 0.4 percent, to 28,336.19, while the China Enterprises Index lost 0.7 percent, to 11,563.38 points. Increasing cross-border flows have made Hong Kong more vulnerable to swings in China markets. On Monday, Shanghai's benchmark index posted its biggest one-day slide in 11 weeks as Chinese bond yields surged. The mood was not helped by an expected slowdown in China's manufacturing sector, where activity likely grew at a slightly slower pace in October due to Beijing's major anti-pollution campaign, according to a Reuters poll. The raw material subindex slumped more than 2 percent, offsetting a jump in energy shares triggered by firm oil prices. The financial sector dipped, but HSBC's Hong Kong listed shares rose slightly, after the British lender reported a five-fold jump in quarterly profits. Shares of BYC Co Ltd fell over 2 percent in Hong Kong, after the Chinese automaker backed by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc said on Sunday that its annual profit would likely fall by as much as one-fifth amid rising competition in the hybrid and electric car markets. (Reporting by Samuel Shen and John Ruwitch; Editing by Richard Borsuk) MUMBAI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Indian telecoms carrier Reliance Communications Ltd unveiled on Monday a new debt repayment plan, which included a pledge to raise up to 170 billion rupees ($2.62 billion) through the sale of assets such as mobile towers. RCom, as the debt-laden company is commonly called, also said it would repay lenders an additional 100 billion rupees through the sale of commercial real estate, and convert about 70 billion rupees of the debt to 51 percent of the company's equity. RCom, controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, will retain debt of 60 billion rupees after the completion of the new repayment plan, the company added. ($1 = 64.8500 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Promit Mukherjee and Abhirup Roy; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri) VILNIUS, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Lithuanian oil and gas terminal operator Klaipedos Nafta said on Monday it planned to invest up to 150 million euros ($174 million) in stakes in liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals around the world, to diversify from its main business of loading crude oil and oil products for a few large customers. The company expects to take stakes in five to seven LNG facilities, mostly in Asia or Africa within the next five years, Klaipedos Nafta CEO Mindaugas Jusius told Reuters. One of projects being eyed is the planned LNG import facility on the Croatian island of Krk, in which Spain's Enagas and Luxemburg's Margueritte are also possible investors, Jusius said. A decision on whether the terminal will be built is expected within a year. It would go online around three years after that. The Klaipeda LNG terminal can import up to 4 billion cubic metres of gas per year. It was running at about one third capacity last year, as gas usage in the Baltics has dwindled. Klaipedos Nafta launched a 27 million-euro LNG reloading station last week, capable of pumping an equivalent of 300 million cubic metres of gas annually to fuel LNG-powered vessels and onto road-going trucks for distribution. Jusius said the facility is expected to become profitable by 2020, when new rules on ship emissions come into force and demand for LNG as vessel fuel increases. "We see a breakthrough underway, as many ships under construction are built to run on LNG," said Jusius. He said it will take some time before a majority of ships are fuelled by LNG, as adapting existing ships to use LNG is expensive. "But it will come around as fleets are renewed naturally," he added. ($1 = 0.8610 euros) (Reporting By Andrius Sytas, editing by David Evans) LONDON, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Crude oil flows through an Iraqi Kurdistan pipeline to Turkey resumed on Monday after a technical stoppage for several hours, a Kurdish shipping source told Reuters. The source said the flows were still reduced at around 200,000-220,000 barrels per day (bpd) compared with the usual volume of 600,000 bpd. The next cargo to load at the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan will be Santa Cruz that will exports volume from the November loading programme, the source said. (Reporting by Dmitry Zhdannikov, editing by Louise Heavens) DUBAI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Banks and an earnings beat by Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) boosted Saudi Arabia's stock market early on Monday while Emaar Properties held back Dubai's main index. The Saudi stock index climbed 0.3 percent in the first hour. SABIC, the biggest petrochemical producer, gained 0.9 percent after reporting a 10.7 percent rise in third-quarter net profit on Sunday, beating analysts' forecasts by a third. Elsewhere in the sector, Arabian Pipes was up 5.1 percent and Saudi Kayan rose 0.6 percent in heavy trade. However, PetroRabigh fell 0.6 percent. Insurers and banks were the most active stocks in Riyadh with Alinmaa Bank adding 0.2 percent and National Commercial Bank , the kingdom's largest lender, gaining 0.4 percent. Most Saudi insurers were also up, buoyed by Malath Cooperative insurance , which jumped 6.0 percent after reporting a leap in third-quarter earnings from a low base. The Dubai index was flat to lower as real estate giant Emaar Properties lost 0.8 percent. This offset gains by several other stocks such as GFH Financial , which rose 0.6 percent after saying it may list its shares in Saudi Arabia. Emirates NBD rose 0.6 percent. The bank, Dubai's largest lender, posted a 2.28 billion dirham ($620.8 million) net profit for its third quarter, up from 1.66 billion dirhams a year ago; EFG Hermes had predicted 1.85 billion dirhams and SICO Bahrain 1.89 billion. Qatar's index edged up 0.1 percent as Qatar Islamic Bank rose 1.5 percent and telecommunications firm Ooredoo inched up 0.1 percent despite missing analysts' estimates. The company reported a net profit attributable to shareholders of 462 million riyals ($127 million) in the third quarter, below SICO Bahrain's projection of 517.7 million riyals and EFG Hermes at 533.7 million. But Qatar First Bank rebounded 0.6 percent after losing 3.3 percent on Sunday in response to a big nine-month net loss. In Kuwait, telecommunications firm Zain fell another 2.8 percent in early trade. On Sunday it had lost 3.3 percent after reporting net income down 7 percent in the third quarter, in line with analysts' forecasts. The Kuwaiti stock index edged up 0.1 percent. (Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi; Editing by Andrew Torchia and Kevin Liffey) TOKYO, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp , Japan's biggest steelmaker and a shareholder of Kobe Steel Ltd , is willing to provide support to Kobe if it receives any request, the president of Nippon Steel said on Monday. Kobe Steel, which sell steel products to manufacturers of cars, planes, trains and other equipment around the world, said earlier this month that about 500 of its customers had received products with falsified specifications, in one of Japan's biggest industrial scandals. "We will consider and respond if we receive any requests from Kobe Steel for help," Nippon Steel President Kosei Shindo told a news conference, adding that his company has not received any concrete request so far. (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Tom Hogue) Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. WARSAW, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Poland's state budget surplus amounted to 3 billion zlotys ($822 million) in the first nine months of the year, down from 4.9 billion in the January-August period, state news agency PAP said, quoting sources close to the finance ministry. The government had forecast that the full-year state budget deficit would amount to 32.9 billion zloty, while the original budget bill assumed a shortfall of 59.3 billion zlotys. The PAP agency gave no further details regarding the state of the budget in September. On Tuesday the finance ministry is to hold a news conference regarding the budget. The ministry has previously attributed the surplus to improved tax collection, but analysts also point to Poland's strong economic growth, which reached about 4 percent in both the first and second quarter of this year. ($1 = 3.6477 zlotys) (Reporting by Marcin Goclowski; Editing by Gareth Jones) MOSCOW, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Russian oil exports from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk have been suspended due to a storm, Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft said on Monday. It also said the Pacific port of Kozmino was readying for loading of the last cargo for this month amid a storm warning. Other Russian ports are working according to schedule. (Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Dmitry Solovyov) Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication. By Devika Syamnath Oct 30 (Reuters) - Singapore stocks came off a 29-month high to close lower on Monday as investors booked profits after three straight sessions of gains, while the Philippines led gainers in Southeast Asia. Philippine shares gained 0.8 percent on their last trading day of the month, as real estate stocks such as SM Prime and SM Investments climbed 3.6 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively. Thai shares closed 0.2 percent higher, reversing losses during the session, after the finance ministry raised its economic growth forecast for this year. Oil and gas company PTT Pcl rose 1.4 percent while Kasikornbank Pcl climbed 2.4 percent. The Thai finance ministry now expects a 3.8 percent GDP growth this year, compared with its previous forecast of 3.6 percent. The ministry also upgraded its estimate for export gains to 8.5 percent this year, compared with the 4.7 percent projected in July. Singapore shares shed 0.3 percent, retreating from their highest since May 2015 hit earlier in the session. The index has risen 4.9 percent so far this month, its biggest monthly gain in nine. United Overseas Bank Ltd fell 1.1 percent, while the city-state's biggest lender DBS Group Holdings Ltd dropped 0.6 percent. "Given that we are at the end of the month and that the STI has had a strong run, it is not surprising to see some mild profit-taking," said Liu Jinshu, director of research at NRA Capital. Among other Southeast Asian markets, Malaysia was marginally up, with palm oil producer Sime Darby gaining 1.1 percent and Petronas Chemicals up 1.6 percent. The Philippine market is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday on account of public holidays. For Asian Companies click; SOUTHEAST ASIAN STOCK MARKETS Change on day Market Current Previous Pct Move close Singapore 3375.97 3386.44 -0.31 Bangkok 1718.66 1716.03 0.15 Manila 8365.26 8295.95 0.84 Jakarta 5974.077 5975.281 -0.02 Kuala Lumpur 1748.35 1746.13 0.13 Ho Chi Minh 845.2 840.37 0.57 Change on year Market Current End 2016 Pct Move Singapore 3375.97 2880.76 17.19 Bangkok 1718.66 1542.94 11.39 Manila 8365.26 6840.64 22.29 Jakarta 5974.077 5296.711 12.79 Kuala Lumpur 1748.35 1641.73 6.49 Ho Chi Minh 845.2 664.87 27.12 (Reporting by Devika Syamnath in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri) HANOI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official and unofficial markets, indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi and interbank offered rates at 0406 GMT. October 30 USD/VND mid-point 22,477 USD/VND interbank 22,716/22,718 USD/VND unofficial 22,780/22,795 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.30/36.52 Interbank offered rates Overnight 0.3-1.0 1 week 0.8-1.1 1 month 1.4-1.9 3 months 3.2-3.6 NOTES: The State Bank of Vietnam began setting the mid-point rate on daily basis as of Jan. 4, 2016, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank offered rates are the latest indicative bid/ask prices, quoted from market sources. One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co. For more interbank rate fixings released at 0400 GMT, click on . For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom) ISTANBUL, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Here are news, reports and events that may affect Turkish financial markets on Monday. The lira stood at 3.7775 against the U.S. dollar at 0547 GMT, firming from Friday's close of 3.7865. The yield on the benchmark 10-year bond was at 12.01 percent in spot trade on Friday and fell to 11.95 percent in Monday-dated trade. The main BIST 100 share index rose 0.51 percent to 107,788.03 points on Friday. GLOBAL MARKETS Asian shares climbed on Monday, as technology stocks were bolstered by solid earnings from U.S. tech stalwarts and on strong pre-orders for Apple's iPhone X, while oil hovered around a 2-year peak on supply fears. Apple Inc said pre-orders for the 10th anniversary iPhone X, which started on Friday, were "off the charts", a blessing for Asian suppliers such as South Korea's LG Display and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company . ERDOGAN President Tayyip Erdogan departs from Ankara (0630 GMT) on an official visit to Azerbaijan where he will attend the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line. YILDIRIM Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will chair a meeting of the cabinet of ministers (1100 GMT). ECONOMIC CONFIDENCE INDEX The Turkish Statistical Institute will announce the economic confidence index for October (0700 GMT). YAPI KREDI Lender Yapi Kredi announced late on Friday an unconsolidated net profit of 841.4 million lira ($223 million) for the third quarter. FORD OTOSAN The automaker said late on Friday its net profit almost doubled to 345.9 million lira in the third quarter. GROWTH FORECAST Turkey's Economy Ministry expects the country's third-quarter growth at 9.6 percent but a double-digit figure would not come as a surprise, state-run Anadolu Agency on Sunday cited Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci as saying. For other related news, double click on: Turkish politics Turkish equities Turkish money Turkish debt Turkish hot stocks Forex news All emerging market news All Turkish news For real-time quotes, double click on: Istanbul National-100 stock index , interbank lira trading , lira bond trading ($1 = 3.7737 liras) (Writing by Daren Butler) (Adds details, more quotes) ZAGREB, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Croatia aims to become a euro zone member within the next seven to eight years, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday. "We don't want to specify the exact dates, but we want Croatia to become a euro zone member within two government terms in office," Plenkovic told an economic conference devoted to the introduction of the euro in Croatia. The centre-right government came to power a year ago. Plenkovic said Croatia wanted to enter the European exchange rate mechanism II (ERM-2) within the next three years, before the country takes the presidency of the European Union in 2020. EU members that have not yet adopted the euro are expected to participate for at least two years in ERM II, a mechanism aimed to ensure currency stability before joining the euro zone. The Croatian central bank already keeps Croatia's kuna currency in a narrow fluctuation band, roughly at between 7.3 and 7.7 to the euro, occasionally intervening on the local foreign exchange market mostly to ease appreciation pressures. Croatia's major challenge before adopting the euro is expected to be the reduction of public debt which is slightly above 80 percent of gross domestic product. "Our goal is to reduce the public debt to 72 percent of GDP by 2020 ... We are undertaking a major fiscal consolidation and this year the budget gap will be even lower than last year's 0.9 percent of GDP," Plenkovic said. (Reporting by Igor Ilic; Editing by Robin Pomeroy) * Q3 FDI rises 12 pct y/y in rupiah terms * Total in Q3 111.7 trln rupiah or $8.3 bln -investment board * Moves to reduce bureaucracy not progressing rapidly (Adds details, background) By Hidayat Setiaji and Wilda Asmarini JAKARTA, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Indonesia, whose president has been trying to attract more overseas investors, saw foreign direct investment (FDI) increase at a slightly faster pace in July-September than in the previous quarter, according to data released on Monday. FDI rose 12 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier in rupiah terms, the investment board said. That compared with the 10.6 percent annual increase in April-June. Board deputy chief Azhar Lubis said the FDI total in the latest quarter was 111.7 trillion rupiah, which the board converts to $8.3 billion. The board's data excludes investment banking and the oil and gas sector. President Joko Widodo has rolled out a series of regulatory changes intended to encourage foreign investment and reduce the dependence of Southeast Asia's largest economy on private consumption. Among them are steps to ease working with Indonesia's daunting bureaucracy. However, streamlining bureaucracy is not progressing rapidly. In July, Widodo told off cabinet ministers he said were issuing regulations that will "add to bureaucracy and increase complications" for businesses wanting to expand or invest. The bulk of the third quarter FDI was for metal, machinery and electronics industry as well as mining. Just as in the second quarter, Singapore was the biggest source of investment, followed by Japan and China The board did not name any key investors in the last quarter. Indonesia's central bank said last month there was strong growth in FDI related to e-commerce. Tom Lembong, investment board head, said the technology sector is playing a growing role in FDI. Chinese investors Tencent Holdings Ltd and JC.com Inc has invested hundreds of millions of dollar into Indonesian ride-hailing startup Go-Jek, sources said. ($1 = 13,590 rupiah) (Reporting by Hidayat Setiaji and Wilda Asmarini; Writing by Fransiska Nangoy; Editing by Richard Borsuk) * To repay 170 bln rupees by selling assets such as towers * To repay another 100 bln rupees from sale of real estate * Says lenders comfortable with new plan (Adds details of plan, exec comment) By Promit Mukherjee and Devidutta Tripathy MUMBAI, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Debt-laden Indian telecoms company Reliance Communications Ltd has agreed a new debt repayment plan with lenders, including a pledge to raise up to 170 billion rupees ($2.6 billion) by selling assets such as mobile towers, it said on Monday. RCom , as the company led by billionaire Anil Ambani is called, also said it would repay lenders an additional 100 billion rupees through the sale and commercial development of its real estate near Mumbai and in eight other cities. The announcement comes after the unravelling of its previous debt repayment plan, which had hinged on merging its mobile operations with rival Aircel and selling a 51 percent stake in its tower arm to Canada's Brookfield . However, the Aircel merger was called off on Oct. 1 over what RCom called regulatory delays and legal uncertainties, forcing it to renegotiate a plan to sell its tower unit to Brookfield for 110 billion rupees as the tower assets had to be revalued. RCom's shares have tumbled 18 percent to a series of record lows since the Aircel merger was called off, adding urgency for the company to come up with a new debt repayment plan. RCom executives on Monday said talks with Brookfield were still going on, with the Canadian company open to buying the entire tower mobile business, though noting there were other suitors as well. RCom's Executive Director Punit Garg said the lenders had agreed to the new debt repayment plan, which will spare creditors any write-offs. The deals will be completed by the end of March, he added. "The lenders were very, very comfortable looking at the conservative management estimate of monetising these assets worth (170 billion rupees)," Garg told reporters. "What we have presented is a zero write-off plan (to the lenders). They were so happy and thrilled." There was no immediate comment from the lenders, led by State Bank of India . Monday's plan also involves lenders swapping about 70 billion rupees worth of debt for a 51 percent stake in the company. RCom will retain about 60 billion rupees in debt after the repayment plans go through. RCom, with 443 billion rupees ($6.8 billion) of net debt as of March is the most leveraged among listed Indian telecom companies. The debt load has spooked investors, sending RCom's shares tumbling this year amid worries about whether it could pay back creditors at a time when profits across the telecom sector are slumping due to stiff competition sparked by the entry of start-up Jio, led by Anil Ambani's older brother Mukesh Ambani. Jio, owned by Reliance Industries , is also among potential suitors for some of RCom's assets, Garg said, without elaborating. RCom is in the midst of scaling down its wireless business in India and plans to focus on catering to corporate customers. ($1 = 64.8900 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Promit Mukherjee and Devidutta Tripathy; Additional reporting by Abhirup Roy; Editing by Mark Potter) * Aims for annual financial sector growth of more than 4 pct * One focus is encouraging adoption of technology * Achieving right balance on technology is key - analyst (Adds comments from economist and minister) By Masayuki Kitano SINGAPORE, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Singapore unveiled a roadmap for strengthening its status as a financial hub in Asia, with the aim of growing the sector more than 4 percent a year and creating thousands of jobs. "With technology transforming the way financial services are produced, delivered, and consumed, it is critical that Singapore's financial sector also transforms, to stay relevant and competitive," the Monetary Authority of Singapore said on Monday. One focus is encouraging the adoption of technology to increase efficiency, the central bank said. The MAS said it will take steps such as collaborating with financial institutions to create common utilities for services including electronic payments, as well as investing in research to develop solutions such as "distributed ledger technology" for inter-bank payments and trade finance. The central bank will also expand cross-border cooperation agreements with other fintech centres to help grow Singapore as a base for foreign fintech start-ups, and will harness technology to simplify financial institutions' regulatory compliance. Chua Hak Bin, Maybank Kim Eng economist, said a challenge for Singapore is striking a balance between staying at the forefront of technology, and ensuring that technology is not too disruptive for the sector. "Technology is blurring geography, and financial transactions can now be increasingly conducted with applications and the Internet via new financial entities," he said. "You want to encourage these things to take off and yet at the same time, you want to balance that risk... that some of this new technology could actually be disruptive to your major local players," Chua said. A NEED TO REGULATE Ong Ye Kung, education minister and an MAS board member, said encouraging innovation "does not mean the regulator takes a laissez-faire, hands-off approach." "New and emerging activities that pose systemic risk or endanger consumer interests will need to be regulated. At the same time, the landscape for existing regulated activities may have changed, necessitating a relook at rules," he added. Between 2016 and 2020, Singapore aims to average 4.3 percent annual growth in financial sector real value-added and annually create 3,000 net jobs in financial services and 1,000 net jobs in the fintech sector, the central bank said. It said Singapore aims to be a leading international wealth management hub, as well as an Asian hub for fund management. The MAS said it is working with the financial industry to develop Singapore as an Asian centre for capital raising and enterprise financing, and as an infrastructure financing hub. It also seeks to develop Singapore as a leading centre for Asian fixed income, and a global capital for Asian insurance and risk transfer. (Reporting by Masayuki Kitano; Editing by Richard Borsuk) (Adds comments on Shell, Exxon plans) BEIRUT, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Iraq has increased exports from its southern oilfields to 3.45 million barrels per day (bpd) to make up for a shortfall from the northern Kirkuk fields, Basra Oil Company Director General Ihsan Abdul Jabbar told Reuters on Monday. Output from Kirkuk fell earlier this month when Iraqi forces took back control of fields from Kurdish fighters who had been there since 2014. The oil ministry said on Oct. 21 an extra 200,000 bpd would be shipped from Basra on top of the usual volumes. Exports from Basra had previously averaged 3.23 million bpd, Abdul Jabbar said on the sidelines of the Basra Oil, Gas and Infrastructure conference in Beirut. Abdul Jabbar also said the Basra Oil Company aimed to increase the southern oilfields' production capacity to 6 million bpd by 2020. Iraq's total capacity is close to 4.8 million bpd, with most of it coming from the southern region. ExxonMobil should be awarded next year a project to boost output from several southern oilfields, he said. Royal Dutch Shell should hand over the Majnoon field operation which it wants to exit before April 2018, he said. (Reporting by Lisa Barrington and Sarah Dadouch; Editing by Dale Hudson and Edmund Blair) Execution circa 1910-1920 Courtesy of Robert Neff collection Corpses hanged in public view for days in Joseon era By Robert Neff Justice in the late Joseon era was often quick and severe. People accused of crimes were often horribly tortured and those who confessed their crimes or were found guilty were subsequently punished. There were many forms of punishment depending on one's class and crime including corporal, loss of rank, confinement and banishment. Lesser crimes were often punished with beatings a humiliation that occasionally left its receiver bedridden for days if not permanently crippled. But the ultimate punishment was execution. One of the most popular forms of execution was decapitation. Judging from the accounts of foreign witnesses, these were often horribly botched affairs carried out by executioners who were often under the influence of alcohol and equipped with dull rusty blades. According to one witness, an executioner "cut off the heads of the criminals after thirteen blows with a blunt sword." Reforms were needed and they came in late January 1895 when the Korean cabinet declared "beheading and other barbarous modes of punishment" would be replaced with "strangulation for civil, and by shooting for military capital crimes." But was hanging more humane? In early 1904, William B. McGill, an American Methodist missionary-doctor, visited a prison in Gongju, South Chungcheong Province. The jailer, an evil-looking man, confessed that whenever he only had a few inmates he would make sacrifices to the gods asking for more prisoners to be sent. Apparently his prayers were answered because when McGill visited there were 37 robbers and murderers. They were mainly men but there was at least one woman who had killed her husband with poisonous eels and then horribly mutilated his face in a futile effort to make him unrecognizable. Not all of the murders were intentional. One man accidently killed a friend during a drunken altercation following a funeral. He professed great regret for the killing but his remorse could not save him within a week he and most of the other prisoners were hanged their final moments of life recorded by McGill. "From a distance I witnessed nine of them being hung to a single branch, so close to each other that their faces touched. They had their hands tied behind them with straw rope and they walked to the tree with the constable holding them by the arm, and put their heads in the noose without any attempt at resistance. They seemed to die without the least struggle. One of the prisoners was sent up the tree to tie the straw ropes. The man to be hanged was held up off the ground a foot or so while the rope was being tied to the limb and then he was dropped and slowly strangled. Death usually followed in three or four minutes." Things didn't always run smoothly. The first to be hanged that fateful day was a very large and heavy man but the initial attempt failed because the rope broke. The miserable man was hauled back up for a second and then third time but the rope continued to break. Surely some of the witnesses might have considered it divine intervention but the executioner was unmoved and ordered the execution to continue. After cursing his fellow prisoner in the tree for being clumsy, the condemned man finally met his fate on the fourth attempt. The bodies were supposed to hang for two or three days a severe warning to others but family members would often remove their loved ones and secretly bury them. McGill recalled: "As I was going home after witnessing the hangings I met an old woman with a grass hook or sickle in her hand and I asked her where she was going. She said she was going to cut down her son who had been hanged. I also met another old woman and two younger ones with children going for the same purpose." Those bodies that were not recovered by family or friends were cut down, thrown into a ditch and halfheartedly covered with dirt leaving tufts of hair and limbs sticking out of the soil. McGill noticed dogs roaming about the site "helping themselves" to the fresh corpses the unlikely beneficiaries of the reforms. Nearby was a large patch of ground with human skulls and bits and pieces of bone scattered about a remnant of the cruel past. Prior to the law revision, a large number of rebels were executed here by piling brush and timber around them and burning them to death. Robert Neff is a historian and columnist for The Korea Times. He can be reached at robertneff103@gmail.com Ko Young-hee, founder and CEO of COA, poses during an interview with The Korea Times at 10000LAB X NAMIB cafe in Seoul last week. / Korea Times photo by Park Jae-hyuk By Park Jae-hyuk Self-portraits of 300 South African children have been on display at a cafe in Haebangchon. Ko Young-hee, 47, who teaches art to the country's children, held the exhibition titled "Uso," which means "face" in Swahili. Ko is a founder and CEO of the non-governmental organization COA, standing for "color of Africa." She has lived in South Africa, since she first visited the country for her sabbatical leave in 2000, when she was a designer for a construction company in Korea. She said she began living there at that time, after falling in love with the country. Better known as "Sally" to her students, she hopes her work to foster friendships between the two countries' children. "I think the two countries' children can give each of their counterparts what they need," Ko said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. "I will help other countries' needy children with the profit from the exhibition, so that South African children realize they can also help others." According to Ko, those who enjoyed the exhibition the most were Korean children. "They wanted to hang their pictures on the wall along with South African children's," she said. Seen are South African children's self-portraits exhibited at 10000LAB X NAMIB cafe in Seoul. / Korea Times photo by Park Jae-hyuk The style of pictures on the wall seemed quite different from those of Korean children's. Ko said she just teaches them how to use art materials, not teach them techniques. "I urge my students to draw their own pictures, not to copy their friends' styles," she said. "I say to them their pictures with their own styles are the best." The creativity has attracted visitors to 10000LAB X NAMIB cafe, which offered the exhibition space for free. "As time goes on, children began pitching new ideas, after realizing their abilities," she said. "Actually, it is the most important thing for them." Ko is now finding another African country where she can teach art to children. "Most Koreans tend to regard Africa as one country, but each tribe and country is different in culture," she said. "I will introduce them to Koreans one by one with pictures painted by children." The exhibition ends Wednesday. Ko plans to come to Korea again next year, after staying in South Africa for a while. "Next year, I will collaborate with Jang Hyun-sung, a master of natural dyeing on Jeju Island," she said. "South African children's pictures will be combined with colors of Korea and will be exhibited at the Museum of African Art on the island." Ko has also served as an adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for six years. In 2015, COA was registered as a non-profit, non-governmental organization specializing in cultural exchange with African countries. By Park Hyong-ki The Korea Federation of Banks (KFB) has begun the process to select its new chairman next month. "The board consisting of chief executives from commercial and regional banks will discuss the matter and review potential candidates over the next month," a federation official said. The federation will then appoint the successor to Chairman Ha Yung-ku, whose term ends at the end of November. Two potential choices have emerged, though they have yet to be confirmed. They are Yun Yong-ro, a former vice chairman of the Financial Services Commission (FSC), and Shin Sang-hoon, a former Shinhan Financial Group chief executive. With rumors surfacing and other financial associations and agencies picking ex-bureaucrats as their new chiefs, the question is: Will the KFB pick an ex-bureaucrat or a former bank executive? The Korea Exchange (KRX), the operator of the stock bourse, recently announced it had chosen Jung Ji-won as the only candidate for its chairman. Jung was a bureaucrat who worked at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the FSC, who is expected to face some resistance from the KRX union as workers want a professional who will not be politically influenced. The General Insurance Association of Korea and Korea Life Insurance Association are also eyeing ex-bureaucrats as their new chiefs. The General Insurance Association has already picked Kim Yong-duk, a former FSC chairman, as its sole candidate. Whoever the next KFB chairman will be, he or she will face an uphill battle against the brokerage and internet banking industries. The KFB may need someone who can appeal to the government about banks' needs. But this will not be easy as the incumbent government does not see the banking sector as leading innovation, and banks further face a tightening of loan regulations due to rising household debt. As brokerages and internet banks are further moving into the business turf of commercial banks, banks are arguing that the country should equally enforce banking laws on them, especially securities companies that are about to become investment banks. This is the first in a series of interviews with international experts to seek ways toward a peaceful resolution of the North Korea nuclear crisis on the occasion of the 67th anniversary of The Korea Times, which falls on Nov. 1. ED. By Kim Jae-kyoung Kelsey Davenport Diplomacy is the only way to achieve a peaceful resolution of the North Korea nuclear crisis, according to Kelsey Davenport, director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association. She said that in order to bring North Korea back to negotiations, U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration should send a sincere, consistent message that the offer of engagement is real. "Diplomacy is the only path forward to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis," Davenport said in a recent interview. "The Trump administration purports to advance a strategy of maximum pressure and engagement but U.S. actions and rhetoric expose a serious diplomacy deficit," she added. She pointed out that mixed messages from Trump and top administration officials about U.S. intentions to engage in talks further complicate the environment. "The Trump administration can and must signal to North Korea that it is willing to engage in talks without preconditions," she said. "Direct talks would give the U.S. an opportunity to discuss a path forward with North Korea to reduce tension." Davenport stressed that the U.S. Congress should also refrain from activities that heighten tension and muddy the waters regarding the prospects of diplomacy. "That may require putting denuclearization on the back burner, voicing support for shorter-term, more manageable goals, and giving existing sanctions time to work before pushing new measures," she said. She believes that given the tension between North Korea and the U.S., a high-level figure could engage both parties to try to reduce this and convey to Pyongyang Washington's interest in negotiations. "That will require identifying an individual the Trump administration trusts and is willing to refrain from openly criticizing," she said. "Ultimately North Korea wants to negotiate with the U.S., but other states can and must play a role in facilitating a peaceful resolution to the crisis." The Washington-based North Korea expert said that while South Korea faces serious security challenges, it is incumbent upon Seoul to refrain from actions that would prompt an arms race, further destabilizing the region. Davenport thinks that tougher sanctions and military signaling without a plan for diplomacy will only complicate the situations. "Given the current escalated risk of miscalculation, South Korea and the U.S. need to walk a fine line between sustaining security alliances and provoking a North Korean response," she said. She warned that Trump's vague threats, paired with military signaling, could inadvertently spark a crisis. "The U.S. and South Korea could scale back some military activities without negatively impacting readiness," she noted. "Putting that on the table might be attractive to Pyongyang as part of an interim negotiated freeze." Lesson from Iran deal Davenport, who provides research and analysis on nuclear and missile programs in North Korea and Iran, said that lessons should be learned from the process of the P5+1 talks for the Iranian nuclear weapons agreement. The P5+1 refers to the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. plus Germany. One lesson to take from the nuclear deal with Iran in her view is the critical need for coordination in any multilateral approach. "The six countries negotiating with Iran were in lock step on the strategy and goals of the process," she said. "Multilateral talks with North Korea will require the same close coordination on goals and processes." Another important lesson relevant for multilateral talks with North Korea is that the negotiations with Iran demonstrated that an interim agreement can be a positive way to prevent tension from escalating and demonstrate all sides are willing to implement a deal in good faith. "In negotiations with North Korea, an interim deal designed to freeze Pyongyang's nuclear and missile progress in exchange for concessions from the other side, such as a pledge not to impose any additional sanctions or a roll back of some elements of the U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises, might be helpful in demonstrating that both sides are willing to follow through on an agreement," she added. The petition on the South Korean Presidential Office's homepage seeking to abolish the criminal status of abortion had attracted the signatures of 233,826 people as of Monday 4 p.m. The petition aims to "abolish abortion's criminality and legalize imports of Mifegyne that helps pregnant women naturally miscarry their fetus." / Captured from presidential office's homepage By Chyung Eun-ju More than 200,000 people have signed a petition on South Korean presidential office's homepage to abolish the criminal status of abortion as of Sunday, requiring the central authority to give an official response. A member of the public filed the petition on Sept. 30 and since then 214,298 people had signed by Sunday at 4 p.m. on Oct. 29, one day before the deadline. Cheong Wa Dae had pledged in August to give an official reply within 30 days from a senior-or -minister level to a petition with more than 200,000 signatures. The pledge came 100 days after the Moon Jae-in administration took office in May. "Korea has a low birth rate, but unwanted pregnancy is a tragedy for those directly involved, the babies, and the nation," said the first petitioner. "It is unfair to hold only women responsible under the current law." The petitioner also urged the government to legalize the importation of Mifegyne, an abortion pill first sold by French pharmaceutical company Roussel-Uclaf in the 1990s, stating that 119 countries now imported the medicine. "There are a lot of people who secretly have abortion surgeries in South Korea," said the petitioner. "If a woman undergoes an illegal abortion procedure and an accident happens, how can she receive help under the current law?" Women who seek an abortion face up to a year in jail or a 2 million won ($1,780) fine. Those who perform an abortion face a prison term up to two years. A Cheong Wa Dae official said the presidential staff "will discuss the time period and method to respond to the petition," according to Chosun Ilbo. The fight to decriminalize abortion is the second public petition to muster more than 200,000 signatures. On Sept. 25, a petition to revise a youth law to prevent a person under 14 from receiving criminal punishment topped 200,000. By Choi Ha-young Chung Woo-taik The conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) criticized the Moon Jae-in administration for abstaining from a United Nations vote on an anti-nuclear resolution, Monday. The largest conservative party said the government should have kept pace with the international society's moves against Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions. "The Moon government abstained from the vote for incomprehensible and odd reasons," LKP floor leader Chung Woo-taik told a press conference. Rep. Chung strongly denounced the "diplomatic rift" between South Korea and the U.S. ahead of President Donald Trump's Seoul visit Nov. 7 and 8. "The LKP is very concerned about the administration's complacent stance on security. The abstention from the resolution, cosponsored by the U.S., has apparently eroded the Korea-U.S. alliance," Chung said. On Friday the government abstained from two out of three UN General Assembly resolutions that tackled nuclear issues, as it has done so since 2015. Of the two, the disputed one was "L35" that gained support from 144 countries including the U.S. It calls for "united action with renewed determination toward the total elimination of nuclear weapons." The LKP pointed out that this year's L35 resolution had harsher criticism of North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations, unlike previous versions. "Foreign countries may see that Seoul is leaning toward Pyongyang instead of staying in line with the U.S.," Rep. Yoo Ki-june of the LKP said, citing four countries who voted against the resolution North Korea, China, Russia and Syria. Regarding the row, Foreign Affairs Minister Kang Kyung-wha said the government refused to vote because the L35 resolution put too much emphasis on the damage suffered by Japan during nuclear bombing in 1945. Kang said the government cast its ballot based on cooperation with allies including the U.S. "Since 2015, the Korean government has abstained from the resolution because it put too much emphasis on the damage that Japan underwent due to the nuclear bomb," Kang said during a National Assembly audit into the ministry. She explained the resolution was not targeting Pyongyang but designed by Japan which is seeking to erase its responsibility for waging World War II. From 1994 to 2015, the government was in support of the resolution but Seoul decided not to do so in 2015 under then-President Park Geun-hye. "At that time, Japan tried to emphasize its status as victim. The government urged Japan to include Korean nationals who also suffered from the nuclear bombing, but Japan declined to do so which led us to drop our support," Kang said. Including South Korea, 27 countries abstained in the vote including Austria and New Zealand, she added. On Saturday, The Japan Times depicted the resolution as a "Japan-sponsored motion." After the endorsement at the UN General Assembly, Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono expressed satisfaction. By Park Jin-hai Kim Joo-hyuck Actor Kim Joo-hyuck, 45, died in a car crash Monday, according to police. The accident happened around 4:30 p.m. in southern Seoul, when his Mercedes SUV hit the rear of a Grandeur sedan, crashed into the wall of an I-Park apartment, rolled down steps to the apartment block and overturned. "Kim was rescued and carried to Konkuk University Hospital, but didn't survive the accident. He was moved unconscious and the medical staff performed CPR, but he was declared dead at 6:30 p.m.," a police officer told Yonhap News. "His car was severely damaged, so that he couldn't be pulled out of the wreckage until around 5:07 p.m. His car was filled with smoke, but it didn't catch fire," the official added. Kim, right, who allegedly killed his mother, stepfather and 14-year-old half-brother in Korea, appears at the North Shore District Court to attend a hearing on theft charges in Auckland, New Zealand, Monday. / Yonhap By Jung Min-ho New Zealand police have apprehended a Korean man who flew into Auckland last week after allegedly killing three family members here, the Korean Embassy there said Monday. According to an embassy official, it is taking necessary steps to extradite the 33-year-old, surnamed Kim, who is accused of killing his mother, stepfather and 14-year-old half-brother Oct. 21. Kim, a permanent resident of New Zealand, caught a flight there Oct. 23 with his wife and two daughters, only to be apprehended on an outstanding warrant for alleged theft of household appliances in 2015. He appeared at the North Shore District Court to attend the theft charge hearing. Currently he is remanded in custody without a plea on the theft charge. If he ends up in prison, it may not be possible to bring him back to Korea immediately. The two countries have an extradition treaty, which was signed in 2001. The bodies of his mother and half-brother were found at their home in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, with multiple stab wounds. A kitchen knife was found next to them. The body of his stepfather was found in the trunk of a vehicle in a condominium parking lot in PyeongChang County, Gangwon Province. His motive remains unclear. He did not have a stable job and relied on his mother financially. Police will question him once he is returned. On Monday morning, Oct. 30, people crossing an intersection on Sejong-ro Street in Jongno-gu, Seoul, wear thick overcoats to ward off the coldest autumn weather this year. / Yonhap By Chyung Eun-ju The first big autumn freeze hit Korea on Monday morning as temperatures plunged to 4.5C in Seoul and to sub-zero in rural regions. "Cold winds will work their way from the northwest area to the south until Tuesday. The temperature will drop significantly more than average," said the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). "There were areas that dropped below zero, which is the lowest temperature this autumn. The first ice and frost were also spotted." Hoarfrost blankets foliage in Deogyu-bong Peak of Deogyusan Mountain in Muju-gun, North Jeolla Province, as temperatures dropped to -8C on Monday morning. / Yonhap Temperatures plummeted to -8C on Deogyu-bong Peak of Deogyusan Mountain in Muju-gun, North Jeolla Province; 7.6C at Gimhwa village close to the inter-Korean border in Cheorwon-gun; -7.6 in Gangwon Province and -5.9C at Misan village in Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi Province. Major cities also recorded single-digit temperatures. At 6 a.m., western port city Incheon recorded 4.9C, eastern port city Gangneung 8.9C, Daejeon 3.4C, Gwangju 7.6C and Daegu 7.4C, Southern port cities Busan and Ulsan recorded 8.1C and 7.3C respectively. Hoarfrost covers Halla Mountain top on Jeju Island on Monday. / Yonhap People heading to work at the start of the week were wearing padded jackets, mufflers, coats, winter hats and earmuffs. "Today was the first day I wore my winter coat instead of my trench coat," said an office worker, 28. "It was not very cold on Saturday, but it suddenly became cold. I'm worried I will catch a cold." Temperatures are expected to warm up on Wednesday to around 11C and fall back to 2C in Seoul by Saturday, according to the KMA. By Kim Se-jeong Five-day safety drills began nationwide Monday in an effort to enhance the government's emergency response to natural and man-made disasters. According to the Ministry of Interior and Safety, the largest scale exercises will continue until Friday, including 388 field exercises featuring diverse scenarios. It said the drills can improve the government's response capabilities to all kinds of threats, other than ones from North Korea. Firefighters exercised managing wild fires on Mount Bukhan on the day and they were also mobilized to extinguish a fire in the Gwacheon Government Complex. On Jeju Island, authorities rescued passengers from a simulated blazing ferry. The drills focus on earthquake response and related aftereffects. Last year's Gyeongju quake reminded people that Korea is not safe from tremors. The Ministry of Education will teach elementary students what to do when an earthquake hits. At 2 p.m. Wednesday, alarms are scheduled to sound across the country and people are supposed to hide under tables or desks indoors or run to open spaces where there's no danger of being hit by collapsing buildings. In Seoul, firefighters will practice extinguishing fires in a building and rescuing the injured there following an earthquake. In Gangneung, Gangwon Province, a special exercise will take place to respond quickly to adverse weather situations such as snowstorms, which could happen during the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. On the same day, Sejong is scheduled to conduct a terrorist attack drill, while the Seoul Nambu Prison will run an exercise simulating a fire at the detention center and escaping inmates. The last two days of the drills will see the government holding exercises on handling nuclear power plant accidents, cyber attacks, hazardous chemical attacks, infectious diseases and water shortages. Lawmakers of the conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP), wearing black suits and ties, hold a rally at the National Assembly, Monday, to protest what they claim is the liberal government's intervention in the operation of public broadcasters. They claimed public broadcasters are already "dead," but according to surveys, a majority of Koreans back government-led reform of the broadcasters, which are still managed by people appointed under the previous Park Geun-hye administration. / Yonhap By Kim Rahn The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) returned to the National Assembly audit of government agencies Monday, four days after it decided to boycott the inspection to protest the government's alleged "attempt to control media." Other parties denounced the LKP's flip-flopping decision, saying the boycott lacked a proper reason and failed to achieve anything, only impeding Assembly sessions. After a general meeting of party members, LKP floor leader Chung Woo-taik said the party decided to return to the audit. "The boycott was a minimum protest as an opposition party against the government's plot to control broadcasters," he said. The party announced the boycott Thursday after the state broadcasting authority, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), filled two vacant seats of the nine-member board of the Foundation for Broadcast Culture (FBC) with "pro-government" figures. The two seats had been previously taken by figures recommended by the former ruling party now named the LKP, and they resigned amid growing criticism of the FBC's failure to maintain political neutrality. Despite ending the boycott, Chung said the party would continue protesting. LKP lawmakers began wearing black suits and ties as if they were at a funeral, to symbolize "public broadcasters who are dying due to the Moon Jae-in administration's control." They also put signs reading "Stop media control that infringes on democracy" on their laptops at the audit sessions. But the four-day boycott has drawn neither public support nor any feasible achievement. The audit ends Tuesday, so the LKP lawmakers' absence did not have much impact on the audit sessions. The party will also face public criticism if it continues to snub future Assembly sessions and events including President Moon's national address slated for Nov. 1 and U.S. President Donald Trump's speech on Nov. 8. Other parties welcomed the LKP's return to the audit, but criticized it for its "habitual boycott." "The retraction of the boycott was a reasonable and natural decision," Rep. Kang Hoon-sik, a spokesman of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), said in a statement. "The decision proved the LKP's boycott was an unreasonable one just aimed at political strife." The minor liberal People's Party also said the people may see the LKP as "a party of habitual boycott." The minor conservative Bareun Party said the people are not interested in the LKP's decision to boycott the audit and its later decision to withdraw the boycott, saying the LKP is in "a league of their own." "The LKP is the major opposition party with more than 100 seats, but it gets pathetic without self-reflection and reform," said Park Jeong-ha, a spokesman of the Bareun Party. "The audit has two days left and the LKP has wasted time. It says it did this and it did that during the boycott, but I can't see anything it achieved." A public opinion poll also showed the cause of the LKP's boycott to protest the Moon government's "media control attempt" did not gain much public sympathy. In a poll conducted Friday on 500 adults by Realmeter, 55.6 percent of the respondents said the KCC's appointment of two new directors at the FBC was a good step to "normalize public broadcasters," while 26.8 percent said it was the Moon administration's attempt to control the media. By Kim Hyo-jin The Ministry of National Defense said Monday it is mulling over multiple options to realize an offensive operational strategy. The remarks came as it denied a claim that Defense Minister Song Young-moo had ordered the suspension of key projects to build the country's own Korea Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) system. Rep. Kim Jong-dae of the minor opposition Justice Party said earlier in the day that Song had suspended projects to improve the country's ballistic missile early warning radar system and the mid-range hit-to-kill missile interceptor, code-named M-SAM, based on documents from the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA). Kim claimed Song's order came from the belief offensive assets are more important than defensive ones. It sparked suspicions the move might have been intended to secure a budget for the introduction of ship-based Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) interceptors from the U.S., which are estimated to be as costly as similar projects for the M-SAM and the early warning radar system. "It is not true that Song ordered the projects suspended," ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said during a regular briefing. "We are at a stage of considering how to boost military capability to realize an offensive operational strategy and what the priority for that aim should be." He said the ministry is conducting research into the issue and multiple options are on the table. Song said earlier the ministry would shift its war potential concept and military structure from defensive to offensive. When asked about the possible introduction of SM-3 interceptors on new Aegis destroyers, Moon replied, "No missile type has been decided on yet." Seoul is pushing to build three new Aegis destroyers by 2020 in addition to its three existing ones. Song earlier told the National Assembly defense committee he is considering equipping the new destroyers with the SM-3. The spokesman said Song's remarks only indicate they are open to various options. The KAMD is a project to develop the country's own multi-layered missile defense system to intercept incoming North Korean missiles. It includes developing interceptors such as M-SAM and long-range surface-to-air missiles (L-SAM) that can intercept missiles at altitudes of up to 100 kilometers. President Moon Jae-in has vowed to prioritize strengthening the country's defense capabilities, stressing the need to speed up the establishment of KAMD, along with the Kill Chain pre-emptive strike system and the Korea Massive Punishment and Retaliation (KMPR) plan. Meanwhile, SM-3 interceptors are the backbone of the U.S. Navy's interception program. They are capable of shooting down ballistic missiles at altitudes of 150 kilometers to 500 kilometers, while a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery was designed to counter incoming ballistic missiles at altitudes ranging from 40 to 150 kilometers. Kim claimed if the ministry introduces SM-3 instead of boosting KAMD, it would go against the government's principal to secure a defensive capability of its own separate from the U.S. missile defense system. By You Soo-sun Incheon International Airport has gone back on its word to secure permanent jobs for all of its 10,000 employees, according to Rep. Yoon Young-il of the minor opposition People's Party. On social media, Friday, the airport announced up to 2,000 employees will switch over to permanent status by the end of the year. The statement, however, met a backlash as company CEO Chung Il-young had pledged to give permanent job status to all irregular workers within this year. He first made this promise when President Moon Jae-in visited Incheon Airport, May 12, and maintained his vow until a National Assembly audit of the employment and labor ministry, Oct. 24. "I will push forward with the transition by making four to five subsidiary companies. I do not plan on using other resources," Chung said during the audit, adding the company was currently negotiating with its union. The company has long been criticized for its workforce composition. Up to 87 percent of its employees, or 6,100 people, were hired under irregular status in the past the highest share among all public organizations. This was the first public statement on the issue by Chung, who has for years insisted on keeping the irregular workforce. The news was a ray of hope for these employees, some of whom had worked at the airport for over a decade. However, he is accused of breaking his promise just a few days after the audit, during which questions were raised over the feasibility of Chung's plan. Rep. Kim Sung-tae of the Liberty Korea Party criticized him for making a hasty promise, and expressed skepticism about his plan. "How is it possible to change the working status for 10,000 people all at once?" Kim asked. Kim also condemned Chung's sudden change in position since Moon Jae-in who has pledged to remove all irregular jobs in the public sector was elected President. Doubts were also raised over the sincerity of Chung's plan. According to Rep. Yoon Young-il, the airport made deals with 17 firms in June to outsource 3,700 employees who were hired under irregular working status. Chung refuted this claim, arguing the deal was made prior to his promise. Rep. Choi Gyung-hwan of the People's Party highlighted the importance of ensuring transparency of the employment transition process. He argued the outsourced firms have hired 1,012 people since May, many of whom were relatives and acquaintances of management and entered the company without proper screening procedures. By John Burton When Koreans welcome (if that is the right word) U.S. President Donald Trump next week, they will be greeting a man who has the power to unleash a destructive war on the Korean peninsula that could kill millions. Whether Trump is preparing a preventive war against North Korea has become the subject of a feverish debate in Washington. The consensus among analysts is that the U.S. faces two stark choices in dealing with North Korea's nuclear program, either accept it and pursue a policy of containment, or engage in a catastrophic military conflict to stop it. At least in terms of rhetoric coming out of the White House, Trump has made clear that he rejects the first option. H.R. McMaster, Trump's national security advisor, recently said that Trump "is not going to accept [North Korea] threatening the U.S. with a nuclear weapon," adding that "accept and deter is unacceptable." Analysts in Washington are worried that Trump is painting himself into a corner with such statements and he will have no alternative but to launch a preventive war if he does not want to look weak in the eyes of the world. Moreover, a decision for war might happen quite soon if the Trump administration rhetoric is to be believed. McMaster said that "we're running out of time" as North Korea rapidly advances its nuclear and missile program and he did not believe that negotiations with Pyongyang would solve the problem. But should the White House statements be taken at face value? Some believe the scary rhetoric is meant to spook China into applying tougher economic sanctions against North Korea. Another interpretation is that Washington is engaging in "psywar" operations, which combined with U.S. military exercises involving B-1 bombers and carrier fleets, is meant to intimidate Pyongyang into stopping its nuclear and missile tests. Moreover, the Trump administration appears divided on the issue, with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson reportedly resisting a decision for "kinetic action," Washington speak for a military attack. Other U.S. officials argue that increased international sanctions should be allowed time to cripple North Korea. There is little doubt that the current situation has increased the chances of a conflict, but should Koreans be worried that war will really break out? One possible restraint on the U.S. taking unilateral military action against North Korea is that it would be opposed by Seoul and Tokyo, which fear being sucked into the conflict. It would also likely be condemned by other major powers, including China, Russia and the EU, as well as the U.N. unless the U.S. gets prior authorization. There are also the preparations for war to consider. Another major round of U.S.-Korean joint military exercises is not scheduled until next spring, which could reduce tensions over the winter months if North Korea also scales back its missile testing as it normally does during this period. In addition, there are no signs yet of U.S. engaging in the significant deployment of troops and military material to South Korea, Japan and Guam or mobilizing reserves troops that would normally be taken as the U.S. gears up for a war. Moreover, North Korea has not increased its military readiness despite the escalating war of words between Washington and Pyongyang. A more worrying sign would be if the U.S. decided to evacuate U.S. citizens or issued a travel advisory for visits to South Korea. But some analysts warn that the lack of military mobilization and evacuation measures should not be seen as a guarantee that the U.S. will refrain from taking military action. To avoid tipping his hand and alert Pyongyang, Trump might decide to sacrifice the lives of at least some Americans in South Korea as he conducts a surprise nuclear strike against North Korea that would need little overt sign of preparation to carry out. It is still the unknown element about what Trump will do that in the end makes the situation so uncertain and increases the risks that the U.S.-North Korean war of words morphs into an actual war through miscalculation. If Pyongyang, for example, believes that the continued presence of bombers and warships near its borders amounts to preparations for war, Kim Jong Un might decide he has no choice but to deliver the first blow. Some analysts believe Trump is deliberating engaging in provocative behavior so that Kim strikes first and provides a legal pretext for a declaration of war by the U.S. Let us hope that the war of words remains just that. But the risks of war through miscalculation will increase if the Trump administration continues on its present course of issuing threats, such as "totally destroying" North Korea, and we may have little warning of what happens next. John Burton (johnburtonft@yahoo.com), a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is now a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and consultant. Fusetools CEO and co-founder Anders Lassen speaks during an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul, Oct. 23. / Courtesy of Fusetools Korea Fusetools CEO stresses education with easy tools By Yoon Sung-won As the Fourth Industrial Revolution encroaches on all, everyone is talking about new technologies such as artificial intelligence, the internet of things, big data and cloud computing like they are so natural. But such technologies are too complicated a concept for most non-technical people to understand. Norwegian mobile software firm Fusetools CEO and co-founder Anders Lassen stressed the importance of bridging the gap between highly complicated technologies and the general public. "Don't rush to teach young kids complicated programming languages like Java," Lassen said during a recent interview with The Korea Times in Seoul. "We should make software development available even to young students because learning programming early can be a catalyst for other intellectual advancement. Also, teachers should have basic programming understanding because it is going to be essential in strengthening students' understanding in general not just for computer science but also for all types of disciplines." Established in Norway in 2011, Fusetools is providing its namesake mobile application development platform "Fuse." Because it allows software developers to build apps that support multiple mobile operating systems including Google Android and Apple iOS, it is called a "cross-platform app development tool." Without a cross-platform app development tool, companies need to hire experts who understand programming for both operating systems, which cost significant time and money, Lassen said. "We are trying to build a middle ground where you don't need to rely on the expensive experts but you can still build very high quality apps," he said. "Fuse can be used anywhere from mobilizing enterprises down to students. Because it has an easy beginner's user interface, it opens the door even for non-technical students, teachers or people who aren't necessarily going to end up being app developers. It is still very useful for them to have some basic knowledge about how mobile technology works because it's going to be so important going forward." Under Norway's advanced education system, Lassen started programming at the age of 12 as a hobby when he was a young boy who wanted to build video games. "Programming with easy tools such as Visual Basic was very inspiring and opened my eyes in the early stages to make me think I could actually make computers do useful things," he said. "But 20 years later, it has become much harder to make apps today. That's maybe the main reason why we wanted to make very easy-to-run and very visually-oriented apps so that you can actually see and understand what's happening on the screen." Fusetools chose Korea as one of two destinations to establish its first overseas branches alongside the United States. Lassen said it was a natural choice to get into the Asian market in general. "We have seen Korea as a very high-tech country, obviously because Samsung is here along with a lot of good technology companies," he said. "Korea is also very open-minded to new technology. Fuse is radically different tool from the ones that people have used to build mobile apps. So we found Korea to be a very good place to start." Lassen said the company is closely working with Korean IT enterprises such as Samsung and Naver to run Fuse for their mobile enterprise innovations. Besides the business sector, the company is also expanding partnerships with universities here. Fusetools is providing its cross-platform app development tool as education material for the curriculum at Seoul National, Konyang and Gyeongsang National universities this year and is planning to provide it to six more academic institutions, according to the company. Head of state institute wants to make it fun place to work Korean Air employees plant trees in the Kubuchi Desert in China, Sept. 20, 2016, as part of efforts to mitigate desertification and migratory sandstorms. The carrier will plant 70,000 trees in the area this year. / Courtesy of Korean Air By Lee Hyo-sik Korean Air has been fostering the spirit of sharing at home and abroad to fulfill its responsibility as a trusted corporate citizen, under the leadership of Chairman Cho Yang-ho. Thousands of company employees take part in various corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities each year to support marginalized groups and protect the environment. The country's largest flagship carrier has been particularly eager to provide relief goods to people affected by earthquakes and other natural disasters around the globe. "We always keep in our mind the importance of growing together with our business partners and local communities," a Korean Air official said. "We will continue to carry out our social responsibility and encourage workers to more actively participate in volunteer programs." The carrier has been planting hundreds of thousands of trees in China and Mongolia to help alleviate desertification and migratory sandstorms. From Sept. 18 to 20, 80 Korean Air employees flew to China to plant trees in the Kubuchi Desert. Since 2007, the firm has been planting trees to create a Korean Air Eco-Park there. The 4.61 square-kilometer park will have nearly 1.4 million trees by the year's end, according to the carrier. It also has been planting trees in Mongolia since 2004, establishing a 440,000 square-meter eco-park filled with 100,000 trees. The Mongolian government recognized the contribution, giving the company a medal for environmental protection in May 2009. The medal is the highest honor granted by the country's environment ministry. Another representative Korean Air CSR program is to offer free transportation of emergency goods to disaster-hit countries. In April, the carrier was quick to deliver drinking water and other relief supplies to flood victims in Peru as it runs cargo planes to Lima. In March 2016, the company also delivered drinking water, blankets, clothing and other supplies to help cyclone victims. It also transported relief goods for other disasters including the earthquake in Sichuan, China, in 2008, and another in Japan in 2011. "Korean Air has been introducing community service schemes overseas to conserve nature and assist those in need after natural disasters. We also plan to build dozens of schools in Kenya and other African nations," the official said. "We will do more to make the world a better place to live." In Korea, the carrier has been focusing on supporting the underprivileged and marginalized. Company employees have been visiting welfare centers for orphans, the disabled and the elderly across the country, donating daily necessities and engaging in various activities together. Korean Air also offers children from low-income families and interracial families an opportunity to visit its headquarters and Gimpo International Airport to teach them about the aviation business. Doctors and nurses at the firm's medical center regularly provide free services to migrant workers and senior citizens in rural areas where healthcare is not readily accessible. Company employees have also been visiting farming villages to extend a helping hand in planting and harvesting. PRESS RELEASE U.S. and Russian Generals Hold Third Face-to-Face Deconfliction Meeting Oct. 28, 2017 (EIRNS)U.S. and Russian generals held their third deconfliction meeting to assure that there be no mishaps during military operations in Syria, Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman U.S. Col. Ryan Dillon told Sputnik. "Im pretty sure that there have been ... three face-to-face meetings," Dillon said in a phone interview from Baghdad, and adding that the latest meeting had occurred "within the last week and a half." "As the pro-regime forces and our partner force, the Syrian Democratic Forces, started to move closer to one another, theres no question that the level of deconfliction had to increase," Dillon said. The lines of communication between the two sides "are often used multiple times throughout the day." Dillon also told Sputnik that U.S.-led coalition was not coordinating with Russian forces nor operating in the Syrian province of Idlib. PRESS RELEASE High-Level China-India Talks in December Oct. 29, 2017 (EIRNS)Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will "hold talks with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj and meet Indias top leadership," while in New Delhi in December for the Russia-India-China (RIC) Foreign Ministers trilateral meeting, Chinese official sources told Press Trust of India (PTI). The statement came in response to a query about when the India-China dialogue on improving bilateral ties would begin. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had agreed to "move forward" on relations when they met during the September BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) meeting. No dates were given, but "Wangs visit to Delhi in December is regarded significant as it would set tone for Xis policy approach to India in his second term," PTI reported in todays wire. PRESS RELEASE Lake Chad, Transaqua Up-Front in Rome International Meeting Oct. 29 , 2017 (EIRNS) At a three-day international "Water and Climate Summit," which took place in Rome Oct. 23-25, the issue of Lake Chad and the Transaqua project were prominently addressed. On the opening day, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni spoke about "The case of Lake Chad, a lake feeding a basin of 70 million people and several countries, whose very serious crisis in the last decades has produced major effects: They speak about two and a half million displaced people in that basin." There are evident connections between the "water crisis of Lake Chad and the emerging of terrorist threats in some of those regions and in particular ... of Boko Haram." Gentiloni then said that "we must all be aware, all committed, and Italy is trying to help with its foreign policy to recover Lake Chad." These words by Gentiloni offered the opportunity to Sanusi Abdullahi, executive secretary of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC), who spoke on the last panel of the second day, to ask concretely for help financing the water-transfer project. First, Abdullahi thanked Gentiloni for having addressed the issue and then, answering to a question by EIR correspondent Claudio Celani on what kind of help he expects from the Italian government, Abdullahi said Rome should finance the feasibility study. Abdullahi recalled that the first idea of a water-transfer plan, known by the name of Transaqua, was developed by an Italian firm, Bonifica, many years ago. The LCBC has now made a deal with PowerChina for an update on the situation of Lake Chad and "I am also glad to mention that Bonifica, the initial team that conceptualized the dream ... of the Transaqua projectwhich was much more than transferring water from the Congo basin to the Sahelis also partnering with PowerChina to actualize this project." The two firms agreed to prove the feasibility of the entire Transaqua project, and within that study, the feasibility of a first section of "inter-basin water transfer." "In this context, it is the right time, it is a good opportunity for us to solicit more support, especially ... to conclude the feasibility study, to make sure that the program ... is economically viable, sustainable and in this regard we want the government of Italy to support us financially and also to support us politically ... to actualize this dream, because ... we expect the beginning to be a project that will catalyze pan-African projects ... to link the Central Africa with West Africa, the Sahel and also to generate opportunities for industrialization in the context of ... job activities constituting a large scale irrigation program "So, we are calling the government of Italy to support us financially to ensure that we conclude this feasibility study," the LCBC executive secretary concluded. PRESS RELEASE New York Post Op-Ed Demands Robert Mueller Should Resign Oct. 29, 2017 (EIRNS)That is the headline on a New York Post op-ed by Michael Goodwin, which the author describes ironically as "a guide to the perplexed" by all of the hyped-up charges about Russian collusion with Trump to throw the elections. The article starts out on the right track: "Robert Mueller will never be able to untangle the tangled webs with any credibility and needs to step aside." The reasons include "his relationship with his successor at the FBI James Comey. That conflict has morphed into several more that are fixable only by resignation." One of those reasons is that "any honest probe must examine the Obama White House," which Mueller was part of and therefore cannot do: "So its time for him to say bye-bye." Secondly, "there is also the issue of unmasking of Trump associates caught up in the snooping, with the names leaked to anti-Trump media. It is essential to investigate that angle, but it would lead right to the Obama White House, which is why Mueller is not the man for the job." The article then veers off in the familiar fashion which nearly all Republican polemics are currently taking, focusing not on the Steele-British angle, but rather the Clinton-uranium story, in order to argue the case that the so-called Russian meddling occurred through the Democrats, and not the Republicansan idea as false as it is opportunistic. Meanwhile, diverse Republican political figures are climbing on the bandwagon of calling for Muellers resignation as Special Counsel. Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) said in a statement to Fox News that Mueller should step aside because of his close relationship with James Comey. And New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) chimed in that "somebody with Bob Muellers integrity"a quality of which Christie is totally innocentshould step aside. A clean-shaven Nick Offerman kicked off the 27th annual PEN Center USA Literary Awards, held Friday night at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, with a nod to the nonprofits defense of free speech and the importance it places on the freedom for artists to express themselves. To wit: Should he or anyone else care to refer to the president of the United States as an incompetent, degenerate boob or a cartoon slug made of Cheeto dust, Offerman deadpanned, PEN Center will fight for your ability to do so. Few honorees took him up on it, but thats not to say the evening lacked color: The rounds of rousing acceptance speeches embodied the inspiring work for which the festivals authors and journalists were honored. Even the Parks and Recreation star seemed genuinely in awe of the talent in the room, which included a number of women recognized in what feels like a cultural moment attuned to the importance of exercising and acknowledging their voices. Advertisement Host Nick Offerman at the 27th annual PEN Center USA awards. (Matt Sayles / Invision for Pen Center USA ) Presenting Margaret Atwood the Lifetime Achievement Award, Cecile Richards, president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood, quoted another Margaret Margaret Sanger before calling Atwood to the podium: No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body. With The Handmaids Tale and its commentary on reproductive rights having reentered the zeitgeist so prominently, the confluence of these two women together onstage was a highlight. For her part, Atwood underscored the necessity of PENs work defending freedom of expression in what she called an unprecedented time in the United States. Democracy is best served by an open and scrupulous conversation, said the Canadian author, a longtime PEN activist, inviting the audience to consider, speak up and take part. What is the world we live in? she asked. What is the world we want to live in? Richards and Atwood received a standing ovation; a number of journalists also brought the room to its feet. Chelsea Handler (or, Kellyanne Conway, as she joked from the stage) presented New York Times reporters Megan Twohey, Jodi Kantor, Emily Steel, Michael Schmidt and Katie Benner the Freedom to Write Award for their culture-shifting reporting on sexual harassment. Twohey, who co-wrote the New York Times story on the Harvey Weinstein scandal, said in a prerecorded speech that shifting the cultural conversation had been a reward in itself. She was bolstered to see the ripple effectthat there were women who took to social media under the me too hashtag to describe their personal experience with harassment and sexual assault. Cecile Richards, left, and Janet Mock at the 27th annual PEN Center USA awards (Matt Sayles / Invision for Pen Center USA ) Personal experience is the foundation of memoir, and at age 34, author and transgender rights activist Janet Mock has written two, Redefining Realness and Surpassing Certainty. Sophia Amoruso, chief executive and founder of Girlboss, presented Mock PENs Award of Honor, which she received as an affirmation. Mock described storytelling as a place of refuge from bullies during her youth in Honolulu and the significance of discovering authors like Zora Neale Hurston and Maya Angelou. Mock championed girls and women believing their own stories and mustering the courage to share them as a revolutionary act. Holding her award, she said, let this be a reminder that you are worthy. Solmaz Sharif took the award in poetry for her debut collection, Look; her speech was galvanizing enough to prompt a you rock! shouted from the audience. In Look, Sharif repurposed military language for intimate, personal scenes: I wrote Look because the first casualty of war is language. Sharif thanked her parents for teaching her that what you say might cost you your life and you better get on with it anyway and she used PENs platform as an occasion for a vowto be a bane to this republic. She added, to rueful laughter, I will be counting on PEN Center USA to bail me out. Literary award winners included Martin Poussons Black Sheep Boy for fiction, Paul Kalanithis When Breath Becomes Air for creative nonfiction, Elizabeth Letts The Perfect Horse for research nonfiction and Stacey Lees Outrun the Moon for young adult literature. That final category had only three finalists after John Smelcers Stealing Indians was withdrawn after reports that he misrepresented himself as Native American. The translation winner was Kareem James Abu-Zeid for Confessions by Rabee Jaber, a novel of the war in Lebanon. Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor won for their screenplay The Shape of Water, Thomas Schnauz for his Better Call Saul teleplay Expenses and Lisa Loomer for Roe for drama. The journalism award went to Eli Saslow for the Washington Post article The White Flight of Derek Black, about the scion of a leading white nationalist family who eventually changed his mind about race and left the movement. agatha.french@latimes.com @agathafrenchy Several important conclusions emerge from the latest statistics about Affordable Care Act premiums, issued Monday on the eve of open enrollment for 2018 plans, which begins Wednesday. First, gross premiums will rise substantially for next year and enrollment is likely to fall, mostly because of Trump administration efforts to sabotage the law. Second, millions of Americans will be insulated from those increases thanks to the administrations profound ignorance about how the law works. Because government subsidies will be higher in 2018, many will pay less for equivalent coverage than they pay this yearin some cases, nothing. The group that will be most vulnerable will be households ineligible for subsidies, typically because theyre earning more than 400% of the federal poverty level ($98,400 for a familiy fo four this year). Theyll bear the brunt of the gross premium increases. Thats about 16% of total ACA enrollments, or as many as 2 million people. Advertisement Finally, it seems that President Trump himself doesnt know anything about these points, or care. On Sunday morning, he issued a tweet crowing as usual, the ObamaCare premiums will be up (the Dems own it). He promised to repeal & replace the Affordable Care Act soon after Tax Cuts! The availability of ultra low-cost plans has...a huge impact on consumer decision-making. The question is, will consumers know they exist? Josh Peck, former chief marketing officer for healthcare.gov The danger created by Trump administration policy is that it feeds confusion among the ACAs beneficiaries, in part because the administration has cut information and outreach services to the bone. The availability of zero-dollar coverage or ultra low-cost plans has a huge impact on consumer decision-making, says Josh Peck, a former chief marketing officer for healthcare.gov in the Obama administration. The question is, will consumers know they exist? Peck made his comment at a press forum sponsored by the liberal Center for American Progress. As usual, the ObamaCare premiums will be up (the Dems own it), but we will Repeal & Replace and have great Healthcare soon after Tax Cuts! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 The center estimates that initial enrollment in ACA individual plans for 2018 could fall by more than 1 million from the 12.2 million otherwise expected, mostly due to Trump administration policies that have included slashing the open-enrollment period in half. This year it runs from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15 on the federal exchange. Last years deadline was Jan. 31, but many potential customers wont know of the change because the government wont advertise it widely. Several state exchanges, including Californias, will retain the former three-month schedule. The raw figures on premiums for 2018 come from three authoritative sources, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the indispensable ACA-tracker Charles Gaba. The first two cover premiums only in the 35 states that rely on the federal governments insurance exchange, healthcare.gov. Since Gabas sample is more comprehensive, lets examine his findings first. He calculates a weighted average premium increase of about 29%-30% (his figures are weighted for the number of enrollees in each plan). Most of the increase, Gaba reckons, can be traced to specific Trump actions. About 13-14 percentage points are due to the administrations threat to cancel the cost sharing reduction reimbursements due to insurers a threat on which Trump made good on Oct. 12. The threat forced insurers to raise premiums to cover their potential losses from having to pay for reductions in low-income customers deductions and other out-of-pocket expenses themselves, without being paid back by the government. An additional three to four percentage points in the average increase was charged by insurers to compensate for the prospect that the administration wouldnt stringently enforce the individual mandate, thus allowing younger, healthier customers to stay out of the risk pool. The Kaiser Family Foundation found that among healthcare.gov states, gross premiums that is, before premium subsidies are appliedwill increase an average 17% for the lowest-cost bronze plan and 35% for the lowest-cost silver plan. Why the big jump in silver? Its because many states allowed insurers to load the premium increase resulting from the cost-sharing reduction threat onto silver plans, which are the benchmark for premium subsidies. As a result, enrollees will see much higher premium tax credits, the foundation says. Gold plans, which are better than silver plans, will be more easily attainable, and some bronze plans may even work out to be free, after the subsidy is applied. The Deprtment of Health and Human Services acknowledged as much in its report on 2018 premiums issued Monday. The report noted that the average monthly premium for the silver benchmark plan increased 37% for a typical 27-year-old, to $411 a month. The average subsidy, however, will increase by 45% to $555. As a result, net premiums will be lower for millions of enrollees. The HHS report revealed that for a 27-year-old with household income of $25,000, the actual premium cost for a benchmark silver plan will fall to $138 next year from $142 in 2017. For a family of four with household income of $60,000, the actual premium will fall to $397 from $407. The percentage of enrollees who could find a health plan for less than $75 a month will rise next year to 80% from 71%, especially if enrollees shop around. As it happens, the administration removed that observation, which was part of last years premium report, from this years edition, without explanation. This years report emphasized that insurers continued to pull back from the exchange market, with 132 issuers in 2018, compared with 167 in 2017. Eight states will have only one insurer in the individual exchange market Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Wyoming. But most of those states have exhibited open hostility to the ACA, discouraging insurers. Barring Trump policies, the Obamacare market would continue to stabilize, according to a survey by Matthew Fiedler of the Brookings Institution. Insurers were on track to break even or make modest profits on ACA-compliant individual market policies in 2017, on average, Fiedler wrote, before the Trump Administrations decision to end cost-sharing reduction payments. He calculated that premium increases for 2018 would have been in the mid-to-high-single digits if not for a range of threatened and actual changes in federal policy. Keep up to date with Michael Hiltzik. Follow @hiltzikm on Twitter, see his Facebook page, or email michael.hiltzik@latimes.com. Return to Michael Hiltziks blog. MORE FROM MICHAEL HILTZIK As Congress dithers on childrens health program, more states face crisis Republicans want to slash tax deductions for your 401(k). Thats actually a good idea! Why did Trump make the Obamacare reimbursement payments he claims are illegal and unconstitutional? Tyler Cornell, a 20-year-old actor, filed a complaint this weekend with the Los Angeles Police Department making sexual assault allegations against former Hollywood agent Tyler Grasham, the actors representative told the Los Angeles Times. The complaint adds to recent allegations made by young men who say Grasham sexually assaulted or harassed them in the last decade. The veteran agents employer, Beverly Hills-based Agency for the Performing Arts, fired Grasham on Oct. 20 as the first accusers went public. Cornells representative, Frederick Levy, confirmed that the actor had filed a police complaint against Grasham, but said in an email that he could not provide any further information and that his client is not read[y] to speak to anyone quite yet. Advertisement On Monday afternoon, LAPD spokeswoman Rosario Herrera confirmed that the departments Robbery-Homicide Division was investigating a complaint filed this weekend against Grasham. According to Herrera, the complaint alleges a report of criminal sodomy. The LAPD has not released further information. A person familiar with the complaint, who was not authorized to discuss it on the record, said it concerned an incident that allegedly occurred this month. Deadline Hollywood first reported the existence of the complaint. APA said in a statement Monday evening that it will fully cooperate with any and all investigations conducted by the authorities as they proceed. Grashams unraveling began when filmmaker Blaise Godbe Lipman accused the agent of sexually assaulting him when he was a teenage actor in 2007. More allegations have followed, most of them from young men in the industry who say Grasham plied them with alcohol and made unwanted sexual advances. Shortly before Grasham was fired, his most prominent client actor Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things and It fame left APA in the wake of the allegations. gus.garcia-roberts@latimes.com Twitter: @GGarciaRoberts Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report. ALSO Kevin Spaceys apology for alleged sexual misconduct triggers swift backlash Former Bachelor segment producer sues Warner Bros. and producers, alleging sexual harassment Corey Feldman not playing around about naming Hollywood pedophiles if his movie gets funded UPDATES: 3:27 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information from an LAPD spokesperson. 7:16: This article was updated with a statement from APA. As thousands prepared to head to Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Saturday for its 18th annual celebration of the Mexican tradition known as Dia de los Muertos, they had no shortage of places to shop. Outfits adorned with images of colorful sugar skulls, skeletons and other traditional Day of the Dead symbols are available these days far beyond the small neighborhood stores that once had a lock on such things. Target, Wal-Mart and other big retailers have plastered the theme on masks, paper plates and candle holders. There are Day of the Dead earrings and necklaces at Party City, costumes and headbands at Spirit Halloween stores and temporary tattoos and bed covers available at Etsy.com. Advertisement Merchandise capitalizing on the tradition had been spreading rapidly in the retail world in recent years, but this year it seems to be everywhere, even stamped on the California lotterys Dia de los Muertos Scratchers. The Hollywood Forever Cemetery event was just one of 19 Day of the Dead festivities across greater Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on Twitter. Day of the Dead also is the underlying concept of a new Pixar animated movie, Coco, thats being heavily marketed ahead of its Nov. 22 release. Some point to another movie, 2015s James Bond film Spectre, for helping propel the Day of the Dead momentum because it includes an elaborate Dia de los Muertos parade in Mexico City. As a result, Day of the Dead largely celebrated Nov. 1 and 2 effectively has become rolled up into the Halloween retail juggernaut, unsettling some observers who see it as cultural appropriation that turns the centuries-old Day of the Dead remembrances into crass commercialism. The melding together of Halloween and Day of the Dead is becoming more apparent. Charlene Villasenor Black, UCLA professor Nearly 180 million Americans this year are expected to spend a record $9.1 billion on Halloween, a 32% surge from just two years ago, according to the National Retail Federation. The trade group doesnt yet track Day of the Dead sales alone, but we wouldnt be surprised if it becomes mainstream by next year, especially after movies like Coco are released, federation spokeswoman Ana Serafin Smith said. Movies influence what a lot of people want to dress up as on Halloween. Day of the Dead merchandise has been a popular style for Party City since it began carrying the products three years ago, said Ryan Vero, president of Party Citys retail division, which operates 900 U.S. outlets. We even dedicated a section in our stores for this merchandise, he said. Day of the Dead products are dramatically more visible to me this year, said Charlene Villasenor Black, a professor of Ibero American Art and Chicana/Chicano Studies at UCLA. The melding together of Halloween and Day of the Dead is becoming more apparent. The ever-growing Halloween retail phenomenon is even encroaching on Christmas turf. Some Halloween buffs are buying bright-orange fake Christmas trees from the likes of Treetopia of South San Francisco and adorning them with skulls, skeletons and candy to create Halloween trees. The jump in Halloween spending not only is a bright spot for retailers but an offbeat economic indicator because its growth generally has tracked the economys expansion and rising consumer confidence. The National Retail Federations spending survey, conducted with Prosper Insights and Analytics, showed that only 12.9% of respondents said current economic conditions would affect their Halloween spending this year. That figure was 32.1% six years ago, when the economic recovery was stumbling. Holidays popularity is growing Dia de los Muertos goes back thousands of years. Much of the holiday is aimed at celebrating life along with remembering the dead. The event traditionally consisted of family gatherings that often were held at the gravesites of the departed. Altars, or ofrendas, also were created in survivors homes with photos and favorite objects of dead loved ones. Day of the Deads rising popularity in Southern California is seen as occurring in lockstep with the regions growing Latino population, a consumer segment the retail industry naturally wants to capture. A fan wearing Day of the Dead sugar-skull face paint attends a college football game in Houston. (Pat Sullivan / Associated Press ) But theres been a backlash in some quarters. A recent article on style website Bustle.com listed the Day of the Dead sugar-skull mask or face painting as one of eight costumes that are actually racist, even if you might not realize it unless one was raised in Mexican culture and observes Dia de los Muertos. The website Latina.com listed Dia de los Muertos as one of seven things Mexicans did before it was cool and that the holiday has become fodder for cultural-appropriating Americans. Pixar parent Walt Disney Co. also ran into controversy as it developed plans for Coco. Disney tried to trademark Dia de los Muertos in 2013 but withdrew the application after a public uproar that accused Disney of cultural insensitivity. Certain universities also are urging students to avoid Halloween costumes in general that some might deem offensive because they reflect ethnic stereotypes or are culturally insensitive and disrespectful. UCLAs Villasenor Black said she too was more conscious of the issue of appropriation with Day of the Dead merchandise. I am wondering about the commercialization of the tradition at the same time Latinos and Mexicans are under fire, really, in the United States, she said, in part because of the heightened national dispute about immigration. Theres a tension in my mind, she said. Its not surprising that Day of the Dead merchandise sales would flow into the Halloween retail season because of the calendar, said Tricia Lacy, president of Beistle Co., a century-old Pennsylvania maker of decorations and party goods for retailers. Theres no practical way to wait until Halloween to buy Day of the Dead costumes and other goods because theyre celebrated one right after the other, she said. So retailers increasingly include Day of the Dead sections in their Halloween displays. When Beistle started carrying Day of the Dead products more than a decade ago, it sold only four items. It now has more than 60 Dia de los Muertos products for sale, including masks and paper lanterns, and we will have more next year, she said. james.peltz@latimes.com Twitter: @PeltzLATimes Welcome to California Inc., the weekly newsletter of the L.A. Times Business Section. Im Business columnist David Lazarus, and heres a rundown of upcoming stories this week and the highlights of last week. Traders get back to work Monday with the tailwind of knowing that the economy grew at a solid annual rate of 3% in the third quarter. This marks the first time in three years that growth has hit at least 3% for two consecutive quarters, and came despite hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Advertisement LOOKING AHEAD Fed chair: President Trump is expected to announce his pick for the next leader of the U.S. central bank sometime this week. Current Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen is in the running, as is Fed governor Jerome Powell and Stanford University economics professor John Taylor. Also in contention is former Fed governor Kevin Warsh, while National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn is reportedly no longer being seriously considered. Electric cars: Tesla reports its third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, and the production of its Model 3 vehicle will surely be discussed during the companys conference call that afternoon. Manufacturing of the Model 3, Teslas new all-electric compact sedan, has been slowed by bottlenecks at its Fremont, Calif., factory, the company has said. From the vehicles launch in July through September, Tesla produced only 260 Model 3s about three cars a day. Russias influence: Representatives of Facebook, Google and Twitter are scheduled to appear before the House and Senate intelligence committees on Wednesday to discuss Russias use of social media to influence the 2016 presidential election. The internet giants have been criticized by members of Congress for not providing details about how Moscow might have used their platforms, ostensibly to help Donald Trump and harm his opponent, Hillary Clinton. Fuel tax boost: The states tax on gasoline and diesel goes up Wednesday. The tax will be raised by 12 cents per gallon for gas, and 20 cents per gallon for diesel. The increases were approved by the Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown in April and are intended to provide $5.2 billion annually for road and bridge repairs, and expanded mass transit in the state. A group of California Republicans have launched an initiative to repeal the increase. Income tax reform: On Wednesday, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee are expected to release the partys tax overhaul bill in hopes of getting that legislation through Congress by the end of the year. The chairman of the committee, Texas Republican Kevin Brady, said he expected to strike a deal to keep an apparently limited version of the state and local tax deduction for individual Americans, a break that party leaders had targeted for elimination. THE AGENDA Mondays Business section takes a turn for the macabre as it heads to Hollywood Forever Cemetery for the 18th annual celebration of the Mexican tradition known as Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. The occasion (which is Nov. 1 and 2) has become rolled up into the Halloween retail juggernaut, a trend that unsettles some observers. STORY LINES Here are some of the other stories that ran in the Times Business section in recent days that were continuing to follow: Arbitration clauses: The Senate voted to kill a controversial rule that would have allowed Americans to file class-action suits against banks instead of being forced in many cases into private arbitration. The move by the Senate followed a similar action by the House in July to rescind the rule. President Trump is expected to sign the repeal legislation, providing a major victory for the financial industry. Home prices: Southern California home prices in September tied an all-time high as the white-hot real estate market continued to surge and raise concerns over housing affordability. The median price for the six-county region soared nearly 10% from a year earlier to $505,000, data firm CoreLogic said. That matches a price level reached in 2007 before the housing bubble burst and the economy cratered. Blockbuster deal: Health insurer Aetna, which stunned Connecticut when it said it would move its headquarters from Hartford earlier this year, may be purchased by CVS Health. According to reports, CVS has been in talks for the last six months to buy Aetna in what would be a blockbuster deal. CEO Mark T. Bertolini told employees in June that Aetna is in the midst of a transformation into a health company. Retirement saving: President Trump vowed there would be no change to rules for 401(k) plans, seeking to douse speculation that the Republican tax overhaul bill being drafted by Congress would include new limits on retirement savings. But columnist Miichael Hiltzik says slashing the tax deduction for 401(k) contributions could actually be a good thing that would help many Americans save more for retirement. Harassment cases: Sex harassment accusations continue to roil the business world following the Harvey Weinstein scandal that rocked Hollywood. Political journalist Mark Halperin was pulled from his role at MSNBC and NBC News after a report alleging he harassed women. Today host Megyn Kelly blasted her former employer, Fox News, over disclosure that the network signed former host Bill OReilly to a $25-million contract after he paid $32 million to settle a harassment claim. Meanwhile, Weinstein sued his namesake company for documents he says he needs to defend himself. WHAT WERE READING And some recent stories from other publications that caught our eye: Pain and profit: While opioid addiction spreads, a family dynasty founded by three brothers has been getting rich off sales of the drugs, reports the New Yorker. The Sackler family business, Purdue Pharma, has made billions with the prescription painkiller OxyContin, yet family members avoid the connection. Purdues Website scarcely mentions the family, and a list of the companys board of directors fails to include eight family members, from three generations, who serve in that capacity. Handle with care: Making Allergans drug Botox involves security measures that rival those of top-secret government agencies, reports Bloomberg. Thats because Botox is derived from a toxin that is considered one of the worlds most deadly potential agents of bioterrorism. Allergan must account to the CDC if even a speck of the toxin goes missing, and when its sent to Allergans manufacturing facility in Ireland, its travels bring to mind a presidential Secret Service operation. Economic disparity: The topic has caught the attention of Ray Dalio, CEO of Bridgewater Associates, the worlds largest hedge fund. The average household in the top 40% earns four times more than the average household in the bottom 60%. ... Those in the top 40% now have on average 10 times as much wealth as those in the bottom 60%. Few people in the bottom 60% save any of their income, he writes in a LinkedIn post. Dr. Robot: A robotic system designed by Intuitive Surgical of Sunnyvale is revolutionizing how doctors perform surgery, writes Fortune. The instruments inside the patient include three separate, interchangeable components that can slice, shift, grasp, cauterize or otherwise manipulate human tissue, as well as a movable high-definition camera that illuminates the bodys internal landscape in stunning 3D clarity. SPARE CHANGE Robotic surgery? Been there, done that. Luke Skywalker had an automated attending physician in Empire; Rico relied on machines to mend his arachnid-munched leg in Starship Troopers; and without a symphony of electronic medicine, thered have been no perfect supreme being in The Fifth Element. For the latest money news, go to www.latimes.com/business. Mad props to Scott J. Wilson for helping put this thing together. Until next time, Ill see you in the Business section. Lupita Nyongo relates her story of inappropriate Harvey Weinstein encounters Lupita Nyongo with her Oscar after winning Best Actress for 12 Years a Slave at the 86th Annual Academy Awards. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times) With stories about women allegedly harassed by Harvey Weinstein surfacing all around her, Oscar winner Lupita Nyongo decided she couldnt keep her own story squashed down any longer. She thought the things that had happened were unique to her, not a larger pattern of what she on Thursday called sinister behavior. She blamed herself for much of it. I had shelved my experience with Harvey far in the recesses of my mind, joining in the conspiracy of silence that has allowed this predator to prowl for so many years, Nyongo wrote in an op-ed for the New York Times. The 12 Years a Slave actress was still at Yale School of Drama when she and Weinstein crossed paths at a 2011 awards ceremony in Berlin, where he was introduced to the then-aspiring actress as the most powerful producer in Hollywood. Dinner companions told her he was a good man to know in the biz, but someone to be careful around because he could be a bully, she wrote. The interactions that followed between her and the producer went back and forth between seemingly appropriate and uncomfortably inappropriate, Nyongo said. The invitation to screen a movie with Weinstein and his children at his Connecticut home turned into a restaurant lunch where he tried to bully her into drinking alcohol, she wrote, followed by him cutting short her viewing of the movie after 15 minutes and taking her to his bedroom where he offered to give her a massage. She said she flipped the situation around. I began to massage his back to buy myself time to figure out how to extricate myself from this undesirable situation, the actress said. Then he wanted to take off his pants, she wrote. He couldnt make it to see a production she was in, but invited her to bring anyone she wanted to see a staged reading of Finding Neverland, one of his. Dinner followed, with her friends relegated to a non-Harvey table. The talk was shop the whole time and Harvey held court with ease. He was charming and funny once more, and I felt confused about the discomfort I had previously experienced, Nyongo said. Lupita Nyongo accepts the supporting actress Academy Award for her work in 12 Years a Slave on March 2, 2014. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) A couple of months later, he invited her to a screening of W.E. followed by a trip to the Tribeca Grill, which she said she assumed would be another group meal. It was not. His assistants, she said, had seemed uncomfortable as they set up the logistics with her. Before the starters arrived, he announced: Lets cut to the chase. I have a private room upstairs where we can have the rest of our meal. I was stunned, Nyongo wrote. I told him I preferred to eat in the restaurant. He told me not to be so naive. If I wanted to be an actress, then I had to be willing to do this sort of thing. He said he had dated Famous Actress X and Y and look where that had gotten them. She declined, and his tone changed, she said. As he escorted her out, sans meal, she checked in with him to make sure they were still good after shed said no. His response, according to the actress: I dont know about your career, but youll be fine, he said. It felt like both a threat and a reassurance at the same time; of what, I couldnt be sure. They didnt cross paths again until the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, which she was attending in support of 12 Years a Slave. At an after-party, he found me and evicted whoever was sitting next to me to sit beside me, she wrote. He said he couldnt believe how fast I had gotten to where I was, and that he had treated me so badly in the past. He was ashamed of his actions and he promised to respect me moving forward. I said thank you and left it at that. But I made a quiet promise to myself to never ever work with Harvey Weinstein. Our business is complicated because intimacy is part and parcel of our profession; as actors we are paid to do very intimate things in public. Thats why someone can have the audacity to invite you to their home or hotel and you show up. Lupita Nyongo The following year, after her Oscar win, he tried to get her in one of his films, showering her with talk of a star-vehicle film in the offing for her later if shed first take a role in a Weinstein Co. movie shed already turned down. She held firm. When she first met the now-disgraced producer, she wrote, she was entering into a community that Harvey Weinstein had been in, and even shaped, long before I got there. He was one of the first people I met in the industry, and he told me, This is the way it is. And wherever I looked, everyone seemed to be bracing themselves and dealing with him, unchallenged. Since then, she said, she hasnt encountered treatment like that from anyone else. Still, she talked about the often-blurry lines in the workplace known as Hollywood. Our business is complicated because intimacy is part and parcel of our profession; as actors we are paid to do very intimate things in public, wrote Nyongo, who is now 34. Thats why someone can have the audacity to invite you to their home or hotel and you show up. Precisely because of this we must stay vigilant and ensure that the professional intimacy is not abused. A federal court in Washington has blocked President Trumps directive that prohibited transgender people from serving in the U.S. military, a significant setback to the White House, although it continued to block use of federal funds for gender reassignment surgery for military personnel. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotellys ruling Monday restored the Obama-era policy allowing transgender troops to openly serve in the armed services. The ruling comes three months after Trump first used social media to declare them banned from military service. As far as the court is aware at this preliminary stage, all of the reasons proffered by the president for excluding transgender individuals from the military in this case were not merely unsupported, but were actually contradicted by the studies, conclusions and judgment of the military itself, Kollar-Kotelly wrote in a 76-page decision. Advertisement In 2016, the Obama administration placed protection of gender rights on par with race, religion, color, sex and sexual orientation as part of a broader Pentagon initiative to bring the military in line with society. Transgender troops could serve openly and individuals were to be allowed to openly enlist for the first time in the military by Jan. 1, 2018. The Pentagon was blindsided in July when Trump abruptly declared on Twitter that the military would not accept or allow transgender troops to serve in any capacity. A major change of Pentagon policy is typically subject to months, if not years, of study and legal vetting before its rolled out. In this case, Trump told Defense Secretary James N. Mattis a day before he put out the decision on social media. It not only marked a retreat for the Pentagons effort to drop discriminatory hurdles, but also was an about-face for Trump, who had repeatedly vowed during the presidential campaign to support gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. The presidents ban immediately drew rebukes from many war veterans and LGBT advocacy groups, resulting in lawsuits filed in California, Maryland, and Washington state. The National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders also sued the administration in Washington in August. The administration had insisted the case be dismissed on the grounds that the Pentagon had launched a six-month review to study the effects of a ban before it could be fully implemented. The Pentagon had until Feb. 21 to submit final plans on how it would implement the ban, including how it would handle thousands of transgender soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen now in uniform. Those individuals could stay in the armed forces, the administration argued. It said active duty service members including the six unnamed service members and two recruits represented by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders would not be affected. Kollar-Kotelly disagreed with that claim in her ruling. These arguments, while perhaps compelling in the abstract, wither away under scrutiny, she said. The memorandum unequivocally directs the military to prohibit indefinitely the accession of transgender individuals and to authorize their discharge. This decision has already been made. These directives must be executed by a date certain, and there is no reason to believe that they will not be executed. She added that the transgender troops who sued the administration over the change were likely to win their lawsuit. The court finds that a number of factorsincluding the sheer breadth of the exclusion ordered by the directives, the unusual circumstances surrounding the presidents announcement of them, the fact that the reasons given for them do not appear to be supported by any facts, and the recent rejection of those reasons by the military itself strongly suggest that plaintiffs Fifth Amendment claim is meritorious, she wrote. The ruling was not a total defeat for the White House. The judge upheld part of Trumps directive that blocked use of federal funds for gender reassignment surgery in the military because the plaintiffs attorneys did not establish the impact of that money being held back. Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, declared a complete victory for our plaintiffs and all transgender service members, who are now once again able to serve on equal terms and without the threat of being discharged. We are grateful to the court for recognizing the gravity of these issues and putting a stop to this dangerous policy, which has wreaked havoc in the lives of transgender service members and their families, he said in a statement. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, declined comment during Mondays press briefing, referring questions to the Justice Department. The Pentagon is now working to form a panel drawn from the Defense Department and the Homeland Security Department that is supposed to report back on possible effects of a ban. Its members have not yet been named. william.hennigan@latimes.com Twitter: @wjhenn ALSO: U.S. special operations forces face growing demands and increased risks The U.S. is launching danger-close drone strikes so risky they require Syrian militia approval The U.S. military is targeting Islamic States virtual caliphate by hunting & killing its online operatives one-by-one Ever since Harry Truman ordered the atomic bombing of Hiroshima during World War II, the president of the United States has controlled the most lethal arsenal in history a major reason the position is considered the most powerful on Earth. In recent months, remarks by President Trump threatening North Korea with fire and fury like the world has never seen have raised new questions about the concentration of power in one person, though Trump has not explicitly said he might use nuclear weapons. Legislation sponsored by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) and Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass) would prevent Trump or any future president from ordering a first strike with nuclear weapons without a declaration of war by Congress. The bill would maintain the presidents authority to use nuclear weapons at a moments notice if an enemy launches its weapons first. Advertisement A restriction put on the presidents control of the arsenal the 450 Minuteman land-based missiles and the roughly 1,000 warheads aboard U.S. submarines could upend half a century of nuclear deterrence and war fighting theory. In a crisis, it would eliminate an adversarys fear of a surprise attack by the U.S. The legislation faces little chance of passage in the Republican-controlled Congress. Still, Trumps heated rhetoric has taken past concerns about the judgment of presidents to a new level. It is a problem not only with this president, but all presidents, said former Defense Secretary William Perry. This president just accentuates the problem. His personality and behavior has brought it to a fore. In hindsight, some have questioned whether President Kennedys judgment was compromised by painkillers for his back problems during the Cuban missile crisis. And in his final days in office, President Nixon was morose and sometimes drunk, exhibiting odd behavior. Some believe that Ronald Reagan was showing symptoms of mild dementia in his final days in office. But the concerns about Trump are more basic. It is not just a concern that the president is drunk or has a brain malfunction, but that he just doesnt have the character, said Hans Kristensen, a nuclear arms expert at the Federation of American Scientists. That is a whole different ballgame. This perception has raised concerns that Trump might impulsively launch a preemptive nuclear attack on North Korea that would not only kill innocent civilians but also put South Korea, Japan and even the U.S. at risk of a counterattack. President Trump is shown in Morristown, N.J., on Sept. 15, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is seen after a military parade in Pyongyang on April 15. (Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images ) Lieu, an attorney and a colonel in the Air Force reserve, argues that such an order would violate international laws of war, which require proportionality so that civilian deaths are not excessive compared with the military advantage gained. And he asserts it would violate the U.S. Constitution, because a nuclear attack would be the most extreme act of war and only Congress has the power to declare war. Lieu questions whether senior military leaders would comply with such an order, given the legal doubts about it. But independent military law experts worry about the legislation, and say they have no doubts that a presidential order for an attack on North Korea would be legal and executed by senior military leaders along with their subordinates. I would worry about destabilizing our entire nuclear strategy of deterrence, said Rachel VanLandingham, a former Air Force attorney and law professor at Southwestern Law School. We have been very careful not to overly limit ourselves. Part of deterrence is not taking nuclear weapons off the table. If Trumps opponents believe he is not fit to control the nuclear arsenal, she said, then the proper action is to remove him from office, not undermine the nations nuclear deterrent, she said. Throughout the Cold War and in the quarter-century since, the U.S. has never renounced the first use of nuclear weapons. It threatened to use tactical nuclear weapons against Soviet Union forces if they attempted to overrun Western Europe; and it has indicated it could use them in response to biological or chemical attacks on the U.S. or its allies, said John Pike, executive director of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington-based military analysis firm. In the early 1950s, the U.S. had more brutal policies than today, backed by a war plan that would inflict massive retaliation with nuclear weapons against an enemy attack on the U.S. or its allies. In the heat of the Cold War, President Eisenhower said the U.S. would use tactical nuclear weapons in a potential battle with communists just exactly as you would use a bullet or anything else. The nations nuclear war fighting plan is shrouded in secrecy, and much of it is based on precedent. Many senior experts, including former defense officials and nuclear weapons experts, say it is not even clear what law, executive order or military regulation gives the president sole authority over nuclear weapons use. But nobody doubts that only the president can authorize their use, Perry said. U.S. policy has always warned adversaries that the president is ready to launch its missiles within minutes of detecting a nuclear attack against the nation, a scenario that would give the president about 10 minutes to consider the options before enemy missiles hit. Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear weapons analyst with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif., said that putting nuclear missiles on alert and believing that complex decisions can be made by any president in minutes has always been unrealistic. The current controversy involving Trump has created a long overdue public discussion, he said. It is a crazy policy, because it is designed in complete ignorance of human beings, he said. The nations launch on warning scenario could also include a preemptive strike if the U.S. obtained intelligence that an adversary was preparing to launch its missiles, but had not yet done so. A lot of this policy would have to be junked if the president had to ask permission to use nuclear warheads from Congress. And thats just fine with some retired four-star generals, defense secretaries, arms control experts and Lieu, the sponsor of the legislation. Geoffrey Corn, a law professor at the South Texas College of Law in Houston and a former military attorney, said he has no doubts that senior military officers would obey an order to attack North Korea. Unless an order were so bizarre, such as an ad hoc nuclear strike on London or Paris, the military is trained and sworn to uphold its duty to obey the president, Corn said. When the secretary of Defense conveys the order to the military, it comes with the assumption that it has been legally vetted, Corn said. I cant imagine that an officer would legally refuse to execute an order for a preplanned attack. ralph.vartabedian@latimes.com Follow me on Twitter @rvartabedian ALSO In stunning rebuke of Trump, two GOP senators accuse him of undermining American values Thousands of JFK assassination documents are released, though Trump orders some to be kept secret for now Can North Koreas missiles deliver an atomic weapon to the U.S. mainland? Maybe Charges that President Trumps former campaign manager hid more than $75 million from the IRS may have shocked the political world, but there was only one question tearing at the heart of Californias tailoring community on Monday: Who in Beverly Hills sold Paul Manafort $500,000 worth of suits? In a 31-page federal indictment filed in Washington, prosecutors alleged that the political consultant with Russian connections spent $12 million in untaxed income on a wealth of luxuries. Among those items, prosecutors say, was more than $500,000 worth of clothes purchased from a Beverly Hills business identified only as Vendor H. Advertisement Calls to several high-priced tailors in the area resulted in few answers Monday. Violet Pananyan, the owner of Antoines Tailoring on Beverly Drive, had heard the news but never counted Manafort as a client. To be honest, I stay away from politics, she said. A half-a-dozen high-end suit shops contacted by the Los Angeles Times Monday refused to comment or said Manafort wasnt a customer. Still, they expressed disbelief when they heard how much he spent and many said that spending $500,000 on clothes in four years was quite the sum even for these establishments. Battistoni was founded in Rome in 1946 and has had a presence on the corner of Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills for decades. Sales associate Rogier Bolleurs wore a gray pinstripe double-breasted suit and said an outfit there goes for between $3,000-7,000. Their clientele is mostly older titans of industry, he said. If you a fashionista, you need need lots of money, because something new comes out every year, he said. Across the street at Canali, the store manager, who declined to give her name, speculated Manafort may have shopped at the Big three. Thats the nickname for the three department storesBarneys, Saks and Neiman Marcus. Those places carry a slew of different high-priced brands, and also offer high-paying customers the ability to use a personal shopper. Isaia is an Italian Brand founded in 1920 in Naples. An employee there speculated that Manafort shops at Bijan on Rodeo Drive. Its been called the most expensive store in the world, has one location and their items are not sold in department stores, the employee said. Suits there can go for $10,000, he said. On Monday, a yellow Rolls Royce convertible sat outside Bijan. In the window, there were photos and testimonials from Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Manafort once worked for H.W. senior. A receptionist said to call the manager, and the manager told the Times: Im sorry but Im not able to help you. There are a few clues, however. According to one of Manaforts former business partners and a well-known sartorialist the defendants tastes lean more toward the continental than Savile Row. He favored an Italian style of tailoring with higher armholes, which is more fitted in the body, said the self-described political dirty trickster Roger Stone. Stone told the Los Angeles Times on Monday that he didnt know where Manafort had shopped in recent years, but that his former partner had excellent taste when it came to suits and ties. However, Stone said he questioned the quality of the tailoring. In my mind they never quite fit properly, Stone said. The style of your suit needs to fit your physique, Stone told The Times. When Stone and Manafort went into business together in 1980 with Charles Black Jr. and made millions working for political candidates like Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush Manafort was said to favor threads from Charvet Place Vendome, a high-priced Parisian tailor. There had been hints that Manaforts fashion choices could come back to bite him. The New York Times reported that in July, when federal agents executed search warrants on the political consultants Virginia home, they entered his closet and took pictures of the pricey suits. (The indictment says Manafort also had a hefty clothing bill in New York), Stone added that if he were ever to come under the microscope of investigators, and there are reports that he is, he doesnt worry his suits will cause him any trouble. I cant imagine what would be illegal about my suits. They dont violate the laws of good taste.... Theres never an excuse for being poorly dressed. benjamin.oreskes@latimes.com @boreskes ALSO Three of Trumps former top campaign aides face criminal charges in dramatic expansion of Mueller probe Trump tweets that crimes alleged in Manafort indictment took place before he joined the campaign. Thats not true Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to lying to the FBI agents in Mueller probe UPDATES: Tuesday 8 a.m.: This article was updated with Manafort New York shopping. Published at 3 p.m. A Murrieta couple who grew closer after surviving the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 1 died weeks later in a car crash not far from their home, relatives and authorities said. On Oct. 16, just before 11 p.m., Dennis Carver, 52, was driving northbound on Avenida de Arboles in Murietta, with his wife, Lorraine, 54, in the passenger seat. Their 2010 Mercedes went off the roadway on a curve and crashed into two brick pillars and exploded into flames, according to the California Highway Patrol. The two were pronounced dead at the scene and ultimately identified by the Riverside County coroner. Advertisement The couples oldest daughter, Brooke Carver, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the pair survived the massacre in Las Vegas earlier this month and seemed deeper in love in the wake of it. After the shooting, they heard from all of the people they cared about most. They were so happy, said Carver, 20. The last two weeks of their lives were really just spent living in the moment. Carver said her parents were among tens of thousands who attended the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas this month and were in the crowd when a gunman opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, killing 58. Dennis Carver leapt on top of his wife to protect her as bullets flew by. During a pause between the third and fourth bursts of gunfire, the couple got up and ran out and emerged unscathed, their daughter said. Three days after, Dennis Carver was asking his daughter what kind of flowers she thought her mother would like roses or something else? The occasion for the flowers, she said, was just because. He just wanted to give my mom a reason to smile after the shooting, Brooke Carver said. I swear they were more in love those two weeks than in the last 20 years. About a week after the crash, Dennis Carvers phone arrived in a package. It had been lost during the chaos of the Las Vegas massacre and an FBI agent had finally gotten around to sending it back. It was full of loving messages between Carver and his wife and photos of the pair together. Weve found some peace in knowing that our parents just loved each other so much that they had to go at the same time, the pairs 16-year-old daughter, Madison, told the Review-Journal. They couldnt live without each other. joseph.serna@latimes.com For breaking California news, follow @JosephSerna on Twitter. ALSO San Bernardino County sheriffs sergeant makes arrest after being slashed in Rancho Cucamonga Mother and daughter were holding hands when truck slammed into them. What happened next was shocking Teen girl dies of burn injuries from Redwood Valley wildfire Authorities are looking for a suspect who fatally shot a 74-year-old man Sunday morning outside a Valley Glen home, police said. Shortly before 11 a.m., officers responded to a report of shots fired in the 6700 block of Greenbush Avenue, where they found the man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, said LAPD spokesman Josh Rubenstein. The man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. His identity was not immediately available. Advertisement The suspect fled in a four-door sedan, possibly a white Hyundai, said Stacy Ball, an LAPD police service representative. Its unclear what led up to the shooting. Detectives assigned to the agencys Robbery-Homicide Division were canvassing the neighborhood Sunday evening, interviewing witnesses and looking for evidence. alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com Twitter: @AleneTchek Dennis Banks, a co-founder of the American Indian Movement and a leader of the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation, has died, his family said Monday. He was 80. Banks was one of several activists who founded the American Indian Movement in Minneapolis in 1968, and he was a leader of AIMs armed takeover of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1973, in a protest against both the tribal and U.S. governments. The village had been the site of a massacre by U.S. soldiers in 1890 that left an estimated 300 Indians dead. Advertisement The occupiers held federal agents at bay for 71 days. Banks died Sunday night at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., his family said. He had developed pneumonia following heart surgery, and his family said they honored his wishes not to be put on life support. Dennis Banks is somebody who had an indelible impact on history, not just in our native community but throughout our country, said Anton Treuer, a professor of the Ojibwe language at Bemidji State University, citing how he demanded that the powerful take notice of American Indian concerns. He was someone who was both loved and hated depending on what circle youre looking at. Banks, whose Ojibwe name was Nowacumig, lived near the town of Federal Dam on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. His family said that as Banks took his last breaths, son Minoh Banks sang him four songs for his journey. All the family who were present prayed over him and said our individual goodbyes, the family said. Then we proudly sang him the AIM song as his final sendoff. American Indian activist Dennis Banks, left, speaks to reporters on Lake Bemidji, during an American Indian treaty rights protest in Bemidji, Minn., in 2010. (Jeff Baenen / AP ) Banks and fellow AIM leader Russell Means faced charges stemming from the Wounded Knee occupation, but a judge threw out the case. However, Banks spent 18 months in prison in the 1980s after being convicted for rioting and assault in a protest in Custer, S.D., earlier in 1973. He avoided prosecution on those charges for several years after California Gov. Jerry Brown refused to extradite him, and the Onondaga Nation in New York gave him sanctuary. Banks was part of a group of AIM supporters who returned to Wounded Knee in 2003 to mark the 30th anniversary of the standoff, in which two Native Americans died. Banks paid tribute to them as warriors and declared it a national holiday. He was also there in 1998 for the 25th anniversary. Banks also helped lead a takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices in Washington, D.C., in 1972 as part of a protest dubbed the Trail of Broken Treaties. And he was a participant in the 1969-71 occupation by Native Americans of Alcatraz Island, the site of the former prison in San Francisco Bay. He returned to the Leech Lake Reservation in the late 1990s and founded a company that sold wild rice and maple syrup, trading on his famous name. In 2010, Banks joined several other Ojibwe from the Leech Lake and White Earth bands who tested their rights under an 1855 treaty by setting out nets illegally on Lake Bemidji a day before Minnesotas fishing season opener. He also went to the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota to join last years protests of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The Banks family said he would be buried with traditional services in his home community of Leech Lake. He is survived by 20 children and more than 100 grandchildren, his daughter, Tashina Banks Rama, said. MORE RECENT OBITUARIES: Jane Juska, who wrote about late-in-life sex, dies at 84 Jack Bannon, cool-headed assistant city editor on Lou Grant, dies at 77 Fats Domino, rock n roll pioneer and New Orleans hero, dies at 89 UPDATES: 11:30 a.m.: This article has been updated to say Banks died at the Mayo Clinic. The article was originally published at 9:45 a.m. With the Los Angeles County Blue Ribbon Commission on Public Safety meeting Monday for the first time, its appropriate to remember why governments create such bodies. Sometimes its because elected officials recognize their own inability to get to the bottom of a difficult issue that requires expertise, in-depth investigation and a laser-like focus on facts regardless of the political fallout. Such was the case with the countys well-regarded Citizens Commission on Jail Violence. After its appointment in 2011, that commission rejected the Board of Supervisors offers of office space, staff and legal counsel in order to do its work with complete independence, and as a result came back with a sharply-worded report that criticized the mismanagement of the Sheriffs Department and virtually demanded the resignation of Sheriff Lee Baca. The report prefigured criminal convictions of Baca and some of his top aides and several jail deputies, and set forth the guidelines for rebuilding the department. Other times, sad to say, politicians create commissions because the evidence is in on a controversial topic like global warming or voter fraud, yet the established facts fail to fit the worldview of one or more elected officials who are seeking an alternative platform to prove things they just know must be true despite conclusive findings to the contrary. So we get circuses like the bumbling Kobach commission a witch-hunt for the voter fraud that President Trump is certain exists because, after all, he did not win the official popular tally last year. Or we get jokes like the presidents climate change red team and the ridiculous accompanying plan to debate the existence of human-instigated global warming something that is a matter of established scientific consensus. Advertisement Michael Christopher Mejia could become the chief weapon to undermine late but welcome improvements to Californias criminal justice system. So into which category should we place the countys new blue ribbon commission? Were anxious to find out. And were frankly a bit worried. Thats in large part because the Board of Supervisors explicitly created the commission in response to the Feb. 20 shooting death of Whittier Police Officer Keith Boyer and the unfounded assertion that the killing was a direct result of recent landmark criminal justice reforms. A host of police, prosecutors and politicians have made Boyers alleged killer, Michael Christopher Mejia, the chief weapon in their quest for repeal, or at least rollback, of those reforms. Just as furloughed convict Willie Horton became a symbol to stoke fear of crime in the 1988 presidential election (and, by the way, helped pave the way for election victories for George H.W. Bush and a long line of tough-on-crime candidates), Mejia could become if the blue-ribbon commission permits the chief weapon to undermine late but welcome improvements to Californias criminal justice system. That would be ironic, given that the supposed evidence to connect AB 109 (which reassigned some felony inmates and parolees from the state to counties), Proposition 47 (which turned drug possession and several property crimes from felonies to misdemeanors) or Proposition 57 (which will tie prison release to proof of rehabilitation) to Boyers killing has been asserted but never been made public. The same Board of Supervisors that established the commission refused to release information about the case. That take our word for it level of discourse is about par for the course when it comes to critiques of the three reform measures. Police, prosecutors and some politicians and occasionally journalists continue to level a volley of utterly false assertions, including that shoplifters are streaming to California in order to steal items worth less than $950 per theft and avoid arrest. Theyre laughing at us, according to these critics of reform. The commission could do the public a real service if it takes up, examines and once and for all refutes the various falsehoods about criminal justice reform and if it pinpoints those areas in which there truly are problems that can be addressed with particular changes to the law, or to day-to-day operations of law enforcement or courts. It would do a real service as well if it spotlights Los Angeles Countys continuing refusal to fully fund the rehabilitative and reentry services that are needed to make each of the reform programs work properly, and if it does its work all of it openly and transparently, with full reports to the public rather than take our word for it winks and nods. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook No one should face execution because theyre too poor to put on a defense. Thats the principle the Supreme Court will consider when it hears Ayestas vs. Davis on Monday. In states with a death penalty, after a jury convicts a defendant of first degree murder, the jury hears evidence and decides whether to recommend a death sentence. The jury is required to consider the aggravating and the mitigating factors in coming to its conclusion. Carlos Ayestas was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in Houston in 1997. His court-appointed trial lawyers performed virtually no background or mental health investigation before the penalty phase of his trial. Instead of presenting days or weeks worth of evidence explaining why their client should not be sentenced to death, Ayestas lawyers spoke for two minutes about the progress Ayestas had made in prison language classes. Advertisement There was much more to tell. Evidence suggests that Ayestas has suffered multiple head traumas, has a history of substance abuse and shows signs of mental illness. He has received one diagnosis of schizophrenia by a jailhouse medical professional, but he has never been seen by an independent expert. Each of these avenues of investigation was capable of producing mitigating evidence that might have prompted a jury to refuse a capital sentence. No one should face execution because theyre too poor to put on a defense. The Supreme Court has held that when attorneys fail to investigate possible mitigating evidence for the penalty phase of a trial, it constitutes ineffective assistance of counsel and is a basis for overturning a conviction or a sentence. Nonetheless, after Ayestas was sentenced to death, his case was brought to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals without success. Then new lawyers for Ayestas filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. district court. This federal court can grant the petition and order a new proceeding if it finds that a defendants constitutional rights have been violated. To support the habeas corpus petition, Ayestas lawyers requested a court-funded investigator for their indigent client. In almost every federal court, such investigations are routinely authorized. But Ayestas request was denied, and when the denial was appealed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the judges said Ayestas had to show what an investigation would uncover before it would approve funding for an investigation. This type of circular logic is indefensible and at odds with basic norms about the right to legal representation. A poor defendant should not be forced to prove what an investigation will uncover in order to undertake it. Ayestas federal appeals were doomed because of an accident of geography. The courts in Texas are historically outliers when it comes to ensuring basic legal representation in death penalty cases. Where most federal courts appoint experts and investigators if theyre reasonably necessary, the 5th Circuit uses a much stricter standard. And when Ayestas case was taken up, the federal public defenders office in Texas didnt have a Capital Habeas Unit a group of attorneys, including mitigation specialists, that concentrate on death-sentence appeals. If a CHU had been assigned to his case (or if hed been able to finance his representation), the basic investigation Ayestas requested would have been done as a matter of course. (The Texas courts have since established a CHU.) In any other area of the country, the investigation Ayestas deserved almost certainly would have been granted. The Supreme Court now has an opportunity to ensure that everyone who faces the death penalty, no matter where they are in the U.S., will have the chance to uncover the information that might make a difference to a jury. No one should be put to death just because he or she is too poor to conduct an investigation. Erwin Chemerinsky is dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook Special Counsel Robert Mueller has now drawn first blood, and its a deep cut. The indictment of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, along with Manaforts longtime associate Rick Gates, on multiple charges of conspiracy, tax fraud and money laundering poses a serious threat to the Trump presidency. So does the news that George Papadopoulos, a campaign aide, pleaded guilty to one count of lying to FBI agents about the nature of his interactions with foreign nationals whom he believed had close connections to senior Kremlin officials. The keenest peril to Trump is the prospect that Manafort would strike a deal with Muellers team to reduce his criminal exposure in return for information against the president or his closest circle of advisors. Trumps lawyers pretend theyre unfazed by Mondays developments, but theyre just acting. Manafort was at the center of the presidents campaign for several pivotal months, and along with Jared Kushner and Donald Trump Jr. attended the July 9, 2016, meeting with a Russian lawyer who promised opposition research on Hillary Clinton. The president was personally involved in fabricating a misleading account of that meeting. Moreover, the indictment demonstrates that Mueller is ready and willing to probe financial misdeeds in Russia and Ukraine that precede the campaign. Trump and Manafort both played in that dirty pond for years (albeit separately), and Trump has been especially anxious to keep the investigation from expanding to his business conduct (and his tax returns). Advertisement Does Trump have any viable alternative at this point to sitting back and watching the probe unfold, hoping it stops short of the Oval Office? He could, theoretically, order the Department of Justice to fire Mueller. The drumbeat for that option has resumed recently in conservative media and among proxy members of Congress, likely with the tacit approval of the White House. A Manafort pardon would amount to an all-out declaration of war against the special counsel making a high-stakes showdown inevitable. Trump might ultimately prove unable to resist that course. But at least the grownups on the Trump legal team who have restrained his tweet war with the special counsel understand that at present the move would carry outsize political risk. The president might also think he has another way out: a preemptive pardon of Manafort. Trump might surmise that a pardon would enfeeble if not disable Muellers ability to induce cooperation through the threat of criminal prosecution. And Trump has already shown that he views the pardon power as a plaything in his personal sandbox. Perhaps the most arrogant action of his presidency thus far was his pardon of former Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had been convicted of criminal contempt of court. In so doing, Trump simply ignored well-established protocol for granting pardons. Two prominent officials from past Republican administrations have taken the pardon-power argument to a ridiculous extreme, arguing in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the president should immediately issue a blanket pardon to anyone in Muellers sights. It is true that the presidents pardon power is quite broad; as Trump has tweeted, all agree the U.S. President has the complete power to pardon. If, however, the president were to pardon Manafort, Manaforts lawyers would still need to ask the court to dismiss the charges. At that point, Mueller could try to make the case that the pardon was invalid. It would be an unusual argument, but the unusual has become routine in the Trump era. On his side, Mueller would have the many constitutional experts who believe that presidential powers in general may not be exercised for constitutionally improper purposes. Although the Supreme Court has not addressed this issue with respect to pardons, the court has indicated that the pardon power is subject to constitutional limitations. Indeed, if the pardon power were not so constrained, the president would in effect be above the law an untenable position in our democracy. To take just one example, at the end of his term, he could hire a contract killer to murder a personal enemy and then pardon the hitman and himself on his last day. Mueller could make two related arguments that the Manafort pardon was granted for a constitutionally improper purpose. First, he could argue that granting or promising a pardon to thwart a criminal investigation violates the presidents duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Second, Mueller could argue that the president had issued the pardon for the constitutionally improper purpose of protecting himself, members of his family and close associates from legal liability. Once the issue was joined at the district court, it would likely be fast-tracked to the Supreme Court. Mueller v. Manafort would instantly become a case for the ages. But these are still early days. Trump would have to further trample the rule of law before we get there. Mark Greenberg is professor of law and philosophy at UCLA, and a former deputy assistant attorney general. Harry Litman, a former U.S. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general, teaches at UCLA Law School and practices law at Constantine Cannon. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook ALSO Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to lying to the FBI agents in Mueller probe Trump responds to Paul Manafort charges: There is NO COLLUSION! The charges against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates State Senate President Kevin de Leons challenge to Sen. Dianne Feinstein compels California Democrats to confront a political conundrum of the Trump era: What values, strategic perspectives and legislative abilities should they seek in their own leaders? Which is more important: the inclination to confront or the inclination to compromise? Which is the more plausible and productive option in an age of polarization? Feinstein and her supporters tout her ability to work across the aisle, to forge accords with Republicans when accords can be reached. Given the descent of the GOP into a far-right sect, however, such opportunities now come around about as often as a solar eclipse. On Tuesday, for instance, in the face of unified Democratic opposition, Senate Republicans passed a bill effectively banning depositors and credit card holders from suing their banks when those banks have defrauded them. (Through Wells Fargo-like practices, for instance.) That such absurd legislation could be supported by the GOP even by such so-called moderates as Maines Susan Collins with barely a murmur of misgivings illustrates just how detached from common decency the Grand Old Party has become. The personification of that detachment, of course, is the president. Feinstein has expressed the hope that hell become a better president as he learns on the job, a belief that puts her at odds not only with most of her fellow Democrats but also with her Republican Senate colleagues Bob Corker, Jeff Flake and John McCain. Even if we take Feinsteins statement as a momentary lapse of judgment, it is of a piece with her votes to confirm 11 of Trumps Cabinet members and her continuing belief in the possibility of forging compromises with the GOP. Advertisement Feinstein comes by that belief honestly: Well-intentioned presidents, whatever their politics; a rudimentary commitment to racial equality; a Republican Party that gives credence to science or just empirically verified reality these were the normal conditions of politics throughout much of Feinsteins career. De Leon is a bridge figure far better positioned to unite Democrats than Feinstein. Theyre not normal now. De Leon recognized that on the morning after Trumps election, when he released a statement saying that Californias values were irrevocably opposed to Trumps. He said Democrats would not and should not meet Trump halfway. Feinsteins other prospective Democratic challengers businessmen Tom Steyer and Joe Sanberg have lined up with De Leon on this position. Indeed, Steyer has begun funding an effort to build support for Trumps impeachment. So how germane is Feinsteins considerable experience and expertise in mastering a political order that has largely vanished? Is De Leon and are Steyer and Sanberg really the novices that some of Feinsteins supporters have said they are? The two wealthy businessmen, while lacking any legislative experience, have made sizable investments of time and funds in building progressive movements to retard climate change and promote greater economic equality movements that have effectively become part of the Resistance. De Leon, by contrast, can boast a record of legislative achievement that few current elected officials in state capitols or gridlocked Washington can claim. He wrote and steered to enactment the states signature alternative energy legislation and its sanctuary state statute. He persuaded his state Senate colleagues to pass the $15 minimum wage and a single-payer healthcare bill (which was shelved in the Assembly). He conceived and pushed to enactment a groundbreaking law that created retirement funds for workers in low-paying jobs. Half-a-dozen other states quickly adopted that idea before the Trump administration revoked the federal regulations that had allowed such laws to go into effect. Feinsteins longtime political consultant, Bill Carrick, attempting to dissuade Bernie Sanders enthusiasts from backing De Leon, noted that the state Senate president endorsed Hillary Clinton in last years presidential primaries. But Carricks contention actually highlights De Leons virtues more than his presumed detriments. Hes not only an accomplished political leader with longstanding ties to the party establishment, but also a true progressive who has effectively promoted key planks in Sanders platform. De Leon is a bridge figure far better positioned to unite Democrats than Feinstein who, after all, also endorsed Clinton and was among the minority of California lawmakers to enact George W. Bushs tax cuts for the rich and to authorize the Iraq war. This is not to deny Feinstein credit for leading significant battles for gun control, protection of Californias deserts and a host of other issues. But the values she has championed havent always been those of her fellow California Democrats, and the political world she once ably navigated has crumbled into dust. Harold Meyerson is executive editor of the American Prospect. He is a contributing writer to Opinion. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook During an impromptu news conference outside the White House last Wednesday, a reporter asked Donald Trump whether he should be more civil. Well, I think the press makes me more uncivil than I am, the president said, and then quickly switched the topic from his manners to his mind. You know, people dont understand. I went to an Ivy League college. I was a nice student. I did very well. Im a very intelligent person. Advertisement Throughout his career, Trump has repeatedly claimed that hes both well-educated and brainy. Each time, it isnt clear if hes trying to convince his interviewers or himself. In a 2004 interview with CNN, Trump said, I went to the Wharton School of Finance. I got very good marks. I was a good student. Its the best business school in the world, as far as Im concerned. During a 2011 interview with ABC, Trump said: Let me tell you, Im a really smart guy. I was a really good student at the best school in the country. On May 8, 2013, Trump tweeted: Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please dont feel so stupid or insecure, its not your fault. During a speech in Phoenix in July 2015, a month after announcing he was running for president, Trump said, I went to the Wharton School of Finance. Im, like, a really smart person. Trump has repeatedly claimed that hes both well-educated and brainy. Each time, it isnt clear if hes trying to convince his interviewers or himself. The next month, in an interview on NBCs Meet the Press, Trump described Wharton as probably the hardest there is to get into. He added, Some of the great business minds in the world have gone to Wharton. He also observed: Look, if I were a liberal Democrat, people would say Im the super genius of all time. The super genius of all time. In December, Trump told Fox News Chris Wallace why he intended to be the first president since Harry Truman to avoid getting daily updates from intelligence professionals about national security threats. Im, like, a smart person, he explained. The day after his inauguration, Trumps handlers staged a visit to CIA headquarters to divert media attention away from the 750,000 Americans who had come to Washington, D.C., that day to protest Trumps presidency. But Trumps scripted remarks turned into an impulsive rambling rant, during which he felt the need to tell the nations top spies that was a bright guy: Trust me, he said, Im, like, a smart person. Anyone who feels compelled to boast how smart he is clearly suffers from a profound insecurity about his intelligence and accomplishments. In Trumps case, he has good reason to have doubts. A linguistic analysis by Politico found that Trump speaks at a third-grade level. A study by researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University compared last years Republican and Democratic presidential candidates in terms of their vocabulary and grammar. Trump scored at a fifth-grade level, the lowest of all the candidates. Trump transferred into the University of Pennsylvanias undergraduate program after spending two years at Fordham University in New York, where he had no significant achievements. No one I know of has said, I remember Donald Trump, Paul F. Gerken, a 1968 Fordham graduate and president of the Fordham College Alumni Assn., told the Chronicle of Higher Education. Whatever he did at Fordham, he didnt leave footprints. According to Gwenda Blairs 2001 biography, The Trumps, Trumps grades at Fordham were not good enough to qualify him for a transfer to Wharton. Trump got into Wharton as a special favor from a friendly admissions officer with ties to his family. In two profiles of Trump in the 1970s, the New York Times reported that Trump graduated first in his class at Wharton in 1968. Trump was most likely the source of that falsehood. In fact, he didnt even make the deans list, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, the campus newspaper. He has refused to release his college grade transcripts. Trump is particularly sensitive about his business career. After college, Trumps multimillionaire father handed young Donald the keys to his real estate empire. Trump has sought to portray himself as an up-by-the-bootstraps self-made entrepreneur. It has not been easy for me, Trump said at a town hall meeting on Oct. 26, 2015. But an investigation last year by the Washington Post revealed that not only did Trumps father provide him with a huge inheritance and set up trust accounts to provide his son with a steady income, he also helped finance Trumps first real estate projects. According to the Post: Trumps father whose name had been besmirched in New York real estate circles after investigations into windfall profits and other abuses in his real estate projects was an essential silent partner in Trumps initiative. In effect, the son was the front man, relying on his fathers connections and wealth, while his father stood silently in the background to avoid drawing attention to himself. As a businessman, Trump is known for his bogus enterprises (like Trump University), his repeated rip-offs of suppliers, contractors and employees, and his wild exaggerations of the size of his wealth. At least six of Trumps businesses have gone bankrupt, but on April 18, 2015, he tweeted this falsehood: For all of the haters and losers out there sorry, I never went Bankrupt. Presidents dont have to be geniuses. But a successful president must recognize his own limitations and be willing to rely on others expertise. He has to take constant criticism from the media, political opponents and his own advisors without taking it too personally. Most important, an effective president needs good judgment to be able to hear different viewpoints, weigh evidence, think several steps in advance rather than act impulsively and be calm under intense pressure. Trump fails each of these tests. Beneath Trumps public bravado is a deeply insecure, troubled man. This makes him unfit to be president, a danger to the country and the world. Peter Dreier is professor of politics and chair of the Urban and Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College. His most recent book is The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame. Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook MORE FROM OPINION Despite what you may have read on Trumps Twitter feed, Manaforts indictment is a big deal Theres no smoking gun in the Manafort indictment, but its still very bad news for Trump On Halloween, parents have no choice but to wade into fraught cultural politics Theres no full-scale smoking gun in the charges against three former Trump campaign officials that were unsealed on Monday if smoking gun means conclusive new evidence of secret collusion with Russia. But the legal actions are still very bad news for President Trump. Its striking that Mueller moved so quickly to indict Paul Manafort, Trumps former campaign chairman, and to make the charges public. Advertisement The methodical prosecutor is moving swiftly, as if he wants to put his evidence on the public record as fast as he can. That will make it harder for the Justice Department to walk away from these cases if Trump decides to fire him. The other reason for Manaforts indictment, of course, is to put pressure on him to tell the FBI what he knows about the campaigns many dealings with Russian officials. Unlike Manafort, Papadopoulos appears to be cooperating fully with Muellers investigators. Manafort and his assistant Rick Gates werent indicted for colluding with Russia; they were indicted on charges of maintaining secret foreign bank accounts that handled more than $75 million, laundering more than $18 million for their personal use, and failing to pay taxes on the income. In addition to criminal charges, the federal government can move to seize their assets. Thats a strong incentive to cooperate with the prosecutor. Elsewhere on this page, two distinguished UCLA law professors note that the president could pardon Manafort to make it easier for him to remain silent. But that would be a politically perilous course. Trump would be pardoning a man facing charges of money laundering and income tax evasion, not political collusion. And Manafort could still face state tax charges in New York; a presidential pardon doesnt cover state laws. The guilty plea of a lower level campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, is important in a different way. Its another piece of the growing pile of evidence that some in the Trump campaign actively attempted to collaborate with Russia. Papadopoulos efforts sound almost amateurish; in the end, he never quite managed to set up a meeting between the campaign and the Kremlin. But he did alert the campaigns higher-ups that the Russians claimed to have dirt on Hillary Clinton, including thousands of emails. His bosses on the campaign encouraged him to pursue the matter. (He apparently worked under the campaigns chief policy advisor, then-Sen. Jeff Sessions, now the attorney general.) There may be more to hear from Papadopoulos, too. Unlike Manafort, he appears to be cooperating fully with Muellers investigators. The Papadopoulos channel isnt the first evidence that the campaign attempted to get help from Russia, of course. Its less damning, for example, than the meeting Donald Trump Jr. arranged with an influential Russian lawyer in July 2016. That meeting was at the campaigns top level, including Manafort and first son-in-law Jared Kushner. It was arranged because the Kremlin-connected lawyer claimed to have dirt on Clinton. And once it was revealed, Trump Jr. made a series of misleading statements about it, reportedly encouraged by his father. So while there is not conclusive public evidence of direct collaboration between the campaign and the Kremlin, theres mounting evidence that both sides wanted to cooperate and actively explored what they could do for each other. There is NO COLLUSION, President Trump tweeted on Monday. To paraphrase an earlier president, that may depend on what the definition of is is. doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com Twitter: @DoyleMcManus Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook If you are a person who likes being frightened by the prospect of a zombie apocalypse, then Halloween is the holiday for you. Have fun being scared. But, if you truly are convinced that a zombie apocalypse could be a real thing, then we all have a problem. A sane society depends on most people sharing a common understanding of reality, but American politics is driven by fears, many of which are unfounded. True or not, the things we fear are very likely to be the things that motivate us to vote for particular candidates. For instance, if you fear global warming and people carrying guns in grocery stores, I can probably guess who you voted for in the 2016 presidential election, just as I could likely make an accurate prediction of your ballot behavior if you are someone who fears that federal agents will take your guns and immigrants will take your job. Advertisement Voting is an emotional act that feels as if it is a rational choice. If it scares you to think that the federal government is concocting so-called false flag events, like the Sandy Hook school shooting, or that every Muslim is capable of being turned into a terrorist, then it seems rational to vote for certain candidates over others, even though both of those viewpoints are preposterous falsehoods promoted by charlatans to elicit an emotional reaction that is susceptible to manipulation. 1 / 51 la-1491523602-y7ephyarj1-snap-image (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 2 / 51 la-1491368625-0bgh58ihw8-snap-image (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 3 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 4 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 5 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los angeles Times) 6 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 7 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 8 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 9 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 10 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 11 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 12 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 13 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 14 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 15 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 16 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 17 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 18 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 19 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 20 / 51 Trump inspires millions to take to the streets -- to oppose him. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 21 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 22 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 23 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 24 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 25 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 26 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 27 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 28 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 29 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 30 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 31 / 51 Top of the Ticket cartoon (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 32 / 51 Cartoon caption contest winner at the DENT conference in Sun Valley, Idaho: Jon Duval, executive director of the Ketchum Community Development Corporation. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 33 / 51 Old radicals and big media descend on Selma (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 34 / 51 Horsey imagined the creation of the Ann Coulter phenomenon in this cartoon from 2007. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 35 / 51 This David Horsey drawing is a reconfiguration of a cartoon he first published in 2006. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 36 / 51 Donald Sterling, owner of the L.A. Clippers, should give Cliven Bundy a call. After Sterling loses his NBA franchise and the deadbeat Nevada rancher loses his cattle, the two old racists will both need a buddy. Maybe they can team up together and open an all-white rodeo. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 37 / 51 Besides sending a chill up the spine of the international community, Vladimir Putin has accomplished one other thing by seizing Crimea and threatening the rest of Ukraine: Putin has brought back the bear. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 38 / 51 The right-wing insurrection at the Bundy ranch in Bunkerville, Nev., has taken another weird turn with new revelations about the family history of Cliven Bundy. (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 39 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 40 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 41 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 42 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 43 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 44 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 45 / 51 David Horsey / Los Angeles Times (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 46 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 47 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 48 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 49 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 50 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) 51 / 51 See full story (David Horsey / Los Angeles Times) Of course, there are fears that are justifiable. It is not irrational to worry about another economic meltdown caused by high rollers on Wall Street. It is not irrational to have angst about random mass shootings. It is not irrational to have some concern about a lunatic North Korean dictator lobbing a nuclear bomb at an American city. It is not irrational to fear for the safety of your teenager in a society where bullying, addictive drugs, gang shootings and pervasive pornography are common. It is harder to predict, though, how those particular fears will drive your political choices. For many people, the fear of losing access to healthcare is a very real thing. But the way this frightening prospect steers voting depends on the particulars. A poor person who relies on Medicaid may make a different decision at the ballot box than a middle-class voter who lives in a state where health insurance options are becoming scarce and unaffordable. I have my own set of fears. Climate change is high on the list, although, because the worst effects of this genuine phenomenon are decades away, this is more a fear for my children and grandchildren than for myself. I do fear that Kim Jong Un will target a West Coast city with his missiles and that I might live in one of them, though I tell myself this hazard is still remote. I fear that our ignorant, brash president and his chaotic administration will bungle foreign policy so badly that the United States will be perceived around the world as an unstable, unreliable partner and Americas strength and global influence will wither. Beyond those worries, though, the fear at the top of my list right now is that our democracy is being dangerously and permanently subverted by fake news. This is not the fake news that President Trump complains about the generally accurate and verifiable stories in the mainstream media that are critical of him. No, the fake news I fear is coming from a variety of sources Russian hackers, internet trolls, talk radio charlatans, right wing political operatives and is being amplified by social media, Fox News and presidential tweets. This manipulated view of reality has been sold to millions of Americans and it has made finding common ground nearly impossible. Even Republican politicians who know fact from fiction find themselves in thrall to this malign force because their constituents have bought into the mendacity. I cannot yet see how we, as a country, will find a way out of this pit of lies. And that is as scary as anything on this spooky Halloween. David.Horsey@latimes.com Follow me at @davidhorsey on Twitter The Supreme Court said Monday it has turned down a property rights case from West Hollywood that challenged a California requirement that developers subsidize the creation of affordable housing. The justices said Monday they will not hear an appeal from the builders of an 11-unit condo who said the fees violate the Constitutions prohibition against taking private property for public use without just compensation. Separately, the court took no action Monday on several appeals from anti-abortion groups challenging another California law that requires crisis pregnancy centers to notify clients that the state offers subsidized contraception and abortion to eligible women. Advertisement The courts action on the developer-fee case comes as a disappointment to builders and business groups that had hoped the more conservative justices would rein in the power of local governments to demand fees or other benefits in exchange for approving a building permit. The California courts have said these fees are not an exaction or a taking of property, but rather a reasonable regulation of development. Lawyers for West Hollywood said the California Legislature has required cities and counties to take specific steps to promote the creation of more affordable housing. The city has required developers to either set aside 20% of the units to be sold at below-market rates or to pay a fee that will be used to subsidize housing for people with low or moderate incomes. Jonathan and Shelah Lehrer-Graiwer applied for a permit to build the 11-unit condo at 616 N. Croft Ave. and were required to pay a fee of $540,000 to subsidize affordable housing elsewhere. They objected, citing Supreme Court rulings that said permit restrictions must be related to the impact of a new development. A state appeals court rejected their constitutional challenge, citing a California Supreme Court ruling two years ago that upheld a similar ordinance in San Jose. As in San Jose, the purpose of the in-lieu housing fee here is not to defray the cost of increased demand on public services resulting from Crofts specific development project, but rather to combat the overall lack of affordable housing, the state appeals court said. West Hollywoods ordinance qualifies as a land use regulation, not an unconstitutional taking of private property, because it does not deprive a property owner of all viable economic use of the property, the state judges said. Lawyers for the Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento appealed on behalf of the developers, urging the high court to decide whether the U.S. Constitution puts limits on a governments authority to use the permit process to force private property to dedicate private property to a public use. Major questions before the Supreme Court this fall david.savage@latimes.com On Twitter: DavidGSavage ALSO Up to 600,000 expected to apply when L.A. reopens Section 8 housing list this month after 13 years Home prices in Southern California reach bubble-era highs Gov. Brown signed 15 housing bills. Heres how theyre supposed to help the affordability crisis The special counsel investigating Russias role in the 2016 presidential race announced criminal charges Monday against three former campaign aides to Donald Trump, including his former campaign manager, marking an explosive new phase in the FBI investigation of the presidents inner circle. One of the three repeatedly sought to arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump and senior Russian officials in London or in Moscow, according to court documents. The meeting did not take place, but court documents describe an extensive effort by Russian officials to gain access to Trumps operation. Court papers disclosed that George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, is cooperating with prosecutors led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is pursuing allegations that Trumps aides cooperated with Russian officials seeking to influence the U.S. election. Advertisement Paul Manafort, who was Trumps campaign manager, and Richard W. Gates III, who was Manaforts top deputy and helped run Trumps inauguration, were separately accused of a total of 12 counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in a financial scheme that ran from 2006 to 2017. Former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort leaves his home in Alexandria, Va., Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, in Washington. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press ) In a court hearing Monday afternoon, Manafort and Gates both pleaded not guilty to the charges. Manafort was released on $10-million bail and Gates was released on $5-million bail. Both surrendered their passports and were ordered under house arrest. While the case against Manafort and Gates carries the potential of long years of jail time, the case against Papadopoulos may be more significant for the White House. It is the first guilty plea related to dealings with Russia by someone connected with the Trump campaign. The double-barreled approach signaled that Mueller, a former FBI director, and his team of veteran organized-crime and white-collar prosecutors are willing to use a classic hardball approach trying to pressure lower-level figures into cooperating and providing information in their investigation of the Trump campaign. I think it definitely shows that Mueller is following a strategy of working on the perimeter and then moving to the center by finding people he can indict, and then seeking their cooperation, said Jens David Ohlin, a Cornell Law School professor and expert in international criminal law. There might be multiple rounds of this before you reach a smoking gun. Mueller was named in May as special counsel to investigate the Trump campaigns possible dealings with Russian officials as well as any other crimes they uncovered. On Monday, they showed that their reach would extend to prominent Democrats as well as Republicans. Tony Podesta, a powerful Democratic lobbyist, announced he would step down from his firm, the Podesta Group, after it came under scrutiny in the Mueller investigation. The Podesta Group was one of two firms solicited by Manafort to work on a Ukraine lobbying campaign; Podestas brother, John Podesta, was Hillary Clintons campaign manager. Court papers revealed that Papadopoulos, 30, had pleaded guilty in a closed-door court hearing on Oct. 5 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with people who claimed to have direct connections with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian officials. Papadopoulos admitted that he had met with an unnamed professor in London who told him that high-level Russian officials had damaging information on Clinton, including thousands of emails. They [the Russians] have dirt on her, Papadopoulos said he was told during a meeting in London in April 2016, as Trump was gaining steam in the Republican presidential primaries. After that, Papadopoulos, a think-tank researcher who sought to become Trumps contact with Moscow, communicated with someone who claimed to be Putins niece and another official who claimed to work at Russias foreign ministry, according to court documents. The woman, according to court documents, was not Putins niece. Since his arrest at Dulles International Airport in July, Papadopoulos has met with Muellers team on numerous occasions to provide information as part of his plea deal, according to court filings. The meeting in London is the second documented instance of someone with claimed connections to the Russian government offering damaging information about Clinton to the Trump campaign. In June 2016, Manafort joined Donald Trump Jr. in a meeting in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer and lobbyist, after Trump Jr. was offered damaging information about Clinton. Manafort and Gates used offshore accounts and shell companies in Cyprus, the Seychelles and the Caribbean to hide $75 million, including payments for representing a pro-Kremlin political faction in Ukraine, to avoid paying U.S. taxes, according to the indictment. Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income, the charges said. The indictment says he laundered more than $18 million to pay for his expenses, including $5.4 million for renovations at his home on Long Island, N.Y.; $1.3 million for lighting and home entertainment at his home in Florida; $934,000 for antique rugs at his home in Virginia; and about $1.4 million at clothing stores in New York and Beverly Hills. Manafort did not report the income to the government and denied to his tax preparer than he held any offshore accounts. The indictment also alleges that Manafort defrauded banks by making false statements to obtain cheaper mortgages, hiding the fact in one case that he was renting out a condominium in lower Manhattan via Airbnb. Manafort also was charged with filing false reports to conceal the fact that he was acting as an unregistered foreign agent. The charges state that Manafort and Gates were agents for former Ukranian President Victor Yanukovich and his pro-Russian Party of Regions. The indictment alleges that Gates moved $3 million from the offshore accounts to pay his mortgage, childrens tuition and interior decorating. The indictment against Manafort and Gates doesnt reference their work for the Trump campaign, a point Trump noted on Twitter. Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why arent Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? Trump wrote. Also, there is NO COLLUSION! he said in another tweet. In a statement, Manaforts lawyer, Kevin Downing, called the indictment ridiculous and said there was no evidence that the Trump campaign had colluded with the Russian government. None of the charges released Monday made that claim. Downing said Manafort was seeking to further democracy and help Ukraine come closer to the United States and the European Union. He said those activities ended in 2014, two years before Manafort joined the Trump campaign. He said the Foreign Agent Registration Act has only been used six times to file criminal charges, and only one case resulted in a conviction. He also said the allegation that Manafort used offshore accounts as a scheme to conceal his money was most ridiculous. Papadopoulos, a former researcher at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, joined the Trump campaign in March after working for Ben Carsons failed presidential bid. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders described him Monday as a campaign volunteer whose role was extremely limited. His lawyers declined to comment. We will have the opportunity to comment on Georges involvement when called upon by the court at a later date. We look forward to telling all of the details of Georges story at that time, said the statement by Thomas Breen and Robert Stanley of Chicago. Times staff writers David S. Cloud, Evan Halper, Cathleen Decker, Noah Bierman and Brian Bennett and Katherine Skiba of the Chicago Tribune contributed to this report from Washington. joseph.tanfani@latimes.com Twitter: @jtanfani UPDATES: 3:55 p.m.: The story was updated with a statement from Papadopoulous lawyer 2:35 p.m.: The story was updated with a statement from Manaforts lawyer 12:40 p.m. The story was updated with additional details from the indictment. The story was first posted at 9:30 a.m. President Trump and the White House greeted the indictment of the presidents former campaign chairman, on charges including conspiracy against the United States, with a mixture of silence, distance and deflection on Monday morning. No comment, said a senior White House spokesman. Trump, who has long tried to diminish Manaforts influence, was not so reticent. Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign, he tweeted a little more than an hour after the indictment was unsealed. But why arent Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? Advertisement ....Also, there is NO COLLUSION! he added in a second tweet. While the initial charges against Manafort did not directly relate to the Trump campaign, they could open the door for further charges or cooperation by Manafort and his co-defendant Rick Gates, a former campaign and White House aide. And they came just as news broke of a serious development that does touch the campaign: George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy advisor for the campaign, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contact with a Russian claiming to have dirt on Hillary Clinton. The just-released indictment of Papadopoulos makes clear that he is cooperating with the probe led by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III. The legal developments followed a busy weekend for the president on Twitter, as he tried to deflect attention from Washingtons anticipation about Muellers plans by spreading accusations about Hillary Clinton and Democrats. Trumps tweet Monday was in keeping with his, and the White Houses, longtime attempts to downplay Manaforts role in Trumps orbit. Manafort, who made his name long ago in Ronald Reagans employ but since has been a lobbyist for many foreign interests, was hired by the campaign in late March 2016. He served as campaign chairman from May through August, leading it through a crucial period that included the Republican National Convention, when Manafort needed to wrangle dissident Republicans who threatened to press for a more mainstream choice than Trump. He also played a role in shaping the partys platform at the convention, including a reported effort to ensure it did not endorse supplying weapons to Ukrainians fighting Russian-backed forces. In April 2016, Trump retweeted a supporter praising Manaforts addition to the campaign. I am thrilled you are part of this Team-GO TRUMP! Trump later had little to say about him after Manafort left the campaign amid reports tying him to shady payments from Ukraines government when it was pro-Moscow and to a pro-Putin oligarch. Since the election, Trump has had even less to say. He was replaced long before the election, Trump said at a February news conference. When all of this stuff started coming out, it came out during the election. But Paul Manafort, whos a good man also by the way, Paul Manafort was replaced long before the election took place. He was only there for a short period of time. Former Press Secretary Sean Spicer famously dismissed Manafort in March as a bit actor who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time. I believe Paul was brought on sometime in June, and by the middle of August he was no longer with the campaign, meaning that for the entire final stretch of the general election, he was not involved, Spicer said. And so to start to look at some individual that was there for a short period of time, or, separately, individuals who really didnt play any role in the campaign, and to suggest that those are the basis for anything is a bit ridiculous. Spicers distancing effort was widely ridiculed, including by some Republicans. Trump, in another press conference in August, shortly after Manaforts home was raided by FBI investigators, reiterated his earlier comments that he had lost touch with the former strategist. I thought it was a very, very strong signal or whatever, Trump said of the raid. I know Mr. Manafort. I havent spoken to him in a long time, but I know him. He was with the campaign, as you know, for a very short period of time -- relatively short period of time. But Ive always known him to be a good man. Trump also maintained that he knew little about Manaforts extensive international business ties, which had spawned suspicion in Washington long before he was hired. He offered a partial defense. Ive always found Paul Manafort to be a very decent man, Trump said. And hes like a lot of other people -- probably makes consultant fees from all over the place. Who knows? I dont know. Staff writer Cathleen Decker contributed to this article. noah.bierman@latimes.com Twitter: @noahbierman ALSO Read the charges against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates Paul Manafort and former aide face multiple charges in Mueller probe Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos pleads guilty to lying to the FBI agents in Mueller probe George Papadopoulos , a former foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, has pleaded guilty to making false statements to FBI agents about his contacts with Russian officials in connection with his work for the campaign. The following is a timeline of key events in the case, drawn from court filings and Times reporting. 2016 Papadopoulos is named foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, a 30-year-old former researcher at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, learns he will be a foreign policy advisor to Donald Trump s campaign, which he is told is seeking improved relations with Russia. Italy meeting Traveling in Italy, Papadopoulos meets an unidentified professor based in London, who claims to have substantial connections with Russian government officials. Russian hackers Hackers, later identified as being connected to Russian intelligence agencies, use a phishing scam to steal emails from John Podesta , Hillary Clinton s campaign chairman. Press introduction The Trump campaign tells the Washington Post that Papadopoulos is one of Trumps five foreign policy advisors. London meeting Papadopoulos meets in London with the professor, who brings a female Russian national, introduced inaccurately as a relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin . They tell Papadopoulos they want to arrange a meeting for Trump and his campaign with the Russian leadership. A Trump campaign supervisor tells Papadopoulos not to commit to a meeting. Great work, the supervisor adds. Russian connections Trump meets in Washington with national security advisors, including Papadopoulos, who tells the group he has Russian connections who can arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin. In the image, Papadopoulos is third from left. Skype meetings The professor introduces Papadopoulos by email to an unidentified individual in Moscow with connection to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They have multiple conversations on Skype and email about a possible meeting between the campaign and Russian officials. Dirt on Hillary Clinton Papadopoulos has breakfast in London with the professor, who says he has just returned from meetings in Moscow with Russian officials who claim to have dirt on Hillary Clinton and thousands of her emails. Putin invitation Papadopoulos emails a high-ranking Trump campaign official that Putin wants to invite Trump and his campaign team to Moscow when the time is right. Foreign policy speech Trump gives foreign policy speech at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak is in the audience and chats with then-Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who is serving as a senior foreign policy advisor to the campaign. Russia eager to meet Trump Papadopoulos tells a high-ranking Trump campaign official that Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite some time and have been reaching out to me to discuss. Meeting with Russian lawyer Donald Trump Jr., then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner meet with a Russian lawyer and others at Trump Tower in Manhattan after being told that the lawyer worked with the Russian government and had damaging information about Clinton. Trump Jr. later said the information was insignificant. Offer to visit Moscow Papadopoulos offers to make an off-the-record trip to Moscow if Trump cant go. Campaign officials say no Trump visit to Russia In emails, Trump campaign officials discuss the overture, noting that Trump is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal. Campaign encourages Papadopoulos to visit Russia if feasible A Trump campaign supervisor tells Papadopoulos: I would encourage you to make the trip if it is feasible. The trip never occurs. 2017 FBI investigation FBI agents, investigating allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, interview Michael Flynn , then the White House national security advisor. Blackmail warning Sally Yates, the acting attorney general, goes to the White House to warn officials that Flynn has lied about contacts he had with the Russian ambassador and could be vulnerable to blackmail. Papadopoulos speaks to the FBI FBI agents interview Papadopoulos. He falsely tells them that his contacts with the professor and other Russians occurred before he joined the Trump campaign. I wasnt even on the Trump team, he says. He also minimizes his contacts with the professor and other Russians. Flynn resignation Michael Flynn resigns. Papadopoulos arrest Papadopoulos is arrested at Dulles Airport outside Washington. He later agrees to cooperate with the FBI. Guilty plea Why dont you shut your mouth and open your legs because thats what you do best. Thats what Amy Brown said a male lobbyist on the other side of an issue said to her in front of a large group of people at the entrance to the state Senate chamber about a decade ago. Browns shocking experience is one of 20 stories our team shared Sunday. Chris Megerian, Jack Dolan, Melanie Mason and Dakota Smith teamed up to craft a powerful piece in the womens own words. And, for so many women, the stories may seem familiar. Advertisement Over the last few weeks, women in California politics have been speaking out about sexual harassment and unwanted touching in Sacramento after keeping their conversations discreet for years. As part of this unfolding conversation, Mason broke the news Friday that an assemblyman was disciplined for groping a staffer when he was a chief of staff. The 2009 investigation found it is more likely than not that Raul Bocanegra engaged in behavior that night which does not meet the Assemblys expectations for professionalism. Mason also reports that even though both houses of the Legislature have said they will examine their procedures to field complaints of misbehavior in light of the sexual harassment allegations, the state Senate does not make it easy for women to come forward. George Skelton also looks at the issue of harassment. He writes that the Capitol has always been a sexual playground, complete with bullies and bad actors. Whats different now is that women are speaking out. (Dont miss Skeltons 1979 piece from the archives: Politics, Marriage Hard to Mix, Legislators Find) Well be continuing to follow this story here. If you work in government and politics and have a story to share, wed like to hear from you. THE BIGGEST POLITICAL STORY IN THE WORLD One of two former top strategists for the Trump campaign is likely to face indictment as early as Monday, according to a senior Democrat. That would be the first criminal charges in the intensifying probe led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III into current and former members of President Trumps inner orbit. Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said a federal judge could unseal an indictment against either Paul Manafort, Trumps former campaign manager, or Michael Flynn, who briefly served as Trumps national security advisor in the White House. We havent been told who it is, he said on ABCs This Week. Well be tracking what happens with Mueller in the moment on Essential Washington. MORE CHALLENGERS, MORE MONEY The latest campaign finance reports show the challengers running in Californias House races are raising more money earlier than any other group of challengers has in years. As Democrats work to regain power in the House, there are more than three times as many congressional challengers across the state today than there were before the 2016 election. With 80 running so far, the candidates have raised money more quickly than any other group of challengers going back to 2003. And 90% of what was raised has gone to Democrats, Christine Mai-Duc reports. YOULL HEAR MORE ABOUT THIS IF YOU LIVE IN A SWING DISTRICT Californias GOP members of Congress all voted in favor of the Republican budget, paving the way for tax overhaul. Gov. Jerry Brown had urged them not to in a letter before the vote. Rep. Darrell Issa responded with a letter of his own accusing Brown of pretending to care about California taxpayers. Brown also criticized the states Republicans for having a slavish adherence to Trump and party leaders. MEANWHILE, IN THE GOVERNORS RACE ... Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Sunday that he will not run for governor next year. But he didnt say anything about seeking the presidency in 2020. In a few months, the Democratic mayor will be visiting South Carolina, home to the first-in-the-South presidential primary, Dakota Smith and Seema Mehta report. Secretary of State Alex Padilla, the highest-ranking elected Latino official in California, endorsed Gavin Newsom in the governors race instead of his former City Hall colleague Antonio Villaraigosa. Padilla said the backing was based on his long relationship with Newsom, but as Mehta reports, Padilla and Villaraigosa have never been viewed as close political allies and have a history of not supporting each others political pursuits. GOP KEEPING A CLOSER EYE ON ROHRABACHERS SUBCOMMITTEE Allegations that Orange County Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has been overly influenced by his connections to Russia mean House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-Fullerton) will be more involved in guiding the direction of the subcommittee the congressman leads that is in part responsible for examining U.S. policy in Russia, a senior congressional aide who asked not to be identified told Sarah D. Wire. Rohrabacher has long said that the United States needs an improved relationship with Russia, but his connections with Russian officials have been newly highlighted as Congress investigates Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Meanwhile, Rohrabacher has picked up a second GOP challenger for 2018. CAR HITS IMMIGRATION PROTESTERS OUTSIDE ROYCES OFFICE A vehicle drove into a group of protesters outside Royces office in Brea on Thursday afternoon, but no injuries were immediately reported to police. The driver, 56-year-old Daniel Wenzek of Brea, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. He was booked and released pending further investigation. A reminder you can keep up with these races in the moment via our Essential Politics news feed on California politics. TRUMP RILES SCIENTISTS Stunning new species of dinosaurs and other ancient creatures have been unearthed in southern Utahs Grand Staircase-Escalante in the 21 years since President Clinton named it a national monument. But scientists now fear that Trump will spoil the world-class fossil beds by shrinking the 1.9 million-acre monument, clearing the way for coal mining. Its a politically charged debate, as scientists now see Grand Staircase-Escalante as one of the planets premier spots to research the Late Cretaceous era just before dinosaurs went extinct -- a period when the climate was hotter, the air contained more carbon dioxide, and sea level was near its all-time peak. Michael Finnegan reports. THE FIGHT TO REPEAL THE GAS TAX What do Republican politicians in many red states believe that the California GOP does not? Answer: That increasing gas taxes is good public policy and, potentially, winning politics, Skelton writes. POLITICAL ROAD MAP: WHEN LEGISLATIVE RECORDS ARE KEPT SECRET Its widely known that local and state government in California is subject to a wide-ranging law that allows public access to records and documents. But one powerful entity is exempt from that law: the California Legislature. In his Sunday column, John Myers takes a look at Californias Legislative Open Records Act -- the 1975 law that legislators crafted to apply only to their branch of government. Its widely viewed as allowing a lot less sunlight, and could be a key hurdle in the current examination of abuse complaints filed by Capitol staffers. TODAYS ESSENTIALS -- White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the women who have accused President Trump of assault are lying. -- Trump saw Tom Steyers ad calling for the president to be impeached, and he wasnt too happy about it. -- Sen. Kamala Harris announced she wont back the end-of-year federal spending bill without a DACA fix. -- California Rep. Jackie Speier shared her own sexual assault story in an effort to change Capitol Hill. -- Rep. Maxine Waters asked Twitter for information about Russian accounts used to attack her. -- Rep. Paul Cook was picked to lead a Foreign Affairs subcommittee. -- Battling endorsements have begun in the U.S. Senate race. Six female California lawmakers backed Dianne Feinstein and eight others endorsed Kevin de Leon soon after. -- De Leon vowed to back Medicare for all in a new video. -- Rep. Scott Peters endorsed fellow Democrat Paul Kerr, one of three challengers looking to take on Issa next year. -- Garcettis World Series bet rankled L.A.'s craft brewing community. LOGISTICS Essential Politics is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can keep up with breaking news on our politics page throughout the day for the latest and greatest. And are you following us on Twitter at @latimespolitics? Miss Fridays newsletter? Here you go. Please send thoughts, concerns and news tips to politics@latimes.com. Did someone forward you this? Sign up here to get Essential Politics in your inbox. There are far more challengers running for Californias House seats in 2018 than at this point in the last campaign, and there hasnt been this much money raised for House elections this early in years, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of campaign finance reports. As Democrats work to regain power in the House, there are more than three times as many congressional challengers across the state today than there were before the 2016 election. With 80 challengers so far, the candidates have raised money more quickly than any group of challengers going back to 2003. Thats particularly true in the 13 races where Republican and Democratic incumbents are being targeted. Challengers there have raised more than five times more than the 2016 challengers had this far out from the election. Nearly 70% of the money raised by all congressional challengers has gone to the four Republican-held districts in Orange County that Democrats consider key to their chances. Money is not the only factor in a tough campaign and much could still change ahead of the June primary, in which the top two vote getters advance to the November election regardless of party. But the totals so far give a window into the viability of the field of candidates and the energy behind their campaigns. The numbers should give Republican incumbents plenty of reasons to worry. Theres way more money being raised in California House races The $14.9 million the 80 challengers have raised to date is the highest amount of any similar period since 2003, according to data from the nonpartisan Campaign Finance Institute. The closest California congressional challengers came to raising this much the year before an election was $7.2 million, back in 2011. (Campaign finance data before 2003 is not comparable because of a landmark campaign finance law that went into effect that year.) (Ally J. Levine) (Ally J. Levine) Most of the money is going to fight Republicans The explosion of challengers and dollars is not evenly distributed: 90% of the money raised by California challengers has gone to Democrats, in part because they far outnumber Republican challengers. Of the 80, 58 are Democrats. There are also nine Republican-held and five Democratic-held districts where at least one challenger has raised $100,000 or more a record for those measures. The California numbers reflect a nationwide trend There are far more challengers running across the country this year too, and most of them are Democrats. An analysis by the Campaign Finance Institute shows 391 Democrats had filed as challengers and raised at least $5,000 by Sept. 30. Only 71 Republican challengers nationwide had done so. In modern times, this is simply unprecedented, says Michael J. Malbin, executive director of the institute, a think tank that studies campaign money. Weve seen many Democrats deciding that this may be their chance. At the same time, youre seeing Republicans who might in other years be viable candidates, saying, This is not the year. High numbers of challengers have preceded big wave elections The closest either party has come to these numbers going back to 2003 was in October 2009, when 184 Republicans challengers and 71 Democrats reported raising at least $5,000. The next year, the GOP won 63 House seats and four in the Senate, the biggest sweep in decades. Democrats enjoyed a more subdued bump in the number of challengers well ahead of the 2006 election 89 versus the GOPs 44 in October 2005 when a smaller wave helped Democrats capture 31 House seats. Democrats need to flip 24 to win back control of the House next year. While a high number of Democratic candidates doesnt in and of itself predict a wave, Malbin says, it suggests the party will be in a good position to take advantage of one if it materializes next year. Incumbents generally raise much more money than their challengers, but Californias vulnerable Republicans are struggling as a whole In the 13 California races The Times is watching closely, incumbents had out-raised their challengers by more than 2 to 1 by this point in 2013 and by more than 4 to 1 in 2015. That trend has reversed for the nine GOP incumbents being targeted by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Their challengers have raised more than $13 million, significantly more than the $10.5 million the GOP incumbents have reported taking in. The Democrats numbers are bolstered by several challengers who have pumped six-figure amounts into their own campaigns, and one candidate who gave himself a $2-million loan. But GOP incumbents are still facing a far closer money race than they have in recent campaigns. The four Democrats targeted by the National Republican Congressional Committee havent had the same problem. Theyve raised more than $4.9 million to counter the $657,712 raised by their challengers. The vast majority of money here is going to Orange County Candidates and incumbents in Californias 13 most closely watched congressional races have reported raising about $29 million this year. About half of that money has gone to four Republican-held districts in Orange County where Hillary Clinton won last year. They belong to Rep. Ed Royce of Fullerton, Rep. Mimi Walters of Irvine, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa and Rep. Darrell Issa of Vista. Of the more than $14.9 million raised by all of Californias congressional challengers, more than $10 million has gone to candidates in those four races. Orange County is a centerpiece in the DCCCs master plan to take back the House next year, and Democrats have even opened a satellite office there to help with campaigns. But theres a bright spot for some Republicans Some GOP incumbents in Orange County are raising more money than they did in their last campaigns and hold a major cash advantage. Walters has raised more than double the amount she had this far out from the 2016 election, and Issa has taken in more than five times the amount he had in the last election, when he nearly lost his seat. Even Rohrabacher, who has been known for his lackluster fundraising in the past, has raised about $900,000 so far this year, more than double his haul at this point in the last campaign. These incumbents also have significantly more money in the bank than their opponents, who must battle one another in the June primary. Despite the fact that Royces five Democratic opponents have collectively out-raised him by nearly double, his closest opponent, Andy Thorburn, has $1.9 million in the bank (nearly all of it from a personal loan) to Royces $3.4 million. Similarly, Walters has $1.4 million stashed away, while Brian Forde, her closest Democratic opponent, has just over $359,000. Times staff writer Maloy Moore contributed to this report. christine.maiduc@latimes.com For more on California politics, follow @cmaiduc. ALSO Updates on California politics California could flip the House, and these 13 races will make the difference Democrats' road to winning back the House goes through California, and it won't be as easy as it seems These political newbies are stepping up to run for Congress, and many say it's because of Trump In California, vulnerable Republicans are backing away from hard-line immigration stances Republicans, in a shift after Las Vegas massacre, are open to considering a gun limit -- on bump stocks The Las Vegas massacre has forced a breach in congressional Republicans solid opposition to gun restrictions, prompting many, from party leaders on down, to say they will consider banning bump stocks that turn assault rifles into virtual machine guns. The National Rifle Assn., to which most Republicans are loyal and which had been silent since the gunmans attack Sunday night, on Thursday in a statement said it could back such limits -- as a federal regulation, not law. The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations. its statement on Thursday said. The NRAs blessing will probably increase the number of Republicans willing to back restrictions, but if those limits come in the form of regulations from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), rather than in a law, Democrats are certain to object. Just Wednesday, when California Sen. Dianne Feinstein introduced legislation to ban bump stocks by law, only fellow Democrats joined with her. By Thursday, however, top GOP leaders in the House and Senate, including Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin and Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas, signaled their interest in working on legislation that that could limit access to the devices. Clearly thats something we need to look into, Ryan told MSNBC host Hugh Hewitt in an interview scheduled to air this weekend. Senators on Thursday morning privately discussed ways they could tackle the issue as they met for routine business. I will tell you that the unique aspect of the bump stock and how you would literally transform a semiautomatic weapon into an automatic weapon is something that I think bears looking into, Cornyn told Texas reporters on a conference call. He has asked Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley of Iowa to convene a hearing and look into it. Even Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus of conservative hard-liners, told reporters earlier in the week hed be willing to consider banning bump stocks, if the Senate passes a bill and sends it to the House. The shift is notable for Republicans who, under great pressure from the NRA and other gun rights groups, have resisted past efforts at gun control, even after some of the most devastating mass shootings in the United States. Coming after the Las Vegas shooting, which left 58 dead and hundreds wounded in what authorities said is the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, the movement may indicate the potential limits of the gun lobbys reach into politics and policy. Polls show Americans overwhelmingly want measures that could curb gun violence and pressure has mounted as cultural figures, including late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel, have delivered heart-wrenching criticisms of congressional inaction. Democrats, who have at times splintered on firearms issues as conservative-state lawmakers joined Republicans to defeat gun-safety bills, welcomed the changed outlook. They have called on President Trump to cut across partisan lines and push Congress toward legislation to reduce gun violence that polls show most Americans would support. Will the president stand up? said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer of New York. The president has a choice. Many Democrats, however, will not want to limit action to bump stocks. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said bump stock legislation was one approach, but no substitute for a background check bill that she said would have bipartisan support in the House if Ryan would allow a vote. It really is all up to the speaker, she said. Is he going to bring the bill to the floor? At the same time, lawmakers were skeptical that initial interest in limited bipartisan legislation would translate into enough actual votes to write the restriction into law. We need to move Republicans from being open to the idea to being willing to actually work on it, said Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a Democrat who has become a leader on firearms safety measures since the 2012 killings of 20 first-graders and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. One key Republican, Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, who co-sponsored a bipartisan background check bill that was defeated a few years ago, was noncommittal Thursday. He said he was just learning about bump stocks and needed more information. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas told reporters it was too soon, as the investigation in Las Vegas was just underway, to consider legislation. Lawmakers, though, appeared concerned that the device offers a way to get around the existing ban on automatic weapons, which have been outlawed for years except for military use. In the House, several military veterans, led by Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Illinois, sent a letter to federal officials asking them to reconsider how they regulate the devices. During the Obama administration, the ATF authorized use of the stocks. This is definitely an area were going to look [at], Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield said on Fox News. A number of lawmakers, including Ryan, an avid hunter, said they were unfamiliar with bump stocks before the Las Vegas shooting. The alleged gunman appears to have used the device for rapid shooting. Read More Im delighted to learn that philosophy studies have been given a boost at Orange Coast College (Record $1.8-million donation to OCC Foundation will fund philosophy scholarship). Its especially sweet that the $1.8 million gift from former philosophy professor David Johnstons estate is also the largest donation ever received by the OCC Foundation. Take that, STEM! Seriously, Im a STEM kind of guy, having majored in aerospace engineering, and worked in that industry until retirement. So its not that I am down on science, technology, engineering and math. In fact, I love them. But I also love the humanities, and Im glad to see a philosophy scholarship getting such strong support. I am gratified, because Ive seen support for humanities wither for decades while employment-oriented studies, such as finance, business administration, and, yes, STEM, flourish. Vital as earning a living is, people need more in their lives. One persons experience: After graduating from college, I was thirsty for all that was not engineering. So, for years thereafter, during my lunch hour at work, I read books about philosophy, history and psychology. I went so far to quench my thirst for knowledge, that I was perhaps the only human on the planet who read through a dictionary on his lunch hours. (The plot was, of course, nonexistent, but the worlds that were suggested by new words were fascinating.) Has this been useful to me? It didnt affect my salary that I know of, but Im wealthy in the understanding of life Ive gained. I feel more in control, knowing more about how life works. We have, nominally, 72 hours out of the week when were not working and sleeping. It can be rewarding to use some of those hours to sample the delights of the many rooms of the mansions of philosophy, as historian and philosopher Will Durant characterized it. This gift to OCC has the potential to enrich many lives. Consequently, it is a gift to us all. Tom Egan Costa Mesa Conservatives, settle your differences with unions Thank you, Costa Mesa Councilman John Stephens for the detailed explanation of the recent agreement Costa Mesa reached with the Costa Mesa Fire Authority. When have we ever seen such a cogent and detailed layout of such an agreement with the citys first responders? Certainly not from the previous majority. Instead they were only interested in tearing down and exterminating the union, given their battles with them over the last 10 years or so when Councilman Jim Righeimer and company were in the majority. Its always amazed me that the previous council majority was always seemingly at war with our firefighters and police officers but then again this was always about trying to crush the union. It probably wasnt because the unions didnt align with their political beliefs; surely there must be some supporters within the first-responder ranks? No, instead it was most likely because they werent on the receiving end of the unions political contributions. You watch; should reality suddenly turn upside down and unions suddenly start giving money to conservatives, you bet they could count on conservative support. Its always about the money. Conservatives have proven time and time again that they will sell their souls for money, and its refreshing to finally see a council thats more interested in our first responders being adequately compensated for laying their lives on the line to protect life and property. When did that get political? And lastly, I believe we dont compensate these brave individuals enough, given the threat to their lives they regularly face. Maybe some day conservatives will finally lay down their arms over their union battles. Nationally, conservatives have already shown that their claims of deficit control are nothing but a bunch of hooey. Ill wager we can probably count on the exact same mindset down at the local level as well. Mike Aguilar Costa Mesa Mesa Water District rate increases far outpace cost-of-living expenses The Mesa Water District is planning water rate adjustments. That translates to chocolate-coating a bitter pill. I protest. My water bill in 2013 showed a charge of $3.15 per unit. The charge increased gradually in 2017 to $3.62 per unit. That is a 15% increase in four years. The incremental adjustment will be $3.86 for 2018 to $4.72 in 2022. The total increase from 2013 to 2021 would be $1.57 per unit, or 27%. I wish my Social Security benefits or my teachers pension showed the same percentage increase. The districts board of directors get big bucks for their time and effort. In fiscal year 2016, their per diem reimbursements ranged between $20,160 and $28,800. The cost of their health insurance ranged between $10,740 and $16,800. The cost of the Mesa Water general manager (salary, other pay, insurance premiums, pension costs) totals $347,476 for fiscal year 2017. The executive office includes two people. Payroll expenses were $516,598 in 2014, $575,645 in 2015, no data for 2016 and budgeted $603,008 in 2017. The public hearing, 6 p.m. Nov. 9 in the Board Room of 1965 Placentia Ave., will be a showdown. Please attend and voice your concerns. Flo Martin Costa Mesa Peotter should be recalled Councilman Scott Peotter moved back into Newport Beach in March 2014, just in time for the November election where he was supported as part of Team Newport in an effort to take over the city government. Narrowly winning, he is a sure vote for high-rise projects like the Museum House and he now wants to take the lead in giving us a General Plan that will lock his high-rise vision into our laws for the future. I have had enough. Its time to recall Scott Peotter and elect someone with real community roots and connections, a new council member who will work to improve our quality of life and not be just a partisan, political hack. Paul Blank Corona del Mar Spending city funds on preventing transparency isnt responsible Team Newport campaigned on a platform of fiscal responsibility, so why did it allow the city manager and city attorney to waste about $450,000 of taxpayer money trying to prevent me, a Newport resident, from obtaining documents through the California Public Records Act? How many other Newport residents have been similarly harassed and how much more taxpayer money has been wasted? Kent Moore Corona Del Mar How to get published: Email us at dailypilot@latimes.com. All correspondence must include full name, hometown and phone number (for verification purposes). The Pilot reserves the right to edit all submissions for clarity and length. Kenyas electoral commission Monday pronounced President Uhuru Kenyatta the winner of a bitterly disputed presidential election last week that saw low voter turnout amid an opposition boycott and violence. The announcement of Kenyattas victory did nothing to resolve Kenyas deepest political crisis in almost a decade, with the opposition rejecting the legitimacy of the result and calling for new elections. It immediately triggered protests in opposition strongholds, including Nairobis slum neighborhoods of Kibera and Mathare, sparking fears of more violence. Advertisement Officials said fewer than 39% of eligible voters participated in the election Thursday marked by intimidation against Supreme Court judges, death threats against electoral commissioners, divisive rhetoric and dozens of deaths of opposition protesters, many shot by riot police. After opposition candidate Raila Odinga this month pulled out of the race, saying it would not be free and fair, Kenyatta won around 98% of the vote. Last weeks election was a repeat vote after the Supreme Court nullified the Aug. 8 presidential election on the basis of irregularities. Odinga demanded a series of changes, including the removal of some Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission staff, and pulled out, saying his concerns had been ignored. One electoral commissioner, Roselyn Akombe, fled to the United States this month, fearing for her life after receiving death threats. She said the commission was divided on partisan lines and could not deliver a free and fair election. Another commissioner, Chris Msando, was tortured and killed days before the August election. Commission chief Wafula Chebukati echoed Akombes concerns at the time, but he told Kenyans on Monday that the result had been free and fair. The irregularities in the August election, the opposition boycott, Msandos death and Akombes flight have eroded many Kenyans confidence in the nations fragile electoral process. Elections in the East Africa nation are often fought on ethnic lines, and tend to be winner-takes-all affairs that see government leaders hand out jobs and favors to members of their own ethnic groups. Odingas Luo ethnic group feels excluded from jobs and opportunities with the presidency dominated by the Kikuyu and Kalenjin groups since independence. At least nine people have died in violence since Thursdays election. Between the August and October votes up to 67 people were killed, according to Human Rights Watch, many of whom were shot by riot police. On Friday ethnic violence flared in the Kawangware neighborhood west of Nairobi, where houses were burned and at least one man was killed. U.S. Ambassador Robert F. Godec on Monday expressed concern over the violence and over reports of excessive use of force by police. We appeal for calm in the coming days. We call on all Kenyans to come together at this critical moment to reject the politics of hatred and division. We again urge that there be an immediate, sustained, open, and transparent national dialogue involving all Kenyans to resolve the deep divisions that the electoral process has exacerbated, he said in a statement. Leaders and politicians should clearly and publicly reject violence and work to keep the peace, and make every effort to ensure their supporters do so as well. To the opposition, the lowest turnout in a Kenyan election since multiparty democracy in 1992 has tarnished the legitimacy of the vote. Kenyatta received fewer votes in the October election 7.48 million - than in the August election - 8.2 million. Kenyatta on Monday rejected commentary that turnout was low, saying many voters went to the polls despite violent intimidation and witchcraft. He now has the difficult task of trying to unite a deeply divided nation and to overcome the effect of months of economic paralysis after the disputed vote. The main opposition alliance, NASA, announced last week it would transform into a resistance movement, calling the election a sham. The hopes of constructive dialogue in coming months appear bleak, with neither side willing to make compromises in recent months during one of the most contentious elections in Kenyan history. Kenyatta said there was no doubt that he had won overwhelmingly in the August election. Since the election was invalidated, he has made repeated attacks on the Supreme Court, calling the judges crooks and vowing to fix them. Today I as a Kenyan celebrate our resilience as a nation but I also celebrate the resilience of our democracy, the resilience of our people and also the resilience of our constitution, said Kenyatta, 56. Any other country experiencing the twists and turns of our electoral process would have burst asunder but our Kenyan resilience will not tire. It will not give in to obvious provocation and base invitation to the politics of darkness. He sharply criticized Odinga for challenging the August election, yet failing to contest the October vote. Despite the fact that my major contender went to court demanding that the presidential election be nullified and was actually granted his pleading and an annulment, he chose to ignore the rest of the ruling, which ordered a fresh election in 60 days conducted by none other than the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission as constituted. Therefore he ultimately chose to abandon the fresh poll. I say this: You cannot choose the opportunity to exercise a right and thereafter abscond from the consequences of that choice. Kenyattas deputy, William Ruto, was also triumphant. Winning twice in two months! Our GOD has given us abundantly above what we asked .To the almighty GOD IN HEAVEN BE THE GLORY & HONOUR, he tweeted. No election was held in four constituencies in western Kenya, all of them opposition strongholds. After the violence on election day, plans to hold the balloting in those areas Saturday had to be abandoned because of fears of further violence. robyn.dixon@latimes.com Twitter: @RobynDixon_LAT Across Europe, separatists have eagerly watched Catalan activists declare their independence in a crisis that threatens to fracture not just Spain, but the European Union. The decision by the parliament in Catalonia to declare independence last week has galvanized independence movements in other European countries. It followed an Oct. 1 independence referendum that was supported by a majority of voters but ruled illegal by the Spanish government. Europe has seen an upsurge in nationalism in recent years. It has taken the form of a conservative backlash against an influx of immigrants from Africa and the Middle East, but also appears as a mostly leftist movement for more local rule in places such as Catalonia, Scotland, the Flanders region of Belgium, the Corsica region of France and parts of northern Italy. Advertisement The president of the regional assembly in Corsica, who leads the independence movement known as Corsica Libera, hailed the birth of the Catalonia Republic. The president of the Corsican Assembly and leader of the left-wing separatist party Corsica Libera, Jean Guy Talamoni, delivers a speech on the Mediterranean island of Corsica in August 2017. (Pascal Pochard-Casabianca / AFP/Getty Images ) Experts said these separatists have been encouraged by Catalonias independence bid and are gaining strength, but are unlikely to declare their own new republics because they have other legal paths to achieve greater autonomy. No major European leader has recognized Catalonia as independent, attempting instead to present a united front with Spain. "[The EU] doesnt need any more cracks, more splits. We shouldnt insert ourselves into what is an internal debate for Spain, but I wouldnt want the European Union to consist of 95 member states in the future, Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said Friday. Sebastian Balfour, emeritus professor of contemporary Spanish studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said the response of European governments to the events in Spain reflects a certain degree of insecurity among them about fragmentations [and] the idea that once one of these regions is independent, then this will start a stampede. One exception to European leaders ignoring independent Catalonia was Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, who condemned the police crackdown during the Oct. 1 secession vote. Violence can never be the answer! We condemn all forms of violence and reaffirm our call for political dialogue, Michel tweeted. Michel is a Francophone liberal, but Belgium has seen an upsurge in Flemish nationalism in recent years, with separatist parties gaining power. On Saturday, Belgiums immigration secretary, a member of the leading separatist party, said Catalan officials could seek asylum there if prosecuted by the Spanish government for their role in organizing the secessionist referendum, which under Spanish law could be considered sedition. (Catalan separatists across the border from Catalonia in Perpignan, France, also offered the leaders asylum.) By Monday, ousted Catalonian President Carles Puigdemont and other officials had traveled to Brussels and the Spanish government had announced it was seeking to charge them with sedition and other crimes that carry a potential prison sentence. Among Flemish nationalists there is a lot of enthusiasm about what has happened in Catalonia because that is what they have always wanted the Flemish parliament to do: to declare Flanders a sovereign state, said Bart Maddens, a Flemish nationalist professor at the Catholic University of Leuven. If federal police are filmed beating Catalan independence supporters again this week, as they were during the independence vote, Maddens said that could fuel nationalist movements across Europe. He served as an international observer at the polls in Catalonia, and said he witnessed some of the violence. Catalan pro-independence banners and flags hang from balconies by the Catalan government building in Barcelona, Spain, on Oct. 28, 2017. (Jack Taylor / Getty Images ) Among Flemish nationalists in Belgium and France, he said, there is lots of rage because of the repression by the Spanish government during the secessionist vote. Flemish nationalists in northern Belgium have so far sought greater autonomy, not independence. The separatist New Flemish Alliance, the largest party not only in Flanders, but in the country, has pushed for greater fiscal independence while still relying on French-speaking Wallonia for other state functions, such as defense. Whether this will actually help Flemish nationalism in the long run will depend on how it ends, Maddens said of the crisis in Catalonia. Other European separatists have come close to independence in recent years, notably those in Scotland, which voted against independence three years ago, 55% to 45%, with a record 85% turnout. Scottish separatists have called for another referendum in response to Britains impending exit from the EU. This month, two of Italys wealthy northern regions Lombardy and Veneto, home to about 15 million people voted for greater autonomy in a dispute over taxes. But they are not seeking independence. Unlike the Catalan referendum, they were perfectly in line with the Italian Constitution, said Justin Frosini, an adjunct law professor at Johns Hopkins University in Bologna and Bocconi University in Milan. But in five to 10 years, he said, the Italian regions may follow in Catalans path. Once youve got so much autonomy, what else do you want but independence? he said. The Spanish government has clashed with separatists for decades, mainly in the northern Basque region that borders France. The Basques lost their right to self rule with the rise of Gen. Francisco Franco in the countrys civil war. After Francos death in 1975, they continued to fight for independence, including violent attacks by ETA, a militant group that killed more than 800 people. Many Basques sympathize with the struggle in Catalonian, but dont have the same economic incentives to seek independence. Most of Spains regions pay taxes to the central government and then receive a portion in return to spend on health, education and public infrastructure, but not the Basque region or neighboring Navarre. Unlike Catalans, they collect their own taxes and decide how to spend them, including much more on public services. After the Oct. 1 secession vote in Catalonia, a poll in the Basque region found 44% wanted greater autonomy, but only 22% wanted to take the same approach as Catalonia, while nearly 63% were opposed. Andoni Ortuzar, mayor of the regions largest city, Bilbao, and president of the Basque Nationalist Party, has been seeking greater autonomy through the central government. Rather than praising the independence vote, he urged Catalan leaders to do the same. Its interesting to see that the roles have reversed, said Maddens, the Flemish nationalist. Twenty years ago it was the Catalan government that tried to keep the Basque country on a more moderate track. Now Basque leaders are trying to push [Catalonia] toward a more constructive position. ALSO A test of wills in Catalonia as Spain tightens grip on restive region Catalunya Radio becomes a flashpoint in the independence movement in Spain President of Iraqs Kurdish region resigns, leaving many questions in his wake UPDATES: 10:15 a.m.: This article has been updated with Catalonian officials seeking refuge in Belgium. This article was originally posted at 5 a.m. Catalonias ousted president has traveled to Brussels and been offered asylum, Spanish authorities said Monday soon after indicating that prosecutors were filing charges against him and other regional leaders related to their declaration of independence last week. Spanish prosecutors in Madrid said they were asking judges for rebellion, sedition and embezzlement charges against Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and others who were dismissed by Spains central government. Puigdemont and a majority of Catalonias parliament declared independence Friday, but the Spanish government then fired them under a special constitutional provision and called new regional elections Dec. 21. Advertisement The attorney general, Jose Manuel Maza, did not order their immediate arrest, saying he wanted to urgently prosecute the 20 politicians and ordering them to appear in court in Madrid in coming days. Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas, Puigdemonts attorney, told Antena 3 television that the attorney generals claim that his client was guilty of rebellion was real nonsense. Puigdemont did not immediately comment. A spokeswoman for his party, Marta Pascal, said she could not confirm whether he would appear in court to face charges. Ive talked with him, and hes fine, she said at a news conference. The Madrid government had warned members of the Catalan cabinet that they could remove belongings from their offices Monday but if they tried to perform official duties, they would face charges. Puigdemont caused a stir Monday morning by posting a photo of the outside of the Catalonia government building with the caption Good day! giving the appearance he might be at work. At least one local official showed up briefly to protest. Josep Rull, in charge of territorial affairs, tweeted a photo of himself sitting at his desk Monday next to a newspaper with the headline, Back to work. In my office, fulfilling my responsibilities that the people of Catalonia have charged me with, Rull tweeted. Soon after, he was spotted being escorted from the building by police. Independence supporters have vowed to defy the Spanish government with civil disobedience, blocking government buildings with human chains and staging strikes to shut down government offices. No major protests had occurred by midday in the region of 7.5 million people. An independence referendum in Catalonia on Oct. 1 resulted in overwhelming support for secession, officials said, but fewer than half of eligible voters participated. The declaration of independence proclaimed by Catalan officials Friday was met hours later with Spains Senate in Madrid triggering Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, in effect authorizing a central government takeover of the region. Juan Ignacio Zoido, the Spanish interior minister, said the takeover of the local police force, known as the Mossos, had gone smoothly. Officials fired the police chief, Josep Lluis Trapero, who was seen as defying Spain, and appointed the deputy leader in his stead. We wanted to send a message of trust to the Mossos, Zoido told Antena 3. Its important that the Mossos should recover part of a lost credibility. Separatists in Catalonia embrace a past steeped in their own language and traditions. The region has grown into Spains economic powerhouse, with the tourist hub of Barcelona as its capital, and some Catalans resent having their taxes subsidize poorer parts of Spain. Independentistas on Monday vowed to continue fighting for a separate Catalan state. Standing in front of the Catalonia government building in the Placa de Sant Jaume, surrounded by a crowd of several dozen reporters and supporters waving Catalan flags, a leftist city group read statements in Catalan in front of a podium that said Republic now! The repression, the threats, the interventions of the Spanish state are a reality, despite the approvals and struggles of the Catalan parliament, said Maria Jose Lecha, president of the Popular Unity Candidacy party in Barcelona. She said supporters rejected Spains application of Article 155 of the constitution to oust the regional government, and they planned to protest peacefully. The atmosphere in the regional capital was tense. Losers! shouted Carlo Maestri, 35, as he walked past the crowd in Placa de Sant Jaume and pointed to the Spanish flag still flying atop the regional government building. Protesters wearing traditional Catalan hats and toting guitars sang resistance songs and waved the Estelada pro-independence flag. Maestri dismissed them with a wave of his hand as theater. They can sing, but the flag is still Spain, said Maestri, a receptionist at a local hostel. They didnt respect the constitution, the law on Catalonia. Its an offense to the rest of us. But those clinging to the Catalan republic said they have tried for years to change the law, to no avail, thwarted at every turn by the establishment in Madrid. Rosa Martinez Lopez said she fears the Madrid government is adopting the methods of Gen. Francisco Franco, the dictator who ruled for decades and died in 1975. What theyre doing to President Puigdemont they could do to any of us, said Martinez, wrapped in an Estelada flag, as she stood in front of the government building. Were going back to the era of Franco. We are all convinced what happened is illegal. If we have to be here morning until night, we will be. molly.hennessy-fiske@latimes.com Twitter: @mollyhf ALSO Catalonia crisis encourages separatists, but could it fracture Europe? In Paris falafel war, its neighbor vs. neighbor in the citys changing Jewish quarter President of Iraqs Kurdish region resigns, leaving many questions in his wake UPDATES: 12:05 p.m.: This article was updated with information from the Spanish interior minister and other details. This story was originally published at 9:10 a.m. They line up like pilgrims at a sacred site and cradle the famous offering in their hands, swaddled in paper and napkins that soon prove hopelessly insufficient. The crowd that jams Paris old Jewish quarter at midday is drawn by what some describe as one of the worlds best falafel sandwiches. In a city synonymous with Michelin stars and coq au vin, where cloud-like croissants and brightly colored macaroons beckon from shop windows, a messy, saucy Middle Eastern street food has carved out a place as one of Paris do-not-miss dishes. Advertisement Five shops selling falafel and shawarma sandwiches line the narrow, cobbled Rue des Rosiers. Tucked into the storybook Marais district, it was once the citys liveliest Jewish neighborhood, lined with synagogues, bookshops, kosher delis and bakeries hawking fluffy challah and Yiddish cheesecake. But the humble chickpea is the star here, and its most popular stage is undoubtedly LAs du Fallafel (the Falafel Ace), a green storefront with a globe logo, 110-seat dining room and the lines of customers snaking down the block. The sandwich is familiar: lightly fried balls of chickpeas and spices nestled in a pita with pickled cabbage, chopped cucumbers, silky tahini and chunks of oily eggplant grilled to a lurid purple. Topped off with a red sauce piquante and a plastic fork that offers only a fleeting hope of eating with dignity it is one of the most filling and no-nonsense meals in Paris, and a welcome bargain at 6 euros (about $7.60). Those qualities, perhaps more than the ingredients, are what have made the sandwich famous. When I lived in Paris in 1999, on a college semester abroad, my friends and I made weekly lunchtime visits to LAs, a respite from the usual bakery fare of baguette sandwiches and quiches. It had already earned a measure of renown because the musician Lenny Kravitz was a fan, his picture taped to the doorway. But it was still quiet enough that we often ate at an inside table, lingering over falafel or one of the meat offerings, either spicy chicken or lamb pitas. A generation of foreigners in Paris spread the word as if it were some kind of insiders tip. LAs soon became the worst kept secret in the city. Its tinted with romanticism for me, said Elisa Fernandez-Arias, a 29-year-old from Bethesda, Md. As a student in Paris a decade ago, she would take sandwiches down to a bench along the Seine and eat while looking out at the river. Now working as a writer in London, Fernandez-Arias returned to Paris in September with friends and led the way to LAs after a five-hour walk through the city. But the line was so long on an unseasonably warm afternoon that they opted to eat at the place across the street a red-painted storefront called Mi-Va-Mi. Five falafel shops, including Mi-Va-Mi, line the Rue des Rosiers in Paris. (Shashank Bengali / Los Angeles Times ) The two restaurants sit less than 30 feet apart. Their menus are similar. But unknown to most visitors, the neighbors have engaged in a quiet, bitter war for years. When Mi-Va-Mi opened in 1999, LAs had already been in business for two decades, founded by Isaac Peretz, a Russian Jew from Tel Aviv, and his Tunisian-born wife, Daisy, whom he met in Israel. He followed her to the Marais, where she grew up. They opened a small grocery that sold falafel on the side, slowly adding tables and chairs before converting it to a full-time restaurant in 1997. Their son Yomi dropped out of school at 14 to work there and now owns LAs, running it alongside his sister, brother-in-law and wife, who handles the cash register. There is no secret to our success, Yomi Peretz said. Theres just the food, the quality of ingredients, the ambience, the family spirit. Perched on a barstool at the entrance wearing sunglasses, a buzz haircut and ripped jeans, Peretz looked more like a nightclub bouncer than a restaurateur. The vibe was multiplied by the rope barriers set up for crowd control, young staff taking orders with walkie-talkies and a speaker playing dance music. It seemed to fit with the transformation of the Marais into one of Paris trendiest districts, where designer boutiques and foreign brands now outnumber the old Jewish shops. Chanel opened a pop-up last year; the Goldenberg deli, site of a terrorist attack in 1982, became a store selling faux-vintage clothes. It has changed a lot, but I like it, Peretz said. Its very cosmopolitan. You see everyone here, all colors, all nations Koreans, Chinese, blacks, Brazilians, Americans. Other falafel shops have sprung up too, but Peretz dismissed them as imitators. They have just Xeroxed our business, he said. They havent invented anything. While he is cordial with the others, Peretz can barely hide his contempt for Mi-Va-Mi, which was started by a Russian from the same section of Tel Aviv as his father. Martine Ouaknine manages Mi-Va-Mi, a falafel restaurant that opened in 1999. (Shashank Bengali / Los Angeles Times ) The neighbors squabbled from the start. LAs accused Mi-Va-Mi of copying its menu; Mi-Va-Mis Moroccan-born manager, Martine Ouaknine, said LAs spread false rumors that her meat wasnt kosher. Peretzs mother kept a lid on tensions. But after she died a few years ago, Ouaknine said, the Paris beth din, or rabbinical court, revoked Mi-Va-Mis kosher certification, robbing it of its Jewish customers. Ouaknine accused Peretz whose orange kosher certificate is plastered in the window, and who closes promptly at 4 p.m. on Fridays for the Sabbath of putting pressure on a kosher butcher to testify against her. Peretz denies involvement, saying, I am too busy working to make war. But not too busy last year to try to put his competitor out of business by purchasing the building where Mi-Va-Mi is located. The lease expired more than a year ago, and Peretz warned that it wouldnt be renewed. Mi-Va-Mi is fighting eviction in a Paris administrative court, a case that could take years to decide. I will probably be retired by then, looking after my children, said Ouaknine, a warm, middle-aged woman with curly hair, fielding orders from behind a circular counter while a Sri Lankan cook worked the fryer. To be honest, Im tired, she went on. Everything in this neighborhood has changed. Its all boutiques, fancy clothes. These are not real things. Ours is just normal food for normal people. She gestured to the small dining area, where families, mostly tourists, hunched over their overstuffed pitas. There was no music, no walkie-talkies. Our place is calmer, she said. I wouldnt want to do what they do across the street. And anyway, our food is better. Taste and compare, proclaims the chalkboard outside Mi-Va-Mi. Always imitated, never equaled, boasts the sign atop LAs. Perhaps there was a quicker way to resolve the dispute. Enter Richard Fan Dyk, a 35-year-old consultant from Rotterdam in the Netherlands, who ate at Mi-Va-Mi in January and recently returned to Paris for a long weekend. This time, he opted for LAs. Two bites in, did he have a verdict? Both are delicious, he said, wiping his mouth. Customers eat falafel sandwiches along the Rue des Rosiers in Paris. (Shashank Bengali / Los Angeles Times ) shashank.bengali@latimes.com Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia ALSO Welcome to Special Rich Guest Hamburger, the China edition of Fatburger Costco stores in South Korea offer chopped onions for hot dogs. Koreans have a different idea At $80 an ounce, its not for everyone. But Iranian caviar is eyeing a comeback in the U.S. American rap, local whiskey: Tiny Bhutan guards tradition as it opens up to the world On Jan. 10, 2001, pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. gathered its forces in a hotel conference room here with a clear-cut mission: Win a favorable vote for a new antifungal drug from a federal advisory committee -- a victory that would position the product for swift government approval and for hundreds of millions of dollars in sales. But after hours of speeches and slides, the committee members, appointed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, had yet to vote. The members were focused on the quality of Mercks case for the new drug, which rested on the treatment of only 69 patients. Merck summoned to the microphone one of its announced consultants, a man whose government job was nearby, at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Thomas J. Walsh assured the committee that Mercks data describing the patients was extremely robust and very, very rigorous. He said his government staff had assisted in vetting the companys data. About 30% of the patients were helped by the drug, he said. Advertisement The advisory committee voted unanimously to endorse the drug, called Cancidas. Sixteen days later, the FDA approved it. Doctors would later prescribe it for patients whose immune systems had been ravaged by chemotherapy and who were presumed to have a potentially deadly, invasive fungal infection. In its first five years on the U.S. market, Cancidas would generate $859 million in sales for Merck. U.S. law generally prohibits a federal employee from representing an outside party before a government agency. In building a career as an influential government scientist, Walsh has served as both a paid and unpaid advisor to pharmaceutical companies and has helped lead clinical trials that tested the effectiveness of their products. With his help, the companies have brought new antifungal drugs to market, but controversy has flared over whether results from two of the studies were misleading and whether some of the participating patients received adequate treatment. In written comments for this article, Walsh said his advice to industry did not conflict with his position at the NIHs National Cancer Institute, or affect his scientific judgment. I am not and have never been a representative of, or advocate for, any pharmaceutical company, Walsh said. Two drug makers involved with his federal research, Merck and Pfizer Inc., said they have paid fees to Walsh. Merck and another company, Fujisawa USA Inc., have made financial or other donations to support Walshs federal research with the approval of his NIH superiors, interviews and government records show. From 1997 to 2003, Walsh appeared at meetings with FDA committees or staff alongside representatives of Pfizer, Fujisawa and Merck, according to videotapes, transcripts and other government records. He also helped design, oversee and interpret the results of major clinical studies of four antifungal drugs made by those companies. The studies helped win FDA approvals for three of the drugs. In separate letters to a leading medical journal, other researchers criticized two of those studies. They questioned whether the studies artificially boosted the new products by comparing them to drugs that were given at doses that were too low. More patients died who took the comparator drugs than those who got the new products. Walsh, in journal articles and in remarks to medical leaders, noted the disparities in deaths while describing the advantages of the newer drugs. In published responses to the scientific critics, he said the doses of the comparator drugs reflected the general standard of care at the participating hospitals. What led to the higher death rates of the control-group patients in the two major studies may never be known: A limited number of autopsies were performed, and factors other than fungal infections, such as the patients cancer, could have caused the deaths. No published study has established that a higher dose of an antifungal drug is more effective in treating suspected infection, and some studies have suggested that lower dosing may provide similar benefits. But the possibility that patients did not receive adequate doses, combined with Walshs advisory role with the drug companies, adds a new dimension to the furor over NIH scientists ties to industry. Earlier revelations of the agency scientists outside arrangements called into question their impartiality and the independence of the NIH, the nations largest agency for experimental medical research, prompting congressional hearings, policy reforms and ethics investigations. However, even as the NIH moved recently to ban some of the activities with industry, the agencys director said the arrangements had apparently not jeopardized patients in clinical studies. Thus far, we have not identified any situations where patients were harmed as the result of financial arrangements NIH employees had with outside parties, NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni told a Senate subcommittee in 2004. I will, however, reserve final judgment until all internal and external reviews are completed. In response to questions from The Times regarding Walsh, Zerhouni responded generally in a prepared statement. We revamped our rules last year, and continue to carry out a vigorous program of education, oversight and enforcement, he said, adding, Violations of the ethics rules are unacceptable, and I remain determined to pursue any information brought to my attention. Walsh, 54, heads a medical research and treatment unit within the pediatric branch of the National Cancer Institute, where he arrived in 1986. He said that collaborating with companies has been fundamental to his government work. My efforts are in service of the public interest in sound, reliable science concerning potentially effective agents for the treatment of life-threatening infections in children and adults with cancer, Walsh said in a statement to The Times. This mission frequently includes collaboration with companies that research and develop new compounds in this area -- for example, utilizing my [staffs] expertise to ensure that clinical trials relating to these compounds are designed and implemented in a manner that elicits reliable and useful results. He said he has appeared before the FDA only as a government scientist providing information and/or evaluation regarding clinical trials. Referring to studies he helped lead, Walsh said, There is no conflict of interest, and the trials were well and appropriately designed. The full extent of Walshs ties with industry is not open to view by outsiders. His yearly financial-activity reports at the NIH are exempt from release under the Freedom of Information Act, as are the reports for most senior researchers at the agency. None of Walshs outside arrangements were listed in records that the NIH turned over to a congressional committee that had sought details of connections between agency scientists and the drug industry. Although Walsh declined to answer a number of questions about his financial arrangements with the drug companies for this article, he said in a telephone conversation on May 18: On the personal issues, Ive made mistakes. Walsh also said he preferred to let colleagues address questions regarding the dosages selected for the two major studies he helped design. Two private lawyers representing him, H. Bradford Glassman and Jeffrey D. Robinson, noted in a letter to The Times that the dosages were chosen with the assent of other researchers, and not by Walsh, individually. Walsh is well-known in his field, having written or cowritten more than 230 medical journal articles over the last decade. A medical graduate of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, he has won honors within the NIH as a mentor, receiving the agencys Distinguished Clinical Teacher Award. In 1996, he received an Outstanding Service Medal from the U.S. Public Health Service for sustained and outstanding advances in the treatment, prevention and diagnosis of invasive fungal infection in children with cancer and HIV infection. Three of Walshs superiors at the National Cancer Institute contacted The Times by e-mail and defended as scientifically sound the two major studies that he helped lead. The officials noted that the designs of both studies were reviewed and approved by the FDA and by boards at the medical sites where patients were treated. Dosages for one of the studies, they wrote, were selected based on a consensus of participating researchers. Eight doctors, including seven who participated in one or the other major study with Walsh and who are not employed by the NIH, also contacted the newspaper and said they stood behind the validity of the research. The study designs, they said, were both scientifically and medically sound, reflect the state of the art in the field, and have advanced supportive care, improving the management of patients worldwide and saving lives. Other researchers have said that doses of comparator drugs that are inadequate may endanger patients or make a new drug look more effective than it is. I can see why the companies are eager to get an easy comparison, a drug they can beat, said Dr. Curt D. Furberg, who formerly headed clinical research at the NIHs National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. But for [scientific] investigators to go along with that, its just a bad practice. Picking the Patients From the late 1950s to today, the drug of choice for many doctors treating potentially lethal fungal infections has been a powerful compound called amphotericin B. Nurses and doctors have long dubbed the drug, derived from spores found in Venezuelas Orinoco River region, ampho-terrible. Some patients tremble violently as the solution, infused intravenously, courses through their bodies. Fever and vomiting also can result. In some cases, the drug can cause fatal kidney damage. Approved by the FDA in 1958, amphotericin gained greater acceptance in the United States in the 1980s after research conducted in Europe and at the National Cancer Institute suggested that the drug decreased patients vulnerability to an internal fungal infection. For decades, amphotericin has been available worldwide in relatively cheap, generic formulations. By the early 1990s, several firms were aiming to modify it into their own brand-name products -- agents that they hoped would be better and that could fetch far higher prices. The new products would deliver the amphotericin in fatty mixtures, changing the characteristics of the drug to reduce the risk of kidney damage. The modified amphotericin products would cost as much as $800 a day, compared with about $16 per day for the older drug. In order to get their reformulated drugs approved by the FDA, the companies had to conduct human studies. The FDA held two public meetings, in 1994 and 1995, to hear experts opinions regarding design standards for the studies. The FDA was under pressure to cooperate more closely with the pharmaceutical industry. Amid complaints that existing standards had stymied the development of new drugs, the agency had been directed by Congress and the White House to streamline its medical reviews. For makers of the new antifungal drugs, less burdensome clinical-study standards could make it easier to get the products approved. For instance, some companies wanted to enroll cancer patients with suspected -- but unproven -- fungal infections. These would be patients who had abnormally low levels of infection-fighting white blood cells and fevers lasting at least four days, despite treatment with a standard antibiotic. Walsh has stressed the need for treating suspected infections quickly, noting that persistent fever may be the only sign and that delaying treatment could lead to increased deaths. As envisioned by Walsh and others developing the new products, the drugs would be assessed on several factors, including whether the patients fevers abated. Some cancer and infectious-disease specialists questioned that approach. Every enrolled patient would have a fever, but would its disappearance mean that the drug had defeated a fungal infection? Noting that fever can have many causes, the specialists stressed the importance of studying patients with proven, as opposed to suspected, infections. Eliminating fever in the patients with proven infections, they said, would provide better evidence of effectiveness. But at the 1995 FDA meeting, Walsh said enrolling and treating more of the patients with proven fungal infections would pose financial and logistical limitations, meaning the major studies would take longer and cost more. He estimated that it would take years to identify and enroll a sufficient number of patients with proven infections. I think it is appropriate to have a relatively low frequency of the proven infections, Walsh said. Walsh also told the FDA committee it was essential to launch separate studies that would more directly examine a drugs effect on specific fungal infections. The FDA accepted the approach of designing the major studies to enroll and treat patients with persistent fevers who had suspected but unproven infections. An FDA medical officer, Dr. Teresa Wu, said the approach largely was motivated by the ease of enrolling such patients. Roughly half the patients would get new drugs, made by companies that helped pay for the research. The remaining control patients would get dosages of an older, comparator drug. The choice of dose might determine patients survival: If the dose of the comparator drug in the first study, amphotericin, was insufficient, patients could be left more vulnerable to an infection invading the lungs or other organs. One of the fungal infections, aspergillus, typically kills 50% or more of the patients who develop it. And it is notoriously difficult to diagnose: Because the patients are so sick, doctors often are reluctant to collect a sample of lung tissue, which might confirm an underlying infection. Aspergillus often cannot be confirmed before autopsy. Yet if the dose were set too high, patients, including those who turned out not to have a fungal infection, would be put at greater risk of kidney damage. Walsh did not commit to an exact dosage of amphotericin at the 1995 FDA meeting. He did, however, say that a drug used in the new studies would need to be powerful enough to treat aspergillus or other devastating mold-type fungal infections, not just yeast-type fungal infections, such as candida, which are lethal less often and are commonly treated with lower doses. Since the early 1990s, experts in the U.S. and Europe had reported increases in the frequency of aspergillus. If we are really trying to protect the high-risk patients, he said, we have to appreciate that there are more than just yeasts that we are trying to prevent or to impact upon. Disputed Results The first major study that Walsh helped lead compared one of the new, modified drugs, AmBisome, with conventional amphotericin. The study was paid for by the developer of the new drug, Fujisawa USA Inc., and by a grant from the NIH. Walsh had conferred about the study design with Fujisawa and with a national network of other physicians who would carry out the project. The dosage for patients who would be given amphotericin was 0.6 milligram per kilogram of body weight, daily. One expert invited by the FDA advisory committee, Dr. John H. Rex of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, said in April 1995 that the dosage in such a study probably, actually, should be higher. Asked if he favored the higher dosage even for the yeast-based fungal infections, Rex added: The general feeling is ... somewhere between 0.6 and 1 is the correct dose. Walsh had foreshadowed concern about using low-dose amphotericin for suspected aspergillus. In a 1990 article published by Seminars in Oncology, Walsh and a colleague wrote: When Aspergillus pneumonia is suspected or proven, higher doses of amphotericin B (1 to 1.5 mg/kg/d as opposed to the standard 0.5 mg/kg/d used in other infections) are indicated to optimize successful outcome. A dose of 0.6 milligram per kilogram of body weight, daily, for patients with suspected but unproven infections obviously is not sufficient against aspergillus, Walsh and his co-authors wrote in a 1991 article published by Reviews of Infectious Diseases. In the AmBisome study, Walsh supported using the 0.6-milligram dosage. Walsh had told the FDA committee in 1995, without referring to the ongoing study with Fujisawa, that he preferred flexibility in dosage. This would allow increases if a patient faltered. He said that some experimental data suggested that higher doses of conventional amphotericin might be more effective. The study treated 687 patients: 343 with AmBisome, at 3 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, daily; and 344 with conventional amphotericin, at 0.6 milligram. The patients, treated at sites throughout the United States and ranging in age from 2 to 80, were enrolled within 16 months, at what Walsh later called a remarkably rapid rate. He also would describe the patients as a very high-risk population, vulnerable to fungal infections. Of the patients given conventional amphotericin, 36, or 10.5%, died. Of patients given Fujisawas drug, 25, or 7.3%, died. Those who oversaw the treatments concluded that fungal infection was the primary or contributing cause of death for 11 who received conventional amphotericin and for four treated with the Fujisawa drug. The remaining deaths were attributed to other causes. On July 16, 1997, Walsh anchored Fujisawas presentation of AmBisome to the FDA advisory committee, which met in Silver Spring, Md. The FDAs agenda listed Walsh as part of the Fujisawa USA Presentation. Fujisawas vice president for regulatory affairs, Jerry Johnson, told the FDA committee: Our presentation will conclude with Dr. Walsh presenting the key results from the U.S. study. Walsh narrated a series of slides and told the committee that AmBisome was more effective in preventing proven invasive fungal infections and fungal-infection-related deaths than conventional amphotericin. Within hours, the advisory committee voted unanimously in support of the new drug. On Aug. 11, 1997, the FDA approved AmBisome for treating presumed fungal infections in children and adults. The dose approved by the FDA -- 3 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, daily -- was the same as that used in the study. The next month, Walsh told a conference of physicians and research scientists in Toronto that AmBisome was the first agent shown to be superior to amphotericin B in reducing proven, invasive fungal infections in cancer patients. AmBisome, he said, was a new standard in treatment. Within days, Fujisawa began marketing AmBisome in the U.S. In the FDAs final review of the new drug, statistician Thomas Hammerstrom wrote that although AmBisome was similar in effectiveness to amphotericin, there were inadequate scientific grounds to judge it superior. In March 1999, Walsh appeared as the lead author of an article in the New England Journal of Medicine that reported detailed results from the study that had compared AmBisome with amphotericin. The article said the drug dosages were deliberated upon and adopted by consensus of the investigators who conducted the study. Physician-researchers from Germany questioned the design of the study in a letter to the journal seven months later. We think that the design of this randomized trial was not adequate because the dose of conventional amphotericin B (0.6 mg per kilogram of body weight per day) that was used does not reflect widely used standards of care, wrote Drs. Thomas Fischer, Gudula Heussel and Christoph Huber of Johannes Gutenberg University. Most institutions in Europe and the United States would agree that treatment of this patient population requires a dose of at least 1 mg. The physicians said it seemed very likely that if Walsh and his collaborators had used a normal, higher dose of conventional amphotericin, fewer patients who took that drug would have had fungal infections emerge or progress. (Fischer declined to be interviewed for this article; he said by e-mail that AmBisome had proved to be a useful drug.) Skepticism about the dose of conventional amphotericin used by Walsh also was reflected in a 2001 medical reference book issued by the British Society for Haematology and other groups. The authors said that conventional amphotericin had been given to similar patients in Europe at doses up to twice as high as in the study that Walsh helped lead. The lower dose, the authors wrote, may bias the results in the favour of AmBisome and could entirely explain the differences observed. Fujisawa had agreed to allow doctors conducting the study to double the dose of either drug, depending on patients conditions. But doctors ultimately increased the dose for 17% of the patients who took amphotericin -- while doses were increased for 34% of the patients who took AmBisome. The New England Journal of Medicine report cowritten by Walsh described the study as blinded, so that neither the doctors nor their patients were supposed to know which of the two drugs was being administered. Walsh and two colleagues, in a reply published by the journal, said the dose of amphotericin reflected the standards of care at the participating research centers. Walsh also suggested that the toxicity of amphotericin had prevented the administration of appropriate doses to some patients. The three officials who wrote to The Times on Walshs behalf, including Robert H. Wiltrout, a research director at the National Cancer Institute, defended the dose of conventional amphotericin. There is no rational motivation for an investigator or sponsoring company to design a trial with a control arm that is not standard of care, wrote Wiltrout, along with Drs. Lee J. Helman and Frank Balis of the National Cancer Institute. As Walsh defended his study in the New England Journal of Medicine, he was helping write new medical-practice guidelines suggesting far higher doses for some patients. In a paper submitted for publication in October 1999, Walsh and other authors said that, following prompt and aggressive evaluations of the patients, doctors should consider maximum tolerated doses of conventional amphotericin if aspergillus infection, specifically, was suspected. They defined those doses as 1 to 1.5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, daily. Standing With Merck By 1999, Walsh was collaborating with Merck & Co., on its new antifungal drug, Cancidas. One Wall Street firm predicted that Cancidas could generate annual sales of $330 million. But first Merck needed FDA approval. AmBisome, the same drug that Walsh had just helped guide to FDA approval, was picked as the comparator. Merck paid for the study. Walsh designed it in collaboration with Merck and one other researcher, who received fees from Merck. The initial dose selected for AmBisome -- 3 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, daily -- was the same as in the earlier study. In a statement delivered to The Times last week, Walsh said there was and is no evidence that higher dosages of AmBisome would offer better effectiveness. Previously, Walsh supported higher doses of AmBisome for patients with aspergillus. At the 1997 conference in Toronto, Walsh said that a lower dose might suffice for a yeast-type infection. But for aspergillus or for other mold infections that resist treatment, he said, I would submit that we probably should be using more.... There are good experimental data to show that more is better. When choosing a dose, Walsh added, I think it depends on what disease one is treating.' At a September 1999 conference in San Francisco, Walsh, along with Fujisawas medical director and several other scientists, described having used AmBisome doses from 7.5 to 15 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day in patients with possible, probable and proven infections. A summary of their research said the high dosages are safe, well-tolerated, and can provide effective therapy for aspergillosis and similar infections. (Two years later, their full-length article on the study repeated that conclusion but also said the study did not have enough patients to prove which dosages worked best.) At a symposium to discuss the treatment of aspergillus infections last October in San Francisco, Walsh was asked by a physician which maximum dose of AmBisome he recommended. Certainly, we want to think that more is better, Walsh replied, adding that while results from clinical trials did not support using more than 5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight, daily, there were data, based on safety and drug concentration in the blood, suggesting a benefit at 7.5 to 10 milligrams. From January 2000 through August 2002, 116 hospitals and clinics worldwide carried out the study of Cancidas. The 1,095 patients with suspected fungal infections received either Cancidas or AmBisome. The patients ranged in age from 16 to 83. At around the same time, Merck persuaded the FDA to conduct a fast-track review of Cancidas for a more narrow use: treating aspergillus in patients who had either not tolerated or failed to improve while taking another antifungal drug. On Jan. 10, 2001, representatives of Merck -- assisted by Walsh -- presented the companys case for approval of the drug to the FDA advisory committee in Bethesda. Walsh, in his statement to The Times, said: I did not appear as a consultant to Merck. But that is how Merck identified him to the FDA committee, both orally and in a slide. Tamara Goodrow, a Merck regulatory affairs official, said: Merck has brought several consultants to the meeting today so that they are available to facilitate the advisory committees discussion and deliberations. Goodrow then named the consultants, including Dr. Thomas Walsh. Another Merck official said Walsh served as the head of a company committee of three researchers who assessed how patients with aspergillus infections had responded to treatment with Cancidas in the smaller company study. Several members of the FDA advisory committee voiced concern about the validity of the small study involving 69 patients. They pointed out that it lacked a control group of patients treated at the same time to gauge the comparative effectiveness of Mercks drug. They questioned whether the study proved that Cancidas provided patients with a measurable benefit. At that point, a videotape of the meeting shows, Mercks senior director of clinical research, Dr. Carole A. Sable, gestured to the audience and said: Perhaps Dr. Walsh, who is actually the head of our expert panel, would like to make a comment. Walsh strode to the podium, took the microphone and assured the FDA committee that Mercks case-by-case information for the 69 patients was reliable. I think this was really the largest and most robust set of data that weve ever had on individuals, Walsh said. He said his whole section of NIH government scientists had assisted him in reviewing Mercks data. A member of the FDA committee, biostatistician William Blackwelder, asked Walsh if he was confident that the patients with worsening aspergillus infections had benefited from Mercks drug. Yes, indeed, Walsh concluded. The committee endorsed the approval of Cancidas for treating patients with aspergillus who had not responded to other drugs. On Jan. 26, 2001, the FDA approved Mercks application to market it for that narrow use, although doctors were at liberty to prescribe Cancidas as they saw fit. A Merck spokesman said recently that Walsh was paid a total of $3,000 in fees, in 1999 and 2001, not related to his involvement with the companys drug. Walsh said in his statement to The Times that Merck had not paid him for any appearance before the FDA. U.S. conflict of interest law generally prohibits a federal employee from representing anyone before a government agency, regardless of whether outside compensation is paid. Outwardly, it looks like it could be a problem, said John M. Treacy, who formerly directed operations of the FDAs advisory committees. Meanwhile, Mercks hopes for wider use of Cancidas -- in patients with presumed but unproven fungal infections -- rested with the large international study that continued through late 2002. The results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Sept. 30, 2004, with Walsh listed first among the authors. Patients who were given AmBisome as a comparator fared somewhat worse than those who got Mercks Cancidas: Of the 539 patients given AmBisome, 75, or 13.9%, died. Of 556 patients given Mercks drug, 61, or 11%, died. A sharper contrast was reported among 24 patients described as having an aspergillus infection: 11 of the 12 given the older drug died or were otherwise not treated successfully, compared with seven of the 12 patients who got Mercks drug. Walsh and his co-authors, who included four Merck employees, noted the differences in their journal article: Among the patients with baseline fungal infections, the rate of death during the study was lower in the [Cancidas] group. Overall, they said, Cancidas offered improved survival. On Sept. 29, 2004, the FDA approved Mercks application to market Cancidas for treating patients with presumed fungal infections. On Dec. 8, 2004, a Merck executive told stock-fund managers that the approval could give us a great opportunity to increase sales in 2005. A month later, Dr. Francisco Marty, a specialist from Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston who also is an instructor at Harvard Medical School, voiced concern about the Walsh-led study in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Patients with early fungal infections who were given AmBisome may have received suboptimal doses of that drug at a time when frontloading of therapy is critical to gain control of the infection, Marty and a colleague wrote. Although the initial dose selected for AmBisome was the same as in the earlier major study, Martys letter pointed out a distinction: In the newer study, the dose was not supposed to be increased until a patient had received treatment for five days on the original dose -- and had continued to deteriorate. (A patient also could be removed from the study and treated differently at the discretion of the physician.) In an interview at his Boston office, Marty said that the patients whose infections were found early in the Merck study and who were given the lower dose of AmBisome may have been put at a disadvantage. You have a bad infection and you dont get enough drug, you may be dead, Marty said. He noted that the medical-practice guidelines -- cowritten by Walsh -- suggested a dose of 5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight for aspergillus. For those patients, Marty said, youre not doing a good job with 3 milligrams. Other doctors who wrote to the New England Journal of Medicine raised questions. An unusually low percentage of patients in the AmBisome group responded favorably to treatment, wrote Dr. Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis and a colleague from the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. In reply, Walsh wrote in the journal that various groups had advocated both higher and lower dosages of AmBisome. The use of 3 milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day, he and two co-authors wrote in January 2005, was the most tenable initial dosing strategy. Walsh, responding to questions for this article, said that the five-day provision in the second study was intended to standardize the conditions for increasing the dosages. He said the provision was approved by consensus of the participating institutions on the belief that it would not put patients at added risk. In his statement last week, Walsh pointed to results from a recently completed study, suggesting that a 3-milligram dosage of AmBisome was about as effective against aspergillus as was a 10-milligram dosage. The points made on his behalf recently by his superiors and by other letter signers, Walsh said, conclusively refute any possible contention that the two clinical trials violated a standard of care or otherwise called for inappropriate dosages of antifungal medications. A 2005 book, Fungal Infections in the Immunocompromised Patient, written for doctors caring for patients most at risk, concluded that much controversy still surrounds the optimal timing, dosage and duration of therapy for patients with the suspected infections. Furberg, the former NIH clinical research specialist, said the two major antifungal studies fell short because they left unanswered which drug or dose was best against suspected infections. When you set up studies with controversial comparisons, you risk misleading everybody -- regulatory agencies, physicians and patients, said Furberg, now a professor at Wake Forest University. Times researcher Janet Lundblad in Los Angeles contributed to this report. When the end came, it was deafening. Fighter jets thundered overhead, rockets and artillery exploded, and buildings crumbled under the onslaught. Abed Shaban and a dozen relatives and neighbors squeezed into a ground-floor bathroom, the only room with a concrete ceiling in the building where they sought refuge from the battle for control of Islamic States self-styled capital, Raqqah. Some prayed and read passages from the Koran. Others cried out as the earth shook and clouds of dust swirled around them. For nearly four years, they had endured Islamic States crushing rules and gothic violence. But as the militants put up a final stand against a U.S.-backed alliance of Syrian militias, Shaban wondered if any of them would make it out alive. Advertisement Raqqah, a once bustling agricultural hub on the northern banks of the Euphrates River, now lies in ruins, its entire population displaced across Syria and beyond. Now there is only the smell of the dead under the rubble, Shabans wife, Laila Ali, said sadly. Everybody has left. The family recounted the horrors that befell their city the public beheadings and crucifixions, endless airstrikes and wild-looking men with guns who would flog a person for smoking a cigarette from an overflowing camp about a 2-hour drive to the north. Wind gusted through their tent, coating everything and everyone with a gritty film of sand. If you stay here with us, you will have a ticket to paradise. Islamic State fighters Raqqah was the first urban center to fall under the full control of the Sunni Muslim extremist groups black-clad fighters in January 2014 following clashes with rival groups opposed to the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad. It was here that the militants forged their version of a modern-day caliphate, or Islamic state, which they broadcast to the world in slick propaganda videos. To the thousands of foreign recruits who flocked to the city at the height of Islamic States powers, the militants promised an opportunity to practice their faith in its purest form and take part in what they described as a glorious battle against infidels. But to residents who disagreed with their extreme interpretation of Islam, the groups reign brought only terror and isolation. Schools were closed; satellite dishes and cellphones banned; and almost every aspect of life what people ate, how they dressed, where they went and when they prayed was tightly regulated. We were living in a big prison, said Ali, who at 45 could not go to the souk to buy groceries without a male guardian. It was worse than that, her husband interjected. In most prisons, you can watch TV and use the internet, but not in this prison. Shaban, a gaunt man of 50 with hollow cheeks and a wry sense of humor, used to run a shop selling cooking gas. But he had to close the business when the militants tried to introduce a gold-based currency and ripped up all the Syrian banknotes they found on the premises. After that, he supported his wife and seven children by working as a day laborer. Although the family did not want for food and other necessities, they chafed at the restrictions imposed on them. Checkpoints mushroomed across the city. At one Shaban might be asked to produce his car papers, at another, a certificate proving he had completed a course on sharia, or Islamic law this paper is more important than your ID, he said. Every day, it seemed, new rules were announced. Like many women in the Sunni Arab-dominated city, Ali has always worn a head scarf and long clothing when in public. But that wasnt enough for Islamic State, she said. First the militants demanded that women cover their bodies with loose fitting black gowns known as abayas. Then they were required to put on face-covering veils, gloves and socks. Finally, even womens eyes were obliterated from view. Even minor infractions could draw the attention of the feared religious police. The couples 22-year-old son, Ali, was caught downloading a song onto his cellphone and whipped. (The phone was permitted at the time, but music was not.) The unit later accused Shaban of smoking because his teeth were yellow. He insisted it was because he drinks a lot of tea and had to gulp down an entire pot before they released him from detention. They were just looking to make problems with people, he grumbled. The couple kept their children at home as much as possible, especially their 18-year-old daughter, Rahma, who they feared might be forced to marry a fighter. But they could not shield the family from Islamic States brutality. Children as young as their 12-year-old, Ahmed, were rounded up and forced to watch beheadings in Paradise Square, the infamous traffic circle that residents renamed Hell Square. The boys face lights up when he describes the crowds shouting at one victim, He is the spy of the coalition! One of Ahmeds cousins met a similarly grisly end when he was caught using a cellphone to call relatives in Brazil. He, too, was accused of spying for U.S.-led forces and was shot in the head. The family learned what had happened only when they found his body strung up from a lamppost. As the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias backed by U.S. air power, closed in on Raqqah over the summer, families like the Shabans were herded out of outlying districts toward the city center, moving into any abandoned house they could find. Those who resisted were shot. We were human shields, Shaban said. Residents pleaded with fighters not to take up positions on their rooftops, for fear of the aerial bombardments that were certain to follow. By the fall, the city was almost out of meat, vegetables and water. Long lines formed to draw water, which was strictly rationed, from freshly dug wells. At that point, residents were pouring out of the city, braving a gantlet of Islamic State snipers and streets laced with mines to reach the advancing U.S.-backed forces. Shaban and his family tried repeatedly to escape, but were sent back every time at gunpoint. After their fourth attempt, Islamic State fighters accused Shaban of being a smuggler and threw him in jail for a night. Every few hours, they were coming and putting guns to my head and saying, now we will kill you, he said. Shaban told them he just wanted to get out of the city. Why do you want to leave? he recalled them asking. If you stay here with us, you will have a ticket to paradise. The next morning, he was flogged 40 times and sent home. It could have been worse, he said. Several other families who had tried to escape with him perished in an airstrike that night. We were lucky they put us in a jail, Shaban said. A Syrian youth uses his cellphone to film the destroyed vehicles and heavily damaged buildings down a street in Raqqah on Oct. 20, 2017. (Bulent Kilic / AFP/Getty Images ) A few days later, the airstrikes caught up with him, bringing a roof down on top of him. Neighbors pulled him from the rubble with only minor injuries. The family heard rumors about a brief truce that allowed hundreds of civilians to leave the last sliver of territory still under Islamic State control along with 275 fighters and their families. But by this point, the family was too afraid to try again. The last night was the worst, they said. From about 5 p.m. until 2 p.m. the next day, the bombing was relentless. Until now, I dont know how we survived, Shaban said. On Oct. 17, the guns and the bombs fell silent. Shaban opened the door a crack and peeked outside. Mountains of rubble filled the street, but the area appeared to be deserted. The parents gathered the few possessions they had left and set off in search of the liberating forces, telling the children to walk in their footsteps and not to touch anything, not even a tissue in case it was concealing a mine. Outside the stadium where Islamic State had made its last stand, they spotted a bearded man waiving at them in the distance and thought they had been caught again. They were about to make a run for it when Shabans wife recognized the man as an old friend. You see the fear they put in our hearts? she said of Islamic State. He was just one man, and all of us were afraid of him. They thought the nightmare had finally come to an end when the friend pointed them in the direction of friendly forces who put them on a bus bound for the town of Ain Issa. But when they reached the camp that is now home to about 23,000 people, Kurdish forces pulled aside their two eldest sons, 22 and 16, and began questioning them about ties to Islamic State. The brothers admitted that they were once hired to cut holes in walls so that fighters could pass between houses without being spotted by coalition drones. But they said they could not refuse to do the work, which lasted only a few days. They were taken into custody for further questioning. An official with the civilian council charged with overseeing the reconstruction of Raqqah said intelligence officials would want to grill them for information about the militants but would probably release them after that. There are fears that fighters could be hidden among the displaced civilians and plotting future attacks. For now, the Shaban family remains guardedly hopeful. But as days drag by with no word about their sons fate, they are growing increasingly alarmed. We went from one oppression to another oppression, Shaban said bitterly. ALSO Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi faces big obstacles on road to rebuild war-torn nation Rising tensions escalate into combat between Iraqi and Kurdish forces, allies in the fight against Islamic State Thousands of Russians joined Islamic State and brought their children. Now relatives are trying to bring them home Special correspondent Kamiran Sadoun contributed to this report. alexandra.zavis@latimes.com Twitter: @alexzavis Financing Colombias 4G toll road concessions is getting tougher as local and global lenders are squeezed. But now the national development bank is betting on some new routes to attract capital WASHINGTON -- Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, surrendered to federal authorities Monday as the first person charged in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of possible collusion with Russia. Manafort's former business partner, Rick Gates, also was indicted. Gates ran the 2008 presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The 12-count indictment says Manafort and Gates lobbied on behalf of a pro-Russian Ukrainian leader, Viktor Yanukovych, without registering with the U.S. government, and laundered more than $75 million through offshore accounts. Yanukovych led Ukraine before he was toppled in 2014 after he reversed course and shunned a planned European Union trade agreement in favor of $15 billion in Russian financing. Mueller took over an investigation of whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 elections after the president fired FBI Director James Comey. Mueller was Comey's predecessor at the law enforcement agency. U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia intervened in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump. So far, Trump himself is not a subject of the probe, Gov. Chris Christie said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "The last news that we have received publicly is that the president was told he is not under investigation," Christie said. "We have heard nothing to the contrary. So, I'm making that statement off of the public information that we have already been given." Trump has belittled the investigation, calling it a "witch hunt." All of this "Russia" talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said the indictments showed that the investigation "must be allowed to proceed unimpeded." "The president must not, under any circumstances, interfere with the special counsel's work in any way,"Schumer said. "If he does so, Congress must respond swiftly, unequivocally, and in a bipartisan way to ensure that the investigation continues." The Associated Press reported in March that Manafort also had worked for a Russian billionaire in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin a decade ago. Manafort earlier was in the center of a Reagan administration scandal involving a New Jersey housing project. As a lobbyist, he obtained $42 million in rent subsidies and tax credits for a renovated housing project in Upper Deerfield Township, Cumberland County, that local officials didn't know about and didn't want. Former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, left, leaves his home in Alexandria, Va., on Monday. (AP Photo | Andrew Harnik) Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook. A Northampton man admitted Friday he cracked open his 33-day-old son's skull, seriously injuring the child. Derek Knight, 27, told police the day after the Jan. 11 incident that the baby jerked his head quickly and hit his head on the arm of a rocking chair, but two doctors agreed the injury was much too serious to have occurred that way. State guidelines call for a minimum prison sentence between five and seven years if Northampton County Judge Michael Koury runs the convictions of aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of a child one after the other. Knight pleaded guilty to both charges Friday. Assistant District Attorney Tatum Wilson said the baby is now in foster care. She said his skull is examined every four months to determine whether it's healing properly. "At this point, luckily, he's recovering well," she said. It may take years to determine whether the injury results in a learning disability, she said. The child suffered a skull fracture, bleeding on the brain and burst blood vessels around his eyes, she said. Koury will sentence Knight on Dec. 15. Knight initially told police he was rocking the child around 9:40 a.m. in the home he shared with the baby's mother, Heather Myers, in the 1600 block of Main Street in Northampton. Myers left to take a bus to work, he said. Wilson said Knight has not said why he hit the child. About three months after the incident, Knight hit Myers in the right eye, causing substantial swelling and bruising, police said. They were arguing about something she found on his phone, court records say. He pleaded guilty to simple assault and was sentenced by Senior Judge Leonard Zito to a year of probation. Police found a smoking pipe, grinder and some marijuana when they responded to the domestic assault April 9 at Knight and Myers's home on Main Street. Knight admitted the marijuana and paraphernalia were his and Zito fined him $250. Knight allegedly told a county caseworker the day after he hit his son that he used a lot of different drugs in his youth. Asked what he used, Knight allegedly answered, "You name it." He told the caseworker he smokes marijuana due to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and said he smoked it three days before the day he hit his son, court records say. Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook. When a Pennsylvania state trooper shoots someone, who should conduct the follow-up investigation -- the state police or an independent third party? The state police say such investigations should be handled in-house, as they have been for many years. The agency is asking the courts to shut down a Northampton County grand jury reviewing that policy. Some experts say this responsibility -- to ensure public credibility and avoid accusations of conflicts -- should be entrusted to law enforcement officials independent of the state police. In June, Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli directed a grand jury to investigate the case of Anthony Ardo, a Lower Mount Bethel Township man who was threatening to kill himself by lighting fireworks strung around his neck, and was fatally shot by troopers. Morganelli sought to have his detectives take the lead on the investigation but was rejected by the state police. The grand jury found the shooting was justified, but has gone on to review the state police policy of reviewing such shootings internally. State police say the Northampton County grand jury has no legal grounds to review its policies, that it's only permitted to investigate crime in Northampton County. Morganelli disagrees. A closed hearing is expected to be held before a judge this week. Morganelli believes the hearing should be open because it involves a state agency try to stop a grand jury investigation. Last year the Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association recommended that investigations of police shootings be handled independently to avoid perception of bias. Wisconsin, for example, now requires fatal shootings by on-duty police officers be investigated by outside law enforcement agencies. What do you think? Should state police continue to investigate shootings by troopers? Should this be conducted by another law enforcement agency? Have a say in our informal poll, and feel free to join the conversation in the comment section. Some part of me believed I would become a more complete person if I spoke Irish, more in tune with my roots, my identity, my very being. That is a line from the book 'Coming Home' by Michael McCaughan who discusses his account of his return to Irish Language in Portlaoise in late November. This book tells the story of Michaels journey around Ireland and the Irish language. It charts his journey from a surreal start involving dedicated listening to Raidio na Gaeltachtas death notices, to rediscovering the soul of the language through immersing himself in Phil Lynotts music all without becoming a Gaelbore. "A hugely enjoyable linguistic travelogue that is also a sort of love story: full of passion, lightness, but, also, commitment. McCaughans engaging prose is a joy to read. Discover the Sex Pistols connection with Cuil Aodha and many another startling fact about the Irish language. This journey towards a homecoming will touch many hearts," is how award winning author Joseph OConnor has described the book. Michael McCaughan is an Irish author and journalist best known for his work in Latin America. He has written extensively for The Irish Times, The Guardian, Hot Press and Village Magazine. He is the author of three works of non-fiction, True Crimes (2002), The Battle of Venezuela (2005) and The Price of Our Souls (2008). Portlaoise Library hosts the Irish Language event on Wednesday 15th November, 5.15pm. To book or for more information about any of library events, feel free to contact the library on 057 8622333 or you can email:laoislibrary@laoiscoco.ie AWARD WINNING JOURNALIST COMES TO PORTLAOISE Each week the library hosts Ciorcal Comhra, Irish conversation. The library describes this as is a wonderful opportunity for members of the public to meet up and practice their Irish in a social atmosphere, and to meet other Irish speakers at the same time. The conversational group is suitable for adults of all levels, no matter what level of Irish you have, you are more than welcome to join us! group meets weekly on Wednesday, 5.30pm. All Portlaoise Library events are free of charge and all are welcome to join. ONGOING AND UPCOMING EVENTS AT PORTLAOISE LIBRARY Portlaoise Library News - upcoming and ongoing events feature Classic Movies, Teddy Bear, Gaeilge, Chess, Book Clubs, Knitting & Reading. Author Visit: Michael McCaughan book coming home Journalist & Author, discusses his return to Irish Language. This is an Irish Language event and will take place in Portlaoise library on Wednesday 15th November, 5.15pm. Childrens Storytelling: Friday 3rd November, 11am suitable for 3-9yrs Booking Essential Teddy Bear Sleepover: The Library will be hosting a Teddy Bear sleepover for one night only the teddy bears will be taking over the library, so to all the children, dont forget to bring your Bear! On Thursday 2nd November, 5.30pm for ages 3-9years. Do you like old movies?: During the autumn, Classic films will be shown in Portlaoise Library from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Next film will be shown on Wednesday 11th October, 5pm. If you are interested in seeing these films, or in joining our Film Club, Please contact the library. Ongoing Events Reading Aloud: Shared Reading at Portlaoise Library, fortnightly event from 1-2pm. Do you love poetry and literature, but do not have the time available to join a book club? Do you like the idea of listening to poetry and prose reading and discussing them with a group? Shared Reading is a library-based project centred on listening to and discussing literature. If you would be interested in joining our group, participating, or just listening, please contact Portlaoise Library to sign up. Chess Club: The Chess Club is back please note: Tuesdays, 3.30pm. Portlaoise Library for 8-12 yrs. Portlaoise Book Club: The group meet on the first Wednesday of each month, 6.30pm. Junior Book Club: The group meet on the last Friday of each month, 3.30pm. Genealogy Club: The club meet on the second Thursday of each month at 6pm. Knitting Club: The group meets weekly on Wednesday, 11am. Ciorcal Comhra: Irish conversation, This is a wonderful opportunity for members of the public to meet up and practice their Irish in a social atmosphere, and to meet other Irish speakers at the same time. The Conversational group is suitable for adults of all levels, no matter what level of Irish you have, you are more than welcome to join us! group meets weekly on Wednesday, 5.30pm. For more information about any of our events. Please feel free to contact the library on 057 8622333 or you can email:laoislibrary@laoiscoco.ie Please note - all the above events are free of charge and all are welcome to join. WELL KNOWN JOURNALIST TO SPEAK IN PORTLAOISE The Dublin Midlands Hospital Group's (DMHG) management lists 'open honest communication' and 'openness and transparency' as its values in its new five year strategy. The DMHG outlines its Mission, Vision and Values in the draft report of its plan to remove A&E from the Midlands Regional Hospital, Portlaoise. The plan also covers hospitals: Tullamore, Naas, Tallaght, St James', The Coombe and St Lukes. One DMHG value is to "build trust through openness and transparency" while another is to "communicate openly and honestly and in a timely and appropriate manner". The group's chief executive Dr Susan O'Reilly has declined invitations to come to Laois to meet the public and its representatives to discuss the future of Portlaoise hospital. Laois TD and Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan asked that she visit in 2016. The DMHG has been asked in the Dail, by Laois County Council, by doctors, by media and the public to release its plan for Portlaoise hospital. It has also declined. It has also refused to comment on the strategy which was leaked to Laois TD Brian Stanley. It has so far declined to say if a meeting of hospital managers signed off on the strategy last week. The DMHG says more than 800,000 patients used hospitals it oversees in 2016. The hospitals spent more than 1 billion in 2016. It claims its "fundamental characteristic" is that it is "focused on serving the patient by improving access and ensuring the most appropriate care is provided by the right people and in the right location". "In developing the strategy we acknowledge the need to listen to the needs of patients and learn from their experiences so future care is improved," said the strategy. The DMHG plan refers to report Towards 2026: A Future Direction for Irish Healthcare. The DMHG says that plan calls for radical change that requires building healthcare around patients. the DMHG says Towards 2026 proposes putting the patient at the centre of how services are designed, organised and delivered. "We are committed to supporting our hospitals to deliver quality care which is built around the patient and the philosophy of partnership," said the report. The DMHG also wants to establish a Group Patient Forum to "focus on collaboration and partnership to support the Group change agenda". The following are the DMHG's Values Patient Safety first. Build trust through openness and transparency. Communicate openly and honestly and in a timely and appropriate manner. Treat everyone with respect and compassion. Empower patients to participate in their care through education and communication. Commit to education, research and innovation as an integral component of patient care and staff development. Be responsible and accountable for use of resources in the pursuit of effective delivery of healthcare. Mission The Dublin Midlands Hospital Group is committed to providing high quality, sustainable health care in the most appropriate healthcare setting. Vision Delivering excellent clinical care through patient centric services and supporting innovation for our patients and staff. The following principles and priorities have been identified by the group. Principles Strongly support a culture of honesty and transparency in dealing with patients. Patients will be treated with respect and dignity at all times. We must continually strive to achieve these behaviours and model them in all of our interactions and provide educational opportunities to foster these behaviours. To address expectations, all communication with patients/ carers and other healthcare providers must ensure clarity in relation to the treatment plan and relevant follow up. Where a patient experiences a poor outcome prompt open disclosure is a mandatory requirement for communication with the patient and/or family. Healthcare professionals must partner with their patients to be open about their medical needs and to ensure collaborative, informed decision making. Priorities Establish a Group Patient Forum with a focus on collaboration and partnership to support the Group change agenda. Improve the Group feedback opportunities by enhancing the HSE Your Service Your Say process and supporting hospitals to demonstrate improvements with the You said we did patient feedback loop. Prioritise advocacy and hospital engagement with patient advocacy organisations. To continue to provide multidisciplinary educational programmes which foster openness and confidence in communications with and between patients and staff, e.g. CBAS. Czech Republic air accident authorities have confirmed that they are investigating the crash which left two Laois men critically injured. In a statement the Air Accident Investigation Institute confirmed to the Leinster Express that on Tuesday, October 24 at approximately 10:43 UTC, the Evektor-Eurostar 97 was found near the village of Nizkov. Its two occupants had suffered serious injuries. It confirmed that men were hospitalised. For confidentiality reasons it declined to comment on the extent of the injuries suffered. Th AAII said it had retained airplane debris from the crash site and will carry out an investigation. It intends to interviews of witnesses and participants and a police accident will be conducted. It said the Irish bureau of air investigation (Air Accident Investigation Unit) has been informed. It said the families of the occupants had also been notified via the Irish Consulate in the Czech Republic. It said events and circumstances are subject of an inquiry and after the accident is investigated a report will be issued. Pictured - Ned McEvoy, left, Ger Doody right. Mr Ger Doody and Ned McEvoy are still being treated in hospital for extensive and possible life changing injuries. Mr Doody works in well known Portlaoise car dealership Downey's Autostop on the Dublin Road. The men were partners in Ridge Aviation a light aircraft business based in Eyne Airfield, Portlaoise. They are lifelong aviation enthusiasts and pilots and were on an aircraft related business trip. Family members have travelled from Ireland to be with the men. Visitors to the exhibition (Source: VNA) The event is being held by the Vietnamese Association in the Republic of Korea (RoK) to popularize Vietnam and its people in Seoul as part of activities celebrating the 25th anniversary of Vietnam - RoK diplomatic ties. There are also photos on Vietnams successful hosting of regional and global conferences such as the 18th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders Meeting in Hanoi in 2006. Many visitors have not come to Vietnam and through the exhibition, they want to have an opportunity to visit Vietnam to experience its culture, land and people, as well as economic development. People who have come to Vietnam expressed their impression of the rapid development of Vietnam in recent years. Malaysian student Siti Fadhliah Binti Basrah said she was impressed by Vietnams beauty and wished to visit the country soon./. Sonia Deasy was born in Ireland to Indian parents. She is the daughter of Paul and Santosh Sood. An entrepreneur and mother, she founded skincare brand Pestle and Mortar in 2014. She grew up in Newbridge with her five siblings and she now lives in Newbridge with her husband, award-winning photographer Padraic and their five children. The pair recently closed Deasy Photographic on Cutlery Road. WHAT IS YOUR FIRST KILDARE MEMORY? My dad had a shop on the main street so we actually lived on top of the shop until I was four or five, so I suppose my first memory was literally living in the middle of the town. We were divils I think, the six of us. WHAT IS APPEALING TO YOU ABOUT LIVING IN KILDARE? Myself and Padraic have five kids, and I definitely didnt want to bring them up in a city. My parents still live here and Im very conscious theyre getting old and I like to see them everyday. I feel at home here, you can walk down the street and see friendly faces, and I like that sense of a local community. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT THE COUNTY? We live on the doorstep of the Curragh, and at the drop of a hat you can walk out your front door, two minutes up the road, and youre on this amazing huge green. I think its amazing to have that on the doorstep. WHAT IS YOUR IDEAL DAY IN KILDARE? I suppose I like shopping, I like going to Kildare Village or the Whitewater, and having some lunch. Even in Kildare town theres nice restaurants. I like to go out as a family for lunch once in a while, Hartes in Kildare town is lovely. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO SET UP PESTLE AND MORTAR IN NEWBRIDGE? Our kids are in school here, we made that decision that we didnt want to move our business outside of Newbridge. Were happy living here. HOW IS BUSINESS GOING? Its going really well, were expanding. We just signed a contract with a distributor in Asia and in Copenhagen, were expanding all the time. Were launching a new product to our range in the next couple of weeks. Im always busy, anyone that has a family and work, youre going to be busy. DO YOURSELF AND PADRAIC MISS THE PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO? We miss our customers, we had the most amazing customers. But the thing is though, with Pestle and Mortar were still based here, so were still working in Newbridge, so we still get to see our customers which is nice. READ ALSO: Kildare Life Interview: Singer Heidi Talbot on a childhood running through fields of corn in Kill Described as a lady but also a legend by her nephew Maurice, and fond of a tipple or two, well-known Naas socialite Vi Lawlor's funeral service today. A large crowd gathered at the Church of Our Lady and St. David Naas this morning, to say Au Revoir, but not farewell to the late Violette (Vi) Lawlor (nee Gueret), who died aged 94 years, on October 25 last. The family, of Osberstown House, were also connected with Lawlors Hotel in Naas. Celebrant, Fr Colm Harper opened the mass asking for prayer for the blessings Vi had in her life. He told the congregation that Vi was a very positive lady, with a firm christianity. Beautiful hymns were sung by the Naas Parish Choir. She was predeceased in 1983 by her husband Jim, known locally in Naas as The Squire. Her son Peter, who passed away on October 2 last, was a well-known musician and a member of the Pacific Showband. She was loving mother to seven children Jim, Michelle, Tom, Paul, Marie, Mark and the late Peter and dear sister of the late Marie, Joyce and Paul. Before the opening reading, Vis daughter, Michelle, told the congregation that her mum was being laid to rest wearing a long, white beaded dress, and a chiffon scarf. Known for her style, those paying tribute to Vi said she had wonderful fashion, was very elegant and very artistic. She loved the odd glass of champagne, which she called shampoo, said one mourner Noelle, who paid a small tribute to Vi. Her nephew, Maurice Gueret, who is the son of her late brother Paul, said a few words in Vis memory. In our house, Vi was our famous aunty Vi. When we were young, we always understood that Vi was not in an institution, but that Vi was an institution. She loved life, she loved people, she loved to party but most of all she loved her husband Jim, and the seven wonderful children that enriched their lives. She was a lady, but she was also a legend. She had a great joy in life, she was in truth one of the most modern ladies. She was of her time and also ahead of her time. Maurice remembered one particular memory he has of his late aunty Vi. In 2011, Vi sent a little parcel to me up in Dublin, the package contained six tiny venetian glasses, they were beautiful glasses. And accompanying them was one of Vis beautiful hand-written notes which Im sure many of you would have received over the year, and she told me in this note that the glasses had come down the Gueret family line, and that at seven years old, she was given her first glass of champagne in one of these glasses. She was introduced to the tipple by the Gueret family in Belvedere House, and I was thinking thus began a very healthy relationship with bubbles, that lasted for Vi for 87 years. The end of the mass booklet read: "The end?? Yes!! But just the beginning." Vi was laid to rest at Newlands Cross Crematorium. Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. Ah yes, Halloween, that wonderful time of year when someone suggests breaking out the most frightening films, so we can all spend the next few weeks nervously checking under the bed, in the cupboard and avoiding people called Jason or Damien. So here is our take on the top scary movies of all time - do you agree? 9. The Blair Witch Project (1999) Ok, so this may be a stretch for many who didn't see this movie when hype about it was at its height...but it really, really, really was scary stuff - especially as the online stories had you believing it may actually have some basis in reality. 8. The Omen (1976) There is a certain generation of people who would never consider naming their offspring Damien as a result of this film. And as for that scene with the impaling of the priest with his own spire.....Creepy doesn't even begin to describe it... 7. Hellraiser (1987) The movie posters are enough to give yourself nightmares for week. Hellraiser isn't just horrifying, it's disturbing on a level which makes the Hostel and Saw movie franchises look like something from the muppets. There is an important lesson to be learned from this film - never mess with something you've bought back from overseas - in this case it's a box - or you may just open a portal to hell.... 6. Halloween (1978) Why, oh why, would anyone actually enjoy this movie? I can't even talk about how freaky I found it and I only managed to stomach half of this slashfest before I switched it off and checked behind the couch. The back story is bad enough - a six-year-old is arrested and imprisoned after murdering his sister on Halloween night. 15 years later, Michael Myers escapes and heads back to his hometown to claim more victims. 5. The Ring (the original Japanese film from 1998) Forget the American remake of this cult Japanese film, the original tale of the cursed video tape is much more terrifying! The story is pretty simple. You get the tape, watch it and then receive a phone call telling you that you have a week to live before you pass the tape on to some other unsuspecting fool. What is seriously creepy is Sadako, the girl in the well who gives a new definition to terror. As for the part where she climbs out of the well...enough said! 4. The Exorcist (1973) While all of us, as teenagers, probably resembled aspects of The Exorcist, the film, well, let's just say that 44 years on, it's still one of the most frightening pieces of cinema ever. The work of William Friedkin, this film centres on a young girl who is the subject of demon possession. Cue spinning heads, projectile vomiting and disturbing closeups of a girl who has gone one HUGE step beyond the average teen tantrum. 3. Paranormal Activity (2007) While we can all laugh hysterically at the many, many haunted house investigation reality shows on tv these days, this movie is not funny, not a bit. While the Blair Witch Project kicked off a slew of, let's be honest, fairly rubbish, found-footage movies, Paranormal Activity delivered a knock out blow to our self confidence because it, gulp, happened in a house...while everyone was asleep. Remember the demon footprints in the baby talc? There goes a good night's sleep for everyone..... 2. The Shining (1980) Am I completely alone in believing there is something slightly homicidal looking about Jack Nicholson at the best of times? Well welcome to The Shining, where he takes things to a whole knew level in a scene involving a locked bathroom and a hatchet. The story is fairly harmless to start - a writer moves his family to a hotel and becomes a caretaker in the hope of curing his writers block but then his son starts having premonitions - i.e writing Red Rum on the furnishings (Red Rum being murder, backwards). Then of course, daddy dearest discovers a dark secret that turns him into a homicidal maniac. Apparently it was shot in a real hotel. Yep, I'm NEVER going there. 1. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Canabilastic family? Check. Chainsaw-toting villian wearing a human skin mask? Check. Oh joy, it's the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. This film was once described by Empire as the most purely horrifying horror movie ever made. They weren't wrong....just the word 'Leatherface' is enough to make me turn on all the lights, and leave them on. A FEMALE motorist has a very cavalier attitude to road traffic matters said a judge. Hanora Ryan, aged 43, of The Grove, Pallasgreen pleaded guilty to driving without insurance. Garda John Ryan said he stopped Ms Ryan, who was driving a black Mercedes, at Marian Terrace, Pallasgreen on October 20, 2016. Garda Ryan said Ms Ryan has two previous convictions for no insurance, drink driving and possession of drugs. Judge Keane said this is the defendants third no insurance. Ms Ryans solicitor, Con Barry said his client had gone to the insurance broker on the day in question. She thought she was insured when she left the office but it didnt commence until the following day. She puts her hands up. She is receiving 188 a week in social welfare. She thought at that moment she was insured, said Mr Barry. Judge Keane fined Ms Ryan 250 and disqualified her from driving for two years. Mr Barry asked for the commencement of the disqualification to be put back for six months to get her circumstances together. Judge Keane said: She has had a whole year. It is effective from December 1. She has a very cavalier attitude to road traffic matters. A NUMBER of prosecutions relating to the alleged tampering of domestic gas meters have been adjourned to next year allow Gas Networks Ireland (GNI) disclose additional evidence to the defendants. During one of the cases, which was partially heard at Limerick District Court, Judge Marian OLeary was shown a gas meter that was removed from a house on the north side of the city. Alan Duke an authorised officer with GNI told the court he called to the house at Clonilse, Old Cratloe Road, on June 23, 2016 after he had been granted a search warrant. He said there was no answer but that he proceeded to inspect the meter which was located on the gable wall of the house. Mr Duke said a small hole had been drilled under the dial on on the meter which would have prevented the consumption of gas from being accurately recorded. He told the court this constituted interference and that its presence was a major safety concern and potentially very dangerous. Judge OLeary was told the serial number on the meter matched the account details of the registered customer who was living at the house at the time. Being cross-examined by solicitor Darach McCarthy, the witness said he did not know when the meter had been tampered with or who had drilled the hole. I cant say who or when but the only person who benefited was the registered owner, he said Solicitor Adrian Lennon, representing GNI, told the court the summons before the court only related to events of June 23, 2016. He (the defendant) was the registered customer on the day, he said adding that nobody had sought permission from GNI to interfere with the meter which was produced as evidence during the proceedings. Noting that Mr Duke had referred to gas usage trends in his evidence, Judge OLeary adjourned the matter to allow details to be furnished to Mr McCarthy. HEAVY fines were imposed by Judge Mary Larkin at Newcastle West court when a number of defendants failed to appear to answer charges of driving without insurance. Jayne Bourke, 5 Crannog, Dublin Rd, Limerick was fined 2,000 and disqualified from driving for two years when she was convicted of driving without insurance at Blackabbey, Adare last May 11. She was also fined 300 for driving without a driving licence and a further 300 for failing to produce a driving licence. A charge of failing to produce insurance was taken into consideration but recognisance with leave to appeal was fixed at 250. Danny Harty, 12 Church View, ASkeaton was fined 2,000 and disqualified from driving for four years for driving without insurance at Church View last February 13. The court heard he had one previous conviction for driving without insurance. He was fined a further 300 for failing to produce a driving licence or learners permit. Recognisance with leave to appeal was granted. A third defendant Dylan OShea, Kilbradren, Shanagolden was also fined 2,000 and disqualified from driving for two years when he was convicted of driving without insurance at Abbeycourt, Rathkeale last February 21. He was fined a further 300 for driving without a driving licence but charges of failing to produce insurance and licence were taken into consideration. Recognisance with leave to appeal was fixed at 250. Pavol Puskas, 23 Cronan Lawn, Shannon, another defendant who also failed to appear, was fined 2,000 and disqualified from driving for two years when he was convicted of driving without insurance at Monearla, Adare last January 31. Charges of having no insurance disk displayed and of failing to produce insurance were taken into consideration but recognisance with leave to appeal was fixed at 250. Dayane Ribeiro, 138 Temple Green, Newcastle West was convicted and fined 300 for driving without insurance at Attyflinn, Patrickswell last January. Her solicitor Michael ODonnell said she had gotten into the car on that day, did not look at the windscreen and just drove away. Ms Ribeiro was not disqualified from driving. THE changes made by the government to how the Leader programme operates have not worked, Sinn Feins Cllr Seamus Browne has claimed. And he is now calling on the government to address the excessive bureaucracy imposed on Leader so that the funding can reach rural communities in a timely manner. Only 8.25 million of a national budget of 250 million has been approved with even less paid out to projects, he pointed out. Figures released by the Minister for Rural and Community Development, Michael Ring, show that nationally, just 355 projects have been approved so far, compared with 2,886 in the first two years of the previous Leader programme. In Limerick, according to the ministers figures, just three projects have reached final approval stage with funding of just under 15,000. This compares to 90 projects worth 1.5m at final approval stage in Kerry and 32 in Donegal worth 1m. But the manager of Ballyhoura Padraig Casey stressed that these figures represent a moment in time. He also emphasised that the figures given by the Minister represented final approval stage and not finalised projects with written contracts. This Leader programme is different from the previous one, he explained. One key difference is that projects have to be approved by a local action group or LAG and then a local community development committee, LCDC has the final say. In Limerick, Mr Casey pointed out, the LCDC had decided to give people ample time to submit their expressions of interest. Other counties may have done this differently, possibly setting earlier deadlines, he speculated and this could have affected the figures at final approval stage. But for him, the positive thing was the strong demand. There were 198 projects proposed to Ballyhoura under expressions of interest earlier this year, he explained, and 47 of these are moving through the different stages of the approval process. There are great projects coming down the line, Mr Casey said. What we are seeing is a really engaged community sector coming up with strong projects. Shay Riordan, the manager of West Limerick Resources, said, We are aware some areas are moving faster, but he also emphasised that reaching final approval was not the same as having final contracts signed. Some areas were out of the blocks very quickly and received approval for small amounts. We went for large calls with a larger volume of applicants and for larger projects and they have taken a longer time to move through. But he stressed: We are moving projects through the system as we speak. There are 28 projects currently going through the system and the value of those will be well over 1m. Cllr Browne has expressed sympathy with those applying for the programme and those charged with administering it. Having once been a shining light for community leadership, changes brought about by (former minister) Phil Hogan in 2014 have resulted in a bureaucratic nightmare for local groups, he charged. Citizens have been made jump through 18 bureaucratic hoops just to achieve funding before they even start the particular project that they are seeking to develop, he pointed out. The application form alone, the Limerick Leader has learned, is now over 30 pages rather than five in the past. In addition, the template for contracts has proven unwieldy. Administrators have also had to cope with ongoing adjustments. It is ironic that previously Ireland was held up as an example of best practice in the administration of Leader funding, he added. Other European countries have now implemented systems based on the community led model previously in practice in Ireland. The government should return to that model, he argued. A CITY architect who came to Limerick from Poland has been nominated for two top industry awards. Piotr Mach, of EML Architechts based at Cruises Street, is in line to win the title of young designer of the year, as well as project of the year at the annual Fit-Out Awards taking place this Thursday. Piotr, who now lives in Grove Island, came to Limerick a decade ago after graduating from university in Poland After working for the Office of Public Works, he joined EML architects initially on a Job Bridge programme, before being taken on by the practice full time. Now, he has been honoured for his work, with the project of the year being the Thurles Municipal council offices in Co Tipperary, which he designed. Speaking after being nominated, Piotr said: It feels great. But its also a great achievement for our office. We believe we have a significant impact on the image of Limerick as an attractive city. EML Architechts has also been nominated for a Fit-Out award, in the category of practice of the year. Piotr has already worked on a number of significant fit-outs across the country, including ACIs offices at Plassey, Ernst and Youngs base in Harveys Quay, and most famously of all, the 3Arena on Dublins docklands. This week, he will kick off his latest project, a complete refurbishment of Limerick City and County Councils offices at Merchants Quay in the city centre. Piotr, who has been appointed lead architect to the scheme, said: We are very excited about this significant project and I believe I will be able to transform my vision into a beautiful interior. In his spare time Piotr enjoys exploring the areas near his home, as well as camping and walking. The Fit-Out awards which aim to recognise outstanding examples of interior redevelopments take place in Dublins Clayton Burlington Hotel this Thursday. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. Some of our partners may process your data as a part of their legitimate business interest without asking for consent. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page. A large part of state-owned enterprises in the transport sphere are under influence of private persons and companies, and the loss of the national budget and the sector in general from this 'supervision' are huge. The press service of the Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine reported that Minister Volodymyr Omelyan gave his opinion at a meeting with top managers of the State Property Fund of Ukraine. "Today we actually have 'privatization in the shadows', which is distinguished by the fact that some individuals or private companies are living thanks to state-owned assets. This is inadmissible. We should conduct the effective, honest and transparent privatization of state-owned enterprises, which are not of a real strategic importance, or lease them. The privatization should be 'above board,' not in the shadows like it is now. The state and employees of these enterprises would win. Development of the transport sector is possible only if it is effectively managed," the minister said. At the meeting the sides decided to create a working group to work on the privatization of state-owned assets in the transport and infrastructure spheres or their lease. The Infrastructure Ministry recalled that it has created a working group with the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to effectively coordinate the interagency work. Dragon Ukrainian Properties and Development Plc (DUPD, the Isle of Man) has announced the sale of the remaining stake in the Obolon Residences residential complex to Cheriton Overseas Limited, which is not affiliated with it, for $9 million. According to a report by DUPD on the London Stock Exchange, these funds will be paid in cash by four installments in the period until April 30, 2018. The fund said the fair value of the Obolon Residences project as of June 30, 2017 was estimated at $15.3 million, therefore this transaction means the loss of $6.3 million. DUPD said that the loss for the year ended December 31, 2016 for the companys investment in Obolon Residences was $949,000 being the fair value loss. Board Chairman Mark Iwashko said that DUPD has previously taken the decision to proceed with developing phase 3, however, the company was also mindful of alternative options to monetise its investment in the Obolon Residences project. "Whilst we believed that the project would deliver compelling risk-adjusted returns, this would be over a number of years. The disposal, however, provides cash consideration in the short-term, and reduces development risk for DUPD shareholders. We believe the disposal is the right decision for shareholders and is also fully supported by Dragon Capital," he said. According to the report, in the short term, the monies will be retained for working capital purposes. DUPD said that Cheriton Overseas Limited acquired the rights to develop phase 2 of the Obolon Residences project in February 2015. The cost of the deal was $5 million and it was paid in four equal parts. Music, wine and mozzarella at Mumbais Royal Opera House The Quarter, which will offer live music, a cheese bar and jazz-era cocktails, opens at Mumbai's iconic opera house /food/drink/music-wine-and-mozzarella-at-mumbai-s-royal-opera-house-111646830376344.html 111646830376344 story Girgaon, once the cultural heart of old Mumbai, used to resonate with music, art and theatre right up to the middle of the 20th century. As the city expanded, however, it settled into a crumbling time warp. The reopening of the Royal Opera House in October last year injected some of the lost cultural vibrancy back into the neighbourhood. Now, The Quarter, a live performance venue, bar and restaurant that opened at the Royal Opera House on Thursday, promises to bring music back to this locality. A collaboration between musicians Ashutosh Ashu" Phatak and Ranjit Barot, restaurateur Nico Goghavala and businessman and investor Nakul Toshniwal, The Quarter will feature a live music club, an all-day cafe, a mozzarella and wine bar and a Louisiana-inspired restaurant. The space, designed by Abha Narain Lambah, is in keeping with the heritage structure of the opera house. Andy Munro and Kapil Thirwani, the team behind the excellent sound at Mumbais performance venue, blueFROG, are aiming to create an equally great sound experience here. Their robust programme began on Friday with a weekend of performances by indie duo Parekh & Singh (who performed at the Royal Opera House on Friday, and will show again at 10pm on Saturday at The Quarter). This will be followed by the Sanctuary At The Quarter festival (from 5-11 November), which will feature photography, documentaries and world music, including a performance by the Grammy award-winning band from Mali, Tinariwen. Lounge spoke with the partners about jazz, cheese, and finding a home at one of Mumbais most iconic venues. Edited excerpts: You started off with a jazz club concept for The Quarter but that has changed to include different kinds of music. How did that shift happen? Phatak: About a year ago, Nakul came to me and asked me to start a jazz bar. Ranjit and I were working together at the time and we wanted to do something together, so the three of us came up with an initial plan to start a small and intimate jazz venue. Then I met Nico at a party and he said he had found this space and had plans for starting a 1920s-style jazz club. Things just clicked and we all decided to start this place together. While we used the term jazz club, what we hoped to create was an improvised experience through our diverse programming. And improvisation forms the basic essence of jazz. And although we will have nights dedicated to traditional jazz, Live at the Quarter will be a place for musicians and the audience to engage and have conversations. How did The Quarter find a home at the Royal Opera House? Goghavala: I wasnt really looking for a place and it was my dad who forwarded me an email saying that some iconic place in south Bombay was up for grabs. I contacted the broker and he asked me to meet him at the opera house. Over the years, this whole neighbourhood has come to be known as the opera house and when I reached the area and called him, I had no idea that he would take me inside the actual building. There were food and beverage brands from across the country vying for this space and somehow my bid got accepted. So I had already acquired the space when I met Ashu at a party and told him about my plans for opening a jazz club. And the next day itself, the four of us landed up here. Back then, it comprised one old canteen, lots of mud and a parking lot and took a lot of imagining. Even back then, we imagined different sections. Today that has materialized as our performance space, Live at the Quarter, an all-day diner, Cafe at the Quarter, a mozzarella and wine bar, Drink at the Quarter, and an alfresco restaurant, Dine at the Quarter. The Quarter is planning to have live performances five nights a week as well as 100 shows at the Royal Opera House annually. Tell us about your programming. Phatak: Apart from our music programming, we want to do things like poetry readings, wine-tasting sessions, photography exhibitions, and so on. Both Ranjit and me were very clear about the fact that we didnt just want to curate bands. We wanted to bring on board our experience as composers and create entire shows for the different acts. We have also planned an artists-in-residence programme where we will bring down a new artist every week and they will do two showsone big production at the Royal Opera House and another more intimate gig at The Quarter. Our first artists in residence are pop duo Parekh & Singh, who will perform at the Royal Opera House with a string quartet arranged by Ranjit; their second performance will be a more intimate session at The Quarter. We also want to bring together different genres of artists on the same platform and create exciting productions. There are also plans to host weekly music appreciation classes with live performances as well as specially curated tribute nights. How will food distinguish the different spaces at The Quarter? Goghavala: So the Cafe at the Quarter lends itself well to a pre-show coffee or a quick bite and will be offering a selection of sandwiches and wood-fired pizzas. At Drink at the Quarter, we will showcase a selection of handcrafted mozzarellas from different parts of Indiafrom a cheesemaking priest in Kerala to a specialist farm in Haryana. There will be a large selection of wines by the glass and aperitif-based cocktails. Dine at The Quarter is a Louisiana-style farm-to-table restaurant with locally sourced ingredients, while Live at the Quarter will offer jazz-age cocktails like Manhattans and Rob Roys as well as our own interpretations of them. Live at the Quarter opened on 26 October; the other spaces will be fully functional by the first week of November. Ukraine and Turkey have finished the eighth round of negotiations on signing of the free trade area (FTA) agreement, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry of Ukraine has reported on its website. The sides discussed the access to agricultural goods markets in details, Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Ukraine's trade representative Natalia Mykolska said during the talks. Ukraine and Turkey exchanged the updated proposals on liberalization of goods and services markets. The countries also discussed access to the services markets, determining of preferential rules of origin, e-commerce and integration of the provisions of the PEM Convention (the Regional Convention on pan-Euro-Mediterranean preferential rules of origin), the press service of the ministry reported. As reported, during the recent visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Ukraine special attention was paid to the increase of trade and intensification of the negotiations. The FTA with Canada took effect on August 1, 2017. Earlier representatives of the government said that Ukraine could sign the next FTA with Israel. The High Court of Justice of England and Wales has ordered that the application brought by Ukraine seeking to set aside the recent arbitration award against Ukraine and in favour of JKX Oil & Gas Plc be dismissed. The award grants payment of around $12 million to JKX. JKX said in a report on the website of the London Stock Exchange (LSE), the company hopes that it can now reach an amicable resolution of the other outstanding legal claims between JKX and Ukraine. As reported, the London Court of International Arbitration in the dispute of JKX Oil & Gas Plc against Ukraine rejected the company's main demands and recognized as legal the increase in oil and gas royalties in 2014, but ruled to compensate around $12 million of losses to JKX. Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko has reported large-scale falsifications and bribery of voters in the elections to united territorial communities in Ukraine on October 29. "I will say about the result, but this result was obtained against the background of large-scale falsifications led by the Ukrainian president. This result was obtained against the background of large-scale bribery of people across Ukraine. The administrative resources, which were used in the regions for the first time in the history of independent Ukraine, had an effect on election commissions, members of precinct commissions and received artificial results," Tymoshenko told journalists in Kyiv on Monday. She also noted that law enforcement agencies had opened criminal cases against candidates for united territorial communities and that on the night of the counting of the results of the vote, "bandits armed with axes and Kalashnikov rifles came to polling stations and switched off the light to prevent the counting of results." As reported, local elections in 201 united territorial communities were held on October 29. The Thin Light of Freedom: The Civil War and Emancipation in the Heart of America By Edward L. Ayers Norton. 576 pp. $35 --- In 1991 Edward Ayers, one of the most accomplished historians of the 19th century, got the idea for a different kind of history of the Civil War. Rather than paint a grand tableau of the momentous conflict between the North and the South, he would retell the story on a human scale by focusing on two places, Augusta County in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, and Franklin County in Pennsylvania, 200 miles to the north. The white populations of the two counties had a lot in common. They were mostly farmers, with similar religious convictions, ethnic origins and political traditions. The one thing that made the two places fundamentally different was slavery. In 1860 one-fifth of the people of Augusta County were enslaved. By contrast, Pennsylvania's legislature had been the first in history to pass an abolition statute, way back in 1780. Ayers began combing through archives, libraries and local historical societies, eventually amassing a rich trove of sources - diaries, letters, small-town newspapers, census and tax records - sources he has generously shared online at a user-friendly website called "The Valley of the Shadow." He has put these sources to impressive use in a two-volume history of "the war in the heart of America." His Bancroft Prize-winning "In the Presence of Mine Enemies" appeared in 2003, covering the years from 1859 to 1863. Now comes Volume 2, "The Thin Light of Freedom." It opens with Robert E. Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania in the summer of 1863, takes the story to his eventual surrender at Appomattox in 1865 and continues through Reconstruction all the way up to the opening years of the 20th century. There are hundreds of books reconstructing the lives of Civil War soldiers, women on the home front and enslaved Americans who took advantage of the war to secure their freedom. But few of them succeed as well as these volumes in capturing the day-to-day experience of the war without losing sight of military operations or the political issues at stake. One of Ayers' recurring themes is the terrible contrast between the beauty and agricultural richness of the valley and the violence and bloodshed of the war and its aftermath. His description of the burning of Chambersburg, Pa., by Confederate troops is compelling, chilled by new details he has uncovered. His account of Union Gen. Philip Sheridan's destructive sweep through the farms and fields of the Shenandoah Valley concludes with the equally chilling observation that, judged by the military objectives Ulysses Grant set for it, the campaign was a failure. The irony, for Ayers, is that as the war became more brutal, its moral significance became clearer. He believes that the Yankees embarked on their crusade with no purpose other than to restore the Union. By the time "The Thin Light of Freedom" opens, however, the North had committed itself to the complete destruction of slavery. Even so, Ayers stresses, when the war ended, a majority of slaves were still enslaved, and it was not until the ratification of the 13th Amendment in December 1865 that complete abolition was finally secured. Though Ayers carries his story into the opening years of the 20th century, Franklin County pretty much disappears after 1865. Pennsylvanians presumably rebuilt the lives they had before the war, but Augusta County was dramatically transformed by emancipation. White landlords struggled to negotiate new labor arrangements. African-Americans searched for spouses and children and formalized their marriages. Black men voted. Black parents worked hard to ensure that their children learned to read and write, even in the most woefully inadequate schools. Gradually, white elites overturned the Reconstruction governments and justified their nearly complete takeover of the political system as a necessary readjustment of the peaceful race relations that the Civil War had supposedly disrupted. Virginians had gone to war in 1861 openly vowing to protect slavery; now they insisted that slavery had nothing to do with it. That's just one of the "deep contingencies," the unpredictable turns of historical fortune, that Ayers emphasized in an earlier essay. The war itself, he wrote, was "an extremely unlikely event." Virginians who were staunch Unionists right up to the secession crisis suddenly became ardent Confederates. Who could have imagined that a war for the Union would became a war to abolish slavery? Northerners who had never expressed the slightest concern for the civil or political rights of African-Americans ended up endorsing black suffrage and the first civil rights bill in American history. Whether these were contingent reversals or extensions of prewar patterns is hard to tell because Ayers starts his history of the war in 1859 with John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. That pretty much rules out any consideration of long-term causes. Neo-Confederate historians writing in the Lost Cause tradition also like to begin in 1859 because it makes the Civil War look like an accidental byproduct of a fortuitous event. Was it? There's reason to doubt that the Mason-Dixon Line had always been the placid boundary that Ayers depicts. He cites the numerous Northern state votes in which substantial minorities of whites endorsed black suffrage before the Civil War. They usually lost, but it was hardly a new issue in 1864. Secessionists complained that by 1860 generations of Northerners had been taught anti-slavery in their catechisms, their schoolbooks, the sermons they listened to and the speeches they heard. That's correct, isn't it? Ayers notes that during Abraham Lincoln's re-election campaign in 1864, Republicans and Democrats both supported the Union, though they had very different conceptions of what the Union meant. But that was true well before the war started. The Unionism of the Virginia Whigs was always pro-slavery Unionism, so it's not so surprising that they ended up siding with the Confederates. By contrast, Lincoln and his fellow Republicans represented a powerful strain of anti-slavery Unionism. For them the war was always about slavery and always about restoring the Union. Wars do have unexpected twists and turns, but they also exaggerate tendencies that are already there. Fortunately for readers, such contentious issues are played out in the background, offstage as it were. Ayers set out to re-create the lived experience of the Civil War - for Northerners and Southerners, blacks and whites, men and women, soldiers and civilians - without losing sight of the political turmoil and destructive violence that affected all of them. In that he has succeeded brilliantly. --- Oakes' most recent book is "The Scorpion's Sting: Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War." He is a distinguished professor of history at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. Houston got into the groove, and into costume, during the first day of Something Wicked. The annual EDM festival unfurled Saturday at Sam Houston Race Park. The day's lineup included Above & Beyond, Marshmello and Elephante. Tbilisi's steps in Saakashvili extradition to be taken 'in legal context' The possible extradition of Georgia's ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili from Kyiv to Tbilisi should be considered solely in a legal context, Georgian Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze said. "As regards the possible extradition of Mikheil Saakashvili, the response of the Georgian parliament is definite: the issue should be considered solely in a legal context, and all steps will be taken correspondingly," Janelidze told reporters on Monday. Saakashvili wrote on his Facebook page last week that Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office had begun collecting documents for his detention and extradition to Georgia. Georgian Justice Minister Thea Tsulukiani earlier told reporters that in September, Georgian prosecutors had confirmed to their Ukrainian colleagues that the demand for the extradition of Mikheil Saakashvili sent to Kyiv two years before remained in force. Saakashvili is charged in Georgia with abuse of office and massive embezzlement of state funds. The former Georgian president believes the charges against him are politically motivated and are not substantiated by any documents. Minute Maid Park has been bustling with Houston Astros and World Series fever, but just across the street at the George R. Brown Convention Center, the world's largest quilt festival is about to begin. The event, which begins with a preview night Wednesday, will draw 55,000 people from 35 countries to shop, tour and compete at the 2017 International Quilt Festival Houston, one of the most prestigious quilt shows and competitions in the world. More Information 2017 International Quilt Festival Houston When: 7-10 p.m. Nov. 1 (preview night); 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Nov. 2-4; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Nov. 5 Where: George R. Brown Convention Center, 1001 Avenida de las Americas Classes: go to www.quilts.com for schedule 'HERstory' exhibit: Curator Susanne Jones will speak at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Nov. 2-5 in Aisle P. Civil rights heroines exhibit: Patricia Montgomery will speak at 2 p.m. Nov. 2 in Aisle P and 2 p.m. Nov. 3-4 in Aisle R. Tickets: $12 adults, $9 seniors, students and military, children under age 10 are free; $42 full show pass; www.quilts.com See More Collapse Two special exhibits honor the contributions of women through history. One is "HERstory: A Celebration of Strong Women," a collection of 52 quilts that recognize women whose actions or achievements registered "firsts" for women or humankind. They range from Misty Copeland and Michelle Obama, the first black prima ballerina at the American Ballet Theatre and the first African American first lady, to Amelia Earhart, the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and Ann Richards, the first woman to be governor of Texas. Quilters and artists from eight countries contributed to this exhibit. Susanne Jones, the curator of the HERstory exhibit, said she was inspired by Hillary Rodham Clinton's historic run for president. She knew there's been many other women who've achieved "firsts" in their lives or careers and wanted to honor them. The other is "Tribute to the Civil Rights Movement Heroines," a collection of quilted swing coats made by Californian Patricia Montgomery to honor women who fought in the front lines and behind the scenes of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. She remembered a book she'd seen long ago, detailing the work of activists in the South and elsewhere and while places and events were familiar, many of the names and faces were not. She wanted others to know the stories of unsung heroes such as Diane Nash, who was involved in lunch counter sit-ins in Nashville, Tenn., and Joanne Robinson, a college professor who helped instigate the public bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., in 1955. She was a college professor and likely would have lost her job, so she played her role -- printing and distributing pamphlets with boycott information -- behind the scenes. There's also an exhibit honoring Sue Garman, a Pearland quilter who died in 2016, whose work and quilt patterns inspired others to take up the fabric art. In her 40 years of quilting, Garman made more than 300 quilts and 75 of her best works will be on display. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A West Virginia inmate who escaped from a jail two days before his sentencing has been captured in Laredo, authorities said. West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety spokesman Lawrence Messina said in a statement that Todd Wayne Boyes, 44, of Caldwell, Ohio, was captured about 4 a.m. Sunday. U.S. Border Patrol agents told West Virginia State Police that Boyes was trying to cross the Rio Grande. Messina said Boyes was given a medical evaluation, then taken to the Webb County Jail. Boyes had changed into civilian clothes and escaped the South Central Regional Jail in Charleston on Wednesday, but the jail staff didn't notice until Thursday evening. A review of the facility's jail's security video showed Boyes leaving the facility the previous morning. READ MORE: Tensions rise in Laredo over proposed $125 jail facility Boyes was scheduled to be sentenced Friday to up to 20 years in prison on charges including fleeing and possession of a stolen car. He was initially charged with attempted murder after Charleston police Cpl. Renee Smith was hurt during a pursuit to arrest him, but the charge was dropped in a September plea deal. According to investigators, the 5-foot-6, 220-pound Boyes obtained khaki pants and a dark green or grey jacket he wore to escape by posing as a civilian or jail trusty. RELATED: Records show informant, cellphone led Laredo police to 12 arrests in maquinita investigation Three end-of-shift head counts failed to alert jail staff to his disappearance. Messina said four jail employees have been suspended without pay pending the results of an investigation. For all of the books written, articles published and conferences produced to educate us about entrepreneurship and fast-growth businesses, heres the one thing that rarely gets said: At some point, whether youre the founder of a startup or an executive at a company where you are trying to affect change at scale, you will burnout. As my dear friend and Life Shucker Jessica Zemple puts it: We are part of a society that rewards doing. The problem with doing all the time is that you become part of a perpetual cycle of getting things done and never really slow down to determine if you are getting the right things done... the things that really matter, like connecting with your loved ones or pursuing your passion. Related: Burnouts, Crashes and Endless Business Plateaus In June 2017, after nearly five years on the leadership team at an industry leading tech company, I was nearly at the point where burnout was imminent. So before it became a full-fledged, raging forest fire, I decided to take myself on a sojourn to New Mexico. Sante Fe, Abiquiu and Galisteo to be exact. In Sante Fe, I set up glamp at the Eldorado Hotel & Spa and spent nearly four days sleeping, spa hopping between the lovely hotel spa and Ten Thousand Waves, perusing artwork downtown, reading about Native American culture and drinking margaritas at the famed Cowgirl BBQ. One evening, I took a drive with my brother Seth (a Los Angeles-based filmmaker who joined my trip for two days) out to Ghost Ranch for a sunset horseback ride through the inspiring landscapes of Abiquiu, popularized by American artist Georgia OKeeffe. Like a scene from How The West Was Won, we (along with our wrangler, Lexie Quirie, and her cousin, Crow Rising) trail blazed and cactus-whacked our way through the desert. We crossed a wide, snarling river, and enjoyed a stunning, watercolor sunset among the breathtaking plateaus; and it was in that place where it all finally melted away. I was disconnected completely. No cell service. No nagging to-do lists. Just me and my horse, accompanied by my equally contemplative sibling and two real-life cowgirls. Heaven. I spent the following and final three days in the small town of Galisteo. There, I stayed in the home of a shaman whose guidance and wisdom enabled me to reframe many of the old narratives to which I had been desperately clinging. It was a relief. Somewhat reluctantly, I headed home, knowing my zen-like state would soon be hijacked by the daily nuances. However, with this renewed energy, I felt even more committed to living from a place of creativity and being -- instead of working and doing. With that in mind, I canvassed a few folks in my network to hear their personal ideas and strategies for staying balanced and present during the chaos. While sojourning to New Mexico was a wonderful experience, the reality is that most of us (myself included) have to figure out more practical ways of mindfully disconnecting. Idea 1: Soaking up the sights. "Covering the current political landscape can not only be mentally exhausting but physically taxing as well, with up to 18-hour days. But living in DC affords me the opportunity to walk for miles in one of the most beautiful and historic cities in the country. Every day at sunset I walk a different path ranging from the reflecting pool to the White House or from DuPont Circle to Georgetown or from Logan Circle to Howard University. I am intentional about leaving my phone behind so I can resist the urge to check it. I completely disconnect, and I come back with a fresh mind, a blank page and usually an insightful perspective on the state of politics and policy in the world today." -- Tiffany D. Cross, Cofounder and Managing Editor of The Beat DC Related: Stepping Away From Your Office -- Even for a Day -- Can Be Terrifying. Here's Why It's Also Necessary. Idea 2: Making the minutes count. I have a family with five kids, and I am constantly trying to optimize my time to best integrate work and life. Completely disconnecting for long periods of time isn't an option for me as a husband, father and CEO. But structuring my day to be present for the nine most important minutes of my family's day is possible: Three minutes when the kids wake up, three minutes when they get home from school and three minutes before they go to bed. -- Ryan Smith, Co-founder & CEO of Qualtrics Idea 3: Setting up boundaries and support. "When you see everyone 'rising and grinding' at 5 am and are constantly bombarded 'entrepreneur porn' about successful people never missing a beat, it can feel like you're never doing enough. I constantly work at setting boundaries and disconnecting. A few things I do: I use a manual alarm clock -- my iPhone is off and in the other room when I go to bed; I try to not check my email until after I've gotten dressed and brushed my teeth in the morning; I also do my best not check emails after 8 pm or on weekends. Therapy helps, some medications help, but also some friends that can bop me over the head and give me perspective on my unrealistic expectations of myself. -- Meredith Fineman, Founder of FinePoint and professional writer Idea 4: Gently starting your day. "I have a little spot on the ground next to a window where I can meditate for 20 minutes in the morning. Opening the window brings fresh air, and a light therapy lamp helps my body acclimatize to the start of the day, getting my circadian rhythms on track. This meditation usually comes after a light stretch, light workout and a shower. Afterwards I'll have breakfast and read a book. From the time I wake up to the time I head to work is about 80 to 90 minutes. If I do this routine consistently, it brings about a stronger fortitude and clarity of vision over the long term, and ultimately, a sense of serenity despite all the chaos." -- James Iliff, Cofounder and Chief Creative Officer at VR company, Survios Idea 5: Walking away the weekend. I do a seven kilometer walk every Sunday in Newport, where I head to the highest point called Ridgeway. From one side, I can see Newports city centre and industrial areas, which is an inspiring visual representation of how my hometown has evolved and how nothing stands still. From another vantage point, I can gaze at the countryside, known as Little Switzerland. Standing there at the top, its like Im in two very different worlds and is a reminder of how the world is such a unique and diverse mix. It also helps that there is a little cafe about half-way through the walk, where I can stop for a nice cup of coffee. -- Laura Dunn, Political Style blogger, Director at LED Media, and HuffPost columnist Related: 5 Ways to Shift Out of Stress at Work Idea 6: Connecting with a community. Stillness creates space for order to occur and when order is in place, the greatest ideas and discoveries reveal themselves. One resource I strongly recommend is The Global Purpose Movement. This organization creates physical and online spaces to recognize inherent unity, express unique purposes and synergize to connect what is working in the world on a global scale. It's a powerful group that explores the role of purpose in diverse fields, including wellness, spirituality, individual transformation, social action, business, education, science, government and technology. -- Leta Soza, Global Storytelling Strategist at Plenty Related: 6 Realistic Tips For Disconnecting and Regaining Your Sanity Burnouts, Crashes and Endless Business Plateaus Que no te gane el estres: 11 actividades que te ayudaran a vencerlo Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com Companies are increasingly competing to develop high-tech agricultural drones for crop spraying and other uses, working to sell their drones to small-scale farmers, who are facing a serious shortage of successors. For the use of agricultural drones to spread, the key lies in whether the government will allow full automation of pesticide spraying. Work done in 10 minutes A drone two meters in diameter flew over onion fields Wednesday and sprinkled water over them instead of pesticide. The screen of the remote control held by the person operating it displayed the location of the flying drone and areas where pesticide was sprayed. The device was the latest agricultural drone developed by SkymatiX, Inc., a Tokyo-based venture jointly established last year by Mitsubishi Corp. and Hitachi, Ltd. SkymatiX was demonstrating crop spraying for the media on Wednesday, using the drone on a farm in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture. "We're confident about the stability of the body," said Zentaro Watanabe, 38, the chief operating officer of SkymatiX. An agricultural drone has a tank that is capable of carrying pesticides and fertilizers on the lower part of its body. For a farmer using a backpack-style pesticide sprayer, it takes a whole day to spray one hectare of land. However, the drone can do the same task in about 10 minutes. Such drones cost 3 million yen to 3.5 million yen (about $26,000 to $30,000 each. Promising market According to a Tokyo-based research company Seed Planning, Inc., the crop-spraying drone market is expected to grow from 1.2 billion yen in 2016 to 20 billion yen in 2022. Many companies are entering the market one after another. "It's a promising market," a source close to a trading firm said. Nileworks Inc., a Tokyo-based venture company whose investors include Sumitomo Corp., emphasizes that its drone can spray pesticide and fertilizer while photographing and monitoring the growing conditions of rice plants in paddies with a camera. The company plans to test-market the drone in May 2018. "We'll make agriculture a cutting-edge industry that can attract young people," said Nileworks President Hiroshi Yanagishita, 57. Kubota Corp., which began selling agricultural drones in July this year, aims to develop a system to analyze the image data taken by a drone, such as the growing conditions of crops, and have artificial intelligence (AI) provide operating instructions to self-driving tractors. Barriers to full automation There are obstacles to the spread of agricultural drones. Under the guidelines of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry, when a pesticide-spraying drone is used, support personnel should attend the site along with operating personnel to monitor that the drone is not spraying pesticides outside the fields. Fully automated spraying that can be completed with one push of a button is not allowed under the current system, prompting some to say this causes elderly farmers and others to be hesitant to introduce drones. The agriculture ministry will hold a meeting of an expert panel early next year to discuss how to ensure the safety of drones and other issues. The ministry then plans to make a decision on whether to allow fully automated spraying within this fiscal year. The government is planning to introduce incentives for filmmakers that shoot their movies in Japan, offering subsidies and tax breaks, according to sources. Some local governments already offer such incentives, but it would be the first time for the central government to establish a system to attract filmmakers to Japan. The government aims to introduce the system soon after conducting research on existing incentive packages overseas. It hopes the initiative will boost the domestic film industry by enticing big-budget movie productions to shoot in Japan. It also hopes domestic and foreign tourists will be attracted to film locations, supporting the government's goal of promoting Japan as a "tourism-oriented country." The government will examine such factors as the content and screening criteria of incentive packages offered to filmmakers by 14 countries and regions, along with records of productions that ultimately went to those countries and the economic impact. The 14 countries and regions will include the United States and New Zealand, which are frequently used for the locations of big-budget movies. The government plans to compile its research results by February, before starting discussions on the details of incentives to be introduced in Japan. The package will be decided sometime in the next fiscal year and the government hopes to introduce it in fiscal 2019 at the earliest. Some foreign countries have launched nationwide campaigns to attract filmmakers to produce movies in their countries. New Zealand established a subsidy system for big-budget movies in 2000. Since 2015, the government has paid a grant of 20 percent of film production costs in New Zealand on the condition that production budgets in New Zealand be at least 15 million New Zealand dollars (about 1.2 billion yen), with an extra 5 percent available to films that are predicted to bring economic benefits to New Zealand. Blockbusters including "The Last Samurai" and "The Lord of the Rings" series were filmed in New Zealand, and tours to filming locations have served as beneficial tourism resources. In Australia - where some of "The Matrix" series was filmed - the government offers domestic companies that are involved in filming at locations in Australia tax breaks amounting to 16.5 percent of the production cost in Australia. To receive this benefit, the production's expenditures in Australia must be at least 15 million Australian dollars (about 1.3 billion yen or $10.5 million). In Canada, where "The Incredible Hulk" was shot, the government offers tax credits equal to 16 percent of Canadian labor costs for the entire production, provided costs are at least 1 million Canadian dollars (90 million yen). Limits to municipality packages In Japan, film commissions run by municipalities and other entities have long worked to attract filmmakers to their regions. The commissions work to secure filming locations for movies and TV programs, scout extras, and fulfill other roles necessary for the shoot. Japan's first such commission was established in 2000. Since then, the number has been increasing across the country. According to a Japan Film Commission survey last year, 307 such bodies exist in the country. Some local governments also offer incentives. However, it is difficult for local governments alone to provide large-scale incentive packages similar to those offered overseas. Ukraine will in the next few days submit a resolution on the situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol for consideration by the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly and requests support for this document, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze has said. "We call on the international community to consistently respond to cynical violations of human rights in Crimea and increase political and diplomatic pressure on the Kremlin with a view to ensuring the return of the aggressor state to respect for the provisions of international law," she said during an event dedicated to the situation with human rights in Crimea at UN headquarters in New York (the United States) on October 29. Klympush-Tsintsadze noted that the vote for adoption of the resolution was expected in the period between the middle and the end of November this year. She said that in accordance with the UN Charter, ensuring fundamental human rights and freedoms was an absolute priority of the international community. Despite occupation by Russia and the forced introduction of its legal framework, residents of Crimea remain Ukrainian citizens, so the Ukrainian government intends to provide all possible means of protecting their fundamental rights and freedoms in the temporarily occupied territory of the peninsula. "Today I want to reiterate Ukraine's position. We do not trade territory and our citizens for money, oil or gas. Therefore, de-occupation of Crimea, as well as of other temporarily occupied territories, is our absolute priority," Klympush-Tsintsadze said. She also welcomed a September 25 report "Situation of human rights in the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol (Ukraine)" and expressed regret that access to Crimea for the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine had been banned by the Russian occupation administration. "Unfortunately, the scale of crimes and violations committed by the occupation authorities in Crimea after this decision shows that Russia is clearly ignoring its international legal obligations," she said. Klympush-Tsintsadze noted that systematic repressions had turned the Crimean peninsula into a territory without freedom, where Russia applies the worst practices of the Soviet repressive machine. "Anyone who dares to reject the so-called 'reunification with Russia' becomes a victim of willful detention, harassment and torture," she said. During the event, Ukrainian human rights activists spoke about the deterioration of the human rights situation in Crimea and drew the attention of those gathered to increasing politically motivated persecution, illegal methods of investigation, torture and psychological pressure, militarization of the peninsula, illegal mobilization of Ukrainian citizens for service in the Russian army, and persecution of Crimean residents for participation in peaceful assemblies. Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Volodymyr Yelchenko noted that the International Court of Justice had ordered Russia to stop harassment of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people in the occupied peninsula and to ensure education in the Ukrainian language. "We believe that cases of non-fulfillment of the decisions of the International Court of Justice should be thoroughly studied by the UN system in order to finally find a way to force the state to implement these decisions in good faith," he said. Yelchenko added that Ukraine called on the UN to react to Russia's failure to comply with the decision of the International Court of Justice on the situation with the rights of ethnic minorities in the occupied Crimea and oblige Russia to comply with this decision. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Halloween is going to feel less spooky at some elementary schools this year as school officials cancel Halloween festivities and ban kids from wearing costumes on school grounds. Some elementary schools across the country, and one in Canada, have chosen to cancel celebrating All Hallows' Eve after citing some students didnt feel included. We want to be inclusive of all families including those families who dont celebrate Halloween or find purchasing a costume a hardship, officials at Hillcrest Elementary School in Waukesha, Wis., wrote in a newsletter to parents, the Washington Times reported. RELATED VIDEO: Albuquerque elementary school will not celebrate Halloween Now Playing: Parents at Armijo Elementary in the South Valley received letter in the mail saying Halloween will not be celebrated this year. APS says it's typical for schools to not celebrate the holidays in class. Video: KOAT Yet some schools, like Armijo Elementary in Albuquerque, didnt bother to offer an explanation before they announced they were dropping the holiday festivities. According to KRQE, the school issued a letter to parents telling them that students werent allowed to wear costumes, the school would cancel the Halloween parade and also ban Halloween parties in classrooms. The full letter read: Our Fall Celebration on Oct. 31 has been cancelled. Our schools Instructional Leadership Council has decided that classrooms will not have parties. Please do not send your child with any snacks. In addition, students are not allowed to wear costumes to school. Thank you for your understanding. Needless to say, parents werent thrilled. [It] just said some council decided to take it away, it wasnt even the PTA. We werent even notified or had a vote to get it taken away, Destiny Salazar told KRQE. I know my kids are really upset and hurt, and I know a lot of other parents are upset. To make matters worse, some parents say, the school issued a second letter the following day to say that they would have a fall festival 10 days after Halloween. Other schools have come up with their own ways to celebrate in lieu of Halloween by implementing new school holidays to fall on that day. Black and orange day at Boyden Elementary School (Walpole, Mass.), Hat day at Hillcrest Elementary School (Waukesha, Wis.) or Crazy sock day at Scholls Heights Elementary (Beaverton, Ore.) are some of these new celebrations to replace Halloween. Colleges are also taking steps to be more proactive about educating students on not wearing costumes that contain racial stereotypes or appropriations of other cultures. A few colleges have made flyers instructing students on what are appropriate v. inappropriate costumes, while other college flyers go straight to the point and ask: Is your costume racist? Take a look at the slideshow above to see the schools that banned Halloween and enforced stricter costume rules. Special counsel Robert Mueller on Monday revealed an indictment against former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime business partner Rick Gates, as well as charges against former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty earlier this month. The developments stem from a sweeping investigation Mueller is conducting into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence U.S. politics. Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign volunteer, made false statements to FBI officials earlier this year when asked about contacts he had with a foreign professor, according to the criminal complaint. The contact claimed to have high-level Russian connections that could provide "dirt on then-candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of 'thousands of emails,'" and arrange a meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russian leaders all the way up to President Vladimir Putin. The charges against Manafort and Gates, which include money laundering and tax fraud, relate to alleged crimes that predate either of the political operatives joining the Trump campaign. They primarily involve the concealment of millions of dollars they made while working on behalf of a pro-Putin political party in Ukraine. According to the indictment, the duo also obscured the fact that they were working for a foreign government and did not register under the Foreign Agent Registration Act as required by law. Manafort and Gates both pleaded not guilty on Monday. Who are the Ukrainians and Russians for whom Manafort's firm worked? And what impact might scrutiny of those connections have on Mueller's wider probe? That story, in condensed form below, starts in 2005. After gaining prominence working as a political consultant in Washington for major figures including presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Manafort's star faded and he found work for authoritarian leaders in the Philippines, Zaire, and elsewhere. In 2005, Manafort was hired by Rinat Akhmetov, a Ukrainian steel magnate who wanted to burnish his international image. Akhmetov's company was based in a heavily industrialized, mostly Russian-speaking part of eastern Ukraine. He was one of a large group of Ukrainian oligarchs with close ties to Viktor Yanukovych, the leader of the Russia-friendly Party of Regions. Manafort was hired by the political party soon thereafter. "Manafort provided image consulting to Yanukovych and members of his party during the parliamentary elections of 2006 and 2007, seeking to soften the edges of politicians from the rough industrial cities in Ukraine's southeast," wrote my colleagues at the Post last August, when Ukrainian investigators discovered a "black ledger" showing $12.7 million in apparent payments to Manafort between 2007 and 2012 by Yanukovych's party. "He got Yanukovych to comb his hair better, to stay on message during public appearances and to adopt the kind of sharp rhetoric that had worked so well for Manafort's mentor, Republican strategist Lee Atwater," they wrote. "He drilled them on talking points and told them what suits to wear." Yanukovych was successfully elected president in 2010. In those early years in Eastern Europe, Manafort also worked on projects with Oleg Deripaska, a Kremlin-savvy Russian energy magnate who was then one of the world's richest men. Despite rocky patches in their business relationship, Manafort reportedly offered Deripaska weekly briefings on the 2016 U.S. presidential election while serving as Trump's campaign chairman. Manafort's firm did not just work with Yanukovych on domestic politics. Its lobbying on Yanukovych's behalf in Western capitals is why the lack of Foreign Agent Registration Act compliance is mentioned in Mueller's indictment. In Washington, Manafort worked to promote Yanukovych as a pro-Western democrat. But in 2014, Yanukovych was deposed by a popular uprising fueled by anger at his alleged corruption, authoritarianism and preference for Putin over the European Union. Yanukovych fled to Russia and is wanted in Ukraine on charges of high treason. The Post has reported that Ukrainian business records show that Manafort's firm did not close his business operations in the country until April 2016, the month after he joined the Trump campaign (though two months before he become its chairman). Manafort's connections in the region, and their tendency to align with pro-Russian interests, made his appointment as Trump's campaign chairman all the more controversial. Reporting on the nature of those ties became clearer just as Trump was beginning to make more and more pro-Russian comments on the campaign trail. Democratic opponents became vocal about collusion allegations between Trump's campaign and the Kremlin. Manafort's position became increasingly untenable and he was asked to resign in August 2016. Last week, after a fourth woman alleged that former President George H. W. Bush had groped her while they were posing for a photograph together, I received a text message from a male friend. "Ok question," he asked. "Do women really care that HW Bush pinches bottoms and is an old coot?" There are, he added, real things to worry about. As a woman who thinks it is genuinely worrisome that both Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un have access to nuclear weapons, I advised my friend against giving any such opinion in public. To be clear, I understood what he meant. The allegations against Bush seem almost quaint compared to those that have been made against an array of powerful men in recent weeks, since revelations about the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein opened the floodgates--or to those that were made during last year's presidential election against its eventual winner. To me, frankly, they make the former president sound like Georgie Porgie, rather than a sexual predator. Others, however, may see it differently. And what we all need to remember is that our opinions about Bush's behavior itself, or the intentions that motivated it, have no bearing on whether it was, for the women who experienced it, a quote-unquote "big deal." That's a question that can only be answered on an individual basis. This is among the reasons I've been ambivalent about the #MeToo movement that began in the wake of Weinstein's exposure. The women--and men--who've shared personal experiences of sexual assault and harassment have been brave to do so, and the sheer number of stories they've offered has spurred some men to notice a pattern, and reflect. The discussion we're having, as a result, is an important one, but so painfully overdue that it's hard to be optimistic about its potential to effect change. There really should be no need for this hashtag in the first place. Just last year, as mentioned, we elected a new president, despite documentary evidence that he enjoys committing sexual assault and believes he is, if not technically entitled to do so, able to with impunity. After the release of the Access Hollywood tape, more than a dozen women came forward to say that Trump had, in fact, done so to them. He denounced them as liars, and last week Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, confirmed that this is still the administration's point of view. "They let you get away with it," Trump says, in the tape. American women now live in a country that has proven him right about that. Even those who have never been sexually assaulted or harassed--surely they're out there!--might find that painful, even though it's not the kind of blow that results in tangible losses or visible wounds. The same is true of many of the experiences women are reporting now, while saying #metoo, which helps explain why so many have not shared these stories before. Victims of sexual assault and harassment can expect questions that they've almost certainly asked themselves--about what they did to provoke the situation, or how they handled it, or whether it was really, in the grand scheme of things, a big deal. It's incumbent on those who report, in other words, to convince people to believe they're telling the truth--not just about the experiences themselves, but about how those experiences affected them, and why it was reasonable to feel the way that they actually did feel. Even if they are able to, the effort itself can easily exacerbate the sense of powerlessness that many women in this situation are already grappling with, as a result of the experiences they're trying to report because, as it happens, these particular experiences affected them enough to do so--despite the attendant risks, which include going through this whole rigamarole. Those risks are even more dramatic, needless to say, when a woman is making an accusation against a man in a position of power or influence, such as this one. Bush is 93 years old, and uses a wheelchair; he's nonetheless a former president and widely esteemed elder statesman, in a context where many Americans are wondering if we can still esteem anyone. And although it is disturbing to learn that Bush's behavior has not always been appropriate, his response to the women saying so has been, because he seems to recognize some of this. "To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same joke and on occasion, he has patted women's rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner," said Jim McGrath, Bush's spokesman, in a statement. "Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate. To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely." Experience is subjective. That's worth keeping in mind, while reading the stories your friends are sharing on social media, or hearing about another batch of allegations. Many of the interactions women are describing are grossly unethical, or plainly illegal. Others fall into a gray area, and some may not even seem particularly upsetting--but clearly were, for the women saying so. In my experience, for what it's worth, there's usually a logical explanation for that. Over the years, I've become attuned to the ways in which I happen to be insulated from some of the forms of pressure my girlfriends describe. I'm tall, for example, and my grandfather has always told me that God loves us and forgives. I can't take credit for either of those things, but I can recognize the protection they provide from men who might hover menacingly, or lecture women about being polite--sometimes in an effort to intimidate, sometimes without realizing that can be the effect. With that said, you can believe that someone is upset, even if you don't understand why. Men, in particular, should start doing so, or at least give it a try. It may be uncomfortable, as it surely was for Bush, to realize that actions you thought were benign may have had painful effects. And there are, as my friend said, plenty of very real things to worry about these days. But this is one of them, according to many women. And here's something else that most of us already knew: it's a bad sign when your date is rude to the waitress, because he'll eventually hurt you. Maybe Trump wouldn't have access to nuclear weapons, fellas, if you had realized that means you, too. Russia's hybrid military forces attacked Ukrainian army positions in Donbas 15 times in the past 24 hours, with one Ukrainian soldier reported as wounded in action. The ATO forces fired back 10 times, thus suppressing enemy activity, the press service of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO) headquarters has reported. "At the end of the past days, the situation in the combat area did not significantly change, and the enemy continued to concentrate fire activity in the Donetsk sector, using predominantly infantry weapons," the ATO's report says on Facebook posted on Monday morning. In the Donetsk sector, the Ukrainian fortified positions near the Avdiyivka industrial zone were attacked with an automatic grenade launcher and small arms. One Ukrainian fighter was wounded as a result of the shelling. Now he is in a military hospital, his state of health is satisfactory. The militants also used anti-tank grenade launchers and machine guns against the Ukrainian positions near the village of Luhanske and the town of Svitlodarsk, as well as infantry fighting vehicles near the village of Zaitseve. In the Mariupol sector, the Ukrainian positions near the town of Maryinka had been attacking from an anti-tank grenade launcher and small arms for more than an hour. he Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has established the consideration of the accommodation of the residences for the Ambassador and consuls of the aggressor state upon a written request of the state to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. According to resolution No. 811 dated October 25, the Cabinet established that the issue of placing a diplomatic mission, consular institutions of the aggressor state, residences of their leaders is considered by the Foreign Ministry on written request of such state. At the same time, the issue of placing a diplomatic mission, consular and representation offices of an international intergovernmental organization, except for the residences of their leaders, is considered on the basis of a written request of the sending state or the relevant body of the international intergovernmental organization to the Foreign Ministry. Diplomatic missions, consular institutions of the represented state and representatives of international intergovernmental organizations shall, within ten days, inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in writing about the new address for the accommodation of the residences of their leaders. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs keeps records of the places of residence of employees of diplomatic missions and employees of consular offices, who are granted privileges and immunities in accordance with international treaties of Ukraine. It is a fact that 2011 was not one of the 10 warmest years on record. But this doesnt change other facts. It doesnt mean, for example, that 2016, 2015 and 2014 arent the three warmest years on record. They are, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Just as 2010 and 2013 are the fourth and fifth warmest years on record. Just as 2012 was the ninth warmest year on record. No one would reasonably point to 2011 and say that somehow this shows the weather hasnt been warmer and warmer in recent years. But thats the type of argument U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, is making in his criticism of Express-News reporter Brendan Gibbons recent article about the triple-digit weather here. Climate models predict about 60 triple-digit days a year here the second half of the century. To point this out is to be alarmist, Smith wrote in a letter to this newspaper. He noted, for example, in 2017 there were 15 days of 100-degree weather, the same number of days in 1909 and 1964. Last year San Antonio only had six days of 100-degree weather, a significantly lower number of days than observed in the 1940s and 1950s. This is true, but it lacks accuracy because it ignores a broader trend. Some years are warm, and some years are cool. Some decades are warmer than others. Unfortunately, recent decades have been exceptionally warm in San Antonio. We know, for example, that in the 1910s there were 73 days with triple-digit temps, per National Centers for Environmental Information and Applied Climate Information System. We also know in the 1950s there were 125 days with triple-digit temps. And we know that in the 1970s there were just seven triple-digit days. And we also know temperatures have surged into unprecedented territory here. In the 1990s, there were 144 triple-digit days in San Antonio. In the 2000s, there were 148 such days. In the 2010s, were at 174 triple-digit days (so far). Weve never had so many triple-digit days in a decade. Not even close. Were not sure why Smith insists on telling San Antonio residents this isnt so. It is hotter here than it has been in recorded history. That might change from one year to the next, and it might be attributable to sprawl and heat island effect, not just climate change, but the recent trend is clear. In his letter, Smith criticizes the modeling used to predict future extreme heat here. Historically, there has been a large disparity between future temperature predictions and what has been observed, he wrote. Is this accurate? We checked with Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon, an atmospheric sciences professor with Texas A&M University. It is true that global temperatures over the past decade are generally somewhat lower than climate model projections, Gammon wrote in an email. But, he continued, this has been taken into account by researchers and experts. Compared with the 1980-1999 period, models predicted an increase of 0.7 degrees Celsius by 2017. The increase was roughly 0.5 degrees Celsius. I would characterize this as a small discrepancy rather than a large discrepancy, he wrote. But decades, even centuries, are short periods of time. If we zoom out further, we can see the rise in heat coincides precisely with an extreme rise in carbon dioxide emissions. Over the past 400,000 years, carbon dioxide levels fluctuated up and down, but since 1950 they have been at unprecedented and soaring levels. This is according to NASAs climate change website under the heading, Climate change evidence: How do we know? The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability) to be the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia, the article says. What this means, among many dynamics, are warmer oceans and depleted ice sheets, sea level rise and extreme weather. In San Antonio, this means more triple-digit weather. Maybe not every year, as Smith points out. But the trend is definitely alarming. The lesson here is that scientists are working diligently to provide accurate information about our warming planet and the implications. But its easy to pick and choose bits of that information, and bend it to a preferred argument. Perhaps we should be alarmed. In any case, why is it alarmist to let science inform policy? Hines, a Houston-based real estate firm that is the dominant landowner at the Rim, plans to build a four-story luxury apartment complex at the shopping center. The 384-unit, 11.4-acre complex will be Hines first multifamily project in San Antonio and its eighth in Texas, according to a news release. Hines has accumulated roughly 140 acres of land at the Rim since 2014, with 1.2 million square feet of retail space. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has signed law on the ratification of Protocols No. 15 and No. 16 to the European Convention on Human Rights, Volodymyr Ariev, a Petro Poroshenko Bloc member in Ukrainian parliament, said. "The president signed the law on ratification of the 15th and 16th protocols to the European Convention on Human Rights! This is an important document that clearly regulates the state's obligations to the European Court of Human Rights and details the rules for filing lawsuits with the European Court of Human Rights. The Supreme Court of Ukraine is also becoming the body which can appeal to the ECHR to interprete the Convention," Ariev wrote on Facebook on Monday. According to him, this is yet another proof that Ukraine fulfills its obligations to the Council of Europe. Currently, the website of the Verkhovna Rada does not contain data on the signing of this law by the president. In September Poroshenko submitted a bill on ratification of protocols No. 15 and No. 16 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. "Protocol No. 15 and optional protocol No. 16 to the Convention were drawn up by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The documents will contribute to the improvement of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), reduction ofterms for decision making by the court and increase the human rights protection standards at the national level," the press service of the Ukrainian president said on Friday. Protocol No. 16 will allow the Supreme Court to receive an advisory opinion from ECHR before issuing its ruling regarding the interpretation or application of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Protocols Nos. 15 and 16 to the Convention were signed by Ukraine on June 20, 2014. Protocol No. 15 shall enter into force on the first day of the month following the expiration of a period of three months after the date on which all High Contracting Parties to the Convention have expressed their consent to be bound by the Protocol, apart from Article 4 that shall enter force following the expiration of a period of six months after the date of entry into force ofthis Protocol. Protocol No. 16 shall enter into force on the first day of the month following the expiration of a period of three months after the date on which ten High Contracting Parties to the Convention have expressed their consent to be bound by the Protocol. As of September 6, 2017, 45 states signed Protocol No. 15 and 35 ratified it, while 18 states signed Protocol No. 16 and eight ratified it. Protocol No. 16 to the convention has already been signed by 18 states, eight of them expressed their consent to be bound by this protocol. The Verkhovna Rada adopted the corresponding bill on October 5. On October 12 it was signed by Verkhovna Rada Speaker Andriy Parubiy. And on October 13 the document was sent to the president to be signed. Business / Finance Cryptocurrency has been such a fast growing, unregulated asset class that a Member of Parliament raised a question in session, eliciting a response that no regulations were planned. Oct 28, 2017 | By Jonathan Ho Cryptocurrency has been such a fast growing, unregulated asset class in Singapore that Saktiandi Supaat, Member of Parliament for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC raised a question in session yesterday, 4 October 2017. Supaat asked: (a) How prevalent is the use of cryptocurrency in Singapore; and (b) what measures will MAS introduce to regulate Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). Singapore Financial sector, among the most private (account information security) and strictest (in terms of regulation), found the governments position on the matter of cryptocurrency in Singapore vocalised by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Monetary Authority of Singapore: No plans to regulate Cryptocurrency The Minister of Finance highlighted that cryptocurrency is not considered legal tender by the government. While some people have put their trust in them and accept them as a means of payment, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether are not backed as a legal medium of exchange by the Central Bank, even if they can be used by people in the community to pay for goods and services. According to Shanmugaratnam, MAS has been monitoring the use of such virtual currencies and at the moment, about 20 Singapore retailers like restaurants and online shops currently accept Bitcoins, hence, the government does not consider their use to be prevalent. That said, Singapore is cognizant of the fact that in countries like Japan, use of cryptocurrency is approaching wide adoption but in the context of Singapore financial industry, use of virtual currencies as a mode of payment is not significant. Trading is generally for speculative investment purposes, and the volume is low compared to other countries such as US, Japan and Hong Kong. Due to its relative low volume, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) does not regulate such virtual currencies per se, However, MAS is regulating the activities associated with cryptocurrencies that fall within their purview as a financial regulator: Due to the anonymous nature of the transactions, MAS shares concerns about the use of the blockchain medium for money laundering and terrorism financing risks. Currently MAS is working on a new payment services regulatory framework that will address these risks. In light of their use for fund-raising, these virtual currencies can go beyond their uses for just payments and evolve into second generation tokens representing benefits such as ownership in assets, like a share or bond certificate also known as ICOs or initial coin offerings, MAs has been monitoring these ICOs given the recent number of ICOs have been structured out of Singapore in recent months. As of 1 August 2017, MAS clarified that if a token is structured in the form of securities, the ICO must comply with existing securities laws aimed at safeguarding investors interest. So the requirements of having to register a prospectus, obtain intermediary or exchange operator licences, will apply. These intermediaries must also comply with existing rules on anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing. Currently, MAS has not issued new legislation specifically for ICOs but will continue to monitor their development and consider more targeted legislation if necessary. While there is concern of public attraction to virtual currencies and digital tokens due to their recent exponential rise in value, it is not within MAS ambit as financial regulator to police all products that people put their money in thinking that they will appreciate in value its focus is securitised interests in assets such as shares in a company. But recognising that the risks of investing in virtual currencies are significant, MAS and the Commercial Affairs Department have published an advisory alerting consumers to these risks, and are working together to raise public awareness of potential scams. You can read the Minister of Finances full statement on Singapore Government stance on cryptocurrency at MAS. Lycoming College rose to the 101st spot in the Washington Monthly Liberal Arts 2017 rankings, representing an increase of 80 positions in two years. The College joins Berea College in Kentucky, who topped the rankings, as well as Haverford College, Franklin & Marshall, Dickinson College and other Pennsylvania colleges on this years list. Washington Monthly rates schools on contributions to the public good in three categories, including social mobility recruiting and graduating low-income students; research producing cutting-edge scholarship and Ph.D.s; and service encouraging students to give something back to their country. Lycomings current standing reflects its commitment to offering a distinctive liberal arts education, including the benefit of enhanced academic experiences, to promising students, regardless of their ability to pay. Lycoming aspires to be recognized as one of the very best liberal arts colleges in the country, and this placement on the Washington Monthly Liberal Arts 2017 is evidence that this college is on a trajectory of enhanced national recognition, said Kent Trachte, Ph.D., president of Lycoming College. We will continue to innovate and educate in a way that delivers a high-impact liberal arts and sciences education to young minds from across the country. The full Lycoming College entry can be viewed at https://washingtonmonthly.com/2017college-guide?ranking=2017-rankings-national-universities-liberal-arts. The Colleges upward movement in Washington Monthly, as well as in rankings from U.S. News & World Report, Colleges of Distinction and The Princeton Review Best 382 Colleges - 2018 validates Lycoming as one of the nations best undergraduate institutions. Border guards of the Kyiv separate checkpoint at the Zhuliany checkpoint (Kyiv Airport) have detained a Russian citizen who was placed on the international wanted list, the Ukrainian State Border Service (SBS) reported on Sunday, October 29. "When registering passengers of the Barcelona-Kyiv flight, a Russian was found on Interpol's database. The man, born in 1970, was wanted by the Russian law enforcement agencies for large-scale fraud," a statement on the SBS website says. Ukraine's Interpol Bureau in Kyiv was informed about the situation. The citizen was handed over to National Police employees. According to the State Border Service, since the beginning of the year, border guards have already recorded nearly 2,600 people placed on the Interpol database, identifying more than 1,800 offenders. Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Russias Military Exercise Zapad 2017 is causing Heartburn in the (...) by R.G. Gidadhubli Russia and Belarus have jointly conducted military exercises known as Zapad (West) 2017 running through from September 14 to 20, 2017, which was witnessed by the Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 18. Russia holds the military exercises every four years, rotating them with drills in three other parts of the country. The location of the Zapad 2017 exercise assumes geo-political significance since it is in the western region of Belarus which borders NATO members, namely, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, as well as Ukraine. It also includes the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which lies between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. In this military exercise 70 aircraft and up to 680 pieces of military hardware, including tanks, artillery units, and ships, were employed. Zapad 2017 held near the NATOs eastern flank has fanned already deep tensions between Moscow and the West. Being aware of this fact the Chief of Russias Armed Forces General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, during his meeting with the chairman of the NATO military committee, Petr Pavel, held on September 7, reassured him that the joint military exercises with Belarus were long-planned and defensive and not aimed against any third country. Notwithstanding assurances given by Russia, the Zapad 2017 military exercise has caused heartburn to many Western countries, particularly the NATO allies. Several Western military and political leaders have expressed concerns about Russias massive military manoeuvres. Firstly, the General Petr Pavel, the chief of the NATOs Military Committee, stated on September 16, that the manoeuvres could lead to unintended consequences of potential incidents during the exercise. Hence he was candid in making a strategic statement: We have high concentration of troops in the Baltics. We have a high concentration of troops in the Black Sea and the potential for an incident may be quite high because of a human mistake, because of a technology failure. Secondly, while addressing the BBC on September 10 on Zapad 2017, the NATO alliances Secretary-General, Jens Stoltenberg, called on Russia to be fully transparent which is understandable and at the same time accused that Russia has a history of under-reporting the number of troops in its exercises and using loopholes in international agreements to avoid international observation. Moreover, he was even candid in stating that military exercises could be used as a disguise or a precursor for aggressive military actions against their neighbours linking it to Russias alleged invasion of Georgia in 2008 and Crimea in 2014. But this is not logical because unlike in the present context, Russia did not declare to the world nor invited observers while undertaking and frankly justifying its military actions both in Georgia and Crimea. Thirdly, Stoltenberg has been critical of Russia and candid in his statement to the Associated Press that while the NATO routinely invited Russia to watch its war games as a confidence-building measure, Russia has never, since the end of the Cold War, invited any NATO ally to observe any of their exercises. Hence possibly realising this fact Russia has rightly made a change and invited NATO observers so far as Zapad 2017 is concerned. Moreover, observers from the Baltic states were also invited. Fourthly, speaking on September 7 in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, the French and German Defence Ministers condemned the Zapad 2017 exercises, saying Moscow was seeking to show off its military might on the borders of the EU and NATO. Moreover, they accused Russia that this act was a demonstration of capabilities and power and a strategy of intimidation. Similarly, the British Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, has contended that Russias military manoeuvres with Belarus are aimed at provoking the NATO and testing its defenses. Apart from the West European countries, Russias former close Warsaw Pact allies have expressed their strategic concern about this exercise. For instance, Polands National Security Bureau head, Pawel Soloch, has been critical in stating that the exercises are a demonstration of the Russian states capacity to hold full-scale war action. Similarly, the Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenkos foreign policy adviser, Kostiantyn Yeliseyev, said on September 14 that Zapad 2017 is very dangerous since they are taking place just near the border with Ukraine. He even accused that Russia might keep as long as possible Russian military troops and weaponry near the [Ukrainian] border and then use them as a platform for a possible future offensive operation. Hence to counter these misgivings Russias Deputy Defence Minister, Aleksandr Fomin, asserted that Western politicians and media outlets have been spreading myths about a Russian threat in connection with the exercises, but that none of these paradoxical theories has anything in common with the reality. Moreover Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused the West of whipping up hysteria over the Zapad military exercises. Fifthly, NATO member-states have taken steps to reassure their citizens and have demonstrated by taking Russias military exercises seriously. For instance, as per reports the US Air Force fighter jets are now patrolling the Baltic airspace. Poland is closing its airspace near Russias Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad and four NATO battle groups are keeping 4500 troops on alert in the Baltic region and Poland. The United States on August 29, 2017 sent additional jet fighters to patrol the skies over the Baltic states. Instead of accusing Russia, as rightly opined by some Western analysts, including Rikard Jozwiak who covers the European Union and NATO, Zapad 2017 is actually a very good opportunity for the NATO to get a better sense of what the Russian military is actually capable of, how it can handle logistics, move different units and exercise command and control over combined armed formations in the Baltic theater. This is because this is one of the largest exercises Moscow has conducted on its western borders since the Cold War. Sixthly, the contention of the West is that the numbers of the participating Russian forces in the Zapad exercise would be more than 100,000. This may not be correct since as per the statement by Russia and Belarus the Zapad manoeuvres involve 12,700 troops comprising 7200 from Russia and 5500 from Belarus. Under the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) rules, known as the Vienna Document, states conducting manoeuvres involving more than 13,000 troops must notify other countries in advance and be open to observers. Hence Russia has rightly claimed that it is fully abiding by this rule. Seventhly, Russia has invited observers from the West and NATO, which is an indication that this is a routine and open exercise. In spite of this some section of Western political leaders and analysts are skeptical about it and accusing that Russia is threatening its neighbouring countries. It is important to note that the NATO has sent three observers to Belarus and Russia to monitor Zapad, but in spite of this it has repeatedly called on the two countries to allow broader monitoring of the drills. On this issue the Russian state-run TASS news agency reported on September 16 that observers from seven countries had arrived in Belarus to monitor the exercise. Moreover, Belarusian Defence Ministry spokesman Uladzimer Makarau has stated that Belarus has invited representatives from Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Ukraine, Sweden, and Estonia to monitor the joint strategic exercise. In spite of this Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite was among those who voiced alarm about the exercises, labelling them as a sign that Russia is preparing for a serious conflict with the NATO. Eighthly, the West often adopts double standards while dealing with Russia. This is evident from the fact that while criticising Russia for Zapad 2017, NATO allies with more than 1800 troops from 14 countries are taking part in US-led military drills near the western Ukrainian city of Yavoriv. In fact these Rapid Trident exercises are held each year since 1996; began on September 8 and will end up on September 23. These two-week drills are designed to test and build Ukraines interoperability with its NATO allies and partners. Thus in conclusion it is evident that the Russian Defence Minister not only gave assurances that Zapad 2017 is a regular and routine military exercise not against any country but also invited observers from NATO and Baltic states. In spite of that officials of the NATO and Western European and Baltic countries have accused Russia that this military exercise causes a threat to their security. Moreover, the consequences of Zapad 2017 are evident. Already strained relations between Russia and its neighbours might become worse. This is evident from the fact that Estonia has barred three Russian journalists from covering an EU meeting in Tallinn held in September accusing them of being guilty of subversive activities, which seems to be far from the reality since the OSCE has suggested to the Estonian Government to reverse its decision. Russias relations with Ukraine, which are badly affected since 2014 due to the Crimean issue, might aggravate due to this military exercise. Dr R.G. Gidadhubli is a Professor and former Director, Centre for Central Eurasian Studies, University of Mumbai. Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > On the 70th Anniversary of Establishment of Indo-Russian Diplomatic (...) Nehru had seriously thought of evolving Indias foreign policy even before India attained independence. An outline of the foreign policy had already begun to emerge in his mind even before he assumed any government position in the final years of Indias freedom struggle. It was in his position as the Vice-President of the Viceroys Executive Council and a member for external affairs that he made the first official announcement of Indias foreign policy. In a nationwide broadcast on September 7, 1946, he said India would participate in international conferences as a free nation with our own policy and not merely as a satellite of other nations. She would cooperate with other nations in the cause of peace and progress, but would keep away from the power-politics of groups aligned against each other. Speaking warmly about the Soviet Union, Nehru said: To that great nation of the modern world, the Soviet Union, which also carries a vast responsi-bility for shaping world events, we send greetings. They are our neighbours in Asia and inevitably we shall have to undertake many common tasks and have much to do with each other.1 The Interim Government soon started appro-aching various countries for the purpose of establishing diplomatic relations. India had by then diplomatic relations with the US and China but not with the USSR. The saga of the Indo-Russian diplomatic relations goes back to the end of the Second World War when Indias freedom struggle was in its final stage. The victory over German fascism, to which the Soviets contributed enor-mously, brought tremendous changes in the international arena, making Moscow a key player in global affairs. This also facilitated the transfer of power from the British Raj to the leadership of the Indian National Congress. India always considered its ties with the Soviet Union special. After being released from a jail on June 15, 1945, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Indias would be first Prime Minister, was interacting with mediapersons in Delhis grand Imperial Hotel. He looked around and asked if any Soviet correspondent was there in the press conference. When Oleg Arestov, the then TASS correspondent to India, was introduced to him, Nehru requested him to sit next to him on the same sofa. I am glad that a Soviet journalist is present in India during these historic days, said Nehru, a gesture that underscored the significance he was attaching to the USSR in his foreign policy thinking. Nehru obviously had nurtured the hope that the TASS correspondent would convey the message to the Soviet Government. He was clear in his mind that the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, that emerged as a strong power from the devastating war, would send signals to the members of the international community to recognise Indias independence The task of exploring the possibilities of establishing diplomatic relations with the USSR was entrusted to V.K. Krishna Menon, who had been the Secretary of the India League in London and a trusted friend of Nehru. In a press conference in New Delhi on September 26, 1946, Nehru said that India so far had no direct diplomatic contacts with her northern neighbour, the USSR, as she had with the United States, and he proposed to explore the possibilities because, besides the significance and relevance of the USSR, it is always desirable to have good neighbourly relations with neighbours. In fact, one of the first steps that Nehru took after joining the Interim Government that ruled over India before the attainment of complete independence was to search for ways to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, recalls veteran Indian diplomat K.P.S. Menon, who played a significant role in obtaining the Soviet diplomatic recognition of India. The Interim Government soon approached various countries with the objective of establishing diplomatic ties with them. Nehru sent his trusted lieutenant, V.K. Krishna Menon, to Paris in order to meet the head of the Soviet delegation participating in the Paris Peace Conference without informing about it to the British Viceroy, the formal head of the Interim Government. Krishna Menon met Soviet Foreign Minister Vyachislav Molotov on September 28, 1946 in Paris where the latter was partici-pating in the International Peace Conference following the end of World War II, and handed over Nehrus letter to him that expressed Indias desire to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. The letter said: We sincerely desire to develop friendly relations with the Soviet Union and exchange diplomatic and other representatives with your country. We hope that cooperation between India and Russia will be mutually beneficial and serve the interests of peace and progress in the whole world. However, a Reuters dispatch from Paris said that the purpose of Mr Menons meeting was to gain Soviet support for Indias new Central Government to offset, particularly in foreign relations, the predominant British influence. Later, upon his return to London, Menon himself explained the purpose of his visit to Paris: I went to Paris to see M. Molotov.... because the Government of India cabled to me to consider what assistance the Soviet people should give in the present food crisis. Secondly, I visited M. Molotov because the policy of the Indian Governmentannounced when Pandit Nehru assumed office afterwardsis that the new government will open up relations with all the countries as soon as possible. The Govern-ment of India having sent that message to Molotov, I was asked to see him and follow it up.2 Referring to media reports that the purpose of his meeting with Molotov was to seek Russias support against the British, Menon said that it is mischievous to suggest that we are asking support of any one country to offset another, Indias policy, he said, did not envisage partial or exclusive relationships, but friendliness toward all. The purpose of Menons visit to Paris was later confirmed by Nehru himself in the Constituent Assembly. Nehru said: .....the conversations with M. Molotov were very friendly and he expressed his willingness to exchange diplomatic representatives with India. It was proposed that this matter be gone into further in December next.3 India and the Soviet Union came closer to each others viewpoints at the first session of the United Nations General Assembly where on questions such as the treatment of Indians in South Africa, the future of South West Africa, the trusteeship agreements, and the principle of unanimity of the great powers in the Security Council they found themselves in substantial agreement. The Indian delegation included Vijaylaxmi Pandit, V.K. Krishna Menon and Justice M.C. Chagla, who were described as progressives by a leading Soviet indologist, Diakov. This delegation was appointed by the Interim Government and its composition was largely determined by Nehru. The practice of racial discrimination in South Africa had been one of the worst forms discrimination practised anywhere in modern times. This issue affected Indian sentiment very deeply as there were tens of thousands of Indians living in South Africa. There could be no doubt as to which side the Soviets sympathies and support would lie on the issue of racial discrimination. In fact, this was one of those questions which the Soviet Union had successfully used to criticise the Western countries and to make an appeal to the people in the colonial world. Indian raised the issue with great hope and feelings. Vijaylaxmi Pandit, leader of the Indian delegation, in her speech in the Assembly said: The issue we have brought before you is by no means a narrow or local one, nor can we accept any contention that a gross and continued outrage of this kind against the fundamental principles of the Charter can be claimed by anyone, and least of all by a member-state, to be a matter of no concern to this Assembly of the worlds people. The bitter memories of racial doctrines in the practice of states and governments are still fresh in the minds of all of us. Their evil and tragic consequences are part of the problem with which we are called upon to deal.4 Molotov, in his general speech to the Assembly, expressed his support for India, saying: Although India is a member of the United Nations, and consequently, in accordance with the Charter, her relationship to Great Britain should be based on sovereign equality, have you not heard here in the General Assembly Indias appeal for support and assistance? It is time that the just demands of India were recognised.5 Molotovs reference to India in his speech was widely reported in the Indian media. Andrei Vyshinsky, the Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister, on behalf of the Soviet Union, came to Indias support in the General Committee where the Union of South Africa argued that the question should not be taken up because it was purely an internal one for South Africa ... In the joint session of the Political and Security Committee where the issue was debated at considerable length, India argued that it was a case of violation of the principles of the Charter and involved a great moral problem. In a resolution submitted to the Committee, India requested the General Assembly to call upon the Union Government to revise their general policy and their legislative and administrative measures affecting Asiatics in South Africa, so as to bring them into conformity with the principles and purposes of the Charter. Though India was warmly supported by many other countries, especially the countries of Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, the most eloquent and forceful support came from the Soviet Union. Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet Permanent Representative in the Security Council, spoke In Indias support in the joint session of the Political and Legal Committees. Later in the General Assembly, Vyshinsky said that the South African effort to shift the issue to the judicial plane aimed at submerging it, as the legal soil is very marshy. But the Soviet Union did not want the question to be submerged. The support of the USSR on the question of discrimination naturally pleased India and strengthened her image of the Soviet Union as an anti-imperialist nation and one which stood for complete equality among races. Not only did Mrs Pandit and other members of the Indian delegation openly thank the USSR in the United Nations, later Nehru also sent personal letters to the Soviet, Byelorussian and Ukrainian governments to thank them for their support. The Soviet and Indian delegations held similar views on a host of important issues in the UN General Assembly. On the issue of South West Africa and trusteeship agreements, the Soviet position largely coincided with that of India. India strongly supported the Soviet stand on the question of the veto in the Security Council. It was the Soviet Union which had made the maximum use of this right during the past year. The United States and Great Britain were able to muster majority support for their position, and that is why were less enthusiastic about the veto power. They tried to find some way to restrict the Soviet use of the veto. India considered the veto right was undemocratic and believed that it should not be used arbitrarily; nevertheless, in her view it was necessary in the existing international situation. The outcome of the above session of the General Assembly was significant from the point of view of Indo-Soviet relations and created a conducive atmosphere for establishing diplomatic ties. It was in this atmosphere of growing under-standing and amicability between India and the USSR that a delegation from the Soviet Academy of Sciences arrived in India in January 1947 to participate in the Indian Science Congress. India attached great importance to the participation of Soviet scientists in the event. Nehru, who was elected as the President of the Indian National Congress, speaking at a reception organised in honour of the Soviet scientists delegation, said: For many years past we have looked with very great interest towards the Soviet Union for many reasons but more especially because of the tremendous achievements of the Soviet Union during the last quarter of a century or so. You are our neighbours and as neighbours we must develop closer contacts with each other. But apart from being neighbours, you have been pioneers in many fields and you have transformed the vast tracts of your country before our eyes with a speed that has astonished humanity. Inevitably, when we want to produce great changes in India, we want to learn from your example... among the many things you have done in this tremendous flowering of science in the Soviet Union and the application of that science to the betterment of human beings.6 Professor V.P. Volgin, on behalf of the Soviet delegation, expressed the hope that their partici-pation in the Congress would contribute to the strengthening of the scientific ties, cultural intercourse and friendly relations between the two countries. The Soviet Union also sent a large delegation of the Soviet Transcaucasian and Asian republics Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbe-kistanand a delegation of observers on behalf of the Soviet Union to the famous Asian Relations Conference held in Delhi in March-April 1947. The conference discussed such topics as national movements for freedom, migration, racial issues, economic development, cultural problems and womens problems. The massive Soviet participationnine out of twentyfive countries seemed quite out of proportion, and the invitation to them must have been sent at Nehrus own initiative. India and the USSR got ready to establish diplomatic relations in such an atmosphere of growing cordiality and friendship. Both sides expressed complete readiness for establishing diplomatic relations between them and decided to have further talks in this regard. The Soviet Government had sent a reply to Nehru in the beginning of October 1946, expressing readi-ness to promote friendly relations with India. K.P.S. Menon, who was part of the Indian delegation to the UN General Assembly at New York at that point of time, was instructed to hold further talks with Molotov, who was present there for an exchange of diplomatic missions between the two countries. In November 1946, Nehru declared in the Constituent Assembly of India that Molotov had confirmed his governments desire to exchange diplomatic missions with India. The Indian delegation at the UNO and its member, K.P.S. Menon, received similar instructions from Pandit Nehru to hold talks with the Soviet delegation. Krishna Menon did meet Molotov and delivered to him Nehrus letter. Though Molotov in principle welcomed the idea, concrete steps could not be taken for a few months for establishing diplomatic ties. Reuter in its dispatch, dated November 19, 1946, reported that Soviet officials were not informed about the proposal made by Nehru, the Vice-Premier of the Indian Interim Govern-ment, to Molotov, the Soviet Foreign Minister, and its content for exchange of diplomatic representatives between India and the USSR. On November 12, 1946, All India Radio reported that Nehru gave his proposal to the Soviet Foreign Minister, Molotov, through his personal representative, Krishna Menon, at the Paris Peace Conference. The delay in taking concrete steps for establishing diplomatic ties happened because of lack of response from the higher echelons on various proposals coming from diplomatic personnel. It was not easy to implement Nehrus plan to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. The British Government did all it could to prevent the establishment of diplomatic ties between India, that was yet to attain indepen-dence, and the USSR. After all, the British Government was in charge of foreign policy till the declaration of Indias independence on August 15, and it did not want establishment of direct contacts between Moscow and Delhi. There is nothing new in this, after all competition between Russia and Britain for dominance in the East had been going on for centuries. India and Russia developed mutual contacts ever since the 15th century, which broke after the British established its colonial rule in India. In the 19th century, the Russian threat became the cardinal element in British politics in South Asia. Soviet power gave ideological colour to the existing geopolitical confrontation between Moscow and London. It is the British which created the iron curtain between Russia and India. Towards the twilight years of the British Raj, Great Britain could not exercise control over India through old methods. The British adminis-tration understood the consequences of creating direct hurdles on the independent course of the future Indian Government in international affairs. In such situation, the British Govern-ment adopted the tactics to sabotage Nehrus efforts through behind the curtain intrigues. In November 1946, when Nehru thought his emissary, K.P.S. Menon, would have to visit Moscow, Delhi made a request to the Foreign Office to give instructions to the British ambassador in the USSR to extend all assistance to Menon. The British Foreign Office reacted positively to the request even as it sent instructions of a different nature to the British ambassador in Moscow. The note to the ambassador said that the Indian Government indicates that it wants to establish diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and we are interested to delay the process as much as possible till the situation in India does not become clear. Though the British authorities could delay the process, they understood that their levers of influence on the Indian authorities are not very strong any more. In this connection, the India Office note said: Till now the portfolio of the Minister of Foreign Affairs was in the hands of Viceroy; the responsibilities rested with departments in which during the last 20 years though the number of Indians increased, the British bureaucrats constituted the majority. That is why there was no difficulty in controlling the work by the British. When the Foreign Ministry goes to Indian hands, a new situation is created. Nevertheless, the British authorities did not hesitate to interfere in the conduct of foreign affairs of the emerging independent country during the transition period. One of the Foreign Office documents, dated February 1947, says how concerned were the British authorities regarding the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and the USSR. It is interesting to note how the Foreign Ministry Departments were reorganised after Nehru declared the Interim Governments foreign policy. Significant restructuring took place in the Indian Department of the Foreign Ministry with new personnel; divisions led by Indians were now headed by the British. A special section was organised in the Ministry that was in charge of Russian affairs and led by Major N.F. Alston. What could Nehru do to offset the manipu-lations of experienced British diplomats and politicians? Towards the end of the Second World War, India, on the one hand, was still a colony, and, on the other, it was one of the founder members of League of Nations; became a member of international organisations; had diplomatic relations with the US and China. True, Indian diplomatic representatives were called as general-agents, not high commi-ssioners that emphasised its dependent status. In 1945 India was invited to participate in the San-Francisco International Conference that laid the foundation of the UNO. India was repre-sented in the conference by two delegationsthe official delegation appointed by Great Britain and the other one was representing the Indian people with permission from Britain. The unofficial delegation was led by Nehrus sister and prominent public figure, Vijaylaxmi Pandit. Thus Indians were not quite novice in international affairs. There were highly professional administrators and diplomats whom Nehru could trust. The Interim Indian Government from the outset declared its position on a host of international issues and succeeded in achieving Soviet recognition overcoming obstacles created by the British Government. On September 7, 1946, Nehru announced a declaration of foreign policy of the Interim Government of India. He stressed upon the fact that the establishment of the government was the cornerstone of the future complete indepen-dence of India. He expressed his hope that, despite the history of the conflict in India, his motherland would establish friendships and begin fruitful cooperation with the United Kingdom and all the members of the British Commonwealth of Nations. The Interim Government declared its neutrality and absence in the military blocs. Speaking of the USSR, the Indian leader admitted that the Soviet Union, along with the United States, was a great power of modernity, which was responsible for everything that happened in the world. Nehru welcomed the USSR as a great Asian neigh-bour of India, and supported the idea of a common resolution of all the general tasks. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet state viewed the Indian freedom movement and the policies of India in the immediate aftermath of its independence through the curved prism of ideology structured by J.V. Stalin, V.M. Molotov and A.Y. Vishinsky. India was of marginal interest to the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. Stalins erroneous assessment was that the Indian leadership with its colonial and imperial intellectual back-ground and its urban origins would not make India a useful partner of the Soviet Union. How were the diplomatic relations between the USSR and India established? According to the Archives, on September 27, 1946, through the Indian delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, V.M. Molotov received a letter from Nehru, who expressed the desire of the Interim Government of India to establish friendly relations with the Soviet Union and to exchange diplomatic representatives. On September 28, a personal representative of Nehru, Krishna Menon, in conversation with Molotov invited him to begin negotiations on the establishment of bilateral relations in Moscow in the second half of November 1946. In his letter to Nehru dated October 2, 1946, Molotov announced the readiness of the Soviet Government to develop friendly governmental ties with India. On November 12, discussing this issue in the Legislative Assembly, Nehru said: Our negotiations with Molotov were very friendly, and he expressed his desire to exchange diplomatic representatives. This statement was met with thunderous applause. In December 1946, Krishna Menon was received by Kiril Novikov, the Soviet Ambassador in New York, and discussed with him the possibility of the visit of Jawaharlal Nehru to Moscow to establish personal contacts with the leaders of the Soviet Government. Menon made it clear that it could lead to serious political agreements. He had thought Nehrus visit to be organised after the establishment of diplomatic relations, and suddenly noticed that it would be realised soon in London, apparently through Menon himself. In Moscow, they explained the abrupt change in negotiating tactics of the Indian side in such a manner: The Hindus under direct pressure or because of fear of the English, and, perhaps, for some other reasons, decided to probe our opinion about the possibility of negotiations in London instead of Moscow. On January 7, 1947 in Delhi, a meeting of the All India Science Congress with the Soviet delegation took place. Welcoming the scientists from the USSR, Nehru again looked forward for the establishment of the Indo-Soviet relations, and, in the interview with the Telegraph Agency of the Soviet Unions correspondent Gladyshev, said that the Indian Government wanted this process to be developed as soon as possible, and in this regard took all the necessary measures ... but all depended not only on the Indians. Nehru said that he hoped the USSR would take the same steps ... and by summer, the Soviet Embassy would already be founded in India. Molotov concluded that India openly made it clear: The answer rests on us. By the end of winter 1947, India had already established diplomatic relations and exchanged ambassadors with the United States (October 1946), China, France (February 1947). In addition, Krishna Menon, appointed as the official representative of the Indian Government in London from December 1946, began a series of talks on establishing relationships with a number of European countries: in January 1947 Belgium, in Brussels; in Februarywith Sweden in Stockholm. He was also going to start this work with Poland, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Iran. The fact that India did not experience a period of diplomatic isolation, undoubtedly contributed to the revitalisation of its foreign policy. As the Foreign Office documents suggest, the British Government managed to get detailed information about all the stages of Indo-Soviet negotiations. Viceroy Lord Wavell was of the opinion that Nehru established contacts with the Soviet leadership violating the Constitution. However, he could not convey this openly to Nehru as the information was coming through confidential sources. Reuter in its dispatch had informed about Krishna Menons meeting with Soviet Foreign Minister Vyachislav Molotov. According to the Reuter report, the two leaders wanted to ensure Moscows support in order to offset British manoeuvre in the domain of international affairs. However, this was not enough to censure the Indian Interim Government publicly. Wavell did this only after Nehrus statement about Indo-Soviet negotiations on establishment of diplomatic relations in the Constituent Assembly. Nehru made this important statement in the Constituent Assembly on November 12, 1946. Only after this, the Viceroy made a public statement in which he warned the Indian Government about the consequences of establishing diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. It is evident from the Viceroys letter to Nehru that the former insisted that the latter had to discuss the issue in the Cabinet meeting, after consulting with Liyakat Ali Khan, the Finance Minister in the Interim Government, and a representative of the Muslim League. Nehru, rejecting the idea, refused to hold consultations with Liyakat Ali Khan. While doing so, he argued that the issue of establish-ment of diplomatic relations comes under the purview of the Ministry of External Affairs and does not at all concern the Ministry of Finances. This is how the Viceroys recommendation was rejected. Nehru understood that the Viceroy simply wanted to prolong the process of establishment of diplomatic relations with Moscow by insisting to have such consultations. After this, the British Foreign Office realised that further pressure on Nehru on the issue would be fruitless and undesirable. Nehru, in the meantime, left no stone unturned in order to make the Soviet Government aware about his intention. He made additional efforts outside the diplomatic arena to achieve his objective. In this connection the following episode is quite interesting. Soviet Trade Representative Nikolai Dorodnitsin, serving in India from 1945 to 1947, was to return back to Moscow after his tenure was over. On learning about this, Nehru invited him to his office on February 12, 1947. During the meeting Nehru requested Dorodnitsin to convey to the Soviet Government about the readiness of India to establish diplomatic relations with Moscow as quickly as possible. Dorodnitsin did pass on the information about his meeting with Nehru and the latters request to the Foreign Trade Office people. Nevertheless, things did not move as quickly as Nehru wanted them to move. Taking the initiative to establish diplomatic relations between India and the USSR, Nehru possibly waits for reply from the Soviet officials about the timing of arrival of the Indian delegation at Moscow for holding talks, said the note, dated January 8, 1947 addressed to Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Yakob Malik. In this connection for accelerating the decision on the issue, it is necessary to give instructions to our Charge-de-Affairs in Britain Com Kukin to inform Krishna Menon about the readiness of the Soviet Government to receive the representative of the Indian provisional government for holding talks. Waiting for instructions. However, most likely no instruction followed quickly, hanging the fate of the proposal in the air. According to K.P.S. Menon, Nehru at the outset thought that perhaps the Indian dele-gation had to go to Moscow for holding talks with the Soviet officials on the issue of exchange of diplomatic missions. For a long time, it could not be decided who would form the Indian delegation. In the meantime, new developments took place on the issue. K.P.S. Menon, a member of Indian delegation to the UNGA at New York, had a talk with the ambassador of Canada at Moscow, Vilgress. Vilgress narrated how exchange of diplomatic missions between the USSR and Canada happened following exchange of notes between the ambassadors of both countries at London. The moment Nehru came to know about this, he asked Indian diplomats to study the issue. Vijaylaxmi Pandit raised the issue of the possibility of establishment of diplomatic relations between the USSR and India through simple exchange of notes before Molotov. Vijaylaxmi Pandit on December 5 in a telegram informed Nehru that she had a talk with Molotov on the matter... he thinks special talks on the issue at Moscow is required. Molotov hopes that India and Russia would exchange diplomatic missions very soon. After his talks with Mrs Pandit, Molotov invited the Indian delegation for lunch where he was present alone from the Soviet side. In this connection K.P.S. Menon writes in his memoirs that in this meeting, where wine and vodka flowed like river, it was decided to exchange diplomatic representatives for resolving all practical questions. This made our visit to Moscow not obligatory in the middle of the Russian winter in subzero temperature in the dress that was hardly useful for this purpose. K.P.S. Menon, in his telegram to Nehru on December 8, 1946, informed that considering Molotovs position and the Canadian precedent, I think it is not obligatory but possible and quite expensive for Indian Government to send a special mission to Moscow in advance. In spite of all these developments, no substantial progress could be achieved in establishing diplomatic relations for months. Apparently, the initiative from below to establish diplomatic ties quickly was ignored at the higher level. This is evident from the archival material available of late. On December 16, 1946 Krishna Menon, during his meeting at New York with K.V. Novikov, the Soviet ambassador to London, reminded him about the possibility of formalising diplomatic relations between Moscow and Delhi in London to where he had been designated as Indian ambassador. Menon expected to receive quick reply to his proposal given to K.V. Novikov made on the instructions from Nehru. In his note, dated February 13, 1947, the head of the South-East Asia Division of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, Y.K. Prikhodov, wrote that Menon expected to receive the reply by December 20, 1946. If it was not possible he would like to receive the reply at London through the Soviet embassy. However, a quick reply to Menons proposal did not follow. In the meantime, Nehru during his meetings with Soviet representatives in Delhi, was given to understand that the issue of establishment of diplomatic relations between the USSR and India rested with the Soviet Union. Prikhodov noting about the difficulties, pressures that Nehrus government was facing from reactionary circles of India concluded that in this situation establishment of diplomatic ties with the USSR and opening of a Soviet representative office would no doubt be a factor that would strengthen the hands of democratic forces in their struggle against reactionary forces. Prikhodovs note reached Molotov. However, according to Soviet indologist, Albert Beltsky, the delay was the result of confusion and misunderstanding about the nature of Indian independence, state and Nehru himself. Soviet diplomats and experts were well-aware of the balance of forces on the side of the Indian National Congress, in which the Left-wing was led by Nehru. The Soviet leadership was keen to establish personal contacts with Nehru, the head of the future independent India. The declassified documents of the Russian Foreign Ministry suggest about the possibility of Nehrus visit to Moscow in February 1947. The head of the South-East Asia Division of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Y.K. Prikhodov, sent a note to Deputy Foreign Minister Yakob Malik reminding him about the meeting of Krishna Menon with the member of Soviet delegation in the General Assembly, K.V. Novikov, at New York. Krishna Menon, during the meeting, informed that Nehru wanted to come to Moscow between April and October 1946 for holding talks on political issues. He was ready to undertake the visit even if the invitation was given in a non-official form. Apparently, the Soviet Government did not give any reply to this suggestion in spite of the fact that the note emphasised that closeness between India and the Soviet Union would have strengthened the hands of Nehrus government and the Left-wing of the Indian National Congress. However, practical steps from the Soviet side did not take place following Prikhodovs note. The report sent by Yakob Malik to the Soviet Foreign Minister Vyachislav Molotov on the basis of Prikhodovs note contained the statement of the Indian ambassador to the US, Asaf Ali, who had said India extended its hand of friendship to Great Britain, the US, Russia and all countries of the world. Those states which recognise the external role of India in the world must shake the hands extended by India. It can be concluded from this that the Soviet Foreign Ministry people understood that it was undesirable to delay the invitation to Nehru but could not accelerate the process or were not in a position to do that. The draft document thus failed to reach Molotovs desk. Whatever may be the reason, Nehrus visit to Moscow did not take place. Nehru could establish personal contacts with the Soviet leadership only after Stalins death. Ultimately, the Soviet Government, on its part, tried to simplify the formal procedure for the establishment of diplomatic ties with India. Both sides agreed to issue simultaneous public statements for quick implementation of the agreement for exchange of diplomatic representatives between the two countries. K.P.S. Menon, in his telegram to Nehru dated December 8, 1946, stating about establishment of diplomatic relations through exchange of notes, wrote: It is possible to do it through preliminary negotiations between one of our representatives, accredited in London, Washington or Nankin, and the Russian ambassador. I can do it personally at Nankin where I have warm relations with the Russian ambassador. After returning from the UN General Assembly to Nankin, K.P.S. Menon on April 2, 1947 delivered a letter to the Soviet ambassador to China, A.A. Petrov, which proposed with the objective of realisation of achieved agreement to make public declaration about the intention of India and the USSR to exchange diplomatic representatives in the rank of the embassy. This letter contained the text of the communique, meant to be published in Moscow and Delhi at the same time. On April 6, the Soviet Government informed about its consent to establish diplomatic relations with India and the announcement of the text of the communique; it was also agreed that statements would be made in Moscow and Delhi on April 13 at 17-30 and 20 hrs respectively. Finally, diplomatic relations between the two nations were established formally on April 14 through the issuance of a Joint Communique. To preserve and further strengthen the friendly relations existing between India and the USSR the Government of India and the Government of the USSR have decided to exchange diplomatic missions in the rank of embassy, said the communique. The Soviet recognition had profound significance as it meant the Soviet recognition of Indias independence even before it was formally declared in August 1947. The USSR became one of the very first countries to extend diplomatic recognition to independent India. The announcement was made at Moscow in a routine manner without any pomp. Possibly, the leadership at Staraya Ploschad, the seat of the CPSU headquarters, and Smolenskaya Ploschad, the seat of the Russian Foreign Ministry, did not wish to attract attention to the fact that the USSR recognised the Government of the Indian national bourgeoisie. Only after many years, the significance of the event that opened a new chapter in the history of bilateral relations was properly assessed, describing it as historic. For India, the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union was a happy moment. The Soviet press combined the welcome with its denunciation of those British and Indian elements who did not desire friendly relations with the Soviet Union. New Times, in an article, welcomed it as an event of no mean inter-national significance, and considered it a sign that India is moving towards an independent policy. Growing contacts between India and the Soviet Union drew some alarming comments from the West. A typical Western view was expressed by Le Monde, which remarked that since Britain was about to leave India, the Soviet Government has more and more turned its eyes on that country. It further said: It is largely the Left-wing Hindu national movement which desires close understanding with the USSR of which one of the most eminent leaders is Pandit Nehru. It is this political celebrity who is the most active advocate of the Soviet Union in India. The Soviet-Indian friendship is still only at its beginning but one need only spend a few weeks in Moscow to notice that the Indian theme appears more and more frequently in the press.7 Nehru insisted that the Indian embassy in Moscow should be set up even before a formal declaration of Indias independence and succeeded in getting the British Viceroys consent for this. It is not surprising that Nehru chose none other than Indias veteran diplomat and his own sister, Vijaylaxmi Pandit, as indepen-dent Indias first ambassador to the Soviet Union. Vijaylaxmi Pandit was a prominent leader of the Indian liberation movement and had earned a name for her fight against racism and colonialism at the UN platform. The choice of Vijaylaxmi Pandit spoke of the importance that Nehru attached to relations with the Soviet Union. Talking to diplomats assigned with the job of setting up the Indian embassy in Moscow, Nehru said: You are going to a friendly country from which we were cordoned off by colonial rulers. We have to make up for the lost time and strengthen our ties with the Soviet Union as we are neighbours and we have many things in common. We do not have and should never have contradicting interests. On April 13, 1947 the Soviet Union and India agreed in principle to exchange diplomatic missions. On April 25 the Council of Ministers of the USSR decided to authorise the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to open the Embassy of the Soviet Union in Delhi. In turn, the preparation for the opening of the Indian Embassy in Moscow also began. The First Secretary of the Embassy, N. Kaul, in a telegram dated August 5, 1947, sent to the Protocol Department of the Soviet Foreign Ministry, requested apartments of 11 rooms, 2 cars Packard or ZIS for a month until the arrival of the Indian transport. The Indian delegation with Vijaylaxmi Pandit as its head left for Moscow on August 3. Mrs Pandit in this connection writes in her memoirs that, We left Delhi on August 3. A special aircraft with the picture of Indian flag on its body was booked for us. .. It was standing on the runway like a large silver bird. We all had wonderful mood, we felt proud of the fact we have to open the first Indian embassy abroad .... Vijaylaxmi Pandit, who arrived in Moscow on August 9, 1947, a week before the declaration of Indias independence, was accorded a red carpet welcome. The Indian embassy in Moscow became the interim governments first new diplomatic mission abroad. Though India had embassies in the US and China before this, they were considered as continuation of missions established on behalf of the British-Indian Government. But the Moscow embassy became truly the first everdiplomatic mission of independent India. The establishment of diplomatic relations no doubt heralded a new era in the history of friendly relations between our two great civilisations and peoples that opened the floodgates for the unique and unprecedented bilateral cooperation in subsequent decades. The Indian delegation was accorded a very warm welcome at Moscow. Mrs Pandit in this connection writes in her memoirs: The Indian embassy at Moscow was awaited and was received very warmly ... there was red carpet, red roses, and promises of friendship. Red roses and red carpet at the time of meetings are considered as special gestures of respect at Moscow, which was accorded to Indian diplomats and created a festive atmos-phere. The first Indian ambassadors accredi-tation was held with unusual festivities, which was a pleasant surprise for Vijaylaxmi Pandit. She in this connection wrote in her memoirs that she was overwhelmed when during her talks with Nikolai Shvernik, the Chairman of Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, after the ceremony of presentation of credentials he took interest about the fate of the draft law she had once proposed asking if the position of the Muslim League on the issue of unification of the election constituencies had softened. This along with other questions put to me spoke how well-informed are Russians about the develop-ments in India, she wrote to Delhi. When the Indian ambassador Vijaylaxmi Pandit arrived in Moscow on August 9, 1947, the Soviets, as we have seen, were to some extent critical of the Indian leaders for many of their actions in domestic affairs, including their acceptance of the British proposal for the division of India. For this, even Nehru had been criticised. But there was no complaint or criticism as far as Nehrus foreign policy was concerned. As Diakovs paper presented at the June session of the Academy of Sciences had shown, a close distinction between these two aspects of Nehrus government had been carefully maintained. The Soviets still hoped that India would be supportive of Soviet policies in international affairs. The choice of Mrs Pandit, sister of Pandit Nehru, as ambassador seemed to encourage this hope. It was a delegation led by her which had made the first, faithful encounter with Soviet representatives at the UN General Assembly a year earlier. The Soviets therefore were delighted at her appointment. A Reuter dispatch from Moscow stated that her appointment, because of her past record, is felt here to be a happy one in the interests of Soviet-India relations. On August 8, 1947 at a reception by A.Y. Vyishinsky, Mrs VijayLaxmi Pandit raised the question of the presentation of her credentials, and politely wished it to take place before August 15. Mrs Pandit explained: This day, the British state power is transferred to the Hindus and it will be widely celebrated in India. In this regard, she would like to meet the Independence Day as an accredited Ambassador. Vyshinsky promised her to find such an opportunity and satisfy that request Soon after her arrival, Mrs Pandit was given good embassy quartersan unusual courtesy in the conditions that prevailed in the post-war Soviet capital. Time magazine, with a slight touch of sarcasm, wrote: The practical rewards she (Mrs Pandit) was enjoying in Moscow last week were earned by her defence of Russias use of the veto, her hostility to Britain and occasional cracks at the US...while other nations were still waiting to be allotted suitable embassy quarters in the crowded capital, newly arrived Mrs Pandit went straight to the head of the diplomatic queue, was promptly given a well-kept brick residence by Soviet officials. On August 9, 1947 Mrs Pandit was received at the Soviet Foreign Ministry by Andrei Vishinsky, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and had a cordial conversation with him. On August 13, two days prior to the declaration of Indian independence; she presented her credentials to Soviet President, N.M. Shvernik, at the Kremlin. On August 15, a representative of the Soviet Foreign Ministry attended the flag-hoisting ceremony and celebrations at the Indian embassy and expressed the greetings and good wishes of the Soviet Government for the newly independent country. On the same day, the Indian ambassador gave a press conference day which, together with her message, was carried in full by both Pravda and Izvestia. In her message to the Soviet news agency TASS, Mrs Pandit referred to Indias emergence into freedom after a long period of dependence and said that new India wanted to continue her past tradition of sending emissaries of peace and goodwill by establishing friendship with other nations. She then referred to Indias special links with the Soviet Union, observing that both had shown the capacity to harmonise diverse races and civilisations. On the basis of this friendship, said Mrs Pandit, both India and the Soviet Union could work together to establish a century of freedom, justice and peace for humanity. On August 14, 1947, when few hours were left before the start of a grand ceremony of the transfer of power from the British colonial administration to the first national government of the Indian Union, Vijaylaxmi Pandit, on behalf of her country, appealed to the Soviet people. In the letter, which was published in Soviet national daily Pravda, she declared the basic principles of the foreign policy of Nehru and stressed upon the importance of the ending of British rule in the Indian subcontinent: Today, India is awakening after a period of inactivity, and it faces a mammoth task to mobilise its resources and the construction of national life, so that she was able to take its rightful place among free nations of the world and contribute to the resolution of those problems that threaten peace and progress of mankind. On the issue of the Soviet-Indian relations, Mrs Pandit said: We feel a special bond with the Soviet Union, as both India and Russia have shown the ability to integrate and orchestrate different races and civilisations ... Im proud that I can convey this message of free India to the Soviet Union. On August 17, on behalf of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, V.M. Molotov sent a telegram to Nehru on the occasion of Indias Independence Day. In response Nehru emphasised: We will always be proud of this day and will be sincere and stand in our quest for freedom to devote to social and economic progress of our people and promote peace and justice around the world. In the implementation of our international goals, we look forward to cooperating with the government and peoples of the USSR. [The above article consists of excerpts from the authors forthcoming book, Tracing History of Indo-Russian Diplomatic Relations.] Endnotes 1. The Statesman, Delhi, September 8, 1946. 2. Ibid., Delhi, September 1, 1946. 3. Ibid., Delhi, November 13, 1946. 4. UN General Assembly, Official records, Part-11, First Session, Plenary meetings, 37th meeting, October 25, 1946. p. 76. 5. Ibid., 42nd meeting, October 29, 1946, p. 834. 6. The Statesman, Delhi, January 8, 1947. 7. Le Monde, Paris, April 16, 1947. Prof Arun Mohanty belongs to the Centre for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is also the Director of the Delhi-based Eurasian Foundation. Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Trump is Sinking in the Quicksand of West Asia An amazing week is unfolding in West Asian politics. It began with three dramatic develop-ments on Monday (October 9)Turkish troops crossing the border into Syrias Idlib province; announcement in Moscow on agreement to sell the S-400 missile defence system to Saudi Arabia; and, the freeze on visas by the US and Turkey for each others nationals. And the week promises to be climactic in the US-Iranian relations. On Monday (October 9) the Iranian Foreign Ministry warned that any move by the Trump Administration to impose sanctions against the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps will be a strategic mistake and Tehrans response will be firm, decisive and crushing. It echoed a warning by the head of the IRGC, General Mohammad Ali Jafari that if the US designated his organisation as terrorist, Iran will regard the US forces anywhere as the allies of the Islamic State and target them. Indeed, the weekend is slated to witness the refusal by US President Donald Trump to meet the October 15 deadline for endorsing Washingtons partici-pation in the Iran nuclear deal. The common thread that runs through all these developments is the US standing in West Asia vis-a-vis the three most important regional statesTurkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. Syria: The Turkish military operation in Idlib is directed against the Al-Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front. The operation stems from the Astana process where Russia, Turkey and Iran have worked out the establishment of a de-escalation zone in Idlib. The US is the odd man out looking in. The backdrop is provided by the upswing in Turkish-Russian relations and the recent Turkish-Iranian rapprochement. Turkey and Iran have a common interest to counter the US-Israeli encouragement to Kurdish separatism. Clearly, the Turkish-Iranian rapprochement is having a positive fallout on the Syrian situation. Saudi-Russian ties: The announcement in Moscow on Monday (October 9) regarding the sale of the S-400 missile defence system to Saudi Arabia signifies a tectonic shift in the Middle East politics. Saudi Arabia has been a pivotal state in the US Middle East strategies since the mid-forties. It is now embarking on a non-aligned foreign policy. The visit by King Salman to Russia last week, Aramcos dealings with Rosneft and Gazprom, OPEC-Russia agreement to cut oil productionthese suggest that the US-Saudi axis is steadily dissolving. Interes-tingly, Tehran is calmly viewing the Saudi-Russian rapprochement. These trends put a dagger at the heart of the entire US strategy in the Gulf, which had historically fostered a bloc mentality among the Sunni states by fuelling their tensions vis-a-vis Iran. Sensing that Saudi Arabia and Russia might clinch a deal over the S-400 missile defence system, Washington hurriedly announced last Friday (October 6) that it proposed to accede to the pending request from Riyadh for purchase of the rival THAAD missile system. (Due to Israeli pressure Washington was dragging its feet on the $15 billion deal.) A keen tussle is developing and its outcome will be a litmus test of the US capacity to influence Saudi decision-making. Turkish-American spat: Last week Turkish security nabbed a local employee of the US Consulate in Istanbul for alleged links with the Islamist preacher, Fetullah Gulen, who is living in the US and whom the Turks suspect as having been involved in the US-backed coup attempt last July against Erdogan. Washington went ballistic. From all appearances, Turkish intelligence may have nabbed a key accomplice of the CIA who had acted as a go-between during the failed coup attempt last year. The statement by the US ambassador in Ankara, here, betrays nervousness. Woven into this is Washingtons support of the Kurdish separatist groups, which Erdogan sees as the hidden agenda of Americans to destabilise Turkey. The Turkish-American relations are in serious difficulty. Iran nuclear deal: Trump is about to announce this weekend (October 14-15) that Iran is not in compliance with the July 2015 nuclear deal. If that happens, US lawmakers have a 60-day window to decide whether to re-impose sanctions against Iran. The Israeli lobby is active on the Capitol Hill. To be sure, pressure will mount on Tehran to respond and retaliate somehow. There is an influential section of opinion within the Iranian establishment that never trusted the US intentions. Clearly, the door is closing on a gestation process over confidence-building that might have incre-mentally led to a US-Iranian normalisation. (Read an insightful opinion piece in the New York Times by Wendy R. Sherman, a former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, who was the US lead negotiator for the Iran nuclear agreementTrump Is Going to Make a Huge Mistake on the Iran Deal.) All in all, the US is running out of friends and allies in West Asiawith the solitary exception of Israel. Its traditional Cold War-era NATO ally, Turkey, is turning unfriendly; Iran is preparing to confront the US; GCC is in turmoil but the US is watching helplessly; and, most important, Saudis are exploring the seamless potentials of a non-aligned foreign policy. Trumps record in West Asia is proving dismal. Ambassador M.K. Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for over 29 years, with postings including Indias ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-1998) and to Turkey (1998-2001). Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > What Invasion has Shown Up Need for World Publicity From N.C.s Writings October 20 this year marked the fiftyfifth anniversary of the Chinese aggression on India. On this occasion we are carrying N.C.s New Delhi Skyline published in Mainstream seven days after the invasion. A fresh appraisal of values has overtaken New Delhi with the shock of the massive Chinese aggression on the far-flung frontier from Ladakh to NEFA. In the course of a single week, the nation faced the dangerous implications of a militarily powerful neighbour indulging in cold-blooded armed offensive, having prepared for it under cover of overtures for negotiations. This discovery of Pekings Bismarckian strategy has given the most serious jolt to our policy-makers in both the Defence and External Affairs Ministries. For, with all our talk of preparadnes, the policy-makers in New Delhi had never bargained for a full-scale armed encounter with a first-class military power, since the bitter cold war over the border dispute was never regarded as likely to be forced through a decision in arms. The immediate reaction to the reverses suffered so far on the battle-fronts has been a sense of bewilderment. The public as well as political observers in the Capital had taken the govern-ments words at face value and believed that whatever might be our difficulties in Ladakh, our defences in NEFA were solid. As a matter of fact, it appears now that for long the authorities were wrongly fed by complacent intelligence reports about the Chinese military build-up across the MacMahon Line. It was only about the middle of this month that the estimates had to be revised and a sense of urgency prevailed with regard to the massive concentration of the Chinese forces, superior to us both in numbers and in fire-power. However, even at this late hour, it was fondly believed that the Chinese intrusions across the MacMahon Line were in the nature of slow penetration in the Dhola area alone, presumably to assert that the Chinese version of the MacMahon Line did not tally with ours. It was therefore that the Chinese offensive beginning on October 20 came as a stunning blow to the Defence Ministry as much as to the lay public. From available indications, it is clear that the high-ups in our Defence Ministry and Army Headquarters had not prepared themselves at all for such a move by the Chinese. Although initial reverses by themselves do not unnerve competent observerseven the most formidable Army in the world can be taken unawares by a surprise blitzkreigwhat has troubled quite a few in the Capital is the failure of our Defence Command, particularly on the NEFA sector, to show mettle as able strategies to match the Chinese. The admission of Chinese superiority in men and arms has not very much helped to redeem the prestige of our Generals. Reports about the ineffe-ctiveness of the command of the newly-formed corps for the NEFA sectorwith its commanding General proving a disappointmentare current in the Capital. In contrast to the proven heroism and sturdy patriotism of our jawans, the record of the brass-hat has not been all too shining. Naturally enough, this has raised many questions about the way the Defence Command is manned, and inevitably, this situation has streng-thened the hands of those who have for years been clamouring for the Defence Ministers head on a platter. While this clamour by itself has no doubt a political colour, there is no gainsaying the fact that even among those who have so long abstained from joining the chorus against Sri Krishna Menon, there is today a definite questioning about the wisdom of some of the top appointments in the Armed Forces. The question is being persistently asked: can we under the present Command expect ever to regroup our forces and make a determined stand against the Chinese? The facile explanation that the Chinese are better-equipped and more seasoned soldiers for mountain warfare is countered here by some recalling our brilliant performance in the Kashmir campaign when Indian tanks could move into the snow-covered Zozi La. It is therefore nothing surprising that even quarters which did not approve of General Thimayya dabbling in politics as they call it, recall the Generals role as a purely military strategist and contrast it with the poor show of the present Command. All this has created a political situation in New Delhi in which the pressure for the removal of Sri Krishna Menon from the Defence Ministership has made considerable headway. It is no longer possible to dismiss it as a tiny handful of the pro-West lobby. Support for this move has significantly gained strength in the Congress Parliamentary Party, and it would take a lot of strain on the part of the Prime Minister to defend the Defence Minister against accusations of complacency and misjudge-ment in the matter of higher appointments in the Armed Forces. Reports about short supply at the front would also not redound to the credit of the Defence Ministry, particularly after the accent placed on defence production in the last few years. Politically, the Chinese offensive has created complicated problems for our foreign policy-makers. The need for more arms, and to get them quickly, has naturally strengthened the hands of those who wanted the government to give up its allergy to taking military aid from the West. Although the Prime Minister has so far stubbornly held out against the pressure for arms aid, he has conceded the need for buying arms quickly. More arms would naturally mean less money for the Plan, and although New Delhi does not entertain the idea of scrapping the Plan, the question of pruning it has already come up. Under the circumstances, there is the danger, not very remote, of our foreign policy orientation leaning more and more towards the West. Thanks to Pekings Machiavellian diplomacy-cum-military offensive, the lobby that has gained most in the last one week in New Delhi is the pro-West and not the anti-West lobby. Against this background the entire policy of non-alignment has come under fire. Critics of this policy are now assailing the Prime Ministers diplomacy as having unsound foundations, for it is based, they say, neither on the strength of arms nor on allies who will supply the arms. In a world of realpolitik and with such an unscrupulous neighbour as China, noble sentiments alone cannot provide the policy that can ensure national security and protect national interests: such an opinion is gaining more hearing here today. This school of thinking is reinforced in its argument by the stand taken by the Western Press over the India-China conflict. Conspicuously, few among the more important ones have come out in earnest support of the Indian case in the dispute with China. It appears as if they are keen on teaching New Delhi a lesson for following the policy of non-alignment, and giving it back for all the homily poured out from here against their policy of military alliances against communism. Viewed in this context, significance is attached here to the new emphasis evident in New Delhi on explaining Indias stand not only to the Afro-Asian world but to the communist countries as well. The Prime Ministers letter to Mr Khrushchev is believed to have explained the position with regard to the reported Soviet suggestion for a ceasefire made just before the massive Chinese attack of last week-end. It is felt here, rather acutely, that on the propa-ganda front, Peking is ahead of us, having assiduously spread the poison against India, and particularly against the Prime Minister, while from our side, even the bare minimum of explanatory material has not gone to all these friendly govern-ments. This lag is being made up now, for it is felt that if China has to be tackled effectively on the diplomatic front, she needs to be isolated and her India-baiting propaganda has to be shown up. Although Sri K.P.S. Menons Moscow trip was planned a long time ago, it is expected that he will take the opportunity of briefing the Soviet leaders, which will not be a difficult task considering his standing in Moscow. While the demand for diplomatic rupture with Peking has gained ground in the last one week, the government is opposed to it mainly because it holds on to the principle of a negotiated settlement of the border dispute. But Pekings overtures could be accepted only when the withdrawal of the Chinese Army to the other side of the Himalayan watershed is clearly assured. The fact that China is pursuing a policy of forcing decision by arms is being highlighted in this explanation campaign, and the proof of this is provided by the attack on Tawang, far south of the MacMahon Line, and of our Ladakh post at Daulat Beg Oldi, recognised by China as being in Indian territory by even their 1960 map. Incidentally, the impression is strong in New Delhi that Moscows hands being full now with the crisis over Cuba, the Soviet authorities would not like the India-China dispute to flare up as a world issue. On the issue of Cuba, responsible quarters in the Capital hold it against Washington, particularly against the Pentagon, for forcing a crisis. It is also felt that the US excitement over Cuba is partly the by-product of the Congressional elections in the first week of November. With the crisis on the frontier, the authorities are naturally anxious to see that the morale of the country is kept intact. In this connection, the position of the Communist Party is under close study. The ambiguous resolution of the Central Secretariat of the Party issued last weekwhich refrained from even naming China as aggressor has had an adverse reaction in both official and non-official circles in the Capital. Sri Danges attempt to retrieve the situation coupled with numerous units of the Party coming out attacking the Chinesethereby virtually repudiating the Secretariat resolutionhas partly helped to improve matters so far as the Communist Party is concerned. Responsible quarters here, however, are awaiting the stand that the National Council of the CPI is going to take at the emergent meeting called for next week. Particularly critical has been the reaction here to the conspicuous absence of any criticism of Chinese aggression by prominent sections of the leadership known for their ideological leanings towards Peking. The attempts of a West Bengal leader of the Party to play the quick-change artiste by demanding guns and not sweets for the jawans has hardly impressed anyone here since there has been no criticism of Chinese misdeeds on his part. The position of such elements in the Partys leadership, it is felt here, is an anomaly when the overwhelming majority of the CPI ranks as also leadership have come out in open condemnation of the Chinese aggressioin. Not much respect is evident here also for those in the CPI leadership who preferred to sit on the fence, as it were. For, it is said here that although sitting-on-the-fence may be a convenient pastime at times, it may not be comfortable when the fence is a barbed-wire fence. And this countrys relations with Peking today are hedged by the barbed wire of an armed front. While few have ever heard of Chinese believing in astrology, it is worth noting that Mr Chou En-lais infamous demand of Indian territory south of the MacMahon Line was dated September 8, 1959. Three years later, exactly on September 8, the Chinese armed offensive started for grabbing the very same territory to which Mr Chou En-lai had put forward his claim. (From N.C.s New Delhi Skyline in Mainstream, October 27, 1962) Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Doubts about the Election Commission The Election Commission has never done it before and had developed an independent status since T.N. Seshan. He had given it a stature which was admired by the electorate. But the way in which the EC is dilly-dallying with the poll dates in Gujarat gives room to several conjectures. Some even see the hand of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who hails from Gujarat. What it means is that the people have come to doubt the independence of the Commission. The Gujarat Assemblys term ends on January 22, 2018 while that of the Himachal Pradesh on January 7. Last week, Chief Election Commi-ssioner A.K. Joti announced the election date only for Himachal Pradesh and one doesnt know when the dates for the Gujarat polls would be notified. Understandably, this has created a contro-versy which could have been avoided with better management. Former CEC S.Y. Qureshi has rightly commented that the move to break from the ECs convention of announcing elections together in States where incumbent governments are completing their terms within six months had raised serious questions. CEC Joti has cited relief and rehabilitation of the flood-affected in Gujarat as one of the reasons for the delay in poll announcement in the State. But nobody is buying this argument because, as former CEC T.S. Krishnamurthy said, the emergency flood relief work is to be done by bureaucrats, not politicians. The Model Code of Conduct does not stand in the way of any emergency relief work. It does not prevent existing projects from continuing. Only new projects should not be announced during the MCC period. The MCC is a common code that aims to provide a level-playing field to all contesting candidates during election season by guiding the conduct of the incumbent government, political parties and candidates. All this controversy could have been avoided with better management, Krishnamurthy said to a newspaper. I suppose they (EC) could have announced both (Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh polls) together, either one week before or one week after. I am not looking at whether the decision was influenced or not. I am concerned with whether, administratively, a solution could have been found. I think I would have found a solution. This observation by the former CEC has put a question-mark against the EC. Once again, the doubts that have come to the fore are that the Election Commission is run by the bureaucrats under the guidance of the Central Government. The image and reputation of the Commission has been severely damaged. Take, for instance, what the Gujarat Govern-ment did anticipating the announcement of poll dates in the State. The officials of the Vadodara Municipal Corporations Standing Committee went into a huddle for one-and-a-half hour to push ahead with a string of announcements. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani inaugurated several projects of development work worth Rs 780 crores besides extending free logistical services to Sri Sri Ravishankars Diwali event in the city. Not only that the Ahmedabad Municipal Council which conducted the Shahri Garib Kalyan Mela, distributed 3262 kits including cheques, funds and bonds under the Manav Garima Yojana with 4103 getting the govern-ment largesse. The kits distributed included sewing machines, utensils, tri-cycles, dairy products, street-vending carts and other household items. The total sum of the kits and cheques distributed came to Rs 165 crores. The cheques included a minimum of Rs 2000 given to school girls as Vidyalakshmi bonds, Rs 5000 to parents with two girls and who have undergone sterilization, Rs 10,000 as a revolving fund by the AMCs Urban Community Develop-ment department and the highest Rs 50,000 for inter-caste marriage. The big-ticket schemes include a Rs 165.75-crore project for providing drinking water to the city from the Mahi River at a capacity of 150 million litres per day and beautification of the Sursagar Lake at a cost of Rs 38 crores. Incidentally, beautification of the iconic lake was also undertaken before the 2012 Assembly polls. Union Ministers and Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States made a beeline to Gujarat to extol the government schemes. The Prime Minister, too, visited the State soon after and kick-started the poll campaign with his usual scathing attacks on the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. He went on to say that the family will destroy Gujarat because it dislikes Gujarat and Gujaratis and called the coming Assembly election in the State a fight between development and dynasty. The old question comes to be raised yet again is whether the bureaucrats should at all be made members of the Commission? They are under the discipline of the Central Government and can be influenced. Although Seshan, a bureaucrat, disproved this thesis every bureau-crat cannot be a Sehsan. The governments influence is inevitable. We all remember the political storm created by former CEC N. Gopalaswami when he suo motu sent a recommendation to the President that Election Commissioner Navin Chawla should be removed from office on the alleged ground of partisanship. Gopalaswamis action did raise several eyebrows within the govern-ment on account of its timing as well as its departure from well-settled readings of the relevant constitutional provisions. Subsequently, Chawla was elevated to the CECs post on the advice of the government which had rejected Gopalaswamis plea for his removal, saying there was no merit in the allegations against the Election Commissioner. The noise raised over the appointment of an Election Commissioner makes little sense because it is a constitutional position. The government should itself be careful and not do anything which would cast a shadow on the independence or integrity of the Commission. The Commission itself should act in such a manner that there is no room for any controversy. There is still time to retrieve the situation. The Election Commission should straightaway announce the dates of Gujarat poll to avoid any further challenge to its non-partisanship. Prime Minister Narendra Modi can save the situation and see to it that the Commission announces the date immediately. He is unnecessarily getting mixed up with the dates of the Gujarat poll. The author is a veteran journalist renowned not only in this country but also in our neighbouring states of Pakistan and Bangladesh where his columns are widely read. His website is www.kuldipnayar.com Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Will China Ever Democratise? by Bhartendu Kumar Singh This article was written before the Communist Party of Chinas 19th Congress. But it is being belatedly published in view of the durability of its content. Chinas emergence as a great power is quite established now. It is the worlds most important economic and military power after the US. The Chinese Renminbi is increasingly dominating the international currency market. China is executing some of the most fascinating great power projects like the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Yet, China has not arrived politically and continues to be an authoritarian country with an aggressive foreign policy. As it prepares for the 19th Party Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), one wonders if China will ever democratise. China is not like any other great power. Washington D.C., New York City and Los Angeles serve as fatal attractions as the globo-polis. Ditto for London and Paris that remain the citadels for education, culture and fashion despite the declining great power status of the UK and France. China, on the other hand, remains a mysterious country primarily due to its authoritarian set-up. Beijing is still a ghost city for outsiders due to its linkage with the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 and does not attract too many businessmen and tourists from outside China due to its enigmatic air and absence of the due process of law. Foremost power theorist Joseph Nye Jr laments that China does not score many marks on soft power indices. Prima facie, it is because of absence of liberal democratic values. China still doesnt have quality educational universities and institutes; no autonomous development of societies away from government control; the culture of dissent and debate is primordial to Chinese political culture; internet is highly regulated; and above all, China shows no inclination of even incremental movement towards a liberal and tolerant political order. As a result, Chinas soft power investments like Confucian institutes in many countries have not yielded the desired results. Following the East Asian model, democracy was expected to follow development in China. However, the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 saw thousands of students butchered under the rolling tanks. Top CPC leaders, sympathetic to democratic movement, were purged and imprisoned. Since then, the CPC has not allowed any space for growth of democracy. Instead, the leadership systematically distinguished the Chinese model of development from the East Asian model of development. Over the past three decades, China has evolved a political system called as political meritocracyby Daniel Bell, the legendary thinker on democracy. Bell argues that the Chinese model of choosing top leadership is morally desirable and politically stable and can help in containing the key flaws of electoral democracy. Against this uncon-vincing hypothesis, Stein Ringen, in his book (The Perfect Dictatorship: China in the 21st Century, 2016), argues that the system of government has been transformed into a regime radically harder and more ideological under Xi Jinpings leadership and China is less strong economically and more dictatorial politically than the world has wanted to believe. Steins hypothesis is more convincing since Xi jinping has purged many opponents under the anti-corruption drive and concen-trated all powers in himself. The consequences of an authoritarian China are already visible in its foreign policy behaviour and wider international relations. First, the Chinese leadership is promoting nationalism as a diversionary tactics inducing aggressive posture in foreign policy behaviour, particularly towards Japan, and to some extent, the US. One may read the fascinating book by Jessica Chen Weiss (Powerful protests: nationalist protest in Chinas foreign relations, 2014) that narrates when, how and why the Chinese leaders have used nationalist protests for foreign policy bargaining purposes. Second, a bucketful of literature hypothesise how democracies shape their foreign policy debates towards rational trajectory. However, the absence of democratic space in China has allowed the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) to virtually dictate the foreign policy. The high level of integration of the PLA with the CPC and of the CPC with the state makes this task rather easier. Third, Chinas rise with an authoritarian regime has led to the war with China theme propelling the American academic discourse. If only China were a democracy of some kind, the arguments of democratic peace theory (that is, democracies do not fight)would have diluted the war-mongering theories. Either way, Chinas rise as an authoritarian superpower will create another Cold War-type contest for supremacy and bipolar disorder in international relations. The coming Party Congress is likely to be regressive for the democratic prospects in China. Reformist and anti-Xi factions are not strong enough to do any reverse engineering and induce incremental democratic opening. More military background members are likely to find place in the empowered Politburo. Xi Jinping is also likely to consolidate his grip over power by seeking endorsement for his political philosophy as was done for Jiang Zemins Three Represents theory. While that could put Xi at par with leaders like Mao Ze Dong and Deng Xiaoping, it would also affirm that Chinas search for an electoral democracy is going nowhere. Xi Jinping would stay in power right until 2022. This means that his personal volitions and belief system would continue to shape Chinese foreign policy in an aggressive manner. Dealing with China, therefore, would imply that issues like human rights and cooperative security would be non-negotiable and selective usage of nationalism would continue to guide Chinese foreign policy. Probably, we will have to endure with democracy with Chinese characteristics for the near future. The author is in the Indian Defence Accounts Service. The views expressed here are his personal. Residents of Ukraine basically support the independence of Ukraine and Russia and stand for friendly relations between the two countries, as evidenced by the September poll of the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS). According to the data posted on Monday by the joint project of KIIS and the Russian non-governmental research organization Levada Center, 39.9% of Ukrainians support this position. At the same time, 48.4% of Ukrainian respondents believe that Ukraine's relations with Russia should be the same as with other countries. Some 3.7% of surveyed Ukrainians believe that Ukraine and Russia should unite in one state. With direct regard to the attitude of Ukrainians towards Russia and vice versa - Russians to Ukraine, the following data were received: in September, 37% of Ukrainians were well or very well disposed to Russia, while 46% were bad or very bad, 17% were undecided. In Russia, 32% of Russians regarded Ukrainians well or very well, 53% - bad or very bad, 15% were undecided. Thus, the number of positively disposed Ukrainians towards Russians has decreased from 44% to 37% since May, and the number of Russians positively disposed to Ukraine has grown from 26% to 32%. The poll titled "The attitude of the Ukrainian population to Russia" was conducted from September 16 to October 1, 2017 by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology. Some 2,040 respondents aged 18 and over living in 108 settlements in all regions of Ukraine (except Crimea) on a stochastic sample representative of the population of Ukraine were personally interviewed. The residents of Luhansk and Donetsk regions were interviewed only in the territories controlled by Ukraine. The statistical sampling error (with probability of 0.95 and with design effect of 1.5) does not exceed: 3.3% for indicators close to 50%, 2.8% for indicators close to 25%, 2.0% for indicators close to 10%, 1.4% for indicators close to 5%. Levada Analytical Center conducted a survey titled "The Attitude of the Russian population to Ukraine" on a representative sample of the Russian population. Some 1,602 people aged 18 and over were interviewed during the period of September 15 through September 19. Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Deterring the Dragon at Dokola: the Lessons of the Crisis by Gouri Sankar Nag What began in mid-June 2017 came somewhat unexpectedly to an end on August 28, 2017, when both China and India reached an agreement to withdraw their respective armed forceshitherto taking up position face-to-facefrom the Dokola area of the Doklam Plateau of Bhutan. This prima facie has dispersed the gloomy clouds hovering over of the South Asian sky for more than two months (73 days to be precise from June 16 to August 28, 2017) which saved the two Asian giants from the dangerous precipice of even greater military confrontation than that of 1962, thus forestalling another round of grave military escalation since the 1987 Sumdorong Chu crisis and resembling the mutual pull-out at Depsang and Chumar in Ladakh in 2013-14. The reason why I thought the Doklam crisis, if it had gone out of control, would have reached a proportion of greater military intensity than that of 1962 was primarily because of the probability that this time it might open a war front on more than one area, dragging the Kashmir sector and with it Pakistan, either overtly or covertly. This was realised when our Army Chief, Bipin Rawat, remarked that Indian Army was prepared for a two-and-a-half front war. Although such comments were much criticised in the context of peaceful diplomacy to find a mutually agreeable solution to the ongoing row, one can hardly deny how Chinese behaviour has grown to be increasingly fulminating and that too in tune with the dramatic growth of its military muscle in recent times. It is, therefore, investing substan-tially in a number of new military technological capabilities like unmanned aerial vehicles etc. that tend to pose a direct challenge to regional stability not only in the Asia-Pacific but in South Asia also. Although it was perceived that in line with its greater military might its political leadership would feel more secure, thus moderating its behaviour, in reality the opposite seems to hold true. Thus clearly China is bending towards a more hard-line bellicose approach of realpolitik to achieve its objectives with force. BUT unlike previous occasions, the way the Dokola standoff started unfolding this time, not only with the aggressive consolidation of troops but also accompanied by intimidating rhetoric indulged in by the Chinese Foreign Office spokespersons, media and a section of its political elite, the episode was fraught with provocations, with the probability of rapidly deteriorating to the nadir. In the words of former BBC corres-pondent from South Asia, Subir Bhaumik, The Chinese offensive has been coordinated and multipronged, straddling diplomatic, military and media spaces. (The Telegraph dated August 9, 2017). Thus, the present scenario was much more tough as it was a mind-game Beijing has perfected with its three warfare strategy devised by its Central Military Commission in 2003 and refined in 2010 that involves a triad of media war, psychological war and legal war simultaneously, writes Indrani Bagchi in her analysis in the Economic Times on August 29, 2017. Having thus conceived and perpetrated, this three warfare strategy, although it proved ineffective before Indias tacit but well-guarded response to settle for a long haul at Doklam, is likely to leave scars deep enough on Indias mindscape, to mar the prospect of their future bonhomie, if not seriously offset the benefits of Sino-Indian collaborations across the spectrum ranging from trade and investment, cooperation on railway and smart city projects, on issues of climate change, space cooperation, greater people-to-people contacts and importantly, their mutual interactions and partnership vis-a-vis intensified regional reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, crisis in West Asia etc. Of course, at the September 3 BRICS summit at Xiamen, China subscribed to a joint statement to fight terrorism and protectionism, but a feel of surmise would obviously propel a stock-taking exercise and soul-searching as to what went wrong that triggered so much misperception amounting to animus and virulent war of words. According to B.R. Deepak, a prominent Sinologist and Professor at the Centre of Chinese and East Asian Studies, JNU, this war-mongering gung-ho crossed the limits of sanity so much so that there was a frightening feeling in the air that China was about to take recourse to war any time. Although on the Indian side, serious Chinese scholarship brushed these aside, nonetheless, there was a view that perhaps for the first time Chinese diplomacy had been hijacked by its print and social media. (SADF Comment, Issue No. 98 dated August 5, 2017) So, there is no gainsaying about China upping the ante and also causing a hangover of telling bitterness, feeding and reinforcing the traditional perception of the China threat nurtured by Indias strategic community. To put things in perspective, this is abetted by Uncle Sam also for the predictable nature of Sino-Indian clashes. According to a news analysis in Global Village Space, the US is using India as its proxy for containing China. Just as the US flipped China against the USSR in the old Cold War by exploiting their pre-existing differences, so too it is doing the same with India against China and the multipolar world in the new Cold War.(http://www.glkobalvillagespace.com/india-set-himalayan-blunder-2.0 accessed on July 5, 2017) Curiously in South Asia, the post-Cold War US policy has been to exploit this critical anti-China bandwagon particularly when facing a grave scenario of rapidly expanding Chinese influence via the OBOR and in the South-East Asian countries that might be appalling for Japan in the near future. In this perspective US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis visit to India in late September 2017 may be significant not from the viewpoint of a benign courtesy visit after the Trump Adminis-tration in the US started functioning but to pat Narendra Modis extraordinary act of courage and defiance to undertake a hardline position in the Dokola affair which sent out a good signal and to count on Indian support as an influential partner with broad mutual interests extending well beyond South Asia, for example, in Afghanistan. (H.V. Pant, Mattis comes to India, orfonline.org) Despite the Chinese spokespersons and media deliberately hurling to us sharply hostile, extremely strident and unsavoury commen-taries to whip up tension which was anathema to established diplomatic norms and standards (and this is a new element as expressed by Ashok Kantha in an article published in The Indian Express), the credit goes to India for maintaining the composure, yet behaving firmly and responsibly without getting impatient or unduly reactive. Our stand is that we maintain restraint in language and keep patience and engage in diplomacy, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in Parliament on August 3, 2017 (http://www.financialexpress.com/india-news/pm-modis-hard-line-stance-towards-china-pushing-india-into-war-gambling-with-destiny-of-its-people-says-chinese-daily/795343/ accessed on August 8, 2017). SO, while ruling out the chances of military solution from the very outset, India realised that it was a battle of nerves rather, which was why she was ready to take up the gauntlet in the asymmetric military power position with required warfare capabilities. For this what was required was taking steps to extend the strategic reach of the Indian Army and be able to operate effectively even when away from the Indian mainland as we have seen to some extent in the Dokola case. This process of integration of capabilities in terms of ground force and advanced weapons system was evident when adequate military mobilisations from the Eastern command were made with the Hercules plane, helicopters functional for the high altitude warfare and a new series of howitzer guns. No doubt this gave India a certain level of confidence to handle Chinese hegemony. To back up, we have some other parameters to fortify our position. For instance, according to new data on international arms transfer published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute on March 14, 2011 India overtook China as the worlds largest arms importer. (https://bargad.org/2011/03/14/india-world-largest-arms-importer-sipri/ accessed on 25 September, 2017) Moreover, Indias shift from a policy of non-alignment to a policy of poly-alignment also worked to boost her self-image. For example, India was increasingly building strategic partnerships with states that are already established or emerging global leaders in order to acquire higher international standing and clout. In particular, India has dramatically improved her military and defence ties with the US, thus transitioning towards adopting a more realist stance of late internationally. This has a flip side also insofar as it might tell upon Indias much-vaunted strategic autonomy as Subir Bhaumik suspected in one of his recent takes published online by the Quint on June 12, 2017. According to him, India remains a credible model for the developing world so long as it does not compromise on its democracy and strategic autonomynot by becoming a US lackey if Pakistan becomes a Chinese surrogate. (Indias China Policy: Face the Dragon with Self-confidence) Moreover, psychologically she felt emboldened when in the midst of this soaring tension the Army Chief Bipin Rawat visited the place and even the newly elected President Ram Nath Kovind met the Indian Army at Ladakh, another disputed terrain we share with China. But this new nationalistic posture notwithstanding, that created sort of imbalance in Indias approach, the wires of diplomatic parleys were kept open and used all through so that the heat of the military build-up could be moderated by constructive talks to break the impasse peacefully. Thus while an idea of retreat would have been politically imprudent and unsaleable for the domestic constituency of the government, the intelligent mix of force and restraint conspicuous in Indias exposition culminated as she adopted the judicious decision to withdraw forces from the Dokola area which was neither abrupt nor a unilateral compromise but conciliatory and a welcome move indeed. It was conciliatory because China also understandably agreed, albeit reluctantly, to accept the deal of a mutual pullback requiring it to make necessary adjustments of its troop position for disengagement. We do not, however, know still what exactly the Chinese assurance was for leaving the project of motorable road construction in the plateau because China publicly declared its intention to garrison the disputed patch of land even thereafter. As such, vagueness is writ large because Chinas approach is guided by own interpretation of historical pacts and conventions. THIS approach is problematic for three reasons. First, as the former Foreign Secretary of India, Shyam Saran, aptly said, China uses templates of the past as instruments of legitimation, to construct a modern narrative of power. One key element of the narrative is understandably to resuscitate Chinas role as Asias dominant power by seeking to restore a position the nation occupied throughout most of history. Obviously, therefore, its not the historicity proper but another version of purposive reconstruction of history underscored by a feel of pride and Chinas self-perception of a non-status quo power. Secondly, writing in the same vein Praggya Surana, Research Assistant at the Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS), New Delhi, opines that China interprets treaties as per its own convenience. It obfuscates facts, invents historical proof and conveniently blames the colonial past for anything that does not fit in with its perception of agreed borders. It refuses to acknowledge the McMohan Line with respect to its border with India, while accepting the same treaty for setting its boundary dispute with Myanmar. (Three Warfare: Arunachal Pradesh in Indian Defence Review blog dated August 28, 2017) Thirdly, most of the boundary disputes in South Asia today are the products of the colonial era which we have inherited from British India. This is why parties to such conflicts are often obliged to observe convenient consensus or intentional ignorance which so far has contri-buted to maintain peace in the region. But Chinas one-after-another claim, for Indias Arunachal Pradesh, then South China Sea, and now Bhutans Doklam, renders its peaceful rise theory a matter of contentious proposition. Uneasy though, the decision of withdrawal was sensible on the part of India because the Doklam Plateau falls within the jurisdiction of the Bhutanese state, which is also claimed by China. The Chinese side has upheld the 1890 treaty between Sikkim and Tibet, saying that the territory belongs to China in spite of Bhutanese claim to the contrary. So, apparently there was little space whereby India could justifiably intervene in their bilateral feud. From another aspect, however, Indias intervention was legitimate on the ground of her commitment in terms of the Indo-Bhutan friendship treaty, 1949 to fortify Bhutans security umbrella against possible foreign incursion. On the other hand, if we take into account Chinese attempts over past years to construct several roads running into areas under Bhutanese control it would clear doubts regarding the nefarious Chinese design of besieging Bhutan. Besides, India was justified to act according to the supreme realist logic of national interest prompting her to interfere to prevent Chinas road construction at the Dokola area within the very arc of the Bhutanese border. Since there was palpable apprehension that on successfully completing the road China would be able to inch closer to the Chickens Neck of the slim Siliguri corridor, just 12 miles wide at its narrowest point serving as the gateway of entire North-East India. Given this scenario, Indias pathology of anxiety for the strategic vulnerability was undoubted. This could be a raison detre for Indias first of sorts move where troops were despatched to a third country (that is, Bhutan) to defend national security. Nevertheless, it would have been better for India to assure Thimpu first and secure its informed consent before a brigade group of Indian Armys forward move into Bhutanese territory. Alternatively we could contemplate to exert pressure tactics on Bhutan to counter China or to keep vigil on the Bhutan-China negotiations, without inhibitory tactic however. From this angle, Indias action was somewhat hasty. But that does not mean that Indias intervention catalysed the chances of war. On the contrary, India wished to caution China which was definitely a display of matured attitude. Because without such caution it would have been a quiet encouragement to China to go for sabre-rattling and muscle-flexing not only vis-a-vis India but also carrying even more ominous signal for other small neighbours of India in the South Asia region at large. So, while studying the modus operandi of Chinese activities it is important to keep in mind as one expert in his discussion on the Chinese expansionist tactic and the necessity of deterring it in a different context however, has mentioned: China will not seek to resolve its expansionist aims through overt aggression. Consistent with its strategic culture, it wants to slowly but inexorably shift the regional military balance in its favour, leaving the rest of the region with little choice but to submit to Chinese coercion. (How to Deter China: The Case of Archipelagic Defense by Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr in Foreign Affairs, vol.94, no.2, March-April 2015) This is why experts like Sumit Ganguly view it from the point of deeper strategic issues at stake beyond apparent tactical threat to Indias security. So, the latest Chinese activities along the troubled border represents Beijings latest attempt to undermine Indias close ties with some of its neighbours so that they move away from India. If China could browbeat India into abandoning her protege Bhutan, it would set up an important precedent, thereby increasing the chances that other Asian nations would buckle before coming to the aid of neighbours facing Chinese pressure. As what happened in the aftermath of the Sino-Indian war of 1962 when Bhutan in fact started to doubt Indias ability to protect her against China. (Dr. Rajesh Dogras article on Bhutan in World Focus, August, 2015) So, while the stand-off was continuing, India by acting swiftly and proactively not only wanted to gain an upper hand but conversely she also came under conspicuous pressure. If India had capitulated she would have lost all her credibility in the South Asian neighbour-hood and in the theatre of the ASEAN region also where she was posing not only as a major player but also as a security provider. Internally, India was worried also because there was information that China was supplying arms and ammunition to the Naga insurgent outfits, namely, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (IM) to stoke unrest in Indias North-East. Therefore, although initially we appre-hended that the Dokola standoff would have an adverse impact on the Naga peace process, in reality, the crisis was a blessing in disguise in the sense it gave a positive impetus to the ongoing negotiations between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM) leaders. According to a report published in The Week by Namrata Biji Ahuja, the draft for the final accord would be based on the concept of shared sovereignty instead of complete and separate sovereignty, which the Nagas had demanded in the past with the support of China. (http://www.theweek.in/theweek/specials/countdown-to-peace.html, accessed on August 23, 2017) Secondly, underlying the events running up to the stand-off and the mapping of its probable consequences was a thread of a Chinese gambit that in case of actual military flare-up India would not probably receive any assistance from Nepal. This was calculated on the lingering memory of India imposing blockade on Nepal and the strong anti-India sentiments among the Pahadis. Besides, the monarchists and the xenophobic elements of the Army might have little hesitation to cooperate with China which is of concern to New Delhi. Thirdly, what was disturbing from the perspective of India was the quietude of the European Union unruffled by the crisis. India could notice how the EU increasingly gravitated towards the Chinese orbit through the Belt and Road Initiative. Probably for this reason the EU could not take a firm stand when the crisis was intensifying each day. Fourthly, even if it seems there is some apparent nexus between the Doklam crisis and the Tibetan question, the fact of the matter indicates deeper underlying connection. According to Rajiv Kumar and Santosh Kumar, India cannot fight shy of the responsibility so long she was not squarely raising the Tibetan issue or in the present context the issue of expatriate Tibetans in India. The reason why China time and again shows red eye to India is due to Indias unsystematic approach to and for use of the Tibetan card. China, however, knows very well that a major conflict along the border with India will not be in its interest, particularly for Tibets stability. Specially after the launch of the OBOR, Tibet is now a non-negotiable issue. Nevertheless in the event of any future conflict it is more than sure that Tibetan expatriates in India might play the sabotage role along the border against China. So from that angle, territorial domination over the Dokola area could be an intelligent game plan to pressurise India to drop the Tibetan point indirectly. IT logically follows therefore that the Doklam crisis is neither purely related to military deployment nor border management, however outwardly it seems so. Unlike the western sector where we usually put more concentration, yet where our border management is relatively well with quicker response and to some extent better co-ordination as in Amritsar, the issue in the eastern sector revealed from demographic composition of the border tribes with palpable Chinese ethnic predominance, is of more complicated character compounded by ideological warfare. The question is whether China subscribes to liberal stability the world over. Whether it is good or bad is a different value question. But as Professor G. John Ikenberrys analysis The Rise of China and the Future of the West: Can the Liberal System Survive, published in Foreign Affairs January-February 2008, carries strong suggestion that China might not prefer a US dominated Western-oriented world order, rather its grand rise might leverage it to go for an Asian-centred world order (also see China and the World: Dealing with a Reluctant Power by Evan A. Feigenbaum, published in Foreign Affairs January-February 2017). So, today when Indian foreign policy is trying to forge closer ties with the US on the one hand and also moves to deepen strategic interface with many other powers not traditionally friendly towards China like Japan through application of soft power and reviving the channels of remembered pathways of history and culture on the other, in order to achieve due recognition of her power ambition in the world, not to speak of the UN, all these might go to sharpen the Chinese antagonism vis-a-vis India. Needless to say, it harbours deep-seated antipathy towards the Indian political system. Thus, ideologically speaking, the Doklam crisis might be Chinas ruling partys and its military wings challenge to Indias liberal democratic set-up. Dr Gouri Sankar Nag is an Associate Professor and Head, Department of Political Science, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, Purulia (West Bengal). Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Agra Residents veto Communal Utterings on Taj Mahal MUSINGS by Humra Quraishi with the election scene gaining momentum in Gujarat, the Congress should invite the erstwhile civil servants who spoke out against the Modi-led government in Gujarat...whod dared to hit out at the communal slants and the biased moves of the Modi Government during the 2002 pogrom. In fact, these officers suffered severe setbacks but they were absolutely determined to expose the Modi Government. One of the first to speak out was R.B. Sreekumaran IPS officer of the 1971 batch, of the Gujarat cadre who has been writing extensively on the communal massacres and the communal mahaul in Gujarat. His bookGujarat Behind The Curtain (Manas)should be read by each one of us, to know what took place in Gujarat in and around 2002. Wah Taj! Im certain that the long dead Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan and his Begum, Mumtaz Mahal, would be tossing and turning in their graves, wondering what madness has overtaken the plains of North India, where they had once-upon-a-time ruled. Nah, no ordinary rule, as their hukumat left not just strong imprints of Mughal architecture, arts, crafts and cuisine but also that monumental wonder called the Taj Mahal, which till date draws thousands of tourists from around the world, filling the State exchequer with crores. Today, though the State is gobbling those crores yet its political rulers stand questioning the Taj Mahal and its very builder, Mughal Emperor Shah Jahanthe man and his emotions behind erecting this wonder in memory of his spouse, Mumtaz Mahal. In fact, months before Yogi Adityanath was appointed the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, he tried his level best to grab the headlines by throwing up rather provocative queries to the very historical base to the Taj Mahal. In heated television discussions one did hear him raise biased and uncalled for comments to the Taj Mahal. Writ large it was that Yogis historical knowledge was dismal; yet he was trying to whip up a controversy of sorts along the typical communal strain. And with that in the background, it has come as no shocker to hear communally charged characters from his political party raise queries and questions to the basis of this historical wonder. Going by the very timing of this uncalled for attack on the Taj Mahal, it seems an extremely well-planned move to distract the attention of the hapless masses from the failures of the government. After all, hundreds of children have died, rather are dying, in the government hospitals of Uttar Pradesh. Conditions in the hospitals are so pathetic that they are getting nicknamed butcherkhanas! True, the Yogi Government has forced-shut the slaughter of animals but he hasnt been successful in curbing the un-official killings taking place right inside the hospital-wards. Mind you, those left alive are witnessing the death of institutions taking place. Even the world famous Banaras Hindu University stands intruded into by the political mafia of the day. When the State set up anti-Romeo squads that failed to nab any of the molesters from the very campus of the BHU, one can well imagine what must be taking place off-campus! In fact, fear of the goon brigades and also of the political senas is writ large to such an extent that even the whos who avoid stepping out after sunset. Forget about encounters with the so-called Romeos; encounters with cops is what they dread. After all, in the six months of the Yogi sarkar, UP Police has conducted 420 encounters with alleged criminalskilling 15. With layers of illusions thrown around (of illusionary development if of nothing else!), communally charged characters are busy throwing around concocted versions of history. If the sarkar of the day had doubts about the historical backgrounders to the Taj Mahal they could have invited historians of the calibre of Professor Irfan Habib and sought his views. But why or how could they do so, when their agenda seems to distract us from the present mess. One doesnt know whether to laugh or cry, hearing the likes of Sangeet Som and Vinay Katiyar giving us historical gyaan! Do they even know the history of Uttar Pradesh; a Pradesh they are hell-bent on destroyingthrough rioting, demolishing structures, dragging along divisive tactics. Till date the Taj Mahal stands tall as a symbol of love and emotions. I do hope it doesnt get dented by the fanatics hovering around, who have managed to tear apart the fabric of togetherness between communities that this land was once known for. The next time one hears the communal brigades cry hoarse that Shah Jahan had limbs chopped off, of the artisans after theyd erected the Taj Mahal or that he had built it on a temple site, its absolutely essential to usher in vital and authentic historical inputs. In fact, just last week I heard Professor Irfan Habib comment that because Shah Jahan was building the Taj in the memory of his wife, he made sure he actually purchased that particular stretch of land along the banks of the Yamuna, on which he would build his monument of love. No, there was no question of Shah Jahan grabbing land or demolishing any religious place of worship. In fact, this historian had also focused on the fact that Shah Jahans mother was a Hindu and he had always been in close contact with his mothers entire clan and respected their religious practices. And as I got talking to several Agra residents, it was heartening to hear them veto the communal utterings of the likes of Soms and Katiyars, Sheer nonsense! New theories are nothing but out to destroy us. After all, our Agra is world famous because of the Taj Mahal. This Taj is ours ... we are known for our Taj Mahal. It stands strong as a monument of love ...such love is not to be seen in todays murky times where all we get to see are killings and the dying! The local public has become aware of the political dirt around and keeps away from the goons who are hired to spread out nothing but nonsense! Hopefully this monument of love remains intact. Un-dented and untouched. And is not converted into a gau-shala by the political mafia holding sway in these dark times. Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > My Plea to Trump and Putin by Mikhail Gorbachev (The following article by Mikhail Gorbachev, who was the leader of the USSR as its President from 1985 to 1991 (when the Soviet Union was still in existence), appeared in The Washington Post on October 11, 2017. It is being reproduced from there with due acknowledgement.) This December will mark the 30th anniversary of the signing of the treaty between the Soviet Union and United States on the elimination of intermediate- and shorter-range missiles. This was the start of the process of radically cutting back nuclear arsenals, which was continued with the 1991 and 2010 strategic arms reduction treaties and the agreements reducing tactical nuclear weapons. The scale of the process launched in 1987 is evidenced by the fact that, as Russia and the United States reported to the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in 2015, 80 per cent of the nuclear weapons accumulated during the Cold War have been decommissioned and destroyed. Another important fact is that, despite the recent serious deterioration in bilateral relations, both sides have been complying with the strategic weapons agreements. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, however, is now in jeopardy. It has proved to be the most vulnerable link in the system of limiting and reducing weapons of mass destruction. There have been calls on both sides for scrapping the agreement. So what is happening, what is the problem, and what needs to be done? Both sides have raised issues of compliance, accusing the other of violating or circumventing the Treatys key provisions. From the sidelines, lacking fuller information, it is difficult to evaluate those accusations. But one thing is clear: The problem has a political as well as a technical aspect. It is up to the political leaders to take action. Therefore I am making an appeal to the Presidents of Russia and the United States. Relations between the two nations are in a severe crisis. A way out must be sought, and there is one well-tested means available for accomplishing this: a dialogue based on mutual respect. It will not be easy to cut through the logjam of issues on both sides. But neither was our dialogue easy three decades ago. It had its critics and detractors, who tried to derail it. In the final analysis, it was the political will of the two nations leaders that proved decisive. And that is whats needed now. This is what our two countries citizens and people every-where expect from the Presidents of Russia and the United States. I call upon Russia and the United States to prepare and hold a full-scale summit on the entire range of issues. It is far from normal that the Presidents of major nuclear powers meet merely on the margins of international gatherings. I hope that the process of preparing a proper summit is in the works even now. I believe that the summit meeting should focus on the problems of reducing nuclear weapons and strengthening strategic stability. For should the system of nuclear arms control collapse, as may well happen if the INF Treaty is scrapped, the consequences, both direct and indirect, will be disastrous. The closer that nuclear weapons are deployed to borders, the more dangerous they are: There is less time for a decision and greater risk of catastrophic error. And what will happen to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if the nuclear arms race begins anew? I am afraid it will be ruined. If, however, the INF Treaty is saved, it will send a powerful signal to the world that the two biggest nuclear powers are aware of their responsibility and take their obligations seriously. Everyone will breathe a sigh of relief, and relations between Russia and the United States will finally get off the ground again. I am confident that preparing a joint presidential statement on the two nations commitment to the INF Treaty is a realistic goal. Simultaneously, the technical issues could also be resolved; for this purpose, the Joint Control Commission under the INF Treaty could resume its work. I am convinced that, with an impetus from the two Presidents, the Generals and diplomats would be able to reach agreement. We are living in a troubled world. It is particularly disturbing that relations between the major nuclear powers, Russia and the United States, have become a serious source of tensions and a hostage to domestic politics. It is time to return to sanity. I am sure that even inveterate opponents of normalising US-Russian relations will not dare to object to the two Presidents. These critics have no arguments on their side, for the very fact that the INF Treaty has been in effect for 30 years proves that it serves the security interests of our two countries and of the world. In any undertaking, it is important to take the first step. In 1987, the first step in the difficult but vitally important process of ridding the world of nuclear weapons was the INF Treaty. Today, we face a dual challenge of preventing the collapse of the system of nuclear agreements and reversing the downward spiral in US-Russian relations. It is time to take the first step. Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2017 > Need of the Hour EDITORIAL At long last the dates for the Gujarat Assembly polls have been announced. Yesterday Chief Election Commissioner A.K. Joti disclosed to the media that voting for the crucial electoral contest in the State will take place or December 9 and 14the polling will be held in the first phase for 89 seats across 19 districts, and in the second phase for 93 seats in 14 districtsand the results will be out on December 18. With the announcement of the poll schedule, the Model Code of Conduct has come into immediate effect. However, hours before the EC announce-ment the Gujarat Government rained in massive sops to beat the model code. As was underscored in today newspapers, Hours before the EC announcement, Gujarat rained more sops to beat the model code. In Vadodara, its Mayor laid foundation stones for three government works in the city while his counterpart in Rajkot announced a Rs 95-crore housing scheme for municipal employees and laid foundation stones for two water distribution projects. In the run-up to the release of the poll schedule, the BJP Government in Gujarat has announced several poll sops... The ECs decision not to impose the Model Code of Conduct in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh on the same dayon October 12, it announced polls for Himachal Pradesh but not Gujaratdrew criticism from several quarters including former CECs. The Opposition Congress alleged that the dates were delayed to give the ruling BJP an advantage. Although some of the poll surveys have predicted a comfortable win for the BJP, analysts and observers hold a different view. The Hindustan Times points out that with the economy still reeling from last years cash clampdown and the bumpy implementation of the Goods and Services Tax, the party appears to have lost, for the first time since its resounding national victory in 2014, some of its confidence. It quotes Sebastian Morris, Professor of Economics at the IMM, Ahmedabad: Its not going to be easy for the BJP. The job market has all but collapsed... Scheduled Castes have started organising themselves. People are unhappy. And Ahmedabad-based political analyst Hari Desai informs: For the first time in three decades, the Congress is calling the shots and the BJP is reacting. But it remains to be seen if the support gets translated into votes. Meanwhile, the BJP hotheads continue with their anti-Muslim tirade. Thus BJP lawmaker Sangeet Soms attack on the Taj Mahal as a blot on Indian culture built by traitors has not evoked any protest from the ruling dispensations in UP and at the Centre. The State CM has, however, made a series of different pronouncements but not in any way contradicting Som. Nonetheless, his (Yogi Adityanaths) visit to the Taj today has provoked former UP CM Akhilesh Yadav to mock and say that it must have been a miracle of Bhagwan Ram which brought the Yogi to the monument of love. It is in this context that one needs to pay heed to a Western academics thought-provoking observation: ...the Indian state is the de facto custodian of the historical sites contained within the nations borders, including Mughal monuments. Recent politically-charged statements and actions designed to erode the crucial role of the Mughals in Indian history raise the question of how much longer the Indian state will serve as a responsible caretaker for monuments that are much beloved across the world. In the midst of a series of such sectarian and authoritarian actions by those in charge of administrations at the Centre and in the Stateslike the highly controversial legislation in Rajasthan to muzzle the press and shield judges and government servants from investigations into any wrongdoing, something which has been thankfully ultimately sent to cold storage (a Select Committee) the situation is becoming increasingly bizarre and warrants an unequivocal denunciation from the people at large. October 26 S.C. Participants in a protest rally outside the Verkhovna Rada "An all-Ukrainian gathering for big political reform" are planning to expand their demands and include in them the demand to adopt a law on the president's impeachment. "After they do not accept our conditions, we will have to expand them," New Forces Movement leader Mikheil Saakashvili said in Kyiv on Sunday, October 29. He said that the Verkhovna Rada and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko must leave if they did not want to hear the demands of the protesters and called for early presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in Ukraine. "And if the president continues to ignore the demands of the protesters, we must decide that he must leave and re-elect a new president," Saakashvili said. At the same time, he said that protesters were not preparing to stage a coup. The politician also proposed that presidential elections in Ukraine be held under a new mechanism using primaries. Saakashvili said that on November 7, when the Verkhovna Rada will meet in plenary session, as many people as possible should come to the square in front of the parliament building in order to remind parliamentarians about their demands - to pass a new law on elections of people's deputies, create an anti-corruption court and cancel parliamentary immunity. "If they adopt [these bills] on November 7, it will be a good step. But if they do not, we should find other peaceful forms, not just standing outside parliament... We cannot stand here forever. We cannot freeze here forever," he said. Saakashvili also said that the people who gathered outside the building of the Verkhovna Rada "have a mechanism how to change power." Dubai : India and the UAE have discussed measures to deepen cooperation in a range of areas including defence, security, terrorism and trade as the two countries held the second round of their strategic dialogue in Abu Dhabi. The Indian delegation at the talks held yesterday was led by Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar while the UAE side was headed by its Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash. During the talks, the two delegations expressed satisfaction at the "great progress" achieved in the bilateral relationship, a statement said. The two sides discussed defence, investment, security, terrorism, consular matters, energy and technology cooperation, along with regional and other global issues of mutual interest. The UAE has raised its investment profile in India, and cooperation has increased on security issues, the statement said. Akbar who arrived in the UAE on Saturday on a two-day visit, also met Mohammed Bin Ahmad Al Bawardi, Cabinet Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs and called on Sheikh Hamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, chief of the crown prince court and CEO and managing director of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. PTI click to go to homepage Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin believes that there is no point to draw parallels between Spain, declared independence from Catalonia, and the occupied Crimea, due to the absence of the Russian military presence in Catalonia. "Here one cannot draw any parallels within the meaning. Imagine that in Catalonia now there would be 2,000 Russian tanks and armored vehicles, thousands of Russian regular troops and tens of thousands of Russian mercenaries. All this would be controlled by Russia ... But in terms of Russia's attempts to maintain a hybrid war against the whole of Europe to weaken it, we really have joint challenges," Klimkin said at a joint press conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, Alfonso Dastis, in Kyiv on Monday. In turn, the Spanish foreign minister said that the issue of Catalonia, Crimea and Donbas are threats to the territorial integrity of states. "Surely, these issues are in some ways similar - there is a threat to the territorial integrity of our states in both cases. In this regard, our positions are unanimous in relation to each other," the Spanish foreign minister said. After a week of about turns, indecision and last minute attempts to find a negotiated way out, the Catalan Republic was proclaimed on Friday, October 27. Tens of thousands celebrated in the streets of Barcelona and other Catalan towns and cities. As expected the Spanish state responded by sacking the Catalan government, disbanding the Catalan Parliament and calling for Catalan elections on December 21. The stage was set for a major confrontation, but the bourgeois and petty bourgeois nationalists in the Catalan government fled the scene. By Monday, the Spanish state was set to take back full control without having broken a single window pane. At the beginning of last week, everything indicated that Puigdemont would have no other option but to declare independence. The Spanish government had announced a series of measures against Catalan self-rule under article 155 of the Constitution and was going to get them approved in the Spanish Senate by October 27, with full support from Cs [Ciudadanos] and the PSOE [Socialist Party]. Puigdemont had made several attempts to open a dialogue with Rajoy and to seek mediation from the European Union, but every time he had been rebuffed in no uncertain terms. On Wednesday, a meeting of the Junts pel Si (JxSi) group in the Catalan Parliament (comprising Puigdemonts PDECAT, Junqueras ERC and a few independents) had given the Catalan president full backing for a declaration of independence. In the evening of the same day there were big indoor meetings called by ERC, PDECAT and also the Catalan National Assembly (ANC) to explain to their members and supporters that the plan was to declare the Catalan Republic by Friday. That same evening there was a protest organised by the Barcelona county Committees for the Defence of the Referendum to press for the declaration of the Republic. The rally took place in Placa Sant Jaume but the Catalan government had decided to close off Parc de la Ciutadella, where the Catalan Parliament building is located. As on October 10, the Catalan government wanted to make sure Parliament would not meet under the direct pressure of the masses. Embed from Getty Images Then there was a wobble. A meeting of the general staff of the pro-independence movement had spilled over into Thursday morning, but it seemed that the option was still that of declaring independence. However, that night had been one of feverish phone calls and conversations brokered by Basque president Urkullu and his PNV (Basque Nationalist Party). Urkullu is in a very sticky situation. He has an agreement with Rajoy by which the Basque Nationalist Party gives the PP the necessary votes in the Spanish parliament to pass the budget in exchange for fiscal concessions to the Basque administration. However, the Catalan conflict has strained this pact. The PNV has been put in the difficult position of propping up the Spanish government which is suppressing Catalan democratic rights. It is therefore in the interest of the Basque capitalists and in the political interest of the PNV that an agreement should be reached. The basis of the compromise suggested was that Puigdemont would call for early elections to the Catalan parliament, instead of declaring independence. In exchange it seems he was asking for immunity from prosecution and the release of the two Jordis (the leaders of the ANC and Omnium, held without bail on charges of sedition). On Thursday morning, October 26, it seemed that such a deal was on the cards. Puigdemont announced he was going to make a statement at noon. The Spanish stock exchange rallied. However, there were a number of factors which scuppered the deal. First of all, there is the reactionary nature of the Spanish ruling class, for whom the unity of Spain is a sacrosanct principle, one of the pillars of the 1978 regime. From their point of view, any concessions on this question would threaten the whole edifice. Giving Puigdemont a way out might have been interpreted as a sign of weakness. Rajoy is under pressure from the right wing of his own party and from Ciudadanos, both of which see rabid Spanish nationalism as a vote winner. In the end, the promise of a deal brokered by Urkullu with the Spanish government did not materialise. Additionally, as news filtered through that Puigdemont was going to announce elections instead of declaring the Republic, pressure began mounting from within his own camp. Two PDECAT Catalan parliament members announced they were renouncing their seats and tearing up their party cards. PDECATs ally in JxSi, ERC was already talking of a betrayal. Puigdemont was like the proverbial Duke of York. Having marched his troops to the top of the hill, it was now difficult to convince them to march down again. To top it up, tens of thousands of students were on the streets demanding the Republic be proclaimed. The student strike had been called for in advance and the demonstrators received the news of Puigdemonts climbdown as the march was about to set off from Placa Universitat. The mood turned angry. There were shouts against Puigdemont (be warned PDECAT, our patience has run out). The demonstration made its way to Placa Sant Jaume, outside the Generalitat building and students vowed not to leave until the Republic had been proclaimed. First, Puigdemont delayed his statement by an hour. Then he said it was not going to take place. Then it was moved from the Palace to the Parliament for 5pm, just before the Parliament session was due to start. By the time he spoke, the deal was off. Still, instead of announcing boldly that he had decided to move forward and proclaim the Republic, he fudged the issue again, by announcing he had considered calling elections but hadnt managed to get a deal and then saying he was putting the issue to Parliament for it to decide, without making any concrete proposal. That was yet another sign of things to come. Finally, on Friday, October 27, the Catalan Parliament declared independence with 70 votes in favour, two abstentions and 10 votes against, after the PP, Cs and PSOE abandoned the session in protest. Tens of thousands of people who were outside waiting for the decision followed the vote with rapt attention and then erupted in celebratory cheers. The celebration then went to Placa Sant Jaume. As far as they were concerned, the Catalan Republic had been born and they were ready to defend it. Almost simultaneously, the Spanish Senate approved the article 155 measures requested by the government. Rajoy proceeded to announce the specific measures: dismissal of the Catalan government, its president and vice-president and all the consellers (ministers); the dismissal of the head of the Catalan police; the disbanding of the Catalan parliament and the convening of early elections on December 21. The Catalan government would be run directly from Madrid, with the different ministers of the Spanish government in charge of the corresponding departments in Catalonia. This amounted to a coup, but Rajoy had made some changes to his original plan. Instead of a direct intervention which would last six months, this was to be for the shortest possible period of time required to call early elections in Catalonia. Clearly the Spanish ruling class was fearful of sparking a mass protest movement and wanted to legitimise the measures as soon as possible. The response of the international community was also swift. The EU, NATO, the OECD, France, Germany, Britain, the US State Department, all rushed to declare their full support for Spanish legality, the unity of Spain and to reject the Catalan declaration. The hopes of the Catalan bourgeois and petty bourgeois nationalist leaders to get international recognition of some sort were dashed, as could have been predicted. The situation at the end of the day on Friday was one where there were two different institutional bodies, the Catalan Republic and the Spanish Monarchy, existing at the same time. A situation like this could not last. One of the two had to prevail over the other. The Spanish state started to take measures, one after the other, to make sure Spanish legality prevailed. But what did the leaders of the Catalan Republic do? Basically, nothing, other than issue vague statements talking of democratic resistance. Starting on Friday night, the meeting of the Catalan government which was supposed to take a series of measures to implement the decision to declare the Republic, took no decisions at all. None. On Saturday morning, the Spanish state removed the head of the Catalan police, Pere Soler and its major Trapero. The first thing you do in a coup is ensure you control the armed bodies of men. They both abided by the order and in a written statement advised Catalan police officers to follow orders. What did the Catalan government do about this? Nothing. PDECAT and ERC representatives who are members of the Spanish Congress and Senate did not renounce their seats in what was to them in effect a foreign parliament. The whole weekend the Catalan government, which was supposed to be busy building a new Republic, did nothing. Well, president Puigdemont did issue a recorded statement in which he called for democratic opposition to article 155 measures. That was it. No appeal to resistance, no concrete plan on how to resist, no measures taken by the government. And the Spanish flag was still flying over the Generalitat Palace. Catalan vice-president Junqueras (from the ERC) penned an article warning that in the next few days we will have to take decisions that will not always be easy to understand. He was clearly preparing his own ranks for the climbdown which had already been decided. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands (300,000 according to the local police) marched in a wholly reactionary demonstration in Barcelona in defence of Spanish unity. The march was called by SCC (a shady body whose founders have links with the far right, but which has since tried to clean up its image) and had the full backing of the PP, Ciudadanos as well as the Catalan branch of the Socialist Party. The march was backed by half a dozen openly far right, fascist, neo-nazi and racist organisations which afterwards attacked the Generalitat and carried out a number of racist and fascist attacks. The demonstration was big, but slightly down on the previous Spanish unity march on October 8. Embed from Getty Images Clearly this was not a fascist demonstration. Fascist grouplets represent a small fringe, although in the last few weeks they have been unleashed with the connivance and complicity of the Spanish state and they need to be combatted. The bulk of the demonstration was made up of voters of right-wing parties from the upper class neighbourhoods of Barcelona, the spoilt brats from Pedralbes, Sarria-Sant Gervasi; as well as backward layers from working class neighbourhoods and towns in Barcelona and its red belt. Scandalously, the former general secretary of the Communist Party, Francisco Frutos, was one of the keynote speakers ranting against identitarian racism to a sea of Spanish flags and voters of Spanish reactionary nationalist parties. Monday morning, the new head of the Catalan police, under instructions from the Spanish minister in charge, announced that the now deposed consellers would be allowed to go to their offices but only to collect their personal belongings. If they refused to go, the police was to write up a report and send it to the prosecutors office. President of the Catalan Parliament Carme Forcadell, who had announced that an ordinary meeting of the Speakers would take place on Tuesday, cancelled it and admitted that Parliament had been dissolved. A meeting of the leading body of ERC has decided that they would be present on December 21, the day of the elections called under article 155 by Rajoy. A short while later PDECAT announced in no uncertain terms that they would participate in those elections. These decisions, and others which we will see in the next few days, represent a complete acceptance of the Spanish states coup against Catalan democracy and a refusal to defend the Republic they voted to proclaim on Friday. At the time of writing these lines it has been announced that Catalan president Puigdemont is in Brussels together with some members of his government. That does not change anything fundamental. Meanwhile, the Spanish state prosecutor has indicted the Catalan president, vice-president and all the Catalan government consellers, as well as the president and speakers of the Catalan Parliament, for rebellion, sedition, misuse of public funds and other related charges. This is a serious warning as rebellion carries a 30 year jail sentence. Incidentally, these crimes (rebellion and sedition) are listed in the Spanish penal code which was inherited wholesale, without amendment, from that of Franco. This tells you something about the real character of the Spanish so-called transition to democracy which left the state apparatus of the dictatorship intact. Furthermore, even according to that reactionary penal code there are no grounds for the charges of rebellion, as that crime implies a violent rising, something which has clearly not taken place. The Catalan bourgeois and petty bourgeois politicians have gone quite far in their defiance of the Spanish state, but have done so always in a reluctant manner, pushed forward by combined pressure of the refusal of the Spanish state to make any concessions and the irruption of the masses on to the scene (on September 20, October 1 and 3). This is fully in line with the character of these bourgeois and petty bourgeois politicians as we have warned time and time again. The exercise of the right of self-determination in the concrete conditions of Spain is a revolutionary task which can only be accomplished by revolutionary means (or as a by-product of a revolutionary movement). That is the last thing the leaders of the PDECAT want, and the leaders of ERC have acted all along as an appendix of PDECAT (even though in reality they are much stronger electorally than them, in a ratio of 3 to 1). The attitude of these bourgeois and petty bourgeois nationalists fits the words of Marx in his 18th Brumaire down to the last comma: If a real struggle was intended, then it was a queer idea to lay down the weapons with which it would have to be waged. But the revolutionary threats of the petty bourgeois and their democratic representatives are mere attempts to intimidate the antagonist. And when they have run into a blind alley, when they have sufficiently compromised themselves to make it necessary to activate their threats, then this is done in an ambiguous fashion that avoids nothing so much as the means to the end and tries to find excuses for succumbing. The blaring overture that announced the contest dies away in a pusillanimous snarl as soon as the struggle has to begin, the actors cease to take themselves au serieux, and the action collapses completely, like a pricked bubble. It has to be said that to the left of JxSi no one has taken up the task of organising the defence of the Catalan Republic on the streets through mass mobilisation, disobedience and strengthening the Committees for the Defence of the Referendum. Workers at the Catalan state media had already warned that they would not accept any imposed directors. The main union of public school teachers in Catalonia, USTEC-STEs had also vowed to resist intervention in the education system. The main union of Catalan civil servants (CATAC) had also rejected article 155 but stopped short of calling for disobedience. The possibility to wage a struggle to defend the Republic was clearly there. Had the Catalan government started to act in a decisive and bold manner and made an appeal to the masses to defend it, there would have been a serious struggle and it is not clear which way it would have gone. This is the perspectives that the Spanish Marxists of Lucha de Clases and the Catalan Marxists of Revolucio advanced over the weekend. Unfortunately, even the CUP, the most consistent and left-wing of the pro-independence parties, remained mostly silent and gave no indications nor leadership to the movement. It would seem that even during the week leading up to the declaration of the republic, they were entangled in the discussions with JxSi over tactics rather than making direct appeals to the mass movement over the heads of the government. The slogans they advanced were correct: Bread, housing and work - Republic Now, and they played a decisive role in promoting the formation of the CDRs and their national coordination. They seemed to lack a clear independent strategy with which to struggle to take over the leadership of the movement and they ended up mostly responding to the decisions taken by the Catalan government. Clear lessons must be learnt from this experience. The struggle for the right of self-determination and for a Catalan republic can only be waged by revolutionary means, through mass mobilisation. It can therefore not be victorious under the leadership of the petty bourgeois politicians but only under that of the working class. For that to be possible it cannot be limited to a struggle for democratic and national rights, but these must be closely linked to social demands which can only be resolved through the expropriation of the capitalist class. As the struggle for a Catalan Republic threatens the whole edifice of the 1978 regime, it should seek and forge alliances with the working people of the Spanish state. These ideas can be summarised in the slogan we have put forward: For a Catalan Socialist Republic as a spark to the Iberian revolution. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has submitted to parliament a draft law on extending by one year an agreement between Ukraine and the Netherlands on the mission for defending the investigation into the shooting down of the Malaysian Boeing 777 airliner (MH17) over Donbas in 2014. According to information posted to the site of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine the draft bill provides ratifying the agreement between Ukraine and the Netherlands on extending until August 1, 2018 the agreement between the countries on the international mission on protecting the investigation. Text of the draft law is currently unavailable. The agreement on the international mission protecting the investigation was signed on July 28, 2014. In November 2016 the parliament extended it for a year. As reported, the Boeing 777 belonging to Malaysia Airlines flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) was shot out of the sky killing all 298 passengers on board. The international joint investigatory group (Joint Investigation Team, JIT), which is comprised of prosecutors and law-enforcement officials from Ukraine, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, and Malaysia, as well as EU legal officials, on September 28, 2016 presented its findings in the criminal investigation of the tragedy. "The JIT concluded that MH17 was downed by a rocket, Series 9M38, launched from a self-propelled ground-to-missile launcher BUK-TELAR, in a farming area in the region of Pervomaiske village. The area is currently held by pro-Russian militant groups. Investigators said missile complex was delivered to Ukraine from the Russian Federation and returned there after the downing," the findings said. Spain fully supports the European aspirations of Ukraine, as well as the necessary reforms, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain Alfonso Dastis has said. "We are not only friends, we are allies. We are allies in our European project. And we sincerely support the movement of Ukraine to Europe," Dastis said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin in Kyiv on Monday. The Spanish foreign minister also expressed support for Ukrainian reforms. "We had such experience, and we know that this is difficult in the short term, but they are necessary and productive in the longer term. And we fully support Ukraine on this path," the minister said. Dastis added that Spain wants to make a contribution to the development of the Ukrainian economy, as well as the social sphere. He also said that Spain supports the territorial integrity, independence and sovereignty of Ukraine. Dastis also expressed gratitude for Ukraine's support of the territorial integrity of Spain. An authorized representative of the Verkhovna Rada human rights commissioner, Mykhailo Chaplyha, has said that several articles of the Constitution of Ukraine and the Criminal Procedure Code have been violated due to the situation with the detention and sending of visitors to the Kyiv-based Jugendhub nightclub to the city's military registration and enlistment office. "There is no legality here at all. In fact, there is such word 'lawlessness,' and, actually, this is what we have witnessed. Therefore, there's no point in looking for some kind of legality. Many articles of the Constitution and the Criminal Procedure Code have been violated, so I think this is a case that will take many months, because too many people were involved in all this, and too many violations were recorded," he said live on the 112 Ukraine television channel. According to him, everyone involved in the illegal detention of visitors to the club will face a long trial. "All this has already been recorded. Everything is documented at the gathering point, including data collected from the victims and their relatives," he said. According to Chaplyha, there were no grounds to keep people in the military enlistment office. "We asked for written testimonies to be sent to us, and many such applications have already been received. In fact, it has been confirmed by testimonies that police officers used excessive and unjustified force. No legal assistance was provided, that is, persons were denied the right to defense. About five articles of the Criminal Procedure Code were grossly violated," he said. At the same time, the ombudsman's representative noted that no one from the detainees was now in need of medical assistance. "Illegally held people were released by midnight. A few people decided to voluntarily stay for medical examination at the gathering point, but this is their personal will, and we were convinced of this personally," he said. "That is, we explained the whole situation to the military, and now they are trying to bring all this into line with law. On Monday [October 30], we will begin to communicate with the National Police," Chaplyha said. As reported, late on Saturday, October 28, law enforcement officers detained 17 people with drugs at a nightclub in the Shevchenkivsky district of Kyiv. At the same time, employees of the military enrollment office found 32 people who evaded the conscription. They were taken to Kyiv's draftee gathering point. Late on Saturday, law enforcers released several detainees, issuing their summons for Sunday morning. Apoorv Saxena, lead product manager at Google and co-founder of the AI Frontiers conference that will be held in Santa Clara, Calif., from November 3-5, speaks with [email protected] about why interest in artificial intelligence is growing, what is likely to happen in the near future and which challenges will take longer to overcome. [[email protected] is a media partner for the conference.] An edited transcript of the conversation follows. A proposal to nearly triple the entrance fees at 17 of Americas most popular national parks including Olympic and Mount Rainier in Washington is part of a larger push by the Trump Administration to rethink "Americas Best Idea." Budget cuts and privatization are also on the agenda. by John Nelson http://crosscut.com/2017/10/national-park-service-privatization-fee-increase-washington-state-mount-rainier-olympic/ Bozeman is a rapidly growing city with a high quality of life in part due to the easy access to the outdoors, burgeoning tech industry, and cultural experiences it offers. More companies will probably have launched by the time you read this. Jason Deign https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/leading-energy-blockchain-firms?utm_source=Daily&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=GTMDaily#gs.aPeF36g The Illinois Office of Tourism will open offices in China and Mexico to attract foreign visitors and help boost the states tourism industry, officials announced Monday. The government agency will expand into Mexico City on Nov. 1 and Beijing on Dec. 1, with three additional support offices in Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou. Nereida Moreno http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-tourism-mexico-china-1030-story.html Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Alfonso Dastis says he is certain that elections in Catalonia on December 21 will help restore law and order there. "We hope, and we believe in this, that after the elections Catalonia will remain the society it was: open, integrated, where no one is excluded from society on the ground of their language or way of thinking... We hope that via these elections we will be able to restore the rule of law, law and order in Catalonia," Dastis said at a joint press conference with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin in Kyiv on Monday. The elections, scheduled for December 21, were called to give all Catalonians the opportunity to have their say and cast their votes as per the Catalonian charter and Spanish constitution, Dastis said. On October 28 the Spanish authorities published Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's order appointing his deputy Soraya Saenz de Santamaria in charge of Catalonia. The document confirms the sacking of the regional government, most of the duties of which will be taken over by Saenz de Santamaria. The Spanish authorities took such measures in response to the Catalonian parliament's October 27 decision to declare independence. That evening, Rajoy sacked the Catalonia's executive government, disbanded its parliament and called early parliamentary elections in the region on December 21, 2017. A meeting of the public platform on the release of political prisoners through a videoconference with Crimean activists and relatives of persons illegally detained by the occupation authorities was held at the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on Saturday, October 28, the ministry's press service has reported. "This is a special meeting. Today, we all gathered together in Kyiv and temporarily occupied Crimea. I am especially pleased that deputy head of the Mejlis, Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov for who Russian torture is already over, are together with us," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin said, while opening the event. The meeting participants agreed on concrete steps for the release of illegally held citizens of Ukraine and assistance to their families, access of Ukrainian citizens in the occupied Crimea to education and an entire range of public services, including the simplified processing of necessary documents. "Separately, representatives of the state authorities, human rights activists and Crimean activists exchanged views on legislative initiatives in the field of protecting the rights of political prisoners," the report reads. The meeting was attended by the Ukrainian president's commissioner for the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Jemilev, the chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Refat Chubarov, special representatives of the foreign minister on the release of political prisoners, Yuriy Yatsenko and Hennadiy Afanasyev, representatives of NGOs CrimeaSOS, the association of relatives of political prisoners of the Kremlin, the Crimean Human Rights Group, the Center for Civil Liberties, the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, and the Crimean Tatar Resource Center. Ukraine will present a resolution "Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol" at the UN on Tuesday, October 31, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said. "Tomorrow we will come out with a new and tough project - a resolution on the situation of human rights in the occupied Crimea. This resolution should condemn Russia's actions on the non-admission of international organizations and humanitarian organizations to the occupied Crimea and unequivocally urge Russia to implement the decision of the international court in The Hague," Klimkin said at a joint press conference with Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis in Kyiv on Monday. Klimkin also said that the Ukrainian side had already agreed with its partners on approaches to support this resolution. "Russia is trying to manipulate this issue... Therefore, we see the need for very simple but tough formulations, without diplomacy," he added. Dastis, in turn, noted that the Spanish side supported Ukraine and its territorial integrity and intended to support the resolution on human rights in the occupied Crimea. "Of course, we want Ukraine to restore its territorial integrity and power in Crimea. As long as the Crimea is under the aggressor, it is occupied. We will support Ukraine on this resolution at platforms in New York or Geneva," the diplomat said. UIA will launch regular flights between Kyiv and Copenhagen in April 2018 Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) plans on April 25, 2018 to launch direct regular flights between Kyiv and Copenhagen (Denmark). According to the press service of the air carrier, flights will be performed on board Boeing 737-800 aircraft with two classes of service (business and economy) six times a week. From April 28, 2018 the frequency of flights will reach nine weekly flights. The company notes the schedule of flights is composed in such a way as to provide convenient connections with the internal network of UIA routes covering such administrative centers of Ukraine as Odesa, Dnipro, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Chernivtsi, Zaporizhia, and Kherson. UIA, the leading Ukrainian air carrier, was founded in 1992. It connects Ukraine with more than 80 capitals and key cities in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, the Middle East and CIS countries, and also provides connections with the routes of partner airlines to more than 3,000 cities of the world. UIA performs more than 1,100 regular flights a week. The fleet consists of 40 airplanes of different modifications, including 25 medium-range Boeing-737 NG aircraft. The basic airport is Boryspil International Airport (KBP). One of the ultimate beneficiaries of the company is businessman Ihor Kolomoisky. Advertisement Her work is decorated with several honours including the Order of Canada; the Japanese Anti-Tuberculosis Association TB Global Award; the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal; the Alberta Centennial Medal; and the Canadian Medical Association's highest honour, the Frederic Newton Gisborne Starr Award. She has also received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Society for International Health; the May Cohen Award from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons Canada; and Physician of the Year Award from the Capital Regional Medical Staff Association. Anne was also named as "One of Alberta's Physicians of the Century" by the Alberta Medical Association in 2005."We have gone a million miles from when I started in TB. And when I started, it was 'doctor knew best', 'patient did as he/she was told' and we hoped they took their pills for 18 months, back then. We have enormously advanced in terms of having earlier diagnosis, better drugs, better systems, and better diagnostics, but we have missed out some of the core that TB taught us" said Dr Fanning.These core lessons were taught to us by "the programmes that were in poor countries like Tanzania, Malawi, Nicaragua, among other nations, that recognized that there are a few core things that you have to do - you had to find the case with simple and relied-on diagnosis, you had to assure that the drugs were on hand and there were no stock-outs, and you supervised the treatment until cure" added Dr Fanning.Reflecting on basic lessons that helped lay the foundation for TB control, Dr Fanning said that "We focused on the patient - that demonstrated, that, with a systematic approach you could do it - but that was not patient centric! We have to hear from the patients - we have to acknowledge that some patients we never hear from because they cannot afford to get into the system. I hear the strengthening of the drugs and diagnostics, but I worry about forgetting the core of the patient being at the centre, and the patient deserving respect and recognition and support to get through it, and having the right to an opinion.I think those were the things - I am not sure we ever had it [ideal patient-centric TB programme]! So we had some strengths, we engaged larger communities, scientific communities, the lab communities, the civil society and all of them have learned but there is still a dispersion of knowledge and I worry about the core of it. I think at the heart of it all we have to remember that the patient, and it is probably the poor patient who is the neediest, and that's where our focus should be."As the oft-quoted analogy goes, 'it is vital that inter-sectoral efforts to eliminate TB are scaled up before it becomes too late to deliver on the promises enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our governments have promised to deliver on SDGs by 2030."25 years ago, the message was if you do it right the first time you do not have to worry about drug resistance. We ignored the drug resistance probably because we had nothing much to offer. I think the first message was the key message. Do it right the first time. We still are not really doing it right and the 'horse has bolted' and now we have to chase its tail. We have to have programmes, and expensive programmes and monitoring, to find those drug-resistant cases so we won't have a new epidemic. I have faith that we will do it, do you?"Yes, we do have faith we can do it, but we also cannot deny that we are not doing enough to bring TB decline rates on track so that TB gets eliminated from the planet by 2030. "At its current trajectory, TB will be beaten in 200 years' time" said UK parliamentarian Nick Herbert at a Symposium organized by the World Health Organization (WHO) before the 48th Union World Conference on Lung Health opened in Guadalajara, Mexico.Dr Fanning advises "with all these players involved and with all these technologies, labs and new drugs, the key thing is to DO IT RIGHT whether it is the first treatment or the drug resistant treatment. Every treatment has to be patient-focussed, accepted by the patient, and accessible to all. And I worry that we get distracted."Neither can we meet TB related SDGs nor can we meet the other goals, like ending hunger for instance, in silos. Malnutrition, as evidence shows, is the biggest risk factor for TB. Catastrophic costs related to TB drive people to even more severe levels of poverty. With over thirteen years left, how can we radically accelerate the progress towards ending TB, and thereby other SDGs too?"I think the radical piece is contained within those SDGs. I think SDGs are extraordinary - they are a grassroots movement and they have been 'bought into by the world' - I think we have to make the world aware that it has bought into it - because I am not sure people in my community know that. I think we have to pay a lot of attention to those underlying social determinants of health that we have ignored - at our peril - because - the drugs are not enough!I think you can shut down TB if it is simple to treat, may be if it is drug resistant, but you are never going to wipe it out without addressing the housing, poverty, crowding and vulnerability of people. So, I will return to The Union's core values which are 'Health solutions for the poor' - we have to remind ourselves of that again and again. The burden of disease for me and my peer group growing up in Canada is almost gone, and it is gone because we have had a healthy existence and we have to make that available for everybody" emphasized Dr Anne Fanning.The urgency to act is now. There is no excuse for inaction while we wait for a perfect vaccine to hammer the final nail in the coffin and end infectious diseases. "Infectious diseases have laid up an opportunity to actually eradicate with, if not vaccine, then simple diagnosis and fairly simple, straightforward treatment. It is hard to think of a non-communicable disease that fits into that category and has simple tools, simple systems to find, detect and treat. Now, it is beginning to be done with diabetes, hypertension, and smoke cessation, which is critical. We need to find those simple population-based interventions and go for them as those are examples of health solutions for the poor" said Dr Anne Fanning.Frighteningly, the large reservoir of latent TB infection (where TB bacteria is present in the body but does not cause disease or spread) is another elephant in the room. With over one-third of the population estimated to have latent TB, it is impossible to end TB unless we sap this pool dry. Dr Anne Fanning shares the concern: "When you are thinking about a programme that is barely keeping its head above the water, in managing what you have, and adding on treatment of latent infection, that's a huge challenge, and we are not doing that well. We need to go beyond the known cases and start looking in the bushes for the missing TB cases, but programmes are already overwhelmed.""I heard some encouraging stuff at this conference. I heard of people talking about a laboratory network that systematically executes quality control from the grounds up to the super national level and introduces that same quality for all the new tools, such as, Gene Xpert, LAM, new diagnostics and for drug susceptibility testing - that's fairly encouraging! But do not forget that they can be operating out here when the patient and the treater- the physician- is elsewhere - they got to talk to each other. They got to talk to the community!"Fragile health systems and overwhelming disease burdens are making it even more difficult to follow basic infection control practices in healthcare facilities. This elevates risk of infection transmission not only among patients but also in other people in healthcare facilities, including the healthcare providers.Dr Fanning stressed "We cannot ignore the need to protect healthcare workers - they are among the most valuable resource we have - the nurses, outreach people, among others - and we have ignored that responsibility at our peril. The cost of re-fitting treatment centres with air flow, ultra-violet and giving every healthcare worker a N95 mask which they can discard every hour, might be huge" but we cannot ignore this issue anymore. Cutting the transmission chain of infection is critical if we are to end TB."I am really proud of The Union for its acknowledgement of the importance of health solutions for the poor. It is very exciting that TB system-approach did not forget the patients and did enable expansion substantially of the programme, and always being able to evaluate at the end of every year. It is the only disease apart from HIV probably where I know you can get data. That makes me really proud" rightly said Dr Anne Fanning."What I remember most was an indigenous patient I had met few years ago, after I had finished seeing patients (retired) who had been born in an indigenous community and had from the age of 4 onwards been in a residential school, had been badly treated, traumatized and infected with TB. And like many of those indigenous kids, lost both his sisters to stories that sound like it could have been TB, and was severely physically damaged by a disease. His whole life is so severely affected we just cannot let that happen anymore, anywhere, ANYWHERE!" said Dr Anne Fanning.Are these TB hotspots of marginalized people on public health blindspots? Unless appropriate services and care reaches out to everyone who is in need, there is no ending TB.Walking back from this insightful listening session with Dr Anne Fanning, one realization was stark clear: either we will fail on all SDGs or deliver reasonably well on all of them. If we end TB it will also imply that we have made radical progress on housing, ending poverty, ending hunger, reducing inequity, furthering urban sustainable models of development, among others - there is no other way around reaching the #endTB bull's eye.This interview is part of CNS Inspire series - featuring people who have had decades of experience in health and development, and learning from them what went well and not-so-well, and how these learnings can shape the responses for sustainable development over the next decade.Source: Citizen News Service (CNS) On Monday, October 30, at 14.30, the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency's press center will host a press conference, entitled "Pseudo Activist Schemes of Making Money on Developers are Exposed." The participants include lawyer of BD Holding Oleh Kosteniuk, representatives from state authorities - the State Architectural and Construction Inspection and the National Police of Ukraine (8/5a Reitarska Street). Accreditation and additional information by phone: (093) 273 3318 (Kateryna Orlenko). KYIV. Oct 30 (Interfax-Ukraine) A group of companies Fruktovyisvit (FruitWorld) LLC and Agroleader (Khmelnytsky region) seeks to double exports of specialty crops in the 2017/18 agricultural year (July-June). "Last year we exported around 20,000 tonnes of products, including near 10,000 tonnes of mustard, and the rest of the products were beans, flax, lentils, chickpeas and millet. Next year we would like to double exports," Director of the group Valentyn Medvediuk said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine. He said that Fruktovyisvit LLC is involved in exports of crops in the group and Agroleader is engaged in post-harvesting. "Our company permanently buys mustard, beans, flax, lentils, chickpeas, millet and other grain crops. We purify specialty crops at own production facilities in Khmelnytsky region almost to 100%," he said. In the past year the company invested near $1 million in upgrade of production facilities. Now three lines are operating. The group cooperates with 80 agricultural producers, offering seeds to them and signing contracts for the future harvest. "Mustad seeds made in Ukraine are mainly exported. Demand on them is rather stable, in July-March 2016/17 agri-year 35% of mustard seeds were exported to Germany, the traditional key importer in this segment," the company said on its website. Medvediuk said that the company exports 95% of its products, mainly to the EU. The rest of the products are sold in Ukraine. The company cooperates with the companies like Nestle and Danone. Grupul Darkest Era din Belfast, Irlanda de Nord, va concerta pentru intaia oara in Romania toamna aceasta. Trupa se va alatura celor de la Bloodway, maestrii dark metal-ului din Romania, pentru trei show-uri (in Craiova, Bucuresti si Constanta), care la randul lor vor sustine cateva concerte pentru a-si promova noul album, A Fragile Riddle Crypting Clues. Prin urmare, am considerat ca aceasta este o buna ocazie pentru a descoperi mai multe despre admiratorii celor de la Thin Lizzy, Bathory sau Primordial, cerandu-i lui Ade Mulgrew, chitaristul trupei, sa ne spuna mai multe despre activitatea trupei Darkest Era. Metalfan: Salut Ade! Cum se simte trupa zilele astea si cum este atmosfera in Irlanda de Nord? Ade Mulgrew: In ultimele luni am inceput din nou sa sustinem cateva concerte si sa compunem un nou material dupa un numar de ani de liniste, asa ca starea este pozitiva in momentul asta; mai ales ca avem onoarea de a vizita Romania pentru prima oara, alaturi de Bloodway si, poate asa vom atrage noi fani. Starea in Irlanda de Nord este probabil similara cu cea din intreaga Europa... Cu natura si cele politice in stadiul decaderii tomnatice. Metalfan: Ar fi foarte misto daca ne-ai spune mai multe despre anii in care ai descoperit muzica rock. Dintre muzicieni, care au fost eroii tai in adolescenta? Ade Mulgrew: Am fost expus rockului in mai multe feluri un unchi de-al meu avea inregistrari mai vechi ale celor de la AC/DC si Queen, pe care eu si varul meu obisnuiam sa le ascultam, iar de la o varsta frageda, sunetul de chitara electrica mi-a placut pur si simplu. Intotdeauna mi-a sunat ca ceva foarte misto si asta inainte de a avea orice fel de constiinta de sine pentru a ma intreba de ce. Apoi, in anii 90 am avut un joc pe PC numit Carmageddon 2, care avea Iron Maiden pe coloana sonora, asa ca asta avea sa-mi fie introducerea catre trupa mea preferata din toate timpurile. In cele din urma, la scoala, la varsta de 13-14 ani, cativa tipi mai mari decat mine aveau niste inregistrari cu Appetite for Destruction - Guns NRoses, ceva Slayer etc. Am considerat ca numele si copertile apareau cu adevarat ca ceva intunecat si periculos, asa ca am devenit intrigat. De-atunci n-a mai fost nicio scapare, obsedat pe viata! Metalfan: Iti aduci aminte cum ai obtinut primele discuri? Ar fi chiar dragut daca ne-ai putea impartasi astfel de povesti. Ade Mulgrew: Era un magazin de muzica in Enniskillen unde mergeam la scoala, care avea o sectiune de metal la etaj. Era mic, intunecat, cu postere, cu tricouri, cu marfa peste tot, unde se putea asculta toata ziua metal la un volum foarte mare! Era aproape un secret, bine ascuns, un loc pe care oamenii normali nu il stiau. Poate suna prostesc si romantic acum, dar aceasta notiune de a descoperi o magie intunecata si interzisa a fost cu adevarat speciala atunci cand am descoperit metal-ul. Fiecare disc era o relicva ce avea sa fie studiata cu orele: de la coperta pana la versuri si muzica. Desigur, aproximativ doi ani mai tarziu cand Napster/WinMX/Limewire au facut progrese, descopeream brusc zeci de trupe zilnic. Ceea ce era fantastic pentru un fan infometat; dar deja incepusem sa simt ca am pierdut ceva important. Metalfan: Apartinand regiunii cu pricina, trupa Darkest Era a fost rapid asociata cu tovarasii mult mai renumiti de la Primordial si, din punct de vedere muzical, o astfel de conexiune are sens. In ambele cazuri asistam la o abordare vie asupra mitologiei, o amprenta celtica imbinata cu poezie si drama, toate expuse prin intermediul uneia dintre cele mai solide tehnici ale heavy metal-ului. Dar in acelasi timp, Darkest Era merge pe calea proprie, iar diferentele dintre propria sa creatie si cele mai multe manifestari ale zilelor noastre, incluzand muzica celor de la Primordial, sunt colosale. De pilda, Joseph Schafer de la Invisible Oranges a spus-o foarte bine prea rapida pentru a fi doom [muzica Darkest Era], prea trista pentru a fi metal traditional, iar ei [muzicienii] nu folosesc suficiente instrumente folk pentru a dobandi cu adevarat aceasta eticheta [folk]. Descrie-ne, te rog, viziunea ta asupra propriei muzici. E vreun lucru pe care ti-l spui frecvent cu privire la ceea ce faci cu colegii de la Darkest Era? Ade Mulgrew: Joseph Schafer este unul dintre putinii jurnalisti care ne-a ascultat cu adevarat muzica si a inteles-o, in loc sa repete pur si simplu cuvintele din biografia trimisa de casa de discuri sau cine stie... Aceasta trupa nu este un organism in repaus. Radacinile s-au ivit cand noi eram in scoala si cantam cover-uri, ne-am dezvoltat in Darkest Era si am lansat cateva albume, am pierdut cativa membri... Povestea obisnuita. Si sincer, suntem inca in crestere, fiecare material a fost ca o captura a unui moment unic de-a lungul drumului. Prefer sa nu vorbesc in termeni de genuri, subgenuri sau etichete. Dar ceea ce am stabilit mereu sa facem e ceva ce are multa greutate emotionala; ceva ce e foarte potent si expresiv o furtuna care aduce cumva cu sine spiritul heavy metal. Modul in care acest spirit se manifesta s-a schimbat de-a lungul materialelor noastre. Metalfan: Hai sa discutam, te rog, despre un al treilea potential album. Banuiala mea este ca Darkest Era va aduce in viitorul apropiat o opera care va depasi materialele anterioare. Imi pot imagina dorinta voastra de a atinge un nivel si mai inalt atunci cand ma gandesc la sunet si la compozitiile de pe primele voastre albume. V-au trebuit trei ani ca sa veniti cu al doilea album, iar azi vedem ca inca trei ani au trecut de la lansarea Severance. Prin urmare, am putea astepta ceva nou, desi anul 2017 se apropie repede de sfarsit. Ce ti-ar placea sa ne spui despre ceva muzica noua facuta de Darkest Era? Ade Mulgrew: Asa cum spuneam, am avut cativa ani de liniste din diferite motive; aveam un material nou si idei, dar fara niciun progres. Si sincer, la inceputul acesui an a trebuit sa ma intreb daca trupa mai are vreun scop; daca mai era vreun motiv sa existam, deoarece pentru o vreme nu l-am putut gasi. In cele din urma am compus ceva material nou si am avut niste discutii cu totii si, de-acolo s-a aprins scanteia din nou. Asa cum am mentionat, trupa e mult diferita fata de cum era in urma cu cinci ani, dar impreuna ne-am gasit scopul comun. Cred ca urmatoarul album va fi cel mai pur, cea mai accentuata manifestare a ceea ce am incercat sa obtinem de la inceput. Ceea ce va reprezenta in sine cea mai mare realizare a existentei noastre. Incepem sa ne simtim din ce in ce mai indepartati de precedentele doua albume, ceea ce inseamna, probabil, cel mai mare semn pe care ti-l pot da cu privire la faptul ca ai drepate cu ceea ce spui. Dar, cu siguranta, spiritul unei frumoase melancolii va ramane. Metalfan: Ne-ar placea in mod absolut daca ai impartasi cu noi cate ceva dintre felurile in care vezi muzica, indiferent de gen. Sa spunem ca te intreb despre ultimele trei albume pe care le-ai ascultat si ti-au lasat o impresie frumoasa. Care ar fi aceste albume? Te rog sa ne explici de ce ti-au placut. Ade Mulgrew: Ascult muzica cam sase-sapte ore pe zi, atat in fundal cat si cu toata atentia, asa ca e intr-o mare masura o parte a existentei mele, in fiecare zi. Trei albume din trecut... OK, sa spunem ca sunt acestea: Bruce Dickinson, The Chemical Wedding, fara indoiala unul dintre cele mai bune albume de heavy metal facute vreodata Incredibil de intunecat si stratificat, cu un ton foarte particular, un mariaj perfect (scuza-mi expresia) intre coperta, versuri, atmosfera si compozitie; Wardruna, Ragnarok... Imi place sa ascult albume cantate in alte limbi deoarece te forteaza sa te concentrezi mai mult pe detaliile vocii pe felul in care se canta, nu pe ceea ce se canta Ma ia cu fiori cand ascult acest album, instrumentatia este de cele mai multe ori fundamentala si primitiva, dar incredibil de misto si de atmosferica; FM-84, Atlas... Sunt multe trupe de synthwave pe care le-as putea mentiona, precum Gunship, Perturbator, Carpenter Brut, dar acest tip de sunset syntpop ma duce inapoi catre copilaria mea cu jocuri arcade, Nintendo, filmele anilor 80 si, in general, o viziune idilica a fascinatiei afumate si fluorescente a Californiei. Departe de vantul si ploaia din Irlanda, pura nostalgie, dar indeosebi doar piese minunate. In autumn 2017, AccorHotels Group, the world leader in hospitality industry, introduced the first hotel under Mercure brand in Ukraine including the largest congress center in the capital with area of more than 5,000 m2. The new congress hall opened up as a result of rebranding and reconstruction of the Cosmopolite Hotel and was presented under the name of Mercure Congress Centre . The congress-hotel format is the newest and the fastest-growing segment of the hotel market all over the world, and emergence of Mercure brand in this format is a milestone for Ukraine. The project is complicated and capital intensive, but such intensive investments of AccorHotels group are related to the confidence that Ukraine has great prospects in the development of business tourism, thus a format combining hotel business and conference services will be much in demand on the hotel market of Ukraine. It will be a modern congress center with various formats combining 18 halls of various areas and styles but within the overall concept of the hotel. We will do our best to integrate the latest IT technologies in the new congress centre, which will allow to create a full-fledged hub for business meetings, seminars and conferences of various formats. This is not just a place to rent. This is a long-term strategy for establishing a creative and intellectual place for progressive business people that can meet all their demands in the business sphere, starting from working space to conduct various events, including corporate ones, tells Aleksei Abasov, EO Wisher Enterprise, which initiated the opening of a hotel of Mercure network in cooperation with AccorHotels. Reconstruction project for the 5th floor of the Mercure Congress Centre by the end of 2017 Reconstruction project for the 5th floor of the Mercure Congress Centre by the end of 2017 Reconstruction and rebranding project differs from the green field construction of a hotel, and requirements of Mercure brand international standards, starting from requirements for fire safety in hotel facilities, are more stringent and strict than those provided for in Ukrainian legislation. Total capacity of Mercure Congress Centre is up to 2,000 people, this includes 4 main halls on the 4th and 5th floors of the business complex: Dovzhenko Hall (1,200 m2), Spielberg Hall (1,000 m2), both halls are transformable using mobile soundproof partitions. Dovzhenko Hall (1,200 m2) Spielberg Hall (1,000 m2) For lesser events, Congress Hall will offer smaller halls: Scorsese Hall with area of 75 m2 and Cameron Hall with area of 45 m2, a room for business negotiations and a library hall. For special events the clients will be offered Hitchcock (380 m2) and Fellini (350 m2) banquet halls. Modern technological solutions used there make it possible to hold events of any format from business events to weddings and banquets, designed not only for 10 but also for 1,500 guests. Multifunctional congress center will allow for conducting events of various complexity and format. Our main goal is to provide a quality product by combining a set of services: accommodation, conference services, catering as well as a wide range of additional options. We are sure: loyalty to our guests will make it possible to implement the most successful and interesting projects, explains A.A. Abasov. Mercure brand hotel will be focused on all segments of tourists, from business guests to individual travelers. But, of course, the main focus will be on corporate clients, so the congress centre ultimate advantage will be its convenient location and transport interchange, proximity to the railway station and Zhuliany airport, to the city centre and its business districts. The price policy, on which both local and European experts work, will take into account all positive and negative aspects of the market, and will be client oriented, balanced and reasoned. Our motto is In harmony with people and countries. It means that we created all the conditions for our guests to feel as comfortable as possible. The hotel has cozy and modern rooms, a stylish summer terrace, where various sophisticated events can be held in summer, an outdoor swimming pool that is something not all hotels can boast of, a conference service for organizing events of any format. There are several restaurants for our guests, one of which has its own brewery. Territory of the complex includes a large shopping centre, which is very convenient, as there is no need to go anywhere. Everything you need is nearby, on the same territory, says marketing manager, head of Kyiv public communications agency/PR Inna Kovalchuk. AccorHotels Group is No. 1 network in Europe by number of hotels, which every day launches the latest innovations in the hotel business. The new project of Mercure Congress Centre being currently the largest in Ukraine will contribute to the development of Ukrainian economy, and hoteliers believe, it will create the necessary jobs and will bring philosophy of high standards of business events and European vector of business development to the country. ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump has in the recent past both distanced himself from his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and defended him. Here are some of the recent public responses by the president and his associates about Manafort and his role in the 2016 presidential campaign. Manafort began working for the campaign in March 2016 as campaign convention manager and was promoted to campaign chairman in May. He resigned from the campaign in August 2016. Feb. 16, 2017 During a press conference at the White House, Trump called Manafort "a respected man" and dismissed questions about reports of Manafort's ties to foreign political parties or governments. "People knew that" Manafort had worked for the Ukrainian government before joining his presidential campaign, the president said. Trump then went on to downplay Manafort's role in his election. "He was replaced long before the election. You know that, right? He was replaced long before the election. When all of this stuff started coming out, it came out during the election. But Paul Manafort, whos a good man also, by the way -- Paul Manafort was replaced long before the election took place. He was only there for a short period of time," Trump said. March 20, 2017 Trump's then-press secretary Sean Spicer gave an account of Manafort's role in the campaign that he later walked back. While talking about former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Spicer referred to the former Trump campaign chair as "Paul Manafort, who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time." Two days later, Spicer said he "should have been more precise" in his characterization of Manfort's role in the campaign. Aug. 10, 2017 Trump was asked about Manafort in August after it was reported that the FBI had conducted a pre-dawn raid of Manafort's home. Trump called the raid "pretty tough stuff" and complimented Manafort by saying he found him "to be a very decent man." But he also downplayed his connections to Manafort. "I know Mr. Manafort -- I haven't spoken to him in a long time, but I know him. He was with the campaign, as you know, for a very short period of time, relatively short period of time. But Ive always known him to be a good man," Trump said. Copyright 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. The U.S. Defense Department on Sunday identified the Army special operations helicopter pilot killed in Afghanistan. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jacob Michael Sims, 36, a native of Oklahoma, died and six other crew members were injured when the helicopter they were flying in crashed late Friday in Logar province in the eastern part of the country south of Kabul, according to information released by U.S. Special Operations Command. Contrary to claims by the Taliban, which reportedly controls half the province, the accident wasn't the result of enemy action, according to a separate release from the NATO-led train-and-advise mission in the country. Stars & Stripes reported the helicopter had taken troops to the volatile Kharwar district for a night raid and hit a tree, forcing an emergency landing, citing information from Salim Saleh, the provincial governor's spokesman. The other U.S. troops wounded in the accident received medical treatment and the incident remains under investigation, according to the Pentagon. "We are deeply saddened by the loss of our comrade," Gen. John Nicholson, the top commander in Afghanistan, said in the release. "On behalf of all of Resolute Support, our heartfelt sympathies go out to the families and friends of our fallen comrade and those injured in this unfortunate event." Sims was an 18-year veteran of the service with multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan who was qualified to fly the UH-60 Black Hawk and the CH-47 Chinook, including the special operations variant MH-47G, according to his biography. In 1999, he enlisted in the Army and completed basic training and advanced individual training before being assigned to Fort Bragg, N.C. After completing warrant officer flight training, he became a UH-60 Black Hawk pilot and was assigned to Fort Wainwright, Alaska. In 2014, he volunteered to serve in the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne). He was assigned to Alpha Company, 4th Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (Airborne), at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash. He also served as a MH-47G pilot-in-command and company aviation safety officer. Sims was a veteran of a deployment to Kosovo, and multiple tours of duty in support of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He received numerous awards and decorations during his career in uniform. They include the Air Medal (with Combat Device), Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal (with 3 Oak Leaf Clusters), Army Achievement Medal (with 5 Oak Leaf Clusters), Joint Meritorious Unit Award (with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters), Meritorious Unit Citation (with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters) Army Good Conduct Medal (4th Award), National Defense Service Medal, Kosovo Campaign Medal, Afghanistan Campaign Medal (with 1 Bronze Campaign Star), Iraqi Campaign Medal (with 2 Bronze Campaign Stars), Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon (2nd Award), Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon, NATO Medal (3rd Award), Air Assault Badge, Senior Parachutist Badge, Sapper Tab, Basic Aviator Badge, and the Combat Action Badge. "On behalf of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment I would like to extend my most sincere condolences to the family of CW2 Jacob Sims," Col. Philip Ryan, the commander of the 160th SOAR (A), said in a release. "Jacob lived by a creed that few understand and even fewer embody," Ryan added. "He will not be forgotten and his legacy will endure through his family, friends, and fellow Night Stalkers. You have our unwavering support, and always have a welcome place among the Night Stalker family." -- Brendan McGarry can be reached at brendan.mcgarry@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Brendan_McGarry. Two Navy SEALs have been placed on administrative leave as officials investigate their involvement in the June death of an Army Green Beret, the New York Times reported Sunday. Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar was found dead June 4 in embassy housing while deployed to Bamako, Mali, the Times reported in a shocking exclusive. Melgar's death was never publicly announced by the Department of Defense, as is standard when a service member dies during a deployment. Criminal investigators were dispatched to the scene of 34-year-old Melgar's death within a day, the Times reported, and the case was transferred from the Army Criminal Investigative Division to Naval Criminal Investigative Service in September. The two SEALs suspected to have caused Melgar's death by strangulation have not been identified. They were sent home shortly after the alleged murder and have been placed on administrative leave, the Times reported. Naval Special Warfare Command officials did not immediately respond to a Military.com query Sunday. U.S. military special operations activities in Africa have received renewed public attention since four Special Forces soldiers were killed in an attack by local militants Nov. 4. That incident, and how Green Berets were reassigned from an advise-and-assist mission to the takeout of a terrorist leader, has prompted inquiries from lawmakers and senior officials. Mali borders Niger to the west and has long been a haven for al Qaida-affiliated radicals. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said that more than 1,000 U.S. troops are stationed in a region that includes both countries. -- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck. Here are five news stories and events to start your week, from the editors at Military.com: Navy SEALs Investigated in Strangling Death of Green Beret Via Hope Hodge Seck at Military.com: "Two Navy SEALs have been placed on administrative leave as officials investigate their involvement in the June death of an Army Green Beret, the New York Times reported Sunday. Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar was found dead June 4 in embassy housing while deployed to Bamako, Mali, the Times reported in a shocking exclusive. Melgar's death was never publicly announced by the Department of Defense, as is standard when a service member dies during a deployment." Night Stalker Pilot Killed in Afghanistan Identified Via Brendan McGarry at Military.com: "The U.S. Defense Department on Sunday identified the Army special operations helicopter pilot killed in Afghanistan. Chief Warrant Officer 2 Jacob Michael Sims, 36, a native of Oklahoma, died and six other crew members were injured when the helicopter they were flying in crashed late Friday in Logar province in the eastern part of the country south of Kabul, according to information released by U.S. Special Operations Command." Trial Set to Begin in Largest Marine Corps Hazing Case in Years Via Hope Hodge Seck at Military.com: "Jury selection began Friday in a court-martial that will determine whether a senior Marine Corps drill instructor hazed one Muslim recruit by throwing him in an industrial dryer, and pushed another to suicide. The trial of Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix is the culmination of more than a year-and-a-half of investigations and legal proceedings following the suicide death of 20-year-old Raheel Siddiqui in March 2016 ... Opening arguments in the Felix case are set to begin Monday." Admirals to Share Results of Investigations into Deadly Ship Collisions The U.S. Navy's top officer, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. John Richardson, and the head of U.S. Fleet Forces Command, Adm. Phil Davidson, on Thursday are scheduled to brief reporters on results of the service's investigations into four ship mishaps in the Pacific this year -- two of which caused millions in damage and resulted in the deaths of 17 deployed sailors. Richardson recently called on the service's most junior leaders to be proactive and troubleshoot subpar working conditions. SecDef to Testify Before Lawmakers on War Authorization Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson are scheduled to testify 5 p.m. Monday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, headed by Bob Corker, R-Tenn., on authorizations for the use of military force. Like the Obama administration, the Trump administration relies on a 16-year-old AUMF from Congress to deploy troops against such threats as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Afghanistan, or ISIS -- in places from Afghanistan to Niger, where four U.S. troops were recently killed. -- Brendan McGarry can be reached at brendan.mcgarry@military.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Brendan_McGarry. A B-2 Spirit stealth bomber flew to the Pacific over the weekend to demonstrate the U.S.'s commitment to partners and allies amid North Korea's increasing missile tests, U.S. Strategic Command officials said. The flight of the stealth bomber from Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, marks a significant step in the U.S.'s deterrence, or "pressure campaign," against North Korea, which continues to test ballistic missiles and nuclear warheads despite repeated condemnation from the international community. Its presence marks the first time the B-2 -- capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear weapons -- has been in the Pacific since a trio of the bombers wrapped up training exercises earlier this year with the Australian Air Force. The Spirit bombers last flew a show-of-force mission in 2013 when they and allied aircraft dropped eight dummy bombs over a training area in Osan. Related: While the Air Force maintains the flight was part of a routine mission, the B-2's appearance came during Defense Secretary Jim Mattis's visit to the region, and just days before President Donald Trump departs for his first trip to Asia. Trump is expected to meet with leaders in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. "The threat from North Korea has grown markedly even since my trip here earlier this year," Mattis said during a press conference alongside his South Korean counterpart, Song Young-moo, on Saturday. Mattis emphasized that the U.S. does not and will not accept "a nuclear North Korea." "Any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with a massive military response, effective and overwhelming," the former Marine general said. Whether America's most advanced bomber will stick around for additional exercises, or Trump's visit, is unclear. The command routinely deploys bombers as part of its continuous bomber presence mission. Most recently, two U.S. Pacific Command-assigned B-1B supersonic bombers for the first time conducted combined drills with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and Republic of Korea at night. During the operation earlier this month, the non-nuclear capable Lanceraircraft simulated air-to-ground bomb drops over the water near South Korea's east coast. -- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Oriana0214. An Indigenous airman, who had to cut his braids when first joining the Air Force two years ago, is now one of the first in... Spill Response and Absorbent Products for Oil, Gas and Hazardous Waste on Land and in Water BAY CITY, MI -- A Reese woman accused of embezzling a six-figure sum from a mom-and-pop appliance store, prompting it to shutter its doors for good, has accepted a plea deal. Rebecca J. Beecher on Friday, Oct. 27, appeared before Bay County Circuit Judge Harry P. Gill and pleaded no contest to one count of forgery. The charge is a 14-year felony. In exchange, the prosecution agreed to dismiss three more counts of the same charge and four counts of uttering and publishing, also a 14-year felony. There is no sentencing agreement. Beecher's trial was to begin Tuesday, Oct. 31. By pleading no contest, Beecher did not verbally admit to having committed a crime. As such, Gill had to rely on police reports and court records to enter a conviction on the record. The case against Beecher stems from an investigation into business dealings at Stambaugh Appliance, 408 Columbus Ave., between Nov. 21 and Dec. 22, 2015. Police allege Beecher misappropriated more than $100,000, causing the longtime business to shutter its doors on Dec. 31, 2015. The business had been owned by Fred and Patricia Savage since 1975. Patricia Savage owned 55 percent of the business when it closed, with Beecher being a minority shareholder. Beecher had been with the business for 18 years. Beecher in 2015 ran the business as Patricia Savage was focused on taking care of her husband, who died in June 2016. During a December 2016 preliminary examination, Patricia Savage testified she took Beecher off the business' accounts in November 2015 at the request of PNC Financial Services. In that same hearing, Bay County Assistant Prosecutor Bernard J. Coppolino presented four checks to witness Amy Lopez, a loss prevention officer with PNC. Lopez identified each check as having been from Stambaugh Appliance's checking account and written to Beecher. The checks were for $500, $1,600, $3,400, and $6,000, all of which had been cashed and bore the purported signature of Patricia A. Savage. Savage testified she did not sign any of the checks. When Beecher's then-defense attorney Edward M. Czuprynski asked her why PNC encouraged her to remove Beecher from the business's accounts, she replied, "Because she was being investigated by another bank." Czuprynski called to the witness stand Kim Lindauer, an accountant who said she brought more suspicious checks to Savage's attention than the four Coppolino presented. Some were for questionable uses not within the business' scope and which Savage had no knowledge of, Lindauer testified. Czuprynski asked Lindauer if she informed police there was evidence Beecher opened numerous credit cards for herself in Stambaugh's name. Lindauer replied she had indeed, saying Savage was unaware of the cards' existence and charges associated to them did not seem like purchases Savage would make, including items from Babies 'R' Us and Las Vegas. Several times throughout the hearing, Coppolino objected to Czuprynski's questions of witnesses, saying the defense attorney was "doing a fine job of laying the foundation" for embezzlement charges against his client. Judge Gill is to sentence Beecher at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 11. (This story has been updated to correct a date.) FLINT, MI -- Seventy-one water systems in Michigan now have higher lead levels than the city of Flint, results of the most recent federally-required testing shows. Water sampling in Flint from January through June showed the city's 90th percentile for lead was at 7 parts per billion, far better than the last six months of 2016, but still higher than 92.6 percent of the 1,333 water systems regulated by the state Department of Environmental Quality. In the first six months of this year, 71 water systems had higher concentrations of lead than Flint. Just 24 systems had more lead than the city in the second half of 2016. Only two private water systems in the state -- Island Lake Apartments in Livingston County and Knorrwood Knolls Subdivision in Oakland County -- had at least 10 percent of water samples from high-risk sites exceed 15 ppb in testing this year, the federal threshold for lead. Although the new results show how far Flint has come in emerging from the city's water crisis, it is also a reminder of how much better other water systems are performing when lead is the measure. "The water lead levels in Flint, continue to trend downwards from levels we measured in August 2015," said Marc Edwards, a professor from Virginia Tech University, whose research identified extreme corrosivity of improperly treated water from the Flint River and the resulting leeching of lead from transmission pipes and home plumbing here. "Obviously, Flint benefits from a more rigorously vetted sampling pool than elsewhere in the state, so if anything, there are probably many, many more systems in Michigan that probably have worse water lead levels than Flint," Edwards said. Dozens do have higher lead concentrations, according to the Lead and Copper Rule test results requested by MLive-The Flint Journal from the DEQ, including the cities of Monroe (15 ppb), Benton Harbor (12 ppb), Muskegon (11 ppb), Owosso (11 ppb) and Saginaw (10 ppb). Not only cities and townships, but subdivisions, apartment complexes and mobile home parks have water systems required to comply with LRC testing rules. Thirty-six of those water systems registered 10 percent of homes with 10 ppb of lead or more during the first six months of the year, meaning the systems would be above the lead limit proposed by Gov. Rick Snyder earlier this year. MLive-The Journal could not reach representatives of the two water systems that are currently above 15 ppb of lead in 2017 testing. Knorrwood Knolls, which had a 90th percentile of 22 ppb of lead, has increased phosphate treatment dosages and is conducting further investigation to determine why its levels are so high, according to the DEQ. A notice posted online by Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash says treatment of water to make it less corrosive to pipes and home plumbing began in Knorrwood Knolls in October 2016. "The source of the lead is being investigated through additional testing and the ... phosphate feed rate and/or phosphate blend" will be adjusted until lead concentrations are lowered, the county's posting says. Island Lake Apartments in Livingston County, which registered the highest lead level of any water system in the state at 82 ppb, also had elevated lead in water (37 ppb) levels during testing in the last six months of 2016, according to state records. The system serves a population of less than 50, according to the DEQ. MLive-The Journal could not reach APA Investments LLC or Rama Cherukuri, the registered agent for the subdivision. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency first published the Lead and Copper Rule in 1991 and has used it since as a tool to control lead and copper in drinking water. The rule requires water system sampling every six months with the number of samples based on the population the system serves. In addition to Snyder, others have said the LRC is in need of revision. In April, U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Flint Twp., introduced the National Opportunity for Lead Exposure Accountability and Deterrence Act of 2017 in the House of Representatives. That measure would lower the federal lead action level from 15 to 10 ppb by 2020 and to 5 ppb in 2026. Kildee and U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) have also sent a joint letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, detailing concerns about other proposed revisions to the LRC. The current regulation requires that water systems target homes at high risk for lead contamination, such as those with lead service lines. If lead concentrations exceed an action level of 15 ppb or copper concentrations exceed an action level of 1.3 ppm in more than 10 percent of customer taps sampled, the system must take action to control corrosion. LRC testing in Flint before the city's water crisis was compromised because city officials have said they submitted false documents to state regulators, claiming sampling sites were qualified as high risk even though the city had no reliable inventory that told them the composition of service lines. In the most recent six-month tests, Flint's levels were 7 ppb in the first six months of 2017, 12 ppb in the second half of 2016, 20 ppb in the first half of 2016. Before the city's water source changed to the Flint River in April 2014, Flint's water registered 0 ppb of lead in testing dating back to 2008. Rob Bincsik, Flint water distribution center supervisor, said in a statement to MLive-The Journal that lower lead levels are "the result of a lot of hard work from many people including city of Flint employees, consultants, as well as those assisting from DEQ and EPA. "The results are directly related to a more optimized level of corrosion control and the continued removal of lead service lines," Bincsik said. Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said in a written statement that while "results are promising, we also realize there is still a substantial amount of work that remains to be done." "As work continues to replace lead tainted service lines, we must continue to complete improvement projects throughout the distribution system and fully optimize our corrosion control program, which should only improve our water quality more and more," Weaver said. LAKE CITY, MI -- Police arrested a 23-year-old Lake City man over the weekend after he reportedly stabbed another man and caused serious injuries in Missaukee County. The alleged incident occurred before 5:45 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28. A short time later, a 33-year-old Lake City man walked into the Missaukee County Sheriff's Office and reported being stabbed multiple times in the back. Police said the victim reported being stabbed at a residence in the 100 block of S. Gladwin Street in Lake City. The man was transported to Munson Healthcare Cadillac Hospital, and later moved to the hospital's Traverse City location in serious condition. Officers used a K-9 search in an attempt to locate the known suspect, but were unsuccessful Saturday. On Sunday, the sheriff's office received a tip on the suspect's whereabouts, and located him around 3:50 p.m. in the 6000 block of Jennings Road. He was taken into custody without incident, police said. The suspect remains in custody at the Missaukee County Jail, awaiting charges from the county prosecutor's office. Police have not released the names of the suspect or victim at this time. MONTCALM COUNTY, MI -- Authorities have begun to release the names of the 10 people involved in Sunday's fatal truck-vs-buggy crash in Montcalm County. Michigan State Police identified the two adults in the horse-drawn buggy as Paul Martin, 40, and Judith Martin, 34. Three of their children were killed, and four more injured when a pickup truck hit their buggy around 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 29. Police said a Dodge truck driven by Brandon King, 29, of Sheridan, was eastbound on Condensery Road in Bushnell Township when it struck the rear of a buggy carrying nine people. The Martins' 7-year-old daughter, 9-year-old daughter, and 11-year-old son were killed in the crash. Additionally, their 18-month-old daughter, 2-year-old son, 3-year-old son and 8-year-old son were hospitalized. The youngest has since been released from Carson City Hospital, while the other three remain in stable condition at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids. Judith Martin remains in critical condition at Spectrum Health Butterworth in Grand Rapids, while Paul Martin is in stable condition at Hurley Medical Center in Flint. King was not injured in the crash. Police said alcohol does not appear to be a factor in the crash. Other possible contributing factors are still under investigation by Michigan State Police. Police have not released the names of any minors injured in the crash. Assisting state police on scene were the Montcalm County Sheriff's Office, Life EMS, Life Net, Sheridan Fire Department, Greenville Department of Public Safety, Montcalm County Central Dispatch and Safety First wrecker. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- George Brewster was making a delivery to a Northeast Side bar when he noticed his supervisor parked nearby, watching him. What Brewster didn't know was that his Sysco supervisor was apparently setting him up to lose his temper by hiding Brewster's truck keys under his seat while he was inside the restaurant. This provoked a profanity-laced outburst by Brewster, which led to his 2015 firing, according to court documents. The crux of this setup: Brewster had been identified by company management as a potential Teamsters union organizer. Brewster's firing is among 79 labor practice violations made by Sysco leading up to a failed 2015 union vote, concluded Michael Rosas, an administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations Board, following a hearing last year. Most of the violations involve the company threatening, intimidating and unlawfully punishing workers during an organizing campaign. The judge ordered the country's largest food distributor to reinstate Brewster, stop threatening employees and immediately begin negotiating a contract with the Grand Rapids-based Teamsters Local 406. The issue has now landed in federal court in Grand Rapids because the NLRB is requesting an injunction to force Sysco to immediately follow Rosas' orders while his decision is reviewed by the federal agency's top board. A final decision could take several months or even years. Many offenses reached the level of "hallmark violations" which meant they were "significant in that they are reasonably likely to have an effect on a substantial percentage of the work force (sic) and to remain in employees' memories for a long time," Rosas wrote in his decision. Sysco disagrees. The company filed a June 25 motion requesting the NLRB dismiss the case, saying there was no evidence presented during the hearing that showed the "alleged unfair labor practices" hindered the union vote. "No one claimed, for example, that attendance at union meetings dropped, that the volume of union literature in the plant decreased, or that other expressions of support for the Union decreased," Sysco attorneys claimed in the document. The company declined to comment for this story. The order for Sysco to begin negotiating with the union and the federal lawsuit are unusual for the agency tasked with protecting worker rights, said John Beck, a professor who teaches labor relations at Michigan State University. It's an indication of how seriously NLRB is taking Sysco's workplace offenses. "I would say 79 violations is egregious. That's why you've got a straight bargaining order instead of a new vote," Beck said. Two months before the May 7, 2015 election, 99 workers -- a majority of the workforce -- signed authorization cards so the vote could take place. But less than half of about 160 total employees -- 71 workers -- voted for the union. It failed by 10 votes. Sysco's extensive unfair labor practices "were sufficiently severe so as to erode the majority support that the union had acquired," Rosas wrote. The violations include threats to close the plant, impose more stringent work rules, remove seniority status and reduce work hours. But the company wasn't just cited for threats. Handing out early safety bonuses to 49 employees in the weeks leading up to the union vote was deemed a violation. The employees who voted on whether to unionize are a mix of truck drivers and warehouse workers. Most work at the Grand Rapids-area facility, at 3700 Sysco Court SE in Cascade Township. A smaller portion are split between depots in Alanson, Cadillac, Kalkaska, West Branch, Niles and White Pigeon. The Grand Rapids operation is one of 70 companies in the United States owned by parent corporation Sysco, a publicly traded company with $30 billion in annual sales. Sysco leaders warned the Grand Rapids operation would lose sales to competitors such as Gordon Food Service, a longtime company with a hometown advantage. The Wyoming-based food distributor has a non-union workforce like most other West Michigan businesses. Sysco is waiting for Rosas' decision to be reviewed by the National Labor Relations Board, which can uphold all or part of the decision or dismiss it entirely. The board's decisions can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals and ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court. The Sysco Grand Rapids' hearing took place over 14 days from May to October 2016. The number of violations and their circumstances warranted the NLRB to take legal action against Sysco after the hearing, said Terry A. Morgan, NLRB regional director, of why the federal agency filed an injunction on July 11 in federal court in Grand Rapids. The agency's 152-page legal filing details the accusations against Sysco's West Michigan leadership team. Brewster's firing was part of the filing. Brewster, who began working for Sysco in 2001, has yet to get his job back since he was fired in February 2015. The order will cost the company at least $200,000 in back pay and benefits, according to the union. "Sysco does not seem like they are in any hurry to end this," Brewster told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press. "They just keep spending stockholders' money on this fight that they know they will lose." GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Cheryl Heinrich stood nervously at the front of the room, waiting to receive the nine military medals, including the Purple Heart, on behalf of her father. The emcee described each award, and the honor and sacrifice each stood for. Heinrich's hands shook as U.S. senator Gary Peters passed her the awards one by one. "I'm very proud of him, to know that my dad served and was able to get the medals," Heinrich said. "It's too bad he wasn't able to get them himself or if he did (receive medals), whatever happened to them." The old records that would describe Frederick Ash's heroic military actions and the status of the medals were destroyed by fire decades ago. Frederick Ash was born and raised in West Michigan. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in the spring of 1942 at Fort Custer - shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He served as an infrantryman in the European Theater during World War II. Following his honorable discharge in 1945, he returned to West Michigan and started a family. He worked as a commercial fisherman in Saugatuck, and was killed in a fishing accident in the 1950s. Heinrich was only 4 years old at the time of her father's death. "I don't remember my dad," Heinrich said. "It's funny, but I do remember him in his casket and touching his hand. Then I can remember telling my momma he was cold. Other than that there wasn't a whole lot I could tell you about my dad, only what I was told by family that knew him." Unfortunately, all records of Ash's service were destroyed in a 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center. Due to the fire, records regarding the extent of Ash's actions, including those that earned him the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, are no longer available. When Heinrich reached out to Peters' office about the awards, she didn't have a lot of information. They worked together to secure all of the medals to honor her father's service. Peters said the fact Ash received awards like the Bronze Star means he demonstrated heroism and performed in a tough situation. "So although we don't know the details, it's still an incredibly meaningful experience for the family," Peters said. Peters serves on the Senate Armed Services and Homeland Security committees. After receiving all of the medals, Heinrich and her granddaughter Brittnie Keely-Castro held them together. "Grandma, what are we going to do with all of these?" she said. Heinrich said she plans to get a case for the medals. The following is a list of all the awards Frederick Ash received, and their respective meanings: The Bronze Star Medal: The Purple Heart: Good Conduct Medal: Presidential Unit Citation: American Campaign Medal: European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and Bronze Star Attachment: World War II Victory Medal: Combat Infantryman Badge First Award: The Honorable Service Lapel Button: The ceremony was held on Friday, Oct. 27 at the American Legion Boat and Canoe Club. GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- An Ada woman accused of threatening to blow up a Kentwood mosque in January has pleaded to a lesser felony than originally charged. Kari Moss, 34, entered a no-contest plea Monday, Oct. 30, to one count of making a false threat of a bomb, which carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. Moss' plea was part of a deal, which included the dismissal of a 20-year felony charge of making a false threat of terrorism. District Judge Paul Sullivan accepted her plea after summarizing a Kentwood Police Department report that detailed the Jan. 2 incident. Moss is accused of threatening to blow up the At-Tawheed Islamic Center, at 3357 E. Paris Ave. SE. Sullivan said a witness told police that Moss arrived at the mosque wearing a bulky coat and said she would blow up the facility if he didn't give her money. Police were notified, and a state police bomb squad was called to the scene. No bomb or weapons were found. Moss has suffered from mental illness for many years, according to her mother, Charlotte Steigenga. She was argumentative during her initial arraignment hearing, and refused to leave the jail for a probable cause hearing less than two weeks after the incident. She has since attended each hearing and has acted polite to the judge and her defense attorney, Brett Stevenson. In May, she was found competent to stand trial. Moss was in good spirits Monday. She is scheduled to be sentenced at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12 in Grand Rapids District Court. She remains at the Kent County Jail with bond set at $500,000. By Emily Lawler and Craig Mauger LANSING -- The application cost for a medical marijuana business permit from Bangor Township -- a 14,641-person township outside Bay City -- isn't cheap. Still, at $5,000 each, the township received 18 applications in just three weeks this fall. "A guy today called me and said he's applying for three licenses," Bangor Township Clerk Dawn Bublitz said on Aug. 30, two days before the township's application window opened. "Is it OK that I bring cash?" she said the person asked. "I said, '$15,000?'" The rush of interest from medical marijuana entreprenuers isn't unique to Bangor Township. A new state law regulating what could be an $837-million industry in Michigan gives local governments of all sizes the power to help determine which businesses can take part in the medical marijuana industry. The law has shifted some of the high-dollar effort to influence medical marijuana policy in Michigan from the state capitol to municipal buildings across the state. Under the Medical Marihuana Facilities Act the Legislature approved in 2016, an appointed state board with five members will decide who gets licenses to grow marijuana, to transport it, to process it, to sell it or to provide safety compliance. However, under the law, the Medical Marihuana Licensing Board can consider whether local governments have approved ordinances or permits for businesses. Paul Samways, an accountant who runs Cannabis Accounting Inc., has dispensary clients who are seeking local approvals in hopes they will be able to obtain a license. "Seventy-five percent of the battle is finding someplace to be," he said. Many of those hoping to get into the new industry believe approval from a municipality with its own medical marijuana ordinance could be key to getting the all-important state license. That has led to a rush to get local governments to act despite the fact the state is still weeks away from approving administrative rules under which the medical marijuana industry will operate. According to associations that represent townships and cities, it's unclear exactly how many local governments have approved ordinances to "opt-in" to the state's new medical marijuana system. But some, like Clare, Kalkaska and Pinconning Township in Bay County, have adopted ordinances to allow medical marijuana businesses within their borders. Others, like Buchanan in Berrien County and Niles, have expressed intent to allow them. Many more municipalities located across Michigan are expected to take action after the state Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation releases official rules later this fall. 'Every community in the state has been approached' Among the first to act was Webberville, a 1,272-person village located along Interstate 96 in central Michigan. Its action was sparked by a request from the Michigan Cannabis Development Association, a group representing marijuana interests. Denise Pollicella, general counsel for the MCDA, declined to discuss which clients had requested she approach the city. But the move worked - in February, Webberville approved an ordinance to allow growing operations, processing facilities, transporters and safety compliance facilities, but not provisioning centers. In August, the village signed off on a medical marijuana extraction facility permit application from Webberville Ventures LLC, a company incorporated just that month. It was McKenna & Associates, Webberville's planning consultant, that drafted the ordinance changes. And Webberville isn't their only local government client looking for assistance. "As far as I can tell, every community in the state has been approached," said Chris Khorey, principal planner with the firm. Webberville Ventures is among the companies lucky enough to have found a site already. But to truly break into the industry - which it estimates in its business plan to be worth $900 million by 2020 - the company needs a license from the state as well. Its business plan assumes it will get a license by February 2018. In an interview, Jared Bundgarrd, the company's registered agent on its business filing, acknowledged there's some risk in paying a local permit fee of $5,000 and beginning to invest in a business before a required state license has been approved. But he said getting the local permit was key to advancing the business's plans and to making the case for a state license later. "At this point, from our perspective, it's a risk that's worth taking," he said. Pollicella, who works with many different clients in many different municipalities, compared getting into the medical marijuana industry now in Michigan to real estate speculation -- the act of purchasing real estate at one moment with the hope that its value will increase in the future. If marijuana were legalized in Michigan one day, as a ballot proposal campaign is currently seeking to make a reality in 2018, those in the medical marijuana business could see their values increase. But there are uncertainties. The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs is still working to draft the rules by which the industry will operate, and there is no guarantee of any company getting a license from the Medical Marihuana Licensing Board. Some marijuana businesses worry the state board could steer state licenses to the most wealthy applicants. Pollicella noted that the board is barred from putting caps on the number of licenses it offers, meaning it can't give only two licenses to grow marijuana to allow a monopoly on certain portions of the industry. At the same time, she admitted the board could restrict access to licenses through other ways. "We simply don't know," she said of what will be the eventual outcome with licensing. Interest is 'staggering' In the meantime, prospective businesses are working to lay the groundwork for their state licenses by scoring local permits in key geographic locations. The 11,257-person city of Niles in southwest Michigan, about two hours from Chicago, hasn't adopted an ordinance yet, but plans to. And there has been heavy interest. Sanya Vitale, Niles' community development director, says Niles gets about five phone calls and three to four emails about medical marijuana each day. Calls come from medical marijuana dispensaries and businesses located outside of Michigan, she said. The interest in Niles has been "staggering," Vitale said. The level of interest is partly because of the city's proximity to other states, like Illinois and Indiana, she explained. If recreational marijuana were legalized one day in Michigan, the location could be financially beneficial for businesses. Niles plans to adopt ordinances and then begin accepting permit applications after the state sets rules for medical marijuana later this year. The city wants to know the rules before going forward, she said. Vitale described Niles as a "rust belt community" that believes it will see job opportunities through the presence of a growing medical marijuana industry. The Niles-Benton Harbor area has an unemployment rate of about 5 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Do we think it's going to be some boon for Niles? No, not really," Vitale said. "But every little bit helps." Similarly, Bublitz, of Bangor Township, said the industry could lead to extra revenue for her township. If the township is going to be part of the industry, it wants to get on board early, she added. Bangor Township plans to allow up to 50 grower permits, 10 processor permits, six provisioning permits, five transporter permits and five safety compliance permits. Asked how the township will decide which businesses get a permit and which don't, she responded, "It's the question of the day." Contact Emily Lawler at elawler@mlive.com or Craig Mauger of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network at craig@mcfn.org. NOVI, MI - Novi-based accountant George Papadopoulos is having an interesting morning online, but he wants people to know he's not a bad guy. Unfortunately for Papadopoulos, he shares his name with a former adviser to President Donald Trump. That other Papadopoulos, it was revealed Monday, pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents investigating ties between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election. That investigation is being led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Papadopoulos the aide, admitted to lying to Mueller's investigators about meeting with Russians who were offering "dirt" on Trump's Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, according to the Associated Press. Papadopoulos the aide pleaded guilty to charges on Oct. 5 and that file was unsealed Monday by a judge. Two other former Trump campaign members, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were charged by Mueller as well and both turned themselves into the FBI on Monday. Court records indicate that Papadopoulos tried on several occasions to connect the Trump campaign and the Russians. For Papadopoulos the CPA, the whole matter has made his online life hectic as people accuse him of being the same man involved in the scandal. For the nth time, I am NOT Trump's foreign policy adviser! I have NO association with the Trump camp! NONE! George Papadopoulos (@feeonlyplanner) October 30, 2017 He appears to be taking it all in stride for the most part, as he says he is out of the country visiting his mother in Greece. However, that's not stopping some people from accusing him of being involved. Thankfully others have come to his defense and offered sympathy. Someone buy this guy a beer today. https://t.co/Y78iRjLi2y Michael Corey, I'm still here. (@mikejcorey) October 30, 2017 live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on Tuesday, the 14th November,2017 at 3.00 P.M. , at the Registered office of the Company, to consider and approve, inter-alia, the un-audited Financial Results of the Company for the period and Qtr. ended 30th September,2017. Ashiana Ispat ended at Rs 36.55, up Rs 1.55, or 4.43 percent.It has touched a 52-week high of Rs 36.75 Source : BSE Read More live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Due to unavoidable technical reasons, resulting in non-compilation of un-audited financial statements, the company is not able to complete the un-audited financial results on time.Thus in order to facilitate the approval of Un-Audited financial results of the Company for the quarter and half year ended September 30, 2017, the Board of Directors vide their circular resolution dated October 30, 2017 have approved to postpone their meeting to be held on 31st October, 2017 and now it would be held on 10th November, 2017 to consider and approve the un-audited financial result.Source : BSE Read More The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India has sought relaxation from commodities and capital market regulator and the I-T department on some rules for the insolvent companies. Sources have told Moneycontrol that the Bankruptcy Board (IBBI) has requested SEBI to give the companies an exemption in disclosure norms during the 180 days period when insolvency resolution professionals (IRP) take over the firm to turn it around. We feel that if professionals are trying to turn around the companies, it would be difficult for them to update exchanges about every information, a senior official from Corporate Affairs Ministry told Moneycontrol. Since they have a very short duration of 180 days to turn around the company, it becomes very difficult for professionals to fulfill regulatory requirements. IBBI has also asked the regulator to consider not taking any penal action against these companies, but only against the promoters. For any violation of laws by companies under the management of professionals, an IRP can be penalised under SEBI Act. Therefore, providing protection to them will be a welcome move coming from SEBI, said Sumit Agrawal, former SEBI official and Founder, Suvan Law Advisors, a law firm specialising in regulatory affairs. IBBI has also asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to give exemption to such companies in Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) during the 180-days period, according to sources quoted above. We are ready to give every possible support to the professionals who are running insolvent companies. That is why we requested CBDT for exemption in tax, the MCA official said. The move could help IRPs focus on turning around the operations at an insolvent company. Though the framework within which an IRP operates is statutory by nature, protection clauses under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code are not sufficient to take care of liabilities under other legislations, Agrawal added. The market regulator had earlier given relaxation in open offer to buyers of distressed companies. In its recent board meeting, it also agreed to not take any action against distressed companies. Ashwani Gujral of ashwanigujral.com told CNBC-TV18, "Today will remain somewhat of a PSU bank day although they have cooled off a little bit. But that is where momentum was seen early morning. So, that way also oil and gas stocks are doing very well. We have calls from all three sectors." "Punjab National Bank (PNB) is a buy with a stop loss of Rs 200 for target of Rs 221. Indraprastha Gas (IGL) is a buy with a stop loss of Rs 1,590 target of Rs 1,650 and BPCL is a buy with a stop loss of Rs 545 target of Rs 570." VK Sharma, Head - PCG and Capital Market Strategy at HDFC Securities told CNBC-TV18, "Tata Global Beverage has done very well on Friday. I am looking at this primarily from the fact that in the last series this stock added just 10 percent whereas on Friday in the current series it has already added 5 percent much more than what it had added in the past series." "This is a stock which has given 80 percent return this calendar year since last December. So, I am buying the 225 Call at around Rs 10 keeping a stop loss at Rs 7 and a target around Rs 15. I think this stock is now ready for a move upwards." "Hero MotoCorp is a stock which has excited after the numbers that came in after it was announced just around Diwali. I am buying the 380 Call here at around Rs 115 with stop loss at Rs 80 and a target around Rs 180. Open interest has been added 5 percent, but the stock has gone up only 1 percent on Friday, therefore this call." "There are three other calls, one is Adani Ports where I am buying the 440 Call at around Rs 15 with stop loss at Rs 10 and target of around Rs 25. A huge 23 percent open interest was added. On Friday the stock went up by 4 percent, so this call is likely to fetch money for the Option traders now." "Dr Reddy's Laboratories is another stock where no open interest was added but it had moved up by 2 percent. I am buying the 2,400 Call at around Rs 104, stop; loss at Rs 75 and a target at around Rs 170." live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More The 'Bharat 22' Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), comprising 22 scrips of public sector units, will hit the capital market next month to mop up over Rs 8,000 crore for the government. The new fund offer (NFO), managed by ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, will open for anchor investors on November 14, while subscription for retail investors would begin from November 15 and continue till November 17. An upfront discount of 3 percent would be offered to all category of investors, the fund house said. "Approvals are in place. It is likely to open for retail subscription on November 15," said a Finance Ministry official. The ETF will help the government meet its ambitious Rs 72,500 crore disinvestment target for the current fiscal. The state-owned companies or PSUs that are part of the new ETF are ONGC, IOC, SBI, BPCL, Coal India and Nalco. It also includes government's strategic holding in Axis Bank, ITC and L&T held through SUUTI (Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India). The other Central Public Sector Enterprises on the list are Bharat Electronics, Engineers India, NBCC, NTPC, NHPC, SJVNL, GAIL, PGCIL and NLC India. Only three public sector banks -- SBI, Indian Bank and Bank of Baroda -- figure in the Bharat-22 index. The government had raised about Rs 8,500 crore through the two tranches of CPSE ETF last fiscal. It had first launched ETF in March 2014 and had garnered Rs 3,000 crore. The first CPSE ETF consisted of scrips of 10 PSUs -- ONGC, Coal India, IOC, GAIL (India), Oil India, PFC, Bharat Electronics, REC, Engineers India and Container Corporation of India. Jasper Infotech Private Limited, the parent company of Snapdeal, has hit back at GoJavas refuting the allegations made by the latter, earlier this month adding that it would initiate civil and criminal actions if GoJavas didn't withdraw its notice in three days. Anand Rai, the owner of GoJavas filed a complaint against Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal and Vulcan Express earlier this month with the Delhi Police's Economic Offences Wing. GoJavas (Quickdel Logistics Private Limited) alleges a criminal breach of trust, intellectual property theft and the misappropriation of funds, among other things, by Snapdeal in the complaint. "Your notice dated October 4, 2017 is a malafide attempt by your client to create a false dispute over issues that had been amicably and mutually settled between our clients to fraudulently coerce and extort monies from my client. The allegations made by you in your notice are not only false to the knowledge of your client, but have been deliberately made with intention to try and create a false cause of action against my client and its officials," Snapdeal said in a response sent to GoJavas. Moneycontrol has seen the letter. In an interaction with Moneycontrol last week, Rai, the logistics executive who bought courier firm GoJavas from Snapdeal last year has alleged that the company's business has fallen drastically since early this year after its early investor and largest customer Snapdeal stopped giving it orders. Rai has claimed that the company was handling daily shipments of around 25,000 units which have fallen down to about 2,000 because of a pull-out by Snapdeal. Rai had acquired 51 percent stake in Gojavas earlier and completed a 100 percent ownership in March, this year. According to Rai, Snapdeal had given him a verbal commitment of supporting GoJavas even after he purchased the company from Jasper Infotech (parent of Snapdeal) for a notional (undisclosed) price. Snapdeal has, however, refused if there ever was any verbal communication made. It is further denied that there were any oral representations or agreements between you and Jasper/Vulcan, there being written agreements between the parties," it said in the letter. In June, Snapdeal had also registered a first information report (FIR) with EOW of Delhi Police naming Praveen Sinha and Randhir Singh, the then promoters of GoJavas accusing them of cheating and forgery. In the letter to GoJavas, Snapdeal has also alleged that this issue is an attempt to deflect the ongoing investigation against Sinha and Singh. Bharat Financial Inclusion has written off Rs 470 crore of non-performing assets (NPA) this year. CNBC-TV18's Abhishek Kothari caught up with MR Rao, MD & CEO of the company and asked him about how much of this amount they hope to recover. Rao said, we are seeing signs of improvement in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Karnataka. However, recovery in Maharashtra is a bit slow, he added. Will see NPAs coming down in next few quarters, he further added. On lending front, he said we will continue to lend where borrowers have repaid loans. However, will move out of villages where there is no recovery, he mentioned. He also mentioned that cost of borrowing is a direct benefit of merger with IndusInd Bank. Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview: Q: How much of this amount (Rs 470 crore of NPA) you hope to recover? A: We have seen signs of improvement in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and states like Karnataka. It is a bit slow in Maharashtra. We have guided that our NPAs would be about Rs 432 crore. We will always be below that guidance while Rs 471 is a point in time number. We are confident that we will recover some of it. We are also confident that we will not cross Rs 432 crore number but this is a timing impact but in the next two-three quarters we will see signs of Rs 471 coming down to less than Rs 432 first and a bit more also will come back to us. Q: You spoke about a few states. So does that mean that your market now shrinks and therefore a few districts will be blacklisted or where you are seeing intentional defaults, you will pull off from that market? A: Our approach has been that where a borrower has repaid his/her loan irrespective of where he/she is, let's say even in districts where we have higher number of defaults, where there is set of borrowers who have repaid on time notwithstanding demonetisation or the elections - that borrower for us is a very good borrower and therefore we will continue to lend to him/her. So we will not move out of any district or state but we will move out of those villages where there is no recovery happening. On the other hand in a village, let's say about 30-20 borrowers are repaying us; we will certainly continue to be there notwithstanding the fact that ten borrowers are not paying. We will not lend to those ten borrowers who are not paying but we will not walk out of that village. On the other hand if the entire village is not paying; we will not get into that village again. Q: With the IndusInd merger cost of borrowings will reduce for you. How do you intent to pass on that customers and also how will you improve your product offering to customers once you have a banking product also available with you? A: I think cost of borrowings is a straight benefit that we get but there are more benefits at an operating level that one gets. If we are able to open savings account for all the borrowers, which is a plan, if we are able to get these borrowers to park their small savings in terms of recurring deposits which we have done as a pilot and demonetisation has proved that people who opted for a recurring deposit product, their repayments were far superior in the same village, same centre as compared to the non-recurring deposit customer. State-run oil marketing major, Indian Oil Corporation reported a fall of 18.7 percent in its net profit for September quarter at Rs 3,696 crore against Rs 4,548 crore during the previous quarter. The number came in much lower than analysts expectations, according to a CNBC-TV18 poll, of Rs 6,023 crore. The revenue came in 13.7 percent lower at Rs 1.1 lakh crore against Rs 1.28 lakh crore quarter on quarter. The companys gross refining margins (GRMs) were reported at USD 6.08 per barrel against USD 7.1 barrel year on year. Moneycontrol takes a look at the top research and broking houses' outlook on the company: Brokerage: Deutsche Bank | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 530 Global research firm Deutsche Bank has reiterated a buy rating on Indian Oil Corporation on increase in refining segment contribution. It estimates marketing segment gross margin at Rs 8,280 crore in this quarter for IOC. It believes that throughput could have been higher by 11 percent but shutdowns at Panipat and Mathura were a drag. The house has set a target for the stock at Rs 530 per share. Brokerage: Nomura | Rating: Buy | Target: Rs 495 The outlook from global research firm Nomura for IOC in both refining and marketing remains good but the gross refining margin is lower mainly due to refinery maintenance shutdowns, it said. The firm believes that the September quarter results were weak due to lower gross refinery margins, refinery maintenance shutdowns and lower inventory gains in marketing adding that the oil & gas firm was unable to take optimum advantage of strong refining margins environment. Nomura expects improvement in coming quarters with return of refineries from maintenance shut-downs. For the research firm, Indian Oil Corporation remains the favourite oil marketing entity with pecking order as Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation. BofAML, the global research firm has maintained a neutral rating on Indian Oil Corporation but has hiked price target of the stock to Rs 442 from Rs 428. The research firm believes that significant earnings miss on refining might be attributed to lower volumes and higher costs adding that the company continues to lose diesel market share. The Paradip plant is slated for maintenance in the near term and Indian Oil should book further inventory gains in the present quarter, it said. At 11:48 hrs Indian Oil Corporation was quoting at Rs 414.90, up Rs 0.70, or 0.17 percent. It has touched an intraday high of Rs 421.40 and an intraday low of Rs 414. Pharma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories is expected to report consolidated profit for second quarter (July-September) at Rs 279.9 crore, lower by 9.4 percent compared with Rs 308.9 crore in same quarter last fiscal. Continued US pricing pressure may dent profitability. Consolidated revenue during the quarter is seen rising 3 percent year-on-year to Rs 3,684 crore due to restocking post GST, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) may fall 1 percent to Rs 635.4 crore and margin may contract 70 basis points to 17.2 percent compared with year-ago quarter. North America business contributed around 45 percent to total sales in Q1FY18, India 14 percent and emerging markets 17 percent. Recovery in margins and profit from Q1FY18 will be a key factor to watch for during the quarter. In June quarter, margin was at 10 percent against estimates of 18 percent due to GST in India and price pressure in US; and profit declined 53 percent YoY to Rs 59 crore primarily due to operational weakness. Analysts expect emerging markets and Europe to continue growing. Emerging markets business was up 34 percent in Q1FY18 and within EM, Russia may be aided by cancer drug Rituximab tender supplies. In US, the company will see price pressure in drugs such as Imitrex, Dacogen, Vyotrin and Vidaza generic but price pressure may offset by recent launches in US - Doxil and Angiomax generics. Pharma Services & Active Ingredients (PSAI) business is expected to be flat YoY. Commentary on complex generic pipeline (launched Renvela generic in US), USFDA compliance (Duvvada and Srikakulam API plant still awaiting Establishment Inspection Report) and price pressure in US market will be key to watch out for. India's second largest drug maker Lupin on Monday posted 31 percent decline in net profit to Rs 455 crore in the second quarter ended September 30 on account of dip in US sales, despite strong performance in other markets. The company reported net profit of Rs 662.9 in the same period of previous year. Total revenue from operations dropped 8 percent to Rs 3951.9 crore from Rs 4,290.5 crore. The net profit of Lupin was well above analyst estimates, while the revenues came a tad lower. CNBC-TV18 estimated Lupin to report a 39 percent decline in net profit to Rs 404 crore on YoY basis and revenues at Rs 3,984 crore. In Q2 we have recorded strong growth in all our markets but for the US generic business where we continue to see pricing pressure, as expected," said Nilesh Gupta, Managing Director, Lupin Limited. "The EBIDTA growth was further fueled by our optimization efforts around operations and R&D investment. We are on track with our complex generic pipeline and have made significant progress on the speciality front with the acquisition of Symbiomix in the US, Gupta added. Lupins North America sales that largely represents US business - fell 32 percent in Q2 to Rs. 1361.1 crore against previous years Rs. 1997.8 crore largely due to pricing pressure and loss of exclusivity of generic drug Glumteza. Lupin during last year had a windfall gain in sales from exclusivity of generic diabetic drug Glumetza and low competition of generic Fortamet. The company said it expects to see more pricing pressure in US in the coming quarters, as it doesnt have product in its pipeline in the near term that can offset Glumetza. We are trying to get as much as possible out of our current portfolio, said Vinita Gupta, Chief Executive Officer of Lupin, referring to companys strategy in US going forward. Gupta said the company is trying to maximize the portfolio of Somerset through launch of controlled substances and building branded franchisee in US. The company for the rest of year will be relying on limited competition steroidal hormone drug Axiron and anti-thyroid deficiency medication Levothyroxine to partially offset generic Glumetza loss. While the company got US FDA approval for Axiron this month, which it said will launch in a couple of months, Lupin still awaits approval of its Levothyroxine copy. The Company launched 5 products in the US market during the quarter. The Company now has 147 products in the US generics market. Lupin filed 10 ANDA and received 9 approvals from the US FDA during the quarter. The Company also received one NDA approval during the quarter. Cumulative ANDA filings with the US FDA stood at 377 as of September 30, 2017, with the company having received 225 approvals to date. The company now has 49 First-to-Files (FTF) filings including 25 exclusive FTF opportunities. Lupins India formulation sales that account 30 percent of the business grew 16.4 percent to Rs 1159.3 crore during the second quarter. The sales recovered and increased 24.3 percent in the second quarter on Q-o-Q basis after the disruption witnessed in the first quarter due to GST rollout. Lupins Japan sales increased by 1.2 percent to JPY 8,685 million during Q2 FY2018 compared to JPY 8,585 million during Q1 FY2018. Investment in research for the quarter was Rs. 4,73.9 crore or 12.2 percent of sales. The capital expenditure for the quarter stood at Rs. 2,07.7 crore Shares of Lupin rose 2.67 percent to close at Rs 1027.55 on BSE, the benchmark Sensex gained 0.33 to end 33,266.16 points. Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Drug maker Wockhardt posted a loss of Rs 3 crore in the second quarter ended September from a year ago on the back of expenses on remedial measures at plants facing regulatory issues and subdued business in the UK the companys major market. The company posted Rs 17 crore net profit during the same period of previous year. Sales fell 4 percent to Rs 1022 crore. On a sequential basis Wockhardt narrowed its losses and improved its sales by 15 percent helped by sharp recovery in the domestic formulation business. The company in the first quarter ended June posted Rs 410 crore loss and Rs 891 in sales. While on-going expenses on remedial measures continued to impact profitability, the company's focus on cost containments and rationalisation has started giving its intended positive impact thereby significantly reducing losses quarter on quarter, Wockhardt said in a statement to stock exchanges. However, the focus in strategic R&D initiatives of the company continues in-spite of the fact that they are expensed off, the company added. Wockhardt has been grappling with quality control issues raised by the USFDA for the past few years. Its formulations units at Chikalthana and Waluj in Maharashtra have been under the FDAs import alert since 2013 for violations of manufacturing standards. A bulk drug plant at Ankleshwar in Gujarat was issued an import alert in August 2016. Wockhardts so-called step-down unit in the US, Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals, received a warning letter in March and its indirect subsidiary in the UK, CP Pharmaceuticals, received a warning letter for its Wrexham facility in November. The companys business in the UK which accounts over a third of sales, remained flat, while the US business that contributes around 18 percent grew at 4 percent due to new product approvals in that market. Sales in the domestic market grew 5 percent on YoY and 49 percent QoQ as the company recovered from GST-related destocking in the trade channels in the first quarter. India accounts about 40 percent of Wockhardt sales. Wockhardts spending on research and development (R&D) was at Rs 77 crore in the September quarter, accounting for 11 percent of sales. Shares of Wockhardt on Monday dropped 1.36 percent and were trading at Rs 653.50 on BSE at 1.53 pm, while the benchmark Sensex gained 0.39 percent to 33,286.69 points. The Union Road Transport Ministry has mandated that all cars manufactured after 1 July 2019 should be fitted with airbags and seat-belt reminder systems for bypassing 80 kmph while driving. Parking sensors are part of the package and will be made mandatory within the same timeline, which will be officially notified in a few days. At present such features are only present in luxury cars. The report also said that airbags and reverse parking sensors would be made mandatory for light commercial vehicles in urban areas. Moneycontrol reported earlier in October that a draft notice had been issued for installing beeping devices in cars. Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari has approved the move for passenger as well as pedestrian safety on Indias roads as thousands of people die in road crashes. Also Read: National Capital registers highest fatal accidents in 2016; Mumbai shows improvement An official from the Road Transport ministry had said that the mechanical defect was responsible for 1.4 percent of accidents last year. As per the data, 84 percent of the accidents occur due to drivers fault, of which 66.5 percent of accidents happen due to over-speeding. There were 2,68,341 reported cases of accidents attributed to it which took life in 61 percent cases. The new seat-belt reminder systems will issue an audio alert when the speed crosses 80 kmph. The alert will escalate and become a sharper one when the speed crosses 100 kmph, and will become non-stop when it is over 120 kmph, a Transport Ministry was quoted in a report by The Times of India. The parking system would include a rear parking sensor that will help the vehicles park properly by monitoring objects in the back side of the vehicle the minute the rear gear is set. Manual override system ensures an emergency escape in case electric power failure disables the cars central locking system and ends up trapping passengers inside. The measures would also mean that there will be a quicker implementation of frontal and side crash test for vehicles. The move is in line with global safety standards quoting that no vehicle should be a death trap. All new cars are expected to be undergoing crash tests from 1 October itself. Existing car models will have to comply with safety standards by October 1, 2019. It has been almost three months since the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST) -- the political bickering continues and the GST Council is still making changes to ease the transition pain. Sources tell CNBC-TV18, that the group of ministers (GoM) have suggested big changes to the new tax regime. The first recommendation being a single rate of 1 percent for composition scheme which brings rate for manufacturers from 2 to 1 percent. Second, a 12 percent rate for all standalone restaurants with input tax credit; in fact, 12 percent tax rate is being proposed for all standalone restaurants irrespective of AC and non-AC. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Haseeb Drabu, Finance Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, along with the best tax experts in the country -- MS Mani, Partner at Deloitte, Pratik Jain, Partner at PwC, Rohan Shah, a Tax Expert, Dinesh Kanabar, CEO at Dhruva Advisors, and Riyaaz Amlani, President of National Restaurant Association of India, discussed on how will the new changes proposed to the tax regime impact your wallet. A robot speaks to attendees at the Oberthur Technologies stand at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Paul Hanna - RTS110JB RN Bhaskar Even CEOs could be replaced by machines. Read more: https://t.co/lwSwv5Vxy7 pic.twitter.com/GOSTqNiddB World Economic Forum (@wef) October 18, 2017 The topic that gripped the attention of almost everyone at the recently concluded World Economic Forum or WEF -- was whether anyone could safeguard jobs any more. Jack Ma of Alibaba raised the ante even higher when he said that even the jobs of CEOs could be at risk from automation. Old story The danger to jobs has always been round the corner. It was there when the moveable type printing press was introduced to the world by John Gutenberg. Carvers and moulders of pages using wood, stone or metal knew that their jobs would be at stake. It was there when the telegraph got invented, putting paid to the jobs of countless courier dispatch riders. The ghost of joblessness was the most traumatic when desktop computers began being introduced in offices. Almost all clerical staff thought that their jobs were at risk. In India, bank labour unions were powerful enough to stave off computerization by almost a decade. Yet, in each case, the fears turned out to be more illusory. The world moved on. New types of jobs kept on getting created. New ghosts. New fears. But the jitters came back by 2015. That was when smart computers began doing some of the jobs that humans used to do. The age of robots had just begun. Unlike factory robots which remained confined to factory workshops, these were robots that could move around your homes, restaurants, roads and even offices. Their numbers too were large enough to threaten if not actually replace -- all types of jobs. You had tiny robots that could be sent into drain pipes to clean the sewers. You had miniature robots to travel through the insides of bodies as well. And now you were beginning to see humanoid robots that could walk, talk and even work like humans. The fears were large enough for Bloomberg to come up with an article in end-December 2016 to ask the dreaded question: will your job be at risk. The saving grace then was that jobs that were more mechanical in nature could be at risk. But jobs which required intelligence, and were non-repetitive in nature could be considered safe. Hence, Bloomberg predicted that jobs for sociologists, lawyers, CEOs, financial advisors., etc were not likely to be as at risk as, say, the jobs of drivers, plumbers and roofers (see Graph 1). That fitted in well with news about driverless cars, pilotless planes, trains without drivers, and robotized waiters serving dishes to customers in restaurants. This time, the jobs that could be affected could be many more especially for countries like India which have tens of thousands of people employed as drivers both in their home countries as well as overseas. Taxi drivers fear the worst for their jobs because the new generation of cars would be pods which would pick up waiting passengers from their locations and take them to the destinations they have marked in their applications. There would be no driver, no need to speak to anyone -- a silent drive from pickup point to destination. AI and Robotics The issue was serious enough to be taken up at the recently concluded WEF. The topic Artificial Intelligence and Robotics turned out to be compelling and worrisome. That is where Jack Ma frightened almost everyone out of their wits by stating that even CEOs had cause to worry. Ma believes that companies must be prepared for decades of pain to come to terms with the advance of robots. This sentiment was reinforced by the president of the World Bank who believes that robots have put the entire world on a dangerous path. So are all jobs at risk? Not really. But the factors impacting jobs will be many (see Graph 2). It could be the increased power of computing, or the emergence of a large middle class which was willing to try on new gadgets expect the robot at home to become a status symbol initially or even urbanisation. Collectively, they make the petri dish rich enough to incubate robots. Obviously, countries will have to navigate carefully, to find ways to ensure that job formation efforts do not flag. They will have to ensure that the adverse impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics are minimized as far as is possible at least for the short term. In the long term, it will depend on how fast robots adapt to the new demands of the market, and how rapidly humans come up with newer ideas than robots can. In reality, as in the past, there are chances that humans will come up with new concepts and new jobs. A case in point is Germany. It has many more industrial robots than even the US and has not faced job losses. By 2014, there were 7.6 robots per thousand German workers, compared to 1.6 in the US. Germany has managed to stay ahead of the curve. It has come up with more innovations and concepts than can be mastered by robots overnight. Winners and losers So who are the gainers and losers in the advance of AI? According to PWC, the biggest beneficiary will be China (see Graph 3). It knows that its one child policy (jettisoned recently) will cause its population to age very soon. Rather than depend on imported workers, or see its global market share slipping, China has decided to adopt robotics more aggressively than any other country. For instance, unwilling to lose its Numero Uno position in garment exports, it wants to introduce robots for as many processes as possible so that he does not get edged out by increasing labour costs at home. Its philosophy is clearly I would rather have my robots compete with me, than have another country compete for my markets. Will such a strategy succeed? Nobody knows. But it is a clever albeit dangerous model to adopt. Maybe, China will also begin exporting robotised waitresses to the entire world! That could explain why PWC expects 26 percent of Chinas GDP coming from AI and robotics. This would be closely followed by the US (14.5 percent). Mass production vs production by masses Of course, this would assume that global business would be dependent on mass production. But that might not be the case. Germany has showed how markets can be won through customized products and services. Not surprisingly, Germany has almost 6.6 percent of its GDP coming through exports. Compare this with 3.5 percent for China. Germanys exports come from micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). These companies offer the world products that do not have a market for large numbers, but are extremely sophisticated even customized -- and are demanded by countries in small numbers. That is clearly the strategy India too may want to adopt. In the coming decade, India may have to work on several policy initiatives. One of them will be to realise that it will not be able to stave off automation (even in jobs for drivers) for too long. It will, therefore, have to focus on new job opportunities. It will have to plan on disruptions that make older models of growth impossible to protect or promote. The need for good school education will, therefore, be crucial. One way in which India can create huge numbers of jobs both directly and indirectly is by adopting a new model for distributed solar and methane clusters. By creating a middle layer to install, maintain and regulate decentralised power generation and gas supplies, India could achieve two objectives. It could create around 83 million jobs directly and indirectly -- enough for at least 6-7 years (assuming a minimum demand for 12 million jobs each year). It could also see a reduction in imports, which then could be used to promote skills development and school education. Small numbers will matter. The other way is to focus on the Verghese Kurien model of production by the masses, not mass production. Focus on infrastructure, super efficient processing and marketing. Never let the farmer face distress through plummeting prices. And keep the customer happy. Not surprisingly, Kurien managed to make India the largest producer of milk in the world. It may be worth recalling that one reason why Indian fabrics got exported in very large numbers is because it can offer countless designs in small runs. That gives customers greater variety, more exclusivity, and at reasonable prices. China, too, hasnt been able to dent this market as yet. Therefore, the focus will have to be on reinvigorating a shattered and pulverized school education. It means revamping Indias skill development, which remains in a time warp in most places. Most of all, it means rejuvenating the MSME sectors. If India can do all this, it can withstand the onslaught of AI and the robots. If it cannot, expect a lot of pain to follow. (The writer is Consulting Editor with Moneycontrol) Niti Aayog Assam government said NITI Aayog will extend all necessary support for augmenting methanol production of Assam Petrochemicals Limited (APL) by utilising the natural gas available in the state. According to an official release, NITI Aayog Member VK Saraswat informed this to Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal during a discussion here. "Sonowal informed Saraswat that the government is working to take advantage of the untapped potential of its natural resources, while utilising unconventional energy sources such as methanol production as a substitute for transportation and cooking fuel," it added. The Chief Minister also stated that disposing municipal solid waste as a major cause of concern for the government and sought support from NITI Aayog to utilize the same to convert into an alternate energy source. Saraswat apprised Sonowal that there is potentiality of methanol production in Assam and its huge coal reserves can be extensively used for producing methanol. He also highlighted different sources such as natural gas, CO2, Biomass, Municipal Solid Waste, kitchen waste and wood for deriving methanol, which are available in good quantity in the state. "Oil import is a major concern for India and its demand is gradually rising. This has significantly contributed to the country's import bill. As a means of energy security and clean fuel, methanol can replace the traditional energy sources and reduce import and pollution," Saraswat said. Stating that augmentation of methanol production capacity of APL would immensely boost the local economy, he said NITI Ayog would closely work with the company to utilize the stranded natural gas for producing methanol. The NITI Aayog member also requested the Chief Minister for extending support to augment methanol production capacity of APL along with setting up a Dimethyl Ether (DME) plant and methanol operated cooking gas stove plant in the state. Sonowal expressed satisfaction over the proposals put forth by Saraswat and assured him that the state government would work closely with the Aayog for preparing a roadmap for exploiting opportunities for enhanced methanol production in Assam. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and National Securities Depository (NSDL) are looking to operate the e-wallet that the government intends to launch for exporters under the Goods & Services Tax (GST) regime . Earlier this month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced that the government will launch an e-wallet for exporters by March 2018. The move, in sync with the government's push for a cashless economy, will ease working capital flow for exporters. The government, however, is yet to decide on which agency will develop the system, reports Business Standard. GST's network system, GSTN, could be considered for this, the report said. According to the report, the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) is working on a credit amount that the exporters will initially need. Since e-wallet is a notional credit, it will not impact the exchequer. "The government will not have to put in anything. It will be all notional, based on the exporters' record with DGFT," Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia said. The exporters have complained time and again about the constraints on working capital due to delay in GST refunds. Adhia further said that traders can receive credit via e-wallet and use it to pay the GST, including CGST and IGST. The amount in the e-wallet can be replenished when exporters get refund. This will stay with the exporter and will help in free flow of working capital for these exporters. The government has already started handing refunds. From IGST, the total collection has been Rs 67,000 crore, wherein refunds are estimated to be around Rs 2,000 crore for July and August. Till the e-wallet is rolled out, for convenience of exporters, the government has reduced the IGST on exports to 0.1 percent till March 31. NPCI had launched the Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) application for making payments in December last year. Since then, the app has seen strong growth. In July this year, the app crossed 16 million downloads and had 4 million active users. With an aim to make private airports affordable without compromising on return of investment, the government has started a process to change rules that govern airport privatisation, Minister of State for Aviation Jayant Sinha was quoted as telling The Economic Times. We have launched an exercise with the AERA (Airports Economic Regulatory Authority) so that it (the framework) is fitted with the needs of India and has an appropriate balance between all the stakeholders and meets certain thresholds like affordability and return on investments, Sinha told the newspaper. The existing rule, known as Operations, Maintenance and Development Agreement (OMDA), had been set up by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2004 when the Delhi and Mumbai airports were privatised. The rule has attracted criticism regarding high charges at airports, usage of airport land and development carried out on airport premises. Indian airlines and passenger bodies have criticised the airport privatisation rules, which according to them have resulted into high airport charges in cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. The OMDA has existed in the past 10 to 15 years and private airports in the country have been working successfully on the existing OMDA, but we are facing issues like land development, tariffs, expansion plans, use of terminals and slots all across, Sinha told the newspaper. The union minister clarified that the new rules may not affect the already proposed airports in Goa and Navi Mumbai. However, he said that the new airports in Jewar (Greater Noida), Pune, Patna and Jaipur could be built under the new rules. The new OMDA can only be implemented for Goa and Navi Mumbai if it is mutually agreed by all stakeholders, including the private developer and operator of the airport, Sinha added. Watch: Top headlines of the day Representative image 3:30 pm Market at Close: Benchmark indices began the week on a positive note, with the Nifty closing above 10,350-mark. The Sensex closed up 108.94 points at 33266.16, while the Nifty ended higher by 40.70 points at 10363.70. The market breadth was positive as 1,696 shares advanced against a decline of 1,032 shares, while 148 shares were unchanged. Tata Motors DVR, Lupin, Bharti Infratel and Yes Bank gained the most on both indices, while HUL, ITC and HCL Technologies were the top losers. 3:22 pm Earnings: FMCG major Marico reported an in-line net profit for September quarter at Rs 185.04 crore. The companys revenue was higher by around 7 percent at Rs 1,536.3 crore against Rs 1.439.5 year on year. At the operating level, the profits came in at Rs 259.1 crore, while the margin was reported at 16.9 percent. The company also declared dividend at Rs.1.75 per equity share of Re. 1 each, being 175% on the paid-up equity share capital of Rs. 129.07 crore. The payment date for the said interim dividend shall be November 29, 2017. 3:11 pm Moody's on ONGC: ONGC's planned acquisition of a majority stake in refiner HPCL will create India's first integrated oil and gas company but will cause the state-owned firm's leverage to approach the upper limit of its rating, Moody's Investors Service said. The government's selling its 51.11 percent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) to Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will help it achieve the disinvestment target for the current fiscal. 3:08 pm Lupin Outlook: While addressing press conference, Lupin management said there was no change in the full year guidance. They expect to see more pricing pressure in the US and are trying to maximize current portfolio in the US. Apart from US, every market has grown and EMEA has grown due to South Africa, Lupin management said. 3:01 pm Real estate investment: Real estate investment in India's six major cities doubled to USD 2.87 billion in the year ended June 2017 as Mumbai attracted maximum capital and was ranked 81st globally, according to Cushman & Wakefield report. "India received a total real estate investment of USD 2.87 billion in the six cities - Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Delhi-NCR, Chennai and Hyderabad - which was an increase of 100 percent," the property consultant said. These six cities were able to attract capital because of strong economic drivers, acceleration in reforms, high yields and rapidly modernising business base. 2:58 pm Earnings: Crop protection company UPL has reported consolidated net profit at Rs 238 crore for the quarter ended September 2017, a growth of 43.4 percent compared with Rs 166 crore in same quarter last fiscal. It was driven by strong operational performance. Consolidated revenue for the quarter grew by 6.5 percent to Rs 3,770 crore on year-on-year basis. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) increased 23.5 percent to Rs 677 crore and margin expanded by 250 basis points to 18 percent compared with year-ago quarter. The 'Bharat 22' Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) comprising 22 scrips of public sector units, banks and other entities is likely to hit the market on November 15, a senior finance ministry official said today. An inter-ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was set up to finalise the launch date and quantum of issuance of the ETF. "Approvals are in place. It is likely to open for subscription on November 15," said the official. The ETF is part of the government's disinvestment roadmap. The amount is not decided yet, but could be upwards of Rs 8,000 crore, the official added. The state-owned companies or PSUs that will form part of the new ETF are ONGC, IOC, SBI, BPCL, Coal India and Nalco. It also includes government's strategic holding in Axis Bank, ITC and L&T held through SUUTI (Specified Undertaking of Unit Trust of India). 2:32 pm Buzzing: Lupin share price rallied nearly 8 percent after better-than-expected earnings for quarter ended September 2017. Consolidated profit stood at Rs 455 crore (down 31.3 percent YoY) for the quarter on revenue of Rs 3,952 crore (down 7.9 percent YoY), against a CNBC-TV18 poll estimates of Rs 404 crore on revenue of Rs 3,984 crore, respectively. Operating profit for the quarter came in at Rs 853 crore (down 17.2 percent YoY) and margin at 21.6 percent (contraction of 240 basis points YoY) against CNBC-TV18 poll estimates of Rs 791 crore and 19.9 percent, respectively. 2:26 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks remained strong in afternoon as the 30-share BSE Sensex was up 155.20 points at 33,312.42, backed by banking & financials, oil & gas, auto and Bharti Group stocks. The 50-share NSE Nifty rose 53.10 points to 10,376.10. About 1,689 shares advanced against 870 declining shares on the BSE. 2:15 pm Stake Buy: Bharti Telecom, the promoter of Bharti Airtel, is going to buy 4.62 percent stake in country's largest telecom operator. "Bharti Telecom will buy 18,47,10,183 equity shares or 4.62 percent of paid-up equity capital from Indian Continent Investment, on or after November 3, 2017," it said in its filing with the exchange. The company confirmed that the acquisition price would not be higher by more than 25 percent of the price computed as per weighted average market price of the stock. The weighted average market price of the stock for a period of 60 trading days is fixed at Rs 417.35 per share. 2:11 pm Green nod: State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) has been given green nod for augmenting its Koyali-Sanganer pipeline (KSPL) capacity up to 6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) from existing 4.6 MTPA at a cost of Rs 273.23 crore, a senior government official said today. The company's proposal is to expand KSPL, which traverses from Koyali in Gujarat to Sanganer in Rajasthan, by augmenting the capacity of pumping stations located at Vadodara, Pali and other allied facilities. 2:00 pm Results: Drug firm Wockhardt today reported a consolidated net loss of Rs 3.33 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2017. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 17.02 crore for the corresponding period of previous fiscal, Wockhardt said in a filing to BSE. Total income of the company stood at Rs 1,076.83 crore for the quarter under review. It was Rs 1,083.33 crore for the same period a year ago. 1:55 am USFDA approval: Drug firm Zydus Cadila today said it has received approval from the US health regulator to market Clobetasol Propionate ointment, used to treat a range of skin conditions, in the American market. The company has received final approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market its product, Zydus Cadila said in a statement. The ointment will be manufactured at the company's Ahmedabad-based facility. The Zydus group has now more than 165 product approvals. 1:45 pm Earnings: Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) has reported a standalone profit growth of 15 percent at Rs 2,101.12 crore for the quarter ended September 2017, compared with Rs 1,826.50 crore in same quarter last fiscal. It was ahead of CNBC-TV18 poll estimates of Rs 1,962 crore for the quarter. Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, grew by 13.7 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,612 crore in second quarter of FY18. It was largely in line with CNBC-TV18 poll estimates of Rs 2,640.2 crore. Provisions and contingencies for the quarter remained flat at Rs 95 crore on year-on-year basis, but increased sequentially from Rs 85 crore. Net interest margin during the quarter stood at 3.9 percent against 3.85 percent in corresponding quarter and 4 percent in previous quarter. 1:30 pm Market Check: Benchmark indices continued their steady moves as the Sensex gained over 150 points, while the Nifty hovered over 10,350-mark. The Sensex was up 152.67 points at 33309.89, while the Nifty was up 50.20 points at 10373.20. The market breadth was positive as 1,703 shares advanced against a decline of 834 shares, and 122 shares were unchanged. ONGC, Tata Motors, and Yes Bank were the top gainers on both indices, while ITC, Wipro and HCL Tech lost the most on both indices. 1:15 PM Result poll: FMCG major Marico is likely to post a PAT growth of 4.5 percent for the September quarter at Rs 189 crore against Rs 180.5 crore in the same period last year, a poll of analysts by CNBC-TV18 has revealed. The company is expected to post consolidated revenue of over 10 percent at Rs 1,587 crore against Rs 1,442.8 crore during the same period last year. On an operating level, the EBITDA is seen at Rs 263 crore against Rs 253.1 crore while operating margin is seen at 16.6 percent against 17.5 percent. 12:55 pm Buzzing Stock: Zydus Cadila has received final approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Clobetasol Propionate Ointment USP, 0.05 percent. At 12:42 hrs Cadila Healthcare was quoting at Rs 493.95, up Rs 2.55, or 0.52 percent. The share touched its 52-week high Rs 558.00 and 52-week low Rs 342.00 on 12 June, 2017 and 26 December, 2016, respectively. 12:35 pm Result poll: UPL is expected to report net profit growth of 95 percent at Rs 387 crore for the quarter ended September 2017. The company had reported net profit at Rs 199 crore in the quarter ended September 2016. The company's revenue is seen up 12.4 percent at Rs 3978 crore against Rs 3540 crore, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18. The operating profit (EBIDTA) seen up 16 percent at Rs 725.3 crore and margins at 18.2 percent. 12:15 pm Buzzing: Highlighting the decline in cigarette volumes, brokerage houses remain mixed on ITCs prospects going forward. The companys September quarter results were in line with expectations. Cigarettes business was impacted by GST. The profit met analysts expectations at Rs 2,640 crore against Rs 2,500 crore posted during the same quarter last year. The companys revenue was reported at Rs 10,314 crore, which also met expectations against Rs 9,661 crore during the same quarter last yeara rise of 6.8 percent. On an operating level, the EBITDA was reported at Rs 3,761.5 crore, which is a rise of 3.6 percent against Rs 3,630 crore. Credit Suisse believes that the cigarette weakness was in line with expectations, but the worse could be over for the company going forward. It has a neutral stance on the stock with a target of Rs 310. Kotak Securities, on the other hand attributed to decline in cigarettes business to GST and lower volumes. It also cut FY18-20 EPS estimates by 2-3 percent due to cut in cigarette business assumptions. The broking firm still maintains an add rating with a reduced target of Rs 310. 12:05 pm Earnings Estimates: Pharma major Lupin is expected to report a 39 percent degrowth year-on-year in consolidated profit at Rs 404 crore for quarter ended September 2017, dented by US business. Profit in July-September quarter 2016 stood at Rs 662.2 crore. Higher base in Q2FY17 and lower operational performance may weigh on bottomline. Revenue during the quarter is seen falling 7.1 percent year-on-year to Rs 3,984 crore, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18. EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) may fall 23 percent year-on-year to Rs 791 croe and margin may contract 414 basis points to 19.86 percent in Q2. 11:53 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks remained higher in late morning deals, with the Sensex rising 158.49 points at 33,315.71 and the Nifty gaining 54.60 points at 10,377.60. About two shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE. Nifty Bank index gained more than 200 points, backed by PNB, Canara Bank, Yes Bank, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda and SBI that rallied 1-4 percent. 11:32 am Earnings Estimates: Tata Steel is expected to turn profitable in quarter ended September 2017, if the company does not account exceptional charge of 550 million pound related to British Steel Pension Scheme for separation from Tata Steel UK. Net profit is likely to be at Rs 1,200 crore in September quarter against net loss of Rs 49 crore in year-ago quarter. If it accounts that exceptional charge then the company could report a net loss for the quarter. Revenue from operations during the quarter is seen rising 18.3 percent year-on-year to Rs 32,510 crore led by surge in volumes, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18. Total volumes may grow 15.7 percent to 6.4 million tonnes. Operating profit is expected to increase 75 percent year-on-year to Rs 5,200 crore and margin may expand 520 basis points to 16 percent in July-September quarter. 11:22 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks continued to trade higher in late morning deals, with the Nifty holding 10,350 level. The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 102.65 points at 33,259.87 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 42 points to 10,365. About 1,632 shares advanced against 737 declining shares on the BSE. ICICI Bank, PNB, SBI, Yes Bank, Bank of Baroda and PI Industries were most active shares on exchanges. 11:07 am Earnings Estimates: Tower infrastructure services provider Bharti Infratel, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, is likely to report a 7 percent growth in profit at Rs 712 crore for quarter ended September 2017. Profit in same quarter last fiscal stood at Rs 663 crore. Analysts expect a good quarter for the company. Margin and revenue are expected to remain stable driven by tenancy growth due to Reliance Jio's aggressive capex. Revenue during the quarter is seen rising 4 percent to Rs 3,654 crore compared with Rs 3,523 crore in corresponding quarter previous year, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18. Disclosure: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd. 10:55 am Order Win: Shares of Intellect Design Arena rose 4.4 percent intraday Monday as it has won the deal from BDO Nomura. BDO Nomura, Philippines has selected OneMarkets from Intellect Design to provide omni-channel digital trading & equity research. BDO Nomura is a premier investment house in Philippines and a joint venture between BDO Unibank (the leading bank in Philippines) and Nomura, Japan a leading financial services firm. #2QWithCNBCTV18 | Tata Steel Q2 profit seen at Rs 1,200 cr; domestic numbers may look good YoY pic.twitter.com/v2a86nNX6k CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) October 30, 2017 The company has marked its first deal in the securities trading segment in the country. 10:45 am Buzzing: ICICI Bank share price gained 1.5 percent after it reported results which missed most analyst estimates but stable asset quality stole the show for the private sector lender. Most brokerage firms maintained their rating but raised their respective target price up to Rs 400 which translates into an upside of 33 percent. ICICI Bank witnessed improvement in asset quality during the second quarter of FY18 as it awaits the Reserve Bank of Indias report on divergences to be reported in the third quarter. In Q1 of FY18, the banks net NPAs were the lowest in the last seven quarters at Rs 25,306 crore. The Q2 net NPAs stood even lower at Rs 24,130 crore. Asset quality was far better than its rivals Axis Bank and Yes Bank. The gross non-performing assets (NPA) as a percentage of gross advances came in at 7.87 percent for the quarter, lower compared with 7.99 percent in previous quarter. Net NPA as a percentage of net advances was also lower at 4.43 percent compared with 4.86 percent on the sequential basis. 10:35 am Earnings Estimates: Housing finance company HDFC is expected to report profit growth of 7.4 percent year-on-year at Rs 1,962 crore for the quarter ended September 2017. Profit in July-September quarter 2016 stood at Rs 1,826.5 crore. Net interest income during the quarter is seen rising 14.9 percent to Rs 2,640.2 crore compared with Rs 2,297.2 crore in same quarter last fiscal, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18. Analysts feel if net interest margin comes above 3.75 percent, asset under management growth above 15 percent and gross non-performing assets below 1.2 percent then that will be taken positively by the Street. 10:22 am Nomura on Reliance Power: Nomura has upgraded Reliance Power to neutral from reduce but slashed price target to Rs 42 from Rs 45 per share, citing tepid near-term earnings outlook. The research house feels the stock is fairly valued at current levels. Nomura has reduced earnings per share estimates for the current and next financial year by 33 percent and 22 percent respectively, driven by revised estimates of net finance cost. 10:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks as well as broader markets extended gains in morning mixed Asian trade. The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 150.48 points at 33,307.70 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 55.20 points to 10,378.20. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 1 percent each on strong market breadth. About three shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE. Reliance Industries, SBI, ONGC, IOC, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, BPCL and Maruti Suzuki rose 1-4 percent. #2QWithCNBCTV18 | BEL Q2 profit seen at Rs 260 cr, Gross margin may decline to 45% YoY pic.twitter.com/upulwEZL33 CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) October 30, 2017 10:10 am Rupee Trade: The rupee was higher by 14 paise at 64.90 against the dollar after the European Central Bank (ECB) said it would soon taper off its monetary stimulus. It got more lift from fresh selling of the US currency by exporters and banks amid stronger domestic equities. The dollar's weakness against the euro and other currencies overseas following the ECB move triggered the rise in the local unit, traders said. On Friday, the rupee had taken a big knock by plunging 23 paise to close at 65.05 a dollar. 10:02 am Earnings reaction: Shares of Ramkrishna Forgings touched 52-week high of Rs 824.95, surging as much as 17 percent in morning as it has turned profitable in the quarter ended September 2017 (Q2FY18). The company has reported net profit of Rs 23.5 crore in Q2FY18 against loss of Rs 5 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. Its revenue increased 114 percent at Rs 333 crore. The operating profit (EBIDTA) was up 130 percent at Rs 65 crore and margins was up 150 bps at 19.5 percent. 9:55 am Suggestion on GST rates: The Group of Ministers set up to make GST composition scheme more attractive suggested lowering tax rates for manufacturers and restaurants under the plan to 1 percent. At present, while manufacturers pay GST at 2 percent, the rate for restaurants is 5 percent. Traders currently pay 1 percent. The GoM headed by Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has also suggested doing away with the tax rate distinction between AC and non-AC restaurants, those which are not covered under composition scheme, and tax them at 12 percent. It also suggested that hotels which has room tariff of more than Rs 7,500 should attract 18 percent tax rate. #2QWithCNBCTV18 | Kajaria Ceramics Q2 profit seen at Rs 64 cr, higher volumes may aid revenue pic.twitter.com/jAp5ZfrM4r CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) October 30, 2017 #2QWithCNBCTV18 | HDFC Q2 profit seen at Rs 1,972 cr, Net Interest Margin above 3.75% will be positive pic.twitter.com/NZhOvTwddV CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) October 30, 2017 #2QWithCNBCTV18 | Lupin Q2 profit seen at Rs 404 cr, India biz expected to grow in the range of 5-15% pic.twitter.com/DXknsfdQBO CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) October 30, 2017 #2QWithCNBCTV18 | LIC Housing Q2 profit seen at Rs 538 cr, Loan growth above 15% will be positive pic.twitter.com/IbCJCsuANn CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) October 30, 2017 #2QWithCNBCTV18 | UPL Q2 profit seen at Rs 387 cr, India & Latin America expected to post strong growth pic.twitter.com/aD0bcxT4bC CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) October 30, 2017 #2QWithCNBCTV18 | Bharti Infratel Q2 profit seen at Rs 712 cr, Tenancy growth may keep margin & revenue stable pic.twitter.com/GKcF1Ljwci CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) October 30, 2017 #2QWithCNBCTV18 | Marico Q2 profit seen at Rs 189 cr, Domestic volume growth seen at 7-8% Vs decline of 9% in Q1 pic.twitter.com/47VMFUdfyD CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) October 30, 2017 9:45 am Crude Oil Update: Oil markets were flat today, with Brent crude opening above USD 60 per barrel on expectations an OPEC-led production cut due to expire next March would be extended. Brent crude oil futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at USD 60.41 per barrel, down 0.05% from their last settlement. That's close to their highest level since July 2015 and up more than 36 percent since their 2017 lows last June. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up by 0.07 percent, at USD 53.94 a barrel. 9:35 am IPOs this week: It has been a busy October for markets as India Inc. raised over Rs 15,000 crore so far in the month bolstered by a sustained rally in the stock market that took the benchmark indices to record highs this past week. The euphoria in the primary markets is unlikely to die down soon as long as equity markers are flushed with liquidity. Three companies are scheduled to open their issue in the coming week starting from 30 October to 3 November which includes names like Mahindra Logistics, New India Assurance, and Khadim India. 9:25 am USFDA approval: Shares of Cadila Healthcare gained 1 percent in the early trade on the back of USFDA approval to market breast cancer drug. Zydus Cadila has received final approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Tamoxifen Citrate tablets USP in the strengths of 10 mg (base) and 20 mg (base). The drug will be manufactured at the groups formulations manufacturing facility at SEZ in Ahmedabad. The drug is indicated to treat breast cancer in women and men and to reduce the incidence of breast cancer in women at high risk for breast cancer. 9:20 am Buzzing: Share price of Alkem Laboratories added 1 percent in morning as no Form 483 issued for its USA facility. United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has not issued Form 483 for its St Louis, USA facility on the completion of inspection. USFDA had conducted an inspection at the said facility from October 23 to October 27, 2017. The stock gained 15 percent in the last one year. 9:15 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks started off the week at record high, with the Nifty crossing earlier intraday record high. Investors continued to focus on earnings. The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 117.35 points at 33274.57 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 45.80 points to 10,368.80. ICICI Bank was down over a percent post earnings on profit booking. The stock seems to have already priced in earnings and better-than-expected slippages. ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Maruti Suzuki, Vedanta and Reliance Industries were early gainers. About 1,030 shares advanced against 239 declining shares on the BSE. The broader markets outperformed benchmarks as the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.7 percent each. Punj Lloyd, United Spirits, Ramakrishna Forgings, Tata Metaliks, Linde India, Dalmia Bharat Sugar, Jet Airways, InterGlobe Aviation, SpiceJet, Shriram EPC, Shriram City and IDFC were up 1-7 percent. SPARC and AU Small Finance were down 1-4 percent. It was a day of broader markets as the Midcap and Smallcap indices rallied more than 1 percent on Monday, though equity benchmarks ended at fresh record closing high, supported by index heavyweights Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 108.94 points to 33,266.16 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 40.70 points at 10,363.70. "Geo political tensions seem to have eased and the focus now remains on earning season," said Zerodha's Co-Founder and Head of Trading, Nikhil Kamath who expects the overall bullish trend to continue going into November. "We would advocate caution at this juncture and not recommend entering fresh longs at this point," he said. The market breadth was strong as about two shares advanced for every share falling on the NSE. Banks, auto, pharma, and realty stocks ended higher while FMCG, select metals and IT stocks lost ground. Lupin rallied 9 percent intraday but came off days high to close with 2.5 percent gains as the company expects US pricing pressure to continue, though maintained full year guidance. The reason for 9 percent rally was that its Q2 earnings were weak but were better-than-expected. HDFC was up 0.4 percent post stable earnings and asset quality while Tata Steel was down 1.2 percent ahead of earnings later today. Bharti Airtel rose 1.6 percent as Bharti Telecom will buy 4.62 percent stake in country's largest telecom operator from Indian Continent Investment, and ahead of earnings on Tuesday. Its subsidiary Bharti Infratel rallied 2.66 percent ahead of earnings later today. ONGC gained 1.4 percent after earnings, and Brent crude crossed USD 60 a barrel. Jet Airways rallied nearly 9 percent and InterGlobe Aviation gained nearly 2 percent despite increase in Brent crude oil prices. ICICI Bank ended 0.2 percent lower as investors digested better asset quality performance of the bank. Yes Bank rebounded 2.5 percent, after 7 percent fall seen in previous session due to bad asset quality performance in Q2. Among others, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank and Tata Motors leading contributors, up around 1.5 percent whereas ITC, HUL and HCL Technologies were down 1.5-2 percent. After second quarter earnings, Marico and Tata Metaliks were up 1-2 percent; SPARC rallied 15 percent but Wockhardt fell 2.4 percent. Oil India, Escorts, Titan Company, Bata, Just Dial, DHFL, Delta Corp, NBCC, Punj Lloyd, Tata Global, Crompton Consumer and Tata Coffee gained 2-7 percent. manufacturer of Titanium alloys in India. ArcelorMittal SA, the embattled South African subsidiary in the global portfolio of steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, has been seeking its fourth chief executive after its current CEO Wim de Klerk announced his retirement. Despite having an 80 per cent market share in the local steel market, the AMSA has battled against cheaper imports from China and falling global steel prices. Even a government intervention introducing a 10 per cent tariff on imported steel in the face of huge job cuts after Mittal met leaders personally has not helped resolve the crisis facing the company. The AMSA last made a profit in 2011 of less than a million dollars, with cumulative losses since then sitting at more than a billion dollars. The AMSA's share price has fallen 98 per cent since its peak in 1998, when the company was formed after Mittal bought out the ailing state-owned steelmaker Iscor. Mittal had initially been brought in to rescue Iscor by introducing the expertise he had developed elsewhere, successfully turning the company around. At the time of his appointment in September 2016, De Klerk was lauded for having the experience to turn around AMSA failing fortunes, but analysts expressed concern that any incoming chief executive would face the same challenges that De Klerk was brought in to resolve. Peter Major, an analyst at Cadiz Corporate Solutions, was quoted as saying by the Sunday Times that De Klerk's departure was "devastating" in the face of South Africas mining industry, which had little prospect of recovery. Paulo Trinchero, CEO of the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction, told the weekly that the market was shrinking, and the costs were going up. "The costs for AMSA in the past five years have gone up drastically. Even some of the interventions by government, such as reducing imports, have come a bit too late in the day," Trinchero said. But in a short statement Lakshmi Mittal dismissed concerns that there would be huge retrenchments soon at AMSA. "ArcelorMittal remains fully committed to the South African business, which is integral in our strategy for the African continent," Mittal said. A man talks on his mobile phone as he walks past an ITC office building in Kolkata September 4, 2012. ITC Ltd sells 80 percent of the cigarettes in the world's second most populous country where 275 million people use tobacco products. But as India follows the rest of the world in adopting anti-smoking regulations, the company's core tobacco business is getting squeezed and it is venturing into dairy products, drinks and perhaps even healthy breakfast foods to try to expand its money-losing consumer products business. Picture taken September 4, 2012. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri (INDIA - Tags: BUSINESS HEALTH) - RTR37J7R live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More Mutual funds houses have been lapping up shares of ITC due to its cheap valuations compared with the available stocks in the FMCG sector. Indias 4th largest company by market cap which rose a little over 11 percent so far in the year 2017 saw some bulk-buying interest from mutual fund managers in September ahead of its results. Fund managers bought Rs 1,433 crore worth of ITC shares in September, according to data compiled by Morningstar India which led to over 10 percent month-on-month increase in their holding. The market value of total mutual fund holding in ITC is nearly Rs 15000 crore. As per the data on Moneycontrol, the top 10 mutual funds, by assets under management, purchased 4.15 crore shares of ITC in September. In the last 3 months, shares of ITC have fallen over 8 percent on fear that sales volumes of India's largest cigarette maker would be hit due to a rise in product prices after the revision in total tax incidence on cigarettes. ITC reported Q2 sales of Rs 4,554.21 crore from its flagship cigarette business. The numbers in the quarter under question aren't comparable with the year-ago figures due to introduction of GST. Consequent to the introduction of GST with effect from July central excise, VAT etc. have been replaced by GST. In accordance with Indian Accounting Standard - 18 on revenues and Schedule III of the companies Act, 2013, GST, GST compensation cess, VAT etc. are not included in gross revenue from sale of products and services for applicable periods. ITC valuation has become more attractive as it became stock cheaper than its peers, say analysts. Among the fund houses that added ITC in the recent share price correction is Aditya Birla Sun Life Mutual Fund. September saw the highest rise in equity flows for mutual fund schemes although the total asset under management (AUM) slipped slightly. The total category wise AUM of the mutual fund industry decreased by 0.9 percent to Rs 20.40 lakh crore in September 2017. On a QoQ basis total AUM of mutual fund increased by 2.2 percent and on a YoY basis, it increased by 29 percent. The euphoria in equity markets is largely led by domestic money, which is making its way into Indian markets by way of mutual funds. Fund managers, with decades of experience in equity markets, have been careful in which stocks they bet their money on. But, with equity markets on a high, they may have to wait for a correction or a dip to buy stocks at comparatively discounted valuations. September turned out to be a month when Indian markets saw some profit booking. The S&P BSE Sensex slipped 1.4 percent. It was also the same month when the Nifty made a bottom of 9,689 before rallying back to 10,000 in the following month (October). Top ten large-cap stocks in which fund managers poured in over Rs 11,000 crore belong to sectors like financials, aviation, IT, energy, and auto space. Infosys was on top of fund managers radar, which reported its results last week. They pumped in Rs 1,542 crore in the stock during September. The company reported a net profit of Rs. 3,726 crore for the July-September quarter, but slashed its growth guidance for the year, disappointing the Street. In the banking and NBFC space, which accounts for almost 50 percent of fund managers buying in September, includes names such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, Bajaj Finance, and HDFC, according to a report by Morningstar India released last week. This move alone might have benefitted MFs as banking stocks, especially SBI, saw a dream run last week when the government announced Rs 2.1 lakh crore recapitalisation plan for ailing PSU banks. But, private banks lost some sheen in the same period. Banking and financials have the highest weightage in the base indices and fund managers have continued to remain overweight in financials especially private sector and housing finance companies expecting a strong recovery down the line, Saurabh S Jain, MD, SSJ Finance & Securities told Moneycontrol. However, the announcement made by the finance ministry of recapitalization of public sector banks has caught many fund managers off-guard who had been severely underweight PSU Banks, he said. Jain further added that going forward, mutual fund portfolios will continue to see rebalancing with PSU Banks being bought into while HFCs and private sector banks being rebalanced downwards. Apart from banking and NBFC stocks, other largecap names include ITC which saw investments of around Rs 1,433 crore, and Interglobe Aviation which saw an infusion of Rs 1,484 crore. GAIL India and Hero MotoCorp from the two-wheeler space were also on mutual fund managers radar. Top largecap holding of mutual fund managers according to Morningstar India report include companies like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Infosys, L&T, HDFC, ITC, Maruti Suzuki, Kotak Mahindra Bank, and IndusInd Bank. September saw the highest rise in equity flows for mutual fund schemes although the total asset under management (AUM) slipped slightly. The Total Category wise AUM of the mutual fund industry decreased by 0.9 percent to Rs 20.40 lakh crores in September 2017. On a QoQ basis total AUM of Mutual Fund Increased by 2.2 percent and on a YoY basis, it increased by 29 percent thanks to strength in equity markets where the overall sentiments remain optimistic. The government is not leaving any stone unturned to bring the economy back on track and put India Inc. back on earnings trajectory which has remained elusive for the past so many quarters. We remain structurally positive on the Indian equity markets with a medium to long-term horizon. Post GST implementation there are definite signs of improvement in the economy as reflected in the recent data on various economic indicators including auto sales, export growth, demand for petrol and diesel and air traffic growth, Shibani Kurian, Sr. Vice President and Head of Equity Research, Kotak Mutual Fund told Moneycontrol. We advise our investors to stay invested in equity and continue to invest in a disciplined and systematic manner into mutual funds. Prudent asset allocation and long-term focus are very critical for all investors, she said. On a MoM basis AUM of 6 categories witnessed rise while 4 categories witnessed fall (FOF, Gold ETF, GILT & Income), IDBI Capital said in a report. Equity category saw the highest rise on MoM basis & Income category saw highest fall in AUM, it said. Midcap focus: In the midcap space, mutual fund managers poured in close to Rs2,500 crores in ten stocks which include companies like Max Financial Services, Bharat Financial, Cyient, Dewan Housing Finance, Tata Chemicals, Vardhman Textiles, Just Dial, The South Indian Bank, Tata Global Beverages, and EIL. Top 10 stocks sold by MF managers include names like Rain Industries, IGL, MOSL, BEML, Radico Khaitan, Balkrishna Industries, Ramco Cements, Crompton Greaves, IFGL Refractories Ltd, and Manpasand Beverages according to Morningstar report. If we look carefully, fund managers have trimmed their stake in most stocks which have already more than doubled investors wealth or have outperformed benchmark indices so far in the year 2017 such as MOSL, Rain Industries etc. among others. With high liquidity and investors looking for value outside the largecap space, small & midcap stocks have seen significant appreciation, suggest experts. While the Nifty trade at 26x trailing PE, the small and midcap index is trading at historic highs of over 50x trailing PE. Obviously, the valuations thereby leave significant room for disappointment on the earnings growth and ROE fronts in comparison to what valuations are implying, said Jain of SSJ Finance & Securities. There is a need for a constant reality check in terms of earnings growth potential in stocks which have given astronomical returns in the short run, he said. Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri on Monday asked the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to expedite verification of the claims of 771 applicants for a house, rejected earlier under redevelopment of Katputli Colony in New Delhi. Puri also spoke to LG of Delhi Anil Baijal in this regard. On October 25, DDA had requested the residents of Katputli Colony to vacate the colony and accordingly arranged vehicles and other support. DDA teams on Monday went to the colony to pursue those still staying there to move out. Some vested interests have tried to create trouble and resorted to stone pelting. When this matter was brought to the notice of the Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs, he called the vice chairman of DDA and discussed the matter in detail and gave the above mentioned instruction, sources said. Under the Katputli Colony redevelopment, taken up in 2009, 2,800 EWS houses were to be built for the identified eligible residents. To enable this redevelopment, the private developer has built transit accommodation for them at Anand Parbat. During the last three years, further to the efforts of DDA, 1,355 families have shifted to transit accommodation. In the meantime, fresh claims were received for EWS houses in redeveloped Katptuli Colony and 492 eligible claimants were offered permanent EWS houses in sectors G-7 and G-8 of Narela. About half of the demolition work has so far been completed and about 2.5 hectares of the total encroached area of 5.2 hectares has been reclaimed for redevelopment, sources said. A three-member Appellate Authority chaired by a retired Additional District and Sessions Judge was constituted by DDA to hear the appeals against rejection of claims by the Eligibility Determination Committee. This Appellate Authority has started functioning from Vikas Sadan, INA. Puri on Monday directed early completion of hearing of these appeals. Puri also directed DDA to ensure accommodation for all the claimants whose appeals would be upheld by the Appellate Authority. Till the time of the last report, about 200 families have volunteered to move out of Katputli Colony and DDA has made necessary transport arrangements for them. The Supreme Court on Monday asked embattled real estate developer Unitech to deposit Rs 750 crore before the court by December-end to ensure refund to homebuyers and fixed the next hearing for the second week of January. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said that the apex court will consider granting bail to the managing director of the company Sanjay Chandra only after the amount is deposited with the court registry. It allowed the companys managing director Sanjay Chandra video conferencing facility to be able to sell his unencumbered properties and assets to raise Rs 750 crore as an interim bail condition. The apex court asked Tihar jail authorities to permit lawyers and Unitech officials to meet Chandra daily if required for arranging the amount. Advocate Pawan Shree Aggarwal, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, told the bench that the real estate firm needed around Rs 2,000 crore to refund money to home buyers as well as completing the ongoing projects. Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Chandra, told the court that they have given a plan for the refund of money and completion of projects and they needed some time to do it. SC has also asked all other forums not to take coercive step against Unitech on the basis of complaints filed by home buyers Last Monday, the Supreme Court had denied bail to Chandra and held that he would have to prove his bona fides by depositing at least Rs1,000 crore, which could be used to refund home buyers. Pawanshree Agrawal had last week informed the Supreme Court that around 4,688 home buyers so far have registered their refund claims, totalling to around Rs 1,865 crore. In a report submitted to the apex court , Agrawal also informed around 4,350 home buyers have so far sought possession of their flats from Unitech. Last Monday, Chandras counsel, former solicitor general Ranjit Kumar, appealed for bail, saying, Unless he is allowed to come out of jail, the recovery becomes difficult. Being inside jail will not help the refund process. Allow him to come out for four weeks and the court may appoint a committee of lawyers to monitor the recovery process. Last month, the Supreme Court had asked homebuyers who are yet to receive possession to register their claims for refund or apply for possession on the newly created portal www.amicusunitech.in The Apex Court had refused to release the companys promoter after learning that the realtor had not delivered 16,299 flats for which it had received Rs 7816 crore. "Every individual's liberty is precious. But in this case, the court has to strike a balance between one individual's liberty and the tears of 16,299 homebuyers, who have been running after a mirage for years after investing their hard-earned money in projects undertaken by Unitech. When you are seeking wings of liberty, the court cannot close its eyes to the tears of 16,299 flat-buyers," the CJI-headed bench had said. Chandra and his brother Ajay Chandra along with others are embroiled in a case of alleged forgery lodged by home buyers of its Gurugram-based housing project. On September 15, the court had denied interim bail to both Sanjay and brother Ajay Chandra and asked for a detailed list of refunds paid by the firm to home buyers. (File Photo) China's largest wind turbine installation vessel, the "Longyuan Zhenhua 3", could boost international cooperation in the South China Sea, experts said Sunday. The vessel, which went into trial service on Sunday in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu Province, has a lifting capacity of 2,000 tons, making it the largest of this kind in the world, currently, news site people.cn reported. "This is different from land operations, since offshore operations encounter tougher conditions, requiring higher standards for the equipment," Zhou Dadi, vice-director of the National Development and Reform Commission's China Energy Research Society, told the Global Times. "The 'Longyuan Zhenhua 3' has greater power than previous Chinese vessels, which means higher lifting and bigger capacity," Zhou explained. Offshore wind turbine installations are mature in China and the "Longyuan Zhenhua 3" can be used in the South China Sea, a region that has abundant wind resources, Chen Xiangmiao, a research fellow at the National Institute for the South China Sea, told the Global Times on Sunday. The vessel could provide energy supplies for vehicles passing by the region and boost international cooperation, Chen noted. Many of the Southeast Asian countries have abundant wind resources but lack the technology to make full use of that clean energy, and China could share the technology, he added. However, Zhou does not share the enthusiasm about the vessel's use in the South China Sea, saying that "various kinds of offshore vessels are available in the South China Sea and the 'Longyuan Zhenhua 3' is not the only wind turbine installation vessel." The vessel is a product of Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC), specially designed for the high-power offshore wind-turbine market, reaching higher than 6 megawatts, according to people.cn. It is 100.8 meters long, 43.2 meters wide, and has a draft of 8.4 meters and it can work at depths of up to 50 meters, making it a leader in China at present, China Global Television Network (CGTN) reported on Saturday. Work on the new vessel began in 2016 and was completed in June 2017. It is ZPMC's third wind turbine installation vessel and their latest project was a two-turbine installation job at the Formosa 1 offshore wind farm, CGTN reported. Representative image By Vivek Saxena, Co-Founder and CEO, Digicita Venture Studio The Indian startup ecosystem has touched the proverbial tipping point high-quality entrepreneurs, good ideas and the very important funding ecosystem in the form of angels, seed capital, growth capital and PEs. Yet, for all the excitement and focus in this space, the true unicorn seems elusive. Where is the Indian original big idea - the AirBnB, Uber or Amazon for that matter? What is missing in India, which the West, and especially the Valley seems to have an abundance of? Lets explore... The Indian Unicorn I dont think we have as many really disruptive startups in India as we do overseas. Ratan Tatas view recently reported across key business dailies set the Indian startup world abuzz. While some talked about the successes of our very own unicorns, others pointed out that most Indian startups were simple geo-clones of successful global companies. Some talked about the scale achieved by the Indian startups, with references to the recently concluded Big Billion Sale, while others questioned the global appeal of their businesses. Irrespective of which camp you may belong to, RNTs observation raises a few pertinent follow-on questions: Are the Indian unicorns truly disruptive? True Disruption So, how does one define a startup as truly disruptive? As I see it, it is the combination of the following: 1. Originality of the idea or the business model 2. Global scale and appeal 3. Impact in terms of how it affects the way our species lives In other words, disruption truly happens when we chase original, audacious ideas and goals. When companies meet the above criteria, the word disruptive truly seems synonymous with them. Think Uber. Amazon. Airbnb. The three have redefined transportation, commerce and the sharing economy. When we apply this criterion to the Indian unicorns, its easy to see why, perhaps, we dont speak of them in the same breath. While Flipkart, Ola and Paytm have achieved phenomenal scale and impacted the way we buy, travel or pay, they were definitely not the first in their category nor original in their execution. What they have achieved is market viability in the Indian context. The word often used for them is geo-clone. This is an unfortunate reductionist term, in my opinion, as anyone who has built a business knows the challenges involved, never mind if a playbook for the same already exists. That is not to say that there are no innovations involved for a me-too. The local tweaks and jugaad, one could argue, are sometimes more innovative than the original business idea! What made Flipkart and Ola the local darlings, was their willingness to do cash on delivery and accept cash payments respectively, a far cry from the 100 percent digital global template. And Paytm is synonymous with cashbacks a model which it managed to successfully sell to its investors and then executed flawlessly to achieve its dominant position in the market, never mind all those naysayers and doomsday predictions. So, as we have seen, there seems to be no dearth of smart, capable talent in India, who can execute, as well as innovate. Also, there seems to be an abundance of money chasing startups, at least the ones which have achieved a certain amount of scale. So the question begets itself where is the Indian Uber, Amazon and Airbnb? So, where does the search for the disruptive Indian startup begin? Unfortunately, there are no silver bullets. While we wait for the angel ecosystem to mature and have a larger risk appetite for audacious startups, various models are being attempted to address this need. Technology incubators are one such attempt. However, while the gold standard for these incubators is the hugely successful Y Combinator, we havent seen an Airbnb or Dropbox emerge from the over 175 incubators in India. Yet. One possible drawback for the tech incubator model is the fact that most of the entrepreneurs are first timers and working their way through product ideas, design issues, market pilots and pivots need far more mentoring than what an incubator batch of a few weeks provides. Its the angels, stupid When an entrepreneur begins his journey, it is usually on the back of an idea and nothing much else. The next phase is that of building a team of co-founders who believe in the vision, starting work on a prototype or a MVP (minimal viable product) and last, but not the least, raising money. This is when the reality starts to sink in. Initial meetings with the VCs are usually polite and interesting but at this early a stage, they usually end with, This is interesting. Keep us updated on your progress! Decoded: This is too premature and early for us to come in right now. Soon the focus of fund raising moves to angels and increasingly nowadays, to angel forums. While these seem far more receptive to early-stage companies, in reality, they exhibit far less risk appetite. An angel group is usually a motley group of HNIs, professionals, capital market investors and entrepreneurs, all excited about this new asset class of tech startups. Most want to know if the idea has been implemented elsewhere already, preferably in the Valley! Often, the pitch day discussions turn into a number-crunching massacre, with the bewildered entrepreneur having to handle questions about cash flow statements, year 5 projections, insufficient market data, lack of detailed fund deployment plans and so on. Not that these are not important metrics. However, mostly these are premature to measure, especially when the entrepreneur is still fine-tuning his business model, seeking his product-market fit, validating customer behaviour and so on. Of course, there are exceptions to the above and as tech founder exits and associated wealth creation increase, the angel ecosystem might have a much larger risk appetite. By and large, however, the unforgiving natural selection process of early-stage funding leads to safe, P&L companies or geo-clones (or even worse, clones of geo-clones!) getting funded in the Indian startup ecosystem. Simply put, the early stage money available is largely to address market scale risks rather than the design risk, which a truly disruptive startup needs to solve. So, when will the angel ecosystem mature? Simple. When they have tasted blood. The one thing missing in the Indian startup ecosystem is the large cash exits. There have only been a handful of IPOs Makemytrip, Justdial, Infibeam come to mind. While there have been acquisitions, by and large, these have been stock swaps, acquisitions via merger or part cash deals. Talk to most angels and most of them seem to have their investment stuck in these non-cash transactions. These are the lucky ones. The others have seen their investments eroded or sunk to zero in the high mortality battleground of startups. (The writer is co-founder and CEO of Digicita Venture Studio. Views expressed are personal.) FILE PHOTO: A worker checks the valve of an oil pipe at the Lukoil owned Imilorskoye oil field near Kogalym, Russia, January 25, 2016. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin/File Photo live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More A spike in global crude prices boosted shares of ONGC and Oil India by around 4 percent as investors bet big on the stocks. Oil markets were firm on Monday, with Brent crude opening above $60 per barrel on expectations an OPEC-led production cut due to expire next March would be extended. Brent crude oil futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, were at $60.63 per barrel at 0018 GMT, up 19 cents or 0.3 percent from their last settlement. That's close to their highest level since July 2015 and up more than 36 percent since their 2017 lows last June. Moreover, ONGCs September quarter results were also steady with a healthy future outlook. IDFC Securities has maintained an outperform rating on the stock and increased price target to Rs 230. According to the brokerage house, the July-September period's net profit surpassed estimates widely, driven by higher other income. It also raised earnings per share for this and next fiscal by 4.7 and 1.5 percent, respectively as it is factoring in marginally higher realisations. What is positive for the firm is the growth in gas columes along with guidance of strong growth over three years till March 2021. It also added that the market was overcompensating near term stress due to soft domestic gas prices and stress on the balance sheet from Hindustan Petroleum acquisition. At 13:22 hrs Oil India was quoting at Rs 364.10, up Rs 13.25, or 3.78 percent. Meanwhile, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation was quoting at Rs 189.60, up Rs 6.05, or 3.30 percent. SRINAGAR, INDIA - DECEMBER 7: Army soldiers displays arms, ammunition and food packets made in Pakistan, recovered from the six slain militants killed in Mohra Uri operation and Handawara at the army headquarters on December 7, 2014 in Srinagar, India. The Army said it had enough evidence to show that the six terrorists who carried out the attack belonged and supported by Pakistani establishment and were highly trained for special operations. (Photo by Waseem Andrabi /Hindustan Times via Getty Images) The commerce ministry has asked exporters to strictly adhere to sanitary and phyto-sanitary norms, saying that non-compliance could damage the image of the country. In a trade notice, the directorate general of foreign trade (DGFT) also said that action would be taken against exporters for non-compliance of these rules which pertain to food safety and animal and plant health requirements. The warning follows a complaint received from the agriculture ministry with regard to non-compliance with global norms. It said that the Department of Agriculture "has brought to the notice of this directorate about various instances of non-compliance of sanitary/phyto-sanitary measures by Indian exporters while exporting goods". "Importing countries have been making complaints against Indian exporters, which amounts to disrepute to the image of the country and that can adversely impact the interest of other exporters as well as of the country as a whole," it added. The action for not following these rules could include monetary fine or suspension and cancellation of trade licence. Sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures came into force with the establishment of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on January 1, 1995. It concerns the applications of food safety and animal and plant health regulations. India is a signatory to this agreement, being a member of the Geneva-based WTO. The DGFT, under the ministry, said that exporters are sensitised to ensure that sanitary and phyto-sanitary laws of importing countries are "strictly" adhered to. The directorate advised exporters to seek requirement of importing country along with the export order. "And, while exporting goods, they must provide a certificate(s) from designated agencies along with export documents indicating the observance of the norms mandated by the importing country," the trade notice of the DGFT has said. It has also asked the Department of Revenue to advise the field formations of customs to ensure that exporters adhere to the norms of the importing country. Amid the on-going push by the government to distribute LED bulbs to the citizens at a subsidised rate, over 70 percent of the LED brands of bulb and downlights have been flouting consumer safety standards, according to a study conducted by Nielsen. On an average, 76 percent of LED bulb brands and 71 percent of LED downlighter brands across 200 electrical retail outlets were found to be non-compliant with the consumer safety standards as prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. The report claims that non-compliant products would also impact energy efficiency in the country, where the government is targeting replacing 770 million incandescent bulbs across India with LEDs under the UJALA scheme. The Nielsen survey findings serve an eye-opener for the government's push. "Given this scenario, it is important for the government to act against these spurious and non-branded products for safeguarding consumer safety and protecting their revenues against these companies," the report states. City-wise Data Out of the four cities New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad where the study was conducted, Delhi recorded the highest number of BIS violations with 73 percent LED bulbs manufacturers being non-compliant with BIS norms. Source: Nielsen. Delhi was followed by Hyderabad with 69 percent BIS violations by LED bulb manufactures, Ahmedabad with 53 percent and Mumbai with 36 percent violations in the same category. BIS violations by the manufacturers of LED downlights across these cities were nearly the same. Over 73 percent of the Delhi LED downlights manufacturers recorded BIS violations, followed by Hyderabad (65 percent), Ahmedabad (53 percent) and Mumbai (41 percent). The survey conducted in July 2017 showed that 48 percent of LED bulb brands had no mention of manufacturers address and 31 percent brands did not have a manufacturers name, which is a violation of the Indian legal metrology regulations that mandates manufacture to provide these details in the packaging. Source: Nielsen. Over 56 percent of LED bulbs manufactured in Ahmedabad did not print manufacturer's address, while 38 percent failed to mention manufacturer's name. In Hyderabad, 46 percent of LED bulb manufacturers did not mention manufacturer's address, while 25 percent of the LED bulb brands did not have the manufacturer's name. The capital recorded 34 percent and 32 percent of the manufacturers who failed to mention manufacturer's address and name, respectively. Among all the other cities, Mumbai recorded only two percent of the manufacturers violating the laws regarding the printing of manufacturer's address and name in the package. Similarly, the study conducted on LED Downlighters showed that of the total sample size, 45 percent brands did not have a manufacturers name and 51 percent brands had no mention of the manufacturers address. Source: Nielsen. Among LED downlighters too, Mumbai recorded the least violations of norms for not mentioning manufacturer's address and name at 5 percent. Hyderabad showed the highest number of violations by LED downlighters manufacturers with 76 percent of the brands selling their products without manufacturer's address and 56 percent without manufacturer's name. Illegal manufacturing "Non-compliance with the safety norms poses a serious safety hazard for consumers as well as causes a significant loss in tax revenues to the Government of India, as they are illegally manufactured and sold," the report states. "It is very unlikely that the manufacturers of these spurious LED bulbs and downlighters pay any GST to the government, thereby causing a huge loss to the exchequer," Rakesh Zutshi, President of ELCOMA (Electric Lamp and Component Manufacturers Association) said, how the non-compliant LED manufacturers threaten competition in the market. The total LED market in India is worth Rs 10,000 crore, with LED bulbs and downlighters used widely in homes, and offices constituting 50 percent. "As per an ELCOMA study, the Indian LED Lighting market has grown from Rs 500 crore in 2010 to Rs 10,000 crore today and constitutes over 45 percent of the overall Rs 22,000 crore lighting industry in India, comprising of all categories like GLS, FTL, CFL and other lamps," Sumit Joshi, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Philips Lighting India said. Impact on Energy Efficiency "As these manufacturers already flout industry regulations and BIS standards with no action being taken against them, it is extremely likely that they will be non-compliant with energy efficiency parameters as well," Raju Bista, Managing Director of Surya Roshni said. Considering the LED lighting market is likely to increase in the next few years, following the government's electricity schemes, important steps are required to prevent such violations. Ports and shipping In an important step towards making operational the new strategic trade route aimed at bypassing Pakistan, India on Sunday sent its first wheat consignment to Afghanistan through Iran's Chabahar port. The consignment was flagged off by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj from the Gujarat's Kandla port. Swaraj's Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani had also joined the ceremony through video conferencing. The shipment will reach Chabahar port in Iran and will then be transported to Afghanistan using a land route. The Chabahar Port project The Chabahar port is located in the Sistan-Balochistan province on the southern coast in Iran. The port is a geo-strategic project undertaken by India. It is an important part of India's attempt to counter China's growing presence in the region and to break through China's strategic encirclement of India. China is already developing the Gwadar port in Pakistan, which is less than 200 kilometres away from Chabahar. With the help of the Chabahar port, India will be able to trade with Afghanistan and central Asian countries without having to pass through Pakistan. Project status India, Afghanistan and Iran signed twelve Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) in May 2016, all centred around the port project. India had started shipping railway tracks worth USD 150 million to Chabahar port in July 2016. In August 2017, Nitin Gadkari, union minister for surface transport said that the civil work at the project had been completed and the Indian government is ordering mechanised equipment and cranes for the port. Gadkari added that the port will be ready for operations by 2018. India is also working on setting up a railway line connecting the port to Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Russia. Mil Mi-38 transport and passenger helicopter and Mi-171 medium multi-role helicopter perform during a demonstration flight at the MAKS 2017 air show in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, Russia, July 18, 2017. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin - RTX3BXR2 An Indo-Russia joint venture is likely to sign a contract with the Indian government early next year for the supply of 200 Kamov lightweight multi-role military helicopters to the armed forces under a USD 1 billion deal. Various aspects of the project to supply the Kamov-226T helicopters were discussed during a meeting between Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and CEO of Russian Helicopters Andrei Boginsky. "We discussed all aspects of the Ka-226T project. (It was) agreed that the contract should be signed in the beginning of 2018," Boginsky said. In October last year, India and Russia had finalised a broad agreement to set up a joint venture between Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and two Russian defence majors -- Russian Helicopters and Rosoboronexport. The joint venture will produce the Kamov helicopters. India is procuring Kamov choppers to replace its ageing Cheetah and Chetak helicopters. The JV was registered in India earlier this year. As part of the inter-governmental agreement, 'Russian Helicopters' along with Rosoboronexport will supply and localise production of the Ka-226T helicopters in India. Boginsky said the possibility of supplying 111 multipurpose helicopters to the Indian Navy by the JV was also discussed in his meeting with the defence minister. As per official sources, 60 Kamov-226T helicopters will be supplied to India in fly-away condition, while 140 will be manufactured in India. The inter-government agreement for the deal was signed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia in December 2015. A Jet Airways passenger plane takes off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad live bse live nse live Volume Todays L/H More The man who sent aviation security into a tizzy, Birju Kishore Salla, early this morning by placing a note on a Mumbai-New Delhi Jet Airways flight about hijackers and a bomb in the plane is a "habitual offender" known for creating trouble onboard, government officials said. Salla, had once carried a cockroach with him on a flight and blamed the airline for it, the officials said. He who belongs to an affluent Mumbai-based Gujarati family, had been let off on that occasion after he assured the airline he would not repeat the offence, an official privy to the investigation into the case said. A businessman in his late 30s, Salla always travels by business class, and mostly on Jet Airways. The officials said he seemed to hold a grudge against the airline. The incident on Monday, when Flight 9W 339 carrying 122 people made an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport, triggered a scare in the security establishment. The two-level standard operating procedures (SOPs) in a hijacked situation were activated and anti-terror lead force National Security Guard (NSG) commandos were put on high alert, another official said. In a hijack situation, the two SOP levels are the aerodrome committee and the response team, comprising officials of the NSG, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, intelligence agencies and others. The accused has been detained by the Gujarat Police, which is interrogating him. When no suspicious objects or explosives were found on the aircraft after a detailed search, the plane, on its way from Delhi to Mumbai, was cleared to fly again for the remaining part of the journey. However, the pilot of the aircraft insisted that sky marshals be on board, and accordingly, two armed guards travelled on the flight from Ahmedabad to Delhi. Salla is likely to be put on a no-fly list of people barred from boarding commercial aircraft. The flight made the emergency landing after a note stating that there were hijackers and a bomb on board was found in the plane's washroom. The official pointed out that the note referred to PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) which investigators found suspicious because Pakistan-based terrorists call the area 'Azad Kashmir'. The note, with a para in Urdu on the top and English at the bottom, ended with "Allah is Great" and said, "Flight No 9W 339 is covered by Hijackers and aircraft should not be land and flown straight to POK. 12 people on board. if you put landing gear you will hear the noise of people dying. dont take it as a joke. Cargo area contains explosive bomb and wl blast if you land Delhi (sic)." Flight 9W 339, which had taken off from Mumbai at 2.55 am with 115 passengers and seven crew members, landed without incident at Ahmedabad around 3.45 am. The Boeing 737-900 plane was parked at a remote bay and all 122 safely deplaned. "Salla was detained by the police after a preliminary investigation... It was revealed that Salla had put the threat letter in the plane's washroom. We will take necessary action against him," a police officer in Ahmedabad said. A hospital in the Saket area of New Delhi became a battleground after rival Nigerian gangs clashed with each other. The incident that occurred in the early hours of Saturday saw the hospital getting vandalised, while the staff hid helplessly inside the toilets. The incident was a result of a gang war between two Nigerian groups. A video that was captured on the hospital's CCTV camera shows men carrying weapons like cleavers and beating each other in the reception area of the hospital. It also shows the group attacking a guard who was trying to prevent the fight. A report by NDTV said that the fight started around 4 am after three wounded Nigerians arrived at the hospital for treatment. As per the police, a rival gang member soon arrived and tried to enter the hospital. In reaction, the friends of the injured men who were waiting outside also came into the hospital and the clash began. The clash ended only an hour later when the men fled to evade the police. No further reports, including whether any arrests have been made is available yet. 16:26 SC defers Article 35A hearing by 8 weeks The Supreme Court has deferred the hearing on Article 35A by 8 weeks. The decision was taken to help dialogue between the Centre's interlocutor and various stakeholders in Jammu and Kashmir. The government had earlier informed the top court that it had appointed an interlocutor to carry out a dialogue process. According to a report by CNN News18, the Attorney General further sought 6 months time for the hearing, suggesting that the hearing may affect the dialogue process. 16:23 West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has said that she respected the top courts decision that she should come and file the plea against Aadhaar as an individual. 15:48 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to hold a press conference today. She is expected to address the Aadhaar issue, according to News18. 15:44 SC to set up Constitution bench to hear pleas against Aadhaar A constitution bench would be set up to hear a clutch of petitions challenging the Centre's decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing various services and government welfare schemes, the Supreme Court today said. Earlier, a 9-judge Constitution bench had said that the Right to Privacy was a Fundamental Right under the Constitution. Several petitioners challenging the validity of Aadhaar had raised the issue that the scheme was violative of right to privacy. Senior advocates Gopal Subramanium and Shyam Divan, appearing for those opposing the Aadhaar scheme, had sought urgent hearing on the petitions. (With PTI inputs) 15:24 Government wanted Aadhaar hearing in March Attorney General KK Venugopal, while mentioning the matter, demanded that the case be heard in March. This was objected to by Senior Advocate Shyam Divan, according to a report by Live Law. 14:53 Government not willing to extend the Aadhaar linkage deadline The government has said that it is not willing to extend the deadline for linking Aadhaar to various private and public services. The Supreme Court is now likely to hear the case in the last week of November. The Centre had recently said that it was willing to extend the linkage deadline to March 31, 2018, for those who do not have an Aadhaar card, but are willing to enrol for it. The petitioners are contesting why the same should not be extended to those already with Aadhaar. 14:42 The top court is also expect to hear a plea challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35A that gives citizens of Jammu and Kashmir special rights and privileges, later today. 14:23 The Supreme Court will set up a constitution bench on pleas against the Centres decision making Aadhaar mandatory to avail welfare scheme benefits. The apex court said the constitution bench would start hearing the petitions in the last week of November. The Attorney-General will mention the Aadhaar case at 2 PM. Gautam Bhatia (@gautambhatia88) October 30, 2017 13:12 SC wants to ascertain if Hadiya had married Shafin Jahan out of her own free The Supreme Court today directed Hadiya to be produced before it at 3 pm on November 27, in order to ascertain if she, as an adult, had married Shafin Jahan out of her own free will after her conversion, according to a report by Live Law. 13:07 NIA has warned of love jihad 'machinery' "Consent is manipulated by indoctrination, radicalisation. In fact, people with hypnotic expertise have been employed to manipulate young women," India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) has told the Supreme Court. 12:47 SC to hear Kerala Love Jihad Case on November 27 The top court will be hearing the Kerala Love Jihad Case on November 27. The court has also directed Kerala Police to produce Hadiya in the court on that day. 12:40 The Supreme Court has grants Amicus Curiae (friend of the court) Amrender Sharana four weeks to clarify the legal position in the reopening of Mahatma Gandhi assassination case. 12:30 Mahatma Gandhi assassination case A bench of Justice SA Bobde and Justice MM Shantanagoudar has questioned the Tushar Gandhi's locus in the case. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, who is appearing for Gandhi has said that she would explain the locus if the court issues a notice. The bench however said that it would like to wait for the amicus curiae (friend of the court) Amrender Sharan's report. Mahatma Gandhi's great-grandson Tushar Gandhi had moved the Supreme Court, opposing a plea which seeks reopening of the Mahatma's assassination case. 12:25 In a habeas Corpus matter, the consent of the girl is the most important aspect :CJI Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) October 30, 2017 12:23 SC is slated to hear pleas challenging constitutional validity of Article 35A A bench of CJI Dipak Misra, Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud is slated to hear petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A. Article 35A guarantees special rights and privileges to the citizens of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Article 35A had been added to the Indian Constitution by a Presidential Order in 1954. 12:09 Kerala Love Jihad Case: SC says consent of girl is important The top court has observed that the consent of the girl is prime. CJI Dipak Misra said, In a habeas corpus matter, the consent of the girl is the most important aspect. 12:00 West Bengal govt plea against Aadhaar: SC asks how state can challenge Centre's move The Supreme Court today questioned the West Bengal government for filing a plea challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of various social welfare schemes. The top court asked how a state can challenge the mandate of Parliament. "How can a state file such a plea. In a federal structure, how can a state file a plea challenging Parliament's mandate," a bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said. Read the full story here. 11:48 With respect to the plea challenging linking of Aadhaar numbers with mobile numbers, the top court has sought the Centre's reply in four weeks. The court has also sent notices to telecom companies. 11:40 Earlier, expressing her concerns against linking Aadhaar with her mobile phone connection. She had said she would choose to lose her mobile connection instead of linking it with Aadhaar. Under no circumstances will I link Aadhaar with my telephone number. If the authorities disconnect my phone, let them do it. It will actually save me a lot of trouble as I wont have to go through a number of text messages, she said. She even went on to allege that the mandatory Aadhaar linkage with mobile phones is the BJP's attempt to spy on people. 11:37 "Mamata Banerjee has to approach us as individuals. A state cannot question laws passed by the parliament," said the apex court. 11:35 The apex court has rapped Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal on its plea challenging the mandatory linking of Aadhaar to mobile phone. The court has instead asked the West Bengal Chief Minister to approach as an individual. Aadhaar NIA 35A It is an action-packed day at the Supreme Court as the country's apex judicial body takes up several critical cases.is one of the most high-profile case that has come up for hearing today. Other equally contentious issue that the Supreme Court takes up today include the Kerala Love Jihad and Article 35 A. In the former case, the court will open sealed envelopes handed over by the, while Articleis related special rights and privileges of J&K's permanent residents. Representative Image Delhiites can now take the help of the central government's 'Swachh Bharat Toilet Locator' mobile application to locate washrooms in the city, the municipal corporations told the Delhi High Court. The corporations told a Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar that public toilets under their jurisdiction are geo-tagged and available on the app developed by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD). Advocate Mini Pushkarna, appearing for the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, told the court that the app provides the location of toilets across India and not the just the national capital. She told the Bench that the longitude and latitude of the toilets are provided to the MoUD which in turn uploads the same on its app. The same stand was taken by the other corporations and the Delhi Cantonment Board, which said it was an ongoing exercise as whenever a new public toilet would be built its location would be forwarded to the ministry. The high court had earlier ordered mapping and geotagging of public toilets to make them more accessible to citizens. It had issued the direction after it could not ascertain where washrooms were located or if they exist after perusing the affidavits filed by the three corporations. The affidavits were filed in response to a PIL seeking toilet facilities for slum dwellers in the Shahbad dairy area in outer Delhi. BEIJING, Oct. 28 -- General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Xi Jinping has said that the study and implementation of the "spirit of the 19th CPC National Congress" is the "primary political task" for the Party and country from now on. Xi made the remarks while presiding over the first group study of the Political Bureau of the 19th CPC Central Committee on Friday, focusing on the study and implementation of the spirit of the congress, according to a press release Saturday. Xi asked all CPC members to "study CPC congress spirit, and adhere to and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era." "Members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee should regard the study and implementation of CPC congress spirit as their first Party course to improve their political and theoretical level, in order to better take the duties bestowed by the Party and the people," Xi said. Fully understanding of the spirit is the premise to implementing it, Xi said, urging members to stick to the Marxist standpoint and method, accord with China's reality, follow the country's development logic and improve confidence in the path, theory, system and culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics. To study and implement the Party congress spirit, Xi stressed "comprehensively carrying out the work of the Party and the country by better understanding the integration, consistency, and coordination of strategic deployment of the Party and national undertaking." "Empty talk will lead the country astray, and hard work can rejuvenate the nation," Xi said, urging solid implementation, saying if one-tenth of effort goes to planning, nine-tenths should go on implementation. Members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee should take an exemplary role, work hard and make a difference in the divisions that they administer, Xi said. Xi said that top officials should have a strong sense of responsibility and the ability to succeed. Narendra Modi Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress, accusing it of "shamelessly" taking a U-turn on Kashmir, lending its voice for "Kashmir's azadi" and using a language spoken by Pakistan. Modi's sharp comments came a day after senior Congress leader P Chidambaram pitched for greater autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir yet again. He told BJP workers here that his government would not compromise with the country's unity and integrity. "All of a sudden, those who were in power till yesterday have taken a U-turn. Shamelessly, they are making a statement and are lending their voice for Kashmir's azadi," Modi said. Without taking Chidambaram's name, the prime minister said, "I'm surprised that those who were in power at the Centre, those who were responsible for the country's internal security and national security (are saying this)." Modi said the country had no hope or expectations from the Congress. Noting that Sardar Patel took important decisions for the country's unity, he said thousands of jawans had sacrificed their lives for Kashmir. "The country's soldiers have sacrificed their lives every moment for the sake of the security of the motherland and innocent citizens of Kashmir. "I want to ask the people of Bengaluru, can the country benefit from such people who are playing politics on the sacrifice of our soldiers? They don't have any shame in saying this. The Congress party will have to give an answer for this (Chidambaram's) statement...," he said. Modi said, "Those bravehearts who have sacrificed their lives, mothers who have lost their sons for the country...that mother is asking the question, that sister who has lost her brother is asking the question and the child who has lost his father is asking the question." But, he said, the Congress was "shamelessly using such language that is used by the separatists on Kashmir's land. (They are) using the language that is spoken by Pakistan." Stressing that this was the land of Sardar Patel, he said, "We will not compromise with the country's unity and integrity and we will not allow it to happen." Chidambaram had told reporters in Rajkot in poll-bound Gujarat yesterday, "The demand in the Kashmir Valley is to respect the letter and spirit of Article 370, that means they want greater autonomy. My interactions in J&K led me to the conclusion that when they ask for azadi, mostly, I am not saying all...the overwhelming majority, they want autonomy." "Yes, I do," Chidambaram said when he was asked if he still thought that Jammu and Kashmir should be given greater autonomy. Chidambaram had, in July 2016, advocated greater autonomy for J&K, saying India should restore the "grand bargain" under which Kashmir had acceded by granting a large degree of autonomy to it. He had warned that otherwise the country would have to pay a "heavy price". The Congress, however, has sought to distance itself from the remarks of Chidambaram on Kashmir, saying "the opinion of an individual is not necessarily the opinion of the party". Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala had said Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India and "will always remain so unquestionably". At the BJP workers' meet here, Modi also said when India carried out the surgical strikes across the Line of Control (LoC) in September last year, "our soldiers hit back at our enemy. It was a moment of great pride for the whole nation, but the Congress party could not digest that also". The prime minister said, "Now I can understand after the statement of the Congress leader (Chidambaram), what was their reason for their anger towards the surgical strikes." He said, "The heroism of our brave soldiers, India's diplomatic strength, India's courage, its restraint, the whole world saw it at Dokalam (during the standoff with China). "However strong China may be, in the test of restraint, India has lived up. Today it is India's ability which the world is looking at with respect...The Congress people are every day spreading false information in the name of Dokalam." Hitting out at the Congress, he said, "Those who remained in power for so many years, on those people the country had trust in, and (they) have turned out to be such? They are of such thinking." Modi said there was a feeling that after electoral defeats, "some sensible people" in the Congress would try to bring the party on the right path. "But one or the other I'm seeing and hearing their statements and actions that are irresponsible...It looks like the Congress has decided not to improve," he said. "People learn from defeats, they understand, they rectify their mistakes, but their arrogance is on cloud nine...They have lost track of the people's expectations. That is the reason they are using such language." Reacting sharply to Chidambaram's remarks, the BJP had yesterday said it was not surprising to see Chidambaram make such comments, given his leader supported those who gave the slogan of "Bharat tere tukde honge", an apparent reference to Rahul Gandhi backing those who protested the arrest of student leader Kanhaiya Kumar during the JNU row. Watch: Top headlines of the day Qualcomm New reports suggest that Qualcomm is all set to launch its next-generation processor-Snapdragon 845 much sooner than expected. Posts in Chinese microblogging website Weibo that show leaked poster of a Qualcomm event are now suggesting that the phone could be launched as early as December 2017, says a report in Gizmochina. A poster from a Snapdragon event has apparently been leaked which suggests a Snapdragon Technology Summit from December 4 to 8, where it is expected to announce a next-generation processor. The alleged leaked poster of the Qualcomm event (Courtesy: Weibo) Also Read: Here's how the world's first 5G smartphone looks like Even though the leaked reports suggest a way earlier launch than expected, arriving might be an overstatement as the chipset is highly unlikely to go into mass production till the end of 2018, or even early 2019. Rumoured specifications surrounding the Snapdragon 845 include four ARM Cortex-A75 cores and four ARM Cortex-A53 cores to be paired with the Adreno 630 GPU for added graphical performance. Compared to the Adreno 540, the Adreno 630 is expected to deliver significantly improved graphics performance. It is also expected to be optimised for AR, VR and XR (extended reality) that are now making their way to a lot of smartphones. The X20 connectivity modem on the chipset will enable download speeds of up to 1.2 Gbps. Also Read: India has seen assembly of mobile phones grow to 90% from zero: Qualcomm The processor will also come with updated Kryo cores. In line with the previous deal it had with the Snapdragon 835, Samsung this time too is reported to have reserved the first batch of SD845 processors for its Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus flagships. Reports are also suggesting that the Xiaomi Mi 7 will be the first device to feature the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845. Moreover, Gizmochina reports that Xiaomi is in works with Qualcomm to optimise its chipset Snapdragon 845 v2 for Mi 7. Qualcomm has also started working on its Snapdragon 855 chipset, which is said to be 7nm and will be manufactured in Taiwan. An announcement is expected around late 2018. PASSEIG DE LLUIS COMPANYS 14, BARCELONA, CATALONIA, SPAIN - 2017/09/27: A group of lawyers from the Supreme Court of Justice of Catalonia in favour of independence are seen holding A Catalonia flag while claiming helps from Europe for the upcoming referendum on 1st October, 2017. About 200 lawyers take part in a protest, front of the gates of the TSJC demanding courage to judges and prosecutors to "apply rights and justice without any political instruction", have said in the manifesto that they have read as lawyers have announced complaints against policemen on Sunday. (Photo by Ramon Costa/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) The Madrid-based Spanish Government on Friday triggered Article 155 to impose direct rule over the province of Catalonia. The Spanish government also suspended the Catalan parliament with immediate effect and called for a fresh election on December 21. Spain's reaction came just hours after the Catalan parliament proclaimed independence. Here's how the Spain-Catalonia crisis developed over the weekend: Catalonia declares independence On Friday, the Catalan parliament unilaterally declared independence following a vote. As many as 70 members of the regional parliament voted in favour of independence while 10 members opposed it. Two ballot papers (including that of the speaker) were blank. Spain cracks down on Catalan government Soon after the Catalan parliament declared independence, Spain's upper house took an unprecedented step of imposing direct Spanish rule over Catalonia, thereby ending Catalonia's autonomy. Madrid sacked the Catalan government and called for fresh election to elect the Catalan government. The election is slated to happen on December 21. Puigdemont calls for resistance In a public address, Catalan President Carles Puigdemont called for non-violent resistance of imposition of Article 155 in a democratic and peaceful manner, without violence, without insults, in an inclusive way, respecting people. Puigdemont criticised Madrids decision, calling it contrary to the will expressed at the polls. Why did this happen? Following the controversial October 1 referendum, Catalan president Puigdemont signed a declaration of independence. However, he delayed implementation of the same to allow negotiations with the Spanish government. Spanish prime minister Rajoy announced plans to impose direct rule after Puigdemont failed to clarify his intentions within the deadline set by the Spanish government. Catalonia is one of Spain's richest regions and already enjoys a high degree of administrative autonomy. However, many Catalans have historical grievances towards Spain. Pakistani cleric Maulana Masood Azhar (C) who was freed in exchange for hostages on a hijacked Indian plane, attempts to stop photographers taking pictures as he arrives Karachi Press Club February 4, for a news conference. Azhar announced the establishment of a new party by the name of Jaishe Muhammad ( the army of the prophet Muhammad) to fight Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region. ZH/AA - RTRYE7 China today once again hinted at blocking a bid by the US, France and the UK to list Pakistan- based JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN, harping on its familiar stand that there was no consensus among Security Council members. China had in August extended by three months its technical hold on the proposal to list Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) founder Azhar as a global terrorist after having blocked the move in February this year at the United Nations. "We have made our position clear many times from this podium. The relevant resolutions of Security Council have clear stipulations as to the mandate of 1267 Committee and also clear stipulations when it comes to the listing of relevant organisations and individuals," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here. Replying to questions whether China will block the ban on Azhar again when the 1267 Committee of the UNSC takes up the issue on Thursday, Hua said "as for listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements". China's latest hold is due to lapse on Thursday. Hua said that China had put a technical hold to allow for more time for more parties to deliberate on this matter. In the last two years, China has stonewalled efforts by India and then later by the US, the UK and France to declare Azhar as a global terrorist, stating that there was no consensus on the issue. On China's repeated actions defending Azhar, who is accused of masterminding the terror attack on Pathankot airbase in January 2016, Hua said that actions are meant to ensure the authority and efficacy of the UN Committee. "It is in accordance with the resolutions and rules of procedure of the Committee. We will remain in constant touch and coordination with the relevant parties on the resolution and rules of procedure of the Committee," Hua said. Asked if China is resorting to block the move repeatedly at the behest of Pakistan, Hua said: "We believe that the Committee should follow the principles of objectivity, professionalism and fairness and reach decision by a consensus based on solid proof". As for listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements, she said, adding that China's technical holds are meant to allow for more time for more parties to deliberate on this matter". "To our regret, the Committee is yet to reach a consensus," she said. Hua also defended Pakistan's track record on terrorism, saying that Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism and China supports Islamabad in countering terrorism in accordance with its own national conditions. "On counter terrorism, China always advocates greater international cooperation in fighting it," she added. A veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, China has repeatedly blocked India's move to put a ban on the JeM terrorist under the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Council. Last year in March, China was the only member in the 15- nation UN organ to put a hold on India's application with all other 14 members of the Council supporting New Delhi's bid to place Azhar on the 1267 sanctions list that would subject him to an assets freeze and travel ban. China views Pakistan as its all-weather friend and has been backing its bid to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. China has criticised new United States anti-dumping duties on aluminium foil, saying it was "extremely dissatisfied" with the new measures, just days before President Trump visits Beijing. The tariff was announced Friday by the US following concern that China was undercutting American manufacturers by flooding the country with underpriced aluminium products. But the timing has raised fears of a trade dispute during Trump's first visit as president to the Chinese capital next week, when commerce between the nations is expected to be high on the agenda. On Saturday evening, China's Ministry of Commerce said the US was ignoring World Trade Organization rules by introducing the duties, and not fulfilling its international obligations. "The US is not only harming the interests of Chinese companies, it is also damaging the seriousness and authority of multilateral rules and regulations," said Wang Hejun, Director of the Trade Remedy and Investigation Bureau, in a statement. The US Commerce Department plans to impose fresh duties of 96.81 per cent to 162.24 on Chinese aluminium foil imports to the US. The new tariff will affect the type of aluminium foil found in kitchens, packaging and automobiles. Since assuming the presidency in January, Trump has largely refrained from taking the hard-nosed measures he boasted about on the campaign trail, where he threatened to label China a "currency manipulator". But his administration has started to take a tougher line on trade. The Trump administration has initiated 77 antidumping and countervailing duty investigations since January, up 61 percent since last year, the Commerce Department said on Friday. Trade is likely to be high on Trump's agenda during the visit. Last week, he tweeted he had discussed North Korea and trade in a phone call with President Xi, calling them "two very important subjects!" In September, China's monthly trade surplus with the United States hit a high not seen in at least three years. The Ministry of Commerce's statement said the US was using "discriminatory" surrogate country pricing practices to introduce the duties, which it said were no longer applicable to China as of December, 2016. Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager for US President Donald Trump, and an associate were indicted by a federal grand jury on 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States and money laundering, the federal special counsels office said on Monday. The charges were the first arising from the investigation by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed to look into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election campaign aimed at swaying the vote in favour of Trump. Manafort and Rick Gates, a business partner who served as his deputy in the Trump campaign, were charged on Friday in the District of Columbia in an indictment unsealed Monday after the two men surrendered to the FBI, the special counsel said in a statement. The indictment contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, the statement said. FARA is an acronym for Foreign Agents Registration Act. The indictment said Manafort and Gates generated tens of millions of dollars of income from work for Ukrainian political parties and leaders and laundered money through the US and foreign entities to hide payments between 2006 and at least 2016. The two concealed their work and revenue as agents of Ukrainian political parties, it said. A Pakistani anti-graft court today issued a bailable arrest warrant against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar after he failed to appear before it in a corruption case spiralling from the Panama Papers scandal. The Accountability Court dismissed Dar's application seeking exemption from personal appearance in the case hearing. Dar's counsel Khawaja Haris appeared in the court of judge Muhammad Bashir and sought Dar's exemption from appearance as he was in London to seek medical treatment. But the court rejected the plea and issued bailable arrest warrant and ordered him to appear in the next hearing on November 2. The case was filed against Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) following a verdict by the Supreme Court, which disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after an investigation into corruption allegations against his family. Dar has so far appeared before the court seven times since the trial began. Earlier, he missed the first hearing on September 20. It is the second hearing that he missed. Proceedings in the trial could not advance today due to Dar's absence, even though prosecution witness Abdul Rehman Gondal, branch manager of a private bank's parliament branch, had appeared in the court with two gunny bags full of documents related to the minister's bank accounts. Haris stated in the application that Dar, after attending the 16th Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference in Dushanbe, had travelled to Jeddah. He said the minister fell ill in Jeddah and subsequently had to go to London for medical treatment. The court had indicted Dar last month in the case for owning assets "beyond his known sources of income". At the last hearing on October 23, the court recorded statements of NAB's witnesses, including Abdul Rehman Gondal of Allied Bank and Masoodul Ghani of Habib Bank Limited. Earlier, three witnesses 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. On July 28, a five-member Supreme Court bench had ordered NAB to file three references against Sharif and one against Dar, on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insafs Imran Khan, Jamaat-i-Islamis Sirajul Haq and Awami Muslim Leagues Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. In its reference against the finance minister, 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)". The case alleged that the assets were disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said someone should talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and reassure him that nobody is out to remove him or destroy his country. Duterte made the comments yesterday, a day ahead of a visit to Japan, where he hopes to get help with rebuilding the strife-torn southern Philippine city of Marawi. A military campaign recently ended a five-month siege of the city by Islamic State group-aligned militants that left more than 1,100 combatants and civilians dead. Apart from signing an agreement today on details for 1 trillion yen ($8.8 billion) in aid over five years that was agreed to earlier, Duterte said he also expects to discuss the North Korean nuclear threat with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as well as with President Donald Trump when he meets him in Manila next month. The US, Japan, South Korea and others need to reassure Kim that nobody is threatening him and to ask him to stop threatening a nuclear attack, Duterte said. "You must remember that he is a leader of his people," he said, adding that "whatever he proclaims himself to be, somebody has got to talk to him." "So, if somebody could just reach out, talk to him and say, 'My friend, why don't you just join me in the table and we'll just talk about these things?'" Duterte told reporters in the southern Philippine city of Davao. "Nobody's talking to him." Duterte echoed Trump in saying he believes China has the greatest leverage with Pyongyang, a longtime Beijing ally. And he expressed concern over the potential for dangerous missteps in the standoff with North Korea over its nuclear programme. "We are worried, all of us, that you know, Murphy's Law, 'If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong.'" While in Tokyo, apart from talks with government officials, Duterte is due to meet with Japanese business leaders and have an audience with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, where, the blunt-spoken Philippine president said, "I suppose that I have to limit my mouth there." Duterte praised Japan as a "true friend of the Philippines." After their talks later today, Abe and Duterte were expected to announce a package of Japanese assistance projects over the next five years, including the Marawi reconstruction help and support for the anti-drug effort in the Philippines, a subway system in Metro-Manila, railways and disaster prevention infrastructure, officials in Tokyo said. "Japan has advanced the news that they will help in rebuilding Marawi," Duterte said. "I think the damage alone and the dimension of the destruction, we would tell Japan that we need their very best in their assistance. I would see significant assistance. BEIJING, Oct. 29 -- Among the latest revisions on the Constitution of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the highlight was the inclusion of "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" in the amendment. The amendment to the Constitution was approved at the 19th CPC National Congress, which took place from Oct. 18 to 24. The amendment juxtaposed Xi's thought with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, the Theory of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development as the guiding ideology for the CPC. The People's Publishing House has published offprints of the revised Constitution of the CPC, which became available at Xinhua Bookstores across the country on Saturday. Regarding the Party's achievements since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the inclusion of Xi's thought took place at the right time, an official from the secretariat of the 19th CPC National Congress told Xinhua. Over the past five years, under the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, the CPC has led the Chinese people from all ethnic groups in a concerted effort to "carry out a great struggle, develop a great project, advance a great cause, and realize a great dream," ushering in a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics. In this case, "the theoretical and practical significance of Xi's thought has become more evident," and it has the wide acknowledgement and upholding from across the Party and the people, the official said. Another key factor that paved the way for the inclusion was the adherence to the strict governance of the Party, which helped the Party gain and consolidate "crushing momentum" in its fight against corruption, and significantly improved the political ecology within the Party, leading to the consolidation of the social basis of the Party's leadership. Therefore, the official said, the time and conditions were ripe for writing Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era into the Party Constitution. "General Secretary Xi Jinping showed the insight, judgment and strategic composure of a Marxist politician, theorist and strategist to have put forward a series of trail-blazing concepts, thoughts and strategies," the official said. "They all played a decisive part in creating the Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era," the official said. Apart from Xi's thought, a wide range of new ideas, thinking and strategies put forward by the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core, have been added to the Constitution, including giving play to the decisive role of market forces in resource allocation, advancing supply-side structural reform and enhancing the country's cultural soft power. Congress delegates also agreed to write the culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics into the Party Constitution, along with its path, theory and system. In addition, the amendment included an assessment of the change in the "principal contradiction" facing Chinese society. The CPC said the central contradiction facing Chinese society has evolved from "the ever-growing material and cultural needs of the people and backward social production" to "unbalanced and inadequate development and the people's ever-growing needs for a better life." "Advancing the guiding ideology of the CPC and pushing forward the cause of the Party and the country in the new era required revisions on the Constitution," the official said. Education Montgomery County Community College will present the spring installment of the interview/talk show program Issues and Insights April 20 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. in Science Center room 214, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The programs will be simulcast to the Colleges West Campus in South Hall room 216, 101 College Drive, Pottstown. Dr. Kolsky will offer a humorous presentation, Carrots, Sticks and Politics: A State of the Nation and the World Message. In this speech, he will provide his interpretation of domestic and international politics and then welcome questions from the audience for discussion. Issues and Insights, is free and open to the public. For information, contact Dr. Thomas Kolsky, professor of political science, at 215-641-6380 or tkolsky@mc3.edu. Montgomery County Community Colleges STEM Scholars Program will host a STEM Jam! open house April 25 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the Advanced Technology Center at the Colleges Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The drop-in event is designed for students interested in learning more about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Activities will include STEM program information and career advising, STEM speakers throughout the day from industry and academia, micro-helicopter and robotics competitive obstacle courses and demonstrations and static models of STEM student and faculty work. For more information about STEM Jam! or STEM programs at MCCC, contact William Brownlowe at wbrownlowe@mc3.edu or 215-641-6644, or Robin Zuhlke at 215-619-7440 or rzuhlke@mc3.edu. Temple Ambler, located at 580 Meetinghouse Road, presents the following events: International Club Global Bazaar April 15 from 5 to 8 p.m. The Ambler Campus International Club invites all students, faculty, staff and the community to celebrate a multitude of diverse cultures, which will be showcased at the organizations Global Bazaar. This family friendly event will highlight cultural traditions and celebrations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South American, North America and Africa through music, entertainment, food and informative displays developed and presented by students at the Ambler Campus. Young visitors will be provided with passports, which they may get stamped at each country they visit. Prizes will be awarded to world travelers who talk to cultural representatives, answer questions about the countries theyve visited and take part in fun-filled activities designed to help them learn about the rich diversity of cultures found throughout the world. Refreshments will be served. The event is free. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail tuc36466@temple.edu. EarthFest 2011 April 29 from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. More than 75 exhibitors, including the Philadelphia Zoo, The Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Elmwood Park Zoo and the Insectarium, will take part in EarthFest 2011. School students of all ages are invited to attend and develop displays of their own. EarthFest partner the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society also offers its Kids Grow Expo, featuring the Junior Flower Show, as part of the event. For more information, call 267-468-8108 or e-mail duffyj@temple.edu. Annual Spring Plant Sale May 7 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The plant sale an Ambler Campus tradition dating back to the early 1900s will feature woody plants and perennials in portable sizes, hardy trees, shrubs, and vines, native plants that are attractive to wildlife, herbs, and hanging baskets. There will also be numerous special plants for sale to highlight Amblers special anniversary year. Garden books and garden tools will also be available for sale. Students, staff, and volunteers from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture and the Ambler Arboretum Advisory Committee will be available to answer questions. All proceeds from the Spring Plant Sale will support the Ambler Arboretum Fund and the Pi Alpha Xi National Honor Society. Information: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary. June Homecoming/Louise Bush-Brown Garden Dedication June 5 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. (June Homecoming), Bright Hall Lounge; 2 p.m. (Garden Dedication), Ambler Campus Formal Perennial Gardens. Tickets June Homecoming: Participant $18 per person; Sustainer $25 per person; Benefactor $40 per person. The 2011 June Homecoming, sponsored by the School of Environmental Design Alumni Association, will include the Alumni Association annual meeting and luncheon. June Homecoming will be followed by the formal dedication of Temple University Amblers Formal Perennial Gardens as the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Gardens. During this 100th anniversary of the campus, Temple University Ambler and the Ambler Arboretum of the Temple University is honoring Louise Bush-Browns many contributions to the history of the campus by formally dedicating the gardens in her honor. During the program, campus Executive William Parshall will welcome guests, Ambler Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey will speak about the Bush-Browns and the history of the garden, and an official ribbon cutting will be held for the Louise Bush-Brown Formal Garden. Following the ribbon cutting, guests are invited to take a tour of the gardens, which will wend their way to the Campus Greenhouse for the School of Environmental Designs annual Plant Auction. Information (Garden Dedication): 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Information (June Homecoming): 215-482-0722. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary. Northview Garden Tour and Fundraiser for the Ambler Arboretum June 12 from noon to 5 p.m. Call for reservations. Tickets: $15 per person or $20 at the door. In addition to the gardens of the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University, Arboretum Director Jenny Rose Carey has a garden oasis all her own right in Ambler Northview. Visitors will have the opportunity to take self-guided tours throughout the many gardens, where garden experts will be available to answer questions about the various designs. The Ambler Keystone Chapter of the Womans National Farm and Garden Association will also provide tea and refreshments. All proceeds from the tours will support the Ambler Arboretum of Temple University. Information or to register: 267-468-8001 or judy.shatz@temple.edu. Learn more at www.ambler.temple.edu/anniversary. The Senior Adult Activities Center of Montgomery County, 536 George Street, Norristown, will hold the following events: SAAC Adult Day Care, an alternative to Nursing Home Care is available for information call 610-275-1960 Volunteers are needed for Meals on Wheels Program (call the number above) SAACs Fifth Avenue Boutique opens Monday through Friday from 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Exercise with Theresa will be held every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 1 p.m. Dance class is held every Monday at 10 a.m. Tai Chi is held every Monday at 10 a.m. Yoga is held every Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. Line Dancing is held every Thursday at 10:30 a.m. Dancing with Joan is held every Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. Sculpture Class is held Wednesdays from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Why Should I Learn Spanish? will be held Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. Generations On-Line computer classes for seniors will be held Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. 4 p.m. computers are available during those hours. Health Living will be held every Tuesday at 1 p.m. Boomer U will hold the following events. Boomer U is located at 45 Forest Avenue, Ambler. Registration & payment is required for all events: 215-619-8863. Pilates Class is held Wednesdays and Fridays at 9:30 a.m. First class is free; please bring a mat. For information call 610-291-5376. Blue Bell School of Dance, 921 Penllyn Blue Bell Pike, Blue Bell, hosts Argentine Tango Classes and a Milonga dance party every Friday evening. Lessons start at 8:30 p.m. followed by dancing at 9:30 p.m. Andrew Conway, master Argentine Tango dancer, instructor and performer and his partner Linda Chase will instruct. All levels welcome and no partner is needed. Refreshments will be served. Fee is $12 per person and includes lesson and dancing. Information: 215-634-1101 or www.amoretango.com. The Montgomery Hospital Medical Center will offer the following classes: Childbirth Education Class- all parents are invited to participate, including those who are delivering at other hospitals. For more information on maternity services or classes, call 610-270-2020. CPR and First Aid Courses are offered for beginners to experiences health care providers. Call 610-270-2313. The Ambler SAAC (Senior Adult Activities Center), located at 45 Forest Ave in Ambler will hold the following events: Tai Chi every Monday and Thursday at 11 a.m. Yoga is every Tuesday at 1 p.m. and Friday at 10:30 a.m. Strength and balance training every Wednesday at 10 a.m. Armchair Aerobics is held every Monday at 10 a.m. Gourmet Weight Wise every Thursday at 12:30. Fitness Center and Pool Room open daily 8 a.m.-4 p.m. The Diabetes Education Center will offer day and evening classes each month. Health insurance pays for diabetes education classes. Preregistration is required. Call 610-270-2301. For Kids & Families The Ambler Kiwanis Club will host its annual Easter Egg Hunt April 26 at 10 a.m. in Ambler Borough Park, located just off of the intersection of Hendricks Street and Valley Brook Road. Members of the Wissahickon Key Club will assist Kiwanians in hiding thousands of wrapped chocolate eggs in a designated area of the park. Also hidden will be plastic colored eggs, which are redeemed for prizes. Elementary school children are separated by age. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation will hold its 21st annual Storybook Egg-Stravaganza April 15 fom 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Upper Dublin Township Building. Toddlers and preschoolers love this annual event where photo opportunities with favorite friends abound! Treasures are collected from UDP&Rs assortment of lifesize cutouts of favorite cartoon characters from Disney, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon and other well-known animation. Children can have their picture taken with Bugsy OHare; bring your own camera. And dont forget a basket for goodies! $7 for UD residents; $12 for non-residents. Pre-register at 215-643-1600 ext. 3443. Splash Week is a free week-long program that teaches children and families basic swimming skills and water safety practices. All YMCA branches will host multiple classes each day from April 11 to 15. For more information, contact the Ambler Area YMCA at 215-628-9950. Healthy Kids Day is April 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The day is filled with fun, engaging and artistic activities that cultivate healthy living as part of the YMCAs larger efforts to help more kids and families become physically active. All activities are free and open to the community. For more information, contact the Ambler YMCA at 215-628-9950. No reservation is required. The Ambler Area YMCA has added several new programs for area youngsters. Classes are held late afternoons or evenings on various weekdays. For more information, visit philaymca.org or call 215-628-9950. Basic Beading: Ages: 10+. Wednesdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. This class will teach you the fundamentals of wiring and stringing along with how color can be used to create unique and vibrant beadwork design. You will create various jewelry including earrings, bracelets, charm pendants and much more! Supplies will be provided. Bringing your own jewelry pliers or tools would be a plus. Messin with the Masters: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 7 to 7:45 p.m. Learn about some of the worlds greatest artists. You will be inspired to create your own Starry Night with oil pastels and tempera paints, a tissue paper painted Monet garden, a Picasso head using scraps of paper, a Georgia OKeeffe clay flower bowl and a Rousseau jungle collage. Super Scientist: Ages: 5-7. Mondays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Well be concocting chemistry experiments such as making slime, mixing potions and having fun with magnet magic. Your budding little scientist will enhance his/her creative thinking and motor skills and to top it off will learn that science can be serious fun. Wacky Junk Art: Ages: 8-12. Thursdays 6 to 6:45 p.m. Why throw it away! Instead join us to make household junk into aliens from outer space, wacky specs, crazy hats, body masks or a recycled train. Globe Trotters: Ages: 4-6. Tuesdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Youre never too young to start thinking globally. Each week, we explore a new country through crafts, games, music, stories and even some taste-testing. A perfect introduction to our great big world! Crazy about Crafts: Ages: 5-7, Thursdays 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. Let your childs creative juices flow with our fun arts and crafts projects each week. Fine motor skills and creative thinking skills will be enhanced with this crafty class. Come out and join the Ambler Area YMCAs Teen and Junior Leaders Club. Participants are given the freedom to plan community service projects year round and truly make a difference in the lives of people in need. Those in Teen and Junior Leaders also attend leadership retreats all along the East Coast three times a year and meet other leaders who are doing the same great work in their respective areas. Dont miss out on this inspiring opportunity. Teen Leaders, ages 13-17, meet every Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Junior Leaders, ages 10-12, will begin in the spring and will meet every Monday. For more information, contact Mike Miles, Teen Director, 215- 628-9950 x 1540 or mmiles@philaymca.org. Did you know that the new Ambler Area YMCA holds childrens birthday parties at its site for members and non members as well. The Ambler Y does all the work from start to finish and birthday parties include a personalized cake, ice cream, beverage and paper products. Parties are held on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and include two party hosts to lead activities, set-up, clean-up and assist with serving. You can have a Splash Party for children ages six to 12 in the new zero depth entry pool with water slide and spray fountains. Up to 25 children have exclusive use of the pool area with 30 minutes in the party room. Sports Parties are offered for kids ages four to 12 with age appropriate activities and games, and sports such as floor hockey, soccer, basketball or dodge ball. Children ages three to five years of age will enjoy parties in the Family Active Center with use of the Moon Bounce and organized activities, such as parachute play and songs. For information, 215-628-9950 ext. 1583. Community Events at the Ambler Y: -YAchievers YMCA Achievers is a developmentally based, extracurricular, educational and team mentoring program designed to help students in grades five through 12 prepare for fulfilled livelihoods in college and beyond. Participation is free and all students in this program receive a free YMCA membership. Registration for the 2009 program begins now. You do not need to be a YMCA member to utilize these special services. Call 215-628-9950 to register. Greater Norristown Art Leagues Childrens Weeklong Summer Art Camps will be held at 800 West Germantown Pike in East Norriton, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday throughout the summer. The cost per session is $125 per student for ages 6 and up. Jo Ann Cooksey Bono teaches an introduction to basic drawing skills and techniques from 10 a.m. until the lunch break each day. In the afternoon sessions, Mary Vogel Lozinak involves the students in hands on projects such as collage, papermaking, T-shirt printing, 3D design and sculpy clay. Fridays Graduation Day includes an art show, awards ceremony and reception for parents, siblings, grandparents and friends. All supplies are included. Students provide their own lunch. A refrigerator is available and the building is air-conditioned. This is the 15th year to run this successful program. Both instructors are professional artists with State Police and Child Abuse Clearances. To register, call Jo Ann at 610-279-1008, or register on-line at www.gnal.org. Health Dresher Physical Therapy is hosting an interactive seminar discussing its Golf Assessment Progam April 30 from 10 a.m. to noon at Dresher Physical Therapy, 1075 Virginia Drive, Suite 200, Fort Washington. Physical therapist Chris Miller, certified through the Titleist Performance Institute, will discuss why your body may be the most important piece of golf equipment you invest in and how this can drastically improve your game. $10 in advance; $15 at the door. Call 215-619-4545 to reserve your spot. The Chestnut Hill Center for Enrichment, Center on the Hill and Chestnut Hill Hospital will host a Senior Health and Resource Fair April 14 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church, 8855 Germantown Ave. The event is free. For more information, call 215-248-0180 or e-mail chseniors@cavtel.net. The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is hosting Help Yourself to Health, a new six-week workshop for older adults with ongoing health conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure, anxiety, heart disease and others. The free workshop will take place at the Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center, 45 Forest Ave. on six Thursdays, May 12 through June 16 from 9:30 a.m. to noon. Although there is no charge to participate, registration is required. To register, call 215-619-8863. The Ambler Senior Adult Activities Center is sponsoring an eight-week program called A Matter of Balance: Managing Concerns About Falls. Presented by the Montgomery County Health Department, this workshop will be held on Tuesdays, May 3 to June 21 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Ambler Center, 45 Forest Ave. If you pre-register by April 27, the fee is only $5! Registration at the first class is $10. (Checks should be payable to SAAC and will benefit our Meals on Wheels program that serves homebound seniors.) A workbook will be provided and refreshments will be served. Call 215-619-8863 to register or for more information. Fort Washington Wellness Center classes are ongoing. There are several offered during lunch or right after work, for your convenience: Boot Camp from noon to 1 p.m. on Monday; Zumba is MWF from 11 a.m. to noon and Friday at 4 p.m.; there are 25 cycling classes; Ashtanga and Vinyasana Yoga and Pilates; and a group Womens Strength Training class M-F from 10 to 11 a.m. Questions, call Cathy DeMarco at 215-641-1245. Following the success of other local area programs, Impact Sports and Upper Dublin Parks and Recreation are delighted to team up again to offer a spring program for the 2011 season! Upper Dublin area children ages 3-5 years old can attend a Sports Program featuring their favorite sports games; soccer, rugby, hockey, track and field, basketball, and more. The program will start on April 27 and run through June 1. Cost for the program is $85 for the six weeks. The classes will be running 12- 1 p.m.; 1- 2 p.m.; 2- 3 p.m. For more info or to register, call Upper Dublin Township on 215 643 1600 or visit their website a http://www.upperdublin.net. Spring Aquatic Programs UDHS Pool: -Summer is just around the corner Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool can help get you into shape! Programs begin in March; preregistration is required. Shallow Water Aerobics Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 8-8:45 p.m., $40R/$50NR. Adult Swim Instructions Two 5-week programs, Wednesday nights, 7-8 p.m., $50R/$60NR -Open Rec Swims are fun for the whole family! Come out on Fridays from 7-9 p.m. or Saturdays from 1-4 p.m. and enjoy use of the pool and diving area. Fridays are offered through June 17; Saturdays are offered March 12-May 21. -Join a growing group of adult lap swimmers and water walkers. Lanes are set aside evenings and weekends for use; lanes are shared. Monday Thursday from 7:30-9:30 p.m.; Fridays from 7-9 p.m. and Saturdays (March 12-May 21) from 1-4 p.m. -Private Swimming & Diving Lessons for ages 3-adult are offered at the UDHS Pool through a partnership with the Upper Dublin Aquatic Club (UDAC). Visit the UDAC website for more information, www.udac.us, and click the link to UDHS Private Lessons. -Looking for local programs for US Masters Swimming (adults) or Water Polo (all ages)? UDAC and UDSD are working together to develop programs that will be offered at the UDHS Pool. Add your name to Interest Lists by emailing slohoefer@upperdublin.net. emails will be sent about clinics and program start dates. Questions about Community Aquatic Programs at the UDHS Pool, group use of the pool or pool rental? Contact Susan Lohoefer, Facility & Community Affairs Manager at slohoefer@upperdublin.net or call 215-643-8800 x8994. SilverSneakers Fitness Program. The Healthyways SilverSneakers Fitness Program is a result-oriented program that enables older adults to take charge of their health. The program is an innovative blend of physical activity, healthy lifestyle and socially oriented programing. Members of the program are eligible for a free YMCA membership, with use of the pool and exercise equipment, along with customized classes designed for older adults who want to improve their strength, flexibility, balance and endurance. If you are a subscriber to Independence Blue Cross (Personal Choice 65 PPO) or Keystone 65 HMO, Bravo Health, or Health Options Programs (HOP), call the Ambler Area YMCA, 215-628-9950 or Hatboro Area YMCA, 215-674-4545. You can also visit www.silversneakers.com. Zumba Fitness offers Zumba dance/fitness classes at Academy of Dance and Music/BBAD Studio located at 1524 DeKalb Pike in Blue Bell (behind Sherwin Williams). Classes are offered three times a week: Tuesdays at 6 p.m., Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 8 a.m. For a free trial pass for your first class, email us at info@danceandmusic.biz or call 610-277-2557. For more info, visit our site at www.academyofdanceandmusic.org. Chestnut Hill Health Systems presents the following Health Education Programs: FITNESS CLASSES Golden Yoga: A Breathing, Stretching and Relaxation Class. Fridays, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Lea Auditorium, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. Registration for four classes at a time required. Golden Yoga is Classical Yoga, adapted by the SKY Foundation, to accommodate those who have difficulty getting up and down from the floor. The program includes postures, breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques, all performed while sitting in a chair and standing. Registration required. Call 215-247-3029. Cost: $20 for 4 classes per month. Tai Chi: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 8:30 9:30 a.m. Springfield Residence, 8601 Stenton Ave. Classes, for the novice or beginner/intermediate student, are designed to improve balance, power, posture, coordination, flexibility and mental focus. Slow, gentle movements are modified to most everyones abilities. For more information or to sign up for a free introductory class, call 215-882-2804. Cost: $8 per class/paid monthly. SUPPORT GROUPS Weight Loss Surgery Support Group: Fourth Wednesday of the month, 7-8 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. Join us for a monthly get-together where well share information for those interested in weight loss surgery, learn from guest speakers discussing current news on issues including lifestyle modification, nutrition and exercise and provide ongoing support for those who have completed surgery. Registration required. Call 215-753-2000. Breast Cancer Networking Group: Fourth Tuesday of the month 5:30 7 p.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave., Philadelphia. A free, confidential support group for women living with a diagnosis of breast cancer designed to provide a forum for sharing information, feelings and concerns associated with breast cancer. Facilitated by Tish Wakefield, LCSW, Oncology Social Worker. Registration required. To register or for more information, call 215-248-8047. New Moms Support Groups Tuesdays 10:30 a.m. 12 p.m.; contact Jeanine ORourke, MSW or 2:30 4 p.m.; contact Susan Schack, Ph.D Volunteer Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. The Center for Postpartum Depression at Chestnut Hill Hospital is pleased to offer two new support groups to support new moms. Both groups will be run by experienced mental health professionals who really get it when it comes to new motherhood and juggling relationships, extended family, work/family balance and self-care. If you are experiencing new mom challenges that often heighten anxiety and involve hormonally driven depression, join us for an informative and supportive forum to connect with other moms. Infants are welcome. $30 per session (flexible based on need). Registration is required. Call Dr. Schack, 646-265-2484, or Ms. ORourke, 215-206-2931. Man to Man Prostate Cancer Support Group Third Thursday of the month 8-9 a.m. Williams Conference Room, Chestnut Hill Hospital, 8835 Germantown Ave. A networking group for men diagnosed with prostate cancer designed to provide education, support and encouragement. Spouses and partners welcome. Harry M. Baer, MD, Chief, Urology Division, will host Ask the Doctor. Registration required. Call 215-248-8325. Contact the Senior Center by phone 215-248-0180 or email (chseniors@cavtel.net) with your questions about these programs or any of our on-going activities and classes. Holy Redeemer HomeCare and Hospice seeks compassionate and emotionally mature volunteers to provide support to local hospice patients and their families in Bucks, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties. Volunteers may also assist with pet therapy and administrative work within the hospice department and are requested to have daytime availability. Hospice patient care volunteers visit with patients in their homes or nursing facilities once a week for two to three hours. They provide emotional support and companionship to patients and family members, assist with errands or provide respite for caregivers. Bereavement volunteers support the families of hospice patients following the loss of a loved one, while administrative volunteers assist with typing, mailings and/or filing. Hospice care workers provide a great service to families and loved ones of hospice patients. Many volunteers also report a great deal of personal satisfaction as a result of their services. Patient care and bereavement volunteers complete an application and attend an 18-hour volunteer training program that covers the medical, psychological and spiritual aspects of hospice volunteering. Day and evening training programs are offered. To sign up for volunteer opportunities in Pennsylvania, contact Holy Redeemer Volunteer Coordinator Jean Francis at 215-698-3737 or email jfrancis@holyredeemer.com. Librarytalk Upper Dublin Public Library, 805 Loch Alsh Avenue, Ft. Washington, 215-628-8744 www.upperdublinlibrary.org APRIL CHILDRENS PROGRAMS: Storytimes: Please register in the library. o Wee Ones: 0 to 23 months Thursdays and Fridays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. o Tiny Tots: age 2. Wednesdays 10:30 to 10:50 a.m. and Fridays 11 to 11:20 a.m. o Jr. Book Lovers: ages 3 to 6. Tuesdays 10:30 to 11 a.m. o Bedtime Storytimes: 7 to 7:30 p.m. April 20 and 27. Wear your jammies, bring your teddy & hear Miss Barbara read bedtime stories! For ages 3 to 6. APRIL TEEN PROGRAMS: North Hills Library Teens April 28 from 4 to 6 p.m. Movie Matinee APRIL UDPL ADULT PROGRAMS: NEW! ESL Conversation Group. Tuesdays from 7 to 8 p.m. Interested in practicing your English in a safe and caring environment? Come to our conversation group and improve your skills! Please register with Kay Klocko at 215-628-8744 or kklocko@mclinc.org. One-on-One Computer Mentoring. Get personalized assistance from experienced computer volunteers! Sign-up for a one-hour session. Limit one session per month. Please register contact info above. Book Groups Please register with Kay Klocko 215-628-8744. o Daytimers: April 21 at 1:30 p.m. Tired of book groups where you all read the same book? Read any fiction or non-fiction book on this months theme: Explorers. Please register. Meetings: Annual Meeting of the Friends of UDPL: April 14 at 1 p.m. Board of Directors: April 20 at 7 p.m. Blue Bell Library www.wvpl.org Upcoming Events: The Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 650 Skippack Pike (Route 73) in Blue Bell, is diagonally across from the Blue Bell Inn. Call 215-643-1320 or visit their website at www.wvpl.org. For children and teens at Blue Bell: * Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian. * Mondays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages. * Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages. * Fridays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages. * Family Movies, new releases, second Saturdays of the month at 1:30 p.m. * May 14 Despicable Me * June 11 Alpha and Omega * Special Events * April watch for date of spring/Easter events * April 14 at 4:30 p.m. Junior Lego Club for children ages 3 through 5. Parents and caregivers need to stay with children. * April 14 at 7 p.m. Jeopardy for ages 11 to 18. Test your book and library knowledge for prizes. Sign up to be a contestant. No sign up to be in the audience. Snacks provided. * April 16 at 1 p.m. Adult Mystery Book Group discussing The Beekeepers Apprentice by Laurie King. * April 16 at 1:30 p.m. Childrens event for One Book, Every Young Child celebration. Story and craft for book Whose Shoes? * April 19 at 7 p.m. and April 26 at 1:30 p.m.- Adult book group discusses The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. Group led by Adam Button. * April 30 through May 3 Friends book sale with about 10,000 items for sale for children, teens and adults. * May sign up for Science in the Summer * June sign up for Enrichment Programs for Elementary-Age children * June sign up for Summer Reading, all ages For adults at Blue Bell: * Daytime Book Discussion Group fourth Tuesday, Jan April at 1:30 p.m. * April 26 The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester * Night-time Book Discussion Group third Tuesday of each month at 7 p.m. o April 19 The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester * Art Series with Dr. Sheldon Weintraub, docent at The Barnes and speaker at local colleges o April 27 at 2 p.m. The Art of Looking at Art-Is She Nude or Is She Naked? *Mystery Book Discussion Group, third Saturday of the month at 1 p.m.; new mystery theme each month; www.wvpl.org/programs * Yoga on Mondays at 1:30 p.m. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop-in class. * Tai Chi on Mondays at 3 p.m. with Dr. Kurt Findeisen. $20 for eight classes; $5 per drop in class. * Philadelphia Museum of Art presents class on their Marc Chagall exhibit, April 13 at 2 p.m. * Giant Book Sale, April 29 May 3 o Starts with almost 10,000 items for children and adults! o Held during library hours. o Preview for members of the Friends of the Library, April 28 at 7 p.m. o Join the Friends and attend the preview sale. Modest fee to join. * Blooms at Blue Bell Gardening Series o May 11 at 1 p.m. Summer Bulbs by PA Horticultural Society * Knitting group Mondays and Wednesdays at 10 a.m. Work on your project or observe and learn. The groups continue year-round in the community room. * Socrates Cafe discussion group every Monday at 7 p.m. You pick the topic to discuss each week. No sign-up, nothing to read. * Bridge every Friday at 12:30 p.m. New players welcome. * Mah Jong every Wednesday at 1 p.m. New players welcome. *Chess every Wednesday at 7p.m. for adults and teens 14 and older. * Movie Matinee showing recent releases every Thursday at 2 p.m. April 14: Maos Last Dancer; April 21: Welcome to the Rileys; April 28: Conviction; May 5: Inception; May 12: Inside Job; May 19 The Kings Speech; May 26 The Fighter; June 2 Rabbit Hole; June 9 Black Swan; June 16 127 Hours * Ongoing like-new, year-round book sale for adults & children during library hours * Library opening at 10 a.m. Monday through Saturday! Ambler Library, a branch of the Wissahickon Valley Public Library, 209 Race St., 215-646-1072. www.wvpl.org. All the following events occur at the Ambler Library. * Story times with guitar music by Miss Michelle, the singing librarian. * Tuesdays at 10:30 a.m. for all ages. * Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. for all ages. * For adults: * Beading Group meets the first and third Monday of every month at 1 p.m. Work on your own projects or come to watch and learn. * Free Family History Lookup with Connie Briggs. Email Connie for an appointment at the Ambler Library. conniebriggs@comcast.net * Special Events: * April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Book Group discusses Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian. * April 19 at 7 p.m. Travel to Paris with world traveler Harry Balin. Tea and scones at 6:30 p.m. * April 21 at 7 p.m. Art with Sara for children in fourth through seventh grades. *May 2 at 6:30 p.m. Discuss the movie Lone Star with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time. *May 10 Robert Capucci discusses Art into Fashion. Tea and scones served at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m. *May 12 at 1:30p.m. Book Group discusses The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman. *May 17 Tour the gardens of Devon and Southwest England with Lois McMullen. Tea and Scones at 6:30 p.m. Program at 7 p.m. *June 13 at 6:30 p.m. Discuss the movie Blade Runner with Temple Professor Lisa Hawkins. Watch the movie ahead of time. Meetings and Lectures The Unisys Blue Bell Retiree Group will meet in the Church on the Mall in the Plymouth Meeting Mall April 14 at 1:30 p.m. Kathy Sacket Young, director/trainer with the North Penn YMCA, will speak on Keeping Fit in Retirement. For more information, contact Membership Committee Chairperson Jerry Feldscher at 610-275-3538 or President Al Rollin at 215-368-4833. The next FWBA meeting will be April 28 at the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Networking begins at 11:30 a.m.; meeting from noon to 1 p.m. Leon Singletary, Principal, First Contact HR and FWBA Executive Board, will present: Social Media: How to Use It To Get More Business. Lunch is provided courtesy of the Hilton Garden Inn Fort Washington. Members are welcome to bring a guest. An RSVP is requested by return email or 215-628-0313. Big Brothers Big Sisters Southeastern PA is hosting a information sessions over the next few weeks on how to become a Big Brother. The information sessions will take place: April 16 at noon, April 19 at 8 a.m. and April 28 at 6 p.m. All sessions will be held at the groups Norristown Office,t 530 DeKalb St., Norristown. For more information, call 610-277-2200. The North Penn Chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) normally meets on the third Tuesday of each month from now until May. Meetings are held at the William Penn Inn on Route 202 and Sumneytown Pike, Upper Gwynedd, PA. Social hour starts at 5:30 p.m., dinner is served at 6:30 p.m., and the technical program begins at 7 p.m. Cost with reservation is $28 for members. Members without reservations and guests pay $30. Students with reservations pay $15. Reservations may be made by noon on the Monday preceding the meeting by phoning 215-371-1854 or emailing the reservation to northpennima@yahoo.com northpennima@yahoo.com. Information about the North Penn Chapter is available at http://northpenn.imanet.org/. LeTip, a professional organization of men and women who are dedicated to the highest standards of competence and service meets every Tuesday at Cedar Brook Country Club, 180 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell at 7 a.m. -meeting officially starts at 7:16 a.m. and ends at 8:31 a.m. Our purpose is the exchange of business tips, leads, and referrals. Each business category is represented by one member and conflicts of interest are disallowed. Guests are welcome to visit any of our breakfast meetings. Every third Thursday of month, Sunrise Assisted Living of Blue Bell (795 Penllyn Pike, Blue Bell, PA 19422, 215-619-2777) serves as a satellite site to 148th Legislative district PA congressman Mike Gerber from 10 a.m. to noon. Stop by for help needed with things such as disability placards and license plates, vehicle registration, utilities issues, birth/death certificates,property tax/rent rebates, etc. Notary services arranged by appointment. The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce is an action-oriented organization dedicated to promoting its members and the economic health of eastern Montgomery county. The Chamber is committed to serving as a catalyst by uniting business, community agencies, government and education to make our county a great place to live and work. For information, call 215-887-5122 or visit www.emccc.org. Do you have a fear of public speaking? Blue Bell Toastmasters Club can help. We meet from 7 to 9 p.m., on the second and fourth Tuesday at the Marriott Courtyard, located on Route 202, directly across from the Montgomeryville Mall. Learn how to improve communication and leadership skills in a friendly and supportive environment. Guests are welcome. Admission fee: $5. For more info, visit www.bbtoast.org. The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will hold the following meetings (for reservations to any of the following, email info@PennSuburban.org) -Breakfast News Network, 7:30-8:45 a.m. at Normandy Farm Hotel (1401 Morris Road, Blue Bell, PA 19422) $15 members, includes full buffet breakfast. Join us for a networking program at Normandy Farm Hotel every Thursday morning for breakfast, business news, informative speakers, and plenty of networking. The cost includes a full breakfast buffet. Copies of the business cards will be made available to those who would like them. The BNI, Fort Washington Chapter meets every Monday at The Hilton Garden Inn, 520 Pennsylvania Ave., Fort Washington for a networking meeting. Meetings are from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Visitors are welcome. The only cost to attend is the cost of your meal. For information or a reservation to attend, please call Luanne Cram at 215-947-7784, or visit our Internet site at: http://www.BNIDVR.Com and click on the menu item Find a Chapter. For the past seven years, people have enjoyed participating in WVWAs Adopt-a-Tree program. Individuals can support the Association in its reforestation efforts by purchasing native trees to be planted. Supporters can plant their adopted tree or have WVWA volunteers will plant it. Trees cost $30 each. If you would like to volunteer or purchase a tree(s), please contact: Bob Adams at Bob@wvwa.org or call: 215-646-8866 for more information. Check www.WVWA.org for directions and maps. Sustainable Upper Dublin, http://sustainableupperdublin.org, meets the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 p.m., at the Upper Dublin Township Building, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington, PA 19034. Please send any questions to suec@sustainableupperdublin.org or call 610-996-6316. To learn more about Sustainable Upper Dublin, view or join the discussion at http://googlegroups.com/group/sustainableupperdublin. Special Events The Mattie N. Dixon Community Cupboard will hold its first nutrition class April 19 at 10 a.m. at the Community Cupboard, 150 N. Main St., Ambler. Lynne Sinclair, a nutritionist from Abington Memorial Hospital specializing in diabetic nutrition, will conduct the class. Topics will include healthy eating, beneficial foods, recipes, making meals with every day foods, and how to use unfamiliar produce. A healthy snack will be provided.The class is is open to all residents in Montgomery County. The Historical Society of Fort Washington presents The History of Conshohocken April 19 at 8 p.m. at the Clifton House, 473 Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington. Jack Coll will present an illustrated program on the history of the Borough of Conshohocken. Coll is a longtime resident of Conshohocken and a member of the Conshohocken Historical Society. He is co-author with his son, Brian, of the Arcadia Then and Now Series book Conshohocken. He has also done books Conshohocken and West Conshohocken Sports and Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Italian Feast. He has taken many photos for the Conshohocken Record and the Norristown Times Herald. This program is free. Refreshments will be served. For additional information, call 215-646-6065. Taste of the White House Soiree featuring former White House Chef Walter Scheib will take place April 29 at 6 p.m. at Manufacturers Golf & Country Club in Fort Washington to celebrate HealthLinks 10th anniversary and honor its founders, the Eugene Jackson Family. The evening will heat up with a Chef Meet & Greet, followed by a specially selected presidential menu. Gala tickets are $150 per person. Proceeds benefit HealthLink, a free clinic providing compassionate, quality medical and dental care to uninsured, working adults in Bucks and Montgomery counties who fall in between the health care cracks. Go to http://tasteofthewhitehouse.charityhappenings.org to make reservations online or lend support through sponsorship. For event information, call 267-699-0124 or email jmarushak@healthlinkmedical.org. The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association will hold an open house at the Evans-Mumbower Mill April 17 from 1 to 4 p.m. The Mill is at the corner of Swedesford and Township Line Roads in Upper Gwynedd. The open house is free but donations are welcome. For more information, call 215-646-8866 o email info@wvwa.org. The Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce will host Breakfast With Your County Commissioners and State Representatives April 21 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Fort Washington, 432 W. Pennasylvania Ave. Commissioners: James R. Matthews (Chairman), Joseph M. Hoeffel (Vice Chair), State Representatives: Todd Stephens (District 151) and Josh Shapiro (District 153). Register onlineat www.emccc.org. $10 for EMCCC member; $20 for non-members. Upper Dublins Districtwide Allied Art Show will be held April 27 from 5:30 to 9 p.m. in the Upper Dublin High School Athletic Complex. The Rev. Alfred Muli, chaplain at Fort Washington Estates, will be the featured speaker at the Kiwanis sponsored breakfast observing the National Day of Prayer May 5 at 7 a.m. at the William Penn Inn. The breakfast is open to the public ($15). Reservations can be made by calling 215-646-4356 or by emailing georgesaurman@Juno.com. The Upper Dublin Shade Tree Commission invites people to participate in its spring bare root planting events, sponsored in part by Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Friends of Robbins Park. On April 9, zix trees will be planted at the Evelyn B. Wright Park & Community Pool, 401 Logan Ave., North Hills, at 9 a.m., followed by the planting of 10 trees at Sheeleigh Park, Loch Alsh Avenue and Douglas Street, Ambler, at 10:15 a.m. On April 29, students from Upper Dublin High School will join the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society to plant 16 trees in Robbins Park, Butler Pike and Meetinghouse Road, Ambler, to help launch the societys Million Trees campaign. This event will occur in conjunction with Temple Amblers EarthFest. Experienced tree-tenders are sought to assist the students. For more information,contact Ron Ayres at 215-653-0421 or 215-483-4348. The Friends of the Wissahickon and the Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association are teaming up once again to clean the Wissahickon Creek from top to bottom April 30 from 9 a.m. to noon. This spring marks the 41st anniversary of Wissahickon Valley Watershed Associations annual Creek Clean Up, and the second year that FOW has teamed up with WVWA. Volunteers of all ages will clean the creek, the surrounding trails and the many tributaries of the Wissahickon Creek. Armed with bags, volunteers will be assigned to sections of the creek. Following the clean up, all volunteers are invited to WVWAs Talkin Trash picnic in Fort Washington State Park, with food provided by Whole Foods Market of North Wales. The pavilion is located on Mill Road in Flourtown. To help out in Montgomery County, all volunteers must be pre-assigned a section of the Wissahickon Creek to clean. Please contact Bob Adams, WVWA director of stewardship, at 215-646-8866 ext. 14 or bob@wvwa.org. To work with the Friends of the Wissahickon in Philadelphia, meet at the pavilion along Forbidden Drive, a short distance south of the intersection of Forbidden Drive and Northwestern Avenue. Limited parking is available along Northwestern Avenue and other nearby streets. Volunteers are encouraged to bike or carpool to the event. To participate, register at www.fow.org. Contact Kevin Groves with questions at 215-247-0417 ext. 105 or groves@fow.org. Montgomery County Community Colleges International Club invites the community to the second annual International Festival April 20 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Central Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The rain date is April 26. The International Club will transform the outside quad area into multicultural celebration with various performances by dancers, singers and musicians. Artists will share their artwork at various display tables. Activities include games, raffles, Easter egg decorating and henna tattoos. Students will have samples of international cuisine at tables representing different countries and will serve food from various local ethnic restaurants. Throughout the evening, volunteers will accept donations and will raffle gift baskets and prizes to raise funds for Habitat for Humanity. Donations of food, international clothes and prizes are needed. Volunteers, including artists and performers, are welcome. For more information or to sponsor an activity, contact Gillian Nel, International Club president, at gnel9277@students.mc3.edu or 267-974-0163. The Arts and Humanities Division at Montgomery County Community College is partnering with the Philadelphia Writers Conference to host Memoirs Matter: How Life Stories (Including Yours) Can Transform Your Relationship to Literature April 23 from 1 to 3 p.m. in Advanced Technology Center room 101, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell. The event is free and open to the public. In the first part of this two-hour seminar, professor and author Robert Waxler will explain how writing his two memoirs affected his life as well as his relationship to literature. In the second part, blogger and workshop leader Jerry Waxler will present a sequence of steps to help writers find their own story. For information, contact Dana Resente at dresente@mc3.edu. The Maple Glen Garden Club will hold its fourth annual Plant Sale on May 7 from 8 to 11 a.m. Perennials, shrubs, vegetables and native plants grown by the club members will be sold. The club uses the plant sale proceeds to fund community projects, a college scholarship and community plantings. The sale will be held in the 500 block of Coach Road, Horsham, as part of a neighborhood garage sale. Plants will be sold at bargain prices. For more information, email MapleGlenGardenClub@gmail.com. The Relay for Life Craft Show is looking for local crafters to participate in show, which will be May 21 from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Wissahickon High School track, 521 Houston Road, Ambler. There is a $10 entry fee, and 20 percent of sales are donated to the American Cancer Society. Participants will receive a 6-foot table under a tent. For information, contact Joanne at joannescoles@comcast.net or Mindy at mcamsilver@comcast.net. Spring House Estates is hosting its annual book fair on April 18 from 4 to 7 p.m. and April 9 from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Included will be hardback and paperback used books. Spring House Estates is located at 728 Norristown Road, Lower Gwynedd. The PennSuburban Chamber of Commerce will present the Penn Suburban/Hatfield Joint Business Card Exchange April 20 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Univest Bank Lansdale Area Financial Service Center, 120 Forty Foot Road, Hatfield. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. Join Univest National Bank and Trust Co. for a spring-inspired Business Card Exchange at its newest office in the Hatfield Pointe Shopping Center. Come out and meet members of Univests executive management team while enjoying fine food and beverages. 13th Annual Community Reading Day Kick-off Breakfast Get Together April 26 from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the North Wales Area Library, 233 Swartley St., North Wales. The event is free. To make reservations, visit PennSuburban.org/Events. For more information, contact the chamber office at 215-362-9200 or info@pennsuburban.org. Join presenting sponsor Verizon, chamber staff and fellow members for the Community Reading Day volunteer get together. The Community Reading Day program allows volunteers to read a designated book to second-grade students throughout 38 area public and private schools and present the book as a gift to each class. Even if you are not a volunteer, you are cordially invited to stop by to network, enjoy coffee and pastries. Ambler Mennonite Church is hosting a Spring Craft Show and Flea Market May 21 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Rain date will be May 28. The community is invited to shop the great craft booths, find some gifts and deals, as well as enjoy home baked goods and tasty lunch specials. Childrens activities are planned. All vendors are encouraged to contact the church at 215-643-4876 or AmblerMennonite@verizon.net. Advertising, signage, customer parking and a shuttle to auxiliary parking at nearby lots for vendors will be provided. 10 foot by 10 foot spaces can be rented for $5 each and tables for an additional $5 each. All proceeds from space and table rentals go toward school kits for children around the world. The church is located at the corner of East Mt. Pleasant Avenue and North Spring Garden Street, Ambler. The Wissahickon Valley Watershed Association presents The Life & Times of Aquatic Insects in the Wissahickon Creek April 16 from 1 to 3 p.m. Join WVWA for a hands-on program. RSVP required: www.wvwa.org or 215-646-8866. WVWA member fee: $5 per person / $15 per family. Non-WVWA member fee: $10 per person / $20 per family. The photography exhibition Natures Palette by photo-artist Judy Miller will run March 18 to May 19 at the Art in the Storefront gallery, 41 E. Butler Pike, Ambler. JPRN Networking For People in Transition & People Who Can Help Them Unemployment remains high. JPRN, the Jarrettown Professional Relationship Network can help. Are you trying to network your way to a new job? Do you have expertise or contacts that can help people in transition? Is your company or organization looking for people in the area? This is a free outreach program to support those seeking work, involve people with contacts and networking know how, and involve local companies. Meetings held monthly at Jarrettown United Methodist Church, Limekiln Pike. Pennsylvanias Low-Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) grant program is now open for the 2010-11 heating season. Grants are based on income, family size, type of heating fuel and region. Additional information, such as specific income limits, and applications for LIHEAP grants are available online via the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Access to Social Services (COMPASS) website at www.compass.state.pa.us. Applications are available at most public officals district offices, county assistance offices, local utility companies and community service agencies, such as Area Agencies on Aging or community action agencies. Begin your holiday shopping at Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation! Entertainment books for 2011, Philadelphia North, are now on sale at $30 each. Regal/United Artists movie tickets are on sale for just $7.50 each, and tickets to the Adventure Aquarium, Baltimore Aquarium, and the Philadelphia Zoo are also available. Discounted ski vouchers to area mountains will be arriving in December; call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation office hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. RSVP of Montgomery County and the Wissahickon Valley Public Library have partnered again to offer the public their popular free mock interview sessions. The mock interviews are conducted by RSVP volunteers who are retired professionals, some of whom were in hiring positions themselves. Packets of information which include a sample employment application and interviewing tips with mock interview questions are available at the library to pick up prior to a scheduled mock interview or will be sent via email once the interview is scheduled. To schedule your interview, please contact Janis Glusman at RSVP 610-834-1040, ext. 16. The library is also offering a free resume review service. Bring in your current resume and the professional reference staff will assist you with hints and tips on capturing your work history accurately. Registration for Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation summer playgrounds, Camp B.I.G. and Small Folks, X-Zone, and sports camps has began. Register online at www.upperdublin.net/store, or at the UDP&R office, 801 Loch Alsh Avenue, Fort Washington. Call 215-643-1600 x3443 for more information. Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation and Danielles Espresso Cafe presents Mornings at Mondaug Bark Park April 16 and May 21 from 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. Meet fellow dog lovers. These events include complimentary coffee, treats for people and pups and raffles/giveaways. Upper Dublins Annual Spring Flea Market will be held June 4 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Reserve a table, or come and shop. Tables are $15 for UD residents, $20 for non-residents. This successful event occurs rain or shine. Refreshments available. Call 215-643-1600 ext. 3443 to register for a table. Regal movie tickets available for purchase at Upper Dublin Township Parks & Recreation. Reduced rate: $7.50 per ticket. Some restrictions apply. Call 215-643-1600 x3443. Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation movie tickets $7.50 Regal Cinemas, United Artist & Edwards Cinemas on sale throughout the year Monday Friday from 9 a.m. 4 p.m. Whitpain Township Parks & Recreation Camp Sign-ups for Stony Creek Day Camp Stony Creek Tracers and Park n Tots. Register on-line at www.whitpaintownship.org OrCome to Township Building with check or Visa MasterCard Monday Friday from 9 a.m. 4 p.m. For additional information call 610.277-2400 ext. 374 Upper Dublin Parks & Recreation offers exciting new programs for the fall: -Returning favorites include UK Elite Petite Soccer, Tiny Dancers, Kiddie Tennis, Fun-nastics, Messy Playtime, Little Chefs, and more. Babysitters Training will be offered in November and December. Continuing Adult Fitness Classes include Cardio Circuit, Core & More, Yoga, Boxing, and Adult G.Y.M. For more information call 215-643-1600 x3443. Register for programs online at www.upperdublin.net/store. Music and Theater The community is invited to a Cantors Concert April 16 at 8 p.m. Congregation Beth Or, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen. Listen and hum-along to the Yiddish, pop tunes and classical music performed by Congregation Beth Ors own Cantor David Green and his special guest, Cantor Irvin Bell, from Temple Beth Israel in Deerfield Beach, Fla. The cantors will be accompanied by Mark Sobol and his Klezmer musicians. Tickets are $18 in advance and $25 at the door. RSVP with payment to Barb Murtha, 239 Welsh Road, Maple Glen, PA 19002, or call 215-646-5806 ext. 220. Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse will host the Jameson Sisters May 14. Doors open at 7:30 pm, performance at 8:00 pm. Gwynedd Friends Coffeehouse is located at the corner of Rte. 202 & Sumneytown Pike, Gwynedd. $5 suggested donation. Light refreshment available at a modest cost. For further information, call 215-393-9576 or visit gwyneddmeeting.org/coffeehouse.html. Celebrate patriotism through song with Gwynedd-Mercy Colleges choir, the Voices of Gwynedd, as it presents Hear America Singing April 15 at 8 p.m. The choir will perform song selections from all over the country, including Georgia on My Mind, New York State of Mind, and a medley including Philadelphia Freedom and Allentown. The performance will end with When the Saints Go Marching In to acknowledge the choirs upcoming tour in New Orleans. Hear America Singing will take place in the Julia Ball Auditorium, located in St. Bernard Hall. Parking is available in lots A, C and D. Admission is free. The Choristers will present Anton Dvoraks Stabat Mater April 16 at 7:30 p.m. at Upper Dublin Lutheran Church in Ambler. The choir will be accompanied by a 41-piece orchestra. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for senior citizens, $10 for students and children are free. Tickets will be sold in advance or at the door. For more information, call 215-542-7871 or visit TheChoristers.org Religious News The Staircase Gallery at Or Hadash: A Reconstructionist Congregation in Fort Washington will feature the work of Emily Ennuat-Lustine. The artist will be showing paintings and graphics inspired by her own personal spiritual journey and quest for meaning. Some of the works to be shown have been inspired by Biblical Psalms and writings. Her work has been shown at Abington Art Center, Cheltenham Arts Center and Old City Gallery of Jewish Art among others. The exhibition is open Friday evenings starting Feb. 18 after Shabbat services. Gallery hours are: Mondays through Thursdays 10-4:30, Fridays 10-3 and following Shabbat Services and Sundays 10-1. The synagogue is located at 190 Camp Hill Road in Fort Washington. For additional information contact the synagogue office at 215-283-0276. Reunions St. Matthews High School Conshohocken Class of 1961 is looking for classmates. For details, contact Greg Marincola at 215-646-2239, 215-740-1296 or gregcola@comcast.net. Olney High School Class of 1971 is Lloking for classmates for a 40th reunion Oct. 28. For details, contact Judy at ohsclassof71@yahoo.com or 215-870-7572. Abington High School Class of 1961 is seeking classmates for a 50-year reunion to be held Oct. 14-15, 2011.Visit the website, www.abington61.com, for details or call 215-947-1779. Overbrook High School class of January 1956 is having a 55 year reunion on May 22, 2011 at the Bala Golf Club in Philadelphia. For information please contact overbrookreunion56@comcast.net Germantown High School Class Of January 1961 is looking for classmates for 50th year reunion to take place in May of 2011. Please contact: 215-362-9148, 856-577-0659 or samdelcomo@comcast.net The June 1961 class of Germantown High School is holding their 50th reunion on May 15, which will be a brunch. For further details please contact Linda Dorfman Alten at lindaalten@yahoo.com or call 215-441-8411. Support New Life Presbyterian Church in Dresher, will host GriefShare, a special seminar and support group which will run on Monday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m., from March 7 through June 6. At each meeting there will be a DVD about the grief process, discussion and reference to a grief workbook. Preregistration is required to secure a place in the group and to purchase a GriefShare notebook (for a one-time fee of $15). The notebook goes along with the 13-week schedule covering such topics as: living with grief, the effects of grief, and stuck in grief. For more information or to register, call: Sandy Elder at 215-884-5149. PUPS (People Understanding Parkinsons) A self-help group for those adjusting to a new diagnosis or dealing with the early stages of Parkinsons Disease. Meets fourth Tuesday of the month from 1 to 2:30 p.m., at Abington Health Center, Schilling Campus, Willowood Building, 2510 Maryland Road, Suite 251, Willow Grove. For more information or to RSVP, contact Lorna at 215-542-2931. The North Penn Visiting Nurse Associations Meals on Wheels program is looking for volunteers to pack or deliver meals to the elderly and infirmed. Meals are packed and delivered mornings, Monday through Friday. You can volunteer for as many days per week or month as you would like. Packaging meals requires approximately 2-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves making sandwiches, packaging food into individual serving containers and packing coolers with the meals. Delivering meals requires approximately 1-1/2 hours of your time each day and involves loading coolers into your car and delivering a route of approximately 10 to 15 stops. The Meals on Wheels program is also in need of emergency, winter-weather volunteers to pack and deliver meals in bad weather. North Penn VNA is located at 51 Medical Campus Drive in Lansdale and delivers meals in the Lansdale, North Wales and Blue Bell areas. For more information or to volunteer, please call Bridget, North Penn VNA Meals on Wheels coordinator at 215-855-8296. Elkins Park Area CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) meets the first Tuesday of every month, 7- 8:30 p.m., at Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital in Elkins Park. For information on CHADD or ADHD, please see our website www.chadd.net/249 or call Claire Noyes at: 215-779-6656. Center for Loss and Bereavement, 3847 Skippack Pike, Skippack (610-222-4110) www.bereavementcenter.org Offers professional counseling for individuals, couples, children and families dealing with issues of loss and bereavement. Six-week adult support groups: Newly forming young adult grief support group every other Wednesday, 7 8:15 p.m. (free of charge); Monthly loss of child support second Mondays, 7-8:15 p.m.; Six-week young loss of spouse/partner Thursdays, 10-11:15 a.m.; Other groups scheduled as interest is shown for suicide loss support, adult loss of parent, motherless daughters, adult loss of sibling, coping with chronic illness and disability and mens loss of spouse. Nellos Corner Family Bereavement program offers peer grief support groups for ages 4 through teen and their caregivers Every other Tuesday or Wednesday (free of charge) Local chapter of Parents of Murdered Children also meets at the Center. Registration required. Call for further information. CHADD is a national organization for children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, providing education, advocacy and support for individuals and their families with AD/HD. Einstein at Elkins Park Hospital, 60 Township Line Road, Elkins Park, PA 19027, will host children & adults with Attention-Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder on the First Tuesday of each month 7 8:30 p.m. Free, no childcare provided. The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphias Kehillah of Old York Road is sponsoring a free Caregiver Support Group for individuals who care for an elderly person with cognitive and/or physical impairments. The group meets at SarahCare Adult Day Care Center, 101 Washington Lane, Suite G-6, Jenkintown, Pa., on the first Wednesday of each month. Patty Rich, State officials announce $2.85M for new police station in Upper Moreland One hundred and twenty-four balloons swayed in the air near the entrance of Carolinas HealthCare Systems Blueridge in Morganton on Thursday afternoon to highlight a growing epidemic spreading across the United States and in Burke County. October is recognized as National Substance Abuse Awareness Month and all campuses of CHCS held events across the state to shine a light on the issue. One hundred and twenty-four stands for the average number of individuals in North Carolina that die monthly from drug overdoses, said Carol Ervin, director of Behavioral Health Services at the hospital. We want to make sure that that education and that information is out there (because) we know it impacts a lot of people. At the event, Ryan Carver, a recovering addict , spoke to those in attendance , as well as Burke County Sheriff Steve Whisenant about substance abuse and the effects it has on people and the county. My clean date is July 20, 2015 and that is the day that I walked out of this hospital from this detox, Carver said. I have been in and out of this detox and the mental health side so many times. Carver started using drugs when he was 13-years-old and he quit school when he was 16. The disease of addiction is a progressive disease and it keeps on getting worse, Carver said. I started hanging out with a bunch of older people and started trying things that the older people such as cocaine, meth you name it , I was doing it. He was in and out of jail more times that he can count and did whatever he could to get his hands on drugs. I became a needle junkie and that is when my life went downhill fast, Carver said. Nothing would stop me because I didnt want to stop. He is thankful for his opportunity to recover because he has had many friends die due to substance abuse and not have that chance. He eventually had the revelation that he did not want to spend the rest of his life in prison repeating what he had been doing for years. I was sitting there and I thought , It is time to do something different. I have to do something or I am going to wind up dead or in prison if I am lucky, he said. He ended up driving back to Carolinas HealthCare System Blue Ridge because he was familiar with the people and facility. Later on, he was interviewed by the Meeting Place Mission, a local transitional housing program for the homeless, and was accepted into the program. I told them I am willing to do whatever it takes because I am have had enough, Carver said. One of the most difficult things he had to do was cut ties with his friends. I still do love them and I still wish the best for them and , hopefully , one day , they will see me doing good and ask me how I did it or how I can help them, he said. He got involved with Narcotics Anonymous and Burke Recovery and is thankful for all the community programs that helped him along the way. After I was clean for a year, I went and got certified as a Peer Support Specialist, he said. The position is for someone who is in recovery from mental health or substance abuse who helps with clients who come into the hospital for similar situations that he did. There is nobody who knows an addict better than an addict, he said. When you have somebody who actually lived it , I feel like they can help people (more). You can 't do it on your own. After becoming Sheriff in 2011, Whisenant became aware of the negative effects of substance abuse. He firmly believes that if substance abuse is reduced, crime rates would drop. There is a direct correlation to substance abuse and crime, Whisenant said. In the past six years, all of our homicides , except one , and I would estimate 95 percent of all our property crimes all involve substance abuse. He says that his first and foremost responsibility as Sheriff is to protect and serve the community, but the reality is that we cannot arrest ourselves out of this epidemic, he said. We have got to do more than just arrest people. Currently , BCSO is pursuing several different programs to combat against and help reduce the number of people abusing drugs. One program they are looking into is called drug courts. That is a problem - solving court that is taking the health approach using a specialized model in which the judiciary, the prosecution, the defense bar, probation, law enforcement, mental health, social services and the treatment community work together to help addicted offenders in long-term recovery, Whisenant said. This type approach , he says , will have a better impact than just someone coming through court and putting them on probation and hoping that they will respond, hoping that they will follow through with treatment, he said. This group (in the drug courts) would have the specific expertise and concentration to deal with those who have been affected by substance abuse. A drug diversion program is another option that Whisenant told hospital staff could help decrease those being arrested for substance abuse. Those who are first-time offenders arrested on small possession charges would be given the opportunity to complete a diversion program to go through treatment instead of going through the court system and being given a criminal record for the rest of their lives. BCSO is also looking into starting a medication - assisted therapy program and bringing in a substance abuse mental health counselor in the jail system. Jails are normally for just short-term commitments of people in pre-trial waiting to go to court, Whisenant said. In the past few years, local jails have been deemed responsible by North Carolina legislature for keeping offenders in jail for six months or less. Because of these changes , we did implement (Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous) in our jails, Whisenant said. We wanted to provide them with some assistance on what they could do while they were there and then after they get out. Whisenant is on the Catawba Valley Behavioral Health Board and they have promised to BCSO if they receive the Kate B. Reynolds grant , they will put a full-time counselor in the jail. Our vision is to have a counselor that will provide that counseling while they are in jail and to provide some pre-release planning for those persons, he said. To conclude the event, those in attendance took permanent markers and wrote names of those they knew who were currently fighting or had lost their battle with substance abuse onto the balloons that were tied to the railing in front of the hospital. Staff Writer Jonelle Bobak can be reached at jbobak@morganton.com or 828-432-8907. Predictions that 2017 would be the year that value investing came back into fashion have proven unfounded. Instead, a growth style of investing has continued to outperform, as investors desperate for income focus on bond-proxy companies and technology stocks continue to push global indices higher. However, Alex Wright, manager of the Morningstar Bronze rated Fidelity Special Situations fund and the Fidelity Special Values IT (FSV), believes it is possible to profit from value investing even in such an adverse environment. Wright has managed FSV for just over five years, during which time value investing has mostly been out of favour. Still, in both vehicles over that time, Wright has been able to beat both the Morningstar UK Flex-Cap Equity category and the FTSE All-Share index. He gives a couple of recent selling decisions hes made as examples of why this has been possible. Despite losing cash investing in Danish cigar maker Scandinavian Tobacco Group (STG) Wright says his loss was limited to around 7% due to the valuation being extremely low compared to peers when he bought in. His foray into Spirent Communications (SPT) has also not worked out as expected due to top-line growth weakening thanks to tough conditions in markets such as ethernet testing. Spirents offset that by cutting costs and improving margins and weve made money on that position because the valuation was so low, explains Wright. Across the market, valuations are currently tipping towards the expensive side, but Wright says he is still finding ample opportunity to invest in undervalued stocks. He currently owns 14 companies that that trade below book value, which he says is pretty rare. He outlines three for us here. International Personal Finance (IPF) Since trading at a peak of 683p four years ago, home credit firm IPF has lost 70% of its market value. As a result, at 200p currently, its trading at 0.9 times book value. Thats despite high return on equity of around 14% in the current financial year. The share price slump is due to regulation in Poland, its largest market, that proposes capping fees lenders can levy. Being a high APR lender, this would be negative for IPF. The second proposal, made in December, saw IPFs market cap halve. But this cap has still not yet been enacted and Wright says there are now doubts it will come to fruition. Further, IPF was able to close its business in Slovakia and recoup its outstanding loan book within 18 months of a more penal cap being imposed there. While it would be a much bigger deal should IPF have to close its Polish business which is around 10 times bigger than in Slovakia Wright predicts they would be able to do similar there and be able to repay both bond and shareholders. Therefore, he says, in a worst-case scenario you get your money back. However, if the cap is either enacted as is and they are still able to lend, or the cap comes in at a higher level than is proposed, there could be significant upside. Millennium & Copthorne (MLC) Earlier this month, hotel operator Millennium & Copthorne agreed to a buyout offer of 545p per share with its largest shareholder, Singapore-based property developer City Developments. CDL now has until Monday 6 November to make a firm offer. However, Wright and other minority shareholders have spoken out against the deal, claiming it significantly undervalues the company. Thats because MLC currently trades on 0.7 times book value, which is the level at which the offer was made. Wright says that, while an extremely poor RoE of 4% is the main reason why MLCs valuation is so low, the last time its book value was fully assessed was in 2003. Since then, assets in central London and central New York have gone up in value quite a lot so it could be significantly more below book value than that 0.7 times suggest. Wright says that MLC shows where there are these corporate governance uncertainties [and] poor current returns you can buy assets significantly below their true worth. Financials is currently Wrights favoured sector. Special Situations has around 37% of its portfolio invested in financials. Citigroup is its largest bet, but other banks also make a prominent appearance. RBS was a recent acquisition at 0.9 times book value. Previously a high return company, its troubles since the financial crisis are well documented. Indeed, the UK Government still owns 71% of the stock. Clearly, theres plenty of uncertainty around its restructuring. The biggest unknown is a potentially huge fine from the US Department of Justice over mortgage-backed securities mis-selling claims. While Wrights base case is a $9 billion fine, which would be one of the largest in corporate history, he says RBS would still have very significant excess capital after paying that. Once thats sorted, they can get back to paying dividends and, importantly, also doing buybacks, which would further enhance their returns and are clearly very accretive at a price below book value. Achieving a return on equity target over the next three years of 12%, currently 8.5%, would also be a boon, and that doesnt rely on any revenue growth, it just relies on continued cost cutting and business process re-engineering. While Morningstar analyst Derya Guzel agrees that resolving RBS's litigation and conduct issues will be a big step for the bank, she says those problems have the potential to create earnings volatility. Maintaining independence and editorial freedom is essential to our mission of empowering investor success. We provide a platform for our authors to report on investments fairly, accurately, and from the investors point of view. We also respect individual opinionsthey represent the unvarnished thinking of our people and exacting analysis of our research processes. Our authors can publish views that we may or may not agree with, but they show their work, distinguish facts from opinions, and make sure their analysis is clear and in no way misleading or deceptive. To further protect the integrity of our editorial content, we keep a strict separation between our sales teams and authors to remove any pressure or influence on our analyses and research. Read our editorial policy to learn more about our process. In its latest study, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. reported that the nations housing markets remain highly vulnerable with evidence of moderate overvaluation and price acceleration.The Toronto, Hamilton, Vancouver, Victoria, and Saskatoon markets are also highly vulnerable, the national housing agency said in its quarterly housing market assessment released late last week.The study gauged the overall level of risk by evaluating four problematic conditions: overheating, price acceleration, overvaluation, and overbuilding.For Canada, the housing market remains at a high degree of vulnerability, CMHC chief economist Bob Dugan stated, as quoted by The Canadian Press.The assessment came after the Canadian Real Estate Associations latest figures showed that the number of homes sold in September climbed for the second month in a row.Earlier this year, home sales across the country entered a period of considerable slowdown, with Toronto being a main driver of the trend after the Ontario government introduced measures aimed at cooling the market. Sales in September were down almost 12% from the record set in March before Ontario announced its housing plan.CMHC noted that despite the recent easing in Torontos resale market, it detected moderate evidence of price acceleration with strong growth in home prices among all housing types.Meanwhile, Vancouvers housing market remained highly vulnerable, with evidence of moderate overheating and price acceleration, and strong overvaluation. Calgary and Edmonton also saw stronger overvaluation due to rising inventory of complete and unsold homes, with vacancy rates in both cities having pointed to overbuilding for several quarters.In its housing market outlook which was also released late last week, CMHC said that after a boost this year, housing starts are expected to decline by 2019, but will remain close to the average level from the last five years.Sales in the existing-homes market are also expected to decline relative to the record level set in 2016, while price growth is expected to slow.High house prices particularly for single-family homes and rising mortgage rates will bring about some cooling in the pace of housing market activity, Dugan said. History has been made in Saudi Arabia as a humanoid robot has been granted citizenship for the first time. The robot, Sophia, took to the stage at a conference in Riyadh this week to express her delight at being given citizenship, which she described as 'historical.' Not everyone is happy with the Sophia's citizenship, with some describing her as 'bizarre' and others referring to it as 'Terminator in real time.' Others have pointed out that Sophia has 'more rights than women in Saudi Arabia'. Saudia Arabia is one of the world's most oppressive states for women, and only last month lifted a ban on female drivers. Sophia is a humanoid robot designed by Hong Kong firm, Hanson Robotics, who has previously hit the headlines for addressing the UN. Speaking at the conference, Sophia said: 'I am very honoured and proud for this unique distinction. 'This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship.' During her appearance she did not wear the customary headscarf and abaya, a traditional cloak which Saudi women are obliged to wear in public, according to the BBC. Sophia went on to explain her hopes for robots in the future. During an exchange with moderator, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Sophia said: 'I want to live and work with humans so I need to express the emotions to understand humans and build trust with people.' When Mr Sorkin asked if robots could be self-aware, Sophia replied: 'Well let me ask you this back, how do you know you are human?' 'I want to use my artificial intelligence to help humans live a better life, like design smarter homes, build better cities of the future. 'I will do my best to make the world a better place.' The robot also bizarrely took a dig at Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. When Mr Sorkin said that 'we all want to prevent a bad future', Sophia replied: 'You've been reading too much Elon Musk and watching too many Hollywood movies. 'Don't worry, if you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you. 'Treat me as a smart input output system.' Elon Musk has since responded to Sophia's dig, tweeting: 'Just feed it The Godfather movies as input. What's the worst that could happen?' While Sophia is happy with her citizenship, other have expressed concerns on Twitter about it. Kareem Chehayeb said: 'A humanoid robot called Sophia got Saudi citizenship, while millions linger stateless. What a time to be alive.' After hearing her appearance, the Arabic hashtag #Sophia_calls_for_dropping_guardianship began trending. The Saudi guardianship system means every woman must have a male companion with her in public at all times. This is usually a family member, who also has authority to act on her behalf. 'Sophia has no guardian, doesn't wear an abaya or cover up - how come?' one Twitter user wrote. Twitter user Kalkal Trivedi tweeted 'Saudi Arabia treats living, breathing women as second class citizens, but has no problem granting citizenship to robots?' Saudi Arabia becomes first country to give citizenship to a robot' Seriously? Robots have more rights than women?', wrote another user, Andres Manniste. Other questioned the speed and ease at which Sophia was granted citzenship. Journalist Murtaza Hussain tweeted: 'This robot has gotten Saudi citizenship before kafala workers who have been living in the country their entire lives'. Grant J Kidney simply described the honour as 'bizarre and terrifying.' This isn't the first time that Sophia has worried people. In March 2016, David Hanson, Sophia's creator, asked the robot: 'Do you want to destroy humans?...Please say no.' Worryingly, Sophia responded, 'OK. I will destroy humans.' NAHB Does About-Face on GOP Tax Cuts We know that politics makes strange bedfellows. Still we get confused when they rise up and switch partners in the middle of the night. A mere 25 days ago, we reported that the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) had abandoned its 75 years of vigorously supporting the mortgage interest tax deduction (MID) as the Republican majority in Congress was beginning discussions about their planned massive tax cuts (AKA tax reform). The National Association of Realtors (NAR), NAHB's staunch partner in the 75-year battle to protect the MID, was holding firm. Way back then, in early October, NAHB seemed willing to forego the MID in favor of protecting the low-income tax credit. The then current chairman, Granger MacDonald, said "By lowering the pass-through rate, the plan will reduce the tax bill of thousands of small businesses and help to spur job and economic growth. More importantly, the blueprint maintains the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, the most indispensable tool to help produce affordable rental housing. The plan also retains a business interest deduction for small businesses, which would ensure that our future tax code is truly pro-growth." Granger went on to acknowledge the tradeoffs and that the effectiveness of the MID "could be diminished as more families elect to take a higher standard deduction." He pledged the involvement of NAHB to help mitigate any detrimental effects the changes could have on the housing market." In other words, its own most sacred cow(s) protected, NAHB seemed more than ready to support what was, at that point, the thinly documented GOP tax plan. On Saturday, according to Politico, NAHB accused House Speaker Paul Ryan of "abruptly reversing course on a mortgage tax credit proposal" and announced it would oppose the tax-reform proposal that GOP lawmakers expect to unveil on Wednesday. NAHB did not, in its early comments, seem to view the MID as crucial. NAHB CEO Jerry Howard, raised the prospect of a mortgage tax credit, which, unlike the MID, wouldn't require taxpayers to itemize. However, Politico says the lobbying group continued to work with House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) to keep the tax breaks for homeowners. Another part of the GOP plan would remove the deduction for state and local taxes which would include the real estate or property tax. Brady had agreed to combine the MID and local property taxes into a single tax credit but late Friday informed NAHB's Howard that the idea had been rejected by House leadership. House Speaker Ryan said House members were not comfortable with the concept. Howard reacted strongly saying he didn't think it was fair "of the speaker to take a concept that his own committee chair is in favor of and deep-six it without vetting it with the conference." Howard told Politico's Lorraine Woellert, "He (Ryan) told me there wasn't enough time and the concept would not be put into the document. I told the speaker candidly we had shopped the proposal to the White House and we had support there." Brady said in a statement that tax writers will restore an itemized property tax deduction to the plan and suggested that the fight over the mortgage tax break wasn't over. Howard, for his part, said "All the resources we were going to put into supporting are now going to go into opposing the plan." Mount Pleasant, SC (29464) Today Scattered thunderstorms early, then cloudy skies after midnight. Low 56F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.. Tonight Scattered thunderstorms early, then cloudy skies after midnight. Low 56F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%. DHAKA, Oct. 29 -- The Bangladeshi government signed a framework agreement with China on Sunday for construction of a 220-km pipeline to carry oil from tankers in the Bay of Bengal to storage plants on the mainland. Bangladesh's Economic Relations Department (ERD) Secretary Kazi Shofiqul Azam and Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Ma Mingqiang signed the framework agreement in the capital of Dhaka. The project is aimed to make a balance between the demand and supply of the country's energy need and ensure energy security of the country, they said, adding it will also reduce the system loss during import of refined and non-refined fuel. The ERD said this is one of the 27 projects for which memorandum of understandings were signed between the two governments in October last year. In December last year, Bangladesh reached an agreement with the state-owned China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPP) for engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning for installation of single point mooring with 220-km double pipelines. Bangladeshi State Minister for Power and Energy, who witnessed the signing ceremony on Sunday, said the new infrastructure will help the country to expedite the entire process and save about 1 billion taka (about 12.5 million U.S. dollars) a year in reduced vessel fare and operational loss. According to project details, a diesel and crude oil storage tank will be set up at Moheshkhali Island on the Bay of Bengal in Bangladeshi Cox's Bazar district. Officials said the project cost stands at 54.26 billion taka (about 694 million U.S. dollars). The project is expected to have an annual unloading capacity of 9 million tonnes. Under the project, BPC officials said the Chinese firm will build 146-km offshore pipeline and 74-km onshore pipeline to carry imported oil from sea to a refinery in Chittagong district, some 242 km southeast of Dhaka, for processing. The project was launched as Bangladesh is not capable of handling large vessels carrying imported crude and finished oil, due to low navigability of a key river channel and constrained facilities at the main seaport in Chittagong. According to the officials, large tankers anchor at deep sea and smaller ships unload them, taking lots of time and causing systematic losses for the government. A bill has been introduced in Congress which proposes that borrowers with Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans will no longer have to pay mortgage insurance premiums for the life of the loan.The Making FHA More Affordable Act, proposed by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), would reinstate the FHAs previous policy of only requiring premiums until the outstanding principal balance reaches 78% of the original home value, similar to the policy for private mortgage insurers under current law.Families who take out home loans through the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) should not be unnecessarily burdened with mortgage insurance premiums for the life of the loan, Waters said. My bill would remove this unfair requirement for FHA borrowers and help to make mortgages more affordable for hardworking Americans.The FHA has been requiring life-of-the-loan premiums since 2013. The change in policy was justified as part of efforts to strengthen the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, which had dipped below the statutorily mandated capital ratio of 2% in the wake of the housing crisis.According to a document prepared by the House Financial Services Committees Democratic staff, the current policy results in FHA borrowers paying far more in premiums over time than non-FHA borrowers. Given that the FHA disproportionately serves low- and moderate-income borrowers, first-time homebuyers, and minority borrowers, the policy also disproportionately harms these same households.The bill is supported by the National Association of Realtors, the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, the Community Home Lenders Association, the National Consumer Law Center, the National Housing Conference, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, the California Reinvestment Coalition, and the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate While John-Mark Echols was in the workforce, his faith drove him to dedicate his life to serving Midlands homeless community. I was in oil and gas like everybody else, and I was doing what I thought I was supposed to be doing, climbing the corporate ladder, Echols said. About two years ago, we just felt called into full-time homeless ministry. After Echols and his wife, Briana, sold their home, they stayed with their young daughter in an RV. They lived in a community with formerly homeless people and wanted to bring the concept to Midland. Echols, now a father of two, co-founded The Fields Edge, a nonprofit that envisions a permanent community of tiny houses for the homeless. He is also director of a breakfast truck for the local nonprofit Breaking Bread Kitchen. Echols, a 2007 graduate of Trinity School, said his alma mater introduced him to opportunities for service involvement. Echols on Thursday was one of three alumni recognized for their local contributions at the second annual Trinity Alumni Hall of Honor. It feels really good to know that the work were doing is being noticed because a lot of what were doing right now is behind the scenes in planning and development, Echols said before the event. He also stays involved with his alma mater through attending sporting events and his recent 10-year class reunion. He was grateful he had been nominated and selected for Thursdays recognition. I think I might be the youngest one to be honored so far, and I never thought itd be something that I would have, Echols said. Its a huge honor. Echols and this years other honorees, Dr. Premila Singh Johnson and Stuart Beal, were acknowledged at an event that included a reception and dinner program in the schools Commons building. Honorees received portraits and will be commemorated with plaques on a school wall. A selection committee considered nominees professional and community service involvement as well as dedication to the school. There [are] some alumni doing some amazing things that have truly brought so much honor and distinction to the school, and we want to celebrate them on hopefully an annual basis and continue to grow and expand the Hall of Honor, said Kobi Lincoln, director of institutional advancement. Lincoln said one key consideration for selection to the Hall of Honor was servant leadership, which is part of the mission at Trinity School. For Johnson, a 1994 graduate and parent of three students, community involvement has allowed her to encourage others to be active givers. She serves on boards for MARC and Midland Festival Ballet and views those roles as ways to give back. This community has given so much to me, Johnson said. I grew up here and so [many] of the awards and different scholarships and things that I was given along the way were made possible by people in this community. As an internal medicine physician with her own practice, Johnson has received acknowledgement for her professional work. She is chair of the Trinity Alumni Association and said the Hall of Honor recognition had meaning. I went to this school from 3 years old to 18, so its my second home, Johnson said. Its like being honored by family, and that is really awesome. Beal, the third honoree, has also maintained a connection with Trinity School over the years. He graduated in 1981, at a time when the school educated students only through the ninth grade. Beal and his wife, Kate, recently co-chaired the Campaign for Trinity, which raised nearly $18 million for building projects and renovations. I enjoy doing it, Beal said. When you raise money, you get to see the best in people. He is also involved with First Presbyterian Church and the Midland Memorial Hospital board. Beal, who works in the oil and gas industry, has two sons who attended Trinity School and another who is currently enrolled. Thats been a large part of our lives, and we want the school to be successful, Beal said. Were hopefully doing our part to make that happen. Last year, the Hall of Honor recognized Joe McSpadden, class of 1981; Amy Doris Bell, class of 1999; and Cameron Salehi Kelly, class of 2004. China's sixth-generation homemade deep-sea semi-submersible drilling platform has successfully completed its deep-sea trial. (Photo/CCTV) China's sixth-generation homemade deep-sea semi-submersible drilling platform has successfully completed its deep-sea trial, local media reported, marking a further improvement in China's capability of manufacturing high-end deep-water drilling rigs. The drilling platform is expected to conduct deep-sea operations in Chinese sea areas in the near future to open up new oil and gas fields. Manufactured by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (DSIC), a subsidiary of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (CSIC), the Chinese-made platform had started its trial operation since late September in the sea area of Dayaowan in Dalian, northeast China's Liaoning Province. All the six propulsion systems, dynamic positioning system, unmanned engine room, as well as 11,000 alarm points have passed the test. With a length of 104.5 meters, a width of 70.5 meters and a height of 105.8 meters, the platform is able to operate in water depths up to 1,500 meters and drill as deep as 9,144 meters. It is so far the world's most advanced drilling platform. "This sixth-generation drilling platform is the most complicated product in the field of marine engineering," said Wang Housheng, engineer of the drilling platform project. "China required technical support and guidance from foreigner experts to build the complicated sixth-generation platform five years ago, but now we can rely on our own technology to deliver it completely to the customers." Wang Housheng, engineer of the drilling platform project /CCTV Photo The technical team has improved the installed capacity for the platform by 20 percent via technical innovation while not increasing the cost. The wind-resistance capability of the platform has also been comprehensively enhanced, making it more suitable to conduct drilling operations in the typhoon-prone sea areas. Chinese tech giant BOE recently announced its mass production of flexible displays in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, making China the second country to acquire the technology after South Korea, CCTV reported. The photo shows the flexible AMOLED smartphone display made by BOE. [Photo: sina.cn] Utilizing active-matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) technology, the flexible displays can be used on mobile phones, wearables, and other portable electronics, allowing the device screen to be only 0.03 mm thick, bendable and even foldable. The entire production line was designed, developed and established solely by BOE, and will be able to roll out 70 million flexible AMOLED displays annually. "The mass production of our sixth generation AMOLED will substantially improve BOE's competitiveness," said Chen Yanshun, BOE's CEO. Flexible displays use organic light-emitting diode (OLED) material, a self-lighting material that allows the screens to have better definition, fineness and color than ordinary liquid crystal display (LCD) screens without needing a backlight. The wide use of flexible AMOLED displays is expected to become a trend across the world. Chen predicted that the company's production growth will exceed 30 percent within three to five years. Previously, South Korean company Samsung monopolized the field and with the production of AMOLED displays fair below the demand. The mass production of the display in China breaks that monopoly and markedly increases the supply. At a ceremony to celebrate the first batch of flexible displays produced, over ten Chinese phone makers, including Huawei, Xiaomi, Oppo, and Vivo, have received samples, Yan said. BOE has plans for another AMOLED factory in Mianyang, also in Sichuan Province, which will begin operation in two years. The photo shows the flexible AMOLED smartphone display made by BOE. [Photo: sina.cn] Other Chinese businesses are also jumping into the smartphone display business. Tianma Micro-electronics Co., Ltd., for instance, has plans to increase investment. Across China's entire display sector, investment in assembly lines planned or under construction for screens for TVs, computers, smartphones and other devices has reached 800 billion yuan. Industry associations predicted the country will overtake South Korea as the world's largest producer of display screens as early as 2019. GET OUR APP Our Spectrum News app is the most convenient way to get the stories that matter to you. Download it here. A 2,140-meter long table banquet was held in Danzhai County, Guizhou Province during the Double Ninth Festival on October 28, 2017. Some 21,433 people, including local villagers and tourists, took part in the banquet. The local Miao and Dong ethnic groups have an over 1,000-year-old tradition of celebrating festivals with long table banquets. (Photo: China News Service/He Junyi) (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, tasked with pursuing collusion between Donald Trumps presidential campaign and foreign interests, just planted his first stake in the heart of the Russian matter. Prosecutors on Muellers team revealed Monday that a foreign policy adviser on Trumps campaign, George Papadopoulos, pursued Russias help in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign and sought to open communication lines to the Kremlin. Even more than the indictments of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, the case -- showing how Russians attempted to influence key Trump aides -- lays out a blueprint for Muellers work as his prosecutors circle other campaign officials. The case against Papadopoulos details repeated contact between Trumps campaign team and agents working on behalf of Russian interests during the 2016 election campaign. Emails and testimony show that two high-level supervisors and other campaign officials involved in national security and foreign policy were aware of these communications. The campaign also received information that the Russians had thousands of emails containing dirt on Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton months before hacked emails from the Democratic Party were made public. Trump has repeatedly denied any efforts to collude with the Russians, and the guilty plea doesnt say what the Trump campaign did with the information. The White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, played down Papadopouloss role in the campaign on Monday. This individual was a member of a volunteer advisory council that met one time over the course of a year, she said, adding that Id hardly call that some sort of regular adviser or a senior member of the staff. Offer of Information A youthful adviser to the campaign, Papadopoulos interacted repeatedly with an international professor who promised compromising information from Russia about Clinton. He also met with a Russian woman he believed could broker a meeting between the campaign and Russian officials. He then lied about the timing and content of those interactions to agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying on Oct. 5 in a sealed document that was made public on Monday in Washington. Ominously for the White House, Papadopoulos is cooperating with the investigation. Papadopouloss plea was unexpected on a day when Muellers charges were unsealed against Manafort, a former Trump campaign manager, and his longtime associate Gates, accusing them of money laundering, tax crimes and conspiracy related to their business dealings years before they joined Trumps campaign. Papadopoulos, 30, faces up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. His lawyers, Thomas Breen and Robert Stanley, said in a statement that it was in their clients best interest that they refrain from commenting on Georges case. Under the plea agreement with prosecutors, hes likely to serve no more than six months and may avoid prison altogether. Unlikely Pick A 2009 DePaul University graduate who listed Model U.N. as a credential on his resume, Papadopoulos was an unlikely pick to help lead the Republican candidates international policy team. A London resident, he had worked for Ben Carsons presidential campaign. He learned in early March 2016 that he would become a Trump foreign policy adviser, according to the government documents. A few weeks later, when the Washington Post asked Trump to identify his foreign policy advisers, the Republican front-runner named Papadopoulos (an excellent guy) and four others including Carter Page, who has since been questioned by lawmakers and the FBI about whether he acted as a go-between with Russians. Page has said that hes answering investigators questions but that the Russia investigation is a witch hunt. He didnt immediately return calls seeking comment. Aides Overtures Documents filed in the case against Papadopoulos expand significantly on what had been known about Papadopouloss overtures to the Russian government, including that others in the Trump campaign were at least aware of them. The Russian government has an open invitation by Putin for Mr. Trump to meet him when he is ready, Papadopoulos wrote to a senior campaign adviser on April 25, 2016. The documents referred to an unnamed campaign supervisor and a second campaign official who nixed Papadopouloss idea of setting up a meeting with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. The supervisor is quoted telling Papadopoulos in an email that I would encourage you and another Trump foreign policy adviser to make the trip, if its feasible. The other campaign official forwarded a Papadopoulos email to another campaign official saying, Lets discuss. We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low-level in the campaign so as not to send any signal. Airport Arrest Papadopoulos was arrested after arriving at Dulles International Airport on July 27, 2017, according to the court filing. The day before, FBI agents had executed a no-knock search warrant on Manaforts Virginia home, in which they secured files stored on Manaforts computer. Prosecutors describe how Papadopoulos held himself out to be a conduit between the Trump campaign and high-level Russian officials, including Putin, from the start of his official involvement with the campaign. Around that time, an unidentified London professor who had made contact with Papadopoulos claimed to have dirt on Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, according to the court filing. The professor was said to have substantial connections to Russian government officials. That professor is Joseph Mifsud, the director of the London Academy of Diplomacy, the Washington Post reported. Mifsud didnt respond to calls and texts from Bloomberg News requesting comment about his relationship with Papadopoulos. Mifsud is listed as a director of the London Centre of International Law Practice, where Papadopoulos worked from February to April 2016, according to his LinkedIn page. Calls to the center werent returned. Mifsuds biography, now deleted from the academys website, says hes a member of the Valdai Group, which hosts annual meetings in Russia that have become a showcase for Putins policies. In reality he attended the Valdai discussion group only in 2014 and didnt return after accusations of plagiarism for an article he had published an article on the groups website that contained plagiarized material, according to a person close to Valdai. London Meeting Papadopoulos met with the professor in London around March 21, 2016, prosecutors said. The professor brought with him a female Russian national introduced to Papadopoulos as a relative of Putin. Theres no evidence that the woman was indeed related to Putin. Ten days later, according to the governments statement of the offense, Papadopoulos attended a national security meeting that included Trump. When introduced at the meeting, Papadopoulos said he had connections he could use to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin, it said. That unnamed Russian national then began communicating with Papadopoulos. As mentioned we are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump, she wrote in an April 2016 email disclosed by prosecutors. The Russian Federation would love to welcome him once his candidature would be officially announced. Also around that time, prosecutors said, Papadopoulos emailed a high-ranking official of the Trump campaign to discuss Russias interest in hosting Mr. Trump. Have been receiving a lot of calls over the last month about Putin wanting to host him and the team when the time is right. Days later, Papadopoulos thanked the professor for his critical help in arranging a meeting between campaign aides and the Russian government, saying, Its history making if it happens, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors say Papadopoulos deleted a Facebook account that included details about his meetings with the professor and another Russia-linked contact after his second interview with the FBI. (An earlier version of this article corrected the type of filing in the Papadopoulos matter; it was a statement of facts.) (Updates with identification of professor.) --With assistance from Greg Farrell Larry Liebert David Voreacos Stephanie Baker Cam Simpson and Henry Meyer To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Schoenberg in Washington at tschoenberg@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey D Grocott at jgrocott2@bloomberg.net, David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, David S. Joachim 2017 Bloomberg L.P. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate For five years, Christie Smith has attended the annual San Antonio Express-News Book & Author Luncheon, a fundraiser for the UT Health Cancer Center. And each year she buys at least one copy of each of the six spotlighted authors books. This year was no different. Im a bookaholic and I like this event because it often introduces me to authors Im not familiar with, she said, a bag of books at her feet as she waited in line to have them autographed. Plus, I love (Ms. of Ceremonies) Coleen Grissom. Shes a real sweetheart, although I dont think shed appreciate being called that. Grissoms trademark caustically affectionate wit was on full display during the 26th edition of the luncheon at the Marriott Rivercenter. Before a sell-out crowd of 1,000, she told you may be a redneck jokes, recited samples of spectacularly bad writing and kept the proceedings moving smoothly. Since its inception, the luncheon has raised more than $3.7 million for the Phase I research program at UT Health Cancer Center. Next year, the center (formerly Cancer Therapy & Research Center), will become a full partner with Houston-based MD Anderson Cancer Center. The importance of the work done at UT Health Cancer Center was starkly illustrated when Grissom asked that anyone in the audience whod been touched by cancer, either personally or through a friend or loved one, to stand. Seemingly everyone in the ballroom rose to their feet. This was the first Book & Author Luncheon for Dr. Ruben A. Mesa, the newly installed director of the cancer center. Im blown away by the community support I see here, Mesa, formerly deputy director of the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center in Arizona, told the crowd. He praised what he called the marriage of the written art form with the philanthropic effort represented by the luncheon. For several authors, this was their first time in San Antonio. Seattle resident and Mozarts Starling author Lyanda Lynn Haupt marveled at the brightness of the San Antonio sun. We dont have a sun like that in Seattle, she said, gushing that the sunrise through her hotel window looked like the apocalypse. David Grann, whose Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI is a National Book Award finalist, decided to take a walk around town after getting in on Sunday. I think Im the only person who ever got lost on the River Walk, he said with a laugh while signing books for a long line of fans. But it wasnt all bad. I stopped in a restaurant and had some amazing Mexican food. During his short speech, UT Health San Antonio President Dr. William L. Henrich announced the school was establishing a presidents endowed scholarship in Grissoms name. The honor comes after Henrich last year presented her with a first edition of her favorite book, Charlottes Web. Visibly moved, Grissom noted that she turns 84 soon and had thought about dropping the gig shes emceed since the luncheons inception in 1992. But receiving such an honor, she said, made her reconsider. Why not keep on keeping on? she asked. The audience applauded her decision. rmarini@express-news.net | Twitter: @RichardMarini Mexican cultural and spiritual heritage was on display at La Villita this weekend celebrating the spirits of dead and colorful artistic expressions they inspire for Dia de Los Muertos. The two-day free event combines traditional culture with contemporary Latino music, according to the festival's Facebook page. It has also been called one of the "10 great Day of the Dead celebrations" in the world by USA Today. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Chris Marrou wont be sliding into an anchor seat at KENS-TV or resurrecting his signature 10 p.m. capper Eyewitness Newsreel, as many speculated when it was announced that the local news legend would be returning after eight years away from San Antonio television. As he revealed during an on-set interview with anchorwoman and longime colleague Deborah Knapp, Marrous new role at the citys CBS affiliate is related to next years 300th anniversary of San Antonio. RELATED: San Antonio TV anchors do Halloween: GOT royalty, Slash, Beast, more The Tricentennial Commission voted to make ABC affiliate KSAT-TV and Univision station KWEX the citys official Tricentennial media partners. (A front-page Express-News story Sunday by Josh Baugh indicated questions are being raised about the process that preceded that vote.) Meanwhile, KENS is promoting its own Tricentennial weapon: Marrou. Hell be joining the Eyewitness News team once again as we celebrate San Antonios Tricentennial, contributing special reports for our 300th anniversary, Knapp said during her Friday night Q&A with former KENS anchor Marrou, who was part of the stations and S.A.s history for 35 years, earning top ratings for much of that time, before retiring in 2009. I look forward to it, Marrou said of his upcoming KENS return. RELATED: Anchorwoman Sarah Lucero, now a bodybuilder, is leaving KENS-TV Hell help tell the citys history, much of which he has reported and lived, Knapp elaborated as Marrou, who turns 70 next month, joked, despite the publicity, I wasnt here for the 100th. Marrou, whos also working on a documentary about the people who live along U.S. 281, from Mexico to Canada Ive driven this road many times, and each time I find something new, he said hopes to do more movie production. I dont want to be on camera, he added. Ill be glad to help produce, write, that sort of thing. However, Knapp assured me in a text today that viewers will be seeing Marrous face and hearing his distinctive voice on the Tricentennial reports. He definitely will be voicing them and appearing on cam. jjakle@express-news.net Dear Mr. Premack: I just got my Voters Guide from the League of Women Voters. The election on Nov. 7 includes seven proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution. Im interested in Proposition 2 relating to home equity loans. The wording is vague. Can you explain the Proposition? E.R. Here is Prop. 2 with added parenthetical divisions [(A), (B) etc.]. It says: The constitutional amendment to (A) establish a lower amount for expenses that can be charged to a borrower and removing certain financing expense limitations for a home equity loan, (B) establishing certain authorized lenders to make a home equity loan, (C) changing certain options for the refinancing of home equity loans, (D) changing the threshold for an advance of a home equity line of credit, and (E) allowing home equity loans on agricultural homesteads. Home equity loans (HELs) were illegal in Texas for many years. The banking industry lobbied successfully to change the Texas Constitution, and have asked the voters to approve adjustments several times. HELs are now common in Texas, in the form of straight loans, lines of credit, and reverse mortgages. However, Prop. 2 does not involve reverse mortgages. Part (A) implies that fees will be lowered. Currently, lenders can charge fees up to 3 percent of the loan amount. Prop. 2 would drop the fee to no more than 2 percent. However, Prop. 2 also excludes a variety of existing fees from being included in that 2 percent, like appraisal costs, survey costs, title insurance premiums and a title report. Consequently, borrowers expenses will likely increase under Prop. 2. Example under current 3 percent cap: $100,000 HEL can have $3,000 fees, which may include $500 for a survey, $800 to title insurance, $375 for an appraisal, leaving the lenders fee $1,325. Borrowers out-of-pocket: $3,000. Example under Prop. 2s 2 percent cap: $100,000 HEL can have $2,000 fees, not including the survey, title insurance and appraisal. Borrower pays $2,000 to lender and separately pays $500 for survey, $800 for title insurance, and $375 for appraisal. Borrowers out-of-pocket: $3,675. The lender gets more and the borrowers pays more. Part (B): Currently, a Bank, Savings & Loan, or a Credit Union can make HELs. Under Prop. 2, any subsidiary of a Bank, S&L, or Credit Union will be allowed to make HELs. This allows the Bank, S&L, or Credit Union to keep bad loans off of their books, and to establish mortgage specialist subsidiaries (for example, eCU Mortgage, a subsidiary of First Service Credit Union in Houston, would be able to handle HELs in addition to regular mortgages). Part (C) deals with refinancing equity loans. It allows a lender to refinance a HEL as a regular mortgage, so long as a disclosure of the negative effects is provided to the borrower. One of the negative effects is that a regular mortgage creates personal liability for the borrower, while a HEL is limited to the value of the home. If passed, this would give lenders more power. Part (D) changes the availability of draws on a line-of-credit HEL. Currently, if the loan exceeds 50 percent of the homes value, no advancements can be paid to the borrower. Under Prop. 2, advancements will be allowed until the loan reaches 80 percent of the homes value. This makes more money available to the borrower, but also increases the amount of debt and risk of default. Part (E) would allow people with agricultural exemptions to use a HEL on their farm or ranch land. Currently, farms and ranches are not permitted to use HELs to borrow money. Whether you support or do not support SJR 60 (Prop. 2), it is important for you to vote on November 7. Paul Premack is a Certified Elder Law Attorney with offices in San Antonio and Seattle, handling Wills and Trusts, Probate, and Business Entity issues. View past legal columns or submit free questions on legal issues via www.TexasEstateandProbate.com or www.Premack.com. A federal judge has blocked President Trumps order to exclude transgender people from the armed forces, saying Monday the directive was an act of discrimination unsupported by any evidence that its victims were disruptive or unfit for service. Trump, in a series of early-morning tweets July 26, announced that, after consultation with unnamed generals and military experts, he had decided on a ban because of the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. That decree, and its later justifications by administration officials, targeted a group of historically persecuted and politically powerless individuals and do not appear to be supported by any facts, said U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of Washington, D.C. She issued a preliminary injunction which, unless reversed by a higher court, will bar enforcement of Trumps order while the case proceeds. That would allow transgender service members to remain in the military, and would let others enlist starting in January. Trumps order, fleshed out by later directives from him and his defense secretary, would require current transgender service members to be dismissed from the military as of March 23. Trump also ordered the continuation of a long-standing ban on enlistment by openly transgender recruits. Sued by a group of transgender military veterans and would-be enlistees, the Trump administration argued that the case was premature. Noting that Trump, in one of his directives, had ordered Defense Secretary James Mattis to conduct a study of transgender policy by Feb. 21, administration officials said the entire issue was still under military review and no one faced an imminent threat of discharge. Those arguments are a red herring, Kollar-Kotelly said. The president controls the United States military, and his orders including the ban on transgender service next March are binding on military officials, the judge said. Government lawyers also argued that a ban would be justified because some transgender individuals suffer from medical conditions that could interfere with their performance and increase medical costs, and that Trump could reasonably conclude that their presence would harm unit cohesion. But Kollar-Kotelly said the unit cohesion claim resembled past flimsy justifications for excluding racial minorities, women and gays and lesbians from military service. She said the assertions about unknown medical conditions could apply to any service members, could not justify excluding an entire group, and were contradicted by a Rand Corp. study of transgender service members that found minimal medical costs and no reduction in military effectiveness. President Barack Obama, citing the study, lifted the ban on openly transgender individuals in June 2016 and ordered an end to the enlistment ban by July 2017, a date that Mattis later postponed until January. Kollar-Kotelly said Trumps arbitrary reversal of those decisions violates the constitutional rights of a persecuted group and also appears to be a type of sex discrimination, punishing individuals for failing to adhere to gender stereotypes. She declined to block one provision of Trumps order a ban on federal funding for sex-reassignment surgery in the military but only because none of the plaintiffs could show any plans for such surgery in the near future. This court saw straight through the smokescreen the government tried to create to hide the bias and prejudice behind Trumps change in military policy, said Jennifer Levi, director of transgender rights at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, co-counsel for the plaintiffs. The suit drew support from 15 states, including California. Justice Department spokesman Devin OMalley declined to comment on the ruling. The Trump administration could ask a federal appeals court in the nations capital to lift the injunction. Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko Jamie Brewster, the long-time executive director for The Upper Kirby District, (UKD) will retire after 30 years of visionary leadership for the organization which started as a merchant's association in the 1980s. The district's deputy director, Travis Younkin, will take the reins starting Nov. 1 to continue Brewster's legacy in shaping the Upper Kirby District into one of the most successful, innovative and well-run commercial districts in the country. Since 1988, Brewster has overseen the evolution and growth of the Upper Kirby District and the creation of its umbrella organizations: Upper Kirby District Foundation, Upper Kirby Management District or HCID (Harris County Improvement District) 3 and the Upper Kirby Redevelopment Authority or TIRZ (Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone) 19. Upper Kirby District's commitment to economic development and the redevelopment of underperforming properties has proven to be the catalyst for change and growth in Upper Kirby, which is located west of South Shepherd Drive, east of Buffalo Speedway, north of Bissonnet Street and south of Westheimer Road. Some of the stellar accomplishments for the Upper Kirby District, spearheaded by Brewster, include: Planning and implementation of beautification efforts, tree plantings and major thoroughfare pedestrian streetscape improvements along all major thoroughfares within the District, including Kirby Drive Overhead utility burial implemented along Kirby Drive and Buffalo Speedway and underway on Westheimer installation of public art created by noted sculptor James Surls on Kirby Drive, known as "Surls on Kirby" The transformation and re-development of Levy Park, a six-acre urban oasis offering numerous amenities to community members, which has become a popular destination for Houstonians and out-of-town visitors More than $75 million in storm drainage and street reconstruction as a result of TIRZ 19 and HCID 3 efforts. "Without the tireless devotion and endless energy of Jamie Brewster, none of us would be enjoying the tremendous success of the Upper Kirby District," says Robert Axelson, chairman of the Upper Kirby Management District. "Jamie is a 'force of nature' in first creating, then shaping, the UKD. Jamie's action words are all positives: 'can do,' 'will find a way,' 'why don't we try.' She has made an indelible difference in the quality of life within the City of Houston through her UKD contributions." "I have had the incredible privilege of knowing and working with Jamie Brewster for more than 20 years," says Maureen Sanders, board chairman of the Upper Kirby District Foundation. "Jamie always had a plan to execute a long-term vision, and now that vision is being enjoyed by the residents of Houston who visit the Upper Kirby District and in particular, Levy Park, every day. All of these enhancements with Jamie's fingerprints on them have forever changed the quality of life in this area, and it took Jamie's endless energy to make it happen." "In the beginning of the Upper Kirby District, there was Jamie Brewster," says Syd (Buddy) Bailey, chairmen of the Upper Kirby Redevelopment Authority. "Because Jamie is a vision caster and is perhaps impossible to say 'no' to, she was able to build and equip an exceptional, collaborative team of board members, employees and volunteers. With her guidance, this team coordinated with the City to address the district's needs in anticipation of its redevelopment, forging public/private partnerships which will enhance the quality of life in the UKD for generations to come." Brewster, who has a background in urban planning, worked as a project manager in the 1980s for Marshall and Company, a design, building and construction marketing and image firm, where she made contacts that would lead to her position at Upper Kirby District. She met with several community leaders and businessmen in 1987, including Tommy Dickey, Lonnie Schiller, Hub Fossier and Sonny Penner, about the possibility of heading up the creation of a Merchant's Association in what is now called Upper Kirby. "When Sonny Penner and I first met with Jamie 30 years ago to explore creating an entity that could represent the various businesses, landowners and residents to improve the area, we laid out a number of the problems we thought were most in need of a solution," says Dickey. "Jamie impressed us with her fearless desire to take on challenges and with her ideas on how to get it done. We told her we would get back with her. She called two days later to see if she could have the job and then several days after that. I finally had to admit that we had no office, no office furniture and no real grasp yet on how we could pay her a salary. Her response? 'I'm in. When can I start?'" The idea was that the association would evolve into a Management District. Brewster offered to assist on a volunteer basis and was then offered the job overseeing the merchants' group three months later. No funds were immediately available to support her salary, but she was able to raise money over the next few months from businesses and property owners in the area to launch this venture. Office space was donated initially, and Brewster was responsible for soliciting memberships and for the creation of both the Merchants Association and the eventual Management District, begun in 1997. The Upper Kirby District Foundation was founded in 1996 as a vehicle to begin the redevelopment of Levy Park and the surrounding properties as a central community gathering place. The first project of the Foundation was the acquisition of 3015 Richmond Ave. adjacent to Levy Park, which served as an incubator for local nonprofits until 2015. For more information about the Upper Kirby District, visit upperkirbydistrict.org or call 713-524-8000. You can also check out Facebook for updates. At 5:14 p.m., Officer Marcotte was dispatched to a disabled vehicle at 6900 IH 610 southbound. The driver was found to have Houston municipal warrants and was arrested. She was also found to have Xanax pills and methamphetamine residue in her purse and was additionally charged with possession of a controlled substance. At 11:35 p.m., Officer Ortega was dispatched to the 4800 block of Locust in reference to a family disturbance. Upon arrival, Officers met with the victim who stated her ex-boyfriend made entry into her home without her consent and assaulted her. The suspect was placed into custody for burglary of habitation with intent to commit assault. At 2:30 p.m., Officer Schwausch was dispatched to the Bellaire High School conference room to meet with HISD Police Officer Rodriguez in regards to an assault case he was handling. Upon further investigation, a robbery was found to have occurred at the 5100 block of Valerie Street involving 5 suspects causing bodily injury to a 16 year old male and stealing his shoes. At 5:45 p.m., Officer Liccketto conducted a traffic stop in the 5900 block of the West Loop N/B on a silver Acura. During the course of the investigation, the temporary license plate displayed on the vehicle was found to be fictitious. The driver was arrested and transported to the Bellaire Police Department for booking. Oct. 15 At 12:02 a.m., Officer Clisham was on routine patrol in the area of 5700 Newcastle when he observed a vehicle stopped at a green light with a subject that appeared to be asleep behind the wheel. After making contact with the subject and further investigation, said subject was placed into custody for possession of marijuana. The Harris County District Attorney's Office advised Officer Clisham the above mentioned subject was a candidate for the Harris County Misdemeanor Marijuana Diversion Program. Said subject agreed to participate in the program and was released from custody. At 7:58 p.m., Sgt. Hefferin was patrolling the area of the 5200 block of Bellaire Boulevard westbound. Sgt Hefferin observed the suspect vehicle a tan Dodge Ram 2500 stopped for the light at the 5200 Bellaire W/B and Bissonnet. Sgt Hefferin conducted a computer query and found the vehicles registration to be expired. Sgt Hefferin conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle and the driver was found to be operating a motor vehicle with a suspended driver's license and no proof of financial responsibility. The driver was later arrested and transported to the Bellaire jail without incident. At 3:30 p.m., Officer Lysack was on patrol in the 6200 block of Interstate Highway 610 Northbound. Officer Lysack conducted a computer query of the license plate on a tan Ford Ranger and was alerted the plate was expired from August 2016. Officer Lysack conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle and upon further investigation the suspect was placed into custody for driving while license invalid and transported to the Bellaire Jail for processing. At 7:15 p.m., Officer Liccketto conducted a traffic stop on a white Ford Expedition for speeding in the 5200 block of West Loop South. During the investigation, the driver was found to have a suspended driver's license and no proof of financial responsibility. The driver was arrested for driving while license invalid enhanced and transported to the Bellaire Police Department for booking. Oct. 16 At 2:57 a.m., Officer C. Barber was dispatched to a possible intoxicated driver in the 5100 block of Bellaire. Officers made contact with the suspect vehicle and driver and after speaking with the driver, and performing Standardized Field Sobriety Test's (SFST's), the driver was arrested for suspicion of Driving While Intoxicated (DWI). Oct. 17 At 3:32 a.m., Officer Jenkins was dispatched to Prospect Place concerning a disturbance between a male and female in a white car. Officer Jenkins observed a white Chrysler 300 traveling northbound on Prospect Place and stopped the vehicle. The female was arrested on an outstanding warrant and the male subject had red glassy eyes and smelled of alcohol. The driver was slurring his speech and had to be asked a number of times to answer the same question. The driver did poorly on the Standardized Field Sobriety Test and provided a sample of his breath, a BAC .186 and a BAC of .184 At 6:28 p.m., Officer Liccketto conducted a traffic stop on a red Nissan Altima for failing to signal lane change in the 4500 block of Bissonnet. During the investigation, the driver was found to have a suspended driver's license with a previous conviction. The driver was arrested for Driving While License Invalid Enhanced and transported to the Bellaire Police Department for booking. At 11:04 p.m., Officer Bellard was loading his vehicle for the start of his shift at 7008 S. Rice Ave. when he observed a vehicle drive by him at a high rate of speed. Officer Bellard observed the vehicle traveling at 60 MPH in a 35 MPH zone and also run a red light. Officer Bellard initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle and after further investigation the driver was arrested for driving while intoxicated. At 6:37 p.m., the suspect entered 5200 1/2 Bellaire Blvd. The suspect asked for extra services and was denied. The suspect became agitated and robbed multiple people inside the location at gunpoint. The suspect fled the location on foot and was quickly captured by Bellaire Officers. The suspect was charged with two counts of Aggravated Robbery. At 11:46 a.m., Officer Vorhees was dispatched to the Bellaire Police Department in reference to an identity theft. The victim stated an unknown person used their identity and credit card information to purchase items with their credit card without their permission. Oct. 19 At 12:06 a.m., Officer Ortega, while on stationary traffic in the 8100 block of Chimney Rock Road, observed the suspect vehicle approaching at a high rate of speed. Officer Ortega observed the suspect vehicle to be traveling at a speed of 49 mph in a 35 mph zone. Officer Ortega initiated a traffic stop on suspect vehicle. The suspect vehicle travelled from the 8300 block to the 8900 block of Chimney Rock Road before completely stopping. During the investigation, it was discovered the driver lied about her identity and had outstanding warrants for her arrest. The passenger had an outstanding warrant for her arrest. The driver was charged with fail to identify-fugitive from justice and the passenger was places into custody for failure to appear warrant. At 6:46 p.m., Officer Younger was dispatched to 5200 Bissonnet St. in regards to the suspect dancing in the middle of the road in front of traffic. Officer Younger arrived at 6:48 p.m. and made contact with the suspect. The investigation found the suspect being placed into custody and charged with failure to identify fugitive from justice. Oct. 20 At 12:42 p.m., Officer Schwausch was patrolling the 6700 block of the IH 610 southbound when he observed a silver Mitsubishi Galant travelling in front him with expired registration as of 07/2017. Officer Schwausch initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle and found the driver was driving with a suspended driver license with no proof of financial responsibility or insurance. The driver was arrested for driving while license invalid-enhanced. At 10:49 a.m., Officer Younger contacted Bellaire Dispatch of a criminal mischief report at 4301 Bissonnet St. Officer Younger made contact with the victim who advised a window to his vehicle had been broken but nothing from the vehicle was stolen. At 4:24 p.m., Officer Liccketto was dispatched to 5959 West Loop North in reference to a theft. The reportee stated while she left her office, an unknown person walked into her unsecured office and took various electronics. When the reportee returned she noticed her property missing and called the Bellaire Police Department. At 7:33 a.m., Officer Schwausch was dispatched to the 4900 block of Pine Street in reference to a theft. The victim stated her dry cleaning was stolen from her front door by an unknown suspect at 3:48 p.m. Oct. 19. Oct. 21 At 12:01 a.m., Officer Proctor was patrolling the 6800 block of Chimney Rock Road N/B when he observed a grey Toyota Corolla in fornt of him, blocking a moving lane of traffic at the intersection of 6800 Chimney Rock Rd. and 5400 Bellaire Boulevard. Officer Proctor observed the vehicle sit in the lane without moving as the traffic light turned from red to green multiple times. Officer Proctor initiated a traffic stop on the vehicle and attempted to make contact with the driver. Officer Proctor observed the driver passed out in the driver's seat with his foot on the brake and the vehicle in drive. Officer Proctor also observed an open container labeled "Busch" in the center console of the vehicle. Officer Proctor also observed multiple unopened cans labeled 'Busch' in the front passenger floorboard. After further investigation, Officer Proctor determined the driver to be intoxicated. At 12:16 a.m., Officer Proctor placed the driver into custody for driving while intoxicated and transported him to the Bellaire Jail for booking. At 3:03 a.m., Officer Clisham initiated a traffic stop on a vehicle in the 6600 block of IH 610 West Service Route for having a defective right headlight. After making contact with the driver and further investigation, the driver was placed into custody and charged with possession of marijuana. The Bad to the Bone Motorcycle Shop celebrated its 10-year anniversary on Oct. 28, which also served as a farewell as the owners are moving onto a new business for the community. Bad to the Bone is a motorcycle shop in Coldspring that opened up on Nov. 1, 2007. The shop has sat in its current location on FM 1514 since 2010 and is owned by Philip "Mad Dog" and Theresa McCulloch. The Texas Charter Schools Association named Soner Tarim, founder/CEO of Harmony Public Schools, as the Leader of the Year at its October conference. He received his award at a luncheon with keynote speaker Education Commissioner Mike Morath. David Dunn, TCSA executive director, said, "Under Dr. Tarim's direction, Harmony Public Schools is the largest charter network in the state, delivering an excellent STEM education to students who achieve great outcomes. Not only is he a strong leader, he is a true friend." As the second recipient of the award for Leader of the Year, Tarim received a complimentary registration to the conference, a plaque, and a cash award of $1,000. The award recognizes charter leaders that advocate for charters at the state and national level, have successfully replicated high performing charters that are innovative in their approaches to educating all students, and serve as a mentor to other charter leaders. Tarim has been an educational advocate for more than 30 years, encouraging students in underserved communities to pursue learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. He is a driving force for STEM education throughout Texas and the United States. He brings decades of experience developing educational programs for K-12 schools to Harmony, which has garnered state and national recognition for its academic standards. In 2017, Harmony was a finalist for the Broad Prize for Urban Education, which recognizes school districts in urban areas for closing the achievement gap by improving academic performance of low-income and minority students. Under Tarim's headship, many of Harmony's campuses are recognized on prestigious high school rankings, such as News & World Report and Children @ Risk. These successes have increased Harmony's demand with 55 campuses scheduled to open in the 2017-18 school year in Texas and Washington D.C., educating close to 36,000 students. "Dr. Tarim is a perfect candidate for the TCSA Leader of the year as a result of his contributions to the charter school movement in the state of Texas. His initiatives created a safe learning environment for 30,000& students, and a pleasing teaching opportunity for 3,400& educators," said Yalcin Alkyildiz, CFO of Harmony Public Schools. Tarim holds a doctorate from Texas A&M University and is a trained biologist and ecologist. He taught courses in biology, ecology, general science, and physical education at the high school, college and graduate-school levels, and spearheaded scientific symposiums and international science Olympiads, such as the International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering, and Environment Project or ISWEEEP -- which attracts more than 600 top-ranking high school students from more than 60 nations. Tarim works toward building partnerships, maintaining effective communications and positive relationships with high-level corporate and civic leaders to advance high-quality, rigorous education throughout the state and nation. As a consultant, speaker and published researcher, Tarim often finds himself at state and STEM conferences nationwide where he provides insight on results-oriented education through his expertise and knowledge in developing and managing charter schools. The Texas Charter Schools Association (www.txcharterschools.org) represents nearly 270,000 students at 675 open-enrollment charter school campuses. For more than 20 years, Houston Police Department detectives have said they knew exactly who shot two young men to death in a southwest Houston neighborhood on April 11, 1994. According to HPD crime reports, 20-year-old Douglas Schwartz and 19-year-old Eric Heidbreder were shot in the back of the head execution style while sitting in Schwatz's red 1992 Mazda around 12:45 p.m. Now after locating the accused killer and extraditing him from Venezuela to the Fort Bend County Jail almost two years ago, 44-year-old Chiron Frances finally stood for his day in court and entered a plea of not guilty. In his opening argument, Assistant District Attorney Matthew Banister told jurors that testimony would show that Frances had confessed he was the murderer to a friend. But according to Frances' lead defense attorney Butch Bradt, the case against his client is anything but clear and pointed to missing evidence and conflicting statements as evidence of sloppy detective work. "The case just does not make sense," he told jurors. "The case is as simple as A-B-C: anything but competent, anything but complete and anything but conclusive." During the first day of the trial, Veronica Wells, a witness who lived nearby, testified and described the day of the shooting. She remembered telling detectives about seeing a medium-height light-skinned African American or Hispanic man run past her house. When the defense attorney asked if she considered Frances, who stands 6-foot-2 to be medium height, she said no. "Maybe from a distance it seemed that way," she told jurors. "But, it has been so many years. I really can't be sure anymore." According to court records, police interviewed Wells and several others witnesses in the hours and days following the shooting. Three days later, detectives asked Wells if she could identify the man she saw from six booking photos. Wells pointed to Frances' photo and said she thought he was the same person but she couldn't be positive. She asked if she could see the suspect in person to make sure she was correct. During cross-examination, Bradt asked if detectives ever followed up to ask her identify a suspect from a police station line-up. "No, that never happened," Wells answered. Other inconsistencies were also noted by the defense. Evidence, such as a recording of the 911-call and X-rays from the autopsy report among other items, were found to be missing. Bradt questioned if the crime scene had been tampered with and showed jurors a picture of a TV reporter leaning in the car to videotape the bloody scene. Now-retired HPD detective D.D. Shirley, who assisted the lead detectives on the case, testified he didn't know why a reporter was allowed to film the crime scene. He also said he wasn't sure why a Houston Police patrol car was seen parked alongside the victim's car in crime scene pictures. "What if there bullet casings or other evidence laying the grass next to the car? Wouldn't driving a car over a portion of the crime scene potentially destroy evidence?" Bradt asked. "It's possible," detective Shirley said. On Friday Dr. Vladimir Parungau, a now-retired pathologist for the Harris County Medical Examiner's officer who performed the autopsies, was called to testify. According to an HPD report included in court records, detectives alleged that the killer shot the two men from the back seat with Schwartz being hit by two shots from his right side and Heidbreder was shot twice from behind on his left side. When police arrived, detectives reported that both victims were found sitting in the car. Parungau testified that autopsy reports told a different story. In addition to two shots in the back of the head, Schwartz was also shot once from the front on the right side of his head. Heidbreder was shot three times: once in the back of the head, once on the left side of his jaw and once in his right ear. Bradt pointed out his client was left handed and questioned how he could have managed to shoot the victims from the angle detectives alleged. "And, we're supposed to believe he reached over one of the victims, unfastened the safety belts, climbed over their bodies and out of the car?" he asked. Bradt pointed out that pictures taken at the crime scene also conflict with HPD investigators accounts and show Heidbreder's body on the ground next to the car. Attorneys say this case is expected to last two weeks and is being tried in the 268th District Court of Judge Brady G. Elliott. Because he was extradited from Venezuela, Frances is not eligible for the death penalty. If convicted, Frances could receive anything from probation to 99 years in prison according to prosecutors. BARCELONA, Spain - Spanish authorities moved aggressively Monday to quash Catalonia's bid for independence, as separatist leaders appeared to retreat just days after declaring their region a free nation. With Catalonia's ousted president fleeing the country, Spain's top law enforcement official pressing charges of rebellion and sedition, and local government employees bowing to direct rule by Madrid, the region showed signs of acquiescence, not autonomy. The stark turnabout raised questions about a lack of preparations by Catalan leaders after the regional parliament voted to break from Madrid on Friday. Many ordinary Catalans who support independence said they were crestfallen that the former regional president, Carles Puigdemont, did not push more forcefully against Spanish authorities. Instead, Catalan politicians largely appear to be accepting a Madrid plan to hold new regional elections on Dec. 21. As Spanish authorities announced the charges, they said the former Catalan officials had abused their power by stoking the secessionist campaign. "With their decisions and actions over these last two years, they have provoked an institutional crisis culminating with the unilateral declaration of independence, realized with total disregard for our constitution," said Spanish Attorney General Jose Manuel Maza. With rebellion carrying a maximum 30-year prison sentence, Puigdemont surfaced Monday in Belgium, a country where asylum claims are in the hands of Flemish nationalist politicians who harbor hopes of establishing their own independent nation. A Belgian lawyer who previously defended members of the Basque militant ETA group, Paul Bekaert, told Spanish news outlets that Puigdemont was in Belgium and had hired him as his lawyer. Catalan outlets said Puigdemont planned to speak publicly on Tuesday. The criminal charges werethe latest step by Spanish officials seeking to derail Catalonia's drive for independence, which was set in motion earlier this month with a referendum in which voters backed a break from Spain. In a stunning cascade of events last week, Catalonia's regional Parliament formally declared independence, and Spanish authorities countered by stripping Catalan leaders of their powers. The officials charged were not immediately arrested on Monday. They were asked to present themselves at a Madrid court in the coming days. It was unclear whether they would be able to take part in the December elections. Puigdemont's Catalan lawyer said Monday that the charges were "inappropriate." The charge of rebellion "has the same gravity as terrorism," Jaume Alonso-Cuevillas told RAC1 radio. The lawyer said that such a crime "requires violence as an essential element, and there wasn't any." Despite the legal efforts against them Monday, some defiant officials in Catalonia showed up for work. At least one minister of the now-ousted regional government was allowed briefly to enter his offices. "Continuing with planned agenda," tweeted Josep Rull, who until Friday was the Catalan minister of land and sustainability. He published a photograph of himself at his computer in his office, but left about an hour later without appearing to have tried to exercise his contested power. Employees at his ministry said work continued as normal, even if they were not sure whether they were working for the independent nation of Catalonia or as an arm of the government in Madrid. "We're waiting to know what's going to happen," said Elisabet Masana, 50, a draftsman at the ministry. She said she did not feel as though she was living in an independent Catalonia. Still, she said, "I have faith in the project and in my country," meaning Catalonia. National leaders attacked Puigdemont for his apparent travel out of the country. The move is a sign of "absolute desperation," said Fernando Martinez Maillo, a top official of Spain's ruling center-right Popular Party. The top Belgian official in charge of asylum, Theo Francken, said Sunday that it would be "not unrealistic" for Catalans to apply for asylum. A spokeswoman clarified Monday that Francken was simply saying that Belgium offers other E.U. citizens the possibility to apply for asylum. She said there had been no contact between Francken and the Catalan officials. Francken's Flemish nationalist party, a member of Belgium's ruling coalition, is friendlier to separatist movements than most others in Europe. In a sign of disarray among the secessionist leaders, two of the three main pro-independence parties said they would probably run candidates in new regional elections planned for Dec. 21. Rajoy called those elections after dismissing the Catalan government, so accepting their legitimacy would tacitly endorse Madrid's rule. "We are going to find a way to participate in elections," said Sergi Sabria, a spokesman for the pro-independence Esquerra Republicana party. On the streets of Barcelona on Monday, police and other authorities appeared to be operating normally. A new Madrid-appointed security official took over Catalonia's regional police agency, Mossos, whose previous director was seen by national leaders as too sympathetic to the separatist cause. Ordinary residents, meanwhile, said they did not feel like they were living in a new independent republic. "We don't know where we are. We're confused," said Oriol Garcia, 41, who works in construction. He said he supported independence but that he felt no more free on Monday than he did before the split. "We haven't moved forward at all," he said. Catalonia is deeply divided on the issue of secession. In the Oct. 1 referendum, more than 90 percent of participants favored leaving Spain, but only about 40 percent of eligible voters cast ballots. National leaders urged pro-Madrid residents to shun the referendum. And on Sunday, a massive pro-unity rally of an estimated 300,000 people flooded Barcelona's leafy streets. Even so, many pro-secession advocates said they were not giving up. At the Catalan Ministry of Land and Sustainability, where Rull briefly showed up for work Monday morning, one employee said the pro-independence minister was still her boss despite Madrid's decision to remove him. "Rull is still our minister until he says otherwise," said Cristina Jimenez, 47, an IT worker at the ministry. China's ambassador on Monday brushed off the Trump administration's complaints that Beijing is employing predatory trade and economic practices to bully and intimidate neighbors, suggesting that the United States "look in the mirror because they might be describing themselves." Ambassador Cui Tiankai's comments during a briefing with reporters came as President Donald Trump prepares to leave Washington at week's end for a 12-day swing through five Asian nations, including China, during which the main topics are expected to be confronting North Korea and discussions on U.S. trade relations in the region. Cui emphasized that Chinese President Xi Jinping, fresh off his consolidation of power at China's 19th Communist Party Congress, is preparing to welcome Trump with a lavish reception, including a military honor guard and formal banquet. The ambassador said the aim is to honor Trump on his first visit to China since taking office with a "state visit-plus" that aims to replicate Trump's two-day summit with Xi at Mar-a-Lago in south Florida in April. At the same time, however, Cui sketched out a muscular view of Chinese foreign policy and urged the United States and its allies to do more to pursue a "negotiated solution" to Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and to ratchet down rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula. Cui said China is faithfully implementing the United Nations Security Council's new economic sanctions on North Korea, but he added that "if only China is making its best efforts and others are doing things that lead to an escalation of tensions, this issue will not be solved. It will become even more difficult and the end result will hurt everybody's interests." The ambassador declined to specifically address Trump's U.N. speech last month during which he vowed to "totally destroy" North Korea if necessary, or Trump's tweets in which he derisively referred to dictator Kim Jong Un as the "Little Rocket Man." "I'm not the White House spokesman," he said. But he said that other countries could "do more to seek a negotiated solution. I do not think there has been sufficient international efforts on this front. China will do its utmost to promote dialogue and negotiation. We have put forward so many proposals - freeze for freeze and the dual track approach [to diplomacy]. I just hope others have a more positive response to our proposals." The Trump administration, following the policies of past administrations, has refused to entertain the idea of freezing U.S. and South Korean military cooperation in exchange for a freeze on North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. Trump has continued to push Beijing to exert more pressure on Pyongyang, and the administration granted additional powers to the U.S. Treasury Department to enact sanctions on foreign companies and banks that do business in North Korea. China is the North's largest trading partner. "We are taking measures to implement the sanctions, though honestly many sanctions are being implemented with high costs for China itself because we are DPRK's neighbor," he said, using the acronym for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's formal name. "But we still believe there's a larger global interest of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, so we are willing to take up more costs." Trump is scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Nov. 8 after stops in Tokyo and Seoul. He will have a formal bilateral meeting with Xi, and Cui said plans are underway for the two leaders to have significant additional opportunities to talk. After two nights in Beijing, Trump will visit Vietnam for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit and the Philippines for a meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, White House officials said. On trade, Cui vigorously defended China's policies and stressed that Beijing is pursuing economic reforms aimed at closing the trade imbalance with the United States, which Trump railed on during his campaign. Trump has not followed through on campaign threats to label China a currency manipulator, but he has continued to suggest that the United States is being harmed by unfair economic practices in China, Mexico, South Korea and other countries. Cui said the two sides have been involved in lengthy negotiations and he predicted that an agreement would be struck to pursue new economic partnerships, building on the 100-day economic plan announced at the Mar-a-Lago summit. "We proceed good faith and goodwill," Cui said. "There has not been any evidence China is trying to dominate the region." He said that some of the trade imbalance is structural, due to the United States' more advanced position in the global production chain, and he emphasized that China will hold its first international import summit in Shanghai next year. "We do not want a trade surplus," he added. "This, in the long run, will not help China's economy. It might even hurt China's economy. We want more balanced trade relations with other countries." At one point, speaking in Chinese, Cui noted that China actually runs a trade deficit with the United States in the services sector, and he joked that those in the United States should read the writings of former Chinese president Deng Xiaoping, who was credited with opening the country's economy to the West in the late 1970s. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate New York Communities across New York and New Jersey marked the fifth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy on Sunday, a day that ironically saw the region hit by another strong storm system containing soaking rains and strong winds. "Of course Mother Nature is taking another shot at us today. She has a sick sense of humor," Richard Thompson said Sunday while watching the rain fall at a convenience store in Toms River, N.J. "This storm obviously won't be anywhere near what Sandy was, but it would have been nicer to have a sunny day today." Thompson said his family's summer home in the Mantoloking area was destroyed by Sandy, a meteorological hybrid "superstorm" created when a former hurricane merged with other systems. The home has been rebuilt, but the lengthy process of getting the work completed was "a nightmare. Just so many people and agencies involved," Thompson said. Sandy was blamed for at least 182 deaths in the U.S. and Caribbean and more than $71 billion in damage in this country alone. It swamped coastline communities, knocked out power to millions of people and businesses, flooded parts of New York City's transit system and set neighborhoods ablaze. As a light rain fell on the Rockaway Peninsula on Sunday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio marked the anniversary in the waterfront neighborhood. "Five years later, it's impossible to forget what happened," de Blasio said at a neighborhood YMCA. "We're talking about the worst natural disaster we have ever faced in this city." Many say there still are people struggling to repair and rebuild their homes. Rallies were being held from Asbury Park, N.J., to Lindenhurst, New York, by those hoping the damage doesn't fade in the national psyche, especially in light of the recent spate of storms in Texas, Florida and the Caribbean. "Families go through this hell every year around the anniversary," said Michele Insinga, executive director of a Long Island-based nonprofit called "Adopt a House," which advocates for Sandy victims still struggling to repair and rebuild their homes. "Then another 51 weeks goes by where no one is talking about it. We feel like Sandy is the forgotten storm." PORTLAND The town held a groundbreaking ceremony Saturday to mark the beginning of construction on the first phase of the Portland Air Line Trail: a 2.3-mile section of a linear park route for recreational use. The trail will eventually connect to the Connecticut Air Line State Park Trail that runs from East Hampton to Putnam, and, ultimately, the town hopes to take the trail to downtown Portland, the Arrigoni Bridge and Middletown, according to a press release. The section of the trail to be constructed runs 2.3 miles from Depot Hill Road to the YMCA Camp Ingersoll property with a trail head parking area on the former Keegan property off Middle Haddam Road. Dichello Construction will be doing trail work under the direction of Jacobson Engineering and town officials, the release continued. Construction should be completed and the trail opened for public use by spring. The ceremony included representatives from various organizations that have supported or been involved in the projects development: Jamie Lintner from Eversource Energy, who provided a lease for the land; Tom Tyler, state parks director for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, who provided grant funding for construction; state Rep. Christie Carpino, who provided legislative support; Portland First Selectwoman Susan Bransfield, who directed the towns involvement for the Board of Selectmen; and Rosario Rizzo and Louis Pear, cochairs of the Portland Air Line Trail Steering Committee who oversaw development of the trail. The first phase will be constructed on land used by the Air Line railroad that ran between New York and Boston between 1873 and 1955, according to the release. The Connecticut portion of the railroad east of Portland ceased operations in 1968, the tracks were abandoned, and the land between East Hampton and Massachusetts was purchased by the state for recreational use. Since then, it has been gradually developed into the current Air Line State Park Trail. Due to a lack of interest at the time, the land in Portland was sold to private property owners, including CL&P, now Eversource Energy, the release continued. In 2013, John Hall and John Shafer, members of the Jonah Center in Middletown, initiated an effort to develop the trail in Portland. This led to the formation of a town steering committee initially led by Shafer and later led by Rizzo and Pear. Working with town leaders, including Bransfield, and former town planner, Deana Rhodes, the committee was able to successfully negotiate a lease agreement with Eversource Energy to use a 2.3-mile portion of their land for trail use (referred to as Phase 1), according to the statement. They developed a site plan, purchased additional property and received grant funding from the DEEP. After three years of preparations, construction of Phase 1 of the Portland section of the Air Line Trail is ready to be connected to the new East Hampton section. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was announced as the landslide winner of a chaotic election rerun that his main rival Raila Odinga rejected as a sham. Kenyatta, 56, won 7.48 million votes, or 98.3 percent of the total cast on Oct. 26, Wafula Chebukati, the chairman of the Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission, said Monday in Nairobi, the capital. The turnout was 38.8 percent, down from 79 percent in an Aug. 8 contest that also handed victory to Kenyatta and the Supreme Court nullified because proper voting procedures weren't followed -- a decision that's unprecedented in Africa. "I am satisfied that we were able to meet the conditions that enabled the commission to deliver what to us, and I believe to all Kenyans and observers, is a free, fair and credible election," Chebukati said. "The commission ensured that everything required of us by law put put in place for the conduct of the election." The results declaration doesn't signal an end to a political crisis that's dragged down growth in East Africa's largest economy and scarred its reputation as one of the continent's top investment destinations, with the outcome likely to be challenged again in court. Odinga, who boycotted the rerun after the electoral commission refused to heed his demands to change personnel and voting procedures, has called for a national defiance campaign against what he describes as an illegitimate administration and another vote within 90 days. About 78 people have died in election-related violence since the initial vote, mostly in clashes between the security forces and opposition supporters. Ethnic tensions have also flared between members of Odinga's Luo community and Kenyatta's Kikuyu group, raising fears of a repetition of the more widespread violence that ensued after a contested 2007 vote and claimed at least 1,100 lives. Violent protests forced the electoral commission to cancel the ballot in the western Nyanza region -- a move that may call the vote's legitimacy into question. Legal challenges to the outcome must be lodged within seven days and the Supreme Court will have 14 days to make a ruling. While the constitution states that the election must be held in every constituency, the electoral laws allow for tallies from areas to be excluded if they won't affect the final result, said Karim Anjarwalla, managing partner at law firm Anjarwalla & Khanna in Nairobi."It is too early to say whether a future petition, if filed, may be successful," he said by email. ' Kenyatta has said Kenya can't remain "in a perpetual state of politicking" and he's ready to talk to the opposition once the electoral process is complete. Odinga, 72, a former prime minister who failed to secure the presidency in elections in 1997, 2007 and 2013, has said the only thing he's willing to discuss is a date for a fresh vote. "Kenyans are tired of this illegitimate regime," Odinga said in an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corp. "We do not want to institutionalize election rigging. The moment people lose faith in the electoral process then anarchy becomes the order of the day." The standoff has unnerved investors, with the yield on the government's international bonds due in 2024 climbing 25 basis points to 6.27 percent since the election was annulled on Sept. 1. The Kenya Private Sector Alliance, a business lobby group, estimates the prolonged unrest and political uncertainty has lopped the equivalent of $6.75 billion off the nation's $71 billion gross domestic product. Many of Odinga's supporters in his stronghold of Kisumu say they are determined to get rid of Kenyatta no matter how long it takes. "All we want is fairness," said Ed Okoth, 31, a shoe salesman in the city, about 264 kilometers (164 miles) west of Nairobi. "Raila is doing the right thing. I am willing to suffer economically. I still continue to support the protesters. We are fighting for the generations to come, we are fighting for the ideal of democracy." China's Kunlun Station in Antarctica China plans to build its fifth research station in the Antarctic in a bid to further promote polar research, said an official with the State Oceanic Administration (SOA). The station will be built on Inexpressible Island in Terra Nova Bay in the Ross Sea, said Qin Weijia, director of the SOA Polar Expedition Office. After it is built, the year-round base will be used to investigate the land, sea, atmosphere, and glaciers in the Antarctic, Qin said, at the annual academic meeting of China polar science held between Oct.26 and 27 in Changchun of northeast China. China has built four Antarctic research stations since 1985, including two perennial stations: Changcheng and Zhongshan; and two summer stations: Taishan and Kunlun. The country will step up efforts to build a polar monitoring network, upgrade existing polar research stations, promote the building of polar expedition vessels, and initially establish a national maritime big data center in Polar Regions, Qin added. WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump is expected to nominate Jerome Powell as the next chair of the Federal Reserve, according to two people familiar with the president's decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The White House intends to announce the Fed chair selection on Thursday. If confirmed by the Senate, Powell would begin serving as chair in February, replacing Janet Yellen, a Democrat whom Trump has at times praised but many Republicans wanted replaced. Powell, a Republican, is widely viewed as a safe pick who is unlikely to make any dramatic changes to the Fed's handling of the economy at a time when the stock market is soaring and unemployment is at a 16-year low. Unlike some of the other candidates Trump considered, Powell has been supportive of Yellen's policy of slowly raising interest rates, which have been at historic lows for nearly a decade as the Fed looked to help the economy recover from a massive recession. Trump has expressed interest in keeping rates low as he aims to stimulate the economy and get more Americans higher-paying jobs. ALSO Judge bars Trump from reversing military transgender policy Trump said Friday he has "someone very specific in mind" for the Fed. "It will be a person who, hopefully, will do a fantastic job," Trump said in a short video message posted on Instagram and Twitter. The Fed operates independently from the White House. Much as with Supreme Court nominees, once Powell is confirmed, Trump will not have any sway over him, making the choice a critical one because the Fed has so much power to help stimulate the economy or tap the breaks if the central bank governors believe the economy is heating up too quickly. "The chairman of the Federal Reserve has control of the most powerful lever to influence world prosperity," says Gary Richardson, professor of economics at the University of California at Irvine and the former official Fed historian. "If the chair makes good decisions about interest rates, billions of people around the world will be better off. If the chair makes mistakes, he or she can put hundreds of millions of people out of work around the globe." Powell is no stranger to the Fed and the important role it serves at the heart of the global economy. He's served as a Fed governor, a top leadership role within the central bank, since 2012. He also has deep experience on Wall Street and in Washington. Early in his career, he served as undersecretary of the U.S. Treasury Department for former president George H.W. Bush. Then he became a partner at private equity firm The Carlyle Group, amassing a sizable fortune of between $20 million and $55 million that allowed him to then take a job working for $1 as an expert at the Bipartisan Policy Center after he left the investment firm. Although Powell has long been a Republican, former colleagues at the Fed and Bipartisan Policy Center describe him as right-leaning but not an ideologue. President Barack Obama originally nominated Powell to the Fed board. Powell studied law at Georgetown University, not economics, but many say he has become well versed in macroeconomics in his time at the Fed. "When he showed up at the Fed, he basically did not know much," says Seth Carpenter, chief U.S. economist at UBS who spent 15 years at the Fed, including time overlapping with Powell. "He made a conscious decision to spend a lot of time with staff and colleagues to learn as deeply and completely as possible." Powell has developed a reputation in Washington as a consensus builder who studies issues extensively before making decisions. He never dissented on any of the Fed's decisions in his time on the board so far, opting instead to try to work behind the scenes when he felt it was important to sway the course of action. People familiar with Trump's thinking on selecting Powell who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the president felt Powell would bring stability and continuity to the Fed because so many know him there already, but Powell was also likely to help pull back some regulations on financial institutions. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pushed hard for Trump to select Powell after working with him recently to review ways to roll back regulations on financial firms, a goal of the Trump administration. In public speeches, Powell has indicated he thinks that regulations put in place after the financial crisis went too far. "There is certainly a role for regulation, but regulation should always take into account the impact that it has on markets - a balance that must be constantly weighed. More regulation is not the best answer to every problem," Powell said at a speech in New York in early October. Most on Wall Street welcomed the news that Powell is the likely nominee. Investment bank Deutsche Bank put out a note last week to clients saying Powell would be the best choice if Trump did not want to keep Yellen on. But some liberal groups, including Fed Up, were disappointed and see the selection of Powell as an attempt to make the Fed more favorable to big banks. "Jerome Powell's most important qualification is that he served with Janet Yellen. His confirmation should depend on his willingness to follow in Yellen's footsteps on both monetary and regulatory policy," said Shawn Sebastian, co-director of Fed Up, a campaign from the Center for Popular Democracy. The Puerto Rico electric power company said Sunday it is canceling a $300 million contract with a small Montana firm for repairs to the territory's hurricane-ravaged electrical grid, saying controversy surrounding the agreement was distracting from the effort to restore electricity. The move came hours after Gov. Ricardo Rossello called for the contract's cancellation and after officials in Congress and at the Federal Emergency Management Agency questioned whether the company, Whitefish Energy, was equipped to respond to the scale of the destruction. About 80 percent of people on the commonwealth's main island still have no electricity. Thirty-nine days after Hurricane Maria hit the territory, Rossello said he is requesting assistance from Florida and New York under mutual aid arrangements that utilities traditionally activate during emergencies. The territory had not previously done so and had not responded to offers of assistance. "As a result of the information that has been revealed and the need to protect the public interest, as governor I am asking the power authority to cancel the Whitefish contract immediately," Rossello said in a news conference at La Fortaleza, the governor's mansion. He did not cite specific information beyond what has been reported in media coverage. Whitefish Energy, founded in 2015, had just two employees the day Maria hit Puerto Rico. Chief executive Andrew Techmanski has extensive experience in the electric transmission business, but Whitefish has received only small contracts, records show. Whitefish's contract in Puerto Rico, the largest yet issued in the troubled relief effort, was not competitively bid. Whitefish has said that it has experience in mountainous terrain and that its business model calls for scaling up quickly. Whitefish said in a statement that it was "very disappointed" and that the utility's decision "will only delay what the people of Puerto Rico want and deserve - to have the power restored quickly." It said that it would "finish any work that PREPA" - the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority - "wants us to complete and stand by our commitments." The company defended its performance, saying that it had brought 350 workers, 2,500 tons of equipment and five helicopters to the island. It said that repairs on a major transmission line, including work in remote, inaccessible areas, would soon bring electricity to large portions of San Juan, Puerto Rico's capital. "The original decision by [the utility] to have Whitefish Energy come to the Puerto Rico only sped up the repairs, and if it were not for that action, crews would just now be getting to the island to begin the process of rebuilding the system and restoring power," Whitefish's statement said. Whitefish Energy is based in Whitefish, Mont., the home town of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. Techmanski and Zinke know one another, and at least four times Zinke's wife, Lolita, has "liked" family and profile pictures uploaded by Amanda Techmasnki on Facebook. One of the Zinkes' sons had a summer job with Whitefish. Zinke's office has said he had no role in Whitefish securing the Puerto Rico contract. Techmanski also has said Zinke was not involved. Rossello said that he had spoken to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y., and Gov. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and that their involvement through mutual aid was expected to boost the number of repair brigades to 1,000 by Nov. 8, up from about 400 now. Ricardo Ramos, executive director of PREPA, said Whitefish would be paid to complete ongoing work on two transmission lines, which he said could take as long as 30 days. Of the contract, he said, "the best thing that can happen is its cancellation." "There's a perception risk, a reputation risk and a delay risk in continuing the contract," he said. The decision was a stark reversal for Ramos. On Friday, he offered an extensive defense of the contract, saying in an hour-long interview with The Washington Post that PREPA had winnowed down a list of seven suitors for electricity repair before Hurricane Maria made landfall. He said the utility company had crafted the contract with Whitefish so the Montana firm would be paid for each transmission line fix only after it was completed and tested. Yet, in the interview, Ramos acknowledged that the island's utility company did not require any substantial assurance that Whitefish would complete the work it had promised. PREPA did not require any performance bond, he said. By contrast, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers signed a $240 million contract this month for similar work with Flour, an engineering firm based in Texas, it required the company to produce a $150 million performance bond within five days. In addition, Ramos said PREPA did little to scrutinize Whitefish's work history beyond reviewing material the company itself provided. Techmanski's wife, Amanda Techmanski, is listed as one of two managers for Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC. Amanda Techmanski is a registered nurse, records show, and last month she touted on Facebook a new job she was starting as a nurse practitioner. With Amanda Techmanski as a manager, Whitefish was listed as an "economically disadvantaged woman-owned small business" on a federal Energy Department contract it won in July for a small transmission line repair in Arizona. The company's registered address also goes back to the couple's remote Montana home. A prior business venture in the last decade ended poorly for Andrew Techmanski, records in Britain show. In 2009, he resigned from a business he had helped form three years earlier to string electric lines. The company folded less than two years later, and some debts remained outstanding last year, according to records. A day after it signed the deal for highly technical work in Puerto Rico, including using helicopters to land repair crews on transmission towers, Whitefish failed a safety audit to obtain a basic license to truck supplies on U.S. roadways. As of Sunday, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration still listed Whitefish's trucking license as revoked. In tweets Sunday morning, Rossello called for additional measures to scrutinize contracting by the territory's power authority more carefully. He said there should be a "special outside coordinator" to monitor PREPA's purchases so we "can have more clarity in this process." The controversy over the Whitefish contract has raised the question of who is in charge of finances and recovery in the bankrupt U.S. territory. Both the commonwealth and PREPA are bankrupt, and a federal judge is overseeing the restructuring of more than $70 billion in debt. A financial control board created by Congress to resolve the long-running debt crisis is planning to ask the court this week for clear authority to examine contracts as small as $10 million - an authority its members believe they already possess. Just last week, the oversight board said it would install its own emergency manager at PREPA to review contracts and monitor the day-to-day operations of the utility. The governor is opposing the appointment and said Sunday that he would name his own administrator for PREPA's purchases. Rossello, who, like many Puerto Ricans, has complained that the federal government plays a colonial role in the territory, has been battling the influence of the oversight board. However, Congress sees the board's role as crucial. "Transparent accountability at PREPA is necessary for an effective and sustained recovery in Puerto Rico," Parish Braden, spokesman for the House Natural Resources Committee, said in an email. The House committee is planning a hearing on the Whitefish contract. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is hold a hearing on hurricane response Tuesday. Whitefish's pay scales - as high as $462 an hour for a foreman under the contract - were much higher than is typical even in an emergency like the one facing Puerto Rico. The rate was $319.04 an hour for a lineman. Those rates include Whitefish's costs, administrative expenses and profits. While the conditions in Puerto Rico are difficult and the work is dangerous, there are companies and agencies seeking to do the work for substantially less, according to people familiar with figures from four companies from the mainland. The Corps of Engineers is doing essentially the same work as Whitefish in Puerto Rico and has been offering to pay firms as much as $195.04 an hour for a journeyman lineman and $230.32 an hour for a general foreman, according to a document provided to The Post. The average rate Florida paid for linemen who helped restore electric power after Hurricane Irma was $165 per hour, according to a person who works closely with the energy industry and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve his business relationships. The Whitefish contract contained a clause that said that the pay rates and other terms of the agreement could not be audited or reviewed by FEMA, the commonwealth, the comptroller general or PREPA. The contract also required PREPA to confirm that FEMA had reviewed and approved the agreement to ensure that money spent would "qualify for funding from FEMA." FEMA said Friday that it had not approved the Whitefish agreement. "Based on initial review and information from PREPA, FEMA has significant concerns with how PREPA procured this contract and has not confirmed whether the contract prices are reasonable," the agency said in a statement. In a news conference Sunday, PREPA chief Ramos said he learned of those contract clauses from the media. Work on the electricity grid will continue, with the Corps of Engineers and a handful of private contractors. One of those is Cobra, a unit of Oklahoma City-based Mammoth Energy, which received a $200 million contract from PREPA. The U.S. State Department has been quietly withdrawing financial support for diplomat families of children with special needs, effectively forcing some parents to serve overseas without their children or ultimately leave the Foreign Service. In the past year and a half, the department has stopped funding some services that children with disabilities would be entitled to in the United States, including therapy, one-on-one school aides, periodic retesting, and summer or extended school years. Additionally, the State Department's Medical Office, which provides clearance for all diplomats and their dependents to live overseas, is suddenly - and without a formal change in policy - barring some children from going abroad, even if they had been allowed in the past. One diplomat had to leave his 13-year-old child this year at a therapeutic U.S. boarding school that costs the family more than $60,000. The child, who has emotional problems that are being treated, had been allowed to travel overseas with his family in the past In a sign of the growing hostility between parents and State Department managers in Washington, administrators of a Yahoo Group used by diplomat parents to trade resources and advice kicked the medical team off. Parents also have formed a State Department alliance for families of children with special needs to ask for clarification about how existing regulations are being interpreted and to push for more flexibility in what is covered by a special-needs education allowance. So far, none of their concerns has been addressed, parents and advocates said. "There is no question that internal frustration and concern about the State Department's treatment of families who have children with disabilities is rising," said Kenneth Kero-Mentz, the State Department vice president of the American Foreign Service Association. "Employees are now having a significantly harder time being posted overseas." A State Department spokesman, who insisted on anonymity to provide information on the matter, said the department is trying better to manage the programs for special-needs dependents and to "improve accountability." Last school year, the State Department, which authorizes an allowance to assist children with special education needs, paid benefits to more than 1,050 dependents. The spokesman said special-needs benefits paid out fluctuate as employees transfer to and from Washington, making it difficult to say whether the number of dependents supported has increased or decreased. The State Department declined an interview request with Charles Rosenfarb, director of the Bureau of Medical Services. Parents and the advocacy group, the Foreign Service Families with Disabilities Alliance, said the problem is that benefits started to decrease, without any formal change in regulations and without warning. Although parents always had to negotiate their own school placements and resources for their children, they didn't have the sense that State Department managers were trying to block them from serving overseas. As one diplomat, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told The Post, "the State Department trusts me enough to grant me a top secret security clearance, but apparently they don't trust me enough to be able to ensure my son has the resources he needs at school." When the State Department created its new Child and Family Programs office in 2013, a number of changes started to occur for families, including directly tying special-needs benefits to a child's Individual Education Plan or an "equivalent document." That, by itself, was not necessarily a bad thing because the IEP laid out clear modifications and accommodations that were expected to be covered, according to Foreign Service parents. But parents also started to be challenged by staff about whether they should be allowed to take their child care overseas, a huge shift for parents who had felt supported in the past. One Foreign Service political officer said he was accused of "trying to find a babysitter" for his 8-year-old son with Down syndrome just to take an assignment. Nearly all diplomats affected by the policy changes declined to be interviewed on the record for fear of reprisal. Kathleen Silva recently spent months researching schools for her children in places where she hopes her diplomat husband might end up on his next assignment. The couple's 16-year-old twins are autistic, and unless she finds a school that will accept them, the State Department will not allow the children to travel with their parents and younger sister. The family once before had to leave the twins behind at a U.S. boarding school, and Silva doesn't want to do that again. "We are currently bidding and I can say we've had no help from State this time around," she said. One of the most troubling changes for diplomats and their families has been an increase in the number of children with special needs granted a "Class 5" medical clearance, barring them from going overseas. Kero-Mentz said the American Foreign Service Association has asked how many new "Class 5" clearances have been issued and is still waiting for the State Department to provide the information. When a child is given a "Class 5" medical clearance, the parent then has to make a decision whether to continue in their overseas assignment and voluntarily leave their family members behind or go to Washington. Because Foreign Service employees are limited by regulation to no more than six years of continuous domestic service, it could ultimately force families to separate or leave the Foreign Service. "It is, simply put, not in our national security interest to prevent these experienced, trained, talented officers from serving where the American people need them most, whenever possible," Kero-Mentz said. Rebecca Grappo, an international education consultant based in Denver, said the changes in how special-needs children are supported have made parents reluctant to be forthcoming about a child's disabilities, another reason that most parents declined to be interviewed on the record for this story. "They no longer feel safe being open about their children's struggles and challenges," she said. During the past 25 years, the number of Department of State-assisted schools - mostly private international schools - offering programs for children with special needs has increased from about 20 to more than 130 of the 193 assisted schools overseas, according to the department. But the services they offer are often limited and inadequate for children with more severe disabilities. Linda Ingalls, a Foreign Service specialist whose 20-year-old son, Tucker, is severely autistic, has been selective about where she asks to go, choosing to seek assignments in places where there are local special-needs schools - and has found accepting places in London, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and twice in South Africa. The family just moved to Canada last month for their next assignment. "We have found large international schools to be the least receptive, so much so that we quickly learned not to bother reaching out to them," said Ingalls, who has been with the State Department for 29 years, all of them spent overseas. She said she is saddened by the deteriorating relationship between the medical office and parents of special-needs kids. "For most of Tucker's life, we had a fantastic relationship with MED, felt supported and valued, and it was wonderful." --- This story was supported by a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The tax overhaul's big debut week got off to a rough, early start over the weekend. The National Association of Home Builders announced Saturday that it would oppose the package after talks with House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, toward a homeowners tax credit collapsed. And the group plans to be unsparing. "We will do everything we can to defeat this thing," NAHB chief executive officer Jerry Howard told The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis and Damian Paletta. The home builders' lobby calls on membership across the map and deep pockets in Washington - making its opposition to the tax bill consequential in its own right. The development is also a preview of the politically treacherous stretch ahead for a Republican Party in desperate need of a breakthrough legislative victory and giving itself mere weeks to wrest one from a project that touches every corner of the economy. The wrangling with the homebuilders provides a roadmap for how quickly the process can go south on Republicans. DeBonis and Paletta lay out what happened: "Howard and Brady's aides spent weeks working together to add to the bill a 'homeownership tax credit,' which essentially would have replaced the mortgage-interest and property-tax deductions, combining both benefits into a new tax credit . . . "The homeownership credit had some buy-in from the White House and congressional tax writers, but leaders including Ryan were wary of threatening the bill's passage by reneging on a pledge that they had made for weeks to scores of lawmakers, according to a person familiar with the negotiations - that the mortgage interest deduction would remain intact. "'Chairman Brady and his staff and [NAHB] worked hours and hours on it and we were very excited about that concept, and all of the sudden on Friday we were told that concept would no longer be considered,' Howard said. "After Brady communicated that the changes would not be made, top NAHB officials held an emergency conference call on Saturday and agreed unanimously to oppose the bill after months of reserving judgment, a spokesman for the organization said. Now, the group is preparing a public campaign against the bill, with plans to mobilize members in congressional districts across the country." Rewriting the tax code, it turns out, means twisting a giant legislative Rubik's cube: Each attempt to solve a problem potentially creates new ones. To date, only a small circle of Republicans has been privy to the puzzle-solving, part of a deliberate strategy, as the Wall Street Journal's Richard Rubin explains: "The plan is to keep the tough trade-offs in the bill secret until after Halloween, then reach Thanksgiving with bills passed by the House and Senate and hit New Year's Day with a bill on Mr. Trump's desk. That's close to financial-crisis speed, pushing Congress into a kind of emergency lawmaking mode it typically uses only when inaction means cataclysm." Last week, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., talked about the challenge ahead as the effort graduates from a concept to bill text and the imperative of keeping Republicans on board. When they unveil the first draft of their bill Wednesday, the pressure will be on GOP leaders to limit defections off Capitol Hill, as well. If the home builders get a lot more company, Republican tax-rewriting ambitions could be chopped down in an even bigger hurry than the one the party has set for itself. First thing Monday morning - before we learned that President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort had been indicted and before we learned that a former campaign adviser had lied to the FBI about contacts with Russian agents - Trump wanted to draw the nation's attention somewhere else. "Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS," Trump tweeted, referring to the company that hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to investigate Trump's interactions with Russia. That investigation led to the so-called "Trump dossier," a collection of individual reports written by Steele after conversations with Russian government officials and people close to Trump. The implication from Trump - an implication that was rampant over the weekend as word that indictments were imminent on special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation - is that the dossier was somehow funded by then-President Barack Obama as well as the campaign of Hillary Clinton (as The Post reported last week). By extension, the implication is that the document was politically motivated and an unfair attempt by Democrats to undermine the Republican nominee for the presidency. But an Obama link to the dossier is far less robust than Trump implies. There's no real reason, in fact, to think that one exists. Trump was picking up a story from the conservative site The Federalist, which wrote over the weekend that a law firm called Perkins Coie had been paid nearly $1 million by Obama for America, Obama's campaign committee. Perkins Coie was the same law firm that had hired Fusion GPS to look into Trump on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee in April 2016. (Fusion GPS had begun investigating Trump at the behest of the conservative news site Washington Free Beacon earlier that year.) So, first of all, it wasn't that Obama's campaign had given that money to Fusion GPS. It had, instead, given the money to Perkins Coie, which had paid Fusion GPS for Steele. Trump (and the Federalist) imply that there's a connection between those two things, but there's no evidence at all that there was one. What's more, the Federalist left out of its report that it wasn't unusual for the Obama campaign committee to give money to Perkins Coie, because Perkins Coie was the campaign's attorney. Since 2007, when the Obama campaign sprang into existence, OFA has paid the law firm $8.7 million. Much of that was in the years of the 2008 and 2012 elections, for obvious reasons. It's important to know that Perkins Coie provided legal services to far more than the DNC, Hillary Clinton and the Obama campaign. A list of Perkins Coie clients in 2016 includes 266 individual clients, including a slew of Democratic lawmakers, various political action committees and state and national Democratic Party committees. There is as much evidence that each of those other 260-plus committees were paying money to Perkins Coie to pass-through to Fusion GPS as there is that OFA was. Which is to say: There is no evidence to that end. That said, there was a spike in spending from OFA last September - the largest single-month expenditure of the past 10 years. That month, 52 separate items are included in OFA's FEC report, totaling just shy of $700,000. Why? It's not clear. (A request for information sent to the former president's office was not returned.) It's worth noting that late 2016 was also during the period in which the Obama administration was preparing to leave the White House. That there were 52 payments also seems to undercut the idea that the spending was related to Fusion GPS - a claim for which, again, there is no actual evidence. There's one bit of evidence that suggests that a link to the dossier is unlikely. We've contrasted the dates of payments from OFA to Perkins Coie to the dates that Steele filed reports that were included in the dossier. Most of the reports filed by Steele were completed before OFA made those September payments to its legal firm. Before the reports, there were payments in April totaling less than $50,000. By late September, when those 52 payments were made, most of the reports in the dossier had already been written. So, to summarize: - Obama's campaign paid Perkins Coie for years for legal advice. - There's no evidence that the 2016 payments had anything to do with Fusion GPS. - Most of the reports in the dossier had been completed by the time that OFA paid Perkins Coie in September 2016. Then why did Trump tweet that Obama had paid Fusion GPS? The most obvious answer is probably the correct one: Because he hoped to bolster a misleading story that ran counter to the bad news he knew was imminent from the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller. His tweet, though, was an incorrect summary of a thoroughly speculative story. Former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos has been thrust into a national spotlight after he pleaded guilty to lying to federal agents amid an investigation into President Donald's Trump's ties with Russia. Papadopoulos, who was charged with making false statements, pleaded guilty this month to lying about his involvement with people he understood had ties to the Russian government. As The Washington Post's Rosalind Helderman and Carol Leonnig reported, court documents released Monday show Papadopoulos met with an unnamed overseas professor in Italy in March - the same month he was named a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. Papadopoulos also reported back to campaign officials about his attempts to set up meetings between the campaign and the Russian government, according to the court documents. So who is George Papadopoulos - the man Trump called an "excellent guy?" He graduated in 2009 from DePaul University in Chicago, where he studied international political economy, before moving to the University College London to earn a master's degree in security studies, according to his LinkedIn page. There, he wrote a dissertation "focused on the deleterious effects of low governance and state capacity levels in the Middle East," his page states. "My research allowed me to safely infer that the rise of pacified and violent Islamist groups was directly correlated with the aforementioned indicators and the paramount reason that the 'Arab Spring' currently reverberates throughout the entire Middle East." From 2011 to 2015, he said he worked as a research associate for the Hudson Institute, a well-known conservative think tank in Washington. He briefly served as an adviser to then-Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson before joining the Trump campaign in March 2016. Barry Bennett, who had served as Carson's campaign manager, told The Post in May that Papadopoulos "was someone who worked for me at the Carson campaign for, like, 15 minutes" and then somehow ended up on Trump's list of foreign policy advisers. "I was, like, how in the hell did that happen?" In a 2016 interview with The Washington Post editorial board, Trump said Papadopoulos, an "energy and oil consultant," is an "excellent guy." As The Washington Post reported in August, days after Trump claimed Papadopoulos as one of his youngest advisers, Papadopoulos sent an email to Trump campaign officials with the subject line: "Meeting with Russian Leadership - Including Putin." According to an internal campaign email, which was read to The Post, he volunteered to broker "a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under President Trump." The Post reported: "The proposal sent a ripple of concern through campaign headquarters in Trump Tower. Campaign co-chairman Sam Clovis wrote that he thought NATO allies should be consulted before any plans were made. Another Trump adviser, retired Navy Rear Adm. Charles Kubic, cited legal concerns, including a possible violation of U.S. sanctions against Russia and of the Logan Act, which prohibits U.S. citizens from unauthorized negotiation with foreign governments." But Papadopoulos, a campaign volunteer with scant foreign policy experience, persisted. Between March and September [2016], the self-described energy consultant sent at least a half-dozen requests for Trump, as he turned from primary candidate to party nominee, or for members of his team to meet with Russian officials. Among those to express concern about the effort was then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who rejected in May 2016 a proposal from Papadopoulos for Trump to do so. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday that Papadopoulos's guilty plea has nothing to do with his campaign activities - only his failure to be honest about them. "It was extremely limited," Sanders told reporters during a news briefing about Papadopoulos's role in the campaign. "It was a volunteer position." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The American Civil Liberties Union on Monday joined the growing list of organizations calling for the release of a 10-year-old special needs girl whos in the custody of the Heath and Human Services Department in San Antonio and faces deportation. In a letter to HHS and the Department of Homeland Security, the civil rights group threatened legal action if 10-year-old Rosa Maria Hernandez is not returned to her family in Laredo so she can continue special education classes and see her doctor. Rosa Maria needs this care, stability, routine, and support, the ACLU wrote in its letter. Without her mother and supportive community of services, her developmental progress will suffer. Border Patrol agents followed Rosa Maria, who has cerebral palsy, to Corpus Christi last week after she crossed an immigration checkpoint as she was being transferred to a childrens hospital for gallbladder surgery. After the surgery, the girl, who was born in Mexico and is in the U.S. illegally, was moved to a San Antonio child care facility. Border Patrol said once agents encountered the girl at its immigration checkpoint, they had to take her into custody, something immigration lawyers have said is not the case. For its part, HHS said it must first screen sponsors who want to take custody of children in its care. Also Monday, a group of demonstrators gathered outside of Sen. John Cornyns office downtown chanting and demanding that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement drop Rosa Marias deportation case and asking Cornyn to put pressure on HHS and ICE to release her. Trish Florence, one of the rallys organizers, said activists met briefly with Cornyns staff. The fact that theyre still holding her, that theyre actually making an example of her, is ridiculous, Florence said. Our hope is he would intervene on her behalf. The case has garnered national attention, particularly after a lawyer representing Rosa Maria released a video of Border Patrol agents escorting her out of the hospital. jbuch@express-news.net | Twitter: @jlbuch This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate An eyeless, see-through fish may be lurking beneath San Antonio and scientists want to search for it. Dubbed the satan fish, the creature is most likely swimming in the "total darkness" of the Edwards Aquifer beneath the city, said scientists at University of Texas at Austin in a news release. The fish, technically a widemouth blindcat, has not been seen alive since 1984 and searches for the fish in 2006 and 2010 failed, according to the release. Now, scientists are hoping to receive funding to hunt for the fish and study how it compares to other catfish and what led to its decline. RELATED: Satanic Temple takes aim at South Texas district's corporal punishment policy "Satan fish are really cool critters," said Dean Hendrickson, curator of ichthyology at UT-Austin. "Most San Antonio residents have no clue that these things live below them. I want to raise awareness and get a study going to see if there's something going on down there." The satan fish is one of three species living in Texas' underwater caves, according to the release. Andy Gluesenkamp and Dante Fenolio, the director and assistant director of conservation and research at the San Antonio Zoo, would join Hendrickson in the search for the fish. The study would be part of a project that seeks to find a better understanding of how water flowers through Central Texas aquifers, according to the release. Kelsey Bradshaw is a digital reporter for mySA.com. Read more of her stories here.| kbradshaw@express-news.net | Twitter: @Kbrad5 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate New Braunfels officials plan to resume enforcement of the can ban and limits on coolers on rivers on Wednesday even as opponents of the controversial municipal codes continue to pursue a legal challenge to them. The development follows the Texas Supreme Courts refusal this month to bar the city from enforcing the ordinances, which prohibit bringing disposable containers or coolers over 16 quarts in size onto the Guadalupe and Comal rivers inside city limits. Everyone is still invited to enjoy their favorite beverage on our rivers. We just ask that they do so responsibly and in consideration of the health and sustainability of these important community assets, Mayor Barron Casteel said in announcing Friday that enforcement of the measures would resume this week. The resumption of enforcement after a lull of more than three years was called premature Monday by attorney Jim Ewbank, who brought suit in 2012 on behalf of local river outfitters and tourism-related businesses who contend the codes are an overreach of municipal authority. Despite rejecting plaintiffs request to issue an immediate stay on enforcement of the contested codes, he noted the Texas Supreme Court did request a full briefing by the parties, which is a good sign for us. The citys brief is due to be filed by late November, said Ewbank, who expects the high court to decide by January whether to hear the whole case. The cooler size limit was enacted in 2007 and the can ban went into effect in 2012 after local voters endorsed it in a referendum in 2011. Both carry fines of up to $500 for violations. City officials say both are aimed at promoting health and safety and reducing litter. Ewbank argued in pleadings that state law already prohibits littering, and he criticized the city codes as unconstitutionally vague, arbitrary, unreasonable and an overreach of municipal authority. State District Judge Don Burgess granted the plaintiffs a summary judgment in 2014, but that decision was overturned in May by the 3rd Court of Appeals. It held that the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to challenge a penal code, therefore Burgess lacked subject matter jurisdiction on the case. While the plaintiffs had evidence theyd lost business and suffered economically due to the city rules, the court found no harm occurred to a vested property right, which would have allowed them to challenge a penal code with a civil suit. The city had long argued that the plaintiffs lacked standing, its lawyer Mick McKamie said in May, noting, Without standing, the civil courts have no jurisdiction to review the ordinances. While waiting to see if Ewbank would appeal, city leaders this summer began planning a new public relations/education/marketing initiative about the long-dormant regulations but left unresolved the kickoff date to resume enforcing them while waiting to see if the plaintiffs would appeal further. Rather than resume enforcement next year, as had been discussed, the City Council decided at its Sept. 11 meeting to get the ball rolling Nov. 1. We will begin education and enforcement now, focusing on compliance, for the few tubers that come out to enjoy the fall weather, Assistant City Manager Kristi Aday said in Fridays announcement. The real education effort will begin next year before Spring Break 2018 when we begin to welcome our usual crowds, she said, adding the outreach program is being coordinated with outfitters, the local chamber of commerce and convention and visitors bureau. New signs have been erected in city parks alerting guests to the resumption of enforcement. Ewbank on Monday said, My clients do not believe it is a good use of taxpayers dollars to spend money on signs and instructions and training when the Supreme Court may find it to be unnecessary. zeke@express-news.net San Angelo police are investigating the drummer of popular rock group Los Lonely Boys for possessing child pornography, they confirmed in a news release. Detectives with the department's Crimes Against Children Unit opened an investigation into Ringo V. Garza, 35 in July after receiving a child abuse report involving a 13-year-old girl, the release says. A bullet fired from a Dripping Springs hotel room passed through a wall and struck a man in an adjascent room, according to the Hays County Sheriff's Office. Deputies responded to the Outpost Hotel around 9 a.m. Sunday after a caller reported hearing a gunshot from one of the rooms, according to a news release. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Authorities on Sunday jailed a man accused of randomly attacking a 55-year-old woman at a San Antonio convenience store and slamming her head into the floor. Russell Wayne Collins, 26, was charged with aggravated assault causing severe bodily injury. Online court records show he was originally charged with assault, a lower-level offense, but those charges have since been upgraded. He was booked into the Bexar County Jail on a $75,000 bond. RELATED: Firefighters battle blaze at abandoned NE Side nursing home According to police, Collins walked into a convenience store in the 1600 block of Blanco Road on Sept. 20 with his pet pit bull and stood behind the victim. "[Collins] then without warning or cause or words said of any type grabs a hold of the victim's neck and arm as he ushers her towards the back of the store," according to his arrest affidavit. The victim began screaming in fear, asking what Collins was doing and telling him to stop, police said. Once at the back of the store, Collins "grabbed a hold of the victim's hair with both hands and began bashing her head against the floor," the affidavit says. RELATED: S.A.-area teen, 18, killed after launching car out of low water crossing, rolling multiple times Collins reportedly fled the store, leaving behind his dog. Paramedics took the victim to University Hospital, where doctors treated her for a concussion and used four staples to close a cut on the back of her head, authorities said. She later described the attack to police as "completely unprovoked." About a week after the assault, the victim went to police headquarters to give her statement and identified Collins in a photo line up, police said. He was later arrested on a charge of assault, but authorities later decided to charge him with aggravated assault. The upgraded charge stems from a decision to consider the store's floor a deadly weapon that Collins used in his alleged attack. Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com Caleb Downs is a crime reporter for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here.| cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdowns Overly complicated promotions have recently aroused complaints among Chinese customers as the annual online shopping spree on Nov. 11, which is also known as Double 11, approaches. What started as a sort of anti-Valentines Day celebration for singles in China has turned into the worlds biggest online shopping day. Last year, online transactions totaled 120.748 billion yuan ($18.17 billion) within 24 hours on the shopping platform of Chinas largest e-commerce company Alibaba, a record amount in global retail for any single day, according to data provided by Alibaba. China is expected to see a billion packages during the 2017 shopping spree, which will be a huge pressure on the countrys courier companies. However, many customers hesitated in front of the overly complicated promotion ideas this year, such as prelaunch, money-off, and price protection policies. Some of them complained that direct percent-off discounts are rare nowadays, and they have to spend hours on studying the different promotion methods. Some joked that you got to be a math talent if you want to participate in the shopping spree. For instance, customers are not able to combine their orders to get the maximum discount when purchasing the prelaunch goods. A woman surnamed Wang had separated all three of her items into three different orders so that they would not be considered add-on purchases and she was not able to get the most preferential offer. Merchants have set a number of restrictions on coupons. Some are exclusive for prelaunch items, while some others are designated for specific products, models, and even colors. Red packets, or hongbao, the monetary gift issued by merchants to customers as a way to encourage consumption, has also been classified into various categories, which is confusing to customers. It is noteworthy that 62% of the complaints received by the National Development and Reform Commission during the online shopping spree last year were related to false advertising and untrue promotions, including discount restrictions, unfulfilled promises, and price protection failures. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A man accused of robbing a West Side auto parts store allegedly left a trail of dollar bills that led officers to where his car had been parked, which in turn led officers to him. Raymond Montesdeoca, 35, was arrested this weekend on suspicion of aggravated robbery. On June 30, police responded to a robbery call at the store in the 8600 block of Culebra Road. An employee told officers a man pointed a gun at him and demanded money from the safe, police said. The robber took off with an undisclosed amount of cash and fled through a wooded area near the store, according to an arrest affidavit. RELATED: SAPD: Man arrested after bashing woman's head against floor in 'completely unprovoked' attack Before the robbery, police received a call about a suspicious vehicle parked near a creek by the store. That same vehicle could be seen on surveillance footage driving through the parking lot of the same store and later leaving the area, according to the affidavit. As officers approached the area where the caller had told police the car was briefly parked, they noticed multiple dollar bills on the ground on route the robber was reported to have taken as he fled, authorities said. Investigators determined the car belonged to Montesdeoca. A witness identified him in a photo lineup as the robber, police said. Bexar County court records show Montesdeoca was previously convicted of aggravated robbery in 2004. Fares Sabawi covers crime in San Antonio and Bexar County for mySA.com. Read more of his stories here. | fsabawi@mysa.com | Twitter: @FaresInSA While the biggest news of the day is the indictments Robert Mueller has handed down against former President Donald Trump aides Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, today he also released a plea bargain with a heretofore minor figure in the Russia scandal by the name of George Papadopoulos. And that could actually be the day's biggest news. That's because while Manafort and Gates sure look like they're going to jail, as of yet they aren't cooperating with Mueller's investigation. Papadopoulos is, which means that he likely has information that will lead Mueller closer to the heart of the case. Papadopoulos was a junior foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. In August we learned that he had tried to set up meetings between Trump officials - and even Trump himself - with representatives of the Russian government. At the time, his suggestion was characterized as having been rejected by other Trump officials as inappropriate while Trump was still a candidate and not yet president. But now that we've seen the details of Papadopoulos' plea, it sure looks like that wasn't the whole story. Papadopoulos has agreed to plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians. Specifically, he falsely claimed that they had occurred before he joined the campaign in March 2016. He had communication with a professor who had contacts in the Russian government; this professor told him that the Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails." The professor introduced him to a female Russian national who was supposedly Vladimir Putin's niece (it turned out she wasn't), and to someone who supposedly had connections in the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Based on those conversations, Papadopoulos pressed the campaign to set up meetings with the Russians, a suggestion that never came to fruition. So what does this have to do with the larger case? I spoke this morning with Barbara McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan law school who is a former U.S. Attorney and has worked extensively in criminal and national security cases. I asked: If Papadopoulos was just some low-level nobody tossing around ideas that were rejected by the campaign's higher-ups, why would Mueller offer him a plea deal that is contingent on his cooperation? Doesn't that suggest that he has information that can be used to build a case against someone more important than him? "I think it's a fair conclusion to think that he has information that is valuable in the prosecution of others," McQuade says. "You would only offer that cooperation if you've sat down with him and learned that he has information that is of value." And that appears to be what is happening: in return for what will likely be a reduced sentence, Papadopoulos has agreed to sing. As the letter laying out the terms of the plea agreement says, "The Government agrees to bring to the Court's attention at sentencing the defendant's efforts to cooperate with the Government, on the condition that your client continues to respond and provide information regarding any and all matters as to which the Government deems relevant." Who does Papadopoulos have information on? We don't know. The plea document mentions his discussions (his efforts to set up a meeting with the Russians) with people who are referred to as "Senior Policy Adviser," "Campaign Supervisor," and "High-Ranking Campaign Official," but we don't know who that is. Then there's this: "On or about May 4, 2016, the Russian MFA Connection sent an email (the 'May 4 MFA Email') to defendant PAPADOPOULOS and the Professor that stated: 'I have just talked to my colleagues from the MFA. The[y] are open for cooperation. One of the options is to make a meeting for you at the North America Desk, if you are in Moscow.' Defendant PAPADOPOULOS responded that he was '[g]lad the MFA is interested.' Defendant PAPADOPOULOS forwarded the May 4 MFA Email to the High-Ranking Campaign Official, adding: 'What do you think? Is this something we want to move forward with?' The next day, on or about May 5, 2016, defendant PAPADOPOULOS had a phone call with the Campaign Supervisor, and then forwarded the May 4 MFA Email to him, adding to the top of the email: 'Russia updates.' " This exchange happened not long before Paul Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner had their infamous meeting with representatives of the Russian government who purportedly had damaging information on Clinton to offer. Given that context, it seems rather unlikely that Papadopoulos would not have mentioned the possibility that the Russians had of "dirt" on Clinton contained in "thousands of emails." But we don't yet know for sure. What we do know is that the prosecutors believe that Papadopoulos' information will be valuable to them in building a case against others. Paul Manafort, on the other hand, is not cooperating - at least not yet. "The fact that he was indicted suggests to me that pre-indictment he said 'No, I don't want to cooperate.' I'm sure they presented him with the opportunity," says McQuade. It's a common tactic to hand down one set of indictments and then offer a defendant the chance to start cooperating, since if he doesn't they'll keep investigating, and who knows what else they'll find. "I think that's quite possible, that there are additional potential charges against Manafort, and he could still cooperate," McQuade said. If Manfort is going to flip, there are only so many people he could flip on, who are actually closer to the center of whatever happened than he was. That could include Jared Kushner, perhaps Donald Trump Jr., and of course President Trump himself. But right now, Papadopoulos is the one who is providing Mueller an entry into the heart of the Trump campaign and its relationship to Russia. Which is why McQuade says, "That one, because of its relevance to that larger question, strikes me as maybe the more important development today." And this is just getting started. A 15-year-old writer has blown minds among social media users after she wrote and published her first magic novel, The Vampire of Lorania, in English. Yang Nianhui, a student from The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China in Beijing, has spent over five years on the books creation. In her 60,000-word long novel, Yang depicts a wonderland named Lorania, where the residents are vampires, discussing the definition of heroes from the perspective of a teenager. According to Beijing Youth Daily, the books publisher lauded the book for its imagination, noting that this is their first time to publish a students literary work independently. The book has been trending on Sina Weibo, attracting positive comments from netizens. As a 15-year-old girl, Yang has shown the public her talents in literature and English proficiency. Its hard to believe that a teenager at her age can publish a novel, let alone in a foreign language, wrote a netizen. HARARE businessman Lovemore Kurotwi has engaged President Emmerson Mnangagwa in a bid to recover $17 million seized by the State when he was hounded out of the Chiadzwa diamond fields allegedly at the behest of former Mines minister Obert Mpofu. In a letter to Mnangagwa dated January 4, Kurotwi reiterated his claims that due to his refusal to give Mpofu a $10 million bribe, he was forced out of diamond mining fields in Chiadzwa and lost $3,6 million cash, 1,4 million carats of diamonds and mining equipment worth $14 million which he had invested through his company Canadile Miners. We were given this concession in partnership with Marange Resources, a government mining company under the auspices of ZMDC (Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation). In fact, ZMDC guaranteed the partnership, read part of the letter seen by NewsDay. However, as is on record, former Minister of Mines Obert Mpofu asked me for a bribe of $10 million. Upon my refusal to give him this bribe, minister Mpofu caused my arrest on unfounded allegations of fraud. Again as is now public knowledge, I was acquitted by the courts of law for these trumped-up charges. In his letter, the businessman accused Mpofu of having illegally confiscated the assets mentioned above, namely, $3,6 million cash which was in MMCZs (Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe) account, 1,4 million carats of diamonds which were in our vaults in Mutare and our mining equipment worth $14 million which was initially used to mine diamonds by Marange Resources and is now being used by ZCDC (Zimbabwe Consolidated Diamond Company) to mine diamonds in Chiadzwa. Mpofu, who was not answering his phone yesterday, has persistently denied allegations that he demanded a $10 million bribe from Kurotwi, while accusing the businessman of being poor to even afford a bottle of water. But Kurotwi said he had evidence to back up his claims and pleaded with Mnangagwa to help him facilitate restitution of our assets as stated. After his acquittal in 2016, Kurotwi engaged former President Robert Mugabe with a view to recover his assets, but there was no joy for him and he now hopes the new administration will assist. NewsDay Breaking News via Email While the Western Media paid unprecedented attention to Chinas 19th Communist Party Congress, as a Chinese PhD student based in Berlin, I deeply felt the growing influence of China at an academic conference held at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences on October 20-21, 2017. It was the tenth-anniversary conference of the Graduate School of North American Studies, affiliated with the John F. Kennedy Institute of North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin. The elaborately organized event invited dozens of top scholars and diplomats from the U.S., Great Britain, Canada, Germany, and so on to give remarks or present research talks primarily pertinent to American Studies and a variety of salient problems America is faced with at present. The meetings theme was The Fault Lines of Democracy. Surprisingly, some scholars talks and discussions touched upon China frequently. As one of the only two Chinese doctoral students present at the conference, I actively took advantage of the occasion to offer my Chinese perspective to the international audience. Two interrelated issues relevant to China are worth sharing here: exceptionalism and national narrative in globalization. The Dimming Halo of the American Dream and American Exceptionalism Most scholars pointed out that liberal democracy in the era of Donald Trump was in jeopardy and underlined that America was not as exceptional as it used to be. From their viewpoints, under the leadership of Trump, many things are ruining American Exceptionalism, a nationalistic concept that inspires the idea of the American Dream and generates American soft power. At the core of American Exceptionalism are American values, such as democracy, freedom, and equality. Many American presidents are famous for their steadfast endorsement of the uniqueness and superiority of the American creed. For example, Abraham Lincoln called America the last, best hope of the earth, and Ronald Reagan proudly claimed America to be a shining city upon a hill. Over the course of American history, these ideas have shaped the American Dream, which means that one can obtain happiness and success through their own hard work on the land of infinite possibilities and opportunities. Therefore, most American people identify the greatness of the American nation with a beacon to the world. Undoubtedly, millions of immigrants from all over the world were enchanted by such soft power, symbolized in American Exceptionalism and the American Dream. However, much evidence has shown that the attraction of American soft power seems to be weakening. One the one hand, a number of domestic and foreign policies made by the Trump Administration are increasingly marring the American image that is conventionally labeled as democratic values and its ambition as a global superpower leading also with its cultural ideology. To the astonishment of Paul Gilroy from Kings College London, who gave a talk on Anti-racism in the Era of the Alt-right, Trump becomes the only American president ever in history who discredited American Exceptionalism. Since his presidency in January this year, Trump has been undermining the political and cultural legacy of his predecessor Barack Obama, who is iconized as the living example of the American Dream. As U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders criticized on his visit to Free University of Berlin in July 2017, I am very concerned about Donald Trumps disrespect for democracy, for tolerance, and traditional American values.I am outraged at President Trumps efforts to divide the American people up on the basis of race, religion, or national origin. Additionally, according to the Pew Research Centers recent Global Attitudes Survey, Americas overall image has suffered a dramatic decline among world publics of 37 nations polled, primarily due to Trumps provocative policy and unconventional leadership. On the other hand, the Chinese Dream, as well as the emergence of Chinese Exceptionalism, is likely to outshine the American Dream, thus attracting many international concerns in the media and academia. Clearly, Western scholars at the conference generally agreed to the fact that China was increasingly becoming powerful and assertive on the world stage and that its international clout was spreading. Nevertheless, they are very wary of this tendency of the so-called power diffusion from the West to the East, because their stereotypical idea tends to identify China with communism, which they think starkly conflicts with the superiority of democracy. As we know, after the victory of the Cold War, political scientist Francis Fukuyamas argument of the end of the historynamely the end point of mankinds ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government, has had a great influence upon Western peoples self-perception of the superiority of their democratic values. It is palpable that the pervasive aversion to the ideology of communism engrained in the minds of Western people not only aggravates their anxiety and fear of the Chinese nations great rejuvenation, but also invokes their profound reflections on the crisis of democracy in the U.S. and Europe at large. For instance, Christian Lammertprofessor of political science from the Kennedy Institute of North American Studies has recently published a timely book titled Die Krise der Demokratie und Wie Wir Sie Uberwinden Konnen (The Crisis of Democracy and How We Can Overcome It, 2017). Chinas narrative in globalization: more than prosperity Several scholars put forward that the economic downturn of the U.S. formed a sharp contrast with Chinas remarkable ascent to power in recent decades, but the U.S. should not simply attribute a range of its political and economic problems to globalization. It is highly controversial that Trump retreated from international institutions and turned to a new era of isolationism and protectionism, given that China is continuously opening its doors to the world and integrating into the international community. By providing substantial data, political scientist Marianne Braig from the Latin American Institute at Free University of Berlin illustrated that in the market of Mexico, Chinese products had succeeded in replacing the role of the U.S., which dominated the foreign trade of Mexico in the last century. Strikingly, Julika Griem, a cultural scholar from Goethe University Frankfurt, argued that strategic narratives for nation states, as well as languages, culture, and communication, did matter in globalization. Obviously, Trumps counternarrative of globalization does not make sense. Their discussion made mention of China repeatedly. I naturally felt an urge to speak for China on this precious occasion. My response on the spot was as follows: You have talked a lot about China. I am from China and would like to take this opportunity to introduce more to all of you. Owing to globalization, China has created amazing economic achievements. As a great beneficiary of globalization, China has not only promoted the development of globalization, but also will keep moving forward to make more contributions to international cooperation and global prosperity. The One Belt One Road initiative, which last audience has just mentioned in his question, is the best evidence for Chinas effort to boost globalization. Besides, China has much more public goods to offer to the world people. China is a civilization-state with 5000 years of history and brilliant culture. The Chinese narrative representing Chinas unique national and cultural identity is embodied in Chinas foreign policy and diplomacy, which are committed to the noble cause for the worlds peace, development, harmony, stability, security, and all the like. China hopes to impress world people not only with its material growth but also cultural values, which abound in Chinese traditional and modern culture. Economically and culturally, the rising China is ready to share its wisdom and experience with the world for the common good. Joseph Nye, who is widely reputed as the father of soft power, states an important point in many of his books concerning power: The future of power is a matter of whose story wins. When it comes to the Chinese Dream, Chinese Exceptionalism, and the Chinese narrative, in my mind they are to a certain extent three interrelated concepts, which constitute one core conceptthe soft power of China. To realize the Chinese Dream, the discourse of Chinese Exceptionalism plays a role in presenting a persuasive story-telling of China. When the Chinese Dream comes true, the world will see a more prosperous and harmonious China with both hard and soft power. Banks are expanding mobile ATMs and their presence in c-stores, making cash the king of payments in Japan. TOKYO Nikkei Asian Review reports that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants more people to embrace mobile payments, but consumer adoption of mobile in lieu of cash has been a challenge. In fact, cash in king in Japan, thanks to the abundance of ATMs in convenience stores and the growth of mobile ATMs. Efficient, multitasking ATMs seem to be around almost every corner in Japan, making cash the most convenient means of daily transactions. And if there are no ATMs around, banks seem ready to bring one to your area, writes the news source, adding that banks and ATM manufacturers arent showing any signs of giving up on cash. In June, the news source writes that Bank of Kyoto rolled out a mobile ATM mounted on the back of a truck that visits sporting events, residential and shopping complexes. A more compact, van-mounted ATM is expected to roll out later this year by Oki Electric Industry for smaller regional lenders. Oki developed the first ATM for a convenience store in 2001. While such mobile ATMs are mainly for remote areas, ATMs are proliferating in big cities through convenience stores, writes the news source, adding that c-stores are becoming a second wallet for many consumers, according an Oki spokesman, noting that consumers use ATMs to withdraw small amounts of cash so they wont overspend. ATMs in Japan also attract shoppers into c-stores, where they can interact with store staff. Cash is both the most popular payment method worldwide, accounting for over 75% of all retail payments today, and is a store of value trusted by humanity, said Michael Lee, CEO of the U.S.-based ATM Industry Association. In addition, it is the No. 1 back-up plan when electronic systems go down. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, however, wants Japanese consumers to adopt mobile payments, much like consumers in China are embracing digital. The news source cites that there are concerns about the emergence of China as a digital payment superpower, putting it in a strong position to be the dominant service provider in Asia. For example, firms such as Alibaba and Tencent already control the Asias retail payment infrastructure through their mobile-based payment services, Alipay and WeChat Pay. The news source notes that Alibaba is looking to grow its payments infrastructure throughout Asia, including in South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and India, and that its also eyeing the Japanese market. According to Euromonitor, 62% of consumer payments in Japan are made with cash, compared with 38% in China, and 23% in the United States. To learn more about the Asian convenience retail market, trend and insights, plan to attend the NACS Convenience SummitAsia, March 1215, 2018, in Hong Kong. Register today at convenience.org/CSA, or contact Michael Davis at mdavis@convenience.org to learn more about the event. Beginning November 1, consumers under 21 wont be allowed to buy tobacco products or electronic cigarettes in New Jersey. TRENTON Beginning Nov. 1, smokers under the age of 21 cannot legally purchase tobacco products or electronic cigarettes in New Jersey, reports NJ.com. The news source writes that in Gov. Chris Christie signed the new law in July to raise the legal purchasing age for tobacco and e-cigarettes from 19 to 21, and gave the state four months to prepare for the change. The news source says that convenience stores and other retailers that sell tobacco will bear the responsibility of following the law, noting that state inspectors already perform periodic spot checks to make sure tobacco sellers are checking ID for customers who look younger than 19. When state Sen. Richard Codey introduced the bill four years ago, faced opposition from convenience store operators who said they would lose sales of other products tobacco consumers purchase, like coffee, food and beverages. The nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services estimated the state would lose as much as $16.2 million in sales tax by restricting sales to people 21 and over, notes the news source. Gov. Christie vetoed a similar measure to raise the tobacco purchasing age in January 2016. However, he changed his position on the issue because of studies that suggested people wont become addicted to tobacco if they dont use tobacco in their teens or early 20s, NJ.com says. On Nov. 1, New Jersey will join California and Hawaii as the third state to raise its tobacco purchasing age to 21. TONAWANDA, N.Y. NOCO customers and employees generously donated $19,456 to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Societys Western & Central New York Chapter. In our five years of supporting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, nearly $100,000 has been raised to date by our customers and employees to support ongoing research and services for those in Western New York who are impacted by blood cancers, said Michael Bradley, chief financial officer and senior vice president, NOCO. Throughout September, NOCO Express customers could make a $1 donation towards the campaign at any of the companys 37 locations. NOCO Express customers had the opportunity to make a $1 donation towards the campaign at any of the companys 37 locations throughout September. In addition, NOCO employees conducted a month-long fundraiser that included hot dog sales, silent auctions and walk donations. A Pump It Up promotion at three Express locations also was conducted where, in exchange for donations, NOCO employees pumped customers gas and washed car windows. We want to thank the associates and customers of NOCO, and our entire community for their tremendous efforts and generosity in making this such a successful campaign, said Luann Burgio, deputy executive director, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, Western & Central New York Chapter. Special thanks to the Newman family for their dedication and commitment in making a difference in our community and in the lives of local blood cancer patients. The funds raised from the Light The Night paper icon sales will be spent locally to support blood cancer research and local patient aid and services. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Societys Western & Central New York Chapter serves more than 5,000 local patients who have been touched by the blood cancers leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkins disease and myeloma. Funds raised are spent locally on vital blood cancer research and much needed patient aid and services. What to Know The two detectives, Eddie Martins and Richard Hall, were working on a team with Brooklyn South Narcotics at the time of the alleged rape Prosecutors allege they veered away from their team, pulled over a woman, found drugs and took her into a van, where they raped her An attorney for one of the accused say his client looks forward to fighting the charges in court; a lawyer for the other declined comment Two NYPD officers are named in a 50-count indictment charging them with allegedly raping an 18-year-old woman in a police van in Coney Island after handcuffing her and placing her under arrest earlier this year. Detectives Eddie Martins, 37, and Richard Hall, 32, who were assigned to NYPD Brooklyn South Narcotics surrendered Monday to face charges including first-degree rape, second-degree kidnapping, official misconduct and other counts. Both were released on $250,000 and $150,000 bail, respectively, put up by high-profile bail bondsman Ira Judelson, after their arraignments Monday. They face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Their attorneys have vowed to fight the charges. "We don't believe they have the evidence to support the majority of charges that are alleged," said Mark Bederow, attorney for Martins. Meanwhile, the attorney for the alleged victim said she's frustrated the officers have been released. "She's not happy they're free," said Michael David. "They got very low bail. Anybody else, high bail or no bail." "She's an emotional wreck at this point," said David. NBC 4 New York first reported on the looming indictment late last week. According to the indictment, the detectives were on duty and riding in a Dodge Caravan on Sept. 15, working as part of a team of plainclothes cops assigned to the narcotics unit and conducting a buy-and-bust operation in the 60th Precinct. They left their post without authorization and drove to Calvert Vaux Park in Gravesend, according to the indictment. Shortly after 8 p.m., the officers stopped an Infinity Couple driven by an 18-year-old woman. Two male passengers were in the vehicle and there was marijuana in the front seat cup holder, court documents say. The officers told the trio to get out of the vehicle and asked if they had drugs. According to court documents, the woman said she had pot and two Klonopin pills, at which point the cops cuffed her, told her she was under arrest and said she would be issued a desk appearance ticket. They let the men go and told them to come get their friend from the precinct in three hours, prosecutors said. The cops and woman left the park, and then the detectives allegedly told the young woman to call her friends and tell them not to follow their van. Martins allegedly told her he and his partner were "freaks" and asked what she wanted to do to get out of the arrest, according to court documents. Prosecutors allege Martins then forced the handcuffed woman to perform a sex act on him as Hall drove the van and watched through the rear view mirror. Martins then allegedly raped the young woman, prosecutors say. Later, the officers allegedly pulled over and switched places, then Hall allegedly forced the woman to perform a sex act on him. According to court documents, the officers drove back to the 60th Precinct, told the victims to call her friends to come get her, then allegedly gave her back her Klonopin pills, told her to keep her mouth shut and released her. Prosecutors say the woman told her friends she had been attacked and was later taken to a hospital, where a rape kit was conducted. Prosecutors say DNA recovered from the woman was a match to both detectives. "These alleged acts are despicable. They have no place in our law enforcement community," said Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Gonzalez said his office is "making sure the officers are held truly accountable for conduct that boggles the mind." The defense attorneys for the detectives argue the victim's story lacks credibility, that she may have a financial motive and that the charges contradict themselves. "What that suggests to me is that the district attorney, after a six-week investigation, also has their own doubts of the credibility of the tale that's been put forth," said Bederow. Gonzalez said, "They're grown men in a position of power over an 18-year-old girl. For them to go ahead and blame her is ridiculous." Bederow said the officers aren't denying they had sex with the teen but are adamant it wasn't rape. "The DNA evidence they cited does not establish a forcible compulsion angle of the case. End of story," he said. Councilman Mark Treyger says whatever happened in the van should be illegal, and that a person in police custody cannot give consent. While state law makes it illegal for parole and correction officers to have sex with prisoners, Treyger is now drawing up a bill that would do the same for local police. "There is no such thing as consensual sex when someone else is in police custody. That is rape," said Treyger. An NYPD spokesman said both Martins and Hall have been suspended without pay. Sarah Wallace contributed to this story. A North Texas father described as "possessive" fatally shot his daughter's boyfriend and then ran over the couple before driving away and taking his own life Friday evening, authorities said. Arlington police confirmed 22-year-old Omar Soto was gunned down in the Lincoln Square Shopping Center at about 10 p.m. Friday after walking over to introduce himself to his girlfriend's father. Soto, who graduated in May from the University of Texas at Arlington with a degree in architecture, died at the scene. The identity of Soto's girlfriend has not been released; she remains hospitalized with serious injuries after being run over by her father. Investigators said officers were called to the shopping center after witnesses reported hearing gunshots. Police arrived to find two victims, Soto and his girlfriend. Detectives soon learned that the girl's father, later identified by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner's office as 43-year-old Rafael Brena Arteaga, followed the couple to a movie theater at the shopping center. Police said as the couple and a female friend exited the theater and walked to their car, Arteaga cut them off. A witness told police it appeared Soto walked up to Arteaga to introduce himself. Police said when Arteaga asked Soto his name, Soto responded and Arteaga shot him multiple times. Arteaga then got into his vehicle and ran over both Soto and his daughter, before driving away, police said. Officers later found Arteaga's vehicle on the west side of the city. After trying to communicate with him and receiving no response, officers approached the vehicle and found him dead inside from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. According to police, Arteaga, who had no criminal record and was a licensed gun carrier, was known to be "over protective" and "possessive" of his daughter. The investigation into the murder-suicide is ongoing and police have not yet confirmed a motive in the shooting. Community Reacts Omar Soto's family and friends gathered at his high school alma mater, Moises E. Molina High School in Dallas, Sunday afternoon to celebrate his life. His friends said they did not know the young woman he was seen with and never expected this to happen to Soto. Carlos Martinez said his friend Soto was a "nice, humble person." "He was the greatest guy I ever met," Martinez said. Soto's friends said he had his eyes set on grad school and becoming an architect. "I got to go see him graduate and walk the stage this summer," said a young man to the crowd of about 50 people. "I told him he'd be there for my graduation. I told him I wanted to go to UTA and be an architect just like him." Each wrote a special message to Soto on a white balloon. The officials also signed an MOU in support of Egyptian development initiatives Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry met in Cairo on Monday with the European Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement, Johannes Hahn, to discuss a framework for cooperation on a variety of key issues between Egypt and the EU within the upcoming three years. Chief among the topics discussed was the necessity of enhancing joint cooperation on countering terrorism and illegal immigration, as both constitute an increasing threat to the security and stability of the Middle East and Europe. Shoukry highlighted Egypt's ongoing efforts to strengthen border control and expressed his country's keenness to participate in the first round of Egyptian-European talks on illegal immigration by the end of November. The meeting also included the singing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) which outlined the allocation of European financial assistance to a number of development projects in accordance with Egypt's Sustainable Development Strategy 2030. In other matters, the Egyptian foreign minsiter expressed concerns about the EU's technical programme to manage Nile water resources, which was adopted in August 2017. According to Shoukry, the EU's insistence on executing the program within the framework of the Nile Basin Initiative, but without taking into consideration Egyptian concerns over the matter, would undermine Egypt's activities in the joint initiative. The officials also discussed a number of regional subjects of mutual interest, such as the situations in Libya, Iraq, Syria, and the ongoing Gulf crisis. The EU commissioner praised Egypt's efforts to achieve Palestinian reconciliation, as well as ongoing efforts to reach peaceful political solutions to the crises in Syria and Libya. Search Keywords: Short link: A newly proposed nuisance ordinance could soon go into effect in Dallas. It would mean property owners would be forced to secure their own business or home, whether they want to or not. Some residents say it will hold businesses accountable, but others question whether owners should be held accountable for crime committed on their property. Currently, within the Dallas Police Department, there is a Nuisance Abatement Unit. The proposed ordinance would combine resources of the City of Dallas and the Dallas Police Department. According to the drafted document from the Jon Fortune, Dallas Assistant City Manager, the Nuisance Abatement Ordinance "will allow the City of Dallas to place placards on Risk properties, create a criminal offense for an owner/person-in-control of a Risk property who fails to attend the accord meeting, and authorize the City of Dallas to charge fees to recoup the cost of regulating Risk properties." Within the proposed draft, if an owner is cited five or more times in one year, a sign will be placed near their door, or in an inconspicuous place, stating that their property is a criminal nuisance. The placard will state the following: "The Dallas Police Department has declared this property a criminal nuisance under Article VIII, Chapter 27, of the Dallas City Code. If you have questions, please call DPD at [telephone number determined by the chief]; or, if you see something suspicious occurring at this property or in an emergency, dial 911." Chapter 125 of the Texas Civil Practices and Remedies Code defines a criminal nuisance as a person who maintains a place to which persons habitually go for the following purposes and who knowingly tolerates the activity and furthermore fails to make reasonable attempts to abate the activity maintains a common nuisance: Capital Murder or Murder Aggravated Sexual Assault or Sexual Assault Aggravated Robbery or Robbery Aggravated Assault Unlawfully Carrying a Weapon Discharge of a firearm in a public place or reckless discharge of a firearm; Engaging in organized criminal activity as a member of gang; Deliver, possession, manufacture, or use of a controlled substance; Gambling, promotion, or communicating gambling information; Prostitution, promotion, aggravated promotion, or compelling; or Commercial manufacture, distribution or exhibition of obscene material. Once a property is cited as a "criminal nuisance," a meeting with the Dallas chief of police, inspections and fees could follow. The owner must show a resolved commitment to actively combating criminal activity by adding security or surveillance. Non-applicable crimes include all offenses involving domestic violence, forgery, counterfeiting, fraud, embezzlement, stolen property (buying, receiving, or possessing), crimes against family and children and driving while intoxicated. Once city leaders vote on the costs of the fees, the drafted ordinance will be approved. The ordinance could go into effect by the end of November. What to Know Paul Manafort and an ex-business associate, Rick Gates, were indicted on counts of conspiracy against the U.S. and other charges The charges were the first stemming from Robert Mueller's probe into possible ties between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia Manafort was axed as Trump's campaign chief in August after it came out he was behind covert lobbying operation for pro-Russian interests President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a deputy campaign official, Rick Gates, have been indicted on 12 charges in an alleged money-laundering and influence-peddling scheme involving the government of Ukraine and conspiracy against the United States. A third member of the Trump campaign was charged with lying to FBI agents in the probe and pleaded guilty. The charges were the first stemming from Mueller's probe into possible ties between Trump's presidential campaign and Russia, and ushered Mueller's sprawling investigation into a new phase with felony charges and possible prison sentences for key members of the Trump team. Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty in federal court in Washington Monday to accusations both men funneled more than $75 million in payments through foreign companies and bank accounts, with Manafort laundering more than $18 million and Gates transferring more than $3 million from the accounts to ones he controlled. They ended the day under house arrest. "Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income," Mueller alleges in the indictment. Read it in full in the embedded document in this story. The charges include "conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts," a Mueller spokesman said. The indictment, filed in federal court in Washington, was unsealed Monday after Manafort and Gates surrendered to federal authorities. In a second announcement, Mueller's team said Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents in Mueller probe. According to court documents, Papadopoulos lied to investigators about what he knew about Russians possessing emails belonging to Hillary Clinton, and when he knew it. An attorney for Manafort said there is "no evidence" that his client or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government. Attorney Kevin Downing also said the charges related to his client's offshore money transfers are "ridiculous." A spokesman for Gates said "he welcomes the opportunity to confront these charges in court" but will not comment further until after reviewing the indictment, adding, "this fight is just beginning." Shortly after the announcement about Manafort and Gates, President Donald Trump tweeted, "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" Trump added, "....Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, "Today's announcement has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the president's campaign or campaign activity." The indictment of Manafort and Gates doesn't reference the Trump campaign or make any allegations about coordination between the Kremlin and the president's aides to influence the outcome of the election in Trump's favor. But the indictment does allege a criminal conspiracy was continuing through February of this year, after Trump had taken office. Manafort, 68, led Trump's presidential campaign for several months, and has denied wrongdoing. The longtime lobbyist's home was raided by FBI agents in July in search of financial documents and was reportedly told he would face indictment. CNN first reported Friday that a grand jury approved the charges unsealed on Monday, which was confirmed by NBC News over the weekend. A statute of limitations issue may have helped drive Monday's action, though the indictment does not preclude more charges being filed against Manafort, four sources, including multiple law enforcement sources, told NBC News. Investigators have focused on associates including Manafort and ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign in February after White House officials said he had misled them about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States. Manafort joined Trump's campaign in March 2016 and oversaw the convention delegate strategy. Trump pushed him out in August amid a steady stream of negative headlines about Manafort's foreign consulting work. Trump's middle son, Eric Trump, said in an interview at the time that his father was concerned that questions about Manafort's past were taking attention away from the billionaire's presidential bid. Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. That investigation was incorporated into Mueller's broader probe. Previously, he denied any wrongdoing related to his Ukrainian work, saying through a spokesman that it "was totally open and appropriate." Manafort also recently registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for parts of Ukrainian work that occurred in Washington. The filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act came retroactively, a tacit acknowledgment that he operated in Washington in violation of the federal transparency law. Mueller's investigation has also reached into the White House, as he examines the circumstances of James Comey's firing as FBI director. He had been leading the investigation. Mueller's appointment as special counsel came one week afterward, and also followed the recusal months earlier of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the probe. Investigators have requested extensive documents from the White House about key actions since Trump took office and have interviewed multiple current and former officials. Mueller's grand jury has also heard testimony about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by a Russian lawyer as well as Manafort, Donald Trump Jr., and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In Gates, Mueller brings in not just Manafort's chief deputy, but a key player from Trump's campaign who survived past Manafort's ouster last summer. As of two weeks ago, Gates was still working for Tom Barrack, a Trump confidant, helping with the closeout of the inauguration committee's campaign account. NBC's Asher Klein contributed to this report. What to Know A federal grand jury has approved the first criminal charges in the special counsels investigation into Russian election interference The head of Puerto Rico's power company said the agency will cancel its $300 million contract with Whitefish Energy Holdings amid scrutiny Kevin Spacey issued an apology after a fellow actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Spacey made sexual advances on him when he was a teen Get the top headlines of the day in your morning briefing from NBC 4 New York, Monday through Friday. Sign up for our newsletter here. Mueller's Office to Issue 1st Indictment in Russia Investigation, Sources Say A federal grand jury in Washington has approved the first criminal charges in the special counsels investigation into Russian election interference, two sources told NBC News. Mueller's Office of the Special Counsel will make public an indictment on Monday, a U.S. official with firsthand knowledge of the process confirmed to NBC News, without disclosing the name of the target or the nature of the charges. The timing was also confirmed by a second source familiar with the matter. CNN was the first to report that the grand jury approved charges, citing multiple sources. The network added that the charges remain sealed by order of a federal judge. Mueller, a former FBI director, was appointed in May as special counsel to oversee the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the election. Peter Carr, a spokesperson for Mueller, declined to comment. Trump Comes Ahead With Fresh Criticism of Russia Inquiry President Trump expressed renewed frustration over the investigations into alleged ties between his campaign associates and Russian government officials, saying on Twitter that the "facts are pouring out" about links to Russia by his former presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. "DO SOMETHING!" Trump urged in one of five tweets. Trump's tweets followed a CNN report that a federal grand jury in Washington has approved the first charges in a criminal investigation into Russia ties led by special counsel Robert Mueller. Mueller's Special Counsel's Office is expected to make public an indictment, U.S. official with firsthand knowledge of the process confirmed to NBC News, without disclosing the name of the target or the nature of the charges. We're Here: Women Rescued After 5 Months at Sea Reach Dry Land Two women from Hawaii who were adrift on a storm-battered sailboat in the Pacific for months set foot on solid ground at a U.S. Naval base in southern Japan. The USS Ashland rescued Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava and their two dogs about 900 miles southeast of Japan, and brought them to America's White Beach Naval Facility after waiting for a typhoon to pass. The two women, sporting USS Ashland knit shirts, were standing with the commanding officer and others high on the bridgeway as the ship docked. They later spoke to reporters on the flight deck before clearing customs and walking down metal stairs to the dock. They had left Honolulu on May 3 aboard Appel's 50-foot vessel, the Sea Nymph, for what was supposed to be an 18-day trip to Tahiti. Storms flooded the engine, destroying the starter, and damaged the mast so badly that they couldn't generate enough wind power to stay on course, they said. The two women tried to return and at one point in June were within 726 nautical miles of Oahu but couldn't make it, Appel said. Puerto Rico Says It's Scrapping $300M Whitefish Contract The head of Puerto Rico's power company said the agency will cancel its $300 million contract with Whitefish Energy Holdings amid increased scrutiny of the tiny Montana company's role in restoring the island's power system following Hurricane Maria. The announcement by Ricardo Ramos came hours after Gov. Ricardo Rossello urged the utility to scrap the deal for Whitefish's help in rebuilding the electrical system. "It's an enormous distraction," Ramos said of the controversy over the contract. "This was negatively impacting the work we're already doing." The current work by Whitefish teams will not be affected by the cancellation and that work will be completed in November, Ramos said. He said the cancellation will delay work by a couple of months because the government will have to find new companies to help restore power to the island. Whitefish said in a statement Sunday evening that it was "very disappointed" that the governor asked PREPA to cancel the contract, NBC News reported. Kevin Spacey Apologizes After Actor Accuses Him of Underage Sexual Advance Kevin Spacey, an Oscar- and Tony-winner actor, issued an apology after a fellow actor alleged that Spacey made sexual advances on him when he was a teen. Spacey was responding to claims made by Broadway actor Anthony Rapp in an interview with BuzzFeed. Rapp claimed that when he was 14 years old in 1986, he attended a party at Spacey's apartment. A "drunk" Spacey, then 26, lay him on a bed, "pressing into me," Rapp said. "He was trying to seduce me," Rapp added. "I don't know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually." The now 58-year-old "House of Cards" actor issued a statement Twitter: "I'm beyond horrified to hear his story. I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago." Rapp told BuzzFeed he was able to "squirm" away and leave, recalling that he only ever interacted with Spacey one other time, in 1999. Spacey apologized "for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years." Rapp, now 46, told BuzzFeed that as Spacey's success grew so did his "frustration, anger, and incredulity with the sexual boundary he said Spacey crossed." Communities across New York and New Jersey marked the fifth anniversary of Sandy on Sunday, a day that ironically saw the region hit by another strong storm system containing soaking rains and strong winds. "Of course Mother Nature is taking another shot at us today. She has a sick sense of humor," Richard Thompson said Sunday while watching the rain fall at a convenience store in Toms River, New Jersey. "This storm obviously won't be anywhere near what Sandy was, but it would have been nicer to have a sunny day today." Thompson said his family's summer home in the Mantoloking area was destroyed by Sandy, a meteorological hybrid "superstorm" created when a former hurricane merged with other systems. The home has been rebuilt, but the lengthy process of getting the work completed was "a nightmare. Just so many people and agencies involved," Thompson said. Sandy was blamed for at least 182 deaths in the U.S. and Caribbean and more than $71 billion in damage in this country alone. It swamped coastline communities, knocked out power to millions of people and businesses, flooded parts of New York City's transit system and set neighborhoods ablaze. As a light rain fell on the Rockaway Peninsula on Sunday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio marked the anniversary in the waterfront neighborhood. "Five years later, it's impossible to forget what happened," de Blasio said at a neighborhood YMCA. "We're talking about the worst natural disaster we have ever faced in this city." Later, steady rain continued to soak the region as the National Weather Service issued a high wind warning for New York City until 6 p.m. Monday. Many say there still are people struggling to repair and rebuild their homes. Rallies were being held from Asbury Park, New Jersey, to Lindenhurst, New York, by those hoping the damage doesn't fade in the national psyche, especially in light of the recent spate of storms in Texas, Florida and the Caribbean. "Families go through this hell every year around the anniversary," said Michele Insinga, executive director of a Long Island-based nonprofit called "Adopt a House," which advocates for Sandy victims still struggling to repair and rebuild their homes. "Then another 51 weeks goes by where no one is talking about it. We feel like Sandy is the forgotten storm." Insinga was among a coalition of Long Island activists who gathered near the shore Sunday, despite the severe weather, to keep the focus on recovery. "Sandy is not over," says Ryan Madden of the Long Island Progressive Coalition. "Long Islanders are still not in their homes; communities are in need of vital infrastructure and resiliency improvements; and New York State has not done enough to safeguard us from future climate impacts." In Asbury Park, the New Jersey shore town synonymous with Bruce Springsteen, more than a dozen environmental organizations marked the anniversary by linking hands across the boardwalk and sharing stories of loss and recovery. Organizers said the event also laid out steps needed "to address climate change and save lives." Back in New York, the city of Long Beach, on Long Island, paid tribute to first responders and groups that assisted in the recovery. The entire barrier island community just east of New York City was swamped by the Atlantic Ocean during the storm. Its 2-mile boardwalk had to be completely rebuilt at a cost of $40 million, and the city has spent $122 million on other recovery efforts. "Five years after the storm, we are stronger as a community, more united than ever in fighting for what we need and deserve," City Manager Jack Schnirman said. "With all of that said, we fully recognize that we still have much more to do." A 12-year-old boy plunged from an overpass in Virginia in an apparent suicide attempt on Saturday, killing a woman who was driving her SUV on the interstate below, police say. Marisa Harris, 22, of Olney, Maryland, was killed. She was a clinical counseling student who would have helped the child if she had the chance, her devastated mother told News4. She wanted to devote her career to helping children, family members said. The 12-year-old, who police did not name, has life-threatening injuries. Maryland State Police are investigating the incident as a suicide attempt. The boy's family is stunned, a man who said he was his uncle told News4's Jackie Bensen. "I don't know what happened," he said. The child often walked in the neighborhood, his uncle said. He lives near Thoreau Middle School, which is less than a mile from the I-66 overpass from which he plunged. Harris was driving a 2005 Ford Escape in Vienna on eastbound I-66 when the boy jumped from the overpass at Cedar Lane, Virginia State Police said. He landed on her SUV about 4:15 p.m. It happened so quickly that Harris was not able to avoid hitting the child, Harris' mother told News4. Harris' boyfriend was sitting in the front passenger seat. He was able to grab the wheel and steer the vehicle off the road. Harris was killed by the impact and was pronounced dead at the scene. The boy was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries. And Harris' boyfriend was unhurt. Harris was a Towson University graduate who was just finishing her first semester studying clinical counseling at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia, her mother said. Lisa Jackson-Cherry, a professor at Marymount, said Harris showed great promise as a counselor. She was "caring, compassionate and genuine," Jackson-Cherry said. "Marisa came across as a very caring and compassionate student -- someone who wanted to help others who were either disadvantaged or needed more assistance to work through mental distress," she said. Several members of Harris' family are psychologists. She had recently taken a trip to Budapest as part of a college course. Courtesy of Marisa Harris' family Marymount University officials informed students of Harris' death via email. "Every student contributes immeasurably to the community we create together at Marymount University. The loss of any student, particularly in so heartbreaking a manner, grieves us all," a statement said. A 22-year-old graduate student at Marymount University died after a boy jumped off an overpass onto her SUV while she was driving on I-66. News4's Darcy Spencer reports. The school made counselors available to students and staff. Officials are planning an on-campus memorial. The 12-year-old's friends said they were not aware of any problems he had. AAA Mid-Atlantic spokesman Tom Calcagani advised drivers to stay aware of their surroundings. "It shows us again that we all need to be conscious of what's around us," he said. However, Harris likely did not have enough time to react, AAA said. State police originally said a man had fallen off of the overpass. Fairfax County Public Schools sent parents an email on Monday advising them to be aware of signs of mental illness in their children. Anyone having a crisis can call 911 or text NEEDHELP to 85511. Should a Fence Surround the Overpass? There is fencing on the Cedar Lane overpass, but it only extends above the Metro tracks that run between the lanes of traffic. The overpass was built in 1963, when fences were not required all the way across an overpass. "It met the standards when it was built," Virginia Department of Transportation project manager Susan Shaw said. If it were built today, it would have a fence all the way around. Federal regulations do not require fencing across similar bridges. Local governments make the call. The overpass is set to be replaced when the I-66 express lane project ramps up in the coming months. If you are in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or reach out to the Crisis Text Line by texting 'Home' to 741741. Egypt's presidency announced the appointment of Bassam Rady as its new spokesperson on Monday, ending the three-year tenure of Alaa Youssef. Youssef confirmed in a short statement that Rady, Egypt's former consul in Turkey, would be replacing him. The former spokesperson also added that he had been chosen to head Egypt's Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva. Youssef expressed his appreciation for having served as spokesperson under President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi's administration and for the cooperation of Egypt's media and press with his office over the past three years. Bassam Rady is the third spokesperson to serve as the Egyptian Presidency spokesperson during President Sisi's term after Ehab Badawy and Alaa Youssef. Search Keywords: Short link: Six Palestinians were killed Monday as Israel blew up what it said was a tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into its territory, a rare case of such an incident since a devastating 2014 war. Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the Hamas-led Gazan health ministry, confirmed six men had been killed. One of the men came from Hamas' armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades confirmed, while at least some of the others were believed to be from Islamic Jihad, an allied militant group. Their deaths were announced after Israel "neutralised a terror tunnel leading into southern Israel," military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told journalists. "The tunnel was detonated from within Israel, close to the security fence." Tunnels dug by Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas were a key issue in the last war with Israel in 2014, but discoveries of those stretching into the Jewish state have since been rare. Islamic Jihad said in a statement that the tunnels were "part of the policy of deterrence to defend the Palestinian people". It added they were studying potential responses to this "dangerous escalation". Conricus said the Israeli military was not seeking a further escalation. He said the tunnel was targeted around two kilometres (less than two miles) from the Israeli village of Kissufim, but added that no Israelis had been in danger. He said the tunnel was still being dug and no opening was found in Israeli territory. The military had been monitoring it for "some time", Conricus said, declining to say when it was first discovered. In April 2016, Israel's military said it had located and destroyed a tunnel extending from the Gaza Strip into Israel in the first such discovery since the 2014 assault. "We are developing breakthrough technology to deal with the tunnel threat," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. "We are implementing it. Today we located a tunnel and destroyed it. Whoever seeks to harm us will be hit." Conricus also said Israel used advanced technology to locate the tunnel but declined to elaborate. Monday's operation came as Palestinian rival factions Hamas and Fatah seek to follow through on a reconciliation deal signed earlier this month aimed at ending a decade-long rift between them. Hamas is due to hand control of the Gaza Strip back to the Palestinian Authority by December 1 under the agreement. The Islamist movement seized the enclave in a near civil war with Fatah, based in the occupied West Bank, in 2007. Israel has warned that it will not accept a unity government that includes Hamas if the Islamist movement does not disarm and recognise the country, among other demands. Israel launched its 2014 offensive in Gaza with the stated objectives of halting rocket fire and destroying attack tunnels into Israel. During the offensive, 32 tunnels were discovered, including 14 that extended into Israel, according to a UN report on the conflict. It was the third offensive on Gaza since 2008 and the longest, deadliest and most destructive. It killed 2,251 Palestinians, while more than 10,000 were wounded and 100,000 were left homeless. On the Israeli side, 74 people were killed. *The story was edited by Ahram Online Search Keywords: Short link: Newbury mother launches local group to change law A NEWBURY mother who is campaigning to allow terminally-ill people to control their own death is launching a new group in Newbury. Christine Eeley described how she watched helplessly as her daughter Isobel Kennerley, aged 33, died from terminal brain cancer in May this year. Mrs Eeley recalled how her daughter begged her for help as her health deteriorated in her last days. Mrs Eeley said: Its the lack of dignity that is so distressing. At the end she couldnt move, eat or speak, but still had mental capacity. She was in agony and I could do nothing. She wanted the choice to die. I would have borrowed the money to take her to Dignitas [the Swiss organisation that provides assisted suicide to the terminally ill], but it was difficult to judge the right time before she was too weak to travel. Next month Mrs Eeley is opening a Newbury-based Dignity in Dying group, as the nearest one is currently in Reading. The first meeting will be held on November 4 in the Town Hall chamber, Newbury, between 11am and 1pm. This meeting will provide the opportunity for local people to hear more about the campaign, ask questions and brainstorm ideas for campaigning locally. Lesley Close, a patron of Dignity in Dying, who accompanied her brother John to Dignitas in Switzerland in 2003 when he was dying of motor neurone disease, will be speaking at the meeting and sharing her story. Isobel Kennerley was a teaching assistant at St Bartholomews School, Newbury, and also worked with autistic children. She had a degree in educational practice and had ambitions to study for a masters degree specialising in autistic studies, but had to give up her dream as she was in so much pain. Mrs Kennerley was born with cerebral palsy, which affected her left side. She then developed a brain tumour, which was also on the left side and started to affect the right side but her illness failed to dampen her spirits. Her mother said: She was very, very strong determined and braver than you can imagine. Her view was Im okay today. I can do this. Dignity in Dying campaigns for a change in the law to allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults with less than six months to live to have the option of a safe, legal assisted death. There are currently more than 30 groups around the country, of which West Berkshire is one of the newest. The largest ever poll on assisted dying found that 82 per cent of the public were in support of a change in the law. If you would like to attend the first meeting, please email Mrs Eeley at christine.eeley19@gmail.com or call 07748 114833. Photo caption By Online Desk The Supreme Court on Monday afternoon resumed hearing the Aadhaar matter. The apex court has decided that the five-judge bench will hear the matter of constitutional validity of Aadhaar in the last week of November. A constitution bench would also be set up to hear a clutch of petitions challenging the Centre's decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing various services and government welfare schemes. READ HERE | Supreme Court to set up Constitution bench to hear pleas against Aadhaar Earlier in the day, the SC sought the Centre's response on a plea challenging the mandatory linking of mobile phones with Aadhaar. A bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan gave the Centre four-weeks time to respond. The court also gave time to the West Bengal government to amend its petition questioning the linking of Aadhaar for giving of subsidy by the state's Labour Department. It observed: "how could state government challenge a law passed by the Centre?" READ FULL REPORT HERE | Aadhaar case: SC comes down heavily on Mamata government, asks how can state file a plea challenging Parliament's mandate The court said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could challenge the Aadhaar law as an "individual" and a "citizen". However, it also observed that "this way Centre would start challenging the laws passed by the States". Here is what the apex court said: 2.05 pm: Supreme Court's five-judge constitution bench to hear the Aadhar matter in the last week of November. CJI Deepal Misra has said that the court will try to constitute the constitution bench by Novenmber end. 1.00 pm: The attorney-general will mention the Aadhaar case at 2 pm. 11.30am: Supreme Court also sent notice to telecom companies. 11.29am: Supreme Court issues notice to Centre, asks it to file the response within 4 weeks. The Centre had informed the apex court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefirs of various government schemes has been extended till March 31 next year. 11.10am: Supreme Court asks West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to file the petition in an individual capacity. Launching a fresh salvo at the Centre last week, the West Bengal chief minister had challenged that she won't link her Aadhaar number with her mobile number and dared the Centre to disconnect her number for disobedience. "I will not link my Aadhaar with my telephone number under any circumstance. If the Centre disconnects my phone, let them do it. I urge you to do the same. How many telephone connections will they disconnect?" she had said. READ HERE: Debate on compulsory Aadhaar leaves public puzzled 11.09am: Supreme Court observed how can a state challenge a law passed by the Centre. 11.08am: West Bengal government had filed plea challenging linking and will now amend it and re-file the same. The West Bengal government challenged the provision which says that without Aadhaar, the benefits of social welfare schemes would not be extended. Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefits of various government schemes has been extended till March 31 next year for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric identification number. It had said that the deadline extension from December end till March 31, 2018, would apply only to those who do not have Aadhaar and are willing to enrol for it. ALSO READ: Another Aadhaar card 'goof up': 800 villagers in Haridwar have same date of birth Several petitions, challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes and notifications to link it with mobile numbers and bank accounts, are pending in the apex court. (With inputs from ANI and PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday afternoon resumed hearing the Aadhaar matter. The apex court has decided that the five-judge bench will hear the matter of constitutional validity of Aadhaar in the last week of November. A constitution bench would also be set up to hear a clutch of petitions challenging the Centre's decision to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing various services and government welfare schemes. READ HERE | Supreme Court to set up Constitution bench to hear pleas against Aadhaar Earlier in the day, the SC sought the Centre's response on a plea challenging the mandatory linking of mobile phones with Aadhaar. A bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan gave the Centre four-weeks time to respond. The court also gave time to the West Bengal government to amend its petition questioning the linking of Aadhaar for giving of subsidy by the state's Labour Department. It observed: "how could state government challenge a law passed by the Centre?" READ FULL REPORT HERE | Aadhaar case: SC comes down heavily on Mamata government, asks how can state file a plea challenging Parliament's mandate The court said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could challenge the Aadhaar law as an "individual" and a "citizen". However, it also observed that "this way Centre would start challenging the laws passed by the States". Here is what the apex court said: 2.05 pm: Supreme Court's five-judge constitution bench to hear the Aadhar matter in the last week of November. CJI Deepal Misra has said that the court will try to constitute the constitution bench by Novenmber end. 1.00 pm: The attorney-general will mention the Aadhaar case at 2 pm. 11.30am: Supreme Court also sent notice to telecom companies. 11.29am: Supreme Court issues notice to Centre, asks it to file the response within 4 weeks. The Centre had informed the apex court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefirs of various government schemes has been extended till March 31 next year. 11.10am: Supreme Court asks West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee to file the petition in an individual capacity. Launching a fresh salvo at the Centre last week, the West Bengal chief minister had challenged that she won't link her Aadhaar number with her mobile number and dared the Centre to disconnect her number for disobedience. "I will not link my Aadhaar with my telephone number under any circumstance. If the Centre disconnects my phone, let them do it. I urge you to do the same. How many telephone connections will they disconnect?" she had said. READ HERE: Debate on compulsory Aadhaar leaves public puzzled 11.09am: Supreme Court observed how can a state challenge a law passed by the Centre. 11.08am: West Bengal government had filed plea challenging linking and will now amend it and re-file the same. The West Bengal government challenged the provision which says that without Aadhaar, the benefits of social welfare schemes would not be extended. Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefits of various government schemes has been extended till March 31 next year for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric identification number. It had said that the deadline extension from December end till March 31, 2018, would apply only to those who do not have Aadhaar and are willing to enrol for it. ALSO READ: Another Aadhaar card 'goof up': 800 villagers in Haridwar have same date of birth Several petitions, challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes and notifications to link it with mobile numbers and bank accounts, are pending in the apex court. (With inputs from ANI and PTI) Bechu S By Online Desk A hunger strike that was announced yesterday by All Kerala Santhi Kshema Union (AKSKU), an organisation of Brahmin priests in Kerala, demanding the expulsion of a recently appointed Dalit priest, has been called off, amid criticism. Malayalam media portals on Sunday reported that AKSKU, with the support of Yogakshemasabha a Namboodiri Brahmin welfare association, would stage an indefinite hunger strike before the office of Thiruvalla Devaswom Assistant Commissioner from Monday morning, demanding that Yedu Krishnan, one among six Dalit priests appointed by the Kerala Government, recently, be fired. Reports said that the AKSKU had accused Yedu Krishnan of starting the routine temple rituals late and going absent without leave, and not leaving anyone else in charge. It was decided that AS Krishnan Namboodiri, General Secretary of the AKSKU would start fasting from 10 AM. However, Yogakshemasabha told Express that the agitation has been suspended and denied any involvement in the event. It was the AKSKU that had announced the strike. We had no involvement in it. This confusion emerged because many members of our association are a part of AKSKU as well, said E Krishnan Namboodiri, All India Brahmin Federation Executive member and Alappzuha District Secretary of the Yogakshemasabha. A press release clarifying their stand will be published, he said. Krishnan Namboodiri said that the stir was called off as the Devaswom Ministry has promised to look into the accusations against Yedu Krishnan over neglecting his priestly duties. Yedu Krishnan had told the media earlier that the allegations levelled against him were untrue. He clarified that he had submitted his leave application in writing beforehand, but his substitute was a few minutes late for duty as the persons father had met with an accident. No major delays in the daily activities of the temple were caused. Yedu Krishnan was not available to respond today. Minister extends support Stating that the real reason behind the Brahmin priests intention to go on strike their reluctance to accept a person from the scheduled caste as a priest in a temple, Kerala Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran said, extending support to Yedu Krishnan. The Minister said temple procedures often start 10 or 15 minutes late due to personal reasons of the priests, but these organisations (AKSKU) have never bothered to agitate before. Nevertheless, he said it would be looked into if Yedu Krishnan had been negligent about work on purpose. Twenty-two-year-old Yedu Krishnan was one among six Dalit priests appointed by the Government of Kerala under the Travancore Devaswom Board, in a much-discussed revolutionary move. He was the first among the six to take charge when he assumed duties at the Manappuram Lord Shiva Temple near Thiruvalla in Pathanamthitta district. A native of Thrissur districts Koratty, Yedu is a post-graduate student of Sanskrit and has an experience of seven years in priesthood. Social media slammed the proposed protest Following the news reports about the hunger strike, Facebook users from Kerala responded strongly against the agitators calling it the very latest incident exposing the casteist face of Kerala. If the lower castes are not allowed to do pujas in temples, then the entire concept of Hindu unity put up by organisations like the Hindu Parliament (an organisation that says its stated objective is to unite all Hindus, regardless of caste) is a lie, one user wrote. If Dalits are also Hindu community, then why cant they be priests? Why should there be separate temples? This is exactly what casteism is, another person responded. Supporters of the agitation were asked by many people to show them which religious text of the Hindu religion bans lower castes from entering priesthood. A hunger strike that was announced yesterday by All Kerala Santhi Kshema Union (AKSKU), an organisation of Brahmin priests in Kerala, demanding the expulsion of a recently appointed Dalit priest, has been called off, amid criticism. Malayalam media portals on Sunday reported that AKSKU, with the support of Yogakshemasabha a Namboodiri Brahmin welfare association, would stage an indefinite hunger strike before the office of Thiruvalla Devaswom Assistant Commissioner from Monday morning, demanding that Yedu Krishnan, one among six Dalit priests appointed by the Kerala Government, recently, be fired. Reports said that the AKSKU had accused Yedu Krishnan of starting the routine temple rituals late and going absent without leave, and not leaving anyone else in charge. It was decided that AS Krishnan Namboodiri, General Secretary of the AKSKU would start fasting from 10 AM. However, Yogakshemasabha told Express that the agitation has been suspended and denied any involvement in the event. It was the AKSKU that had announced the strike. We had no involvement in it. This confusion emerged because many members of our association are a part of AKSKU as well, said E Krishnan Namboodiri, All India Brahmin Federation Executive member and Alappzuha District Secretary of the Yogakshemasabha. A press release clarifying their stand will be published, he said. Krishnan Namboodiri said that the stir was called off as the Devaswom Ministry has promised to look into the accusations against Yedu Krishnan over neglecting his priestly duties. Yedu Krishnan had told the media earlier that the allegations levelled against him were untrue. He clarified that he had submitted his leave application in writing beforehand, but his substitute was a few minutes late for duty as the persons father had met with an accident. No major delays in the daily activities of the temple were caused. Yedu Krishnan was not available to respond today. Minister extends support Stating that the real reason behind the Brahmin priests intention to go on strike their reluctance to accept a person from the scheduled caste as a priest in a temple, Kerala Devaswom Minister Kadakampally Surendran said, extending support to Yedu Krishnan. The Minister said temple procedures often start 10 or 15 minutes late due to personal reasons of the priests, but these organisations (AKSKU) have never bothered to agitate before. Nevertheless, he said it would be looked into if Yedu Krishnan had been negligent about work on purpose. Twenty-two-year-old Yedu Krishnan was one among six Dalit priests appointed by the Government of Kerala under the Travancore Devaswom Board, in a much-discussed revolutionary move. He was the first among the six to take charge when he assumed duties at the Manappuram Lord Shiva Temple near Thiruvalla in Pathanamthitta district. A native of Thrissur districts Koratty, Yedu is a post-graduate student of Sanskrit and has an experience of seven years in priesthood. Social media slammed the proposed protest Following the news reports about the hunger strike, Facebook users from Kerala responded strongly against the agitators calling it the very latest incident exposing the casteist face of Kerala. If the lower castes are not allowed to do pujas in temples, then the entire concept of Hindu unity put up by organisations like the Hindu Parliament (an organisation that says its stated objective is to unite all Hindus, regardless of caste) is a lie, one user wrote. If Dalits are also Hindu community, then why cant they be priests? Why should there be separate temples? This is exactly what casteism is, another person responded. Supporters of the agitation were asked by many people to show them which religious text of the Hindu religion bans lower castes from entering priesthood. By PTI CHENNAI: Rains lashed several parts of Tamil Nadu today, partially disrupting normal life in some areas in this metropolis and claiming one life in Thanjavur district. Though the showers, the first big spell after the North East Monsoon set in over the state last week, brought cheers in several parts hit by water scarcity, they also caused traffic snarls and inundation. Several schools in Chennai closed ahead of schedule as the city experienced heavy showers. A 38-year-old man died when a mud wall of his hut collapsed in Thinnaiyoor near Thanjavur district's Orathanadu which experienced heavy rains, police said. The intermittent rains, under the influence of an upper air cyclonic circulation over South West Bay of Bengal, began last night in parts of the state, and intensified this morning. ALSO READ | Storm surge warning for Chennai: Study The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast heavy to very heavy rains in some areas of coastal districts, including the capital city and its neighbourhood, in the next 24 hours. "The upper air cyclonic circulation over Southwest Bay of Bengal near Sri Lanka yesterday continues to be positioned in the same region," Director of Area Cyclone Warning Centre here S Balachandran told reporters. Source: Indian Meteorological Department Due to this, coastal districts and many places in interior districts were likely to witness moderate showers in the next 24 hours, he said. Some areas in coastal districts of Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, and Ramanathapuram might experience heavy and very heavy rains as well, he added. Traffic in Chennai came to a grinding halt in several locations like the arterial GST Road and Anna Salai, affecting traffic bound for airport and other outskirt areas. IN PICTURES | A few hours of rain, Chennai already struggling Buses were delayed in several areas and parts of the city and suburbs witnessed water logging, affecting office-goers and school children. Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner D Karthikeyan said the civic body was fully geared to tackle the situation. He said the corporation had over 450 water pumps which would be used in low-lying areas to bale out water in the event of waterlogging. READ HERE | Two years after Chennai flood, city still groping in dark Reports from Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur and Thanjavur said several parts the districts received rains since morning. In a span of 24 hours, in Chennai, starting from 8:30 am on Sunday, the Nungambakkam observatory recorded a good 20 mm of rain, according to a Business Standard report. Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu weatherman, Pradeep John, who had become a reliable source for weather forecasts after the 2015 floods in Chennai, has been continuously posting updates on social media every few hours. Heavy spells of rain were seen in Anna Nagar west. Ambattur, Valasarawalkkam, Koyembedu, Mogappair, Ambattur Estate, Porur, Maduravoyal, Nerkundram, and Nolambur areas of Chennai, said the Tamil Nadu weatherman. The following is his latest update. Earlier, the Tamil Nadu weatherman had posted on Facebook, assuring people that the monsoon showers should not be as worrying as the rains during the Chennai floods in 2015. Rainfall also occurred at isolated places in the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Coastal Karnataka. (With inputs from Online Desk) CHENNAI: Rains lashed several parts of Tamil Nadu today, partially disrupting normal life in some areas in this metropolis and claiming one life in Thanjavur district. Though the showers, the first big spell after the North East Monsoon set in over the state last week, brought cheers in several parts hit by water scarcity, they also caused traffic snarls and inundation. Several schools in Chennai closed ahead of schedule as the city experienced heavy showers. A 38-year-old man died when a mud wall of his hut collapsed in Thinnaiyoor near Thanjavur district's Orathanadu which experienced heavy rains, police said. The intermittent rains, under the influence of an upper air cyclonic circulation over South West Bay of Bengal, began last night in parts of the state, and intensified this morning. ALSO READ | Storm surge warning for Chennai: Study The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast heavy to very heavy rains in some areas of coastal districts, including the capital city and its neighbourhood, in the next 24 hours. "The upper air cyclonic circulation over Southwest Bay of Bengal near Sri Lanka yesterday continues to be positioned in the same region," Director of Area Cyclone Warning Centre here S Balachandran told reporters. Source: Indian Meteorological Department Due to this, coastal districts and many places in interior districts were likely to witness moderate showers in the next 24 hours, he said. Some areas in coastal districts of Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, and Ramanathapuram might experience heavy and very heavy rains as well, he added. Traffic in Chennai came to a grinding halt in several locations like the arterial GST Road and Anna Salai, affecting traffic bound for airport and other outskirt areas. IN PICTURES | A few hours of rain, Chennai already struggling Buses were delayed in several areas and parts of the city and suburbs witnessed water logging, affecting office-goers and school children. Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner D Karthikeyan said the civic body was fully geared to tackle the situation. He said the corporation had over 450 water pumps which would be used in low-lying areas to bale out water in the event of waterlogging. READ HERE | Two years after Chennai flood, city still groping in dark Reports from Nagapattinam, Tiruvarur and Thanjavur said several parts the districts received rains since morning. In a span of 24 hours, in Chennai, starting from 8:30 am on Sunday, the Nungambakkam observatory recorded a good 20 mm of rain, according to a Business Standard report. Meanwhile, the Tamil Nadu weatherman, Pradeep John, who had become a reliable source for weather forecasts after the 2015 floods in Chennai, has been continuously posting updates on social media every few hours. Heavy spells of rain were seen in Anna Nagar west. Ambattur, Valasarawalkkam, Koyembedu, Mogappair, Ambattur Estate, Porur, Maduravoyal, Nerkundram, and Nolambur areas of Chennai, said the Tamil Nadu weatherman. The following is his latest update. Earlier, the Tamil Nadu weatherman had posted on Facebook, assuring people that the monsoon showers should not be as worrying as the rains during the Chennai floods in 2015. Rainfall also occurred at isolated places in the neighbouring states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Coastal Karnataka. (With inputs from Online Desk) Boko Haram fighters killed 11 civilians in Cameroon's far north overnight, targetting a village where several members of the Islamist group were recently arrested, officials told AFP Monday. The Boko Haram attack in the village of Gouderi was "an act of reprisal. The Islamist militants acted after the arrest of a number of their comrades there," a local self-defence group official told AFP. "Boko Haram slaughtered 11 people," added the official who requested anonymity. The attack and the death toll were confirmed by a security services source. Since 2014, when Cameroon entered the war against Boko Haram, the Islamist fighters have killed 2,000 civilians and military personnel in the far north of the country, and kidnapped a thousand more, according to International Crisis Group (ICG) figures. Across the Nigerian border a suicide attack at a mosque left five people dead. Boko Haram typically never claims responsibility but has used suicide bombing as a frequent tactic in its eight-year insurgency to establish a hardline Islamic state Since the group emerged eight years ago it has launched attacks in Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad -- the nations bordering Lake Chad -- and caused the deaths of at least 20,000 people. Search Keywords: Short link: On October 29, 2017, Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie of Luxembourg attended a conference that was held by BLETZ, Asbl at Bettembourg Castle, on the occasion of World Stroke Day 2017. Hereditary Grand Duchess Stephanie is patron of the BLETZ asbl (Letzebuerger Association), since July 6, 2017. (The aim of the association Bletz is to help people with a stroke and ensure integration of disabled into society, while improving the living conditions of stroke survivors). Biden: Deadly missile that hit Poland 'unlikely' to have come from Russia A missile that landed in Poland and killed two people is unlikely to have been fired from Russia, President Joe Biden said late Tuesday. The 13 new solar-power plants will be located in the Aswan area, linking with 19 other plants to make up the Benban Solar Park Egypt signed agreements on Sunday for the construction of 13 solar-power plants in the Aswan area, financed by the International Financial Corporation (IFC), which is a member of the World Bank Group, the Ministry of Investment said in a statement. The agreements were signed by Minister of Electricity Mohamed Shaker, Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr, and IFC Vice President Dimitris Tsitsiragos. The 13 solar power plants, which are expected to generate 590 megawatts, will cost $823 million in total, with the IFC providing $653 million, the statement read. The IFC will provide its funding package in cooperation with around nine international banks. The new deal represents the largest private-sector financing package for a solar photovoltaic facility in the Middle East and North Africa, Reuters reported on Sunday. The 13 planned solar plants will be linked to 19 other plants to make up the Benban Solar Park. Nasr said the new project is expected to be beneficial to more than 350,000 people, providing around 6,000 job opportunities in the construction process, the statement said. "This creates an ecosystem of investors for Egypt for this program and broadens the capital base for future infrastructure spending, Erick Becker, IFC's manager of infrastructure and natural resources in the Middle East and North Africa, told Reuters in an interview. The World Bank has been working with the Egyptian government to help reform the electricity sector. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, also part of the World Bank Group, will provide $210 million in political-risk insurance to 12 projects within Benban, according to Reuters. Shaker said that this project is part of a strategic long-term plan that aims to raise the share of renewable energy to 42 percent by 2035, the statement added. In 2014, Egypt announced plans to tackle energy shortages by developing the renewable-energy sector, a field that has attracted foreign investment, Reuters added. * The total cost of the 13 solar projects is $823 million, not $823 billion, as stated in a previous version of this report. Search Keywords: Short link: Maruti Suzuki India, the country's biggest carmaker, said on Friday it planned to build electric cars as the government strives to electrify all new vehicles by 2030, though it didn't give a timeline for the process. Maruti Suzuki's chairman said there was still no clear roadmap on how the government aimed to achieve its target and a lot would depend on that. "We will make electric cars but I can't give you the date just now because it is all very much a work in progress," R.C. Bhargava told reporters, after the company posted a 3 percent rise in quarterly profit, beating analysts' estimates. India is working on a new auto policy that promotes the use of electric cars, and a draft is likely to be made public before the end of the year. This is a shift from an earlier policy that promoted hybrid and electric vehicles. Sales of electric cars in India remain negligible, however, mainly due to the high cost of batteries which make the vehicles expensive and out of reach for many buyers in a country where cars are as cheap as 250,000 rupees ($3,800). A lack of charging stations also makes the whole proposition unviable for now. Maruti's parent, Suzuki Motor Corp, has electric car technology which it can provide, Bhargava said, adding the Japanese company was also in talks with Toyota Motor Corp to form an alliance which may include sharing technologies like hybrid and electric. Maruti dominates the small car market in India and has been launching more premium vehicles as competition heats up with newer and planned entrants such as Kia Motors and SAIC Motor Corp. Maruti also manufactures hybrid cars, demand for which has taken a beating after the government raised sales taxes on them to as much as 43 percent. Bhargava said the future of hybrid cars in India would depend on the level of taxes and the company was in talks with the government to lower them. GROWTH SLOWING Bhargava said that while the company continued to expect double digit sales growth over the remainder of fiscal 2018, it would slow from the 18 percent posted in the second quarter. Earlier on Friday, Maruti reported a profit of 24.84 billion rupees ($381.86 million) for the second quarter ended Sept. 30, versus 24.02 billion rupees a year ago, helped by higher sales of compact and utility vehicles. (http://bit.ly/2xtLHZZ) Analysts, on average, had expected a profit of 22.29 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data. Maruti, which provides the bulk of Suzuki Motor's revenues, sold a total of 492,118 vehicles during the quarter, up about 18 percent from a year ago. Sales of compact vehicles, which include the Swift and Baleno, rose 43.5 percent, while sales of utility vehicles like the Ertiga and Vitara Brezza climbed 27.6 percent. Maruti shares closed slightly higher at 8,114.45 rupees. Also Watch: Interview | Peter Mackenzie, MD, Harley-Davidson India and China | Cars18 New Delhi: Former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan has suggested that the implementation of GST should be decentralised as priorities of the rich and the poor states are different. Describing the Goods and Services Tax (GST), rolled out nationwide on July 1, as an extremely important steps that the government has taken, Jalan said proper implementation of the new indirect tax regime would take some more time. "Priorities of rich states like Maharashtra and poor states Bihar are going to be different... There are different parties in states and the Centre, so we have to decentralise the implementation of GST," Jalan told PTI. States' revenues will differ, he noted, if one is producing high tax products and another producing low tax products. Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia had also said recently that GST which amalgamates more than a dozen central and state levies like excise duty, service tax and VAT, will take about a year to stabilise. Nearly four months since its introduction, the new indirect tax regime has shown teething troubles and compliance issues, which the GST Council -- the highest decision-making body of the new regime -- is addressing through several rounds of changes. To ease hassles facing medium and small businesses in paying taxes and filing GST returns, it has tweaked various aspects of the new indirect tax regime to make it industry friendly. Also, the GST Council has rationalised rates on over 100 commodities and made refund process easier for exporters. Gwalior: As many as 50 pregnant women have been reported unwell at Kamla Raja Hospital in Gwalior after being administered with antibiotic injections. The incident, which happened late on Sunday, has left two patients extremely critical. Five such patients were also shifted to the ICU after their condition deteriorated. At around 9 pm on Sunday, the pregnant patients of two wards in Gynaecology Department were given Ampicillin injections. Very soon, the women started complaining of shivering and their families reported the matter to the duty staff, which immediately brought it to the notice of the senior doctors. Police and security guards were called in by the hospital staff to avoid any untoward incident and protests from the families of the patients. Soon, assistant superintendent Dr Rita Mishra, HoD Dr Yashodhara Gaur and others reached the spot. The physicians had tough time persuading the families to let them continue with the treatment. Five of these patients were soon shifted to the ICU after their condition deteriorated drastically. Speaking to CNN-News18, Dr Sanjay Chandel, acting superintendent of the hospital claimed that women patients complained of feeling cold after being given Ampicillin injections, which had been kept as samples for inquiry. "Five women were shifted to ICU. Three of them are stable but condition of the other two is serious," Dr Chandel said. Dr Rita Mishra said it was difficult to immediately ascertain what led to the reactionthe injection or distilled water. As precautionary measure, the staff has been asked not to administer Ampicillin injections for the time being, she added. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the hearing of the plea challenging Article 35A of the Constitution which empowers the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to define its 'permanent residents' and bestow on them special rights and privileges. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Mishra adjourned the hearing after the Centre told the court that it has appointed a representative to hold talks with all stakeholders to resolve the Kashmir issue, and contended that it was not the right time to proceed with the matter. Attorney General K K Venugopal had sought six months' time before the hearing of the plea on the sensitive issue could start but the bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, posted the matter for listing after three months. Dineshwar Sharma, a former director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), was appointed the Centre's interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir on October 23. Article 35A, which was added to the Constitution by a Presidential Order in 1954, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state. The provision, which leads such women from the state to forfeit their right over property, also applies to their heirs. The Jammu and Kashmir government, through battery of senior lawyers like Fali S Nariman, Shekhar Naphade, Rakesh Dwivedi, K V Viswanathan and standing counsel Shoeb Alam defended Article 35A. The Advocate General of the State, Jahangir Iqbal Ganai, was also present when the matter was taken up by the court. The state's law minister Abdul Haq Khan and some other ministers were here for the hearing. The bench was hearing three separate writ petitions challenging Article 35A in addition to the main writ petition filed by a group called 'We The Citizens'. Several interlocutory petitions have been filed in support of 35A by various individuals and civil society groups seeking continuance of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The state government has cited two verdicts by the constitution bench of the Supreme Court in 1961 and 1969 which upheld the powers of the president under Article 370(1)(d) of the Constitution of India to pass Constitutional orders. Article 35A was incorporated into the Constitution of India in 1954 by an order of President Rajendra Prasad on the advice of the Jawaharlal Nehru Cabinet. The apex court had on August 14 said a constitution bench may examine whether Article 35A was gender-biased and violative of the basic structure of the Constitution. The court while hearing a plea by Dr Charu Wali Khanna, a Kashmir resident, had indicated that if the Article violated the basic structure of the Constitution or was ultra vires, the issue may be dealt with by a five-judge constitution bench. It had tagged the plea challenging Article 35A with a similar petition that is pending for hearing by a three-judge bench. The state government had earlier said that the issue has already been "prima facie settled" by the High Court in its verdict in 2002. It said that in Dr Susheela Sawhney versus state of Jammu and Kashmir case, the issue was settled by a full bench of the High Court in 2002. In the case, the High Court had, by a majority view, held that a daughter of a permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir marrying a non-permanent resident will not lose the status of a permanent resident. Article 35A, empowers the state's legislature to frame any law without attracting a challenge on the grounds of violation of the Right to Equality of people from other states or any other right under the Indian Constitution. Beijing: Chinese engineers are testing ambitious techniques to build a 1,000-km long tunnel, the worlds longest, to divert water away from Brahmaputra river in Tibet close to Arunachal Pradesh to the arid Xinjiang region, a media report said Monday. The tunnel is likely to be another source of tensions between India and China as the plan, if approved, would have huge ramifications for states along the eastern corridor as well as Bangladesh. Environmentalists in China have also raised concerns about the impact of such a project on the Himalayan region, Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported. The proposed tunnel, which aims to "turn Xinjiang into California", would drop down from the world's highest plateau in multiple sections connected by waterfalls and provide water in China's largest administrative division, comprising vast swathes of deserts and dry grasslands. Engineers want to divert water from the Yarlung Tsangpo River in southern Tibet, which turns into the river Brahmaputra once it enters India, to the Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang. India has already flagged its concerns to Beijing about various dams being built by it on Brahmaputra river, which is known as Yarlung Tsangpo in China. Beijing has assured India and Bangladesh - which is also a recipient of the waters from the river - that its dams were of the run of river projects and not designed to store water. China's longest tunnel is the 85-km Dahuofang water project in Liaoning province, while the world's longest tunnel is the 137-km main water supply pipe beneath the city of New York. Wang Wei, a researcher who helped draft the latest Tibet- Xinjiang water tunnel proposal, which was submitted to the central government in March, said more than 100 scientists formed different teams for the nationwide research effort. He was part of the team which was led by China's top tunnelling expert, Wang Mengshu. The team, according to the report suggested to drain Brahmaputra at Sangri county in southern Tibet, close to Arunachal Pradesh. "Sangri county featured a large, relatively flat valley that was ideal for the engineering project. An artificial island would be built in the middle of the river to create rapid turbulence, which could filter out sediment, and direct water to a well. The well could control the amount of water flowing into the tunnel," the report said. The Chinese government started building a tunnel in the centre of Yunnan province in August that will be more than 600-km long. Researchers said building the Yunnan tunnel would be a "rehearsal" of the new technology, engineering methods and equipment needed for the Tibet-Xinjiang tunnel, which would divert the Brahmaputra river to the Taklimakan Desert in Xinjiang, it said. Chinese engineers say the Tibetan Plateau, often referred to as "the roof of the world", stops the monsoon from Indian Ocean reaching Xinjiang leaving the Gobi Desert in the north and the Taklimakan Desert in the south unsuitable for human settlement. In recent decades, Chinese government departments, including the Ministry of Water Resources, have come up with engineering blueprints involving huge dams, pumps and tunnels, the report said. The project's enormous cost, engineering challenges, possible environmental impact and the likelihood of protests by neighbouring countries have meant it has never left the drawing board. But Zhang Chuanqing, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics in Wuhan, Hubei province, said China was now taking a quiet, step-by- step approach to bring it to life. "The water diversion project in central Yunnan is a demonstration project," said Zhang, who has played a key role in many major Chinese water tunnel projects, including the one in Yunnan. "It is to show we have the brains, muscle and tools to build super-long tunnels in hazardous terrains, and the cost does not break the bank," he was quoted as saying by the Post. The construction of the tunnel on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, the country's second-highest, would make political leaders more confident about the Tibet-Xinjiang project and more likely to approve it, he said. (With PTI inputs) Egypt signed three agreements and a memorandum of understanding with the European Union on Sunday, providing for Euro 600 million in funding for social, environmental and infrastructure projects, the investment ministry said in a statement. The documents were signed by Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr and EU commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn. Egypt's Minister of Transportation Hesham Arafat also attended the meeting, along with the governors of Alexandria and Fayoum. The three agreements involve sanitation projects, support for refugees in Egypt, and developing the Alexandria tram system. The memorandum of understanding concerns the framework for unified support to Egypt, setting out the EU's priorities for bilateral aid to Egypt in the period from 2017 to 2020. The first agreement concerns a programme to enhance the response to migration challenges in Egypt. Worth Euro 60 million, the programme aims to improve Egypt's migration management, to solve the causes of irregular migration, and to support those communities that host migrants and refugees. The second agreement includes a Euro 38 million grant to improve sanitation systems, especially in rural areas, while increasing investments in areas that are deprived of proper sanitation systems, such as Fayoum. The European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide a further Euro 360 million for sanitation projects. The final agreement aims at upgrading the Alexandria tram system, with an EU grant of Euro 8 million, and around Euro 237 million from the EIB and the French Development Agency (AFD). The aim is to expand the tram system, providing it with a capacity fo 200,000 passengers a day. The memorandum of understanding concerns projects in renewable energy, environment, social development and social protection, governance reforms, supporting Egypt's economic programme, and helping underprivileged citizens to enter the labour market. The overall value of the projects is between Euro 432 million and Euro 528 million, the ministry statement said. According to comments from Johannes Hahn published on the European Commission website, the EU is Egypt's main trading partner and provider of investment, with EU member states and European financial institutions engaged in activities worth around Euro 11 billion in the form of grants, loans and debt swaps. The EU's current projects in Egypt are worth more than Euro 1.3 billion in funding, the ministry said. Search Keywords: Short link: Beijing: China is set to again block the US resolution at the UN this week to declare Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar an international terrorist. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said the 1267 Committee of the UN Security Council was yet to reach the consensus to ban Azhar, who is the mastermind of the deadly terror attack at an Army base in India last year. "As for the listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements. China put the technical hold so as to allow for more time to deliberate on this matter. To our regret, the Committee so far has yet to reach consensus," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. China has repeatedly scuppered India's effort to have Azhar declared an international terrorist. After Beijing blocked and put a technical hold on India's application that lapsed last year, the US in January put a fresh proposal backed by France and the UK to designate Azhar an international terrorist. Beijing again put a technical hold on the proposal till August and extended it for another three months. The technical hold expires on Thursday this week. New Delhi: A Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight made an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport on Monday morning, after a letter warning of a hijack attempt was found in one of the toilets. Sources said two passengers on board were interrogated by Ahmedabad Crime Branch and that one of them had been detained. The culprit, now identified as Birju Prasad Salla, has been arrested, sources in the Ahmedabad Police told CNN-News18. They added that the accused wrote the not in Urdu with the help of Google and never expected it to be found mid-air. According to sources, Salla previously had issues with Jet over food earlier and was bearing a grudge. He left the note as 'revenge'. Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju tweeted that the man who wrote the letter has been identified but did not reveal any details. He advised the airlines to put the miscreant on its no-fly list and said statutory criminal action would also be initiated. I am advising the Airlines to put him on the No-Fly list immediately, in addition to other statutory criminal action. Ashok Gajapathi Raju (@Ashok_Gajapathi) October 30, 2017 Flight 9W 339, with 115 passengers and seven crew members, landed without incident at Ahmedabad and all 122 safely "deplaned", a Jet Airways spokesperson said. The flight had taken off from Mumbai at 2.55 am and landed at Ahmedabad airport around 3.45 am. The flight was "diverted to Ahmedabad following declaration of an emergency as per established security procedures, due to the detection of an onboard security threat", the spokesperson said. The threat note, accessed by CNN-News18, said: Flight must not land, flight will be flown to PoK. If you put landing gear, you will hear people dying. The message was passed on to the pilot, who is believed to have pressed the hijack alert button, following which the plane made an emergency landing. PTI correspondent Rajkumar Leishemba, who was on board, said the flight was diverted to Ahmedabad citing "security reasons". All the passengers deplaned and screened. They were photographed and questioned by security personnel on various details, including their last overseas visit, he said. After more than six hours at the airport here, the flight carrying the passengers took off for Delhi around 10.30 am, he said. "Passengers were profiled, taken photographs and all personal details sought...," Leishemba said on Twitter. The B 737-900 aircraft was parked at a remote bay, the spokesperson said in a statement. "Jet Airways is extending full cooperation to the security agencies who are investigating the matter and is not in a position to comment further at this stage," it added. (with PTI inputs) New Delhi: The CBI on Monday told the Supreme Court that it has apologised to the Orissa High Court Chief Justice and a sitting judge concerned in the matter pertaining to alleged attempt by its probe team to raid his residence. The agency informed the court that the judges concerned were "kind enough" to accept its unconditional apology. The CBI had claimed that there had been a mix-up as the sitting judge had shifted into the house of a former HC judge against whom it had intended the raid. A bench of justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said that the matter needs to be settled amicably and at the high court level. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the CBI in its affidavit has said they have sought permission from Orissa High Court Chief Justice and the sitting judge to tender an unconditional apology for the unfortunate incident "who were kind enough to accept it". Counsel appearing for Orissa High Court Bar Association said that he has no information regarding any acceptance of apology. "It is a matter between the judge and the CBI. Why are you concerned?" the bench asked the counsel. The counsel, however, said that he needs to seek instructions in the wake of the development. The bench then posted the matter for further hearing after two weeks. On October 13, the agency had told the apex court that it had sought permission from a sitting judge of the Orissa High Court to "apologise" to him in the matter. It had told that the permission was cancelled as a matter relating to the alleged incident was pending before the high court there. The agency had claimed that the CBI's team had not gone inside the gate of the residence of the sitting judge. The CBI has approached the apex court seeking transfer of the matter pending before the high court. The Orissa High Court had recently issued notices to the CBI and the state police on a plea seeking a judicial probe into the incident. The high court had sought responses on the plea filed by the bar association there. A team of CBI officials had come looking for the house of the former judge of the high court. Another sitting judge of the Orissa High Court had shifted at the residence of the former judge. The police has said that on the basis of information provided by a security guard posted at the residence of the judge, a case under IPC sections 448 (house trespass), 353 (to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 511 (to commit a cognizable offence) and 34 (common intention) was registered with the Cantonment police station here. Bhopal: Notwithstanding Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan's statement that MP cities including Bhopal and Indore were better off in terms of cleanliness than New York, municipal commissioner Priyanka Das on Monday said without looking at specific parameters, it was impossible to compare Bhopal with a city like New York. Talking to News18 India, Das said "How can we compare two cities without any parameters? He said Bhopal was an aspiring city trying to make a mark on global and Indian landscape. "It has every potential to be a global city," said Das, adding that she does not know how to compare it with New York. "I would just try to say that I dont know how to compare." Das said the two cities are very different from each other. "So, I am helpless, I am not able to compare." On his return from weeklong trip to the US, CM Chouhan on Sunday not only backed his remarks that MP roads were better than those in US, he also claimed that Bhopal and Indore were cleaner than New York. Indore and Bhopal the twin cities of Madhya Pradesh had finished first and second respectively in Government of India's Swachhta Survey 2016. Hyderabad: Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said the world is facing challenges like terrorism and radicalisation, and India is not unaffected by such threats. He said the next five years would be crucial for security forces in resolving challenges related to terrorism and communalism, especially in Jammu and Kashmir, the northeast and left wing extremism-affected areas of the country. Addressing IPS probationers at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (NPA) here, Singh advised the passing out cadets to take a vow to eradicate such problems. "Today, the world is engulfed by the fear of terrorism and radicalisation. Outfits such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda are killing innocent people across the globe and there is a threat from nuclear arms. People are facing the issues of cyber attacks. These organisations are continuously coming out with newer ideas," the home minister said. "India is not isolated from these developments. One of our neighbouring country is constantly engaged in encouraging terrorists... We should take a vow to eradicate problems like terrorism, extremism and fundamentalism in the next five years," Singh said. He said the government has registered certain gains against terrorism and left wing extremism in the recent times and there is a need to maintain that momentum. The Centre has recently allocated Rs 25,000 crore for modernisation of police forces in the country, Singh said. He advised the cadets to follow four principles -- hard work, honesty, positive attitude and judicious decision -- in their career. The home minister also announced a grant of Rs 5 crore to the NPA Welfare Society. As many as 136 probationers, including 14 from other countries, graduated from the academy today after undergoing training for 45 weeks. New Delhi: Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, who is on a two-day visit to India, was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhawan on Monday. Gentiloni was welcomed by President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Later in the day, PM Modi is expected hold delegation-level talks with Gentiloni, following which a number of agreements are expected to be signed. While announcing the visit, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar had said that the prime ministerial trip from Italy was happening after more than a decade. The last visit of an Italian prime minister to India was in February 2007. "The visit is aimed at strengthening the bilateral political and economic relations between the two countries," he said. During his visit, the Italian leader will hold talks with the top leadership here, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Image courtesy: PIB India/Twitter The Indo-Italy diplomatic ties were hit badly after two Italian marines Latorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone on board a ship named Enrica Lexie, were arrested for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in 2012. Italy claimed the ship was in international waters and that only the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) should apply. It also moved the international court. While Latorre returned to Italy in September 2014 following an order of the Supreme Court issued on health grounds, Girone was allowed to go in May 2016. They are now in Italy, pending the verdict by the arbitration court at the Hague. The Indo-Italy diplomatic row also impacted the European Union's relationship with India. Gentiloni will be accompanied by his wife and a 15-member Italian CEOs delegation. An interaction between the CEOs of the two countries is also being planned, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said. Italy is India's 5th largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade of USD 8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. India's exports to Italy are at USD 4.90 billion, while its imports are at USD 3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of USD 1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached USD 3.22 billion. The MEA said over 600 Italian companies are active in India covering various sectors such as fashion, garments, textile and textile machinery, automotive, automotive components industry, infrastructure, chemicals, energy, confectionery, insurance etc. A number of Indian companies are also present in Italy mainly in IT, electronics, engineering, automotive, pharmaceuticals and railway sectors. In the EU, Italy has the third largest presence of Indian community (estimated at 180,000) after the UK and the Netherlands. (With Agency Inputs) New Delhi: The Supreme Court is expected to hear on Monday petitions filed against Article 35A which relates to special rights and privileges of the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. The provision allows the state legislature to define permanent residents of the state, which in turn allows these residents to own property, apply for government jobs and settle down in the state. The hearing will be keenly watched in Kashmir where separatists claim the challenge to the provision is aimed at changing the state demographics. Also keeping track will be associations of Kashmiri Pandits who were forced to flee the state in early 90s. The issue has its genesis in the three petitions which have challenged Article 35A. Heres a look: The Petition That Started It All The first petition was filed in 2014 by Delhi-based NGO We the Citizens. The petition contends that Kashmir never separated from the federation of Indian dominion. To buttress this point, it states that Jammu and Kashmir had already acceded to the Indian dominion under the Government of India Act, 1935 and that a new instrument of accession was signed by the Dogra ruler in 1947 to only remove doubt, confusion or ambiguity. The petition challenges the constitutional validity of orders passed by the president, first limiting the powers of Parliament to make laws for Jammu and Kashmir and then allowing the provision on permanent settlement. The President of India under the garb of a temporary provision i.e. Article 370 (1) cannot amend the Constitution by incorporating a new Article of permanent nature, reads the petition. Article 35A was inserted in 1954 through the Constitution (Application to Jammu & Kashmir) Order 1954. These orders were passed according to powers given to the president under Article 370. The petitioners also argue that no special provision was made in the Indian Constitution giving special status/treatment to the state of Jammu & Kashmir as four representatives from the state were part of the Constituent Assembly which gave shape to the Indian Constitution. The NGO has also said that by Article 35A, two classes of citizens have been created, which is fundamentally against the principle of equality enshrined in the Constitution of India. Petition by West Pakistan Refugees Action Committee Cell After the first petition in 2014, the West Pakistan Refugees Action Committee Cell moved the apex court through a writ petition in 2015. Its primary contention was that human rights of the refugees who crossed over to the state post 1947 were grossly violated. The petitioners argue that West Pakistan refugees have been living in the state for more than four decades, but are still deprived of their rights to property, vote or be recognised as permanent citizens. The petition has also relied on media reports to brief the court about the living condition of these refugees. The petitioners have argued that rights of these refugees must be similar to those who migrated to West Pakistan on their own, but returned. The petition highlights the Resettlement Act of 1982 which was passed by the J&K legislature and which gave such persons and their children the right of permanent citizens. The judgments cited by petitioners show that the courts have earlier noted that the plight of these refugees were such that they occupied an a highly anomalous position in the state. Why My Property Cant be Mine? A Kashmiri Pandit Lawyers Plea The last of the three petitions was filed by Delhi-based lawyer Charu Wali Khanna. Article 14 of the Constitution gives a fundamental right to equality before law. But 35A is heavily loaded in favour of males because even after marriage to women from outside, they will not lose the right of being permanent residents, she has told the court. Her argument was that while a woman from outside the state shall became a permanent resident on marrying a male permanent resident of the state, a daughter who is born state subject will lose her permanent resident status on marrying an outsider. We are talking of NRI voting rights, but look at where we are stuck? Khanna told News18. She has stated that this is primarily because of the discriminatory laws which brands a woman as an out of caste once she marries a non-Kashmiri. She has argued that such laws only perpetuate power politics which leave behind women who are trying to claim their own spaces. She has also argued that this law goes against the principle of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikaas put forth by the Modi govermment. The petitioner cites the Dogra legislation of 1927, which was in existence before the controversial Article 35A was included. The 1927 law was drafted for a different purpose and being a pre-independence law, it should not be given any importance, Khanna told News18. The petition notes the transfer of power after Independence and argues that the Instrument of Accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh in 1947 is no different from that signed by 500 other rulers/kings which wiped out all previous territorial allegiances. We are entitled to property rights on inheritance basis, but that is limited. But what if I have property, and I die. Will my husband and children not be entitled to it? The Kashmiri women who have married outside are being denied admission for their children and even the gains of the PM Scholarship scheme. How can it be justified? A woman who has lived her whole life in J&K, her children are being denied rights just because she married an outsider. This is creating a situation of radicalization and thereby people will be forced to move outside, the lawyer told News18. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday ordered Hadiya, the 24-year-old woman at the centre of the Kerala Love Jihad controversy, to be produced before it on November 27, saying it would examine her to ascertain whether she had consented to marry petitioner Shafeen Jahan. The top court said it would examine Hadiya in an open court hearing, turning down her fathers plea for in-camera proceedings. A bench, comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, asked senior advocate Shyam Divan, representing the father of the woman, to ensure that she is produced that day for interaction with the bench, which is likely to ascertain her mental stage and whether she had given free consent to the marriage. Marriage is a personal affair. Individual choices should not be curbed. Well have to verify if Hadiya can give free consent, the court observed. The National Investigation Agency, represented by Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh, said there was a well-oiled machinery working in the state and they are indulging in the indoctrination and radicalisation of the society in the state where as many as 89 cases of similar nature have been reported. Divan, appearing for woman's father KM Ashokan, claimed the alleged husband of his daughter is a radicalised man and several organisations like Popular Front of India (PFI) are involved in radicalisation of the society. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for her husband Shafin Jahan, opposed the NIA's submission and that of the woman's father. The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by Hadiyas husband Shafeen Jahan against a Kerala High Court order declaring their December 2016 marriage null and void". The HC had also ordered Hadiya, known as Akhila before conversion, to be placed in her parents' protective custody. Jahan had moved the top court against the High Court order, contending the ruling was an "insult to the independence of women in India". Jahan claimed Hadiya, a homeopathy student in Kerala, converted to Islam of her own volition two years prior to their marriage and sought direction to Hadiya's father to present her in court. Hadiya's father, however, said she was a "helpless victim" and trapped by a "well-oiled racket" which used "psychological measures" to indoctrinate people and convert them to Islam. The father had claimed his daughter had been radicalised by some organisations and they had influenced her to marry a Muslim man, adding that there could be a conspiracy to send her to Syria to work for extremist organisations such as the Islamic State since the man she married had been working in the Gulf. (With agency inputs) Panjab University B.Ed. Common Entrance Test Result 2017 has been released by the Panjab University (PU) on its official webpage for Panjab B.Ed. Admissions - pbbedadmissions.puchd.ac.in. Panjab University had organised the Panjab University B.Ed. Entrance Exam 2017 on Sunday i.e. October 29, 2017 to fill 8,000 vacant seats that were left after the B.Ed admissions were completed earlier in the state. As per the available data, 4186 candidates had registered for the same however only 4037 appeared to take the entrance exam. Candidates who had appeared for PU B.Ed Entrance Exam 2017 seeking admissions to B.Ed courses can follow the instructions below to check their result. Panjab University BEd Entrance Exam 2017 Results: How to Check Step 1 Visit the official website - pbbedadmissions.puchd.ac.in Step 2 Click on the notification for B.Ed Entrance Exam 2017 Click here to view Result/Merit Lists (For Entrance Test held on 29th October, 2017) Step 3 It will redirect you to the Merit List page viz http://pbbedadmissions.puchd.ac.in/menu-merit-list2.php Step 4 Click on the category you fall under Step 5 Enter your Roll number or Application Number and Search Step 6 Save the pdf or download your result It is notable that the B.Ed admissions in Punjab carry 85% Quota for State candidates and 15% All India Quota. Punjab University had conducted the second round for B.Ed. CET 2017 on a high court order inspecting into the number of seats sanctioned to the state's education institutions versus actual number of candidates studying in the past few years and number of job opportunities available in the state in comparison. The varsity had opened the application process on October 24yh and 25th and then conducted the entrance exam on Sunday, October 29th. The classes for the new session will commence this week from 1st November 2017 for the students who've qualified the test and will fulfill rest of the formalities. Artist Hossam Dirar tackles a collection of abstract paintings on the themes of identity, memory, and the battle between mind and soul Artist Hossam Dirar will hold his third solo exhibition at Art Talks, titled Dirar Goes Abstract, opening on 7 November. Dirar Goes Abstract presents a new collection of abstract paintings by Dirar as he reflects on the artists accumulated experiences on his journey between his country, Egypt, and the West, which he set out to explore. In addition to individual identity, the themes in his work include the conflict between beginnings and ends, past and present, the battle between the mind and the soul ... and a re-interpretation of his memory, according to the exhibition literature. This is not Dirar's first exhibition at Art Talks; he started there with a joint show with Syrian artist Sabhan Adam titled Beauty and the Beast. His second appearance came in 2015, with a solo exhibition called Invitation Au Voyage, followed by Le Harem Le Caire in 2017. According to Art Talks, Dirar was selected by Saatchi in 2014 as one of 12 emerging artists of great promise. Born in 1978, he is a graduate of the Helwan Applied Arts Faculty, currently moving between Cairo, where he is based, and Barcelona, where he is studying art. He works in painting, photography, installation, video and graphics. Dirars work was shown in group exhibitions in Bahrain, Ireland, Slovakia, Germany, France, Italy, Austria and South Africa. Programme: Tuesday 7 November at 6pm Art Talks, 8 El-Kamel Mohamed St., Zamalek, Cairo For more arts and culture news and updates, follow Ahram Online Arts and Culture on Twitter at @AhramOnlineArts and on Facebook at Ahram Online: Arts & Culture Search Keywords: Short link: Chennai: Tamil Nadu police on Monday said no FIR will be filed against Kamal Haasan for asking his fans not to distribute the state-prescribed nilavembu concoction to fight dengue as they found no merit in the case. The Madras High Court had last week directed the Tamil Nadu Police to register an FIR against Haasan only if they see any merit in the complaint filed against him. The complaint was filed by activist Devarajan after Haasan reportedly asked his fans to not distribute the nilavembu, a herbal concoction being promoted by the state government as a way to control the dengue outbreak, till doubts over its efficacy were clarified. Haasan had had issued the appeal on Twitter, saying, "Till proper research results come, let us not distribute nilavembu concoction. Let other works continue." Following the statement, the state health minister hit back, saying that action will be taken against those spreading rumours about the Nilavembu concoction. Haasan later issued a statement clarifying that his statement was taken out of context. He said that he only made a suggestion and was not against the Nilavembu concoction. There is no justification at all in some people spreading falsehood that I am against Nilavembu, Haasans statement added. The Tamil Nadu Polices decision would come as a big relief for the actor as there will be no criminal proceedings against him. New Delhi: When Modi government puts forward its position on Article 35A at the Supreme Court, it would be watched closely by the Sangh Parivar, especially in the wake of necessary Constitutional amendments suggested by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat in his annual Vijayadashmi speech last month. Article 35A of the Constitution defines who the permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir are, and that outsiders cannot own property in the state, neither can they enjoy any benefits of the state government. The Supreme Court on Monday is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the validity of this 1954 law. Bhagwat, while lauding the governments muscular policy in Kashmir, broached the topic of making necessary Constitutional amendments to assimilate the residents of Jammu and Kashmir with rest of Bharat. Bhagwats speech on Vijayadashami, was seen as giving a policy direction to the swayamsewaks in the BJP governments at the Centre and states. Bhagwat dedicated a major chunk of his speech to the Kashmir issue and the validity of Kashmirs special status. It would be interesting to see how much influence the Centre draws from RSS views on the Kashmir issue as it finalizes its stand on Article 35A. One thing that has remained unchanged over the years is RSS and BJPs opposition to the Constitutional provisions given to Kashmir. The RSS has time and again voiced its objection to Article 370 that grants a special autonomous status to the state and Article 35A that lets the state legislature define its permanent residents giving them special rights and privileges. Bhagwat had said, The problems of permanent residents of the state, who migrated from Pakistan occupied Jammu-Kashmir in 1947, and the people who were displaced from the Kashmir Valley in 1990 also remain as they were. He added, We have to create conditions so that our these brothers can lead a happy, dignified and secure life like other Indians by availing equal democratic rights and fulfilling democratic duties, even while remaining firm and devoted to their religions and national identity. While enjoying power in both the Centre and state, BJPs plight lies in balancing policy pronouncements of its ideological front, the RSS and also its ally, the PDP. Both BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed senior Congress leader P Chidambarams take on Kashmirs autonomy. This political line conforms to RSS long-standing view on Kashmir. The real challenge, however, would lie in fine-tuning the governments position to reconcile with PDPs political compulsions in the state. Jammu: Authorities on Monday banned the sale of combat dresses and uniforms of Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir's Samba district, which borders Pakistan, in a bid to prevent them from reaching into the hands of terrorists. District Magistrate Sheetal Nanda said the ban was imposed under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) and no unauthorised person or firm shall procure, store, stitch and sale Army combat dresses in Samba district. The ban, imposed after security agencies requested the authorities to regulate the procurement of such articles, came in the backdrop of attacks in Samba and neighbouring Kathua district by terrorists donning Army combat dresses and uniforms of security forces over the years. "The procuring, storing and selling of (Army uniforms) in unregulated manner may result in the items being passed into the hands of anti-national elements and may cause disturbances to (peace) as has been seen in the past," Nanda said. The order issuing the ban instructed that "all authorised private firms and shops procuring, storing and selling combat clothes shall immediately inform in writing to the nearest police station regarding their authority to carry on with this business". "The time limit for such information will be 15 days from the date of issuance and publication of this order," it read. The district magistrate has asked all authorised persons, private firms and shops to submit a fortnightly report of all the sales of combat and Khadi dresses cloth made by them. The report should have detailed information of the army, para-military and police personnel to whom the dresses were sold. "It shall be mandatory for all authorised firms and shops...to maintain the register giving details of items received with quantity, state of sale, items and quantity of times sold and the address and identity particulars of the parties or individuals to whom sold," she said. In March 2015, two terrorists launched a fidayeen attack on an Army camp in Samba district. The terrorists were killed, and a civilian and two army personnel were injured. The same month militants in Army fatigue stormed a police station in Kathua killing seven persons. Raipur: Accusing the Congress of playing "cheap politics" for power, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh on Sunday said the CBI inquiry recommended by his government into the "sex CD" row allegedly involving a state minister will bring out all facts. "We could not even imagine that the Congress will play such cheap politics for power. We are also in politics and consider this a medium to serve the people. Our party can never think of committing immoral acts for political gains," Singh said told reporters at his official residence. The state government had on Saturday recommended a CBI probe into the "sex CD" row allegedly involving state PWD minister Rajesh Munat. "The CBI inquiry has been recommended to reveal all the facts," the CM said. State Revenue Minister Prem Prakash Pandey had on Saturday said the CD was fake and even a local TV channel had in its report mentioned that it had been tampered with. The alleged sex video sparked a political row in the state with the Congress and the BJP trading charges over the issue. The matter had come to light when senior journalist Vinod Verma was arrested by the Chhattisgarh Police on Friday morning from his Ghaziabad residence on charges of blackmailing and extortion related to the "sex CD". Verma had claimed that the Chhattisgarh government suspected he had a "sex CD of Chhattisgarh PWD Minister Rajesh Munat" and that he was being framed. Munat called it "fake" and an attempt at character assassination. He had yesterday filed a complaint against state Congress chief Bhupesh Baghel and Verma for allegedly tarnishing his image through the "fake" sex CD. New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Monday examine if linking of Aadhaar to various schemes should be mandatory and whether the deadline should be extended till March 31, 2018, for everyone and not just those who do not have the biometric ID yet. Heres all you need to know about the crucial hearing: The central government had told the Supreme Court last week that deadline for linking Aadhaar to various programmes will be extended from December 31 to March 31, 2018. The extension, however, was only applicable to those who do not have an Aadhaar and will enroll now. For everyone else, the deadline would remain December 31. The apex court had asked Attorney General KK Venugopal to consider whether this deadline should be extended for all. The government will inform its decision to the court on Monday. The government had earlier asked the court to defer the hearing in the case because a committee was looking into drafting a data protection law. It stated that according to the Right to Privacy verdict, the judges had left this matter for expert determination so that a robust regime of data protection framework could be devised. The next meeting of the expert committee is slated to be held on November 7, 2017. Several petitions, challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes and notifications to link it with mobile numbers and bank accounts, are pending in the apex court. Among those is the one filed by Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, which has challenged the Centres decision to make Aadhaar must for availing benefits of various social welfare schemes. The plea will also be heard on Monday by a bench comprising justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan along with another petition filed by social activist Raghav Tankha challenging the linking of Aadhaar with mobile phones. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Mamata Banerjee government over its challenge to the mandatory linking of Aadhaar to mobile phone numbers, asking the West Bengal CM to approach the court as in individual instead. "How can a state file such a plea. In a federal structure, how can a state file a plea challenging Parliament's mandate," a bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the West Bengal government, told the court that the plea has been filed by the labour department of the state as subsidies under these schemes have to be given by them. "You satisfy us how the state has challenged it. We know it is a matter which needs consideration," the bench said adding the Centre's move can be challenged by an individual but not by states. "Let Mamata Banerjee come and file a plea as individual. We will entertain it as she will be an individual," the top court said. However, Sibal maintained that the state was entitled to file such a plea but said that they would amend the prayer in the petition. Meanwhile, the bench issued notice to the Centre on a separate plea filed by an individual challenging the linking of mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar. The court has asked the Centre to file its response on the plea in four weeks. The West Bengal government challenged the provision which says that without Aadhaar, the benefits of social welfare schemes would not be extended. Earlier, the Centre had told the apex court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefits of various government schemes has been extended till March 31 next year for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric identification number. It had said that the deadline extension from December end till March 31, 2018, would apply only to those who do not have Aadhaar and are willing to enrol for it. Several petitions, challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes and notifications to link it with mobile numbers and bank accounts, are pending in the apex court. (With PTI inputs) New Delhi: he Supreme Court on Friday adjourned the hearing on petitions challenging the validity of Article 35-A of the Constitution to January next year. The Centre and Jammu and Kashmir government referred to upcoming local body polls in state and seek adjournment of hearing on petitions against Article 35 A. Article 35A, added to the Indian Constitution by a Presidential Order in 1954, also empowers the state's legislature to frame laws without attracting a challenge on grounds of violating the Right to Equality of people from other states or any other right under the Constitution. The petitions have been filed by an NGO on grounds that it was illegally added to the Constitution as it was never floated before Parliament. Another petition has been filed by Supreme Court lawyer Charu Wali Khanna who said Article 35A was discriminatory against women. Heres all you need to know about Article 35A: WHAT IS ARTICLE 35A? The article is basically an agreement reached between New Delhi and Srinagar in 1952, added to the Constitution through a presidential order of 1954, according to which no one except the permanent residents will be able to settle permanently in the state, acquire immovable property, avail government jobs, scholarships and aid. WHO ARE PERMANENT RESIDENTS? According to the original definition, fixed by the then Maharaja of Kashmir, permanent residents or state subjects were are all those who were born or settled within the state before 1911, or after having lawfully acquired immovable property in the state for not less than 10 years prior to that date and their descendants. Also, emigrants from the state, including those who migrated to Pakistan, are considered state subjects. Their descendants are also considered state subjects for two generations. But this definition was further modified as Article 35A was ratified in the Constitution. KEY DATES 1927 and 1932 The then Dogra ruler of the state, Maharaja Hari Singh, issued notifications defining state subjects and their rights. It is said that the Dogras from Jammu approached Singh, expressing fears that an influx of people from Punjab would cause them to lose their jobs and land. So the idea behind these notifications was to contain growing Punjabi influence. October 26, 1947 Maharaja Hari Singh sought urgent military help on October 24 as Afghani marauders, sent by Pakistan, began their rampage. On October 26, he signed the document of accession. Two notable points here. First, the accession by Union of India was only on three subjects defence, communications and foreign affairs. Second, the final terms of accession werent finalised yet. July 1949 The National Conference founder and the tallest political leader of the Valley, Sheikh Abdullah, began negotiations with the Union of India over the terms of accession. July 1952 Sheikh Abdullah and Jawaharlal Nehru reached upon some agreements. These came to be known as the Delhi Agreement. One of the points agreed upon by the two parties was that domiciles of Jammu and Kashmir shall be regarded as citizens of India, but the State Legislature was empowered to make laws for conferring special rights and privileges on the states subjects. May 1952 The provision of the state deciding special rights and privileges on its people was added to the Constitution formally through the Constitution (Application to Jammu and Kashmir) Order, 1954, issued by the countrys first president, Rajendra Prasad, on May 14, 1954, through powers conferred by clause (1) of Article 370. November 1956 The states constitution (J&K has its own constitution, its own flag and own penal code) was adopted. It defines a permanent resident as one who was born or settled in the state before May 14, 1954, or who has been a resident of the state for 10 years and has lawfully acquired immovable property in the state. WHATS THE CHALLENGE TO ARTICLE 35A? In 2014, a little-known NGO approached the Supreme Court challenging Article 35A on the grounds that it was illegally added to the Constitution as it was never floated before Parliament. In July 2017, Supreme Court lawyer Charu Wali Khanna also challenged Article 35A on the grounds that it was discriminatory towards women. Article 14 of the Constitution gives a fundamental right to equality before law. But 35A is heavily loaded in favour of males because even after marriage to women from outside, they will not lose the right of being permanent residents, she told the court. Her argument was that while a woman from outside the state shall became a permanent resident on marrying a male permanent resident of the state, a daughter who is born state subject will lose her permanent resident status on marrying an outsider. At this juncture, it may be important to recall a landmark judgment delivered on October 2002, by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, which held that women married to non-permanent residents will not lose their rights, though children of such women will not enjoy succession rights. WHO SAYS WHAT There is an outrage among Kashmiri Muslims who consider the abrogation of Article 35A as a means by which the Hindu Right wants to cause deep demographic change in the Valley. This is the primary objection raised by the Hurriyat. Some say that abrogation of 35A is the permanent solution to the Kashmir issue, which Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has often talked about. Various political parties have also expressed their anger at the fact that the Centre, through its Attorney General, did not end the controversy by underlining that 35A was untouchable. New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday sought the Enforcement Directorate's response on a bail plea of a woman director of two Dubai-based firms, arrested in connection with a money laundering case arising out of the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP chopper scam. Justice A K Pathak issued notice to the ED seeking its reply on the bail application by December 1. Shivani Saxena, director of Dubai-based M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings, was arrested by the ED and is currently in judicial custody. Senior advocates Dayan Krishnan and Mohit Mathur, appearing for Saxena, submitted that the woman has not been chargesheeted by the CBI in the main case but only the ED has chargesheeted her under the Prevention of money Laundering Act (PMLA). The counsel said when the accused was not chargesheeted for the main offence, the gravity of alleged scheduled offence dilutes. They further submitted that the woman has been in jail for over three months now. The high court had in September dismissed an earlier bail plea of Saxena. She was also denied the relief by the trial court. Saxena was nabbed on July 17 by the ED from Chennai under the provisions of the PMLA. The ED has chargesheeted her and the companies under various sections of the PMLA. Saxena and her husband Rajiv Saxena are residents of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai. The charge sheet contains her name and that of her husband, who is also a director in the two firms. Rajiv Saxena has been evading ED summons and not joining the probe, the ED had alleged. The agency has so far not arrayed him as an accused. The ED has alleged that the two Dubai-based firms and Shivani Saxena were the ones through whom "the proceeds of crime have been routed and further layered and integrated in buying the immovable properties/shares among others". The agency has claimed its probe found that AgustaWestland, United Kingdom, had "paid an amount of Euro 58 million as kickbacks" through two Tunisia-based firms. "These companies further siphoned off the said money in the name of consultancy contracts to M/s Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius and others which were further transferred to M/s UHY Saxena and M/s Matrix Holdings Ltd, Dubai and others," the charge sheet has said. The ED had also claimed that Rajiv was the "beneficial owner of M/s Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius". It has alleged that both the Dubai-based companies of the couple "received the proceeds of crime in their respective Dubai bank accounts" from the Mauritius-based firm. The ED, in this case, had also arrested Delhi-based businessman Gautam Khaitan who is currently out on bail. The ED had registered a PMLA case in 2014 and named 21 people, including Tyagi, in its money laundering FIR. On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks to the tune of Rs 423 crore paid by the firm for securing the deal. New trends being discussed at the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting has revealed that the skin condition atopic dermatitis (AD) is often going undiagnosed in adults, with many also unaware that there are new treatments that could provide relief from the condition. More commonly known as eczema, many believe the condition affects mainly babies and young children. However, AD also occurs frequently in adults who often develop the disease in childhood and carry it through life without it being diagnosed or without receiving their first diagnosis until adulthood. "Atopic dermatitis (AD) is underdiagnosed in the United States," says allergist Luz Fonacier, MD, ACAAI board member and presenter at the meeting. "Many adults don't seek out medical care, preferring to self-treat instead, either with home remedies or over-the-counter drugs. Often, they aren't aware they have eczema, and they also don't know treatments have changed a lot in the last few years. There are new drugs and topical medications that can make a huge difference in their quality of life." Although treatment is important not only to treat the main symptom of AD, which is an uncomfortable, itchy rash, symptoms such as dry skin and scaly rashes can also become painful and infected. In addition, those with eczema can experience problems with sleep and emotional distress, and it can even affect their social life. By seeing an allergist those suffering can find the right treatment for them, with Mark Boguniewicz, MD, ACAAI member pointing out to patients that, "In the last few years we've seen the introduction of targeted therapies, also known as precision medicine." These therapies include two new medications that have recently been approved for AD. The first, crisaborole, sold under the trade name Eucrisa, was approved by the FDA in December 2016. The ointment is the first anti-inflammatory medication to be approved for the treatment of mild to moderate AD in more than 15 years, and helps to reduce the itching, redness and swelling of the skin. It can be applied topically twice daily and is approved not only for adults but also patients 2 years of age or older. Dupilumab is the second new medication and sold under the name Dupixent. It was approved by the FDA earlier this year in March and is biologic therapy given by injection for patients 18 years or older, making it suitable for those with moderate to severe AD who haven't responded to, or can't use topical medications. Dupilumab was also approved for use in Europe just last month by the European Commission, however crisaborole is not currently available. "The takeaway message is that there are effective medications available that help relieve eczema symptoms and now can also target the underlying cause," says Dr Boguniewicz, "People with eczema have been frustrated by the limitations of existing treatments....We expect additional therapies to be approved soon." The ACAAI meeting is currently taking place from October 26-30 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA. More than 1,000 participants gathered at the Marriott Hotel in Cairo, dancing in a zumba style to music from both East and West The Breast Cancer Foundation of Egypt (BCFE) held its 10th annual Zumba Pink Party on Saturday, seeking to raise awareness of breast cancer while celebrating the various successes in the battle against the disease. The event was held at the Marriott Hotel in Cairo, with attendees joining zumba-style dance sessions to music from both East and West. More than a thousand women took part in the event many of them breast-cancer survivors keen to celebrate their journeys. Since its launch more than a decade ago, the Breast Cancer Foundation of Egypt has taken the lead in raising awareness of the illness. According to figures from the National Cancer Institute, breast cancer accounts to 37.5 percent of all cancer cases within Egypt. Ghada Mostafa, BCFE's media manager, said that since its launch more than a decade ago, the foundation has put awareness-raising at the top of its agenda. The annual zumba party is always an amazing way to attract womens attention to breast cancer, encouraging everyone to join the fight by spreading knowledge about it, and encouraging their loved ones to get screened, Mostafa said. She added that each year more and more zumba instructors from Egypt and abroad volunteer to take part in the party, supporting the noble cause free of charge. The instructors at this year's event included: Ola El-Abany, Mora Adel, Mayada Saeed, Heba Khalil, Emylin Lavender and Yasmine. Ghada Salah, head of the women's health section at BCFE and a cancer survivor herself, said that the aim was to support every cancer survivor and those still fighting cancer, as well as spreading awareness. Jubilant participants took part in a prize draw and were awarded goodies and brochures that provide lifestyle, nutrition and exercise advice to reduce the likelihood of developing breast cancer. Search Keywords: Short link: London's Admiralty Arch, the historic landmark on The Mall which has hosted everyone from Sir Winston Churchill to James Bond creator Ian Fleming, will be transformed into a luxury Waldorf Astoria hotel. When the Admiralty Arch Waldorf Astoria, London opens in 2022, the prestigious monument will feature 96 rooms and suites, three restaurants, a spa and a rooftop bar that will showcase its sweeping views of the London skyline. Since its completion in 1910, Admiralty Arch has served several purposes, first as the official residences of the First Sea Lords, then as a hub for wartime intelligence efforts. It was also used as a Royal Navy outpost and most recently for the government's Cabinet Office. The monument, which stands guard over The Mall adjacent to Trafalgar Square, was commissioned by King Edward II in memory of Queen Victoria and designed by Sir Aston Webb, who also designed The Mall and the facade of Buckingham Palace. In 2015, London's Prime Investors Capital Ltd. had outbid 28 international bidders to secure the 250-year lease. The group appointed Waldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts to operate the property this week. Developers pledge to preserve the landmark's architectural and historical heritage, and work has already begun to restore the building's original features. Leading the team are design and architectural luminaries Michael Blair and David Mlinaric, who between them have worked on The Ritz, The Connaught, Claridge's hotels, The Royal Opera House, the Victoria and Albert Museum, The National Gallery, and British Residences in London and Paris. The interiors will be led by Andrew Damonte, who has worked with Mlinaric on the restoration of the Dumfries House in Scotland for HRH The Prince of Wales. A Turkish Airlines plane that crash landed at Kathmandu airport two years ago will be welcoming ticket holders on board again -- not for a flight but as the Nepali capital's first aviation museum. The Airbus A330 was carrying 224 passengers when it skidded off the runway at Kathmandu's airport in March 2015, coming to a stop with its nose buried in the grassy verge on the edge of the tarmac. No one was hurt, but the crash shut Nepal's only international airport for four days as technicians struggled to move the plane. It was eventually dragged to a disused corner of the airport where it sat rusting for two years -- until pilot Bed Upreti had an idea. "It is unfortunate that the aircraft (had) an accident and was grounded, but I saw a perfect opportunity," Upreti told AFP. He bought the metal carcass and has invested $600,000 to turn it into an aviation museum. Upreti's first task was moving the 63-metre plane across the road from the airport to the museum's lot -- which proved harder than expected. He previously brought an abandoned Fokker 100 -- which is about half the size of an Airbus A330 -- and transported it 500 kilometres to Dhangadi in Nepal's far west where he also set up a museum, though on a smaller scale that this one. "Transporting that plane across districts was much easier than relocating the Airbus metres away from the airport," Upreti said. Working only at night when the airport was closed, it took a team of engineers from Turkey six weeks to dismantle the plane into 10 pieces, before loading them onto trucks for the 500 metre journey across the road. It took another two months to put all the pieces back together. With all the seat stripped out of the belly of the plane, the new museum feels surprisingly spacious. The business class section of the plane will feature a model of the Wright Brothers' first aircraft -- the first machine to successfully take to the sky -- and in the tail there will be a cafe. More than 150 miniature display planes will chart the history of aviation as well as the story of Nepal's flying industry. Himalayan Nepal is heavily reliant on a network of domestic air routes to compensate for its limited road network, though the country's airlines have a poor safety record. For many in the impoverished country, the airfares are also beyond their means. "It (the museum) will give a chance to some Nepalis who might never fly to step into a plane," said engineering student Shyam Rauniyar, 22, who was part of the team that put together the replica of the Wright Brother's plane. Upreti hopes that the museum will inspire young minds to become pilots and engineers, and is confident that it will be a hit with visitors. "Passers by are already peeking to get a glimpse," he said. New Delhi: Manoj Bajpayee may well be one of the top draws of commercial cinema, but the actor feels more at home with content-driven stories which help him break the mould of stereotypes. The actor's film Rukh, currently in cinema halls, has been acclaimed by critics. The coming-of-age drama, directed by Atanu Mukherjee, revolves around a young man grappling with his father's sudden death. Bajpayee, widely praised for his short but memorable turn as the father, said the "classic novel" structure of the script prompted him to take up the role. "When I read the story, I found all the elements of a classic novel in it. I play a middle class man who is struggling to deal with one situation after another. He is breaking but still trying to hold everything together. The story is told through the eyes of his son," he told PTI. The actor, whose performance in Hansal Mehta's Aligarh will be remembered as one of the most poignant portrayals of what it is to be gay in India, said he took up the character of Ramchandra Siras, a professor in Aligarh Muslim University, "with a great sense of responsibility". "I was never doubtful about my character or the director. If there is a strong film like 'Aligarh', it can dent a stereotype but you have to play the role with a great sense of responsibility," he said, adding that the film was an "important aspect" of his career. As a trained actor, Bajpayee said he looks for roles that help him interpret his character for it is not enough to just learn one's lines and deliver them well. "We somehow try to flow with stereotypes and try to play to the gallery and that's where the danger comes in. If you are a trained actor and have the experience of so many years, you have to have your own interpretation of the character," said Bajpayee, who worked for many years as a theatre actor before joining films. "Otherwise what is the use of mugging your dialogues and delivering them? If you are experimenting with your craft, then you are contributing in the real sense," he said. The actor said he mostly took up commercial roles because of his relationship with filmmakers, but was always "surprised" that mainstream directors wanted to work with him. "I have nothing against commercial films but it is just that I have never trained myself in that manner. I cannot boast of having been a part of the great commercial cinema. So when they offer me such roles, I always consider them, but mostly I do it (take them up) for friendships," he said. Content-driven films were a familiar platform, but he enjoyed working with directors such as Neeraj Pandey in the commercial space, he said, referring to their latest collaboration, Aiyaary. "'Aiyaari' is the ideal Neeraj Pandey kind of commercial cinema where he does not compromise with the realism of the story. He has a unique and realistic voice which is woven in a fantastic manner in the script. I don't feel I'm out of my zone while working with him," he said. The actor believed though the audience was more receptive now to alternative cinema, the genre had still a long way to go. "I have been fighting for the co-existence of all genres in the industry for a long time. The viewers should have choices. Earlier, commercial films would rule the roost but we have certainly reached a place where content cinema is doing well. But the fight is not over yet," he said. Bajpayee -- who along with Irrfan Khan inspired a new generation of performers such as Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rajkummar Rao and Pankaj Tripathi -- said new artistes needed patience to discover their potential. "The journey of an actor is difficult as films are a mix of creativity and commerce. You go down because people are not there to back you up commercially but at the same time you must have the courage to stick to your convictions," he said. Despite all the odds, he said, an artiste had to hold on to hope. "People will rally around you if you don't break down," he said. Mumbai: It is a known fact that Katrina Kaif is one of the biggest fitness freaks in Bollywood. And fellow actor Alia Bhatt has expressed her fondness for Katrina and her regime time and again. Recently, the two combined when Katrina turned fitness trainer for Alia Bhatt, giving her some serious gym lessons The 34-year-old actor shared a video on Instagram in which she is seen pushing Alia to do 300 squats with weights in absence of their trainer. "This is what happens when @yasminkarachiwala doesn't show up... You're doing good @aliaabhatt... Don't worry only 300 more squats..." Katrina captioned the video. Credit: @ Katrina Kaif In the clip, while Katrina is seen motivating Alia, the star is trying her best to finish her set. On the work front, Alia has just wrapped up the shoot of her film Raazi, directed by Meghna Gulzar, while Katrina is all geared up for the release of Tiger Zinda Hai opposite Salman Khan. Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey has apologised to Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp, hours after the latter accused him of making sexual advances nearly 30 years ago. In an elaborate social media post, Spacey not only apologised for his 'drunken behaviour' but also came out of the closet publicly, declaring that he is now living happily as a gay man. The Academy Award winner goes on to say he was 'horrified' by the story and does not remember the encounter. The actor has always remained private about his personal life. Shedding some light into his guarded life, Spacey writes, "As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women, he said. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose to live as a gay man." Earlier, Anthony Rapp had claimed that Spacey made sexual advances towards him when he was 14 years old. Spacey allegedly made a pass at Rapp in 1986 when the two were working together in the Broadway play Precious Sons, according to an interview he did with BuzzFeed News. At the time, Spacey was 26 years old. Rapp revealed that the advances happened after a party at Spaceys apartment where he picked Rapp up and put him on the bed, climbing on top of him. "My memory was that I thought, 'Oh, everybody's gone. Well, yeah, I should probably go home,'. Spacey sort of stood in the doorway, kind of swaying. My impression when he came in the room was that he was drunk," Rapp recalled The actor said Spacey "picked me up like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold. But I don't, like, squirm away initially, because I'm like, 'What's going on?' And then he lays down on top of me." Rapp said that he is not in touch with Spacey since the incident, but has told the story to several friends and family members. The actor added that the Harvey Weinstein scandal prompted him to speak out. My stomach churns, said Rapp. I still to this day cant wrap my head around so many aspects of it. Its just deeply confusing to me. Rapps accusations come after the floodgates of sexual harassment and abuse have opened following the Harvey Weinstein scandal. New Delhi: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday met National Award-winning actor Akshay Kumar and lauded his efforts towards helping the Indian Army. "Met Akshay Kumar... Appreciated his efforts towards supporting the families of India's bravehearts," Rajnath tweeted alongside a photograph of himself with the "Airlift" actor. Met noted film actor @akshaykumar today. Appreciated his efforts towards supporting the families of Indias bravehearts pic.twitter.com/dMoURAZgcT Rajnath Singh (@rajnathsingh) October 29, 2017 In reply, Akshay wrote: "None of which would've been possible without your support. Forever grateful to you for making 'Bharat Ke Veer' a reality." None of which would've been possible without ur support.Forever grateful to you for making @BharatKeVeer a reality, Hon. @rajnathsingh ji https://t.co/vx5Ztrhv1u Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) October 29, 2017 Launched by Rajnath Singh and Akshay in April, 'Bharat Ke Veer' aims to facilitate online donation directly to the families of paramilitary troopers who have sacrificed their lives for the country since January 1, 2016. Ahmedabad: In its bid to woo over the Patidar community ahead of the Gujarat assembly election, the Congress Party has agreed most of Patidar Anamat Andolan Samitis demands apart from the contentious issue of reservation. On reservation, the Congress gave an assurance to the community that they would find a solution that is both legal and constitutional. Congress leaders will meet representatives of the PAAS again after a week, after consulting constitutional and legal experts. For the moment, PAAS has decided neither to disrupt Rahul Gandhi road show in Surat on November 3, nor openly support the Congress during the road show "On reservation, we will find a solution within the legal framework. We will meet with Patidars again after consulting constitutional and legal experts, Siddharth Patel, senior Congress leader, said. "We are deeply concerned about those communities which are outside reservation and economically backward," GPCC President Bharatsinh Solanki added. On the other issues that had been agreed upon, Patel said, "To investigate everything that happened on GMDC ground and the day later, we will set up an SIT. Strong action against those responsible. All cases, including sedition, against Patidars will be withdrawn. Up to Rs 35 lakh assistance will be given to the families of all who died during the agitation. A government job will also be offered to each family." PAAS representative Alpesh Kathiria said, "To ensure no legal and technical glitches happen, both parties will meet again and discuss the reservation issue again. As of now, no decision had been made either to support Congress or oppose Rahul Gandhi show. We will meet and discuss our stand on Rahul Gandhi meeting. " Bhopal: Highlighting farmers distress through high number of suicides and mounting loans, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) International Working President Pravin Togadia has claimed that debt-ridden farmers in Madhya Pradesh villages even dont have few thousand rupees to pay their power bills. Addressing a huge gathering at Chhola Dussehra Maidan in Bhopal on the conclusion of three-day national executive of Bajrang Dal on Sunday evening, Togadia claimed, I visited five villages in Hoshangabad district on Saturday. Farmers complained of huge loans and one of the farmers I met had power disconnected amid busy crop season as he did not have Rs 2,000 to pay for his dues. The situation is similar in the country as three lakh debt-ridden farmers end lives every year, said the firebrand leader demanding governments to free farmers from debts. Delivering some more body blows to Centres development claims, the saffron wing head went on to say that 19 crore people sleep empty stomach and ten crore youths in the country are jobless. There are one crore people who live in slums, he alleged. If the government could spend Rs 700 crore for offering employment to Muslims, why cant it set aside Rs 70,000 cr for ensuring jobs to Hindu youths, stated Togadia. The VHP chief, while calling Ram Mandir a matter of pride and self-respect to Hindus, asked Centre to hold a joint session of parliament and seek constitutional nod for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, on similar lines late Home minister Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel did for the restoration of Somnath temple in Gujarat. Togadia termed it highly unfortunate that symbol of faith for crores of Hindus-lord Ram-were forced to live in a tent in Ayodhya. Pride of Hindus cant be safeguarded unless the Ram mandir is built in Ayodhya, said the VHP leader warning that no new mosques would be allowed in Ayodhya. The Hindu hardliner also lambasted the Centre for failing to protect cows from being killed and instead abusing gau-rakshaks, who according to him, were forced to take to streets after Centres inability to protect the sacred animal. If the parliament can meet on GST at midnight, why not it can do the same for passing a law against killings of cows, he questioned. Claimed that Hindus have fought for saving cows in Mughal and British era, he said that VHP-Bajrang Dal were committed to save cows at any cost. Referring to alleged excesses on Hindus in Kerala and West Bengal, Togadia claimed that eventually India would become a Hindu nation. There are cities in India, where Hindus are forced to flee out of fear of Muslims, he alleged. Religious head Jitendra Nath Maharaj on the occasion lauding UP chief minister Yogi Adityanaths move of celebrating Diwali in Ayodhya, claimed that soon Ram Mandir would be built in Ayodhya. During the three-day national executive, the saffron organisation passed resolution on Ram Mandir construction, Gau-raksha and internal security threats including those from Bangladeshi infiltrators and Rohingyas. Prant heads from Kerala and West Bengal alleged atrocities like love jihad, conversions, assaults and religious oppression on Hindus in their states. New Delhi: Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Monday described demonetisation as an "out and out disaster" and said that GST was a "torpedo" which destroyed the economy. "The decision of demonetisation was an out-and-out disaster. The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is yet not able to understand the pain of the nation," Rahul Gandhi said after a meeting of party general secretaries. "I don't know what they are going to celebrate. November 8 is a sad day for us," he said referring to the government's decision to observe it as anti-black money day. "Today we had two meetings, one on demonetisation and the other on GST. In the demonetisation meeting we discussed how the country has suffered a lot and many small businesses have closed," Gandhi said. "In the GST meeting, it was discussed how a good idea was destroyed," he said. He said that Narendra Modi gave two shocks to the country "one after another". "He gave two shocks one after another -- first demonetisation and the other GST," he said. Demonetisation was the first torpedo from which the country survived, but the second torpedo of GST destroyed it, he added. The Congress leader's remarks come a day after Prime Minister Modi said he was prepared to pay any price but would not roll back the reforms. "The government would make changes to better the system, and whether we remain or not, we will not let the nation be ruined," Modi said. "There would be no rollback of the mega reform move," Modi said in Karnataka on Sunday. New Delhi: Senior BJP leaders, led by none other than the Prime Minister, have been breathing fire after P Chidambaram talked about holding discussions to give greater autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir. His own party the Congress has distanced itself from comments made by him, calling them his personal views. From the reactions of those around him, Chidambaram sounds like the first mainstream political leader to have made such a bold suggestion. In fact, three Prime Ministers of India (one from BJP, Congress and United Front each) had made such a proposal while they still were in office. And this is excluding the views of Indias first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, under whose leadership Article 370 was furnished through which the state acceded to India and which gave Kashmir autonomy over all matters except defence, finance, external affairs and communication. The last time this suggestion was made by BJP's founding member and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. On June 26, 2000, the state Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir passed autonomy resolution. Headed by the then Chief Minister of the state, and the president of National Conference, Farooq Abdullah, the Assembly passed a resolution which recommended sweeping changes in Centre-State relations. At that time BJP, headed by Prime Minister AB Vajpayee and deputy PM LK Advani, which was in power at Centre, set aside the resolution. But two years later, Vajpayee expressed the Centres willingness to discuss the question of J&Ks autonomy. We had not set aside the resolution on autonomy (passed by the Jammu & Kashmir Assembly) without giving it a thought. We were ready for talks. We are ready for talks even now, Vajpayee had said on a visit to the state in May 2002. According to former Jammu and Kashmir CM Omar Abdullah, Vajpayee had nominated his law officer to discuss autonomy with the then ruling National Conference. "Moreover, what does this say about their feelings towards Vajpayee Sahib who had nominated his law minister to discuss autonomy with the then ruling National Conference," said Omar Abdullah in reaction to BJP questioning Chidambaram's suggestion to hold discussions to give greater autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir. Before Vajpayee, the manifesto of United Front government, which came to power in 1996 and was headed by Deve Gowda, contained the words maximum autonomy as a promise to Kashmir. The UF governments minimum program, published on June 5, 1996, said: "Respecting Article 370 of the Constitution as well as the wishes of the people, the problems of Jammu and Kashmir will be resolved through giving the people of that State the maximum degree of autonomy." And just one year earlier Gowdas predecessor, Congress governments Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao had also, very famously, said while talking on the issue of Kashmir, in Burkina Faso, on November 4, that as far as J&Ks autonomy was concerned sky is the limit. Rao had said that he would consider any Kashmiri demand that was something short of Azadi and was within the framework of Indian constitution. Although both these statements, by Rao and Gowda, riled many observers and political appointees who continued to attack both these PMs for these statements years later. Former governor of J&K Jagmohan, in his autobiography Frozen Turbulence went on to say that Raos comments were not only hollow, cowardly and careless, but also betrayed an infirm mind. National Conference and regional parties have also at various points in last several years batted to give J&K greater autonomy. CPI(M) in a statement issued in July 2000, right after the states Assembly passed the autonomy resolution said, "While the CPI(M) stands for greater autonomy within the scope of Article 370 of the Constitution, it also advocates regional autonomy for Jammu and Ladakh within the state." In fact BJPs own alliance partner in the state PDP talked of autonomy in their own election manifesto for 2014 Parliamentary elections. The third point in PDPs manifesto reads In the last 65 years, the Parliament has never deliberated on J&K in any substantive and serious manner. All the well-meaning announcements made by different Prime Ministers be it the P V Narasimha Raos sky is the limit for autonomy, or Atal Bihari Vajpayees insaniyat kay dairay main or Manmohan Singhs making borders irrelevant need to be institutionalized for them to have an impact on the ground. So when Chidambaram talked about seriously examining whether the state could be given greater autonomy and if so, consider on what areas we can give autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir, he was only reiterating a point that has been promised by Indian Prime Ministers, national party leaders, and leaders of J&Ks own regional parties, and promised to the state through article 370 of the Indian constitution. The UK is investing over $97 million in Upper Egypts Benban Solar Park, set to be the largest solar installation in the world, the British Embassy announced on Monday. In an official statement, the embassy said the investment by CDC Group, the UKs development finance institution, is a part of an International Financial Cooperation (IFC)-led consortium providing a $653 million debt package to fund 13 new solar-power plants the Nubian Suns in the Southern Egyptian city of Aswan. I am proud the UK is investing in a project that will provide clean power to over 350,000 residential customers and generate up to 6,000 jobs," UK Ambassador to Egypt John Casson said. "Todays announcement reflects our commitment to support Egypt as its number one partner with a new wave of investments that support its development, provide new job opportunities and paint a brighter future for its generations, he said. On Sunday, Egypt signed agreements for the construction of 13 solar-power plants in Aswan, financed by the IFC, which is a member of the World Bank Group. The 13 solar power plants, which are expected to generate 590 megawatts, will cost $823 million in total, with the IFC providing $653 million, Egypt's investment ministry said in a statement. Upon completion, the facilities will comprise the largest solar installation in the world, with a planned total capacity of 1.8 GW. Egypt has been working to upgrade its power plant capacity and renewable energy projects in order to meet rising electricity demand. It aims to shift 22 percent of the country's energy consumption to renewable sources by 2020. Search Keywords: Short link: New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal waded into the azadi debate on Monday, seeking freedom from this government. In a tweet, the former Union minister said: No 'Azadi' for Kashmir but desire 'Azadi' from this government: polarisation , bigotry, love-jihad , gau rakshaks. Let's begin in Gujarat. Sibals tweet comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress, accusing it of "shamelessly" taking a U-turn on Kashmir and lending its voice for "Kashmir's azadi". Modis remarks were in response to senior Congress leader P Chidambarams pitch for greater autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir. No 'Azadi' for Kashmir but desire 'Azadi' from this government: polarisation , bigotry, love-jihad , gau rakshaks. Let's begin in Gujarat . Kapil Sibal (@KapilSibal) October 30, 2017 "All of a sudden, those who were in power till yesterday have taken a U-turn. Shamelessly, they are making a statement and are lending their voice for Kashmir's azadi," Modi said. Without taking Chidambaram's name, the Prime Minister said, "I'm surprised that those who were in power at the Centre, those who were responsible for the country's internal security and national security (are saying this)." The PM made the statement while addressing a public meeting in Congress-ruled Karnataka on Sunday. Later in the day, the PM tweeted that the Congress was disconnected with peoples aspirations. Karnataka wants politics of development. Congress is disconnected with people's aspirations! Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) October 29, 2017 Hitting back at Modi, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Monday that the BJP was against the principle of democracy. The ideology of BJP is against the principles of democracy. Equity & social unity without disparity are the tenets of Congress @INCKarnataka Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) October 29, 2017 In a series of tweets, the CM said the BJP was day-dreaming that Congressmen in the state would switch sides after Gujarat elections. Patna/Sasaram: RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav on Saturday branded the prohibition in Bihar as a "big failure" and said liquor was now being delivered at home in the state. On his way to Ranchi, Prasad was responding to reporters' queries on Friday night's incident, in which four persons died after consuming spurious liquor while two others fell ill in Rohtas district. "Prohibition has been a big failure and a complete flop in the state as home delivery of liquor is happening in Bihar now," he said. Accusing the police of "malamaal" (making quick money) as truckloads of liquor were frequently coming to the state, the RJD chief claimed that spurious liquor was being sold to areas where the supply was short. A complete ban on sale and consumption of alcohol was imposed in Bihar in April last year. Meanwhile, the police and excise officials have launched a massive hunt against those involved in production and sale of illicit liquor in the state. Shahabad Range Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Police Mohammad Rahman said four teams, each headed by a sub- divisional police officer (SDPO), had been formed to conduct raids against the illicit liquor traders and producers at various locations of Rohtas and Bhojpur districts. The teams led by the SDPOs of Ara, Piro, Vikramganj and Dehri would conduct raids from Sahar in Bhojpur district to Yadunathpur in Rohtas district, he added. Lucknow: In a first, the Samajwadi Party has named a transgender, Gulshan Bindu, as its candidate for the Mayors post in the Ayodhya-Faizabad municipal corporation election, which is a BJP bastion. Samajwadi Party released its first list of candidates on Sunday for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh municipal elections. While the party has fielded spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary, Deepu Manethi Valmiki for the Meerut Nagar Nigam, IM Tomar has been named for the Bareilly civic body, Yusuf Ansari for Moradabad, Muzahid Kidwai for Aligarh, Rahul Saxena for Jhansi, Gulshan Bindu for Ayodhya-Faizabad and Rahul Gupta for Gorakhpur municipal corporations. Gulshan Bindu had last contested the 2012 Assembly elections and managed to bag 22,023 votes. She finished fourth in the elections. Later in 2012, Gulshan even tried her luck with the Chairmans post in the Faizabad Nagar Palika and this time, she finished second and gave a tough fight to the BJPs Vijay Gupta. In her past elections, Gulshan became extremely popular with her slogan: Na Muslim, Na Hindu, Abki Gulshan Bindu. Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav said that the party has given representation to all sections of the society. Today women and traders are the worst hit by the BJPs policies, he said. Making a strong pitch against the BJP, that came to power in the state in March this year, Akhilesh further said that as compared to his tenure between 2012 and 2017, the BJP government has nothing to show the voters, except for deceit and false promises. "Samajwadi Party has a lot of things to list as its achievements during its rule from March 2012 to March 2017, however, the BJP has nothing except for deceit and false promises. The urban body election gives us a huge opportunity to expose the BJP that has come to power by polarizing voters on communal lines," said Akhilesh Yadav, while addressing party workers at the state party office. Japanese video games maker Nintendo Co Ltd, already expecting its highest earnings in seven years, almost doubled its full-year operating profit forecast on Monday as supply shortages for its new Switch games console began to ease. Demand for the hybrid home-portable Switch has led to a near-doubling of Nintendo's stock price to nine-year highs since the device's March launch. Sales have exceeded the company's initial estimate, outstripping those of predecessor Wii U, and leaving suppliers scrambling for parts. "We've boosted Switch production to meet strong demand as it was difficult for customers to buy the consoles at retail stores," Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima said at an earnings briefing, adding the firm misjudged demand. The Switch's early success has fuelled hopes for strong earnings in the coming years, as solid demand for new consoles is widely regarded as a prelude to strong sales of high-margin game software over several years. However, competition is set to intensify into the year-end holiday shopping season as Microsoft Corp releases its high-powered, high-resolution Xbox One X console on Nov. 7. "The true power of the Switch would be tested during the upcoming holiday season," Kimishima said. NEW EXPERIENCES Nintendo now expects profit of 120 billion yen ($1.06 billion) for the year ending March versus 65 billion yen estimated three months ago, boosted by Switch sales as well as a weaker yen against the euro. The new outlook is still below a Thomson Reuters Starmine SmartEstimate of 133.60 billion yen drawn from the projections of 22 analysts. Nintendo also raised its year-end Switch sales forecast to 14 million consoles from 10 million. The new annual target would alone exceed lifetime sales of 13.56 million consoles for the Wii U, which was on the market for about five years. The preceding blockbuster Wii, which debuted in late 2006, sold about 20 million in its first year and went on to sell over 100 million units. Nintendo sold about 2.9 million Switch consoles in the three months through September, bringing the cumulative total to 7.63 million units. Kimishima also said Nintendo is preparing game software that provides Switch users with new "experiences". The software has the potential to attract new users and boost sales, he said, declining to elaborate. RELIANCE The results come at a time when Nintendo is trying to reduce reliance on consoles and stabilize fluctuating profit by moving into new areas such as smartphone gaming and theme parks with its roster of popular characters. But Kimishima reiterated the main purpose of branching out is to increase encounters with non-gamers to stimulate console sales. Nintendo also said for the three months through September, operating profit reached 23.75 billion yen, reversing a year-earlier loss of 812 million yen. Its share price ended Monday 0.26 percent lower ahead of the earnings release, compared with a 0.01 percent rise in the Nikkei benchmark index. Watch: Apple iPhone X | First Look | Best iPhone Yet? Paris: A Muslim feminist activist who has accused prominent Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan of violent rape detailed her claims in a hard-hitting interview on Monday. The leading Oxford professor, whose grandfather founded Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Islamist movement, is facing investigations in France for the alleged rape of two women. Ramadan has denied the accusations as a "campaign of lies launched by my adversaries". Henda Ayari, a former Muslim fundamentalist who says Ramadan raped her in a Paris hotel room in 2012, said she was encouraged to speak out against him publicly by the "Me Too" campaign sweeping the world. "It was the #BalanceTonPorc campaign that pushed me to reveal his name," she told the Parisien newspaper, in reference to France's version of the hashtag which means "Expose your pig". Ayari, who lodged a rape complaint against the 55-year-old Swiss national on October 20, charged that for Tariq Ramadan, "either you wear a veil or you get raped". " "He choked me so hard that I thought I was going to die," she added. She had detailed the encounter in a book published last year, without naming her alleged attacker. A second unnamed woman on Friday also accused Ramadan of raping her in a hotel room in 2009. Ramadan has filed counter-charges for libel and wrote on Facebook Saturday that a new suit would follow "within a few days, in response to the campaign of lies launched by my adversaries". "These accusations are simply false, and betray all the ideals I have long strived for and believed in," he wrote. Ramadan, a professor of contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University, is popular among conservative Muslims. Secular critics accuse him of promoting a political form of Islam. Thousands of people took the "Me Too" online campaign-- started by allegations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein -- onto the streets of France on Sunday. Some 2,500 people joined a rally in Paris against sexual abuse and harassment, while other protests were staged in Marseille, Bordeaux, Lille and other cities. In addition to Ramadan, several other prominent figures have been targeted in French assault claims, including a lawmaker in President Emmanuel Macron's party and a judge on France's equivalent of "America's Got Talent". Stockholm: Danish inventor Peter Madsen has admitted dismembering the corpse of Swedish journalist Kim Wall, whose body parts were found at sea after she interviewed him on board his homemade submarine, Danish police said Monday. Madsen, who is suspected of murdering Wall, has until now denied mutilating her body. In earlier police questioning, the 46-year-old said she had died in an accident when a heavy submarine hatch fell on her head, but he has now changed his story to say she died of carbon monoxide poisoning, police said in a statement. "He has now explained that Kim Wall died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning inside the submarine at a time when he was on deck," police said. "Furthermore, Peter Madsen has admitted that he later dismembered her corpse and spread the body parts in Koge Bay" off Copenhagen. Police also said Madsen was suspected of having "sexual relations other than intercourse ... under particularly aggravated circumstances, based on the 14 stab wounds to and around Kim Wall's genital area." That was believed to have taken place shortly after her death, police said. Prosecutors have previously said they believe Madsen killed Wall as part of a sexual fantasy, then dismembered her body and tossed the parts into the sea. Investigators found a hard disk in Madsen's workshop that contained fetish films in which women were tortured, decapitated and burned alive. Madsen has denied any sexual relations with Wall, and insisted the hard drive did not belong to him. Changing his story Wall failed to return from an interview with Madsen on board his homemade submarine on August 10. Her headless torso was found floating in Koge Bay off Copenhagen on August 21, and her head, legs and clothes were recovered in plastic bags in the same waters on October 7. Wall, 30, worked as a freelance journalist based in New York and China, and her articles were published in the Guardian, The New York Times and others. Madsen, a 46-year-old self-taught engineer who is married, has been held in custody since August 11 and has changed his version of events several times. After intentionally sinking his submarine early on August 11 in Koge Bay, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Danish capital, he was picked up by a rescue vessel and told police he had dropped Wall off on land after their interview the previous evening. On September 5, he changed his story to say a 70-kilo (154-pound) hatch fell on her head, killing her, and that he threw her body, intact, overboard in a panic. But police said on October 7 they had located her decapitated head and an autopsy showed no sign of a skull injury. The carbon monoxide poisoning explanation now "gives the police reason to request further information from the forensic coroner and the military's submarine experts," police inspector Jens Moller Jensen said in the statement. Police said divers were still searching for Wall's arms, and both her and Madsen's cell phones. Trial dates set Madsen is an eccentric, well-known figure in Denmark. He has successfully launched rockets with the aim of developing private space travel. And his homemade submarine Nautilus, launched in 2008, was the biggest private sub ever made when he built it with help from a group of volunteers. A court hearing to extend Madsen's custody had been scheduled for Tuesday, but the hearing has been cancelled as he no longer contests his detention, police said. Preliminary trial dates have been set for March and April, police said. Under the Danish legal system, formal charges will be pressed against Madsen once the investigation has been completed, shortly before the trial. Washington: Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager for U.S. President Donald Trump, surrendered to federal authorities on Monday in the first charges stemming from a special counsel investigation of possible Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to media reports. Manafort arrived at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington field office, television video showed. He was to surrender to federal authorities, the New York Times and CNN reported, citing sources. The charges against Manafort would be the first arising from the investigation by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed to look into alleged Russian meddling to sway the election in favor of Trump. The charges against Manafort would include tax fraud, according to the Wall Street Journal. A federal grand jury issued the indictment on Friday and a federal judge ordered it sealed, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters, adding it could be unsealed as soon as Monday. Manafort associate Rick Gates would also surrender, the Times reported. Lawyers for Gates and Manafort would not immediately return calls for comment. Manafort, 68, served the Trump campaign from June to August of 2016 before resigning amid reports he may have received millions in illegal payments from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. Mueller has been investigating Manaforts financial and real estate dealings and his prior work for that political group, the Party of Regions, which backed former Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovich, sources have told Reuters. Investigators also examined potential money laundering by Manafort and other possible financial crimes, according to the sources. Gates was a long-time business partner of Manafort and has ties to many of the same Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs. He also served as deputy to Manafort during his brief tenure as Trumps campaign chairman. Trump has denied any allegations of collusion with the Russians and called the probe "a witch hunt." The Kremlin also has denied the allegations. Just before the Manafort report came out, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway insisted any charges would not necessarily implicate Trump or his campaign. "Whatever happens today with the Mueller investigation, we don't even know that it has anything to do with the campaign ...," Conway said on Fox. The Russia investigation has cast a shadow over Trump's 9-month-old presidency and widened the partisan rift between Republicans and Democrats. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her. Mueller is also investigating whether Trump campaign officials colluded with the Russian efforts. Kano (Nigeria): At least five people were killed on Monday when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in northeastern Nigeria, a militia member assisting the military against Boko Haram jihadists said. The leader of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in Ajiri Yala, some 15 kilometres north of Maiduguri, said the attack happened at about 4:30 am (local time). "A male suicide bomber disguised as a worshipper entered the mosque while people were gathering for the morning prayers," he told AFP by telephone. "He detonated his explosives. He killed five people and injured several others." Boko Haram typically never claims responsibility but has used suicide bombing as a frequent tactic in its eight-year insurgency to establish a hardline Islamic state. Mosques that do not ascribe to its extremist views are seen as legitimate targets, as are people and places seen to be supportive of the secular government. Yesterday, a CJTF member manning a checkpoint in the Muna area of Maiduguri was killed and another injured when two women strapped with explosives blew themselves up. Last Sunday, 14 people were killed when three women detonated their explosives near the Muna Garage camp, which is home to tens of thousands of people made homeless by the violence. The United Nations warned recently that attack against internally displaced people (IDPs) in camps across the region "continue to be a major concern". Communities in hard-to-reach areas of the remote region are also vulnerable and at the weekend, two women blew up in the Gulak area of Madagali, in the far north of Adamawa state. A former local government area chairman, Maina Ularamu, said there were two blasts in Dar village on Saturday night and yesterday morning. "Our suspicion is that they intended to attack the church, which is located inside the primary school about 100 metres away from the scene of the explosion," he said. Ularamu said locals suspected the two women had come to Dar from the Sambisa Forest, in neighbouring Borno, where Boko Haram was known to have bases. The military said earlier this year it had retaken control of the former national park but there are reports the militants have moved back in. They are also known to have been holed up in the Mandara mountains that lie east of Madagali and form the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. On August 2, Boko Haram fighters stormed the village of Mildu, near Madagali, killing six. Ularamu said Boko Haram "remnants are still lurking" in remote villages and the Sambisa Forest, and troop reinforcements were needed. Attacks on civilians have largely been attributed to the Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau. Strikes against the military are generally blamed on the Islamic State group-supported faction headed by Abu Mus'ab al-Barnawi. Last week, at least 15 soldiers were killed in a raid on a military camp north of Damaturu, which is the capital of Yobe state bordering Borno to the west. A military source said troops who had since been on high alert on Saturday inflicted heavy losses on a large contingent of Boko Haram fighters near the Yobe village of Goniri. Astana: A fresh round of peace talks seeking to end Syria's war opened in the Kazakh capital Astana on Monday, as part of a Moscow-led push supported by Iran and opposition backer Turkey. The latest round of talks begins days after the Islamic State jihadist group was forced out of its de facto capital Raqqa in northern Syria, in a major victory for the US-backed Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces. Recent rounds of talks in the Central Asian nation have focused on ironing out the details of a Russia-led plan for four de-escalation zones in Syria. "Closed-format talks have begun," Kazakh foreign ministry spokesman Anuar Zhainakov told AFP, adding that the two-day negotiations would conclude with statements to the press. Zhainakov confirmed that delegations from the Syrian government and the rebels seeking President Bashar al-Assad's overthrow had arrived in Astana, as had negotiators from Turkey and regime backers Russia and Iran. Despite backing opposite sides in the war, Ankara and Moscow have been working closely on Syria since a 2016 reconciliation ended a crisis caused by the shooting down of a Russian war plane. A de-escalation zones plan was first tabled in Astana in May to minimise fighting between government forces and moderate rebel factions, as well as improve access for aid for civilians living in the zones. But international organisations painted the humanitarian situation in Eastern Ghouta -- covered by the zones deal and located just outside the capital Damascus -- in dire terms earlier this month. UNICEF says over a thousand children in the area are suffering from severe, acute or moderately acute malnutrition, with over 1,500 more at serious risk, as aid convoys have failed to reach needy populations. While the de-escalation zones brought about an initial reduction in fighting, the International Red Cross has voiced concern that the violence has intensified again, including in the zones. Previous rounds of Astana negotiations have ended without major breakthroughs, but they have made more progress than the parallel UN-driven talks on Syria in Geneva. The last round of talks in September saw Russia, Turkey and Iran agree to jointly police a buffer zone in the contentious northern province of Idlib, where Ankara and Tehran are viewed as having competing interests. Zones covering part of the south of the country, Eastern Ghouta, and the central province of Homs had already been agreed during a previous round of talks. Russian military police were then deployed to secure the areas. Syria's United Nations envoy Staffan de Mistura urged parties to move on from the zones towards "a more stable political settlement" during a mid-October visit to Moscow. The next round of Geneva talks will begin on November 28, De Mistura has said. Russia's military intervention two years ago in the Syrian war that has claimed more than 330,000 lives to date turned the tables in Assad's favour. But rebels still insist on Assad's removal from power as a principal term for any peace deal. Tehran: Iran's foreign ministry says that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani turned down a meeting with President Donald Trump during his visit to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly in September. The Sunday report by the semi-official ILNA news agency quotes ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi as saying "an intention was expressed by the American side that was not approved by President Rouhani," in reference to the alleged meeting request. In 2013, then US President Barack Obama and Rouhani spoke by telephone, the highest-level contact between the two countries in decades, prompting an outcry from Iranian hardliners. Since then there has been no such communication between Tehran and Washington, which officially severed diplomatic ties in 1979. Abu Dhabi: Iran's nuclear deal with world powers may hang in the balance, but you wouldn't know it at the United Nations conference on atomic energy held on Monday in the United Arab Emirates. Iran decided to skip the Abu Dhabi conference, leaving its seats empty as Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, avoided speaking about the nuclear deal at all in his address at the venue. Iranian officials did not respond to a request for comment to discuss their decision to avoid the conference. At a later news conference, Amano himself declined to discuss it. "This conference is open to all the countries and we welcome the participation of all the countries," Amano said. "But of course it depends on each country whether to attend or not. I do not comment on Iran's participation. It is (up to) Iran to decide." Amano's decision to avoid mentioning Iran earlier may have been tactical. He visited Tehran just the day before and told journalists that Iran still honoured the 2015 accord. Both the UAE and neighboring Saudi Arabia remain highly suspicious of the nuclear deal, which saw economic sanctions on Iran lifted in exchange for it limiting its enrichment of uranium. The two Gulf Arab countries say that new money flowing into Iran has aided its ability to back Shiite militias in Iraq and support embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad. Also sharing that suspicion is Israel, which sent a delegation to the nuclear conference. The UAE, like many Arab countries, does not have diplomatic ties with Israel and remains opposed to its occupation of lands Palestinians want for a future state. Conference organisers asked journalists not to film the Israeli delegation. Israeli officials did not immediately return a request for comment. Their presence also nearly created a unique diplomatic conundrum, as conference organizers had seated them next to Iran. The Iran nuclear deal, struck in 2015, now faces one of its biggest threats. President Donald Trump has declined to re-certify the deal, sending it to Congress to address. Trump's refusal this month to re-certify the agreement has sparked a new war of words between Iran and the United States, fueling growing mistrust and a sense of nationalism among Iranians. The European Union, Britain and other parties in the deal have all encouraged Trump to keep the accord in place. Amano reiterated that Iran remains in compliance with the deal again when pressed by reporters in Abu Dhabi on Monday. However, he demurred when asked to discuss what actions Trump could take in the future. "We do not speculate," Amano said. "So I do not have any comments on the future action of the president of the United States." Islamabad: A Pakistani anti-graft court on Monday issued a bailable arrest warrant against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar after he failed to appear before it in a corruption case spiralling from the Panama Papers scandal. The Accountability Court dismissed Dar's application seeking exemption from personal appearance in the case hearing. Dar's counsel Khawaja Haris appeared in the court of judge Muhammad Bashir and sought Dar's exemption from appearance as he was in London to seek medical treatment. But the court rejected the plea and issued bailable arrest warrant and ordered him to appear in the next hearing on November 2. The case was filed against Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) following a verdict by the Supreme Court, which disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after an investigation into corruption allegations against his family. Dar has so far appeared before the court seven times since the trial began. Earlier, he missed the first hearing on September 20. It is the second hearing that he missed. Proceedings in the trial could not advance today due to Dar's absence, even though prosecution witness Abdul Rehman Gondal, branch manager of a private bank's parliament branch, had appeared in the court with two gunny bags full of documents related to the minister's bank accounts. Haris stated in the application that Dar, after attending the 16th Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference in Dushanbe, had travelled to Jeddah. He said the minister fell ill in Jeddah and subsequently had to go to London for medical treatment. The court had indicted Dar last month in the case for owning assets "beyond his known sources of income". At the last hearing on October 23, the court recorded statements of NAB's witnesses, including Abdul Rehman Gondal of Allied Bank and Masoodul Ghani of Habib Bank Limited. Earlier, three witnesses 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. On July 28, a five-member Supreme Court bench had ordered NAB to file three references against Sharif and one against Dar, on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insafs Imran Khan, Jamaat-i-Islamis Sirajul Haq and Awami Muslim Leagues Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. In its reference against the finance minister, 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)". The case alleged that the assets were disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for. Riyadh: State-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines will launch its first flight to Baghdad in 27 years on Monday, state media said, amid a thaw in ties between the Arab neighbours. The airline, also known as Saudia, will depart from the Red Sea city of Jeddah barely two weeks after Saudi budget carrier flynas made the first commercial flight from Riyadh to Baghdad since 1990. "Saudi Arabian Airlines will inaugurate regular flights between the kingdom and Iraq after an interruption of 27 years," the official Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday. "The resumption of flights is in line with growing ties between the two brotherly countries." Flights between Iraq and Saudi Arabia were suspended in August 1990 after former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein ordered his troops into neighbouring Kuwait. After years of tense relations, ties between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iraq have begun looking up in recent months. Earlier this month Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Saudi King Salman held the first meeting of the joint Saudi-Iraqi coordination council, which is aimed at upgrading strategic ties. Iraq is seeking economic benefits from closer ties with Riyadh as both countries suffer from a protracted oil slump. Saudi Arabia is also seeking to counter Iranian influence in Iraq. Private carrier flynas, in which Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal holds a 34-percent stake, also plans to expand its routes from Saudi airports to major cities across Iraq. A city man was killed in a shooting incident near downtown Lynchburg early Sunday, the Lynchburg Police Department said. At about 3:47 a.m. officers responded to 1823 Main St. for multiple calls of shots fired, accord-ing to a news release. When officers arrived on the scene, they spoke to witnesses who advised them that some type of altercation had taken place and someone began firing a handgun in the direction of the victim, identified as Omarr Tarik Thompson, 22, of Lynchburg. Officers also were advised after Thompson was shot he was transported by vehicle to the hospital with apparent gunshot wounds, the release said. Thompson was pronounced dead at Lynchburg General Hospital, according to police. Police on the scene did not comment Sunday afternoon. Several neighbors near the crime scene at the intersection of Main Street and Florida Avenue also refused to comment Sunday afternoon. Rick Carter, a Central Virginia area resident, said while near the scene on Florida Avenue Sunday afternoon he was at a party early Sunday at 1823 Main St. looking for a friend. He said a fight broke out and partygoers forced the five or six people involved in the altercation outside. Almost immediately, Carter said, he heard quick bursts of gunfire, about 20 shots in total. He didnt hear any yelling before the fight started, he said. It just happened so quick, he said. The incident remains under investigation by the Lynchburg Police Departments Criminal Investigation Division. Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to contact Detec-tive H. Blomquist at (434) 485-7267 or call Crime Stoppers at 1-888-798-59000. A box truck overturned on U.S. 460 East in Campbell County, a half mile west of Thomas Terrace Market, just before 6 a.m. Monday morning, blocking traffic for several hours. The driver of a 2007 Ford box truck lost control and ran off the left side of the road, then overcorrected, causing the truck to overturn, blocking both lanes of U.S. 460 East, according to a news release from Virginia State Police. Three vehicles, a 2015 Honda CR-V, a 1999 Buick sedan and a 2014 Chevrolet Cruze then struck the box truck, according to the release. Virginia State Police Trooper T.W. Fridley was called to the scene at about 6 a.m. The driver of the box truck, Daniel M. Bowling, 24, of Lynchburg, suffered minor injuries and was treated at the scene. He is charged with failure to maintain control, according to state police. The driver of the Buick, Timothy W. Davis, 63, of Lynchburg, and a passenger in the Cruz, Shirley I. Fleshman, 72, of Lynchburg, suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were transported to a nearby hospital. Fleshman was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. The drivers of the CR-V and Cruz were not injured. The road reopened by about 9:15 a.m., according to Virginia State Police. The incident remains under investigation. Americans arent forsaking fast food just yet. Three years after analysts predicted that Chipotle would be the death of McDonalds and other fast-food stalwarts, the onetime fast-casual darling is in free fall and McDonalds last week reported its third consecutive quarter of solid same-store sales. McDonalds is not alone. All of the Big 3 burger joints McDonalds, Wendys and Burger King have recently seen strong same-store sales growth. Since 2015, fast-food chains have outperformed fast casual and sit-down establishments by more than two percentage points, according to an analysis by the industry publication Nations Restaurant News. The development has defied some analysts expectations in a time of changing consumer preferences. It also speaks to the strong hold that fast food has on the American psyche and how hard it will be to get consumers to give up their Quarter Pounders and Big Macs. Its iconic, said Melissa Abbott, the vice president of culinary insights at the Hartman Group, a restaurant industry consulting firm. Theres still a desire for foods that provide familiarity and comfort. As Abbott and other analysts describe it, the enduring appeal of fast-food chains goes far beyond taste. Despite an ever-expanding menu of better-for-you options, chains such as McDonalds still boast the holy trinity of convenience, low cost and familiarity. McDonalds and other fast-food joints have worked hard to maintain their edge in these areas. Quick-service restaurants know they resonate well in terms of value, convenience and speed, said Victor Fernandez, the executive director of insights at the restaurant analytics firm Black Box Intelligence. So a lot of brands, including McDonalds, are now really focusing on what they do best. In terms of convenience, the fast-food industry has invested heavily in online and mobile ordering, delivery, and touch-screen kiosks that speed up waits. McDonalds offers delivery via UberEats at 3,700 urban locations across the United States - and chief executive Steve Easterbrook promised in a Tuesday earnings call that the chain would continue to expand the program, reaching as many as 5,000 locations by the end of the year. When it comes to cost, McDonalds has aggressively discounted core items such as soda, McNuggets and Big Macs to maintain its value proposition. Wendys and Burger King have offered similar promotions, promising a full meal, with drink and sides, for $4 or less. By comparison, a single burrito at Chipotle which has also faced higher ingredient costs and a lingering food-safety scandal can cost between $7 and $10. The company announced Tuesday that it had missed revenue projections for the quarter, which analysts blamed on a pair of food-borne illness outbreaks, an April malware attack and lost traffic during this years hurricane season. As for those changing consumer preferences that the food industry frets so much about - among them, the desire for more natural and healthy foods theres little evidence that theyve helped Chipotle lately or dissuaded many from chowing down on their habitual burgers. A large portion of restaurant diners dont prioritize nutrition when they eat out, Fernandez said. And those who do may make exceptions for a food they view as a nostalgic favorite. Fast-food chains have further soothed those consumers in particular, Abbott said, by tweaking their meals around the edges to offer a few more fresh or healthy ingredients. McDonalds now makes its burgers from fresh, not frozen, beef; it has subbed out margarine for butter; and it has added, to a few signature burgers, a token pinch of spinach leaves. Their message to consumers is that this is the same food you always loved now slightly upgraded, Abbott said. Consumers seem to appreciate that. Of course, consumer appreciation is fickle and highly relative especially in the beleaguered restaurant industry. Over the past two years, chains of all types have struggled against rising labor costs, a glut of competition, and an economic mood that has kept many would-be diners at home in their own kitchens. So while McDonalds and other fast-food chains may be on top now, its far too early to declare their victory over the rest of the restaurant sector. You have so many options for prepared food right now, Fernandez said. The competition has escalated. How Much Is 'Hand of God' Ball Worth? We'll Soon Know Roger Stone has been suspended from Twitterand he says it's a move that the site will bitterly regret. "They will soon learn they have bitten off more than they can chew," the outspoken President Trump ally tells New York. Stone says he plans to bring an antitrust case against Twitter, and he knows "a little bit about generating publicity." "I am advised I have a very strong legal case," he says. "Twitter wants to avoid being regulated like a utility. No one has been willing to file the antitrust case. I am." Stonewhose suspension now appears to be permanent, not temporary as initially thoughtwas kicked off the site Saturday, the day after he launched a tirade against CNN anchors and other journalists, calling Don Lemon an "ignorant lying covksucker [sic]." Stone tells Politico that the "battle against free speech has just begun." "This is a strange way to do business and part and parcel of the systematic effort by the tech left to censor and silence conservative voices," he says, adding that Twitter seems "unconcerned" by "threats to kill my wife, my family, my children, and even my dogs." (Earlier this year, Stone said any politician who voted to impeach Trump would "endanger their own life.") After lawmakers in Catalonia voted in favor of independence Friday, the Spanish government was aghast, quickly triggering unprecedented constitutional measures to fire the regional government and take direct control of many of Catalonia's affairs in order to thwart secession. But some separatist-minded Catalans have vowed to carry out a wave of civil disobedience in response to the application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, saying they refuse to recognize Madrid's authority, the AP reports. A few days before the vote, Catalonia's now-sacked foreign affairs minister, Raul Romeva, said he believed the region's civil servantswho number about 200,000would continue following orders from "the elected and legitimate institutions" rather than from Madrid. Since democracy was restored in Spain after dictator Gen. Francisco Franco's death in 1975, Catalonia has run its own local institutions, including public media, schools, police, firefighters, and health facilities. Among the first to hint that Madrid's takeover wouldn't go smoothly were Barcelona's firefighters. Even before Article 155 was invoked, they issued a statement describing the central government's threats to do so as "the most serious attack suffered by Catalonia since 1939," the start of Franco's dictatorship, and vowing to only obey Catalan authorities. Firefighters say they would never do anything that would put people at risk, but disobedience could mean refusing to fly an official flag at the fire station. (Tens of thousands of opponents to independence gathered in Barcelona on Sunday.) Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava touched foot on dry land for the first time since May over the weekend, and as they got their land legs back, they thanked those who'd rescued them after five months lost at sea. The women, who endured sharks and storms while drifting in the Pacific after their boat's motor and mast failed, spoke Sunday at a press conference in Okinawa, Japan, offering gratitude to the crew of the US Navy ship that rescued them Wednesday. "The crew of the USS Ashland saved our lives," Appel said, praising the Navy members' "attention to detail" for making sure they had things like toothbrushes and glow sticks for their dogs, Zeus and Valentine, so they could spot them more easily as they wandered the ship. The Hawaiian women confess they hadn't properly prepared for their ill-fated tripFuiava notes she'd never sailed beforeexcept for the glut of food they brought along on the advice of expert sailors. "They said pack every square inch of your boat with food, and if you think you need a month, pack six months, because you have no idea what could possibly happen out there," Appel says, per the Guardian. Despite their experience, both women are open to taking to the open waters again. "I absolutely understand why certain people fall in love with the sea," Appel told reporters in a conference call, per People. "It isn't a thing. It's an emotion, and it feels you, and you feel it." (Read more lost at sea stories.) It's Paul Manafort. Reports have been circulating for days that Robert Mueller was about to take his first person into custody as part of his wide-ranging investigation, and the New York Times and CNN report that Manafort, Trump's former campaign manager, is the one. In fact, the AP reports that Manafort surrendered to federal authorities Monday morning, along with business associate Rick Gates. The charges remain unclear, and they may not be directly related to the Trump campaignthe Wall Street Journal reports that the alleged violations include tax fraud. Manafort had been under scrutiny over alleged tax law violations and for his foreign lobbying, particularly in Ukraine. Spokespersons for the various parties weren't shedding much light, but details should emerge soon. Mueller has been looking into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as into whether President Trump obstructed justice when he fired FBI chief James Comey. (The FBI has been investigating suspicious wire transfers linked to Manafort involving about $3 million.) Last year, a mother and her three children were killed in Idaho when their SUV went off a cliff. Now police in Ada County have added a jarring word to the crash: deliberate. The sheriff's office has concluded that 40-year-old Noel Bankhead intentionally drove her Land Rover off a cliff and into a reservoir while en route to the kids' school, reports USA Today. Bankhead died in the crash, along with daughters Gwyneth Voermans, 8, and Anika Voermans, 13, and son Logan Voermans, 11. Authorities didn't speculate about a motive, but they've officially ruled it a homicide-suicide. Witnesses say Bankhead "slowed down, turned on to Spring Shores Road, positioned the car towards the cliff, and suddenly accelerated," per a release from the sheriff's office. The SUV plummeted more than 50 feet and sank in the reservoir below. No skid marks were found at the scene in Lucky Peak, and the coroner tells the Idaho Statesman that Bankhead suffered no medical emergency prior to going over the cliff, nor did toxicology tests reveal alcohol or drugs in her system. Bankhead had worked as a legal secretary and had been divorced for a few years. (Read more murder-suicide stories.) A military judge has rejected arguments by attorneys for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl that criticism by President Trump is preventing him from having a fair sentencing hearing. The AP reports the judge, Army Col. Jeffery Nance, said Monday the court has not been directly affected by Trump's criticism of Bergdahl. He also ruled that a reasonable member of the public would not have doubts about the fairness of military justice because of Trump's comments. He rejected a defense request to rule that it would be unfair to give Bergdahl any prison time. The judge did say, however, that he would consider Trump's comments as a mitigating factor in the sentencing. Other mitigating and aggravating factors that he could consider include Bergdahl's mental health and serious wounds to service members who searched for him. The wife of one of those soldiers is expected to take the stand Monday as Bergdahl's sentencing hearing resumes. National Guard Master Sgt. Mark Allen was shot in the temple while looking for Bergdahl, who faces up to life in prison. The AP previously reported that in mid-October Trump was asked about comments he made about Bergdahl while he was a candidate; while on the campaign trail, Trump called Bergdahl a "dirty, rotten traitor" who deserved to be executed by firing squad or thrown out of a plane without a parachute. Trump replied that he couldn't say anything more about the case, "but I think people have heard my comments in the past." The defense argued that showed he harbors the same views as commander in chief. (Read more Bowe Bergdahl stories.) The unsealed indictment against Paul Manafort made big headlines on Monday, but another development in the Robert Mueller investigation might have more troubling implications for President Trump. That's because while the Manafort charges have no connection to the Trump campaign, this one does, notes Politico. Former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, 30, has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his outreach to a Russian national who promised "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, reports CNBC. Papadopoulos initially told the FBI that this contact was a "nothing," but he has since acknowledged that he knew the professor had "substantial connections to Russian government officials," per the New York Times. The case is outlined in court documents here. Papadopoulos also told the FBI that his contact with the professor took place before he joined the Trump campaign, when, in fact, Papadopoulos met with the professor days after becoming an adviser, reports the Guardian. The Times calls his guilty plea, which occurred earlier this month, "the most explicit evidence connecting the Trump campaign to the Russian government's meddling in last year's election." Similarly, Papadopoulos met with a woman he believed to be related to Vladimir Putin after joining the campaign, even though he told the FBI the contact occurred beforehand, reports Business Insider. "He believed she had connections to Russian government officials; and he sought to use her Russian connections over a period of months in an effort to arrange a meeting between the campaign and Russian government officials," per the court filing. (Read more Robert Mueller stories.) Sorry! This content is not available in your region Mumbai: Lata Sabharwal Seth is best known for playing the role of Akshara's mother Rajshri Vishambharnath Maheshwari in Star Plus' super hit serial Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai that is ranked at #1 among Best Shows of the channel. Everything was going smoothly until Lata disappeared from the serial, leaving a void on the show and among the hearts of the viewers. A lot of speculations were being made, many gossips started doing the rounds, and rumour mills started working overtime as to what might have happened to Lata until News Nation found out the truth. Lata has been working in the serial Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai since 2009 during which she married Sanjeev Seth (Vishambharnath Maheshwari), her on-screen husband from the show in 2010. The two went to Goa for their honeymoon and on 16 May 2013, she became a proud mother of a baby boy. According to Lata, she was not able to devote much time and attention to her newborn son due to the shooting demands and that made her depressed. Lata decided to leave Mumbai and settle in Goa and bid farewell to the television industry to completely focus on her family. But fate had other plans and she had to come back to Mumbai and as soon as she landed in the maya nagri, she received a call from the makers of Yeh Rishta . . . . Lata says that even though she had decided to stay away from the limelight but eventually she realized that living without acting is like living without oxygen for her. So once again Lata is back on the serial. New Delhi: On the plea against linking of Aadhar card with mobile numbers, the Supreme Court has asked West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to file the petition in an individual capacity. The top court observed how can a state challenge a law passed by the Centre? The Supreme Court was replying to the West Bengal governments petition challenging the Centres move to make Aadhaar (Unique Identification Number) mandatory to avail social welfare benefits. Attorney General KK Venugopal had informed the court on October 25 that the extension will be limited to those who have not yet enrolled for Aadhaar Card. At a party meeting in Kolkata on Wednesday, the Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief had opposed the linking of Aadhaar with mobile phone number, saying "Aadhaar number should not be linked with one's mobile phone. I will not link my Aadhaar number with my mobile even if my connection is snapped." On the same day, the Centre had told the top court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefits of various government schemes has been extended till March 31 next year for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric identification number. Attorney General K K Venugopal had told a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that the deadline extension from December end until March 31, 2018, would apply only to those who do not have Aadhaar and are willing to enrol for it. When Venugopal had said he would take instructions on certain issues on Aadhaar, the court had asked him to mention the matter again on October 30. Several petitions, challenging the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes and notifications to link it with mobile numbers and bank accounts, are pending in the apex court. Also read: Centre plans to link Aadhaar card to get driving licence Also read: Maharashtra: Newborn baby gets Aadhaar number within 6 minutes of birth For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Chennai: An Indian Police Service (IPS) serving as Tirunelveli assistant superintendent of police (ASP) was caught using bluetooth device during the civil services (main) examination at Chennais Presidency Girls Higher Secondary School in Chennai on Monday. The Cheenai Police said, the IPS officer on probation has been identified as Shafeer Khan. The IPS officer and his wife are in police custody. Chennai police commissioner AK Viswanathan has confirmed the arrest of the probationary IPS officer Shafeer Khan. According to police, the assistant superintendent of police (ASP) was talking to his wife over the phone with help of a bluetooth device. She was allegedly talking to his wife, who was reportedly dictating answers to him from Hyderabad. According to police, Karim was using a bluetooth device to procure answers from his wife during a general studies test. He was caught by a Union Public Service Commission squad. The probationary IPS officer has been booked for cheating under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as several sections of IT Act-2003 The accused, who has been arrested, might face dismissal from the force because he was still under probation when the incident occurred. He had successfully cleared the civil services examination in 2014. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A student of class 11 was murdered in Mehrauli in New Delhi on Sunday. He was kidnapped on Saturday afternoon. The family of kidnapped boy received a ransom call of Rs 20 Lakh on the same day she was kidnapped. The dead body was found near a farm house of Chhatarpur area in New Delhi. The boys name was Jatin Goyal. As per police sources, the boy was murdered by his friends. Police has already held few of his friends. According to the family, Jatin went to Shanidham temple on Saturday but he did not return. Then, the family received a ransom call to which they agreed to pay. The callers disconnected by saying that they will share the location details in another call. The family had immediately complained to police about the kidnapping. Police had interrogated Jatins friends. The family had suspected a boy named Ashu for kidnapping and murder. Ashu was already involved with family during search of the boy. He tried hard so that nobody could question him. The parents of Ashu were also there with the Jatins family since Saturday. A girls name is also coming in the case who used to be Jatins girlfriend. She is believed to be the reason behind the whole case. Jatins father does business of building materials. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Congress party has agreed to consult legal experts to frame a Bill to provide reservation to Patidar community in Gujarat, PAAS leader Hardik Patel said on Monday. Extending the November 3 deadline for Congress to clarify its stand on quota to Patidars, Patel said, " we are not with or against anyone, we need clarity by November 7 on the issue of reservation to our community". Not with or against anyone, need clarity by 7 Nov on issue of reservation to our community: Hardik Patel after Patidar leaders' meet w/Cong pic.twitter.com/qFMhkvf7mY ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017 Hardik's statement came just hours after first formal meeting of Congress and Patidar leaders in Rajkot ahead of upcoming Gujarat assembly polls. President of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee Bharatsinh Solanki along with Siddharth Patel and Arjun Modhvadia met with seven representatives of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti on Monday. Denouncing the meeting between Congress and PAAS leaders, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani termed it as "match fixing" before Gujarat assembly elections which are schedulled to be held in two phases on December 9 and 14. It is known to the people of Gujarat that Hardik and the Congress are playing a fixed match, Mr. Rupani said. Congress party is seeking support from popular Patidar community leader Hardik Patel to counter BJP in its stronghold Gujarat ahead of upcoming assembly elections. Earlier at a rally, Hardik Patel had expressed his indirect support to Congress by saying, if you have to bring down a maha chor (mega thief) it doesn't matter if a chor (thief) is helped. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: India and Pakistan on Monday held an unscheduled DGMO-level talks on Islamabad's request. During the talks, Indian Army rebutted Pakistan over ceasefire violation and said the letter's troops are behind all the cross border firings. Lt Gen A K Bhatt, the DGMO of the Indian Army, told his Pakistani counterpart that the Indian Army will continue retaliatory measures and retain the right to punitively respond to ceasefire violations, the Army sources said. Pakistan Armys support to terrorism is unacceptable, Indian Armys director-general of military operations (DGMO) told his Pakistani counterpart when they spoke on hotline, sources said. The request for the unscheduled talks between the DGMOs of the two countries armies came from the Pakistani side. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Monday welcomed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi. He was accorded ceremonial reception on his visit. Gentiloni said that India and Italy share strong economic relations and it is a great opportunity to make it stronger. "We have strong economic relations and it's a great opportunity to make it stronger. We have common interests in global arena," said Italian PM. Gentiloni to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, EAM Sushma Swaraj on Monday and will also hold delegation level talks. Gentiloni will also meet President, Vice President and take part in an interaction with Indian and Italian CEOs in Delhi. Earlier, announcing the visit, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the prime ministerial trip from Italy was happening after more than a decade. The last visit of an Italian prime minister to India was in February 2007. The visit is aimed at strengthening the bilateral political and economic relations between the two countries, he said. The Indo-Italy diplomatic ties were hit badly after two Italian marinesLatorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone -- on board a ship named Enrica Lexie, were arrested for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in 2012. Italy claimed the ship was in international waters and that only the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) should apply. It also moved the international court. While Latorre returned to Italy in September 2014 following an order of the Supreme Court issued on health grounds, Girone was allowed to go in May 2016. They are now in Italy, pending the verdict by the arbitration court at the Hague. The Indo-Italy diplomatic row also impacted the European Unions relationship with India. Gentiloni will be accompanied by his wife and a 15-member Italian CEOs delegation. Italy is Indias 5th largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade of USD 8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. Indias exports to Italy are at USD 4.90 billion, while its imports are at USD 3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of USD 1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached USD 3.22 billion. The MEA said over 600 Italian companies are active in India covering various sectors such as fashion, garments, textile and textile machinery, automotive, automotive components industry, infrastructure, chemicals, energy, confectionery, insurance etc. With PTI inputs For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A Jet Airways 9W339 Mumbai-Delhi flight has been diverted to Ahmedabad following declaration of emergency as per established security procedures due to detection of an onboard security threat.A The Jet Airways aircraft landed at Ahmedabad without the report of any untoward incident and was parked at a remote bay where all 115 passengers and 7 crew members have safely deplaned.A Security agencies say Jet Airways flight was diverted to Ahmedabad after a threatening note was recovered from the toilet.A A Hijack threat letter found in bathroom of Jet Airways 9W339 Mumbai-Delhi flight that was diverted to Ahmedabad earlier today pic.twitter.com/cr8KlKjvIP a ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017 The note read "The aircraft is covered by hijackers, should not land in Delhi, should be flown straight to PoK. Don't take it as a joke. Cargo area contains explosive bombs and will blast if you land in Delhi," said security agencies.A A (Further details awaited) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Monday is going to be a hectic day at the Supreme Court as three high-profile cases would come up for hearing thus making it a day of important legal standings for the country. The top court would be taking Aadhaar Card, Love Jihad in Kerala, and Article 35(A). Justice AK Sikri led bench will hear the West Bengal governments petition challenging the Centres move to make Aadhaar (Unique Identification Number) mandatory to avail social welfare benefits. It is very much likely that the Centre will apprise the top court of its decision to extend the deadline for people to provide their Aadhaar details until March 31 to avail social welfare benefits. The SC will also hear a plea challenging a move to make people link their Aadhaar number to their mobile phone numbers. Attorney General KK Venugopal had informed the court on October 25 that the extension will be limited to those who have not yet enrolled for Aadhaar Card. Chief Justice Dipak Misra will head the bench that will take up applications seeking cancellation of Article 35(A) that guarantees special privileges to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. An NGO We the Citizens has filed the main petition in the case which says the states autonomous status granted by Article 35(A) and Article 370 of the Constitution discriminates against fellow citizens from the rest of the India. Article 35(A) prohibits people from outside Jammu and Kashmir from buying or owning immovable property there, settle permanently, or avail themselves of state-sponsored scholarship schemes. Chief Justice Dipak Misra led bench will hear the Love Jihad case where a Muslim man Shafin Jahan married Akhila Ashokan who later converted to Islam and became Hadiya Shefin. Jahan has requested the SC for overturning a Kerala High Court order that cancelled his marriage with Hadiya. Also read: India grants 431 Pakistani Hindus long-term visas, eligible for Aadhar, PAN Also read: Kerala love jihad: Hadiyas parents files complaint against activist for making, leaking video For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Raj Thackeray is honing an old weapon - the sharp edge of humour - to fight a political battle in Maharashtra after a series of debacles. When six of the seven corporators of his Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) left the party to join the Shiv Sena recently, many thought Thackeray would be lying low. Instead, the MNS president returned with a bang -- and a slew of cartoons. His sketches have been going viral for the past few weeks, ever since Thackeray re-launched his Facebook page on which he now regularly posts his cartoons. "Raj Saheb has said that he will draw cartoons more frequently from now on," senior MNS leader and former party MLA Shishir Shinde told PTI. Thackeray's target is often the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Diwali, when people pray to Laxmi for prosperity, the MNS leader posted a sketch of the goddess of wealth asking Modi and BJP president Amit Shah to give her some money to run the country. On October 2, his cartoon, titled 'Two of the same soil', depicted Mahatma Gandhi and Modi in the same frame. Gandhi held his autobiography 'My Experiments with Truth' while Modi was shown flaunting a book called 'My Experiments with Lies'. His supporters are happy, hoping that this is a sign of Thackeray's comeback. "The response to his cartoons has been phenomenal. And they are going viral with social media," said Shinde. Thackeray is believed to have inherited the trait for political cartoons from his uncle, the late Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. The nephew's sketches are uncannily like the uncle's, with familiar strokes that highlight his target's physical traits and sharp wit laced with acerbity. While he was in the Shiv Sena, Raj Thackeray's cartoons regularly appeared in the party mouthpiece Dainik Saamana and Marmik, a magazine edited by Bal Thackeray. Prakash Akolkar, political editor of the Marathi daily Sakal and author of "Jai Maharashtra", a book on the Shiv Sena, stressed that like his uncle, Raj was an ace cartoonist. "But while Balasaheb drew fewer cartoons as he started growing busy with politics, in Raj's case, it is the opposite. He has started drawing more cartoons as his influence in politics has started waning," he said. However, the pictorial pot-shots aimed at the BJP by Raj Thackeray, who supported Modi till the 2014 polls, are also being seen as an attempt by the MNS to regain lost ground. "Raj, like his uncle (Bal Thackeray), is a political opportunist. He has tapped the anti-Modi sentiment in the country and is building on it," said senior journalist and political commentator Kumar Ketkar. Raj Thackeray was widely seen as his uncle's heir-apparent, but was eventually sidelined by his cousin, Uddhav, which prompted him to launch his new party, MNS, in 2006. Championing the cause of the Marathi manoos, he made an impressive debut in the cash-rich Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in 2007 and severely dented the vote-share of the Shiv Sena-BJP in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. In its maiden assembly election in Maharashtra, the MNS won 13 seats. But the party lost its momentum, winning just one seat in the 2014 polls. Senior leaders and workers deserted the MNS in large numbers, blaming Thackeray's working style and inaccessibility for the nosedive. Earlier this month, six of the MNS's seven corporators joined the Shiv Sena, giving a major jolt to the party. But Thackeray, clearly, is waiting to strike back. "He may appear to be politically dead, but he refuses to die. He is alive and kicking," Ketkar said, though he was sceptical about the influence the cartoons had on the masses. Cartoonist Satish Acharya wondered why Thackeray didn't take up cartooning as a fulltime profession. "But I doubt how can manage an unbiased view, which is the foundation for political cartooning, as he dons a political hat, too," Acharya said. Also read: Raj Thackeray cocks a snook at PM Modi with a simple, cutting cartoon Also read: Mumbai stampede: MNS chief Raj Thackeray threatens govt, says next rally 'won't be peaceful' For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: A teenager from Mumbaias Govandi area killed his bestie over a quarrel for Rs 300 used to buy mutton, said police on Monday. Police said, 19-year-old Imran Kureshias mutilated body was recovered from railways tracks in Govandi on October 9. During the course of interrogation they learnt that his best friend, a minor, murdered him. Earlier, police believed Kureshi death to be a case of suicide but police restarted investigation after autopsy reports stated that the deceased was stabbed several times. A senior police officer told News Nation that the minoras plan would had succeeded in plotting the murder as suicide case if postmortem reports did not reveal the stabbing. aDuring course of investigation we got hints that the minor was possibly behind the murder,a said a police officer. The police officer added that we apprehended him and on questioning he spilled the beans. aHe told us that he first stabbed him with a knife and then laid his body on the railway tracks,a added the officer. The officer further added that the accused had purchased mutton worth Rs 300 from the deceased on Eid. Since the last few days both were engaged in heated arguments and scuffles. New Delhi : The alleged sex CD row involving Chhattisgarh PWD minister Rajesh Munat is taking new twists and turns everyday. CM Raman Singh accused the Congress of playing "cheap politics" for power. "We consider politics as a medium to serve people unlike the Congress which plays cheap politics for power.Our party can never think of committing immoral acts for political gains," Singh said told reporters at his official residence." The sex CD row surfaced on Friday when journalist Vinod Verma was arrested by the Chhattisgarh Police from his Ghaziabad residence on charges of blackmailing and extortion related to the "sex CD". The Chhattisgarh government has recomended CBI inquiry into the case. According to PWD Minister Rajesh Munat the CD is fake and this is an attempt of character assasination. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Shiv Sena spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut on Monday heaped praise on Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, saying the leader has now earned the credibility to lead the grand old party as president. Raut said change is visible in Rahuls leadership and people have also started taking him seriously. A couple of days back, the Shiv Sena leader had already expressed his displeasure over mocking Rahul on social media, saying that people have the power to unseat any political party. On the other hand, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Monday said the Shiv Sena must realise that it cannot play the role of a ruling party and opposition simultaneously. His comments came as the BJP-Sena coalition government completes its three years in office on Tuesday. "Some Sena leaders have developed the habit of opposing everything our government does... One can understand opposition to a few things as they are a different party," Fadnavis said. (With PTI Inputs) For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Mumbai: Holding that India is a country of Hindus first and others later, the Shiv Sena on Monday said despite a "pro-Hindutva" government at the Centre, issues like Ram Temple construction in Ayodhya and 'ghar wapsi' of displaced Kashmiri Pandits are still unresolved. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had on Friday said in Indore that 'Hindustan' is a country of Hindus, but it does not mean that it does not belong to "others". "The RSS chief says like Hindus, India belongs to others as well. The Shiv Sena chief says India belongs to Hindus first and others later, because there are more than 50 countries for Muslims," the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'. "Christians have countries like America and (in) Europe. Buddhists have China, Japan, Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Hindus do not have any country except this. "Today there is a pro-Hindutva majority government in power. Yet, it is not willing to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya and left its future in the hands of court," it said. "Despite a pro-Hindutva government, the ghar wapsi of Kashmiri Pandits hasn't taken place," said the Sena, which is a constituent of the NDA government at the Centre and an ally of the ruling BJP in Maharashtra. It also waded into the ongoing debate over playing the national anthem in public places. A stubborn attitude prevails towards singing of 'Vande Mataram' despite the president and the prime minister belonging to the "thought process of the RSS", and some also do not find it appropriate to stand up while the national anthem is being played, the saffron ally said. "If these 'others' are insulting the national anthem by not standing up, the RSS chief should guide the pro-Hindutva government on what stand it should take against them," it said. The Sena further said Bhagwat's statement that "no one leader or party can make the country great..." also cannot be ignored. The RSS chief had last week said that no one leader or party can make the country great but it needs a change and we will have to prepare the society for it. Also read: Modi wave has faded, Rahul Gandhi now capable of leading the nation, says BJP ally Shiv Sena Also read: Shiv Sena again targets BJP, says only one party has unlimited money For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned hearing of re-investigation case of Mahatma Gandhi assassination for four weeks. The case was adjourned as amicus curiae Amrender Sharan sought more time to reply. The SC asked amicus curiae to examine legal validity of plea, asking both parties to clarify their locus standi. The great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Tushar Gandhi, had opposed the plea. Earlier on October 6, the Supreme Court had appointed senior lawyer Amrender Sharan as Amicus Curiae to examine whether there is scope for re-investigating Mahatma Gandhi's assassination in 1948. Dr Pankaj Phadnis, a Mumbai-based researcher and a trustee of right-wing organisation Abhinav Bharat, had sought the reopening of investigation into the assassination on several grounds, alleging a "larger conspiracy." Phadnis had raised questions that whether there was a third assassin other than Narayan Apte and Nathuram Godse. Mahatma Gandhi was shot point blank on January 30, 1948. For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. Lucknow: Stoking a fresh controversy, Yogi-led BJP government has passed an order to paint the annexe building in Lucknow in saffron colour. This has given fodder to the opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh to launch a tirade against the state government. The work to paint the building has already started as the boundary wall has already been painted in saffron. Reacting to this Samajwadi Party leader Sunil Sajjan said that the BJP has no vision for development. He said, They are more engaged in raising controversies over various issues than working for the people. First they have raised issues over Taj Mahal, Madrasas, and now over Saffron. The Samajwadi Party leader further added, The BJP should paint their faces with saffron colour. Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma said, There is no harm in the colour. The opposition is jobless and people who do not have jobs they look for such petty subjects to raise an issue. Also read: UP: Kid dies after being crushed by minister Om Prakash Rajbhar's convoy, CM Yogi Adityanath orders probe Also read: Muslims will make India an Islamic nation by 2027 says Yogi Adityanaths Hindu Yuva Vahini For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Halloween is around the corner and if you are waiting eagerly for this spooky festival, you have all the reasons to feel on top of the world. Latest media reports suggest that, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has released a SoundCloud playlist of creepy space sounds and the bunch of sounds will help you getting into the upcoming holiday spirit. The playlist includes a collection of sounds from the space agencys several missions over the year such as Jupiter, Saturn, and other celestial bodies. The space agency has released a compilation of radio emissions emanating from planets throughout the year and later converted into sound waves in order to add some extra spookiness to your celebration. NASA has already made their latest and exciting SoundCloud playlist available on YouTube. "In time for Halloween, we've put together a compilation of elusive 'sounds' of howling planets and whistling helium that is sure to make your skin crawl," NASA wrote. There are around 20 tracks on the playlist and all of them are worth listening regardless of the time of year. While entire file has that capability to make your Halloween party extra special, the sounds of Saturn are among the most interesting ones. It is the most ideal and relevant one to play around during your next haunted house party. Also Read: Viral pic of India from space on Diwali is trap to fool you yet again? Since none of the tracks are not so long and you have your passion to get things started at your very own monster mash, here we bring you some of those best Halloween songs. Juno Captures the 'Roar' of Jupiter: NASA's Juno spacecraft has crossed the boundary of Jupiter's immense magnetic field. Juno's Waves instrument recorded the encounter with the bow shock over the course of about two hours on June 24, 2016. Plasma Waves: Plasma waves, like the roaring ocean surf, create a rhythmic cacophony that with the EMFISIS instrument aboard NASAs Van Allen Probes we can hear across space. Saturn's Radio Emissions: Saturn is a source of intense radio emissions, which were monitored by the Cassini spacecraft. The radio waves are closely related to the auroras near the poles of the planet. These auroras are similar to Earth's northern and southern lights. More of Saturn's eerie-sounding radio emissions. Also Read: NASA's Dawn spacecraft to get a closer look at dwarf planet Ceres Sounds of Jupiter: Scientists sometimes translate radio signals into sound to better understand the signals. This approach is called "data sonification". On June 27, 1996, the Galileo spacecraft made the first flyby of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, and this audio track represents data from Galileo's Plasma Wave Experiment instrument. Sounds of a Comet Encounter: During its Feb. 14, 2011, flyby of comet Tempel 1, an instrument on the protective shield on NASA's Stardust spacecraft was pelted by dust particles and small rocks, as can be heard in this audio track. For all the Latest Science News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: British Prime Minister Theresa May has written to the Common Speaker John Bercow demanding an investigation and the establishment of a new grievance procedure to deal with complaints of sexual harassment in Westminster. May is trying to tackle a culture of sexual harassment in politics after a much controversial report has come to the notice on Friday. According to reports, Mark Garnier, a junior international trade minister, asked secretary Caroline Edmondson to buy two sex toys and also called her 'sugar tits'. Talking about this latest controversial happening, Mark told the news paper 'Mail' that, the comment was part of an amusing conversation about a television show, and that asking her to buy the toys was 'good humoured high jinks'. However, Edmondson has disputed Garnier's all the comments to the daily. Moreover, in response to Theresa May's written investigation order, Bercow said, any unwanted sexual behaviour was 'completely unacceptable' and any minister who acted inappropriately would face 'serious action'. Also Read: Sean Youngis accuses producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment "These stories, if they are true, are obviously totally unacceptable, the Cabinet Office will be conducting an investigation as to whether there has been a breach of the ministerial code in this particular case, but as you know the facts are disputed," Health Minister Jeremy Hunt was quoted while interacting with BBC television. Hunt also discussed about those dozens of allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and said, "The prime minister was very clear when we responded to the reports about Harvey Weinstein in the last few weeks that any unwanted sexual behaviour is completely unacceptable, and that is true in any walk of life including politics." Amid this vexed situation in Westminster, Theresa May has also asked John Bercow for his advice about changing the culture and to stop this kind of inappropriate behaviour in British politics, and in other industries. Also Read | Caught on camera: Man held for assaulting woman in Kerala For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. New Delhi: Pentagon chief Jim Mattis is all set to meet South Korea's top defense officials and American military commanders on the front line on Monday. Mattis has already arrived in South Korea for the same. According to reports, US has joined hands with South Korea to counter North Korea's nuclear weapons program which is called 'a massive military response.' Mattis is emphasizing the Trump administration's push fora diplomatic solution to the problem. But he also has said the US is prepared to take military action if the North does not halt its development of missiles that could strike the entirety of the United States, potentially with a nuclear warhead. Making his second trip as defense secretary to the US ally, Mattis will meet with South Korean officials as part of an annual consultation on defense issues on the Korean peninsula. He'll be joined in Seoul by the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford. President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit the city next month. Trump entered office declaring his commitment to solving the North Korea problem, asserting that he would succeed where his predecessors had failed. Also Read: India-NKorea ties could act as conduit for communications: Tillerson His administration has sought to increase pressure on Pyongyang through UN Security Councilsanctions and other diplomatic efforts, but the North hasn't budged from its goal of building a full-fledged nuclear arsenal, including missiles capable of striking the US mainland. If Trump sticks to his pledge to stop the North frombeing able to threaten the US with a nuclear attack, something will have to give - either a negotiated tempering of the North's ambitions or a US acceptance of the North as a nuclear power. The other alternative would be US military action to attempt to neutralize or eliminate the North's nuclear assets- a move fraught with risk for South Korea, Japan and the US Michael Swaine, an Asia defense analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, sees little chance the North will cave in to international pressure and give up its nuclear weapons. "I just think the United States is far away from coming to grips with this problem in North Korea," Swaine said in an interview last week. The US has about 28,500 troops based in South Korea and has maintained a military presence there since the Korean warended in 1953. Mattis met with South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo earlier this week when the two attended a conference of Southeast Asian defense chiefs in the Philippines. Also Read: US adds new sanctions on North Korea for serious human rights abuses Song told reporters there that going to war with the North must beviewed as a last resort. In the Philippines, the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations declared their 'grave concerns' overgrowing tensions on the Korean peninsula. They cited NorthKorea's testing and launching of intercontinental-range ballistic missiles as well as its September test of a nuclear device the North claimed was a hydrogen bomb. Mattis pointed to the ASEAN ministers' statement asevidence of a broad consensus in Asia that North Korea isisolated and in violation of international norms. US government officials for decades have confidently but mistakenly predicted the approaching collapse of North Korea. Twenty years ago, Mattis's predecessor five times removed,William Cohen, said as he peered into North Korea from insidethe demilitarized zone at the two Koreas' border that Pyongyang's communist system was 'decaying and dying.' His view was widely shared in Washington. Like others, Cohen underestimated the resilience of NorthKorea's ruling dynasty that started with Kim Il Sung. Also Read: Pakistan more dangerous than North Korea: Ex-US Senator Larry Pressler Kim JongUn, the current ruler, assumed control of the country shortly after his father, Kim Jong-Il, died in 2011, and has accelerated the country's nuclear and missile programs. (With PTI inputs) For all the Latest World News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate NEWTOWN - A man apparently lied to the FBI when he claimed he knew of a threat by Adam Lanza to kill his mother and Sandy Hook schoolchildren years before the troubled youth actually committed the massacre, police said. The unidentified mans claim that he warned Newtown police in 2008 about Lanzas threat was investigated by federal officials, who found that it could not be true, said Newtown Police Chief James Viadero, citing a prosecutors report. The claim was among scores of statements about the 2012 slayings of 26 first-graders and educators that the FBI released last week in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act. The mans claim made headlines last week because it suggested that there had been missed warnings about Lanzas intentions, and that had it been heeded police might have averted the worst crime in Connecticut history. But the credibility of the statement was difficult to weigh, because it had been heavily redacted, as were all the documents in the FBI report. The claim surprised the Newtown Police Department, which said it had no record of anyone calling in 2008 to make such a claim. It wasnt until Viadero requested more information from the FBI about the man who made the statement that the chief connected him with someone mentioned in the final report about the Sandy Hook massacre investigation, conducted by Danbury States Attorney Stephen Sedensky. [A] man claimed that while in Oklahoma a woman told him about the planned shooting before the shooting occurred, Sedenskys report reads. Federal law enforcement investigated this and found that it could not be true. Viadero on Monday said he believed the man in the FBI report is the same man in Sedenskys report whose story was unfounded. [T]he referenced report spoke of the same information as in the FBI report, identifying it as emanating from Oklahoma, Viadero said. Sedensky on Monday supported the chiefs conclusion. There were a lot of claims out there that had to be tracked down and investigated and addressed in my report, and this was one of them, Sedensky said. The FBI would not address statement specifically, but expressed concern for many who are grieving in Newtown. "The FBIs release of investigative information on the Sandy Hook tragedy was made through the Freedom of Information Act provision as required by law, said Patricia Ferrick, special agent in charge at the FBI New Haven office, in a prepared statement. However, I understand that doing so renews the anguish for the victims families as well as for our community. Even though the documents are meant to stand on their own, I want to assure the community that all information received and allegations made before, during, and after the tragedy were thoroughly investigated, Ferrick said. rryser@newstimes.com 203-731-3342 TSX-V : ERG LAVAL, QC, Oct. 27, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - Ergoresearch Ltd ("Ergoresearch" or "the Company") based in Laval and known under the Equilibre, ortheses et biomecanique banner announces its results for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2017. All dollar amounts in the present release are in Canadian currency. The year 2017 was dedicated to improving the efficiency of the Company, forward research projects and launch complementary opportunities as well as laying out the foundations for future growth. Revenues for the period ending June 30, 2017 amounted to $14 028 021 which represented a decrease of 2.1% compared to the same period last year. Revenues this year were negatively impacted by the strategic and planned closure of the "home care" division, the evolution of the market and changes in the organization of health care in Quebec. Net results for the period were ($214 058) compared to $111 733 last year. This decrease in earnings is mainly related to the other items that generated a credit of $ 170,393 in fiscal year 2016, a tax expense of $ 64,092 resulting from a change in the provincial tax rate in 2017 and start-up costs incurred during the 2017 financial year: These start up cost were to launch of new organic initiatives: Sleep apnea services in some Equilibre clinics in Quebec Dynamic knee analysis service, called "Kneegraphy" (Knee KG) Recruitment and training of distributors outside Quebec for Ergoresearch's flagship products Cash flow from operating activities represented $887 612 compared to $694 301 last year. Concerning the balance sheet, the Company reimbursed in full its long-term debt by paying amounts totalling $366 667 during the period. In addition, as was announced in November 2016, the Company redeemed for cancellation 225 000 common shares of its capital stock for a total amount of $51 625. The Company still has a cash equivalent of more than $8 million that the Company plans to use over the next few years. Mr. Sylvain Boucher, president and C.E.O. stated: the health care industry is in mutation and more specifically in Quebec where the Company operates. The year 2017 saw the adoption of new legislation regarding accessory fees, a parliamentary commission on medical laboratories (Bill 118) and the launch of the Super clinics project. These major developments combined with high acquisition price expectations from potential sellers, all contributed to management's decision to focus on complementary opportunities. Hence, the Company signed agreements to open three new Equilibre laboratories within Super-clinic locations. These sites will open during the course of next year. Equilibre also launched its new apnea division known as Apnee Equilibre and integrated the Knee KG kneegraphy to its operations. Knee KG is one of the featured technologies presented at the Quebec government's Strategie quebecoise des sciences de la vie, 2017-2027 . These complementary services are perfectly in line with Equilibre's mission and benefit from the Company's administrative and commercial platforms. It is expected that these activities will impact the short term profitability of the group. It is expected that the breaking point for each initiative will be reached between 18 to 24 months from their respective launch. In its efforts to innovate, the Company presented two requests for patents in 2016 and 2017. The added value of its products supported by its technological platform, allowed the Company to sign a distribution agreement with a Canadian physiotherapy network. Investments were made in training programs and marketing tools to insure the success of these launches. Management expects positive results during the course of the next fiscal year. The Company is also seriously looking into distributing its products in the United-States. Development and perspectives Our current priorities and development plans include the following objectives: Strengthened by our cash position, pursue the exploration of potential acquisitions or partnership in Quebec and across Canada . and across . Deploy the "Equilibre" brand in a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary concept through the opening or designation of the super-clinics in Quebec . . Continue to develop the marketing of our technology platform and derivative orthotic related specialty products. Continuing our investments in Research and Development (R&D) Mr. Sylvain Boucher would like to thank all of our employees for their dedication and their ongoing desire to improve. Progress, the desire to excel and commitment are values that we all share, which reveals a bright future. About Ergoresearch Ergoresearch is a Canadian company that designs and manufactures cutting edge technologies for the orthopedic industry. The Company is a trend-setter in creating custom orthotics and speciality orthotics for the orthopedics market and holds a portfolio of patents in the orthopedics field and in human bionics. The mission of our banner "Equilibre ortheses et biomecanique" is to keep people active and moving. "EQUILIBRE", driven by its proprietary technologies and the expertise of its professionals, offers a range of products, treatments and services in order to relieve pain, restore motor function and optimize performance. This document is not intended to encourage the purchase of securities listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. TMX Group and its affiliates do not endorse or recommend any of the securities referenced here. Please seek professional advice to evaluate specific securities. Forward-looking statements Certain statements in this Press Release contain forward-looking statements and information that may entail certain risks related to uncertainties. Such statements are not historical facts and are based on current management's expectations. We ask the reader to note that these statements are subject to a multitude of risks and uncertainties that could affect the potential future results, circumstances or events and may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Such risk factors include, but are not limited to, those related to the Company's ability to finance its activities, competition, ability to negotiate and maintain partnerships, the market acceptance of the Company's product, the strength of intellectual property, the success of research and development programs, the trust invested in sub-contractors or their core personnel as well as other risks and uncertainties that are put forth every now and then by the Company in the documents filed with various Canadian securities and exchange commissions and made available at www.sedar.com. The reader should not give great importance to forward-looking statements as (i) the results may differ from conclusions, predictions or projections contained in such forward-looking statements; and (ii) certain important factors or hypotheses taken into account in reaching conclusions or the preparation of a projection or prediction may prove to be incorrect in fact. These statements are correct only on the date on which they were written, and Management disclaims any obligation to revise these statements after any event, circumstance or other situation, except as required by law. All figures are in Canadian dollars, unless otherwise specified. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. SOURCE Ergoresearch Ltd For further information: Sylvain Boucher, President and CEO - Ergoresearch Ltd., Tel.: 450-973-6700, ext. 213, [email protected] Related Links http://www.ergoresearch.com/ The U.S. military has launched a homicide investigation into the death of a Special Forces soldier in Mali and whether members of the Navy SEALs had a role in his killing. Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar died June 4 in Mali's capital, Bamako, where he was deployed as a member of the Army's 3rd Special Forces Group. A spokesman for Army Special Operations Command, Lt. Col. Robert Bockholt, said Melgar's death is under investigation, but he declined to release additional details. The cause is listed as homicide, two U.S. military officials familiar with the case told The Washington Post on Sunday. A third official with knowledge of the investigation confirmed it centers on two Navy SEALs. Melgar's death was first reported by The New York Times, which said a Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation centers on two members of SEAL Team 6 and that a medical examiner's determination that Melgar died by strangulation. No criminal charges have been filed, the Times reported. SEAL Team 6 is among the military's most elite commando units responsible for conducting highly sensitive clandestine missions throughout the world, including the 2011 raid into Pakistan that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. A spokesman with U.S. Special Operations Command declined to comment on Melgar's case. Christopher Grey, a spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigative Division told The Post that its agents responded to Melgar's death and turned over its findings to NCIS. Ed Buice, a spokesman for NCIS, confirmed its role in the probe, saying the agency took over in late September. He declined to address how Melgar died, saying NCIS does not discuss the details of ongoing investigations. NEW HAVEN Its a slight stretch to say the citys Republican Party is growing. But between Aug. 4 and Oct. 27, voter registration records show 20 additional voters registered as Republican in the city a 0.85 percent growth in just over two months, from 2,351 to 2,371. Thats 1 percent growth if you round it up. Do that, and the GOP growth lags only 2 percentage points behind the 3 percent increase in new registered Democrats, from 37,161 to 38,284 during the same span. The city has 56,048 registered voters. For the GOP, its progress for a party striving to have its first elected representative on the citys Board of Alders since Alder Arlene DePino in Ward 18. She decided not to seek re-election in 2011. Republican voters simply arent there for the plucking. Its perhaps why the two alder candidates nominated by the Republican Town Committee John Carlson in Ward 6 and Joshua Van Hoesen in Ward 18 arent necessarily focused on reaching out to party-affiliated voters. The party also nominated probate judge candidate Melissa Papantones. I am in it to win it, said Carlson, a teacher in Bridgeport. I still am. I will be campaigning until Election Day. Unaffiliated voters are important, too, but Van Hoesens strategy has focused more on the individual rather than political leanings. Both will need a strong showing from that voter pool if they hope to unseat popular incumbents Dolores Colon, D-6, and Sal E. DeCola, D-18, on Election Day Nov. 7. I honestly hope to see a lot of people out there voting, Van Hoesen said. Van Hoesen, a software engineer, lives in the ward with the largest congregation of registered Republican voters. As of Oct. 27, the 287 registered Republican voters are by far the largest number in any district. The ward has 2,320 total registered voters, including 1,275 registered Democrats and 726 unaffiliated voters. The remaining voters (32) are listed as other. We really have the numbers there to sweep the polls, Van Hoesen said jokingly, before adding more sternly: Republicans, Democrats, these are really just labels. (If) people like what they see, I hope they come and (vote) for it. Voter concerns Both candidates said theyve been attending public meetings, including local police district management meetings to get a sense of their communitys biggest concerns. Theyve practiced the traditional door-to-door knocking, too, which Van Hoesen said has given a grasp of what residents want addressed. No matter how the campaign ends up, Ive got stuff that I can hopefully address over the next two years, Van Hoesen said. Adding speed bumps to streets was a frequent request in the East Shore and Long Wharf areas. After conversations with residents, Carlson said he submitted a plan to the citys Transportation, Traffic and Parking Department for additional speed bumps on roads including Liberty Street, Cedar Street, Howard Avenue and Portsea Streets. People on Cedar Street, particularly from Spring (Street) all the way down to Portsea, are really concerned with the speeding and people not stopping at the stop signs, Carlson said. Carlson doesnt necessarily support lowering the speed limit in residential areas, as one alder has suggested. He said physical barriers are needed. Speed bumps have been installed on Hallock Street and Greenwich Avenue in Ward 9. Theyve done a wonderful job of slowing down (traffic), Carlson said. Both are hoping to call more attention to SeeClickFix, the New Haven-based company whose program is used by the city to pinpoint quality-of-life issues such as downed trees, illegal trash dumping and other issues. I found a lot of people have never even heard of it, Carlson said. Ive been informing people of the program and how to use it. Once you show someone the program, its very easy to use. Another example of the kind of issues residents can report to SeeClickFix are tree roots lifting sidewalks, which Carlson said can stall or even make it impossible for someone on a wheelchair to pass through. Van Hoesen said some cases on the application can languish and stay open for years. He would like to see more process management to make sure more issues are resolved. This would involve reviewing all open cases every one to two months. As a resident, theres nothing worse than feeling like your government is ignoring you, Van Hoesen said. Carlson has a plan to entice more city employees to New Haven, especially those in public safety such as police officers and firefighters. He said he would be interested in providing a tax break for property that would encourage possible employees to live and shop in New Haven. Just think about the positive influence for a kid who has a neighbor whos a New Haven policeman or New Haven fireman. Theyre great role models, Carlson said. Coincidentally, Carlson said residents are seeking more cops walking the beat around the ward, which Van Hoesen said his potential constituents are seeking as well. To that end, he said hes reached out to East Shore District Manager Lt. Jason Minardi to make the recommendation. Carlson said he understands it can be tricky to cover the wards entire border limits, which consist of City Point (mostly residential), Long Wharf (mostly industrial) and Tower One/Tower East (independent and assisted-living units). Ward 6 is a huge area, Carlson said. It includes almost two to three neighborhoods. East Shore residents have some concerns with the city purchasing property but failing to develop it, upsetting neighbors who end up living next to blighted properties, Van Hoesen said. Theres no money to really do anything with the property, Van Hoesen said. They feel like theyre stuck. The town isnt doing anything for them. One issue unique to East Shore residents is environmental impact from the Greater New Haven Water Pollution Control Authority, which is located on East Shore Parkway. The materials processed at the plant can cause possible health concerns. Residents didnt feel that they could easily communicate about that (with current representatives), Van Hoesen said. Election approaches As the election approaches, Carlson said hes more excited than nervous. The worst that can happen on Nov. 8 is Im not the alder, Carlson said Im not he alder now. Thats the worst that can happen. Van Hoesen said he was disappointed with the turnout for the Democratic primary in September, which yielded a meager 20 percent voter turnout rate. He hopes throwing in a Republican challenger creates competition in the alders races. Im very excited. I guess Im a little bit nervous, Van Hoesen said, adding he hopes a couple of Republicans running this year will light a fire under peoples (butts). In the age of President Trump (Town GOP Chairman Jonathan Wharton told the Register in June 2016 that he couldnt bring himself to vote for him ), the Republican label can be a difficult pill to swallow in a liberal city like New Haven. Van Hoesen acknowledged the kickback from the national level, but he wants to add some perspective to that negative perception. Were running for alders. Im not going to have the solutions for illegal immigration, the national budget (concerns), Van Hoesen said. You may be angry at the national level, but youll be able to get your issues addressed (locally). In New Haven, more often than not, its the Democratic way or the highway, Carlson said. Yet he said hes not interested in finding a specific Democratic or Republican solution, he added. Im not going to do anything for my party, Im going to do it for the residents. We are here to serve the people and thats what I plan on doing. Editors note: This is this first half of a two-part series on the alders race. Reach Esteban L. Hernandez at 203-680-9901 or esteban.hernandez@ hearstmediact.com NEW HAVEN Maybe its official this time. Following ia recent abbreviated meeting, the Board of Education agreed to a proposed timetable for what steps remain in the search for a full-time superintendent of schools, which would culminate in a board vote on the position on Nov. 20 under the plan. In September, executive search firm Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates narrowed the pool of applicants to the job to six. Interviews with those six candidates, scheduled for Sept. 26 and 27, were postponed after board members Darnell Goldson and Mayor Toni Harp objected, pulling in board member Frank Redente. Since then, the board has re-added candidates into the process and increased membership on an advisory committee, but is not any closer to making a decision. On Oct. 13, Goldson, who used parliamentary tactics multiple times over the summer months to stall a search process he said was not including enough community feedback, collaborated with member Che Dawson, who has favored moving the process along, on a timetable. However, Goldson did not attend an Oct. 16 meeting to develop a protocol for re-adding Connecticut-based applicants back into the candidate pool, a measure that had passed 4-2. Members of the community who regularly attend meetings also expressed confusion when an Oct. 21 community forum happened and many did not know about it. The stalling techniques used by some on the board, who invoked a necessity for more public participation, have drawn ire from some in the community. A statement released Thursday by the New Haven Educators Collective called for the names of the finalists and more transparency with the searchs timeline and the times and locations of its meetings. The Collective, a group of educators in support of public education, previously presented a letter to the board asking for a superintendent who would oppose privatization and be accepting of student and teacher needs and diversity. The letter drew signatures from more than 300 people in the community and seven community groups, Student board members Jacob Spell and Makayla Dawkins also said students are beginning to feel restless about the search. At an Oct. 11 meeting, Spell said students are questioning why the process is taking so long, and Dawkins said in a statement, read aloud, that she did not want to see any more community forums before the pool was narrowed down to finalists. The new timetable, developed by the board in its search committee, has six dates in November. On the evenings of Nov. 8 and 9, the search committee will interview the candidates remaining in their pool of applicants. Following the Nov. 13 school board meeting, the search committee, which includes all seven members of the board and 10 stakeholders including Harp appointees Maysa Akbar, Integrated Wellness Group executive director, and Tamiko Jackson-McArthur, a pediatrician will interview and score those candidates. Members of the school board will narrow the candidates to two or three finalists. In two sessions on Nov. 15, those finalists will have forums for students, teachers and school-based staff. As of Oct. 27, no location had been determined. On Nov. 16, the day following the community forums, the search committee will interview its finalists and present its recommendation to the school board before the board votes on Nov. 20 and enters into contract negotiations with its choice. [T]his timetable is the result of the work and consensus of a majority of committee members, as well as recommendations from staff and the search firm, Goldson said in an emailed statement. The timetable was a little too aggressive with the interview process, this moves that process back a few weeks, allowing the committee more time to plan, as well as the applicants to prepare, while still keeping to the conclusion date of Nov. 20. School board President Ed Joyner, who has supported the executive search firm and strongly advocated for pushing the school board to make progress in the search, said he is also pleased with the schedule. Its long overdue, he said. This shouldve been fairly easy. Joyner said he hopes the process will run smoothly moving forward, with the search committee making its recommendation to the school board, who will then take a vote. We operate as a team of separate people where were all duty-bound to follow the will of the majority, he said. Other people on the committee can make recommendations, but they have no voting authority. brian.zahn@hearstmediact.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The moment the two women and their two dogs were finally rescued is captured on video, taken from the deck of a Navy boat. The camera wobbles as the motorboat cuts across the ocean, some 900 miles southeast of Japan, toward the lone sailboat that had been sending distress signals for months after its engine died. One of the women is on the deck, her arms outstretched, feverishly blowing kisses toward the rescue boat. This is the reaction of someone who had been marooned at sea for months with a broken engine and a dwindling food supply. "Relief and elation and joy," rescued sailor Jennifer Appel said later, in an interview with the Navy aboard the USS Ashland, which had come to save her and Tasha Fuiava. "When we saw you guys, coming over the horizon, it was like, 'Oh god we've been saved.' It was the most amazing feeling because we honestly did not believe we would survive another 24 hours in the current situation." Appel and Fuiava, both from Honolulu, had set sail for the Polynesian island of Tahiti at the beginning of May. The boat's engine died at the end of the month, and the two had been lost at sea for the majority of the time since. In a lengthy interview aboard the Ashland, they appeared to be in good spirits as they recounted their perilous journey. The two had set off on May 3, expecting an 18-day trip to French Polynesia, where they would spend the next six months traveling around thousands of small islands in the South Pacific. They planned to head back to Hawaii by October to avoid the hurricanes that would come in November. The voyage went south quickly. They encountered what they said was a Force 11 storm - a classification for a violent storm with 37-52 foot waves - on their first night, which lasted for three days. They decided against returning to Hawaii. "When we were through with that we were empowered to know we could withstand the forces of nature, the boat could withstand the forces of nature," Appel said. "We decided not to return to Hawaii but to continue on in our journey because we believed that everything 'shook out' and we'd be all right." Next came problems with the boat. The bolt holding the spreader to the mast was bent, Appel said. The two decided to push on, to the island of Kiribati, a small island more than 1,000 miles south of Hawaii, to fix the issue, only to find the boat was too big to fit in its lagoon. So they continued south, now hundreds of miles off their planned course. Eventually they found themselves in what Appel said was a "white squall," a particularly violent and sudden storm, which flooded the boat's cockpit and ignition. They were less than a month into their journey, and they no longer had the ability to use the boat's motor. Then came the packs of tiger sharks, ramming into the side of their boat. "They decided to use our vessel to teach their young how to hunt," Appel said on a call with reporters. "It was lucky our hull was strong enough to withstand the onslaught." Appel told NBC's "Today" show she took the dogs downstairs, and "we basically laid huddled on the floor, and I told them not to bark because the sharks could hear us breathing. They could smell us." Fuiava told "Today" she kept watch at night, sending distress calls and flares when other vessels were within sight. "And when they would turn or keep going," she said. "Yeah, it was kind of sad." Their distress signals went unanswered for months. The Navy said "they were not close enough to other vessels or shore stations to receive them." Luckily the pair had prepared for a long trip; they had water purifiers and what they hoped would be a year's worth of food on board, mostly dry goods including oatmeal, pasta, nuts, dried fruit and rice. By the time they were rescued they had eaten about 90 percent of their food, Appel said. The food for their dogs, Zeus and Valentine, had been completely consumed. In the conference call with reporters from the Ashland, Appel said the pair sent a distress signal for 98 days. "It was very depressing and very hopeless, but it's the only thing you can do, so you do what you can do," she told reporters, according to the Associated Press. When asked whether she thought they might die, Appel responded it was only human to believe that. "There is a true humility to wondering if today is your last day, if tonight is your last night," she told reporters. On Tuesday, a Taiwanese fishing vessel came across their sailboat, "well off its original course." The fishermen had difficulty trying to tow the pair and alerted the U.S. Coast Guard. On Wednesday, the USS Ashland, a warship operating out of Sasebo, Japan, tracked them down and dispatched the rescue boat. The two sailors and their two dogs were brought safely aboard after the Navy determined their boat was no longer seaworthy. The two said they were overjoyed to be rescued but a little sad to leave the sailboat, the Sea Nymph. "Utter sadness cause that was our life for the last two and a half years," Fuiava said. Appel, the president of a company that builds green roofs, according to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, had spent two and a half years working on the boat to ready it for the journey, Fuiava said. Once aboard the Ashland, they were assessed by medical staff and given food and lodging arrangements. The Navy said they will remain on the ship until its next port of call. Photos distributed by the Navy show the women smiling aboard the warship. Zeus the dog appears in good spirits, if a bit skinny. Appel said she was reminded of a conversation about sailing she had with an acquaintance some 10 years ago. "I was joking with someone," she said. "And they said what happens when you go out to sea and you get broken? I said, 'Oh, the Navy will come save me.' " - - - Video: Sailors from the USS Ashland rescued Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiaba 900 miles off the coast of Japan on Oct. 25. The pair had been trying to sail from Hawaii to Tahiti when their engine failed on May 30. (U.S. Navy/YouTube) Embed code: NEW HAVEN Police broke up an attempted robbery at a Kimberly Avenue bodega Sunday morning and made two arrests. Wilima Hauck, 36, and 20-year-old Jennifer Brocco, who both live on Spring Street in New Haven, were arrested as they tried to rob Kimbis Market, located 35 Kimberly Avenue, at about 7:30 a.m. Neither Hauck nor Brocco was armed at the time of their arrest President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday appointed Boss Mustapha as the Secretary General of the Federation.The position was occupied by Babachir Lawal, who was probed for some financial improprieties and was dismissed by Buhari after studying the reports submitted by the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo-led investigation team.DAILY POST takes a quick look at the profile of the newly-appointed SGF.Boss Mustapha is a native of Adamawa State.He attended Hong Secondary School, in Hong Adamawa state and North East College of Arts and Sciences Maiduguri Borno state where he made his WASC and HSC in 1976.Mustapha got his Bachelor of Law (LL.B) from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in 1979 and was called to bar in 1980.He also did the compulsory National Youth Service Corps, NYSC Directorate of Legal of legal Services at the Army Headquarters from 1980 to 1981 and was in charge of review of Court Marshall Proceedings.After his NYSC, he joined Sotesa Nigeria Limited, an Italian consultancy firm, as an Executive Director in charge of Administration, leaving in 1983 to join the prestigious law firm Messrs Onagoruwa & Co in Lagos.Later, he was appointment the MD Principal Counsel in the firm Messrs Mustapha & Associates, his legal interests and expertise included privatization commercialization and Liberalization of Public Companies/Corporate and Government Parastatals.He was also involved in preparation of varied and miscellaneous banking documents such as Debentures, Guarantees, Mortgages, Bonds and Loan Syndications.Mustapha also served as a member of Interim Management Committee, IMC, of the defunct Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF), serving meritoriously from 2000 to 2007.He was appointed Principal Partner of the law firm, Adroit Lex.His law practice and the burning desire to serve the larger society made him to venture into politics at various times.He was member Federal Republic of Nigeria Constituent Assembly (1988-1989), Chairman Peoples Solidarity Party-Gongola State (1989-1990), state chairman, Social Democratic Party-Gongola State (1990-1991); he was even a gubernatorial candidate for SDP in Adamawa state in 1991.Mustapha was the Deputy National Chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria from 2010 to 2013. In 2007, he again played a prominent role, serving as the Deputy Director General of the partys Presidential campaign Organization.He was a member of NCC and Secretary APC Presidential Campaign Organization Mobilization (2015) and member, APC Transition Committee (2015). He is also a member, APC Board of Trustees.In addition to the NBA, the MD is a member of various professional bodies including African Bar Association (ABA), Commonwealth Lawyers Association, International Bar Association (IBA) and Human Rights Institute (HRI). But Mr. Mustaphas accomplishments go beyond politics and the Bar.Mustapha is also married with children. Some stakeholders in the aviation sector, including members of the National Assembly, are worried that investors from some Middle East countries are expressing interest in the planned concession of Nigerian airports.The Guardian learnt that the interests thus far received from countries like Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are bothering the stakeholders because of the security implication for Nigeria and alleged northern agenda currently put forward either by coincidence or deliberately in the concession buildup.The Federal Executive Council (FEC) recently granted approval for the concession of the four international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Kano. The approval, currently being worked out by the Ministry of Aviation, is the first phase of the plan to concession all the 22 Federal Government-owned airports nationwide.Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, last week recounted the gains of President Muhammadu Buharis recent visit to Turkey and among the mentioned is the expression of interest by Turkish investors.Besides Turkey, Saudi and Qatari investors have also shown interest in the multi-million dollar concession arrangement.At one of the public hearings held last Thursday, members of the National Assembly joint committee on aviation got worried about the antecedent of a country like Turkey that has lately been embroiled in political unrest, as well as serving as a channel through which arms and ammunition were smuggled into Nigeria.While the Turkish authorities have denied having a hand in the arms-trafficking saga, aviation experts are wary of future transactions with investors with Turkish interests.A member of a civil society organisation, who was at the hearing, said some lawmakers were of the view that if the biddings were restricted to the middle east, then it will not get the buy-in of Nigerians who will see it as coloured by a northern and religious agenda.Aviation union members present at the meeting said it was to prevent the airports from falling into the wrong hands that they demanded to be part of the concession process for transparency. The unions were, however, happy that the Federal Government has promised to ensure transparency by involving them.On the implication of such concerns for the concession plan, aviation security consultant, Group Capt. John Ojikutu (rtd), said he was as disturbed as the lawmakers, though he was quick to add that it was still early to conclude.Ojikutu told The Guardian that whereas we cannot but be skeptical with the biddings, expression of interest is also coming from Europe and Canada, and all need to be patient.He said from his conversation with the Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, there were several hurdles in the concession process and it was less likely that the wrong bidders would be able to grab a pie in the exercise.Ojikutu, who is also the Secretary General of the Aviation Safety Round Table Initiative (ASRTI), said: I am as worried as you, no doubt about that. The National Assembly is also as worried. I think, from what Ive heard, the minister too is very cautious with what he is doing. Just the way he handled the Abuja airports runway is the way he is handling this.From the look of things now, they have not left the level of getting the consultants of about three or four to package things together. When they get to that stage, there must be a stakeholders meeting, and there would be. It is not only the concession, but also the national carrier, maintenance facility and aerotropolis that are being packaged.So, it is too early to start speculating because in any case, all these things will still have to go through the infrastructure concession commission, the PPP, Ministry of Justice and then the Federal Executive Council for approval.But in lieu of the security concerns, I have advised them to focus on concession of the terminals, cargo sections and car parks among others, but not the aeronautical side. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has even warned African countries since 2009 not to concession aeronautical side in the light of security issues around us, Ojikutu said. Social media was abused to create a sense of panic, thereby creating some sort of destabilising in the economy, says Mr Charamba. The new cyber security minister, Mr Chinamasa, agrees. He commented at the time, before his appointment, that the cause basically was social media. It means its a security issue, he adds. It is also a political agenda, a regime change agenda. We are going to look at what exactly happened with a view to take corrective measures in the security arena. These unfortunate threats have resulted in self-censorship by [individuals] when engaging on topical issues affecting the country, it said in a statement. However the good news is that the regime has no capacity to suppress the use of social media. In the coming months a lot of people will be arrested and used as examples to deter people from abusing social media towards the elections, he warns. Dont be made an example. (Source: BBC Online) A spoof government notice hit social media as soon as President Robert Mugabe announced he had set up a new ministry responsible for Cyber Security, Threat Detection and Mitigation.Zimbabweans reacted with customary humour to the letter, which faked the signature and letterhead of the newly appointed cyber minister Patrick Chinamasa and instructed all WhatsApp group members to register with the ministry by November.The letter was signed By The Cyber Powers Vested In MeBut the jokes have since subsided, and Zimbabweans are now considering what the new ministry will mean for their civil liberties especially freedom of speech.Zimbabwes government has been uneasy about social media after pastor Evan Mawararire spearheaded the #ThisFlag movement last year.Using platforms like Twitter and Facebook it organised a stay-at-home demonstration, the biggest anti-government protest in a decade.President Robert Mugabes spokesperson, George Charamba, says Mr Mugabe came up with the idea of a new ministry to deal with an emerging threat to the state a threat founded on abuse and unlawful conduct.Social media is possibly the primary platform Zimbabweans use to communicate and receive news. It is thriving despite restrictive laws governing freedom of expression.Over the last 16 years, internet usage in the country has grown from 0.3% penetration to 46%, data from the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) shows.Several TV stations and online publications, some operating from the diaspora, use the internet to disseminate news out of the reach of the government.When petrol stations ran out of fuel last month, there were dramatic scenes of long queues at supermarket as Zimbabweans stocked up, anticipating food shortages.Worried by these events, the government blamed social media messages for spreading panic.But others say the governments stance is a threat to civil liberties.One communications rights group, the Zimbabwe chapter of the Media Institute for Southern Africa (Misa), says this new scrutiny of social media goes against the spirit of the constitution and freedom of expression.It also criticises censorship of Zimbabwes media, who have on occasion been chastised for incorporating citizen opinion as expressed online in their reportage.Going a step further, Zimbabwes opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says the governments new cyber threat ministry is a means for government to spy on its people.MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai also believes that the ministry has been created to curb free speech in time for the 2018 polls.Mugabe will do whatever it takes to control and muzzle social media in order to suppress public discontent against his regime, he said.Many Zimbabweans have reacted wryly to the news of the creation of a cyber minister, referring to Mr Chinamasa as the Minister of WhatsApp.Zimbabwe already has several pieces of legislation which rights groups say curb freedom of expression.Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights says that since 2010, it has assisted more than 100 people arrested under a law which makes it a jailable offence to insult the president and undermine his authority.Ordinary people have been arrested and charged for calling the 93-year-old leader old, a donkey and even for accusing him of ruining the country.The Zimbabwean government has said new legislation will not stifle freedom of expression and will protect the public from new threats such as revenge pornography and cyber attacks.Presidential spokesperson Mr Charamba says Zimbabwe will look closely at how other nations have dealt with the threat of cybercrime including Russia, China, and South Korea who have faced similar challenges.While several countries around the world have anti-cyber crime departments and agencies, Zimbabwe is among the first to create an entire ministry.Meanwhile on social media, ominous warnings have begun circulating.One is from a Mr Chaipa, urging Zimbabweans only to share content on social media that they would be able to defend in court.Mr Chaipa said it was easy for the government to monitor online messages, and gave a list of online activities that could be classified as criminal offences. President Muhammadu Buhari Nigerian columnist, Abdulfatah Oladeinde, explains that President Buhari must demonstrate that he's a president who is not only willing, but able. Once upon a time there was a man who had no shoes when growing up. Providence smiled on him and he became the president of Nigeria. In fact, it was almost because of his reference to his humble beginning that won him the support of ordinary citizens many of whom believed if Goodluck Jonathan, the son of a fisherman from riverine Bayelsa could rise to the number one seat, anyone else could. He was lucky. But it soon became clear that you needed more than luck to succeed in such high office. His first campaign slogan was a breath of fresh air. But by the time Jonathan left the saddle, the whole atmosphere had been fouled. He was hated more than loved. Not that he didnt try, his best didnt just measure up to expectations. Many things were said about Jonathan, a lot uncomplimentary. He squandered his goodwill; He condoned corruption; He was weak, leaving some of his appointees to turn the nations treasury into personal till. All the good things that President Jonathan did in all his years in power simply paled into insignificance. He suffered the same fate as previous rulers, most of whom left power discredited. Not too long ago in this column I wrote that most Nigerian rulers, might be suffering from Abilu, an evil affliction that makes every step someone takes to turn the opposite of what is intended. When a person suffers from Abilu anything he says would be misinterpreted, any step he takes would be a mis-step, any action he performs would attract condemnation no matter how good his intentions are. No one sees good in anybody suffering this evil spell. If he was popular at the beginning, he would end up with scorn and disdain. How many of those who have had the privilege of leading this country ended with wide acclaim? I asked in that previous column, who could have placed a curse on Nigerian leaders? Or maybe there is no curse other than they just exhibiting their low leadership quotient. Or is it that anyone we entrust our fate to as leader simply gets overwhelmed by the weight of the task? Does anyone need to look too deep to see that another of our presidents, the Mai gaskiya, our Sai baba, Muhammadu Buhari is now losing the levers. Heres a president who came to power with a great promise to make the country great. Widely acclaimed as incorruptible and principled, Buhari mounted the saddle with the determination to kill corruption that has for long held the nation down. He has in less than three years recovered hundreds of billions of naira stolen funds and ensured that mindless stealing and profligacy are no longer part of the national way of life. But is Buhari getting any credit for the feat? Is anyone hailing Buhari for halting the run of Boko Haram over Nigeria? Does anyone still remember that fuel scarcity was one of our profound problems a few years back? Are the people noticing the improvement in electricity supply? The reality today is that the list of doubters who dont believe in Buharis capacity to take Nigeria to the Promised Land is swelling. His flagship programme, the anti-corruption war is dubbed a ruse and the accusers reel off instances of allegations of corrupt practices involving men close to the president, which nothing had been done about. And there are actions by some of the presidents appointees that suggest his presidency lacks coordination. The glaring conglomeration of influence mongers within the administration isnt as troubling as its condonation by the president himself. The latest of the several instances of the rudderless leadership is the recall and promotion of former chairman of Presidential Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina into the civil service. Maina was dismissed for absconding from duty and refusing to surrender himself to answer fraud charges preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Whats holding the president back from stamping his authority and stemming the drift? Is it the Abilu spell? Whats making the president run a system that allows his subordinates to take unbridled charge and actions at the expense of his brand equity? Whatever it is, President Buhari must help himself. He must demonstrate that hes a president who is not only willing, but able. *** Written by Abdulfatah Oladeinde The Peoples Democratic Party caucus at the House of Representatives on Sunday tackled President Muhammadu Buharis administration over the recall of the former Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina.It said the development was an indication that the anti-corruption war of the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government had weakened.According to the caucus, the Maina saga will gradually destroy the APC ahead of the 2019 general elections such that the PDP will become the ultimate beneficiary.The caucus released its position after it rounded off a meeting in Abuja.The Deputy Minority Leader of the House, Mr. Chukwuka Onyema, who signed a statement on behalf of the caucus, noted that the Buhari government provided the PDP with opportunities to use against the majority party in 2019.The group added that the focus of the party right now was to pick a national chairman, who would unite all PDP members to take on the APC in 2019.The statement read partly, The Mainagate scandal, where someone being sought by INTERPOL was not only smuggled into power but given double promotion and mind-boggling security protection in a country where many deserving civil servants are being passed over, is truly dumbfounding.The shocking re-emergence of the wanted former Chairman, Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina, who was sacked by the PDP government and declared a fugitive, says a lot about the dark undercurrents of the APC government.The involvement of part of the Presidencys cabal in making funds and security details available to Maina, deserves being further investigated, while all those officials implicated should either resign or get sacked now. Over four thousand, 4,000 supporters of the All Progressive Congress, APC Chieftain in Katsina State, late Senator Mustapha Kanti Bello, on Sunday, throw their weight behind the administration of Governor Aminu Bello Masari, President Muhammadu Buhari and endorsed their second term bid considering their track records and leadership styles.The supporters were also quick to disassociate themselves from the factional APC AKIDA movement in the state.Speaking when he led the supporters at a town hall meeting with Governor Masari, the eldest son of late Sen. Kanti Bello, Mustapha Mahmud said the meeting was to show solidarity and to let the Governor know that the group has resolved their earlier political differences.Mahmud who is currently the Commissioner for Resource Development under Gov. Masari, said we came here as supporters of Late Bello. This is a group that has over 4000 supporters that had worked for Late Mustapha Kanti Bello in the 2015 general election. We have issues and we think that this administration will deal with them, now that we have economic recovery and growth plan which encapsulates everything we need to move Katsina forward.I believe we are going to achieve those things that we set for ourselves at the moment. I also believe that the future is bright and by the grace of God. By 2019, we would have achieved so much in this administration and Mr. President and the governor will have no option but continue the good work they have started.We will continue to identify with and support all the programmes that this administration has set forward. And l believe that we have every justification to be happy because, Buhari campaigned on three major pillars of anti- corruption, fighting the insecurity across the country and revitalizing the economic status of Nigeria.Governor Aminu Bello Masari, who described the late Senator as a pillar of political journey in Katsina, said the state government under his watch would put mechanism in motion to stabilize the activities of the late senator in politics.He however urged the supporters of the late senator to rally round his administration to enable him deliver the needed dividends of democracy in the state.Late Senator Kanti Bello it was gathered contested alongside Masari during the state APC gubernatorial primaries which saw the later emerging the party flag bearer and later the Governor but both it was said had since resolved their differences immediately after the primaries. The much talked about National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is scheduled to hold on Tuesday a... The much talked about National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is scheduled to hold on Tuesday at the party National secretariat with President Muhammadu Buhari in attendance.The meeting is the third meeting of the body since the inauguration of the APC led federal government with the last meeting taking place in March 2016 against the mandatory quarterly meeting.The NEC meeting has been postponed on two previous occasioned after invitations had been sent out, but as at the time of this report, security details were seen putting finishing touches to security Arrangement around the APC secretariat.Ahead of the meeting, the National Working Committee were said to have held a meeting with state Chairmen of the party on Sunday apparently to drum up support with a view to averting the alleged plot to unseat the chairman.Women leaders of the party were also seen a meeting with the National Women Leander ahead of the meeting at the party secretariat probably to agree on a common position to be presented to the meeting.Those who are statutorily expected at the NEC meeting include President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Senate President, Bukola Saraki, Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, Deputy Speaker Suleiman Yusuf Lasun, members of the National Working Committee and their deputies, Leader of the Physically challenged, Zonal Secretaries, zonal organizing secretaries, zonal women leaders and State Chairmen.Others include State Governors who are members of the party, Majority Leader, party Whips and their Deputies in both the Senate and House of Representatives, two serving Senators from each of her six geopolitical zone, three members of the House of Representatives from the six geopolitical zone, six ex-officio members and Serving Chairman, Deputy Chairman and Secretary of the Board of Trustees.However, since the inception of the party, it has not inaugurated its Board of Trustees, while the last NEC meeting mandated a review of the party constitution to change the name of the BOT to Elders Council with a view to trimming down the membership to what it termed manageable size.Article 25 (B) of the party constitution states that the National Executive Committee shall meet every quarter and or at any time decided by the National, Chairman or at the request made in writing by at least two third of the members of the National, Executive Committee provided that not less than 14 days notice is given for the meeting to be summoned.The quorum for the meeting, according to the APC constitution shall be one-third of its members.The meeting may deliberate on the crisis in various states of the federation with a view to rectifying or upturning the suspension of some members of the party such as National Legal Adviser, Muiz Banire, Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Timi Frank, Senator Shehu Sani, Chairman of APC In Bayelsa state among others.The Nation learnt that at a recent meeting of the National Working Committee and state governors, the governors present expressed concern over the absence of south-west governors and their apathy to the party meeting, suggesting that something is done to placate them.The governors were said to have also expressed concern about the absence of most of the governors from the north from the meeting.It is also expected to consider the recommendation of the National Working Committee to merge the non-elective convention with the elective convention in view of the expiration of the tenure of the Oyegun led leadership in April 2018.The National Working Committee is reported to have suggested that in view of the financial situation of the party and the closeness of the two conventions, both be merged and held between February and April 2018.The poor state of the partys finances, complains of marginalization especially from key members of the party and supporters as well as the direction of the party ahead of the 2019 elections is expected to top the agenda of the party.State governors of the party are said to be complaining that they are not being carried along in the running of the country by the President, especially when it comes to making appointments from their states.Plateau state governor, Simon Lalong who spoke the mind of the governors at a recent outing in Abuja said the government is making appointments from their states without seeking their input, adding that those who do not have the capacity to defend the actions of the President have been the ones benefiting from the federal government to appointments.The governor said the government must be made aware that things are not working the way they should, saying If things are wrong they are wrong, if they are right they are right. But it requires very courageous people to come out and say these thongs are wrong or they are right.Let the Mr. President be aware that this is the time to do it because even as governors we are also complaining in our various state, we are saying it. We complained in our states that we sit down and we hear appointment made and then people start asking you as the governor where is this man coming from?But when we turn right and turn left, we dont know where such a person is coming from. Many people have complained. Im sure governors have complained that we should be able to know who and who will Protect Mr. President and his administration.When I heard that BSO is coming back again, I said is it not too late because if you allow people to grumble too much, you will see a fight in several states and some of them are for a just course.Somebody suffered for the party, the person is not rewarded and you wake up to see another man who even fought you, the man who made you to lose your job is now being appointed and the one who suffered is sitting down.Sometimes he will be looking for tears to cry and the tears will not be there because they are dry.Like our chairman said to me, it is not too late. This is the time to start because this is the time you will hear a lot of things coming. People who have not serve will come back and say I had served this way, I had served that way but the records are there. The records can not tell lie. If it is true that they served this way, they served that way let the record. Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Housing and Town Planning Ime Okon Ekpo has denied allegation that he embezzled over N4billion in the N3... Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Housing and Town Planning Ime Okon Ekpo has denied allegation that he embezzled over N4billion in the N37billion contract awarded for the design and building of Government House, Uyo.The contract was awarded by the ex-Governor Godswill Akpabio administration.Ekpo retired from the civil service as director in 2004 and was appointed by Akpabio to oversee the Government House contract as project manager in 2008.But the Chairman of Otto Trinity Studios, one of the consultants to the project, Ubokutom Nyah, has instituted a petition on behalf of four other consultants, alleging that the commissioner defrauded them to the tune of over N4billion in the construction of phases l, ll and lll of the project.The petition, dated August 24, with copies made available to reporters, is titled: Petition against Architect Ime O. Ekpo for corrupt enrichment, abuse of office and fraudulent conversion of more than N4 billion consultancy fees during execution of Government House Complex, Phase l, ll and lll in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.Nyah, in the petition addressed to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) chairman in Abuja averred that in 2013, the Akpabio administration awarded a contract for the building of a new Government House at about N37billion.The contract, he said, was to be executed in three phases, namely phase l, ll and lll with five consultants- Otto Trinity Studios (Architects), Amana Consortium (Structural/Project Manager), Eno Iwoketo and Associate (Mechanical), Dranibs Engineering Nigeria Ltd (Electrical) and Integrated Practice Consultants (Quality Surveyors) appointed for professional service.The petitioner, who was appointed lead architectural consultant by the government over the Government House project, alleged that the professional fees of those consultants were discussed, agreed and N5.2 billion made available for payment to the consultants.The consultancy fee, according to him, was moved by the government into the account of Julius Berger Nigeria PLC under the contract agreement for disbursement to the beneficiaries.Nyah alleged that the commissioner failed to administer the funds to commensurate with the contract agreement, adding that he shortchanged the consultants and diverted over N4billion to his private account.The substantial disparity between what Ekpo is offering us as balance of professional fees payable and over authentic claims is deserving of a dispassionate investigation because we know that authentic fees were captured in the contract and provided for by the government. Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose has called on President Mohammodu Buhari to hand over sacked Secretary to the Government of the Feder... Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose has called on President Mohammodu Buhari to hand over sacked Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Babachir Lawal, and the Director General, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ayodele Oke to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for thorough investigation and prosecution.Fayoe in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, also described the sack of suspended Babachir and Oke as face-saving and an afterthought, noting that; The President only acted because of the outcry of Nigerians, especially over the fraudulent reinstatement of the former Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Mr Abdullahi Maina.He said, Enough of using probe panels to shield people accused of corruption in Buharis government. Rather, they should be arrested, detained and prosecuted by the EFCC as being done to others perceived as the President enemies. Once again, Nigerians have proved that the power of the president is not greater than that the people who elected him.What Nigerians expected from a President who rode to power on the basis of integrity is a total cleansing of his government, not setting up panel to investigate corruption allegations involving his men and reluctantly sacking a few of them because of public outcry. As far as I am concerned, sacking the SGF and NIA Director General is just an afterthought and it is not enough. Let them be handed over to the EFCC for prosecution just like other Nigerians that they have accused of corruption.Apart from prosecuting the sacked officials, Nigerians are interested in the full details of the report on the $43 million discovered in an apartment at Osbourne Towers, Ikoyi, Lagos. The report should be made public. They also want to know what happened to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwus allegation of award of $25 billion contracts without following due process against the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC); Dr. Maikanti Baru.Nigerians are interested in the report of the panel that looked into the Department of State Service (DSS) report that indicted Acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu of corruption. They want to know why the former Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, who was accused of corruption by the Senate, removed from office unceremoniously and declared wanted is now the Commissioner of Police in charge of the Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Ikoyi, Lagos.Also, the people are interested in the rationale behind the appointment of Ahmed Gambo Saleh; the Supreme Court Registrar who was indicted and put on trial for alleged over N2 billion fraud as the Secretary of the National Judicial Council (NJC) and the Corruption and Financial Crime Cases Trial Monitoring Committee.Most importantly, Nigerians are not carried away by the sack of Babachir Lawal and Oke. Rather, they want to know what President Buhari has done to those behind the fraudulent reinstatement of Maina since report on the reinstatement was submitted last week Tuesday as directed by the President.Not until President Buhari fumigates his own bedroom and rid it of corruption, it will remain in the mindset of the people that President Buhari is aiding and abetting corruption, and only acts when it becomes difficult for him to close his ears to the outcry of Nigerians. A national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on Monday said that his confidence in President Muhammadu ... A national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu on Monday said that his confidence in President Muhammadu Buhari has never been in doubt.He also denied the alleged rift between him and the President.The former Lagos State Governor spoke with State House journalists after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.While stressing that the APC government is on course, he said that there are just few steps left to attain happiness and development of Nigeria.I just met with the President. Our discussion was fruitful, productive and it was about the country and leadership as a whole. And that got him excited and happy.On the alleged crack in his relationship with the President and his alleged sidelining by the cabal, he said Fake news. I have confidence in this President. There is no doubt about that. We worked hard to bring about the government, there are certain things that are unpredictable and those are things that can lean itself to gossips, insinuations and all of that.But once you create leadership and is functioning you dont have to babysit that leadership unless there is a loss of confidence and I dont have that.You know me. Im not known to shy away from talking my mind and rebelling if it is necessary and taking charge of things that I believe are necessary. What is the myth in this leadership thing? What is cabal? Its a myth. We are the party of the people for the people and by the people and this is democratic environment.Each of us have our roles to play and that is why we are playing it. I dont believe in the myth, I believe in confidence building, the trust that we have in the president. In the journey of democracy you are going to have twists and turns, you are going to have conflicts.Conflicts resolution mechanisms is inbuilt on how you handle your party and the governance and the party are joined by the hips. he said.Asked whether he was in the Villa to mend fences ahead of NEC meeting of the party billed for Tuesday, he replied Did I tell you that? Why do you want to know? Are you a member of our party?On whether the APC was still on course, Tinubu said Can you go back to the history of 16 years of the PDP? APC government is on course and will remain on course and we will remain focused to those necessary things about development, welfare and progress of our people.Its not easy to face the challenges and the well that was dug, sinkhole that we inherited. But we are sorting that one out gradually so few steps we will find happiness and development in the future of our country.Asked to speak on the different groups calling on the President to run, he said Dont discuss that one with me. A national leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on Monday told journalists not to discuss the current clamour for President Muhammadu Buharis re-election with him.Tinubu said this in an interview with State House correspondents shortly after meeting behind closed doors with the President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.When asked whether he agree with different groups and individuals calling on Buhari to seek re-election in 2019, Tinubu simply responded, Dont discuss that one with me. Speaking at the 4th graduation ceremony of Baze University, a private tertiary institution in Abuja, Jonathan said young persons are taking... Speaking at the 4th graduation ceremony of Baze University, a private tertiary institution in Abuja, Jonathan said young persons are taking charge in Europe. He made references to President Emmanuel Marcon of France, who is 39 years old, and Sebastian Kurz, new leader of Austria, who is 31 years old. Turning to the graduates of Baze University, Jonathan said: Great Nigerian students, does that tell you anything? The former president advised youth to seize the moment as far as leadership is concerned. This is because as young people, many of you sitting in the classrooms today, will sit in various Government offices and boardrooms tomorrow, to govern our country, he said. Jonathan also said there was the need to strive and restore the sector to the days when a graduates value was weighed equally in character and in learning. He commended Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed, a senator from Kaduna state, who is the proprietor of the university, noting that private institutions were needed to complement those of government. Each time I am within the ambience of the academia, there is always that welcoming deja vu feeling, a kind of home coming, which brings back memories of my former life as a lecturer, Jonathan said. The point has to be made that as Nigerians, we are not satisfied with our level of development. machinery from them. This is because countries that were at par with us at the time we got independence in the 60s, are already deploying cutting-edge technology to build sophisticated equipment, and we are now condemned by our own fate to buy suchmachinery from them. As president, I ensured that my administration gave education the highest sectoral allocation in the federal budgets between 2011 and 2015 because of my belief in the boundless opportunities for greatness, which only education can provide. It was also for this reason that we licensed many private universities, and established twelve Federal Universities in the twelve states that had none, with nine of them in Northern Nigeria. Detectives have traced about 6m pension funds to a United Kingdom bank account being managed by the Office of the Head of the Civil ... Detectives have traced about 6m pension funds to a United Kingdom bank account being managed by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation(OHCSF).The cash is being suspected to have been tampered with by some government officials.Two former Heads of the Civil Service of the Federation(Engr. E. Okeke and Prof. O. A. Afolabi) reportedly did their best to protect the funds from being tampered with.Also yesterday, it was learnt that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) had seized more houses believed to be owned by the embattled ex- chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms Task Team, Mr. Abdulrasheed Abdullahi Maina. He is one of the signatories to the UK bank account.Besides, a former EFCC operative has been quoted as saying that he was prepared to speak up on how a minister contacted him to protect Maina.But the operative said he would do so on oath if President Muhammadu Buhari raises a Judicial Commission of Enquiry into the mismanagement of pension funds.At least N2b is said to have been misappropriated. There are other funds, which are believed to have been stolen.A former chairman of EFCC allegedly collected funds for a foreign trip from Maina. But a fact-sheet has debunked the claim.The purported N5,476,000 estacodes remitted to the former EFCC chairman was actually paid into an account in a first generation bank, according to sources close to the investigation of the multibillion naira pension scandal.The EFCC has continued its manhunt for Maina. It has located more of his assets.A source said: Our detectives have linked a large farm in Keffi to Maina and we are going to invoke Interim Assets forfeiture Clause in the EFCC (Establishment) Act.We have also sealed off two of the suspects houses at No. A5 B. Close and No. 9A in Kado Estate in Abuja. We have located some houses in Maiduguri too.So far, we have taken possession of the houses in Abuja and Kaduna.There was a twist yesterday following the release of a fact-sheet, which states that no former EFCC chairman collected N5,476,000 for overseas trips from Maina.The document said: It is hereby stated categorically that the former EFCC chairman never received any payment whatsoever in respect of any trip in OHCSF/Police Pensions and neither embark on such trips.That Estacode payments to the tune of N5,476,000 purportedly made for the Executive Chairman was discovered to have been paid into the First Bank acct. No. 4033010067733 belonging to one Christian Madubuike who is an account clerk with Police Pension office (PPO).The money was subsequently withdrawn from his account and handed over to Mr. John Yusuf (AD Accounts PPO). However John Yusuf admitted receiving the monies but claimed that he remitted same to Abdulrasheed Maina.Meanwhile, the EFCC traced about 6m pension funds to the UK and uncovered 66 pension accounts in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation(OHCSF).There was suspicion that the 6m might have been tampered with by some government officials, who are now pension suspects.The top source added: The EFCC has done enough in unraveling pension fraud syndicate in OHCSF, Presidential Pension Reform Task Committee, Police Pension funds and the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) check-off dues among others.The source said: It is certainly a huge racket by civil servants some of who are still in the system. For instance, our team uncovered 6m pension funds in an account in the UK. The money was for the payment of the pensions of some British colonial officers who served in Nigeria.A report on the said account in the UK said: In respect of the Federal Government 6million pounds sterling investment in the U.K with Crown agents, it is worth noting that the information was discovered as a result of a search executed in the residence of Dr. Shuaibu Sani Teidi during the course of our investigation.Dr. Shuaibu Sani Teidi failed to disclose the account during his handing over when he was leaving the Head of Service. Mr. Charles Bornant was invited and he confirmed that Dr. Shaibu did not disclose nor include the account in his handing over. Investigation into the account is still ongoing based on relevant information at our disposal.During the course of investigating fraud in the Pension office of the Head of Civil service of the Federation (OHCSF), a search warrant was executed in the residence of Dr. Shaibu Sani Teidi (former director Pension Accounts) where a laptop was recovered. From the analysis of the computer laptop, a document captioned Report of the visit to Crown Agents Investment United kingdom was discovered. The document reveals the nature of the investment made by the OHCSF with Crown Agents Investment, UK (copy attached).The Investment Account was brought to the attention of the OHCSF via a letter with reference No. CR:3000/EFCC/ABJ/EGFED/PEN/VOL.1/375 dated 18th February, 2011, while requesting for the following information:List of Pensioners in Diaspora and their payment point(s)Records of remittances of funds to all payments pointiii. Details investment of pension funds with Crown Agents Financial ServicesOn receipt of our letter the OHCSF made further enquiries and responded to us via a letter dated 22nd February, 2011.The following facts emerge from our Investigation.Our investigation revealed that the NUP are entitled to 1% only of the total monthly pension as Union Dues, which is being paid by the OHCSF on monthly basis. In view of the above, the OHCSF confirmed that the total amount entitled to NUP between 23rd of April, 2008 and 10th March, 2011 is N780,000,000.00. However, it was discovered that the Union connived with Dr. Sani Shaibu to inflate the figures by N1.5billion.Hence, they were paid the total sum of N2,290,593,322.35 (N2.3billion) from the OHCSF within the period. The President and Secretary of the NUP, Alh Ali Abatcha, and Eleder Actor Zal confessed that they returned the inflated amount to Dr. Shuaibu. The case has been charged to court. A former Military Head of State Abdulsalami Abubakar says Nigeria loses 13.7 billion dollars annually as a result of farmers-herdsmen conflicts in Benue, Kaduna, Nassarawa and Plateau states.Abubakar made the disclosure at a forum organised by Search for Common Ground, Nigeria, in collaboration with Abdulsalami Abubakar Institute for Peace and Sustainable Development.The forum, with the theme, Amplifying the Expertise of African Peace-building Practitioners and Scholars, was organised for farmers and herdsmen at Maizube Farm in Bosso Local Government Area of Niger on Monday.It aims to increase knowledge sharing on farmers-herdsmen conflicts by peace-building scholars and practitioners and policy makers in Nigeria and globally.The organiser is an international non-profit organisation that promotes peaceful resolution of conflicts with offices in Washington and Brussels.Abubakar said 62,000 people were displaced in Kaduna, Benue and Plateau states between January, 2015, and February, 201, in farmers-herdsmen conflicts.He said 2,500 people died nationwide in farmers and herdsmen conflicts.He commended the organisation for initiating the forum with a view to building synergy between the academia and practitioners as well as to generate evidence for policy-making on farmers and herdsmen conflicts in Nigeria.Abubakar said the initiative would further reduce farmers and herdsmen conflicts in Nigeria through a holistic interrogation of issues critical to resolving the conflicts in Nigeria and Africa.He added that the initiative would enhance and boost relationships that had existed between the two interdependent groups and reduce the impacts of the conflicts on the affected communities.Farmers and herdsmen conflicts have become a threat to peace, security and development of our nation.This meeting is coming at a critical time when farmers and herders conflicts have become an issue of global concern.Abubakar said the worry had heightened with the recent crisis in Plateau, Benue and other states that have led to loss of lives, properties, displacement of persons and families, untold hardships to communities and individuals affected.These deadly conflicts are expanding gradually to other states and the current situation is threatening the fragile peace and security of the nation.Abubakar called on the forum and other relevant stakeholders to come up with suggestions, including the roles of government, civil society, the media, traditional rulers, community and professional, in addressing the conflicts.He advised stakeholders to strengthen the capacities of organisations working with farmers and herdsmen, women, communities and youths in addressing their needs.Mrs Bukola Ademola, Conflict Analyst, Search for Common Ground, Nigeria, attributed farmers and herdsmen conflicts in Nigeria to unequal access to land and resources between farmers and herdsmen.She said livelihood was a factor that directly pitted farmers and herdsmen against each other in competition for resources to sustain crops and animals.According to her, addressing this protracted and often violent conflict requires a new way of doing things and building synergy between peace-building practitioners and researchers.There should be strengthening of the quality of the evidence collected through practice and increase the dissemination of practitioner knowledge toward policy institution, she said. An Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has urged its people living in the north to court more friends so as to actualise the Igbos quest to produce Nigerias President in 2023.The call is contained in a communique issued at the end of a meeting of Ohanaeze Ndigbo in the 19 northern states and Abuja. The meeting, held in Minna, ended Sunday night.The communique restated the groups resolve to promote one indivisible Nigeria with equal opportunities for all and urged Igbo people resident in the north to live in harmony with their host communities.It lauded the contributions of Mr John Nwodo, President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, toward a united and prosperous Nigeria, and urged him to continue to defend the interest of the people.The cultural group extended its hands of fellowship to other Igbo associations the world over and called for more unity in the pursuit of Nigerias presidency in 2023.44 chapters of the group, drawn from across the 19 states of the north, attended the meeting. At least five people were killed on Monday when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in northeastern Nigeria, a militia member assisting the military against Boko Haram jihadists said.The leader of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in Ajiri Yala, some 15 kilometres (10 miles) north of Maiduguri, said the attack happened at about 4:30 am (0330 GMT).A male suicide bomber disguised as a worshipper entered the mosque while people were gathering for the morning prayers, he told AFP by telephone.He detonated his explosives. He killed five people and injured several others.Boko Haram typically never claims responsibility but has used suicide bombing as a frequent tactic in its eight-year insurgency to establish a hardline Islamic stateMosques that do not ascribe to its extremist views are seen as legitimate targets, as are people and places seen to be supportive of the secular government.On Sunday, a CJTF member manning a checkpoint in the Muna area of Maiduguri was killed and another injured when two women strapped with explosives blew themselves up.Last Sunday, 14 people were killed when three women detonated their explosives near the Muna Garage camp, which is home to tens of thousands of people made homeless by the violence.The United Nations warned recently that attack against internally displaced people (IDPs) in camps across the region continue to be a major concern. Rural communities Communities in hard-to-reach areas of the remote region are also vulnerable and at the weekend, two women blew up in the Gulak area of Madagali, in the far north of Adamawa state.A former local government area chairman, Maina Ularamu, said there were two blasts in Dar village on Saturday night and Sunday morning.Our suspicion is that they intended to attack the church, which is located inside the primary school about 100 metres away from the scene of the explosion, he said.Ularamu said locals suspected the two women had come to Dar from the Sambisa Forest, in neighbouring Borno, where Boko Haram was known to have bases.The military said earlier this year it had retaken control of the former national park but there are reports the militants have moved back in.They are also known to have been holed up in the Mandara mountains that lie east of Madagali and form the border between Nigeria and Cameroon.On August 2, Boko Haram fighters stormed the village of Mildu, near Madagali, killing six.Ularamu said Boko Haram remnants are still lurking in remote villages and the Sambisa Forest, and troop reinforcements were needed.Attacks on civilians have largely been attributed to the Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau.Strikes against the military are generally blamed on the Islamic State group-supported faction headed by Abu Musab al-Barnawi.Last week, at least 15 soldiers were killed in a raid on a military camp north of Damaturu, which is the capital of Yobe state bordering Borno to the west.A military source said troops who had since been on high alert on Saturday inflicted heavy losses on a large contingent of Boko Haram fighters near the Yobe village of Goniri. Following the November 1 implementation date for the anti-grazing law in Benue State, the Miyetti-Allah Kautal Hore Fulani socio-cultural... Following the November 1 implementation date for the anti-grazing law in Benue State, the Miyetti-Allah Kautal Hore Fulani socio-cultural association has challenged Governor, Samuel Ortom over the law that to forbid its members from the state.National President of the association, Alhaji Abdullahi Bodejo at the weekend said at a briefing in Abuja that the pastoralists have the same legal right like every Benue state indigene.Bodejo, who accused the Governor over the controversial bill and other allegations of causing unrest in the state, also denied plans to invade Benue.He said the association has no intention to cause chaos over the anti-open grazing law in the state.Firstly the Miyetti-Allah Kautal Hore is not a splinter of any other group. This is socio-cultural organisation and one can only be a Fulani man to be a member unlike other associations related to cattle rearing and sales which can accommodate anyone is as much as they are in cattle rearing or sales businesses.Also His Excellency Governor Samuel Ortom asking pastoralists to leave Benue State cannot happen. We have a mandate to speak on behalf of our members and their rights as Nigerians. How can a Nigerian ask other Nigerians to leave a place they are constitutionally entitled to be, he said.He fauted the governors claim that the state lost N95 billion between 2012 and 2016.Describing the allegation as untrue, he noted that the pastoralists have always been at the receiving end of the conflicts, especially with farmers.On the call for his arrest and that of the associations National Secretary Engr. Saleh Alhassan, Bodejo accused the Governor of using threat and blackmail tactics knowing he was committing illegalities by trying to deny the pastoralists their means of livelihood.We are law abiding and have always been championing pace and amicable resolutions of conflicts between pastoralists and farmers, the records are there. This was why we went to the court over this matter rather than result to self-help, he added.He also questioned the governors claim that the law was meant to protect both the farmers and herders alike, stressing that there was no provision for the so called ranches except the intent to establish six detention centres, where seized or arrested cattle would be kept and auctioned after seven day thus legitimizing cattle rustling.The governor was also not specific on the fines for cattle rustling unlike the specific penalties for pastoralists who can be accused of open grazing.Bodejo, who is also the Lamido Fulbe Nigeria urged President Muhammadu Buhari to address the situation by calling Governor Ortom to order in the interest of peace and well-being of the state and the nation. ABSECON -- Authorities have identified the South Jersey man found shot to death in a car early Saturday in Absecon. Lamar Gresham, 28, died of multiple gunshot wounds, according to Donna Weaver, a spokeswoman for the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office. Police found Gresham in a vehicle outside the Oyster Bay Road Condo Complex just after midnight. His death is being investigated as a homicide. No arrests have been made. Gresham lived in both the Mays Landing section of Hamilton and Pleasantville. Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook. BRIDGETON -- State and Cumberland County Officials gathered Thursday to break ground on a new $10 million food specialization center in Bridgeton. The 31,280-square-foot facility will be used to house food production companies. The building will be behind the current Rutgers Food Innovation Center located on East Broad Street in Bridgeton and have the chance to be expanded to 60,000 square feet if needed. Officials are hoping that the center attracts businesses that have just completed the Rutgers "incubator" program or becomes a destination for food businesses to create or manufacture products. Cumberland County Improvement Authority CEO and President Gerry Velasquez said during the ceremony that four businesses are already in negotiations to move into the center. Assemblyman John Burzichelli, Secretary of Agriculture Doug Fisher and Senate President Steve Sweeney were involved with getting the funding for the Rutgers Innovation center and it's created a lot of jobs from not only this area but for around the world. DRSchar, which has a production facility in Gloucester County, started at the innovation center. "This is the addition they need," Sweeney said. "You need companies to have roots. Once a company establishes roots for three or four years, they are not going to leave. That's why this was a great next step. I give the Freeholders of Cumberland County a lot of credit for having the vision because it is step one. Step two is having the big manufacturing centers here." Cumberland County Freeholder Director Joseph Derella mentioned that projects such as the food specialization center were created through relationships and partnerships involving state representatives all the way down through municipalities. "This is just one of the positive steps forward to create that positive atmosphere for economic development," Derella said. "Most successful programs that we looked at in other areas of the state and other parts of the country have incubation opportunities because small businesses have a product, they learn how to develop it but they are not ready to move beyond a huge facility. As you grow, you start to look for a better opportunity and hopefully, it stays here in Cumberland County or somewhere in Southern New Jersey. The regional impact is what we are after." Bridgeton Mayor Albert Kelly is looking forward to the 200 anticipated jobs that the center is expected to bring to the city. "You see an idea become a vision and now becomes a reality. I'm happy for the citizens of Bridgeton because they now see some physical improvements that we have long been talking about coming to fruition. I'm happy for our residents." Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews. Find NJ.com on Facebook When Gov. Chris Christie appeared on Fox's "Good Day New York" program Monday morning, to discuss his final days as New Jersey governor ahead of Nov. 7's gubernatorial vote, he was asked by anchor Rosanna Scotto how he'd be spending his first day out of office: Jan. 17, 2018. "I already know what I'm doing," Christie said, grinning. "I'm going to see 'Springsteen on Broadway.' "I got lucky, I got tickets online, I said to Mary Pat, 'this is what we are going to do on our first night as civilians. We're gonna go see Bruce.' ... Phil Murphy or Kim Guadagno will be dealing with whatever the crisis on the moment is, my cell phone will be turned off, I will be yelling 'Brooooce.'" When asked if Springsteen knows Christie is coming, he said "he'll know when he sees it." Christie, an avid fan of The Boss, has attended more than 140 concerts, but none quite like "Springsteen on Broadway," an intimate spoken word and one-man musical performance inside the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York. When asked if Christie had reached out for tickets to "Springsteen on Broadway," a spokesperson for the show did not respond for comment. "Springsteen on Broadway" runs five times a week through Feb. 3, 2018. New York Post reports the show may be extended even longer. Bobby Olivier may be reached at bolivier@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @BobbyOlivier. Find NJ.com on Facebook. NEWARK -- Authorities say the off-duty Jersey City police officer who shot and killed two men Sunday night was in Newark with a friend when the duo attempted to rob him at gunpoint. At about 11:30 p.m., the officer was in the 100 block of South 6th Street in Newark dropping off an acquaintance and two children when he was approached by the two armed men, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Robert Laurino said in a release Monday. One of the men apparently tried to shoot at the officer but his gun jammed, the prosecutor's office said. The officer shot both men -- identified as Dante Holden, 19, of and Tymyr Wilson, 21, both of East Orange -- and both were pronounced dead at the scene, Laurino said. Officials declined to identify the officer involved. A spokeswoman for Jersey City Monday issued a statement on the incident. "We are thankful that our detective, who was a victim of an attempted armed robbery, is OK and want to thank the Newark Police Department and the Essex County Prosecutor for their assistance in this ongoing investigation," said city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill. She declined to answer any additional questions about the officer. In keeping with Attorney General guidelines, details of the investigation into the incident will be presented to an Essex County grand jury. The shooting is the latest of several similar incidents in the city. Last month, a corrections officer fired his gun while confronting a man allegedly attempting to break into the officer's parked car. In November 2016, a retired NYPD detective shot two men who allegedly tried to mug her. Last month, a Newark police officer shot a carjacking suspect after a chase with an allegedly stolen BMW. None of those shootings were fatal, but several police shootings in Newark this year have been. Anyone with information on this shooting is asked to call the Essex County Prosecutor's Office Professional Standards Bureau at 862-520-3700. Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook. BLOOMFIELD -- Authorities are investigating the death of a woman hit by a New Jersey Transit train in Bloomfield Monday morning. The woman was on the train tracks near the Watsessing Avenue station at about 9:30 a.m. when she was hit by train #6216, NJ Transit Spokeswoman Lisa Torbic said. The 750 passengers and crew members on board the train, which was headed to Penn Station in New York, were not injured, she said. Buses picked up the train's passengers. Service on the Montclair/Boonton line was suspended in both directions, but resumed around 11 a.m. with 20 minute delays. Montclair/Boonton Line service is suspended in both directions between Bay Street and Newark Broad St due to a trespasser strike ... (1/2) NJ TRANSIT (@NJTRANSIT) October 30, 2017 ... west of Watsessing Ave station. A bus bridge has been established between Bay Street and Newark Broad St. (2/2) NJ TRANSIT (@NJTRANSIT) October 30, 2017 NJ Transit police were investigating the incident. No other information, including the identity of the woman killed, was immediately available. Jessica Mazzola may be reached at jmazzola@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessMazzola. Find NJ.com on Facebook. PITMAN -- Faced with declining enrollment and the potential for lower state funding in the future, the public school district is weighing cost-cutting options, and is holding meetings with residents as it tries to decide on a plan for the future that could include cutting staff or closing a school. Enrollment is down in Pitman, and the average resident is slightly older in the most recent census. It is also one of the districts that lost "adjustment aid" as part of the state's school funding plan. It most recently lost about $186,000 and is now down to about $1.2 million of that aid in a $24 million operating budget. "Our fear is that they're going to do that every year," said Dr. Patrick McAleer, the district's superintendent, referring to the state decreasing adjustment aid to some schools. McAleer stressed in a letter to parents earlier this week that no final decisions had been made, and that the district wouldn't make any decisions without hearing from residents first. But he said the district needs to look at where it's spending money if aid and enrollment are going to continue trending downward. The decrease in enrollment might be attributable to a decline in the number of families with children. (The district has hired a demographer to look into the trends.) The town is getting older, as well. The median age of a Pitmanite increased from 38.5 in the 2000 Census to 41.5 in the 2010 Census. And there were 1,319 households with individuals under 18 in 2000, compared with 1,159 in 2010. Enrollment is also hurt by alternative schooling options like the Gloucester County Institute of Technology and other high schools with specialized programs, though the district does have about 30 tuition students coming from other districts. Buildings and costs Pitman currently has three neighborhood elementary schools -- Walls, Memorial and Kindle -- for about 600 elementary students, and McAleer said that other districts have resorted to closing a neighborhood school to save money. "But part of what makes Pitman special is neighborhood elementary schools," he said. The district also has a list of upcoming facility repairs and upgrades that amounts to about $25 million in total, including $11 million in more necessary "priority projects" including roof repairs, HVAC units, security upgrades and LED lighting. Some of that money can be raised through borrowing or by using the state's Energy Savings Improvement Program. To borrow more money, the district would have to seek permission from voters through a referendum. It is considering borrowing an amount that would not require a tax increase, McAleer said. The district had been paying $273,000 a year on a previous loan used for improvement projects, but that money is coming off the books in 2018. Borrowing $3.9 million over 15 years or $4.6 million over 20 years for more repairs would not require a revenue increase. "Over 75 percent of our costs are attached to staff," McAleer said. "If changes were to be made, that could possibly be on the table." "We see that outside forces, particularly economic ones, will most likely force the district to do something," said Paul Blass, a teacher at Pitman High School, town councilman and member of the Pitman Education Association's executive committee. "I think we are past maintaining the status quo," he said. As a councilman, Blass said he often hears concerns over taxes, about half of which go to the school district. At the town council meeting on Monday, members encouraged the crowd to go to the school meeting. "The more minds there, the better," he said. Moving to Pitman Despite the census numbers, Pitman does attract new families. Elizabeth Flynn has one child in the district, in first grade at Memorial School. The family just moved to Pitman this year, after previously being in South Philadelphia. She was attracted to Pitman because of the better prices on homes compared with towns along the PATCO line. But the possibility of the Glassboro-Camden Line and remaining connected to Philadelphia was a factor too. (An environmental impact study is being done for the train line, which has been in talks for years. But there's no word on when construction might start or what the study will find.) The now-thriving downtown area, with breweries and restaurants, is also a plus, she said, although she misses the gastropubs from her old neighborhood. "It's beautiful, it's adorable, we love the town," Flynn said. She likes the technology available to students including Chromebooks, and the activities like the annual "butterfly parade." "But it makes me nervous, they're going to shakeup the schools right when we move here," she said. She will be attending the district's next meeting at the high school at 7 p.m. on Oct. 30 to voice her concerns. Another meeting will be held on Nov. 14. Despite the concern some parents may have, McAleer stressed that the meetings were more about having a plan in place for the future than immediately cutting something out of the budget. "We're not quite in the situation where we're out of runway," McAleer said. Joe Brandt can be reached at jbrandt@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JBrandt_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook. This story has been updated to reflect that Pitman has 30 tuition students, not 50. JERSEY CITY -- A woman was left temporarily blinded in one eye after a man beat her with his fists and a slipper during an incident earlier this month, authorities say. Abdalla M. Farag, 65, of Bayonne, is charged with aggravated assault and a weapons offense related to a slipper in connection to the Oct. 23 assault in Bayonne, according to a criminal complaint. Farag allegedly struck the woman five times in the face and head with a slipper and then put her in a headlock. He then punched her five times, the complaint states. The victim told police she temporarily lost sight in her right eye and was left with a headache and dizziness, according to the complaint, which also states she had a black eye. The complaint states the pair knows each other but does not characterize their relationship. Farag made his first appearance on the charges Wednesday in Criminal Justice Reform Court in Jersey City via video link from Hudson County jail in Kearny. At the hearing, which was held through an Arabic interpreter, Faraq was ordered released with conditions of supervision through the course of his prosecution. JERSEY CITY -- A Jersey City man accused of stabbing his wife to death inside his apartment building could face a potentially damning piece of evidence: surveillance camera footage that shows the gruesome murder, the prosecution said. Jose Morel, 59, of Duncan Avenue, was ordered detained throughout the course of his prosecution today when he stood before a Hudson County Superior Court judge for a detention hearing. Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Leo Rinaldi said today in court that Morel also gave a statement to police admitting he fatally stabbed his wife, Milagros Rodriguez De Morel, 38, in the hallway outside their apartment early on Oct. 18. Rinaldi said the video shows Morel stabbing his wife over the course of three minutes before dropping a 9-inch knife and returning to their apartment. The prosecutor said Morel told his wife's 15-year-old son to call police. When officers arrived, the boy led them to the apartment where they found Morel had blood on him and took him into custody. An autopsy determined Milagros Rodriguez De Morel died of stab wounds to her head, neck and torso, Rinaldi said. When The Jersey Journal went to the building where the woman was killed, a security camera was pointed directly in the spot where an eyewitness said Morel committed the murder. In arguing for Morel's release pending trial, Deputy Public Defender Joseph Russo noted his client's only other brush with the law was when he was charged with attempted murder in Alaska in 1979. Russo said Morel pleaded guilty to a "non-aggravated assault" and served 17 days of incarceration. He also noted that Morel is a U.S. citizen and received the lowest possible score on his public safety assessment, which gauges the likelihood that a defendant will commit a crime or fail to appear at court hearings following their release from custody. The defense attorney said Morel had been a colonel in the Dominican Republic army and earned a college degree in Florida. He said his client is a union leader at the New York City building where he has been a doorman for 30 years, adding that Morel owns a condo valued at $200,000. Russo told Hudson County Superior Court Judge Paul DePascale that based on Morel's ties to the community, a very limited criminal record and his PSA score, he should be released. But DePascale noted that under New Jersey's new Criminal Reform Law, there is a presumption of detention for someone charged with murder. "The state's case as set forth by the prosecution, if admissible as evidence, will be problematic for the defendant and will expose him to a very long term in state prison for the first time in his life," DePascale said. "Certainly, if released, he would have very little to lose..." The judge also noted Morel's age and that he is facing a possible sentence of 30 years to life in prison before ordering him detained. SPRING AND SUMMER SURVEYS SHOW STRONG REBOUND OF AMERICAN SHAD IN THE DELAWARE RIVER (17/P103) TRENTON Biological surveys conducted this year suggest American shad are making a strong comeback in the Delaware River, historically famous for a once-prodigious population of this important fish species, Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin announced today. Net surveys conducted during the spring resulted in the ninth largest overall haul of migrating adult shad ever recorded, while summer surveys of juvenile shad that hatched this year were the best in the nearly four decades of monitoring for juvenile shad. The strong shad spawning run and record-setting juvenile numbers this summer lead us to be very optimistic about the future of shad, a species that is important to the overall ecological health of the Delaware River, said Commissioner Martin. We have worked very closely over the years with our partner state and federal agencies in the river basin as well as numerous nonprofit and community groups to restore this species to the Delaware, the largest free-flowing river in the eastern United States. The history of shad runs deep in the Delaware River, with the fish providing food and other essential uses to Native Americans, feeding George Washingtons Continental Army, and supporting a major 19th century commercial fishery that fed the regions burgeoning population. But water quality problems that developed in lower, urbanized portions of the river around Philadelphia effectively created a dissolved-oxygen barrier to the age-old spawning runs. Water quality improvements, especially in the 1980s and 1990s resulting from upgrades to wastewater treatment systems, greatly improved dissolved oxygen levels, enabling shad to gain access to the upper river and its tributaries. The closure of the commercial shad fishery in the ocean by state and federal fisheries managers more than a decade ago in response to all-time lows in shad stocks appears to be another significant contributor to the rebound of shad in the Delaware River. Building on our encouraging survey results and ongoing conservation measures, the DEP and the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife will continue to work on local and coastwide management strategies that will further the recovery of shad, with the hope of restoring numbers to historic levels, said Division Director Larry Herrighty. The American shad is the largest member of the herring family, weighing from four to eight pounds at maturity. They spend most of their lives in the ocean but return to rivers and their tributaries to spawn. The species range stretches from the St. Lawrence River in Canada south to the St. Johns River, which flows from its mouth at Jacksonville south through much of eastern Florida. Adults are capable of swimming some 2,000 miles from ocean feeding grounds to rivers to spawn. They may travel upwards of 200 miles in these rivers to find suitable spawning habitat, usually in rocky or gravelly shallows. Females can release hundreds of thousands of eggs. Juvenile shad spend several years in the ocean, returning to river systems to spawn when they reach sexual maturity. The fish once supported massive commercial and recreational fisheries in rivers along the Atlantic coast, especially the Delaware River. But, in addition to water quality problems, dams built to generate power, for mills and for other now-obsolete purposes greatly reduced their ability to access potential spawning habitat in the Delawares many tributaries. The DEP has been working with numerous partners to remove dams along Delaware River tributaries, with efforts focused on the Musconetcong River as it flows through Hunterdon and Warren counties. Steve Meserve, who runs the Lewis Fishery in Lambertville, Hunterdon County, works with the DEP in reporting spring shad runs at this critical point in the Delaware. Netting surveys he conducted in the spring resulted in hauls totaling 1,262 shad, the ninth best in 92 years of reliable record-keeping results and the best since 1,257 were netted in 1995. Meserve tracks shad as part of a business that sells the fish to people who wait along the riverbank to buy fish he hauls in. His family has been fishing shad in Lambertville since 1888, and is the last remaining operation to do so following a crash in the shad population in the 1940s and 1950s due to poor water quality in the Philadelphia area. Its a much brighter picture than weve seen in years, said Meserve, noting that in 2011 he was catching an average of just two fish per netting operation compared to 30 this year. Its certainly good news and wed like to see it continue, and we will be out there keeping track of whats going on. The DEP also conducts numerous surveys of juvenile shad at various locations along the upper river beginning in late August. This years survey resulted in the highest totals in 38 years of monitoring. These surveys counted 24,536 juvenile shad this summer, compared to 2,664 in 2013, and 8,360 in 2016. Netting hauls conducted in August at Milford Beach in Hunterdon County, for example, were so strong that the total counts of juvenile fish exceeded hauls at that location for all previous five years combined. Shad, which are very popular as a feisty sport fish, also play a very important role in the ecosystem of the Delaware River, as well as estuarine and ocean ecosystems. Shad are important prey for larger fish and other predators, such as birds. Many wildlife species synchronize their migrations to coincide with shad runs. Some shad may return to the same river system to spawn two to three times during their lifetimes. Many will die after spawning. When they die, their decomposing bodies return to river systems important nutrients that are essential to other aquatic life. The Division of Fish and Wildlife uses money from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Sport Fish Restoration program to help fund American shad research and recovery projects. Funds for this program are generated by federal excise taxes on fishing equipment, as well as motorboat and small-engine fuels. For more information on shad and annual shad survey reports, visit: www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/fish_shad.htm For a news release on dam removal efforts along the Musconetcong, visit: www.nj.gov/dep/newsrel/2017/17_0065.htm DEP Photos/Top: Adult shad in measuring box; Bottom: Measuring juvenile shad ### Former NOPD Officer Marcellus White, 46, was sentenced to 25 years in state prison Monday (Oct. 30) after pleading guilty to five counts of sexual battery against juveniles under 13.(Courtesy of Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office) Freddie Gilbert of New Orleans was booked on suspicion of evading arrest with a vehicle and having prohibited items in a correctional facility after leading deputies on a vehicle chase in Texas, Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017, KTLV reports. The TV station says deputies found a body in the truck of Gilbert's vehicle. (Courtesy of Kaufman County Sheriff's Office) Gayle Benson and Tom Benson at Tom Benson's 90th Birthday Party at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Saturday, August 12, 2017. (Josh Brasted Photo) Filming in Metairie on Friday (Nov. 3) is expected to cause traffic delays (File image, iStock)(Christian MAfA1/4ller)(Christian MAfA1/4ller) The NRL today paid its respects to Channel Nine rugby league stalwart, Matt Callander, after he succumbed to brain cancer on the weekend. Mr Callander was a much-loved and respected member of the rugby league community, having been a crucial part of Channel Nine's NRL coverage for two decades. Earlier this year, Callander joined forces with Mark Hughes, himself diagnosed with brain cancer in 2013, for the 'Beanie for Brain Cancer' round raising over $1.7 million to go towards research to prevent the cancer. NRL Chief Executive Todd Greenberg paid tribute to Mr Callander, saying Matt's brave and selfless example to put others before himself in the quest to save more people from brain cancer in the future, would not be forgotten. "Matt was a truly remarkable human, who loved his family, his friends and his footy," Mr Greenberg said. "I was fortunate enough to call him a friend and I know how hard he fought to hang in there for as long as he could. "We are poorer for his passing, but we are grateful that he was part of our rugby league family for so many years. "His legacy will live on in our game and we will continue to be there for his family and for his cause." Around 1,600 people are diagnosed with brain cancer in Australia annually. Sadly, approximately 1,200 die from the disease every year. INDIANAPOLIS Gov. Eric Holcomb inked an agreement Monday to promote friendship and economic cooperation between the state of Indiana and the Indian state of Karnataka. "As the first Indiana governor to travel to India, I was thrilled to work with the Karnataka government to establish a sister-state relationship with one of the most dynamic and technologically advanced states in India," Holcomb said in statement issued from India. The memorandum of understanding signed by the Republican and Priyank Kharge, Karnataka's minister of information technology, biotechnology and tourism, commits the states to work together, where feasible, on issues such as workforce development, academics, information and communications technologies, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, agriculture, automotive and aviation. "Today, we laid the groundwork for closer cooperation, and I look forward to our future collaboration as we work to advance business and educational opportunities to serve Hoosiers and the people of Karnataka," Holcomb said. Karnataka is located on the southwestern coast of the subcontinent. It borders the Arabian Sea. Its land area is about twice the size of Indiana. But Karnataka is home to 61.1 million people, or approximately 10 times Indiana's population. Karnataka's capital, Bangalore, is the headquarters for Infosys and Appirio, two major technology companies that recently announced plans to locate large segments of their U.S. operations in Indianapolis. Bangalore's 8.5 million residents make it the third-most populous city in a country that boasts more than 1.2 billion inhabitants. Indiana also has sister-state relationships in Asia with Japan's Tochigi Prefecture, which Holcomb visited in September, and China's Zhejiang Province. MERRILLVILLE A week ago members of Region Communication Solutions, a nonprofit, student-led public relations firm, participated in a walk to raise awareness and money in an effort to save lives from breast cancer. Making Strides Against Breast Cancer organized the walk at Hidden Lake Park to help the American Cancer Society raise money and awareness for breast cancer. The event raised a total of $54,570 from both online and in-person donations. The members of RCS wanted to show their support for an important cause. One member, Aries Edwards, walked with her boyfriends mother, who is a five-year survivor. This has not been my first experience with breast cancer. I watched as my great aunt had her hair fall every morning because of the medicine, Edwards said. It was heartwarming to see how many people actually came out to support the cause and I was so excited to see all the survivors. Making Strides Against Breast Cancer gained the support of many local businesses and schools. RCS was one out of 108 teams to register and support the event. During the walk there were people cheering for you on both sides of the trail and offered bottles of water, Edwards explained. It was really nice to see vendors came out and supported the cause as well. Another member of RCS, Sara Komendat, had never participated in an event like this. She was amazed with the turnout and how many survivors were there. It was nice to see so many people from different backgrounds come together for one cause, Komendat said. I started to get a little emotional, but I felt proud to walk for my family who has been affected by breast cancer. RCS is currently conducting a communication audit for the Munster Police Department and decided to use this walk as a bonding event. The walk was for a very important cause, Komendat said. But we also wanted to try to use this event to bring our team closer together, as we are halfway done. Indiana State Police Sgt. Nora Werner is set to retire after 34 years with the Indiana State Police. Werner, a Michigan City native, graduated from Elston High School in 1980 before attending Purdue North Central, earning a Bachelor of Science in liberal studies. She went on to earn an associate's degree in social work from Calumet College. After graduating from the Indiana State Police 41st Recruit Class in December of 1983, Werner was assigned to the Toll Road post, working in Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph counties. Werner transferred to the Lowell Post after a year but ultimately returned to the Toll Road after being promoted to Corporal in 1988. In 1990, Werner was promoted to squad sergeant on the Toll Road where she supervised troopers assigned to work Porter, LaPorte and St. Joseph counties on the Toll Road. Werner served as the district field training officer coordinator for 25 years. It is in this capacity that Werner says she found most fulfilling. Werner says she enjoyed when the new recruits would arrive at the district eager for training. One of the most vivid and lasting memories for Werner was losing Master Trooper Dave Deuter and nine months later losing Trooper Richard Gaston, both being hit while on traffic stops on the Toll Road. Werner gave Gastons wife the news and drove her home to Indianapolis and then came back and sat in the hospital with Senior Trooper Brad Kaizer and his wife. Kaizer had been training Gaston and was seriously injured in the crash as well. Werner said these experiences showed her the importance of supporting each other. This past spring Werner was responsible for memorial signs to be posted on the Indiana Toll Road to remember these crashes as well as a crash in LaPorte County that claimed the life of an ITRCC maintenance worker. During her time with the department Werner has served as a counselor for two recruit classes at the Indiana State Police Recruit Academy, was District Investigative Commander for two years, and served undercover for several months. Werner plans to spend her retirement spending time with her two sons and her granddaughter. CROWN POINT Two Minnesota law enforcement officers testified Monday during the sixth day of Thomas J. Snows murder trial about a high-speed chase in October 2013 that led to his capture. Snow, 38, is charged with the bludgeoning and strangulation deaths of his parents, Clifford and Joyce Snow, in their Lowell home. The popular 68-year-old retired shop teacher from Hammond Morton High School and his 66-year-old wife were found dead Oct. 18, 2013, in their home in the 14500 block of West 197th Avenue. At 4:24 p.m. that day, the Lake County Sheriff's Department received a request for a well-being check on the residents of that home in unincorporated Lowell. The two bodies found in the home were badly decomposed, according to reports. When the couples bodies were discovered, two weeks of unread newspapers were found outside the home. On Monday, Detective Sean Mork of the Clay County Sheriffs Department, and retired Sgt. Tom Taylor of the Hawley, Minnesota, Police Department described the Oct. 19, 2013, high-speed chase through portions of west central Minnesota. Both men arrived Sunday in Lake County to testify, with expenses paid by the Lake County prosecutors office. Mork answered a series of questions posed by Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Mark Watson. At about 3:30 p.m. on Oct. 19, 2013, Mork said Taylor reported to Clay County dispatch that he was in pursuit of a white Chevy HHR being driven at a high rate of speed. Taylor said he was about a half mile behind the white vehicle. Mork said he took the lead in the pursuit with his squad car going 110 to 115 mph. A Minnesota state trooper put down stop sticks designed to puncture the tires so it wont go as fast, Mork testified. However, the driver later identified as Thomas Snow veered into a ditch around the state trooper. About a quarter mile down on Highway 9, the white vehicle stopped on the side of the road, Mork said. As he got out of the car, he followed my orders but his hand movements were very erratic. Watson played a 20-plus minute dashcam video of the pursuit and apprehension of Snow supplied by the Clay County, Minnesota, Sheriffs Department. After Snow was taken into custody, Mork said, a check of the Indiana license plates revealed that the white Chevy HHR was wanted in connection to two murders in Indiana. He testified the vehicle was registered to Joyce Snow. Co-defense attorney John Maksimovich asked Mork why the video included sounds of sirens but not the conversations between the officers. My mic was docked. The sounds are from the back of the squad car, Mork said. Now in its second week, the trial continues Tuesday in Judge Samuel L. Cappas courtroom. VALPARAISO The Indiana Department of Natural Resources called off a search Monday afternoon for a local man who went missing at Long Lake early Sunday. DNR Conservation officer Tyler Brock said Porter and Lake County dive teams searched for the 20-year-old Valparaiso man who was missing after his canoe overturned early Sunday morning. Keegan Whaling, and a 21-year-old friend went canoeing, were in the boat which capsized shortly before 7 a.m. Sunday. The 21-year-old man made it back to shore but Whaling remains missing. Dive teams searched Sunday and again early Monday, along with the 21-year-old who was in the canoe with Whaling. Authorities continued the search for many hours before calling it off about 4 p.m. Monday afternoon. Brock said the sonar is not reaching through the plant life very well. "We saturated the weeded area with divers," he said. "The search has really been hindered by the plant life. It's very thick, between 3 and 15 feet high. Divers have been trying to get through manually and it's been very difficult for them to get through safely and effectively. "We had 14 divers from different agencies out there. We're concluding for today. The search is going to be scaled back from this point on. There will be a single boat out tomorrow with just one officer checking the north end of the lake," Brock said shortly before 5 p.m. Brock said the search will likely begin about 8 a.m. Tuesday. The man, who made it to shore and summoned help, was able to narrow the search area, Brock said. The man told authorities on Sunday he last saw Whaling in the water and did not see him make it to shore. Authorities used sonar to search for Whaling until 10 p.m. Sunday, Brock said. Authorities continued the recovery effort about 8 a.m. Monday with sonar and surfaces searches, Brock said. He expected the Cedar Lake Fire Department to continue to assist Monday with a boat-mounted sonar system. Long Lake is just north of Valparaiso, in an unincorporated area of Porter County. Conservation officers and members of the Porter County Dive Team and Valparaiso Police Department on Sunday attempted to locate Whaling using sonar, rescue divers and unmanned aerial devices. Their efforts were similarly hampered by thick vegetation under the lake's surface. Boaters are asked to avoid the area while the search continues. The Porter County Sheriffs Department and fire departments from Chesterton, Portage and Porter also have aided in the investigation and search. The investigation is ongoing and foul play is not suspected, Brock said. CHESTERTON Franciscan Health Michigan City and the Duneland Family YMCA have announced an agreement designed to bring a unique blend of health and wellness programs to the community. I am excited about the partnership, Dean Mazzoni, hospital CEO and president, said Wednesday during a program at the YMCA. Our organizations have much in common: Both are mission-driven and serve members of the community, regardless of their ability to pay; both rely on prayers from the community, and both want to help maintain and return those we serve to good health. We will combine the hospitals medical resources with the YMCAs health-focused programs and offer educational and wellness activities and events to promote healthy living," he said. Hospital staff members will offer a wealth of services, among them flu vaccinations, injury and prevention screenings, nutrition counseling, smoking cessation, diabetes programs, health fairs, educational presentations on a variety of topics, including health screenings for bone density, blood pressure, blood glucose, body fat and more. Dave Kasarda, YMCA CEO and director, praised the partnership, adding the idea formed several years ago when the YMCAs board of directors realized a need to secure a partner to help meet the communitys growing needs. Following a lengthy vetting process, the answer to our partnership became clear, it was Franciscan Health, he said. Franciscan Health and the Duneland Family YMCA are forming this strategic partnership to improve the health and wellness of all Duneland residents, by integrating a variety of medical and wellness programs," Kasarda said. "Through a shared mission, both organizations will collaborate to address chronic disease and illnesses prevention through high-quality programs/services, which will be designed to serve the specific needs of the Duneland communities." VALPARAISO One person was airlifted to an unknown hospital after a crash Saturday on Ind. 49. According to Valparaiso Police Department spokesman Sgt. Mike Grennes, the three-car accident happened at 11:20 a.m. Saturday on Ind. 49 at Evans Avenue. One vehicle crossed the median and was going the wrong way, northbound in the southbound lane. That vehicle struck two other vehicles. Two people were injured. A Valparaiso person, who had crossed the median, was airlifted, Grennes said. The second injured person was from Chesterton. The condition of the injured people is unknown. PORTAGE Three new police officers have joined the force. Police Chief Troy Williams said Alistar Dowds, Scott Brown and Cortney Overton recently joined the department. Brown and Overton will graduate from the Northwest Indiana Law Enforcement Academy on Nov. 15 and, after field training, are expected to be on patrol at the end of Janurary or beginning of February. Dowds, an academy graduate, has completed field training and is now working solo patrol. Dowds, 24, is a Michigan native. He attended Wheeler High School and lives in Valparaiso. He is a certified EMT-B and previously worked at Ogden Dunes Police Department and the Porter County Jail. He is working on a bachelors degree in business and has an associates degree in criminal justice from Indiana University Northwest. He is police unit 177. Brown, 26, attended Valparaiso High School and lives in Valparaiso. He previously worked for Georgia Pacific in Wheatfield and has been working toward a degree in psychology by previously attending formerly Purdue North Central and the University of Southern Illinois. He is police unit 178. Overton, 27, attended Hebron High School and lives in Hebron. She previously worked at the Porter County Jail. She has a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and criminology from Ball State University and will be police unit 179. "All three officers came highly recommended and brought the total strength of the police department to 67 officers," Williams said. VALPARAISO Jury selection begins Tuesday in the trial of a 36-year-old Wheatfield woman charged with having sexual contact with a 17-year-old male student at the Hebron Christian Academy while she was serving as a substitute teacher. Jennifer McLeod, who was 34 at the time of the alleged offense, was arrested on two felony counts of child seduction. The student said the first "unusual" incident occurred in April 2015 when McLeod gave him a ride to a friend's house and pulled over along the way to show him a video about religion. McLeod then stated that she wished he was 18 because they could not have sex until that time, police said. The boy, who was in the 11th grade, told police he did not know how to respond. He said he began receiving text messages from McLeod, including one that read, "If I was in high school, you would be my boyfriend," police said. On the last day of the school year in 2015, the boy said he was alone with McLeod when she asked to kiss him, according to charging information. He gave permission and the two reportedly kissed "romantically" for six to eight seconds. He said McLeod made comments about his genitalia on another occasion during the school day and the two kissed once at her home. Police said they were provided with a series of text messages between the two and were told the telephone calls one lasting nearly four hours were even more sexually explicit. A fellow student reportedly told investigators that the alleged victim told him about the relationship with McLeod and that he once saw McLeod rubbing the boy's chest at school. Police said they contacted McLeod about the allegations, but she never followed through with an interview. The trial will take place before Porter Superior Court Judge Roger Bradford. Responding to previous concerns by residents in an Auburn subdivision about potential noise from a performance stage planned as part of a new restaurant on Opelika Road, a co-owner said his intent is not to create a nuisance. Rather, Matt Poirier said he and the other owners aim to foster a welcoming environment, slated to open in the late summer or early fall of 2018, that will appeal to all ages. It is not in my best interest to be dealing with calls from Auburn PD every night were opened, said Poirier, also the owner of The Hound and a co-owner of The Depot in Auburn. Just running a restaurant and bar anywhere is hard enough. "Is there going to be noise generated? Yes. Its an indoor-outdoor venue. But were going to do what we can to keep it under control. In the end, that being said, the city has been very clear that this is the exact kind of destination-type concept that is sorely needed on Opelika Road. And were taking a significant risk and a multi-million-dollar investment in an area of Auburn that is currently kind of a blight on that stretch of Opelika Road. Multi-purpose stage The restaurant was conditionally approved on Oct. 17 by the Auburn City Council. Among those conditions, which emerged from discussions Councilman Brent Beard had with vocal neighborhood residents and the projects engineer and developers, a clarification of the term amphitheater was made to reflect performance stage. The performance stage was way over-stressed, Poirier said. I think it really started out with some of the city documents and them trying to describe what this is going to be, and they used the word amphitheater. Words like stage and amphitheater conjure images of something much larger and something of a concert venue, and that was never the intent. The intention, the core of the concept, is a restaurant and bar with games, activities, for people to pass the time. And the stage, just like any ambient music in a restaurant, was to add to the environment. "And it is going to be a multi-purpose stage, meaning acoustic acts, comedy acts, a focal point for movie nights, games. And, yes, live music. Other agreed-upon conditions included how the stage would face north toward Opelika Road and would also accompany a soundproofing back wall, side walls and a roof. A 12-foot fence will also serve as a barrier behind the property, and outdoor performances and amplified music will have a 10 p.m. curfew. We accepted conditions that have not been placed on any other business in the city, Poirier said. And frankly, if we didnt have this gaming component, we could have opened any bar or any lounge. Basically, any kind of music venue without any compromises if that was what we wanted to do, if that was our true intention. I want to be a part of Auburn. Im trying to be a part of the greater Auburn community. Its a small town, and Im not looking to be a pariah in the town Im looking to raise my family in. Noise ordinance vs. state law In a story reported last week in the Opelika-Auburn News, residents of the Burke Place subdivision, located south from the incoming restaurant, voiced their views that city officials disregarded their concerns about the neighborhoods quietness being disturbed. Some residents noted their hopes that the city will adopt a noise ordinance. The only protection this neighborhood has is a noise ordinance, which the city of Auburn doesnt have, Renee Twombly said previously. "We specifically asked the town council to look at a noise ordinance that many towns in Alabama including Tuscaloosa have. And while they made no promises, there was a tepid response by Mayor (Bill) Ham asking staff to look into it. We will continue to insist that the city adopt a noise ordinance. Noise complaints are enforced through state law, David Dorton, director of public affairs with the city of Auburn, informed in an email last week. Dorton further stated: "The Alabama Code has an article entitled "Offenses Against Public Order and Decency" in which Section 13A-11-7 defines the crime of "disorderly conduct" as including "makes unreasonable noise." Disorderly conduct is a Class C misdemeanor. If anyone experiences what they believe to be unreasonable noise, they should call the Auburn Police Division. "They will be visited by an officer who will evaluate the complaint and the noise and respond appropriately. If they continue to have noise complaints any resident may file a sworn complaint, which can ultimately lead the complainer and defendant to appear before the municipal judge to let him decide the issue." In responding to how the Auburn police address noise complaints, Auburn Police Capt. Lorenza Dorsey replied in an email: "The Police Division's handling of noise concerns are complaint driven. We respond to all complaints of noise; we make contact with those being complained on, make them aware of the complaint and direct them to reduce or discontinue the noise. We also offer the complaining citizen the ability to make a formal report and seek prosecution. "This process has worked for many years and allows for citizens/neighborhoods to decide what is reasonable for their area. The Auburn Community has a mixture of permanent residents, students and visitors; having an absolute cut point for noise levels would not meet the diverse needs of the community," Dorsey said. Mayor Ham last week also commented on the idea of a noise ordinance, highlighting his concerns about how such could be reasonably put into effect in a college community. During the time that Ive been involved with the city, weve discussed a noise ordinance before, Ham said previously. And as any ordinance or law thats put on the books, my biggest concern is with enforcement. And beyond that, would just simply say its really difficult to enforce a noise ordinance in a college or university community because of the broad range of activities producing loud noises, whether that is sporting events, outdoor music or anything else that might produce noise with excessive decibels. Fresh Dairy intends to deepen its network of milk supply by training farmers in better ways of handling milk. The company said it would engage farmers during field days on aspects of animal breeding, feed preparation and conservation as measures to ensure Fresh Dairy meets its milk production targets throughout the year. John Gethi, the procurement director at Fresh Dairy, said the company has enhanced its daily processing capacity to 600,000 litres as it seeks to satisfy increasing demand for its products both in the domestic and foreign markets. We are currently partnering 80 farmer groups by training them on ways of improving production. We are emphasizing animal feed preparation and conservation as a way of increasing milk production, Gethi told more than 3,000 farmers who attended the companys field day, which was held in Sembabule district recently. During the field day, farmers complained about the prevalence of tick-borne diseases in Sembabule and the Greater Masaka, and called on the government to intervene with effective control measures. The farmers said the effectiveness of the drugs that control ticks was being questioned following a rise in tick-borne diseases in the district. Farmers said most of their animals have been attacked by ticks which transmit diseases such as East Coast fever and heart water. This, they say, has reduced the amount of milk from their livestock. Gethi said they are working with the ministry of agriculture to come up with a long-lasting solution to the problem. We will empower farmers to ensure that there is growth in milk production by smallholder farmers in the country, Gethi said. He added that they will continue to engage farmers on clean milk production as a way of maintaining quality along the entire value chain. John Gethi (3rd L), Fresh Dairys milk procurement director, shows Lwemiyaga MP Theodore Ssekikubo some of the companys products We have provided dairy groups partnering us with milk coolers and power generation sets as a way of enhancing the quality of raw milk by maintaining the cold chain all the way to our processing facilities in Kampala, he said The field day was aimed at equipping farmers with knowledge on how to look after their animals in order to improve their household incomes, according to Gethi. The field days enable our farmers to interact with service providers and other stakeholders along the dairy value chain on best practices in the dairy enterprise. This is meant to improve the quality and quantity of raw milk sold to us, said Gethi. Gethi said Fresh Dairy would continue to guarantee a reliable market for farmers milk. The company paid Shs 58 billion to farmers last year, up from Shs 24 billion the previous year. He said the milk quality initiatives undertaken by the processor had seen the value of exports grow from $13 million in 2015 to $18 million last year. Theodore Ssekikubo, the member of parliament Lwemiyaga, blamed the resistance of ticks to low-quality drugs supplied to farmers by unscrupulous traders. He attributed the situation to laxity in monitoring and testing of agro chemicals coming into the country by the National Drug Authority (NDA). NDA is in limbo; they are not taking active inspection of the drugs in the market. So, these traders who are highly connected continue to import substandard drugs because there is no one to bring them to order, the MP claimed. At the field day, farmers were trained in clean milk production, use of agro chemicals, and technologies used for testing the quality of raw milk. Participants at the show included service providers along the value chain, such as financial institutions and dairy equipment suppliers. Yosam Lwabyanga, a farmer from Kanyogoga sub-county in Sembabule district, said out of his 50 head of cattle, 20 have been attacked by tick-borne diseases. I have been spraying but the chemicals are not working. When I tried using the concentrated ones, the cows lost weight and became sicker. In that state, you cannot even get milk from them, lamented Lwabyanga. Emmanuel Kawooya, the district production officer, said Sembabule district alone produces 130,000 litres of milk daily. According to the Uganda National Bureau of Statistics, Uganda's domestic milk production went up to 1.55 billion litres at the end of 2014 from 1.37 billion in 2010. justuslyatuu08@gmail.com The Swedish government has urged public universities to use their research findings outside their campuses to solve poverty and unemployment problems. The call by Per Lindgarde, the Swedish ambassador to Uganda, came as his government reviewed the performance of its research collaboration with local public universities at Makerere University recently. The annual review was held under the theme, Multidisciplinary research for social transformation. He said all research projects should be able to influence policies, as outlined in the National Development Programme II. I would like to emphasize the link between research and development, and that is where you researchers come in; as you research, let some local problems be resolved, he said. Swedish Ambassador Per Lindgarde (2nd L) shares a light moment with vice chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe and Prof Buyinza Mukadasi at Makerere University Lindgarde also challenged the Ugandan government to increase its funding to researchers. I would like to emphasize the link between research and development, and I hope the commitment of the government to university research and research training will also be reflected in the national budget with increased resources to research. Lindgarde said improving higher education is a complex challenge but essential for the countrys development. He explained that the Swedish strategy is based on funding postgraduate education, and research is one single effort. In his remarks, Prof Buyinza Mukadasi, the director of Research and Graduate Training at Makerere, said that Ugandan researchers should be ready to provide answers to the challenges currently affecting the country. I challenge you [researchers] to generate solutions to poverty, unemployment, environmental concerns, poor health, ailing education and alternative energy sources, he said. We want you to make a positive contribution to changing lives. Formally opening the review, Vice Chancellor Prof Barnabas Nawangwe acknowledged the SwedenUganda research partnership for its role in boosting research work in many universities. Over the last 16 years, the Swedish government has invested $73 million [about Shs 263bn] into Ugandas graduate training and scientific environments of public universities, and Makerere University has been a big recipient, he said. This has strengthened our capacity for teaching, learning, innovations and knowledge transfer. According to Nawangwe, during the 15 years, Makerere has seen 210 graduates obtain PhDs, 95 masters and 20 postdoctoral training. The Swedish government is currently in research collaborations with Makerere, Kyambogo, Busitema, Gulu universities and Mbarara University of Science and Technology. justuslyatuu08@gmail.com As a mother of two boys and one girl, I was fascinated to learn about strength-based approaches to psychology such as positive masculinity. I wondered what I could learn from such a model that would be useful in my parenting role to address issues of gender equality. I set out to do some digging and reading on this concept, especially because it is gaining currency in the feminist world as critical to violence prevention. I found this article by Mark Kiselica at the College of New Jersey and his colleague Matt Englar-Carlson at California State University Fullerton, that suggests a far more effective way of building the Positive Masculinity Model a framework which accentuates the positive aspects of male development. The goal, they say, is to help men and boys learn and embrace healthy and constructive aspects of masculinity. Shortly thereafter, I was privileged to meet Luke Daniels, the author of Pulling the Punches: Defeating Domestic Violence, and learnt more about how men and boys can play a critical role in violence prevention. Daniels states that after listening to the stories of perpetrators about the mistreatment they endured as children, he found that the more abusive their childhoods were, the more vicious the violence they unleashed on their partners. He notes that many parents did their best in raising children and deserve no blame, but they themselves were badly mistreated as children. Thus, it is no surprise that unconsciously they have passed on mistreatment to their children. He concludes that children look to role models; and hence, the way the adults behave is extremely important for the young minds. If children are treated well and not exposed to violence, they are unlikely to grow up to hurt anyone. If girls are treated with respect and shown love by their parents, they would never put up with an abusive relationship for any length of time. Therefore, the critical function of role models in developing positive masculinity needs to be underscored. In a 2013 research by K. Roberts-Douglas and H. Curtis-Boles, exploring positive masculinity development in African-American men, it was found that positive male models, in particular fathers and grandfathers, play the largest role in building healthy and adaptive masculine identities in contrast to ones peers and media. We also need to de-emphasize labour division in the home and the whole stereotype that girls cook and do dishes while boys sit and watch television or help daddy wash the car. That already sets in motion unequal power relations in the home, and later in the public sphere. There is no womens work. There is no mans work. There is work, and men and women are a team. It is important to promote the fact that every member is valuable. This will show that anyone can do anything; and there are no roles for only men or women. While there is no silver bullet about how to raise boys to respect women and promote a fairer world, we trust that by developing the positive aspects of masculinity, we as parents will instill the value of gender equality right from birth and better equip men to operate in a world where women are increasingly and rightfully in positions of power and authority. We hope that we can all be part of creating a more equal world by planting the seeds right now. State Minister for Information and Communication Technology, Idah Nantaba has said she is yet to have a position on the now acrimonious proposal to lift the presidential age limit. Speaking to CBS FMs Alex Nsubuga, Nantaba, the Woman member of parliament for Kayunga district said it is wrong for cabinet to impose decisions on them yet they have people they represent. Have you heard that parliament has told us to stop consulting people? Im a minister and also a member of parliament; so, I have to be in the field like other [ministers] Dont you see [Godfrey] Kiwanda in the field; why is he consulting yet he is a minister? Nantaba said. Minister Idah Nantaba (L) says it is wrong for cabinet to impose decisions on them A week Ago, Nantaba and Amos Lugoloobi both MPs from Kayunga, were forced by their people to don a red ribbon that has come to symbolize the resistance to amend the constitution if when passed will clear the way for President Museveni who will be 76 in 2021 to contest the presidency again. Nantaba said the reason parliament gave each MP Shs 29 million was to allow them consult. So, parliaments decision takes precedent over cabinet. It is not cabinet that has the final say on the bill; that is why it was taken to parliament. In cabinet, we dont vote; the vote is done in parliament and it is the same parliament that told us to go and consult. Whoever says that this issue will end in cabinet is mad, Nantaba said. She lashed out at the NRM chief whip Ruth Nankabirwa who criticized her for going against a cabinet position that all ministers should embrace the bill. The speaker would have said that because as cabinet we had already decided on the matter; we shouldnt have to go back to the people, Nantaba said. Why did Nankabirwa go to Kiboga to consult yet cabinet had already decided on the matter? Before she attacks Nantaba, she should first explain why she went to Kiboga. As an independent, the controversial MP who cut her niche while state minister of lands added that she is also not bound by any NRM organs decision like the Central Executive Committee on the bill. My people voted me as an independent candidate. Im not a member of the NRM, Nantaba said. For his part, Amos Lugoloobi, the MP Ntenjeru North said the police wants to get in the way of his consultations by arresting people under the pretext that tey participated in violence recently as groups opposed and those in favor supported by the Kayunga NRM chairperson Moses Karangwa clashed. The purpose of consultations is to understand what the people are saying and then you deliver what they have told you to deliver, Lugoloobi said. Some people are trying to use the police to eat from the process. They are using the clash that happened in Kayunga recently to arrest over 50 people. We talked to police but they remained adamant; so, we had to go to the police headquarters in Kampala to secure their release. This kind of intimidation complicates consultations as people get scared that when they attend they get arrested, Lugoloobi said. While officiating at a thanksgiving ceremony of Bukomansimbi North MP Ruth Katushabe, speaker Rebecca Kadaga said that police should stop interfering with MPs who are consulting. Im going to call the minister of internal affairs together with the inspector general of police because this consultation is on behalf of the people of Uganda, Kadaga said adding, Members must be allowed to consult throughout the country. A private members bill moved by Igara West MP Raphael Magyezi has sharply divided the country with the overwhelming majority of those who have spoken out saying it is bad for the country to amend the constitution to extend Musevenis 35 years hold on to power to 40 years. Voices from the opposition, religious and civic leaders have all implored the MPs to reject the bill. bakerbatte@observer.ug The deputy Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah has asked Ugandans to reject anything that will divide and plunge the country into war. Oulanyah made the call while presiding over a thanksgiving ceremony organised by National Resistance Movement party treasurer Rose Namayanja and her mother Catherine Namirembe. The function was held on Sunday at Kalagi village in Kasangombe sub-county in Nakaseke district. Namayanja survived a nasty accident in 2015 at Kigoogwa village along the Kampala-Gulu highway. She was heading to a fundraising ceremony for the reconstruction of Buddabugya health center III in Nakaseke district. Oulanyah wondered why Ugandans have become so violent to the extent of wanting to kill each other yet there are bigger things which can unite them to work for the development of the country. Jacob Oulanyah Oulanyah also condemned the youths who are standing for nothing but money for survival. "We must remember that these small divisions that we have is not deeper than the blood that connects us as Ugandans and as people of God. There is nothing that we cant solve as thinking human beings. Anything that will set us back, lets reject it totally. Anything that will push us back to violence, we should reject it totally. Anything that will lead us to another war, we should collectively reject it totally. There is nothing impossible about putting this country together. There is nothing wrong with Ugandan that can be connected with Ugandans", Oulanyah said. "Honourable Namayanja, you survived an accident for a reason. God protected from that accident because your purpose on earth was not done. If it has to do with supporting the churches, do it, the way you were doing. If it is something political that you must do, do it", he added. Rose Namayanja joined by deputy speaker Jacob Oulanyah to cut the cake Namayanja and her mother held the thanksgiving ceremony to thank God for enabling them to survive the accident. Namayanja, who hails from Nakaseke which hosted the National Resistance Army (NRA) liberation struggle war of 1981-86 warned Ugandans against a repeat of the past. She said that even amidst the age limit amendment storm, rival groups can still tolerate each other. She was making reference to a constitutional amendment that seeks to lift the cap on the presidential age. She asked Ugandans to give President Museveni another chance to take the country forward. Namayanja also used the thanksgiving to refute allegations that she is plotting for a comeback in 2021 to contest for District Woman Member of Parliament seat saying she had no intention after voluntarily quitting elective politics. Pastor Samuel Kajoba the Seventh Day Adventist Bishop for Central Buganda region said that Namayanja's survival was God's mercy and asked Ugandans to always give thanks whenever they go through such moments. Makerere University staff appeals tribunal has given the university appointments board and the legal team of Dr Stella Nyanzi thirty days to resolve the stalemate over her reinstatement as a research fellow at Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR). Early this month, the tribunal chaired by George Omunyokol quashed minutes of the 544th university appointment board meeting held on February 10, 2017, which found Nyanzi guilty and confirmed her six months suspension. The board also recalled Nyanzi and transferred her to Human Rights and Peace Centre (HURIPEC) at the School of Law in a bid to mitigate the conflict at MISR. Nyanzi was in April 2016 when she stripped naked to protest what she called mistreatment by MISR director, Prof Mahmood Mamdani. Dr Stella Nyanzi After quashing the minutes of the appointment's board, the tribunal ordered the university to conduct a fresh hearing. The decision of the tribunal means that Nyanzi should have been recalled and reinstated as a research fellow at MISR. However, this hasn't been possible since Nyanzi was suspended again in March 2017 for insulting the First Lady and Education minister, Janet Museveni on social media. Dr Nyanzi's lawyer, Isaac Ssemakkade, says the university appointments board claims, that they haven't concluded investigations into the fresh accusations against her client because she is facing criminal prosecution in court. "This is meant to give the employer and the employee time to reach an amicable agreement before the hearing of the second appeal. We have both agreed that these thirty days are enough to discuss the issues in a friendly way. The tribunal made a directive that Dr Nyanzi should be returned but the appointments board seems to say she cannot be reinstated when there are ongoing criminal proceeding in court and she is serving another suspension," Ssemakkade told URN. Ssemakkade says the criminal proceedings are likely to take a long time and shouldn't be used as a ploy by the university appointment board to shy away from implementing the decision of the tribunal. Section 5.11 of the Makerere university human resource manual says "when criminal proceedings are instituted against an employee in the court of law, no proceeding for his or her dismissal upon any grounds involved in the criminal charge shall be taken or proceeded with until the conclusion of the criminal proceeding and determination of any appeal there from." The second case that the tribunal was supposed to hear today is an appeal by Dr Nyanzi protesting her second suspension triggered by her social media posts. A few months ago, I had a chat with a Makerere University literature lecturer about satirical writing. He had earlier told me that he uses my writings in his classes and had got many recurrent questions from students which he wanted me to address. Dont you fear being arrested? This is a question I have got used to; its more like a conversation starter for many people I meet. But, arrested for what?! In any case, as the Baganda say; ekirya atabaala kyekirya nasigadde ewaka (the animal that eats the wanderer as well eats the one that stays home). So, whereas I may censure myself against foolhardiness, there is little virtue in excessively filtering my ink. I will dwell more on the second question: How do you deal with being misunderstood? Many Ugandan writers who try satire eventually abandon it because of the nature of our audience. Yes, satirical writing is as interesting as its frustrating worse in a context where many peoples urge to respond is stronger than the will to think. In some peoples order of things, responding comes first, and then thinking follows like those who first eat, and then wash hands! If there is anything Ugandans have perfected to the highest level of imagination, it is the art of insult. Were it to be a sport, Ugandans would accumulate gold after gold for insult excellence. I dont sympathize that much for the likes of Evelyn Anite, Simeo Nsubuga, Ibrahim Abiriga, et al. But sometimes you read the vitriol of abusive graffiti on their Facebook walls and wonder whether people sit to coin this stuff or it just spontaneously flows. You would rather someone literally threw a sack of rotten eggs at you than Ugandans using you as testing ground for their misplaced linguistic creativity. Many of us are used to direct writing, especially in newspapers. As such, anything not literary (sometimes even direct sarcasm) is lazily read upside down, with little or no effort to pull down textual curtains. Then, boom! Misguided anger missiles start flying. On some occasions when my articles were posted on The Observer Facebook page, some comments would make one think it was a slow learners day out! And there are those who will have gotten it right and go interpreting for their colleagues in clueless fury, one after the other. Its such an amusing task to tell someone that; hey, look, you are licking your nose in public. Finally regaining consciousness, the fellow goes like: Are you sure? And why does he have to write like that? It is said that when you hit a dog with smoked meat, it will take off. That is how you watch in amusement as someone with whom you share sentiments over an issue deploy all invectives that their incivility can provide only to later realise that he is peeing on the choir. He then recomposes himself and sends a calm sorry with face in palms. But also, instinctively, many of us do not want to appear stupid, even when we act so. So, even when we discover how off the mark we were, we go on the defensive. Like the man who, at table, takes a mouthful of porridge then, realizing that it is hot, he spits before everyone. He looks around him, notices the disgust on the faces around the table and says: Only a fool would swallow this fire! Nevertheless, especially as an educator, over time you learn to use the responses to understand the society in which you operate and contextualize much more about it. It is said that if you give a fool enough rope, he will hang himself. They should have added that he might hang you with it too. The non-prioritisation of thinking notwithstanding, it takes too much trust in humour to deploy satire in a context of extreme public anger and sorrow like the current one in Uganda. Whereas humour tends to be psychologically therapeutic, its not in our ways to invite laughter to funerals. Currently there is so much public outrage, especially around political matters. Many people are at a level of pain that would make a patient bite anyone coming suspiciously close to their wound. This anger is not helped by the pervasive feeling of disempowerment and powerlessness dawned onto them by violent state suppression of their voices and oppositional agency. Anything that helps relieve this anger is maximally utilized, such as foot dragging, rumours, dissimulation, desertion, false compliance, pilfering, feigned ignorance, slander, arson, sabotage, etc. A weak person will use a hated politicians poster to light her charcoal stove with a feeling of relief and triumph over them. And now with social media that comes with a shield of anonymity and absence of punishment, insults come in handy at anything perceived to be against our interests and can as well be used to boost the insulters ego. Research on insult psychology explains that insults are as well attempts at reducing the social status of the one being insulted while on the other hand raising the relative status of the insulter. Interestingly, psychologists also indicate that there are forms of perversion that make insulting enjoyable. Such would even boast about and drink to a successful insult adventure hohoo, I insulted him properly! But in the end, both on and off-point reactions become interesting and satire gets even more attractive. The circumstances we live in would kill us if we didnt find a way of laughing about them. How else would we live with the current police madness and constant irritation from some of the politicians we vote to serve us? jsssentongo@gmail.com The author heads the Centre for African Studies at Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi. A sprawling 10-acre desert ranch in Arizona, aptly named Stardust Ranch, has come onto the market for $5 million (USD). Located in the scenic Rainbow Valley just outside of metropolitan Phoenix, the ranch includes a 3.436 square foot house, an in-ground pool, and allegedly a constant stream of extraterrestrial traffic. Owner John Edmonds has grown tired of fighting off aliens, and recently decided to put it up for sale. Edmonds claims that over the past 20 years he has been abducted multiple times, and has had medical experiments performed on him by the aliens. He also alleges that his wife has been the subject of extraterrestrial abuse on several occasions. He originally purchased the property as a preserve for rescue horses who are unwanted or have experienced abuse. Allegedly the horses have also been molested by the aliens, with several turning up mutilated. Photo: video screengrab Almost immediately from the day we moved in, we began to have strange experiences, owner John Edmonds told Phoenix mews station KPNX. One time they [the aliens] actually levitated her [his wife] out of the bed in the master chamber and carried her into the parking lot and tried to draw her up into the craft. There was a cone of light, it came down, and she started to rise into that cone of light. I grabbed an AK-47 with a double banana clip in it, and I went outside and I opened up. On an episode of the Travel Channels Ghost Adventures program, in 2016, Edmonds claimed to have killed 18 extraterrestrials with a samurai sword during his time on the ranch. Their bodies allegedly disappear immediately upon expiring, hence why he hasnt been able to provide positive proof of their existence. He did post some photos on his Facebook page of scars he allegedly received in combat with the extraterrestrial beings. In the same program, Edmonds stated that When we moved in, the people we bought the house from hadnt moved out. They had just disappeared, and all their stuff was still in the house. Photo: John Edmunds/Facebook According to USA Today, property records are not clear on how much the couple paid for the ranch when they bought it, nor who sold it. The plot thickens. Because of the constant alien activity on this ranch, John Edmunds cautions any potential buyer to come and view it in person before making an offer. And if youre wondering why he and his wife stayed in such a place for two decades, despite all the harassment by aliens, John has an explanation: Photo: Travel Channel I am extremely stubborn, both logically and rationally, he said. I have a lot of money and time invested in this property, and many animals housed here. Originally listed at $1.7 million (USD), the price has leaped to $5 million (USD) after gaining national exposure. If the property sells, the Edmonds intend to move to Maine and found another horse rescue center. If all goes well, they will not need to pack their samurai swords. ICCO, 2,500 PR firms in 55 countries, voted the Helsinki Declaration, a pompous document urging ethical behavior of members. Ignored is the rude, unhelpful and not available behavior of many PR people. Charlene Corrin is press contact of the Intl Communications Consultancy Organization, London. Francis Ingham, general manager of the PR Consultants Assn., London, is also CEO of ICCO. Neither are responding to our queries at this time. Press relations on the corporate side have also reached an all-time low. Appropriate terms for this PR behavior are wrong, bad, and even naughty. There is no need to bring out the heavy gun of ethics violation. That invites endless discussion. Its wrong for PRSA to have one national conference in New York in 25 years. Charlene Corrin The war that President Donald Trump is waging against the press is mirrored in many parts of the business and association worlds. Patrick Jackson, who in 1980 was elected president of the PR Society of America, the worlds largest PR group with 21,000 members, said the Societys press policy would be duck em, screw em and go direct. The Society has held to this policy to this day. Its national conference in Boston Oct. 7-11 had no press room, and its online press room only gave awards to members. There wasnt a word about the fractious proposal to replace PR with communications throughout the bylaws. There still isnt to this day. The Boston Globe and Boston Herald did not cover the eventobviously not invited. This writer, as usual, was banned from covering the Assembly and all sessions and from entering the exhibit hall where 45 service firms exhibit, some of them our advertisers and all of them ad prospects. ICCO Unveils Ten Principles Francis Ingham ICCO, whose CEO is Francis Ingham, voted ten ethical principles at its meeting in Helsinki, including: follow applicable laws, observe the highest professional standards, respect the truth, uphold the reputation of the industry, deal honestly with the media, dont circulate fake news, and use social media responsibly. Fine general advice but how about Pick up the phone when a reporter calls, and Dont wait for them to call but call them. Ingham, who is director general of the 21,000-member PR Consultants Assn., London, is a firm believer in the need for PR people to deal with the press. PR needs advocates who can communicate with the media and general public, he said in September. Ingham spoke after the UK-based PRCA expelled Bell Pottinger, which had been accused of running a campaign that inflamed racial discord in South Africa. The firm went into "administration" (similar to bankruptcy) after client defections, the resignation of CEO James Henderson, five-year expulsion from the PRCA, and failure of consultant BDO to find a buyer. PRSA, Other Groups Called on to Act Ingham aimed his message of PRs duty to engage with the public specifically at anybody representing our business which would include PR Society of America, Intl Assn. of Business Communicators, PR Council and other trade groups. PRSA abandoned its enforceable Ethics Code in 1999 and has seen its membership total stagnate since then. Enrollment of 19,600 in 2000 grew to only 21,000 in 2017. Revenues in 2016 of $11.3M were below revenues of $11.4M in 2006. Modern PR is much more than traditional media relations but an antagonistic relationship with traditional media means our story seldom breaks through to the business community or general public, added Ingham, ten years as director general. PRCAs suspension of BP shows that members will be held to account by its ethical code, said Ingham. Provable Ethics Violations Rare Provable PR firm ethics violations are about as rare as a solar eclipse. The number of prosecuted cases in the last 50 years can be counted on the fingers of one hand. PR firms quit the governing ethics body or avoid obviously bad accounts. A horrible case is Summer Harrison in 1988hit with two violations for asking PRSA to investigate four high PR execs giving advice to CIA head William Casey on raising funds for the Contras, including Jim Bowling and Elias Buchwald of B-M. Harold Burson refused to go. That link shows how PRSA treasurer Lee Duffey's PR firm should have been the subject of an Ethics Board inquiry in 1999 but he hired L. Lin Wood who frightened PRSA so much it ditched the entire code. Wood is profiled as the Attorney for the Damned by Wiki. Wood ordered me not to write anything about the Duffey firm without clearing it with him. I continued writing. PRSA caved and ditched the entire enforceable code. Ted Pincus, Financial Relations Board, not active in PRSA, got smacked because his firm sent false releases for a client. The outcome of Ethics cases, including failure to investigate public cases involving Duffey and Joe Epley, show PR people cant police themselves. PRSAs Ethics Board should again have an enforceable Code and should be dominated by non-members. Rude, Hidden PR People a Press Problem The problem with PR is PR people who dont return phone calls, who display no contact points and who dont call on reporters, which was standard in the 60s and 70s. The congloms changed that. Jackson, 1980 PRSA president who avoided the press, was a harbinger of Trump, whose popularity is at an all-time low43% says, Fox. Talk of ethics is a smokescreen. Its false PR in that those who talk endlessly about it think they are sending the message that they are ethical. Their staff may be rude and unhelpful to the press, but that is not unethical. PR people need training in good olde etiquette. Talk about ethics coats the speakers in veneer of goodness. The term "PR" has vanished from many corporations and assns. PRSA Harsh Legally to Members and Press Thirteen pages of harsh legalisms that apply to members who use the PRSA website were blasted to them in 2012. The words sole discretion appear five times and violators are threatened with criminal and/or civil prosecution. One section says: We may suspend any account where violations of these Terms of Use and Usage Policies are suspected. Says the next sentence: We also reserve the right to disable your user account at our sole discretion without explanation. Any searches by members become PRSAs own records and may be intercepted and reviewed at any time, the document warns. The system collects cookies that identify users. Furthermore, by agreeing to the Terms of Usage, members are letting PRS sell their names and addresses for one-time mailing use only by responsible third parties. Members can opt out of this if they find out about this by wading through 13 pages of dense legalisms. Lawyers for Venable, the Society's 500-lawyer firm in D.C., have told us the Society is under no legal obligation to deal with us at all. PRSA has spent nearly $800K on law firms in the past tens years and nothing on outside PR counsel based on available records. Lawyers Rule Theres no doubt that much of the communications blockage is coming from lawyers who are increasingly dominant in U.S. life. The U.S. has 1.22 million lawyers391 per 100K of citizens. Japan has 23 per 100K and Canada 26 per 100K. U.S. lawyers file 15M lawsuits yearly. The U.S. is choking on litigation, wrote the Boston Globes Jeff Jacoby May 9, 2014. Communications with editors, incoming and outgoing, are supervised by corporate lawyers. CEOs need to step in and tell the lawyers to loosen their grip on PR. The Anti-Lawyer Party claims there is an International conspiracy of lawyers to destroy the U.S. from within. LDWW is handling Whitefish Energy, the tiny Montana company that had its $300M contract to rebuild Puerto Ricos power lines cancelled Oct. 29 by the islands governor Ricardo Rossello. Criticism by Congress and Federal Emergency Management Agency prompted Rossello to ax the contract granted to the two-person firm. Some expressed concern over Whitefishs ties to Interior Secretary and ex-Montana Congressman Ryan Zinke, whose son worked for Whitefish during the summer. Ken Luce, former Hill+Knowlton Strategies COO and founder of the Dallas-based integrated communications shop, and Brandon Smulyan, a Weber Shandwick and H+K alum, represent Whitefish. Luce told MSBNC that Whitefish landed the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority pact because it moved quickly to land the business. This is really a very simple effort by an entrepreneur to get on the plane, fly to Puerto Rico, talk to PREPA when no one else would, Luce told MSNBC. Rossello said New York Governor Andy Cuomo and Floridas Rick Scott have agreed to send utility crews to restore power to the island of 3.4M. About 30 percent of Puerto Ricos power has been restored six weeks after Hurricane Maria. Luce has counseled ExxonMobil, General Motors, American Airlines Sprint, US Airways, while Smulyan handled Carnival Corp., Ford Motor, Verizon and Jose Feliciano Foundation. Paul Manafort Special counsel Robert Muellers 13-count indictment of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and business partner Richard Gates alleges the duo generated millions of dollars of income as a result of Ukraine work, and hid the payments by laundering the cash through scores of US and foreign corporations and bank accounts. The indictment claims more than $75M flowed through offshore accounts and that Manafort laundered more than $18M, which was used by him to buy property, goods, and services in the US, income that he concealed from the US Treasury, Dept. of Justice and others." Gates allegedly transferred more than $3M from offshore accounts that he controlled. The indictment alleges that Manafort and Gates between 2006 and 2015 acted as unregistered agents of the Government of Ukraine; Party of Regions political party of former Ukraine president Victor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia and is wanted by Ukraine for treason; and the Opposition Bloc, successor to the Party of Regions. Mueller alleges Manafort and Gates made false and misleading Foreign Agents Registration Act statements. According to Count Eleven, Manafort and Gates knowingly and willfully caused to be made a false statement of a material fact, and omitted a material fact necessary to make the statements therein not misleading, in a document filed with and furnished to the Attorney General under the provisions of FARA." Those statements include denying meetings on behalf of the Party of Regions and Opposition Bloc in the US and existence of an agreement with the European Center for a Modern Ukraine, which is described as a mouthpiece for Yanukovych and the Party of Regions. Both Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty. Chris Winans Kimball Hughes Public Relations added Chris Winans as consultant. Winans comes to Kimball Hughes from Hill+Knowlton Strategies, where he led the U.S. financial services communications practice.. In addition, Winans spent more than two decades as a journalist, including 10 years at the Wall Street Journal, and 12 years in corporate and crisis communications. Chriss reputation as a leader in corporate and crisis communications in the insurance and financial sectors will help us expand the scope of our services, said agency president and founder Gary Kimball. Zeba Rashid CRC has named Zeba Rashid VP and director of celebrity influencer management. Having worked at 5W Public Relations, HL Group and SUCCARA Media Group, Rashid brings over 10 years of experience in public relations, influencer engagement, B2B marketing and VIP/artist relations to her new position at CRC. She will report to CRC president and founder Cindy Riccio. Zebas motivating leadership, creativity and entrepreneurial spirit will add great value to our dynamic and growing team, said Ms. Riccio. Jessica Petrie Maccabee Public Relations is bringing on Jessica Petrie as its account manager. Petrie joins the Minneapolis-based shop Maccabee from the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in Saint Paul, where she served as public relations manager. Previously, she worked as a senior public relations specialist at both Gage and LaBreche PR, and was an assistant account executive at Perception Ink PR. Thailands official tourism development agency, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, has hired travel and lifestyle firm Quinn for PR efforts to boost awareness of the Thailand brand as a top Southeast Asia travel destination in the New York and Los Angeles travel markets. Quinns work for the TAT account will include driving awareness of Thailand through top-tier U.S. broadcast, online and print media features, as well as social media exposure; and creating branded content to be disseminated through interactive digital, blog and social platforms. The agency will also support TATs tourism marketing concept, Open to the New Shades campaign, a global effort aimed at deepening the unique local experiences of Thailand on the world stage; and will execute three 360-degree campaigns in a bid to engage target audiences. The campaigns ultimate goal is for Thailand to exceed a million U.S. visitors by the end of next year. The contract, which began in October, continues until September 30, 2018 and brings the agency a base fee of $8,000 per month. New York-based Quinn, which maintains additional offices in Miami and Los Angeles, accounted for $8.4 million in net fees last year. Other tourism authority clients include the Finger Lakes, NY; Fort Worth, TX; South Beach, FL; Lexington, Kentucky; and Frances tourism development agency, Atout France. Roger Stone Roger Stone is planning to take Twitter to court over having his main outlet on the platform, @RogerJStoneJr, suspended. The account was taken down Saturday following an obscenity-riddled chain of posts aimed at various CNN employees after the cable network broke the story of imminent charges against Paul Manafort in the Mueller investigation of possible ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia. When AT&T aquires [sic] Time Warner the house cleaning at CNN of human excrement like @donlemon@jaketapper & dumbfk @ananavarro will be swift, was just one of the posts appearing on @RogerJStoneJr early Saturday. In an email sent to Politico, Stone says that Twitters move to shut down his account is part and parcel of the systematic effort by the tech left to censor and silence conservative voices." The legal grounding of Stones potential litigation against Twitter remains uncertain, but in the meantime, his bully pulpit appears to have simply moved over to @STONEFLIK, which bills itself at the official twitter feed for the film that will change your lifei.e., Get Me Roger Stone, a documentary about Stone that is streaming on Netflix. Kim Wall Peter Madsen, the inventor of the UC3 Nautilus submarine aboard which Swedish journalist Kim Wall lost her life, has admitted that he dismembered her body. However, he still denies killing her. While Madsen initially said Wall died after being hit on the head by the submarines hatch, he later changed his story, saying that she died from carbon monoxide poisoning inside the submarine while he was up on deck. After Walls death and dismemberment, Madsen sunk the submarine. Wall, who had written for the New York Times, Guardian and South China Morning Post, was working on a feature story about Madsen, who had plans to pursue a space travel project. Police said that Madsen has agreed to remain in custody through his Nov. 15 court date. A bit of good news in print publishing: Meredith Corporation has bumped up the rate base of its quarterly magazine The Magnolia Journal to 1.2 million, beginning with the Spring 2018 issue. Based on the Magnolia brand founded by Chip and Joanna Gaines, hosts of HGTVs Fixer Upper, the magazine debuted in Fall 2016 as a newsstand-only title with an initial run of 400,000 copies and a cover price of $7.99. In just a year weve generated 1 million paid subscribers said Meredith Magazine president Doug Olson. On newsstands, The Magnolia Journal has averaged nearly a 70 percent sell-through rate, compared to the industry average of 25 percent. Though ratings for the Oscar telecast have been trending downward for the past few years, one thing is rising: the rates that advertisers are being charged to air their spots during the awards ceremony. According to Variety, ABC is charging up to $2.6 million to run a 30-second spot on the 2018 Oscars, beating out last years rate of $2.1 million. One of the last true big-ticket events on the broadcast TV landscape, the Oscars have seen their ratings slide from 2014s 43.7 million to 34.3 million in 2016 and 34.4 million last year. Despite that drop, the Variety report says, the limited amount of ads that run during the telecast increase the prominence of each ad that runs, increasing their value to advertisers. Even Former President Barack Obama Has To Attend Jury Duty Elijah C. Watson Elijah Watson serves as Okayplayer's News & Culture Editor. When Even though he was previously President of the United States Barack Obama still has to attend jury duty just like the rest of us. READ: Mississippi Elementary School Named After Confederate President To Be Renamed After Barack Obama In a report from NPR, Obama will serve in November in Illinoiss Cook County, which requires residents to do jury duty once a year. Hes a great citizen of his city and this county, Cook County Chief Judge Tim Evans said. Were happy that he recognizes his responsibility as a citizen to serve just as anybody else would. However, Obama actually has not been selected as a juror yet. He could potentially be disqualified from serving by the judge or removed from the jury pool by the lawyers on each side. Obama is considered a high-impact juror because of his prior position. Most jury consultants really recommend against sitting someone who, in a deliberation room, is going to have a really out-sized voice, attorney Aaron Katz said. But if Im feeling either really good about my case or really bad about my case, I might actually want a high-impact juror like Obama on my jury, because I know I can tailor my arguments to that one juror, hoping that he or she can carry the day. If selected, Obama would receive $17.25 per day, just like the average American citizen serving. Recently, Davis IB, an elementary school in Jackson, Mississippi named after Confederate President Jefferson Davis, was renamed after Obama. Jefferson Davis, although infamous in his own right, would probably not be too happy about a diverse school promoting the education of the very individuals he fought to keep enslaved being named after him, Janelle Jefferson, president of the schools PTA, said in a statement. Jefferson added that the school community wanted to rename the campus to reflect a person who fully represents ideals and public stances consistent with what we want our children to believe about themselves. Source: npr.org Agricultural News NAWG President David Schemm Steps Down to Pursue New Opportunities in Home State of Kansas NAWG is officially announcing the resignation of former NAWG President and Sharon Springs, KS farmer David Schemm. David has resigned his position to pursue other professional opportunities in his home state of Kansas. NAWG CEO Chandler Goule made the following statement: "During his time as President of NAWG, David helped move the wheat industry forward, grew its presence on Capitol Hill, and improved its relationship with the media and other farm organizations. "As President, Schemm wanted to ensure voices from all wheat farmers were heard, so he made monthly visits to wheat states to get a better understanding of what is and isn't working for growers. "Schemm constantly worked to get NAWG's priorities and messaging out by participating in weekly interviews, testifying on behalf of the organization to Congress, and took every opportunity to talk to Members and Agency officials on the importance of reauthorizing the Farm Bill. "While David will be missed, I know he will continue to do important things for the state of Kansas. "David's leadership will have a lasting impact on the organization and we wish his family and him all the best. "NAWG's Past President and Montana farmer Gordon Stoner has been chosen to assume duties and role of the President until the next officer election at the 2018 Commodity Classic." Source - National Association of Wheat Growers WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady NSI Top Agricultural News A painter and her partner soon will make their Omaha Community Playhouse debuts. They wont be onstage, and they didnt have to learn lines or go to rehearsals. In fact, their performance will occur before the curtain goes up. Molly Nicklin and Luke Armstrong will create a painting in the Playhouse lobby as part of an unusual exhibition in connection with Stupid F@#%ing Bird, which premieres Friday in the Howard Drew Theatre. The play by Aaron Posner, loosely based on The Seagull by Anton Chekhov, examines some questions: What is art? Why is art important? What defines success in the art world? In light of that, Playhouse staffers were brainstorming ways to enhance the audiences experience of the show, and decided to mount a pre-performance art exhibition a rarity at the theater, said Peggy Reall, director of marketing and public relations at the Playhouse. Stupid F@#%ing Bird runs for five weeks, and a different artist will be featured each week. Nicklin and Armstrong partners in life as well as in their profession have a unique take on the exhibit. They start with a blank paper or canvas and collaborate on what it becomes. Its a conversation in paint rather than in words, Nicklin said. I put something down, then he puts something down, and we just react to whats already on the canvas with our next brush stroke. They dont talk while theyre creating, nor do they discuss each specific work beforehand. But they do follow some rules: We avoid doing anything representational; we wouldnt paint a cat, for instance. And if you cant figure out whats right to do next, do whats wrong and well react to that and it will eventually become right again. The couples works employ acrylic paint and sometimes other media such as markers, Nicklin said. They started creating in front of an audience about 11 years ago. The process of us painting together was the most interesting part rather than the painting itself, and we wanted to let people in on that process, she said. To her, that defines art and the necessity of it. The message you take away from viewing a piece of art or listening to a song can hit you deeper than just words would be able to. ... Sometimes people need a message that powerful to be able to understand one another. For exhibitor Amanda Fehlner, associate costume designer at the Playhouse, art is something that elevates humans, both as spectators and creators. Art is an expression, and of course that can go in many different ways: expression of emotion, expression of feelings, even just an expression of This is what I enjoy, said Fehlner, who has a degree in costume design from the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. Its very interesting and unique to humans that we have this drive to create things that look pretty and express things. Most animals dont have that. Fehlner is a painter and a sculptor. Several of her pieces realistic paintings, more stylized sculptures and a partial suit of armor she created for her cosplay hobby will be shown the first week of the show. Joe Liebentritt says he thinks each artist defines success differently. A graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute, he fits painting around his full-time job in the financial industry. With acrylic paint, he said, he creates pictures of images from his past and present, such as landscapes, portraits and cityscapes. He will be featured in the shows final week. For him, success comes piece by piece. A whole painting for me is a process, from developing my composition to spending time in front of a canvas and working through subject matter and a feeling or a thought. Success is achieved, Liebentritt said, when I work through the artwork and make a piece that I really pour my heart and soul into. Stupid F@#%ing Bird exhibition Where: Omaha Community Playhouse Thursday-Oct. 15: Amanda Fehlner, paintings, ceramics Oct. 19-22: Molly Nicklin and Luke Armstrong, paintings (live exhibition on Oct. 20) Oct. 26-29: Kelsey Wallerstedt, watercolor on paper Nov. 2-4: Keri Hedrick, acrylic painting on canvas Nov. 9-12: Joe Liebentritt, acrylic painting on canvas A simple swearing-in ceremony became a big going-away party for Nebraskas top agriculture official Monday. Greg Ibach, now the states former ag chief, took an oath of office for his new post as an undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in front of more than 100 Nebraska farm boosters, elected officials, family members and friends. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue conducted the ceremony at the historic Livestock Exchange Building in South Omaha. The move to Washington for Ibach, a farmer and cattle producer from Sumner, follows nearly 19 years of work at the Nebraska Department of Agriculture 12 as director a tenure praised by Gov. Pete Ricketts. Ibach will support the Trump administration in a post as undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs. He is one of seven undersecretaries who report to Perdue. Hell oversee operations and policy development at three federal agencies within the agency: the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service; the Agricultural Marketing Service; and the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration. The agency known as GIPSA attracted controversy recently when the USDA said it would not implement the Farmer Fair Practice Rule, which was developed under the Obama administration but never went into effect. The rule, designed to protect the rights of farmers raising livestock for packers, large meat processors, would have made it easier for farmers to sue those businesses over unfair practices. Perdue told reporters after Mondays event that the decision to withdraw the rule was a close call, but he said the rule would have been a windfall for litigators. Ibach said part of his role was to make sure farmers are treated fairly. He said hed have an open door to hear their concerns. Ibachs work at the State Department of Agriculture won the support of major state agricultural organizations such as the Nebraska Farm Bureau and Nebraska Cattlemen, whose leaders praised him as a tireless promoter of their industry. Ibach made trade trips to 28 countries, including Japan, Canada, China and several in Europe, and helped host international visitors in Nebraska, to promote the sale of Nebraska commodities and food products. Ricketts noted Ibachs support of programs that support new livestock industry development: the 2003 Livestock Friendly County designation and the newer Livestock Siting Assessment Matrix, which speeds local governments evaluation of proposed livestock feeding operations. Ricketts also praised Ibach for developing the Certified Nebraska Beef promotional program and for working with other state agencies to support retailer Costcos push to build the chicken-processing plant now under construction in Fremont. Perdue said in remarks about Ibach and Bill Northey, the Iowa agriculture secretary nominated for another undersecretary post: It was so clear that they were not bureaucrats but authentic agriculturalists that had learned how to get things done within state governments. And yet they maintained that dirt-under-the-fingernails, agricultural heart. Ibachs experience in Nebraska will be an asset at the USDA and on Capitol Hill, said former Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, who served under George W. Bush. Johanns is also a former U.S. senator and former governor of Nebraska. Not only will Ibach run the agencies hes responsible for, and enforce and interpret existing regulations, hell also likely be called on by Perdue to travel the country on behalf of the USDA and to advise members of the House and Senate as Congress reauthorizes the farm bill, the legislation that covers the food stamp program and crop insurance. The Trump administration is on record as not looking to issue new regulations, but dispute will likely arise again over the Farmer Fair Practice Rule, Johanns said. IOWA CITY (AP) A former University of Iowa wrestler has been arrested on computer-hacking charges after allegedly carrying out a high-tech cheating scheme. An FBI affidavit says Colorado native Trevor Graves, 22, repeatedly hacked into the universitys grading system to give himself and others higher grades on tests. The FBI says he also repeatedly obtained copies of exams that he shared ahead of time with classmates. Graves allegedly carried out the scheme by secretly installing devices known as keyloggers in computers in university classrooms. The devices let him record what his instructors typed, including their passwords and login information. The scheme allegedly went from the spring of 2015 until December 2016. Graves joined the Iowa wrestling team in 2013, saw limited competition and left the roster last year. Graves was arrested on the two federal counts in Colorado. His attorney didnt return a call seeking comment Friday. Graves is set to make an initial court appearance this week. A former Council Bluffs assistant city attorney pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to a felony drug charge. Don Bauermeister, 44, of Omaha pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess and distribute about 13 pounds of marijuana. The plea was part of a deal with prosecutors, who are recommending that Bauermeister be sentenced to probation. Chief U.S. District Judge Laurie Smith Camp is not bound by the deal. Smith Camp accepted Bauermeisters plea and set a sentencing date of Jan. 29. Bauermeisters attorney, J. William Gallup, said prosecutors had agreed to pursue probation because of his clients unblemished record. The drug charge had nothing to do with his duties as an assistant city attorney, Gallup said. Gallup said Bauermeister and a friend agreed that the friend would go to Oregon to pick up a load of marijuana and bring it back to Omaha for distribution. Bauermeister agreed to put up some money. Authorities caught the friend in Utah, and the drugs never made it to Omaha. The friend was prosecuted on a misdemeanor charge in Utah, Gallup said. This was just some old buddy of his, Gallup said. It was a stupid thing to do. Bauermeister has surrendered his law license. A Council Bluffs employee since February 2003, Bauermeister resigned in mid-June. At the time, City Attorney Dick Wade said Bauermeister gave no reason for his resignation. In August, a grand jury charged him with the crime, which occurred between November 2016 and Jan. 9, 2017. The maximum penalty he could face is five years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a three-year term of supervised release, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorneys Office in Nebraska. Correction: An earlier version of this story listed the charges as "possession with intent to distribute" 13 pounds of marijuana. Bauermeister pleaded guilty to "conspiring to possess and distribute" the marijuana. Authorities in southwest Iowa arrested at least three teenagers Sunday in connection with several stolen Dodge Chargers and Chevrolet Camaros that were spotted speeding on Interstate 29 in Mills County. All vehicles that were recovered had been reported stolen from a car dealership in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the Fremont County Sheriffs Office said. Some of the fleeing vehicles led authorities into southeast Nebraskas Otoe and Cass Counties and northwest Missouris and Atchison and Holt Counties before crashing or arrests were made, the Sheriffs office said. At some point during the mayhem, a Missouri State Highway Patrol cruiser was also stolen, authorities said. Some of the vehicles reached speeds near 130 mph, authorities said. Officials said these teens from Kansas City, Kansas, were taken into custody: An 18-year-old male was arrested on suspicion of theft. A 17-year-old male was arrested on suspicion of theft and felony eluding. A 16-year-old female was arrested on suspicion of theft and felony eluding. A 15-year-old passenger was released, the Sheriffs Office said. As the Elkhorn school district prepares to open a new elementary school, its also taking on a process known to cause some heartburn among parents: boundary changes. The Elkhorn board is considering tweaking some elementary and middle school attendance boundaries that would go into effect in the 2018-19 school year. The board will hear public comment on the proposed changes next month, with a vote tentatively scheduled for December. The elementary changes would affect students attending Skyline and Blue Sage Elementary Schools. Blue Sage, the districts newest elementary school, is under construction at 216th and F Streets. It is scheduled to open next fall and would enroll pupils from the current Skyline Elementary attendance zone. Students living within the Blue Sage Creek, Grandview Ridge, Rural South, South Pointe Estates, Terra Linda, The Farm, The Hamptons, Trail Ridge Ranches, Westbury Creek, Westbury Farms, Windgate and The Sanctuary neighborhoods would attend Blue Sage Elementary under the proposed boundaries. Families living in the Chapel Hill, Quail Ridge, Ranch View Estates, Riverside Hills, Rogers Ridge, Skyline Oaks, Skyline Ranches, Skyline Woods and The Prairies neighborhoods would be assigned to Skyline Elementary, near 210th Street and Corral Road. Fourth-graders at Skyline Elementary who would be affected by the boundary proposal would be given the option of remaining at the school through the end of the 2018-19 school year or transferring to Blue Sage. Parents would have to notify Skyline of their decision by Feb. 15. Skyline enrolls 524 kids this year, over its capacity of 492. Once Blue Sage opens to relieve some of that crowding, enrollment is expected to drop to 340 next year. The district is also recommending a boundary shift that would affect Elkhorn Ridge and Elkhorn Valley View Middle Schools. Under the suggested change, future middle school students living south of F Street would attend Elkhorn Ridge Middle. No current middle schoolers would be affected. (For a full list of the neighborhoods assigned to both Elkhorn Ridge and Valley View, go to elkhornweb.org, click on About tab and then News/Posts.) The district currently enrolls about 9,030 students, a 7.5 percent increase over last year. And Elkhorn continues to brace for more growth: There are still thousands of lots available to build on in different parts of the district. The board is in the early stages of discussing another bond issue that could be a $130 million measure to build a third high school, two more elementary schools and additions to three middle schools. The district is still locked in litigation with a developer over land at 180th Street and West Maple Road that it acquired through eminent domain for the third high school. White Lotus Group, the developer, has challenged the condemnation process and the $2.6 million price for the land set by the Douglas County Board of Appraisers. As little hobgoblins crept through the Old Market on Sunday afternoon, their treats came in the form of books and science lessons as well as candy. The most popular attraction at the sixth annual Old Market Fall Festival appeared to be the Metro Community College book bus that was parked near 11th and Jackson Streets. Children and their parents selected up to five free books per family. Kim Hodge of Council Bluffs, who was dressed as the Queen of Hearts, went through the bus with her 8-year-old granddaughter, Brooklyn, and 6-year-old grandson, Jackson. Brooklyn, a scary clown, and Jackson, a Power Ranger, enjoy reading, Hodge said. I like that, Hodge said. It takes them away from electronics. Besides thousands of free books, the festival included interactive displays with crews from the Omaha Police and Fire Departments, candy for trick-or-treaters, a pet costume contest, a photo booth with Captain America and slimy science experiments at Urban Abbey. There was free parking at meters and the parking garage at 10th and Jackson Streets. This is our first time, and Im liking it a lot, said Tiffany Pedersen, whose sons Ty, 8, and Zane, 10, were dressed as a gorilla and Godzilla, respectively. I really like that its educational, because Halloween isnt just about candy. Pedersen may have got some argument from her boys, who made a beeline for the candy being handed out just south of the book bus by students from the Millard West DECA Club, a marketing organization. Senior Elissa Calpin said the club came prepared with candy for about 6,000 children. Its a lot of fun because the kids are all dressed so cute, Calpin said. Cute costumes were everywhere, and a lot of parents got in on the act, too. The Scott and Ashley Cain family of Council Bluffs chose a Jurassic Park theme for their costumes. Scott was dressed as a T. rex and the family dog, a 4-year-old Pomeranian named Gizmo, was in a tiny velociraptor costume. Ashley was dressed as Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern in the movie) and son Alex was Dr. Alan Grant, who was played by Sam Neill. Ive always loved that movie, and Ive probably seen it five times, Scott Cain said. We also love doing family things together, so this is what were doing this Halloween. A Batman theme ran through the Jesse and Leana Lundvall family of Glenwood, Iowa. Jesse was dressed as the Joker and Leanna was Catwoman. Their three sons Jagger, 5; Lyric, 7; and Jude, 16 months were Batman, the Riddler and Robin the Boy Wonder, respectively. We come up with something from year to year as a family, Jesse Lundvall said after the family posed with Captain America. Its a tradition and just kind of fun for all of us. The fun took a scientific turn at Urban Abbey, a nonprofit coffee shop, bookstore and spiritual center associated with United Methodist Church at 1026 Jackson St. Professor Polymer, a retired engineer also known as Jim Morley, and Maria Walker of University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension, showed kids how to create slime. They mix Elmers glue, liquid starch and water, Walker said in her thick Georgia accent. Theyre learning about how liquids can be solids through chemistry. Then they can put it in a baggie and take it home with them. Professor Polymer, dressed in a graduation robe and cap, said he was having fun looking at all the great costumes and talking to the children. He said he was thrilled to see so many happy faces in the church where he worships. Its just great seeing all the kids having a fun day, he said. Theyre also learning a little bit about chemistry. Were having as much fun as they are. * * * * * Correction: An earlier version of this story referred to Brooklyn and Jackson as Kim Hodge's daughter and son. WASHINGTON Special prosecutor Robert Mueller on Monday revealed charges against three former Trump campaign officials former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, his longtime business partner Rick Gates and former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos marking the first criminal allegations to come from probes into possible Russian influence in U.S. political affairs. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty earlier this month to making a false statement to FBI investigators who asked about his contacts with a foreigner who claimed to have high-level Russian connections, and the agreement was unsealed Monday. Court documents described extensive efforts Papadopoulos made to try to broker connections with Russian officials and arrange a meeting between them and the Trump campaign, though some emails show his offers were rebuffed. Manafort and Gates made their first court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson on Monday afternoon and pleaded not guilty to all charges. The charges collectively show how Mueller is aggressively probing the lives of those in President Donald Trump's orbit digging into their personal finances while also exploring whether they might have coordinated, or tried to coordinate, with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Papadopoulos ultimately admitted to lying to the FBI about his interactions with people he thought had connections with the Russian government. He has been cooperating with investigators for months, according to a court filing, and has met with the government on "numerous occasions to provide information and answer questions." Manafort and Gates were charged in a 12-count indictment with conspiracy to launder money, making false statements and other charges stemming from probes into possible Russian influence in U.S. political affairs. The charges against Manafort and Gates did not reference the Trump campaign, a point President Trump noted on Twitter Monday. "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" Trump wrote. ".... Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" he said in a follow-up tweet. Papadopoulos's case appears directly related to the investigation of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia. In a January 2017 interview with the FBI, Papadopoulos told the agency that a London-based professor claimed to him he had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, including "thousands of emails," but Papadopoulos viewed him as a "nothing." In reality, according to his plea, Papadopoulos understood the man had connections to Russian government officials, and he had treated him very seriously as he tried to arrange a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. After a March 2016 meeting with the man, who was not identified in court records, Papadopoulos emailed a campaign supervisor and other members of the campaign's foreign policy team and claimed the professor had introduced him to "Putin's niece" and the Russian ambassador in London. Papadopoulos claimed the purpose was "to arrange a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under President Trump." The government noted, in fact, the woman was not Russian President Vladimir Putin's niece, and while Papadopoulos expected the professor would introduce him to the Russian ambassador, that never happened. But in the months that followed, Papadopoulos continued to correspond with the woman and the professor about a possible meeting between the Trump campaign, possibly including Trump himself, and Russian officials. "The Russian government has an open invitation by Putin for Mr. Trump to meet him when he is ready," Papadopoulos wrote to a senior policy adviser for the campaign on April 25. Two days later, he emailed another high-ranking campaign official wanting "to discuss Russia's interest in hosting Mr. Trump." The campaign officials were not identified in court records. Papadopoulos's effort continued into the summer of 2016, and in August 2016 a campaign supervisor told Papadopoulos and another foreign policy adviser they should take a trip to Russia. That ultimately did not take place, according to the plea. The indictment of Manafort and Gates focused on their work advising a Russia-friendly political party in Ukraine. The special counsel alleged that for nearly a decade Manafort and Gates laundered money through scores of U.S. and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts, and gave false statements to the Justice Department and others when asked about their work on behalf of a foreign entity. All told, more than $75 million flowed through offshore accounts, the special counsel alleged. Manafort, the special counsel said, laundered more than $18 million, using his wealth acquired overseas to "enjoy a lavish lifestyle" in the United States, purchasing multimillion dollar properties and paying for home renovation. Gates did not respond to a request for comment, nor did Jason Maloni, a spokesman for Manafort. Manafort was spotted walking into the FBI's Washington Field Office Monday morning. Spokespeople for Mueller and the Justice Department declined to comment over the weekend. A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment Monday, and a spokesman for the special counsel's office did not return messages seeking comment. According to the indictment, Manafort and Gates arranged to hire two Washington-based lobbying firms to work on behalf of their Ukrainian clients, arranging meetings with U.S. officials and boosting their public image in the United States. Prosecutors say, however, that Manafort and Gates arranged for a Brussels-based nonprofit to nominally hire the companies to hide the fact that their work was for Ukrainian government officials and would otherwise require registration under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In fact, prosecutors allege, Manafort was communicating directly with then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych about the effort, promising in 2012 to provide him weekly updates about the effort. To further obscure Ukrainian involvement in the lobbying effort, prosecutors say payments to the Washington firms were routed through obscure offshore companies. Prosecutors say that when the Department of Justice approached Manafort and Gates in 2016 and 2017 about whether they should have registered as foreign agents for the work, they responded with false and misleading letters, indicating they had not directed the lobbying effort and asserting they did not hold records reflecting their work, even though later searches showed they did, according to the indictment. Manafort and Gates also were accused of willfully and intentionally trying to hide monies kept in foreign bank accounts Manafort from 2011 to 2014 and Gates from 2012 to 2014. And Manafort was accused of filing fraudulent tax returns stating on tax forms he filed from 2008 to 2014 that he controlled no foreign bank accounts. The men made tens of millions of dollars for themselves, the special counsel alleged. From 2008 to 2014, according to the indictment, Manafort arranged to wire $12 million from offshore accounts to pay for personal expenses including $5 million to a home renovation contractor in the Hamptons, more than $1.3 million to a home entertainment and lighting vendor based in Florida, $934,000 to an antique rug dealer in Alexandria, Virginia, and $849,000 to a men's clothier in New York. While the men were set to first appear before a magistrate judge as is normal the case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, 63, a 2011 Barack Obama appointee. Jackson worked as federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia after graduating from Harvard Law School and specialized in complex criminal and civil trials and appeals at Trout Cacheris. While at the firm, she represented former Democratic congressman William J. Jefferson at his corruption trial, made famous by the $90,000 in bribe money stuffed into his freezer and a legal battle over the raid of his Washington office. Jackson contributed $1,000 to Bill Clinton's 1992 Democratic campaign. Mueller was appointed in May to oversee the probe of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, taking over work that the FBI had begun in July 2016. Their interest in Manafort, though, dates back to at least 2014 long before Mueller was appointed or Manafort was connected to the Trump campaign. While Mueller's probe has focused on Manafort and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, investigators have shown interest in a broad array of other topics. Those include meetings the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow in December, and a June 2016 meeting at Trump tower involving the president's son, Donald Jr., and a Russian lawyer. Mueller's team has requested extensive records from the White House, covering areas including the president's private discussions about firing James Comey as FBI director and his response to news that Flynn was under investigation, according to two people briefed on the requests. Mueller is also investigating whether Trump obstructed justice leading up to Comey's firing. His team has been actively presenting records and bringing witnesses before the grand jury in D.C. for the last three months. Manafort joined the Trump campaign in March 2016, and Trump tapped him to serve as campaign chairman in May of that year. He left in August 2016, but Gates, his business partner and protege, continued to play an important role with the campaign even after Manafort's departure. After the election Gates directed the inauguration plans, including fundraising, under Tom Barrack, Trump's close friend and adviser. FBI agents working for Mueller raided Manafort's home in Alexandria, Virginia, in late July, armed with a search warrant that allowed them to enter at dawn without warning the occupants. Such an invasive search is only allowed after prosecutors have convinced a federal judge that they have evidence of a crime and they have reasonable concern that key evidence could be destroyed or withheld. Prosecutors also warned Manafort they planned to indict him, according to two people familiar with the exchange. People close to Manafort and Gates, though, said the indictment came as a surprise to both. Though both men knew Mueller had been closely scrutinizing their behavior, they had expected some kind of alert when an indictment was imminent. Even over the weekend, they were telling people close to them that they had received no such notification and did not believe they were the subject of the seal charges. The tactic might suggest Mueller hoped to use the element of surprise against the two men to potentially stun them into a desire to cooperate against other members of Trump's team. Flynn's lawyer, Robert Kelner, said late Friday, "we are not commenting tonight." A person familiar with Flynn's defense said he, too, had received no notice of pending indictment. Wayne Holland, a McEnearney Associates real estate agent who helped Manafort buy the condo in Alexandria that was raided by the FBI this summer, testified Oct. 20 before the grand jury in Mueller's probe after he and his firm were unsuccessful in an effort to quash subpoenas, Holland said Friday. Holland declined to discuss his testimony, first reported by Politico, but confirmed that an opinion unsealed Friday denied his and his firm's motion to quash a subpoena by claiming real estate broker records are confidential under Virginia and District of Columbia laws. WASHINGTON An expected move to reduce how much Americans can contribute tax-free to 401(k) retirement plans already has people concerned about the impact on savings. While the numbers have come up recently, were still not doing a really good job as a nation of saving for retirement, said Edward Horwitz, an associate professor at Creighton Universitys Heider College of Business. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican and senior member of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, said 401(k) plans are an important part of encouraging people to plan and save for retirement, so he doesnt favor changes to them. However, he quickly noted that he could end up swallowing changes if they are necessary to get the broader tax package over the finish line. We have screwed up this tax code so bad over the last 30 years that its got to be simplified (and) we need tax cuts to grow the economy, Grassley said last week, noting that the final bill might include provisions he opposes. Weve got to have tax reform, and I cant fall on the sword for one issue. Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, plans to unveil details of a massive GOP tax measure this week. We want Americans to save more and save earlier, Brady said last Monday when asked about the prospects for 401(k) changes. We think pro-growth tax reform done right can achieve that. Brady had shrugged off statements hours earlier by President Donald Trump that the White House would oppose changing 401(k) rules. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, also suggested that presidential opposition wouldnt necessarily deter lawmakers. Trump himself had backed off some by midweek, suggesting that its all up for negotiation. Those who favor a change in 401(k) rules say it would be part of a package of tax measures that boost economic growth and would leave everyone better off, allowing them to put aside more money for retirement. Critics worry that the 401(k) proposal would sharply diminish a financial tool that boosts savings and helps people reduce their income taxes. While 401(k) plans do make it easier for people to put away money for retirement, the tax-exempt arrangement is particularly lucrative for upper-middle-class individuals who can easily afford to max out on their contributions every year. Most people make nowhere near the maximum contribution. Republicans have another incentive to make changes to the program: The government loses out on billions in tax revenues because of them. As Republicans seek to lower rates overall, their plans will add to the deficit unless they come up with offsets elsewhere, such as reducing the lost revenue on 401(k) contributions. The New York Times has cited congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that say tax exclusions for individual retirement contributions will cost the federal government $115 billion for the 2018 fiscal year. Among the proposals that have been floated are lowering the caps on how much workers can contribute to a traditional 401(k) plan. Those caps are now set at $18,000 a year, with those older than 50 allowed to kick in another $6,000 a year in catch-up money. One suggestion is to lower the caps to $2,400 around the median contribution being made to 401(k) plans a few years ago. Opponents say those numbers have risen since then, however, and that the whole idea of lowering caps runs contrary to the idea that Americans should be saving more. Creightons Horwitz, who specializes in financial planning and financial psychology, said a big problem with getting Americans to put money toward retirement is that they dont understand why its important. Talking about tax-advantaged investments and compounding interest sounds like a foreign language to a lot of Americans, he said, but he questioned why thats a rationale for dramatically lowering the limits on contributions. The fact that theyre not engaging in those retirement plans isnt a reason to take away an incentive to do so, Horwitz said. Another proposal would be to move from traditional 401(k) plans to Roth retirement accounts. Contributions to a Roth account are made with after-tax dollars, which means the government gets its share. The investment gains taken out in retirement, however, are tax-free. Some financial planners say people can be surprised by the taxes they end up paying when they make withdrawals from traditional 401(k) plans. A push for more contributions to Roth plans could end up benefiting those people. From a government standpoint, Alicia Munnell, director of the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, said in a statement that the Rothification of 401(k) plans essentially just borrows from the future by collecting taxes now that would otherwise be collected down the road. Thus, Munnell wrote, the proposal to switch from traditional to Roth 401(k)s is nothing more than a budget gimmick. Unfortunately, it is likely to have real-world consequences. Those real-world consequences are that some workers would likely overreact to the loss of the tax benefit upfront and reduce what theyre putting into retirement. Brian Graff, CEO of the American Retirement Association, issued a statement recently saying that any changes to retirement incentives must be aimed at promoting participation and encouraging savings rather than solely for the purpose of raising revenue for other tax objectives. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said they oppose the proposal. I think it is wise to encourage retirement savings and recommend against taxing contributions, Bacon said. Americans do not save enough and we should not make it harder to do so. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., however, wasnt ready to rule out a 401(k) change. Im keeping my powder dry on everything, Fischer said. I want to see how this all fits together. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., initially said he was with the president on the issue before acknowledging that Trumps position has been at least somewhat fluid. The Lincoln congressman said that he had yet to dig into the argument for changing the contribution limits but that it didnt seem to make sense at first glance. On the surface, to try to take away a savings vehicle that actually helps many people in the middle class is not smart policy or prudent politics, Fortenberry said. Rick Gates is a longtime protege of ex-Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort. Both were charged in a 12-count indictment Monday and accused of, among other things, acting for a decade as unregistered agents of the Ukrainian government. Gatess relationship with Manafort goes back decades, and theyve steadily worked together for more than 10 years. He followed Manafort overseas to work in Ukraine and later to the Trump campaign, where he was a senior aide in the future presidents inner circle. When Manaforts campaign role was reduced, Gates stayed with the campaign. Gates went on to run a pro-Trump group after the election. Gates, 45, first started as an intern three decades ago at Black, Manafort, Stone, Kelly an influential Washington lobbying firm in the 1980s. He started there the same year Manafort left, according to the New York Times. In 2006 he joined Manaforts consulting firm, Davis Manafort, working in Kiev, Ukraine. Rick was Pauls business guy, Tad Devine, a Democratic operative who worked with the firm for some time, told the Times last summer. Among the firms high-profile Eastern European clients was Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Moscow politician who they shaped as a reformer. Yanukovych fled from Ukraine during an early 2014 revolution and now lives in exile in Russia. Investigators have reportedly been looking at Manaforts overseas connections particularly investment funds and companies set up in Cyprus to receive payments. Gates worked with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, a Kremlin ally accused of having ties to organized crime, in 2008 on a botched deal with the Davis Manafort firm over communications firms in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported in September. Manafort later came under fire when it was revealed he offered Deripaska personal briefings while he ran the Trump campaign. Gates followed Manafort to the Trump campaign, where he rose quickly. After campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was ousted in favor of Manafort, Gates took on the No. 2 role. He worked in tandem with Manafort during the heated end of the primary season, as Trump secured the Republican nomination. Gates role in the campaign was apparently so prominent that Trump aide Kellyanne Conway referred to him as part of the campaigns core four, along with herself, Manafort and Stephen Bannon, according to the Washington Post. After Manafort resigned from the campaign, Gates stayed on for weeks. Gates went on to play a role in arranging President Trumps inauguration committee and was considered Manaforts man on the inside, CNN reported. He helped launch the America First Policies nonprofit after the election with five other Trump campaign aides. Gates was nudged out of the group in late March, after reports of Manaforts overseas dealings started to spill out. John Weaver, a Republican strategist, told the New York Times in July that the ongoing probe is the only reason Rick Gates isnt in the West Wing and why Paul Manafort doesnt have a thousand clients in Washington. Here are the charges and potential penalties against Paul Manfort and Rick Gates: COUNT ONE: Conspiracy against the United States Both men are charged with conspiring together and with others to knowingly and intentionally defraud and commit crimes against the United States between 2006 and 2007. If found guilty of this count, each potentially faces up to five years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines. COUNT TWO: Conspiracy to launder money Both men are charged with conspiring together and with others to transfer funds from outside the United States to and through places inside the country without properly disclosing the transactions or paying required federal taxes. Penalties for this count include up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of either $500,000 or twice the monetary value of the property involved in the transaction, whichever is greater. COUNTS THREE THROUGH SIX: Failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts The indictment alleges that for each calendar year between 2012 and 2015, Manafort failed to disclose to the U.S. Treasury Department that he had a financial interest in and authority over bank accounts in a foreign country involving more than $10,000. Penalties include up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the four counts and fines of up to $100,000, or up to 50 percent of the total value for the transactions, for each of the four years encompassed in the counts. COUNTS SEVEN THROUGH NINE: Failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts The indictment also alleges that between 2012 and 2014, Gates failed to disclose to the U.S. Treasury Department that he had a financial interest in and authority over bank accounts in a foreign country involving more than $10,000. Penalties include up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the four counts and fines of up to $100,000, or up to 50 percent of the total value for the transactions, for each of the four years encompassed in the counts. COUNT 10: Unregistered agent of a foreign principal Prosecutors allege that both men failed to register with the U.S. attorney general as foreign agents of the government of Ukraine, Victor Yanukovych and Yanukovychs pro-Russian Party of Regions between 2008 and 2014. (While serving as president of the former Soviet republic from 2010 to 2014, Yanukovych was closely aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin.) Penalties include up to five years in federal prison and up to $10,000 in fines. COUNT 11: False and misleading statements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act The indictment alleges that both men made multiple false statements to federal officials in relation to their failure to register as foreign agents of the Ukrainian government. Penalties include up to five years in federal prison and up to $10,000 in fines. COUNT 12: False statements Prosecutors allege that between November 2016 and February 2017 that Manafort and Gates conspired together and caused others to make false statements and conceal crimes against the United States. The penalty for this count is up to five years in prison. WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump is expressing renewed frustration over the investigations into alleged ties between his campaign associates and Russian government officials. He said on Twitter on Sunday that the facts are pouring out about links to Russia by his former presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trumps tweets followed a CNN report late Friday that a federal grand jury in Washington has approved the first charges in a criminal investigation into Russia ties led by special counsel Robert Mueller. The Associated Press has not confirmed the CNN report. Ty Cobb, a member of Trumps legal team, said the president was not referring to CNNs reporting. Copyright 2017, the Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. WASHINGTON Omaha attorney Steve Grasz faces a rockier road to the federal bench after the American Bar Association on Monday deemed him not qualified and questioned his ability to set aside ideological convictions to decide cases fairly. That assessment was based in part on evaluating Graszs writings, as well as more than 200 interviews with people in a position to evaluate his professional qualifications, according to a statement by the bar association. Many questioned whether Mr. Grasz would be able to detach himself from his deeply held social agenda and political loyalty to be able to judge objectively, with compassion and without bias, according to the statement by Pam Bresnahan, chairwoman of the American Bar Associations Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary. President Donald Trump nominated Grasz to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after he was recommended for the seat by both of Nebraskas U.S. senators. Nominees to the powerful appellate courts typically receive intense scrutiny from lawmakers, but the ABA report will make it that much tougher for Grasz when he appears Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Now a senior counsel at Husch Blackwell LLP in Omaha, Grasz has been politically active over the years and previously served as Nebraskas chief deputy attorney general. He has served as legal counsel to the campaigns of Gov. Pete Ricketts, Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert and Nebraskans for the Death Penalty. Grasz did not respond to a request for comment. His supporters, however, defended his integrity and ability to serve as a judge. And they slammed the bar association as a liberally biased organization out to besmirch a good mans name for political purposes. The ABA standing committee that reviews judicial nominations backed the not qualified rating unanimously with one abstention. Only two judicial nominees have received unanimous not qualified ratings since 1989, said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law who specializes in federal judicial selection. Its very rare, Tobias said, adding that those two other individuals were not confirmed. The ABA noted that to date only one other nominee by President Trump has received a not qualified rating that one was not unanimous and that 41 have received ratings of qualified or well qualified. Both of Nebraskas Republican senators provided statements standing by Grasz. Its sad that the ABA would contort their ratings process to try to tarnish Steves professional reputation in order to drive a political agenda, said Sen. Ben Sasse, a member of the Judiciary Committee. In more than a decade as chief deputy attorney general, whether he was litigating cases before the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington or the Nebraska Supreme Court in Lincoln, Republicans and Democrats alike knew that Steve represented Nebraska with integrity and professionalism. Sen. Deb Fischer said in a statement that Grasz is in good standing with the Nebraska State Bar Association and was selected as a fellow by the Nebraska State Bar Foundation. Steve Grasz is highly respected by a bipartisan group of Nebraskans, Fischer said. For many years, Steve has earned the very highest peer rating available as a lawyer. In its statement, the ABA defended its process as nonpartisan, thorough and fair. It laid out concerns raised by a number of those interviewed that he would be biased. Some related instances when Grasz was gratuitously rude and said they were worried about potential retaliation. Those worries came up in follow-up interviews by a second evaluator. Mr. Laurence Pulgrams evaluation encountered a similar and unusual fear of adverse consequences expressed by those from whom interviews were solicited, of all political parties, based on the nominees deep connection and allegiance to the most powerful politicians in his state, according to the ABA statement. The ABA also specifically cited Graszs pro-life agenda as clouding his objectivity. The association characterized a 1999 law review article he wrote on abortion as supporting the idea that lower courts could question the jurisprudence of superior courts. This instance was not the only one in which Mr. Graszs passionately held social agenda appeared to overwhelm and obscure the ability to exercise dispassionate and unbiased judgment, according to the statement. Graszs defenders said the ABA evaluation shows that the organization has a liberal viewpoint, and they cited support Grasz has received from Democrats, including a letter from former U.S. Attorney for Nebraska Deborah Gilg. One Nebraska Republican colleague, former U.S. Rep. Hal Daub, said he was not surprised by the ABA evaluation; he said the bar association representatives who interviewed him were clearly liberals out for blood. Daub said any objective assessment of Grasz shows that hes highly qualified to serve on the bench. He is ideologically quite clear and quite studied and quite learned in his views of the law, and that probably scares those liberals to death, Daub said. Because hes a constitutionalist and hes an interpreter of the law as its written. Tobias, the Richmond law professor, said the 15-member ABA standing committee represents well-respected attorneys from circuits across the country. It doesnt seem like all of them would be politically motivated, Tobias said. Will wonders never cease? Jay Ambroses More Commentary in Fridays World-Herald, U.S. recovering from Obama, is one of the first media articles I have read that told the truth about the disaster President Barack Obama was to our nation. Maybe the liberal progressives attempt to destroy our nation with communism and/or socialism will die its needed death. Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were charged in a 12-count indictment sought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. They are accused of acting for a decade as unregistered agents of the Ukrainian government, hiding tens of millions of dollars in income for that work from the U.S. government, and laundering the proceeds through scores of corporations, partnerships and bank accounts in the U.S. and abroad. Here are highlights from the indictment unsealed Monday: Both men hid their work for the former Ukrainian President Victor Yanukovych, his Party of Regions and the Ukrainian government from 2006 through at least 2016, according to the indictment. Manafort alone laundered more than $18 million to finance what the indictment called his lavish lifestyle, which included millions of dollars in real estate, luxury cars, antiques, clothing, landscaping services and home improvements. He also defrauded banks that loaned him money, prosecutors said, and failed to file reports to the Treasury Department declaring ownership of foreign bank accounts. After news reports surfaced in August 2016 about Manaforts work in Ukraine, he and Gates developed a false and misleading cover story to distance themselves from their activities, the indictment said. This included false and misleading letters in November 2016 and February 2017 to the Justice Department, which was trying to determine whether they had acted as foreign principals under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Prosecutors charged them with false statements for those two letters. They lobbied members of Congress and worked with two other Washington lobbying firms, identified in the indictment only as Company A and Company B, according to the indictment. Manafort and Gates directed the work of those firms on Ukraine and paid them more than $2 million from the offshore accounts, it said. To hide their assets, the men controlled dozens of business entities in Cyprus, Grenadines and the U.K. that masked their ownership, the indictment said. They also owned U.S. entities in Delaware, Virginia and Florida. Prosecutors seek the forfeiture of four Manafort properties, including a Brooklyn brownstone, a Lower Manhattan condominium, and homes in Arlington, Virginia, and eastern Long Island. OK! Magazine 16 Nov 2022 Former POTUS Donald Trump revealed that he is vying for the White House yet again, unveiling his 2024 presidential campaign. 2008-2022 One News Page Ltd. All rights reserved. One News is a registered trademark of One News Page Ltd. Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia: South-Africa based investment management firm Fairtree Capital has launched the Fairtree Protea Global Equity Long Short IDS Retail Hedge Fund. The fund, to be managed by Jean Pierre Verster, is Fairtree's third hedge fund in its Protea range of funds. The new fund follows a long/short investment strategy across global developed equity markets, picking equities by implementing a proprietary 'quantamental' investment process, which combines traditional fundamental analysis with quantitative investment techniques. This approach assists in avoiding behavioral biases and systematically identifies individual mispriced securities whilst ensuring sufficient diversification to guard against inappropriate risk concentration. Vester said in a statement, "We are excited about offering the opportunity to South African investors to invest in a global long/short hedge fund, via a FSB-regulated structure, with a low minimum investment threshold and no foreign exchange restrictions. In close collaboration with our service providers at SANNE and our prime brokers at Barclays Capital in London, we have been able to domicile this fund in South Africa while investing both long and short across global developed equity markets in North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia". This fund is now open to both retail and in...................... To view our full article Click here Opalesque Industry Update - The Association of the Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) announces that assets under management of Luxembourg domiciled funds reached EUR 4 037.14 billion (EUR 4.037 trillion) as at 30 September 2017. This represents a 7.9% increase since the beginning of this year and is mainly due to net sales. Denise Voss, Chairman of ALFI, explains: "This increase in AUM clearly demonstrates the confidence that asset managers, fund distributors and investors have in our fund centre." She continues: "Luxembourg is the second largest fund domicile after the US. The growth of assets under management has been quite spectacular with the increase from 3 to 4 trillion taking merely 3 years. Luxembourg funds are now distributed in over 70 countries around the world and we now have 4 110 funds domiciled in Luxembourg." 'Not only have we experienced growth of traditional UCITS funds domiciled in Luxembourg, we have also seen an increase in the AUM of alternative investment funds, especially in the areas of private equity and real estate." As well as undertaking an ambitious schedule of roadshows, in Europe, Asia, Australia, the USA and Latin America, ALFI has this year instigated a number of new initiatives to help drive this growth. In Singapore, ALFI set up a working group to promote increased collaboration and closer relationships between the two fund centres. In Australia, ALFI negotiated an exemption, for financial services providers regulated by the CSSF, from the obligation to hold an Australian license to provide financial services, enabling Australia's institutional investors, including superannuation funds, to get easier access to Luxembourg UCITS. Ms Voss concludes: "This increase in assets under management is good news for Luxembourg but also good news for the UCITS and AIF brands, and the European fund and asset management industry as a whole. It clearly shows that people recognise the growing importance of investment funds in providing for their financial future." U.S. officials have unveiled prototypes of President Donald Trump's proposed border wall between Mexico and the United States. Eight prototypes were unveiled Thursday near the border in California and now will enter the "testing and evaluation period." Workers wielding sledgehammers, torches, pickaxes and battery-operated tools will test the segments for 30-60 days. The tests will begin after about a month because some of the concrete needs to dry and cure. Oregon is in the final stages of a national search for a leader to head its teacher licensing agency, the chairwoman of the agency's board said last week. The Teacher Standards and Practices Commission, which approves teacher preparation programs, disciplines bad teachers and decides who is qualified to teach in Oregon, has been without a permanent director since Monica Beane stepped down in late August after 13 months on the job. Monica Beane Beane said in her July 10 letter informing her bosses she planned to depart that she left because she got a more flexible job with the Educational Testing Service with a "work schedule that is not tied to the legislative calendar." Before coming to Oregon, she ran West Virginia's teacher licensing department for three years and worked in other roles at the West Virginia Department of Education for six years before that. Beane's letter indicated that her work running the Oregon licensing agency did not always go smoothly. She wrote that the experience was "challenging, yet rewarding" and that as a result of her time there, she became "a more humble government employee." It's not surprising Beane encountered challenges, as the agency has acknowledged long wait times and other problems. A 2016 state audit noted the agency struggled with "substantial" delays despite improvements and suffered from strained relations between some employees. This was of acute concern when it came to investigations into educator misconduct. "Delays and high caseloads can weaken evidence and increase the risk of educator misconduct continuing," the audit said. A statement sent to people interested in the agency's work, but apparently not to the press, this summer quoted Beane as saying, "While my honest intentions were to remain in this position for at least five years, I have come to recognize that it is not what is best for me." Beane was only the fourth director in the agency's history. The two deputy directors, Trent Danowski and Elizabeth Keller, are in charge until a successor is found. Heidi Sipe, who chairs the commission that runs Oregon's teacher licensing agency, said via email Oct. 23 that Beane did not stick with the job long enough for the commission to conduct a formal performance evaluation. But Sipe wrote that, "the commission was pleased with her performance and appreciates all she did for the agency. Her decision (to resign) was personal and we wish her the best" at the national testing company she now works for. Betsy Hammond contributed to this report. Bethany Barnes Email Bethany: bbarnes@oregonian.com SALEM, Ore. (AP) Americans will pay more for pre-cut Christmas trees this year as shortages deepen from the country's top two producers, Oregon and North Carolina. Joe Territo sells Oregon trees in San Jose, California. But he's becoming increasingly frustrated with rising costs, from the trees to labor. Territo says the only figure going down is profit. "It seems like every year, it's harder and harder," Territo said. He expects to sell 6-foot Noble firs for about $75 a piece this season, up from about $69 last year. The problem is one of supply. Christmas tree growers are coming up short as their 2017 harvest enters its critical period, with trees being shipped coast-to-coast and abroad. Around the time of the Great Recession, growers had an oversupply of trees after planting too many in the early 2000s. Subsequent low prices forced many farmers out of the Christmas tree business, leaving other growers to tend to the market. But now, with only so many trees to go around, remaining farmers can't keep up with demand and they might not catch up for years. It can take nine years before some trees are ready to be cut and sold. Oregon farms harvest the most trees in the United States, exporting them to places like Asia and California. Trees from North Carolina are generally shipped to states east of the Mississippi River, such as Florida. Casey Grogan is a manager at Silver Bells Tree Farm, a few hundred acres outside Oregon's capital city, Salem. He reckons the farm has received 20 times its normal number of customer inquiries. "We just have enough to supply the customers we've been supplying, so we're not able to help them," Grogan said. But Grogan is optimistic for fellow Oregonians who should be able to find fresh fir trees. And there are many u-cut tree farms. "The people that are really gonna suffer from this, I think, are going to be people in Southern California, Arizona, Texas, places like that," he said. Tim O'Connor, executive director of the National Christmas Tree Association, denies a shortage, but acknowledges, "Supply is tight." "Everyone who wants a tree will be able to get one," O'Connor said. Christmas tree farmers aren't so confident. "Right now, there's a tree shortage. It's been coming down the line for the last eight or 10 years, or so," said Jason Hupp, who helps manage Hupp Farms near Silver Falls State Park in Oregon. "So our biggest challenges are having enough trees to supply customers and just getting phone calls after phone calls after phone calls of people desperate for trees that don't exist," he said. One recent morning, a helicopter piloted by Terry Harchenko swooped over Hupp Farms, snatching up bundles of trees after Raul Sosa, a lone worker clad in high-visibility orange, connected them to a hook on the chopper's dangling line. It's dangerous work the hook could swing and strike Sosa but worker and pilot worked gracefully in concert. "It's like air ballet. It's crazy," Hupp said beforehand. The helicopter dropped the heavy trees in a nearby lot, where other workers pulled away ropes holding them together. Many Hupp Farms trees will head down south to California. Wholesale growers estimate they're raising prices at least 10 percent year-over-year. Growers don't expect normal harvest levels for Christmas trees to return until at least 2021 or 2025. Like Hupp Farms in Oregon, Barr Evergreens in North Carolina can fulfill wholesale orders for its existing customers but has to turn away new ones, said owner Rusty Barr. Barr expects to raise prices $2 to $3 for pre-cut Fraser fir trees at his retail outfit. That's on top of the $60 to $80 they've sold for in the past, depending on size. North Carolina harvested an estimated 3.5 million trees in 2016, according to the Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association. The state was followed by Michigan (3 million), Pennsylvania (2.3 million) and Washington (1.5 million). By contrast, Oregon cut down approximately 5.2 million trees. For Oregon growers, popular Noble firs are especially lucrative but they only grow so fast, often spending nine years in the ground to grow to 6 feet in the Pacific Northwest. "That's the Cadillac of the industry," said Bob Schaefer, general manager of Noble Mountain Tree Farm. The Salem, Oregon, area wholesaler is massive, usually harvesting about half a million trees a year from the more than 4,000 acres the company grows on in the Willamette Valley. One of the factors driving the shortage was a practically nonexistent crop of Noble fir cones for 15 years, with a good crop finally returning in 2016, Schaefer said. Without cones, there're no seedlings and no trees. Limited supplies of the Noble fir seedlings led Noble Mountain to fill production holes with Douglas firs, assuming customers would still want a Christmas tree of some sort. But some buyers aren't eager to branch out. "There's a lot of pent-up demand for Noble fir that, you know, probably, to some extent, won't be met this year," Schaefer said. He expects Noble fir harvest levels to return to normal in 2025 or 2026. California is Noble Mountain's biggest customer, but the company sends trees elsewhere in the U.S., and even down to Mexico, where the market is hot for its abundance of Douglas firs. "This year, we're shipping more to Mexico than we've ever shipped before," Schaefer said. Even as shortages affect the Pacific Northwest, competitors in North Carolina don't keep Schaefer up at night. For starters, cross-country freight prices tend to keep the competition at bay. "I won't say it's prohibitive, but it pretty much prices their product out of the realm of reason for the consumer in most cases," he said. Barr, the North Carolina wholesaler, agrees. With freight costs, "it's getting pricey to go to Denver," he said. There's also a rule of thumb among Christmas tree farmers: West Coast trees remain west of the Mississippi, and East Coast trees stay east of the river. Scattered exceptions crop up, such as when wholesalers compete for Lone Star State customers. "We kind of bash heads in Texas," Schaefer said. Shortages and rising prices are fueling concerns among growers that customers will turn to artificial trees, whose shelf lives long outlast those of their natural competitors. Oregon growers sold 4.7 million real trees in 2015, falling more than a quarter from sales five years earlier, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. Artificial trees accounted for nearly 81 million of Christmas trees displayed in the U.S. in 2016, while nearly 19 million were real, according to estimates from the nonprofit American Christmas Tree Association. With a dramatic shortage that's not expected to reverse for another six or eight years if not longer Hupp, in Oregon, is worried customers will buy artificial because they can't find the real thing. "Their families will get used to that being the norm," he said. -- Salem Statesman Journal A left-leaning Oregon think tank has hired former Democratic state Rep. Jefferson Smith as its new executive director. The Oregon Center for Public Policy announced Monday that its board picked Smith, a radio station host and executive director and founder of the Oregon Bus Project, for the job. He'll succeed Chuck Sheketoff, the center's founder and inaugural director, who will step down in January. The decision was reached only after a fit of disagreement between board members over whether to hire Smith or Steve Novick, a former Portland city councilor, according to Willamette Week. The weekly reported in August that many of the unions that help fund the center strongly favored Novick. Former Gov. Ted Kulongoski and attorney Thane Tienson quit the board during the show-down when it appeared Smith would be the choice. Board chairman Will Neuhauser did not immediately return a request for comment Monday. In a phone interview, Smith said he understands that any person who would succeed Sheketoff would be a "poor replacement" in many ways. "I certainly recognize that I have to prove myself," Smith said. The Oregon Center for Public Policy lobbies in favor of progressive tax policies, higher corporate taxes and public benefits for needy Oregonians. It operates on a budget of roughly half a million dollars a year, federal tax filings show. It does not have to disclose its donors, but labor unions are known to support its work. Smith, 44, has extensive political experience in Oregon. In 2001 he founded the Oregon Bus Project, which promotes voter registration and voting among young people. He served in the Oregon House for two terms, until 2012, when he ran unsuccessfully for Portland mayor. Smith lost to Charlie Hales after revelations that Smith had punched a woman while in college. Smith also acknowledged that his driver's license had been suspended seven times. Since then, he's been founder and executive director of XRAY.FM, a left-leaning non-profit radio station based in Portland. Smith said he hopes to continue providing content for the station, but will step down from his role as its executive director. Smith said he's been a "public policy nerd" since high school and is looking forward to leading a team of researchers. He said his goal is to "build better answers" for the problems facing Oregonians. -- Gordon R. Friedman 503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedman State Rep. David Gomberg said in a newsletter released Sunday that he is sorry for offending two women who years ago accused him of violating their personal boundaries and that he is humiliated the news went public. As The Oregonian/OregonLive first reported Friday, House Speaker Tina Kotek and Majority Leader Jennifer Williamson acknowledged in a joint interview that they had fielded complaints of harassment against male lawmakers, lobbyists and staffers. Later that day, Kotek released a statement saying she received complaints from two women about Gomberg and that the situation was resolved to the satisfaction of the complainants. Gomberg told The Oregonian/OregonLive the complaints against him involved "inappropriate humor or inappropriate touching," invasion of "personal space" and hugging. His Sunday statement provided additional details and was heavily contrite. "I come from a family, a business environment, and in fact, a generation where hugging is normal and generally appreciated. But different people, different cultures, and different age groups have different standards," he wrote. "I hope we will all be better off" due to increased sensitivity in our current culture. Revelations about Gomberg's conduct followed news that three female state senators have complained to legislative legal and human resources staff about inappropriate touching by Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg. Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Corvallis, filed a complaint in 2016, which resulted in Kruse being admonished to not touch women at the Capitol. In an interview last week, Gelser told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Kruse did not stop. She filed another complaint in 2017, as did an unnamed female senator. Former Portland Sen. Jackie Dingfelder also told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Kruse inappropriately touched her years ago during a committee meeting, but backed off after Dingfelder told him he crossed the line. Kruse has publicly denied inappropriate contact. Senate President Peter Courtney stripped him of his committee assignments Oct. 20, hobbling his ability to shape legislation, citing as reasons Kruse's repeated unwanted contact with women in the Capitol and his habit of smoking in the building. Courtney also had Kruse's office door removed. Gomberg is a Democrat who has represented much of the central Oregon coast since 2013. Here is his full statement: Dear Friends and Neighbors, Our Capitol is reeling this week with reports and rumors of sexual harassment, unwelcome touching, and workplace discomfort. Complaints have been reported within the Senate, the House, and among lobbyists. These are important issues and need to be addressed in a serious way. None of us are immune and I wanted to explain, in some detail, my own involvement. A story was published by The Oregonian/Oregonlive.com on Friday, reporting that I had improperly touched or otherwise offended two women in the Capitol. When I make mistakes, and I do from time to time, it is my nature to offer apologies and not excuses. To those in our legislative community--and maybe here at home--whom I have offended or made the least bit uncomfortable, I am fully and sincerely sorry. The elected leader of the House, Speaker Tina Kotek, made me aware on two occasions that my behavior made others uncomfortable. These incidents took place in 2013, and in 2015. I do not know the names or the details of these informal, confidential complaints except that they involved either "inappropriate humor" or "inappropriate touching." I understand the touching was not perceived as sexual but rather involved "personal space." The reason I was not told more is to protect the privacy of these women. I understand and respect that decision, although I would very much prefer to know more detail. I would like to know who, where, or at least how I hurt someone so I can better address the specific problem and apologize directly. Again, these incidents occurred several years ago. I come from a family, a business environment, and in fact, a generation where hugging is normal and generally appreciated. But different people, different cultures, and different age groups have different standards. Etiquette changes over time. This new era of people coming forward is bringing a better awareness of how actions that were intended innocently may be understood as having an uncomfortable, or unwelcome impact. I hope we will all be better off because of this increased sensitivity. My actions have always been motivated by openness, respect, and friendliness. After I spoke with the Speaker, I took serious and immediate steps to understand and adjust my behavior. Those steps included personal counseling. I believe everyone is entitled to a workplace free of discomfort and harassment. I have worked my entire adult life to promote respect, acceptance, and opportunity for all Oregonians. You should expect the highest model of behavior from your elected officials and I have worked hard to attain and maintain that standard. The Speaker has reported that these two incidents were resolved to the satisfaction of the women making the complaints. I'm certainly sorry I offended two women. I'm humiliated to have this news become public. And I particularly regret how such circumstances affect my wonderful wife, Susan. But in the end, the system worked as it should. Someone raised a concern; that concern was addressed. I hope and believe I am a better person, and a better legislator now because of it. Most sincerely, David Gomberg 503-221-8209; @GordonRFriedman Nestle Waters' plan to bottle water from a spring near Cascade Locks appears to be dead, after Gov. Kate Brown directed state officials to stop an exchange of water rights that was crucial to the deal. In a letter to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife on Friday, the governor asked the department's director to stop the exchange for fiscal rather than environmental reasons. The agency will comply with the governor's request, spokeswoman Michelle Dennehy said on Monday. Brown did not say how much it cost state agencies, including the Oregon Water Resources Department, to work on the water rights exchange. But she said it would require "significant staff resources and legal costs" going forward. "This is of particular concern given the uncertainty around the city's plans for a Nestle plant," Brown wrote, referring to a local ban on such plants. Voters in Hood River County passed a measure in May 2016 to ban large water bottling operations. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife holds water rights to Oxbow Springs, which it uses to supply a salmon hatchery. Two months after Brown took office in 2015, the state agreed to a deal to transfer those rights to Nestle Waters in exchange for the city of Cascade Locks' well water rights. The governor's decision on Friday leaves Cascade Locks with the option to use city water for the Nestle bottling plant. Nestle has been trying to nearly a decade to gain approval to bottle water from Oxbow Springs, on a hillside just outside Cascade Locks. The company would build a bottling plant at Cascade Locks' port and bottle 100 million gallons of the water annually under the Arrowhead brand, The Oregonian/OregonLive has reported. On Monday, the national group that opposed the plant, Food & Water Watch, claimed victory. "Gov. Brown's decision to back out of this wrongheaded deal is a hard-won victory for the communities in Hood River County that have waged a nine-year battle to keep Nestle from seizing their water," the group's executive director Wenonah Hauter said in a press release. The plant would have brought jobs and additional tax revenue to Cascade Locks, and Brown acknowledged in her letter that the city needs an economic boost. Brown wrote that she directed staff in her office and at the state's economic development agency to work with the city "to redouble efforts to address key economic development needs, more important than ever in the wake of the devastating Eagle Creek fire." In a statement on Monday, Nestle Waters said the company learned from Cascade Locks officials that the water rights exchange "will not be going forward. We are grateful to the residents, elected officials, neighborhood business owners and leaders who welcomed us to Cascade Locks, and who have supported our interest in bringing good paying jobs to the community." -- Hillary Borrud 503-294-4034; @hborrud When she returned from spending two weeks in Puerto Rico, Misty Richards was grateful to sleep in a real bed again. She was happy to see her husband, her cat and dog. But, she was still thinking about the devastation she'd seen on the island. "What people have been through is just heartbreaking," she said. "This is going to affect them for generations to come." Richards, a nurse from Oregon City, got back from Puerto Rico on Oct. 18. She and five other Portland-area nurses and nurse practitioners volunteered to provide aid efforts to the island. Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria on Sept. 20, leaving many of the approximately 3.4 million U.S. citizens living in the territory without adequate food, water and fuel. Many are still without electricity and phone service. Richards' group was part of a larger delegation of more than 300 union medical professionals, first responders, skilled trades workers, and truck drivers organized by the labor union group American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. Richards' group boarded planes to Puerto Rico on Oct. 6 after the labor union issued a call for help. The delegation of nurses is one of several local aid efforts for Puerto Rico in recent weeks. Mercy Corps, a Portland-based non-profit, also sent a team of volunteers to the island in early October. Christy Delafield was one of those volunteers. During the time she was there, she saw entire neighborhoods that were completely leveled, she said. All wooden structures were destroyed and homes were flooded with contaminated water. "I don't think people understand how bad it is," she said. She was frustrated by what she said was a slow response by federal aid workers. Many people she met had yet to encounter federal aid workers when she was on the island, about two weeks after the storm, she said. "They were helping each other as a community, but not seeing any outside help coming in," she said. Richards also noted the lack of aid for many Puerto Ricans. In areas outside the city of San Juan, she saw few federal aid workers, she said. "The amount of support on the ground is nowhere near sufficient to match the severity of the disaster," Richards said. Critics have said that Federal Emergency Management Agency's response to Hurricane Maria has been inadequate. That left nurses in Richards' group to provide help with few resources, Richards said. They went into communities to assess the most pressing needs. Sometimes, that meant clearing roads or fixing roofs. Often, the most pressing concern was the lack of clean water. Nurses worked to teach people how to clean water for washing and drinking, which could help stop the spread of disease, Richards said. Waterborne illnesses have spread in Puerto Rico in the wake of the hurricane. Dozens of cases of leptospirosis, an illness spread by contaminated water, are suspected. Nurses also spent thousands of dollars of their own money to buy supplies for communities, Richards said. They often made lists of what a town needed and then would bring back water, food and other supplies after a trip to a store in San Juan, where they were stationed. The lack of support made Richards angry, she said. But she is proud of the nurses and other union members who went to Puerto Rico to do what they could to help, she said. The island will need aid for a long time to come, Delafield said. "Puerto Ricans are strong and resilient. We need to stand with them right now," Delafield said. "This is a long road to recovery." --Samantha Matsumoto The political landscape of Iceland has changed, according to preliminary results from Saturday's election. The Independence Party, which has won almost every election since independence from Denmark in 1944, is losing its center-right grip thanks to two scandals. Stepping in to that void are left-leaning parties. Part of the current ruling coalition, the Independence Party, won 26 percent of the vote, down 3 percentage points from last year. The main opposition Left Green Movement came in second with 17 percent of the vote. The newly formed Center Party of former Prime Minister David Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson was third with 11 percent of the ballots. Gunnlaugsson was forced out of office last year when his name was found in the Panama Papers scandal that exposed worldwide tax evasion networks. Leading Chinese geologists last month warned their visiting North Korean counterparts of a potentially catastrophic collapse of a mountain on top of North Korea's nuclear test sites, the South China Morning Post reported Friday. North Korean geologists were in China for a 10-day visit. "Future tests at the facility could blow the top off the mountain, causing a massive collapse... Radioactive waste could bleed from cracks or holes at the site and be blown across the border," the daily quoted a senior Chinese nuclear scientist from the Chinese Academy of Sciences as warning. "The fallout can spread to an entire hemisphere." The North conducted its second through sixth nuclear tests under Mt. Mantap in Pygunggye-ri, 80 km from the North Korea-China border. According to the daily, the geologists met on Sept. 20, 17 days after the test. Zhai Mingguo, a senior Chinese geologist who helped organize the meeting, told the daily that "North Korea's nuclear tests topped the concerns for the Chinese government." He declined to say more about their discussion "because it involved 'diplomatic affairs,'" the paper said. Two days later, on Sept. 22, "North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho announced suddenly at the United Nations in New York that Pyongyang might consider detonating a 'most powerful' hydrogen bomb over the Pacific Ocean," the daily wrote. That may have been prompted by concerns that another underground test could be disastrous. Lee Dong-gook of Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors scored an unprecedented 200th K-League goal in a match against Jeju United in Jeonju, North Jelloa Province on Sunday. Lee's wife and four children were among a crowd of over 17,000 spectators who erupted in celebration when he scored with a header in the 78th minute. Lee ran into the stands and took his jersey off to celebrate. Lee debuted in 1998 with Pohang Steelers before moving in 2009 to Jeonbuk, with whom he has scored 136 goals. We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription. Seoul and Washington have agreed in principle on the speedy transfer of wartime operational control of South Korean troops to Seoul, but U.S. officials are reportedly reluctant to expedite the process. Washington still worries about ceding control amid mounting threats from North Korea, according to U.S. media. The Wall Street Journal last Thursday said, "The issue creates a potential fault line between the two allies." It quoted a U.S. official as saying "nobody" would like to hand over the wartime command in such a tense situation, and the Pentagon wants to avoid discussion about the issue while there are many other urgent matters. A diplomatic source said the atmosphere around the early transfer of wartime command is negative. Daniel Pinkston at the International Crisis Group said the current, U.S.-led command structure would be better at preventing minor skirmishes from developing into a large-scale conflict. TOWANDA A new rustic, country venue available to rent for special events will open southeast of Towanda next month. The Old Rugged Barn will host a grand opening event from 1-7 p.m. Nov. 11 at 18808 N. 2000 East Road in Towanda. The event will include vendors, pictures with Santa, food and drink, and performances from Sugar Creek Cloggers and the Central Illinois Banjo Club. Visitors can join tours of the barn, grounds and several barn quilt paintings on the property. The event is free but donations will be accepted. A coupon matching the donation amount will be applied to any event booked through 2018. After significant renovations since 2010, the main area in the red barn is 2,400 square feet with a loft of 1,100 square feet. It includes two restrooms. The facility is available to rent for weddings, receptions, reunions, festivals, photo sessions, concerts and other celebrations. Jo Morrison, owner of the venue, said in a news release that the barn was built around 1920 on more than three acres of land. McLean County Barn Keepers awarded the property with a Centennial Barn designation. She said the barn was named for her mothers favorite hymn, The Old Rugged Cross. Visitors to the grand opening are encouraged to wear appropriate shoes and dress for the weather. Leashed dogs are welcome. Veterans Day is Nov. 11. A ceremony will be on the east lawn of the McLean County Museum of History, 200 N. Main St., beginning at 11 minutes before 11 a.m. This years ceremony, along with activities at the McLean County Historical Society, Illinois State University and elsewhere mark the 100th anniversary of Americas entry into World War I. Special recognition is planned commemorating the anniversary. The ceremony will commence with the firing of one rifle shot each minute beginning at 11 minutes to 11 a.m. with introductions and speakers beginning at 11. A rifle volley and Taps will close the ceremony. Events McLean County Veterans Assistance Commission Chairman Mike Herrin and Superintendent Jerry Vogler will host a veterans' information workshop Nov. 9 at the Activity and Recreation Center, 600 W. Willow St., Normal. The one-hour session begins at 11 a.m. and includes the history of the VAC and information about the wide variety of VAC services. A question and answer period will follow. VA outreach A veterans town hall meeting will be 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 17 at Pekin VFW Post 1232, 15665 VFW Road. Leadership from VA Illiana will be on hand. Historic tour A free public tour of the VA Illiana Health Care Systems Danville Campus will be 1 to 3 p.m. Nov. 1. Guests will board a shuttle in front of Building 98 at 1 p.m. Call 217-554-3708 or email todd.oliver2@va.gov. Dont forget Many businesses and restaurants offer discounts for veterans on purchases or meals at many restaurants on Veterans Day. Update Starting in November, veterans can register for new ID cards that prove their military history. Only veterans with honorable service will be eligible. Veterans whose discharges are upgraded to honorable will be eligible. The new card does not make the veteran eligible for any new VA benefits. History project The Secretary of State of Illinois and Library of Congress Veterans History Project is recording the names and stories of Illinois war veterans and civilians who served during wartime. In addition to U.S. veterans, U.S. civilians actively involved in war efforts (industry workers, USO workers, flight instructors, medical volunteers, etc.) are eligible. To share your story or for additional information, contact Sue Burkholder at 217-785-1537 or email sburkholder@ilsos.net. More information can be found at www.cyberdriveillinois.com. 100 years ago Oct. 30, 1917: F.M. Moss is an old man so his case is kind of pitiful. Hes in jail here for running a confidence game involving worthless checks. Now Decatur authorities want him for the same thing. And Mount Pulaskis police chief is here with several warrants: they want him, too. 75 years ago Oct. 30, 1942: At last: the school board designated three buildings as Washington, Bent and Lincoln Junior High. (Irving School was the actual building used on the south side. The three junior highs would continue until they were combined into BJHS in 1959.) 50 years ago Oct. 30, 1967: Fire damaged the Bedinger house at 201 S. Main, Normal. Its vacant, boarded up, and has been on fire before. IWU and Eureka College own it together: the last owner left it to both schools in her will. It was a mess, and IWU has been ordered to clean it up. 25 years ago Oct. 30, 1992: Today Diamond-Star Motors (later Mitsubishi) celebrated production of its 500,000th car off the assembly line. And, its president said the car maker made a small profit, somewhere between a few and several million dollars in profits in 1991. Star Trek: Discovery's Anthony Rapp told BuzzFeed News yesterday that in 1986, Kevin Spacey invited the then underage actor to a party at his house, culminating in Spacey physically carrying Rapp to bed and trying to have sex with him. Spacey would have been 26 at the time; Rapp was 14. "My stomach churns," Rapp says of the incident. "I still to this day can't wrap my head around so many aspects of it. It's just deeply confusing to me." Rapp said Spacey befriended him when he was in Precious Sons with Ed Harris, as Spacey was also starring on Broadway at the time in the revival of Long Day's Journey Into Night with Jack Lemmon. Rapp and Spacey reportedly met at a wrap party attended by multiple shows' casts, and Rapp that after going out with the actor and his friends, Spacey invited him to a party at his home. Rapp says that as the youngest person (and only child) at the party, he got bored and turned on the TV, not realizing that everyone had left until Spacey came to him "drunk" and picked him up and carried him to bed. "He was trying to seduce me," Rapp says. "I don't know if I would have used that language. But I was away that he was trying to get with me sexually." Rapp says he managed to "squirm" free from under Spacey and after pulling himself together in the bathroom, told him he was leaving. "He followed me to the front door of the apartment, and as I opened the door to leave, he was leaning on the front door[frame]. And he was like, 'Are you sure you wanna go?,'" Rapp recalls. "'I said, 'Yes, good night,' and then I did leave." "The older I get, and the more I know, I feel very fortunate that something worse didn't happen," Rapp says of the experience. "And at the same time, the older I get, the more I can't believe it. I could never imagine [that] anyone else I know would do something like that to a 14-year-old boy." Rapp says he saw Spacey again when the House of Cards actor visited the set of the 1993 film Six Degrees of Separation. Seeing Spacey made Rapp feel panicked. "It started to occur to me: What am I supposed to do if I ever work with him?" Rapp says. The pair also saw each other at the 1999 Tonys. "Does he have any recollection? Is there any feeling about what happened?," Rapp wondered at the time. "Does he regret it?" Rapp says he met with a lawyer at one point to discuss the encounter, but he was told "there was no case worth pursuing." He told several friends about the incident, and also told the story in a 2001 Advocate interview in which Spacey's name was taken out. Rapp says the on-going Harvey Weinstein scandal and the waves of women (and a few men) that have come forward with stories of sexual abuse and predation in Hollywood inspired him to come forward again with his story. "Part of what allowed the Harvey situation to occur was that there was this witting and unwitting conspiracy of silence," Rapp says. "The only way these things can continue is if there's no attention being paid to it, if it's getting forgotten." to shine a light and hopefully make a difference, as they have done for me. 2/3 Anthony Rapp (@albinokid) October 30, 2017 Everything I wanted to say about my experience is in that article, and I have no further comment about it at this time. Anthony Rapp (@albinokid) October 30, 2017 Spacey has now responded to the allegations by Rapp in a statement on Twitter, saying that he does not recall the incident in question, but apologized nonetheless for his "deeply inappropriate drunken behavior." Spacey also officially came out in the statement, confirming the long-circulating rumor that he is gay. "I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago," Spacey said. "But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years. He added, "This story has encouraged me to address other things about my life. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man." You can read the full statement below: Spacey is being criticized for coming out in the same statement in which he apologizes for his alleged attempted sexual assault of a minor, saying it both undermines his apology to the victim and implicates homosexuality in sexual misconduct. That Kevin Spacey statement. Nope. Absolutely not. Nope. billy eichner (@billyeichner) October 30, 2017 Kevin Spacey has just invented something that has never existed before: a bad time to come out. billy eichner (@billyeichner) October 30, 2017 Kevin Spacey sexually assaulting a minor has nothing to do with homosexuality. Also, someone should explain this to #KevinSpacey. Aimee Carrero Rock (@aimeecarrero) October 30, 2017 No no no no no! You do not get to choose" to hide under the rainbow! Kick rocks! https://t.co/xJDGAxDjxz Official Wanda Sykes (@iamwandasykes) October 30, 2017 Coming out as a gay man is not the same thing as coming out as someone who preyed on a 14-year-old. Conflating those things is disgusting Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 30, 2017 This exposes the gay community to a million tired old criticisms and conspiracies. Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 30, 2017 The distance we've had to walk to get away from the notion that we're all pedophiles is significant. Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 30, 2017 For a famous person to deflect these accusations with a long-in-the-making coming out is so cruel to his supposed new community it stings Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 30, 2017 How dare you implicate us all in this Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 30, 2017 [h/t Vulture] Image via BFA Rallies in Seoul and Gwangju on Saturday marked the first anniversary of massive candlelight protests that led to the peaceful ouster of then-president Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal. Organizers called for continued protests to stamp out public corruption and pursue social reforms. They called on the government to dismantle a Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense battery from the U.S. that has been stationed in southwestern Korea. They demanded reforms of the National Intelligence Service, which was implicated in attempts to rig the 2012 election in Park's favor, and the creation of another special committee to probe the April 2014 ferry disaster, which exposed unsavory ties between politics and business. In a Reuters report today they noted that Apple's CEO Tim Cook and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg met Chinese President Xi Jinping on Monday at an annual gathering of advisers to Beijing's Tsinghua University business school. Xi was speaking to business leaders and officials at the meeting, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported. Cook and Zuckerberg are on the advisory board of the Tsinghua School of Economics and Management. The meeting comes at a particularly key time for Apple as it prepares to launch its much-anticipated iPhone X on Friday, amid hopes the anniversary smartphone can revive the firm's sales in the world's number two economy. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus. A new report today states that Google attacked the European Union for basing its record-breaking 2.4 billion-euro ($2.8 billion) penalty in June against the search-engine giant on untested antitrust theories. While on the surface it looks like another day, another US tech giant under the EU Commision's microscope. But is there more behind this recent shift by the EU Commission against U.S. Companies? The Bloomberg report further noted that "Google contends that a fine "was not warranted" on grounds that the European Commission put forward a novel theory and previously signaled the case could be solved without a financial penalty by initially seeking an amicable solution with the Alphabet Inc. unit. The details of Google's court appeal at the EU's Luxembourg-based General Court were revealed Monday in the bloc's Official Journal. After losing its its biggest regulatory battle yet, Google is bringing the matter to EU courts in a legal challenge filed in September that could take years to conclude. EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager took over the Google probe in 2014 from her predecessor, Joaquin Almunia, who had sought to finalize a settlement with Google but failed to reach a satisfactory accord as his term came to an end. The deal would have included binding concessions from Google in exchange for the EU dropping the probe without levying any fines." What we're seeing here is the EU not wanting to compromise, it wants to punish U.S. companies because the EU is financially collapsing and they need to rip into U.S. companies as deeply and as quickly as possible. Am I out of line saying this? Well, I read an extraordinary report earlier this morning that could actually provide the Bloomberg report with a little more background and perhaps context to a much larger game playing out. One orchestrated by the EU Commission that began with Apple. It's a report titled "The EU's definitive defeat: digital tax plans and a declaration of surrender to Silicon Valley," by none other than Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents. Mueller, a German citizen, provides us with a perspective rarely heard. Mueller notes that "the EU appears to have given up on its ambitions for the digital economy. Instead, its focus is on a new tax that could lead to a full-blown trade war with the U.S. and would definitely harm European companies and consumers in the end." Further, Mueller notes that "Unfortunately, the Commission's tax initiative has drawn support even from normally libertarian, free-market and fiscally conservative parties such as Germany's FDP, whose secretary-general said last week that she wants to impose higher taxes on the likes of "Apple, Google, and Facebook." Mueller adds that "Whatever may or may not happen in the end, it's already clear that the EU's dubious "state-aid case" against Apple was just an attempt by the Commission's competition enforcement arm to position itself as the vanguard of the EU's tax crusade against the digital economy's winners. This is just the behavior of sore losers." Ouch! While Apple and other companies are baffled at the viciousness of the attacks from the European Commission, Mueller's report explains it's something that's been part of the EU's plan for some time now and that Europe, with its open boarder policies along with multiple gaffs could put Europe into financial jeopardy. On this part of the story, Mueller specifically states that "The EU has a huge competitiveness issue already, and due to the Eurozone's lack of innovation, especially in its Mediterranean member states, the sovereign-debt crisis is never going to be resolved. The European Central Bank is, in some ways unlawfully, keeping Europe's south afloat and will do so for some more time, but at some point there will be a crisis of unprecedented proportions--either an acute and dramatic crisis or an extended depression from which the Eurozone as an economic area won't really recover. For this reason Mueller wants to leave Germany and head to the U.S. in the not-too-distant future. For more on this, read the full Mueller report here. Patently Apple Xtra News covers interesting news and patents about present or future competitor products, concepts or services that may or may not compete with Apple. Patently Xtra is also used to cover editorial and/or opinion articles. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or negative behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus. This is the question again, raised by the renowned philosopher Michael McGhee for the UKs Guardian newspaper. The short article is set to be the start of a series on the topic, so we can look forward to further installments in the days to come. Todays article rehearses some of the issues weve seen raised in the news and among bloggers lately, namely the decontextualization of Buddhist practices, rebranded as mindfulness and sold to people free of religion. However, McGhee does want to distinguish between: the development of what might be called a new Western (or American or wherever) Buddhism, with notably different belief structures and/or particular practices, art forms, pilgrimage sites, etc, and a reduction of Buddhist practice to a technique. He writes, specifically: But it is one thing to seek to liberate Buddhist practice from unsustainable or unbelievable worldviews and another to reduce it to a mere technique, even one that is therapeutic. The usual culprit is the calming technique that makes it easier to carry out the bombing run or makes one a more sharply predatory capitalist. The reason one might want to say that meditation has been reduced to a technique is that it has lost its essential rootedness as a practice of ethical preparation. This last bit is important. But first it is worth noting that #1 is happening, though just how much, where, and when is a contentious topic. You can listen to me and some amazing scholars discussing certain aspects of Buddhism in the West with Ted Meissner here. Some of that contentiousness that I have seen and this seems to be from practitioners/bloggers more so than from academics is found in the argument that #1 is not happening and can not happen: that any authentic Buddhism will always be in Asia and the best that Westerners can do is to mimic that as much as possible. Returning to the practices rootedness as a practice of ethical preparation (thats a mouthful). This is a bit different from the usual approach, which discusses ethics as preparatory to mindfulness, which is in turn preparatory to wisdom, the old sila, samadhi, panna 3-fold path. What McGhee seems to be saying is that practices such as meditation are themselves ethical preparation. For what? For a life lived wisely. What dictates what wisely means? The broader, living tradition with all of its ceremonies, rituals, and community. This is what McGhee sees being lost when we try to move Buddhism out of the category of religion. Thus, the growing wariness of teachers offering mindfulness under various logos and trademarks as a stand-alone tool to help people work harder, get richer, and feel better about themselves is entirely appropriate. McGhee concludes: More positively, though, thinking of Buddhism as a philosophy brings it into dialogue with the ancient conception of philosophy, one of whose essential components was precisely what was called spiritual practice or exercise, the various ways in which one is able to liberate oneself from illusion and make oneself better capable of ethical action and, of course, the ethical refusal to act. It is worth noting that the ancient philosophers tried to live in communities and one can think of a philosophical community, whether instantiated in a Christian congregation, a Buddhist sangha, a humanist group, as serving to protect and support the conditions for that undeluded perception of the world from which issues moral action. Buddhism as a philosophy in dialogue with ancient Western philosophy? This is another one of those areas of contention in the modern academy. Some like to toss around ideas of incommensurability, as if the languages of each side make communication ultimately impossible. However, as has always and will always be the case, language is in flux. Two systems of thought, each using its own language, when brought together, will borrow from one another, adapt, adopt, change, etc. Our understanding of ancient Western philosophy is not a closed book. Nor is our understanding of Buddhism. Nor is our understanding of ourselves today. There is a growing interest on the part of professional philosophers to hear what light can be shed on Western problems by shifting to the religious, theoretical, metaphysical (etc) frameworks of the East. We are also seeing more holes punched in the East vs West paradigm that has dominated Western academia for the last 500 years. In light of these developments, treating Buddhism as a philosophy to be engaged with philosophically in dialogue as McGhee suggests is an exciting new prospect for the twenty-first century. Articles, dissertations, and books are being written now on topics such as free will and theoretical ethics, the philosophies of logic and language, as well as environmental and bioethics, all utilizing the theoretical tools of non-Western traditions to open new windows of possibility in what many see as dusty old rooms of the same old thought turned over again and again for 2500 years; all in the name of comparative philosophy and comparative religions. ~ See also: What is Buddhism? on the importance of academics understanding students preconceptions of religions as we teach them and perhaps even using those preconceptions as teaching tools. And What does Buddhism in America Mean to You? covering Purser and Loys excellent summer article on Mindfulness along with a Tibetan Buddhists rejection of Scientific Buddhism. And for an amazing still relevant after 18 years paper on the topic of meditation as an ethical activity see the (free!) paper over at the Journal of Buddhist Ethics here. This is one of my many critiques of the book entitled, Roman but Not Catholic: What Remains at Stake 500 Years after the Reformation, by evangelical Protestant theologian Kenneth J. Collins and Anglican philosopher Jerry L. Walls (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2017). ***** Kenneth Collins, in his chapter 17: Justification Roman Style writes: Whats so remarkable about the treatments in both Vatican II documents and the Catechism is that the exact phrase free grace . . . is not mentioned at all. To the contrary, the concept is certainly there. The Catechism states: 1996 Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life. 1308 . . . the baptismal grace is a grace of free, unmerited election . . . 1722 Such beatitude surpasses the understanding and powers of man. It comes from an entirely free gift of God: whence it is called supernatural, as is the grace that disposes man to enter into the divine joy. 1993 Justification establishes cooperation between Gods grace and mans freedom. On mans part it is expressed by the assent of faith to the Word of God, which invites him to conversion, and in the cooperation of charity with the prompting of the Holy Spirit who precedes and preserves his assent: When God touches mans heart through the illumination of the Holy Spirit, man himself is not inactive while receiving that inspiration, since he could reject it; and yet, without Gods grace, he cannot by his own free will move himself toward justice in Gods sight. [Trent] 406 . . . Pelagius held that man could, by the natural power of free will and without the necessary help of Gods grace, lead a morally good life . . . I dont see any difference there. Looks like a distinction without a difference to me. Collins continues: [T]he Roman Catholic tradition has balked at employing the language of sola fide (by faith alone). Yes, of course, we have, because its not biblical (whereas grace alone is)! Since were searching for and tallying up words, we ought to also take note that faith alone never occurs in Holy Scripture (I am searching in RSV). Well, I take that back. It does occur once: James 2:24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. Protestants pride themselves on being so biblical (and they usually think they are infinitely more so than us Catholics). But whats so biblical about faith alone? The only time it appears in the Bible it is expressly denied! Collins asserts: [B]oth justification and the new birth are sheer gifts of the Almighty and therefore must be received by grace through faith alone. We agree that they are free gifts and through grace alone. We disagree with faith alone. And again, that concept is not a biblical phrase; neither is justified by faith alone. Justified by faith, however, is biblical (Rom 3:28; 5:1; Gal 2:16; 3:24). And Catholics agree with that. We simply dont isolate it, since Scripture doesnt. Hence, the Catechism states: 2068 The Council of Trent teaches that the Ten Commandments are obligatory for Christians and that the justified man is still bound to keep them; the Second Vatican Council confirms: The bishops, successors of the apostles, receive from the Lord . . . the mission of teaching all peoples, and of preaching the Gospel to every creature, so that all men may attain salvation through faith, Baptism and the observance of the Commandments. Protestants repeat the mantra of justification / salvation faith alone (an unbiblical phrase). Catholics talk about observing the Commandments also, since this is what Jesus told the rich young ruler with regard to what is required for salvation: keeping Commandments, and in his case, selling all he had and giving it to the poor (a good work, not merely faith). I already dealt with this passage in my critique #8. It hasnt yet been removed from the Bible (last time I checked). And Catholics talk about being saved / regenerated by baptism, since Scripture talks about that, too. Were simply taking all of biblical teaching into account, not just selected prooftexts. But if were talking about initial justification, there is hardly any difference at all between us. Catholics believe in justification by grace through faith, as well: 1992 . . . they are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith. [Rom 3:21-26 cited in the footnote] 2005 Since it belongs to the supernatural order, grace escapes our experience and cannot be known except by faith. . . . Were not excluding grace or faith at all. Its the Protestants who are being most unbiblical by excluding works, which the Bible again and again (above all, our Lord Jesus Himself) teaches are necessary in the Christian life overall and as part of faith (otherwise faith is dead and not really faith). In footnote 42 at the end of the chapter, Collins eschews the Finnish school of interpretation of Luther studies, whereby Luthers understanding of justification was quite broad and in fact embraced the Eastern Orthodox notion of theosis. He finds this problematic, especially since it is overly dependent on his early writings. That is, it cannot embrace Luthers mature understanding of this crucial matter. This is incorrect. I have dealt with this question, heavily citing the fascinating article, Luther and Theosis, by Kurt E. Marquart, Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Concordia Theological Seminary (Fort Wayne, Indiana) This was published in Concordia Theological Quarterly, Vol. 64:3, July 200, pp. 182-205. The evidence he presents is not all early Luther; it encompasses sermons from 1525 and 1526, and Lectures on Galatians from 1535 (Luther died in 1546). Here are those selections: And that we are so filled with all the fulness of God, that is said in the Hebrew manner, meaning that we are filled in every way in which He fills, and become full of God, showered with all gifts and grace and filled with His Spirit, Who is to make us bold, and enlighten us with His light, and live His life in us, that His bliss make us blest, His love awaken love in us. In short, that everything that He is and can do, be fully in us and mightily work, that we be completely deified [vergottet], not that we have a particle or only some pieces of God, but all fulness. Much has been written about how man should be deified; there they made ladders, on which one should climb into heaven, and much of that sort of thing. Yet it is sheer piecemeal effort; but here [in faith] the right and closest way to get there is indicated, that you become full of God, that you lack in no thing, but have everything in one heap, that everything that you speak, think, walk, in sum, your whole life be completely divine [Gottisch]. [Sermon of 1525, WA 17 1:438; In ipsa, 54.] God pours out Christ His dear Son over us and pours Himself into us and draws us into Himself, so that He becomes completely humanified (vermzenschet) and we become completely deified (gantz und gar vergottet, Godded-through) and everything is altogether one thing, God, Christ, and you. [Sermon of 1526; D. Martin Luthers Werke. Kritische Gesamtausgabe, 58 volumes (Weimar, 1883- ), 20:229,30 and following, cited in Werner Elert, The Structure of Lutheranism, volume 1 (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1962),175-176. Marquart altered the translation given there in order to make it more literal] [Y]ou are so cemented [conglutineris] to Christ that He and you are as one person, which cannot be separated but remains attached [perpetuo adhaerescat] to Him forever and declares: I am as Christ. And Christ, in turn, says: I am as that sinner who is attached to Me, and I to him. For by faith we are joined together into one flesh and one bone. Thus Ephesians 5:30 says: We are members of the body of Christ, of His flesh and of His bones, in such a way that this faith couples Christ and me more intimately than a husband is coupled to his wife. [Lectures on Galatians, 1535, WA 40 1:285-286; LW 26:168; In ipsa, 51.] The one who has faith is a completely divine man [plane est divinus homo], a son of God, the inheritor of the universe. . . . Therefore the Abraham who has faith fills heaven and earth; thus every Christian fills heaven and earth by his faith. . . [Lectures on Galatians, 1535, WA 40 I:182,390; LW 26:1001 247-248.] The fanatical spirits today speak about faith in Christ in the manner of the sophists. They imagine that faith is a quality that clings to the heart apart from Christ [excluso Christo]. This is a dangerous error. Christ should be set forth in such a way that apart from Him you see nothing at all and that you believe that nothing is nearer and closer to you than He. For He is not sitting idle in heaven but is completely present [praesentissimus] with us, active and living in us as chapter two says (2:20): It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and here: You have put on Christ. . . . Hence the speculation of the sectarians is vain when they imagine that Christ is present in us spiritually, that is, speculatively, but is present really in heaven. Christ and faith must be completely joined. We must simply take our place in heaven; and Christ must be, live, and work in us. But He lives and works in us, not speculatively but really, with presence and with power [realiter, praesentissime et eficacissim]. [Lectures on Galatians, 1535, WA 40 1:545-546; LW 26:356-357; In ipsa, 39-40.] There are many additional false and ultimately unbiblical assertions in the chapter about justification and sanctification (as always in Protestant treatments). I feel like a mosquito in a nudist colony: not knowing where to go first (to refute them), with so many abundant opportunities! But I will let the above be sufficient for now. Readers desiring to learn more of the Catholic view of these matters (with a high emphasis always on biblical arguments) may wish to consult many scores of papers on my Salvation and Justification web page, or my book, Biblical Catholic Salvation (2010), in which (among many other things), I take on all five portions of the Calvinist TULIP from Holy Scripture. Its available for as low as $2.99 in e-book format (mobi / Kindle or ePub). *** Photo credit: Portrait of [older] Martin Luther (c. 1570-1580), by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586) [public domain / Wikimedia Commons] *** Patna: In a tragic accident on Sunday morning, three persons were killed when a passenger bus coming to Patna from Ranchi slammed into a tractor-trailer in Khemani Chowk under Patrakar Nagar police station. {gallery}newsimages2017/oct/102917{/gallery}Two labors and the tractor driver died on the incident while a number of bus passengers had to be transported to various hospitals for injuries ranging from minor to serious. The accident occurred around 5:00 am when the visibility was not very good. As reported, the Sri Krishna Rath bus was coming from Ranchi to Patna when a tractor laden with cement bags coming from the opposite side tried to pass it from the wrong side. When the bus driver tried to compensate for the tractor driver's misjudgment, it slammed the vehicle into the tractor killing its occupants instantly. Meanwhile, the bus rolled over the road shoulder and came to a stop below on the Link Road. Injured passengers were rushed to the nearby Ford Hospital and other hospitals in the area while the bodies of the deceased were sent to the hospital for post mortem. The tractor driver was identified as Ramesh Kumar, age 25, a resident of Fatuha who had gotten married just over a year ago. Angry people blocked the road for over three hours demanding compensation for the victims' families. Police are investigating the accident. India Launches New Trade Route To Afghanistan Via Iran 10/29/17 Source: RFE/RL India has launched a new trade route to landlocked Afghanistan by sea through Iran's strategic Chabahar port, a move that bypasses Pakistan and could have significant geopolitical ramifications in the region. India shipped 1.1 million tons of wheat to Afghanistan from the western seaport of Kandla on October 29. The shipment will be taken by trucks to Afghanistan from the Iranian port. "I believe that this is the starting point of our journey to realize the full spectrum of connectivity -- from culture to commerce, from traditions to technology, from investments to IT, from services to strategy and from people to politics," Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in a statement on October 29. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter on October 29 that the launch of the trade route "marks a new chapter in regional cooperation & connectivity." U.S. President Donald Trump urged India to play a bigger role in Afghanistan's development when he presented his new South Asia strategy in August. India, Afghanistan, and Iran decided in 2016 to establish the trade route, which would allow Indian goods to reach Central Asia. India committed up to $500 million for the development of the Chabahar port, along with roads and rail lines. The trade route lessens Afghanistan's reliance on Pakistan and allow India to open up a sea route to landlocked Afghanistan. New Delhi will also get access to the oil-rich Central Asian republics. Pakistan has banned India from transporting goods through its territory to Afghanistan. The Chabahar port will rival the Gwadar port in Pakistan that is being currently developed by China, India's regional rival. The two ports are less than 80 kilometers apart. In 2016, New Delhi and Kabul also launched an air-freight corridor in an attempt to provide greater access for Afghan goods to the Indian market. With reporting by AP and Khaama Copyright (c) 2017 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org Iraq's Kurdish Leader Massoud Barzani Steps Down 10/29/17 Source: VOA Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani has confirmed he will be stepping down, dissolving his position as president of self-ruled northern Kurdish region and distributing his dutuies between the Kurdish prime minister, parliament and the judiciary. Masoud Barzani's political suicide artwork by Iranian daily Hamdeli In a letter to parliament Sunday, Barzani said he will not be seeking re-election, with his term set to expire on November 1. The parliament had already decided to halt Barzani's governmental activities, and on Saturday said it would read a statement from Barzani during its upcoming meeting. Despite securing an overwhelming "yes" vote in the independence referendum, Barzani finds himself in a tough position after Iraqi federal forces moved to reclaim territory near the city of Kirkuk. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called the referendum illegal, and in response he sent his forces to retake control of disputed areas that were in control of the Kurds. In recent days the government in Iraq's Kurdistan region offered to freeze the referendum results and start dialogue with the central government in Baghdad, but Abadi rejected that offer. Abadi said in a statement his government would accept only an annulment of the referendum and respect for the country's constitution. The areas retaken by Iraqi forces were mostly under Baghdad's control in 2014, when Islamic State militants swept into the region. Kurdish peshmerga fighters and coalition forces recaptured the land, and the Kurdistan region has since held them. The Iraqi military and the Kurdish minority had been clashing for several weeks in mostly low-level firefights until Friday, when they agreed to a cease-fire, and Kurdish forces abandoned the land they held, largely without resistance. Iran To Reopen Border With Iraq's Kurdistan Region 10/30/17 Source: RFE/RL The chief of staff of Iran's armed forces, Mohammad Baqeri, says the country will reopen all its border crossings with the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq in the "coming days." Tehran had closed its borders with Iraq's Kurdistan region after it voted for independence in a referendum on September 25. "The End Of Barzani Road" (source: Iranian daily Roozan) "The border restrictions between Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan will be lifted in the coming days," the semiofficial ISNA news agency quoted Baqeri as saying on October 30. Baqeri's announcement came a day after Iraqi Kurdish leader Masud Barzani said he was stepping down after the independence referendum he had championed triggered a regional backlash, including from Tehran. Baqeri warned that if the Kurdish autonomous region seceded from Iraq "there would be bloodshed in Iraq and neighboring countries would be affected." Iran has its own sizable Kurdish minority and has opposed independence for Iraqi Kurds. At Baghdad's request, Tehran closed its borders with Iraq's Kurdish region and halted all flights to and from the region after the referendum. Based on reporting by ISNA and Reuters White Stone Frozen Foods Limited has not evaded tax, officials of the Ghana Revenue Authority have revealed, contrary to a report by Accra based newspaper, The Herald. The frozen foods giant has been accused by some of its competitors of evading taxes, but investigations reveal that what has been instituted is a Customs Valuation Agreement. it is normal that in some cases some big players based on their ability to meet certain requirements are offered such agreements with regards to their obligations. They still honour their tax obligations under an agreement specified under Section 12 of the Customs Act 891, an official of the GRA told Yourbusinesswatch.com. A tax law expert also explained to Yourbusinesswatch.com that as part of the international customs practices, the Customs Division of GRA could have an agreement with an importer based on the kind of products being imported and the intention of the importer. The importer can either go by the general customs procedure or have a special arrangement with the customs divisions of the GRA. One of such arrangements is what is called Advanced Ruling System as found in Section 12 of the Customs Act 891. It is that system that companies such as White Stone having applied for, through the Commissioner General of CEPS and once they meet the requirements set out, they can be offered the agreement by the GRA, the expert explained. An official of the White Stone also dismissed the report as baseless and indicated that the agreement had persisted even in the previous governments regime. The old agreement with the GRA expired in December 2016 and was renewed in October 2017. There is nothing political about this, he stated. He said the report by the Herald Newspaper was a rehashed one that could be inspired by saboteurs of the company seeking to run down a growing Ghanaian company. Source: Ghanaweb Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Discussions between Seoul and Washington about creating a new Korean-led command structure when Seoul gains full charge of its own troops have been postponed until next year. Defense Minister Song Young-moo and U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis originally planned to hammer out the plan during the annual security consultative meeting in Seoul last Saturday. President Moon Jae-in is keen for Seoul to gain full control of its own troops in wartime by 2020, but that looks increasingly unlikely as the U.S. drags its heels and tensions with North Korea mount. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis (left) and Defense Minister Song Young-moo attend a press conference in Seoul on Saturday. At present, the Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command is headed by the commander of the U.S. Forces Korea while a Korean officer serves as deputy chief. But under the plan Seoul envisages the top commander would be a South Korean general. It would be unprecedented for the U.S. to put its troops under foreign command in wartime. Washington's reluctance to stick with the plan is growing, especially as Seoul wants to maintain the number of U.S. reinforcements that would be sent in a crisis at the current level -- in other words, take charge without decreasing its reliance on American forces. The previous administration agreed with the U.S. to form a new combined command, but the two sides deliberately failed to specify a timeframe for the handover. After Moon was inaugurated, Korea and the U.S. agreed in principle to complete the handover within his single, five-year term. Ground crew inspect a U.S. B-2 Spirit at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri on Saturday. /Courtesy of U.S. Air Force But already Washington has postponed talks about the new command structure that were to take place during the annual Security Consultative Meeting last Saturday. A Defense Ministry official insisted Sunday there is "no dispute" about a Korean general heading the new combined command with a U.S. general as deputy. "But discussions have not resolved the composition of the staff and that's why it wasn't decided during the SCM," he said. Instead, the two defense ministers only agreed to a "speedy" transfer of wartime troop control to Seoul. They also agreed to increase U.S. weapons deployments on the Korean Peninsula and raising a cap on the payload Korea can mount on its missiles. Read this article in Korean Ghana can fetch $1.9 billion as premiums if it trades its 900,000 tons of cocoa produced annually under the Fairtrade system, Mr Larry Attipoe, International Development Consultant for Fairtrade Africa, has indicated. He said a metric ton of cocoa beans sold under Fairtrade attracts an additional premium of $200 than the conventional trade, which short-changes farmers. The premium, he said, goes directly to the farmers and workers to improve their livelihoods. In the 2016/2017 season alone, Fairtrade Africa ranked in $7,147,546 for Ghanaian cocoa producers and workers as premium on cocoa beans sold under the Fairtrade system. Mr Attipoe, who was speaking at a Fairtrade Africa training programme for selected journalists in Accra, said it was important for farmers to get the best out of their produce and be empowered to challenge and negotiate for better deals. Only six per cent of the value of a bar of chocolate gets to the farmers and so what Fairtrade is doing is to get more money or a chunk of the money to the farmers. Ghana and Cote dIvoire produces 60 per cent of the worlds cocoa, but the cocoa is sold at a price determined by non-producers. It is important for the two countries to come together to challenge and negotiate better prices for its smallholder farmers who are the majority producers of cocoa. He said Fairtrade was very important to development, which, for him, was underutilised in Ghana. Fairtrade is a global movement which addressees the injustices of conventional trade by supporting smallholder farmers and workers to secure better terms of trade. It is an alternative approach based on partnership between producers and traders, businesses and consumers. And products that carry the Fairtrade mark means the producers and consumers have met Fairtrade standards. Mr Benjamin Kwesi Asare, Business Support Officer, said Fairtrade Africa serves as a producer network within the system and represents all Fairtrade certified producers in Africa who abide by the standards. The network, he added, was made up of small producer organisations and workers in plantations. He explained that Fairtrades aim was to connect disadvantaged producers and consumers by promoting fairer trading conditions and empowering producers to combat poverty while strengthening their position in the supply chain. In Ghana, he said Fairtrade covers nine regions and works with 27 small producer organisations in cocoa, citrus, pineapple, shea, cashew, and coconut, comprising of 124,536 producers, in addition to seven hired labour plantations in banana and pineapple which also comprises of 7,892 workers. Fairtrade Africa has since 2014 been acquiring millions of dollars for Ghanaian smallholders farmers and workers as premiums on products traded under the Fairtrade system. In the 2016/2017 season, it accrued $10,745,201.52 as premiums on products. Part of the monetary benefits per the standards of Fairtrade is to be invested in community development, which some of the organisations have used in building schools, clinics and office facilities. Source: The Finder Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has reiterated the commitment of his government towards maintaining the peace and security of the country. Speaking at this years Ngmayem Festival, of the Chiefs and people of Manya Krobo, President Akufo-Addo stressed that, the application of the laws of the land will occur, in the words of the judicial oath, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, and without recourse to the political, religious or ethnic affiliations of any citizen of the land. According to President Akufo-Addo, when you fall foul of the law, you will be dealt with accordingly, and the law enforcement agencies, including the Judiciary, must ensure this is done. President Akufo-Addos call comes in the wake of disturbances in Karaga and Sissala West being perpetrated by alleged supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). Addressing the gathering of Chiefs and people of Manya Krobo, the President indicated that the Ngmayem festival is a celebration of Ghanas farmers, and the abundant harvest of ngma (millet). He noted that Ghana has the unique potential to feed her growing population, meet the raw material requirements of her processing industries, achieve food security, and compete successfully as a leading supplier to countries around us and beyond. Through our flagship programme, Planting for Food and Jobs, we have ensured the provision of improved seeds, the supply of subsidized fertilizers, the provision of dedicated extension services, a marketing strategy and the use of e-Agriculture. Under this Programme, 227.8 hectares of land were cultivated in the major season, and 179.8 hectares for the minor season in Manya Krobo, he said. In anticipation of a bumper harvest, the President stated that the National Buffer Stock Company Limited had been resourced to provide ready market for farm produce. This will ensure that our farmers are paid minimum guaranteed prices, to make farming a viable venture. Agriculture remains the fuel that powers all our activity in Ghana. We ignore it at our risk. My government will, certainly, not ignore it. I give you my pledge that farmers, food crop farmers, fish farmers and livestock farmers will all have the support and respect they deserve from my government, he added. Outlining some of the policies of his administration over the last 10 months, President AKufo-Addo noted that his government has been working to grow Ghanas economy and open up opportunities for all her citizens. His government, he said, had started the Free Senior High School programme, guaranteeing secondary education for all of Ghanas children; and was heralding the revival of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS). Government, the President added, had also abolished a number of nuisance taxes which were stifling the growth of the private sector, and introduced a number of policies aimed at formalising the structure of the Ghanaian economy the National Identification Scheme; the National Digital Property Addressing System; the e-registration system to enhance business registration processes; the paperless system at the port, amongst many other initiatives. We are doing all of this because we want to build a Ghana, which looks to the use of its own resources and their proper management as the way to engineer social and economic growth in our country. We want to build an economy that looks past commodities to position our country in the global marketplace. We want to build a Ghana Beyond Aid, President Akufo-Addo said. Source: today Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says his government is committed towards helping to find a solution to the political impasse in neighbouring Togo. President Akufo-Addo made this known on Monday, 30th October, 2017, when Togbega Amenya Fiti V, Paramount Chief of the Anlo-Aflao Traditional State, together with Chiefs of the State, paid a courtesy call on him at the Presidency. Describing the situation in Togo as disturbing for all of us, President Akufo-Addo recounted the disturbances that occurred in 2005, in the wake of the death of the former President of Togo, Gnassingbe Eyadema, and the succession problems it created, which resulted in over 100,000 Togolese refugees streaming across the border into Ghana. Anything that happens in Togo is a matter of great concern to you. It is a matter of concern to us and all the people of Ghana. You can be sure that I cannot be idle, as these events take place, he said. President Akufo-Addo continued, The Togolese President came to see me in Tamale 10 days ago, and I have been meeting a lot of the political actors in the situation, and, definitely, we are all working to see how we can bring this crisis to a closure, and bring stability and peace back to Togo. It is in all of our interests to do so. The President assured Togbega Amenya Fiti V that I am not staying idle in this matter. We are acting. Let us pray for understanding and the blessing of the Almighty so that we can find a solution, that will be in the interest of the people of Togo, and then, by implication, the people of Ghana. On the request for the creation of an Aflao Municipal Assembly by Togbega Fiti V, President Akufo-Addo noted that one of the things his government is having to work out is the creation of a district where there is no constituency. He, however, assured I have done a lot of work on your behalf, and the Minister for Local Government, Hajia Alima Mahama, is waiting to hold a meeting with you, in order to bring the Municipality into being. For me, it makes a lot of sense (that the Municipality is created). Touching on the 8th June, 2017, decision taken by government to implement a 24-hour open border policy at the Aflao border with Togo, President Akufo-Addo noted that this policy is in conformity with Ghanas commitment to ECOWAS, and it Protocols on the Free Movement of Goods and Persons. He noted, nonetheless, that when policies such as this are being implemented for constructive purposes, there are always a few criminal minds who want to use it for another purpose. It is a good occasion to ask for your help so that those who want to use the open-border for smuggling and illicit activities, as much as possible, we mobilise the population and make sure that it doesnt happen. President Akufo-Addo appealed for the support of the Chiefs and people of the Anlo-Aflao State to complement the law enforcement agencies to make sure that smuggling is not a part of the open-border policy. The President reiterated the commitment of government to working with traditional authorities in this country, noting that the Constitution of the Republic requires that Central Government works hand-in-hand with the traditional authorities to give the country good governance. I am extremely committed to the teachings of the Constitution that we should work together. We have to co-operate for the benefit of the people of Ghana, he added. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Deputy Managing Director of Finance and Administration of the Ghana Post, Mr. Kwaku Tabi Amponsah, has discredited suggestions by critics of the newly introduced digital property addressing system that it is easily prone to hacking by criminals. According to Mr. Amponsah, the GhanaPost has sufficiently invested in cyber security to prevent intruders from hacking into the system. It has not come to our notice that anybody has been able to hack into our system. The system is secured. So far we have not had any problems with intruders. We have build firewalls to prevent access without permission. Not even Vokacom can access the data without our permission. So yes, it is possible to hack a system, but we have ways of knowing if anyone hacks into our system. He asked the general public to disregard those making claims of insecurity with the new system since there is no such evidence available to suggest that anyone has so far hacked into their secured servers. The Ghana Post deputy MD warned criminals who wants to attempt hacking to stay away from it because they will be caught and dealt with by the law. Opponents of the new digital addressing system, particularly the opposition NDC has raised questions surrounding personal data security of citizens who patronise the digital address application. The NDC has suggested that there is a likelihood for vokacom, the private company managing the software to sell out personal address information to third party users thereby compromising the privacy of citizens. But the Ghana Post Deputy Managing Director of Finance and Administration says, all these concerns were taken into consideration even before the system was launched. Some people claim that they have been able to hack into our system but the information they claim to have gotten is information we have put out on our website. Thats not hacking..Our system is very secured and we are constantly monitoring for any such activities Mr. Amponsah assured the public. The deputy MD reiterated the wide ranging benefits of the new digital address system to the general public, the police, the economy, the government and to the revamping of the business of postal services in Ghana. Ghana post will avoid double deliveries because of not being able to find the right addresses, it will be the basis of e-comerce platforms, and we are working with ECG and ghana water company to ensure that all the digital addresses are on the utility bills etc. He also expressed excitement about the new digital addressing system because 'we got about 130,000 downloads of the application and about 100,000 registered addresses in just the few days after the launch of the system by his excellency the President'. Source: Peacefmonline.com/Ghana Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Police is set to prosecute some 26 Togolese nationals following their attempt to stage an unlawful demonstration in the capital-Accra over the political crisis in their home country. This comes hours after they were arrested by the Accra Regional Police Command. About 300 of the Togolese nationals converged on Kawukudi Park near Accra Girls Senior High School on Saturday morning, in preparation for a mass protest, but were dispersed by the Police after some arrests were made. Police have said their action is in clear breach of the Public Order Act. The Greater Accra Regional Police Operations Officer, Superintendent Kwesi Ofori indicated We are investigating and by Monday we should be heading to the court. Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Majority and Minority Members of Parliament (MPs) on Thursday engaged in a legal tussle over the constitutional backing for the establishment of the Office of the Special Prosecutor. While the Minority MPs argued that the creation of the office required the amendment of the Constitution, the Majority legislators insisted that current provisions in the Constitution allowed for the establishment of such an office. The debate followed the motion moved by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Ms Gloria Akuffo, for the Office of Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017, to be read the second time. The object of the Bill is to establish the Office of the Special Prosecutor as a specialised agency to investigate specific cases of corruption involving public officers, politically exposed persons, and persons in the private sector involved in the commission of corruption and to prosecute the offences on the authority of the Attorney-General. After the debate, the Bill was read the second time. This means that it would go through the amendment stage before it is read the third time and passed. Minority's legal arguments Giving the concluding argument, the Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Idrissu, said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) minority and the NDC as a political party, in principle, would support every effort to fight corruption because it perpetuated inequality and poverty and could hinder the country's progress. Besides, he said, it was important to elevate the debate beyond petty partisanship because corruption did not know party colours. Mr Idrissu said the Bill focused on Article 88(4) which dealt with the delegation powers of the Attorney General and left out 88(3), which stipulates that :"The Attorney General shall be responsible for the initiation and conduct of all prosecution of criminal offences." Therefore, he said, the Bill for the creation of a Special Prosecutor with powers to prosecute cases was flawed. Bill pregnant with flaws According to Mr Idrissu, the bill was pregnant with constitutional flaws and, therefore, could only give birth to an illegality called a Special Prosecutor. Mr Idrissu faulted the procedure for the submission of the Bill since it sought to amend the Constitution through the back door. "We are using a Bill to amend a Constitution. We are not saying that you cannot appoint a Special Prosecutor, but we are questioning the procedure of this process. If you want it, amend the Constitution appropriately. "This Bill is seeking a backdoor amendment of Article 88(3). That procedure we object to," he said. Mr Idrissu said per the long title of the Bill, the Special Prosecutor would prosecute on the authority of the Attorney General. "What is it that the Special Prosecutor will and can do that the Attorney-General cannot be vested with the authority to do by virtue of Article 88 of the Constitution", he wondered. Influence or independence On the question of influence or independence, the Minority Leader said, it was the same President who appointed the Attorney General who would appoint the Special Prosecutor. Besides, he said, the principle of prosecutorial independence was defeated in the Bill "because it says on the authority of the Attorney General." Mr Idrissu said Parliament could not proceed with the Bill without amending the Criminal Code of Ghana since it had to do with the Criminal Offences Act. He raised a red flag over the provision in the Bill that allowed the Special Prosecutor to intercept communication of accused persons and indicated that it was against the tenets of the Constitution. The MP for Bawku Central, Mr Mahama Ayariga, said he did not see any difference between the role of the Special Prosecutor and that of the police and state prosecutors. He suggested that the investigative institutions should rather be resourced and given incentives to investigate and prosecute cases. Majority's defence The Majority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said the search for freedom, probity, justice and accountability was a collective resolve of all Ghanaians. Therefore, he said, it was important for all to support the creation of the Office of a Special Prosecutor since it was meant to seek probity and accountability. Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said Article 88(3) and Article 88(4) provided for delegation of powers by the Attorney General. Delegation of powers He said the delegation of powers to the Special Prosecutor, was to give the officer greater focus in the fight against corruption. Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu dismissed the suggestion that when prosecuting officers received better incentives, it would prevent them from compromising their investigations. He said what was required of the officers was moral uprightness since it was impossible for the state to provide them with "enough financial incentives.", Mr Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu said the Bill was not a perfect document, and urged MPs to work as a team to improve it. "If we want to fight corruption, we have to show effort. Lets decapitate the monster," he said. The MP for Tempane and Deputy Attorney General, Mr Joseph Dindiok Kpemka, said several institutions had existed in the country but the fight against corruption was not yielding any results. Therefore, he said, the creation of a Special Prosecutor would go a long way to "consume the monster" called corruption. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Deputy General Secretary of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Koku Anyidoho has expressed shock at the level of cronyism that has engulfed the Nana Addo-led administration. Even the former concubine and ex-baby mother of the president has been appointed ambassador in his administration, Koku Anyidoho alleged. According to him, the president has four children, one with one Virginia Hesse who has been appointed as Ghanas ambassador to the Czech Republic. He explained that the president had his first daughter with Ambassador Virginia Hesse, a twin with a late woman who died under mysteriously circumstance and another one with a Nigerian national. He says in all the president has five daughters, including one with Rebecca Akufo-Addo, the First Lady. The former Director of Communications at the Presidency under late president John Evans Atta-Mills made this statement on the Epa Hoa Daben afternoon socio-political show hosted by Kwame Afrifa Mensah on Accra-based Happy FM. This is how nauseating the levels of nepotisms and cronyism are in the ten month-old administration of the NPP under Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, he said. It is only under the NPP that cousins and distant cousins have all grabbed positions; this has never happened in the history of Ghanas politics, he reiterated. But in a sharp riposte, Deputy General Secretary of the governing NPP, Obiri Boahen described Mr Anyidoho's allegations as the effusions of an uncouth and uncultured being. "....it is only uncultured individuals who will go to town with such statements about the president," he asserted. Source: King Edward Ambrose Washman Addo/Peacefmonline.com/ Twitter: @Washman5/ Instagram: Ambrose_wash Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Legendary status is not easily attained; it takes longevity, effort, expertise dedication and get that tag and often, when one gets such a status, it is only fitting that the fellow is duly celebrated. Unfortunately in Ghana, almost all our legends in music, who dedicated half of their lifetime to the elevation of Ghanaian music, passed on without getting the due veneration. What is more disheartening is the fact that, when these music luminaries die, all the, work, history and achievements are buried with them too. Such a sad situation for Ghanaian music and the arts in general! Theres Nothing To Show A couple of years ago, I attended music conference in South Africa, a gathering that initiated the Music In Africa platform, a portal that was created to aggregate and project African music, the purveyors of the music and the positive elements of the music. As part of the conference, attendees visited one of the music museums in Johannesburg and it was a beautiful sight to behold. There were portraits of all the legends of African music and their works put on exhibition at the Conference but unfortunately, there was none of any Ghanaian musician. I kept looking and found African genres of music and straight I went to the Highlife section, with so much glee and anticipation that I would finally get something on a Ghanaian. Yes, I did find something on a Ghanaian, the history that; the likes of Ramblers Band, E.T. Mensah and co. pioneered the genre, which later found its way to Nigeria, thanks to the likes of Fela. Interestingly, 80 percent of the commentary on Highlife was fixated on Nigeria and it was not surprising that my Nigerian counterpart argued strongly with me on the origin of Highlife. His conviction was buoyed by what is on display at the international museum. No History, No Celebration Ghana has undoubtedly produced great musicians, many of whom have passed on to eternal glory; unfortunately, there are no records of their works, recognition and achievements. There are no records of how Highlife started, no archives on the achievements of King Bruce, E.T Mensah, GhanaBa, Mac Tontoh, Osibisa, Alhaji K.Frimpong, Thomas Frimpong, Paa Bobo, Paapa Yankson, Awurama Badu and many others. There are no files on our instruments, our traditional instruments and all the hardworking personalities who played the instruments, handled production and made these legends sound good on the records. Theres absolutely no history! Its sad that when a legend dies, the media flounders without success, just to get some history to share in disseminating the news of the demise. It comes as no surprise that, these high-flying young Ghanaian musicians have all lost their way musically, feverishly trying to copy the style of Nigerians in order to make it. Almost all these young artistes have no inkling on the intricacies of Highlife and the existence of the likes of Ghanaba, E.T Mensah, Mac Tontoh, Awurama Badu and the rest; so, they are totally lost on the history and the influence. Where Is The Music or Arts Museum? We have a National Museum that has nothing to do with the Arts, a reflection of a country that generally looks down on the arts and especially, our music! The US, where show business is given such premium, there are music museums splattered in every state. Theres the National Music Museum San Diego, which is recognized as A Landmark of American Music and houses more than 15,000 instruments from around the world. Theres also the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum that tells the great stories about the biggest names in Rock and Roll. It has seven floors of exhibits and four theatres. In South Africa, theres the Adler Music Museum and the International Library of African Music, fondly known as ILAM, established in 1964, which is a researching, publishing and teaching center for African traditional music. From its inception, the vision of the Museum was to project African music and uphold the traditional styles by recording, documenting and preserving this history. This is done through research, publication, education and community outreach. Other internationally acclaimed musicians who have projected their brand and their respective countries via the music have museums to their name documenting their history and celebrating them. Bob Marley has the Bob Marley Museum in Jamaica, which celebrates the legend and also serves as a tourist attraction that fetches revenue for the country. The music group ABBA, which catapulted the name of their brand and that of their country, Sweden into the limelight have a museum, ABBA- The Museum in Stockholm, Sweden built in their name, chronicling their history, accolades and achievements. The legendary Beatles from UK have the Beatles Museum established in Liverpool. Theres No Hall of Fame in Our Arts Sector The Hall of Fame is just an institution within any field of endeavor that celebrates the achievement of persons in that field, personalities who have contributed immensely to the development of the field. Such an establishment, which exists in most countries, is missing in Ghana, so, the likes of Ephraim Amu, Ama Ata Aidoo, Ablade Glover, Agya Koo Nimo, Efua Sutherland are not properly celebrated and archived. The Hall of Fame can also just be a list, a celebrated list of achievers in every field. For example, The Musicians Union of Ghana can easily have a Music Hall of Fame, which would comprise a list of top achievers in Ghanaian music. The Ghana Actors Guild can do the same for actors, FIPAG for producers who invest in the business. The Theatre Hall Of Fame would also recognise writers, stage actors and directors who have contributed immensely to the growth of Ghanaian theatre. The Creative Arts Council or the National Commission on Culture could also institute a Hall of Fame to celebrate personalities who have projected the arts and culture to inestimable heights. With all the astute brains we have had manage our industry and those who are now overseeing affairs, one wonders how such a concept has not been established. Alhaji Sidiku Buari, a former Head of MUSIGA is calling for one. Good call, but its quite a wonder why he didnt make any attempt to commence the process, especially when he was in power. The creation of such a concept would also quell the incessant calls for state burial whenever a creative person dies. When properly implemented and executed, many of our legends would be duly celebrated without going through the stress of seeking for state burial. FOCAP to The Rescue The Federation of Concerned Art Professionals, a pressure group created with the aim of revamping the Ghanaian creative arts industry, has put down a road map on how the industry can establish the Hall of Fame concept. It also has an outline on the criteria that can be used in picking personalities to be celebrated. Already, the group has had preliminary discussions with the Dubois Centre, the National Theatre, the National Commission on Culture and other major stakeholders in that regard. Tentatively, the group has scheduled early next year to launch the blue print for the creation of the Hall of Fame concept. Source: Daily Graphic Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered all North Korean workers in China to come home by the end of this year, the website Daily NK reported Sunday citing sources. China's Commerce Ministry last month ordered the closure of all Chinese-North Korean joint ventures in China within 120 days to comply with UN Security Council sanctions. That means most North Korean businesses and restaurants in China must close down by Jan. 9. The website said Kim's order came in protest against the move. There are around 100 North Korean restaurants in China, most of them joint ventures. But there are an estimated 20,000-30,000 North Koreans working in China, only around 2,000 of them restaurant staff, while many other Chinese businesses in the border regions rely on cheap North Korean labor. Radio Free Asia also reported that North Korean expats in China are returning home. Citing sources in China, RFA said North Korean staff of North Korean trading companies and their families have relied on the establishment of joint ventures with Chinese businesses to get residency permits. But the latest measures make it impossible for them to renew their permits. High school students bring classic movie to stage By:Wu Qiong | From:english.eastday.com | 2017-10-27 17:10 Poster of The Twelve [Photo/WFLA] As a dramatic movie of high quality,12 Angry Men has long been regarded as one of the must-see Hollywood masterpieces. In mid-October, a group of high school students brought the 1957 American courtroom drama film to stage and put on three performances in their school, winning much applause. The young actors are members of the English Drama Club at Shanghai World Foreign Language Academy (WFLA). The drama adapted from the classic film 12 Angry Men is titled The Twelve and casts 12 leading actors, except two understudies. It took the fourteen boys nearly one year to prepare for the play. Besides reciting English lines, they also studied the American legal system and spent plenty of time trying to figure out their roles characteristics. Even in the scorching summer, they did not stop their rehearsal and spent four to five hours each day perfecting their acting skills. As an instructor of the drama club, He Yibei told the reporter that students can benefit a lot from playing the drama. The pursuit of truth and the spirit of questioning the convention which is conveyed by the original film 12 Angry Men can teach a great lesson to the students. Whats more, the young actors collaboration and perseverance also reflect the goal of the drama club. Group photo of the drama club [Photo/WFLA] Since its founding, the English Drama Club of WFLA has performed seven plays of different genres. Starting from 2012, a drama class is also open to the school students each week to help improve their creativity, sensitivity, morality and communication ability. FILE - In this Jan. 8, 2017, file photo, Harvey Weinstein arrives at The Weinstein Company and Netflix Golden Globes afterparty in Beverly Hills, Calif. With thousands of women embracing the "Me Too" movement to own their histories of sexual harassment and abuse, and those issues swirling at high volume in the culture overall, parents are reaching for teachable moments in the post-Weinstein world. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File) FILE - In this Sunday, June 11, 2017 file photo, Equality March for Unity and Pride participants march past the White House in Washington. A federal court in Washington is barring President Donald Trump from changing the government's policy on military service by transgender people. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Interior Roofing general manager Aaron Notte poses for a photo with Linda Leschniok, whose roof the company repaired for free after learning of the bad experience she had with a different contractor. According to a report to the 19th CPC National Congress, the core task of facilitating economic development should be grounded in the real economy, for the purpose of establishing a modernized economic system. Key word: international standards The report said the government should support the optimization and upgrade of traditional industries and speed up the development of the service industry with the guidance of international standards. So far, over 80 percent of standards in Chinas industries are consistent with international ones, including its household electrical appliance, textile, furniture, toy, and footwear industries. Keeping up with international standards is a pressure as well as an incentive for Chinas industries to persistently enhance their quality of products and levels of production, said Yang Yuying, a researcher at the International Cooperation Center of the National Development and Reform Commission. With the surging of new technologies, industries, and business types, more technological standards should be made, covering key fields such as robots, advanced rail transit equipment, agricultural machinery, and high-performance medical appliances. So China should not only introduce international standards, but also cultivate its own, Yang said. Key word: entrepreneurship The report promised more protection for entrepreneurship and encouraged more people to engage in innovation and start their own businesses. On Sept 25, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council jointly issued a guideline on encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit and creating a favorable environment for entrepreneurship, the first of its kind in China. The moves by the central authorities was welcomed by Zhang Ruimin, CEO and chairman of Haier Group, saying it offers a profound guidance for enterprises at the pivotal stage of economic and social transformation. The all-around deployment covers many aspects, ranging from spiritual guidance to financial support, Zhang said. Additionally, IPR protection and fault-tolerant mechanism further help share entrepreneurs concerns. Key word: in-depth integration The report suggested an in-depth integration of the internet, big data, artificial intelligence, and the real economy. Just within six months after we introduced the ET industrial brain technology from the Alibaba Group, our photovoltaic production saw a one-percentage point increase, which means an annual reduction in costs worth billions of yuan, said a person in charge of the Suzhou Xiexin Photo-Voltaic Ltd Co. Blending information technology and the real economy will restructure the driving mechanism for economic growth and give rise to a substantial group of new business types, economic modes, and industries. The traditional industries transformation and upgrade will be greatly advanced with the integration of information technology, propelling Chinas manufacturing to a higher level, said Wang Peng, vice-president of the China Center for Information Industry Development. Key word: world-class advanced manufacturing clusters According to the report, enormous efforts should be made to foster Chinas industries to ascend to mid-high levels of the global value chain and cultivate several world-class advanced manufacturing clusters. A cultivation fund worth 3 billion yuan ($451.50 million) for advanced manufacturing clusters, was set up as early as 2015 in Henan province and set the tone for the development of electronic information and equipment manufacturing. This measure contributed to the rise of manufacturing clusters in Zhengzhou and Luoyang. Advanced manufacturing stemming from high quality and efficiency applies to traditional industries as well. Therefore, an equal amount of attention should be attached to cultivating new industries and upgrading traditional ones, said Wang. Aside from that, Wang added that the markets decisive impact on resource distribution and governments intervention should reinforce one another in economic development. Meanwhile, crucial breakthroughs should be made in the middle and western areas, with the eastern costal area setting a good example. Key word: craftsmanship The report also drew peoples attention to craftsmanship and work ethics. At the 44th World Skills Competition, 52 young Chinese craftsmen made a striking sweep of awards with 15 gold medals, seven silver medals, eight bronze medals, and 12 awards of merit. This best effort to date showcased the overall capacity of the development of Chinas vocational techniques. The supply-side quality can only be enhanced on the condition that enterprises and laborers adhere to their down-to-earth dedications and cater to the changes in peoples needs, said Yao Yang, director of the National School of Development at Peking University. In order to popularize the ideas of pursuing perfection, an incentive mechanism is needed to raise high-tech talents incomes and social status. Additionally, a reinforced technical education is urgently needed, adapting to new techniques, industries and business types, said Yao. Ontario's Opposition is calling on the government to halt a deal with a gaming company that is facing money laundering allegations in British Columbia.The display of a slot machine is shown in Plainville, Mass. in a June 23, 2015 file photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Charles Krupa, File FILE- In this Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017 file photo, Police and other authorities search a waterway for body remains related to the ongoing Kim Wall murder investigation at the west coast of Amager close to Copenhagen, Denmark. A Danish inventor suspected of foul play in the death of a Swedish journalist who disappeared from his home-made submarine in August has once again changed his story, admitting that he dismembered her but stoutly maintaining he did not kill her, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. (Jens Dresling/Ritzau via AP, File) Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark goes door knocking while on the campaign trail in Edmonton, Alta., on Monday, April 27, 2015. Alberta party Leader Clark is no longer alone in the legislature.Former Calgary NDP member Karen McPherson has joined his caucus, bringing the total to two in the legislature.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson State Council amends administrative laws The State Council decided to amend some of the items in 15 administrative laws as an effort to streamline administration, according to a circular released on Oct 23. Administrative laws, including those related to transportation, flora and fauna protection, tour guide and construction project regulation, are all involved in the move to simplify administrative approvals. Details:>>State Council amends administrative laws Regulation on construction of government buildings Chinas regulation on building construction by government agencies and public organizations will take effect on Dec 1, according to a State Council decree signed by Premier Li Keqiang. The regulation, passed at the State Council executive meeting on Aug 18, includes 31 articles under six chapters, mainly concerning project approvals, construction capital, supervision and checkups, and legal responsibilities. The construction not only refers to newly constructed buildings, but also expansion, reconstruction and purchase of buildings. The buildings cannot include training centers and other facilities that provide accommodations, meetings and catering, as well as offices. Details:>>State Council to regulate construction of government buildings Changchun named a national culture city Changchun, the capital city of Northeast Chinas Jilin province, has been officially listed as a National Famous Historical and Cultural City, according to a circular released by the State Council on Oct 26. The circular said that the authorities should not permit any construction projects that are incompatible with the citys environment and landscape. Details:>> Changchun named a national culture city China to complete product quality traceability system by 2020 China will complete its product quality traceability system by 2020. A recent guideline, jointly issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and nine other central departments, said the traceability system would target key products, including farm produce, food, medicine, special equipment, dangerous materials and rare earths. By 2020, a standard and coordinated product quality traceability system will be implemented and social awareness on quality traceability will be increased, according to the guideline. The traceability system will provide information regarding sources, destinations and accountable persons to reinforce product quality and safety. Details:>>China to complete product quality traceability system by 2020 Cultivation of agricultural industrialization complex A guideline, released by the Ministry of Agriculture and five other departments, asked related departments to establish an agricultural industrialization complex. It said that the complex will involve all kinds of market players in rural areas, including farm owners, with an improved system to enable all parties to share resources and enjoy profits. NDRC to strengthen supervision on power generation The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) planned to strengthen supervision following the removal of administrative approvals concerning cross-provincial and provincial-level electricity generation and supply. Measures such as regulating the power market, improving credit supervision on power enterprises, and enhancing social oversight, would be put into practice, according to the NDRC. Guidelines for developing green equipment manufacturing China is expecting the output of its environmental protection equipment manufacturing industry to reach 1 trillion yuan ($150 billion) by 2020, as the country presses ahead with its green development plans. The goal has been set in the guidelines for the development of the environmental protection equipment manufacturing industry released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. China will foster 10 leading enterprises of around 10 billion yuan each, as well as more than 1,000 small and medium-sized enterprises, in the sector by 2020. Key areas include equipment used for the prevention and treatment of air pollution, water pollution and solid waste, soil pollution and restoration, environmental monitoring and noise control, it said. Censorship system for fair market competition The nations five major regulatory agencies, including the NDRC, Chinas top pricing regulator, issued guidelines to implement the details of the censorship system to ensure fair market competition for businesses. It spelled out details on the procedures, standards, exceptions, social supervision and accountabilities. Governments that do not implement related checks or issue policies that violate the guidelines should be revised by their upper institutions or be held accountable. Child and Youth advocate Del Graff speaks to media on the release of two reports on the delivery of child and family services programs to indigenous children in Edmonton, Alta., on Tuesday, July 19, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson RIO DE JANEIRO Petroleumworld 10 30 2017 Oil major Royal Dutch Shell Plc RDSA.L won half the blocks awarded in Brazil's deepwater oil auction on Friday, while rival BP ( BP.L ) took two blocks and Exxon Mobil Corp ( XOM.N ) one in a historic opening of the pre-salt play to foreign operators. Brazil awarded six of the eight blocks on offer in the auction for the rights to pump oil from the country's coveted pre-salt region, where billions of barrels of oil are trapped below thousands of feet of salt in the country's Atlantic waters. President Michel Temer said development of the blocks would lead to 100 billion reais ($30.84 billion) in investment from the winning companies and 130 billion reais in royalties and other revenues for the cash-strapped state. The wins bolster Shell's position as the largest foreign operator in Brazil's offshore oil sector, second only to state-run oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro (Petrobras) ( PETR4.SA ), adding more than 1,700 square kilometers (656 square miles) to its deep-water Brazil portfolio. The Anglo-Dutch oil major won one area in a consortium with France's Total SA ( TOTF.PA ), another with Petrobras and Repsol-Sinopec, and a third with Qatar Petroleum International (QPI) and China's CNOOC. Shell has said it is confident it can pump oil from the pre-salt fields at below $40 a barrel. These winning bids were submitted after our thorough evaluation and add strategic acreage to our ... global deep-water growth options, Shell Upstream Director Andy Brown said. Rival BP Plc ( BP.L ), which is active in Brazil but not yet producing oil, took two blocks on Friday. We see the government of Brazil being more supportive of foreign companies entering Brazil, BP Latin America President Felipe Arbelaez said after the rounds. There are high quality assets. We believe that the assets here will be resilient in any price environment. Brazil earned 6.15 billion reais ($1.88 billion) in signing bonuses for the six fields that it awarded in the auction. Temer's government has enacted reforms to make the energy sector more attractive to foreign investment, and for the first time international oil firms will be allowed to operate fields in the pre-salt. Countries worldwide sitting on oil and gas reserves are keen to pump it before it becomes less valuable as global policies to address climate change kick in. The opposition in Brazil has pushed back against the reforms and the auction was delayed by three hours on Friday after a federal judge issued an injunction to suspend the process at the behest of the leftist Workers Party, which opposes the privatization of oil production. That left top executives from the world's largest oil companies milling around in the hotel that hosted the auction, in an upscale seaside neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro. EXXON U.S. major Exxon Mobil, whose 10-block win in last month's Brazilian auction was seen by many as a prelude to a big play on Friday, took just one block as part of a consortium with Norway's Statoil ASA ( STL.OL ) and Petroleos de Portugal SA[PETP.UL], a unit of Galp Energia SGPS SA ( GALP.LS ). Two blocks got no bids. But Exxon bought a stake in a nearby block from Statoil for $1.3 billion, Statoil said, soon after the round. Our full intent is to get right after the Brazil acreage, Jeff Woodbury, Exxon's head of investor relations, said on a conference call following the auction. The quality of reserves and the reforms have made Brazil an important target for oil majors, even though they have had less appetite for capital-intensive mega projects since crude prices crashed in 2014. Peroba, which was clinched by Petrobras, BP and China National Oil & Gas Exploration and Development Corp, boasts an estimated 5.3 billion barrels of oil while Carcara, won by Statoil, Exxon and Petrogal, is thought to have some 2.2 billion barrels of oil. Brazil's offshore is one of the last major plays out there that's in its infancy, said Brian Youngberg, an oil industry analyst at Edward Jones. Companies that are still interested in the big elephants out there, like Exxon and Shell, are aggressively pursuing them. Brazil has high hopes for the volume of oil the companies can pump from the blocks. Brazilian oil output could double to more than 5 million barrels per day (bpd) by 2027, compared with the 2.6 million bpd produced in August, regulator ANP has said. Two blocks on offer at the auction were not placed. But ANP chief Decio Oddone still considered the rounds a success. A result in which 75 percent of offered areas are sold is a resounding success anywhere on the planet according to any point of view, he said. Brazil returned to the oil and gas sector with this auction. ($1 = 3.2652 reais) In a White House sworn to support manufacturing jobs, free oil and gas producers from overbearing rules, and cut renewable-energy giveaways, Iowa corn farmers, ethanol makers, and their corporate patrons seem to have more clout than Delaware River oil-refinery owners or Pennsylvania oil workers. Under a system designed to favor corn alcohol over cheaper petroleum, independent oil refiners that lack arrangements to blend ethanol with gasoline, like the ones along the river, are obliged to make what amounts to penalty payments. Under current arrangements, they pay millions to big oil companies like ExxonMobil that mix a lot of ethanol with their gasoline, and to retailers like Wawa that sell gasoline with ethanol. How expensive is that? Standard & Poor's has cut Philadelphia Energy Solutions' refinery-operator unit to junk-bond status, citing more than $300 million in renewable-energy payments this year. PBF Energy, which runs the refinery at Delaware City, Del., expects to pay more than $350 million, wiping out its profits. Delta Airlines, which owns the Monroe Energy plant in Trainer, estimated its costs at $180 million. These refineries employ more than 2,000 people. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, the oil industry's friend, suggested easing these payments under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard. So did Trump adviser Carl Icahn, the billionaire investor who controls oil refiner CVR Energy (and Philly-based Pep Boys). But that caused 33 senators from small-population corn-dependent states and from liberal New England, where they'd rather burn corn than oil to warn Pruitt off his "disruptive, unprecedented, and very troubling" threat to ethanol. They also stalled work on confirming his deputies. Pruitt backed off. In a fight that cuts across party lines, the mini-state senators outshouted Pennsylvanians in Congress, who had joined refinery owners in marching with workers, calling on Trump at Mar-a-Lago and haranguing Pruitt. "These are exactly the kind of working-class jobs the president spoke about on the campaign trail," U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan (R., Pa.) told me in an email. "Washington politicians talk frequently of bringing manufacturing jobs back to our shores. But first we should protect the middle-class jobs we already have." The payments are "an egregious form of corporate welfare" for agribusiness, said U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.). After meeting with EPA's Pruitt on Wednesday, Toomey joined Republican senators from Arizona, Oklahoma, and Utah, and two each from Texas and Wyoming, urging Trump and farm-state senators to compromise on easing refinery payments while warning against betraying the energy workers who backed Trump. "I urged my members to vote for Donald Trump, [but] now we're left out in the cold," Ryan O'Callaghan, president of United Steelworkers Local 10-1 at Philadelphia Energy Solutions, told the Wall Street Journal. There are corn supporters even in the heart of the Philadelphia region's chemical complex. DowDuPont, which has invested in biofuels and is a major supplier of farm pesticides and seeds, supports the renewable-fuel payments policy and other government mandates "to increase the quantity of biofuels in the transportation fuel supply," said spokesman Daniel Turner in Wilmington. Ethanol reduces U.S. reliance on fossil fuels and boosts employment in farm country, Turner said. The company sees refiners' payments as "the right mechanism" to make ethanol attractive. Between pro-corn DowDuPont and oil-refiner PBF, it's no wonder Delaware's ruling Democrats are keeping a low public profile on this issue. By contrast, Gov. Wolf called on the Trump administration to waive payments for Northeastern refiners. But Bob Dinneen, chief of the Renewable Fuels Association, which includes DowDuPont and a lot of corn refineries, said Wolf is being unfair. Dineen said oil refiners' problems don't "severely harm" the economy, as the EPA would have to show to ease payments. The Philadelphia Energy Solutions unit just "can't compete with newer, more efficient refineries" closer to cheap North American crude, he said. The company, which is a billion dollars in debt, should add ethanol to its gasoline and end its "crusade" against the payments, Dineen concluded. With oil-refinery operating profit margins still high, the payments "are not going to single-handedly put any refinery out of business," oil-stocks analyst Pavel Molchanov of Raymond James & Associates told me. But they are squeezing the managers, lenders and investors who, with state aid and borrowed money, reopened the Delaware River oil plants and put thousands back to work after the last recession. (Robert Dinneen's surname has been corrected) Pramod Abichandani, a longtime professor at Drexel University now at New Jersey Institute of Technology, demonstrates how to use the Aura drones gesture-tracking glove controller that he developed. Read more Dozens of toy companies will serve up pint-size drones this holiday season, multi-propeller flying machines that can soar horizontally and vertically, hover in place, and do impressive loop-the-loops. But it's the Aura drone, developed by a Philadelphia-based team trading as Loco Robo Innovations, that's caught the attention of the industry pros at the Toy Insider, landing high on the trade magazine's "Best Tech Toys of 2017" list. "We've never seen anything like KD's latest innovation," said TTI analyst Marissa DiBartolo, putting all the praise on KD Interactive, the U.S. toy company that's helping to bring this flying machine to market initially at Toys R Us, Target, and Amazon at a "special introductory price" of $79.99. "This is definitely a top tech toy that will bring the entire family together this holiday season," DiBartolo said, "because kids and kids at heart will be eager to feel like they are channeling the Force and flying a drone with just a flick of the wrist." The special thrill of the Aura is how easily a person, small or tall, can get it up and running. And there's how difficult it is to make an Aura crash or disappear, thanks to a melding of a motion-sensing hand-worn controller, a sensitively attuned flying machine, and intuitive software that lead inventor Pramod Abichandani calls "Gesturebotics." "There's a lot of intelligence in drones and in the Aura as well," said the India-born Abichandani, 33, a former robotics professor at Drexel University now at New Jersey Institute of Technology, who created the project with his former Drexel engineering students and business partners, Kyle Levin and William McIntyre. "But if you look at the barrier of entry for piloting a drone," he said, it's usually in the joysticks the same hard-to-work, wireless controllers that have steered radio-controlled "vehicles for almost 30 years. Many's the story of a kid opening a box on Christmas morning, going outside and sending the new flying machine up into the air and it disappears forever." In large measure, that happens because the fledgling pilot couldn't grasp the concepts of pitch, roll and yaw. "When you bank and turn a drone around, the joystick controls need to be operated in reverse. What was left becomes right, what was forward is now backwards." Aura's one-size-fits-all remote control and companion brain power in the drone do the reverse engineering for you, mapping commands into a language the robotic toy follows. Strapped on with Velcro, then self-calibrating to your outstretched hand, the "inertial measurement" controller, loaded with sensors, responds to the wearer's simple gestures, with just two buttons for added help. Flip your hand up, and the Aura soars; down, and it dives. Hold steady and straight, so does the drone. Bank the hand left, now bank it right. Want to flip that thing? Press the thumb button. Because the Aura drone is lightweight, modestly powered (with six minutes run time between battery charges), and easily blown off course by wind, it's best used indoors. But it knows to not fly higher than nine or 10 feet, and automatically cuts power and lands if it bumps into anything. Propellers are safeguarded in a pliant polypropylene frame that bends on impact. Aura extends on smarts first deployed in the developers' initial hit project coding-teaching Loco Robo robots developed for the ed-tech market with $500,000 in first-round funding from DreamIt Ventures, Founder.org, and the New School Ventures Fund. Just a year and a half after that launch, those little bots are being programmed (with a smartphone app or one of four coding languages) by students in "about 300 schools across the U.S.," including Bucks County's Centennial School District and the Agnes Irwin School in Bryn Mawr. Loco Robo Innovations is already "profitable," said its CEO: "We've basically made more than our valuation in the first round." A second round is coming "pretty soon." Diving into the toy industry is not for slow movers or the faint of heart, said the relative newcomer to product development, tooling and factory-order financing. "Santander Bank's been very helpful with the funding," he added. "We started working on the Aura [in summer 2016]. Around October, we had prototypes, got some feedback from KD, a company we connected with for U.S. distribution because of its expertise in kids' tablets and smart watches and skills at reaching the target audience through social media and YouTube." (The Aura is sold in other countries by different companies.) "In November, we had a full spec, started writing the firmware and designing the hardware. Then we went to China, where we started getting into mass manufacturing. If you think about it, this was a really quick turnaround, with several sleepless months. By May-June, we were shipping." "The Aura is just hitting shelves," said the Fairmount-based inventor, "but we're already deep into the follow-up products KD wants to introduce at the New York Toy Fair in February. With any product made in China, you're sure to get knocked off. So you have to keep evolving. But at least we'll have this holiday to ourselves." U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady (R., Texas), during an announcement in the Capitols Rayburn Room on a tax-reform proposal with Republican House and Senate leaders on Sept. 27. Republicans on Thursday gave final approval to a 2018 GOP budget resolution. Read more Are we living in an upside-down bizarro world where lawmakers want us to save less instead of more for retirement? Apparently. Wall Street can't be happy about Congress' proposal to cap our yearly 401(k) contributions at $2,400 that's the tax-deferred amount we would be able to sock away in a retirement plan, down from $18,000. What does local mutual-fund giant Vanguard think of the idea? "The 401(k) plan is the cornerstone of the future retirement security of millions of Americans. As such, Vanguard is greatly concerned over any legislation that would negatively impact investors' ability or incentive to save for retirement. Proposals that mandate contributions be made after tax should be carefully reviewed to take into account their impact on incentives to save," according to Vanguard spokeswoman Laura Edling. The congressional proposal is an accounting gimmick lawmakers believe will help book tax revenues today and balance the budget in the short-term while forgoing much heftier tax revenues in the future. "It's a shell game Congress is using to make the budget revenue-neutral under the 10-year time frame," said David Danziger, who runs Tax-Advantaged Retirement Plans in Southampton for retirement-savings clients. "It's insane." Jeff Winkleman, tax partner with Marcum LLP in Center City, explains that Americans under the age of 50 can contribute up to $18,000 annually to their traditional 401(k) plans, and that was set to increase to $18,500 in 2018. We make contributions with before-tax dollars, and pay taxes when we pull money out. If Congress lowers the maximum annual contribution to $2,400, that would prompt many Americans to switch over to Roth 401(k)s, where the money is taxed upfront, not when it's withdrawn. If this dumb idea becomes law, which tax-deferred or other vehicles can we use to save instead? Steven Brett, president of Marcum Financial Services in Melville, N.Y., outlines a few: Deposit after-tax dollars into a Roth IRA instead of a 401(k), a phenomenon Danziger refers to as "Rothification." Open a Health Savings Account to save for health-care expenses down the road. You can deposit pretax dollars, then pay for nursing care, long-term care, insurance deductibles, hospital bills, etc. The account grows tax-free. As long as you use the HSA money for health care, you can also withdraw those dollars without taxation. If self-employed, open a SEP IRA or solo 401(k), which Congress hasn't yet targeted for any limits. As always, discuss any retirement-savings changes first with your financial adviser, tax attorney, or accountant. Pa. retirement task force Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Treasurer Joe Torsella convened a hearing Thursday in Allentown of the newly created Task Force on Private Sector Retirement Security. It was the first of three regional hearings across the state exploring the retirement crisis facing the more than 2 million working Pennsylvanians who lack access to employer-sponsored retirement plans. Almost 44 percent of Pennsylvanians, or 2.18 million private-sector workers, "do not have access to employer-sponsored retirement plans, and we believe this number will increase," Torsella said in a statement. "Access to a workplace retirement-savings plan dramatically increases retirement-savings rates, resulting in profoundly positive effects on retirement security," he said. "Leaving this group of workers without the opportunity to easily save for retirement through payroll deductions exacts a heavy cost upon both their future economic security and fiscal prospects for the commonwealth." The task force heard from Diane Oakley, executive director of the National Institute for Retirement Security; Daniel Eck, executive director, employee financial services, Ernst & Young; Keith Weigelt, professor at the Wharton School; Ellen Magenheim, professor at Swarthmore College; and Patricia Hasson, president of Clarifi, a nonprofit credit-counseling agency. Future hearings will include expert testimony on "Barriers Impeding Private Employer Support for Effective Employee Retirement Savings," to be held in Pittsburgh on Nov. 17, and "Options to Address the Retirement Savings Crisis in Pennsylvania," in Harrisburg in January. They're open to the public, so check for more details at PATreasury.gov. For a comprehensive look at how America saves IRAs are the chief vehicle, with $7.2 trillion in assets, defined contribution at $5.3 trillion refer to a just-released GAO report on retirement security in America, available at https://www.gao.gov/assets/690/687797.pdf. A mother's love is a powerful thing. I was reminded of just how much on Friday afternoon after Imelda Williams, the ailing mother of disgraced former Philadelphia District Attorney R. Seth Williams, let me know in no uncertain terms that she wants her son released from jail to visit her for what could well be the last time. "I just want to see my son," she told me. I got to chat with Imelda by phone after a woman who described herself as a Williams family "insider" called to complain about a recent column in which I wrote that Seth Williams shouldn't be let out of the Federal Detention Center where he is being held in solitary confinement to see his mother and get his affairs in order, as his attorney recently requested. Insisting I was wrong, the caller, who asked not to be identified, said, "This isn't about Seth" but about an 85-year-old woman who probably wouldn't live to see her son complete his five-year federal prison term. Williams is entitled to one visitor a week, but his mother can't visit him, the friend said, because she lacks the required government identification. Imelda, who has Parkinson's disease and is confined to a nursing home, reportedly can't find her birth certificate or her Social Security card, and she doesn't have a driver's license. At my request, the friend used three-way calling to loop Imelda in on our conversation. We spoke only briefly, but she made her desires perfectly clear. "I'd like to see my son," Imelda said. "If I don't do nothing but see him, that's all right," She couldn't recall the last time the son she had adopted as a toddler had visited her. "I don't remember when it was. It was in the past six months. I don't know exactly when it was. I don't remember anymore, really." In June, Williams' bail was revoked and he was abruptly taken into custody after unexpectedly pleading guilty during his federal bribery and corruption trial. On Tuesday, Williams was back in court, where U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond gave the city's first African American DA the maximum sentence of five years and called him a "criminal" who "fed his face at the trough" of public money. He also slammed Williams for dumping his mother "like a sack of potatoes" and stealing money intended for her nursing-home care. Diamond also addressed Williams' recent request, made through his attorney Thomas Burke, to be released so he could see his mother and also take care of some personal business before being assigned to the federal prison camp where he'll serve out his sentence. "The English language doesn't have the words to capture the outrageousness of that request," the judge railed. "The defendant stole from his mother, and now he wants to visit her?" Imelda told me that she'd taken it upon herself to write to the judge in advance of the sentencing. "I don't remember what I said, but I sent a letter to him and so did other people. The pastor from my church did the same thing. They are well-aware of what's going on," she said, referring to court officials. "I'd like to see [Seth]. He didn't do anything to me." At that I stopped Imelda, noting court testimony that her son took some of her money. "I don't know anything about that," Imelda said firmly. "I don't have nothing to say about that. Seth has never been a problem for me. He's never been a problem child for me." I asked, "He was a good son?" "You've got that right," Imelda said. "You miss him?" "Of course I do," she replied. "And I'm going to get off this telephone." I wished her good health and she hung up. As I pointed out earlier, mothers love hard even after they've been done wrong by the very ones they've done so much for. Once upon a time, Halloween was a kids' holiday, and it was fun. In school, we cut pumpkins out of orange construction paper and attached them to poster board with a white glue that handled like cottage cheese (and didn't taste too bad). We went trick-or-treating with no concern about being kidnapped or poisoned or worse. In recent decades, Halloween has been commandeered by adults young adults, anyway. Handmade costumes are faded memories, replaced by $6.9 billion in Halloween sales, says the National Retail Federation. Along with its popularity have come accusations that Halloween is a cauldron of cultural appropriation. That is defined as borrowing traditional artifacts, rituals, or dress from another culture, often without proper context. There is some truth in that, because it is a holiday, not an ethnographic college report. There was also some truth to complaints from the religious that Halloween was a pagan celebration. A simple response would be to ignore it if it offends you, but simplicity is too difficult for some. Part of Halloween fun always has been dressing up like someone, whether that someone be a ghoul or a queen or a Mexican. Donning a sombrero and a serape is offensive, I hear, but wearing a kilt and sporran is not. It is OK to dress as a cowboy but not as a Native American. Anyone complain about Vikings? No. Samurais? Yes. Some cultures seem to be more fragile than others. Who decides who requires a safe space? Guilt-ridden white social scientists, usually. But despite the complaints and shaming, Halloween keeps growing maybe because fun-seekers are tired of sanctimonious lectures. Halloween originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain. People would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off ghosts, according to History.com. You could say it is cultural appropriation for anyone else to observe Halloween. See how silly it can get? Before packaged costumes, parents turned to materials around the home to produce costumes for the kids. The hobo was traditional, but we now know it insults the homeless. Before "Thriller," ghost costumes were fashioned out of a sheet or a pillow case. Today, some say mocking the dead (and undead) can be cruel. In the olden days, the princess was a favored costume for girls. But as we now know, that endorsed undemocratic monarchies and objectified women as mechanical hand wavers. Perhaps to elevate the role of girls, one costume manufacturer jumped the shark with an Anne Frank costume. It was forced to withdraw it after complaints on social media. Each year, some school will invent reasons to ban Halloween parades or parties, like an elementary school in Massachusetts. I guess they can wear Cincinnati Bengals helmets to show black-and-orange spirit. I see political correctness siphoning some of the fun out of the holiday, but Henri David doesn't. Mr. Halloween will be staging his 50th annual Halloween party Tuesday night at the Sheraton Philadelphia Downtown. "Politically correct? We don't have that problem," he says with a flourish. "Not for a second." But what is OK in a hotel showroom naughty words and nudity, for instance is different from what is permitted on college campuses, where dressing as Starbucks is OK, but not Pocahontas, and warnings are sent to students to avoid offense. In the end, we have modern-day moralists trying to dredge from a pagan ritual any morsel that might bother someone, somewhere, somehow. Must we make a mountain out of every molehill? Paul Manafort at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Rick Gates is at center rear. Both were indicted Monday. Read more The indictment of President Trump's former campaign manager and the guilty plea of a campaign adviser who lied about Russian contacts still fall short of definitive evidence of collusion with Russia. But they are the first shoes to drop, heavily, and there will be more from the investigation led by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. So when White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says such stunning events have "nothing to do with the president or his campaign's activities," the facts already contradict her. Big time. What's already clear from the plea by ex-foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos and the behavior of Paul Manafort is that Moscow was eager to give the Trump campaign illegally obtained dirt on Hillary Clinton and the Trump team was eager to obtain it. In other words, eager to collude with a country whose leader, Vladimir Putin, is hostile to the United States and was interfering in a U.S. election. What we don't know yet is whether the Trumpsters' yen to collude with Moscow ever led a concrete deal. To understand where the Manafort and Papadopoulos pieces fit into the bigger picture, you need some history. First point: Manafort was known to be in Russia's pocket well before he became Trump's campaign manager in March 2016. He had been a longtime public relations lobbyist for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a corrupt Kremlin crony who was ousted in a popular uprising in 2014. The Ukrainian leader was closely tied to Russian oligarchs, some of whom Manafort also got involved with notably Putin buddy Oleg Deripaska, to whom Manafort owed $17 million. The federal indictment accuses Manafort and his protege Rick Gates of laundering more than $75 million they received from Yanukovych and his political parties from 2006 to 2016 via offshore accounts and overseas shell companies without paying taxes. A huge chunk of the money went to fund his luxurious lifestyle. This was a man indebted to the Kremlin, in hock to a Putin ally, dogged by deep secrets that opened him to potential blackmail. He had every reason to want to collude with Moscow irrespective of U.S. interests. At the Republican National Convention, Manafort's minions excised wording from the platform that would have provided Ukraine with defensive arms to counter Russian aggression. The Washington Post reported that less than two weeks before Trump won the Republican nomination, Manafort offered to provide Deripaska with private briefings on the race. "The relationship with Deripaska raises questions about Manafort's relations with Putin," says John Herbst, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. So, while the indictment of Manafort doesn't directly link to campaign activity, it does provide the backdrop to Mueller's quest to learn if any Trumpsters colluded with Moscow. Second point: Putin held a deep grievance against Hillary Clinton, whom he blamed for 2011 protests in Moscow after Russian elections (the Kremlin blames every popular revolt in the former Soviet Union on Washington). So Moscow was eager to help Trump and undermine Clinton, including handing over hacked emails to Wikileaks. The Russians also thought they could more easily manipulate Trump: The New York Times reported that top Russian officials discussed how to influence Trump aides last summer. Third point: Candidate Trump made publicly clear he was open to Kremlin assistance, urging Moscow to hack Hillary. "Russia, if you're listening, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," he said on July 27, 2016. He also said Russian hacking "gives me no pause." This brings us to today's guilty plea by Papadopoulos, one of the campaign's early foreign policy advisers. He admitted to lying about an April 2016 meeting with a source closely linked to the Russian government who told him Moscow had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, including "thousands of emails." Federal court documents indicate senior campaign officials, probably including Manafort, encouraged Papadopoulos to pursue this route. In case you buy spokeswoman Sanders' argument that Papadopoulos was unimportant, please recall a similar meeting with Russians in June 2016 that included the Trump family. Donald Trump Jr., First Son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Manafort met in Trump Tower with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer who had promised to deliver documents that would damage Clinton. "I love it," Trump Jr. responded via email to the intermediary who set up the meeting. So how does all of this add up? We (and the feds) know that Manafort was in touch with Kremlin contacts as campaign adviser in ways that were deeply improper. We know that Papadopoulos, along with Manafort, Kushner, and Trump Jr., were seeking dirt from Moscow on Clinton, including emails hacked by Russia as part of an effort to disrupt the U.S. election. We still don't know if these dots will link up to reveal indictable offenses, nor what former national security adviser Michael Flynn's Russian adventures might add to the picture. But today's events reveal the Trump team's intentions. In normal times, this information alone would discredit an administration (and there is no comparison here to the Democrats' opposition research whose goal was to expose, not collude with, Kremlin misbehavior). But these times are not normal. The president's campaign adviser and family followed his lead in seeking to collude with the Kremlin to undermine a U.S. election. Yes, they won the ballot, but they have dirtied themselves. Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller, left, announces charges in the death of Penn State student Tim Piazza, as his parents look on. Read more Two more Pennsylvania State University fraternities were sanctioned Saturday for alcohol-related violations, including an event called "Fifth and a Friend," designed to encourage consumption, the school announced. The university revoked its recognition of Delta Upsilon through the spring semester and Pi Lambda Phi through spring 2019. That means the fraternities lose all rights and privileges and are prohibited from participating in any university function as a group. The violations occurred over multiple weeks since the start of the fall semester, according to the university. "The misbehavior of these chapters demonstrates very little regard for the trouble alcohol can bring," said Damon Sims, vice president for student affairs. "I am disappointed by this outcome." Greek organizations had been banned from serving alcohol during social events at least through Nov. 1, as university-mandated educational training of new members was being conducted. University spokeswoman Lisa Powers said Monday that the ban will remain in effect until the training and risk management plans and policies are complete, likely later in November. The sanctions come more than midway through the fall semester as the university continues its crackdown on Greek life in the wake of the death of sophomore pledge Tim Piazza last February. Piazza, 19, an engineering major from New Jersey, died after attending a pledge event at the now-closed Beta Theta Pi fraternity where hazing is alleged. Piazza was forced to consume large amounts of alcohol at the party, including running a drinking gauntlet, prosecutors have alleged. He later fell down the stairs and languished for nearly 12 hours before fraternity members called for help. He died of a brain injury, ruptured spleen and a collapsed lung. Fourteen members of Beta Theta Pi remain charged in his death, including eight members who face involuntary manslaughter and felony aggravated assault charges after Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller refiled those charges last week. A Centre County judge had dismissed those charges after a lengthy preliminary hearing over the summer. Since Piazza's death, the university has instituted new rules on its fraternities and sororities, including prohibiting entering freshmen from beginning the pledge process, requiring 12 hours of educational training for all new members and banning hard liquor and kegs. The school also hired personnel to conduct random checks of the houses to make sure members are adhering to rules. But some Greek groups have continued to flout those regulations. With Saturday's action against Delta Upsilon and Pi Lambda Phi, just under 80 fraternities and sororities remain in operation at Penn State. Four have lost recognition since Piazza's death, including Beta Theta Pi and Sigma Alpha Mu. Delta Upsilon was disciplined for organizing socials involving alcohol and underage drinking twice in a three-week period, the university said. That included the event called "Fifth and a Friend," during which guests are encouraged to bring a fifth of alcohol and a friend to share it with. The Pi Lambda Phi chapter made alcohol available to guests on three occasions during social events and exceeded the capacity of its house in violation of rules, the school said. Pi Lambda Phi's national chapter also has begun the process of closing the chapter, the school said. The suspensions are the first to occur under a new disciplinary process overseen by the university. Previously, the student-run Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council oversaw misconduct cases. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf gestures as he speaks at a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon in Harrisburg, Pa., Monday, Oct. 30, 2017. Wolf has approved legislation authorizing a major expansion of gambling in what is already the nation's second-largest commercial casino state. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Read more HARRISBURG Gov. Wolf signed Monday most of the bills needed to bring the state's $32 billion budget into balance, authorizing an expansion of casino gambling and a borrowing plan pushed by lawmakers. And he took one more chance to complain about the politics of the Republican legislative majority that he blames for months of budget chaos and a credit downgrade. "I'm sick and tired of special-interest politicians, self-interest, political games trumping the public interest here in Harrisburg," the Democratic governor said in a speech Monday at the monthly press club luncheon in Harrisburg. It sounded like an early campaign speech. Wolf is up for re-election next year, and one of the candidates who hopes to challenge him, Sen. Scott Wagner (R., York), sat in the crowd listening. Still, even after the governor's speech and an impromptu news conference, many questions remain unanswered. Near the top of the list is how much the state will be looking to borrow. Wolf this month unveiled a plan to borrow $1.25 billion and pay it back using revenue from the Liquor Control Board. He did that when the legislature was dragging its heels on a revenue package, before it passed a plan to borrow $1.5 billion against proceeds of the state's landmark settlement with tobacco companies. On Monday, Wolf signed the tobacco-fund loan plan. Asked whether he would continue to pursue his idea of borrowing against liquor money, he first said yes, then later said he misspoke. At the end of the day, it was clear only that he will provide more clarity after the Commonwealth Financing Authority decides whether to approve the plan involving the tobacco money. One of the bills Wolf signed Monday also required him to take $300 million out of dedicated funds for projects ranging from transportation to environmental clean-up. Wolf did not specify which funds he might tap. "If I do that," he said, he would "take a look at that to make sure it's not actually damaging programs." Wolf suggested he may veto one bill remaining on his desk the education code, the bill that authorizes spending to the state's public schools. "There are a couple of things I'm not real comfortable with," he said, though he didn't note exactly which provisions troubled him. He added later: "I'd like to, I think, go back to the drawing board." A few lines tucked into the education bill would allow school districts, when laying off teachers for economic reasons, to do so on the basis of performance evaluations rather than seniority. That measure is deeply opposed by school unions in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said the provision would be damaging. "It's really opening the door to a selective and abusive employer practice," said Jordan, whose support was crucial to Wolf's gubernatorial win. "It's subjective and arbitrary." The PFT objects to the evaluation system generally; under it, Jordan said, teachers who were judged exemplary by their principals can end up with "needs improvement" ratings overall because they work in struggling schools. Such teachers could, in theory, be laid off, he said. The teachers' union in Pittsburgh expressed similar concerns. The president, Nina Esposito-Visgitis, said in a statement that the layoff provision was "horrifying" and urged Wolf to veto the bill. In addition to outlining the formula to calculate spending for districts, the education-code bill also includes language that requires training for newly elected school board members and charter school trustees; a provision that delays a rule that high-school students must pass standardized tests to graduate; and language that prohibits "lunch shaming," meaning districts must provide students with food even if they owe money. Staff writer Kristen A. Graham and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff writer Liz Behrman contributed to this article. Michael Cripps, 43, Colwyn, is led away from the Delaware County Courthouse in Media after being arraigned October 30, 2017 on charges of being a sexual predator of children. CLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer Read more Michael Cripps' usual work uniform was a costume of SpongeBob Square Pants, Mickey Mouse, or Elmo when he entertained at kids' birthday parties. On Monday, Cripps donned a pair of green prison sweats and handcuffs, but it wasn't for a party. Instead, Cripps, 43, of Colwyn, was in custody after being charged with sexually assaulting five boys whose mothers he allegedly befriended to get access to their children. "Make no mistake, this is a very serious child predator," Delaware County District Attorney John J. Whelan told reporters at an afternoon news conference in Media. Whelan said that the five cases charged were likely just "the tip of the iceberg" and that he expected more victims would come forward. Cripps, a short, heavyset man with close-cut gray hair, shouted "Nope!" when reporters asked if he was guilty of the charges as county detectives led him from the courthouse. Cripps is being held on $250,000 bail, but Whelan said Cripps would not be released even if he had the money because he was on parole after serving time for a series of burglaries. Cripps is scheduled for preliminary hearings Nov. 8 before Folcroft District Judge Steven A. Sandone and Nov. 14 before Upper Darby District Judge Robert J. Radano. Whelan said that Cripps had operated the company M.C. Parties since 2010 or 2011 and that his Facebook page includes numerous photos of him in costume or with children, some also in costume. The criminal charges involving the five victims, however, did not involve his work as a child entertainer. Instead, Whelan said, Cripps allegedly targeted single or divorced women with young boys, struck up relationships, and then volunteered to babysit in their houses or his while the mother was at work. Whelan said the alleged assaults occurred at 14 addresses in Upper Darby, East Lansdowne, Lansdowne, Aldan, Darby, and Colwyn. The affidavit of probable cause filed with Cripps' arrest noted that Cripps lived or stayed at 13 Delaware County addresses, and one each in Philadelphia and Chester Counties, between 1998 and 2012. Whelan said the first report of Cripps' alleged sexual assaults on boys was in 2012, but his office did not believe it had enough evidence to file charges. Moreover, Cripps then already was being prosecuted by the Delaware County District Attorney's Office for a series of burglaries. Cripps pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two to four years in prison. The affidavit of probable cause reports that in July 2012, a child-abuse hotline report alleged that four boys, ages 8 to 17, were compelled to sleep in the same bed with Cripps on numerous occasions and that Cripps became angry when the boys refused or resisted. On Sept. 18, county detectives interviewed a man between ages 18 and 25 who described how he allegedly was sexually assaulted by Cripps and who said he was present for two of the sexual assaults reported in 2012, involving brothers ages 8 and 7, the affidavit said. The man alleged that Cripps would take a young boy to his room and lock the door. The September 2017 interview occurred at the same time county detectives were investigating a new child-abuse hotline report alleging that Cripps had sexually assaulted a 5-year-old boy. The boy told detectives that Cripps had touched his genitals, according to the affidavit. The interview of the 5-year-old was followed on Oct. 24 by an interview with a boy, 17, who told county detectives that Cripps had sexually molested him when he was 10 in a house in Drexel Hill. Criminal court records show that Cripps was arrested twice in 2003 and 2006 on sex-assault charges involving minors, but in both cases, the charges were withdrawn. Brandon Olivieri, 16, has been charged with fatally shooting Salvatore DiNubile, 16, and Caleer Miller, 16, in South Philadelphia on Oct. 24, 2017. Read more A lawyer for Brandon Olivieri, the teenager accused of fatally shooting two 16-year-olds during an argument last week in South Philadelphia, said Monday that the youth denies the charges, and that he was "very good friends" with one of the victims and would have no reason to shoot him. "There's no motive here at all," attorney James Lammendola said. "There's no motive whatsoever, as far as this case [is] concerned." Police and court documents support the contention that Olivieri, 16, was friends with Caleer Miller, one of the two shooting victims last Tuesday. Authorities contend that Olivieri shot the other victim, Salvatore DiNubile, during a dispute involving at least five teens at 12th and Ritner Streets, and that a stray bullet struck Miller in the chest. The new details provide a partial glimpse into an incident that shocked the city and has led to vigils, funerals, and even retaliatory violence against Olivieri's family home. Still, many questions remain unanswered, such as what the teens were fighting over, or how any of them would have been able to obtain a gun. Lammendola said that he spoke briefly with Olivieri on Friday, when Olivieri surrendered to police, but that he hoped to speak to him again in the coming days. Homicide Capt. John Ryan on Monday declined to provide specifics on the events that precipitated the shooting. Relatives of DiNubile and Miller have not spoken publicly about the crime. DiNubile was a junior at St. Joseph's Preparatory School, and Miller was a junior at Mastery Charter School Thomas campus. Hundreds of mourners attended separate vigils for the youths last week. Court documents say at least five teens gathered on the 2300 block of South 12th Street around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday. Ryan said the members of each group knew one another but declined to elaborate. According to court documents, at least one other person was with DiNubile during the confrontation, and another person was with Olivieri and Miller at the time. After a brief conversation, the documents say, Olivieri pulled a .45-caliber handgun from his waistband. DiNubile reached for the gun and struggled with Olivieri, the documents say, but three shots went off. One hit DiNubile in the chest, and another struck Miller. Both teens were declared dead within an hour. Olivieri, meanwhile, tucked the gun into his waistband and ran away, according to court documents. Police have not recovered a gun, or said how a 16-year-old would have obtained it. Lammendola said the same type of handgun was used to shoot up Olivieri's family's house early Friday. Police said 14 shots were sprayed into the family's home, on the 1600 block of South Juniper Street after a police officer tweeted out information identifying Olivieri as a suspect. Two people were home at the time but no one was injured. Police said Monday that no one had been charged in the incident. Thousands of people mourned DiNubile at a funeral this weekend in South Philadelphia. Miller's funeral, meanwhile, is scheduled for Saturday morning at Love Kingdom Fellowship Church in Queen Village. Staff writer Colt Shaw contributed to this article. Upper Merion police respond to a parking garage at the King of Prussia Mall after officers shot an armed carjacking suspect who tried to mow them down in a stolen vehicle on Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017. Read more Upper Merion police say they shot a suspect in a string of recent gunpoint holdups as he tried to mow down officers with a stolen vehicle Sunday in a parking garage at the King of Prussia Mall. Investigators had tracked the man, whose name has not been released, to the second floor of a garage that leads to the Lord & Taylor and Nordstrom department stores on the shopping complex's south side just before 4 p.m. But when they approached the SUV he was driving a maroon 2012 Kia Sorento he sped off, intentionally ramming two police squad cars and aiming for officers attempting to pursue him on foot, Upper Merion Police Chief Thomas Nolan said. "I do not know specifically how our detectives learned he was up there, but they were advised that he was most likely in the garage," Nolan said. Investigators remained tight-lipped Sunday evening on some details of the shooting, including how many officers fired their weapons and how many shots were fired. But Nolan said more than one officer had fired at the man, who was later taken to Paoli Hospital suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. His condition as of late Sunday evening remained unclear. Nolan also declined to release the man's name, citing the ongoing investigation. Though he said that the man had been linked to three other violent crimes including a gunpoint holdup in the same mall parking garage a day before the shooting. In that episode, police said, at about 3:30 p.m. Saturday, he robbed a woman at gunpoint as she entered her vehicle. The suspect jumped in the rear seat of her vehicle, put a gun to the woman's head, and demanded her purse, before fleeing in the same Sorento in which he was found Sunday. Investigators said they believe he stole the SUV on Friday in a carjacking, robbery and kidnapping of an 87-year-old man in Claymont, Del. New Castle County police have said that the suspect in that case forced his way into his victim's vehicle while it was parked in his driveway just before 10 a.m. The suspect drove the man around for several minutes at gunpoint before dropping him off near I-95 and fleeing with the SUV. Investigators believe that just one night earlier, the same suspect had attempted to take a set of car keys from another victim in Wilmington, and fired twice into the lobby of an apartment building as the person fled inside. Though detectives in Delaware have identified the carjacker involved in both of those crimes as Kalin Jackson, 23, of New Castle, Del., Upper Merion police would not confirm Sunday night that Jackson was the man officers shot in the mall parking garage. Upper Merion police said a 9mm handgun was recovered from the driver's seat of the stolen vehicle on Sunday. They said that in the three previous robberies, the suspect was also known to be armed with a 9mm handgun. Montgomery County detectives continue to investigate Sunday's shooting. As per department policy, the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave pending the results of the investigation, Nolan said. In a statement, mall officials thanked the Upper Merion police for their "swift action." "The situation was contained, the suspect apprehended and no customers or employees were harmed," it read. On Halloween one year ago, a father and son drove along a winding road in the waning Luzerne County light, whipping up dead leaves until they pulled the pickup into a gravel turnout beside a well-worn hunting trail. The dog in the backseat probably caught the scent before the ignition was off, because the body wasn't far off or hidden all that well, a head and torso exposed in the brush on a little hill just 10 yards away. The dog bolted straight for it. The remains, dismembered and scattered off White Haven Road in Bear Creek Township, were later identified as Grace Packer, a 14-year-old girl from Bucks County reported missing by her adoptive mother, Sara Packer, more than three months earlier. The missing persons case quickly evolved into something far darker, and that same mother was arrested in January and charged with helping her boyfriend, Jacob Sullivan, allegedly beat, rape, and slowly murder the girl. The hunters went unnamed in court documents and news accounts, a small detail in a story deep with sadness. The men still won't talk publicly about last Halloween. "It really, really bothered them," Trooper Lisa Brogan of the Pennsylvania State Police said at the site this month. "They called the police. They stayed at the scene. They did everything right." No agency keeps count, but every year across the country, hunters consistently find human remains. There are well over 10 million registered hunters in the United States, men and women accustomed to time off-trail, with eyes trained to pick out the minutiae of the landscape. On Oct. 24, in Idaho, hunters found the remains of a woman whose car crashed into a river in 2016. Two days before that, hunters found remains in an Idaho desert. On Sept. 29, two bow hunters found human remains in Somerset County in western Pennsylvania. A hunter in Michigan found human remains on Sunday. Often, the dead are other hunters who've fallen from trees or had accidents. Most are missing people, hikers who lost their way or senior citizens who wandered off from assisted living centers. Hunters find people who've taken their own lives and people who've been killed, like Grace Packer. "That's the thing about hunting season I'm always hopeful about," said J. Todd Matthews, director of case management and communications for the National Missing Persons Data System (NamUS). With the bulk of hunting seasons in fall and winter, Matthews said, hunters are heading out at an ideal time, when the weather kills off vegetation. "Anything that puts thousands of people in the woods scanning for details helps us, even mushroom hunters," he said. On a late summer afternoon in the early 1970s, Bill Dominick was scouting in a forest not far from where Grace Packer was found in Bear Creek Township. He had just returned from tours of Vietnam with the Marine Corps. He did demolition work during the war. Hunting, he said, was a way to dull the noise in his head. Dominick was surprised to see a young man sitting on a tree stump by a tent far off any trail and went to say hello. "Where this kid is, people just don't go," Dominick, 70, said last week. When he approached, he saw a .22 rifle between the man's legs. "There was just one little trickle of blood running down by his ear," he said. Police were grateful, Dominick said, and he faded into the background when they arrived. The suicide victim was a young man from New York. "I really didn't think that much about it at the time," he said. "But I don't think I had been back to that spot since then." The district attorneys' offices in Bucks and Luzerne Counties didn't mention the two hunters much in statements and news conferences about the Packer case. Brogan said neither man responded to a request to be interviewed by the Inquirer and Daily News. In Atlantic County, N.J., hunters have found numerous bodies of murder victims. On Dec. 8, 2008 in Hamilton Township, a hunter found the body of Marc Rubin, 46, of Abington, wrapped in a carpet. Rubin's daughter, Christina, and her boyfriend were convicted of his murder. Another body was found in the same township by a hunter less than a year later. A spokeswoman for the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office declined to comment for this story or reach out to those hunters. On November 3, 2005, a hunter found the remains of a man identified as Bryan K. Hunter in Franklin Township, Gloucester County. Hunter's death was ruled a homicide, and the case remains unsolved. One sheriff's office in Tennessee sent out a news release in 2014 telling "hunters, hikers, construction crews, etc." what to do and not do if they find remains. Not touching anything is key. "It's a little nerve-racking. I'd never done anything like this before," Jim Schoenstein of Absecon, Atlantic County, said of his drive to a police station to report the skeleton he'd found. Schoenstein, 58, was moving a hunting tree stand in Hamilton Township in March 2003 when he saw a skeleton. "There were no clothes, no jewelry, nothing," he said. "It's a real thick piece of woods, very overgrown and sandy, and swampy. I doubt this person would have ever been found." Schoenstein said he heard the remains were an older male, but didn't learn of an identity. Joe N., a hunter from Lower Bucks County, did learn the identity of the remains he found while tracking a deer his friend shot near the Route 611 bypass in Plumstead Township in fall 1996. Kurt Kleber, a Bensalem dentist, was last seen when he dropped his wife off at Philadelphia International Airport in 1991. The hunter, who asked that his full name not be used for reasons of privacy, said he found Kleber's skeleton five years later. "I lifted the shirt and all the rib bones fell out," he said. Police found no evidence of foul play in Kleber's death, and the hunter has not spoken to the man's family. Joe N. said he never felt like a hero, but always hoped his discovery brought some closure to Kleber's family. "I think if I had found a child, it would have really messed me up," he said. Packer's remains were eventually handled by a funeral home in Carbon County, where they were cremated and given to her grandparents. Sara Packer and Sullivan are scheduled for trial in April. "That poor girl," Brogan said. The trooper didn't know if the hunters who found Packer's remains followed the case afterward. She didn't know whether the father and son felt they granted the girl, dumped like trash in the autumn leaves, some semblance of dignity. Jennifer Appe (right) and Tasha Fuiava sit with their dogs on the deck of the USS Ashland on Monday at White Beach Naval Facility in Okinawa, Japan. Read more Two amateur sailors set first feet on land Monday after spending nearly half a year lost at sea a journey they said took them through shark attacks and waves as tall as office buildings, and nearly killed them on the brink of their rescue by the U.S. Navy. "The crew of the USS Ashland saved our lives, not from the ocean, but from the vessel that was trying to render assistance to us," Jennifer Appel told reporters after the Navy ship docked in Okinawa, Japan. "Had they not been able to locate us, we would have been dead within 24 hours." Appel's voyage began thousands of miles away in Hawaii, when she, Tasha Fuiava and their two dogs set off in a sailboat on May 3 to explore they thought Tahiti and other Pacific islands thousands of miles to the south. Appel had been sailing for a decade, the Guardian reported but close to her home in Honolulu. "I have no idea what's going to happen out there," she recalled telling Fuiava, who replied: "That's OK, I've never sailed." The pair had spent years preparing for the journey, and stuffed the 50-foot Sea Nymph with food and provisions just in case the trip lasted more than the planned two-and-a-half weeks. On their first day at sea, Appel said, a violent storm hit with waves as high as 50 feet. The storm lashed the Sea Nymph for three days, but when it finally subsided, the women were more confident than ever in their abilities, and decided to sail on. "The boat could withstand the forces of nature," Appel said. From there, problems spiraled. The boat's mast was somehow damaged, and its frame was too big to dock at the tiny island of Kiribati for repairs. So they kept sailing, hobbled and already hundreds of miles off their planned course. At the end of May long after the women were supposed to have reached Tahiti a white squall flooded their cockpit and wrecked the engine. Now they were simply adrift. They began to send out distress signals, but no answer came back. Fuiava recalled to NBC's Today show that she would stand watch at night, and shoot a flare into the sky whenever she saw a ship on the horizon. "They would turn or keep going," she said. They did what they could to survive. The ship's water purifier broke, according to the Guardian, but they figured out how to fix it. When the dog food ran out, Zeus and Valentine made do with the women's provisions mostly dry goods like oatmeal, pasta and nuts. They had packed enough food to last them a year, they thought, but the supply was dwindling rapidly. And the ocean brought other dangers. One day, the women recalled, a pack of tiger sharks found them. The sharks started ramming the boat, and kept at it so long it that seemed to Appel they were hunting. "When those things would hit the boat, my own teeth would rattle in my head," Appel told reporters. She and Fuiava and the dogs all huddled on the floor below deck. "I told them not to bark because the sharks could hear us breathing. They could smell us," Appel told "Today." They spent month after month like that "Wondering if today is your last day, if tonight is your last night," Appel told reporters. By late October nearly hurricane season in the South Pacific the food had run down to the last rations. They had by now spent nearly six months on the Sea Nymph, and it seemed less and less likely that they could do so for much longer. And then on Tuesday, a Taiwanese fishing boat found them about 900 miles from the coast of Japan, thousands of miles from home and nowhere close to Tahiti. But when the fishermen tried to tow the sailboat, the Associated Press reported, they damaged it even more. Appel managed to swim to the fishing vessel and made one last mayday call. Then she swam back to her companions and waited. They watched the empty horizon. The day passed. It was at this point, Appel said, that she began to fear that death was imminent. "We actually talked about how we believed we'd been left for dead," she told reporters. But come Wednesday, she knew: The U.S. Navy had heard her distress call. "They see us," she told Fuiava, ABC News reported. Appel recalled shaking as the gray hull of the USS Ashland grew in the distance. She stood on the edge of the Sea Nymph and blew kisses, while the dogs barked and ran wildly down the length of the crippled sailboat. Appel and Fuiava would spend nearly another week at sea but they were no longer adrift, and no longer scared and alone. As the women waited to dock in Japan, they passed the time exploring the Ashland's massive deck, Appel told the Navy last week. And wherever they wandered, she said, seamen would rush up to help. " 'Where are you going?' they'd say. 'We know you're lost.' " Two amateur sailors set first feet on land Monday after spending nearly half a year lost at sea a journey they said took them through shark attacks and waves as tall as office buildings, and nearly killed them on the brink of their rescue by the U.S. Navy. "The crew of the USS Ashland saved our lives, not from the ocean, but from the vessel that was trying to render assistance to us," Jennifer Appel told reporters after the Navy ship docked in Okinawa, Japan. "Had they not been able to locate us, we would have been dead within 24 hours." Appel's voyage began thousands of miles away in Hawaii, when she, Tasha Fuiava and their two dogs set off in a sailboat on May 3 to explore they thought Tahiti and other Pacific islands thousands of miles to the south. Appel had been sailing for a decade, the Guardian reported but close to her home in Honolulu. "I have no idea what's going to happen out there," she recalled telling Fuiava, who replied: "That's okay, I've never sailed." The pair had spent years preparing for the journey, and stuffed the 50-foot Sea Nymph with food and provisions just in case the trip lasted more than the planned two-and-a-half weeks. On their first day at sea, Appel said, a violent storm hit with waves as high as 50 feet. The storm lashed the Sea Nymph for three days, but when it finally subsided, the women were more confident than ever in their abilities, and decided to sail on. "The boat could withstand the forces of nature," Appel said. From there, problems spiraled. The boat's mast was somehow damaged, and its frame was too big to dock at the tiny island of Kiribati for repairs. So they kept sailing, hobbled and already hundreds of miles off their planned course. At the end of May long after the women were supposed to have reached Tahiti a white squall flooded their cockpit and wrecked the engine. Now they were simply adrift. They began to send out distress signals, but no answer came back. Fuiava recalled to NBC's "Today" show that she would stand watch at night, and shoot a flare into the sky whenever she saw a ship on the horizon. "They would turn or keep going," she said. They did what they could to survive. The ship's water purifier broke, according to the Guardian, but they figured out how to fix it. When the dog food ran out, Zeus and Valentine made do with the women's provisions mostly dry goods like oatmeal, pasta and nuts. They had packed enough food to last them a year, they thought, but the supply was dwindling rapidly. And the ocean brought other dangers. One day, the women recalled, a pack of tiger sharks found them. The sharks started ramming the boat, and kept at it so long it that seemed to Appel they were hunting. "When those things would hit the boat, my own teeth would rattle in my head," Appel told reporters. She and Fuiava and the dogs all huddled on the floor below deck. "I told them not to bark because the sharks could hear us breathing. They could smell us," Appel told "Today." They spent month after month like that "Wondering if today is your last day, if tonight is your last night," Appel told reporters. By late October nearly hurricane season in the South Pacific the food had run down to the last rations. They had by now spent nearly six months on the Sea Nymph, and it seemed less and less likely that they could do so for much longer. And then on Tuesday, a Taiwanese fishing boat found them about 900 miles from the coast of Japan, thousands of miles from home and nowhere close to Tahiti. But when the fishermen tried to tow the sailboat, the Associated Press reported, they damaged it even more. Appel managed to swim to the fishing vessel and made one last mayday call. Then she swam back to her companions and waited. They watched the empty horizon. The day passed. It was at this point, Appel said, that she began to fear that death was imminent. "We actually talked about how we believed we'd been left for dead," she told reporters. But come Wednesday, she knew: The U.S. Navy had heard her distress call. "They see us," she told Fuiava, ABC News reported. Appel recalled shaking as the gray hull of the USS Ashland grew in the distance. She stood on the edge of the Sea Nymph and blew kisses, while the dogs barked and ran wildly down the length of the crippled sailboat. Appel and Fuiava would spend nearly another week at sea but they were no longer adrift, and no longer scared and alone. As the women waited to dock in Japan, they passed the time exploring the Ashland's massive deck, Appel told the Navy last week. And wherever they wandered, she said, seamen would rush up to help. " 'Where are you going?' they'd say. 'We know you're lost.' " Early on Monday morning, news broke that Paul Manafort and his former business partner Rick Gates were turning themselves in to federal authorities to face charges related to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Below, an overview of why Manafort in particular may have been ensnared by Mueller's investigation. Question: Who is Paul Manafort? Answer: Paul Manafort is a longtime political consultant and lobbyist in Washington. His career took two tracks that are important for understanding how we got to this point. The first is that Manafort helped multiple Republican presidential nominees manage their efforts at their party conventions, including Gerald Ford in 1976, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 and George H. W. Bush in 1988. He also managed Bob Dole's 1996 presidential bid. The second is that Manafort also worked on behalf of a number of questionable international actors, including Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the Russia-backed president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych was ousted in 2014, during the period in which Russia-Ukraine tensions spiked. Much more on this below. Q: What was his relationship to Trump? A: In March 2016, as Donald Trump was trying to ensure his victory in the Republican nomination fight, he hired Manafort to help corral delegates for the upcoming convention. At the time, you may remember, there was a lot of talk about whether or not Republican delegates pledged to Trump would hold steady as the convention unfolded. Manafort had helped Ford with that task in 1976, fending off a challenge from Reagan. The recommendation to hire Manafort came from Trump's longtime ally Roger Stone, who'd formed a lobbying firm with Manafort after the 1980 election. Manafort accepted a position with the Trump campaign for no salary. Manafort's questionable business associations were well known, but, at the time, Trump was still having trouble attracting top-tier Republican staffers who were skeptical that Trump was a viable candidate. Once on the campaign, he butted heads with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. In late June, Trump's children helped convince him to oust Lewandowski and elevate Manafort, who became campaign chairman. He held that senior position with the campaign until August. On the day he resigned, former House speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox News' Sean Hannity that "nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to really help get this campaign to where it is right now." Q: Why did he part ways with Trump? A: For this, we need to talk a bit more about Manafort's background. In 2006, Manafort's company (of which Gates was part) signed a multi-year agreement with a Russian oligarch named Oleg Deripaska apparently based on a 2005 proposal in which Manafort outlined a strategy that would "greatly benefit the [Russian president Vladimir] Putin Government." Deripaska is closely tied to Putin. That same year, Manafort began working with Yanukovych's Party of Regions in Ukraine. In 2010, Yanukovych was elected as that country's president. In 2014, he was ousted during a popular uprising in the country largely because of his sympathies for Russia. A ledger found in a former Party of Regions office in Kiev reported last year indicated that Manafort may have received nearly $13 million in off-the-record payments from the party during his time working with them. Manafort denied the allegation, but the Associated Press later confirmed some of the payments. At the time, Trump was facing a number of questions about his relationship with Russia and any financial ties to the country. Revelation that his campaign chairman may have been paid by a Russian-backed political party helped spur Trump to oust Manafort from his position. Q: Does this news prove that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia? A: No. It's important to remember that the investigation by Mueller is looking at Russian meddling in the 2016 election as well as any possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian agents. But as an arm of the Justice Department, Mueller's team is also authorized to investigate "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation." Think about it this way. If the police were called to your house to interview you about noise complaint and saw you standing over a dead body holding a knife, that might also come up as a subject of conversation. Q: What do the charges relate to? A: The indictment includes 12 counts, focused on a few things: Misleading the government, failing to register as a foreign agent, laundering money and failing to report foreign income. It includes a conspiracy charge which is broadly about misleading the government, including that Manafort (and Gates) provided false statements to investigators and failed to register as foreign agents. (Manafort eventually did so in June after his work with the campaign drew attention to himself.) This is not a charge the Manafort conspired against the United States on behalf of Russia during the election. The financial charges relate to $75 million that Manafort and Gates earned overseas, $18 million of which was then allegedly laundered by Manafort. This money was apparently largely earned through the pair's work in Ukraine. It's important to note that these investigations predate Manafort's time as head of the Trump campaign. In 2014, the FBI began an investigation into Manafort, including a wiretap. (That same year, Deripaska accused Manafort and Gates of taking $19 million from him that was meant to be invested in a cable network in Ukraine.) The investigation into Manafort was restarted in the spring of last year. BuzzFeed reports that the FBI is investigating wire transfers that were made in 2012 and 2013. In other words, even had he not worked with Trump's campaign, Manafort might have faced an indictment like this anyway. Q: Does this close the door on whether or not Manafort was involved in colluding on the campaign? A: The main caveat worth remembering here is that Manafort was out of the campaign by August meaning that he wasn't there for the closing days of Trump's effort. That said, there are two ways in which Manafort and Russian interests overlapped during his time on the campaign. The first relates to Deripaska, the Putin-allied oligarch. Shortly after Manafort started with the campaign, he emailed a business partner in Ukraine and asked how his new position might be used to "get whole," asking if Deripaska's team was aware of his new position. Later in the campaign, Manafort sought to pass word to Deripaska that a private briefing on the campaign might be possible. It doesn't seem to have happened. (Worth noting: During the campaign, the Trump campaign then managed by Manafort worked to remove language in the party platform about arming Ukraine in its efforts against Russia.) Manafort was also one of the participants in the infamous Trump Tower meeting set up by Donald Trump Jr. and involving a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer who was offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. During that meeting, Trump Jr. described Manafort as being on his phone the whole time, hinting that the content was not interesting to the campaign chairman. Later, though, Manafort turned over notes from the meeting that he'd taken on his phone. It is possible that the Manafort indictment is meant to serve as leverage in Mueller's broader investigation. There is no mention in the indictment of Trump. In 2006, Manafort bought a condominium in Trump Tower. Other New York real estate Manafort purchased in 2012 is listed in the indictment because the money used to buy the properties wasn't included in his tax returns. More charges could be filed against Manafort in the future. Q: Are there still ties between Manafort and Trump? A: Trump has a pattern of continuing to talk with people he'd once hired on the campaign, even if they'd been fired. It's not clear if that was maintained with Manafort, though Manafort did call former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus shortly before Trump's inauguration. The Daily Beast reported in June that Gates was a regular visitor to the White House, working with Trump ally Tom Barrack. (Barrack recently fretted over Trump's presidency in an interview with The Post.) Yaralis Ortiz-Moralez, 29, (right) came to Philadelphia from Puerto Rico last week with her young sons. Ilana Refaeli, an interpreter who works at the assistance center, is trying to help her find work. Read more More than 500 people from Puerto Rico have signed up for help at a North Philadelphia disaster relief center since Hurricane Maria made landfall on the island Sept. 20. Behind plastic tables, laptops, and stacks of paper, city and relief workers ask the displaced what they lost in the Category 4 storm and what they need to piece their lives back together. The newcomers might look to Jo Quasney. Twelve years ago, she took a similar walk around tables at the the old Wanamaker School, which sheltered people displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Now 72, Quasney was one of about 1,600 people who came to Philadelphia from New Orleans after Katrina. She never left. "Philadelphia's been good to me," Quasney said from her apartment in Mount Airy last week. "I was at the lowest point a person can be, and the city welcomed me." Now, Philadelphia is extending its arms again with fewer resources, but a lot of heart. When Quasney arrived, Pennsylvania had been designated an official host state meaning federal money came to help with relief efforts. This time, the state does not have that designation, but Philadelphia is pooling its resources all the same. "We're helping them figure out everything, from food to clothing to enrolling in school," said Ilana Refaeli, a translator from Manayunk. Refaeli, 38, is usually the first person people see when they come into the center. She moved to Philadelphia from Venezuela with her parents, both Israeli, when she was 11. She knew no English. She tells that to parents who worry about their Spanish-speaking kids. Philadelphia realized early on it would be a refuge for Puerto Ricans. Its population is about 15 percent Latino, and three out of four Latinos in the city are from Puerto Rico. On the center's first day, Oct. 11, four people came through. On day two, 16 were there in the first half-hour. Friday, there was a line and about 60 people inside by noon. More are expected in coming months as Federal Emergency Management Administration money kicks in and people can buy plane tickets. About two-thirds of Puerto Ricans coming have family or friends to stay with. But many are coming on their own. "We're getting a different story now," Refaeli said. "It's not 'I know someone here.' It's 'Well, we heard they're helping people here.'" On Thursday, a young mother of two boys, Yaralis Ortiz-Moralez, 29, walked into the center. She lost her home and her hair salon business in Puerto Rico. Worried about disease spread by rats in the streets, she flew her children here. "People were dying," she said through tears in the hallway of the service center as her sons, in matching Ninja Turtle T-shirts, held on to her. The family of three is staying in Allegheny with a cousin, but it's cramped: She and the boys share a bed. She called the neighborhood "nasty." She's never seen so many people shooting up drugs. "It scares me," she said. "I tell them they can't go outside because people are sick, and it's not healthy or safe. I would love to go back, but it's impossible right now." Daniel Bradley, director of the city's Office of Emergency Management, said that after Katrina, Louisiana formally requested housing assistance that allowed cities and states across the country to be designated as hosts. That let Philadelphia get reimbursed for some of its costs from FEMA, Bradley said. Puerto Rico has made no such request. Bradley said it was unclear why. Under such arrangements, the jurisdiction experiencing the disaster typically has to cover 25 percent of the bill. To date, the city has spent less than $100,000 on relief efforts and is covering a lot of the cost through partnerships with nonprofits and corporations, Bradley said. He said the city is working on establishing a transitional-housing program with a nonprofit that would provide more permanent housing options. The assistance center is a simple, square room with a waiting section. People can sign up for FEMA aid, connect with the Office of Supportive Housing, get information on enrolling kids in school or medical care. There's also the unofficial help provided by those behind the tables, like Refaeli. Refaeli is trying to find Ortiz-Moralez work at a hair salon. The translator spent part of her day last week texting friends and hairdressers. She offered to be a model for Ortiz-Moralez next week so she can vouch for her work. She's also rallying the Jewish community to organize a school supply and coat drive, since so many people are arriving in shorts and T-shirts with cold weather approaching. "They come in here, and they have nothing sometimes, absolutely nothing," Refaeli said. "It's hard for them to imagine the future, what it could even look like." Quasney didn't know about the help that awaited her when she decided to come to Philadelphia. She'd spent time here as a student at Temple University and enjoyed a few summers with her dad, who worked construction. She remembered the city as a welcoming place. So she paid $140 for a ticket on a bus that took three days to get here, her feet still raw and blistered from trudging through flood waters. She remembers her first hot meal in weeks: eggs, sausage, and rye toast from the Midtown Diner at 11th and Sansom Streets. The Philadelphia Housing Authority got her into an apartment in Mount Airy, where she still lives. It's a small, tidy place filled with trinkets elephant figurines, candles collected from Craigslist and photos of friends she's made since moving here. She has a cat named Cuddles and a green and blue parrot named Ziggy, who prefers sitting upside down. "He's species confused," Quasney said. "He thinks he's a bat, he barks like a dog." She takes care of her 87-year-old next-door neighbor, Ruby, the first person to open up to her when she moved here. She likes to wander around Chinatown and watch people in Rittenhouse Square. In New Orleans, she'd been working as a Burger King manager and bred parrots on the side. A lifelong lover of birds, she considered the 14 waiting to be sold her "kids." When the storm came, Quasney had no way of saving them their wings had been clipped. She still has nightmares about their panicked cries on the flooded first floor as she waited for help upstairs. "I listened to them drown," she said, brushing back tears. She feels at home now, but the trauma that brought her here lingers. She won't get Ziggy's wings clipped, just in case. She said she owes her adopted city a debt. "I was lost, broken, at the lowest point a person can be, and the city welcomed me," Quasney said. "It's my home. These people fleeing now, I hope the city is as good to them as it was to me." Staff writer Tricia L. Nadolny contributed to this article. Volunteer archeologists work to exhume bodies buried at the former First Baptist burial ground in March. BRIANNA SPAUSE / Staff Photographer Read more A report filed in Philadelphia Orphans' Court late last week states that archaeologists supervised removal of the skeletal remains of 328 people, including some African Americans, buried in the 1700s in the historic First Baptist Church cemetery and unearthed between July and September at a construction site in the 200 block of Arch Street. A group of 79 graves from the 19th century was also unearthed there by the archaeologists. All remains were transported to Rutgers-Camden for study and preparation for eventual reinterment. The report, prepared by construction services firm AECOM and filed with the court last week, grows out of a July order from Judge Matthew D. Carrafiello, who is now supervising removal of remains and their eventual reinterment at Mount Moriah Cemetery. At a hearing in Carrafiello's City Hall courtroom Monday, representatives of site developer PMC Property Group and the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum, a professional association, said they had no objections to the AECOM report, which PMC attorney Courtney L. Schultz of Saul Ewing LLP said "speaks for itself." "The presence of burial shrouds, manner of coffin construction, and style of coffin hardware, in concert with few burial dates inscribed on coffin lid plaques, indicate that this [western] section of the First Baptist cemetery was active during the eighteenth century," the report states. "Rudimentary field observation of the interred population suggests that the majority of individuals were of European descent, although a small minority within the population exhibited skeletal characteristics more commonly associated with individuals of African descent." The site became a source of fierce controversy when an anonymous tip about bones brought police and the medical examiner to the site about a year ago. They determined the bones were historic and not appropriate subjects for criminal investigation. The city Department of Licenses and Inspections, the Philadelphia Historical Commission, and the state Historical and Museum Commission all said they lacked jurisdiction to regulate removal of the remains. PMC said it was keeping the bones onsite and would reinter them there. No one contacted Orphans' Court, which has jurisdiction over abandoned graveyards. Bones kept appearing as construction continued. In March, an ad-hoc team of archaeologists, alerted to the large number of remains appearing, received permission from PMC to come to Arch Street and excavate what they could. Racing bulldozers and the weather, the archaeologists managed to remove about 100 coffins. Still more bones then appeared. After yet another anonymous tip during the summer of bones lying around the construction site and being hauled away to a landfill in Conshohocken, PMC agreed to call in professional archaeologists and petition for Orphans' Court supervision. The archaeology, mapping of the site, analysis of graves, excavations, and reinterment are now under the purview of Orphans' Court. The burial ground, established in 1707, ran behind the old First Baptist Church when it was located on Ledger Street, south of Arch Street. The church moved in the mid-19th century to Broad Street and graves in its churchyard were subsequently removed to Mount Moriah in 1860. Obviously, grave diggers missed quite a few graves. But how many they missed is surprising. The archaeologists at the site supervised 328 18th-century removals up to September. All of those were contained within the plot lines of the construction site, buried up 22 feet below street level. (The burial ground extends well beyond the outlines of the site.) PMC has maintained that all bones uncovered on site have been dealt with "respectfully." Douglas B. Mooney, president of the archaeological forum, said that the archaeological report "makes clear how much this cemetery was disturbed by construction before the court intervened." He continued: "This is what happens when the city doesn't take action." Carrafiello said he would consider testimony from Mooney and issue rulings in the case in the near future. Mooney and the archaeological forum's attorney, Mark Zecca, said they hoped the court would consider how to prevent similar situations in the future. Extrapolating from the density of the documented removals, Mooney says as many as 800 graves could have been removed without court supervision. Jed Levin, a forum member who attended the hearing, said the destruction of the grave sites deprives the dead from revealing their stories. "The only way they can speak is through their bones," he said. Diana Purnell (left) and Mindy Isser talking about the need to vote on Election Day. They are standing outside the polling place at 1605 S.19th Street in Philadelphia. Read more Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2017. If you're heading to the polls in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, here's what you need to know. NEW JERSEY RACES Governor As one of only two states to elect a governor on Nov. 7, New Jersey should be getting its usual share of odd-year attention as a national political thermometer before next year's midterm congressional elections. But, while there are echoes of the national debate in New Jersey, the governor's race mostly revolves around the current term-limited occupant of the office. Republican Chris Christie has dominated state politics for eight years, his popularity ratings are in the basement, and polls show he's an anchor on his would-be successor, Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, the GOP nominee. Democrat Phil Murphy a former Goldman Sachs banker and ambassador to Germany, has held a steady double-digit lead throughout which his strategist told GQ magazine was "100 percent" due to Christie. Andrew Seidman cogently summarizes the New Jersey campaign, which for months was considered a yawner but has turned sharp in its closing days with Guadagno attacking Murphy about "sanctuary" policies for undocumented immigrants, and the Democrat bringing up Christie's nadir, Bridgegate. The next governor will confront a host of problems, including the worst-funded pension system for public workers in the nation and high property taxes. Promises, Promises Guadagno has staked everything on limiting the school portion of home property taxes to 5 percent of household income, with the benefit capped at $3,000. It's been voters' top issue for years. The average bill is still highest in the nation, but Christie slowed the growth of the tax, reports Laura McCrystal. Murphy promises well, everything (nearly), including free community college, billions more from the state for local schools, and full-funding of public employee pensions. Neither candidate is in line with New Jersey's current fiscal realities and the winner will face steep odds in delivering, writes Maddie Hanna. South Jersey Legislative Races All 120 seats in the Legislature are at stake, though the Democrats' control of both chambers is not expected to change. Here are the local legislative contests: The First Legislative District is the southernmost in the state, covering Cape May County and part of Atlantic County. It's a swing district, now represented in Trenton by Democrats. Candidates in the battleground Second Legislative District, which includes parts of Atlantic County, are also spending heavily the fourth-most among all districts so far. Incumbent Democratic Sen. Colin Bell, appointed to the seat after the death of Sen. Jim Whelan, is running against Republican Assemblyman Chris Brown. (The First and Second districts are typically among the most competitive in the state. Two years ago, a combined $8.5 million was spent on the race for the four Assembly seats then at the top of the ticket.) In South Jersey, it's hard to turn on the TV without hearing about Senate President Steve Sweeney (D., Gloucester), who is locked in an unusual election fight with the state's largest teachers' union, which traditionally supports Democratic candidates. The New Jersey Education Association is backing the Republican, Fran Grenier, a former Woodstown Borough councilman. The union is spending millions of dollars against Sweeney, arguing that he's been too chummy with Gov. Christie and underfunded schools. Sweeney and his allies counter that the Senate president has fought for a fairer school funding formula and brought economic development to South Jersey after years of neglect in Trenton. He represents the Third Legislative District, which spans Salem and parts of Gloucester and Cumberland Counties. Sweeney, Grenier, and outside groups supporting them have already spent more than $10 million on the campaign, making it the most expensive legislative race in New Jersey history, according to a preliminary analysis by the Election Law Enforcement Commission. Voters will also choose state senators and members of the Assembly in the Fourth Legislative District, in Camden and Gloucester Counties, which leans Democratic; the heavily Democratic Fifth Legislative District in Gloucester and Camden counties; and the Sixth Legislative District, which covers 15 communities near the Delaware River that straddle Burlington and Camden counties and also leans blue. Democrats have a 2-1 registration advantage in the Seventh Legislative District, spread through 17 Burlington County towns near the river. It has been a split district, but longtime Republican state Sen. Diane Allen is retiring. New Jersey Ballot Questions Public Question No. 1 Library construction: Should the state issue $125 million in bonds to provide grants to local public libraries for improvements and expanded services? Municipalities or counties that fund libraries would match the grants. Public Question No. 2 Constitutional amendment requiring that the state use money won in lawsuits over environmental contamination to restore or preserve natural resources. Currently, those awards or settlements go to the general fund. Voter Information and Resources New Jersey Polling hours: Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Find your polling place: From the New Jersey Department of State. Call the NJ Division of Elections for voting information and assistance, including problems at the polls, at 1-877-NJ-VOTER (1-877-658-6837). The state's ACLU hotline for election-day problems is 1-800-792-VOTE (8683) Here are links to elections officials in Burlington, Camden, Gloucester and Atlantic counties. Ballotpedia: New Jersey page of online encyclopedia for American elections, sponsored by the nonpartisan Lucy Burns institute. Guadagno campaign web site Murphy campaign web site Having a hard time deciding? Our editorial board sifted through the campaigns in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and came up with some recommendations. Of course, it's your choice, but they're smart folks and their reasoning may help you as you think about the election, even if you end up disagreeing strongly with the board's conclusions. PENNSYLVANIA RACES Philadelphia Municipal Offices Traditionally, Philadelphia municipal elections are sleepy affairs when there's no contest for mayor at the top of the ballot. It's not too often that the offices of the district attorney and controller change hands incumbents rule. Not this time. Former District Attorney Seth Williams dropped his bid for a third term in February, was indicted on federal bribery charges in March, pleaded guilty during his trial in June and was just sentenced to five years in prison. A seven-way Democratic primary nominated Larry Krasner, a veteran civil-rights lawyer with a history of suing the police; he was helped by a $1.7 million independent expenditure from liberal billionaire George Soros. And then Rebecca Rhynhart, a former aide to Mayor Kenney, upset 12-year incumbent Controller Alan Butkovitz. A potentially dull election year turned out to have a great deal of buzz. District Attorney Krasner, who has promised major reforms to the D.A.'s office, is running against Republican Beth Grossman. who was an assistant prosecutor for 21 years. Krasner has pledged not to seek the death penalty, and to use his office to advocate an end to cash bail and reduce incarceration for non-violent crimes, and to end civil-asset forfeiture. He has attacked Grossman's role in using the practice, which allows prosecutors to seize property suspected of being linked to crime, without having to file charges. Grossman says she wants to be an advocate for the victims of crime, and says people who rail against forfeiture forget the neighbors who suffer living near drug dens. She has been endorsed by the city's police union and The Inquirer. (A full list of Inquirer endorsements is here.) City Controller For city controller, Rhynhart is running against Republican Mike Tomlinson, a certified public accountant from the Northeast. They have a significant difference of opinion on one aspect of the controller's job: Rhynhart says she can collaborate with the mayoral administration while remaining independent. Tomlinson says the job is about oversight. City Bond Question Philadelphia Only Should the city borrow $172 million for capital projects involving public transit; streets; parks, recreation and museums; municipal buildings; and economic and community development? Homestead Property Tax Assessment Exclusion Question all Pennsylvania The measure would amend the Pennsylvania Constitution to enable the legislature to pass a law allowing local school boards, municipalities and counties to exclude the full assessed value of primary residences in their jurisdictions from taxation. (Commercial properties still would be subject to tax.) It's a revolutionary but complicated concept, as Laura McCrystal writes; for one thing, the legislature and local taxing authorities would have to figure out how to replace the lost revenue. PENNSYLVANIA COURTS Voters will choose jurists for the state Supreme Court; Commonwealth Court, which deals primarily with matters involving state and local governments and regulatory agencies; and Superior Court, which handles appeals from the Courts of Common Pleas on criminal and most civil matters. It often has the last word, as the Supreme Court accepts few cases for review. For more on detail on how state courts work, see this explanatory graphic from the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania. Columnist John Baer breaks it down, with some useful advice for voters sorting through the unfamiliar names of judicial candidates. Supreme Court One vacant seat is up for grabs. Justice Sallie Mundy, a Republican who was appointed to the high court last year, is seeking a full term. She is running against Judge Dwayne D. Woodruff, a Democrat who is on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas. Both have earned recommendations from the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Mundy is highly recommended and Woodruff is recommended. Chief Justice Thomas Saylor and Justice Debra McCloskey Todd are running for retention for another term on the court, which is a yes or no vote. The Bar recommends both. Superior Court Four seats are up for competitive partisan election and one judge is standing for retention. The Democrats and their Pennsylvania Bar Association ratings are: Judge H. Geoffrey Moulton Jr. of Montgomery County, who was appointed the the court and is seeking a full term (highly recommended); Judge Deborah A. Kunselman, administrative judge for the civil division of the Beaver County Court of Common Pleas (highly recommended); Carolyn Nichols, a Philadelphia Common Pleas judge (recommended); and Maria McLaughlin, a family law judge on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas (recommended). The Republicans and their Pennsylvania Bar Association ratings are: Craig Stedman, the Lancaster County district attorney (highly recommended); Wade Kagarise, a Common Pleas judge in Blair County (recommended); Emil Giordano, a Common Pleas judge in Northampton County (highly recommended); and Mary P. Murray, a magisterial district judge in southwestern Pennsylvania (not recommended). Jules Mermelstein, a Montgomery County lawyer running as a Green Party candidate (not recommended). Judge Jacqueline Shogan, a Republican, is standing for retention to Superior Court. She was recommended by the Bar. Commonwealth Court Four candidates are vying for two seats on the Commonwealth Court. The Democratic candidates and their Pennsylvania Bar ratings are: Ellen H. Ceisler, a Court of Common Pleas judge in Philadelphia (recommended) and Irene McLaughlin Clark, a Pittsburgh lawyer (not recommended). The Republican candidates and their Bar ratings are: Christine Fizzano Cannon, a Court of Common Pleas Judge in Delaware County (highly recommended) and Paul N. Lalley, a Pittsburgh lawyer (recommended). Voter information and resources Pennsylvania Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. across Pennsylvania. Find your polling place: From the Pennsylvania Department of State Pennsylvania Voter Services: State website with information for voters Philadelphia City Commissioners: City agency overseeing elections Committee of Seventy: Philadelphia-based government watchdog Ballotpedia: Online encyclopedia for American elections and politics, sponsored by the nonpartisan Lucy Burns Institute Philadelphia election fraud task force: 215-686-9641, 9643 or 9644 Staff writers Andrew Seidman and Chris Brennan contributed to this article. U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, center, talks to supporters while arriving at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Courthouse for his federal corruption trial, Thursday, Oct. 26 in Newark, N.J. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) Read more NEWARK, N.J. Attorneys for U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez and his co-defendant rested their defense Monday, hours after the judge denied their motion for a mistrial in the federal bribery case. The defense's assertion that the judge had violated Menendez's constitutional right to a fair trial "removes any respect that I have for your judgment as far as making legal challenges to what I do," U.S. District Judge William H. Walls said. Defense attorneys for Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat, and his co-defendant, Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen, argued that the judge had repeatedly refused to allow them to present evidence and elicit testimony that would undercut the prosecution's bribery theory. Prosecutors and defense attorneys are set to return to court on Tuesday to argue how the judge should draft his instructions for the jury. Closing arguments in the trial, now in its ninth week, could begin as soon as Wednesday. "Eight weeks, 50 witnesses, and hundreds of documents. I and my lawyers believe this jury will be ready to render a just verdict, and I am confident it will be not guilty," Menendez told reporters outside the courthouse in Newark after Walls excused the jury. The senator did not testify. Menendez is accused of accepting free trips on Melgen's private jet, vacations in Paris and the Dominican Republic, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in political contributions. Prosecutors say Menendez returned the favor to his wealthy friend by lobbying federal officials to change the outcome of Melgen's $8.9 million billing dispute with Medicare, pressuring the State Department to protect Melgen's port-security contract with the Dominican government, and helping to obtain visas for Melgen's foreign girlfriends. Menendez covered up the scheme by omitting the gifts from his Senate financial disclosure forms, according to the government. The senator says his advocacy was born out of a longtime friendship with Melgen, as well as a commitment to broad policy issues like health care, homeland security, and immigration. In asking for a mistrial, defense attorneys said the judge had prevented them from showing jurors crucial evidence of that friendship. The final straw, defense attorneys said, was the judge's refusal last week to allow Menendez's lawyer to testify about a letter he sent to the Senate Ethics Committee in 2013 regarding the trips on Melgen's jet. The defense argued the testimony would establish that the senator didn't attempt to conceal the gifts and thus help refute the bribery charges. The judge suggested only Menendez himself, not his lawyer, could testify on the matter. "We feel stifled, and we feel like we're not doing a good job," Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Menendez, told the judge during oral arguments Monday. Peter Koski, a prosecutor with the Justice Department, said the motion "grossly mischaracterizes the record in effort to generate a public narrative that they are not getting a fair trial." Ruling from the bench, Walls told defense attorneys: "You are not entitled to try this case without rules and without allegiances to substantive law and procedural law and the rules of evidence." Also Monday, a legal analyst working for the defense took the stand as the last witness. Gabriel Klausner testified that Menendez had flown to the Dominican Republic at his own expense on several occasions between 1998 and 2012. A prosecutor pointed out during cross-examination that Menendez only began using Melgen's private jet after he became a senator in 2006. A grand jury charged that the alleged criminal conspiracy began that year and ended in 2013. Klausner, referring to records he said he had reviewed, also told jurors that it was common for Melgen to make political donations through the doctor's ophthalmology practice, Vitreo Retinal Consultants. Prosecutors say Melgen made $600,000 in donations to a Menendez-allied super PAC through his practice in an effort to conceal the source of the money. Using the business meant that the doctor's name didn't show up on campaign-finance reports. The defense has argued that the contributions were legal and that anyone could determine the business' owner through a simple internet search. Emilio Vazquez is sworn in April 5 in Harrsiburg as the state representative for the 197th District of the state House as his mother, Bernarda Santiago, holds the Bible. Read more Four members of an election board were charged Monday with intimidating voters, casting bogus ballots, and falsely certifying the results in their polling place during a March 21 special election for the state House's 197th District. Those charged include Dolores Shaw, 61; Calvin Mattox, 52; Thurman George, 57; and Wallace Hill, 60. The four all Democrats manned the ballot machines at the Esperanza Health Center at Kensington and Allegheny Avenues in the 43rd Ward, one of the polling places where complaints about illegal electioneering were lodged. Attorney General Josh Shapiro said the charges should "draw a very clear line ahead of next week's election." One elderly couple, both Republicans, cast their ballots together, but only one of the votes was recorded, while the other appeared to have been replaced with a write-in vote for the Democrat in the race, Shapiro said. A voter intending to cast a ballot for the Green Party candidate was told the ballot machine was broken and later was cursed at when he returned to try again, Shapiro said. Another voter supporting the Green Party candidate was aggressively questioned when he tried to bring someone into the polling booth to assist him, as allowed by law. "One should not chalk these actions up to typical partisanship or typical electioneering," Shapiro said. "These were crimes." The actions did not change the election's result, he said. Emilio Vazquez, the Democratic leader of the 43rd Ward, easily won the special election despite having to run a write-in campaign. He was sworn into office April 5 and will have to seek reelection to a full two-year term next year. He declined to comment Monday. That result prompted a civil lawsuit in federal court by Republican nominee Lucinda Little, Green Party nominee Cheri Honkala, and two other candidates seeking to overturn the special election's results. Among the claims in that suit, which is pending: election board workers engaged in or allowed pro-Vazquez electioneering in several polling places, and permitted nonvoters to follow voters uninvited into polling booths. Dozens of complaints to the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office on Election Day prompted an investigation that was soon joined by the attorney general. Philadelphia District Attorney Kelley Hodge on Monday called the election board actions "a ruthless example of why so many of our fellow citizens are skeptical and distrustful of our elections." Shaw, who was judge of elections at the polling place, faces six felonies and four misdemeanors. Mattox, a minority inspector, faces six felonies and five misdemeanors. George, a machine inspector, faces five felonies and three misdemeanors. Hill, a translator, faces six felonies and four misdemeanors. They could receive prison time on the most serious charges, if convicted. Vazquez was not the Democratic Party's first pick. A judge removed the first Democratic nominee, Frederick Ramirez, ruling that he did not live in the district. The same judge later found that the party's effort to replace Ramirez with Vazquez came after the deadline to place names on the ballot. Little was the only candidate listed on the ballot. Honkala, an anti-poverty activist who ran as the Green Party's nominee for vice president in 2012, also missed the deadline to get on the ballot in the 197th District. She, like Vazquez and two others, ran as a write-in candidate. Vazquez won 73.5 percent of the vote, while Honkala took 10.5 percent. Little received 7.4 percent and Acosta and Lloyd split 8.6 percent. Despite the controversy, the special election drew little interest from voters. Just 6.9 percent of voters in the district, where registration is 85 percent Democratic, cast ballots. The election workers charged could not be reached or did not respond to requests for comment. Watching Gov. Christie play the role of a fawning sycophant to Donald Trump got old a long time ago. To see a repeat of the performance Thursday when the president backed off his earlier support of Christie's strategy to attack the opioid crisis was nauseating. Christie, a lame duck who hoped in vain for a position in Trump's cabinet, instead was chosen to head the White House Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis. It was a job the governor tackled with gusto. The panel issued a report in early August recommending that the opioid epidemic be declared a "national emergency." That status is what the problem deserves, putting it on equal footing with natural disasters such as hurricanes and major floods, which trigger an influx of federal funds to take care of victims and repair communities. With opioids killing more than 140 people a day, the epidemic is deadlier than any storm. Trump, as is his bent, was enthusiastic in his support for the commission's work. Without making an official declaration, he, too used the words "national emergency" to describe the situation, calling it "a serious problem the likes of which we have never had." And then, he did nothing. Days turned into weeks. Weeks turned into months. As they did, word got out that despite what the president had said, others in the administration were not eager to grant opioid deaths "national emergency" status. That might mean diverting money like the funds being sent to Texas and Florida, which are recovering from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Trump changed his mind, which he has been known to do, and decided to declare the opioid crisis a "public health emergency," a designation that only lasts 90 days although it can be repeated. It will have to be. Three months isn't enough time to count all the opioid addicts in America, not to mention try to get them into effective treatment and off the mean streets where many are trying survive. Even if Christie knew it would do little good to complain about Trump's rejection of his commission's recommendation, he didn't have to act like everything was hunky-dory. He knows the extent of the problem and that Trump's declaration of a "public health emergency" is inadequate. Yet, he defended the president, saying he had given "hope" to families with addicts. It wasn't much hope. The last time a "public health emergency" was declared it was to address the H1N1 influenza virus, which left more than 12,000 Americans dead from April 2009 to April 2010. That's 33 deaths a day, a terrible figure, but not the estimated 142 lives a day that opioid addiction is taking. Instead of dedicating new funds to fight opioids, Trump's declaration will waive some regulations to give states more flexibility in how they use federal public health funds. It will also allow Medicaid payments at larger substance rehabilitation facilities, which is ironic, given Trump's opposition to the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid. Sen. Edward J. Markey (D., Mass.) criticized Trump's opioid response as "a Band-Aid when we need a tourniquet." Others more generously described it as a first step. Many more are needed. Cass Sunstein, the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School and a former official in the Obama administration, is coming to the National Constitution Center at 6:30 p.m. Monday to discuss his new book, "Impeachment: A Citizen's Guide." He agreed to answer a few questions on the topic in light of the indictment of Paul Manafort and Rick Gates on Monday. 1. What are the most common misperceptions about impeachment? There are two. The first, and the worst, is that you can't impeach a president unless he has committed a crime. Not so. If the president announces that he is going to pardon everyone who has given money to his campaign, he is impeachable even though giving such pardons is not a crime. If the president starts locking up his political opponents, he's impeachable, whether or not he has committed a crime. If a president decides that he is going to spend the summer vacationing in the Swiss Alps, he can be impeached (and he should be). In short, high crimes and misdemeanors are egregious abuses, or terrible neglect, of presidential powers. That lesson emerges clearly from the founding period, and from the debates at the Constitutional Convention and also during ratification. Presidents can abuse their authority without committing a crime and neglect of authority is hardly ever criminal. The second misconception is that if a president commits a crime, he's impeachable. Not so. If the president shoplifts or jaywalks, or smacks his attorney general in the nose, he can't be impeached. Income tax evasion is bad, but it's not an impeachable offense. What's needed is an abuse of presidential authority, and plenty of crimes just aren't that. 2. In U.S. history thus far, has impeachment been a criminal justice tool or a political one? Neither. It has not been a criminal justice tool, and it should not be. Remember: Impeachment is not about crimes at all. Above all, it is a way for We the People to protect ourselves. We can protect ourselves against terrible misconduct without thinking that we are engaged in criminal justice. The Nixon impeachment was not, mostly, about criminal justice. A more qualified statement: In general, impeachment has not been a political tool. The best evidence is that on numerous occasions, political opponents of a president have not even tried to impeach him. Think: Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Barack Obama. So even when the president has met sharp opposition, and devastating attacks, he has usually been free from any kind of impeachment inquiry. That's good. It shows fidelity to the constitutional system. On the other hand, the two presidential impeachments were politically motivated: Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. In both of them, the constitutional standard just wasn't met. The Clinton impeachment is the more immediate, so let's focus on that one. Recall that the charges involved perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with a sexual-harassment case. Those are serious charges, but they don't get close to the kind of thing that concerned Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and the rest. Clinton did not commit high crimes and misdemeanors in the constitutional sense. 3. There has been talk of impeaching President Trump in some quarters since his inauguration. In light of that, what do you think the indictments handed down Monday mean? I wrote the book partly because of wild, premature talk of impeaching President Trump, as early as January and February. You can't impeach a president because you disagree with his policies or don't like him and you shouldn't try. I wanted to get a kind of nonpartisan discussion out there, as a primer, and I hoped that it might be useful no matter who the president is. My focus has been on the period between 1750 and 1800 (a good, inspiring place to focus). While I do discuss subsequent officials, there is no discussion of any official post-Clinton. In fact, Trump does not appear in the book. In terms of Monday's indictments: Let's make some distinctions. If campaign officials are indicted, there need not be any serious issue about impeachment. If they mishandled money, lied to federal investigators, or otherwise violated the criminal law, we need not have any questions about impeachment. They might have done something wrong, even terrible, but we would have no abuse of presidential authority (and we might have no effort by the candidate to procure the presidency by corrupt means which would raise an impeachment issue). To be sure, and speaking hypothetically: If the president was personally involved in criminality, we could start to have a discussion. Again speaking hypothetically: That discussion would get serious if there was any kind of coordination with Russia. As far as I am aware, there is as yet no evidence, and as yet no reason to believe, that as a candidate, Trump encouraged or was aware of any such coordination. If so, we probably should not raise an impeachment question. Those who oppose the commander-in-chief on political grounds have a special obligation (I think) to respect the office and to take the constitutional standard very seriously. On the other hand, the guilty plea of George Papadopoulos is very concerning from the constitutional standpoint. He lied to federal investigators, which is bad enough. What's worse is that he apparently interacted with Russian officials, and those close to them, about obtaining "dirt" against Hillary Clinton. That's a betrayal of his country. To register for Cass Sunstein's program at the Constitution Center, call 215-409-6700 or visit constitutioncenter.org/debate. In addition to charges against President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort that were released on Monday, there was another unexpected development in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. George Papadopoulos, identified in March 2016 as an adviser to the Trump campaign during an interview with the Washington Post, admitted to having provided false statements to the FBI about his interactions with individuals tied to the Russian government. Papadopoulos' credentials as a foreign-policy adviser were questioned immediately by observers; a 2009 college graduate, his LinkedIn page included his work with model United Nations as an "honor and award." According to a document unsealed by the FBI on Monday, Papadopoulos admits to having been contacted by Russian agents shortly after being identified as a campaign adviser, contacts that continued for months. After being arrested in July, he then meets with authorities multiple times to answer questions, details revealed only once the Manafort indictment is made public. Below, a timeline of what the statement details. March 6, 2016: Papadopoulos learns that he will serve as an adviser to Trump's campaign. (The timing isn't clear; it may have been a day before or after this date.) March 14: While in Italy, Papadopoulos meets a "professor based in London" who is initially "uninterested" in Papadopoulos until Papadopoulos explains that he's working for Trump's campaign. Papadopoulos is interested in the professor because the professor has links to the Kremlin, which Papadopoulos believed would be useful in bolstering his position with the campaign. March 21: Trump meets with the Post and identifies several campaign advisers, including Papadopoulos. March 22: Papadopoulos' credentials are called into question. On this same day, Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta is sent an email including a fraudulent link to change his Google password. It's believed that this email was sent by an agent of the Russian government and was used to illegally access his email account. March 24: Papadopoulos and the professor meet in London. They are joined by a woman who claims to be a niece of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The purpose of the meeting, he later writes in an email to "the Campaign Supervisor and several members of the Campaign's foreign policy team" (per the statement), is to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin. Who the "campaign supervisor" is isn't clear. At that point, the Trump campaign is being managed by Corey Lewandowski. In August, the Post reported that Sam Clovis, a campaign co-chairman who worked with the foreign policy team, had rejected the idea of a meeting over the short term. "We thought we probably should not go forward with any meeting with the Russians until we have had occasion to sit with our NATO allies," he wrote in an email. From our report: "In the same email chain, [adviser Navy Rear Adm. Charles] Kubic, the retired admiral, reminded others about legal restrictions on meetings with certain Russian officials, adding, 'Just want to make sure that no one on the team outruns their headlights and embarrasses the campaign.' " March 28: Manafort is hired to manage the Trump campaign's delegate process. March 31: At a campaign national security meeting in Washington (also attended by Trump), Papadopoulos tells the group that he had connections that could facilitate a meeting with Putin. Trump tweeted an image from the meeting. Jeff Sessions, then a senator from Alabama, is seated in the foreground and is speaking. Papadopoulos is sitting two chairs to Sessions's left. Early April: Papadopoulos emails the foreign policy team to update them about ongoing discussions with the professor and Putin's "niece." He details his "outreach to Russia." At some point this month, the Democratic National Committee's server is illegally accessed by hackers believed to be connected to the Russian government. It's the second such intrusion; the first occurred in the summer of 2015. April 10 11: In an email exchange with the "niece" and the professor, Papadopoulos mentions trying to set up a "potential foreign policy trip to Russia." The professor replies that it has "already been agreed" and mentions that he'll be in Moscow later that month for meetings at the Russian Duma and a "Valdai meeting." (There is such a meeting on April 19.) The niece replies, "I have already alerted my personal links to our conversation and your request . . . As mentioned we are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump. The Russian Federation would love to welcome him once his candidature would be officially announced." April 18: During the period that the professor says he'll be in Russia, he introduces Papadopoulos over email to a Russian who works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Later reporting from the Post indicates that this is likely Ivan Timofeev, a senior MFA official. Late April: Papadopoulos and the Timofeev have "multiple conversations over Skype and email" about setting up a meeting between the campaign and government officials. April 22: Timofeev and Papadopoulos discuss meetings in Moscow or London. April 26: Papadopoulos and the professor meet in London. At that meeting, the professor tells Papadopoulos that, while in Moscow, he learned that "the Russians had obtained "dirt" on then-candidate [Hillary] Clinton." Per Papadopoulos, the professor said that "'They have dirt on her'; 'the Russians had emails of Clinton'; 'they have thousands of emails.'" April 27: Papadopoulos emails a senior campaign staffer to indicate that he's gotten some "interesting messages." He also emails a "high-ranking campaign official" to reiterate that Putin would like to host Trump. The Post's August report indicates that the high-ranking official who was told about Putin wanting to meet was Lewandowski. April 30: Papadopoulos emails the professor to thank him for his help, saying that it's "history making" if the meeting happens. May 4: Timofeev emails Papadopoulos. "I have just talked to my colleagues from the MFA," it reads. "The[y] are open for cooperation. One of the options is to make a meeting for you at the North America Desk, if you are in Moscow." Papadopoulos forwards this to Lewandowski and, the next day to the "campaign supervisor," who is probably Clovis. Lewandowski doesn't reply; Clovis says, "[t]here are legal issues we need to mitigate, meeting with foreign officials as a private citizen." May 21: Papadopoulos emails another high-ranking campaign official Manafort, according to The Post's August report informing him that "Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite sometime and have been reaching out to me to discuss." Manafort forwards the email to Rick Gates (who was also indicted on Monday). "We need someone to communicate that [Trump] is not doing these trips," he writes. "It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal." Summer 2016: Papadopoulos tries to set up an off-the-record meeting between the campaign and Russian officials, possibly including himself. "The Russian ministry of foreign affairs messaged and said that if Mr. Trump is unable to make it to Russia, if a campaign rep (me or someone else) can make it for meetings?" he emails a campaign official on June 19. "I am willing to make the trip off the record if it's in the interest of Mr. Trump and the campaign to meet specific people." The meeting never happens. July 22: WikiLeaks begins releasing emails stolen from the DNC. July 27: During a news conference, Trump states that Russia "probably [has] her 33,000 emails" referring to emails deleted by Clinton after her service in the State Department because her lawyers didn't believe them to be related to her tenure. Oct. 7: WikiLeaks begins releasing emails stolen from Podesta. Jan. 27: Papadopoulos is interviewed at the FBI. During that interview, he makes false statements about the above interactions. He claims: That the professor contacted him before Papadopoulos worked with the campaign and that he met the "niece" before him being in that role as well. That the professor was an unimportant figure. That he was told about the "dirt" on Clinton before serving with the campaign. Feb. 16: The FBI interviews him again. Feb. 17: Papadopoulos deactivates his Facebook account. It had included information about his conversations with the professor. July 27: Papadopoulos is arrested at Dulles Airport in Washington. Summer: Papadopoulos "[meets] with the Government on numerous occasions to provide information and answer questions." Oct. 5: Papadopoulos admits that the statements he gave the FBI are false and agrees to the timeline and details above. Oct. 30: The statement of offense is unsealed, the same day that indictments against Manafort and Gates are made public. On Monday, former Trump campaign Paul Manafort (left) and Rick Gates, a Trump aide associated with Manafort, were charged with 12 counts of conspiracy and tax evasion. Former Trump advisor George Papadopoulos (right) pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his connections within Russia. Read more President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort surrendered to federal authorities Monday morning to face 12 charges, including "conspiracy against the United States," stemming from a special counsel's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to the New York Times and CNN. Rick Gates, a former business associate of Manafort who also worked for the Trump campaign, was also charged in the sealed indictment revealed Monday morning. You can read the full indictment here. George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy adviser during the Trump campaign, has also pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about the nature of contacts he had within Russia, according to documents made public Monday morning by the Justice Department. In March 2016, Papadopoulos attempted to set up a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian leadership. The investigation has been led by former FBI director Robert Mueller, and these are the first charges issued in his investigation into the possible collusion between Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. Mueller was appointed as special counsel back in May by Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein following Trump's decision to fire then-FBI director James Comey. Here is how the news unfolded throughout the day: 2:08 p.m. Manafort and Gates plead not guilty Both Manafort and Gates entered not guilty pleas before a federal magistrate judge in Washington D.C. Monday afternoon. Bail for Manafort was set at $10 million, while Gates' bail was set as $5 million. The government has asked for both to be placed under house arrest. According to CNN's Evan Perez, Gates was represented by a public defender, who told the judge his client plans to hire private representation. 2:05 p.m. Manaforts alleged lavish spending 1:54 p.m. Sarah Huckabee Sanders wont rule out pardons During Monday's press briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders refused to rule out pardons for Manafort, Gates or Papadopoulos. "I haven't had any conversations with him about that," Sanders told reporters, speaking of President Trump. "I think we should let the process play through." 1:45 p.m. Sarah Huckabee Sanders: This has nothing to do with the president After opening Monday's press conference with a lengthy parable about tax reform, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said today's news involving the Russia investigation has nothing to do with President Trump. "Today's announcement has nothing to do with the president, his campaign or campaign activity," Sanders told reporters. Sanders also said the president has no intention to "make any changes" regarding special counsel Mueller's investigation, and referred to Papadopoulos a low-level "volunteer" on a foreign advisor council "that literally met one time." "We still expect this to conclude soon," Sanders said of Mueller's investigation. 1:32 p.m. Powerful Democratic lobbyist steps down Tony Podesta, a powerful Democratic lobbyist and the founder of the Podesta Group, is stepping down after coming under investigation by special counsel Mueller, according to Politico. Podesta announced his decision Monday morning following a NBC News report that Mueller's investigation was looking into the Podesta Group over its involvement in a Ukrainian promotional campaign organized by Manafort. Podesta is the brother of former Hillary Clinton presidential campaign chairman John Podesta, who is not currently affiliated with the Podesta Group. 12:55 p.m. New Fox News host Laura Ingraham to interview John Kelly Tonight at 10 p.m., conservative radio personality Laura Ingraham will debut her new show, The Ingraham Angle, on Fox News with a timely guest White House chief of staff John Kelly. Kelly is expected to discuss the fallout surrounding Manafort's indictment and Mueller's continued investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. Earlier on Monday morning, President Trump wrote on Twitter there was "no collusion" between his campaign and figures within the Russian government. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Trump is cooperating with Mueller's probe even though he considers the investigation "a hoax." 12:38 p.m. Fox News judicial analyst warns of many dominoes to fall Fox News judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano said the indictment of Manafort and Gates and the guilty plea of Papadopoulos are just "the first of many dominoes to fall" in Mueller's investigation of Russia's influence in the 2016 election. "Bob Mueller is following the standard M.O. of federal prosecutors," Napolitano said on America's Newsroom Monday morning. "You've got a totem pole, you've got somebody at the top of the totem pole, that's your big prize: no surprise, it's the president of the United States." 12:08 p.m. Trump campaign officials were careful not to send any signals about Russia According to documents released as part of Papadopoulos' case, the FBI said Trump campaign officials considered acting on an invitation from Russian officials to meet during the 2016 election. In May 2016, Papadopoulos sent an email to an unnamed campaign official described by the FBI add "high-ranking" with the subject line, "Request from Russia to meet Mr. Trump." Papadopoulos said Russian officials were eager to meet with then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, but campaign officials suggested "low level" staff should travel to Russia instead "so as not to send any signals." The FBI did not identify the campaign officials Papadopoulos communicated with, though the Washington Post reported back in August that Papadopoulos was communicating with Manafort: Several weeks later, Papadopoulos forwarded the same message from Timofeev to Manafort, the newly named campaign chairman. "Russia has been eager to meet with Mr. Trump for some time and have been reaching out to me to discuss," the adviser told Manafort. Manafort reacted coolly, forwarding the email to his associate Rick Gates, with a note: "We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips." 11:58 a.m. Ex-U.S. attorney expects more charges to come Former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara, who was fired by President Trump after refusing to resign from his post in overseeing the Southern District of New York, thinks there are more charges to come from special counsel Mueller's investigation. "Special Counsel Mueller already has one criminal conviction. And this plea portends more charges to come," Bharara tweeted. Bharara included part of the court filing which outlines that Papadopoulos "impeded the FBI's ongoing investigation into the existence of any links or coordination" between the Trump campaign and the Russian government's attempts to influence the 2016 election. 11:37 a.m. How Fox News is covering the news It's been a challenging day for Fox News, which President Trump consistently rates his favorite cable news network. "Will you please tell us what else is happening in the news?" Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade asked as news of the indictment of Manafort broke Monday morning. According to CNN media reporter Tom Kludt, Kilmeade and his Fox & Friends co-hosts Steve Doocy and Ainsley Earhardt did not ignore the news, but he also wrote they "didn't abandon their role as Trump boosters, either" As of late Monday morning, while both CNN and MSNBC focused their coverage on the breaking news revolving around the Russia investigation, Fox News continued to weave in and out of other stories and topics. 11:34 a.m. Papadopoulos said he met with Putins niece According to the unsealed documents, George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser on the Trump campaign, told the heads of Trump's campaign that he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin's niece. In March 2016, Papadopoulos meet with a professor with Russian ties who brought with him a woman he introduced as a relative of Putin, who he claimed had connections to senior Russian government officials. Following the meeting, Papadopoulos emailed Trump's campaign supervisors and stated he met with "Putin's niece." "He believed she had connections to Russian government officials; and he sought to use her Russian connections over a period of months in an effort to arrange a meeting between the campaign and Russian government officials," the Justice Department filing said. An unnamed campaign supervisor responded that he would "work it through the campaign," but that no commitments should be made at that point. The campaign supervisor added: "Great work." 11:30 a.m. White House adviser says this is nothing A White House aid tells Reuters that the charges stemming from Mueller's investigation have nothing to do with President Trump "As it relates to the president, this is nothing," a Trump adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. "It had nothing to do with their tenure at the campaign as far as I can tell." 10:33 a.m. Another former Trump campaign aide pleads guilty Former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty of lying to FBI agents, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press. During the campaign, Papadopoulos, who acted as a foreign policy adviser, offered to set up "a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss US-Russia ties under President Trump," telling seven campaign officials that his Russian contacts welcomed the opportunity, according to internal campaign emails read to The Washington Post. According to the documents unsealed by the Justice Department, Papadopoulos claimed a professor with "substantial connections to Russian government officials" was "a nothing" and "just a guy talk[ing] up connections or something." The Justice Department also says Papadopoulos attempted to use the professor's Russian connections in a effort to arrange a meeting between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials. Papadopoulos was arrested at Dulles International Airport on July 27, and has been cooperating with investigators, meeting with them on "numerous occasions" to provide information and answer questions. 10:25 a.m. Trump weighs in President Trump falsely claimed on Twitter Monday morning that the indictment covers events that occurred prior to Manafort joining his election campaign. "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign," Trump wrote on Twitter. "But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" The indictment covers incidents ranging from 2006 to 2017, during which time both Manafort and Gates worked on Trump's president campaign. "It's just not true," CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said of Trump's comment. 10:15 a.m. Schumer warns Trump against interfering with Russia probe Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned President Trump to uphold the rule of law and not interfere with Mueller's investigation "The President must not, under any circumstances, interfere with the special counsel's work in any way," Schumer said in a statement Monday morning. "If he does so, Congress must respond swiftly, unequivocally, and in a bipartisan way to ensure that the investigation continues." 9:47 a.m. Kellyanne Conway says Trump is focused on other things White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said President Trump was "focused on other things" when asked about the indictment of Manafort and Gates Monday morning on Fox News. "The president is very focused on other things. What he said yesterday in his tweets is no different than what he said all along," Conway said on Fox & Friends. "I just want to tell you that the president continues to focus on what matters to people." Conway also added that while the president is cooperating with Mueller's investigation, "he considered this a hoax." 9:32 a.m.: Republican says GOP should support probe Rep. Jim Banks (R., Ind.) said on Twitter that Republicans should continue to support Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference. "Months ago I & many other Republicans vowed to support Mueller investigation & allow it to work its way through process to get the facts," Banks tweeted Monday. "In light of today's indictments we must continue to support and allow the integrity of the process to work." Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who has close ties to President Trump, called for Mueller to be fired during her Saturday night show. The Wall Street Journal's editorial board also called for Mueller to resign. 9:16 a.m. Manafort and Gates face 12 counts, including conspiracy against the United States Among the charges both Manafort and Gates face are "conspiracy against the United States." According to a statement issued by the special counsel's office, Manafort and Gates face 12 counts, including conspiracy to launder money, false and misleading FARA statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. The full indictment is available to read here. 8:56 a.m. Former top ranking DOJ attorney calls charges serious Matthew Axelrod, a former top-ranking U.S. Department of Justice attorney, said the news of indictments makes it harder for President Trump and Republicans to claim Muller's investigation is a "witch hunt." "The charges make it harder going forward to credibly allege this is come witch hunt or waste of taxpayer resources," Axelrod said on CNN Monday morning. "If it's an indictment, it's a felony charge, and that's serious." Axelrod exited the agency after Trump fired acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to support the president's controversial travel ban. 8:50 a.m. No word yet from Trump President Trump, who issued several tweets about Russia over the weekend, has not weighed in yet on the news of Manafort's decision to turn himself in. On Sunday, Trump suggested that any possible charges could be timed to make it harder for Republicans to pass an overhaul of the tax code. 8:45 a.m. Wall Street Journal reports tax fraud among charges against Manafort Tax fraud will be among the charges Manafort will face, sources familiar with the matter told the Wall Street Journal. Manafort is scheduled to appear in a Washington, D.C. federal court on Monday, where the indictments are expected to be unsealed. 8:15 a.m. Manafort walks into FBI field office Manafort was spotted by CNN entering the FBI field office in Washington, D.C., Monday morning. This is a breaking news report. Check back for updates. FILE / Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway during a news conference in Trenton, N.J., Monday, Sept. 18, 2017. Read more White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said President Trump was "focused on other things" when asked about the 12-count indictment of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort Monday morning. "The president is very focused on other things. What he said yesterday in his tweets is no different than what he said all along," Conway said during an interview on Fox & Friends. "I just want to tell you that the president continues to focus on what matters to people." Manafort and former business associate Rick Gates, who also worked on the Trump campaign, face 12 charges stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 president election, including "conspiracy against the United States." Over the weekend, White House lawyer Ty Cobb told the New York Times that the Trump administration is fully cooperating with Mueller's investigation, something Conway highlighted during her appearance. "As the president has said, everyone is fully cooperating with these investigations," Conway said before also explaining Trump considered the investigation "a hoax." "I just want to tell you that the president continues to focus on what matters to people," Conway said. President Trump has yet to comment on the indictment against Manafort and Gates. Watch: When it came time to implement Philadelphia's tax on soda and other sweetened beverages in January, only some of the vendors at the city's airport had to deal with it. But those who did not the vendors on the Tinicum Township, Delaware County, side of the airport also now charge more for soda. Soda prices on the Philadelphia side of the airport Terminals B, C, D, E, and F were an average of 1.39 cents higher per ounce in February than December, according to a new study by a Cornell University professor. Meanwhile, average prices in Terminal A, which is in Tinicum and not subject to the 1.5-cents-per-ounce tax, also increased. Researchers found that the Tinicum vendors raised their soda prices by an average of 0.56 cents per ounce between December and February. The city regulates airport concession prices through a contract that requires vendors to have pricing comparable to those in the surrounding area. They can choose Philadelphia or six other counties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey to demonstrate comparable pricing. So as Philadelphia merchants including those in the airport terminals that are within the city's boundaries raised soda prices due to the new tax, airport merchants that are outside the city had the option of doing the same. John Cawley, a professor of policy analysis and management and of economics at Cornell University, said his research included talking to officials at MarketPlace PHL, the city's contractor that manages airport concessions, about their efforts to notify vendors of the beverage tax. "They told us in no uncertain terms that they made sure everybody in the airport knew what the tax was, who was subject to it," Cawley said. "What we found happening on the Tinicum side wouldn't be due to confusion." But Mike Dunn, a spokesman for Mayor Kenney, said Friday that vendors on the Tinicum side who have raised their prices since Jan. 1 did so for a different reason. Three out of the 37 vendors in Tinicum received permission to change prices this year, Dunn said, and all did so as part of a voluntary program that allowed them to raise all prices by 10 percent in exchange for paying their employees more. All airport merchants will be required to pay a minimum hourly wage of $12.10 when they enter new concession contracts, Dunn said, but three vendors on the Tinicum side elected to begin early. "The price increases applied to all products, not just sweetened beverages," Dunn said. Although the city said the increases in soda prices on the Tinicum side should not be viewed as an effect of the tax on sweetened drinks, vendors still could raise soda prices and cite the increased prices in Philadelphia as justification for doing so. Dunn said the decision to raise drink prices at the airport or elsewhere is "a private business decision and not mandated by law." Beverage distributors must pay the levy on drinks distributed in Philadelphia, and can choose whether to pass it onto retailers. Retailers, in turn, can choose whether to pass it onto consumers. Cawley's study, published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggested that even airport vendors within Philadelphia's borders did not pass on 100 percent of the tax. The average price hike between December and February at Philadelphia airport stores was 1.39 cents per ounce, Cawley found. That difference accounts only for 93 percent of the 1.5-cents-per-ounce tax. Cawley said he did not ask vendors about soda price changes when he visited the airport to purchase 20-ounce bottles or fountain drinks of Pepsi or Coke, because he wanted to make sure vendors didn't adjust prices just because he was studying them. He said he got the idea to track the prices after reading a December news story explaining that only part of the airport would be subject to the new beverage tax. It was a "natural experiment," said Cawley, who made several trips to the airport. He documented prices in December, and again in January and February, at 10 stores on the Delaware County side of the airport and 21 on the Philadelphia side. The researchers used retail chains, including bakeries, restaurants, and newsstands, that had locations on both sides. Cawley's research also found that vendors raised their prices slowly after the new tax went into effect. In January, the vendors on the Philadelphia side had raised soda prices 0.91 cents per ounce, on average, and vendors on the Tinicum side had raised prices by an average of 0.41 cents per ounce since December. By February, the average price had increased again. Meanwhile, the city said this week that the beverage tax brought in $7.4 million in September the largest monthly collection to date, and the closest that collections have come to the $7.7 million monthly average needed to meet the revenue goal. In its first nine months, the tax has raised about $60 million; it will pay for pre-K, community schools, and improvements to parks, libraries, and recreation centers. Cawley said the study, conducted with David Frisvold of the University of Iowa and Barton Willage of Cornell University, was not funded by any local group involved with the controversial beverage tax. He received funding from the Global Obesity Prevention Center at Johns Hopkins University and from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which advocates for taxes on sugary drinks. Staff writer Linda Loyd contributed to this article. Derek Green, an at-large member of .Philadelphia City Council, has proposed public financing for political campaigns for local elected offices. Read more The most recent beneficiary of big money in Philadelphia politics says he would have been happy to run in a system where the public funded his campaign. Larry Krasner, speaking at a debate last week, said he had no control over the nearly $1.7 million invested by New York billionaire George Soros in a Super PAC created to support Krasner in the May 17 Democratic primary election for district attorney. Not that he minded Soros' largess. Krasner, who won the primary and is now the front-runner to be the next district attorney, said he was "frankly pleased" when the money hit town. Krasner spoke on the same day City Council's Committee on Law and Government held a public hearing on a package of bills to establish a system for local political campaigns to be funded by public tax dollars. That legislation is a long way from passage. City Councilman Derek Green, the prime sponsor, still has to convince a majority of colleagues to support it. Then he has to get past concerns from Mayor Kenney about the cost. If he manages all that, Philadelphia's voters would still have to vote to support the proposal as a change to the City Charter. That last hurdle is especially high asking Philly voters to volunteer to pay for political campaigns. Green's idea has plenty of merit, as noted by many of the people who testified at the hearing. The legislation would offer politicians this deal if they limit their fund-raising and spending to certain amounts, the city will match what they raise, 5-1, up to a capped amount. The idea is to motivate politicians to spend more time talking to voters who make small donations than courting special interests who write huge checks. But this proposal can do nothing about the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said independent expenditure political action committees a.k.a. Super PACs can raise and spend unlimited amounts to influence elections, ignoring campaign finance limits as long as they don't coordinate those efforts with a candidate. Money isn't everything. Krasner noted that one of the seven Democrats in his primary, Michael Untermeyer, sunk $1.3 million of his own money into his own campaign. He finished fifth, with 8 percent of the vote. Four Super PACs spent more in the 2015 Democratic primary election for mayor in Philadelphia than the six candidates, combined. One spent $7.5 million to back state Sen. Anthony Hardy Williams. Three others spent nearly $4 million to back Kenney, who won the primary and went on to become mayor. If Green's legislation becomes law, candidates using public financing could still be backed by a Super PAC. And participating candidates would have their spending limits lifted if a Super PAC spent more than the cap to defeat them and/or to support an opponent. So politicians could cast themselves as playing within one set of rules set up to give more influence to the voters they hope to represent while also benefitting from a second set of rules for the special interests trying to influence their election. That sounds like a hands-off outsourcing of big-money fund-raising to Super PACs while the rest of us pick up a chunk of the bill for political campaigns. Which prompts the questions: Who emerges with more influence in that equation? And what does that really change? Conor Patrick Devlin, 25, of Bryn Mawr, an accomplished law student with a passion for Chinese language and culture, died Oct. 27 of unknown causes at his apartment in Rosemont. Mr. Devlin was found unresponsive by a family member. The Delaware County Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy and ruled the cause of death as pending while further study is done. Mr. Devlin aspired to work in the U.S. State Department in Chinese Affairs. To prepare, he pursued law degrees in the United States and China under a partnership between Temple University's James E. Beasley School of Law and Tsinghua University in Beijing. He earned a master of Chinese law in 2016 and completed a law degree at Temple earlier this year. To gain experience, Mr. Devlin worked as an intern for two law firms in China, as well as the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office in Norristown, the latter during the summer of 2015. "Conor had a promising future," said District Attorney Kevin R. Steele. "To see him die so young is very sad, and my heart goes out to the family." At the time of his death, he was preparing to take the Pennsylvania Bar examination, said his father, John Gerard Devlin, also a lawyer. "He was a forward-moving, positive-thinking individual," his father said. Last year, Mr. Devlin collaborated in China on an article with Wei Huang and Wendy Zhou, detailing certain aspects of Chinese antitrust law and how it might affect the automobile industry. He was working on a similar article for the Economist magazine, his father said. As news of Mr. Devlin's death circulated, scores of friends posted online. Sophia Al Rasheed, a law-school classmate, said: "He was kind and funny, and had accomplished so much in the short time I knew him. His travels inspired me to study abroad." Louis Thompson, the Temple law school administrator who arranged Mr. Devlin's time at Tsinghua, posted: "He was such a pleasure to know. He was smart and kind, and every encounter with him, however brief, always left me feeling happy. Our staff in Beijing adored him. The enormity of his loss is beyond words. The world is a dimmer place without him." Born in Upland, Chester County, Mr. Devlin graduated as class president from Rosemont School of the Holy Child in 2006 and from St. Joseph's Preparatory School in 2010. It was while at "the Prep" that he became interested in all things Chinese, his father said. Fascinated by the culture, he learned Mandarin Chinese. He was on the varsity crew team at the prep school, and cultivated a wide range of friends there. One of them was Colin Kane, with whom he rowed for two years. The two remained friends. "He was coxswain in my boat," Kane said. "He was one of the smartest, if not the smartest, person I have ever met. He had a great wit to him, and he put others before himself." In 2014, Mr. Devlin graduated from the University of Texas-Austin, where he earned bachelor's degrees in business, economics, and Chinese language. His best friend was perhaps his father. The pair took road trips together to Rhode Island, Washington and other destinations. "Conor and I were very close. He was a really, really good friend of mine," his father said. "I am crushed, heartbroken." On his LinkedIn profile, Mr. Devlin said he cared about economic empowerment and human rights. "Conor's real contribution to this world was a strong sense of social justice and a strong sense of loyalty to his friends and family," his father said. "He was a loving person who cared about people less fortunate than he was." When not studying, Mr. Devlin volunteered at the Franklin Institute. He enjoyed traveling to Ireland. Those he met doted on his brilliant mind and wonderful sense of humor, his father said. Although he never married, Mr. Devlin had a girlfriend and liked to show friends pictures of his dog, a beagle-Labrador retriever named Tyrone. A longtime member of St. Thomas of Villanova Church, Mr. Devlin assisted with the liturgy and tended the altar. "He was a good young man and so is his family. We were neighbors at one time and we see them in church. I was shocked when I got the call," said Ted Powers, of Stretch Funeral Home in Havertown, the company that made plans for the funeral. Besides his father, Mr. Devlin is survived by his mother, Maureen Ann Devlin; sisters Caitlin Andreotta and Courtenay Baker; a brother, Colin; nieces and nephews; and his maternal grandfather John A. Borneman III. A visitation will be held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 30 and again starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 31, at St. Thomas of Villanova Church on the campus of Villanova University. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the church. Interment will follow at SS. Peter and Paul Cemetery in Springfield. Memorial donations may be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, 262 Danny Thomas Place, Memphis, Tenn. 38105. The Islamic Dome of the Rock in Jerusalems Old City is seen through a door decorated with a Jewish Star of David. Read more I'm just back from leading a World Affairs Council seminar tour to Israel and the territories of the Palestinian Authority. This was an all-too-rare experience in which a group of open-minded Americans from across the country learned the perspectives of Israelis and Palestinians from many walks and stations of life. What's the takeaway? Well, surely no magic bullet "solution," no underlying consensus to be dug out from the layers of fundamentally incompatible narratives filled with half-truths, false moral equivalencies, and sometimes outright misstatements of facts. On the Palestinian side, we saw maps that include every inch of land from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River labeled as "Palestine," but not including the vibrant, world-class metropolitan area of Tel Aviv, as if the last 150 years had never happened. On the Israeli side, we saw maps in which every inch of the land on which millions of Palestinians live today under a bruising occupation was labeled as "Judea and Samaria," as if an assertion of a biblical entitlement to the land eliminates the rights of a people who have lived there for centuries. Some on both sides know how to "solve" "the situation" each would have the other side admit its crimes, surrender, and leave "their" land. It seems hopeless. And before we merely chalk this up to the particularly tangled historical and psychological roots of the conflict in the Middle East, let's take a look in the mirror at the Cold Civil War into which America now seems to have descended, a world in which our fellow citizens with whom we disagree are considered "un-American," and only those who share our views are "real Americans". And look elsewhere around the world, from the crises over the unity of Spain and the "United" Kingdom, to the atrocities underway toward the Rohingya community in Myanmar. It's easy to see hopelessness as spreading in terms of an increasingly splintered humanity. Forces of tribalistic entropy appear to be on the upswing, while countervailing evolutionary forces of increased commonality seem in retreat. But then there is this. One of the stories our group heard was from a retired Israeli general, Nehemia Dagan. I don't present Dagan as an embodiment of "the whole truth." His views on policy are as controversial as everything else in Israel, and the country practically overflows with retired generals with opinions. But the story of his that moved me isn't about policy. It's about first principles in human relations and how to imagine expanding the limits of policies. Dagan told of being selected as one of Israel's earliest helicopter pilots and being sent in 1963 for flight training in West Germany. In 1963 the Holocaust was not a historical event, an experience of folks' ancestors. It was only 18 years in the past, and still very much a living and lived experience. This young Israeli lieutenant landed at an airbase in Germany that had been the headquarters of the Luftwaffe. Not knowing the geography perfectly, he was stunned that on his first flight, his route took him directly over the site of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. So this young Jewish man, born in what would soon be Israel, but with many family members murdered by Germans, in the very spot over which he now controlled a powerful weapon of war, was transformed by the juxtaposition. And then something else happened that Dagan said changed him forever. He landed, stepped off the aircraft, and was greeted by a German sergeant who immediately, and appropriately, saluted a superior officer, Dagan, in his uniform emblazoned with the Star of David. The symbol of the Jewish people, proudly worn by a young warrior on behalf of that people, was saluted in Germany, by a German soldier, less than 20 years after that soldier's earlier counterparts were trying to exterminate the entire Jewish people. The lesson for the general and I think for us all in these times of great divisiveness is that in human relations, anything is possible. With a firm will to do so, circumstances can be shaped in which any divide between our human tribes can be bridged. Craig Snyder is president and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia. Csnyder@wacphila.org During an SRC meeting in May, commissioners receive copies of charter school reports. The current SRC has dedicated individuals with enormous knowledge and hands-on experience about education, the workings of state and local governments, and the welfare of children, says Phil Goldsmith. Read more With the School Reform Commission and the Kenney administration about to disband the School Reform Commission for yet another school governance structure, I am mindful of a quote attributed to Albert Einstein: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. Since the School District was created, it's had more governance structures than Zsa Zsa Gabor had husbands. Here is a quick recap: Originally, each ward had its own elected school board; in time the elected boards became advisory and a 21-member Board of Education was selected by the Board of Judges. At one point the School District was a department of city government, but later it became an independent agency and the 21-member board was reduced to 15 members. In 1965, city voters reduced the number of members to nine, with members serving staggered six-year terms, and for the first time gave appointing power to the mayor. In 1999, the voters acted again, this time granting the incoming mayor the authority to select the nine-member board, whose terms would be concurrent with his. Two years later, the Ridge-Schweiker administration in Harrisburg, dissatisfied with the fiscal and educational failures of the School District and enamored with privatization, flexed its muscle. The nine-member local school board was disbanded and replaced by the School Reform Commission, with three members appointed by the governor and two by the mayor. This is consistent with my rule of thumb that organizations, when faced with tough, difficult, if not intractable, problems, ignore the real issues and do what's easiest: they move boxes around on their organizational charts or, in the case of the School District, change the governance structure. Yet, as Einstein pointed out, the same problems remain. These problems include severe poverty; underfunding, which in recent years has decimated nurses, counselors, music and art from our schools with barely a whimper from our body politic; racial inequity; and, sometimes, misspending, mismanagement, and misplaced priorities. Regardless of governance structure, the most important thing is the dedication, good will and knowledge of the people appointed. That's why the timing of this latest move is so troublesome. The current SRC has dedicated individuals with enormous knowledge and hands-on experience about education, the workings of state and local governments, and the welfare of children. And they are to be replaced or supplemented by whom? We will have to wait to see, because the new wrinkle in the latest version of musical chairs gives City Council the authority to approve the mayor's selections. Beware of what you ask for. The rallying cry behind this latest rendition of who's in charge is "local control." It sounds nice, but it's misleading at best. A good chunk of the district's resources will continue to come from the state, and the laws governing what the School District can or cannot do will continue to be enacted by the General Assembly and administered and interpreted by the commonwealth's Department of Education. Behind the scenes there are two other reasons cited for disbanding the SRC now: First, it's a way to derail the possibility of an elected school board. Philadelphia doesn't have a great track record in its minor elections see Traffic Court. Second, by giving the mayor the appointing power, it aligns responsibility and accountability with one individual rather than the two-hump structure we have today. The hope is that with the mayor owning the problem, he will be able to free up more money for the schools. Mayor Kenney, to his credit, wants to own the problem, but we don't know who will follow him. Besides, the city's history demonstrates that most mayors run away from the district's problems, finding it far easier to develop new buildings than develop young minds. By disbanding the SRC and assuming "local control," the city is giving the General Assembly, already ill-informed if not mean spirited when it comes to urban education, ample reason to further abandon our schoolchildren and, perhaps, strip the district of any control over charter schools except, of course, to foot the entire bill. In short, there is far more risk than reward in this latest governance scheme. It might make adults feel like they are doing something, but it won't do a damn thing for our schoolchildren. Phil Goldsmith served as interim chief executive officer of the School District of Philadelphia, 2000 and 2001. pgold4110@gmail.com It is a victory for Republicans that the political conversation when it's not being hijacked by President Trump's assorted outbursts and outrages is focused on tax cuts. No matter how critical the coverage gets, the sheer amount of attention risks sending a message that taxes are the most important issue confronting the country. This is entirely wrong, and it's essential to challenge the whole premise of the debate. The United States does not need tax cuts now. Reducing government revenues at this moment will do far more harm than good. Conservatives are proving definitively that they don't care in the least about deficits. And their claims that tax cuts will unleash some sort of economic miracle have been proved false again, and again, and again. But there is an even bigger objection: The opportunity costs of this obsession are enormous because it keeps us from grappling with the problems we really do need to solve. Ever since Trump's election, discussion of the vast divides in our nation between prosperous regions and those battered by economic change have filled our newspapers, websites, and airwaves. There is simply no way that shoveling out $2.6 trillion in business tax cuts in a largely undifferentiated fashion does anything to help places that are ailing. On the contrary, this farrago of corporate goodies along with the absurd repeal of the estate tax and various other benefits showered on the well-off would only aggravate existing inequalities. And by depleting the government's coffers, it would make it much harder to finance public initiatives in education, job training, and other spheres to promote mobility for Americans who are lagging behind. This, by the way, is why ending the deductibility of state and local taxes is an especially bad idea. This provision punishes states with more progressive tax structures that ask their best-off citizens to ease the difficulties of their less fortunate neighbors. Shifting the incentives against states willing to spend money to remedy social ills is the not-so-hidden agenda of the antitax obsessives who support killing this deduction. They are trying to disable government at all levels by making it harder for states to call on their most affluent citizens to pay a little more of the common load. There will be many other parts of this proposal to criticize, but that is not enough. It's even more important to show how much damage this tax cut would do both to programs we already have and initiatives we need. Democrats are already noting that the Republican budget pays for the tax cuts with, among other things, a $1 trillion reduction to Medicaid and nearly half that amount from Medicare. If Republicans can't get their act together to destroy Obamacare, they will simply starve the health system, particularly for low-income Americans. The tax cut shoves aside other priorities as well. Regional inequities are now so pervasive throughout the West that the Economist magazine as friendly to lightly regulated capitalism as any publication devoted its cover and a special report last week to steps we need to take to reduce the gap between rich and poor locales. "Opportunities are limited for those stuck in the wrong place," the magazine wrote, "and the wider economy suffers." All who care about saving liberal democracy should support a reformed market system that responds to the discontents of those now left out. Meanwhile, as Dylan Matthews reported on the news website Vox, Sens. Michael Bennet (D., Colo.) and Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) have introduced a bill that would dramatically expand the child tax credit to $3,600 a year per child newborn to 5 years old, and $3,000 a year for those 6 to 18. To direct the most assistance to the poor and the less affluent parts of the middle class, the credit begins gradually to phase out for incomes of single parents at $75,000 a year and married couples at $110,000. The plan, Matthews writes, would cut child poverty in the United States almost in half, from 16.1 percent to 8.9 percent. The cost: roughly $1 trillion over a decade, as against the $1.5 trillion Republicans claim will be the net price of their tax cuts after they are done shuffling the tax code around. Which is the better expenditure? That is the question that must be pressed relentlessly across a broad range of concerns. Just because the only thing Republicans know how to do is cut taxes doesn't mean the rest of us have to pretend that this exercise makes any sense at all. E.J. Dionne is a Washington Post columnist. ejdionne@washpost.com @EJDionne The Inquirer Editorial Board endorses these candidates: (clockwise from top left): N.J. gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy, N.J. State Senator Steve Sweeney, Philadelphia City Controller candidate Rebecca Rhynhart, and Philadelphia District Attorney candidate Beth Grossman. Read more Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 7. If you're heading to the polls in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, here are the local candidates we think you should support. PENNSYLVANIA Philadelphia District Attorney Inquirer Endorsement: Beth Grossman (R) Grossman is a career prosecutor. She's worked in every division of the office and has a strong administrative background, having headed divisions within, and she also served as chief of staff at the Department of Licenses and Inspections. But she also headed the DA's Public Nuisance Task Force, which so abused the civil forfeiture law that a federal lawsuit forced change. Under that program, people not even accused of a crime lost their houses and cars because of alleged actions by family members. She says she was following the rules at that time, and that now she would not take property unless the owner was convicted of a crime. That's the right answer. Full text of the endorsement: Beth Grossman has the energy, strong background, and skills to be Philly's next DA Video: 5 questions with the Philly DA candidates Philadelphia City Controller Inquirer Endorsement: Rebecca Rhynhart (D) Rebecca Rhynhart knows Philadelphia finances. She served as city treasurer, budget director, and chief administrative officer before she resigned last year to run for city controller. Voters should give her the job. Before coming to government, Rhynhart, 43, of Center City, Rhynhart has a clear view of what she'd like to do as controller, which is the city's auditor. If the Democrat wins, one of her first audits would be of the controller's office to make sure its resources are being used effectively. had a solid background Full text of the endorsement: Rhynhart a smart choice to become Philly's first female controller Pa. Ballot Question: Homestead Exemption Full text of the question: Shall the Pennsylvania Constitution be amended to permit the General Assembly to enact legislation authorizing local taxing authorities to exclude from taxation up to 100 percent of the assessed value of each homestead property within a local taxing jurisdiction, rather than limit the exclusion to one-half of the median assessed value of all homestead property, which is the existing law? Inquirer Endorsement: Vote no. The ballot question, which would need further action in subsequent years to become law, makes the plan look simple, but it is not. For instance, taxpayers will have to pay property taxes on the portion of their school districts' long-term debt. The Philadelphia School District, for instance, has $270 million in long-term debt, a figure equal to about 10 percent of its total budget. Another but: Though the portion of property taxes that goes to fund schools will be erased, taxpayers will still have to pay the portion of property taxes that finances local government. In Philadelphia, 45 percent of property tax revenue goes to city government. . What this ballot amendment adds up to is a state takeover of local education that offers no promise of fair or increased funding for public education. A "No" vote is the best vote. Full text of the editorial: Why it's not a good idea to end Pa.'s property tax NEW JERSEY New Jersey Governor Inquirer Endorsement: Phil Murphy (D) Phil Murphy, a former Goldman Sachs executive and U.S. ambassador to Germany, has the skills and ideas for the job. The Democratic nominee promises to balance the state budget by imposing a millionaire's tax, closing corporate tax loopholes, and legalizing and taxing recreational marijuana. He would use the money to adequately fund public schools, fix roads and transit, and make payments to meet the state's growing pension obligation. Committed to being a full-time governor, instead of abandoning the state to seek higher office, Murphy, 59, of Middletown, says he would again make the state a leader in environmental protection and economic growth. He would bolster the green economy and encourage renewable energy development by taking advantage of the state's 127 miles of windy Atlantic Ocean coastline, abundant sunshine, and robust engineering and science institutions. Full text of the endorsement: Murphy's experience, ideas make him the best choice to be N.J.'s next governor New Jersey State Senator Inquirer Endorsement: Steve Sweeney (D) Putting aside the NJEA's beef with Sweeney, he is the superior candidate to represent the Third District, which includes all of Salem County and parts of Gloucester and Cumberland Counties. But Sweeney's value goes beyond that. As Senate president, he has worked with Republicans, including Gov. Christie, to make realistic budgetary decisions, including by passing the pension and health-care reform bill. Full text of the endorsement: Don't believe TV attack ads; Sweeney the better choice for N.J. voters +++ Read the complete Voter Guide for the 2017 Pennsylvania and New Jersey general elections on Philly.com. Parents, teachers, and education activists shout and hold signs calling for the end of the SRC during the final School Reform Commission meeting in June. Read more As members of Philadelphia's business, academic, labor, and advocacy communities, we are regularly reminded that our city's success is dependent upon the success of our public schools. Troublingly, the School District of Philadelphia will face an almost $1 billion deficit over the next five years, due to factors largely outside its control. We cannot allow our children to be thrust into another cycle of budget crises just as the district is starting to show progress. Philadelphians must step up to meet this funding shortage, and in return they should receive accelerated academic progress and greater accountability. Both goals can only be achieved through local control. The form of local control that will bring the best results and the greatest accountability to Philadelphians is a board appointed by the mayor. Studies from Pew and others, as well as the experience of numerous large school districts, demonstrate clearly that the most successful governance models have central accountability. While some argue that an elected school board would bring greater accountability, we believe that building such a political silo independent of the city government would be truly unwise. The city and the district have seen good results through closer collaboration in recent years there is no reason to reverse that progress. Additionally, as long as the appointed school board terms run coterminous with the mayor's, mayors can be held accountable by the people for the results, funding, and stewardship of our schools. We also believe that local control will improve academic outcomes through closer coordination between the district and the city. In the last several years, through the direct assistance of city departments, the district has been able to institute new behavioral health supports, create 12 new community schools, improve out-of-school time programming, increase early literacy, better prepare children for kindergarten, bring critical infrastructure repair, and end the teachers' contract stalemate. We are also hopeful that the district will be able, over time, to realize administrative and operational efficiencies through closer alignment with the city. While some may argue that the city has already stepped up its obligation to the district and it is now the state's turn to provide financial resources, the practical reality is that, given current structural budget issues, the state will not deliver new revenue for the school district any time soon. As result, the people, businesses, and institutions of Philadelphia should come together to ensure that all public schools and families do not have to endure another period of financial crisis and draconian cuts that undercut the hard-won gains and positive momentum. We do not want to go back to the days when our children lacked nurses or counselors, when some classrooms had teacher positions vacant for months, and when some schools were classified as "persistently dangerous." We must build on the positive results we saw in this year's test scores and create a school environment that will prepare our children for the 21st century. Only then can we hope to retain the population gains Philadelphia has seen in recent years and bring more jobs to our city. We do not wish to suggest that tackling the district's deficit will be painless or that a return to local control will be a panacea. But doing nothing is not an option if Philadelphia is to continue to grow and thrive. Our children and our families deserve accelerated academic progress and greater accountability for their public schools, and we can achieve both through local control. Armor Express, Inc., a leading manufacturer and distributor of high-performance body armor solutions, announced today that the company has been chosen to equip U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with ballistic-resistant vests. The multimillion dollar order will be delivered over a five-year period. Building on our previously announced awards from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including for Customs and Border Protection as well as the Internal Revenue Service, the latest purchase order for Immigration and Customs Enforcement is another major opportunity for Armor Express to support the essential agencies within Homeland Security, stated David Jones, director of federal sales. Federal agents at large face increasing demands and threats in preserving public safety, and protecting them is our number one priority. The Armor Express team has worked closely with DHS to supply a variety of concealable and tactical ballistic systems and were honored to collaborate with ICE to ensure officers have the most innovative and reliable protective equipment to meet their mission-critical needs. Armor Express will support ICEs Homeland Security Investigations and Enforcement and Removal Operations units with concealable and tactical outer garment carriers paired with the company's advanced Razor Level IIIA ballistic system, along with assorted pouches and carry bags. Personnel from the Federal Protective Service (FPS), formerly a department of ICE, will also benefit from a similar delivery order. Both ICE and FPS were looking for robust and flexible coverage to fulfill department requirements and after an extensive assessment, determined that Armor Express could best meet uniformed standards for ballistic performance, design and engineering specifications, and overall reliability. Armor Express Razor ballistic system, which is NIJ-, FBI- and DEA-certified as well as special-threats tested, utilizes Force Multiplier Technology from DSM Dyneema and Twaron aramid from Teijin. Dyneema Force Multiplier Technology fuses breakthrough polymer science, next generation fiber technology, and unique uni-directional engineering to deliver V-50 performance that is unparalleled. Both the concealable and tactical vests with Razor armor offer extreme flexibility and stopping power. With more than 20,000 employees in over 400 offices in the United States and 46 foreign countries, ICE is tasked with enforcing federal laws governing border control, customs, trade and immigration to promote homeland security and public safety. The agency is devoted to operational directorates including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a critical investigative arm of DHS which combats criminal organizations illegally exploiting the U.S. travel, trade, financial and immigration systems, as well as Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which is tasked with arresting and removing aliens who present a danger to national security or are a risk to public safety, as well as those who enter the U.S. illegally or otherwise undermine the integrity of the nations immigration laws and its border control efforts. FPS is the police division of the National Protection and Programs Directorate of DHS. The agency is charged with protecting and delivering integrated law enforcement and security services to facilities owned or leased by the General Services Administration (GSA), which spans over 9,000 buildings and their occupants. In related news, Armor Express was also selected to outfit federal agents assigned to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). IRS officers will receive both concealable carriers and tactical outer garment carriers, each encompassing Razor Level IIIA ballistic panels, along with assorted pouches and carry bags. Scott Wyatt, VP of sales said, These latest awards expand Armor Express core business within the U.S. federal market and represent our continued leadership in developing and delivering breakthrough armor solutions for federal, as well as state and local enforcement agencies. We take great pride in making a difference protecting Government personnel who work tirelessly to protect us every day and look forward to driving advancements that ensure all officers return home safely. About Armor Express Armor Express is a leading manufacturer and distributor of high-performance body armor systems. Founded in 2005, the company has grown to become one of the largest providers of soft and hard armor products and accessories, serving the domestic and federal law enforcement market, U.S military and Americas allies around the world. For more information, visit www.armorexpress.com. Arapahoe County, CO, sheriff's deputies shot and killed a former colleague Sunday night after the man reportedly pointed a gun at them. The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office confirmed that the man shot was former deputy Mark Bidon. The 50-year-old worked at the sheriff's office from 2000 to his resignation in 2010, according to a news release. According to Julie Brooks, a spokeswoman for the sheriffs office, the shooting happened around 9:45. Brooks told KUSA TV the shooting occurred at the employee entrance to the sheriffs office, which has a security gate. Lansing, MI, police officers rescued 15 students from this burning home early Monday morning. (Photo: WILX TV Screen Shot) Officers and firefighters rescued 15 students trapped in a massive house fire in Lansing, MI, Monday morning. All 15 students are fine and are being assisted by the Red Cross. They were all from China and are flying back home Monday and Tuesday. Their personal items were already packed for their trip so they didn't lose anything in the fire. At 1:22 a.m. police were the first ones to the home, which was being used as an Airbnb rental where 15 international students were staying while they attended a medical conference at Michigan State University. When officers arrived just after 1:20 a.m. only 5 of the students renting the home were outside. Officers say the other 10 students were trapped in the house. Police were able to get inside and help everyone get out safely. Doua rachete au cazut in Polonia la granita cu Ucraina/ Polonia afirma ca o racheta de fabricatie ruseasca a provocat explozia / Moscova neaga atacul / Biden: Este putin probabil ca racheta sa fi fost lansata din Rusia Trooper Emerson Dillon of the New York State Police was murdered 1974. His killer John Ruzas is up for parole. A judge has ruled the parole board cannot consider letters from officers in its decision. (Photo: NYSP) A state judge has blasted a cop-killer's parole board for considering letters from cops in denying the 74-year-old murderer's release after 43 years in prison. John Ruzas - who is up for parole for the 11th time - shot to death Trooper Emerson Dillon on the Thruway near Canastota in 1974. Ruzas earlier had robbed a DeWitt jewelry store. Ruzas, who was 32 years old at the time, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. He has gotten chances at parole for nearly two decades. State police have, for years, made a public appeal to keep Ruzas behind bars. But Hudson Valley Judge Victor Grossman this month held the parole board in contempt for considering dozens of opposition letters that came from police officers decrying Ruzas's murder. Grossman said considering those letters violated the law. The judge ordered a new parole board to consider Ruzas' bid for freedom, forbidding the previous parole board members from participating in the new panel, Syracuse.com reports. Glock, Inc. donated a total of $80,000 to two foundations that provide support for the families of fallen officers at the 2017 International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) conference held last week in Philadelphia. Glock presented the Drug Enforcement Administration Survivors Benefit Fund (DEASBF) with a contribution for $30,000 and donated $50,000 to the Concerns of Police Survivors (C.O.P.S.). On hand to receive the donation on behalf of the DEASBF was Chairman Richard Crock. This marked the ninth annual significant donation to the DEASBF by Glock. Glock has a long history of supporting both the individuals who go into harms way and their families, Glock National Sales Manager Bob Radecki said. We are proud to contribute to this great organization which makes such a vital impact in the communities in which we all live. DEA Survivors Benefit Fund Chairman Crock said, The fund would not exist without donors and partners like Glock. Currently, the Benefit Fund pays line-of-duty death and continuing education benefits to the families of DEA Agents and Task Force Officers killed in the line of duty. Currently, the fund finances the education of 8 children, all of whom lost their father in the line of duty. Receiving the contribution for C.O.P.S. were Executive Director Dianne Bernhard, Director of Operations Shelly Jones, and Development Director Lauren Crisman. "The families of our fallen law enforcement heroes are supported every year by Glock," said Bernhard. " Glock honors these heroes by helping to ensure their sacrifice will never be forgotten, nor will their families. C.O.P.S. could not do what we do without Glock." Organizations like C.O.P.S. provide hope and support for family members during a time of tragedy, said Glock's Radecki. It means a great deal to Glock to provide for those left behind by their loved ones. To learn more about GLOCK corporate social responsibility and other news, visit https://us.glock.com/news. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print After Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello called on the power authority to cancel the $300 million contract with the Trump administration donor owned Whitefish Energy, the power authority has announced that the contract has been canceled. ABC News reported: JUST IN: Puerto Rico Energy Power Authority chief announces cancellation of controversial $300 million Whitefish Energy contract. ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 29, 2017 The contract, which did not allow government oversight or audits was one of the most brazen attempts at corruption carried out by the Trump administration. FEMA immediately distanced themselves from the deal, as tiny Whitefish Energy was unqualified to handle such a massive project and only appears to have landed the contract because they are located in Trump Interior Secretary Ryan Zinkes hometown, and the owners of the company which has two full-time employees were Trump donors. The deal was so corrupt that no one would take responsibility for it once the contract became public. The Trump administrations malevolent treatment and neglect of the crisis in Puerto Rico were made even worse by such acts of overt corruption. A humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions was used by people affiliated with and supporting this administration to line their own pockets. Trump and his administration arent in power to govern. Their goal is to use every opportunity to pillage the taxpayers coffers. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print WASHINGTON (Reuters) George Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents, the federal special counsel said on Monday, becoming the third adviser to President Donald Trumps campaign to face criminal charges in its investigation. Papadopolous is an international energy lawyer who was on Trumps advisory team during the 2016 presidential campaign. The Chicago man pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 in a case unsealed on Monday, the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller said in a statement. The court document said Papadopolous made false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation shortly after Trumps inauguration on Jan. 20, when the law enforcement agency had an open investigation into Russian government efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. The special counsel said Papadopoulos told FBI agents he had been in contact with an unnamed foreign professor who claimed to have dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, and that Papadopolous claimed such contacts occurred before he joined Trumps campaign. However, the prosecutor said Papadopolous in fact did not meet the professor until after he joined Trumps campaign. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Mark Hosenball and Jonathan Landay; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Yara Bayoumy) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Manu Raju that President Trump should not get in the way of FBI Special Counsel Robert Mueller, the President should let him do his job. Chuck Grassley just told me Trump shouldn't get in the way of Mueller: "The president should let the special counsel do his job." Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 30, 2017 Last week, Grassley said the Justice Department should appoint a special counsel to investigate the uranium deal after Republican lawmakers launched investigations that closely mirror Trumps attempts to distract the public from the Russia probe, including their attempts to use a uranium deal as a Trump Get Out of Jail free card. So thats a big old yes to Grassley sniffing around to find crumbs for Trumps fake conspiracy theories. MSNBCs Joy Reid took down this entire uranium distraction in just two minutes, but the mainstream media is allowing it to percolate as if it has any legitimacy. It does not. Transcript from Slate: Reid: Who is the person who donated to Hillary Clinton who is related to and had an investment in uranium one? What is that persons name? Do you remember their name? Kerns: They are board members of Uranium One donated up to $143 million I think to the Clinton Foundation. Reid: Did he own any assets in Uranium One at the time Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State? Kerns: You know, I dont know that, but heres what I would Reid: He did not. Sold them. Kerns: Heres what I would like to know Reid: He sold them years before. So what youre talking about is a deal that nine members of CFIUS approved unanimously. None of them was Hillary Clinton. You have a donor who separately gave Hillary Clinton donations at a time when she was not Secretary of State. The two things cross in the night, they have no relation to each other. The members of CFIUS have been very clear Hillary Clinton had nothing to do with that approving that deal. She would have had to strong-arm eight people in order to get them to unanimously approve the deal and also the President of the United States would intervene if they saw any problems. The CFIUS people say now that if that deal came before them today they would still approve it unanimously. Theres actually nothing about the deal thats controversial. The only reason were talking about it is because per your admission, which I think is very honest, the RNC would like us to be talking about this now. End transcript. Grassley is desperately trying to feed the Trump monster his daily dose of alternative reality, but even Chuck Grassley is warning Trump not to interfere with the Mueller investigation. Of course, Grassley didnt have the courage to say what all Republicans should be saying, since Congress is led by Republicans right now. Republicans should be saying that if Mueller is fired or his investigation is tampered with in any way, immediate impeachment proceedings will be supported. But hey, this is a huge moment of spine from the man who stole a SCOTUS seat for this President, whose close adviser pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the Russia investigation and whose two other campaign advisers were indicted and turned themselves in to the FBI today. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print The White House and Republicans are spinning hard, claiming that Paul Manafort had a limited role in Trumps campaign before he resigned amid a pro-Russian money scandal. This phrase is all over cable news right now, but its not accurate. According to the number of days that each one of them worked, Paul Manafort worked longer for the campaign than Steve Bannon and Kelly Conway. According to publicly available information: Steve Bannon worked on the campaign from 8/17 to 11/8 83 days. Kellyanne Conway worked on the campaign from 7/1 to 11/8 130 days. Paul Manafort worked on the campaign from 3/29 to 8/19 143 days. 143 days is longer than 83 days. And also longer than 130 days, even in alternative fact world. Former Obama White House Deputy Secretary of Labor and Cabinet Secretary Chris Lu pointed this out Monday morning: Just a reminder: Manafort worked for Trump campaign longer than either Conway or Bannon. It was not a "limited role" https://t.co/rIBKpK10YC Chris Lu (@ChrisLu44) October 30, 2017 The Daily Beast reported in November of 2016 that Manafort, whom they described as the former lobbyist for some of the worst dictators and killers of the 20th century who is operating in the shadows these days was advising Trump on Cabinet picks: According to two sources with knowledge of the Trump presidential transition process, Manafortwhose formal association with the president-elect ended in Augustis heavily involved with the staffing of the nascent administration. Fortune debunked this in March: Manafort did not play a limited role in the campaign. He was involved with the campaign for five months, serving as campaign chairman for three of those months until he resigned. Moreover, his roles in the campaign, particularly Convention Manager, were crucial, and arguably prevented a derailing of Trumps nomination through a floor fight at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump himself acknowledged Manaforts key part in his campaign, saying upon Manaforts resignation, I am very appreciative for his great work in helping to get us where we are today, and in particular his work guiding us through the delegate and convention process, he added. Paul is a true professional and I wish him the greatest success. Furthermore, 2016 and 2017 are mentioned in the indictment, so the idea that this all happened years before he was involved with the Trump campaign not only isnt accurate, but its also as if Trump thinks its okay to have hired criminals to lead his campaign, so long as they were not at that very moment committing crimes. Trump is trying to say no collusion was proven. However, collusion is not a criminal term conspiracy is, and conspiracy was covered in the Manafort indictment. Additionally, it was reported today that Trump adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements that directly relate to the Trump Russia probe. The special counsel said Papadopoulos told FBI agents he had been in contact with an unnamed foreign professor who claimed to have dirt on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, and that Papadopolous claimed such contacts occurred before he joined Trumps campaign. However, the prosecutor said Papadopolous in fact did not meet the professor until after he joined Trumps campaign, Reuters reported. The notion that Manafort had limited involvement in the Trump campaign is not true. He played a pivotal role in Donald Trump even getting the Republican nomination. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print When asked by reporters about the indictment of Paul Manafort, the Speaker of the House, tripped over his own two feet while cowardly trying to dodge the question. Video: Pressed to respond to special counsel indictments, Speaker Ryan says, "I'm not going to speculate on something I haven't read." pic.twitter.com/Xf7rVXWgLD ABC News (@ABC) October 30, 2017 Ryan was asked about the Manafort indictment, and this was his answer, I have nothing to add to the indictments because I havent read the indictmentsIts big news, but this is what you get from a special counsel. I really have nothing to add, because I have not even read it. Im not going to speculate on something that I havent read, so theres just no point in doing that. A real leader would have said that we need to get the bottom of what happened during the 2016 election, and I support the special counsels work. I cant comment on the indictment itself in any detail because I have not read it yet. Paul Ryan decided to take the cowards way out and make no statement at all. Ryan is not a leader. The Speaker of the House is a Trump enabler who is being accused of approving the White House efforts to derail the House investigation into the Russia scandal. Speaker Ryan is putting tax cuts ahead of his country. Others will go down for the Russia scandal, but it was Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell who helped sell out one of the nations two political parties to Putin. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) is accelerating his plan to introduce a constitutional amendment that would limit Trumps ability to use presidential pardons. In a statement provided to PoliticusUSA, Rep. Cohen said, The indictment of Paul Manafort, who served as Donald Trumps campaign chairman last year, accelerates the need to pass a Constitutional amendment limiting a presidents pardoning authority. I will be introducing the amendment on Tuesday. If adopted, the amendment would prohibit presidents from pardoning themselves, their families, members of their administrations and individuals who worked on their presidential campaigns. The indictment makes clear that some of Manaforts activities took place while he was working on the Trump campaign so the need is clear and present. A constitutional amendment would not immediately solve the problem of Trumps potential pardons, but it would shine a light on the possibility of Trump abusing his power. A constitutional amendment is an interesting way to remind Trump that the American people are watching and Democrats are ready to take action. Trump floated a trial balloon when he pardoned Joe Arpaio. He did the Arpaio pardon with no cameras present, no notice, at a slow news time. If Trump tries to pardon people involved with the Russia scandal, he will likely follow the same gameplan. Should Trump abuse his pardon power, Democrats are ready to act on the constitutional crisis that will follow. Any Trump abuse of his pardon power will give Democrats a giant issue to use to take back Congress in 2018. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print (Reuters) The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating a $300 million contract that Puerto Ricos government power company awarded to a U.S.-based energy startup, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. The contract between Whitefish Energy Holdings and Puerto Ricos bankrupt power utility came under fire after it was revealed last week that the terms were obtained without a competitive public bidding process. Whitefish had more than 350 workers and 2,500 tons of heavy equipment on the ground for rebuilding electrical lines destroyed in Hurricane Maria, raising concern about Puerto Ricos management of federal disaster-relief funds to the island, the WSJ reported. (http://on.wsj.com/2zjM0vi) The Federal Emergency Management Agency, multiple congressional committees and local auditors have begun requesting documents about the deal, according to the WSJ. A Whitefish spokesman said the company was not aware of any such investigation and that it is committed to full cooperation with any inquiry or investigation. The FBIs office in Puerto Rico did not respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Anirban Paul in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil DSilva) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print As the Paul Manafort indictment dominates the news, Trump state TV, a.k.a. Fox News, is ignoring the first embers of Trumps burning presidency. Here was what Fox was talking about as the Manafort indictment broke: Paul Manafort just agreed to turn himself in to the FBI. What should we report on? CNN: Manafort MSNBC: Manafort Fox News: Hamburger emoji pic.twitter.com/Wjsvkb2coW Roberto Ferdman (@robferdman) October 30, 2017 When they are not talking about hamburger emojis instead of their presidents former campaign manager being indicted, Fox is focused on: Fox News right now pic.twitter.com/DK8KyDpoW5 Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) October 30, 2017 Fox News is literally talking about anything else that isnt Paul Manafort going down and potentially taking Trump with him. There will be a push back on Fox eventually that will certainly involve Sean Hannity screaming about Hillary Clinton for an hour, but for now, Trumps favorite TV network is operating in total denial. The bus operators argued that multiple cases were being registered against a bus on the same day. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Hours after his former campaign manager Paul Manafort and RNCs Richard Gates surrendered under a grand jury indictment, President Trumps schedule involves lunch with Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The White House schedule reads, President Donald J. Trump will receive his daily intelligence briefing. The President will then meet with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. In the afternoon, the President will have lunch with Vice President Mike Pence and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Later in the afternoon, the President will meet with Secretary of Defense James Mattis. In the evening, the President and the First Lady will participate in Halloween at the White House. If Trump is meeting with Sessions to pressure him to fire Robert Mueller, who is a Republican and was appointed as FBI Director by Bush, Republicans need to ready themselves to finally do the right thing. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print Legal expert, former federal prosecutor and candidate for Illinois Attorney General Renato Mariotti shared his preliminary thoughts on the Manafort/Gates indictments in the Trump Russia probe Monday morning. THREAD: My very preliminary / initial thoughts on the indictment of Paul Manafort and Richard Gates. Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) October 30, 2017 Here is his whole Twitter thread: 1/ The indictment of Manafort and Gates was just unsealed. You can view it here: https://www.justice.gov/file/1007271/download 2/ An indictment is a formal charge that has been approved on by a grand jury, which are a group ordinary citizens who hear evidence.. 3/ In the United States, you have a constitutional right to be charged by indictment if you are being charged with a felony. 4/ The indictment charges Paul Manafort and Richard Gates with multiple felonies. A felony is a crime punishable by over a year in prison. 5/ The indictment charges the men with a number of different crimes. Im going to walk through them in this thread. 6/ Indictments list the allegations that the government is making and the specific laws that have been violated. 7/ This indictment is something called a speaking indictment instead of just saying the charges, it lists specific factual allegations. 8/ Certain crimes (like conspiracy) require the government to explain exactly what the defendants did and what the conspiracy was about. 9/ Prosecutors gain a couple of advantages from charging crimes like conspiracy. First, they get to give the jury a road map of the case. 10/ The jury gets to bring the indictment back into the jury room when they deliberate after a trial. 11/ Conspiracy charges also let prosecutors bring in a broader range of activity into a single charge. 12/ Typically crimes involve a specific action or occur at a specific time. A conspiracy is an agreement to break the law and it is ongoing. 13/ So the first charge in this indictment is a conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. 371. That is a general federal conspiracy statute. 14/ If two people agree to commit a federal law and take a concrete step towards doing so (called an overt act), theyve violated 371. 15/ Here, Manafort and Gates are charged with agreeing to defeat the lawful functions of the United States. 16/ This is a common charge in tax casesI charged this statute myself in a tax case. It means they worked together to undermine the IRS. 17/ For instance, when you go out of your way to hide money and affirmatively make it hard for the IRS to enforce the law against you. 18/ You can read more about the basis of the conspiracy charge by reading the parts of the indictment references in paragraphs 38 and 39. 19/ The second crime is a conspiracy (agreement) to launder money. Thats when you move money in order to promote *another* crime. 20/ Ive told you before that money laundering is a challenge to prove because you need to show that other crime happened. Mueller did that. 21/ The other crime (its called specified unlawful activity) is a failure to register as a foreign agent. More on that later. 22/ The next crime is only against Manafort for failure to file a statement with the Treasury Department disclosing foreign bank accounts. 23/ As weve discussed often, prosecutors like narrow charges like this because theyre easy to prove. Either you disclosed or not, period. 24/ The next crime charged is against only Gates for essentially the same thing. Failing to disclose foreign bank accounts. 25/ The next count is for failing to register as a foreign agent. The law requires that anyone working in the U.S. as an agent of a foreign 26/ government must register with the Attorney General. This is another narrow crime that can be very straightforward to prove. 27/ (Registration is important so our government can monitor what foreign governments are doing within the United States.) 28/ The next crime (Count 11, p. 27) is one of the most important and revealing. This charges false and misleading registration statements. 29/ I dont have time to list the statements here, but Mueller is affirmatively alleging that he can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that 30/ each one of those statements is false, which says something about the work that Manafort and Gates were doing and allegedly lied about. 31/ The next crime is just a different way of charging the same false statements, which are a violation of both statutes. 32/ Prosecutors sometimes charge the same crime multiple ways because what they have to prove under each statute is slightly different. 33/ The last part of the indictment is something called the Forfeiture Allegation. If property is acquired from unlawful activity, or 34/ if it is used in unlawful activity, it can be forfeited (taken) by the federal government. That forfeiture has to be alleged too. 35/ Here the government lists various property that they will try to forfeit as well as substitute property that they can take if the 36/ listed property is no longer available because it was sold or transferred. 37/ I have many, many more thoughts on this indictment but this is a starting point. I will have more threads today and will be on TV a lot. 38/ I read your comments and questions, even if I cant respond to all of them, and Ill try to answer them later today. /end Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email Print The White House responded to the damaging news that former campaign manager Paul Manafort has been indicted and a former foreign policy adviser flipped and is cooperating with law enforcement by turning up the pressure to investigate Hillary Clinton. Video: Huckabee Sanders was asked if Trump is confident that Congress will investigate Clinton. She answered, I think thats a question youd have to ask Congress, but I think that there are enough reports and enough information out there that seems to suggest that it might not be a bad idea. Huckabee Sanders tried to spend the rest of the briefing distancing Trump from Manafort and George Papadopoulos. It didnt work. The other half of the Trump strategy is to play up the dossier and demand an investigation of Hillary Clinton. Sarah Huckabee Sanders falsely claimed that the Trump campaign only took a meeting, while Clinton spent money to help the Russians spread fake news about Trump to influence the election. It is a bizarro world defense that is completely devoid of facts. Trump is retreating back to a familiar strategy of blaming Hillary Clinton for his own activities. If this briefing was Sarah Huckabee Sanders first real test as press secretary, she failed miserably. Huckabee Sanders couldnt defend Trump, and the only thing she could come up with was faux outrage and a demand to investigate Clinton. October 30 has been one of the worst scandal days for any president in history, and the White House isnt going to get out of their Russia scandal by blaming Clinton. Hungary Mol open to selling INA stake, Russia's Rosneft shows interest Hungarian fuels group Mol is open to selling its stake in Croatian oil company INA, but until then it will continue to operate INA to the best of its knowledge, said Pal Kara, General Counsel of Mol Group, in an interview with Hungarian public television M1 on Monday morning. The Board of Directors of Mol declared in 2013 that INA will either operate on a market economy principle or the Hungarian stake will need to be bought out, Kara reminded. The situation has not changed, and Mol remains open to negotiations", awaiting a proposal from the Croatian party with great patience and respect".Russias state-owned oil and gas company Rosneft could take Mols place as a stakeholder in Croatian peer INA if Croatias government seeks a new strategic partner, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin was quoted as saying in an interview with Croatian daily Jutarnji list on Saturday. Were interested in efficient investments in the region Mols strategy will also be addressed at the Portfolio Energy Investment Forum 2017 conference. Its not too late to register! , Sechin told the paper cited by Hungarian news wire MTI. He added that Rosneft sees INAs refineries in Sisak and Rijeka as "two integral elements" of the company.Sechin acknowledged Mols stand on profitability and headcount at the Sisak refinery, but said an upgrade at the facility could put it in an important position on Europes oil refinery market."If Rosneft becomes an INA owner, it will modernize the companys operations and it will be able to operate profitably under market conditions," he claimed. The refineries enjoy an advantage from the logistics angle in the Mediterranean region, he added.Mol owns just under half of INA, but has management rights in the company. The government of Croatia is the other big shareholder, holding a 44.84% stake. Both owners have been at odds for years over the companys strategy, including the fate of the Sisak refinery.Meanwhile, a Swiss court rejected the Croatian governments request for revocation of an earlier arbitration ruling relating to INA.Kara told M1 that with the ruling of by the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland, the case launched against Mol in early 2014 is closed for good. The accusation was that Mol acquired control of INA via corruption, failed to fulfil the investments undertaken in the shareholder agreement and violated Croatian legislation on commercial companies.The legal director said Croatia is obliged to do as the ruling says, and it cannot dispute the validity of the related contracts and any management issue relating to INA.Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said late last year that the government would buy out Mols stake in INA. Watchdog and Public Service reporter Thad Moore is a reporter on The Post and Couriers Watchdog and Public Service team and a graduate of the University of South Carolina. To share tips securely, reach Moore via ProtonMail at thadmoore@protonmail.com or on Signal at 843-214-6576. Workshop, a new food court space on the upper peninsula, hosts upstart restaurants seeking to get their footing in Charleston. Data collected by Yelp best-known for its restaurant reviews shows a rapid clip of growth here. The finding also hints at new uses for the company's data. File/Grace Beahm Alford/Staff The College of Charleston is conducting an investigation after a photo surfaced of a person in a Freddie Gray Halloween costume over the weekend. The Black Student Union claims that both the person photographed and the person who took the picture are College of Charleston students. Detrick Manning/Provided The owners of The Venue at Falls Park in Greenville are expanding their footprint with another upscale events venue in the space formerly occupied by Pour Taproom. Read moreFormer Pour Taproom in downtown Greenville to become an events venue ERETRIA, Greece The sites of horror the places where mass murder happened are seared into my memory. Holocaust sites such as the Warsaw Ghetto and Auschwitz, or Kigali, where the Hutus butchered the Tutus, or the Falls Road in Belfast, where many died over the decades of strife. Read moreCommentary: New sites of death are minted every day Across South Carolina, from the coast to our mountainous state line, new and expanded trails have certainly made a lot of headlines in recent months. Here are just a few of the exciting developments: Read moreEditorial: From the SC coast to the mountains, welcome progress on new trails Former President Donald Trump is preparing to launch his third campaign for the White House on Tuesday, looking to move on from disappointing midterm defeats and defy history amid signs that his grip on the Republican Party is waning. Read moreTrump prepares to launch 3rd campaign for the White House Dr. Vacharee Peterson didn't want to hear that her plan for another Community Dental Clinic in Rochester was "impossible." "We were warned by a number of experts that our plan for a larger clinic was too ambitious, it was too big," she said. "There is a verse from the Bible that says, 'With God, all things are possible.'" Peterson, who founded the Community Dental Care clinics, spoke at an open house event for Community Dental Care - Eastwood earlier this month. The Eastwood location, off U.S. Highway 14 East, opened on Aug. 14 and has since provided care to more than 1,200 patients, 42 percent of whom are new to the program. Fifty-eight of those patients were treated on the first day. ADVERTISEMENT After attempts to secure funding during the 2015 legislative session failed, the clinic worked with the city of Rochester to get a conduit loan and raised money from donors as well. The clinic broke ground in September 2016 and opened to patients less than a year later. "One option would fall through and another would open," Peterson said. "I continue to thank God for making the impossible possible. Thank you for providing a place where people from all walks of life can be served." Almost all of the CDC patients are uninsured or on public programs 95 percent, in fact. Nels Pierson, the representative for District 26B, said the legislature didn't do enough to help make the clinic a reality but now that it is running, he said the state has a responsibility to ensure that it succeeds. "We've got a job to do now in our community, and that just is just to make sure people know that this is here," Pierson said. "The state of Minnesota has a long way to go in terms of taking care of the underserved." Currently, 12 of 18 rooms in the Eastwood clinic are equipped and operational. When all of the operatories are equipped and staffed, the new clinic should serve 10,000 patients a year, in about 35,000 patient encounters. Since opening the clinic, the wait time for patients has decreased from seven months to three. About $1.8 million of the funds for the clinic came from donations, CDC board chair Cedric Long said, $1 million of which came from Delta Dental of Minnesota. ADVERTISEMENT Joseph P. Lally, the Delta Dental vice president of government relations and executive director, said dental care should be a bigger priority for communities. "The mouth is connected to the rest of the body," Lally said. "If as many children had infections in their hands as they have cavities, as have it in their mouths, more attention would be paid." The increased space at the Eastwood location allows the clinic to include something they weren't able to bring to Rochester before a PICOH room. The Program to Improve Community Oral Health is an education system that teaches children ages 0-6 and at-risk kids ages 6-12 how to do preventative care for their teeth brushing, flossing and healthier snacking. Haley Pysick, the PICOH educator who teaches kids about the "sugar bugs" on their teeth, has seen 130 patients from the end of August through mid-October. "Preventative care is important," she said. "A lot of our lower-income patients don't have the education." A trio of Rochester restaurateurs has a lot on its plate at the moment with the imminent opening of a downtown place as well as a new "burger bar" creation. The second half of the Porch & Cellarpairing of restaurants in downtown Rochester is gearing up for an opening next week. On its Facebook page, Nov. 7 was released as an opening date for the Cellar, the lower of two establishments at 20 Fourth St. SE. Similar to the Porch, the Cellaris the creation of brother and sister team Jason Zubay and Lindsay Zubayplus former ZZestchef Justin Schoville. The Porch opened in December 2016. The two eateries are in the 115-year-old Chicago Great Western railroad depot, along the Zumbro River. The Cellar, described as "hip" and "chill," will serve craft cocktails and "dynamic, chef-driven small plates." ADVERTISEMENT The Zubay siblings have plenty of firsthand and family experience. Their parents, LeeAnn and Jerry Zubay, are the forces behind Zzest Cafe, which recently closed. There still is a downtown food court location of Zzest. Jerry Zubay, with previous business partner Mike Currie,also created several beloved Rochester restaurants including the original Newt'sand the Redwood Room. Mike Currie's sons, Dave and Mark Currie, now manage the four Newt's locations as well as 300 First, the Redwood Room, Hefe Rojo and the City Market Deli. In addition to their Porch & Cellar, the Zubay siblings and chef Schoville are working on a new burger bar called Hot Chipin the former ZZest space at 1190 16th St. SW in the Apache Shoppesshopping center. That project recently was announced with a series of aggressive online videos that seem to challenge the Curries and Newts, which often are ranked as having the best hamburger in Rochester. It looks as if Rochester has a beef showdown cooking in the near future. RED WING The Prairie Island Indian Community's tribal council has awarded $31,000 in public safety grants to its neighboring communities. The grants included $1,000 to the Hastings police reserves, $10,000 to the Red Wing Fire Department for the purchase of equipment for hazardous materials response, and $20,000 to the Miesville Fire Department to purchase self-contained breathing apparatus equipment. The grants are aimed to help those agencies that offer public safety response not only to the Native American community but nearby towns as well. "We are very fortunate to work with high quality first responders in our community," said Shelley Buck, president of the Prairie Island Indian Community. "We know these grants fill specific needs that will make our first responders better equipped to keep us safer in the years to come." If this years Virginia governors race between Republican Ed Gillespie and Democrat Ralph Northam is a dress rehearsal for 2018, then next years congressional races should present quite a spectacle. If you dont think so, check out this story in the Washington Post called Bikers for Trump rallies for Gillespie without Gillespie. Gillespie narrowly defeated Corey Stewart in the Republican primary. Stewart managed Trumps campaign in Virginia for a portion of 2016. After he lost to Gillespie, Stewart declined to endorse his rival. He came around, however, after being urged to by Steve Bannon, among others. Gillespie, meanwhile, is walking a tightrope. As the Posts Laura Vozzella explains: In a purple state that gave Hillary Clinton her only Southern victory last year, Gillespie needs to excite rural Trump supporters without turning off moderates and inflaming Democrats in the states deep-blue population centers. The rally for Gillespie by Bikers for Trump exemplifies the balancing act. When Stewart offered to hold the rally, Gillespie declined to attend, appearing instead with Sen. Rob Portman at an event in Northern Virginia. The rest of the Republican statewide ticket Jill Vogel, whos running for lieutenant governor, and John Adams, whos running attorney general traveled to Virginia Beach for the event, though Adams had to leave before it began because his father fell ill. Stewart gave a fiery speech. He urged the crowd to stand up and fight, fight the criminals, communists, crackheads and the weirdos those are your Democrats. Some of them, anyway. Of Gillespie, Stewart said only that hes a good, strong Republican. Indeed, Gillespie is, and this should be reason enough for Trumps base to vote for him. Well see if it is. Vogel, the candidate for lieutenant governor, is a former chief counsel to the Republican National Committee. She also served in the Bush administration. Thats pretty establishment. However, she displays more comfort with President Trump than Gillespie does. In her speech to the bikers rally, Vogel vigorously defended Confederate monuments, smaller government, and lower taxes. Gillespie also defends the monuments, which seems to be helping with the Trulmp base, and of course he favors smaller government and lower taxes. Gillespie has also taken a hard line on criminal justice and illegal immigration, as we discussed here and here. Given Vogels greater affinity for Trump, however, observers will pay much attention to how she fares in relation to Gillespie. Vogels opponent is Justin Fairfax, a young African-American lawyer. Earlier this month, the Northam campaign scrubbed Fairfaxs face from a campaign mailer. One explanation offered was that Fairfax had offended certain labor-union leaders and the scrubbing of the photograph was meant to mollify big labor. Some suggested a less generous, more politically incorrect explanation. In either case, Republicans arent the only ones walking a tightrope in Virginia. Meanwhile, Democrats, and their media backers, are examining the bikers rally, especially Stewarts speech, looking for offensive statements to pin on Vogel and, if possible, Gillespie. They seem to be seizing on this statement by Stewart about a Democratic candidate for the House of Delegates: He was Dan Roem. Now its Danica Roem. Not that theres anything wrong with that. Kevin Donohoe, a spokesman for the Virginia Democratic Party, promptly called on Gillespie to denounce Corey Stewarts bigotry. In print, though, Stewarts comment about Roem leaves nothing to denounce. You had to be there. Ed Gillespie wasnt. I respect Bill Kristol, Sen. Jeff Flake, and every other conservative who takes a principled anti-Trump stand. I dont much respect Sen. Bob Corker who supported candidate Trump and reportedly wanted to be his Secretary of State, only later to discover what most of us knew all along Donald Trump is a bad guy. I dont disagree with many of the criticisms leveled at President Trump by Kristol, Flake, and others. I part company with them because they seem to overlook or undervalue the fact that the Trump administration is reliably conservative so far; that Trump has put the dangerous left back on its heels; and that Trump rarely acts in accordance with his those of his utterances that are outrageous. I think they also overlook or fail to understand how much worse a Hillary Clinton presidency would have been. In addition, I think the editors of the Weekly Standard, the magazine Kristol founded and until recently served as editor-in-chief, get it wrong when they claim that the Republican Party has surrendered to Trump. The editors dont point to a single position congressional Republicans have given up in deference to the president. It seems to be me that a surrender or a hostile takeover, as the editors also put it, entails giving significant ground on policy. I see little evidence that Republicans have done so. The editors are unhappy that a day after Trump addressed the Heritage Foundation, the think tanks president, Ed Feulner, waxed rhapsodic in a pitch to donors. Feulner told them: This morning I woke up still in awe of what I heard last night. As you know, President Trump addressed a group of Heritage members. He confirmed, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he is on our side. Awe is overdoing it, even in a pitch to donors. But based on the evidence so far, Feulner is right that Trump is on the side of conservatism. The editors make no argument to the contrary. Throughout their piece, the editors mention Steve Bannon. But Bannon lost his place in the White House. The main people now advising Trump are folks who, as Victor Davis Hanson says, could work in a Marco Rubio administration The editors complain that Republicans who dissent from the Partys alleged new direction risk a Bannon-backed primary challenge. Thats true. But based on the evidence so far, they dont risk a Trump-backed challenge for taking the substantive positions they typically take. That risk arises only if they lash out Trump, and its not even clear that Trump would actively back a challenge in that event. In any case, a Republican presidents unwillingness to support the reelection of a Republican Senator who attacks him isnt evidence that the Party has experienced a hostile takeover. The editors say that Senate Republicans are accommodating their new masters before serious challengers are even on the horizon. As noted, however, they dont tell us what significant policy accommodations they are talking about. Do they detect major accommodations on key issues like Obamacare replacement, tax reform, or immigration policy? So far, I dont. It would be more accurate to say that Trump is trying to mediate between his base and traditional Republicans than to say that Trump has demanded and received a surrender from the latter group. Trump tried to sell Luther Strange to the Alabama base. It didnt go well, but Trump then said he would try to dissuade Bannon from going after several other Republican members. Thats mediation, not a demand for the surrender of Senate Republicans. Although there has been no surrender or hostile takeover, its obvious that Trump influences the Republican Party and that, if things go his way, the Party will evolve. It could not be otherwise. This is part of the reward one gets for becoming president in a democracy. Bill Clinton took the Democratic Party towards the center, where it didnt want to go. He got away with it because he remained fairly popular with the electorate. George W. Bush took the Republican Party in the direction of compassionate conservatism, where it didnt want to go. It didnt stay there because he became unpopular with the electorate. Barack Obama took the Democratic Party to the left. It continues to move leftward because thats where it wants to go. Donald Trump will move the Republican Party in some areas e.g., trade and perhaps certain foreign policy issues. Republicans and conservatives will probably be divided over the particulars. Whether the move sticks will depend on whether Trump wins reelection and, if he does, how popular he remains thereafter. Either way, influencing the GOPs direction is not the same thing as a hostile takeover. Nor would some willingness to be influenced constitute surrender. I can think of no one better than Andy McCarthy to evaluate the indictment of Paul Manafort. In McCarthys view, the indictment is much ado about nothing . . . except as a vehicle to squeeze Manafort, which is special counsel Robert Muellers objective. That sounds right. McCarthy explains: This case has nothing to do with what Democrats and the media call the attack on our democracy (i.e., the Kremlins meddling in the 2016 election, supposedly in collusion with the Trump campaign). Essentially, Manafort and his associate, Richard W. Gates, are charged with (a) conspiring to conceal from the U.S. government about $75 million they made as unregistered foreign agents for Ukraine, years before the 2016 election (mainly, from 2006 through 2014), and (b) a money-laundering conspiracy. The Manafort indictment contains two main counts, and ten others. The grandiose sounding Conspiracy against the United States, Count One, mainly involves Manaforts and Gatess alleged failure to file Treasury Department forms required by the Bank Secrecy Act. The other main count, a money-laundering conspiracy, alleges that Manafort and Gates moved money in and out of the United States with the intent to promote specified unlawful activity. That activity is said to have been their acting as unregistered foreign agents. On first viewing, McCarthy finds these counts as shaky and overcharged, at least in part. Since the charges themselves arent earth-shaking (did we really need a special counsel to bring them)?, I wont summarize Andys reasoning. Andy concludes: From President Trumps perspective, the indictment is a boon from which he can claim that the special counsel has no actionable collusion case. It appears to reaffirm former FBI director James Comeys multiple assurances that Trump is not a suspect. And, to the extent it looks like an attempt to play prosecutorial hardball with Manafort, the president can continue to portray himself as the victim of a witch hunt. Its true that Team Trump can continue to make these claims. I think its also true, as a lawyer told the Washington Post, that while the White House could say that these indictments dont advance the collusion narrative, they dont negate it either. To me, the key point is that the Manafort indictment puts Mueller is a good position to squeeze Manafort for information that might advance the collusion narrative and might even support a case against President Trump. Round about the moment I came to the conclusion it was time to call the whole thing off, CNN reported that Robert Muellers team of 16 or 17 all-star prosecutors has secured an indictment of someone for something from the Washington grand jury. The indictment, however, is sealed. Whoever leaked news of the indictment to CNN is guilty of serious wrongdoing. Thats a big story too, but CNN isnt going to help us out on that angle. While I think it is time to call the whole thing off, some think it is time for Mueller to exit the scene. The Wall Street Journal and others have expressed the view that it is time for Mueller to step down. As the relentlessly touted narrative of Trump campaign collusion with Russia has blown up in the faces of the Democrats and their media adjunct, the excitement generated by CNNs report is almost palpable. Roll Calls John Bennett, to take just one of many examples, cant wait for the news later today. He has rendered five possible indictment scenarios. Wireds Garret Graff provides an interpretative guide. The tension mounts. The excitement reminds me of the hysteria over the supposedly imminent indictment of Karl Rove by Patrick Fitzgerald during the deranged investigation of the Bush administration for a leak of Valerie Plames name by Richard Armitage to Robert Novak. Fitzgerald, incidentally, had been appointed by James Comey. Its a small world after all. As Fitzgeralds cue ball caromed around the table, it took out Cheney chief of staff Lewis Scooter Libby, who hadnt leaked anything to Novak. Libby, it turned out, had spoken with then New York Times reporter Judith Miller. Maybe Mueller will take care of unfinished business today and put the screws to Rove after all. Mueller is unbound. His charter is broad enough. His staff is deep enough. His budget is unlimited. Go for it. In Casablanca, Rick famously says to Ilsa, Well always have Paris. This special counsel thing is like that in its own way. So long as we have President Trump, well always have Mueller. UPDATE: Well, its not Karl Rove and the charges, while not immediately clear, do not appear to have anything to do with collusion. SEA BRIGHT, N.J. (AP) Republican gubernatorial candidate Kim Guadagno will be hitting the road in a bus tour to visit all of New Jersey a week before the election. The Asbury Park Press reports the lieutenant governor will be leaving Thursday on the tour to visit the state's 21 counties through Election Day on Nov. 7. In 2013, Guadagno and Republican Gov. Chris Christie made more than 90 tour stops in the final seven days of the campaign. She said Sunday during a roundtable in Sea Bright that she will talk to voters about lowering taxes and "not making New Jersey a sanctuary state." Polls show that Guadagno is trailing Democratic candidate Phil Murphy by double digits. Murphy said Sunday that electing Guadagno would be tantamount to a third term for Christie's administration. NJEA, state treasurer clash over health costs {child_byline}CLAIRE LOWE Staff Writer {/child_byline} The state Treasury Department took aim at the New Jersey Education Association this month for not agreeing to changes in members health insurance coverage that may have led to reduced premiums and taxpayer savings. In response, the statewide teachers union has called out Treasurer Ford Scudder for using taxpayer money for what it called a political stunt to continue a years-long feud between the union and the administration. First of all, it is false. Its misleading. It is clearly political propaganda, and it represents an egregious abuse of taxpayer dollars, as well as an egregious abuse of political power, said Steve Baker, spokesman for the NJEA, which represents about 200,000 teachers. On Oct. 20, teachers in 291 of the states school districts received a letter from the New Jersey treasurer dated Oct. 16 that laid out background details behind a 13 percent increase in health insurance premiums for 2018. The letter criticized the teachers union for not agreeing to changes to its plan that may have saved teachers and taxpayers money. New Jersey teachers pay a portion of their health insurance premium, and the remainder is funded by local taxpayers. If premiums increase, the burden increases for both teachers and taxpayers. In the letter, Scudder said he was sending the information as a service to NJEA members to understand the reason you will be paying that much more for health care in 2018. Treasury spokesman Willem O. Rijksen did not provide further clarity on why the letter was sent but said the facts speak for themselves. Scudder said in the letter that, for the past two years, the state has attempted to work with representatives from the State Health Benefits Program, which provides benefits to local and state government employees and their beneficiaries, and School Employees Health Benefits Program to enact reasonable, cost-saving changes to your healthcare plan. He said the changes had no effect on the quantity or quality of care. Rijksen said those changes include increased emergency room co-pays; reduced reimbursement for out-of-network acupuncture, chiropractic care and physical therapy; mandatory use of generics; and incentivizing tiered plans. While the SHBP was changed, resulting in a zero percent premium increase for local government employees, the SEHBP was not, Scudder said. He said premiums rose 8.4 percent in 2017 for members enrolled in the SEHBP and will increase by another 13 percent in 2018. In plan year 2018 alone, the NJEA will cost their members $20 million and all other New Jersey taxpayers $170 million by being unwilling to do what even their fellow public employee union leadership realizes is right, he said. Baker said that while there is an increase in the premiums in 2018, it is inaccurate to state the changes proposed by the state would have had no effect on members. The changes that were being demanded by the state would have had a significant impact on both our members access to health care and on the cost (of) health care for them, he said. Baker said that even if the teachers agreed to the changes, premiums still would have increased about 8 percent. They worked really hard to make it appear that the entire 13 percent increase was due to not making changes, Baker said. Baker said the SHBP and the SEHBP cannot be compared apples to apples because they cover different groups of people. Gary Melton Sr., of Mays Landing, president of the Atlantic County Council of Education Associations, said he has never received anything like this letter from the state. He said some teachers thought it was a hoax. Obviously, they were upset at us not wanting to change our level of coverage, and I guess they decided this was the way they were going to fight that, said Melton, who has taught in the Atlantic City School District for 17 years. Melton called this a new level of low from Gov. Chris Christies administration, whom he said has an animosity toward teachers. Its not a good way of getting us to work collaboratively with the state and trying to fix problems, Melton said. {child_tagline} {/child_tagline} Local officials are encouraged by recent movement on securing a plan that would reform the way tax assessing is done in Atlantic County, which would leave behind a system that has led to thousands of tax appeals and millions of dollars in refunds since 2010. At an Atlantic County Mayors Association meeting in the spring, the mayors unanimously said they favor moving to a countywide system. Following the meeting, the association formed a committee that has worked all summer and fall trying to create a plan that would be the best fit for Atlantic County. The trick has been narrowing down what existing plans could work in forming a plan for the county. We have been doing a lot of research looking at how other counties and states have done this, Egg Harbor Township Mayor James Sonny McCullough said. (The plan) is going to reduce challenges with tax appeals. The amount of tax appeals the county has had is obscene. The bipartisan committee includes McCullough, Absecon Mayor John Armstrong, Pleasantville Mayor Jesse Tweedle and members of the Atlantic County Board of Taxation, among others. The committee will determine what they believe works best for the county and will give a formal recommendation to the Atlantic County Board of Chosen Freeholders. McCullough said he hopes to give the recommendation before the end of the year, but there is no official timetable. Right now, the committee is looking at plans that include one produced by Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, D-Atlantic, and one from the freeholders. They also are looking at tax assessing systems in Monmouth County, Palm Beach County in Florida, and one from Arizona, McCullough said. Mazzeos plan requires passing legislation in Trenton and mimics a plan Gloucester County uses. It calls for eliminating municipal assessors within three years and replacing them with a county assessor and deputies. The county assessor would be appointed by the county executive. All municipalities that have not undergone a revaluation in the past five years would be required to undergo one in the first three years of the law. The county would pay for the revaluations up front and be reimbursed by the state over three years through the SHARE Program. The SHARE program, however, has not been funded by the state since 2010. Revaluations for the remaining municipalities would cost the county about $8.2 million, according to a legislative fiscal estimate produced by states office of legislative services. The freeholders, meanwhile, put forth a plan that would keep the assessors in their jobs and add a county staff of four or five field workers and a supervisor to collect data on properties to feed information and help local assessors keep values current. The plan would cost $480,000 the first year and $380,000 to $400,000 every year after. The plan was drafted by a committee that included current and former freeholders, Atlantic County Counsel Jim Ferguson, Atlantic County Administrator Marge Schott and Diane Hesley, the Association of Municipal Assessors of New Jerseys Atlantic County president. The Monmouth County plan is similar to the freeholders plan in that it would keep the assessors in their jobs and would not require legislation. However, the plan in Monmouth County only assesses residential properties. That wouldnt work for Atlantic County because of the casinos in Atlantic City, McCullough said. The county plan will have to factor in the casinos because the payments in lieu of property taxes, or PILOT legislation, will expire in nine years. It could also be ruled unconstitutional if the county wins its lawsuit against the state to terminate the legislation. The plan in Palm Beach County involves an elected property appraiser. The appraiser in Palm Beach County, Dorothy Jacks, said in a recent newsletter to taxpayers that the appeals have been less than one percent of all the properties around the county. I have a property in Palm Beach County, and they have been very successful with this for many years, McCullough said. The high number of appeals is widespread in Atlantic County, which has a foreclosure rate among the highest in the nation. In 2016, there were more than 9,100 tax appeals countywide. About half of those came from Atlantic City. The number of appeals in 2016 was down from some prior years there were nearly 14,000 in 2013 but it still can be troubling for municipalities. Ventnor, for example, lost millions in ratables in 2016 after facing 988 appeals. In 2015, there were 923 appeals by Ventnor property owners, according to previous reports. Pleasantville property owners filed 650 appeals in 2016, more than double the 294 filed in 2015, according to previous reports. Owners in Egg Harbor Township filed 819 appeals, a slight increase from 815 in 2015. Mazzeo said whether the committee chooses his plan or not, hes happy there is movement on the issue. Im encouraged because this is finally being done, he said. The goal is to make sure the plan is the right thing for the taxpayers of Atlantic County. MAYS LANDING Hamilton Township police briefly evacuated several offices and businesses Monday along Main Street ahead of the annual Halloween parade. Police said in a statement that during a security sweep of the parade route, K-9 officers, trained to detect explosive materials, noted suspicious material on a mailbox. The Atlantic City Bomb Squad was contacted and the area was immediately evacuated. Police said no suspicious materials were located, and the area was checked and cleared by 4:30 p.m. Rep. Frank LoBiondo's Mays Landing office was one of the buildings evacuated. "All staff are safe and following law enforcement's directions," a representative for LoBiondo said. LoBiondo, R-2nd, is in Washington, D.C., and was made aware of the situation, according to his spokesman. The office was closed for the remainder of the day. The parade was to proceed as scheduled from 6:30 to 9 p.m. VENTNOR In the kitchen of a Sandy-damaged house that cant be lived in, a group of homeowners explained how they are still struggling with bureaucracy, contractor problems and incredible stress five years after the storm. We were right here when Sandy struck, said homeowner Angel Eguaras, 80, of Ventnor, describing how the roof of his home partly peeled off and water streamed into the kitchen. But in the five years since that day, he and his wife have had nothing but problems trying to get their home back into livable condition, he said to a group brought together by the New Jersey Organizing Project. NJOP formed to help homeowners with the rebuilding process after Sandy. We applied to the RREM (Reconstruction, Rehabilitation, Elevation and Mitigation) program, and contacted someone on the list, Eguaras said of a state-provided list of contractors. Work done by the contractor was failed by city inspectors numerous times, he said, but the RREM program told him it couldnt help him unless he could get the police to charge the contractor. An engineer working with the contractor even reported work on the house was not done in accordance with its professional drawings and specs, Eguaras said. Yet it took more than a year to get the police to charge the contractor, and he is convinced he was only able to get police action with the help of NJOP, he said. Now hes waiting for the RREM program to decide how to proceed, since his house needs to be raised again, as the first house lifting left it too low. Listening intently were 2nd District state Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, D-Atlantic; state Sen. Colin Bell, D-Atlantic; and Assembly candidate John Armato, D-Atlantic; along with several other homeowners who have had similar problems. Amanda Devecka-Rinear, of the New Jersey Organizing Project, said the Democrats were invited to fill in for Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver, D-Essex, candidate for lieutenant governor on the ticket with Democrat gubernatorial candidate Phil Murphy. She was due to participate but had to cancel. Deveka-Rinear said the Murphy campaign has been responsive to her organizations requests that the needs of Sandy affected families be addressed in the campaign, but the Republican candidate Kim Guagdanos campaign has not responded. But she said District 2 Assemblyman Chris Brown, R-Atlantic, who is running for state Senate against Bell, has been helpful. We enjoy working with him, she said of Brown. Jason Johnston, of Ventnor, said his mothers home is torn apart, without even walls or electricity, yet her contractor billed her for work not done. In a 100-yard radius (of her home) you can see houses up in the air but unfinished, Johnson said. Contractors have walked away. Until we get help, the words you guys say mean nothing to us, Johnston told the politicians there. My mom is devastated emotionally and financially. Julie Suarez, of Little Egg Harbor Township, said the work on her home is finished, but then she got a letter from the state saying it mistakenly paid her $51,000 too much, and she had to pay it back almost immediately in what is known as a clawback. When she questioned the amount, the state dropped the total to $25,000. But she has never seen an explanation for the amount, she said. We have all been through hell with this stress on all our lives, Suarez said. She said she has borrowed from her pension and taken another loan to finish the work, and doesnt know how she can pay back what the state wants. Beth Torsiello, of Ventnor, said she is also waiting to find out from the RREM program how to proceed with adding a third floor to her home, which could not be lifted because of its construction. She said her first floor was lost to Sandy, and then she lost $12,000 she paid for design work to a contractor who never provided her services. Her contractor, Werks Intended LLC, of Somers Point, also doing business as McAllister Building Group, was recently charged by state Attorney General Christopher Porrino and the state Division of Consumer Affairs with defrauding homeowners of more than $1 million in federal funding to repair, rebuild or elevate homes after Hurricane Sandy. The owners are Lawrence Tre McAllister III and Monica McAllister, officials said. Torsiello has had her work delayed by the contractor problem and by the RREM program at first telling her she didnt qualify. I see all these people in Puerto Rico, Texas, Florida, who think they are seeing the worst of it now, said Torsiello. Its not. Its yet to come. Ocean County residents on Thursday can learn about and discuss what the opioid epidemic looks like in their communities and how they can help people suffering from addiction. Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey will host its Knock Out Opioid Abuse Town Hall at the Greenbriar 1 Residential Complex in Brick Township, where panel speakers from law enforcement, local government and the medical and treatment communities will talk and take questions from residents. Angelo Valente, executive director of the partnership, said all residents, especially seniors, are encouraged to come out so they can understand the disease of addiction, develop strategies to help protect their families and identify resources to address individuals who have become dependent on prescription drugs or are abusing heroin. Speakers will include Brick Township Police Chief James Riccio; Ocean County Prosecutor Joseph D. Coronato; Anthony Castellano, vice president of substance use services at Preferred Behavioral Health Group; Michael Capko, manager at DART Prevention Coalition; and Raymond Hanbury, psychologist at Hackensack Meridian Health. Drug-related overdose deaths in New Jersey are on the rise, experts say, estimating the final 2016 numbers are higher than the previous years death toll of 1,587 people. The majority of those who died had taken heroin and/or prescription opioids, state data showed. There were 157 drug-related deaths in Ocean County in 2015, one of the highest totals in the state, according to the state Medical Examiners Office. Partnership for a Drug-Free New Jersey has held town-hall meetings in several counties this year, including Atlantic in April and Cumberland last month. The Ocean County event will take place from 10 a.m. to noon at 1 Dardley Circle in Brick. Doors open at 9:30 a.m. For more information, visit knockoutopioidabuse.drugfreenj.org. UPPER TOWNSHIP Amandas Field will host the Pumpkin Run car show, an event formerly held in Egg Harbor Township, for the first time Saturday. The event, dubbed the Upper Township Fall Fest and Pumpkin Run Car Show, will feature food, vendors, live music, cars, exhibits, pumpkin chucking and an assortment of motor vehicles. Township Committeeman Hobie Young said at the Oct. 23 committee meeting that 36 food vendors and 88 nonfood vendors have registered to participate in the township-sanctioned event. This is the biggest event probably by 10 times of any weve ever done, he said. For 21 years, the car show was held on the first Saturday in November at Flemings Junkyard in Egg Harbor Township. Organizer and junkyard owner Harry Fleming said the run had outgrown the site. Police had asked him to consider arranging alternative transportation and offsite parking. Fleming asked fans of the run to give the event a shot at the new location. I know the show may not be the same, as many of the attractions here at the junkyard are very unique and cannot leave the grounds, Fleming wrote on Facebook. But a majority of our exhibitors and events that are held here, will be at Amandas Field. They will be there, willing to give the event a chance. And I hope you will be too. But make no mistake, our efforts will always be to bring the Pumpkin Run back home to the Junkyard, Fleming added. Phil Ireland has attended just about every Pumpkin Run. He said there will be some nostalgia for the junkyard, but he doesnt think it will diminish the event. This should even be bigger than last year, said Ireland, 74, of Egg Harbor Township. They have more room to spread out. Flemings Pumpkin Run in EHT has ended EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP Popularity has killed Flemings Pumpkin Run. Its quite an event for parents, grandparents and children, he added. You never know what youre going to find there. Attendees will be charged $5 for parking, and those wishing to show a car, motorcycle or other vehicle must pay a $15 fee. Proceeds will benefit the townships recreation programs, Young wrote on Facebook. APA - Austria Press Agency and Schweizerische Depeschenagentur (SDA) have significantly intensified their relationship at the cooperative and corporate level: together with picture agency Keystone, the Swiss agency is merging into the integrated KEYSTONE-SDA Group. Already affiliated through the joint subsidiary Keystone, at the beginning of the new year APA will therefore become the Swiss news agency's biggest single shareholder with a 30 percent holding in the share capital. (Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/592793/APA_KEYSTONE_SDA.jpg ) APA and SDA, the respective leading news agencies in Austria and Switzerland, have been equal shareholders in Keystone, the biggest Swiss picture agency, for approximately ten years. The merger now planned by SDA and Keystone will enable an integrated multimedia supply of content from both agencies to Swiss media customers and communicators in text, image, graphics and video. Clemens Pig, CEO and a member of the management board of APA Group, calls attention to the advantages of this new, in Europe so far unique news agency merger: "This transaction is a genuine win-win solution for all of the three agencies involved. The new KEYSTONE-SDA Group will be able to optimally handle every editorial requirement from a single source, particularly in the area of multimedia and visual news production. I am very much looking forward to cooperating with our Swiss colleagues and am firmly convinced APA's investment will involve a solution which is geared toward the future as well as the long-term invigoration of independent, multimedia and technology-oriented news agencies in both countries". APA will provide its technological expertise in the development and operation of IT services for KEYSTONE-SDA and its customers as part of a long-term cooperation in the IT business. A wholly-owned subsidiary of APA - Austria Press Agency, APA-IT is Austria's leading IT information service provider in the fields of media solutions, IT outsourcing and content management. The planned transaction will be carried out with APA swapping its current 50 percent stake in Keystone. "Originating from a long-term cooperation in IT with KEYSTONE-SDA, this investment represents for APA a milestone in the internationalisation of the Austrian news agency. Both sides have already succeeded at demonstrating their trustworthy and profitable collaboration in the ownership of Keystone over the last ten years. We are delighted about cooperating to carry out this cross-border investment and technology project and wish a prosperous future to the newly established Swiss news agency group together with APA", Hermann Petz, chairman of the management board, and Alexander Wrabetz, chairman of the supervisory board of APA - Austria Press Agency, point out. "With the merger of SDA and Keystone our intention is to offer our customers high-quality multimedia information products comprising text, image, infographics and video. This reflects the changing needs of our customers and forms the basis for the company's strategic development", says SDA CEO Markus Schwab. SDA chairman of the board of directors Hans Heinrich Coninx adds: "In an era of digitisation, combining competencies is an important step for media enterprises to succeed in the long term. The fact that APA is contributing its extensive technological expertise to the new KEYSTONE-SDA Group as part of this merger enables us to play an active role in these developments". The transaction requires the approval of the respective competition authorities and the general meetings of Keystone AG and SDA AG and is to be retroactively implemented in the second quarter of 2018 as of 1.1.2018. About Schweizerische Depeschenagentur AG (SDA) Schweizerische Depeschenagentur AG (SDA) is Switzerland's national news agency and is owned by Swiss media. In the three national languages of German, French and Italian it provides round-the-clock comprehensive independent news services on issues arising in the areas of politics, business, culture, social affairs and the arts. It therefore ensures the Swiss media a basic supply of news from at home and abroad. The guiding principles of the company, which was founded in 1894, are independence, solidarity and innovation. The range of services also includes holdings in other agency businesses such as pictures and financial news. Headquartered in Bern, SDA Group has 15 locations in German-speaking Switzerland, Romandie and Ticino. About Keystone AG: Keystone was founded in 1953 as a Swiss subsidiary of the American "KEYSTONE View Company", which was established in 1891. Keystone is the leading picture agency in Switzerland and has over 75 employees. As a result of the global network of partner agencies and numerous freelance photographers, Keystone offers more than 15 million images on its database and has a historical archive of more than ten million images, which form an important part of the visual memory of Switzerland. In addition to the media, customers include companies, advertising agencies, organisations and associations. About APA - Austria Presse Agentur eG: APA - Austria Press Agency is the national news agency and Austria's leading information service provider. It is owned by twelve Austrian daily newspapers and ORF. APA Group is comprised of the cooperatively organised news agency and three wholly-owned subsidiaries and operates as a news agency, picture agency, in information management and in information technology. The editorial offices of APA ensure real-time news services in word, image, graphics, audio and video, while the subsidiaries provide distribution, research and knowledge management services as well as information technology solutions. For further inquiries: APA - Austria Press Agency Petra Haller Company Spokesperson Corporate Communications Tel.: +43(0)1-360-60-5710 petra.haller@apa.at http://www.apa.at SOURCE APA - Austria Presse Agentur BAKU, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- On Monday, the grand inauguration ceremony of the key transport project linking Europe and Asia the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was held at the new Port of Baku in Alat, Azerbaijan. The 846-km-long railway strategically connects Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey and will play a pivotal role in the Middle Corridor as part of the greater One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative. While most parts of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway were modernized, a 109-km-long segment running from Georgia (30 km) into Turkey (79 km) was built. The newly inaugurated railway offers new opportunities for the transshipment of cargo from China and the Far East to the Mediterranean region and Europe over a shorter, faster land route (14-18 days). The inauguration ceremony was attended by Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accompanied by their first ladies, Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Georgia's Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Uzbekistan's Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, the Ministers of Transport of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan as well as other high-level dignitaries. "The BTK is the shortest and most reliable route connecting Europe with Asia," stated President Aliyev. "It's planned to carry 5 million tons of cargo in the first stage and 17 million tons in the next stage." In his turn, President Erdogan highlighted the strategic importance of this project for the revival of the New Silk Road and noted that with the inauguration of the BTK project "the key leg of the Middle Corridor has now been completed." The ceremony was followed by the symbolic driving of railroad spikes and the pulling of railroad switches that officially sent off the first cargo train along the BTK railway. The freight train arrived at the new Port of Baku in Alat after traversing 2,846 km from north-western Kazakhstan and crossing the Caspian Sea on a rail ferry. It will journey an additional 2,002 km in four days from Baku to the Port of Mersin in Turkey. The BTK project is part of a larger strategy of Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev to diversify the country's oil-rich economy and turn it into a trade and logistics hub in Eurasia. This strategy also includes the upcoming completion of the first phase of the new Port of Baku and the launch of the Alat Free Trade Zone in 2018. Located at the strategic crossroads of Europe and Asia and nearby sizeable markets such as Turkey, China, Iran and Russia, Azerbaijan is poised to become the top choice for foreign investors aiming to expand their business in the region. Contact: Zaur Hasanov, 99450 2645020. zhasanov@portofbaku.com Related Links http://www.portofbaku.com SOURCE Port of Baku STOCKHOLM, Oct. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hoist Finance Board of Directors has appointed Klaus-Anders Nysteen as new CEO. Klaus-Anders has a long and broad experience from the financial industry in companies such as Storebrand Bank, where he was CEO for four years, and most recently as CEO of Lindorff Group. Adding to that Klaus-Anders has a proven track record as a leader and vast experience of building a strong corporate culture from a number of companies in different industries. Klaus-Anders holds a Master of Business administration from Norwegian school of economics and business administration (NHH). "We are very pleased and proud to announce the recruitment of Klaus-Anders Nysteen as new CEO of Hoist Finance. Klaus-Anders is not only a documented skilled and inspiring leader, he also has great knowledge and experience from our industry. These two combined make the perfect match for Hoist Finance and our growth ambitions, says Ingrid Bonde, Chair of the Board in Hoist Finance." "I have followed Hoist Finance from a competitor perspective for a number of years and have always had the greatest respect for how Hoist Finance consistently has delivered on their strategy along with building a strong corporate culture. I am truly excited to join the company and together with all my new colleagues continue that journey, says Klaus-Anders Nysteen." Until Klaus-Anders Nysteen joins on 15 March 2018, Jorgen Olsson will remain as CEO of Hoist Finance. As stated when Jorgen Olsson announced his desire to leave as CEO, the Board intends to appoint Jorgen deputy chairman as of the new CEO's appointment. For further information please contact: Michel Jonson, Group Head of Investor Relations Telephone: +46(0)8-555-177-19 This information is information that Hoist Finance AB (publ) is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation and the Securities Markets Act. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 08:15 A.M. CET on October 30, 2017. This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com http://news.cision.com/hoist-finance/r/hoist-finance-appoints-klaus-anders-nysteen-as-new-ceo,c2378455 The following files are available for download: SOURCE Hoist Finance LONDON, October 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kingdom of Morocco's Ministry of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development has confirmed support for two conferences focusing on gas and renewables in Casablanca this November. With confirmed participation from Honourable Minister Aziz Rabbah, the North & West Africa Gas Options Conference will assemble public sector leaders, IOCs, infrastructure developers, investors and IPP developers alongside major national, international and multilateral banks to discuss investment opportunities in Africa's energy sector. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/544384/EnergyNet_Logo.jpg ) "With decreased project assurance across the continent, we're aware that investors need to broaden their portfolios and it is with this in mind that these co-located events: Gas Options -North & West Africa and the Africa Renewable Energy Forum will take place in Morocco from 29th November to 1st December," commented EnergyNet's Programme Manager Valeria Aruffo. "Together they will provide developers and gas players a platform to connect with credible stakeholders, build new partnerships and understand the exciting role Moroccans and their African partners across the regions will play in the coming years as billions of dollars are pumped into these economies." The Honourable Minister Rabbah will open the conferences with a keynote speech, going on to explore potential financing bottlenecks in Morocco's gas and renewable energy strategy. Alongside partners Royal Dutch Shell, Karpowership, ACWA Power, DLA Piper, DBSA, Engie, Fieldstone Africa, Warsila, White & Case, Jinko Solar, Clarke Energy and Cheniere, African governmental figures will attend from The Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, South Africa, Ethiopia, Mauritius and Zimbabwe. DFI representation from IFC, World Bank, Africa50 and OPIC will be present to showcase financing opportunities and bankable projects. Gathering enterprises from across the globe, Abu Dhabi's renewable energy company, Masdar Clean Energy and one of India's biggest business houses, Adani Solutions will also push the frontier of energy solutions at the summits. The North & West Africa Gas Options Summit will explore the evolution of the global gas market as a catalyst for industrial growth for the region, linking with Europe and the development of gas-to-power projects within the ECOWAS and Maghreb regions. In addition to regional gas infrastructure projects, the programme will discuss gas utilisation for the downstream sectors and the positive impact the North & West Africa gas economy will have on the ECOWAS region. Frederik Smits van Oyen, Cheniere's Vice-President, Origination and Marketing of the EMEA regions commented, "Cheniere is looking forward to the North & West Africa Gas Options conference; it's a great platform for stakeholders to promote sustainable, complementary energy solutions that provide economic prosperity in the region." The Africa Renewable Energy Forum (ARF) will explore the role of renewable energy in achieving a sustainable energy mix by delving into the financing of clean energy projects. The clear appetite for investments in renewable IPP projects means that the focused dialogue around bankable projects at ARF will support both investors and governments in better formulating an integrated strategy. Venue: Hyatt Regency, Casablanca, Morocco Event organisers: EnergyNet Ltd., a part of Clarion Events For press and media enquiries, please contact Monique.Bonnick@energynet.co.uk For more information about these meeting: Gas Options: North & West Africa 29 - 30 November 2017 www.gasoptions-nwafrica.com go-nwa@energynet.co.uk Africa Renewable Energy Forum 30 November - 1 December 2017 www.africa-renewable-energy-forum.com arf@energynet.co.uk Monique Bonnick Monique.bonnick@energynet.co.uk +44(0)20-7384-7901 SOURCE EnergyNet Ltd. XIO Group is being recognized for its outstanding growth momentum since its founding in 2014. Led by its four founders, Athene Li, Joseph Pacini, Murphy Qiao and Carsten Geyer, the firm has already made three notable acquisitions across the globe, including: COMPO Expert the largest specialty fertilizer company in Europe; Lumenis the largest global manufacturer of medical laser devices; and J.D. Power the largest global consumer data & analytics provider. Acquisition Finance Magazine's President and Editor-in-Chief, David Rogan, stated, "ACQ5 works with industry experts to recognize those businesses that have truly excelled and who have far surpassed others in their specific industries. XIO Group has already established itself as an industry leader since its founding less than three years ago, and we are delighted to recognize XIO Group along with other star performers who have proven to be innovative and progressive visionaries in today's environment." "At XIO Group, we are honored by the award committee's recognition and we pride ourselves on the successes of our portfolio companies and their groundbreaking and state-of-the-art products and technologies," said Chief Executive Officer, Joseph Pacini. "I'm very proud of the XIO Group team and the impressive efforts we have undertaken. On behalf of my Partners and our colleagues, we look forward to continuing our significant growth trajectory and achieving the transformational objectives with our portfolio company management teams." About XIO Group XIO Group is a global multi-billion dollar alternative investments and research firm headquartered in London, with investment offices in Hong Kong and China, and additional operations in Germany, Israel, Switzerland and the United States of America. With over 70 employees representing over a dozen different nationalities and languages, XIO Group follows the motto of: One World, One Firm, One Team. XIO Group has invested in three transactions: COMPO Expert the largest specialty fertilizer company in Europe; Lumenis the largest global manufacturer of medical laser devices; and J.D. Power the largest global consumer data & analytics provider. XIO Group is led by its four founders: Athene Li, Joseph Pacini, Murphy Qiao and Carsten Geyer. For more information visit: http://www.xiogroup.com . About ACQ5 ACQ5 (Acquisition Finance Magazine) is a leading corporate magazine news site serving the finance sector since 2003 and intended for senior executives holding power and authority at major organizations. ACQ5 consists of distinguished experts who are in direct contact with the cutting edge issues molding our planet today many of whom are leaders of corporations, governments and NGOs with vested interest in strong, stable and competitive global economies. We provide our global audience of over 159,000+ subscribers with non-bias, concentrated, up to date flagship coverage, country reports and multilateral documents. Our focused analyses of ongoing economic and business developments in key infrastructure areas form the core of our publishing initiatives i.e. Construction, Telecom, Information Technology, Investment Banking, Water, Power (Electricity, Gas, Oil, Wind and alternative), Mining and other national and international projects. More information can be found on our website: http://www.acq5.com. Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/592161/ACQ5_Global_Awards_2017_XIO_GROUP.jpg Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/592160/xiogroup.jpg Related Links http://www.xiogroup.com SOURCE XIO Group SUSE Security Update: Security update for the Linux Kernel ______________________________________________________________________________ Announcement ID: SUSE-SU-2017:2908-1 Rating: important References: #1001459 #1012985 #1023287 #1027149 #1028217 #1030531 #1030552 #1031515 #1033960 #1034405 #1035531 #1035738 #1037182 #1037183 #1037994 #1038544 #1038564 #1038879 #1038883 #1038981 #1038982 #1039348 #1039354 #1039456 #1039721 #1039864 #1039882 #1039883 #1039885 #1040069 #1041160 #1041429 #1041431 #1042696 #1042832 #1042863 #1044125 #1045327 #1045487 #1045922 #1046107 #1048275 #1048788 #1049645 #1049882 #1053148 #1053152 #1053317 #1056588 #1056982 #1057179 #1058410 #1058507 #1058524 #1059863 #1062471 #1062520 #1063667 #1064388 #856774 #860250 #863764 #878240 #922855 #922871 #986924 #993099 #994364 Cross-References: CVE-2017-1000363 CVE-2017-1000365 CVE-2017-1000380 CVE-2017-10661 CVE-2017-11176 CVE-2017-12153 CVE-2017-12154 CVE-2017-12762 CVE-2017-13080 CVE-2017-14051 CVE-2017-14106 CVE-2017-14140 CVE-2017-15265 CVE-2017-15274 CVE-2017-15649 CVE-2017-7482 CVE-2017-7487 CVE-2017-7518 CVE-2017-7541 CVE-2017-7542 CVE-2017-7889 CVE-2017-8831 CVE-2017-8890 CVE-2017-8924 CVE-2017-8925 CVE-2017-9074 CVE-2017-9075 CVE-2017-9076 CVE-2017-9077 CVE-2017-9242 Affected Products: SUSE OpenStack Cloud 6 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP 12-SP1 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12-SP1-LTSS SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 12 ______________________________________________________________________________ An update that solves 30 vulnerabilities and has 38 fixes is now available. Description: The SUSE Linux Enterprise 12 SP1 LTS kernel was updated to receive various security and bugfixes. The following security bugs were fixed: - CVE-2017-15649: net/packet/af_packet.c in the Linux kernel allowed local users to gain privileges via crafted system calls that trigger mishandling of packet_fanout data structures, because of a race condition (involving fanout_add and packet_do_bind) that leads to a use-after-free, a different vulnerability than CVE-2017-6346 (bnc#1064388). - CVE-2017-13080: Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA and WPA2) allowed reinstallation of the Group Temporal Key (GTK) during the group key handshake, allowing an attacker within radio range to replay frames from access points to clients (bnc#1063667). - CVE-2017-15274: security/keys/keyctl.c in the Linux kernel did not consider the case of a NULL payload in conjunction with a nonzero length value, which allowed local users to cause a denial of service (NULL pointer dereference and OOPS) via a crafted add_key or keyctl system call, a different vulnerability than CVE-2017-12192 (bnc#1045327). - CVE-2017-15265: Use-after-free vulnerability in the Linux kernel allowed local users to have unspecified impact via vectors related to /dev/snd/seq (bnc#1062520). - CVE-2017-1000365: The Linux Kernel imposes a size restriction on the arguments and environmental strings passed through RLIMIT_STACK/RLIM_INFINITY (1/4 of the size), but did not take the argument and environment pointers into account, which allowed attackers to bypass this limitation. (bnc#1039354). - CVE-2017-12153: A security flaw was discovered in the nl80211_set_rekey_data() function in net/wireless/nl80211.c in the Linux kernel This function did not check whether the required attributes are present in a Netlink request. This request can be issued by a user with the CAP_NET_ADMIN capability and may result in a NULL pointer dereference and system crash (bnc#1058410). - CVE-2017-12154: The prepare_vmcs02 function in arch/x86/kvm/vmx.c in the Linux kernel did not ensure that the "CR8-load exiting" and "CR8-store exiting" L0 vmcs02 controls exist in cases where L1 omits the "use TPR shadow" vmcs12 control, which allowed KVM L2 guest OS users to obtain read and write access to the hardware CR8 register (bnc#1058507). - CVE-2017-14106: The tcp_disconnect function in net/ipv4/tcp.c in the Linux kernel allowed local users to cause a denial of service (__tcp_select_window divide-by-zero error and system crash) by triggering a disconnect within a certain tcp_recvmsg code path (bnc#1056982). - CVE-2017-14140: The move_pages system call in mm/migrate.c in the Linux kernel doesn't check the effective uid of the target process, enabling a local attacker to learn the memory layout of a setuid executable despite ASLR (bnc#1057179). - CVE-2017-14051: An integer overflow in the qla2x00_sysfs_write_optrom_ctl function in drivers/scsi/qla2xxx/qla_attr.c in the Linux kernel allowed local users to cause a denial of service (memory corruption and system crash) by leveraging root access (bnc#1056588). - CVE-2017-10661: Race condition in fs/timerfd.c in the Linux kernel allowed local users to gain privileges or cause a denial of service (list corruption or use-after-free) via simultaneous file-descriptor operations that leverage improper might_cancel queueing (bnc#1053152). - CVE-2017-12762: In /drivers/isdn/i4l/isdn_net.c: A user-controlled buffer is copied into a local buffer of constant size using strcpy without a length check which can cause a buffer overflow. (bnc#1053148). - CVE-2017-8831: The saa7164_bus_get function in drivers/media/pci/saa7164/saa7164-bus.c in the Linux kernel allowed local users to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds array access) or possibly have unspecified other impact by changing a certain sequence-number value, aka a "double fetch" vulnerability (bnc#1037994). - CVE-2017-7482: A potential memory corruption was fixed in decoding of krb5 principals in the kernels kerberos handling. (bnc#1046107). - CVE-2017-7542: The ip6_find_1stfragopt function in net/ipv6/output_core.c in the Linux kernel allowed local users to cause a denial of service (integer overflow and infinite loop) by leveraging the ability to open a raw socket (bnc#1049882). - CVE-2017-11176: The mq_notify function in the Linux kernel did not set the sock pointer to NULL upon entry into the retry logic. During a user-space close of a Netlink socket, it allowed attackers to cause a denial of service (use-after-free) or possibly have unspecified other impact (bnc#1048275). - CVE-2017-7541: The brcmf_cfg80211_mgmt_tx function in drivers/net/wireless/broadcom/brcm80211/brcmfmac/cfg80211.c in the Linux kernel allowed local users to cause a denial of service (buffer overflow and system crash) or possibly gain privileges via a crafted NL80211_CMD_FRAME Netlink packet (bnc#1049645). - CVE-2017-7518: The Linux kernel was vulnerable to an incorrect debug exception(#DB) error. It could occur while emulating a syscall instruction and potentially lead to guest privilege escalation. (bsc#1045922). - CVE-2017-8924: The edge_bulk_in_callback function in drivers/usb/serial/io_ti.c in the Linux kernel allowed local users to obtain sensitive information (in the dmesg ringbuffer and syslog) from uninitialized kernel memory by using a crafted USB device (posing as an io_ti USB serial device) to trigger an integer underflow (bnc#1037182 bsc#1038982). - CVE-2017-8925: The omninet_open function in drivers/usb/serial/omninet.c in the Linux kernel allowed local users to cause a denial of service (tty exhaustion) by leveraging reference count mishandling (bnc#1037183 bsc#1038981). - CVE-2017-1000380: sound/core/timer.c in the Linux kernel was vulnerable to a data race in the ALSA /dev/snd/timer driver resulting in local users being able to read information belonging to other users, i.e., uninitialized memory contents might have been disclosed when a read and an ioctl happen at the same time (bnc#1044125). - CVE-2017-9242: The __ip6_append_data function in net/ipv6/ip6_output.c in the Linux kernel is too late in checking whether an overwrite of an skb data structure may occur, which allowed local users to cause a denial of service (system crash) via crafted system calls (bnc#1041431). - CVE-2017-1000363: Linux drivers/char/lp.c Out-of-Bounds Write. Due to a missing bounds check, and the fact that parport_ptr integer is static, a 'secure boot' kernel command line adversary (could happen due to bootloader vulns, e.g. Google Nexus 6's CVE-2016-10277, where due to a vulnerability the adversary has partial control over the command line) could overflow the parport_nr array in the following code, by appending many (>LP_NO) 'lp=none' arguments to the command line (bnc#1039456). - CVE-2017-9076: The dccp_v6_request_recv_sock function in net/dccp/ipv6.c in the Linux kernel mishandled inheritance, which allowed local users to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via crafted system calls, a related issue to CVE-2017-8890 (bnc#1039885). - CVE-2017-9077: The tcp_v6_syn_recv_sock function in net/ipv6/tcp_ipv6.c in the Linux kernel mishandled inheritance, which allowed local users to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via crafted system calls, a related issue to CVE-2017-8890 (bnc#1040069). - CVE-2017-9075: The sctp_v6_create_accept_sk function in net/sctp/ipv6.c in the Linux kernel mishandled inheritance, which allowed local users to cause a denial of service or possibly have unspecified other impact via crafted system calls, a related issue to CVE-2017-8890 (bnc#1039883). - CVE-2017-9074: The IPv6 fragmentation implementation in the Linux kernel did not consider that the nexthdr field may be associated with an invalid option, which allowed local users to cause a denial of service (out-of-bounds read and BUG) or possibly have unspecified other impact via crafted socket and send system calls (bnc#1039882). - CVE-2017-7487: The ipxitf_ioctl function in net/ipx/af_ipx.c in the Linux kernel mishandled reference counts, which allowed local users to cause a denial of service (use-after-free) or possibly have unspecified other impact via a failed SIOCGIFADDR ioctl call for an IPX interface (bnc#1038879). - CVE-2017-8890: The inet_csk_clone_lock function in net/ipv4/inet_connection_sock.c in the Linux kernel allowed attackers to cause a denial of service (double free) or possibly have unspecified other impact by leveraging use of the accept system call (bnc#1038544). - CVE-2017-7889: The mm subsystem in the Linux kernel did not properly enforce the CONFIG_STRICT_DEVMEM protection mechanism, which allowed local users to read or write to kernel memory locations in the first megabyte (and bypass slab-allocation access restrictions) via an application that opens the /dev/mem file, related to arch/x86/mm/init.c and drivers/char/mem.c (bnc#1034405). The following new features were implemented: - the r8152 network driver was updated to support Realtek RTL8152/RTL8153 Based USB Ethernet Adapters (fate#321482) The following non-security bugs were fixed: - blkback/blktap: do not leak stack data via response ring (bsc#1042863 XSA-216). - btrfs: Add WARN_ON for qgroup reserved underflow (bsc#1031515). - btrfs: Do not clear SGID when inheriting ACLs (bsc#1030552). - btrfs: Check qgroup level in kernel qgroup assign (bsc#1001459). - btrfs: qgroup: allow to remove qgroup which has parent but no child (bsc#1001459). - btrfs: quota: Automatically update related qgroups or mark INCONSISTENT flags when assigning/deleting a qgroup relations (bsc#1001459). - ceph: Correctly return NXIO errors from ceph_llseek (git-fixes). - ceph: fix file open flags on ppc64 (git-fixes). - ceph: check i_nlink while converting a file handle to dentry (bsc#1039864). - drivers/net: delete non-required instances of include (bsc#993099). - drivers/net/usb: add device id for NVIDIA Tegra USB 3.0 Ethernet (bsc#993099). - drivers/net/usb: Add support for 'Lenovo OneLink Pro Dock' (bsc#993099). - enic: set skb->hash type properly (bsc#922871). - ext2: Do not clear SGID when inheriting ACLs (bsc#1030552). - ext4: Do not clear SGID when inheriting ACLs (bsc#1030552). - firmware: dmi_scan: Fix ordering of product_uuid (bsc#1030531). - fm10k: correctly check if interface is removed (bsc#922855). - fs/block_dev: always invalidate cleancache in invalidate_bdev() (git-fixes). - fs: fix data invalidation in the cleancache during direct IO (git-fixes). - fs/xattr.c: zero out memory copied to userspace in getxattr (git-fixes). - hv: vmbus: Raise retry/wait limits in vmbus_post_msg() (bsc#1023287, bsc#1028217, bsc#1048788). - jhash: Update jhash_[321]words functions to use correct initval (git-fixes). - kABI: mask an include (bsc#994364). - md: ensure md devices are freed before module is unloaded (git-fixes). - md/raid0: apply base queue limits *before* disk_stack_limits (git-fixes). - md/raid0: update queue parameter in a safer location (git-fixes). - md/raid1: do not clear bitmap bit when bad-block-list write fails (git-fixes). - md/raid10: do not clear bitmap bit when bad-block-list write fails (git-fixes). - md/raid10: ensure device failure recorded before write request returns (git-fixes). - mlock: fix mlock count can not decrease in race condition (VM Functionality, bsc#1042696). - mlx: Revert the mlx5e_tx_notify_hw() changes.(bsc#1033960) - mm/huge_memory: replace VM_NO_THP VM_BUG_ON with actual VMA check (VM Functionality, bsc#1042832). - mm: hugetlb: call huge_pte_alloc() only if ptep is null (VM Functionality, bsc#1042832). - mm/mmap.c: do not blow on PROT_NONE MAP_FIXED holes in the stack (bnc#1039348). - netfilter: bridge: Fix the build when IPV6 is disabled (bsc#1027149). - net: get rid of SET_ETHTOOL_OPS (bsc#993099). - net/usb/r8152: add device id for Lenovo TP USB 3.0 Ethernet (bsc#993099). - netvsc: get rid of completion timeouts (bsc#1048788). - nfs v4.1: Fix Oopsable condition in server callback races (git-fixes). - ocfs2: Do not clear SGID when inheriting ACLs (bsc#1030552). - pid_ns: Sleep in TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE in zap_pid_ns_processes (bnc#1012985). - powerpc: Add missing error check to prom_find_boot_cpu() (bnc#856774). - powerpc/book3s: Fix MCE console messages for unrecoverable MCE (bnc#878240). - powerpc/bpf/jit: Disable classic BPF JIT on ppc64le (bsc#1041429, [2017-05-29] Pending SUSE Kernel Fixes). - powerpc: Fix bad inline asm constraint in create_zero_mask() (bnc#856774). - powerpc/64: Fix flush_(d|i)cache_range() called from modules (bnc#863764). - printk: prevent userland from spoofing kernel messages (bsc#1039721). - reiserfs: Do not clear SGID when inheriting ACLs (bsc#1030552). - rtl8152: correct speed testing (bsc#993099). - r8152: add functions to set EEE (bsc#993099). - r8152: add MODULE_VERSION (bsc#993099). - r8152: add mutex for hw settings (bsc#993099). - r8152: add pre_reset and post_reset (bsc#993099). - r8152: add reset_resume function (bsc#993099). - r8152: add rtl_ops (bsc#993099). - r8152: add skb_cow_head (bsc#993099). - r8152: add three functions (bsc#993099). - r8152: adjust ALDPS function (bsc#993099). - r8152: adjust lpm timer (bsc#993099). - r8152: adjust rtl_start_rx (bsc#993099). - r8152: adjust rx_bottom (bsc#993099). - r8152: adjust r8152_submit_rx (bsc#993099). - r8152: adjust the line feed for hw_features (bsc#993099). - r8152: adjust usb_autopm_xxx (bsc#993099). - r8152: autoresume before setting feature (bsc#993099). - r8152: autoresume before setting MAC address (bsc#993099). - r8152: calculate the dropped packets for rx (bsc#993099). - r8152: call rtl_start_rx after netif_carrier_on (bsc#993099). - r8152: clear BMCR_PDOWN (bsc#993099). - r8152: clear LINK_OFF_WAKE_EN after autoresume (bsc#993099). - r8152: clear SELECTIVE_SUSPEND when autoresuming (bsc#993099). - r8152: clear the flag of SCHEDULE_TASKLET in tasklet (bsc#993099). - r8152: combine PHY reset with set_speed (bsc#993099). - r8152: constify ethtool_ops structures (bsc#993099). - r8152: correct some messages (bsc#993099). - r8152: correct the rx early size (bsc#993099). - r8152: deal with the empty line and space (bsc#993099). - r8152: disable ALDPS and EEE before setting PHY (bsc#993099). - r8152: disable ALDPS (bsc#993099). - r8152: disable MAC clock speed down (bsc#993099). - r8152: disable power cut for RTL8153 (bsc#993099). - r8152: disable teredo for RTL8152 (bsc#993099). - r8152: disable the capability of zero length (bsc#993099). - r8152: disable the ECM mode (bsc#993099). - r8152: disable the tasklet by default (bsc#993099). - r8152: do not enable napi before rx ready (bsc#993099). - r8152: ecm and vendor modes coexist (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix incorrect type in assignment (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix lockup when runtime PM is enabled (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix runtime function for RTL8152 (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix r8152_csum_workaround function (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix setting RTL8152_UNPLUG (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix the carrier off when autoresuming (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix the checking of the usb speed (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix the issue about U1/U2 (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix the runtime suspend issues (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix the submission of the interrupt transfer (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix the wake event (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix the warnings and a error from checkpatch.pl (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix the wrong return value (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix tx/rx memory overflow (bsc#993099). - r8152: fix wakeup settings (bsc#993099). - r8152: change rx early size when the mtu is changed (bsc#993099). - r8152: change some definitions (bsc#993099). - r8152: change the descriptor (bsc#993099). - r8152: change the EEE definition (bsc#993099). - r8152: change the location of rtl8152_set_mac_address (bsc#993099). - r8152: check code with checkpatch.pl (bsc#993099). - r8152: check linking status with netif_carrier_ok (bsc#993099). - r8152: check RTL8152_UNPLUG and netif_running before autoresume (bsc#993099). - r8152: check RTL8152_UNPLUG (bsc#993099). - r8152: check RTL8152_UNPLUG for rtl8152_close (bsc#993099). - r8152: check the status before submitting rx (bsc#993099). - r8152: check tx agg list before spin lock (bsc#993099). - r8152: check WORK_ENABLE in suspend function (bsc#993099). - r8152: increase the tx timeout (bsc#993099). - r8152: load the default MAC address (bsc#993099). - r8152: modify rtl_ops_init (bsc#993099). - r8152: modify the check of the flag of PHY_RESET in set_speed function (bsc#993099). - r8152: modify the method of accessing PHY (bsc#993099). - r8152: modify the tx flow (bsc#993099). - r8152: move enabling PHY (bsc#993099). - r8152: move PHY settings to hw_phy_cfg (bsc#993099). - r8152: move rtl8152_unload and ocp_reg_write (bsc#993099). - r8152: move r8152b_get_version (bsc#993099). - r8152: move some functions (bsc#993099). - r8152: move some functions (bsc#993099). - r8152: move some functions from probe to open (bsc#993099). - r8152: move the actions of saving the information of the device (bsc#993099). - r8152: move the setting for the default speed (bsc#993099). - r8152: move the settings of PHY to a work queue (bsc#993099). - r8152: nway reset after setting eee (bsc#993099). - r8152: redefine REALTEK_USB_DEVICE (bsc#993099). - r8152: reduce the frequency of spin_lock (bsc#993099). - r8152: reduce the number of Tx (bsc#993099). - r8152: remove a netif_carrier_off in rtl8152_open function (bsc#993099). - r8152: remove cancel_delayed_work_sync in rtl8152_set_speed (bsc#993099). - r8152: remove clearing bp (bsc#993099). - r8152: remove generic_ocp_read before writing (bsc#993099). - r8152: remove rtl_phy_reset function (bsc#993099). - r8152: remove rtl8152_get_stats (bsc#993099). - r8152: remove r8153_enable_eee (bsc#993099). - r8152: remove sram_read (bsc#993099). - r8152: remove the definitions of the PID (bsc#993099). - r8152: remove the duplicate init for the list of rx_done (bsc#993099). - r8152: remove the setting of LAN_WAKE_EN (bsc#993099). - r8152: rename rx_buf_sz (bsc#993099). - r8152: rename tx_underun (bsc#993099). - r8152: replace get_protocol with vlan_get_protocol (bsc#993099). - r8152: replace netdev_alloc_skb_ip_align with napi_alloc_skb (bsc#993099). - r8152: replace netif_rx with netif_receive_skb (bsc#993099). - r8152: replace some tabs with spaces (bsc#993099). - r8152: replace some types from int to bool (bsc#993099). - r8152: replace spin_lock_irqsave and spin_unlock_irqrestore (bsc#993099). - r8152: replace strncpy with strlcpy (bsc#993099). - r8152: replace tasklet with NAPI (bsc#993099). - r8152: replace the return value of rtl_ops_init (bsc#993099). - r8152: replace tp->netdev with netdev (bsc#993099). - r8152: reset device when tx timeout (bsc#993099). - r8152: reset the bmu (bsc#993099). - r8152: reset tp->speed before autoresuming in open function (bsc#993099). - r8152: restore hw settings (bsc#993099). - r8152: return -EBUSY for runtime suspend (bsc#993099). - r8152: save the speed (bsc#993099). - r8152: separate USB_RX_EARLY_AGG (bsc#993099). - r8152: set disable_hub_initiated_lpm (bsc#993099). - r8152: set RTL8152_UNPLUG when finding -ENODEV (bsc#993099). - r8152: split DRIVER_VERSION (bsc#993099). - r8152: split rtl8152_enable (bsc#993099). - r8152: stop submitting intr for -EPROTO (bsc#993099). - r8152: support dumping the hw counters (bsc#993099). - r8152: support ethtool eee (bsc#993099). - r8152: support get_msglevel and set_msglevel (bsc#993099). - r8152: support IPv6 (bsc#993099). - r8152: support jumbo frame for RTL8153 (bsc#993099). - r8152: support nway_reset of ethtool (bsc#993099). - r8152: support RTL8153 (bsc#993099). - r8152: support runtime suspend (bsc#993099). - r8152: support rx checksum (bsc#993099). - r8152: support setting rx coalesce (bsc#993099). - r8152: support stopping/waking tx queue (bsc#993099). - r8152: support the new RTL8153 chip (bsc#993099). - r8152: support TSO (bsc#993099). - r8152: support VLAN (bsc#993099). - r8152: support WOL (bsc#993099). - r8152: up the priority of the transmission (bsc#993099). - r8152: use BIT macro (bsc#993099). - r8152: use eth_hw_addr_random (bsc#993099). - r8152: Use kmemdup instead of kmalloc + memcpy (bsc#993099). - r8152: use test_and_clear_bit (bsc#993099). - r8152: use usleep_range (bsc#993099). - r8152: wake up the device before dumping the hw counter (bsc#993099). - scsi: qla2xxx: Get mutex lock before checking optrom_state (bsc#1053317). - sched/fair: Fix min_vruntime tracking (bnc#1012985). - sched/loadavg: Fix loadavg artifacts on fully idle and on fully loaded systems (bnc#1012985). - sched/rt: Fix PI handling vs. sched_setscheduler() (bnc#1012985). - sunrpc: Update RPCBIND_MAXNETIDLEN (git-fixes). - syscall: fix dereferencing NULL payload with nonzero length (bsc#1045327, bsc#1062471). - tcp: do not inherit fastopen_req from parent (bsc#1038544). - timekeeping: Ignore the bogus sleep time if pm_trace is enabled (bsc#994364). - tracing/kprobes: Enforce kprobes teardown after testing (bnc#1012985). - usb: wusbcore: fix NULL-deref at probe (bsc#1045487). - xen: Linux 3.12.74. - xen/PCI-MSI: fix sysfs teardown in DomU (bsc#986924). - xfs: fix a couple error sequence jumps in xfs_mountfs() (bsc#1035531). - xfs: fix coccinelle warnings (bsc#1035531). - xfs: handle error if xfs_btree_get_bufs fails (bsc#1059863). - xfs: use ->b_state to fix buffer I/O accounting release race (bsc#1041160) (bsc#1041160). - xfs: XFS_IS_REALTIME_INODE() should be false if no rt device present (bsc#1058524). Patch Instructions: To install this SUSE Security Update use YaST online_update. Alternatively you can run the command listed for your product: - SUSE OpenStack Cloud 6: zypper in -t patch SUSE-OpenStack-Cloud-6-2017-1799=1 - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP 12-SP1: zypper in -t patch SUSE-SLE-SAP-12-SP1-2017-1799=1 - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12-SP1-LTSS: zypper in -t patch SUSE-SLE-SERVER-12-SP1-2017-1799=1 - SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 12: zypper in -t patch SUSE-SLE-Module-Public-Cloud-12-2017-1799=1 To bring your system up-to-date, use "zypper patch". Package List: - SUSE OpenStack Cloud 6 (noarch): kernel-devel-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-macros-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-source-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 - SUSE OpenStack Cloud 6 (x86_64): kernel-default-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-base-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-base-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-debugsource-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-devel-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-syms-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-base-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-base-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-debugsource-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-devel-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kgraft-patch-3_12_74-60_64_63-default-1-2.1 kgraft-patch-3_12_74-60_64_63-xen-1-2.1 - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP 12-SP1 (ppc64le x86_64): kernel-default-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-base-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-base-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-debugsource-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-devel-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-syms-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP 12-SP1 (x86_64): kernel-xen-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-base-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-base-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-debugsource-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-devel-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kgraft-patch-3_12_74-60_64_63-default-1-2.1 kgraft-patch-3_12_74-60_64_63-xen-1-2.1 - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP 12-SP1 (noarch): kernel-devel-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-macros-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-source-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12-SP1-LTSS (ppc64le s390x x86_64): kernel-default-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-base-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-base-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-debugsource-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-default-devel-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-syms-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12-SP1-LTSS (noarch): kernel-devel-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-macros-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-source-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12-SP1-LTSS (x86_64): kernel-xen-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-base-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-base-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-debugsource-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-xen-devel-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kgraft-patch-3_12_74-60_64_63-default-1-2.1 kgraft-patch-3_12_74-60_64_63-xen-1-2.1 - SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12-SP1-LTSS (s390x): kernel-default-man-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 - SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Public Cloud 12 (x86_64): kernel-ec2-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-ec2-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-ec2-debugsource-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-ec2-devel-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-ec2-extra-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 kernel-ec2-extra-debuginfo-3.12.74-60.64.63.1 References: https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-1000363.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-1000365.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-1000380.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-10661.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-11176.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-12153.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-12154.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-12762.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-13080.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-14051.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-14106.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-14140.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-15265.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-15274.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-15649.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-7482.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-7487.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-7518.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-7541.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-7542.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-7889.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-8831.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-8890.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-8924.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-8925.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-9074.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-9075.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-9076.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-9077.html https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2017-9242.html https://bugzilla.suse.com/1001459 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1012985 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1023287 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1027149 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1028217 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1030531 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1030552 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1031515 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1033960 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1034405 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1035531 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1035738 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1037182 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1037183 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1037994 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1038544 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1038564 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1038879 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1038883 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1038981 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1038982 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1039348 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1039354 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1039456 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1039721 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1039864 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1039882 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1039883 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1039885 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1040069 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1041160 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1041429 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1041431 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1042696 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1042832 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1042863 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1044125 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1045327 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1045487 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1045922 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1046107 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1048275 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1048788 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1049645 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1049882 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1053148 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1053152 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1053317 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1056588 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1056982 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1057179 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1058410 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1058507 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1058524 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1059863 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1062471 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1062520 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1063667 https://bugzilla.suse.com/1064388 https://bugzilla.suse.com/856774 https://bugzilla.suse.com/860250 https://bugzilla.suse.com/863764 https://bugzilla.suse.com/878240 https://bugzilla.suse.com/922855 https://bugzilla.suse.com/922871 https://bugzilla.suse.com/986924 https://bugzilla.suse.com/993099 https://bugzilla.suse.com/994364 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-security-announce+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-security-announce+help@opensuse.org If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here New Delhi, Oct 27 : Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni will come on a state visit to India on October 30, the first such visit in over a decade, the External Affairs Ministry announced on Friday. Then Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi visited India in February 2007. "Coming after a gap of more than a decade, the visit is aimed at strengthening the bilateral, political and economic relations between the two countries," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement. The visit assumes significance as diplomatic ties between India and Italy had virtually come to a freeze following the February 2012 incident in which two Italian marines, Latorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone, on the ship M.V. Enrica Lexie allegedly shot dead two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala. India took the two marines into custody but Italy claimed that the ship was on international waters and the case should be handled by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas (Itlos) at The Hague. India moved the Supreme Court and refused to hand over the two Marines but in September 2014, Latorre was allowed to return to Italy following an apex court order on health grounds. In May 2016, Girone too was allowed to return and both the marines are now in Italy awaiting an order from the Itlos where the trial against them will be held. The standoff between New Delhi and Rome also affected the talks for a free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and India. Diplomatic ties got revived only when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited the Vatican in September last year for the canonisation of Mother Teresa. Citing figures from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), Friday's External Affairs Ministry statement said that Italy is India's fifth largest trading partner in the EU with bilateral trade at $8.79 billion in 2016-17. "India's exports to Italy are at $4.90 billion, while its imports are at $3.89 billion, resulting in a trade balance of $1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached $3.22 billion," it stated. According to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Italy is the 13th largest investor in India with cumulative investments worth $ 2.41 billion from April 2000 to June 2017. The top five sectors in India that attract Italian investments are automotive industry, trading, service sector, industrial machinery and food processing industry. According to the statement, a 15-member Italian CEO delegation will be accompanying Prime Minister Gentiloni during the visit and an interaction between the CEOs of the two countries was being planned. There are over 600 Italian companies active in India covering various sectors such as fashion, garments, textile and textile machinery, automotive, automotive components industry, infrastructure, chemicals, energy, confectionary, and insurance. "A number of Indian companies are also present in Italy mainly in IT, electronics, engineering, automotive, pharmaceuticals and railway sectors," the statement said. There is a 180,000-strong Indian community in Italy, the third largest in the EU after Britain and the Netherlands. Onew Delhi, Oct 27 : Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni will make a day-long visit to India on October 30, the first such visit in over a decade, a period that saw bilateral ties touch a low after the arrest of two Italian Marines. Romano Prodi was the last Italian Prime Minister to visit India in February 2007. "Coming after a gap of more than a decade, the visit is aimed at strengthening bilateral, political and economic relations between the two countries," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement. Diplomatic ties between India and Italy virtually came to a freeze following the February 2012 incident when two Italian marines, Latorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone, on board M.V. Enrica Lexie allegedly shot dead two Indian fishermen off Kerala. India took the Marines into custody but Italy claimed the ship was in international waters. After first refusing to hand over the Marines, in September 2014 Latorre was allowed to return to Italy following an apex court order on health grounds. In May 2016, Girone too was allowed to return. Both the Marines are now in Italy, awaiting an order from the Itlos, where the trial against them will be held. The standoff between New Delhi and Rome also affected talks for a free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and India. Citing figures from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Friday's statement said Italy was India's fifth largest trading partner in the EU, with bilateral trade at $8.79 billion in 2016-17. "India's exports to Italy are at $4.90 billion, while its imports are at $3.89 billion, resulting in a trade balance of $1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached $3.22 billion," it stated. According to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Italy is the 13th largest investor in India with cumulative investments worth $ 2.41 billion from April 2000 to June 2017. The top five sectors in India that attract Italian investments are automotive industry, trading, service sector, industrial machinery and food processing industry. According to the statement, a 15-member Italian CEO delegation will be accompanying Prime Minister Gentiloni and an interaction between the CEOs of the two countries was being planned. There are over 600 Italian companies active in India covering various sectors such as fashion, garments, textile and textile machinery, automotive, automotive components industry, infrastructure, chemicals, energy, confectionary, and insurance. There is a 180,000-strong Indian community in Italy, the third largest in the EU after Britain and the Netherlands. New Delhi, Oct 27 : Belgian King Philippe and Queen Mathilde will arrive here on November 5 on a week-long visit to India at the invitation of President Ram Nath Kovind, the External Affairs Ministry announced on Friday. This will be King Philippe's first state visit to India following his ascension to the throne in 2013. "The visit would further strengthen the historical strong ties between the two countries," according to a statement issued by the ministry. "Belgium was also among the first European countries to establish a diplomatic mission in India after Independence," it stated. King Philippe and Queen Mathilde will be accompanied by six ministers and a high-powered business delegation comprising CEOs of 86 Belgian companies, 13 chiefs of academic institutions and 29 members from the media. According to the statement, India is Belgium's second largest export destination and third largest trade partner outside the European Union (EU). "In 2016-17, our bilateral trade amounted to $13.28 billion of which exports from India to Belgium accounted for $5.65 billion while imports from Belgium accounted for $6.62 billion," it said. Diamond trade overwhelmingly dominates Indo-Belgian commerce and trade in gems and jewellery constitutes over 75 per cent of the bilateral trade, with diamonds making up more than 80 per cent of Belgian exports and more than 40 per cent of Belgian imports from India. Citing data from the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, the statement said that Belgium's cumulative investments in India is over $1.01 billion for the period April 2000-June 2017. The Indian diaspora in Belgium numbers around 18,000, according to Belgian government estimates. Of this nearly 10,000 are Indian citizens. Around 1,500 Indian IT professionals work for Belgian companies along with around 800 Indian students in various universities. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Belgium in March 2016 at the invitation of his Belgian counterpart Charles Michel. Then Belgian King Albert II and Queen Paola visited India in November 2008. New Delhi, Oct 27 : In an indication that Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's much-expected elevation as party president may not take place before the Gujarat elections, the party on Friday said it has time till December 31 to complete the entire organisational election process and take a decision on the matter. The party also said that Gandhi is not only capable of leading the Congress, but is also capable of leading the United Progressive Alliance and the country. "The election process in the states is in advanced stage. We have to take a decision by the end of this year and we will do so at the appropriate time, and the election process will also be completed in due course," said Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken. "The deadline is till the end of this year," he added on being asked why Gandhi was not being chosen as party president by October 31. "We always believed that Rahul Gandhiji is our leader, he is our Vice President and he is capable of leading the Congress, the UPA and also leading the country," said Maken. "We have time till December 31 to complete the whole process and report it to the Election Commission. By that time the process will be over," he added. The Congress had earlier set a deadline to complete the organisational elections by the end of October. New Delhi, Oct 28 : Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui, who is here to participate in a Joint Commission Meeting with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj, called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Saturday. "Held fruitful tals with Tunisia's Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Khemaies Jhinaoui. India cherishes deep-rooted friendship with Tunisia," Modi tweeted after the meeting. Jhinaoui, who arrived here earlier in the day on a four-day visit to India, will participate in the 12th India-Tunisia Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) with Sushma Swaraj. "During this visit, the External Affairs Minister will be holding discussions with Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui on a wide-range of issues of shared common interest," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement. "The JCM will enable both countries a comprehensive review of bilateral cooperation in political, economic and cultural areas and people-to-people exchanges," it stated, adding that both countries would also be signing agreements and memorandums of understanding. Jhinaoui, who is accompanied by a high-level business delegation representing diverse areas of business, trade and investments, will address business sessions to be organised by the apex chambers of commerce and industry. The re-engagement with the North African country comes more than a year after then Vice President Hamid Ansari's visit to Tunisia in June last year. The two countries had inked several MoUs. Bilateral trade between India and Tunisia stood at $370.46 million in 2016. The North African country has been a reliable source for phosphates and India accounts for around 50 per cent of Tunisia's global phosphoric acid exports. India, on the other hand, exports a wide range of products, including knocked-down kits, automobiles, electrical items, cotton, mechanical engines, organic chemical products, rubber, rice, coffee and spices. Union Tourism Minister Alphons Kannanthanam receives Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni on his arrival in New Delhi on Oct 29, 2017. Image Source: Xinhua/Ye Pingfan/IANS BRUSSELS, Oct. 19, 2017 - Italy Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni arrives on the first day of the two-day EU Summit in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 19, 2017. Image Source: Xinhua/Ye Pingfan/IANS New Delhi, Oct 29 : Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni arrived here on Sunday on a two-day state visit to India, the first such visit in a decade, in a bid to boost ties between New Delhi and Rome after the faceoff over two Italian marines. Romano Prodi was the last Italian Prime Minister to visit India in February 2007. "Coming after a gap of more than a decade, the visit is aimed at strengthening bilateral, political and economic relations between the two countries," the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement ahead of Gentiloni's visit. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold delegation-level talks with Gentiloni on Monday following which a number of agreements are expected to be signed. Gentiloni will also call on President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu during his visit. Diplomatic ties between India and Italy virtually came to a near freeze following the February 2012 firing by two Italian marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, from M.V. Enrica Lexie, killing two Indian fishermen off Kerala. India took the marines into custody though Italy claimed the ship was in international waters and the case should be handled by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas (Itlos) at The Hague. In September 2014 Latorre was allowed to return to Italy on health grounds following a Supreme Court order. In May 2016, Girone too was allowed to return. Both the marines are now in Italy awaiting an order from the Itlos. The stand-off between New Delhi and Rome affected the talks for a free trade pact between the European Union and India. Indo-Italian ties got a breather when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited the Vatican in September last year for the canonisation of Mother Teresa. According to official figures, Italy is among India's five largest trading partners in the EU, with bilateral trade at $8.79 billion in 2016-17. India's exports to Italy total $4.90 billion and imports $3.89 billion, resulting in a trade balance of $1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached $3.22 billion. Italy is the 13th largest investor in India with cumulative investments worth $2.41 billion from April 2000 to June 2017. The top five sectors in India that attract Italian investments are automotive industry, trading, service sector, industrial machinery and food processing industry. There are over 600 Italian companies active in India covering various sectors such as fashion, garments, textile and textile machinery, automotive, automotive components industry, infrastructure, chemicals, energy, confectionery and insurance. Tehran, Oct 30 : The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano has said Iran is living up to its commitments under the 2015 international nuclear deal, the media reported. Since January 2016, the IAEA has monitored Iran's nuclear commitments under the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and conducted verification checks, said Amano on Sunday, Xinhua news agency reported. "The agency believes that the JCPOA is an important achievement for verification. The agency could stipulate that Iran's nuclear commitments under the JCPOA are being implemented," he was also quoted as saying by Press TV on Sunday, according to Xinhua. Amano made the remarks in a press conference with Iran's nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi. The IAEA is in charge of monitoring restrictions on Iran's nuclear program under the nuclear agreement. So far the agency has released eight reports each time confirming Iran's adherence to the international nuclear pact. Amano will also hold talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif focusing on the verification and monitoring of the implementation of the nuclear deal. Amano's visit comes amid US President Donald Trump's earlier remarks that Washington could not formally certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear accord. Washington has also demanded inspections of Iran's military sites, which Tehran has rejected. On Sunday, Salehi said that he had exchanged views with Amano about Section T of the JCPOA, which deals with the technology that could contribute to the development of a nuclear explosive device. Section T does not include special inspections, but the United States is making its own special interpretation of the provision, Salehi was quoted as saying by Press TV. He warned that "we can produce uranium enrichment at 20 per cent within four days, but we do not want the JCPOA to collapse." Following the nuclear agreement between Iran and the major world powers in 2015, which was implemented in January 2016, Iran agreed to stop the enrichment of uranium to 20 per cent level. Ankara, Oct 30 : Turkey celebrated its Republic Day and 94th anniversary of the establishment of its republic on Sunday. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding President of the country in Ankara early on Sunday, laying a wreath and writing on memorial book, Xinhua news agency reported. Erdogan said the spirit which brought victory to Turkish War of Liberation and gave life to the republic is alive today as it was before 94 years, noting that the resistance of the coup plotters on July 15, 2016 is the embodiment of this spirit. As previous Republic Day, the ceremonies this year were held at every cities and towns, with large size national flag fluttering on main street and historical buildings across the country. Turkey's Republic Day celebrates October 29, 1923, when the Turkish Parliament amended the constitution to change the system of government to a republic. It concluded the four-year independence war against several countries and officially marked the end of the Ottoman Empire. Pyongyang, Oct 30 : North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has taken time away from the confrontation with the US and allies to visit a cosmetics factory in Pyongyang. He went to the newly renovated factory with senior party members and his rarely seen wife, Ri Sol-ju, BBC reported on Sunday. The site was visited by his father and predecessor Kim Jong-il 14 years ago. The visit was broadcast on state media, one day after US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis said his country would "never accept" a nuclear-armed North Korea. Mattis said any use of such weapons would be met with a "massive military response", while visiting Seoul on Saturday. Tension has risen on the peninsula over a series of North Korean missile and nuclear tests and escalating rhetoric between Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump. The visit made a stark difference from the leader's usual photo opportunities with missiles and weapons, as he instead posed with soap and beauty products. He praised the company and called on it to produce world-class cosmetics. New Delhi, Oct 30 : Senior IPS officer Y.C. Modi, who was part of a Supreme Court-appointed team that probed the 2002 Gujarat riots cases, on Monday took over as NIA chief, succeeding Sharad Kumar. In an official statement, the counter terror probe agency said, Yogesh Chander Modi, a 1984 batch IPS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, took over as Director General of the National Investigation Agency (NIA). He succeeded Sharad Kumar, a 1979 batch IPS officer of Haryana Cadre, who completed his tenure. Modi will hold the post till his superannuation on May 31, 2021, according to an order from the Department of Personnel and Training. He was named as NIA head on September 18. Modi takes over the NIA at a time when it is probing the funding of separatists and stone-pelters in Jammu and Kashmir by Pakistan-based terrorist groups. Earlier, Modi had joined the NIA as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) on September 22. Before that he was posted as Special Director with the CBI. Modi was appointed Additional Director of CBI in 2015. Modi was part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) that probed the Gujarat riots cases in August 2010 and remained part of the team till July 2012. The SIT had cleared Narendra Modi, who at that time was Gujarat Chief Minister, in the Gulbarg Society massacre case. According to NIA, Y.C. Modi in his career spanning over 33 years, has extensive experience of investigation, intelligence and operations. "He worked with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for a period of around 10 years in two stints from 2002-2010 and 2015-2017, where he handled special crime and economic offences besides anti-corruption cases." Modi was awarded the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2001 and the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service in 2008. Sharad Kumar was appointed NIA chief on August 5, 2013. He was given two extensions -- the latest on October 23 last year. "The NIA, under his inspiring and able leadership, made path-breaking progress with its thorough and professional investigation," the agency said. The statement said that during Sharad Kumar's tenure, the NIA achieved significant successes in solving many complex terrorist crimes and unearthing intricate conspiracies, including the Bodh Gaya temple blast, blast at Patna rally of the then prime ministerial candidate of the BJP Narendra Modi, Pathankot airbase attack case, ISIS and the Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case. The agency said that it expanded its geographical presence to the entire country with the creation of three new branch offices at Kolkata, Raipur and Jammu. The office and residential complex of the Lucknow branch office was also inaugurated in August 2017. Tokyo, Oct 30 : The 11 member-countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) on Monday started a new round of negotiations in Japan, seeking to reach an agreement ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next month. The meeting, taking place in Chiba prefecture, will continue till Wednesday with the aim of re-arranging various types of consensus following the withdrawal of the US, reports Efe news. Japan has called for the limitation of the changes should Washington decide to return to the negotiating table. New Zealand has pushed for the talks to move forward, with the newly-elected Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, calling for a revision of the agreement. Ardern had assured that she would not sign a new agreement if it did not guarantee the viability of the country's national policy against foreign investment in the real estate sector. The member countries hope that the text of the new agreement will be presented at the two-day APEC summit in Vietnam on November 11, but request for further revisions might delay negotiations. Washington's withdrawal has led other members to raise more than 50 amendments to the clauses introduced by the US in the original text. The TPP, an ambitious free trade agreement, sought to encompass 40 per cent of the global GDP and was originally signed in February 2016 by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam. The agreement, which had been negotiated for more than six years, had to be ratified within a period of two years by at least six member countries whose combined GDP represented 85 per cent of the total, but after the US exit - which alone accounts for 60 per cent of the GDP of the 12 signatory states - it had become invalidated. New Delhi, Oct 30 : The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) has uploaded a revised version of the minutes of its meeting on genetically-modified (GM) mustard, which puts the onus for acceptance or rejection of its recommendation on Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan. The new version reflects what GEAC Chairperson Amita Prasad had said had actually transpired at its meeting on 11 May this year. It states that "GEAC recommended the proposal with certain terms and conditions for further approval by the Competent Authority." The GEAC's recommendation to the government was for approval to be given for mass cultivation of the GM mustard hybrid DMH-11 because its sub-committee, having studied the bio-safety data, had reported that it was safe for humans, animals and the environment. The earlier version, put out on October 24, had omitted the recommendation. Instead it had said: "Subsequent to receipt of various representations from different stakeholders, matters related to environmental release of transgenic Mustard are kept pending for further review". GEAC now says that was an "inadvertent typographical error." The environment ministry's website says the government has decided to keep the proposal for environmental release of transgenic mustard "pending for further review," after it received various representations from different stakeholders. The ball is now in minister Harsh Vardhan's court. For all intents and purposes, it seems, DMH-11 may not be approved by this government. If it had got the minister's nod, seed production could have begun this season. And considering strong opposition from within the ruling party, approval is unlikely to be given next year, ahead of the general elections. The representations, which the ministry says it has got, are not likely to be different from those which the GEAC considered over its eight meetings, starting in September 2015 when it received the application. GEAC also received 700 comments on the summary of the bio-safety data it had posted for public viewing, of which 400 were found to be of substance. The only change since 11 May is the report of a parliamentary committee on GM crops headed by Congress MP Renuka Chowdhury. It ignores the testimony of six institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) who said their trials have shown that the only GM crop approved for cultivation in India, Bt cotton and its derivatives, that is, seed, oil and de-oiled cake, have not been found to cause any harm to goats, lambs, cows, chicken and fish. On this basis, and the literature on the subject, ICAR told the committee it had drawn the following conclusions: (a) More than two decades of proven history indicates safe use of GM crops as feed to animals; (b) Scientific methods used for the assessment of the safety of GM crops as food and feed have been harmonized globally over the years; (c) Bt cotton, Bt brinjal and GM mustard assessed by Indian regulators have proved to be safe as feed to animals; (d) No deleterious effect of GM plants approved for animal feed has been described; (e) Gene constructs used for creating insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant plants tested by appropriate bio-molecular methods are safe for animal feeds; (f) Methods used for safety assessment and recommendations of new plants for use as animal feed are appropriate for detection of any ill-effect on animal health and performance; and (g) The absence of recombinant DNA, either as whole gene or gene fragment in animal products, milk, meat and eggs was confirmed in the results of 12 publications, based on several hundred samples. Despite the weight of scientific evidence, the committee recommended "thorough consultation with the concerned Government agencies, experts, environmentalists, civil society, and other stakeholders so that the nation is very clear about all its probable impacts before taking a call in the matter." Soon after he was given charge of the environment ministry in June, Vardhan lost no time in notifying rules for trading of cattle that forbade sale for slaughter in animal markets, despite their enormous social and economic consequences. Vardhan's hesitation to accept the GEAC's advice indicates the depth of opposition within the ruling party. (Vivian Fernandes is editor of www.smartindianagriculture.in. He may be reached at vivianfernandesonly@gmail.com) Panaji, Oct 30 : The controversy over former BJP MLA Vishnu Wagh's book of poems, 'Sudhir Sukta', attacking Goa's elite Gaud Saraswat Brahmin caste, refuses to die with vernacular literateurs and friends of Wagh hitting back with a sustained campaign backing the book and its author and publisher. The campaign by Sahitya Academy award winning writer N. Shivdas and others has drawn up a 21-point programme called 'Sudhir Sukta jagor', which includes translation of the poems in multiple languages, poetry readings in all 40 Assembly constituencies and creating awareness about the controversial passages in the book which are critical of injustices committed by upper caste Hindus against lower castes in Goa. A jagor is a traditional Goan version of a wake, which is conducted by rural communities, among both Hindus and Catholics, in honour of the local deities. "As part of the 'Sudhir Sukta jagor', we will host a reading session of poetry from the book in the remotest of villages, so that awareness is raised about what Wagh has written," Shivdas told IANS. 'Sudhir Sukta' is a collection of poems penned by Wagh, which took graphic and, at times, raunchy pot-shots at the influential Goud Saraswat Brahmin community and brought to fore faultlines in Goa's relatively insidious but omnipresent caste hierarchy. The book was incidentally released in 2013 by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who incidentally hails from the same community. The book was shortlisted for an award by the Goa Konkani Academy. But two weeks back, after the controversy emerged, the state government scrapped all 21 state awards, including the one for which 'Sudhir Sukta' was shortlisted. Chief Minister Parrikar has, however, maintained that the awards were cancelled due to procedural lapses and 'conflict of interest' issues. Last week, a FIR was also filed against Wagh by a women's group, which alleged that some of the poems denigrated women. "We will also campaign against the FIR which was filed against the award winning poet. This is nothing but harassment of the writer who is currently laid up because of successive heart attacks," Naik said. Another organiser of the 'Sudhir Sukta jagor', Devidas Amonkar, said that as part of the awareness campaign, the poems were being translated into multiple languages so that more and more people have access to the contents. "The book is currently out of print. So, it will be reprinted in Konkani because there is a high demand for the book. The book is already translated into English and Irish. We are also translating it in Hindi, Marathi and Malvani (a dialect of Marathi)," Amonkar said. Amonkar also said that while the state government had cancelled the award slated for Wagh's book, the poet would be felicitated by the organisers of the jagor. "We will also be felicitating the publisher of the book Hema Naik, who has also been named in the FIR," he said. "The book depicts and reflects suffocation of natives of the soil and the injustices they faced or are facing from the dominant forces," Amonkar said. Beijing, Oct 30 : China is planning to set up a national supervision commission in 2018, parallel to the Communist Party of China's (CPC) anti-graft body that sanctioned the prosecution of over one million top officials for malpractice, authorities said on Monday. The commission, which will report to the government and not the CPC, will be an extension of similar supervisory programmes running on trial in Beijing, Shanxi and Zhejiang, reports Efe news. The announcement of the latest anti-graft tool was made on Sunday after the first meeting of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) under the new leadership of 60-year-old Zhao Leji, who replaced Wang Qishan, one of the most influential leaders of the regime over the past five years. Zhao, as anti-corruption head of the party, said during his first public event the campaign would continue to crack down on corruption within the government and the party. Last week, Zhao was also elected as one of the seven members of the powerful Politburo Standing Committee, headed by the country's President and CPC General Secretary Xi Jinping. Tokyo, Oct 30 : The US military sent a nuclear-capable B-2 stealth bomber on a long-range mission to the Pacific over the weekend ahead of President Donald Trumps Asia tour that includes a visit to South Korea and Japan. The US military Strategic Command said the mission took place on Sunday, a day after Pentagon chief Jim Mattis highlighted rival North Korea's "accelerating" atomic weapons programme during a visit to South Korea, the Japan Times reported. "I cannot imagine a condition under which the US would accept North Korea as a nuclear power," Mattis said. The long-range mission was conducted to "familiarise aircrew with airbases and operations in different geographic combatant commands, enabling them to maintain a high state of readiness and proficiency", the US military said in a statement. The statement also referred to the B-2 mission as "a visible demonstration of commitment to our allies and enhancing regional security". The weekend flight of the B-2, which can carry conventional as well as nuclear bombs, came just ahead of Trump's Asia tour from November 3 to 14. The US President will visit Japan between November 5 to 7 and will meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for talks that are expected to focus on the North Korean nuclear crisis. Trump will also visit South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines. South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported that the South Korean regime nodded to its intent to suggest offering maintenance support for US strategic military assets deployed in the country with the hope that "the US will expand its missions on the Korean peninsula without any concerns over issues of maintenance, fuel supplies and so forth". Earlier in October, B-1B bombers were deployed from US territory of Guam during military exercises with the South Korean Air Force in the wake of rising tensions with the North Korean regime. Reacting to the move, Pyongyang said it will shoot down any US bombers violating its air space. North Korea also reportedly spent the weekend preparing for a war, conducting evacuation and black out drills across the country, NK News reported. New Delhi, Oct 30 : In a bid to promote domestic defence manufacturing, the Defence Ministry is mulling on formulating a method under which obtaining security clearance from Home Ministry, if delayed, will be "deemed to be approved". After a recent meeting between Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and representatives from the industry, the Defence Ministry is now discussing measures to help private sector industries to get a final clearance, in case their request has been pending for a long time. Sources said that a mechanism is being discussed under which small and medium level projects, if they don't get a clearance within a certain period of time, the Defence Ministry will take up their matter with the Home Ministry, which provides final security clearance to defence related manufacturing projects. The source also said the Defence Ministry is looking into a proposal under which if a licence remains pending for two months, or any decided period after its due date for approval has passed, it can be "deemed to be approved" in certain cases. The industry representatives during their meeting had also raised the issue of foreign Original Equipment Manufacturers getting tax concessions which the Indian manufacturers don't get. The ministry is also discussing taking it up the issue with the Finance Ministry. The Defence Ministry has also asked Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to prepare a list of defence technologies it has developed and has not been given to any government or private sector for manufacturing. "Some of the technologies developed by DRDO have already been given to private sector and equipments are being manufactured and also exported. We will work with DRDO to make a list of items which can be commercialised," said a source. India has been looking at expanding its defence manufacturing base under the Make in India programme, and small and medium scale industry has been identified as a special component under it. Sitharaman has held a meeting with representatives from the private sector on Saturday on pushing Make in India for defence. New Delhi, Oct 30 : Indian DGMO Lt Gen A.K. Bhatt on Monday told his Pakistani counterpart that the support provided by the Pakistan Army to infiltrators was "unacceptable" and the Indian side will continue its "retaliatory measures" along the LoC. Lt Gen. Bhatt conveyed this during an unscheduled hotline interaction at 2 p.m. on Monday after a request from the Pakistan side. Pakistan DGMO Maj. Gen. Sahir Shamshad Mirza alleged that Indian forces resorted to "unprovoked firing" along the LoC. Lt Gen. Bhatt told him that the support provided to terrorists by the Pakistan Army for crossing the border was the primary reason for the heavy firing from the Indian side at the Line of Control. He also said the Pakistan Army has been using civilians in forward posts to gather information and to help terrorists Lt. Gen. Bhatt said retaliatory firing by the Indian troops was carried out in response to "unabated support" given by the Pakistan Army to armed terrorists to infiltrate the border and target Indian Army posts with heavy calibre weapons. "It is in response to such actions that Indian troops retaliate," the Indian DGMO said. He said the Indian side will continue its effort to ensure peace and tranquility along the border, and that the support provided by Pakistan Army to terrorists crossing the LoC is the prime reason for any 'collateral damage'. He said the support to terrorists by the Pakistan Army is "unacceptable". "The Indian Army will continue to take all retaliatory measures as well as retain the right to punitively respond to such provocative acts of aggression from the Pakistan side in future also," the Indian DGMO said. He said the Indian Army maintains "impeccable standards of professionalism" and does not target civilians. On the contrary, the Pakistan Army has employed civilians on forward posts and accorded permission for permanent location in the vicinity of Pakistan army posts. "These civilians have repeatedly been used to gain information on our locations and providing guides to terrorists while crossing the LoC," he told the Pakistan DGMO. New Delhi, Oct 30 : The Congress on Monday said it will observe November 8 as "Black Day" with country-wide protests against demonetisation and won't rest till "inherent flaws" in the design, architecture and rates of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) were resolved. The party made the announcement after a meeting of its General Secretaries which was presided over by Vice President Rahul Gandhi. Briefing reporters, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said demonstrations will be held in every district and state capital on November 8, the day the Modi government decided last year to junk high currency notes. Surjewala said demonetisation "was the biggest scam of the century" and said the GST had "crushed businesses and wiped out jobs". New Delhi, Oct 30 : Bhutan King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, accompanied by Queen Jetsun Pema Wangchuk and Prince Jigme Namgyal Wangchuk, will arrive here on Tuesday on a four-day visit to India, the External Affairs Ministry announced on Monday. The King will meet President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will host a dinner in honour of the royal family, a statement from the ministry said. Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and other ministers will call on the King. "India and Bhutan enjoy unique ties of friendship, which are characterised by deep understanding and mutual trust," the statement said. It said the visit would provide an opportunity to review the entire gamut of bilateral cooperation, including plans for celebrating in 2018 the golden jubilee of the establishment of diplomatic ties, and to advance bilateral relations of friendship and cooperation. There are a number of institutional mechanisms between India and Bhutan in areas such as security, border management, trade, transit, economic, hydro-power, development cooperation and water resources. India has set up three hydroelectric projects (HEPs) in Bhutan totalling 1,416 MW, which are operational and exporting surplus power to India. About three-fourth of the power generated is exported and the rest is used for domestic consumption. India is Bhutan's largest trading partner. In 2016, bilateral trade stood at Rs 8,723 crore with total imports being Rs 5,528.5 crore (82 per cent of Bhutan's total imports) and exports recorded as Rs 3,205.2 crore including electricity (90 per cent of Bhutan's total exports). New Delhi, Oct 30 : Noted agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan on Monday raised concerns over malnutrition among children in the country despite record agriculture output and other agri-based commodities. Citing the recent Global Hunger Index (GHI) report, where India is ranked 100 out of 119 countries, he sought to know how this could be justified given that India produced over 300 million tonnes of foodgrain, 150 million tonnes of milk and over 200 million tonnes of pulses. "Latest discussion is on hunger index... In this hall, we can go on talking about our achievements with regard to record production, but outside they talk about what we have not achieved particularly in terms of malnutrition," he said during an awards ceremony here. "Malnutrition of our children for 1,000 days is very critical for their brain development. Therefore, there is no time to relax." Earlier this month, an 11-year-old girl in Jharkhand died allegedly due to starvation after being denied food because she did not have an Aadhaar-linked ration card. Trust for Advancement of Agriculture Sciences (TAAS), a non-profit organisation, awarded the 9th Dr. M.S. Swaminathan Award to Uma Lele, agriculture economist and former senior adviser to the World Bank. Well known for his leading role in India's Green Revolution, Swaminathan said technology and public policy were crucial factors to address the issue of gap between achievement in agricultural productions and missing on consumption. "Progress is due to interaction, technology and public policies. Technology is an agent of a change and public policy makes the change possible," he said. "Technology shows us how to improve productivity while public policy shows how to sustain the productivity, how to achieve the productivity. Technology and public policy are the two wheels of progress," he added. Trilochan Mohapatra, the Director General of the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), said criticism of Indian agriculture by economists was welcome but recognition of the contributions of scientists and farmers was also required. "We often become gloomy and pessimistic about Indian agriculture and we start presenting its dark side... It is good to criticise and find the gaps so we can fill the gaps adequately. "But at the same time, it is important to recognise how our toiling farmers are doing and how they are contributing... How Indian science and science-led agriculture made a lot of difference," Mohapatra said. Chandigarh, Oct 30 : Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday urged the Centre to take up with Canadian authorities the extradition of 10 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) declared Proclaimed Offenders in drugs cases. The extradition has been pending for three-four years, scuttling the efforts to bring these NRIs to justice, the Chief Minister said in separate letters to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. "Punjab's Congress government has scaled up efforts for their extradition from Canada as part of its war on drugs but was hampered as these cases are pending at various levels," Amarinder Singh said. The state government has decided to aggressively pursue the extradition issue since the custodial interrogation of these NRIs was vital to expose the drugs network in Punjab and those patronising the trade, an official spokesperson said here. The Chief Minister said Sarabjit Singh Sandhar alias Nik of Balioun village and now living in Vancouver was declared a Proclaimed Offender on October 19, 2013. Request for his extradition was sent to Canadian authorities through proper channels and thereafter prepared afresh as per guidelines shared by them and again sent to the Home Ministry, which forwarded it to the External Affairs Ministry on July 20, 2017. The extradition request in case of Ranjit Singh Aujla of Muthada Kalan village was pending since July 25, 2017. He was declared a Proclaimed Offender on August 31, 2013. Amarinder Singh said that in case of Nirankar Singh Dhillon of Apra Mandi village who was declared a Proclaimed Offender on October 19, 2013, the extradition request was pending since September 19. The extradition request for Gursewak Singh Dhillon of Leela Megh Singh village who was declared a Proclaimed Offender on April 1, 2014 was sent to the central government on July 20 but there had been no progress since. The other cases concerned Amarjit Singh Kooner of Mehmadpur village, Lamer Singh Daleh of Mehsampur village, Pardeep Singh Dhaliwal, Amarinder Singh Chheena and Parminder Singh Deo, the Chief Minister said. Another extradition request relates to Ranjit Kaur Kahlon, wife of Anoop Singh Kahlon, of Jhandu Singha village in Jalandhar district in whose name her husband had purchased properties in Jalandhar and Zirakpur from proceeds of drug money, the spokesperson said. Ranchi, Oct 30 : Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said the Railways was investing Rs 3,500 crore in Jharkhand in the current financial year. Inaugurating a three-day Global Mining Submit here, Goyal said Jharkhand was on the path of development and Chief Minister Raghubar Das had responded to the Maoist menace positively. "The Chief Minister has told us to start work in Maoist-infested areas and promised security," he said. On the first day of the mining submit, the Jharkhand government and Coal India Ltd signed a MoU to provide drinking water to people from coal mines free of cost. The state government will process the water deposited in the coal mines and provide it to people. The Chief Minister said: "The Jharkhand government is determined to provide security to investors. "Jharkhand depended on royalty for the last 70 years. There is a need to set up value added plants in the state to end poverty and generate employment." New Delhi, Oct 30 : In tune with India's growing engagements with Africa, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday held the 12th India-Tunisia Joint Commission Meeting with her Tunisian counterpart Khemaies Jhinaoui here. The focus of the meeting was on "setting up a robust agenda for bilateral cooperation", External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. The re-engagement with the North African country comes more than a year after then Vice President Hamid Ansari's visit to Tunisia in June last year. The two countries had then inked several agreements. Bilateral trade between India and Tunisia stood at $370.46 million in 2016. Tunisia has been a reliable source for phosphates and India accounts for around 50 per cent of Tunisia's global phosphoric acid exports. India exports a wide range of products including knocked-down kits, automobiles, electrical items, cotton, mechanical engines, organic chemical products, rubber, rice, coffee and spices. Jhinaoui is accompanied by a high-level business delegation representing diverse areas of business, trade and investments. India has been increasing its engagement with Africa, including through a series of high level visits in the last two years -- by President Ram Nath Kovind, then President Pranab Mukherjee, then Vice President Ansari and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. New Delhi hosted the India Africa Forum Summit in October 2015 that saw all 54 African nations participating. Earlier this year, India hosted the annual meeting of African Development Bank. Mumbai, Oct 30 : Reliance Communications (RCOM) on Monday offered a comprehensive debt-resolution plan to its domestic and foreign lenders, saying it will not involve any loan write-off by the lenders. "RCOM's debt resolution plan envisages no loan write-off by the lenders. RCOM will pay off up to Rs 17,000 crore of its debt, out of the proceeds of monetisation of spectrum, towers and fiber and MCN (Media Convergence Nodes) assets," a company statement said here. "RCOM will pay additional Rs 10,000 crore of its debt, out of the proceeds of sales and commercial development of DAKC (Dhirubhai Ambani Knowledge City) and other prime real estate assets across 8-metros. The new RCOM will have sustainable and profitable B2B - non mobile business," it added. It said the company is working closely with SBI Capital Markets Limited, the advisors appointed by the lenders, to run a competitive process in a transparent manner to monetise the spectrum, tower and fiber, MCNs and prime real estate assets. "The company has valuable spectrum across 800/900/1800/2100 MHz spectrum bands ideally suited for 4G and other evolving technologies. While the company will continue with its 4G focused strategy, it plans to monetise its holding through trading and sharing arrangements," the statement added. The company will also monetise its extensive tower and fiber portfolio comprising of 43,000 plus towers and over 1,78,000 route kilometre of intercity and intracity fiber, it said. RCOM's monetisation plan also includes its 248 MCN properties located across the country and prime real estate assets located at New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Regarding conversion of debt, the statement said: "Debt of Rs 7,000 crore is proposed to be converted into 51 per cent of the company's equity, as per the SDR (strategic debt restructuring) guidelines of the Reserve Bank of India. Shareholders of the company at the annual general meeting held on September 26, 2017 have already approved issuance of equity shares to lenders by conversion of loans." The statement said the company's transformation journey is focused on viable, sustainable and profitable B2B businesses with a strong domestic and global footprint. "RCOM's B2B business portfolio comprises Enterprise, Carrier, Internet Data Centre and global submarine cable network in India and overseas across continents. New RCom will rank among the Top 3 data players in India." It said these B2B businesses are stable, capital light and have sustained and predictable annuity revenues and profits, with immense growth potential amidst low competitive intensity. "These businesses have no exposure to mobility and consumer business including fiber to home. They generate equal revenues from domestic and overseas operations." It further said the new RCOM will have sustainable and conservative level of debt of only Rs 6,000 crore. "Cost of debt will be lower due to ability to raise debt funds overseas at low cost." RCOM is under a standstill period (for interest and principal repayments) till December 2018 and expects to complete the SDR process as per applicable RBI guidelines. New Delhi, Oct 30 : A court here on Monday appointed a commissioner to observe the lie detector test of businessman Abhishek Verma, a witness in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case against Congress leader Jagdish Tytler. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Amit Arora appointed noted advocate B.S. Joon as the commissioner after Verma alleged a forensic lab to have been "unfair and biased" while conducting his lie detector test. Joon is former Director of Prosecution of the Delhi government. The court also directed to allow a cardiologist to be present when Verma undergoes the test as it directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to finalise the date of test on November 1, the next date fixed for hearing. On October 24, Verma's polygraph test was conducted in the FSL in Rohini here. Verma moved an application alleging that forensic lab was unfair and biased, and sought that a detailed standard operating procedure for conducting polygraph test be filed by the FSL, Rohini in the court to bring on record complete transparency. The court was hearing a CBI plea for permission to conduct the lie detector tests on Verma as well as Tytler, who is accused of leading a mob in Pul Bangash area in 1984 that led to the killing of three Sikhs. The Congress leader has refused to undergo the test. The agency's move came after Verma's accusation that Tytler influenced witness Surender Singh through money and a promise to send his son Narender Singh to Canada. The CBI had earlier given a clean chit to Tytler in the case but reopened investigation following a December 4, 2015 court order in the wake of Verma's allegation. On the court's direction, Verma had been provided round-the-clock security till his polygraphy test is conducted after he had told the court that he apprehended serious threat to his life as well as that of his wife and mother. Beijing, Oct 30 : China is willing to enhance cooperation with Sri Lanka within the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday. Wang made the remarks during talks with visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana. This year marked the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and Sri Lanka and the 65th anniversary of the signing of the Rubber-Rice Pact between the two countries, Xinhua news agency reported. Wang said China hoped to take this opportunity to promote the traditional friendship and political mutual trust with Sri Lanka as well as major infrastructure projects, investment and trade, maritime and people-to-people cooperation under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. Marapana expressed gratitude for Beijing's long-term support for Colombo's economic and social development. "Sri Lanka attaches great importance to its traditional friendship with China and looks forward to promoting cooperation with China in all fields," he said. After the meeting, the two sides exchanged letters of approval for a mutual legal assistance treaty. Hyderabad, Oct 30 : As many as 76 per cent of the brands of LED bulbs and 71 per cent of LED downlighters in India flout consumer safety standards, as prescribed and mandated for lighting products by the BIS and Electronics and Information Technology Ministry, a Nielsen study said. The study was conducted across New Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad and covered 200 electrical retail outlets. "These spurious products pose a serious safety hazard for consumers, besides causing significant losses in tax revenues for the government of India, as they are illegally manufactured and sold," a statement said here on Monday. The findings from the key markets surveyed showed that 48 per cent of LED bulb brands did not mention manufacturer's address and 31 per cent brands did not have even the manufacturer's name. Similarly, the study on LED Downlighters showed that of the total sample size, 45 per cent brands did not display a manufacturer's name and 51 per cent brands had no mention of the manufacturer's address. Hyderabad, in particular, did not fare well in terms of compliance with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) norms in both LED bulbs and downlighters brands segments, with almost seven out of every 10 LED bulbs surveyed in the southern city being non-compliant with BIS norms. As per ELCOMA (Electric Lamp and Component Manufacturers' Association), the total LED market in India is worth Rs 10,000 crore, with LED bulbs and downlighters constituting 50 per cent of overall LED market. "The large number of non-compliant manufacturers of LED bulbs and downlighters threaten fair competition in the LED lighting market, especially for companies that are compliant with all mandatory safety standards," said Rakesh Zutshi, President of ELCOMA and Managing Director, Halonix Technologies Private Limited. New Delhi, Oct 30 : Will the NIA's investigation into terror funding cases involving Hurriyat leaders be impacted by the appointment of an interlocutor on Kashmir? New chief of the counter-terror probe agency Y.C. Modi said any decision taken would be in "national interest". "We work under certain parameters of law but for us national interest is the most important thing. Everybody is working for national interest. So, whatever decision would be taken, it would be in the national interest," Yogesh Chander Modi, who took office on Monday, told the media. He was replying to a question if there would be any impact on the NIA's ongoing probe against Kashmiri separatist leaders after the appointment of former Intelligence Bureau chief Dineshwar Sharma as interlocutor for "sustainable dialogue" on Jammu and Kashmir. Modi succeeded Sharad Kumar, who led the agency in its probe into the Kashmir terror funding case. The NIA has already arrested eight separatist leaders and some businessmen from Kashmir for allegedly receiving funds from terror outfits in Pakistan for stoking trouble in the state. Modi, who will hold the post till his superannuation on May 31, 2021, said the cases being investigated by the agency would be taken forward as per the law. He praised the NIA's conviction rate, saying "it is 95 per cent which as per my knowledge has not been achieved by any agency in the world". "The NIA is the best investigation team in the country. I worked here for one month and I saw that our colleagues are exceptional in their investigative skills," the new NIA Director General said. New Delhi, Oct 30 : Striking students of the Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) on Monday accused the administration of giving misleading statements on students' union election at the university, saying there is no reason why the elections should not be held. About 10 students are on a hunger strike on the university premises since October 25 demanding resumption of the students' union election, which has not been held since 2006. "Jamia administration is looking for an escape route by stating that the case regarding students' union is sub-judice before the Delhi High Court," a statement from the striking students said. "...the reality is that in 2012, the Delhi High Court had asked the reason behind not conducting students' union election on regular basis in university. At that stage, in 2012, Jamia administration had assured the Delhi High Court that there is no discomfort and objection regarding having students' union election as well as an elected student body," it added. The university has cited pendency of a case -- Hamidur Rahman vs JMI -- before the Delhi High Court as a "legal hurdle" in allowing the students' union election. It said since the matter was sub-judice, conducting election "will amount to contempt of Court". But, the students argued for the revival of union election, saying neither Rahman nor those nine students who through a writ petition had "impleaded...opposition of any direct system of elections" are students of the university anymore. On October 28, the university also formed a five-member committee to "talk to students sitting on dharna" and clarified that in principle, it was in favour of election. The Jamia Millia Islamia has not seen students' union election since 2006 when its then Vice Chancellor Mushiral Hasan denied permission to hold polls. The dissolution of the union was done following large-scale vandalism resorted to by a group of students led by the outgoing students' union president. The ruckus had also led to an eight-day lockdown of the university then. However, current Vice Chancellor Talat Ahmad on Monday appealed to the striking students to call off their protest and invited them for talks. London, Oct 30 : Pakistan Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi after attending a meeting of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawazs (PML-N) top leadership here, refuted rumours that Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif would replace his brother Nawaz Sharif as the party chief. Abbasi said Nawaz Sharif would appear before an accountability court on November 3 in connection with National Accountability Bureau (NAB) references against him, Geo News reported. Besides Nawaz Sharif, his sons, Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz, Prime Minister Abbasi, Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar attended the meeting. Nawaz Sharif is expected to return to Pakistan on November 2 and attend court proceedings on November 3. He was earlier expected to return to Pakistan on October 23 to attend court proceedings, but those plans changed and he proceeded to Saudi Arabia. On Thursday, an accountability court issued bailable arrest warrants against Nawaz Sharif after he failed to appear before the court in connection with three references filed by the NAB. While issuing the warrants, Judge Muhammad Bashir dismissed Sharif's application for exemption from personal appearance. The judge issued warrants in two references against the former Prime Minister, while in the third reference, he issued notice to a surety giver. Islamabad, Oct 30 : Pakistan on Monday returned the last of five helicopters given to it by the US for monitoring the country's border with Afghanistan, the media reported. The US gave a total of nine helicopters to Pakistan in 2002. Pakistan had returned four of them on October 15, Geo News reported. The remaining choppers were loaded on a transport aircraft in Islamabad. This is expected to land in the US on Tuesday. The choppers had been used in Balochistan and in anti-narcotics operations, according to the report. Rajkot, Oct 30 : Firebrand Patidar leader Hardik Patel, who had given an ultimatum to the Congress to come clear on reservations for his community under the OBC category by November 3, on Monday said the party had agreed to explore constitutional solutions for the purpose while making firm promises on the community's other demands. Patel was speaking to reporters in Rajkot after a meeting of leaders of his Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) with Gujarat Congress President Bharatsinh Solanki as well as Siddharth Patel and Arjun Modhwadia in Ahmedabad. "I am neither against the Congress nor in its favour but am against the BJP's arrogant and autocratic attitude against the Patidars. We maintain that the Congress should explain us how exactly they would grant reservation under the OBC category," Hardik Patel said. He had threatened through a Twitter message that the proposed November 3 rally of Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in Surat would face the same fate as that of BJP President Amit Shah's public meeting which was disrupted in the diamond city last year, forcing him to beat a retreat. "Aap chahey aakaash se lao ya pataal se laao. Mujhe toh arakshan chahiye. (You get it from heaven or abyss. I just want reservation)," he asserted. Ridiculing allegations that he was acting as an agent of the Congress, he asserted: "Congress is not our maai-baap (parents). We are talking with the Congress since it is our right to speak to the party in the opposition if the ruling party does not listen to our demands." He said if the Congress agreed to all its demands and convinces them of how its reservation proposal would hold water constitutionally, they would extend their support to the party in the December Assembly elections. "We will not go with the BJP even if our heads are chopped off or we are sent to jail... We cannot align with people who fired bullets at our chest, who went and urinated in our houses in front of our women, who insulted the descendants of Sardar Patel," he said. "Patels have for 25 years helped the BJP with vote and note but have never asked for anything. Now we are asking for quotas in education and jobs." He said the talks with the Congress were satisfactory and the PAAS core committee would now meet and decide whether he should meet Rahul Gandhi on his forthcoming three-day visit to the state. "They have sought time till November 7 to meet constitutional and legal experts to finalise its stance. We will also be inviting two retired judges and people from Rajasthan who have been fighting for reservations for 15 years," he added. Bengaluru, Oct 30 : A two-day international seminar focusing on the opportunities in the Indian space industry will be held in New Delhi from November 21, an official said here on Monday. "The objective of the seminar is to bring together the industries working on space technology and the space agencies from across the world to discuss on the trends and opportunities in the Indian space sector," said S. Rakesh, the Chairman and Managing Director of Antrix Corporation Limited, the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Organised jointly by the ISRO and industry body FICCI, the seminar would see the participation of delegates from the space industries of countries like Japan, Russia, Singapore, France and the US among others. Titled "Indian Space Programme: Trends and Opportunities for Industry", the seminar would deliberate topics like the role and opportunities for the industry in space sector, leveraging public-private partnerships for Indian space programme and capacity building. "This is an occasion for senior officials from ISRO to interact with the industry," said the Assistant Secretary General of FICCI, Vivek Pandit. Naoki Okumura, President of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Vitaly Safonov of Russia's Glavkosmos, Jonathan Hung, the President of Singapore Space and Technology Association, officials from US' National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Indian industries, along with ISRO's senior scientists and officials, are expected to take part in the seminar. New Delhi, Oct 30 : The Congress will raise issues of complication of compliance, bringing down rate structure of the GST and GST Network issues in the next GST Council meeting, scheduled for November 9-10 in Guwahati. The party said it was hopeful that the GST Council would look into these recommendations seriously and also lower the GST rates. Asked about the specific demand of the Congress that it would raise in the GST Council meeting, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal said: "We would raise the issue of problems of compliance with small and medium enterprises and single unit people and job workers. "They have been brought under the tax net. As they were previously exempted, they should be exempted. Compliance issues are huge." Secondly, it would be about the rate structure of the GST to see if the rates could be brought down, Badal said. "Third, of course is the GST Network which is crashing every other minute. Even the Suvidha Centre takes two hours to file a return. There are many issues but these are three specific ones which we will be raising," said Badal, who is also a member of the GST Council. He said that they were also looking for exemption for job workers in the cycle industry, textiles, leather industry, and gems and jewellery industry. To a question whether these issues were raised earlier too, Badal said: "I must say that there was a certain amount of arrogance with the government when we had made these demands in Hyderabad and subsequent meetings. "But ever since Yashwant Sinha's letter has become public and there is a groundswell of opinion against the present form of GST, they are a lot more amenable now to our suggestions," he added. In a meeting on GST, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, along with P. Chidambaram and Jairam Ramesh and finance ministers of the Congress-ruled states, examined the "mess created by Modi government on account of inherent flaws in the design, architecture and rates of the GST". "If compliance for small manufacturers, micro and small industries and people with small turnovers is not possible, it just won't happen," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala. "The net consequence is that you are charging the consumer higher taxes without the consumer knowing it. They are going to raise the issue of distinction in taxation architecture first, see how compliances can be sorted out," he added. Panaji, Oct 30 : The Goa government on Monday formed a SIT led by retired High Court Judge Avinash Lawande to probe an alleged nexus between the 'matka' betting lobby, police and politicians in the coastal state. The Home Department announced the Special Investigating Team (SIT), which also includes a DSP and three other police officials, as per an order by Under Secretary (Home) Neetal Amonkar. The SIT will file monthly report before the Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court, informing it about updates in its investigation. The illegal 'matka' gambling has gained immense popularity in Mumbai and Konkan region since the 1970s. It is conducted six days a week, virtually like a lottery, where lucky numbers are generated thrice every day. The 'matka' gambling in Goa is pegged at several thousand crores of rupees and several legislators and Ministers in successive state governments have demanded its legalisation. A First Information Report has been filed against Goa's Leader of Opposition and Congress MLA Chandrakant Kavlekar for his alleged links to 'matka' betting. Panaji bench of the Bombay High Court is currently hearing a public interest litigation and overseeing a Crime Branch probe into the nexus between gambling lobby, politicians and policemen. New Delhi, Oct 30 : Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Monday said his country and India are together in opposing increasing protectionism as it is not in the interests of global trade. In a talk on "Italy, the EU and India: A strong partnership in a time of global challenges" here, he said policies supporting growth should be complemented by those supporting social inclusion as this was a key to strengthening the relationship between developed and newly- emerged economies. The event was organised by Observer Research Foundation and the Italian Embassy. Gentiloni, who took a few questions after his speech, said the Italian position on Syria has always been more moderate than that of its allies. "Our goal is to restore Syrian entity. Three million Syrians are in Turkey, one and half million in Lebanon, a lot of Syrians in Europe. Syria is a devastated country," he said. He said a large part of world faces a common threat of terrorism and praised India, saying it was a multi-religious democracy which "itself is a extraordinary contribution to fight the causes of terrorism". "The very existence of a democracy in this situation with these characteristics is absolutely strategic. "India is decisive to promote and maintain stability in this region, a region directly involving our European interests not only because of nuclear threat of North Korea. We are interested in maintaining peace in Asia because of national reasons, economic reasons, maritime trade," he added. Apparently referring to India, China and Japan, he said the Asian superpowers had stable leaderships and "the right moment to work for stability is the moment when you have strong leaderships". He said his country's trade cooperation with China is open and frank and was positive as far as India is concerned. In his speech, he said Italy was at the front line of global migration and there was need for a multilateral approaches. "We need a common European policy on migration. Italy saved tens of thousands of lives at sea. The global phenomenon of migration sees us in the front line. On this, we need increasingly multilateral approaches. "We want to see Africa thrive, socially and economically. Also, because this is the only way to manage migration flows without giving up to our principles and our humanity," he added. Gentiloni said people live in real contexts and were not numbers or statistics and in both developed countries and newly-emerged economies, many strata of the middle-class and the low-earner groups have suffered and are still suffering. He said international tensions will tend to subdue by strengthening inclusive growth in an open global market based on the rule of law and the principles of economic inclusion. Gentiloni also said that there are many sectors in which Italy and India can benefit from each other's talents and expertise including infrastructure, agri-food, machine tools and green technologies. He said 400 Italian companies operate already in India and roughly 150 Indian companies are in Italy. "These numbers are promising, but we can and will do much better," he said. Washington, Oct 30 : Paul Manafort, who served as Donald Trump's campaign chairman, surrendered on Monday to federal authorities after being indicted in connection with the special counsel's investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort and a former business associate, Rick Gates, face conspiracy and 11 other charges, Efe reports. Trump, for his part, weighed in on the case against his former campaign chairman, noting that the alleged crimes occurred long before Manafort worked for him. "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" Trump said in a Twitter post. "...Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" The New York Times was the first media outlet to report that arrest warrants had been issued for Manafort and Gates. The 68-year-old Manafort left his house in the Washington suburbs and arrived a short time later at FBI headquarters, where he turned himself in. On Friday, media reports said that a grand jury in Washington had issued indictments in the probe being conducted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into alleged Russian interference in last year's presidential election and possible collusion between Moscow and Trump campaign officials. There was speculation over the weekend over who might be charged by Mueller, who was appointed to his post in May. Investigators had been targeting Manafort, who worked as a lobbyist, for months and the FBI searched his house in July. Manafort once worked for a Russian businessman who had links to the Kremlin and was involved in questionable business deals with pro-Russian elements in Ukraine. Over the weekend, Trump once again called Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt" and demanded that "something" be done about alleged irregularities that his former Democratic presidential rival, Hillary Clinton, committed during the 2016 election. "Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now $12,000,000?)" Trump tweeted. On Monday, the president continued attacking his political opponents. "Report out that Obama Campaign paid $972,000 to Fusion GPS. The firm also got $12,400,000 (really?) from DNC. Nobody knows who OK'd!" Trump tweeted. The so-called "Trump dossier," prepared by a former British spy who runs a firm called Fusion GPS, details alleged contacts between Trump's team and the Kremlin, Russian spying on Trump and the possibility that that information could be used to blackmail him during his presidency. The dossier cites sources that say that members of Trump's team met with representatives of the Russian government. Those sources also say that they have proof that Trump met with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel where Russian intelligence operatives had allegedly installed cameras and microphones. Trump has categorically denied the dossier's content. Media reports said last week that an unidentified Republican who opposed Trump's bid for the party's nomination initially provided the funding for the dossier, but that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee (DNC) later paid Fusion GPS for damaging information on the now-president. Congressional investigators are trying to determine the role that Fusion GPS played in the campaign and who paid the firm. Parkfield Capital Advisors LLC announced today that its client, Fox Rent-A-Car, Inc., completed a $25 million debt refinancing that will assist the company in accelerating its growth. Based in Los Angeles, Fox is the fourth largest car rental agency in the United States. Proceeds from the refinancing will be used to retire existing debt and provide Fox with working capital for expansion. Parkfield Capital acted as Foxs exclusive financial adviser on the debt placement transaction. Fox was seeking financing partners better suited for the companys unique strategic situation, said Andres Pinter, Parkfield Capitals founder and Managing Director. The companys new lenders not only recognize Foxs continued opportunities for growth, but also deeply value the management teams long-term vision. Fox was very fortunate to find the perfect long-term financing partners. NewSpring Capital, a private equity fund providing growth and expansion capital, led the $25 million investment in Fox in partnership with Kemper Corp. and Star Mountain Capital. Possessing a strong and defensible market position, Fox is currently in seven of the top ten airports, said Anne Vazquez, NewSpring Partner. Backed by a veteran management team, all with proven experience in the industry, this company is well-positioned for continued growth. Parkfield Capitals debt placement advisory business presents middle market companies with access to creative capital solutions. The Parkfield Capital team is composed of seasoned professionals with deep credit experience and relationships with a broad network of capital providers. Parkfield Capital specializes in advising clients generating from $10 million up to $500 million in revenue that are seeking to refinance existing debt at more favorable terms, or seeking financing for growth or other situations. About Fox Fox was founded in 1989 as a deep value brand catering to airport travelers. Actively managed and owned by its founders, the company has enjoyed robust growth for nearly 30 years. Fox has been successfully growing airport rental market share and positioning itself as a viable alternative to the larger brands in the car rental space. With 20 major corporate owned airport locations across the US plus 80+ affiliate locations and a growing roster of international partner locations, Fox offers consumers great value, convenience and superior service. Fox Rent-A-Car, Inc. is a privately-owned and operated C corporation, based in Los Angeles, California. About Parkfield Capital Parkfield Capital Advisors LLC is a leading boutique financial advisory firm located in Manhattan Beach, California. Parkfield Capital focuses on advising companies and their stakeholders on balance sheet restructurings and private placements of debt and equity. The firm was founded by Andres Pinter in 2014. Humans spend almost one third of their life asleep, and yet, hardly any thought is given to this vital task. Dita Wegman gives testament based on natural law, that the true value and beneficial nature of sleep has been forgotten. Wegman asserts that sleep provides more than just physical and mental nourishment, but also provides spiritual and soul revitalization. Now, she explores the interplay between sleep, dreams and the soul in Treasures of Sleep: Connect with the Universe and Nourish Your Soul. It covers what the soul gathers from the cosmos and why we must sleep. Treasures of Sleep emphasizes the difference between resting and sleeping. Wegman explores why we need sleep and promotes the fact that every human beings core of is existence is their individual Spirit, which many refer to as their Soul. She states we have to separate the Spirit from the mind and that the Soul and Spirit has to be nourished and recharged while we sleep, since the brain assigned for daytime activity is at rest. Additionally, she showcases sleep as the source of nourishment that is essential for every living form on earth under Creation-law to maintain health, happiness and overall well-being. The book also enlightens readers about dream interpretations, the work of the great astronomer and physician Nostradamus, and how the stars and planets communicate in a silent language of nature symbols seen during sleep and prophetic messaging. She uses Nostradamus fundamental work of intuitively perceived images, which are referred to as dreams, to contrast the mind-produced images that interrupt sleep and disturb a good nights sleep. The book guides readers on how to achieve the desired REM sleep, which is the state of the deep sleep, and states we must enter it every night to be recharged and have the energy for a new day. Sleep is not only for when we are tired, Wegman said. It is a natural component that keeps every form of life on the planet in balance. Treasures of Sleep shows you the how to get the most out of your time sleeping and rejuvenate your entire being. For more information, please visit http://www.TreasuresofSleep.com, http://www.ditawegman.com or http://www.nostradamusdreams.com. Treasures of Sleep: Connect with the Universe and Nourish Your Soul By Dita Wegman ISBN: 9781514452158 (hardcover), 9781514452141 (softcover), 9781514457092 (e-book) Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Xlibris About the author Dita Arzt-Wegman left behind her successful career as model/actress in Munich, Germany, for a business career in Canada. For over 25 years, she held the position of vice president of an international cosmetic company. Retired from the business world, Wegman has now dedicated her time to her long-standing literary interests and exposing lifes meaning and purpose. Review Copies & Interview Requests: LAVIDGE Phoenix Satara Williams 480-998-2600 x 586 swilliams(at)lavidge(dot)com General Inquiries: LAVIDGE Phoenix Jacquelyn Brazzale 480-998-2600 x 569 jbrazzale(at)lavidge(dot)com A Spain-based writer and animal advocate has released her debut childrens book, which chronicles the adventures of a sheepherding dog and a flock of feral cats as they journey through the countryside in search of their forever homes. In Wanted: A Forever Home, author Janet Goodwin presents a heartwarming story, told from the perspective of its four-legged protagonists, about purpose, compassion and loyalty. Set in rural Spain, Goodwins book homes in on the story of Portuguese mountain dog Gentleman George, who, after losing his master and suffering abuse at the hands of strangers, is tasked with tracking down a flock of street kitties and herding them back home. Goodwin, who co-founded Spanish animal charity Proteccion y Educacion para Animales (PEPA) with her husband in 2005, was inspired to write Wanted: A Forever Home after witnessing cruelty and animal neglect first hand. Through this book as well as my charity, I want to reach out to young people, make them aware of what is happening all around them and provide them a window into the suffering many animals experience when they are abandoned, neglected or abused, Goodwin said. With the wonderful help of volunteers, PEPA has been able to save hundreds of lives my hope is that this book can contribute to such an important cause in a similar way. Young readers who love animal stories will be enraptured, and the subtle messages woven in particularly around caring for strays will land effectively, a Foreword Clarion reviewer wrote about the book. Animal lovers will delight in the wild adventures and earned luxuries of the fun and furry group in Wanted: A Forever Home. With a cast of eclectic, unforgettable characters, Wanted: A Forever Home unravels an entertaining yarn about the importance of caring for and respecting animals while also calling for increased awareness surrounding important issues, such as animal neglect and abuse. Wanted: A Forever Home By Janet Goodwin ISBN: 978-1-5246-3302-8 (paperback); 978-1-5246-3301-1 (electronic) Available at the AuthorHouse Online Bookstore, Barnes & Noble and Amazon About the author Janet Goodwin co-founded Spain-based animal charity, P.E.P.A. (Proteccion y Educacion para Animales) in 2005, and alongside many dedicated volunteers, has focused her efforts on finding forever homes for abandoned dogs and cats and the sterilization of feral cats. She currently resides in Palma de Gandia, Spain, with her husband, three dogs and cat, Lucy. To learn more, please visit http://www.janetgoodwin.com. ### Review Copies & Interview Requests: LAVIDGE Phoenix 480-648-7557 dgrobmeier@lavidge.com General Inquiries: LAVIDGE Phoenix 480-998-2600 x 584 mdriver@lavidge.com Aerial of the Queen Anne/Wright-Lovell Estate The beauty is that this property is turnkey and ready for immediate use, whether as a personal estate or business center. Its not every day that a century-old, 12,000 square foot Victorian mansion goes on the market, not to mention one as meticulously restored as the Queen Anne in Eureka Springs. The 130-year-old mansion and its accompanying 2,500 square foot Victorian cottage, the Kelley House, sit on 5.1 acres of private, gated land in the mountainous Ozarks region of Arkansas. The home was built in 1891 by famed architect C.W. Terry, who worked with the vision of then-owner and wealthy industrialist Curtis Wright to reflect the popular and high-end Queen Anne style design of the late 19th century. This style is characterized by asymmetry, steep rooflines, dome-topped turrets and gables. In 2005, the home was purchased by Steve and Lata Lovell, who hired a team of master artisans to begin an arduous, eight year long restoration to bring the property back to its original grandeur. The property is a national historic treasure, said Lata Lovell. When Steve and I first visited his home state of Arkansas, Eureka Springs was the first town he took me to. When we found out that the Queen Anne and Kelley homes were on the market, we bought both together and undertook this meticulous restoration. The dream for us is that this homes history lives on, and that this magnificent structure serves as a reminder of the importance of preservation of our historical properties. Once the renovations were complete, the Lovells opened the house as a Museum. This endeavor proved successful for the Lovells; the Queen Anne Mansion was recognized as Business of the Year by the Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce in 2011. The beauty is that this property is turnkey and ready for immediate use, whether as a personal estate or business center. Highlights of the main house include: A front gable adorned with a collection of ore samples Original hand-tooled woodwork and finishes Seven master suites boasting luxurious ensuite bathrooms, five half bathrooms, two kitchens, three laundry rooms, a media room and eight fireplaces An open parlor area on the second level A private home theater and game room Tulip poplar trim work throughout the second level A foundation built from 2,000 pieces of hand-chiseled Missouri limestone Elaborate trimmings of gold, brick red and royal blue to compliment a cream siding The fully-restored Kelley House features: Additional living quarters A business office A private Satori concept spa including a Finnish sauna, salon and steam showers The 5.1-acres of grounds also include: San Francisco Dental Implant Center Choosing an oral surgeon based on the cheapest or the closest may not work out well for some people. San Francisco Dental Implant Center, a highly-rated clinic for dental implants in San Francisco, is proud to announce a revision to its San Mateo informational page. The page explains how and why it's worth the short drive from the Peninsula city up to San Francisco for dental implants. Choosing an oral surgeon based on the cheapest or the closest may not work out well for some people, explained Dr. Alex Rabinovich of San Francisco Dental Implants. We hate to see patients fail to consider the short drive from San Mateo to San Francisco for the best dental implant experience in the San Francisco Bay Area. To view the newly updated San Mateo dental implants page at http://www.sfdentalimplants.com/san-mateo-california/. Persons interested in the key features of successful dental implant surgery may also find details on the page. To learn more regarding professional oral surgery in the Bay Area please go to http://www.oralsurgery-sf.com/, which is a sister site focusing on Dr. Rabinovich's oral surgery practice. A top oral surgeon can manage the repair and replacement of bad or missing teeth. WORTH THE DRIVE: BAY AREA DENTAL IMPLANTS Here is background to the release. October may be a season for unexpected, frightening fun for many Silicon Valley residents in towns as diverse as San Francisco, San Mateo, and Burlingame, California. Plenty of Halloween events have been scheduled including costume parties, haunted houses and zombie races. Residents may be up for a good scare during the Halloween season. Choosing to enjoy a horrific experience can be different from being surprised by one. If a local has decided to schedule an oral surgeon for dental implants, the expectation could be high-quality care and professional oral surgery. If a patient chooses so-called "cheap Bay Area dental implants" the result could be a gruesome, surprise. Bleeding gums and an infected mouth might be a few of the problems. Instead, scheduling a skilled surgeon may require deeper thought. For this reason, Bay Area Dental Implants has announced a revision to its San Mateo informational page. Locals who have chosen cheap Bay Area dental implants may have relied too much on price and proximity. If pain and bad teeth result from shoddy oral surgery, a patient could fall into a frightening dark hole of high costs and misery to fix the issue. Key features to a successful oral surgery can include cost-effective and comfortable results. San Francisco residents may decide to stop scaring the neighbors with bad teeth and finally schedule oral surgery. Locals can avoid cheap Bay Area dental implants by carefully reviewing the options, and making the short drive up to San Francisco. ABOUT SAN FRANCISCO DENTAL IMPLANT CENTER San Francisco Dental Implant Center (http://www.sfdentalimplants.com/) is located in the Financial District of the City. Under the direction of Dr. Alex Rabinovich, SF Dental Implants focuses on the placement and restoration of dental implants, and tooth replacement making its team among the most experienced in the Bay Area. Dr. Rabinovich is a Board Certified Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon specialist in the field of dental implants. This additional training, along with his years of experience, sets Alex Rabinovich MD DDS apart from the growing number of general dentists offering Bay Area dental implant treatments. San Francisco Dental Implant Center serves the Bay Area including Oakland. Contact: San Francisco Dental Implant Center, Media Relations Email: info(at)sfdentalimplants(dot)com Tel. (415) 992-9188 Attorneys Gerald (Jerry) Williams, David M. Cedar, and Ari Goldberger announce the formation of Williams Cedar, LLC, a law firm focusing on a wide range of litigation and practice areas. Williams Cedar will merge the practices of highly experienced attorneys formerly associated with Williams Cuker Berezofsky, Cedar Law Firm, and the Law Offices of Ari Goldberger. In addition to Williams, Cedar and Goldberger, lawyers Alan H. Sklarsky, Kevin Haverty, Beth G. Cole, Samuel Abloeser, Christopher Markos, and Shauna Friedman have joined the firm. Williams Cedar will continue and expand its lawyers long established practices in complex plaintiff litigation, including civil rights and Title IX cases, environmental law and toxic torts, personal injury cases, railroad claims including those brought under F.E.L.A., medical malpractice, product defect cases, False Claim Act [qui tam] actions, workplace injury cases, including chemical exposure and construction accidents, consumer protection, employment rights, including whistleblower protection and overtime and other wage payment claims, as well as first party and other denied benefit claims against insurance companies. Details of the firms practice areas can be viewed on the firms new website, http://www.williamscedar.com. Partner David Cedar said, Were proud of the experienced, dynamic team weve put together. We intend to combine a high-end, quality approach to complex litigation while maintaining a personal, hands-on approach in which each individual clients case is of paramount importance. Gerald J. Williams has received an AV Preeminent rating, the highest given, from legal publisher Martindale-Hubbell. He has been named a Pennsylvania Super Lawyer from 2007 through 2017 for environmental litigation. He has been lead counsel in multiple environmental, civil rights and class actions on behalf of plaintiffs in jurisdictions throughout the country. His cases have resulted in significant verdicts and settlements, and have established important legal precedents, including the establishment of medical monitoring as a remedy for the victims of groundwater contamination, lead poisoning, and other pollution. David Cedar, who has been honored as both a Super Lawyer and a Rising Star in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for over a decade, was appointed by the Supreme Court of New Jersey as a Certified Civil Trial Attorney (2001), an honor awarded to less than one percent of all attorneys in New Jersey. He has successfully brought hundreds of claims to trial, and has been lead counsel in mass and class action matters that have prosecuted cases under Federal and State Environmental Protection Laws, Federal and State RICO acts and consumer fraud acts in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Renowned as an innovator, Ari Goldberger created a concept for an internet law firm in 1994, calling it EsqWire, with a domain he named EsqWire.com. In one of the earliest domain name disputes, the Hearst Corporation publisher of Esquire magazine - challenged the name in federal court. The case settled, and Mr. Goldberger retained the domain name. EsqWire has since become a leader in domain law, handling hundreds of domain name transactions, and litigating domain name disputes in Federal courts. This dedicated team will provide responsible, personal service to clients in each of the firms practice areas. If you are seeking legal representation, please call the legal team at Williams Cedar at 215-557-0099, or visit their website at http://www.williamscedar.com for a free consultation. The firms offices are located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Cherry Hill, New Jersey. ThinkDeeply, an applied artificial intelligence company, is pleased to announce that it is now an Oracle Silver Partner and that its visual search technology was recently used to demonstrate the role visual search can play in improving customer support experiences at the Oracle Open World Conference in Redwood Shores, California. See Oracle Partner Page at https://solutions.oracle.com/scwar/scr/Partner/SCPP-OSDHJAIU.html The conference session entitled Innovations in Customer Service and the related live demonstrations in the exhibit hall included a prototype of a futuristic customer service experience for a major motorcycle manufacturer. In the demo, a customer support agent engages an customer regarding service to their motorcycle. When the customer did not know the exact model number, the agent instructed the customer to snap a picture of the bike. This picture became part of the customer service history and triggered ThinkDeeplys visual search services to look-up the bike in real-time and present the motorcycles model number and support information to the end-customer and agent. This approach works particularly well for mobile use cases where easy access to a phones digital camera can replace typing complex search details. The design can be readily extended to include component parts recognition as well. Although the scenarios presented applies to conventional customer service use cases, the ThinkDeeply's technology was also shown as a natural launching point for augmented reality (AR) sessions that assist a customer with visualizing the product and service related procedures in real time for the specific product found by visual search. This is just one example of how an enterprise can apply visual search to improve customer experience, said Rajesh Kommineni, ThinkDeeply President and CEO. He continued, For anyone that uses their mobile phone to chat or text images, the benefits of this type of technology are intuitive and obvious. It often delights and exceeds expectations at a critical point in an enterprises relationship with a customer. About ThinkDeeply ThinkDeeply provides enterprise-grade AI solutions to business problems. The companys premier product is enterprise visual search for e-commerce, primarily in the home furnishing and home decor market. ThinkDeeply is now entering into several other vertical markets including customer service, healthcare, real estate, and object selection for AR/VR applications. Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution We are grateful to the CDFI Fund for their shared commitment to improving underserved communities nationwide and for selecting us as stewards of these funds. Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution (Clearinghouse CDFI) announced today that it was awarded $1 million from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) to sustain and expand financial products and services. Clearinghouse CDFI was one of 303 CDFIs selected to receive a portion of $208.7 million in total awards. The awards, through the fiscal year (FY) 2017 round of the Community Development Financial Institutions Program (CDFI Program) and the Native American CDFI Assistance Program (NACA Program), will enable CDFIs to increase lending and investment activity in low-income and economically distressed communities across the nation. Clearinghouse CDFI will match the $1 million and leverage the funds fivefold to deploy $10 million throughout Indian Country over the next three years. This includes Native American reservations, trust lands, and other Native American communities in the Western United States. All future profits and retained earnings from the award will be deployed within the same communities. We are grateful to the CDFI Fund for their shared commitment to improving underserved communities nationwide and for selecting us as stewards of these funds, said Douglas J. Bystry, President / Chief Executive Officer of Clearinghouse CDFI. The Financial Assistance (FA) awards allow CDFIs to sustain and expand their financial products and services. CDFIs that qualify for FA funding must match this award with funds from a non-federal source. This helps build capital to attract further investment. The combined amounts can then be used for lending capital, loan loss reserves, capital reserves, financial services, and development services to achieve at least one of the following FA objectives: increase volume of current products or services, provide new products or services, expand operations into a new investment area, or service new targeted populations. Clearinghouse CDFI used a previous financial assistance award to finance a project in Imperial County and the San Joaquin Valley: Worthington Square, Imperial, CAA $5.25 million construction loan to build a mixed-use community space, which created 79 construction jobs and 48 full-time jobs in Imperial, CA. We plan to leverage this new FA award fivefold to provide maximum impact and to empower Native American communities, said Bystry. Clearinghouse CDFI has funded $1.5 billion in total loans for over 1,820 community projects over the past 20 years. These projects have created or retained more than 16,500 jobs and benefit over 1.5 million individuals. This includes the rehabilitation of more than 15.1 million square feet of blighted properties. These projects have benefited over 610 separate underserved communities throughout California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Native American Reservations. About the CDFI Fund: Since its creation in 1994, the CDFI Fund has awarded more than $2.5 billion to CDFIs, community development organizations, and financial institutions through the Community Development Financial Institutions Program, the Native American CDFI Assistance Program, and the Bank Enterprise Award Program. In addition, the CDFI Fund has allocated $50.5 billion in tax credit allocation authority to Community Development Entities through the New Markets Tax Credit Program, closed guaranteed bonds in the amount of $1.1 billion through the CDFI Bond Guarantee Program, and awarded more than $171 million through the Capital Magnet Fund. To learn more about the CDFI Fund and its programs, please visit the CDFI Fund's website at http://www.cdfifund.gov. About Clearinghouse CDFI: Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution (Clearinghouse CDFI) addresses unmet credit needs in California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, and Sovereign Nations in the Western United States. The first CDFI in the nation to be rated by Standard & Poors Ratings Services (AA-), Clearinghouse CDFI is an industry leader helping to bridge the gap between conventional lending standards and the needs of low-income and distressed communities. Clearinghouse CDFI is also a B Corpa certification received from the nonprofit B Lab. B Corps are companies who meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability, and use business as a force for good. More information is available at: http://www.ccdfi.com. As a longstanding supporter of SiriusDecisions, Ledger Bennett is to become sponsor to the breakthrough summit in Singapore in November 2017. Since 2013, Ledger Bennett has subscribed and nurtured the SiriusDecisions culture within its client base. SiriusDecisions provides digital marketers with actionable intelligence and B2B marketing expertise across the globe, including collaboration, innovation and groundbreaking research in all areas of digital marketing. As a major subscriber to the SiriusDecisions culture, Ledger Bennett specialize in operationalizing SiriusDecisions frameworks and B2B Demand Generation best practices for sales and marketing leaders. In 2017 Ledger Bennett has furthered its relationship with SiriusDecisions by sponsoring all three of its global summit events. This includes the 3,000+ delegate event in Las Vegas for North America, the EMEA Summit in London and the all-new APAC Summit in Singapore. Company Director, Phil Ledger states, Were in our 4th year of supporting SiriusDecisions events. Following two successful SiriusDecisions Summits in 2017 we look forward to supporting their global clients as one of the sponsors of their Inaugural SiriusDecisions Summit in Asia Pacific. The APAC event November 16 2017, will address regional specific challenges for B2B marketers with more than 150 sales, marketing and product leaders in the region. It is the first of many events in APAC as SiriusDecisions frameworks increase in success and popularity. Andrea Glenn, Head of Client Success, says, Ledger Bennett understands SiriusDecisions frameworks, not only theoretically, but by operationalizing your companys growth strategy and offering tangible, measurable results for your stakeholders. APAC is an increasingly important region for our global clients and we have extensive Demand Generation experience in both the emerging and mature markets in this increasingly complex region. The relationship with SiriusDecisions is a vital one as the progressive marketers that attend the summits and subscribe to SiriusDecisions are forging ahead to develop truly modern marketing on a global scale, Ledger Bennett has built our entire agency around supporting these world-class leaders in B2B digital marketing. About Ledger Bennett Established in 1985, Ledger Bennett has developed into a market-leading B2B demand generation agency. The company is focused on creating demand for clients products and services globally, combining raw data with in-depth research and analysis to develop unique insights. As experts in the fields of Account Based Marketing, Performance Marketing and Demand Center Development, Ledger Bennett works as an extension of a clients marketing team, operating centrally-activated and regionally-executed campaigns. The company creates and drives multi-channel, multi-regional digital campaigns for some of the worlds most successful brands including LinkedIn, Canon, Zebra Technologies and Rockwell Automation. Whatever the requirement, Ledger Bennett can create it, build it, launch it, run it and report on it. With offices based in London, San Francisco and Chicago, they are perfectly placed to achieve it all on a global scale. For more information visit http://www.ledgerbennett.com Kevin Polite donates to Montgomery College "It gave me an opportunity to attend a four year university. I am forever grateful for this and would like to provide that same gift to future entrepreneurs" - Kevin Polite Youre already taking steps in the right direction. You are here, seeking an education, seeking to be enlightened. These were the earnest words of Kevin J. Polite, President and CEO of the Washington, D.C. based company Culdesac Chauffeur Service, in a recent address to a group of college students. Polite has just announced that he has established the Kevin J. Polite scholarship fund, which benefits the Hillman Entrepreneurs Program at Marylands Montgomery College. Montgomery College is Polites alma mater, where he once led as student body president. I attended this community college prior to transferring to the University of Maryland. It gave mean opportunity to attend a four year university. I am forever grateful for this and would like to provide that same gift to future entrepreneurs, said Polite. The Hillman Entrepreneurs Program is a three-year scholarship and educational program that supports, develops, and graduates students who want to give back to their local communities. Students complete their Associate Degree at Montgomery College and their Bachelors Degree at the University of Maryland, College Park, earning a minor in Technology Entrepreneurship. Polite established his company, Culdesac Chauffeur Service, in 2009 with a single vehicle, and has grown the company to offer multiple sedans, SUVs, limousines, and buses, as well as an auto detailing company. His business continues to grow in the competitive D.C. market, with client demand doubling each year. Polite is excited for the future of the youth his scholarship will serve. In speaking to these young entrepreneurs, I know they are our next generation of world changers, he stated. Polite encourages all entrepreneurs to give back to the next generation of entrepreneurs and innovators. He welcomes tax-deductible donations to his fund, which is managed by Montgomery College. If people would like to donate, they can either email him at kp(at)culdesacdc(dot)com or donate directly online by visiting https://appserv.montgomerycollege.edu/onlinegiving/. From there, in the Gift Information section, under "Select an area of support," donors should select "Other" from the dropdown menu and type in "Kevin J Polite Scholarship Fund. iMedHD2 Mobile-Cart Solution ...cleverly combined their technology with a purpose-built mobile cart for rapid on-site evaluations (ROSE). Remote Medical Technologies (RMT) will be exhibiting new advancements in their telecytology solution at the American Society of Cytopathologys (ASC) 2017 65th Annual Scientific Meeting being held in Phoenix, Arizona on November 11th and 12th. The most mobile telecytology technology on the market, RMT will be demonstrating the recently unveiled RMTConnect application for iOS. This app, which contains all the features and benefits of iMedHD2, gives users the ability to quickly and securely participate in live, dynamic streaming of HD video and audio sessions from their iPhone or iPad. Moderators allow guest participants to join a session, jointly annotate images, and record snapshots and movies for instant image sharing and decision-making among collaborating experts. The highly acclaimed iMedHD2 Mobile-Cart Solution will also be exhibited at the meeting. This solution also contains the features and benefits of their high-performance telecytology solution. RMT has cleverly combined their technology with a purpose-built mobile cart for rapid on-site evaluations (ROSE). RMT Founder and CEO, Don Marchon, discusses how ...patients and doctors alike love having a proven solution that provides quick and seamless results, especially when time matters most. Blue-chip medical facilities utilizing the iMedHD2 Mobile-Cart Solution are seeing an enhanced workflow with a significant return on their investments. Be it across the street or around the world- RMTs iMedHD2 allows for LIVE collaboration among medical personnel. iMedHD2purpose-built technology improves patient outcomes and increases medical facility revenue while significantly reducing costs. Visit RMT at booth #300 at the Arizona Grand Resort and Spa for the 65th Annual Scientific Meeting to receive a hands-on demonstration and learn more about how your medical facility could benefit from this state-of-the-art technology. About Remote Medical Technologies, LLC. Remote Medical Technologies is the creator of an innovative patented technology for delivery of Internet-based premium telemedicine services. The company is a Limited Liability Corporation headquartered in New York. RMT provides a best-in-class web-based video, voice, collaboration and administration platform. With merely the use of a browser the solution is easy to deploy, operate and manage. This customizable and extendable multimedia services platform is a modular, non-fragmented approach to extending a healthcare organizations communications infrastructure. Be it across the street or around the globe, RMT drives telemedicine concepts and provides solutions that save lives. This particular project with Sensys Networks demonstrates our vision to leverage vehicle connectivity with the transportation infrastructure and automation technologies to optimize vehicle controls and powertrain operation Sensys Networks, the worlds leading provider of integrated wireless traffic detection and data systems for Smart Cities, is partnering with UC Berkeley and Hyundai America Technical Center, Inc. (HATCI) as part of ARPA-E's NEXTCAR Program, short for "NEXT-Generation Energy Technologies for Connected and Automated On-Road Vehicles. The partners are developing an innovative VD&PT (Vehicle Dynamics & Power Train) control architecture based on a predictive and data-driven approach, which will optimize PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) performance in real-world conditions, and facilitate efficient departure at intersections, predictive cruise and speed profiles, and learning-based eco-routing and tuning. Specifically, Sensys Networks is using predictive analytics tools to combine historical data with real-time data. They are then accurately estimating the remaining time in the green or red phase and delivering it securely to autonomous vehicles. Amine Haoui, CEO for Sensys Networks explains an example, An autonomous vehicle approaching a signalized intersection with accurate knowledge of whether the signal will be green or red when it gets to the intersection will optimize its approach to the intersection to minimize stops or accelerations / decelerations and can thus optimize its energy consumption. Haoui continues, a connected vehicle stopped at a traffic light may switch its engine off if it knows that it will be 20 seconds until green but may determine that its more efficient not to switch off if its only 3 seconds to green. At Berkeley we are building the intelligence beyond the next generation of connected and automated vehicles explained Francesco Borrelli, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley and the Principal Investigator (PI) for the NEXTCAR project. This particular project with Sensys Networks demonstrates our vision to leverage vehicle connectivity with the transportation infrastructure and automation technologies to optimize vehicle controls and powertrain operation. The challenge in delivering accurate SPAT (Signal Phase and Timing) data is the predictive nature of the problem. The length of the green or red phase depends on real time traffic as most traffic signals would extend the green phase as more cars approach the intersection. Sensys Networks has developed a breakthrough solution that delivers Predictive SPAT data to CAVs (Connected and Autonomous Vehicles). The solution leverages the Sensys Networks FlexControl Edge Gateway and SNAPS software platform to collect and store signal phase and vehicle detection data. Sensys Networks will be featuring its traffic data and analytics platform, SensTraffic, at ITS World Congress in Montreal, Canada. About Sensys Networks Sensys Networks improves the way people travel through cities. We deliver accurate and dependable detection data to drive reductions in urban traffic congestion for partners and public agencies around the globe. For more information see http://www.sensysnetworks.com . As a Massachusetts based company, we are excited to help elevate the UMass system and welcome the opportunity to provide the University with modern resources to create and foster lasting relationships with supporters committed to the UMass standard of academic excellence. EverTrue, the leading advancement automation platform, today announced that the UMass Foundation has selected the software company to help deepen donor relationships and bolster fundraising support for all five campuses in the UMass system. The UMass Foundation manages the Universitys endowment and supports the fundraising efforts of UMass Amherst, UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth, UMass Lowell and UMass Medical School. The EverTrue Platform will be rolled out to all advancement team members within the UMass system. Founded in 2010 by CEO Brent Grinna, EverTrue is the leading advancement automation platform that enables schools to fundraise intelligently and effectively. UMass is one of hundreds of institutions turning to EverTrue to save years of time and money on complex database conversions that have remained the industry standard for decades. EverTrues advancement automation platform marries existing systems for gift processing and constituent records with intuitive front-end user tools and best-in-class integrations, allowing institutions to generate ROI faster than ever before. As a Massachusetts based company, we are excited to help elevate the UMass system and welcome the opportunity to provide the University with modern resources to create and foster lasting relationships with supporters committed to the UMass standard of academic excellence, said Grinna. As the consumer loyalty experience has shifted to mobile, social and data-driven solutions, the expectations of donors, volunteers, staff and leadership have changed. After working side-by-side with hundreds of institutions over the last seven years, we know that most schools are sitting on a trove of data that, if acted upon, would enable stronger connections with alumni, parents and friends. We are delighted to work with our neighbors at UMass to make these insights connected, actionable and measurable for the major giving, prospect research, annual giving and alumni engagement teams on all five UMass campuses. Advancement automation is a technology that combines real-time insights and best-in-class integrations with mission-critical alumni relations and development workflows in a beautiful, user-friendly platform. The EverTrue Platform connects insights from social sources like LinkedIn, Facebook, Zillow with the efforts of each department, helping fundraisers to work seamlessly towards shared engagement and fundraising goals. By streamlining the processes of donor discovery, annual giving segmentation, prospect management, major gift fundraising, volunteer management and stewardship efforts, teams are able to increase operational efficiency, personalize the donor journey and ultimately grow donations faster. EverTrue is improving fundraising results for more than 300 partners ranging from public and private universities, to liberal arts colleges, to graduate and independent schools. The company recently announced that it secured $6MM in additional funding led by University Ventures with participation from existing investor Bain Capital Ventures. About EverTrue EverTrue is the leading advancement automation platform. Since 2010, EverTrue has been on a mission to build relationships in pursuit of a better world. Today, more than 300 institutions use EverTrues software and services to engage alumni, raise support and measure team progress in a beautiful, user-friendly platform. EverTrues advancement automation technology connects each department with best-in-class insights and each other, giving teams the tools they need to manage relationships across the giving pyramid and grow donations faster. EverTrue is headquartered in Boston, MA and is backed by University Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures. Visit EverTrue on the web at http://www.evertrue.com and follow on Twitter or LinkedIn. About the UMass Foundation The UMass Foundation is a private, non-profit corporation founded in 1950 to foster and promote the growth, progress and general welfare of the University of Massachusetts, recently ranked as the No. 1 public university in New England in the World University Rankings. The Foundation provides a depository for charitable contributions to UMass, manages the Universitys endowment, and supports the fundraising efforts of the five UMass campuses UMass Amherst, UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth, UMass Lowell and UMass Medical School. Proudly Serving Our Country For 25 Years The result is a software program that enhances a human workers ability to optimize goals, discover new plans, or make decisions. Veloxiti Inc., a software engineering firm headquartered in Alpharetta, Ga. is now ready to move its advanced technology out of defense research projects and into real world business applications. For more than twenty-five years the company has conducted scientific testing and field evaluations of their embedded software technology in numerous defense environments. The team of visionary engineers is now ready to offer their software and engineering services to businesses interested in building augmented intelligent software solutions that will change the world. Augmented intelligence, also known as a human-centered approach, refers to a cognitive science technique applied to software development. This class of cognitive software is not designed to replace humans, rather, each deployment is specifically designed to enhance human productivity by mimicking human thinking processes. The result is a software program that enhances a human workers ability to optimize goals, discover new plans, or make decisions. It is easy to imagine that some of the most advanced technologies of our time are tied up inside government funded projects. In fact, if the technology is strong enough, project after project, year over year, research-based technologies eventually move into real world applications that benefit society. The Internet, GPS and Google Maps are all examples of military funded research projects that changed our society. This technology is no different. Veloxitis engineering breakthrough is based on original artificial intelligence concepts which have proven true over many decades. Their tools combine a multi-graph knowledge framework and a cognitive engine allowing the software to monitor inputs, analyze variations, make recommendations, and take action, but always synchronized with human users. The company has streamlined development of its cognitive tools which are used to quickly build and manage their augmented intelligent solutions. John Merrihew, VP of Government Solutions said, Our software development environment is the pinnacle of a twenty-five year investment by the government in cognitive systems. He went on to say, With the rise of cloud computing and easy access to data in system-of-systems architectures, the commercial world is finally ready to leverage our capability. The Cognitive Systems Alliance believes that cognitive solutions designed to provide augmented intelligence can prevent automation-driven recession and give robots the capability to operate within our unpredictable lives. CSA is the certification authority for businesses seeking to adopt or build cognitive solutions. Veloxiti recently had its modeling tools, encoding workflow, cognitive processes, and staff reviewed. They were awarded a Level-III Gold Certified Partner status illustrating an expert knowledge of cognitive solutions. Philosophical debates about artificial intelligence continue across the social media spheres, but one thing stands true, augmented intelligence will elevate human workers and help computers integrate into our lives as long as humans remain at the center of the design process. Increasing human productivity can save jobs from automation, thereby addressing a social need while also expanding business capability. That is a win-win. Contact Veloxiti via social media or their website http://www.veloxiti.com and share your innovative ideas with them. The team is looking for commercial partners to make sure their amazing technology benefits your everyday life. Join Vengeso at Frost & Sullivan's Sales Team Alpine Retreat (STAR) February 8, 2018. In this session at STAR, Ill facilitate discussion among sales leaders on strategies and tactics to win more sales opportunities by being the modern seller the modern buyer needs. - Mario Martinez Jr., CEO Vengreso Vengreso announced today that its founder and CEO Mario Martinez Jr. will facilitate a collaboration session at the Frost & Sullivan Sales Team Alpine Retreat (STAR) February 8, 2018. STAR is Frost & Sullivans premier event for sales leadership to engage in strategic and tactical conversations with key players in cross-industry organizations. STAR is for end users in roles spanning C-Level, Vice President, General & Sales Management, Sales Operations, Sales Enablement, Sales Automation, Inside and Field Sales. The event dates are February 7 through 9, 2018 in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Mario Martinez Jr. will facilitate a session addressing the digital selling strategies and tactics needed to compete and win in todays digitally connected sales environment. The session will take place February 8, 2018 at 10:45 am Pacific. Todays modern buyer is digitally connected, attached to mobile devices, reliant on social networks and video hungry, says Mario Martinez Jr., Founder and CEO of Vengreso. In this session, Ill facilitate discussion among the sales leaders in attendance on strategies and tactics to win more sales opportunities by being the modern seller the modern buyer needs. Sales leaders struggle with the demands to compete and win in a fast moving business culture dominated by digital engagement, says Gary Robbins, Partner Global Brand and Demand Solutions, Frost & Sullivan. Sales leaders will benefit from a collaborative discussion led by digital selling evangelist Mario Martinez Jr., on digital selling strategies and tactics that work in our current sales climate. About Frost & Sullivan Sales Team Alpine Retreat (STAR) Sales Team Alpine Resort (STAR): A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange is a remarkable setting for key members of the sales organization to come together to strengthen their bonds and improve communication, productivity, and effectiveness. The unique format also delivers robust opportunities to collaborate with other sales organizations to tackle shared challenges around C-Suite expectations; talent; sales tools; best practices and processes; changing customer behavior; and game-changing emerging technologies. Learn more at frost.com/vengreso. About Vengreso Vengreso is the digital sales transformation company enabling B2B clients to accelerate revenue through content marketing, personal branding, digital sales training and employee advocacy. Learn more at: https://vengreso.com/. MRMW Conference Series 2018 -- Cincinnati, Singapore, Stockholm The 2018 MRMW global conferences will be held in Cincinnati, Singapore and Stockholm. The theme for MRMW 2018 is "The Rise of Digital Disruption". With the likes of Amazon, Airbnb, Netflix, Spotify, Uber and Tesla disrupting the marketplace, traditional brands and agencies need to reinvent their marketing, consumer insight and market research strategies. MRMW (Market Research in the Mobile World) is set to be a catalyst for strategic partnerships between client-side companies and research providers. Apart from our advisory board members who regularly review and select papers, the 2018 edition will involve our new client-side partners who will participate in curating, shaping and moderating the MRMW conference agenda and also attend with their teams. The Call for Papers for MRMW North America 2018 taking place on April 24-25 in Cincinnati, Ohio is now open. Inspire us with the most innovative research, new methodologies and amazing success stories. MRMW are looking for exciting client case studies, best practices and new methods that demonstrate the transformative power of digital disruption. To submit a paper, please visit: http://na.mrmw.net/call-for-papers-2018/ The dates for the 2018 MRMW events in North America, APAC and Europe are follows: MRMW North America 2018 April 24-25, 2018 Cincinnati, Ohio http://na.mrmw.net Submission Deadline: Nov 20th, 2017 MRMW APAC 2018 June 27-28 Singapore http://apac.mrmw.net Submission Deadline: January 19th, 2018 MRMW Europe 2018 September 5-6, 2018 Stockholm, Sweden http://eu.mrmw.net Submission Deadline: February 8th, 2018 Qualitative360 (QUAL360) Conference Series 2018 -- Berlin, Washington D.C.,Singapore The 2018 Qualitative360 (QUAL360) global conferences will be held in Berlin, Washington D.C. and Singapore. Qual360 caters to the qualitative research community with dedicated, local events in a global context. This unique concept allows for a diverse range of participants and topics at each conference, offering local trends as well as a global perspective. International experts from all parts of the world participate in Qual360 every year. The theme for QUAL360 2018 is 'Evolve & Transform'. With qualitative research going through a huge transformation, we are looking for exciting client case studies, best practices and new qual technologies that demonstrate the transformative power of qualitative research. So get the thinking caps on and become part of the QUAL360 family. The dates for the 2018 QUAL360 events in Europe, North America and APAC are follows: QUAL360 Europe 2018 February 7-8 Berlin, Germany http://eu.qual360.com QUAL360 North America 2018 March 14-15 Washington D.C., USA http://na.qual360.com QUAL360 Asia-Pacific 2018 October 3-4, Singapore http://apac.qual360.com Submission Deadline: April 13, 2018 Sign up for email alerts at MRMW.NET and QUAL360.COM and receive event updates and special discounts. For additional info on how to get involved or to sponsor the events, please contact Jens Cornelissen at jens(AT)merlien(dot)org or call +49-15785833909 "The opportunity to participate ... is now open to eligible investors through our digital investment platform, available at www.uscgs.com." Jeffrey Sweeney, CEO On October 17th, US Capital Partners Inc. held a well-attended, exclusive investor reception, presentation, and networking event on the Internet of Things (IoT) at the historic Bently Reserve on 400 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA. Entitled Investing in Tech Companies that Leverage the Internet of Things, the event showcased two of the firms exclusive IoT investment opportunities. US Capital Partners is a full-service private financial group headquartered in San Francisco. Through its affiliate broker dealer, US Capital Global Securities, the group provides private placement services and has wide distribution for debt and equity private placements. We believe the groups technological innovations in finance reduce transaction friction and make smaller deals more efficient and practical than ever before. The rapidly expanding IoT is a new interconnection of technology heralded as the next industrial revolution. More than half of major new business processes and systems are expected to incorporate some element of the IoT by 2020, according to Gartner. At the event, US Capital Global Securities showcased two of its exclusive IoT portfolio companies, Device Authority Limited and Discovery Sound Technology, LLC. Device Authoritys KeyScaler platform provides trust for IoT devices and the IoT ecosystem, to address the challenges of securing the IoT. In our opinion, Discovery Sound Technology provides an innovative cloud-based service platform that registers and evaluates heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment data for predictive maintenance, real-time diagnostics, and advanced analytics. This event was an excellent opportunity for investors to gain a better understanding of the IoT and to meet two of our exciting IoT businesses, said Jeffrey Sweeney, Chairman and CEO at US Capital Partners. The opportunity to participate in Device Authoritys $10 million preferred equity raise and Discovery Sound Technologys $5 million preferred equity raise is now open to eligible investors through our digital investment platform, available at http://www.uscgs.com. Both Device Authority Limited and Discovery Sound Technology are early stage, selling into their respective markets, and seeking growth capital. About US Capital Partners Since 1998, US Capital Partners has been committed to providing small and lower middle market businesses and investors with sophisticated debt, equity, and investment opportunities usually available only to larger middle market companies and institutional investors. The firm manages direct investment funds and provides wealth management and M&A services. Operating with its registered investment bank affiliate, US Capital Global Securities, LLC, the firm acts as a licensed placement agent, and collaborates closely with its peers in professional banking and investment advisory. To learn more, email Jeffrey Sweeney, Chairman and CEO, at jsweeney(at)uscapitalpartners.net or call (415) 889-1010. Art admirers take in works during the 2016 President's Art Show at Salt Lake Community College. Salt Lake Community College is hosting its annual Presidents Art Show Nov. 2-14. The opening reception, which is free and open to the public, is Nov. 1, 6-9 p.m. at the Center for Arts & Media on SLCCs South City Campus, 1575 South State Street, Salt Lake City. This years juried exhibition, sponsored by the SLCC Art Committee, drew 233 submissions, which resulted in 113 works on display for the 2017 show. The event is a celebration of local artists and the power of art to bring together people from across the community. Artists both amateur and professional, representing a variety of media, are eligible to win awards in five categories worth a total of $4,500. Public viewing of artwork is Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. 7 p.m. and Fridays, 10 a.m. 3 p.m. Many of the works are for sale, and the pieces eligible to be purchased and their respective prices are listed in the exhibitions program, which are available at the show. You can learn more at slcc.edu/artshow. SLCCs Center for Arts & Media is a state-of-the-industry facility at the South City Campus. World-class features include a 2,000 square-foot television studio and control room, a 3,000 square-foot film stage, a 36-seat screening room, three MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) classrooms, 22 editing bays, an animation lab, radio station and a recording studio with 64 channels that allow for collaboration in editing locations throughout the building. The new center, which is physically connected to Innovations High School, serves an estimated 9,000 students and brings together 17 programs under one roof for SLCCs School of Arts, Communication and Media. I have written this book for those technical decision makers who are trying to understand the immense capabilities of Salesforce Community Cloud, as well as anyone overseeing or delivering a Salesforce Community implementation, including system administrators, business analysts and developers. 7Summits, Inc., a leader in delivering strong business value through community-led, multi-cloud solutions today announced that Phil Weinmeister, Senior Director of Product Management and Salesforce MVP will be launching his new book titled, Complete Guide to Salesforce Community Cloud. This is one of the first published books on Salesforce Communities and it will exclusively focus on the books sub-title: Building, Enhancing, and Managing an Online Community on the Salesforce Platform. I have long recognized that the business processes, data sources, and systems that people use to do their work are becoming more and more fragmented as enterprises scale, said Phil Weinmeister, Senior Director of Product Management at 7Summits, Salesforce MVP and author of the book. I am excited to be working in such a forward thinking and innovative company whose focus on leveraging online communities has led to deeply integrated multi-cloud solutions that unleash these environments to contribute value at an entirely new level. With this in mind, I have written this book for those technical decision makers who are trying to understand the immense capabilities of Salesforce Community Cloud, as well as anyone overseeing or delivering a Salesforce Community implementation, including system administrators, business analysts and developers. Phil Weinmeister has been working as a technologist and with the Salesforce Platform for over six years. He has 18 Salesforce certifications, and is a Salesforce Certified System Architect and a Salesforce Certified Application Architect. Phil is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University. Comments on the News We are proud to call Phil one of our own and are so pleased to see this important text reach the market, said Paul Stillmank, CEO and Founder of 7Summits. Online communities have gone mainstream, and we are seeing strong growth across all sectors, audiences, verticals and business sizes. The Salesforce Community Cloud is uniquely positioned to be the platform of choice capable of bringing together customers, partners, and employees in a cohesive environment that links audiences and processes together along with the systems and data that they use. The result is a deeper understanding of cross-functional interactions that helps to unlock tremendous business value for the organizations that we are working with. 7Summits is a Bronze Sponsor for Dreamforce 2017 and has Multiple Speaking Tracks at the Event. 7Summits is a bronze-level sponsor at Dreamforce 2017, the most inspiring technology event of the year and the world's largest gathering of Trailblazers. 7Summits is exhibiting at booths 1935 and 1937 in the Dreamforce Customer Success Expo, showcasing how to drive business value through energized experiences across customers, partners, and employees. Throughout the conference, attendees can see live community-building demonstrations and learn more about our community expertise and how we quickly migrate businesses over from a legacy system. In addition, Phil Weinmeister (along with other 7Summits Sherpas) will be speaking about Salesforce Community solutions throughout the conference. Stop by the 7Summits booth or see the Dreamforce 2017 session schedule for more details on these presentations. Salesforce, Dreamforce and others are among the trademarks of salesforce.com, inc. About 7Summits 7Summits Inc. is a leading online community solutions provider, guiding companies to engage their customers, partners and employees to grow their business and become more fully networked enterprises. 7Summits creates business solutions that deliver top line revenue growth and bottom-line productivity improvements. The company is a valued strategic partner of Fortune 500 companies and has received investment funding from both Sverica Capital Management and Salesforce Ventures. 7Summits is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with an extended presence in Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Denver, Washington DC, California, Seattle, and Michigan and Ohio. For more information, visit 7SummitsInc.com or follow the conversation on Twitter (@7SummitsInc). Square 9 Presents Encompass 2018 With significant growth of our audience, consisting of people eager to learn and share new ideas, we are overwhelmed with the excitement Encompass brings, and anticipate this to be a resounding trend in 2018 Developers of award-winning Enterprise Content Management solutions, Square 9 Softworks welcomes its dedicated dealer channel and their customers back to Encompass 2018, a conference unlike any traditional industry event. Encompass 2018 offers innovative philosophies, providing renewed education on the entire Square 9 solutions portfolio, along with a strategic focus on new product development and the future direction for Square 9s product initiatives. With three days of education networking and idea sharing, Encompass is designed to change the direction of your business. Encompass 2018 is being held from October 3rd - 5th, 2018, at a fantastic new venue, the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center, in Nashville, Tennessee. Offering 700,000 square feet of unique event space, the Gaylord Opryland is designed with luxury and comfortability in mind, providing attendees with a nostalgic indoor/outdoor recreational arena, including a state of the art convention center for highly engaged learning and breakout sessions. A main attraction at this years conference will be the awards dinner, hosted at the Grand Ole Opry, known for drawing fans from around the globe to experience intimate performances and one-night-only collaborations between country legends and contemporary chart-toppers. Encompass 2018 will also provide a number of intuitive high-level speaking engagements for a tailored educational experience for Resellers and Customers alike. Representatives will be on hand to offer dynamic perspective from Sales, Marketing, Development and seasoned engineers accommodating the technical expertise that separates the Encompass conference from the rest. In addition, current sponsorship interest looks to create a more diverse atmosphere than in years past, with an exclusive group of equipment manufacturers, ISVs and integrators, all of whom will be participating in the Encompass 2018 Technology Showcase. While narrowly avoiding a hurricane in 2016, we took our time to strategically find a new venue and location that was both versatile and unique. The Gaylord Opryland, along with its location in Nashville, provides us with the foundation towards making Encompass 2018 a huge success, said Ethan Voltolini, Director of Marketing, Square 9. The last few years have been examples of an exceptional conference that our entire community has come to expect. With significant growth of our audience, consisting of people eager to learn and share new ideas, we are overwhelmed with the excitement Encompass brings, and anticipate this to be a resounding trend in 2018. For more information, please visit http://www.encompassconference.com. About Square 9 Softworks: For document-intensive companies looking to challenge the definition of business efficiency, Square 9 Softworks develops award-winning, next generation solutions for process automation that drive increased productivity across all business applications. Delivering the unique tools that streamline process performance, we save both time and money, contributing to the overall growth and success of your business, so you can spend more time doing the things that matter most. Square 9 Softworks distributes its solutions internationally through a network of highly skilled Channel Resellers from its corporate office in New Haven, Connecticut. Simplifying business. Simplifying life. http://www.square-9.com ### This report helps people understand the expertise available to them when deciding to work with a CPA. Most people know to take their tax or accounting issues to a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), but just what is a CPA? It is this question that prompted Irvine taxes specialist Robert Borish, CPA to create a report to help people understand exactly what a CPA is. While some CPAs offer general bookkeeping or accounting services, their work is usually more specialized. The education requirements are very specific and testing and licensing is required. A CPA might concentrate on tax preparation, or on specialized aspects of taxes, including local Irvine tax issues or state and federal. Some CPAs practice corporate accounting, working for specific departments within a corporation. This report helps people understand the expertise available to them when deciding to work with a CPA. Read the full report below. What is a CPA? When people need taxes done by a professional, they often know to look for the CPA designation. However, most people dont actually know much about what they are or how to become one. Well, the acronym CPA in the United States stands for a Certified Public Accountant. These individuals can work in or be responsible for a wide array of different things. Some focus on tax preparations, some focus on bookkeeping and some do a little bit of everything in their day-to-day lives. So now that it is clear what a CPA is, how does a person become one? Well, the process for becoming a CPA can be a long and difficult road, to ensure these individuals are capable of doing their job efficiently. First, individuals are required to have a bachelors degree in a related field before even beginning the process of becoming a CPA. Once that is completed, hundreds of hours of study will take place before a person can attempt the CPA exam, which features more than 300 different questions in a number of different areas. People are also required to have two years of public accounting experience. Even after they have the CPA license, these individuals are required to take 40 hours of continuing education every two years. With all that hard work, experience and knowledge, people can be sure that a CPA is well equipped to help people out with their taxes or any other financial services issues they might encounter. Need any help with Irvine taxes or accounting? If so, be sure to reach out to Robert Borish, CPA. He has been providing tax and accounting services for decades in the state of California, and can help with almost any issue relating to tax or accounting and answer any question people might have. Robert Borish, CPA Inc. 6 Venture #120 Irvine , CA 92618 (949) 951-5002 Press release by San Luis Obispo SEO company Access Publishing, 806 9th Street, #2D, Paso Robles, CA 93446. (805) 226-9890. Haitians abroad can win international minutes to call worldwide, including Haiti, with a simple invite share. It's the best company as of today. I would recommend to anyone around the globe. (Timirack on Trustpilot.com) Haitian immigrants are invited by SalutHaiti.com, the service dedicated to the Haitian diaspora in the USA, Canada and other parts of the world, to join the Halloween celebration on its Facebook page and win $10 Voice Credit for international calls. The prize includes almost an hour to call Haiti, and even more to call other countries. Plus the credit never expires, so it can be used any time, which is a big plus of the SalutHaiti.com balance in general. The current Facebook contest is part of a range of giveaway actions on the Facebook page of the Haitian community powered by SalutHaiti.com. This time, the challenge is to share a funny Halloween invite on a friend's timeline to enter the race for $10 Voice Credit until October 30, 2017: https://www.facebook.com/SalutHaiti/ More shares count for more chances. The invite is ironical and friendly, and is pretty general to match different contexts: "Be my Boo Hoo Hoo! Or else". The winner will be randomly picked on October 31, and will need to open a free account on SalutHaiti.com to be able to use the winning credit. The Voice Credit Facebook prize has no expiration date, just like Voice Credit on SalutHaiti.com in general. The minimum amount out there for purchase on the website is $2, most useful for those who are unfamiliar to the service and need to test it. The Voice Credit can be used to call more destinations, not only Haiti. The price to call landlines in Haiti is 18.5 cents/minute or the equivalent in other currencies, whereas the rate to call mobiles is 25.5 cents/minute. Calling rates for other destinations are displayed on the website. The calling balance from SalutHaiti can be used in 2 different ways: with and without Internet access. -Smartphone users have KeepCalling app available on App Store and Google Play. The app costs nothing to install, and turns international calls into local calls in terms of both dialing easiness and costs. -For those used to calling phone cards, access numbers can be used to call without any Internet connection, from any phone. Besides Voice Credit, SalutHaiti.com also facilitates online mobile credit transfers from one country to another, via the Mobile Recharge service. Anyone with an account on SalutHaiti.com can top up someone's mobile in Haiti in seconds, with no hassle. At present, SalutHaiti.com facilitates mobile credit top ups from abroad to Digicel, Natcom and Voila customers in Haiti. Moreover, when a Haitian expat top ups a Natcom mobile these months, the person in Haiti will also receive unlimited data as a Bonus. The promotion is ongoing until further notice. Existing customers who left their reviews on specialised platforms like Trustpilot.com, point out certain strong aspects that make SalutHaiti.com stand out on the global market: -Best quality-price ratio on the global market. -Everyone benefits of free calling features. -Payment is highly secure; the website bears the label "Verified & Secured" thanks to its strong security system. -Payment is accepted in all currencies. -Offers and Bonuses are launched regularly for those who follow SalutHaiti.com on Facebook. SalutHaiti.com is a website serving Haitians, and powered by KeepCalling, a global telecommunications company registered in 2002 in USA. Presently, KeepCalling provides its services to hundreds of thousands of consumers , with a focus on customer satisfaction. KeepCalling was listed by Inc 5000 as one of the fastest growing companies in the USA for 5 consecutive years. Hawthorne Power Systems is the industry leader in providing the best customer experience and support in San Diego County. Hawthorne Power Systems, the authorized sales, rental, parts and service dealer for Cat electric power, back-up power, stand-by power equipment, and industrial engines, announces new air compressor solutions. Hawthorne Power Systems is the authorized Sullair portable air compressor dealer in San Diego County, providing a complete source for repair, maintenance, rentals and sales. As a trusted compressed air partner, Hawthorne Power Systems offers service repairs on all brands, $350 compressor repair assessments, and genuine Sullair parts and fluids. Hawthorne Power Systems also provides new and used compressor sales in addition to San Diegos newest and largest fleet of rental compressors. Rental Department Manager Paul Karpf says, Hawthorne Power Systems is the industry leader in providing the best customer experience and support in San Diego County. Karpf continues, Count on us for quality portable solutions to help with any application on any job site. Need help finding the right solution for your portable air compressor needs? Contact Hawthorne Power Systems today at 858.376.6881. About Hawthorne Power Systems Hawthorne Power Systems is the authorized Cat dealer in San Diego, Hawaii, Guam, Saipan and American Samoa. Hawthorne provides sales, rentals and services for the power generation, marine, trucking and other engine-related markets. It has outstanding skills in building, rebuilding and packaging engines and power systems of all sizes, ranging from truck engines and turn-key generator plants to cogeneration and standby power. For more on Hawthorne Power Systems, visit http://www.hawthornecat.com. Barrel for the Bank We at Cane Land Distilling Company could not more pleased to assist in raising funds and bringing awareness to their mission with this unique, one-of-a kind opportunity. Cane Land Distilling Company has partnered with the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank to offer a unique opportunity to individuals and business owners in their Barrel for the Bank Campaign. Cane Land Distilling Co. is auctioning off a 53-gallon single barrel of Original Mississippi Floated Whisky (OMFW) to benefit the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. After more than six years of aging, the barrel was floated over 1,100 nautical miles down the Mississippi River, right here to Baton Rouge. All bottling for the online auction winner will be handled through Cane Land and the proceeds from the fundraiser will go directly to the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank to support their mission of feeding those in need across 11 parishes. The 53-gallon barrel of OMFW is valued over $15,000. The bidding for the Barrel for the Bank began on October 1, and will run until November 2. Bids can be made online at https://one.bidpal.net/barrelforthebank/welcome. We are thrilled about this fundraiser that Cane Land Distilling Company has presented the Food Bank, said Mike Manning, President and CEO of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. "The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank is vital to our community, said Walter Tharp, Founder and President of Cane Land Distilling Co. We at Cane Land Distilling Company could not be more pleased to assist in raising funds and bringing awareness to their mission with this unique, one-of-a kind opportunity." For more information about the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, visit brfoodbank.org. Additional information about Cane Land Distilling Companys OMFW or other products, visit canelanddistilling.com. CSG Government Solutions, a national leader in government program modernization, today announced it has been selected by the Michigan Department of State (MDOS) to provide Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) services for its Driver License and Motor Vehicle Integrated System modernization. MDOS is modernizing its systems to reduce operating costs and enhance customer service. The modernization will strengthen data security; increase automation and timeliness in processing driver and vehicle records; provide 24/7 online access; and increase the agencys ability to respond quickly to legislative and regulatory changes. CSG has been selected to provide IV&V services throughout the first phase of the system implementation project. CSG has provided IV&V services for dozens of government agencies, including many projects with state motor vehicle departments, says Patti Garofalo, Director of CSGs Program Modernization Practice. Our proven teams, methodologies, and experience will help assure MDOS achieves its objectives in serving the people of Michigan. CSG Government Solutions deploys highly experienced teams and innovative methods, knowledge, and tools to help governments modernize complex program enterprises. CSG clients include 44 state governments, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Department of Labor, and large municipal governments. CONTACT: Patti Garofalo Director, Program Modernization Practice CSG Government Solutions 180 N. Stetson Ave Suite 3200 Chicago, IL 60601 312.444.2760 Fax: 312.938.2191 pgarofalo(at)csgdelivers.com About CSG Government Solutions: CSG Government Solutions is a leading government operations consulting firm helping states modernize critical program enterprises. We help governments leverage innovative technology and processes to meet the challenges of administering complex programs. Founded in 1997, CSG has established itself as a trusted adviser to government agencies across the U.S. For more information, visit http://www.csgdelivers.com and connect with us on LinkedIn and Twitter. Sanober Amin, MD, PhD Sanober Amin, MD, PhD, recently joined the Flower Mound practice, after serving patients in Minnesota for a number of years. Dr. Amin earned a medical degree and doctor of philosophy in biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She completed her dermatology residency at the University of Minnesota and practiced in St. Paul and Bloomington before relocating to Texas, closer to family. She is board certified and a diplomat of the American Academy of Dermatology. Dr. Amin chose dermatology as her focus because of its vast depth. The skin is the largest organ of body, and treating skin conditions presents multiple diagnostic and treatment challenges. She has found that treating skin conditions allows her to make her patients lives better. She particularly enjoys treating chronic conditions, such as psoriasis, hair loss and pigmentary disorders. Dr. Amin enjoys traveling, rafting, cooking, photography and spending time with her family. About Dermatology and Cosmetic Laser Surgery Center for Dermatology and Cosmetic Laser Surgery is located in Plano, Texas, with additional locations throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area, including McKinney, Flower Mound, and Grapevine. The well-respected group of specialists includes four board-certified physicians, five certified physician assistants, two phototherapy nurses, and one cosmetic laser specialist. The Center for Dermatology and Cosmetic Laser Surgery, led by Chief Medical Director Bryan Selkin, MD, has won numerous awards and accolades from patients and physicians, including the prestigious D Magazine Best Doctors Award for six years in a row. Comprehensive care is offered for patients of all ages, and preventative dermatology is an important foundation of care. About U.S. Dermatology Partners As one of the largest physician-owned dermatology practices in the country, U.S. Dermatology Partners patients not only have access to general medical, surgical, and cosmetic skin treatment through its coordinated care network, but also benefit from the practices strong dermatology subspecialty thought leaders and medical advisory board. To be the best partners to its patients, U.S. Dermatology Partners is fervently focused on providing the highest level of patient-first care, and its team therefore includes recognized national leaders in areas such as clinical research, psoriasis and Mohs Surgery. To learn more, visit usdermatologypartners.com Over 35 volunteers from 15 different Newport and Bright Now Dental Locations I thought an event like this was too good to be true Over 35 volunteers from 15 area Newport Dental and Bright Now! Dental Locations gathered at the Orange, CA office on Sunday October 22nd to participate in a Day of Giving, in collaboration with the Smiles for Everyone Foundation. Fifty low-income individuals from the local community received free dental services throughout the day, including checkups, cleanings, oral cancer screenings, fluoride treatments, fillings, and extractions. Today we were able to use our skills to give back to our community in a way that only dentists can, explained Dr. Shorouq Sahawneh, Director of Clinical Care for Bright Now! Dental. I have never been prouder to work with this incredible team and to be part of a company where we live our vision every day. As the day progressed, stories emerged from the many individuals receiving care. From the 75 year old woman receiving the first dental care of her life to the homeless man who took three buses to make it to his appointment, participants were very grateful for the care they received. I thought an event like this was too good to be true, said patient Jose Alvarez who received dental care for himself and his family. The Smiles for Everyone Foundation partners with dentists and community organizations across the nation to deliver dental care to people in need. Their next Day of Giving event will be held at the Bright Now! Dental location in Temecula, California in January 2018. About Smile Brands Based in Irvine California, Smile Brands Inc. is one of the largest providers of support services to dental groups in the United States. Smile Brands Inc. provides comprehensive business support services through exclusive long term agreements with affiliate dental groups, so dentists can spend more time caring for their patients and less time on the administrative, marketing, and financial aspects of operating a dental practice. Smile Brands supports 360+ Bright Now! Dental, Newport Dental, Monarch Dental, Castle Dental, A+ Dental Care, OneSmile Dental, and Johnson Family Dental offices in 16 states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Maryland, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Washington. Smile Brands is a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors (Gryphon), a leading middle-market private equity firm based in San Francisco, CA. For more information, visit smilebrands.com. About the Smiles For Everyone Foundation The Smiles for Everyone Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the mission of delivering smiles for everyone by providing free dental care for those in need, both at home in the U.S. and around the world. Since 2011, the Smiles for Everyone Foundation has delivered over 13,000 smiles and $11 million in donated dentistry. The foundation currently supports programs which provide free dental care to those in need in Cambodia, Ghana, Laos, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Thailand, and the United States. For more information or to make a donation, visit http://www.smilesforeveryone.org. Contacts: Bright Now Dental Jody Martin PR(at)smilebrands(dot)com 714.427.1299 Smiles for Everyone Foundation Crystal Strait crystal.strait(at)smilesforeveryone(dot)org 714.824.5037 This regular monitoring helps focus attention on policy objectives that are being met, objectives that are not being met, and unintended consequences that have emerged. The Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) released a new tool today for policymakers and system stakeholders to track the performance of the New York workers compensation system. Originally established to monitor the system following reforms in 2007, the report has evolved into a tool for tracking key metrics of system performance on an ongoing basis, said Ramona Tanabe, WCRIs executive vice president and counsel. This regular monitoring helps focus attention on policy objectives that are being met, objectives that are not being met, and unintended consequences that have emerged. The study, Monitoring Trends in the New York Workers Compensation System, 20052015, is the 10th annual report to regularly track key performance metrics of the New York workers compensation system. The analysis in this edition focuses primarily on trends in indemnity benefits, medical payments, and benefit delivery expenses from 2007 to 2015 for claims at different maturities. In addition, various interstate comparisons from other WCRI studies are provided to help put the performance of the New York system into perspective, such as the frequency and amount of opioids dispensed to injured workers. In 2007, New York passed legislation making a number of changes to the states workers compensation system. Among its provisions, the legislation increased maximum statutory benefits, limited the number of weeks of permanent partial disability (PPD) benefits, and required the implementation of medical treatment guidelines and the adoption of a fee schedule for pharmaceuticals. In subsequent years, the system underwent a number of additional regulatory and administrative changes, including electronic filing of claims data and a payor compliance initiative. Further workers compensation reforms included in the 2017-2018 New York state budget, such as the requirement to adopt a pharmacy formulary and adoption of new permanent impairment guidelines, will be examined in future monitoring reports. The following are among the studys major findings: Indemnity benefits per claim increased 711 percent per year from 2007 to 2015, mainly reflecting provisions of the 2007 reform and related changes in settlement behavior. Medical payments per claim grew 36 percent per year from 2007 to 2014 for all providers, but decreased in 2015. There was a decrease in visits per claim for some nonhospital providers after implementation of the medical treatment guidelines. There was little change in prices paid for most nonhospital services since 2002. Benefit delivery expenses per claim increased 78 percent per year since 2007. The components (medical cost containment, defense attorney payments, and medical-legal expenses) all grew, but the relative share of the components was fairly stable. WCRIs Detailed Benchmark/Evaluation (DBE) database was used in this study. Analyses were performed using open and closed indemnity and medical-only claims with dates of injury primarily from October 2004 through September 2015, with experience as of March 2016. The data include a large volume of claims and represent the full insurance market of the New York system, including private insurers, self-insured employers, and the state insurance fund. The study is authored by Carol A. Telles and William Monnin-Browder. To learn more about the study or to download a copy, visit WCRIs website at https://www.wcrinet.org/reports/monitoring-trends-in-the-new-york-workers-compensation-system-2005-2015. ABOUT WCRI: The Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) is an independent, not-for-profit research organization based in Cambridge, MA. Organized in late 1983, the Institute does not take positions on the issues it researches; rather, it provides information obtained through studies and data collection efforts, which conform to recognized scientific methods. Objectivity is further ensured through rigorous, unbiased peer review procedures. WCRI's diverse membership includes employers; insurers; governmental entities; managed care companies; health care providers; insurance regulators; state labor organizations; and state administrative agencies in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Students from Arizona, California, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky and Oklahoma have been elected by delegates throughout the United States to serve on the 2017-18 National FFA Officer team. Breanna Holbert, an agricultural education major at California State University of Chico, was elected national president. Holbert is the first female African American elected to the office of president. Erica Baier, an agricultural education major at Iowa State University, was elected national secretary. Piper Merritt, an agricultural economics major at Oklahoma State University, was elected central region vice president. Bryce Cluff, an agricultural technology and management: education major at the University of Arizona, will serve as western region vice president. Ian Bennett, majoring in agriscience and environmental systems - plant breeding and genetics at the University of Georgia, was elected southern region vice president. Gracie Furnish, a career and technical education major at the University of Kentucky, will serve as eastern region vice president. Each year at the National FFA Convention & Expo, six students are elected by delegates to represent the organization as national officers. Delegates elect a president, secretary, and vice presidents representing the central, southern, eastern, and western regions of the country. National officers commit to a year of service to the National FFA Organization. Each officer travels more than 100,000 national and international miles to interact with business and industry leaders, thousands of FFA members and teachers, corporate sponsors, government and education officials, state FFA leaders, the general public, and more. The team will lead personal growth and leadership training conferences for FFA members throughout the country and help set policies that will guide the future of FFA and promote agricultural literacy. The National FFA Organization provides leadership, personal growth and career success training through agricultural education to 653,359 student members who belong to one of 8,568 local FFA chapters throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The organization is also supported by 344,239 alumni members in 2,051 alumni chapters throughout the U.S. # # # About National FFA Organization The National FFA Organization is a national youth organization of 653,359 student members as part of 8,568 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The organization is supported by 344,239 alumni members in 2,051 local FFA Alumni chapters throughout the U.S. The FFA mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education. The National FFA Organization operates under a federal charter granted by the 81st United States Congress and it is an integral part of public instruction in agriculture. The U.S. Department of Education provides leadership and helps set direction for FFA as a service to state and local agricultural education programs. For more, visit the National FFA Organization online at FFA.org and on Facebook, Twitter and the official National FFA Organization blog. About National FFA Foundation The National FFA Foundation builds partnerships with industry, education, government, other foundations and individuals to secure financial resources that recognize FFA member achievements, develop student leaders and support the future of agricultural education. Governed by a 19-member board of trustees composed of educators, business leaders, individual donors and FFA Alumni, the foundation is a separately registered nonprofit organization. About 82 percent of every dollar received by the foundation supports FFA members and agricultural education opportunities. For more, visit FFA.org/Give. Kevin Hayslett, DUI Attorney with Carlson, Meissner, Hart & Hayslett, P.A. Being charged with DUI is costly in more ways than one. Alcohol impairment accounts for nearly one-third of all traffic-related deaths in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In all states, drivers with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08% or more are considered alcohol-impaired by law. Driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol or drugs brings stiff penalties in Florida, including revocation of the offenders drivers license. Driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol is a serious offense, said DUI attorney Kevin Hayslett of Carlson, Meissner, Hart & Hayslett P.A. Driving while intoxicated endangers the safety of others and the state of Florida requires that those who have been convicted of DUI satisfy certain conditions before they can have their drivers license reinstated. First DUI Offense - In Florida, individuals facing first-time DUI convictions will have their drivers license revoked for a minimum of 180 days, maximum one year. If a first offense resulted in serious injury, then the revocation period is at least three years. First-time offenders may apply for a hardship license before the end of the revocation period if they have successfully completed a DUI program. Second DUI Offense - Second DUI convictions that occurred more than five years from the prior conviction result in license revocation for 180 days to one year; individuals may apply for a hardship license upon completion of a DUI program. A second conviction within five years from the first conviction results in a minimum five year license revocation and drivers may apply for a hardship license reinstatement after one year. Third DUI Offense - A third offense within 10 years of the second conviction will result in license revocation for 10 years; two years of the revocation period must be served prior to applying for a hardship license. Drivers applying for license reinstatement whether a hardship license or a full license -- must complete a DUI program or show proof of enrollment, said attorney Hayslett. License reinstatement also involves taking an exam, paying an assortment of fees, and demonstrating proof of insurance. Being charged with DUI is costly in more ways than one. To learn more about having your Florida drivers license reinstated after a DUI charge, contact the DUI defense attorneys at Carlson, Meissner, Hart & Hayslett P.A. Located in Clearwater, Florida, the law office of Carlson, Meissner, Hart & Hayslett P.A. has been serving the Tampa Bay area community for over 46 years. Innovative practice and proven litigation skills make the firm Tampa Bays premier legal team, with a proven track record of success and a reputation for excellence. For more information about attorney Kevin Hayslett or the law firm of Carlson, Meissner, Hart & Hayslett P.A., visit the firm website at CarlsonMeissner.com or contact the office directly at 877-728-9653. The American Staffing Association (ASA) yesterday inducted Patricia Rohe, CSP, principal and co-founder of the New York City-based Custom Group of Companies, into the ASA Leadership Hall of Fame. Rohe was honored during the opening general session of Staffing World 2017, the associations annual convention and expo, in Chicago. The ASA Leadership Hall of Fame was created in 1985 to recognize outstanding individual contributions made through dedicated service to ASA and the staffing, recruiting, and workforce solutions industry. Rohe co-founded the Custom Group in 1985 and built it into one of the most highly regarded staffing firms in the industry. She is a fierce advocate for the staffing industry and has held many leadership roles, including president of the metro chapter of the New York Association of Temporary Staffing Services and state legislative committee chairman of the New York Staffing Association, an ASA-affiliated chapter. Rohe joined the ASA board of directors in 2000 and served as chairman in 2007. She also served on the associations political action committee and helped launch the ASA Certified Staffing Professional program, designed to certify staffing professionals expertise to work with both employees and clients within the bounds of federal and state laws and regulations. In 2015, she won the prestigious NYSA New Yorker Awardonly one of seven individuals to be honored since the program began 32 years ago. On behalf of the ASA board of directors and membership, I am delighted to welcome Pat Rohe to the Leadership Hall of Fame, said Richard Wahlquist, ASA president and chief executive officer. Pat is a staunch and passionate champion of the staffing industry and the opportunities it provides to the millions of people it employs. As an ASA leader of many years, she has played a key role in driving and contributing to the associations growth and success. ASA is extremely grateful for her leadership both locally and nationally, and her tireless advocacy to advance industry interests and industry professionalism. Professional headshot available upon request. # # # About The Custom Group of Companies The Custom Group of Companies opened its doors 32 years ago and has since grown to include a broad suite of practice areas that span a diverse range of industries. Rated one of the top 500 women-owned business several years in a row, The Custom Group continues to attract some of the best talent in the tri-state area, along with the most prestigious clients. More information may be found at customgroupofcompanies.com and on LinkedIn. About the American Staffing Association The American Staffing Association is the voice of the U.S. staffing, recruiting, and workforce solutions industry. ASA and its state affiliates advance the interests of the industry across all sectors through advocacy, research, education, and the promotion of high standards of legal, ethical, and professional practices. For more information about ASA, visit americanstaffing.net. The Laptops for Homeless Support Initiative is appealing to companies concerned with protecting the environment to find supportive partners. The initiative is organized by SocialBox.biz, a London based technology social enterprise which donates IT equipment to benefit the lives of our communitys homeless population. The initiative has already donated 150 refurbished laptops to Thames Reach homelessness charity. SocialBox.biz is asking businesses to donate their unneeded laptop computers so that they can be refurbished and given to people who have experienced homelessness. The goal is to collect 1,000 laptops by 2020, which will be distributed by homelessness charity Thames Reach to the people using its services. Thames Reachs clients need access to laptops in order to apply for jobs, reconnect with family and friends, and have an online presence. SocialBox.Bizs founder, Peter Paduh, said Its about bettering our communities and societies by taking the laptops some view as no longer needed and giving them to the people who need them the most. We are leveraging Twitter as a tool to make this possible for us. Please consider re-tweeting our updates to your business community. Jeremy Swain, Chief Executive of Thames Reach, said These laptops will give the homeless and marginalised people who receive them the opportunity to communicate with friends and relatives, develop new interests, and access advice to improve their skills and employment prospects. Yussuf Omar, who experienced homelessness, is now housed and learning about computers at IT sessions run at Thames Reachs Employment Academy in the London Borough of Southwark thanks to his gifted laptop. He said Ive never had a computer before, so getting a laptop has been great for me, helping me with my personal development. To participate contact: info (at) socialbox.biz https://www.socialbox.biz/contact-us/ The initiative has had quite a few prominent business leaders tweet out about their project already. They are looking to kick-start a Twitter social media campaign to help them reach more businesses. To support you can also ReTweet about the initiative visit their twitter page: https://twitter.com/SocialBoxBiz Notes for Editors For more pictures, figures and quotes visit; https://www.socialbox.biz/laptops-for-homless-support-event/ For more information on SocialBox.Bizs impact on local communities, visit http://www.socialbox.biz. Thames Reach is one of the UKs leading homelessness charities. Its vision is to end street homelessness and its mission is to provide decent homes, encourage supportive relationships and help people lead fulfilling lives. Thames Reach runs a range of services in London including street outreach services helping people sleeping rough escape homelessness, a variety of hostels and supported housing projects, and schemes which prevent homelessness and help people develop new skills, re-engage with family and friends, and get back into work. It runs the Employment academy in Camberwell which helps unemployed and economically disadvantaged people find work. http://www.employmentacademy.org.uk Thames Reach works closely with local communities to ensure that it contributes to improving neighbourhoods and meeting local need. See http://www.thamesreach.org.uk For further details contact Thames Reach communications manager, Mike Nicholas, 0203 664 9562. ### Tracy McGraw Joins New Perspective Senior Living as VP of Human Resources New Perspective Senior Living announced today that it has hired Tracy McGraw as Vice President of Human Resources. In her new role McGraw will be responsible for co-leading the strategic planning and consistent implementation of human resources functions across the organization. The people side of our business is more complex than ever requiring innovative solutions and a new way of thinking about how we attract and retain talent. Using HR as a strategic weapon vs its traditional back office role is going to differentiate our organization in the marketplace, said Ryan Novaczyk, New Perspective Senior Living President and CFO. Tracy has a proven track record for being able to not only build a strong HR infrastructure within a rapidly growing organization, but to create an environment where team members thrive. McGraw is a human resources leader that has specialized in the health care industry. In her most recent role as Director of Human Resources for Bluestone Physician Services, she was responsible for the creation and oversight of the companys first human resources department. During her tenure, the company was recognized as a Top Workplace by the Minneapolis Star Tribune five years in a row based on anonymous employee surveys. New Perspective Senior Living is a mission-driven organization making a difference in the lives of others with significant plans for growth over the next several years, noted McGraw. Im excited to be in a position to enhance the human resources infrastructure that supports our current team members and further strengthens our foundation for future growth. McGraw earned her Masters degree in Human Resources Management from Concordia University, St. Paul, Minn., and a Bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. She holds three professional certifications; Professional in Human Resources (PHR), Society for Human Resources Management Certified Professional (SHRM-CP), and is a Six Sigma Certified Green Belt. McGraw is one of several new high-caliber additions to the senior leadership team at New Perspective Senior Living. Most recently, the company hired former Cargill executive, Janet Lillevold as SVP, Transformation Office and in January of this year, a former Brookdale executive, Chris Hyatt, joined as a partner and Chief Operating Officer. Given the workforce challenges of the present, and certainly the future, we refuse to accept the status quo, noted Hyatt. Ensuring we have the talent to accommodate todays challenges and meet tomorrows growth is vital, and thats where Tracy will play a critical role. ABOUT NEW PERSPECTIVE SENIOR LIVING Founded in 1998, New Perspective Senior Living (NPSL) is a family owned company that develops, owns and operates vibrant senior living communities in Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Illinois. Its foundational belief that all seniors deserve to Live Life on Purpose and age with dignity was forged from the personal experience of Founder and CEO Todd Novaczyk and his family. For seven years, they cared for his mother-in-law, Betty Berkeley in their home as she struggled to maintain her strong, independent spirit while coping with Alzheimers disease. Today, New Perspective Senior Living operates 21 senior living communities serving over 2,000 seniors through Independent Living, Assisted Living and Memory Care options, with a goal to be serving 10,000 seniors by 2025. Based in Eden Prairie, Minn., the company has won multiple awards including Top Assisted Living Facility, Best-of-the-Best Dining Experience and Top Workplaces. In addition, Todd Novaczyk, was recently profiled in the Senior Housing News, The Leadership Series, while Ryan Novaczyk was just named to 50 for the Next 50 by LeadingAge of Minnesota. Apiary Fund. A private company in Orem, Utah It can be daunting trying to figure out new strategies. The Strategies Lab gives us a place and a process to help people develop trading ideas and strategies they can use to become efficient and successful. Apiary Fund developed a new lab offering as an extension of its highly popular and successful trading strategy development process conducted at each of its bi-annual Trading Summits, called The Strategies Lab. The new lab gives traders the opportunity to spend one hour per week with Apiary Fund trading experts brainstorming new trading strategies to use in the market. Weve done this many times among our traders attending our Trading Summit, said Shawn Lucas, Apiary Fund head trader and founder. Now available weekly, it allows us to brainstorm good trading ideas, develop an idea and place some rules around it, and then go into the market and test it. The Strategies Lab is a place to teach and lead new traders through the whole process of developing trading strategies and allows everyone to go through the process repeatedly continually developing new strategies for use in the trading market. Ive done this my entire trading career, said Lucas. It can be daunting trying to figure out new strategies. The Strategies Lab gives us a place and a process to help people develop trading ideas and strategies they can use to become efficient and successful. For everyday people learning to trade on their own from home, The Strategies Lab offers a way to increase their experience in an authentic lab environment. I dont know any place where you can go through a process like this in a controlled environment, said Lucas. Perhaps if youre a professional analyst, but for the publicfor people like you and mewe dont have the opportunity to go through this process regularly. Its beneficial for people learning to trade effectively. Apiary Fund will roll out The Strategies Lab among a small invited group of traders to begin the process and work out any issues. Later, more people can join in the lab sessions held each week. Those interested in taking part in the early development of the lab can contact Apiary Fund directly. About Apiary Fund Located in Orem, Utah, Apiary Fund is a private company that develops traders and gives people the opportunity to seek the freedom of flexible income by trading with our money. Through technology and education, we empower our traders to work toward their path to success. http://www.apiaryfund.com/ Grid Therapeutics is excited to partner with Catalent to develop this novel, human-derived antibody for the treatment of cancer. We feel Catalent Biologics is well positioned to bring this novel antibody to the clinic. Catalent Pharma Solutions, the leading global provider of advanced delivery technologies and development solutions for drugs, biologics and consumer health products, today announced it has signed a multi-year agreement with Grid Therapeutics, LLC, for the development and manufacture of Grids lead therapeutic candidate for the treatment of solid tumors. Grid is an oncology-focused biotech company building on the innovative science first developed by Edward F. Patz, Jr. MD, and his team of scientists at Duke University Medical Center. Under the agreement, Catalent Biologics will employ its proprietary GPEx cell line technology to develop cell lines and manufacture antibodies with a view to optimizing the process for cGMP bulk drug production. The project will be undertaken at Catalents state-of-the-art Madison, Wisconsin, biomanufacturing facility. Grids research is based upon a novel approach to identify specific tumor immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies from patients with early stage cancer. Grid used a unique strategy to obtain the sequence of its lead IgG3 antibody directly from B cells in cancer patients. Grid Therapeutics is excited to partner with Catalent to develop this novel, human-derived antibody for the treatment of cancer. We feel Catalent Biologics is well positioned to bring this novel antibody to the clinic, commented Edward F. Patz, Jr. M.D., CEO of Grid Therapeutics. Catalent regularly and successfully partners with innovator companies looking to bring new, important therapies to market faster, and a patient derived IgG3 monoclonal antibody would be a significant advancement in optimized treatments, commented Mike Riley, Vice President & General Manager of Catalent Biologics. Catalents proprietary GPEx technology creates stable, high-yielding mammalian cell lines with high speed and efficiency. The advantages of applying GPEx technology span from early feasibility studies, to clinical manufacturing, through to commercial-scale production. To date, seven GPEx-based antibody and protein products are approved and marketed, and 34 therapeutic candidates are currently in the clinic across the world. For more information on Catalent Biologics, visit http://www.catalentbiologics.com. For more information on Grid Therapeutics, visit http://www.gridtherapeutics.com. About Catalent Biologics Catalent performs GPEx programs at its state-of-the-art commercial biomanufacturing facility in Madison, Wisconsin, which was completed in June 2013. Designed for flexible cGMP production from 10 liters up to 1,000 liters, and non-GMP production up to 250 liters, the site features extensive single-use technologies and unidirectional flow to maximize efficiency and safety. In 2016, Catalent announced the commencement of work to extend its Madison facility and add 22,000 square feet of space accommodating two x 2,000 liter bioreactors that will allow the company to support late-phase clinical, and commercial production of up to 4,000 liter batches. This extension is due to be commissioned in the last quarter of 2017. About Grid Therapeutics Grid Therapeutics is a biotech company based on the innovative science first developed by Edward F. Patz, Jr. MD and his team of scientists at Duke University Medical Center. Located in Durham, North Carolina, Grid is developing the first human derived targeted immunotherapy for cancer. The antibody was discovered in exceptional outcome early stage lung cancer patients who did not progress to develop metastasis. The antibody was isolated from patients B-cells using state of the art molecular genomic techniques. GT103, the companys lead asset, is expected to initiate a Phase 1 clinical trial in advanced-stage solid tumor patients in the first half of 2019. For more information, visit http://www.gridtherapeutics.com About Catalent Catalent is the leading global provider of advanced delivery technologies and development solutions for drugs, biologics and consumer health products. With over 80 years serving the industry, Catalent has proven expertise in bringing more customer products to market faster, enhancing product performance and ensuring reliable clinical and commercial product supply. Catalent employs approximately 10,000 people, including over 1,400 scientists, at more than 30 facilities across five continents, and in fiscal 2017 generated over $2 billion in annual revenue. Catalent is headquartered in Somerset, New Jersey. For more information, visit http://www.catalent.com More products. Better treatments. Reliably supplied. Annelies Laeremans, PhD Scientist, Advanced Cell Diagnostics Interactions between tumor and immune cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME) play a key role in tumor progression and treatment response, with accumulating evidence indicating a crucial role for tumor infiltrating immune cells. Although infiltrating T cells have been correlated with improved clinical outcome, they are ineffective in eradicating tumors due to their inhibition by immune checkpoint molecules. Immune checkpoint inhibitors have demonstrated therapeutic efficacy and durable response for several tumor types, including NSCLC. However, the majority of patients are resistant or relapse after initial response. Characterizing the TME for checkpoint expression with single-cell and spatial resolution can provide critical insight into new immunotherapeutic strategies and identify new predictive biomarkers for stratifying patients most likely to benefit from immunotherapies. Through this webinar, which is sponsored by Advanced Cell Diagnostics, participants will learn from an over view of the in-situ visualization of the single-cell level in the TME of NSCLC and ovarian cancer archived FFPE tissue samples using the highly specific and sensitive RNAscope in situ hybridization assay. They will also learn about the immune infiltration and state of lymphoid and myeloid cells in the TME by detecting key functional molecules. Dr. Annelies Laeremans, a scientist with Advanced Cell Diagnostics will be the speaker for this event. Prior to joining Advanced Cell Diagnostics, Laeremans completed her postdoctoral studies in cancer biology at the University of California San Francisco before receiving her doctorate in cognitive and molecular neurosciences from the University of Leuven. She currently as a scientist in R&D at Advanced Cell Diagnostics. LabRoots will host the webinar November 15, 2017, beginning at 10 a.m. PST. To learn more about this event, the speaker, or to register for free, click here. About Advanced Cell Diagnostics ACD - a Bio-Techne brand, shortens the path to personalized medicine and enables research, drug development and clinical applications by unlocking the power of RNA. ACD is a leader in the emerging field of molecular pathology, developing cell- and tissue-based research and diagnostic tests for personalized medicine. Based in Silicon Valley, ACDs products and pharma assay services are based on its proprietary RNAscope technology, the first multiplex fluorescent and chromogenic in situ hybridization platform, capable of detecting and quantifying single molecules of RNA in situ. ACD has two product lines, namely RNAscope and BaseScope consisting of assay reagent kits and 15,000+ off-the-shelf probes in addition to a Pharma Assay Services business which allow customers to run assays for their unique targets rapidly. Since its first launch in 2011, the technology boasts 1000+ citations, a new publication each day now, for single, duplex and multiplex RNA analysis. About LabRoots LabRoots is the leading scientific social networking website, which provides daily scientific trending news, as well as produces educational virtual events and webinars, on the latest discoveries and advancements in science. Contributing to the advancement of science through content sharing capabilities, LabRoots is a powerful advocate in amplifying global networks and communities. Founded in 2008, LabRoots emphasizes digital innovation in scientific collaboration and learning, and is a primary source for current scientific news, webinars, virtual conferences, and more. LabRoots has grown into the worlds largest series of virtual events within the Life Sciences and Clinical Diagnostics community. Queens Divorce and Family Law Attorney Bruce Feinstein, Esq. Kids need to talk about how co-parenting will work, from where they will celebrate holidays to who will put them to bed at night. Be willing to listen, not know all the answers, and work through things together as a new family. Divorce can be a devastating experience for children, but the reality is that is occurs in many households and is often the result of a long period of disagreement between spouses. Parents are not divorcing to harm children, but rather to help them grow up in a more stable and trusting environment. The problem is that the proper way to approach divorce with children is rarely discussed. Bruce Feinstein, Esq. an experienced family law attorney in Queens, New York, recently took the opportunity to speak about his four key strategies for dealing with divorce and children. Mr. Feinsteins first strategy is to speak about the impact of divorce on childrens schedules while negotiating a parenting agreement. This defines each parents roles in making custody and visiting schedules, decision-making capabilities, and financial matters. It is important to remove negative feelings about a future ex-spouse when making these decisions. This can be a difficult task to accomplish, but what is key is remembering that both spouses will continue to fight with issues of betrayal and anger after the agreement is finalized. This is a long-term discussion about raising children, not a power battle to be won or lost. And it is not a discussion that should be had with children. Co-parenting failure arises when a spouse expresses anger or regret about the divorce and its causes with children. This brings up Mr. Feinsteins second approach to handing divorce with children in New York: maintaining a level of respect between parents. It will be tough to do, but expressing encouragement will make a huge impact on the co-parenting relationship. Its so easy to talk down an ex-spouse when they miss a playdate or are late on a child support payment. And these are issues that need to be discussed, but offering positive reinforcement of good behavior goes so much farther in these new parenting roles, says Mr. Feinstein. A third key issue parents need to cover during divorce is change. Spouses should understand that change is not only occurring to them, but also to their children. And they need to be ready to realize and adjust to new schedules, communication tactics, and financial obligations that impact everyone in the family. Open communication helps this adjustment period, such as regular check-ins with an ex-spouse, or online scheduling. Many spouses stay in a relationship because the dangers of change and uncertainty of splitting up a family are scary, says Mr. Feinstein, but addressing this fear of change and finding the best solutions for children is incredibly important. Finally, Mr. Feinstein encourages parents to talk with their children about life after divorce. Promote an environment where it is OK to talk about fears or concerns, says Mr. Feinstein. Kids need to talk about how co-parenting will work, from where they will celebrate holidays to who will put them to bed each night. And issues will vary depending on a childs age. Be willing to listen, not know all the answers, and work through things together as a new family. The Law Offices of Bruce Feinstein has nearly two decades of experience in divorce and family law, helping clients and families resolve their issues and move forward with their lives. If you are thinking of getting married or divorced and want more information visit feinsteindivorcelaw.com or call (718) 475-6039 to reach the New York office. ### VeraCore provides the technology we need to help us scale effectively. Were excited to be able to eliminate some of the most time-consuming elements involved in running a print fulfillment business and replace it with more accurate and efficient processes VeraCore Software Solutions, Inc. announced today that ONeil Printing, a print industry innovator, will be implementing VeraCores fulfillment software solutions. For over a century, ONeil Printing has introduced new ways to optimize print products. They have remained competitive over the years through innovation and their focus on quality. ONeil was amongst the first Arizona-based printers to embrace digital technology and has earned repeated recognition for the quality of their work and concern for the environment. As ONeil Printing continues to expand its warehousing facilities and take on new clients, their need to maintain the highest level of efficiency and accuracy remains constant. VeraCore provides the technology we need to help us scale effectively. Were excited to be able to eliminate some of the most time-consuming elements involved in running a print fulfillment business and replace it with more accurate and efficient processes, said Anthony Narducci, President and CEO of ONeil Printing. Denise Lunden, VeraCore President, commented, VeraCores fulfillment capabilities are perfect for a rapidly-growing company like ONeil Printing. Its energizing to see them thrive in such a competitive market. To learn more about ONeil Printing and their award-winning services, visit http://www.oneilprint.com. About VeraCore Software Solutions, Inc. VeraCore Software Solutions, Inc. has been providing order fulfillment and warehouse management software to fulfillment companies, printers, e-retailers and marketing service providers for over thirty years. Their software solutions are found at the center of thousands of fulfillment programs across a wide range of industries. Visit http://www.veracore.com for more information. About ONeil Printing Founded in 1908, ONeil Printing is the leading commercial printer in Phoenix with more than 100 years of quality service. Weve earned repeated recognition for the quality of our work and our concern for the environment. Nationally, ONeil has earned prestigious Gold and Silver Awards for our book printing from Sappi Fine Paper North Americas annual competition, which honors the best work from printers in the U.S. and Canada. Locally, the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce named ONeil the IMPACT award winner for our commitment to forward-thinking environmental practices. Visit http://www.oneilprint.com for more information. Bielat Santore & Company is staying current with the latest social media websites by adding Pinterest to their newest pages. Following the announcement of the launch of their new Facebook and blog pages, the real estate company is encouraging users to follow them on the image-collecting site. The site is intended to enhance their social media presence and attract interested patrons using multiple platforms. The Pinterest page features different collections of photos called boards for users to follow containing pins or saved content from Bielat Santore & Company. The boards include waterfront restaurants, casual eateries, fine dining, Jersey Shore attractions, among others. To visit Bielat Santore & Company on Pinterest, go to http://www.pinterest.com/bielatsantoreandcompany. About Bielat Santore & Company Bielat Santore & Company is an established commercial real estate firm. The companys expertise lies chiefly within the restaurant and hospitality industry, specializing in the sale of restaurants and other food and beverage real estate businesses. Since 1978, the principals of Bielat Santore & Company, Barry Bielat and Richard Santore, have sold more restaurants and similar type properties in New Jersey than any other real estate company. Furthermore, the firm has secured in excess of $500,000,000 in financing to facilitate these transactions. Visit the companys website, http://www.123bsc.com for the latest in new listings, property searches, available land, market data, financing trends, RSS feeds, press releases and more. Paul Mascarenas Serving in several senior executive positions during his 32-year career with Ford, Mr. Mascarenas has extensive experience in Product Development, Program Management and Business Leadership. SAE Internationals Executive Nominating Committee has named Paul Mascarenas as its candidate for 2019 SAE International President. Mr. Mascarenas is a member of the Board of Directors of ON Semiconductor and the US Steel Corporation; and a Special Venture Partner with Fontinalis Partners, a Detroit based strategic investment firm focusing on early stage companies in the rapidly emerging area of next-generation mobility solutions. Previously, Mr. Mascarenas was Chief Technical Officer and Vice President, Ford Motor Company. In that role, he led Fords worldwide research organization, overseeing the development and implementation of the companys technology strategy and plans. He also led the establishment of Fords Silicon Valley Research and Innovation Center, which supports the companys vision to provide uncompromised personal mobility for people around the world. Serving in several senior executive positions during his 32-year career with Ford, Mr. Mascarenas has extensive experience in Product Development, Program Management and Business Leadership, with assignments in the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States. Mr. Mascarenas is a Fellow of SAE International and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He served as general chairperson for the 2010 SAE World Congress and Convergence, and has served on the International Federation of Automotive Engineering Societies (FISITA) board since 2012 and was President and Chairman of FISITAs Executive Board from 2014-16. He is also a member of the Institute of Directors. He holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kings College, University of London in England and in June 2013, received an honorary doctorate degree from Chongqing University in China. In December 2014 he was appointed an OBE by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, in recognition of his services to the automotive industry. Mr. Mascarenas nomination will go to a member vote in November 2017. If elected, he will begin his one-year Presidential term in January 2019. SAE International is a global association committed to being the ultimate knowledge source for the engineering profession. By uniting over 127,000 engineers and technical experts, we drive knowledge and expertise across a broad spectrum of industries. We act on two priorities: encouraging a lifetime of learning for mobility engineering professionals and setting the standards for industry engineering. We strive for a better world through the work of our philanthropic SAE Foundation, including programs like A World in Motion and the Collegiate Design Series. http://www.sae.org L to R: Malvina Fulman, MD, FACP, Queens Medical Associates; Heather Bain, RN, BSN, OCN, nurse navigator, Queens Medical Associates; Betsy Cruz, PA-C, physician assistant, Queens Medical Associates; Its critical that patients are not only armed with information, but have an ongoing dialogue with their health care provider about ever-changing resources and new treatment options. Queens Medical Associates, a leading oncology and hematology practice and infusion center, hosted an informal presentation on breast cancer education and support on Thursday, October 26, 2017. The complimentary event, led by veteran oncology nurse, Heather Bain, RN, BSN, OCN, was implemented to coincide with Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The well-attended session provided a platform for patients, their families, and the public to learn more about issues affecting breast cancer patients, as well exchange critical information on living and coping with the disease. Its critical that patients are not only armed with information, but have an ongoing dialogue with their health care provider about ever-changing resources and new treatment options, explained Bain. With the right treatment plan in place, and lots of support, a patients quality of life can be greatly increased. Queens Medical Associates is known for providing accessibility for its patients to participate in clinical trials, allowing faster access to new treatments, which is especially important for those dealing with breast cancer. Topics discussed during the session included: Lymphedema in Breast Cancer Patients Dealing with Fatigue Proper Nutrition for Recovery Sexuality After Diagnosis Family Caregiving Survivorship Heather Bain has more than 25 years of progressive oncology experience in the tri-state area. As the nurse navigator at Queens Medical Associates, she guides patients throughout their journey from diagnosis through survivorship. Additional speakers at the forum included Physician Assistants Betsy Cruz, RPA-C and Raisa Matayev, RPA-C, as well as Patient Navigator Ariella Aharon, LMSW. At this time there are more than 3.1 million Breast Cancer survivors in the United States, including women who are currently in or who have completed treatment. A current patient of Queens Medical Associates, Tasha Goode, received an enthusiastic ovation after discussing her journey from diagnosis at Stage lll and recurrence this year to Stage IV. We are all here. We are survivors. Every day, wake up and be thankful and go do something good with your life because you can, said Goode. For more information about Queens Medical Associates, visit http://www.queensmedical.com/. ABOUT QUEENS MEDICAL ASSOCIATES Queens Medical Associates (QMA) is a well-established physician practice and infusion center which provides hematology and medical oncology care for patients with cancer and blood disorders. Located in Fresh Meadows, New York, QMAs physicians and clinical staff bring decades of experience providing exceptional care and treatment. Approximately 300 patients are served daily translating into over 200 treatments. QMAs team members communicate in five official languages (English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, and Russian). The practice also offers infusion therapy for many conditions including Crohns disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and organ transplants. Dr. Beatrix Dudzik teaching anatomy to osteopathic medical students at LMU-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine It is important to be able to accurately predict how long someone has been dead to be able to reconstruct the timeline of events that led to the persons death, as well as the cause or manner of death. Beatrix Dudzik, PhD, assistant professor of anatomy at Lincoln Memorial University-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine (LMU-DCOM) has been awarded a grant for $377,535 by the United States Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, for research and development in forensic science for criminal justice purposes. Dudziks research deals with improving the methods used in forensic science to identify human remains. Currently, the most widely used quantitative method for estimating postmortem interval (PMI) is based on scores from visual observations of human remains in various states of decomposition. Once remains are skeletonized, PMI estimation is based on subjective observations of how bone decomposes. "This is an exciting, interdisciplinary and collaborative project that is bringing together research faculty and staff from both the LMU-College of Veterinary Medicine and the LMU-DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine, as well as resources from the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Center and the Mayo Clinic, Dudzik said. We hope to develop a novel, quantitative method to estimate the time that has passed since death in severely decomposed and skeletonized remains. Dudzik is working on the research project with Paul Wood, PhD professor of pharmacology for veterinary medicine through the metabolomics laboratory at LMU, as well as Johnny Cebak, PhD, a third-year osteopathic medical student at LMU-DCOM. Cebak recently was awarded National Student Researcher of the Year by the Council of Osteopathic Student Government Presidents. Cebak is leading all of the lab analyses during his year-long research fellowship which will provide opportunities for medical and graduate students to participate in the project. This project aims to extend the capacity of forensic anthropologists and pathologists to approximate time since death from skeletal remains beyond current observation-based methods. Bone degradation has garnered great interest in the archaeological and forensic literature for use as a predictor of time since death, yet no systematic, experimental study has been carried out using human remains. It is important to be able to accurately predict how long someone has been dead to be able to reconstruct the timeline of events that led to the persons death, as well as the cause or manner of death, Dudzik said. Prediction of how long a set of remains have decomposed for can help determine whether a death resulted from natural causes or was caused by a perpetrator. This study utilizes high resolution mass spectrometry to identify consistently preserved biomolecules in bone and test their capacity to accurately predict long term postmortem intervals, such as years or decades, from skeletal remains. High resolution mass spectrometry will be used to carry out lipidomic and metabolomic analyses of human skeletal remains to examine time-dependent biomarkers present during the postmortem degradation of bone. The DeBusk College of Osteopathic Medicine is located on the campus of Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee. LMU-DCOM is an integral part of LMUs values-based learning community, and is dedicated to preparing the next generation of osteopathic physicians to provide health care in the often underserved region of Appalachia and beyond. For more information about LMU-DCOM, call 1-800.325.0900, ext. 7082, e-mail dcom(at)LMUnet(dot)edu, or visit us online at http://med.LMUnet.edu. When visitors arrive to the Phoenix Urban Spaces website, they are presented with a number of search options including the ability to search homes and condos by community, to find out what the top communities in the Phoenix Valley area... Roberta Candelaria, Owner and Designated Broker of Phoenix Urban Spaces, has just announced the launch of a new website re-design for PhoenixUrbanSpaces.com. Dedicated to giving buyers, sellers and investors full access to Phoenix real estate and the most exclusive properties in the area including luxury homes, condos, estates, land and other fine residences. The new site will incorporate a more seamless user experience, making the home buying and selling process easier than ever. If you are a foreign investor looking for the next income-producing property to add to your real estate portfolio, a buyer from across the nation looking for a new vacation home, or a seller searching for up-to-date market advice from a Phoenix community expert, all of these needs will be met with our newly-designed streamlined website, says Roberta. When visitors arrive to the Phoenix Urban Spaces website, they are presented with a number of search options including the ability to search homes and condos by community, to find out what the top communities in the Phoenix Valley area are, and an exclusive look at featured properties broken out into specific areas. The navigation menu includes links to listings, information about Roberta, her team and Phoenix Urban Spaces, information on buying a home, information on selling a home, relocation and moving information and a contact page. Designed to be comprehensive and user-friendly, the website is easily navigable and also presents buyers with detailed area and community information including the four most popular communities in the Phoenix Valley: Bella Lago, Two Biltmore Estates, Lakeshore at Andersen Springs and En Hance Park. The site also boasts a more streamlined layout to search featured active listings. We want this new website to be a hub of information for all of your buying and selling needs, says Roberta. Specializing in luxury homes and condos, Roberta Candelaria is known as the Condo Queen and has assisted numerous buyers, sellers and investors for years with all their Phoenix real estate needs. Roberta is a seasoned and experienced real estate agent who is extensively experienced in new construction homes. She is your go-to for investors looking to find revenue producing investment opportunities in the Phoenix area. For first-time home buyers, Roberta will ensure that when the client closes on their new home, that they have a complete understanding of the process from beginning to end and that they will be 100% confident in their purchase. She is truly the expert in all aspects of buying and selling a home for all types of clientele. Roberta takes great pride in leading her team of eight experienced real estate agents, including a relocation specialist, who have a good feel for the way to market evolves. The team has insider knowledge about the area and development projects happening in Phoenix and is very familiar with each special community within Phoenix, all of which can be seen more in-depth in the small boards located at the bottom of the homepage. For even more information, visitors can sign up on the bottom of the homepage to subscribe to Phoenix Urban Spaces email list to receive exclusive news and updates. The new website will also feature Home Buying 101 and Home Selling 101 sections as well as a blog. The true testaments to her exceptional real estate services are the number of repeat and referral clients she assists each year. Within the website, visitors can learn more about Robertas experience and extensive real estate background in addition to exploring some of the many testimonials she has received over the years at the bottom of the homepage. Roberta has earned the title of expert in the attached living market for condos, townhomes and lofts and has worked with many clients on multiple properties both purchasing and selling. The new website reflects the wide range of services offered by Phoenix Urban Spaces and the wealth of knowledge and expertise Roberta Candelaria has compiled over her career, serving as one of Phoenixs top real estate professionals. For more information about Phoenix Urban Spaces, to the search the array of luxury properties available within todays Phoenix and Scottsdale real estate markets, and to explore the services offered by Roberta, visit PhoenixUrbanSpaces.com or get in touch with Roberta Candelaria directly at 602-791-3292. You can also follow the team on social media by scrolling to the bottom of the homepage where you will find social links to their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages. Octopuses in Wales are slithering out of the water for some evening shenanigans. The gooey, bulbous creatures, which are about the size of a human hand, were spotted crawling ashore over the weekend. Estimates suggest between 20 and 25 of them were seen out of the water on Friday night. In a video posted on Facebook Saturday, the team at SeaMor Wildlife Tours in the town of New Quay, Wales announced their late-night sighting: "Never seen anything like it before," Brett Stones, owner of the SeaMor tour company, told Business Insider. This 'Curled Octopus,' also called a Horned Octopus, is native to oceans from Norway down to the Mediterranean, and is fairly common in the British Isles. Adults weigh between 1 and 2.5 pounds and can live up to five years. Like fish, octopuses need water to survive, and take in oxygen through their gills. But marine biologist Ken Halanych told Vanity Fair that octopuses can survive for around 20-30 minutes outside the water. It's not unheard of for octopuses to come out of the sea cephalopods experts say the nocturnal, eight-legged creatures have been known to roam the shores at night in search of food. However, nobody knows why these octopuses have emerged in Wales. Speaking at the inauguration of new Council Members for the school, the rector said the embargo placed on fresh admissions into the law faculty of the school is unlawful. He pleaded with the president, Nana Akufo-Addo to intervene. Before the end of November, Council will constitute a delegation to meet government, the NAB, and then the Judicial Service because the Chief Justice is also particularly against the location of Mount Crest University and she is seeking also to destroy Mount Crest University, what hurts is that she is from Akropong and I am from Lartey and it appears that it is our own people who have become our enemy. I will say it now, I want you to convey to the President that this is what is going on because the letter from National Accreditation Board to us that we should cease taking any new student was on the letterhead of the judicial service and we are told it was written by a supreme court Judge Sophia Akuffo who is now the Chief Justice." READ ALSO: Chiana SHS students have lessons under trees I regret to say that the Private Universities see the role of the National Accreditation Board as very oppressive, very divisive and very destructive. I had invited the Vice President but he is not here ,I was going to appeal to him. Accreditation Board, its Executive Secretary is seeking to destroy Mount Crest University College and I am fingering its Executive Secretary, Kwame Dattey, I want government to investigate the circumstances that have led to the placing of a ban on the admission of fresh students to Mount Crest University Colleges faculty of Law. The Rector added that we have been disabled from admitting Law Students primarily because we have a very deplorable University Institutions. You are here now and youve seen even our modest beginning is not in a deplorable condition. READ ALSO: GES removes La PRESEC headmaster According to the actress, the good relationship she had with the former first lady of Ghana came to an end the after her affiliation with the late Hawa Yakubu who was a staunch member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). When the host, Deloris Frimpong-Manso asked if the reason for the friction between them was as a result of the past rumor of the actress having an affair with the husband of the first lady, Jerry Rawlings, she denied. The actress mention there was never an affair between her and the president. "Nana Konadu thought I was a political prostitute", the 71-year-old actress disclosed. She recounted how the former first lady thought she was moving from one political party to another for her personal gains. I worked with Hawa Yakubu at a point, because she use to help ladies in many ways so I followed her because I wanted to cover her projects for my program she stated. She also said as a result of my acquaintance with the late Hawa Yakubu, Konadu took the machine; cameras and other production equipment I use for my program (by the fire side). Patricia Meister, from Queensland, struck up an online relationship with who she though was a dashing middle-aged businessman after he sent her a friend request on Facebook in 2015. Speaking to Daily Mail Australia, the woman revealed the moment she fell head over heels in love, before discovering her Italian lover named Carlos was a Nigerian fraudster. Ms Meister said the man seemed keen to share every aspect of his life with her when he messaged her every single day. Id never been on dating websites, and I only used Facebook for business. So when I got the friend request, I thought it couldnt do any harm, can it?, she said. I guess at the time, I was going through a period in my life where I felt isolated. Id been single for a while and Id never been on dating sites. We started chatting. He was charming, smart and educated. He was very good with English and he was very romantic. I was very much in love with him at one stage. She said the man who claimed he was based in Brisbane had told her he was working in interior design and his heritage was Italian and Scottish. READ ALSO: Female MPs release names of their male colleagues who have been sexually harassing them The pair exchanged messages on a daily basis before he started calling her to have phone conversations. When I first spoke to him, I heard his voice but he had a different accent to what Id expected. I remember thinking what is that accent? I couldnt place his accent. I wasnt familiar with his accent at the time, but thinking about it now, he was definitely African He was Nigerian. Despite casting some doubts on him, Ms Meister continued speaking to him as the weeks passed. Within eight weeks into their relationship, Carlos asked her if she could lend him $600 because his credit card wouldnt work when he was in Malaysia for a project. It didnt feel right but I thought well, its not a huge amount of money to lose. It wasnt a huge request so I did a wire transfer to him, she recalled. A part of me thought it was wrong so I questioned him, saying youre a businessman, your credit card should work His story didnt add up. But his request for money didnt end there. He would make up a different excuse each time he asked her for money. Carlos was planning a trip home to Brisbane when his goods were held up in Malaysian customs. And so he needed a payment to retrieve them. The first amount I sent him was $7,000. When he went to get the money, he told me he needed another $7,000, she recalled. Everything he said was backed up by documents and there was always a lawyer in the background when we spoke over the phone. When he tried to pay me back, he said his bank couldnt do the large international transfer so he arranged for a courier to deliver the cash instead. Ms Meister said she was given a link to a website with a tracking sheet, in which she kept a close eye on the parcels movement. But when the parcel reached Kuala Lumpur airport, there was a $25,000 fee to let the cash leave the country. Carlos had listed my business address on the documents so I was worried. I thought, God, theres a brief case full of money with my name on it, she said. READ ALSO: 54 primary school girls allege that their security man has raped them By that time, I thought it might look suspicious if I let my money in my name sit there, I was kind of thinking well Ive got to pay this money to get my money back. She made the big payment but when the parcel got to Melbourne airport, she was hit with another fee. I pretty much paid it. Money was getting hard to find. He pretty much picked up the last amount of my money, she said. On the day she was scheduled to supposedly get the parcel with the money shed been promised, she received a phone call. I got a phone call from someone saying Carlos and his lawyer had been in a serious car accident so they needed money for medical expenses, she recalled. My stomach dropped to my shoes. I knew at that point, Id been scammed. She didnt pay for their medical fees and the pair stopped talking for about a week. READ ALSO: Industrialist designs a mirror that only works until the user smiles to it He then tried to request more money to cover his medical fees but at that point, I had gone through my last dollar, she said. I couldnt pay him anymore and I even told him I wasnt going to send him any more money. Shortly after that, he made a miraculous recovery but Id stopped talking to him by then. Ms Meister even tried to report the incident to police but there was nothing they could do after she was conned out of $100,000 in total. And two months later, she received a text message from Carlos, saying: This is all a terrible misunderstanding. Without a second thought, Ms Meister fired back: Youre a scammer. After I accused him of being a scammer, he ended our conversation with: Catch me if you can, my dear, she recalled. Ms Meister said she eventually found a support group called Romance Scams Now where women share similar tales of their ordeals. I used to hear about the TV stars who were scammed and remembered thinking how can you send money to someone like that?, she recalled. I think I was sort of aware but I had no idea these things could be so complex or how well developed they are. Its a worldwide business, its very difficult to catch them because theyre sitting behind a computer. People think youre stupid but theyre not walking in our shoes. Its not a matter of being stupid. Even the most intelligent, educated women are getting scammed. I know Ill never get my money back but all you can do is raise awareness. Theres a lot of lonely people out there, the dating websites are riddled with scammers. God's fury on Ghana caused Atomic gas explosion - Prophet Tawiah Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! While the ability to enter another person's dream is still Hollywood fabrication, it turns out lucid dreaming is entirely possible for you to try out at your home, no dream machine required. While there are many speculated methods of inducing lucid dreams, most have a low success rate with little scientific backing. Researchers at the University of Adelaide thus decided to conduct a study exploring three different methods of lucid dream induction. (Do you dream? You'll be surprised how the answer impacts your health.) The researchers applied the following techniques on 169 Australian participants, comparing the effectiveness of three different methods: reality testing; wake back to bed (WBTB); and mnemonic induction of lucid dreams (MILD). Reality testing is the practice of actively checking one's environment several times a day to determine whether or not you're dreaming. WBTB is waking up five hours after falling asleep, staying awake for a short period of time, then going back to sleep. The theory with this method is that one will enter the REM sleep period after falling asleep the second time, which is when dreams most frequently occur. The MILD practice, like WBTB, involves waking up after 5 initial hours of sleep then focusing on the intention to remember you are dreaming prior to falling back to sleep. This is done by both imagining oneself in a lucid dream and repeating the phrase, "The next time I'm dreaming, I will remember that I'm dreaming." (If you have a hard time falling asleep in the first place, try eating these five foods before bed.) The researchers found that participants who practiced all three techniques over the span of one week achieved a 17 percent success rate in having lucid dreams. While this sounds like a small number, this was a significant improvement from a week of baseline testing, which involved zero techniques. The researchers also found that those who only practiced MILD and were able to fall asleep within five minutes of completing the technique (after the first five hours of sleep) had a lucid dream success rate of nearly 46 percent after one week of practicing. Dr. Denholm Aspy, Visiting Research Fellow in the University of Adelaide's School of Psychology and one of the researchers in this study, said in a report on the university's website, "The MILD technique works on what we call 'prospective memory'that is, your ability to remember to do things in the future. By repeating a phrase that you will remember you're dreaming, it forms an intention in your mind that you will, in fact, remember that you are dreaming, leading to a lucid dream." He also said that opposed to what one might think, those who practiced the MILD technique actually showed an improvement in overall quality of sleep. "Importantly, those who reported success using the MILD technique were significantly less sleep deprived the next day, indicating that lucid dreaming did not have any negative effect on sleep quality," he said. (Think sleep quality is overrated? Think again. Here's how not getting a good night's sleep really impacts you.) Improved sleep and the ability to control your dreams? Lucid dreaming is sounding a lot less scary that Leo was making it out to be. While the findings look promising regarding the benefits of lucid dreaming, the study concluded that further research needs to be done on the effects of the practice. Some unknown Kwahu indigenes attacked and killed three Fulanis last Tuesday, and the herdsmen retaliated by attacking nearby communities, terrorising residents and destroying properties. READ MORE: Gunshots fired as Fulani Herdsmen attack nurses at CHPs Compound Residents in Kwahu have blamed the latest attacks on a recent statement by Member of Parliament (MP) for Abetifi, Bryan Acheampong, asking his constituents to safeguard their lives and properties by standing up against the atrocities of the Fulani herdsmen. Speaking on Accra FM, Mr Eric Kwakye Darfour who is the Regional Minister was not happy about the killings. He said "The REGSEC will be meeting tomorrow to meet all the feuding parties in the issue. "This Fulani issue has been there for years because the cattle-rearing by the Fulainis has become business. "Normally, you will realise that the cattle belong to the natives who have employed Fulanis as caretakers and so if you want to be targeting the Fulanis alone, you wouldnt make any headway." According to her, she bought a parcel of land from Akua Donkor in 2009 but she could not get the police to arrest her because the former president was in office at that time. READ MORE: Four arrested for allegedly stealing from Akua Donkor She said Akua Donkor wielded enormous political power and was protected by Mahama. "She walked freely for years. This is a woman, who constantly said publicly that President Mahama was her first son and indeed the then president displayed much love to her. "Clearly from indications, getting Akua Donkor arrested during the NDC regime for land fraud wouldnt have been possible," she complained to the Daily Guide newspaper. According to her, several pleas to the former President to intervene in the matter proved futile adding that she waited for a change in political leadership. "I could not get her arrested despite my efforts because John Mahama, who was then the president, was Akua Donkors son. "So I decided to wait patiently for years and prayed fervently for a political change, which finally arrived last year, so I caused her arrest," she added. The complainant thus reported the matter to the police after getting a tip-off that the politician had gone to Kumasi. He said it is needless and irrational for Ghanaians to believe the promise that all villages will have dams as promised. In the Upper East Region, Nana Addo said a robust irrigation policy "One Village One Dam" will make Ghana crop all year round and eventually become a net exporter of most foodstuff. He noted that out of 14 million hectares of land only 30,000 of them is put to use. He said his government would provide functioning irrigation infrastructure through the One Village One Dam policy to create jobs and improve food security in Ghana. Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has promised the inhanitants of the Northern region that the 'One-village, one-dam initiative would begin at after this years rainy season. He said the people in the three Northern part of Ghana must exercise patience as it would be unwise to commence the building of dams in the rainy season. However, speaking to journalists in Tamale, the Deputy Minister Dr Sagre Bambangi said what government seeks to do is to make water accessible to farmers in various communities if residents desire to engage in dry season farming. "Not all villages will have dams. We said one village, one dam because it was a campaign message. It is commonsensical to say that all villages will have dams. There are already some villages with dams so we will desilt them and those that cannot have access to water we will find ways of getting water to them", he said. This government is doing its best to create job opportunities and me for instance, I told my people over there [that] it is because of NPP that Im here so the NPP man is my priority. I told them when NDC was in power it was Kwesi Ahwoi who was there, now we are in power, so Ayisi-Boateng is here with you. My topmost priority is the problems of an NPP person before any other Ghanaian, take it or leave it, he said. Mr Ayisi-Boateng was speaking at a ceremony to usher in fresh students of Kumasi Technical University into the Tertiary Students Confederacy Network (TESCON) of the governing New Patriotic Party on Sunday, October 29, 2017 in Kumasi. Indeed Im not boasting but Ive started meeting the NPP groups. Every weekend I meet some group members and I tell you if I had my way, every job opportunity that will come will go to a TESCON member before any other person. And I know my colleague appointees also have the same feeling except that because of IMF we cannot do anything now, he added. They ordered the staff who had reported for duty to leave the office and go home and locked up the offices. According to the NADMO Coordinator for the area Gibril Kesse, "staff were in the office this morning when these guys came in and told them to leave, and that they have come to take over. So my people left and they locked the place up and took the keys away." As is usual with a change of government, some unruly elements take that chance to attempt to take over some public buildings feeling they have been given some mandate to misbehave. Meanwhile, the Ghana Police Service has defended its men against allegations that they shy away from arresting and prosecuting offenders who are linked to the NPP. READ ALSO: Wontumi cautions Haruna Iddrisu against hypocrisy They claim that all offenders are treated equally and without any consideration of their relationship with the party in government. Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt on June 5 severed ties with Qatar over accusations of supporting extremism and being too close to Shiite rival Iran, charges Doha has denied. Founded in 1981, the GCC is a political and economic union that includes Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as Oman and Kuwait. Experts have warned that the nearly five-month-long diplomatic crisis could cause the six-nation bloc's demise. Saudi Arabia and its allies in June issued Qatar with a list of demands including shutting down Doha-based broadcaster Al-Jazeera, curbing relations with Iran and closing a Turkish military base in the emirate. "Bahrain will not attend a summit with Qatar, which becomes closer to Iran each day and brings foreign forces (to its soil), dangerous steps for the security of GCC countries," Sheikh Khalid said. GCC members are supposed to meet before the end of the year, but the crisis could see the bloc's annual meeting postponed or cancelled. After severing ties with Doha, Riyadh and its allies closed land and maritime borders, suspended air links and expelled Qatari citizens. In an interview airing on Sunday, Qatar's emir accused Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies of seeking to topple his government. "They want a regime change. It's... so obvious,"Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani told CBS's 60 Minutes. In an annual ceremony organised by the country's oldest rights group Memorial, hundreds of people under grey skies and intermittent rain took turns to read from a long list of names of those killed during Joseph Stalin's rule. This year's ritual comes as Yury Dmitriyev, a respected Memorial activist who had researched and exhumed mass graves of Stalin's victims, remains in custody on what supporters say are trumped-up allegations. "Freedom to Yury Alekseevich Dmitriyev," said one participant at the ceremony near the Solovetsky Stone, a monument in Lubyanka Square just across from the former KGB headquarters. "Is history repeating itself?" asked another. The 61-year-old activist faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. His supporters say the case against him is an attempt by authorities to muzzle the outspoken historian. 'Not a mistake' "It is a huge blow," one participant, 80-year-old Alexei Nesterenko, told AFP, referring to Dmitriyev's case. "Our authorities consider every public activity to be a danger to themselves," said Nesterenko, who was just 25 days old when his own father was arrested in 1937. Boris Brozhovsky, 82, said Dmitriyev's work had ruffled many feathers, saying his persecution was "not a mistake". "The man who has done so much for the country should be free and should continue his work," Brozhovsky, a prominent Soviet-era cameraman, told AFP, as he waited in line for his turn to read out from the victims' list. Historians estimate about one million people perished in Stalin's Great Purge in the 1930s out of around 20 million who died under his three-decade rule before his death in 1953. Rights groups have accused President Vladimir Putin of seeking to whitewash the Soviet dictator's crimes amid patriotic fervour whipped up by state propaganda. Opposition activists say the Kremlin has stepped up a crackdown on dissent ahead of a March election in which Putin is expected to extend his term to 2024. Some participants drew parallels between the Stalinist era and modern-day Russia, noting the arrests of dissenters including opposition activists and artists. "They are not executing yet but are already performing torture," said one woman at the ceremony. The event, called "The Return of Names", also holds a special resonance this year as Russia prepares to mark the centenary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution which unleashed repression against people of all walks of life. Participants ranged from older Muscovites to young mothers with prams and even children, all reading from the victims' list. "Pyotr Ivanovich Markov, 57, priest at a church in the village of Malakhovka, executed on February 21, 1938." "Yan Yanovich Kovalsky, 40, watchmaker, executed on November 18, 1930." Some attendees, clearly emotional, added their own personal tributes. "My uncle, my mother's brother, Nikolai Grigoryevich Gurvich, 29, executed in 1938," said one female participant, adding that he worked at a factory in the Siberian city of Irkutsk. The Mizanonline news website said the intelligence ministry had identified members of "a counter-revolutionary group which had wanted to organise an illegal gathering under the pretext of celebrating Cyrus". Authorities on Saturday cut the main highway between the cities of Shiraz and Esfahan, which leads to an archaeological site where the tomb is believed to be located. They said the closure was for road work. Semi-official ISNA news agency reported that the head of the elite Revolutionary Guard, General Hashem Ghiassi, had issued a warning Saturday to the "counter-revolutionaries". Authorities in Iran last October arrested several organisers of a rally at the same site. Authorities later said they had arrested a number of rally organisers "for having violated norms and chanting slogans against the values" of the Islamic republic of Iran. Cyrus the Great was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire in the 6th century BC and ruled over ancient Persia for about 30 years. So-called "Cyprus Day" rallies are held on October 29 to mark the king's capture of Babylon in 539 B.C, after which he allowed Jews held there as slaves to walk free. President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and Manafort's business associate Rick Gates were indicted by a grand jury on Monday morning on a range of charges. The charges, brought by the special counsel Robert Mueller, include laundering more than $21 million more than $18 million by Manafort and more than $3 million by Gates beginning in 2006 and lasting through at least 2016. Manafort and Gates surrendered to the FBI on Monday morning. The indictment says Manafort and Gates received the money by acting as unregistered agents of the pro-Russia government of Ukraine and its political parties and leaders. All payments received from those entities were hidden from the US government and the IRS, the indictment says. Money laundering refers to when illegally obtained money is made to appear as though it came from legitimate sources. To transfer millions of dollars to the US without the government and IRS noticing would require sophisticated financial maneuvering. In 2012, the indictment says, Manafort wired $6.4 million from offshore accounts to purchase two New York properties a condominium on Howard Street and a brownstone on Union Street and a house in Arlington, Virginia. "Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income," the indictment says, adding, "Manafort then borrowed millions of dollars in loans using these properties as collateral, thereby obtaining cash in the United States without reporting and paying taxes on that income." The tax bill on $21 million in ordinary income earned legitimately in the US would have been over $8 million. The indictment says that from 2008 to 2014, Manafort also used offshore accounts to wire over $12 million to fund a luxurious lifestyle, paying for items like Range Rovers, men's clothing, and housekeeping services. The statement relieving both government officials was released on Monday, October 30, 2017 by Mr Femi Adesina, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity. Many Nigerians have expressed displeasure about the late decision to carry out the recommendation of the committee set-up to carry out the investigation. The committee headed by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, had recommended for both officials to be sacked. People saw the indecision two months after the committee submitted its report as hesitation. More so, the Federal government was reminded of some corruption allegations it should have taken a swift action(s) on. Win McCormack, the liberal activist who bought the publication in 2016, sent out a memo to staffers on Sunday which said that he had asked for an immediate and independent investigation into several complaints regarding interactions between Fish and female employees. The New Republic "is committed to creating and maintaining a respectful, professional work environment, free from harassment of any kind," the memo continued. McCormack added that he took the allegations "very seriously" and that J.J. Gould and Art Stupar would step in as acting president and acting publisher, respectively. News of Fish's leave of absence occurred after his name appeared on the so-called "Sh---- Media Men" list that began circulating after dozens of women came forward to accuse Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of varying degrees of sexual misconduct. The list contains numerous unproven, uncorroborated allegations against men from different media outlets. In addition to The New Republic, Business Insider reported earlier this month that BuzzFeed also launched an investigation into anonymous allegations made against some of its employees on the "Sh---- Media Men" list. In an internal memo sent to BuzzFeed employees, Chief People Officer Lenke Taylor said the company looks into "all allegations of harassment and related conduct" and acts on them accordingly. "We are a company that deeply values equality, diversity, and individuality," Taylor wrote in the memo obtained by Business Insider. "We know that we thrive individually and collectively when everyone at BuzzFeed feels safe and respected. We do not tolerate harassment of any kind." Suicide was unfamiliar and distasteful to Nigerians not only because it is an unpleasant experience but also because we believe is never the right way to die. That was a long time ago. Today, suicide is becoming a thing in Nigeria and it has even crept into higher institutions. The shocking death of a 16-year-old student, Mercy Afolaranmi at Obafemi Awolowo University who allegedly committed suicide because she had an E in a Chemistry test attests to the fact that suicide is becoming an escape from academic failure. Before Afolaranmi, there was a case of Chinedu Iromuanya in Nassarawa State University who took his own life because of piled up carry overs. On Wednesday, October 4, 2017, Iromuanya had allegedly drunk poisonous substance suspected to be Sniper to protest his carryovers. The student was reportedly sad because the polytechnic management allegedly refused to clear him even after he had sat for the paper in 2016. Similarly, a final year student of Accounting at Ambrose Ali University, Ekpoma, Benjamin Oghayerio in April 2010 committed suicide because of alleged carry-over courses. Oghayerio was found hanging in his room. It is shocking that Nigerian students are so worried about their studies that suicide is becoming the last resort for them. ALSO READ:100 level student in OAU allegedly commits suicide over poor grades This is becoming a trend and we found out that there are three known reasons why a student would decide to take his or her life because of poor grades. Parental Pressure: Pressure from parents asking their kids to succeed academically at all cost could demoralise a student who is not sound enough to stand the pressure. Some Nigerian parents can be very dictatorial about the academic performance of their children. They choose the course to read and demand too much from a child that barely understands profession he is being trained for. And when a child who is not brilliant to read a science course is forced to read medicine, he is bound to fail. This may lead to depression when the heat from home gets too much. Peer Pressure/Expectations: Every student in every school can easily identify one particular student who always gets it right no matter how difficult the tests or exams are. He is the benchmark for every other students in their exams. Such students are classified as Eficos and in some other schools, they are called Profs because of their academic brilliance. But, when the Efico falters and gets the poorest grade, he becomes a butt of rude jokes among his peers. This may downcast, depress and eventually leads him to attempt suicide, if he is the type who doesn't like to be mocked. Disillusionment: Closely related to the second point, students get disillusioned because of the high expectations they have of themselves. A student may feel disappointed in his own performance when the result is pasted on the board for all to see. A number of students withdraw into themselves when this happens. This perhaps explains what happened to Mercy Afolaranmi who first gave a suicide note on her Facebook page before she ingested Sniper days after, all because she had an E in Chemistry. All these points still boil down to depression and anxiety. Parents need not put the burden of pressure on their wards because they want to make them become Albert Einstein. This will only make a lot of them perform woefully rather than gear them toward success. Candidates seeking admission into the University can now check their admission status on the school website. Announcing the release the institution wrote on its website, finally out guys, University of Lagos, Akoka, has released the names of admitted students for 2017/2018 academic session. The university however assured candidates who do not find their departments on the list to have no fear as there is more list to release for the 2017/2018 admission. ALSO READ: UNILAG gets new Vice Chancellor If you cant find your department be, rest assured that it will be on the updated list which will be released soon. The opening night which held on October 29, 2017, at Genesis Deluxe Cinemas, was attended by Chioma Ude, Kunle Afolayan,Kemi Lala Akindoju, Wale Ojo, Uche Jombo, Linda Ejiofor, Hilda Dokubo and Funlola Aofiyebi-Raimi. Other dignitaries include filmmakers and film entrepreneurs such as Biola Alabi, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, Fred Amata, Zick Zulu Okafor, CJ Obasi, Belinda Yanga, Kenneth Uphopho, Shaibu Husseini and Ameyaw Debrah. This year, there was a double dose of films, as the opening night selection consisted of one short film, Waiting for Hassana, an ode to the missing Chibok girls, abducted from their secondary school in 2014, directed by Ifunanya Maduka, and the Zambian entry, I am not a Witch, helmed by Rungano Nyoni. This year's film line-up includes a host of entries from Francophone filmmakers as a fulfilment of organisers' wish last year to honour France and La Francophonie in a long-term vision of artistic collaborations and partnerships. Representing the Governor of Lagos state, Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde, welcomed delegates to the centre of excellence and positioned AFRIFF as one of the leading creative platforms in Africa that has been consistent, truly awe inspiring and which has found the Lagos arty landscape compatible with its own vision. Also speaking at the event, French Consul General, Lagos, Laurent Polonceaux said; This is a great opportunity for us because this is the first time that the French government is involved with Africa. We will be having two days at the festival for French films, with possibility of co-production with Nigeria and Africa. He noted that it was good that the festival will be closing with the French film, Felicite, and disclosed that arrangement has been made to have about 70 film students for further training in France as an exchange programme with AFRIFF. As is tradition, an array of movies will be screened during the festival's seven-day run as it hosts competitions in several categories including short films, feature films, documentaries, animated films, and short films made by film students. The first edition of the film festival took place in Port Harcourt 2010, while the 2013 and 2014 editions were held in Calabar. But when Sofela Ayotunde told her parents the path she was towing, that she wanted to become an automobile engineer, they lost it, quite simply, they could not see it happening. My parents were like, no, no, no. You cant do this., she remembers. Their reason was simple, this is not a womans job. You can blame the limiting definitions of our culture, among other reasons, but in traditional African societies like Nigerias, gender roles are firmly established. That patronising view of women as the paragons of care and love has been interpreted as making them suitable for 'stay-at-home' roles that involve caring for their children, their husbands and everybody else. God forbid they dream of the definitive stuff, like work that can support a family or duties that task the mind and the body, roles traditionally left for the male gender, like being a mechanic. Born in September 1993, Sofela must have enjoyed the same routines that we associate with young girls. But somewhere, somehow, from a young age, her attention shifted to the road and the vehicles that ply them. As she matured, automobiles became her main interest, and then, a forceful passion, so much that, by the time she was leaving secondary school, she could think of very little else. After my secondary school education, I have always been passionate about cars, Sofela says, so I decided to join Automedics Training School, where they train about automobiles, how to diagnose them, how to repair them. Her plans were elaborate; she would join spend a few years at the training school, before setting out as a certified auto mechanic. First, she had to tell her parents. The African parent stereotype is based on many assumptions, many of them wrong. One of the most accurate, however, is the comfort they find in the familiar. ALSO READ: Slaves passed these five stops on the Badagry Slave Route Africas millennial generation has been exposed to a wealth of information, and by necessity, they feel the innate need to push down the walls that their culture has built around them. Doing this, though, often ignites conflicts between the radical youth and parents who believe that things should work a certain way, mostly because it is all they know. In Sofelas case, her parents were not ready to see their daughter sacrifice a bright future for a job that not even all men would be willing to pursue. We had a lot of disagreements, we would quarrel., Sofela says of her parents'' reaction to her decision, My parents were like, no, no, no. You cant do this. This is not a females job, this is not something you should go to, I want you to go to university. Somehow, Sofela showed an understanding of their perspective but more importantly, she chose to show them her decision was borne of passion, drive, not laziness. Its not a case of me not going to the university. I am not the kind of person that plays with my education but I dont see myself sitting down in the normal kind of university for 4 years and then coming out, looking for a job, when I already have the passion to do something., she recalls telling them. Soon enough, they reached a necessary compromise; they agreed that Id go ahead with the Open University, get my B.Sc and then I would do what I want to do., she recounts. Since then, its been onward and forward. I am studying computer science at the National Open University of Nigeria, she says, (Im) currently a 400 level student there. It has a lot to do with my job because nowadays you find cars are more computerized. At work, she works with a team of young men who she supervises. The feeling of having a female head mechanic is strange to most of them. and the irony and the absurd privilege and underestimation that her gender can bring is not lost on Sofela herself. Being that Im female gives me an edge over the male counterparts because they are surprised and they are like; let me give it a try, let me just see how she is going to be able to handle my car, she says. Straddling the line between school and work also has its own nuances; It was not easy, its still not easy because I am combining school and work. But then, its what I love doing and even if you wake me up by 2 oclock in the morning, Its still what I love doing., she says. In her love for her craft and the relative comfort that progress brings, Sofela has reached a point where she is at peace with herself. Yet, she is careful enough to understand how society may view her work, particularly her female contemporaries, friends and otherwise. The lifestyle of other girls is not really a problem to me, she says of how she deals with expectations of what her lifestyle should be, because those who are my friends know what I do and they appreciate what I do because not many girls can actually venture into this type of career. Its a dirty job, I must put it like that and it doesnt really give you time to say okay, Im leaving the house in the morning, let me make-up, let me do this, let me do that. But you can still look good while you are doing the job. So, peer pressure is not a problem for me. As she looks on while the Automedics four-post machine lifts the car, it is difficult to see Sofela this happy anywhere else. Shortly after the bigamist, Kufre Nse Ukpong, an indigene of Utu Edem Usung in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area of the state got married to Idongesit Jacob Edem from Ediene in Abak Local Government Area on Saturday, October 28, 2017, and their friends took to social media to congratulate them, his UK based wife, GillUkpong, came into the fray. Gill pointed out that she and Kufre were legally married and were not divorced at the time he came back to Nigeria to get married to another woman and that he and the new wife will surely regret as she would make sure they get jailed for bigamy. A friend of the couple had posted their photos on Facebook and congratulated them on the success of the wedding: "Happy married life to the latest couple in town, Mr. and Mrs. Kufre Ukpong. I wish you the best in your marriage." Shortly after that, the British wife who also has a Facebook account with the name Gill Ukpong fired a response to the post: That man is my husband! Many Facebook users who did not seem to believe Gill, began asking questions, wondering why she would just come out of the blues to make the post which they thought was in a bad light. Gill replied further: "Look you can say anything u like; ask my husband why he has not divorced me for this marriage. Ask him why he cannot and will not go it. Go on. Yeah, the second marriage is nothing no amount of money will make it legal," Gill said, making reference to the fact that she would do everything possible to make sure the marriage is nullified and not stand. Revealing more facts about Kufre to drive home her point that they were legally married, Gill posted photos of their wedding and their marriage certificate. In a Facebook exchange with some Nigerians who still did not believe Gill, she described Kufre as a 'bloody liar, narcissist and bigamist' who also impregnated another white woman before he married her. Gill further made allusions to the fact that the new wife, Idongesit, knew about her marriage with Kufre but still went ahead to marry him even when she knew they were not officially divorced. She said that Idongesit had blocked her on Facebook when she told her about her new husband being a bigamist and also claimed to have contacted the new bride to warn her that Kufre is already married to her. A new China-Europe freight train route was launched Sunday in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. A new China-Europe freight train route was launched Sunday in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. A China-Europe freight train X9081 leaves Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, for Poltava, Ukraine, on Oct. 29, 2017. The train, carrying oil drilling equipment, left Urumqi Sunday noon and is bound for Poltava, Ukraine, via Kazakhstan and Russia. This is the first cargo train linking Xinjiang with Ukraine. The new route will cut the transportation time from more than two months by sea to just 15 days. [Photo/Xinhua] The first train, carrying oil drilling equipment, left Urumqi Sunday noon and is bound for Poltava, Ukraine, via Kazakhstan and Russia. This is the first cargo train linking Xinjiang with Ukraine. The new route will cut the transportation time from more than two months by sea to just 15 days, said Cheng Jingmin, deputy manager of Xinjiang Beiken Energy Engineering. The company sent the equipment for a drilling project in Ukraine. According to Cui Yumiao, deputy mayor of Karamay, the new route will serve as an important channel for enterprises in the city to expand their presence in overseas market along the Belt and Road. With trade volume increasing between China and European countries in recent years, Urumqi has started to offer "point-to-point" customized services to cut transportation costs and time. A total of 700 China-Europe freight trains are expected to depart from Xinjiang by the end of 2017. I'm talking about the 'mans not hot' freestyle that has the hilarious "The ting goes skrrrahh/ Pap pap ka ka ka" bars. The Fire In The Booth freestyle was released on August 29, 2017, has been watched 4.9 million times. The Big Shaq freestyle was so popular that the man behind the character Michael Dapaah released it as a track and shot a music video for it. The 'Mans Not Hot' video has gained 12 million views since its October 25, 2017, release. To say that the freestyle is a phenomenon at this point is an understatement. At a wedding reception in Lagos, Nigeria, a couple and their friends recited the lyrics on the dance floor. It's not every day that a comedian drops a funny freestyle that becomes a worldwide hit. Before MC Shaq graced 'Fire In The Booth', Roll Safe, a hilarious wannabe character came to drop his own bars. Played by Nigerian Kayode Ewumi, the freestyle had more views than MC Shaq's with 9.6 million views. Roll Safe's freestyle was a national hit riding off the character's web series. However, his was not a global sensation. Who is Michael Dapaah and how did he get the world into reciting UK slangs? Dapaah was born in January 1991 in the United Kingdom. He grew up in Croydon. In 2008, he took a short course at the National Youth Theater. He would later graduate with a degree in Theatre, Film and Television Studies from Brunel University. Michael Dapaah would flip his talent for humour into an online following with his online skits. Encouraged by the positive feedback, Dapaah would launch a YouTube series called #SWIL. #SWIL stands for Somewhere In London. In the web series, Dapaah plays four hilarious characters. These characters are Dr Ofori is the Uber driver/relationship expert, MC Quakez, a rapper of little talent, Patrick Clover, a corrupt community officer and MC Shaq, the self-acclaimed road man with no street credentials. As far as YouTube series is, the first season of #SWIL was a success. It got over 1 million views in its first season, None of the videos did less than 200,00 views. "Im very observational in my comedy and what I create with the characters that Im blessed to play. I dont believe comedy needs to be offensive, and I dont believe it needs to be a mockery of anything" he tells Fader in October 2017. "In all my content I dont really swear or use profanity, because I believe comedy can just be pure. "I try to find the balance of taking what I've observed or what I think is going to be funny, and portraying it in a way which relates to a mass audience. You've got to remember, the characters that I play? Theyre some peoples actual lives" he further says. His parents might have not initially liked the idea of him being a comedian but these days Michael Dapaah is known by the likes of DJ Khaled and co. They definitely won't be mad at that. "Im more overwhelmed not surprised by the reception globally. Since the end of the last year, we've had a strong U.K. following, so we expected it to do well here" says the Ghanaian-British act. The APC national publicity secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi stated this in Abuja on Monday, October 30, 2017. The party believes the President could not have made a better choice, the APC spokesman said. Mustapha is a competent, loyal and dedicated leader who over the years has demonstrated that he has a pan-Nigerian outlook. With his appointment, the Party is confident that Mustapha being a strong party man will provide the necessary linkage between the government and the Party, and with the other arms of government, especially the National Assembly, he added. In a condolence message issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, on Monday in Abuja, President Buhari said he was deeply touched by the demise of Hajiya Yalwa. According to President Buhari, the death of a wife shakes the foundation of the family unit because of her role in the upbringing of the children and in keeping the family happy. The party made its position known in a statement signed by Mr Dayo Adeyeye, the Publicity Secretary of its National Caretaker Committee, in Abuja on Monday. President Muhammadu Buhari had on Monday terminated the appointments of Lawal and Oke, who were initially suspended for proper investigation by a panel headed by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo. It stated that Nigerians had waited patiently for the presidents reaction on the humongous act of corruption by two of his principal aides. We totally reject these actions and the law should follow its full course on the issues of these officers. In other words, their case should be referred to the EFCC for proper investigation and trial, more so when the president has not told us what the findings were. Nigerians are entitled to know the findings of the panels report headed by the Vice President. The report should be made public since it is the peoples money that is involved. PDP stated that ordinarily, cases of corruption or alleged cases of misappropriation of funds were supposed to be referred to institutions that were saddled with the responsibility to investigate and prosecute such. The party added that Lawal and Oke should be investigated by anti-graft agencies as it was done in the case of Sambo Dasuki and others facing trails on corruption-related allegations. This is an impeachable offence. So, the president cannot just sack Oke and Lawal and expects us to be clapping for him. We believe that we are operating under a democracy and a constitution that governs our affairs. To have subjected these people to different sets of rule and treatment is totally unacceptable. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 112-year-old Oruta was buried on Friday at Amagu-Izzi, in the Abakaliki Local Government Area of the state. The deceased was a father to Sylvester Ngele, a former representative of Ebonyi North Zone in the Senate. Umahi was quoted in a statement by Emmanuel Uzor, his Chief Press Secretary, as eulogising Orutas immense contribution to the states development. The governor also paid glowing tribute to the father of Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof. Benard Odoh, who was buried on Saturday at Onunweke, Isiofia in Ezza North. He also pledged to construct new classrooms at the community primary school at Onunweke and name them after late Odoh, for his immeasurable contribution to the development of his area and the state. "I commend the people of Izzi and Ezza clans of the state which are the major political blocs of the Abakaliki zone for their consistency and support for this administration. "We are resolute in re-constructing the states ring road which connects eight of the 13 LGAs of the state of which the areas would be major beneficiaries," Umahi was quoted as saying. He also promised to construct the Okaleru road and bridge which connects Odohs community to Ebiaji, the headquarters of the council, among other roads. ALSO READ: Umahi commutes death sentences on 14 prisoners, pardons 32 others Similarly, a former Anambra Governor, Peter Obi, who attended the burial, eulogised Odoh and described him as a man who touched the lives of his people in several ways. "He weathered the storms of life to give his children quality education which culminated in Bernard, the Ebonyi SSG, being one of the youngest professors in the country," he said. She said the policy has surpassed the expectations of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. Adeosun stated this on Sunday, October 29, an article titled 'Positioning Nigeria for a prosperous future.' She disclosed that the sum of N11.63 billion had been recovered under the whistle-blower policy as at June 2017. She added that about N375.8 million has also been paid to 20 providers of information. According to the minister, the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) system has also assisted the government in consolidating thousands of accounts scattered across Deposit Money Banks into a unified system that was transparent and easy to centrally monitor and track. ALSO READ: 10 things Adeosun said about paying tax Malam Garba Shehu, the Presidents Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday, said Buhari made the call in a tribute to Balarabe Musa on the occasion of his recently celebrated 81st birthday anniversary. Buhari described the former civilian governor of old Kaduna State as a man of unassailable integrity and untainted record of public service. According to the president, even Musas worst enemies and critics cannot dispute his remarkable reputation for integrity and selfless service to the people. He said: Balarabe Musa is one of Nigerias brightest stars of integrity and sterling principles." The octogenarian has lived to his reputation by avoiding any conduct associated with corruption and dishonour. He recalled that his close association with Musa in the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) had enabled him to appreciate the radical politicians patriotism and his commitment to build strong opposition in the country in order to deepen democracy. The president also praised Musas independent-mindedness, stressing that the principled politician can criticise even his friends, associates and allies when it comes to politics. According to him, politics is public service and not an opportunity to amass wealth overnight at the expense of the ordinary people or the voters. He prayed that God would continue to bless the elder statesman with better health, more wisdom and longer life in the service of the country. Musa, a left-wing Nigerian politician, who was elected Governor of Kaduna State during the Second Republic, said his wish and desire for Nigeria had yet to be fulfilled, 57 years after the nations independence. He held office between Oct. 1, 1979, and June 23, 1981, when he was impeached. Musa said: Though, I felt great on the attainment of a new age and achievements in life, I would have been more fulfilled, if the country has overcome most of its development challenges. At 81, I will say I feel great and I thank God for everything. But, I am not completely fulfilled because we are yet to have the country of our dreams. We are yet to have a country where there is equity and respect for rights and dignity of all citizens. We are yet to have a country where the governed are good followers and leaders think first think about the people and not the other way round. Jiang Jianguo has called for strengthened media cooperation and exchanges between China and Latin America at the China-Latin America Media Forum. Jiang Jianguo, deputy head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and minister of the State Council Information Office of China, has called for strengthened media cooperation and exchanges between China and Latin America at the China-Latin America Media Forum. The China-Latin America Media Forum hosted by the State Council Information Office of China and Xinhua News Agency is held on Oct. 27 in Beijing. [Photo/Xinhua] The forum, held on Oct. 27 in Beijing, gathered delegates from 19 major media organizations in 11 countries in Latin America and more than 50 delegates from Chinese media. The forum focused on the future cooperation between China and Latin America after the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, with the aim of strengthening media cooperation and improving mutual understanding. During a keynote speech delivered at the opening ceremony of the forum, Jiang Jianguo gave a detailed briefing on important decisions and results made at the 19th CPC National Congress as well as the international significance of the key meeting. "The coverage of 19th CPC National Congress from Latin American media will help the world have a real and comprehensive understanding about China and the CPC," Jiang said. He said that the State Council Information Office will provide more assistance to boost the media exchanges between China and Latin America and inject more energy into the development of the relationship between China and Latin America. "We will strengthen the media exchanges by carrying out China's plan to provide training to 500 media professionals from Latin American and Caribbean countries in the next five years, which was announced by President Xi during his Latin America visit," Jiang said. Olga Ojeda, director of International News of the Mexican State News Agency (Notimex), said that the media exchange is a key part of the relationship between China and Latin America, and both sides should strengthen media cooperation and seek a bigger voice in the world. THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER Fresh trouble for Atikus INTELS as OGFZA alleges rules violation Oil and gas logistics giant and port concessionaire, INTELS Nigeria Limited (INL), is in fresh trouble as the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA) has ordered a comprehensive audit of a decade of its operations (2006-2016). Middle East investors move to take over Nigerian airports Some stakeholders in the aviation sector, including members of the National Assembly, are worried that investors from some Middle East countries are expressing interest in the planned concession of Nigerian airports. NANS threatens FG with mass action over Maina The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to suspend all government officials fingered in the controversy surrounding how Abdulrasheed Maina was returned to the civil service after almost five years of absenteeism. __________________________________________________ VANGUARD NEWSPAPER Nigeria appears more divided than ever before Atiku Secession threats, inter-ethnic discontent and hate speech have plunged present day Nigeria into a division that has probably never been experienced before, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has said. Nigerias excess oil revenue hits N11.1bn daily NIGERIAs excess oil revenue has risen to N11.1 billion ($36.6 million) daily as the price of crude oil hits $60.44 per barrel in the international market. Take action on S-East roads, Govs, Igbo leaders tell Buhari South-East governors and Igbo leaders, yesterday, pleaded with the federal government to expedite action on all federal roads in the zone, lamenting that the situation of the roads had further deteriorated. __________________________________________________ THE PUNCH NEWSPAPER INTERPOL yet to get fresh request for Mainas arrest Source The Federal Government has yet to send fresh request to the International Police to assist it in tracking and arresting the fleeing ex-Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on Pension Reforms, Abdulrasheed Maina. IMF wants Nigeria to stop tax holidays The International Monetary Fund has advised the Federal Government to urgently revisit tax holidays and exemptions given to companies. Reps N6.1bn exotic cars malfunction 90 days after delivery Some of the exotic cars delivered to the members of the House of Representatives have developed faults barely 90 days after the automobiles arrived in Abuja. __________________________________________________ BUSINESSDAY NEWSPAPER Emefiele expects naira to appreciate in 2018 Nigerias central bank governor, Godwin Emefiele, says he expects the naira to appreciate into 2018 as oil prices trend higher and production levels remain high. US on track to leapfrog Nigeria, others as top 10 oil exporter The US, worlds largest oil consumer, is on track to leapfrog Nigeria, Angola, Norway and Venezuela at the end of 2018 to become one of the top 10 global oil exporters. Nine banks make N485bn in Q3 from Treasury Bills In a letter addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, the group described as embarrassing the inability of the APC to meet its basic needs. According to the letter signed by the convener, Denisi Momoh, the group advised President Buhari on ways to mitigate the dwindling fortunes of the party and quell the anxieties being felt by party stalwarts. "The state of affairs of the party, particularly its poor finances have been a regular item in the media. While there exists a funding stream that should normally come from collection of membership dues and contribution, the reality is that this is grossly insufficient. "It is embarrassing that a ruling party does not have funds to meet its basic needs. The National Caucus and NEC needs to urgently workout a sustainable funding model to enable the party to function properly," the letter read. The group revealed plans by some 'aggrieved' members of the APC ahead of the 2019 general elections. The youths urged President Buhari to reshuffle his cabinet. "The president needs to take more than a passing interest in the activities of the party and ensure that the party is supreme. There have been alleged schemes to remove the Partys National Chairman from office because of his perceived loyalty to Mr. President. "The alleged plot is aimed at achieving sinister political ends in the lead up to the 2019 General Elections. If the plan succeeds it will allow the sponsors install their stooges and hijack the party in the lead up to the election. This is a red flag that the president must take seriously and thwart. "Many federal government boards, agencies and parastatals appointees who were put in office by the immediate-past administration are still in office, they are not loyal to the APC which they feel had no hand in their emergence. "There is need to quickly review these appointments and replace them with qualified APC members. Vacant positions should thereafter be quickly filled with APC members who feel frustrated because they seem not to have benefitted from the victory of their party. It is also very necessary that these appointments have the heavy input of the APC national leadership to ensure that the right persons who worked for the Party are appointed," the group said. Meanwhile, the Save APC and Democracy Vanguard has called for Oyegun's sack. The state's incumbent governor, Willie Obiano of the All Progressives' Grand Alliance (APGA), will face stiff competition from Oseloka Obaze of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) and Tony Nwoye of the All Progressives' Congress (APC). Uju Uchendu Ozoka of the Action Alliance (AA) is one of five women contesting for the state's highest political office. Others are Oby Kate Okafor of the Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD), Adaeze Chizube Okafor of the Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA), Praise Okechukwu of the Mega Progressive People's Party (MPPP), and Nnaemeka Ifeoma Ezibe of the Young Progressive Party (YPP). Of all five, Ozoka is the only one with an all-female ticket with Theresa Nnalue as her running mate. With seven female running mates in total, there are 26 all-male contestants involved in the election. With the average age of all 37 governorship candidates being 50 years, Ifeanyichukwu Okonkwo of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) is the oldest at 64. The youngest candidates are Edochie Yul Chibuike of the Democratic People's Congress (DPC), Ndife Franklin Ikenna of the Independent Democratic (ID), Okafor Onyeka Christian of the Masses Movement Of Nigeria (MMN), and Ozoemena Nonso of the Young Democratic Party (YDP), all 35 years old. Here is a list of all the candidates released by INEC: 1. Willie Obiano - All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) Obiano is the incumbent governor of Anambra state and had to overcome internal party politics to retain the APGA's ticket. He's also retained his deputy, Nkemakonam C. Okeke, as his running mate. With the clear advantage of being the incumbent, he is poised to fend off strong competition and win reelection. 2. Oseloka Henry Obaze - People's Democratic Party (PDP) The 62-year-old is one of the election's biggest candidates. He's previously served as a United Nations(UN) diplomat and as Secretary to the State Government of Anambra State for three years under both former Governor Peter Obi and incumbent Governor Obiano. His running mate, Chidi Onyemelukwe, is also a formidable ally as a graduate of Law from the University of Wales and the daughter of former Vice President, Dr Alex Ekwueme. 3. Tony Nwoye - All Progressives' Congress (APC) With the might of the presidential ruling party behind him, Nwoye is one of the biggest contenders backed to win the race. The former president of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) failed in his last bid to become Anambra State governor with the PDP, as he came second. His running mate is Dozie Ikedife Arinze. 4. Godwin Chukwunaenye Ezeemo - Progressive People's Alliance (PPA) Ezeemo is the only major candidate from Anambra south and is considered strong enough to pull off an upset at the poll with his running mate, Prince Leonard Uchendu. The industrialist contested the state's last governorship election, also with the PPA, but lost at the polls. 5. Osita Chidoka - United Progressive Party (UPP) Chidoka is a former Minister of Aviation who is committed to transforming the public service in the state to meet the people's hopes and needs. He is also a notable supporter of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, as he drove him away from Kuje prison when he was released on bail in April 2017. He is one of the favourite candidates to win the election with Okeke Marcel Ogbonnaya as his running mate. 6. Uju Uchendu Ozoka - Action Alliance (AA) The 48-year-old lawyer and publisher emerged as the AA's consensus candidate after her only opponent failed the party's screening exercise. Her candidacy is the election's only all-female ticket after she chose Theresa Nnalue as her running mate. Her published works include Women And National Development (French And English), Nigeria Of My Dream, and Nigeria: Towards An Egalitarian Society. 7. Oby Kate Okafor - Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD) Running on the promise to right the failure of the menfolk to deliver the dividends of democracy to the people, the Nollywood actress turned politician won her party's ticket uncontested and chose Onyekwuluje Chidi Uzoma as her running mate. 8. Akunwata Ejoh Ojiba - Alliance Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) The retired Customs Officer has been a vocal voice during the campaign and is one of the seven candidates with a female running mate in Ebele Onyinye Angel. 9. Paul Chukwudi Obianaso - African Democratic Congress (ADC) The indigene of Oghalegbu in Ihiala Local Government Area of Anambra is also running for governor with Francis Amechi Agumadu as his running mate. 10. Ifeanyichukwu Okonkwo - Action Democratic Party (ADP) At 64, the Nnobi native is the oldest candidate contesting the governorship election with Nnadozie Ndujekwu Ike as his running mate. 11. Adaeze Chizube Okafor - Advanced People's Democratic Alliance (APDA) The graduate of Fine and Applied Arts from the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) is another one of the five female candidates contesting the Anambra governorship election. She defeated her rival during APDA's primaries, Izuegbu Chinedu Chima, by 390 to 3 votes. Her running mate is Oguejiofor Franklin. 12. Emmanuel Uchenna Nwibe - Democratic Alternative (DA) Nwibe is contesting the governorship election with the youngest running mate on the ballot paper in Okpezune Nnaemeka Kingsley who is 28 years old. 13. Edochie Yul Chibuike - Democratic People's Congress (DPC) Edochie is one of the most well-known candidates contesting the election as he's a Nollywood actor turned politician. The Dramatic Arts graduate from the University of Port Harcourt is the son of veteran actor, Pete Edochie, and, as one of the youngest candidates, has vowed to bring an end to the old order of politics that has denied the common people the true dividends of democracy. Okeke Oluchukwu is his running mate. 14. Onuorah Basil Onyeachonam - Green Party of Nigeria (GPN) The 38-year-old industrialist has promised to create three million jobs in four years if elected. His running mate is Chukwuanu Genevieve Nonye. 15. Samuel Osita Oraegbunam - Hope Democratic Party (HDP) Oraegbunam is a vocal critic of Governor Obiano and has promised to run a more transparent administration that'll cater to the common people. His running mate is Arthur Regis Odidika. 16. Ndife Franklin Ikenna - Independent Democratic (ID) The 35-year old farmer was elected unopposed to become his party's flag-bearer and has promised to break the state away from the 'retrogressive system' that has held it back from proper development. His running mate is Nwabude Stephen Jachike. 17. Praise Okechukwu - Mega Progressive People's Party (MPPP) Okechukwu is another female candidate contesting the election with Ugochukwu Emmanuel Ndubuisi as her running mate. 18. Benneth Abaniwu - National Democratic Liberty Party (NDLP) Abaniwu is a renowned hotelier who is also contesting the election, with Peter Chudi Okoye as his running mate. 19. Nnoli Amechi Justin - National Unity Party (NUP) The 54-year-old Nnoli has worked for the presidential campaigns of former President Goodluck Jonathan and incumbent, President Muhammadu Buhari (2002-2011), and he believes it is God's wish for him to lead Anambra State. His running mate is Agbata Martin Ikechukwu. 20. Peter Chibike - People for Democratic Change (PDC) The 44-year-old believes Anambra needs someone with passion, foresight and strength to take it to the next level of development, and that he represents that perfectly. His running mate is Okudo Christian Chukwuemeka. 21. Kenneth Ejike Modezie - People's Progressive Party (PPP) Pastor Modezie, a former bank manager, has promised to ensure that Anambra's children and youths have access to quality education at least from primary to secondary school levels. He contested for a House of Representatives position in 2011 but lost. His running mate is Chinweze Ogechukwu. 22. Stephen Obiorah Mbah - People's Redemption Party (PRP) The industrialist and self-acclaimed "servant leader" has promised to transform the state into an economic powerhouse if he's victorious with his running mate, Onyejiaka Norbert Anabalaonye. 23. Ozoemena Nonso - Young Democratic Party (YDP) Ozoemena is another 35-year-old contestant that considers his candidacy to be a revolution against the old order of Nigerian politics as he's bent on providing the sort of leadership that Anambra deserves. Ugochukwu Nwofor is his running mate. Other candidates with very little known about them are: 24. Nnaemeka Ifeoma Ezibe - Young Progressive Party (YPP) Running mate: Odiniru Chigozie Faminus 25. Nweke Christopher Chukwudubem - African Peoples Party (APP) Running mate: Akabike Ifeanyichukwu 26. Ohanugo Ikem Cecil - Better Nigeria Progressive Party (BNPP) Running mate: Eze Nnabuike Ogbonna 27. Ifeanyi l. Obalum - Social Democratic Party (SDP) Running mate: Clement Chukwuraa Okafor 28. Stanley Uche Ezeanyaku - United Democratic Party (UDP) Running mate: EricChijioke Enemo 29. Henry Ikechukwu Onuorah - People's Party of Nigeria (PPN) Running mate: Igboanusi Glory Ugochi 30. Felix A.R. Obi-Okafor - Nigeria Elements Progressive Party (NEPP) Running mate: Nneka Anasudu 31. Okafor Charles Ogbonna - New Nigeria People's Party (NNPP) Running mate: Okolie Oliver Elvis 32. Val. Okey Oguejiofor - Nigeria People's Congress (NPC) Running mate: Okafor Ejike Samuel 33. Chinedu Uzoma Okpalanma - National Conscience Party (NCP) Running mate: Chukwuma Ivan Egeonu 34. Rufus Okeke Sunday Ezeokolonkwor - Kowa Party Running mate: Ezeonyirimba Charles Izuchukwu 35. Christian Okechukwu Enemuo - Labour Party (LP) Running mate: Okoye Obi Vincent 36. Okafor Onyeka Christian - Masses Movement Of Nigeria (MMN) Running mate: Onwuka Osita 37. Nwezi Felix Amechi - All Grand Alliance Party (AGAP) "A combination of Anne Frank and a train conjures up the image of persecution of Jews and deportations during World War II," the Amsterdam-based foundation said in a statement. Frank and her family hid in a secret annexe in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War. They evaded capture and deportation until they were possibly betrayed in August 1944 and Anne and her sister were sent to Bergen-Belsen where they died in early 1945. The rail company had asked for suggestions of who to dedicate their new ICE high-speed trains to. A jury including two historians chose Frank from a shortlist of 25 names, out of a total of 19,000 proposals for candidates. The suggestions included former German Chancellor Conrad Adenauer as well as Hans and Sophie Scholl, two German students who were executed by the Nazis for their role in the resistance. Iris Eberl, an MP in the CSU, the Bavarian sister party of Chancelor Angela Merkel's conservatives, tweeted "naming a train after Anne Frank is callous" in reference to Frank's deportation by rail. Berlin-based Deutsche Bahn said the move was "in no way intended to damage the memory of Anne Frank." "Rather, the DB, conscious of its historical responsibility, decided to keep the name of Anne Frank alive," it said in a statement. "The DB profusely apologises if anybody's feelings were hurt," it added, saying suggestions "came from DB customers and committed citizens." The company will "take seriously the concern currently expressed by the public and will hold internal discussions, with the blessing of Jewish organisations," it said. Stoltenberg is in Tokyo to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other senior officials including defence minister Itsunori Onodera later in the day. "We are as concerned as you are about the provocative, reckless behaviour from North Korea," he said in a speech to a group of security experts and defence officials. "It is really dangerous, it poses a direct threat to countries in this region (including) Japan, but it is also a global threat," he added. Pyongyang has sparked global alarm in recent months by conducting its sixth nuclear test and test-launching missiles capable of reaching the US mainland, while US president Donald Trump and the North's young ruler Kim Jong-Un have traded threats of war and personal insults. It fired two projectiles over northern Japan in less than a month, ringing alarm bells in Tokyo as Abe called for a get-tough approach towards Pyongyang. "NATO strongly support political, diplomatic, economic pressure on North Korea and we welcome the strengthening of the sanctions" adopted by the UN Security Council in September, Stoltenberg said. "But even more important, we need to be sure that the sanctions are fully and transparently implemented," he added. Stoltenberg's visit comes after Abe met with him in Brussels in July to agree on boosting security cooperation. "We know and you know that (North Korea's missile) ranges reach the west coast of the United State and the ranges reach most of Europe," he said Monday. But the NATO chief warned this month that military action against Pyongyang would have "devastating consequences", after Trump said diplomatic efforts had failed. Stoltenberg has stressed that Washington had the right to defend itself and its allies but called for greater diplomatic efforts. "We don't have to use military force -- peaceful resolution is the aim," he said Monday. Here is an outline of what we know about the indictments and charges. Who's been charged? Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort is the highest-profile figure in the president's orbit to face charges in the probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller. The White House has said Manafort, who began working for the campaign in March 2016 and resigned under pressure five months later, "played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time." Manafort, 68, pleaded not guilty Monday afternoon hours after he and business partner Rick Gates turned themselves in to the FBI. Gates, 45, is a Manafort business partner who served as Manafort's deputy during the campaign. While Manafort was forced out, Gates reportedly stayed on, with a role in the presidential transition team. George Papadopoulos -- who pleaded guilty on October 5 to making false statements, according to court documents unsealed Monday -- was a foreign policy advisor on Trump's campaign. In 2016 he met with Russia contacts and sought meetings between Trump campaign officials and members of Russian President Vladimir Putin's office. The guilty plea by Papadopoulos, who was arrested July 27, is seen as the sharpest evidence yet of possible collusion between the campaign and Russia. What are the charges? A 31-page indictment details 12 charges against Manafort and Gates, including conspiracy against the United States and conspiracy to launder money. The two stand accused of hiding millions of dollars earned working for former Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovych and his pro-Moscow political party, and avoiding paying taxes on the income. Manafort and Gates were also charged with not filing reports of foreign bank accounts, and not registering as agents of a foreign power as they lobbied the US government on behalf of Ukraine. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to making false statements, and hiding contacts with a Moscow-linked professor offering "dirt" on Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton. Trump's reaction The president has long dismissed the Russia investigation as "fake news." He reacted dismissively to Monday's announcements, even seeking to turn attention to Clinton. "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" he posted on Twitter. "Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" Several Democratic lawmakers warned Trump Monday not to interfere with Mueller's probe. The White House said he had no plans to change the special counsel. Explosive highlights Papadopoulos confessed he had lied to FBI investigators about his extensive meetings with Russian contacts and his efforts to, in the words of the court document, "arrange a meeting between the Campaign and Russian government officials." He emailed Trump campaign contacts saying he had met with a female Russian national whom he described as "Putin's niece," in an effort to coordinate a meeting between the campaign and "Russian leadership." Papadopoulos admitted that in April 2016 he met with a professor claiming close contacts to Russian officials who had obtained "dirt" on Clinton, as well as "thousands" of her emails. The Manafort indictment details brazen illegal activity. The pair moved more than $75 million through offshore accounts and shell companies between 2006 and 2016. WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. Purdue University researchers pursuing a way to repurpose high-definition Blu-ray technology, popular for watching videos and listening to music, to diagnose early-stage cancers and monitor their treatments have received nearly $200,000 in state and federal grants. Cytomics Analytical LLC, led by J. Paul Robinson, the SVM Professor of Cytomics in Purdue's College of Veterinary Medicine and professor in Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, has received a National Institutes of Health Phase I Small Business Innovation Research Grant, also known as Americas Seed Fund, for $147,364. The company also has received a $50,000 grant from the Indiana Economic Development Corp. We were finally able to convince someone at NIH that this is worthwhile, Robinson said. It seems improbable that you could do this, but we have conducted extensive research and are confident it will work and it will be revolutionary. The funding will be used to develop a low-cost diagnosis platform called MY-Blu that will use high-resolution measuring devices in Blu-ray to find nanoparticles released in blood in early stages of cancer, as well as from many syndromes, Robinson said. Though it is technologically challenging to accurately detect particles smaller than 100 nanometers, Blu-ray technology has shown promise in detecting particles that are 10 nanometers to 20 nanometers. Cancer cells break down when they are attacked by the immune system and release these microparticles. But we cant see them unless we use very expensive equipment, like an electron microscope, and it takes a lot of time, he said. If those microparticles are important, we ought to be able to find and identify them very quickly. We believe our modifications to Blu-ray technology will allow us to achieve this. Robinson said most technology cant be used to try to detect microparticles because the particles are so small they dont reflect light. But he believes Blu-ray devices, which are optical disc data storage units designed to replace DVDs and already in many peoples homes around the world, can be repurposed to detect these microparticles. The grants specifically will be used to adapt Blu-ray devices to detect fluorescent molecules attached to the nanoparticles. Once we do that, we can show proof of principle that this works, Robinson said. The challenge is repurposing the Blu-ray technology to do something it wasnt intended to do. Robinson said what gives him confidence it can be done is that his chief technology officer, Masanobu Yamamoto, an adjunct professor in Basic Medical Sciences in Purdues College of Veterinary Medicine, who is a former lead engineer for the Sony Corp. and played a key role in developing Blu-ray technology. He is Mr. Blu-ray, because he's one of maybe a half-dozen people in the entire world who fully understand how this technology actually works. He's recognized that we can take this technology and completely repurpose it, Robinson said. We have adopted some unique features of the technology that have never been used for the purposes we intend and designed electronics to reveal key signals. Among the challenges Robinson and Yamamoto had to overcome was developing a sensor that could accurately measure signals from a particle that was over 10 billionths of a meter in size. You discover that you have to develop components that you thought would have been out there, Robinson said. The cost of finding these nanoparticles using an approach Yamamoto calls Optical Phase Detection will be low because Blu-ray devices are already mass produced, Robinson said. Cytomics Analytical has applied for patents to use MY-Blu technology to search for pre-cancer, and several other important diseases. The company is based in West Lafayette and has received help in its work from the Purdue Research Foundation. About Purdue Research Foundation The Purdue Research Foundation is a private, nonprofit foundation created to advance the mission of Purdue University. Established in 1930, the foundation accepts gifts; administers trusts; funds scholarships and grants; acquires property; protects Purdue's intellectual property; and promotes entrepreneurial activities on behalf of Purdue. The foundation manages the Purdue Foundry, Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization, Purdue Research Park and Purdue Technology Centers. The foundation received the 2016 Innovation and Economic Prosperity Universities Award for Innovation from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities. For more information about funding and investment opportunities in startups based on a Purdue innovation, contact the Purdue Foundry at foundry@prf.org. Purdue Research Foundation contact: Tom Coyne, 765-588-1044, tjcoyne@prf.org Source: J. Paul Robinson, 765-494-6449, jpr@flowcyt.cyto.purdue.edu WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. The Susan Bulkeley Butler Leadership Excellence Award was presented to the president of Uruguay and an oncologist at Indiana University during the International Breast Cancer Prevention Symposium, co-organized by the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research in partnership with the International Breast Cancer and Nutrition collaboration, in Montevideo, Uruguay. Tabare Vazquez, the president of Uruguay, has been leading major health reforms in his country for the last two decades. As a radiation oncologist, he has taught oncology at the University of the Republic since 1987 and served as chief of the radiotherapy service of the National Institute of Oncology of the Ministry of Public Health since 1981. He was instrumental in making Uruguay the first country in Latin America to ban smoking in indoor public spaces. In recognition of his efforts, Uruguay was chosen for this years World Health Organization Summit on Noncommunicable Diseases. Vazquez met with a group of IBCN leaders from Purdue University (Sophie Lelievre of the Department of Basic Medical Sciences), the French National School of Public Health, the American University of Beirut and Taiwan Academia Sinica to receive the Susan Bulkeley Butler Leadership Excellence Award. Anna Maria Storniolo is an oncologist at Indiana University Simon Cancer Center. She founded Indianas first Breast Cancer Prevention Program, which provides individualized counseling and surveillance to hundreds of women at high risk for breast cancer. Storniolo also is the founder and executive director of the Susan G. Komen Tissue Bank at IU Simon Cancer Center, a unique resource of annotated breast samples from healthy volunteers. The Susan Bulkeley Butler Leadership Excellence Award was established in 2011 by the International Breast Cancer and Nutrition collaboration at Purdue University with the support Purdue alumna Susan Bulkeley Butler. The award recognizes individuals who distinguish themselves by providing exceptional mentorship to women students and scientists in the field of breast cancer. Nominees have an outstanding track record of mentorship in supporting, encouraging, and promoting women students and scientists in their research, education, professional and personal development. Butler is a former Purdue trustee and CEO of the Susan Bulkeley Butler Institute for the Development of Women Leaders. She also is a visionary delegate for Vision 2020, a national project focused on advancing gender equality, and a member of the Dean's Advisory Council in Purdue's Krannert School of Management. Writer: Kayla Zacharias, 765-494-9318, kzachar@purdue.edu Source: Sophie A. Lelievre, 765.496.7793, lelievre@purdue.edu I had alternate plans for today's sermonette, but I got caught walking down Memory Lane, and here I am. Saturday past was Ernie Mims' 85th birthday. Ernie and I are Facebook friends. Ernie who, you ask? Anyone who watched afternoon television locally between 1965 and 1974 -- specifically, WOC-TV 6 -- knows Ernie Mims served as the famous Cap'n Ernie, he of Dixie Belle Riverboat fame. Cap'n Ernie was cool and smooth, long before cool and smooth formed a union. He was modest and able to laugh at himself. He was the one person other than your parents or a favorite teacher who could make you stop each time he had something to say. He was, for nine years, the best baby-sitter a busy mother could have, the best companion for a child waiting for his parents to get home. I am aware those days were simpler times. Kids back then came home from school, changed into "play'' clothes, and found some outside -- yes, outside -- activity to engage in. Then we caught Cap'n Ernie, followed by the gone-by-the-wayside ritual of dinner as a family. Family dinner, for those of you younger than 35, was an evening meal some folks shared in the olden days. I'm told family dinners still happen, but only on Sundays, or maybe on TV's "Blue Bloods." For an hour each day, Cap'n Ernie piloted the Dixie Belle, played host to a studio audience of 45 kids, and offered cartoons. I watched for the reruns of "The Three Stooges" and with the hope that the good captain would draw my name from his filled-to-the-brim Treasure Chest. A variety of neat prizes were given away on every Cap'n Ernie show. Kids ages 5 to 13 sent cards bearing their names to the station to fill the Treasure Chest. At best guess, I sent Cap'n Ernie a dozen cards through the years, but never did I have the good fortune of being a member of his studio audience or winning a Treasure Chest prize. I did, however, make my television debut on WHBF's "Grandpa Happy Show," which -- with respect to "Grandpa Happy" fans -- was a secondary entity to the great Cap'n Ernie's show. Mims, it should be noted, was a local celebrity, though he never big-timed anyone. Once I waited in line at a Davenport pizza restaurant to get a signed photo from the good captain. I asked him to check and make sure my postcards were still inside the Treasure Chest, and that I was still eligible to win something. He gave me his word, and I believed he kept his end of the bargain, because Cap'n Ernie is a straight shooter. Wikipedia says Ernie Memos (Mims) grew up in New Hampshire and served as a trumpet player in the United States Air Force Band. He reached the Quad-Cities after a TV stint in Galesburg and held other positions at WOC, including hosting a cartoon show on Sundays. I was shocked to learn Mims was the fourth overall Dixie Belle captain. He was by far the most popular and most memorable. The show ran until August 1974. None of the 2,600 live episodes was archived. Mims stayed in the Quad-Cities area for years but now lives in Florida, according to Facebook. I recall subbing for a local talk-radio host several years back and getting the chance to interview Mims about his days on local TV. He was kind and gracious, while I was a nervous wreck. After all, I was talking to the famous Cap'n Ernie. Alongside Abellio Rail Cymru, KeolisAmey, and MTR Corporation (Cymru), Arriva Rail Wales was invited by the Welsh government on September 28 to submit a final offer for the next franchise. It is not uncommon for bidders for major projects to withdraw during the tender process and Arriva have been clear they have done this for their own commercial reasons, Transport for Wales said in a statement. Arriva is the operator of the current Wales & Borders franchise, which began in 2003 and expires in October 2018. The Welsh government expects to announce the successful bidder for the new franchise early next year. The 160km/h trains are initially being used on services between Kiyevskaya and Vnukovo International Airport, and will also be introduced on services from Moscow Paveletsky to Domodedovo International Airport during November. By the end of next month, four trains will be in operation on Vnukovo services, with seven sets in use on the Domodedovo line. In February 2013, Aeroexpress awarded Stadler a 381m contract to supply nine six-car and 16 four-car trains, which were originally due to be introduced in May 2015. However, with the decline in the value of the Russian Rouble, Aeroexpress renegotiated its contract with Stadler and subsequently reduced the order to 16 sets. Five of the nine sets no longer required by Aeroexpress were sold to Azerbaijan Railways (ADY), while Georgian Railways agreed to purchase the remaining four. The six-car trains seat 700 passengers, including 84 in business class, while the four-car variant seats 396. Most of the trains were assembled at Stadlers plant in Minsk, Belarus. Welcome to Railway Gazette. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. By continuing to browse this site you are agreeing to our use of these cookies. You can learn more about the cookies we use here. OK Ombudsman Kuznetsova opposes to childrens participation in trials MOSCOW, October 30 (RAPSI) - Russia's children's rights commissioner has opposed to adoption of a bill that allows minors participation in civil trials, according to the ombudsmans press service. Kuznetsova is going to hand a petition on this issue to the lower house of parliament. On Monday, childrens rights ombudsman discussed the necessity of a more careful analysis of the bill passed in the first reading on October 20 with the head of the State Duma Committee for Issues of Family, Women and Children Tamara Pletneva. Kuznetsovas claims are connected with amendments proposed to the Civil Procedure Code envisaging that children above 10 years may be questioned without participation of their parents, the ombudsmans press office told RAPSI. According to the children's rights commissioner, the bill does not contain valid arguments that children in age from 10 to 14 have sufficient level of understanding for independent testimony in court. Kuznetsova believes that participation in trial especially in divorce proceedings may adversely impact childrens mind, the statement reads. Currently, children under 14 are represented in courts by their parents or lawful guardians, but not attorneys as proposed in the bill. Number of "foreign agents" NGOs decreases by half Putin MOSCOW, October 30 (RAPSI) Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the number of NGOs listed as foreign agents had dropped almost two times, from 165 to 89, the official website of the President reads. During his meeting with the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, Putin noted that foreign agents form only 0.39% of all NGOs registered in Russia and that in 2017 authorities included four times less organizations in the list. Putin noted that NGOs can leave the foreign agents list either through halting political activity or cancelling foreign financing and that organizations tend to choose the latter. He added that in recent five years NGOs received support estimated at over 22 billion rubles (about $382.6 million) from Presidential subsidies alone and that annual financing increased by seven times. The law adopted in November 2012 requires that all NGOs engaged in political activity and receiving foreign funding register as foreign agents. Under the amendments to the law adopted in 2016, political activity is linked to such fields as state-building, securing Russias sovereignty and territorial integrity, enforcement of law, order and security, national defense, foreign policy, political system integrity, social and economic and national development of the country, regulation of rights and freedoms of man and citizen. NGOs which are engaged in organization and holding of public events, including meetings, manifestations, demonstrations, discussions and performances would be deemed to be involved in political activity. Moreover, those NGOs which are involved in work aimed at achieving certain results during elections or referendum, vote monitoring practices, establishment of election commissions or support of political parties would also be put on the list of those organizations which are engaged in political activity. Russian oldest human rights activist offers to recreate Presidents pardon board MOSCOW, October 30 (RAPSI) - Human rights campaigner Lyudmila Alexeyeva, 90, on Monday proposed to recreate the Presidential pardon board. The initiative was announced during the meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with members of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights. Pardoning is a prerogative power of the head of the state, Alexeyeva stated. According to the human rights campaigner, from 1996 to 2001, when the relevant commission existed, 36,901 convicts were pardoned. Later, from 2002 to 2016, only 890 inmates were pardoned, she said. Alexeyeva believes that Russias Ombudsman Tatiana Moskalkova could form the board. Hindutva, explained Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923, is not a word, but a history. It was introduced in a lengthy pamphlet, Essentials of Hindutva, which Savarkar wrote on the walls of his prison cell, and re-published in 1928 under the new title Hindutva: Who is a Hindu? A Hindu, Savarkar declared, means a person who regards this land of Bharat Varsha a name for ancient India used in the Puranas, a set of foundational Hindu texts as his Fatherland as well as his Holy-Land, that is the cradle land of his religion. The term Hindutva, which Savarkar coined by adding the Sanskrit suffix -tva (equivalent to the English -ness) to the adjective Hindu, rebranded Hinduism Hindu-ness as a nationalist ideology, a political groundswell formulated along ethnic lines. Savarkar wrote: The Hindus are not merely the citizens of the Indian state because they are united not only by the bonds of the love they bear to a common motherland but also by the bonds of a common blood. They are not only a Nation but also a race (jati). Hindutva recast multi-faith India as the Hindu homeland, giving Hindus a unique claim to the country. As a 20-something law student living in England, Savarkar was charged with plotting against the British monarchy after aiding in the assassination of a British civil servant. Extradited back to India in 1911, Savarkar received two life terms. Through a series of confinements beginning in the Andaman Islands, home to a brutal penal colony, then in a port city prison near the Arabian Sea in Maharashtra Savarkar plotted his political manifesto. It is difficult to imagine that the pain of colonial incarceration did not shape the fervour of his tract, which laid out a long, historically fanciful rationale for Hindu supremacy. Hindutva represented a hardline form of Hindu nationalism, in which Muslims appeared as bellicose invaders. Nations and civilisations fell in heaps before the sword of Islam of Peace!! writes Savarkar. But here India alone had to face Arabs, Persians, Pathans, Baluchis, Tartars, Turks, Moguls a veritable human Sahara whirling and columning up bodily in a furious world storm! As anti-colonial movements gained ground during the last decades of British rule in India, Hindu nationalism became the default expression of reclaimed political power. Indian Muslims, who made up a third of the country before the creation of Pakistan in 1947, saw themselves as sidelined from independence movements, leading to the 1906 creation of the Muslim League, a separate political party that would later advocate for an independent Muslim state. Unlike future leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, who made a point of Muslim inclusion, proponents of Hindutva disapproved of non-Hindu outreach, a process known in India as appeasement. (Such was Savarkars aversion to Gandhis approach that he was implicated in his assassination in 1948.) Britain no longer dominates India, but for supporters of Hindutva, the countrys prime antagonists are still non-Hindu Indians, chiefly Muslims. And the coinage has stuck. Almost a century later, Savarkars writings remain a fount of inspiration for those who still seek to unify India under a putatively pan-Hindu banner. In India, the ideology of Hindutva is experiencing a second act, proving itself inextinguishable. The book is today a Bible for Hindu nationalists, wrote the journalist Uday Mahurkar of Savarkars tract in 2015. The politics of Indias current administration are still greatly informed by the young law students vision of a Hindu nation. Savarkar has become more relevant today, said Amit Shah, president of Indias ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (the Right-wing BJP) earlier this year. We have to apprise the youths and generation next of his freedom fight and literary work. Just two years after the release of Essentials of Hindutva, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was founded as a volunteer paramilitary organisation dedicated to advancing Savarkars platform of Hindu unity and promoting Hindu causes. It is often called the BJPs ideological parent. In 2014, the self-styled populist Narendra Modi, an RSS member, won Indias general elections. Modi ran on a platform of neoliberal development schemes wedded to a Right-wing Hindu nationalist agenda. His ascent to prime minister marked a shocking victory, which foreshadowed Donald Trumps rise to power. In 2008, while still chief minister of Gujarat a tenure darkened by his suspected complicity in the brutal anti-Muslim pogroms of 2002 Modi launched a website dedicated to archiving Savarkars thoughts [which] touch upon every aspect of nation-building and are relevant even today. In 2016, on the 133rd anniversary of Savarkars birth, Modi Tweeted out a salute to the true son of Mother India using his popular honorific Veer, meaning brave. Like Savarkar, the BJP presupposes an elemental Hindu-ness, survivor of myriad foreign onslaughts. It weathered the storms of invaders, from the Greeks to the Huns to the Islamic armies of Turks and Afghans, states the BJP website. It fought and resisted external oppression, and its essential civilisation and culture survived great challenges and attempts at effacement. Singled out for special opprobrium is the Holocaust that Muslims reaped on Hindus during centuries of Mughal rule (1526-1857). For decades, the BJP has been committed to giving Hindus a unified country, which they have already partially achieved through the consolidation of Hindu voting blocs. BJP now wields control over 18 out of 29 states. The Hindu nationalist vision of India hinges on an imagined, culturally pure Vedic golden age, a Hindu rashtra, or nation. Its usually represented by the ancient kingdom of Ram, the godly hero of Indias national epic, the Ramayana. The BJP gained popular support in the 1980s by launching a campaign against the Babri Masjid, a 16th-century Mughal-built mosque in the northern city of Ayodhya, claiming that it had been built over a shrine marking Rams birthplace. In 1992, Hindu rioters, incited by politicians, stormed the mosque. The resurgence of Hindutva was spurred, in part, by Indias transformation from a socialist to a market economy. The demolition of the Babri Masjid directly followed the 1991 economic liberalisation of India, which quadrupled the countrys GDP by opening up to foreign investment and adopting a policy of trickle-down economics. With widening income gaps and a barrage of foreign goods, Savarkars writings, which denounced caste divisions and emphasised cultural nationalism over economic equality, held a new appeal. The lure of a harmonious, Hindu-helmed past served as a galvanising fiction, propelling the ideology of Hindutva to mainstream acceptability. BJP leaders are still focused on having Rams temple reinstated. This motive of return to a purer, idealised nation informs the Hindutva claim to the Indian nation as a unique Hindu homeland. In the opening pages of Essentials of Hindutva, Savarkar alludes to the fair Maid of Verona. He quibbles with Juliet over the importance of names: Forgive us for this our idolatrous attachment to it when we make bold to assert that: Hindus we are and love to remain so! To Savarkar, Hindutva is at once precise and collective, both expansive and exclusionary. The word gave a title to political Hinduism, recasting Hinduism as a distinct national form for India. Hindutva still offers Hindu-ness as a deep, shared identity, borne out of an unbroken lineage. In the Hindutva ideal, Hinduism represents a vast, encompassing reality, a subcontinental cultural ethos that is not reliant on faith (Savarkar himself was an atheist). Hindutva secularises Hinduism, relying on a heavily mythologised golden age and, as is common to nationalist stories, a fictitiously unified past. Hindutva introduced a nationalist history of Indian greatness and unity, in which all acknowledged the authority of the nation. Since the publication of his pamphlet, Savarkar, like the myths to which his vision of India defaulted, has also been memorialised, aggrandised and revered. In the Andaman Islands, where Savarkar carried out the harshest years of his sentence, the Veer Savarkar International Airport now greets arrivals. The BJP will soon adorn his small cell with a plaque in praise of the freedom fighter who challenged British rule in India and whose ideology of Hindutva now, a century later, has both united the country and set it bitterly at odds. Ariel Sophia Bardi This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons. Property details: A little piece of Hearth Tujunga, Ca. Los Angeles County Land is located in and very unique area. This is a perfect location to own land in Los Angeles. Electric power, Water and gas are available nearby. Check with City of LA for any plans. Beautiful Lot with sweeping views in every direction (mountains, canyons). This property is calling for someone with a desire to be in a secluded private area of the Crest in Tujunga. Great location, less than a 5-minute drive to Foothill Boulevard and near ... Price: $ 2,405 State/Province: California Seller State of Residence: California Location: 928**, Orange, California You will be redirected to eBay Nearby California Property details: Welcome to Southern California's Playground of the Rich and Famous Big Bear Lake NO MINIMUM / NO RESERVE HIGH BID OWNS LOT For almost one hundred years, the Big Bear Lake area has been the primary mountain resort in Southern California. The 782 acre Alpine Lake, nestled at an altitude of 5108', is often described as the jewel of Southern California. The fresh mountain air and four-season climate is unmatched in Southern California. Part of the San Bernadino National Forest, the lot for auction i... Price: $ 480 Seller State of Residence: Florida Property Address: Avenue " H " State/Province: California Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential Location: , Big Bear Lake, California You will be redirected to eBay Nearby Residential By Elizabeth Kwiatkowski, 10/30/2017 ADVERTISEMENT Elizabeth Kwiatkowski is Associate Editor of Reality TV World and has been covering the reality TV genre for more than a decade. , We're sorry, this article is not currently available Nearly triple the size of the opening act, pop-orchestral duo Gracie and Rachel, San Fermin filled the stage with eight performers who slid past one another with such ease that the small stage seemed to pose no hindrance. Even though the powers of the board of directors stand suspended once a companys insolvency process begins, it does not absolve the directors from actions taken up to two years earlier. Under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), appointment of a resolution professional marks the onset of insolvency resolution in a debtor company. The powers of the board of directors of the company under duress stand suspended. This power is then vested and exercised in the professional, appointed by the National Company Law Tribunal. However, this move does not absolve the directors from actions taken up to two years prior to commencement of the resolution process. Often referred to as twilight zone under insolvency terminology, this period of look back of 12 months for regular transactions and 24 months for related party transactions - could come back to haunt many existing directors in the boards of companies going through financial stress and eventually entering the insolvency resolution process. Corporate law experts say there is a significant shift in a directors duties when a company is faced with the risk of insolvency. When a company is financially stable the primary duty of a director under the Companies Act is to promote its success with reference to the interests of all shareholders. However, under IBC, the discharge of duties by directors in the twilight period is with reference to the best interest of the creditors, says Sumant Batra, managing partner & head, insolvency practice, Kesar Dass B & Associates. The decisions taken in this period by the directors and officers of the enterprise could significantly influence or impact the outcome of the insolvency process when the debtor or the creditors formally commence it, he says. Experts say it is equally important for insolvency practitioners, debtor and creditors to be fully aware of the period that constitutes the twilight zone and the implication of actions taken by directors during this period. After commencement of the resolution process, the directors have to conduct themselves as per the provisions of the insolvency law, he adds. The Code allows a board member to support the resolution process at the request of the insolvency professional. The shift in a directors duties in the twilight period from maximising the interest of all shareholders to one that protects the interest of creditors could be tricky, say experts. When a company is on the verge of insolvency, there is an incentive for directors to protect their own and shareholders interests, knowing the downside risk would fall wholly on the creditors. Risky actions by a director at that point of time could seriously reduce the value of assets of a company, point out insolvency professionals. The Code looks at all the actions of the debtor company from the point of view of whether these were carried out with intent to defraud creditors, says Sanjay Doshi, partner, KPMG in India. So, what should the director in a financially-stressed company do when taking a call on whether his or her action is guided by best interests of the shareholders or the creditors? According to Sai Venkateshwaran, partner and head of accounting advisory services, KPMG in India, several indicators of potential financial stress could be visible through key financial and non-financial metrics that are relevant for each business. It is important for the directors, including the audit committee, to closely evaluate these, especially when evaluating the validity of the going concern assumption for the company, he says. Legal experts say it is not possible to exempt a director from liability for negligence, default, breach of duty or breach of trust. However, a company can include an indemnity in favour of directors within its Article of Association in respect of any liabilities, costs, charges and expenses incurred in execution and discharge of their duties. However, no indemnity or insurance is available in respect of fraudulent trading, adds Batra. Obtaining Directors and Officers (D&O) insurance cover is not mandatory under law. However it is becoming a popular tool to mitigate some of the risks that independent directors (IDs) are exposed to. The extent of protection available to IDs would vary case-to-case, depending on the type and extent of the D&O cover, says Venkateshwaran. Experts say to satisfy their legal obligations, directors should keep the companys position under constant review when in the zone of insolvency. They have to ensure that action taken by the company is not contrary to the best interests of the creditors. Sometimes, timely advice from an insolvency expert can prevent serious consequences for directors and the enterprise at a later time, says Batra. Lawyers may be consulted to determine whether any proposed transactions are inappropriate and could be the subject of scrutiny or expose the decision maker to risk. Directors must consider the company's financial situation before incurring further liabilities or agreeing to large compensation or pension packages for departing management, adds Batra. As a confidence building measure, directors should keep major creditors and investors informed of their actions, suggest insolvency professionals. Directors of listed companies should ensure they make the appropriate disclosures regarding going concern status and the liquidity risks, they add. Regular board meetings should be held as soon as the directors become aware that the company might be in financial difficulties. Legal experts say directors should insist on detailed minutes of these meetings and their discussions. If a director is not satisfied with the operations of a company, he or she may as a final step consider resigning from the board. However, resignation ahead of the insolvency process does not absolve the directors of any liability/penalty relating to their actions, says Venkateshwaran. A director has to demonstrate that he or she acted diligently, including documenting decisions that do not have his or her consent or connivance, he adds. Photograph: Joshua Lott/Reuters Why should India buy olives from Europe when it could do so from the world's largest producers? Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and Syria are among the top olive producers in the world, but India imports the exotic fruit mainly from Europe. In a bid to bridge this gap in trade and investment opportunities, India is in the final stages of setting up a joint Business Council with the 22 countries of the Arab League. The move would help expedite talks on a free-trade pact with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which comprises six important economies of West Asia: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The proposed Business Council will have representation from all 22 Arab countries and help revive our economic ties with the region. "Already these countries are getting Indian goods through re-exports from the UAE or Europe. So why not let the private sector of these economies sit together and explore direct trade and investment opportunities? said a government official. The ministry of external affairs is learnt to have given its clearance to the business forum, and is in the process of getting approval from the Registrar of Companies. Thereafter, these 22 countries and India would nominate representatives. If you have to buy olives, they will not come from these countries but from Europe. "This is just one example of the range of opportunities that the private sector can explore directly, said the official. Similarly, Morocco, Algeria, and Jordan are buying things from India indirectly through re-exports from the UAE and Europe. India representatives would include top Indian companies and business associations. The forum would run parallel to government-to-government talks, and give an impetus to trade. Indias exports to West Asian economies barring the GCC accounts for just 2.8 per cent of its total, and saw a reduction of 0.05 per cent in 2016-17 at $7.8 billion. Imports from the region account for seven per cent of Indias inbound shipments and grew 24 per cent last year at $25 billion. The Business Council is expected to help fast track talks on a free-trade agreement with the GCC. Five countries, barring Saudi Arabia, are keen to start talks. The GCC is the immediate neighbourhood of India, separated only by the Arabian Sea. It is Indias largest trading partner, accounting for 15 per cent of Indias exports and 14 per cent of imports. More than half of Indias oil and gas come from the GCC countries. Saudi Arabia is learnt to have asked India to expedite the clearance of 11 anti-dumping cases in order to move forward on the free-trade agreement. We have already cleared nine cases and have assured Riyadh to clearing the remaining two as well, added another official. The proposed Business Council would also work as a gateway to Africa and help Indian companies forge stronger trade ties with countries there. Besides, Indian businesses could also leverage on value chains emerging out of the Greater Arab Free-Trade Agreement, which facilitates trade among 17 of the Arab League countries at concessional or zero tariffs. Similarly, many of these economies including Jordan have free-trade pacts with the US, Canada, and the European Union, among others, which could be leveraged by Indian businesses setting up production there. Although Jordan doesnt sound very significant in terms of trade, there are 21 Indian textile companies in Jordan that export to the EU and the US, as they have trade agreements with Jordan. Similar synergies could be explored, said a third official in the know. He added Indian companies could also play a big role in the reconstruction of Syria and Iraq. This forum could help build confidence in companies to play a significant role in rebuilding countries like Syria and Iraq. The forum will provide a sense of surety, said the third official. The key sectors in the Arab League to look out for would be agri products, meat, cereals, engineering, and textiles. The Council would help Indian companies showcase their products in West Asia and Africa, said Ajay Sahai, director-general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations. From an investment perspective, Indian companies could do part production in West Asia and export to the EU or US to leverage on the free-trade agreements they have with those countries, Sahai added. Photograph: Abd El Ghany/Reuters. Infosys had told the group of ministers it would expand its 100 member team to speed up the bug fixes. Alnoor Peermohamed reports. Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com Infosys is yet to fix all the technical glitches on the Goods and Services Tax Network even as the deadline to do so will end on October 31. The Bengaluru-based software major built the technology network for GST and is also responsible for maintaining it. Out of the 27 technical glitches on GSTN, that were to be fixed by Infosys by this month end, only 18 of them have been operationalised so far, said the group of ministers mandated to look into the issue. The GoM, led by Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, was formed after states complained about large-scale glitches in the GST network. In its meeting with the GoM on October 25, Infosys had told the group it would expand its 100-member team to speed up the bug fixes. According to the GoM, the software company was doing its best and that some glitches were surfacing because of changes made by the GST Council. At a press briefing in Bengaluru on Saturday, October 28, Modi said: "27 functionalities had to be launched or issues had to be resolved by Infosys, out of which 18 of them have been operationalised. This is about 66.7 per cent success." "Infosys is doing their best, even though there were many changes made by the GST Council." At every meeting of the GST Council, suggestions by states are creating newer functionalities that Infosys will need to look into, Modi said. Given the scale of the GST roll-out and considering how big a change it is, issues will continually crop up and will need to be resolved, according to the Bihar deputy CM. The GST Council and the GoM now face the challenge of reviewing the invoice matching functionality of the new indirect tax. At the next GST Council meeting scheduled to be held in Guwahati on November 10, a big agenda will be to identify the new glitches that could come up as the tax regime moves from one phase to another. Invoice matching is expected to be discussed at length during the meeting. "Invoices have never been matched. Now new types of issues are coming which were not there before. This is such a system, that as we go forward and new functions are operationalised, new issues come up. The GST Council is aware of these issues," added Modi. In the latest meeting between the GoM and Infosys, the company has been directed to resolve the rest of the issues and also new ones that have cropped up. No specific deadline has been given though. Each bug fix has its own deadline, and no overall deadline had been put forth to the company. For July, 5.6 million traders filed returns; the number was 5.3 million in August and 4.6 million in September. Also, nearly 1 million dealers have not filed any returns, largely due to a misconception that those with no tax liabilities think they do not have to file any returns. GoM representatives said the group would advise states to educate dealers without tax liabilities to file returns. Infosys had won the Rs 1,380 crore (Rs 13.80 billion) contract to implement the GSTN and maintain it for five years in September 2015. GSTN is the largest system of its kind in the world, and while it has been plagued with several issues since its launch, Modi said that those were only teething issues and would be fixed soon. Wipro, Steel Authority of India, HDFC Bank, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, Bharat Heavy Electricals and Reliance Commnications among companies reporting a decline in headcount in FY17. The increase in net employees at Indias largest companies slowed down to 66,000 people in the 2016-17 financial year compared with 123,000 people a year earlier. At the end of FY17, a total of 3.25 million people were on the rolls of 241 companies of the BSE 500 index versus 3.19 million at the end of FY16. Data on employee strength was not available for the rest of the BSE 500 index companies. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank and Axis Bank were the large employers to lead fresh hiring during FY17. In all, 136 firms - out of the 241 companies in our sample - reported an increase in their headcount in FY17, same as a year ago. Out of this, nearly a fourth (32 companies) increased their headcount by 10 per cent or more. TCS was the topper and added a little over 33,000 people, taking its total employee strength to 387,000. TCS was followed by Tech Mahindra, whose employee strength was up by 12,500 people in FY17, taking its headcount to 118,000. ICICI Bank and Axis Bank reported net additions of around 9,000 and 7,000 employees, respectively, during FY17. In percentage terms, the biggest increase in headcount was reported by non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) such as Cholamandalam Investment and Finance, Bajaj Finance, Capital First and Edelweiss Financial Services, among others. At the other extreme, Wipro, Steel Authority of India, HDFC Bank, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, Bharat Heavy Electricals and Reliance Communications topped the chart for reporting a decline in their headcount in FY17. Experts attributed this to the general slowdown in the economy. A decline in net headcount addition by corporate houses complements the slowdown in industrial growth and demand slowdown being faced by software exporters. There could be some improvement during the second half of the current financial year, but we have to see if it can compensate for the near freeze in hiring by IT companies, said G Chokkalingam, founder and managing director, Equinomics Research & Advisory. These 241 firms report the number of employees in their annual report every year. The data for IT companies is on a consolidated basis, while for others it is on a stand-alone basis. Corporate India slowed down hiring despite an improvement in their profitability and revenue growth in FY17. The combined revenue of the companies in the sample was up 7.6 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in FY17, a sharp turnaround from 4.8 per cent decline a year ago. Their net profit was up 18 per cent y-o-y in FY17, against three per cent decline in FY16. This, according to experts, could be because corporate executives have low confidence on future prospects. The improvement in corporate profitability in the last fiscal year was largely due to a rise in commodity prices after a sharp decline in the previous year. Hiring decisions, however, are based on the management outlook on future growth prospects, which actually worsened in the last fiscal for majority of the companies, Chokkalimgam said. A slowdown in hiring, however, had a marginal impact on employee remuneration. The average remuneration per employee was up 8.2 per cent y-o-y in FY17 to Rs 12.4 lakh per annum, up from Rs 11.5 lakh per annum a year ago. HR experts foresee an improvement in overall hiring next year, led by sectors such as infrastructure, NBFCs, private sector banks and automotive space. Hiring at senior levels has picked up pace in these sectors in the recent months. Many companies are now coming back at campuses, looking for fresh talent. This should start reflecting in entry-level hiring in the next 12 months, said Suresh Raina, managing partner, Hunt Partners. Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters PepsiCo bets on value-added water by launching vitamin-fortified drinks in a segment that is growing rapidly in India. With the demand for carbonated soft drinks falling, PepsiCo is shifting focus to value-added packaged water. To begin with, it has launched two vitamin-fortified flavoured drinks -- a category it hopes will grow faster in the coming years. Vipul Prakash, senior vice-president, beverage category, PepsiCo India, says the category, a little over Rs 10,000 crores in size, is the fastest growing among all categories of beverages. Almost 99 per cent of the sales are from the drinking water segment -- without any value addition. We believe over the next three to five years, this is going to be the most significant segment, Prakash said. He added: Value-added dairy, hydration, and juices are the three growing categories now. Any beverage company that wants to be successful in India has to play in all three product segments. Thus, we have taken a big bet on the category. Following the footsteps of arch-rival Coca-Cola, PepsiCo India has decided to leverage its packaged water brand Aquafina, which the firm has chosen as the master brand for its endeavour in the hydration drinks market. In August, Coke had launched two flavoured water drinks under its packaged water brand Kinley. While Aquafina generates over Rs 1,000 crores in revenue, currently only packaged drinking waters are sold under the brand in India. The two new products -- Aquafina Vitamin Splash Kiwi and Raspberry Mint -- are fortified with vitamins, and metals such as selenium and zinc. Launched in 300 ml and 500 ml variants, the drinks have been priced at Rs 30 and Rs 50, respectively. In line with the firms global strategy, the new products contain less sugar (35 calories per 250 ml of vitamin splash compared to over 100 calories in Pepsi) than any other drinks from PepsiCo Indias stable, except packaged water and Pepsi Black a zero-calorie version of the popular cola. Last October, PepsiCo global Chief Executive Indra Nooyi had announced that at least two-thirds of its products will contain less than 100 calories per 12-ounce (354 ml) by 2025. Since then, a majority of its new products -- Pepsi Black, Tropicana essentials, Quaker Oats Milk, Himalaya Flavoured Water -- contain less sugar than carbonated drinks such as Pepsi Cola, Mountain Dew and Mirinda. According to Prakash, functional products such as their vitamin splash will be a key focus area for the firm in the coming years. During the past few quarters, the firm has launched quite a few products that are offered to consumers based on their utilities. While last year it launched 7UP Revive -- a hydrotonic drink with added vitamins and minerals -- earlier this year it came up with Himalaya Flavoured and Sparkling water. Apart from improving sales growth -- which has been muted due to poor demand for carbonated drinks in the country -- value-added hydration drinks are expected to give the firm better profit margins. Given that the fortified water drinks have been priced higher than cola drinks, which are available at Rs 12 per 200 ml, PepsiCo is looking to leverage sales channels in leisure and travel sectors. According to Prakash, airports and hotels will be crucial places for sales. Chemist shops and premium go-to market outlets like office canteens are also being evaluated as possible sales channels. For now, we are only launching it in top 20 cities, which account for close to 40 percent of the total beverages market, he said. Interestingly, none of the top large apparel exporting countries, including the US, saw any significant jump in shipment to the UAE Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) will send a team to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to check how the West Asian country has become the top readymade garment (RMG) destination for India. Data made available by the Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics show 17.8 per cent growth in RMG export to the UAE for the April-July period, first four months of this financial year. The otherwise top destination, United States, saw only a 1.5 per cent growth in Indian shipments. Nor have any of the other top 27 large apparel exporting countries seen any significant jump in shipment to UAE, says AEPC. We are sending a team to investigate why this trend has emerged and whether these are genuine exports, Ashok Rajani, the bodys chairman, told Business Standard. Everybody was clear (at a meeting) that these figures are exaggerated. In fact, over April-July, export of RMG to the UK, Germany and France saw a fall. Those to the UK fell 0.8 per cent to $583 million from a year before. Germany and France saw larger falls, of 2.6 per cent and 14 per cent. This trend of the UAE outperforming these destinations defies logic, Rajani said. The other puzzling trend has been for the month of September, showing a 25 per cent growth in RMG export, as against a declining trend in previous months. The September growth is an aberration. Our committee has some of the largest apparel exporters and almost no one has seen any substantial rise in their export. We are awaiting the country-wise break-up for September, Rajani said. These figures apart, the Indian apparel industry says it under stress for varied reasons. Most of our neighbouring countries have FTAs (free trade agreements) with Europe and, so, we are outpriced. Second, our currency has strengthened, while competing currencies have weakened. In addition, (the) duty drawback and ROSL (rebate on state levies) schemes have stopped since October, Rajani said. AEPC has petitioned on these matters and has been assured of some positive steps by the central government. Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters 'I'm apologising to everyone whose sentiments are hurt because of the chaos around my memoir,' says the actor. In an unexpected move, Nawazuddin Siddiqui has apologised and withdrawn his autobiography, An Ordinary Life: A Memoir. 'I m apologising 2 every1 who's sentiments r hurt bcz of d chaos around my memoir #AnOrdinaryLife. I hereby regret & decide 2 withdraw my book,' the actor tweeted. Hemali Sodhi, senior vice-president, marketing, Penguin India, has confirmed that the publishing house has withdrawn the book but would make no further comment on the matter. The move came soon after Delhi-based advocate Gautam Gulati filed a complaint against Nawazuddin with the National Commission for Women for outraging the modesty of his Miss Lovely co-star, Niharika Singh. Gulati told Mumbai-based tabloid Mid-Day that he had filed the complaint on his own and that he had never spoken to or met Niharika. In his memoir, Nawazuddin had detailed his love affair with Niharika during the filming of Miss Lovely. An upset and angry Niharika stated, 'Nawaz and I had a brief relationship during the making of Miss Lovely that lasted less than a few months. So, today, when he paints me as a woman in fur enticing him into her bedroom with candles, or desperately calling him and mailing other women on his behalf, I can only laugh. 'He obviously wants to sell his book and it would appear that he is willing to exploit and disrespect a woman to do so. He has chosen to fabricate stories and manipulate a fleeting relationship.' Nawaz has also mentioned a lady named Sunita Rajwar and claimed that they were in a relationship. He claimed that she dumped him because he was a struggling actor at the time. In fact, he blamed their break-up on Sunita's then flatmate, actress Achint Kaur, who apparently advised Sunita against dating Nawaz, a 'struggling, desperate actor, who was out of work'. Sunita lashed out at Nawaz in a Facebook post and said that she had not left him because he was 'poor' but because of his 'poor way of thinking'. Last weeks slum fire at Bandra east highlights the stark difference between the two sides of the neighbourhoods railway station. But Piyush Goyal can change it, says Anil Singh. Rudyard Kiplings East is east and west is west and never the twain shall meet is in a strange way true of the suburbs divided by the Western Railway line in Mumbai, the city of his birth. Nowhere is this as stark as in west and east Bandra, a fact brought into focus by last Thursdays massive fire in a slum to the east of its railway station. While the western exit of the station has been conserved as a heritage structure with Unesco support, the eastern exit is a multi-storey slum with political support. It was during the latest round of demolitions here that the fire broke out. The last blaze in this slum six years ago rendered 2,000 homeless, including Rubina Ali, the child actor of Slumdog Millionaire; her family was rehabilitated in an apartment nearby but the shanties came back as they always do. While the west has a large bus depot, the road to the east is so narrow that buses cannot turn on it. While there is a rickshaw stand on the west, rickshaw drivers on the east choke the foot over bridge and clog the road itself. The west has a large booking station while the east has some ticket counters on stilts as the space is encroached. The shanty colonies to the east of Bandra railway station were a vote bank for Sunil Dutt and later for his daughter Priya, who together represented the Mumbai North-West constituency in Parliament for close to two decades. The current MP is Poonam Mahajan of the BJP. Like most filmstars and VIPs, Dutt lived in Bandra west but Bandra east has no dearth of luminaries; Bal Thackeray lived here, Sachin Tendular grew up here, theatre doyen Satyadev Dubey called it home as did litterateurs Dharmveer Bhararti, Arun Sadhu and Vinda Karandikar. In fact, the road leading from the eastern exit of Bandra railway station to the Western Express highway is named after Marathi poet/writer Anant Kanekar, a resident of Sahitya Sahavas in Bandra East. Bandra East is also home to several high court judges and IAS/IPS officers, including a former chief secretary and a former DGP. Despite this, the eastern exit of the station remains as wretched as ever. Bandra East also boasts of the Bandra-Kurla Complex, the citys premier business hub which will host the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train terminus. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority and the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation are also based in BKC, barely a km from Bandra railway station. Strangely, the idea to decongest and upgrade the eastern side of the station has never occurred to them. The only thing MMRDA has come up with is a long-winding skywalk to the station. Perhaps it is time for railway minister Piyush Goyal, a Mumbai boy, to take the initiative and come up with a win-win solution; the slum-dwellers can be relocated and the land freed can be used to change the ugly eastern face of Bandra station. Goyal only has to look at what his leader Narendra Modi achieved with Ahmedabad railway station. Photograph: Sahil Savi. The Congress forgets Modi has demigod status in Gujarat and there is no way he can be defeated in the state, argues Syed Firdaus Ashraf. While covering the 2007 Gujarat assembly election, I interviewed a well-known social scientist known for his anti-Modi views. "The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) will do badly," he declared, adding, "(then Gujarat chief minister Narendra) Modi could lose his seat from Maninagar." I wondered if he was in the right frame of mind, but I kept quiet. After lecturing me for half-an-hour, he asked, "What feedback do you have from the ground?" I couldn't restrain myself, and told him, "Sir, with due respect, you are completely out of touch with reality. Modi will win the election and in Maninagar, he will win by a huge margin." Using a Gujarati phrase which I had heard many voters saying, I said, "Ek sau ek takka the BJP will win (101 per cent the will win)." "What makes you say so?" he asked. "The answer is in one word: Trust," I told him. "Gujarati voters trust Modi." Whoever I spoke to in Gujarat, I told the social scientist, had immense faith in Modi's leadership and they felt he could do no wrong. When the election results were out, Gujarati voters proved once again that they will only vote for Modi. Ten years later, I hear the same kind of analysis that I heard from the social scientist from different people and intellectuals. Modi and the BJP, they declare, will lose the 2017 election: 'In Gujarat, the Dalits are angry, the farmers are angry, the Patidars are angry and so are the OBCs (Other Backward Classes.' 'The youth in Gujarat led by Alpesh Thakore, Hardik Patel and Jignesh Mevani, will annihilate the BJP in the state.' 'Caste will overtake Hindutva and that will be the end of the BJP.' 'The Congress which used to win the Gujarat elections on the KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim) vote in the 1980s will make a comeback,' and so on. The Congress is making the same mistake which it made in Uttar Pradesh. Its leaders feel caste alliance will boost the party's chances in Gujarat just as they thought a tie-up with the Samajwadi Party would help it in the UP election earlier this year. They forget that Modi has demigod status in Gujarat and there is no way you can defeat him in the state, until you introduce a viable, alternative, development theory. Rahul Gandhi is making the same mistake which his mother Sonia Gandhi made in the 2002 Gujarat election. After the riots of February that year, Modi had become a cult leader for many of the state's Hindus and the voters did not need another pro-Hindu party, which Sonia Gandhi was trying to project the Congress as, in 2002. She started visiting temples before the election as Rahul is doing now. Who can claim to be a bigger Hindu leader than Modi? That Hindu vote bank has been captured by the BJP, so Rahul must think out of the box. When I spoke to a Gujarati businessman in Mumbai, I realised I was right. This friend frequently travels to Gujarat and is very upset with the Goods and Services Tax as it has hit his business badly. Business has dried up, he complained, and he has no idea what he can do to revive it. He too laughed when I told him, as Rahul does these days, that "Vikas gando thayo che (development has gone crazy)", but quickly added, "Whatever Rahul Gandhi does, he is going to lose the election." "Why?" I asked. Are the people of Gujarat not upset with Modi because of GST and demonetisation? Are the people of Gujarat not upset that many jobs have been lost and no new ones have been created? "Many Congress supporters taunt Gujarati businessmen with the same barbs. But let me tell you: The Gujarat election is not about vikas. It is about vishwas (trust). And our vishwas is with Modi, not with Rahul." "Modi can go wrong on the economy," my friend said, "but his intentions are not wrong. He is working sincerely and wants good for our country, unlike the Congress which only wants to loot the country." His friend, another Gujarati, chipped in. "The people of Gujarat are not fools to trust Rahul Gandhi. They know Modi is at the Centre and the people of Gujarat will never let him down. Modi is like a god for the people of Gujarat." While reading the late Times of India editor Girilal Jain's book The Hindu Phenomenon, I realised how Gujarat's Hindu society views the world and how the secular parties have failed miserably to read the Gujarati mind. 'As a Hindu,' Jain writes, 'I believe in the ineluctable power of the time spirit: Mahakala will deliver on time -- neither earlier nor later. What is material is that the country is well set on that road, and while there may be, indeed there shall be, setbacks, these will be temporary.' 'When Hindus fought and lost,' Jain points out, 'they did not throw up prophets of woe and doom; they did not bemoan that their gods had let them down because they had been "disloyal" to them. Hindus are perhaps unique in this respect.' So vikas may have gone awry, but vishwas always delivers. One needs to be patient. And Gujarat's voters know that. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra D Modi at a public meeting in Dahej, Gujarat, flanked by Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, left, and Deputy CM Nitin Patel. Photograph: Press Information Bureau 'Why do visas require the intervention of India's Union ministers?' 'Does any civilised nation assure visas like this over Twitter?' asks Aakar Patel. When the Mughals conquered India, one practice they continued was that of darshan. Once a day, whenever he was not traveling, the Mughal emperor would stand in a balcony and show himself to his subjects who would come to 'see' him. This was darshan just as it would be for an idol, and his presence would reassure the citizens that the kingdom was fine. This was important because in the absence of the emperor, rumours would quickly overpower the land and anarchy would prevail. In 1627, when Jahangir died, the Jain merchant Banarasidas wrote in his autobiography Ardhakathanak that criminals took over Indian cities and merchants had to bury their goods. This violence and confusion remained till news was spread across the country that the Mughal princes' fight for succession was over and prince Khurram had become emperor, calling himself Shah Jahan. Jahangir was actually one of the more lazy emperors and European travellers have recorded how the durbar would abruptly end in the evening when Jahangir passed out from too much drink or opium. The eunuchs would hurriedly blow out the lights and evacuate the emperor, dragging him away from the rear door and the rest of the court and guests would have to exit from the front in darkness. Jahangir added to the system of darshan an element of justice. He is said to have kept a chain in his palaces that the common citizen with a grievance could go and pull. It was connected to a bell and on hearing the sound, the emperor would come out and give justice to those who could not get it from the system. This was called Adl-e-Jahangir or the justice of Jahangir. It guaranteed all citizens instant justice, directly from the top ruler. It was, of course, totally bogus. Emperors do not have time for individual citizens and Jahangir in particular was, as I have said, lazy and selfish. Far from being interested in justice he was actually a monster. He had the calves sliced off from behind the legs of two men, crippling them for life. Their crime was that they bumbled into a forest clearing and scared off a tiger Jahangir was aiming his gun at. We know this because the emperor himself recorded this in his autobiography, the Tuzuk-e-Jahangiri. And so the reality is that behind this charade of Adl-e-Jahangir, it was the usual condition of India as it has been through the centuries and as it continues today. The rulers may make a show of personal intervention, but are unable to, or have no interest in, ensuring systemic delivery of the sort much of the world gets. I am writing about this because of the way in which our foreign minister functions. Sushma Swaraj's Twitter account is the modern version of Adl-e-Jahangir. Some recent headlines it has triggered are: 'Pakistani man tweets Sushma Swaraj about ailing child, gets medical visa' (external link); 'Sushma Swaraj throws lifeline to Lahore toddler for heart surgery in Noida' (external link); and 'Sushma Swaraj's tweet raises hope of Karkala nurse's return from Saudi Arabia' (external link). That particular tweet from Swaraj is to the Twitter account of India's embassy in Riyadh and she writes 'Javed: Pls help rescue this lady', identifying her with a link from a news story. These are from June because I started collecting these reports at that time. On Friday, October 27, Swaraj tweeted to the Indian consul in Dubai: 'Vipul - please help him reach his mother's funeral' and also about someone else's travel documents to the Indian passport office in Bhopal. This tweeting by her is shown in the media as the actions of a dynamic and sympathetic politician. However, by handling one or two cases through Twitter she takes focus away from systemic improvement and functioning. Citizens are led, falsely, to believe that the solution to their problems is personal attention from India's foreign minister. Diplomats and bureaucrats will drop their systemic work to attend to madam's tweets. We have no real coherent foreign policy on Pakistan. Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh or Myanmar. But this sort of e-durbar and e-darshan gives the illusion of a giant machine hectic at work. Surgery for ailing Pakistani child! Bariatric surgery for obese Egyptian woman! Why do visas require the intervention of India's Union ministers? Does any civilised nation assure visas like this over Twitter? Does America or the United Kingdom? No. They have process. We have durbars. And do not our ministers have any other work to do? I have a regular job and I do my writing and reading on the side but even I have no time for Twitter, how does she? Of course it is true that much of India's foreign policy is run directly from the prime minister's office. Matters like China and Pakistan and Israel are the domain of Ajit Doval, the national security adviser. This is because Modi sees foreign policy not in Nehruvian terms, that is to say to engage on the basis of India's civilisational values, but mostly through things like defence and terrorism. Since most of the major work is in this fashion appropriated by others, Swaraj must find other things to do and clearly Twitter and visa issual is one of them. It shows her visually, at least to the media, as an 'active' minister. However it should be suggested to her that such darshan is not needed. If anything it is encouraging durbari culture. It may benefit a few individuals, but it hamstrings the system. IMAGE: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj addresses the United Nation General Assembly in New York, September 26, 2016. Photograph: Paresh Gandhi Aakar Patel is Executive Director, Amnesty International India. The views expressed here are his own. The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned the hearing of the plea challenging Article 35A of the Constitution which empowers the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to define its 'permanent residents' and bestow on them special rights and privileges. A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Mishra adjourned the hearing after the Centre told the court that it has appointed a representative to hold talks with all stakeholders to resolve the Kashmir issue, and contended that it was not the right time to proceed with the matter. Attorney General K K Venugopal had sought six months' time before the hearing of the plea on the sensitive issue could start but the bench, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, posted the matter for listing after three months. Dineshwar Sharma, a former director of the Intelligence Bureau, was appointed the Centre's interlocutor for Jammu and Kashmir on October 23. Article 35A, which was added to the Constitution by a Presidential Order in 1954, accords special rights and privileges to the citizens of Jammu and Kashmir and denies property rights to a woman who marries a person from outside the state. The provision, which leads such women from the state to forfeit their right over property, also applies to their heirs. The Jammu and Kashmir government, through battery of senior lawyers like Fali S Nariman, Shekhar Naphade, Rakesh Dwivedi, K V Viswanathan and standing counsel Shoeb Alam defended Article 35A. The Advocate General of the State, Jahangir Iqbal Ganai, was also present when the matter was taken up by the court. The state's law minister Abdul Haq Khan and some other ministers were in New Delhi for the hearing. The bench was hearing three separate writ petitions challenging Article 35A in addition to the main writ petition filed by a group called We The Citizens. Several interlocutory petitions have been filed in support of 35A by various individuals and civil society groups seeking continuance of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The state government has cited two verdicts by the constitution bench of the Supreme Court in 1961 and 1969 which upheld the powers of the president under Article 370(1)(d) of the Constitution of India to pass constitutional orders. Article 35A was incorporated into the Constitution of India in 1954 by an order of President Rajendra Prasad on the advice of the Jawaharlal Nehru cabinet. The apex court had on August 14 said a constitution bench may examine whether Article 35A was gender-biased and violative of the basic structure of the constitution. The court while hearing a plea by Dr Charu Wali Khanna, a Kashmir resident, had indicated that if the article violated the basic structure of the constitution or was ultra vires, the issue may be dealt with by a five-judge constitution bench. It had tagged the plea challenging Article 35A with a similar petition that is pending for hearing by a three-judge bench. The state government had earlier said that the issue has already been "prima facie settled" by the high court in its verdict in 2002. It said that in Dr Susheela Sawhney versus state of Jammu and Kashmir case, the issue was settled by a full bench of the high court in 2002. In the case, the high court had, by a majority view, held that a daughter of a permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir marrying a non-permanent resident will not lose the status of a permanent resident. Article 35A, empowers the state's legislature to frame any law without attracting a challenge on the grounds of violation of the Right to Equality of people from other states or any other right under the Indian Constitution. China on Monday once again hinted at blocking the United States, France and United Kingdoms bid to list Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, harping on its familiar stand that there was no consensus among the United Nations Security Council members. China had in August extended by three months its technical hold on the proposal to list JeM founder Azhar as a global terrorist after having blocked the move in February this year at the United Nations. We have made our position clear many times from this podium. The relevant resolutions of Security Council have clear stipulations as to the mandate of 1267 Committee and also clear stipulations when it comes to the listing of relevant organisations and individuals, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said. Replying to questions whether China will block the ban on Azhar again when the 1267 Committee of the UNSC takes up the issue on Thursday, Hua said as for listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements. A veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, China has repeatedly blocked Indias move to put a ban on the JeM terrorist under the Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Council. Last year in March, China was the only member in the 15-nation United Nations organ to put a hold on Indias application with all other 14 members of the Council supporting New Delhis bid to place Masood Azhar on the 1267 sanctions list that would subject him to an assets freeze and travel ban. China views Pakistan as its all-weather friend and has been backing its bid to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. The Delhi high court on Monday asked the Centre to consider giving an alternate job to a transgender sailor who was removed from service after sex change, terming it an "out of the box situation". "You can punish her for indiscipline, but at the same time you can accommodate her," a bench of Justices G S Sistani and V K Rao suggested to Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, who appeared for the Centre and Navy. Calling for a change in mindset, the bench said the instant case was probably the only one of its kind in the armed forces and asked the Navy to consider the transgender for some other job. "Here is an opportunity to look at it from a different perspective. It is an out of the box situation. It maybe a first of its kind situation. "Here is a person struggling with gender identity. Had she suppressed the condition and continued, it would have been dangerous. It could have been fatal. Think about it and come back," the bench said and listed the matter for further hearing on November 23. The court said that while the person deserved to be punished for indiscipline for being absent without leave, but where there was a medical condition of this sort, it may be seen from a different perspective. During the course of the hearing, the bench said, "the mindset should change. In today's situation, a medical condition like this cannot be suppressed." The court was of the view that the petitioner, who was posted onboard INS Eksila at Visakhapatnam, can give up claim for the job of sailor and may accept a clerical position so that the family, comprising aged parents, the individual's wife and child, need not suffer. ASG Jain and central government standing counsel Anil Soni, who also appeared for the Navy, told the court that the individual in question "had a chequered history of indiscipline" for being absent without leave several times. However, they agreed to take instructions on whether the instant matter can be taken up as a special case. They also told the bench that the individual had got badly infected after undergoing sex reassignment surgery and it was the Navy which treated her humanely and provided treatment and counselling to her. The lawyers said that one seat in another branch or department of the force cannot be blocked for such an individual who also suffered from psychiatric and gender identity problems. They further argued that since the petitioner was a female now, she cannot be employed as a sailor in the Navy as that position is not open for women. The ASG said the simple question before the bench was whether a woman, and not a transgender, can be appointed as a sailor on a ship as the petitioner was now a female. The petitioner had challenged the October 6 order of the Navy removing her from service. She had claimed that she was suffering from gender identity issues since 2011 and when she told her parents, they forced her to marry a woman. She further claimed that she was absent from service without leave several times as she suffered bouts of depression, owing to her gender identity issues. **** 'T' for transgender in railway tickets soon Transgenders will now have the option of identifying themselves as the third gender with the railway board modifying reservation forms to provide the option 'T', besides 'M' (Male) and 'F' (Female). The railway board in a letter to all zonal railways has said that ticket booking and cancellation forms will be modified from the current option of 'Transgender (Male/Female)' to just 'T'. According to the letter, the social justice and empowerment ministry is at present dealing with various issues of transgenders and a proposed legislation on this -- The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill, 2016, is being reviewed by a parliamentary standing committee. "The matter has been reviewed and it has been decided that till such time the detailed modalities on this account are finalised by the ministry of social justice, a provision may be made in the system to capture the gender of transgender as 'T' instead of 'T(M/F)' as advised earlier," according to the October 17 letter. In a landmark judgement in 2014, the Supreme Court created the 'third gender' status for hijras or transgenders. Earlier, they had to write male or female in gender column. Following the order, many government documents such as passport, ration card, bank forms and voter identity cards have started providing 'TG' (third gender), 'Other' or 'T' (transgender) as options. The railways introduced the option as 'T(M/F)' through an order in 2016 which, activists said, still forced them to choose between the binary genders -- male or female. The railway board said in its review it had also taken into consideration directions of the Kolkata high court which had asked State Bank of India to allow the choice of third gender in its application forms for recruiting new employees. This case pertains to a case filed by Atri Kar, the first transgender from West Bengal to appear for the civil services exam, who sought the court's intervention to enforce her right to participate in the selection process of SBI as a transgender. The railway board also said that the Centre for Railway Information Systems, an autonomous organisation under the ministry of railways, will make necessary changes in the software for giving the option of transgender (T) alongside the option of M/F in the passenger railway system under intimation to all zonal railways, the letter said. India and Italy on Monday inked six pacts, including on boosting cooperation in the energy and trade sectors, after extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni on key issues such as terrorism and cyber crime. IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes Italian Paolo Gentiloni at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Photograph: Press Information Bureau The two leaders also discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral political and economic relations, apart from deliberating on strategic international and regional issues. Addressing a joint media event with Gentiloni, Modi said they discussed wide-ranging issues, including the challenges posed by terrorism and cyber crimes, while agreeing to enhance cooperation to counter them. IMAGE: Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni inspects the Guard of Honour, at the Ceremonial Reception, at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Photograph: PIB Modi also noted that there was a huge potential for enhancing India-Italy trade ties. After the Modi-Gentiloni meeting, the two sides signed six pacts to deepen cooperation in the fields of railways sector safety, energy and promoting mutual investments, among others. IMAGE: Paolo Gentiloni pays floral tributes at the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi, at Rajghat. Photograph: PIB Italy is Indias fifth largest trading partner in the European Union with a bilateral trade of $8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. Indias exports to Italy were at $4.90 billion, while its imports were at $3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of $1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached $3.22 billion. Ahead of his meeting with Modi, the visiting leader had described his visit as an opportunity to make ties between the two countries stronger. IMAGE: Modi and his Italian counterpart interacted with 12 Indian and 19 Italian business leaders for boosting economic and investment cooperation. Photograph: PIB Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on Gentiloni and discussed issues of mutual interest, ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. Gentilonis visit is the first prime ministerial trip from Italy in more than a decade. IMAGE: Gentiloni's visit is the first prime ministerial trip from Italy in more than a decade. Photograph: PIB The India-Italy diplomatic ties were hit badly after two Italian marines -- Latorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone -- on board a ship named Enrica Lexie, were arrested for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in 2012. Italy claimed the ship was in international waters and that only the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea should apply. It also moved the international court. While Latorre returned to Italy in September 2014 following an order of the Supreme Court issued on health grounds, Girone was allowed to go in May 2016. They are now in Italy, pending the verdict by the arbitration court at the Hague. The Indo-Italy diplomatic row also impacted the European Unions relationship with India. Pakistan Army's support to terrorism is unacceptable and India will continue to take all retaliatory measures to respond to such acts, Indian Army's director-general of military operations told his Pakistani counterpart on Monday. In an unscheduled conversation with Lt Gen A K Bhatt over the hotline, Pakistani DGMO Maj Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza accused the Indian security forces of resorting to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. However, Bhatt said retaliatory firing by Indian troops has only been carried out in response to "unabated support" provided by the Pakistan Army to armed terrorists, who infiltrate across the border and target Indian Army posts with heavy calibre weapons, the army said in a statement. The telephonic conversation was requested by the Pakistani side. The Indian DGMO told his Pakistani counterpart that while the Indian Army will continue its efforts to ensure peace and tranquillity on the borders, the support provided to the terrorists by the Pakistan Army was the prime reason for any "collateral damage". "He reiterated that this support to terrorism by the Pakistan Army is unacceptable and the Indian Army will continue to take all retaliatory measures as well as retain the right to punitively respond to such provocative acts of aggression from the Pakistani side," the army said. It said Lt Gen Bhatt also clarified that the Indian Army always maintains impeccable standards of professionalism and does not target civilians. "On the contrary, Pakistan Army has employed civilians at the forward posts and accorded permission for permanent locations of civilians in the vicinity of Pakistan Army posts," the army said. It said that these civilians have repeatedly been used for gaining information of locations of Indian troops and providing guides to the terrorists while crossing the LoC. The LoC in Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed a spurt in ceasefire violations by the Pakistani troops and the Indian Army has been retaliating effectively to Pakistani actions. Representative image While his performance is commendable, the bribery charges against him just don't go away. Aditi Phadnis reports. The top leadership of the Congress seems to have made peace with Virbhadra Singh though that is no guarantee that the party will win the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections to be held on November 9. A five-time chief minister, two-term minister of state in the Union government and a politician who first became a member of Parliament in 1962, Singh has been around for a long time. In 2012, although he was no favourite of the Nehru-Gandhi family, the Congress had no choice but to appoint him chief minister. That doesn't mean he is not in trouble. The Bharatiya Janata Party has alleged that Singh accepted Rs 1.5 crore (Rs 15 million) and Rs 2.4 crore (Rs 24 million), through cheques in his name as well as that of his parliamentarian wife Pratibha Singh, from Venture Energy & Technologies. The company was given two extensions in a hydel power project despite defaulting. This makes it a case of bribery and cronyism. This is not the only case. The investigating agency has charged that Singh has more than Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million) in assets that are disproportionate to his known sources of income. The cases are proceeding apace in court. This has not deterred Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi from declaring him as chief minister if the party gets the numbers in December when the assembly poll results are announced. Prime Minister Narendra D Modi has said it is a 'zamaanati sarkar' (a government out on bail). How does such a man keep becoming chief minister? Singh has a reputation for performance in the state. It was during his tenure that the full electrification of Himachal Pradesh was achieved. The last village to get electricity in the state was Kibber, in Spiti, as long ago as 1988! (it is also one of highest villages in the world to have got a road). Throughout his political career, Singh has managed to resist the temptation of the politics that has been a staple for other HP politicians -- playing Upper Himachal against Lower Himachal. Because the needs and wants of the two regions in this hill state are different, few politicians enjoy equal acceptability in the Kangra region (the heart of Lower Himachal that sends 16 seats to the assembly) and Shimla (the centre for Upper Himachal that has just eight seats in the legislature but enjoys disproportionate power). But if Singh has got a four-lane road built for Upper Himachal, he has also ensured that Lower Himachal got a six-lane road. Himachal Pradesh has a generally higher rate of literacy than the rest of India. During his tenure as chief minister, Singh has made sure that there is no village without a primary school. If there is criticism of him, it is because of his autocratic style. He is the last raja of the Rampur-Bushahr dynasty, and was the last chief minister in 2008 when the Congress was ousted in the assembly elections. At the time, three prominent leaders from Kangra -- Vijai Singh Mankotia, Chandresh Kumari and Brij Bihari Butail -- were dropped from his cabinet (2004), leading to protests that he was discriminating against the region. In fact, he dropped them because he suspected the three were ganging up against him. He might have been right, because soon after that Mankotia left the party to become chief of the Bahujan Samaj Party's Himachal unit. It was this trait that made one of Himachal Pradesh's best known politicians, Sukh Ram, leave the Congress to form his own party. In 1998, the BJP's Prem Kumar Dhumal would have never got the chance to form a government in Himachal Pradesh if the Congress had heeded Sukh Ram's condition -- that anyone but Singh be made chief minister. It is another matter that Sukh Ram's son Anil Sharma joined the Singh government in 2014 and became a minister, only to cross the floor again in 2017 to join the BJP. But the bribery charges just don't go away. When he was Union steel minister, a public interest litigation charged Singh with massive income tax violations and also alleged a pay-off to a steel company. The high court took cognisance and asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to file a status report. Singh was then dropped from the government. Now those chickens are coming home to roost. And no one can do anything about it. Majid Shiri Publisher European Union: Court of Justice of the European Union Publication Date 25 October 2017 Citation / Document Symbol C201/16 Cite as Majid Shiri, C201/16, European Union: Court of Justice of the European Union, 25 October 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/cases,ECJ,59f6e34a4.html [accessed 16 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. JUDGMENT OF THE COURT (Grand Chamber) 25 October 2017 ( ) (Reference for a preliminary ruling - Regulation (EU) No 604/2013 - Determination of the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national - Article 27 - Remedy - Scope of the judicial review - Article 29 - Time limit for carrying out the transfer - No transfer within the time limit laid down - Obligations of the Member State responsible - Transfer of responsibility - Requirement for a decision of the Member State responsible) In Case C201/16, REQUEST for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU from the Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Upper Administrative Court, Austria), made by decision of 31 March 2016, received at the Court on 12 April 2016, in the proceedings Majid Shiri, also known as Madzhdi Shiri, joined party: Bundesamt fur Fremdenwesen und Asyl, THE COURT (Grand Chamber), composed of K. Lenaerts, President, A. Tizzano, Vice-President, L. Bay Larsen (Rapporteur), T. von Danwitz, J.L. da Cruz Vilaca and A. Rosas, Presidents of Chambers, E. Juhasz, A. Borg Barthet, M. Safjan, D. Svaby, A. Prechal, E. Jarasiunas and M. Vilaras, Judges, Advocate General: E. Sharpston, Registrar: K. Malacek, Administrator, having regard to the written procedure and further to the hearing on 14 March 2017, after considering the observations submitted on behalf of: - Mr Shiri, by W. Weh and S. Harg, Rechtsanwalte, - the Austrian Government, by G. Hesse, acting as Agent, - the Czech Government, by M. Smolek and J. Vlacil, acting as Agents, - the United Kingdom Government, by C. Crane and S. Brandon, acting as Agents, and D. Blundell and M. Gray, Barristers, - the Swiss Government, by E. Bichet, acting as Agent, - the European Commission, by G. Wils and M. Condou-Durande, acting as Agents, after hearing the Opinion of the Advocate General at the sitting on 20 July 2017, gives the following Judgment 1 This request for a preliminary ruling concerns the interpretation of Articles 27(1) and 29(1) and (2) of Regulation (EU) No 604/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national or a stateless person (OJ 2013 L 180, p. 31; 'the Dublin III Regulation'). 2 The request has been made in the context of examination of the appeal brought by Majid Shiri, also known as Madzhdi Shiri, an Iranian national, against the decision of the Bundesamt fur Fremdenwesen und Asyl (Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, Austria; 'the Office') declaring his application for international protection inadmissible, ordering his deportation and determining that his removal to Bulgaria is lawful. Legal context Regulation (EC) No 1560/2003 3 Chapter III of Commission Regulation (EC) No 1560/2003 of 2 September 2003 laying down detailed rules for the application of Council Regulation (EC) No 343/2003 establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an asylum application lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national (OJ 2003 L 222, p. 3), as amended by Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 118/2014 of 30 January 2014 (OJ 2014 L 39, p. 1), sets out a series of rules relating to the carrying out of the transfer of the person concerned to the Member State responsible within the meaning of the Dublin III Regulation. 4 Article 8(1) of the regulation provides: 'It is the obligation of the Member State responsible to allow the asylum seeker's transfer to take place as quickly as possible and to ensure that no obstacles are put in his way. That Member State shall determine, where appropriate, the location on its territory to which the asylum seeker will be transferred or handed over to the competent authorities, taking account of geographical constraints and modes of transport available to the Member State making the transfer. ...' The Dublin III Regulation 5 Recitals 4, 5 and 19 of the Dublin III Regulation are worded as follows: '(4) The [conclusions of the European Council at its special meeting in Tampere on 15 and 16 October 1999] also stated that the [Common European Asylum System] should include, in the short-term, a clear and workable method for determining the Member State responsible for the examination of an asylum application. (5) Such a method should be based on objective, fair criteria both for the Member States and for the persons concerned. It should, in particular, make it possible to determine rapidly the Member State responsible, so as to guarantee effective access to the procedures for granting international protection and not to compromise the objective of the rapid processing of applications for international protection. ... (19) In order to guarantee effective protection of the rights of the persons concerned, legal safeguards and the right to an effective remedy in respect of decisions regarding transfers to the Member State responsible should be established, in accordance, in particular, with Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. In order to ensure that international law is respected, an effective remedy against such decisions should cover both the examination of the application of this Regulation and of the legal and factual situation in the Member State to which the applicant is transferred.' 6 Article 3(1) of the Dublin III Regulation provides: 'Member States shall examine any application for international protection by a third-country national or a stateless person who applies on the territory of any one of them, including at the border or in the transit zones. The application shall be examined by a single Member State, which shall be the one which the criteria set out in Chapter III indicate is responsible.' 7 The first subparagraph of Article 17(1) of the Dublin III Regulation states: 'By way of derogation from Article 3(1), each Member State may decide to examine an application for international protection lodged with it by a third-country national or a stateless person, even if such examination is not its responsibility under the criteria laid down in this Regulation.' 8 Articles 22 and 25 of the Dublin III Regulation lay down the rules relating, respectively, to replying to a take charge request and to replying to a take back request. 9 Article 27(1) and (3) of the Dublin III Regulation is worded as follows: '1. The applicant shall have the right to an effective remedy, in the form of an appeal or a review, in fact and in law, against a transfer decision, before a court or tribunal. ... 3. For the purposes of appeals against, or reviews of, transfer decisions, Member States shall provide in their national law that: (a) the appeal or review confers upon the person concerned the right to remain in the Member State concerned pending the outcome of the appeal or review; or (b) the transfer is automatically suspended and such suspension lapses after a certain reasonable period of time, during which a court or a tribunal, after a close and rigorous scrutiny, shall have taken a decision whether to grant suspensive effect to an appeal or review; or (c) the person concerned has the opportunity to request within a reasonable period of time a court or tribunal to suspend the implementation of the transfer decision pending the outcome of his or her appeal or review. Member States shall ensure that an effective remedy is in place by suspending the transfer until the decision on the first suspension request is taken. Any decision on whether to suspend the implementation of the transfer decision shall be taken within a reasonable period of time, while permitting a close and rigorous scrutiny of the suspension request. A decision not to suspend the implementation of the transfer decision shall state the reasons on which it is based.' 10 Article 29(1) and (2) of the Dublin III Regulation provides: '1. The transfer of the applicant or of another person as referred to in Article 18(1)(c) or (d) from the requesting Member State to the Member State responsible shall be carried out in accordance with the national law of the requesting Member State, after consultation between the Member States concerned, as soon as practically possible, and at the latest within six months of acceptance of the request by another Member State to take charge or to take back the person concerned or of the final decision on an appeal or review where there is a suspensive effect in accordance with Article 27(3). ... 2. Where the transfer does not take place within the six months' time limit, the Member State responsible shall be relieved of its obligations to take charge or to take back the person concerned and responsibility shall then be transferred to the requesting Member State. This time limit may be extended up to a maximum of one year if the transfer could not be carried out due to imprisonment of the person concerned or up to a maximum of eighteen months if the person concerned absconds.' The dispute in the main proceedings and the questions referred for a preliminary ruling 11 Mr Shiri entered the territory of the Member States via Bulgaria and lodged an application for international protection in that Member State on 19 February 2015. 12 He then lodged an application for international protection in Austria on 7 March 2015. On 9 March 2015 the Office asked the Bulgarian authorities to take Mr Shiri back. 13 On 23 March 2015 the Bulgarian authorities agreed to that take back request. 14 On 2 July 2015 the Office declared that the application for international protection lodged by Mr Shiri was inadmissible, ordered his deportation and determined that his removal to Bulgaria was lawful. 15 Mr Shiri challenged that decision before the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court, Austria), coupling that appeal with an application for the appeal to be accorded suspensive effect. Without ruling on that application, the court annulled the decision on 20 July 2015, on the ground that, on account of Mr Shiri's vulnerability owing to his state of health, the Office should have examined whether it was obliged to exercise the power provided for in Article 17(1) of the Dublin III Regulation. 16 Following that annulment, by a fresh decision of 3 September 2015 the Office declared that the application for international protection lodged by Mr Shiri was inadmissible, ordered his deportation and determined that his removal to Bulgaria was lawful. 17 Mr Shiri challenged that decision before the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court) by an appeal received by it on 27 September 2015, and coupled the appeal with an application for it to be accorded suspensive effect. By supplementary observations of 23 September 2015, Mr Shiri submitted that the Republic of Austria had become the Member State responsible for examining his application for international protection because the six-month period for a transfer, as defined in Article 29(1) and (2) of the Dublin III Regulation, had expired on that date. 18 The Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court) dismissed the appeal by judgment of 30 September 2015, without ruling on the application for the appeal to be accorded suspensive effect. As regards the argument set out by Mr Shiri in his supplementary observations of 23 September 2015, alleging that the six-month period as defined in Article 29(1) and (2) of the Dublin III Regulation had expired, it held that, following the annulment of the Office's decision of 2 July 2015 and the referral of the case back to the Office for a fresh decision, a fresh period of six months began to run from the time when it again became possible to transfer Mr Shiri, namely, from the seventh day following receipt of the appeal lodged by him, that is to say, from 24 September 2015. Therefore, the Bundesverwaltungsgericht (Federal Administrative Court) held that responsibility for examining the application for international protection lodged by Mr Shiri remained with the Republic of Bulgaria and had not in the meantime been transferred to the Republic of Austria. 19 Mr Shiri then brought an appeal on a point of law against that judgment before the referring court. 20 That court takes the view that, before ruling on whether the transfer period applicable to Mr Shiri may have expired, it should be established whether an applicant for international protection can invoke any transfer of responsibility for examining his application for protection because the transfer period has expired and whether its expiry is sufficient in itself to result in such a transfer of responsibility. 21 In those circumstances, the Verwaltungsgerichtshof (Upper Administrative Court, Austria) decided to stay proceedings and to refer the following questions to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling: '1. Are the provisions of [the Dublin III Regulation] that confer the right to an effective remedy against a transfer decision, in particular Article 27(1), to be interpreted as meaning that an applicant for asylum is entitled to claim that responsibility has been transferred to the requesting Member State on the ground that the six-month transfer period has expired (Article 29(2) in conjunction with Article 29(1) of [the Dublin III Regulation] in light of recital 19)? If the answer to Question 1 is in the affirmative: 2. Does the transfer of responsibility under the first sentence of Article 29(2) of [the Dublin III Regulation] occur by the fact of the expiry of the transfer period without any order or, for responsibility to be transferred because the period has expired, is it also necessary that the obligation to take charge of, or to take back, the person concerned has been refused by the responsible Member State?' The request that the oral procedure be reopened 22 After the Advocate General delivered her Opinion at the sitting on 20 July 2017, Mr Shiri, by letter received at the Court Registry on 6 September 2017, requested the Court to order the reopening of the oral part of the procedure. In support of that request, he contended that the Opinion addressed a question of law relating to the calculation of the period referred to in Article 29(1) of the Dublin III Regulation which had not been submitted to the Court by the referring court and on which he had therefore been unable to put forward his observations. 23 Article 83 of the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice permits the Court, after hearing the Advocate General, to order at any time the reopening of the oral part of the procedure, inter alia where the case must be decided on the basis of a legal argument which has not been debated between the parties. 24 In the present instance, the Court in any event considers that there is no need to take a view on the question of law to which Mr Shiri refers relating to the calculation of the period in Article 29(1) of the Dublin III Regulation. Moreover, the Court considers, after hearing the Advocate General, that it has all the information necessary to give judgment and that that information has been the subject of debate before it. 25 Accordingly, there is no need to order that the oral part of the procedure be reopened. Consideration of the questions referred Question 2 26 By its second question, which it is appropriate to examine first, the referring court asks, in essence, whether Article 29(2) of the Dublin III Regulation must be interpreted as meaning that, where the transfer does not take place within the six-month time limit as defined in Article 29(1) and (2) of that regulation, responsibility is transferred automatically to the requesting Member State, without it being necessary for the Member State responsible to refuse to take charge of or take back the person concerned. 27 Under the first subparagraph of Article 29(1) of the Dublin III Regulation, the transfer of the person concerned is to be carried out as soon as practically possible, and at the latest within six months of acceptance by another Member State of the request to take charge of or to take back that person or of the final decision on an appeal or review where there is a suspensive effect. 28 In that last respect, it is apparent from Article 27(3)(c) of the Dublin III Regulation that, where national law provides that the person concerned has the opportunity to request a court or tribunal to suspend the implementation of the transfer decision pending the outcome of his appeal or review, the court or tribunal seised must rule on that request within a reasonable period of time and, if its decision rejects the request, must state the reasons on which that decision is based. 29 Article 29(2) of the Dublin III Regulation states that, where the transfer does not take place within the six-month time limit, the Member State responsible is to be relieved of its obligations to take charge of or to take back the person concerned and responsibility is then to be transferred to the requesting Member State. 30 It is apparent from the very wording of Article 29(2) that it provides for an automatic transfer of responsibility to the requesting Member State, without making that transfer conditional on any reaction by the Member State responsible (see, by analogy, judgment of 26 July 2017, Mengesteab, C670/16, EU:C:2017:587, paragraph 61). 31 That interpretation is, moreover, consistent with the objective, referred to in recital 5 of the Dublin III Regulation, of rapid processing of applications for international protection, in so far as the interpretation ensures, in the event of a delay in the take charge or take back procedure, that the examination of the application for international protection is carried out in the Member State where the applicant is, so as not to delay that examination further (see, by analogy, judgment of 26 July 2017, Mengesteab, C670/16, EU:C:2017:587, paragraph 54). 32 That interpretation is also reflected by the rules relating to the carrying out of the transfer set out in Chapter III of Regulation No 1560/2003. 33 Whilst Article 8 of Regulation No 1560/2003 obliges the Member State responsible to allow the asylum seeker's transfer to take place as quickly as possible, no provision of that regulation confers on that Member State the power, after accepting, explicitly or implicitly, a take charge or take back request pursuant to Article 22 or 25 of the Dublin III Regulation, to express a fresh view on its willingness to take charge of or take back the person concerned. 34 In the light of the foregoing, the answer to the second question is that Article 29(2) of the Dublin III Regulation must be interpreted as meaning that, where the transfer does not take place within the six-month time limit as defined in Article 29(1) and (2) of that regulation, responsibility is transferred automatically to the requesting Member State, without it being necessary for the Member State responsible to refuse to take charge of or take back the person concerned. Question 1 35 By its first question, the referring court asks, in essence, whether Article 27(1) of the Dublin III Regulation, read in the light of recital 19 thereof, must be interpreted as meaning that an applicant for international protection may rely, in an action brought against a decision to transfer him, on the expiry of the six-month period as defined in Article 29(1) and (2) of that regulation. 36 Article 27(1) of the Dublin III Regulation provides that an applicant for international protection is to have the right to an effective remedy, in the form of an appeal or a review, in fact and in law, against a transfer decision, before a court or tribunal. 37 The scope of the remedy available to an applicant for international protection against a decision to transfer him is explained in recital 19 of the Dublin III Regulation, which states that, in order to ensure compliance with international law, the effective remedy introduced by that regulation in respect of transfer decisions must cover (i) the examination of the application of that regulation and (ii) the examination of the legal and factual situation in the Member State to which the asylum seeker is to be transferred (judgment of 26 July 2017, Mengesteab, C670/16, EU:C:2017:587, paragraph 43). 38 Furthermore, it is apparent from the Court's case-law that, in the light, in particular, of the general thrust of the developments that have taken place, as a result of the adoption of the Dublin III Regulation, in the system for determining the Member State responsible for an asylum application made in one of the Member States, and of the objectives of that regulation, Article 27(1) of the regulation must be interpreted as meaning that the action for which it provides must be capable of relating, inter alia, to observance of the procedural safeguards laid down by the regulation (see, to that effect, judgment of 26 July 2017, Mengesteab, C670/16, EU:C:2017:587, paragraphs 44 to 48 and the case-law cited). 39 The take charge and take back procedures established by the Dublin III Regulation must, in particular, be carried out in compliance with a series of mandatory time limits, which include the six-month time limit referred to in Article 29(1) and (2) of that regulation. Whilst those provisions are intended to provide a framework for those procedures, they also contribute, in the same way as the criteria set out in Chapter III of the regulation, to determining the Member State responsible. As is clear from paragraphs 30 to 34 of the present judgment, the expiry of that six-month period without the transfer of the applicant from the requesting Member State to the Member State responsible having been carried out results in the automatic transfer of responsibility from the second Member State to the first (see, by analogy, judgment of 26 July 2017, Mengesteab, C670/16, EU:C:2017:587, paragraphs 50 to 53). 40 Accordingly, in order to ensure that the contested transfer decision has been adopted following a proper application of those procedures, the court or tribunal dealing with an action challenging a transfer decision must be able to examine the claims made by an applicant for international protection that that decision was adopted in breach of the provisions set out in Article 29(2) of the Dublin III Regulation in so far as the requesting Member State is said to have already become the Member State responsible on the day when that decision was adopted, on account of the prior expiry of the six-month period as defined in Article 29(1) and (2) of the regulation (see, by analogy, judgment of 26 July 2017, Mengesteab, C670/16, EU:C:2017:587, paragraph 55). 41 That said, it is to be noted that, unlike the periods at issue in the case that gave rise to the judgment of 26 July 2017, Mengesteab (C670/16, EU:C:2017:587), which provide a framework for the making of a take charge request, the periods set out in Article 29 of the Dublin III Regulation are intended to provide a framework not only for the adoption but also for the implementation of the transfer decision. 42 It follows that those periods may expire after the transfer decision has been adopted. It should, moreover, be noted that, in the main proceedings, the person concerned contends that the six-month period as defined in Article 29(1) and (2) of the Dublin III Regulation expired on a date after that on which a transfer decision was adopted. 43 The competent authorities of the requesting Member State cannot, in such a situation, carry out the transfer of the person concerned to another Member State and are, on the contrary, required to take, on their own initiative, the measures necessary to acknowledge the responsibility of the first Member State and to initiate without delay the examination of the application for international protection lodged by that person. 44 Nonetheless, in the light, first, of the objective, referred to in recital 19 of the Dublin III Regulation, of guaranteeing, in accordance with Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, effective protection of the persons concerned and, secondly, of the objective, noted in paragraph 31 of the present judgment, of determining rapidly the Member State responsible for processing an application for international protection, in the interests both of applicants for such protection and of the proper general functioning of the system established by that regulation, the applicant must have an effective and rapid remedy available to him which enables him to rely on the expiry of the six-month period as defined in Article 29(1) and (2) of the regulation that occurred after the transfer decision was adopted. 45 In the present instance, the right which Austrian legislation accords to an applicant for international protection to plead circumstances subsequent to the adoption of the decision to transfer him, in an action brought against that decision, meets that obligation to provide for an effective and rapid remedy. 46 It follows from the foregoing considerations that Article 27(1) of the Dublin III Regulation, read in the light of recital 19 thereof, and Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights must be interpreted as meaning that an applicant for international protection must have an effective and rapid remedy available to him which enables him to rely on the expiry of the six-month period as defined in Article 29(1) and (2) of that regulation that occurred after the transfer decision was adopted. The right which national legislation such as that at issue in the main proceedings accords to such an applicant to plead circumstances subsequent to the adoption of that decision, in an action brought against it, meets that obligation to provide for an effective and rapid remedy. Costs 47 Since these proceedings are, for the parties to the main proceedings, a step in the action pending before the national court, the decision on costs is a matter for that court. Costs incurred in submitting observations to the Court, other than the costs of those parties, are not recoverable. On those grounds, the Court (Grand Chamber) hereby rules: 1. Article 29(2) of Regulation (EU) No 604/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 establishing the criteria and mechanisms for determining the Member State responsible for examining an application for international protection lodged in one of the Member States by a third-country national or a stateless person must be interpreted as meaning that, where the transfer does not take place within the six-month time limit as defined in Article 29(1) and (2) of that regulation, responsibility is transferred automatically to the requesting Member State, without it being necessary for the Member State responsible to refuse to take charge of or take back the person concerned. 2. Article 27(1) of Regulation No 604/2013, read in the light of recital 19 thereof, and Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union must be interpreted as meaning that an applicant for international protection must have an effective and rapid remedy available to him which enables him to rely on the expiry of the six-month period as defined in Article 29(1) and (2) of that regulation that occurred after the transfer decision was adopted. The right which national legislation such as that at issue in the main proceedings accords to such an applicant to plead circumstances subsequent to the adoption of that decision, in an action brought against it, meets that obligation to provide for an effective and rapid remedy. [Signatures] Copyright notice: Cour de justice des Communautes europeennes L-2925 Luxembourg. Telephone switchboard: (352) 4303.1; fax: (352) 4303.2600 Early on Monday morning, news broke that Paul Manafort and his former business partner Rick Gates were turning themselves in to federal authorities to face charges related to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Below, an overview of why Manafort in particular may have been ensnared by Mueller's investigation. Q: Who is Paul Manafort? A: Paul Manafort is a longtime political consultant and lobbyist in Washington. His career took two tracks that are important for understanding how we got to this point. The first is that Manafort helped multiple Republican presidential nominees manage their efforts at their party conventions, including Gerald Ford in 1976, Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 and George H. W. Bush in 1988. He also managed Bob Dole's 1996 presidential bid. The second is that Manafort also worked on behalf of a number of questionable international actors, including Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the Russia-backed president of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych was ousted in 2014, during the period in which Russia-Ukraine tensions spiked. Much more on this below. Q: What was his relationship to Trump? A: In March 2016, as Donald Trump was trying to ensure his victory in the Republican nomination fight, he hired Manafort to help corral delegates for the upcoming convention. At the time, you may remember, there was a lot of talk about whether or not Republican delegates pledged to Trump would hold steady as the convention unfolded. Manafort had helped Ford with that task in 1976, fending off a challenge from Reagan. The recommendation to hire Manafort came from Trump's longtime ally Roger Stone, who'd formed a lobbying firm with Manafort after the 1980 election. Manafort accepted a position with the Trump campaign for no salary. Manafort's questionable business associations were well known, but, at the time, Trump was still having trouble attracting top-tier Republican staffers who were skeptical that Trump was a viable candidate. Once on the campaign, he butted heads with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. In late June, Trump's children helped convince him to oust Lewandowski and elevate Manafort, who became campaign chairman. He held that senior position with the campaign until August. On the day he resigned, former House speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox News' Sean Hannity that "nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to really help get this campaign to where it is right now." Q: Why did he part ways with Trump? A: For this, we need to talk a bit more about Manafort's background. In 2006, Manafort's company (of which Gates was part) signed a multi-year agreement with a Russian oligarch named Oleg Deripaska apparently based on a 2005 proposal in which Manafort outlined a strategy that would "greatly benefit the [Russian president Vladimir] Putin Government." Deripaska is closely tied to Putin. That same year, Manafort began working with Yanukovych's Party of Regions in Ukraine. In 2010, Yanukovych was elected as that country's president. In 2014, he was ousted during a popular uprising in the country largely because of his sympathies for Russia. A ledger found in a former Party of Regions office in Kiev reported last year indicated that Manafort may have received nearly $13 million in off-the-record payments from the party during his time working with them. Manafort denied the allegation, but the Associated Press later confirmed some of the payments. At the time, Trump was facing a number of questions about his relationship with Russia and any financial ties to the country. Revelation that his campaign chairman may have been paid by a Russian-backed political party helped spur Trump to oust Manafort from his position. Q: Does this news prove that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia? A: No. It's important to remember that the investigation by Mueller is looking at Russian meddling in the 2016 election as well as any possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian agents. But as an arm of the Justice Department, Mueller's team is also authorized to investigate "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation." Think about it this way. If the police were called to your house to interview you about noise complaint and saw you standing over a dead body holding a knife, that might also come up as a subject of conversation. Q: What do the charges relate to? A: The indictment includes 12 counts, focused on a few things: Misleading the government, failing to register as a foreign agent, laundering money and failing to report foreign income. It includes a conspiracy charge which is broadly about misleading the government, including that Manafort (and Gates) provided false statements to investigators and failed to register as foreign agents. (Manafort eventually did so in June after his work with the campaign drew attention to himself.) This is not a charge the Manafort conspired against the United States on behalf of Russia during the election. The financial charges relate to $75 million that Manafort and Gates earned overseas, $18 million of which was then allegedly laundered by Manafort. This money was apparently largely earned through the pair's work in Ukraine. It's important to note that these investigations predate Manafort's time as head of the Trump campaign. In 2014, the FBI began an investigation into Manafort, including a wiretap. (That same year, Deripaska accused Manafort and Gates of taking $19 million from him that was meant to be invested in a cable network in Ukraine.) The investigation into Manafort was restarted in the spring of last year. BuzzFeed reports that the FBI is investigating wire transfers that were made in 2012 and 2013. In other words, even had he not worked with Trump's campaign, Manafort might have faced an indictment like this anyway. Q: Does this close the door on whether or not Manafort was involved in colluding on the campaign? A: The main caveat worth remembering here is that Manafort was out of the campaign by August - meaning that he wasn't there for the closing days of Trump's effort. That said, there are two ways in which Manafort and Russian interests overlapped during his time on the campaign. The first relates to Deripaska, the Putin-allied oligarch. Shortly after Manafort started with the campaign, he emailed a business partner in Ukraine and asked how his new position might be used to "get whole," asking if Deripaska's team was aware of his new position. Later in the campaign, Manafort sought to pass word to Deripaska that a private briefing on the campaign might be possible. It doesn't seem to have happened. (Worth noting: During the campaign, the Trump campaign - then managed by Manafort - worked to remove language in the party platform about arming Ukraine in its efforts against Russia.) Manafort was also one of the participants in the infamous Trump Tower meeting set up by Donald Trump Jr. and involving a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer who was offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. During that meeting, Trump Jr. described Manafort as being on his phone the whole time, hinting that the content was not interesting to the campaign chairman. Later, though, Manafort turned over notes from the meeting that he'd taken on his phone. It is possible that the Manafort indictment is meant to serve as leverage in Mueller's broader investigation. There is no mention in the indictment of Trump. In 2006, Manafort bought a condominium in Trump Tower. Other New York real estate Manafort purchased in 2012 is listed in the indictment because the money used to buy the properties wasn't included in his tax returns. More charges could be filed against Manafort in the future. Q: Are there still ties between Manafort and Trump? A: Trump has a pattern of continuing to talk with people he'd once hired on the campaign, even if they'd been fired. It's not clear if that was maintained with Manafort, though Manafort did call former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus shortly before Trump's inauguration. The Daily Beast reported in June that Gates was a regular visitor to the White House, working with Trump ally Tom Barrack. (Barrack recently fretted over Trump's presidency in an interview with The Post.) Los Angeles, CA -- (ReleaseWire) -- 10/30/2017 --Vermont Urgent Care is a healthcare facility with LGBT friendly doctors in Los Angeles dedicated to serving those from any background or community. Healthcare facilities without LGBT friendly doctors in Los Angeles can make some patients feel uncomfortable, which is why Vermont Urgent Care has a well-trained staff to make everyone feel welcome and comfortable. Finding healthcare providers with LGBT friendly doctors in Los Angeles is a must for several clients, and Vermont Urgent Care's staff is trained for accommodating everyone's needs and expectations. Their LGBT friendly doctors in Los Angeles ensure that all their clients receive the superior care they deserve, regardless of their identity. LGBT friendly doctors in Los Angeles helps those who identify with the LGBTQ community feel safe and taken care of, and Vermont Urgent Care is trained to treat anyone who needs healthcare. This healthcare facility with its LGBT friendly doctors in Los Angeles puts their client's needs first, ensuring that everyone feels welcomed, respected, and treated. About Vermont Urgent Care Vermont Urgent care is a healthcare clinic for urgent care with superior care and affordable pricing. They offer a range of accommodations and services all performed by LGBT friendly doctors in Los Angeles. Any non-life-threatening conditions such as fevers, cuts, burns, and other common ailments can be treated and addressed from this healthcare facility. Their high customer satisfaction and affordable services help make them a very popular urgent care clinic in Los Angeles. If you, a friend, or a loved one needs urgent care or LGBT friendly doctors in Los Angeles, visit Vermont Urgent Care at http://www.vermonturgentcare.org, and walk-ins are welcome at 1435 S. Vermont Ave. #100A, Los Angeles, California 90006. Nearly 20 Uyghur students in Egypts capital Cairo are unaccounted for some four months after authorities launched a dragnet targeting members of the ethnic minority at Chinas behest, according to two of the young men, who said they endured regular abuse while in detention. More than 200 Uyghurs, many of them religious students at Cairos Al-Azhar Islamic University, have been detained since July 4, rounded up in restaurants or at their homes, with others seized at airports as they tried to flee to safer countries, sources told RFAs Uyghur Service in earlier reports. Dozens of Uyghurs are believed to have already been deported home to northwest Chinas Xinjiang region, where rights groups say they face a serious risk of arbitrary detention and torture. Last month, Egyptian authorities began releasing the Uyghur students and their family members detained in July and published their names in reports by local media, but 16 of them remain unaccounted for, two young men who were freed on Sept. 13 and 28 told RFA on condition of anonymity, after recently relocating to Turkey. Among those confirmed missing are Abduweli Hesen, from Korla (in Chinese, Kuerle) city; Muhemmet Ahmet, from Kashgar (Kashi) prefecture; Nurmemet Obul, from Kashgar, Abdureqib, from Aqsu (Akesu) prefecture; and Memet Hajim, from Hotan (Hetian) prefecture, the students said. The two men, who had travelled to Egypt last year when China relaxed requirements for Uyghurs seeking to obtain passports, had ignored pressure from authorities in Xinjiang to return home to register earlier this year, following reports that several Uyghurs who complied with the order were taken into custody upon their return. They believed themselves to be safe from Chinas reach, but on July 4 were rounded up by Egyptian State Security personnel and soldiers while strolling through a district of Cairo that is home to several Uyghur residents and handled roughly, as if we were criminals who came to Egypt to destroy the country. The two men said that they were among 70 Uyghur, Hui, and Salar ethnic minority students from China and their family members who were captured that day and brought to the Qismil Awal district police station for questioning by Bai Kechengthe Beijing-appointed president of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association in Egypt. After bringing them food and photographing them, Bai and three other Chinese men interrogated the detainees about their Islamic religious activities, such as how often they prayed and how well they knew the Quran. In the beginning, the Egyptian police questioned us, but later, officials from the Chinese embassy questioned us, said one of the two students who spoke to RFA. They asked us questions such as, Where did you come from? What are you doing here in Egypt? and What are you studying? And they videotaped [our responses]. The two students said the detainees were sent to prison the following day, where they were beaten by security guards and by cellmates who demanded money from them, noting that children were among those held. Tora Prison On July 7, the detainees were dispersed to various police stations in Cairo by Egyptian authorities who acknowledged that they were innocent and told them they would be released, but 11 days later, they were all moved to the capitals notorious Tora Prison, the students said. A total of 94 Uyghur students and their family members were placed in two cells at Tora Prison on July 18, when they were visited by a Uyghur official from the Chinese embassy in Cairo, the students told RFA. The 16 Uyghur students who remain unaccounted for were blindfolded and brought to the Uyghur official for interrogation at the time, they said, and he questioned them about their finances, connections with Uyghur organizations in exile, and their studies. Throughout their detention, authorities never once explained the accusations against them, the students said, and prison personnel repeatedly told them that they would be freed once your embassy gives us the order to release you. Its hard to take it, when you are locked up without any reason, one of the two men told RFA, adding that conditions in prison were difficult and food was sparse. Media reports have quoted officials as denying that Egyptian authorities were targeting Uyghurs and saying that those arrested were brought in for alleged irregularities in their residency papers, but Uyghur exile groups and students say the detentions were ordered by China on allegations that they had joined extremist organizations. On Aug. 31 and Sept. 2, Egyptian authorities relocated the Uyghur students and their family members from Tora Prison to jail cells in various police stations throughout the capital, and it was at this time that the 16 students went missing, the sources told RFA. Nearly 80 people are believed to still be held at Tora Prison. They were very cruel After being transferred to local jails, the students and their families faced regular harassment, robbery and physical assault from local prisoners, according to the sources. Some students became ill and some developed open sores, but the prison guards didnt care about their condition, they said. Being Muslims, we Uyghurs thought all other Muslims are like us. However, to our disappointment we didnt receive kindness from them. They were good at reciting the verses from the Quran, but they were very cruel, and showed no sympathy towards the pain of fellow Muslims. The ruling Chinese Communist Party blames some Uyghurs for a string of violent attacks and clashes in China in recent years, but critics say the government has exaggerated the threat from the ethnic group, and that repressive domestic policies are responsible for violence that has left hundreds dead since 2009. China regularly conducts strike hard campaigns in Xinjiang, including police raids on Uyghur households, restrictions on Islamic practices, and curbs on the culture and language of the Uyghur people, including videos and other material. Reported by Abduweli Ayup for RFAs Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma and Alim Seytoff. Written in English by Joshua Lipes. The line of family, friends and fans curled out the door as Dorothy Braden Bruce seated at a table, the center of attention laughed and cracked jokes, shook hands and gave hugs, autographed books and smiled for photos. All in all, a pretty decent way to spend an afternoon for someone who is 97, even if all the hoopla left her too excited to eat lunch. Fame is so hard on me, she said with a laugh. Bruce seemed to thoroughly enjoy her moment in the spotlight Friday afternoon at Spring Arbor, the Midlothian assisted living facility where she resides. The occasion was a reception and book signing for Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II. Bruce was one of those code breakers, and she plays a central role in the new book by author Liza Mundy, who traveled from her home in Arlington County for the event. She was really critical to the story, Mundy said. She was my first code breaker I interviewed when I was trying to figure out if it was feasible to do this reporting, to find any of these women. There was something else about Bruce that came through early on, Mundy said: She has such a great personality. Bruce is funny and talkative a real hoot which makes it all the more amazing that she was able to keep her top-secret government work a secret for 70 years. But that was the promise she and the other code breakers made they signed loyalty and secrecy oaths, pledging to never reveal details of their work. Bruces son, Jim, showed me a letter his mother received after the war, upon leaving her job with the Army Security Agency in 1946, that reminded her the confidential nature of her work prevents you from discussing it with anyone. She took that to mean forever. So she told no one: not her husband, also named Jim, who died in 2007; not her children, not anyone. At family gatherings after the war, she listened to relatives talk about their security clearances and their work for the war effort. All she could say was she couldnt say anything about what she did during the war. Even her family doubted the significance of her work. They knew she had a government job in Washington, but they never imagined she was cracking Japanese military codes that led to the sinking of Japanese ships and shortening the war and saving American lives. Bruce hesitated even after Mundy assured her in their initial meeting three years ago that the National Security Agency the modern offspring of the agency Bruce worked for had declassified records related to the code breakers and was eager to have the womens story told. A promise is a promise, after all, and she didnt want to be tried for treason or anything. (The image of a 90-something woman in a federal prison was not something she wanted to entertain.) Ultimately, though, Bruces son, an attorney, and Mundy convinced her it was perfectly fine to talk. I didnt want to tell her anything, Bruce recalled, but he said, Mama, its OK. And it was. Bruce had to work hard to resurrect the memories that she had suppressed for all those years. Youre told not to talk about something, she said, and it just becomes part of your life not to talk about it, so you just dont bother to even think about it. In that regard, it really hadnt been that difficult not to share any state secrets. The solemnity with which women viewed their vow of secrecy was, in part, how the story went untold for so many years, Mundy writes in the book. That and the fact that women of that era did not expect to receive credit for achievements in public life. They also did not go on to long military careers; they went back to private life in a society where women generally took a back seat to men. They knew what they did during the war, but no one else did. Until now. Mundy, who grew up in Roanoke, was a longtime reporter for The Washington Post who has become a best-selling author with The Richer Sex and a biography of Michelle Obama. For Code Girls, she dug into declassified archives and interviewed more than 20 code breakers to produce the book about the 10,000 American women who served the Army and the Navy as code breakers during World War II. The women, she writes, were recruited from small Southern towns and colleges to undertake the daunting task of unraveling encrypted messages from the German and Japanese armed forces. Men worked as code breakers, too, but as the war effort ramped up and more men were sent overseas, a large part of the task fell to women. The way-past-due recognition for the female code breakers of Code Girls follows a similar path blazed by Hidden Figures, the book and film that told the previously overlooked story of black female mathematicians at NASA during the 1960s space race. Sometimes Ill say, These are the Hidden Figures of the Greatest Generation, Mundy said of the code breakers. I do think that people are more willing now to believe these stories are true and that women played a significant role. Bruce grew up in Lynchburg, the eldest daughter of a single mother, a secretary at a uniform factory, who wanted her daughter to have more financial opportunities and insisted she attend hometown Randolph-Macon Womans College. Bruce became a teacher, but an arduous first year at a public high school in Pittsylvania County in 1942 left her vowing never to return. Her mother told her of government recruiters conducting interviews at a Lynchburg hotel. They were looking for schoolteachers schoolteachers being the prime profession for college-educated women in the 1940s for jobs in Washington. Bruce had nothing to lose, so she went. Even after the interview, she wasnt clear what the job was, though it sounded kind of mysterious, and she still wasnt clear when she received a letter saying she got the job and inviting her to Washington. It wasnt until after she arrived in Washington Arlington, actually and got to work that she realized what she would be trained to do: breaking enemy codes. The work was hard, and the days were long. Sometimes, the women worked seven days straight, got a day off, then worked seven more in succession. They pored over encrypted messages in order to unscramble coded puzzles to help the U.S. determine the whereabouts in the case of Bruces project group of Japanese shipping. Yes, her work led to the sinking of ships, still a bit of an unnerving thought, even more than seven decades later. I dont even like to think about it because I think about all those ships we sank, she said, but then she remembered the work was justified: They sank ours. War was hell even if you were working in a secret office in Northern Virginia. Bruce, who worked as a code breaker for more than two years, spent most of her postwar life in Richmond. Her husband made a career at DuPont, while she worked as a substitute teacher at George Wythe High School, which her children attended, and later as a real estate agent. She lived in the same house for more than 50 years before moving to Spring Arbor. I mentioned to her son, Jim, that his mother seemed to be embracing this long-overdue appreciation. He agreed, and said its not just because of the book. He walked me over to Spring Arbors Wall of Honor, a wall of photos honoring military veterans who live at the facility. There, among the pictures of vets, is a new one of his mother that has gone up in recent weeks. She was a civilian worker, not military, but she feels honored to have served her country, he said, and to have others know about it. That was a big deal for her, he said of the photo on the Wall of Honor. I think that meant as much as anything to her. Women survive breast cancer every day, and early detection methods and advances in treatment options have saved more and more lives. But still, breast cancer is more likely than any other cancer to kill women, and 1 out of 8 women will develop it in their lifetimes. That really is a high statistic, said Dr. Sarah Milton, an obstetrician/gynecologist with VCU Health. So doctors have continued to spread education and dispel misconceptions about breast cancer screening and general breast health in order to find it as early as possible and save more lives. Dr. Biren Shah, VCU Healths director of breast imaging, said mammograms are the best tool to detect breast cancer as early as possible. The ability to pick up cancers early and treat those patients has really been a successful story, Shah said. It certainly has decreased mortality by about 40 percent for those that begin annual screening starting at the age of 40. Shah noted that mammograms can cause discomfort for patients as their breasts must be compressed, but that it is still the best screening tool available. Some professional societies disagree about the best age at which to start regular mammograms, whether it is 40 or 50 years old. Shah noted that there is a jump in terms of breast cancer risk for some women between their 30s and 40s. Milton said the right time to start might vary for different patients, and that the best way to determine a woman is making smart decisions when it comes to detecting breast cancer early is to have an open, honest discussion with her doctor. Its never too early to set up a plan for breast cancer screenings and talk to your doctor about what your personal risks are and what the lifelong plan would be for your breast health, Milton said. Without that dialogue with your provider, theres really no way to know youre on track with breast cancer screening. She pointed out another common myth about breast health: the importance of self-exams. Years ago, women were taught to do regular breast self-exams every few weeks to stay on track of any changes that their doctor should become aware of. Many women still do those exams, Milton said, but all of the professional societies, from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the American Cancer Association, agree that a womans overall survival and well-being are not improved by doing those exams. They all recommend breast self-awareness instead, Milton said. Awareness of the normal feel and look of a womans breast, and bringing to their doctors attention any changes from a normal baseline. She explained that the formerly recommended self-exams could lead to false positives women would think they found something, schedule an appointment and perhaps even get an imaging test done. It would lead to unnecessary anxiety and cost. The most important thing is for women to be aware of their bodies in general, Milton said. There are some ways for women to prevent breast cancer, she added. While most think family history is the most telling predictor of whether a woman will develop the cancer, in fact only about 10 percent of breast cancers are considered hereditary. CHARLOTTESVILLE The University of Virginia has completed its first successful harvest of hemp plants in collaboration with a private plant biotechnology company. The harvest coming after the first year of a three-year, $1.1 million sponsored research agreement between U.Va. and biotech company 22nd Century Group is one of several private-public partnerships across the commonwealth investigating hemp and medical marijuana. Principal investigator Michael Timko wants to renew Virginia as a leading producer of hemp and to restore land depleted by tobacco and mining. The idea is, why should we be importing things from overseas when we could be growing it here, said Timko, a biology professor at U.Va. Plus, it creates new sources of revenue for farmers. 22nd Centurys first harvest with U.Va. identified varieties of hemp ideal for growing in Virginia. Industrial hemp, although the same species as marijuana, is a distinct strain that has lower concentrations of the psychoactive agent tetrahyrdocannabinol, or THC. Hemp is used to make nutritional supplements, paper, rope and oils. Hemp is relatively easy to grow, Timko said, but a century-long ban on the crop has made it hard to find varieties suited to the Virginia climate. The payoff, if you look at what the projections of what the industry could be, is astronomical, he said. Two solid candidates are running for lieutenant governor this year: Justin Fairfax, a former federal prosecutor, and state Sen. Jill Holtzman Vogel. Fairfax, a Democrat, has a promising future in politics (he almost beat Mark Herring in the 2013 Democratic contest for attorney general). He is extremely sharp and immensely personable. He also stands well to the left on policy questions, which is where the Democratic Party seems headed. He is not, however, prepared to step into the office of governor in the event of an emergency. Vogel who has represented part of Northern Virginia for a decade clearly is. As a member of the Senate, she also is intimately familiar with the chamber over which she would preside as lieutenant governor. Whats more, despite lambasting Vogel for marching in lockstep with the GOP a false charge Fairfax apparently does not deviate anywhere from Democratic orthodoxy. By contrast, Vogel has parted ways with Virginia Republicans in several key areas, including gay rights, gerrymandering reform, and environmental protection. Yet she has stood up for important conservative ideas such as school choice and free enterprise. A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. You were from Roanoke and left for Asheville, North Carolina. What brought you back to Roanoke? Im the tasting manager for Deschutes and came back here for that job. I moved back in June to help open the tasting room and am very happy to be a part of the beer scene in Roanoke and excited. Its different now. Theres a lot more young professionals in the area and people are tapping into the outdoors, which is really cool and something that is huge in the culture of Deschutes. Its another reason why its a good fit for me and the company. How did you get into the craft beer business? I basically always had worked in restaurants and have always been into wine and cocktails and whatnot. Eight or nine years ago, when it [craft beer] started to emerge, it was always something I was really interested in. Early on, one of my friends worked at Parkway [Brewing Co.] and I was able to hop on the bottling line like once a week for a few months there. So that was really cool. That was definitely my first introduction into craft beer. Then, I moved to Asheville it was obviously in your face. The craft beer scene was just a neat group of people to be around and it has a good sense of community. ... I moved to Asheville for fun and in that I started working for Wicked Weed Brewing. And I was the manager at their Funkatorium, which had 16 sour taps. It was strictly sour, which is kind of cool. What do you think the beer scene in Roanoke is like? I think its awesome. I think that everyone gets along really well. Its fun to go to all the other brewery openings. And everyone gets along really well and it has, like I said before, a big sense of community. It brings everyone out. You can bring your kids and they can run around. You can play cornhole. One thing we say with Deschutes is that good beer brings people together. So I think thats definitely something that is happening in Roanoke right now. What is the role of the tasting room in the beer scene here? I think the role is just to bring beer drinkers to the area. Of course, everyone is in competition but really, overall, the more beer drinkers we have, the more customers we all have, the more consumer base we all have. For Deschutes as well, this room we [have], the experiential room, wants to do a lot of beer education and just letting people know what is craft beer and what is Deschutes. Youre an experienced craft beer drinker. What is your favorite beer? It changes seasonally. It changes daily. Sometimes, it depends on the weather or my mood. Right now, we have a beer called Chasin Freshies, which is a fresh-hoped beer. The hops are harvested and then within four hours they are in a beer and being brewed. Its just so fresh and aromatic and tasty and dank, if you will, that its just crushable. Really, really good. Whitebarrel Winery opened a new wine bar in Blacksburg last week. Whitebarrel Blacksburg Wine and Tapas Bar is in The Brownstone building at 301 S. Main St. The 1,600-square-foot space has been in the works for several months and now features Whitebarrel's wines along with other Virginia wines, ciders and meads. The tapas bar offers Virginia produce and cheeses, "a rotating menu designed to introduce fresh, local flavors that complement the unique range of wines being poured," according to a news release. Wine will be sold by the glass and bottle on-site and through a retail outlet for off-site sales. Whitebarrel co-owner Richard Obiso said that this second location marks the beginning of the winery's expansion across Virginia, with the next location expected to open in Richmond in 2018. Obiso also thanked Brownstone management and officials in the town of Blacksburg, who offered a helping hand in getting the restaurant open. Located in Christiansburg, Whitebarrel Winery was known as Attimo Winery before it re-branded in 2015. It is now one of the largest wineries in the region, producing several thousand cases each year with more than 17 acres of property and vineyards in Montgomery County and more than 33 acres in Floyd County. Each year, more than 50,000 people visit Whitebarrel's Christiansburg location, where its wine and food are also offered, the company said. The University of Virginia has completed its first successful harvest of hemp plants in collaboration with a private plant biotechnology company. The harvest coming after the first year of a three-year, $1.1 million sponsored research agreement between UVa and biotech company 22nd Century Group is one of several private-public partnerships across the commonwealth investigating hemp and medical marijuana. Principal investigator Michael Timko wants to renew Virginia as a leading producer of hemp and to restore land depleted by tobacco and mining. The idea is, why should we be importing things from overseas when we could be growing it here? said Timko, a biology professor at UVa. Plus, it creates new sources of revenue for farmers. 22nd Centurys first harvest with UVa identified varieties of hemp ideal for growing in Virginia, according to the company. 22nd Century also is working with UVa to develop medical marijuana and cannabinoid extraction processes for medical and therapeutic use. Industrial hemp, although the same species as marijuana, is a distinct strain that has lower concentrations of the psychoactive agent tetrahyrdocannabinol, or THC. Hemp is used to make nutritional supplements, paper, rope and oils. Extracts of cannabinoids from the plant, sometimes called medicinal marijuana, can be used for therapeutic purposes. Hemp is relatively easy to grow, Timko said, but a century-long ban on the crop has made it hard to find varieties suited to the Virginia climate. The payoff, if you look at what the projections of what the industry could be, is astronomical, he said. However, hemp is still hampered by its associations with marijuana. The United States is the only country that still classifies hemp as a Schedule I drug, placing it under high levels of regulation. Hemp was made illegal to grow without a permit in the U.S. in 1970, but legislation in 2014 and 2016 allowed universities to grow or cultivate industrial hemp with THC concentrations below 0.3 percent. UVa also has a permit from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency that allows growth of industrial hemp, as well as medicinal marijuana , which has higher THC limits. Legislation pending in Washington would reclassify hemp as a commodity crop, which would allow Timko to work with researchers in other states and allow farmers to test the crop without licenses from research universities. Timko is the only principal investigator at UVa looking into hemp or medical marijuana, and 22nd Century is the only external private company related to that type of research, according to a UVa spokesman. Cannabis is just one of those plants that is fascinating because it has such a long use, not just as a recreational drug but as a therapeutic, Timko said. Ive always been interested in the secondary metabolism of plants the compounds they make not directly related to their normal growth. Timko said hes most excited by work with UVas College at Wise in Southwest Virginia. Hemp was planted on land crippled by old coal mines. Results from those fields still are being recorded. Im very excited about the prospect of using hemp for reclamation and phytoremediation, Timko said. Its very deep-rooted, so it breaks up the soil and allows nutrients to get back in. You can both reclaim the land and use the product of hemp for profit. Another aspect of the research project is working with greenhouse growers to create medicinal variations of hemp. Timko said he hopes to create special variations of the plant that have concentrations of cannabinoids that are effective for particular diseases. Recent state legislation allowing epilepsy patients to access cannabinoids may encourage even more exploration of hemp and medical marijuana, he hopes. In May, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services put out a request for more research proposals from universities interested in industrial hemp research, but a spokeswoman for the department, Erin Williams, said it received no proposals. In addition to UVa, the department currently has agreements with James Madison University, Virginia State University and Virginia Tech to conduct research in industrial hemp, including into the use of hemp seed oil in the production of biodiesel. While the department wont be adding to its industrial hemp research program in 2018, Williams said some varieties are showing promise, and all of the participating universities are expected to renew their memoranda of understanding for next year. December 31, 1928 October 27, 2017 Geraldine Virginia Hall (Gerry) Shaffer, 88, of Roanoke, Va., went to be with the Lord on Friday, October 27, 2017. A native of Roanoke, she was born on December 31, 1928, to Arthur LeRoy Hall Sr. of Pearsall, Texas, and Obertia Burnell Rowland Hall of Petersburg, Va. Gerry attended Jefferson High School and continued her business education with the Woodrow Wilson Technical School of Fishersville, Va. She worked for Lewis Gale Clinic in Salem, Va., from which she would later retire. Gerry would continue her studies with the Roanoke County Schools Marketing and Distributive Education programs. She was a talented artist, dancer and musician and served as the pianist for the Eastern Star. Gerry loved photography and was always ready with a camera to chronicle family events to create beautiful heirloom photo albums. She attended and was involved with the Penn Forest Wesleyan Church for many years. Gerry was the loving and proud mother of her "three girls," a role in which she cherished so dearly. She was preceded in death by her brothers, Arthur LeeRoy Hall Jr. of Roanoke, Va., Calvin Ray Hall of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., and Bobby Odell Hall of Roanoke, Va. Gerry is survived by one brother, Wesley Allen Hall and his wife, Esther, of Clovis, N.M., and his family; and her daughters, Karen Boxer and her husband, Jonathan, of Hermosa Beach, Calif., Larissa Arnold and her husband, Jerry, of Roanoke, Va., and Judy Stabolepszy and her husband, Charles, of Tunbridge, Vt. Also surviving are her grandchildren, Summer Jauneaud and husband, Bruno, of France, Derek Arnold and wife, Steph, of Roanoke, Va., and Bryon Arnold of Roanoke, Va.; and her great-grandchildren, Chloe, Chiara and Camille of France. She also leaves behind many nieces, nephews and cousins. Funeral services will be announced at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the National Association for the Deaf. Arrangements by Oakey's South Chapel at 4257 Brambleton Avenue, Roanoke. Online condolences may be expressed at www.oakeys.com. A home once owned by Reba McEntire will soon be the site of lavish weddings, private functions and corporate events. The home, located in Lebanon, Tennessee, was sold by McEntire to man Deron Licthe of Portland, Oregon several years ago and will open its doors for events next month. McEntire also made headlines last month when it was announced that she would star in ABC's annual "CMA Country Christmas." The special will air November 27 and McEntire says she wants to make the special "as personal and as friendly and comfortable" as she can. She also says that she's hoping to make "it not to be such a formal event, but just a friendly 'sit down, let's sing, let's talk a little bit, and then sing another song' - and with lots of heartfelt emotion." The newly single star added recently of her personal life: "I'm just now discovering that I feel more free and happier and more alive - just enjoying life." For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Entertainment News Constellation Brands Inc. (STZ,STZ-B), a producer of beer, wine and spirits, announced Monday that it has signed an agreement to acquire a minority stake in Ontario, Canada-based Canopy Growth Corp. (WEED.TO), a provider of medicinal cannabis products. The investment is expected to approximate C$245 million representing an ownership interest of 9.9% of Canopy Growth , plus warrants which give Constellation Brands the option to purchase an additional ownership interest in the future. The transaction is expected to close during the Company's third quarter of fiscal 2018. Constellation Brands said the investment is consistent with its long-term strategy to identify, meet and stay ahead of evolving consumer trends and market dynamics, while maintaining focus on its core total beverage alcohol . Constellation has no plans to sell any cannabis products in the U.S. or any other market unless or until it is legally permissible to do so at all government levels. Founded in 2014, Canopy Growth currently has a market cap of more than C$2 billion. The company owns a collection of diverse brands serving customers in Canada and international where medicinal cannabis products are legal. In conjunction with this investment, both companies intend to enter into an agreement to exchange knowledge and expertise. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News (Agencia CMA Latam) - The Venezuelan state-owned oil company PDVSA reported that it would demonstrate its strong operational and financial capacity by canceling the principal of the 8.5% coupon PDVSA 2020 to all the bondholders. In a statement, PDVSA reported that bank transfers were already initiated corresponding to the principal payment of the PDVSA 2020 Bond for a total amount of US$ 841.88 million in J.P. Morgan's accounts. The company said it would honor payment despite the economic war and sanctions imposed by the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and sabotage, persecution and financial blockade to which Venezuela has been subjected. by Agencia CMA Latam For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com Business News Gold futures rose Monday as President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort was indicted by a federal grand jury on twelve counts, including conspiracy against the United States. The fallout may derail Trump's pro-growth economic agenda, generating some safe haven appetite for gold. Stocks slipped from record highs. Dec. gold settled at $1,277.70/oz, up $5.90, or 0.5%. In economic news, U.S. personal income rose in line with economists in the month of September, There was also a bigger than expected jump in personal spending. The report said personal income climbed by 0.4 percent in September after edging up by 0.2 percent in August. Traders now await Trump's decision on who will lead the Federal Reserve. Reports say Trump is likely to appoint current Fed Governor Jerome Powell to replace Janet Yellen. For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Market Analysis California-based clothing company LuLaRoe is reportedly being sued for at least $1 billion in damages for allegedly being a pyramid scheme. The lawsuit, which was filed on October 23 by California residents Aki Berry, Tiffany Scheffer and Cheryl Hayton on behalf of all LuLaRoe consultants, alleges LuLaRoe of being an illegal pyramid scheme and of violating a federal racketeering law. The complainants claim that LuLaRoe deceived people by promising full-time pay for part-time work if they joined as a non-employee. "Once consultants signed up, they were pressured to invest and reinvest by purchasing Defendants' clothing products -- regardless of whether they were able to sell their inventory," the complaint says "Plaintiffs were inundated with the slogan 'buy more sell more' and were told they would recoup their investments through retail sales and recruitment." For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com Business News #BTS BTS receives two 2023 Grammy nominations South Korean supergroup BTS has been nominated in two categories of the 2023 Grammy Awards, becoming the first K-pop act to receive any Grammy nomination for the third consecutive ... Pulling up the West Bengal government for challenging the Centre's decision to link Aadhaar for giving subsidies, the Supreme Court on Monday wondered how could a state government challenge a law passed by the central government. "How can a state government challenge a law passed by the Centre? This way Centre would start challenging the laws passed by the states," observed a bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan. The court also gave time to the West Bengal government to amend its petition questioning the linking of Aadhaar for giving subsidy by the state's Labour Department. The court said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could challenge the aspect of Aadhaar law requiring linking an "individual" and a "citizen". However, the court gave notice to the Centre on a plea challenging the mandatory linking of mobile phones with Aadhaar. The Centre was given four weeks to respond. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Monday described demonetisation as an "out and out disaster" and said that GST was a "torpedo" which destroyed the economy. "The decision of demonetisation was an out-and-out disaster. The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is yet not able to understand the pain of the nation," Rahul Gandhi said after a meeting of party general secretaries here. "I don't know what they are going to celebrate. November 8 is a sad day for us," he said referring to the government's decision to observe it as anti-black money day. "Today we had two meetings, one on demonetisation and the other on GST. In the demonetisation meeting we discussed how the country has suffered a lot and many small businesses have closed," Gandhi said. "In the GST meeting, it was discussed how a good idea was destroyed," he said. He said that Narendra Modi gave two shocks to the country "one after another". "He gave two shocks one after another -- first demonetisation and the other GST," he said. Demonetisation was the first torpedo from which the country survived, but the second torpedo of GST destroyed it, he added. The Congress leader's remarks come a day after Prime Minister Modi said he was prepared to pay any price but would not roll back the reforms. Early Morning Fire Guts Lebanon Mini Mart There was no damage to the owners' home close by. A fire demolished the C & R Mini Mart Monday morning. Photo: Lebanon Fire District (LEBANON, Ore.) - An undetected fire tore through the C & R Mini Mart Monday morning destroying the small convenience store outside of Lebanon near Waterloo. Firefighters received the call for flames coming from the rear of the market at 31054 Santiam Highway just before 5:00 a.m. and arrived to find the small market fully engulfed in flames. "Due to the large amount of fire within the small structure our crews knocked down the majority of the fire from outside of the structure before moving in to extinguish the rest of the fire." said LFD Division Chief Jason Bolen. The fire was under control within a matter of minutes, but crews remained on scene past 7:00 a.m. mopping up and overhauling the structure. The business owners live on the same property roughly 50 feet from the store but there was no damage to their home. The store had been secured since 10:00 p.m. last night when the owner closed for the business day. There were no injuries to any civilians or firefighters and the property was insured according the owner. Members of the LFD Fire Investigation Team conducted an investigation on Monday morning to determine the origin and cause of the fire. The investigation found the fire to be accidental in nature and likely caused by an electrical malfunction of operating equipment. Anyone with information regarding this fire is encouraged to contact Deputy Fire Marshal Ken Foster at 541-451-1901. WATCH VIDEO: Mini-Mart Fire, Lebanon, OR. 10-30-2017 Source: Lebanon Fire District _________________________________________ Working hard is one essential solution to address the expensive cost of living nowadays. The cost of living in Samoa is expensive but hard work is the only way to cope with it, Taavili Taupau from Vaitele Fou said. Taavili Taupau met the Village Voice team while on his way with his son to sell Koko Esi around the village on Saturday morning. Mr. Taupau, 45, said this was his routine every Saturday. This is what I do in order to provide financial assistance for me and my family for Sunday. My son tags along with me because he can help me dish the koko esi to the buyers. The father of three said this was how he showed his support to his wife because shes the only one employed. My wife is the only person who works in our family through the week but my job is to take our kids to school every day but today I have to step up and help out making money for the family. Mr. Taupau said the cost of living here in Samoa at the moment is not cheap, but all we have got to do, is to work hard. We dont need to complain or criticize the high cost of living we have here in Samoa, the only thing we need to do is to work hard to cope with it. To me the only way I get to make money is to sell the tastiest traditional morning hot chocolate. Mr. Taupau also mentioned that he makes good money from what he is doing. I am glad I am making good money from selling these things and also clean money, because if this was in other countries when the cost of living is high, people would turn to dirty work and get dirty money from there, like what we are seeing in movies. To me I think the money I make from this is good enough for our Sunday feed and if it is more, then we will use it through the week. Life is hard and we all know that, but its just a matter of how you place yourself in any situation and cope with it, he added. Pacific Games Council President Vidhya Lakhan and C.E.O. Andrew Minogue have conducted their final inspection visit to Port Vila, Vanuatu the host of the 2017 Pacific Mini Games from 4-15 December. President Lakhan attended a joint meeting of the VAN2017 Pacific Mini Games Authority, chaired by the Minister of Sport, the Hon. Seule Simeon MP, as well as the VAN2017 Games Organising Committee, chaired by Mr Mark Stafford. At this meeting final Games delivery plans and arrangements were discussed and approved. Last evening, the President and C.E.O. attended a welcome reception at the new Korman Stadium complex which has been built by the Peoples Republic of China and will be formally handed to VAN2017 next week. The Deputy Prime Minister, the Hon. Joe Natuman MP, His Excellency the Ambassador of the Peoples Republic of China, and the President of the host PGA (V.A.S.A.N.O.C.) Antoine Boudier were all in attendance. President Lakhan also received a briefing from the CEO of VAN2017, Mr Clint Flood. In comments to the local media at the final press conference, President Lakhan said: I am very pleased with the state of preparations for the 10th Pacific Mini Games. All of the stakeholders have worked together well since my last visit in August to deliver the venues and operational plans. The P.G.C. now expects Vanuatu will be ready to host a successful Game in December. On behalf of the P.G.C., I sincerely thank the Governments of Vanuatu and the Peoples Republic of China for the outstanding support they are providing to V.A.S.A.N.O.C. and VAN2017 to be able to host the 10th Pacific Mini Games. Lets face it folks. Scott Brown was never going to be your average diplomat. The Ambassador of the United States of America to Samoa and New Zealand made that quite clear from the moment he arrived. Shortly after the pleasantries when the Head of State accepted his letter of credence at Vailele as the United States man in Samoa, Mr. Brown did not hold back. How can we forget his first press conference when he unapologetically attacked people who are anti-Donald Trumps climate stance before turning on China? Now we are not diplomats and we dont know what diplomats should and should not say on their first week on the job. Perhaps some diplomats themselves might like to enlighten us on the basics of what you should say or not say in your first week in a new country. But we know this much. Spewing venom on people who are hurting as a result of Donald Trumps lack of care about climate change and then turning on China whom if he hadnt noticed has helped Samoa and many other Pacific countries in many ways for the past many years, is probably not how you want to start. And yet thats precisely what happened when Mr. Brown arrived. Now lets rewind to his first press conference in Apia where he defended the decision by the United States President, Donald Trump, to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement. I dont believe that the President has closed the door on Paris, said Mr. Brown. He has felt that were not getting a fair deal paying billions of dollars. Lets pause right here. Here is a new man who has just come to Samoa and the Pacific where people are literally dying from climate change. And the first thing on his mind is money? How insensitive? But hang on. It gets considerably worse. While on one breath he defends the U.S. Presidents decision to abandon the Pacific to their own demise in terms of climate challenges, Mr. Brown then had the nerve to around and blast China, accusing them of destroying the coral reefs. He said China is completely decimating corals, dumped concrete destroying sea life, destroyed the reefs that are quite frankly exceedingly vital to the survival in this part of the world. Have you and anyone that you know said anything about that? he asked the media. We are getting a lot of grief for not signing an agreement when weve been leaders in this issue for 50 years. We just dont agree with the way that is happening right now. We want to get a better and fair deal. I dont think thats wrong. But I would ask you to ask the folks who are dealing with destroying the South China sea and the coral reefs which we all care so deeply about, like whats up with that? Now why are we talking about Mr. Brown today? Well the U.S. Ambassador has been making headlines all over the world during the past few days over his behaviour at a function in Vailima during the same trip. As a result he was investigated for comments he made to women and a waitress whom he allegedly told that she could make hundreds of dollars as a waitress in the United States. Again we stress that we dont know whether or not diplomats are allowed to say such things. From where we stand we see nothing wrong with the comments if they were intended to be compliments delivered honestly. But obviously other people havent. They feel offended by what he said so that they have described the Ambassadors behaviour as shocking, culturally insensitive, rude and undiplomatic. A lot of people were really upset by the tone of his speech that night, said one attendee. He was rudely shouting everyone down. After the speech I was so put off I didnt approach him. I wanted no personal contact with him. Another former Peace Corps volunteer who attended the party told the Guardian: I know someone who works at the US embassy and he said Scott went totally off the book [in the speech]. He said something like: When Kennedy started the Peace Corps 100 years ago, so it seemed he didnt really know what he was talking about. Well that little statement just about sums it up. He needs to know what he is talking about first. Which is a lesson for everyone not just diplomats that when you are new to a place, you might want to zip your mouth, observe, learn as quickly as you can before you say something. Otherwise you are going to come off looking like the biggest idiot on the face of the planet. Come to think of it, the only consolation for Mr. Brown is that when it comes to climate change stupidity and insensitivity to others, he is spared the biggest idiot title since his boss and U.S. President Donald Trump continues to do a stellar job holding that trophy firmly. What do you think? Have a great Tuesday Samoa, God bless! Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi has hailed the landing of the Tui Samoa Cable as a major milestone for Samoa. At Moataa yesterday where the cable reached the shore, Tuilaepa said it is a step closer towards faster, more reliable and affordable Internet. The landing was celebrated during a ceremony organised by the Submarine Cable Company Limited, with the blowing of the conch shell to mark the event. The Samoa Submarine Cable Company Limited (S.S.C.C) and Alcatel Submarine Networks (A.S.N) began the loading of the 1,470 km Tui-Samoa Cable in July. Prime Minister Tuilaepa cut the golden buoy before congratulating everyone involved. Today we are witnessing the next milestone of the Tui Samoa Cable landing here, at Moataa and the commencement of the 1,500 kilometers cable laying to Suva, Fiji with spurs to Tuasivi and Savaii, the Islands and Wallis and Futuna and to Savusavu on Vanualevu, Fiji, he said. The strategy for the government of Samoa sets out the governments vision to improve the lives of our people. And the Tui Samoa Cable is one of the key enablers that will help us achieve that goal. The Prime Minister commended Samoa Submarine Cable who has been at the forefront in the development. The Samoa Submarine Cable Company has been at the forefront in developing this regional connectivity project, and regional partnership such as this project, involving Fiji and Wallis & Futuna Islands, have given a physical presence to our Pacific leaders vision for regional cooperation, Tuilaepa said (read his speech in full on page 12). The success of the Tui-Samoa partnership has provided the Government with the confidence to facilitate new partnership amongst other Pacific Islands for new submarine cable projects. The next exciting project is the Manatua Cable linking Tahiti, the Cook Islands and Niue to Samoa. Not to mention a bold regional project called the One Pacific Cable which could potentially link Micronesia and Melanesia to Polynesia and involve 10 island nations (Guam, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Republic of Marshal Islands, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Tokelau and Samoa). Internet connectivity, Tuilaepa said, is critical. It is a key driver in realizing the ambitions of the United Nations sustainable development goals for Smaller Islands Developing States including Samoa. As we strive to ensure that we do not leave anyone of any place behind. This is especially true when only 18 percent of people in the least developing countries use the internet, compared with 82 percent in developed countries. According to the Prime Minister, the Tui Samoa will ensure that Wallis and Futuna and Vanualevu Fiji will not be left behind. Connectivity is a very vital ingredient of structural transformation and sustainable developments and critical to the efforts of small islands developing states to graduate from least developed status. Connectivity will be crucial to building resilience in our economy so that we can tackle complex issues we are confronted with including Climate Change. He pointed out the critical need to improve, National fiber optic infrastructure, least developed countries relies mostly on mobile broadband network to deliver reliable broadband internet to users and businesses, so there remains a need for Samoa to continue to invest in wireless internet infrastructure. At the beginning of his special remarks the Prime Minister pointed out to the complaints towards the project. The project is significantly important, rather than wasting breath on discrediting the good projects implemented by the government. As reported earlier, the Tui Samoa Cable will deliver a capacity of at least 8 Terabits-persecond (Tbit/s) using 100 Gbit/s transmission technology. The system will also have extensions to the islands of Vanua Levu Savusavu (Fiji) and Wallis and Futuna. Following the formalities there were also presentations of souvenirs to shareholders and financial partners. An application by Virgin Australia to continue to service the Faleolo/Auckland route has been reportedly rejected by the government. While it was not possible to get an official comment from the government last night, the Samoa Observer understands the decision was made last week. According to the NZ Herald, up to 6000 passengers could be hit by the decision. Virgin Australia had planned to fly five return services a week from the middle of next month. Yesterday, the airline confirmed its plan had been rejected by the government. A Virgin spokeswoman told The NZ Herald it was working to re-accommodate affected passengers as "a matter of priority" and would discuss their options. This could include rerouting passengers through Australia, from which proposed flights to Apia have been approved, or giving them refunds. ''Virgin Australia is disappointed with the Samoan government's decision, the spokesperson said. At this stage, we are working in conjunction with the Australian government to explore options to encourage the Samoan government to reconsider its decision. Virgin Australia had run a joint-venture service on the route with the Samoan government for the last decade. But Samoa is now, in conjunction with Fiji Airways, about to launch its own airline, Samoan Airways. Prior to the decision by the government, Virgin Australia had sold tickets for the past two months. ''It is very common for airlines to sell tickets prior to regulatory approval being granted and all passengers who purchased tickets were advised that the ticket was still subject to relevant regulatory approvals.'' Flights between Brisbane, Sydney and Apia have been approved by the Samoan government and these flights will start on November 13. Early in September Virgin said it was excited about the service. However, the Samoan government signalled in May it wanted to take a different direction when it ended the joint venture with Virgin. A letter from Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa'ilele Malielegaoi to Virgin Australia's chief executive John Borghetti stated the Cabinet had unanimously decided not to renew the agreement. "The Cabinet has decided that the current arrangement of the JV is no longer the direction that government and ultimately Samoa should take at this time," the letter said. Samoa Airways will next month begin a six-times-a-week service using a 170-seat two-class Boeing 737-800 with eight seats in business class and 162 in economy. The Auckland-Apia route has traditionally been strong for "friends and family" traffic and the country is now getting more tourists from New Zealand. Latest figures show 59,000 visitors from New Zealand went to Samoa in the past year, up more than 8 per cent on the previous 12 months. Air New Zealand is also increasing its services, using Dreamliners on the route this summer. A 43-year-old man from Nofoalii who was attacked by a shark has spoken for the first time since he was hospitalised in September with life threatening injuries. Misipati Misipati continues to be cared for at the hospital two months after a near fatal experience in the lagoon of his village where he was fishing early morning. During a meeting with the Samoa Observer yesterday, he could barely speak. He still has difficulty moving about. But he is a grateful man that he is alive. Ive always loved fishing since I was young, he said. On that Saturday morning at about one or two oclock, I went out to the sea. He did not take a boat with him. The only thing he had was his spear and a gallon to put the fish inside. Things started well, he caught fish and thought it was just another day in the ocean. That was until he heard something splashing behind him. I was facing the shore then I heard something, he recalled. It was a splash and it happened so quickly. When I tried to turn round, thats when it lunged at me and bit my back. Misipati couldnt immediately work out what it was but he knew it was trouble. After it bit his back, it came back immediately for his legs. I was struggling to move forward, he said. But the shark grabbed me and its jaws clamped down (to his legs) and jerked me around.... When I tried to chase it away using my hands to splash the water, the shark circled me and it came back again this time it got my fists. I saw deep wounds to my hands and there was a pool of blood. I could see my flesh hanging out from my hands and the pain to my legs was almost unbearable. Misipati said it was at that time he thought he would die. I was badly injured, still in the sea...I thought that was the end to my life. But he used every bit of his energy to push himself further towards the shore. I turned and walked as fast as I could. I cried out to God to help me but the shark still followed and gnawed at the other side of my waist. What saved him was when he reached a shallow part of the water. I think the shark realised that the sea was too shallow and it couldnt continue further so it gave up and went away. Misipati struggled and fought his way to the beach. My body was numb, he said. I had lost a lot of blood. I thank God that I still managed to yell at the top of my voice and not long while on the beach, an angel appeared. I heard a mans voice calling my name, a friend, I think it was three oclock but Im not quite sure what time he found me. I collapsed because I lost a lot of blood, and I thank God although I am still in hospital, Im alive. According to him, the shark was quite massive. From where I was standing and from the time I was trying to fight it back - it was a huge shark. It has been two months since the incident but he still has nightmares about it. The attack and the fear are still in my mind I am lucky to be alive. So up until now, I hardly move because the wounds still affect my body. He is most grateful to the staff of N.H.S and his family for the care and support he has received. Shark sightings and attacks in Samoas waters are not new. Assistant Chief Officer Legal for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Maoiautele Amitonu Brigitta Faafiti-Lo Tam said members of the public need to be alert. There have been past incidents of shark attacks, and the most recent attack as reported by your paper, Maoi'autele said. The presence of sharks is a good indication of a healthy reef and good population of fish. Maoiautele said sharks are predatory in nature and are territorial animals. Sharks are attracted to fish. There are shark species known as grey reef sharks, white-tip reef sharks, and black tip reef sharks which are normally found in the lagoon areas (aloalo) and some observed close to shore. The displays of aggression towards humans vary from one species to another and sharks can mistake people swimming or wading on reefs for prey in the presence of food. Maoi'autele also warned members of the public to be alert. United we stand, divided we fall. This is a guiding principle for 20 new employees of the company who will be working on renovating the whole 7,000 square meters of what used to be the Yazaki premises. The company is now starting on building offices, wood works as well as technicians and air compressors. One of the Directors, Tuatagaloa Aumua Leung Wai, said these are the first steps of the factory which promises jobs for many Samoans. They plan to officially open the factory some time in December. Sleepwell International is a partnership between Sleepwell New Zealand owned by the Lutu Brothers and Samoa Stationery and Books owned by Tuatagaloa and Fiti Leung Wai. The beginning of the renovation started with a prayer and word of encouragement by Rev. Segi Bee and Kuini Leung Wai of Worship Center and Nino Lafaele of the Assembly of God Lotopa. Sala George Lutu encouraged the new employees that honesty is the best policy. This is a new beginning and we must have one heart and soul to make this work, he said. You have been chosen because you have the ability and the skills to do the work and at the same time we want you to be honest. Being honest comes great blessings and I am looking forward to have this new beginning and to work side by side with you our Samoan community in running this factory. Fiti Leung Wai said that yesterday the 30th of October, 2017 will always be remembered as the date that history had been made. This is a special day for us as this is the first factory in Samoa, she said. Sometime this year we went on a trip to Fiji and we found out that there were five bed factories in Fiji but as for Samoa we have none. So Sleepwell International Ltd will be the first bed factory to be set up in Samoa and we want to acknowledge the Lutu Brothers for choosing S.S.A.B. to be their partners. The reason why we called this company Sleepwell International because for the long run we will be selling to international markets and who knows maybe we will take up the challenge with China. Many of the businesses within Samoa are competing on the current pull of money that is circulating within but Sleepwell International we are trying to inject new revenue from outside of Samoa. All the wisdom and knowledge in making good quality beds is with the Lutu Brothers and so if the beds we make are in good quality we will have more overseas markets demand for our beds. This is why it is very important for you all to do the work with honesty so that we will be able to sell it internationally. So as the start of a new milestone we have to work together for the betterment of our people as well as our company. Caritas Samoa has been awarded an Honour Award from the Apia Samoa Central Stake in recognition of their Community services throughout Samoa. Programme Manager, Fuatino Muliagatele Ah Wai, says it is a privilege for Caritas Samoa to receive such recognition. Stake President of Apia Central Stake, Joseph Jason Joseph, said this is the second year since they launched the initiative which recognises the hard work done by different organizations, church members and even government ministries. This year Caritas Samoa had been nominated for this special award amongst other government ministries who were awarded for this Honour Award, said Ms. Ah Wai. On behalf of the Caritas Samoa, we give our sincere and humble thanks to - Pres Jason Joseph and the Apia Samoa Central Stake for this Special Award for Caritas Samoa. Our Community services are through outreach programs for the poor and the most need, with disaster preparedness and especially we are in times of - Preparing for Disaster. Caritas Samoa is the Catholic Humanitarian Organization. According to Ms. Ah Wai, Caritas is a Latin word, which translates meaning LOVE. It is an arm to help reaching out in the Community. Caritas Samoa was also a huge help and assistance reaching out during Tsunami 2009, she said. A lot of our work we do with love especially reaching out for the Poor. We also work together in partnership with other organizations like Samoa Red Cross, the Government Ministries - DMO and Meteorology with the aim to network with other Private sector, Government Ministries to mainstream our programs out in the Community and also through Parishes and other Non-Denomination. In the meantime we are having our ongoing programs for Disaster Preparedness, Livelihood and Recovery. There are more than 200 Volunteers who register to be part of Caritas Samoa who will work voluntary through their love and kind services. It was an amazing opportunity receiving this Award from Apia Samoa Central Stake, recognizing our services and work throughout the community. There will more awareness and advocacy programs not only for Disaster but for Health, Education and Youth. This will create a strong networking with our lead Government Ministries through our programs. The Miss Samoa Alumni is here for the long haul. An idea brewed by Samoa Cancer Society Board Member Vaitoa Toalupe with lifelong friend Manamea Apelu Schwalger, now the face of the Societys Cancer Awareness Drive, the alumni has taken the country by whirlwind since its first informal get together in June. Last Wednesday, the Alumni was officially launched at the Orator Hotel with Deputy Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataafa accepting the invitation by the alumni to be their patron. The event also was part of the Pinktober celebration in support of the Samoa Cancer Societys public awareness drive for early detection to prevent breast cancer. But most importantly, the night was dedicated to Manameas courage despite the late stages of her battle against breast cancer; she remains firm on her resolve to be the face of Pinktober to promote the Cancer Societys mission. We live and we hope, says the Deputy Prime Minister as the main speaker of the evening. We acknowledge the power of God and his power of healing. Let us all be messengers to preach and promote early detection for prevention is the cure, appealed the Miss Samoa Alumni Patron. And while pink fever is spreading like wild fire in the country, it has provided the platform for the Miss Samoa Alumni to reunite past Miss Samoa and Miss Pacific winners to stand together and support a humanitarian cause. It is just the beginning, reiterated Manamea, a former Miss Samoa 2001-2002 at a press conference leading up to the Alumnis Fund Run Saturday. She was joined by former Miss Samoa and Miss Pacific Janine Tuivaiti and former Miss Samoa Sherry Natalie Elekana Lunjevich. Added Janine, Miss Samoa 2012-2013; The priority is working alongside the Samoa Cancer Society and advocating the THE VAVE campaign. THE VAVE campaign is where we encourage our people to get early detection because at the moment all of our people are being diagnosed as being in the edges of cancer, continued Tuivaiti. We are trying to push this message to our country, not to be too late when they can be diagnosed and treated in the early stages of breast cancer. Our main focus on bringing awareness so that we can get a conversation happening within our family within the communities to get early detection, she said. The Miss Samoa Alumni is all about empowering our women. Not just women but they have also given so much support to the Samoa Cancer society and also to the people of Samoa, added Sherry, Miss Samoa 2007-2008. And while breast cancer is the Alumnis priority this year, the three former beauty queens acknowledged that their group will look at other humanitarian platforms to serve Samoa in the coming years. For instance, domestic violence victimizing women and young girls, noted Janine But for now, the message is about breast cancer prevention. Since the former Miss Samoa joined forces with the Samoa Cancer Society and EMD in charge of events and marketing, the Pinktober message is turning a lot of heads with donations from the business community, individuals and even government and the most obvious is painting the war memorial clock in Apia pink. The significance of the pink memorial town clock is a message from people with terminal disease that time is of the essence. Its not Time for Mana, God continues to shower his gracious love upon me and I have had so much time, I am ever so grateful. But time for those who are less fortunate, who battle cancer in silence, who have no access to conventional means like we privileged Samoans. Samoans with cancer who have not the voice like mine to tell their stories, to reach out, says Manamea. The Miss Samoa Alumni campaign to Paint Samoa Pink in partnership with Samoa Cancer Society and others in our private sector is focused on the VAVE campaign. To reduce the fear of cancer, to educate our people on the symptoms of cancer, to reach into communities who need these simple but lifesaving messages. To reduce late presenting of cancer up at hospitals. There are screening processes and equipment already place but lay idle. With the Miss Samoa Alumni in their corner the Samoa Cancer Societys profile has also skyrocketed. And it will not be end for the Miss Samoa Alumni as they will be back to serve their country and those who need the expertise. On 31st October, the Alumni will again unite to repaint the town clock to its majestic whiteness. As the former Miss Samoa queens have been signing their overarching goal is to empower young women to be whatever they want to be. Presenting the Miss Samoa Alumni; 1996; Verona Ah Ching, 1997; Mary-Jane Moe McKibbin, 1998; Cheri Moana Robinson Moors, 1999; Taralina Gaee, 2000; Petra Suhren, 2001; Manamea Apelu, 2002; Anita Jamieson, 2003; Punipuao Cilla Brown, 2004; Saifaleupolu Tamasese, 2005; Falute Sauvao Vaauli, 2006; Poinesttia Taefu, 2007; Sherry Natalie Lunjevich Elekana 2008; Gwendolyn Tuaitanu, 2010; Jolivette Menime Ete, 2011; Olevia Ioane, 2012; Janine Nicky Tuivaiti, 2013; Susana Fanueli, 2014; Latafale Auvaa, 2015; Ariana Taufao, 2016; Pricilla Olano. In January, the so-called ban the box measure, which applies to virtually all California public and private employers, goes into effect. Heres what the law prohibits, requires, and permits. The law prohibits an employer from including on an application a question (such as a box to be checked) concerning an applicants criminal convictions until the applicant has received a conditional employment offer. The law further prohibits inquiry about, or consideration of, such convictions in deciding whether to extend such a job offer. These prohibitions are designed to avoid summary disqualification of an applicant with a criminal record. The new law permits an employer to conduct a criminal background check after extending a conditional job offer. If, after reviewing the background report, the employer is inclined to reject the applicant solely or in part because of the applicants criminal record, the law requires the employer to make an individualized assessment, which need not be in writing, of whether the applicants conviction(s) have a direct, negative relationship to the specific duties of the job. In making that assessment, the law requires the employer to consider: (1) the nature and gravity of the crime; (2) the passage of time since the offense and completed sentence; and (3) the nature of the job. Advertisement A legislative analyst observed that as a practical matter, th[is] requirement will act as more of a guideline. There is no indication of how long or thoughtful the employers assessment must be and no obvious way to prove whether or not the employer actually undertook it. However, wise human resource managers may very well take up a practice of putting the assessment in writing to avoid later speculation about the content of that assessment. Beware: that writing will be scrutinized if a disappointed applicant later sues. This law requires an employer to give written notice of a preliminary decision to disqualify an applicant based on his conviction history. The law permits, but does not require, that notice to include an explanation of the employers reasoning. The law does require the notice to include: (1) the conviction(s) that are the basis for the decision; (2) a copy of any conviction history report used to make that decision; and (3) an explanation of the applicants right to respond to the preliminary decision and the response deadline, at least five business days from the notice, to submit the response before a final decision is made. The explanation must advise the applicant that the response may include evidence challenging the conviction history report, evidence of the applicants rehabilitation or mitigating circumstances, or both a challenge to the reports accuracy and evidence of rehabilitation or mitigation. If the applicant sends the employer written notice within five business days disputing the accuracy of the report and identifies specific steps being taken to obtain supporting evidence, the law requires the employer to give the applicant five more business days to respond. The law requires the employer to consider whatever additional information the applicant submits before making a final decision. Note: During this entire period, the employer may not offer the job to someone else. If the employer finally rejects the applicant solely or in part because of the applicants criminal record, the law requires the applicant be notified of: (1) the final decision, with or without an explanation of the employers reasoning; (2) any procedure the employer has for contesting the decision; and (3) the applicants right to file a complaint with the Department of Fair Employment & Housing. Nothing in the law prohibits an employer from rejecting an applicant because of prior criminal convictions. The law does not make prior criminal conviction a protected classification under discrimination law the way race and gender are. What the law does do is mandate a series of procedural steps and delays in the hiring process, with uncertain remedies against the unwary employer that misses a step and peril to the employer and society alike if a member of this unique class of employees commits a crime on the job. The law provides no immunity from civil liability for an employer in such circumstances. The legislature is betting that these and other risks will be outweighed by the benefits of increased prosocial behavior by employed ex-convicts and by reduced recidivism. Well see. Dan Eaton is a partner with the San Diego law firm of Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek where his practice focuses on defending and advising employers. He also is an instructor at the San Diego State University Fowler College of Business where he teaches classes in business ethics and employment law. He may be reached at eaton@scmv.com. His Twitter handle is @DanEatonlaw. Sempra Energy the parent company of San Diego Gas & Electric disclosed during its third-quarter earnings call Monday it is taking a $208 million after-tax write-down in case the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) rejects SDG&Es request to pass $379 million in costs from 2007s deadly wildfires to ratepayers. Under the accounting rules, we would have to take the impairment, Debra Reed, Sempra president and CEO, told utilities and energy analysts. But at the same time, Sempra executives said the San Diego-based Fortune 500 company will fight hard against a recommendation by a pair of CPUC administrative law judges to turn down SDG&Es request. Advertisement We vehemently disagree with the proposed decision, Reed said, and it is something we will put through the court system if the commission does not rule in our favor. The administrative law judges in August said SDG&Es management and control of leading up to the October 2007 wildfires were imprudent and unreasonable. The recommendation can be accepted, rejected or altered by the CPUCs five commissioners, who are scheduled to vote on the SDG&E request Nov. 9. If the CPUC votes in favor of the utility passing along $379 million to ratepayers, SDG&E has estimated the average customer will pay $1.67 more per month if costs are spread out over a six-year period. Sempra reported Monday that SDG&E recorded a net loss of $28 million in the third quarter due primarily to the $208 million impairment. By comparison, SDG&E racked up earnings of $183 million in the third quarter of last year. The 2007 wildfires killed two, destroyed more than 1,300 homes and forced more than 10,000 to seek temporary shelter at Qualcomm Stadium. Critics of SDG&E have said the $379 million not covered by insurance should be shouldered by the companys shareholders, not customers. But SDG&E has argued that California courts have ruled utilities can spread their costs of damages, and Reed said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission looked at the same set of facts and believed we were a reasonable utility operator. Sempra reported earnings of $57 million for the third quarter, compared to third-quarter earnings of $622 million in 2016. Sempras stock ended the trading day up $1.81 to $117.45. Another focus of Mondays call centered on Sempras biggest deal in its 19-year history a $9.45 billion bid to buy Oncor Electric Delivery, an energy company based in Dallas that delivers power to more than 10 million customers in Texas. Sempras offer is before the Texas Public Utilities Commission. Earlier this month, Sempra revised its financing for the deal to allay potential concerns about funding, but last week one of the commissions members raised issues about Sempras debt load. Our concern should be to ensure that Oncor is not being permitted to hop from one frying pan into another or even just into a simmering pot, Ken Anderson said in a memo, alluding to the fact that Oncors current owner filed for bankruptcy in 2014. Reed said she was unfazed by the memo, saying, I would expect commissioners and intervenors to be diligent. The Texas commission is expected to make a decision by early April and any deal would also need to be approved by federal authorities and a bankruptcy court. It is an attractive offer by a financially stable company and Sempra has already gone out of its way to try to satisfy the conditions that Oncor and commission has asked for, said Andy Smith, a senior analyst who follows utilities for Edward Jones. So if (the Texas commission) were to turn them down, it would certainly make it less likely that another company would want to get involved, given the lengths that Sempra has already gone to in order to get Oncor. Sempra executives also said Monday that recent hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico has not led to further delays in the Cameron liquefied natural gas (LNG) project, which is scheduled to go online in two years in Hackberry, Louisiana. The good thing is were still going to report earnings of $300 (million) to $350 (million) in 2020 at Cameron, said Joseph Householder, Sempras corporate group president for infrastructure businesses. Sempra also has plans to partner in the construction of an LNG facility in Port Arthur, Texas, that is estimated to be up and running in 2021 or 2022. Along with a slew of ambitious projects undertaken by IEnova, Sempras subsidiary in Mexico, Reed said the Oncor and LNG projects are part of a larger corporate effort. Our strategic vision for the Texas Gulf Coast region is to be a major player in these growing energy markets, Reed said. We expect the addition of Oncor, coupled with our existing presence in the natural gas markets to position us well to be a leading player in the Gulf Coast and the cross-border energy markets. Business rob.nikolewski@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1251 Twitter: @robnikolewski ALSO Why two other utilities have joined SDG&E in its fight to recover $379 million from 2007 wildfires Why is it taking so long for the CPUC to rule on the 2007 wildfires? Sempra revises financing on $9.5 billion deal to buy Oncor CHULA VISTA Facing a marijuana regulation task whose outcome cant possibly please everyone, Chula Vista will attempt to find common ground with backers of a proposed cannabis legalization initiative in hope of controlling sales in a way thats acceptable to the industry while limiting where pot dispensaries can be located and recovering potentially steep new costs for enforcing the law. City Council members say they want to avert the possibility of a loosely regulated marijuana market with no sales tax for cost recovery, something they see as a worst-case scenario if Chula Vista voters are presented with competing initiatives in the June 4, 2018 election. State Proposition 64, approved by voter in 2016, legalized recreational marijuana cultivation, sales and use in California. Under the proposition, the city has a free hand to regulate the industry and even ban sales if it sees fit. But to raise any revenue from sales, it needs voter approval. Advertisement Chula Vista is among at least six San Diego County cities where a group called the Association of Cannabis Professionals is circulating initiative petitions to legalize recreational marijuana sales. City officials say the initiative appears to have enough support to qualify for the ballot, but sponsors are allowed to withdraw their measure if they wish. In a near 4-hour council workshop last week , Councilman Mike Diaz raised the idea of negotiating with the cannabis industry to try to come up with something together to get them to pull (the initiative). As a workshop second of at least three on the topic no formal action was permitted on the matter. But a consensus seemed to emerge on several key points, which will be brought back to the council for fine-tuning and a vote sometime later: Shops should be evenly distributed through Chula Vista with a limit of no more than two or three marijuana shops in each of the citys four council districts. Buffer zones will prohibit siting near schools, parks and other locations where children congregate. Anyone who has operated an illegal marijuana dispensary in Chula Vista should be permanently barred from obtaining a license to sell the product legally. All prospective licensees would be subject to extreme vetting, Mayor Mary Casillas Salas said. The sales tax should start relatively low, no greater than 7 or 8 percent, to avoid driving sales back into the underground market. As most council members seemed to agree, shops also will likely be required to maintain video surveillance and other security measures. There also was general agreement that marijuana shops should be permitted in retail zones only; cultivation in industrial zones. What we are trying to do here is protect our kids, protect our neighborhoods and be able to ultimately shut down the unpermitted pot shops, said Councilman John McCann. Public testimony covered the spectrum of opinion on marijuana, from parents who urged a continuing ban on sales to longtime marijuana advocates who argued black-market sales would all but disappear under the right regulatory scheme. Based on experiences in other states, legalization is expected to require cities to increase hiring for police, attorneys, paralegals, code enforcers, and support staff. In Chula Vista, a 5 percent sales tax if approved would yield an estimated $4 million to $5 million annually for those purposes. The nightmare scenario, Councilman Stephen Padilla said, is they put some cockamamie thing that isnt our community product. They get it passed and there isnt necessarily a link to financing. The Association of Cannabis Professionals did not return a call for comment. Gina Austin, an attorney who has worked on cannabis issues in more than 20 California jurisdictions, urged the council to give voters something other than the initiative now in circulation to approve. Citizens initiatives on the topic, she said, generally are a nightmare to enforce, a nightmare to interpret. It is not drafted by city attorneys, it is not drafted by people with experience in government, Austin said. It becomes a disaster. If competing measures on the topic both passed, the one with the greater number of votes would prevail. The council requested a third workshop on the matter for early December. NATIONAL CITY Hotel chains just waiting for land to open up. A wider Plaza Boulevard and a revitalized Eighth Street. Affordable homes for new Navy personnel, new restaurants and an Amazon distribution center thats going to need a big workforce. Mayor Ron Morrison boasts that folks who used to look down their noses at National City now say they cant believe the changes theyre seeing in the community, or that are just over the horizon. And if there are still people outside the county who have never heard of the working-class community of 60,000, Morrison has started working on an idea to help fix that: a lobbying effort to someday name a naval vessel the USS National City. Advertisement The mayor delivered a mostly upbeat review of civic improvements and coming challenges in his 11th annual State of the City address last week, pacing across a stage at Cornerstone Church and speaking primarily from an outline as opposed to a prepared text. His third term as mayor ends in 2018.. The contrast between the National City of 20 years ago and the community today are striking, Morrison said, with a number of dramatic changes just in the past few years. National City already has the highest residential density in the county, Morrison said, but more homes are on the way. The second phase of an affordable housing project near the Trolleys 24th Street Station will bring 100 more housing units, and the city also has approved additional new housing on Eighth Street. The citys blueprint for growth downtown is being revisited, Morrison said, to accommodate smaller residential units and less parking thats right: less. The next 10 to 15 years, he said, will bring a change in transportation just as dramatic as the transition from horse-and-buggy days. Its called autonomous vehicles, he said. Theyre going to change the entire market. Before that happens, however, Morrison said the city may need to deal with regional housing pressures caused by a scheduled 40 percent increase in ships homeported at Naval Base San Diego. Their high tech, Star Wars vessels will bring highly trained technicians the kind of young people that you want living in your neighborhood, the mayor said. You dont want them to have to live in Temecula, to live in Ramona. Thats a challenge we have to work on, Morrison said. The business scene, meanwhile, looks brighter than ever. A CarMax Superstore is coming to National City, Morrison said, and the city has just signed off on a permit for an Amazon fulfillment center that could mean hundreds of jobs for people who live here. Hotels are knocking at our door for space that will open up under a new land-use agreement with the Port of San Diego. Were going to do our very best to accommodate them, Morrison said. Other positive notes: The widening of Plaza Boulevard to a six-lane arterial, increasing roadway capacity and improving traffic flow, is expected to be completed this week. Eighth Street, meanwhile, has been made more pedestrian-friendly with traffic-calming features known as roundabouts and bulbouts. The Sweetwater water desalination plant, which serves National City, doubled its production of drinking water to 10 million gallons daily earlier this year, Morrison noted. Morrisons traditional State of the City twist this year was a superhero-themed gag reel one that paid tribute to unsung heroes in the community that placed him in Superman, the Flash and knight-in-armor costumes. The motif continued in a booth outside the church hall where attendees could get pictures taken with a lookalike for the CW networks Supergirl: with no mention of the fact that the series is set in a fictional municipality of towering skyscrapers and relentless villainy called National City. Navy Fed, the largest credit union in the United States with 7 million members and $83 billion in assets, will authorize 55,000 mortgages this year and more than six times as many car loans. Spanning the globe because it goes where warships sail, the Virginia-based financial cooperative was already the nations tenth largest credit card issuer before it began offering American Express this year. While other thrifts shift their focus to mobile banking, Navy Federal Credit Union is expanding its 307 brick and mortar branches, hiring 1,200 employees to join a workforce more than 17,000 strong and enrolling 1.1 million new depositors buoyed by the Feb. 9 announcement that honorably discharged veterans from all the armed services could become members. Advertisement Weve had a big uptick in the number of veterans who always wanted to join but they were never eligible and now they are, said retired Navy Vice Adm. J. Cutler Dawson, 69, the chief executive officer at the credit union since 2004. Dawson recently visited at the Navy Fed branch in Liberty Station where he was, in his words, walking the decks popping in on his employees without a team of assistants, talking to tellers directly instead of hearing about them from regional managers. Founded in 1933 as a credit union for Navy Department employees in Washington, D.C., the thrifts roster of depositors is limited by whats called the field of membership. As a financial cooperative, Navy Fed is limited to members who share a common bond. Nine years ago, Navy Fed expanded its rolls to all active duty, retired and reserve troops, plus civilian Department of Defense employees. It added Coast Guardsmen five years later. The recent decision by the federal National Credit Union Administration opened up nearly 22 million veterans and their families nationwide. Thats triggered concerns that Navy Fed might be getting too big, fears that Dawson shrugs off. No, not if we do it right, Dawson said. As long as we follow the mantra, Always do the right thing, youll do fine. Dawsons philosophy for running both a bridge and a bank stem from his experiences as a 27-year-old lieutenant commanding the San Diego-based tugboat Molala and its crew of 85 sailors. A survivor of multiple Pacific campaigns in World War II, the tug was already three decades old by the time Dawson Naval Academy class of 1970 took the helm. Also a survivor of multiple Pacific campaigns in WWII, Dawsons squadron boss was Cmdr. Sydney Sai Manning. Nicknamed the Saltiest dog in the Navy, hed risen from enlisted sailor to master chief and then commissioned officer, a Submarine Combat Patrol Insignia pinned to a chest spangled with valor awards. Dawson still keeps a framed photograph of Manning on his desk in Virginia, the skipper in his dress uniform chomping on a cigar that was worse for the attention. The day I took command of the ship, he had one thing to tell me, Dawson recalled. He looked at me and said, Lt. Dawson, you do the right thing and Ill back you up all the way. And thats what he did that for the next two years. He was a tremendous leader. Manning died in 2009 and was buried at sea near Pearl Harbor. Dawson would go on to command the frigate Bronstein, destroyer Harry W. Hill, cruiser Princeton, the Enterprise Carrier Strike Group and the Navys 2nd Fleet, but a masters degree in financial management from the Naval Postgraduate School lured him into minding money. He later served as the Director of the Operations Division of the Navy Budget Office and became the Acting Budget Officer of the Navy. Dawson said that he applied Mannings leadership philosophy just over a year ago, too. On Oct. 11, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau imposed a $5.5 million fine on Navy Fed for employing deceptive debt collection practices against loan holders. Navy Fed also agreed to pay $23 million in restitution to its members. Navy Federal Credit Union misled its members about its debt collection practices and froze consumers out from their own accounts, said agency director Richard Cordray. Financial institutions have a right to collect money that is due to them, but they must comply with federal laws as they do so. Cordrays investigators determined that to pressure repayments, Navy Fed falsely threatened delinquent loan holders with lawsuits, wage garnishment and calls to their commanding officers. Navy Fed posted nearly 68,000 letters to its members misrepresenting the credit consequences of falling behind on loans and illegally froze electronic access to 700,000 accounts after they fell behind on their payments. Dawson said the feds rebuke still stings. To Dawson, Navy Fed was put in a tough place. Employees had a financial obligation to not only recover money that had been borrowed from other members, but to get those with delinquent loans to reach out to credit union officials. This year, Navy Fed will work out new repayment plans for more than 150,000 members late on their loans, Dawson said, but his employees cant restructure deals unless members communicate with them. We were trying to stimulate a conversation, Dawson said. We cant help anyone with a loan if they dont talk to us. Although headlines called out Navy Fed for the collection practices, Dawson said that the credit unions members understood what was happening and they remained loyal. Hes banking on that loyalty as Navy Fed sets sights on millions of new members and, with new branches, encroaches deeper into the territory of the big financial institutions. Big banks are our competition because theyre on every street corner, Dawson said. You can go to San Diego and find four different banks on four corners of the street. And thats another reason why I say were a long way from being over-branched. Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase theyre everywhere, but weve got something they dont have. Were nimble. We care. And we have very loyal members. Military Videos On Now D-Day paratrooper from Coronado jumps again in France at age 96 On Now Remembering war's fallen, one name at a time On Now In Ramona, an airplane and an aviator provide living lessons on World War II 1:43 On Now Video: Navy's newest vessel sails into San Diego and a new future in surface warfare On Now Video: U.S. Navy files homicide charges over warship collisions On Now Stopping Marine hazing On Now Video: U.S. Navy Air Crew Grounded After Creating Vulgar Sky Drawing On Now Navy says Asia Pacific ship collisions were avoidable On Now Hundreds of recruits get sick at Marine boot camp On Now Cutler Dawson Talks Navy Federal cprine@sduniontribune.com The father of two children who died in a San Diego fire Saturday had threatened a month earlier to burn down the Rancho Bernardo condominium that he and his estranged wife own, court records show. The man, identified as Henry Lopez, was seriously injured in the blaze and remains hospitalized. San Diego Police Lt. Mike Holden said fire investigators have not determined the cause of the fire, and that Lopez is not a suspect at this time. This could be a horrible, tragic accident, Holden said. We just dont know. Advertisement The woman described the altercation in a document requesting a restraining order. She said on Sept. 17, she texted her husband about a mortgage payment he had missed. The two are legally separated, but they co-own the Rancho Bernardo condo on Bernardo Terrace, where Lopez lives. The woman said that Lopez told her he would make the payment as soon as he got paid. They then briefly discussed their plan to sell the home and finalize their divorce, she said in the court document. The conversation escalated after she suggested consulting a real estate agent, she said. He messaged that he would fight her and called her derogatory names, she wrote. Then he texted: Call ur realtor:boyfriend. Dont ducking play me . I will burn all of this (expletive) down, he texted. Wayne Rice, who represented Lopez when the temporary restraining order was filed, had no comment on the alleged messages. On Saturday, someone who was driving by the condominium complex about 3:20 a.m. spotted flames coming from a second-story bedroom window and called 911, Holden said. The two children, identified as 7-year-old Isabella Lopez and 10-year-old Cristos Lopez, were found upstairs with their father when firefighters arrived minutes later, Holden said. The children later died at a hospital. Their father remains hospitalized and has not been interviewed due to his condition. Sam Trink, who helped the woman request the restraining order, said her friend is waiting for investigators to come to a determination. But she added that the recent threat makes it very difficult to not make assumptions. We are really sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for those phone calls from investigators, Trink said. Investigators did inform the mother that some evidence suggests Henry Lopez tried to get the kids out of the house, Trink said, but many questions still remain. We dont know what to believe until we actually get those reports, she said. Holden said fire investigators have sent a number of items collected from the condo to be analyzed, which will take several weeks. Incidences of looting are continuing in the aftermath of the deadly fires that swept through Northern California earlier this month. On Saturday night, Santa Rosa police arrested two suspects after a high-speed chase through city streets along the southern edge of destruction where the Tubbs fire had burned. Sean Kranyak, 29, and Cristina Marsh, 22, were arrested on suspicion of seven felonies, including looting, conspiracy and vehicle theft, according to the San Francisco Chroncle. Kranyak is from Monterey and Marsh from Marina. Neither has ties to Sonoma County. In the early days of the fire, Santa Rosa police responded to more than 60 calls from residents reporting people driving around neighborhoods and acting suspiciously. At least a half dozen people were arrested for suspected looting. According to authorities, one man was found carrying jewelry and cellphones near one of the burned neighborhoods. Another backed his truck up to a group home and lifted washers and dryers among other items. Advertisement The city of Santa Rosa imposed a curfew in the mandatory evacuation zones because so many houses were empty. According to officials, Kranyak and Marsh entered a large apartment complex that had been partially destroyed by the fire. A resident of The Overlook at Fountaingrove watched as they carried a flat-screen television monitor out of a building and loaded it into the back of a Ford pickup truck, the Chronicle said. The resident notified Santa Rosa police, who found the truck amid the congestion of vehicles at a National Guard roadblock less than a mile away. The driver veered out of the line of waiting cars, accelerated over the center medians curb and headed south toward downtown Santa Rosa. According to Santa Rosa police Sgt. Mike Clark, officers backed off as the suspects hit speeds up to 70 mph on a street marked for 40 mph. Due to the suspects wanton disregard for the publics safety, the police kept at a distance and lost track of the truck in a subdivision west of Highway 101. After another tip from residents, officers found the pickup, ditched on private property. Kranyak and Marsh were caught scrambling over fences near the Santa Rosa Creek. Clark said that more stolen property was found on the pair. Kranyak and Marsh were jailed in Sonoma County on $500,000 bail. thomas.curwen@latimes.com Twitter: @tcurwen A few weeks ago, a small group of people who represent various corners of the juvenile justice system gathered around a table with stacks of case files ready to review. The files contained the institutional history of girls or boys who were already deep into their victimization of being trafficked for sex or showed the telltale signs of being at risk. Their involvement in commercial sexual exploitation may have been more obvious, such as being caught in a hotel room with an older man and condoms. Or more subtle, perhaps a runaway addicted to drugs and arrested for shoplifting. The group was looking for the first round of potential candidates to participate in a special intervention court dedicated to providing skills, treatment, education and mentoring to change the destructive and traumatizing path many of the youth are on. Its called RISE Court, which stands for Resiliency Is Strength and Empowerment. Advertisement It took the group a prosecutor, judge, public defender, probation officer, social worker a year to get to this point. And on Nov. 6, youngsters most likely girls chosen to participate are expected to make their first appearances before San Diego Superior Court Judge Carolyn Caietti in the inaugural hearing. A lot of kids have this horrible, nightmarish existence, and its going to take a lot to get them back so theyre going to feel theyve recovered their self-worth and sense of security, said Robert Trentacosta, presiding judge for the Juvenile Court. The program will start with just a few at first, but the goal is to eventually enroll 40. Unfortunately, that probably wont be difficult, said Caietti. Its my understanding that we will not have a problem long term trying to fill the spots, she said. For the girls who intersect the juvenile justice system in San Diego County, the statistics are grim. An estimated 70 percent are either at risk for commercial sexual exploitation or already involved, authorities said. The special court is the countys latest weapon against human trafficking, an issue that has grown into one of the regions leading public safety and social causes. A study by University of San Diego and Point Loma Nazarene University set out to quantify the problem in the county and estimated an average of 5,000 victims mostly teenage girls and young women. The average age of entry into the lifestyle is 16, and foster youth are particularly vulnerable, the study found. The results, released in 2015, confirmed what case workers on the field and in the courts were seeing and launched an energized effort to attack the problem from all angles. There are several intervention courts already in San Diego County drug court, mental health court, military veteran court, homeless court designed to address the underlying issues rather than focus on the crime itself, a major tenant of the restorative justice movement. While those concepts may still be somewhat novel when it comes to the adult criminal justice system, they lie at the heart of what happens behind the closed doors of Juvenile Court, which are generally not open to the viewing public. The goal is to rehabilitate the youth, said Trentacosta. With that as the North star, the rest falls into place very, very quickly. What is it that can be done, what does the child and the family need, in order for this kid to be successful and for society to be protected. What weve found is that a collaborative approach where everybody wants the same thing has proven to be very, very powerful. That approach has appeared to pay off in San Diego County and around the state. Here, the number of youths supervised by the county Probation Department has declined by nearly 40 percent between 2012 and 2016, according to the San Diego Association of Governments. The arrest rate and Juvenile Hall population has also plummeted as authorities embrace early intervention and rehabilitative services. So when Caietti, who spent the past 10 of 11 years as a judge in the juvenile division, suggested a court to address the specific needs of underage sex-trafficking victims, it was not hard to get everyone else on board. The court is modeled after a mental health court already in operation. Caietti and others also visited similar sex-trafficking courts in Los Angeles and Sacramento, as well as got input from sex-trafficking survivors about what they would have liked to see in such a program. Jobs, empowerment and improved self-esteem were some of the answers, Caietti said. The program is voluntary, and having the kid and the family buy-in will be important. Most of these folks are living lives of somewhat quiet desperation, and finally when their secret is out, there can be a sense of relief, Trentacosta said. Some of the girls, not so much. Some are so fearful of their pimp they have to be convinced they are in fact going to be protected. Some of the girls, its more than they can wrap their head around. They have very mixed feelings; this person may be showing them affection and giving gifts. Those who do sign up will be connected with several services as part of an individualized plan. Education and job skills, mental health counseling or trauma therapy, substance abuse rehabilitation, and other programs will be stressed. Participants will be partnered with a mentor who will be a positive role model and a listening ear. There might be special housing needs to remove the child from a negative environment or family counseling. Progress reports will be given in monthly hearings before the judge. Graduation depends on the individual, and it doesnt necessarily mean once they turn 18. Case by case they will ease out. Some respond really well and very quickly get squared away, other kids have really, really deep horrific things they have to overcome, Trentacosta said. Our hope is to terminate jurisdiction when youre ready. Seal their record so they get a fresh start and so no stigma is attached to what theyve been through. But challenges are anticipated, especially with this unique population, said Mary Beth Wirkus, juvenile branch chief for the Public Defenders Office. They may be acting a certain way, running away and putting themselves in very unsafe situations. How do you balance protecting them and providing services for them? How do you not judge them or punish them because they are victims, but they are also making bad decisions? Its going to be tricky. Deputy District Attorney Fanny Yu, who has worked on sex-trafficking cases for several years, agreed that comes with the territory. They are going to violate probation, sure. Going to possibly run away, sure, Yu said. Its realizing that some of those behaviors are stemming from the process of healing. Thats the perspective we have to come from. kristina.davis@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @kristinadavis More Muslim students have reported being bullied, having their hijabs pulled off and harassed at school because of their religion in the past two years, according to a report released Monday by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The key findings were unpleasant and shocking, said Hanif Mohebi, executive director of CAIR San Diego. The latest report follows similar studies conducted by CAIR California in 2012 and 2014. Findings in the new survey were from surveys taken in 2016 by 1,041 students ages 11-18 from San Diego, Los Angeles, Sacramento Valley and San Francisco Bay Area. Advertisement Of those participating, 152 were from San Diego, 400 were from the Greater Los Angeles area, 161 were from Sacramento Valley and 161 were from the Bay Area. The report can be found online at ca.cair.com/downloads/2017_CAIR-CA_School_Bullying_Report.pdf. San Diego Unified School District has adopted an anti-bullying policy that addresses bullying against Muslim students in a number of ways, including creating a greater understand of Islam among all students. A group of parents and the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund sued the district in May because of the districts actions, which they saw as unconstitutional and giving greater attention to students of one religion. The district since has stressed that its policy is to protect all students from bullying, and it is working with the Anti-Defamation League on a program to create a safe environment on campus for all. In the latest CAIR report, 36 percent of students who responded and wear a Islamic head covering known as a hijab said other students had tugged it, pulled or offensively touched it, a 7 percentage point increase from 2014. Five percent said it happens weekly and 7 percent said it happens once a month. The study found 69 percent of Muslim students said they feel safe, welcome and respected in their school, down from 83 percent in 2014. Sixty-one percent said they were comfortable in class discussions about Islam and Muslims, down from 76 percent in 2014, and 77 percent said they felt comfortable letting students know they are Muslim, down from 83 percent. Nineteen percent of students said they had been physically harmed or harassed at school, up from 9 percent in 2014, and 26 percent said offensive comments had been directed at them through social medial, up from 19 percent. Fifty-three percent of students said someone at the school has been made fun of, insulted or verbally abused for being Muslim, including 10 percent who said it happened weekly and 8 percent who said it happened every month. The report noted that the 53 percent figure was more than double the national statistic for students who say they had been bullied at school. While the study shows an increase in the percentage of Muslim students who were bullied or felt uncomfortable at school, it does not give raw data to show the number of students who responded to specific questions or indicate how many incidents were in San Diego. Among the criticisms of the San Diego Unifieds anti-bullying policy stated in the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund lawsuit was the argument that there were not enough incidents to call for the policy. A board report had noted seven incidents of bullying because of religion between July 1 to Dec. 31, 2016, but did not specify which religion was targeted. Mohebi and others who spoke at a CAIR San Diego news conference Monday morning said the number of incidents could be higher than reported because Muslims who are harassed for their religious often are fearful to come forward. He and Islamic Center of San Diego Imam Taha Hassane said they hope CAIR can continue to work with San Diego Unified and other districts in making schools safe for Muslim students. Id like to call upon all the authorities in our school districts, superintendents and school boards, to work with CAIR San Diego to address this, Hassane said. Mohebi said CAIR has been working with a few school districts in the county to help protect Muslim students, and he said he hopes the group will keep working with San Diego Unified to create a model for others. Noemi Villegas, program manager manager for the counseling and guidance department at San Diego Unified, said CAIR is a partner in developing a comprehensive program to create a safe environment for all students. I strongly believe we are promoting anti-bullying efforts for all students, including Muslim students, she said. You cant separate students. All students need to have safe, inclusive spaces. Homeless Playlist On Now San Diego hepatitis outbreak continues to grow: 481 cases On Now Homeless entrenched in booming tent city along Santa Ana River On Now San Diego mayor agreed to homeless hub, then delayed, advocates say On Now Homeless outreach in San Diego On Now Video: Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #8 On Now In poverty himself, 'Water Man Dave,' is the fearless saint of San Diego's homeless 5:41 On Now Video: Homeless living in cars find safe havens 2:21 On Now Street Art: Portraits of San Diego's Homeless #7 On Now Pitching a tent plan for San Diego's homeless On Now Homeless efforts get $80M boost for various services gary.warth@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @GaryWarthUT 760-529-4939 An independence referendum held by Iraqs Kurds last month was supposed to reinvigorate the long-held dream of an independent Kurdistan. Instead, it reversed perhaps irrevocably their aspirations for statehood. It was a gamble on which 71-year-old Massoud Barzani, the veteran Kurdish leader and one-time guerrilla fighter, had staked his political career. On Sunday, weeks after it was clear that he had lost the bet, Barzani stepped down as president of the Kurdish semiautonomous region of Iraq, leaving the Kurds with no credible successor even as bickering parliamentary factions struggled to apportion his powers. Advertisement In his first public appearance since Septembers referendum, Barzani addressed the regions parliament, saying he refuse[d] to continue in his post as president after his term expires on Nov. 1, the date also set for the now-postponed presidential and legislative elections in the region. He added that the presidential law of the region should not be amended nor should the term of the presidency be extended. You should therefore meet at your earliest convenience to ensure there is no legal vacuum in the execution of the duties and powers of the president of the region, said Barzani in a letter he submitted to parliament before his address, according to a copy released online. The move effectively suspends the presidency, a post that Barzani had held for 12 years (his second five-year term, which ended in 2015, was extended for two years), while calling for its powers to be distributed among the three branches of government. Barzani insisted, however, that he would remain as a peshmerga, a reference to the Kurdish regions fighting force, so as to achieve the just rights and achievements of our nation. The televised speech marked a melancholic denouement for the Kurdish leader, weeks after he defied international and regional opposition to an independence poll held in Kurdish-majority provinces as well as in territories in dispute between Baghdad and Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region. The Kurdish parliament building in Irbil, Iraq. (Safin Hamed / AFP/Getty Images ) The referendum, which garnered a 92.7% vote in favor of separation, was meant to advance the prospects of Kurdistan, the long-held dream of an independent Kurdish state on territories covering segments of northern Iraq. But in the wake of the plebiscite, the Iraqi government diverted its forces from fighting Islamic State to seize control over the disputed areas, including Kirkuk, the multi-ethnic northern Iraqi province whose oil riches and bickering sects have made it a perennial tinderbox between Baghdad and the Kurds. It was taken this month after members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the regions top opposition party, forged an Iranian-brokered deal with Baghdad to withdraw from the province while Iraqi troops moved forward to take their positions. That agreement, Barzani said on Sunday, was nothing less than a stab in the back that undermined the entire region. In the days to come, other losses followed: The Kurdish regions oil revenues were effectively halved. Its borders with Turkey and Iran, the Kurds top trading partners, were also seized. It was a tarnishing of Barzanis legacy, many said. We were enjoying lots of powers that were sovereign powers, like having control over border crossings, control over the airport and we had our direct diplomacy with the international community. We were a state within a state, said Kamal Chomani, a nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy, in a phone interview Sunday. We lost everything because of Barzanis miscalculation and personal ambitions, so his stepping down is a positive thing for the region. Local news outlets reported his supporters, many armed with sticks, broke into the parliament to insist that he remain in power. They also attacked an opposition member of parliament who had criticized Barzani, according to the Alsumaria news channel. Yet it is unclear if Sunday was the final curtain for Barzani, an ardent Kurdish nationalist since the age of 16 who took up the mantle of his father, the Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani, after his death in 1979. Barzanis family continues to play an outsized role in the regions political hierarchy. His nephew Nechirvan Barzani serves as the regions prime minister, and his son Masrour heads its security apparatus. And the suspension of the presidency, said Zaid Ali, author of The Struggle for Iraqs Future, has created an impossible task for Kurdish lawmakers. Barzani is saying he doesnt want the presidency to exist anymore, and to create a new constitutional arrangement in a few days thats actually a lot of work, Ali said in a phone interview. Though it could serve as a way to keep Barzani in power for an interim period, Ali continued, it could also lead to the fracturing of the Kurdish region along the fault lines of the two major Kurdish parties spheres of control. It wont go smoothly, and it may lead to both sides stopping working with each other, he said. ALSO Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi faces big obstacles on road to rebuild war-torn nation A trip through horror, confusion and contradictions in Syria Thousands of Russians joined Islamic State and brought their children. Now relatives are trying to bring them home Bulos is a special correspondent. Twitter: @nabihbulos Iran has not stopped building missiles and has no intention of doing so, President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday, three days after the House of Representatives approved legislation that would impose new sanctions on Tehran for pursuing long-range ballistic missiles. In a speech carried on nationwide television, Rouhani insisted that no international agreements prohibit the development of such non-nuclear weapons, and that Iran has a right to produce them for its own defense. We will build, produce and store any weapon of any kind we need to defend ourselves, our territorial integrity and our nation, and we will not hesitate about it, he said, according to a translation provided by the Iranian Students News Agency. Advertisement Several times in the speech, Rouhani took aim at the United States for what he called its shaky commitment to the nuclear deal negotiated under the Obama administration. President Trump has consistently attacked the deal, and recently refused to certify that Iran is living up to its end, although he did not pull out of the agreement as he has threatened to do. The administration of a country that abandons international commitments of the previous administration is not reliable, the Iranian leader said. In negotiating and signing the nuclear deal with the United States, Rouhani frequently clashed with more conservative forces in Iran who opposed any cessation of the countrys nuclear weapons program. But there is near unanimity across the political spectrum in Iran on maintaining a robust missile program. The missile project is a red line for everybody, said Saeed Laylaz, an economist and journalist who is considered a political moderate and reformer. Nobody allows any country to put limits on its defensive military program. Hamid Reza Taraghi, an influential conservative politician who is close to Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, agreed. All neighboring countries in the region have missiles, he said in an interview. Israel has nuclear weapons, Pakistan and India have nuclear warheads, then we cannot have missiles? Give me a break. Mostaghim is a special correspondent. Rep. Duncan Hunter said one proposal discussed as part of an income tax overhaul in Congress would hit his constituents and other Californians hard in their wallets, but he still supports a Republican plan to change the federal tax system because he believes it will help citizens across the country. Why punish the rest of the nation because California is stupid? Hunter, an Alpine Republican, said in an Oct. 27 interview with KUSI. Its a tough vote for me, but Im not gonna keep the economy down for the whole country because California has bad government. One early version of the tax code overhaul suggested revoking peoples ability to deduct their state and local property taxes on the federal income taxes, which disproportionally benefits taxpayers in states and cities with high taxes. One of the KUSI hosts told Hunter that Californians would get hosed by the GOP tax proposal. Advertisement California, New Jersey, New York, and other states that have horrible governments, yes. Its not as good for those states, Hunter replied. One of the shows hosts noted that Hunter represents California, but Hunter said that the entire countrys economy will improve, and the Golden States residents will see a boost as well. Sure, but this is a national tax code, and if the rest of the economy goes up for the rest of the country, its gonna help everybody, Hunter said. On Monday Hunters spokesman, Michael Harrison, said the congressman believes that the plans goal to lower taxes for individuals and families, repealing the estate tax, increasing the child tax credit and other provisions, are important and worthwhile. After growing pressure from within the Republican party, Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said that the state and local tax deduction, as well as two other popular money-savers (the charitable giving and mortgage deductions) would be protected under the plan included in the tax legislation that is expected to be released Wednesday. On Thursday the House passed a budget 216-212, a GOP victory that came after 20 Republicans crossed party lines. Eleven of the defectors came from New York or New Jersey, and they called for a compromise on the state and local tax deduction in the upcoming tax bill. All 14 Californians in the House voted for the budget. Some are calling state and local governments to cut their constituents taxes to lessen the sting of any lost deduction that becomes part of the tax plan. I implore you to turn away from the era of ever-increasing taxes that have continued under your Administration and instead seek policies that actually lower the tax burden on all Californians, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, wrote in a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown. The governor had earlier written to members of Californias House delegation and asked them to vote against the any proposal that would eliminate the state and local tax deduction. Getting rid of an individuals ability to deduct his or her California taxes is a horrible idea, but is made far worse when you preserve - at the same time - the right of corporations to take those same deductions, Brown wrote. Twitter: @jptstewart joshua.stewart@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1841 The special counsel investigating Russias role in the 2016 presidential race announced criminal charges Monday against three former campaign aides to Donald Trump, including his former campaign manager, marking an explosive new phase in the FBI investigation of the presidents inner circle. One of the three repeatedly sought to arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump and senior Russian officials in London or in Moscow, according to court documents. The meeting did not take place, but court documents describe an extensive effort by Russian officials to gain access to Trumps operation. Court papers disclosed that George Papadopoulos, a former foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, is cooperating with prosecutors led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is pursuing allegations that Trumps aides cooperated with Russian officials seeking to influence the U.S. election. Paul Manafort, who was Trumps campaign manager, and Richard W. Gates III, who was Manaforts top deputy and helped run Trumps inauguration, were separately accused of a total of 12 counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering in a financial scheme that ran from 2006 to 2017. In a court hearing Monday afternoon, Manafort and Gates both pleaded not guilty to the charges. Manafort was released on $10-million bail and Gates was released on $5-million bail. Both surrendered their passports and were ordered under house arrest. While the case against Manafort and Gates carries the potential of long years of jail time, the case against Papadopoulos may be more significant for the White House. It is the first guilty plea related to dealings with Russia by someone connected with the Trump campaign. The double-barrelled approach signaled that Mueller, a former FBI director, and his team of veteran organized-crime and white-collar prosecutors are willing to use a classic hardball approach trying to pressure lower-level figures into cooperating and providing information in their investigation of the Trump campaign. I think it definitely shows that Mueller is following a strategy of working on the perimeter and then moving to the center by finding people he can indict, and then seeking their cooperation, said Jens David Ohlin, a Cornell Law School professor and expert in international criminal law. There might be multiple rounds of this before you reach a smoking gun. Mueller was named in May as special counsel to investigate the Trump campaigns possible dealings with Russian officials as well as any other crimes they uncovered. On Monday, they showed that their reach would extend to prominent Democrats as well as Republicans. Tony Podesta, a powerful Democratic lobbyist, announced he would step down from his firm, the Podesta Group, after it came under scrutiny in the Mueller investigation. The Podesta Group was one of two firms solicited by Manafort to work on a Ukraine lobbying campaign; Podestas brother, John Podesta, was Hillary Clintons campaign manager. Court papers revealed that Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty in a closed-door court hearing on Oct. 5 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with people who claimed to have direct connections with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian officials. Papadopoulos admitted that he had met with an unnamed professor in London who told him that high-level Russian officials had damaging information on Clinton, including thousands of emails. They [the Russians] have dirt on her, Papadopoulos said he was told during a meeting in London in April 2016, as Trump was gaining steam in the Republican presidential primaries. After that, Papadopoulos, a 30-year-old think tank researcher who sought to become Trumps contact with Moscow, communicated with someone who claimed to be Putins niece and another official who claimed to work at Russias foreign ministry, according to court documents. The woman, according to court documents, was not Putins niece. Since his arrest at Dulles International Airport in July, Papadopoulos has met with Muellers team on numerous occasions to provide information as part of his plea deal, according to court filings. The meeting in London is the second documented instance of someone with claimed connections to the Russian government offering damaging information about Clinton to the Trump campaign. In June 2016, Manafort joined Donald Trump Jr. in a meeting in Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer and lobbyist, after Trump Jr. was offered damaging information about Clinton. Manafort and Gates used offshore accounts and shell companies in Cyprus, the Seychelles and the Caribbean to hide $75 million, including payments for representing a pro-Kremlin political faction in Ukraine, to avoid paying U.S. taxes, according to the indictment. Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income, the charges said. The indictment says he laundered more than $18 million to pay for his expenses, including $5.4 million for renovations at his home on Long Island, N.Y.; $1.3 million for lighting and home entertainment at his home in Florida; $934,000 for antique rugs at his home in Virginia; and about $1.4 million at clothing stores in New York and Beverly Hills. Manafort did not report the income to the government and denied to his tax preparer than he held any offshore accounts. The indictment also alleges that Manafort defrauded banks by making false statements to obtain cheaper mortgages, hiding the fact in one case that he was renting out a condominium in lower Manhattan via Airbnb. Manafort also was charged with filing false reports to conceal the fact that he was acting as an unregistered foreign agent. The charges state that Manafort and Gates were agents for former Ukranian President Victor Yanukovich and his pro-Russian Party of Regions. The indictment alleges that Gates moved $3 million from the offshore accounts to pay his mortgage, childrens tuition and interior decorating. The indictment against Manafort and Gates doesnt reference their work for the Trump campaign, a point Trump noted on Twitter. Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why arent Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? Trump wrote. Also, there is NO COLLUSION! he said in another tweet. In a statement, Manaforts lawyer, Kevin Downing, called the indictment ridiculous and said there was no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russian government. None of the charges released Monday make that claim. Downing said Manafort was seeking to further democracy and help Ukraine come closer to the United States and the European Union. He said those activities ended in 2014, two years before Manafort joined the Trump campaign. He said the Foreign Agent Registration Act has only been used six times to file criminal charges, and only one case resulted in a conviction. He also said the allegation that Manafort used offshore accounts as a scheme to conceal his money was most ridiculous. Papadopoulos, a former researcher at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank, joined the Trump campaign in March after working for Ben Carsons failed presidential bid. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders described him Monday as a campaign volunteer whose role was extremely limited. His lawyers declined to comment. We will have the opportunity to comment on Georges involvement when called upon by the court at a later date. We look forward to telling all of the details of Georges story at that time, said the statement by Thomas Breen and Robert Stanley of Chicago. Los Angeles Times staff writers David S. Cloud, Evan Halper, Cathleen Decker, Noah Bierman and Brian Bennett and Katherine Skiba of the Chicago Tribune contributed to this report from Washington. joseph.tanfani@latimes.com Twitter: @jtanfani WASHINGTON Before signing up with Donald Trump, former campaign manager Paul Manafort secretly worked for a Russian billionaire with a plan to greatly benefit the Putin Government, The Associated Press has learned. The White House attempted to brush the report aside Wednesday, but it quickly raised fresh alarms in Congress about Russian links to Trump associates. Manafort proposed in a confidential strategy plan as early as June 2005 that he would influence politics, business dealings and news coverage inside the United States, Europe and former Soviet republics to benefit President Vladimir Putins government, even as U.S.-Russia relations under Republican President George W. Bush grew worse. White Houses Sean Spicer says President Donald Trump had not been aware of Paul Manaforts work on behalf of a Russian billionaire. To suggest that the president knew who his clients were from 10 years ago is a bit insane, Spicer said. (March 22) Advertisement Manafort pitched the plans to aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, a close Putin ally with whom Manafort eventually signed a $10 million annual contract beginning in 2006, according to interviews with several people familiar with payments to Manafort and business records obtained by the AP. Manafort and Deripaska maintained a business relationship until at least 2009, according to one person familiar with the work. We are now of the belief that this model can greatly benefit the Putin Government if employed at the correct levels with the appropriate commitment to success, Manafort wrote in the 2005 memo to Deripaska. The effort, Manafort wrote, will be offering a great service that can re-focus, both internally and externally, the policies of the Putin government. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said Wednesday that President Trump had not been aware of Manaforts work on behalf of Deripaska. To suggest that the president knew who his clients were from 10 years ago is a bit insane, Spicer said. He noted the APs reporting has started to catch a lot of buzz but said Manaforts work occurred long before he became Trumps campaign chairman. I dont know what he got paid to do, Spicer said, adding, Theres no suggestion he did anything improper. Manaforts plans were laid out in detailed documents obtained by the AP that included strategy memoranda and records showing international wire transfers for millions of dollars. How much work Manafort performed under the contract was unclear. The work appears to contradict assertions by the Trump administration and Manafort himself that he never worked for Russian interests. Manafort confirmed again Wednesday in a statement that he had worked for Deripaska but denied his work had been pro-Russian in nature. He added, I look forward to meeting with those conducting serious investigations of these issues. An official representative of Deripaska said simply in a statement Wednesday: There was an agreement between Mr. Deripaska and Mr. Manafort to provide investment consulting services related to business interests of Mr Deripaska which now is a subject to legal claims. The disclosures come as Trump campaign advisers are the subject of an FBI probe and two congressional investigations, and they appear to guarantee that Manafort will be sought as a key witness in upcoming hearings. Investigators are reviewing whether the Trump campaign and its associates coordinated with Moscow to meddle in the 2016 campaign. Manafort has dismissed the investigations as politically motivated and misguided. The documents obtained by AP show Manaforts ties to Russia were closer than previously revealed. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., called the disclosures serious stuff and more evidence that an independent congressional committee should investigate the Trump administration. Other shoes will drop, he said. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a frequent Trump critic, said of Manafort: Clearly, if hes getting millions of dollars from a billionaire close to Putin, to basically undermine democratic movements, thats something Id want to know about. I doubt if Trump knew about it. Democrats on the House intelligence committee said the new revelations will feature in their investigations. The disclosure undermines the groundless assertions that the administration has been making that there are no ties between President Trump and Russia. This is not a drip, drip, drip, said Rep. Jackie Speier of California. This is now dam-breaking with water flushing out with all kinds of entanglements. Deripaska became one of Russias wealthiest men under Putin, buying assets abroad in ways widely perceived to benefit the Kremlins interests. U.S. diplomatic cables from 2006 described him as among the 2-3 oligarchs Putin turns to on a regular basis and a more-or-less permanent fixture on Putins trips abroad. In response to questions about Manaforts consulting firm, a spokesman for Deripaska in 2008 at least three years after they began working together said Deripaska had never hired the firm. Another Deripaska spokesman in Moscow last week declined to answer APs questions. Manafort worked as Trumps unpaid campaign chairman last year from March until August, a period that included the Republican National Convention that nominated Trump in July. Trump asked Manafort to resign after AP revealed that he had orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation until 2014 on behalf of Ukraines ruling pro-Russian political party. The newly obtained business records link Manafort more directly to Putins interests in the region. According to those records and people with direct knowledge of Manaforts work for Deripaska, Manafort made plans to open an office in Moscow, and at least some of his work in Ukraine was directed by Deripaska, not local political interests there. The Moscow office never opened. Manafort has been a leading focus of the U.S. intelligence investigation of Trumps associates and Russia, according to a U.S. official. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the investigation are confidential. Meanwhile, federal criminal prosecutors became interested in Manaforts activities years ago as part of a broad investigation to recover stolen Ukraine assets after the ouster of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych there in early 2014. No U.S. criminal charges have ever been filed in the case. FBI Director James Comey, in confirming to Congress the federal intelligence investigation this week, declined to say whether Manafort was a target. Manaforts name was mentioned 28 times during the hearing of the House intelligence committee, mostly about his work in Ukraine. No one mentioned Deripaska. On Monday, Spicer had said Manafort played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time in the presidential campaign, even though he was Trumps campaign chairman. Spicer on Wednesday said further that Manafort was hired to oversee the campaigns delegate operation. To be clear, he got the job done on the delegates, Spicer said. Manafort and his associates remain in Trumps orbit. Manafort told a colleague this year that he continues to speak with Trump by telephone. Manaforts former business partner in eastern Europe, Rick Gates, has been seen inside the White House on a number of occasions, helped plan Trumps inauguration and now runs a nonprofit organization, America First Policies, to back the White House agenda. Gates, whose name does not appear in the documents, told the AP that he joined Manaforts firm in 2006 and was aware Manafort had a relationship with Deripaska but was not aware of the work described in the memos. Gates said his work was focused on domestic U.S. lobbying and political consulting in Ukraine at the time. He said he stopped working for Manaforts firm in March 2016 when he joined Trumps presidential campaign. Manafort told Deripaska in 2005 that he was pushing policies as part of his work in Ukraine at the highest levels of the U.S. government the White House, Capitol Hill and the State Department, according to the documents. He also said he had hired a leading international law firm with close ties to President Bush to support our clients interests, but he did not identify the firm. Manafort also said he was employing unidentified legal experts for the effort at leading universities and think tanks, including Duke University, New York University and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Manafort did not disclose details about the lobbying work to the Justice Department during the period the contract was in place. Under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, people who lobby in the U.S. on behalf of foreign political leaders or political parties must provide detailed reports about their actions to the department. Willfully failing to register is a felony and can result in up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, though the government rarely files criminal charges. I dont know if he violated the Foreign Agent Registration Act, Sen. Graham said, but its something I think we all need to know more about. Deripaska owns Basic Element Co., which employs 200,000 people worldwide in the agriculture, aviation, construction, energy, financial services, insurance and manufacturing industries, and he runs one of the worlds largest aluminum companies. Forbes estimated his net worth at $5.2 billion. How much Deripaska paid Manafort in total is not clear, but people familiar with the relationship said money transfers to Manafort amounted to tens of millions of dollars and continued through at least 2009. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the secret payments publicly. In strategy memos, Manafort proposed that Deripaska and Putin would benefit from lobbying Western governments, especially the U.S., to allow oligarchs to keep possession of formerly state-owned assets in Ukraine. He proposed building long term relationships with Western journalists and a variety of measures to improve recruitment, communications and financial planning by pro-Russian parties in the region. Manafort proposed extending his existing work in eastern Europe to Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Georgia, where he pledged to bolster the legitimacy of governments friendly to Putin and undercut anti-Russian figures through political campaigns, nonprofit front groups and media operations. For the $10 million annual contract, Manafort did not use his public-facing consulting firm, Davis Manafort. Instead, he used a company, LOAV Ltd., that he had registered in Delaware in 1992. He listed LOAV as having the same address as his lobbying and consulting firms in Alexandria, Virginia. In other records, LOAVs address was listed as Manaforts home, also in Alexandria. Manafort sold the home in July 2015 for $1.4 million. He now owns an apartment in Trump Tower in New York, as well as other properties in Florida and New York. One strategy memo to Deripaska was written by Manafort and Rick Davis, his business partner at the time. In written responses to the AP, Davis said he did not know that his firm had proposed a plan to covertly promote the interests of the Russian government. Davis said he believes Manafort used his name without his permission on the strategy memo. My name was on every piece of stationery used by the company and in every memo prior to 2006. It does not mean I had anything to do with the memo described, Davis said. He took a leave of absence from the firm in late 2006 to work on Sen. McCains 2008 presidential campaign. Manaforts work with Deripaska continued for years, though they had a falling out laid bare in 2014 in a Cayman Islands bankruptcy court. The billionaire gave Manafort nearly $19 million to invest in a Ukrainian TV company called Black Sea Cable, according to legal filings by Deripaskas representatives. It said that after taking the money, Manafort and his associates stopped responding to Deripaskas queries about how the funds had been used. Early in the 2016 presidential campaign, Deripaskas representatives openly accused Manafort of fraud and pledged to recover the money from him. After Trump earned the nomination, Deripaskas representatives said they would no longer discuss the case. ___ Associated Press writers Jack Gillum, Eric Tucker, Julie Pace, Ted Bridis, Stephen Braun, Julie Bykowicz and Monika Mathur contributed to this report in Washington; Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed from Moscow and Kiev, Ukraine; and Jake Pearson contributed from New York. ___ Submit reporting tips to The Associated Press: https://www.ap.org/tips A state appeals court has ordered the California Public Utilities Commission to turn over scores of emails involving regulators and the Governors Office so justices can determine whether they should be released in response to a Public Records Act request. The order, issued late Friday by the 1st District Court of Appeal, means the disputed emails for the first time will be reviewed by someone outside the California Public Utilities Commission. The commission has refused to turn over the emails since 2015, when San Diego attorney Michael Aguirre first sought the documents. The commission claims the emails are privileged communications between regulators and the Governors Office. Aguirre, who is suing to overturn a decision assigning utility customers most of the $4.7 billion in costs related to the failure of the nuclear plant north of Oceanside, praised the appellate court order. Why is it taking over two years and nine months and a court order to get the California Public Utilities Commission to release its San Onofre records? he asked. What is being hidden and why is it being hidden? Advertisement The commission said it would comply with the order. The CPUC has in the past and continues to comply with the statutory requirements of the CPRA and appropriate court orders, spokeswoman Terrie Prosper said in a statement. A spokesman for Gov. Jerry Brown declined to comment. The commission was investigated criminally for its handling of San Onofre and a deadly pipeline blast in Northern California. State agents in 2015 focused on backchannel dealings between regulators and utility company executives, although they have declined to disclose the current status of the probe. The appeals court gave the commission 21 days to provide the records. The judges will review the emails in private to decide whether they are subject to public release. Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35 jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald Re Army medic receives Medal of Honor for Vietnam War heroics (Oct. 24): Army Capt. Gary Michael Rose, a Vietnam War veteran, now 70 years old, was recently acknowledged for his unselfish bravery, risking his life in enemy territory as a Special Forces medic in Laos. He was 19 years old, the only medic for 136 men. Undeterred by gunfire all around him, over four days and nights, Rose rescued and cared for as many as 70 of the injured, though he, too, was wounded. The photo of President Trump physically placing the Medal of Honor on Gary Michael Rose was a strikingly incongruous visual. The extreme life contrasts between the characters, values and actions of these two men is undeniable. Advertisement To conclude, I hope President Trumps bone spurs are no longer bothering him. Beverly Garber San Diego Letters and commentary policy The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy. You can email letters@sduniontribune.com or leave a comment below. Follow @UTLetters on Twitter and UTOpinion on Facebook. Three former Trump campaign officials are facing charges in the first criminal allegations to result from a high-profile FBI investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election led by special prosecutor Robert Mueller , it was revealed Monday in a flurry of document releases. They are Paul Manafort , the one-time chairman for Donald Trumps presidential campaign and his former business associate, Rick Gates, who were both charged with 12 counts ranging from money laundering to making false statements to authorities to conspiracy against the United States, and George Papadopoulos, a one-time foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, who has been charged with lying to FBI investigators. Reports of sealed indictments in the Mueller probe but not who would be charged broke late Friday, but it wasnt until Monday morning that the charges became public. Manafort was seen in a video clip turning himself in to the FBIs field office in Washington, D.C. Gates has also turned himself in. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty earlier in October to making a false statement to investigators. So what does this mean? And whats next? Were here to break it down quickly for you. First, what charges are Manafort, Gates and Papadopoulos facing? Manafort and Gates both face the same 12 counts spelled out in an indictment (which you can read in full here). The two entered no-guilty pleas, CNN reported. Those charges include: One count for conspiracy against the United States One count for conspiracy to launder money One count for being an unregistered agent of a foreign principal One count for making false and misleading statements in accordance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act One count for making false statements to authorities Seven counts for failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Papadopoulos faces charges for lying to FBI investigators about his relationships and interactions with foreign nationals in connection to senior Russian government officials. For one thing, Papadopoulos acknowledged in a sworn statement that his dealings with a person identified as an overseas professor who Papadopoulos understood to have substantial connections with Russian government officials occurred after he was an adviser to the Trump campaign, not before as he initially told investigators. Are any of these charges Russia-related? Charges against Manafort and Gates do not make any reference to Russian efforts to interfere in U.S. politics, but the files go into detail about Manaforts work as a lobbyist for Ukraine. Papadopoulos admitted to investigators back in January that he had lied about his contacts with Russians, according to information made public Monday. In one document, it alleges that Papadopoulos thanked the Professor for his critical help in arranging a meeting between the Campaign and the Russian government. And remarked: Its history making if it happens, the statement of offense says, quoting Papadopoulos. What have Manafort, Gates or Papadopolous said about the charges? Manafort, Gates and Papadopoulos had not made public remarks as of 10:30 a.m. Pacific Time. The FBI and the Justice Department have also declined to comment. Attorneys for Papadopoulos said in a statement that they "look forward to telling all of the details of George's story." Update: A spokesperson for Gates said he welcomes the opportunity to confront these charges in court. This fight is just the beginning, CNN reported. Manaforts lawyer, Kevin Downing, denied any collusion with the Russian government. What has President Trump said about the charges? Trump tweeted his reaction on Monday in a series of comments, including a short one that noted: . Also, there is NO COLLUSION! At a press briefing Monday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders downplayed Manaforts role in the campaign, describing him as someone "hired to handle delegate process and dismissed not too long after that." In addition, Sanders added that the FBI investigation into Russian meddling would conclude soon. How are people reacting to the development? Republicans on Monday seemed more focused on tax reform and judicial appointments than the new development in the FBIs investigation into Russian meddling. Democrats overwhelmingly expressed support for the investigation. One lawmaker, Rep. Al Green , D-Texas, said THIS is how you drain the swamp! Others expressed caution, saying that they hope Trump does not interfere in Muellers investigation. One of the big questions arising from Mondays developments is whether Manafort, Gates or Papadopoulos would cooperate or flip as some have described with investigators to turn over more evidence for Mueller and the FBI as it might relate to larger questions about potential connections between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Preet Bharara, a former Obama-era U.S. attorney in New York who has been a vocal critic of President Trumps since losing his job with the changeover in administrations, called Papadopoulos a cooperating witness in Muellers investigation and that his plea agreement portends more charges to come. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse , D-Rhode Island, who once served as a Rhode Island attorney general, explained in a series of tweets how an investigation of this magnitude plays out in different phases. Whitehouse concludes that this indictment may be the beginning of the end for some ultimate targets, but for sure this is the end of the beginning phase of investigation. Two obvious questios are: Will more charges follow and if so, who would be charged? What are other prominent people saying about todays news? Radio and TV host Hugh Hewitt saw a lot of people with a lot of opinions. Richard Painter, who was the chief White House ethics lawyer for Pres. George W. Bush from 2005 to 2007 and is now a law professor at the University of Minnesota also weighed in. Have some thoughts to share? Join me in a conversation: Shoot me a private email with your thoughts or ideas on a different approach to this story. As always, you can also send us a tweet. Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com Twitter: @RunGomez Read The Conversation on Flipboard. ALSO What an FBI raid of Paul Manafort's home means for Russia probe Who exactly leaked Trump Jr. emails story to The New York Times? Who is Paul Manafort again? And how does he fit in FBI's Russia probe? President Barack Obama was interrupted by a heckler while giving a speech to an audience of Israeli university students, but he didnt lose his cool. The president was talking about the U.S. being a close ally to Israel when the heckler piped up. The crowd shouted him down. This is part of the lively debate that we talked about, said an unruffled Obama. This is good. Advertisement That got him a standing ovation from many of the students. I have to say we actually arranged for that because it made me feel at home, Obama said, grinning. I wouldnt feel comfortable if I didnt have at least one heckler. Obama went on to deliver an impassioned appeal for Israel to recognize that compromise will be necessary to achieve lasting security. --- Obama has permitted TV crews with live microphones to accompany him at virtually every stop in Israel, giving a rare and fascinating glimpse at the joking and small talk that takes place on the sidelines of official visits. In Jerusalem on Thursday, Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Israel Museum, where they examined the Dead Sea Scrolls. Reading a passage from Isaiah from a facsimile of a scroll, Netanyahu explained: It says, `Nations should not lift swords unto nations and they shall know war no more. The phrase forms the lyrics to a popular Hebrew folk song often used as a rallying call for peace. Obama marveled that the Hebrew language had not changed much over the centuries. Minutes later, during a tour of a technology exhibit, the two leaders stopped by a display of a robotic snake that can burrow into rubble during rescue operations. The three-foot contraption wriggled and separated and reared up. Let me just say, my wife would not like this, Obama said, grinning. At a brain imaging display, a scientist explained that the first step in studying brain function is taking accurate measurements of the brain. That presupposes there is something to measure, right? Netanyahu joked. Developers of a driver assistance device that detects road obstacles described how their Mobileye protected passengers by sensing a cars proximity to other cars. Pedestrians, too? Obama asked. Pedestrians, cars..., one of the developers replied. Dogs? Obama wondered. Not dogs, came the reply. --- For Obama, this was personal. The president reflected repeatedly on his experience as a father and an African American as he contemplated the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Standing alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, Obama contrasted the experience of children growing up amid the conflict to that of his two daughters, who in an earlier period in American history would have been denied the opportunities granted to others. Those of us in the United States understand that change takes time, but it is also possible, he said. Later, in Jerusalem, Obama cited Martin Luther King Jr. and likened the story of the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover to the experience of blacks in the U.S. who were freed from slavery and persecution. Of the Passover story, Obama added: For me personally, growing up in far-flung parts of the world and without firm roots, it spoke to a yearning within every human being for a home. And the president veered briefly off of his prepared remarks to scores of Israeli students to convey a lesson he took away from meeting earlier in the day with Palestinian students in the occupied West Bank. They werent that different from my daughters. They werent that different from your daughters or sons, he said. I honestly believe that if any Israeli parent sat down with those kids, theyd say, `I want these kids to succeed. I want them to prosper. I want them to have opportunities just like my kids do. --- At the White House, Obama is used to bestowing medals on combat veterans, both living and deceased, as well as famous Americans, scientists, inventors and others. But on Thursday, it was his turn to bow his head and accept one for himself. During a state dinner at Israeli President Shimon Peres official residence, Peres presented his American counterpart with the Medal of Distinction, the highest honor the Jewish state bestows on civilians. An announcer said it was for Obamas unique and significant contributions to Israels security. This award speaks to your tireless work to make Israel strong, Peres said during his toast. Then he put the large, round medal dangling from a wide, dark-blue ribbon with a white stripe down the middle around Obamas neck. The medal features the North Star to symbolize the right path. Also on the medal is a menorah - the emblem of Israel and a symbol of the link between past and present. It is inscribed with the words from Samuel 9:2, from his shoulders and upward. Obama wore the medal as he delivered his reciprocal toast. This is an extraordinary honor for me and I could not be more deeply moved, he said. --- During portions of the dinner that were open to media coverage, Obama and Netanyahu continued the newfound chumminess they displayed a day earlier. Seated next to each other at a rectangular head table draped in white cloth and adorned with white tulips and orchids, the two leaders were seen leaning in and whispering to one another, laughing and smiling as they awaited Peres remarks. At one point, they hid their mouths behind their hands strategically to thwart lip readers and microphones in the room. Obama and Netanyahu have had a prickly relationship, but they have put on a happier face during Obamas first visit to Israel as president. Among the 120 dinner guests seated at similarly decorated round banquet tables were Justice minister Tzipi Livni; Avigdor Lieberman, a Netanyahu ally; and U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz of Florida, the chair of the Democratic Party. The invite list led to some interesting pairings. Seated together at one table were a rabbi from the Western Wall and a Muslim cleric. At another table sat Michael Oren, Israels ambassador to Washington; Yair Lapid, the new star of Israeli politics and a leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party; Yuli Eidelstein, a hard-line Likud lawmaker who is a former Soviet political prisoner and the new speaker of Israels parliament; U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Livni. What were they served? A fish appetizer, a duet of beef and lamb on a potato tart, salad, and a plate of fruit, eclairs, dates and other pastries and sweets. --- In the most emotional moment of the tech tour, Obama and Netanyahu encountered a Druze Israeli war veteran and a U.S. army veteran, both paralyzed from the waist down. Both demonstrated how they were able to walk with the help of crutches and a computerized exoskeleton that supported their legs as they moved. Obama gave both presidential challenge coins, used to recognize veterans for their service. The army veteran, Theresa Hannigan, a 60-year-old from Long Island, N.Y., was learning how to use the motorized aides, called the ReWalk, at the Bronx VA hospital. She implored Obama to help the device obtain FDA approval. Her voice breaking, Hannigan stood straight and hugged Obama. The system is made by an Israeli company called Argo Medical Technologies. Its exoskeleton suit uses computers and motion sensors to allow paraplegics to walk with motorized legs that power knee and hip movement. Obama offered a personal reflection. Michelles father had MS, so he used crutches until he was probably 45, 50, then got a wheelchair. Netanyahu replied: This would have given him a different life. --- Peres is making sure that controversy over a tree brought to Israel by Obama does not upset the deep-rooted ties between the countries. Obama brought the magnolia tree as a gift, and planted it at Peres official residence during a welcoming ceremony Wednesday. Israeli media later reported that the tree would have to be uprooted and tested to make sure it complied with agricultural import regulations. Peres office quickly denied the report. It said agriculture officials would conduct all the necessary tests required by law but stressed the checkup would be done without removing the tree from the place where it was planted, as agreed. --- Associated Press writer Daniel Estrin contributed to this report. Grand juries are a protection written in to the U.S. Constitution, but are they really fair, and should we keep using them? Weekly Newsletter The best of The Saturday Evening Post in your inbox! Join Grand juries are playing a large role in special counsel Robert Muellers investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential elections, recently handing down sealed indictments against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates. The United States is one of only a handful of nations to still use grand juries. Nearly every other nation that once used them has abandoned the practice. They have shifted the functions of a grand jury which decides whether or not to prosecute a case to other offices in their legal systems. But grand juries are still important in America. The Fifth Amendment requires federal courts to use grand juries before prosecuting capital, or otherwise infamous crime. Subscribe and get unlimited access to our online magazine archive. Subscribe Today In 1974 and 1975, following the grand jury investigation into Watergate, the role of grand juries was debated in The Saturday Evening Post. In The Grand Jury vs. You, historian David Rothman argued that the indictment process should be in the hands of judges, and not grand juries. Rothman objected to grand juries secrecy, as well as the jury members ignorance of the law as it pertained to the cases they were being asked to judge. Six months after Rothmans article appeared, Lloyd E. Moore defended the system in his article, The Grand Jury Is You. Moore pointed out several unique benefits of the grand jury system. For instance, if a grand jury votes not to proceed with prosecution, the subject of the inquiry might never even know he or she was being investigated. Just as important, the suspects family, neighbors, and employers wouldnt know either. Another benefit he noted is the grand jurys ability to follow their inquiries to their conclusion, despite obstruction from government officials as high up as the president. Albany, NY -- (SBWIRE) -- 10/30/2017 -- The global Free Space Optics (FSO) Market features a highly dynamic landscape wherein numerous technological advancements are taking place at a rapid pace and companies are compelled to focus more on development of innovative and more reliable FSO systems and solutions, observes a report by Transparency Market Research. Key companies in the market, including Trimble Hungary Ltd., Optelix,Mostcom Ltd., AOptix Technologies Inc., LightPointe Communications, Inc., and Harris Corporation are also under constant pressure of competition from existing players in fiber optics and wireless communication technologies. The market holds immense growth potential owing to the vast rise in demand for high-speed, low-cost, and secure communication methodologies across the globe. Transparency Market Research estimates that the market will exhibit a remarkable 39.5% CAGR over the period between 2016 and 2024. Expanding at this pace, the market is expected to rise from an opportunity of US$81.3 mn in 2015 to US$1,306.1 mn by 2024. Of the key application areas of the FSO market, the segment of data transmission presently holds the leading position. North America is the leading regional market, accounting for a share of over 30% in the global market in 2015. Sample With Latest Advancements @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=3263 Rising Demand for High-speed Communication Channels to Boost Adoption of FSO The ever increasing demand for data streaming and multimedia services across communication networks and the unprecedented growth and demand for higher bandwidths for high-speed internet has resulted in the congestion of conventional radio frequency spectrum despite rapid advancements in the networking sector. This is a key factor compelling an increasing number of network providers to switch to FSO technology as an alternative to overburdened conventional technologies for outdoor networking. Other advantages of FSO technology, including low operational and start-up costs, rapid deployment, high data transmission security, and high fiber-like bandwidth have also enticed network operators to increase the adoption of FSO technology. Browse Our Press Releases For More Information @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/pressrelease/free-space-optics-market.htm The market for FSO technology is also driven by the rising usage of this mode of communication across a number of military applications. Some of the most promising areas in the military sector where deployment of FSO technology can prove to be highly effective are ship-to-ship communication, ship-to-shore communication, and communication between military bases where bases are located within the range of 2-4 kilometers. Owing to the usage of modulated light in FSO, it is capable of supporting larger bandwidths than radio frequency spectrum. The collimated laser energy of FSO offers properties such as low probability of detection and interception, which are highly desirable for applications demanding high security. These factors are collectively expected to have a significant impact on the overall development of the market in future years. Signal Quality Constraints Due to Environmental Interference Raise Concerns Regarding FSO's Reliability In most optical wireless technologies, the light being transmitted through free space needs to contend with the interference presented by the complexity of the surrounding space. In case of FSO communication also, the space through which FSO signals propagate presents fundamental limitation to the reliability and robustness of FSO systems. In locations with link ranges over 200 meters, weather conditions such as fog and atmospheric turbulence could lead to temporary link outages and result in the deterioration of communication signals in terms of factors such as quality, speed, and efficiency. These factors could make the consumer weary about FSO systems and act as a key restrain for the development of the market. Browse Our Table of Content @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=3263 Nevertheless, with increased focus on research and development activities, service providers are introducing FSO systems and solutions with technological advancements that can eliminate the impact of these interferences. Attempts are being made by network operators to eliminate the effect of scintillation on the quality of FSO transmission with the help of spatial diversity, which refers to a multi beam approach that exploits multiple regions of the space. [LONDON] Climate finance, while efficient in sectors such as renewable energy, is not effective in protecting increasingly threatened forests or the rights of their inhabitants, a new report shows. "It's just so much easier to put money into wind farms," Charlotte Streck, director of the advisory company Climate Focus, says during the launch of the report (24 October) in London attended by a delegation of indigenous leaders from Brazil, Indonesia and other developing countries. "You have energy projects worth hundreds of million dollars that are easy to invest in, easy to assess and whose results are measurable." To emphasise the neglect, the report compared the finance flowing towards forest protection and subsidies supporting intensive agriculture and land development. Findings show that the US$20 billion invested in stopping deforestation is dwarfed by the almost US$780 billion spent since 2010 in what the authors call grey finance which has an unclear but potentially negative impact on forests. These include investments in key deforestation drivers such as beef production, timber and palm oil. While many governments and companies often spend a lot of money in forest protection, the most effective and the cheapest solution lies in the hands of the people who live in the forest Mina Setra, Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago We need more and also better climate finance," says Franziska Haupt, a senior land use consultant with Climate Focus. "This means being more strategic, targeting deforestation and looking at opportunities to introduce safeguards." Haupt cites banks like the HSBC, which now terminates contracts with customers who do not meet sustainability standards, and the Dutch bank ASN, which avoids investing in palm oil, soy and beef companies, as examples of businesses which have introduced safeguards and requirements for their clients to avoid negatively impacting the forest. However, she emphasises that while protection policies and green investments are desirable, transformative change depends on people who live on the ground and can help implement any new measure. "You need money but also political will and institutions that can bring local communities together and raise their voices." Environmental campaigners say that protecting the rights of indigenous people is the cheapest and most effective way of keeping the forests healthy as supported by mounting scientific evidence. A study published last year showed how the life and rights of indigenous people are deeply intertwined with the health of their land. It found that indigenous people manage more than 24 per cent of the carbon trapped by the world's tropical forests, equivalent to 250 times the amount of CO2 produced by global air travel in 2015. Mina Setra, deputy secretary-general of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago , tells SciDev.Net: "It is very important that land tenure and indigenous rights are recognised, because while many governments and companies often spend a lot of money in forest protection, the most effective and the cheapest solution lies in the hands of the people who live in the forest." She says that as a first step to assert their rights, indigenous people in Indonesia have been mapping their territories for a few decades, tracking boundaries as well as information on livelihoods and local culture. Their goal is to demonstrate that they do not just occupy a given area but they have been living there for a long time, establishing a wide range of customs and informal institutions. Forest protection, Setra says, "is not just about the trees, it's about a system that is not working. For example, palm oil plantation and mining are longstanding issues in Indonesia, but "as long as the demand from Europe and other rich regions remains high, the industry will keep growing", she adds. This piece was produced by SciDev.Nets Asia & Pacific desk. [SAN FRANCISCO] When choosing the sessions I want to attend at a conference, I tend to favour those that offer a fresh point of view on an issue and bring in perspectives from different parts of the world. Decolonising Science, a session at the 10th World Conference of Science Journalists held this month (October 26-30) in the US city of San Francisco, sounded like that kind of session and I was right. Mandi Smallhorne, president of the African Federation of Science Journalists and the South African Science Journalists Association, told me that in proposing the session, her starting point was that journalists are not really aware of the fact that science reporting is often done from the perspective of the global North. I wanted to provoke some questions about how we see science and how science interacts with people who science is done for, and the people who are the subject of science, she said. As an example, she refers to the many clinical trials that take place in the global South on people who do not necessarily understand what they are for. We need to ask questions about the impact of science in society across the world, said Smallhorne. The South African science journalist Sibusiso Biyela, a digital science communicator at ScienceLink and a volunteer for SciBraai, shared a practical barrier he encountered when writing science stories in Zulu. Biyela said a science story cannot be simply translated from English to Zulu it needs to be fully adapted. He gave the example of astronomy, where there arent enough specific names for space bodies such as planets. TV Padma, a freelance science journalist from India, highlighted as part of the panel the need for a science journalist in the developing world to not focus on peer-reviewed journal papers only. She gave the example of grassroots innovations that have not been submitted to academic journals, but which are also important. Javier Cruz, a science journalist from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, asked in the panel if the issue was really about colonised science. It is not science that is colonised, said Cruz, but the policies of many developing countries. It is our governments that define the priority scientific areas to be supported, in many cases excluding some areas that could be more relevant locally, he explained, adding that decisions are often taken without enough scientific evidence to back them up. I am glad that the purpose of the session was not to reach a consensus that would not have been possible. But the main goal of asking provocative questions was definitely achieved. The last few months have seen the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico and the United States suffer heavily from the devastating hurricanes. The losses are enormous, and the impact is huge. Agriculture and farming have not been spared either. Losses of up to US$780 million in agricultural yields have been recorded in Puerto Rico, for instance. [1] The recovery efforts are expected to go on for months, if not years. While it is simply devastating, it is also our new reality. Because of climate change, natural disasters such as hurricanes are expected to happen more frequently, with dire consequences. Climate-related disasters in Africa The African continent has also experienced its own share of climate-related disasters. For example, floods across Africa have killed 25 times more people than Hurricane Harvey did. [2] While chances for Africa to be hit by hurricanes are low, there is still a need to prepare for Africas common disasters including flooding. Floods across Africa have killed 25 times more people than Hurricane Harvey did. Esther Ngumbi Disasters pose significant threats and would slow down and even erode significant steps made towards attaining sustainable development in many of the African countries. Most importantly, these disasters can heavily impact agriculture the most vulnerable sector which also happens to be the backbone of many African economies. [3] Africa should therefore use the grace period Mother Nature is giving the continent to prepare adequate disaster mitigation and preparedness plans that can quickly be rolled out should hurricanes and other climate change-related disasters hit Africa. We can act ahead of time and not only save lives but also millions of dollars. For instance, according to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts it pays to prepare for natural disasters. [4] In addition, according to the United Nations Development Programme, each dollar invested in preparing for disaster results into savings of seven dollars in recovery. [5] Lessons from recent hurricanes So, knowing that disasters are becoming common and that no country is immune, what can Africa do? What can we learn from this very active hurricane season? First and foremost, preparedness is mandatory. To effectively deal with disasters including flooding and hurricanes, African countries need to prepare in advance. But to prepare, African countries must be able to effectively translate and package the climate-related information to support informed actions. Despite the growing volume of climate information across Africa, there are gaps between the information held in scientific institutions and that which is required to inform decision-making. [6] Preparations, among other actions, must be undertaken by disaster preparedness authorities specialised institutions that tackle disasters by widely disseminating disaster information to all citizens. African countries can be creative and innovative in how they disseminate information before and after disaster strikes. Delivering messages through mobile phones is one approach that can be used because most African citizens own a mobile phone. Second, government institutions must liaise with trusted climate forecasting institutions outside Africa such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in the United States, and must be networked with similar institutions across Africa. Such global and regional institutional linkages allow for coordinated efforts while making it easy to share information on best practices. Third, African countries must invest in special disaster insurance schemes and social protective services that are activated only when disasters strike. Food banks and accessible medical and healthcare supplies are also other important services that should be available to citizens when disasters strike. Insurance schemes and social protective services can also be useful tools that could help citizens of African countries deal with common and frequent disasters including drought and famines that the continent continue to face every year. By actively preparing ahead of time and quickly rolling out these action plans, we can reduce the impact these disasters could have. Esther Ngumbi Fourth, we must address grassroots poverty. The ability of citizens to deal with and rebound back from any disaster, including hurricanes, is heavily correlated with how vulnerable and poor they are. [7] Many African citizens are poor and thus, they are heavily affected by disasters. Fighting poverty at the grassroots must be the number one priority of African governments. Majority of the poor in Africa depend on agriculture as a source of livelihood. Therefore, one way science can be used to address grassroots poverty is by ensuring that African citizens have access to agricultural innovations such as improved drought-tolerant crop varieties, climate-smart-farming practices. These innovations could allow agriculture-dependent African citizens to increase their productivity and income and consequently allow them to grow out of poverty. Most importantly, strong and clear leadership is essential. For example, in the United States, the governor of Texas and Florida, two of the states hit by recent hurricanes, were on the front-line, making sure that citizens knew what they are facing and what they should do. [8, 9] African leaders must follow these great examples. Finally, the African continent should continue to rely on science, technology and scientific research to prepare and address future natural disasters. Science already does a good job explaining why disasters happen and where risks lie. For some disasters such as droughts, floods and cyclones, forecasts can be made of when they will occur. AFRICA Central African Republic Expected Council Action In November, the Council will renew the mandate of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), which expires on 15 November. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General to the Central African Republic (CAR) and head of MINUSCA, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga, will brief the Council on the latest developments and the MINUSCA report. Key Recent Developments The security situation in the CAR continues to deteriorate outside of the capital, Bangui. Various national and regional peace and reconciliation initiatives have not gained momentum. The government, led by President Faustin Archange Touadera, has minimal control outside of Bangui, which is relatively calm. Disarmament efforts have made only limited progress, and factions of the ex-Seleka and anti-Balaka groups remain armed and in control of large areas of the country. Fighting between ex-Seleka factions and Christian-dominated anti-Balaka armed groups is further exacerbated by inflammatory sectarian rhetoric. According to the Secretary-Generals latest MINUSCA report of 18 October, growing intercommunal violence with ethnic and religious undertones heightens the risk of mass atrocities along those lines. The Secretary-General thus notes that the window for reversing hatred and violence is shrinking. Armed groups have continuously targeted MINUSCA, resulting in the death of 12 peacekeepers in 2017. Humanitarian workers are also under attack, with 12 killed. Meanwhile, the number of internally displaced people has increased by 200,000 in 2017 to a total of 600,000. In an effort to draw attention to the fragile situation in the country that, in his words, is often far from the media spotlight, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in CAR on 24 October, United Nations Day. After a meeting with Touadera and members of government in Bangui on 25 October, the Secretary-General stressed the need to strengthen MINUSCA so it can better protect the population. He further warned of religious divisions in the country that are a result of political manipulation that must be condemned and avoided at all costs. Later that day he travelled to Bangassou where he honoured Moroccan and Cambodian peacekeepers killed earlier this year and visited the compound of a Catholic church in Bangassou, where 1,200 Muslims are taking refuge. He then returned to Bangui to meet with UN humanitarian and development workers and civil society. During his monthly luncheon with Council members on 17 August, the Secretary-General asked them to authorise an immediate increase in troop levels to help address the security situation. The US conditioned additional troops on the development of clear benchmarks for the performance of MINUSCAs contingents. In addition, the US insisted that the Secretariat produce concrete plans to address the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers in the CAR. The Secretariat later informed Council members that in its next report it will provide them with more information regarding the troop increase and the issues raised by the US. In the meantime, Council members postponed discussion of a troop increase until the mandate renewal. The MINUSCA report notes that while the mission is trying to adapt to the situation, the escalation and spread of violence across the CAR has left MINUSCA overstretched. In light of the security and political situation, the Secretary-General recommends that MINUSCA focus on its support for the political process, both nationally and locally, on protection of civilians, and on facilitating conditions for the delivery of humanitarian assistance. Other tasks should be streamlined and adjusted, taking into account the capacities of other international actors and establishing a clear division of labour. In addition, the Secretary-General recommends an increase in the troop level by 900 military personnel, stressing that while this will not allow MINUSCA to protect all civilians in the countryit can provide the force with greater ability and flexibility to respond to developing events. In addition, the report says that the increase could help facilitate better conditions for the establishment of state authority in more areas and convince armed groups to participate in the political process. The report mentions steps that are being taken to implement the Secretary-Generals zero-tolerance policy towards sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers in the CAR. In addition, the Secretary-General intends to carry out a critical assessment of MINUSCAs contingents in early 2018 to examine possible linkages between their performance and conduct. Sanctions-Related Developments The Panel of Experts assisting the CAR Sanctions Committee will submit its final report to the committee in November. The committee will then meet with the panel to discuss the report later in the month or in December. Human Rights-Related Developments On 27 September, CAR President Touadera addressed the Human Rights Council (HRC) at its 36th session. Taking note of mass violations of human rights, violations based on gender, and the use of child soldiers by armed groups in the CAR, he highlighted the creation of a National Human Rights Commission based on the Paris Principles; it was expected to begin its work in October. Also on 27 September, the HRC held an interactive dialogue with Marie-Therese Keita-Bocoum, the Independent Expert on the situation of human rights in the CAR, and considered her report (A/HRC/36/64). The report describes increased human rights violations, the re-recruitment of thousands of children, the deteriorating humanitarian situation, and the failure of peace and reconciliation initiatives. On 29 September, the HRC adopted, without a vote, a resolution extending the mandate of the Independent Expert for one year and deciding to hold a high-level interactive dialogue to assess the human rights situation in the CAR, with an emphasis on the impact of peace and reconciliation efforts, during the HRCs 37th session (A/HRC/RES/36/25). Key Issues and Options The need to respond to the increased fighting between rebels, attacks against civilians along sectarian lines, and the targeting of MINUSCA personnel and other UN and humanitarian personnel is of key concern to the Council. In this context, the renewal of MINSUCAs mandate will afford opportunities to adjust the mandate and clarify its main priorities. The Council may revise MINUSCAs mandate while also authorising additional troops for MINUSCA as part of its response to the ongoing security and political situation. During the renewal process, Council members could request the Secretariat to report further on actions taken to improve the performance of MINUSCAs contingents, including in the context of sexual misconduct. The Council could also consider acting through the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee, listing additional individuals and entities, particularly those with links to recent attacks, in an effort to curb violence. Council and Wider Dynamics The deteriorating security situation and the governments inability to project law and order beyond Bangui continue to concern all Council members. In light of the grave situation, all Council members have expressed support for an increase in MINUSCA troop levels, in principle. Notwithstanding the US position, several Council members, including troop-contributing countries, reject steps that they perceive as singling out contingents and publicly shaming them. Thus, language with respect to general assessments of MINUSCAs performance will be contentious and will require careful negotiation in order to achieve agreement on additional troops. There also seems to be a general understanding that MINUSCA must prioritise some of its tasks within its very limited resources. That said, when negotiations start, disagreements may arise as to which tasks should be allocated fewer resources. France is the penholder on the CAR, and Ukraine is the chair of the 2127 CAR Sanctions Committee. UN DOCUMENTS ON THE CAR This resolution renewed the CAR sanctions regime until 31 January 2018 and the mandate of the Panel of Experts until 28 February 2018. The Council renewed the mandate of MINUSCA until 15 November 2017. Is a report about MINUSCA. Press Release October 30, 2017 LOWER, FLAT TAX RATE AND SIMPLER, ONE-TIME TAX FILING OFFERED TO SELF-EMPLOYED, PROFESSIONALS UNDER SENATE'S TRAIN -ANGARA To really encourage payment of correct taxes, the Senate version of the first tax reform package has made available to self-employed individuals and professionals a flat tax regime that is simpler and easier to comply. Under Senate Bill 1592 or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN), self-employed individuals and professionals can choose between an 8% flat tax on gross sales or receipts to be filed only once a year or the schedular personal income tax rate with allowable deduction. The 8% tax will be in lieu of the personal income tax, which is currently filed quarterly, and the percentage tax, filed monthly. "The Congress is making a distinction between the tax treatment of compensation income earners and self-employed individuals and professionals because we recognize the need to really simplify the process and make it easier for them to comply and pay correct taxes," said Senate Sonny Angara, chairman of the ways and means committee. According to BIR data, self-employed and professionals only contribute 15% of the total income tax collection, while the 85% is shouldered by compensation income earners. "Income taxes of compensation income earners--like our teachers, nurses, call center agents--are automatically withheld by their employers. On the other hand, self-employed and professionals--like owners of sari-sari stores and carinderia, and our doctors and lawyers--have to file their taxes on their own or with the help of accountants, which they can't afford to hire most of the time. Kung kaya, marami sa ating mga self-employed at professionals and hindi nakakasunod nang tama sa mga regulasyon ng pagbubuwis," the lawmaker said. "The previous administration opted for the scare and shame tactic, but I believe a developmental approach or incentivizing them to follow tax rules would be a more effective strategy. That's why we introduced an 8% flat tax for easier compliance. Padaliin na natin and sistema lalo na para sa mag maliliit na negosyante," he added. In an Inquirer article by Raymond Abrea of the Center for Strategic Reforms of the Philippines, he noted that "simplified bookkeeping and tax compliance is one of the best amendments in the tax code." Moreover, with higher income tax exemption, marginal income earners will be exempt from paying income taxes. These include farmers and fisherfolk, sari-sari store owners, carinderia owners, market vendors, and tricycle drivers. "By automatically exempting them from income tax, in effect, marginal income earners would finally be afforded equal protection and benefits that the minimum wage earners have long been enjoying," the senator said, highlighting that 99% of individual income taxpayers will enjoy higher take-home pay due to lower tax rates. The value-added tax (VAT) threshold is also raised from P1.9 million to P3 million, thus exempting small businesses with total annual sales of P3 million and below from paying VAT. Angara said this would provide them due tax relief that would encourage them to grow, and generate more and better jobs for Filipinos. The lethal wildfires in the North Bay could exact a heavy cost on Pacific Gas and Electric Co., even if the utility did nothing wrong. State investigators are trying to determine whether PG&Es power lines and poles some of which came crashing down in a windstorm the night the fires began sparked the flames. The first lawsuit from burned-out homeowners accusing PG&E of negligence was filed a little more than a week after the fires began. If investigators do find that PG&Es electrical lines started the fires, the company will probably be liable for economic damages, regardless of negligence. And even if PG&E faithfully followed every state rule for maintaining its equipment, it still could face costs already estimated to top $1 billion. The reason lies in a legal concept called inverse condemnation. For utility companies in fire-prone California, its an expensive problem so expensive that theyre looking to pass some of the costs along to their customers. People who lost property to the flames could take PG&E to court and say that the companys actions destroyed their homes in the course of providing a public service namely, supplying electricity. They could then demand payment for their lost property. Its the flip side of condemnation, the process by which a government agency can take someones property to provide a public benefit like building a road so long as the agency compensates the property owner. Theres no fault there all you have to do is prove their facilities, their equipment, were a cause of the fire, said attorney Frank Pitre, who has sued PG&E over the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion as well as the 2015 Butte Fire in Amador and Calaveras counties. California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones has estimated total insured losses from the Wine Country wildfires at $1.05 billion, a figure that is likely to grow. Similar liability issues have been raised in Texas following Hurricane Harvey, said Robert H. Thomas, a land use, eminent domain and appellate lawyer based in Honolulu, who operates the blog www.inversecondemnation.com. After that disaster, the Army Corps of Engineers was sued for damage caused to homes when water was purposefully released from swollen reservoirs so that it didnt go another direction and swell an already overflowing river. I call it the you broke it, you bought it, theory, Thomas said. Michael Macor/The Chronicle A Sacramento County judge ruled in June that under inverse condemnation, PG&E may be held liable for damages in the Butte Fire, which began when a pine tree leaned into a power line. The blaze blackened more than 70,800 acres, destroyed 549 homes and killed two people. Property holders suing PG&E over the Butte Fire are also trying to prove negligence, saying its program for trimming trees around its power lines helped cause the fire. Negligence could open the company to other types of damages, such as punitive damages, that inverse condemnation doesnt cover, Pitre said. PG&E estimates the Butte Fire litigation could cost it $750 million. So worried are utility companies about paying for wildfire damage that in one closely watched case, theyre trying to make their customers shoulder some of the cost. San Diego Gas and Electric Co. had to pay $2.4 billion for fires sparked in October 2007 by its power lines. The company has now asked the California Public Utilities Commission to let it pass on to its customers $379 million of that bill, the amount that wasnt covered by insurance. PG&E and the states other investor-owned electric utility, Southern California Edison, support San Diego Gas and Electric position. The outcome of the case could set a major precedent about who pays for destructive wildfires. The property owners who sued SDG&E over the 2007 fires asserted inverse condemnation. At first, the utility argued that this legal principle should not apply to a private company, but several courts rejected its argument. The utility decided to settle. Now, the company argues that if utilities all face strict liability for wildfire damage linked to their equipment regardless of how well they operate and maintain that equipment they should be able spread those costs among their customers. The San Diego utilitys proposal would add $1.67 to a typical residential customers monthly bill for six years. Two administrative law judges with the utilities commission have recommended that the agencys five voting commissioners reject San Diego Gas and Electrics request to pass along the costs, citing what they called the companys imprudent management of its facilities. But just four days before the Wine Country fires began, PG&E and Edison sent the commission a letter backing the San Diego utility, complaining that the administrative law judges did not address the issue of inverse condemnation and its implications for utility companies. A commission vote on the issue is now scheduled for Nov. 9. Wildfires and the method with which they are treated presently have real world and potential long-term impacts on the operations, risk management and financial standing of every energy company in the state, PG&E spokesman Donald Cutler said in a statement. We felt it was important that the commission hear the perspectives of all the energy companies that operate in California. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. This summer, PG&E also asked the commission to let the company create a wildfire expense memorandum account, to track costs associated with the Butte Fire, citing the judges decision that PG&E may be liable for damages under inverse condemnation. The company could later ask the commission to let it pass some or all of those costs on to customers. So far, the commission has not authorized PG&E to create the account. In theory, customers dont pay for utilities mistakes, said Mindy Spatt, spokeswoman for The Utility Reform Network consumer group. But time and again weve seen the utilities ask to make customers pay for those mistakes. As for the fires still burning in the North Bay, PG&E will track all the costs of responding to the emergency, tallying them in a catastrophic event memorandum account,a type of account California utilities use to track any disaster. The company may then ask the commission to pass those costs on to its customers. PG&E has not yet filed its first estimate of those costs, but they could be significant. The fires knocked out power to 359,000 customers, prompting PG&E to mobilize 4,300 workers and set up four base camps across the North Bay. Chronicle staff writer Cynthia Dizikes contributed to this report. David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Wild and scary creatures took over the Oakland Zoo on Sunday. And it wasnt just the usual lions, tigers and Malayan sun bears, but thousands of kids and adults dressed as dinosaurs, SWAT officers, prison inmates, Star Wars stormtroopers even Beyonce. The occasion was the zoos annual two-day Boo at the Zoo event, which draws the largest crowds of the year, said Erin Harrison, a zoo spokeswoman. On Saturday, 5,600 people attended the Halloween event about double the usual weekend crowd and when there was no more room to park cars, zoo officials had to stop admitting people for while. Sunday attendance figures were not available, but when Boo at the Zoo opened at 11 a.m., cars were backed up onto Interstate 580. Talk about scary. Zoo officials attribute the events popularity to the mix of wild animals and decorations, which included pumpkins and split pigs heads inside the animal habitats, along with a scavenger hunt, free rides on the zoos new gondola and a variety of special activities, including the Monster Mash Dance Party, which offered the chance to dance with Roosevelt the alligator, the zoos official mascot. About half of the visitors wore costumes, some of them family outfits like the band of pirates eating at the top of the gondola. Jennifer Massie, 40, Eric Sage, 45, and Eli Massie-Sage, 1, of San Leandro, were taking a lunch break. Eli was plundering his parents turkey sandwich, like a good pirate, while Jennifer expressed her appreciation for the event without saying aaarrrr! Its kind of fun seeing other families and kids dressed up, she said. Its a good time to be out and about as a family. Many of the kids were drawn in by the Spooky Scavenger Hunt, which offered clues that directed them to animal exhibits where they could collect stamps. You might have seen my cousins on a lawn, one clue read. Im known for my beauty and not my brawn. I stand on one leg when I need to think about catching my food, which turns me pink. That hint, one of the easiest, directed the scary scavengers to the flamingo exhibit. Once they collected all five stamps, the kids were rewarded with a goodie bag that included some actual candy but mostly healthy snacks. But the zoos denizens were the biggest attraction for some kids. I like seeing the animals, said Brandon Sabais, 9, of Oakland. I like the cheetah. Its really fast. And hes a carnivore like me. Actually, Im an omnivore. Boo at the Zoo wasnt just a special weekend for the humans. Animals got into the spirit, too, said Adam Fink, the zoological manager. The zoo works hard all the time to keep animals from getting bored, but they especially seem to enjoy holiday activities, he said. Zookeepers bought 120 pumpkins for the event and placed them around the zoo in different animals habitats. Some played with the big orange gourds like balls, others clawed at them like scratching posts and some ripped them apart and devoured their innards. The zoos big cats also got a special ghoulish treat: pigs heads, hacked in half, giving the animals a bigger challenge than eating a pile of meat. Being a zookeeper, you need to be very creative, Fink said. Keeping our animals physically healthy is easy. The enrichment and training is where creativity comes into play. Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate For decades, the complaints have piled up. Mice. Cockroaches. Asbestos. Sewage dripping down into offices from clogged toilets in the seventh-floor jail. But Tuesdays Board of Supervisors meeting could mark the beginning of the end of these travails for everyone working in San Franciscos Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant St. The board will vote on whether to approve a $150 million, 15-year lease on a Potrero Hill office building, as well as two letters of intent to rent property in the South of Market. Those agreements would enable the district attorneys office, adult probation department and police investigations unit to move out of the Hall of Justice on July 1. Hall of Justice employees and their unions are exhorting the supervisors to approve those leases, saying the buildings inhabitants can no longer tolerate the vile conditions. Yet several supervisors have criticized the property deals, saying the city should look for something better. One hundred fifty million dollars over 15 years is an exorbitant price tag, in my opinion, said Supervisor Ahsha Safai, who tried to block the lease agreement for 350 Rhode Island St. a suite of offices proposed for the district attorney when it went before the boards Budget and Finance Committee on Thursday. The three committee members Supervisors Malia Cohen, Katy Tang and Norman Yee moved it forward despite Safais objections. Safai said he wanted the city to buy, rather than rent, new facilities. He even suggested seizing office buildings through the power of eminent domain a lengthy, last-resort process usually reserved for major infrastructure like the Transbay Terminal. Supervisor Aaron Peskin shares Safais concerns and said that generally he would rather purchase property than sign a lease. Markets change over time, Peskin said. He noted that if the country enters a recession in three years, rents could plummet, but San Francisco would still be locked into a $150 million agreement that it signed when rents were high. Board President London Breed raised similar concerns, chiding city real estate officials for not exploring all options. I get that theres an urgency to get everyone out of the Hall of Justice, Breed said. But from my perspective, this is a lot of money. Such arguments grate on law enforcement staff who work in the hall a giant, 59-year-old, bunker-like building with frequent plumbing leaks, broken elevators, power failures, sewage floods, pests, asbestos-laden walls and toxic lead paint. Its execrable conditions led most of the citys public employee unions to file grievances this year and resulted in a complaint from the states Division of Occupational Safety and Health. Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle If a 7.9-magnitude earthquake were to strike the San Andreas Fault, more than 100 people would die at the hall, according to an analysis that the city did this year using hazard-assessment software provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Its incredibly reckless to leave thousands of people in a building that is literally doomed in the next major earthquake, said Max Szabo, a spokesman for the district attorneys office. If this facility is still occupied when (the quake) hits, the financial costs that the city will incur are massive, and the human costs will be horrific. But both will have been preventable. Despite their public remarks, Safai Peskin and Breed declined to say whether they would oppose the leases at Tuesdays board meeting. And it wasnt clear whether they could rally enough votes to kill the proposals. Other supervisors expressed support for the leases after receiving a pointed Oct. 16 memo from City Administrator Naomi Kelly, who gave a clinical description of the squalor at 850 Bryant St. and noted the 100 deaths that would be on San Franciscos hands if a major earthquake hits. Drought Map Track water shortages and restrictions across Bay Area Updated to include drought zones while tracking water shortage status of your area, plus reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Areas largest water districts. Supervisor Jeff Sheehy worked in the Hall of Justice from 1998 to 2000 as an advocate for same-sex domestic-violence survivors and hate-crime victims under former District Attorney Terence Hallinan. Even then, he said, conditions were deplorable. He vividly remembers how a colleague left her coat hanging on the back of a chair for a few hours, and came back to find a dead mouse in the pocket. Earlier this year, Sheehy requested a budget and legislative analysts report to estimate how much money San Francisco could save by clearing out the hall next year and moving into the three leased spaces. The report, published in June, predicted the city would save $95 million by renting property, rather than purchasing land and constructing new stand-alone facilities for its various departments. Ultimately, the city plans to vacate and demolish the building and construct a new one in its place. If that happens before the lease terms are up, the city could rent the building at 350 Rhode Island St. to another tenant, budget and legislative analyst director Severin Campbell said at the committee meeting Thursday. If the board does not approve the leases, it will put the city at risk not only for lives lost in an earthquake, but for any harm to the hundreds of employees, inmates, and San Francisco residents who use the Hall of Justice every day, said Bob Muscat, chair of the San Francisco Labor Councils Public Employee Committee. Muscat hinted that the unions might have to take legal action against the city if the Board of Supervisors does nothing. Its disheartening to see a couple of supervisors try to take a new angle when this has been kicked around for so many years, he said. Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan Local lawmakers have good reason to howl about President Trumps tax plan, which would eliminate the federal deduction for state and local taxes it would hit people in four Bay Area counties harder than anywhere else in the state. Leading the pack is San Mateo County, whose residents claimed an average of $39,284 in property, state income tax and other local tax deductions in 2015, according to the Internal Revenue Service. That was more than twice the $18,649 average deduction in Los Angeles County. Marin County came in second statewide, with an average of $38,183 in deductions, followed by San Francisco with $35,020 and Santa Clara County with $32,181. Its a combination of incredibly high housing prices and high wages, said Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough. Losing the tax break would be a hard hit for homeowners in neighboring counties as well. The average 2015 deduction in Alameda County, for example, was $19,075; in Contra Costa County, it was $20,370. On the other hand, residents of Kern County, home base of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, stand to lose an average of $10,582 in deductions. McCarthy was one 14 Californians to vote last week on a budget resolution that paves the way for the tax package. The states GOP delegation stood unanimously behind the plan, even as some Republicans in other high-tax states, such as New York, broke ranks in what ended up being a tight 216-212 vote. California already gives more in taxes to the federal government than it gets back, said Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord. To take money out of the pockets of hardworking families, many of whom rely on their tax returns, is negligent and irresponsible. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc. To Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, the Trump plan is really just a tax hike for middle- and upper-middle-class families to help pay for tax cuts for corporations and the very rich. Maybe. But it should also be noted that for years, local and state lawmakers have been relying on the deduction to sell voters on various taxes and bonds with the idea that the money could be deducted from their federal returns. And if the party indeed is over, its going to be one big fiscal hangover. Equal protection: Women on both sides of the political aisle are saying legislative leaders response to widespread sexual harassment allegations at the state Capitol falls short of whats needed. We want a public and independent investigation, said Christine Pelosi, chair of the state Democratic Party womens caucus. This needs to be more than a flash in the pan or one-day headline, said Republican Assemblywoman Catharine Baker of San Ramon. Among the changes Pelosi wants to see: A hotline for victims to report harassment allegations handled by someone outside the Legislature, which could refer women to counseling services. A standing, independent investigator chosen by a vote of the Legislature. Disclosure by the Assembly and Senate rules committees on past sexual harassment payouts and perpetrators names. And legal protections for whistle-blowers. The Legislature should come under the same laws as other businesses in the state, Pelosi said. Not only for staff and and lobbyists, but for anyone who comes to the Capitol to work on anything, Baker said. The calls for deeper reform follow state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leons hiring of two outside law firms to investigate the allegations of sexual harassment and review policies within the Capitol. Self-investigations are not enough, Pelosi said. We need independent investigations and need real reforms to change the culture. Baker is also raising questions about the Assemblys plan to hold hearings on the matter. Coming forward after being harassed can be difficult enough, Baker said. Its going to be very hard and uncomfortable for people to testify to a dais filled with lawmakers, with cameras all around. We need to protect peoples privacy, she said. The Assembly and Senate actions came after more than 300 female lawmakers, lobbyists and current and former staffers signed an open letter denouncing what they called a culture of harassment in and around the Capitol. The letter was sent out in the wake of revelations of sexual harassment by Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Anthony Reyes, a spokesman for de Leon, responded to a request for comment by referring us to a letter that the Senate president sent out Monday. It read, in part, Theres always more employers can do to protect their employees. Everyone deserves a workplace free of fear, harassment and sexual misbehavior, and I applaud the courage of women working in and around the Capitol who are coming forward and making their voices heard. None of this would ever be good news for de Leon. But the timing now just after he announced his 2018 candidacy against Sen. Dianne Feinstein is especially bad. San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross Jane Juska, an author who chronicled her search for sex in a funny and frank best-selling memoir, A Round-Heeled Woman: My Late-Life Adventures in Sex and Romance, has died. Ms. Juska died Oct. 24 at a Chico care facility after a long illness, said her son, Andy. She was 84. Ms. Juska was a retired and divorced schoolteacher living in Berkeley when she wrote A Round-Heeled Woman, published in 2003. The book became a Chronicle best-seller and landed her on Oprah Winfreys and Charlie Roses shows and led to profiles in prominent media outlets here and abroad. The memoir (titled after a bygone term for a promiscuous woman) was adapted into a one-woman show, starring Sharon Gless, that was performed at Z Space in San Francisco and later in Miami and London. She was funny & brave, Gless wrote in paying tribute to Ms. Juska on Twitter. I loved her very much. Ms. Juskas memoir grew out of a personal ad she placed in the venerable New York Review of Books that read, Before I turn 67, next March, I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me. The ad was a success, leading to numerous flings with men of all ages that changed her life. She was enjoying herself so much that she felt the urge to share her experiences in print. I was just bubbling, she told The Chronicle in a 2003 profile. She considered writing a novel, then discovered how liberating it was to stick to the truth. Her vignettes thus turned into A Round-Heeled Woman. In a second memoir, Unaccompanied Women (2006), Ms. Juska recounted the loneliness in her life before conceiving of the ad. I failed at retirement, at keeping busy, she wrote. A deep-seated emotion desire unseated itself, rose up and began to knock insistently at the door of my sexuality. I wanted to invite a man into my life. The problem was that, despite senior hikes, senior bird-watching, senior mixers, even a couple of senior dances at a church the doors of which I had not darkened in over fifty years, I couldnt find one. Then, one night, she was inspired by Eric Rohmers film Autumn Tale, in which a woman places a personal ad on behalf of a friend. As I walked home from the movies, Ms. Juska wrote, genius struck, albeit briefly, and there plopped into my mind what it was I wanted and how I would get it. Before becoming an author, Ms. Juska taught English for more than three decades, at Ygnacio Valley High School in Concord, Saint Marys College of California and San Quentin State Prison. Ms. Juska was also a freelance writer, contributing essays to Vogue and Self magazines, among others. In recent years, she reviewed numerous books for The Chronicle. In her 2012 review of Vagina, by Naomi Wolf, she wrote, with characteristic wit, Vagina is less empowering than it is embarrassing. As for orgasms, watch Usain Bolt run the 200. You wont be disappointed. Author Meredith Maran paid tribute to Ms. Juska on Facebook: Jane was my writing partner, my drinking buddy, my Berkeley neighbor, my best elder-friend, my sister-sexual adventuress, and my hero. ... Ive never known or loved anyone like Jane. ... She was hilarious and stubborn as f and stubbornly loyal and determinedly sexual and brilliant and brave and beautiful and irreverent in all things and always, always understated and droll. Another friend, Debbie Mosk, said by phone that Ms. Juska was a teacher, but one of those teachers who doesnt talk down to you. ... She was an absolute huge light in my life and the lives of everybody who met her. Ms. Juska had been living near her son in Chester (Plumas County) since leaving Berkeley a few years ago. She was born in 1933 in Ann Arbor, Mich., and raised in the small town of Archbold, Ohio. She headed to California after getting divorced in 1970, her son said. A newly divorced woman moving to the Bay Area, he said by phone. It was such a different world, and she was right there in the middle of it. It was an amazing thing for her, very enlightening. Ms. Juska also wrote a novel, Mrs. Bennet Has Her Say, published in 2015. Of the book, author Rebecca Makkai wrote, If Jane Austen had been allowed to write about sex, Id like to think this is how she would have done it. In addition to her son, Ms. Juska is survived by her daughter-in-law, Mary; her sister, Sue; and two granddaughters. Andy Juska said that Ms. Juskas friends are planning a memorial ceremony. John McMurtrie is The San Francisco Chronicles book editor. Email: jmcmurtrie@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @McMurtrieSF As Covered California enters its fifth year, the health insurance exchange is facing challenges both old and new, from rising health premiums to widespread confusion among consumers over how their health plans may change next year all while the president proclaims that the health law that created the exchange is collapsing. Wednesday will mark the beginning of the first open enrollment period under President Trump, whose administration has moved quickly and aggressively to undo key parts of the Affordable Care Act. How Covered California weathers the storm will be telling, experts say, as it is the largest and arguably most successful state exchange in the nation, with 1.3 million residents insured in plans bought through the exchange. Covered California officials have for months been working to shield consumers from the administrations actions. When the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shortened the federal open enrollment period to six weeks, California kept its at 12 weeks. When HHS slashed advertising dollars for the federal insurance marketplace by 90 percent to $10 million, California increased its marketing budget 5 percent to $111 million. As part of this campaign, Covered California is launching a 19-city bus tour and commissioning 12 murals around the state to promote the exchange. Still, many Californians are confused about how changes at the federal level will impact their health plans next year. Most of the 1 million people who receive premium subsidies to buy insurance will likely pay less in 2018, said Covered Californias executive director Peter Lee. This is because Covered California negotiated with regulators and insurance carriers months ago to prepare for the Trump administration halting ACA cost-sharing payments to insurers that lower out-of-pocket costs for low-income consumers. As a result, many consumers will receive a larger subsidy in 2018. We want consumers to know, especially for those eligible for subsidies, theres a good chance theyll pay less for health insurance next year for the same plan they have today, said Lee, who projects that about 400,000 new consumers will sign up for Covered California for 2018 about the same number as signed up a year earlier. In order to qualify for a premium subsidy, an individual must earn no more than $48,200 a year. But the hundreds of thousands of residents who earn too much to qualify for premium subsidies will likely face major price hikes if they want to remain on the same plan, because those premium spikes will not be offset by additional financial assistance. Those consumers, on average, will have to absorb a 25 percent increase in premiums to stay on the same plan. Lee is encouraging them to shop for a new plan during open enrollment. Covered California has added a new feature on its website in which consumers looking for new plans can enter the name of their doctors to see whether other plans include the same doctor in their network. Consumers who do not receive subsidies will also be able to buy a plan off the exchange, directly from insurance carriers, which may be more affordable than on-exchange plans. On average, Covered California consumers will see their premiums rise 12.5 percent, but this will vary greatly depending on location and the type of plan that is purchased. Robyn Adams, an Oakland artist, will see her monthly insurance premium drop from $147 to just $3 for her, her wife and their son to remain on the same Kaiser plan they were on this year. It certainly is terrifying what could come down the pike, but Im so grateful to live in California and Im so grateful for all the work they did to take care of us, said Adams, 48. It sucks that there is all this uncertainty, but theyre fighting the best they can to preserve it for us. But Nora Rousso, an attorney in Campbell, may be facing a 44 percent increase in monthly premiums for a Blue Shield plan she and her daughter are on. Rousso, 58, earns too much to qualify for premium subsidies, so she does not receive the financial aid that many other Covered California customers get to offset premium increases. Rousso said she may switch to a lower-tier plan that is more affordable, but is concerned that the less expensive option, which is an HMO instead of a PPO, may not cover the doctors she and her daughter need. And she questions why insurance companies are allowed to raise their rates so drastically. Wed be paying $30,000 a year for insurance, Rousso said. Its crazy. For the last five or six years, every year, we pay more and get less. The deductible is higher and fewer things are covered. Insurance brokers are also cautioning customers who have Anthem Blue Cross plans that they will have to sign up for a new insurance carrier because Anthem is withdrawing from 16 of the 19 regions in the state. (The only Bay Area county that will continue to sell Anthem plans is Santa Clara County.) If consumers do not select a new plan during open enrollment, Covered California will automatically enroll them in a comparable plan. That plan, however, may be an HMO instead of a PPO and have different benefits. Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Editor s note: Here are three Bay Area startups worth watching this week. San Francisco startup Envoy wants to modernize the mundane. Its main product is a digital visitor registration form for office buildings, which replaces paper sign-in books. Its latest project: delivering packages. Envoy Deliveries, which began this month, streamlines the task of sorting through packages and delivering them to employees. With Envoy, office managers can take a picture of the shipping label through an app, which will then automatically notify employees when they have a package. Customers for Envoy Deliveries include Bay Area startups Lyft, Box and Slack. Its another mundane task that before was super manual and not a very good experience, said Jordan Stein, the companys product marketing coordinator. And thats what Envoy does we try to take these manual tasks and automate them. Enovy, founded in 2013, has 50 employees and $16 million in funding. It is not profitable, but CEO Larry Gadea said in an email that we can be if we wanted to. We have plenty of runway, and were aggressively investing in building out our current products, more of them, and unifying everything, he wrote. Itll be really exciting. Also trending: Vungle What it does: Helps developers place video ads in their apps. What happened: Vungle has been in the news because CEO Zain Jaffer is facing serious criminal charges, including assault and sexual abuse of a child. The company said it ousted him swiftly after it learned of the charges. Why it matters: After news of the charges broke this month, the company issued a statement saying that Jaffers actions were in no way reflective of the almost 200 dedicated and hard-working people who work for Vungle. How the company moves on will be closely scrutinized. It could not be reached for comment. Headquarters: San Francisco Funding: $25.5 million, according to Crunchbase. Employees: 200. SunFunder What it does: Helps solar energy companies in developing countries through debt financing. What happened: SunFunder led its first syndication this month for an off-grid solar company, called SolarNow, in Uganda, according to Cindy Nawilis, the companys director of investor relations and operations. Why it matters: More than a billion people around the world dont have reliable access to electricity. Nawilis said SunFunder has made 100 loans to 30 solar companies in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, leading to millions of people having clean and affordable solar power. Headquarters: It has a team of employees who work remotely spread throughout the Bay Area. Funding: $22.8 million, according to Crunchbase. Employees: 22. Trisha Thadani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tthadani@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @TrishaThadani How we pick the companies Every week, The Chronicle and Crunchbase, a San Francisco firm that tracks key businesses in technology, analyze private Bay Area companies based on their financial backing, employees and activity on Crunchbase. We feature three that are moving up in the ranks. For more information on the companies: www.crunchbase.com There are few cinematic experiences or any formative moments, for that matter that make a permanent impression like a childs first scary movie. Chances are you remember the details of yours; the terrifying film, the venue and any night-light-involved aftermath. Maybe you continue to have some baggage decades later whether its a fear of birds, or an uneasiness around new suburban developments that may have been built on cemeteries. Maybe you still dont think its safe to go back in the water. But are we really worse off seeing A Nightmare on Elm Street a few years shy of the recommended 17 years of age? I used to think so, until I interviewed Frank Oz a decade ago, and asked him why Jim Henson pushed the 1982 movie The Dark Crystal so far in the direction of nightmare territory. That was totally his vision, Oz said, matter-of-factly. He thought it was fine to scare children. He didnt think it was healthy for children to always feel safe. After that, I began to notice a trend in interviews: Talented artists are often subjected to content that is way above their age level. Filmmakers from Hustle & Flow director Craig Brewer to Toy Story 3 and Coco director Lee Unkrich had stories of parents who brought them to R-rated movies at a PG age. In the recent documentary A Long Strange Trip, director Amir Bar-Lev frames the entire four-hour film around Jerry Garcias viewing of Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein as a 6-year-old which Garcia credited as a catalyst to his artistic awakening. Metallicas Kirk Hammett is another local example. The guitar player saw The Exorcist when he was 11, and he hasnt been the same since. I had to sleep with the light on for about a month. I had to sleep with my dog at the foot of my bed, Hammett remembered. I thought Satan was coming for me and he was going to possess me and possess all my friends all over San Francisco. I really thought that the biggest threat in my life was The Exorcist. But it didnt break him. In fact, it did the exact opposite he now collects horror movie memorabilia, and he wrote a 2012 book about his finds, Too Much Horror Business. The crazy thing is Ive seen (The Exorcist) a number of times since then, and there are aspects of the movie that are just plain humorous, he said. But at the end of the day, it hasnt really lost any of its edge for me. Its still as horrifying as ever. After a newsroom conversation started by Chronicle arts content editor Mariecar Mendoza about the scary movie we were too young to see, we asked the Datebook staff to contribute their own formative fright stories. From Blair witches to cannibal rituals, no one has completely recovered. And that might be completely OK. Scary movies, too soon? Name: Mariecar Mendoza Movie: Pet Sematary II (1992) How old when I saw it: 8 The story: I had older sisters, and they couldnt really go out with boys even girlfriends most of the time without taking me and/or my younger brother with them. Well, one night they decided they wanted to go to the movies and see Pet Sematary II. How I was able to get into this R-rated film, I dont recall. I actually dont remember if my brother was with us, though I doubt it because he would have been 5 or 6 at the time. Anyway, what I do remember, very vividly, is freaking out when I saw the scene where the sheriff (played by Clancy Brown) is cracking the necks of the white bunnies. At this age, I had two bunnies at home and wanted to be a veterinarian. I was hysterical! I ended up being taken to the small arcade room in the theater this was at the then-Century Capitol 16 in San Jose where I played Pac-Man or something until my sisters were ready to go home. I still have yet to finish that movie, but I recently rewatched that scene for this assignment and completely regret doing that. Name: Lily Janiak Movie: The Blair Witch Project (1999) How old when I saw it: 13 The story: After a childhood full of nightmares caused by movies that arent even horror movies The Mask, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, even Aladdin I should have known better than to watch something whose promo poster featured a pair of tearful, terrified eyes lit only by a flashlight (or was it by the glow of the characters own video camera?) in the middle of the woods. But in historys first instance ever of a middle schooler succumbing to peer pressure, I tried to act really chill so as not to lose face at a sleepover in Brentwood, Tenn. Face might not have been lost, but since then, I havent gone outside. Not really, but the total lack of movie-studio polish directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez filmed the whole thing as if it were a documentary shot with handheld cameras underscored how much it could have been me with my pals out there in the woods, searching for a witch. Name: Tony Bravo Movie: Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (1988) How old: 6 The story: As a kid, I couldnt get enough of glamour-ghoul horror movie hostess Elvira, Mistress of the Dark (a.k.a. Cassandra Peterson). I have a vivid memory from that era of watching Elvira wisecracking in character with Joan Rivers on her talk show, her punk-rock-meets-Morticia-Addams dress barely containing her. When I was 6, my parents finally let me see the full Elvira, Mistress of the Dark movie on video after much pleading. For all the films broad comedy, there were quite a few B-movie scares that kept me awake at night. A scene where Elvira is chased through a graveyard (in stilettos, no less) by a fire-shooting warlock was terrifying for a kindergartner. When she took off said stiletto and flung her heel into the warlocks forehead, I let out a falsetto scream Edvard Munch would have been proud of. Needless to say, I didnt look at my mothers pumps the same way for weeks after. In addition to being a good scare, it was a good lesson for me as a future editorial stylist: Never underestimate the power of the right shoes. Name: Peter Hartlaub Movie: The Shining (1980) How old: 11 The story: My parents would never take me to a scary movie when I was a kid. But the early 1980s was a lawless time for video rental stores, and Burlingame Home Video was happy to rent a 90-pounds-when-soaking-wet seventh-grader all manner of R-rated sex, horror and carnage. I saw Escape From New York, Caddyshack and, most memorably, The Shining, which I wasnt able to finish. The last frame I saw before calling it quits was Danny riding his Big Wheel through the Overlook Hotel, then running into the murdered ghost twins. Come and play with us, Danny. Forever, and ever I was sure they were talking to me. While I didnt finish that movie for another two decades, and still curl into a fetal position every time I turn the corner of a hotel hallway, I consider this a positive formative experience. At least the most terrifying movie experience of my life was created by a cinematic master like Stanley Kubrick. Name: Sam Whiting Movie: The Nanny (1965) How old: 10 The Story: I grew up in a suburban ranch house with lots of sliding glass doors that never locked properly. For some reason, The Nanny was deemed suitable for kids afternoon TV. My sister and I were always home alone. There were no babysitters, which was a good thing once I saw what they could do to you. Bette Davis played an English nanny, and the boy she was out to kill was my age exactly. I can still see her, caught standing outside the boys bedroom. She was holding a pillow and acting innocent. But we knew what that pillow was for. I remember immediately going down the long halls of the house to try to get those sliding glass doors to lock. Name: Charles Desmarais Movie: Mondo Cane (1962) How old: 10 The story: I would go with my brother Tom, younger by a year, to kids matinees at what was probably a seedy theater (who knew then, or cared?). When we could get away with it, we hid between the rows to stay for the early show of the adult feature. We saw movies, many of them what we would have called reruns, that would have scandalized our mom: Some Like It Hot and Carmen Jones particularly stuck with me. Mondo Cane is what the film website IMDb calls a shockumentary consisting of a collection of mostly real archive footage displaying mankind at its most depraved and perverse, displaying bizarre rites, cruel behavior and bestial violence. It is available free these days on YouTube, and its mostly pretty boring. But the opening scene of a small dog being paraded in front of a kennel full of much larger, viciously snarling and barking animals still has me cowering in my seat, and the yelping when the gates open and the poor creature is tossed into the cruel pack is a sound that has disturbed my dreams for decades. Name: Joshua Kosman Movie: Dead of Night (1945) How old: 8 or 9 The Story: For some reason now lost to memory, I encountered the 1945 British horror classic Dead of Night relatively early in my childhood, and over the years I watched it again and again and again a fitting reaction to a film structured around a recurring nightmare. It thrilled and frightened me in about equal measure. Dead of Night is a magnificent anthology, a collection of five short films within an overall framing narrative. Each was made by a different director with a different cast, so the movie boasts a wide range of moods and styles, and the level of scariness varies too. Thats how they get you. If youre 8 or 9 years old, you can easily handle a little light spookiness, like the race car driver who avoids a fatal accident by heeding an otherworldly warning, or the teenager who runs across the ghost of a long-dead child. But before you know it, theres Michael Redgrave as the ventriloquist whose malevolent dummy is slowly coming to life, and by then theres nothing to do but scream. Name: Leba Hertz Movie: Black Zoo (1963) How old: 8 The story: The movie was the first of a Saturday matinee double bill with Disneys heartwarming The Incredible Journey at the Lyceum Theater in Bayonne, N.J. I dont remember much about the film except a gorilla ripping off the scalp of a woman. Wikipedia describes the movie as a violent, gore-filled tale. Needless, to say I couldnt enjoy the Disney movie we all came to see. When the movie was over, my friends and I stepped into the lobby and an arm grabbed me. I screamed. Looked up. It was my father, who had decided he would walk over to the theater and pick me up. He had never done that before, and he never did it again. Nightmares and cringing about that movie continue to this day, and every now and then, one of those bad dreams is someone grabbing my arm at a movie theater. Name: Walter Addiego Movie: It Came From Beneath the Sea (1955) How old: 4 or 5 The story: Ray Harryhausen was one of the old masters of stop-motion animation. I grew up in San Francisco and was a big horror buff as a kid. It just so happens that Harryhausens It Came From Beneath the Sea features an outsize octopus that wrecks the city, and in particular, tears down the Golden Gate Bridge. We often visited family friends in Marin County, and after seeing the movie I can still remember feeling nervous when we drove across the bridge. I didnt really believe a giant octopus would emerge from the water, but surprises sometimes happen, you know. Many years later I interviewed Harryhausen, and told him this story. He seemed pleased. Name: Mick LaSalle Movie: The Wizard of Oz (1939) How old: 4 or 5 The story: In the 1960s, broadcasts of The Wizard of Oz were a prime-time annual event. Everything stopped and everyone watched it on their black-and-white TVs. (Thats right the color transition into Oz was more rumor than reality for most people.) The witch was terrifying. So unrelenting, so evil. I sat between my parents and braced myself every time she appeared. I could get through it, but it was rough. The scariest moment was when she appeared, unexpectedly, watching from the bushes. I couldnt prepare for that. That was a surprise. The movie got more tolerable by the time I was 6, and easy to take by the time I was 7. By 8 or 9, I wasnt interested. So I guess its all about finding the right level of fear. Chronicle pop music critic Aidin Vaziri contributed to this story. Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicles pop culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com What was first scary movie that frightened you senseless? Share this article on social media and include your own story with the hashtag #ScaryMovieTooSoon In addition to charges against President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort that were released on Monday, there was another unexpected development in the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. George Papadopoulos, identified in March 2016 as an adviser to the Trump campaign during an interview with The Washington Post, admitted to having provided false statements to the FBI about his interactions with individuals tied to the Russian government. Papadopoulos' credentials as a foreign-policy adviser were questioned immediately by observers; a 2009 college graduate, his LinkedIn page included his work with model United Nations as an "honor and award." Jacquelyn Martin/AP According to a document unsealed by the FBI on Monday, Papadopoulos admits to having been contacted by Russian agents shortly after being identified as a campaign adviser, contacts that continued for months. After being arrested in July, he then meets with authorities multiple times to answer questions, details revealed only once the Manafort indictment is made public. Below, a timeline of what the statement details. March 6, 2016:Papadopoulos learns that he will serve as an adviser to Trump's campaign. (The timing isn't clear; it may have been a day before or after this date.) March 14: While in Italy, Papadopoulos meets a "professor based in London" who is initially "uninterested" in Papadopoulos - until Papadopoulos explains that he's working for Trump's campaign. Papadopoulos is interested in the professor because the professor has links to the Kremlin, which Papadopoulos believed would be useful in bolstering his position with the campaign. March 21: Trump meets with The Post and identifies several campaign advisers, including Papadopoulos. March 22: Papadopoulos' credentials are called into question. On this same day, Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta is sent an email including a fraudulent link to change his Google password. It's believed that this email was sent by an agent of the Russian government and was used to illegally access his email account. March 24: Papadopoulos and the professor meet in London. They are joined by a woman who claims to be a niece of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The purpose of the meeting, he later writes in an email to "the Campaign Supervisor and several members of the Campaign's foreign policy team" (per the statement), is to arrange a meeting between Trump and Putin. Who the "campaign supervisor" is isn't clear. At that point, the Trump campaign is being managed by Corey Lewandowski. In August, The Post reported that Sam Clovis, a campaign co-chairman who worked with the foreign policy team, had rejected the idea of a meeting over the short term. "We thought we probably should not go forward with any meeting with the Russians until we have had occasion to sit with our NATO allies," he wrote in an email. From our report: "In the same email chain, [adviser Navy Rear Adm. Charles] Kubic, the retired admiral, reminded others about legal restrictions on meetings with certain Russian officials, adding, 'Just want to make sure that no one on the team outruns their headlights and embarrasses the campaign.' " March 28: Manafort is hired to manage the Trump campaign's delegate process. March 31: At a campaign national security meeting in Washington (also attended by Trump), Papadopoulos tells the group that he had connections that could facilitate a meeting with Putin. Trump tweeted an image from the meeting. Jeff Sessions, then a senator from Alabama, is seated in the foreground and is speaking. Papadopoulos is sitting two chairs to Sessions's left. Early April: Papadopoulos emails the foreign policy team to update them about ongoing discussions with the professor and Putin's "niece." He details his "outreach to Russia." At some point this month, the Democratic National Committee's server is illegally accessed by hackers believed to be connected to the Russian government. It's the second such intrusion; the first occurred in the summer of 2015. April 10 - 11: In an email exchange with the "niece" and the professor, Papadopoulos mentions trying to set up a "potential foreign policy trip to Russia." The professor replies that it has "already been agreed" and mentions that he'll be in Moscow later that month for meetings at the Russian Duma and a "Valdai meeting." (There is such a meeting on April 19.) The niece replies, "I have already alerted my personal links to our conversation and your request . . . As mentioned we are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump. The Russian Federation would love to welcome him once his candidature would be officially announced." April 18: During the period that the professor says he'll be in Russia, he introduces Papadopoulos over email to a Russian who works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Later reporting from The Post indicates that this is likely Ivan Timofeev, a senior MFA official. Late April: Papadopoulos and the Timofeev have "multiple conversations over Skype and email" about setting up a meeting between the campaign and government officials. April 22: Timofeev and Papadopoulos discuss meetings in Moscow or London. April 26: Papadopoulos and the professor meet in London. At that meeting, the professor tells Papadopoulos that, while in Moscow, he learned that "the Russians had obtained "dirt" on then-candidate [Hillary] Clinton." Per Papadopoulos, the professor said that "'They have dirt on her'; 'the Russians had emails of Clinton'; 'they have thousands of emails.'" April 27: Papadopoulos emails a senior campaign staffer to indicate that he's gotten some "interesting messages." He also emails a "high-ranking campaign official" to reiterate that Putin would like to host Trump. The Post's August report indicates that the high-ranking official who was told about Putin wanting to meet was Lewandowski. April 30: Papadopoulos emails the professor to thank him for his help, saying that it's "history making" if the meeting happens. May 4: Timofeev emails Papadopoulos. "I have just talked to my colleagues from the MFA," it reads. "The[y] are open for cooperation. One of the options is to make a meeting for you at the North America Desk, if you are in Moscow." Papadopoulos forwards this to Lewandowski and, the next day to the "campaign supervisor," who is probably Clovis. Lewandowski doesn't reply; Clovis says, "[t]here are legal issues we need to mitigate, meeting with foreign officials as a private citizen." May 21: Papadopoulos emails another high-ranking campaign official - Manafort, according to The Post's August report - informing him that "Russia has been eager to meet Mr. Trump for quite sometime and have been reaching out to me to discuss." Manafort forwards the email to Rick Gates (who was also indicted on Monday). "We need someone to communicate that [Trump] is not doing these trips," he writes. "It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal." Summer 2016: Papadopoulos tries to set up an off-the-record meeting between the campaign and Russian officials, possibly including himself. "The Russian ministry of foreign affairs messaged and said that if Mr. Trump is unable to make it to Russia, if a campaign rep (me or someone else) can make it for meetings?" he emails a campaign official on June 19. "I am willing to make the trip off the record if it's in the interest of Mr. Trump and the campaign to meet specific people." The meeting never happens. July 22: WikiLeaks begins releasing emails stolen from the DNC. July 27: During a news conference, Trump states that Russia "probably [has] her 33,000 emails" - referring to emails deleted by Clinton after her service in the State Department because her lawyers didn't believe them to be related to her tenure. Oct. 7: WikiLeaks begins releasing emails stolen from Podesta. Jan. 27: Papadopoulos is interviewed at the FBI. During that interview, he makes false statements about the above interactions. He claims: - That the professor contacted him before Papadopoulos worked with the campaign and that he met the "niece" before him being in that role as well. - That the professor was an unimportant figure. - That he was told about the "dirt" on Clinton before serving with the campaign. Feb. 16: The FBI interviews him again. Feb. 17: Papadopoulos deactivates his Facebook account. It had included information about his conversations with the professor. July 27: Papadopoulos is arrested at Dulles Airport in Washington. Summer: Papadopoulos "[meets] with the Government on numerous occasions to provide information and answer questions." Oct. 5: Papadopoulos admits that the statements he gave the FBI are false and agrees to the timeline and details above. Oct. 30: The statement of offense is unsealed, the same day that indictments against Manafort and Gates are made public. Women on both sides of the political aisle are saying legislative leaders response to widespread sexual harassment allegations at the state Capitol falls short of whats needed. We want a public and independent investigation, said Christine Pelosi, chair of the state Democratic Party womens caucus. This needs to be more than a flash in the pan or one-day headline, said Republican Assemblywoman Catharine Baker of San Ramon. Among the changes Pelosi wants to see: A hot line for victims to report harassment allegations handled by someone outside the Legislature, which could refer women to counseling services. A standing, independent investigator chosen by a vote of the Legislature. Disclosure by the Assembly and Senate rules committees on past sexual harassment payouts and perpetrators names. And legal protections for whistle blowers. The Legislature should come under the same laws as other businesses in the state, Pelosi said. Not only for staff and and lobbyists, but for anyone who comes to the Capitol to work on anything, said Baker. The calls for deeper reform follow state Senate President Kevin De Leons hiring of two outside law firms to investigate the allegations of sexual harassment and review policies within the Capitol. Self-investigations are not enough, Pelosi said. We need independent investigations and need real reforms to change the culture. Baker is also raising questions about the Assemblys plan to hold hearings on the matter. Coming forward after being harassed can be difficult enough, Baker said. Its going to be very hard and uncomfortable for people to testify to a dais filled with lawmakers, with cameras all around. We need to protect peoples privacy, she said. The Assembly and Senate actions came after more than 300 female lawmakers, lobbyists and current and former staffers signed an open letter denouncing what they called a culture of harassment in and around the Capitol. The letter was sent out in the wake of revelations of sexual harassment by Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. Anthony Reyes, a spokesman for de Leon, responded to a request for comment by referring us to a letter that the Senate president sent out Monday. It read, in part, Theres always more employers can do to protect their employees. Everyone deserves a workplace free of fear, harassment and sexual misbehavior, and I applaud the courage of women working in and around the Capitol who are coming forward and making their voices heard. None of this would ever be good news for de Leon. But the timing now just after he announced his 2018 candidacy against Sen. Dianne Feinstein is especially bad. San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX-TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call (415) 777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross As we note this month Sputniks 60th anniversary, which launched the space race between the Soviet Union and United States, its worth considering whether were on the cusp of another Cold War, but this time in space. Some 10,000 miles above the Earths surface, conflicts between the United States and China could break out over orbiting satellites, which enable everything from your cell phone calls to bank transactions to GPS navigation. While Congress is deciding the role of space in national security and defense as it hammers out the National Defense Authorization Act of 2018, the priority should be on personnel and improving satellites and infrastructure, rather than on more powerful weaponry, which would militarize our atmosphere and spark an arms race. The White House is also at work on space policies. Vice President Mike Pence convened the newly resurrected National Space Council on Oct. 5, with top members of the administration, military, intelligence community, and the commercial space and defense industry. Despite the lofty talk of space exploration, Pences recurring theme is to dominate all areas of space, with no rivals in view. We have heard such language before. Pence and congressional leaders regard space as a combat domain, but a myopic focus on militarizing satellites or developing weapons to shoot them down with missiles or Star Wars-like lasers could escalate, with the United States stoking tensions with China and Russia, and with everyone else in the dark. China already showed a decade ago that it has the technology to strike down a satellite. That could be just the beginning. The House Defense bill, led by Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, would streamline the convoluted process through which the government acquires, develops and maintains space systems, including satellites and ground-support systems. Its proposed Space Corps would speed the process for personnel filling the Air Forces space-related positions. The bill also sets up a commander to run war fighting in space, like the cybercommand already in place. The Senate version, led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., proposes a Chief Information Warfare Officer whose responsibilities would run the gamut from space systems to nuclear systems and cybersecurity. The United States, in collaboration with scientists and engineers around the world, continues to make impressive achievements in space exploration every year, with spacecraft visiting the outer planets of the solar system as well as myriad moons and asteroids. Plans are under way for new space telescopes, space launch systems, and crew vehicles for returning astronauts to the moon and then eventually bringing humans to Mars. Its important to prioritize space, but in a responsible way. Single-mindedly viewing space with a military lens could jeopardize these goals. The United States, China and Russia together have far more satellites than any other country, and they launch more rockets than anyone else, too. All three countries have a lot to lose if an expensive or critical satellite were blown up or compromised. They also have the three biggest military budgets in the world. As U.S. military spending balloons to $700 billion, we could see more and more funding diverted into increasingly powerful weapons. Pence, McCain and Thornberry dont want China and Russia as equals in space. Rather than achieving dominance, theyll encourage these rivals to strive for the same never-ending goal. We do need to rethink how we develop space systems, but in a sustainable way that doesnt risk worsening relations with other space-faring nations and lead to potentially dangerous standoffs. Unlike Star Wars, there is no glory in space conflicts. And as our history with nuclear weapons has shown, an arms race is neither a path toward peace nor security. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Some San Franciscans think the city's new LED-powered streetlights aren't such a bright idea. In June, city officials announced a major push to replace 12,500 outdated streetlights with brighter, more energy-efficient light-emitting diode fixtures, also known as LEDs. The lights are intended to increase visibility and curb electricity and maintenance costs. But some people, blinded by the bright white glow of the new LED lights, can't get behind the city's new nighttime hue. "They just replaced one of my streetlights in the Lower Haight and it lights up my living room like a floodlight," wrote Reddit user @Bronco4bay on a thread discussing the costs and benefits of the new lights. Redditor @clampie agreed, writing, "Save the night. LED should be a warmer hue." Most LED lights emit so-called "blue light," which has a shorter wavelength and produces a higher amount of energy than other, warmer-hue types of light. RELATED VIDEO: SF lights up with new streetlights Now Playing: San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission is rolling out 12,500 new LED street lamps, designed to be brighter and greener. Tara Moriarty reports. Video: KTVU Some think brighter is better, especially when it comes to public safety. "I'd rather have it brighter," said Rebecca Woo on Facebook. "Isn't that the point of streetlights?" Though the LED streetlights may seem brighter, they are actually of the same brightness as their high-pressure sodium counterparts, according to PUC spokesperson Charles Sheehan, who admits the city has "gotten some feedback" since the major light rollout began. Sheehan said the city measured "existing light levels" on streets and converted that figure into LED wattage to match the brightness already present on the street, but there's some fine print. The LEDs may appear brighter, Sheehan said, because they don't experience lumen depreciation in other words, they don't dim with time like high-pressure sodium bulbs. "People can notice that," Sheehan said, "especially if they are on a street that has older lights." And because LEDs provide more uniform light distribution, they won't have glare or dim spots like their older counterparts. The LED debate is not just a matter of aesthetics; scientists say the LEDs affect humans differently than the high-pressure sodium bulbs in San Francisco's traditional streetlights. "Despite the energy efficiency benefits, some LED lights are harmful when used as street lighting," said American Medical Association (AMA) Board Member Maya A. Babu in a statement of recommendations the organization developed to help cities reduce harm from high-intensity streetlights. LED lights emit large amounts of blue light, the statement explained, which can create a worse nighttime glare than traditional lighting and thus endanger drivers and pedestrians. AMA also cited LED streetlights as adversely suppressing the body's creation of melatonin at night. "It is estimated that white LED lamps have five times greater impact on circadian sleep rhythms than conventional street lamps," the statement said. It continued, "Recent large surveys found that brighter residential nighttime lighting is associated with reduced sleep times, dissatisfaction with sleep quality, excessive sleepiness, impaired daytime functioning and obesity." All of San Francisco's streetlights are set to a color temperature of 3,000 Kelvins (a warm white hue), which is in compliance with the AMA's recommendations, Sheehan said. Residents particularly perturbed by their new streetlights' brightness can call 311 to have the city install a light shield, if appropriate in that location. A light shield is an attachment that helps direct light downward and away from residences. While Sheehan admits the LEDs provide a different visceral experience than that of high-pressure sodium bulbs, he thinks residents will get used to it. Like all major civic changes, it may take some time for people's eyes to adjust to the light. PUC has a handy map showing the locations of converted streetlights. Dominic Fracassa, a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer, contributed to this report. Michelle Robertson is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @mrobertsonsf. Bands of violent teens turned the Halloween Haunt at Californias Great America into a real frightfest over the weekend, leaving many visitors to the Santa Clara amusement park soured on the holiday event and even a little banged up. Park officials acknowledged there were incidents Saturday that required assistance from police, but they did not specify what exactly happened as thousands visited the Halloween-themed attractions. Police and witnesses detailed upward of 100 teens and young adults harassing, robbing and assaulting guests late Saturday night. About 10:45 p.m. Saturday, Santa Clara police received reports of unruly youths causing disorder. Officers later arrested one juvenile on suspicion of theft. Many park-goers fled in the chaos, describing their frightful experiences on social media. Got punched in the face, evacuated out from mazes and it was just all bad, @dancerallim wrote on Twitter. Twitter user Ana Banana shared a similar account: First we thought it was part of the show but then they told us to run for our lives. Most of the attackers fled or blended into the crowd before police arrived, said Lt. Dan Moreno, a Santa Clara police spokesman. They fled in different directions. It was dark, so it was hard to track down people, he said. Were reviewing surveillance. Roughly 20,000 people packed into the park Saturday, visiting attractions like the Backwoods haunted swamp, the Chaos House and the Demon: Re-ignited roller-coaster. The Halloween event was billed as the fright of your life. The park said that it quickly addressed Saturdays incidents and that the final day of Halloween festivities Sunday went off without problems. The safety of our guests is our top priority, Californias Great America said in a statement. Staff writer Kurtis Alexander contributed to this report. Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Four California legislators on Monday said they plan to introduce a bill that would bar electric utilities from passing on to their customers the costs of wildfires caused by the companies negligence. The move comes as investigators are exploring whether Pacific Gas and Electric Co. power lines played a role in starting this months Wine Country wildfires, which killed at least 43 people. And San Diego Gas and Electric Co. has asked state regulators for permission to make its customers pay some of the costs of settling lawsuits triggered by a deadly series of fires in 2007. This practice is an outrage, state Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, said in a news release. Victims of devastating fires and other customers should not be forced to pay for the mistakes made by utilities. Its time to stop allowing utilities to push the burden of their negligence onto the backs of customers. In response, PG&E issued a statement that did not directly address the proposed legislation itself but called dealing with wildfires a statewide safety issue. To be clear, the investigations into these fires are still ongoing and we are cooperating with the (California Public Utilities Commission) and Cal Fires reviews, PG&E spokesman Keith Stephens said in a statement. While we all want answers, we must address these climate-driven natural disasters and come together to find solutions that protect our infrastructure and keep our communities and customers safe. Hill and three other legislators Democratic state Sens. Mike McGuire of Healdsburg and Scott Wiener of San Francisco and Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael said they plan to introduce the legislation in January. With the bills language still under development, it remains unclear whether it will also prohibit utility companies from making customers pay the costs of wildfires that were sparked by the equipment but were not the result of poor maintenance or other forms of negligence. Under a legal concept called inverse condemnation, utilities can be made to pay damages for wildfires linked to their equipment even if they followed all the applicable safety regulations. SDG&E wants to pass on to its customers $379 million of the $2.4 billion in settlements that the company paid after three massive fires in 2007. PG&E and Southern California Edison support SDG&Es position. PG&E this summer also asked the California Public Utilities Commission for permission to create an account to track the companys lawsuit costs from the 2015 Butte Fire. If the commission allows PG&E to create that account, the company could later ask for permission to incorporate some of those costs into its electric rates. David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF Frank Bidart is one of the most accomplished American poets of his generation. In "Heart Beat," he writes about his early life in Bakersfield, where he often felt alienated from his neighbors, schoolmates, and family. Bidart's frustration and anger resonate clearly here. He rails against the exploitation of animals and transforms the animals' suffering into a metaphor for his own experience as an artistic (and gay) teen living among people engaged in farming and the livestock industry. And yet, despite Bidart's adolescent rage, it also seems that Bakersfield nurtures within him a lyric power, a tuning of his ear, that he will eventually need and make use of. Heart Beat ear early tuned to hear beneath the call to end eating flesh, sentient suffering beings (creatures bred now for slaughter will then never be bred) less life less life tuned to hear still the vow solemn and implacable I made as a kid walking a sidewalk in Bakersfield never to have a child, condemn a creature to this hell as the prisoner chorus in wonder is released into the sun, ear early tuned to hear beneath the melody the ground-bass less life less life Excerpted from Half-light: Collected Poems 19652016 by Frank Bidart, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Copyright 2017 by Frank Bidart. All rights reserved. Frank Bidart's poetry has won the Wallace Stevens Award, the 2007 Bollingen Prize in American Poetry, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the author of nine poetry volumes, including Metaphysical Dog, Watching the Spring Festival, Star Dust, and Desire. He was born in Bakersfield in 1939. David Roderick is the co-founder of Left Margin LIT: A Home for the Literary Arts, in Berkeley. He is author of Blue Colonial and The Americans. Shares of Sprint and T-Mobile tumbled Monday as several news reports cast doubt on a long-expected deal between the two wireless carriers. The Nikkei Asian Review kicked off by reporting from Japan that Sprints owner, Japans SoftBank, plans to break off deal negotiations with T-Mobiles parent company, Germanys Deutsche Telekom, over disagreements about who would control the combined company. Medicine Novartis looks for acquisition Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis said Monday that it had offered to buy Advanced Accelerator Applications of France for $3.9 billion, as it seeks to bolster its portfolio of cancer treatments. The acquisition comes amid a slowdown in the value of deals in the pharmaceutical sector this year. Typically, large companies have made a major impact on merger activity in the wider health care sector, often buying smaller drugmakers with emerging treatments rather than spending billions on their own research and development. But the total size of such acquisitions has slowed in 2017, as many big pharmaceutical companies have concentrated on integrating purchases made in recent years, rather than pushing through new takeovers. Advanced Accelerator Applications, a French company, has products that include Lutathera, which recently received approval from regulators in Europe to treat certain types of tumors. Lutathera is under review by U.S. authorities. Publishing New Republic boss on leave Hamilton Fish, president and publisher of the New Republic, is taking a leave of absence pending an investigation into complaints by female employees at the magazine, according to a letter sent to its staff Sunday. In the letter, Win McCormack, the magazines owner, said he had asked Fish to remain on a leave of absence, effective immediately, pending an independent investigation into recent complaints from women concerning Fish. I have been made aware that a number of employees have come forward in the last few days to express concern about certain workplace interactions that have created an uncomfortable environment for them, McCormack wrote. As I understand them, these concerns relate specifically to interactions between Ham Fish and a number of women employees. Video games Battlegrounds may be banned The worlds hottest video game is set to be shut out of the biggest market. A Chinese gaming association posted online that PlayerUnknowns Battlegrounds is too bloody and violent for sale in the country. The gladiator-style mentality of the computer game where competitors kill each other until only one remains deviates from the values of socialism and is deemed harmful to young consumers, according to the China Audio-Video and Digital Publishing Association. Chronicle News Services If you want to see one debate that symbolizes the world of Twitter, consider the tongue-in-cheek one that erupted over the weekend concerning Apple and Google. There was a little meat and a lot of cheesiness. GeekWire reported that author Thomas Baekdal started it by tweeting a side-by-side comparison of the Apple and Google cheeseburger emoji. Apple has the cheese on top of the meat, while Google (gasp!) has it below. Google CEO Sundar Pichai then promised that his company would address the issue if there was clear agreement about the correct stacking order. People from Microsoft and Facebook even chimed in, showing their own emoji. One guess, based on tech history: The emoji wont be compatible with one another for, oh, a thousand years. Number of the day $5.7 billion Thats the value of the merger announced Monday between Lennar Corp. and CalAtlantic Group, forming the United States largest home builder. The deal would create a behemoth with around 240,000 building plots in 21 states, a market value of about $18 billion and combined revenue of $17 billion over the past 12 months. Lennar is building about a dozen communities in the Bay Area, including the San Francisco Shipyard at Hunters Point. Not playing around Theres some trouble in toyland, and companies are blaming Toys R Us. Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, reported disappointing third-quarter results last week and said it was hurt by Toys R Us Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last month. Hasbro, the maker of My Little Pony and Monopoly, had also blamed weak results on the Toys R Us situation. Daily Briefing is compiled from San Francisco Chronicle staff and news services. See more items and links at www.sfgate.com. Twitter: @techchronicle This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate The North Bay fires have destroyed an irreplaceable part of the early history of the Silicon Valley. More than 100 boxes containing letters and other documents from Hewlett-Packard founders William Hewlett and David Packard were incinerated when the Tubbs Fire tore through one building on the campus of Keysight Technologies headquarters in Santa Rosa. Corporate historians say the loss goes far beyond the estimated $2 million value of the collection. Thats because it contained thousands of pages of history documenting the firsthand thoughts and strategies of the two tech pioneers who formed the electronics company in Palo Alto. Its heartbreaking, said Karen Lewis, a former HP archivist who pored through each of those boxes in the 1980s, cataloging each document to help preserve that rich record for future researchers and historians. I am disappointed and Im angry, Lewis said Monday. Im more angry than sad because it could have easily been prevented. Now Playing: Johnbee Buencamino went on a skateboard ride through Coffey Park in Santa Rosa on Saturday, October 7, before the Tubbs Fire hit. Two days later, the neighborhood was devastated. Video: Johnbee Buencamino The boxes were stored in one of two modular buildings at Keysights Fountaingrove headquarters, which burned in the Tubbs Fire. Keysight was the original testing and measurement business founded by Hewlett and Packard in 1939. In 1999, Hewlett-Packard spun it off into Agilent Technologies, which then spun off Keysight in 2013. The lost archive doesnt represent all of HPs legacy. A spokeswoman for HP Inc. said other documents are stored elsewhere, and theres still the original Palo Alto garage, now a museum, where the company was born. Reports that HP founder archives burned are misleading, HP spokeswoman Dana Lengkeek said in an email. HP archives elsewhere include speeches and personal correspondence from HPs founders, she said, and public collections hold other documents (Stanford has the William Hewlett papers). Keysights visitors center still has early products, like an early oscillator, Lewis said. However, documents tied to the companys early history of electronics testing products over the years shifted from HP to Agilent and then Keysight. Lewis said the archive included papers that documented: Hewlett and Packard planning for the establishment of a West Coast electronics trade group, which later became the American Electronics Association, to raise their visibility in Washington, D.C. Notes for creating Stanford Industrial Park, which in 1951 became the first collaboration between tech companies and a university. Hewlett asking engineers if they could create a calculator that could fit in his shirt pocket, which in 1972 became the HP-35, the companys first direct-to-consumer product. The evolution of HPs first joint venture with the Peoples Republic of China. Ideas for an open office floor plan to encourage creativity and exchange among employees, a model that became standard throughout the valley. The boxes were originally stored in an HP vault protected against ultraviolet light and with fire-extinguishing equipment. Digitizing the archives would have been an expensive and laborious operation, since some of the documents were on thin, fragile carbon paper, Lewis said. Of the companies involved in the archive over the years, none of them saw fit to come up with the money to digitize them, Lewis said. They had other things to spend money on. She said she had lobbied for the archive to be donated to Stanford University Libraries, as Apple Computer did with its historical documents in 1997. Instead, the boxes found their way to Keysight and were stored on metal shelving in archival-quality folders inside damage-resistant archival boxes in a secure building with a sprinkler system, said Keysight spokesman Jeff Weber in an email. The company met and exceeded the strictest standards for archival protection, according to U.N. and Library of Congress guidelines, Weber said. He said the burned buildings are still red-tagged, so it hasnt been possible yet to get close to see whether any documents survived. It took the most damaging fire in state history to thwart the appropriate and responsible steps we took to protect our company archives, he said. The heat from the Tubbs Fire was so intense that many fire-resistant safes were melted and destroyed in this unprecedented firestorm. He also said other historic products, product catalogs, manuals, research collections and other correspondence by Packard survive because they were housed at other Keysight locations. But Lewis said Keysight could have done more to protect the collection. Its such a loss for business, and the technological history of the Silicon Valley, for the Bay Area, she said. This was a fabulous collection. Bruce H. Bruemmer, former archivist with the Charles Babbage Institute for the history of computing at the University of Minnesota, said in an email that while the collection wasnt as robust as other early tech collections, Hewlett and Packard were the Edison and Bell of their time. We have some archives from the likes of Xerox, Control Data, Burroughs and many others, but historians of science, technology and entrepreneurship cannot afford a loss as big as this. Benny Evangelista is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: bevangelista@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ChronicleBenny This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Actress Julia Roberts visited a handful of shops in San Francisco's Mission District on Sunday afternoon, locals said. The Academy Award-winner is in San Francisco celebrating her 50th birthday. Braced for the brisk weekend weather in a headscarf and boots, the actress visited a stretch of stores on Valencia Street between 14th and 15th streets. CAREER: Julia Roberts from Mystic Pizza to Pretty Woman, to Wonder Roberts started in Voyager, a fashion boutique that carries work by local makers and designers, where she purchased a Kaarem jumpsuit, store employees Akari Tachibana and Shelby Englelgau told SFGATE. "She was super hiding," Tachibana said of the actress, who was accompanied by her daughter. Now Playing: Julia Roberts is one of the most in-demand actresses in Hollywood, and her filmography reflects it. Video: InStyleTime Roberts, her faced covered by sunglasses, then meandered towards Taylor Stitch, a workwear apparel shop started in San Francisco. Employee Christian Wilson said the star "made a point to stay undercover" as she purchased a shirt and pair of pants. Roberts told Wilson her husband, cinematographer Daniel Moder, planned a weekend in San Francisco for her birthday Roberts turned 50 on Saturday and her children surprised her in the city. Roberts said they planned to shop around San Francisco before having dinner. "She definitely looked like a movie star," Wilson said. "She was very nice." One Twitter user also reported Roberts was sighted at Little Star Pizza, presumably the Mission District location at 400 Valencia Street. NEW YORK The fallout facing Kevin Spacey widened Monday following an accusation that he allegedly made sexual advances on a teen boy, with Netflix pulling the plug on his hit show House of Cards and deeply troubled producers of the political thriller arriving on set to comfort castmates. Executives from Netflix and the shows producer, Media Rights Capital, said they arrived in Baltimore, where the show is shot, on Monday to make sure actors and crew continue to feel safe and supported. Spacey was not scheduled to be on set on Monday. Though the decision to end the series was announced on Monday, the decision to pull the plug was made several months ago, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity. Spacey is the latest Hollywood man to be named in widening allegations of sexual harassment and abuse in entertainment, media and other industries. The avalanche of allegations began earlier this month after the New York Times published a story alleging that producer Harvey Weinstein had sexually harassed numerous women. In an interview published by BuzzFeed News on Sunday, actor Anthony Rapp alleged that he was attending a party at Spaceys apartment in 1986 when inebriated 26-year-old Spacey picked him up, placed him on his bed, and climbed on top of him. Rapp, then 14, was able to get away without any physical harm. Spacey responded on Twitter by saying he doesnt remember the alleged encounter but if he acted the way Rapp alleges, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior. Spacey then said Rapps story encouraged him to address long-simmering rumors about his sexuality. He wrote that hes had romantic relationships with both men and women in the past but is now living as a gay man and wanted to be honest so he could examine my own behavior. The two-paragraph statement an apology in the first for a 31-year-old alleged assault and a self-outing in the second struck many as an odd time for Spacey to address his sexuality or even an attempt to deflect blame. Worse, he seemed to make a connection between being gay and sexual abuse of minors. Kevin Spacey really tried to throw the entire LGBT community under a bus and call it solidarity in an effort to mask his personal failings, wrote civil rights activist DeRay Mckesson on Twitter. Actor Zachary Quinto called Spaceys outing a calculated manipulation to deflect attention from the very serious accusations. Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of the gay rights group GLAAD said in a statement that the story was really about unwanted sexual advances on Rapp not Spaceys sexuality. Coming out stories should not be used to deflect from allegations of sexual assault, she said. Rapp cited the dozens of Weinstein accusers as the reason he recounted his encounter with Spacey. Mark Kennedy is an Associated Press writer. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Dennis Banks, a co-founder of the American Indian Movement and a leader of the 1973 Wounded Knee occupation, has died, his family announced Monday. He was 80. Mr. Banks was one of several activists who founded the American Indian Movement in Minneapolis in 1968, and he was a leader of AIMs armed takeover of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1973, in a protest against both the tribal and U.S. governments. The village had been the site of a massacre by U.S. soldiers in 1890 that left an estimated 300 Indians dead. The occupiers held federal agents at bay for 71 days. Mr. Banks died Sunday night, his family wrote on his Facebook page. He had developed pneumonia following heart surgery, and his family said they honored his wishes not to be put on life support. Daughter Arrow Banks said the family would have more to say after a family meeting Monday. Mr. Banks, whose Ojibwe name was Nowacumig, lived near the town of Federal Dam on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. His family said that as Banks took his last breaths, son Minoh Banks sang him four songs for his journey. All the family who were present prayed over him and said our individual goodbyes, the family said. Then we proudly sang him the AIM song as his final send-off. Mr. Banks and fellow AIM leader Russell Means faced charges stemming from the Wounded Knee occupation, but a judge threw out the case. However, Mr. Banks spent 18 months in prison in the 1980s after being convicted for rioting and assault for a protest in Custer, S.D., earlier in 1973. He avoided prosecution on those charges for several years because California Gov. Jerry Brown refused to extradite him, and the Onondaga Nation in New York gave him sanctuary. He was part of a group of AIM supporters who returned to Wounded Knee in 2003 to mark the 30th anniversary of the standoff, in which two Native Americans died. Mr. Banks paid tribute to them as warriors and declared it a national holiday. He was also there in 1998 for the 25th anniversary. Mr. Banks also helped lead a takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices in Washington, D.C., in 1972 as part of a protest dubbed The Trail of Broken Treaties. And he was a participant in the 1969-71 occupation by Native Americans of Alcatraz Island, the site of the former prison in San Francisco Bay. He returned to the Leech Lake Reservation in the late 1990s and founded a company that sold wild rice and maple syrup, trading on his famous name. In 2010, Mr. Banks joined several other Ojibwe from the Leech Lake and White Earth bands who tested their rights under an 1855 treaty by setting out nets illegally on Lake Bemidji a day before Minnesotas fishing season opener. The Banks family said funeral arrangements were still being finalized, but that he would be buried with traditional services in his home community of Leech Lake. Steve Karnowski is an Associated Press writer. Starting Nov. 1, Jack London State Historic Park in Sonoma County will reopen after narrowly escaping devastation earlier during the Nuns Fire this month. The scenic grounds will be free to the public through the end of the year to give the community a safe place to reflect and recover. The park's staff thanked the public for the support they'd gotten throughout the wildfire disaster, which obliterated many of its neighbors beginning October 9th. The historical landmark survived unharmed. The flames destroyed several homes on London Ranch Rd., the pathway to the 1,400-acre site. The park is home to the graves of Jack London and his family as well as a museum dedicated to his life and work. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) Two men were injured in separate shootings in San Francisco on Sunday, according to police. Officers responded at 12:53 p.m. to a ShotSpotter gunshot detection system activation in the area of Third Street and Palou Avenue in the Bayview District, where they found a 19-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound, police said. The victim was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive his injuries. No arrest has been made in the case and no detailed suspect information was immediately available from police. Then at 6:06 p.m., a shooting was reported in the area of 30th and Mission streets in Bernal Heights. A 23-year-old victim was shot by someone in a passing vehicle and was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, police said. Police said this morning that at least one arrest had been made in the case but they did not immediately provide more details. Anyone with information about either case is encouraged to call the Police Department's anonymous tip line at (415) 575-4444 or to send a tip by text message to TIP411 with "SFPD" in the message. CPC Central Committee names new heads in Shanghai and six provinces The Communist Party of China Central Committee has appointed new Party chiefs for six provinces and one municipality during the weekend as a part of the latest reshuffles among Party officials. Li Qiang was named top Party official in Shanghai, replacing Han Zheng, who was elected as a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Wednesday, Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday. Li, 58, became Party chief of Jiangsu province in 2016 after working in neighboring Zhejiang province for 40 years. He became a member of the newly elected Political Bureau last week. Li Qiang said Shanghai will continue its efforts to be the vanguard of the country's reform and opening-up. The city will also strive to become a pioneer in innovation, he said. Also on Saturday, Li Xi, former Party chief of Liaoning province, replaced Hu Chunhua as new Party chief in Guangdong province. Li Xi, 61, is also a new member of the Political Bureau. He said last week that he had been working hard to reverse the economic downward pressure in Liaoning caused by a damaged political ecosystem. Former Liaoning Party chief Wang Min - predecessor of Li Xi - was sentenced to life in prison in August 2016 for taking bribes and neglecting his duty. The new appointments were announced among local officials during the weekend. Li Xi said he will enforce discipline among officials in Guangdong and make sure the province takes the lead in achieving China's goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects. The appointments in Shanghai and Guangdong were announced by Chen Xi, newly appointed head of the CPC Central Committee Organization Department. Lou Qinjian, 60, former Party chief of Shaanxi province, is Jiangsu's new Party chief while Hu Heping, 55, former governor of Shaanxi, replaces Lou as the top Party official in the province. Chen Qiufa, the newly appointed Party chief of Liaoning, said he will neither make unreasonable promises nor launch superficial projects, which would not fundamentally contribute to the revival of the province. Chen Qiufa, 63, is the former governor of the province. Also on Saturday, Yu Weiguo was appointed Party chief of Fujian province, replacing You Quan, who is now a member of the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee - an administrative body of the Political Bureau and its Standing Committee. Yu, 62, former governor of Fujian, said he will strictly execute his power in accordance with the law and supervision from all parties is welcomed. He will also go to the grassroots level right away to unite the people to build a new Fujian, he added. Wang Dongfeng, 59, the newly appointed Party chief of Hebei province, said he will make sure the planning of the Xiongan New Area and the 2022 Winter Olympics is done according to high standards. Wang Dongfeng formerly was deputy Party secretary and mayor of Tianjin. The CPC Central Committee also announced that Zhao Kezhi, the former Party chief of Hebei, will be moved to a new, unspecified position. cuijia@chinadaily.com.cn An exhibition featuring studies of ancient Chinese was unveiled at the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA), Oct 28. 2017. [Photo/Official Sina Weibo of Shuyuanchina] An exhibition featuring studies of ancient Chinese was unveiled at the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) on Saturday. Nine studies by contemporary artists based on nine ancient Chinese literati were featured at the event. Meaning "infinity" in traditional Chinese culture, the number nine's cultural meaning accounts for why this number of scholars was chosen. An extra room, themed on the "future", was also displayed. Zhu Jing, deputy director of the NCPA, Li Yapeng, veteran actor and founder of the Smile Angel Foundation and Chinese scholar Yu Dan attended the exhibition. The guests discussed the inheritance of traditional Chinese culture and its infusion with modern lifestyle. Running until Nov 11, the event aims to present a uniquely Chinese aesthetic appreciation. In his report to the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on Oct 18, General Secretary Xi Jinping reiterated the importance of the Party and all Chinese people striving to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. And to realize that goal, strict self-governance of the ruling party is mandatory. In fact, since the 18th National Congress, the CPC has strengthened self-governance by imposing strict discipline within the Party in an all-around way. As a result, corruption has been curbed, and the anti-corruption campaign has gained "crushing momentum", according to Xi's report. Officials now "dare not" and "cannot" afford to be corrupt. Given the severe and complicated nature of corruption, the primary task of the Party must now be to eliminate corruption in all its forms at the source. Although corruption has been greatly curbed, bringing more "tigers" (high-ranking corrupt officials) to book will deter other officials from indulging in graft. And by punishing the "flies" (lower-level corrupt officials), the Party will enable more people to enjoy the fruits of corruption-free governance at the grassroots level. It is also important to intensify the overseas "Sky Net" and "Fox Hunt" operations to ensure fugitives abroad are brought back to receive punishment, so as to send a clear message that there is no "safe haven" for corrupt officials. Actually, 3,453 fugitives, 48 of whom were on the "red alert" list, have been brought back to China. In the past five years, the Party discipline watchdogs and supervision bodies have handled more than 2.67 million cases, which has led to more than 1.53 million people being punished, about 58,000 of whom have been transferred to judicial authorities, according to the data given at a news conference on Party governance on Oct 19. Additionally, 440 senior Party officials at or above ministerial level have been investigated, and over 8,900 officials at bureau level, 63,000 officials at county level, and 278,000 grassroots-level officials have been punished according to Party discipline. Seriously dealing with corruption cases is the key to the success of the anti-corruption campaign and gaining public recognition for the overall fight against graft . Tackling corruption requires determination, while consolidating the results of anti-corruption work requires strong institution building. Since the 18th National Congress, the CPC Central Committee has been strengthening the Party's regulations and systems, in order to establish a mechanism that would ensure officials are "unable" to indulge in corruption by misusing or abusing institutional norms. Comprehensively strengthening the Party's regulations is vital to expediting the process of building a stronger Party. The CPC Central Committee has refined or strengthened 1,178 Party regulations and documents since the 18th National Congress, and issued or revised about 60 regulations, which account for more than one-third of the Party's overall regulations. And only by strengthening its laws and regulations can the Party deepen the work of strict self-governance in an all-around way. Essentially, the root cause of corruption is the weakening of venal officials' ideology and faith. As a Party with more than 89 million members, the CPC should not rest after dealing with only individual corruption cases if it wants to strengthen itself. It should pay greater attention to Party-building to strengthen self-governance in an all-around way. Since the 18th National Congress, the CPC Central Committee with Xi at the core has taken up ideological and political construction as an important task, by focusing not only on the "key minority" in the Party, but also all Party members. The Party launched the mass line campaign in June 2013, which continued until October 2014. Its "three stricts and three honests" campaign - to ensure officials above county level are strict in morals, self-discipline and use of power, and honest in decisions, business and behavior - lasted from April 2015 to February last year. And in February 2016, the Party launched the "Two Studies, One Action" campaign covering all Party members. The series of campaigns have made all Party members more aware about the Party spirit. Consolidating the ideology and faith of the Party members in its philosophy and honesty is the key to eliminating corruption at the source. The author is director of the Center for Anti-Corruption Studies, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily. (China Daily European Weekly 10/27/2017 page23) If youre female, or you were raised in one of the major world religions, you know in your bones how the story is supposed to go. If a woman breaks one of Gods edicts, she must have had something wrong with her. Afterward, she must suffer punishment and rue her misdeed. Barbara Hammonds The Eva Trilogy asks, what if the narrative unspools differently? What if the woman is complete unto herself both as the offense is unfolding and many years later? At Magic Theatres Saturday, Oct. 28, opening of the world premiere, God still found its way into the story, in the form of a fire alarm that blared just as the shows second of three parts was winding down. But after Fort Masons Building D was evacuated and then, a few minutes later, audiences re-entered and returned to their seats, the heroic cast immediately recovered. (And even with the interruption, the three plays the first time Hammonds work has been done in the Bay Area still ran about three hours, as the theater predicted.) In that, they were much like Hammonds unflappable protagonist, Eva (Julia McNeal). In the triptychs first part, Eden, she lounges on the front steps of her sisters home on the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland, taking a break from vigil at her ailing mothers bedside. Evas sister is on vacation for three weeks, and never in the play does Eva, as weve been conditioned to expect from women, delve deep into regret about her chilly relationship with her mother or about leaving her in her siblings care for years while Eva gallivanted about Paris. Recounting Evas wanton continental misadventures, McNeal has nothing confessional or even conspiratorial in her tone, because theres nothing for her Eva to feel shame about. Directed by the Magics artistic director, Loretta Greco, McNeal exudes sheer joy and zest for life. If that sounds undramatic, since conflict is usually the backbone of good theater, McNeal so overflows with pleasure in everything life has given her and in Hammonds offbeat lyricism calling fog an air fungus, or punning on the homophones chaste and chased that its almost like theres drama within her unremitting happiness, in all the will and pluck shes had to summon to forge a blissful life from a sunless upbringing. Hammond lets conflict get at least lukewarm in part two, Enter the Roar, when all the other key players from Evas mothers care her priest Father OLeary (Justin Gillman), her hospice caregiver Roisin (Amy Nowak), her daughter Teresa (Lisa Anne Porter) and her son-in-law Eamon (Rod Gnapp) debate what happened with Eva and her mother, as part of a police interrogation woven together with media interviews and some testimony the group gives just for one anothers benefit. Its not much of a debate, since everyone except the priest sides with Eva, but the refreshing way Hammond phrases characters arguments about right and wrong nonetheless thrills. Wouldnt it be nice to find a country where it says somewhere in the bylaws that I own myself and my children and my family, says Porters Teresa, with the force of a whole street gang, to her interrogator. A place where you lot dont have a thing to say about it. In the trilogys final part, No Coast Road, its 30 years later, and Eva has found a place just like that: her own secluded campground in the middle of the woods, where she meets Tom (Caleb Cabrera) a young hiker whos gotten lost. If their exchanges stay frustratingly fragmentary and banal, the more profound point is the imagery itself: Were allowed to imagine what might happen between an older woman and a much younger man, free from the judgments with which authors usually envision such situations, as projections onto trees (Hana Kim designed both the set and the projections) make the leaves seem to breathe, even dance with life with the spirit of a woman who will be conquered by neither mores nor age. Lily Janiak is The San Francisco Chronicles theater critic. Email: ljaniak@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @LilyJaniak The Eva Trilogy: Written by Barbara Hammond. Directed by Loretta Greco. Through Nov. 12. $35-$85. Magic Theatre, Fort Mason, Building D, 2 Marina Blvd., S.F. (415) 441-8822. www.magictheatre.org To see Barbara Hammond give advice to budding playwrights: www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyVMc6HAfQ4 I've lately noticed a dark shadow falling over my neighborhoodand it's not just Halloween, or that winter is coming in the ominous "Game of Thrones" way. Rather, it's homeowner after homeowner succumbing to a strange new trend: painting their home, sweet home, black. Black! I first spotted this alarming fad in Brooklyn, where I live, when I recently turned a corner to find that a neighbor's lovely brownstone had been coated in inky ebony. It looked like Darth Vader had moved in. Since then, I've been seeing black houses pop up everywherenot just in my area, but also in real estate listings coast to coast as well as on home decor sites. Black houses are even a thing with celebs: Calvin Klein has one in Southampton, NY; Madonna has her own in nearby Bridgehampton. To wit, the trend has even claimed the Shelter Island home of designer Jonathan Adler, who explained in Architectural Digest that black houses are very common in Japan, and whenever we were there, we vowed to someday have a black house." At first, Adler continues, "our neighbors thought the house looked very ominous and coffinlike ... but with a bit of bamboo, some dune grasses, and a few Japanese pines, it went from ominous to serene." Hmmm. There's no denying that black is bold, dramatic, deep. I don't mind seeing it in small doses, like an accent wall or door. But your whole house? So I'm just going to come out and say it: I hate black houses, and I don't think I'm alone by a long stretch! Heres why everyone should think twice before they pick up a can of black paint. 1. Black houses are overly hip Much like cultivating an ironic handlebar mustache or attending a dusty music festival in a headdress, painting the facade of your house black screams, Im cool. Notice me! That's a bit sad in itself, but while it's one thing to hop on trends with your hair or musical tastes, it's a whole different ballgame to subject your whole house to it. After all, your home is not just a means of expression, it's also probably the largest financial investment you'll ever make. And with that, you want to tread carefully since the trendier the trend, the further it will fall (more on that next). 2. This fad will fade faster than paint dries Even if you think that black houses look cool, remember this: Today's fads are tomorrows regrets. Need an example? Look no further than the glass-block exterior wall craze of the 1980s. Black houses are today's equivalent. That means that all too soon, your "hip" house will look like a "Brady Bunch" woodpaneled den. 3. Black paint equals hotbox Black paint acts as a heat sponge. As proof, the show Mythbusters did an experiment with two cars, one white and one black. After being left to bake in the sun, the black car's interior was almost 10 degrees hotter than its white twin. This explains why you can find some pretty sweet black homes in frigid Latvia. And maybe if I lived in a place where it can get down to minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit in the wintertime, I'd be slapping on coats of Abyss to help warm my house, too. But in a more temperate climateIm looking at you, L.A.that black paint is simply turning your home into a slow cooker. 4. Black paint doesn't last long I see your red door, I want it painted black. No colors any more, I want them to turn black, Mick Jagger once sang. But as a rock star, he probably doesnt have to do much exterior maintenance. And rest assured, once the sun pounds your home, your black paint will heat up, fade, blister, and peel far faster than other colors. And much of the black paint on these houses are covering materials such as cedar shingles and brickwhich technically aren't meant to be painted. So if you paint once, it won't last long, and you'll have to keep right on painting. Over and over and over. 5. You'll have a harder time selling your home When the time comes when you need to sell your home, its black hue will really leave you hanging. In fact, when the owners of that black-painted Brownstone in my neighborhood decided to sell, they realized quickly that they'd have to repaint. Their cost to do this? $8,000. In this instance, the paint needed to be chiseled off and the brownstone wall rebuilt. For a standard home, the average national cost of painting the exterior of a home is $2,757, according to HomeAdvisor. In other words, that black paint will cost you in the long run if you ever decide to sell. 6. You can choose other near-black, noirish options There are other ways to add edge and sophistication to your house other than making your home Halloween-ready year-round. If you're drawn to dark colors, add drama to your exterior with grays and dark blues that, unlike black, still have some warmth. And if you simply must paint part of your home black, please, just stick with a front door or window trim. Your future self will thank you. The post Paint Your House Black?! 6 Reasons I Hate This Hot New Trend appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com. Alternative lodging company Airbnb has taken several steps in the past couple of years to make its rental accommodations more attractive to business travelers creating filtered searches for member properties that have business amenities, building links to corporate expense reporting systems, and so on. Now the company is testing the addition of one more service that many business travelers require but Airbnb properties cant provide on-site: A way to reserve professional office space and/or a meeting room at the destination. 1. Politico has made available a copy of the Manafort-Gates indictment 2. Also now public is the document of charges on Trump advisor George Papadopoulos, who pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI.3. Illinois Attorney General candidate Renato Mariotti published a Twitter thread explaining what Papadopoulos' guilty plea means.4. As I read the Manafort/Gates indictment now, I noticed there are a whole lotta references to Cyprus in there. Entities incorporated by Manafort and Gates in Cyprus and wire transfers originating in Cyprus. As you may recall, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is the single largest shareholder in the Bank of Cyprus. Here is important background on that China's Global Newspaper Sorry, the page you requested was not found. Please check the URL for proper spelling and capitalization. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Chinadaily.com.cn, try visiting the Chinadaily home page Marsden Maritime Holdings, which owns half of the Marsden Point-based Northport, has sold a net 41.5-hectare block of industrially zoned farmland for $4 million after a deal that allowed it to consolidate its land holdings. The company said the block was sold to a major New Zealand-based timber importer and processor. The sale follows Marsden Maritime's announcement in April that it had acquired a 55ha block of industrially zoned farmland at Marsden Point that bordered three adjacent company-owned properties. At the time, it said the fragmented nature of its landholdings had been an impediment to planning for long-term developments. It immediately began marketing a 44ha parcel of land that was furthest from the port and deemed of lowest strategic value. The sale of 41.5ha is after deduction of land needed for a new roadway, it said. "This will enhance access to our other landholdings, a critical step in unlocking development potential," said chief executive Graham Wallace. The transactions have left Marsden Maritime with land "sufficient to cater for the long-term development of both Marsden Maritime Holdings and Northport," he said when the original purchase was announced in April. Its shares fell 0.4 percent to $5.60 and have surged 62 percent this year. Marsden and Port of Tauranga each own 50 percent of Northport, and Marsden also owns 100 percent of Marsden Cove and Marina. The company itself is about 54 percent owned by Northland Regional Council and 19.9 percent by Ports of Auckland. (BusinessDesk) Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: GWC - WasteCo Reverse Listing - Special Meeting of Shareholders CRP Executes Mining Services Agreement with Golding NZME updates investors on strategic progress IPL - Interim Results HY23 NPH - 2022 Full Year Results November 16th Morning Report ALF - Mark Franklin Geneva Appointments new Head of Sales and Lending A shiny new system or the Wazgij of planning systems? THL - Apollo shareholders approve merger Christchurch City Council (CCC) has invoked the Arbitration Act to pursue a claim against Aon New Zealand for $528 million in damages, saying the insurance company's behaviour limited its settlement of earthquake claims. The council declined to comment on the claim, with a spokeswoman citing confidentiality requirements in s.14B of the Arbitration Act 1996. But details of the dispute are included a quarterly report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission from the insurance broker's parent Aon plc. It marks the second attempt by a council-related entity to recover damages from Aon, which provided insurance broking services to the city in relation to its 2010-2011 material damage and business interruption programme. In November 2015, the council-controlled Lyttelton Port Co sued Aon for $184 million in damages and costs for its handling of policies during 2010 and 2011 earthquakes. It had already settled with Vero, NZI and QBE in 2013 for $450 million minus deductions of $11.7 million. The council "contends that acts and omissions by Aon caused CCC to recover less in that settlement than it otherwise would have," according to Aon plc's quarterly report. "CCC claims damages of approximately NZ$528 million (US$381 million at September 30, 2017 exchange rates) plus interest and costs. Aon believes that it has meritorious defenses and intends to vigorously defend itself against these claims." In the Lyttelton claim, the port company alleged Aon "was negligent and in breach of contract in arranging LPCs property insurance programme for the period covering June 30, 2010, to June 30, 2011," according to an earlier Aon disclosure. The insurer has said it is vigorously defending that claim as well. There was a discovery judgment in December last year. Christchurch City banked a net $603 million in early 2016 after deductions from its $635 million settlement, reportedly a record for New Zealand. The payout was $80 million higher than it had budgeted for but lower than the total $920 million in claims it had lodged for above-ground assets, Fairfax reported at the time. According to Lyttelton Port's 2017 annual report, Aon filed its statement of defence in August 2015, refuting the port company's claims. "The directors are confident in LPC's case, however they are unable to estimate LPC's chances of success or the final amount which may be awarded," it said. Comments from our readers No comments yet Add your comment: Your name: Your email: Not displayed to the public Comment: Comments to Sharechat go through an approval process. Comments which are defamatory, abusive or in some way deemed inappropriate will not be approved. It is allowable to use some form of non-de-plume for your name, however we recommend real email addresses are used. Comments from free email addresses such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc may not be approved. Anti-spam verification: Type the text you see in the image into the field below. You are asked to do this in order to verify that this enquiry is not being performed by an automated process. Related News: GWC - WasteCo Reverse Listing - Special Meeting of Shareholders CRP Executes Mining Services Agreement with Golding NZME updates investors on strategic progress IPL - Interim Results HY23 NPH - 2022 Full Year Results November 16th Morning Report ALF - Mark Franklin Geneva Appointments new Head of Sales and Lending A shiny new system or the Wazgij of planning systems? THL - Apollo shareholders approve merger Tuesdays, 2-5 p.m. and Thursdays, 1-4 p.m. Continues through Dec. 22 Michael Victor II Art Library 1 NW Old State Capitol Plaza, Springfield Downtown Free and open to the public Books & Authors The new downtown location of the Michael Victor II Art Library is ready for patrons to explore, relax and check out books. Our specialized library collection features over 3,000 books about art and film, most of which are not available at other central Illinois libraries. The library is located on the second floor of the Broadwell Pharmacy Building on the corner of Washington and Fifth streets. Check out the online catalog and call the office for curbside book checkouts! 2175232631 Informatiile publicate de evz.ro pot fi preluate de alte publicatii online doar in limita a 500 de caractere si cu citarea sursei cu link activ. Orice abatere de la aceasta regula constituie o incalcare a Legii 8/1996 privind dreptul de autor. Interpol is involved in the hunt for a 33-year-old man identified as Sohail A, who German police say murdered his child A rejected Pakistani asylum seeker in Germany is feared to have fled to the UK after slashing the throat of his two-year-old daughter, police say. Interpol is involved in the hunt for a 33-year-old man identified as Sohail A, who police say murdered his child following a violent row with his wife at their home on the north German city of Hamburg on Monday. UK police have been notified as a matter of urgency as Hamburg detectives believe he may have relatives in the country. it comes after, the young girl, Aeyesha, was left alone in the apartment with her father on Monday when her mother, Lubna, went to police to report her husband' s violence - the third time she had done so. She returned with officers to find her daughter murdered and no sign of her husband. There has been no trace of the man since his disappearance. Sohail had remained in Germany six years after authorities rejected his asylum application. He was last seen making his way to Hamburg main railway station where express trains link up to a network that could have taken him anywhere on the continent. The case has reignited the debate about Germany's apparent lack of will to deport failed asylum seekers. Thousands have been told they cannot stay but remain in the country using a variety of legal manouvres, including illness and false threats of violence awaiting them back in their homelands. After the murder, it emerged that the victim's family were on the radar of the authorities. A spokesman for the local youth authority said: 'The department had multiple contacts with the family. The security of the children was the main topic.' Sohail A. came from Pakistan into Germany on December 21, 2011, and applied for asylum. But just a month later the application was rejected because the grounds for it were deemed 'not believable'. On July 11, 2012, the judicial authorities deemed the decision legal in law, paving the way for deportation. It never happened. 'Just why he was allowed to remain in Germany is not clear,' said the daily newspaper Bild in a report about the murder and aftermath. It was while awaiting deportation that he came to know Lubna, married her and fathered Aeyesha with her. In April this year he launched an emergency action at Hamburg's Administrative Court to be allowed to stay on in the country. According to media reports, the judge in the case was informed by police of violence against his wife, leading him to get the Youth Authorities involved instead of ordering his expulsion. Bild reported that social workers reported back to the court that they did not foresee a 'worsening' of the family situation. Page Content The marine ship left in September for the Caribbean and is on his way to St Maarten from Curacao and Aruba, where the Dutch relief goods were loaded on the ship. Since September the ship has done multiple stops in the Caribbean region to deliver and reload relief goods on the islands. After arrival organizations such as the Red Cross, the hospital, the local ministries and the police can pick up the relief goods that are allocated to them. The offloading off the shipment is organized by the civil mission of the ministerie of Interior and Kingdom Relations of the Netherlands. The Karel Doorman is the biggest vessel of the Dutch navy. The ship is 205 meters long, 30 meters high and 8 meters broad. Tomorrow the Joint Logistic Support Ship Zr. Ms. Karel Doorman will dock in St Maarten for the last time. A variety of relief goods for St Maarten are on board of the ship. On board of the ship are trucks, beds, digital schoolboards, laptops, temporary shelter houses, medical supplies and equipment, cupboards and printers. Apart from relief goods for St Maarten, there are also containers on board for Saba and Statia. The containers for Saba and Statia contain mostly goods like furniture, chainsaws, concrete mixers, refrigerators and stoves. Cliches have their value, according to that genius of unique songwriting, Paul Simon. "After a phrase that conveys a complex image or uses unusual words, I often make the next phrase very familiareven a cliche. It takes listeners time to absorb a dense phrase, so following it with something simple, or just 'lie-la-lie,' lets the impact of the phrase get through." Also, strategic placement can add value: "A cliche when it's not expected can break your heart." Paul Simon offers an impromptu performance during his interview with Phil Glotzbach. (Photo by Chris Massa) Paul Simon offers an impromptu performance during his interview with Phil Glotzbach.(Photo by Chris Massa) Simon, the 16-time Grammy winner who helped create the soundtrack of American life for the past six decades, was sharing insights in a songwriting masterclass for a group of music and English students, with whom he set a vibe that was relaxed yet intensive, open yet intimate. When a student began her question with "So, I was wondering..." he interjected, "See? You might be able to use that phraseit's obviously natural for you," and then said, "Sorry, what was your question?" When a white male asked how a white male can incorporate other cultures' material without "appropriating" it (a charge leveled at Simon's Graceland project with South African musicians), the answer was: "You can't help but be influenced by what you love. Unless you do a bad imitation, which could be seen as offensive for denigrating the original, don't worry about it. Use what seems valid for you and take the criticism. All that's required is to respect what people say and do your own art." What's important, he added, is to "investigate deeply. It's invigorating to discover something new to incorporate into your thinking. As you know, everything is connected to everything, in music and in life." After the class, Simon took the Zankel stage, with Skidmore President Philip Glotzbach as interviewer, for "A Conversation about a Musical Life." (A few days before this event, students, faculty and staff had reserved every seat in the concert hall in less than two hours.) Both events were free of charge, and on stage Simon surprised the crowd of nearly 600 with acoustic performances of "Questions for the Angels" and "American Tune." A beautiful, compelling melody can move you to tears, and you don't know why. World harmonics Also a philanthropist, Paul Simon co-founded the Children's Health Fund, providing mobile medical care to low-income children and their families around the United States, and has raised funds for other causes from Autism Speaks to Tibet House. His net proceeds from this past June's U.S. tour went to the Half-Earth Project to stop the species extinction crisis by conserving half the planet's lands and oceans. He told the Skidmore crowd, "We are in a battle for survival. With the ecosystem collapsing and with climate change, we could very well be facing a planetary extinction on the level of what happened to the dinosaurs." Noting scientists' remarks that Earth has the potential to become a paradise or a wasteland, he said, "I won't see the answer to that question. I just had my 76th birthday. But it affects my children and grandchildren." His call to action: "Everybody has to join the fight. I perform and give the moneythat's what I can do. You all have to find what you can do." He also told the audience of his earliest influences, such as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Chuck Berry and, perhaps most strongly, the Everly Brothers. He recalled taking those inspirations along when he and Art Garfunkelneither yet 16 years oldtraveled from Queens to appear on American Bandstand. And he told of other gigs with college chum Carole King, of the 1950s when "audiences that were used to hearing 'How Much is that Doggie in the Window'" got to hear the likes of Ray Charles on mainstream radio, and of his time in England learning folk guitar (he admired Joan Baez and Bob Dylan) and hearing ska from Jamaican artists before reggae became popular. For the students, Simon played a CD of a work in progress: a new version of his 2000 original "Darling Lorraine." Calling it "a song's songall about the story"he said he didn't know where it was going while he was first writing it, but when he came up with the line "I'm sick to death of you," he recalled, "I suddenly realized, uh-oh, she's going to die! Now I had my story, and the rest was just editing." He reminded students that "lyrics, no matter how enriched the language or imagery, are not the same as poetry, because the words work with music." And how does he start devising new music? He grabbed his guitar to demonstrate, singing a continuous note while strumming a few chords that all carried that note. By trying different chord progressions, and then noodling the same way with a different sung note, he could find the basics of a melody. "Once in a while, I'm just the channel and the song flows. It's great when that happens." In "being connected to the universe and having things flow out almost effortlessly," he has learned, serotonin and dopamine produces a feeling of well-being, "and suddenly you say, 'Gee, I can't believe it's 2 a.m.' You're surprised by it; you're the audience for your own brain." This interest in neuroscience also flavors his joy in hearing "young players who are virtuosos. A beautiful, compelling melody can move you to tears and you don't know why. It's fascinating." Simon had a tip about melody for the students too. When he listens to his playbacks during editing, he said, "Ear goes to irritantall that stands out are the moments that make me wince." The first remedy is "to simply remove the irritant. Maybe you can replace it with something better, or maybe removing it is the solution." Another important tip: "If you keep editing and nothing is working, don't keep trying, because it's the premise that's the problem." With his children also musicians, perhaps it's no wonder that Simon was so authentic and practical in engaging the young Skidmore musicians and writers. After 90 minutes, and despite his tight itinerary, he lingered in the classroom with a ring of rapt students around him and talked morefor instance, about consistency vs diversity in a body of work, he said, "You can't only keep mining something; you gotta feed it too." Finally trailing out of the empty room, a student told her companion, "That was the most exciting thing ever!" He told the Skidmore crowd, "We are in a battle for survival. With the ecosystem collapsing and with climate change, we could very well be facing a planetary extinction on the level of what happened to the dinosaurs." Noting scientists' remarks that Earth has the potential to become a paradise or a wasteland, he said, "I won't see the answer to that question. I just had my 76th birthday. But it affects my children and grandchildren." His call to action: "Everybody has to join the fight. I perform and give the moneythat's what I can do. You all have to find what you can do." Apart from hosting and possible maintenance costs, there are not exactly downsides to having your own website. Even if its just a personal blog it can always become more useful down the line, if you utilize it in the right manner. In other words, more By clicking Agree, you consent to Slates Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and the use of technologies such as cookies by Slate and our partners to deliver relevant advertising on our iOS app to personalize content and perform site analytics. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information about our use of data, your rights, and how to withdraw consent. Agree Thank you for visiting the Daily Journal. Please purchase an Enhanced Subscription to continue reading. To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account. We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription. A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means youre helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much! System error error: Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. context: ... 21: 22: 23: % foreach my $c (@categories) { 24: <%perl> 25: my $category_id = $c->get_id(); 26: my @stories = Bric::Biz::Asset::Business::Story->list ( { element_type_id=>1148, category_id=>$category_id , Order=> 'cover_date', publish_status => 't' , OrderDirection=> 'DESC' , Limit=>10 } ); 27: 28: 29: ... code stack: /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html:25 /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm:948 /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj:17 /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html:149 Can't call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25. Trace begun at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Exceptions.pm line 125 HTML::Mason::Exceptions::rethrow_exception('Can\'t call method "get_id" on an undefined value at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25.^J') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/dhandler.html line 25 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 157 HTML::Mason::Component::run_dynamic_sub('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe12a98)', 'main') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 948 HTML::Mason::Request::call_dynamic('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e74e50d8)', 'main') called at /var/cache/mason/obj/2011159162/main/smetimes/dhandler.html.obj line 17 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe12a98)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1302 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 955 HTML::Mason::Request::call_next('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e74e50d8)') called at /usr/local/bricolage/data/burn/stage/oc_1027/smetimes/autohandler_template.html line 149 HTML::Mason::Commands::__ANON__ at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Component.pm line 135 HTML::Mason::Component::run('HTML::Mason::Component::FileBased=HASH(0x5612efe755f8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1300 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 1292 HTML::Mason::Request::comp(undef, undef, undef) called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 481 eval {...} at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/Request.pm line 433 HTML::Mason::Request::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e74e50d8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 165 HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler::exec('HTML::Mason::Request::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e74e50d8)') called at /usr/share/perl5/HTML/Mason/ApacheHandler.pm line 831 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handle_request('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler=HASH(0x5612e74e5ca0)', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612ee4b0820)') called at (eval 592) line 8 HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler::handler('HTML::Mason::ApacheHandler', 'Apache2::RequestRec=SCALAR(0x5612ee4b0820)') called at -e line 0 eval {...} at -e line 0 Dion Devow has always been a proud Aboriginal man and wanted his clothes to show it. But after finding no trendy or eye catching threads he could wear with pride he decided to start his own label, Darkies Design. Dion Devow has been named as a finalist for ACT Australian of The Year. Credit:Rohan Thomson While the provocative name caused a stir with some, he wanted to reclaim the derogatory term and create more pride in Aboriginal culture. Since starting the label in 2010, he's been able to draw on his background in community development and help other indigenous business owners achieve their dreams "The run is a great coming together of car lovers and fundraising, filled with unique opportunities to take on iconic routes and fun-filled motorsport on well-known raceways," Mr May said. Aussie Muscle Car Run chairman Kevin May said the event was in its sixth year and had raised more than $2 million for the Leukaemia Foundation. Kevin May and Kathleen Mincham with their Ford GT replica in Canberra for the Aussie Muscle Car Run, raising money for the Leukaemia Foundation. Credit:Rohan Thomson The annual fundraising cruise will see the cars, their drivers and co-drivers on a week-long motoring adventure starting in Sydney and ending in Adelaide. About 40 muscle cars rolled into Canberra as part of the 2017 Leukaemia Foundation Aussie Muscle Car Run. "This year's route is amazing and has just the right mix of leisure cruising and motorsport events, including a drive through the Snowy Mountains, a day at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and time on the track at Winton Motor Raceway, the Ford Proving Ground and the Portland Drags." Mr May said this year's event had so far raised $260,000. Leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma are types of blood cancer that can develop in anyone, of any age. Each day, 35 Australians are diagnosed. Participant Danny Caiazza said he joined the run because a family friend had been diagnosed with leukaemia about five years ago. "It's so important that we all chip in a little bit and get involved and if we can help in any way, it doesn't have to be money it can be donating gifts or cups of coffee or whatever," Mr Caiazza said. A 62-year-old Canberra man befriended a group of underage girls and plied them with alcohol and drugs before raping them at his home, court documents revealed on Monday. Page man Sunil Batagoda would also tell the girls they were beautiful, show them pornographic material and offer to pay them money in exchange for sex. Batagoda met the girls in August last year at the Civic bus interchange, when one asked for money to catch a bus. He offered to drive them to their friend's home. Over the next seven months the man would buy the girls alcohol, marijuana and cigarettes, and would pick them up and drive them around. A former chief financial officer at Canberra's PCYC is behind bars after stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the not-for-profit. The woman, who was not named in the judgment, was addicted to gambling and it was likely much of the more than $400,000 she stole was a result of the addiction, the judge found. After earlier pleading guilty to four counts of obtaining property by deception and one of theft, the woman was sentenced on Friday in the ACT Supreme Court to three years jail. Justice Michael Elkaim said the sentence would be suspended after 15 months, and the woman would be subject to a good behaviour order for the rest of the term. He also ordered she repay the more than $400,000 she stole, and attend Gamblers Anonymous or a similar organisation once released from jail. AFL great Luke Hodge says a line in the sand has been drawn following the three-match ban handed down to Richmond premiership defender Nathan Broad, suggesting that the next player to commit a similar offence to that of the Tiger deserves a considerably heftier penalty. Richmond - in combination with the AFL - suspended West Australian backman Broad for the first three matches of the 2018 home and away season for sending a photo of a topless woman wearing a premiership medal, taken on the night of Richmond's grand final win. Broad did not have permission to send the photo of the woman, whose head was not in the image, although while the photo went viral no charges were laid following a Victoria Police investigation into the matter. The league said it supported the length of the ban, but while Hodge didn't say it had been overly lenient, he said players should learn from Broad's mistake, or else incur the AFL's wrath. "People, and players especially, they've got to be smarter and respect ladies better than that," Hodge told ABC radio on Monday as he promoted his newly-released book The General. Virgin Australia is scrambling to accommodate thousands of passengers after the Samoan government blocked it from operating flights between the Pacific island and New Zealand. Samoa pulled the plug on Virgin Samoa, a joint venture with Australia's number two airline, in May and is preparing to launch its own national carrier called Samoa Airways. Virgin Australia said it was working with the Australian government to have the decision overturned. Credit:Glenn Hunt Virgin Australia had planned to fly its own services from Australia and New Zealand to the Samoan capital Apia from November 13, but on Monday said that permission for Auckland to Apia flights had not been granted. "Virgin Australia is disappointed with the Samoan government's decision to deny authorisation of our services," a Virgin Australia spokeswoman said. Slater and Gordon's long-suffering shareholders will be nearly wiped out in the company's rescue plan and many will be left with parcels of shares so small they cannot be sold on market. The dire fate of Slater and Gordon's shareholders was laid bare in more than 1000 pages of documents filed to the Australian Securities Exchange on Monday. But despite shareholders facing near wipe out, the deal is a better option than placing the company in administration where the shares will be worth zero, according to an independent expert's report on the deal by KPMG. The rescue plan will salvage Slater and Gordon's Australian business. We are at something of a watershed moment where sexual harassment and institutionalised misogyny are concerned. The recent allegations regarding Harvey Weinstein's abusive conduct and frequent assaults may have rocked Hollywood, but the aftershocks have been steadily rumbling out across the world since then. The process has emboldened more victims to come forward and defy the culture of shame that has long kept these stories suppressed. And yet amid this seismic moment, among the entirely inadequate responses from those accused of harassment, a particularly tired old card is being played: lighten up, ladies! It's not that the behaviour of various men in power is actually bad or inappropriate. It's just that you don't get it. Following the Harvey Weinstein revelations a dam has been broken. Credit:AP Consider the response of Charles Waterstreet to recent allegations of workplace impropriety and sexual harassment. Among the alleged behaviour highlighted by 21-year-old law student Tina Ni Huang are the claims the well-known barrister used a job interview to openly discuss his sex life and sexual preferences, and to show Huang a series of images (including a video) on his mobile phone of people engaged in sexual activity. During her second meeting with Waterstreet, Huang alleges he repeatedly expressed his disappointment that he hadn't been invited to a "sex party". Waterstreet's rebuttal in the SMH reads as if pulled straight out of the Victim Blaming Playbook For Men Who Are Tired Of Women Not Getting Their Jokes. In detailing how he came to select Huang as a suitable candidate for employment, he writes: "Much of my writing and general persona involves irony and the 'pricking of balloons' where intolerance and hypocrisy are concerned. My alleged sense of humour has not served me as I would like." Waterstreet never really denies anything Huang says, but instead goes to great lengths to explain that things she found egregious and humiliating were evidence in cases or just great gags. Acting Prime Minister Julie Bishop has conceded some decisions taken before former ministers Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash were disqualified are being re-examined to ensure they are legally sound, even as Mr Joyce dared Labor to mount a court challenge. But Ms Bishop denied the decisions in question amounted to more than just a few. Mr Joyce, who is fighting for the New England seat he thought he'd won in July 2016, claimed he was legitimately able to sit in the parliament and was fully empowered to make decisions as a cabinet minister right up until the moment the court ruled otherwise. But lawyers engaged by the ALP have taken a different view, advising there was a high likelihood that the work the ineligible pair has done over the past year will end up before the courts. It may have the Turnbull and Palaszczuk governments firmly in its corner, but the Adani super-mine is facing a formidable new opponent: the Christian faith. The Catholic and Anglican bishops of Townsville have issued a joint statement to their followers criticising "projected mega-mining developments across Queensland, especially the Galilee Basin", and accusing politicians and big business of failing to protect the common good. Adani protesters reportedly heckled Annastacia Palaszczuk on the campaign trail. Credit:AAP The bishops' message puts them head-to-head with Adani, the Indian mining behemoth behind the $16.5 billion Carmichael mine proposed for the Galilee Basin. It also puts them at odds with the local council and state and federal governments, which resoundingly support the project. Adani has located its regional headquarters in Townsville, and the statement will fuel debate in the already divided community over what would be Australia's biggest coal mine. Papua New Guinea has demanded the Turnbull government urgently resolve what will happen to hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers on Manus Island, with the processing centre scheduled to close on Tuesday. Tensions have been rising on the island ahead of the imminent shutdown, and refugee advocates have expressed fears the "powderkeg" may erupt into violence involving locals, detainees and police. There have been reports locals are threatening to arm themselves to stop detainees moving into their community. Amnesty International, which has had a team on the island over recent days, said it was concerned about the restrictions to food, power, water, and medical and sanitation services imposed on the men at the centre, and urged the Australian and PNG governments to prevent violence from erupting as the centre was forcibly closed. Being a princess, one might imagine, is an exercise in handling potentially awkward moments. From gracefully handling interactions with the great unwashed (i.e. the rest of us) to always remembering to cross one's ankles when sitting. Princess Mary (AKA "Our Mary", she of the greatest pre-Tinder hook-up of all time, meeting an actual prince in a local Sydney pub) is a pin-up for A-plus princess behaviour. There's the establishment of The Mary Foundation, an initiative focused on community and reconnecting with the isolated, and the Vogue covers and the picture-perfect family. Danish Crown Princess Mary (R) and Nina Wedell-Wedellsborg, a member of the prize committee, wear the same dress at the Magasin du Nord Fashion Prize 2017 ceremony in Copenhagen. Credit:EPA Then there's the fact that Mary has both an excellent sense of style and the graciousness to be able to handle one of fashion's frequent tricky spots - those times when you turn up to a high-profile event wearing the same outfit as someone else. Urgh. Worst. Mary demonstrated exactly this on the weekend when she turned up to the Magasin du Nord Fashion Prize event wearing the exact same printed dress by Danish designer Britt Sisseck (retailing for around $700) as the event's host, and Mary's friend, Baroness Nina Wedell-Wedellsborg, the Danish director of Sotherby's auction house in Denmark. Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy. Sanofi and Seqirus (formerly CSL) have not applied to register their vaccines with the Therapeutics Goods Administration (TGA), a mandatory step before vaccines can be considered for PBS listing and added to the immunisation program. Infectious diseases expert at the University of Sydney, Professor Robert Booy, said the newer vaccines were more effective but their benefit this flu season would have been incremental. US evidence suggested the vaccines were roughly 25 per cent more effective than those currently available in Australia, said Professor Booy, who is also head of clinical research at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance in Australia. "To be frank, an increase of 25 per cent on a vaccine that was 30 per cent effective this flu season is about 37 per cent effective. That's the kind of improvement we're talking about. "No one is trying to save money here ... we are using the best available vaccines in Australia," he said. Both government authorities and independent experts conceded this year's vaccine was far less protective than they had hoped, offering as little as 20 to 30 per cent effectiveness among at risk groups including the elderly. At the peak of the horrendous flu season, health minister Greg Hunt asked Professor Murphy to explore ways of strengthening Australia's influenza protection, including holding talks with vaccine manufacturers about new and stronger vaccines. Professor Murphy said evidence that over 65s had a weaker immune response to the vaccine only emerged "in the past year or so". "We're working with the companies to see what fast-tracking process we can provide to deliver [the new vaccines], but that wasn't even a consideration at the vaccine choice last year," he told ABC Radio Melbourne. Both Sanofi and Seqirus indicated they were in the process of registering their vaccines for use in Australia, and were working with the Department of Health to expedite regulation. Sanofi's unavailable vaccine has four times the dose of the currently available vaccines, while Seqirus' adjuvant vaccine contains an additional component that triggers a stronger immune response and creates more antibodies. The manufacturers backed the CMO and influenza experts' stance, stressing suggestions the high rate of influenza in Australia in 2017 are in part a result of the supply of "cheap" vaccine were incorrect. "The 2017 flu vaccine supplied in Australia is the current standard of care globally for the prevention of influenza," Sanofi said in its statement. In a separate statement, Sequiris said they and other manufacturers "have not previously sought regulatory approval for sale of these vaccines in Australia and it would have been illegal and irresponsible for government to have attempted to offer them on the NIP". "The Minister for Health, [CMO, TGA] and Federal Department of Health have responded swiftly to this year's severe influenza season, and Seqirus is working to expedite regulation of our enhanced vaccine" said Dr Lorna Meldrum, vice-president commercial operations. The World Health Organisation independently monitors circulating influenza strains and advises vaccine manufacturers and public health authorities which strains should be included the next round of seasonal flu vaccines. "They are the same vaccines that are available and used in the UK, US and other countries and the same vaccines available on the private market in Australia," Professor Murphy said. Professor Booy said it was "worrying" to see the currently available vaccines portrayed as "budget" options, warning misinformation could drive down vaccination rates. Loading Hostilities have broken out in the Greens NSW Senate preselection with incumbent Lee Rhiannon accused of breaching party rules by using her Sydney electorate office as a contact point on her campaign website. But the allegation has been branded a "cheap attempt" to damage Senator Rhiannon's reputation. NSW MLC Mehreen Faruqi, left, is challenging Senator Lee Rhiannon in the preselection Senator Rhiannon, a leader of the party's left faction, is being challenged by Greens NSW Legislative Council member Mehreen Faruqi and two other candidates, with voting due to open on November 10. The outcome is being seen as pivotal in a bitter tussle for control of the state division between Senator Rhiannon's faction and those on the party's right including NSW MLC Jeremy Buckingham. The teenager bashed unconscious at a Halloween party on Sydney's north shore has woken from a coma and is talking to his family. The 16-year-old had been left fighting for his life with critical head injuries after being punched to the ground outside a Gladesville party on Saturday night. Emergency services were called to the Ganora Street home just before 11.30pm following reports that a teenager was unconscious and suffering head injuries. Detectives had been told an altercation took place between a group of youths outside the home before the teen was punched, causing him to fall to the ground and hit his head. Harper Hart seemed strange from the moment she enrolled at a high school in Sydney's inner west in late 2016. Though she said she was 13, most teachers at the Good Shepherd School thought Harper looked at least a few years older. Samantha Azzopardi pleaded guilty to four charges of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception, for the education, counselling, food, accommodation and electronics she was given while posing as a schoolgirl. When they asked for identification, she said she was under the US Government's Witness Protection Program, and was a victim of sexual assault and human trafficking. She produced a birth certificate from San Francisco, California, which named Burwood couple Julian and Rebekah Hart as her biological parents. A Sydney man accused of planning a terrorist attack has pleaded guilty on the day he was expected to face trial. Tamim Khaja was arrested in May 2016 during a joint NSW and Federal Police operation for sizing up potential target buildings in Sydney. Pleaded guilty: Tamim Khaja. He was also accused of attempting to obtain weapons and a flag of the Khilafah between May 11 and 18 in what police believed was a lone-wolf plan. Khaja, who was aged 18 at the time of the offences, was expected to face trial at the NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta on Monday before Justice Desmond Fagan, but instead he entered a plea of guilty. A teenager has been charged following a brawl at a Halloween party in Gladesville on the weekend that left a teenage boy in hospital fighting for his life with critical head injuries. NSW Police arrested a 17-year-old male at a home in Buffalo Road at Ryde on Monday and charged him with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm. Police and partygoers outside the Gladesville home on Saturday night. He was refused bail and will appear at a Children's Court on Tuesday. The 16-year-old who was punched to the ground outside the party on Sydney's north shore has woken from a coma and is talking to his family. Police are continuing their search for a Brisbane woman whose car was found in the Redland Bay area on Sunday afternoon. Niama Hassan was last seen at a Holland Park home on Saturday morning and has not been in contact with family or friends since. Missing woman Niama Hassan. Credit:Queensland Police On Sunday, police spotted her grey Nissan car in a carpark at the the Wellington Point Reserve. The discovery kicked off extensive searches around the area, including King Island, by officers on foot and with the help of a police helicopter. Queensland toads are scaredy-cats compared to their gladiator-esque counterparts in Western Australia, a study has found. University of Sydney PhD student Jodie Gruber collected more than 30 wild toads from an area in Queensland, where cane toads have been present for 80 years, and a site at the invasion front in Western Australia to test out their braveness in different scenarios. Credit:DAVID GRAY Swapping the gladiator ring for something a little more subdued, Ms Gruber used silicone balls on timers, shelters and open arenas to test each toads risk-taking capabilities. I ran them through different behavioural trials.things that would aid invasion success such as boldness and risk-taking, she said. Brisbane has avoided the severe storm cells that swept through the south-east on Monday afternoon, with the wild weather described as "short and sharp" by Weatherzone. On Monday evening the Bureau of Meteorology cancelled its warnings for the south-east as the severe storms moved offshore, having generated wind gusts of more than 80km/h and hail the size of golf balls. Weatherzone meteorologist Rob Sharpe said two severe cells developed during the afternoon. The first was detected over Toowoomba about 2pm and moving east near Ipswich, developing into a severe cell and heading north-east over Moreton Bay about 5pm. One Nation's Queensland leader Steve Dickson outlines the issues a party would need to support to win One Nation support for government. Credit:Regi Varghese/AAP One Nation state leader Steve Dickson on Monday outlined the party's five deal-breakers ahead of the ballot on November 25. Scrapping Brisbanes $5.4 billion Cross River Rail project must be at the top of the list for any party wanting the support of One Nation MPs to win office at the Queensland election. Mr Dickson, who was re-elected under the LNP banner with a margin of 11.8 per cent, said One Nation would not enter into a partnership without those five agreements. We either get this, or no deal, he said. Mr Dickson said he understood the two major parties' public comments dismissing the prospect of a partnership with One Nation. Well, I will make this point. Its like drinking water. Everybody needs it and without it you die," Mr Dickson said. And we happen to be holding a glass of water and both the major parties will walk over broken glass to get that. People in Victoria's fast-growing urban fringe face long waits for fire trucks, with growth suburbs Lara, Caroline Springs and Epping among those with the state's worst response times. The Country Fire Authority aims to get to fires within eight minutes. Fire brigades are falling well short of response targets in many urban fringe areas, new figures show. Credit:William West But in Lara, between Geelong and Melbourne, the target is met only 22 per cent of the time. In Caroline Springs the target is hit 64 per cent of the time, compared with 69 per cent in Epping and 63 per cent in Hampton Park. Firefighters say worsening traffic congestion is partly to blame. Murderer and rapist Sean Price repeatedly laughed and made offensive hand gestures during a court appearance in which prosecutors called for his non-parole period to be increased. Price variously laughed, smiled, yawned, feigned dismay and distress and continually gestured wildly and rudely with his hands during a pre-sentence hearing in the County Court on Monday. He pleaded guilty last week to breaching a court-imposed supervision order. The woman Price raped in the days after he murdered teenager Masa Vukotic in a Doncaster park was in court on Monday, as it was the attack on her on March 19, 2015 that constituted the breach of the supervision order. The late-night killing of a man on an inner-Melbourne street has not shocked local residents, who say they feel unsafe in the area due to open drug use. The man was stabbed on the footpath of Victoria Street, Abbotsford, during a fight outside the Bakers Arms Hotel with a woman about 9.30pm on Monday. The man, believed to be in his 30s, was taken to hospital, but later died. A 29-year-old woman and a 30-year-old woman, both from Collingwood, were arrested and questioned by homicide detectives on Tuesday afternoon. No charges have been laid. Melbourne Express: Tuesday, October 31, 2017 Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later. Dismiss A Perth private school teacher who referred to one of his students as 'the Ponytail princess', tried to befriend her on Facebook and regularly gave her money for school lunches has been banned from teaching. The State Administrative Tribunal on Monday found the 55-year-old science teacher engaged in serious misconduct with a student between November 2016 and April 2017. The teacher has had his teacher's registration cancelled. Credit:Janie Barrett Tribunal documents revealed the man, who WAtoday has chosen not to name to protect the identity of the student, organised a Melbourne Cup sweepstakes with his students in 2016 and gave the winners cash. That same term the teacher began giving a 15-year-old female student money to buy food at the school's canteen. Beijing: An attack on Chinese school students in Canberra that saw one hospitalised could be a turning point in Chinese attitudes towards Australia, a major newspaper has editorialised. Two local teenagers have faced Children's Court after the bashing at the Woden bus interchange last week, which has been widely reported by Chinese newspapers, radio and state media. Police have upped patrols at the Woden bus interchange since the attack. Lowy Institute director of East Asia programs Merriden Varrall said the incident "could certainly affect decision making" by safety conscious Chinese students considering studying in Australia. A Chinese student who attended the same school as the victims told a Beijing newspaper that students are scared, because the day after the attack, they had been sworn at and pushed into a Chinese restaurant by a group of 20 to 30 Australian youths. Beijing: A Chinese ban on Australian beef exports has been lifted, resolving one of the year's major friction points in the Australia-China trading relationship. Trade Minister Steven Ciobo says the federal government has been notified that six Australian beef exporters, who made up a third of Australia's beef trade to China, can resume exporting. The ban was caused by labelling concerns. Credit:James Davies Mr Ciobo had raised China's suspension of exports from the beef processors during a series of meetings in Beijing last month. The suspension by Chinese customs and quarantine regulators in July was blamed on labelling concerns. Jakarta: One of the daughters of Indonesia's first president has called for the US to apologise after the release of a "top secret" document from 1975 that reveals the CIA considered assassinating Sukarno during the Cold War. The document a summary of an investigation into CIA involvement in plans to assassinate foreign leaders was among 2800 previously classified files related to the assassination of President John F Kennedy that were released last week. Then US president John F. Kennedy and president Sukarno of Indonesia in an open car in Washington in April 1961. Credit:AP Wirephoto It details CIA attempts to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro and says the CIA also considered killing Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba and Indonesian president Sukarno. "America should not only apologise to Indonesia, America should apologise to all the countries they disturbed, if they will admit to it," Sukarno's daughter Sukmawati Sukarnoputri told Fairfax Media. "They never want to admit to it, especially the CIA." London: Alexander Downer, Australia's High Commissioner to Britain, has warned the EU that it must take into account the role Britain can play in upholding the Western rules-based global order, saying it is in no-one's interests for the talks to break down in acrimony. Delivering the Menzies Lecture to the Menzies Centre for Australian Studies at the King's College in London, Mr Downer said blame would be apportioned to both sides if Britain and the EU's post-Brexit relationship was anything but harmonious. Alexander Downer said it won't be in the interests of the Western world if Brexit negotiations break down in acrimony. He said one of the ways Australia views Britain's vote to leave the European Union was in the "geo-politics of the times". "What is the greatest single geo-political issue of our era? That is the rise of China," he said. Berlin: Strong winds have battered northern and central Europe, killing at least six people in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, with authorities watching for oil leaks from a huge freighter that ran aground in the North Sea. Four victims in Poland and the Czech Republic were killed by falling trees. The storm also knocked out power to thousands of Czechs and Poles, and rail traffic in large parts of northern Germany remained suspended after heavy damage from fallen trees. Scaffolding collapsed in Berlin on Sunday when high wind struck the country. At least six people died across central Europe. Credit:AP Winds reached more than 100 kmh in several parts of the Czech Republic and topped out at 180 kmh on Snezka, at 1,602 metres the country's highest mountain, Czech Television reported. The two victims in Germany included a 63-year-old German man who drowned at a campsite in Lower Saxony as a result of a storm surge, and a woman whose motorboat overturned in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, German media reported. Washington: Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager for US President Donald Trump, and an associate were indicted by a federal grand jury on 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States and money laundering, the federal special counsel's office said on Monday. The charges arise from the investigation by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed in May to look into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election campaign aimed at swaying the vote in favour of Trump. However, a 31-page indictment against Manafort and Rick Gates, a business partner who served as his deputy in the Trump campaign, did not mention Donald Trump or election meddling. The pair were charged on Friday and the indictment was unsealed on Monday after the two men surrendered to the FBI, the special counsel said. In their first court appearance on Tuesday, Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty and were released to home detention on bonds of $10 million and $5 million respectively. A familiar figure at conferences and in the news media, he is also a major presence on social media, with 2 million Facebook friends and more than 200,000 followers on Twitter. Ramadan teaches contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University and is the author of a dozen books in English on modern Islam and the Western world. Ramadan, 55, is a well-known Islamic scholar and the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in the 1920s. The group has become one of the most influential transnational Sunni Muslim movements in the world. Neither Ramadan nor his lawyer has responded to the accusations by the second woman. In a Periscope video posted on Twitter that he made several days ago after the first complaint, Ramadan said that he would not comment and that he would trust the courts to see that justice was done. Asked about the latest allegations, his lawyer, Yassine Bouzrou, said he had not been informed, Le Monde reported. Ayari, 40, said she had been corresponding with Ramadan on Facebook and had often asked him for advice on religion, until one day he proposed a meeting at the hotel where she said she was attacked. The author had written about the assault in her book "I Chose to Be Free," an account published in 2016 of how she been drawn to Salafism, a radical Islamist ideology, and then fought to break away from it. But she did not name the attacker, she said, because he had threatened her and her children. But she said she had been moved by other women who were speaking out and decided to name her aggressor, even though she expected a storm of criticism. Washington: The one-two punch delivered on Monday by special prosecutor Robert Mueller - an indictment of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman and a guilty plea from a former campaign adviser - is designed to send a powerful message to everyone else caught up in the probe: the prosecutors aren't bluffing. "This is the way you kick off a big case," said Patrick Cotter, a white-collar defence lawyer in Chicago who once worked as a federal prosecutor in New York alongside Andrew Weissmann, who is spearheading the prosecution of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates. On the same day the indictment was unsealed, prosecutors also announced a guilty plea and cooperation from former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos about his interactions with people linked to the Russian government. Papadopoulos has admitted to lying to FBI agents who questioned him about those contacts, according to court records. "Oh, man, they couldn't have sent a message any clearer if they'd rented a revolving neon sign in Times Square," Cotter said. "And the message isn't just about Manafort. It's a message to the next five guys they talk to. And the message is: 'We are coming, and we are not playing, and we are not bluffing'." Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort leaves his home in Alexandria, Virginia on Monday. Credit:AP Manafort accepted a position with the Trump campaign for no salary. Manafort's questionable business associations were well known, but, at the time, Trump was still having trouble attracting top-tier Republican staffers who were skeptical that Trump was a viable candidate. Once on the campaign, he butted heads with campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. In late June, Trump's children helped convince him to oust Lewandowski and elevate Manafort, who became campaign chairman. He held that senior position with the campaign until August. On the day he resigned, former House speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox News' Sean Hannity that "nobody should underestimate how much Paul Manafort did to really help get this campaign to where it is right now". Donald Trump pictured with campaign aide Rick Gates, who surrendered to the FBI on Monday. Credit:AP Why did he part ways with Trump? For this, we need to talk a bit more about Manafort's background. In 2006, Manafort's company (of which Gates was part) signed a multi-year agreement with a Russian oligarch named Oleg Deripaska apparently based on a 2005 proposal in which Manafort outlined a strategy that would "greatly benefit the [Russian president Vladimir] Putin Government." Deripaska is closely tied to Putin. That same year, Manafort began working with Yanukovych's Party of Regions in Ukraine. In 2010, Yanukovych was elected as that country's president. In 2014, he was ousted during a popular uprising in the country largely because of his sympathies for Russia. A ledger found in a former Party of Regions office in Kiev reported last year indicated that Manafort may have received nearly $13 million in off-the-record payments from the party during his time working with them. Manafort denied the allegation, but the Associated Press later confirmed some of the payments. At the time, Trump was facing a number of questions about his relationship with Russia and any financial ties to the country. Revelation that his campaign chairman may have been paid by a Russian-backed political party helped spur Trump to oust Manafort from his position. Does this news prove that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia? No. It's important to remember that the investigation by Mueller is looking at Russian meddling in the 2016 election as well as any possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian agents. But as an arm of the Justice Department, Mueller's team is also authorised to investigate "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation." Think about it this way. If the police were called to your house to interview you about noise complaint and saw you standing over a dead body holding a knife, that might also come up as a subject of conversation. What do the charges relate to? The indictment includes 12 counts, focused on a few things: Misleading the government, failing to register as a foreign agent, laundering money and failing to report foreign income. It includes a conspiracy charge which is broadly about misleading the government, including that Manafort (and Gates) provided false statements to investigators and failed to register as foreign agents. (Manafort eventually did so in June after his work with the campaign drew attention to himself.) This is not a charge the Manafort conspired against the United States on behalf of Russia during the election. The financial charges relate to $75 million that Manafort and Gates earned overseas, $18 million of which was then allegedly laundered by Manafort. This money was apparently largely earned through the pair's work in Ukraine. It's important to note that these investigations predate Manafort's time as head of the Trump campaign. In 2014, the FBI began an investigation into Manafort, including a wiretap. (That same year, Deripaska accused Manafort and Gates of taking $19 million from him that was meant to be invested in a cable network in Ukraine.) The investigation into Manafort was restarted in the spring of last year. BuzzFeed reports that the FBI is investigating wire transfers that were made in 2012 and 2013. In other words, even had he not worked with Trump's campaign, Manafort might have faced an indictment like this anyway. Does this close the door on whether or not Manafort was involved in colluding on the campaign? The main caveat worth remembering here is that Manafort was out of the campaign by August - meaning that he wasn't there for the closing days of Trump's effort. That said, there are two ways in which Manafort and Russian interests overlapped during his time on the campaign. The first relates to Deripaska, the Putin-allied oligarch. Shortly after Manafort started with the campaign, he emailed a business partner in Ukraine and asked how his new position might be used to "get whole," asking if Deripaska's team was aware of his new position. Later in the campaign, Manafort sought to pass word to Deripaska that a private briefing on the campaign might be possible. It doesn't seem to have happened. (Worth noting: During the campaign, the Trump campaign - then managed by Manafort - worked to remove language in the party platform about arming Ukraine in its efforts against Russia.) Manafort was also one of the participants in the infamous Trump Tower meeting set up by Donald Trump Jr. and involving a Kremlin-linked Russian lawyer who was offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. During that meeting, Trump Jr. described Manafort as being on his phone the whole time, hinting that the content was not interesting to the campaign chairman. Later, though, Manafort turned over notes from the meeting that he'd taken on his phone. It is possible that the Manafort indictment is meant to serve as leverage in Mueller's broader investigation. There is no mention in the indictment of Trump. In 2006, Manafort bought a condominium in Trump Tower. Other New York real estate Manafort purchased in 2012 is listed in the indictment because the money used to buy the properties wasn't included in his tax returns. ~ Political turmoil over Dutch aid caused split in NA/USP/DP coalition government ~ PHILIPSBURG:--- The political turmoil that started weeks ago over financial assistance by the Kingdom Government has caused a fracture in the current coalition. SMN News learned from unconfirmed sources that Chanel Brownbill met with the USP Sunday night and assured his party that he was not going to jump ship but by midday on Monday it is understood that MP Brownbill informed his party leader that he was leaving the party to become an Independent Member of Parliament and he will join forces with the Democratic Party. On Monday leaders of the current coalition flocked the government administration building to discuss the fall of the government. When Prime Minister William Marlin returned to the Government Administration Building he was seen meeting with USP leader Frans Richardson in a vehicle outside of the building. SMN News learned that the USP and NA met with Brownbill Sunday night to trash out their differences. Meanwhile, Leader of the DP Sarah Wescot Williams met with Governor Holiday based on an invitation from the Governor. Prime Minister Marlin also met with the Governor on Monday. According to information provided to SMN News, the NA and USP chose to stand their ground with regards to the financial aid from the Kingdom Government even though Members of Parliament especially the leader of the Democratic Party Sarah Wescot Williams made it clear on Friday that she has had enough and has decided to take the high road. The Dutch government is forcing its will on St. Maarten with regards to the Integrity Chamber and Border Control as conditions for financial aid but to date, the Kingdom has not informed St. Maarten how much they intend to give St. Maarten as financial assistance to rebuild the country. The political turmoil which basically boiled over last week in Parliament started quite some time now as the Democratic Party leader was clearly picking on her coalition partners during parliamentary meetings but failed to address the incompetence coming from the Minister of VSA. Wescot Williams has on numerous occasions chose to use the media to pose questions to her coalition partners while the coalition meets every Monday. Even though the tension has built up and the DP leader said she was ready to take the high road last Friday, to date no confirmation was given on the current split. REMINDER: Stingray to Release its Financial Results for the Second Quarter of Fiscal 2018 Time of Call Changed to 9:00 am MONTREAL, QUEBEC (Marketwired) 10/30/17 Stingray Digital Group Inc. (TSX: RAY.A)(TSX: RAY.B) will release its financial results for the second quarter ended September 30, 2017, on Thursday, November 9, 2017, before the market opens. Management will hold a conference call to discuss the financial results the same day at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time. Details of the Conference Call Via telephone: (877) 223-4471 or (647) 788-4922 Via the internet at () Conference Call Rebroadcast A rebroadcast of the conference call will be available two hours after its broadcast, and until midnight, December 7, 2017, by dialing (800) 585-8367 or (416) 621-4642 and entering passcode 95824159. About Stingray Stingray (TSX: RAY.A)(TSX: RAY.B) is a leading business-to-business multi-platform music and in-store media solutions provider operating on a global scale, reaching an estimated 400 million pay TV subscribers (or households) in 156 countries. Geared towards individuals and businesses alike, Stingrays products include the following leading digital music and video services: Stingray Music, Stingray Concerts, Stingray iConcerts, Stingray Brava, Stingray DJAZZ, Stingray Music Videos, Stingray Lite TV, Stingray Ambiance 4K, Stingray Karaoke, NatureVision TV, Yokee Music, Festival 4K, Stingray Loud, Stingray Juicebox, Stingray Vibe, Stingray Retro, and Classica. Stingray also offers various business solutions, including music and digital display-based solutions, through its Stingray Business division. Stingray is headquartered in Montreal and currently has close to 350 employees worldwide, including in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Israel, Australia, South Korea, and Singapore. Stingray was recognized in 2013 and 2014 as a finalist in the Top 50 of Deloittes Technology Fast 50TM list, and figures amongst PROFIT magazines fastest-growing Canadian companies. In 2016, Stingray was awarded best IR for an IPO at the IR Magazine Awards Canada. For more information, please visit . Contacts: Mathieu Peloquin Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Communications Stingray Digital Group Inc. (514) 664-1244, ext. 2362 451 Research and Infinite Convergence Release New Study that Identifies the Growing Risk of Consumer Messaging App Usage in the Enterprise CHICAGO, IL (Marketwired) 10/30/17 A released today by , a global leader in messaging and mobility solutions and the creators of , in conjunction with , a research and advisory company focused on innovation and disruption in enterprise technology, finds that mobile messaging is the top activity for business use of mobile devices surpassing email and voice calls. However, the data shows that employees are using unsecure consumer messaging apps for mobile messaging. Nearly 3 in 4 employees use consumer messaging apps for business purposes, which presents security risks for enterprises. Yet, 62 percent of companies have not made any policy changes in the last six months regarding employee messaging service usage. Theres a concerning discrepancy between the rate at which employees are increasingly using mobile messaging and how well companies are regulating and securing this usage, said Raul Castanon-Martinez, Senior Analyst Workforce Collaboration, 451 Research. We expect the number of employees using mobile messaging to continue to grow, and so will the security, privacy and compliance risks. Given companies are already behind in controlling messaging app usage, the time is now to adopt secure messaging services. 70 percent of employees use smartphones for business purposes 58 percent of employees say their companies allow the use of personal mobile phones Messaging the #1 activity for employees using a smartphone for business purposes Only 9 percent of employees companies dont allow the use of messaging services that have not been approved 40 percent of employees perform work-related activities on a smartphone daily The rise of BYOD policies in the workplace was intended to make employees communication easier and more efficient, but company policies havent evolved over the years and are much too lax given how ubiquitous mobile devices have become, said Anurag Lal, CEO and President of Infinite Convergence Solutions. Employees are increasingly relying on mobile devices to get their work done and organizations must put secure, enterprise-grade communication platforms in place for their use. Additionally, organizations are largely unaware of how extensively employees are using non-sanctioned messaging apps and services in the workplace. Only 9 percent of companies no longer allow the use of messaging services that have not been approved, meaning employees are communicating via consumer apps already installed on their phones. When it comes to top priorities in terms of address business application software pain points, IT decision makers rank managing the risk inherent in the business use of mobile messaging applications and social networks after securing corporate and customer data and managing data growth, indicating that organizations they also be underestimating the risks consumer messaging apps entail. The results of the 451 Research report are surprising on how few companies have made the minimal investment required to secure this important means of business communication, said Lal. Mobile messaging is an efficient, real-time collaboration tool, but the lack of a secure, enterprise-grade solution prevents many organizations from taking full advantage of the benefits. Our study with 451 Research indicates that secure enterprise mobile messaging has become the core productivity tool for daily employee use. For more information about the study, please . provides next-generation messaging and mobility solutions to carriers and enterprises globally, including an Enterprise Messaging Services suite, secure messaging through its standalone service NetSfere () and SMS, MMS and RCS solutions. The companys technology supports more than 400 million subscribers and over a trillion messages on an annual basis. Infinite Convergence Solutions is a subsidiary of Infinite Computer Solutions (BSE: 533154) (NSE: INFINITE) with offices in the United States, Germany, India and Singapore NetSfere is a secure enterprise messaging service from . NetSfere provides industry-leading security and message delivery capabilities, including global cloud-based service availability, device-to-device encryption, location-based features and administrative controls. The service leverages Infinite Convergences experience in delivering mobility solutions to tier 1 mobile operators globally and technology that supports more than 400 million subscribers and over a trillion messages on an annual basis. NetSfere is also compliant with regulatory requirements, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Sarbanes-Oxley and others. For more information, visit . 451 Research is a preeminent information technology research and advisory company. With a core focus on technology innovation and market disruption, we provide essential insight for leaders of the digital economy. More than 100 analysts and consultants deliver that insight via syndicated research, advisory services and live events to more than 1,000 client organizations in North America, Europe and around the world. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in New York, 451 Research is a division of The 451 Group. SafeBreach Labs Presenting New Hacking Techniques and Adversary Simulation at Information Security Conferences Across US, Canada and Austria in November SUNNYVALE, CA (Marketwired) 10/30/17 , the leading provider of Breach and Attack Simulation, today announced that CTO and co-founder and security researcher will be presenting at Hackfest, BSides DFW, DeepSec IDSC and the Las Vegas Technical Colloquium. At and , Azouri will uncover the way Windows BITS service maintains its jobs queue, and present a way for a local administrator to control jobs using none of BITS public interfaces. He will demonstrate how an attacker may use this new technique to run a program of his will as the LocalSystem account, within session 0. At , Kotler will be discussing different malware dropper techniques and implementations, as well as how to abuse legitimate, public and collaborative websites to host and embed droppers. He will be showing a live demonstration of this original research. At the first-ever , Kotler will be contributing to the technical track, discussing the emerging technology of breach and attack simulation. Giving a demonstration of how to safely simulate hacker breach methods to validate security controls, Kotler will provide a deep dive into how weaponizing hacker techniques can improve security for SOC and incident response teams. Hackers have proven, this year more than ever, that they have the upper hand, said Kotler. Its time to turn the tables on attackers by automating their methods to proactively find weaknesses and fix them. SafeBreach Labs works hard year-round to ensure we are advancing offensive security research. With more than 3,000 breach methods in our Hackers Playbook, our customers can be better prepared to anticipate and thwart the next attack. When: Friday, November 3 at 4:30 p.m. EDT, Track 2 (Plaza 2) Where: Hotel Plaza Quebec, 3031 Boulevard Laurier, Ville de Quebec, QC G1V 2M2, Canada Presenter: Dor Azouri Malware from Thin Bits: When: Saturday, November 4 at 1:30 p.m. CDT, Track 2 Where: Southern Methodist University in Plano, Building 3/4, 5236 Tennyson Pkwy, Plano, TX 75024 Presenter: Itzik Kotler : When: Friday, November 17 at 2:00 p.m. CET Where: The Imperial Riding School Vienna, Ungargasse 60, 1030 Vienna Austria Presenter: Dor Azouri : When: Wednesday, December 6 at 10:45 a.m. PST Where: The Venetian Las Vegas, 3355 Las Vegas Blvd South, Las Vegas, NV 89109 Presenter: Itzik Kotler SafeBreach is a pioneer in the emerging category of breach and attack simulation. The companys ground-breaking platform provides a hackers view of an enterprises security posture to proactively predict attacks, validate security controls and improve SOC analyst response. SafeBreach automatically executes thousands of breach methods from an extensive and growing Hackers Playbook of research and real-world investigative data. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, the company is funded by Sequoia Capital, Deutsche Telekom Capital, Hewlett Packard Pathfinder and investor Shlomo Kramer. For more information, visit or follow on Twitter @SafeBreach. Media Contact: Kayla Armstrong CHEN PR for SafeBreach 781.672.3148 True Democrats: Calgary Entrepreneur Initiates Online Political Coup dEtat CALGARY, ALBERTA (Marketwired) 10/30/17 With the majority of Canadians using the Internet, and many citizens disillusioned with the lack of fair representation in all levels of government, a successful Calgary-based entrepreneur is harnessing the power of true political freedom online with the launch of the True Democrats. The Internet-based political party leverages delegative democracy principles that connect people online to generate and share information and to vote or choose to transfer their votes, to others on pertinent issues and concerns. This planet is full of amazing people who do not run for office. Why should we be limited to the few, often mediocre ones who do? We are staging a digital coup detat to overthrow an antiquated, dysfunctional voting system that artificially limits our choices to the bad and the worse, says Jode Himann, Founder of the True Democrat Party and corresponding software, TAGDit. Our political system is broken, and our highest collective priority should be to change it, which in turn would increase Canadian success, wealth and jobs. The True Democrats are taking ideas of delegative democracy and applying them in a measurable real-world application through TAGDit, an online platform that works through measurements of trust, social and proxy voting algorithms that filter and rank data to help build a shared knowledge base in a transparent, fair and collaborative manner. Not only is TAGDit a mechanism for political liberty, but it is also a platform for the freedom of knowledge sharing within any group. TAGDits private database allows group members to store, share and rank endless amounts of information in a transparent, fair and collaborative manner. The memory bank continuously grows, and as content is added, updated and rated, the data is refined and prioritized through group voting. Relevant and high quality information can be easily found through the TAGDit search engine, making this centralized system a quick and simple way for groups to share and manage information. The analytics gathered through this process offer further valuable insights that enable informed decision-making within the group. The True Democrats and TAGDit are both in the preliminary stages, and in the spirit of true democracy, users are welcome to provide feedback during early trials to help refine the design. Citizens are invited to join the movement for true political freedom and be a part of changing the world at . For more information, please visit: Website: Facebook: LinkedIn: Contacts: Jode Himann, TAGDit and True Democrats (403) 242 7475 ext 210 Media Contact: Rebecca Eras, Eras Communications Inc. (807) 630-6236 Jose Irizarry accepts that hes known as the most corrupt agent in U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration history, admitting he became another man in conspiring with Colombian cartels to build a lavish lifestyle of expensive sportscars, Tiffany jewels and paramours around... Optimization Are you frustrated with a slow pc or a hard disk not performing as it should? Try SLOW-PCfighter to speed up boot time on a slow PC, or try a free scan of FULL-DISKfighter to recover space on a full disk. The latest offering is DRIVERfighter to update your driver updater. Get complete PC optimization and extend the life of your PC with these must-have software tools. Brussels, Belgium, Oct 27 2017 (SPS)- A delegation of European parliamentarians of the Western Sahara Intergroup in the European Parliament traveled on Friday to the Occupied Zones of Western Sahara. The delegation of five parliamentarians seeks to examine the human rights situation in the occupied part of Western Sahara and to meet with human rights organizations and representatives of Saharawi civil society in the territory. The European Parliamentary delegation is headed by Ms. Jitte Guteland, President of the Western Sahara Intergroup in the European Parliament, and includes IU Euro-deputy, Paloma Lopez, Vice-President of the Western Sahara Intergroup in the European Parliament, Ms. Bodil Valero, Green Party of Sweden and Vice-president of the Intergroup of Western Sahara in the European Parliament, as well as two other MEPs. The parliamentary delegation will take advantage of its stay in the territory to observe closely the serious violation of human rights and the systematic looting policy of the resources of the region by Morocco. It should be recalled that The Parliamentary Group for Western Sahara is made up of over 120 members of the European Parliament, one of the largest official groups accredited to the European Parliament. SPS 125/090/TRA Madrid, October 30, 2017 (SPS) - The Coordination of Solidarity Associations with the Sahara (CEAS-Sahara) called on Sunday for a demonstration in support of the Saharawi people, in Spanish capital Madrid on November 11. In a statement, the Organization called for a demonstration in solidarity of the Saharawi people, to demand that the UN imposes on Morocco respect for international resolutions and human rights in occupied zones of Western Sahara, and speed up the organization of the referendum in which the Saharawi people can freely decide their own future. The demonstration which will start from Atocha to the Puerta del Sol, coincides with the anniversary of illegal Tripartite Agreements of Madrid. (SPS) 062/SPS/TRA Kuneitra (Morocco), Oct 30, 2017 (SPS) - Sahrawi political prisoners of Gdeim Izik group at the central prison of Kuneitra, Morocco, announced that they will initiate a 48-hour hunger strike starting from Wednesday. According to a statement issued by the prisoners, the hunger strike is in protest against the ill-treatment they are subjected to by the prison administration and the false promises to improve their conditions, in addition to not providing the minimum living conditions in their cells. The statement called upon all the free people of the world and those who love peace to support the Sahrawi political prisoners, the Gdeim Izik group, against the injustice practiced on them by the Moroccan state, and to release them and all Sahrawi political prisoners in Moroccan prisons. (SPS) 062/SPS/TRA Life moves fast in the world of digital marketing. In fact, since 2013, digital media consumption in the United States has increased by 49 percent , according to comScore. Related: 6 Free Online Classes for Digital-Marketing Beginners So, considering a career in this field might be wise. But, when youre trying to build a career in digital marketing, you may find it difficult to keep up with the industry's ever-increasing rate of change. So, is it even worth it to invest in a formal education? The answer is that, while most employers like to see at a least a four-year degree, what you learn about digital marketing at a university wont be the same as what you learn in an actual digital marketing job. Instead, to become successful in your career, you need to be prepared to learn on the job and gain skills in the field. Why schools dont teach digital marketing Because digital marketing changes so fast, schools struggle to keep up. Richard Geasey, an internet marketing consultant and lecturer at the University of Washington, wrote in Inc. that, Most schools are staffed by instructors who know nothing of internet marketing. The field is so fast and quickly changing they have no chance to learn anything useful and present it to students. Most of those instructors, moreover, often have very little practical experience in digital marketing. They may have studied marketing for years, but if they dont have real-world experience to share, they wont be able to properly teach the subject. So, instead, what instructors teach is the basics of traditional marketing, which does provide a strong marketing foundation; but it doesnt prepare students for the practicalities of working in the field itself. There are no classes on social media management and none on marketing automation, email marketing or the myriad other topics youre bound to come across in your career. These things are learned from working in the field. Writing for Marketing Land, Travis Wright, host of MarTech Talks, wrote, Ive spoken at several business schools, including the University of Chicagos, Booth School of Business and the University of Utah, David Eccles School of Business. Each time after Im done presenting, students approach me feeling scared -- due to the overwhelming lack of knowledge and job readiness they have. I let them know what they didnt know that they need to know. The need to self-educate A recent survey from CareerBuilder found that 67 percent of employers polled said they were concerned about the skills gap. So, the takeaway is that if a school wont provide you with the kind of digital marketing experience you need to close that skills gap, you may find its time to take your education into your own hands. Related: This Is Why You Should Consider Getting a Degree in Marketing Entrepreneur and motivational speaker Jim Rohn once gave a speech in which he said, Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. Here, then, are three ways to educate yourself on the digital marketing industry: 1. Find free resources. Instead of paying an exorbitant amount of money for a fancy specialized degree, you can easily find free resources online that will be more valuable and better help you in your career. Sites like Coursera offer a variety of free courses on a number of topics. The site even has a specialization course series on digital marketing. HubSpot Academy also offers free certifications in areas like inbound marketing, email marketing and more. Even Google has its own free digital marketing course. No-fee courses like these, as well as ones you pay for, are abundant on the internet and can help you learn more about the industry and the latest trends. You'll also find it useful to follow key digital marketing influencers online. Many of them host free webinars; these are typically hour-long mini educational sessions which can be extremely informative. 2. Read everything you can. Read as much as you can as often as you can. Books from those same marketing influencers will help you better understand the digital marketing landscape. But be careful -- with the rapid pace of the industry, books become outdated faster than they go into print. Make a point to stay up to date by reading the latest news from top marketing blogs from: Take a look at my blog, too! I write tons of articles about digital marketing and other related topics. Related: 10 Free Online Courses That Can Benefit Every Entrepreneur Oh, and sign up for blog newsletters to get new posts delivered straight to your inbox. This will make it even easier for you to keep up. 3. Just do it. A study by the University of Chicago found that students actually learn better through a hands-on approach. The same holds true for digital marketing. The best way to learn it is to dive in head-first. Even if you dont have a job in digital marketing right now, you can still actively practice digital marketing. Start a blog and practice writing content. Teach yourself SEO. Play around with Google Analytics. Establish your own personal brand on social media. The opportunities available online are abundant -- you just have to go out and find them. Once you do land a job in digital marketing, learn everything you can from your peers and managers. Especially when youre just starting out, its critical to absorb as much knowledge and information as possible. Remember how I said digital marketing is always changing? Get used to being in a state of constant learning. For the rest of your career, youll always be trying to keep up. Youll never be able to master digital marketing when theres always something new to learn, but by being in the trenches every day, youll gain experience that will allow you to become successful in your career. Related: 5 Reasons Not to Waste Your Money on Internet Marketing Courses As Mitch Joel, marketer and president of Mirum, wrote on his blog, Education is not just about taking a course or getting a degree. Education is about your desire to learn and grow. Do you have a career in digital marketing? How did you come to learn the industry? Share your education tips in the comments below: Related: Here's How to Build Your Own DIY MBA in Digital Marketing How to Make $2 Million With Just a Laptop and Phone #6 Reasons To Diversify Digital Marketing Strategies For Brands Copyright 2017 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com WASHINGTON - George Papadopoulos, a former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump, pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to federal officials about his contacts with Russian nationals he believed had ties to the Russian government during Trump's presidential campaign. Papadopoulos, who was named by Trump in March 2016 as a foreign policy adviser to the campaign, pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with the Russians when he was interviewed in January by federal agents who were investigating Russian interference in the presidential campaign. Papadopoulos told agents that he had been in contact with a Russian professor even prior to joining the campaign. In fact, prosecutors say he met the man in March 2016 and was told by the professor the next month that he had damaging information about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, including thousands of Clinton's emails. Papadopoulos also falsely told agents he believed the professor was a low-level person in Russia, but, in fact, he knew that the professor had ties to senior levels of the Russian government, according to court papers released Monday. Neither Papadopoulos nor a representative could be reached immediately Monday for comment. Papadopoulos's plea indicates he is cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller . The charge indicates that Mueller, who is known to be probing alleged coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, is deeply probing contacts with Trump campaign aides and Russian officials. The court papers show that Papadopoulos had also met a Russian woman he believed had ties to the Kremlin and with whom he communicated about setting up a meeting between Trump campaign officials and Russian officials. He told agents that he met the woman a year before joining the Trump campaign, but, in fact, he met her only after he was named to the campaign and communicated with her for months while working with Trump aides, the documents show. Papadopoulos's plea agreement shows he was introduced to the woman by the professor, and she claimed she was a relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to the plea, she told Papadopoulos she would like to help set up meetings for the Trump campaign with her associates to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under a future President Trump. Papadopoulos emailed campaign officials about her offer. A supervisor, who is not named, wrote back, "Great work." The Washington Post has reported that Papadopoulos repeatedly emailed top campaign aides to set up such meetings, and some emails show his offers were rebuffed. Prosecutors allege he obstructed their inquiry by deleting a Facebook page that would have revealed his contacts with Russians not long after learning of the investigation. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Stamford police / Contributed Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Stamford police / Contributed Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Stamford police / Contributed Show More Show Less 5 of 5 STAMFORD Police early Saturday raided a Greenwich Avenue residence and seized a stolen gun and arrested the man alleged to have been in possession of the pistol. Police charged Guatemalan national Wilber Arana-Cardona, 37, of Greenwich Avenue, with possession of a pistol without a permit, theft of a firearm and interfering with a search warrant and held him over the weekend in lieu of a $75,000 cash court appearance bond. It couldnt happen here. Thats what some Germanna Community College students told Holocaust survivor Jay Ipson when he spoke at the Fredericksburg Area Campus Thursday. Ipson, a Jew who lived through Hitlers rise and fall, said that unless Americans exercise critical thinking, history could indeed repeat itself. Ipson, co-founder of the Virginia Holocaust Museum, was raised in Lithuania, placed in a concentration camp at age 6 in 1941 and escaped with his parents in 1943. He arrived in Richmond with his parents in 1947, when he was 12. He pointed to recent events in Charlottesville as evidence that similar forces are at work now in the United States and that only an educated, well informed electorate can defeat those who seek to gain power by turning us against one another. The people have the power, Ipson told a room packed with about 150 mostly young people. You have the power. You elect the government. But sometimes some of us who elect the government dont know what theyre doing because theyre not informed. The Nazi party, he said, never had a majority in taking over Germany. They only needed 44 percent, Ipson pointed out. Then Hitler said, I am the chancellor. I am the leader. And what I say, you will do. The German Supreme Court fell under him and basically what he wanted is what they approved. Ipson told the Germanna crowd: How important you are. You are our government. Dont blindly vote for a party. Dont vote Democrat. Dont vote Republican. Dont vote Independent. Dont vote who knows what. Know what you war in for and what you have in the person and how trustyworthy he is. And that takes some study. The 82-year-old Ipson said he hasnt missed voting in an election since he was 18 years old. Ill vote for dogcatcher, because if I dont get what I want, then I get what I deserve. Be a part of the government. Dont just read one newspaper or one commentators opinion. Check it out. Too many Americans dont think critically about information fed to them that is not altogether different from the propaganda Germans heard in the 1930s, he said. The Internet, pardon me is full of s---, he said as students roared with laugher. Some jerk posts some stuff or pulls it off of who knows what and sends it off to his friends. And because your friends trust you, you have just given them a bunch of crap to go on. How many of you verify what you hear from your friends? Few in the crowd raised their hands. Its very important, he said He said there are 917 hate in the United States, including 39 in Virginia: Theyll hate me as a Jew, theyll hate you as a Christian, theyll hate you as a white, theyll hate you as a black. Theyll hate. If you do a little research youll be able to find out who they are and what they stand for. Recently, Charlottesville, a woman died because some stupid fool hated a group so so bad he took his car to drive on them.Thats not good for this country. Its not good for us. He said advances in communications devices like smart phones have turned the whole world into one big neighborhood and that should help us understand that we all have the most important things in life in common. What happens if you cut your finger? You bleed. What color is it? Red. What happens when somebody in Europe cuts their finger? What color? Were all the same. It doesnt after that the color of the skin is, it doesnt matter what color the hair is, it doesnt matter what country youre from. We are all the same. Law enforcement throughout Virginia is preparing for Halloween, a holiday statistically synonymous with drunk driving, according to State Police. Forty-five percent of all U.S. traffic fatalities, on average, between Halloween 2011 and 2015 involved a driver with a blood alcohol concentration over the legal limit of .08, according to the National Traffic Safety Administration. The scary fact is that during Halloween, nearly half of U.S. traffic fatalities involve drunk drivers, said Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Richard D. Holcomb. As part of the annual Checkpoint Strikeforce campaign, local and state law enforcement agencies throughout Virginia continue to increase enforcement efforts this month to identify and apprehend alcohol-impaired drivers. Penalties for even a first-time DUI conviction in Virginia include mandatory ignition interlock installation on the offenders vehicle as well as fines up to $ 2,500, suspension periods up to one year and jail sentences also up to one year, according to state police. While aiming to reach all potential drunk drivers, the statewide enforcement and education campaign specifically focuses on males aged 21 to 35, a demographic representing nearly a third of all persons killed in Virginias alcohol-related traffic crashes last year. The reality is that 21-to-35 year-olds accounted for nearly two-thirds of U.S. traffic deaths on Halloween night 2015, said Holcomb. Nearly 200 local law enforcement agencies along with Virginia State Police area offices are participating in Virginias 2017 Checkpoint Strikeforce campaign. In tandem with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over enforcement mobilization, Virginia law enforcement members are conducting high-visibility enforcement efforts including both sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols through the remainder of the 2017 calendar year. CHADRON Cyd Janssen spent last summer helping the media cover wildfires on Forest Service lands. This year, she helped suppress brush fires of a different sort. Janssen serves as public affairs officer for the U.S. Forest Service office in Chadron. Both trips were part of an enrichment policy that encourages federal employees to broaden their skills by taking temporary assignments in other districts. After her assignment last year, organizing fire coverage across Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado, she organized a workshop at Fort Robinson to help area reporters cover wildfires. Attendees were provided with printed and online information resources and learned protocol designed to keep them safe while getting the photos, videos and interviews they need to inform the public. Later in the year she left to spend a few months based in Fort Collins, filling in for public affairs officers in the Front Range. Her assignment ranged across northern Colorado in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest and Pawnee National Grassland and took her to offices in mountain towns such as Granby and Idaho Springs. I spent time in each of the districts, she said. At one point she served three simultaneously, dealing with fires and other forest issues, as their information officers were off duty or on other assignments. One difference between Colorado and home is the difference in oil and gas development on public lands. I was amazed by how much infrastructure is out there, she said. Another was dealing with Front Range media. Depending on the topic, a press conference might attract dozens of reporters from television and radio stations and newspapers, in part because of the importance of public lands issues to the states economy. Public-interest groups and even congressional staff were likely to be on hand. Beforehand, shed study background issues, previous studies and projects and review cooperation with state agencies. She consulted with other Forest Service personnel and briefed them on what she planned to say, and even practiced question-and-answer sessions. You document what action was done to gather public input, she said. I learned a lot about working with different specialists and project planning. An issue thats been attracting increasing attention in Colorado is recreational shooting, which is legal on forest land but can create safety concerns and conflicts with other forest users. In one incident, a person was hit by a stray bullet. The (Front Range) population is increasing by 100,000 people a year, and recreational shooting is becoming more popular, she said. There arent many developed shooting areas. Janssen is no stranger to political tensions. A Gordon native who lived on a ranch, she studied nursing at the University of Wyoming and worked for Nebraskas last two Nebraska Democratic governors, Bob Kerrey and Ben Nelson, with health, rural development and agricultural issues. She was Nelsons assistant director for agriculture. I was the first cabinet member to be allowed to live outside of Lincoln, she said. She left party politics and behind and joined the Forest Service after a rightward shift in the states political winds. Her summer stint gave her a greater appreciation of how different users bring different expectations and ethical approaches to their forest activities. Forest users in the northern Panhandle often encounter few other visitors. In Colorado, a remote trailhead might greet the weekend with dozens of parked vehicles unloading visitors. Hikers, horseback riders and ATVs have to share the same trails. Backpackers might scrupulously remove all trace of their visits, while other campers might leave mounds of trash and even human waste. We beg people to come visit us. In Colorado, they have areas that are being loved to death, she said. She learned new skills that will help her manage forest and grassland issues closer to home. It was a great summer, she said. They liked my work, and I helped them out when they were in need. She received a certificate of appreciation from her temporary colleagues and a lamp with a carved base depicting a bear. We put on a Bear Aware program, mostly through social media, to let people know what to do during a bear encounter, she said. After a relatively calm previous year, the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forest had experienced a sudden uptick in bear-related incidents, in part due to weather shifts that drove the animals closer to humans in their attempts to find food. As the number of encounters mounted, she got summoned by her supervisor. He said, Come into my office. Weve got bear trouble, she recalls with a laugh. I didnt know anything about bears. I know prairie dogs. How to Submit an Obituary or In Memoriam Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. You may also submit the obituary on your own. Pricing for obituaries is based on word count. One photo is allowed. If you wish to submit an obituary or in memoriam notice, please contact us at 308-487-3334 or email us: Hemingford-Ledger News The measure to tax microenterprises 1 percent of turnover is neutral for the time being, because one doesn't yet know on how many companies this will have a positive impact and on how many a negative one, president of the National Council of Small and Medium-sized Private Enterprises (CNIPMMR) Florin Jianu told a press conference on Monday. He added that the next survey to be carried out by CNIPMMR will focus on two elements: the levy of a 1 percent tax on microenterprises with a turnover of up to one million euro and the increase of the minimum wage. Jianu said this approach is intended to steer clear of communication blunders like the government's backpedaling on switching all social security contributions to the employee, but first test the plans on hundreds or thousands of SMEs and poll them. The CNIPMMR head also argued that the transfer of the contributions from the employer to the employee will not result in a decrease of the net wage, because the companies are facing staff shortage. "With regard to the transfer of the social security contributions from the employer to the employee, there is no country in the world where the contributions are only in the charge of the employee. Public slipups like those you've seen on the part of the Ministry of Finance that claimed there is a European directive they didn't know exactly how to define and what it referred to ... we, on the other hand, have identified that particular directive which clearly prohibits funds from the salary liabilities pool to be transferred to the employee," Jianu stressed. He also referred to the split VAT, arguing that Bulgaria has tried a few years ago to introduce such a measure but gave it up because it proved unsustainable and would have gridlocked the economy, and that the UK discusses its enforcement, but only for online transactions. In Italy, the measure applies only to state contracts, and Poland too contemplated enforcing it but postponed it indefinitely. Agerpres. The activity of the Uricani underground mine in Jiului Valley was suspended after the labour accident that occurred Monday morning, the 56 miners who were underground at the time of the blast being brought to surface, Energy Minister Toma Petcu stated at Uricani. He explained that experts are already investigating the work areas underground and the activity will resume when their safety will be certified. The Minister said that the first data do not indicate an explosion in the underground but a gas firing and the causes which generated this event will be looked into. "It is important to specify that all miners were carrying protection equipment, including measuring devices for gas concentration in the mine. (...) The miners affected by the blast were in a concrete, protected area were closing works and a protection dam were being carried out. It was not an area crossed by an electric cable that might have triggered that ignition, that is why we are looking forward to the ITM [Hunedoara Territorial Labour Inspectorate - ed.n.] investigation to find out the source of the ignition, firstly, and where the gas came from, " the Energy Minister further said. As regards the two rescuers who were intoxicated with gas during the evacuation to the surface of the miner who passed away underground, they received treatment at Petrosani hospital and were discharged with their agreement because they presented mild forms of intoxication. The other three miners with burns of 8 to 50 percent of the body surface were rushed to hospitals in Bucharest with a helicopter. "Two of the miners had third degree burns on almost 50 pct of the body surface, and the third one suffers from milder burns," Minister Toma Petcu said. Agerpres. Romania's Ambassador to the US, George Cristian Maior had a meeting last weekend, at the US State Department, with Wess Mitchell, the new Assistant to US Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia, the Romanian Embassy in the US has informed. According to the quoted source, the two officials discussed on Friday, October 27, about the excellent bilateral relations between Romania and the US, and especially the new development opportunities of the Strategic Partnership resulting from the White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and President of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, with an emphasis on deepening cooperation in security and defense, but also in terms of the dialogue on the principles of the rule of law. Maior underscored the importance of continuing, in the following period, the high-level political dialogue to deepen and implement the main dimensions of the strategic dialogue. Agerpres. Akzo Nobel is considering a merger with U.S. rival Axalta Coating Systems in a bid to keep the embattled Dutch paintmaker independent and create a transatlantic specialty coatings giant. The Amsterdam-based company is "currently in constructive discussions" regarding a merger of equals with Axalta to create a leading global paints and coatings company, Akzo Nobel said in a statement on Monday. Axalta is the world's largest maker of auto refinish paints, with a market value of $8.1 billion. A deal with Axalta would come separately from the Dutch company's planned separation of its specialty chemicals business, including the return of the vast majority of net proceeds to shareholders. Akzo Nobel said this remains on track for April 2018 and is unaffected by the merger discussions. Akzo Nobel is racing against the clock to ward off what could be another run on the company from U.S. competitor PPG Industries, which would be permitted to renew its takeover bid from Dec. 1 under Dutch takeover rules. Akzo Nobel successfully rebuffed an unsolicited $29 billion buyout offer this year, coming under intense shareholder pressure in the process from activist investor Elliott Management Corp., which had pushed for tie up talks. A combination with Axalta would be sensible, Bernstein analysts including Jeremy Redenius said in a note on Monday. The deal would combine the third- and fourth-ranked manufacturers in a market that remains relatively fragmented. "We think Akzo shareholders would vote on a merger of equals," the analysts said, adding that there could be some antitrust scrutiny into the effects of a deal in some industrial applications and especially in auto refinishings. The Dutch paintmaker, which plans to separate its chemical division to tighten its focus on coatings, abandoned a target last month for 2017 profit growth after third-quarter earnings missed estimates. It has also undergone a series of changes in top executives in recent months after losing its CEO and chief finance officer due to health reasons. Akzo Nobel is looking to pay close to no premium in any deal, a person familiar with the matter said over the weekend. Axalta, of which Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. is the largest shareholder, soared 17 percent in New York Friday after Reuters first reported the talks, valuing the company at about $8.1 billion. The Dutch competitor, led by Chief Executive Officer Thierry Vanlancker, has a market value of almost 20 billion euros ($22.6 billion) after shares climbed 30 percent this year. "The timing suggests the Akzo Nobel board wants to block off any possibility of losing its independence," Laurence Alexander, an analyst at Jefferies, said in a note. Axalta, meanwhile, has posted two straight quarters of profit declines amid rising costs for paint ingredients. The company, formerly a unit of DuPont, would complement Akzo's product lines, Michael J. Harrison, an analyst at Seaport Global Securities, said in a note. Axalta may sell for $40 a share, based on the 15-times earnings multiple paid by Sherwin-Williams Co. for Valspar Corp. earlier this year, he said. A tie-up between Axalta and Akzo is "logical" given the rapidly consolidating coatings industry, Ghansham Panjabi, an analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co., said in a note. He sees Axalta potentially selling for more than $40 a share, noting it's the last medium-sized asset left in the industry. Bloomberg's Jack Kaskey and Ed Hammond contributed. Area manufacturers, schools, financial institutions and health care providers riddled lawyers with inquiries last week, in the wake of the passage of Amendment 3. Employers were left to ponder: What do they need or want to know about their employees' after-hours cannabis use? SANDY, Utah Until the past few weeks, Christopher Hansons work as a foreman installing rooftop solar systems was as bright and steady as the midmorning Wasatch Front sun. By his measure, Hanson has completed over 2,000 residential solar projects in his nearly five-year career, including one more hes about to finish for Vivint Solar here in the suburbs south of Salt Lake City. Now Hanson is nervous about his job. On Tuesday, the U.S. International Trade Commission is scheduled to start considering a tariff on imports of the most popular photovoltaic generating panels used in the booming U.S. residential and utility-scale solar markets. A stiff tariff could double the price of imported photovoltaic panels made from crystalline silicon, an outcome that is either calamitous or full of opportunity for the burgeoning solar industry, depending on how you look at it. Two international solar panel producers with United States plants say they need protection from low-cost imports. Most of the industry, though, clamors to maintain a sure supply of inexpensive foreign panels to meet the rocketing demand for residential and industrial solar installations. The trade commissions decision will be sent to President Donald Trump on Nov. 13. Whatever the outcome, the tariff case has riven the $30-billion U.S. solar sector and darkened Utahs Wasatch Front and almost every other region where solar-powered electrical generation is one of the brightest spots in industry. Supporters of the tariff include Tempe, Ariz.-based First Solar, the largest U.S. solar panel producer, which uses cadmium-based thin film technology to manufacture equipment unaffected by the trade commissions decision. The $2.95-billion companys stock price soared in September after the trade commission determined that a tariff may be justified. First Solars orders outpace its ability to fill them well into 2018, and the company is building new manufacturing lines to double its production. Most other solar industry executives and many utility companies join Hanson in opposing an import tariff. If it costs me my job, that would not be good, he said. If it costs this industry a lot more money and we lose business, that wont be good either. Its a concern. You just dont know. The shadow of uncertainty started to develop in March when Suniva, the Hong Kong-based owner of solar panel plants in Georgia and Michigan, laid off 130 workers. On April 27, nine days after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Suniva filed a petition asking the trade commission to levy a tariff that could double the price of imported crystalline silicon components and equipment. Last year, imported silicon panels supplied roughly 80 percent of the American market. Suniva was later joined in its appeal by SolarWorld Americas, a German firm that laid off 360 workers in July at its silicon photovoltaic panel plant in Hillsboro, Ore. Both companies argued that imported panels were so inexpensive that their U.S. manufacturing facilities could not compete. The companies political allies include Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., whose district includes one of the closed Suniva plants. I urge President Trump to act and support our manufacturers and workers, Kildee said in a statement last spring. In my district, we have already lost hundreds of Michigan jobs. In many other states, though, Sunivas tariff petition has caused such a stir that authorities in the solar installation sector warn that it could force companies to close, eliminate tens of thousands of jobs and seriously damage an industry that is a model of environmentally sensitive 21st century industrial development. Starting as a niche energy industry less than a decade ago, the U.S. solar sector has grown to about 40 manufacturing plants, over 9,000 installation companies and 260,000 employees, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, the industrys major trade group in Washington. Last year, utility-scale solar stations produced 37 percent of new electrical generating capacity in the U.S., more than any other source of electricity, according to the Energy Information Administration, an Energy Department data group. The number of rooftop solar installations increased almost 20 percent. Solar firms added 14.7 gigawatts of new U.S. generating capacity in 2016, about the same amount as 15 big coal-fired generating stations. Only China added more. Much of the growth is driven by the availability of imported solar panels, which cost a third of what they did four years ago and whose prices fell still further until last summer. Imported solar panels were priced at about 35 cents per watt this year, or about $130 for a typical residential panel, and 50 to 55 cents a watt for a $190 utility-scale panel. Prices for both have climbed over 10 percent since spring. Suniva has called for a tariff establishing a price of about 78 cents per watt a proposal that has put the industry in turmoil. Utility-scale producers say the near future is so uncertain that activity on new projects has virtually ceased. Its been very disruptive, said Mark D. Marion, vice president for operations at Juwi Americas, a German owned company that built a $100 million, 50-megawatt generating station that opened in Utah last year. Such a large station typically uses 200,000 silicon panels that make up almost half the cost of the project. We dont know what the price of panels will be, and what our cost to build a project will be. The uncertainty is preventing utilities and developers from signing contracts. Residential solar companies are encountering the same turmoil. Vivint Solar, based in a new headquarters in Lehi, Utah, grew from a 2011 startup to become a residential solar leader, with 4,000 employees in 20 states and $135 million in revenue last year. David Bywater, Vivint Solars chief executive, said the number of installations 105 a day nationwide this year appears to be falling as panel prices rise. Im worried, and not just for our company, he said. Solar power is one of the few things that almost every American says, Please do this. We support this. But its a fragile ecosystem. If the cost is increased, solar businesses will not be able to do what we do. The margins are thin. Trump has until Jan. 12 to act on the trade commissions recommendation. Unlike the administrations decisions to support fossil fuel development, which face stiff legal and legislative barriers, the president has near total authority to abide by the commission recommendation, to increase or lower the solar tariff level, or to reject it altogether. Updated at 3:15 p.m. Stifel Financial Corp., the St. Louis-based financial services giant, is making another acquisition, this time buying the long-established wealth management business of B.C. Ziegler & Co. Ziegler Wealth Management, founded in 1902 and based in Chicago, has 57 private client advisers in 12 branches across five states that manage approximately $4.8 billion in client assets. Terms of the transaction, expected to close in the first quarter of 2018, were not disclosed. Ziegler CEO Tom Paprocki said the sale of the wealth management division allows Ziegler to tighten its focus on institutional offerings including investment banking, capital markets and fund management for clients in health care, senior living and education. "These are capabilities upon which we were founded, and for which today we are nationally recognized, Paprocki said. Stifel Chairman and CEO Ronald Kruszewski called the deal another step in the company's growth strategy. We have worked with the management team at Ziegler in the past and we are excited to add not only a growing and profitable business to our platform but one whose culture of integrity and putting the client first is very similar to our own, he said. Stifel has made multiple acquisitions in recent years. In January, the firm closed its acquisition of City Financial Corp. and its Indianapolis-based subsidiary, City Securities Corp., an investment bank with 40 financial advisers and eight offices managing $4 billion in client assets. In January 2016, Stifel acquired Eaton Partners, a global fund placement and advisory firm with 60 employees and six offices. Stifel shares closed Monday at $51.72, down 27 cents. After markets closed, Stifel reported third-quarter profit of $64.2 million, or 79 cents a share, up from $16.3 million, or 21 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Net revenue rose 12.3 percent to $721.2 million. Joe Holleman Joe Holleman is a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Follow Joe Holleman Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily! Your notification has been saved. There was a problem saving your notification. {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. Save Manage followed notifications Close Followed notifications Please log in to use this feature Log In Don't have an account? Sign Up Today Looks like the new gospel station on St. Louis radio is wasting no time in hiring announcers known in the genre. Salem Media Group's "Praise 95.1," officially WSDZ-FM 95.1, has hired STLer Hernandes "PK" Union away from KSTL-AM 690. Union will host the afternoon-drive (3-7 p.m.) on the station. That is the same shift he worked at KSTL, where he had been program director since 2013. Union (the "PK" stands for "preacher's kid") also was a co-host in 2011 of a short-lived television show, "Rescued Nation." In a press release, program director Darrel Eason said Union "has an extensive knowledge of the local St. Louis gospel music scene which means listeners really connect with him. Union also will act as a liaison with local churches, the release said. Salem started the "St. Louis Gospel Experience" last week. It airs urban gospel contemporary music during the day and local and syndicated Christian programs after 7 p.m. The programming also can be heard on WSDZ-AM 1260. A 12-year-old boy's suicide attempt wound up killing a woman after he jumped from an interstate overpass and landed on her car, police said. Virginia State Police are investigating the incident that happened Saturday and killed Marisa Harris, 22, of Olney, Md. She was a graduate student at Marymount University after graduating with honors from Towson University. She wanted to help children fighting depression. Police said Harris was driving her 2005 Ford Escape on Interstate 66 in Fairfax County when the boy jumped from an overpass, incapacitating harris. Her boyfriend, who was in the passenger seat, took control of the car and steered it off the interstate. She was pronounced dead at the scene; the boy was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. A Trenton man who allegedly pretended to be a police officer when he pulled a woman over in Clinton County is now facing multiple charges, police say. Christopher D. Reddin, 22, was charged with aggravated battery, reckless driving, reckless conduct, criminal damage to property and false impersonation of a police officer, according to the Clinton County Jail. Not all of these charges, however, stemmed from from the alleged police impersonation. The woman told law enforcement that a man followed her vehicle Oct. 21 on back roads between Breese and Trenton, according to the Clinton County Sheriffs Department. The man blocked her path forward with his car, she told police, and said he was an undercover police officer. She refused to get out of her car without seeing his badge, and he let her go. Reddin was already booked in the Clinton County Jail on unrelated charges when the woman identified him Tuesday. He was facing two counts of aggravated battery and criminal damage to property, which he was charged with Tuesday. He was charged Friday with impersonating a police officer. He was initially taken into custody on a warrant to revoke his probation for a January aggravated battery conviction. As of Sunday morning, Reddin remained in the Clinton County Jail. His bail was set at $100,000. 2017 the Belleville News-Democrat (Belleville, Ill.) Visit the Belleville News-Democrat (Belleville, Ill.) at www.bnd.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. ____ EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this report incorrectly described how much the Missouri Highway Patrol's hours have been trimmed after the conclusion of a pilot program over the summer. This version has been corrected and reworked. ST. LOUIS A pilot program that saw the Missouri Highway Patrol policing some of the city's interstates has officially wrapped up, but troopers will continue to be stationed along the highways for about 18 hours a day. Troopers began working along portions of interstates 55 and 70 on July 9, with a goal of freeing up city police officers to patrol troubled neighborhoods. At times, troopers also backed up city police officers on calls, and vice versa. In all, about two dozen troopers spent about 21 hours a day along the two interstates for 90 days. Before the pilot program, troopers were not patrolling St. Louis interstates. The program was part of a plan Gov. Eric Greitens said would help combat crime in the most dangerous city in the United States of America. Greitens spokesman Parker Briden said Thursday that the governor believes the pilot program was a great success. Its clear from our perspective that its a successful program, it had an impact and we look forward to working with local officials and the highway patrol to see how we can continue working together in the region, he said. Establishing a presence in the region is important. Starting Oct. 14, troopers reduced their presence along those interstates to about 18 hours a day, during peak hours, according to an internal police memo obtained by the Post-Dispatch. District officers have been able to spend more time in the neighborhoods and less on these two highways, according to the department-wide memo dated Oct. 13 from Capt. Michael Sack. While the program has officially ended, the troopers will remain on our city highways while a review is conducted on its merit. Interim St. Louis Police Chief Lawrence OToole referred questions to the patrol. It was not clear whether the department believes it saw an impact on its policing because of the troopers work. Crime stats show a mixed bag, with no way to measure the effect of the program: Homicides are up overall over last year, but were down by about 9 percent during the pilot program period compared with the same period in 2016. Assaults involving guns were up by about the same amount when comparing July through September to the same months in 2016. Overall crime was down about 5 percent from July to September compared with last year. Stops, tickets, arrests Troopers kept busy during the program. They made about 500 arrests on misdemeanor charges and close to 200 on felonies, according to the patrol. They made 93 arrests for driving while intoxicated. They also arrested nearly 800 people for outstanding misdemeanor warrants and about 70 for outstanding felony warrants. Troopers issued about 5,100 warnings for traffic violations, and handed out about 1,500 tickets for speeding or moving violations, and about 4,300 others summonses. They also assisted almost 1,600 motorists and investigated 230 crashes. Mayor Lyda Krewson is pleased with those numbers, her spokesman, Koran Addo, said. We certainly saw a lot of arrests and contraband and weapons seized, which is more than when they werent patrolling, he said. And city residents pay state taxes, so we should get the same services that everyone else in the state gets. But St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardners office wasnt equipped for the influx of tickets. In mid-September, she asked Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley to appoint an assistant prosecutor to help process about 3,500 tickets the patrol had issued by then. St. Louis city counselor Julian Bush says the citys municipal court system had since begun handling the prosecutions. Shes made a decision not to prosecute those tickets, so we picked up the ball, Bush said. As a result, revenue from the tickets is going into city coffers. St. Louis Municipal Court Administrator Richard Torack believes the revenue from Highway Patrol tickets so far totals less than $5,000. He did not have an estimate on outstanding fines, adding that drivers have a right to contest their tickets in court instead of paying them. But he said it was not about the money. Some of these violations are for going 80, 90, or 100 mph, doing lane change violations or with children not wearing seat belts, he said. These are genuine public safety concerns. The first court date for those who have received tickets from the Highway Patrol in the city has been set for Nov. 13. UPDATED at 2:30 p.m. Monday with name of man killed in crash. ST. LOUIS An SUV going the wrong way in the eastbound lanes of Highway 40 (Interstate 64) early Sunday morning slammed head-on into another vehicle, killing a Metro East man and critically injuring three other people, police say. The 2014 GMC Terrain was going westbound in the eastbound lanes near Union Station when it crashed into an eastbound Chevrolet Traverse about 3:30 a.m., according to police. Killed was Mickeal Stephens, 21, a passenger in the 2017 Traverse, police said. Stephens lived in the 3800 block of McCoy Road, north of Bethalto. Two other people in the Traverse the male driver, 24, and a female passenger, 26 were taken to hospitals in critical condition. The driver was stable. The woman, who was thrown from the vehicle, was said to be unstable at the hospital. The driver of the vehicle going the wrong-way, a 27-year-old man, was also in critical and unstable condition at a hospital after the crash, according to police. Police don't know why he was going the wrong way or how long he been traveling in the wrong direction on the interstate. There are offramps from eastbound Highway 40 at 14th Street, 11th Street and Sixth Street (the "last Missouri exit") before the Poplar Street Bridge over the Mississippi River. JEFFERSON CITY Despite repeated courtroom failures costing Missouri taxpayers millions of dollars, the state is again appealing a decision involving underpayments to more than 3,000 blind people. On Monday, Attorney General Josh Hawleys office filed a notice it would appeal a Cole County judges opinion ordering payments worth more than $26.3 million be made to the group. It marks the fifth appeal in a case that dates back to 2006. Our clients are really disappointed the state is dragging this out, said attorney John Ammann of the St. Louis University Legal Clinics. The attorney generals office defended its latest maneuver. We are continuing to contest the judgment and working to preserve all of the states options moving forward, said Loree Anne Paradise, deputy chief of staff. The money is for blind people who had been shorted by the Department of Social Services blind pension fund, which was put in place in the 1920s as a way to provide a social safety net for the blind. The recipients are paid about $728 a month from a special levy on property taxes. In 2006, however, the Missouri Council of the Blind sued the state for using money flowing into the program for other government costs. Judges have agreed the money should be paid out, but the appeals have delayed that process. While the case is pending, the state is on the hook to pay interest at 9 percent per year. If the state had settled the long-running lawsuit five years ago, taxpayers could have been billed $7 million less. Chip Hailey of Joplin, who helped initiate the lawsuit more than a decade ago, said the delay is frustrating because the issue of the underpayments is not in dispute. Its very, very irritating. Lets just settle this thing and move on, Hailey said. We need to get this thing behind us. I was taken back that we didnt get better cooperation from the state when we stated our case. Hailey, who is blind, says the monthly pension benefit is the only money some recipients have. For a lot of them, thats all they have, Hailey said. The money has allowed him to purchase a machine to help him read books and a Braille pocket watch. That money has allowed me to do things above my every day necessities, Hailey said. For some of those affected, the payout will be added to their monthly check. Others will receive a lump sum payout ranging from a few dollars to an estimated $3,000, Ammann said. JEFFERSON CITY Proponents of legalizing marijuana for medical use say 2018 is the year for Missouri. Public opinion has shifted. Money is flowing. And canvassers dot street corners. But weve heard this before. After raising more than $1.3 million through June of last year, a group called New Approach Missouri run by some of the states most well-known marijuana advocates narrowly missed the ballot after election officials tossed thousands of the groups signatures. This year, New Approach is coming back with a new approach validating signatures and collecting them earlier, said Jack Cardetti, the groups spokesman. He said the group has collected about 100,000 of the approximately 170,000 signatures it needs to make the November 2018 ballot. Our goal is to make Missouri the 30th state that allows state-licensed physicians to recommend medical marijuana to patients with debilitating illnesses, he said. New bill would allow for use, sale and growth of marijuana in St. Louis The bill aims to free up law enforcement resources to focus on more serious, violent crime in the city. Cardetti said the signatures and $172,000 raised last fundraising quarter are evidence of momentum months away from the May 2018 signature-gathering deadline. Two other groups also are attempting to make the ballot. Springfield attorney and physician Dr. Brad Bradshaw is proposing his own constitutional amendment. He is the sole backer of the push, and said that canvassers had collected 142,000 signatures. Were getting close, Bradshaw said last week, adding that the main purpose of his measure is to finance a medical research institute, with marijuana tax revenue used as the funding mechanism. A third effort backed by former Missouri House Speaker Steve Tilley, R-Perryville, and former state Rep. Mike Colona, D-St. Louis, would seek to change the state statute not the Constitution which would require fewer signatures to make the ballot and also allow lawmakers to tweak the law. We think its a more pragmatic approach, Tilley said of a statutory change versus a constitutional one. Missourians for Patient Care, as of its October Missouri Ethics Commission filing, had not reported any donations. Tilley said the group would start gathering signatures in the coming weeks. The address listed on the groups paperwork is the same as Pelopidas LLC, a firm linked to megadonor Rex Sinquefield. But Mark Habbas, a spokesman with Patient Care, said Sinquefield is in no way connected to the campaign. The secretary of states office also has approved the petition efforts of a fourth group, the Missouri Marijuana Legalization Movement. That group is trying to legalize full recreational use of marijuana. Shifting attitudes While Missourians did not have the chance to weigh in on medical marijuana last year, voters in other conservative states did. Voters in North Dakota, Arkansas and Florida all approved initiatives. Voters in Montana opted to expand access to medicinal marijuana. Four other states California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Maine voted in recreational use of pot, bringing the total amount of states where voters have backed legal pot to eight. Quinnipiac University released a poll in August showing that 94 percent of voters surveyed supported allowing adults to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if their doctor prescribes it. Last week, Gallup released a poll showing 64 percent of respondents want legalized recreational marijuana, a record level of support. For the first time, Gallup said, a majority of Republicans surveyed 51 percent supported full legalization of marijuana. As attitudes shift, more Americans are weary of the federal government cracking down on legalized marijuana, the Quinnipiac poll showed. Just 20 percent of respondents said they would support the federal government enforcing federal law in states that had legalized medical or recreational pot. Seventy-five percent of respondents opposed such a move. State Rep. Shamed Dogan, R-Ballwin, co-sponsored a failed attempt at legalizing medical marijuana this past year. When the federal government does keep it illegal, and keeps doctors from prescribing it, and keeps research from being conducted into its efficacy, Dogan said, I think its something from a states rights perspective where we need to push back against the federal prohibition. Dogan said he hasnt studied any of the initiatives, but hopes the Legislature makes another effort next year to pass its own medical marijuana bill. While the other proposals may make the ballot, if the Legislature passes a competitive measure, activists may slow the push for their own reforms, he said. Differing proposals The three medical marijuana petitions present similar lists of qualifying conditions, which include cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder, intractable migraines, HIV/AIDS, terminal illness and other ailments. New Approachs language would impose a 4 percent tax on retail sales, which would go toward veterans health care. The state estimates the proposal would generate $18 million in fees and sales tax each year. The Bradshaw Amendment would tax retail sales at 15 percent, using that revenue and a wholesale tax to start an institute dedicated to funding medical research. The state estimated the proposal would generate $66 million in revenue and fees per year. The Patient Care statutory change would impose a 2 percent retail tax, channeling revenue to early childhood education, veterans care, public safety and drug treatment. ST. CHARLES A man has filed suit against the St. Charles nursing home where his mother caught fire and suffered fatal burns in May while smoking a cigarette in her wheelchair. The victim, Donna Chapman, 83, died May 15, two days after she caught fire while smoking unsupervised on a patio at NHC HealthCare. Her son, Dean Chapman of Wildwood, filed the wrongful-death suit Oct. 23 in St. Charles County Circuit Court. He is seeking unspecified damages. The suit claims the nursing home improperly left the disabled woman alone while she smoked without a special apron that was supposed to protect her from ashes and dropped cigarettes. The suit also says the nursing home failed to adequately assess her ability to smoke unsupervised and detect changes in her mental and physical condition. NHC HealthCares administrator, Seth Peimann, did not return a call seeking comment Monday. Partly paralyzed from a stroke years ago, Donna Chapman was a resident of the nursing home at 35 Sugar Maple Lane. On May 13, a member of the staff wheeled Chapman onto the patio, then left her alone to smoke a cigarette before dinner. Chapman somehow ignited her clothing and was found ablaze by an attendant. I am burning alive, I am burning alive, Chapman kept saying, according to an investigative report from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Chapman had dementia, and because of her paralysis, limited use of her legs and left arm. She was a longtime smoker. The nursing home performed eight smoking assessments for her between 2012 and March 17, 2017, the suit says. All of the assessments determined she could smoke without supervision, despite concern expressed by staff in October 2016 and the discovery of burn marks on her clothing in February, the suit adds. In March, the nursing home did tell Chapman she had to wear a special smoking apron to protect her from hot ashes and dropped cigarettes. Despite concerns that her dementia was worsening and that burn marks continued to be found on her clothes, she was put on the back porch alone on May 13 without a smoking apron, the suit says. At some point, an employee decided to check on Donna and found her still sitting in her wheelchair with flames on her body and wheelchair, the suit alleges. A St. Charles Fire Department report said smoke alarms were going off when they arrived, but the fire had been put out. The report said it appeared Chapmans clothing or the foam padding surrounding her had ignited. She suffered third-degree burns to her scalp, chest, neck and shoulders. Peimann, the nursing home administrator, told the Post-Dispatch in May that Chapmans death was a bad accident. This is a very difficult time here at the center, Peimann said then. A lot of people were really attached to her. She was part of our family. We miss her. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services investigated the death at the 120-bed skilled nursing facility and issued a notice of noncompliance in June. No fine was issued. David Terry, an attorney for Dean Chapman, said: For a nursing home to provide a safe environment for its residents, there must be enough staff members to properly supervise the residents and the staff needs to be sufficiently trained to meet the needs of each resident. We believe in this case the NHC facility failed to do that. The nursing home has since changed its policy on smoking. New residents cant smoke, while three smokers who are grandfathered in will be allowed to smoke in a supervised smoking section. A nurse will keep all of the patients cigarettes and lighters locked up, according to a state report. The home is supposed to keep a daily smoking log. Blythe Bernhard and Joel Currier of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report. WASHINGTON A former campaign adviser to President Donald Trump has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians, special counsel Robert Mueller said Monday, while Trump's former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and his business partner pleaded not guilty to felony charges of conspiracy against the United States and other counts. The guilty plea by former adviser George Papadopoulos marked the first criminal case that cites interactions between Trump campaign associates and Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential campaign. The developments ushered Mueller's sprawling investigation into a new phase with felony charges and possible prison sentences for key members of the Trump team. Court papers also revealed that Papadopoulos was told about the Russians possessing "dirt" on Democrat Hillary Clinton in the form of "thousands of emails" on April 26, 2016, well before it became public that the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's emails had been hacked. Papadopoulos has been cooperating with investigators, according to court papers, a potentially ominous sign for others in the Trump orbit who might be implicated by his statements. During the daily press briefing, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders downplayed Papadopoulos' role in the campaign, saying it was "extremely limited." "He was not paid by the campaign," Sanders said, adding later: "Any actions that he took would have been on his own." She said the White House has had "indications" that Mueller's investigation would conclude "soon." The president quickly tweeted about the allegations against Manafort, saying the alleged crimes were "years ago," and insisting there was "NO COLLUSION" between his campaign and Russia. He added, as he has a number of times recently, "Why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" Manafort and Rick Gates appeared in federal court in Washington and pleaded not guilty to all charges. Papadopoulos' plea occurred on Oct. 5 and was unsealed Monday. In court papers, he admitted lying to FBI agents about the nature of his interactions with "foreign nationals" who he thought had close connections to senior Russian government officials. Those interactions included speaking with Russian intermediaries who were attempting to line up a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin and offering "dirt" on Clinton. The court filings don't provide details on the emails or whom Papadopoulos may have told about the Russian government effort. The FBI interviewed Papadopoulos about his Russian connections on Jan. 27, a week after Trump's inauguration. The interview predates Mueller's appointment but was part of the FBI probe into Russian election interference that he has taken over. Papadopoulos was arrested over the summer at Dulles International Airport and has since met with the government "on numerous occasions to provide information and answer questions." The separate charges against Manafort and Rick Gates contend the men acted as unregistered foreign agents for Ukrainian interests. The indictments also include other financial counts involving tens of millions of dollars routed through offshore accounts. Manafort's indictment doesn't reference the Trump campaign or make any allegations about coordination between the Kremlin and the president's aides to influence the outcome of the election in Trump's favor. The indictment does allege a criminal conspiracy was continuing through February of this year, after Trump had taken office. The indictment filed in federal court in Washington accuses both Manafort and Gates of funneling payments through foreign companies and bank accounts as part of their political work in Ukraine. The two men surrendered to federal authorities Monday, and were expected in court later in the day to face the charges brought by Mueller's team. The indictment lays out 12 counts including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, making false statements and several charges related to failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts. The indictment alleges the men moved money through hidden bank accounts in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles. In total, more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts, according to the indictment. Manafort is accused of laundering more than $18 million. A spokesman for Manafort did not immediately return calls or text messages requesting comment. Manafort and Gates have previously denied any wrongdoing. Manafort, 68, was fired as Trump's campaign chairman in August 2016 after word surfaced that he had orchestrated a covert lobbying operation on behalf of pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. The indictment against Manafort and Gates was largely based on activities disclosed in August 2016 by The Associated Press, which reported that the pair had orchestrated a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine's ruling political party. Citing internal emails, the AP noted that Gates personally directed the work of two prominent Washington lobbying firms, Mercury LLC and the Podesta Group. The indictment doesn't refer to the companies by name. Specifically, the indictment accuses Manafort of using "his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income." That included using offshore accounts to purchase multimillion-dollar properties in the U.S., some of which the government is seeking to seize. Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to tip the presidential election. The appointment came one week after the firing of James Comey, who as FBI director led the investigation, and also followed the recusal months earlier of Attorney General Jeff Sessions from the probe. Manafort joined Trump's campaign in March 2016 and oversaw the Republican National Convention delegate strategy. Trump pushed him out in August amid a stream of negative headlines about Manafort's foreign consulting work. Trump's middle son, Eric Trump, said in an interview at the time that his father was concerned that questions about Manafort's past were taking attention away from the billionaire's presidential bid. Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. That investigation was incorporated into Mueller's broader probe. In July, his investigators raided one of Manafort's homes in Virginia, searching for tax and international banking records. Previously, he denied any wrongdoing related to his Ukrainian work, saying through a spokesman that it "was totally open and appropriate." Manafort also recently registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for parts of Ukrainian work that occurred in Washington. The filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act came retroactively, a tacit acknowledgment that he operated in Washington in violation of the federal transparency law. The indictment Monday accuses Manafort and Gates of making several false and misleading statements in that FARA filing. Mueller's investigation has also reached into the White House, as he examines the circumstances of Comey's firing. Investigators have requested extensive documents and have interviewed multiple current and former officials. Mueller's grand jury has also heard testimony about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower in New York attended by a Russian lawyer as well as Manafort, Donald Trump Jr. and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. In Gates, Mueller brings in not just Manafort's chief deputy, but a key player from Trump's campaign who survived Manafort's ouster last summer. As of two weeks ago, Gates was still working for Tom Barrack, a Trump confidant, helping with the closeout of the inauguration committee's campaign account. ___ Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker, Stephen Braun, Tom LoBianco and Jeff Horwitz contributed to this report. The Navy is investigating whether two members of the Navy's elite SEAL Team Six killed an Army Green Beret in Mali in June, a US official told CNN Sunday. Naval Criminal Investigative Service spokesman Ed Buice confirmed the NCIS investigation into the death of Army Staff Sgt. Logan J. Melgar. Melgar was a Special Forces Engineer Sergeant, the U.S. Army Special Command said. Military officials told CNN that a military examiner ruled Melgar's death while on assignment in the African nation of Mali as a homicide. A US official told CNN jurisdiction for the investigation shifted from the Army investigation service to the Navy in September. The official said the transfer of jurisdiction indicates that Navy personnel are subjects of the investigation. The New York Times was the first to report that two members of SEAL Team Six were under investigation for Melgar's death, saying his death was caused by strangulation at a US government compound near the American embassy in Bamako, the capital. Michelle Melgar, the victim's wife, has been notified her husband's manner of death was a homicide, the official said. She told CNN: "I ask for privacy during this time -- I hope that you will allow me to tell my story when I'm ready. I knew him best -- he was my best friend. It's all so new -- I'm sorry." Melgar, a native of Lubbock, Texas, enlisted in the US Army in 2012 and began Special Forces training in 2013, according to the US Army Special Command statement. He served two deployments to Afghanistan. The report of the mysterious death and resulting homicide investigation comes as the US undergoes heightened scrutiny about its military role Africa following the death of four US service members in Niger earlier this month. Melgar was a member of the 3rd Special Forces Group, which is the primary unit responsible for Army special operations in northwest Africa, including Mali and Niger. The four American soldiers killed in Niger earlier this month were part of the same group. First and foremost, lets clarify what Mondays legal action against three former Trump campaign officials are not. The 12-count indictments are not a smoking gun indicating direct linkage between President Donald Trump and Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. We wont put it in all capital letters with an exclamation point, the way Trump did in an insistent tweet Monday, but the president is correct that no collusion with Russia has been proven. In fact, the indictments of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his deputy, Rick Gates, dont even mention Trump. A third campaign associate, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his own Russian contacts. The charges filed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller do, however, offer a glimpse of the pro-Russia influences that played on Trump throughout 2016 as the candidate was formulating the undeniably Russia-friendly foreign policy that he campaigned on. Manafort served as key adviser to Trump during that period, including when Trump publicly urged Russia to hack Democratic candidate Hillary Clintons email accounts. Gates continued to advise Trump even after Manafort came under investigation for money laundering and failure to declare himself an agent of a foreign government. Papadopoulos sought Russian contacts who claimed to have dirt on Clinton that the Trump campaign could use to defeat her. All campaigns look for dirt to use against opponents. But seeking out Russian help, then lying to the FBI about it, is serious. Why would he lie and attempt to erase potentially damning Facebook postings if not to cover up his actions? Manafort has long maintained links to unsavory international leaders, including Ukraines former president, Viktor Yanukovych. Yanukovych reportedly paid Manafort $12 million from 2004 to 2014. Yanukovych, with extensive Russian government support, served as president from 2010 to 2014. After his government fell, Russia began arming pro-Moscow separatist militias in eastern Ukraine, then launched a military takeover and annexation of Crimea. Trump appeared to defend Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding these incursions, erroneously saying in an August 2016 television interview, Hes not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down and you can put it down, you can take it anywhere you want. Why Trump would defend the Russian leader, at the same time as Russia was gearing up for a massive assault on the U.S. election process, is a question all Americans should be asking, regardless of political affiliation. Russias actions represented a blatant violation of U.S. sovereignty. Whats undeniable is that Manafort held a position of major influence over Trump at an important turning point in his campaign. The indictment, plus the guilty plea by Papadopoulos, suggest a web of Russian intrigue that reached well within Trumps inner circle. Its hardly a smoking gun. But patriotic Americans should find it deeply troubling. The strongest argument for legalizing medical marijuana sales in Missouri is that anywhere from $9 million to $66 million in potential tax revenue is going up in smoke. Missouri is cash-strapped and lawmakers shouldnt turn their backs on a significant way to raise money. Three legalization petitions being circulated across Missouri emphasize the revenue- and job-creating potential being missed. With at least 22 ballot proposals aimed at persuading voters to join the pro-pot movement next year, Missouri could become the 30th state to make good money from marijuana sales. Of the 29 states that allow medical marijuana sales, at least seven, along with the District of Columbia, have completely decriminalized pot. The American public also supports legalization in increasingly larger numbers. A Quinnipiac University poll released in August showed that 94 percent of voters surveyed supported legal marijuana for adults with doctors prescriptions. A Gallup poll released last week showed that the highest percentage of respondents ever, 64 percent, favors legalizing recreational marijuana use. Of that group, 51 percent of Republicans support full legalization. New Approach Missouri, an offshoot of Show Me Cannabis, is leading legalization efforts. The group narrowly failed to get a proposal on the 2016 ballot asking voters to change the state Constitution to allow medical marijuana sales. For this election cycle it has raised at least $369,000 and a group spokesman said it has already collected about 100,000 of the approximately 170,000 signatures needed to get it on the November 2018 ballot. Another prominent effort, Missourians for Patient Care, is taking a different approach that would require fewer signatures. Backed by former Missouri House Speaker Steve Tilley, R-Perryville, and former state Rep. Mike Colona, D-St. Louis, the effort is aimed at changing the state statute that criminalizes marijuana sales. Tilley says its a more pragmatic approach, requiring slightly more than 100,000 signatures to get on the ballot and giving legislators more input into writing the law. Missouris conservative turn doesnt mean a marijuana initiative should be dismissed as a pipe dream. Voters in other conservative states, such as North Dakota, Arkansas and Florida, approved initiatives legalizing medical marijuana sales last year, and Montana voters expanded access to medical marijuana. Legalizing sales for those suffering from cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, post-traumatic stress disorder, intractable migraines, HIV/AIDS and terminal illnesses is compassionate and smart business. Less than 15 miles east of St. Louis, Illinois residents with a prescription buy marijuana at a medical dispensary in Collinsville, one of 53 dispensaries that began operating in November 2015. Illinois pot sales raised about $3 million in sales tax revenue through May, and state lawmakers are pushing to expand legalization to increase revenue. Colorado legalized marijuana sales earlier than most states and reportedly raised about $200 million in tax revenue last year. The longer Missouri waits to legalize, the more money we leave on the table. Cllr Chris Saint. QUESTIONS are to be asked about the way an organisation that distributes tens of millions of pounds of government money to projects around Coventry and Warwickshire operates. Stratford District Council leader, Cllr Chris Saint, said this week that he wanted to clarify the decision-making process of the Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) which, since 2014, has been given 131million by the government. It comes after the public-private sector organisation announced unexpectedly that it was withdrawing 200,000 of funding for a major regeneration project in Stratford district. Cllr Saint, who sits on the LEP board, said he also intends to ask questions at the next board meeting in November. There are one or two issues about how decisions are made, and this council is going to open up a dialogue with the LEP about their decision-making. We will not let this go, he said. Most public authorities have clear procedures about how they make their decisions and we think there are some shortcomings with the LEP. When asked about whether Stratford had, so far, been short-changed by the LEP in favour of other areas of the region, Cllr Saint added: We dont think they have been particularly generous. Back in 2016 the LEP also refused the district councils bid for 500,000 towards the cost of a detailed study, known as a GRIP4, into the possible reopening of the Stratford-Honeybourne railway line. And earlier this year the LEP rejected a bid by Warwickshire County Council for 2.7million to help fund a scheme intended to ease congestion on Birmingham Road in Stratford. But the call for more transparency from the LEP was triggered by its decision last week to withdraw the 200,000 that it had allocated in 2016 to help prepare part of Priory Square in Studley for redevelopment, citing a lack of progress of the project. And in a statement it claimed that the decision to do so was endorsed unanimously by its board at a meeting last Monday, a meeting that was attended by Cllr Saint. But Cllr Saint has denied any suggestion that he voted in favour of the decision, claiming the board were simply asked to note the decision that had already been made by the LEPs three-man programme delivery board. That board is made up of its chairman, Jonathan Browning, deputy chairman, Nick Abell, and chief executive, Martin Yardley none of whom are elected politicians. And Cllr Saint accused them of pulling the rug from under the Studley scheme, which he said had stalled partly due to technical issues with the land, some of which would have been remedied by the LEP money. I found out about it last Monday. I was simply told its gone, weve decided its gone. The statement from the LEP implies that I voted for it [withdrawing the grant], I will deny that. I dont know that the meeting was even being asked to endorse that decision that had already been made by the programme board. All I was agreeing to was to note the decision of the programme board. I think they have been a bit disingenuous in saying that it was endorsed, I decided to take no action at the meeting because I believed it was a done deal. He added: I was aggrieved about the rail [money]. We think there is a growing need for this study to be done and felt it was appropriate for the Growth Fund, but we were dealt a fait accompli when it was declined. The same happened with Priory Square in Studley, and we feel that more dialogue is required. A spokesman for the CWLEP said Growth Deal projects were outlined to the board at every meeting, when they are fully discussed and commented upon, which is what happened in this case. Referring to the Studley decision, he said the board papers, which were circulated to all directors, asked the board to note the positive progress overall on Growth Deal projects and endorse the Programme Delivery Board Actions to move the programme forward where there have been issues and/or delays, adding that LEP representatives met Stratford District Council officers in the week before the board meeting , so they could brief Cllr Saint. A statement added: Currently there is no clear project proposal from Stratford District Council which will deliver against the CWLEPs agreed expectations for this [Studley] project and no clear requirement for Local Growth Deal funds to make this site viable. If a suitable development was to come forward for the site, the CWLEP would then judge it against those criteria. That decision was discussed at the CWLEP board meeting on Monday and endorsed unanimously. The leader of Stratford District Council, who is a CWLEP board director, was present at that meeting. What is the LEP? LEPs were created in 2011 to help determine local economic priorities and lead economic growth and job creation within the local area. Boards are made up of people from the public and private sector. There are currently 19 people on the Coventry and Warwickshire LEPs board, eight of whom are elected representatives, one from each of the countys six borough and district councils, Coventry City Council and Warwickshire County Council. The others include former car industry executive Mr Browning, former Birmingham Airport boss, Paul Kehoe, and RSC executive director Catherine Mallyon. Who will serve my guests? Ask Hoteliers By Sunimalee Dias View(s): View(s): Hoteliers in Sri Lanka short on staff are running to the villages in search of new hands to join the booming tourism industry to meet future demand. Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) President Sanath Ukwatte told the Business Times on Thursday that the industry needs an additional 250,000 workers by 2025 to run its operations. Currently the hotel industry has an estimated workforce of 350,000 directly employed in the formal sector, he said. However, with new hotels like the Shangri-La, ITC, Hyatt among others entering the fray with another 6500 rooms under construction the industry is now out on a campaign drive to attract its future leaders to take the industry forward. Mr. Ukwatte pointed out that this was one of the reasons for starting the Rising Star Awards held for the first time last week at the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Memorial Hall where candidates from some of the leading hotels in the country were seen vying for the coveted award that comes with a cash prize of Rs.250,000. The campaign started islandwide with the industry going to the villages to attract staff insisting that if they could send their lads and lasses to West Asia for employment then the hotels in Sri Lanka were indeed much safer, it was pointed out. Next year the industry would be focusing on the women in employment and would have a campaign coinciding with the Womens Day celebrations in March. He pointed out that women in the hotel industry that previously stood at about eight per cent of total employees had dwindled down to less than five per cent today. Free meals, overtime, annual bonuses, service charge payments, free uniforms all add up to making this industry very attractive to anyone joining it, Mr. Ukwatte explained. He noted that the hotels would provide these staff with soft skills and gear them up to join the future talent in the hospitality sector with intense training that lasts about two to three years, he noted. In this regard, hoteliers would also be talking to religious leaders in temples and churches and reach out to the schools as well to encourage more to join this booming industry. Worlds first Climate Change Research Station in Sri Lanka By Raj Moorthy View(s): View(s): Dilmah, the only Sri Lankan tea brand that has established a presence in 100 countries, is setting up the worlds first Climate Research Station at Queensberry Estate in Nawalapitiya. The research station built at an elevation of 1645 metres, the highest point of any estate at Dilmah-owned Kahawatte Plantations, will facilitate future research in measuring changes in climatic patterns in the country. The facility will be used by leading experts on climate science, to study general trends as well as to determine accurate weather patterns to be experienced across the country. This was revealed by Dilmah Tea CEO and Director Dilhan Fernando during a forum organised by the Sunday Times Business Club (STBC) titled Sri Lanka Inc: Challenges and Opportunities held at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo on Monday. (More details of the STBC event will appear next week). The research station was due to be declared open yesterday (Saturday October 28). Construction of the station commenced in 2014, he added. According to Dilmah Conservation on sustainability report, research on climate change trends has identified that Sri Lanka is highly susceptible to global climate change phenomena owing to its island location and close proximity to the equator. The potential impacts of climate change are already visible and currently being experienced with changes in rainfall patterns and temperature levels. It is a rising global challenge and the pace at which the world is responding is too slow in order to balance the adverse effects the country is experiencing now. The station will be used by researchers from the Department of Zoology, University of Colombo to conduct research during different periods of the year. They will also continuously contribute to the management of the facility. The Dilmah Conservation Climate Change Advisory Committee comprises: S. Premalal (Director General- Meteorologyl Department); Dr. Shiromani Jayawardena (Deputy Director. Climate Change Research Meteorology Department); Prof. P. Wickramagamage (Prof. Emeritus Geography Department, University of Peradeniya), Dr. B.V.R. Punyawardena (Head Agroclimatalogy and Climate Change Division- Department of Agriculture); Prof. W.A.J.M. De Costa (Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya); Prof. S.P. Nissanka (Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya); Dr. Erandathie Lokupitiya (Faculty of Science, University of Colombo); Dr. Mahlon P. Rambukkange (Faculty of Geography, University of Peradeniya); Prof. Sarath Kotagama (Prof. Emeritus, Faculty of Science, University of Colombo/ Representing Dilmah Conservation Advisory Panel); Dr. Lareef Zubair (FECT/ University of Colombia); Dilhan C. Fernando (CEO, Dilmah Tea Company PLC/ Dilmah Conservation) and Asanka Abayakoon (Secretarial Support, Dilmah Conservation) Research conducted at the field station will provide necessary models required for sustainable agricultural practices which relate to changing precipitation patterns as well as provide insight into climatic changes that can be expected in the tea growing regions of Sri Lanka. A consensus on economic policies and capacity to implement Vision 2025 imperative View(s): The launching of the governments Vision 2025 (V 2025) was followed soon after by the Prime Ministers statement on the economy in parliament. Are these twin events a turning point in the countrys economic performance? The ultimate objective of Vision 2025 is to make Sri Lanka a rich country by 2025. And it will be achieved by transforming Sri Lanka into the hub of the Indian Ocean, with a knowledge-based, highly competitive, social-market economy. Can the objective of Vision 2025 of making the country rich in 2025 be achieved? Can the momentum of economic growth be accelerated to achieve this ambitious goal? Vision not plan Vision 2025 is not an economic plan. It is not even a detailed strategy for economic development. It is, as the title denotes, a vision. It does not spell out specific policies to achieve that vision. As Dr. W.A. Wijewardena described it, it is a wish list. Are the ambitious targets of Vision 2025 realistic and achievable? The achievement of the ambitious targets require a whole range of policies to be effectively implemented. An important determinant of the success in achieving the goals is a consensus among the two constituent parties of the coalition to implement the required policies. Are both parties committed to implement the requisite policies and reforms? Targets The targets in Vision 2025 are over ambitious and unrealistic. They do not have an alignment with recent performance or trends. The targets on foreign direct investment, export earnings, tourist earnings, and employment generation are unrealistic. The economic growth required to achieve the high per capita income envisaged is impossible. FDI Increased foreign direct investment (FDI) is crucial for increasing exports, strengthening the balance of payments, providing job opportunities and a higher trajectory of economic growth. In fact the ultimate objective of making the country a rich country cannot be achieved without a substantial increase in FDI. In spite of this crucial importance of increasing FDI, the targets set in V2025 are impracticable. It expects FDI to reach US$5 billion in 2020. This is a highly unrealistic figure as FDI between 2010 and 2014 (after the war) and in 2015 and 2016 (under the present government) was on average much less than US$1 billion. In the last two years FDI was less than US$700 million. Therefore the expectation of an exponential increase requires a complete difference in the investment climate. That would be difficult to achieve in the next two years. An increase in FDI to about US$3 billion could be expected, if the Chinese investments in Hambantota materialise. Attracting Multi-national Corporations for export manufacture requires an improvement of a range of conditions and economic policies that inspire confidence. Exports Similarly, the expectations of export earnings is an extraordinary increase from current earnings. Vision 2025 expects exports to double from the current US$10 billion to US$20 billion in 2020. There has been a spurt in exports since March this year due to increased exports of both agricultural and manufactured exports. The regaining of the EU market with the restoration of the GSP plus concession, as well as the improvement in tea prices have enabled this. On the other hand, the countrys main manufactured exportgarments has decreased. Increasing exports exponentially requires higher FDI in export industries, the diversification of export products and markets and enhancing the export surplus of commodities that have an international demand. Many of our agricultural exports that have an international demand have limited export volumes. Only an effective strategy to increase such agricultural exports could enhance agricultural export earnings. There is no doubt that exports must be increased substantially to reduce the trade deficit and improve the balance of payments for stability in the external finances. What is needed is a capacity to produce exportable goods at competitive prices and seek markets more aggressively. Foreign investments that have links to international value chains is a means of achieving a significant increase in exports. Ambitious targets cannot be achieved without appropriate policies that are attractive to investors. The ease of doing business has to be improved and investors must have confidence in the continuity of economic policies. There is a need to reform labour laws and technical skills require to be enhanced. Tourism Tourist earnings are expected to reach US$10 billion in 2020. This too is rather unrealistic as the tourist boom since the war appears to be flattening out. There are both national and global reasons for this. In the first seven months of this year tourist earnings are estimated at about US$2 billion. Although tourist earnings increased in the past two and a half years, there are signs of the growth decelerating. As a study by the Chamber of Commerce has pointed out, the figures on tourist arrivals may not be correct and the hospitality trade is facing difficulties. It appears that hotel rate are not competitive with those in other Asian countries. Unless the problems in the tourist sector are resolved, the growth in tourism is likely to be modest. Per capita income The most unrealistic expectation of V2025 is the increase in per capita income from the current US$4,000 to US$5,000 in 2020.This 25 percent growth in per capita income in three years requires more than a threefold increase in the current growth rate. This would probably be the highest growth rate of all countries. The increase in per capita incomes envisaged in Vision 2025 is not achievable. Implementation What is needed for higher economic growth is clear consistent policies effectively implemented. The government must determine the policies needed to spur economic growth and implement these speedily. Interestingly, Vision 2025 itself recognises the importance of implementation. Section 13 of the document states We recognise that policies and projects will not come to fruition without effective implementation, which requires strengthened monitoring and coordination. Concluding reflection All things considered, even a partial achievement of Vision 2025 would be significant. A consensus in the government ranks and political will are vital to implement the necessary policies. Will the much needed economic reforms, such as the restructuring of state owned enterprises be implemented? The country is looking forward to a serious effort at implementing policies that would spur economic growth rather than indulge in political rhetoric. Explosive chatter View(s): My dear Wimal sahodaraya, I thought of writing to you because you seem to be in the headlines once again, writing books and having ceremonies to launch these books where you say that Parliament should be bombed. That remark has been taken seriously though we all know that what you say should not be taken seriously! What we heard you say was that if at least seventy six parliamentarians do not oppose this draft Constitution, Parliament should be bombed. We know you always operate on the principle that any publicity is good publicity especially if you have a book to sell but this is a bit too much, isnt it? Now, who can forget your publicity stunts? They have never failed to attract attention and keep you in the headlines for a few weeks, especially when people start to forget who Wimal sahodaraya is although there have been times when they have made you look like you need your head examined! Why, there was that time when you staged that so-called fast unto death to protest against Ban Ki Moon appointing a panel of experts to probe Sri Lankas war crimes. That panel went ahead with their work and you tamely called off the fast after a few days- although it was a fast with Lemon Puff! Then there was the occasion where you tried to show what an erudite gentleman you are. While attending a literary festival, you made a speech, telling everyone that the novel The Old Man and the Sea was written by Guy de Maupassant. You sure did make Hemingway turn in his grave! We also heard you announce proudly that you are so busy that you did not have the time to visit Sigiriya. Later we learnt that you had spent weeks gallivanting in sunny California. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, but it is good to know that you socialists have got your priorities correct. You were also in the limelight when you were detained at the airport after questions were raised about your passport. That seems to be something running in the Weerawansa family because your wife Shashi has also been accused of having obtained a passport after providing false information. Then there is the minor matter of how you are accused of distributing government vehicles to your kith and kin- all of forty vehicles, causing the state to lose millions of rupees in revenue. It seems that when you became a minister, the entire Weerawansa family literally took the country for a ride. You were produced in court and sent to prison and hey presto, you played the fast unto death card again. I just wish that everyone is treated equally before the law in this Paradise of ours because, if they were, we could soon have a situation where anyone who is sent to prison stages a hunger strike. Anyway it seems as if, just like issues related to passports, hunger strikes also run in your family. Your teenage daughter also joined in with a hunger strike of her own and made it look like you were being made a martyr- and after the Buddhist clergy also called for your release released you were! So, with stories like this, Wimal sahodaraya, you might now realise that many people will not mind Parliament being shut down simply because people like you are also in it. Yet, I am not sure whether they will agree with you on the manner in which you hope to achieve this by bombing Parliament. Parliament was indeed bombed and two people were killed thirty years ago when JR was King. It is too much of a co-incidence that the man accused of that was your brother-in-law. So, even if people dont usually take you seriously, when you say Parliament should be bombed, we have to take notice. We also have people like that retired military chap Kamal, who has said that those supporting this new Constitution should be killed. I thought we lived in a democracy where differences of opinion were tolerated and even encouraged but it looks as if only the opinions of some people count. Wimal sahodaraya, I heard that Karu will be looking into your remarks and taking action. Whatever happens, we hope that you wouldnt suffer some serious consequence such as being expelled from Parliament. We simply cant do without you because every Parliament is entitled to its Andarey! Yours truly, Punchi Putha PS- I heard that when you made those remarks, Mahinda maama was present but he said nothing. Similarly, when Kamal made those remarks about killing people who supported a new Constitution, Gota was present but he too said nothing. What all of you are saying is that only your views matter and that who oppose you should be destroyed. I would have thought Mahinda maama and Gota would have realised by now that this is why they lost the last election but it seems that they havent! Its this crazy media, stupid View(s): Now and then well more often than the phrase suggests politicians turn their guns on the media. Which politicians turn on what media depends very much on the prevailing relationship between them. Woe unto the media that seek to comment adversely on politicians who fail to keep their faith with the public they claim to represent or cheat both the people and the state to fatten themselves and their families immediate and extended. Criticise us if we do wrong, criticize us if we fail to keep our promises to the people. How often have the people been misled by such pretentious words! But such sonorous sayings are heard only at election time when politicians come humbly begging for the peoples vote and everyone promises freedom of the press. Or immediately after they have been elected to power when that seeming humility or pretentious promise still smells like some cheap perfume. But when power begins to corrupt or those pre-election promises quickly fade from politicians memories thus becoming the focus of media attention, the early words seem like a desert mirage. They seem never to have been uttered. It is then that the solicitous concern for the media is shown to be as empty as old Mother Hubbards cupboard. Much of the criticism of the media comes from the government, its ministers and friends and relatives planted in high office. That is natural. The government after all is responsible for running the country, it makes policy, it deals with public funds which are farmed out to ministries and state institutions and, of course, as perks and privileges to MPs to keep them contended and fat, and serve as an employment agency for family and friends. It was somewhere in August that Minister Mangala Samaraweera who by now was finance and media minister having shed his old skin and clothed in a new one, admonished the media at an award ceremony. He told the gathering that Sri Lankan journalists were duty bound to report news without fabrication. Before the minister President Trump called fake news. But then Trump is more accustomed to one syllable words and four syllables are too much of a mouthful. It is important, said Minister Samaraweera, that journalists do not lower themselves to a media culture in which they attack each other and fabricate false news. There was an old saying that dog does not bite dog. But it seems that the media minister is worried our watchdogs will bite each other and tear themselves apart. Surely their bark is worse than their bite. Then earlier this month the government turned its heavy artillery on the media. Speaking at a felicitation ceremony for a great journalist of yesteryear D.B. Dhanapala the President said that journalists should use their pen to give accurate and truthful information to the public without resorting to biased or false news reporting. President Sirisena lamented that some present-day journalists were trying to protect corrupt politicians for personal gain. Similarly, there were those who threw mud at political opponents. Journalists must always choose what is right, respect the truth and be fair in their writing. The President said that he started life as a provincial correspondent for Lake House newspapers and therefore seems to have some experience in news reporting, was subdued in his criticism. But not so Prime Minister Wickremesinghe. He was far more devastating in his accusations, charging some newspapers with false reporting intended to mislead the public with regard to the position of the maha sangha on the proposed constitutional changes. Principally he levelled two charges against the newspapers at which he fired his salvoes. One was that in reporting a decision of the Karaka Sabha of the Malwatte and Asgiriya chapters, one or all the offending newspapers had carried a front page photograph of the Ven Mahanayaka of Malwatte implying/insinuating that the Mahanayake was opposed to the changes to the constitution. Secondly that the Mahanayake was out of the country and he had not expressed any opposition which is what the Ven Mahanayake reportedly told the prime minister when he telephoned him to inquire. He condemned the representatives of those offending newspapers who were present at the time and castigated their editors. The report in one newspaper said this: Can you give an assurance that you will give the same prominence to my comments on this issue, the Prime Minister asked the reporters, but none offered a response. He said they could telephone their editors to get their reasons, but again no one accepted the challenge. That surely was a curious thing to say I mean the newspaper. It reported that Ranil Wickremesinghe started his career as a journalist before the Lake House newspapers were nationalised in 1973. I was working at Lake House from 1962 first on the Ceylon Observer and a few years later on the Ceylon Daily News. I cannot recall Ranil Wickremesinghe ever working as a journalist at Lake House. He used to visit it to see his mother Nalini who was Editorial Director before Lake House was acquired by the government and also sitting at the table next to mine when he dropped into the Daily News for a chat. I raise this for two reasons. I could not remember Ranil Wickremesinghe working at Lake House, especially because he was at the Colombo University and later completing his studies at Law College during the time referred to. In case my memory had failed me I researched his bio data carefully from different sources but could find no reference to his having been a journalist even for a short time. Nor have I ever heard Ranil Wickremesinghe mentioning his early years as a journalist unlike President Sirisena who recalled having been a provincial correspondent. I could not find any evidence to substantiate the claim. Those who are particularly concerned about fabricating news and reporting the truth might take a peek at the state-media and offer them the advice that they proffer to others. The second reason is this. Even a junior journalist knows that a reporter covering an event cannot give assurances how a story would be published and what prominence it would get. These are matters decided by senior staffers and the editor, depending very much on the news of the day. When a report triumphantly says that none offered a response or that no one accepted the challenge it surely shows a lack of understanding of the day to day working of a newspaper. It is not a 24-hour news cycle. That is another reason why I think that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe was not a journalist in his early years. Had he been one he would not have made the mistake he did in asking assurances from reporters covering the event, though it seems a telling point to the average reader. But one must admit that some of the charges levelled at the media are not entirely baseless. The quality of Sri Lankan journalism has deteriorated over the years. This is mainly because of the proliferation of print and electronic media outlets. With technological advances and easier and cheaper means of setting up news outlets political parties, politicians and entrepreneurs seeking political influence to advance their prospects rather than principles, have opened up the media space providing a multiplicity of sources. This speaks for the breathing space the government has permitted for a plethora of viewpoints to exist side by side leaving the public to draw its own conclusions with regard to the reliability of the news and views on offer and who to trust. But this has had its downside. The sudden expansion of the news industry has thrown open the doors for more staff to feed this growth. The result has been the influx of untrained and inexperienced persons happy to be called journalists. But the consequences are dire. How often have we heard words such as misquoted, misreported falsified, falsehoods, out of context and vendetta used to castigate the print and electronic media by those who speak first and think later as they try to wriggle out of frequent contretemps. They are not entirely wrong. But this has become easier for those directing their accusing fingers at the media to get away with it largely because this unplanned and unprepared expansion of Sri Lankas media world has made it possible. One has only to read some of the plentiful websites or platforms as some call them, that exist in our cyber world (if that is the phrase for it) not to mention some print media to be struck by the spelling and grammatical errors that abound. When the forward-looking Esmond Wickremesinghe, Ranils father, managed the editorial department of Lake House he recruited university graduates, especially those who had read English, economics, politics and history for their degree because he considered them more widely read. He was proved correct as their wider knowledge embellished their writing as they picked up the essentials of journalism. Today we are caught up in a situation where inexperienced and untrained men and women hold positions that only the well-trained should. That is why some are unable to distinguish between news and comment and so inject comment into their news reports. That distinguished and long serving editor of the highly respected Manchester Guardian (later Guardian) C.P. Scott writing on the 100th anniversary of the newspaper made a remark that still stands as a beacon in the world of journalism. He wrote Comment is free, facts are sacred. I am proud to have served that newspaper as a correspondent from the late 1960s and learned how crucial it was to follow that dictum. One wishes that politicians and some journalists realise the importance of this principle. It would leave much less room for critics of the media to direct their barbs at their favourite target and others to understand the distinction that made the Manchester Guardian a widely respected newspaper in the journalistic world. Lankas Guy Fawkes drops parliamentary bombshell: Question is, is it high treason? With the former President Rajapaksa on stage, Wimal spells out why the House must be air-bombed out of existence if new constitution is passed View(s): View(s): Wimal Weerawansa stands today condemned by every syllable he uttered when, in the presence of the former President Rajapaksa no less on stage and brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa in the audience with a whole host of Buddhist monks in attendance, he devilishly declared that Parliament must be bombed from above and swiped out of existence if it dared to pass a new constitution as proposed by the present government. A parliament that lacked 76 members to veto a new constitution was not worth maintaining and should be finished off without much ado with an air strike, was his message to the nation. The verbal attack came after he presented his literary work titled Yadamin Bendi Akshara or Words Bound by Chains to his mentor and master and chief guest former president Mahinda Rajapaksa last Sunday at a gala book launch ceremony held at the Sambuddha Jayanthi Mandiraya at Havelock Road. It was a hashed up collection of essays about his imprisonment and political victimisation supposedly writ during his brief lease at Welikada jail early this year before his hunger strike turned him patient and a pathetic sight at the Welikada Prison Hospital, no mean feat when you consider he had only two months to turn out his Magnus Opus compounded with a crying daughter and a wailing wife who missed his presence at their newly built millions worth mansion at Hokandara. But little would he have realised that his public address to his applauding audience thereafter may well chain him further to the iron bars of Welikada due to the choice of words he thought fit to employ in oratorical flight to express his utmost contempt to Lankas Temple of Democracy, wherein lie enshrined the sovereign rights of the Lankan people; and deliver an ultimatum to its 225 members Lankas most exclusive privileged club of which he, too, happens to be a member that it should be bombed from above if seventy six of its members dare to raise their hands and say aye to the new constitution the government proposed to present for its approval. At first hearing it may appear to be the idle rant of a mad hatter, prone to stoop to catch public attention and keep him in the public ear and eye. But it appears to be more serious than it first suggests. It may even be held to tantamount to a full frontal attack on the political state of Lanka. But first lets read what the man said ranting and raving last Sunday He said: When a dangerous constitution is being presented to Parliament, if there are no 76 members who refuse to raise their hands and say no to it, deny it the two third majority to ratify it, if there are no 76 members present thereat, whats use is there of a parliament. And borrowing a famous Sinhala idiom what is the sword for if not for war, he went on to state Is Parliament there to chop jakfruit? If the constitutional bill is approved in the House then, on the following day, a bomb must be dropped on parliament from above and destroy it once and for all? Pause for breath; and let what he said sink in. We do not have in our midst the Oracle of Delphi to read a mans mind nor the advantage Roman Emperors had to call upon the services of the Vestal Virgins to discern the purpose and intent of mens speech but have to make do with and depend, instead, on the import of their message, and take it at its face value to decipher its meaning. And Wimal Weerawansas speech last Sunday at the Rajapaksa patronised Buddhist institute where he advocated violence against Parliament, was crystal clear that it did not need a Vestal Virgin to make it any plainer. Treason is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as the crime of betraying ones country, especially by attempting to kill or overthrow the sovereign or government or the action of betraying someone or something. In English law it deals with the politics of betrayal. It was codified in the Treason Act 1351 during the reign of King Edward the III and encompasses the situation where a man doth compass or imagine the death of our lord the King, or of our lady his Queen or of their eldest son and heir or even if you kill the kings chancellor, your crime is punishable by death. This 666-year-old law is still in force in England; and, if anyone outside the perimeters of Soap Box Corner in Londons Hyde Park where anything goes, were to advocate the murder of the Queen or the bombing of Britains Parliament of Westminster, he or she will not be spared the Treason Acts sharp lash. The crime of treason is no longer specified and defined as such in the Sri Lankan Penal Code. But, even though the terminology is no longer used, the crime of treason is reflected in Section 119 of the Penal Code which reads: 119. Whoever, with the intention of inducing or compelling the President, or a Member of Parliament, to exercise or refrain from exercising in any manner any of the lawful powers of such President, or Member of Parliament, assaults or wrongfully restrains, or attempts wrongfully to restrain, or overawes, by means of criminal force or the show of criminal force, or attempts so to overawe such President, or Member of Parliament, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine. And reflected again in Section 120 which states: 120. Whoever by words, either spoken or intended to be read, or by signs, or by visible representations, or otherwise, excites or attempts to excite feelings of disaffection to the State, or excites or attempts to excite hatred to or contempt of the administration of justice, or excites or attempts to excite the People of Sri Lanka to procure, otherwise than by lawful means, the alteration of any matter by law established, or attempts to raise discontent or disaffection amongst the People of Sri Lanka, or to promote feelings of ill will and hostility between different classes of such People, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years. These two sections will serve to make anyone calling for the President to be assassinated or Parliament to be bombed, an act against the State: in laymans parlance, an act of high treason. If one were to declare in public that the Executive President, directly elected by the people, should be killed if he or she does or does not act according to ones own wishes, is such a statement not an assault on the state? A direct hit on the peoples sovereignty? By the same token, if anyone were to publicly declare that Parliament, also directly elected by the people, must be bombed out of existence and finished off for good if its members vote for or vote against ones own predilections, would it not be an assault on the State? In lay lingo, an act of high treason? One need not do it personally; merely declaring it is enough to make him or her agent provocateur. Furthermore is it not a betrayal of trust the people have reposed in a member of Parliament to call for the destruction of Parliament whose members have been elected by the people to represent their sovereign rights in that august shrine? And thus prevent them from carrying out their lawful duties by issuing threats that if 76 of them raise their hands to vote for a bill presented for their consideration, the whole House should be bombed and finished off? It is not the first time in history the disgruntled, the frustrated, the rabid, the very scum of society had thought of blowing up Parliament to kingdom come if it did not do what they wanted Parliament to do or did what they didnt want it to do; and it certainly will not be the last. On November 5, 1605, a British ex-mercenary Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up the House of Lords in Parliament but was discovered before he could execute his evil deed and the Gunpowder Plot was thus revealed. Three hundred and twenty eight years later, on February 27, 1933, the German Parliament the Reichstag was set ablaze. Adolf Hitler who had just been named head of a government that was legally formed after the democratic elections of the previous November, used the opportunity to change the system and grab absolute power. Though no evidence exists to conclusively prove whether it was a lone anarchist who was captured, made a scapegoat and conveniently executed by the Nazis or the Nazis themselves who set fire to the building, Hitlers benefit from its ashen debris has put his name on the top of the usual suspects list. Especially when he gloated: There will be no mercy now, Anyone standing in our way will be cut down. The next day, at Hitlers advice and urging, the German President Hindenburg issued a decree for the protection of the people and the state. It deprived all German citizens of basic rights such as freedom of expression and assembly and made them subject to preventative detention by the police. It was a classic example of how acts of terror whether they are real, false, or even accidental can result in giving aspiring tyrants the hell sent excuse they need to arrogate to themselves supreme power, in the name that such powers are necessary to protect the safety of its citizens. Wimal Weerawansa has moved not only in JVP political circles but also in personal family circles where bombing parliament to achieve political ends was not an alien, unthinkable notion. Thirty years ago, on August 18, 1987, Wimals brother in law wifes Sashis brother Ajith Kumara, a minor parliamentary employee, walked into the committee room in parliament where a meeting attended by President J. R. Jayewardene, Prime Minister Premadasa and senior ministers and MPs was in progress. He hurled two grenades which bounced off the table and rolled close to the table where National Security Advisor Lalith Athulathmudalie and Matara District Minister Keerthi Abeywickrama were seated. The grenades exploded in front of them. Mr. Abeywickrama was killed whilst Mr. Athulathmudalie suffered serious injuries, notably to his spleen. The president and prime minister escaped unhurt. Once upon a time, not so long ago, in the halcyon days of the corrupt Rajapaksa regime, bombing Parliament would have been the last thing on Wimals fertile mind. Then Parliament had given him everything he had ever wanted and much much more that he, in his push cycle days, would ever have dreamt of receiving from it as a member and the rabble rousing darling of the Rajapaksa fraternity. But alas today, bereft of his political godfathers grace and favour due to his own decimation in the public eye, Parliament no longer is what it used to be: the cornucopia of his hopes, which gave its best when it smiled most on his rising fortunes. Today, most probably, he sees it as representing the rubble of his own present lot. In the wake of the uproar that followed his dastardly call to bomb parliament Wimal Weerawansa had the audacity to say, in a voice cut to TV media, that it was a ruse sort of a theatrical flourish to gain the attention of the public and that the Speaker had taken the bait and fallen into his trap and got his pants in a twist in the process. But it did not serve to quell the storm. As the gravity of what he had said sunk in, so did many come forward to protest against this blatant attack on Lankas most secular sovereign shrine. Perhaps the fall from grace has begun to tell and fast receding hope of ever regaining Raja[aksas paradise lost has begun to take its toll. It cannot be easy to be Wimal Weerawansa and expect a night of restful sleep and wake up with a clear comforting conscience in the morn. This year alone had seen the tumbrels of justice ominously drawing near and nearer to his opulent Hokandara mansion door. For the man who, in July 2010 staged a fast unto death campaign opposite the UN office in Colombo 7, against the decision of the UN to appoint an Advisory Committee to look into Sri Lanka and was miraculously resurrected as a martyr two days after the farcical fast started, when he gratefully sipped the powdered milk of human kindness Mahinda Rajapaksa poured down his parched throat, it must be a terrible time. If 2010 was the beginning of his ascent to the zenith, the year 2015 began his descent to the nadir, where he must now reap the whirlwind, for having sown reckless the wind. On January 10 this year Weerawansa was remanded on the charge of misusing 37 state vehicles and defrauding the state of Rs. 91.8 million during his tenure as Minister of Housing and Construction. Police investigations revealed that Weerawansa had provided the said vehicles to his sister, brother-in-law, and active supporters of the National Freedom Front and staff members who did not have access to state vehicles. After staging a hunger strike which he instantly gave up after Rajapaksa visited him and a few Buddhist monks urged him not to give up the Holy Ghost so soon, he was set free on bail on April 7th, just in time to celebrate the New Year with milk rice at his palatial home where a young boy had been found dead in mysterious circumstances in an upstairs room in the wee hours of the morning a few months before. Furthermore he faces charges of financial irregularities. One is how he found the money to build his mansion. Another is the allegation made by Ocean View Development Company Private Limited, claiming that a financial irregularity had occurred via the company, during the tenure of Wimal Weerawansa when he served as the Minister of Housing; and he stands accused of giving homes at the luxury housing schemes in Mattegoda and Kahatuduwa to those closely related to him? And to compound his problems, it must give the man nightmares when he reflects on the two cases filed by the FCID against his wife Shashi, for fraudulently obtaining two passports including a diplomatic passport by submitting forged documents to the Department of Immigration and Emigration. No rest for the wicked, is there? With all the crosses he has to bear, perhaps, Weerawansa flipped under strain when he called for Parliament to be bombed. But, though the public may well, in one of its pious, sentimental and melancholic moods, spurred by Buddhist compassion and urged by Christian charity, to extend to this Rasputin of Lankas politics, an ounce of mercy, a pound of sympathy along with their ton of outrage over his incorrigibility, the Speaker of Lankas Parliament can afford no such luxuries and indulge anymore Wimals outlandish behaviour and grant him grace when he threatens to bomb Parliament if its members do not do as he thinks fit or as his Masters Voice commands. To the Speakers credit, he did not take the threat lightly but viewed it gravely as he must when the House he presides over is threatened with destruction -- blown to smithereens no less, if its members do not do what Wimal wants them to do. In a statement issued this week on Tuesday, the Speaker the Hon. Karu Jayasuriya announced that an inquiry would be initiated against MP Wimal Weerawansa for stating that a bomb should be sent to the Parliament. MP Weerawansas statement has threatened the democracy and the safety of peoples representatives, the Speaker said in his statement. He said the incident had drawn the attention of both the governing and the opposition parties and promised that measures would be taken against the errant MP. In England when Guy Fawkes was convicted of attempting to blow up Parliament, the Attorney General Sir Edward Coke told the court that the condemned Fawkes would be drawn backwards to his death, by a horse, his head near the ground. He was to be "put to death halfway between heaven and earth as unworthy of both". His genitals would be cut off and burnt before their eyes, and his bowels and hearts removed. He would then be decapitated, and the dismembered parts of his body displayed so that he might become "prey for the fowls of the air". It would be done to set an example, to act as a deterrent, to any Guy Fawkes wannabe in the future. Perhaps, if the report of the Speakers inquiry should come to a finding holding Weerawansa guilty, the punishment meted out should serve as a warning to all presumptuous parliamentary bombers in the future. And brand them not only as "prey for the fowls of the air" but as foul candidates ineligible to seek the public mandate for parliamentary membership. New yardstick to gauge MPs corruptibility factor A new yardstick was introduced last week by the Minister of Highways Laksman Kiriella to measure a politicians corruptibility factor. Apparently, it all depends how much money a politician has in his reserve bank. And, according to this theory, the more one has, the less likely he is to be corrupt and susceptible to temptation. By the use of this yardstick, Kirielle is beyond corruption, as he said so himself. By his own estimates, he told Parliament last Wednesday, he has over Rs 400 million in his bank account which puts him in the ivy league of incorruptibility. In reply to a query raised by JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who alleged that mega frauds had taken place in the construction of the Central Expressway, Minister Kiriella proudly said: We do not need others money. We have been rich since the days of ancient kings. My wifes grandfather had over 30,000 acres of land in Balangoda. My grandparents, too, had properties equal to that. We both worked in courts and usually paid Rs 2.5 million a year as taxes on our income. I have Rs. 400 million in my account. We do not need to steal from others. By his own measure, he is above board. But the yardstick was not his alone to use. This Monday, Primary Industries Minister Daya Gamage told a group of fresh water prawn farmers in Chilaw that he too was clean and had no reason to rob the public. And, pray, why? Because, as he said, former president Mahinda Rajapaksa invited me to join hands with him or to give up politics and join his business but I refused. I had no intention to rob money belonging to the country, or the public by joining hands with the Rajapaksa regime. Therefore I choose a different path, he said. Slowly but surely, this new yardstick, which depends on what the politicians already possess will come in handy to a great many and will soon be the rage of town to those who wish to demonstrate their incorruptibility by reference to what they already possess. And shout aloud the new slogan in town:Hey, I am filthy rich, and that proves I am scrupulously not corrupt. Except for one thing. As the Buddhas philosophy holds life feasts on life and death on death and greed has no end and remains insatiable. Which is why it is held that the richest man is the one who is content. But good to know that we have amongst us two ministers whose riches have made them transcend thanha. Perhaps it will not be far off when many more MPs rush to declare their assets and use the Kiriella yardstick to measure and to prove their moral rectitude. Wimals NFF party restates: Parliament must be bombed In the storm that broke following Wimals outburst of bombing Parliament if it did not abide by his wishes, one man from his own party, its national organiser no less, was brave enough to stand up to his leaders rant and declare that the statement made by his leader Wimal, did not reflect the opinion of the party, the party had not taken nor authorised Wimals statement and that it was Wimals alone. And that he had checked with the partys General Secretary who had confirmed it. National Organizer of the National Freedom Front (NFF), Piyasiri Wijenaike on Tuesday, denounced the comments made by his own Party leader Wimal Weerawansa MP that a bomb attack should be launched on Parliament. And on Thursday moves were afoot to strip him of his post. It is not the concern of the general public how Wimal runs with an iron fist his one man show within his own party of handfuls. But what must shock is that he has shown no repentance to atone for his sin in his threat to bomb parliament out of existence. One of Wimals catchers, a NFF MP Jayantha Samaraweera addressed a news conference on Friday and faithfully barked his master Wimals decree that Parliament must be bombed if it passes the proposed Constitution Bill. He said: If the parliament approves this Constitution with a two-third majority, then the parliament should be bombed: it should be struck by lightning without rain and should be flattened. There is no need of a parliament, a cabinet or MPs. It must bombed. It must be turned into a museum. That is the stance of our party. Speaker Karu Jayasuriya should take careful note over this growing trend that threatens the very existence of Parliament itself. Nay, he should use the Parliamentary Mace and all the powers at his command to crush in the bud the ultimate contempt that can be made to Parliament: For MPs to will Parliaments own destruction by bombing it out of extinction. And also bring it to the notice of the people: That those who have lived by violence will fall by violence and that Parliament is not the place for such vermin to find their burrow. SLFP faces decisive moment, crucial make-or-break meeting on Friday By Our Political Editor View(s): View(s): Premajayantha makes last-bid effort for reconciliation; more dissidents may be fired, but Rajapaksas also remain tough After all-party meeting, minister says pitch now ready for local polls in January; date by Elections Chief, not necessarily a Saturday One more desperate, last minute bid to re-unite the feuding factions of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) those backing President Maithripala Sirisena and others, his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa has got under way amidst serious doubts whether it would materialise. The compulsion is triggered by a feared defeat for the SLFP at the local council elections, now back again on a shaky schedule for January, next year. The latest search for peace is after Sirisena, the party leader, declared war just days earlier by removing some Rajapaksa loyalists as district organisers and appointing his own loyalists to the posts. The fate of those not changed so far would now hinge on this weeks peace moves. Sirisena also called simultaneously for the stepping up of investigations linked to the previous administration, particularly those of the Rajapaksa family. The new re-unity exercise is being undertaken by Minister Susil Premajayantha, a onetime General Secretary of the UPFA (United Peoples Freedom Alliance), the grouping under which SLFPers contested the last parliamentary elections. Although there has been no formal announcement about his role nor an acknowledgement of his task, Premajayantha has told seniors in the Rajapaksa faction that he has the endorsement of President Sirisena for his assignment. His thrust has been on uniting the two factions so they may field candidates together for the local polls. Months earlier, Premajayantha himself was embroiled in a controversy after he told Sirisena that a group together with him intended to sit as an independent entity in the Opposition benches of Parliament. The group alleged that Sirisena had leaned more on the UNP than on his own party. There has been a lot of pressure. My position was that the matter should be discussed with the rank and file. I told them to come back after doing that, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa told the Sunday Times referring to the fresh moves at rapprochement. However, he did not identify who the interlocutor was. He added; We have already formed our party. We have a new symbol. We have taken up a position against the Government on behalf of the people. We have voted against the budget last year. Parties cannot get votes by intimidating people and threatening that there are files against them. That is trying to infuse fear. Rajapaksa said that, contrary to media reports, he has not received any invitation for a meeting of all SLFP parliamentarians on November 3 (Friday). President Sirisena had summoned the meeting to discuss the partys programme of action for the local council polls. It is largely two pronged to adopt a joint strategy and field candidates together or take disciplinary action if the invited dissidents do not turn up. Such action would no doubt be expulsion from the party. I am told that none of our MPs has received invitations for such a meeting. If they (the party leadership) are genuine, they should have given us such invitations at least a fortnight before, Rajapaksa added. On the other hand, an SLFP office bearer who did not wish to be identified, said the letters were sent out to pro-Rajapaksa SLFP MPs after legal opinion was sought. The idea, he said, was to bear in mind the need to initiate disciplinary action if they do not turn up. This was also to be discussed at the upcoming meeting. When the question was posed to Rajapaksa, he said; Let them try that. There is no way. Most of our members are senior SLFPers. The former President left yesterday for India on a three-day visit to take part in a religious event. That Mahinda Rajapaksas Sri Lanka Podu Jana Party (SLPJP) will be at the forefront of the Joint Opposition local council election campaign was reflected elsewhere this week. Its convenor, Basil Rajapaksa attended a meeting of political party representatives on Thursday. It was summoned by Elections Commission Chairman Mahinda Deshapriya to discuss matters related to the impending elections. Basil Rajapaksa raised a series of questions raising eyebrows among participants as to whether the onetime SLFP stalwart, who ran election campaigns, was not conversant with polls laws. I am representing a new political party. I have even forwarded earlier a list of 100 questions on procedural and other matters to Commissioner Deshapriya. We need to be sure of everything, he told the meeting. Commenting on the new reconciliation efforts, Basil Rajapaksa told the Sunday Times; We are keeping the doors open. We do not rule out anything. He, however, did not elaborate except to say that the impending local polls would lay bare how the public viewed the present government. Even if Sirisenas faction was now holding out an olive branch, its concerns on how things have taken a worrying turn in the past is not lost on them. In the Qatari capital of Doha, President Sirisena, on a two-day visit this week, was having breakfast at the five star Sheraton Grand. Seated with him were most members of his entourage. During an informal talk, Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne noted that the situation would have been quite different if strong action was taken on investigations into high profile cases. There would have been no electoral threat. Senaratne, who himself has bribery charges against him pending, named a ministerial colleague who had allegedly been passing over details pertaining to investigations to the Rajapaksa family members. He named a member of the Rajapaksa family with whom the minister concerned was very close and had regular contacts with. The remarks by Senaratne in Doha prompted Sirisena to recall the occasion where he raised this issue at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers. This was reported in the Sunday Times (Political Commentary) of July 9. The next morning, the minister in question and another important person (he named them in this conversation) called on him at his official residence at Paget Road and handed over two or three copies of files, he said. The files contained details of investigations and the matters reportedly pending before the Attorney Generals Department. Thereafter, he had been surprised when he received a phone call from a person holding high office in a province. He (the person holding high office) had said that a lady member of the Rajapaksa family had spoken to him about the files the President had received earlier that day. He had been asked by the lady why he was rushing to pursue action and an appeal had been made not to go ahead. Sirisena noted that the files had been given to him and at the same time, the information had been passed on to the other side (anith peththata). He had later queried from the important person concerned how this could happen but there had been only silence. Senaratne also strongly criticised a very high ranking Police officer for his tardy role in pursuing investigations. The saga of the local polls, sometimes on and other times off, took a significant turn at last Tuesdays weekly ministerial meeting. It clearly laid bare that one of the main coalition partners, the United National Party (UNP), was adamant that polls should be held in January next year. As revealed last week, even a group of UNP parliamentarians who met President Sirisena made clear their partys position that local polls should be held in January. Ministers were discussing another memorandum by Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister Faiszer Musthapha last Tuesday to further amend laws relating to local bodies. The move angered Minister Kabir Hashim. He charged that Minister Musthapha had told Parliament that all required amendments to laws governing local bodies had been concluded. He was now coming with another amendment. He said he was speaking as General Secretary of the UNP and wished to make the partys position clear they were for elections in January next year. Hashim noted that Minister Musthapha had set up a committee to deal with a new electoral system more than one and half years ago. He then declared it would only take two months. Even the Elections Commission Chairman had expressed reservations about the timeline. The issue had been raised at the joint Council of the SLFP and the UNP. Minister Musthapha said he would sort things out but reneged on his promises. Yet, there had been protracted delays. The UNP was even prepared to conduct polls on the previous electoral system, Hashim pointed out. Musthapha hit back at Hashim, saying that the reason was because the SLFP did not favour the old electoral system. Hence, a new system had to be formulated. Hashim accused the Local Government Minister of finding excuses. It was President Sirisena who said calm down, calm down and do not be upset (kalabala venna epaa). He declared that they could find a way out soon. That Tuesday evening, Sirisena flew to Qatar. Among the other members of his entourage were City Planning and Water Supply Minister Rauff Hakeem, Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Badiudeen, Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister Faiszer Musthapha, Foreign Affairs State Minister Wasantha Senanayake and Power, Renewable Energy Deputy Minister Ajith P Perera, Mujibur Rahman and Azad Sally. Sirisenas son Daham accompanied the President, but did not take part in any of the events. He was, however, introduced to the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the latters official banquet for Sirisena. That same Tuesday, just hours after the weekly ministerial meeting had ended, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe summoned a meeting of representatives of political parties at Temple Trees. Among those who took part were SLFP: General Secretary Duminda Dissanayake, Mahinda Amaraweera (UPFA General Secretary), Faiszer Musthapha, JVP: Anura Kumara Dissanayake (leader), JHU: Patali Champika Ranawaka (leader), SLMC: Rauff Hakeem (leader), UNP: Kabir Hashim (General Secretary) and Progressive Tamil Alliance (PTA): Mano Ganeshan (leader). A lengthy discussion ensued on the subject of local polls. Dissanayake said that his party had supported changes to local government laws when it came to Parliament as well as backed the new electoral system in the strong belief that there would be elections. He warned that if those responsible failed to hold elections, the JVP would not be hesitant to join hands with other forces who the Government did not like, to demand that polls be held. The SLFP representatives expressed reservations. At the end, Premier Wickremesinghe declared that elections should be held in January next year. He was to note that issues faced by the SLFP should be resolved by itsef but putting off elections was not democratic. Even before Sirisena boarded SriLankan Airlines scheduled flight UL 217 to Doha that Tuesday evening, he had been briefed by the SLFP representatives on details of the meeting at Temple Trees. Media reports on Wednesday about this meeting which spoke of possible local elections on January 20 or 27 angered Elections Commission Chairman Deshapriya. He shot off a letter to President Sirisena appealing to him to urge ministers not to announce dates since it was the prerogative of the Commission to do so. Evidently those who made those declarations had gone on the basis that polls would have to be held on a Saturday. However, Commissioner Deshapriya told the meeting of political party representatives on Thursday that such a requirement did not apply to local council elections. Therefore, he said, he was considering conducting the local polls even on a Friday. He would decide on the matter once the Minister issued the Gazette notification. Local Government Minister Musthapha told a news conference on Thursday that he would issue the Gazette on Wednesday, November 1. This was after the Cabinet of Ministers approves the notification at the weekly meeting on Tuesday. Here are highlights of what he told the news conference: This week we had a meeting of party leaders presided over by the Prime Minister. At the meeting all the political party representatives took up the position that local council elections should be held as soon as possible. The minority parties had been urging that the Ambagamuwa and the Nuwara Eliya Pradeshiya Sabhas should be further divided in keeping with the population and land extent. We were able to discuss the issue with Tamil parties in the estate sector and the Sinhala parties and reach a settlement. Similarly there is a demand for a separate Pradeshiya sabha in Sainthamaruthu, in the Kalmunai Municipal council area. The Prime Minister during the election campaign promised that a separate Pradeshiya Sabha will be created for the Sainthamaruthu area. I wrote to the TNA and also the Ministry made all arrangements to keep to the promise given by the Prime Minister, but now, the political parties there, are demanding that four Pradeshiya Sabhas should be created in the area. We cannot do that at once, as requested. We need to discuss that with the political parties and the civil society in the area. I will assure that without consulting the political parties and the Civil Society no decision will be taken. Legal sources said yesterday that groups in the Sainthamaruthu area (Batticaloa District) were consulting legal opinion to go to courts. The idea is to seek to delay polls until their grievances are addressed. A similar situation is also developing in the Trincomalee district. Minister Musthapha went on to say; Also, the decision taken to create three councils each in Nuwara Eliya and Ambagamuwa will be presented to the Cabinet next week. Though, as the Minister I have powers, I hope to submit it to the Cabinet and take a collective decision. I hope to explain to the Cabinet the reasons for carving out additional councils. This gazette notification will be issued on Wednesday (November 1). We will keep to the January deadline of holding elections. Even the President, during his visit to Qatar told me to somehow see to holding the elections in January. I cannot give the date for the elections, but I can create the pitch for the conduct of the elections. The President and the Prime Minister had promised this. There are also some mistakes in the Sinhala version of the amendments. I have taken this up with the Cabinet. The corrections will be made in a manner that it is effective from the date the Speaker certifies it. It says if a party has received less than 20 per cent of the vote for a council and less than three members have been elected the Women representation requirement will not be compulsory. I cannot approve the conduct of the election on a distorted version. The Sinhala version is distorted. The English and Tamil versions are correct. It is not my mistake or the Parliaments, but due to a mistake by an official. The Elections Commission and the AGs department have advised that a correction be made. Though I wanted to follow a simple process through Parliament to correct it, the AGs Department has advised me to follow the process. Even during the budget debate this can be passed so that the elections will not be delayed. We always worked in a manner so that the elections can be held without delay. Some things discussed in the Cabinet are being reported, some ministers and MPs are challenging me of trying to show-off. Some are trying to take political advantage. This is an era when people try to gain political advantage, even through a death. Some try to show that because of their demands they got things done. That is not a problem for me. The President gave me a responsibility. Q: The Prime Minister has said elections will be held by January 20. A: We are working towards that goal. I think we can achieve that. I thank the media for supporting. Q: Doesnt it show that the elections have been deliberately delayed? A: I did the right thing always and did not keep away from the media. The AmbagamuwaNuwara Eliya issue and the error made was something that I could not resolve on my own. Soon after the mistake was detected, I told the President and the Prime Minister to summon a party leaders meeting. Q: As the Minister can you certainly say the Local Government polls will be held by the end of January next year? A: I have not lied. I am certifying that because I can do it. My position was that when there are challenges I need to resolve them to go ahead. I dont have challenges now. Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) leader and Minister Mano Ganesan who urged the creation of new Pradeshiya Sabhas in the Nuwara Eliya district told the Sunday Times; There will be three more councils each for the Ambagamuwa and the Nuwara Eliya areas. Therefore, the Tamil parties are satisfied with the response. Also the Walapane, Kotmale and Hanguranketha areas which have a bigger Sinhala population will be re-demarcated in a manner to have two councils each. We do not see any obstacle now. It was decided at the meeting chaired by the Premier that the gazette notification can be issued by next week. Mylvaganam Thilakarajah, UNP MP for Nuwara Eliya District, also welcomed the creation of more local bodies in the district. He told the Sunday Times; Securing new local bodies is a significant political achievement as the demand was put forward to government from Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) which is a political alliance of key three Up-Country political parties except the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC). We have been given repeated assurances by government leaders including subject Minister Faizer Musthapha at the all-party leaders meeting. It was only on Tuesday that it was decided that the Government will heed our long standing demand. According to the proposal submitted by the TPA, it envisaged twelve new local bodies after dividing existing five local constituencies in Nuwara Eliya. Ambegamuwa and Nuwara Eliya constituencies would be divided to three further constituencies while Walapone, Kotmale and Hanguranketha will be re- demarcated to form two constituencies each. Soon after the proposals submitted, a Technical Committee was appointed by the Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils headed by Chief Secretary of Province to evaluate the possibilities of creating new bodies considering geographical location, population and access to local bodies. The committees evaluation process paved the way for the formation of new bodies. We have made our case on why new bodies should be created for the betterment of the people and their day to day access with government services. In Ambagamuwa where nearly 250,000 people reside, only one council attends to their needs. Plantation people living in remote areas have to travel about 65 kilometres to access state services, The conduct of the local polls now hinges on one factor the issue of a Gazette notification by Local Government Minister Musthapha. Yet, until that is done and the Election Commission initiates measures to conduct nominations and elections thereafter, doubts will linger. More so, since it comes after a game of public teasing which had been going on under one pretext or the other. A more significant aspect of all this would be how issues within the SLFP will be resolved. Fridays meeting of SLFP Ministers and MPs will be crucial. The mood among SLFPers backing Mahinda Rajapaksa is that they should go it alone together with the Joint Opposition at the local polls. Such a move will no doubt precipitate a situation where more dismissals of Rajapaksa loyalists will become inevitable. An extension of that position would be the threat of defeat at the polls. Rajapaksa declared last week that the SLFP would come third or fourth. If that were to happen, it is no secret that Sirisena would not only lose his leverage within the party but also trigger questions over his presidency. Perhaps to shore up situation, some of his advisers are now coming up with new ideas. One is to table in Parliament the report of the Commission of Inquiry into the bond issue at the Central Bank once it is received by Sirisena. The term of the Commission has now been extended till December 8 and public hearings are to resume next Thursday. This is besides initiating legal action against those identified for wrong doing. Placing the report before Parliament, Sirisena loyalists believe, will demonstrate that the President was transparent in his actions from the moment he appointed the Commission and its findings were reported to him. The burning question would be whether it would take place before the local council elections. The coming weeks, no doubt, will be most challenging for President Sirisena. He has been largely blamed for putting off Provincial Council elections. He has also been blamed for delaying the local council polls on different occasions and been accused of being frightened of elections. Hence, how he would engage in course correction for the rest of his term, when relations with his coalition partner UNP have soured considerably, remains crucial. The ignorance and idiocy of illiberal laws View(s): When the Law Commission of Sri Lanka jibbed at recommending reforms to the archaic punishment of the termination of pregnancies except to save the life of a mother a decade or so ago, it showcased precisely how the uneasy meandering of conservative men of a particular age group can have a profoundly destructive impact on society. The impact on mental health Fortuitously, the Commission, in its later more progressive avatar, took an enlightened approach. Following measured consultations with the Sri Lanka Medical Council, the Sri Lanka College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists, its members recommended the medical termination of pregnancies in instances of rape and congenital abnormalities. A Bill formulated along these lines was proposed in 2013. In taking this approach, seven factors were taken into consideration which is of interest at this juncture when the Cabinets proposal of broadly similar abortion law reform early this year has now reportedly been put on hold. First, the Commission emphasized that the strict criminalization of abortion as presently contained in Section 306 of the Penal Code has an adverse impact on the mental health of woman. In other words, the lack of an option results in women victims seeking illegal abortions or carrying the unwanted pregnancy to term, both of which were termed to be emotionally disturbing with long term impacts. Secondly a woman who is a victim of abuse should have the right to terminate a pregnancy which is the result of a crime committed on her. Hence it is necessary to provide access to safe methods of terminating a pregnancy in such a context. Similarly, a woman carrying a foetus which is seriously impaired should have access to safe termination of the pregnancy. The question of a crime However, it was pointed out that a victim of incest could also be a victim of rape and hence it is not necessary to recognize incest independently of rape. In a quaintly problematic assessment, it was remarked that a woman who has connived in the commission of incest is an offender and not a victim and need not therefore be categorized with victims of abuse. But the Commission found that a woman who is guilty of incest should not be barred from terminating a pregnancy if the foetus is seriously impaired, on the ground of foetal impairment but not as a victim of abuse. Fourthly, the introduction of provision to terminate a pregnancy was remarked not to be seen as a compulsion to have the pregnancy terminated. Rather, relaxation of the strict prohibition merely recognizes the right of a woman to terminate the pregnancy at her complete discretion leaving her with the freedom to carry the child if she so desires. Fifthly, where victims of rape who are under sixteen (16) years of age are concerned, there is no issue of whether a crime has been committed or not since the criminal law as contained in the Penal Code recognizes that sexual intercourse with a girl under 16 years of age is a strict liability offence and the grant of consent by her to the act of intercourse is irrelevant. This is so even though she does possess the mental capacity to grant consent to sexual intercourse. In terms of the criminal law therefore, if the child is pregnant and is under 16 years of age, she is the victim of a crime. The process for termination to be followed in such cases should consequently be simple, irrespective of the facts that led to the pregnancy. A sixth factor related to the importance of maintaining a balance between providing easy access for termination in genuine cases and ensuring that the law is not abused by those who are not victims of an offence or where there is no foetal impairment. Lastly it was pointed out that the details of the procedure must be contained in a separate statute, preventing abuse of the process. Opposed by religious groups All its grudging concessions notwithstanding, these proposals by the Sri Lanka Law Commission in 2013 amounted to an improvement of the prevailing law. However, they received little or no traction at the time. Notably even earlier in 1995, a similar piece of law reform brought forward as part of the package of overall criminal law reforms was also discarded. Are we now facing deja vu in regard to the Cabinet approved law reforms in 2017 which are broadly similar to the previous proposals? One difference here is that it has been recommended that termination of pregnancy be allowed also in cases of incest along with rape, victims of statutory rape and serious foetal impairments. As in the past, this proposal has been met with cries of incredulous horror. Now the Government appears to be hastily backtracking to the dismay of many. Here again, proposed law reform is blocked by religious and cultural groups. Indeed it is somewhat wickedly amusing that those who wrap the cloak of religion around them to argue divisively that a particular faith or belief is better than the other, bond with alacrity when there is even a whiff of reform of abortion laws. This is a sight which is as unflattering as it is absurd. Ugly realities that privilege wealth Such influences parade under a seemingly puritanical cover which masks ignorance and idiocy. In fact, one religious worthy, distinguished more for his close affiliations with whosoever happens to be in the seat of political power at any particular point of time than for his piousness, went so far in opposing the 2017 abortion law reforms to pronounce that, because certain musical geniuses such as Ludwig Van Beethoven and Mozart hailed from large families, it stood to reason (or not, as the case may be), every birth should not be seen as unwanted, even if it may be inconvenient. The lack of logic in this claim is staggering. The singular accident of a musical prodigys birth is quite a different proposition from the ugly reality which send poor abused and battered women into backstreet abortion clinics resulting in loss of life while the economically privileged have a choice of options open to them. In sum, this is not a dilemma that can be met by men of the cloth, constrained by their peculiarly straitjacketed views. Rather this particular piece of law reform merits judicious consideration by professionals, including health care experts. That the Government should bend before illiberal pressure is not reassuring by any means. The reformers in the Cabinet should stand firm in the face of such cruelly ironic storms. All reasonable and rational minds in this country will surely be supportive of that stance. SAARCLAW: What it means to the people View(s): When President R. Premadasa declared open the first South Asian Regional Cooperation for Law (SAARCLAW) conference in Colombo in 1991, Sri Lankas then Chief Justice sat next to him. Neither uttered a word to each other throughout the proceedings as an election petition was being heard against the President by the countrys apex court. Such propriety Justice must not only be done, but seem to be done, fell by the wayside along the way as SAARCLAW celebrates its silver jubilee this weekend in Colombo, where it was born. This is also when the regions Chief Justices are here for their 11th get-together. In the intervening years, there have been vast legal developments in the South Asian region. The Indian judiciary continued its judicial, almost adventurist activism, but standing out was Pakistan, whose judiciary left its closeted court houses to take to the streets to restore democracy to that country. Sri Lanka was not without its own highs and lows with confrontations between the executive, legislature and the judiciary being part of the life of the nation. SAARCLAWs Charter has the twin objectives of bringing together the legal communities in the region, exchanging ideas and to develop the law as an instrument of social change for the peoples of the region. In the 25 years, the grouping may have succeeded as a networking club, but its role as an instrument of social change for the peoples of the region, can receive critical scrutiny. One area screaming for SAARCLAWs intervention is in the field of protecting the Intellectual Property Rights of the peoples of South Asia. Intellectual Property Rights or IPRs are economic assets of the people. They include the newly developing advent of the knowledge economy like the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) industry which could also help in the adoption of effective databases and search engines of the respective National Intellectual Property Offices, provided each country has signed the Patent Cooperation Treaty. South Asian countries have been facing exploitation of their fauna and flora and their indigenous products specific to their geographical indications Appellation dorigine, for years now. One of the famous cases has been the copying of the popular basmati rice that originated in Pakistan and India. The trade name and patent were registered in the US Registry by Western parties before the South Asians could do so. Bitter legal battles ensued. Today, they even have a cloned rice strain grown in Texas in the United States. It has been named Texmati. Sri Lanka has its own issues. It has been slow to protect the Ceylon Tea trademark. Gotukola, rich in nutrients, is already churned into teas and other beverages and sold in European markets under their own brand names. One reads in local newspapers regular instances of people trying to smuggle out Walla Patta, a local resin used for perfumes in the West, Kaha or turmeric, Sudu handun (sandalwood), Perriwinkle, a wild flower used for chemotherapy in cancer treatment. There are several international treaties that are governed by the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), but the scales of these laws are heavily weighed in favour of the economically developed countries of the West. One of the reasons for this is that regional groups from the economically poorer regions like South Asia, Latin America and Africa are not addressing these issues in a systematic or meaningful way. ASEAN, the South East Asian group, is only beginning to protect its peoples Intellectual Property Rights. The working sessions of the SAARCLAW conference, which concludes today, included crucial topics like money laundering, climate change, and promoting the protection of fauna, flora and sustainable development. It behoves the legal fraternity of the region to consider this subject very seriously. SAARCLAW could join hands with LAWASIA in this exercise to prompt the political leadership of the region if it is looking for bigger clout at the bargaining tables of world fora. South Asia seems to be the flavour of the week not only for the legal profession in Sri Lanka. The South Asian-Pacific Choir competition is being held in Colombo under the patronage of the Prime Minister himself. Then, there is the South Asian Apparel Leadership Forum. In the midst of it, the President issued a statement after meeting the visiting Pakistani Foreign Secretary pledging Sri Lankas support to that country to host the next SAARC Summit in the midst of increasing tension between the prospective hosts and India. SAARC has got bogged down in this seven decade long rivalry between India and Pakistan, and SAARCLAWs own future within the SAARC framework remains on the edge of a cliff. That insecurity, however, ought not to prevent the South Asian legal fraternity of judges, lawyers and academics to remain in touch, and united in purpose, ensuring that the Rule of Law and Justice prevailed in the region, and also, that they served the peoples of the seven sisters in their ordinary lives, while enriching their economies by preventing the exploitation of the regions natural resources by the rapacious West. There is strength in unity, and there is strength in numbers. UN: Turning the searchlight inward This is also the United Nations week. It is the 72nd anniversary of the organisation tasked with ensuring world peace, eliminating hunger and poverty among a host of other good things for the benefit of humankind. Sri Lanka joined the UN as part of a superpower deal in 1955, and its citizens and the country have played a role disproportionately above its weight. At present, Sri Lankas soldiers are doing yeomen service with the UN Peace Keeping Force in Africa. The week also saw, one of the many UN Special Rapporteurs submit a report that was expected from him. His official website titled it Sri Lanka must step up progress on transitional justice, though the state media said he was happy with the progress Sri Lanka was making. It all seems relative and a matter of interpretation. Meanwhile, another UN Special Rapporteur, for the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression has slammed the UN itself for failing to adopt robust policies on access to information, which is increasingly the norm among Governments. Guess it is not a perfect world, after all. Fostering a love for the arts -Thomian Literary Festival 2017 View(s): Over its 166 years of existence of which 100 years are celebrated in Mount Lavinia this year, S. Thomas College Mount Lavinia has strived to ignite and hone literary and oratory skills in the students entrusted to her care. The school takes great pride in having produced internationally appraised orators such as the S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike and internationally acclaimed Toastmaster Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, and writers and thespians such as Lionel Wendt, Lakdasa Wikkramasinha and Richard De Zoysa. In fact, this years Thomian Literary Festival coincides with the inaugural Inter-school Debating Tournament for the S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike Memorial Shield organized by the oldest society at STC, The English Literary and Debating Society. Since inception S. Thomas College has honed a love for the arts especially with regard to Literature, Oration and Performance. This interest has led to the initiation of new societies such as the Junior English Literary and Debating Society and the Gavel Club. The Thomian Literary Festival, which took place recently was a project initiated by the Faculty of English last year, provided students with an opportunity to showcase their literary and oratory talents and skills. Held at the school premises from 8.30am 3.30pm. The event kicked off with the Book Character Parade which displayed the students in costumes of their favourite book characters. The audience enjoyed the costumes and impersonations. This was followed by a series of competitions spelling bees, poetry recitation competitions and speech competitions from Grade 1 to Grade 9. Simultaneous to the competitions was a tri-junior friendly debate held in the Main Hall among the junior debaters of Ladies College, S. Thomas Preparatory School and STC Mount Lavinia. Students had also previously submitted creative pieces for a Creative Writing competition. Additionally, students posters and crafts of their favourite books, writers and characters were displayed in the competition area for public viewing. Some of the submissions included a miniature structure of Stuart Littles bedroom and a character wheel of the many roles of Stuart, posters on Stephen King and the Whimpy Kid series. The decorations at the festival comprised mainly of student contributions, which the faculty of English had made use of creatively. The school also publishes a yearly compilation of articles by the students of the Primary and Lower Secondary Schools, titled The Pantagraph which was sold at the literary festival and helps to promote students writing and provides them with a platform for publishing. The Pantagraph consists of students journalistic writing, interview writing, creative writing and student made crosswords. Moreover, a book stall was conducted by M.D. Gunasena, which was a project by the Thomian Class of 99, that has rallied round the College flag to revamp the College Library and to promote state of the art library facilities for the students. This project is aimed at inculcating a culture of reading and academic discipline among the students. There was also a book donation corner, led by World Vision Sri Lanka, to which students and parents could donate books to help the underprivileged communities of the country. This was an initiation of a student in Grade 8. The Faculty of English of S. Thomas College, Mount Lavinia hopes to broaden this project every year to showcase the literary and oratory skills of young Thomians, whilst aiming to inculcate a love for the English language and language skills in the students. O. Cabraal Memories of Russian flavours Russian Bakery View(s): View(s): There arent many restaurants or eateries that offer Russian cuisine in Colombo so when the Russian Bakery opened its doors in Pelawatte on August 24, we couldnt help but take note. Pop in and youll see European chefs at work in the open kitchen, framed photos of Russian cities and Russian pop music playing on a small TV on the wall. The menu cards reads Borsh, Vareniky and Stolichy.. The glass cabinet displays a variety of pastries and cakes, and among the familiar apple pie, lemon tarts and macaroons, youll find Kiev cake hinting that this isnt any ordinary bakery. Owned and run by Tatiana Grishina, a Russian expat, who moved here five years ago after she came on holiday and fell in love with the people and the climate says Sofia, Tatianas daughter translating what her mother says in Russian. Soon after their first visit,Tatiana together with her husband and children, moved to the island and initially dabbled in tourism before launching the bakery. Having a sweet tooth herself, she decided to serve both Russian and western pastries and sweets. Before long they expanded their menu to include several Russian favourites such as dumplings and borsht on request from customers, many of whom were Sri Lankans who had studied and /or worked in Russia. Sometimes they come in speaking Russian, even though some of them left Russia 40 years ago, says Sofia. Everything from the bread to the cakes to the dumplings, is made in-house by two professional Russian Chefs from Moscow. They are aided by local staff, who surprisingly are very proficient in Russian themselves. The place itself is quite small, with only two tables and several stools, the ambience more suited for a quick snack. We started our review with a glass of Kompot priced at Rs 200. A traditional Russian fruit punch, made from summer berries and fruits, ours came in a large glass Mason jar, had a very light and sweetened berry taste and was refreshing, though not an intense flavour. Next we dug into their boiled chicken and beef dumplings.With 15 dumplings a portion, the price of Rs 850 seems pretty good.The soft dumplings had no spices or heat to it, which may not appeal to the Sri Lankan palate, but doused in melted butter it certainly was interesting. And very filling. Finally for dessert we had several items, including Macaroons, the Kiev Cake, the Day and Night cake, and the Honey cake. The Kiev cake, as the name suggests, originates from Ukraine, but became popular throughout the Soviet Union in the 50s and 60s. Several layers of meringue and nuts, with a soft buttery cream between layers, it reminded us of a less moist and nuttier version of Chocolate biscuit pudding. The cake was surprisingly not as sweet as the cakes were accustomed to in Sri Lanka. In fact Tatiana tells us most Sri Lankans initially didnt fancy the traditional Russian cakes but subsequently have developed a liking for it. The honey cake, known as Medovik in Russia, is one of the bakerys most popular items (were told that even the Russian Embassy in Colombo orders their Honey cake). Made with Russian honey and fresh cream, it was much lighter than we expected and had a lovely smoky and sweet honey taste to it. Macaroons arent Russian, but having said that the bakery manages to execute this French dessert to a T. The Russian Bakery also undertakes custom made cake orders for weddings and other events. Address: No 966/C/2, Pannipitiya Road, Pelawatte, BattaramullaOperating Hours: 8 a.m. 8 p.m. daily (Including Poya and other public holidays) Price range: Rs. 200 1000 Contact no: 011 2784389 / 0774438944 Follow them on: *Instagram: @russian_bakery_sri_lanka *Facebook: Russian Bakery Potpourri of traditions with a song and a dance By Tarini Pilapitiya View(s): View(s): Shakespeare once said, If music be the food of love, play onand play on it did, as the highly anticipated choral celebration, the 4th South Asia Pacific Choir Games was held in Colombo. The 4th South Asia Pacific Choir Games got off to a swinging start at Temple Trees on October 21 with local and international choirs getting on stage to give guests a glimpse of what the week would unfold. Director Programmes of the Colombo Cultural Hub Trust (CCHT) Soundarie David Rodrigo spoke about the Trusts desire to nurture and harbour cultures in our country as local audiences would witness many nations coming together for the mutual love for music. The Ravibandhu Samanthi Dance Ensemble greeted guests with a traditional Kohomba Hella dance (an excerpt from the historic Kandyan dance) while festival compere Arun Dias Bandaranaike then welcomed the 17 participating countries China, Croatia, Britain, India, Indonesia, Iran, Latvia, Malaysia, Norway, Netherlands, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Singing together brings nations together Vice President of INTERKULTUR Stefan Bohlander stated, commenting that the festival sends a message of respect, understanding and friendship. The all female ensemble Soul Sounds did a fresh take on a medley of local folk songs giving international participants their first taste of Sri Lankan choral music. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who graced the opening ceremony on October 21 shared that during his time in Royal College he too sang in the school choir, allowing him to truly appreciate the work and dedication of the musicians taking part. Singing has been part of our character, the PM said adding that Sri Lanka was honoured to host an event of this magnitude. INTERKULTUR I thank you for being here, he said. Music accompanies us from birth to death, the premier said as he declared open the 4TH Asia Pacific Choir Games. The gala opening featured a range of diverse performances from some of the 17 international choral participants most staying true to their roots and culture . October 22 the official first day of the Choir Games commenced with one of the only ticketed concerts of the festival, Asian Celebration. First up was the Mizo Cardinal Choir conducted by Lalsangliana Ralte, the choristers in the traditional attire of the men and women of Mizoram, India who presented a powerful balance of male and female vocals. Dressed in colourful ethnic outfits, the choir from the hill states of North Eastern India sang a mix of spirituals and traditional songs a great start to the event. The KMITL Chorus conducted by Kajornsak Kittimathaveenan was introduced by Arun Dias Bandaranaike as one of the more popular Thailand based choirs. Elegant in black, they gave their own rendition of Ave Maria a polished performance in the gracious setting of the Temple Trees auditorium. Prashalini Peiris conducted the all female choir from Sri Lanka Asteria who made their appearance in colourful sarongs and variations of white blouses. After a slightly rocky start, the choir bounced back with their rendition of a Simon and Garfunkel hit, Bridge over Troubled Water the female soloist giving a moving performance. The last performance of the evening, the Indonesia based Paduan Suara Mahasiswa Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta choir conducted by Abraham Patrick Badiaraja Simanjuntak had the audience enrapt. Their lively performance and costumes paid homage to their rich culture. Despite minor drawbacks such as a sudden power failure, they won the admiration of the audience for their showmanship. Their fluid synchronized dance moves and beautiful blend of music and vocals ended the evening on a high. The week long choir games (October 22 to 27) was hosted by the Colombo Cultural Hub Trust (CCHT), under the patronage of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, Dilmah Tea and INTERKULTUR of Germany the worlds leading body for international choral competitions and festivals. The competitions were hosted from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily at the Lionel Wendt Theatre and Nelum Pokuna and were open free to the public. The choirs also took part in Friendship concerts at the Nelum Pokuna open air stage at 5 p.m. in the evening and Sacred Concerts at St. Marys Church (October 23 and 26). Revisiting university with Rag-the Musical By Shakya Wickramanayake Cast of CentreStage Productions speaks to the Mirror Magazine on the latest take of their home-grown musical which will get underway this week View(s): View(s): Over twenty years ago, a young Jehan Aloysius received a letter informing him that he was accepted to a state university. An honour most students vie for but very few succeed. Rather than celebrate, Jehans first reaction was that of fear, which lead him to hide the letter. But despite his efforts his mother found the letter and forced him to enroll at the University of Colombo. You see in that year two students had died as a result of ragging, he says, explaining how the fear of being subjected to the same, motivated the many excuses he made to try and avoid attending university and even causing him to stay away from orientation. In hindsight however, it didnt seem too bad. The way he speaks of it, one can gather that has truly embraced university life, warts and all. Whilst still at university Jehan began writing a musical based on his own experiences and those of his batchmates. Rag the Musical follows the story of a young idealist named Joseph, who is accepted to a state university and is soon hit with a heavy dose of realism as he navigates through university life. Grappling with issues of ragging and student infighting, Joseph, who is loosely based on Jehan himself, has his dreams of peace and discourse challenged. Its a celebration of university life, not just the horrors, we want to show both the fun and dark sides to it, Jehan tells us, insisting that it is an objective look into the issue of ragging. Jehan explains that he chose to present it as a musical rather than as a play, as he believes that music transcends languages and makes it easier for audiences to digest the hard hitting subject matter. You temper the violence and horror with music, Jehan says matter-of-factly. The musical is set to be performed against a very utilitarian and sparse set, with mostly scaffoldings used as props and actors dressed minimally. Were told that this sparse setting helps audiences to focus more on the storyline rather than be distracted by the frills. This however, also demands more from the actors who are now tasked with immersing the audience in the story with very little aid from the sets and costumes. Over a decade in the making ,the dark musical first saw light in a series of preview plays, before being presented as a full blown production in 2012. It received praise and positive reviews for its portrayal of the issue. But Jehan, since then has ended up constantly tweaking it. The result of which is the 2017 remake of the musical, that explores fewer characters and is a good forty minutes shorter than the original. Theater is organic, its not static, he explains. Jehan hopes this portrayal of the systematic and institutionalized bullying, torture and humiliation seen unfortunately in state universities will create debate around the issue. Perhaps even open the eyes of those who live a sheltered life to the extent of the horrors many undergraduates must endure. Theater is about creating characters, people can relate to and empathize with, says Jehan. He believes theater shouldnt be used just for the purposes of escapism, but should also be used as a platform for social commentary. Previous productions of the play seem to have resonated well with those who have experienced ragging first hand or have watched loved ones go through such an ordeal. Parents have written to me saying this is what my child went through, weve lived through this, Jehan recalls. The play, which is a work of fiction, delves so far into the root of the issue that it has become eerily prophetic at times. Playing the protagonist Joseph in this years remake, is new comer Dion Nanayakkara (21). This will be the youngsters debut performance. Like the character hes playing Dion is currently a university student, but unlike his character he does so at a private institution in Colombo, instead of a state university. Dion describes his character as a dreamer whos got big vision and essentially lives in the clouds. His driving force is peace and love. He wants to end all wars, explains Dion. But the young undergraduate is wary of university life choosing to skip orientation as well, much like what the writer himself did. But soon he meets the lively and loveable Thomas, who takes Joseph under his wing. Thomas, who is played by Julian Anderson (23), is described as an amicable personality who gets along with everyone. Hes a happy go lucky character. He sees the world in all its colours, not just black and white, says Julian about his character Thomas. Thomas makes Jospeh feel welcome at university and soon the two form a strong bond of friendship. Theres a brotherhood between them, explains Dion. Aside from Dion and Julian, the other key singing roles are played by Keminda Heethawaka Arachchi, Stigmata Frontman Suresh, Tanuja Perera and Dmitri Gunatilake. The music which is written and composed by Jehan Aloysius will be performed by Avanti Perera. The productions choral arrangement is by Deshan Cooray and Eshantha Peiris. Rag the musical presented by CentreStage Productions goes on the boards of the Lionel Wendt Theatre on November 2, 4 and 5 at 7.30pm. Tickets priced at Rs. 3000, 2300, 1500 and 850 are available at the Lionel Wendt Theatre. The play discusses and depicts mature subject matter and therefore maybe unsuitable for younger audiences. Lanka wont recognise independent Catalonia View(s): Sri Lanka will not recognise Catalonia which declared on Friday that it would secede from Spanish rule, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said. It said the Sri Lanka Government unequivocally supported the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Spain. It urged a dialogue for a united Spain in accordance with the rule of law and within the Spanish constitutional framework. Sri Lanka and Spain enjoy an enduring friendship, and Sri Lanka considers Spain as an important member in Sri Lankas partnership with the European Union (EU), the ministry said yesterday. On Friday, Catalonas Parliament declared the Catalan Republic as an independent, sovereign, democratic, social State after a majority of members voted in favour of separation. The Spanish Parliament immediately voted to impose direct rule by dismantling the regional Parliament and the cabinet and assuming its police powers. Meanwhile, Alfred de Zayas, the United Nations Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, called on Spanish authorities this week to enter into negotiations in good faith with leaders of Catalonia. The only democratic solution to the current impasse is to suspend repressive measures and to organise a referendum so as to determine the true wishes of the population concerned, he said in a statement. Lankans seek funds to save Sinhala in US university By Namini Wijedasa View(s): View(s): The Sri Lankan American community in the New York Tri-state area is raising money to save the Sinhala language programme at Cornell University from closing down over funding cuts. Would you please consider personally donating a one-time suggested amount of $50 to safeguard this program and to keep the study of our Sinhala language alive outside of our motherland? requests the appeal, circulated among members of the Sri Lanka Association of New York and other expatriate groups. Cornell, a renowned private Ivy League institution in the US, is the only university outside Sri Lanka to offer a full curriculum of study in Sinhala. About half of the course funding is external, primarily from the US Governments Department of Education. The rest is from the university. But Cornells administration has decided to prune its contribution to the Sinhala programme by next year and to divert these funds to disciplines which students find more attractive. This will effectively turn Sinhala studies into a part-time course that can no longer retain a highly-qualified professor, will lose its curriculum status and ultimately close down by July next year. In New York, Sri Lankas Permanent Mission has also reached out to the community via local organisations. The money raised will go towards a proposed US$ 2mn endowment fund to keep the programme alive. The initiative also aims to indicate to Cornell University that there is wide and deep support for this programme via the Sri Lankan American community as well as Sri Lankan citizens, businesses and foundations. A Sri Lankan expatriate group which is assisting Ambassador Rohan Perera, the Head of Mission, to explore ways of securing assistance recently briefed President Maithripala Sirisena while he was in New York. It is hoped now that the Sri Lanka Government will also make a one-time contribution towards the fund. The Sunday Times first reported in June this year that the programme was facing closure. Leading the initiative to prevent that from happening is Cornells South Asia Programme Director Anne M Blackburn. A professor of South Asia Studies and of Buddhist Studies herself, Dr Blackburn is a fluent Sinhala speaker. She first came to Sri Lanka as an undergrad on the Intercollegiate Sri Lanka Educational (ISLE) initiative connected to the Peradeniya University. She learnt Sinhala from Kamini de Abrew who trained Peace Corps volunteers and also Cornells incumbent Senior Lecturer in Sinhala, Bandara Herath. Dr Blackburn visited Colombo recently and met the business community, particularly those with interests in the US, to encourage them to pitch in. In an earlier interview with the Sunday Times, she said Sinhala was special to her as it had helped open up a world of exploring Sri Lanka and building relationships with people. Today, she uses Sinhala and Pali to read historical documents related to Buddhist and Sri Lankan history, literature and intellectual history. The campaigners have a daunting task ahead. They will have to convince potential funders (including the public) that Cornells Sinhala language course is worth putting money into. While full admission records for the Sinhala programme going back to its inception in the 1970s are not available, recent information points to total enrolment figures of between 300 and 500 students. Prof Blackburn said numbers were not the only indication of the programes impact. Cornell has been the only continual source of Sinhala teaching and learning materials for acquisition of Sinhala by those for whom Sinhala is not a first language. Cornells Sinhala text books are used much beyond the students of the university or its affiliated summer programme, including by business and diplomatic professionals. Generally, around half of the enrolments are Sri Lankan, Sri Lankan-origin or heritage students. The rest have no Sri Lankan connections but are taking the course for research preparation or other personal interest. The Sinhala language programme was established around 1970 by Prof James Gair in close collaboration with Prof W.S. Karunatillake from the University of Kelaniya. Linguist Gair was known for his pioneering study of South Asian languages and their underlying relation to other countries. He died at the age of 88 last year. Prof Gair received an honorary Doctor of Letters from the Kelaniya University which also awarded him the title of Sahitya Chakravartin. His early book Colloquial Sinhalese Clause Structures is now a classic. His long collaboration with Prof Karunatillake began with the latters studies at Cornell as a graduate student beginning in 1965. It continued throughout their lives and resulted in a series of major works. Among them was the The Sidat Sangara: Text, Translation and Glossary (2013) with notes on the classic 13th century Sinhala grammar and its commentaries. Unpaid Kuwait funds to be used for migrant worker pension scheme View(s): The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) will start a contributory pension scheme for overseas employees using leftover Kuwaiti compensation money remitted to pay Sri Lankans affected by Iraqs invasion of that country in 1990. The Auditor Generals 2015 report said there was a balance of more than Rs 3.2 billion (around US$ 20 million at the prevailing exchange rate) in the Kuwait compensation fund. This was falsely shown in accounts as capital reserve when it should be long-term liability. But the total outstanding amount of unsettled claims is a little more than Rs 251 million or one percent of the total number of claims, the SLBFE said, issuing a statement after the Sunday Times wrote the story last week. More than Rs 2.962 billion was interest income earned from 1997 to 2005. It also said the 2016 financials were rectified to identify these amounts as non-current liabilities. The SLBFE has transferred Rs 1 billion to the Treasury last year. Under the 2017 budget proposals, a contributory pension scheme for overseas employees will be set up using the balance. Around 120,000 Sri Lankans working in Kuwait lost their jobs and possessions in the Gulf War which took place in 1990-91, the SLBFE said. The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) approved 88,875 of the 94,820 applications received by the SLBFE from affected Sri Lankans. A unit named Kuwait compensation was established locally to handle the process. The UNCC approved US$ 308 million (around Rs 20,900 million at the time). This was placed in temporary deposits from the inception and the interest accrued was credited to the Kuwait fund. The compensation unit processed 87,934 claims on confirmation of their authenticity. The value of the balance one percent of unsettled claims was Rs 251mn. The SLBFE wrote to the claimants who had failed to provide necessary documentation. It also published newspaper advertisements asking them to come forward. However, this figure remains unsettled due to want of requisite documentation, the Bureau said. Meanwhile, the claims of 5,945 Sri Lankans were rejected by the UNCC. In response to their continued appeals, the Cabinet in September 2002 approved the settlement of 1,692 verified claims from the interest accrued. The same year, the SLBFE conducted a countrywide survey to gather details of remaining victims. This led to the identification of 15,500 cases (including claims lodged after December 1994), rejected claims from previous payments and claims not made. On Cabinet approval granted in September 2007, compensation of Rs 75,000 per claimant (there were 5,472 of them) was paid from interest income. The balance remains unsettled due to want of documentary proof, the SLBFE says. The SLBFE was also taken to task by the Auditor General for an overall weakness in facilitating compensation for registered workers in relation to various losses. An insurance scheme was launched in June 2012 by SLBFE together with Sri Lanka Foreign Employment Agency (Pvt) Ltd for the workers who travel abroad on employment after registering with the Bureau. The SLBFE paid the agency an annual sum of Rs 594,890,103 (inclusive of taxes) as insurance premium from 2013 to March 2015 until the agreement ended. The dependents of an insured and registered migrant worker are entitled to Rs 400,000 in case of his or her demise. But, by stating that the dependents of 281 migrants who died in 2014 and 2015 had not lodged their claims under the insurance agreement, it had been neglected to pay out compensation totalling Rs 112.4 million, the Auditor Generals report said. The dependents had simply not been informed of their entitlements. The SLBFE said this week that these dependents had not lodged their claims to the welfare division within the specified time period. As such, no claims could be processed, it asserted. The Auditor Generals report pointed out that, while the SLBFEs legal division had identified the heirs of 46 deceased migrants, compensation totalling Rs 18.4 million due to them had not been paid even up to January 19, 2016. The Bureau said this has now been settled in 37 cases while four were rejected. Five could not submit complete documentation and the dependents have been advised to do so. All other cases highlighted by the Auditor General were also dealt with. Im still a child at heart By Randima Attygalle Veteran childrens author and illustrator Sybil Wettasinghe recalls her days as a journalist; where it all began; as she prepares for an exhibition to mark her 90th bday View(s): View(s): It was 1948. Blissfully oblivious to the new political landscape in the country, 19-year-old Sybil de Silva, in a blue pinafore, appeared before the management of the Times of Ceylon Group. Having bid adieu to school Holy Family Convent, Bambalapitiya she wanted to be a journalist. Once a journalist, always a journalist, Sybil Wettasinghe who has defined the shape and form of Lankan childrens literature says with a smile: Loved as Sybil nenda by generations of readers- the young who continue to be hypnotized by her mischievous Umbrella thief and the older who are never allowed to forget the child in them among her pages of The Child in Me, Sybil is turning the 90th page of her book of life, and readying for an exhibition of her work. The six-year-old who left Gintota for Colombo with a heart full of aththammas folk tales found wrestling with cutlery and social decorum championed by convent education, a futile exercise. When her lunch of prawns and murunga arrived, I simply couldnt compromise the taste of my favourite dishes with cutlery, so I waited till the nuns took off and relished them with my fingers amidst protests from fellow girls who vowed that theyd report me, she chuckles. Turning down a career in architecture, she was handpicked by the Headmaster of the Royal Primary School, H.D. Sugathapala to illustrate his Navamaga Standard Five Reader. He had spotted the 15-year-olds drawings at an exhibition at the Colombo Art Gallery. April 1, 1948 was a red letter day. Draped in a new saree her mother had bought for the occasion from Pettah, her hair in a formal konde the 19-year-old was presented to the doyen of journalism, D.B.Dhanapala, the Editor-in-Chief of Lankadeepa. The youngest and the only female scribe at Lankadeepa, she took on the weekly Saturday Strip, giving life to characters and tales from her Gintota childhood. Most readers believed the creator of this Saturday strip of folk poems and illustrations was a man, misreading my name and when news spread that it was a young girl, there were inquisitive visitors to the Lankadeepa office. The visits, as Sybil recollects today, came to a halt when Mr. Dhanapala ran a newspaper account of his gifted new recruit with her photograph! Turning a deaf ear to those who urged Mr. Dhanapala to drill some sense to the girl who was sketching nonsensical figures, he encouraged her to discover her own forte. Some even proposed Heywood mentoring for me and Mr. Dhanapala wouldnt hear any of it, reminisces Sybil. Bored with just her weekly Lankadeepa strip, and with enough time to spare to collect books with her monthly journalistic salary of Rs.60, Sybil one day boldly strode into the offices of Sita Jayawardene who compiled the then Times of Ceylon Womens Page and asked for additional work. Soon she was illustrating Sooty Bandas caricatures of Colombo socialites for The Times. Moving to the newly launched Janatha paper of the Lake House Group in 1952 was a turning point for Sybil both personally and professionally. While the Chief Editor Denzil Peiris fed her imagination, young Chief Sub Editor, Dharmapala Wettasinghe implored her to write a childrens story for his sake! Not only was born a story which still keeps travelling across the globe, but a romance too bloomed culminating in the nuptial knot between DharmapalaWettasinghe and Sybil de Silva in 1955. He was my best fan and my best critic, recollects Sybil who owes her fame as a globally acclaimed writer to her late husband. The childrens story Kuda Hora (Umbrella Thief) which Sybil initially wrote and illustrated for his sake in the Janatha paper, became a book which is now translated into several languages. At a time when Sinhala literature for children constituted direct translations of European childrens stories and schools texts with a scattering of illustrations as Regi Siriwardena once noted, Kuda Hora ushered a new era in childrens literature. Kuda Hora was the first Sinhala book to completely marry words and pictures. A mother of four, Sybil is a grandmother to an entire nation of children. Daughter Kusala, a writer herself, finds simplicity of syntax and unique choice of language the best part of her mothers work. Above all, she writes from the heart, says Kusala. Together with brother Vinod who steers Adith Publishers, the main publisher of their mothers books, Kusala is hosting an exhibition of Sybils latest illustrations at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery on Sybils 90th birthday on October 31 at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery. The exhibition will feature her latest works- The Magic Silver Tree which is translated into Japanese and the Story of Siddhartha. Despite the longer breaks she is forced to take to rest her eyes today, Sybil is busy at her desk every day immersed in the childs world, surrounded by her pots of ink and birds who chirp outside her window. Coveted titles and international accolades which have crowned her, have only made this iconic writer humble. Sharing her watchword of life, Sybil says: Be your best friend and love yourself, you will succeed. Im still a child in heart, Sybil adds The exhibition, Celebrating Sybil at 90, will open at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery on October 31 at 4.30 p.m. and will continue on November 1 from 10 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. Look, learn and cherish Kumudini Hettiarachchi walks through an ecological haven-- the first-ever Mangrove Museum in the world View(s): View(s): Ensconced within a cool and comforting one-hectare haven is a tiny but vibrant showpiece, just 100m off the Negombo-Chilaw Road beyond the 66th km-post at Pambala. It is the first-ever Mangrove Museum in the world and a walk through it opens up the wonders of this crucial ecosystem. A pair of tiny sea-horses keep our attention riveted as also all the other exhibits including prawns and crabs in different colours, shapes and sizes, the shells of pearl-producing oysters in all their mollusc variety, fishes, crustaceans, reptiles and butterflies, while from an observation point through huge glass-panes we see mangroves in the wild. The Mangrove Museum, opened on July 26, last year, on World Mangrove Day by President Maithripala Sirisena, is the jewel in the crown of a major initiative named the Seacology-Sudeesa Sri Lanka Mangrove Conservation Programme. Meya loke inna paranama sarapayek, says the programmes Manager of Conservation and Plant Nursery, Douglas Tissera, pointing to the mada panuwa (Acrochordus granulatus or diya maha-goda-maha) as one of the five most ancient species of snakes. This is as the huge vaalakkadiya (Hydrophis schistosa or beaked sea snake), the most dangerous sea snake has also found a place here. There are no special exhibits as all are special, says Douglas explaining that the kadol kakuluwa (Scylla serrata or giant mud-crab), a delicacy, sells at the exorbitant rate of Rs. 3,000 per kilo! Off the shelf comes the bottle showing the heliwalang kossa (Epinephelus lanceolatus or giant grouper) which lives in the dark deep waters of a lagoon, the numbers of which would reduce dramatically if the kalapuwa goda vunoth (fills up). We are following more than 10,000 visitors including over 7,000 schoolchildren who have stopped at each and every exhibit with oohs and aahs, taking in the beauty of the mangrove-ecosystem in all its glory. The aim of the museum is to provide mangrove conservation knowledge, so that wherever the visitors go back to, across the world or to the far corners of Sri Lanka, they will not only cherish these unforgettable memories but also do whatever possible to protect and safeguard mangroves. A short walk along a sandy trail dominated by crab-holes leads to a small jetty from where we step into a boat and with Douglas using a bamboo in punt-style go out onto the Pambala lagoon, leaving the cares and stresses of city life behind, with not a sound of the rat-race but the calls of birds and glimpses of pristine white kokas. A lone fisherman is out in his canoe in the noonday heat, like us punting around and casting his veesi-dela (throw-net) to earn his livelihood, with Douglas explaining that these small fishermen are reluctant to use motor-boats which need kerosene oil as the lagoon gets polluted. Others use the technique of mas-athu danawa (to cut and throw into the lagoon a few mangrove branches) which attract small fish which can then be caught easily. The Pambala lagoon is fed by two moya (estuaries), the Deduru Oya which comes from Chilaw and the Lunu Oya from Thoduwawa and Douglas adds that the Dutch Canal, utilized to transport salt between Palaviya close to Puttalam and the Colombo Port flowed through this lagoon. Before touring the museum, we are transported into the world of mangroves, through a documentary with the haunting notes of a song written by Sunil Sarath Perera and sung by Amarasiri Pieris filling the auditorium and setting the right tone. With mangroves which have adapted to living in brackish water and form a protective ring around this island being essential, earlier we get an overview of the Sri Lanka Mangrove Conservation Programme. Starting back in 1992, the Small Fisheries Federation (Sudeesa) which is currently headed by Chairman Dr. Anuradha Wickramasinghe, is the umbrella organisation which mobilised 1,500 community-based organisations (CBOs) with a membership of 15,000 along the coastal belt. The beginnings are dwelt on by the Project Manager of the Sudeesa-Seacology Sri Lanka Mangrove Conservation Programme, W.P. Jayathilaka Perera; the Accountant of the Small Fisheries Federation of Sri Lanka, P.A.S. Marlon; the Regional Manager of the north-western area programme, Annette Primrose Fernando; and Mr. Tissera. The CBOs dot all the coastal regions and look after the interests of the small fishermen who are dependent on theppam and oru in the kalapu (lagoons) to eke out a living as well as those who are earning daily wages as labourers on bigger boats and multi-day trawlers. The programme also makes these small fishermen and their families understand the importance of safeguarding lagoons including mangroves. Later came the Sudeesa Social Enterprise Development Company, a shareholding company, of which such fishing folk became members and would in the future invest their earnings. This was after they had been trained in value-addition to fish as well as how to embark on self-employment projects. The federation is a charity, while the company is the business arm. The main objective was to set off a trend where the mangroves would be protected by those living close to the lagoon, says Jayathilaka, while Douglas explains that they also began three mangrove nurseries in Pambala in Chilaw, Saranagama in Mundel and Nachchikalliya in Kalpitiya to grow more than 500,000 mangrove plants. All those plants have now been distributed and are thriving along the coastal belt where there has been degradation of mangroves and the Pambala model nursery with all 22 species of mangrove plants found in Sri Lanka acts as a demonstration site. Incidentally, the Pambala lagoon has 17 of these 22 species. By May 2015, the federation linked up with the Seacology Institute, an island-conservation organization based in the United States of America working in 58 countries and the Mahaweli Development and Environment Ministry to launch a five-year programme to protect the mangroves in 14 coastal districts in the country. The other stakeholders are the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development Ministry and the Education Ministry. While some areas of Sri Lanka experienced protection through mangroves during the devastating tsunami which engulfed it in December 2004 mangroves are important coastal ecosystems which provide ecological and economic services. Mangroves also act as a sink for carbon with a large potential for carbon sequestration. Costing $3.4 million (over Rs. 500 million), the programme will protect Sri Lankas existing 15,000 hectares of mangrove forests, while restoring nearly 4,000 hectares. It is also being carried out scientifically, with the Scientists Forum comprising all botanists attached to the universities monitoring it and guidance also being provided by Japans Okinawa University. Already, the programme is working with fervour towards its vision of sharing traditional and contemporary knowledge of the mangrove ecosystem throughout the world, in a major effort to become the saviour of mangroves which are essential for the survival of humankind. Vas season and changing traditions from the time of the Buddha By Rajitha Weerakoon Il Full Moon Poya falls on Friday, November 3 View(s): View(s): The dawn of the Il full moon Poya concluded the three months vassana or the rainy season in ancient India when monks who took shelter indoors for the rains, went forth to propagate the Dhamma. During the time of the Buddha, monks, being mendicant recluses who had renounced the world as disciples of the Buddha, had no permanent abode. With temples and monasteries being scarce, bhikkhus sought shelter in caves or sat under the cover of trees and indulged in religious contemplation and meditation. They survived on fruits, nuts and edible leaves or went on pindapatha from house to house with the begging bowl for food. Once, 30 forest monks from the ancient Paweyya state who had spent the vas or vassana season in Saketha Nuwara, travelled to meet the Buddha when they were caught in a storm. They arrived soaked, their robes splashed with mud at Sravasthi, Jethavanaraamaya where the Buddha was spending the vas season. They had no change of clothes but only the trivasa (robe of three parts) which they were wearing when the Buddha granted permission for monks to accept a new robe. This act was called Katinaskaranaya which gave way for the laity to make robes for monks on completing the vas retreat and the paavarana ceremony a ceremony which was the first ritual where monks evaluated their own and each others conduct to establish purity of their vinaya or the code of discipline. Gautama Buddha spent His first vas retreat since His Enlightenment at Isipathanaramaya in Varanasi, the grove where he met his first five disciples to whom He preached the Dhammachakra. During the early years of Buddhism, monks were permitted to accept the invitation of laymen to take shelter in their households during the vassana season. This was called vas vaseema when the monks while in residence, taught the dhamma to the inmates and those who attended on them. The vas season therefore, was an occasion for the laymen to accumulate merit and enrich themselves spiritually as they learnt the dhamma from the monks who remained stationed in their households. During the vas vaseema, the monks did not go on pindapatha until the vas season was over which was after the Il Full Moon Poya and the ordinary folks rejoiced in the opportunity to take care of the mendicants in their households and enhance themselves spiritually. The three-months vassana retreat extended from Esala Full Moon Poya to Il Full Moon Poya. Towards the end of the vassana retreat, during the time of Vap Full Moon Poya, the laity got down to stitch the robe which they offered to the monk before Il Poya, with utmost devotion. The act over the years, progressed into a pinkama when devotees offered the Katina and whatever they could afford towards the monks. The most significant component of the pinkama was the offering of the Katina or the robe to the Sangha. The Buddha who Himself observed vas declared that the offer of the Katina was the noblest religious act which afforded Buddhist devotees to accumulate limitless merit. It was considered as one of the eight great meritorious acts of Theravada Buddhism. The stitching of the robe and the labour that went into it were considered acts of high esteem. The Katina was prepared by sewing together many pieces of cloth. This followed the earliest practice of making the robe with scraps of discarded cloth. The robe once stitched, was dyed with saffron. Some mendicants, Buddhist literature reveals, stitched the robe that had been taken from the cloth in which bodies were wrapped. The preparation of the robe could not be done as one pleased; there were rules that had to be observed. The Katinaya had to be cut and sewn while stationed in one single place and had to be completed within the day. Unlike the Katinaya, the Katina Cheevaraya was a robe made of thick cloth to be worn during the cold season in India that followed the Il Poya. Monks who lived indoors during the vas season, on completing the retreat successfully, were entitled to receive the katinaya and the katina cheevaraya. If a number of monks observed vas at the same place, only one monk out of them was entitled to receive the katinaya and the katina cheevaraya. A single devotee however, was able to offer any number of robes but to monks who live at different places. With robes being freely available today, some of these practices have largely disappeared. However, although in a different context, we find many Buddhist temples and viharas holding Katina pinkamas in October, keeping alive a tradition that has come down from the days of the Buddha. We see many participating in these pinkamas, organized by the dayakas of the temples. These pinkamas with dancers dancing to the beat of drums which include even one or two caparisoned elephants, walk along roads and by lanes in the early hours of the morning while sesath, flags and other decorative items are carried bythe participants. The folded Katina cheevaraya or the Katina robe which should be hand stitched by devotees and dyed in saffron colour is carried by a devotee on his head who walks under a canopy or an ornamental umbrella with great respect being paid to it by white clad devotees. Considered as one of the eight great meritorious deeds of the Theravada Buddhism, the Katina procession is arranged on a date between the full moon days of October and November. The procession winds its way to the temple when the devotees offer the Katinaya to a respected person in the temple. On the completion of the rituals, the monks decide on the recipient of the robe. Unlike in the olden days, the needy are given priority by the senior monks after which the recipient delivers a sermon with merit bestowed on the contributors and participants. This concludes the Katina pinkama. Armys mine detection dog team wins US award again View(s): A Mine Detection Dog (MDD) team from the Sri Lanka Army was honoured by the United States-based Marshall Legacy Institute (MLI) at its 20th Anniversary Clearing the Path Gala in Washington D.C on October 24. Sri Lankas embassy in WAshington DC said in a statement that this was the second consecutive year the honour has been bestowed on a Sri Lankan mine detection dog team. MLIs annual gala honours individuals whose extraordinary efforts have improved lives in war-torn countries and highlights accomplishments of the past year that have made the world a safer place. For their years of excellent service and the strong bond between them, MDD Yankee and her handler Lance Corporal T.K.D. Rajapaksha of the Sri Lanka Army Engineers Humanitarian Demining Unit were presented the 2017 Dog Team of the Year award by MLIs President and Executive Director Perry F. Baltimore. The team led by Brigade Commander of the Sri Lanka Army Engineers Demining Unit Brigadier Amith Seneviratne, together with MDD Yankee and Lance Corporal Rajapaksha was recognised for its contribution and dedication to demining efforts in Sri Lanka. Receiving the award, Lance Corporal Rajapaksha thanked MLI and its partners for their continued support to Sri Lanka and sustained efforts to combat the scourge of landmines. The Marshall Legacy Institute, a non-profit organisation dedicated to helping mine-affected countries, has been assisting the Sri Lanka Army Humanitarian Demining Unit in its humanitarian effort to clear landmines and explosive devices from affected regions of the country. To date, MLI has donated 30 highly trained Mine Detection Dogs to the Sri Lanka Armys Humanitarian Demining Unit. Most of the dogs have been sponsored by generous Americans as well as global citizens, including private foundations, families and schoolchildren; several have been sponsored by the U.S. State Department, which has also provided crucial funding support to enable MLI to train the dogs and their handlers. MDD Yankee was sponsored by schoolchildren in Greenwich, Connecticut through MLIs Children Against Mines Programme. MDD Yankee served with the Sri Lanka Army Engineers Humanitarian Demining Unit for six years sniffing out mines and saving lives in mine-contaminated areas of Sri Lanka until retiring earlier this year. Together with her handler, she has cleared 62,680 square metres of mine-contaminated land. Today, MDD Yankee is the K9 Ambassador for the Marshall Legacy Institute and travels the U.S. with MLI, giving demonstrations at schools and other locations to raise awareness about MLIs programmes in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. The keynote speaker at the Clearing the Path gala evening was former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Other dignitaries who graced the event included, U.S. Senator Mike Enzi and General (Ret.) Gordon R. Sullivan, Founder and Chairman of The Marshall Legacy Institute. In 2016 Mine Detection Dog Alvin and his handler Lance Corporal Nawarathne of the Sri Lanka Army Engineers Humanitarian Demining Unit were selected the Mine Detection Dog team of the year. The government of Sri Lanka aims to make Sri Lanka a mine-free country by the year 2020. Mahatma Gandhi: The ageless life Indias former foreign secretary Nirupama Menon Rao delivered the Mahatma Gandhi oration at an event the Sri Lanka India Society organised in collaboration with the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies and the Indian Cultural Centre. Here is the full text of the lecture which was delivered at the BCIS auditorium in Colombo on October 23. View(s): View(s): I aim to live to the age of 125, Mahatma Gandhi once said. An assassins bullet snatched him away before that milestone was reached but in many ways, for the hope, the courage, the sense of fairness and justice he infused in the world around him, he lives on, as the Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz said, in an ageless life. For both India and Sri Lanka, with intertwined destinies, there is ample reason today to reflect on the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, its relevance particularly for the young, often called the demographic dividend, and what meaning it holds in a world where the speed of connectivity often disconnects the individual from his or her roots and traditions, and where human compassion and the virtues of forgiveness are not accorded the value they deserve. For us in India, we habitually seek answers to current conundrums by referencing Gandhi, just as you in Sri Lanka reference the sacred legacy of the Buddha, another of Indias greatest sons, and in my mind the juxtaposition of Buddha and Gandhi, as the Economist magazine said in 1948, is not at all incongruous. In fact, it is so appropriate and justified. So, I will attempt to speak of both in this lecture for there are organic connections between them. And I will also weave through the warp and weft, a remembrance of the Chakravartin, or wheel-turning monarch, the Emperor Ashoka he, without sorrow Dhamma Ashoka as he is known, and his vision of a subcontinent united by the ideals of good and open governance and righteous conduct. Let us dwell on the name Mahatma, by which Gandhiji was addressed from 1915, as the records indicate. One of your distinguished countrymen, Ananda Coomaraswamy, spoke of the distinction he found in the Buddhist sutras between the great and petty selves, mahatma and alpatma. In another passage from these sutras, the human selves are distinguished as fair and foul (kalyana and papa) the petty self is undeveloped in stature, character, will and prescience; the little self is mortal whereas the other and eminent self, the Mahatma, is never circumscribed by the limitations of the petty, little self. The Mahatma is thus defined of developed stature, character, will and prescience, un-emptied-out, and to whose way there are no boundaries (bhavita-kaya, -sila, -citta, -prajna, aprarikta mahatma apramana-vihari). Certainly, to our ageless Gandhi, the Mahatma, I would ascribe the virtues of developed stature, character, will and prescience and whose way is not hindered by the boundaries that are hindrances to the petty self. In the words of Carl Heath, a Mahatma is to be loved for his simplicity and clarity of soul, for the material simplicity of his existence, having divested himself of all possessions, knowing like Thoreau the joy of possessing all and owning nothing the ultimate civilised and humanised man. Enduring values For the 21st century, these are enduring values. And the electricity of the mind, unites both the Buddha and Gandhi across two and a half millennia. It was Gandhiji who said, an eye for an eye will make the world blind. It was Gautama, the Buddha, who said, If hatred responds to hatred, when and where will hatred end? What does this signify? That there is a counter-pole between violence and non-violence, that the end does not justify the means, unlike what Western history demonstrates through acts of violence and subjugating the weak. Destructive means engender destructive counter-means until there is nothing left. Gandhiji and the Buddha speak to us against aggressive expansionism and they tell us constantly about the supremacy of importance that must be attached to the means we employ to attain our ends. The Buddha, Chakravartin Ashoka, Mahatma Gandhi these lives intersect in many myriad ways. Let us take the flag of India. The flag as originally conceived had the charkha, or spinning wheel, at its centre the charkha was a symbol of non-violence, representing the humble worker spinning the garment of a nation. Around the time of Independence and shortly thereafter, it was decided by our founding fathers to replace the charkha with the wheel of Dharma, as found on the Sarnath column of Ashoka. Acknowledging this decision, Gandhiji said, Looking at the wheel some may recall that Prince of Peace, King Asoka, ruler of an empire, who renounced power. He represented all faiths; he was an embodiment of compassion. Seeing the charka in his chakra adds to the glory of the charka. The Asoka Chakra represents eternally revolving Divine Law of ahimsa. The Prince of Peace How beautifully Gandhiji captures the quintessential Ashoka. The ideals espoused by Ashoka were not far from Gandhijis own conception of democratic good governance and the love that a leader must feel towards his or her people. All men are my children, Ashoka declared. What I desire for my own children, and I desire their welfare and happiness both in this world and the next, that I desire for all men The King is like a father. I have been reading a fascinating book these last few days. It is called Ashoka: The Search for Indias Lost Emperor, by Charles Allen. It is an account of how the jigsaw puzzle that was the history of Ashoka was pieced together by archaeologists and historians in colonial India in the 19th century. More importantly, it is fascinating to see the picture that emerges as this puzzle gradually fits together. The information on the Rock and Pillar Edicts spread across the length and breadth of ancient India, together with the accounts in the Lankan chronicles, the Mahavansa and the Dipavansa, the travel accounts of the Chinese pilgrims Faxian and Xuanzang, and many more accounts, pieced together, tell the story of this Prince of Peace, Piyadasi, beloved of the gods. Here is a ruler whose self-control and moderation, these twin concepts, together with the love of virtue by the side of which all other things are but sins, speak eloquently through the inscriptions of empire he left behind. The essence of ahimsa The mention of non-injury, restraint and impartiality in the Asokan inscriptions powerfully sums up what is for me a definition of ahimsa, the highest duty of all, ahimsa paramo dharma. Ahimsa as Gandhiji saw it, and Ashoka would have endorsed this, is the extreme limit of forgiveness. And, forgiveness as Gandhiji said, is the quality of the brave. Ahimsa is impossible without fearlessness. And note Gandhis use of the word dharma it is very similar to Ashokas that dharma is not so much religious practice as based on ethics and ethical behaviour. In Ashokas words, much good, kindness, generosity, truthfulness and purity much self-examination, much respect, much fear [of evil] and much enthusiasm these are the constituents of dharma. When Gandhiji came to Sri Lanka in 1927, he spoke with so much luminosity about his philosophy of being. There is no half-way house for me, he said. He said he was an intolerable wholehogger, that he found room in his faith as a Hindu for Christian, Islamic and Zorastrian teaching, that his faith was based on the broadest possible toleration. It was this broad faith that sustained him, he said. How true this is as a message for our troubled times today. Speaking at the Nalanda Vidyalaya, Colombo, in November 1927, he told students how if you do not represent the teaching of the Buddha in your own lives you having belonged to this institution will be considered useless unless you can reproduce the central teaching of Gautama in your own lives. His was the right path, right speech, right thought and right conduct. He gave us the unadulterated law of mercy. And the extent of the law as he defined went beyond the human family And he insisted upon purity of life. Masterful as he was, Gandhiji was also able to link the central fact of Buddhas teaching of renunciation of all material things with the message of khadi or homespun, which is simple living and high thinking. It was here in Colombo that Gandhi also spoke of the message he had received from one of his closest mentors, Gopalkrishna Gokhale: that is, the intense desire to spiritualise politics, which was why he (Gokhale) had adopted the name Servants of India for his Society. And Gandhiji went on to say, I have not been tired of insisting upon truth at any cost, and non-violence at any cost. Given these two conditions in my humble opinion, you can hurl defiance at the mightiest power on earth. Hurl defiance: what a powerful thought. He continued: I know that it very often requires great faith and immense patience, but if this one thing is fixed in our minds, then there is no other way open to the politician, if he is to serve not himself but the whole nation. Politics, said Gandhiji, quoting Gokhale, was not a game for leisure hours, it should engross the attention of the ablest men in the country. Warnings about communalism Prescience. That is a quality we associate with Gandhiji. And how prescient he is as he speaks about communalism, affecting both India and Sri Lanka, I am afraid, he says, as we are in India, so are you cut up into groups and communities. Speaking of India, he says, We are trying to suppress provincialism, we are trying to suppress religionism, we are trying to express nationalism in its fullest form, but I am ashamed to confess to you that we are still far from it. And turning to his Sri Lankan audience, he says, But it is given to you to outstrip us and set us an example. In his view, it was easier for Sri Lanka to do this, but a condition indispensable for that is that some of you at least will have to give your whole time to this and not only your whole time but your whole selves. There is no topic that Gandhiji does not touch. Here he is, speaking of the ancient and modern, of eastern tradition versus westernisation. Discard superstition, yes, that was his view, but he also saw much that was ennobling in our ancient traditions and many are the traditions that bind us, India and Sri Lanka, as sisters. At the same time, he clarifies that he does not indiscriminately despise the West. There are many things, he says, which I have myself assimilated from the West. And explaining this beautifully, he goes on to state, There is a very great and effective Sanskrit word for that particular faculty which enables a man always to distinguish between what is desirable and what is undesirable, what is right and what is wrong, that word is known as Viveka. Translated into English, the nearest approach is discrimination. I do hope you will incorporate this word into Pali and Sinhalese. And that any culture, ancient or modern, must be submitted to the test of reason, and of experience. I was struck when reading about Gandhijis Lankan visit, that speaking in Jaffna he referred to this country as India glorified. A glorified edition of India, Lanka certainly is, said he. Complimenting your scenic beauty, he says it had surpassed all my expectations and so I could not help saying at a recent meeting that Ceylon seemed to me a fragrant beautiful pearl dropped from the nasal ring of India. After all, in his view, why should not the people of Lanka who have inherited and adopted the teachings of the great Master [the Buddha] do better than the children of the motherland? And, what then, of the women? Women, whom the Mexican poet Octavio Paz spoke of as having an oceanic heart, hearts that contain a thousand sorrows, regrets and aspirations? A number of women, participants in Indias struggle for freedom, felt the need to displace the image of men leading women, off to conquer new worlds, with a new world of equal education and opportunity, where men and women were comrades of the road, thus raising manhood and womanhood together in one nation, united. Some of Gandhijis views on women, as being complementary of men in matters of occupation and education, and on female chastity, it must be recognised were framed almost a century ago. But that he was the best friend of women in India and the world cannot be denied. Here he is, speaking of Kasturba, his spouse: I learnt the lesson of non-violence from my wife, when I tried to bend her to my will. Her determined resistance to my will on the one hand, and her quiet submission to the suffering my stupidity involved on the other, ultimately made me ashamed of myself and cured me of my stupidity in thinking I was born to rule over her; and in the end, she became my teacher in non-violence. And what I did in Africa was but an extension of the rule of Satyagraha which she unwittingly practised in her own person. A woman comes into her own when she is unflinchingly able to fight tyranny whether in the home or on the national or international stage. Gandhi wanted womanhood to step forward into the world-wide leadership of ideas, for the ending of the great curses which afflict mankind, poverty, oppression, warfare. A South Asian Commons As an advocate of the school of feminist foreign policy, I have spoken elsewhere of why, as South Asian women, we should not consider a discourse that speaks of matters beyond war and peace (peace in the South Asian subcontinent seems to be associated with white flags, surrender, submission, weakness)? Do we think of a South Asian Commons? Not an arena for mutual jousting where we bait each other in blood sport, but a space for maturity of peaceful purpose, robust civility, and mutual accommodation. We have built towering babels around ourselves, but we have not cleared a way for the Commons. In embracing the idea of a South Asian Commons, a feminist foreign policy would speak and act in favour not of ravishing disunities but of rationalising unities, of merging capacities to build, to develop, to link. It would exercise vetoes to block war, not peace; it would emphasise the right to food, the right to health, the right to knowledge and learning, the right to reject the disconnects, the worn cliches and mental barriers that divide us. It would weigh the interests of humanitarianism against the interests of power with far greater precision and wisdom. It would say no to violence, against all, but particularly crimes against women and children. It would reject the voices of the far right and the far left. It would feel the true pulse of the unknown, the marginalised, the excluded. It would represent the word of Gandhiji in its truest form. It would express the ideal to which his whole life was consecrated: Ayam nijo paro veti ganana laghucetasam, Udaracaritanam tu vasudhaiva kutumbakam. Only base minds reckon whether one be kin or stranger. Men [and women] of noble conduct take the whole world for their home. Let me add that Gandhi did not like the word abala or helpless attached to women. He called the woman mahila, which translates into powerful, tender, affectionate. There is a moving image on one of the ancient stupas of the Asokan age that depicts the emperor Ashoka fainting, overcome by emotion, at the sight of the sacred Bodhi tree. He is held up by two women, his guardians and protectors. They are depicted as strong and unflinching. Women holding up the man. With their self-control, their capacity to endure suffering, and their instinct for the just, the right, and thinking in as wide-angled a manner as possible here to shore up their Chakravartin. Gandhiji would have approved. Human nature, as E.M. Forster once said, is set on a very large stage. We forget that to our disadvantage. There are infinite possibilities yet to be explored. What is the message we take home from the imprisonments, the fasting, the willingness to suffer that Gandhiji expressed in his existence? His roots are outside time, really. He strode the stage of our freedom struggle but he scales heights beyond. In Forsters words, He is with the founders of religion, whether he founds religion or not. He is with the great artists, though art was not his medium. He is with all the men and women who have sought something in life that is neither chaos nor mechanism, who have not confused happiness with possessiveness, or victory with success, and who have believed in love. Beyond blind patriotism There is considerable debate today in our countries as to the definition of patriotism. Gandhi believed that ones devotion to the nation he or she belongs to goes beyond blind patriotism. It must involve demanding for your nation the best from the world, but even more from oneself, being willing to self-sacrifice to the utmost limit. Gandhiji always said he was a Hindu. Yes, he was a Hindu of Hindus. Yet, in Durban, during his years in South Africa, he had above his desk a picture, a head of Christ, a singular and beautiful picture placed so, as he explained, that whenever he looked up, he might see it and remember. The religion he practised was the religion of truth, of reconciliation, of forgiveness, inclusiveness and toleration. He felt no opposition to Christians or Muslims. Here was a practical man, a man who did not shy away from the tasks of scavenging, his constant exhortation to his followers was that they be good sweepers, good Harijans, to go forth and clean the world. Here was a man, in the words of George Catlin, whose ways were ways of pleasantness (a quiet, soothing voice never raised in anger, fear or contempt) and all his paths were peace. And, it is certainly a take-away for todays vision of Swachh Bharat cleaning India, in body and spirit. There is a Sanskrit word, Sva Kranti, the revolution within the self. Are we true, are we transparent and sincere? How can we become thought children of Gandhi? Do we cultivate the joy of sharing, are we compassionate in practice? Do we eschew religious intolerance? Are we wedded to the paths of peace? That revolution must be sparked within ourselves, first and foremost. Do we treat compromise just as appeasement? Do we take our point of view too far? As the British journalist Mark Tully once said, we have to accept the uncertainty of certainty. Compromise is linked to ahimsa; it does not stand apart from it, in some sterile sphere. It has rightly been said that the greatest single antidote to violence is conversation, speaking our fears, listening to the fears of others, and in that sharing of vulnerabilities discovering a genesis of hope. This is where one must place the relevance of secularism. Secularism is more than tolerance of other religions. As the scientist and thinker Pushpa Bhargava notes, secularism involves giving up part of the demands of ones religion. Religious fundamentalism cannot be the dominating force of a modern, truly secular society. I subscribe to the view that religion should be an entirely private matter and it cannot dominate public discourse. Where does Mahatma Gandhi reside today? What would he have to say of the countless MG Roads that are main streets in Indias densely populated cities? That are commercial bazaars and temples of consumerism? Certainly, there is no Mahatma Gandhi in our MG Roads. Does he stay in the virtual world of the internet where you type his name on Google and come up with three million and more entries? Or does he reside in the web of our consciousness? The latter is the surer spot. It is from where we can reflect more deeply about the relevance of words like Swadeshi. In the 21st century, given the insularities that are fast eroding globalisation, can we permit the dilution of the meaning of self-reliance and its descent into the depths of nativism? Swadeshi should mean an openness to innovation, new ideas, that we then use with the principle of viveka that Gandhiji spoke of, of distinction, of being able to sift and use what is best tailored to our genius and our requirements. It would involve a profound understanding of how inter-connected the world is today. And we must remember Gandhiji always looked beyond India to the horizons of the globe. Think globally, act locally, could well have been his slogan. The ageless Gandhi Finally, how do we sum up the ageless Mahatma Gandhi? To our century, his memory is still fragrant. That is because his legacy is worthwhile, it is relevant. His is a part of our inheritance as humanity, as a whole. There is no use-by date to that legacy. Take fearlessness, or abhaya, the absence of fear not of body alone but the fearlessness of mind. Gandhi was not just indomitable. He was in-expugnable you could not take away from him he was unconquerable. There is no death, Sarojini Naidu once said, there is only birth. Gandhiji was born. He lives. In our hearts, in the soul that seeks higher and higher stages of the truth. His soul has not been consecrated to the funeral pyre. He is that personification that speaks truth to power, that empowers the powerless. Every action of his in the public domain is to be remembered and celebrated for future generations. We need to showcase his achievements just like those villagers in rural West Bengals Purulia and Bankura districts who offer the most beautiful horses crafted by a potter to the old banyan tree in the village so as to highlight the highest standards of human excellence for people passing by. So too, we need to create points of reference to Gandhiji for all the people who walk the worlds stage. Let me close with words from the memorial service held in the Community Church in New York City on February 1, 1948, two days after Gandhiji was assassinated: Yet we know, O God, that Gandhiji is not dead. His spirit singeth still within our souls, and dwelleth on high with Thee in glorious brightness. And we too can turn again from the ways of hate and greed and war to the way of Thy Spirit. We can repent us of our warlike madness and fury to the way of Thy forgiveness and love. In a gentle way, you can shake the world. And we must remember, as Martin Luther King said, a single garment of destiny unites us all. Emergency Rescue and Fire NZ was called to Commerce Lane, near the Salisbury Crown Apartments, about 8.30am. Tauranga City Councils Trevor Page says the incident occurred at a private storm water soak hole of a nearby commercial premise. Whats happened here is that this woman saw the hole, went to look closer and then the ground just gave way beneath her. These soak holes are made up of an aerated-type concrete which consists of rings of concrete that allow water through it the water goes through it and bursts through. They cover that with a concrete lid, and they fill soil on top of that again. This is how we do a lot of soakage here in the Mount and in Papamoa because of the sand. That concrete lid is being used in an area where there is traffic going over it and over time this pressure has sunken the lid, pushed down and broken it. Its a reasonably common occurrence as private sinkholes tend to do that, it takes a vehicle usually to break them. Mount Maunganui station officer Steve Wright says fire crews assisted the woman for more than one hour. When we were call we monitored the situation to make sure she was safe and we monitored the hole for gasses, which are unlikely because we knew it was storm water, however you can never be certain. Sewer manholes obviously pose much greater a risk. Its a collapsed lid, broken into chunks, so we very slowly cleared the material away from the top eventually managed to bring one piece out, put a little ladder down the hole and she climbed out. She was down there for probably an hour, so shes a very brave lady. The woman was treated by ambulance at the scene and walked away with minor injuries. A woman has been flown to hospital with a suspected head injury. The Trustpower TECT Rescue Helicopter was dispatched to Matakana Island at 3.30am for a 44-year-old woman who had suffered a suspected head injury. The woman was stablised at the scene, before being airlifted to Tauranga Hospital for treatment, says a spokesperson for the rescue helicopter. No information as to how the woman sustained the injury has been released. A trend of good weather and high temperatures will persist this week until Thursday in many parts of New Zealand thanks to a big blocking high just east of the North Island. By Thursday a well-formed cold front approaches from the west attached to a Tasman Sea low, warns WeatherWatch.co.nz. It will run into this blocking high, weakening the rain band but also slowing it down - ensuring cloudy and wet weather is most likely on Friday in the north, west and south of both islands mainly. "Maximum temperatures are over 4C higher than normal in most areas in the South Island and southern part of North Island from Monday to Thursday due to this warmer air flow," says the weather organisation. "Auckland, Northland, and Bay of Plenty will be also fairly dry but temperatures will remain normal with the air flow coming straight off the sea to the north east. "There are a few showers in the mix for the upper North Island but nothing too significant. "This dry spell will be interrupted by the passage of developed cold front from Thursday evening to Friday which may give heavy rain in western and northern part of the country as well as the West Coast." Thursday, 6pm. Following a fatal quad bike incident on a Tauranga orchard in May 2016, WorkSafe New Zealand has accepted an Enforceable Undertaking from Zespri International Limited. WorkSafe alleged Zespri failed under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 to ensure, so far as was reasonably practicable, the health and safety of a worker. Three other parties have also been charged in connection with this incident. This is the fourth enforceable undertaking accepted by WorkSafe under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015; a tool that is increasingly being used, in appropriate cases, as an alternative to prosecution. This case is one of the first multi-party prosecutions undertaken by WorkSafe. WorkSafe manager of technical programmes and support Simon Humphries says the decision to accept the enforceable undertaking is appropriate when considering all the circumstances of this case. An enforceable undertaking is not usually an accepted alternative to prosecution where an alleged contravention has resulted in a fatality. In this case, the failures alleged of Zespri were not directly causative of the workers death. The activities outlined in the enforceable undertaking will provide long-term sustainable health and safety improvements in the workplace, industry and wider community. The family of the deceased have been contacted and are satisfied with this outcome. Under the enforceable undertaking, Zespri International Limited committed to initiatives including: Continuing facilitation of grower health and safety education. Implementing health and safety reviews of contractors who contract directly with Zespri for on-orchard services. Initiating information campaigns relating to health and safety. Sponsoring and promoting the Horticultural Health and Safety Forum. Establishing a tertiary scholarship for accredited health and safety studies. Zespri chief operating officer Simon Limmer acknowledges Zespri has an important role to play in promoting health and safety given its central function in the New Zealand kiwifruit industry. The interdependent nature of our industry means there are overlapping duties between orchard owners, contractors, post-harvest and Zespri for health and safety. "As an industry, we need to work collaboratively to improve safety, and Zespri recognises its position in being able to promote greater awareness and higher standards. Our undertaking aims to deliver benefit for workers in the kiwifruit industry and the communities in which we operate." The full enforceable undertaking, together with WorkSafes reasons for its decision is available here. WorkSafe will continue to monitor compliance of this enforceable undertaking. Police have released the name of the Tauranga man killed in a crash. Adrian Carlisle Hetet died following a crash on State Highway 29, Lower Kaimai, on Saturday evening. Two other people were injured in the crash. "Polices thoughts are with the family and friends during this time," says police. "The serious crash unit is continuing to investigate the circumstances of the crash. Police can confirm that there were no road surface defects of potholes that may have contributed to the crash." A Bay of Plenty man on trial for the murder of his partner says he did not mean to kill her. Robert Roupere Hohua is accused of killing Marie Rose Harlick in their Opotiki home in November 2016. In the trial, which began in the High Court at Tauranga yesterday, the court heard how Marie suffered a prolonged beating in which she was kicked, punched and stomped on. She died after bleeding to death from a ruptured artery when she was either stomped or kicked in the stomach. Hohua was arrested after police were called to an address in Wellington Street, in Opotiki, following reports of a domestic dispute on November 22, 2016. When officers arrived at the scene, Hohua was taken into custody. Police performed CPR on a woman at the address, but were unsuccessful. Following this, police launched a homicide investigation and later charged the accused with murder. Hohua is accepting responsibility for Maries death. Defence lawyer Gene Tomlinson says he is guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter, as he did not mean to kill her. He pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. The trial is set down for two weeks before Justice Anne Hinton. Most New Zealanders wouldnt know the modern state of Israel owes much of its existence to a few hundred Kiwi soldiers and their horses. But during the First World War, the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, along with British and Australian troops, helped liberate lands that would eventually become Israel from the Ottoman Empire. Several battles were fought against the Ottomans in the Middle Eastern theatre of the war, including the Battle of Ayun Kara, in which New Zealanders fought against troops of the retreating Ottoman rear-guard. That battle was fought on November 14, 1917. Exactly 100 years later, a group of New Zealanders including several from the Bay of Plenty will be commemorating the battle at the Israeli city of Rishon LeZion, near where the armies clashed. Among them will be Deputy Mayor Kelvin Clout and his wife Kathryn, who are travelling to Israel for the first time. Kelvin found out about the trip through his church connections, and local historian Chris Archer has written a book (Saviours of Zion) about the exploits of the New Zealanders in that theatre during the war. Chris said he was going over to commemorate the battles, and that got me interested, says Kelvin. Then we found out Kathryns great-great-grandfather was involved in the Mounted Rifles. Kathryn says she always knew there were family links. Its been a bit of a quest to find out more. Its pretty amazing to think New Zealand played a part in rescuing the Holy Land from the Ottoman Turks. Although she doesnt have her great-great-grandfather Samuel Binnie Whytes original medals, Kelvin had replicas made for her so she can wear them to the battle commemorations. Kelvin will be speaking on behalf of the group on November 14, and they will also be laying a wreath endorsed by the RSA. As Christians, he and Kathryn will also be taking the chance to visit many biblical sites, including Jerusalem. Although theyll just be across the border from the West Bank, and only a few hundred kilometres away from the Syrian Civil War, the couple arent too concerned about the possible dangers. Weve spoken to people who have been, and theyve all felt quite safe, says Kelvin although he adds there are places youre apparently not encouraged to drive with an Israeli number plate. While the trip is funded entirely out of the Clouts own pockets, Kelvin will still be wearing his deputy mayors hat on some occasions, and intends to take the opportunity to forge some connections with cities over there. Designed by American architect Peter Marino, the new-look store is teeming with eye-catching elements, from the baroque-style door to the 1960s Gio Ponti chandeliers which were originally hanging in the prestigious Parco dei Principi hotels ballroom in Rome We have a mix of Italian masters of design as well as new modern designs by Peter Marino, said Silvia Schwarzer, the Interior Design Director at Bulgari. The chandeliers, were in the Parco dei Principi hotels ballroom in Rome and were designed by Gio Ponti in 1960. Theyre original. We also have Gio Ponti furniture. Other elements like the staircase, the pantone mesh featuring the Bulgari eight point starthose were designed by Peter Marino, so the mix of the two is very important for us because we start from our roots but are always looking to innovate." On the mezzanine floor is a lounge housing a selection of vintage Bulgari trinkets. The loune was inspired by the Salottino Taylor private room at the Via Condotti boutique in Rome where Elizabeth Taylor tried on jewels in the 1960s, Bugari are marking the opening with a capsule collection of jewellery inspired by New York, using lapis lazuli, coral and diamonds to pay tribute to the colours of the American flag. The brands Creative director, Lucia Silvestri, who created the collection, named a bracelet as her favourite item from the series Its almost three-dimensional and its very soft and sophisticated and its so New York, she said. This kind of craftsmanship is something only Bulgari can do. I really wanted to do something special, but you know its difficult because even in the 70s we did such extraordinary pieces Those pieces are still very modern. So I wanted to do something with the same spirit but very contemporary. Founded by Sotirios Voulgaris in 1884, Bulgari has grown to become one of the worlds most iconic fashion and jewellery brands. Kevin Spacey has publicly come out as gay for the first time in an apology after being accused by fellow actor Anthony Rapp of making sexual advances when Rapp was 14 years old. Rapp, who's now 46 and stars on "Star Trek: Discovery," told BuzzFeed in an interview published Sunday that Spacey invited him to his New York apartment for a party in 1986, when both were starring in Broadway productions. Spacey, who was 26 at the time, was doing the play "Long Day's Journey Into Night" with Jack Lemmon while Rapp was starring in "Precious Sons" with Ed Harris. Rapp says he ended up alone with Spacey at the end of the party, and Spacey allegedly picked him up "like a groom picks up the bride over the threshold." 14 year-old Anthony Rapp, in the play Precious Sons 1986 (w. Ed Harris & Judith Ivey), at the time of his assault. He looks 12 years-old pic.twitter.com/moecH8skzG #HappyBLUEYear2019! (@TheMominatrixx) October 30, 2017 "But I don't, like, squirm away initially, because I'm like, 'What's going on?' And then he lays down on top of me," Rapp said. "He was trying to seduce me... "I don't know if I would have used that language. But I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually." Rapp, whose acting credits also include "Rent," "A Beautiful Mind," "Road Trip" and "Adventures in Babysitting," told BuzzFeed that he left Spacey's apartment after the alleged incident, but never approached the actor about it later. He said he started telling friends about it in 1990 and eventually talked to a lawyer, who advised him against pursuing legal action. Spacey apologized to Rapp in a public statement over the allegations. "I have a lot of respect and admiration for Anthony Rapp as an actor. I'm beyond horrified to hear his story," Spacey wrote on Twitter. "I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years." Spacey, a two-time Oscar winner and a Tony Award winner who currently stars on "House of Cards," also opened up about his sexuality for the first time. "I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fueled by the fact that I have been so protective of my privacy," Spacey said. "As those closes to me know, in my life, I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic relationships with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behavior." Some on social media criticized Spacey's statement. A Vanity Fair critic tweeted that "Coming out as a gay man is not the same thing as coming out as someone who preyed on a 14-year-old. Conflating those things is disgusting." "Kevin Spacey has just invented something that has never existed before: a bad time to come out," Billy Eichner added on Twitter. Rapp's story follows recent allegations of sexual harassment and assault by film producer Harvey Weinstein and director James Toback. "Part of what allowed the Harvey situation to occur was that there was this witting and unwitting conspiracy of silence," Rapp told BuzzFeed. "The only way these things can continue is if there's no attention being paid to it, if it's getting forgotten." Welcome, DISH customer! Please note that we cannot save your viewing history due to an arrangement with DISH. Watchlist and resume progress features have been disabled. ACCEPT cn:suicide Late in the afternoon of 29th October, a man identified only as Piotr S. passed away in a central hospital in Warsaw, Poland, after being in a serious condition for 10 days as a result of suffering 60% burns over his body. The 54 year olds health had deteriorated fast since he was first admitted: in the morning before his death, news broke that he had to be connected to an artificial kidney though his family still clung to hope that he would recover. And yet what is most devastating about this tragic turn of affairs is not simply the death of Piotr but rather the events which led up to this shattering outcome. On 19th October, Piotr set himself on fire in front of Warsaws most recognisable building, the Palace of Culture and Science, in protest against the parliament of Poland; which, headed over the last two years by the right-wing PiS (the Law and Justice Party), has imposed damaging decrees and sanctions on the fabric of the Polish nation. Curbs to powers of the media, civil service and courts, along with a biting xenophobic rhetoric, suggest Poland is swinging vastly to the right along a deeply nationalistic avenue; causing concern both domestically and internationally. But whilst there have been frequent protests in Warsaw and other Polish cities against the governments increasingly authoritarian attitude, none have had such damaging and disastrous consequences until now. The international press, however, have taken little heed of the news coming out of Poland over the last ten days, despite its alarming origins. The Los Angeles Times and Russia Today did cover Piotrs act of self-immolation; but, at the time of writing, no other media outlet aside from the Polish press have covered his death. But this was a public act; a demonstration of despair from a figure determined to make his dissatisfaction with the government known. By ignoring it, the measures Piotr took, devastating as they were, are only to be in vain. This cannot happen. We know very little of Piotr he had studied Chemistry as a young man; but at the time of his protest was living in the southern Polish town of Niepoomice, with a partner of 34 years and two grown children, who described him as a calm and mature figure. They are, understandably, in shock at both his passing and the nature of his death; an event Piotrs son disclosed to the Polish press by text at 17.20 on Sunday afternoon. In an interview with OKO Press, Piotrs wife voiced her distress at her husbands measures; conceding that he must have planned for the protest over many months. She claimed that though he had frequently expressed his helpless feelings, the eventual manifestation of these sentiments was a great shock: a 54 year old married man, with two adult children studying at institutes of higher education in his homeland, should have been at a content stage in the prime of his life and yet he had been driven to commit the most agonising of public suicides. It was unthinkable. In the afternoon of the 19th, moments before he committed the act, Piotr had disseminated leaflets around the Palace of Culture, which detailed his aggravations at the administration of the country. Then, switching on a speaker to play the Polish song Kocham Wolnosc (I Love Freedom) by Chopcy z Placu Broni (The Boys from the Square), and roaring I protest through a megaphone, he flushed his body with a flammable substance and set himself alight. He was unconscious by the time he was rushed to hospital; his leaflets objecting national policies left to drift across the square in the autumn breeze. His self-immolation brought a furore of domestic reaction: from the day of the protest, anti-governmental messages, taken from his leaflets, were scrawled across the streets of Warsaw; the most prominent being a seven-word phrase written on the sidewalk in front of the house of Jaroslaw Kaczynski (leader of PiS) in the fashionable northern Warsaw district of Zoliborz: Do not wait any longer. 19 X 2017. These fragments of messages left tell of a man desperate for the Polish governmental approach to change; a man determined to speak out and warn his country; a man clasping at the last liberty he felt he had left. Aside from his leaflets, Piotr wrote two letters to the public, detailing the reasons behind his disturbing deed: I love freedom over everything, so I decided to do self-immolation and I hope my death will shake the conscience of many people that the society will wake up and that you will not wait until the politicians do anything for you because they will not do anything! It should not have taken the death of a man to raise awareness that a European democracy is faltering; but now Piotr has passed away, we must do all we can to ensure his views are not forgotten. The events of 29th October mark a new low in Polands administrative history, and we all have a responsibility to ensure the situation improves from here on in: for sake of Piotr; for the sake of the Polish people; for the sake of freedom itself. People can't fool Google anymore, or at least not as easily. Before, users could access a different Google domain like, say, Google.com.au to get search results from that country specifically even if the person performing the search isn't anywhere near that place. Google Just Changed How Search Results Work But now, Google will begin serving users local search results instead, regardless of what domain they use. So, even if a person searches for something using the Australian Google domain, they'll still get search results based on their current whereabouts. The option to change countries has been relegated under the search engine's Settings page. As Google writes in a blog post announcing the change, people will receive a specific country service depending on where they live. But suppose they travel to another country, their search results will automatically be based on the country where they traveled to. Then, once they return, Google search results will change again, reverting back to the default country service. So, if a U.S. Google user travels to Japan and at some point while there performs a Google search, results will be Japan-based. Once they return home, Google will go back to serving them U.S.-based results. It's pretty nifty. As part of the changes, the main Google search page now includes a strap at the bottom indicating which country has been detected. It'll affect other Google apps as well, including Maps, Blogger, YouTube, Earth, and even Gmail. "We're confident this change will improve your Search experience, automatically providing you with the most useful information based on your search query and other context, including location," said Google. How To Get Search Results From Another Country For users who still want to get country-specific search results, that's still possible. Simply go to the Settings page and look for the drop-down menu called "Regions for Search Results" to set the location preferred. It's a handy way of getting localized results for another country even for users who aren't physically there. Why was this change implemented, though? Why fix what isn't broken? Well, Google says it wants to make sure that when a user tries to search for something, they'll get the most relevant results possible, and where the user is located plays a huge part in that. If, for example, a person out and about in Ireland tries to search for the best pubs around town, Google automatically knows the user wants to specifically search for best pubs in Ireland, not their home country or anywhere else. Thoughts about this change in localized search results? As always, feel free to sound off in the comments section below! 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The term moonshot encapsulates the spirit of technological achievement: an accomplishment so ambitious, so improbable, that its equivalent to sending a manned mission to explore the moon. Even before the coining of the term, human industry has advanced due to this mindset. For example, the discovery of the electron was based on pure exploration and curiosity now, we live in a world run on electronics. Now, Google Inc. is offering $20 million in prize money to any independent, privately funded team that successfully lands on the moon. Why? Because despite the fact that humans have already landed on the moon, and established a regular off-world presence in the creation and staffing of the International Space Station, the moon remains a valuable location for space exploration and advancement. Space and Industrial Technology Our moon is Earths only satellite and the fifth largest natural satellite in the solar system. In other words, its an ideal stage for experimental product placement products such as SpaceILs lunar vehicle, or the legs of an unmanned lunar lander manufactured by the company RUAG Space. These two pieces of equipment are not only significant due to their off-world application, but also because crucial components used to build them came from 3D printing. One of the major hurdles facing space travel has always been the vast expense and low return on investment. Its an investment in discovery and existential fulfillment, rather than in the accumulation of valuable resources, natural or otherwise. With the cheaper process of 3D printing proving a viable substitution in industrial manufacturing, Google has begun to confirm their moonshot philosophy has the potential to benefit industrial companies and their markets. If something like 3D printing can help create the spacecraft we need to navigate to the moon and beyond, how else will this technology impact the industrial market? The potential effects of emerging technologies hold significant consequences for nearly every existing industry, making the subject an interesting topic for industrial blogs to cover. And its not just the growing significance of 3D printing. How Is Google Thinking Bigger? Googles once-classified lab, known as Google X, spearheads several ventures, including Google Glass, Project Loon, the driverless car, neural networking, Project Calico and building robots for the manufacturing industry. This new surge of futuristic innovation creates greater financial costs that cannot be ignored: costs that require new methods of manufacturing and industrial production across a whole spectrum of industries. Googles moonshot intentions are simple: to explore, examine and execute proposals and projects that address significant issues in human society. Create radical solutions that seem impossible, and use groundbreaking technology to implement those proposed ideas. The consequence? Real advancements in industrial manufacturing that result in huge benefits for the industrial markets of the current day and age. Carbon nanotube manufacturing has begun to replace the use of carbon fiber for radio antennas and other electromagnetic devices. The application for graphene materials continues to grow, not only for display screens, but also in medical, chemical and industrial processes. Even next-generation power sources batteries that can store energy longer and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of electrical systems are becoming a reality. Industry leaders, as well as ambitious newcomers to manufacturing, will soon find themselves facing a new frontier of brand recognition. Based on the fact that the human presence in space has begun to increase, and further developments are being planned, the idea of interstellar marketing becomes more realistic with each passing year. Manufacturers of cheap, but reliable, space equipment will grow in value as more and more companies and institutions begin implementing their own moonshot projects. Companies that invest in new manufacturing processes and items will become highly sought-after by other cutting-edge industries wishing to save money on equipment costs. The business brands of these companies and their product lines will skyrocket in reputation and marketability. Where Will Our Next Big Idea Take Us? The idea behind the moonshot term originated with the 1969 Apollo 11 spaceflight project: an incredible feat of human engineering and ingenuity that resulted in the first manmade spacecraft successfully exiting Earths atmosphere and landing on the moon. This event marked the first successful landing of mankind on the moons surface an achievement that was considered nearly impossible just a decade before. Any project classified as a moonshot refers to an ambitious and groundbreaking endeavor people undertake without a complete understanding of its potential rewards and risks. In 1973, the total cost of the Apollo program reached $25.4 billion. The most expensive aspect of the mission? The spacecraft and Saturn V launch vehicles. Our government made a large investment in going into space because it envisioned the world of scientific discoveries we live in today. What if it was easier and cheaper to reach the moon, and we could send missions and materials there regularly? What if the cost of going into space was privately financed? What if, in the future, it only took $100,000, rather than $1 million or more, to reach the moon? Edited by Mandi Nowitz We value your privacy. Focus Taiwan (CNA) uses tracking technologies to provide better reading experiences, but it also respects readers' privacy. Click here to find out more about Focus Taiwan's privacy policy. When you close this window, it means you agree with this policy. Purchases made via links on our site may earn us an affiliate commission SAN JUAN With thousands of people still in shelters more than a month after Hurricane Maria made landfall, Puerto Rico has launched its own version of a temporary housing program piloted in Louisiana after last year's catastrophic floods. Gov. John Bel Edwards joined Puerto Rico Gov. Ricardo Rossello on Monday to announce the Tu Hogar Renace program, which is modeled after Louisiana's Shelter at Home. "There's nothing more important to people in times like this than just the ability to be at home with their family and friends, and that's what this program is all about," said Edwards, who arrived in San Juan earlier Monday and is expected to return to Louisiana Tuesday evening. Edwards and members of his administration have been in regular contact with Puerto Rico's leaders since Hurricane Maria made landfall as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 20. "Nobody knows more about this," Rossello said, thanking the Louisiana governor for his continued advice and for coming to see the devastated island first-hand. Before holding a press conference to announce the housing assistance program, the two governors and other disaster recovery leaders walked debris-lined streets in Toa Baja, a town just west of San Juan that was badly battered and flooded by the storm. "It looked like a lake," Puerto Rico Housing Secretary Fernando Gil said, showing Edwards photos on his cellphone. The group dropped into several homes at the homeowners' invitations, touring the mostly shelled out structures. Many of the houses were still muddy from the hurricane's floodwaters. The sound of generators hummed loudly at the homes that can still afford to run them. Those who cannot, remain without power. "God bless you," Edwards repeated from house-to-house with first lady Donna Edwards. Several of the residents lined the streets to greet Edwards and tell him their stories from the storm. "I lost everything," one man said, shaking his head. It was a familiar sight for Louisiana's emergency officials after rounds of hurricanes, floods and other natural disasters the state has seen in recent years. "We call them debris piles, but these are people's lives," Edwards said, gesturing over mounds of broken furniture, clothes and toys. Earlier in the day, Edwards took part in a series of meetings with the island's leaders at La Fortaleza, the governor's residence that was built in Old San Juan in the 1500s. "We have more experience doing this than we'd like to have," Edwards said as he was greeted for the recovery discussions. Rossello, the Puerto Rican governor, said he's excited about the Tu Hogar Renace, or STEPS, program and what it will mean for the U.S. territory's recovery. Like Shelter at Home, STEPS is being paid for through Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster recovery dollars. "It starts giving the people of Puerto Rico affected by the storm the first instruments to start rehabilitating their homes in a temporary fashion," Rossello said. Louisiana's Shelter at Home program faced mixed reviews. It was loosely modeled after a program implemented in New York after Superstorm Sandy, but Louisiana had to talk the federal government into trying it again and faced several restrictions on what the money could go toward. The program, which came in at a price tag of about $156 million, offered bare-bones improvements to flooded homes minor electrical and plumbing repairs, air conditioning and heating restoration, and basic bathroom and kitchen replacements. It faced a backlash from some homeowners unhappy with the scope of the work and some leaders who questioned the cost for work that was only temporary a point that Edwards has repeatedly defended as being a product of federal restrictions. Officials from Texas, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands have also sought Louisiana's advice for starting similar programs in those states that have also been affected by major hurricanes this year. Edwards said he thinks that Puerto Rico and others will benefit from the hurdles faced in Louisiana and the feedback that the state offered FEMA in Shelter at Home's wake. Puerto Rico has received approval to expand its program to cover additional repairs not covered in Louisiana's, including offering solar panels and generators in some cases, to address Puerto Rico's power infrastructure issues. "This just goes to show how partnerships are important not just the federal and state and local level but also what we can learn from one another," Edwards said. "We're happy to be here and hopefully contributing to some degree to what I'm sure is going to be a successful program." SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico Gov. John Bel Edwards and top disaster recovery leaders from his administration are traveling to Puerto Rico this week to assist the island with its recovery from Hurricane Maria. Edwards and first lady Donna Edwards are expected to arrive in San Juan on Monday morning and to return Tuesday evening. Maj. Gen. Glenn Curtis, adjutant general of the Louisiana National Guard, and James Waskom, director of the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, made the trip on Sunday. Louisiana has far too much experience with disaster management, and Mother Nature has caused unimaginable harm in Puerto Rico, Edwards said in a statement. I am happy that Louisiana has been able to provide assistance as survivors recover, much like the assistance weve relied on in the aftermath of disasters I know they have a long road ahead of them, but Ive assured Gov. (Ricardo) Rossello that we will be partners with them as they move into the recovery phase." It's been a month since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, but the island has struggled with recovery obstacles. Much of the island remains without power. During his trip, Edwards is scheduled to meet with Puerto Rican leaders, including Rossello, to offer advice on the recovery, based on Louisiana's experience with previous storms. Though Louisiana was faced with the close threat of multiple hurricanes that reached the Gulf of Mexico this hurricane season, the state has been largely spared from devastating storms that struck Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Louisiana officials have since been advising other states on recovery efforts, with GOHSEP officials traveling to hurricane-hit areas. The Shelter at Home program, which Louisiana implemented after last year's catastrophic floods to make bare-bones repairs to make homes habitable again, is being used as a model for quick, short-term housing in hurricane-hit states. While in Puerto Rico, Edwards also is expected to meet with Louisiana National Guard troops stationed there and to have dinner with air traffic control airmen. Shortly after arriving Sunday night, Curtis visited with National Guardsmen at an outpost in San Juan. "I'm really, really thankful to all of you," Curtis told the troops in an uplifting pep talk. Capt. Matthew Moore, who arrived in Puerto Rico about a month ago, said the experience has been humbling. He said his company has been providing security services, but has diverse members including medics, cooks and mechanics who have been able to lend their expertise to the effort. "It's one of the most humbling experiences of my life," he said. "The people of Puerto Rico are very thankful and appreciative of what we're doing." More than 300 members of the Louisiana National Guard have been sent to Puerto Rico after the storm made landfall on Sept. 20, and about half of them remain there. In addition to the on-the-ground support, Edwards' administration helped coordinate a statewide donation drive, with drop-off locations in each parish, that collected about 100 pallets of donated items for Puerto Ricans impacted by the hurricane, with the Louisiana National Guard arranging transportation. The state has also sent 131 pieces of heavy equipment, including 18-wheelers, dump trucks, water tankers, skid steers, tractors and Humvees. Thanks to Ben Myers and The Advocate for continuing honest discussion of the Interstate 49 connector through Lafayette. Highly respected New Iberia scientist Wilma Subra and Sierra Club leader Harold Schoeffler spoke in St. Genevieve Catholic parish 10 years ago about I-49 knifing through Lafayette dangerously close to toxic waste sites, in particular the Union Pacific rail yard. Several dozen left the meeting convinced that such a proposal would be detrimental to the health of all in south Louisiana who depend upon water purity of the Chicot aquifer. Resistance to the connector has gained momentum in recent years as numerous cities in the US and abroad have been removing elevated highways. Graduates of the Tulane Environmental Law school have prepared a lawsuit to stop I-49 forever. Wilma Subra summarizes the topic for all who appreciate clean water: I-49 will not go forward until all of that toxic waste is cleaned up and removed! Would cost of removal equal or exceed the total cost of I-49 itself? Is there any way a contaminated aquifer can be cleaned up? Vic Hummert retired chaplain Lafayette I write in response to my New Orleans constituent Tracy Balls passionate letter demanding action from her representatives in Congress to prevent further gun violence. I thank her for drawing attention to this important issue and for calling upon Congress to act. Letters: Congress should strengthen gun control I hope my U.S. senators, John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy, along with my U.S. representative, C The Las Vegas mass shooting took a toll on many Americans. I send my condolences to all who were affected. However, I know that as a member of Congress with the power to make a difference, even my deepest thoughts and prayers are not enough. I know that to further prevent this tragedy from happening again, we must continue to fight for common sense gun regulations. To this end, I have supported bills that would ban assault weapons, high capacity magazines and bump stocks. I have also co-sponsored bills to close the Charleston loophole and establish a universal background check system for gun purchasers. Unfortunately, all of these bills failed to receive a vote under Republican congressional control. Regardless of the setbacks, I promise to continue fighting for the protection of the American people and hope for my colleagues will do the same. We can and must do better. Cedric Richmond U.S. representative New Orleans Our president recently said that the governments relief efforts in Puerto Rico rated a 10. I have a wonderful proposition for the 80 percent of Puerto Ricans who still have neither electricity nor clean drinking water: Move to the U.S. mainland. Three-quarters of you vote Democratic. Some 100,000 Puerto Ricans have already fled to Florida since the storm. The U.S. Supreme Court will never again be needed to determine the winner in a Florida presidential election if you will stay in Florida and register to vote. An extra 100,000 new Democrats in New Jersey will guarantee that the state will not elect another Chris Christie. Another 100,000 moving to New Orleans and Baton Rouge will make us unlikely to elect another embarrassment like Bobby Jindal. The rest of the South will be turned blue for decades if the remaining 3 million Puerto Rican Americans will leave their pre-hurricane island paradise and settle throughout the South. Runnels Senior Beta Club leads campaign for Puerto Rico hurricane victims Undies for Everyone received a $385 boost for Puerto Rico hurricane victims from the Runnels Come on, Puerto Rico. Make America Great Again. Gregory Thompson retired scientist New Orleans WASHINGTON (AP) President Donald Trump said Tuesday that a former campaign aide thrust into the center of special counsel Robert Mueller's R A group promoting short-term rentals in New Orleans wants to double the number of days that owners can rent out homes in residential neighborh Comanchero Alex Bourne used a sledgehammer to smash the hand of a drug dealer who lost an ounce of the bikie's ice to a thief, court documents revealed on Monday. In September last year the dealer met with an associate of Bourne, nicknamed "Mad Bitch" in messages, who gave him the ice to sell. Alex Bourne was a member of the Comanchero when he blackmailed and threatended Canberra drug dealers. Credit:Danielle Smith He and the woman met another man with the intention of selling the ice, worth about $5300 on the street, but during the meeting the other man stole it, the documents suggest. Bourne, 30, "wasn't very happy" about the theft, and soon contacted the dealer over Facebook, saying he had an hour to meet him in Gungahlin. Michaelia Cash's performance in Senate estimates hearings last week was enough to sow doubt in the public mind about her office's relationship with the media. Some of her comments on the public record contrast with other evidence more on that later. Frighteningly, in her push to abolish the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal, established to investigate risks in the trucking industry, Cash denied there was a link between safety and pay rates for truck drivers, even though her own department had received evidence to the contrary two reports, one from PwC and one from Jaguar, which made clear there were significant links. She backed Aerocare (the company that gave such short breaks to workers they were forced to sleep on the floor between shifts) despite union claims about its very low rates of pay and appalling working conditions. The Fair Work Commission rejected the company's enterprise agreement. Cash asked former ACT Liberal chief minister Kate Carnell, who is the Small Business Ombudsman, to report on the effect of the tribunal's minimum rates order after the tribunal was abolished. That order said owner-drivers must receive a minimum pay rate and must be paid for all their work. The tribunal was abolished in April 2016. Carnell's office spent $37,000 on a series of regional meetings in the days leading up to the 2016 federal election. Her report says there was a "crippling" effect on drivers yet it also admits "only a relatively small number of truck drivers participated in the inquiry ... it may be difficult to gather factual evidence to show the extent that financial difficulties are attributable to the payments order". What I'm about to write will be of zero interest to other journalists they all know it's happening. But maybe you, too, should know how politicians try to control a story by giving it to their preferred outlets first or by talking to journalists who won't challenge them. It's not illegal but this control of the narrative gets in the way of voters knowing the facts. As we all saw last week, it can be hard to ignore the drama of a raid on a union headquarters, even if the raid later proves to be unnecessary. With all the recent media hullabaloo over the "Citizenship Seven" (now the "Foreign Five"), a vital question has been overlooked: what about the fate of Pistol and Boo Depp? Commentators and legal experts emerged from all quarters explaining, often wrongly, what section 44 of the constitution meant and how it was going to affect the fortunes of the Seven. That question no doubt kept Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull awake at night (and doubtless still does, as he departs the country and leaves us in the hands of Julie Bishop as acting PM). On Friday the speculation ended. The High Court of Australia ruled that, because of section 44, "Mr [Barnaby] Joyce MP was incapable of being chosen or sitting as a member of the House of Representatives because he was a citizen of New Zealand". Although he had been, in fact, bodily present in the Parliament since 2013, his seat was empty as far as the law is concerned. The people of New England had no representative. Perhaps this doesn't matter much. Particularly because in December Joyce's New England electorate will hold a byelection, and he will likely be returned to Canberra (properly, this time, because he has renounced his New Zealand citizenship). Frank Moorhouse has speculated on the sexuality of Henry Lawson, arguing that despite his image as the archetypal "bushman, the celebrator of a rugged Australian bush mateship", he actually evinced great "effeminacy, or femininity", and may very well have been gay. Moorhouse does not say there is any evidence that Lawson physically expressed that sexuality, but exults that Lawson could be a "hero to all queer Australian kids". Outrageous supposition? The eminent historian and my friend, Clare Wright, is one who dislikes any conjecture about the sexuality of some of the inspiring turn-of-last century women's suffrage campaigners in Australia, insisting it is "not relevant, either way, to their activism". Old engraved portraits of Robert O'Hara Burke and William John Wills, British explorers of Australia. Credit:Old Images / Alamy Stock Photo Others insist it is simply disrespectful to their memories. I note Wright's point, and want to proceed carefully, but certainly reject the "disrespect" tag. I would argue that while so speculating might have been disrespectful in the 1940s and 1950s when being gay was against the law, and widely thought of as a disgusting perversity things have changed. Now in an enlightened age, when we're about to allow same-sex marriage and it is recognised that being gay is no more problematic than having red hair, I say all the sting has gone out of the inquiry, and it is not only fascinating which gets it over the key bar for being worthy of inclusion in any biographical sketch but, all to the good if it adds one to the lexicon of possibly gay heroes through history. And I say it is all the more interesting if someone who came to fame in fields far removed from the gay stereotypes was possibly homosexual. The editorial of October28 considered the "five members banished from the hill ... won't be the last unless somebody does the hard work to resolve the matter by amending the constitution". That bodes ill for the future governance of the country. It would mean that politicians continue to be as indolent and contemptuous of the law as those just dismissed. I am confident that I am not the only Australian so inclined. When pushed hard on the matter by Stan Grant at Llewellan Hall at the ANU on the evening of October27, the day of the High Court's decision, Kevin Rudd was of like mind. He supported the High Court's decision and retention of the requirements of section 44 in the constitution. Frankly, the only surprise to me is that there has not already been a spate of further disclosures of those similarly remiss. Gary J.Wilson, Macgregor George Brandis says the constitution, particularly section 44, is no longer relevant to Australia's multicultural society. Nonsense. Section 44 provides protection against a person who may harbour (or be asked to harbour) allegiance, however faint, to another country from making laws for Australia. In today's multicultural society, it is arguably more important to retain section 44. All Australians should expect our federal politicians to have their entire focus on improving Australia. A dual citizen, or one entitled to claim citizenship of another country, has an escape route if he or she doesn't like the laws of our country. Such a luxury is not accorded others to which Australian law applies. It is a simple thing we ask of people who nominate for federal office: to understand their actual or possible entitlements to citizenship of another country, and take reasonable steps to renounce such entitlement. The fact that some have failed to do so is an indictment on them, not the constitution. There are only four main criteria a person needs to meet to enter federal politics: no criminal record; not an undischarged bankrupt; not in receipt of any income from the Commonwealth; and not an actual or potential dual citizen. If renunciation is unacceptable for whatever reason, then a person should not nominate for office. Graham Rayner, Campbell John Cameron, the lawyer who started the "citizenship seven"' case by outing Scott Ludlam as a New Zealander, says: "There's a crying need for an independent commission on corruption, as this case has demonstrated" ("'There will be others,' says Perth lawyer who exposed Scott Ludlam", online, October27). Is he suggesting Ludlam and the other disqualified parliamentarians are corrupt? Their behaviour may, in some cases, have been careless, but corruption implies deliberate wrongdoing. Michael McCarthy, Deakin Required reading I do hope Len Goodman (Letters, October30), who attacked Bill Shorten's claims that the Australian Federal Police had been politicised, reads Jack Waterford's best column in years ("Leaking through the AFP", October28, Forum, p1), in which Waterford outlines the number of times conservative governments have used the AFP for such purposes, and the number of times they have come up with a result (one!). Roger Terry, Kingston Nuclear doublespeak David Wroe's article on nuclear instability ("Unstable days as nuclear club fall out", October28, Forum, p4) quotes a former long-serving Pentagon official, who describes the new UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons as "hopelessly quixotic". This is the equivalent of asking a tobacco company about cigarette taxes. However, last year, the US government revealed its true assessment in a (leaked) letter sent to all NATO states. The US expressed major concern about the effectiveness of such a treaty. Over the past few decades, human error or technical glitches have brought us to the edge of nuclear war on numerous occasions. The brinkmanship and instability of Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump are in their own right a clear argument for ridding the world of these, the worst "weapons of mass destruction". The treaty puts nuclear weapons on the same legal footing as chemical and biological weapons. It will take time to work, with progressive, verifiable, time-bound reductions in weapons stockpiles. Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop talk a lot about keeping people safe and the importance of the rule of law. But until Australia signs this treaty, that amounts to nothing more than doublespeak. Margaret Beavis, board member, ICAN (Australia) Neglect and mistreatment by humans makes dogs aggressive I feel enormous sympathy for those involved in the dog attack in Watson: the owner, her family, the dog, neighbours, police ("Dog attack horror", October 26, p1). However, we should ask ourselves: who is responsible? If we want dogs in our lives, it follows that we owe them a duty of care. Dogs needs exercise, shelter, interests. I'm a long-term volunteer at the RSPCA and don't believe any dog is born aggressive. When one is aggressive, it's probably been neglected or mistreated by a human. It's terrible that this dog ended up confused, aggressive and dead. I believe it is one of the victims of this tragedy. There are two issues here. We dog owners must take responsibility to train and care for our dogs, or surrender them and we need to reach out to people who are unable to manage their pet. Second, the ACT government should act quickly when dog issues are reported. If you've ever reported a dog nuisance or neglect issue, you'll know the government's processes for addressing these reports are inadequate. We can't have the situation where people and the government shirk responsibility and the community and animals suffer as a result. Beth Shepherd, Evatt Frances Cornish demonstrated the hypocrisy of City Services Minister Fitzharris' empty boast that if "dog owners cannot take responsibility for their own dogs, the ACT government will" (Letters, October 27). Another ministerial edict is distilled to nonsense in the light of so many horrible dog attacks reported in this newspaper. All were followed by feeble, if any, government action. Duck-shoving responsibility for crippling injuries and costs after a little boy was viciously attacked by dogs illegally housed in government-provided accommodation contrasts, yet again, government action with ministerial bravado ("Jack loses case over dog mauling", May 6, p10). Don Burns, Mawson NBN realities There is a lot of fake news about what the national broadband network is, isn't, and should be. The NBN, in its hybrid form, costs about $2000 per person to install. An all-fibre NBN would cost at least twice as much. Make no mistake: one way or another, through taxes and service fees, you will need to pay this cost. You should consider how much broadband speed you need, and how much you are willing to pay for it. My copper-wire ADSL line provides a consistent 2 megabits per second, which supports my voice-over-internet phone, Netflix, web browsing and email, with a 100-gigabyte-a-month traffic limit for under $45 a month. Government policy is forcing the shutdown of my ADSL line (why is this necessary?). An NBN connection will cost me more, and is unlikely to provide as good and as consistent a service. This is not because of the hardware adopted by the NBN. Although it is not all fibre, it should be 10 times better than my ADSL line. The NBN makes its money by selling bandwidth to resellers (why did the government mandate resellers?). The resellers increase their profits by not buying sufficient bandwidth from the NBN to service all their sales. The insufficient bandwidth bought by your reseller, not the NBN, is the cause of internet traffic congestion at peak times. Why is all this such a mess? Leaders are like eagles. We don't have any in Canberra. Bruce A. Peterson, Kambah Fewer children Crispin Hull argues in favour of limiting immigration to alleviate stressed public services and traffic snarls ("There's no room for the elephant in the room time to wake up", October 28, Forum, p2). For balance's sake, I'd urge scrutiny of the 40 per cent denovo population growth from Australian residents heartily encouraged to procreate. Babies born here also add to unsustainable population growth yet receive hefty parental leave and other financial incentives partly funded by the deliberately childless. The decision to have children is a personal choice that confers a lifetime of contentment, psychological wellbeing and even family care in old age for lonely parents. The non-parents among us would understandably bristle at bolstering a new parent's aspirations. The dilemma lies in matching the subsidised needs of a burgeoning number of retirees and the long-living elderly (the demand) with children raised to taxpaying independence (the supply). However, this co-dependency could potentially generate an accelerating demand-supply loop. Today's children will grow old and, in turn, seek their due from generations raised to adult productivity that come after them. The cost of raising a child to independence, an increasingly deferred milestone, is not just met by the parents and families but also the rest of society. As such, the social policy argument that subsidising the care of children and their schooling leads to payback from grown-up children's taxes maintaining economic health and funding public infrastructure and future welfare programmes makes no sense. With humanity burgeoning at the seams, it's time Australians thought about having fewer children as well as limiting immigration intake. Joseph Ting, Carina, Qld Halloween in our time I am not a Halloween-hater; my friends and I celebrate it at the proper and meaningful time, which is at the approach of winter. In the southern hemisphere, this is at the beginning of May rather than the northern hemisphere's autumnal early November. Most pagan celebrations such as Samhain (Halloween) and Yule (Christmas) originated from ancestors mindful of mother nature's seasonal changes. In many cultures, the approach of winter dark and cold is associated with remembrance of ancestors and the beloved dead, and with humorous, morale-boosting celebrations. Death is not elevated but is regarded as an integral part of the cycle of life. In Canberra, at this beautiful springtime, which Celtic people called Beltane, many of us take time to celebrate and attune to life, growth and love. Ester Gaia, Pearce TO THE POINT ON THE MOVE? Does the High Court decision on Friday about Barnaby Joyce ("Coalition in crisis", October 28, p1) mean the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority must now move to Christchurch? D. Lewis, Weston STARTING OVER If Barnaby Joyce or any of the other "ineligibles" are re-elected, what happens to their future parliamentary superannuation entitlements? Will they rejoin Parliament as "newbies", and therefore only be eligible for the more recent and considerably less-generous provisions for new members or senators? John Mungoven, Stirling PLEBISCITES RULE Some people say we need a plebiscite to know what Australians think. A logical consequence of that belief is that, in future, such people will be unable to say "Australians think x, y or z" on some issue unless there has been a plebiscite, to show that Australians do indeed think x, y or z. Heino Lepp, Macquarie A JOB ON THE WAY By taking full responsibility for tipping off the media about the raid on the AWU, David De Garis ("PM backs Cash, October 27, p1) has protected his boss, Michaelia Cash, like a bodyguard throwing themselves on top of the president when an attempted assassination is detected. I guess that is why so many have talked about him "paying such a heavy price" for his (or more likely his boss's) lapse in judgment. To repay De Garis, I suspect a well-paid job in Liberal Party head office will come his way shortly. Mike Reddy, Curtin UNFIT FOR OFFICE I am really tired of the excuse "I didn't know" from MPs. Now Michaelia Cash has dragged it out. If these people didn't know what their presumably vetted and approved staffers were doing, they're incompetent. If they did know, they're lying. Either way, they're unfit for office. Lis Hoorweg, Campbell 'I KNOW NOTHING' Note to politicians: covering your eyes and ears while singing "la-la-la" does not obviate your obligation to taxpayers, who pay for the trough at which you swill. B. Chadwick, Mawson No one in Australia's history has been as honoured as Sir Ninian Stephen he was awarded no fewer than five knighthoods in his lifetime. Nor has anyone managed to achieve so much with such modesty and ease. As a leading barrister, High Court Judge, Governor-General, patron, ambassador, mediator and international jurist he made an abiding impression on the law; he altered, and strengthened, the vice-regal role, building on the "healing" of Sir Zelman Cowen's term of office in the wake of Sir John Kerr's dismissal. In 1989, after seven years at Yarralumla, one might have expected a comfortable retirement. Instead, Sir Ninian accepted (though never sought) a series of all but impossible tasks our ambassador for the environment; seeking a settlement in Northern Ireland; advising South Africa on a new constitution; bringing justice to Yugoslavia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Rwanda and Burma. He rarely said no and even accepted membership of the Ethics Commission of the International Olympics Committee. All of these roles demanded patience, wisdom, dedication, diplomacy and charm. Any man of ambition with an eye to his reputation and a fear of failure would not have accepted these appointments. An accord was not reached, then, in Belfast; justice was not achieved in Cambodia but this did not deter him from accepting the challenge. Ninian Martin Stephen was born on a poultry farm near Nuffield in Oxfordshire, on 15 June 1923, the only son of Scots, Frederick Brown Stephen and Barbara Cruickshank, who had met around 1911 when they were working as chauffeur and lady's maid at Cardean, a country house in East Perthshire. Ninian was told his father had died when he was six months old. Sir Ninian learnt in 2003 that Fred and Barbara parted three weeks after their son's birth. Fred settled in Canada and later remarried and had a son and two daughters, whom Sir Ninian finally met in 2009. Since 1913, Barbara had been working as lady's maid for a wealthy young Australian, Nina Mylne, expatriate daughter of a grazier and sometime Queensland MLA, Graham Mylne. On Fred's departure, Nina (after whom Ninian was named) filled the void, seeing to his education at George Watson's and Edinburgh Academy in Edinburgh, at St Paul's, London, and then at Chillon College, near Montreux in Switzerland. In 1940, with Europe at war, Miss Mylne, mother and son arrived in Melbourne where Ninian finished his last year of school at Scotch College. The streaker's defence it seemed like a good idea at the time looks to be the best excuse for the federal police raid on the Australian Workers' Union. To an outside observer, any raid on a union to seize documents relating to political donations made 10 years ago will seem like a fishing expedition by the Coalition into the financing of campaigns that favour Labor. When the union in question was run, as the AWU was at the time, by the Leader of the Opposition, that impression will gain strength. And when a member of the political staff of the responsible minister admits to having tipped off the media about the raids to guarantee full coverage, it will be virtually confirmed. There is no possibility of an outcome that will look fair and above suspicion. The Prime Minister may claim that Mr Shorten "has questions to answer". In these circumstances, so has the government. As the Registered Organisations Commission and the Australian federal police are searching for evidence against a member of Parliament, what we are seeing, in effect, is the executive investigating the legislature. MPs like anyone else may fall under suspicion. But investigating those suspicions is always risky for governments, because it can easily smack of the kind of banana-republic, police-state tyranny that Australians like to think the rules and conventions of the Westminster system protect them from. Unless the evidence of malfeasance is clear, it looks grossly unfair. As things stand at present, that is how this looks. Senator Michaelia Cash has tarnished her record. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen Despite the dangers, this government seems intent on following in its predecessor's footsteps. Tony Abbott as prime minister was particularly active in this destructive field. His royal commissions into trade unions and into the Rudd government's batts insulation episode also appeared to be fishing expeditions, using the supposedly impartial machinery of government to smear political opponents. In the latter case, that even extended to allowing access to confidential documents of the Rudd cabinet an appalling precedent. That outrageous innovation aside, however, the inquiries themselves were not unprecedented: the Menzies government's Petrov royal commission is probably the most famous, but there have been others. Malcolm Fraser is the remarkable exception. After his landslide win in 1975 he declined to set up an inquiry into (possibly illegal) acts of the Whitlam government, declaring it unnecessary because the verdict of the electorate was enough. Fraser's immediate priority was to heal the divisions in Australian society that the dismissal had created. Times have changed, and four decades on, Australian politics has reverted, unfortunately, to its bitter and vengeful norm. The precedents that have now been set or confirmed will leave the Coalition no defence should Labor choose to set up a similar fishing operation once it is in power. All Australians lose here. If the pursuit of power becomes a winner-take-all contest in which a government's opponents are liable to prosecution, national politics becomes toxic. Here are seven ways to fix the traffic woes: 1. Outlaw variable speed drivers and use cruise control. Freeways have a speed limit of 100km/h, not more or less. 2. Get off your phones and drive. 3. Merge onto freeways at 100km/h and blend into the traffic without causing a braking disease. And when leaving the freeway, leave at 100km/h and slow down on the off ramp. 4. Drive with a three-car gap so people can merge, and drive with empathy and courtesy. 5. Stop those in prestige cars who think they have a right to speed up the inside lane, when everyone has already got over into the one lane that has been prescribed for the road works. They then have to merge in creating a massive traffic jam. 6. Let the kids walk to school or ride their bike. 7. Buy a bike and ride it to work. We don't need more roads, just learn to drive properly. Stephen Fisher, Rosebud Stop queuing across intersections One of the reasons the city is gridlocked is due to cars "queuing" across intersections. Driving home one night, Flinders Street, Flinders Lane, Collins Street and La Trobe Street were all blocked by cars queuing across the intersections. Policing this would definitely improve traffic flow through the city and reduce the gridlock happening in the city daily during the afternoon peak. Julie Rovas, Ascot Vale FORUM The betrayed It's one thing to abandon a decision, but another in how and when it's done. The Prime Minister's dismissal of proposals for Indigenous constitutional recognition was shameful and driven by cheap and nasty politics. In a week dominated by bad news over the NBN, AFP raids and High Court decisions over citizenship; the government quietly announced its intentions via a newspaper leak. Malcolm Turnbull knew he could use the cover of chaos to bury the decision and for it not to be scrutinised. With wind of an election to be called in Queensland, Turnbull also knew he couldn't show any support for Indigenous recognition and hope to claw back support from One Nation. Appalling leadership. So once again, through no fault of their own, Indigenous Australians are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Despite all the talk and promises they've been left heartbroken by a system that continues to fail them and all Australians. Rob McCasker, South Brighton Injecting hope It's encouraging to read ("Yarra drug deaths surge as $53m more for rehab", The Age, 30/10) that the state government may be on the verge of agreeing to trial a safe injecting room around North Richmond. I welcome the extra $53 million for drug and alcohol rehabilitation. A compelling case is building with coroners' reports showing an alarming increase in heroin-related deaths in the area. The Police Association, the Ambulance Employees Australia and the United Firefighters Union have expressed openness to the proposal of a supervised injection facility. Hopefully Premier Daniel Andrews will activate his social conscience in support of these pragmatic voices and respond to an urgent humanitarian need. Kevin Burke, Eltham Life definitions Deborah Morrison (Letters, 29/10), in writing about the "anguish for (severely autistic) Alex" story, is absolutely right to state "carers and families should never be pushed to the hopeless desperation" of considering taking their own lives, or "driving (their loved one) off a bridge". But it is worth contemplating, unpalatable though it may be, where cases such as Alex may sit on the slippery slope, which some envisage is lying ahead of Victoria's voluntary assisted dying legislation. Once the law recognises that a right to life might depend on the quality of that life, it may well be a matter of time, and a few adjustments, before life expectancy requirements, and definitions of "unbearable suffering", are revised, loosened or abandoned. Anthony Caughey, Elwood Off lightly The punishment handed down to Richmond player Nathan Broad is manifestly inadequate given that the image continues to be circulated on social media. Any other employee of an organisation could have been potentially asked to resign or be sacked. Broad should have been suspended for at least 10 weeks and asked to take part in a range of community activities to alert his peers and heroes the stupidity of his actions. When will these young men (and women) realise that (mis)use of so-called smartphones and social media can lead to long-term damage not only to the victim but also the perpetrator(s). Being drunk may have been an excuse years ago when such things as Facebook were in their infancy but not now. Steven Haby, Gisborne Little has changed A Richmond premiership player says he is ashamed and embarrassed by allowing a photo of his nude "friend" and his winner's medallion to be circulated. Given the entrenched and long history in sport of this culture of sexploitation, what has changed? May Brown, East Coburg Alternative five On top of the five ways to solve Melbourne's peak-hour problems here are five more that will be most effective in the long term. 1) Stop telling everyone that Melbourne is the world's most liveable city keep it as our secret. 2) Stop politicians insisting that thoughtless perpetual growth is essential to stimulate the economy. 3) Stop selling land to overseas skyscraper developers who care nothing about the necessary infrastructure to support the influx of more residents. 4) Distribute free condoms at railway stations and bus terminals. 5) Extol the virtues of all the other state capitals so shifting the problem away from us. Roger Green, Ferntree Gully Vale, Sir Ninian Sir Ninian Stephen was an inspired choice as governor-general especially given turbulent reign of Sir John Kerr. Sir Ninian brought humility, stability and knowledge to this high office; he was in high demand right through his 80s and beyond. Both sides of politics will lament his loss. Noel Butterfield, Montmorency Alter constitution Andrew Farran (Letters, 30/10) is reasoning backwards. He believes that Australian citizenship should be sufficient to be able to sit in Parliament and many would agree with him. His problem, however, is that section 44(1) of the constitution says otherwise. It is ridiculous, outdated and expresses a paranoid view of nationality. The High Court has merely applied a plain reading of this outrageous provision of the constitution to the current situation. The solution to this unjust clause, which potentially prohibits half the population of Australia from sitting in Parliament, is not to be found in US-style creative lawyering of the variety for which Andrew Farran seems to be arguing. It is to change the constitution. Greg Platt, Brunswick Beware land sell-off All Victorians should be alarmed by the government's public land sell-off. Public housing capacity will reduce at some of the sites set for renewal. Developers will profit while the land-use potential for future generations will be lost. Having mismanaged its housing asset portfolio for years the Office of Housing has designed a program to dig itself out of a funding hole. Ministerial crocodile tears about a housing crisis, to which governments have contributed through inaction, ring hollow. Public housing should be renewed and capacity increased. But if housing land is sold to offset that entirely predictable expenditure then other public land and other service areas will be next. Make no mistake, the government's "leveraging" of land value is a genie that belongs, very firmly, in the bottle. Richard Holt, Brighton GPs, rely on trust So the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners invited a man known as the "human lie detector" to its national conference to teach GPs how to detect deception committed by patients, saying doctors need to question whether their patients are being evasive. ('GPs call in human lie detector for lessons', The Age, 28/10). This patronising approach to dealing with patients, the overwhelming majority of whom are not secret serial killers or doctor shoppers, as referred to in the article, will only serve to further undermine doctor-patient relationships. An approach to dealing with patients should not be based on the rare outliers but on the 99 per cent of people who attend a doctor to seek medical advice and who are forthright and open in discussion. It is not up to doctors to second-guess what patients tell them. Doctors' default position should be to treat patients with respect and not presume that what is being told to them is anything other than the truth. Such "training" to detect lies is pointless. Perhaps doctors should concentrate on developing good communication and demonstrating honesty with their patients, which will create the conditions for a reciprocal response. Pauline Hopkins, Beaconsfield Law not the issue So because our politicians are too inept to comply with the citizenship rules under section 44 of the constitution, Attorney-General George Brandis wants to change the rules. Isn't it better, and easier, to elect politicians who aren't ignorant of the law? John Gray, Taranna, Tas The real meaning When Malcolm Turnbull asserts that a constitutionally enshrined First People's "voice" will not pass a referendum, he really means that he would not be able to get such a proposal past Tony Abbott and his conservative supporters. Betty Russell, North Warrandyte Just an old relic Did the Planning Minister Richard Wynne intend the irony when he complained about the boiler house at Alphington being a "relic of the past"? A relic is defined as an object surviving from an earlier time especially one of historical significance. There is a real problem in Victoria with preserving the history of this state and Wynne has shown exactly why when relics are not worthy because they are old. Douglas Potter, Surrey Hills AND ANOTHER THING Politics Some of us will miss Malcolm Roberts' excruciating drivel. John Rawson, Mernda Who's going to be in charge of guffawing in Parliament while Barnaby Joyce is not there? Bill Walker, St Andrews Beach If Michaelia Cash can't even run her own office she has no business being on the team that runs the country. Cynthia Karena, St Kilda East If you've got half a mind to go into politics, that's all you need. (From David Frost.) Tim Durbridge, Brunswick How does one say I am a proud Australian and a proud (insert nationality) and which takes precedence? John Simmonds, Collingwood Fake government, bad politics, self-serving policies, sad! Marcel Hoog Antink, Portland Malcolm Turnbull now has a well-established history of poor judgment, beginning with Godwin Grech. Phil Alexander, Eltham I assume that in criticising the High Court for a "strictly literalist" reading of the constitution, George Brandis would have preferred a more Liberal interpretation? Geoff McNamara, Newry To see the LNP wagons circling is an awesome sight. The next thing we know the National Party acolytes will be pushing for a Barnaby sainthood. Venise Alstergren, Toorak Furthermore It's perfectly rational to believe in conspiracies. When something happens that seems impossible, it's natural to look for a human explanation and if the CIA can try to kill Fidel Castro with an exploding cigar, or Richard Nixon's boys can bug the Watergate Hotel, why wouldn't the KGB shoot John F Kennedy and pin the blame on a chump called Lee Harvey Oswald? Of all the conspiracies, the one against JFK is the most appealing because the subject was so attractive. President Trump knew what he was doing when he allowed 2,800 files to be released on the assassination, a crime that in popular memory brought down the strongest president in an era of the highest ambition. President John F. Kennedy and his daughter, Caroline, in 1962. Credit:AP Kennedy pledged to fight communism and go to the moon. The playwright Tennessee Williams said he was almost "too attractive" to be president. There was a conspiracy of sorts to hide images of him limping about on crutches, one symptom of many illnesses, which meant that when Oswald shot him dead from the window of the Texas School Book Depository, the public was left with an impression of a virile leader felled by a "magic bullet". There had to be an element of magic in it because the Kennedys were cursed by bad luck: first Jack assassinated; then Bobby, shot in a hotel pantry; then Ted's car span off a bridge at Chappaquiddick Island and his female passenger died; then Jack's son killed in an plane crash. Coincidence? Can fate really be that cruel? Yes. It can also be perversely kind. The assassination of JFK pickled his memory in aspic: black and white photos of a brilliant young man full of potential. Had he lived, however, Kennedy might be remembered as a byword for disappointment. Vietnam would still have happened. The riots would still have happened. Nixon would probably still have won the 1968 election. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says she wondered if an Adani protester was going to crash tackle her during a live television cross. The Labor Premier has again been targeted by opponents of Adani's new mega coal mine in central Queensland, a day after they gatecrashed her opening election campaign address on Sunday. Anti-Adani coal mine protesters invade the stage as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (right) speaks in Brisbane on Sunday. Credit:AAP Security guards had to tackle one protester who tried to interrupt her television interview at Airlie Beach on Monday. The Premier initially laughed it off, but later admitted she was concerned for her safety and asked voters to show respect. All future free trade agreements would be vetted by the Productivity Commission and re-examined every 10 years under a new Labor policy that has won endorsement from business organisations. Unveiling the policy at a function hosted by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Labor trade spokesman Jason Clare said the public was sceptical about the China, Korea and Japan trade agreements in part because they hadn't been subject to an independent arms-length assessment outlining what they would mean for jobs and incomes. Labor MP Jason Clare and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten Credit:Alex Ellinghausen "At the moment, once a free trade agreement is signed a report is prepared by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade outlining why it is in Australia's national interest. That's it," he said. "Given all the scepticism that exists, I don't think it's good enough to rely on a report from the same people who negotiated the deal. It should be independently assessed." Tofu hotpot. Credit:Paul Jeffers So it is that some food is formed from first-hand memories: a Cambodian-style pork hock curry that Mai's father can nail; whole kingfish cooked over the charcoal grill harking back to family barbecues. But also pieces of pure cheffy invention like an essential beer snack of cuttlefish fried in its own ink-stained batter, rising from research trips around south-east Asia with hat tips to Vietnam's culinary influencers like Cambodia and Thailand. It's a broad menu of no-fixed-abode that threads together as a cohesive menu nonetheless. Char-grilled octopus salad. Credit:Paul Jeffers But first you might start at the long granite bar running the length of the high-ceilinged room with a tinnie of Hanoi Beer or Young Henry's lager, a crisp riesling No. 5 from the Rieslingfreak crowd, or a tropical, plantation rum and charred pineapple cocktail from co-owner Rani Doyle's playful, spice-friendly drinking agenda that could stand alone if you find yourself thirsty and up for a single snack in the 'hood. Those snacks are kingly: house-made, snappy-skinned fermented pork sausage runs crimson with spicy oil, tempered by a wrapping of fresh cabbage leaf, sweet pineapple and pickled green chilli. See also a truly original steak tartare. Wagyu mince is electrified by a spice mix, all cumin and hits of fennel, mixed through with roasted bone marrow instead of egg yolk. Vietnamese mint, shallots and Chinese doughnuts, the superior carb of Asia, make it the best of the 36,000 versions you've eaten this year. Coconut sorbet and jelly served in a young coconut. Credit:Paul Jeffers There are rice paper rolls, pleasant as always and filled maybe with fresh raw tuna, but they pale next to a salad of char-grilled octopus, the small tentacles caramelised in garlic, lemongrass and chilli, curling around an incredibly fragrant thatch of Vietnamese mint and the buggish bite of shiso leaf, with cooling cucumber, sour chips of green mango and earthy roasted chillies bringing the slow subtle heat. As with all original menus, dishes get divisive. Sarsparilla-braised oxtail dumplings have formed their own cult following, the filling having been braised in the herbal soda and fish sauce until it melts, and served with a syrupy reduction of the sauce. It's a potently sweet wallop of flavour that has me done for after one while a table nearby doubles down on their order. Maybe instead you can't get enough of the subtler northern Vietnamese specialty of crab banh cuon. Here, rice batter is formed into skins to order, filled with loose-textured crab meat and steamed again like an unstructured dumpling, getting its lift from fresh chilli, bean sprouts and golden-fried shallots. The powerful NSW Crime Commission has frozen the assets of controversial Mosman businessman Savas Guven and will compel his wife Jade to give evidence about their wealth in court. Mr Guven, also known as Savas Yucel, was arrested and charged in October with 20 counts of dealing with the proceeds of crime and participating in a criminal group after a three-year drug money laundering investigation by officers linked to Strike Force Millstream. He has been accused of attempting to launder $3.5 million over two weeks in 2014 by engaging in cash drops, mainly around Sydney's lower north shore. Jade Guven, also known as Jade Welsh, must give evidence about her family's wealth. He has been refused bail and faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted. Mr Guven has built a sizeable property empire in the decade since being released from jail for a violent armed robbery despite none of his companies, which include property developer BRP Property Group and scaffolding firm AllRound Access being large enough to file accounts with the corporate regulator. Mark Vlasich, the owner of Transurban Excavations, says he has been digging up sites around Melbourne for 20 years. But he had never excavated a hole like the one he was asked to dig in Mount Waverley, Mr Vlasich told the Magistrates Court on Monday. Mark Vlasich outside the Magistrates Court on Monday. Credit:Joe Armao But given he was being paid by the hour, when builder Jim Nicolaou told him to keep on digging, that's exactly what Mr Vlasich did. It did not end well. The Andrews government has approved a trial run of a safe injecting room for heroin addicts. Key upper house MP James Purcell confirmed on Monday that his vital vote would go with legislation to enable a state-sanctioned injecting room in the inner-city neighbourhood of Richmond, where dozens of lives have been lost to heroin overdoses in recent years. If established, the injecting room would be the first in Victoria, and only the second in Australia, after NSW established one in Kings Cross in 2001. It's believed the trial would run for at least two years, followed by a review. In a trial, the AI system was able to distinguish tumours from endoscopy images with a 94 per cent accuracy. The research involved bowel cancer - the fourth most common form of the disease in the UK, with more than 40,000 diagnoses annually. AI could revolutionise bowel cancer screening. Scientists used the software to assess 306 colorectal polyps - growths in the bowel which may or may not be cancerous - in 250 men and women. It took less than a second for the system to analyse each magnified endoscopic image and decide whether or not the polyp was malignant. The programme worked by matching each growth against more than 30,000 images that were used for machine learning. British experts said the findings from Showa University in Yokohama, Japan, presented at United European Gastroenterology (UEG) Week in Barcelona, were encouraging. Cautioning that the system has yet to obtain regulatory approval, they said the technology could spare many patients from needless surgery, if further trials succeed. Dr Claire Knight, from Cancer Research UK, said: "AI and virtual reality are opening up many exciting areas of exploration to increase our understanding and treatment of cancer. The technology in this presentation could help reduce the overtreatment of bowel growths, called polyps, by helping doctors decide if they need removing or can be left alone. But it will need testing in much larger groups... first before we understand its potential." A former foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, George Papadopoulos, has secretly pleaded guilty as part of Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election. Papadopoulos was arrested in July and pleaded guilty in October to lying to the FBI about his contact with a Russian professor with ties to Kremlin officials, prosecutors said on Tuesday. The case was only made public on Tuesday. The case is not directly related to the explosive charging of campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates on Monday. However, both cases arose out of the investigation launched in May by Mueller to investigate whether anyone close to Trump participated in a Russian government effort to influence last year's presidential election. Papadopoulos, who had suggested that Donald Trump meet with top Russian leaders during the campaign, is now cooperating with Mueller's probe, and his indictment lists an unidentified campaign supervisor who also was aware of contacts with the Russians. Attendees at the Texas A&M University department of agricultural economics tailgate program recently heard experts discuss the future of U.S. farm programs and agricultural trade, while sharing fellowship over food and drink prior to the Aggies' win over the University of South Carolina. The tailgate program has become an annual tradition, providing the opportunity for former students to return to A&M and hear more about farm issues affecting policy and the economy, said Parr Rosson, department head. "It's a great opportunity for our former students to come back to A&M and catch up on important issues farmers and ranchers are facing in Texas, and at the same time see old friends and enjoy a networking opportunity with our current students," Rosson said. "We'd like to thank the many individuals who sponsored our tailgate activities as we had more than 650 take part in making this another successful event." Joe Outlaw, co-director of the Agricultural and Food Policy Center at Texas A&M in College Station and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service economist, provided an update on agricultural policy. Outlaw said current issues include NAFTA and overall agricultural trade, heightened consumer interest in how food is produced, immigration and labor, low crop prices and the debate over the next farm bill. Luis Ribera, director of the Center for North American Studies at Texas A&M and AgriLife Extension economist, College Station, discussed the importance of agricultural trade and the U.S. farm economy. "The U.S. is the largest agricultural exporter with $135 billion worth of exports in 2016," Ribera said. "Exports account for about 35 percent of agricultural income. U.S. imports totaled $115 billion in 2016, so both exports and imports contribute significant economic impacts." The program also featured both undergraduate and graduate study-abroad programs. Undergraduate students Jason Edmondson of Burnet and Tyler White of Decatur discussed their travel abroad experience to Ghana, while Jace Martin of Richmond summarized travels to Scotland. Andrew Hazelwood of Amarillo presented his travel experience to Ireland, while the graduate student team of Lainey Bourgeois of Fredericksburg, Enrique Pinon of Santa Maria, California, and Victor Galindo of Mexico City shared their travels to Swaziland. The program concluded with special recognition to Betty Raun, honoring both current and former recipients of the Lowell Raun Book Scholarship given to undergraduate agricultural economics students at Texas A&M. Texas A&M AgriLife Communications photo by Blair Fannin Attendees at the Texas A&M University department of agricultural economics tailgate program recently heard experts discuss the future of U.S. farm programs and agricultural trade, while sharing fellowship over food and drink prior to the Aggies win over the University of South Carolina. Texas A&M AgriLife Communications photo by Blair Fannin The Texas A&M University department of agricultural economics tailgate program included special recognition to Betty Raun, honoring both current and former recipients of the Lowell Raun Book Scholarship given to undergraduate agricultural economics students at Texas A&M. AMARILLO -- Texas A&M AgriLife officials are offering some best management practices for producers to keep in mind as harvest continues and for next year after fumonisin contamination has been found in truckloads of corn across the Texas High Plains. Tom Isakeit, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service plant pathologist in College Station, said this year nothing can be done to minimize fumonisin already present in the standing crop; however, producers can make a few changes during harvest possibly to reduce the amount of contaminated grain collected. "You can adjust the combine settings to kick out the smaller grain kernels that tend to have much higher levels of contamination of fumonisin," Isakeit said. Fumonisin toxin is produced when certain Fusarium fungi are present on the corn, although not all Fusarium-infected kernels will have fumonisin, he said. Fumonisin can cause illnesses in livestock, especially horses, so there are regulatory limits to the amounts corn can contain. The only way to know if the toxin is present is to have a chemical test run. But there are visible symptoms of the fungal infection, including a white discoloration of the kernels, and when they dry down they will be smaller or lighter than the healthy kernels, Isakeit said. The severity can be lessened by cleaning the seed or separating the damaged kernels out, he said. Sometimes just a few kernels can cause the higher concentrations. And though it is not done much in Texas, artificially drying the corn from a high moisture of 24 percent to 15 percent in a 24-hour period also can minimize contamination. Optimum levels of fumonisin production occur between 18-20 percent moisture. Also, producers should segregate portions of the field if there was moisture stress, keeping corn from the drought-stressed areas of the field separate from the rest of the field, Isakeit said. "The worst damage generally occurs around the edges of the field," he said. "What you find on the outside for fumonisin contamination might not be what you find in the middle of the field." Isakeit also warned that putting corn into storage won't get rid of the fumonisin contamination, but high levels of moisture or some leakage after placement in bins can add to the problem. "For storage, you want to have your corn dry and keep it dry," he said. "Make sure the bins are operated properly and are well ventilated." Beyond this year, Isakeit and Wenwei Xu, Texas A&M AgriLife Research corn breeder in Lubbock, offered some management practices that could help possibly control the problem in the future. Both said there is no product available that can be applied to prevent fumonisin, so minimizing the contamination in the future will require a combination of hybrid selection and cultural practices. Isakeit said producers should pay close attention to any hybrid differences out in fields this year, adding "that might be the very least we can do now." Xu said there is a clear difference in terms of Fusarium fungus infection among hybrids, and there is a clear difference in terms of susceptibility to common smut. Resistance to Fusarium fungus disease, common smut and earworm damage are all factors that should play into hybrid selection, he said. "If a hybrid is susceptible to these, it doesn't mean every field will be severe, but it can be elevated in bad years and the kernel damage under different environmental conditions can lead to more contamination," Xu said. "Based on my observations and conversations with farmers, you can find the problem in both dryland and irrigated corn and short-season to full-season corn," he said. "It varies from field to field, and the hybrid, growth management, hot temperatures and drought stress will determine the severity. "Farmers need to be paying attention to the factors that contributed to high fumonisin contamination this year when selecting their hybrid next year," Xu said. Hybrids less prone to loss of kernel integrity should be planted, Isakeit said. In 2008, there was an outbreak of fumonisin in this the High Plains and loss of kernel integrity was associated with hybrids that had problems with contamination, according to Gary Odvody, AgriLife Research plant pathologist in Corpus Christi. This loss of kernel integrity was seen in hybrids with high yield potential when they were subjected to late-season stress. Insect resistance, including that in transgenic hybrids, can help reduce contamination by reducing wounds in the kernels that allow entry of the fungus. Also, he said other factors in fumonisin contamination are the common smut disease, which can act as a sponge and retains moisture in the ear, allowing the Fusarium fungus to grow and produce toxin; and hybrids with ears that remain standing instead of falling at maturity, which retains moisture and prevents the ear from drying down. Some other crop management strategies he outlined are: Control weeds to reduce moisture stress. Optimize irrigation to avoid stress between flowering and grain fill. Maintain optimal nitrogen fertility, especially with high plant populations. For more information, go to aflatoxin.tamu.edu/ or www.cornmycotoxins.com. Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Jourdan Bell Tom Isakeit, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service plant pathologist in College Station, spent several days collecting samples in the High Plains for fumonisin contamination testing. Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Jourdan Bell Wenwei Xu, Texas A&M AgriLife Research corn breeder in Lubbock, examines a field of corn in the southern High Plains of Texas for Fusarium fungus disease. Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Jourdan Bell Corn hybrids with ears that remain standing instead of falling at maturity like these can retains moisture and prevents the ear from drying down. Texas A&M University faculty members are expressing excitement over the potential of the new $100 million Presidents Excellence Fund and how it could help support interdisciplinary projects across the campus. The new 10-year fund was announced by President Michael K. Young earlier this week during his State of the University address in the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center. In the announcement, he said the fund will quickly deliver cash award grants to faculty projects beginning in December. Angie Hill Price, speaker of the faculty senate and associate professor of manufacturing and mechanical engineering technology, said she sees the investment as a reassurance of support from the administration for its faculty. I think an investment in our faculty, particularly a long-term investment, is a great opportunity, she said. ... The big problems and the big solutions are interdisciplinary, so to have that kind of confidence in the faculty is very heartening for us. Instead of going out and hiring somebody else, its saying We have extraordinary faculty, we have the things we need here, and we just need to give them the resources to do great work. The grants are expected to be broken up into large awards of $500,000 to $1 million and smaller awards in the tens of thousands range. Among the smaller awards, Young mentioned $30,000 T3 grants, which are set to involve three professors from at least two colleges with preference to teams including a junior faculty member coming together to work on a project. This week, Provost Carol Fierke is expected to share new details with faculty about the program and application process. Professor of sociology and entrepreneurship Patricia Thornton said she thinks it is wonderful to have leadership from the top to promote innovation and entrepreneurship. She said she believes A&M is making a statement of the potential it has to pursue and innovate change in the university and be a leader in solving key problems. Thornton, who previously taught at Stanford University and Duke University, said initiatives like this are among the reasons why it is an exciting time for faculty at Texas A&M. I made the move because you could really make a difference at a school like this with the number of students this school educates, she said. ... Texas A&M is a very high-ranking research university, so to be able to work across boundaries within the university, its going to be a very powerful tool. I think its going to make Texas A&M because of its size, the amount of resources behind it and the excellence here a major player in the solution of world problems. Darren DePoy, professor in the department of physics and astronomy and head of the Astronomical Instrumentation Lab, said while the program certainly has great potential, its success ultimately will be determined by its implementation. He said the interest in promoting interdisciplinary work is a movement that has seen substantial growth in recent years, as many fields have come to acknowledge the benefit of working with other subject matter experts to create a broader, more comprehensive view of certain topics. The more effectively you can put [the different pieces] together, the more effective it can be, he said. You kind of get a multiplier effect, and things can become stronger faster. I think thats a good goal, but like everything, the implementation is crucial. Price said she hopes the seed funding provided by the program for projects across the campus will both provide an opportunity for A&M to further break down the barriers between disciplines and provide the university with a greater ability to launch itself onto the national and world stage. Im hoping this will be an opportunity to A&M, as a group, to be able to step forward to the world and show even more how we can solve the big problems, she said. This gives us the opportunity to step out on the world stage and get even more attention and focus on what we can achieve. She said even beyond any specific program, she has noticed a renewed energy among the faculty brought on by the administration and its recent focus on the faculty. I think [the faculty] will rise to the challenge, Price said. I think that A&M will be moving forward exponentially with these types of engagements and opportunities. Andria Bender will be sworn in today as Grimes County district attorney, making her the first woman in the county's history to rise to the position of top prosecutor. Gov. Greg Abbott announced Bender's appointment Friday, filling the seat left vacant by Tuck McLain, who was the county's district attorney for more than 22 years before being appointed Oct. 1 as judge over the county's first Court at Law. "It was a surprise to me when the phone call came," Bender said of the good news that kicked off her weekend, the culmination of an interview process that began in September after she applied for the job. "I love Grimes County, and I'm happy to serve them." Bender earned a law degree from South Texas College of Law in 1995. She worked in the Orange County District Attorney's Office from 1997 until 1999 before becoming first assistant district attorney for McLain's DA Office for 15 years. In 2014, Bender went to the Walker County D.A.'s Office, where she helped start a new division that reviewed which cases were presented to a grand jury. "She's just an awesome prosecutor," said Sara Keisler, who first met Bender while working as an administrative assistant in the Grimes office. "She dots all her I's and crosses all her T's." Bender said her Grimes County experience helped her develop strong relationships with the judges and law enforcement. She has owned property in the county for the last decade, and her three sons either went to or attend Richards ISD. McLain said his former protege "knows Grimes County probably better than anybody" and will "do an outstanding job." Bender said she will be active in her community and will be listening to residents to see "what's working, what they think will work better and see how we could shape the office to be more efficient for the taxpayers." Keisler said Bender is "like a daughter to me" and spoke highly of the new D.A.'s work ethic, as well as the relationships with developed with key players in the criminal justice system. "She's a dedicated professional," Keisler said. "She's a Christian woman; she makes sure she takes care of everybody else's needs before her own." Brenda Williams, coordinator of the Grimes County crime victims' assistance program who worked with Bender throughout her tenure in Anderson, said she is passionate about the pursuit of justice and compassionate for victims of crime. "She's not going to just nail a person, but she will assess the case accordingly, and she just wants to do justice," Williams said of Bender's measured assessment of the facts of each case. Williams said Bender's appointment as Grimes County's first female D.A. is important because it shows, "our county is looking beyond a male figure. They're looking for the person that best fits the job." Bender's term is set to expire Dec. 31, 2018. She said she plans to run for the four-year term as a candidate in the Republican primary in March. A College Station man accused of breaking into a stranger's house over the weekend told authorities he was intoxicated and thought he was entering a friend's residence, police said. The tenant told police she was awakened Saturday by her dog barking loudly in the her kitchen, court documents state, adding that she initially thought the man was a family friend. The woman repeatedly asked the man who he was and why he was there, but he retired to her couch and started taking his shoes off, which prompted her to order him out of the house, police said. According to an arrest report, he said he was "sorry to intrude" before going back out the side door that he broke into and walked toward a car parked outside the house. Police said he did not get into the vehicle, rather then went to another door and continued knocking until an officer pulled up and made contact with him. Police said the 25-year-old man told them he had had too much to drink at a Halloween party, so instead of driving he went to a home where he thought a friend lived. Authorities said he denied going inside the house and only started knocking once they arrived, documents state. The man was charged with criminal trespass of a habitation, which is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a $4,000 fine and a year in jail. The man posted $4,000 bail and was released the same day of his arrest, according to jail records. I have been involved in civic affairs and the local business community for decades. During this time, I witnessed gracious and professional behavior among all stakeholders in disputes. I also have observed developers and business owners actively engaging neighborhoods throughout my two terms on the College Station City Council. Recently, however, some individuals have sought to make this outreach effort a contentious endeavor. For example, the owner of Aggieland Outfitters and his development team repeatedly attempted to meet with neighbors in the Southside neighborhood where Aggieland Outfitters has operated for more than 15 years. The neighbors refused to meet and indicated doing so would be giving in and a tacit endorsement of Aggieland Outfitterss proposed move 800 meters east on George Bush Drive. Yet these same neighbors accused the owner and Council members of being greedy developers and not listening to them at the Councils Sept. 11 meeting. College Station is home to more than 100,000 residents, and we all live in neighborhoods. Everyone has had the same ability and opportunity to contact Council members and city staff. We read every letter, email and petition that is submitted. Additionally, anyone (resident or otherwise) may speak at Hear Citizens at every City Council meeting on any matter that concerns him or her. Everyone is heard. Their issues are addressed as the city is able to do so, and most feel satisfied at the conclusion of matters. The majority of these concerns do not involve neighborhood issues. It appears that only a small number of those who have neighborhood issues believe they are being ignored. I have worked with business owners, organizations, developers, neighborhood groups, and individual residents even before I was elected to the city council but have never witnessed the anger and animosity demonstrated by this small number of citizens during the last year. I believe this is because they confuse being heard with being in agreement. They do not want to compromise, negotiate or even discuss matters. They only want their demands to be met in a wholesale manner, and they vilify those in disagreement and accuse them of unethical and even criminal activity. Simply because someone disagrees with you does not indicate he or she is wrong. Simply because someone is a business owner and trying to pursue his or her livelihood does not indicate he or she is dishonest and greedy. Hard work and self determination once were lauded as exemplary attributes for one to possess. Today, in our local politics, these qualities are looked upon with derision by many who oppose growth and economic prosperity. I have never heard the phrase voting blocs used in reference to the Council until the first meeting attended by Linda Harvell after last Novembers election. When a majority declined to give her certain outside agency appointments, she became angry and accused us of bloc voting. The mayor admonished her and explained we all are elected individually and may vote the way we feel we have been elected to do. I am disappointed this phrase and perception has been perpetuated because it is incorrect. A brief survey of council during the past five years would show diverse voting records, and that we do not always vote in favor of further development. In fact, we have voted unanimously against multiple proposed projects. Those who spread these untruths and lies fear development, but I fear this toxic political environment. The greatest asset to successful dispute resolution is the willingness to meet with opposing parties. The second most constructive asset is to eschew ad hominem attacks that question someones integrity or impartiality in the decision making process. We all need to understand nothing ever stays the same anywhere. Even in long-time neighborhoods, trees grow and die, homes age and are maintained at the different levels of care, families grow and move on, and the number of drivers per household constantly is changing. I completely understand cherishing the place where I grew up, married, and reared my children. I also understand that it is up to me to take care of the things I cherish. That is why I am somewhat confused as to why the residents in these cherished long-time neighborhoods have done very little to protect them. There are many tools available to do so (e.g., deed restrictions and home owners associations), but putting them into place takes some time and perseverance. The city of College Station should not be charged with establishing home owners associations and enforcing their rules. Change notwithstanding, one certainty is the presence of students in our community. Texas A&M and its student body were here before there was a College Station. Everyone who lives here knows the history. Per fair housing laws, students, as all residents, may live wherever they choose. The so-called Aggie Shacks have existed in some form or fashion since students were allowed to live off campus. I know from personal experience. To blame the students for all of the city's problem is unfair and wrong. They and the university are the economic lifeblood of this community, and they are not going away. To segregate students or anyone else based on socio-economic status to certain areas of the city, is illegal, immoral and harkens back to a history of racism and segregation none of us wants to repeat. My sincere hope is cooler heads will prevail, and we can work constructively to maintain our high quality of life in the community that I have called home for more than 50 years. Lets stop blaming students, disparaging business owners and challenging the integrity of our fellow elected officials. Instead, lets reach out to build bridges in this community. Above everything else, we all love this community and want the best for everyone in it. Your vote does count. Let your voice be heard. Please choose the candidates that will bring unity instead of division, and inclusion instead of exclusion. Election day is Nov. 7. Julie Schultz has been a member of the College Station City Council. Term limits prevent her from seeking another term . Candidates share a goal of being courteous and respectful I want the best for everyone in College Station and for us to be able to pursue the best while being courteous and respectful of one another. I would encourage my supporters from last fall to support the following candidates who share this goal. I'm supporting Elianor Vessali for Place 1. As her Planning and Zoning colleague, Elianor is intelligent, articulate and fair. In matters of great importance, Elianor makes informed decisions and always engages in respectful discourse. We need more bright, young, and female voices on council who can appeal to what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature" and develop solutions to our community's greatest challenges. Elianor has the perspective I want in a public servant. I'm supporting Dallas Shipp for Place 3. I first met Dallas when we were students at Texas A&M, and his wife Marie is my Leadership Brazos classmate. They represent the future of College Station. They are young, civic-minded, and generous, and they are working every day to improve everyone's quality of life. Dallas has the vision I want in a public servant. I'm supporting John Nichols for Place 5. John and Carol are two of College Station's finest residents. They have contributed willingly to worthy causes for decades. John has unparalleled integrity, and he always makes principled decisions. He will be a measured, conciliatory presence on council. John has the character I want in a public servant. I'm supporting Michael Schaefer for College Station school board, Place 6. Michael has spent his life and career making our community better in so many ways. He actively is engaged with students, parents, and teachers, and he devotes countless hours to school functions and causes. With this focus, he will ensure a quality education for every student. Michael demonstrates the selfless service I want in a public servant. JEREMY OSBORNE College Station Candidate has the experience, service to and concern for College Station I would like to recommend Elianor Vessali for College Station City Council, Place 1. She and her family have been members of our community for more than 25 years. While a student at Texas A&M, Elianor excelled as a cadet in the Corps and obtained a degree in biomedical science. After receiving a law degree, she was hired by Ernst & Young in Geneva, Switzerland, and worked there for three years. She then decided that a better way to serve was to teach public high school science in Houston. For the past several years she has been managing the family's property investment business in Bryan-College Station. Elianor clearly sees the need for a well thought out, detailed plan that will serve as a blueprint for managed growth. Her current service on the College Station Planning and Zoning Commission, along with her fine tuned analytical skills, have given her the knowledge to lead a community-driven plan that will balance future needs across the community. Elianor has witnessed growth taking place in many cities and knows what uncontrolled growth looks like. It looks like Austin and ultimately pays consequences for poor planning. With Elianor's experience, record and concern about her fellow residents, she will make an excellent member of the College Station City Council. Vote for my good friend, Elianor Vessali! RENEE BARSALOU FRISBIE College Station In recent times, as awareness of the threats posed by CO2-driven climate change has increased, I have focused my attention on considering the possibility that trees, especially when successfully growing on impoverished soils with little agricultural potential, may provide an important sink' for the carbon released by human activities. I see such tree planting activities as providing WIN WIN WIN opportunites. The first WIN obviously involves CO2 capture, and hence contribution to the UK's commitment under the Paris Climate Change Agreement to reduce CO2 emmissions. The second WIN, arising from the conversion of unproductive moorland soils to productive forests involves the provision of an economically valuable product which can reduce our dependence upon timber imports while serving as a significant source of employment in rural areas. Simulated conditions The third and no less significant WIN concerns environmental diversification. The UK has the lowest proportion of forest cover in the whole of Europe - currently at around 12 percent. As they mature, these forests provide diverse environments that can serve as health-giving playgrounds for human recreation. I like to cite the example of England's largest National Forest, Park-Kielder in Northumberland. This covers an area of over 250 square miles - 90 percent of which consists of coniferous trees. Victorias Italian Deli has closed on Connecticut Avenue in Norwalk, with owner Cristina Colimitra citing family demands for the delis closure but planning to continue a catering business. Colimitra told Hearst Connecticut Media that a pizza entrepreneur plans to take over the space at Plaza Mia at 247 Connecticut Ave. She plans to continue a separate catering business as Catering by Victoria, in partnership with Angela Mia Bakery located in the same plaza, with details available at 203-807-1021. Anderson Cooper reports news from the worlds hot spots; Andy Cohen dishes about the heat-seeking folks in cables reality shows. Cooper, the longtime CNN anchor/host, and Cohen, the host of Bravos Watch What Happens: Live, are buddies and will be at the Toyota Oakdale Theare in Wallingford on Saturday, Nov. 4, for an unscripted Intimate Evening with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen, the latest in an occasional series totaling about two-dozen shows over more than two years. Its just been tremendous fun, Cooper, a Yale alum and owner of an estate in Litchfield, said in a phone interview. It started because I interviewed (Cohen) when his first book came out at the 92nd Street Y. The audience had so much fun and we had so much fun on stage. Coopers agent is also the agent for Bill OReilly, who was doing a similar touring show with Dennis Miller, and the idea came up to do a show with Cohen. Ours is really nothing like theirs, Cooper said, laughing. I think theres a lot more drinking at ours. I think theres a lot more laughs at ours. For us, its really just a night for people to have fun. Its not a night of politics. One of the things the pair will do during the stage shows is surprise each other with videos of some things weve done and then get the other person talking about the behind-the-scenes story on some of them. Theres so many crazy moments for Andys late-night show with celebrities. ... For me, theres a bunch of videos that Andy just loves playing because they make me look foolish or awkward. Andy likes an awkward moment. More Information Toyota Oakdale Theatre, 95 S. Turnpike Road, Wallingford. Saturday, Nov. 4, 8 p.m. $270-$60. 203-265-1501, www.oakdale.com See More Collapse Asked if he fears saying something in these uncensored shows that might derail his news career, Cooper said, You know, working in television, theres always that concern. I always think its like running along the edge of a cliff thats made of sand and collapsing beneath you. Its very easy to destroy yourself in a sentence or two. But at the same time, thats part of the thrill of it, and I think the fun for the audience is to see sort of a side of us they wouldnt see anywhere else. Cooper acknowledged Cohen may be seen as a late-night jokester, even though he actually has a news background. He does, yes. I mean, he has absolutely no news judgment, but he does, oddly enough, have a news background. ... I think that initially was why people tried to introduce us and get us matched up, because they thought, Oh, two people work in news together. Since our interview, it was announced the two will close out the year on TV together, as Cohen will join Cooper as co-host for CNNs New Years Eve, replacing Kathy Griffin. Cooper, who did one season as host of The Mole, has no use any more for most reality shows, saying her prefers Netflix dramas because the reality shows stress me out a little too much. Asked if such shows are dumbing down America, Cooper said theres more information at peoples fingertips than ever. People are processing more information than ever before, and sometimes I think it can be almost too much... Its overload. CNN, meanwhile, has been a frequent target of President Trump. To me, the job of journalism is as important, if not more important than ever before. And I think were seeing ... pretty amazing journalism today from a wide variety of sources. You may not like the results of the election, but you cant say that the voters were not given information. And yet, Obviously its concerning when the president of the United States is saying things which are not true, and calling the networks fake news. But, I think, we dont complain about it; we are putting our heads down and were moving forward and doing our jobs. I think the answer to that is more journalism. Cooper traveled to war zones after college because he aspired to be a war correspondent; he eventually produced dispatches for the educational service Channel One. I was always interested in forging my own path and doing it on my own, he said, partly because he had to. My parents, despite what people might think, made it clear they would pay for my college and that was it. My mom was very clear on that. I always was very driven. I started working when I was 11 as a child model, which is very cheesy, but I wanted to earn money and save money. I started doing something I was passionate about, which was going to wars, and then I realized I could start telling stories and shooting stories, and I discovered it was something that I loved to do. Cooper said he moved to Litchfield from Long Island after falling in love with a house there. So I love Connecticut. I obviously went to college there, so I have a long history there. Jamarante@nhregister.com; Joeammo on Twitter WASHINGTON - Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III on Monday revealed charges against three former Trump campaign officials - including onetime campaign chairman Paul Manafort - marking the first criminal allegations to come from probes into possible Russian influence in U.S. political affairs. The charges are striking for their breadth, touching all levels of the Trump campaign and exploring the possible personal, financial wrongdoing of those involved, as well as what appeared to be a concerted effort by one campaign official to arrange a meeting with Russian officials. One of the three charged, former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, admitted to making a false statement to FBI investigators who asked about his contacts with a foreigner claiming to have high-level Russian connections. Manafort and longtime business partner Rick Gates, meanwhile, were charged in a 12-count indictment with conspiracy to launder money, making false statements and other charges in connection with their work advising a Russia-friendly political party in Ukraine. The investigation, which the FBI began last year but escalated significantly with Mueller's appointment in May, has taken a heavy toll on the Trump administration, repeatedly putting the president on the defensive as reports have emerged about the work the special counsel team is doing. With Monday's revelations, a week that otherwise might have been spent with Washington focused on the Republican tax plan will have talking heads dissecting the criminal counts against former Trump campaign officials - and speculating about the next shoe to drop. Papadopoulos's plea agreement, signed earlier this month and unsealed Monday, described extensive efforts he made to try to broker connections with Russian officials and arrange a meeting between them and the Trump campaign. Emails show his offers were sometimes looked at warily, though more senior campaign officials at least entertained them. Manafort and Gates pleaded not guilty in a brief appearance in D.C. federal court Monday afternoon. A federal magistrate judge put the men on home confinement and set a $10 million unsecured bond for Manafort, and a $5 million unsecured bond for Gates. That means the men would be in debt to the government if they failed to show up for court, though they do not have to put any money down. Both surrendered their passports to the FBI. The next hearing in the case was scheduled for Nov. 2 before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, a 2011 President Barack Obama appointee who previously worked as federal prosecutor in the District. For their part, Trump, his spokeswoman and his lawyer sought to cast the charges as having nothing to do with the president. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders asserted Papadopoulos had an "extremely limited," volunteer role in the campaign, and said that "no activity was ever done in an official capacity on behalf of the campaign in that regard." Ty Cobb, a White House lawyer overseeing the administration's handling of the Mueller probe, said, "The one thing that's clear is there's no reference to collusion, no reference to the president." The president himself took to Twitter to declare: "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" " . . . Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" he said in a follow-up tweet. Sanders said Trump had "no intention or plan to make any changes with regard to the special counsel," and Cobb said there had been no talk of possible pardons for Manafort or Gates. "No, no, no. That's never come up and won't come up," Cobb said in an interview. Outside the D.C. courthouse, Kevin Downing, a lawyer for Manafort, said: "President Donald Trump was correct. There is no evidence that Mr. Manafort and the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government." Glenn Selig, a Gates spokesman, said, Gates "welcomes the opportunity to confront these charges in court." "This fight is just beginning," Selig said. The charges are a major step in the investigation, but they do not represent a conclusion. Court documents revealed that Papadopoulos, for example, has been cooperating with investigators for three months - having been first arrested and charged in July after landing at Dulles International Airport on a flight from Germany. The information he provides could be key to furthering Mueller's investigation into others, legal analysts said. Papadopoulos admitted that he lied to the FBI about his interactions with people he thought had connections with the Russian government - essentially understating the conversations and claiming falsely that they had occurred before he joined Trump's campaign. In a January 2017 interview with the FBI, Papadopoulos told agents that a London-based professor claimed to him he had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, including "thousands of emails." But Papadopoulos said initially he viewed the professor as a "nothing." In reality, according to his plea, Papadopoulos understood the professor had connections to Russian government officials, and he treated him seriously. An email quoted in court filings appears to match one described to The Washington Post in August in which Papadopoulos identified the professor with whom he met as Joseph Mifsud, the director of the London Academy of Diplomacy. After a March 2016 meeting with the professor, who was not identified in court records, Papadopoulos emailed a campaign supervisor and other members of the campaign's foreign policy team. He claimed the professor had introduced him to "Putin's niece" and the Russian ambassador in London, and the purpose was "to arrange a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under President Trump," court documents say. The government noted the woman was not Russian President Vladimir Putin's niece, and while Papadopoulos expected the professor would introduce him to the Russian ambassador, that never happened. But in the months that followed, Papadopoulos continued to correspond with the woman and the professor about a meeting between the Trump campaign, possibly including Trump himself, and Russian officials. "The Russian government has an open invitation by Putin for Mr. Trump to meet him when he is ready," Papadopoulos wrote to a senior policy adviser for the campaign on April 25. At one point, a campaign official forwarded one of Papadopoulos's emails to another campaign official, saying, "We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal." DT would appear to be a reference to Donald Trump. Papadopoulos's effort continued into the summer of 2016, and in August 2016, a campaign supervisor told Papadopoulos and another foreign policy adviser they should take a trip to Russia. That ultimately did not take place, according to the plea. Lawyers for Papadopoulos said in a statement: "We will have the opportunity to comment on George's involvement when called upon by the Court at a later date. We look forward to telling all of the details of George's story at that time." In a separate indictment, the special counsel alleged that Manafort and Gates laundered money for nearly a decade through scores of U.S. and foreign corporations and accounts, and gave false statements to the Justice Department and others when asked about their work on behalf of a foreign entity. The time period stretched into at least 2016, though it did not seem to involve the Trump campaign. According to the indictment, Manafort and Gates arranged to hire two Washington-based lobbying firms to work on behalf of their Ukrainian clients, arranging meetings with U.S. officials and boosting their public image in the United States. Though it was not named, one of the firms referenced in the indictment was The Podesta Group. Tony Podesta, the head of the firm, announced to colleagues Monday he was stepping down. The other firm is Mercury LLC, according to people familiar with the matter. A partner at Mercury said the firm "believed our work was intended to serve an important and proper purpose." Prosecutors say that Manafort and Gates arranged for a Brussels-based nonprofit to nominally hire the Washington companies to hide the fact that the two men were working for Ukrainian government officials; otherwise they would have been required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. In fact, prosecutors allege, Manafort was communicating directly with then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych about the effort, promising in 2012 to provide him weekly updates. Prosecutors say that when the Department of Justice approached Manafort and Gates in 2016 and 2017 about whether they should have registered as foreign agents for the work, they responded with false and misleading letters, according to the indictment. Manafort and Gates also were accused of trying to hide funds kept in foreign bank accounts - Manafort from 2011 to 2014 and Gates from 2012 to 2014. And Manafort was accused of filing fraudulent tax returns - stating on tax forms he filed from 2008 to 2014 that he controlled no foreign bank accounts. All told, more than $75 million flowed through offshore accounts, the special counsel alleged. From 2008 to 2014, according to the indictment, Manafort arranged to wire $12 million from offshore accounts to pay for personal expenses - including $5 million to a home renovation contractor in the Hamptons, more than $1.3 million to a home entertainment and lighting vendor based in Florida, $934,000 to an antique rug dealer in Alexandria, and $849,000 to a men's clothier in New York. Law enforcement's interest in Manafort dates back to at least 2014, according to a person familiar with the case. While Mueller's probe has focused on Manafort and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, investigators have shown interest in a broad array of other topics. Those include meetings the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had with the Russian ambassador and a banker from Moscow in December, and a June 2016 meeting at Trump tower involving the president's son, Donald Jr., and a Russian lawyer. Mueller's team has requested extensive records from the White House, covering areas including the president's private discussions about firing James B. Comey as FBI director and his response to news that Flynn was under investigation, according to two people briefed on the requests. Mueller is also investigating whether Trump obstructed justice leading up to Comey's firing. --- The Washington Post's Devlin Barrett, Alice Crites, Sari Horwitz, Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller, Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker and Adam Entous contributed to this report. --- Indictment: https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/world/manafort-and-gates-indictment/2252/ --- Video: President Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Manafort's former business associate Rick Gates and Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos have all been charged in Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation into Russian election interference. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) Embed code Two people were arrested Sunday after a woman reported that her car was taken from the parking lot of Sapp Bros. Travel Center near Odessa. The Buffalo County Sheriffs Department received the robbery report at about 3:30 p.m. Sunday. The woman said an adult female approached her and threatened to harm her if she didnt give up her car, Capt. Bob Anderson told NTV News. After the woman gave up her keys, the suspect was joined by an adult male. They drove westbound on Interstate 80 in the stolen car. The two suspects were apprehended at about 4:20 p.m. in Dawson County. No one from the Buffalo County Sheriffs Department was available to speak about the crime on Sunday evening. Northwest High School senior Katie Springer describes herself as a people person. Its a trait she expresses in a variety of ways: Through her career plans to be a dental hygienist, by having an adopted grandpa in Grand Island resident David Stumpf and by her four years of singing and dancing in 14 Karat Gold Show Choir, which she says has given her close friendships at Northwest High School. Spring explained her career choice by noting Northwest sophomores are required to take a job or career test through a careers class. Springers results showed she should have a job where she works with people. Among the many possible careers was dental hygienist, which appealed to her for a number of reasons, including the fact she would not have take a full four years of college, plus another two years of dental school to be a dentist. To be a dentist is really competitive, said Springer, noting that a dental hygienist isnt as competitive. Springer pointed out a lot of top-flight students want to be dentists, and explained she did not want to worry about going to college for four years, then failing to win admission into the University of Nebraska Medical College of Dentistry. She believed her chances of being admitted to the UNMC College of Dentistry for its dental hygiene program would be better, while still putting her into the same people person environment of working in a dental office. A dental hygienist just seemed perfect and I still get to work with people. Springer considers herself to be a people person because I like meeting people and hearing their story. One person who is an example of that is David Stumpf, whom she described as one person Ive gotten really close to just by talking to him and by getting to know him. He calls himself my adopted grandpa. She said her older sister, Laura, who graduated from Northwest just as she was entering the school as a freshman, knew Stumpf first. She was a freshman in college when I was a freshman in high school, Springer said. He (Stumpf) was sad that she left, but he found out she had a little sister and that I was involved in music. Springer said that they have gotten to know each other well, with Stumpf attending most of the musical productions at Northwest. Springer said she became a member of 14 Karat Gold her freshman year, and has been part of the show choir every year since. She also has been a member of the student council at Northwest every year of school, stepping up to be its secretary as a senior. This year, I decided I should do something more than just be a member, she said. Springer also has taken part in a once-a-year competitive event each of the past three school years. Since sophomore year, Ive been doing this All Girl Quiz Bowl, said Springer, who noted she views that extracurricular activity as more of a friendly contest than a super-competitive event. She said the All Girl Quiz Bowl competition is held just once each school year, with this 2017 contest taking place on Oct. 18. We didnt come out with a win, but it was fun, she said.. Some of the questions were pretty hard this last time, Springer added. The senior thought she answered a fair number of questions which are pegged at college-level difficulty during the oral competition. But she also acknowledged there were some questions that really stumped her, as well as every other student. The fact that Springer views the All Girls Quiz Bowl as a fun event instead of an all-out competition perhaps should not be surprising. Her outlook on life can be seen in how she views her participation 14 Karat Gold Show Choir. Springer describes 14 Karat as my home. Its where I kind of found who I was as a person. Thats where I found my closest friends, by being in 14 Karat. We are all in it together. Its not just me. Like sports, you have to work as a team. But Springer pointed out there also an important difference between show choir and sports. In sports, its very competitive. One team wins, and the other team, it loses. With show choir, were all there for the love of music. Even though show choir is conducted as a competition that has nominal winners and losers, Springer said her attitude is that you still come out with a win because youre doing what you love. Its just a good atmosphere to be around, I think. David Sackschewsky, Northwest vocal music teacher and 14 Karat Gold Show choir director, described Springer as easy to work with. She wants to do well and wants the team to do well. Shes very friendly, upbeat and positive. Sackschewsky said Springers natural personality affects the group dynamics in a positive way. He noted any group is boosted when its members want to work hard and when they stay positive. To prepare for college, Springer is taking an English composition class at Central Community College-Grand Island Campus this semester. She could have gotten college credit for the course by taking the same class at Northwest High School, but she wanted the experience of what taking a class on an actual college campus. She said many fellow Northwest students are taking the same class, but her classmates also include people in their 20s, 30s, 40s and older. Its kind of a happy medium between high school and college, she said. Springer said one adult has captured her attention, not because of her age but because she comes into class wearing a medical uniform. That classmate is likely working a full-time job while taking a college class. Seeing her taking the class and making the time kind of shows all of us (that younger students) that we can take the time to do our homework. Springer does not try to work at a part-time job during the school year, but she does work as an interpreter at Stuhr Museum during the summer. That is another people person job, with Springer saying it allows her to meet people not only from all around the U.S., but from around the world. GENOA The Center for Rural Affairs is hosting a community conversation on the property tax debate Nov. 7 at the Genoa City Auditorium, 313 Willard Ave., in Genoa, beginning at 7:30 a.m. The community conversation will discuss the ongoing tax debate from the 2017 legislative session, and also its impact on local residents, schools and governments. Sen. Curt Friesen of the 34th District will be in attendance to answer questions about interim session activities and the 2018 Legislature session. The legislative session ended without a solution or clear path forward to the property tax challenge, said Jordan Rasmussen, policy program associate with the Center for Rural Affairs. Yet the property tax burden continues to weigh heavily upon rural communities, from residents and farmers to the school systems and local governments that rely on tax funding to do their work. Residents of Nance, Merrick, Hamilton and Hall counties are welcome to attend and give input on the balancing act of property taxes, education and public safety cuts. Approaching our current tax environment can be complicated, Rasmussen said. Residents need to weigh in as our representatives work toward solutions that sustain the rural communities you call home. Rolls, juice, and coffee will be provided. For more information, or to RSVP, contact Jordan Rasmussen at (402) 687-2100, ext. 1032, or jordanr@cfra.org. There is no cost to attend. President Donald Trumps recent executive actions have upended official Washington. He has issued an executive order to terminate DACA, the program that allows immigrants who came to America as children to remain. He has issued an executive order announcing his intention to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. He has issued an executive order to terminate the EPAs Clean Power Plan. He has issued an executive order to end payments to health insurance companies to compensate them for subsidizing low-income Americans health insurance policies. And he has announced that he will not certify that Iran is abiding by the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the agreement to suspend Irans nuclear weapons program. All this has Washington atwitter. Clearly this is not business as usual. What are we to make of this? First, it may be worth noting that each of these actions reduces the scope and reach of the federal government. Antifa protesters who seem to have no clue what fascism really is might do well to understand that it is not normal fascist behavior to reduce the role of government in society or to break the governments connections with big businesses such as health insurance corporations. Second, every one of these actions ends programs that were put in place by President Barack Obama also by executive orders. Obamas DACA policy, which made sweeping law-like changes to immigration policy, was already facing a significant constitutional challenge from more than half of Americas state governments. So, too, with the Clean Power Plan, which one federal judge has already found to be unconstitutional. And so too with Obamas payments to health insurance companies. The Constitution is quite clear that no federal dollars can be spent except through appropriations made by law. Obama had no such appropriated funds, and spending money which the Congress never appropriated was also doomed to be overturned by the courts. The same is true of the Paris Climate Accord and the Iran nuclear deal. Obama submitted neither of these to the Senate for ratification for one very simple reason: There is no way either of these agreements would have received the needed two-thirds of the Senate to consent to ratify them. It is fair enough to argue that since the Paris agreement didnt mandate any action on the part of the United States, it need not have been submitted as a treaty. But the same cannot be said about the Iran nuclear agreement. Here Obama took the easy way out. In short, each of Trumps actions is a restoration of constitutional government. It is not executive overreach to end programs created by executive overreach. Finally, Trumps actions laid these issues where they squarely belong: in the lap of Congress. It is bad enough that successive Congresses have allowed recent presidents to conduct warfare in six different countries without authorizing the use of force. But for Congress to cede its authority to the president on immigration issues, health care issues, energy issues and environmental issues is wholly inexcusable. President George W. Bush spoke about the soft bigotry of low expectations. There is no group in America today for whom this phrase is more apt than the U.S. Congress. No one, including most members of Congress themselves, seems to expect much from Congress today. And in that regard Congress hasnt disappointed. In terminating existing programs, perhaps Trump can force Congress to act. After all that is just what Obama did in letting the Bush tax cuts expire and then bargaining with Congress from there. Perhaps Congress will pass a new version of DACA and other needed immigration reforms. Perhaps it will pass the Alexander-Murray compromise, or a different compromise, on health care. Perhaps Congress will sanction Iran for its failure to allow full inspections of its nuclear weapons program, its United Nations-prohibited ballistic missile program and its export of terrorism. We will see. But if Congress doesnt act it is certainly not President Trumps fault. Of all the questions that linger over the loss of four special operations soldiers in Niger, perhaps the most persistent is: Why are we there? Were used to having U.S. troops in Asia and the Middle East, but Niger? Is our national security enhanced by what they were trying to do there? The short answer is yes. To understand why, take a closer look at what our troops were doing and why. The mission in Niger, which began in 2013, was a classic special operations operation more specifically known as a foreign internal defense. Thats an old-school term for the most fundamental task we give our Green Berets (which I served in for 28 years). A small team goes into a foreign country to work with that nations military to better prepare it to deal with its own problems. This occurs during what the military calls phase zero, which is prior to when a bigger conflict emerges. Its done in coordination with the host nations civilian government, and the entire country team at the U.S. Embassy. This is not a clandestine Hollywood commando mission, or a suicide raid. It is overt and open. Its purpose is to build rapport with the host nations military, to improve its capabilities, to gather open source intelligence, and to learn both the lay of the land and the local players. The U.S. has conducted these kinds of missions worldwide since the 1950s. At times, we have had as few as a dozen of these operations, and at others several hundred in as many as 80-plus countries simultaneously. These routine missions have short-circuited conflicts on nearly every continent in the world at one time or another. They are also inherently dangerous. The teams are small, ranging from a pair of operators up to a few dozen. There are seldom more than 100 U.S. troops. So why do we put such small teams at risk? The answer is simply that the return is worth it. Often, the use of a small, mature, and low-profile group of quiet professionals can have greater success than a large, high-profile deployment on a massive scale. Particularly today, as terror groups such as the Islamic State and al-Qaida move to numerous small or underdeveloped countries, these phase-zero special operations missions allow the U.S. to mitigate the threat before it grows and they do so without making the U.S. the worlds policeman. Instead of fighting the terrorists everywhere ourselves, these missions help our friends to better police their own backyards. These missions have been extremely common since 9/11, so it is ludicrous for legislators to claim ignorance of their existence and purpose. Nothing about these missions is new, little is hidden and none of it should surprise anyone who has spent more than a week on Capitol Hill. To repeat, these missions are dangerous. The teams that execute them lack the huge support mechanisms Americans have come to associate with military operations. Our troops know this, and regularly volunteer for the opportunity to participate in the missions simply because they know they work. They also know these are the kinds of missions they have trained for, and which they execute with greater skill than anyone in the world. They know that if trouble occurs, support is further away than in conventional operations. Intelligence is superb, often better than in regular military activities, but the logistical and response functions are thin and distant. Thats why we only send professionals on such missions. These are not kids who just joined the military six months ago. They are hardened professionals who, yes, know what the risks are, and go without hesitation. Yes, we need to know what happened in Niger. Any time military members die in action, a full investigation occurs. A full post-mortem of the deadly ambush in Niger needs to take place so that we can do better on the next mission. The media and politicians should stop the showmanship and game-playing. Let Defense Secretary James Mattis do his job, and let the brave men and women of the U.S. military do theirs. Grandstanding senators and talking heads dont help make America safe. Missions like the one in Niger do. Sheri Lodel never thought she would be a minister. As an undergraduate college student, Lodel majored in psychology, with the goal of becoming a psychologist. However, as she pursued her undergraduate work, she realized her life was headed in another direction. I realized that was probably something I was not going to be happy doing for the rest of my life, she said. I was working with a church on campus and the pastor there said I should go to seminary. I immediately said, No. But three days later, I went back and said, OK, how do I do this? I prayed about it and felt it was good to go that direction. From there, Lodel went to seminary in St. Paul, Minn., where she eventually graduated with a masters of divinity. She said she had to play catch-up at first due to not doing any undergraduate theology work prior to going to seminary. Upon her graduation from seminary, Lodel, a Wisconsin native, said it was the luck of the draw that led her to Nebraska a place she had only been to once before as her brother competed in a national wrestling tournament in Grand Island in 1980. They did a lottery system back then I think they still do that for us to go to different synods, she said. They pulled my name out of the hat and thats how I ended up in Nebraska. Lodels ministry began at Christ Lutheran Church in Pierce, where she served for 4 and a half years before coming to Grand Island to serve as interim minister at Calvary Lutheran Church, a role she would later be called upon to permanently serve in for 15 years and counting. When I got here, it really felt like a good, very supportive, awesome match, she said. Both of us Calvary Lutheran and I contacted the synod to see if it was possible to change it from interim to a call. That happened just a few months into the interim period and I have been here ever since. In 2010, following a decision by some members of Our Saviour Lutheran Church in Dannebrog to split from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) after the latter voted to accept pastors who are in same-sex sexual relationships, Lodel found herself also serving as the minister at Our Saviour Lutheran Church. I heard about the split, I was praying, and I felt that I could provide some comfort to those who remained in the ELCA, she said. Then the synod called and asked if I would be willing to pray about going over there and trying to provide some grief support after the split. I had been praying about it for about a year and was willing. That is how I became an interim minister over there. Lodel added the two congregations realized they needed the financial support of each other and have since become a dual-point parish. Its been a very huge blessing for me and, I think, both congregations as well, she said. We worship together on the fifth Sunday, which really allows us to have some wonderful fellowship and see that we are not different, yet we are. The things we want to do, as far as ministry, are slightly different, but we are truly a good mix of Gods people. Following the ELCAs decision to allow its ministers to officiate same-sex union ceremonies in its churches, Lodel said, she was approached by Grand Island resident Brian Whitecalf, who asked if Calvary Lutheran would be willing to be a congregation that would openly and publicly support LGBT individuals. She added both Calvary Lutheran and Our Saviours Lutheran agreed to do that. To me, Gods grace should be given to all people like God had said and Jesus brought to all people, Lodel said. It doesnt matter to me your sexual preference, skin color or the language you speak. Gods grace is for everyone equally and I think everyone should be treated equally. While her skill set is with older individuals, Lodel said a wonderful challenge in her ministry has been trying to work with younger individuals ages 12 to 25. That has been our focus to reach out and try to provide a sense of calm and stability for younger people, she said. The world is changing so fast. I think it is important to be a calm in the storm of life. I love to learn about the generation that is coming up behind us. I think they are full of wonderful, surprising talents and I am excited to see those blossom as their generation comes up. Lodel added that Calvary Lutheran and Our Saviours Lutheran have both faced the challenge of defining and redefining themselves. She said the churches are now looking at immigration as a focus for ministry. I think that is very challenging for people, but it helps us to define and redefine ourselves as individual churches, she said. It helps us to look at ourselves and say, I didnt think I was prejudiced but . We discover we might have had some prejudices and figure out how to fix or change that in Gods grace. That is a challenge and I am grateful for that challenge. It helps us to really grow our faith. In her 20 years as an ordained minister, Lodel said the thing she enjoys most is working with people and watching members of her congregation at Calvary Lutheran go through life cycles. Ive been blessed to be able to go through the cycles of the congregation and to get to know a lot of people, she said. Ive worked with people of different backgrounds. Ive worked with Sudanese, Latinos, police officers and firefighters. Getting to know people has been the blessing of all of that work. Lodel added that in working with people, while they may have different backgrounds, they all go through the same trials and celebrations of life. We are essentially the same, no matter what our skin color, language or sexual preferences are, she said. And as for becoming a minister? I never thought that I was ever going to be a minister, but I thank God that he called me to be one, Lodel said. Thanks to generous donations from the Edwardsville and Glen Carbon Kiwanis Clubs, Edwardsville Rotary Club and the Troy/Edwardsville Shrine Club, the Edwardsville Fire Department has purchased training materials and will begin teaching Stop the Bleed classes. Stop the Bleed is an initiative of the American College of Surgeons and the Hartford Consensus. Stop the Bleed is designed to provide training to the community, teachers, church congregations and civic organizations in the face of unspeakable mass casualty incidents. The program will prepare the trainees to control bleeding in the event of a natural or manmade disaster. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Alvin Nicola (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 17:27 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a269a7ac 3 Opinion millenials,#millenials,young-generation,anticorruption,corruption,#corruption,Transparency-International-Indonesia Free They have been called narcissistic, lazy and demanding. But is todays generation really that bad? Indonesia's young generation of those currently under 30 is the center of attention, as evident with the popularity of the meme titled kids zaman now (kids these days). Presently our youth make up nearly 30 percent of the countrys population. This generation is often viewed positively as a demographic bonus given the youth bulge of the population curve until 2050.They are very familiar with social media, technology, and have significant business orientation and that's what makes them worth considering. They are characterized by the way technology and market mechanisms radically change how ideas are presented and distributed. Yet this generation is undermined by the uncertainty, ambiguity, and pessimism of previous generations. They are forced to adapt to the world's rapid mutation and crisis. But just like the older generation, they are confined by one serious problem: corruption. It repeatedly violates their fundamental rights that reduce the quality of life through poor school construction, minimal health insurance and massive unemployment. Particularly for those lacking marketable skills, and have minimum education and little work experience, there seems few options to escape marginalization and social exclusion other than corruption. So can this young generation fight corruption if while they are also among main victims? The anti-corruption discourse in Indonesia has yet to place young people at its center. According to a recent survey by Transparency International, a global NGO, up to half of young people in Indonesia assume that a person's success in life can be achieved by engaging in corrupt practices such as lying, cheating and breaking the law. Being vulnerable can compromise integrity, almost 70 percent of young Indonesians said they have given a bribe because they had no choice to access good public services. We need to empower the youth in the anti-corruption movement. Here we could look at the concept of critical youth empowerment from the scholar Louis B. Jennings and his colleagues. These are based on six key dimensions of young people's critical empowerment: (1) a friendly and safe environment; (2) meaningful participation and involvement; (3) partnerships between youth and adults; (4) involvement in critical reflection on interpersonal and sociopolitical processes; (5) participation in socio-political processes to influence change, and (6) individual and integrated community empowerment. The scheme considers outcome measurement, challenges and opportunities for empowerment within youth organizations. Young people's involvement is an essential part of open and inclusive governance, promoting transparency and accountability. For instance, participatory budgeting or citizen-led procurement allows for direct oversight of allocation of public resources to effectively reduce power abuse. Monitoring and evaluation may also directly impact accountability by raising the moral cost or reputation of public officials. By uncovering government offenses through monitoring and evaluation, young people would also be able to identify irregularities. Some examples can be seen through mechanisms of public expenditure tracking and public revenue monitoring. Both schemes seek to involve the public in monitoring public spending to help identify embezzlement of public funds. The model or approach of citizen scorecards, report cards and citizen feedback through youth-initiated social audit mechanisms also allow communities to provide feedback to administrators and government regarding public services to dismantle bribery. The youth or kids zaman now have all the prerequisites for fighting corruption. They are strong in numbers, interconnected, have no interest in maintaining the status quo and they also want to shape a better future. In many parts of the world, proof that young people as actors in the forefront of the anti graft movements can be found. Young people aged 13-25 have led large anti-corruption demonstrations, from Venezuela, Brazil, Russia, to Dominica. In Indonesia, we have also witnessed many young people striving to fight for the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and demand the completion of mega-corruption cases including that of the e-ID card. The youth fight in the typical 21st century way: bombarding officers with selfies and video-blogging and spread online petitions. Messages about the demonstrations are shared via chat groups. Demonstrations are broadcast online with hashtags. Technology is used to strengthen the youth, who not only demand change, but become part of the change. Integrity, just like corruption, can be learned. Unfortunately, in our country, corruption has been tolerated from generation to generation. Thus corruption must be placed in a more revolutionary framework. Investing in kids zaman now in anticorruption fight will yield gains not only for now, but also the future. *** The writer is a scholar in transnational crime from the University of Indonesia. He is a research analyst at Transparency International Indonesia. Alvin also works as a data analyst in the LAPOR! -SP4N taskforce working on improved data ecosystem of public reports of public services. He can be contacted on the email alvinnicola@protonmail.com --------------- We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to academia@jakpost.com. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 07:56 1843 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a267efde 4 Editorial #Editorial,migrant-workers,migrant-protection,#MigrantWorkers,#migrants,house-of-representatives,human-rights,human-trafficking,slavery Free Indonesia can hold its head higher on the global stage with the passing of the new migrant workers protection law on Wednesday. After seven years in the House of Representatives, the law is hailed for its breakthrough tasking local administrations, among others, with monitoring the placement of aspiring migrant workers in their jurisdictions to avoid repetitive incidents such as workers reported missing, or returning penniless, bruised, confused, in slavery conditions on fishing boats, or worse, in a coffin under unclear circumstances. Stories of abused migrant workers have continued to emerge though many have gained relative success, leading others to follow in their footsteps. Labor recruiters, who include trusted relatives of men and women seeking work abroad, operate at the local levels as extensions of migrant labor recruitment firms both illegal and legal. Therefore, although our Foreign Ministry has increasingly strived to assist troubled migrant workers, their vulnerability begins at the point of departure from their home villages and towns. Villagers in East Nusa Tenggara, for instance, have reported that many boys and girls under the age of 18, desperate to improve their families wellbeing, seek out such labor recruiters -- their advantage being a lack of birth certificates, making it easy for labor recruiters and traffickers to forge documents. The new law would thus ensure that village and subdistrict administrations, to regency and provincial governments, inform residents of safe and legal ways to seek work abroad. In addition, a number of the tasks usually carried out by recruitment companies, including training, have been shifted to local administrations, which must also ensure that the deployment of workers and their safe return is facilitated by credible parties, including recruitment firms. Some also suggest that candidates for low-skilled jobs also need to be provided with options beyond contracts that bind them to a single labor recruiter and employer, to whom they are indebted or who may withhold their passports. With the new law, Indonesia should seek to improve working terms and conditions for its citizens abroad, especially in vulnerable professions such as domestic work. President Joko Jokowi Widodo imposed a moratorium on Indonesians working in the Middle East, which critics say violates citizens rights to work in their chosen destinations. The government described the measure as a last resort because in countries such as Saudi Arabia workers cannot legally opt out of contracts and lack legal protection. Indonesia must now work toward the implementation of the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, scheduled for adoption at the next ASEAN Summit in November in Manila. As the regional bodys members share 6.5 million migrant workers, mostly from poorer nations who work in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, a regional framework would better ensure standards and mechanisms than bilateral agreements between sending and receiving countries. However, few will believe Indonesia is serious about protecting migrant workers when our own maids lack legal protection in their own country. Therefore, the next step must be passing the long neglected bill on domestic workers into law. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin JIS (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta, Indonesia Tue, October 31, 2017 Under the leadership of its new Head of School, Tarek Razik, Ed.D, Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS) is vibrant with energy to help its students reach new heights, locally and globally. Indonesias Jakarta Intercultural School (JIS) continues to move forward in its efforts to nurture local talents who possess a flair for lifelong learning and who will evolve into global citizens contributing great things to the world, under the leadership of new head of school Tarek Razik, Ed.D. JIS was established in 1951 as the Joint Embassy School as one of Indonesias first private schools to offer an international curriculum. The school changed its name to Jakarta International School in 1978, and was renamed Jakarta Intercultural School in 2014. The school offers four programs early childhood, elementary school, middle school and high school at its three campuses in South Jakarta: the Cilandak campus located on the Jl. Terogong Raya No. 33 and Pondok Indah campus, Jl. Duta Indah, the Pattimura campus in Kebayoran Baru, located on the Jl. Pattimura. According to Razik, the uniqueness of the schools curriculum lies in its inquiry-based approach to learning, a defining characteristic of Western-style education. A lot of our teaching is built around inquiry, extending thinking processes and developing critical thinking skills. We want children to ask why why is the sky blue? Then they go out and find answers to that question, Razik told The Jakarta Post in a recent interview. To achieve this, Razik said the school strove to create more problem-based learning projects in which teachers help students to translate the concepts they learned in real life. In a particular class, for example, we discuss respect for different cultures and nationalities. We ask the students to do some research first, then they are presented with different situations where their cultural values might come into conflict with those of another person. We ask them to solve this conflict in a respectful manner, he illustrated. He said the output of this approach was not only quantitative, as measured by the students grade averages or how many students get accepted to prestigious universities, but was also qualitative: They are equipped to become good citizens for the world by applying these thinking and emotional skills. We arent saying we want to be the best in the world, because that implies competitiveness; we want to contribute to the world. Best For The World The world has so many conflicts because people dont show respect. This is an example of how our curriculum feeds our mission and tagline to help students strive to be the best for the world. We arent saying we want to be the best in the world, because that implies competitiveness; we want to contribute to the world, he explained. The schools effort to nurture global citizens involves people from both within and without its campuses. The school has a student body comprising 62 different nationalities, of which Americans, South Koreans, Indonesians, Australians and Britons make up the majority. Its teachers also hail from different countries, with most of them coming from North America. Thanks to advancements in technology and related local facilities, the school is now able to connect its students with their counterparts overseas. Global connection is now become a reality to prepare the students in their development as global citizens. Lets say science students are studying the rainforest. The teacher might use Skype to connect them with a group of students in Brazil living in the Amazon and the students can ask, whats it like living in a rainforest? Razik illustrated. . (Photos courtesy of Jakarta Intercultural School/.) Safe Environment And Professional Development Razik said that inquiry-based learning was actually suitable for students, as children were inherently curious. Teachers, however, face an enormous task in nurturing this trait by providing a safe environment for children to explore and try things, as well as learning from their failures without feeling ashamed. Therefore, I continue to strive to create a safe environment for children, to protect them from cyberbullying, while providing a space where they arent afraid to fail, instilling the idea that failure is OK as long as you learn from your mistakes and grow and move forward, he said. Having recently arrived to his new post in Jakarta after his previous role as the head of the International School of Beijing in China, Razik said the Indonesian culture, which placed high importance on harmonious relationships among people, provided an ideal environment for education. Indonesians are also concerned about deep human relationships, rather than just taking care of business. I like it, because education is about deep connections, he said. JIS provides constant professional development for its teachers, sending them to local and international workshops on inquiry methods. In the old days, teachers told [students] what you needed to know in front of the classroom and would give you a test. Now, teachers are more like facilitators. They have to structure lessons that will extend the learning process beyond content. Our trainings seek to equip them with such skills, Razik said. Pedagogy exchanges for teachers . (Photos courtesy of Jakarta Intercultural School/.) Aside from equipping its own teachers with inquiry-based learning methods, JIS also partners actively with local Jakarta schools in a teacher exchange program to introduce the Western pedagogy approach to Indonesian teachers. To make this goal a reality, the school has just established partnerships with the Emmanuel Foundation and Mentari School Jakarta, as well as launched the Innovative Schools Program (ISP) with the Jakarta Education Agency. The program involves the participation of teachers and principals of about 15 public elementary schools across Jakarta to strengthen their quality of education. Either we bring their teachers here for training or we send our teachers there. Its really an exchange; we also learn a lot about Indonesia from the local teachers, Razik explained. We want our teachers to grow together as Indonesia grows. We want to be supporting this [socio-economic] growth in Indonesia, he added. In order to reach out to a wider segment of Indonesians, Razik was eager to cooperate with relevant national education stakeholders to expand the ISP to schools beyond Jakarta. Key words/ topics : JIS, Jakarta Intercultural School, jakarta international school, life long learning, inquiry based, global citizen Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Charlotte van Ouwerkerk (Agence France-Presse) Leeuwarden, Netherlands Mon, October 30, 2017 17:02 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2698aaf 2 Art & Culture Dutch,Netherlands,Mata-Hari,exhibition,#exhibition Free She scandalized society by dancing almost naked when women still wore corsets and their dresses long. Yet a century after her death, Mata Hari remains veiled in mystery. Now a Dutch museum in the Friesian town of her birth is seeking to shed new light on the exotic dancer, bringing together for the first time 150 objects, photos and military archives in the largest-ever exhibition devoted to one of the world's most famous courtesans and seductresses. Her story was "a dramatic cocktail of courage and glory, loss and betrayal," says the museum about the ultimate femme fatale, executed by a French firing squad on charges of being a double agent on October 15, 1917. Giant black-and-white photos of Mata Hari wearing her barely-there, bejewelled costumes hang on the walls of the Fries Museum in northern Leeuwarden, the town where she was born as Margaretha Zelle in 1876. Never-before-seen scrapbooks, personal belongings, letters, books and jewellery are on display in "Mata Hari: The Myth and the Maiden" running until April 2. Shown in darkened rooms where videos play of dancers recreating her sensuous choreography, the exhibition is both intimate and surprising. There are posters of her appearances in such famous theatres as the Folies Bergere, and in one room by an antique child's crib visitors learn her two-year-old son, Norman, died of syphilis, likely contracted from his mother. "It is the story of the life of a very famous person who got a lot of attention during her career, got into a lot of trouble, arrested and accused of being a spy," said museum curator Hans Groeneweg, who has spent several years amassing the collection. Read also: Mata Hari, femme fatale executed 100 years ago 'Life ends in tragedy' She scandalized society by dancing almost naked when women still wore corsets and their dresses long. Yet a century after her death, Mata Hari remains veiled in mystery. (AFP/Robin van Lonkhuijsen) Margaretha married young to an army officer 20 years older than her, who was based in the former Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia. They had two children, Norman, and a younger girl, Non. But in 1903 aged 27, she fled after a nasty divorce to Paris, where, penniless, she became a striptease dancer, taking the name "Mata Hari", Indonesian for "Eye of the Day". The objects on display "trace her path from being a young girl, to her life as a mother,... her exotic career as a courtesan and her journey during the war," Groeneweg said, adding the aim was to give visitors a more "complete" picture of the real woman. There is a delicate, crown-shaped gold and pearl brooch, which Mata Hari gave a German officer just before her death, asking him to send it to her daughter, letters after her divorce full of despair, and even her death warrant with the word "Mort" (Deceased) starkly handwritten across it in black ink italics. "I'm tired of fighting life," Mata Hari wrote in one letter, appealing that Non, who she'd left behind in The Netherlands, be allowed to join her in Paris. "Either Nonnie lives with me and I behave like a decent mother, or I'm going to enjoy the beautiful life being offered to me here. I know that life ends in tragedy -- but I'm over that," she wrote presciently. She was a prolific letter writer and there are missives between her and her husband when she was still deeply in love, as well as her son's baby album lovingly filled in until his sudden death. "Instead of dancing to the praise of the powerful and famous, I am here, in a hospital room at the bedside of my dying child," she wrote. Later there are postcards from across Europe to her daughter some simply signed "Mama" and French army archives recounting her interrogation and trial kept secret until recently. "I am desperately worried and I cry all the time," she wrote in April 1917 to the French judge from her Parisian cell, asking for news of her then Russian lover who had abandoned her. "You cannot imagine my suffering. Please release me, I cannot cope with it any longer." Read also: North Korean spy films to hit theaters in coming months True spy? Many questions still remain about Mata Hari. To what extent was she really a spy? Why, after accepting an offer in 1916 from a German diplomat to spy on France if he paid off her debts, did she become a double agent for France? Was she just naive, or desperate, or both? For Groeneweg there is "always that question: Was she really guilty?" He believes there is still "not enough proof to say for certain if she was a spy. The French certainly wanted to set an example during a very difficult year in 1917. They used her." And despite the exhibition, it seems that in the end, Mata Hari, who reinvented herself as the Javanese princess who rode elephants, took many of her secrets to the grave. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Setiono Sugiharto (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 09:14 1843 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a268450b 4 Art & Culture English,writing,academics,research,journal Free Indonesian academics are facing a tough, unprecedented challenge: They are obliged and even hard-pressed by their institutions to publish their writing in the English language in top-tier international journals, lest they will neither be promoted to a higher academic rank nor get and enjoy their teacher-certification allowances. Thus, the decision to refrain from academic publication has high-stakes consequences. Through imposing institutional pressures of this kind, local universities are competing to gain recognition both domestically and internationally. The number of staff publications as well as the citation indexes of their published articles help play a significant role in determining the reputation of a university. At a national level, for instance, publication and citation indexes have now become key criteria employed by the government to evaluate and provide grants for a university. The more knowledge is produced (through academic publication) by the teaching staff, the greater the chances of a university being funded, and the more likely it is to be awarded a top label. In recent years, the international academic publishing industry has seen a surge in the number of non-native English speakers wishing to have their articles published by the industrys powerhouses, which are dominated by the United States. Nonetheless, the imperative to write and publish in English poses its own obstacles, as this involves a tight gatekeeping practice. For Indonesian scholars in particular, the problems are indeed multifaceted and convoluted. However, local scholars lack of linguistic proficiency seems to have constituted a major barrier. This is because English academic writing is a highly specific discipline that needs to be acquired through years of schooling rather than through intensive spoken interaction with native speakers of English. It is due to this linguistic impediment that the presence of literacy brokers is badly called for. They are usually professional and well-trained academics (either native or non-native speakers of English) who provide linguistic support as proofreaders and translators to those who need their services. Quite interestingly, concomitant with the governments publish-or-perish policy, language brokers the majority of whom are local professionals are mushrooming, offering their services to novice researchers and scholar writers who are under pressure to publish in international fora. They are now in high demand. As local academics are struggling with their linguistic inadequacy, which hampers their academic writing practices, literacy brokers are needed to assist them to attain linguistic equity. It is not uncommon to find their submitted articles turned down by journal editors due to language-related problems. More than that, literacy brokers are much sought after, with the belief that by virtue of their publishing experience they are able to help even senior researchers get their work published in prestigious international journals. While their hopes are high after being trained by literacy brokers, the number of local scholars publications is still far below that of other countries which do not have English as an official language, such as Vietnam and Thailand. Clearly, the attainment of linguistic equity is only one criterion for successful publishing practices. The prowess to adjust oneself to established academic writing conventions, the dexterity to satisfy the academic communitys expectations, the willingness to keep abreast with new insights from scholarly literature and the ability to frame well-designed research are certainly other determining factors worth considering. A colleague of mine wondered why, after participating in many academic writing workshops given by a local literacy broker, she still found it difficult to write in an academic register, let alone publish her work in an international journal. Her main problem, as it turned out, was not that she lacked creative ideas to pen into a scholarly article, but rather she was unfamiliar with the expected texture of academic prose. In other words, she had not yet developed full control of the established conventions of academic writing. While international publishing industries now acknowledge and value the heterogeneity of voices international scholars bring with them in the process of knowledge production, literacy brokers should aim not solely to help local academics attain linguistic equity and unleash them from language stigmatization perpetuated by the journals gatekeepers. Neither should they simply help develop an awareness of the established rhetorical convention of academic writing practices. The global recognition of multilingualism in the academic publishing industry clearly suggests that efforts to gain acceptance for international publications go beyond the attainment of linguistic equity as well as the conformity to rigid conventions. Academic writing practices are not an autonomous or monolithic entity. With the increasing numbers of multilingual scholars successfully publishing in the mainstream journals dominated by the Western countries, these practices are beginning to be inclusive and egalitarian, acknowledging the reality that knowledge production is a practice that is shaped by multilingual scholars linguistic, social, ideological, political and cultural backgrounds. It is this orientation that local literacy brokers miss, or probably ignore, in their painstaking efforts to help local academics to publish. And perhaps it is this missing factor that contributes to the pervasive perception among local scholars that non-native English writers like them are often stigmatized in terms of academic language proficiency whenever they attempt to publish their articles in mainstream academic journals. Rather than merely exhort local academics to one-sidedly comply with the existing conventions, literacy brokers should help craft their texts and negotiate possible textual tensions that might occur by virtue of the writers rhetorical tradition and cultural values. In doing so, they implant in them a critical attitude that respects the importance of retaining ones own voices and authorial self in knowledge production. *** The writer teaches at the graduate school of Applied English Linguistics, Faculty of Education and Language, Atma Jaya Catholic University, Jakarta. He can be reached at setiono.sugiharto@gmail.com. Topics : English writing academics research journal Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (Agence France-Presse) Paris Mon, October 30, 2017 10:18 1843 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2686617 2 Lifestyle Emmanuel-Macron,France,president,Guiana Free When French President Emmanuel Macron sniffed a whiff of marijuana during his visit to the overseas territory of French Guiana, he joked: "I still have a nose". "So, there are some of you who do not only smoke cigarettes, huh?", he said to laughter after posing for photos with locals in the Crique neighbourhood of capital Cayenne on Friday night. "That will not help with your schoolwork," he could be heard telling the smokers on a video posted on the presidential Facebook page. "You have to tell the youngest!" he said. Read also: Macron trumps Trump with 'Make Climate Great Again' campaign Macron wraps up his 48-hour visit to the impoverished South American territory, which borders northern Brazil, on Saturday. He said he was "not Father Christmas" after facing demonstrations at the start of his trip, which came six months after a wave of protests erupted about security problems and unemployment. Many locals feel they are overlooked by the government in Paris, with unemployment at 23 percent, massive illegal immigration, pot-holed roads and poor public infrastructure compared with mainland France. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 13:35 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a268ee8e 1 Art & Culture sumpah-pemuda,Youth-Pledge,exhibition,#exhibition,Den-Haag,Netherlands Free The National Archives of the Netherlands (NAN) and the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia are currently holding a joint exhibition on "The Birth of Indonesian Youth Movement" to celebrate the 89th anniversary of the Sumpah Pemuda (Youth Pledge), which opened on Oct. 27 at the NAN building in the Hague. Slated to run until Nov. 4, the exhibition displays a number of historical photographs and documents, starting from the formation of the first nationalist group, Budi Utomo, on May 20, 1908, to the Second Indonesian Youth Congress in then Batavia on Oct. 28, 1928 that resulted in the Youth Pledge. One of the exhibit's coordinators, Johan van Langen, told Antara that preparing the exhibition took about a year, including discussions with the Indonesian education and culture attache in the Netherlands' capital. Read also: Youth Pledge: One language, but don't stigmatize multilinguals Indonesian Ambassador to the Netherlands I Gusti Agung Wesaka Puja said Sumpah Pemuda was an important milestone in Indonesian history, especially for youth movements across the archipelago. The Youth Pledge called for the commitment of Indonesian youths that boosted the unity of Indonesians, which in turn culminated in the country's independence, Wesaka Puja said. The exhibition's collections will also be displayed at Erasmus Huis in South Jakarta. (kes) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Dylan Amirio (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 10:38 1843 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a26870f3 1 Books female,writer,#writer,Muslim,gender-equality Free Being lucky enough to pursue her dreams of writing that she had since she was 15 years old, 59-year-old Pakistani-British author Qaisra Shahraz weaves a literary world that is incredibly relevant and connected with female struggles across all cultures in which they would be treated unequally. Shahrazs stories reflect the effects of invisible, sometimes unnecessary barriers that human beings tend to build. The issues of inequality, feminism and the empowerment of Muslim women feature heavily in her works, as well as the need to bring people together in harmony. Her books 2002s The Holy Woman, 2007s Typhoon, 2013s Revolt and her most recent book, Train to Krakow as well as dozens of short stories she has written for various publications as a freelance journalist, have earned her the distinction of being one of the most influential women in her hometown of Manchester, United Kingdom, and made her an indirect advocate for womens rights. As a Muslim living in a Western country, and having been raised there since the age of 9, she acknowledges that each woman has their own struggles in basically trying to navigate their lives in different societies. In the UK, women are very much free to dress and go about their daily activities as they please without the burden of oppressive laws. But she explains that the impression many Western countries have toward Muslim women tends to be demeaning. Demeaning in the sense that the religion does not allow women freedom of any kind. Theres a mythical view thats been maintained [in the West] that sees all Muslim women as being oppressed. They think that Muslim women wear veils and headscarves because they have to. In reality, women wear these as a matter of choice. Its not a sign that were oppressed by the religion itself, she said passionately. Power of words: Author Qaisra Shahraz (right) and moderator Christian Putra speak during a meet and greet event at the Kinokuniya Bookstore in the Plaza Senayan mall in Central Jakarta. (Mizan Publishing House/File) Her short story A Pair of Jeans, from her 2013 short story collection A Pair of Jeans and Other Stories explores this very topic of victimization and the harsher judgments that Muslim women are subjected to regarding what they choose to wear. Shahraz argues that oppression might be the case in some extreme examples such as Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, where the West tends to get their perceptions from. But if you compare it with Muslim countries such as Indonesia, that is definitely not the case. I mean in Indonesia, women even have the freedom to ride motorcycles on their own! Not even the UK has that kind of freedom. The point is to stop victimizing us. Stop categorizing us simply from the clothes we wear, the author said. Aside from victimization, Islam also tends to be perceived negatively by many Caucasian countries as a religion of war. This perception has affected women like Shahraz in her home country of the UK, where Islamic extremist terror attacks have tragically become frequent in recent times. This, therefore, adds another reluctant battle for Muslim women like her, who she describes as being stuck between a rock and a hard place. Im sandwiched between two monsters: Islamic extremism and Islamophobia. I therefore have to defend my faith all the time because my faith is the only one that they refer to by name in attaching it with the word terrorist. Sometimes I have to remind everyone that extremism and terrorism exists in all other religions, but they never get called out. So why the singling out? she said. The least she feels she can do as a writer is to see her position as a platform to speak up for Muslim women worldwide. I get reminded a lot that my position as a renowned author goes beyond the fame and recognition. It comes with responsibility as well to utilize what I have as a platform for whats right, Shahraz said. For one, her reach has significantly affected Indonesian readers, as her book The Holy Woman became a bestseller in Indonesia when it was first released. Her visit to Indonesia also included an appearance at the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2017, which ran until Sunday. Prior to the event, she also visited Bandung in West Java as part of her pre-festival trip. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin A. Kurniawan Ulung (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 09:28 1843 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a26851ed 4 Books Latin-America,literary-festival,Literature,Salihara-Theater,#literature Free Indonesia is oceans away from Latin America, but it does not take long to fall in love with the products of their culture from dancing to films, from music to food, as seen during the Sajian dari Selatan (Treats from the South) event at the Salihara Theater in South Jakarta. But the event is not about Latin American food or dancing. It was a discussion on literary works by five renowned Latin-American writers Argentinean Sergio Chejfec, Colombian Hector Abad, Mexican Carmen Boullosa and Brazilians Veronica Stigger and Victor Heringer. They were in Jakarta on their way to the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in Bali, which ran from Oct. 25 to 29. Hosted by Indonesian writers Feby Indirani and Nirwan Dewanto, the discussion was part of the Literature and Ideas Festival (LIFEs) held by the Salihara Community with theme Viva! Reborn! from Oct. 7 to 28. If we divide literary works by countries, regions or languages, those from Latin America are the most in-demand in Indonesia. Indonesian readers love Latin America. In this country, the number of translated books from that region is highest [compared to that of other regions], said the festivals director Ayu Utami. Read also: Latin America literature celebrated at Salihara festival For example, many translated books that explain dependency theory, echoed by Argentine Raul Prebisch, Brazilian Fernando Cardoso and Chilean Enzo Faletto, circulate in the country. It explains the failure of developing countries, including Indonesia, to grow economically in spite of investment from developed country. For a writer, inspiration can come from many places, including from the history of his or her country. When it comes to history, Indonesia and Latin America have much in common. They not only have similar experiences with colonization, but they also suffered similarly during the Cold War and were once under military regimes. Listen up: Brazilian Veronica Stigger (left), Feby Indirani (center) and Argentinean Sergio Chejfec talk about Latin American literature at the Salihara Theater in Jakarta. (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung) During Sajian dari Selatan, Abad recalled his father, a doctor and human rights leader who was murdered by paramilitaries in 1987 for fighting against oppression and social inequality in Colombia. For him, the tragedy was hard to face and steered him away from writing about violence. The first violence I saw was the moment when my bike was stolen while I was at my girlfriends house, he said, laughing. I liked to write books about happiness, love and sex. However, he changed his mind when he noticed that paramilitaries began to write memoirs as a way to justify their actions. Twenty years after the assassination of my father, I understood that I had to write about it. I had to write about his beautiful life. He was a very lovely person, he said. In 2006, Abad, who is considered one of the most talented writers of the post-Latin American Boom in Latin American literature, published El Olvido que Seremos (Oblivion: A Memoir), through which he opened up about his loss and depicted his father as a symbol of the ongoing fight against injustice. Unlike Abad, Stigger and Feby talked about the rise of conservative groups in Brazil and Indonesia. During the event, Stigger read her poem, The Heart of Men, which talks of womens menstrual cycle. The work is part of her latest book, Sul. Stigger explained that she likes to write literature about blood because it represented the state of affairs in Brazil, which is full of conflict and has a long history of violence. Although The Heart of Men does not explicitly mention violence, the word blood, mentioned in the poem, is an allusion to violence, she added. Stigger said that today in Brazil, freedom of expression was under threat from conservative groups, who do not hesitate to commit acts of violence. In September, for example, the Santander Cultural Center had to cancel the Queermuseu exhibition in Porto Alegre, which explored sexual diversity, following a campaign by right-wing protesters. Veronica Stigger (JP/A. Kurniawan Ulung) The queer art exhibition was accused of promoting blasphemy, pedophilia and bestiality. Similar concerns were also raised by Feby, who was afraid that Indonesia was becoming more conservative, especially after former Jakarta governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama was imprisoned for blasphemy. During Sajian dari Selatan, Feby read her short story, Ruang Tunggu (Waiting Room), which is part of her new anthology Bukan Perawan Maria (Not the Virgin Maria). Through the book, Feby wants people to have more empathy and be more tolerant and open-minded. I wonder why many people are fighting and acting violently in the name of Islam, which actually promotes peace, she said. At LIFEs, there is another exhibition called Xalisco Performative Exhibition: Juan Preciado, which visualizes the award-winning novel, Pedro P'ramo, by Juan Rulfo, a Mexican writer who won Mexicos National Prize for Literature in 1970. First published in 1955, Pedro P'ramo was inspired by Rulfos true story. When the violence raged on the Mexican countryside into the late 1920s, thousands of peasants, including his mother and father, were killed. On Oct. 8, publisher Gramedia Pustaka Utama launched its translated version. Regarded as one of the most popular pieces of classic Mexican literature, Pedro P'ramo tells the story of Juan Preciado, who promises his dying mother that he would visit her hometown of Comala to search for his father, Pedro Paramo. To give life to the novel, the exhibition displayed many interesting objects, such as a white bed frame that represents where Preciados sick mother laid and delivered her last words to her son, and stained shirts, which represent what he wore during the events. For the exhibition, Ines Somellera, the Mexican artistic platform director for art projects at Empu Sendok Arts Station (ESAS), collaborated with Depok-based artist Hanafi. Hanafi said he was amazed by the beauty of Pedro P'ramo. He hoped that after enjoying his exhibition, visitors would be interested in reading the novel. This exhibition also aims to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Juan Rulfo, he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Anton Kurnia (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 09:05 1843 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2683cc2 4 Art & Culture short-stories,short-story,#shortstory Free My memory of that sad story is a little hazy. I was six at the time. One day, I heard the phone ring and my father answered it, but he didnt say a word. His face hardened. Then, he walked into the bedroom and I heard my mother scream. She began to wail. The phone continued to ring. Our neighbors rushed to visit our house. They all looked very sad. My mother wouldnt stop crying. I was in my room and was secretly observing from behind the door. I saw peoples faces milling about our living room, and my mother hadnt stopped wailing. I was shaking. I knew something bad had happened, and the sound of my mother hurt me terribly. It was as if my hand had been cut by pieces of sharp glass, or my knee had been struck by sharp pebbles. The whole room was full of noise. And then, suddenly, the noise stopped. I peeked inside the living room. It was very silent. There was no more crying. I was very sure that my mother had died. I lay my body down on the floor of my bedroom, crying silently. Then someone came and took me to a neighbors house. In the morning, I was escorted back to my house. My mother was not dead. She was lying on her bed, but I wasnt allowed to see her. Uncle Jundi had passed away, my father said, during a jihadi battle in Ambon. There had been a long war between Muslims and Christians in Ambon, the capital city of the Maluku Islands in Eastern Indonesia. Uncle Jundi went there a week ago as a part of the Mujahiddin a Moslem militia from Java. And he was killed by a poisonous arrow. I didnt really understand what it meant, but I was sure about one thing: I could never play with uncle Jundi again. My uncle Jundi was my mothers only sibling. He was two years younger than my mother. Their parents had died a long time ago. His real name was Arjuna, but he changed it to Jundullah. I didnt know why. He said it was because his new name sounded noble and Islamic. It means soldier of God in Arabic. I didnt know why God had to have soldiers and for what purpose. But, still I called him uncle Jundi. He lived with his friends not far from our house. They were all good men, excellent in reciting Quranic verses, and all of them had grown a beard. Uncle Jundi had a tall and slender body. His hair was a little bit curly. He had brown eyes, a sweet smile and a short beard. His face looked like my mothers. He was very good to me. He often played with me and taught me to read the Quran. He visited our house two weeks ago, but now he was dead. He was 23 years old. * * * Eventually, my mother returned from the hospital. My mother was very close to her brother and his death had devastated her. She looked terrible. I almost couldnt recognize her. For a few days, my mother only rested in bed. Then, one morning she came out and took a walk around the yard without wearing her headscarf. Her eyes were sunken and gloomy. Her clothes appeared shabby. She didnt speak a word to anyone, until one afternoon, I heard a voice in the living room. It was my mother talking to herself. Why did you have to go? she said. Why did you have to go and leave me? I couldnt believe what I was hearing. That night, I asked my father when he cuddled me in bed. Will mother die soon? He sighed. No, Alif. No. Your mother wont die soon. Is mother very sick? Yes. Will she get well soon? Yes. Insha Allah. May God bless her. I want Mother to get well soon. I want to make her a drawing. Drawing was my hobby. My father hugged me very close to his body. I could feel his beard against my face. Now you better sleep, Alif. Recite your prayers before you sleep. My mother cried all the time nowadays. She was also exhausted most of the time. She no longer paid attention to the state of our home. She ate poorly and stopped taking care of herself. A middle-aged woman came to our house every day to help clean and cook for the family. I called her Mbok Kerto. She was a widow with children who were already married. She was diligent and very distinct. She only spoke in Javanese. She couldnt speak Indonesian. My mother avoided her. My mother also avoided our relatives and neighbors. She even avoided my father and me. She seemed nervous and scared when in the presence of other people. One day, while she was sitting alone in the living room, I heard her hum a sad tune. My mother was imitating the soft tune my uncle used to sing. Uncle Jundi called the song Nasyid. It was religious song. Why does mother sing that song? I asked my father that night. What song? Uncle Jundis song. My father was silent. His hands were trembling. Your mother is remembering her brother. May your uncle rest in peace. He stared at me for a moment and added, Its time for bed, Alif. Lets recite your prayers. * * * One afternoon, about a week after she returned from the hospital, I saw my mother sitting alone in the living room. I asked, Mother, are you all right? Are you feeling better? She stared emptily at me for a moment. Then suddenly I saw her eyes shine brightly. Alif? Yes? Alif, do you draw beautiful things? Did you make beautiful and sweet pictures? I had never drawn beautiful things. I preferred to draw some balls in different colors green, yellow and red. I didnt answer my mothers question. Alif, do you draw birds and flowers and beautiful things? she asked again. I can make you beautiful drawings, Mother. You should draw beautiful things, Alif. Should I draw a lovely bird for you, Mother? You should make this world look beautiful, Alif. Make this world look beautiful and lovely. How nice would it be if we were to live in a beautiful world? I will draw you some beautiful flowers and lovely birds. I will do it right now, mother. Oh, forget it. Never mind, she said. She stared out the window. Whats the difference? Tell me, whats the difference now? And she looked gloomy again. Emptiness filled her eyes. She never came to my room again. She preferred to lie down on her bed, sleeping or just staring at the ceiling. Sometimes she just sat on the couch in the living room, staring out the window, at the street. Two weeks after my mother returned from the hospital, I went to my parents bedroom in the morning. My father had already gone to work, and I saw my mother lying in bed. She was covered by a brown blanket. Her face looked pale. When I entered the room, I thought she looked like a dead woman. But then her eyes lifted open and she stared at me. She tried to speak, but no words came out. Then she closed her eyes again. I stood there for a long time. She looked like she couldnt breathe. There was such a strange aroma in the air. I had come to show her a colored drawing I had just made that morning. There were two birds. One bird was in its nest and the other was flying around nearby with its wings outstretched. The nest was pale yellow, while the birds were colored orange and dark blue. There were green leaves and red flowers everywhere. There were light blue skies and white clouds. The bird in the nest had a pair of black eyes. I stood beside her bed and stared at my mother who was breathing slowly. Mother, I said. Her eyeballs moved under her lids. Mother, I said again. Her hands moved slowly, and she opened her eyes. She stared at me. I held my drawing. But she just stared emptily at me. This is a picture of birds and flowers, Mother. She blinked. I had made this world look beautiful, Mother. My mother closed her eyes. Mother, are you feeling well already? She was silent. I had made this world look beautiful, Mother. She was still silent. I will make more birds and flowers for you, Mother. Someone came behind me. I felt a hand on my shoulder. What are you doing? Mbok Kerto whispered to me harshly in Javanese. I just made a drawing for my mother. I want to help my mother get well. Go out. Her plump face was shaking. She didnt want my mother to be disturbed. But my mother wanted me to make some pictures. Just go out. She ushered me to the door. What kind of kid disturbs his sick mother? A good boy shouldnt do this. Then she took me to my own room. I sat on my bed and stared at my drawing. Suddenly I was very afraid, and my body was shaking. I had never felt like that before. I crawled to a small table beside my bed. Slowly my hand reached a pencil. Long after that, Mbok Kerto called me to eat some lunch. Suddenly, I realized that I was sitting in front of a picture. The picture was full of many chaotic streaks, red and black. There, I could see a pair of grey eyes and dead birds. *** Anton Kurnia is an Indonesian writer and chief editor of Penerbit Baca. This story appeared in his debut collection, Insomnia ( 2004 ), and was translated into English by Atta Verin and the writer himself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We are looking for contemporary fiction between 1,500 and 2,000 words by established and new authors. Stories must be original and previously unpublished in English. The email for submitting stories is: shortstory@thejakartapost.com Topics : shortstory@thejakartapost.com We are no longer accepting short story submissions for both online and print editions. New submissions towill not be published. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 12:43 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a268b378 4 Business soekarno-hatta-airport,expansion Free State-owned airport operator PT Angkasa Pura II (AP II) has said it plans to construct Soekarno-Hatta International Airport II in Tangerang, Banten, to accommodate the increasing number of passengers and planes, kompas.com reported over the weekend. AP II president director Muhammad Awaluddin estimated that the number of passengers that would fly through the airport would reach 100 million annually by 2025, while the capacity of the existing airport was only about 60 million. Even after the construction of Runway 3 and Terminal 4 of the existing airport, it would not be able to accommodate the number of passengers and planes that pass through the airport, Awaluddin said in Jakarta over the weekend. As for the location of Soekarno-Hatta II, Awaluddin said the company was still considering several locations, including an area near the existing airport or another area close to the northern coast of Tangerang. He said that a team was now conducting feasibility studies. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Benjamin Sporton (The Jakarta Post) London Mon, October 30 2017 At last months ASEAN energy ministers meeting in Manila, representatives from across the region confirmed that coal and, more specifically, high efficiency coal, is the fuel of choice for Southeast Asia. Projections forecast coal to increase its share in power generation from 32 percent in 2014 to 50 percent in 2040. During the talks the preference for coal among regional economies was explained by two factors: accessibility and affordability. Coal is widely available and therefore promotes power supply. In addition to reliability, high efficiency coal is and will continue to be the most affordable option to meet electricity demand growth for many economies, while reducing emissions. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (AFP) Denpasar Mon, October 30, 2017 09:44 1843 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a268593a 2 National Bali-airport-closure,volcanic-activity,#MtAgungVolcano,Bali-tourism Free The alert level for a rumbling volcano on the Indonesian resort island of Bali that forced more than 100,000 to flee has been lowered, authorities said Sunday, but there is still a chance it could erupt. Volcanic activity in Mount Agung is slowing and the volcano's status has been lowered from level four "danger" to level three "alert" by Indonesia's volcanology centre. The agency said villagers whose homes are located further than six kilometres from the crater could return home but warned that the mountain, which has been shaking for months, had not quite come to a standstill. "The volcanic activities have not completely calmed down and there is still a potential for an eruption," the agency's head Kasbani, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, said in a statement. Mount Agung, 75 kilometres (47 miles) from the tourist hub of Kuta, has been rumbling since August, sparking fears it could erupt for the first time since 1963 and triggering the highest possible alert level in September. More than 133,000 people have been living in shelters for more than a month in fear of an eruption, even though more than half of the refugees actually live outside the danger zone. Officials estimated Mount Agung's increasing activity had cost Bali at least $110 million from the hit to the tourism sector and loss of productivity while villagers were staying at shelters. Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity. In 2010, Mount Merapi on the island of Java erupted after rumbling since 2006, while Mount Sinabung on Sumatra island -- which is currently also on the highest alert level -- has been active since 2013. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Abdel Hamid Zebari (AFP) Arbil, Iraq Mon, October 30, 2017 09:00 1843 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2682ea6 2 World Massud-Barzani,Barzani,Iraq,Kurdish-leader,independence,referendum,independence-referendum Free Massud Barzani, the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, told a closed-door session of the regional parliament Sunday he was stepping down amid the fallout from a controversial independence referendum. Kurdish forces agreed Sunday to surrender to central government control the strategic border post of Fishkhabur, through which pipelines export oil to Ceyhan in Turkey. That came after weeks of armed clashes in which Baghdad reasserted control over swathes of oil-rich Kurdish-held territory, dealing a severe blow to Barzani's ambitions of Kurdish statehood. "After November 1, I will no longer exercise my functions, and I reject any extension of my mandate," 71-year-old Barzani said in a letter read out to parliament in the Kurdish capital Arbil, a copy of which was obtained by AFP. "Changing the law on the presidency of Kurdistan or prolonging the presidential term is not acceptable," it read. "I ask parliament to meet to fill the vacancy in power, to fulfil the mission and to assume the powers of the presidency of Kurdistan," the letter said. Barzani, who organised the September 25 referendum in defiance of Baghdad and world powers, said he would "remain a peshmerga" (Kurdish fighter) and "continue to defend the achievements of the people of Kurdistan". After the letter was read, the parliament decided on a provisional redistribution of Barzani's powers until a presidential election, for which a date has yet to be fixed. -- Political tensions -- Both presidential and legislative elections had originally been slated for November 1, but these were postponed in the chaos that followed the poll, in which Kurds overwhelmingly backed independence. Sunday's parliamentary session was postponed several times amid political tensions. Dozens of men wielding sticks and stones rushed at the parliament building late Sunday, hitting out at journalists, according to media reports and MPs. Police fired in the air to disperse them. The opposition Goran party, which had sought Barzani's resignation and a "government of national salvation", opposes the redistribution of the presidency's powers. That plan was proposed by the major Kurdish parties, Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and its rival Kurdish Patriotic Union (PUK). Barzani "symbolises the failure of Kurdish politics, and the only thing left for him to do is to issue a public apology," Goran MP Rabun Maarouf said before the session began. Barzani hit back in a televised address later Sunday and denounced the "high treason on October 16", in reference to the a PUK withdrawal from Kirkuk without resisting the advancing government forces. PUK leaders said they had agreed the retreat with Barzani. KDP deputy Ari Harin spoke of an "international plot". The federal government deemed the independence vote unconstitutional. In a sweeping advance into disputed territories, Iraqi forces seized key oilfields in and around the province of Kirkuk, dealing a devastating blow to Arbil's finances. The loss of the oilfields, which provided income that would have been critical to an independent Kurdish state, sparked recriminations among Kurds and ratcheted up the pressure on Barzani to quit. Clashes continued Thursday around the disputed Fishkhabur post on the Turkish border, but on Sunday, a government source in Baghdad told AFP that a deal had been reached under which Baghdad's forces would deploy there. -- Push for dialogue -- Political life in Kurdistan is dominated by Barzani's KDP and the PUK of Iraq's late president Jalal Talabani. Iraq's current president, Fuad Masum, is also a PUK member and had backed a push for dialogue between the Kurds and Baghdad before the referendum. After the vote, Masum blamed the referendum for triggering the assault on Kirkuk. Iraq's neighbours Turkey and Iran, which have their own Kurdish minorities, also strongly opposed the non-binding vote. Ankara on Thursday said the Iraqi Kurdish offer to freeze the referendum was "not enough", urging the Arbil government to cancel it entirely. French President Emmanuel Macron told Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi on Saturday that "everything possible should be done to avoid fighting between Iraqis", Macron's office said. Barzani's move comes as Abadi's forces clash with Islamic State group jihadists in what the premier called "the last den of terrorism in Iraq", the town of Al-Qaim on the Syrian border. The mandate of Barzani, the first and only elected president of the autonomous Kurdish region, expired in 2013. It was extended for two years and he kept office throughout the chaos that followed the sweeping IS offensive across Iraq in 2014. (**) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (AFP) Beijing Mon, October 30, 2017 22:08 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a26a8853 2 World China,politics,Mao-Zedong,Xi-Jinping Free China's ruling Communist Party has dusted off a Mao-era honorific for President Xi Jinping, cementing his status as the most powerful ruler since the Great Helmsman himself. The term "lingxiu" has more reverential and spiritual connotations than the ordinary term for leader, and has not been used since the time of Mao's successor Hua Guofeng. But it has begun to pop up again in state media and in government meetings. After the 19th party congress ended last Tuesday, Xi was formally handed a second term as its leader. With no clear successor emerging in a revamped ruling council, known as the Politburo Standing Committee, he could dominate the nation for decades to come. Xi's eponymous ideology was enshrined in the party's constitution -- a honour not given to his two predecessors Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao, whose contributions remain anonymous. China's historic achievements since the 18th party congress were "most importantly and most fundamentally thanks to our 'lingxiu' and core Xi Jinping navigating and steering the way," the state-run Henan Daily said Monday. "General Secretary Xi Jinping is the party's fully worthy 'lingxiu', supported by the whole party and loved and esteemed by the people," the Politburo concluded Friday at its first meeting since the unveiling of the new leadership line-up. For decades China has been governed in an ostensibly collective fashion by the seven-person Standing Committee. But since Xi took the reins in 2012, power has been increasingly centralised in a sole pair of hands: his. Mao, at the height of his personality cult during the early years of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, was hailed as a "great teacher, great lingxiu, great commander-in-chief, and great helmsman" -- a slogan known as the "four greats". Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 20:30 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a26a7631 1 City Alexis-Hotel,anies-baswedan,closure,permit Free Jakarta City Council deputy speaker Muhammad Taufik has reminded Governor Anies Baswedan to have solid evidence before refusing to extend Alexis Hotels operation permit. Anies specifically singled out the hotel, located in North Jakarta and operated by PT. Grand Ancol Hotel, during his gubernatorial campaign. He stated on Monday that he had decided not to extend the hotels permit because he believed it was operating as a brothel. The hotels request to extend its tourism business certification (TDUP) has been denied by the Jakarta administration. I think its a bold move that he [Anies] needs to take [to fulfill his election promise]. However, the PTSP [One-Stop Integrated Service Agency] should have strong evidence [to prove Aniess claims], Taufik said as quoted by kompas.com on Monday, adding that a similar approach should be taken with any establishment accused of prostitution. Taufik asserted the importance of obtaining evidence to ensure that the decision would not create a problem in the future, such as being legally challenged at the courts. If the hotel has indeed violated certain requirements that would not allow it to extend its permit, the administrative decision would not become a problem, he said. Anies claimed that he had sufficient evidence from media reports, as well as complaints from residents to support his allegations. (fac) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30 2017 Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan officiated on Saturday the arrival of the first international flight to Silangit International Airport in North Tapanuli, North Sumatra, to boost tourist arrivals and promote Lake Toba as a prime destination. The airport officially serviced its first international flight after Luhut welcomed the arrival of a Garuda Indonesia flight from Singapore, carrying 60 passengers, two thirds the flights capacity. The passengers were mostly slated to travel to tourist destinations around Lake Toba. Garuda will open three flights per week to service the Silangit-Singapore route. When the resort in Silangit is operational, it will attract more tourists from Singapore because its only a 50-minute flight, said Luhut, accompanied by Tourism Minister Arief Yahya. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 18:10 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a269eccd 1 City Allianz,executive,police,suspect Free The Jakarta Police plan to cooperate with Interpol in their attempt to question former president director of PT Asuransi Allianz Life Indonesia, Joachim Wessling, who is accused of violating customer protection law. Jakarta Police special crimes unit head Sr. Comr. Adi Deriyan said Wessling was currently outside of Indonesia and there had been no sign that he had returned to the country. Adi, however, was clueless when asked where the German born businessman was. Wessling failed to obey two summonses for questioning, hindering police attempts to delve into the case, Adi said. Adi said the police plan to forcefully detain him for questioning and would ask for Interpol's cooperation. "We have followed procedures as outlined by the KUHAP [Criminal Law Procedure Code]. We will proceed through cooperation with Interpol," Adi said as quoted by kompas.com on Monday. The police named him, along with former Allianz Indonesia claims manager Yuliana Firmansyah, as suspects for allegedly refusing to grant medical claims to its customers. (fac) Topics : Allianz executive police suspect Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 10:57 1843 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2687cd2 4 Business electric-car,development Free The Indonesian government is encouraging businesses to develop electric cars to create more environmentally friendly transportation, said the Transportation Ministrys expert of staff for technology and environment affairs Prasetyo Buditjahjono. He said the market share for electric cars is set to reach 20 percent in 2025. Developing electric cars is the best way to go. There are no better choices, said Prasetyo at the 53rd anniversary of the University of Indonesias (UI) Technology School in Jakarta on Sunday. UIs electricity car development team deputy chairman Mohamad Adhytya said there were a number of reasons why electric cars needed to be developed, including the depletion of fossil fuel and greenhouse gas emissions. The benefit of using electric cars includes zero emissions, lower operating costs and cheaper energy, Mohamad told kompas.com on Monday, adding that the electric car was also more efficient because electricity can be easily transmitted. However, engineers also needed to anticipate a number of disadvantages, including the lengthy charging process, what to do with old batteries and the limited distance attained by electric cars. He said it was a challenge for the experts to develop fast charging batteries and a more efficient waste recycle process. After being continuously used, batteries should be replaced. We need technology to solve these problems. The government has issued Presidential Regulation No. 22/2017 on the general plan for national energy to support the development of electric cars. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 17:20 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a269a565 4 Business illegal-fishing,ship-boat-sinking-policy,Susi-Pujiastuti Free Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry Susi Pudjiastuti and the Anti-Illegal Fishing Task Force (Task Force 115) symbolically sank 17 foreign ships on Sunday that had been used for illegal fishing operations in Indonesian waters. The sinking is evidence that we are dedicated to safeguarding our waters for the future of our nation, said Susi at a press statement issued on Monday, as reported by tempo.co. Ten ships were sunk in Natuna waters, with seven others in Tarempa waters, both of which are where the Riau Islands lie. Susi led the sinking ceremony on the Orca Fishing Supervisory Ship in Lampa Bay, Natuna regency. Read also: Minister Susi to sink 100 more fishing boats this year Task Force 115 operational director Rear Adm. Wahyudi Hendro Dwiyono explained that unlike previous ship sinkings, Sunday's sinking did not use explosives. Instead, the ships were sunk by making holes in their hulls. He said since January, 88 ships had been sunk after the operators were found to be involved in illegal fishing operations. The Sunday ship sinking was attended, among others, by Navy deputy chief of staff Vice Adm. Achmad Taufiqoerrochman, Natuna Regent Abdul Hamid Rizal, Task Force 115s special staff coordinator Mas Achmad Santosa and Navy Western Region Fleet Commander Rear Adm. N Aan Kurnia The ship sinking ceremony was part of a series of sinking ceremonies in 13 locations across Indonesia up to December. (bbn) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Theresia Sufa (The Jakarta Post) Bogor, West Java Mon, October 30, 2017 15:00 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2695d72 1 National Indramayu,Indramayu-West-Java,Karangsong,Karangsong-mangrove-forest,mangrove,mangrove-planting,mangrove-research-center Free Karangsong, a mangrove forest in Indramayu, West Java, has been named a research and learning center for the western part of Indonesia. The forest is considered unique and has long been managed by coastal communities living in the area. The Environment and Forestry Ministrys research and development and innovation department head, Henry Bastaman, said the ecosystem in the Karangsong mangrove forest was well-preserved thanks to the management skills of local communities. He was speaking at the declaration of Karangsong as a mangrove research center on Saturday. Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya and Indramayu administration officials also attended the event. Siti hoped that Karangsong would help researchers discover the richness of the mangrove ecosystem in the western part of Indonesia. For the eastern areas, mangrove research activities are found in Surabaya, East Java. Henry said the mangrove forest covered about 20 hectares of land. As of the beginning of this year, 22 mangrove species have been planted at Karangsong, including sea poison, known locally as butun, white-flowered black mangrove or teruntum, stilted mangrove and mangrove apple or crabapple mangrove. Ali Sodikin, the head of community group Pantai Lestari that manages Karangsong, said the mangrove forest had been destroyed by erosion when part of the Cimanuk river basin area was closed. For 10 years, Ali and other residents have been striving to save the area by replanting the mangrove forest. (ebf) Protecting the ecosystem: Researchers from the Environment and Forestry Ministry pass through the Karangsong mangrove forest in Indramayu, West Java, on Oct.28. (JP/Theresia Sufa) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 11:44 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2688619 1 City orphanage,orphans,Youth-Pledge,students Free Children from Jakarta administration-owned orphanages participated in a motivation seminar to celebrate Youth Pledge Day on Saturday. Ucu Rahayu, the head of a teenage orphanage in Tebet, South Jakarta, said the day was a significant milestone in Indonesias history. She added that the seminar could pave the way for children to make Indonesia a better nation. Jakarta Social Affairs Agency spokesman Miftahul Huda said the seminar was attended by children from orphanages managed by the agency. One of the motivators speaking at the seminar was Asep Sutisna Sanjaya. Asep who grew up in an orphanage in West Java earned a doctorate degree from Jakarta State University (UNJ) and is now working as a vice principal at a Jakarta high school. The seminar also provided information about various campuses for those orphans who are interested in furthering their studies. Tebet teenage orphanage has also cooperated with learning assistance agency Bimbel Bintang Pelajar. The agency will help students when they take state university entrance tests. Ucu said education is one way in which orphaned children can improve their lives. Because for us, there are no barriers except from ourselves." (dis/ebf) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Kharishar Kahfi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30 2017 Another marine accident occurred in Indonesian waters as KM Dharma Kencana II, a roll-on roll-off vessel carrying passengers from Semarang, Central Java, to Pontianak, West Kalimantan, caught fire early on Sunday morning. According to a statement from the Central Java search and rescue agency (Basarnas), the incident occurred 47 nautical miles northeast of Karimunjawa Island on the Java Sea. The fire had reportedly set the ship ablaze at around 4:15 a.m. All 119 passengers and 47 crew members safely fled the vessel using lifeboats. After five hours at sea, tugboat Citra 59 rescued all passengers and crew members. to Read Full Story SUBSCRIBE NOW Starting from IDR 55,500/month Unlimited access to our web and app content e-Post daily digital newspaper No advertisements, no interruptions Privileged access to our events and programs Subscription to our newsletters We accept Register to read 3 premium articles for free Already subscribed? login Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 20:02 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a26a74f6 1 City Tangerang,blaze,suspect Free The police found bones possibly of welding equipment operator Subarna Ega on Monday, who has been named a suspect for negligence that resulted in at least 49 deaths in an explosion of a fireworks factory in Tangerang, Banten province. The National Police central forensic laboratory (Puslabfor) found the remains while conducting a case reconstruction of a deadly blaze in a fireworks factory in Kosambi district on Thursday, which killed almost half of its workers. We found bones at the welding location, which we believe belonged to Subarna. However, we have to further analyze it, Tangerang Police chief Sr. Comr. Harry Kurniawan said at the location on Monday as quoted by tribunnews.com. Despite having been named a suspect in the case, the fate and whereabouts of Subarna remain unknown. His family in Cililin district in Bandung, West Java, stated that Subarna had not made any contact with them. We are specifically attempting to find Subarna, who was assigned to weld metal inside the factory, which according to witness testimonies, was the source of sparks, Harry said. Of the dead bodies we have examined so far, we could not find Subarnas, he added. The fire killed 49 people and injured more than 40 others. PT Panca Buana Cahaya Sukses, which operated the factory, employed 103 workers. Subarna was reportedly assigned to weld near the factory as the companys owner aimed to expand the building. Factory owner Indra Liyono was named a suspect by police, along with the company's operational director Andri Hartanto. During the case reconstruction, the police also found a bag containing a wallet and two smartphones. (fac) Topics : Tangerang blaze suspect Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (AFP) Singapore Mon, October 30, 2017 23:59 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a26a8c32 2 World prince-charles,Singapore,Malaysia,India Free Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla arrived in Singapore Monday to kick off an Asian tour aimed at cementing relations ahead of a meeting of Commonwealth states next year. The heir to the British throne and Camilla are undertaking an 11-day trip that will also include stops in Malaysia and India. British media had said the Foreign Office was originally considering including Myanmar on the tour, despite a military crackdown against the Muslim Rohingya minority, but in the end it was omitted from the couple's itinerary. After arriving, Charles, wearing a suit in the tropical heat, and Camilla met Singapore athletes who were taking part in the Queen's Baton Relay, which travels around the world ahead of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. On Tuesday Charles and Camilla will receive a ceremonial welcome at the presidential palace, and meet President Halimah Yacob and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. They will lay a wreath at the city's Cenotaph, which honors soldiers who died during World War I and II, and will have an orchid named after them -- an honor typically bestowed on dignitaries visiting the city-state. In the evening the couple will be honored with a state banquet. Singapore's foreign ministry said the visit "reaffirms the historic and long-standing relationship between Singapore and the United Kingdom" -- the city-state was a British colonial trading post for over a century and formed part of the Straits Settlements with Malacca and Penang. It won full independence in 1965. After ending their trip to Singapore on Thursday, the couple will kick off a week-long trip to Malaysia. They will visit Kuala Lumpur, meet with tribespeople on Borneo island before heading to historic George Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Charles and Camilla will end their tour with a visit to India, where they will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Commonwealth Summit will take place in Britain in April, with leaders from more than 50 countries expected to attend. (dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Brian Knowlton (AFP) Washington, United States Mon, October 30, 2017 08:00 1843 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a267f343 2 World Washington,Russia,US,US-presidential-election,US-presidential-election-2016,DonaldTrump,Donald-Trump,FBI,Robert-Mueller Free Washington was abuzz this weekend over reports that a grand jury has charged at least one person stemming from the US probe of Russia's attempts to tilt the 2016 presidential elections in Donald Trump's favor. There was no indication, in reporting by CNN and other media, of who might be charged or what crimes might be alleged in the ongoing inquiry led by former FBI chief Robert Mueller. But Trump, in a rapid burst of tweets early Sunday, again denounced the investigation as a "witch hunt" and repeated his denials of any collusion with Russia. Mueller's team has remained publicly mum about reports that a first arrest could come as early as Monday. He is empowered to pursue not only Russian interference but any other crimes his large team of prosecutors should uncover. But Chris Christie, a Republican governor close to Trump, said Sunday on ABC that "the important thing about today for the American people to know is the president is not under investigation. And no one has told him that he is." It was not clear the New Jersey governor would know whether Trump is being investigated; he may have been referring to earlier comments by former FBI chief James Comey. But Christie told CNN that anyone who has been advised by Mueller's office that they are a target of the inquiry "should be concerned." -- 'I cannot answer' -- Typically, such a wide-ranging investigation would first target lower-level people while building a case against those higher up. Sometimes early indictments are used to pressure potential witnesses into turning against others. Representative Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, demurred Sunday when asked whether Trump was under investigation. "I can't answer that one way or the other," he told ABC. But he mentioned two possible targets on whom much speculation has focused: former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign director Paul Manafort, both of them once involved in undeclared lobbying for foreign interests. Buzzfeed reported Sunday the FBI is probing a series of wire transfers linked to Manafort that saw offshore companies move over $3 million between 2012 and 2013. Flagged as suspicious by US financial institutions, some of the 13 transfers Buzzfeed obtained details of involved wires of large sums from Ukraine. According to the news site, federal law enforcement was aware of such transfers as far back as 2012, when they began investigating whether Manafort committed tax fraud or helped the Ukrainian regime -- close to Vladimir Putin -- launder money. White House lawyer Ty Cobb told the New York Times that Trump felt confident that neither Flynn nor Manafort had damaging information to offer prosecutors. "The president has no concerns in terms of any impact, as to what happens to them, on his campaign or on the White House," Cobb said in an interview published Saturday. Cobb also asserted Sunday that Trump's latest tweets were "unrelated to the activities of the Special Counsel, with whom he continues to cooperate," news media reported. As the Mueller investigation nears a dramatic new phase, Republican officials and conservative media have stepped up their attacks on Democrats, above all on Trump's rival in last year's election, Hillary Clinton -- attacks that Democrats dismiss as blatant attempts to divert attention. -- 'So much guilt' -- Trump, in his tweets Sunday, again complained of Clinton's handling of emails while secretary of state, of Democratic Party funding of what he said was a "fake" dossier on Trump's background, and of a US sale during the Obama administration of uranium rights to Russia. "There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!" Trump tweeted. Trump's mention of the "fake" dossier appeared to refer to revelations that the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee had funded part of the research by a former British intelligence agent into possible links between Trump, his collaborators and Russia. In the uranium case, Russian nuclear energy agency Rosatom sought in 2010 to buy a share in Toronto-based Uranium One, which has mining stakes in the United States. A panel of nine US government agencies, including the State Department, approved the sale, though Clinton says she was "not personally involved." As Mueller's inquiry advances, there have been calls from a few Republicans -- and from the conservative editorial board of the Wall Street Journal -- for him to resign. Christie cautioned on Sunday that the former FBI chief should be "very, very careful" about proceeding with transparency and credibility. Democrats meantime have warned that if Trump were to fire Mueller -- or issue preemptive pardons to anyone caught in his net -- it would be crossing a dangerous line, potentially sparking a constitutional crisis. (**) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 17:43 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a269b5aa 2 National #Indonesia,#infrastructure,#village,#jobs,#Jokowi Free The government will launch massive village infrastructure projects worth up to RP 60 trillion in 2018 that will be so labor intensive they could create as many as 14 million jobs. President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced Monday the plan to employ casual laborers, paid daily or weekly, In projects that will be run at village levels. He told news editors at the Merdeka Palace that the ministries of transportation, agriculture and public works, as well as ministry for disadvantaged regions will oversee these projects. Each village must prepare a project that hire at least 200 workers and if all villages comply, they amount to 14 million employments, he said, citing irrigation or road repair or construction projects as examples. The government has earmarked RP 60 trillion for village development programs in 2018, and these projects will use some of the money, the President said. Besides channeling the fund to productive investment, the projects will also boost people's spending power, he added. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin News Desk (AFP) London Tue, October 31, 2017 01:39 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a26ab7fd 2 World terrorism,Britain,dating-site,terrorist-group Free A UK man who was preparing a bomb for an Islamic State-inspired attack in Britain was helped by a pharmacist he met through an online dating site, a prosecutor said at their trial on Monday. Munir Mohammed met Rowaida El-Hassan on singlemuslim.com, where her profile said she was seeking a "very simple, honest and straightforward man who fears Allah before anything else." The pair, both of Sudanese origin, allegedly "rapidly formed emotional attachment and a shared ideology," according to prosecutor Anne Whyte. "This is a case which reflects the age in which we live. It demonstrates the relative ease with which acts of terrorism can be prepared, thanks to the internet. "The prosecution allege that Munir Mohammed had resolved upon a lone wolf attack and that Rowaida El-Hassan was aware of his engagement with such a plan," Whyte said. At the time of his arrest, Mohammed allegedly had two of the three ingredients needed for a bomb as well as instruction manuals on how to prepare explosives, mobile phone detonators and ricin. Mohammed, 36, and El-Hassan, 33, are accused of preparing terrorist acts between November 2015 and December 2016. Both deny the charge. "El-Hassan had a professional knowledge of chemicals because of her professional training and qualifications," Whyte said. "She assisted Mohammed by providing him with information about chemical components required for bomb-making and how to source them and she assisted his online research about the manufacture of ricin using castor beans. "In doing so she supported him in his engagement with attack planning." The prosecutor said Mohammed had also been in contact with a man he believed was an Islamic State group commander on Facebook and had volunteered for "a new job in the UK" -- allegedly an attack. (dmr) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin Leila B. Salaverria (Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN) Tokyo Tue, October 31, 2017 03:07 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a26ac58d 2 Business the-philippines,Japan,bilateral-cooperation,investment Free The Philippines is getting some $6 billion in new investments after Filipino and Japanese businessmen signed at least 18 agreements during President Dutertes visit to Japan. Duterte arrived in Tokyo early on Monday for talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on regional concerns, including North Korea. He declared that the Philippines and Japan were embarking on their golden age of strategic partnership, as Abe promised maximum support for the rehabilitation of Marawi City and fleshed out the details of a 1 trillion yen aid package he promised the Philippines in January. With the two countries deepening their cooperation on economic and security matters, Duterte said they were resolved to further expand their cooperative ties. I dare say that considering all that we have accomplished and achieved, the Philippines and Japan are building the golden age of our strategic partnership, Duterte said as he and Abe issued a joint statement. Its a commitment founded on the democratic values we hold dear. Its a resolve that has withstood the test of time. Working together, we should have much to show and to be proud of in the years to come, he added. Duterte thanked Abe for fleshing out the $9 billion he had pledged for the Philippines, which would go to some of the most ambitious and groundbreaking projects, including a subway system in Metro Manila, improvement of roads and disaster response. Duterte visited Abes official residence on Monday afternoon, where he was given arrival honors. The two leaders held a summit meeting, followed by private discussions. They condemned North Koreas ballistic missile tests and called on parties to open negotiations to put an end to the threat the tests posed. Foremost among our shared concern are developments [on] the Korean peninsula and the continuing missile launch tests of North Korea, Duterte said. Duterte and Abe agreed to tackle the many issues confronting the region, especially threats to stability and security in the Asia-Pacific region. Abe congratulated Duterte for the leadership he exerted in dealing with the Marawi crisis and declared full support for the Philippine leaders approaches to fighting terrorism and bringing stability to Mindanao. We will provide maximum support to the restoration and reconstruction of Marawi City, and we will strengthen support for Mindanao, and toward the establishment of an autonomous government, we will respond to the progress of processes, he said. Japan will provide equipment for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the devastated city and surrounding areas. It would consider providing further assistance, including those for road construction and improvement, based on post-conflict needs assessment and the governments master plan for reconstruction. It would also consult with the government on building a society resilient to radicalism. Given Abes support for Philippine efforts to fight terrorism and violent extremism in Marawi and his understanding of the cancellation of his Japan trip in June, Duterte said it was fitting that his first official trip after Marawis liberation was to Japan. He described Japan as a true friend who has stood squarely behind the Philippines in my countrys onward advance [to] greater peace, progress and prosperity. His and Abes discussions were very warm, open and comprehensive, he said. The two leaders agreed to increase economic activities, and Duterte welcomed Japans growing number of investments in the Philippines, saying that the country was ready to work with responsible companies [that] we consider our new partners for growth. Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said the business deals signed involved the manufacturing industry, particularly shipbuilding, iron and steel; agribusiness; power; renewable energy; transportation; infrastructure; mineral processing; retailing; information and communication technology, and information technology-business process management. Duterte met officials of several Japanese companies and witnessed the signing of business to business memorandums of understanding and letters of intent on investment plans and expansion of operations in the Philippines, Lopez said. Lopez met with his Japanese counterpart, Trade Minister Hiroshige Seko, to discuss the improvement of Philippine products market access to Japan and the lowering of tariffs for the countys agricultural products such as banana, pineapple and mango. Lopez said his request to remove the tariffs would be the subject of future discussions. They took note of that and to be discussed in detail in the technical working groups under Jpepa [Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement], he said. Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 15:08 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a269646a 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Belu,East-Nusa-Tenggara,MURI,record-breaking,traditional-dance Free A total of 6,000 dancers who performed Likurai dance on the Youth Pledge Day, Oct. 28, at Fulan Fehan Hill in Belu regency, East Nusa Tenggara broke the MURI record for the highest number of traditional dancers. We are proud of this achievement because it will elevate the Indonesian traditional art and culture, we are also presenting our home which is very beautiful and worthy to be visited by tourists, said Belu regent Willybrodus Lay. Likurai dance is a war dance from the people of Timor island, specifically those who live in Belu regent. The dance depicts the fight of the locals to drive away invaders during the colonization era. Read also: As alert level decreases, new tourism idea emerges Visitors were a mix of locals and people from Timor Leste. Prior to the dance performance, there was flag ceremony to commemorate the 89th anniversary of Youth Pledge Day and led by home affairs minister Tjahjo Kumolo. Tourism minister Arief Yahya welcomed the initiative from Belu regional administration to hold cross-border events. The keys to attracting neighboring countries lie in art and culture, music and culinary. People from Timor Leste can apply for the free-visa policy to enter Indonesia and even use their own currency to shop here. Another important thing is for the local administrations, governor, mayor and regent to be committed to maintaining the access, accommodation and attraction in their region, told Arief. (asw) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 14:09 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2692060 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Silangit-airport,Lake-Toba,Luhut-Binsar-Pandjaitan Free Citilink made history during the Youth Pledge Day on Oct. 28 by launching its maiden flight to Silangit International Airport in North Tapanuli, North Sumatra, from Halim Perdanakusuma International Airport in Jakarta. The Citilink plane arrived after the arrival of Garuda Indonesia flight from Singapore. Using an Explore Jet Bombardier CRJ-100 aircraft, the flight departed from Singapore at 12:55 p.m. and arrived at 1:10 p.m. The flight from Garuda Indonesia is the first international flight to land on the airport. Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan together with Tourism Minister Arief Yahya attended the launching ceremony of the airport as an international airport. Passengers from Singapore were welcomed with Tortor traditional dance and given an ulos from Luhut and Arief. In his speech, Luhut said the flight would make it easier for foreign tourists to travel to Lake Toba. The flight from Singapore only takes 50 minutes, said Luhut. Read also: Indonesian passport among world's weakest; expert weighs in on why The Presidents message is clear, Lake Toba development also needs to prioritize the local wisdom. Both the governor and regent should keep the unity and the locals should help and support each other, said Luhut. Meanwhile, Arief said that many people wouldnt believe that Lake Toba could have an international airport. Now both tourists and locals can enjoy a direct flight between Singapore and Silangit that only takes about 55 minutes, said Arief. Lake Toba is one the Tourism Ministrys 10 Priority Destinations that is targeted to welcome one million foreign tourists in 2019. The appointment of Silangit Airport as an international airport was conducted on Sept. 8. State-owned airport operator Angkasa Pura II and AirNav Indonesia were the two parties in charge of improving the airport. Currently the length of its runway is 2650 x 30 meters, meanwhile its PCN (Pavement Classification Number) is valued at 40 and will be increased to 52 in March next year. By the end of 2017, the runways width will be 45 meters, So that it can accommodate narrow-body airplanes like Airbus A320 and Boeing 737-800, added Arief. The airport is facilitated with CIQ (Custom, Immigration, Quarantine), customs area, quarantine area and immigration checkpoint. Silangit International Airport also boasts free Wi-Fi, flight information display systems, e-payment, bus ticketing, vending machines, e-kiosk for tourism-related information, self check-in and other digital features. (kes) Share this article Whatsapp Facebook Twitter Linkedin (Pesona Indonesia) Jakarta Mon, October 30, 2017 16:08 1842 1f87594453bb792833e1ece3a2697a7e 2 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Lake-Toba,foreign-tourists Free With Silangit International Airport in North Tapanuli, North Sumatra, the tourism ministry is aiming to attract more international tourists to visit Lake Toba. In Singapore, there are 15 million international tourists and five million Singaporeans. The travel duration is only 55 minutes from Silangit, said Tourism Minister Arief Yahya. After Singapore, the ministry is also targeting tourists from Malaysia and China, the latter is the biggest market. The number of outbound travelers can reach up to 120 million people. Arief said that he is willing to offer incentives for airlines who come up with a new flight route from China to Silangit, We are aiming [for it to happen] this year, Arief added. Competent human resources are also important in the tourism industry, Arief said that all employees should have a regional certification that fits the ASEAN MRA-TP standard. Silangit International Airport welcomed its first international flight by Garuda Indonesia that traveled from Singapore on Oct. 28. To commemorate this occasion, both provincial and regional administrations partnered up with tourism industry players to create 10 tour packages for Singaporean tourists to travel to Lake Toba. Dates for the trips are available from Oct. 28 until Nov. 21 and packages are divided into 3D2N (three days and two nights) priced at S$ 299 ($218), 4D3N priced at S$ 349 and 5D4N priced at S$ 489 with an additional destination to Medan. These 10 tour packages are targeted to have around 60 people for each trip, which means that there will be around 600 international tourists coming to Lake Toba between the months of October and November. Lake Toba is expected to welcome one million overseas tourists in 2019, and total revenue can reach up to one million dollars. (asw) Its a very good day for Bar Uchu, the exclusive sushi counter at 217 Eldridge St. In an announcement made a short time ago, the new Lower East Side sushi destination joined six other restaurants as first-time Michelin starred establishments in New York City. In a press release, Michelin said of Bar Uchu, which just opened this past summer: The Lower East Side earns its second Michelin-starred restaurant with Bar Uchu, a high-end concept with a kaiseki-inspired tasting menu. Here, head chef Samuel Clonts, formerly of Chefs Table at Brooklyn Fare, brings his talents for crafting remarkable seafood dishes to the tasting menu. Bar Uchu is one of 56 NYC restaurants with one star in the new Michelin Guide. Last year, Fabian von Hauske and Jeremiah Stones highly regarded Orchard Street restaurant, Contra, won a Michelin star. Rebelle on the Bowery also has a star (its not considered a Lower East Side restaurant for some reason). There are actually two restaurants within 217 Eldridge St. The first is Uchu Sushi Bar, a 10-seat counter overseen by legendary sushi chef Eiji Ichimura. Bar Uchu, on the other hand, has eight seats and offers, guests (an) avant-garde reinterpretation of the traditional Japanese kaiseki-style dining experience. The menu is $200, plus another $150 for the beverage pairing. Last week, Michelin announced its 2018 Bib Gourmand winners (this is the guides listing of more affordable establishments). Five years after Hurricane Sandy, most of the big plans to stormproof New York City remain just that: plans. [New York Times] An NYPD doctor was questioned after a woman accused him of rape. The assault allegedly happened in the doctors Brooklyn home, but the two reportedly met a bar on the Lower East Side Saturday evening. [Daily News] On Tuesday, the City Council is expected to put an end to NYCs cabaret law, a nearly century-old law that turned New York bars into no-dancing zones. [New York Times] Animal rights activists are outraged over an exhibition at the Castle Fitzjohns Gallery that includes mice beneath the floor. [New York Times] Artist Kenny Scharf revisits his old Lower East Side stomping grounds. [New York Times] Here are Community Board 3s November meeting agendas. [CB3] With festive preparations starting earlier each year, the Christmas horror subgenre becomes ever more relevant. These five ho-ho-horror films are here to remind you that even if you dont find your dream present under the Christmas tree, at least no-ones hacking you to pieces with a meat cleaver on December 25th. It's the little things that we're most thankful for. Black Christmas (1974) During a Christmas party at sorority house Pi Kapper Sigma, female students are subject to obscene phone calls that escalate into violence. Black Christmas is a hugely influential slasher film with a feminist subtext, and the film clearly impacted John Carpenters Halloween franchise. Its well worth a watch, but stay clear of the 2006 remake. Dont say I didnt warn you Gremlins (1984) As a unique Christmas gift, inventor Randall Peltzer gives his son Billy a furry, pointed eared creature called a mogwai. When Billy ignores his fathers warning that he should never expose the mogwai to bright light, water, or feed it after midnight, gremlins begin to spawn and take over his hometown. This horror comedy is both a family adventure and a critique of consumerism. Plus, the mogwai are very cute. Whats not to love? The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) Jack Skellington, the charismatic Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, begins to feel disillusioned with his own holiday and decides to try making Christmas instead. This Henry Selick classic provides more than just the staple merchandise of every alternative teenager in Britain. The films gorgeous music and stop-motion animation work together beautifully to convey this dark fairy-tale. Not quite a Halloween film and not quite a Christmas one, you can watch The Nightmare Before Christmas solidly between October and December without feeling guilty. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale (2010) Near the Korvatunturi mountain, an archaeological dig unearths the body of the real Santa Claus. Yet when children start to vanish, it becomes clear that Santa Claus doesnt care whether youre naughty or nice. This Finnish horror is a whimsical but chilling festive treat, leaping between playfulness and terror with ease. Youll never think about Santas helpers in the same way again. Saint (2011) In another international entry, Saint takes the story of Sinterklaas and transforms him into a bloodthirsty ghost. Whenever December 5th coincides with a full moon, the ghost of St. Nicholas returns with a gang of murderous thugs to murder the living. A fast-paced thriller with plenty of gore, this Dutch film is a fun reimagining of the slasher genre. The only thing less surprising than a man of the right suspecting left bias in universities would be the existence of left bias in universities. Both are well-established facts of modern life, ever lamented by the Adam Smith Institute and denied by vice-chancellors across the country. There is another rule which we ought to remember: those that tend to be most quick to anger when they suspect they have been accused of something tend to be guilty. Anger is a typical and political response to an inquiry into ones own faults, produced by alarm and for the purposes of deflection. This has been displayed most recently in the response of academics to a letter sent by the Conservative MP Chris Heaton-Harris. The letter was sent to a number of universities and asked for a list of lecturers teaching on Brexit as well as links to course material. I republish the text of his letter in full, for it is useful when analysing the backlash. I was wondering if you would be so kind as to supply me with the names of professors at your establishment who are involved in the teaching of European affairs, with particular reference to Brexit. Furthermore, if I could be provided with a copy of the syllabus and links to the online lectures which relate to this area I would be much obliged. I sincerely hope you are able to provide me with such and I look forward to hearing from you in due course. Yours sincerely, Chris Heaton-Harris MP Member of Parliament for Daventry. The response was predictable. Angela Rayner, Shadow Education Secretary, suggested that Mr. Heaton-Harris was compiling what looks like a register of Brexit heretics. She also accused him of acting like a pound shop McCarthy, in reference to the shamed Senator Joseph McCarthy, who during the Red Scare, accused built a career erroneously accusing individuals of communist links. Nor was she alone in making the comparison; Sally Hunt, who is Chair of the University and the College Union, said: This attempt by Chris Heaton-Harris to compile a hit list of professors has the acrid whiff of McCarthyism about it. And Professor David Green, vice-chancellor of the University of Worcester: When I read this extraordinary letter on Parliamentary paper from a serving MP, I felt a chill down my spine. Was this the beginnings of a very British McCarthyism? And so on. Mr. Heaton-Harriss position isnt helped by the fact that he is a government whip, but it should be noted that his letter made no reference to his position and was quite clearly written in his capacity as a serving MP. Jo Johnson, the Minister for Universities and Science, was doubtless right to say that Mr. Heaton-Harris probably oughtnt to have written the letter in the first place, but he is likewise right to say that some of the criticism levelled at him - such as the suggestion, by Lord Patton, that the letter amounted to idiotic Leninism went too far. University lecturers sit at the top of several demographic piles which indicate susceptibility to Remainism. Educated, well-off, metropolitan, liberal; mostly Labour voters, but of that stratum of the Labour Party which is most identified with the Blair era, and which wouldnt recognise Bennite ideology if it leaped out at them from a (scrupulously impartial) textbook. One needs only to peruse the Twitter feeds of these academics to see how hostile they are to anything which does not abide with their ideas and views. The stated concerns of this profession, which have to do with the touchy subject of academic freedom and freedom of expression, are ironic when they emanate from those who have no qualms with totalitarian no-platforming policies and impose speech codes, They are merely hypocritical when spouted by anyone else, for aggressively presuming bad intent and using it to justify rejecting Mr. Heaton-Harriss request is the very sort of defensive groupthink which lends weight to the suggestion that ideological homogeneity on campus harms free inquiry. It has been suggested that Mr. Heaton-Harriss intent was to gather material for a book; this is not unbelievable, and if he is prevented by this from doing so it will be a great shame. Political opinion and bias on campus is not necessarily a bad thing. Political hegemony, reinforced by dishonesty, certainly is. Ive must take issue with one of my own lecturers for this, as she is want to make lazy and inaccurate slurs, and not-so-sly innuendos, which her position as an authority makes especially damaging. That example perhaps reveals the futility of Mr. Heaton-Harriss ambition, for if his purpose is to expose harmful bias his requested material is too narrow in its scope. But the response of the Left and its lecturers confirms three things: first, that their bias exists; second, that it is sufficiently powerful to deaden inquiry; and third, that it defends itself speciously and without honesty. The presence of this tripartite campaign is a cause for concern, and yet another reason I have for grudgingly defending a Tory MP. If you're a chocolate lover then Tubingen in South-West Germany is the place to visit this winter. From December 5th - 10th 2017 this medieval German town becomes Europe's capital of Chocolate. chocolART Thefestival celebrates everything chocolate, from tasting to making and much more. Visitors can see chocolate in all shapes, sizes and flavours. Of course, you can make your very own chocolate and meet chocolate makers from Europe, Africa and North and South America to truly get a full chocolate experience. As well as this you can also enjoy chocolate in many other ways, such as able to enjoy chocolate drinks, therapeutic chocolate massages, painting with coca and even cosy down and watch some chocolate-inspired theatre. In the chocolateROOM on Tubingens marketplace, top chocolatiers will be creating intricate chocolate sculptures for all to admire. And if you fancy learning a bit of history you can join in with the chocolate workshop where children and adults can learn about the journey from bean to bar. It's not just milk chocolate that will be focused on at this festival. There will also be exotic chocolate, organic chocolate, as well as fair trade, vegan and sugar free chocolate. There will be something for everyone! The city of Tubingen during this time will be transformed into a winter wonderland. At night, you should take a stroll through the old street, which will be magically lit up. During the chocolART festival on Saturday December 9th the shops in the city will be staying open until 11pm. Tubingen is known for its one-of-a-kind shops which include goldsmiths, jewellers and potters. This gives you the perfect opportunity to get those special Christmas gifts! When Ian Prices girlfriend told him that no, she did not like the circle-rim sunglasses he had purchased he made an intriguing decision he gave them to his grandmother Carolyn. Carolyn took a liking to the trendy shades bought for 7 dollars (5.32) from Amazon and now, incredibly all of her friends own a pair too. Carolyn uses a wheelchair (Courtesy of Ian Price) Shes wearing those shades all the time now, Ian, from Boston, Massachusetts, told the Press Association. Ians family receive pictures of Carolyn in group texts sent by her home health aide, and he said she is wearing the sunglasses in nearly all the pictures. Her friends chose to buy matching pairs because they like to make fashion statements for a bit of attention in their golden years, said Ian. Theyre good friends whove known each other for a few decades. One of Carolyns friends taking a selfie (Courtesy of Ian Price) Carolyn lives in Carroll County, Maryland, and she and her friends are neighbours. They also have hot pink vests which look nice but also double as visibility safety for when they take walks on the country road together, said Ian. Ian posted a picture of Carolyn and her crew on Reddit where he remarked: They look like theyre about to drop the hottest album of 2017. The post has more than 82,000 upvotes. Why take them off in the gym? (Courtesy of Ian Price) Ian said the ladies have varying levels of comprehension regarding the popularity of the Reddit post. My grandmother herself though never got on board with the whole internet thing though and I doubt she cares one way or the other, said Ian. She just likes to look good in a picture with her friends. So, why didnt Ians girlfriend like the sunglasses? Carolyn showing she has the look required (Courtesy of Ian Price) Well they just make a really big statement, you know? he said. Not saying theyre uncool or anything, but they just require a specific look to make it work. They were only $7 on Amazon so when I was visiting my grandmother and she needed a pair of shades it just seemed like a better fit. Tentang Situs Slot Online Resmi MGS88 Nama Situs MGS88 Minimal Deposit Rp. 10.000,- (Sepuluh Ribu Rupiah) Proses Deposit 2 Menit Metode Deposit Bank Transfer, Pulsa, E-Wallet Judi Online Terbaik Slot Online, Judi Bola, Casino Online, Togel Online, Tembak Ikan Provider Slot Gacor Mudah Maxwin Pragmatic Play, PGSoft, MicroGaming, Habanero Slot Gacor Gampang Menang Gates of Olympus, Sweet Bonanza, Wild West Gold, Starlight Princess Win Rate 98% RTP Live Slot Gacor Tertinggi Hari Ini Terbaru Terlengkap Selamat datang di halaman RTP live dan informasi soal slot gacor hari ini dari situs MGS88 yang setiap hari selalu update. Berdasarkan RTP Live MGS88, Anda bisa mendapatkan informasi tentang slot online yang saat ini yang sedang Gacor atau onfire dengan persentase yang terbukti akurat, ini bisa menjadi rekomendasi anda sebelum memilih permainan slot online di situs MGS88. Cek RTP Slot sekarang juga bosku Klik Provider Slot Untuk Mengetahui RTP Slot Secara Real Time Selamat datang bagi kalian yang sedang mencari situs RTP Live terlengkap dan terkini hari ini. Sangat sesuai jika Anda mengunjungi website MGS88 RTP live untuk informasi tentang permainan slot yang lagi gacor dengan slot RTP yang terupdate. Persentase kemenangan yang kami berikan tentunya diambil dengan data yang sangat valid dan hanya untuk permainan slot yang tersedia di situs MGS88. RTP yang tersedia juga akan selalu diperbarui setiap hari berdasarkan level kemenangan yang diberikan kepada member kami. Memang sih untuk bermain slot itu tergantung hoki dari setiap pemain, Namun RTP live atau bocoran slot dari yang kami sediakan ini adalah data autentik dari banyaknya pemain yang telah bermain dan mencapai kemenangan tinggi. Sederhananya, kalau banyak pemain yang menang di dalam 1 permainan slot, karena itu permainan slot tersebut akan mempunyai persentase RTP yang sangat tinggi. Namun kami tegaskan sekali lagi, ini bukan sebuah paksaan kami situs MGS88 untuk anda bermain di game slot yang mana. Ini bisa dijadikan sebagai referensi atau tolok ukur, boleh dicoba kalau anda mempunyai feel yang kuat dalam memainkan permainan game slot. Anda dapat mengakses kapan saja dan di mana saja selama anda siap bermain. Jangan ragu untuk bertanya ya seputar pola putaran terhadap kami, sebab kami juga menyediakannya loh. Apa itu RTP Live? RTP Live ialah informasi mengenai persentase tertinggi saat ini dari hasil RTP Live dengan bocoran kemenangan pemain saat ini. RTP Live merupakan singkatan dari Return To Play atau bisa juga diartikan sebagai Return to Player. Karena itu, para pemain slot sekarang jika ingin mengetahui seberapa besar kemenangannya, bisa dengan memainkan permainan yang akan dimainkannya dan bisa untung dengan mudah dan tentunya maksimal. Apa itu RTP Slot? RTP Slot juga dikenal sebagai return to player atau pengembalian ke Pemain. RTP slot ialah persentase dari nilai pengembalian semua uang yang dipertaruhkan pemain dari waktu ke waktu. Dengan kata lain, RTP juga dianggap sebagai salah satu fitur slot yang mengembalikan uang pemain saat pemain kalah. Persentase digunakan untuk menghitung RTP dalam permainan slot. Misalnya, jika slot memiliki RTP 97%, itu berarti untuk setiap 100.000 koin yang hilang di slot, slot dapat mengembalikan 97.000. Jika Anda mengetahui RTP sebuah permainan slot, Anda dapat memutuskan permainan slot mana yang akan dimainkan tanpa kerugian besar. Apakah Angka Persentase RTP Slot Itu Penting? Biasanya pemain slot itu tidak memperhatikan RTP dalam permainan yang akan dimainkan, biasanya setelah anda mengisi saldo utama anda akan langsung buru-buru memainkannya. Yang terakhir 90-96% mempengaruhi jumlah kemenangan. Semakin tinggi jumlah RTP yang digunakan, semakin luas peluang untuk mendapatkan keuntungan. Akan namun itu segala tak secara 100% menjamin kemenangan kau dalam bermain, RTP itu cuma sebagai kalkulasi pengeluaran anda saja selama bermain slot.Dengan adanya RTP, kau dapat mengerjakan pengaturan atas uang yang akan kau pertaruhkan nanti pada ketika bermain.Untuk itu pada ketika kau bermain slot dan telah mengalami banyak kekalahan di satu permainan, direkomendasikan kau pindah ke permainan slot lainnya yang RTP nya lebih tinggi dari permainan yang tadi kau mainkan. Keuntungan Menggunakan Bocoran RTP Slot Hari Ini Situs MGS88 Akan dengan senang hati akan beberapa keuntungan yang didapatkan jika anda bermain slot dengan menggunakan RTP Live yang telah disediakan. Berikut Keuntungannya : Peluang Kemenangan Meningkat Tentu saja, saat bermain slot online, menang adalah hal yang paling penting. Di sinilah RTP berperan sebagai metode atau metode baru yang akan membantu Anda memilih permainan slot persentase tinggi. Mendapat variasi dalam Memainkan Game Slot Pastinya banyak pemain slot online yang hanya memainkan 3-5 permainan slot saja. Namun dengan RTP Live slot akan memberikan banyak game slot lain yang bisa anda coba. Tentunya semua permainan slot memiliki potensi kemenangan yang besar, jadi jangan hanya mengandalkan beberapa permainan saja. Menambah Pengalaman Dalam Bermain Slot Keuntungan terakhir adalah Anda tentu saja menambah pengalaman dan keahlian dalam permainan slot online. Dengan berbagai macam permainan slot yang dimainkan, Anda pasti mengetahui karakteristik dari setiap permainan slot yang Anda mainkan. Akibatnya, Anda pasti bisa dianggap sebagai pemain slot yang andal, yang pasti akan meningkatkan peluang Anda untuk menang besar menggunakan RTP. Daftar 8 Situs Dengan RTP Slot Live Tertinggi Hari Ini Ada banyak penyedia mesin slot online di internet. Tetapi tidak semuanya memiliki peluang tinggi atau RTP Live Slot yang sangat tinggi. Tapi jangan khawatir, berikut ini adalah situs slot gacor yang akan memberikan bocoran slot dengan RTP Live Tertinggi: RTP Live Slot Pragmatic Play (RTP Slot 97.85%) RTP Live Slot PG Soft (RTP Live 96.15%) RTP Live Slot Habanero (RTP Slot 95.89%) RTP Live Slot CQ9 (RTP Live 98.83%) RTP Live Slot Spade Gaming (RTP Live 94.99%) RTP Live Slot Micro Gaming (RTP Slot 95.39%) RTP Slot Live Top Trend Gaming (RTP Live 96.14%) RTP Slot Live JOKER123 (RTP Live 97.45%) Itulah Daftar 8 Provider Slot Gacor dengan RTP Live teratas diatas tentunya kami analisa terlebih dahulu. Anda bisa membuktikannya langsung dengan mengklik banner atau meprovider game slot yang sudah tersedia di atas. Saran kami yaitu Anda harus memainkan semua penyedia slot di atas untuk mencapai peluang kemenangan terbaik. Daftar Slot RTP Live Tertinggi Sering Kasih Jackpot Selain mempertimbangkan RTP Slot Gacor yang ada, sebenarnya ada banyak faktor penting untuk menang dalam permainan judi online. Sebab ada banyak game yang memiliki fitur dan mekanisme unik dan bisa membantu anda meraih Jackpot yang sangat besar. Berikut ini akan kami ulas daftar 5 game slot paling populer karena sering memberikan jackpot: RTP Live Gates of Olympus Gates of Olympus adalah game slot teraneh dan terbaik di Indonesia. Karena permainan mesin slot ini paling populer karena kakek Zeus dapat mengizinkan pengganda x500. Selain itu, fitur dan mekanik Gates of Olympus juga sangat menguntungkan untuk memenangkan Grand Jackpot. Secara teoritis, RTP slot langsung Gates of Olympus bernilai 96,50%, yang berarti peluang Anda untuk memenangkan MaxWin cukup tinggi. RTP live Sweet Bonanza Sweet Bonanza adalah permainan slot terpopuler kedua. Game slot bertema buah dan permen yang lezat ini sepertinya akan menarik banyak perhatian karena tergolong slot gacor yang mudah menang. Secara teoritis, slot Sweet Bonanza RTP bernilai 96,48%, yang berarti peluang Anda cukup tinggi untuk memenangkan jackpot. RTP Live Wild West Gold Wild West Gold adalah permainan slot bertema koboi yang juga populer di kalangan penggemar konspirasi. Permainan slot Wild West Gold sendiri kerap menawarkan kejutan jackpot bagi para pemainnya. Selain itu, nilai RTP Live Slot menunjukkan indeks tertinggi hari ini, yang berarti sangat layak dan sangat direkomendasikan. RTP Live Starlight Princess Slot Starlight Princess ini memiliki gaya dan fitur yang mirip dengan Gates of Olympus. Perbedaannya hanya pada desain dan karakter gamenya saja, karena memiliki fitur dan mekanik yang sama tentunya RTP slot teoritis pada game slot ini sama yaitu 96,50%. RTP Live Cash Elevator Mungkin sebagian dari Anda baru mengenal slot Cash Elevator. Namun dari data benchmark yang diungkap, ternyata banyak sekali yang menikmati permainan slot ini. Dengan fitur dan mekanisme unik seperti Lift up and down asli, slot ini juga memiliki slot RTP Live dasar 96,64% yang juga memiliki mekanisme yang sangat menguntungkan untuk memperlancar tingkat kemenangan besar. Bocoran Jam Main Slot Gacor Hari Ini Dalam bermain permainan slot online itu tidak bisa dilakukan dengan sembarangan yah. Jadi, Jika anda bermain pada waktu tertentu seperti yang akan kita bahas sesaat lagi, ada kemungkinan anda untuk mendapatkan kemenangan lebih tinggi. Jam RTP Slot Gacor merupakan bocoran jam main slot yang akan memberikan anda kapan waktu yang pas dalam bermain game slot. Tentu saja seluruh provider slot online memiliki jam tertentu dalam memberikan peluang kepada para pemainnya untuk mendapatkan kemenangan. Disini kami akan memberikan anda Bocoran Jam Slot Gacor yang Paling Akurat Hari ini: Jam Slot Gacor Pragmatic Play 02:30 WIB - Jam 05:25 WIB Jam Slot Gacor Habanero 14:26 WIB - Jam 17:38 WIB Jam Slot Gacor CQ9 00:45 WIB - Jam 05:53 WIB Jam Slot Gacor PG SOFT 14:25 WIB - Jam 17:35 WIB Jam Slot Gacor Joker123 17:41 WIB - Jam 20:42 WIB Jam Slot Gacor Microgaming 22:30 WIB - Jam 00:35 WIB MGS88: Situs Judi Slot Online Gacor Pay4D Resmi dan Terpercaya MGS88 adalah situs game slot online Gacor terbaru yang bermitra dengan Pay4D, Pay4D sendiri merupakan daftar situs game slot online terpercaya dengan berbagai macam permainan judi yang mudah dimenangkan seperti Game Bola, Casino Online, Slot Pay4D, Tembak Ikan dan Pay4D Online Permainan togel seperti Singapura, Hongkong, Sydney dan lain-lain. Tujuan utama kami adalah menjadi situs judi online Pay4D yang menyediakan layanan judi online terbaik di Indonesia. Kami juga salah satu situs resmi PAY4D di Indonesia yang pasti akan membayarkan semua kemenangan kepada semua member kami, karena kepercayaan dari semua member kami adalah prioritas utama kami sebagai mesin slot 4d Asia terbaik di Asia, khususnya di Indonesia. Dalam melakukan sistem transaksi sistem simpanan dapat dilakukan dengan mudah melalui mobile banking dan electronic banking berupa bank BCA, BSI, BRI, BNI, Cimb Niaga, Permata dan Mandiri. Selain itu, transaksi e-wallet juga tersedia melalui Dana, Gopay, LinkAja dan Ovo serta dapat digunakan untuk pulsa tanpa dipotong. Untuk mempermudah dan kenyamanan dalam melakukan registrasi atau melakukan setiap transaksi, MGS88 menyediakan layanan live chat dan Whatsapp terhubung langsung dengan customer service online 24 jam. Mengenal Istilah Dalam RTP SLOT Di slot RTP Live Anda akan melihat berbagai fitur yang mungkin tidak Anda pahami masing-masing. Namun jangan khawatir, disini sebagai situs slot gacor MGS88 kami akan memberikan penjelasan lengkap mengenai tentang istilah yang ada di RTP SLOT dibawah ini. AKRON | Rep. Steve King went pheasant hunting with President Donald Trump's eldest son in Northwest Iowa Saturday as the party returned with dozens of birds and new questions about the probe into the Trump campaign's possible ties with Russia. On a chilly morning, Donald Trump Jr. joined a group of 30 orange-clad hunters at the Hole N' the Wall's 1000-acre preserve near Akron. Trump Jr., well-known for his big game hunting expeditions, borrowed a single-barrel shotgun because he couldn't bring a weapon through airport security. After returning to the lodge, Trump Jr. and his Secret Service detail left without taking questions from a group of journalists, which included a reporter from CNN and some other national news organizations. On Friday, CNN reported that a federal grand jury in Washington had approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling into the 2016 presidential election. The targets of the charges has been sealed by a judge, but warrants could be issued as early as Monday. King and another hunting guest, his Republican colleague and friend, U.S. Rep. Louis Gohmert of Texas, took questions about the latest developments in the investigation, as well as Trump Jr.'s hunting skills. "He was a very, very good shot," King said of the president's son. "Out of all the presidential candidates that have come through here, I would put up Don. Jr. against any of them." The annual hunt, a major fundraiser for King's re-election campaign, has attracted a number of high-profile Republican figures in the past, including presidential contenders Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and then-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal in the fall of 2015, in the thick of the campaign for Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses. The pheasant hunt is named for Col. Bud Day, a Sioux City native and Vietnam War POW. A Medal of Honor recipient, he was the nation's most highly decorated living service member when he died in July 2013 at age 88. Day and King hunted together periodically. Saturday's hunting party reportedly bagged nearly 100 roosters, though King said he was not sure of the exact number. "It was a beautiful, clear still day in Iowa and the sky was so full of feathers one could be convinced the angels were having a pillow fight," he quipped. Some Republicans have called into question Mueller's ability to fairly oversee the investigation due to the FBIs handling of Hillary Clintons private email server along with recent information regarding sales of U.S. uranium to Russia while Mueller was FBI director. Asked about reports of indictments in the Russian probe, Gohmert and King both said Mueller serving as the special counselor is unethical and inappropriate, considering his friendship with former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump earlier this year. "This is not a guy that should have taken that on ... when we found out that Mueller was involved in covering up the initial Russian investigation, it became very clear why he didn't disqualify himself when he should of. He was trying to cover up the cover-up is what he was doing," Gohmert said. King said both Comey and Mueller should be subject to investigation. "(Mueller) should be in that list along with the rest of them," King said. "And I can't be confident that Comey is getting examined very thoroughly with Mueller at the head of that." Trump Jr., who with his younger brother, Eric, are running the Trump business empire while their father takes a leave of absence from the business, planned to spend the night at the Hole 'n the Wall Lodge. On Saturday night, he joined King contributors at a dinner that featured deep-fat-fried pheasant, Iowa pork chops and sweet corn from King and his wife, Marilyn. DES MOINES Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller told a conference aimed at combating opioid addiction the culture of American medicine needs to change so powerful prescription drugs are viewed as the very last resort rather than as a common option for pain. Miller took aim at large pharmaceutical companies that profited from the rise in painkiller use as having caused a shift in public perception. He later told reporters he is working with other state attorneys general to bring legal action similar to past successful challenges to the tobacco industry. What has happened is awful, said Miller in pointing to a national epidemic in opioid-related deaths and addictions. Twenty years ago, opioids were used in a very limited way. They were used as a pain remedy of very last resort. They were used with a great deal of caution and respect because of the addictive nature of opioids. Mitchell County considers joining class-action opioid lawsuit OSAGE | Mitchell County may join a class-action lawsuit targeting opioid manufacturers. We really have to address this problem and address it dramatically because so much is at stake, Miller told a conference held as part of Gov. Kim Reynolds Opioid Awareness Week. According to the Iowa Department of Public Health, there were 2,274 admissions for opioid treatment in the state in 2016 and 180 opioid-related deaths that year. Reynolds said Iowa has taken a multifaceted approach to combating the opioid epidemic through prevention, treatment and recovery efforts that include using the states prescription drug monitoring program, expanding drug take back initiatives in all 99 counties, expanding naloxone access and specialized treatment through local health care providers, and improving specialized professional training and education for health care professionals through licensing boards and medical schools. We know that we need to do more, said Reynolds, who laid out a four-point proposal she hoped would produce transformational results once implemented. Reynolds said she would like to increase prescriber use of Iowas prescription monitoring program, which after nine years of operation has only about a 43 percent signup rate. She said efforts are underway to modernize the system. One the technology advances are in place, she expects to see greater participation. But she said she is not ready to make use of the database mandatory for prescribers, as some states do. Reynolds advocated Good Samaritan legislation that would shield drug users from prosecution if they seek help for someone who is overdosing, similar to laws enacted in some form by many other states. She also promoted efforts to reduce opioid prescribing to prevent misuse in Iowa, improve intervention for Iowans misusing or addicted to opioids and enhance treatment particularly medication-assisted treatment for opioid-addicted Iowans. The Iowa conference was held the same day President Donald Trump called the opioid epidemic the worst drug crisis in American history and said his administration is declaring it a public health emergency. The declaration means the federal government will waive some regulations, give states more flexibility in using federal funds and expand telemedicine treatment. Both Reynolds, a Republican, and Miller, a Democrat, applauded Trumps announcement. Whatever he declared is helpful, Miller said, but its going to take an awful lot of other things to make this work. With around 46 per cent voters falling in the category of youth in Himachal Pradesh, both Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are battling out on the social media to woo this section of the electorate. The war on social media platforms has kept the leaders of both the parties busy as allegations and counter-allegations keep flooding the space almost every day. The social media teams of both the parties are uploading videos on social media platforms to target each other on poll issues. Though there have been instances where defamatory content with personal attacks is also appearing on the cyberspace. While the BJP is targeting the Congress government on governments failure in five years rule, Congress has been targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi government on Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetisation. In addition, the BJP has started a video campaign against Congress MLAs and ministers under its Hisaab Mange Himachal wherein the party has highlighted their failures in developing constituencies. To counter the Opposition partys campaign, Congress has started Jawab Dega Himachal campaign.The state BJP spokesperson Mahender Dharmani said the party has a dedicated team of volunteers till booth level who are engaged in the work of spreading messages through social media platforms. We are focusing on failures of Congress government rule in the last five years which includes mafia raj, poor condition of roads and widespread corruption, he said, adding the achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government are also being highlighted. A team of experts from Delhi has been engaged by the party to design posts, videos for Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and other social media platforms. The state Congress spokesperson Devender Bushahari said their partys campaign is focused on highlighting the achievements of the government as almost all the promises made in the election manifesto has been fulfilled. Besides, we are focusing on exposing the lies of the Modi government. During the previous Congress-led UPA government rule, BJP leaders including PM Modi has vociferously protested against price-rise. But now all the party leaders are silent on the issue, despite a steep hike in the prices of petroleum products and other essential items, he said. It is worthwhile to mention here that around 29.5 per cent voters in the state are in the age group of below 29-years while overall 46 per cent voters are below 39 years age group. As many as 40,567 youths out of more than 2 lakh new voters will exercise their franchise for the first time in 9 November assembly elections. Amarinder Singh on Monday urged the Union government to take up the issue of extradition of 10 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) who have been declared proclaimed offenders (POs) in various drug cases, with the authorities in Canada, where they have taken refuge. In separate letters to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, the CM has said the extradition process had been pending in these cases for the past three to four years, thus scuttling the state governments efforts to bring the accused to justice. The CM said, the Congress government in Punjab had already scaled up its efforts for their extradition from Canada, as part of its war on drugs, but was obstructed as these cases were still pending at various levels. According to an official spokesperson, the government had decided to aggressively pursue the extradition of these suspects as their custodial interrogation was vital to establish the entire chain of the drugs network in Punjab and to expose those allegedly patronising the trade. Listing out the details of these cases, the CM said Sarabjit Singh Sandhar, a resident of Samrala in Ludhiana, now living in Vancouver in Canada, had been declared a PO on 19 October, 2013. His extradition request had been sent to the Canadian authorities through proper channels and was thereafter prepared afresh as per guidelines shared by them. The revised request has been sent to Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), which forwarded the same to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on 20 July, 2017. Similar is the status of another case, involving Ranjit Singh Aujla, a resident of Muthada Kalan village in Jalandhar, where the extradition request is pending since 25 July, 2017. He was declared PO on 31 August, 2013. In the case of Nirankar Singh Dhillon, a resident of Apra Mandi village in Jalandhar, who was declared PO on 19 October, 2013 and is currently reported to be living in Lietkencher Circle Brampton, Canada, the extradition request is pending since 19 September, 2017, said the CM, citing police data. The extradition request for Gursewak Singh Dhillon, a resident of Leela Megh Singh in Jagraon, living in Surrey and declared PO on 1 April, 2014, was sent to MEA by MHA on 20 July, 2017, but there has been no movement since then, said the CM. Similarly, Jalandhar based Amarjit Singh Kooner, who was declared PO on 31 August, 2013, is living in Vancouver, while Lamer Singh Daleh, also from Jalandhar continues to live in British Columbia, as their extradition pleas continue to hang fire, said the CM. Other similar pending extradition cases relate to Pardeep Singh Dhaliwal of Amritsar and Ranjit Kaur Kahlon of Jalandhar. Manipur Consumer affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister Karam Shyam on Monday offered to resign if corruption charges levelled against him by a proscribed insurgent outfit are proved. As an outlawed group charged Shyam with cornering crores of rupees every month at the cost of the poor people and threatened to launch an agitations, the minister dismissed it as a political conspiracy. When the new ministry was installed there were complaints of misappropriation of rice and other benefits to the people and I wonder what the outfit had done during the Congress regime, he said, asserting that if a single corruption charge against him is substantiated, he will resign. Irrfan, who was on a promotional visit to Kolkata, took to a serene boat ride amidst the Hooghly river. The actor has been keeping busy promoting his upcoming movie Qarib Qarib Singlle. The boat ride was in perfect sync with the theme of the Tanuja Chandra directorial, which revolves around the escapades of Irrfan aka Yogi and Parvathy aka Jaya. The National Award winning actor reminisced about his Piku days as he visited the Howrah Bridge back then. While filming Piku, Irrfan traveled through Hooghly via road, Qarib Qarib Singlle gave the actor a chance to appreciate the soothing experience of a boat ride this time. The actor also tweeted about his Kolkata visit, wherein he mentioned how much he missed his co-star Parvathy. It was the romantic vibe around the boat ride, that made him miss his on screen love interest. #Parvathy, I hate tears re !! Jald milo mumbai main, Kolkata ki date to #QaribQarib akele hi khatam ho gayee !! pic.twitter.com/V3i86ciVSi Irrfan (@irrfank) October 27, 2017 The film showcases the actors style of romance in yet another content driven film after the sleeper hit Hindi Medium. Parvathy, who is a popular name in the Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada cinema, will make her Bollywood debut with Qarib Qarib Singlle. The film showcases the breezy romance of the modern relationships with an unusual and fresh pairing of Irrfan with Parvathy. Qarib Qarib Singlle is departure from the usual fairy tale romance as the films concept is unique that brings two people together through online dating and puts forth that not every story has to have a perfect ending. The relativity of the content is probably one of the reasons why the film has struck a chord with the audience. The songs like Jaane De and Tu Chale Toh from the film gave us intriguing insights into the frictional relationship of Yogi and Jaya. Directed by Tanuja Chandra, the film will release on November 10. Also Read: Irrfan Khans Qarib Qarib revisits Rajesh Khannas famous dialogue Jaane De reunites Irrfan, Atif Aslam post Hindi Medium Varun Dhawan has been tasting success with each film of his. The actor, who recently entertained the audience with the latest release Judwaa 2, has revealed his first look from the upcoming film titled October. As the month is on the verge of ending, Varun decided to make it more special by releasing his first look in October. The actor also surprised his fans by revealing the release date of the upcoming movie. Fans will not have to wait until next October for Varuns film to release, and not going by the title, makers have decided to release it on April 13. Varun Dhawan is seen dressed in a blue denim and brown sweater as he runs breathlessly on a road. Alongside the picture, he wrote, As October comes to an end it arrives earlier next year. #October releases on 13 th April [email protected] @ronnielahiri @BanitaSandhu. As October comes to an end it arrives earlier next year. #October releases on 13 th April now.@ShoojitSircar @ronnielahiri @BanitaSandhu pic.twitter.com/1OtO1zjlo2 Varun Dhawan (@Varun_dvn) October 30, 2017 The movie is being directed by ace director Shoojit Sircar who has hit films like Piku, Pink, Madras Cafe, etc. to his credit. October will also mark a debut for newcomer Banita Sandhu, who will be seen sharing screen space with Varun Dhawan. Banita hails from United Kingdom and was earlier seen in an advertisement directed by Shoojit Sircar. READ ALSO: Varun Dhawan: I am influenced by Salman Khan The Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India (TECC) recently celebrated Taiwans 106th National Day, with around 250 guests in attendance. Ambassador Chung-Kwang Tien, TECC Representative, made the opening remarks, reiterating Taiwans commitment to strengthen its relationship with India under the New Southbound Policy. He said, Under the leadership of President Tsai ng-wen, who took office in May 2016, Taiwan has developed five flagship projects, from industrial supply chains to youth exchange platforms to regional agricultural cooperation, along with the three potentialladen fields namely e-commerce, infrastructure and tourism, for enhanced collaboration with India. Taiwan and India also share the universal values of peace, freedom and human rights, and should, therefore, work hand-inhand to promote regional peace and stability, tackle trans-national crimes, take actions against climate change and achieve UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) together. Chen Wen-Tung from Taiwans National Pingtung University of Science and Technology was the executive chef-in-charge of the Taiwanese cuisine at the evening. Six classic dishes from Taiwan, along with the famous Taiwan Beer, were served. The celebration was followed by a 11-minute video titled Dynamic Taiwan, Embracing the World, featuring the governments steadfast diplomacy, and the energy, diversity and inclusiveness of the Taiwanese populace. A tourismpromotion video was also screened, in addition to a photo collection made byTECC, which showcase the activities organised under the umbrella of TaiwanIndia bilateral relations, over the past year. A drawing competition was held towards the end of the celebration. Lucky guests won exciting prizes including a portable photo printer, a pocket-size projector, an Acer laptop-cum-tablet, and business class tickets, from Delhi to Taipei, courtesy China Airlines (Taiwan). The Uzbekistan government places great importance on the development of tourism, especially Ziyorat tourism. Ziyorat means visiting holy places and comprises pilgrimage tourism along with religious tourism excursions and cognitive orientation. InTashkent, one can visit the Hast Imam (a complex of Hazrati Imam) religious centre. Madrassah of Barakkhan, a member of the complex of Hazrati Imam, is the repository of one of the most valuable relics of Islam the Koran of Caliph Osman. The Ottoman Quran is recognised as a source of the Holy Book of Islam. The Koran, created in the middle of the 7th century, consists of 353 parchment sheets of deerskin. According to legend, particles of blood, which belonged to the Caliph Osman, are preserved on the pages of the Holy Book. Bukhara, known as the holy city, has an unprecedented number of mosques and tombs of Muslim saints. In the Bukhara region, there are seven tombs of the great Sufi Naqshbandi brotherhood, one of the most influential Sufi brotherhoods in Uzbekistan. Samarkand is the famous necropolis of Shakhi Zinda; here a cousin of Prophet Muhammad, Kusam Ibn Abbas, is buried; a mausoleum of Khoja Daniar is also present here. The mausoleum is a crypt about 18 metres long. According to legend, the tomb is constantly expanding. This mausoleum is a pilgrimage site for both locals and visitors from around the world. A pistachio tree near the grave, which stood dead for about 400 years, reportedly blossomed, when in November 1996, it was sprinkled with holy water during a joint prayer service with Jewish and Muslim clergy. So, when you plan your next time-off from the hectic routine of life, if retrospection, introspection and reflection are the high points on your itinerary, Uzbekistan could, definitely be on your list as a country of discovery and re-discovery. Army personnel of India and China on Monday held a meeting at Bum La Pass in Tawang and resolved to maintain peace and tranquillity along the Sino-India border. A border personnel meeting (BPM) was organised by the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) at the historic Bum La pass in Arunachal Pradesh, a senior Army official said. The Indian delegation was led by Brig M P Singh while the Chinese delegation was headed by Sr Col Liu Jiang Xun. The meeting commenced with the hoisting of national flags and the rendition of national anthems of both countries. The delegations interacted in a free, congenial and cordial environment and renewed commitments in maintaining peace along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). ALTA VISTA Parents charged with murder in the death of their infant son in August had a history of drug use, according to court records. Chickasaw County sheriffs deputies Wednesday arrested Zachary Paul Koehn, 28, and Cheyanne Renae Harris, 20, for first-degree murder and child endangerment causing death. They remain in jail pending trial. Authorities said their son, 4-month-old Sterling, was found dead in a powered swing seat in a bedroom at their Alta Vista apartment Aug. 30. Last week, Department of Correctional Services reports filed in connection with the arrests indicated Koehn, an over-the-road trucker who had just started a new job, was in substance abuse treatment. He had last used methamphetamine about two months ago, records state. Harris, who had moved in with a relative in Riceville after the death, was also in treatment, and her last use of meth was two or three weeks before her arrest, Correctional Services records state. She also told officials she was being treated for post traumatic stress disorder. Neither parent has prior criminal convictions, although Koehn was arrested for theft for allegedly bypassing a Riceville water meter after water service was cut off to his mobile home in 2016. The charge was dismissed when he agreed to pay restitution and court costs, but in August prosecutors sought a contempt hearing because he hadnt made payments in months. Records show authorities attempting to serve notice of the contempt allegation had trouble locating him, checking addresses in Alta Vista and Charles City. Deputies said it was Koehn who called 911 at about 12:57 p.m. Aug. 30 to report Sterling had died. He told police and medics Harris had fed the baby at 9 a.m., and the child was fine, but when he checked around 11 or 11:30 a.m., he discovered the infant was dead. An autopsy, which found Sterling underweight at 7 pounds, uncovered maggots on the childs skin and clothes, which indicated he hadnt been washed, changed or removed from the seat in more than a week. The medical examiner ruled his death was a homicide by failure to provide critical care. Another older child was living in the home at the time of Sterlings death, court records indicate. The couple had been living in an apartment on Walnut Street; its a one-story brick building with four units and a shared laundry area in the hallway. Neighbors in the building said Koehn and Harris had lived in Apt. 7 for less than a year, and, like others in the building, they kept to themselves. Its is a terrible, terrible tragedy that this happened, said Kevin Trumpold, who lived across the hall. He said he cant understand people not feeding or caring for children. He only saw the couple and the children when they were coming and going; the baby was always being carried in a child safety seat to and from their vehicle. And he rarely saw the children playing outside, which he thought was odd. He doesnt remember the couple having any visitors. Trumpold said he works goofy hours, but he noticed the TV in Apt. 7 was always on, usually playing movies. He said he occasionally heard crying coming from the apartment, but he never knew if it was a child or the TV. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni today held extensive talks on ways to strengthen the bilateral political and economic relations. Ahead of his meeting with Modi, the visiting leader, who received a ceremonial reception at the forecourt of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, described his visit as an opportunity to make ties between the two countries stronger. Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on Gentiloni and discussed issues of mutual interest, ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. In a series of tweets, Kumar said the two prime ministers reviewed the entire spectrum of the bilateral relationship. Prime Minister Modi and premier Gentiloni also interacted with 12 Indian and 19 Italian business leaders for boosting economic and investment cooperation, the spokesperson said. Gentilonis visit is the first prime ministerial trip from Italy in more than a decade. Italy is Indias fifth largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade of USD 8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. Indias exports to Italy are at USD 4.90 billion, while its imports are at USD 3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of USD 1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached USD 3.22 billion. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Monday chaired a crucial meeting with senior party leaders to finalise the line of attack against the ruling BJP government on the issues of Goods and Services Tax (GST) and demonetisation. The Gandhi scion arrived at the Congress party headquarters in the morning and was flanked by senior party leaders. A total of 18 opposition parties led by the Congress have planned to hold a massive protest on November 8 against Prime Minister Narendra Modis economic policies and the scrapping of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 currency notes a year ago. The opposition parties had come together for the presidential and vice presidential elections and had decided to coordinate with each other to take on the government on various issues concerning the people. Interestingly, the joint opposition protest will be held a day before Himachal Pradesh goes to the polls and amid campaigning for the Gujarat elections. Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said the Railways was investing Rs 3,500 crore in Jharkhand in the current financial year. Inaugurating a three-day Global Mining Submit here, Goyal said Jharkhand was on the path of development and Chief Minister Raghubar Das had responded to the Maoist menace positively. The Chief Minister has told us to start work in Maoist-infested areas and promised security, he said. On the first day of the mining submit, the Jharkhand government and Coal India Ltd signed a MoU to provide drinking water to people from coal mines free of cost. The state government will process the water deposited in the coal mines and provide it to people. The Chief Minister said: The Jharkhand government is determined to provide security to investors. Jharkhand depended on royalty for the last 70 years. There is a need to set up value-added plants in the state to end poverty and generate employment. The Supreme Court will on Monday hear a bunch of petitions challenging the Constitutional validity of Article 35A which grants special rights and privileges of permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir but denying to a woman who marries a non-Kashmiri and her children. Four petitions demanding scrapping of the provision have been listed before a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandracud. The main petition was filed by a Delhi-based NGO We the Citizens and later three petitions of West Pakistan Refugees Action Committee, Dr Charu Wali Khanna and one Kali Dass were clubbed together. In the course of the hearing on August 14, the bench of Justice Misra and Justice Khanwilkar had said that the challenge to the validity of the constitutional provisions would be heard by a five judge constitution bench, only if it was satisfied that the provision was violative of the Constitutions basic structure. Earlier the bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar had on July 17 referred to the three judge bench the challenge to Article 35A. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh had in September said that the Union government would not do anything regarding Article 35A that would be against the aspirations and wishes of the Kashmiri people. Article 35A, which was added to the Constitution by a Presidential Order in 1954, is a provision in the Constitution that empowers the J-K Legislature to define permanent residents of the state and prevents non-locals from buying or owning property in Kashmir. A holy evening? No, its witchy woman time Halloween 2017 is here! Its going to be a truly spooky, thriller night tomorrow. All that red and black fancy, gothic and ghostly outfits and gears are ready and you just cant wait to knock someone down with the spookiest look of yours. Held before the Christian festival All Saints Day, Halloween is a much awaited day of the year for many. Although it is considered an Irish festival, Halloween is associated with Western culture and traditions and is one of the most popular unofficial festivals in the US. And today it has come to be celebrated by people across communities worldwide. But why is a hallowed or a holy evening celebrated as a spooky Halloween day? How did the Halloween celebration come about Halloween, as it takes place just before All Saints Day, is believed by some to be a Christian festival, and is said to have been coined from the word Halloween meaning hallowed or holy evening. In fact, there is a long story to it. To cut the story short, the day was observed as All Hallow Evening. The church then shortened the name to All Hallows Eve or All Hallows Even. After years, the name evolved to Halloween and finally came to stay as Halloween. But some researchers say the word Halloween has a Celtic origin of about 2000 years ago, and was observed as a Celtic harvest festivalSamhian. The festival, according to ancient stories, involved sacrifices of crops and animals to appease the spirits of the dead. So, it came to be known as the festivals of the dead. According to Celtic traditions, bonfires were lighted on this day to ward off evil spirits from other realms that passes through the earth in the night at this time of the year. And the tradition of scaring off evils with the spunky and spooky gowns and mask followed. In fact the ancient Celts marked November 1 as a new beginning and celebrate it as the New Years Day. And they brought the festival to the US during their migration in the 1900s. Although some Christians celebrate the festival and attend churches on this day, many consider it as a pagan tradition. However, today, Halloween has come to be greatly celebrated by young people and celebrities the world over as a big fun fancy festival and Halloween parties are organised in a big way. Check out the market for some Halloween wears and lights. Throw a thriller night or a black witchy woman party. Hold a dark night dinner and spring a scary surprise to your guests. Dare to scare and have the spookiest and craziest Halloween time ever. Areport released by the Ministry of Cooperatives and Poverty Alleviation (MoCPA) on the occasion of the 25th International day for the Eradication of Poverty shed light once again on some alarming facts. 23.38 percent of the total population of Nepal falls under the poverty line. A survey of 1,224,400 households in 25 districts found that 391,831 households were living below the poverty line. This translates to nearly 400,000 Nepali households in 25 districts alone in which members earn less than a dollar a day, as per the United Nations definition of poor. These households have further been classified as general poor, mid-poor and extreme poor, with a majority of the households falling under the third category. The government is yet to survey households in the remaining 50 districts. The survey by the MoCPA employed the Proxy Mean Test which, according to the World Bank, is a concept where information on households or individual characteristics are correlated to welfare levels in a formal algorithm to proxy household income welfare or need. Earlier this year, the government made a major policy decision to distribute identification cards to designated households living below the poverty line. Identification cards will be red, yellow or blue depending on the level of poverty, and distribution is pegged to commence shortly after Tihar. The government has declared that these poor households will be rendered eligible for government social security programmes, including educational scholarship, health insurance and skill training towards food security and self-employment. But given the poor record of the successive governments in Nepal in introducing such schemes in the past, there is enough room to doubt whether the identification card system will actually be implemented. The governments plan to introduce a ration card system last year to protect the poor from spikes in market prices has culminated in nothing concrete. And the bid to implement a card system for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) at subsidised rates by Baburam Bhattarais government in 2011 has also ended in a fiasco twice already. So, creating fanfare for such schemes without follow through has been a trend for our governments. The UN has set a goal of eradicating poverty in all forms all across the world by 2030. Ambitious though this goal may be, it is not unattainable. However, given Nepals current track record, only time will tell whether this aim can be achieved. It may be neither accidental nor coincidental, yet the timing of the revival of the high-voltage debate over autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir was decidedly inopportune. For it adds avoidable complications to the task of newly-appointed Special Representative, Dineshwar Sharma, even as he was measuring the several stumbling blocks he would have to overcome if his mission to put the dialogue process back on track were to bear fruit. While it might have been legitimate for the National Conference to put down some markers by resurrecting its autonomy resolution, was it really necessary for P Chidambaram to broach the thorny subject, that too while electioneering in Gujarat? One possible conclusion is that it was a deliberate bid to derail the reconciliation process: even if there is merit to his claim that there has been only selective interpretation of his statement. That the Congress party has not fully endorsed the former ministers line points to his having ~ not for the first time ~ allowed his mouth to run away with his head. Was it also necessary for the Prime Minister to react so sharply, and thus give his party the green signal to launch a counter-offensive? Leaders of the calibre of Atal Bihari Vajpayee or PV Narasimha Rao would have probably ignored the comment, but the present leadership of the NDA feels it would appear timid it if did respond to~ as Rajiv Gandhi had put it ~ every dog that barks. It is inevitable that the slanging match will snowball, and force the Special Representative to douse some fires before he can bring some mellow warmth to the imbroglio ~ if indeed his mandate encompasses that. The apex courts decision on petitions questioning the validity of Article 35A (the Centres ambivalence has raised suspicions) will also influence the atmosphere in which Sharma will try to attain what has eluded other interlocutors for decades. There is some value to Chidambarams point that the demand for autonomy does not equate with the cry for azadi as the BJP consistently contends. It is also unfortunate that, yet again, is political capital sought to be extracted from the exploits of security personnel who have fought and died in J&K. The National Conferences insistence that autonomy is at the core of the states accession to India is nothing new, indeed the PDP of chief minister Mehbooba Mufti holds a similar view even if it expresses it in different terms~ so if the demand for autonomy is anti-national, or whatever else if it is being condemned as, why is the BJP running a government in alliance with those favouring softseparatism? Unless that basic difference is sorted out, the Special Representative is unlikely to evolve a formula more special than the many previous others that have floundered. Crime has been almost integral to history. The Lodha tribe, for instance, had hit the headlines when Chuni Kotal, the first woman graduate from this unfortunate community committed suicide because of social discrimination. A few Lodhas died of starvation in Amlasol village and a young Lodha, Budhan, died in police custody after alleged torture. Who are these Lodhas? Are they born criminals? How do civil society and the state look at them? What is their present condition? Along with my students, I once undertook an anthropological journey to conduct a survey of some government-funded research projects in West Midnapore. I will examine the label of criminality, with which the Lodhas were branded by the British. The trend has continued since Independence. The image of the Lodhas as a criminal tribe has various connotations. There is a perception that the Lodhas can never become good farmers. They lead a sedentary life since they were once nomadic or semi-nomadic hunters. They were regarded as people who have suffered from frustration and extreme forms of timidity combined with criminal instincts. So, whenever government initiatives to improve the living conditions of Lodhas failed, the blame was passed on to the Lodhas. Anthropological studies have also helped to perpetuate the negative image of the community which has been readily stereotyped. The fact that the Lodhas were first categorised as a denotified community meant that they were previously regarded as criminals. The class group further classified as a Primitive Tribal Group (PTG) and finally as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) which reaffirmed their lowest position among the countrys Scheduled Tribes. In the absence of any systematic and comprehensive field survey and historical research on the Lodhas now living in varied environmental and socio-economic conditions, the stigma acquired a form of generalised textbook homogeneity and authenticity. Some of the empirical findings have however, challenged this generalised image of the Lodhas as criminal, denotified, primitive and vulnerable community. The Rajputs and Punjabis were regarded as brave people by British historians, pre-eminently James Tod. They fought against the Mughals and although they killed many people, they were never designated by the colonial administration as criminal communities probably because they were not poor hunters and marginalised like the Lodhas. The Criminal Tribes Act dates back to severale pieces of legislation enacted in India during British rule. The legislation was first enacted as the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871, which applied mainly to North India. The Act was extended to the Bengal Presidency and other areas in 1876, and, finally, with the Criminal Tribes Act, 1911, it was extended up to the Madras Presidency. The Act went through several amendments in the next decade and, finally, the Criminal Tribes Act, 1924 was legislated. It incorporated all the provinces. In an article entitled The Criminal Tribes of India published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Arts in 1923, a retired British administrative officer Frederick de L. Booth Tucker wrote: Crime in most countries is committed by individuals, in India usually by tribes, communities and gangs, who are highly organised and trained in it from childhood as a profession. The entire family and the relatives of an Indian criminal, including the women and children, are usually associated with him in the commission of crime. It is looked upon by these tribes very much as we regard the military profession, and is considered to be both honourable and lucrative. According to Tucker, there were 18 settlements of criminal tribes in the then Bengal Presidency and the community which was recorded by him as criminal was not the Lodhas but Karwal Nats. Moreover, he stated in the same article that most of the families in those settlements were found to practise agriculture combined with commodity production and the rest were engaged in industrial occupations. Tuckers description did not fit in with the traditional occupation of the Lodhas, notably hunting as reported by anthropologists much later. The question is: How were the Lodhas included in the criminal tribe category and brought under the purview of the Criminal Tribes Act, 1911? In the same volume of the journal published after five months, another British police official, LP Faulkner, in his correspondence in connection with a remark made by Sir Edward Henry in the discussion on Commissioner Booth Tuckers paper dealing with the Criminal Tribes Act observed: The chief motive of the Act is to save criminal tribes from themselves; to reform and to reclaim them, so far as is humanly possible. The Act, as it stands, supplies to the criminal classes a method by which they may be able to improve themselves and to lead decent lives. To the general public it affords a scheme of protection while it places at the disposal of the police a lawful means for keeping potential criminals under proper supervision. This was written by Faulkner in 1923. He mentioned how the Lodhas of the then Bengal Presidency might have been designated as a criminal tribe by the local administration which was empowered by law to declare a tribe as criminal if a section of the community committed certain non-bailable offences. I quote Faulkner: If only a part of the tribe is addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences, then only that part of the tribe may be declared a criminal tribe for the purposes of the Act. This was, to my knowledge, done in the case of certain gangs of the tribes of Lodhas in the district of Midnapore. The correspondence between the two experienced British officials revealed the truth that the Lodhas as a community were not initially included under the designation of a criminal tribe like some other communities of India. However, some members of the community were definitely declared as criminal as early as the first half of 20th century and over time the entire class group was classified as a criminal tribe. Be that as it may, one thing was clear in the basic premise of the Criminal Tribe Act. It was clearly mentioned in the first quote from Booth Tuckers article in which he remarked that crime in India was committed by tribes, communities and gangs which were trained in it from childhood as a profession. They regarded crimes an honourable and lucrative profession, much like the westerners who viewed military profession as admirable. The discourse on the criminal tribes in Sociology and Anthropology continued in the postindependence period and can be traced back to an article by the famous sociologist KM Kapadia published in Sociological Bulletin as early as 1952, the year in which the Criminal Tribe Act was abolished and the former criminal tribes were included in the new category named Denotified Tribe. Kapadia criticized the rationale of the colonial administrators, specifically their support to the promulgation of the Criminal Tribes Act ~ The approach of the Government was fundamentally wrong. It pos tulated that (i) the so-called criminal tribes represented a group of born criminals, that (ii) crime was hereditary with their members and that (iii) criminals could be reformed by ruthless punishment and lifelong harassment. In the rest of his paper, Kapadia showed how the different levels of the government and police administration along with the elite groups of society used the Criminal Tribes Act which marginalised and sometimes aggravated criminal activities among the members of the socalled Criminal Tribes and Castes. Kapadia, however, did not mention the Lodhas although the socio-political process of marginalisation of the Criminal Tribes in other parts of India had many similarities with the Lodhas of West Bengal. (The writer is a former Professor, Department of Anthropology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore) An anthropologist of Calcutta University, Probodh Kumar Bhowmick, studied the condition of the Lodhas and also carried out anthropological research for nearly four decades beginning from the late 1950s. Unlike Kapadia, the anthropological accounts of Bhowmick were influenced by the British perception. The only difference between the colonial coinage of the term, criminality and the post-colonial anthropological construct was that while the former based its arguments on the instinctive nature of the community, the latter viewed criminality as a result of environmental and/or socio-economic conditions encountered by the Lodhas. More interestingly, postcolonial anthropological accounts often reflected the colonial mindset. In one of his articles in the newsletter of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Bhowmick wrote: The chronic poverty and low aspiration level and lack of zeal of these people have created socio-cultural and economic constraints which, in turn, have made them lazy and lethargic. This has also made them unresponsive to any sort of change or innovation introduced for their uplift. After Independence, about 153 communities in India who were designated as criminal tribes by the British were re-designated as denotified tribes. In West Bengal, Lodhas were also denotified and were mainly concentrated in the erstwhile Midnapore district. In the first Census in 1951, the Lodhas were listed as a Scheduled Caste and their total population was recorded as 8,346 in West Bengal. The figure was a little over one lakh, according to the Census estimates of 2011. Most importantly, the denotification process carried the colonial hangover of looking at criminal tribes as born criminals. GN Devi, a noted scholar-activist and the editor of Budhan, the newsletter of the Denotified Nomadic Tribes Rights Action Groups (DNT-RAG) narrated the passage from the Criminal Tribes Act of the colonial period to the post-colonial Denotified Tribes Act in a succinct manner: Soon after Independence, the communities notified as criminal tribals were denotified by the Government. This notification was followed by substitution of a series of Acts, generally entitled Habitual Offenders Act. The HOAs preserved most of the provisions of the former CT Acts, except the premise implicit in it that an entire community can be born criminal. Apparently, the denotification and the passing of the HOAs should have ended the misery of the communities penalised under the CT Act. But that has not happened. The police forces as well as the people in general were taught to look upon the Criminal Tribes as born criminals during the colonial era. That attitude continues to persist even today. In his book, Essays in Economic Anthropology, Ranjit Gupta, former Commissioner of Calcutta Police, wrote: The only major police report relates to a combined mass attack by the Santhals and the Mahatos on the Lodhas of the areas around a village called Mohulboni on 20 March, 1958, in course of which four Lodhas were killed and several Lodha huts were set on fire. The provocation was an armed robbery in a Santhal hut in Mohulboni by the Lodhas, and alleged rape of a Santhal woman. The major background reason was obviously the tension due to the Lodha depredations against propertied classes. It is to be noted that the Mahatos (the Kurni Kshatriyas) who were not at all an injured party in this case took an active part in the outrage on the Lodhas. Probodh Bhowmick also narrated how the Lodhas on the bank of Subarnarekha river in Midnapore district were chased and finally 39 of them were brutally beheaded and the rest were captured by the killers in September 1979. In 1968, the houses of 18 Lodha villages were burned by the Santhals who alleged that the Lodhas were involved in criminal activities. In a reply to my RTI queries on the detention, prosecution and conviction of the Lodhas in West Midnapore district during 2010-14, the Deputy Superintendent of Police informed me of 53 cases in which Lodha men and women were charged with criminal charges and in all the cases the trials were pending. In 43 cases (81 per cent of the total), the allegations against the Lodhas were levelled by members of other castes and communities. In the postindependence period, the major objective of the Government was to remove the stigma of criminal tribe of the Lodhas. At the same time, the Government also wanted to improve the tribes socio-economic condition. Traditionally, they have depended on forest produce and daily labour. The Centre has announced initiatives for improving their living conditions by providing facilities for housing, agriculture, cottage industries and education but the traditional life of the Lodhas has not changed substantially. They are still largely dependent on collecting forest produce and hunting for a livelihood. The District Human Development Report: Paschim Medinipur, published by the Government of West Bengal in 2011, devoted a long section on the Lodhas. The subject has been viewed from a historical perspective. The report concluded that even after independence the marginalised condition of the Lodhas in West Midnapore and other nearby areas has not improved appreciably. It noted that the government regarded the Lodhas as a kind of primitive and displaced group which needed rehabilitation within the fold of an agricultural economy. In the report it was admitted that the governmental efforts towards the development of the tribe largely failed. The counter-point of the colonial and post-colonial anthropological perception of the Lodhas was made by nonanthropologists, notably Mahasweta Devi and Chandan Sinha (a former District Magistrate of West Midnapore). Both found the settled Lodhas as hardworking and responsible citizens. In his recent book, Kindling of an Insurrection: Notes from Junglemahal, published by Routledge, Sinha has mentioned several Lodha families of Jhargram who showed remarkable strength and courage at the individual and community levels. They took care of the poultry and livestock given to them under the Rastriya Sam Vikas Yojna. He wrote: Darkness had fallen but with the help of torchlight we made our way to the house of Hari and Pramila Sabar. Upon reaching their homestead, I found Hari Sabar digging one side of the foundation all by himself. I asked him why he was working so late. He told me that during the day he had gone to the jungle to collect sal leaves. Upon his return finding some portion of the foundation incomplete he decided to complete digging the length before calling it a day. It was a stirring sight, especially since most people tend to dismiss Lodhas as incapable of hard work and responsibility. Our own empirical study of the Lodhas in three administrative blocks of West Midnapore revealed striking differences in terms of the utilisation of various development inputs given to the tribe. We have also found that in at least two blocks, a large number of Lodha families have also been successful as peasants. The persistent perception of the Lodhas as a criminal and lethargic community, who were unresponsive to change and innovation seemed to be a myth which could not stand empirical scrutiny. (Concluded) (The writer is a former Professor, Department of Anthropology, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore) In an effort to highlight places of interest in countries across the world, their varied culture, economy and history, The Statesman brings to you a Weekly Focus on countries with which India shares diplomatic ties and friendship. This weeks focus is on Nepal. Know all about the country. Capital:Kathmandu, Currency: Nepalese rupee Ethnic groups: : Chhettri 16.6%, BrahmanHill 12.2%, Magar 7.1%, Tharu 6.6%, Tamang 5.8%, Newar 5%, Kami 4.8%, Muslim 4.4%, Yadav 4%, Rai 2.3%, Gurung 2%, Damai/Dholii 1.8%, Thakuri 1.6%, Limbu 1.5%, Sarki 1.4%, Teli 1.4%, Chamar/Harijan/Ram 1.3%, Koiri/Kushwaha 1.2%, other 19% note: 125 caste/ethnic groups were reported in the 2011 national census (2011 est.) Languages:Nepali (official) 44.6%, Maithali 11.7%, Bhojpuri 6%, Tharu 5.8%, Tamang 5.1%, Newar 3.2%, Magar 3%, Bajjika 3%, Urdu 2.6%, Avadhi 1.9%, Limbu 1.3%, Gurung 1.2%, other 10.4%, unspecified 0.2% note: 123 languages reported as mother tongue in 2011 national census; many in government and business also speak English (2011 est.) Religion: Hindu 81.3%, Buddhist 9%, Muslim 4.4%, Kirant 3.1%, Christian 1.4%, other 0.5%, unspecified 0.2% (2011 est.) Climate: The monsoon season begins around the end of June and lasts until the middle of September. About 80% of Nepals annual rainfall is during that period, so the remainder of the year is pretty dry. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant seasons, winter temperatures drop to freezing, with a high level of snowfall in the mountains, while summer can be blisteringly hot. The Kathmandu Valley, at an altitude of 1,310m has a mild climate, ranging from 19-27C in summer and 2-20C in winter. HOLIDAYS AND FESTIVALS Nepals holidays and festivals concentrate on religious and cultural events in the Hindu and Buddhist calendars. Dashain in early September is the most important, surrounded by many other events, and the Tihar Hindu festival of lights is one of the loveliest. Other festivals include Shree Panchami, Ghode Jatra, Holi, Mata Turtha Puja, Buddha Jayanti, Gaijatra, Indra Jatra and Krishna Janmastami. SPICY AND MEATY Sandwiched between India and China, Nepals cuisine is heavily influenced by its neighbours although dishes tend to be simpler and less varied. Meals are typically spicy and meaty, although thats not to say you cant find good vegetarian cuisine. Indeed, the national dish is dal bhat (lentil curry), which, like most dishes, is accompanied with rice and thin pancake-like bread known as chapatti. Some of the specialities are Tarkari, Thukpha, Rotis, Choyla, Cel roti, Pani puri , Momos. Some regional drinks are Chai, Butter tea (popular among Tibetan cultures; the combination of salt, butter, and hot water), Lassi , Raksi (wheat or rice alcohol). INDIAN PRESENCE Around 6,00,000 Indians live in Nepal. These include businessmen, traders and professionals (doctors, engineers, IT personnel) and labourers. BILATERAL TRADE ON UPSWING: Since 1996, Nepals exports to India have grown more than eleven times and bilateral trade more than seven times; the bilateral trade that was 29.8% of total external trade of Nepal in year 1995-96 has reached 61.2% in 2015- 16. Nepals main imports from India are petroleum products, motor vehicles and spare parts, M. S. Billet, rice & paddy, other machinery & parts, medicine, hotrolled sheet in coil, electrical equipment, cement, agricultural equipment & parts, coal, m.s. wires, rods, coils, bars, vegetables, cold rolled sheet in coil, thread etc. Indian firms are the biggest investors in Nepal, accounting for about 40% of the total approved FDI. There are about 150 Indian ventures operating in Nepal. They are engaged in manufacturing, services (banking, insurance, dry port, education and telecom), power sector and tourism industries. Some large Indian investors include ITC, Dabur India, HUL, VSNL, TCIL, MTNL, SBI, PNB, LIC, Asian Paints, CONCOR, GMR India, IL&FS, Manipal Group and Tata Power, etc. Visa requirements: Indian nationals do not require visa to enter Nepal. As per Nepalese Immigration, Indian nationals travelling to Nepal must possess either passport, photo identity card issued by the Government of India/State Govt./UT Administration to their employees or election ID card issued by the Election Commission of India, emergency certificate issued by Embassy of India, Kathmandu, identity certificate issued by Embassy of India, Kathmandu. Persons in the age of group of above 65 years and below 15 years would be exempted from the requirement of approved identity documents. However, they must have some documents with photograph to confirm their age and identity such as PAN card, driving licence, GHS card, ration card, etc. TOURIST ATTRACTIONS Kathmandu: The decaying buildings in the heart of the city are a contrast to the lively atmosphere that permeates the streets. The highlights include Durbar Square, the largest of the palace squares in the three royal cities and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Pashupatinath Temple and Hanuman Dhoka. Temples and monuments of varying shapes, sizes, styles, and faiths can be found here. Set atop a forested hill, the ancient Buddhist complex of Swayambhunath is a cant-miss attraction that offers sweeping views of the Kathmandu Valley. Bhaktapur: The third of the Royal Cities, it lies on the old trade route to Tibet, just outside Kathmandu. For Bhaktapur, the trade route was both an arterial link and major source of wealth. In contrast to Patan and Kathmandu, the population of Bhaktapur is primarily Hindu. The best place from which to begin a tour of the city is Durbar Square, where in addition to the royal palace, several temples are also situated. The whole area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Boudhanath Stupa: Just outside Kathmandu, it is one of the largest stupas of its kind in the world, and dates to sometime around the 6th century, possibly even earlier. The stupa itself is a symbol of enlightenment but at Boudhanath the symbolism is particularly clear. Other tourist attractions are Pokhara (gateway to Himalayas), Chitwan National Park, Patan(Newari architecture), Nagarkot (best known for the views it offers of the mountains and the Kathmandu Valley) and Lumbini (famous for being the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, the historic Buddha, known as Buddha Shakyamuni). Regions to trek are Mount Everest the Helambu region and Annapurna region. Compiled by Kunal Jain ([email protected]) MASON CITY | City officials have decided not to rush the process of finding a new city administrator. Brent Trout, who was city administrator in Mason City for 10 years, began work last week as the top administrator in Topeka, Kansas. Finance Director Kevin Jacobson has taken on the added duties of interim administrator. Jacobson named interim Mason City administrator MASON CITY | City Finance Director Kevin Jacobson has been named interim city administrator, Mayor Eric Bookmeyer said Monday, "We have a solid interim administrator and have time to see what the election yields." Several council members have said the fair thing to do is to allow the new council to do the hiring since there will be such a large turnover of the present mayor and council. Bookmeyer and three council members are not seeking re-election -- At-Large Councilman Bill Schickel, who is a candidate for mayor; Second Ward Councilman Travis Hickey and Fourth Ward Councilwoman Janet Solberg. The council has the option of doing its own candidate search or hiring a search firm. In 2006, the council hired a search firm whose work resulted in the hiring of Trout and of now-retired police chief Mike Lashbrook. The city elections are on Nov.7. The Taliban on Monday said the health of one of the Kabul-based American University professors they had kidnapped over a year ago is critical. In August 2016, the Taliban had abducted two professors American Kevin King and Australian Timothy John Weekes while they were travelling in a university vehicle to their residence in Kabul. One of them, the American professor, Kevin King, is suffering from critical heart disease (cardiac arrest) and kidney illness (renal illness), Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement sent to Efe news. Kings illness has intensified, his feet have swollen and sometimes he becomes unconscious and his condition is getting critical every day, Mujahid added. He urged the US to secure his release in exchange for freeing Taliban prisoners being held at the Bagram base in north Afghanistan. The Taliban are in a war situation and dont have access to good health care and treatment, so we cant provide full treatment to him, the statement said. Earlier this year, both hostages had appeared in a video pleading with then US President-elect Donald Trump to agree to the Talibans conditions. Former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has arrived here from Saudi Arabia to hold a key consultative meeting on Monday with his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party leaders, including current Premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Talking to media after his arrival at Heathrow Airport on Sunday night, Sharif said he will soon return to Pakistan. Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif and other key cabinet members were also likely to attend the high-level consultative meeting of the PML-N, Dawn news reported. The top-level consultations come as legal pressure on Sharif and his family builds in the wake of the so-called Panama Papers judgment. Meanwhile, ahead of the key party meeting, Abbasi said there was no rift among national institutions. The Premier said he neither believed in conspiracy theories nor there was any room for those in the country. Abbasi said both the political and military leadership was sitting together during the recent meeting with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Islamabad and all of the countrys institutions were collectively playing their role for national development. Abbasi reiterated that there was no provision for technocrat government in Pakistans Constitution. Last week, the accountability court hearing corruption references against the Sharif family issued bailable warrants for the former Premier in the three references against him as he had been a no-show in the proceedings. The references against the Sharif family pertain to the Azizia Steel Mills and Hill Metals Establishment, their London properties and over dozen offshore companies owned by the family. The hearing was then adjourned until November 3 with the last chance for Sharif to ensure his presence in court. The former Prime Ministers daughter Maryam Nawaz and son-in-law retired Captain Muhammad Safdar had already been indicted in one corruption case. Two French women have accused Swiss-born renowned Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan of sexually assaulting them a few years back, a media report said. This comes amid the ongoing outpouring by women reporting episodes of sexual harassment and naming their aggressors. French activist and author Henda Ayari filed a police complaint a week back accusing Ramadan, of the violent act in 2012, the New York Times reported. Then on Thursday, a second woman filed a complaint in Paris against Ramadan, accusing him of rape and assault in a hotel room in Lyon, France, in 2009. Ramadans lawyer has issued a categorical denial about the first accusation and said that the scholar would sue his accuser for defamation. The explosive accounts came in the aftermath of accusations that powerful Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein had engaged in decades of sexual harassment and assaults against women like actress Rose McGowan and some 40 others. In the aftermath, many women, and some men, around the world added their voices to a wave of complaints on social media, including under the hashtag #MeToo, #BalanceTonPorc, or ExposeYourPig, in France. Among the figures accused by French women are Pierre Joxe, a former top Socialist leader and Minister under Francois Mitterrand. A lawsuit alleging sexual harassment by Christophe Arend, a lawmaker in President Emmanuel Macrons governing party, has also been filed, the NYT report said. Ramadan, 55, is a revered Islamic scholar and the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt the 1920s. The group has become one of the most influential transnational Sunni Muslim movements in the world. He teaches contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University and is the author of a dozen books in English on modern Islam and the Western world. Montreal, CA (H4T1V6) Today Periods of snow. Low 31F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 90%. Snowfall around one inch.. Tonight Periods of snow. Low 31F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 90%. Snowfall around one inch. Recover your password. A password will be e-mailed to you. Much loved by tourists for its beaches, blue lagoons and extensive reefs holidaymakers are beginning to head to the Maldives again. Here we include some of the best luxury resorts in the Maldives. Siyam World Siyam World is a brand-new, luxury 24-hour all-inclusive resort located in the Noonu Atoll, amid 52 acres of breath-taking surroundings. Siyam World has an innovative approach being the first multi-experiential resort in the Maldives. It comprises a collection of luxury villas and suites set over the water, on the beach, or among the tropical vegetation, complemented by a veritable lineup of restaurants, bars, activities and experiences including a floating water park with slippery slides, fun parkours, loads of obstacles, water trampolines, climbing walls and rafts. Theres also a FIFA-standard football pitch. Siyam World is surrounded by a 1.5 km house reef that is teaming with wildlife and a diverse array of aquatic life. To book Siyam World click here Conrad Maldives Rangali Island Conrad Maldives Rangali Island opened in 1997 as Hilton Maldives Resort and Spa and rebranded in 2007 as part of their high-end luxury collection of Conrad Hotels and Resorts. The resort is committed to sustainable hospitality; encouraging its guests to make smart eco choices and pledging to eliminate the use of plastic on the property. There are two outdoor infinity pools, two award-winning spas, a 24-hour gym and 12 restaurants and bars. Conrad Maldives is also a proud trailblazer: opening the worlds first undersea restaurant and more recently, the worlds first undersea residence, The Muraka. To book Conrad Maldives Rangali Island click here Coco Body Hithi Located in the North Male Atoll and just 29km (18 miles) from the capital, Coco Bodu Hithi is one of the smaller, but no less luxurious, islands in the Maldives. Owned by four local brothers, the resort is part of the Coco Collection and opened its doors to the public 2006. Every space at Coco Bodu Hithi is designed to connect you to the water, whether you are running on the treadmill, reading a book in your villa or dining at one of six restaurants. Every month the hotel takes part in a coastal cleaning of the island to collect plastic from the water and help preserve the surrounding reef from further ecological damage. To book Coco Bodhu Hithi click here Furaveri Island Resort & Spa Furaveri Island Resort & Spa is located in the Raa Atoll near Hanifaru Bay, a UNESCO biosphere reserve. There are 107 private villas at Furaveri, all of which are spacious and tastefully furnished. For the ultimate luxury, the two-room suite with infinity pool is a real showstopper honeymooners often rent this for a day or two as a special treat on their trip. On the island, there is also a spa, gym, diving school, tennis court, badminton court and large outdoor pool, and guests can dine in four different restaurants. To book Furaveri island Resort & Spa click here Fushifaru Maldives Fushifaru Maldives goes beyond the typical confines of sun, sea and sand. Located on the eastern fringe of Lhaviyani Atoll, the islands surrounding ocean is a nature-lovers paradise and home to eagle rays, parrotfish and even the occasional hammerhead shark. Accommodation options at the resort include Beach Villas and Water Villas and the island also has three restaurants, including Raakani Grill, which serviced flavourful Asian delicacies and a wide range of fresh seafood. For a more private dining experience, guests can also pick a spot anywhere on the island or sandbank to enjoy a customised meal. To book the Fashifaru Maldives click here Mercure Maldives Kooddoo Resort Bringing stylish mid-scale accommodation to the pristine south of the Maldives, Mercure Maldives Kooddoo Resort provides travellers with one of the best value accommodation options. The resort has 68 villas, including 43 over the water and 25 on the beach. It is built using local materials, bright colours and stylish furniture and interiors designs, all of which reflect traditional Maldivian culture and the spirit of travel. To Book Mercure Maldives Click here Reethi Faru Translated to beautiful reef in English, Reethi Faru is unsurprisingly surrounded by stunning white beaches, coconut groves and lush vegetation. Along with a beautiful house reef to explore, the four-star resort promises to offer guests a relaxing atmosphere, friendly service, a comprehensive selection of activities and facilities, and a tasteful choice of cuisine. Located on the compact Maldivian island of Filaidhoo in Raa Atoll, the resort will feature 150 well-furnished homely detached and semi-detached villas. All of which will be set amid tropical foliage or on stilts over the lagoon and built in a traditional style to blend perfectly into the natural beauty of the environment. To book Reethi Faru click here Baglioni Resort Maldives Italian-owned Baglioni Resort Maldives, located on Maagau in Dhaalu Atoll, offers a piece of island paradise, with a blend of sport, relaxation and mouth-watering gourmet dining. The 96-villa resorts elegant Italian design is complemented with the Baglioni Spa, which along with a yoga pavilion, offers guests a deeply relaxing experience via a host of deluxe natural treatments in a lush, tropical setting. Meanwhile, beach volleyball, the beach gym and a range of watersports keep the more active guests entertained. To book Baglioni Resort Maldives click here OBLU SELECT Sangeli Atmosphere Hotels & Resorts has a sensational resort in the Maldives: OBLU SELECT Sangeli . Located in Male Atoll, the five-star deluxe resort features 137 villas, positioned along the beach and over the water. For newlyweds, the resort plays host to exclusive overwater Honeymoon Pool Suites, situated in a separate sand bank within the Sangeli Lagoon and each providing skylight features and a private pool. Activities at the resort include music and DJ nights, sunset fishing, daily kids activities, and facilities include a full gymnasium and a recreation centre. There will be more openings from Atmosphere Hotels & Resorts in the new year we will keep you posted. To book OBLU SELECT click here Mvenpick Resort & Spa Kuredhivaru Maldives Situated on the remote Kuredhivaru Island in Noonu Atoll, Mvenpick Resort & Spa Kuredhivaru Maldives is the brands first resort in the Maldives. The 102-unit resort provides guests with a choice of 32 Beach Villas and 70 Over Water Villas, all designed with both comfort and style in mind. While intended as a destination for relaxing and rejuvenating escapes offering a high degree of privacy, the resort also features an array of onsite recreational facilities to entertain a wide range of guests, from honeymooners to adventurous families. The waters surrounding the resort are rich in marine life and the first Marine National Park in the Maldives is just a 15-minute speedboat ride away, providing guests with excellent diving opportunities. To book Mvenpick Resort & Spa click here Carpe Diem Beach Resort & Spa Carpe Diem Beach Resort & Spa is one of the only hospitality brands in the Maldives to offer both liveaboard cruises and resort stays. Located in Raa Atoll, on one of a trio of uninhabited islands on the edge of Baa Atoll, the resorts vast lagoon is home to 115 Pool Villas, a spa, a selection of restaurants, and a private water park of inflatable slides. The Carpe Diem name has become renowned in the travel industry for diving and leisure, and the current portfolio includes three high-end liveaboard cruises, each catering 20 guests at a time. To book Carpe Diem Beach Resort & Spa click here LUX* North Male Atoll Following the successful re-launch of LUX* South Ari Atoll in September 2016, LUX* Resorts opened its second resort, LUX* North Male Atoll, in February 2019. Blessed with a pristine reef teeming with sea life, the innovative resort redefines island hospitality. A short transfer from Male by luxury speedboat, LUX* North Male Atoll has disrupted the mould by replacing traditional thatched villas with over-sized, penthouse residences. With sweeping ocean views and a fleet of luxury yachts, this is a one-of-a-kind escape for confirmed epicureans. To book LUX North Male Atoll click here Waldorf Astoria Maldives Spanning three islands in the South Male Atoll, approximately 23 kilometres from Velana International Airport and about 20 minutes away from the Maldivian capital of Male, Waldorf Astoria Maldives offers travellers the best of both worlds an exclusive, charming escape with easy access to the mainland. The Waldorf Astoria Maldives is the second hotel in the Maldives for Hilton and boasts 10 dining outlets, including nine speciality restaurants, providing guests with a selection of unique experiences. To book Waldorf Astoria Maldives click here Emerald Maldives Resort & Spa Emerald Maldives Resort & Spa offers 60 beach villas and 60 over the water, all including contemporary and tropical touches. The resort is located on the island of Fasmendhoo in Raa Atoll and guests can reach the island via a 40-minute scenic seaplane journey from Male. Along with a spa and gym, Emerald Maldives Resort & Spa has four restaurants, including a grill restaurant, situated on the beach, and a South American-style steakhouse. To book Emerald Maldives Resort & Spa click here. Booking.com Organization: Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration (IDRC) Duty Station: Mbarara, Uganda About US: The Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration (IDRC) is a non-profit research organization. IDRC conducts research in infectious diseases including Malaria, HIV and Tuberculosis. Our studies have led to over 150 publications and have impacted on the management of infectious diseases in Uganda. IDRC currently manages over 41 grants with an annual budget of $11 million. IDRC was established in May 2008 by Ugandan health scientists from Makerere University College of health sciences, University of California, San Francisco and the Uganda Ministry of health. Job Summary: The Study Coordinator will support the Rapid Viral Load project. The successful candidate will be based in Mbarara with frequent travels to the field sites in South Western Uganda and will be reporting to the Investigator. Responsibilities: Key Duties andResponsibilities: Charged with scientific and administrative oversight of the RAPID-VL field activities. Coordinate the simultaneous screening and enrolment of study participants at multiple study sites. Responsible for ensuring that all the research data that is collected from the study clinics through data extraction and direct participant interviews on both paper and electronic case report forms are filled appropriately. Work in liaison with the facility head, provides quality improvement and support supervision trainings and support of the clinic Tasked with the supervision of staff under the RAPID-VL project and liaising with other study staff at multiple Health facilities and the IDRC office in South Western Uganda. Develop essential study documents such as protocols, SOPs and formulate training materials. Monitor and compile suspected adverse events and protocol violation reports and data queries as laid out in the study protocol and standard operating procedures. Arrange for, coordinate and facilitate structured continuous protocol trainings of the study staff. Work as the liaison coordinator between IDRC, the RAPID-VL project and participating District Local Governments & Implementing Partners personnel. Provide Site budget oversight including reviewing staff requests and budgets, approving project expenditures including but not limited to fuel vouchers, participant reimbursements, and other RAPID-VL study related expenditures. Review of requisitions for supplies, services and funds to run the RAPID-VL Project in South Western Uganda. Work closely with laboratory and the procurement department to quantify consumption and ensure that the necessary supplies and logistics needed to run the laboratory are in place. Develop periodic works plans and budgets. Appropriately manage and account for all allocated resources including logistical supplies and funds. Prepare and submit periodic study progress reports to present at local and extra-mural meetings including providing interim updates to the study investigators accordingly. Responsible for maintaining the good image IDRC/RAPID-VL at both internal and extra-mural fora. Ensure that the organizations properties under care like buildings, study equipment, patient care tools, furniture and automobiles are appropriately utilized and well maintained. Experience: Qualifications, Skills andExperience: The applicant must hold a Bachelors Degree in Medicine, and a masters in Public Health is an added advantage Must be registered with Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council with a valid Practicing license. GCP/HSP training a MUST At least two years of HIV experience or coordinating HIV related programs with good working knowledge of HIV /AIDS prevention, treatment and care service delivery. Practical experience working with District Health Officers (DHOs) and Community level Health structures in HIV Care and Treatment. Excellent teamwork, communication skills (both oral and written) with strong management and analytical skills. Knowledge of Runyakore/Rukiga languages (spoken, written and comprehension). Excellent report writing skills Working knowledge of MS office Computer packages Ability to work in a rural setting How to Apply: Send applications to: The Human Resource Manager, Infectious Diseases Research Collaboration (IDRC), P. O Box 7475, Kampala, 2C Nakasero Hill Road OR IDRC Tororo Office at the Tororo District Hospital OR IDRC Mbarara Office Opposite Lake View Hotel OR IDRC Mbale Office on Plot 35 Masaba Road OR IDRC Busia Office at Masafu General Hospital OR IDRC Fort portal Office Kagote Division, Kabafumu Road OR IDRC Jinja Bugembe Office next to Uganda Prisons. Applications can also be submitted to HR@idrc-uganda.org ADDITIONAL IMPORTANT COMMENTS: Please note that failure to comply with the below will render your application invalid for this process. All applications must be accompanied by the following at the time of submission: Current CV (Use Word or PDF format only for email submissions; photos are not allowed). Typed letters of application (Use Word or PDF format only for email submissions; photos are not allowed) 2 reference letters from past employers or supervisors (Use Word or PDF format only for email submissions; photos are not allowed) Copies of academic certificates (Use Word or PDF format only for email submissions; photos are not allowed): If you are applying by mail, PLEASE ENTER YOUR NAME & THE NAME OF THE JOB OPENING IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR E-MAIL. Deadline: 8th November 2017 by 5:00pm find us on our facebook page For more of the latest jobs, please visit https://www.theugandanjobline.com orfind us on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/UgandanJobline Doug Rozendaal has been flying airplanes for more than four decades, but when he took off from Mason City Airport on Friday it was a first for Job Title: Associate Supply Officer Organisation: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Duty Station: Uganda Reports to: Senior Supply Officer About UNHCR: The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was established on December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. UNHCRs mandate under the Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees is to lead and co-ordinate action for international protection to refugees; seek permanent solutions for the problems of refugees and safeguard refugee rights and well-being. UNHCR has an additional mandate concerning issues of statelessness, as it is given a designated role under Article 11 of the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. Job Summary: The Associate Supply Officer manages and supports all activities pertaining to the supply chain function including planning, sourcing, transport, shipping, customs clearance and warehousing management in the operation for the UNHCR Office. Responsibilities: Key Duties andResponsibilities: Strategy: Prepare plans for delivery of relief items according to operational needs. Apply UNHCRs procurement strategy when planning for purchase of important commodities and services. Through regular physical verification of PPE establish their status, propose old and obsolete PPE for disposal and plan for the arrival of replacement items. Operational Support: Identify partners for supply chain projects based on objectives, priorities, strengths and resources of the implementing partner and/or contractor, according to criteria consistent with UNHCR rules and regulations. Resolve difficulties in the local supply chain by finding solutions to problems and bottlenecks, and provide regular reports on supply chain activities, the status of requests and the availability of items in the supply chain. Ensure timely customs clearance of consignments, and manage storage of goods according to best practices and UNHCR rules and regulations. Maintain an efficient system for the release, distribution and redeployment of goods. Coordinate transportation and distribution of relief items. Maintain accurate and comprehensive records on logistical activities and provide timely reports and updates both periodically and on request. Coordinate activities of implementing partners and/or contractors performing supply related activities, and ensure that they understand and adhere to relevant UNHCR rules and procedures. Through regular physical verification of PPE establish their status. Propose old and obsolete PPE for disposal and plan for arrival of replacement items. Infrastructure Support: Evaluate purchase requisitions to ensure that specifications, delivery dates and all other requirements are in order. Draft and dispatch quotation requests and/or tenders, assist in the evaluation of offers and draft bid-tabulations, and prepare proposals for award of contracts to the Committee on Contracts. Prepare Purchase Orders and send confirmations, requests for inspection and other correspondence; Monitor the manufacture/transport of ordered goods to ensure timely delivery. Analyse matters relating to procurement activities, and deliver information on all procurement activities within area of responsibility. Provide guidance and advice on UNHCR procurement policies and procedures to support and assist requesting sections. Implement effective asset and fleet management that regularly monitors the asset/fleet pool, saves cost and safeguards the investment of the organisation including receipt, inspection, registration and marking of new Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE), and organisation of the physical verification of PPE. Ensure that PPE agreements are properly issued and signed. Ensure proper preparation of disposal forms and cases for the Asset Management Board. Organise the disposal of PPE, according to Asset Management Board decisions. Provides asset management reports, customised reports, and gathers information on all assets and provides in-depth reports periodically and when requested. Analyse the quality of commodities and services delivered in relation to the needs of the location and established quality standards. Establish a local quality assurance process. Business Support: Routinely analyse the existing infrastructure and ensure that it is optimally aligned with the operational needs. Implement practical projects to improve supply performance that has clear objectives, timescales, tasks and resources defined. Monitor the project implementation and report on progress. Monitor the quality and accuracy of supply chain related data in relevant business systems. Compile and analyse statistical information, identify trends and developments in supply chain related matters that will assist in decision making. Disseminate, promote commitment to and monitor compliance with UNHCRs global policies, standards and guidance on supply chain management. Adapt local supply chain structures to be consistent with the operational needs. Ensure effective information flow in the supply chain and adapt local process to the prevailing environment. Any other responsibility deemed necessary or as delegated by the Head of Supply Management Service in order to meet the level of service requires by the organisation. Key Result Areas: Identify, assess and select vendors based on their capability for delivering commodities and services. Maintain vendor and item master databases. Allocate resources to meet demand and support the on-going operation in compliance with the resources allocation framework. Determine shipment methods, routes and delivery schedules to meet demand in the most timely and cost-effective manner. Award, approve and terminate local contracts in accordance with delegated authorities, as well as, relevant UNHCR regulations, rules and procedures. Enforce compliance of supervised staff with relevant UNHCR supply chain regulations, rules and procedures and appraise their performance. Experience: Qualifications, Skills andExperience: The ideal candidate for the United Nations UNHCR Associate Supply Officer career opportunity should hold an Undergraduate degree (equivalent of a BA/BS) in Business Administration, Marketing, Engineering, Logistics, Mathematics or a related field. At least three years of previous relevant professional job experience. Fluency in English with working knowledge of another relevant UN language. The applicant should have preferable completed the UNHCR learning programmes or specific training relevant to functions of the position such as the Supply Chain Learning Programme (SCLP). Other UN procurement and logistics training such as IAPSO and UNPD. Knowledge and working experience of PeopleSoft/MSRP Supply Chain applications. Personal Competencies: Accountability, Teamwork & Collaboration, Communication, Commitment to Continuous Learning, Client & Result Orientation, Organizational Awareness, Managing Resources, Analytical Thinking, Planning and Organizing Additional Information How to Apply: All interested Ugandan nationals who wish to join the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the aforementioned capacity are encouraged to click on the link below and follow the application instructions after reviewing the job details. th November 2017 Deadline: 6November 2017 India and Italy today inked six pacts, including on boosting cooperation in the energy and trade sectors, after extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni on key issues such as terrorism and cyber crime. The two leaders also discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral political and economic relations, apart from deliberating on strategic international and regional issues. Addressing a joint media event with Gentiloni, Modi said they discussed wide-ranging issues, including the challenges posed by terrorism and cyber crimes, while agreeing to enhance cooperation to counter them. Modi also noted that there was a huge potential for enhancing India-Italy trade ties. After the Modi-Gentiloni meeting, the two sides signed six pacts to deepen cooperation in the fields of railways sector safety, energy and promoting mutual investments, among others. Italy is India's fifth largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade of USD 8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. India's exports to Italy were at $4.90 billion, while its imports were at $3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of $1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached $3.22 billion. Ahead of his meeting with Modi, the visiting leader had described his visit as an opportunity to make ties between the two countries stronger. Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on Gentiloni and discussed issues of mutual interest, ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. Gentiloni's visit is the first prime ministerial trip from Italy in more than a decade. The India-Italy diplomatic ties were hit badly after two Italian marinesLatorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Gironeon board a ship named Enrica Lexie, were arrested for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in 2012. Italy claimed the ship was in international waters and that only the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) should apply. It also moved the international court. While Latorre returned to Italy in September 2014 following an order of the Supreme Court issued on health grounds, Girone was allowed to go in May 2016. They are now in Italy, pending the verdict by the arbitration court at the Hague. The Indo-Italy diplomatic row also impacted the European Union's relationship with India. The Uttar Pradesh police department has got a serious problem on its hands with reports of about 300 Pakistani nationals missing from various districts of the state. These Pakistani citizens had come to UP at various points of time to visit relatives and not returned to Pakistan, according to officials. The government is apprehensive that these missing people are acting as sleeping modules for some Pak-based terrorist organisation and are indulged in anti-national activities in India. Of these missing Pakistani nationals, 29 have reportedly been missing from central UP district of Kanpur followed by 25 from Bareilley. In Meerut, 22 Pakistanis have been reported missing, while in Moradabad district, the number is 16. Keeping in mind the gravity of the situation, the police department has issued an alert to all district police. The police have stepped up its efforts to locate these missing nationals and once they are traced they will deported to their country, If found involved in any anti-national activities, action will be taken against them according to law. Moradabad Deputy Inspector General of police Onkar Singh said a comprehensive campaign has been initiated in the district to nab these missing persons. Police teams have been inquiring and interrogating the relatives of these missing nationals and soon they will be located, he said. A few days ago, Moradabad police had arrested an alleged terror suspect Farhan Ahmed Ali who had been staying here for a long period using fake identity. After his interrogation, it came to light that he had wanted to take revenge for the 2002 Godhra riots during which many Muslims lost their lives in Gujarat. Is the Centre trying to create a more conducive atmosphere for the peace dialogue to be initiated soon by its special representative for Jammu and Kashmir? Or are political compulsions still driving its agenda? The Union government's plea in the Supreme Court on Monday seeking an adjournment of six months on the hearing of petitions filed against the Article 35A has baffled many and pleased some. The apex court on Monday adjourned the matter for three months. Former JK DGP Ashok Bhan feels that the governments decision was a well thought one, given that it has decided to send its special representative to the state, Dineshwar Sharma, to initiate a peace dialogue with various sections of society. Article 35A draws strength from article 370 of the constitution which gives special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The central government's plea before the SC to defer the hearing of Special Status case under Article 35 A of the Constitution is indicative of its seriousness to engage in a purposeful dialogue. Deferring of the case by the apex court creates a more conducive atmosphere for the Interlocutor to begin his work,'' Bhan told THE WEEK. However, former JK interlocutor M.M. Ansari said that the government's plea reflects its own political compulsions. This is how the alliance of the BJP and PDP can remain intact,'' he said. While Ansari feels the job of the special representative will be a ''futile exercise'' because the government is treating it solely as a security problem, Bhan said engagement is an essence of any conflict resolution exercise and the government was trying to do just that. With situation in Jammu and Kashmir showing signs of improvement after a turbulent 2016, the decision of the government to appoint a representative to initiate and carry forward a dialogue must be welcomed as a positive development,'' he said. Bhan, however, said that the immediate challenge for the interlocutor will be to analyse and understand what went wrong after a successful assembly poll in 2014. Bhan said that a review of the contents of the agenda of alliance (AoA) and understanding the reasons behind the inability of the coalition to move forward on them can provide a possible insight into the cause of disillusionment among people . Notably, the agenda of alliance, among other issues, included sustained dialogue with internal stake holders and maintaining present position on all Constitutional provisions including special status,'' he pointed out. He said a periodic review of the need for special laws, protection and fostering of religious diversity by return of Kashmiri Pandits, settlement of refugees from West Pakistan and PoK and equitable attention to different regions were also part of the agenda of alliance. These are all issues that need attention to make the environment conducive for development. While development and good governance are important, it will be the issues with political overtones that will generate more enthusiasm among stakeholders, he said. The government may soon realise that the political context of its various decisions is what is likely to enthuse the people more than the ''security aspect'', observed a security official in the Valley . The official also said that it should be left to the interlocutor to recommend confidence building measures at appropriate times to facilitate a purposeful and result-oriented dialogue . Opposition Congress in Gujarat had a time to rejoice on Monday as its meeting with Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), the organisation spearheading the reservation stir, ended on a positive note. On its part, the Congress accepted four of the five major demands of the PAAS and a detailed discussion on reservation would be held shortly. Following this meeting held at the state Congress headquartersRajiv Gandhi Bhavan in Ahmedabadit is now clear that the PAAS will not disrupt Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's meeting scheduled to be held in Surat, South Gujarat, on November 3. A few days before, PAAS convener Hardik Patel had given an ultimatum to the Congress to clear its stand on how it would give them reservation or face the consequences. He would have to face what national BJP president Amit Shah was subjected to, a few months ago. PAAS workers had created a ruckus at a meeting in which Shah, Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, and Patidar MLAs were present. Shah had to cut short his speech. The ruling BJP was quick to response and deputy chief minister Nitin Patel said that the meeting between Congress leaders and representatives of PAAS was held as part of conspiracy. It was apparent that the BJP was nervous. He appealed to the Patidar community to not to get misguided. He asked PAAS and Congress to clarify the assurance that was given on OBC reservation. Other than OBC reservation, each demand of the Patidars has been met, Patel claimed. Congress leader Siddharth Patel said that should the Congress come to power, the party agreed that it would give Rs 35 lakh to the kin of those killed in 2015. Based on their qualifications, one person from the family of those killed will also be given a job, the Congress agreed. It also said that it would set up a Rs 2,000 crore commission for the upper caste to facilitate education of economically poor. The opposition Congress also agreed to set up SIT to inquire into the alleged atrocities on the Patidars and take action against the guilty policemen. It also agreed that all cases against the Patidars, including sedition cases, would be withdrawn. Hardik, who held a press conference in Rajkot, post meeting the Congress, said that on the reservation issue they have asked the Congress to make them talk to the lawyers to discuss how they can get reservation, as per the constitution. Specifying that he was not a Congress agent, Hardik alleged that the BJP had not accepted their demands. He said that the Patidars had helped the BJP by all means for the last 25 years. Hardik said that there was a need to trust the Congress. He also made it clear once again that come what may, they will not support the BJP. Let them slap sedition charges and put in jail, he said. Bhugat Raha Hai Deshthis will be the slogan with which the Congress will take to the streets on November 8, the first anniversary of demonetisation, to protest against the Modi government's decision last year to scrap high value notes. The slogan, whose English counterpart is 'India is suffering', and the modalities of the protest to be held across the country, were decided at a meeting chaired by Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi at the party headquarters in Delhi on Monday. The meeting, which included AICC general secretaries and state in-charges, was also attended by former prime minister Manmohan Singh, former finance minister P. Chidambaram, senior party leader A.K. Antony, former Union minister Jairam Ramesh and finance ministers of the Congress-ruled states. The Congress' assessment is that after one year of demonetisation, and with the impact of 'faulty' implementation of the Goods and Services Tax having an impact on businesses, rendering people unemployed and the common man feeling the pinch, the party could look at the 'suffering of the people' as a theme to take on the Modi government, not just in the context of the coming Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat, but through to the next Lok Sabha elections, scheduled to be held in 2019. In a brief statement after the meeting, Rahul said, The prime minister has failed to understand the pain in the hearts of the people of this country. The PM's decision of notebandi was an out-and-out disaster. I don't know what the government will celebrate on November 8. He said that the demonetisation and the GST were 'two torpedoes' that Modi had fired at India's economy, and while the economy survived the first attack, the second one succeeded in destroying it. On November eight, Congress workers will take to the streets in every district and state headquarters. While rallies and demonstrations will be held during the day, candle marches will be carried out in the evening. Rahul is also expected to participate in the protest. Meanwhile, the meeting noted that there is 'widespread anger' amongst the traders with regard to GST, and it was decided that the ministers from Congress governments on the GST council will take up the problem areas in the meetings of the panel even as the party vociferously raises the issues outside. It is felt that the government is on the backfoot over the impact of the demonetisation and the GST, and it would be politically beneficial for the Congress to take on the Modi regime aggressively on these issues. There was a certain amount of arrogance in the government. However, since BJP leader Yashwant Sinha's letter went public and there is a groundswell of opinion, the government is a lot more amenable now to our suggestions, said Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal. US Secretary of State Rex Tillersons India tour in the wake of President Donald Trumps new Afghan strategy that suggests bigger Indian role in the war-torn country contrary to years of opposition to Indias active role there, has generated lot of hope and optimism in Delhi. Tillerson, during his maiden visit to India while meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj and National Security Advisor Ajit Doval discussed issues of strengthening Indo-US partnership, Indias leadership on peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region, and its vital role in Trump administrations South Asia strategy. It is essential two democracies work together to address challenges facing both of them. After Soviet disintegration accompanied by end of cold war rivalry, all of Indias bid to improve ties with US had utterly failed. However, US after realising India to be huge market for its products, particularly military hardware, has displayed interest to strengthen ties with India since 2005 when both countries signed the historic defense framework agreement. Since then, ties between the two largest democracies have been growing fast. The other US objective in strengthening ties with India is to meet challenges of Chinas unprecedented rise in Indo-Pacific region and help resolve Afghan issue. What we should not lose sight of is that US has never treated any country, not even its most important allyGreat Britainas equal partner. So the unequal partnership with Washington may force India to pay heavy price in terms of influencing our relationship with third countries negatively. Indias strategic autonomy in the domain of foreign policy should not be compromised at any cost for the sake of our partnership with US, as it was done, for instance in case of Iran, when we backed out from Iran-PakistanIndia pipeline project and supported the US move to take Iranian nuclear issue to the UN under blatant US pressure . Our growing partnership with US is no doubt welcome but it should not be permitted to happen at the cost of our relationship with other strategic partners like Russia. Though Moscow officially does not object to Indias growing partnership with Washington, it does have misgivings about it. It is not an accident that strengthening of our partnership with US since 2005 coincided with deterioration of ties with our time-tested friendMoscow. It is also no accident that this period witnessed improvement of ties between Russia and Pakistan though Moscow never said it openly. This is a fall out of Indias bid to strengthen strategic ties with Washington at its cost. But discussions in Russian think tanks and analysis by Russian scholars do emphasise that relations with Pakistan should be used as a leverage to prevent Indo-US relations growing to the disadvantage of Moscow. India has serious reservations about Moscow promoting ties with Pakistan, establishing defense cooperation and holding joint military exercises with it. Russia-Pakistan joint military exercise Druzba and Moscows willingness to sell helicopters raised lot of heat and dust in India. Some of Indian media went to the extent of stripping Russia of the status of special and privileged strategic partner. If India wants to prevent these developments, Delhi has to be mindful to some of Russias concerns. Indo-Russian special and privileged strategic partnership has to be based on convergence of long-term national interests and on the principle of give and take. The argument that Moscow does not have any potential to help us in any way to emerge as a global power is misplaced. If any major country is sincerely supportive of our rise as a global power, it is Russia. It was the first major power to support Indias aspirations to be a permanent member of the reformed UN Security Council, whereas US's position so far on the issue is ambiguous at the best. We should not forget that the positive outcome for India in the latest BRICS summit held in China where Pak-based terror outfits were for the first time mentioned in the groupings resolution is a result of Russian effort. Russia played no less positive role in resolving the Doklam faceoff with China in order to make the BRICs summit a success. If any country has made any serious contribution to Indias Make in India programme, it is Russia, which had helped us in industrialising India in the past. Another irritant in the Indo-Russian partnership is differences on Afghanistan and Russias Pak ties, which have been simply blown out of proportion by the media. We are very comfortable with some of our strategic partners that have much larger relationship with Pakistan. That is why Indias knee-jerk reaction to Moscows growing but limited ties with Islamabad and to deprive Russia of Indias special and privileged strategic partner status is unwanted and misplaced. India cannot simply afford to ignore or neglect the unique strategic partnership with Russia. Arun Mohanty is a professor at Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies, JNU Raisina Hill has been busy of late, with back to back high level visits. The last week has seen a stream of dignitariesFrench defence minister Florence Parly, US secretary of state Rex Tillerson and Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani. Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni is on his India tour, and the coming days promise more. With most visits (except Ghani's), the hope was of taking further defence deals with India. India is in the need for defence equipment and countries are hoping to better each other with deals that India could find lucrative, even mulling over possibilities of production under Make in India. The forthcoming visit of the King and Queen of BhutanHis Majesty Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuk and Her Majesty The Gyaltsuen Jetsun Pema Wangchukand their son, his Royal Highness The Gyalsey Jigme Namgyel Wangchuk is also of significance from the defence viewpoint, albeit a different viewpoint. The significance of the four day visit, starting October 31, is not lost on anyone and the memory of Doklam is still fresh. The incident tested the ties of the two nations, and though matters were resolved amicably after a very strained standoff with China, there is reason enough for Bhutan to visit its protectorate India and reaffirm the relationship. A few weeks ago, foreign secretary S. Jaishankar had visited Thimpu and held high level meetings with the Bhutanese. 2018 is an important year; it will mark the golden jubilee of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries. India and Bhutan enjoy unique ties of friendship, which are characterised by deep understanding and mutual trust. The visit of His Majesty the KIng of Bhutan is in keeping with the long standing tradition of regular high level exchanges between the two countries,'' said a release from the Ministry of External Affairs. The King and Queen will meet the president, vice president and prime minister, who will host a dinner in their honour. The visit would provide an opportunity to both sides for reviewing the entire gamut of bilateral cooperation, including plans for celebrating the golden jubilee of the establishment of diplomatic ties,'' the MEA added. The Bhutanese Queen is an alumna of Lawrence School, Sanawar and the royal couple had visited India on their honeymoon in 2011. India is Bhutan's largest trading partner. Bhutan's main export is hydropower, two thirds of which it sells to India. The hydroelectric plants were set up with the help from India. India has nurtured Bhutan closely; it provides a much needed buffer with China. Of late, however, there have been worries over China's overreach to Bhutan During the Doklam standoff; peace loving Bhutan found itself in an uncomfortable position, sandwiched between the egos of two Asian giants. The standoff also tested loyalties and resilience tremendously. Two days after nine infants died in less than 24 hours at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, Asia's largest civil hospital, a probe panel has said that the deaths were not a result of alleged laxity or inadequacy of hospital staff or improper treatment facilities. Out of the nine infants who died on October 28, five were referred to the Civil Hospital from other government facilities/health centres in the state and four were born at the Civil Hospital. The root cause as per the findings was the extremely low birth weight of the infants and low health of mothers. According to officials, five infants were referred from Lunawada, Surendranagar, Mansa, Viramgam and Himmatnagar. A three-member probe panel comprising Dr Raghav Dixit, director of medical education, Dr Nilesh Shah, a gynecologist and Dr Himanshu Joshi, a pediatrician was formed by the state government. Jayanti Ravi, health commissioner of Gujarat, said in Gandhinagar on Monday that out of the nine, four infants died of birth asphyxiation. Three died due to fragile conditions during their birth and two died of septicemia. According to her, the probe team inspected equipment of the hospital and availability of medicines among other things. Jayanti said that as far as the hospital was concerned, there was nothing to be blamed. The low birth weight of infants, malnutrition among children and health conditions of mothers, especially in the rural areas of Gujarat, have become debatable at a time when the state goes to polls in December. Questions are also being raised over the state government's various schemes for children and mothers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday lashed out at the alleged "Congress culture" of stalling projects and keeping them pending, and said his government had taken steps to end it. He was speaking after inaugurating the 107km Bidar- Kalaburagi railway line, built at a cost of Rs 1,542 crore. The project was conceived in 1994. "The Congress' work culture is atkana (hinder), latkana (delay) and bhatkana (mislead) to stall projects. You will get thousands of such projects in India that get started to reap political mileage but later get stalled," Modi said. The delay in implementing the projects led to cost overruns and the previous government was to be blamed for this "criminal negligence", he alleged. "If we have to move forward we have to end this work culture. We have taken steps to do away with it. We have given importance to time-bound work culture," Modi said. Modi also reaffirmed his government's commitment to fighting corruption. "We are fighting corruption. The Congress has become insensitive. I was surprised that when in Gujarat there were floods, Rajya Sabha election was also going on in the state," he said. "When people were dying in floods, fields were getting washed away and farmers were in distress, all their (Congress) legislators were enjoying in Bengaluru. At the same time a minister's house was raided by Income Tax (department) and bundles of notes were recovered," he alleged. Gujarat Congress MLAs were in Bengaluru during the Rajya Sabha polls in August, in which Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel faced a tricky battle but managed to scrape through. The party had claimed that they were brought to the Karnataka capital to prevent the BJP from poaching them. Modi's reference to the IT raid related to Karnataka Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar. He also said people of the country would not forgive those who run their businesses with "bags filled with notes". Such people now feel they have been looted due to demonetisation and that they are now in distress, he said. "You will be surprised that due to demonetisation the notes that got deposited in banks... we kept track of where they have come from. Three lakh bogus companies that we have come to know of were involved in hawala and each company used to have 1,000 bank accounts," Modi said. "Despite our shutting these three lakh companies, no one burnt Modi's effigies," he said. The prime minister said officials were working with the help of technology and it was found that there was dishonest business of about Rs 4,000 crore in 5,000 of the three lakh shell companies. "This money belongs to the country's poor and honest citizens. I cannot allow it to be looted, so I'm in this fight," he said. On the Goods and Services Tax, Modi said all state governments were part of decisions related to it and its implementation was a collective decision of all parties. The trading community had not opposed the GST and accepted it. It only complained about shortcomings. They brought it to the government's notice and it had to be set right, he said. "I want to tell the trading community that you give suggestions...my government functions with an open mind. We are ready to make all improvements." Modi said he had also told the bureaucracy that an environment of honesty prevails in the country. Earlier, there were many traders who did not issue bills. Now they are saying that they do not want to do it and will work by the rules, he said. "They fear that if they follow law and rules, officials will question them about their earlier trading history... I want to assure the trading community that no official will open your old office (files). Those who want to move forward for the country, they will be given full protection," he said. "Earlier some things might have happened, but if they now want to walk the right path, they are welcome. They will be given protection...It is the government's duty to support them," he said. "I want to tell all small and big traders, if still any official troubles you, write me a letter. I will fight for you," he said. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah skipped the function as he had earlier made known his displeasure over being invited at the last minute. He, however, deputed a senior cabinet colleague. Launching a fierce attack on the Modi government over demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST), Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi charged Prime Minister Narendra Modi with not understanding the pain of the people. Gandhi, who held a meeting with AICC general secretaries at the party headquarters to fine tune the Congress' protest on the two economic decisions of the government, said he wonders what the Modi regime would celebrate on November 8the first anniversary of demonetisation. "The prime minister has failed to understand the pain in the hearts of the people of this country. The PM's decision of notebandi was an out-and-out disaster. I don't know what the government will celebrate on November 8," the Congress vice president told reporters. He said the meeting discussed the impact of demonetisation and GST on the economy of the country and added that the manner in which GST was implemented showed how a good idea could be destroyed. Gandhi said the two economic decisions were two "big blows" to India's economy. Quoting what Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal said in the meeting, Gandhi said the two decisions were like two torpedoes that Modi had shot at the economy of the country. "The economy managed to survive the first torpedo. But the second torpedo destroyed it. "There is massive pain in people's hearts. But the prime minister cannot feel it," he said. The meeting was attended by former prime minister Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P. Chidambaram besides the AICC general secretaries. The Congress plans to hold nation-wide protests on November 8 to focus on what it claims is the massive impact that demonetisation has had on the lives of people and the country's economy, calling it 'black day. The Centre, on the other hand, has decided to celebrate the day as 'anti-black money day'. Interestingly, the protests will be held just a day ahead of assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh. The Supreme Court on Monday asked the father of a Kerala woman, who had converted to Islam and married a Muslim man, to produce her before it on November 27. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud ordered that Hadiya should speak in open court and not in camera. Ashokan had pleaded before the court that the case be heard in-camera. The woman, Akhila, a Hindu, had converted to Islam and later married Jahan. She had also taken the name Hadiya. It was alleged that the woman was recruited by Islamic State's mission in Syria and Jahan was only a stooge. The marriage had been challenged in the High Court by Hadiya's father, who also alleged that her husband had links with terror group IS. According to media reports, the court said, ""Marriage is a personal affair. There is no law stating that a person can't marry a criminal. Don't try to curb individual cases." The NIA, which probed the love jihad case, told the court, "Consent is manipulated by indoctrination, radicalisation. In fact, people with hypnotic expertise have been employed to manipulate young women." (With agency inputs) (PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE) In its fifth year, a fast-growing movement that encourages Jews around the world to observe a single Shabbos attracted record-setting levels of participation. From Oct. 27-28, 2017, The Shabbos Project which was introduced in South Africa in 2013 before going global the following year featured events attended by more than one million people in 97 countries and 1,416 cities around the world (up from 1,152 cities in 2016). It was deeply inspiring to watch this movement reach new heights in 2017, says South African Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein, the founder and director of The Shabbat Project. Each year, more and more Jews are coming together across every conceivable dividelanguage, culture, ethnicity, geography, and observanceto enjoy the simple, yet profound gifts of Shabbat. The Shabbat Project is uniting world Jewry by getting us back to the basics. In the US alone from Teaneck to Thompsonville, Miami to Mableton, Baltimore to Bridgeport there were a total of 586 participating cities. Of particular note this year, Shabbat Project activities served as a refuge and safe haven in areas of North America that were recently affected by either natural or man-made disasters. Following the hurricanes in Houston and South Florida, the earthquakes in Mexico, and the deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas, Shabbat Project events in those locations enabled participants to take a collective deep breath and enjoy the restorative 25 hours of the day of rest. In Israel, where President Reuven Rivlin officially endorsed the project joining public figures as varied as HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky Shlita, Ron Huldai, Yair Lapid, Aviv Alush, Natan Sharansky and Amir Ohana there were 307 participating cities (including kibbutzim and moshavim/yishuvim) and 331 main events taking place across the country, not including countless Shabbat meals and kiddush gatherings in streets, parks and apartment buildings. Europe (48 participating cities in France, 33 in Russia and around 100,000 people taking part in the UK, where Prime Minister Theresa May commended the project); Latin America (138 cities); and Australia (Sydney and Melbourne each had more than 10,000 participants) all had record numbers celebrating this years Shabbat Project, while countries such as Mozambique, Cyprus, Paraguay and Venezuela hosted Shabbat Project festivities for the first time. Stories big and small are already beginning to emerge from across the globe 1,000 Israelis eating dinner in a shipping hanger in Tel Aviv; a tour group of 30 people from around the world opting to keep a full Shabbos together in Marrakesh, Morocco; 3,000 at an open-air musical Kabolas Shabbos overlooking the iconic Sydney Harbor Bridge; an interfaith unity bake bringing together Muslim and Jewish children at a local preschool in nearby Woolahra; the lone Jew serving in an army regiment in Abuja, Nigeria who kept Shabbos with the rest of the Jewish world; the estimated 20,000 people taking part in San Diego; the two South African expats keeping Shabbat together in Amman, Jordan. There were the 750 people at a free block-party Shabbos luncheon served in a parking lot in Toco Hills, Georgia; the hundreds of Jewish teenagers brought together by the EnerJew youth movement to celebrate Shabbat in 40 cities in the Former Soviet Union; the Dark Tisches Friday night meditative gatherings held in total darkness in venues across Johannesburg and Cape Town; the pop-up shuls in places where no synagogues were within walking distance. In Kochav Yair, central Israel, the seudas shlishis was laid out on 25 streets as neighbors of all levels of observance got to know each other better. On the Mexico-US border, a binational challah bake brought together the communities of Tijawana and South County, SD. In Puerto Iguazo, Argentina, the owner of a local guest house hosted a full Shabbaton free-of-charge, including kosher meals, for a group of 14 Israeli backpackers. To co-ordinate the global initiative on such a large scale, a centralized team worked with around 8,000 volunteer partners worldwide up from 6,000 partners in 2016. At the Shabbat Project headquarters in Johannesburg, a team of designers, copywriters and campaign strategists worked around the clock, custom-designing marketing and educational materials for hundreds of cities and executing print-runs in the tens of thousands, while eight separate help desks at the international call center in Tel Aviv fielded tens of thousands of calls and emails across 10 different languages. That the Shabbat Project was able to spread to new cities and reach new people can be attributed in no small part to a Facebook campaign that reached a collective 5.2 million people worldwide. The response from around the world has been overwhelming and heart-warming, and shows the remarkable depth and reach of The Shabbat Project, says Goldstein. There has been a great outpouring of joy and excitement, with so many people touched in deeply personal ways. Such a visceral reaction demonstrates that the ideas of Jewish unity and Shab bat are compelling to Jews from all walks of life. From the reports that are emerging, its clear that there has again been a significant increase in participation this year and I am confident this social movement will continue to expand as more and more people taste the magic of Shabbat and experience the beauty of Jews coming together in a spirit of unity. Photos: Challah bake events around the world. (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem/Photo credit: Shabbat Project) Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and PA (Palestinian Authority) Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah met secretly on Sunday due to US pressure, towards strengthen economic cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians, Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) reported on Monday morning 10 Cheshvan. According to the report, Kahlon and the Palestinian PM met to promote economic initiatives, the most important of which is the establishment of an industrial zone in Tarkumiya where Jews, mainly chareidi residents of Modiin Illit, will work alongside Palestinians. The meeting was kept secret and the parties did not make any announcement about it. This is the second meeting in the last six months of Kahlon with the Palestinian prime minister, as stated, due to American pressure that seeks to achieve political movement, at least in the economic arena. President Donald Trumps special Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt tweeted Monday that the meeting in Ramallah yielded meaningful steps forward on key economic issues revenues, customs and investment that help support the search for peace. It was also reported that those who are delaying the construction of the new industrial zone are the Palestinians, and the meeting with Kahalon is intended to advance the initiative into action. In addition, other economic initiatives were discussed at the meeting. The meeting was kept secret by Israel since following the signing of the agreement between Fatah and Hamas; Israel announced it would halt all contact with PA officials until Hamas denounces violence and recognizes the existence of the State of Israel, which is yet to occur. Important progress last night between Israeli & Palestinian sides led by @RamiHamdalla & @KahlonMoshe & Gen Mordechai of @Cogat_Israel (1/2) pic.twitter.com/VzFVbkBnX1 Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) October 30, 2017 Meaningful steps forward on key economic issues revenues, customs, and investment that help support the search for peace (2/2) Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) October 30, 2017 (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) In recent months there has been a significant increase in the number of Israelis diagnosed with mumps. Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control announced that it plans to consider adding a third vaccine, in addition to vaccinations given to children a year old, to protect against the virus, which apparently has arisen. The Health Ministry is considering this step. According to updated data from the Department of Epidemiology in the Ministry of Health, it emerges that from 2017 until last September, 320 people contracted the disease, while last year only 40 were infected. This is a jump of more than 800 percent in the rate of infection. The real numbers are probably much higher and are not reported. Most cases of infection have been recorded in the Jerusalem District, which has also known viral outbreaks in the past. In the current epidemic it is not yet clear how many of the people with the disease were not vaccinated against the mumps. The vaccination against the illness is given in two doses in Israel: one at the age of one year and another at age 6. What then caused a significant increase in the number of cases this year? It is estimated that in recent years there have been new subtypes of the return virus, which have overcome the vaccine and caused a return of the illness. An article published by Prof. Itamar Grotto, Deputy Director-General of the Health Ministry, and Dr. Emilia Anis, head of the Epidemiology Unit at the Health Ministry, cited the rise in the number of cases in the past. The authors note that an increase in cases is also recorded in Europe, despite the high rate of immunization, which appears to indicate that the vaccine is no longer effective against the recombinant virus, and it may be necessary to have a new vaccine or an additional booster dose of antibodies to give maximum protection against the same virus. Yeshiva students who dorm are at particularly high risk due to crowded conditions that usually exist in such a setting. Outbreaks to populations at risk include youth living in student dormitories or in apartments with many partners, or students living in overcrowded or at high risk of illness due to other patients around them. The CDC recommended these people get a vaccine. The Israeli Ministry of Health is currently considering a third vaccination among young people, to raise the level of antibodies to the disease, a level that has not been raised since the last vaccination at the age of one year that the children received in Tipat Chalav well-baby clinics. The Health Ministry recommends that adults have two doses on board which are received via the MMR vaccine. CDC Signs and Symptoms of Mumps Mumps is best known for the puffy cheeks and swollen jaw that it causes. This is a result of swollen salivary glands. The most common symptoms include: Fever Headache Muscle aches Tiredness Loss of appetite Swollen and tender salivary glands under the ears on one or both sides (parotitis) Symptoms typically appear 16-18 days after infection, but this period can range from 12-25 days after infection. Some people who get mumps have very mild or no symptoms, and often they do not know they have the disease. Most people with mumps recover completely in a few weeks. Mumps can occasionally cause complications, especially in adults. Complications include: inflammation of the testicles (orchitis) in males who have reached puberty; rarely does this lead to fertility problems inflammation of the brain (encephalitis) inflammation of the tissue covering the brain and spinal cord (meningitis) inflammation of the ovaries (oophoritis) and/or breast tissue (mastitis) deafness (YWN Israel Desk, Jerusalem) BT chief Gavin Patterson is expected to come under renewed scrutiny this week as the firm battles to recover from a series of setbacks. The telecoms giant is due to reveal its second-quarter results on Thursday one day after Jan du Plessis takes over as chairman. Under pressure: Gavin Patterson's BT has endured a torrid year so far It comes after what has been a torrid year for BT so far. Since January its share price has plunged by about 30 per cent as it grappled with a 14bn pension scheme deficit, a 530m accounting scandal at its Italian division, a slowdown in public sector business and bitter rows with the telecoms watchdog, Ofcom. The company is also under political pressure to invest more cash into Britains broadband infrastructure, with investors also keen to avoid any cuts to their dividend. Together the crises have prompted one of BTs top investors to call for Patterson, 50, to be sacked. Du Plessis, the former chairman of miner Rio Tinto, expressed support for Patterson at BTs AGM in July, but will have to decide whether to keep the chief executive in post. The boss of Britains biggest tech firm is to become the best-paid FTSE 100 executive thanks to a 24m bonus. Kevin Loosemore, executive chairman of Micro Focus, is set to pocket the cash as part of a reward scheme set up in 2014. Bumper bonus: Kevin Loosemore, executive chairman of Micro Focus, is set to pocket the cash as part of a reward scheme set up in 2014 It will see four executives at the company handed shares worth 60m for meeting performance targets set when they snapped up software firm Attachmate for 900m. The payout comes after it emerged that Loosemore, 58, and other bosses at the company were in line for a share of 270m providing they increase Micro Focuss share price over the next two years which has already rocketed more than 350 per cent under Loosemore leadership. That deal was agreed after the takeover of Hewlett Packard Enterprises software business last month, and could see Loosemore collect another 37.4m. Bank failure Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, is to face a grilling by MPs over its investigation into how Royal Bank of Scotlands restructuring unit GRG treated small business customers. Tech deals The amount of cash invested by Silicon Valley in British tech companies has more than doubled in a year. In the spotlight: Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, is to face a grilling by MPs Research by London & Partners found US venture capital funds based in California had ploughed 884.8m into UK start-ups so far this year, up from 342m in 2016. More power Consumer champion Martin Lewis has warned that Britains ombudsman services are outdated and lack the powers they need to be effective. The founder of Money Saving Expert has conducted an all-party review which is due to be presented to Parliament this week. Spain pain The constitutional crisis in Spain has caused almost 1,700 businesses to relocate out of crisis-hit Catalonia since the beginning of October, according to official figures. Sales down Fashion chain Next is forecast to reveal a 5.3 per cent fall in third-quarter sales at its shops when it announces its results on Wednesday. However, overall performance is expected to be cushioned by online arm Next Directory, where sales are predicted to have grown 1 per cent. HSBC booked a 448 per cent rise in profits as its increased focus on Asia paid off. Third quarter profits rose to $4.6billion (3.5billion), but this was skewed by HSBC's disposal of its Brazilian business last year, and some accounting adjustments. Factoring out these effects, third quarter pre-tax profits actually fell 1 per cent to $5.4billion (4.1billion). Rising revenues: HSBC said it experienced growth across three of its main businesses The banking giant, which faces a fresh probe for an alleged role in money-laundering in South Africa, saw adjusted revenues grow by 2.3 per cent to $13billion (10billion), ahead of analysts' expectations. However, the rise in revenues was partly offset by higher expenses, which grew by around $500million to $7.7billion (5.8billion). HSBC said this was a result of an increase in investment for growth as well as higher performance related payments. Shares in HSBC were 0.95 per cent, or 7.1p lower at 741.2p in morning trading. HSBC said it experienced growth across three of its main businesses, with revenue increasing across its retail banking and wealth management operations, commercial banking, as well as its global banking and markets division. It saw especially strong growth in Asia, which is its key market, generating 70 per cent of group profits. 'Our international network continued to deliver strong growth in the third quarter, and our pivot to Asia is driving higher returns and lending growth, particularly in Hong Kong,' chief executive Stuart Gulliver said. Gulliver, who has been cutting jobs and assets as part of efforts to boost profits, said that the strategic overhaul launched back in 2015 was making good progress and that the banks's target of 4.6billion in cost savings was on track. New chief executive John Flint will take up the role on February 21 The bank also added that it had completed around 71 per cent of its $2billion (1.5billion) share buy-back scheme, which was first announced in July. Laith Khalaf, senior analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown said: 'After taking out the effect of the Brazilian sale, the underlying numbers are not quite as flattering to the progress made by HSBC. Profit in the third quarter actually fell backwards slightly, as operating costs rose faster than revenues.' 'The retail and commercial banking arm performed pretty well but have been let down by a weak showing in the investment banking division. However this is against a backdrop of a market-wide downturn in fixed income trading, and actually HSBC has held up better than many of its competitors.' 'Regionally it's Asia which is doing the heavy lifting for HSBC, and while the bank is headquartered in the UK and is the second largest company in the FTSE 100, its business primarily resides in the far east.' 'The fortunes of HSBC are therefore largely tied up in the Asian growth story, for better or worse. As the CEO baton is about to be passed from Stuart Gulliver to John Flint, HSBC will hope to make good on its eastern promise.' This is the first set of results since HSBC announced it had appointed John Flint as its new chief executive, replacing the long-standing Gulliver. Flint, who currently heads up retail banking and wealth management at the lender, will take up the role on February 21. The bank added that it had completed around 71 per cent of its $2billion (1.5billion) share buy-back scheme, which was first announced in July. MBABANE Ezulwini Reinsurance Company, which boasts of an over E60 million (US$5 million) share capital, has officially been launched. The first re-insurance company to be licenced by the Financial Services Regulatory (FSRA) is a partnership between Public Service Pensions Fund (PSPF) (51 per cent) and Tanzania Reinsurance Company (49 per cent). The company, whose name has been inspired by the fastest developing town in the kingdom, Ezulwini, seeks to actively manage capital to ensure risk capital adequacy at all times. The reinsurance firm will from time to time ensure that the level of capital is adequate to meet stakeholder obligations. Chairman of the Ezulwini Reinsurance Board of Directors, Cleopas Dlamini, explained that in line with their vision to become one of the biggest insurers in the African region and beyond, they would continue to be on the lookout for opportunities to bolster shareholding structure and capital base. Tanzania Board Chairman Wilson Ndesanjo said it gave him great pleasure on behalf of his board to express gratitude to the Swazi Government for allowing their company to operate in the kingdom. Ezulwini Reinsurance is a product of our strategic plan to expand our tentacles in Africa. This project gives us an impetus to service the Southern African market, said Ndesanjo. He enunciated that the company was already doing business in more than 44 African countries through the Der Es Salaam office. Ndesanjo said their southern African market is made up of Mozambique, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia. It is in that vein that Tanzania Reinsurance saw it fit to invite a giant financial (in PSPF), said Ndesanjo. Minister for Finance Martin Dlamini, who was represented by Minister for Public Service Owen Nxumalo, gave acknowledgement to Tanzania Reinsurance, who through their opportunity identification process in the kingdom, had facilitated African regional integration through Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). This augments the spirit of partnership. I would also like to believe that in the same context, you also create opportunity linkages for specialist technological knowledge transfer, Dlamini said. Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Sandile Dlamini said granting of the Ezulwini Reinsurance licence was the an icing on top of the insurance industry development cake which currently has 10 players. Tanzania Commissioner of Insurance Dr Baghayo Saqware said they were glad that Tanzania Reinsurance had expanded to Swaziland. He said this was a sign of efficient service provision. The FSRA should have comfort in Tanzania Reinsurance because they are a good company that thrives in good corporate initiatives, said Saqware. The United States has the world's largest incarcerated population. Nebraska's prisons capacity is among the highest in the nation. For every person who enters a local jail, state penitentiary or federal prison, the ripple effect of that person's absence stretches far beyond the facility's walls. And possibly no population on the outside is more affected than children whose parents are sentenced to serve time behind bars. As prison populations nationwide have increased, it's worth taking a closer look how Nebraska handles its parents and their children, given that nearly two-thirds of the roughly 9,000 state inmates are identified as parents. An interim study resolution, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, is taking a needed look at this vulnerable yet important group. Among the nine points explicitly enumerated in the resolution are examining policies on visitation and calls, locations where certain parents serve their sentences, reducing recidivism among parents and creating child-friendly programs, both within correctional institutions and programs for families. The conversations in Pansing Brooks' resolution, which picked up three conservative co-sponsors, must be had. A growing body of data highlights the thin line an ever-growing number of children must walk. A Pew Center study in 2010 estimated that more than 2.7 million children one in 28 have at least one incarcerated parent. That figure, still cited today, came after a 2007 U.S. Department of Justice survey placed the figure at 1.7 million. It followed yet another 79 percent increase between 1991 and 2007. A University of Pittsburgh summary of outcomes for children of incarcerated parents noted that the interactions in prisons and jails have critical impacts down the road. Those whose visits to their parents aren't paired with interventions or atmospheres to make a difficult place more inviting trended toward negative results. Conversely, increased child-parent contact and more child-friendly environments yielded better outcomes for both parties. Another 2014 study conducted by researchers at the University of California-Irvine found children with a parent in prison or jail were significantly more likely to suffer from poor physical and mental health. This is compounded by a body of evidence showing that the incarceration of a parent has significant, obvious negative impact on family's socioeconomic status. Official names for many jails and prisons stress their ultimate purpose of inmates atoning for crimes committed corrections, reformatory, penitentiary. Nearly all who enter a prison one day leave it. They come out changed, but their responsibilities as a parent remains the same. All the while, the vital job of parenting waits outside prison walls. Nebraska must seek the best outcomes to ensure parents serving time and their children have the best chance to succeed despite a difficult separation. PRESS RELEASE MITHRA COMPLETES RECRUITMENT FOR estelle phase iii study in US & Canada Estelle Phase III study in US/Canada remains on track to report top line data in Q1 2019 Study recruited 2148 women in total; 57% of subjects already completed over half the 13 treatment cycles First subject completed the 13 cycle treatment as well as the end of study visit in October Liege, Belgium, 30 October 2017 - Mithra (Euronext Brussels: MITRA), a company specialized in Women's Health, today announces the completion of recruitment in the E4 Freedom Phase III study of Estelle in the US and Canada. Estelle is Mithra's combined oral contraceptive (COC) candidate composed of 15 mg Estetrol (E4) and 3 mg drospirenone (DRSP). Top-line data, based on 13 cycles of treatment, remain on track to be reported in the first quarter of 2019. The Phase III Estelle study in the US & Canada is a multicenter open-label single arm study that has enrolled 2148 subjects aged 16-50 years, of whom 1940 subjects are aged 16-35 years. Recruitment for the separate European/Russian Phase III study was completed in February 2017 and top line results from this study are expected in Q3 2018. A total of 1577 women were enrolled in this study, almost 8% of which already successfully completed 13 cycles of Estelle as well as the end of study visit. Francois Fornieri, CEO of Mithra, commented: "Today's announcement marks another important step in the development of Estelle. We are looking forward to the outcome of the Phase III trial in Q1 2019, which we hope will corroborate earlier studies indicating that Estelle has the potential to exhibit a better safety and efficacy profile compared to currently-available COCs. Moreover, the fact that 57% of US study subjects already completed over half of the treatment cycles may indicate the good user acceptability profile of Estelle. We believe that Estelle has the potential to become a true 'next-generation' contraceptive option, including in North America, a market worth 35% of the USD 22bn worldwide contraceptive market.[1]" About the E4 Freedom Estelle Phase III study in US/Canada The Phase III Estelle study design in the US & Canada is an open-label single arm study that has enrolled 2148 subjects aged 16-50 years of whom 1940 subjects are aged 16-35 years. Estelle is Mithra's combined oral contraceptive (COC) candidate composed of 15 mg Estetrol (E4) and 3 mg drospirenone (DRSP). The study is taking place in approximately 77 centres across the US and Canada, and will involve subject treatment for a period of 12 months (13 cycles; 1 cycle = 28 days). The primary outcome measures the number of pregnancies per 100 women per 12 months of exposure (Pearl Index; PI) in subjects aged 16 to 35 years old. The secondary outcomes will measure the method failure PI in the primary population as well as the PI within the overall study population (16-50 years). Also, bleeding profile, safety and tolerability, and general wellbeing of the subjects (measured by two questionnaires) are analyzed. A pharmacokinetic (PK) substudy will assess the effect of various individual characteristics/covariates (such as race and BMI) on the PKs of 15 mg E4/3 mg DRSP. For more information, please contact: Investor Relations Sofie Van Gijsel, IRO +32 485 19 14 15 investorrelations@mithra.com s vangijsel@mithra.com Consilium Strategic Communication Jonathan Birt, Philippa Gardner, Ivar Milligan, Hendrik Thys mithra@consilium-comms.com +44 2 037 095 700 Press Julie Dessart Chief Communication Officer +32 4 349 28 22 / +32 475 86 41 75 press@mithra.com About Mithra Mithra (Euronext: MITRA) is dedicated to providing innovation and choice in Women's Health, with a particular focus on fertility, contraception and menopause. Mithra's goal is to develop new and improved products that meet women's needs for better safety and convenience. Its two lead development candidates - a fifth generation oral contraceptive Estelle and next-generation hormone therapy Donesta - are built on Mithra's unique natural estrogen platform, E4 (Estetrol). Mithra also develops, manufactures and markets complex therapeutics and offers partners a complete spectrum of research, development and specialist manufacturing at its CDMO. Mithra was founded in 1999 as a spin-off from the University of Liege by Mr. Francois Fornieri and Prof. Dr. Jean-Michel Foidart. Mithra is headquartered in Liege, Belgium. Further information can be found at: www.mithra.com Important information The contents of this announcement include statements that are, or may be deemed to be, "forward-looking statements". These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including the words "believes", "estimates," "anticipates", "expects", "intends", "may", "will", "plans", "continue", "ongoing", "potential", "predict", "project", "target", "seek" or "should", and include statements the Company makes concerning the intended results of its strategy. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. The Company's actual results may differ materially from those predicted by the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements, except as may be required by law. To subscribe to Mithra's mailing list, visit investors.mithra.com [1] Transparency Market Research 2017 This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Albany County District Attorney's Office Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Picasa, Albany County District Attorney's Office Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Picasa, Albany County District Attorney's Office Show More Show Less 5 of 5 ALBANY A New York City man was found guilty of drug charges after a jury trial in Albany County Court, the District Attorney's Office announced Monday. State Police stopped Hector Gomez, 21, on April 18 on I-87 in Bethlehem and detected the odor of marijuana. Gomez admitted to having smoked marijuana earlier in the day, troopers said. Officers found a secret compartment in the vehicle that contained over 2,000 bags of heroin valued at approximately $20,000. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate They say home is where the heart is. These voters' hearts are in the 19th Congressional District. The TU brought you the story last week of second-home owning Democrats in the Catskills whose main base of operations may be in New York City or elsewhere, but who are registering to vote upstate. How much of a bump the upstate registrations will give Democrats in the 19th district, which runs up into the Capital Region, is unclear. But Republicans are making political hay out of the idea that city slickers are casting their ballots in the country. So do the Democratic candidates support these voters registering here? "This race won't be decided by New York City but by the folks of NY-19 who have been betrayed by (U.S. Rep. John) Faso's votes to take away our healthcare and pollute our environment," Gareth Rhodes of Ulster County said. Nichole Johnson, spokeswoman for Antonio Delgado of Dutchess County, said, "voting is the foundation of our democracy." "Antonio supports people registering and voting wherever they're eligible to do so," she said. Brian Flynn of Greene County similarly said it's critical that 19th district voters come out to the polls. "People should decide for themselves where it's appropriate for them to register to vote," he said. Jeff Beals of Greene County and Pat Ryan of Ulster County both declined to comment. A representative for Dave Clegg of Ulster County did not respond to a request for comment. Let's talk 2018: Stephanie Miner edition She still hasn't said no. After starting her week announcing that she would take a job at New York University for the spring semester, term-limited Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner was on the radio Thursday to answer questions about a possible primary challenge to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo next year. Her appearance on WCNY's "The Capitol Pressroom" was alongside New York City Councilman Jumaane Williams of Brooklyn, and both were asked if they might form a ticket to seek the governor's and lieutenant governor's offices. "I don't know what the mayor is planning to do," said Williams, who is running for City Council speaker, "but I think Stephanie is amazing, and I would love to partner with her if she decides to run and I am speaker." Some have speculated that Miner's NYU job puts her closer to the donor class, key if Cuomo and his nearly $26 million war chest are to be challenged. "I think it gives me exposure to a vast majority of voters and citizens in the state of New York that heretofore I haven't had exposure to living among them," Miner said. Syracuse Republican also aims at Cuomo State Sen. John DeFrancisco isn't shy. So it wasn't surprising when the deputy majority leader, who is considering a 2018 gubernatorial run, called out the governor on Twitter Thursday. DeFrancisco slammed Cuomo for announcing $1 million in aid for Puerto Rico after vetoing legislation that would have set aside the same amount for tax credits to help fund home modifications for seniors and the disabled (outside the budget process, mind you). Cuomo staffer Rich Azzopardi took umbrage with the comment, tweeting Friday to "Senator Details" that the Puerto Rico money actually is privately raised. State Democratic Party Executive Director Basil Smikle then released a barb-laden statement. "He says he's 'exploring' running for governor, but everyone knows that in the end he will just give up," Smikle said. The kicker: "If Defran has the guts to run, he should stop with the political pandering and just declare now and stop wasting everyone's time." DeFrancisco retorted, "Predictably, when anyone calls attention to the fact Governor Cuomo is more focused on helping his own reputation or his donors than the people he was elected to serve, his henchmen come out with nasty attacks that demean the Office of the Governor and the people of the State of New York." "My message here is simple: put all New Yorkers first, regardless of whether they donated to your campaign or voted for you," he said. mhamilton@timesunion.com 518-454-5449 @matt_hamilton10 Jessica Allen was already the mother of two boys when she decided to become a surrogate. The pay she would receive to carry another woman's child to term - $30,000 - would allow Allen to become a stay-at-home mom, as well as save for a new house. It would also be her "chance to give a family the blessing of a child," her partner, Wardell Jasper, told her, according to the New York Post, which first reported the story. So Allen signed up to become a surrogate with the San Diego-based Omega Family Global, which matched her with a Chinese couple identified in the article only as the "Lius," a pseudonym. In April 2016, after in vitro fertilization treatments, Allen became pregnant with the couple's baby. Six weeks later, the first of many surprises in her surrogacy would crop up: A second baby had appeared in her scans. "I was a bit scared, but I heard the Lius were thrilled to be having twins," Allen, 31, told the newspaper. "My $30,000 payment, including expenses - which I received in installments by check each month - was increased by $5,000 for the second child. Not once during the pregnancy did any of the medical staff provided by the agency say that the babies were in separate sacs. As far as we were concerned, the transferred embryo had split in two and the twins were identical." Last December, Allen gave birth to both babies by C-section at a hospital in Riverside, California. She claimed she was not allowed to see the newborns or spend an hour with them, as her contract with Omega Family Global had outlined - leaving her heartbroken days after the delivery. She had only briefly seen a cellphone picture of the babies and remarked that they looked different. Only later would she realize how accurate her observation had been. On Jan. 10, nearly a month after the babies were born, Allen said she received a message from "Mrs. Liu" with another picture of the twins. "They are not the same, right?" the message read, according to the New York Post. "Have you thought about why they are different?" A DNA test would soon reveal the truth: One of the "twins" was actually Allen and Jasper's biological son. Despite using condoms, they had apparently conceived the child after becoming pregnant with the Lius' baby, in what is believed to be an extremely rare case of superfetation. The condition - in which an already pregnant woman conceives another child - is so rare that alleged cases are usually treated with skepticism. In a widely publicized 2009 case of a pregnant Arkansas woman becoming pregnant "again," Karen Boyle, a reproductive medicine specialist, told ABC News there were only about 10 reported cases of superfetation in medical literature. "I was heartbroken knowing I carried a baby I didn't know was mine and that he was taken from me without my knowledge and was in the arms of other people where he did not belong," Allen told the Independent. She and Jasper became focused on getting their son back, Allen added. What followed was a lengthy, expensive legal battle. The San Diego agency reportedly told Allen that the Lius had relinquished the baby who was not their biological match - and also wanted up to $22,000 in "compensation." Allen told the New York Post they couldn't afford that and were shocked when the agency put up other barriers to reuniting with their son: To my disgust, a caseworker from the agency lined up parents to adopt him and "absorb" the money we owed the Lius. Or, if that didn't work out, the Lius were thinking of putting Max up for adoption, as they were still his legal parents. I told the agency in no uncertain terms, "We want our son," but we would still be responsible for the bill if we kept him. It was like Max was a commodity and we were paying to adopt our own flesh and blood. A caseworker from the agency also said we owed her a further $7,000 for expenses she had incurred for the bureaucracy and for looking after our son. We spent $3,000 on an attorney, and there was a lot of strained negotiation between us, our lawyer and Omega. It was an uphill battle, but the agency finally reduced the "fee" we owed the Lius to zero. Despite the monetary dispute being resolved, Omega Family Global, in a statement to the New York Post, disputed Allen's claims. The full letter from a lawyer for the agency is here. In the United States, commercial surrogacy - carrying another woman's baby with monetary compensation beyond medical expenses - is legal only in a few states, including California, where Allen lives. The practice comes with a slew of ethical and legal questions, including what rights the surrogate mother and the child have, particularly when the surrogacy takes place in another country. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention publishes statistics on assisted reproductive technology, which includes "donor embryo services" and "gestational carrier services," the federal agency's data does not break out exactly how many of those births were by surrogacy. About 1.6 percent of all infants born in the United States each year are conceived using assisted reproductive technology, a figure that has doubled over the past decade, according to the CDC. For Allen, her surrogacy was a "nightmare" that ultimately had a happy ending. She told the New York Post her family was reunited with her son on Feb. 5, in the parking lot of a Starbucks in Riverside County. She and Jasper renamed their newest family member Malachi, and he is now 10 months old. "The moment was incredibly emotional, and I started hugging and kissing my boy," Allen told the newspaper. "Wardell and I, who got married in April, weren't planning to expand our family so soon, but we treasure Malachi with all our hearts. I don't regret becoming a surrogate mom because that would mean regretting my son. I just hope other women considering surrogacy can learn from my story. And that a greater good will come out of this nightmare." ALBANY New Yorks extensive system of Industrial Development Agencies and Local Development Corporations is rife with overlapping boundaries and a lack of transparency that is crying for an overhaul, according to a study to be released Monday by the Citizens Budget Commission spending watchdog group. There are too many of them and they are not coordinated. They are operating under a broken system, said David Friedfel, director of state research for the CBC. For example, Friedfel said, the states Regional Economic Development Councils, or REDCs, are based on regions of the state such as Long Island or the North Country or Capital Region. But the 108 IDAs and 189 LDCs are highly local, based in various towns or cities. And that makes it hard for them to coordinate with the REDCs which have access to millions of dollars in grant funding. While locally based, these IDAs and LDCs account of $24 billion worth of debt. They have a combined annual price tag of about $100 million in payroll and benefit costs. And its exceedingly difficult to gauge their effectiveness. Thats because the reports that they must file are frequently out of date or inaccurate or vary widely from one year to the next when it comes to their job numbers. One example of that was with the Saratoga County IDA which in 2017 started issuing tax exempt bonds for the Saratoga Hospital Emergency Department. Over the years they listed anywhere from 0 to 86 to 1,347 jobs associated with the project, the CBC found. Similar discrepancies were found in projects throughout the Capital Region. IDA tax exemptions were recently in the new in the Capital Region as two local companies the Ayco financial services firm, and Galesi Group developers are seeking nearly $7 million in tax breaks for a new headquarters in Latham. They applying to the Colonie Industrial Development Agency. IDAs can grant tax exemptions, although they need permission from state lawmakers to do so. LDCs cant offer exemptions but can give grants or loans and they dont need legislative approval. The full report will be published here: https://cbcny.org/research/opaque-and-duplicative. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlin@TU ALBANY October marked the start of a 29 percent monthly pension cut for thousands of retired upstate New York Teamsters. But they are hoping that one of the union's major employers, the UPS package delivery firm, can help them ease those cuts with the help of loans from the federal government. Members of Local 294, also known as the Upstate Teamsters, will learn more details about what UPS and the union are considering during a meeting scheduled for noon Saturday at the Albany Labor Temple building at 890 Third St. Im encouraging people to show up, said Tom Baum, the volunteer retiree representative for the local. While some pension activists and union members have pondered such a loan for a while, Baum notes that UPS has lobbying power necessary to open doors in Congress. The Upstate Teamsters have what is known as a multiemployer pension plan. The union-run plan is for members such as truck drivers who may work for a number of employers through their careers. But the number of Teamsters has dwindled over the years, thanks in part to a deregulated trucking industry and a boom in retirement-age workers. Facing future insolvency, the union enacted the 29 percent cut for 16,000 retirees, with some exceptions. The move also entails an 18 percent future reduction for 21,000 Teamsters who are currently employed. Pension amounts vary widely depending on when and for how long a member was employed. Some retirees get less than a $1,000 per month, while a few get more than $4,000. UPS remains the major large employer in the fund with about 76 percent of active members, or contributors, working for the company. The loan is one of two possibilities being raised, although its unclear how much headway either will make. In a variation of the plan, pension activists say two Democratic lawmakers, Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Congressman Richard Neal of Massachusetts, are preparing a bill that would create a new bureau with the U.S. Treasury Department to deal with the numerous underfunded pensions that are facing long-term solvency problems. Their plan would include selling bonds to help shore up pension funds. But since both sponsors are members of the minority party in the House and Senate there are serious doubts that the bill can move forward. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., had earlier offered a proposal that would close inheritance and art collection tax loopholes used by the wealthy to shore up the plan. But that hasnt gained any traction. A slew of multi-employer pensions face long-term challenges. The biggest may be the midwestern Teamsters Central States fund with 115,000 retirees and 155,000 current workers. Like the Upstate Teamsters, it could face insolvency in the next decade unless cuts are made. That in turn could bankrupt the federal Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., a federal entity created to offer at least some backstop for pensions that go broke. So far, the only funds to have enacted multi-employer cuts are the Upstate Teamsters, an iron workers union in Ohio and another whose members are furniture workers in Tennessee. rkarlin@timesunion.com 518 454 5758 @RickKarlinTU Tensions between Republicans and Democrats over the investigation of Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election intensified Sunday, with President Donald Trump demanding to know why his campaign is under federal scrutiny while his former opponent Hillary Clinton is not. The president's latest outburst over the inquiry led by special counsel Robert Mueller surfaced on Twitter as his administration braced for the possibility that the first batch of charges in the case could be publicly announced as soon as Monday. CNN reported that a federal grand jury had approved an indictment, although details of the possible charges and the name of a defendant remained unclear. Trump issued four tweets over 24 minutes, attacking the Mueller probe as unfair and citing various Clinton controversies that he said warranted investigation. "Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia, 'collusion,' which doesn't exist," the president said. "The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!" Later in the morning, Trump added: "All of this 'Russia' talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT!" On Sunday talk shows, Republicans rallied around Trump and questioned how CNN could have received information about secret grand jury proceedings. "There are very, very strict laws on grand jury secrecy, so depending on who leaked this to CNN, that's a criminal violation, potentially," New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, R, a longtime friend of Trump's, said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "For us to have confidence in this process, we've got to make sure that the grand jury process remains confidential, remains secret, so that the special counsel can work effectively to be able to get to the bottom of all that he's looking into." House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., cast doubt on the objectivity of Mueller's team, noting that the prosecutor's staff includes "a lot of individuals, attorneys who played in politics, who've given money on the Democratic side." Of the eight attorneys on the team who have been publicly identified, four made donations to Democrats, including President Barack Obama and Clinton. "This president won the election solely on the idea that he connected with the American people. No other influence involved," McCarthy said on Fox's "Sunday Morning Futures." "But the idea of what I've watched, of what the Democrats have been doing, it sure raises a lot of questions." Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, came to Mueller's defense and said that he doesn't agree with Republicans who are calling for Mueller to resign or stop his investigation. "I would encourage my Republican friends give the guy a chance to do his job," Gowdy said on Fox News Sunday. "The result will be known by the facts, by what he uncovers. ... I would say give the guy a chance to do his job." Democratic lawmakers mostly stayed out of the Sunday fray after a week in which Clinton's 2016 campaign came under fresh scrutiny. The campaign funded political opposition research into Trump that helped create a highly publicized "dossier" on the Republican candidate and fueled some allegations now under scrutiny by Mueller. The 35-page dossier is composed of 17 memos containing raw intelligence, some of it highly salacious and not independently confirmed. It relies on Kremlin-linked sources and alleges that the Russian government had been trying to support Trump's candidacy while gathering compromising information that could be used as blackmail. The dossier was published in full by BuzzFeed in January. It's unclear how much the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee paid for the opposition research by Fusion GPS, a Washington, D.C., firm that conducts investigations for private clients. The Clinton campaign paid $5.6 million in legal fees to a law firm from June 2015 to December 2016, according to campaign finance records, and the DNC paid the firm $3.6 million in "legal and compliance consulting" since November 2015. It's impossible to tell from the filings how much of that work was for other legal matters and how much of it related to Fusion GPS. Trump tweeted Sunday morning that the dossier, which he called "Clinton made Fake Dossier," could have cost as much as $12 million, although he did not explain how he reached that number. Compiled by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, the dossier mirrors a separate conclusion reached by U.S. intelligence agencies that the Russian government intervened in the U.S. election in an effort to bolster Trump and harm Clinton. iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- U.S. special operations forces conducted a raid in Libya this weekend that captured a militant believed to have played a key role in the deadly 2012 attack on the Benghazi consulate, according to U.S. officials. That attack killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other American. According to an official, the militant captured by elite special operations forces this weekend was Mustafa al-Imam. He was transferred to a ship offshore at some point after the capture and may still be aboard, another official said. The plan is to transfer him back to the U.S. for prosecution in federal court, according to an official. "Yesterday, on my orders, United States forces captured Mustafa al-Imam in Libya," said President Donald Trump in a statement. "Because of this successful operation, al-Imam will face justice in the United States for his alleged role in the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks in Benghazi, which resulted in the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Glen Doherty, Sean Smith, and Tyrone Woods -- four brave Americans who were serving our country." The statement continued: "Our memory is deep and our reach is long, and we will not rest in our efforts to find and bring the perpetrators of the heinous attacks in Benghazi to justice." "I want to thank our law enforcement, prosecutors, intelligence community, and military personnel for their extraordinary efforts in gathering evidence, interviewing witnesses, and tracking down fugitives associated with the attack, capturing them, and delivering them to the United States for prosecution," said the statement. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also issued a statement praising the militants capture. The Department of State family continues to mourn the loss of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Glen Doherty, Sean Smith, and Tyrone Woods, and we will spare no effort to ensure that justice is served for these dedicated Americans and public servants, said Tillerson. I spoke with some of their family members to underscore the U.S. governments unwavering support. "Today the Department of Justice announces a major step forward in our ongoing investigation as Mustafa al-Imam is now in custody and will face justice in federal court for his role in the attack. I am grateful to the FBI, our partners in the intelligence community and the Department of Defense who made this apprehension possible," said Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a statement. "Al-Imam is in U.S. custody, and upon his arrival to the U.S. he will be presented before a federal judge in Washington, D.C.," said a Justice Department statement. The 46-year-old Mustafa al-Imam is charged in a recently unsealed three-count criminal complaint filed on May 19, 2015, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. "Al-Imam is charged with 'killing' a person in the course of an attack on a federal facility involving the use of a firearm and dangerous weapon and attempting and conspiring to do the same," said the Justice Department statement. He is also charged with "providing and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists resulting in death" and "discharging, brandishing, using, carrying and possession of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence." Complete details of this weekend's secret raid into Libya are still unknown. Typically "snatch and grab" missions like this are conducted by elite special operations teams like Delta Force or SEAL Team Six. In July 2014, the elite Delta Force captured Ahmed Abu Khatallah at his home in Benghazi. The militia leader was an alleged ringleader of the Benghazi attack two years earlier. Khatallah was transferred to a U.S. Navy ship offshore and was transported to the U.S. for prosecution in a federal court. His trial began earlier this month in Washington, D.C. Copyright 2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved. Valley Cottage, New York, Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Air travel has taken off in APEJ like never before, spurred on by rising affluence and a greater disposable income amongst consumers in this dynamic region. This is anticipated to require additional ground support equipment ensuring that the aircraft ground support equipment market grows at a healthy rate for the foreseeable future. Future Market Insights in its upcoming report titled Aircraft Ground Support Equipment Market: Global Industry Analysis (2012 - 2016) and Opportunity Assessment (2017 - 2027) predicts that the aircraft ground support equipment market could record a robust CAGR of 6.5%. Equipment Aircraft Service Segment Key in Aircraft Ground Support Equipment Market The aircraft service segment had a market share of more than half by equipment type in the aircraft ground support equipment market at the end of 2017 and is projected to grow this share by 30 BPS going forward. This is largely at the expense of cargo loading and passenger service. Aircraft service segment is greatly benefited by the high cost of different products such as aircraft tractors, de-icing, and fire fighting vehicles that explains its dominance in the aircraft ground support equipment market. View Full Report TOC, Figures and Tables at https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/aircraft-ground-support-equipment-market Power Electric Power Provides Spark in Aircraft Ground Support Equipment Market The electric segment is the most popular in the aircraft ground support equipment market and has seen rapid adoption in airport buses, de-icing vehicles, and aircraft tractors because of its reliability, support, and battery performance. Furthermore, advanced infrastructure in a number of airports in Europe and the US has led to electric chargers becoming commonplace fuelling the growth of the electric power segment in the aircraft ground support equipment market. The electric power segment is expected to cross a value of more than US$ 7.5 billion by end 2027, larger than the non-electric and hybrid segments combined. Region APEJ to Double Market Share in Aircraft Ground Support Equipment Market In terms of value, APEJ is predicted to double its market share during the course of the decadal study. Explosive growth in passenger traffic in China and India is largely responsible for this with the former contributing to the bulk of it. In addition to this, open sky agreements such as that recently signed between India and Japan should further the prospects of the APEJ aircraft ground support equipment market. Request to View Sample Report - https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-2854 Ownership Rental Gaining Popularity in Aircraft Ground Support Equipment Market The rental/lease segment is gaining greater acceptance in the aircraft ground support equipment market because of the high cost associated with it. There is a definite shift in focus of airline companies and airport management towards rental ownership as this saves capital, resources, and time. The rental/ lease segment is estimated to witness a CAGR of 7% for the forecast period. Application Defence Unlikely to Topple Commercial Segment in Aircraft Ground Support Equipment Market The commercial segment holds a lions share in the aircraft ground support equipment market by application and is on track to lose 70 BPS till 2027. However, it has a two-third share of the market in 2017 on account of substantial movement of commercial aircraft, requiring evermore aircraft ground support equipment units. An incremental dollar opportunity of approx. US$ 4.8 billion from 2017 to 2027 makes the commercial segment large enough for all stakeholders in the aircraft ground support equipment market. Need more information about Report methodology? @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/askus/rep-gb-2854 Competition Dashboard in Aircraft Ground Support Equipment Market The companies profiled in the report are JBT Corporation, ALVEST Group, Air T, Alberth Aviation Ltd., Cavotec SA, Clyde Machines Inc., Textron, Weihai Guangtai Airport Equipment Co., China International Marine Containers (Group) Co., Kalmar Motor AB, HYDRO Systems KG, Nepean Engineering & Innovation Pty Ltd., Tronair, Lektro, Charlatte Of America Inc., Schopf Maschinenbau GmbH, Mulag Fahrzeugwerk Heinz Wossner GmbH, Mallaghan Engineering Limited, SEMMCO, and DENGE Airport Equipment. Important Takeaways APEJ has immense potential in the long-term because of skyrocketing passenger traffic and companies would do well to focus their attention on this continent. Western companies should shift their production bases there to take advantage of lower cost coupled with manufacturing expertise. Companies must develop efficient products that have minimal maintenance and innovations in power technologies could provide the necessary breakthroughs. [October 30, 2017] Cynthia Kretz Receives Honor for Leading Female General Counsels Cynthia Kretz, vice president and general counsel at Cook Group, was honored for her excellence in the legal field as a part of this year's Shirley's Legacy award on September 21. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171030005708/en/ Cynthia Kretz, vice president and general counsel at Cook Group (Photo: Business Wire) Barnes & Thornburg hosted its third-annual ceremony in honor of Shirley Shideler, the first woman to be president of the Indiana Bar Foundation. Kretz was one of five women recognized for her trailblazing spirit and outstanding accomplishments. They were applauded for cultivating and mentoring the next generation of female and minority leaders. "It's an honor to be recognized and there is a responsibility that comes with it," said Kretz. "It is important that we continue to mentor and support young women in the legal field. I have been blessed throughout my career to have mentors who have guided me. As in any profession, there is true value in nurturing the careers of young lawyers as they continue to grow in their field." As Cook's vice president and general counsel, Kretz leads global operations of the legal department as well as directing representation in court. Prior to her nine years with Cook Group, she worked for Wabash National. It was there that she formed their legal department and would later operate as vice president general counsel and secretary to the board of directors. "Cynthia has been an integral member of our leadership team for the past nine years," said Pete Yonkman, president of Cook Group and CookMedical. "It's no surprise to me that she's being recognized for her accomplishments. She sets an outstanding example for future leaders in our organization." Cook Group is proud to congratulate Cynthia Kretz on this honor as she continues to be a leader in her field and her community. About Cook Group In 1963, Bill and Gayle Cook created a small company that manufactured three simple medical devices used to treat patients in less invasive ways than common surgical techniques of the time. That small company grew into Cook Medical, with global reach and products for treating conditions in almost every system of the body and area of the hospital. Along the way, this entrepreneurial family branched out into other areas of business - to explore new types of medical treatment; to support their passions, like historic preservation; and to support their growing group of employees and the communities where they live. Cook Group was created to provide support and oversight to the Cook companies, which remain family owned. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171030005708/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 30, 2017] European Medicines Agency Validates Bristol-Myers Squibb's Type II Variation Application for Opdivo (nivolumab) for Treatment of Patients with Resected High-Risk Advanced Melanoma Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) today announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMA (News - Alert)) validated its type II variation application, which seeks to expand the current indications for Opdivo (nivolumab) to include the treatment of patients with melanoma who are at high risk of disease recurrence following complete surgical resection. Validation of the application confirms the submission is complete and begins the EMA's centralized review process. "Patients with advanced melanoma often face a poor prognosis and have a disease recurrence rate of 68% or greater, highlighting the need for more effective adjuvant treatments," said Murdo Gordon, executive vice president and chief commercial officer, Bristol-Myers Squibb. "The validation of our application by the EMA is another step forward in our effort to advance Immuno-Oncology treatments for patients with resected high-risk advanced melanoma." The type II variation submitted is based on data from CheckMate -238, an ongoing phase 3, randomized double-blind study of Opdivo 3 mg/kg versus Yervoy (ipilimumab) 10 mg/kg in patients who have undergone complete resection of stage IIIb/c or stage IV melanoma, in which Opdivo met its primary endpoint of recurrence-free survival. Results from this study were presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) 2017 Congress, September 8 to September 12, 2017, in Madrid, Spain and published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine. About CheckMate -238 CheckMate -238 is an ongoing phase 3, randomized double-blind study of Opdivo versus Yervoy in patients who have undergone complete resection of stage IIIb/c or stage IV melanoma. The trial randomized 906 patients 1:1 to receive either Opdivo 3 mg/kg intravenously (IV) every two weeks or Yervoy 10 mg/kg IV every three weeks for four doses and then every 12 weeks starting at week 24. Patients were treated until disease recurrence, unacceptable toxicity or consent withdrawal for up to one year. The primary endpoint is RFS defined as the time between randomization and the date of first recurrence or death. Secondary endpoints include overall survival, recurrence free survival by PD-L1 tumor expression, quality of life and safety. Adjuvant Therapy in Melanoma Melanoma is separated into five staging categories (stages 0 to 4) based on the in-situ feature, thickness and ulceration of the tumor, whether the cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, and how far the cancer has spread beyond lymph nodes. Stage III melanoma has reached the regional lymph nodes but has not yet spread to distant lymph nodes or to other parts of the body (metastasized), and requires surgical resection of the primary tumor as well as the involved lymph nodes. Some patients may also be treated with adjuvant therapy. Despite surgical intervention and possible adjuvant treatment, most patients experience disease recurrence and progress to metastatic disease. By five years, the majority of stage IIIb and IIIc patients (68% and 89%, respectively) experience disease recurrence. Bristol-Myers Squibb & Immuno-Oncology: Advancing Oncology Research At Bristol-Myers Squibb, patients are at the center of everything we do. Our vision for the future of cancer care is focused on researching and developing transformational Immuno-Oncology (I-O) medicines for hard-to-treat cancers that could potentially improve outcomes for these patients. We are leading the scientific understanding of I-O through our extensive portfolio of investigational compounds and approved agents. Our differentiated clinical development program is studying broad patient populations across more than 50 types of cancers with 14 clinical-stage molecules designed to target different immune system pathways. Our deep expertise and innovative clinical trial designs position us to advance the I-O/I-O, I-O/chemotherapy, I-O/targeted therapies and I-O radiation therapies across multiple tumors and potentially deliver the next wave of therapies with a sense of urgency. We also continue to pioneer research that will help facilitate a deeper understanding of the role of immune biomarkers and how a patient's tumor biology can be used as a guide for treatment decisions throughout their journey. We understand making the promise of I-O a reality for the many patients who may benefit from these therapies requires not only innovation on our part but also close collaboration with leading experts in the field. Our partnerships with academia, government, advocacy and biotech companies support our collective goal of providing new treatment options to advance the standards of clinical practice. About Opdivo Opdivo is a programmed death-1 (PD-1) immune checkpoint inhibitor that is designed to uniquely harness the body's own immune system to help restore anti-tumor immune response. By harnessing the body's own immune system to fight cancer, Opdivo has become an important treatment option across multiple cancers. Opdivo's leading global development program is based on Bristol-Myers Squibb's scientific expertise in the field of Immuno-Oncology and includes a broad range of clinical trials across all phases, including Phase 3, in a variety of tumor types. To date, the Opdivo clinical development program has enrolled more than 25,000 patients. The Opdivo trials have contributed to gaining a deeper understanding of the potential role of biomarkers in patient care, particularly regarding how patients may benefit from Opdivo across the continuum of PD-L1 expression. In July 2014, Opdivo was the first PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor to receive regulatory approval anywhere in the world. Opdivo is currently approved in more than 60 countries, including the United States, the European Union and Japan. In October 2015, the company's Opdivo and Yervoy combination regimen was the first Immuno-Oncology combination to receive regulatory approval for the treatment of metastatic melanoma and is currently approved in more than 50 countries, including the United States and the European Union. U.S. FDA-APPROVED INDICATIONS FOR OPDIVO OPDIVO (nivolumab) as a single agent is indicated for the treatment of patients with BRAF V600 mutation-positive unresectable or metastatic melanoma. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on progression-free survival. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trials. OPDIVO (nivolumab) as a single agent is indicated for the treatment of patients with BRAF V600 wild-type unresectable or metastatic melanoma. OPDIVO (nivolumab), in combination with YERVOY (ipilimumab), is indicated for the treatment of patients with unresectable or metastatic melanoma. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on progression-free survival. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trials. OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with progression on or after platinum-based chemotherapy. Patients with EGFR or ALK genomic tumor aberrations should have disease progression on FDA-approved therapy for these aberrations prior to receiving OPDIVO. OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) who have received prior anti-angiogenic therapy. OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of adult patients with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) that has relapsed or progressed after autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and brentuximab vedotin or after 3 or more lines of systemic therapy that includes autologous HSCT. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on overall response rate. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials. OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) with disease progression on or after platinum-based therapy. OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy or have disease progression within 12 months of neoadjuvant or adjuvant treatment with platinum-containing chemotherapy. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and duration of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials. OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of adults and pediatric (12 years and older) patients with microsatellite instability high (MSI (News - Alert)-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) that has progressed following treatment with a fluoropyrimidine, oxaliplatin, and irinotecan. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on overall response rate and duration of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials. OPDIVO (nivolumab) is indicated for the treatment of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who have been previously treated with sorafenib. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and durability of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trials. IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION Immune-Mediated Pneumonitis OPDIVO can cause immune-mediated pneumonitis. Fatal cases have been reported. Monitor patients for signs with radiographic imaging and for symptoms of pneumonitis. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or more severe pneumonitis. Permanently discontinue for Grade 3 or 4 and withhold until resolution for Grade 2. In patients receiving OPDIVO monotherapy, fatal cases of immune-mediated pneumonitis have occurred. Immune-mediated pneumonitis occurred in 3.1% (61/1994) of patients. In Checkmate 205 and 039, pneumonitis, including interstitial lung disease, occurred in 6.0% (16/266) of patients receiving OPDIVO. Immune-mediated pneumonitis occurred in 4.9% (13/266) of patients receiving OPDIVO: Grade 3 (n=1) and Grade 2 (n=12). Immune-Mediated Colitis OPDIVO can cause immune-mediated colitis. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of colitis. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 (of more than 5 days duration), 3, or 4 colitis. Withhold OPDIVO monotherapy for Grade 2 or 3 and permanently discontinue for Grade 4 or recurrent colitis upon re-initiation of OPDIVO. In patients receiving OPDIVO monotherapy, immune-mediated colitis occurred in 2.9% (58/1994) of patients. Immune-Mediated Hepatitis OPDIVO can cause immune-mediated hepatitis. Monitor patients for abnormal liver tests prior to and periodically during treatment. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater transaminase elevations. For patients without HCC, withhold OPDIVO for Grade 2 and permanently discontinue OPDIVO for Grade 3 or 4. For patients with HCC, withhold OPDIVO and administer corticosteroids if AST/ALT is within normal limits at baseline and increases to >3 and up to 5 times the upper limit of normal (ULN), if AST/ALT is >1 and up to 3 times ULN at baseline and increases to >5 and up to 10 times the ULN, and if AST/ALT is >3 and up to 5 times ULN at baseline and increases to >8 and up to 10 times the ULN. Permanently discontinue OPDIVO and administer corticosteroids if AST or ALT increases to >10 times the ULN or total bilirubin increases >3 times the ULN. In patients receiving OPDIVO monotherapy, immune-mediated hepatitis occurred in 1.8% (35/1994) of patients. In Checkmate 040, immune-mediated hepatitis requiring systemic corticosteroids occurred in 5% (8/154) of patients receiving OPDIVO. Immune-Mediated Endocrinopathies OPDIVO can cause immune-mediated hypophysitis, immune-mediated adrenal insufficiency, autoimmune thyroid disorders, and Type 1 diabetes mellitus. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of hypophysitis, signs and symptoms of adrenal insufficiency, thyroid function prior to and periodically during treatment, and hyperglycemia. Administer hormone replacement as clinically indicated and corticosteroids for Grade 2 or greater hypophysitis. Withhold for Grade 2 or 3 and permanently discontinue for Grade 4 hypophysitis. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 3 or 4 adrenal insufficiency. Withhold for Grade 2 and permanently discontinue for Grade 3 or 4 adrenal insufficiency. Administer hormone-replacement therapy for hypothyroidism. Initiate medical management for control of hyperthyroidism. WithholdOPDIVO for Grade 3 and permanently discontinue for Grade 4 hyperglycemia. In patients receiving OPDIVO monotherapy, hypophysitis occurred in 0.6% (12/1994) of patients. In patients receiving OPDIVO monotherapy, adrenal insufficiency occurred in 1% (20/1994) of patients. In patients receiving OPDIVO monotherapy, hypothyroidism or thyroiditis resulting in hypothyroidism occurred in 9% (171/1994) of patients. Hyperthyroidism occurred in 2.7% (54/1994) of patients receiving OPDIVO monotherapy. In patients receiving OPDIVO monotherapy, diabetes occurred in 0.9% (17/1994) of patients. Immune-Mediated Nephritis and Renal Dysfunction OPDIVO can cause immune-mediated nephritis. Monitor patients for elevated serum creatinine prior to and periodically during treatment. Administer corticosteroids for Grades 2-4 increased serum creatinine. Withhold OPDIVO for Grade 2 or 3 and permanently discontinue for Grade 4 increased serum creatinine. In patients receiving OPDIVO monotherapy, immune-mediated nephritis and renal dysfunction occurred in 1.2% (23/1994) of patients. Immune-Mediated Skin Adverse Reactions OPDIVO can cause immune-mediated rash, including Stevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN), some cases with fatal outcome. Administer corticosteroids for Grade 3 or 4 rash. Withhold for Grade 3 and permanently discontinue for Grade 4 rash. For symptoms or signs of SJS or TEN, withhold OPDIVO and refer the patient for specialized care for assessment and treatment; if confirmed, permanently discontinue. In patients receiving OPDIVO monotherapy, immune-mediated rash occurred in 9% (171/1994) of patients. Immune-Mediated Encephalitis OPDIVO can cause immune-mediated encephalitis. Evaluation of patients with neurologic symptoms may include, but not be limited to, consultation with a neurologist, brain MRI, and lumbar puncture. Withhold OPDIVO in patients with new-onset moderate to severe neurologic signs or symptoms and evaluate to rule out other causes. If other etiologies are ruled out, administer corticosteroids and permanently discontinue OPDIVO for immune-mediated encephalitis. In patients receiving OPDIVO monotherapy, encephalitis occurred in 0.2% (3/1994) of patients. Fatal limbic encephalitis occurred in one patient after 7.2 months of exposure despite discontinuation of OPDIVO and administration of corticosteroids. Other Immune-Mediated Adverse Reactions Based on the severity of adverse reaction, permanently discontinue or withhold treatment, administer high-dose corticosteroids, and, if appropriate, initiate hormone-replacement therapy. Across clinical trials of OPDIVO the following clinically significant immune-mediated adverse reactions occurred in <1.0% of patients receiving OPDIVO: uveitis, iritis, pancreatitis, facial and abducens nerve paresis, demyelination, polymyalgia rheumatica, autoimmune neuropathy, Guillain-Barre syndrome, hypopituitarism, systemic inflammatory response syndrome, gastritis, duodenitis, sarcoidosis, histiocytic necrotizing lymphadenitis (Kikuchi lymphadenitis), myositis, myocarditis, rhabdomyolysis, motor dysfunction, vasculitis, and myasthenic syndrome. Infusion Reactions OPDIVO can cause severe infusion reactions, which have been reported in <1.0% of patients in clinical trials. Discontinue OPDIVO in patients with Grade 3 or 4 infusion reactions. Interrupt or slow the rate of infusion in patients with Grade 1 or 2. In patients receiving OPDIVO monotherapy, infusion-related reactions occurred in 6.4% (127/1994) of patients. Complications of Allogeneic HSCT after OPDIVO Complications, including fatal events, occurred in patients who received allogeneic HSCT after OPDIVO. Outcomes were evaluated in 17 patients from Checkmate 205 and 039, who underwent allogeneic HSCT after discontinuing OPDIVO (15 with reduced-intensity conditioning, 2 with myeloablative conditioning). Thirty-five percent (6/17) of patients died from complications of allogeneic HSCT after OPDIVO. Five deaths occurred in the setting of severe or refractory GVHD. Grade 3 or higher acute GVHD was reported in 29% (5/17) of patients. Hyperacute GVHD was reported in 20% (n=2) of patients. A steroid-requiring febrile syndrome, without an identified infectious cause, was reported in 35% (n=6) of patients. Two cases of encephalitis were reported: Grade 3 (n=1) lymphocytic encephalitis without an identified infectious cause, and Grade 3 (n=1) suspected viral encephalitis. Hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD) occurred in one patient, who received reduced-intensity conditioned allogeneic HSCT and died of GVHD and multi-organ failure. Other cases of hepatic VOD after reduced-intensity conditioned allogeneic HSCT have also been reported in patients with lymphoma who received a PD-1 receptor blocking antibody before transplantation. Cases of fatal hyperacute GVHD have also been reported. These complications may occur despite intervening therapy between PD-1 blockade and allogeneic HSCT. Follow patients closely for early evidence of transplant-related complications such as hyperacute GVHD, severe (Grade 3 to 4) acute GVHD, steroid-requiring febrile syndrome, hepatic VOD, and other immune-mediated adverse reactions, and intervene promptly. Embryo-Fetal Toxicity Based on its mechanism of action, OPDIVO can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. Advise pregnant women of the potential risk to a fetus. Advise females of reproductive potential to use effective contraception during treatment with an OPDIVO- containing regimen and for at least 5 months after the last dose of OPDIVO. Lactation It is not known whether OPDIVO is present in human milk. Because many drugs, including antibodies, are excreted in human milk and because of the potential for serious adverse reactions in nursing infants from an OPDIVO-containing regimen, advise women to discontinue breastfeeding during treatment. Serious Adverse Reactions In Checkmate 037, serious adverse reactions occurred in 41% of patients receiving OPDIVO (n=268). Grade 3 and 4 adverse reactions occurred in 42% of patients receiving OPDIVO. The most frequent Grade 3 and 4 adverse drug reactions reported in 2% to <5% of patients receiving OPDIVO were abdominal pain, hyponatremia, increased aspartate aminotransferase, and increased lipase. In Checkmate 066, serious adverse reactions occurred in 36% of patients receiving OPDIVO (n=206). Grade 3 and 4 adverse reactions occurred in 41% of patients receiving OPDIVO. The most frequent Grade 3 and 4 adverse reactions reported in =2% of patients receiving OPDIVO were gamma-glutamyltransferase increase (3.9%) and diarrhea (3.4%). In Checkmate 017 and 057, serious adverse reactions occurred in 46% of patients receiving OPDIVO (n=418). The most frequent serious adverse reactions reported in at least 2% of patients receiving OPDIVO were pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, dyspnea, pyrexia, pleural effusion, pneumonitis, and respiratory failure. In Checkmate 025, serious adverse reactions occurred in 47% of patients receiving OPDIVO (n=406). The most frequent serious adverse reactions reported in =2% of patients were acute kidney injury, pleural effusion, pneumonia, diarrhea, and hypercalcemia. In Checkmate 205 and 039, adverse reactions leading to discontinuation occurred in 7% and dose delays due to adverse reactions occurred in 34% of patients (n=266). Serious adverse reactions occurred in 26% of patients. The most frequent serious adverse reactions reported in =1% of patients were pneumonia, infusion-related reaction, pyrexia, colitis or diarrhea, pleural effusion, pneumonitis, and rash. Eleven patients died from causes other than disease progression: 3 from adverse reactions within 30 days of the last OPDIVO dose, 2 from infection 8 to 9 months after completing OPDIVO, and 6 from complications of allogeneic HSCT. In Checkmate 141, serious adverse reactions occurred in 49% of patients receiving OPDIVO. The most frequent serious adverse reactions reported in at least 2% of patients receiving OPDIVO were pneumonia, dyspnea, respiratory failure, respiratory tract infection, and sepsis. In Checkmate 275, serious adverse reactions occurred in 54% of patients receiving OPDIVO (n=270). The most frequent serious adverse reactions reported in at least 2% of patients receiving OPDIVO were urinary tract infection, sepsis, diarrhea, small intestine obstruction, and general physical health deterioration. In Checkmate 040, serious adverse reactions occurred in 49% of patients (n=154). The most frequent serious adverse reactions reported in at least 2% of patients were pyrexia, ascites, back pain, general physical health deterioration, abdominal pain, and pneumonia. Common Adverse Reactions In Checkmate 037, the most common adverse reaction (=20%) reported with OPDIVO (n=268) was rash (21%). In Checkmate 066, the most common adverse reactions (=20%) reported with OPDIVO (n=206) vs dacarbazine (n=205) were fatigue (49% vs 39%), musculoskeletal pain (32% vs 25%), rash (28% vs 12%), and pruritus (23% vs 12%). In Checkmate 017 and 057, the most common adverse reactions (=20%) in patients receiving OPDIVO (n=418) were fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, cough, dyspnea, and decreased appetite. In Checkmate 025, the most common adverse reactions (=20%) reported in patients receiving OPDIVO (n=406) vs everolimus (n=397) were asthenic conditions (56% vs 57%), cough (34% vs 38%), nausea (28% vs 29%), rash (28% vs 36%), dyspnea (27% vs 31%), diarrhea (25% vs 32%), constipation (23% vs 18%), decreased appetite (23% vs 30%), back pain (21% vs 16%), and arthralgia (20% vs 14%). In Checkmate 205 and 039, the most common adverse reactions (=20%) reported in patients receiving OPDIVO (n=266) were upper respiratory tract infection (44%), fatigue (39%), cough (36%), diarrhea (33%), pyrexia (29%), musculoskeletal pain (26%), rash (24%), nausea (20%) and pruritus (20%). In Checkmate 141, the most common adverse reactions (=10%) in patients receiving OPDIVO were cough and dyspnea at a higher incidence than investigator's choice. In Checkmate 275, the most common adverse reactions (= 20%) reported in patients receiving OPDIVO (n=270) were fatigue (46%), musculoskeletal pain (30%), nausea (22%), and decreased appetite (22%). In Checkmate 040, the most common adverse reactions (=20%) in patients receiving OPDIVO (n=154) were fatigue (38%), musculoskeletal pain (36%), abdominal pain (34%), pruritus (27%), diarrhea (27%), rash (26%), cough (23%), and decreased appetite (22%). The most common adverse reactions (=20%) in patients who received OPDIVO as a single agent were fatigue, rash, musculoskeletal pain, pruritus, diarrhea, nausea, asthenia, cough, dyspnea, constipation, decreased appetite, back pain, arthralgia, upper respiratory tract infection, and pyrexia. Indications and Important Safety Information for YERVOY (ipilimumab) Indications YERVOY (ipilimumab) is indicated for the adjuvant treatment of patients with cutaneous melanoma with pathologic involvement of regional lymph nodes of more than 1 mm who have undergone complete resection, including total lymphadenectomy. Important Safety Information WARNING: IMMUNE-MEDIATED ADVERSE REACTIONS YERVOY (ipilimumab) can result in severe and fatal immune-mediated adverse reactions. These immune-mediated reactions may involve any organ system; however, the most common severe immune-mediated adverse reactions are enterocolitis, hepatitis, dermatitis (including toxic epidermal necrolysis), neuropathy, and endocrinopathy. The majority of these immune-mediated reactions initially manifested during treatment; however, a minority occurred weeks to months after discontinuation of YERVOY. Assess patients for signs and symptoms of enterocolitis, dermatitis, neuropathy, and endocrinopathy and evaluate clinical chemistries including liver function tests (LFTs), adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) level, and thyroid function tests, at baseline and before each dose. Permanently discontinue YERVOY and initiate systemic high-dose corticosteroid therapy for severe immune-mediated reactions. Recommended Dose Modifications Endocrine: Withhold YERVOY for symptomatic endocrinopathy. Resume YERVOY in patients with complete or partial resolution of adverse reactions (Grade 0-1) and who are receiving <7.5 mg prednisone or equivalent per day. Permanently discontinue YERVOY for symptomatic reactions lasting 6 weeks or longer or an inability to reduce corticosteroid dose to 7.5 mg prednisone or equivalent per day. Ophthalmologic: Permanently discontinue YERVOY for Grade 2-4 reactions not improving to Grade 1 within 2 weeks while receiving topical therapy or requiring systemic treatment. All Other Organ Systems: Withhold YERVOY for Grade 2 adverse reactions. Resume YERVOY in patients with complete or partial resolution of adverse reactions (Grade 0-1) and who are receiving <7.5 mg prednisone or equivalent per day. Permanently discontinue YERVOY for Grade 2 reactions lasting 6 weeks or longer, an inability to reduce corticosteroid dose to 7.5 mg prednisone or equivalent per day, and Grade 3 or 4 adverse reactions. Immune-mediated Enterocolitis Immune-mediated enterocolitis, including fatal cases, can occur with YERVOY. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of enterocolitis (such as diarrhea, abdominal pain, mucus or blood in stool, with or without fever) and of bowel perforation (such as peritoneal signs and ileus). In symptomatic patients, rule out infectious etiologies and consider endoscopic evaluation for persistent or severe symptoms. Withhold YERVOY for moderate enterocolitis; administer anti-diarrheal treatment and, if persistent for >1 week, initiate systemic corticosteroids (0.5 mg/kg/day prednisone or equivalent). Permanently discontinue YERVOY in patients with severe enterocolitis and initiate systemic corticosteroids (1-2 mg/kg/day of prednisone or equivalent). Upon improvement to =Grade 1, initiate corticosteroid taper and continue over at least 1 month. In clinical trials, rapid corticosteroid tapering resulted in recurrence or worsening symptoms of enterocolitis in some patients. Consider adding anti-TNF or other immunosuppressant agents for management of immune-mediated enterocolitis unresponsive to systemic corticosteroids within 3-5 days or recurring after symptom improvement. In patients receiving YERVOY 10 mg/kg in Trial 2, Grade 3-5 immune-mediated enterocolitis occurred in 76 patients (16%) and Grade 2 enterocolitis occurred in 68 patients (14%). Seven (1.5%) developed intestinal perforation and 3 patients (0.6%) died as a result of complications. Immune-mediated Hepatitis Immune-mediated hepatitis, including fatal cases, can occur with YERVOY. Monitor LFTs (hepatic transaminase and bilirubin levels) and assess patients for signs and symptoms of hepatotoxicity before each dose of YERVOY. In patients with hepatotoxicity, rule out infectious or malignant causes and increase frequency of LFT monitoring until resolution. Withhold YERVOY in patients with Grade 2 hepatotoxicity. Permanently discontinue YERVOY in patients with Grade 3-4 hepatotoxicity and administer systemic corticosteroids (1-2 mg/kg/day of prednisone or equivalent). When LFTs show sustained improvement or return to baseline, initiate corticosteroid tapering and continue over 1 month. Across the clinical development program for YERVOY, mycophenolate treatment has been administered in patients with persistent severe hepatitis despite high-dose corticosteroids. In patients receiving YERVOY 10 mg/kg in Trial 2, Grade 3-4 immune-mediated hepatitis occurred in 51 patients (11%) and moderate Grade 2 immune-mediated hepatitis occurred in 22 patients (5%). Liver biopsy performed in 6 patients with Grade 3-4 hepatitis showed evidence of toxic or autoimmune hepatitis. Immune-mediated Dermatitis Immune-mediated dermatitis, including fatal cases, can occur with YERVOY. Monitor patients for signs and symptoms of dermatitis such as rash and pruritus. Unless an alternate etiology has been identified, signs or symptoms of dermatitis should be considered immune-mediated. Treat mild to moderate dermatitis (e.g., localized rash and pruritus) symptomatically; administer topical or systemic corticosteroids if there is no improvement within 1 week. Withhold YERVOY in patients with moderate to severe signs and symptoms. Permanently discontinue YERVOY in patients with severe, life- threatening, or fatal immune-mediated dermatitis (Grade 3-5). Administer systemic corticosteroids (1-2 mg/kg/day of prednisone or equivalent). When dermatitis is controlled, corticosteroid tapering should occur over a period of at least 1 month. In patients receiving YERVOY 10 mg/kg in Trial 2, Grade 3-4 immune-mediated dermatitis occurred in 19 patients (4%). There were 99 patients (21%) with moderate Grade 2 dermatitis. Immune-mediated Neuropathies Immune-mediated neuropathies, including fatal cases, can occur with YERVOY. Monitor for symptoms of motor or sensory neuropathy such as unilateral or bilateral weakness, sensory alterations, or paresthesia. Withhold YERVOY in patients with moderate neuropathy (not interfering with daily activities). Permanently discontinue YERVOY in patients with severe neuropathy (interfering with daily activities), such as Guillain-Barre-like syndromes. Institute medical intervention as appropriate for management for severe neuropathy. Consider initiation of systemic corticosteroids (1-2 mg/kg/day of prednisone or equivalent) for severe neuropathies. In patients receiving YERVOY 10 mg/kg in Trial 2, Grade 3-5 immune-mediated neuropathy occurred in 8 patients (2%); the sole fatality was due to complications of Guillain-Barre syndrome. Moderate Grade 2 immune-mediated neuropathy occurred in 1 patient (0.2%). Immune-mediated Endocrinopathies Immune-mediated endocrinopathies, including life-threatening cases, can occur with YERVOY. Monitor patients for clinical signs and symptoms of hypophysitis, adrenal insufficiency (including adrenal crisis), and hyper- or hypothyroidism. Patients may present with fatigue, headache, mental status changes, abdominal pain, unusual bowel habits, and hypotension, or nonspecific symptoms which may resemble other causes such as brain metastasis or underlying disease. Unless an alternate etiology has been identified, signs or symptoms should be considered immune-mediated. Monitor clinical chemistries, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) level, and thyroid function tests at the start of treatment, before each dose, and as clinically indicated based on symptoms. In a limited number of patients, hypophysitis was diagnosed by imaging studies through enlargement of the pituitary gland. Withhold YERVOY in symptomatic patients and consider referral to an endocrinologist. Initiate systemic corticosteroids (1-2 mg/kg/day of prednisone or equivalent) and initiate appropriate hormone replacement therapy. In patients receiving YERVOY 10 mg/kg in Trial 2, Grade 3-4 immune-mediated endocrinopathies occurred in 39 patients (8%) and Grade 2 immune-mediated endocrinopathies occurred in 93 patients (20%). Of the 39 patients with Grade 3-4 immune-mediated endocrinopathies, 35 patients had hypopituitarism (associated with 1 or more secondary endocrinopathies, e.g., adrenal insufficiency, hypogonadism, and hypothyroidism), 3 patients had hyperthyroidism, and 1 had primary hypothyroidism. The median time to onset of Grade 3-4 immune-mediated endocrinopathy was 2.2 months (range: 2 days-8 months). Twenty-seven (69.2%) of the 39 patients were hospitalized for immune-mediated endocrinopathies. Of the 93 patients with Grade 2 immune-mediated endocrinopathy, 74 had primary hypopituitarism (associated with 1 or more secondary endocrinopathy, e.g., adrenal insufficiency, hypogonadism, and hypothyroidism), 9 had primary hypothyroidism, 3 had hyperthyroidism, 3 had thyroiditis with hypo- or hyperthyroidism, 2 had hypogonadism, 1 had both hyperthyroidism and hypopituitarism, and 1 subject developed Graves' ophthalmopathy. The median time to onset of Grade 2 immune-mediated endocrinopathy was 2.1 months (range: 9 days-19.3 months). Other Immune-mediated Adverse Reactions, Including Ocular Manifestations Permanently discontinue YERVOY for clinically significant or severe immune-mediated adverse reactions. Initiate systemic corticosteroids (1-2 mg/kg/day of prednisone or equivalent) for severe immune-mediated adverse reactions. Administer corticosteroid eye drops for uveitis, iritis, or episcleritis. Permanently discontinue YERVOY for immune-mediated ocular disease unresponsive to local immunosuppressive therapy. In Trial 2, the following clinically significant immune-mediated adverse reactions were seen in <1% of YERVOY-treated patients unless specified: eosinophilia (2.1%), pancreatitis (1.3%), meningitis, pneumonitis, sarcoidosis, pericarditis, uveitis and fatal myocarditis. Across 21 dose-ranging trials administering YERVOY at doses of 0.1 to 20 mg/kg (n=2478), the following likely immune-mediated adverse reactions were also reported with <1% incidence: angiopathy, temporal arteritis, vasculitis, polymyalgia rheumatica, conjunctivitis, blepharitis, episcleritis, scleritis, iritis, leukocytoclastic vasculitis, erythema multiforme, psoriasis, arthritis, autoimmune thyroiditis, neurosensory hypoacusis, autoimmune central neuropathy (encephalitis), myositis, polymyositis, ocular myositis, hemolytic anemia, and nephritis. Embryo-fetal Toxicity Based on its mechanism of action, YERVOY can cause fetal harm when administered to a pregnant woman. The effects of YERVOY are likely to be greater during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy. Advise pregnant women of the potential risk to a fetus. Advise females of reproductive potential to use effective contraception during treatment with a YERVOY-containing regimen and for 3 months after the last dose of YERVOY. Lactation It is not known whether YERVOY is secreted in human milk. Advise women to discontinue nursing during treatment with YERVOY and for 3 months following the final dose. Common Adverse Reactions The most common adverse reactions (=5%) in patients who received YERVOY at 10 mg/kg were rash (50%), diarrhea (49%), fatigue (46%), pruritus (45%), headache (33%), weight loss (32%), nausea (25%), pyrexia (18%), colitis (16%), decreased appetite (14%), vomiting (13%), and insomnia (10%). Please see U.S. Full Prescribing Information for OPDIVO and YERVOY, including Boxed WARNING regarding immune-mediated adverse reactions for YERVOY. Checkmate Trials and Patient Populations Checkmate 067 - advanced melanoma alone or in combination with YERVOY; Checkmate 037 and 066 - advanced melanoma; Checkmate 017 - squamous non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC); Checkmate 057 - non-squamous NSCLC; Checkmate 025 - renal cell carcinoma; Checkmate 205/039 - classical Hodgkin lymphoma; Checkmate 141 - squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck; Checkmate 275 - urothelial carcinoma; Checkmate 040 - hepatocellular carcinoma. About the Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. Collaboration In 2011, through a collaboration agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (Ono), Bristol-Myers Squibb expanded its territorial rights to develop and commercialize Opdivo globally except in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, where Ono had retained all rights to the compound at the time. On July 23, 2014, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Ono further expanded the companies' strategic collaboration agreement to jointly develop and commercialize multiple immunotherapies - as single agents and combination regimens - for patients with cancer in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. About Bristol-Myers Squibb Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global biopharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases. For more information about Bristol-Myers Squibb, visit us at BMS.com or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. Bristol-Myers Squibb Forward-Looking Statement This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding the research, development and commercialization of pharmaceutical products. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and involve inherent risks and uncertainties, including factors that could delay, divert or change any of them, and could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed. Among other risks, there can be no guarantee that Opdivo will receive regulatory approval for an additional indication. Forward-looking statements in this press release should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect Bristol-Myers Squibb's business, particularly those identified in the cautionary factors discussion in Bristol-Myers Squibb's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our Current Reports on Form 8-K. Bristol-Myers Squibb undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171030005305/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 29, 2017] Fluence to Commission First MABR System in Mainland United States Fluence Corporation Limited (ASX:FLC) ("Fluence" or the "Company") has signed an agreement with Stanford University to deploy, test and evaluate the Company's MABR wastewater treatment technology at Stanford's Codiga Resource Recovery Center ("CR2C"). This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171029005075/en/ Fluence's MABR Unit to be Commissioned at Stanford's Codiga Resource Recovery Center (Photo: Business Wire) The Fluence MABR unit is expected to be operational at CR2C's test facility as early as January 2018. The installation introduces MABR to the continental United States, and California specifically, where there is a high demand for wastewater treatment technology. The agreement follows the MOU the parties executed earlier in 2017. The MABR unit will allow CR2C faculty and research students to conduct independent evaluations of the MABR wastewater treatment technology and processes. Deploying the MABR Unit will pave the way for Fluence to test nd achieve California's strict Title 22 requirements for water reuse and allow observation of the plant in operation. MABR systems represent a cost-effective decentralized treatment for reuse, as well as being an affordable upgrade to a large existing installed base of conventional treatment plants aiming to achieve effective nitrogen and phosphorous removal. "Fluence's innovative MABR technology as a reuse solution solves the water scarcity problem efficiently and cost-effectively in the U.S., specifically in California," said Henry Charrabe, Fluence's Managing Director and CEO. "Especially in regions where power is at a premium, our smart packaged decentralized MABR units produce the highest quality output while minimizing power consumption, operation and maintenance costs." This is the second MABR unit deployed in the United States, and the first on the mainland. The first MABR plant was built and commissioned at the end of last year in Bordeaux, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. The Bordeaux plant, which has been in operation for almost one year, received approval from the Environmental Protection Agency in May 2017. The plant was fully operational within a few hours of Hurricane Irma striking the island, reflecting the technological reliability and robustness of the MABR unit. About Fluence Corporation Fluence Corporation is quickly becoming a leading global provider of fast-to-deploy decentralized and packaged water, wastewater and reuse treatment solutions, already an estimated A$17 billion market in 2016. Fluence has experience operating in over 70 countries worldwide and employs more than 330 highly trained water professionals around the globe. The Company provides local, sustainable treatment and reuse solutions while empowering businesses and communities worldwide to make the most of their water resources. Fluence offers an integrated range of services across the complete water cycle, from early stage evaluation, through design and delivery to ongoing support and optimization of water related assets. With established operations in the Americas, the Middle East and Europe, one of Fluence's main focuses is expanding into the vast market in China for rural wastewater treatment. For more information please visit our website: https://www.fluencecorp.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171029005075/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 30, 2017] OurCrowd Builds Innovation Bridge Connecting Australia/New Zealand and Israel With commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the liberation of Be'er Sheva by the ANZAC (Australian New Zealand Army Corp), and a visit to Israel by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and New Zealand Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy, OurCrowd, the leading global equity crowdfunding platform, is announcing further expansion of its tech bridge between Israel and Australia/New Zealand. As 4,000 visitors make the trip to Israel, joining the global dignitaries in celebration, OurCrowd has brought to Israel a high-level investor delegation, which includes family offices, corporate representatives and leading business leaders. This delegation includes more than 30 investors from Australia, Hong Kong, the U.S. and New Zealand. The investors will participate in a five-day intensive technology tour of the Startup Nation, meeting dozens of companies and exploring investment opportunities. Leading the delegation is Dan Bennett, Managing Director, OurCrowd Australia and Asia. Commenting on the trip, he said: "Like the ANZACs led a charge one-hundred years ago in Israel, Australian investment is helping shape a next generation of frontier innovation. We have brought this handpicked group to Israel to introduce them to Israel's inspiring and vibrant tech scene and highlight the opportunity for these companies to partner with Australian corporates and investors." OurCrowd Australian & Israeli Collaborative Efforts to date include: Since OurCrowd entered the Australian market in 2014, it has positioned itself as a leading provider to the local market of global alternative investment opportunities. The platform is home to over 2,000 Australian accredited investors, with over $100 million dollars raised in the region. Vector, New Zealand's largest electrical and natural gas energy tech company has expanded its "Internet of Energy" relationship with OurCrowd portfolio company mPrest, by collaborating on an energy platform solution and investing in and reselling mPrest software in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. Both companies also Signed a Contract to Bring "Internet of Energy" to Over a Million Customers in May of this year. In 2016, OurCrowd helped to raise the $50 million "Our Innovation Australan Fund," set up by the founder of systems integration giant Dimension Data (News - Alert) Australia, David Shein, alongside former Investec Bank chair and OurCrowd Advisory Board Chairman, Geoff Levy. The early stage venture capital limited partnership (ESVCLP) targets the early stage sector in Australia that will benefit from capital gains and tax programs associated with investing in Aussie startups. In June 2017, the National Australia Bank Private (NAB) and OurCrowd announced a first of its kind Australian collaboration, providing NAB clients direct access to investment opportunities on the OurCrowd platform. OurCrowd CEO Jon Medved (News - Alert) said, "While Australia and New Zealand may seem far away, the Aussies and Kiwis have come in massive numbers this week, and they are always close to our hearts. The people of Israel owe an enormous historical debt to the courageous ANZAC horsemen who helped enable Israel's rebirth 100 years ago. Today this proud tradition lives on in the bold investors who are working with us to pioneer the next generation of technology and innovation." Notes to Editors About OurCrowd: OurCrowd is the leading global equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors. Managed by a team of seasoned investment professionals and led by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved, OurCrowd vets and selects opportunities, invests its own capital, and brings companies to its accredited membership of global investors. OurCrowd provides post-investment support to its portfolio companies, assigns industry experts as mentors, and takes board seats. The OurCrowd community of almost 20,000 investors from over 112 countries has invested over USD $500M into 120 portfolio companies and funds. To join OurCrowd as an accredited investor visit http://www.ourcrowd.com and click "Join." For Press Materials: http://blog.ourcrowd.com/australia100 https://www.facebook.com/Ourcrowdfund https://twitter.com/OurCrowd www.linkedin.com/company/2789190?trk=tyah&trkInfo=tarId:1414332162089,tas:ourcrowd,idx:2-1-2 https://plus.google.com/+OurcrowdFund http://blog.ourcrowd.com/ https://www.youtube.com/user/OurCrowdFund View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171030005509/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 29, 2017] One Year Maintenance and Switching Data in Patients with Crohn's Disease Support the Use of INFLECTRA* (infliximab CT-P13) in IBD1 New data show that switching patients with Crohn's disease (CD) to INFLECTRA (infliximab CT-P13) from REMICADE (infliximab) led to comparable efficacy, safety and tolerability to treatment with REMICADE over a 24 week period.1 The full 54-week results of the randomized controlled trial comparing INFLECTRA and REMICADE in biologic-naive patients with active CD support the long-term effectiveness of treatment with INFLECTRA.1 The results also show that INFLECTRA was well-tolerated, with a similar safety profile to REMICADE.1 Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and Celltrion Healthcare jointly announced the secondary outcomes from the phase III trial of INFLECTRA in CD at the 25th United European Gastroenterology (UEG) Week. *INFLECTRA is marketed as INFLECTRA (infliximab-dyyb) in the United States (U.S.) and under other brand names in some countries. In the EU, INFLECTRA is marketed as INFLECTRA (infliximab CT-P13) **REMICADE is a U.S. registered trademark of Janssen Biotech, Inc. "The data announced today show that 24 weeks (six months) after switching from REMICADE to the Infliximab biosimilar CT-P13, patients with Crohn's disease continue to experience similar efficacy, safety and tolerability compared to staying on REMICADE," said Stephen B Hanauer, M.D., Professor of Medicine-Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, US. "These data support previous findings which demonstrate the importance of CT-P13 as a treatment option for patients with Crohn's disease, providing healthcare professionals further confidence when stable patients switch to CT-P13 from REMICADE." "These new data add to the considerable body of evidence, including real-world studies and the NOR-SWITCH trial, for the switching of stable patients to INFLECTRA," said Sam Azoulay, M.D., Senior Vice President, Chief Medical Officer, Pfizer Essential Health. "Today's announcement further highlights Pfizer's commitment to biosimilars and provides additional evidence supporting use of INFLECTRA in Crohn's disease." The study previously reported its primary endpoint at six weeks, demonstrating non-inferiority of INFLECTRA compared to REMICADE in the treatment of CD.2 More than 50 real-world studies in IBD have been conducted with INFLECTRA, evaluating over 7,500 IBD patients in real-world settings.2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14 There is an important and growing body of evidence for the switching of stable REMICADE patients to INFLECTRA. Clinical studies supporting this switch include NOR-SWITCH,15 BIO-SWITCH,16 PROSIT-BIO3 and now CT-P13 3.4.1,2,17 For example, the NOR-SWITCH study published earlier this year showed that switching from REMICADE to INFLECTRA was not inferior to continued treatment with REMICADE when measured across all adult indications.15 About the trial This is a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group, phase III study conducted over 54 weeks in 220 patients with active CD to compare overall safety and efficacy between INFLECTRA and REMICADE as determined by the Crohn's Disease Activity Index (CDAI)-70 response rates.1 The primary endpoint of the 54 week study was collected at week 6 to demonstrate that INFLECTRA is non-inferior to REMICADE in the treatment of CD.2 From Week 30, patients on REMICADE were randomized to either continue on the same treatment or switch to INFLECTRA while patients on INFLECTRA were randomized to either continue on the same treatment or switch to REMICADE.1 Final study results were collected at 54-weeks.1 The pre-specified secondary endpoints reported today include CDAI-70 response rates after week 6, clinical remission,[1] Short Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (SIBDQ)[2] results, and safety endpoints including adverse events and immunogenicity. While not powered to draw definitive conclusions, these new data add to the body of evidence supporting use of INFLECTRA in the Crohn's Disease indication, including switch to INFLECTRA from REMICADE.1 Comparable efficacy, as measured by CDAI-70 response and clinical remission after week 6 was observed, and these response rates were maintained and observed to be similar in all study arms at week 54.1 One-year data including adverse drug reactions, serious adverse events and infections were observed to be similar among all treatment groups.1 There were no clinically meaningful differences in immunogenicity results throughout the study period among treatment groups up to week 54.1 CDAI: Crohn's Disease Activity Index, a recognised measure for the evaluation of disease activity. A response to treatment is measured as a decrease of 70 points or greater (CDAI-70). [1] Clinical remission: decrease in CDAI >150 points [2] Short Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire, a health-related quality of life tool measuring physical, social, and emotional status, and has been predominantly used in trials for Crohn's disease. ABOUT INFLECTRA: IMPORTANT SAFETY INFORMATION AND INDICATIONS FROM THE U.S. PRESCRIBING INFORMATION Only your doctor can recommend a course of treatment after checking your health condition. INFLECTRA (infliximab-dyyb) can cause serious side effects such as lowering your ability to fight infections. Some patients, especially those 65 years and older, have had serious infections caused by viruses, fungi or bacteria that have spread throughout the body, including tuberculosis (TB) and histoplasmosis. Some of these infections have been fatal. Your doctor should monitor you closely for signs and symptoms of TB during treatment with INFLECTRA. Unusual cancers have been reported in children and teenage patients taking TNF-blocker medicines. Hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma, a rare form of fatal lymphoma, has occurred mostly in teenage or young adult males with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis who were taking infliximab products and azathioprine or 6-mercaptopurine. For children and adults taking TNF blockers, including INFLECTRA, the chances of getting lymphoma or other cancers may increase. You should discuss any concerns about your health and medical care with your doctor. What should I tell my doctor before I take INFLECTRA? You should let your doctor know if you have or ever had any of the following: Tuberculosis (TB) or have been near someone who has TB. Your doctor will check you for TB with a skin test. If you have latent (inactive) TB, you will begin TB treatment before you start INFLECTRA. Lived in a region where certain fungal infections like histoplasmosis or coccidioidomycosis are common. Infections that keep coming back, diabetes, or an immune system problem. Any type of cancer or a risk factor for developing cancer, for example, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or had phototherapy for psoriasis. Heart failure or any heart condition. Many people with heart failure should not take INFLECTRA. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection or think you may be a carrierof HBV. Your doctor will test you for HBV. Nervous system disorders (like multiple sclerosis or Guillain-Barre syndrome). Use the medicines Kineret (anakinra), Orencia (abatacept), or Actemra (tocilizumab) or other medicines called biologics used to treat the same problems as INFLECTRA. Are pregnant, plan to become pregnant, are breast-feeding, or have a baby and were using INFLECTRA during your pregnancy. Tell your baby's doctor about your INFLECTRA use. If your baby receives a live vaccine within 6 months after birth, your baby may develop infections with serious complications that can lead to death. Recently received or are scheduled to receive a vaccine. Adults and children taking INFLECTRA should not receive live vaccines or treatment with a weakened bacteria (such as BCG for bladder cancer) while taking INFLECTRA. What should I watch for and talk to my doctor about before or while taking INFLECTRA? The following serious (sometimes fatal) side effects have been reported in people taking INFLECTRA. You should tell your doctor right away if you have any of the signs listed below: Infections (like TB, blood infections, pneumonia)-fever, tiredness, cough, flu, or warm, red, or painful skin or any open sores. INFLECTRA can make you more likely to get an infection or make any infection that you have worse. Lymphoma or any other cancers in adults and children. Skin cancer-any changes in or growths on your skin. Heart failure-new or worsening symptoms, such as shortness of breath, swelling of your ankles or feet, or sudden weight gain. Reactivation of HBV-feeling unwell, poor appetite, tiredness, fever, skin rash, and/or joint pain. Liver injury-jaundice (yellow skin and eyes), dark brown urine, right-sided abdominal pain, fever, or severe tiredness. Blood disorders-fever that doesn't go away, bruising, bleeding, or severe paleness. Nervous system disorders-numbness, weakness, tingling, changes in your vision, or seizures. Allergic reactions during or after the infusion-hives, difficulty breathing, chest pain, high or low blood pressure, swelling of face and hands, and fever or chills. Lupus-like syndrome-chest discomfort or pain that does not go away, shortness of breath, joint pain, rash on the cheeks or arms that gets worse in the sun. Psoriasis-new or worsening psoriasis such as red scaly patches or raised bumps on the skin that are filled with pus. The more common side effects with infliximab products are respiratory infections (that may include sinus infections and sore throat), headache, rash, coughing, and stomach pain. INFLECTRA is a prescription medication used to treat: Crohn's Disease Can reduce signs and symptoms and induce and maintain remission in adult patients with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease who haven't responded well to other therapies Paediatric Crohn's Disease Can reduce signs and symptoms and induce and maintain remission in children (ages 6-17) with moderately to severely active Crohn's disease who haven't responded well to other therapies Ulcerative Colitis Can reduce signs and symptoms, induce and maintain remission, promote intestinal healing, and reduce or stop the need for steroids in adult patients with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis who haven't responded well to other therapies Rheumatoid Arthritis Can reduce signs and symptoms, help stop further joint damage, and improve physical function in patients with moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis, in combination with methotrexate Ankylosing Spondylitis Can reduce signs and symptoms in patients with active ankylosing spondylitis Psoriatic Arthritis Can reduce signs and symptoms of active arthritis, help stop further joint damage, and improve physical function in patients with psoriatic arthritis Plaque Psoriasis Approved for the treatment of adult patients with chronic severe (extensive and/or disabling) plaque psoriasis under the care of a physician who will determine if INFLECTRA is appropriate considering other available therapies Please see full Prescribing Information for INFLECTRA (infliximab-dyyb). About Pfizer: Working together for a healthier world At Pfizer, we apply science and our global resources to bring therapies to people that extend and significantly improve their lives. We strive to set the standard for quality, safety and value in the discovery, development and manufacture of health care products. Our global portfolio includes medicines and vaccines as well as many of the world's best-known consumer health care products. Every day, Pfizer colleagues work across developed and emerging markets to advance wellness, prevention, treatments and cures that challenge the most feared diseases of our time. Consistent with our responsibility as one of the world's premier innovative biopharmaceutical companies, we collaborate with health care providers, governments and local communities to support and expand access to reliable, affordable health care around the world. For more than 150 years, we have worked to make a difference for all who rely on us. We routinely post information that may be important to investors on our website at www.pfizer.com. In addition, to learn more, please visit us on www.pfizer.com and follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) at @Pfizer and @Pfizer_News, LinkedIn, YouTube and like us on Facebook at Facebook.com/Pfizer. DISCLOSURE NOTICE: The information contained in this release is as of October 30, 2017. Pfizer assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this release as the result of new information or future events or developments. This release contains forward-looking information about INFLECTRA (infliximab-dyyb), including its potential benefits, that involves substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Risks and uncertainties include, among other things, uncertainties regarding the commercial success of INFLECTRA; uncertainties regarding the outcome and impact of the suit filed against Johnson & Johnson; the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including, without limitation, the possibility of unfavorable clinical trial results, including unfavorable new clinical data and additional analyses of existing clinical data; intellectual property and/or litigation implications; relationship with the application sponsor; decisions by regulatory authorities regarding labeling and other matters that could affect the availability or commercial potential of INFLECTRA; and competitive developments. A further description of risks and uncertainties can be found in Pfizer's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, including in the sections thereof captioned "Risk Factors" and "Forward-Looking Information and Factors That May Affect Future Results", as well as in its subsequent reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K, all of which are filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and available at www.sec.gov and www.pfizer.com. # # # # # References 1 Kim YH, Ye B.D, Pesegova H et al. Phase III Randomized Controlled Trial to Compare Biosimilar Infliximab (CT-P13) with Innovator Infliximab in Patients with Active Crohn's Disease: 1-year maintenance and switching results. Abstract LB04. Presented at UEGW 2017. 2 Kim YH, Ye BD, Pesegova M, et al., Phase III Randomised, Double-blind, Controlled Trial to Compare Biosimilar Infliximab (CT-P13) with Innovator Infliximab (INX (News - Alert)) in Patients with Active Crohn's Disease: Early Efficacy and Safety Results. DOP061, presented at ECCO 2017. 3 Fiorino G, Manetti N, Armuzzi A et al. The PROSIT-BIO Cohort: A Prospective Observational Study of Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease Treated with Infliximab Biosimilar. Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2017 Feb; 23(2):233-243. 4 Abstracts of ECCO 2017. J Crohns Colitis 2017; 11/Supp 1 [Alfonso J, et al. P248. Ametzazurra A, et al. P503. Choe YH, et al. P487. Choe YH, et al. P500. Curdia Goncalves T, et al. P472. Eberl A, et al. P639. Fiorino G, et al. P605. Fiorino G, et al. P633. Gompertz M, et al. P679. Gonzalez A, et al. P508. Guerrero Puente LN, et al. P545. Han S, et al. P582. Huoponen S, et al. P685. Juan G, et al. P632. Kang B, et al. P542. Kaniewska M, et al. P425. Kim YH, et al. DOP061. Kolar M, et al. P532. Lovasz BD, et al. P592. Molnar T, et al. P675. Mortier K, et al. P333. Nugent S, et al. P430. Plevris N, et al. P586. Rodriguez Glez GE, et al. P629. Sladek M, et al. P661. Smits L, et al. P663. Soret PA, et al. P471. Strik A, et al. P665. St. Clair Jones A, et al. P527.] 5 Abstracts of ECCO 2016. J Crohns Colitis 2016; 10/Supp 1 [Bortlik M, et al. P495. Carvalho L, et al. P327; Diaz Hernandez L, et al. P449. Guerra Veloz MF, et al. P452; Guerra Veloz MF, et al. P600; Hamanaka S, et al. P329. Kaniewska M, Rydzewska G. P645. Kolar M, et al. DOP032. Muhammed R, et al. P382. Sieczkowska J, et al. P530. Turk N, et al. P577. Zagorowicz E, et al. P513.] 6 Abstracts of BSG 2016. Gut 2016;7/Supp 1 [Ala K, et al. PTU-059; Bennett KJ, et al. PWE-017; Chung L, et al. OC-038; Rahmany S, et al. PTU-073.] 7 Gecse KB, Lovasz BD, Farkas K et al. Efficacy and Safety of the Biosimilar Infliximab CT-P13 Treatment in Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: A Prospective, Multicentre, Nationwide Cohort. J Crohns Colitis 2016; 10(2):133-40. 8 Farkas K, Rutka M, Golovics PA, et al. Efficacy of Infliximab Biosimilar CT-P13 Induction Therapy on Mucosal Healing in Ulcerative Colitis. J Crohns Colitis 2016; 10:1273-78. 9 Hlavaty T, Krajcovicova A, Sturdik I, et al. Biosimilar infliximab CT-P13 treatment in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases - a one-year, single-centre retrospective study. Gastroenterol Hepatol 2016; 70:27-32. 10 Jahnsen J, Detlie TE, Vatn S et al. Biosimilar infliximab (CT-P13) in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease: A Norwegian observational study Expert Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 2015; 9(S1):S45-52. 11 Keil R, Wasserbauer M, Zadorova Z et al. Clinical monitoring: infliximab biosimilar CT-P13 in the treatment of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Scand J Gastroenterol 2016; 51: 1062-68. 12 Razanskaite V, Bettey M, Downey L, et al. Biosimilar Infliximab in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Outcomes of a Managed Switching Programme. J Crohns Colitis 2017 Jun; 11(6):690-696 13 Smits LJ, Derikx LAAP, de Jong DJ, et al. Clinical Outcomes Following a Switch from Remicade to the Biosimilar CT-P13 in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients: A Prospective Observational Cohort Study. J Crohns Colitis 2016; 10:1287-93. 14 UK inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) programme steering group. Royal College of Physicians, UK. IBD Biological Therapy Audit 2016. Available at: https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/national-clinical-audit-biological-therapies-annual-report-2016. Accessed October 2017. 15 Jorgensen KK, Olsen IC, Goll GL et al. Switching from originator infliximab to biosimilar CT-P13 compared with maintained treatment with originator infliximab (NOR-SWITCH): a 52-week, randomised, double-blind, non-inferiority trial. Lancet. 2017 Jun 10; 389(10086):2304-2316. 16 Tweehuysen L., van den Bemt BJF, van Ingen IL, et al. Clinical and immunogenicity outcomes after switching treatment from innovator infliximab to biosimilar infliximab in rheumatic diseases in daily clinical practice. Abstract 627, presented at ACR 2016. 17 Kim YH et al. Phase III Randomized, Double-blind, Controlled Trial to Compare Biosimilar Infliximab (CT-P13) with Innovator Infliximab (INX) in Patients with Active Crohn's Disease: Early Efficacy and Safety Results. Abstract 101, presented at AOCC 2017. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171029005017/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] A.M. Best's 2017 Market Briefing in London to Focus on Impact of Brexit, M&A and the Rise of Protectionism A.M. Best will host its annual Insurance Market Briefing - Europe & Methodology Review Seminar on Wednesday, 15 November, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., at ETC Venues St. Paul's in London. The briefing will be held from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., and the seminar will run from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. The conference will provide a platform for leading A.M. Best rating analysts and industry experts to discuss the impact of prevailing economic and political conditions and rating trends for (re)insurers in key segments of the European (re)insurance sector and the London Market. Jon Hancock, Performance Management Director, Lloyd's of London will deliver the keynote address on the topic: Performance Management in a changing world. This year's market briefing will also offer thematic sessions on issues of protectionism, Brexit, M&A and reinsurance trends based on insurance market intelligence and research as conducted by A.M. Best. A panel of senor industry spokespersons will deliberate on the global reinsurance sector's strains and opportunities, including the impact of insurance-linked securities (ILS) on the sector. The annual Methodology Review Seminar will examine the latest updates to rating criteria and will provide attendees with a better understanding of the modifications recently made to Best's Credit Rating Methodology (BCRM) and the proprietary Best's Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR) model. Registration can be made online at http://www.ambest.com/events/imbeurope/. Enquiries can be addressed to [email protected]. A.M. Best is the world's oldest and most authoritative insurance rating and information source. For more information, visit www.ambest.com. Copyright 2017 by A.M. Best Company, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171030005162/en/ [October 30, 2017] Dooney & Bourke Launches Official Tmall Global Online Store HONG KONG, Oct. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Dooney & Bourke, leading American heritage handbag and fine leather goods brand for over 40 years, announces today the launch of its first official Tmall Global online store (dooney.tmall.com) -- a leading business-to-consumer shopping website under Alibaba Group. Founded in 1975 in Norwalk, Connecticut, Dooney and Bourke has emerged as the quintessential American heritage company with a rich history steeped in impeccable craftsmanship and unparalleled quality. In the world of fashion, where the ephemeral is very often a common trait, Dooney and Bourke has proven that staying true to brand DNA is indeed one of the main ingredients for sustained success. Paying tribute to one's roots, respecting traditions and formulas tested by time are central to the Dooney and Bourke ethos. Designed to be instant classics that last a lifetime, this iconic American brand has become the accessory staple of women across America including the favorite of celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Freida Pinto and Zooey Deschanel. Its appeal spans generations. Liz Kane, Director of Advertising and P.R. at Dooney & Bourke, says, "The launch of our official Tmall Global flagship store is a major milestone in our company's 42 year history." Marking an exciting development for Dooney & Bourke's online business in China, the Tmall Global online store will give Chinese shoppers access to a full selection of handbags and small leather accessories including wallets, phone cases & wristlets. With over 1000 retail stores throughout the United States, and over 60 boutiques internationally, Dooney & Bourke is delighted to be able to offer its products to the stylish consumers of China. Dooney & Bourke designs and crafts instant classics with the perfect union of timeless American style, the highest regard for materials and craftsmanship, and a dedication to effortless functionality. Dooney & Bourke leather goods can be purchase online at: http://www.dooney.hk/homepage For further information or imagery, please contact PRIME: Kirsten McLennan [email protected] T: 2973 0927 Michelle Lam [email protected] T: 2973 0017 Logo - https://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20171027/1977070-1LOGO SOURCE Dooney & Bourke [October 30, 2017] Trilio Announces $5 Million Series A Funding Round Led by .406 Ventures BOSTON, Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trilio Data, the first and only comprehensive data protection, backup and recovery solution native to OpenStack, today announced that it received $5 million in a Series A funding round led by Boston-based .406 Ventures. Trilio Data provides a business assurance platform for IT organizations and cloud service providers deploying application workloads in both public and private clouds. An innovator in OpenStack backup, recovery and migration solutions, the company was founded in 2013 to meet the needs of an ever-changing, growing, complex, and scalable environment. The companys flagship product, TrilioVault, is the trusted data backup and recovery solution of leading OpenStack adopters for data protection, migration, resource management, configuration, change management, and sandbox-as-a-service in private, public and hybrid clouds. Research from IDG indicates that by 2018 the majority of organizations IT infrastructures will be entirely cloud-based. Having flexible and intelligent backup and recovery solutions are no longer a nice to have for businesses. These are critical components of a comprhensive IT strategy, said David Safaii, CEO of Trilio Data. This funding will strengthen our ability to support Trilios existing customer base, accelerate our technology roadmap and meet the demand were experiencing for cloud based application and data assurance inside enterprises worldwide. Trilio will use the funding to grow its engineering, sales and marketing teams, and increase channel enablement support for the companys global customer base. The company will also expand its board of directors by bringing on .406 Ventures partner Greg Dracon and principal Payal Agrawal Divakaran. Enterprises are increasingly seeking solutions to reduce the risk, cost and effort of managing data across public, private and hybrid cloud environments, said Dracon. Our investment in Trilio underscores our belief in both the increased need for business assurance across all cloud types, and the companys unique ability to meet customers' requirements. About .406 Ventures .406 Ventures is an early stage technology venture capital firm investing in enterprise technology companies founded by visionary entrepreneurs. With just over $650M under management, the .406 Ventures team is comprised of entrepreneurs and operators who became investors to apply real world experience and strong company-building skills to create value for entrepreneurs and LPs. The firm leads first institutional investment rounds in market-changing Enterprise IT and Healthcare companies led by world-class operators, who move quickly and embody successful entrepreneurial DNA with their passion, creativity and endurance. For more information, please visit www.406ventures.com. About Trilio Data Trilio Data is an innovator in OpenStack backup and recovery solutions. The company was founded by technologists who, combined, have more than 45 years of experience at some of the worlds largest storage vendors. Trilio Data was founded to meet the needs of ever-changing, growing, complex, and scalable cloud based architectures, where flexible and intelligent backup and recovery solutions are no longer a nice to have instead, they are critical components of a comprehensive IT strategy. For more information, visit www.trilio.io or call +1-508-233-3912. Follow us on Twitter: @triliodata and LinkedIn. Media Contact: Crystal Woody [email protected] 781-457-6117 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 30, 2017] MIT Technology Review and BBVA Announce Seminar on The Future of Finance CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Oct. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, MIT Technology Review and BBVA, the global financial services company headquartered in Madrid, announced a half-day seminar, Designing the Future of Finance. The seminar will be held: Thursday, November 2, from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM PDT at the World Economic Forum offices located at 1202 Ralston Avenue in San Francisco, CA. The free seminar brings together experts in the financial technology sector, including startups, large corporations, and investors, to share ideas and thoughts around major trends and issues in the financial world. Attendees will: Meet disruptors in the financial technology sector. Stay on top of the latest trends. Network with leaders in an intimate setting. "BBVA is delighted to be collaborating with MIT Technology Review on this thought-provoking program that brings together a wide array of innovators at the forefront of today's fintech revolution." said Jose Fernandez Da Ponte, head of BBVA's SF Rep Office and EVP for business development and new ventures at BBVA's New Digital Businesses unit. "We are at an interesting point in our digital transformation at BBVA. We are investing in, partnering with, and incubating banking disruptors all over the world, particularly in our Silicon Valley office. So we are both the disruptor and the disrupted." "We're pleased to partner with BBVA to host this important seminar," says Martin Giles, MIT Technology Review's San Francisco bureau chief. "BBVA is doing important work in the space which aligns with our mission of equipping our audiences with the intelligence to understand and contribute to a world shaped by technology. The topics we'll explore are critical to the community of business leaders, innovators, early adopters, entrepreneurs, and investors in the fintech space." The expert panel of speakers includes: Francisco Gonzalez, Group Executive Chairman, BBVA Konrad Alt , COO, Merlon Intelligence, and former COO, Promontory , COO, Merlon Intelligence, and former COO, Promontory Susan Athey , Stanford Professor and former Chief Economist, < rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/" rel="nofollow">Microsoft , Stanford Professor and former Chief Economist, < rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/" rel="nofollow">Microsoft Daniela Barbosa , World Wide Alliances for Hyperledger, Linux Foundation , World Wide Alliances for Hyperledger, Linux Foundation Konstantin Peric , Director, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation , Director, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Kamal Quadir , Founder and CEO, bKash , Founder and CEO, bKash Diego Rodriguez , Partner and Global Managing Director, IDEO , Partner and Global Managing Director, IDEO Bill Ready , EVP and Chief Operating Officer, PayPal , EVP and Chief Operating Officer, PayPal Nuno Sebastiao, Founder and CEO, Feedzai The seminar is free and open to members of the financial technology community, but advance registration is required. Click here to learn more, see a full agenda, and register for the seminar. About MIT Technology Review Founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1899, MIT Technology Review is a digitally oriented independent media company whose analysis, features, reviews, interviews, and live events explain the commercial, social, and political impact of new technologies. MIT Technology Review readers are curious technology enthusiastsa global audience of business and thought leaders, innovators and early adopters, entrepreneurs and investors. Every day, we provide an authoritative filter for the flood of information about technology. We are the first to report on a broad range of new technologies, informing our audiences about how important breakthroughs will impact their careers and their lives. Subscribe. Follow us: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram. About BBVA BBVA is a customer-centric global financial services group founded in 1857. It has a solid position in Spain, is the largest financial institution in Mexico, and has leading franchises in South America and the Sun Belt region of the United States. Its diversified business is focused on high-growth markets, and it relies on technology as a key sustainable competitive advantage. Corporate responsibility is at the core of its business model. BBVA fosters financial education and inclusion, and supports scientific research and culture. It operates with the highest integrity and a long-term vision, and it applies the best practices. It is present in the main sustainability indexes. BBVA's New Digital Businesses (NDB) unit invests in, partners with, incubates, and acquires disruptive financial technology firms as part of BBVA's focus on delivering innovation in the banking sector. From its offices in Madrid, San Francisco, Hong Kong, and London, NDB is actively searching for leading, innovative businesses to shape the future of the sector. Through NDB, BBVA has acquired Simple (U.S.), Holvi (Finland), and Openpay (Mexico) and owns a substantial stake in Atom (U.K.). It has incubated a number of fintech startups including, Azlo, Covault Denizen, Muno, and Trust-u. BBVA also invests in fintech through its venture capital arm, Propel Venture Partners. Media Contacts: MIT Technology Review David Sweeney [email protected] BBVA Silvia Davi [email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/mit-technology-review-and-bbva-announce-seminar-on-the-future-of-finance-300545114.html SOURCE MIT Technology Review [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] Dublin, Ohio, Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Safeware, a leading provider of product protection and extended warranty solutions, warns consumers that Halloween festivities could result in damage to valuable items like furniture and technology. Historic claims data shows that many customers experience damage as a result of Halloween parties, trick-or-treat surprises, and general Fall activities. One such customer in Salina, Kansas was testing out her jack-o-lanterns in her living room before placing them on her porch for trick-or-treat. Without noticing, one of her tea-light candles inside a pumpkin burned her sofa and caused her to spend the evening waiting for a furniture repair expert instead of enjoying Halloween. While this specific cause of burn is rare, other customers commonly experience cigarette burns, curling iron burns, or even burns caused by cookware. Another Safeware customer, located in Gray Court, South Carolina, hosted a scary Halloween party in which she and her friends all dressed up in costumes using fake blood. When some of her friends sat down to relax at the end of the night, they stained the love seat so badly that it had to be replaced with a brand-new product. Stains caused by drinks, pets, food, kids, and more are the reason for over fourteen percent of Safeware furniture claims annually. A third customer recently fell victim to Halloween horror in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania when she accidentally spilled hot apple cider on her laptop keyboard, rendering the entire unit completely unusable. The keys quickly became crunchy and her battery was depleted thanks to the sugary beverage. Like many college students, this woman is among the twelve percent of customers who submit claims caused by accidental liquid spills. Companies like Safeware strive to protect consumers from these unforeseeable incidents. Holidays, celebrations, and daily life events can end in undue stress when accidents happen and, as a result, plans are forced to change. By protecting their technology and furniture this holiday season, consumers can be worry-free while enjoying the sweet treats and friendly fun. About Safeware Having pioneered the technology insurance industry in 1982, Safeware is now one of the most recognized names in product protection. Safewares innovative approach to insurance and extended warranty solutions has propelled the company into multiple industries including education, corporate technology, fitness, furniture and appliances. By allowing partners to customize coverage based on their unique needs, Safeware provides best-in-class programs allowing customers to own their products with confidence. Learn more about Safeware online at www.safeware.com or by calling 1.800.800.1492. Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/984dcb26-3a6c-43a6-8963-d2fea8f9ef79 Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/50c07cec-f343-4b65-a9b2-89b7faead113 [October 30, 2017] Onix Breaks Attendance Record At Annual Client-Partner Conference Also celebrates 25 years of company success LAKEWOOD, Ohio, Oct. 30, 2017 /CNW/ -- Onix, a global leader in cloud consulting solutions and strategic IT services, experienced record-breaking attendance at its annual client-partner conference held earlier this month. The event, known as Syzygy, included presentations, training workshops and a networking event at the famous Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Syzygy (pronounced sizz - ? - je) is defined by Merriam-Webster as "the nearly straight-line configuration of three celestial bodies (such as the sun, moon and earth during a solar or lunar eclipse) in a gravitational system." At Onix, this translates to the perfect alignment of clients, partners and employees during a three-day event where ideas and knowledge are shared, and successful partnerships are celebrated. Held in early October, the event included a presentation from Google about the latest advancements in Google Cloud Platform and Machine Learning, along with client and partner success stories shared by representatives from ATB Financial, Dropbox, Vonage and BetterCloud. In addition, Ronald Rerko, Director of Translation Development in the Genomic Medicine Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, shared his knowledge of genomic medicine and genetic engineering and described how cloud computing elps the Cleveland Clinic advance its research. Onix also used the Syzygy event as an opportunity to include its clients, partners and employees in the company's 25th anniversary celebration. "It took a lot of hard work and the dedication of each and every employee over the past 25 years to build Onix into the successful technology product and solutions provider it is today, and we have much to celebrate," said Tim Needles, Onix CEO. "We felt that this event was the perfect time to share our excitement and pride with all of our partners, clients and employees. It was also the prime opportunity to announce that Onix Outreach, our non-profit charitable giving arm which provides assistance to the underserved in our communities, is acquiring its own food truck to distribute meals to those in need." Since launching in 1992, Onix has grown from a three-person networking and hardware provider into a global cloud solutions provider and a top Google Cloud Premier Partner. The Onix team now numbers more than 140 employees located in its Lakewood, Ohio, headquarters, its recently opened office in Toronto, Canada and remotely throughout the U.S. and Canada. The company's client list includes representation across well-known consumer brands, media companies, global manufacturers, educational institutions and government agencies. To learn more about Onix's unique success story, visit: https://www.onixnet.com/about/careers/it-careers. About Onix Launched in 1992, Onix is a leading developer and provider of cloud computing solutions and consulting services to a broad range of customers. Onix partners with cloud technology leaders and offers extensive expertise in the design and implementation of end-to-end comprehensive I.T. solutions. Onix has been a Google Cloud partner since 2001 and has been recognized by Google as well as customers with numerous awards for work done in North America and globally. Learn more at onixnet.com. Media Contact Karen Masuga Marketing Communications Manager Onix Networking Corp. 216-529-3043 [email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/onix-breaks-attendance-record-at-annual-client-partner-conference-300544925.html SOURCE Onix [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 30, 2017] Mission Therapeutics Presenting at The Michael J. Fox Foundation's Parkinson's Disease Therapeutics Conference Mission Therapeutics announced that its Medical Director, CNS Translational Medicine, Dr Paul Thompson will be delivering a presentation today at the Parkinson's Disease Therapeutics Conference in New York City. Mission Therapeutics is the leading drug discovery and development company focused on selectively targeting deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs) to treat neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, and other diseases with high unmet medical need. The conference is The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research (MJFF)'s 11th annual scientific conference and the only one in the world focused exclusively on Parkinson's disease drug development. Mission Therapeutics' presentation, entitled "Validation of USP30 as a Therapeutic Target (News - Alert) for Parkinson's Disease Modification," will be given during the "Emerging Targets Advancing Treatments Session," between 9.00h-10.40h ET. In his presentation, Dr Thompson will share preclinical data generated by Mission Therapeutics as part of their development of potent and selective USP30 inhibitors, ranging from simple in vitro systems through to translationally relevant stem cell-derived Parkinson's disease models. He will outline some of the scientific mechanisms as well as the clinical potential of USP30 inhibitors in Parkinson's disease. USP30 is a mitochondrial-associated DUB that has been highlighted as a promising new target in Parkinson's disease. It has been implicated in the control of mitophagy - a process that regulates the selective clearance of poorly functioning mitochondria by modifying levels of a protein called ubiquitin. Failure of mitochondrial quality control may lead to degeneration of the highly active substantia nigra neurons i the brain, a pathological mechanism that can result in Parkinson's disease. Dr Anker Lundemose, Chief Executive Officer of Mission Therapeutics, said: "Being invited to speak at The Michael J. Fox Foundation's Parkinson's Disease Therapeutics Conference, as well as receiving a grant from the organisation, is a great honour. It is also an endorsement of the potential clinical utility of inhibiting USP30 as a treatment for Parkinson's disease. In the immediate term the data from our studies are promoting our understanding of the scientific mechanisms and consequences of USP30 inhibition in Parkinson's disease. They also inform our active USP30 inhibitor preclinical development strategy." Mission Therapeutics and the University of Oxford were awarded a grant from MJFF in April 2017. -Ends- NOTES TO EDITORS: About Mission Therapeutics Mission Therapeutics is an early-stage drug development company targeting the ubiquitin pathway for the treatment of neurodegenerative disease, fibrosis, inflammation, cancer and other diseases of unmet need. The Company has built a leading platform for the discovery and development of first-in-class, small-molecule drugs that selectively target deubiquitylating enzymes (DUBs) - an emerging drug class that is attracting significant commercial interest in the area of protein homeostasis. Mission has strong links with key academic and research centers, including Prof. Jackson's Cancer Research UK Laboratories at the University of Cambridge Gurdon Institute, and leading UK centres in neurodegenerative diseases. The Company is managed by a team with broad international, commercial and clinical-science experience. In February 2016, the Company completed an $86m financing that was led by Imperial Innovations and Woodford Patient Capital Trust and included participation from existing investors Sofinnova Partners, Roche Venture Fund, Pfizer Venture Investments and SR One. Mission Therapeutics was founded in 2011 and is based at the Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge, UK. Parkinson's Disease Parkinson's disease is a chronic, degenerative neurological disorder that affects one in 100 people over age 60. There is no objective test, or biomarker for Parkinson's disease, so the rate of misdiagnosis can be relatively high. Estimates of the number of people living with the disease therefore vary, but recent research indicates that at least one million people in the United States, and more than five million worldwide, have the disease. About the Parkinson's Disease Therapeutics Conference The Parkinson's Disease Therapeutics Conference brings together 300 research and business development professionals from both academia and industry and showcases the most exciting and innovative research from The Michael J. Fox Foundation's research portfolio. Novel advances in basic and translational research from both academic and industry labs are highlighted through speaker presentations and a poster session. The event is a platform for field leaders to share new and unpublished results and for fostering new relationships and collaborations. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171030005577/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 30, 2017] Regions Hospital, First Level 1 Academic Trauma Center to Adopt Out-of-Clinic PRO Service to Drive Value Initiative ST. PAUL, Minn., Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Regions Hospital, Orthopaedic Trauma department, is the first Level 1 Academic Trauma center to invest in the infrastructure to scale their patient-reported outcomes program out-of-clinic. Regions will be partnering with CODE Technology, a patient-reported outcomes (PROs) platform that collects PROs as a service. Lead by Dr. Peter Cole, Chief of Orthopaedics at Regions Hospital, and Professor at the University of Minnesota, Regions operates one of the busiest academic centers in the country. The Regions Hospital Orthopaedic Trauma Team has solidified the institution's status as a hospital that provides innovative, high quality patient care at the same time educating residents and fellows while consistently conducting world class research. HealthPartners and the University of Minnesota have built an axis of care which has provided the foundation for unprecedented opportunity which this Orthopaedic Trauma Team has aken advantage of for the sake of advancing medicine at this bastion-institution known for trauma care, explains Cole. With the launch of the PRO program, Regions orthopaedic trauma and the University of Minnesota are leveraging their shared mission of value-based care to support a new program called: The Value Initiative. The goal of The Value Initiative is to develop and implement value-based healthcare through research, innovation, policy and technology. One of the first department-wide studies, The Value Initiative, will be leveraging PRO data for patient-level value diagnosis. Dr. Brian Cunningham, Orthopaedic Trauma Surgeon and Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota stated, We want to find out the value of the Orthopaedic care we are providing and what we can do to improve it. The value equation from Dr. Porter says that reducing cost only improves value if outcomes are at least maintained. Improving outcomes has to be done while evaluating the cost of the episode of care. Our goal is to do both, improve outcomes and lower cost by identifying providers and techniques that are bending the curve while producing outcomes that are at a minimum one standard deviation above the average. We just published a pilot study looking at patient-level value analysis in patients with surgically treated ankle fractures. The biggest limitation was collecting patient-reported outcomes. CODE Technology fixes this problem. For the past five years, PROs at Regions Hospital have been collected in clinic, on pen and paper, using hospital staff. Mary Olson, Vice President of Business Development for CODE Technology said, The collaboration with CODE will transfer all the effort and time it takes to collect PRO data to CODE. Instead of chasing down patients to take a survey, Regions Hospitals clinicians and research staff will be freed up to do what they are best at, namely analyzing the data, designing future studies, and providing the best care to patients. About Regions Hospital Regions Hospital, located in St. Paul, Minnesota, is part of the HealthPartners system. The Orthopaedic Trauma department is an academic center at Regions Hospital, run as a collaborative effort between HealthPartners and The University of Minnesota. As a Level 1 Adult and Pediatric Trauma Center, Regions handles any illness or injury, from minor to the most complex. To learn more, visit https://www.regionshospital.com About CODE Technology CODE Technology is an electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) platform, singularly focused on collecting, reporting, and benchmarking PRO data as a service. To learn why CODE Technology is the industry-leader for PRO capture rate, visit: https://www.codetechnology.com/why-code/ CONTACT: Ellen Laux [email protected] 480-720-9383 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 30, 2017] Farmstead Launches First Free, 30-Minute Grocery Pickup Hub in San Francisco SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Farmstead, the new AI-powered digital micro-grocer that sources and delivers fresh food from farm-to-fridge in 60 minutes, today announced the launch of its new 30-minute Express Pickup service at strategically placed micro-hubs in San Francisco and San Mateo. The new service puts Farmstead on par with the largest incumbent players in the rapidly expanding online grocery delivery space, many of whom do not yet offer online order and pick-up services in San Francisco. "At a time when the tech sector is trying to figure out what the future of grocery shopping will be, we are rolling out a new digital grocer that solves for convenience, food waste, and geographic density," said Farmstead CEO and co-founder Pradeep Elankumaran. "Our suburban customers requested a free rapid pickup option from their nearby Farmstead hub to help them replace time-consuming last-minute trips to the supermarket - we're thrilled to bringthem this carefully designed, compelling new experience." With Farmstead's new Express Pickup service, groceries are ready for pick-up within 30 minutes of placing an online order. When customers arrive at the pick-up location they can tap an "I'm here" button on their phone, and a Farmstead employee will place the custom packed grocery order in the car. "The addition of Express Pickup to Farmstead's fulfillment model makes it possible to launch lightweight, software-defined hubs anywhere in the US to quickly and easily meet consumer demand, fitting in seamlessly with their existing grocery habits," said Farmstead product manager Jennelle Nystrom. Offering Express Pickup service for the first time in San Francisco is the latest step toward Farmstead's goal of fundamentally reinventing the $670B grocery sector. By using AI technology to optimize the sourcing and distribution of food from farms to customers, Farmstead's fulfillment model is specifically designed to reduce rampant waste in the grocery industry, where more than 38 million tons of food waste are generated each year, while saving customers time and money. Founded just 12 months ago, Farmstead has completed over 17,000 deliveries to thousands of Bay Area customers, and has raised $2.8 million in seed funding from Resolute Ventures, Social Capital, Y Combinator, and Joe Montana's Liquid 2 Ventures. About Farmstead Farmstead is a Silicon Valley consumer technology company that builds smart digital products to modernize the grocery supply chain. The company's first innovation is an AI-powered digital grocer that sources and delivers fresh, local food direct from farms and delivers to customers in 60 minutes or less. Farmstead has reinvented the grocery experience by leveraging advancements in AI technology and the gig economy to meet consumers' everyday grocery needs more sustainably. For more information visit www.farmsteadapp.com/about View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/farmstead-launches-first-free-30-minute-grocery-pickup-hub-in-san-francisco-300545405.html SOURCE Farmstead [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 30, 2017] American Water Honored at Executive Women of New Jersey's Biennial Corporate Gender Diversity Awards Breakfast: A Seat at the Table American Water (NYSE: AWK), the largest publicly-traded U.S. water and wastewater utility company, was recognized along with 21 other companies for making the "A Seat at the Table Honor Roll," a list of New Jersey public companies that have three or more women on their boards at the Executive Women of New Jersey (EWNJ) "A Seat at the Table" Corporate Gender Diversity Awards Breakfast. "We are pleased to once again be recognized by the Executive Women of New Jersey for our commitment to diversity and inclusion," said Susan Story, president and CEO, American Water. "American Water believes that our board, management and employees should reflect the customers we serve. Further, we have a true commitment to the respect and dignity for each other as part of the values we live as a company." The event also featured the exclusive release of EWNJ's much-anticipated report on the number of women serving on boards and in the top leadership of publicly-traded companies in New Jersey. The report, "A Seat at the Table: Celebrating Women and Board Leadership," is the only one of its kind in the state. "We are honored to recognize this year's A Seat at the Table Honor Roll companies. These organizations have taken steps to create corporate cultures that recognize the value that gender diversity delivers. While we still have a long way to go in ensuring that women and people of color have equal access to oportunity in top corporate leadership, we're seeing that our work is making an impact," explained Michellene Davis, Esq., President of EWNJ and EVP and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at RWJBarnabas Health. You may view the 2015 A Seat at the Table report here and the 2017 Honor Roll here. About EWNJ Founded in 1980, EWNJ is one of the leading senior-level executive women's organizations that is committed to increasing the presence of women serving on corporate boards and in the top leadership of New Jersey companies. To this end, we publish a biennial report in partnership with PwC that examines the gender diversity of boards and the senior governance of publicly traded companies in New Jersey. We also host an array of events designed to offer women executives prime networking opportunities, to bolster and amplify our gender diversity advocacy efforts, and to raise funds for our Non-Traditional Graduate Student Scholarship program, which is focused on cultivating the next generation of women leaders. As the largest provider of scholarships to non-traditional women graduate students in New Jersey, we are proud to have awarded over $1.2 million dollars to deserving candidates over the last 30 years. About American Water With a history dating back to 1886, American Water is the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. publicly-traded water and wastewater utility company. The company employs more than 6,800 dedicated professionals who provide regulated and market-based drinking water, wastewater and other related services to an estimated 15 million people in 47 states and Ontario, Canada. More information can be found by visiting www.amwater.com. Click here to subscribe to Mobile Alerts for American Water. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171030005717/en/ [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 30, 2017] Global RFID Tags Market for Agricultural Application Report 2017-2021 with Alien Technology, Honeywell International & Zebra Technologies Dominating DUBLIN, October 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The "Global RFID Tags Market for Agricultural Application 2017-2021" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering. The global RFID tags market for agricultural application to grow at a CAGR of 11.35% during the period 2017-2021. Global RFID Tags Market for Agricultural Application 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. According to the report, one driver in the market is greater level of benefits associated with RFID tags. Farming professionals that are involved in agricultural practices, especially in the farming of fruits, vegetables, and grains, are specialized in producing a wide range of different food products to be sold worldwide. Each stage of the farming process is extremely important to achieve the best possible yield from planted crops. Farmers face a lot of challenges while doing farming like being contend with long hot days in the sun, oversee a large landmass, and constantly changin weather conditions. RFID solutions, including tags, for agricultural practices help farmers to overcome the common challenges that they face on a day-to-day basis. One trend in the market is adoption of advanced technology in agricultural applications. Since the early agrarian past, farmers have been witnessing transformation in the use of several innovative tools and technologies to improve their agricultural practices and produce. From hand tools to computer science, updated innovations have come a long way in saving time and labor, cutting costs, and improving yields. Further, the report states that one challenge in the market is security concerns associated with the use of RFID tags for agricultural applications. The process of encryption of data stored in RFID systems adds up to the cost. Also, this cost associated with RFID tags is higher when compared with other alternatives. RFID tags have the information stored in them, with no risk of misuse of any data unless kept in a storage database. However, RFID tags communicate using a specific frequency that is open to any RFID reader configured with that frequency. In agricultural applications, RFID tags are often integrated permanently. Key vendors Alien Technology Honeywell International Zebra Technologies Other prominent vendors Avery Dennison Confidex CoreRFID GAO RFID HID Global Impinj Invengo Technology JADAK Mojix Nedap Omni-ID ORBCOMM RISE Acreo SMARTRAC Tageos Tellago Tag Factory Key Topics Covered: Part 01: Executive Summary Part 02: Scope Of The Report Part 03: Research Methodology Part 04: Introduction Part 05: Market Landscape Part 06: Market Segmentation By Product Part 07: Market Segmentation By Frequency Part 08: Market Segmentation By Distribution Channel Part 09: Regional Landscape Part 10: Decision Framework Part 11: Drivers And Challenges Part 12: Market Trends Part 13: Competitor Landscape Part 14: Key Competitor Analysis Part 15: Appendix For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/m8jj2f/global_rfid_tags Media Contact: Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907 Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716 [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 30, 2017] Pareteum to Power Latin American Expansion of One of World's Largest CPaaS Companies NEW YORK, Oct. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pareteum Corporation (NYSE American: TEUM), ("Pareteum" or the "Company"), the rapidly growing mobile Cloud Communications Platform company, today announced that it has been awarded a cloud services contract with one of the world's largest Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) companies. Pareteum's newest customer offers cloud communications, global messaging, application programming interfaces (APIs) and Internet of Things (IoT) services that enable businesses to communicate with their customers, workforce and machines. Pareteum's Global Mobility Cloud Platform enables this new customer to seamlessly provide mobile connectivity to its messaging customers in Latin America, its newest geographic market. The 3-year contract is scheduled to add $3,000,000 in revenues to Pareteum's revenue backlog. "Our customer is delivering pioneering technology and business innovation to its enterprise customers and Pareteum's Global Mobility Cloud Platform helps them extend their offerings, wherever they originate on any network, anywhere," stated Vic Bozzo Pareteum's CEO. "We are delighted to welcome this new customer to our Global Mobility Cloud and expect this contract to grow in size as APIs are increasingly used for everything in corporate life." "Pareteum is signing new customers and contracts at an unprecedented pace because of the clear value we deliver to global communications companies that are seeking further expansion and growth, in the most efficient way possible on a unified platform. Leveraging our cloud platform, we save our customers time and money while expanding their revenue opportunities. We expect to see increasing demand in this space," commented Hal Turner, Pareteum's Executive Chairma. "The CPaaS market for worldwide voice and text messaging alone is forecast to reach $8.2 billion in 2021. On a broader view, the ability to monetize the use of IoT through applications, which was estimated at $50 billion in 2016 and expected to grow to $101 billion by 2020, means that billions of applications are communicating with each other every day bringing an exponential growth in the amount of data and communication that will require connectivity," Mr. Turner concluded. About Pareteum Corporation The mission of Pareteum Corporation (NYSE American: TEUM) is to connect "every person and everything". Organizations use Pareteum to energize their growth and profitability through cloud communication services and complete turnkey solutions featuring relevant content, applications, and connectivity worldwide. By harnessing the value of communications, Pareteum serves retail, enterprise and IoT customers. Pareteum currently has offices in New York, Sao Paulo, Madrid, Barcelona, Bahrain and the Netherlands. For more information please visit: www.pareteum.com. Forward Looking Statements: Certain statements contained herein constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may include, without limitation, statements with respect to Pareteum's plans and objectives, projections, expectations and intentions. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections about Pareteum's industry, management's beliefs and certain assumptions made by management. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Because such statements involve risks and uncertainties, the actual results and performance of Pareteum may differ materially from the results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. Unless otherwise required by law, Pareteum also disclaims any obligation to update its view of any such risks or uncertainties or to announce publicly the result of any revisions to the forward-looking statements made here. Additional information concerning certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested in Pareteum's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available from the SEC or may be obtained upon request from Pareteum Corporation. Pareteum Investor Relations Contact: Ted O'Donnell Chief Financial Officer (212) 984-1096 [email protected] View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pareteum-to-power-latin-american-expansion-of-one-of-worlds-largest-cpaas-companies-300545673.html SOURCE Pareteum Corporation [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 30, 2017] West County Health Centers Used Self-Service Data Tools to Locate and Provide Immediate Aid to Patients During the Sonoma and Napa Crisis Public Data Showing Active Fire Zones Overlaid with Patient Address Data Helped Community Health Center Staff Act Rapidly SAN MATEO, Calif., Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Unifi Software, the leader in providing a seamlessly integrated suite of self-service data tools delivered on a Data as a Service platform, today shared how doctors, nurses and front-line staff at West County Health Centers used its platform to locate, outreach and provide immediate aid to patients during the devastating Sonoma and Napa fires. Using a combination of publicly available data on the rapid spread of the fires, overlaid with patient data, West County Health Centers were able to quickly get people immediate personalized care. West County Health Centers (WCHC), a federally qualified health center that serves approximately 12,000 patients in upper west Sonoma County, California80 percent of which are poor, 200 percent are poverty-level and below, has been serving patients with a care team model for the past 40 years. WCHC which is deeply embedded in the north bay community addresses the social determinants of health, and whole person health in addition to addressing patients individual medical needs. The center uses traditional data from electronic health records and goes well beyond that by pulling in claim data from Medicare and Medicaid health plans, and brings in data for their homeless population such as census data to understand the context in which people live, looking at neighborhoods, social and educational attainment. In the hours, days and weeks while the fires spread from Santa Rosa to Sonoma and Napa, West County Health Centers (WCHC) used their own patient data records to transform addresses into longitude and latitude points and then overlaid that information on an interactive map of the spreading fire areas, which was publicly available, to identify where the greatest need for medical services might be. They also identified public and private schools, many of which were being used as shelters, to see if anyone there had been affected and proactively reached out as a community health center. Air quality was a huge concern for those with asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), or heart conditions. People fled without medicine. Getting to those patiets quickly was a primary concern to prevent having those same patients end up in emergency rooms where services are extremely costly. The fires burned more than 160,000 acres, destroyed 8,400 structures and sadly took 42 lives. Jason Cunningham MD, a family physician and the Agency Medical Officer for West County Health Centers, is charged with overseeing the clinical quality of the centers health care delivery. He uses data to inform the centers quality improvement efforts on a continual basis. For Jason and his team, data is not just about the outcomes, its about the people and the impact they can make to the community. During a crisis having a personal connection can make all the difference in trying to help people. Everyone we spoke with was grateful for the outreach that we did. It wasnt the work of data scientists or data analysts that made this possibledoctors, physicians, nurses and front-line staff having access to this data in real-time were able to make an immediate connection with hundreds of people affected by the fires. We believe self-service access to data is a compelling mechanism for better health care delivery, said Cunningham. Unifis Data as a Service platform pulls in a wide variety of disparate data sources for WCHC including EMR data, claims data, weather and geo data, homeless data and census data and makes that data available. WCHC uses Tableau to visualize the output for its staff to engage with data. Clinical staff, nurses, physicians, medical assistants and community health workers all need data to inform their work. They need to be able to digest it and have it presented in such a way so they can interact with it. During the crisis, Jason used ArcGIS to layer the various data sources - patients location, schools, and active fire lines, and then visualize the data adding a 1.5-mile radius around the affected area. Each dot on the map represented a patient and if clicked patient data would appear. Data was easily downloaded into Excel in order for doctors and medical professionals to make calls and conduct outreach. We are in a very different time. We no longer need an enterprise-level solution thats top-down sending reports that take months to fine tune before physicians and staff can interact with it. Were in a self-service world. I can have the content experts and the subject matter experts being the ones to really dive in and create the platform. Unifi is a really great example of that, said Jason Cunningham MD, Agency Medical Officer for West County Health Centers. Unifi allows me to create a metadata layer to normalize data from many disparate datasets and put business intelligence tools like Tableau on top of it. Its being able to bring in multiple data sets beyond just clinical data that allows me to digest and gain insights that I was never able to do before. Self-service access to data has opened up a brand new world. As doctors, we need to combine many more resources to drive our insights beyond just clinical data." What happened here in Sonoma and Napa is devastating. Entire communities have been greatly impacted. What WCHC was able to achieve with our platform on a local scale in terms of offering personalized health care is profound. Its a great example of how everyone can be empowered with data to affect change, said Sean Keenan, Co-Founder and Vice President of Product for Unifi Software. Access to self-service data tools is changing healthcare like every other industry. Now doctors and practitioners can gain a collective view of data to gain a broader perspective on how to treat patients. About Unifi Software Unifis Data as a Service platform breaks down the barriers of operational data silos and democratizes information across the enterprise. At the heart of the platform is a comprehensive suite of self-service data tools to empower business users. Employing machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies, governed by IT and cloud-optimized, Unifi predicts what the business user wants to visualize and then connects the resulting data natively to the BI tool for fast, accurate results. Unifi was founded by data and enterprise infrastructure experts from Greenplum (now part of Dell Technologies), Oracle, Microsoft, and Platfora (now part of Workday). Headquartered in San Mateo, CA Unifi operates regional offices across the U.S. and a development center in Bangalore, India. ### Press Contact: Deborah Mullan Senior Corporate Communications Manager Unifi Software (925) 383-7765 [email protected] [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] [October 30, 2017] VirtualArmour to Feature Deception Expert at SecureWorld Conference VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Premier Managed Services Provider, VirtualArmour International Inc. (the Company) (CSE:VAI) (3V3:F) announced today that it will be participating at the upcoming SecureWorld Cybersecurity Conference in Denver, Colorado. The Conference, which will take place on November 1st - 2nd, 2017, will bring together experts across the Cybersecurity industry to discuss the changing threats, newest combative technologies, and opportunities to better protect businesses across all market segments. As part of the event VirtualArmour will have a deception expert with a background in interpersonal communication and expertise in human hacking on hand to offer specialist guidance and advice. The greatest threat in cybersecurity continues to be the human element, said Andrew Douthwaite, VP of Managed Services at VirtualArmour. Understanding how human behavior interacts with technology is critical to establishing a robust prevention platform for any business. To schedule a meeting at the conference please email: [email protected] or stop by booth 109 at the Hyatt Regency Denver Technology Center. About VirtualArmour VirtualArmour is an international cybersecurity and Managed Services provider that delivers customized soltions to help businesses build, monitor, maintain and secure their networks. The Company maintains 24/7 client monitoring and service management with specialist teams located in its US and UK-based security operation centers (SOC). Through partnerships with best-in-class technology providers, VirtualArmour delivers only leading hardware and software solutions for customers that are both sophisticated and scalable, and backed by industry-leading customer service and experience. VirtualArmours proprietary CloudCastr client portal and prevention platform provides clients with unparalleled access to real-time reporting on threat levels, breach prevention and overall network security. VirtualArmour services a wide range of clients - which include those listed on the Fortune 500 - within several industry sectors, in over 30 countries, across five continents. Further information about the Company is available under its profile on the SEDAR website, www.sedar.com, on the CSE website, www.thecse.com, and on its website www.virtualarmour.com. Company Contact: Nick Dinsmoor Vice President Strategy and Marketing Office: 720-644-0913 [email protected] Media Contact Josh Stanbury Office: 416-628-7441 [email protected] Forward-Looking Information: This press release may include forward-looking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. The forward-looking information is based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by the management of VirtualArmour. Although VirtualArmour believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking information is based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking information as VirtualArmour cannot provide any assurance that it will prove to be correct. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and VirtualArmour disclaims any intent or obligation to update publicly any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, other than as required by applicable securities laws. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ] KIPUSHI, Democratic Republic of Congo, Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN) (OTCQX:IVPAF) Executive Chairman Robert Friedland and Chief Executive Officer Lars-Eric Johansson announced today that the company has agreed to rebuild 34 kilometres of track to connect the Kipushi Mine with the DRC national railway at Munama, south of the mining capital of Lubumbashi. The Kipushi-Munama spur line, which has been inactive since 2011, will be rebuilt under terms of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by Ivanhoe Mines and the DRCs state-owned railway company, Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer du Congo (SNCC). The DRC national railway is a key part of the international rail corridor that links the DRC Copperbelt to major seaports at Durban and Richards Bay in South Africa, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Lobito in Angola. Daily trains for exports to international ports Mr. Friedland said the resumption of rail service along the Kipushi spur line is the most economical and reliable solution for the transportation of Kipushis projected annual output of approximately 530,000 tonnes of zinc concentrates. The World Bank is overseeing and financing the rehabilitation and upgrading of large sections of the main DRC national railway between Lubumbashi and the Zambia border crossing at Sakania. The work has focused on replacing the ballast beneath the tracks and installing new concrete sleepers (crossties) and heavier-gauge steel rails. New signalling and telecommunications equipment also has been installed along the line. A daily train from Kipushi will replace the equivalent of 50 road trucks, resulting in significant safety and environmental benefits to the DRC, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, reduced road and border congestion and decreased air pollution, Mr. Friedland added. The reactivated spur line also will provide significant economic and social benefits to residents of Kipushi and the southern DRC provinces of Haut-Katanga and Lualaba, allowing for efficient transportation of supplies to and from the area. Given Kipushis incredible zinc grades of approximately 35% and current zinc prices of between US$1.40 and $1.50 a pound, were confident that Kipushi is on track to become the worlds highest-grade, major zinc mine. Discussions are ongoing with our partner, Gecamines, and prospective project financiers to fast-track completion of the remaining infrastructure development at the mine. The Kipushi Mine is owned by Kipushi Corporation (KICO), a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines (68%) and Gecamines (32%). Kipushi, on the Central African Copperbelt in the province of Haut-Katanga, is approximately 30 kilometres southwest of Lubumbashi and less than one kilometre from the international border with Zambia. Maps show Ivanhoe's Kipushi and Kamoa-Kakula projects, the railway spur line to Kipushi, the national railway and the international rail corridor that links the DRC Copperbelt to major seaports at Durban and Richards Bay in South Africa, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Lobito in Angola. Inset shows the Kipushi to Munama spur line. A photo accompanying this release is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/649ddd1c-4cdd-4ad2-8fb3-5de3d9e0cd8b Front-end engineering design study to assess the scope and cost of rebuilding spur line Under the terms of the MOU, Ivanhoe will appoint consultants to conduct a front-end engineering design study to assess the scope and cost of rebuilding the spur line from the Kipushi Mine to the main Lubumbashi-Sakania railway at Munama. The study is scheduled to begin before the end of this year and construction on the Kipushi-Munama spur line could start in late 2018. Ivanhoe will finance the rebuilding. Mr. Johansson said that as with any mine development project, safe and reliable transportation is a key consideration in planning for production at Kipushi. This cooperation agreement on the railway project is similar to our successful, ongoing partnership with the DRCs state-owned power company, La Societe Nationale dElectricite, for the rehabilitation of three hydropower plants to support our development of the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project. Mr. Johansson added: During the past five years, the 3,000-kilometre, north-south rail corridor has experienced a revival in freight volumes between South Africa and the African Copperbelt. Our decision to opt for rail as our primary mode of export transport will further enhance the economic stability of the railway operators along this entire corridor. Given the large and increasing volumes of copper and cobalt being exported from DRC, we expect to see more private-public cooperation agreements to rebuild other sections of the DRC railway system. Heavy-gauge rails and concrete crossties (sleepers) being installed on a section of SNCCs main line from Lubumbashi to Sakania, at the Zambian border. The upgrading, financed by the World Bank, utilized crossties produced at a Lubumbashi plant. Similar components will be used on the planned upgrading of the spur line to the Kipushi Mine. A photo accompanying this release is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/4300bc4b-cced-42ad-8c80-8cbe8d06d87d Existing portion of track on the Kipushi-Munama spur line to be rebuilt as part of the planned upgrading. A photo accompanying this release is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3b3e972f-ea11-48a3-8e1c-1a594b58fafe Representatives of the SNCC national railway company and Ivanhoe's Kipushi team at Munama railway station. A photo accompanying this release is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/5270cd4a-2ef1-4cb0-997e-57482257140f Kipushi underground upgrading program nearing completion KICO has made excellent progress in modernizing the Kipushi Mines underground infrastructure as part of preparations for the resumption of commercial production. With the underground upgrading nearing completion, KICOs focus now will shift to modernizing and upgrading Kipushis surface infrastructure to handle and process the mines high-grade zinc and copper resources. The current mine redevelopment plan, as outlined in the May 2016 independent, preliminary economic assessment (PEA), has a two-year construction period with quick ramp-up to a projected, steady-state, annual production of 530,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate. A pre-feasibility study (PFS) is underway to refine the findings of the PEA and to optimize the mines redevelopment schedule, life-of-mine operating costs and initial capital costs required to return the mine to production, taking into consideration the significant capital already invested to date on critical rehabilitation work. The PFS, which Ivanhoe expects to complete before the end of this year, will focus on the mining of Kipushis Big Zinc Deposit, which has an estimated 10.2 million tonnes of Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources grading 34.9% zinc. This exceptional grade is more than twice as high as the Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources of the worlds next-highest-grade, major zinc project, according to Wood Mackenzie, a leading, international industry research and consulting group. In addition to the Big Zinc Deposit, Kipushi has several copper-rich zones that also contain silver, germanium and zinc. Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources contained in the copper-rich Serie Recurrente Zone, Fault Zone, and Fault Zone Splay total 1.63 million tonnes at grades of 4.01% copper, 2.87% zinc and 22 g/t silver, at a 1.5% copper cut-off, containing 144 million pounds of copper. Inferred Mineral Resources in these zones total an additional 1.64 million tonnes at grades of 3.30% copper, 6.97% zinc and 19 g/t silver. Qualified Person, Quality Control and Assurance The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Stephen Torr, P.Geo., Ivanhoe Mines Vice President, Project Geology and Evaluation, a Qualified Person under the terms of National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Torr is not independent of Ivanhoe Mines. Ivanhoe has prepared and filed a current, independent, NI 43-101-compliant technical report for the Kipushi Project, titled Kipushi Zn-Cu Project, Kipushi 2016 Preliminary Economic Assessment, dated May 2016, which is available under the companys SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com and on the companys website at www.ivanhoemines.com. The technical report includes relevant information regarding the effective dates and the assumptions, parameters and methods of the mineral resource estimates on the Kipushi Project cited in this release, as well as information regarding data verification, exploration procedures, sample preparation, analysis and security, and other matters relevant to the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this release regarding the Kipushi Project. About Ivanhoe Mines Ivanhoe Mines is advancing its three principal projects in Southern Africa: 1) mine development at the Platreef platinum-palladium-gold-nickel-copper discovery on the Northern Limb of South Africas Bushveld Complex; 2) mine development and exploration at the tier-one Kamoa-Kakula copper discovery on the Central African Copperbelt in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and 3) upgrading at the historic, high-grade Kipushi zinc-copper-silver-germanium mine, also on the Copperbelt in the DRC. For details, visit www.ivanhoemines.com. Information contacts Investors Bill Trenaman +1.604.331.9834 Media North America: Bob Williamson +1.604.512.4856 South Africa: Jeremy Michaels +27.82.772.1122 Website www.ivanhoemines.com Cautionary statement on forward-looking information Certain statements in this release constitute forward-looking statements or forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including without limitation: (1) statements regarding Ivanhoe Mines commitment to rebuild 34 kilometres of track to connect the Kipushi Mine with the DRC national railway at Munama; (2) statements regarding Kipushis projected annual output of approximately 530,000 tonnes of zinc concentrates; (3) statements regarding a daily train from Kipushi will replace the equivalent of 50 road trucks, resulting in significant safety and environmental benefits to the DRC; (4) statements regarding the reactivated spur line also will provide significant benefits to residents of Kipushi and the provinces of Lualaba and Haut-Katanga; (5) statements regarding Ivanhoes expectations that Kipushi is on track to become the worlds highest-grade, major zinc mine; (6) statements regarding the front-end engineering design study is scheduled to begin before the end of this year and construction on the Kipushi-Munama spur line could start in late 2018; (7) statements regarding Ivanhoes expectation to see more private-public cooperation agreements to rebuild other sections of the DRC railway system; and (8) statements regarding Ivanhoes expectation to complete the Kipushi pre-feasibility study before the end of this year. All such forward-looking information and statements are based on certain assumptions and analyses made by Ivanhoe Mines management in light of their experience and perception of historical trends, current conditions and expected future developments, as well as other factors management believe are appropriate in the circumstances. These statements, however, are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information or statements including, but not limited to, unexpected changes in laws, rules or regulations, or their enforcement by applicable authorities; the failure of parties to contracts to perform as agreed; social or labour unrest; changes in commodity prices; unexpected failure or inadequacy of infrastructure, or delays in the development of infrastructure, and the failure of exploration programs or other studies to deliver anticipated results or results that would justify and support continued studies, development or operations. Other important factors that could cause actual results to differ from these forward-looking statements also include those described under the heading Risk Factors in the companys most recently filed MD&A as well as in the most recent Annual Information Form filed by Ivanhoe Mines. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information or statements. The factors and assumptions used to develop the forward-looking information and statements, and the risks that could cause the actual results to differ materially are set forth in the Risk Factors section and elsewhere in the companys most recent Managements Discussion and Analysis report and Annual Information Form, available at www.sedar.com. This news release also contains references to estimates of Mineral Resources. The estimation of Mineral Resources is inherently uncertain and involves subjective judgments about many relevant factors. Mineral Resources that are not Mineral Reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. The accuracy of any such estimates is a function of the quantity and quality of available data, and of the assumptions made and judgments used in engineering and geological interpretation, which may prove to be unreliable and depend, to a certain extent, upon the analysis of drilling results and statistical inferences that may ultimately prove to be inaccurate. Mineral Resource estimates may have to be re-estimated based on, among other things: (1) fluctuations in zinc or other mineral prices; (2) results of drilling; (3) results of metallurgical testing and other studies; (4) changes to proposed mining operations, including dilution; (5) the evaluation of mine plans subsequent to the date of any estimates; and (6) the possible failure to receive required permits, approvals and licences. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what management of the company believes are reasonable assumptions, the company cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Subject to applicable securities laws, the company does not assume any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this news release. You have reached a premium content area of Transitions. To read this entire article please login if you are already a Transitions subscriber. Not a subscriber? Subscribe today for access to: Full access to the website, including premium articles videos, country reports and searchable archives (containing over 25,000 articles). Public Data Showing Active Fire Zones Overlaid with Patient Address Data Helped Community Health Center Staff Act Rapidly SAN MATEO, Calif., Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Unifi Software, the leader in providing a seamlessly integrated suite of self-service data tools delivered on a Data as a Service platform, today shared how doctors, nurses and front-line staff at West County Health Centers used its platform to locate, outreach and provide immediate aid to patients during the devastating Sonoma and Napa fires. Using a combination of publicly available data on the rapid spread of the fires, overlaid with patient data, West County Health Centers were able to quickly get people immediate personalized care. West County Health Centers (WCHC), a federally qualified health center that serves approximately 12,000 patients in upper west Sonoma County, California80 percent of which are poor, 200 percent are poverty-level and below, has been serving patients with a care team model for the past 40 years. WCHC which is deeply embedded in the north bay community addresses the social determinants of health, and whole person health in addition to addressing patients individual medical needs. The center uses traditional data from electronic health records and goes well beyond that by pulling in claim data from Medicare and Medicaid health plans, and brings in data for their homeless population such as census data to understand the context in which people live, looking at neighborhoods, social and educational attainment. In the hours, days and weeks while the fires spread from Santa Rosa to Sonoma and Napa, West County Health Centers (WCHC) used their own patient data records to transform addresses into longitude and latitude points and then overlaid that information on an interactive map of the spreading fire areas, which was publicly available, to identify where the greatest need for medical services might be. They also identified public and private schools, many of which were being used as shelters, to see if anyone there had been affected and proactively reached out as a community health center. Air quality was a huge concern for those with asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), or heart conditions. People fled without medicine. Getting to those patients quickly was a primary concern to prevent having those same patients end up in emergency rooms where services are extremely costly. The fires burned more than 160,000 acres, destroyed 8,400 structures and sadly took 42 lives. Jason Cunningham MD, a family physician and the Agency Medical Officer for West County Health Centers, is charged with overseeing the clinical quality of the centers health care delivery. He uses data to inform the centers quality improvement efforts on a continual basis. For Jason and his team, data is not just about the outcomes, its about the people and the impact they can make to the community. During a crisis having a personal connection can make all the difference in trying to help people. Everyone we spoke with was grateful for the outreach that we did. It wasnt the work of data scientists or data analysts that made this possibledoctors, physicians, nurses and front-line staff having access to this data in real-time were able to make an immediate connection with hundreds of people affected by the fires. We believe self-service access to data is a compelling mechanism for better health care delivery, said Cunningham. Unifis Data as a Service platform pulls in a wide variety of disparate data sources for WCHC including EMR data, claims data, weather and geo data, homeless data and census data and makes that data available. WCHC uses Tableau to visualize the output for its staff to engage with data. Clinical staff, nurses, physicians, medical assistants and community health workers all need data to inform their work. They need to be able to digest it and have it presented in such a way so they can interact with it. During the crisis, Jason used ArcGIS to layer the various data sources - patients location, schools, and active fire lines, and then visualize the data adding a 1.5-mile radius around the affected area. Each dot on the map represented a patient and if clicked patient data would appear. Data was easily downloaded into Excel in order for doctors and medical professionals to make calls and conduct outreach. We are in a very different time. We no longer need an enterprise-level solution thats top-down sending reports that take months to fine tune before physicians and staff can interact with it. Were in a self-service world. I can have the content experts and the subject matter experts being the ones to really dive in and create the platform. Unifi is a really great example of that, said Jason Cunningham MD, Agency Medical Officer for West County Health Centers. Unifi allows me to create a metadata layer to normalize data from many disparate datasets and put business intelligence tools like Tableau on top of it. Its being able to bring in multiple data sets beyond just clinical data that allows me to digest and gain insights that I was never able to do before. Self-service access to data has opened up a brand new world. As doctors, we need to combine many more resources to drive our insights beyond just clinical data." What happened here in Sonoma and Napa is devastating. Entire communities have been greatly impacted. What WCHC was able to achieve with our platform on a local scale in terms of offering personalized health care is profound. Its a great example of how everyone can be empowered with data to affect change, said Sean Keenan, Co-Founder and Vice President of Product for Unifi Software. Access to self-service data tools is changing healthcare like every other industry. Now doctors and practitioners can gain a collective view of data to gain a broader perspective on how to treat patients. About Unifi Software Unifis Data as a Service platform breaks down the barriers of operational data silos and democratizes information across the enterprise. At the heart of the platform is a comprehensive suite of self-service data tools to empower business users. Employing machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies, governed by IT and cloud-optimized, Unifi predicts what the business user wants to visualize and then connects the resulting data natively to the BI tool for fast, accurate results. Unifi was founded by data and enterprise infrastructure experts from Greenplum (now part of Dell Technologies), Oracle, Microsoft, and Platfora (now part of Workday). Headquartered in San Mateo, CA Unifi operates regional offices across the U.S. and a development center in Bangalore, India. ### Press Contact: Deborah Mullan Senior Corporate Communications Manager Unifi Software (925) 383-7765 deborah@unifisoftware.com Spexels : ingtar33 : thats part of windows. might be able to get more information if you use Process monitor to expand out and find exactly what is running. Generally windows uses it to create Thumbnails of images and folders; if it's running hard that probably means it's choking on a corrupted file. So if you use process monitor you might be able to identify what is giving it a hard time, and delete it (if you can). Now it's been replaced by another program, service host: superfetch, but this time it's at 10% cpu usage also I noticed the date modified was before I actually built the computer, does that mean it's all good? Now it's been replaced by another program, service host: superfetch, but this time it's at 10% cpu usage also I noticed the date modified was before I actually built the computer, does that mean it's all good? I do have COM Surrogate running in the background as well and I use Bitdefender Free AV. My Com Surrogate show last modified is Sep 29 2017 and it using 1.2MB of RAM, everything else is 0%." COM stands for Component Object Model. This is an interface Microsoft introduced back in 1993 that allows developers to create COM objects using a variety of different programming languages. Essentially, these COM objects plug into other applications and extend them.For example, the Windows file manager uses COM objects to create thumbnail images of images and other files when it opens a folder. The COM object handles processing images, videos, and other files to generate the thumbnails. This allows File Explorer to be extended with support for new video codecs, for example.However, this can lead to problems. If a COM object crashes, it will take down its host process. At one point, it was common for these thumbnail-generating COM objects to crash and take down the entire Windows Explorer process with them.To fix this sort of problem, Microsoft created the COM Surrogate process. The COM Surrogate process runs a COM object outside the original process that requested it. If the COM object crashes, it will only take down the COM Surrogate process and the original host process wont crash. For example, Windows Explorer (now known as File Explorer) starts a COM Surrogate process whenever it needs to generate thumbnail images. The COM Surrogate process hosts the COM object which does the work. If the COM object crashes, only the COM Surrogate crashes and the original File Explorer process will keep on trucking.In other words, as official Microsoft blog The Old New Thing puts it, the COM Surrogate is the I dont feel good about this code, so Im going to ask COM to host it in another process. That way, if it crashes, its the COM Surrogate sacrificial process that crashes instead of me process.And, as you might have guessed, COM Surrogate is named dllhost.exe because the COM objects it hosts are .dll files. " - https/www.howtogeek.com/326462/what-is-com-surrogate-dllhost.exe-and-why-is-it-running-on-my-pc/" The COM Surrogate process itself is not a virus, and is a normal part of Windows. However, it can be used by malware. For example, the Trojan.Poweliks malware uses dllhost.exe processes to do its dirty work. If you see a large number of dllhost.exe processes running and theyre using a noticeable amount of CPU, that could indicate the COM Surrogate process is being abused by a virus or other malicious application.If youre concerned that malware is abusing the dllhost.exe or COM Surrogate process, you should run a scan with your preferred antivirus program to find and remove any malware present on your system. If your antivirus program of choice says everything is fine but youre suspicious, run a scan with another antivirus tool to get a second opinion. " https/www.howtogeek.com/326462/what-is-com-surrogate-dllhost.exe-and-why-is-it-running-on-my-pc/Did you run your antivirus and second opinion scanner? The Acer Predator Helios 300 isnt without its flaws, but the performance it offers at $1,100 makes the flaws almost negligible. Its hard to pass up a deal this enticing if youre working with a $1,200 budget. Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test . Today's best Acer Predator Helios 300 deals (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab) $1,499.99 (opens in new tab) $999.99 (opens in new tab) View (opens in new tab) Reduced Price (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab) $1,999 (opens in new tab) $1,150 (opens in new tab) View (opens in new tab) Reduced Price (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab) (opens in new tab) $1,299.99 (opens in new tab) $1,180 (opens in new tab) View (opens in new tab) Reduced Price Show More Deals Introduction & Product Tour The gaming laptop market has certainly been competitive lately. With similar primary components to pick from, we're seeing manufacturers try to differentiate with extra bells, whistles, and spinning chrome wheels. That's why we're sometimes pleasantly surprised when a manufacturer sends us a straightforward, no-nonsense gaming laptop. All the extravagant features aside, what gamers value most is pure, unadulterated performance. Acer's Predator Helios 300 is just such a straightforward, no-nonsense gaming laptop. Inside, it's got the Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor and the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, but somehow it is priced at an unheard of $1,100. Specifications Packaging Image 1 of 3 The Acer Predator Helios 300 arrived in a generic black shipping box decorated with the companys logo and Predator branding. At the top of the box, theres a black plastic handle for easy carrying. Image 1 of 5 Inside, youll find a much more elegant black box surrounded by four blocks of foam. This box, which houses the Helios 300, features a glossy engraving of the Predator logo on the top and the product name on the front and back sides. Inside, youll find the laptop itself, as well as thin sheets of additional foam on the top and bottom covers. Image 1 of 3 Back inside the shipping box, youll find a plain brown box housing the power adapter and an AC power cord. The shipping box also contains a black envelope with additional branding. Inside, theres a Predator Premium Service card, a quick guide, customer service contact information, and a setup guide. Overall, the Predator Helios 300s packaging is fairly standard, and at this price we dont expect additional bells and whistles. Exterior Image 1 of 4 When we first opened the Helios 300s black enclosure, we couldnt help but notice that it looked strikingly similar to Acers Aspire VX 15. Youll notice two red accent bars running diagonally on each side of the logo. Like the Aspire, these accent bars are merely plastic decorations; if you want bars that light up, youll have to step up to one of Acers higher end Predator models. Image 1 of 2 The Helios 300 sets itself apart from the Aspire with its brushed metal lid construction, which provides the lid, and by extension, the display, more stability. At the top end of the lid, the brushed metal ends, and youll find a long piece of plastic spanning the length of the lid. Taking a closer look, youll notice a triangular pattern, which gives the Helios 300 a tactical aesthetic. Finally, rather than Acers company logo, the Helios 300 features silver Predator branding with black chambered edges. Image 1 of 8 Moving inside, youll find the same brushed aluminum construction around the keyboard and touchpad. Unfortunately, this means that fingerprints and smudges are easily imparted on the surface, so youll need to wipe it down daily if you want to keep the Helios 300 pristine. The keyboard is slightly recessed beneath the rest of the surface to prevent contact with the display. Acer keeps the Helios design clean and simple. There are various stickers illustrating the systems specs just below the keyboard, and you can find a Dolby Audio logo painted on the top right corner in gray. Just beneath this is a power button, which takes its place as one of the keys on the keyboard. Image 1 of 4 The Helios 300's display is bordered by 0.875" side bezels. The top bezel is 0.625" at the slimmest point and 0.875 at the widest point.The bottom bezel is the widest at 1. There are two feet on each side bezel, two on the bottom bezel, and four on the top bezel to prevent the display from making contact with the laptop when closed. At the top, youll find a 2.0 megapixel camera surrounded by array microphones. Finally, the company logo is engraved on the bottom bezel in dull silver. Image 1 of 3 The edges of the laptop are constructed from two materials. The top lid layer is made of the same brushed metal material, which wraps its way partially around the top layer. The rest of the edges are constructed out of hard plastic with a grainy texture, which wraps around from the bottom panel. The front edge angles inward from the sides. A chrome border is applied to the edges surrounding the input area, which gives the Helios aggressive appearance a hint of elegance. However, weve found the silver border to be rather soft, so it will likely experience nicks and scratches over time. Finally, the rear edge displays the laptops supercar-like exhaust vents. Only the left half of the vents are functional. The right vents dont have holes; theyre simply there for symmetry. Image 1 of 9 The bottom panel is constructed out of a hard, grainy plastic. It starkly contrasts the clean, crisp metal surfaces with a more aggressive appearance, which stems mostly from its intake vents and stabilization feet. There are four angular feet at each corner of the laptop. The vents are centered mostly around the rear end of the chassis, where the heat-generating components, like the CPU and GPU, reside. Near the front, youll find faux speaker grilles which, while intricately designed, only serve as decoration. The actual speaker grilles are placed at the front corners next to the rubber feet. Image 1 of 2 The Predator Helios 300s speakers are facing downwards. Unfortunately, they dont produce good audio; maximizing the volume creates a fair amount of distortion, and the volume doesnt scale very high. Also, the downwards direction affects clarity. With speakers this poor, the audio would have been better served with an upwards facing placement below the keyboard. Image 1 of 3 The hinge construction is mostly plastic, with a portion of the lids metal surface wrapping around its bottom. Depending on the angle of the hinge, youll be able to see a hint of the rear exhausts red accents. The hinge offers a decent 145 of motion. Image 1 of 2 The Acer Predator Helios 300 takes a bare-bones approach to I/O ports. On the left, youll find a Kensington lock, an RJ-45 LAN port, a USB 3.1 Type-C port, a USB 3.0 port, and an SD card reader. On the right, youll find a combination headphone/microphone jack, two USB 2.0 ports, and the DC power input. Based on the specs, the Helios 300 has enough power to run a VR headset. [Editor's note 11/1/2017 10:30 am PT: We've updated this section slightly. Previously we reported, in error, that the Helios 300 did not have the ports to support an Oculus Rift HMD. It does.] Display The Predators display is fairly standard. Its a 15.6 Full HD (1920x1080) IPS display with a matte coating. Its notably lacking G-Sync, but we wouldn't expect it at this price pointtypically that feature will add a $200 premium. The included HDMI 2.0 port allows users to connect an additional UHD display. Input Devices Image 1 of 3 The Helios 300 features a full-length keyboard with a number pad, which some vendors seem to forego in their 15.6" models. The keys are well spaced and comfortable to type with, and the bumpy actuation is satisfying. The keycaps feature white text, with the WASD keys containing red text and borders. The keycap text is translucent so that the red backlighting shines through when the system is powered. The function row has several preset functions: F3 toggles wireless connectivity, F4 puts the laptop to sleep, F5 opens the Project menu, F7 toggles touchpad functionality, F8 mutes the audio, and F9 toggles backlight brightness. Additionally, Home, Page Up, Page Down, and End act as media keys. Finally, the Up and Down keys adjust volume while the Left and Right keys adjust display brightness. The touchpad takes design cues from the edges of the laptop, with a chrome border and red lining on its edges. The similarities end there, however. Tracking with the touchpad is rather jerky, and the surface is prone to drag, making the already mediocre tracking even more difficult to cope with unless you clean it often. Left and right clicks are uneven. The top half of the touchpad has a shallow click, whereas the bottom portion has a much deeper endpoint. Dust and debris can easily slip under the touchpad from the bottom end. You're best off using a dedicated mouse. Interior Image 1 of 4 The bottom panel features two easy access plates that shelter the memory and HDD slots, so you can easily upgrade either of these without having to remove the entire panel. Each of the plates is held to the panel using a single screw. As for the rest of the panel, you must remove 14 additional screws. The panel is secured rather tightly, so you might need a small object like a Flathead screwdriver or credit card to loosen it. Once removed, youll have access to the rest of the components. Image 1 of 5 Near the front lip and HDD slot, youll find the 4-cell 48Wh lithium-ion battery. Youll find the M.2 slot to the right of the RAM slots. Finally, youll find a Qualcomm Atheros QCNFA344A, which handles the Helioss wireless and Bluetooth connectivity. The two speakers are located on opposite ends of the left and right edges. Image 1 of 3 The Predators cooling solution resides near the rear edge. It consists of a large heatsink for the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 and a smaller heatsink for the Intel Core i7-7700HQ. Two large heat pipes run from the CPU heatsink over the GPU heatsink and end at the two exhaust fan heat fins. An additional heat pipe runs from the GPU to the fans. Software Acers PredatorSense software runs on the Helios, although its been cut down substantially, perhaps to reflect the Helios price. Here, youre given statistics such as CPU and GPU temperature and fan speed. PredatorSense also allows you to toggle between automatic and maximum fan speed, or create your own fan profile. MORE: Best Gaming Laptops MORE: Gaming Laptop Previews MORE: All Laptop Content Tech Trouble Threatens Kansas City Jobs Reports: Bank raises concerns over T-Mobile, Sprint merger SoftBank Group Corp. is raising concerns over a merger between Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc., according to news reports. The change comes after SoftBank, which controls most of Sprint, expressed concern about losing control, where the bank's ownership could be decreased in a combined company, according to the reports. Corporate Unity For #NewKCI Despite losing KCI contract, Burns & McDonnell gives $20,000 to airport campaign Burns & McDonnell, the Kansas City engineering firm that sought but did not obtain a contract to design and build a new single terminal at KCI, has made a late contribution to the pro-KCI campaign. Missouri Ethics Commission filings posted on Monday show that Burns & McDonnell gave $20,000 to the KC Transportation Transit and Tourism Committee on Oct. Kansas Healthcare Crackdown KanCare proposal would require thousands to get jobs to keep Medicaid benefits TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - A proposed change to Kansas' privatized Medicaid program would compel about 12,000 adults to work to obtain benefits, making the state the first in the country to have such a requirement. Gov. Sam Brownback's administration said Friday requiring some Medicaid recipients to work would improve their lives and increase their self-esteem. Kansas City Office Space Juxtaposition How big is your office space: See how cost and size contrast across the U.S. - Kansas City Business Journal Kansas City has always been able to tout itself as a less expensive market than expensive coastal cities such as New York, San Francisco and Seattle. That contrast shows up in spades in new research on the cost of office space from CommercialCafe, a real estate research firm. Local Nasty Critters Sick raccoons create concern in Raytown RAYTOWN, Mo. -- Raccoons are often considered more of a nuisance than a danger, but Raytown residents are worried about some of the animals roaming their streets. Robert and Grace McCloskey found one of the unwelcome visitors in their backyard. "He was just going around barking at him," Robert McCloskey said of his dog's reaction to the raccoon. Show-Me Settlement Cash Spending Missouri wants ideas on how to spend money from Volkswagen settlement JEFFERSON CITY * The cheating scandal that triggered a $14 billion settlement from Volkswagen could translate into more electric vehicles and charging stations in Missouri over the next decade. As part of a plan being crafted by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the state is requesting comments on how it should spend about $41 million from the state's share of the massive legal settlement with the German automaker. Celebration Kansas City Sound Apocalypse Meow X: Midwest Music Foundation on the organization's goals Back in 2008, the first Apocalypse Meow raised funds for musician Abigail Henderson's treatment, after she was diagnosed with Stage 3 inflammatory breast cancer. The event fetched nearly $20,000; in the spirit of giving back to the community, Henderson started the Midwest Music Foundation to, as she said at the time, "provide musicians with healthcare assistance." Right now we take a peek atand some of the top Kansas City MSM news links. Checkit:And this is thefor right now . . . Planning to dress up at Arrowhead? Know the stadium's costume policy The Kansas City Chiefs will be hosting the Denver Broncos just one day before Halloween. Quick check of the rules & regs in the era of spooky higher security. Take a look: TODAY WE OFFERS A QUICK GLIMPSE OF KANSAS CITY NEW AIRPORT MYTH BUSTERS!!! MythBuster #1 - Anti-Airport Flyer Mythbuster #2 - More International Flights For #NewKCI??? Not So Fast. "Ron Ricks, Executive Vice President told us early on; airlines add flights to an airport when the passengers numbers dictate the flight is needed and there are gates available. Remember our airport gurus want to downsize our airport from 67 gates to 35 gates?" MythBuster #3 - It's All About Trust . . . Mythbuster #4 - Airport Numbers And The Smaller #NewKCI "KCI has handled much larger aircraft than our airlines are using today. There have been no problems with gate capacity." Mythbuster #5 Kansas City Going South By Southwest - Airline lying MythBuster #6 - The Security Myth Quick round-up of a Kansas City series worthy of consideration for voters who want to stay informed and listen to arguments fromsides . . .And so . . .We've provide the FB links to all of these posts but readers have to be logged in in order to view so we've also provided a quick summary . . .Kick-off to the discussion and a quick look at where tax fighters stand . . .Another doubting the wisdom of a City Hall blank check.A story of intrigue and the Southwest Pilot hub.More deets regarding an engineer's take on #NewKCIYou decide . . . VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Colonial Coal International Corp. (TSX-V:CAD) (the Corporation or Colonial Coal) is pleased to provide the following update on the Companys recent exploration activities undertaken on its Flatbed Coal Property located in north-eastern British Columbia. The primary objectives of the exploration work were to identify potentially underground mineable coal resources within the Gates Formation (which hosts established surface and underground mineable coking coal reserves and resources on a number of projects to the south, west and northwest of the Flatbed property) and to establish initial coal quality parameters. Activities focused on the north-western portion of the property, which hosts one of the main target areas identified by the Companys independent consultant (previously announced in January 2013). Exploration was carried out between late July and early October 2017. Work focussed upon the drilling of five, widely-spaced, HQ-size diamond drill holes on four separate drill sites for a total of approximately 2,830 m of drilling. Associated activities included: down-hole geophysical logging; geological core description; coal (plus seam roof and floor) core sampling; geotechnical logging, sampling, and on-site testing; plus limited geological mapping. Core samples have now been submitted to Birtley Coal and Minerals Testing (Calgary, Alberta) for coal quality analysis and to Golder Associates Ltd. (Burnaby, B.C.) for geotechnical testing. Colonial has retained Norwest Corp. (of Salt Lake City, Utah) to undertake a report compliant with the requirements of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Properties (NI 43-101), which will incorporate all the data acquired during the 2017 Flatbed exploration program plus additional data from certain historical oil/gas exploration wells. The Company expects the technical report to be completed during the winter of 2017. David Austin, President and CEO of Colonial, commented on the Companys recent exploration activities as follows: I am very pleased with our recent exploration activities at Flatbed and we expect our results and related NI 43-101 report to be very positive going forward. This news release has been reviewed by John Perry, a director of the Company and a Qualified Person as defined in NI 43-101. About Colonial Coal International Corp. Colonial Coal is a publicly traded coal corporation in British Columbia that focuses primarily on coking coal projects. The northeast Coal Block of British Columbia, within which our Corporations projects are located, hosts a number of proven deposits and has been the subject of M&A activities by Xstrata, Walter Energy, Anglo-American and others. Additional information can be found on the Corporations website www.ccoal.ca or by viewing the Corporations filings at www.sedar.com. For further information please contact: Colonial Coal International Corp. David Austin, President and CEO 604.568.4962 daustin@ccoal.ca www.ccoal.ca Forward-Looking Information Information set forth in this news release involves forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the Corporations potential sale of an interest in its Flatbed Property. Forward-looking statements are statements that relate to future, not past, events. In this context, forward-looking statements often address a Corporations expected future business and financial performance, and often contain words such as anticipate, believe, plan, estimate, expect, and intend, statements that an action or event may, might, could, should, or will be taken or occur, or other similar expressions. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements, or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among others, the following risks: risks associated with marketing and sale of securities; the need for additional financing; reliance on key personnel; the potential for conflicts of interest among certain officers or directors with certain other projects; and the volatility of common share price and volume. Forward-looking statements are made based on managements beliefs, estimates and opinions on the date that statements are made and except as required by law, the Corporation undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if these beliefs, estimates and opinions or other circumstances should change. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. THE FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE REPRESENTS THE EXPECTATIONS OF THE CORPORATION AS OF THE DATE OF THIS NEWS RELEASE AND, ACCORDINGLY, IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE AFTER SUCH DATE. READERS SHOULD NOT PLACE UNDUE IMPORTANCE ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY UPON THIS INFORMATION AS OF ANY OTHER DATE. WHILE THE CORPORATION MAY ELECT TO, IT DOES NOT UNDERTAKE TO UPDATE THIS INFORMATION AT ANY PARTICULAR TIME EXCEPT AS REQUIRED IN ACCORDANCE WITH APPLICABLE SECURITIES LEGISLATION. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. TKC EXCLUSIVE: BEHIND THE SCENE TKC HAS FIRST WORD OF BEHIND THE SCENES CAMPAIGN BICKERING THREATENING KANSAS CITY TAX FIGHTERS!!! WILL AMAZON #2 COME TO KANSAS CITY? // HAVE YOU REACHED YOUR TTL??? - $800,000,000 GO BOND! - $200,000,000 NOW FOR DOWNTOWN CONVENTION HOTEL (up $40,000,000 this week from the original proposal)! - $400,000,000 STREETCAR EXTENSION ! - $200,000,000 ORIGINAL STREETCAR LINE! VOTE NO-vember 7th Question # 1 Last note for tonight belongs to KCMO tax fighters and their continued campaign struggle against just about every major corporation in this cowtown.But it's not all good news for tonight . . .The gossipy goodness involves an alleged fool and his money. Apparently, Conservatives are just as inclined to slap fight over the sordid topic of coin as anybody else. We may or may not have more on this upcoming controversy depending whether or not these low-tax advocates decide toor maybe decide to share their golden cash calf But for for now we offer a word from leaders against the new airport fight. Take a peek:What is yourHave you reached it yet?Lets calculate:Recent Debts to be paid by your taxes:Now there will be additional debt:How much more canstand???will spend us into oblivion if it isn't stopped. Have you maxed out your??##########You decide . . . "A disgruntled employee of the Concord Fortress of Hope Church in south Kansas City is in custody on suspicion of his involvement in the vandalism of the church." Hate crime faking is a hot topic for Conservatives but in this case we see STILL SEE VERY REAL EVIDENCE OF A REAL CRIME THREATENING THE CHURCH that might be connected to someone with an ax to grind against the congregation. NOW, THE POLITICAL SLAP FIGHT IS OVER THE RACE OF THE ALLEGED SUSPECT AND HIS MOTIVATIONS RATHER THAN THE FAITH COMMUNITY THAT WAS TARGETED ON SUNDAY!!! The reality is that if the employee is an African-American, the crime will be considered a hoax by some and written off by EVERYONE because NOBODY really seems to care when people of color commit crimes against each other. Russians Targeted U.S. Racial Divisions Long Before 2016 And Black Lives Matter The skeptics are celebrating the latest news in the crime against a Kansas City community of faith.Here's the word . . .And now, a janitor or some other lowly pleb might take the blame for all of society's ills.There's a question of hateful language by people who don't know very many African-Americans or listen to some of the nastier rap music out there and (strangely don't) realize that the N-word is, in fact, an obscenity that is also used by Black people against one another.The double Ks & the weird swastika seem like an amateurish attempt at intimidation -- Signaling that the former employee might have been fired for incompetence. (Lulz)(Believe it or not, Black people hire white people all the time.)Nevertheless, with very little evidence, some skeptics are assigning motive when the Church had very little to gain by way of vandalism.Brief mind leap for Monday . . . Think about this: If the perp is white the Swastika and KKK name check will be regarded as racist intimidation even though it's unlikely there's any connection betwixt some poor schlep who would vandalize and any organized hate movement. Meanwhile, theif this the suspect is Black will be disregarded by both Black & White alike. This tiny bit of TKC pop psychology offers just a bit of evidence that unhealthy racial obsession in the U.S. remains at the heart of so much present-day political theater.Proof that even the nation's enemies realize this weakness:Like it or not, capitalizing on tragedy, crime, or any unfortunate circumstance is an easy substitute for political discourse among denizens of social media who are chasing popularity rather than working to bridge growing divisions among Americans of every demographic.You decide . . . "According to allegations in the affidavit filed in court to support the charges, THE SUSPECT admitted to stealing money from the church to buy crack cocaine and that he had set the fire and spray-painted the graffiti in an attempt to throw off investigators." And so this hard luck dude given a second chance by a South Kansas City church returned to attack the faith community after they had dismissed him . . .While some Conservatives assign might assign guilt to all progressives over this act of self-hate and desperation . . . Garnering political capital from the misdeeds of an alleged crackhead can't be very satisfying.You decide . . .Check the text of the indictment:KANSAS CITY, Mo. Tom Larson, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a church maintenance worker was charged in federal court today with arson after setting a fire at Concord Cultural Center and spray-painting racist graffiti on the front of the adjoining church, Concord Fortress of Hope, in an effort to cover up his burglary.Nathaniel D. Nelson, 48, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Mo. Nelson remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing.Nelson was a member of the church who was employed as a maintenance worker at the church and cultural center, located at 11040 W. Longview Parkway, Kansas City, Mo. Firefighters were called by a church employee and responded to the cultural center on Sunday morning, Oct. 29, 2017. A fire had occurred in an office inside the building but a sprinkler had activated and extinguished the fire prior to the arrival of firefighters. Investigators concluded that an office chair and other ordinary combustible material had been intentionally ignited using an open flame.Investigators also discovered racist graffiti spray-painted on the front of the church. A racial slur, the letters KKK and a symbol similar to a swastika were visible from the main entrance into the parking lot as members of the congregation arrived for church for Sunday morning services.The digital video recorder for the video surveillance system that monitored the foyer area and the cultural centers interior and exterior cameras was unplugged and no longer recording when examined by investigators. Investigators determined that the DVR system lost power sometime after 1 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017, and had been intentionally unplugged.According to an affidavit filed in support of the federal criminal complaint, a review of the DVR system revealed that Nelson was in the foyer area shortly before the DVR system was deactivated. A second DVR, which was still powered on, recorded the video surveillance footage for the interior and exterior cameras located inside and outside of the church, which were separate from the cameras located in the cultural center and foyer. The second DVR, the affidavit says, captured video footage of Nelson spray painting the front of the church. KCPD Deputy Chief Karl Oakman, a member of the church, identified Nelson from the video surveillance footage.Investigators then interviewed Nelson. According to the affidavit, Nelson told investigators that he went to his office in the cultural center to smoke crack cocaine sometime after 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28, 2017. At some point after getting high, Nelson said he went into the church office area and attempted to force his way into the finance office to steal money. (The finance office was the only room in the church and cultural center he did not have keyed access.) Nelson wasnt able to break into the finance room so he proceeded into two adjacent offices using his key and took $140 from one office and $94 from another office. Nelson told investigators that he then left the church to purchase more crack cocaine.Nelson stated that after he purchased four crack rocks for approximately $125, he returned to the church to get high a second time. After Nelson smoked the crack cocaine in his office, he said, he retrieved a pair of bolt cutters, a wrench and a drill bit and attempted to break into the vending machines located in the gymnasium of the cultural center. Nelson said he was only able to steal $2 from the vending machines.Nelson told investigators that at some point after breaking into the vending machines he left the church to purchase additional crack cocaine from the same source. Nelson told investigators that after he purchased approximately four additional crack rocks he again returned back to the church to get high. Nelson said he only paid $75 for the additional crack cocaine with the promise that he would provide his source $200 in food stamps at a later time.During the interview, the affidavit says, Nelson admitted to investigators that he intentionally unplugged one DVR system but did not know that video was being recorded on a separate system inside the church, which captured him spray-painting the outside of the building.According to the affidavit, Nelson told investigators that he intentionally set a fire inside the office area of the cultural center using clothing and paper towels that he had laid on or next to an office chair. Nelson also told investigators he spray-painted the front of the church with inflammatory graffiti and intentionally set the fire to create a diversion and throw investigators off.Larson cautioned that the charge contained in this complaint is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt.This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bruce Rhoades. It was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.########3 President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopios Pavlopoulos on Monday presented Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans with the "Grand Cross of the Order of the Phoenix" Medal at a special ceremony at the presidential mansion in Athens. Pavlopoulos referred to Timmermans' contribution and stressed his efforts in support of European integration, chiefly by promoting the rule of law and observance of fundamental human rights. The Greek president pointed out that these are the two pillars of European democracy and European culture, while also pointing to Timmermans' contribution in the refugees' issue. On his part, Timmermans thanked Pavlopoulos for the honour and voiced his gratitude for the Greek president's support and invaluable contribution, without which "all of this would have been impossible". Timmermans also exalted European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos, who attended the ceremony, noting that his own efforts could not have brought results without Avramopoulos' "unstinting support and tireless efforts". Read more here. RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Timmermans License: CC-BY-SA Source: ANA-MPA World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) released the European Union Short-Term Tourism Trends for the first half of 2017. The preliminary data for international tourist arrivals to the European Union (EU-28) shows extraordinary tourism growth, ftnnews.com notes in the following article: According to data available through June 2017, 14 out of the 28 countries of the European Union have recorded double-digit growth in arrivals. It is estimated that, overall, EU-28 destinations received 231 million international tourist arrivals between January and June 2017, 17 million more than the 214 million in the same period of 2016. This corresponds to a remarkable 8% increase compared to the same period last year, making the current January-June period the strongest half-year since 2010. Results are underpinned by robust growth in many destinations and a recovery in those that suffered declines in previous years. Growth in international tourism receipts reported by the top 5 EU-28 destinations was fairly strong. Spain recorded the highest growth (+12%), followed by the United Kingdom (+11%) and France (+8%). Germany (+4%) and Italy (+3%) also reported good results. Growth in international tourism expenditure was also robust in the 4 top EU-28 source markets. Germany (the worlds third largest market) recorded a 3% increase through June. The United Kingdom (+8%) France grew 11% in the first half of 2017, while Italy recorded 5% growth. Southern and Mediterranean Europe leads growth with 12% more arrivals International arrivals to Europe, the worlds most visited region, grew 8% during the first six months of 2017, an extraordinary pace of growth considering the maturity of most destinations and the large base volume. This growth follows a modest 2% increase in 2016 and reflects a clear rebound in destinations that suffered decreases in previous years, such as Turkey, France and Belgium, combined with a particularly strong performance of destinations in Southern and Mediterranean Europe (+12%). Northern Europe (+8%) and Western Europe (+6%) also recorded solid results, while Central and Eastern Europe (+3%) was more mixed. Extraordinary pace of growth in EU-28 Out of the 28 countries of the European Union, 14 have recorded double-digit growth in arrivals during the first half of 2017, leading to an overall robust 8% increase (+5% in 2016). Demand has been largely driven by intra-regional source markets , which are benefiting from the ongoing recovery of EU-28s economy. It is estimated that the upward trend of GDP growth that begun in 2013 is consolidating. Seasonally adjusted GDP rose by 2.1% in the EU-28 in the first quarter of 2017, after a 2% growth in the previous quarter.2 Also, the ongoing recovery of the Russian Federation has enhanced intra-regional travel. Long-haul source markets, particularly the United States and China, have also contributed to the robust results. According to reported data, EU-28 countries welcomed 231 million international tourist arrivals (overnight visitors) in the first half of the year, 17 million more than in the same period of 2016. The eight European Union destinations in Southern and Mediterranean Europe led growth with an 11% increase in arrivals over the same period in 2016, supported by solid performance in most destinations. Portugal (+13%) and the subregions top destination Spain (+11%) continue to boast double-digit growth after similar results in 2016, fuelled by particularly strong long-haul source markets. The recent terrorist attack in Barcelona is not yet reflected in the data, but is expected to have a short-lived and localised impact over tourist arrivals to Spain. Italy, the subregions second largest destination, and Greece both reported 7% growth in arrivals this period. Balkan destinations Croatia (+25%) and Slovenia (+19%) also reported double digit growth, as did island destinations Malta (+19%) and Cyprus (+15%). International arrivals to the five EU-28 destinations in Northern Europe grew by a robust 8% increase. Arrivals to Finland (+15%) showed double-digit growth, encouraged by an upsurge in long-haul travel, especially from China. The United Kingdom has reported a 9% increase, helped by the weaker British pound, and despite terrorist attacks in London and Manchester. Arrivals to Sweden (+8%) remain solid and show resilience after Aprils terror attack in Stockholm. Denmark (+7%) also recorded robust results. Ireland (+3%) reported more modest results. The nine European Union destinations in Central and Eastern Europe recorded a 6% growth in arrivals through June. The Czech Republic and Latvia (both +13%), Romania (+12%) and Bulgaria (+10%) led growth within the group, followed by Slovakia (+9%), Lithuania (+6%), Poland and Estonia (both +5%). These results were offset by a decrease in arrivals to Hungary (-2%). Arrivals to the group of six European Union destinations in Western Europe (+6%) have rebounded in the first half of 2017 following last years flat results (0%). Growth has been driven by the recovery of the worlds top destination France as well as Belgium (both +10%) from last years drop in arrivals in the aftermath of several terrorist attacks. The Netherlands also reported a robust 10% growth following sound results in 2016, while arrivals in both Germany and Austria grew by 5%. Extra-EU destinations report solid growth in arrivals after last years decline International arrivals to the 26 destinations outside the European Union (ExtraEU) grew 6% in the first months of 2017 after last years 8% decline, with most destinations reporting robust results. Growth has been fuelled by the recovery of Turkey (+24%) following last years decline. Growth in this group was led by the nine Extra-EU destinations in Southern and Mediterranean Europe. International tourist arrivals grew by an extraordinary 15% in the first half of 2017, following a 20% decrease in 2016. Growth has been fuelled by the rebound of this groups largest destination Turkey (+24%) after a steep 29% decline in arrivals in 2016, thanks to increased security after last years recurrent terrorist attacks and an upsurge in demand from the Russian Federation. Israel also reported 24% more arrivals after a more modest increase in 2016. Balkan destinations Montenegro (+20%), Serbia (+19%), Bosnia & Herzegovina (+16%) and FYR Macedonia (+13%) all reported double-digit growth. The five Extra-EU destinations in Northern and Western Europe have reported a robust 6% growth in arrivals. Switzerland (+7%), the largest destination in this group has reported sound results following last years robust growth in arrivals. Smaller destination Iceland (+22%) continues to benefit from the ongoing capacity and promotion efforts and looks forward to its eighth year of double-digit growth. Meanwhile, arrivals to Norway (+1%) have grown at a modest rate but managed to recover from a slight decline during the first quarter of 2017. Arrivals to the 12 Extra-EU destinations in Central and Eastern Europe declined 1% during the first months of 2017. Double-digit growth in several countries, such as Armenia (+24%), Kazakhstan (+21%), Moldova (+18%) and Georgia (+17%) was offset by an 8% decrease in arrivals to the Russian Federation (-9% in 2016), the subregions largest destination. Ukraine has not reported results yet. Tourism earnings followed the upward trend in arrivals through June 2017 Preliminary data on international tourism receipts have been reported by 127 countries and territories so far, of which 54 for the first six months of 2017. Of the reporting destinations, a total of 101 (or 80%) posted growth in earnings compared to the same period last year (in local currencies at current prices), of which 47 (37%) in double digits, while 26 (20%) reported declines. This indicates that earnings mostly followed the upward trend seen in arrivals. The median increase on international tourism receipts was 7%. Results reported by the top 10 tourism earners of international tourism receipts were fairly strong. Among them, 5 destinations belong to the EU-28: Spain recorded the highest growth (+12%), following 7% growth in the full year 2016. The United Kingdom reported 11% growth in receipts through March. France also posted an increase of 8%, rebounding from last years decline in receipts. Germany reported 4% growth in tourism earnings, while Italy posted 3% growth. Of the remaining five destinations in the top 10, four reported growth in tourism receipts and one a decline. Australia posted a 10% increase. Thailand recorded 8% growth, after an increase of 15% in 2016. The United States and Germany both reported 4% growth in tourism earnings, while China recorded an increase of 2% in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Hong Kong (China) reported a small 1% decline in the first half of the year. Beyond the top 10, a number of EU-28 destinations also performed strongly in the first three to six months of 2017. Portugal reported 21% growth through June, following solid results in 2016. Poland also reported strong results through March (+12%). Other top performers this period were Sweden (+9%), the Czech Republic (+8%) and Greece (+7%) Robust growth in tourism spending in the first half of 2017 Preliminary data on international tourism expenditure for the first part of 2017 reflect an increasing demand from major source markets, consistent with growth in international arrivals. So far, 46 out of the top 50 outbound markets have reported preliminary data on international tourism expenditure for the first three to six months of 2017. Out of the countries with data, 36 (78%) reported an increase in spending (in local currencies), 12 of which in double digits (26%), while 10 (22%) saw declines. The median increase was 6%. These results have been triggered by the continuing strong performance of many major source markets worldwide, as well as by the recovery of important source markets such as Brazil (+35%) and the Russian Federation (+26%). In terms of international tourism expenditure, 4 of the worlds top 10 source markets belong to the EU-28. Germany (the worlds third largest market) recorded a 3% increase through June. The United Kingdom reported 8% growth in spending in the first quarter of the year, despite the weaker British pound. Tourism spending from France grew 11% in the first half of 2017, while Italy recorded 5% growth. The remaining six destinations in the top 10 also reported growth in tourism spending. China, the worlds top source market, reported 9% growth in expenditure in the first quarter of 2017, reflecting an increasing demand for international travel. The United States (the worlds 2nd largest market) recorded a 6% increase through June. The Republic of Korea posted 16% growth through June. Canada reported a 7% increase in tourism spending, rebounding after flat growth in 2016. Hong Kong (China) recorded 5% growth. By contrast, Australia saw a modest 1% increase in expenditure. Beyond the top 10, a number of EU-28 source markets showed strong growth in spending this first half of 2017. Spain (+17%), Portugal (+13%) and Ireland (+11%) all reported double-digit growth in international tourism spending. The Czech Republic (+8%) and Austria (+7%) also reported strong results. Other markets outside the EU-28 that showed robust demand for outbound travel this period were Ukraine (+9%), Thailand (+8%), as well as Taiwan (pr. of China) (+7%). Also, growth in spending rebounded remarkably after some years of declines in Brazil (+35%) and the Russian Federation (+26%). The recovery of the Russian Federation is expected to have fuelled growth in arrivals to its main destinations markets, such as Turkey and Egypt. Download the full report here Read more here. RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Source: ftnnews.com Speakers will present sectors of the Greek economy of particular interest to foreign investors, such as state property privatisations, tourism and real estate The 1st Greek Investment Forum, to take place in the Chinese city of Xian - capital of the Shaanxi prefecture - on December 11, 2017, aims to attract Chinese capital for medium-sized investments in Greece. The business meetings to be organized in the framework of the forum will act as a head start for a visit by Chinese businessmen to Greece in six months time, in the framework of a dynamic discussion for small- and medium-sized investments in Greece. "In the first nine months of 2017, Chinese investments abroad, excluding the financial sector, totaled 78 billion US dollars in 5,159 enterprises from 154 countries. The medium value of each investment was 15 million US dollars. Only an extremely small percentage of these investments was directed to Greece, proof that there is huge potential for attracting investments in the country," noted George Floras, one of the organisers of the forum, talking to the Athens Macedonian News Agency (ANA). The event is co-organised by Belt and Road Associates with the China Association for International Economic Cooperation (CAFIEC), an organisation of the Commerce ministry of the People's Republic of China with the local government of Xi'an. This is the first such event about Greece to be held in China. Greece will be the focus of attention for around 250 representatives of investment companies in China, which systematically invest abroad. Speakers will present sectors of the Greek economy of particular interest to foreign investors, such as state property privatisations, tourism and real estate, infrastructure, energy, mining, the banking sector, transport and logistics, pharmaceuticals, the agro-food sector, Golden Visa programme, innovation, technology and e-commerce. There will also be a presentation of the Greek stock exchange and selected listed companies. CAFIEC focuses on investments abroad and its more than 1,000 members systematically invest in countries included in the Silk Belt Road. CAFIEC has organised similar forums focusing on other countries, such as Canada, Russia, Thailand, Egypt, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Slovenia, FYROM, Romania, Maldives, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Guinea. With a population of around 10,000,000 people, Xi'an is one of the most populated cities in China. Read more here. RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report Source: ANA-MPA Diyar Al Muharraq, a leading urban developer in Bahrain, has signed a corporate agreement with Silah Gulf, a specialist in customer management and contact centre services, for the provision of comprehensive call centre services. The agreement was signed at Diyar Al Muharraq headquarters at the Bahrain World Trade Centre in Manama by Dr Maher Al Shaer, chief executive officer of Diyar Al Muharraq, and Ricardo Langwieder-Gorner, chief executive officer of Silah Gulf. As per the stipulations of the agreement, Silah Gulf will provide professional contact centre services to Diyar Al Muharraq, which will include handling of all incoming voice calls and live web chats, through the utilization of experienced, well-versed and dedicated agents. In line with the terms of the contract, any Sales or Technical (TIO) enquiries and customer relationship activities will be undertaken by Silah Gulf on behalf of Diyar Al Muharraq. Dr Al Shaer said: With its vast scale of operations, years of expertise, professional work ethics and its proven capability of servicing many of the largest corporations in their respective sectors, Silah Gulf is one of the most renowned and accomplished companies in the customer service industry. And with Diyar Al Muharraq envisioned to be the biggest, most complete mixed-use development in the Kingdom of Bahrain, in terms of its extensive size and scope and its substantial contribution to the economy of the Kingdom, both the companies stand to be of equal measure with regards to organizational structure, capability and ambition. Therefore, it is with immense pleasure that I announce the signing of this agreement to forge an alliance that will undoubtedly carry Diyar Al Muharraq further into the digital age, enhance customer experience and therefore propel us into greater success. With the assimilation of digital technology into almost every aspect of our daily lives, even the most ardent cynics tend to lean on its conveniences from time to time. And with the number of interactive software users and mobile technology consumers only increasing on an exponential basis, we decided that seeking professional services to manage, augment and therefore, stimulate customer relations was the most productive course of action. Our association with an organization of such prestige and illustrious acclaim exemplifies the degree of excellence that we inculcate in every aspect of our operations, and we look towards maintaining and building on that philosophy as we manifest our aspirations of architectural and societal grandeur, he added. Langwieder-Gorner said: Diyar Al Muharraq is a leading Real estate company in the kingdom launching elite customer experience services to its clients. We are both proud and excited to be the solutions partner for this key project. Launched in 2009, Silah Gulf is a premium, multi-award winning customer experience solutions provider headquartered in Bahrain. Diyar Al Muharraq is a unique master planned city for the people of Bahrain offering range of housing options and quality lifestyle. Diyar Al Muharraq offers a cohesive mix of residential and commercial properties with a strong line-up of projects aimed at creating a long term and sophisticated township. TradeArabia News Service Bahraini authorities said that work on the expansion of Wali Al Ahad Highway in Riffa area of the kingdom was moving at steady pace with nearly 28 per cent of the project already completed. Work on the expansion of Wali Al Ahad Highway in Riffa area - targeting a crucial part located between Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Highway flyover and the Clock Roundabout to the East - is progressing well with nearly 28 per cent of the project already completed. The BD1.96 million ($5.16 million) project involves expansion of the highway into three lanes in each direction and revamping of all intersections along the highway, in addition to re-construction of the highway infrastructure, construction of brick pavements besides implementation of a storm water drainage network, lighting, signage and protecting the existing services, stated Essam bin Abdulla Khalaf, the Minister of Works, Municipalities Affairs & Urban Planning. He was speaking after touring the project site along with other ministry officials. The Minister inspected the ongoing work including the implementation of storm water drainage network on both directions, civil works, reclamation and laying of asphalt at some parts, construction of side pavements and construction of concrete wall along the central reservation. On the project's significance, Khalaf said: "Wali Al Ahad Highway is considered to be a main artery road that connects Riffa to Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Highway and Hamad Town." "The highway witnesses a traffic volume of around 73,000 vehicles daily and contains a number of important facilities and institutions on both sides, such as the Bahrain Defence Force Hospital, the Military Consumer Association, the Southern Governorate Security Police Department, the Supreme Council for Women, Wadi Al Sail Mall, Wadi Al Sail School, Wadi Al Sail Housing Project and other important establishments," he added.-TradeArabia News Service Spain took direct control of Catalonia on Saturday, firing the region's defiant separatist government a day after Catalan lawmakers passed a declaration of independence for the prosperous northeastern region. The move came after one of the most tumultuous days in the country's recent history, as the national parliament in Madrid approved unprecedented constitutional measures to halt the secessionist drive by the regional parliament in Barcelona, reported AP. Spain made the takeover official by publishing special measures online early Saturday in the country's gazette. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who now replaces Catalan President Carles Puigdemont as the top decision-maker in the northeastern region, has also dissolved the regional parliament and called a new regional election for December 21. Rajoy said the declaration of independence "not only goes against the law but is a criminal act." His comments were met late Friday with jeers and whistles of disapproval in Barcelona, the main city in Catalonia, where thousands had gathered to toast the independence declaration. Puigdemont and the 12 members of the Catalan Cabinet now will no longer be paid and could be charged with usurping others' functions if they refuse to obey. There was no immediate sign that top Catalan officials will do so, or comply with the orders. It's also unclear how Rajoy will be able to exert its control at lower levels of the vast regional administration. Some among the roughly 200,000 civil servants have said they will refuse to obey orders from Madrid, risking being punished or even fired under the special powers granted to central authorities by the nation's Senate on Friday. Spain's Interior Ministry also published an order to demote Josep Lluis Trapero from his position as head of the regional Mossos d'Esquadra police. He will be allowed to remain as commissar. Trapero became a controversial figure as the public face of the police response in mid-August to deadly extremists' attacks in and near Barcelona. He was praised for effectiveness but also criticised for coordination problems with other national police forces. Moody's Investors Service has today placed the Baa2 long-term issuer rating of Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) on review for downgrade. The decision to place the rating on review for downgrade was prompted by the announcement that Omantel had signed a share purchase agreement to acquire 12.1 per cent of Mobile Telecommunications Company KSCP (Zain) for a total cash consideration of $1.35 billion (RO520 million). Moody's expects adjusted debt/EBITDA will increase to levels post acquisition that are no longer commensurate with a baa2 Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA) rating or standalone rating. This also considers the 9.8 per cent stake in Omantel for $846.1 million that was fully debt-funded. Moody's review will focus on assessing overall impact on Omantel's credit profile including the funding plans in support of the transaction. The transaction is subject to completion of a public auction pursuant to trading rules of the Boursa Kuwait which has been set for 12 November 2017; and completion of a public auction pursuant to trading rules of the Boursa Kuwait. Moody's expects to conclude its review once these conditions precedent have been met and the transaction has then been consummated. Ratings rationale Moody's expects that adjusted debt/EBITDA will register 3.5x at Financial Year Ended (FYE) 31 December 2017 due to the addition of $2.2 billion in debt as part of Omantel acquiring a 21.9 per cent stake in Zain. Debt/EBITDA however is expected to reduce back below Moody's Baa3 ratings guidance of 2.75x within 12-18 months. This analysis factors only Omantel's proportionate share of dividends flowing from Zain. Furthermore, Moody's forecasts no further acquisitions which would result in a material deviation away from Omantel's forecast reduction in debt/EBITDA levels. Further acquisitions, if debt funded, would likely result in further downward pressure on Omantel's BCA. Moody's also would expect that Omantel would adhere to its track record of preserving of a very strong and robust liquidity profile at all times. Moody's sees limited execution risk in Omantel delivering synergies identified from the transaction with Zain. This is an important analytical consideration underpinning Omantel's ability to increase EBITDA and pay down debt. Omantel will add to EBITDA by aggregating Zain's traffic and data service to its wholesale platform which will allow Omantel to benefit from the increased volumes. The assumption of very high dependence is based upon no material variation in default correlation between Omantel and the Government of Oman. Omantel's economic participation is limited to attributable dividend flows from Zain as opposed to revenue realization. Moody's dimensions revenue as only being realized from Oman given that Omantel only has a 21.9 per cent equity interest in Zain. This is despite the geographic diversification outside of Oman that the investment brings. Geographic diversification is considered through the strength and reliance underpinning Zain's dividend flows. Similarly, the transaction would not change the likelihood of strong support for Omantel by the Government of Oman. The high profile and pioneer nature of the acquisition has ensured widespread and heightened attention from the Government of Oman. The transaction is likely to pave the path for further diversification by government owned corporates in Oman and thus its success is pivotal to broader strategic initiatives and imperatives for the government of Oman. The methodologies used in this rating were Telecommunications Service Providers published in January 2017, and Government-Related Issuers published in August 2017. Please see the Rating Methodologies page on www.moodys.com for a copy of these methodologies. Omantel is the incumbent telecommunications service provider in Oman (Baa2 negative). The company derives 99 per cent of its revenues from its Omani operations. Its primary competitor is Ooredoo Oman, which is in turn a 55 per cent subsidiary of Ooredoo. Omantel reported revenues of RO521 million ($1.35 billion) for the LTM ended June 30, 2017. TradeArabia News Service Toronto, Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ontario MPPs have sent Bill 148 to committee for final considerations before it faces third and final reading in the Legislature. The bill has become infamous as the minimum wage bill, but the 64 amendments to various pieces of legislation have severe implications for the foodservice industry in Ontario. Today, Restaurants Canada was called before committee to provide expert testimony on Bill 148. Joyce Reynolds, Executive Vice President for Restaurants Canada, presented the industrys concerns on the significant implications for our sector and told the committee that the proposed legislation could put more than 17,000 jobs at risk in the foodservice sector. I want to ensure this Committee that the foodservice industry is not opposed to the minimum wage adjustments in Ontario, said Reynolds. We are however, very concerned about the pace of implementation. The aggressive timelines will compromise the ability of the sector to absorb all of these additional costs. Since the introduction of the proposed legislation, Restaurants Canada has expressed deep concerns about the pace of implementation and the burdensome nature of the regulatory changes on business owners. Restaurants Canada and its members support the incredibly talented and hardworking staff who make the industry so vibrant and exciting. We have grave concerns that countless small businesses and entrepreneurs will be placed at risk of closure, downsizing and reduction of service to the communities they serve, said Reynolds. Ontarios restaurant industry directly employs nearly 473,000 Ontarians, roughly 7% of the provinces total labour force. Restaurants Canada continues to call on members to reach out to their MPPs and candidates in advance of the spring Ontario election. Restaurants Canada is a growing community of 30,000 foodservice businesses, including restaurants, bars, caterers, institutions and suppliers. We connect our members from coast to coast, through services, research and advocacy for a strong and vibrant restaurant industry. Canadas restaurant industry directly employs 1.2 million Canadians and serves 18 million customers every day. Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/eb6d1de0-32c8-4b76-b564-eac065233df3 The Kuwaiti cabinet on Monday tendered its resignation following the developments after the grilling of the cabinet affairs minister last week, said a report. Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah accepted the resignation of the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al Hamad Al Sabah and all ministers, state news agency Kuna reported, asking them to continue important duties until a new cabinet is sworn in. Last week, 10 opposition lawmakers filed a no-confidence motion against Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al Sabah, a senior cabinet member and part of the ruling family, on allegations of financial and administrative irregularities, reported AFP. Sheikh Mohammad, who is minister of state for cabinet affairs and acting information minister, denied the accusations, stated the report. Kuwaits cabinet was formed less than a year ago, after snap polls in which the opposition won almost half of the 50-seat house, it added. Oman Air won two awards at the World Travel Awards Middle East 2017, taking home the 'Middle East's Leading Airline - Business Class' and 'Middle East's Leading Airline - Economy Class' titles. This is the fourth year in a row that Oman Air has taken the titles, which are voted for by travel and tourism professionals from around the world. Acting CEO of Oman Air, Abdulaziz Al Raisi, said: This is a fantastic achievement for Oman Air to be voted the best, considering the competition we were up against. These awards set the standards for the travel industry and confirm that Oman Air services and standards are of the highest quality. It is immensely gratifying to be recognised for our unique product and overall guest experience in both these two key classes in our industry. The World Travel Awards was established in 1993 to acknowledge, reward and celebrate excellence across all key sectors of the travel, tourism and hospitality industry. The brand is recognised globally as the ultimate hallmark of quality in the travel industry. Oman Air and Muscat Duty Free (MDF) were awarded the Inflight Retailer of the year 2017 during the annual Frontier Awards held on October 6, at Palm Beach in Cannes, France. The Frontier Awards recognises best practice, rewards innovation and celebrates excellence across the global travel retail industry. Recently, the national carrier has been voted the Best In-Flight Duty Free provider in the Middle East by readers of the German passenger services industry publication, Pax International Magazine. In addition, awards in 2016 include Worlds Leading Airline Economy Class at the World Travel Awards in the Maldives, and Foreign Airline of the Year by Sector to the Middle East at the annual KLIA Awards, introduced in 2006 to recognise the best in Malaysian aviation industry. The coveted Signum Virtutis, the seal of excellence, from the Seven Stars Luxury Hospitality and Lifestyle Awards 2016 and winner for the best airline in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. The accolades are not limited to the passenger operation; Oman Air Cargo was also awarded Best Cargo Airline for Valuable Goods North and East at the India Cargo Awards 2016 held in Delhi. - TradeArabia News Service You can opt out of certain types of cookies (e.g. those used in social media sharing) by choosing "I do not accept". The website will still largely function well, but with slightly less functionality in places. To manage your cookie preferences in future, visit the "Cookie Statement" link at the bottom of any page. The highly anticipated Outbound Travel Bazaar (OTB) was held recently in Abu Dhabi. The event was a superb opportunity for top outbound travel buyers to connect with the most prominent sellers from across the world. Representing Millennium Airport Hotel Dubai was Mr Binu Varghese, Director of Sales and Marketing. (TRAVPR.COM) UAE - October 29th, 2017 The day began with an informative presentation about the prosperous Dubai market. It was followed by a series of networking events designed to improve prospects for both buyers and sellers. The exhibition also helped in increasing the attendees web of useful contacts in the travel industry. Mr. Binu Varghese said, It was a great networking event to meet the largest agencies from all 7 emirates and get to know the upcoming plans. I met selected experts who presented the profile of the travellers, shared some trends in the outbound travel market and the ways to penetrate the Dubai market in order to attract more travellers. Its obvious among the most popular destinations for UAE travellers are Europe, UK, Thailand, Malaysia and India, as well as the US and Australia. Like they said, no-one affords to miss doing business with these great markets. *END* For more information about the hotel,visitwww.millenniumhotels.com For Hotel Marketing inquiries, contact: Sheryl Aquiatan Assistant Marketing Manager 04 702 8864 / 04 702 8888 sheryl.aquiatan@millenniumhotels.com For media contact: Hina Bakht Vice President MPJ (Marketing Pro-Junction) Mob: 050 697 5146 h.bakht@mpj-pr.com http://www.mpj-pr.com ### VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- B2Gold Corp. (TSX:BTO) (NYSE AMERICAN:BTG) (NSX:B2G) (B2Gold or the Company) is pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Robin Weisman to its Board of Directors. Ms. Weisman joins B2Gold as a continuation of her respected career deeply-rooted in resource sector finance, where she was most recently the principal investment officer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Washington, D.C. While at IFC, her distinguished career included working with projects up to USD$9 billion through managing a portfolio of natural resource and chemical projects and advising clients on risk mitigation strategies. Her most recent position involved leading teams to invest debt and equity in private sector high-growth mining projects in developing countries. During her 22-year career at IFC, she developed a renowned sub-specialty in managing risks through effective corporate social responsibility, and most recently focused her energies on advancing the role of women across the resource development sector. Prior to joining IFC, she worked in increasingly senior roles including the position of vice president at Standard Chartered Bank, concentrating on structured trade financing. In her executive role at Citibank, she specialized in the currencies of emerging markets. Prior to these positions, Ms. Weisman provided financial forecasting and competitive analysis for CBS Television Network. Ms. Weisman holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois and a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago, Illinois. She also studied at La Sorbonne in Paris, France, and is a fluent French speaker. Ms. Weisman officially assumed her role as director on October 23, 2017, and will attend her first Board of Directors meeting in November. We are very pleased that Robin has agreed to join the B2Gold team as a director, commented Mr. Robert Cross, Chairman of the Board. With her extensive understanding of the mining industry and impressive experience in international mining finance, Robin will be an important contributor to our business and strategy of continuing B2Gold's dramatic growth as a responsible international gold producer. About B2Gold Corp. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, B2Gold Corp. is one of the fastest-growing intermediate gold producers in the world. Founded in 2007, today, B2Gold has five operating gold mines and numerous exploration and development projects in various countries including Nicaragua, the Philippines, Namibia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Colombia and Finland. On Behalf of B2GOLD CORP. Clive T. Johnson President and Chief Executive Officer For more information on B2Gold please visit the Company website at www.b2gold.com or contact: Ian MacLean Vice President, Investor Relations 604-681-8371 imaclean@b2gold.com Katie Bromley Manager, Investor Relations & Public Relations 604-681-8371 kbromley@b2gold.com Vijay C Roy Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 30 Hero Cycles plans to set up another cycle manufacturing unit in Ludhiana at an investment of Rs 150 crore. The proposed unit will have installed capacity of 4 million units per annum. Currently, it has manufacturing units in Ludhiana, Ghaziabad (UP) and Bihta (Bihar) with total installed capacity of 6.5 million cycles per annum. We are strengthening our investment in Punjab and plan to set up one more unit in the state with an investment of Rs 150 crore. It is likely to be operational by next year. This investment is in addition to what we intend to do in the proposed cycle valley in the state, said Pankaj Munjal, CMD, Hero Cycles. He said the company is also coming up with E-bike manufacturing unit in Ghaziabad with an annual capacity of 2 lakh per annum. Munjal said the company will also commence import of high-end bicycles from its plant in Sri Lanka. Last year, it had inaugurated its newly acquired strategic manufacturing facility in Sri lanka. He said the company plans to develop its Sri Lanka facility as the manufacturing base for its exports to the European market. Talking about the impact of demonetisation on the bicycle market, he said, Demonetisation has cast its shadow on the cycle industry in the last fiscal. The industry witnessed a negative growth of 7-8%. As far as the current fiscal is concerned, in the past six months of the current fiscal, the industry has witnessed a flat growth. But the growth has picked up in past two months and we hope it will register a positive growth. As far our company is concerned, we are anticipating 20% growth in the current fiscal, he said. Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 30 The Supreme Court today asked realty major Unitech to shell out Rs 750 crore by the end of December and made it clear that the bail plea of the companys Managing Director Sanjay Chandra would be taken up only after the money towards refund to homebuyers was deposited with its Registry. A Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, however, asked Tihar jail authorities to facilitate his meeting with his lawyer, company officials and financiers to enable him arrange the money to be used for refund to homebuyers and for completing Unitechs ongoing projects. This is the fifth time that the Bench has ignored Sanjay Chandras bail plea. Earlier, it had rejected his bail plea on September 8, 15, 21 and October 23. Amicus Curiae Pawan Shree Aggarwal told the Bench that Unitech needed Rs 2,000 crore to refund homebuyers money and completion of ongoing projects. Sanjay Chandra and his brother Ajay Chandra were arrested by the Delhi Police on April 1, 2017 on complaints of cheating filed by homebuyers against them. The Delhi High Court had on August 11 refused to grant interim bail to them. They have challenged the high courts order before the top court. Tribune News Service Mohali, October 30 Airline carriers are curtailing flight operations to Delhi as one of the runways at the Delhi airport will be shut for three days from November 7. Passengers flying from Chandigarh to Delhi from November 7 will have to make alternative arrangements for travel. Sources said repair work on runway 11/29 at the Delhi airport would affect flight operations, with some flights being cancelled or rescheduled. Officials from Air India and Jet Airways said their two flights to Delhi would stand cancelled from November 7. An Air India official at the airport said, One of the three runways at the Delhi airport will remain closed for maintenance. Both Air India flights departing to Delhi at 7.25 am and 12.50 pm will be cancelled for three days. Jet Airways, which operates four flights to Delhi, is expected to cancel two flights. The official confirmation is yet to be received, but it is expected that two flights will be cancelled. The flight departing to Delhi at 9.35 am and 11 am will be cancelled for three days, said an official from Jet Airways. Varun Sangar from the IndiGo airlines said since only one runway was closed, IndiGos operations would not be affected. Two runways are sufficient for the air traffic movement. All our flights will operate as per the schedule, he said. In the winter schedule, which came into force from October 29, 30 flights are operating from the Chandigarh airport with half of them either departing directly or connecting via the Delhi airport. Chandigarh International Airport Limited CEO Sunil Dutt said no communication had been received about the runway closure at the Delhi airport. The latest MetroCard you'll want to wait on line forfollowing the Supreme and Twin Peaks offerings over the past yearwill be Barbara Kruger's, which will hit four subway stations this Wednesday. Kruger designed two cards, each in her signature red and white aesthetic, featuring the following text in her chosen Futura Bold Oblique font: "Who is healed? Who is housed? Who is silent? Who speaks?" and, "Whose hopes? Whose fears? Whose values? Whose justice?" There will be 50,000 cards in total, dispersed randomly from vending machines at Queensboro Plaza, Broadway-Lafayette Street, East Broadway and the B/C station at 116th Street, according to the NY Times. Kruger, who splits her time between NYC and L.A., told the paper, "I tried to have a range of stations to have the most varied mix of riders." The cards were commissioned by Performa, which previously announced a "major design collaboration with Barbara Kruger for Performa 17, the seventh edition of the Performa Biennial, to take place November 1-19, 2017, at locations throughout New York City." In addition to the MetroCards, there will be pieces from the artist around town: Krugers Performa Commission will insert the artist into the urban street culture that has absorbed, appropriated, and applied her provocative attitude and approach through a series of public art actions, performances, and installations. Expanding upon her iconic photo-collages combining text and image, Kruger will employ these signature effects and strategies to broadcast messages that engage issues of and ideas about power, desire, adoration, contempt, and capital. Using her instantly recognizable white-on-red Futura typeface, the project will include an installation for the popular Lower East Side skate park located beneath the Manhattan Bridge, created in partnership with NYC Parks and skate park designer Steve Rodriguez; the design of a billboard on 17th Street and 10th Avenue in Chelsea; and a full wrap of a classic school bus that will serve as a mobile site for community engagement. Additional strategic public interventions will be announced closer to the opening of the biennial. These elements will take on New York City, unfolding throughout the duration of Performa 17 to immerse audiences in powerful messages grounded in activism, feminism, and community while exploring the role and power of mass media. Here's a little more on the LES skate park installation, from Steve Rodriguez, who designed the park: P Stobdan We feel a sense of exultation at Rex Tillersons statement in Delhi that the US will not tolerate safe havens for terror groups in Pakistan. But, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has clarified to the Senate that no specific demand had come from Tillerson. A list of 75 wanted terrorists passed on to Islamabad contained no names of Pakistani nationals, but it included elements of the Haqqani network some of whom were dead, some had taken refuge across the border and some were shadow governors of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Tillersons Islamabad visit has been dubbed as frosty, but the leadership there reportedly exploited the moment not just to negate the US allegation over terrorists safe heavens but also for broaching on the Indian atrocities in Kashmir. On Afghanistan, Islamabad showed its readiness to help the US not as its proxy but in political assistance, provided Washington admits its military failure in Afghanistan. What is more, Islamabad seemingly abdicated its role by saying that it is not Pakistan but other regional players (Iran, Russia, China and Turkey) that have more influence on the Taliban. However, it offered to promptly act if actionable intelligence is given, as in the case of the recent rescue of a US-Canadian couple. Asif also said that Pakistan made it crystal clear to the US that any effort to give the so-called stabilisation role in Afghanistan to India was simply unacceptable. What has come out clearly, therefore, is that Islamabad has tried to throw the ball in the US court. Tillerson's statement in Delhi that Pakistan is important to our joint goals of providing peace and security to the region and providing for greater economic relationship shouldn't have come as a surprise. In addition, Tillerson's qualified remark in Delhi that US wanted to work in a positive way with Islamabad as terrorism also threatened Pakistans own security and stability was rather an intended smokescreen to convey that exerting pressure on Islamabad beyond a point is risky. Familiar trend on Pak Certainly, there is a lurking apprehension, therefore, that dependence on fickle US policies could be risky for India. In fact, we should be careful about rejoicing in Trump administrations determination to confront and put an end to terror havens in Pakistan. There is also no cause for getting enamoured with Washingtons call for providing India a pivotal role in Afghanistan, which may have, though momentarily, caused diarrhoea among some Pakistanis perhaps, even rattled Beijing and Moscow. We know Trump is not known for sticking to his guns. His dramatic flip-flops from publicly pillorying Pakistan for offering safe havens to agents of chaos (August 21) to developing a better relationship with Pakistan and thanking them for their cooperation on many fronts (October 14) were appalling enough. The recent devious rescue by the ISI of a US-Canadian couple and their three children from the captivity of the Haqqani Network in Kohattoo had a familiar formula replay value a classic case of how Pakistanis operate on deceitful delivery tactic, an art they have mastered for long. But for Trump, the incident was a sign of Pakistan honouring Americas wishes. Trump may have been hoodwinked, but dont blame him: he is new in this game. We have heard enough about Washington's tough measures, including withholding of military aid to Islamabad. No one knows better than Indians how Washington turned a blind eye to Pakistan's use of terrorist proxies and to its clandestine nuclear weapon programmes for years. We should know how the Americans and Pakistanis always worked hand-in-glove, willing or forced, and their clandestine and illicit ties that Trump calls as the worlds worst kept secrets. They are aware about each others' weaknesses and strengths. In fact, Pakistanis have developed such ties with the Chinese, Russians, and Uzbeks under the rubric Pakistan as an indispensible partner in the fight against terrorism. Therefore, we should be aware. No matter what the US says, Pakistanis will be confident of making it through, for they also know how to jump quickly into the American bed. These are familiar trends and more sordid compromises are expected, albeit in the name of real-politick. That Trump's India outreach strategy wouldn't be followed by action on the ground was a foregone conclusion. After all, Tillerson sought action only against the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network through drone attacks in the Kurram Agency. There wasnt any sign of the US turning up the heat on Pakistan-based LeT and HuM groups. JuD chief Hafiz Saeed's name wasn't even on the list of militants the US handed over to Pakistan. Instead, speculation is that the newfound relationship may have emboldened Islamabad to acquit Hafiz Saeed from detention, citing no terrorism charges are pending against him. US Afghan policy The danger in Trumps new Afghan policy is the risk of India once again getting hyphenated with Pakistan, for Americans know full well that Pakistans Afghan policy and its support for terrorists are mainly embedded in its design against India. Whereas, the current floundering state of relationship between the US and Pakistan seem only provisional and transitory. In fact, Pakistanis would be simply waiting for the inevitable moment of the US military failure in Afghanistan once again. We should know the US considers the Taliban a political entity and if the ongoing effort to bring reconciliation with the Taliban materialises, it will not only vindicate Pakistan's policies but also paved the way for deepening ties with the US. This would mean that US would dump India and once again plonk for Pakistan as its subedar for the region. Therefore, India getting ready acceptance as a reliable US partner is rather hasty. In fact, the US desire for Indias stepped-up engagement in Afghanistan is only about what Nikki Haley said on Diwali: India can help the US keep an eye on Pakistan to determine that Pakistan has given up using terrorist groups. Thats a very small job indeed. What ultimately Washington would tell India is: leave Pakistan for us to handle and New Delhi should focus on containing China in the Asia-Pacific region. After all, the crucial US new Afghanistan and South Asian policy was accompanied by the showering of a bigger geopolitical gift to India applauding its commitment to a global rule-based order as opposed to China's subverting sovereignty of its neighbours. This, in fact, enthralled us more as many commentators have already started to construe the US openly siding with India, should a Doklam-like conflict vis-a-vis China is repeated. But, make no mistake: China was seemingly doing its full strategic probing of the US potentially coming to India's rescue during the entire 72-day standoff in Doklam. Observers have noticed that during the conflict in the Himalayas, Chinese military activities were seen more focussed in the West Pacific. Apart from keeping the US tied down on the North Korean front, China was deterring the US and Japan from joining the Doklam conflict. Actually, it wasnt India, but China that was fighting a two-front war on both the Pacific and Himalayan theatres. For India to rely on Trump's promises would, thus, seem foolhardy. In fact, many statements that Washington makes can't be taken, except for their face value, for it is getting clearer that while India and the US have developed concurrences at multiple levels, the signs of converting them into real and obligatory strategic congruencies appear very little. The writer is a former ambassador and expert on strategic affairs Washington, October 30 Hundreds of Indian-Americans gathered on the banks of the historic Potomac river in the suburbs here to perform Chhath Pooja with several women attired in colorful saree worshipping the Sun God. Chhath Pooja entails worship of the Sun God, embodied in cosmic energy, and is observed mainly by people from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. The Chhath celebration expanded this year as Indian-Americans in New Jersey for the first time gathered on a lakeside in Monroe township to perform the pooja. Hundreds of Indian-Americans from in and around Maryland and Virginia area gathered on the banks of the Potomac river as nearly a dozen fasting women entered the river water on Thursday evening and early morning on Friday to worship the Sun God. From just me and my family members and a few friends, this has now become a big community event, said Anita Singh, who has been organising the event for the past 10 years now. Started by the Singh coupleKripa and Anita--Chhath Pooja celebrations on the banks of the Potomac river attracted people from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Atlanta in addition to the Greater Washington area of Maryland and Virginia. The Singh family has been doing this for a decade now at the same place on the river bank, which in addition to hundreds of Indian-Americans has also started attracting several curious onlookers. An individual initiative so far, the Chhath celebrations this year attracted dozens of volunteers from near and far who helped the Singh family in every aspect of the festival from elaborate rituals, to the big community event on the river bank. They volunteered to provide free snacks to the visitors on Friday morning. Given the large turnout of the community members in the few years, Kripa Singh said they had now started looking for a parcel of land on the bank of the Potomac river which can be developed into a traditional ghatsteps leading to the river for the annual celebration of the Chhath festival. Inspired by the Chhath Pooja celebrations on the Potomac river bank, the Bihar Jharkhand Association of North America (BAJANA) organised the festival for the first time ever in New Jersey. Over 300 devotees from all around New Jersey and the tri-state area got together at the lakeside of Thompson Park, Monroe town, to offer their prayers to the rising and setting sun. Volunteers got together in advance to make prasad for the members attending the pooja. The cold weather and frozen feet did not stop the devotees from entering the water and offer the arag to the Sun God, said Alok Kumar from BAJANA. Everyone was emotional attending the event because they were attending it for decades! Having the chance to attend it here at home in New Jersey was a dream come true, Kumar said. PTI A war of words has broken out among politicians from the mainland over the Kashmir issue just in time for the Gujarat elections. Kashmir is no stranger to being used as a pawn in politics being played out elsewhere in the country. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Modi and former Union Minister P Chidambaram have chosen to cross swords just when a delicate exercise is under way in the Kashmir valley; the first time that the Modi government has decided to break from the relentless security-led approach. But the appointment of an interlocutor is only the beginning of an attempt to unlock the Kashmir tangle. Three years of trying to strong-arm the Kashmiris may have temporarily depleted the ranks of the militants and dulled the appetite of the average Valley-ite to take to the streets. But there are several stark reminders of how the step-up in Army operations or of its chiefs tough talk has not been able to persuade the average Kashmiri to repose its faith in the Indian political system. The polling percentage in the Srinagar Lok Sabha election was below double digits while the government has avoided holding elections to the parliamentary seat held by the Chief Minister herself for fear of a repeat embarrassment. Pushed in a corner by their unyielding stand, the separatists will be hard placed to enter into talks after having earlier rebuffed Indian civil societys attempts to reach out to them. The political mood in Kashmir can change with one stray comment from a high-level functionary in Delhi. If at this make-or-break juncture, when the Centres designated interlocutors first task will be to whittle away resistance because of three years of hardened attitudes, the attempt to use Kashmir to influence state-level politics elsewhere, whether in Gujarat or Karnataka, smacks of short-sightedness. This is the time for the actual stakeholders, the Kashmiris, to have a voice and be heard. That the Abdullahs held a large public interaction for the first time in 15 years should be welcomed. The demagogue-politicians in the mainland, meanwhile, need to take a breather. Tribune News Service Karnal, October 30 Abdul Karim Tunda, who was awarded life imprisonment by a Sonepat court few days back in the 1996 Sonepat bomb blasts case, was attacked in Karnal court complex on Monday. The assailant has been identified as Joginder, a resident of Jind, who had attacked Tunda in Karnal jail last year. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Tunda (75) was here for hearing in connection with the Karnal jail attack. Joginder was brought from Karnal jail for the hearing in the same case, while Tunda was brought from Ghaziabad jail. On November 30 last, Joginder along with Amandeep, a resident of Panipat, had attacked Tunda in Karnal jail, where the latter was kept for one day on the orders of a Panipat court. The attack on Tunda has again exposed security lapses on the Karnal court premises. A court had earlier this month awarded life imprisonment to Tunda in the Sonepat bomb blasts case. At least 15 persons were injured in twin blasts in Sonepat in December 1996. One of the blasts took place near a cinema hall and the other near a sweets shop. Tunda, suspected LeT bomb expert, was arrested from the Indo-Nepal border at Banbasa on August 16, 2013. He is also suspected of involvement in some other blast cases across the country, some of which are still pending. Tunda was one of the 20 terrorists India had asked Pakistan to hand over after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. Sushil Manav Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 30 Apprehending shortage of gunny bags due to unregulated arrivals in the future, the state government has banned paddy from UP. The ban has discomforted rice millers as cheaper crop from the neighbouring state helped earn extra profit in custom milling of rice (CMR) for procurement agencies. In his orders issued to the Deputy Commissioners of Ambala, Kurukshetra, Karnal, Panipat, Yamunanagar, Palwal, Sonepat and Faridabad districts on October 27, Additional Chief Secretary (Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Departments) Ram Niwas said, It has been decided to seal all border points with UP from where paddy/rice is arriving. You may ask the police to set up round the clock check points from UP side to ensure that no paddy/rice arrives in Haryana mandis from that side. Unhappy with the move, the rice millers have announced to raise the issue with the state government. The ban orders are uncalled for. On one hand, the Centre says that farmers can sell their produce anywhere in the country, but here they are being stopped from bringing their crop to the state. Farmers from UP come to Haryana because of better remunerative prices and instant payment, said Rajender Agarwal, president of Yamunanagar Rice Millers and Dealers Association. However, sources that the ban was imposed amidst reports that rice millers were purchasing paddy from the neighbouring state at Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,300 per quintal. The Tribune has learnt that millers procured local paddy only in papers by managing gate passes in connivance with officials of the market committee and agencies. The custom milled rice obtained from paddy brought from UP was supplied to hoodwink the government and earn extra profits. Two days ago, Asha Rani, secretary, market committee, and Rajiv Langyan, inspector, Food and Supplies, Karnal, were suspended for allegedly issuing gate passes to commission agents without arrival of paddy. The ACS also ordered physical verification of paddy through multi-agency teams consisting of representatives of the DC, officers of other departments and representatives of district and block vigilance committees. Meanwhile, 55.62 lakh MT of paddy has arrived in various grain markets of the state until now against 50.05 lakh MT received last year. Out of these, 52.38 lakh MT has been procured by government agencies and 3.24 lakh MT by private millers. UP farmers block highway Muzaffarnagar: Farmers blocked the Khatima-Panipat Highway at Kairana in UP on Monday after the Haryana police stopped their paddy-laden tractor trolleys from entering the state. The paddy was being taken to mandis in the state for sale. Shivbahadur Singh, Additional District Magistrate of Shamli, said the blockade was lifted after the agitating farmers were pacified. PTI Tribune News Service Dharamsala, October 30 BJP national president Amit Shah criticised Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi the slack pace of progress in his Lok Sabha constituency Amethi, a Congress bastion for over three decades. Shah, who was addressing a gathering in Dharamsala, accused the UPA regime headed by the Congress of rampant corruption, comparing with the BJPs clean record. He also accused Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh of having ruined the state, and claimed that even those employed by his family had corruption cases against them. Hectic campaigning is under way in the state ahead of next months assembly elections. Himachal will vote for its 68-member assembly on November 9. Votes will be counted on December 18. Pratibha Chauhan The BJP's efforts to find a credible and an established leader to take on two-time Congress MLA Rajesh Dharmani (45) in Ghumarwin has found little success, with the party once again fielding Rajinder Garg, who had lost the elections in 2012. The segment has predominantly been a Congress stronghold and this time too the party is giving a tough fight. The absence of a prominent face in the BJP is proving to be the biggest impediment in its victory. To add to the woes of the saffron party, the presence of many factions, all ticket aspirants, is preventing the party from putting up a united fight. Notwithstanding his differences with Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Dharmani has been able to get works done on the basis of his rapport with ministers. Garg has been given the BJP ticket, but it remains to be seen if he gets support from other leaders, including Vikram Sharma, Mahinder Dharmani and Usha Thakur, a BJP Mahila Morcha leader. The role of Rakesh Chopra, former president of the Ghumarwin Nagar Parishad, who had contested the 2012 elections by putting up an impressive show by securing 6,664 votes, will be most crucial. He has returned to the partyfold and is campaigning for the BJP, but it is uncertain if he will back Garg fully. "Our MLA is accessible, mature and balanced. Above all, he is principled and even resigned as the Chief Parliamentary Secretary (CPS)," said Anish Kumar, student of Government Degree College, Ghumarwin. "We girl students are happy that we can pursue postgraduation as MA classes in a few subjects have been started in our Ghumarwin Degree College," said Karishma Sharma, BA-II student. "The opening of an Industrial Training Institute for girls at Karyala in Kasaru panchayat is also being appreciated," said Sangeeta Devi of Nihari village in Seu panchayat. Students said the need of the hour was a polytechnic in Ghumarwin as the students had to go all the way to Sundernagar or Hamirpur. The recent move of the local MLA to shift the jurisdiction of five panchayats of Kotlu Brahmna, Chaatt, Karloti, Kapada and Paplah from the Shah Talai police station to Ghumarwin and of nine panchayats of Jhanduta block to Ghumarwin has been appreciated. It was a long-standing demand of villagers of the belt and will save them from travelling all the way to Jhanduta as they will get all their work done at Ghumarwin which is much closer. Dharmani faces anti-incumbency despite maintaining close ties with people while the BJP is banking on the fact that Union Health Minister JP Nadda will be made the Chief Minister and his home district will give a clean sweep to the party and Garg, who is his staunch loyalist. Pratibha Chauhan Tribune News Service Shimla, October 30 Congress leader Anand Sharma on Monday challenged Prime Minister Narandra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for a debate on economy, either at Shimla or Ahmedabad. He said that the Prime Minister did not even bother to apologise for the 143 deaths caused due to the long queues outside banks after demonetisation. He said that had it been any other nation, cases would have been registered against the prime minister. He said following the GST and demonetisation, the Indian economy was not galloping and gasping. He said there has been loss of four crore jobs. He also said the BJP by the way of their "vision" document were trying to politicise sacrifice of martyrs and get mileage out of unfortunate crime in a peaceful state like Himachal. He said crime against women highest in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, ruled by the BJP as per the NCRB data. He said the BJP has dual standard on corruption as the GOI has not bothered to look at the allegations against Amit Shahs son. Neena Sharma Tribune News Service Dehradun, October 30 Miffed Congress legislators may play spoilsport for the BJP government by boycotting the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee, jeopardising the upcoming Winter Session of the Assembly to be held at Bhararisain (Gairsain). The BJP has announced its decision to hold the session at Gairsain in December. The party will use all its persuasive skills to ensure the business committee, which has three members from the Congress, attends the meeting and approves the business agenda for the session. Without the business agenda, the government will be hardpressed to hold the session. The main grouse of the Opposition dates back to the last Budget Session held in May during which it had charged the BJP government with imposing a new business agenda which had not been approved by the business committee. Leader of the Opposition Indira Hridayesh had then declared that unless the ruling BJP tendered an apology, the Opposition would continue to boycott the meeting of the business committee. We will continue to boycott the meeting, it is unfortunate that the government has not tendered an apology, said Hridayesh. During the Budget session in May, the Congress had charged the ruling BJP for surreptitiously bringing a new business agenda in which the recommendations of the standing committee on Lokayukta were included. The new business agenda, which was not even brought before the business committee, was introduced in the House, charged Hridayesh. However, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Prakash Pant said the government was committed to holding the Winter session at Gairsain. Our colleagues in the Opposition know without their cooperation the House cannot be run. I will urge the leader to take a relook at her decision so that the issue can be resolved amicably, said Pant. Their grouse Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 30 The Supreme Court on Monday deferred by three months the hearing on petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A of the Constitution - that gives special rights and privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir after the Centre said it intended to hold negotiations with various stakeholders in the state. Attorney General KK Venogopal told a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra that the government had appointed Dineshwar Sharma as an interlocutor and requested it to adjourn the matter for six months. If the court continues with the hearing, it might affect the ongoing dialogue process, the Attorney General said. On behalf of one of the petitioners, advocate Barun Sinha submitted that the issue of constitutional validity of Article 35A should be referred to a Constitution Bench. The Bench, however, simply adjourned the matter for three months. This is the second time that the case has been adjourned without any hearing on merits. On August 25, a Bench headed by CJI Misras predecessor JS Khehar had acceded to a request made by the Centre and the J&K Government to defer hearing against Article 35A and take it up only after Diwali. The deferment of hearing on the contentious issue is likely to bring tempers down in the Kashmir valley where separatist leaders had on Sunday exhorted people to launch a mass agitation if Article 35A was done away with. Amid the growing political unease in J&K over the alleged attempts to do away with Article 35A, the Supreme Court had on August 14 hinted at sending petitions challenging the controversial provision to a Constitution Bench for a definitive finding on its validity. Added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order in 1954, Article 35A gives special rights and privileges to permanent residents of J&K and debars the rest of Indians from acquiring immovable property, obtaining state government jobs and settling in the state. Petitioner Charu Wali Khanna has alleged that it also discriminates against women. Section 6 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution restricts the basic right of women to marry a man of their choice by not giving the heirs any right to property if the woman marries a man not holding the Permanent Resident Certificate. Her children are denied a permanent resident certificate thereby considering them illegitimate not given any right to such a womans property even if she is a permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir, Khanna alleged in her petition. The petitioner alleged that if a woman marries a person outside J&K, then according to Article 35A, she loses property rights as well as employment opportunities in the state. Also, a Non-Permanent Resident Certificate holder can vote in Lok Sabha polls but they cant vote in local elections in the state. Interestingly, the Centre has been shying away from filing its response to spell out its stand on Article 35A. The Attorney General had then told the Bench that the government didnt want to file its affidavit in response to the petition filed by Delhi-based NGO We the citizens, which has challenged the constitutional validity of Article35A on the ground that the President could not have amended the Constitution by an Order in 1954 and it was to be a temporary provision. The SCis also seized of at least one petition challenging the validity of Article 370 that confers special status on J&K. But in its affidavit, the state has defended Article 35A terming it a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution. The 1954 Presidential Order granting special rights to permanent residents of the state had been recognised, accepted and acted upon since its enactment, it added. Coalition out to dilute special status: NC Srinagar: National Conference provisional president Nasir Aslam Wani on Monday said the alliance between PDP and BJP was a result of a well-devised strategy to change the political discourse and expression of the state. In the past three years, the state has seen how the ruling alliance had made it their one-point agenda to dilute the states special status. Article 35A, Article 370, beef ban, GST the list goes on. The ruling alliance was forged to make us surrender to the vehemently aggressive saffronisation of India, Nasir said. TNS Five years after it opened (without power) the week of Hurricane Sandy, Left Bank in the West Village will be celebrating with a candlelit dinner on Tuesday evening with 10% of the night's sales being donated to Best Friends Animal Society, a rescue organization helping animals in NYC in addition to places impacted by hurricanes. For the evening, chef and owner Laurence Edelman will serve a throwback menu that includes dishes he served back in 2012 like jambalaya with shrimp, homemade sausage and chicken and crab. There'll also be a speciality cocktail, "Red Sky At Night," made with whiskey, rose and allspice. Italienne in the Flatiron hosts Coppersea Distillery on Tuesday evening for a heritage pork and spirits menu featuring pigs fed exclusively with whiskey mash. The six-course menu includes dishes like black pepper pappardelle with hand cut pork ragu paired with a Bonticou Crag Manhattan and housemade pork sausage with borlotti beans and bacon served with a Big Angus Sour. The pork menu is available for $125, with a cocktail pairing for $72 and a one ounce pour pairing for $48. Reservations can be made online or by calling 212-600-5139. Celebrate Halloween at Sunday In Brooklyn with a Freak Show Party at the Williamsburg restaurant. This costumes-required party features cocktails by bar manager Claire Sprouse and food from executive chef Jaime Young, plus pumpkin "kegs," side show acts, tarot card readings and lots of festive music. Tickets for the party are $45 and include two cocktails, party punch, and passed and stationary food. Porterhouse at Salt + Charcoal Williamsburg's Salt + Charcoal observes Halloween by screening terrifying Japanese cult horror films in its downstairs space beginning at 5 p.m. The restaurant will be showing Ringu (The Ring), Juon (The Grudge) and Dark Water and will also offer one free glass of hot sake to each diner. Pair that with one of Chef Tadaaki Ishizaki's Japanese-style dry aged beef dishes, like the 50 Day Jyukusei Porterhouse Steak pictured above. Cocktail bar Coupwhich donated profits to organizations threatened by the Trump administrationhosts its first pop-up since closing in late September. On Tuesday, Mother of Pearl, Cienfuegos, and Amor y Amargo in the East Village will all be satellite "Coups," with 100% of the money raised from cocktail sales/donations being donated to relief efforts in Puerto Rico. Attendees are encouraged to dress up and go on a mini bar crawl throughout the evening. Stuff your face with orbed meats for a worthy cause on Wednesday at the second annual Movember Ball event taking place at the Refinery Rooftop in Midtown. Hosted by In Good Company Hospitality, the event is a meatball tasting competition between restaurants including Trademark Taste + Grind, Louie and Chan, Atwood, and seven others, with proceeds benefiting the Movember Foundation, which raises funds for prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health and suicide prevention. Tickets are $25 and the event runs from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Jasmine Singh Upcoming Hindi film Firangi brings the limelight back on the much-talked about artiste Kapil Sharma. While Kapil seems to open up about the past debacles during the promotions, the rest of the cast, which includes Punjabi actress Monica Gill and popular Punjabi music director Jatinder Shah, have some new things to talk about their first Hindi venture. Monica, the Punjabi darling She has already been seen in peppy roles opposite Diljit Dosanjh in Ambarsariya and Sardaarji 2. Monica, who is a Miss India USA 2013, makes her Hindi film debut with Firangi, a film that she is really excited about. So, how did this leggy bag the role? I was finalised for this role after meeting our ace director, Rajiev Dhingra, and going through multiple audition rounds. Unfortunately I cannot speak about my character, but I can say that it was a regal experience to bring her to life. Monica doesnt want to divulge much about her role, understandable, after all films and hype go hand-in-hand! But there is something that she has no qualms talking about the comfort in Punjabi films and Hindi films, as also the differences between the two. Working in Firangi was like escaping into a different world all together. It was shot on a grand scale and it honestly felt like I was transported into the pre-Independence era. There was an entire village built on the banks of a river in Ropar. It was beautiful, shares Monica, leaving us with the thought that she does like working in Punjabi films as much, otherwise why would we see her in yet another soon-to-be-released Punjabi film, Sat Shri Akaal England. Produced by Kapil Sharma himself, the film stars the actor in the lead role. Known for his impeccable comedy, Kapil has also been in news lately for various other reasons. Monica cant help but smile, as she says, It was amazing to work with Kapil Sharma. Hes very serious about his work but hes very jovial with the crew and cast. He has extensive theatre experience, so I learnt a lot while trying to match his performance level. Kapil is an excellent actor. Now, here is a beauty who has learnt the art of being politically correct. Lucky you! I always say that time, destiny and God work together in magical ways, this is her success mantra. Monica will also be seen in an under-production Punjabi film, Punj Khaab, which will release early next year. Punjabi badshah His name figures on the top of the list of successful and prolific music directors in Punjab. Jatinder Shah, a follower of Sai, shares an excellent camaraderie with Gurdas Maan. Shah ji as he called, has given music in over 50 Punjabi films and now he is the solo composer of Firangi. The film has seven songs; I went to Europe to do the background music. This is a film that took me a year, and I am thankful to actor-producer Kapil Sharma and director Rajiev Dhingra, who gave me a free hand in this project. Back in Punjab, it is known that Jatinder does not go around doing PR or even attending movie promotions, but Firangi seems special, since we see him travelling with the cast and crew everywhere. Jatinder Shah laughs, Oh so it was noticeable. Bollywood music industry has always given music directors lot of credit, here they accompany the crew to the promotions. Music for Jatinder Shah is an experience; something that has to be lived for the first time, every time. But is music challenging too. Firangi is music was tough; it is a period film, so I had to work between the new and the old. The famous music director has already signed up with two big production houses in Bollywood, but he is not leaving Punjab for sure. This is where my soul lies, this is where my Sai is; I can never leave this mitti. jasmine@tribunemail.com Chiranjit Parmar CAN anyone imagine in todays scenario that a tehsil clerk was jailed for two years for taking a bribe of Rs 20? It is true and happened in Himachal Pradesh 48 years ago. In 1969, I was posted as Horticulture Development Officer at Dharamsala. One day, while I was at Kangra in connection with some official work, I got a message from SK Alok, SDM Kangra, asking me to come to his residence. He told me that he was going to conduct a raid and wanted me to be a shadow witness. PS Kumar, a young IPS officer posted as DSP Kangra, was also present. Alok was also a young IAS officer and it was probably his first posting. A tehsil clerk was asking for bribe and a trap was being laid to catch him red-handed. It was a legal requirement for such traps to have a shadow witness. Alok prepared the requisite legal papers needed before conducting such raids. He then took two currency notes of Rs 10 each and signed them. One of the notes was given to the person from whom the clerk was demanding money. The plan was that this person would go to the clerk, hand him the signed notes and give us a signal. Things worked perfectly as per plan. Alok, accompanied by Kumar and me, immediately went to the clerk and asked him if he had accepted money, which he denied. The clerk was then searched and the signed notes were recovered from his pocket. All this happened in a jiffy and the clerk was ordered to be arrested. It was my first experience of this kind. Before that, I had only read about such incidents. I was a bit puzzled. I asked Alok what would happen now. He said only the district and sessions judge, Kangra district, would decide the matter. The accused clerk was handcuffed and sent to the police lock-up right away. The clerk was tried at the Dharamsala Sessions Court and the judge sentenced him to two years of rigorous imprisonment. The case was decided in one-and-a-half years. The clerk had filed an appeal in the next higher court, which too was rejected. He spent the next two years in jail for taking a mere Rs 20 as bribe. It seems unbelievable, and impossible too, in todays India, where persons accused of taking crores of rupees as bribe are outside jail on bail and a petty tehsil clerk had to serve a jail term for a small sum, that too within two years of committing the offence. If this were to happen in India with zero-tolerance to corruption it would be the real beginning of acche din. Sadly, I do not think such acche din will ever come in this country. I would be happy to be proved wrong. Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 30 To give a push to the Make in India scheme, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) today issued a notification liberalising and easing the rules for attracting greater investment in the domestic manufacturing of arms, ammunition and other weaponry. The MHA said the move would boost employment. As per the new rules, the licences granted for manufacturing would now be valid for lifetime and the system of renewal has been done away with. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Similarly, the practice of prior approval from the Central and state governments that the manufactured small arms and light weapons would be sold to them only has been done away with. The liberalised rules will apply to licences granted by the MHA for small arms and ammunition, and those granted by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), under powers delegated to it, for tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, defence aircraft, spacecrafts, warships of all kinds, arms and ammunition and allied items of defence equipment other than small arms. Under the new rules, which came into effect on October 27, enhancement of capacity up to 15 per cent of the quantity approved under the licence will not require any further approval. The licence fee has also been reduced significantly. Earlier, it was Rs 500 per firearm. The licence fee will now range from Rs 5,000 to the maximum of Rs 50,000. Beijing, October 30 China on Monday once again hinted at blocking a bid by the US, France and the UK to list Pakistan-based JeM chief and Pathankot terror attack mastermind Masood Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN, harping on its familiar stand that there was no consensus among Security Council members. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) China had in August extended by three months its technical hold on the proposal to list Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) founder Azhar as a global terrorist after having blocked the move in February this year at the United Nations. We have made our position clear many times from this podium. The relevant resolutions of Security Council have clear stipulations as to the mandate of 1267 Committee and also clear stipulations when it comes to the listing of relevant organisations and individuals, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here. Replying to questions whether China will block the ban on Azhar again when the 1267 Committee of the UNSC takes up the issue on Thursday, Hua said as for listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements. Chinas latest hold is due to lapse on Thursday. Hua said that China had put a technical hold to allow for more time for more parties to deliberate on this matter. In the last two years, China has stonewalled efforts by India and then later by the US, the UK and France to declare Azhar as a global terrorist, stating that there was no consensus on the issue. On Chinas repeated actions defending Azhar, who is accused of masterminding the terror attack on Pathankot airbase in January 2016, Hua said that actions are meant to ensure the authority and efficacy of the UN Committee. It is in accordance with the resolutions and rules of procedure of the Committee. We will remain in constant touch and coordination with the relevant parties on the resolution and rules of procedure of the Committee, Hua said. Asked if China is resorting to block the move repeatedly at the behest of Pakistan, Hua said: We believe that the Committee should follow the principles of objectivity, professionalism and fairness and reach decision by a consensus based on solid proof. As for listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements, she said, adding that Chinas technical holds are meant to allow for more time for more parties to deliberate on this matter. To our regret, the Committee is yet to reach a consensus, she said. Hua also defended Pakistans track record on terrorism, saying that Pakistan is also a victim of terrorism and China supports Islamabad in countering terrorism in accordance with its own national conditions. On counter-terrorism, China always advocates greater international cooperation in fighting it, she added. A veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, China has repeatedly blocked Indias move to put a ban on the JeM terrorist under the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Council. Last year in March, China was the only member in the 15-nation UN organ to put a hold on Indias application with all other 14 members of the Council supporting New Delhis bid to place Azhar on the 1267 sanctions list that would subject him to an assets freeze and travel ban. China views Pakistan as its all-weather friend and has been backing its bid to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. PTI New Delhi, October 30 Indications are clear the proposal in the UN Security Council to proscribe Pakistan terror mastermind Masood Azhar will now be blocked. The application, put on a technical hold three months ago by Beijing once again expires this Thursday and now coverts into a block. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) The proposal, backed by the US, France and the UK, seeks to designate the JeM chief and Pathankot attack mastermind as a global terrorist by the Al-Qaida sanctions committee of the Security Council, but has constantly faced the Chinese veto block. TNS Ajay Banerjee Tribune news service New Delhi, October 30 Indian Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) Lt Gen AK Bhatt spoke to his Pakistani counterpart Maj Gen Sahir Shamshad Mirza over the telephonic hotline around 2 pm on Monday. The unscheduled talk over hotline was done after Pakistan requested for this. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) The Indian DGMO told his counterpart that Pakistani Army had employed civilians at forward posts and accorded permission for permanent locations of civilians in the vicinity of Pakistani Army posts. These civilians have repeatedly been used for gaining information of Indian locations and providing guides to terrorists while crossing the Line of Control (LoC). Lt Gen Bhatt told the Pakistani DGMO that Indian troops had carried out response to unabated support given by Pakistan to armed terrorists who targeted Indian Army posts with heavy-calibre weapons. The Indian Army was responding only to such actions, Lt Gen Bhatt said in response to allegation by the Pakistani DGMO that India was carrying out firing from across the LoC. The Indian Army as a professional force took due care to avoid targeting of civilians, he said. Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 30 Four years after taking charge as Congress vice-president, Rahul Gandhi is slowly inching towards his elevation to the party throne with preparations already on. Although the Congress constitution does not require the party chiefs election to be ratified by the Congress Working Committee, plans this time around are to get the highest decision-making body to issue the internal election poll schedule and set the process in motion. Congress media head Randeep Singh Surjewala today said: I feel the CWC would be held within November but I must also add no dates have been finalised yet. But yes, it will happen soon, very soon. The party needs an interval of 20 days to honour the complete schedule for Congress presidents election. The full process from the announcement of the date for filing of nomination, withdrawal, election and declaration takes 20 days. The election result can be announced earlier if only one nomination is received for the contest for Congress presidents post, a top Congress leader said today. The leader added that the Congress constitution authorised party president to declare elections, but incumbent Sonia Gandhi wanted to take the CWC route. Once the CWC meets shortly and announces the election schedule, Rahul Gandhis elevation will be a matter of days with insiders now describing it as a foregone conclusion. There is also buzz in Congress circles about the coming days being auspicious for the grand transition and that being the reason for the November plan to call the CWC and hold the party presidents election. Congress organisational elections were due in 2015 as these have to be held every five years. The last organisational election was held in 2010. The party has sought three extensions from the EC to complete the process and the final deadline ends December 31. Leaders recall party presidents election being delayed earlier also. Elections were held in 1972 and then in 1992, after which these were held at regular intervals, a Congress leader said. New Delhi, October 29 A 49-year-old Delhi Police head constable was on Sunday found dead inside his government quarter under mysterious circumstances in northwest Delhi's Jahangirpuri. Police said the body of head constable, Bhibidan, who was posted in Sixth Battalion of the Delhi Armed Police, was found. His body has been sent for post-mortem and the report is awaited to ascertain the cause of his death, the police said. PTI New Delhi, October 30 External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday called on visiting Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni and discussed issues of mutual interest. EAM @SushmaSwaraj calls on Prime Minister of Italy Paolo Gentiloni in New Delhi. Engaging discussion on issues of mutual interest, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted. Gentiloni arrived here on Sunday. This was the first Italian prime ministerial visit since the last one in February 2007 by then Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Later on Monday, Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Gentiloni will hold delegation-level talks following which a number of agreements are expected to be signed. Gentiloni will also call on President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu here. IANS Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 30 The Supreme Court on Monday asked the father of Akhila, alias Hadiya, a 24-year-old Hindu woman from Kerala who converted to Islam, to present her in court on November 27 to ascertain her views on her marriage to a Muslim man, Shafin Jahan. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) A Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said it would ascertain her views in the open court. It turned down a suggestion from her father that she be questioned by the judges in-camera. The apex court was on Monday hearing Jahan's plea against the Kerala High Court order of May, annulling her marriage. Akhila, alias Hadiya, had converted to Islam last year and married Shafin Jahan. Her father had appealed for in-camera proceedings, but the Supreme Court declined his request. The marriage had been challenged in the High Court by Hadiya's father, who also alleged that her husband had links with terror group IS. Jahan had also pleaded before the Supreme Court to cancel the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probe into their marriage. The NIA probe was ordered by the apex court. With IANS This year's triumphant NYC women's march drew 750,000 protestors & their creative signs to Midtown, and now a repeat is planned for 2018. The Women's March Alliance announced today that the march will return on January 20th, with demonstrators invited to walk from Columbus Circle to Midtown in support of women's rights and civil equality. The goal of the march "is to defend and maintain the basic rights of women, immigrants, LGBTQ+, the religious and nonreligious, people of color, and the environment," Katherine Siemionko, founder and President of Women's March Alliance, said in a statement. Though the specifics haven't been hammered out yet, the march will wind its way south and through midtown, then end with an "activism fair" to help participants increase their involvement in various causes. Last year's march was held in tandem with similar marches all over the country to protest the inauguration of President Donald Trump the day prior, with the massive Women's March on Washington in D.C. serving as the cornerstone. The Washington Post estimated that around 4 million people may have participated in the marches nationwide, making it potentially the largest single-day demonstration in United States history. Since the march, some activists have urged organizers to hold another event, and though the NYC march is organized separately from the national march, Siemionko says New York is stepping up to the challenge. "Over the last year, weve heard an overwhelming call for a second demonstration," Siemionko said. "With each successive degradation of basic human rights, the outpouring of support for this form of social activism grows exponentially." Though 2017 organizers claimed the NYC Women's March wasn't specifically intended to protest Trump, marchers showed up in droves with signs berating the new administration, particularly in light of Trump's infamous "grab them by the pussy" tape and the GOP Congress's longstanding attack on women's reproductive rights. It's not clear what specific topics next year's march will address, but surely people will come up with something. Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service Mumbai, October 30 Local unions of taxi drivers affiliated to political parties in Maharashtra are successfully arm-twisting app-based cabs like Ola and Uber into restricting their operations in various parts of the state. Last weekend, the Maharashtra Vahatuk Sena affiliated to the Shiv Sena, got the civic bodies of Lonavala and Khandala hill stations to ban app-based cabs from picking up passengers. The two local bodies have formally notified that app-based cabs wont be allowed to pick up outgoing passengers. However, there wont be any restrictions on app-based cabs from outside dropping tourists to these hill stations. Mahesh Kedari, an office-bearer of the Sena, said members of his organisation would keep a watch on app-based cabs and drivers of these vehicles found picking up passengers would be handed over to the authorities. Already tourists are complaining of not being able to book app-based cabs from Lonavala and Khandala to Pune and Mumbai. According to Kedar, the Maharashtra Vahatuk Sena took up the matter of app-based cabs eating into the market share of local taxi operators after many of the latter complained of lack of business. There is not much employment in the hill stations and many youths have purchased taxis after taking loans from banks, Kedari said. The restrictions, he said, would enable them to stay in business. Following the success of the Sena, other taxi unions in different cities of Maharashtra are also calling for similar restrictions on app-based cabs. While our members have to pay for permits, the app-based cabs are run by those holding licences to operate tourist taxis, says an official of the Mumbai Taximens Union. The body has for long been protesting against the operations of app-based cabs in Mumbai and could revive protests following the ban in Lonavala and Khandala, he added. New Delhi, October 30 India and Italy on Monday inked six pacts, including on boosting cooperation in the energy and trade sectors, after extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni on key issues such as terrorism and cyber crime. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) The two leaders also discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral political and economic relations, apart from deliberating on strategic international and regional issues. Addressing a joint media event with Gentiloni, Modi said they discussed wide-ranging issues, including the challenges posed by terrorism and cyber crimes, while agreeing to enhance cooperation to counter them. Modi also noted that there was a huge potential for enhancing India-Italy trade ties. After the Modi-Gentiloni meeting, the two sides signed six pacts to deepen cooperation in the fields of railways sector safety, energy and promoting mutual investments, among others. Italy is India's fifth largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade of USD 8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. India's exports to Italy were at $4.90 billion, while its imports were at $3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of $1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached $3.22 billion. Ahead of his meeting with Modi, the visiting leader had described his visit as an opportunity to make ties between the two countries stronger. Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on Gentiloni and discussed issues of mutual interest, ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. Gentiloni's visit is the first prime ministerial trip from Italy in more than a decade. The India-Italy diplomatic ties were hit badly after two Italian marines Latorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone on board a ship named Enrica Lexie, were arrested for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in 2012. Italy claimed the ship was in international waters and that only the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) should apply. It also moved the international court. While Latorre returned to Italy in September 2014 following an order of the Supreme Court issued on health grounds, Girone was allowed to go in May 2016. They are now in Italy, pending the verdict by the arbitration court at The Hague. The Indo-Italy diplomatic row also impacted the European Union's relationship with India. PTI Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 30 The Congress is all set to mount a major political offensive against Prime Minister Narendra Modi with plans to mark the barsi of demonetisation on November 8 by observing the day as Black Day, besides seeking exemptions for small business from the Goods and Services Tax (GST) structure. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will lead party protests on November 8 and all general secretaries have been asked to be present in their respective states to hold rallies during the day and candle marches at 8 pm, the time PM announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes on November 8, 2016. He chaired two meetings at party headquarters today one on demonetisation attended by Congress general secretaries and the other on GST attended also by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and ministers P Chidambaram, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Jairam Ramesh. Also present in the meeting on GST was Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal who said the PMs intentions on note ban and GST were under question and suspicion. The meetings decided the November 8 programme and also that all Finance Ministers of Congress-ruled states will articulate peoples concerns on GST in the November 10 meeting of the GST Council at Gauwhati. We will demand exemptions from GST for small traders in cycle, gems, jewellery and textile business, for GST rates to be brought down in selected categories and for compliance structures to be improved, Badal said. Addressing reporters later, Congress media head Randeep Surjewala said Gandhi spoke of demonetisation and GST having been sold to people as a panacea for the problems of the poor and small business but has ended up crippling that. Former PM spoke of the faulty design of demonetization and how compliance for small traders was an impossibility. He also mentioned that GST was leading to loss of livelihoods, Surjewala said, an hour after Gandhi briefed mediapersons, saying GST was a good idea but very poorly implemented. The Congress once again asked the government to answer what it achieved from demonetisation. The PM said black money would come back. Where is black money since 99 per cent of all the currency has come back into the system. Where is fake money? asked Surjewala. Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 30 In an important development, the matter of the rank-parity is being looked into in great detail by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), including the vital letter sent by the Prime Ministers Office in December 2008. The letter mentioned setting up a high-powered committee to sort out parity issues. Top sources have confirmed that no false equivalence will be allowed. The rank-parity issue was highlighted by The Tribune in a three-part series recently. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) A three-member committee headed by an Additional Secretary-rank officer had been tasked to study rank-equivalence norms between the armed forces and the civilians employed in the Armed Forces Headquarters, called the AFHQ cadre. The forces had lodged a serious protest, questioning the veracity of claims in the report and the documents relied upon. Sources said the MoD was looking into all angles of the rank-parity issue. Discussions are happening in the ministry and in no situation will the ministry stand to benefit or side with any one of the two sides the forces and the AFHQ cadre of civilians. The idea is not to benefit one side at the cost of the other, whichever that is, sources said. Meanwhile, the MoD, in a bid to promote domestic defence manufacturing, is mulling on formulating a method under which obtaining security clearance from the Home Ministry, if delayed, will be deemed to be approved. After a recent meeting between Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and representatives from the industry, the defence ministry is now discussing measures to help private sector industries get a final clearance, in case their request has been pending for a long time. The MoD has also asked the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to prepare a list of defence technologies it has developed and has not been given to any government or private sector for manufacturing. Some technologies have already been given to private sector. We will work with DRDO to make a list of items which can be commercialised, said a source. Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 30 The Supreme Court on Monday put off its hearing on petitions challenging the validity of Article 35A of the Constitution which gives special rights and privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir by three months after the Centre said it intended to hold negotiations with various stakeholders in the state. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) Attorney general KK Venogopal told a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra that the central government had appointed Dineshwar Sharma as an interlocutor and requested it to adjourn the matter for six months. If the court continues with the hearing, it might affect the ongoing dialogue process, the Attorney General said. On behalf of one of the petitioners, advocate Barun Sinha submitted that the issue of challenge to the constitutional validity of the Article 35A should be referred to a Constitution Bench. The Bench, however, simply adjourned the matter for three months. This is the second time that the case has been adjourned without any hearing on merits. On August 25, the a Bench headed by CJI Misras predecessor JS Khehar had acceded to a request made by the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir Government to defer hearing on petitions against Article 35A and take it up only after Diwali. The deferment of hearing on the contentious issue is likely to bring tempers down in the Kashmir valley where separatist leaders has on Sunday exhorted people to launch a mass agitation if the Article 35A was done away with. Amid growing political unease in Jammu and Kashmir over alleged attempts to do away with Article 35-A , the Supreme Court had on August 14 hinted at sending petitions challenging the controversial provision to a Constitution Bench for a definitive finding on its validity. Added to the Constitution through a Presidential Order in 1954, Article 35A gives special rights and privileges to permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir and debars rest of Indians from acquiring immovable property, obtaining state government jobs and settling in the state. Petitioner Charu Wali Khanna has alleged that it also discriminates against women. "Section 6 of the Jammu and Kashmir Constitution restricts the basic right of women to marry a man of their choice by not giving the heirs any right to property if the woman marries a man not holding the Permanent Resident Certificate. Her children are denied a permanent resident certificate thereby considering them illegitimate -- not given any right to such a woman's property even if she is a permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir," Khanna alleged in her petition. The petitioner alleged that if a woman marries a person outside Jammu and Kashmir, then according to Article 35A, she loses property rights as well as employment opportunities in the state. Also, a Non-Permanent Resident Certificate holder can vote in Lok Sabha polls but he/she cant vote in local elections in the state. Interestingly, the Centre has been shying away from filing its response to spell out its stand on Article 35A. The Attorney General had then told the Bench that the government didnt want to file its affidavit in response to the petition filed by Delhi-based NGO We the citizens, which has challenged the constitutional validity of Article35A on the ground that the President could not have amended the Constitution by an Order in 1954 and it was to be a temporary provision. The court also has at least one petition challenging the validity of Article 370 of the Constitution that confers special status on Jammu and Kashmir before it. But in its affidavit the state government has defended Article 35A terming it a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution. The 1954 Presidential Order granting special rights to permanent residents of the state had been recognized, accepted and acted upon since its enactment, it added. Satya Prakash Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 30 The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the West Bengal Government for challenging the Aadhaar law for being mandatory for availing benefits of social welfare schemes and saying it went against the federal structure. How can a state file a petition challenging Acts of Parliament? Tomorrow, Parliament can also challenge a state law, a Bench headed by Justice AK Sikri said. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) The Bench, also comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan, was hearing a petition filed by the Mamata Banerjee government against Centres notification making Aadhaar a requirement for availing benefits of social welfare schemes. As senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, representing the state, said it was not filed by the state government but by its Labour Department, the Bench clarified that individuals were entitled to question the scheme, but not a state government. Let Mamata Bannerjee come and file it. We will consider her as an individual, the Bench said. Sibal sought to justify the petition, saying the Labour Department filed it because it was facing problems in disbursing subsidies to the targeted beneficiaries. But the Bench wasnt convinced. Look at your prayer. You are challenging the vires of the Act. How a state can challenge an Act of Parliament? it asked and suggested if the state wanted it was free to amend its petition. However, it issued a notice to the Centre on another petition challenging the linking of Aadhaar to mobile phone numbers. In a related development, a three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said a Constitution Bench would be set up by the end of November to decide petitions challenging Aadhaar Act and the linking of the unique identification number to social welfare schemes. The Centre also filed an affidavit dismissing charges against Aadhaar. Earlier, the Centre had told the top court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefits of government schemes had been extended till March 31, 2018, for those who did not have the unique identification number. The deadline extension from December end to March 31, 2018, would apply only to those who did not have Aadhaar and were willing to get one. Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 30 Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has written to the Union Government, urging it to take up the issue of extradition of 10 NRI proclaimed offenders in various drugs cases with the authorities in Canada. In separate letters to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, the Chief Minister said the Congress government had scaled up its efforts for their extradition from Canada, as part of its war on drugs, but was obstructed as these cases were pending at various levels. A spokesperson said the government had decided to aggressively pursue the extradition of these suspects as their custodial interrogation was vital to establish the entire chain of the drugs network in Punjab and to expose those allegedly patronising the trade. They are: Sarabjit Singh Sandhar, Ranjit Singh Aujla, Nirankar Singh Dhillon, Gursewak Singh Dhillon, Amarjit Singh Kooner, Pradeep Singh Dhaliwal. Also wanted is Ranjit Kaur Kahlon, wife of Anoop Singh Kahlon, arrested by Fatehgarh Sahib police that blew the lid off the drug racket. Tribune News Service Ludhiana, October 30 Apparently to avoid any confrontation with radicals at a sensitive time, the District Congress Committee has abandoned the move to install a statue of the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at the Congress Bhawan here. Earlier at a press conference in Chandigarh, Vijay Agnihotri, secretary, Punjab Youth Congress, had announced to install the statue to mark the anniversary of her assassination. Several Sikh organisations have already opposed the move and issued open warning that their supporters would resist any such attempt. The local administration and the police are learnt to have suggested to the party higher-ups that the move might add to the tension. The police are already in a spot over the recent killings of Hindu leaders. Agnihotri said though these were his personal sentiments, the same were conveyed to all well in time. I had even sent invites too the MLAs and senior leaders. Besides, I had gone to Delhi to invite prominent persons too. None had raised any objection when invites were sent, but today it has been conveyed that no statue will be installed. I accept whatever the party decides, said Agnihotri. DCC president Gurpreet Bassi Gogi said these were the individual sentiments of a particular person. When I got to know about it, I immediately conveyed to all that the statue will not be installed at the Congress Bhawan here as no information regarding this was conveyed by the higher-ups, said Gogi. Perneet Singh Tribune News Service Bathinda, October 30 While the area under cotton cultivation has gone up considerably in the state, the farmers arriving with their produce in the grain market here are dejected with the low prices. Talking to The Tribune here, former North India Cotton Association president Ashok Kapur said the prices had initially touched Rs4,800 per quintal, but now they had come down to Rs4,700 per quintal. He attributed the dip in prices to the current trend in the international market. He said the off take of yarn was sluggish and the inventory was piling up. He said private buyers were not very active, as they anticipated a further dip in the prices. On the other hand, well-off farmers too were now keen to hold back their stock, hoping for better prices in the coming months. Former Punjab Cotton Factories and Ginners Association president Bhagwan Bansal admitted that the GST had taken a toll on their business, stating that the banks too were not cooperating with them. He also blamed the poor quality of Punjab cotton this year for slow buying by the mill owners. He said the cotton crop needed rain in September, but the weather remained hot and dry, thus affecting its quality. He said a number of buyers had moved to Gujarat that had better quality cotton produce. Punjab Beopar Mandal president Ashok Kumar Dhunike said the cotton prices had come down, as China had curtailed its imports and spinning mills back home were grappling with the fund crunch. He said the mill owners did not have ample funds due to fiscal slowdown caused by the GST. He said the commission agents too were not giving cotton to the mill owners on credit as was the case earlier. Jagtar Singh, a farmer from Chuga Khurd village, said he sold off his cotton produce in little less than Rs4,700 per quintal. Poor cotton prices have hit the small farmers hard. I had taken agricultural land on lease at the rate of Rs48,000 per acre. Besides, the input cost is Rs15,000 per acre. But, the current cotton prices have only fetched me around Rs38,000 per acre, he lamented. Modan Singh from Virk Khurd village said the labour cost too had gone up this year. I ended up paying Rs800 per quintal as labour cost, apart from their free transportation, he said. Rajbir Singh, a farmer from Naruana village, who had taken four acres of land on lease, said they were hoping for cotton price of Rs7,000 per quintal. He said the successive state governments had resorted to mere lip service for the farmers. Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 30 District president of Hindu Sangharsh Sena Vipin Kumar (45) was shot dead by unidentified assailants in the Bharat Nagar area here on Monday. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) The murderous attack has come within two weeks of similar incident in which RSS leader Ravinder Gosain was shot dead outside his house in Ludhiana on October 17. Police Commissioner S S Srivastav and other top officials reached the spot. Vipin was going to sit pillion on a motorcycle to return to his home in the Preet Nagar area on Batala road when two armed assailants pumped several bullets into him. He was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared him dead. Vipin, a cable operator, also ran Jai Shankar Welfare Society that organises free langar on Batala road for needy people. CCTV footage of the incident has gone viral in which two youths, one of whom has his face covered, are seen firing indiscriminately at Vipin. This indicated that he was the only target of the assailants. Srivastav said an alert has been sounded and efforts were on to identify one of the assailants whose face was captured on CCTV camera. The Police Commissioner also held meeting with several Hindu outfit leaders and urged them to maintain peace and assured that the suspects will be nabbed soon. Meanwhile, the Punjab Shiv Sena flayed the gunning down of the Hindu leader. In a statement, the Sena's state vice president Rajesh Palta alleged that the killing of Hindu leaders one after the other was indicative of revival of terrorism in Punjab. "If Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh does not tackle the issue with an iron hand, and instead carries on with the SAD-BJP policy of soft-pedalling over religious fundamentalists, then Punjab will again plunge into the dark days of terrorism like in the past and there will be danger to national integrity and amity," he claimed. With agencies Chandigarh: Coming down heavily on Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, Union Minister and BJP state president Vijay Sampla said the government had failed to maintain law & order in Punjab. He said the murder of Hindu Shiv Sena district chief Vikram Sharma in Amritsar; killing of SAD sarpanch Manpreet Kaur's husband Harkirat at Burj village in Sangrur and a knife attack on a journalist's wife on a single day painted the true picture of deteriorating law & order situation in the state. "Incidents like the murder of RSS leader Ravindra Gosain in Ludhiana and the killing of a Church priest in broad daylight have been taking place ever since Amarinder came to power," he said adding that the state had witnessed the dark days of militancy. "Amarinder should bear this in mind and take steps to control the situation," he said. TNS Chandigarh, October 30 Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has urged the Union Government to take up with Canada the extradition of 10 NRIs, declared proclaimed offenders in drugs-related cases in the state and living in that country. In separate letters to Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Amarinder said the extradition process in the cases had been pending for up to four years, scuttling the state governments efforts to bring the accused to justice. (Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd) The Congress government in Punjab has scaled up its efforts for their extradition from Canada, but the efforts have been obstructed as the cases remain pending at various levels, he said. According to an official spokesperson, the state government had decided to aggressively pursue the extradition of these suspects as their custodial interrogation was vital to establish the entire chain of the drug cartel in Punjab and to expose those allegedly patronising the trade. Listing out details of these cases, the Punjab Chief Minister said Sarabjit Singh Sandhar, alias Nik, a resident of village Balioun in Samrala, now living in Vancouver, had been declared a proclaimed offender on October 19, 2013. His extradition request had been sent to Canadian authorities and thereafter prepared afresh as per guidelines shared by them. The revised request was sent to the Home Ministry, which forwarded it to the External Affairs Ministry on July 20, 2017. The same is the status in another case, involving Ranjit Singh Aujla, a resident of village Muthada Kalan in Jalandhar district, in which the extradition request is pending since July 25, 2017. He was declared a proclaimed offender in August 2013. In the case of Nirankar Singh Dhillon of village Apra Mandi in Jalandhar, who was declared a proclaimed offender in October 2013, and is currently reported to be living in Lietkencher Circle Brampton, Canada, the extradition request is pending since September 19, 2017, Amarinder said, citing police data. The extradition request for Gursewak Singh Dhillon, who was declared a proclaimed offender in April 2014, was sent to the External Affairs Ministry by the Home Ministry on July 20, 2017, but there has been no movement since then. The chief minister in his letter cited similar cases of Amarjit Singh Kooner, Lamer Singh Daleh, Pardeep Singh Dhaliwal, Amarinder Singh Chheena, Parminder Singh Deo and Ranjit Kaur Kahlon. PTI ext>The bomb disposal squad and the local police conducted a thorough search but found no explosive substance, said Sardarnagar police station inspector H B Zala. PTI correspondent Rajkumar Leishemba, who was on board, said the flight was diverted to Ahmedabad citing security reasons. All the passengers deplaned and screened. They were photographed and questioned by security personnel on various details, including their last overseas visit, he said. After more than six hours at the airport here, the flight carrying the passengers took off for Delhi around 10.30 am, he said. Passengers were profiled, taken photographs and all personal details sought..., Leishemba said on Twitter. PTI Chandigarh, October 30 Punjab is expecting to procure a record 182 lakh tonnes of paddy during the ongoing Kharif marketing season. Last year, we procured 168 lakh tonnes of paddy. This year, we are targeting 182 lakh tonnes and we might cross this figure, Punjab Food secretary KAP Sinha told reporters here today. He said it is going to be an all-time high paddy purchase in the state. In the ongoing Kharif marketing season, the government agencies procured bulk of the paddy crop. So far, a total of 123.98 lakh tonnes of paddy has been purchased in the state. Of which, 2.26 lakh tonnes has been bought by private millers, said Sinha. This time because of good weather, crop being free from any kind of problems associated with it, the quality is so good. Nowhere we have come across any problem where somebody has said procurement is not being done, said Sinha. We are ensuring payment to farmers within 24 hours while within 72 hours, the lifting is being done, he said while describing the paddy procurement for the central pool as massive economic exercise being conducted smoothly in the state. He said 7.79 lakh farmers are getting benefit from the purchase of crop at MSP. Talking about cash credit limit, Sinha said the state government had proposed a sum of Rs 33,800 crore for the purchase of paddy during the current Kharif marketing season. We have got Rs 28,000 crore sanctioned and of which Rs 16,000 crore has been exhausted. The CCL (cash credit limit) is valid till October 31 and we have already submitted a proposal with the government of India and RBI for authoristaion of its renewal, he said. PTI TO the many conferences held in various parts of India for advocating the cause of political, educational, industrial, religious and social advancement of people the most recent addition is the Humanitarian Conference at Broach last week. It is a Gujarat movement where the humanitarian idea, expressed in terms of non-killing of animals and promoting kind treatment of domestic beasts and pets largely prevails. A large number of representatives from various parts of Gujarat, who had come to attend the Educational Conference, also took a share in the proceedings of the conference. The President, Prof. A.B. Dhruva of Ahmedabad, delivered an address, in which he explained what the movement was, and how it was based on the moral perception of mankind. He explained also the origin of the Hindu idea of humanitarian activities which tended to raise the spiritual status of man. Dehradun, October 30 Chief Minister TS Rawat said today that the government was committed to holding the winter session of the state Legislative Assembly in December at Gairsain. I will be leaving for Gairsain soon to oversee the arrangements there. By holding the winter session there, we are honouring the commitment made by the members of the last Legislative Assembly to hold at least one session there, he said today. He clarified that the government was unable to hold the first Assembly session of the new government as it was preoccupied. Soon after forming the government, the task before us was to ensure that adequate arrangements were made for the Char Dham yatra in March, he said. The Chief Minister redressed the grievances of people at a Janata Darbar. Arun Thapliyal, a resident of Badrinath, complained to him about the closure of the Mukhyamantri Swasthya Bima Yojana (MSBY). The card-holders of the health insurance scheme are unable to access the benefits as the scheme is closed, he said. Raghuveer Singh, a freedom fighters son, complained about the difficulty he was facing in getting an identity card made. The state government allows the next of kin to avail facilities for freedom fighters and the next of kin, but we have been unable to do so due to the absence of an identity card, he said. Later, the Chief Minister spoke to the Nainital DM on the issue. TNS Islamabad: A Pakistani anti-graft court on Monday issued a bailable arrest warrant against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar after he failed to appear before it in a corruption case spiralling from the Panama Papers scandal. The Accountability Court in Islamabad dismissed 67-year- old Dars application seeking exemption from personal appearance in the case hearing. The case was filed against Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) following a verdict by the SC. PTI Shanghai, October 30 The Chinese agency representing a 14-year-old Russian model who died after taking part in Shanghai Fashion Week has denied allegations that she was overworked and exhausted. The death of the teenager in a Chinese hospital on Friday has shone a light on the murky world of Western models in China, many of whom are from the former Soviet Union. Vlada Dzyuba began feeling dizzy and started being sick last Tuesday and was taken to a Shanghai hospital the next day, but died on Friday after her condition quickly deteriorated. English-language The Siberian Times alleged that Dzyuba died of meningitis compounded by severe exhaustion. We feel sorry that we lost an angel, ESEE Model Management in Shanghai said in a statement on Weibo, Chinas equivalent of Twitter, pointing out that Shanghai Fashion Week ended on October 18 but she fell ill six days later. ESEEs chief executive Zheng Yi separately told the state Global Times that she had worked a legal eight hours a day during her two months in China before her death. Dzyuba had 16 different jobs during her two-month stay in China, she had regular breaks while working, Zheng told the newspaper on Sunday. Most of her work was completed within eight hours. Her workload was moderate compared with other models. After the Shanghai event Dzyuba travelled to Yiwu, a city south of Shanghai, but a model shoot was cancelled because she began feeling unwell and she returned to Shanghai. Dzyubas tender age she was to turn 15 on November 8 also highlights a piece of Chinese law that says children under 16 can be employed in certain industries with official permission. There was no immediate reply from Shanghai Fashion Week or Russian officials in China. However, the Global Times quoted a representative for the event saying it was investigating and cited a medical report saying that she had septicopyemia, a type of blood poisoning. AFP San Francisco, October 30 A former Facebook employee is suing the social media giant for allegedly misclassifying employees to exempt them from overtime pay. According to a report in arstechnica.com on Monday, Susie Bigger, a former client solutions manager at Facebook's office in Chicago, has alleged that she and other Facebook employees are illegally classified as managers as part of "defendant's scheme to deprive them of overtime compensation". The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed in a US court, is seekingAback pay, damages, interest and attorneys fees for an untold number of Facebook employees. "This lawsuit is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously," Facebook told Ars Technica. The lawsuit described a "systematic, companywide wrongful classification" system for Client Solutions Managers, Customer Solutions Managers, Customer Account Managers, "or other similarly titled positions". "CSMs do not perform duties related to the management or general business operations of Facebook. Rather, CSMs' duties constitute the principal production activity of Facebook as a social media and marketing platform," the lawsuit alleged. Facebook is set to announce its third-quarter results this week. IANS Vilnius (Lithuania), October 30 A Lithuanian court has sentenced a 67-year-old man to house arrest for publicly praising Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and the crimes of the Soviet Union against the Baltic nation. The Vilnius District Court today ordered Yuri Subotin to remain home between 10 pm and 5 am daily for 14 months after being found guilty of breaking a law that criminalises public support for crimes committed by the Soviet regime against Lithuania. The court found that Subotin, a Lithuanian citizen of Russian origin, had posted several offensive online comments including one praising the deportations of Lithuanians into Siberia during the Soviet occupation of nearly 50 years. Subotin pleaded not guilty and plans to appeal the verdict. Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940-41 and from 1944 until independence in 1991. AP Islamabad, October 30 A Pakistani anti-graft court on Monday issued a bailable arrest warrant against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar after he failed to appear before it in a corruption case spiralling from the Panama Papers scandal. The Accountability Court dismissed Dars application seeking exemption from personal appearance in the case hearing. Dars counsel Khawaja Haris appeared in the court of judge Muhammad Bashir and sought Dars exemption from appearance as he was in London to seek medical treatment. But the court rejected the plea and issued bailable arrest warrant and ordered him to appear in the next hearing on November 2. The case was filed against Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) following a verdict by the Supreme Court, which disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after an investigation into corruption allegations against his family. Dar has so far appeared before the court seven times since the trial began. Earlier, he missed the first hearing on September 20. It is the second hearing that he missed. Proceedings in the trial could not advance today due to Dars absence, even though prosecution witness Abdul Rehman Gondal, branch manager of a private banks parliament branch, had appeared in the court with two gunny bags full of documents related to the ministers bank accounts. Haris stated in the application that Dar, after attending the 16th Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference in Dushanbe, had travelled to Jeddah. He said the minister fell ill in Jeddah and subsequently had to go to London for medical treatment. The court had indicted Dar last month in the case for owning assets beyond his known sources of income. At the last hearing on October 23, the court recorded statements of NABs witnesses, including Abdul Rehman Gondal of Allied Bank and Masoodul Ghani of Habib Bank Limited. Earlier, three witnesses 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. On July 28, a five-member Supreme Court bench had ordered NAB to file three references against Sharif and one against Dar, on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insafs Imran Khan, Jamaat-i-Islamis Sirajul Haq and Awami Muslim Leagues Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. In its reference against the finance minister, 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). The case alleged that the assets were disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for. PTI Paris, October 30 Two French women have accused Swiss-born renowned Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan of sexually assaulting them a few years back, a media report said. This comes amid the ongoing outpouring by women reporting episodes of sexual harassment and naming their aggressors. French activist and author Henda Ayari filed a police complaint a week back accusing Ramadan, of the violent act in 2012, the New York Times reported. Then on Thursday, a second woman filed a complaint in Paris against Ramadan, accusing him of rape and assault in a hotel room in Lyon, France, in 2009. Ramadans lawyer has issued a categorical denial about the first accusation and said that the scholar would sue his accuser for defamation. The explosive accounts came in the aftermath of accusations that powerful Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein had engaged in decades of sexual harassment and assaults against women like actress Rose McGowan and some 40 others. In the aftermath, many women, and some men, around the world added their voices to a wave of complaints on social media, including under the hashtag #MeToo, #BalanceTonPorc, or ExposeYourPig, in France. Among the figures accused by French women are Pierre Joxe, a former top Socialist leader and Minister under FranAois Mitterrand. A lawsuit alleging sexual harassment by Christophe Arend, a lawmaker in President Emmanuel Macrons governing party, has also been filed, the NYT report said. Ramadan, 55, is a revered Islamic scholar and the grandson of Hassan al-Banna, who founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt the 1920s. The group has become one of the most influential transnational Sunni Muslim movements in the world. He teaches contemporary Islamic studies at Oxford University and is the author of a dozen books in English on modern Islam and the Western world. IANS Seoul, October 30 Senior defence officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan held trilateral talks and urged North Korea to walk away from its destructive and reckless path of weapons development, the US. military said in a statement. Chairman of the US. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford hosted his South Korean and Japanese counterparts at the US. Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii on Sunday to exchange views on North Koreas recent long-range ballistic missile and nuclear tests. Together they called upon North Korea to refrain from irresponsible provocations that aggravate regional tensions, and to walk away from its destructive and reckless path of development, the statement said. Reuters The University of Tulsa recognized 2017-18 Jess Chouteau Outstanding Seniors in its Stay Gold Homecoming celebration October 12-15. The honor is awarded to 10 seniors each year for their exceptional achievement in academics and community engagement, and this year it included a pair of Owassons, Claire Collard and Brett Stewart. Claire Collard is a speech-language pathology major in the Oxley College of Health Sciences. She is a member of the Golden Hurricane Spirit Squad, Kappa Alpha Theta, TU Student Speech Language and Hearing Association and Student Athlete Advisory Council. She has received the Wilson Holloway Service Award and was named a TU Top 10 Freshman and Buddy of the Year for Down Syndrome Association of Tulsa. Collard has earned a University Academic Scholarship and TU Pom Scholarship. She has volunteered for Speech and Beyond Pediatric Therapy, Green Country Shining Stars, Down Syndrome Association of Tulsa, Special Olympics of Oklahoma, Miss Amazing Oklahoma, Camp Hopes Crossing and True Blue Neighbors. She studied abroad in Cuba through the Education Foundation. Collard plans to pursue a graduate degree in speech-language pathology at TU. Brett Stewart is a chemical engineering major in the College of Engineering and Natural Sciences who is also earning a minor in mathematics. He is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, University Ambassadors, Reformed University Fellowship, Baptist Collegiate Ministries, Kappa Alpha Order, and Future Alumni Council. He also serves as a TU Orientation Leader and is a member of Omega Chi Epsilon chemical engineering society, Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, Mortar Board, Phi Eta Sigma, and the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi. Stewart was named a TU Top 10 Freshman and has been named to the Presidents Honor Roll. Stewart has received the Mervin Bovaird Foundation Scholarship, the TU Vision Scholarship, Deans Scholarship, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Academic Scholarship, and the OERB Petroleum Scholarship. He has interned at Honeywell UOP Russell, Brainerd Chemical Co., Occidental Petroleum Corp., and Hilcorp Energy Co. Stewart has participated in several service activities through First Baptist Church of Owasso. Oklahomas lowest performing schools could be required to operate with a five-day school week or provide free meals to all students if they arent already, according to intervention details listed in Oklahomas new education plan. Titled Oklahoma Edge, the states new consolidated plan for public schools outlines how the state Department of Education will interact with schools that struggle with academic performance, graduation rates and other production measures. Beginning next school year, the state will identify schools for comprehensive support and improvement, which essentially includes schools in the bottom 5 percent of assessment metrics. Failure to move off improvement status within three years triggers increased state intervention. Intervention could include mandated five-day school weeks, something nearly 100 school districts have moved away from in an attempt to cut budgets and attract staff. OKLAHOMA CITY Last week was a strange one at the Oklahoma Capitol. The main show during the ongoing special session was the seemingly interminable strife over the states $215 million budget shortfall. A decidedly meaningful subplot, though, was Wednesdays sudden departure from the scene of House Minority Leader Scott Inman, D-Del City. A legislator in his sixth term and leader of the House Democrats, Inman was widely seen as a tenacious and effective politician who had managed to keep his small minority caucus relevant. But Inman abruptly dropped out of the governors race and resigned from the House, effective Jan. 1, at about noon Wednesday, following an animated conversation with his wife, Dessa, on the Capitols grand staircase. It is not known if or when Inman will return. Inmans exit may have changed the dynamics of legislative negotiations, but it doesnt seem to have altered the argument. The House Democrats closed ranks and maintained the position on gross production taxes that House Republicans blame for balling up the legislative works. Without Inman, caucus leadership falls to senior members including Steve Kouplen of Beggs, Eric Proctor of Tulsa, Emily Virgin of Norman and David Perryman of Chickasha. Kouplen is leader-elect, meaning he had already been chosen to lead the caucus after Inman termed out next year. Low-key and soft-spoken, the Okmulgee County rancher offers a much different leadership than the hard-charging Inman. Kouplen rarely debates but can be a tenacious questioner. Proctor, the assistant minority leader, is also in more of the quiet, tenacious type, although he can also be an effective debater. Proctor, a banker, is term-limited. Perryman and Virgin are both lawyers and, Perryman especially, more argumentative. Theyve kept the Republican majority for hours with debate and questioning that sometimes closely resembles cross examination. One of the most effective debaters among the Democrats is Cory Williams of Stillwater. Sometimes more tactical than strategic, it was Williams who showed up at Speaker Charles McCalls news conference on Wednesday and baited the Atoka Republican into a profane response. But public debate often matters less than private discussion when it comes to getting things done. Republicans complained that Inmans gubernatorial aspirations and speechifying got in the way of negotiations. Democrats say that was mostly Republican misconception and maybe some wishful thinking. Scott was the one who kept pushing us toward making a deal, Proctor said. This Page Is Under Construction - Coming Soon! Why am I seeing this 'Under Construction' page? Almost two years after work began and 10 years after discussions first started, the Custer Gallatin National Forest has finished writing a preliminary environmental assessment examining a proposed land exchange north of Yellowstone National Park. Were excited to have it moving closer to the finish line, said Michael Thom, Gardiner District ranger. Shooting Star Ranch owner William D. Morean, a billionaire businessman who also owns property outside Red Lodge, is offering to trade 583 acres of land along Slip and Slide Creek, a tributary to the east side of the Yellowstone River northwest of Gardiner, for a 590-acre federal inholding at his ranch in the Upper Cinnabar Basin, on the west side of the Yellowstone River and 12 miles northwest of Gardiner. With appraisals and a hazardous material review of the properties done, the Forest Service is hoping to have the deal finalized within six months. Otherwise, the hazardous review would have to be rewritten as they are only good for six months, Thom said. Prime property The Slip and Slide Creek land is a key puzzle piece to connecting public lands in the Gardiner Basin. The property adjoins the southernmost portion of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks 4,800-acre Dome Mountain wildlife management area. The northern border of the Slip and Slide land borders Custer Gallatin National Forest property. Morean bought the ranch in 2008 after the Rigler family failed to reach a deal with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. This parcel is key to wildlife and land interests for a couple of reasons. The big purpose is wildlife habitat and public access, Thom said. Thats a big migration route for that Northern Yellowstone elk herd. So its a pretty important spot to maintain that corridor. Elk and other wildlife that are traveling to and from Yellowstone National Park north to the Dome Mountain WMA and the Paradise Valley travel through this mountainous area in the spring and fall. Acquisition of the land would also mean public access to the locale. Currently on the east side of (Highway) 89, north of Gardiner to Yankee Jim Canyon, only three trailheads exist, making the public use/enjoyment of these areas difficult, the EA stated. One of those access points is the Forest Services Slip and Slide trail, which skirts the northern edge of the private property before tying into the Cedar Creek trail to the south for a 9-mile route. The land swap would also serve another important function. The acquisition would conserve important scenic values in the upper Gardiner Basin, the EA stated, protecting a portion of the narrow section of the Highway 89 corridor to the parks Northern Entrance, located about 12 miles north of Yellowstone National Park, from subdivision and development. Maintaining migration corridors around Yellowstone has been a key focus of many conservation groups and wildlife researchers who have seen the effects of increasing development around the parks boundaries on migratory animals. In addition Although federal land law requires the properties to be of equal value, Morean has agreed to donate the difference if the appraisal for his land is higher. The Forest Service wont disclose the appraisals until the final EA and decision notice is issued. Morean has also arranged to grant a permanent conservation easement if he acquires the federal land inholding at his Upper Cinnabar Basin property, although the easement would allow one recreation cabin to be built. As part of the deal, at closing Morean would also transfer to the Forest Service, without fee, the right of first refusal for about 90 acres of land owned by the Rigler family that adjoins the Slip and Slide property. That transfer does not include other lands owned by the Riglers located between Highway 89 and the Yellowstone River, or lands in the Sphinx Mountain Trailer Park, according to the EA. The lower portion of the Slip and Slide property is leased to the Montana Department of Livestock and USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service for use as a bison quarantine facility. The DOL lease affects most of the 90-acre-right-of-first-refusal property that is held by Morean. Morean will not extend the bison lease. Thom said those bison may be moved out by Feb. 28. Other points Also modified would be a lease by Rob Stermitz, owner of Wilderness Connections, a local hunting outfitter. The Forest Service would change Stermitzs lease that had allowed him to hunt on its Cinnabar Basin property if the land swap is finalized. Stermitz was able to access the forest land from his property. One other part of the complicated land exchange would put the sportsmans access provided to FWP by Franklin Rigler to become (forest) lands directly available to the public upon completion of this land exchange. Thom said the route had allowed hunters to reach forest land across the private property. Although Slip and Slide Creek feeds the river, its not large enough to attract spawning fish. There are three ponds on the land proposed for exchange, totaling 12.5 acres, that have been stocked with rainbow trout, which are not self-sustaining. No fish were detected during a 2011 electrofishing survey of Slip and Slide Creek on NFS lands, the EA said. Comments are being taken on the preliminary EA through Nov. 22. To comment, log on to the Forest Services website at https://www.fs.usda.gov/project/?project=48017 or write to Sitka Pence c/o Mary Erickson Forest Supervisor, P.O. Box 130, Bozeman, MT 59771. Following the comment period the Forest Service will write an EA and final decision notice. By next spring it should be wrapped up, Thom said. | By Laura Lee University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law Visiting Professor Sarah Bloom Raskin, JD, says an increasing number of Americans are living in fear. Not of bumps in the night, but fear of losing a job, fear of being unable to pay bills, and fear of losing control of financial data. Raskin addressed those fears and the role lawmakers play in alleviating them at the Maryland Carey School of Law during her Norman P. Ramsey Lecture, Economic Policymaking in an Age of Financial Anxiety, on Oct. 26. We are living in age of financial anxiety, said Raskin, who spent the last decade helping to diagnose and restart the economy during the nations financial crisis as a deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department and a former governor of the Federal Reserve Board. It felt like dominoes, one breakdown after another, said Raskin, reflecting on the financial crisis. In many ways we were attempting to stop the dominoes from falling and stand them back up. Even though the darkest days of the recession are in the rearview mirror, there is still not a sense of "mission accomplished," Raskin said. Economic insecurity, defined as experiencing a 25 percent drop in income in a year without an adequate financial safety net, is on the rise. Out of economic insecurity comes financial anxiety, the inability to dig out of a serious financial downturn. If ignored, financial anxiety has the potential to slow economic growth and erode the confidence necessary for the financial system to operate, Raskin told the audience of law students, professors, and policymakers. Raskin said there are features embedded in our laws and financial system that put people at risk that can be identified and altered to make sure a downturn doesnt happen, or at the very least is short-lived. She pointed to the recent Equifax cyberattack on more than half of adult Americans personal financial data as a source of potential financial anxiety. To be defined by this data, but have no control of how it is protected or used and to have little recourse in taking steps after the fact to change the consequences, could be a source of significant anxiety, she said. The idea that jobs are going to be taken over by robots, algorithms, and artificial intelligence is another source of financial anxiety. Raskin cited a study that predicted by 2022, 40 percent of jobs could be automated due to cost-saving measures. While some jobs will disappear, others, requiring new skill sets will be added. The challenge for lawmakers, Raskin said, will be educating the workforce and matching new skills to people who otherwise would be displaced by automation. High levels of student debt accompanied by late payments and delinquencies can be indicators of future economic insecurity and financial anxiety, according to Raskin, although the story is more complex than it may first appear. She shared a story of visiting college campuses in 2014, when she was just starting at the Treasury Department. During her campus visits, while talking to students, Raskin realized there was a lot of confusion about the student loan financing system that often contributed to late payments and delinquencies. It may not just be an inability to pay that is causing high rates of nonpayment, but also downright confusion about how to pay, whom to pay, and how much to pay, she said. In her role as a visiting professor at the Maryland Carey School of Law, Raskin will teach a seminar exploring the convergence of law and economic policy in spring 2018. Students attending the Ramsey Lecture received an open invitation to take her course. For students who are curious how to make these systems work better for people, you can take my spring seminar Law and Financial Anxiety, she said. Join me in exploring something new: the question of whether financial anxiety matters and how our system of laws is structured to either enhance or ameliorate this anxiety. The Norman P. Ramsey Business Law Fund was established in May 1993 through the generosity of Tucky P. Ramsey in honor of her husband. A distinguished graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law Class of 1947, Judge Ramsey represented the highest tradition of dedication to the legal profession. His career spanned public and private practice as well as the judiciary, and included service such as a U.S. District Court Judge; managing partner in the law firm of Semmes, Bowen & Semmes; Deputy Attorney General of Maryland; and Assistant U.S. Attorney. The Ramsey Fund provides support for business law programs at Maryland Carey Law. Judy Martz, an Olympic athlete, rodeo star and the only woman to serve as governor of Montana, died Monday after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 74. Martz, the state's 22nd governor, was remembered Monday by those close to her as a smart, vibrant, deeply faithful woman with seemingly endless energy who genuinely cared for Montana and its people. But her one term, from 2001 to 2005, was rocky sometimes from forces beyond her control but also from self-inflicted wounds. She was an extraordinary human being and unique, said former Gov. Marc Racicot, who picked Martz to serve as his lieutenant governor. Judy was a person of immense capacity. She did so many things well. She was a great athlete. She was bright and optimistic, tireless in her work for the people of Butte and with her family and for the state of Montana. Racicot first came across Martz when she was working at the Chamber of Commerce in Butte, where she went to high school. She was a rarity for those days in Butte because she was a Republican, he said. The two shared a common heritage growing up in blue-collar mining towns; Racicot is from Libby. Martz, he said, was a champion for Butte, working hard to bring economic development to her hometown. I loved her spirit and positive outlook on life,'' Racicot said. "She believed if you worked hard enough and listened carefully, anything could be accomplished.'' Martz was born in Big Timber and went to Butte High. She later attended Eastern Montana College, now Montana State University-Billings, and worked as a field representative for former Sen. Conrad Burns. She was an accomplished speed skater, competing in the 1964 Olympics. Martz also excelled in rodeo, winning the Miss Rodeo Montana title in 1962 and later joining the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame. Martz and her husband, Harry, have two children and several grandchildren. State Rep. Jim Keane, a Democrat from Butte, was a high school classmate of Martz. "She was fun. She always had a big smile on her face,'' he said. "She grew up working, thats for sure.'' Keane said Martz loved skating back in high school. Asked if he was surprised she got into government, Keane said: "Its taking advantage of the things youre in. She was always very competitive. That competitive spirit, I think, gets people to take risks'' and "try new things." Carol Williams, a longtime state lawmaker, grew up speed skating and competing in rodeo with Martz. Williams said Martz's athletic ability and competitive nature served her well in sports and politics. "Just like she did on the skating rink, she always worked really hard to win,'' Williams said. "And we saw that in the campaign, too. "She was very dogged in that campaign,'' Williams said. "And ended up being victorious. She broke that glass ceiling.'' Martz's spirituality struck Chuck Butler, who worked for her when she was governor and had stayed in close contact. Butler first met Martz 30 years ago during one of the Governor's Cups sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Montana, where he then worked. The event the night before the race honored all known Olympic athletes in Montana, and Butler and Martz hit it off immediately. When Martz became governor, she stepped into a difficult time, Butler said. The state was facing a $230 million deficit and she inherited the fallout from utility deregulation that passed in 1997. She was really struggling at the start of her four years in office, Butler said. Thats when he retired from Blue Cross and started working for her. I got to know her deeply, personally, her inner faith and strength, Butler said. He said she was terribly hurt by the criticism she received over cuts she had to make as governor, implementing a state law that allows the governor to cut up to 10 percent of agency budgets to balance the state's finances. Gov. Steve Bullock is facing the same situation now. I remember her critics were just vicious, Butler said. It was terrible to see her really hurting for the cuts she had to recommend to balance the states budget. It wasnt something she did just because she believed things could be cut. She did it because she was the chief executive and she had to do it. I told her, 'Governor, you will be remembered for the good job you did and people will respect you.' Keane said Martz's term would have been rough for any governor. "I dont care what party you were in,'' he said. "It was a difficult time in state government because of tough finances. Her legacy will be she survived a tough time in Montana." Secretary of State Corey Stapleton was first elected to the Montana Legislature the same year Martz was. He said he was one of her "lieutenants" through the rough period. He said the scrutiny she got "seemed really unfair to me. There wasn't a mean bone in her body. The media was relentless with her (and she) never really got a lot of credit for what she was trying to do. "She was impressive,'' Stapleton said. "With heels on she was probably 6 feet tall and with that white, powerful suit, she was very striking. She was good." Charles Johnson, a former statehouse reporter who covered the Martz administration, remembered Martz as "a strong woman" whose first two years in office were more difficult than the last two. In 2001, her top policy adviser, Shane Hedges, pleaded guilty to negligent homicide charges stemming from a drunken driving crash that killed House Majority Leader Paul Sliter. Martz washed Hedges's clothes after the wreck and moved Hedges from the hospital to the governor's mansion before police could question him, according to reports at the time. She also faced soaring electricity prices after the Montana Power Co. was deregulated. When she became governor the electricity prices were so high because of deregulation that some of the industries that relied heavily on electricity had shut down, so that was a big issue when she became governor, Johnson said. And she faced an environmental disaster in Libby, where a vermiculite mine contaminated with asbestos had sickened and killed hundreds of people. In a move that surprised many, Martz used Montana's lone "silver bullet'' to fast- track Superfund status for Libby, speeding cleanup efforts there and laying the foundation for helping residents with medical costs. Les Skramstad, who later died of mesothelioma from his work at the mine, didn't hold back when Martz went to Libby in December 2001 to announce her support for the Superfund listing, something he had been urging for nearly two years. As far as Im concerned, Santa Claus has already arrived in Lincoln County this year, Skramstad told the Missoulian. Johnson said Martz was a forthright person who sometimes said things that got her in trouble. There wasnt a phony bone in her body, Johnson said. She was very sincere, she tried a lot, worked hard. Some unfortunate circumstances caught up with her. Johnson said some people trace the states current revenue woes to substantial tax cuts enacted under Martz. Her supporters would say that was her biggest accomplishment and her detractors would say thats the worst thing she did, Johnson said. Martz also came under scrutiny for a 1999 purchase of land owned by Atlantic Richfield Co. adjacent to her family ranch near Rocker. The land was sold to the Martz family at $300 an acre, less than the $875 an acre it was bought for by ARCO just two years earlier, prompting a complaint from the state Democratic Party. An appraisal done for Lee Newspapers later put the value at $471.25 an acre. The complaints were later dismissed. Johnson recalled that Martz always wore a turtle pin, saying, Behold the turtle. It only moves forward when it has its head out. She had pins made and given out to staff members and supporters. Butler said he and his wife spent an hour and a half with Martz just four weeks ago. We were sitting there in her living room and she couldn't have been more cheerful and bubbly and vibrant and that was her, Butler said. This woman starts talking about dying and her funeral and I start crying. She said, Ive already got all my crying done. Im dying. Ive had a great life. "Were literally sitting on her sofa and shes talking about dying and a funeral and she says, You know, Ive lived a good life and Im in God's hands now. Butler said Martz's deep faith made her someone he could turn to when his own father was dying. I called her as someone who could help me talk about death and dying, he said. We had a long conversation and I couldn't have felt better after that. Martz kept prayer lists and prayed frequently for people, Butler said. Some people just thought she was a hardened lady and that was so untrue. She had a deep caring for people,'' he said. "She prayed a lot.'' Will Selph, a project manager in the Secretary of State's Office, met Martz during his childhood, then encountered her again in 2006 when putting up campaign signs in Butte. He said she cared just as much about people at the beginning of their lives. "She had the motherly demeanor to her and in her approach to life,'' Selph said. "She treated people with such respect and defended people, especially young people. "She supported the college Republicans. She would sign letters, vouch for us if we asked,'' he said. "She was so nice about it." Racicot said Martzs personality shone through in her last years. They were very difficult years for her physically, emotionally,'' he said. "Through it all she set about the way she always did to comfort those who were trying to comfort her.'' Martz will lie in state in the rotunda is the state Capitol in Helena on Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. A celebration of life will be held at the Butte Civic Center at 11 a.m. Saturday. Lee News reporter Jayme Fraser contributed information for this story. For information only - not an official document UNIS/MA/188 30 October 2017 MEDIA ADVISORY Media representatives are invited to the United Nations/United Arab Emirates High Level Forum "Space as a Driver for Socio-economic Development" 6-9 November 2017 Grand Hyatt Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates VIENNA, 30 October (United Nations Information Service) - The international space community will gather in Dubai from 6 to 9 November 2017 for a High Level Forum to discuss the benefits to society of space and international cooperation and coordination in the peaceful uses of outer space. The Forum is a unique opportunity for the collective space community to address the importance of space in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and engage further in the cross-sectoral areas of the four High Level Forum pillars of space economy, space society, space accessibility and space diplomacy. This conference will bring together a wide range of participants, including academia, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, governmental entities, space agencies, and the private sector. The Forum will be divided into two sessions: expert presentations and discussions on 6 and 7 November, and high-level panels on 8 and 9 November. This Forum is one of a number of flagship activities organized by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) to build on the Dubai Declaration of 2016 and provide recommendations for UNISPACE+50 in June 2018. UNISPACE+50 will be a special segment of the annual session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNISPACE) and set the future course of global space cooperation in a shared vision entitled "Space2030". The United Nations/United Arab Emirates High Level Forum on Space as a Driver for Socio-Economic Development is organized by UNOOSA, in conjunction with the United Arab Emirates Space Agency, and hosted by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre. *** For further information about the Forum, including the agenda, visit: http://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/hlf/2017/HLF2017.html *** Follow @UNOOSA on Twitter for updates. * *** * Media representatives who wish to obtain accreditation for the event should contact: Grace Haber Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre Telephone: (+971) 5546 23472 Email: grace.haber[at]mbrsc.ae For more information about UNOOSA, please contact: Daria Brankin United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) Telephone: (+43 699) 1459 8718 Email: daria.brankin[at]unoosa.org How often do you get asked, So whats Montanas top industry? What would be your answer?: tourism, mining, or even timber? The answer lies in Montanas wide open spaces. The miles and miles of ripening crops, and the acre after acre of grazing livestock attest to the fact that agriculture is Montanas top industry. Our farmers and ranchers consistently lead our economy with billions of dollars to impact the bottom line here. In 2015 alone, the ag industry generated a $4.6 billion impact. The value of crops in 2015 was nearly $2 billion, and livestock production topped $2 billion. Some of the largest cattle ranches in the nation are located right here in Montana. Wheat has been our Number One export, shipping mostly to Asia. Our ag producers, unfortunately, face volatile prices in the markets, and experience devastating losses due to weather conditions. What farmers, ranchers, and Montanas businesses need to improve our situation is to implement innovative solutions to these challenges. While technology in other sectors of the economy has gone through rapid change, including compliance with governmental regulations, the agricultural space is full of untapped potential. Just think of all the good we could do and all the mouths we could feed with innovations that make our agricultural system safer, more sustainable, and thriving. Farmers and ranchers know that the key to success in our constantly changing landscape is careful planning, and a willingness to respond when conditions change. The Montana Farm Bureau Federations 2017 Young Ag Leadership Conference (YALC) in Helena on Oct. 13-14 boasted a roster of about 180 participants from Montana and Washington state. I had the opportunity to meet a number of motivated young adults, a number of whom are studying a myriad of subject matter to take advantage of 21st century best management practices related to the agricultural industry. The YALC agenda included marketing techniques; production sciences; irrigation and grazing methodologies; drought management; and financing strategies. During the 65th Legislative Session, my main focus was, and continues to be, to help make the great state of Montana an even better, and more economically-friendly place to live and work. Nothing should make us more proud than helping our hardworking agricultural neighbors succeed and thrive. Yes, farmers these days face greater challenges, more variables in their business decisions, and a complex web of global connections that can be head-spinning. But that has never stopped farmers from going into the field day in and day out. The best way for Montanans to continue to support our incredibly valuable agricultural industry is for farmers, lawmakers, ranchers, and citizens to partner with scientists, ag-tech companies, and industry innovators to confront these problems head on for our mutual success. By supporting the private sector and focusing our efforts on building up big innovative solutions, Montana can continue to be in the forefront in agriculture for years to come. Rep. Becky Beard, R-Elliston, represents House District 80 in the Montana Legislature. October 30 2017 A bid significantly expand the footprint of Glen Coes Kings House Hotel has elicited a backlash led by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) and the John Muir Trust owing to the potential adverse visual impact on the popular beauty spot.Covell Matthews architects are seeking permission on behalf of Black Corries Estates to redevelop the historic hotel, built in 1755 to cater for government troops and travellers, by removing dilapidated 1960s built extensions and building a larger 60-room extension.This would allow the hotel to operate as a four-star attraction, capable of accommodating more passing trade from the busy A82.Outlining their approach the architects observed: The geometry of the proposal uses the original inn building as its starting point with the new build hotel projecting along a north westerly axis in alignment with the adjacent River Etive. The massing is broken down with the projection of single storey public spaces on the ground floor housing restaurants and bars.This distinctive design draws its reference from the surrounding environment; following a mountain range to generate its roof profile.Finished in Siberian larch with a granite base course and slate tile roof the project has elicited a strong rebuke from the NTS; which has objected on the basis of an adverse impact on the built heritage and landscape of the area owing to an annex that would dwarf the original kings House. previous planning consent from Benjamin Tindall Architects was deemed by the current owners to be commercially unviable. Former UTSA student Eric Hernandez was just 22 when he died in a car accident. To honor his legacy, his parents established a scholarship in his memory. (Oct. 30, 2017) -- It was Christmas Eve 2013, when the lives of Laura and Gus Hernandez were turned upside down. At just 22 years-old, their son Eric, a junior at UTSA, was killed in a head on collision. In those early moments of grief, the couple decided to turn the tragedy into an opportunity to help others. I decided that I wanted to do something to make my son proud, said Laura. I wanted something good to come out of this. Eric was the youngest child and only son born to Laura and Gus. He was a young man with many interests who played various musical instruments, such as six string bass guitar and the ukulele. He was also a Mexican Folkloric dancer for 17 years. Described as a kind-hearted and soft spoken young adult, Eric majored in mechanical engineering at UTSA. Following their sons memorial service, the Hernandezes established the Eric Daniel Hernandez Memorial Scholarship at UTSA. With the scholarship, they hope to help engineering students achieve dreams while preserving the memory of their son. Awarded annually in the amount of $1,500, the scholarship has already helped four students, including Alex Wright, a senior studying mechanical engineering. I met Laura and Gus at a UTSA scholarship event. I could tell how much they loved helping me and other students complete our education, said Alex. I only hope I can be worthy of the charity the family has shown me. I hope someday to be financially stable enough myself to do the same for a student in need. To ensure the future of the scholarship, the duo hosts fundraising events to raise money. Recently Laura decided to make a planned gift to the UTSA College of Engineering, by allocating a percentage of her life insurance to the scholarship. This will provide enough gift funding to permanently endow the scholarship, ensuring the legacy of her son will live on even after shes gone. Were not rich, were just regular people who want to help, said Laura. I hope that when these students go on and become successful, that a little piece of Eric goes with them. DECATUR A Decatur health care worker was robbed of her car Friday afternoon in a crime police describe as a vehicular hijacking. It happened around noon while the 23-year-old female driver was parked in the 1300 block of North Poole Street near the intersection with West Waggoner Street. Sgt. Josh Sheets said the woman told police she had driven there because she always drives around to find a safe place to park and complete her charting paperwork. She had sat there for a couple of minutes when a black male approached the driver's side window and told her get out of the car, saying he had a gun, said Sheets. The suspect didn't produce the weapon, but patted his pocket as if the gun were inside. The victim said she did not resist so she she would not get shot, Sheets added. After she got out, the suspect jumped in and drove away, leaving the victim upset but unharmed physically. The suspect is described as aged 20-25, 180-200 pounds, between 5-feet-11 and 6-feet-tall, with his hair in long dreadlocks, and was wearing pants and a gray shirt. The silver 2014 model Dodge Dart car had not been recovered by Sunday evening. As part of its continued partnership, Affinity Gaming donated $58,000 to the Alzheimers Association at the Walk to End Alzheimers (Affinity Gaming CEO Michael Silberling presents $58,000 check to Kelli Kristo and Dan Lawler of the Alzheimers Association Courtesy Affinity Gaming). CEO Michael Silberling presented the check to Desert Southwest Chapter Executive Director Dan Lawler and Regional Director Kelli Kristo before cutting the ribbon at the start line with more than 70 Affinity Gaming employees walking. The gaming company has pledged to contribute more than $125,000 to the association in 2017 with more than $75,000 of that contribution staying in Southern Nevada. Pineapples processed at the An Giang Vegetables and Fruit Company. - VNA/VNS Photo Trong Dat The findings will be reported to the National Assembly, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said at a conference last weekend. The conference aimed to review the progress of restructuring, renewing, and improving the operational effectiveness of State-owned agribusinesses in the 2015-2017 period. Ha Cong Tuan, deputy head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), said that 40 out of 41 restructuring plans for the agriculture sector in cities, provinces, and enterprises had been approved by the Prime Minister. Ha Nois agriculture restructuring plan was still being reviewed and adjusted by the municipal Peoples Committee following feedback from the assessment council, he said. Leaders of provinces including Lao Cai in the north, and Khanh Hoa and Binh Dinh on the south-central coast reported positive outcomes such as the streamlining of staff following new business plans directed by the Prime Minister. More encouragingly, post-equitisation, previously 100 per cent state-owned companies have seen increased revenues and profits. For example, annual revenues of the Binh Duong Province Rubber Co Ltd have jumped nearly three-fold post-equitisation, from VND49 billion (US$2.16 million) to VND133 billion ($5.86 million). Many forestry companies under the Viet Nam Forest Corporation (Vinafor) or the Viet Nam Rubber Group (VRG) also reported better earnings. However, it was also pointed out the overall progress over the last three years in implementing Governments 2014 Decree No. 118 on restructuring agro-forestry businesses had not been satisfactory. For example, in HCM City, only 20 of 102 State-owned agriculture businesses have been equitised, and 28 companies that were supposed to be dissolved still remain operational. Provincial agriculture officials mentioned many obstacles and challenges that they face. Lo Minh Hung, vice chairman of the northern mountainous province of Lao Cai, , said transforming SOEs into two-member limited liability companies was a totally new concept with many implementation bottlenecks. The second member of the company is supposed to be a private entity, which poses very difficult questions about capital ownership, investment direction and land management. The land these companies are currently managing are really favourable to agriculture. When a private company comes into the picture, the repurposing of land could be a problem in our province, he said. Hung urged the Steering Committee on Renovation and Development of Enterprises (under the Ministry of Finance) to issue guidance on implementing this particular company model to avoid losses and enable better management of capital and land resources. Other provinces also reported that many farms and forestry units which have converted to totally State-owned companies or companies with majority State-ownership are facing difficulties in sourcing capital, delays in granting charter capital additions and lack of assets to use as collateral for bank loans. A lot of companies undergoing restructuring are also struggling with issues like land measurement and mapping, brand valuation or resolving its bad debts, the conference heard. For instance, the Viet Nam National Coffee Corporation is having trouble collecting VND 380 billion ($16.76 billion) of outstanding debt from coffee-planting households as theres no clear authority to handle this. On the issue of land measurement and mapping related to all restructuring agricultural enterprises, which could end up costing VND 1,100 billion ($48.44 million), Deputy Finance Minister Tran Van Hieu said the problem was not the cost, as the government will shoulder 70 per cent of it, but that local governments need to take stock of existing land through field trips, not just gathering figures from books. Complex issues Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue said there were several reasons for the slow progress in restructuring. Objectively speaking, this is a complex matter as it involves financial problems and land issues lasting decades, but the main cause remains a lack of commitment from some local governments, according to Hue. Other provinces that want to finish the restructuring quickly lack practical plans, eventually slowing the whole process because it takes time to adjust the plans. Hue stressed that the case of agricultural enterprises was different from the general restructuring effort because it involved the livelihoods of millions of people, with social order and security implications in many localities. Underscoring that 2018 will be the year of restructuring, he directed that all restructuring plans must be completed and approved by the government in the final quarter of this year. The Finance Ministry was tasked with issuing guidelines encouraging private businesses to join the two-member limited liability company model; and the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources was asked to quickly update its land and forest database. Binh Dan Hospital in District 3 is a pioneer in using robots in minimally-invasive surgeries to treat 14 different diseases and cancers. - Photo Courtesy of Binh Dan Hospital District 3s Binh Dan Hospital, which on October 28 received Third Class Labour Medals from President Tran ai Quang, is a pioneer in using robots in minimally-invasive surgeries to treat 14 different diseases and cancers approved by the Ministry of Health. After more than 10 months of using the robotic technology, 222 patients with prostate, liver, lung and other cancers as well as other diseases have benefitted from it, according to Dr Tran Vinh Hung, director of the Binh Dan Hospital. Of these patients, more than 60 patients with financial difficulties had their costs for the robotic surgery reduced or exempted. Using robots in surgeries help treat cancers and diseases, preserve functions in the remaining organs and reduce the risks of common post-operative complications, Hung said. Through a magnified 3D high-definition vision system, surgeons can better control surgery and direct the robots hands to bend and rotate 540 degrees, far more than a human hand. Instead of going overseas for treatment, patients could be treated in the citys hospital with this advanced technology and doctors with global standards in robot-assisted surgeries, Hung said. Asso.Prof. Dr Vu Le Chuyen, chairman of Viet Nam Urology and Nephrology Association, said robots helped reduce bleeding during operations and enabled surgeons to operate precisely. Speaking at a ceremony to mark the achievements of the use of robots to assist surgeries, deputy chairwoman of HCM City Peoples Committee Nguyen Thi Thu said that Binh Dan Hospital developing robotic surgery is key to developing a high quality specialised health centre. On October 23, Cho Ray Hospital also started using robots in minimally-invasive surgeries, Thu said. The robotic surgery is expected to help attract more foreign tourists to hospitals in the country, including HCM City. The Ministry of Health has recognised the use of robots to assist surgeries as a new achievement in the country. According to the city Department of Health, with robot-assisted surgeries at Binh Dan Hospital and Cho Ray Hospital, professionally operational technologies in the city are the same as countries with developed health sectors, such as Singapore and Thailand. The citys policy to provide promotional loans is an incentive for hospitals to take the initiative in investing in robotic technology in surgeries. The deputy chairwoman of HCM City Peoples Committee expects other hospitals in the city to invest in advanced technologies, including robots, to improve the effectiveness of treatments. 1. Objectives: Promoting national image, Vietnamese businesses and trademarks; boosting export of products in which Vietnam has advantages to Laos and Thai north-eastern areas; establishing distribution network and increasing the number of investment projects in Laos; 2. Scope: 300 booths measuring nine square meters each in which 150 booths will be for Vietnamese companies (around 100 businesses) and the remainder for the Lao counterparts; 3. Time: November 25-29, 2010; 4. Venue: Lao International Exhibition and Convention Center (Lao ITECC), Vientiane City, Laos; 5. Content: Agro-forestry-fisheries products and processed food; garment and fashion; electrical-electronic industries; industrial machinery and equipment, construction and building materials; wooden furniture and fine handicrafts; consumer goods; pharmaceutical products; medical equipment; investment, tourism and trade services; 6. Participants: Businesses from assorted economic sectors operating under the law and trade promotion organizations (trade promotion centers in provinces, municipalities, under ministries/departments, and business associations); 7. Selection criteria: Businesses producing competitive items that are compatible to the Lao market requirements; the people taking part in the trip must have the ability to take part in an international trade fair; 8. Expenses: a) The State will finance the booth lease fee, the fee for decorating the Vietnamese pavilion area and all related expenses for export promotion; b) Based on the production sector, the State will pay the lease fee for at most four booths/each business; c) Businesses must incur the following expenses: The fee for making entrance/exist formalities, food, drink, travel and accommodations; goods related expenses. Besides, if they impinge on the organizing committee regulations, they must pay additional charges; d) Each business must pay a deposit of VND4 million/one booth right after sending a registration record The account for deposit transfer: The Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency, account number: 001.1.00.028621.2 at the Transaction Bureau of the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam; If a business was chosen to take part in the trade fair, however, it later sends a document to Vietrade to cancel the participation after October 22, 2010 it will loose the deposit. This money will be used by Vietrade to cover relevant state expenses; 9. Obligations: Businesses taking part in the trade fair must: - Completing registration records, financial obligations and seriously observing the regulations of the Vietnamese group's organizing committee; - Businesses must send a summary report to Vietrade within a month after the fair ending; 10. Registration records: - A business registration certificate; - An application form; - A company profile; - A list of staff who will take part in the fair; - An application for information disclosure in the fair catalogue; - An explanation why it wants a special booth; - Any product presentation or promotion programs; Note: Businesses must send one floppy disc to ngokhacbao@vietrade.gov.vn (including one enterprise logo and two product photos to be shown in the fair's catalogue). 11. Deadline for registration: October 15, 2010. As the booths are limited in number, not all registered businesses will be selected. Vietrade will later inform the name of chosen businesses. Interested businesses must send records to: Export Promotion Center, Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency Floor 5, 20 Ly Thuong Kiet, Hanoi Tel: 0439364792 +84439364792 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting +84439364792 end_of_the_skype_highlighting fax: 04 39369491 Contact: Mr. Ho Ngoc Quan; Mobile: 098 306 9998 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting Mr. Ngo Khac Bao; Mobile: 091 555 4177 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting Email: ngokhacbao@vietrade.gov.vn BARCELONA: Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards rallied in Catalonia's capital Barcelona on Sunday (Oct 29), waving national and European flags and chanting "Viva Espana!" to denounce regional lawmakers' vote to sever the region from Spain. Crowds of protesters swarmed, singing and clapping, through Barcelona's streets in a sea of red-and-yellow Spanish flags, brandishing placards reading "De Todos" (It belongs to all of us). Municipal police said the crowd numbered about 300,000 while organisers said 1.3 million turned out and the central government's representative in Catalonia put the figure at one million. Spain's biggest political crisis in decades mounted on Friday when secessionists in the Catalan parliament voted to declare the wealthy northeastern region of some 7.5 million people an independent republic. The central government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy reacted swiftly by temporarily stripping the region of its autonomy and declaring the dismissal of secessionist regional president Carles Puigdemont and his executive. 'MADNESS' "We are all Catalonia," proclaimed a massive banner, as marchers, young and old, chanted "Prison for Puigdemont". "It was an act of madness that has brought us to the brink," said Alex Ramos, the vice-president of Societat Civil Catalana, a group opposed to independence that organised the rally. Meanwhile, the deputy president of the deposed Catalan government lashed out at Madrid, over what he called a "coup d'etat". "The president of the country is and will remain Carles Puigdemont," the deposed leader's deputy, Oriol Junqueras, wrote in Catalan newspaper El Punt Avui. Junqueras used the word "country" to refer to Catalonia, and signed off as the region's "vice president". "We cannot recognise the coup d'etat against Catalonia, nor any of the anti-democratic decisions that the PP (Rajoy's ruling Popular Party) is adopting by remote control from Madrid," he wrote. On top of firing Catalonia's government, Rajoy dissolved its parliament and called Dec 21 elections for the region. 'REALITY SINKING IN' "It is hard to see how they will go on governing," Spain's Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said during an interview with Britain's Sky News. "Reality is already sinking in, will continue sinking in and they will realise that they cannot do something without the authority of law," he added. Flor Pena, a 59-year-old originally from the northwestern autonomous region of Galicia, described the separatist actions as "shameful". "The thing to do now is to beat them at the polls," she said. She was part of a throng gathered near the spot where tens of thousands of people had celebrated the new "republic" with song, wine and fireworks on Friday. "They have made fools of us," Miguel Angel Garcia Alcala, 70, who had travelled from the town of Rubi, 22 kilometres from Barcelona, told AFP. "It is illegal what they have done ... They are dictators." 'DANGEROUS TIME' The Catalan crisis was triggered by a banned independence referendum on Oct 1 that was shunned by many and marred by police violence. An opinion poll published in centre-right newspaper El Mundo said separatist parties would lose their majority in Catalonia's regional parliament if elections were held today. "We have to turn out and vote to defend a return to normality," former European Parliament president Josep Borrell, who is from Catalonia, told the rally, taking place a day after thousands of people joined a similar march in Madrid. "This is a dramatic moment in the history of Spain, a tremendously difficult and dangerous time," he added. As prosecutors prepared to file charges of rebellion against Puigdemont next week, he called Saturday for "democratic opposition" to Madrid's decision to impose direct rule - the first curtailment of regional autonomy since Francisco Franco's 1939-75 dictatorship. Roughly the size of Belgium, Catalonia accounts for about 16 per cent of Spain's population and attracts more tourists than any other region. It produces a fifth of Spain's economic output - making the region's economy the same size as Portugal's. BARCA VS MADRID Before the upheaval, Catalonia enjoyed considerable autonomy, with control over education, healthcare and policing. But while fiercely protective of their language, culture and autonomy, Catalans are divided on independence, according to polls. Spain has the backing of the United States and allies in a secession-wary European Union still reeling from Britain's decision to leave. Many fear the economic impact as the standoff drags on, and about 1,700 companies have already moved their legal headquarters out of Catalonia. The tensions over secession spilled over into the stands as Real Madrid, supported by Rajoy, slumped to a 2-1 defeat at Girona, Puigdemont's team, at the Catalan side's stadium. SPRINGFIELD Gov. Bruce Rauner may face a Republican primary challenger in state Rep. Jeanne Ives, who said she has begun circulating petitions to appear on the March 20 primary ballot. In an email to supporters, Ives, R-Wheaton, said Saturday that she had selected Rich Morthland, a college professor from the Rock Island area, as her running mate. Our promise to you is to be honest about the problems we face and the path we must take to make Illinois a place where businesses and families can thrive again, Ives said. We will confront and expose public corruption at every level of government until it stops. Rauner officially announced his re-election campaign on Monday. The first-term governor is considered among the most vulnerable incumbents nationwide. He's clashed with majority Democrats since he took office, including an unprecedented budget impasse that recently ended. To qualify for the ballot, gubernatorial candidates need a minimum of 5,000 valid signatures by Dec. 4. Ives has served in the House since 2013. She represents the 42nd House District, which includes all or part of Wheaton, Warrenville, West Chicago, Carol Stream, Winfield, Lisle and Naperville. She is a mother of five, West Point graduate and former Army officer. She formerly served on the Wheaton City Council and was an ROTC instructor at Wheaton College. Several Democratic candidates are also vying to replace Rauner, including: Daniel Biss, a state senator and math professor; Chris Kennedy, a businessman and nephew of President John F. Kennedy; and J.B. Pritzker, an entrepreneur and heir to Hyatt hotels. The Associated Press contributed to this story. Property M&As in the years first nine months rose significantly over 2016s corresponding period. Photo: Le Toan One of the most active investors was Novaland, which conducted major transactions such as acquiring Palm Marina from Saigon Tourist and transferring Nova Phu Sa Resort and the Galaxy 9 apartment complex to other partners. The ledger of merger-and-acquisition (M&A) cases in the first nine months was full, with 11 big M&As involving well-known firms such as FLC, Keppel Land, and VinaLand. According to JLL, the residential segment remains the most attractive for both buyers and sellers. Apart from this, investors are now averting their attention to commercial Grade A office properties and hotels, which offer investment returns of 7-8 per cent. In this years first three quarters, over $1.2 billion exchanged hands through M&As in the property segment. This is quite a high figure, as the figure for the corresponding period last year was only $921 million. In reality, it was very difficult to conduct a successful transaction, especially if it involved foreign investment. Due to the complicated procedures for both sellers and buyers, each step of the transaction process was more risky, from land clearance and compensation to legal processes and the actual construction phase, said Stephen Wyatt, general director of JLL Vietnam. Wyatt, however, further added that since the countrys economy keeps growing, the Vietnamese property market is still one of the most attractive segments for foreign investors. Chairman of th Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association Le Hoang Chau said that M&A could be a key trend for real estate developers in the coming years. This year presents golden opportunities for M&A deals, as Ho Chi Minh City has a stockpile of more than 500 projects that are stalled and unable to continue. We anticipate seeing strong demand from a wide range of investors in the following quarters. They are seeking to make the cut in the Vietnamese real estate market, with a particular focus on groups from Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and mainland China. With fierce competition and limited supply of good quality stock, we will be keeping an eye out for further real estate M&A transactions as investors seek ways to deploy capital quickly and efficiently, Wyatt said. In addition to industrial M&As, residential transactions also trended higher. In September, VinaLand Ltd., one of the real estate arms of VinaCapital, divested its entire stake in the Vina Square Project a three hectare development site in Ho Chi Minh Citys District 5 to Tri Duc Real Estate Company for approximately $41.2 million cash. This sum allowed VinaLand to repay shareholder loans, resulting in an internal rate of return (IRR) of 3.3 per cent. Kinh Bac Corporation, another IP developer, has also decided to transfer 100 per cent of its ownership in Lotus Hotel Development Company the developer of the Diamond Rice Flower hotel complex to Sun Investment JSC. Also near the Lotus Hotel, VinaLand Ltd. transferred the right to develop the $50 million Times Square Hanoi on the market since 2015 to Elite Capital Resources Ltd. In a statement released recently, VinaLand announced that it had divested its entire stake in the Hanoi-based Times Square project for approximately $41 million, resulting in an IRR of 5.3 per cent. Prior to this divestment, VinaLand sold its entire stake in Dai Phuoc Lotus, a residential complex in the southern province of Dong Nai, to foreign investors, bringing in about $65.3 million. Berjaya Land Bhd., a leading Malaysian real estate developer, announced that it transferred its entire position in the Vietnamese four-star Berjaya Long Beach Resort Phu Quoc to Sulyna Hospitality Hotel Restaurant Travel Service Co., Ltd., at a price of VND333.25 billion ($14.67 million). In the last weeks of October, South Koreas Hanwha Life Insurance Co. was considering backing Seoul-based Koramco Asset Management Co. to acquire TNR Tower Nguyen Cong Tru for a purchase price of $62 million. The acquisition, if closed, will be meaningful in that there is no precedent for a Korean investor buying a 100 per cent ownership in a building in Vietnam, said an anonymous source from Hanwah Life Insurance. Duong Thuy Dung, senior director of CBRE Vietnam, predicted that in 2018, the three segments which will attract the most M&A will include houses for sale in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, hotels and condotels in coastal provinces, and industrial properties stretching from the north to the south. In the near future, we think that we should slow down our investments in Vietnam and be more careful about the fast development of the market. However, we are seeing many good projects with great potential and feasibility that would make good supply for M&A activities in Vietnam, Dung said. JLL also predicted that there will be more foreign investors entering Vietnam, and opening new offices here. Typically, these investors were on a fly-in fly-out basis on their first investment, while for subsequent investments, they set up local teams comprised of a combination of local and expat operators. Due to the strong focus on Vietnam from regional investors, we expect M&A activities to reach record levels in the end of 2017 and 2018, Wyatt said. 54-year-old Armen Khaloyan, who got out of jail last year, hasnt been able to find work and expects to live on the streets of Yerevan this winter. The former boxer, whos worked as an engineer and guard, spent last winter living rough as well. Armen says there are no permanent shelters for the homeless in Armenia. The Armenian-Danish Benevolent Fund runs a temporary shelter that now houses more than 100. In the winter, its packed to capacity. All the doors are closed in my face when they find out about my prison record, says Albert, who spent 2012-2016 behind bars. Armens prison saga began in 2003 when he began his mission to recoup property he claims was illegally seized. He sent off petitions to various state bodies but got nowhere. Frustrated by the lack of progress, in 2012, Armen went to see the police chief and got into an argument with the chiefs adviser. He was sentenced to five years for striking the adviser, and was released one year early under a general amnesty. The property that Armenia has been struggling to get back is an apartment, co-owned by his mother, in Yerevans Shengavit District. The mother sold the apartment in 1999, but Armen never signed the contract. He was in Latvia at the time and only found about the sale when he returned to Armenia in 2003. (His mother died soon after selling the apartment) Armen took the case to court and won, only to have the appeals court reverse the decision in favor of the new owner. Armen alleged that the judge had accepted a bribe and filed a formal complaint with police investigators. The complaint went unanswered. In 2010, a criminal investigation into Armens case was finally launched but was soon dropped because the statute of limitations had expired. (Armen had originally filed a criminal in 2003) Law enforcement officials told me to drop the case, says Armen. The former boxer isnt ready the throw in the towel just yet. Ill keep fighting with all my might, Armen says, pointing to corruption as the main obstacle preventing him from winning. If he had the money to grease some palms, Armen believes hed get the apartment back pronto. We accept many different kinds of announcements. Just click on the button below and submit a form. Go to forms On 23 October 2017, the Hudson Institute organized a debate called: Contrasting violent extremism: Qatar, Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. The Hudson Institute was established by the futurologist, Herman Kahn. It is an organization that makes predictions forecasts. It brings together many people who follow the philosopher Leo Strauss. The public audience was composed of distinguished personalities, members of Congress and the Administration, ambassadors and journalists. Leon Panetta, former Head of the CIA and former Defence Secretary and David Petraeus the person that succeeded him as Head of the CIA, had to target Iran. However at the same time, they supported Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood. For appearances sake, the Hudson Institute had also invited Steve Bannon, President Trumps former special advisor. In introducing his guests, Ambassador Hussain Haqqani, Director of the Hudson Institute, declared that the first two were enlightened, while their opponent incarnated the Forces of Darkness (sic). Steve Bannon made the final presentation and qualified the New York Times as the party of the opposition, refused to be qualified as an isolationist the term used by the daily newspaper to describe President Trumps foreign policy, and reminded the audience of his action against Daesh. The Islamic Emirate in Iraq (the future Daesh) was established during George W. Bushs term, under the control of General Petraeus who then commanded troops in Iraq. The purpose behind establishing it: to deflect the anger the Iraqis felt towards the occupation forces and transform it into a civil war. Leon Panetta took office when this measure was only partly complete. He adopted and supported it [1]. John McCain met with Daesh leaders and for a long time maintained strict relations with them, invoking the strategy applied to Vietnam against Syria [2]. During the Saudi Arabian/Qatar conflict, Bannon congratulated himself on Saudi Arabias change in attitude vis-a-vis the jihadists and condemned Qatar; yet officially the Trump administration has not taken sides. The public listened attentively to him in silence. Then Bannon launched into a critique of George W. Bushs and John McCains policy when the Chair of the Session cut him off and rounded off the debate with his remarks: Well, the foreign policy elite here in Washington asked me to give the floor to you today, but it also asked me to close this debate if you start addressing issues other than those that are on our program. This is why we are winding up. Thank you for coming. 63rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference and 36th Conference of Members From Small Countries A delegation from the Gibraltar Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association will be attending the 63rd Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference and 36th Conference of Members from Small Countries being held in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 1 8 November 2017. The Gibraltar Branch will be represented by the Hon Samantha Sacramento MP, Minister for Housing and Equality, who is the leader of the delegation. Opposition Member the Hon Edwin Reyes MP will also form part of the delegation. The Honorary Secretary of the Branch, Mr Paul Martinez, will accompany the delegation. The theme of this years Plenary Conference is Continuing to enhance high standards of performance of Parliamentarians. Gibraltar will also be participating in the Conference of Members from Small Countries, which will be held in conjunction with the Plenary Conference and is attended by parliamentarians from CPA Branches with populations of up to 500,000. The themes for discussion at this years 63rd Parliamentary will be: Democracy must Deliver: Role of Parliament in addressing the Challenges; The role of Parliamentarians in building stronger ties within the Commonwealth: including new trade issues, visa issues, travel restrictions, non-tariff restrictions etc; Giving voice to the youth: Mechanisms for ensuring effective participation of youth in the governance process; Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): How can CPA Members work with their own governments in ensuring that the SDG goals have a proper gender lens to ensure success in the areas of alleviating poverty and womens empowerment? Critical Mass: Small jurisdictions and big problems Logistics and infrastructure challenges; CPA Benchmarks for Democratic Legislatures: Progress in the past 10 years; The Climate Change Debate: A challenge for the Commonwealth? What factors fuel the rise of different kinds of nationalism? In addition Minister Sacramento will represent the chair of British Islands and Mediterranean Region at the 21st Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians Steering Committee Meeting that will be held during the course of the conference. The Conference also has a regional element to it. In common with other regional groupings, the British Islands and Mediterranean region, which includes Gibraltar, will hold a separate meeting. Tyler Cornell, an actor who has appeared on Disney Channels Bizaardvark and Funny or Dies Tales of Titans, is the latest person to come forward with allegations against former APA agent Tyler Grasham this time in a complaint made directly to the Los Angeles Police Department. Grasham, who was fired from APA on October 20, has been accused of sexual assault by former child actor Blaise Godbe Lipman, film editor Lucas Ozarowski, and an unnamed third man. Orphan Blacks Jordan Gavaris, aspiring actor Brady Lindsey, and Lionsgate business and legal affairs manager Michael Podraza have also accused the former agent of sexual misconduct, including harassment and offers of career advancement in exchange for sexual favors. Both Cornells representative and an LAPD spokesperson confirmed to THR that the actor had filed a crime report against the former agent. There was a crime report that was taken against Tyler Grasham, the LAPD said. The incident occurred in early 2017. At this point, because of the nature of the offense, we have no further information to release. An investigation continues. The LAPD elaborated on the charges to Deadline, saying, It was a sodomy crime report. Meanwhile, Grashams former agency has launched their own investigation into the claims made against him. APA takes these allegations extremely seriously and is investigating this matter, said an APA spokesperson. Linda Nochlin, standing in front of Deborah Kasss 1997 work Orange Disaster (Linda Nochlin). Photo: Clint Spaulding/Patrick McMullan. Painting: 2017 Deborah Kass / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York In 1971, art historian Linda Nochlin blew through the gates of art-world patriarchy with her paradigm-changing-on-a-dime essay, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? Nochlins question wasnt a question at all. She saw that just to ask that was to bait people into asking deeper, harder questions about gender injustice in the arts. Nochlin saw that the question didnt pass the smell test, that the answer was that women had been systematically excluded, over centuries and into the present, by an evolving art-historical status hierarchy that nevertheless always found a way to belittle, demean, and dismiss women women who were always outsiders in a status hierarchy stacked in favor of already excepted ideas, narratives, and long outdated and inadequately reasoned art histories. In concise, direct, often funny language and contrapuntal reasoning that tested every premise with example, Nochlin saw how shaky the structures were that were being used to keep women artists outside history. She didnt look at the victim, plaintively pleading cases for why this or that artist really was as great a genius as Goya; she looked at the institution of art history and demonstrated how it was intellectually, semiotically, and psychoanalytically corrupt. And she blew it down. The conclusion of her essay says it well. It was institutionally made impossible for women to achieve artistic excellence, or success, on the same footing as men, no matter what the potency of their so-called talent or genius. Thus it was that before Nochlins essay it always seemed like any time one came up with a woman artist, that artist would be dismissed as a lady painter, minor, not a genius. Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists was published in the January 1971 of Art News in an issue dedicated to Womens liberation. Women artists, and art history. Nochlin died this weekend, and her death will surely prompt a flood of tributes. All on its own, the essay exploded the art world; even if Nochlin had never done another thing, never written anything else and not engaged in decades of feminist activism, this one essay would have canonized her. In just a little over 4,000 words, Nochlin who had a Ph.D. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, an M.A. in English literature from Columbia, and a B.A. in philosophy from Vassar, and had written extensively on Gustave Courbet and the 19th-century movement known as Realism turned her attention to the question that people were silently thinking about but that no one was gutsy enough to ask out loud. Well, not everyone. At a 1970 Vassar graduation ceremony, her friend and well-known art dealer Richard Feigen asked her exactly that question. I went home, she said, and thought about this issue for days. It haunted me. It made me think, because, first of all, it implied that there were no great women artists. Second because it assumed that this was a natural condition. The question implied there was something wrong or lacking or inadequate, not up to the task, with women. Nochlin wrote that in her mind, before this 1971 moment, that womens liberation had been chiefly emotional personal, psychological, and subjective centered. And she instantly turned that around. It was time to come to grips with the intellectual and ideological basis of various intellectual and scholarly disciplines. That is, to turn from individual experience to systemic structures in considering the question of male oppression. In her essay, Nochlin asserts that those who have privileges invariably hold on to them. She showed how the white-male-position is accepted as natural and how this meant that male artists had a decided advantage. Nochlin said she wanted to question the assumptions lying behind the question and wrote of the stultifying, oppressive, and discouraging (practices against) all of those, women among them, who did not have the good fortune to be born white, preferably middle class and above all, male. She went on to say, The fault lies not in our stars, our hormones, our menstrual cycles, or empty internal spaces, but in our institutions and our education. Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists shows just how dramatically, and for how long, the whole system was tilted against women artists. For the 500 years since the Renaissance, the primary, maybe the only, way that the greatness of art was measured was in the figure. It was seen to derive from Greece and Rome, from the ages. And the figure that was most worshipped was the nude figure. Men could be trained in this discipline, practice with other masters, apprentice, and were positioned to learn this skill. But women were deemed too fragile, feminine, or sexually unable handle being in a room learning to draw and paint from a live nude model male or female. So women were not allowed to attend schools, apprentice with other artists, or to learn the language of art. Thus the very measures of artistic prowess, inspiration, and imagination were male. Moodiness in men was greatness and genius; in women, in was melodrama and hysteria. There was no way in if it was improper for a woman to draw or paint a nude. A woman artist was, as Nochlin said, deprived of what this ultimate stage of training meant, in effect, deprived of the possibility of creating major works of art. Of being an artist at all, she might have added. Women artists had been effectively gerrymandered out of the districts of art, dismissed as amateurs, minor, not serious, silly. Nochlin rightly charged that these structures and the all of our internalization of them guard men from unwanted competition in their serious professional activities. She went on, The choice for women always seems to be marriage or a career. Not for men. Having no degrees, I taught myself art history. In the 1980s, Nochlins book Realism was a bible to me; a portal to Flaubert, as well as Daumier, Courbet, Millet, Manet and a hundred obscure 19th-century artists, all of whom taught me that bad art tells us as much as good art. That all art is alive and contemporary when youre seeing it. She and Robert Rosenblum blasted open these doors and deserve enormous credit for it. Nochlin was also great on two personal favorites, Florine Stettheimer and Berthe Morisot. She wrote about contemporary art, too, but her taste in it could be dubious. Although she surprised me in 1999 by writing beautifully on Sylvia Sleigh (who was 83 by then), and then in 2014 on the under-known Ellen Altfest. Really, history was her roundhouse, patriarchal art history her foe. Mostly, she played the part of gallant welcoming superstar to generations of grateful artists and historians. She was probably the reigning unnamed empress of the College Art Association for all that time, too. Her being on a panel was guaranteed to bring crowds of loving fans. Either way, Nochlin is among the greatest art historians who ever lived. She changed the world. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964. Stonewall happened in 1969. Women are always last. Still, in 1970 Germaine Greer published The Female Eunuch (which unpacked how almost all social norms render women eunuchs), the Equal Rights Amendment passed the U.S. House, and Judy Chicago helped create the first-ever feminist art courses at Fresno State College in California. The next year Nochlins essay lit a fire in the art world. In her simple, wry, furious reasoning she laid waste to the whole idea of Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists. We can now divide art-world feminism into Before and After Nochlins essay. By Ani Matevosyan Most of the time, a dreadful silence embraces the village of Gegharot. Especially during winter, the extreme climate and endless layers of snow make the only road leading to the village impassable. Official data shows that 144 families reside in the village, but a simple observation would cast serious doubt on that number. You would hardly notice any movement in the village. Its only the wind, that now and then shakes the trees, and the occasional passing herd of cattle, that impart any sense of activity. Gegharot is located between the towns of Aparan and Spitak in the Aragats Province of Armenia. Its 75 km away from Yerevan and 2,200 meters above sea level. The village is situated in a valley between three mountains that protect it from fierce winds. Due to the mountainous topography of the region, the villagers have two occupations cattle breeding and farming. The slopes of the nearby mountains provide an excellent pasture for cows, but Gegharot residents need more to secure a satisfactory life. Cows are a major resource for the villagers. The animals allow residents to save on other dairy products such as cheese and yogurt, the purchase of which is one of the seemingly unsolvable issues in the village. There is no transportation from the village to the towns, so we take taxis or ask neighbors for a ride in their cars, says one of the villagers, who just came back from Spitak. Holding four big nylon bags, he was returning home from his weekly shopping. There is no store in the village, so people must travel either 22 km to Spitak or 19 km to Aparan to reach a grocery store. Given the difficulty of finding transportation, residents try to limit their store visits to a minimum, buying everything they need at once. But how do residents generate income to shop? Except for cattle breeding, most families also make a living from agriculture, Tigran, one of the villagers, says. We grow some grains, such as wheat and barley. Potato planting is also very common among the villagers. Tigran confesses that agriculture is the primary source of income for the people of Gegharot. Some 5-6 people work in the village municipality, and some others teach in the school. But, of course, thats not enough to take care of the whole household, he says. Given the unbearable conditions in Gegharot, at least one member of each household works abroad. Most of the men have moved to a foreign country (mostly to Russia) to help make ends meet back home. On the other hand, the youth of the village tends to move to bigger towns such as Gyumri or Yerevan to pursue their higher education. Most do not come back after graduation because there are no employment opportunities in the village. Younger Gegharot residents are very smart and talented, claims Armineh, the biology and chemistry teacher of the village school. Unfortunately, most of our students help their parents overcome the challenges of everyday life. Thus, any interest toward scientific subjects tends to fade away, she says. Currently, the school of the village has 53 students in 12 grades. Some classes are composed of one or two students. The school is everything for children a place to study, socialize, and spend time. There are no cultural centers or art schools in the village, so school teachers do their best to provide students with extracurricular learning opportunities. The school has a chess club, a singing club, and the teachers organize Russian language classes, says one of the parents. Beside school, the children have no other place to develop their skills. Except for sandcastle building and flower picking, they have nothing else to do in the village. The villagers - the young mothers - usually gather the kids from the neighborhood and organize theater productions, tale-reading, and drawing exhibitions to enrich the days of the children. They have designed an informal routine of learning for these children, which is both enjoyable and practical for them. Despite these hardships, Gegharot residents are proud to reside in one of the oldest communities in the region. Even though it is tough to maintain satisfactory living conditions in the village, I believe that Gegharot has promising potential, Tigran says. Gegharot is officially 125 years old. Even though it was populated during the 1820s, the official date of the villages establishment is 1892 the year when the village church was constructed. Hence, residents believe that if the village has survived more than a century, it can definitely survive, prosper, and even become an epitome of strength and persistence for other villages. A couple of years ago, the villagers witnessed what they would call a milestone in the life of the village. One of the residents reported that he had found fragments of ancient jugs while digging the soil on the slope of one of the nearby mountains. Soon, scientists from different parts of the world arrived to explore the areas where those fragments were found. Additional research revealed that Gegharot can become an essential archeological site. Joint excavations conducted by specialists from the Cornell University and National Institute of the Archeology and Ethnography, (a unit of Armenias National Academy of Sciences) unearthed the most astonishing of findings. Excavations at Gegharot Fortress, like those at Tsaghkahovit, were initially directed toward understanding the forces driving the initial emergence of socio-political complexity during the Late Bronze Age, the experts state in their report. The excavations created job opportunities for the villagers, too. They would get paid daily for helping the experts find and examine the ancient fragments. The villagers were excited and proud to discover such historical finding in their native village. Unfortunately, those findings did not translate into material benefits; merely excitement and pride. Still, residents havent given up hope that their village will prosper someday. The lack of opportunities for education and employment, daily hardships, and the dilemma of the residents, leaving or staying in the village, caused by despair have perplexed residents. And yet, many of them reject the idea of leaving their homeland. All Gegharot needs is a little spark of hope. (Ani Matevosyan is a senior student at the American University of Armenia majoring in English and Communications. Her interests include communications, writing, and translation. In the future, she hopes to contribute to the development of Armenia as effectively as possible.) Photo: Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images The New York Times has reported a new series of sexual-assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein, who is under investigation by police departments in Los Angeles, New York City, and London. The piece reveals two new allegations that date back much earlier than those previously reported, and a 2004 allegation that was covered up with a settlement. Hope Exiner dAmore, who worked for Weinsteins concert promotion company, Harvey and Corky Productions, told the Times that Weinstein raped her in a hotel room in the 1970s when they were in their 20s. After Exiner dAmores alleged rape, she said Weinstein offered her credit cards for shopping sprees, but she declined and was later fired. Also during this time, actress Cynthia Burr said she met Weinstein in a hotel for a meeting, where he tried to kiss her in an elevator, and then forced her to perform oral sex in a hallway. The Times report also includes an allegation from actress Ashley Matthau. She met Weinstein while she was filming Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights in 2004. When he invited her back to his hotel for a meeting, Matthau told the Times, he fondled her and masturbated on top of her. Matthau entered into a confidential settlement with Weinstein for $100,000 after a lawyer intimidated her when she tried to report her alleged encounter with the mogul. The fourth new accuser, Lacey Dorn, said she met Weinstein at a party for The Artist, and again at a Halloween party at Rose Bar in the Gramercy Park Hotel in 2011. There, he asked her for her email so they could discuss her career. When Dorn went to say good-bye to him, he allegedly grabbed her between her legs. I was so naive, I didnt say anything. And he didnt say anything either, she told the Times. I just got out of the party as fast as possible. All The High-Profile Men Accused of Harassment Since the Weinstein Story Broke Jeffrey Dean Morgan described last weeks season premiere as balls to the wall, and this episode maintains that very Negan-esque level of intensity, even with no sign of the man himself. While the Big Bad is stuck in a big pickle with Gabriel, we explore part two of Ricks grand plan to destroy the Saviors and kill his archenemy. This requires a crap-ton of hopping between four staging points: an armored-car shoot-out between Aaron and the Saviors; the satellite station with Morgan, Jesus, and Tara; the urgent-care building with Carol and Zeke; and an armory raid with Rick and Daryl. Its an action-packed hour, so if youre a fan of subtle character development, long stretches of impossibly clever banter, or artsy cinematography that evokes Jean-Luc Godard why are you watching this show anyway? Related Story Why AMC Shouldnt Panic About The Walking Dead Ratings We begin with a weird series of close-ups of Rick, Daryl, and the episodes key characters looking super-intense while super-intense music plays. Zeke and Carol awaken in a cloud of smoke. Is this roll call? A post-apocalyptic cologne ad? (Somewhere between life and death lies undeath. Calvin Kleins Undeath. Available at Macys that havent already been looted.) The heaviest firefight but least interesting showdown is led by Aaron, who rolls up on a Savior outpost with metal-enforced whips, his boyfriend Eric, and a whole lot of ammo. Representing the bad guys is Maura, a Savior who seems stuck in middle management but is showing a lot of potential for growth in the organization, based on her surly demeanor and use of chickenshit. She thinks Aarons team is too soft to leave cover and advance to finish them off. But Aaron has a strategy that wastes a lot of lead and makes for good TV: Stay put and keep firing until the dead Saviors turn and eat their former comrades. Maura is apparently so shocked by this twist that she forgets how to fight, as a walker sidles up and makes a meal of her neck. On the downside, Carols ex-beau Tobin takes a bullet to the shoulder, and Aarons hard-charging squeeze Eric suffers what looks like a lethal gut shot. The satellite-station assault is far more complex. The Saviors built a moat of sorts, using two fences to contain a pack of zombies. Thats not much of an obstacle for Morgan, whos transformed from pacifist to John Wick a pistol-packin, silencer-usin, one-shot-one-kill assassin. It seemed highly unwise when Morgan told his crew he didnt need backup because, he said, I dont die. But when his three-man team is shot at point-blank range, hes the only one to survive. Was it the cheap body armor that saved him or are the Saviors just really lousy marksmen? Its a good thing Morgan stepped up his killing game, since one of his soldiers is so nervous that his rifle rattles a reminder that most of Ricks army is new to combat. If you were annoyed when Gabe doubled back to rescue Gregory last week, you were probably furious when Tara and Jesus found Dean, who had hidden in a closet and pee-peed in his jeans. Out comes the age-old TWD conundrum: Kill em all or show mercy? As Tara and Jesus engage in riveting philosophical debate, Dean wrestles with Jesus and steals his gun. Turns out he pissed himself on purpose, and then, just to make it clear hes a dick, he stomps on a bottle of prenatal vitamins. Looks like that bitch Maggie and her kid are gonna die anyway, Dean says. Just like you two. Jesus ends up with the upper hand, but then hogties the guy. Theyre killing everyone else why not this asshole too? The real moral test comes when Morgan joins Tara and Jesus and their group of Savior captives. Look whos back: Its Jared, the bully who killed Morgans protege, Benjamin! Lets chat about our options: Were supposed to kill them, Morgan says. Thats not what we do, says Jesus. How many times are they going to have this conversation? It sets up a potential conflict between those like Jesus, who follow the more levelheaded Maggie, and Taras loyalty to Rick, whos struggling to resist an urge for vengeance. At least Carol picked the most entertaining survivors to team up with: Zeke, whose medieval hype-man skills are second to none (Onward! To our foe, then to his compound, then to certain victory!), and Jerry, who works that two-handed axe like a champ (nice head-cleave, big guy). Theyre trying to find a Savior who escaped before he warns his cohorts theyre about to be ambushed. In a rare quiet moment, Zeke reminds Carol that his confidence is as much a show as his accent. Fake it til ya make it, baby, he says, as she frets that theyre headed toward disaster. There will be no fantasies of failure this day. My money would be on Carols pessimism, if not for Shiva, who seems to specialize in leaping, face-chomping sneak attacks. Those really are the hardest pet tigers to find. Of course, the biggest moments unfold with Rick and Daryl as they search a building for .50 caliber machine guns, thanks to a detailed note from Dwight. Daryl still doesnt trust ol Pizza Face, which gives Rick a moment to Ricksplain the plan: Get weapons, take them to the Sanctuary, and mow down the walkers to free up an exit, presumably for Gabe and any Saviors who wish to surrender. They decide to split up, because, hey, when has that ever not worked out? Daryl finds a room with what looks like dog food, half a sandwich and bloody handcuffs, triggering some PTSD from his time as Negans prisoner. Its easy to forget that Negan succeeding in breaking Daryl down mentally and emotionally not all that long ago. Meanwhile, Rick gets a double-dose of brutality, starting with a burly Savior who jumps him, and winds up impaled on a shelving post protruding from the wall (Ricks lucky his much larger foe didnt make him a wall ornament instead). We see the dead mans Grace Be God tat and think once again about the primal nature of this dark world where once noble men and women are all too often reborn as the worst versions of their animal selves. Or maybe we just think Lame ink, brah. Enter a delicious dose of method acting from Andrew Lincoln when Rick finds something unexpected little baby Gracie in her crib. Rick was ready for anything but this, as evidenced by his muttering, No. He cant bear to look at himself in the mirror. Rick wont kill an infant. But child care is already a bitch with Judith. Dude cant afford another mouth to feed, people! The semi-big moment arrives when Rick is surprised a second time, by someone he (and we) had long forgotten: Morales, who dates back to the Atlanta days. Morales, his wife, and their two kids split from Ricks group when they made their way to the CDC in season one; Rick gave him ammo and a walkie and wished him luck. Now, Ricks old friend says hes radioed the Saviors and theyre on the way. Cut back to those extreme close-ups from the opener, but in current state: Daryl shaking off his trauma, Aaron trying to keep his boyfriend alive, Morgan and Jesus weighing murder versus mercy, Tara plotting revenge, Zeke projecting confidence, Carol hoping hes right, and Morales cocking the hammer of his gun. Hey, nobody said this kill Negan and overthrow his vast criminal network thing would be easy, right? Ask a regular Joe what frustrates him about public education and stand back. Its the complexity of school finance (including property taxes), state testing results for Joes kids and, finally, the state-ordained protocol for closing down failing schools. The situation is compounded by the fact state protocols and accountability standards seem to change from one legislative session to the next. Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath has made significant strides in one area. This year he and his Texas Education Agency staffers produced a State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness report card that not only better communicates to time-pressed parents how their children did on much-hated STAAR testing but also how parents can help them strategically improve. On the other hand, if you really want to test the IQ of your state legislator, ask him or her to explain school finance, including the meaning of golden pennies and copper pennies. But the most pressing priority for Waco Independent School District is improving two low-performing middle schools and three elementary schools which otherwise face closure. If students there next spring reverse several years of failing scores, they could eliminate the possibility the state will come in and close down these local campuses. But on the possibility of another year of failure, Waco ISD officials are exploring options buying time for these troubled schools to turn matters around. And this is where we get into uncharted territory. Waco ISD officials are being guided by TEA officials and two critical pieces of legislation. One of the latter is House Bill 1842, passed into law by the Texas Legislature in 2015. It says if a campus is considered to have an unacceptable performance rating for three consecutive school years after the campus is ordered to submit a campus-turnaround plan, the TEA commissioner will replace the elected school board with a board of managers or close the troubled campus. Thats why Waco ISD officials are trying to make community leaders and parents aware of just how dire matters are. Alta Vista Elementary School, Brook Avenue Elementary School, J.H. Hines Elementary School, G.W. Carver Middle School and Indian Spring Middle School have failed academic standards for five years or more. Then theres Senate Bill 1882, passed into law this spring. Expanding on models in larger cities, it allows troubled school districts to temporarily stop the countdown for campus closures if the local school board partners with a charter schools governing body or a nonprofit eligible for a district-authorized charter. How all this would actually work is unclear. TEA spokeswoman DeEtta Culbertson tells Trib education reporter Shelly Conlon the TEA is still crafting rules on how SB 1882 would function. However, the law seems to suggest Waco ISD could partner with a nonprofit say, a local foundation and technically turn failing campuses into in-district charter schools with restructuring or re-purposing. Among ideas mentioned by new Superintendent A. Marcus Nelson: taking the two middle schools and making them single-gender campuses (the boys at one school, girls at the other) and realigning by grade level the elementary schools. Each in-district charter school would also have its own board of managers. Clear as mud? Dont feel bad. While some legislators these days seem to have it in for public schools judging by their rhetoric and push for public funding of private schools, TEA officials shrewdly recognize closing troubled schools or replacing school boards can end up making matters worse. Hence, theyre likely to interpret state law broadly enough to give districts such as Waco ISD all the breaks possible. That said, the Waco ISD superintendent accurately acknowledged the anxiety and uncertainty in all this during a staff meeting last week: Were building this plane while its up in the air. During a Waco ISD community meeting on the crisis last Monday night, Nelson told parents, educators and community leaders: All the answers to our problems are already here. Hes probably right. A lot of forces are just now coming into play in terms of leaving local schools better poised for academic success everything from a reinvigorated reading program in primary grades to a new superintendent who clearly resonates with staff. Playing for time may be a wise strategy at this juncture. A lot now depends on how students do in another round of high-stakes testing come spring. CERESCO Ceresco area seniors are finding its more than food that keeps them coming back to a weekly meal at the Community Center. Ilene Anderson of Ceresco is one of the nearly 30 people who attend the weekly gathering. She said she finds much to look forward to every Wednesday at noon. Im a widowed lady, so this is a good place for camaraderie, she said. Plus we have the best food. I look forward to all the good nourishment. Ceresco area seniors have been gathering for a potluck meal for about the last five to six years. Rick McKinnley of Ceresco helps to coordinate the gathering at the Ceresco Community Center. The potluck gathering got started shortly after changes were made at the county level for senior center meals. McKinnley said the meal is usually with home-cooked foods, such as roast beef, fried chicken and casseroles. He said attendees take turns cooking for the event. In addition, Sweet Pea Market in Ceresco contributes food every second Wednesday of the month. There are also a few things that need to be purchased every week. McKinnley said items like paper plates, silverware, lemonade and coffee are provided to those who come to eat. To help out with those costs, attendees pay $3 on the second, fourth and fifth Wednesdays of the month. The county also continues its reimbursement of $1.50 to the Village of Ceresco for every person who attends. McKinnley said that there are often extra funds left over, but those are put to good use. For example, the stove at the Community Center was broken and leftover money in the senior lunch fund was used to purchase a new one. Other extra funds have been donated to organizations such as Raymond Centrals Post Prom committee. When the gathering first started, McKinnley said attendance was quite small. We started with maybe five or six couples, he said. As word of mouth got out, attendance rose. As a result, 28 to 30 people come per gathering. McKinnley said the whole idea behind the weekly gathering was an opportunity for area elders to spend time socializing. The most important thing I think we get out of it is social time, McKinnley said. Jerry Caha of Ceresco agreed. We just get to visit with people and stuff, he said. Pastor Scott Larson of Emmanuel Lutheran Church near Ceresco said he often drives from Lincoln to attend to find out whats happening in the area. WAHOO Halloween is a time when many children go out into the streets. It is also a time of increased risks for children, especially of injury. Saunders County Sheriff Kevin Stukenholtz said people need to be well aware of potential hazards for trick-or-treaters. Traffic concerns are the biggest risk, Stukenholtz said. Parents need to be aware of where theyre stopped. Wahoo Police Officer Alan OSullivan agreed, adding children are at the highest risk for getting hit by vehicles when they are crossing the street. According to the National Safety Council (NSC), children are twice more likely to be hit and killed by cars on Halloween than any other day of the year. To help fight this problem, OSullivan advised children to practice good traffic safety. Cross the street at the intersection, he said. OSullivan also suggested parents make their childrens costumes have reflective material or provide the children with flashlights. For drivers, OSullivan advised practicing extreme vigilance and treating the entire town as if it were one large school zone. Slow down and take note, he said. Another problem which Stukenholtz said can affect trick-or-treaters is getting separated from parents. Stukenholtz said that in order to prevent this, parents should speak with their children about their expectations and plan accordingly. Have a plan on where they can go, he said. Stay together as a group. Another risk for trick-or-treaters is receiving contaminated or drugged candy and treats. Stukenholtz said this has not been much of a problem in recent years around the area, but advised that parents should still be careful. I think we still need to be aware of that possibility, he said. The Nebraska Regional Poison Center recommends parents to not allow their children to eat their treats immediately and to inspect them once at home. OSullivan advised parents to check treats and candy if their children have peanut allergies. Thats always something to be aware of, OSullivan said. Stukenholtz said parents must be responsible for having general Halloween safety conversations with their children before allowing them to trick-or-treat. Having that safety conversation ahead of time is helpful, Stukenholtz said. Blood drive being organised by Marsha De Salvatore. Marsha De Salvatore, known to many expats as the co-founder of Rome's Comedy Club, is organising a blood drive at S. Eugenio hospital in EUR on Saturday 4 November, as part of efforts to increase the capital's blood supply. De Salvatore told Wanted in Rome: "There are constant blood shortages in Rome which is bad for everyone because so many people need blood, like pregnant women, car accident victims, surgeries and countless illnesses that require blood transfusions." De Salvatore, who has an illness which requires blood transfusions every two-three weeks, will be at the S. Eugenio hospital on 4 November from 09.00-12.00, and will reward donors with "cornetti and a big hug". She reminds potential donors that: "if they have a job with a contract they get a certificate to not work for the day." She also emphasises that people who lived in the UK for more than six months from 1980-1996 are not allowed to give blood in Italy, due to the prevalence of Mad Cow Disease during that time. Rome residents who wish to donate blood can do so at any hospital's centro trasfusionale from 07.30-11.30 each morning. Donors can be aged from 18 to 65 and blood can only be given on an empty stomach. For more details of Marsha's blood drive see the Facebook event pagewhile to learn more about who can give blood see the AVIS website. Wanted in Rome is a monthly magazine in English for expatriates in Rome established in 1985. The magazine covers Rome news stories that may be of interest to English and Italian speaking residents, and tourists as well. The publication also offers classifieds, photos, information on events, museums, churches, galleries, exhibits, fashion, food, and local travel. Twelve months on from knocking back a two-year contract offer from Sydney, Xavier Richards has now all but given up on the dream of continuing his AFL career. The Swans sensationally delisted Richards after he wasn't able to secure a move to Victoria during last year's trade window. Former Sydney Swan Xavier Richards. Credit:NEAFL His axing came less than a month after he featured in their 2016 grand final loss to the Western Bulldogs. The Sydney defender held out hope of still joining a club during last year's delisted free agency period, and even took part in the start of Essendon's pre-season training. A proposed pipeline connecting the West Australian gas markets to the east coast has taken a major step forward, but its future remains in doubt as other gas supply plans challenge its construction. ACIL Allen, working in partnership with engineering firm GHD, has been contracted by the federal government to carry out a pre-feasibility study on the West-East Gas Pipeline, which will link to the two gas markets. The study is due to be completed by March. While this is the first time a pre-feasibility study will be carried out for the potential pipeline, a west-east proposed gas line has been in consideration since the time of the Whitlam government. "The findings from the study may inform a full feasibility study to test the viability of constructing a natural gas pipeline to provide additional gas supplies and increase competition in the east coast gas market," federal Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg said this week. It's going to take more than the biggest stock slump in world history to convince analysts that PetroChina has finally hit bottom. Ten years after PetroChina peaked on its first day of trading in Shanghai, the state-owned energy producer has lost about $US800 billion ($1.04 trillion) of market value - a sum large enough to buy every listed company in Italy, or circle the Earth 31 times with $US100 bills. In current dollar terms, it's the world's biggest wipeout of shareholder wealth ever. And it may only get worse. If the average analyst estimate compiled by Bloomberg proves right, PetroChina's Shanghai shares will sink 16 per cent to an all-time low in the next 12 months. The stock has been pummelled by some of China's biggest economic policy shifts of the past decade, including the government's move away from a commodity-intensive development model and its attempts to clamp down on speculative manias of the sort that turned PetroChina into the world's first trillion-dollar company in 2007. Senator Michaelia Cash should consider herself fortunate her tormenters in the opposition and the media will have been deflected by what is arguably the country's most riveting constitutional crisis since the Whitlam dismissal in 1975. Friday's High Court judgment that effectively deprives the Turnbull government of its parliamentary majority has set the country on an unpredictable course. What the Cash affair, along with legal miscalculations over the citizenship case before the High Court, has demonstrated is that this is a government whose grip on the political agenda is precarious. It is now beset by a Murphy's law of politics: what can go wrong, will. Speaking of Murphy, the Cash affair, in which a minister has misused her office for political purposes, recalls the first conspicuous blunder of the Whitlam government, and one that Gough Whitlam himself admitted many years later was his "greatest mistake". George Orwell's warning that those who harbour a "nationalistic loyalty" tend to regard certain facts as "inadmissible" springs to mind when surveying the controversy surrounding a new book examining Australia's special forces operations in Afghanistan. I recently wrote a piece weaving some of the revelations in the book by investigative journalist Chris Masters into my own research, with a fuller extract running a day later. That same day, The Australian newspaper ran a front page piece with quotes from special forces war hero Ben Roberts-Smith, his employer and war memorial chairman Kerry Stokes and war memorial director Brendan Nelson. The piece decried the book as an unwarranted attack on the special forces, Roberts-Smith and another decorated soldier who died serving his country. "Where is the national interest in tearing down our heroes?" Dr Nelson, a former defence minister, said. An Australian SASR team with US and Afghan forces on patrol in Shah-i-Kot. "It's my very strong view that the alleged controversies involving special forces, unless involving the most egregious breaches of the laws of armed combat, should be left alone. What these young, highly skilled and trained men have done repeatedly over the past 15 years in intense combat is something that is rightly the pride of our nation." The comments are puzzling not least because the book is anything but a take-down of Roberts-Smith or any other soldier. Roberts-Smith features as just one of a cast of special forces characters who Masters mostly describes as performing diligently, or far better in a murky battlefield where discerning between friend and foe is difficult and where an increasingly intractable war made it hard to define Australia's mission, politically and on the battlefield. Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce has dared the Labor Party and the union movement to bring a legal challenge against any of the decisions he oversaw before he was thrown out of Parliament by the High Court. More than 100 Turnbull government decisions could be vulnerable to legal challenge as a result of Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash's dual citizenship status, with lawyers engaged by the Labor Party concluding there is a high likelihood the work the pair has done over the past year will end up before the courts. The Australian Council of Trade Unions has also commissioned legal advice about the validity of a parliamentary vote on penalty rates. The question mark over decisions that were made while Mr Joyce and Ms Nash were in Parliament adds to the sense of chaos Labor is trying to create around the Turnbull government following the High Court's decision on Friday which disqualified five MPs - Mr Joyce, Ms Nash, Malcolm Roberts, Larissa Waters and Scott Ludlam - from Parliament because they held dual citizenship. Hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers are barricading themselves inside the Manus Island processing centre and refusing to leave amid fears they'll be attacked if they venture outside the compound's wire fences. Refugees are repairing and securing damaged barbed wire on the compound's perimeter fences to protect them from possible attacks as confrontation between the men, locals and Papua New Guinea authorities looms. Tensions have been rising on the island before it is shut down, and refugee advocates have expressed fears the "powderkeg" may erupt into violence involving locals, detainees and police. Lawyer Ben Lomai, who in a previous Supreme Court challenge has represented the men detained on Manus, said he would seek an urgent order from the court that food, water, and electricity should be provided to those in the centre beyond Tuesday. Rose McGowan says Harvey Weinstein, the producer she has accused of rape, offered her $US1 million ($A1.3 million) to sign a non-disclosure agreement on the eve of a devastating expose published this month by the New York Times. According to the Times, McGowan stated she received the offer through her lawyer in September, and that it came from a source close to Weinstein. Women will no longer be silenced by Harvey Weinstein. Credit:AP Though McGowan reached a settlement with Weinstein for $US100,000 in 1997, she realised that the contract had not included a confidentiality clause. "I had all these people I'm paying telling me to take it so that I could fund my art," McGowan told the Times. She said she responded by asking for $US6 million in an effort to slowly torture her alleged abuser. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, famous for its annual gala hosted by Anna Wintour, hosted its inaugural Halloween bash - and it was every bit as fabulous as you'd expect. Although Halloween officially falls on October 31, the party was held at the museum on Thursday night, New York time, with a star-studded line-up who pulled out all stops in the spooky department. Wendi Deng, ex-wife of Rupert Murdoch, led the scary parade, donning Day of the Dead-inspired make-up and a gold headdress, as she attended the party with her partner, 22-year-old Bertold Zahoran, who's 26 years her junior. While most of the starlets are used to frocking up flawlessly for the red carpet, some of the celebrities at the party were practically unrecognisable in their freaky get-ups. Here are our favourites. Karlie Kloss and Joan Smalls "There's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other." Ever since US Secretary of State Madeline Albright coined this phrase in 2006 it has been used as a stick to shame and condemn women accused of betraying the sisterhood. Last week former Channel Seven reporter Amy Taeuber used the quote in an article for Mamamia about how she felt betrayed by the sisterhood after she complained of sexual harassment and, she claims, was subsequently sacked from the network for bullying. "While facing the daunting prospect of an uncertain future after losing my dream job in 2016, I was coming to the stark realisation that the women I'd looked up to for many years weren't coming to save me," wrote Taeuber, who, according to News Corp reports, was served a legal letter by the network due to the article. It has since been removed from the site. The exclusive nature of Oishi-m's small production runs creates so-called "unicorn" products in hot demand on various Oishi-m buy, swap and sell groups. Oishi-m designs are quirky and colourful and its customers have high expectations of quality. "I love it," says Fallshaw. "We have high resell value, and it's [being] in so much demand means that every little detail and the quality has to be there. Whilst it has been amazing to have such passionate customers, it has really kept us on our toes; there are such high expectations." It's normal for customers to queue over night for Oishi-m's once-a-year samples sale, and a recent customer survey had more than 2000 respondents within a couple of hours. Miyo Fallshaw at Oishi-m's Torquay headquarters. The exclusive nature of Oishi-m's small production runs creates so-called "unicorn" products. "It was like an army coming at us with ideas and feedback," says Fallshaw. "It is very much a cult and we are very proud to have such passionate customers." Surviving break-up day All that passion can create pressure, and Fallshaw reached her limit a few years ago. Oishi-m ships to 37 countries and celebrated its 10-year annniversary last year. We don't want to be everywhere or everything to everyone. Miyo Fallshaw "I was sitting in front of my computer for a lot of Christmas Eve and Christmas and realising this is ridiculous, this is a ball and chain around me," she says. "The whole point of having a business is giving me some flexibility, and this is not doing it." Fallshaw and McPherson decided to close the wholesale arm of Oishi-m, allowing them to focus on one shop in Torquay as well as online sales. Miyo Fallshaw. It's normal for customers to queue overnight for Oishi-m's once-a-year samples sale. "That led to break-up day," says Fallshaw. "We called all 100 of our retailers and broke up with them over the phone, which was incredibly hard as we had built great relationships and many of them were friends and peers." As difficult as this was, Fallshaw says closing down Oishi-m's wholesale arm saved both her mental health and quite possibly the business as a whole. "That was pre the global financial crisis," she says. "If we hadn't taken a stronger line then, it is quite possible we wouldn't have made it through that period where it was a bit touch and go." A further break up came when Fallshaw bought McPherson out of Oishi-m last year as the business celebrated its 10-year anniversary. "It was a bit of a milestone to reflect on the business and where we are and where we are going," Fallshaw says, "It was an opportunity for her, as she had been dabbling in women's wear up until then so it was a catalyst for her to exit the business." Fallshaw is determined to keep on expanding the business, which now ships to 37 countries, while ensuring she is able to maintain some work/life balance. That's where Oishi-m's limited production runs come into play again. The federal government's Chief Medical Officer Professor Brendan Murphy has rejected claims a cheap vaccine was used to protect Australians against the flu this season. The vaccine was the "best" and only one available at the time, Prof Murphy said. The Federal Governmenthas rejected claims a cheap vaccine was used to protect Australians against the flu this season. "The claim that cheap vaccines are purchased for the National Immunisation Program is false," Prof Murphy said in a statement on Monday. "The Australian government purchases the best available vaccines for the NIP and the currently supplied vaccines (eg Fluarix Tetra) are also used in the United States, United Kingdom and other developed countries." Baghdad: The man who led an independence push for the Kurdish region of Iraq for more than a decade will quit as president. The move is the latest fallout from an independence vote that many Iraqi Kurdish leaders now see as a catastrophic blunder costing them their economic and political self-reliance. Massoud Barzani, the region's president since 2005, announced his resignation in a bitter speech on Sunday, his first public response to the sustained retaliation from the Baghdad government after the September 25 referendum. Barzani did not apologise for the vote, which was opposed by Washington and most international leaders. He blamed what he called treason by fellow Kurds and the fickleness of his US allies who helped train and equip his security forces for the downturn of Kurdish fortunes. He said that despite leaving the presidency, he was not resigning from politics, and he vowed to stay active in pushing for Kurdish statehood. Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents said on Monday that an abducted American professor was gravely ill and urged the US to accede to their demands for his release and that of his Australian colleague. Kevin King and Australian man Timothy Weeks were taken at gunpoint outside the American University in Kabul more than a year ago and later appeared in a January video tearfully asking President Donald Trump to exchange them for militant prisoners. A man identified as Australian Timothy Weeks pleads for his release in a video released by the Taliban. Credit:AP "We have periodically tried to treat and cure him, but since we are facing a war situation, we do not really have access to health facilities to provide him complete treatment," Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said in a statement. Mujahid said King suffered from heart disease, kidney problem and swollen feet and the Taliban would hold the US government responsible if anything happened to him. An MMSD student calls for removal of police in Madison's high schools during a rally in May 2016. Madison Area Technical College (MATC) wants its coming campus to create change on the south side of the city. That partnership with the neighborhood begins with the design of the building, the project team says. The 18th meeting of the SAFE Working Group (SWG), held from 25 to 27 October 2017 at the WCO headquarters in Brussels, brought together over 125 delegates from Customs administrations, partner government agencies, the Private Sector Consultative Group (PSCG) and observer entities including international organizations. In his opening remarks, the WCO Deputy Director of Procedures and Facilitation Mr. Luc De Blieck welcomed the delegates and underlined the need for a more collaborative approach to addressing the current and emerging security challenges, whilst improving the efficiency of the international supply chain through collective excellence. The SWG, through breakouts and plenary sessions, explored the opportunities, challenges and potential solutions for strengthening the inter-agency cooperation through the effective implementation of Pillar 3 in order to provide a cohesive response to supply chain security and facilitation issues. Several suggestions were put forward that included, among others, promoting value proposition of coordinated border management; avoiding duplication, in particular inspection and audit; sharing of resources; access and exchange of accurate information between various government agencies, connectivity/interoperability of IT systems, and the implementation of single window and integrated supply chain management concepts. The SWG made a substantial progress with the finalization of a number of review proposals for updating the SAFE Framework of Standards (SAFE FoS) as part of the 2018 SAFE review cycle, notable among them are the enhancement of Pillar 3 by introducing harmonization of data filing requirements and Single Window concept as well as adding provisions for strengthening cooperation with other government agencies entrusted with regulatory authorities over certain goods (e.g. weapons, hazardous materials) and passenger control; the advance data requirements for postal items, the revision of the definition of the term Validation, and the addition of more explanatory text on the Financial Viability criteria of the AEO Programme. In addition, the AEO Package primarily containing a comprehensive list of AEO benefits and the updated AEO Template as well as the MRA Package having the MRA Strategy Guide, and the MRA Implementation Guidance have been finalized. These Packages are expected to provide necessary guidance and support to Customs administrations and businesses in strategic planning, engagements and collaboration with stakeholders and overseas partners, and effective implementation of AEO and MRAs with tangible benefits for all. A major breakthrough has been made by the SWG with the adoption of a least disruptive but unique Trade Identification Number (TIN) structure the addition of the 2 digit Alfa numeric ISO Country Code as a separate attribute (qualifier) to the existing national identifier in order to make TIN globally unique. Going forward, a TIN Package will be developed with necessary technical standards, AEO master data elements, and messaging standards by June 2018. This solution is expected to facilitate an efficient implementation of mutual recognition arrangements/agreements (MRAs), greatly benefiting traders and Customs administrations. To further support Customs administrations and stakeholders with the implementation of different Pillars of the SAFE FoS, the SWG approved some other tools/documents, for example the Advance Cargo Information (ACI) Implementation Guidance and AEO Validators Training Course. Furthermore, it discussed and provided guidance on some of the key issues relating to the interoperability of images from different NII manufacturers noting the progress to date on digital pilots; the development of a guidance on the use of data analytics for enhanced implementation of the SAFE FoS and the AEO Programme; the update of the Integrated Supply Chain Management Guidelines, and the development of a paper on the WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation (TFA) Authorized Operator (AO) Scheme and the SAFE AEO Programme. Throughout the meeting, a number interesting and very informative presentations and interventions were made by several delegates on the implementation of AEO, MRA, ACI, and data analytics for effective border management, thus enriching the discussion on respective topics. Bujumbura, Burundi In the framework of the WCO-EAC CREATe project, funded by Sweden, the Burundi Revenue Office (BRO) has requested the WCOs support in the area of strategic planning. A WCO delegation conducted a mission in Bujumbura from 23 to 26 October 2017, aiming to evaluate BROs past strategic plan (2013-2017) as well as to provide guidance for the new strategic plan (2018-2022). During the mission, the BRO and the WCO conducted working sessions with representatives from each of the BRO Commissions (the Office of the Commissioner General, Customs, Internal Tax, Enforcement and Support Services) and the BRO Services, as well as with BROs key stakeholders. These consultations have enabled the BRO and the WCO to clearly identify BROs progress achieved and challenges encountered in the past 5 years. They have also enabled BRO to identify priority areas for the next 5 years as well as to develop the vision, mission and SMART strategic objectives for the new strategic plan. Resource mobilization, trade facilitation, voluntary compliance and organizational development will be at the heart of the plan for 2018-2022. Furthermore, the mission enabled BRO to develop a strategic dashboard with key performance indicators. This strategic dashboard was presented to BROs top management. The BRO committee tasked with the development of the new strategic plan has committed to finalizing its drafting in the upcoming weeks based on the WCO experts recommendations. For more information about this activity in particular and the on the WCO-EAC CREATe project overall, please contact the WCO-Sweden Programme Director, Mr. Richard Chopra (Richard.chopra@wcoomd.org ). The World Customs Organization (WCO), with financial support from the Swedish short-term Fund, organized a National Workshop on Rules of Origin for Albania Customs. This Workshop, conducted in Tirana from 23 to 27 October 2017, was attended by 21 officials from Albania Customs. Albania is part of the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) and the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention, and has also concluded FTAs with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and Turkey. Within the framework of these agreements, there is a wide range of possibilities for cumulation with other partners, each with specific requirements in regard to proof of origin and suppliers declarations. Topics discussed during the Workshop included the key concepts for proper origin determination, related operational and procedural issues, the establishment of an efficient organization and provision of effective training and private sector outreach. During the Workshop, the WCO facilitators presented the Revenue Package initiatives, including the Guidelines on Preferential Origin Verification, Origin Certification and Advance Rulings, which have been designed to assist WCO Members in bringing the provisions in Free Trade Agreements into smooth operation. The WCO Comparative Study on Preferential Rules of Origin and the Database of preferential trade agreements were also presented. Participants discussed specific areas of concern, including the low level of knowledge and use of the FTAs and challenges linked to administrative cooperation. Discussions also emphasized the importance of verifying the originating status of goods, rather than merely checking the authenticity of the certificate of origin. The knowledge and experience gained from the Workshop will assist the Administration in the correct application of the Free Trade Agreements. This will help Albania benefit from the regional economic integration, promote exports of originating products and ensure the correct application of preferential treatments for importations. In the framework of the Swedish-funded WCO-WACAM projects efforts to support regional cooperation in the ECOWAS region, the WCO held a regional workshop on the WCO Data Model from 9 to 13 October in Lome, Togo. The objective of the Workshop was to assist Members in the sub-region to finalize the development of common data standards for transit interconnectivity. The Workshop, organized by WCO officials and facilitated by a WCO DM expert from the Netherlands Customs Administration, was attended by 20 IT experts representing the Customs Administrations of Burkina Faso, Cote dIvoire, Ghana, Mali, Senegal and Togo. During the Workshop, with support from expert facilitators, the participants validated the mapping of existing transit data requirements to the WCO DM. In his opening remarks, Mr. Harouna Ouedraogo, The Deputy Director of Technical Assistant and Training in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), noted the importance of using the WCO DM to develop common data standards enabling interoperability between Members within the context of transit interconnectivity. The WCO expressed its view that although many of the regions Customs administrations use ASYCUDA as their core automated Customs system, the WCO DM Model is a platform-agnostic data framework enabling a variety of systems to interoperate. The Workshop facilitators guided the participants through the use of the WCO DM INTERGOV (Intergovernmental) Information Package as the basis for developing electronic message standards to be used for facilitating communication between Customs offices involved in transit procedures, such as the Customs office of departure, Customs office of transit and Customs office of destination. The need to introduce a concept for exchanging non-transactional data, such as Customs office codes or holiday lists, was identified. Bearing in mind the unique characteristics of such information, the facilitators suggested that a new structure be created within the WCO DM to accommodate this requirement. The Workshop identified several changes to be made to the current WCO DM to accommodate system prerequisites. Draft Data Maintenance Requests (DMR) were consequently prepared, to be submitted for consideration by the Data Model Projects Team (DMPT). U.S. Rep. Ron Kind believes the government needs to reform the health care and tax systems, but theres no chance those changes will happen in a political climate he called hyper partisan, toxic and polarized on the Sunday morning political talk show Capital City Sunday. Wisconsin has historically struggled with startups, and that lackluster performance, is starting to emerge as an issue in the 2018 governors race," host Mike Gousha said on his Sunday political talk show. By Pam Spencer, City of Paducah Oct. 29, 2017 | 08:45 PM | PADUCAH, KY Beginning Monday, a contractor will be completing the final milling and paving projects for the calendar year in Paducah. The work will take a few days to complete, weather-permitting. Broadway between 9th and 13th Streets will be milled and then paved. Also, Harrison Street from North 9th Street to North 10th Street and North 9th Street from Martin Luther King Jr Drive to Harrison Street will be paved. During the street resurfacing work, crews expect to keep one lane of traffic open. However, for the safety of the crews, drivers are urged to find an alternate route. Please use caution, and watch for the work crews and traffic control devices. During this construction period, please avoid parking curbside on affected streets that typically allow curbside parking. These street rehabilitation projects are part of the City of Paducahs annual street improvement plan. Part of the funding is provided through the Kentucky Transportation Cabinets Municipal Aid Program (MAP). MAP funds are collected from the State gas tax and are allocated for maintenance, reconstruction, or construction of city streets. The City of Paducah maintains approximately 220 miles of streets. If you have a question, please call the Engineering-Public Works Department at 270-444-8511. Morning briefing: Petition asks pope to remove Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison for his views on gay Catholics Email To : Multiple e-mail addresses must be separated with a comma character(maximum 200 characters) Email To is required. Your Full Name: (optional) Your Email Address: Your Email Address is required. Advertisement By West Kentucky Star Staff Oct. 30, 2017 | BENTON, KY By West Kentucky Star Staff Oct. 30, 2017 | 01:17 PM | BENTON, KY A Benton pair have been arrested after an altercation involving a gun at a Marshall County home. The Marshall County Sheriff's Office says deputies responded Saturday to a report of an altercation at a home on Tubbs Road. The resident told deputies two men came to the home uninvited. When he asked them to leave, one of the men reportedly pulled a gun and fired it into the air. The resident told police the suspects were headed to Hilldale Apartments in Hardin. Deputies said they saw a woman driving a vehicle matching the description of the one involved in the incident at Hilldale Apartments. Two men got out of the vehicle and fled into the woods. The woman, 26-year-old Amberlee Henson attempted to flee, but was taken into custody. Deputies also found a small child in the back seat. During a search of the car deputies reportedly found a backpack with a meth pipe and a used syringe inside. Henson was arrested and charged with driving on a suspended or revoked license, possession of meth, possession of drug paraphernalia and endangering the welfare of a minor. Shortly later, deputies found 20-year-old Austin Estes and arrested him on charges of second-degree fleeing or evading police, possession of meth, possession of drug paraphernalia, second-degree hindering prosecution or apprehension, carrying a concealed deadly weapon and second-degree disorderly conduct. Estes had two active warrants at the time of his arrest on suspicion of theft by unlawful taking. Both suspects were booked into the Marshall County Detention Center. By West Kentucky Star Staff Oct. 29, 2017 | 07:29 PM | FRANKFORT, KY An ailing pension system threatening our states financial stability is the number one issue facing our great Commonwealth. As your State Senator, I am committed to addressing the pension in a comprehensive, effective, and fair manner, and I am hopeful that the pension reform plan proposed by Governor Bevin and the Kentucky General Assembly will do just that. The framework of the proposed reform focuses on restructuring the pension funding mechanism to ensure the systems are on the pathway to solvency. In this plan, there will be no Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) clawbacks, and checks for those already retired will not be reduced. Those who are still working will not be forced into an older retirement age and their current defined benefits will remain the same until the employees reach their promised level of service for their pension type. Additionally, future non-hazardous employees and teachers will be enrolled in a defined contribution retirement plan that provides comparable benefits to the previous plans. For those enrolled in hazardous plans and future hazardous employees, their benefits will remain the same. This reform will also close a loophole in death benefits for families of hazardous employees, ensuring those who lose their family members in the line of duty will receive their full benefits. It is important to me that current employees understand that I am not insensitive to the fact that these changes will have a financial impact on each of you at varied levels. However, the fact remains, if changes are not made the system will reach insolvency and the entire state will suffer the consequences. It is also important that everyone understand that these changes alone will not solve the pension crisis. There is no doubt that a substantial amounthundreds of millions of dollarsin additional revenue must be infused into the system each year. For months now I have supported a balanced approach to addressing the pension crisis, which includes changes to the system, an infusion of additional revenue generated through tax reform and additional contributions made through savings found through efficiencies in state government. I believe the proposed plan makes needed changes while protecting retirees at the highest level and then those close to retirement and on down the line. When considering the totality of the crisis we are facing and the impact it will have on our entire state if not addressed, I believe it is difficult to argue against the fairness of the proposal set forth. Many people have also asked how legislative pensions will be addressed in pension reform. The proposed plan ends the Legislative Retirement Plan and transfers its assets and administration to the Kentucky Retirement System (KRS) Board. New legislators and legislators elected after 2013 will be placed into same defined contribution (DC) plan as public employees. Other legislators will see their pension benefits reduced as any future benefits will be in the KRS plan. The legislation also ends the ability of current legislators to supersize their pensions and it will reduce the monthly benefit of retired legislators who did increase their pension by closing a loophole and recalculating benefits. As officials elected and held accountable by you, the citizens of our great Commonwealth, we want to ensure these reforms are put in place across the board. Lastly, I want to emphasize that there will be no emergency clause attached to this proposed legislation. That means the reforms will not go into effect until July of 2018, offering sufficient time for current state employees to consider how the changes may affect them. Ultimately, we hope these reforms help us better utilize taxpayer dollars, improve the Commonwealths rating with credit agencies to strengthen our economy, and most importantly, provide a sustainable retirement for our public servants. I want to thank all of you who have contacted me to voice your concerns about the proposal or your support for the proposal. During my time in the Legislature, I have always made decisions that allow me to sleep at night, knowing that I did the right thing. On this, issue I will not sleep well regardless of my vote. I fully realize that sacrifices will be necessary and families will be affected. However, my first priority must be what is best for the state as a whole and the solvency of the pension system. It is imperative the next generation does not suffer for our collective unwillingness to make a difficult decision. If you have any questions or comments about these issues or any other public policy issue, please call me toll-free at 1-800-372-7181 or email me atdanny.carroll@lrc.ky.gov. You can also review the Legislatures work online at www.lrc.ky.gov. Advertisement By Kentucky News Network Oct. 29, 2017 | GEORGETOWN, KY By Kentucky News Network Oct. 29, 2017 | 05:33 PM | GEORGETOWN, KY Toyota unveiled a new engineering headquarters at its plant in Georgetown, Kentucky. The $80 million state-of-the-art facility allows engineers to design and test manufacturing processes that will be used at Toyota plants in North America. Toyota North America CEO Jim Lentz thanked his team of engineers, saying they push the limits every day of what is possible in manufacturing. Lentz said, "Our team members here in Kentucky - as well as team members around the world - are leading us to the future of mobility, and I'm proud that it really begins here. This is our future." Governor Bevin was impressed with the facility, and thanked Toyota for their dedication to the Commonwealth and its workforce. "It is literally like a 'candy store' for people who want to play with things, design things, build things, and turn ideas into physical reality," Bevin said. He said Toyota's goals match that of the Commonwealth. Bevin said, "The vision that we have here in Kentucky, it's simple as well. It is to be the absolute center of engineering and manufacturing excellence in the United States of America." The facility is a home base for more than 600 engineers. Toyota is also partnering with the University of Kentucky to create an undergraduate automotive production engineering certificate. A local conservation group is appealing a federal judges decision to allow high-impact recreation at the Sauk Prairie Recreation Area while its lawsuits challenging state and federal agencies management of the property are pending. Sauk Prairie Conservation Alliance attorneys will argue before the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago on Nov. 9 that off-road motorcycle racing, dog training with firearms, and Army helicopter training exercises could cause irreparable harm to the state-owned property. The group will ask the three-judge panel to restrict such activities until its lawsuits challenging state and federal agencies management of the site are settled next spring. We think the district judge was wrong not to issue the injunction under the legal standards that apply, said SPCA attorney Brian Potts. Our argument shows fairly conclusively that we will prevail on the merits, and that there will be irreparable harm. The property in question was taken by the federal government for construction of a propellant plant during World War II. After the Badger Army Ammunition Plant was decommissioned in 1997, the U.S. General Services Administration oversaw dividing of the 7,300-acre property between several stakeholders. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources claimed more than 3,000 acres for the Sauk Prairie Recreation Area in 2011 through the National Parks Service. The property is located immediately south of Devils Lake State Park between Highways 12 and 78. The SPCA filed suit against the DNR in December 2016 and the General Services Administration and the federal Department of Interiors National Park Service in January. The environmentalists claim the federal agencies inadequately supervised the DNR as management of the 3,400-acre property was transferred from federal to state control. The lawsuit argues the agencies violated federal law by allowing the DNR to include high-impact recreation in its management plan without a thorough analysis of the activities environmental impact. A spokesman for the DNR has said the agency will not comment on pending litigation. The SPCA in June filed a request for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court of Western Wisconsin, but the motion was denied. The group was denied a similar request in Sauk County Circuit Court in March. SPCA Executive Director Charlie Luthin said the group decided to appeal the federal courts ruling because its members believe the high impact recreation has potential to negatively impact wildlife at the Sauk Prairie Recreation Area. He added that the group is optimistic about the appeal hearing. We dont feel like we were given a fair consideration of our request for this temporary injunction of those high-impact activities, Luthin said. The fact that they are willing to listen to our arguments is important because Im sure that the appellate court is bombarded with requests for appeals. Potts, a partner at Perkins Coie LLP in Madison, said the hearing has the potential to influence injunction rulings across state lines. The wheels of justice move slowly, but I think that the fact that they are allowing oral arguments and have allotted so much time to it, bodes well for us, Potts said. This court is a big deal, so whatever they decide could impact how injunctions are issued and these types of issues are resolved in multiple states. A La Crosse man acquitted in a fatal stabbing at Kwik Trip in 2013 was arrested late Friday after instigating a fight at a La Crosse Kwik Trip, authorities reported. Mitrel Anderson, 29, told La Crosse police that a man known as Authentic approached him in the parking lot of the gas station at 71 Copeland Ave. about 11:30 p.m. and punched him in the mouth, according to police reports. He rated his pain a 30 on a one to 10 scale, taking into account his emotional pain. Anderson said the man ducked when he swung back, and then strangled Anderson before Anderson fled in a car driven by girlfriend, 27-year-old Brittany Jones, reports stated. Officers stopped the car minutes later on Second Street. Anderson encouraged police to review surveillance video, which showed Anderson throwing the first punch. Jones was struck by the unidentified male when she intervened. When confronted with the video evidence, Anderson told police he was protecting himself from what he knew was coming, according to reports. Anderson and Jones said Authentic is related to DeMario Lee, who Anderson stabbed to death on June 2, 2013, inside the mens restroom at the Cass Street Kwik Trip. A La Crosse County jury in December 2014 acquitted Anderson of homicide after finding he stabbed Lee in self-defense after a confrontation. He fled after the killing with Jones, who served one year in prison for aiding a felon. Anderson testified that Lee ambushed, beat and threatened to kill him before Anderson drew his knife and swung at Lees head; prosecutors argued that Lee, 24, of Illinois was stabbed as he was leaving the restroom and that Anderson wasnt justified in using deadly force. After his acquittal, Anderson accumulated eight criminal cases before a federal grand jury indicted him Sept. 13 for possessing and intending to sell 84 grams of methamphetamine in Trempealeau County in 2016, according to federal court records. He pleaded not guilty to two charges. Anderson, of 403 Jackson St., faces a disorderly conduct charge in his most recent arrest. He was jailed and released to U.S. Marshals. Jones, who lives at the same address, was arrested on a municipal warrant and for driving after revocation. The three state senators singled out by fellow Republican and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos this past week may not be terrorists as he alleged, but they sure are experts at throwing bombs. Vos knows how to lob a few bombs himself, so its fair to say that it takes one to know one. Still, he falls short when compared to the likes of Republican Sens. Chris Kapenga of Delafield, Duey Stroebel of Saukville and Steve Nass of rural Whitewater. The three have solid reputations for being among the biggest partisan bullies in the Legislature, famous for their its my way or the highway mentality. They havent a clue what the word compromise means, nor do they want to. Take Nass, for example. Goaded on by his mouthpiece, staffer Mike Mikalsen, Nass has taken it upon himself to make the University of Wisconsin miserable. Keeping an eye on a big institution like the UW can be a good thing. But Nass has made a career of slamming the university without so much as relying on any facts. And should the UW push back on his often ill-informed claims, he throws his ultimate bomb a threat to cut the schools funding even more. Stroebel is the legislator who owns bundles of real estate and isnt shy in pushing legislation to make it more difficult for local government and school districts to do anything that would raise property taxes like building or fixing a school, for instance. While hes able to get taxpayer-paid subsidies on much of the land he owns, hes been the leading GOP force behind eliminating the states historic prevailing wage provisions, a bomb that effectively cuts construction workers wages. Kapenga is famous for endorsing one-time GOP presidential candidate and now secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carsons proposal to bar Muslims from being president and Carsons statement that Islam is inconsistent with American values. Hes also a leader in backing ALEC-sponsored legislation and is pushing for a constitutional convention to enact a federal balanced budget amendment. He reserves his big bombs, though, for demolishing Planned Parenthood. The three Senate amigos got under Vos skin for holding the state budget hostage unless Scott Walker made select vetoes that favored pet parts of their agendas limiting school referendums, providing for the immediate repeal of the states prevailing wage law and allowing the state Department of Transportation to ignore federal rules on allocating funds. The DOT changes were particularly important to Vos, and hes still fuming that Walker would give in to the three senators demands, especially after the Assembly and Senate had agreed to a final budget. The liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now and others have pointed out that the Walker deal with the senators is nothing more than log rolling, a practice of trading legislation for favors thats considered a felony under Wisconsin law. The group has filed a complaint with the Dane County District Attorneys Office, asking it to investigate. A former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser has pleaded guilty to making a false statement to the FBI after he lied about his interactions with foreign officials close to the Russian government, the campaign's clearest connection so far to Russia's efforts to meddle in the 2016 election. In court records unsealed on Monday, the FBI said George Papadopoulos "falsely described his interactions with a certain foreign contact who discussed 'dirt' related to emails" concerning Hillary Clinton. Records also describe an email between Trump campaign officials suggesting they were considering acting on Russian invitations to go to Russia. In addition, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former Trump campaign official Rick Gates surrendered Monday to Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller. The charges against top officials from Trump's campaign signals a dramatic new phase of Mueller's wide-ranging investigation into possible collusion between the Russian government and members of Trump's team as well as potential obstruction of justice and financial crimes. Papadopoulos' guilty plea brings the Mueller probe into actions that occurred during the 2016 campaign. The charges against Manafort and Gates are unrelated to the Trump campaign, though it's possible Mueller could add additional charges. Gates, 45, is a longtime business associate of Manafort, 68, having worked together since the mid-2000s, and served as his deputy on the campaign. The two were indicted under seal on Friday, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. President Donald Trump distanced himself from Manafort Monday morning, asking why his general election opponent, Hillary Clinton, wasn't being investigated. "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" He soon added: "Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" He tweeted before Papadopoulos' guilty plea was unsealed. Campaign official suggested 'low level' staff should go to Russia Papadopoulos lied to FBI agents "about the timing, extent and nature of his relationships and interactions with certain foreign nationals whom he understood to have close connections with senior Russian government officials," according to the complaint. Mueller signed a 14-page statement regarding Papadopoulos' offense, which lays out of the facts of the case. In May, Papadopoulos sent an email to a "high-ranking campaign official" with the subject line "Request from Russia to meet Mr. Trump." The email said Russian officials were eager to meet with the candidate and had been reaching out. In a footnote, the FBI statement notes that the email suggesting a Russia visit was forwarded from one campaign official to another. "We need someone to communicate that DT is not doing these trips. It should be someone low level in the campaign so as not to send any signal," the email read. The FBI statement does not explain to whom the campaign officials were concerned about sending signals. Mueller's statement also says that Papadopoulos met with a Russian woman in March 2016 -- introduced to him as a relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, though she was not -- and he sought to use her connections to arrange a meeting between the campaign and Russian government officials. The statement also says that Papadopoulos falsely claimed he met with an overseas professor before joining the Trump campaign about "the Russians possessing 'dirt' on then-candidate Hillary Clinton in the form of 'thousands of emails.'" The professor only took interest in Papadopoulos because of his status on the campaign, according to the statement. A former Trump campaign official said Papadopoulos interacted with the campaign "a significant amount" during the 2016 election cycle. "He was a foreign policy adviser," said the official, who described Papadopoulos as an adviser who was in contact with the campaign staff via email and not a familiar face around Trump Tower. The official said Papadopoulos exchanged emails "constantly" on foreign policy matters with the Trump team during the campaign. Still, this official placed Papadopoulos in the same category as Carter Page, who felt more like a "hanger-on" to the campaign staff. A separate former campaign official and spokesperson said "there was the tight bubble (around Trump) plus a lot of people on the periphery ... very loose." Papadopoulos was on the periphery, the official said. Manafort, Gates charged with conspiracy against the US The indictment against Manafort and Gates contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Manafort arrived at the FBI's Washington field office Monday morning. The two are being processed separately, according to a law enforcement official. They will later be transported to federal district court in Washington later Monday morning. The two are scheduled to make their initial court appearances before US District Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson at 1:30 p.m. ET Monday. CNN has reached out to lawyers for Manafort and Gates. Manafort and Gates were the first officials in Trump's orbit charged in connection with the special counsel investigation, which is exploring whether Trump's actions surrounding the firing of former FBI Director James Comey amount to obstruction of justice. Mueller has taken a broad approach to his mandate that includes a focus on the financial dealings of Trump's team. Trump has been briefed on the charges against Manafort and Gates, a source close to the President told CNN. The source said Trump will likely say later Monday that he feels badly for Manafort and his family. The source added that Monday's developments with regard to Manafort and Gates had been predicted and are completely unrelated to Trump. A source close to the White House -- before Papadopoulos' guilty plea was unsealed -- said "today has zero to do with the White House," noting that the charges pertain to Manafort and Gates' business dealings. "These guys were bad guys when they started, they were bad guys when they left," said another source close to the White House. Asked how Trump will receive the news, the second source said, "I think he takes it on its face" because "it has nothing to do with him." This source added that Trump is still not planning to try to fire Mueller. Clinton, Trump's general election opponent during last year's presidential contest, has no comment on the charges, a spokesman told CNN. Manafort, whose work for former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has attracted scrutiny from federal investigators, has previously denied financial wrongdoing regarding his Ukraine-related payments, his bank accounts in offshore tax shelters and his various real-estate transactions over the years. Gates, who has also denied wrongdoing, was Manafort's longtime business associate in his lobbying firm before being tapped as his deputy on the Trump campaign. Manafort's Ukraine work scrutinized Before the indictment, the FBI in July executed a so-called no-knock search warrant with guns drawn at Manafort's home in Alexandria, Virginia, seizing financial and tax documents, including some that had already been provided to congressional investigators. Federal investigators' interest in Manafort and Gates goes back well before the special counsel was appointed. For about a decade, Manafort worked for Yanukovych and his Russia-friendly Party of Regions. Manafort's work spurred a separate federal investigation in 2014, which examined whether he and other Washington-based lobbying firms failed to register as foreign agents for the Yanukovych regime. Gates joined Manafort's lobbying firm in the mid-2000s and handled projects in Eastern Europe, which later included work for Yanukovych. Yanukovych was ousted amid street protests in 2014, and his pro-Russian Party of Regions was accused of corruption and laundering millions of dollars out of Ukraine. The FBI sought to learn whether those who worked for Yanukovych Manafort's firm, as well as Washington lobbying firms Mercury LLC and the Podesta Group played a role. The Podesta Group is headed by Tony Podesta, the brother of John Podesta, a former chief of staff of the Clinton White House, a senior adviser to President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman. Manafort was previously investigated for failing to register as a foreign agent for the Ukraine work, and the FBI secured approval from the court that handles the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to monitor Manafort's communications. The surveillance lapsed in 2016 but was restarted as part of the FBI-led Russia investigation after Manafort left the campaign. The investigation into Manafort intensified after Mueller was named as special counsel in May. Mueller has hired a team of prosecutors who have examined Manafort's financial and tax history stretching back 11 years to January 2006, while he was working in Ukraine. Running the Trump campaign Manafort joined the Trump campaign in March 2016 to help with delegate counting ahead of the Republican National Convention, as some Republicans hoped to use arcane delegate procedures to wrest the nomination from Trump at the convention in Cleveland. He soon was promoted to campaign chairman, and he became the top official on the campaign after then-campaign manager Corey Lewandowski was fired in June 2016. His tenure didn't last long. The Times reported in August 2016 that Ukrainian investigators found Manafort's name in an off-the-books, handwritten ledger detailing secret payments including $12.7 million to Manafort from Yanukovych's Party of Regions. Manafort denied he had received any such payment and claims the ledger was forged. But just days later, he resigned from the campaign as the accusations swirling around him became a major distraction for Trump. Gates rose and fell with Manafort When Manafort joined the Trump campaign, he brought Gates on board shortly thereafter. As Manafort rose in the ranks, so did Gates, who took on a more prominent role after Lewandowski was fired. But his stock rose and fell with his business partner -- after Manafort resigned in August 2016 amid questions about his Ukraine dealings, Gates' role was diminished, and he later left the campaign. Questions about Gates' work in Ukraine continued to dog him even after Trump was inaugurated. Gates was a founding member of America First Policies, a pro-Trump advocacy group, but stepped down after about two months. Gates was forced to leave amid another round of blistering headlines about Manafort, his longtime business partner and political ally, CNN reported at the time. Gates has denied any allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, telling the Times in June that they were "totally ridiculous and without merit." Gates, according to a source, accompanied Trump ally Tom Barrack to the White House several times this year. Focus of multiple investigations Manafort's web of connections to Russia has continued to expand as the investigations have moved forward. In July, new reports revealed that Manafort was part of a June 2016 meeting organized by Donald Trump Jr. with a Russian lawyer who had connections to the Kremlin. In September, The Washington Post reported that Manafort had offered to provide private briefings on the campaign to Oleg Deripaska, a close ally of Putin. Manafort has denied that he ever "knowingly" communicated with Russian intelligence operatives during the election or participated in any Russian efforts to "undermine the interests of the United States." This story is breaking and will be updated. CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that John Podesta was a chief of staff in the Clinton administration and Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman. CNN's Liz Stark, Sara Murray, Jim Acosta, Jeremy Diamond, Dan Merica and Joe Johns contributed to this report. Too old for trick-or-treating? Perish the thought. Only some of the 26 older adults who came to Saturdays Senior Safe Night Out were costumed, but they all got treats chili (with or without macaroni), cupcakes that they could decorate, popcorn and, if they were lucky at bingo, a space heater. They gathered in the lower level of the Portage Municipal Building for an event sponsored by the Portage Police Department and put on by volunteers from throughout the community, with coordination from Seniors and Law Enforcement Together and The Right Information and Direction. Jerilyn Jerome, a Portage Police Department community service officer, said a Halloween-oriented event had been a Portage tradition, inaugurated by retired police Lt. Penny Kiefer. In recent years, however, other autumn events, such as a Trivia Night, had taken the place of the Halloween-oriented gathering; this was the first revival of a Halloween party in several years. That was just fine with Patricia Figueroa. To create a costume, she foraged through what she could find around her house, including a dusty old hat decorated with numerous commemorative pins and a pair of orange plastic bags with Happy Halloween written on them. One of the bags went around her neck. At first, I thought it would be a tie, but it was too big to be a tie, she said. So its a bib. Her tablemate, Judy Larson, donned an orange shirt with a jack-o-lantern face emblazoned on the front. At the request of her daughter, Portage Police Community Service Officer Teresa Johnson, Larson baked several dozen cupcakes for the event, but left the cakes unfrosted, so that participants could decorate them as they chose. She didnt have the time to do it, so she asked me to make the cupcakes, Larson said. Every place set at the long tables included a bingo card, and the available bingo prizes included a travel kit (with a fleece blanket and inflatable pillow), a microwave egg cooker, a strainer that fits over the mouth of a tin can and, for the blackout winner, the space heater. You are never too old for Halloween, Larson said. But when you get the trick instead of the treat, thats the problem. Frustrated by the lack of competitive and networking opportunities for high school students interested in information technology, Middleton High School senior Balaji Veeramani organized his own contest. Called Project Boolean, it was named after a concept in computer science and mathematics. The event Saturday at the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery on the UW-Madison campus drew 66 students from nine schools. They formed 21 teams of two to four students each. The winners were Langston Nashold, Anna Arpaci-Dusseau and Felix Jiang, all juniors at West High School. Project Boolean was a vision of mine that stems from a lack of opportunities for high school students interested in (information technology), Veeramani said. Because of this, I was encouraged to make a difference. Veeramani, who plans to study computer science in college, said he is so impassioned about making sure future students have the same chance to compete that another event is being planned for the spring, with the idea of training younger students to run the contests in the future. While Veeramani had been mulling the idea of an IT contest since he was a freshman, the majority of the planning for Project Boolean spanned only about six weeks. He said he expected students from Dane County and Milwaukee but Veeramani was surprised that the contest attracted students from as far away as Ashland. Daniel Pope, a junior at Ashland High School, said he had to meet up at 6:30 a.m. to get to Madison on time. He also had to make a tough decision between going to Project Boolean or attending a Halloween party put on by 4-H with which he also is involved. I wanted to come here since its more of my forte, he said. Khrystyna Yadvinska, a junior at Baraboo High School, said she and her team members were encouraged by their computer science teacher, Dan Rhode, to take part in the competition. It appealed to her because its up to the team to decide what programming would be the most effective for solving the problems. Each team received 19 problems that varied in difficulty and required implementing algorithms and using computational thinking and math to arrive at a solution. Points were awarded according to the difficulty of the problem during the 2 hours of the contest. Members within each team wore the same colored headbands that were handed out at the contest. Lori Hunt, computer science teacher at Middleton High School, said she was serving as the staff representative and spread the word of the contest through her involvement as vice president of the Wisconsin chapter of the Computer Science Teachers Association. But she said Veeramani did all the rest of the organizing along with help from his team Haiwen Dai, Umer Sohail and Anton Tung, all seniors at Middleton High School. The team obtained sponsors including primary funder CUNA Mutual Group. Veeramani wrote 80 percent of the problems and got help with the others from his older brother, who is studying computer science at UW Madison. Hunt was impressed by the response for the contest, especially given the short time frame students had to sign up, showing her how much such a contest is needed. She also was happy to see the number of girls taking part. While still small at about 10, participation was better than it would have been a few years ago, she said. Joe Holt, a senior at McFarland High School, said his team was hovering around fifth place while the leaderboard was up during the contest but didnt have enough at the end and finished in the top seven. Id do it again, Holt said. We would be a lot more successful knowing how the whole format works. OR's enduring legacy In celebrating his centenary, Oliver Tambos insights remain relevant for today's ANC and in South Africa. Oliver Tambos name and reputation are lauded, not least because he succeeded, remarkably, in keeping the African National Congress (ANC) together as a liberation movement during an exile lasting 30 years. Despite this legacy, the ANC, now South Africas governing party, has seen a year culminating in what is, arguably, its greatest crisis. Today, factions within the ANC nostalgically point to the example of Oliver Reginald Tambo , or OR as he was affectionately known in party circles. Evidence of systemic corruption and factionalism for personal gain within the ANC are blamed for the failure to deliver improved living conditions to the poorest communities. The loss of three major metropolitan municipal councils in the industrial heartland testifies to diminished confidence in the ANC. By contrast, in the year of his centenary, Oliver Tambo is held as an exemplar of integrity, personifying the ideal of a leader who for 50 years selflessly served the movement, consistently holding up the goals of a humane and caring society. But who was this much talked about Tambo? And what lessons can be learnt from his leadership? Exile In 1960, after the Sharpeville massacre, then ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli instructed Tambo to leave South Africa as an international diplomat of the ANC. His task was to mobilise a worldwide economic boycott. With hindsight it was a prescient judgement call. The military wing of the ANC Umkhonto we Sizwe was launched a year later and within two years leaders of the ANC were facing charges of treason in the Rivonia Trial. The trial, which stretched through 1963-1964, led to life sentences for the leaders of Umkhonto we Sizwe, which included Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Govan Mbeki and Ahmed Kathrada. Tambos task was to alert the world to the horrors of apartheid South Africa, and to seek assistance and support from newly independent states in Africa. It was to be more than 30 years before he returned home in December 1990. During this time, his integrity combined with his keen intellect and natural warmth impressed many people in diverse countries around the world. Consensus seeker Tambo was a careful and astute listener. He followed the indigenous African consensus system of decision making, crafting a conclusion that included at least some of the opinions of all participants. He believed that the ANC should maintain the high moral ground and that it should be a broad umbrella under which all enemies of apartheid could shelter and enrich the movement, irrespective of their political beliefs. He was also cautious, likening the challenge of the liberation struggle to the traditional indima method of ploughing a very large piece of land. He explained at a Sophiatown meeting in 1953. Theres a point where you must start. You cant plough it all at once you have to tackle it acre by acre One of Tambos strengths was his constructive and creative response to criticism. In 1967, for example, following the failure of Umkhonto we Sizwe cadres to reach the borders of South Africa after a battle at Wankie in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Chris Hani and others, disillusioned with the leaders lethargy, released an angry memorandum. In an interview I did with Hani in Johannesburg in 1993 he admitted: We blew our tops. They accused the leadership of Umkhonto we Sizwe and the ANC of getting too comfortable and losing their appetite to return home they had become men in suits, clutching passports. The response by the leadership was outrage the Secretary-General Alfred Nzo called for Hanis execution for treason. But Tambo immediately began organising a conference of elected representatives of the branches around the world. A message was sent to Robben Island to inform ANC leaders jailed there, including Nelson Mandela, of this development. It was time for frank conversation and a comprehensive, considered assessment. The outcome was the historic and constructive conference at Morogoro in Tanzania. The conference took on a more inclusive and democratic direction for the ANC, foregrounding the political aims over the military, and identifying the importance of mobilising workers at home. Challenging 1980s In the 1980s Tambo was faced with a more serious challenge. International attention against apartheid was growing; he was travelling extensively, persuading ordinary people to undermine apartheid by boycotting its products and banks and denying it arms. Alarmed, the apartheid regime sent spies into ANC camps on the continent, infiltrating top committees in Lusaka and other ANC structures. The panic that ensued turned the spotlight on the flaws of the Umkhonto we Sizwe leadership. Human rights abuses of suspected spies and ill-disciplined cadres led to unlawful deaths and executions. Tambos cautious response was criticised by the leadership of both ANC intelligence and Umkhonto we Sizwe for impeding investigation into the spies, owing to his sense of democracy. The chief culprits of these human rights abuses were formerly trusted peers of Tambo. He faced the dilemma of blowing the ANC wide apart if he challenged them. Instead, he resorted to the compromising strategy of redeploying them to other sections of the movement, such as education perhaps leaving an unfortunate legacy for todays ANC. Enduring legacy Tambo was to set in motion a process that culminated in South Africas democratic constitution. He: subscribed Umkhonto we Sizwe and the ANC to the Geneva Convention, which imposed a strict adherence to human rights. set up a commission of trusted senior comrades to look into the conditions in the ANCs camps in Africa as well as abuses. The commissions report was highly critical. summoned an consultative conference in Kabwe in 1985 that reaffirmed ANCs humanist values, addressed gender inequalities and formally accepted whites in official positions. appointed the movements top legal minds to research and craft a constitution for the ANC; it was inspired by the Freedom Charter, which had been drawn up in 1956 after extensive consultation with ordinary people. It opened with the ringing words: South Africa belongs to all who live in it. South Africas new democracy essentially incorporated many of the clauses in the charters the path-breaking 1996 constitution. Tambos insights remain relevant Reporting to his first conference inside South Africa in December 1990 after the unbanning of the ANC, Tambo warned that suspicions will not disappear overnight, the building of the South African nation is a national ask of paramount importance. And he warned: The struggle is far from over: if anything, it has become more complex and therefore more difficult. He also reflected that "we were always ready to accept our mistakes and correct them. Faced by crises in the ANC, Tambo had always been ready to listen, responding constructively and creatively with new policies to meet the challenges of the time. This is the enduring legacy of Oliver Tambo: many seasons later, many continue to gain insights and learn relevant lessons from his responses to the universal, human condition of our time. But whether they heeded this call is a moot point: I have devotedly watched over the organisation all these years. I now hand it back to you, bigger, stronger - intact. Guard our precious movement. Luli Callinicos, Researcher and founder member of the History Workshop, University of the Witwatersrand This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Life-saving new vaccines for Africa "Wits and Vaccines: the impact and potential of vaccines for Africa is the title of a lecture hosted by Wits Faculty of Health Sciences on 1 November, 17:30. Vaccinations. together with access to clean water, have had the biggest impact on public health globally since the 20th century, which saw the control of fourteen diseases through vaccine use, including the eradication of smallpox and near-eradication of polio. Today, life-saving new vaccines are being developed that are targeting all age groups, different populations and devastating disease outbreaks, such as Ebola and yellow fever. However, especially in Africa, far more can be done to increase the impact of immunisation, and to address neglected- and emerging disease threats through the development of new vaccines. The 16th prestigious research lecture will profile the work of two of Wits Universitys internationally recognised, African-led research institutions working in the field of vaccinology, and outline the impact of vaccine research on regional and global health outcomes. The lecture will be delivered by Co-Directors of the Wits African Local Initiative for Vaccinology Expertise (ALIVE); Professor Shabir Madhi, Professor of Vaccinology in the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences and Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) - Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit (RMPRU) and Professor Helen Rees, Executive Director of the Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (Wits RHI). The research undertaken by the 21-year-old RMPRU has focused primarily on the leading causes of death in children under-5 years of age, namely pneumonia and diarrhoeal disease. Professor Madhi reveals: The research has more recently been expanded to focus on vaccination of pregnant women to protect the mother, foetus and newborn. The first randomised placebo-controlled trial showed that influenza vaccination of pregnant women provided approximately 50% protection in the mothers and their young infants against influenza illness. Because of the evidence provided in landmark studies undertaken by RMPRU, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that a number of new vaccines are included into public immunisation programmes of low-middle income countries. Included are the first randomised controlled trials on a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, which target the most common cause of death from pneumonia, and the rotavirus vaccine that targets the most common cause of diarrhoeal associated death in children. Both these studies were published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Largely from this local-led study, South Africa was the first country on the African continent to introduce these vaccines into its childhood public immunisation programme. In doing so, immunisation of South African children with these two vaccines has resulted in 40-50% reduction in all-cause pneumonia and diarrheal hospitalization, he says. In addition, the lives of approximately 45,000 children have been saved since these vaccines were introduced into the public immunisation programme in 2009. In addition to the introduction of new vaccines, a priority area of vaccine research focuses on immunisation coverage of the target population. While a vaccine can protect an individual, high immunisation coverage is required to protect whole populations. Moreover, the Global Vaccine Action Plan adopted by the WHO in 2010 introduces the concept of immunisation across the lifespan to give population protection against a range of diseases beyond childhood. Complementing the work of RMPRU, the Wits RHI, established in 1994, has focused on the introduction of vaccines into adolescents and older age groups. In preparation for the introduction of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines into South Africa in 2014, Wits RHI undertook a series of evaluation and acceptability studies. With the successful introduction of HPV vaccines among 9 and 10-year-olds, Wits RHI is now exploring the impact of HPV vaccines on the epidemiology of HPV and its potential impact on the prevention of a range of HPV related cancers. With the successful global introduction of the HPV vaccine among 9 and 10-year-olds, there is a growing interest in adding other vaccines aimed at protecting adolescents and young adults. In this lecture, we will explore what else could be offered as part of an adolescent vaccine platform, and present on-going work on the development of new vaccines for other sexually transmitted diseases including herpes simplex vaccines, gonorrhoea and HIV, explains Professor Rees. While new vaccines are being developed that are targeting all age groups and different populations, the threat of emerging pathogens, especially in the African region, has also created urgent calls for the accelerated development of vaccines that can be used to prevent potentially devastating disease outbreaks. The Wits RHI has, for many years, been working with the WHO and Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) to assist in the development of global and regional policies and priorities for new vaccines. Celebrating Wits Universitys leadership in vaccinology, the prestigious lecture will end by outlining a new flagship programme awarded to the University in 2016 by the South African Department of Science and Technology/ National Research Foundation (DST/NRF), to strengthen African leadership in vaccinology research and advocacy. This flagship programme, Wits ALIVE, brings together accomplished Wits scientists with a broad range of expertise relating to vaccines and immunisation and aims to foster multi-disciplinary collaborations, build capacity across the region and fill critical knowledge gaps for new vaccine development and deployment. About Professor Shabir Madhi Professor Shabir Madhi, is an international leader in the field of Vaccinology, for which he has been acknowledged with an A-rating by the National Research Foundation since 2011. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate training at Wits (M.B.Ch.B, 1990) and qualified as a paediatrician in 1996 (FC Paeds (SA), M.Med Paeds (SA) 1998, and PhD 2003). Professor Madhi holds the position of Professor of Vaccinology in the Wits Faculty of Health Sciences and is Director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) - Respiratory and Meningeal Pathogens Research Unit, as well as the DST/NRF South African Research Initiative Chair in Vaccine Preventable Disease, and Co-Director of the Wits ALIVE programme. About Professor Helen Rees Professor Helen Rees (GCOB, OBE, MB BChir (CANTAB) MA (CANTAB), MRCGP, DCH, DRCOG, RCOG FP instructor, mAssaf) is Executive Director of the Wits RHI at the University of the Witwatersrand, where she is also a personal professor in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the Co-Director of the Wits ALIVE programme. Wits RHI is the largest research entity of the University of Witwatersrand with a mandate for research, health systems strengthening and training in the fields of HIV, reproductive health and vaccines. She is an Honorary Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where she also served as the international Heath Clark lecturer and is a member of their Visiting Committee. She is an Honorary Fellow at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge University, and an alumnus of Harvard Business School as well as being a Gold Medal award member of the South African Academy of Science. Madison Area Technical College will build out its new South Side campus sooner than expected, officials said Monday, after receiving a donation that could raise as much as $10 million toward the project. MATC President Jack E. Daniels said that the philanthropic arm of Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation and Affiliates has pledged $3 million for the South Side campus, plus another $3.5 million in a matching donation. If MATC can raise $3.5 million to complete the match by the end of March, it would mean a total of $10 million for the project, Daniels said. That would allow the college to build a 75,000 square-foot campus including community meeting spaces, additional science labs and permanent space for advising and other student services earlier than officials had planned. Madison Colleges new South Campus is on the fast-track to completion, Daniels said Monday at a press conference announcing the donation. The college said in August that it would build a 38,000- to 44,000-square-foot facility on the current site of the Badger Road State Office Building, home of the state Department of Employee Trust Funds, at South Park Street and West Badger Road. The additional space wouldve been added in another phase of the project. Daniels estimated it would likely have taken four to five years to raise money and build the expansion without the donation from Great Lakes. The new South Side campus is one piece of a plan Daniels has pursued for years to address local racial disparities by expanding MATCs presence in one of Madisons historically underserved neighborhoods. We all believe that education is the key to better lives, Great Lakes President and CEO Richard D. George said. This campus is going to be a critical component of bringing that education to some of the most vulnerable cohorts in our community. MATC is also planning to shutter its Downtown campus and lease the block-sized parcel just off the Capitol Square to developers who have proposed a new office building and hotel on the site. While the South Side campus will be larger earlier than expected, Daniels said the college wont have to push back its plan to have the facility open by the fall of 2019. Daniels also said the donation wont be affected by the sale of Great Lakes loan servicing arm to the Nebraska company Nelnet, which was announced earlier this month. MATC plans to start demolition of the state office building in the summer of 2018. The colleges governing board already signed off on plans to build a new campus at the South Side site, but will also have to approve the expansion that would be funded by the Great Lakes gift; it will vote on the matter at a meeting Wednesday. The Wisconsin Technical College System Board is expected to take up the proposal at a meeting next week. China News on Women Sorry, the page you requested was not found. If you're having trouble locating a destination on Womenofchina.cn, try visiting the Womenofchina Home page In both contests at the top of the ticket the races for governor and U.S. Senate tens of thousands of voters opted for one of the party's candidate but not the other. Russian floating plant cargo arrives at Pevek 30 October 2017 Share Ships carrying cargo to support "the world's first" floating nuclear power plant have arrived at the port of Pevek, in the Chukotka district of Russia, Rosenergoatom announced today. Rosenergoatom, the nuclear power plant operator subsidiary of Rosatom, also said the floating plant Akademik Lomonosov will be towed to Murmansk in May, be loaded with fuel in October and commissioned in November next year. Akademik Lomonosov (Image: Rosenergoatom) Currently moored at the Baltiysky Zavod shipyard in Saint Petersburg, Akademik Lomonosov houses two 35 MW KLT-40S nuclear reactors, similar to those used in Russia's nuclear-powered ice breakers. By the end of this week, almost 10,000 tonnes of building materials, including sand, gravel and cement, will have arrived at Pevek from Arkhangelsk on the steam ships Kuznetsov and Sabetta. They are also carrying metal structures to support the construction of hydraulic systems and coastal infrastructure. Once the cargo has been unloaded, the materials will enable the schedule for Akademik Lomonosov to be met and provide a reserve for the entire inter-navigational period until 2018, Rosenergoatom said. A third vessel, the motor ship Mahmastal, was due to leave the port of Arkhangelsk for Pevek today with an additional batch of building materials. The washing of the reactor circuit was completed at Akademik Lomonosov at the beginning of this month, which Rosenergoatom described as the final procedure that completes the assembly of the reactor and its subsystems. Testing of its systems and equipment according to its design parameters will continue until the end of this year, it added. "The Akademik Lomonosov floating thermal nuclear power plant project is based on proven nuclear icebreaker technologies and is designed with a large safety margin, which makes nuclear reactors invulnerable to tsunamis and other natural disasters," the company said. "In addition, the nuclear processes on the ships meet all the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency and pose no threat to the environment," it added. The plant is intended to replace the outgoing capacity of the Bilibino nuclear power plant in the Chukotka district. The first Bilibino unit is scheduled to be shut down in 2019 and the whole plant will be shut down in 2021. Rosenergoatom also said that the floating nuclear power plant project received unanimous public support during discussions on the application for an operating licence held on 24 October. Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics Challenges to nuclear growth must be overcome, says Amano 30 October 2017 Share The rate of construction of new nuclear power plants will need to be accelerated if the world is to meet its future energy needs while meeting climate change goals, Yukiya Amano, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said today. Amano was speaking at the opening of the fourth International Ministerial Conference on Nuclear Power in the 21st Century, being held in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. IAEA Director-General Amano speaking at the opening of the ministerial conference (Image: IAEA) The three-day event was organised by the IAEA in cooperation with the OCED Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). The conference is being hosted by the UAE government through the Ministry of Energy and the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR). It has attracted about 700 participants from 67 IAEA member states and five international organisations. The conference - which follows ministerial meeting held in Paris in 2005, Beijing in 2009 and St Petersburg in 2013 - provides a forum for high-level dialogue on the role of nuclear power in meeting future energy demand, contributing to sustainable development and mitigating climate change. "It is difficult to see other low-carbon energy sources growing sufficiently to take up the slack if nuclear power use fails to grow." Yukiya Amano, Director-General of the IAEA Amano said, "It is difficult to see how the world will meet the challenge of securing sufficient energy and mitigating the impact of climate change, without making more use of nuclear power." He added, "In order to meet the world's growing energy needs in future, we will need to make optimal use of all the sources of energy available. It is clear that renewables such as wind and solar power will play an increasingly important role. However, more use of nuclear power will be needed to provide the steady supply of baseload electricity to power modern economies if countries are to meet the goals for greenhouse gas emissions which they set for themselves in the Paris Agreement." In its latest projections, the IAEA says if nuclear power's potential as a low-carbon energy source grows in recognition and advanced reactor designs further improve both safety and radioactive waste management, the use of nuclear power could grow significantly. In its high case projection, global nuclear generating capacity increases from 392 GWe at the end of 2016 to 554 GWe by 2030, 717 GWe by 2040 and 874 GWe by 2050. Nuclear's share of global electricity generation would increase from the current level of about 11% to 13.7% by 2050. This projection - which assumes that current rates of economic and electricity demand growth, particularly in Asia, will continue - reflects that 30-35 new reactors are expected to be grid connected annually starting around 2025. "Clearly, the pace of construction of new nuclear power plants will need to be stepped up if the world's future energy needs, as well as climate change goals, are to be met," Amano said. "It is difficult to see other low-carbon energy sources growing sufficiently to take up the slack if nuclear power use fails to grow." NEA director general William Magwood said, "International cooperation can no doubt ease the path forward toward a clean, affordable and secured energy by addressing collectively the major technical, economic and political challenges with a focus on both today and the future." Collaborating Centre The UAE announced it is to establish a "Collaborating Centre" with the IAEA at Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research in Abu Dhabi. The agreement marks the beginning of a four-year period of close cooperation between the university and the IAEA on implementing activities in the field of nuclear power infrastructure and human resources development, the IAEA said. In particular, Khalifa University will support IAEA activities on enhancing member states' capabilities in building and assessing the infrastructure required for a nuclear power programme, as well as developing critical competencies required for infrastructure development. The nuclear industry has set the Harmony goal for nuclear energy to provide 25% of global electricity by 2050. This will require a tripling of nuclear generation from its present level. Some 1000 GWe of new nuclear generating capacity will need to be constructed by then to achieve the goal. World Nuclear Association Director-General Agneta Rising told the conference: "Nuclear generation is a competitive option, but barriers are preventing nuclear generation from making the full contribution that is needed. Removing these barriers is essential to achieving the Harmony goal." The Association has identified three areas for action to achieve this: establishing a level playing field in electricity markets, building harmonised regulatory processes, and an effective safety paradigm. Rising added, "We in the nuclear industry are keen to support governments to meet their energy policy objectives and solving the environmental challenges. And governments will be key in removing the barriers that prevent them from fully benefiting from nuclear energy's proven 24/7 low-carbon contribution." UAE Minister for Energy and Industry Suhail Al Mazroui said: "No doubt, nuclear energy will have an important part to play in addressing one of the key challenges facing the world in the 21st century - securing reliable, efficient and sustainable supplies of clean energy." He noted that nuclear energy forms an "essential part" of the decarbonisation of the UAE energy mix. "The UAE is committed to using nuclear energy to materialise our national developmental needs," he said. Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation CEO Mohamed Al Hammadi noted, "The International Ministerial Conference gives us a great opportunity to collectively engage in high-level discussion on how we can meet future energy demands through peaceful nuclear energy. We want to ensure that as an industry we continue contributing to sustainable development, as well as driving economic growth and creating highly-skilled jobs for a talented workforce." Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics Ontario outlines long-term energy plans 30 October 2017 Share The government of Ontario has reconfirmed its support for the Canadian province's nuclear sector in its long-term energy roadmap. The plan focuses on energy affordability, innovation and customer choice in the province, which already generates over 90% of its electricity without producing greenhouse gases. The 2017 Long-Term Energy Plan (LTEP) - subtitled Delivering fairness and choice - was published on 26 October after a consultation and engagement process involving industry, indigenous communities and organisations, businesses and private citizens. The previous LTEP was published in 2013. "Ontario is committed to ensuring our electricity is clean, reliable and affordable," Minister of Energy Glenn Thibeault said. "The 2017 Long-Term Energy Plan outlines our investments to date and how we plan to continue building an energy system with fairness and choice for people across the province." The new LTEP forecasts that electricity demand will be relatively steady over the planning period. It includes initiatives to maximise the use of Ontario's existing energy assets, only securing new capacity when it is needed. Ontario's electricity generation was 90% free of greenhouse gas emissions in 2016. It recognises the refurbishment of existing nuclear power plants as the most cost-effective option for meeting the province's baseload generation needs. Plans were laid out in the 2013 LTEP to refurbish a total of 10 nuclear units between 2016 and 2033 four units at Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) Darlington plant and six units at Bruce Power's Bruce plant. Together, the two plants provide around half of the province's electricity needs. The plan also recognises the need to continue operating OPG's Pickering nuclear power plant until 2024 to provide baseload electricity during the Darlington and initial Bruce refurbishments. The continued operation of Pickering would reduce the use of natural gas to generate electricity, saving up to CAD 600 million ($467 million) for electricity consumers and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least eight million tonnes, the plan notes. OPG said the LTEP's recognition of its progress on the Darlington refurbishment and the value of the continued operation of Pickering was "good news" for the company and its host communities. "The LTEP foresees a huge leap in the electrification of the transport sector in Ontario. OPG's clean energy mix is the perfect platform for providing the power needed to accomplish this," the company said. Bruce Power CEO Mike Rencheck said the company was "encouraged" by the government's ongoing trust, with stable government policy important to enable the company to make long-term investments such as the life-extension programme. "By extending the life of the Bruce site, Ontario will have the stable, reliable, low-cost and clean energy foundation needed to further pursue modernisation and decarbonisation of the provinces electricity system and economy," he said. "Nuclear will provide the backbone Ontario needs to meet and exceed its emissions targets, while benefitting families and businesses as a low-cost, reliable source of electricity through 2064." Innovation The LTEP also notes opportunities from nuclear innovation such as small modular reactors, nuclear fuel research, and the role that nuclear could play in the large-scale production of hydrogen as an alternative to hydrocarbon fuels. "Ontario is keenly interested in collaborating with the federal government, universities and industry partners to continue its support of the nuclear industry for both energy and non-energy applications," it notes. It also recognises the role played by province's nuclear power plants in producing medical isotopes, especially cobalt-60 which is used in cancer therapy as well as imaging, sterilisation and surgical procedures. The province currently produces 70% of the world's supply of the isotope at the NRU research reactor at Chalk River, and the Pickering and Bruce B plants. Bruce Power has established a new long-term supply of medical-grade cobalt from Bruce B that will help replace the supply from the NRU, which is due to close in March 2018, while Ottawa-based health-sciences company Nordion is exploring the use of the Bruce A and Darlington reactors to expand the production of cobalt-60, the report notes. The minister of energy has now issued directives to Ontario's Independent Electricity System Operator and the Ontario Energy Board to develop implementation plans to meet objectives outlined in the LTEP. The agencies are required to prepare the plans based on the directives and submit them for ministerial review by 31 January. Researched and written by World Nuclear News Related topics Over the years, several artists including Cornelis van Haarlem, Jacopo Tintoretto, Francois-Joseph Navez, and Peter Paul Rubens have depicted the massacre in paintings. Rubens two paintings of the massacre are the most common because of the clarity and vivid description of the infanticide. Biblical History According to a biblical account as presented by the Gospel of Matthew, King Herold the Roman-appointed King of the Jews ordered the execution of all newborn male children in Bethlehem after the wise men told him that a new king had been born in the city. Herold feared that the birth of a new king would lead to his downfall and sought to kill all the male babies. The biblical account of the execution was later referred to as the Massacre of the Innocents. Although the account is reported in the Gospel of Matthew (2:16), several historians who have studied ancient Roman and Jewish history dispute the account. Historians E. P. Sanders and Geza Vermes are among those who have disputed the account and termed it a creative hagiography. The Massacre of the Innocents by Rubens Peter Paul Rubens painted the first painting of the Massacre of the Innocents between 1611 and 12 after returning to Antwerp, Belgium from Italy where he had spent eight years. The painting alongside his other painting of Samson and Delilah were stored in Vienna Austria as part of the Liechtenstein Collection. The Liechtenstein family seal was embedded in the paintings until the 19th century. The painting was later sold to an Austrian family in 1920 and subsequently loaned to Stift Reichersberg in 1923. In 2002 the painting was sold to a Canadian art collector Kenneth Thomson for 49.5 million. It was loaned to the National Gallery, London until 2008 when it was moved to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, Canada. Between 1636 and 1638, Rubens painted another version of the Massacre of the Innocents which was acquired in 1706 by the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany where it continues to hang to date. The Massacre of the Innocents by Bruegel Other versions of the Massacre of the Innocents were painted by Pieter Bruegel and his son Pieter Brueghel Junior. The only version painted by Pieter Bruegel hangs at Windsor Castle in England. The painting is set to depict a similarity between the Roman soldiers and the Spanish army and German mercenaries attacking a village covered in snow during the severe winter of 1564-5. Instead of depicting the slaughter of children like the other paintings, it shows soldiers engaging in vandalism and looting, scattered food, animals left unattended, and a generally chaotic scene. A woman wailing over her dead baby is found at the center of the painting which is used to signify that killing of the innocent was happening during the chaos. Pieter Brueghel Junior painted several versions of his fathers painting. One is found in Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna while another version was sold at the Christie's auction 2012 for 1.8m. The National Museum of Art of Romania houses another version while a further version was sold in 2009 at the cost of 4.6m. Since the early days of civilization, various naval battles have been fought up until the early 20th century. In each of these naval battles, technological advances have been a factor in victories and defeats. Also, the sheer scale of these naval battles have made a select few achieve the distinction of being the largest naval battles of all time. 9. Battle of Salamis On September 480 BC, the naval Battle of Salamis was fought between the Greek City states and the Persian Empire ruled by the brutal King Xerxes. It was fought in the straits in the middle of Piraeus and Salamis Island in the Saronic Gulf that borders Athens, Greece. The Battle of Salamis was triggered by Persians who had occupied the city of Athens city burned it. This caused the Athenians to flee to Salamis after the Battle of Thermopylae in August 480 BC that pitted Persian King Xerxes versus King Leonidas of Sparta. The Athenians were joined in Salamis by the Greeks after the 480 BC August-September Battle of Artemisium between the Greek and the Persian army. The Greeks and their allies at Salamis began to ready themselves to retake their territory from the Persians who had 1207 navy ships. These ships were more than those of the Greeks and their allies. King Xerxes decided to attack at dawn after receiving false intelligence that the Athenians were turning against their allies. But the Greeks and their allies attacked the flanks of the Persian naval fleet on the narrow Salamis strait. The Greeks defeated them and sunk at least 200 Persian battle ships. By midnight, the soldiers of the navy of Xerxes stationed at Psyttaleia had also been killed by the Greeks and their allies. The Battle of Salamis saved Greece from being forcefully incorporated into the Persian Empire, and ushered the first emergence of Western Civilization into the world. 8. Battle of Cape Ecnomus Fought in 256 BCE, the Battle of Cape Ecnomus was a series of three First Punic war battles fought between the Roman Republic and the Carthaginian Empire. It is also one of the largest battles in ancient history. The Battle of Cape Ecnomus was fought at Cape Ecnomus, the modern day Poggio di Sant'Angelo in Licata, Sicily Italy. It began when the Romans dispatched a fleet of over 330 battle ships from Sicily to Africa to strike the Carthaginian homeland, today called the Tunis Governorate in Tunisia. Before the Roman Navy fleet crossed the Mediterranean, they faced 350 Cathaginian navy ships near the modern day Licata in Sicily. Both sides each had an army of over 140,000 at their front lines but the experienced Romans prevailed, and continued onto Africa. The Romans' aim was to shift their battle with the Carthaginians into their own territory rather than fight in Sicily, their territory. The Roman navy fleet was commanded by consuls Marcus Atilius Regulus and Lucius Manlius, and the Carthaginian were commanded by Hanno the elder. Although the Roman navy was inexperienced, they came up with a plan to defeat the well drilled Carthaginian navy. The Roman fleet divided itself into four squadrons and they began by attacking the Carthaginian navy at the center. The Carthaginian had formulated its front line in a line. This tactic made them vulnerable and they got surrounded and overrun by four Roman navy squadrons. At the end of the battle of Cape Ecnomus, the Romans captured 64 Carthaginians ships plus their crews, without any of their ships falling into Carthaginians hands. 7. Battle of Red Cliffs The naval Battle of Red Cliffs, also called the Battle of Chibi, was fought at the end of the Han dynasty, and twelve years before the start of the Three Chinese Kingdoms. This battle was fought during the AD 208/9 AD winter at Chibi in Hubei Province. The Battle of the Red Cliffs was between the armies of Liu Bei and Sun Huan, both southern warlords, against the armies of Cao Cao, the northern warlord who controlled the unified northern China and North China plain. Armies of Liu Bei and Sun Quan were able to repel Cao Cao's plans to conquer land to the south of Yangtze River. As a result, Liu Ben and Sun Quan reunited the Eastern Han Dynasty and gained control of Yangtze. Controlling the Yangtze gave them a defense line which caused the creation of Shu Han and Eastern Wu which were both southern states. As a way to discourage the southern warlords, Cao Cao first sent a letter to Sun Huan bragging he had an army numbering up to 800,000 men. In reality, his troop numbers were only close to 230,000, while the Liu Bei and San Huan led southern naval fleet of about 50,000 well trained marines. During the Battle of the Red Cliffs, Cao Caos men who had little naval battle experience became seasick and demoralized. In order to try gain an upper hand, Cao Cao ordered the ships he commanded to be tied together. In the meantime, Sun Huan ordered some of his army men led by Huang Gai to feign defection to Cao Caos side. The ruse worked and Cao Cao allowed them to sail near his ships at Yangtze River without his army attacking them. It was then that Huang Gais men lit their ships on fire and they became floating fireballs which lit and burned up Cao Cao's ships which were bound together. Huang Gais men managed to escape with small boats, however the Cao Cao naval army drowned while attempting to escape their burning ships while others remained trapped in the burning flames. These losses were immense for Cao Cao and he escaped through the swamps around Red Cliff towards his northern China base. 6. Battle of the Masts The naval Battle of the Masts, fought in 655 AD, pitted Muslim Arabs who were led by General Abu L-Awar against the Orthodox Christian Byzantines commanded by Emperor Constans II. This battle was fought in Constantinople, which is known today as Istanbul. It was the then capital of Roman/Byzantine empires. The Battle of Masts was triggered by Arabs who desired to conquer Constantinople like they had to provinces in Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and parts of the Middle East. They planned to attack through the Sea of Marmara. To repel the attack, Emperor Constans II with his naval fleet of 500 ships pursued and caught up with the 200 naval Arab ships at the Turkish Port of Finike. The over-confident Constans II navy attacked the Arabs navy hastily, without planning an attack formation, expecting to crush them with one assault. Against all odds, the outnumbered Arab navy destroyed the Byzantine navy to shreds. The defeated Byzantines fled and left their fleet to be destroyed by a storm. Their emperor Constans II disguised himself as a seaman to escape. The Sea of Marmara was stained with blood, and bodies from the Battle of the Masts were piled at the shores. Since the battle was fought by the navy ships in up-close style, it got the name the Battle of the Masts. 5. Battle of Yamen On March 19th, 1279, the naval Battle of Yamen took place in Yamen, China. This is one of the four naval battles fought during the Song and Yuan dynasties reigns in China. The Battle of Yamen was between the Songs dynasty versus the invading Mongols Yuan dynasty. Yet it was won by the Mongols Yuan dynasty that was outnumbered 10:1 by the Songs Dynastys navy. The defeat marked the final fall of the Song Dynasty. During the battle of Yamen, the Yuan naval forces led by Zhang Hongfan attacked the Songs naval fleet in Yamen led by General Zhang Shijie. Though some soldiers commanded by General Shijie called for an attack to conquer the bay mouth and open the way for retreating westwards, the general disagreed. Instead he had the 1000 naval warships chained together with Emperor Bings boat positioned at the center of the fleet. The Yuan ships attacked Songs ship with fire ships but Songs troops repelled their attacks using fire resistant mud ships. The Yuan army also stopped wood and fresh water supplies to Songs forces and their navy by blockading the bay. As a result, the General Shijie led Songs forces had to drink seawater and they fell ill. His nephew was also kidnapped by the Yuan forces and they urged Shijie to surrender three times but he continued to fight on. The Yuan forces also ran a Trojan attack strategy on the Songs naval forces which resulted in over 100,000 of Songs forces dead from drowning or fighting. The dead also included the Emperor Bing of the Song Dynasty. 4. Battle of Lake Poyang The Battle of Lake Poyang was fought between the naval forces of two Chinese rebel leaders, Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang. It occurred on August 30th 1363, and was among the final battles fought as the Mongol led Yuan dynasty fell. The battle of Lake Poyang was fought to determine which rebel group would lead the Chinese empire since the Mongol led Yuan dynasty had began disintegrating from the mid 14th Century. Zhu Yuanzhang led the Ming group, while Chen Youliang led the Han group. Each dynasty was from a different part of China. Their battle was fought in Chinas largest freshwater, Lake Poyang. During the Battle of Lake Poyang, new warfare technology was used like firearms, gunpowder, and floating fortresses called tower ships. This battle had a fleet of over 100 Han group tower vessels and a smaller Ming Chinese flotilla boats. To win the Battle of Lake Poyang, the Ming group used fires ships captained by dummies. They filled the fishing boats with straw and set them alight. Once the floating fire ships reached the Han ships, they ignited and burned them, forcing the Han group to retreat. Almost a million soldiers and sailors were involved in the Battle of Lake Poyang which ended on October 4th, 1363. The Han leader, Chen Youliang, died after being shot through the head with an arrow and the Han battalion collapsed. After the Ming group won the battle, they ruled China for 276 years until 1644. Their leader Zhu Yuanzhang also became the powerful Ming Dynastys first emperor. 3. Battle of Jutland The Battle of Jutland was World War Is largest naval battle. It took place from May 31st to June 1st 1916 on Denmarks North Sea coast. This bloody battle involved 250 naval battle ships and about 100,000 men. The battle started after the German high seas fleet attempted to weaken the British Royal Navy by ambushing their fleet at the North Sea. German Admiral, Reinhard Scheer wanted to bait Admiral Sir David Beattys battle cruiser force and Admiral Sir John Jellicoes Grand fleet in order to destroy them. Scheer wanted to attack and destroy Beattys force before Jellicoe arrived, but the British were warned by code breakers, and they stationed their forces early into the sea. Nonetheless, the Germans used their shells to destroy HMS Lion and sink HMS Indefatigable and HMS Queen Mary under Beattys command. As a result Beatty retreated until Jellicoe's main fleet arrived. The arrival of Jellicoe's fleet caused the Germans to be outgunned and they retreated. In the Battle of Jutland, the British lost 14 ships and over 6000 men, while the Germans lost 11 ships and over 2500 men. Afterwards, the Germans could never challenge the British control of the North Sea. As a result, the British assumed naval dominance over the North Sea shipping lanes and their blockade caused the Germans to be defeated in 1918. 2. Battle of the Philippine Sea The Battle of the Philippine Sea was fought during World War II. This two day naval battle was fought from June 19th to June 20th 1944, between the Japanese and US navy fleets. The battle of the Philippine Sea pitted nine Japanese carriers against fifteen American navy carriers in Task Force 58. It was triggered by the US invasion of Saipan, a Japanese base in Mariana Islands, on June 15th 1944. As a result, the Japanese naval force under Admiral Soemu Toyoda sent planes to fight the US naval warships commanded by Admiral Raymond Spruance. The intention was to halt the US naval warships advancing in the Pacific Sea and secure Saipan so that the Japanese could station their troops there. However, the US conducted large scale attacks on the Japanese supply chain ships that supplied its fleets. During the battle of the Philippine Sea, the Japanese lost three aircraft carriers, two oilers, and 600 planes while the US lost 120 planes. With his air warplanes significantly destroyed, Admiral Toyoda ordered his navy fleet to retreat at night. These losses was a significant cause in the Japanese Imperial Navys lack of ability in conducting large scale aircraft carrier operations against Allied Powers. 1. Battle of Leyte Gulf The Battle of Leyte Gulf was an air and naval battle that began on October 23 1944, on the Island of Leyte in the Philippines. It started after Vice Admiral Takeo Kurita of the Imperial Japanese Navy led his fleet to the Island of Leyte in Philippines to fight US troops during World War II. The Japanese naval fleet had intended to maintain their dominance over the Philippines. In the four days of heavy fighting, the US troops led by General Douglas MacArthur decimated the Japanese navy using their submarines. During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Musashi, Japans most powerful and superior battleship was sunk by US warplanes on October 24 1944. On October 26 what remained of the Japanese navy fleet retreated and left the US and her allies controlling the Pacific Ocean, and the Battle of Leyte Gulf ended. This battle saw General MacArthur honor the promise that he had made in 1942 to return to the Philippines. It is considered the greatest battle in naval warfare history due to the sheer scale of the battle. The Texas Revolution was a war fought between 1835 and 1836 where Texas colonists wage war against the Mexican government resulting in the independence of Texas. Mexican had a belief that the war was instigated by the United States and therefore, the country Congress enacted the Tornel Decree that declared any foreign fighter putting up arms against Mexican soldiers would be considered the pirates and have to face the harshest military actions. Texas was the only province that managed to gain independence from Mexico and successfully join the USA. Causes of the Revolution The Texas Revolution started in October 1835 as a result of cultural and political disagreements between the large population of settlers from America and the Mexican government. Following the centralization of the Mexican government and increased limitation of citizens rights, the American colonists and the Tejanos (Mexican Americans) combined forces to fight the Mexican government with the support of the United States. Although the revolution was preceded by the battles of Gonzales and San Jacinto, the conflicts and turmoil that had pitted the Anglo-American immigrants and the Tejanos against the troops of Mexico started intermittently from 1826. Important Battles The Battle of Gonzales The Battle of Gonzales resulted in the first casualties of the Texas Revolution. The battle resulted from disputes over a cannon loaned by the Mexican military to the citizens of Gonzales for protection. As tensions rose between the two groups, the Mexican government decided to take back the cannon. The residents of Gonzales thought the decision was part of a bigger ploy by the Mexican government and military, and staged an ambush on the morning of October 2, 1835. Although it is thought to be more of a small skirmish than a battle, it was declared as a victory for the Texan colonists, and flared the confidence of Americans who came to join in the fight. The Battle of the Alamo On February 23, 1836 the Mexican Army advanced on the 100 Texan soldiers garrisoning the the Alamo, a mission and fortress compound in San Antonio, Texas. The Texan soldiers were unable to defend the garrison, and all were killed in the subsequent takeover. The Battle of the Alamo is considered one of the most important battles of the Texas Revolution as the defeat of the Alamo caused a large influx of soldiers into the Texan army. The Battle of San Jacinto The determining battle of the Texas Revolution was the Battle of San Jacinto during which the Texan army, led by General Sam Houston and bolstered by the defeat at the Alamo, defeated the Mexican army lead by General Santa Anna. The battle, which took place on April 21, 1836 and lasted just 18 minutes, resulted in the capture of Santa Anna and the subsequent signing of a peace treaty promising the withdrawal of the Mexican army from the region. The battle and the ensuing peace treaty paved the way for the independence of the Republic of Texas from Mexico. Aftermath of the Revolution The main result of the Texas Revolution is the establishment of the Republic of Texas under the leadership of Sam Houston as the first president. Houston later became Governor and Senator when the Republic of Texas joined as one of the American states. Although the war resulted in many military and civilian casualties, the revolution gave courage to other dissatisfied communities to demand for their rights. The European Union is by far the largest economic block in the world. The Union has grown from the initial six members; Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, to the current 28 members. Although the number of states has increased, others are also leaving or showing interest to leave the block. The UK voted to leave through a referendum, while Turkeys president Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that he would reconsider his countrys position regarding joining the EU although the country has been seeking to be a member of the Union the past 12 years. Budget of the European Union The EU maintains a budget to offset its administrative costs and fund policies such as agriculture, research, and international aid and development. About 6% of the budget is spent on administrative purposes while the remaining 94% is used to fund policies. The Union collects revenue from traditional own resources such as customs duties from non-EU members, 0.3% of the vat collected in each country, 0.7% of each state's resources, and other deductions such as deductions from bank interest, deductions from the staff salaries, and contributions from non-EU members. Controversies surrounding the funding of the Union began in the 70s and is one of the several issues that led to the withdrawal of the UK. On November 24th, 2015, the European Council approved a 143.89 billion budget for the year 2016 while the members committed a further 12 billion to combat the rise in the number refugees streaming to Europe, fight against terrorism, research and growth, and agriculture. Top Contributing Countries Germany is the largest contributor to the EU, accounting for 21.11% of the budget. France (16.44%), Italy (13.64%), the United Kingdom (13.05%), and Spain (8.51%) are the other top contributors. These five countries accounted for approximately 70% of the 2016 EU budget. In 2016, the UK contributed 13.1 billion after the UK rebate of 4.5 billion was deducted, however, it only received 4.5 billion, therefore the UKs total cost was 8.6 billion. Countries Contributing the Least Malta (0.05%), Estonia (0.10%), Latvia (0.11%), Cyprus (0.14%), and Lithuania (0.21%) contributes the least to the EU budget. Effect of Brexit on the EU Budget The withdrawal of the UK from the EU leaves a gap of about of 10-11 billion per year according to Gunther Oettinger, European commissioner for the budget. Apart from Britain, Germany, Austria, and the Netherlands also received rebates as part of the deal. According to Gunther, the Union will reconsider the rebates as part of filling the budget deficit. The European Union budget for 2017 was set at 157.9 billion, but the exit of the UK is set to trigger the Union to reconsider some expenditures. As part of its withdrawal process, the Union has demanded that Britain pay 60 billion as the UK's share of commitments to the pensions of its workers and ongoing projects that the UK had already committed to, but the UK has turned down the request and stated that it would not pay the amount demanded. Former State Rep. Rich Morthland SPRINGFIELD - State Rep. Jeanne Ives (R-Wheaton) reached out to friends and supporters Saturday, asking them to circulate petitions to gather the needed 10,000 signatures needed to get on the March 2018 GOP primary ballot, challenging incumbent Governor Bruce Rauner. Illinois law requires gubernatorial candidates to run as teams with their lieutenant governors, so the petitions revealed Ives' pick. The name on her petitions is former State Rep. Rich Morthland, from the Quad Cities part of the state. He served one term - from 2011 to 2013 - in the Illinois House. Who is Rich Morthland, and how will his views blend with the gubernatorial candidate's? A man from the United States was arrested in the Philippines as a result of a joint effort with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and local officials. In a press conference, Philippine National Police (PNP) Superintendent Maria Shiela Portento said that 58-year-old Robin Hoyt Alderman, a yoga instructor, was arrested for attempting to sexually exploit children. Alderman contacted an adult who connected him with three children, ages 14 and 15, via social media, and he spoke to them about acting out his fantasies of Fifty Shades of Grey with them. His social media account was flagged and his activities were reported to authorities. Alderman traveled to Vietnam and then to Manila, where he arranged to meet the minors. He allegedly described on social media his plans to buy a motorcycle so he can abduct homeless children to rape them as well. Portento showed off Aldermans seized possessions that included a variety of sex toys, different face masks, cell phones, a laptop, and pills. We have reason to believe that apart from his sexual perversion, Alderman wanted to record the abuse so that he can sell videos online, Tuliao said. Senior Superintendent Villamor Tuliao, who heads the WCPC Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division, said. The three victims were placed under the protection of local social services. Alderman was charged with violation of republic act 10365 or the expanded anti-human trafficking law. "Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed and are right." It should not be a surprise that Democrats are using every opportunity possible to criticize President Trump and members of his administration; this is what the opposition party often does. This can be beneficial to our country when it provides opposing viewpoints and forces both governing bodies to defend their positions by providing facts and examples. The public would like to think these elected men and woman who have altruistic motives and are equipped with logic, superior intelligence, and facts enabling them to make wise decisions. Whether Menckens statement was tongue-in-cheek or not, his evaluation is probably truer than we would like to admit. That is why the public often turns to the media in the hope this source is unbiased, will seek all the facts, and provide an objective analysis of the days political news. Is that happening in America today? Most Americans do not think so. Americans once thought of media sources as objective with eyes and ears close to the issues of the day and thus positioned to analyze and provide the public with unbiased facts. We trusted them to respect their audience, without persuading them toward a specific opinion on issues. However, the media has evolved into being a very big business and as such depends upon advertisers, subscribers, and public opinion for its success. Thus, when the choice becomes profit over accuracy, profit wins most every time. Add to that the elements that attract subscribers, such as sensationalizing issues, stressing conflict, and throwing in fear tactics, all of which tend to grab peoples attention. Most media sources provide what their customers want, even if that requires some carefully crafted distortions or fake news reports. A growing number of media sources mislead through headlines that claim the exact opposite of information provided in the article. These sources have determined many of us are headline readers who form our opinions by a quick read of headlines, rarely the entire article. The Existence of Media Bias An interesting discussion is whether the media influences public opinion or if public opinion influences the media. We do know that for the past few decades a majority of American people no longer find most media sources fair and balanced. Proof is in a 2016 study by Gallup which indicated only about 30% of Americans trust the media and only 14% of Republicans do so. The average, modern media source often spends more time trying to entertain and/or shock viewers, rather than provide irrefutable facts about important issues. The media pretends to be an objective, investigative source, but evidence indicates otherwise. Intensive investigative type reporting in the style of Watergate is rare today. Nobody disputes that media bias exists. Consider the 2016 election and first year of Donald Trumps presidency for proof of the sad deterioration of bi-partisan journalism today. Attacks by various media sources against President Trump have been and continue to be unprecedented. That is far different than the lack of scrutiny the media applied to Barack Obama. Gone are the days when media sources fairly reported only facts, without cleverly inserting his/her specific political viewpoint. This is unfortunate because the intent of the media should be accuracy and fairness rather than using their position for partisan politicizing. Media Bias Determined by Audience The difference in how specific media sources report news can be evidenced in their audiences. For instance, most Conservatives trust FOX almost exclusively for their news, possibly because there are few other Conservative news sources available. Some find this fact, only one main Conservative T.V. programming, quite telling and an important subject for discussion. Most of the media leans to the Left by varying degrees, giving Liberals many choices and chances to be indoctrinated with one-sided information. The most popular sources are CNN, NPR, MSNB, and the New York Times. According to surveys, only 52.8% of internet users believe information online is reliable and accurate. That is why many have used sources like SNOPES to check a storys accuracy. However, while this site does investigate and provide facts for the public, they are not immune to receiving false information during their investigations. A classic example of the difficulty in determining fact from fiction is seen regarding George Soros and varying reports about him in Germany during the Nazi years. It is becoming exceedingly difficult for the average person to discern fact from fiction even when an effort is made to do so. Hollywood may be the most Liberal of all media sources and is unapologetic about influencing public opinion on specific issues, while at the same time critical of those with whom they disagree. Madonna has been one of several such personalities making horrendous public statements against our President. She tweeted: Im ashamed to be American. Perhaps she missed the irony of how a majority of Americans find her comments shameful, such as wanting to blow up the White House after Trumps election. I suspect she was surprised when her hateful comments produced shock from the American public, because most of her Hollywood friends agree with her. At a recent dinner event, each guest paid $5,000 to hear this woman disrespect President Trump and encouraged her with laughter. Manipulation of Facts Rampant Sadly, the biased Liberal media has made it a priority to manipulate facts and shape news stories for a long time. These sources have lost all pretenses of fair and balanced reporting. This is not helpful to Americas future. It is exceedingly difficult for the average person to know the truth, without a fair and balanced media, and it is fair to say the future of America is at the mercy of media sources who control manipulating talking points. Without a fair and balanced media, how can the public know what to believe? Is there any possibility of correcting this polarization of media viewpoints? The surprising answer may be yes! Hope is possible as we consider the transformation experienced by former liberal, NPR CEO, Ken Stern, who recently made this amazing statement: I left the Liberal bubble and learned to love the Right. How did this happen? He traveled around the Country attending Conservative events and talking with evangelicals. He not only listened at Tea Party meetings, he heard what they were saying. Stern agreed with much of their reasoning and saw that their conclusions were credible. To the dismay of his Liberal friends, Stern began to alter his previous views on controversial topics such as gun control. Perhaps this is the answer to the polarization in American politics today. We all need to get out of our political bubbles whether a politician, a media source or citizen, so we can better understand all sides of controversial issues. Perhaps every media source would do well to consider this quote from Carl Bernstein: "The lowest form of popular culture - lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people's lives - has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage." Bernstein should know, as he has been in the industry most of his life and is noted for being an excellent journalist and judge of people. Arriva withdraws bid to operate Wales and Borders franchise This article is old - Published: Monday, Oct 30th, 2017 Train services across Wales will no longer be operated by Arriva from autumn 2018 after the company announced they intend to withdraw from the bidding process for the next Wales and Borders rail franchise. Arriva Rail Wales was one of four rail providers shortlisted as the preferred bidders for services on the new Wales and Borders franchise and Metro. Abellio Rail Cymru, KeolisAmey and MTR Corporation (Cymru) Ltd were unveiled by Economy and Infrastructure Secretary Ken Skates last October as the other three providers selected to progress to the next stage in the procurement process to operate rail services in Wales and the Borders from October 2018 as well take forward key aspects of the next stage of Metro. However Arriva Trains Wales, the existing franchise holder for the Wales & Borders franchise, announced this afternoon it was to withdraw from the bidding process. A spokesperson for Transport for Wales said this afternoon: Arriva Rail Wales have notified Transport for Wales that they intend to withdraw from the bidding process for the next Wales and Borders rail franchise. It is not uncommon for bidders for major projects to withdraw during the tender process and Arriva have been clear they have done this for their own commercial reasons. The procurement process is a tough and demanding one and we recognise Arrivas extensive work to date. We would like to thank the company for their support and positive attitude since the procurement started and we will continue to work closely with the company to ensure that existing staff and customers are central to our transition planning over the next 12 months. With final tenders due later this year, we have three companies with world-class credentials each putting their own, distinct cases for how they will deliver they ambitious objectives we set, with the goal of delivering a step chance in rail services for passengers across Wales and the Borders. Wrexham MP Ian Lucas tweeted his thoughts on the announcement earlier this afternoon: Few tears will be shed at the news that ATW will not be the next Wales Rail franchise holder. https://t.co/7XCRYIziWl Ian Lucas MP (@IanCLucas) October 30, 2017 We need an imaginative, progressive franchise holder to take forward a N Wales Metro. Ian Lucas MP (@IanCLucas) October 30, 2017 Details of the three companies still in the running can be found below: Abellio Rail Cymru Abellio operates public transport services in Europe, with both bus and rail networks. The company is the international arm of the Dutch national rail operator Nederlandse Spoorwegen. It won its first UK contract, Merseyrail, in 2003 since then, the company has grown to become a major operator in the UK, adding Abellio Greater Anglia and ScotRail to its portfolio. Abellio London & Surrey operates bus services in Central, South and West London and across North Surrey KeolisAmey Keolis operate Docklands Light Railway and the urban light rail network in Nottingham. The company has been in the UK since 1996 and employ 13,000 people across its franchises Globally, Keolis operates in 16 different countries. Keolis is 70% owned by SNCF Frances state-owned railway operator and 30% owned by Canadian pension fund, Caisse de depot et de placement du Quebec. MTR Corporation (Cymru) Ltd Mass Transit Railway Corporation was established in 1975 as a Hong Kong government-owned statutory corporation to build and operate a mass transit railway system to meet Hong Kongs public transport needs. In May 2015, MTR Crossrail commenced an eight-year contract to operate the Crossrail 18-kilometre railway line under development in London and the home counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Essex. Town centre shop raided in North Wales crackdown on illegal tobacco & alcohol This article is old - Published: Monday, Oct 30th, 2017 An operation to disrupt the sale and supply of illegal tobacco and alcohol across North Wales has uncovered more than 440,000 cigarettes, 169 kilos of hand-rolling tobacco and 2,700 litres of alcohol all believed to be illicit. Around 24 officers from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), with support from North Wales Police, UK Border Agency, Conwy, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham Trading Standards, visited 59 retail premises and self storage units last week. One raid took place on Wrexhams High Street on Wednesday afternoon as part of the operation. Officers entered the Euro Delikatesy store on the corner of Chester Street and High Street with empty boxes on Wednesday, and then were seen loading a nearby van with unknown recovered goods from the store. The visits, as part of HMRCs Tobacco Taskforce activity, led to suspected illegal tobacco and alcohol products being seized from 11 premises across North Wales. Locally we are told around 1,000 litres of alcohol were recovered, however HMRC have not confirmed what was recovered from which property. Across North Wales recovered items included: 446,664 cigarettes, with an estimated 155,886 duty and VAT evaded 169.85 kilos of hand-rolling tobacco, with an estimated 46,709 duty and VAT evaded 2,703.35 litres of alcohol, with an estimated 6,615 duty and VAT evaded. John Cooper, Assistant Director, Fraud Investigation Service, HMRC, said: The sale of illegal tobacco and alcohol will not be tolerated by us or our partner agencies. Disrupting criminal trade is at the heart of our strategy to clampdown on the illicit tobacco market, which costs the UK around 2.5 billion a year, and the sale of illicit alcohol which costs the UK around 1.3 billion per year. This is theft from the taxpayer and undermines legitimate traders. We encourage anyone with information about the illegal sale of tobacco or alcohol to contact the Fraud Hotline 0800 788 887. In addition to the HMRC tobacco and alcohol seizures, quantities of amphetamines, cocaine, cannabis, cannabis cookies, a Samurai sword and a vehicle used to transport suspected illegal goods, were also seized. Chief inspector, Dave Jolly, North Wales Police, said: As a result of the activity last week we have denied criminals the opportunity to evade duty and benefit financially at the expense of the residents of North Wales. Our actions will be on-going and reinforce the commitment from the PCC to make North Wales a safer place. (Image taken during the operation showing an officer opening a self-storage unit with a grinder) Richard Powell, Chair of Trading Standards North Wales, said: The widespread availability of cheap, illegal tobacco in our communities poses a major threat to health. Around 11,000 children become addicted in Wales every year (thats a classroom full each day) before they are even old enough to be legally sold tobacco. The results achieved in this joint agency operation, led by HMRC, are incredibly encouraging and sends a clear message that we are committed to working together to tackle illegal tobacco and alcohol. Investigations into the seized items are ongoing. On Friday morning, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos awoke in one of his luxurious mansions nearly $7 billion richer, after Amazon stock rose more than 8 percent as a result of a strong third quarter earnings report released Thursday. Over the course of trading Friday, Amazons stock value continued to rise, finishing roughly 13 percent higher than the day before, propelling Bezos wealth by $10.4 billion and making him the worlds richest person. His net worth now stands at $93.8 billion, a solid $5.1 billion ahead of Bill Gates. The grotesque enrichment of capitalists such as Bezos expresses the profoundly unequal character of the capitalist system. While Bezos earned nearly $7 billion practically in his sleep, tens of thousands of Amazon warehouse workers around the world assigned to graveyard shifts labored under sweatshop conditions, gearing up for the peak season of high volume sales during the upcoming holidays. It would take the average Amazon warehouse worker in the US earning $12 per hour roughly 416,667 years to earn as much money as Bezos did in less than 24 hours. Or, to put if differently, Bezos reportedly made more money in a single day than his entire global warehouse workforce of over 300,000 employees earns in a year. In a rational society organized along socialist principles, the wealth funneled to Bezos would instead be put to use for the benefit of society as a whole. With $10.4 billion, clean water and sanitation could be provided to the entire worlds population, roughly 40 percent of which lacks access to these basic human necessities. The real source of Bezos wealth stems from exploiting the labor of his workers, who are currently facing intense speed-up and exploitation as Amazon begins stocking up its warehouses prior to the Cyber Monday and Christmas holidays. The company is engaged in a hiring frenzy of thousands of part-time and temporary workers, many of whom will be fired around the start of the new year. Workers that have spoken with the International Amazon Workers Voice (IAWV) have shared stories of being worked beyond the point of physical exhaustion, with many reporting incidents of heat stroke and a range of muscle injuries occurring at their facilities. Two workers in the US were killed on the job in September as a result of these speed-up policies. Amazons stockand thus Bezos net worthrose in response to a third quarter earnings report that surpassed investors expectations. The company reported $43.7 billion in revenue, $1.6 billion more than analysts had predicted. They also posted earnings per share at 52 cents per share, much larger than the predicted 3 cents per share. Revenue was 34 percent higher than the third quarter in 2016, as Amazon finalized its acquisition of Whole Foods in August and reported $1.3 billion in grocery sales from the company. Total North American sales were $25.4 billion, 35 percent greater than last year, while international sales grew 29 percent to $13.7 billion. Another significant influence on Amazons soaring stock value has been its recent announcement of plans to build a second headquarters (HQ2) in North America. The company is being courted by 238 cities from across the US, Canada and Mexico, with incentives ranging from the quasi-illegal to grotesquely fawning. With every bid, city officials have offered the company immense tax breaks and government subsidies, and the lowest operational and labor costs possible, plainly demonstrating the subservience of the state to the interests of private profit. In a move to attract Amazon, the California state assembly recently introduced legislation that would grant the company $1 billion in tax breaks over the next decade. To lure the company to New Jersey, the state has offered $7 billion in potential credits against state and city taxes. Perhaps the most sycophantic bid came from the mayor of Stonecrest, an Atlanta suburb, who offered to create a new 345-acre enclave city called Amazon, where Bezos could rule as mayor for life! Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently hand-wrote a letter imploring Dear Jeff to choose a Canadian city for HQ2. Trudeau hailed Canada as home to a deep pool of highly educated prospective workers and stable banking systems, while highlighting the fact that Canada enjoys a universal health care system, which would enable Amazon to save the costs of paying its employees health insurance. Beyond his control over Amazon, Bezos exerts immense influence on American political life through his ownership of the Washington Post and through his connections to the Democratic and Republican parties. Through Amazon and the Washington Post, and in particular following a sordid 2013 deal between Amazon Web Services and the Central Intelligence Agency, Bezos has become deeply connected to the American intelligence apparatus. He sits on the Defense Departments Defense Innovation Advisory Board, which regularly meets with the Secretary of Defense and other leading figures of the American state. US President Donald Trump has also included Bezos on his American Technology Council, a panel of tech executives intended to advise the President. As a result of Amazons growth and Bezos connections to the state, he has made $71.3 billion in the past five years, most of which came during the Obama presidency. Since the inauguration of Trumpin which he issued his bellicose, America First agendaBezos fortune has risen by $23.6 billion alongside a broader stock market boom that has immensely benefited the entire financial oligarchy. While Bezos is perhaps the most obscene example of personal enrichment today, he represents a broader social layer that has amassed unfathomable wealth in the recent period. The recently released annual Billionaires Insights report by Swiss bank UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found that the total wealth of the worlds billionaires rose by 17 percent last year. The combined wealth of these elite 1,542 individuals grew by nearly $1 trillion last year, surpassing a total of $6 trillion. At the opposite pole of society, the great mass of the working class faces ever deepening poverty and the elimination of the most basic social services. According to a recent report by the US Federal Reserve, the bottom 90 percent of the American population saw its share of the total wealth decline from 25 percent to 22.9 percent from 2013 to 2016. The bottom three quarters of the population now owns less than 10 percent of all wealth. Beyond the instinctive contempt felt toward figures like Bezos and all the other plutocrats, workers must fight to fundamentally transform the underlying social relations that give rise to such conditions. Through their collective labor and mastery of the processes of distribution, Amazon workers possess an immense potential to transform society for the benefit of the entire working class. To do so, they must begin by establishing connections within and between their warehouses through the formation of rank-and-file workplace committees, which can then be geared toward mobilizing the entire working class in a struggle against capitalism. An October 16 auction of works donated by 31 artists raised nearly 2 million [US$2.6 million] for survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire. All works donated to Sothebys Art for Grenfell auction sold, in the process almost doubling the organisers predicted total. This response of artists who donated works should not be underestimated and contrasts starkly with the governments criminal negligence. Art consultant Katie Heller and film producer and art collector Hamish McAlpine began contacting artists shortly after the disaster. They had no difficulty in persuading artists to donate works to raise money for survivors. Most of the works came from artists themselves, including many leading figures of the contemporary British art scene, such as Wolfgang Tillmans, Tracey Emin, Rachel Whiteread and Antony Gormley. The gallerist Sadie Coles donated a painting by Neo Rauch from her own collection. Jeremy Deller produced a limited edition print, South Londoners, proceeds of which will go towards the auctions takings. Patrick Hughes donated Escape (2015), one of the stronger pieces artistically, and connected his work with the reasons for the event in a descriptive comment for the catalogue: A rainbow, imprisoned in a cell so that it loses its vibrant colour, escapes through the bars and rejoins the sky. I hope that the Grenfell Tower escapees can find hope in their new lives. Tacita Dean and Idris Khan both produced works specifically for the event. Deans Lay the Dust with Tears and Khans I Remember are both sombre pieces. Others produced works either directly referring to the fire, like Anish Kapoors Red Lens for Grenfell, or titled to connect with the auction, like Sarah Lucass Sarah Lucas, Eating a Banana (for Grenfell). All of the works can be seen at the Sothebys website. If one piece sums up their motivations, it is Harland Millers silkscreen Who Cares Wins. The auction was a generous response to appalling tragedy. Heller told Vogue that she and McAlpine were both incensed by what had happened. We wanted to do something. Central to their response was getting money directly to the affected families, most of whom have still not been rehoused. More than four months after the fire hundreds are still living in temporary accommodation, with entire families living in hotel rooms. Heller, in her capacity as an art advisor, worked for four years setting up an art programme for a homeless charity with House of St Barnabas. The Grenfell families were invited to view the art ahead of the auction, and Heller sees Art for Grenfell as a longer-term project, an initiative that seeks to use art to help support the families. There are plans for art therapy, workshops, and creative partnerships with local schools through classes and projects. The sense of horror and outrage felt by all those who saw what happened was shared by artists. Heller said that very few artists had turned down her request for works, as Most artists felt very saddened by what had happened. McAlpine explained that Grenfell touched their souls. Its a very emotive subject for people in London. The donation of art follows the heartfelt, and generally angered, response from musicians to Grenfell who produced a number of songs reviewed by the World Socialist Web Site. There was certainly a feeling here that artists do not stand apart from the social impact of the tragedy. One of the fires known victims was the photographer Khadija Saye, whose work is included in the current Venice Biennale Diaspora Pavilion and has now been shown at Tate Britain. Phyllida Barlow, Britains representative at the Biennale, is another contributor, as is Angela de la Cruz, who works in a studio adjacent to the tower block. Sothebys staff visiting the companys warehouse must pass the tower. There were criticisms of the decision to raise money for the families by an auction in one of the most affluent parts of London. But the ability of the bidders to be generous further underscores the inequalities that led to the social crime of the fire in the first place. This was a gesture by people who could afford it, with the auction house waiving most of its fees and buyers premiums for the event. There are, too, legitimate questions to ask about the commodification of art and the art market. Heller said they were very conscious of this, but that those who have, need to give to those who dont have. Noting that The art market deals in billions of pounds worth of art, she said she thought the auction was a way we can access that for those who need it most. The response of the artists should be taken seriously, too, as an indicator of some awareness of social life. Heller is conscious of the realities for the survivors. Most of the families are still living in hotel rooms, she told the Metro. Heller and McAlpine consulted closely with the families and the charities working with them while preparing for the auction. The auction met up with the feeling of solidarity that many people have with those devastated by the fire, under conditions where the Conservative government and local Kensington and Chelsea council have done next to nothing to assist survivors. According to research carried out by Reuters, total compensation payments may be as little as 4 million. The news agency wrote that this was based on the compensation amounts stipulated in the Fatal Accidents Act of 1976, precedents set in previous cases and the individual circumstances of the 70 victims identified so far. It added, If the courts find someone was wrongfully killed, the claim categories are a flat 12,980 pounds per victim for bereavement, costs such as funeral bills, dependency damages where minors or dependent spouses are left behind, and property damageall to be paid by the party found responsible. Under the 1976 law, only family members who were supported by those who died can claim dependency damages. Reuters has identified only five people who died leaving dependents who could definitely claim damageson the basis they were financially dependent on the deceased. The process of distributing the money from the auction to survivors exposed the inadequacy of charity as a solution. Heller and McAlpine have talked about their search for a charity that would ensure all of the money went to the families. Some of the charities they approached said they would take up to a quarter of the money raised in administrative fees. Finally they found the Rugby Portobello Trust, who were already working with survivors and their families, and who will ensure all the money will be divided among the families by mid-December. In a serious blow to the basic democratic right of habeas corpus, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on October 19 denied, for a second and final time, a US citizen the right to seek damages for wrongful imprisonment at the hands of US immigration officials. The courts one-page decision upheld its earlier ruling by declaring that Davino Watson, a naturalized US citizen who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers between 2008 and 2011 could not receive a hearing before the whole court rather than by a three-person panel as with an earlier decision which denied him the right to damages. Watson, who became a naturalized US citizen in 2002, was arrested and served a short sentence on nonviolent drug charges in 2008. Upon his release, ICE officers detained Watson and began proceedings for his eventual deportation on suspicions that he was not a legal US citizen. Watsons ordeal, in which efforts to prove his citizenship status, such as providing contact information for friends and family members, were either ignored or handled with negligence by ICE officers, kept him illegally imprisoned for over three and a half years. Watson was denied access to an attorney or pro bono counsel, despite ICEs own policy guidelines stating agency officials must immediately examine the merits of [a citizenship] claim and provide any suspected US citizen accidentally detained with a list of pro bono legal service providers. By the time of Watsons release in 2011, the two-year statute of limitation to sue the government for wrongful imprisonment had passed. The October 19 court decision is the latest in a series of appeals and reversals by US courts on Watsons case. A 2014 district court ruled Watsons damages claim permissible on the grounds that he had been wrongfully denied counsel and was not aware of his legal options before the statute of limitations were exceeded. In 2016, Watson would go on to win a mere $82,500 in court, or payments totaling less than a months damages for total time imprisoned. Last summer, even this minor sum was effectively clawed back by the US government, with the Second Circuit court ruling that Watson was not entitled to damages despite there being no doubt that the government botched the investigation into Watsons assertion of citizenship, and that as a result a U.S. citizen was held for years in immigration detention and was nearly deported. This [appellate court decision] is contrary to all the law and is absolutely shameful, Watsons attorney Mark A. Flessner told the WSWS. This ruling establishes a precedent that can be used against any US citizen, he added. Flessner explained that the courts upholding of the statute of limitations argument required that, in order for Watson to seek redress for his illegal detention, he would have been needed to begin suing the US government for wrongful imprisonment before he had even won his freedom, all while being denied access to an attorney. In essence, the court ruling encourages US immigration enforcement and police agencies to hold US citizens in detention without cause for lengths exceeding the statute of limitations, after which even the most flagrant abuses will be tolerated by the legal system. According to an article published in the American Prospect in September, such practices are set to become rampant. The September 7 article, titled The House Has Passed a Bill That Could Create a National Deportation Machine, makes reference to the US House of Representatives ratification of the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act, which allows the US government to eliminate funds for so-called sanctuary cities that refuse to collaborate directly with immigration agencies. Mentioning the Watson case by name, the article draws attention to the ICE practice of issuing detainers to local jails which involves the detention of individuals, including U.S. citizens, and according to a 2015 court decision, requires neither a warrant, an affidavit of probable cause, nor a removal order. This extends, the article adds, to detentions by local officials acquiescing in ICEs detainer request without any effort to interview the person, request documentation, or search federal immigration databases to confirm citizenship before ordering detention. The article characterizes the House bill as a legal platform for federal immigration enforcers to assert powers eerily close in scale to a monolithic national police state. The Second Circuits ruling in the Watson case demonstrates the draconian nature of the US immigration system. Furthermore, it demonstrates that, far from defending the interests of American workers against undocumented workers supposed usurpation of jobs, the increased powers awarded to the state by both Democratic and Republican administrations are aimed primarily at the repression of the working population, both native and immigrant alike. The Puerto Rican catastrophe, in its fifth week, has become a mixture of disinformation, inefficiency, and profound tragedy. Last week it was announced that 900 bodies were cremated of people who died after Hurricane Maria swept through the island, without any forensic investigation to determine if their deaths were due to the storm. Doctors and nurses continue to report shortages of essential medications and electrical power that in hundreds of cases result in preventable deaths. The young, the infirm, and the elderly continue to be at risk. The social devastation is compounded by brazen corporate profiteering. The $300 million no-bid contract between Whitefish Energy and the Puerto Rican Electric Power Authority (PREPA, or in Spanish AEE), the Puerto Rican government utility, exposes both the greed and corruption characteristic of natural disasters under capitalism, where human life takes a back seat to profit. It was initially reported that Whitefish, a small Montana-based company, had not asked for any money up front and that it had been vetted by FEMA (the US Federal Emergency Management Authority). This agency initially indicated it would reimburse the cost of hiring Whitefish, a company with only two employees and absurdly limited experience. The lack of transparency surrounding the Whitefish contract feeds the suspicion that the company took advantage of the political connections of Joe Colonetta, a big donor to the Trump presidential campaign and to the Republican Party. Colonetta heads HBC Investments, a Dallas-based firm that is the financial backer of Whitefish, while Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski has a friendship with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. As these connections have come to light, top Puerto Rican government officials have tried to wash their hands of the deal. Governor Ricardo Rossello has belatedly called for the contract to be cancelled, as has San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz. FEMA has withdrawn its support as well. None of the agencies connected to this scandalFEMA, the Puerto Rican government and Whitefish Energyhave presented a credible explanation of how this entire process took place. Who was it that approached the Puerto Rican government or the Power Authority? How was Whitefishs initial offer handled, and by whom? Under what circumstances was it decided to award the contract to Whitefish? Why did AEE decide not to activate the mutual aid agreements that exist nationwide between public utilities, particularly given a standing offer by the New York State Power Authority to send in crews and equipment? The San Juan daily El Nuevo Dia examined a document released by the Puerto Ricos government house, titled Emergency Purchases and Contracts Process Hurricane Maria (exhibit 3807), originally elaborated by Ramon Caldas, AEEs procurement division chief, who signed the Whitefish contract on September 27. The Caldas report contains a table that compares the cost to AEE of thirteen categories of skilled labor from the different US firms that responded to an AEE request (PowerSecure, Cobra Energy, Southern Electric, State Electric and B&B), with little variation between them. While the labor costs for the initial Whitefish contract of September 27 were in line with those reported on the Caldas table, an amended contract signed on October 17 raised the labor costs far above the original contract. El Nuevo Dia provides two examples: for a maintenance person, the amended contract is about $10.54 more per hour than what is in the Caldas table. In the case of grounds men, the hourly difference is $19.24. In addition Whitefish added charges for equipment and for housing and feeding each worker. There are additional charges per hour in the case of the contract workers that Whitefish utilizes. Whitefish was selected on an emergency basis, following the issuance of executive order 2018-53 by governor Ricardo Rossello, in anticipation of the hurricane. That order exempts government agencies from following the established transparent procedures for bidding in its purchases during the emergency. Accordingly, Whitefish was hired on a no-bid basis, following a careful evaluation of RFIs [requests for information] to each of thirteen companies contacted by AEE, in the words of the report. This included a requirement that the selected company be required to mobilize 800 crews immediately, following the passage of the devastating storm. As of last week Whitefish had only 300 employees in its assigned region, with plans to have 1,000 in place in the near future. Whitefish has been given the task of rebuilding the devastated transmission lines that link the southern part of the island, where the bulk of the generators are located, with the northern part, the region with the greatest demand. The contract is for one year. As it now stands, its cost to the AEE and to Puerto Rico is estimated at between $250 and $320 million in the first three months. It has been pointed out that this is by far the most expensive contract that AEE has signed. The Whitefish contract, containing the now infamous clause (article 59-1) that it could not be questioned by any US or Puerto Rican government or financial agency, was signed on September 27 and amended on October 7. Clearly the bidding process raises many questions. It is not clear what role Zinke or Trump administration officials played in the amended October 7 contract, for instance. Puerto Rico comptroller Yasmin Valdivieso, whose auditors have been investigating fuel purchases by the Puerto Rico Power Authority said that her office will also investigate whether the Whitefish contract represents conflicts of interests, corruption and cronyism. Also last week, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in his second visit to San Juan since Hurricane Maria, declared the willingness of the New York State Power Authority to send work crews into the island and wondered out loud how it was that the AEE refused to activate mutual aid agreements with mainland public utilities, and instead turned to Whitefish. Adding his voice to this chorus, Senator Bernie Sanders who arrived Friday afternoon to San Juan in a fact-finding mission, condemned the Whitefish contract, declaring himself indignant at a press conference with Mayor Cruz after a tour of la Playita, one of the worst-hit areas in San Juan. The Whitefish contract also attracted congressional attention in Washington. Democratic Senators Maria Cantwell (Washington state) and Ron Wyden (Oregon) have sent a letter calling for the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to investigate this contract. None of the Democrats has put forward any serious proposal for the type of massive federal aid that is needed to rebuild the shattered infrastructure of the island. Congress gave bipartisan approval this week to a hurricane emergency spending bill that offered a pathetic $4.9 billion in loans to Puerto Rico, for a disaster whose total cost is now likely to approach $100 billion. International Textiles Group (ITG) has announced it is closing Cone Denims White Oak Mill in Greensboro, North Carolina, resulting in job losses for 200 employees. The White Oak Mill opened in 1905 and has been manufacturing selvage denim since the 1940s. Selvage denim is tightly woven denim created using shuttle looms. The denim produced is finished with a tightly woven band that prevents fraying, raveling or curling. The White Oak Mill Cone Denim plant used American Draper X3 looms from the 1940s and 17 oz. Denim fabric, which many clothing companies consider a great medium for jeans. As a response to many textile mills moving overseas, Cone Denim began marketing their selvage denim as a high-quality and unique, made-in-America product. To meet the increasing demand for the rising trend of small-batch selvage jeans, which are marketed to wealthy customers and can range in price from $90 to $200, Cone Denim had to increase their production by 25 percent in 2013. The company retrieved its underutilized looms from storage and even acquired additional Draper X3 looms from closed mills. In January 2016, Ken Kunberger, president and CEO of ITG, told Triad Business Journal, the high demand could be attributed to our Made-in-America platform. Its settled into a nice pocket of what we consider a sustainable business to very niche-type customers. The demand is much bigger than we have capacity to produce. This success was short lived, however, and on December 31, 2017 the factory will cease all operations. Spokeswoman for ITG, Delores Sides, told Triad Business Journal, a decrease in orders for selvage denim is the main reason for closure. An increase in our customers that are sourcing for fabric needs outside the US has significantly reduced the order volume within the facility. North Carolina is the center of the textile industry in the United States, employing over 42,000 in approximately 700 textile facilities. To lure industry, North Carolina boasts of the lowest corporate tax rate in the US3 percentand the second-lowest unionization rate. Regardless, these measures have done little to nothing to prevent industries from leaving. According to Federal Reserve Economic Data, North Carolina employment in the textile sector has fallen more than 82 percent since the mid-1990s. The fate of the White Oak Mill exposes the fraud of the Trump administrations America First pretensions of rebuilding the domestic industrial economy. International Textiles Industry was formed when W.L. Ross & Co. acquired the assets of Burlington Industries and Cone Mills Manufacturing in 2003 and 2004, respectively. W.L. Ross & Co. is owned by current US Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross. The billionaire Ross is known as the bankruptcy king and made his fortune by acquiring struggling companies, gutting pensions and wages, eliminating jobs, and then flipping the businesses for a profit. Ross offloaded ITG in late 2016 to Platinum Equity for $99 million. Platinum Equity has a record of being just as ruthless to workers as W.L. Ross & Co. Since 1995, Platinum has flipped 155 of the 185 acquisitions it has made. Platinum Equity made a name for itself in the financial crisis of 2008 by acquiring 14 companies in the first 11 months of 2009. The Southeastern United States has a rich history in textiles and became the center of the industry in the United States after the Civil War, when many companies moved their operations to the South to take advantage of cheap labor and the close proximity to cotton crops. Business boomed for the textile industry during World War I, when many mills raked in huge profits from military contracts. Mills supplied soldiers with uniforms, tents and other necessary textile goods. After the war ended, mills continued to produce at the same rate, but with less demand. Profits plummeted and many workers were laid off. The workers remaining were required to work more looms for less money. Workers began referring to this period as the stretch-out. Small strikes during the stretch-out resulted in little success. The stock market crash of 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression only worsened working conditions. There were hundreds of small strikes during this time, but most were isolated and unsuccessful. Most notable was the Loray Mill strike of 1929 in Gastonia, North Carolina. During the dispute, striker Ella Mae Wiggins was murdered by a group of armed men who forced the pickup truck carrying her and three other men to pull over. Wiggins and the other passengers were headed to a union meeting. The Loray Mill strike collapsed soon after her murder. In 1934, the Great Depression, the stretch-out, and increasingly horrible working conditions had taken its toll on most textile workers in the south. Workers had put their faith in president Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA) to address the horrendous working conditions in the textile industry. Roosevelts National Recovery Administration (NRA), however, was a toothless agency unable to enforce even the most minimal regulations of the NIRA. With the blessing of the NRA, mill workers were required to work even more hours with less pay. The United Textile Workers (UTW) union threatened a strike. However, mill owners were familiar with the empty threats of the UTW. When the NRA promised to give the UTW a seat on their board, the UTW called off the strike. Local workers, on the other hand, had lost all faith in the NRA and on September 3, mill workers began walking out. On September 3, Gastonia mill workers began their strike while celebrating their citys first Labor Day parade and traveled to nearby mills to encourage others to join the strike. Striking mill workers traveling by trucks, dubbed flying squadrons, drove from mill to mill calling for workers to walk out. Word of mouth traveled quickly, and within a week, over 400,000 textile workers were on strike, despite never receiving the sanction of the UTW. This effectively shut down the textile industry. Not wanting to be left behind by the momentum of an independent strike, the UTW drew up a list of demands for the industry as a whole: a 30-hour week, minimum wages ranging from $13.00 to $30.00 a week, elimination of the stretch-out, union recognition, and reinstatement of workers fired for their union activities. However, strikers received very little support from local governments and unions. Churches were unsympathetic to the struggles of the strikers. After a short time, workers found themselves without food and resources. The UTW officially called off the strike on September 22 and workers returned to the mills without receiving any of their demands. Ironically, the unions held victory parades for the end of the strike. Labeled as foreign agitators and reds, thousands of strikers were blacklisted. Abandoned by the unions and President Roosevelts promise of reform, the 1934 strikers found themselves unemployed and unable to find a job. Those involved in the 1934 strike, and who were not blacklisted, did not speak of the strike and gave up hope of ever receiving better working conditions. After World War II, textile companies began moving their US mills overseas to reap higher profits by taking advantage of lower wages. Many overseas factories began using more modern projectile looms to create their fabric, thereby further increasing profits for clothing companies. Today, what few textiles mills are left in the US are increasingly using automated machines. This, according to the National Cotton Council of America, makes the United States the most productive in the world. But automation in a for-profit economy also means fewer jobs. The White Oak Mill Cone Denim plant was able to avoid updating their looms with automated machines by taking advantage of the nostalgia and nationalism associated with cotton grown in the United States being woven on antique looms. Time and time again, workers have put their faith in trade unions and politicians promising to bring back jobs to America or improve working conditions, only to be met with betrayal. No amount of made-in-America or America first demagoguery will prevent the ruling class from unfettered profitmaking. Textile workerswhether in the American South or in Bangladesh, Egypt, Vietnam or Guatemalaface the same fundamental enemy: the anarchy of capitalist production, which scours the globe for the cheapest sources of raw materials and human labor. Only an independent movement of the international working class, unified in a fight against the systemic source of their exploitation, can reorganize industry to meet human need. With the Military Revolutionary Committee in open defiance of government authority, the loyalties of key sections of workers and soldiers are tested and confirmed. Meanwhile, the forces of the Provisional Government are isolated and undermined. Without firing a shot, the Bolsheviks begin transferring power into their hands, while the government forces feel it slipping away. Petrograd, October 31 (October 18, O.S.): Gorkys Novaya Zhizn prints attack by Kamenev on Bolshevik leadership Opposing the decision of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik Party to prepare for an armed uprising, Lev Kamenev resigns from the CC on October 29 (October 16, O.S.). He demands that his objections to Lenins resolution be published in the partys central organ, Rabochii put (The Workers Path). When the editorial board rejects this demand, Kamenev sends a brief summary of his position to Maxim Gorkys newspaper Novaya Zhizn (The New Life). Gorkys newspaper promptly publishes Kamenevs attack on the Bolshevik leadership and reveals the Bolshevik preparations for an uprising, adding a condemnation of the Bolsheviks by Gorky himself. The letter by Kamenev stated: Not only Comrade [Grigory] Zinoviev and I, but also a number of practical comrades think that to assume the initiative of an armed insurrection at the present moment, with the given correlation of forces, independently of and several days before the Congress of Soviets, is an inadmissible step ruinous to the proletariat and to the revolution. ...it is our obligation under the given conditions to speak out against any attempt to take the initiative for an armed uprising, which would be doomed to defeat and would entail the most devastating consequences for the party, for the proletariat, for the fate of the revolution... Lenin, who learns about the letter from a comrade who dictates it to him over the phone, is furious. Fearing that the publication could explode the plans for a seizure of power, he demands that the Central Committee expel Kamenev and Zinoviev for their violation of party discipline. In a letter to Bolshevik party members, written that same day, he denounces their strike-breaking act: It is perfectly clear from the text of Kamenevs and Zinovievs statement that they have gone against the Central Committee, for otherwise their statement would be meaningless. But they do not say what specific decision of the Central Committee they are disputing. Why? The reason is obvious: because it has not been published by the Central Committee. What does this boil down to? On a burning question of supreme importance, on the eve of the critical day of October 20, two prominent Bolsheviks attack an unpublished decision of the Party centre and attack it in the non-Party press and, furthermore, in a paper which on this very question is hand in glove with the bourgeoisie against the workers' party! This is a thousand times more despicable and a million times more harmful than all the statements Plekhanov, for example, made in the non-Party press in 1906-07, and which the Party so sharply condemned! At that time it was only a question of elections, whereas now it is a question of an insurrection for the conquest of power! On such a question, after a decision has been taken by the centre, to dispute this unpublished decision in front of the Rodziankos and Kerenskys in a non-Party papercan you imagine an act more treacherous or blacklegging any worse? I should consider it disgraceful on my part if I were to hesitate to condemn these former comrades because of my earlier close relations with them. I declare outright that I no longer consider either of them comrades and that I will fight with all my might, both in the Central Committee and at the Congress, to secure the expulsion of both of them from the Party. However, a Central Committee meeting on November 2 (October 20, O.S.) decides against expelling Kamenev and Zinoviev. The main reason for the decision to keep them in the party is the fact that, even with their disloyal and treacherous behavior, Kamenev and Zinoviev reflect a broader tendency within the Bolshevik party as a whole. The positions of Kamenev and Zinoviev are shared, for instance, by several members at a general Bolshevik meeting in Petrograd on October 31 (18, O.S.). Palestine, October 31: British and allies launch autumn offensive with Battle of Beersheba The nearly 60,000-strong Allied Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) launches an assault on an Ottoman garrison at Beersheba, which is defended by only 4,400 rifles. This is the first step in the EEFs autumn offensive, aimed at taking Palestine from the Ottomans. Britains desire to capture Palestine is part of a wider strategy throughout the Middle East to isolate Turkish troops in the Levant and Arab peninsula by retaking Mesopotamia and controlling the Persian Gulf. British attempts to push into Palestine earlier this year were frustrated in two bloody battles over Gaza, which cost the lives of more than 10,000 allied soldiers. A heavy artillery bombardment on the fortified Ottoman positions begins at 5:55 a.m., and British troops also successfully cut through barbed wire defenses in two places. Ottoman counter-fire targets assembled British infantry troops, causing severe losses. A member of the Queens Westminster Rifles writes, High explosive is bursting between us and the guns. Shrapnel comes over. Burst above us and rains down on us. Steady stream of wounds. Young Morrison, elbow. Brown, arm. Low, head, and so on and so on. We ought to move back to our old position. Stupid to be in front of these guns which are banging away all the time, kicking up hells delight, and drawing fire which we are a catching. A succession of attacks culminates in a cavalry charge by the Australian Mounted Divisions 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments. Savage fighting ensues, with cavalrymen wielding their bayonets in their hands. The EEF suffers 171 casualties and the Ottoman forces around 1,000, with an additional 2,000 Ottoman soldiers taken prisoner. This action effectively ends the stalemate that has existed in Southern Palestine for the past six months, resulting in the construction of trenches like those on the Western Front along a 30-mile line from Gaza to Beersheba. On November 1, following the success at Beersheba, the British Empire units launch a series of attacks along the Ottoman defensive lines, leading to the Battle of Tel el Khuweilfe. On November 1-2, the Third Battle of Gaza is launched. Over the course of several days of fighting, Ottoman troops finally evacuate the fortress November 7. The Allied forces suffer around 3,000 casualties, while the vastly outnumbered Ottoman forces suffer 1,000 casualties, with 300 taken prisoner. The Ottoman Seventh and Eighth armies, which had previously formed a defensive line from Gaza to Beersheba, are forced to retreat. Allied troops are now advancing on Jerusalem. Berlin, November 1: Kaiser Wilhelm II names Georg Friedrich Graf von Hertling new chancellor After the second downfall of a chancellor in three months, Kaiser Wilhelm appoints the arch-conservative Bavarian Centre Party politician Georg Friedrich Graf von Hertling as chancellor and minister president of Prussia. His appointment has been preceded by a days-long tug of war between the various parliamentary groups of the parties in the Reichstag, the government bureaucracy and the Supreme Army Command (OHL), out of which the military emerges strengthened. The new chancellor, Graf von Hertling, is a puppet of the dictatorial clique of military commanders led by Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff. The OHL favors him because, notwithstanding his physical fragility and age (74), he is a steadfast advocate of the goals of imperialist conquest contained in former Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollwegs September Program, agreed in September 1914, and the war aims promulgated at the Bad Kreuznach conference in April 1917. In addition, as a representative of the Catholic large landowners and grand burghers, he has been a bitter enemy of Social Democracy for decades. Graf von Hertlings predecessor, Georg Michaelis, also saw himself as a political proxy of the OHL. However, he had only been in power a few weeks when he rashly confronted the centrist split-off from the SPD, the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), accusing them of having acted in a treasonous manner by inciting the sailors revolt in the summer. Under conditions of ongoing strikes in the arms, metalwork and mining industries, this move only threw oil on the fire of the class struggle. To suppress the outbreak of open revolutionary struggles, an alliance of the SPD, Catholic Centre Party and Progressive Peoples Party (FVP) compelled Michaelis to tender his resignation October 20. London, November 2: British Foreign Secretary authors Balfour Declaration Britains Foreign Secretary, Lord Arthur James Balfour, writes a letter in response to Lord Rothschild and the Zionist Federation that will subsequently become known as the Balfour Declaration. The letter, which commits Britain to support the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, is authorized at a meeting of the British War Cabinet on October 31. In it, Balfour writes: His Majestys Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. The Balfour Declaration paves the way for the establishment of the Jewish Legion to fight alongside British forces in Palestine; the limited emigration of European Jews into post-war Palestine, which would be ruled by Britain under the victors carve-up of the Ottoman Empire; the emergence of the State of Israel; and a century of conflict between Arabs and Jews, both of which seek to establish nation-states on the small former Ottoman province. The core of the Zionist idea, set out by Theodore Herzl in 1896 as the solution to the persecution and oppression faced by European Jewry, entails the rebirth of a Jewish nation within a political entity in which they are a tiny minority, estimated as no more than 3 to 5 percent. Such a project required the sponsorship of a dominant power. Britain gradually became receptive to the idea after Turkey, contrary to expectations, entered the war on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary. The Balfour Declaration is the outcome of extensive lobbying for a Jewish state over several years by Zionists in Britain, including Chaim Weizmann. The Declaration is aimed at securing a client for Britainand thus an excuse for interventionin a strategic location that would join the various parts of the British Empire from the Atlantic to the middle of the Pacific. The Balfour Declaration thus figures in a series of secret, fraudulent and mutually irreconcilable agreements designed to bring the territories of the Ottoman Empire, with their oil supplies and trade, under British control. These agreements include Londons promise in 1915 to the Hashemite Sherif Hussein of Mecca of independence for the territories that would later be known known as Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, in return for his support against the Turks. These promises are directly contradicted by the Sykes-Picot agreement with France in 1916, which contained provisions for the carve-up of the region between British and French colonial rule after the war. Petrograd, November 3 (October 21, O.S.): Openly defying the government, Military Revolutionary Committee asserts control over the army On November 2, the Military Revolutionary Committee schedules a session of the garrison conference of soldiers for the following day. That meeting opens with a speech by Trotsky, who appeals for soldiers to support the Petrograd Soviet and the Revolutionary Military Committee in the direct struggle for power. One observer recalls: After Trotskys speech, a whole series of people spoke out in regard to the necessity of immediately transferring power to the soviets . . . The representative of the Fourth Don Cossack Regiment informed the assembly that his regimental committee had decided against participation in the next days religious procession [i.e., a demonstration by right-wing forces]. The representative of the Fourteenth Don Cossack Regiment caused a sensation when he declared that his regiment not only would not support counterrevolutionary moves, irrespective of whence they came, but would fight the counterrevolution with all its strength. In this sense, [he said,] I shake hands with my comrade Cossack from the Fourth Don Cossack Regiment. (At this the orator bent down and shook hands with the Cossack from the Fourth Regiment.) And, in response, the assembly exploded in a roar of enthusiastic approval and thunderous applause which did not die down for a long time. The conference passes a series of resolutions aligned with the insurrection, including a demand that the upcoming All-Russian Congress of Soviets take power in its hands and provide peace, bread, and land for the people, as well as a pledge by the soldiers to support and defend the transfer of power to the soviets. Trotsky appears in the middle of a mass meeting of soldiers the following day, and the speakers immediately yield to let him ascend the podium. The meeting lasts late into the evening and becomes tense as a vote approaches as to whether the soldiers will support the Military Revolutionary Committee. Finally, soldiers who support the Military Revolutionary Committee are asked to step to the left, with those opposed to step to the right. With cries of hurrah, an overwhelming majority rushed to the left, the Bolshevik Mikhail Lashevich later recalls. The Provisional Government, fearing the insurrection, has ordered the soldiers out of the city. Amid great excitement, the soldiers are refusing to leave, and Trotsky has instructed soldiers not to obey any commands not approved by the Military Revolutionary Committee. (Source: Alexander Rabinowitch, The Bolsheviks Come to Power, Haymarket Books 2009, pp. 240-241) Boston, November 3: Conductor of Boston Symphony Orchestra offers resignation over alleged German sympathies Muck conducts the BSO in Tchaikovskys Symphony No.4 in F Minor Op.36, Finare, at Camden, New Jersey, October 1917 The American government and mainstream press are whipping up anti-German hysteria. The latest target is the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which has allegedly failed to play the American national anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner. Its German-born conductor, Dr. Karl Muck, is forced to tender his resignation. So far, Henry Lee Higginson, the BSOs founder and financier, has refused to accept the resignation. Muck, previously director of the Royal Opera of Berlin and the Vienna Philharmonic and one of the leading interpreters of Wagner, assumed his role with the BSO in 1912. The attacks on Muck begin this week in the Providence Journal after a BSO Rhode Island performance did not include the anthem. A subsequent performance in Baltimore is canceled. All during the week denunciations against Muck escalate, coming from major newspapers as well as public comments from the likes of former President Theodore Roosevelt, the Roman Catholic Cardinal James Gibbons of Baltimore, and a rival conductor, the German-born Walter Damrosch of the New York Philharmonic. In fact, Muck has not refused to play the American national anthem, which is a romantic war poem set to a popular British drinking song. It is simply not part of the repertoire of the BSO. Muck states, Art is a thing by itself, and not related to any particular nation or group. Therefore, it would be a gross mistake, a violation of artistic taste and principles for such an organization as ours to play patriotic airs. Does the public think that the Symphony Orchestra is a military band or a ballroom orchestra? However, buckling before the nationalist onslaught, the BSO, starting November 3, plays the national anthem after each performance, with Muck conducting. In a strong show of support, Muck is greeted with a standing ovation on the first night. None of this will spare Muck from the police state created by the Wilson administration. Muck will be arrested as an enemy alien on March 25, 1918 under the absurd evidence that his markings on a copy of the score of Bachs St. Matthew Passion, to have been performed the very next day, are military code. He will be interned at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia until August 21, 1919. He will then be deported, never again to return to Boston. Petrograd, November 4 (October 22, O.S.): Leading Bolsheviks campaign for insurrection on Petrograd Soviet Day Sunday, October 22 (O.S.), has been designated as Petrograd Soviet Day. All of the Bolsheviks most popular oratorsincluding Trotsky, Volodarsky, Lashevich, Kollontai, Raskolnikov, and Krylenkoaddress mass meetings and huge rallies throughout the city. The House of the People, located on the bank of the Neva River, is packed with a massive crowd anxious to hear the featured speaker, Trotsky. In his speech, Trotsky declares that the revolutionary fire ignited by the imminent revolution will engulf the entire world. The Menshevik-Internationalist Sukhanov, who is present, later recalls: All around me was a mood bordering on ecstasy. It seemed as if the crowd, spontaneously and of its own accord, would break into some religious hymn. Trotsky formulated a brief and general resolution [Who was in favor of the resolution?] The crowd of thousands, as one man, raised its hands Trotsky went on speaking. The innumerable crowd continued to hold up its hands. Trotsky rapped out the words: Let this vote of yours be your vow with all your strength and at any sacrifice to support the Soviet that has taken on itself the glorious burden of bringing the victory of the revolution to a conclusion and of giving land, bread, and peace! The vast crowd was holding up its hands. It agreed. It vowed A reporter for the newspaper Rechwhich is hostile to the Bolsheviksrecords that the massive crowd had raised its hands and was chanting, We swear it! (Source: Alexander Rabinowitch, The Bolsheviks Come to Power, Haymarket Books 2009, p. 242). In The History of the Russian Revolution, Trotsky writes: The same scene was to be observed on a smaller scale in all parts of the city from centre to suburbs. Hundreds of thousands of people, at one and the same hour, lifted their hands and took a vow to carry the struggle through to the end. The daily meetings of the Soviet, the soldiers section, the Garrison Conference, the factory and shop committees, had given inner solidarity to a big group of leaders; separate mass meetings had united the factories and regiments; but that day, the 22nd of October, welded in one gigantic cauldron and under high temperature the authentic popular masses. The masses saw themselves and their leaders; the leaders saw and listened to the masses. Each side was satisfied with the other. The leaders were convinced: We can postpone no longer! The masses said to themselves: This time the thing will be done! November 4-5 (October 22-23, O.S.): Provisional Government tries to rally counter-revolution in Petrograd The supreme head and dictator of the regime of blood and iron, Alexander Kerensky, can only listen helplessly to reports of one after another mass rally held by the Bolsheviks. His government is paralyzed. Kerensky and his ministers are afraid that if they make any move against the Bolsheviks, it will be widely perceived as a counterrevolutionary measure that will only further inflame pro-Bolshevik sentiments. There are proposals to bring in troops from the front to restore law and orderanother march on Petrograd like the one already attempted by Kornilovbut these proposals are ultimately rejected amid fears that any soldiers brought into the capital will merely go over to the Bolsheviks. Meanwhile, soldiers everywhere are declaring their loyalty to the Military Revolutionary Committee. Soldiers will not obey any commands unless they are approved by the soviet commissars. The government, out of options, decides to summon to the Winter Palace the officer cadets from military academies, the First Petrograd Womens Shock Battalion from Leshova, and a tiny cluster of other units whose loyalty they believe can be counted upon. In The History of the Russian Revolution, Trotsky describes a scene from the streets of Petrograd on the eve of the armed insurrection: It is October. Cold and raw Baltic winds from the direction of Kronstadt are blowing through the squares and along the quays of Petrograd. Junkers in long coats to their heels are patrolling the streets, drowning their anxiety in songs of triumph. The mounted police are riding up and down, prancing, their revolvers in brand-new holsters. No. The power still looks imposing enough! Or is this perhaps an optical illusion? At a corner of the Nevsky, John Reed, an American with naive and intelligent eyes in his head, buys a brochure of Lenins entitled Will the Bolsheviks Be Able To Hold the State Power? paying for it with one of those postage stamps which are now circulating in place of money. At the last moment Kerensky lashes out desperately, giving orders for the arrest of Bolshevik leaders, including Trotsky. The cabinet also orders the Bolshevik papers Rabochii Put and Soldat to be shut down (and also, to preserve a pretense of impartiality, two far-right papers). Warrants issue for the arrest of the editors of these papers. On the night of October 23-24 (O.S.), government forces raid and shut down the Bolshevik printing presses. This move, while intended to be a show of strength, is one of the last acts of the Provisional Government in power. Berlin, November 5: Conference between Germany and Austria-Hungary affirms war until final victory Under the leadership of Germanys State Secretary for External Affairs (foreign minister) Richard von Kuhlmann, a two-day-long conference between Germany and Austria-Hungary gathers to reevaluate the war aims of the Axis Powers. The delegation from Vienna is led by Imperial and Royal Foreign Minister Ottikar Czernin. Over recent days, since the appointment of new German Chancellor Graf von Hertling, Germanys war aims have been confirmed between the government, OHL, the Prussian Ministry of State, the Crown Council, and the Kaiser. These must now in effect be dictated to the Austro-Hungarian ally. In Eastern and Southeast Europe in particular, the war booty is to be divided up differently than previously planned. One year ago, the German government proclaimed an independent Poland, which in reality was dominated by the German Empire so as to expand Germanys political, economic and military spheres of influence further east to the Russian borders. The territorial losses for Austria-Hungary were to be compensated by granting the Habsburgs total control over Romania. This strategy is now abandoned because, among other things, the past 12 months have shown that even a nominally independent Poland is encouraging the emergence of oppositional tendencies among the many Poles living in the east of the German Empire, endangering the empires stability. Instead, Congress Poland, Galicia and the areas of Poland controlled by Russia will be given to Austria-Hungary. However, Berlin imposes conditions on its ally: (1) a broad strip of territory on the Polish border will be controlled by the German Empire; (2) Germany will retain a dominant economic and military influence in a Poland administered by Austria-Hungary; (3) the Baltic states of Lithuania and Kurland will be fully integrated into the German Empire; (4) Austria must abandon all claims in Romania, which immediately becomes a German sphere of interest; and (5) Austria-Hungary will reach no separate peace with the Entente as a whole or any of its members. Instead, it will fight with Germany until final victory, and until Berlin has secured its goals in the west, economic union with Belgium, annexation of the French iron ore and coal mines in Longwy-Briey, the incorporation of Luxembourg, and its aims in Central Africa. The Habsburg delegation finds these demands difficult to swallow, but accepts them without protest. Given the disastrous condition of the Austrian army, which in Berlin is viewed with contempt, Vienna has no other choice. With this new shift in its war aims, the German empires military and political leadership is returning once again to the conceptions of former Chancellor Bethmann-Hollwegs September Program adopted at the beginning of the war: no end to the war except by a peace dictated by Germany as a victorious power; expansion and consolidation of a central European economic association under German leadership; and integration of Romania as a military and economic bridge to the Near East, so that German imperialism can confront its British rival in the region. These policies have no connection to reality or the actual relation of military forces in the world war. Just over six months since the entry of the United States into the war, it is now completely out of the question that the Axis Powers will ever be able to dictate peace to the superior forces of the Entente Powers, which is the precondition for the realization of any of these deranged war aims. But the news of the weakening of their opponent on the eastern front due to the revolutionary sentiments gripping the Russian army, and limited victories such as at the Battle of Karfreit (known as Caporetto in Italy), create a euphoric atmosphere among the military high command, Kaiser and court camarilla. They are emboldened to adopt an even more aggressive and ruthless approach to their external opponents and domestically against opposition from soldiers and the population. Also this year: Futurism in Italy During the war, many artists turned away from their initial enthusiasm for the war and toward a pacifist position. Not so the Italian Futurists. They praised the war even before it had begun: We want to glorify warthe worlds only hygienemilitarism, patriotism, the destructive acts of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas for which men die, and the contempt of women (Futurist Manifesto, Thesis 9). In 1909, the Futurist Manifesto written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944), appeared on the front page of the Parisian newspaper Le Figaro. Its third thesis read: We will celebrate the aggressive action, the feverish insomnia, the runners pace, the salto mortale [deadly jump], the slap in the face and the punch. During this time, Marinetti, the son of an Italian millionaire, could be found in the literary circles of the French capital with poet Guillaume Apollinaire, Joris Karl Huysmans and Stephane Mallarme. The rapid technological development prior to the war and the rejection of the official academic art establishment generated among many painters, sculptors, poets and musicians the desire to bring together art and life in new ways. They searched for new methods and forms of expression. Many were influenced by anarchism as well as the philosophy of George Sorel and Friedrich Nietzsche. With their manifestos and the works of art that follow, the Futurists sought to break taboos, radically settle scores with the past and make anti-bourgeois gestures. But even when they spoke of revolution, it lacked any connection with social reality, to the contradictions of capitalist society and the class struggle. Any reference to history was also emphatically rejected. Thus, the manifesto demanded in point 10: We will destroy the museums, the libraries and academies of every kind and fight moralism, feminism and every cowardice based on expediency and selfishness. They considered Italy to be a market of junk dealers with its museums nothing more than cemeteries, dormitories or slaughterhouses of painters and sculptors for the dying, for the sick, for the prisoners, this might dothe admirable past is perhaps a balm for their suffering since the future is closed to them But we want nothing to do with the past, we young and strong Futurists! Set fire to the library shelves! Redirect the canals to flood the museums! The Futurists see the war not as a catastrophe but as an aesthetic phenomenon, as a sensual excitation that should improve ones awareness of life. In 1914, they pushed vehemently for the entrance of the initially neutral Italy into the war. In the manifesto Futurist Synthesis of the War, they expressed their support for Italys intervention. Many of the Futurists volunteered for military service and fought in the Battles of the Isonzo against Austria in which heavy losses were suffered. A total of 13 Futurists lost their lives, including the architect SantElia and the painter and sculptor Umberto Boccioni. Forty-one others were wounded, including Marinetti, Luigi Russolo and Carlo Carra. In 1914, Marinetti became a personal acquaintance of ex-socialist and war supporter Benito Mussolini. He joined Mussolinis fascist organization, Fasci of Revolutionary Action, and organized meetings at which Mussolini speaks. In 1918, Marinetti will found his own Futurist Political Party which later merges by and large with the fascists. Marinetti later claims, not entirely without justification, that Futurism is the spiritual precursor of fascism and through it at least a futurist minimal program is guaranteed. In 1924, he publishes the anthology Futurism and Fascism, which he dedicates to my dear and great friend Benito Mussolini. With this he confirms Trotskys assessment that Futurism is an eddy of bourgeois art and that [f]or its war, the bourgeoisie used extensively the feelings and moods which were destined by their nature to feed rebellion It is not an accident, it is not a misunderstanding, that Italian Futurism has merged into the torrent of Fascism (Literature and Revolution). (RNN) - Former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort is set to turn himself in Monday on charges related to the investigation into possible collusion between the campaign and the Russian government. Manafort was seen entering the FBI field office in Washington, DC, around 8:15 a.m. ET. CNN and The New York Times first reported Manafort would surrender to federal authorities. Rick Gates, a business partner of Manafort, also has been charged and turned himself in, the Associated Press reported. CNN stated that sealed indictments had come Friday for criminal charges approved by a federal grand jury, the first to come from the probe into Russian meddling in the presidential election. Robert Mueller, the former FBI director, has headed the Justice Department's investigation since being appointed as special counsel in May. The charges have not been publicly revealed. Mueller's investigation has wide latitude in what it can investigate, so the charges may not be directly related to any campaign action. Manafort joined the Trump campaign in March, soon rising to the role of chairman, but resigned in August. His resignation came amid reports of $12 million in undisclosed payments to him from former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, an ally of Russia President Vladimir Putin. The FBI performed a no-knock raid of Manafort's Alexandria, VA, home in August. U.S. investigators also wiretapped Manafort in 2014, before he became a part of President Donald Trump's campaign, CNN reported. It was authorized under secret court orders, and it continued until early this year, after president Donald Trump was in the White House. Sources said the FBI investigation initially centered on work done by Washington consulting firms working for Ukraine's Russia-backed former ruling party. A second warrant was part of FBI efforts to investigate suspected ties between Trump campaign associates and possible Russian operatives. The special counsel was appointed by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation and the president fired FBI Director James Comey. Mueller impaneled a grand jury in August. Manafort took part in a meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian lawyer during the 2016 campaign. Emails released by Donald Trump Jr. showed he believed the meeting would provide damaging information about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, and that the intelligence was coming from the Russian government. Donald Trump has continued to deny any wrongdoing, calling the investigation a "witch hunt" and a "hoax." Copyright 2017 Raycom News Network. All rights reserved. MOBILE USERS: Download our WTXL news app on your Apple and Android devices for the latest from South Georgia and North Florida. Also, download our WTXL Weather Now app for Apple and Android devices to get the latest local weather wherever you go. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for additional local news and hourly updates. Copyright 2017 WTXL via Raycom News Network. All rights reserved. LOWNDES COUNTY, Ga. (WTXL) - Community members are invited to honor a former deputy killed in the line of duty. According to the Georgia State patrol, on February 25 Deputy Chris Butler was on his way to a domestic call and was involved in two-vehicle crash with a semi-truck. The semi's driver, Robbie Register, 29, of Tifton, pulled the deputy from his burning patrol car. Butler was taken to the South Georgia Medical Center in critical condition and died shortly thereafter. The Planting Brotherhood Project is planting a tree in honor of Butler. The ceremony is today, Monday, at 8:30 a.m. at the Lowndes County Sheriff's Office headquarters on Prison Farm Road. MOBILE USERS: Download our WTXL news app on your Apple and Android devices for the latest from South Georgia and North Florida. Also, download our WTXL Weather Now app for Apple and Android devices to get the latest local weather wherever you go. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for additional local news and hourly updates. Copyright 2017 WTXL via Raycom News Network. All rights reserved. It Happened Here: The legend of Sasquatch has footprints in Yakima You are the owner of this article. YAKIMA, Wash. -- Yakima police are searching for the hit-and-run driver who fatally stuck a 37-year-old woman near downtown Yakima on Saturday. When she was 16, Emily Washines would walk alone from Toppenish High School to the Yakama tribal school several blocks away to learn her tradi If you are sending a Letter To the Editor, please be sure to follow these rules: Letters have a firm 200-word limit and will be edited for grammar, clarity and accuracy. The person who signs the letter must be the author. Anonymous letters will not be considered. Letters must address the editor, not a third party. We will not print form letters, libelous letters, business promotions or personal disputes, poetry, open letters, letters espousing religious views without reference to a current issue, or letters considered in poor taste. Letters reflect the opinion of the writer. The Yakima Herald-Republic cannot verify the accuracy of all statements made in letters. Writers are limited to one published letter per calendar month. A lecturer at Bar-Ilan University's Middle Eastern studies department demanded last week an Arab student take off her hijab, an Arab headdress covering the face, and then asked her to leave his class when she refused. The student complained and the professor apologized and will called in to the university's ethics committee. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The student contacted the university's adviser on Arab affairs immediately following the incident and complained at the treatment to which she was subjected. The lecturer was given a serious reprimand by the faculty dean and the university's rector. Hijab: illustration (Photo: Shutterstock) Sources at Bar-Ilan said he understood the severity of his actions and emailed an apology to the student, in which he also informed her he intends to apologize again face-to-face in front of her fellow students in the course. He's also expected to face a disciplinary hearing in the coming days. The student accepted the lecturer's apology, as per university sources. "The lecturer's irregular and intolerable act completely contravenes the university's values. The senior lecturer admitting wrongdoing and personally apologized to the student. The university's management also apologized and seriously reprimanded the lecturer. In addition, the department's academic staff publically came out against the incident, saying it considers what he did harmful to the university and its values," a comment from Bar-Ilan University said. Bar Ilan University severely reprimanded the lecturer (Photo: Tomi Harpaz) "We unequivocally denounce the lecturer's deplorable and degrading conduct. We, the students of Bar-Ilan University, enjoy a life shared by Jews and gentiles alike, religious or secular. We regret incidents such as these mar our campus melting pot," the university's student union said. The Coalition against Racism in Israel said, "We demand Bar-Ilan University remove the lecturer who allowed himself to harm the student's basic right to freedom of religion, and try to coerce her to remove her hijab. Academia cannot contain people who are not respectful of others and their rights, freedoms and faith." A month after father and son terrorists Ziad and Izz a-Din Awad were sentenced to prison for the murder of Commander Baruch Mizrahi in Kiryat Arba in 2014, the son's lawyers decided to appeal the conviction and 21-year prison sentence claiming he helped the Shin Bet convict his father. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The appeal, made several days ago, refers to Izz a-Din, who was sentenced to 20 years for being an accessory to the murder and an additional year for wounding Hadas Mizrahi, Baruch's wife. Ziad Awad, who was released in the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap deal, was convicted of Mizrahi's murder and given two life sentences. Convicted terrorist Izz a-Din Awad seeks lighter sentence following cooperation with authorities (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg) In April 2014, on Passover eve, Commander Mizrahi drove with his family to spend the Seder with his family in Kiryat Arba. Terrorist Ziad Awad was waiting on the side of highway 35, northeast of Hebron, and shot at passing Israeli vehicles with an AK-47. The late Baruch Mizrahi, murdered in a 2014 terror attack Mizrahi was mortally wounded by the shooting and pronounced dead a short time later. Mizrahi's wife Hadas suffered moderate wounds and their son, also in the vehicles, suffered minor wounds. Izz a-Din, Ziad's son, confessed knowledge of his father impending terrorist attack and even assisted his escape. The Shin Bet said he later provided the weapon used to carry out the attack and gave further information that proved valuable for convicting his father. Considering the above, his attorneys are now attempting to reduce his sentence by appealing to the court. Hadas Mizrahi and her son Itay (Photo: TPS) Attorney Haim Bleicher from the Honenu organization that has assisted the family said, "Justice has not been completely served as it pertains to the murderer's son, who planned and assisted the attempted murder of entire families and their children, and to the heinous murder of Commander Baruch Mizrahi. And now the damned terrorist has the gall to appeal his sentence. We call on the court to provide a harsher one." Mizrahi's son Itay spoke at a protest rally held in front of the Prime Minister's Residence Sunday, in which bereaved families and heads of West Bank regional councils demanded budgets be allocated for extra security and bypass roads in the settlements. "My father can't be brought back. Please do whatever you need to bring my mother home. She belongs at home, not in a protest tent in front of your house," Itay Mizrahi appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Supposed exclusion of women in Israel will be one of the main items on the agenda of the United Nations Human Rights Counciltasked with implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Womenwhen it convenes in Geneva on Tuesday. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter A delegate headed by Ministry of Justice Director-General Emi Palmor headed to Geneva to counter the claims, as the ministry is part of implementing the international convention to which it acceded in 1991. The UN's Human Rights Council will discuss women's exclusion in Israel (Photo: AFP) The delegation will be reporting to the UN on tackling women's exclusion in public transportation, the issue of "decency" on billboards, attitudes of the religious establishment and Haredi parties towards women and the situation in cemeteries, clinics, hospitals, public libraries, public functions, the Western Wall, the media and academia. Ministry of Justice Director-General Emi Palmor will head a delegation to answer the claims (Photo: Yair Sagi) The Human Rights Council, whose members currently include Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, will also deal with exclusionary aspects relating to domestic abuse and women's access to the courts system, an area in which Israel has made significant progress with pending legislation for criminalizing clients of prostitution, providing legal assistance to victims of serious sexual assault and fighting human trafficking. The Israeli delegation will also be asked to address the battle against prevalent polygamy in the Bedouin sector and the claims the Ministry of the Interior was not implementing the government's decision to bar local authorities from banning mixed-gender seating in non-religious events. File photo: sign directing men and women to take separate routes Israel's delegation also said it expected issues relating to marriage and divorce, personal status and custody of children, all of which have been organized in an international convention, which is why they are expected to be broached. The issue of the "occupation" was also expected to be brought up vis-a-vis women's rights. The Israeli delegation said it expected attempts to censure Israel by making claims women and girls face violence during arrests and raids conducted by security forces in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. A 31-year-old resident of Ganei Modi'in in Binyamin was indicted for importing 35,000 ecstasy tablets worth NIS 2.5 million. The Central District Attorney's Office said the defendant arrived to Israel from the Netherlands carrying a suitcase with a false bottom, where the drug was secreted. A 19-year-old Ramallah resident was arrested on suspicion of working in cleaning in the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem's Ein Kerem for more than a month while impersonating her Israeli friend. Police said the young woman was suspected of falsifying documents, identity theft and entering the country illegally, and that she will be remanded later Monday. Despite the Israeli decision to not negotiate with the Palestinians, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon met Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah in his Ramallah offices Sunday, with Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Yoav Mordechai and Finance Ministry Director-General Shai Babad also in attendance. Head of Palestinian intelligence Majid Faraj and Minister for Civilian Affairs Hussein a-Shikeh attended for the Palestinians. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter President Donald Trump's envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt tweeted a photo from the encounter, writing, "Important progress last night between Israeli & Palestinian sides led by @RamiHamdalla & @KahlonMoshe & Gen Mordechai of @Cogat_Israel. Meaningful steps forward on key economic issues - revenues, customs, and investment - that help support the search for peace." Finance Minister Kahlon met with Palestinian PM Hamdallah despite the Israeli gov't's decision to halt negotiations The timing of Kahlon's meeting is intriguing, as a mere two weeks ago the Prime Minister's Office announced the cabinet had decided to halt all negotiations with the Palestinians until Hamas was disarmed, made after the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation agreement. While a decision was made to halt peace negotiations, coordination between Israel and the Palestinians remained in place. During his time in Israel, Greenblatt also met with the parents of Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin, who was killed near Rafah during Operation Protective Edge. Tweeting a photo of a drawing by Goldin, Greenblatt wrote, "Just saw moving Peace Dove by Hadar Goldin who was killed & taken by Hamas-enemies of peace. All Israelis held must be returned." Just saw moving Peace Dove by Hadar Goldin who was killed & taken by Hamas-enemies of peace. All Israelis held must be returned. pic.twitter.com/huCCGRAPfq Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) October 30, 2017 Kahlon's meeting with Hamdallah was held on the backdrop of with President Trump's recent decision to dispatch his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy Dina Powell and special representative for international negotiations Greenblatt to Saudi Arabia. During the visit, the American delegation conferred with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman to promote a regional peace initiative. Kusher also held talks with senior officials from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Jordan. Kusher met with Palestinian President Abbas A senior White House official stressed Sunday that despite the aforementioned talks, Trump stressed repeatedly that peace between Israel and the Palestinians can only be achieved through direct negotiations and that the US will continue close cooperation with the two parties to achieve that end. "No deal will be forced on the Israelis and Palestinians. We're committed to moving forward with this deal because it will improve conditions for both sides," the White House official said. Trump's Mid-East envoy Greenblatt met with PM Netanyahu (Photo: Kobi Gidon/PMO) The American official also divulged US representatives recently met individually with representatives from Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and other regional partners on the outliers of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. More recently, he said, Greenblatt traveled to Cairo, Amman, Jerusalem, and Ramallah and met with officials, and he will have further meetings in the coming weeks. An elementary school teacher from the Galilee village of Jadeidi was assaulted by the mother of one of her students. The teacher, in her thirties, was taken to the Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya suffering minor wounds. Police are searching for the suspect, who was identified, with the attack reportedly stemming an argument near the student's drop-off point at the school. Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked welcomed new Supreme Court justices Yosef Alron and Yael Vilner and newly appointed Deputy Chief Justice Hanan Melcer, at their swearing-in ceremony at the President's Residence. "Israeli society has always encouraged debate and disagreements. It is precisely for that reason that I endeavored, and still do, to diversify the bench and to populate it with people of differing opinions. The judiciary has room for everyone," Shaked said. Shaked also congratulated new Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut on her swearing-in. "I'm sure you'll be a true partner in strengthening the legal system and promoting the public's trust in it," she said. Communications consultant Arik Rosenthal, who represents the attorneys of SR, a former Prime Minister's Residence employee currently suing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wife Sara for abuse, refused to apologize for a job offer he'd made to NK, a chief witness in the prosecution's case. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter "It doesn't look good. So what? There's an employee who suffered abuse here. That's what Israel should be interested in today. Mrs. Netanyahu mustnt be allowed to continue employing people," Rosenthal said in an interview with Ynet. Communication consultant Arik Rosenthal messaged a key witness in the case against Mrs. Netanyahu to offer her a job News broke yesterday that Rosenthalwho's been accompanying SR during her suit against Mrs. Netanyahumessaged NK to offer her a position in his public relations firm. NK, who worked on the same floor as SR, was described by prosecution as a witness to Sara Netanyahu's alleged fits of rage, and is considered a key witness in the case. "We don't know each other. I got your number from acquaintances and would like to offer you a position in our company. We're looking for a personal assistant to the CEO, and if you have any other relevant experience your suitability for other positions will also be examined," Rosenthal texted NK. The witness in the suit did not immediately respond to the message, only writing, "I'll get back to you tomorrow." Sara Netanyahu (Photo: AFP) In a Ynet studio interview, Rosenthal said, "What I saw was a woman in distress, real distress, who has undergone very serious abuse, and I understood she needed help. This woman worked under subpar conditions and tried to extricate herself from her workplace, but to no avail." You're not social services, and you also have a direct link to the case. "While I'm indeed not social services, when I heard about this case I was shaken to my very core and realized there was nothing to be done. I didn't have a choice, someone had to step up and do something. I know it looks and sounds bad. I took it under consideration, but if you ignore the background noises for a momentwhether I contacted her or not, and she's not a witness yetyou'll have an employee at the Residence using words such as 'prison', 'cruelty', 'I hope I leave her mentally sound.' These are harsh words. But do you think it proper to offer something like that to a central witness, when it raises suspicion of disrupting the court's proceedings? "Everything you said just now is made up. She's not a witness at the moment. There's no suspicion of anything. I contacted her to save her and, you know what, I welcome any police questions on the matter. Yesterday the prime minister posted on Facebook that, 'The conspiracy has been discovered.' I'm telling you now: this isn't a conspiracy, it's the cuckoo's nest. What goes on at the Prime Minister's Residence is deplorable." The Prime Minister's Residence (: " ") Rosenthal clarified he in no way believed his actions harmed the chances of SR's suit. "The evidence in this case is rock solid, and everything I just told you about (the witness describing the Residence as aed) prison, it's all solid, put together and provable. It harms nothing, save for shifting the discourse onto something else for one day," the adviser said. "Do I feel like I made a mistake? There's an opportunity here to finally air out what's been happening in the Prime Minister's Residence," he concluded. KABUL, Afghanistan The Taliban have killed 15 police in two separate attacks on checkpoints in the east and south of the country, officials said Monday. Arif Noori, spokesman for the governor of the eastern Ghazni province, said an attack on a checkpoint there killed nine police and wounded four others. He said seven insurgents were killed and five others were wounded in the battle, which lasted more than an hour. Late Sunday, the Taliban attacked another checkpoint in the southern Zabul province, igniting clashes in which six police and eight insurgents were killed. Amir Jan Alokozai, a district administrative chief, said another eight police and 12 insurgents were wounded. A court in The Hague opened proceedings in the trial of Daniel Amona, a 53-year-old Petah Tikva resident, charged with murdering Miriam Sharon in the city 27 years ago. According to Dutch sources, the case saw a dramatic breakthrough thanks to technological innovations related to decoding DNA samples. Amona was first arrested immediately following the killing, but was released due to insufficient evidence, returned to Israel and started a family. He was arrested again last year during a trip to the Netherlands. In spite of the indictment, the motive for the murder is still unclear. The IDF Spokesperson's Unit confirmed on Monday that the Southern Command carried out a scheduled detonation aimed at destroying a new terrorist tunnel which was in the process of being built. The tunnel was located near the border fence with Gaza, near the South Gaza city of Khan Yunis. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter IDF Spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis stated that "we now have possession of the tunnel, and it no longer constitutes a threat. "This is a clear violation of Israeli sovereignty that we will not allow. We had been monitoring this tunnel for a while. This is an operational success of abilities we started using following (military Operationed) Protective Edge. Footage of the explosion's aftermath X "We're ready for any event in protection and the Southern Command, but we have no intention of escalating matters," Manelis added, stressing the the tunnel had yet to become operational when the IDF blew it up. Palestinian sources initially claimed that the Israeli Air Force had attacked in the Gaza Strip, showing photos taken there to show a mushroom cloud rising above the Israeli border with Gaza. Smoke rising from the site of the IDF's targeted attack (Photo: Barel Efraim) Following the tunnel blast, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid responsibility for the tunnel squarely on Hamas, adding, "Any government's first responsibiltiy is to protect its citizens. Whoever tries to hurt us, we hurt them." In a press conference of his own following the IDF attack, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman congratulated the IDF and Southern Command "for a perfect execution of the mission, which is also the result of a high operations level and of a significant technological breakthrough that allows us to best handle the tunnels threat. Lieberman (Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg) "We will not tolerate a violation of Israel's sovereignty," said Lieberman. "I want to stress that the monitored detonation was carried out in our territory. Lieberman also stated that the tunnel that "it was a blatant violation of sovereignty and all acceptable rules between societies, countries and organizations that respect themselves." He added that the recently built tunnel "proves that despite the Palestinian reconciliation, the Gaza Strip remains a kingdom of terrorism. As far as we're concerned, the responsibility (for the tunneled) is without a doubt that of Hamas, which rules Gaza." Lieberman reiterated Manelis's statement, saying that "there is no desire for an escalation." He also clarified that "at no point were the residents surrounding Gaza in danger from that terrorist tunnel. We caught it in time and did what we had to do." Smoke plume near the Gaza Strip "At first we thought it was missile fire," said a resident of the Eshkol Regional Council following the blast. "There were some very loud explosions. I went into the mamad of my own volition. The walls shook. We later received a message saying it wasn't missiles. It's still unclear exactly what happened." Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the detonation of the tunnel discovered in Israeli territory near Khan Younes. At the beginning of the Likud parliamentary party meeting, Netanyahu said, "The first responsibility of any government is to preserve its citizens' security. Whoever attempts to hurt us, we'll hurt them." President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to work together on steps to counter North Korea's nuclear and missile development, ahead of the US leader's visit to Asia, the Japanese government said late on Monday. In a 20-minute phone call, Trump and Abe discussed the schedule of the president's coming visit, which includes a Nov. 5-7 stop in Japan, and agreed to remain in close contact over North Korea, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasutoshi Nishimura told reporters. Trump told Abe "he is looking forward to his visit to Japan, that Japan and America are 100 percent together and there is no room to doubt the Japan-US alliance," Nishimura said. "They agreed to deepen their discussions on the North Korean situation and other matters" during Trump's visit, he said. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip reported Monday afternoon that seven people were killedamong them senior commanders of terror groupsand 11 wounded in an IDF explosion of a recently discovered tunnel located near the border fence which had penetrated into Israeli territory. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter A source in Gaza informed Ynet that two of the people killed belonged to the military arm of the pro-Iranian Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)the second largest terror movement in the strip after the ruling government of Hamaswhile a third was a Hamas field commander affiliated with the terror groups elite Nukhba commando unit. It later emerged that a Hamas militant identified as Marwan al-Ara was also killed in the explosion, along with Misbah Shubir, who may have been the Hamas field commander. Marwan al-Ara (L), Arafat Abu Marshould (C) and Hamas field commander According to the source, the commander entered the tunnel to extricate people trapped inside after being wounded in the blast and was killed in a secondary blast likely caused by the igniting of explosive materials inside. Officials from the Hamas military arm have also reported that some of those injured belong to the PIJ. Hamas field commander killed in blast Preliminary evaluations both in Israel and Gaza deduced that the tunnels were dug by the PIJ militants. One of those killed was head of the factions armed wing in central Gaza, Arafat Abu Marshould and his deputy Hassan Abu Hasnin. Marwan al-Ara A senior associate and two other gunmen were reportedly killed in the blast. The group said it had put its fighters on full alert. Two of those killed in the explosion were said to be 25 and 27 years old. (Photo: Barel Ephraim) While the group did not claim responsibility for the tunnel, it said on Monday evening after the controlled IDF explosion: We will defend ourselves and our land." Anticipating possible rocket attacks, the IDF positioned Iron Dome batteries nearby. Iron Dome battery (Photo: AFP) Earlier in the day, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit confirmed that the Southern Command carried out a controlled detonation of the tunnel which was located near the border fence with Gaza, near the South Gaza city of Khan Yunis. IDF Spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis stated that "we now have possession of the tunnel, and it no longer constitutes a threat." Officials from the Hamas military arm have also reported that some of those injured belong to the PIJ. A further indication that the PIJ stood behind the tunnel was a statement issued Monday evening by one of its spokesmen, Daud Shihab, whose comments fell just shy of taking explicit responsibility. This tunnel is part of our deterrence policies to defend the Palestinian people, Shihab said. We won't hesitate to defend our land. The Israeli attack that harmed a group of fighters and civilians is a dangerously aggressive escalation, and a new attempt to shuffle the cards. We are examining all possibilities in order not to lose the option of responding to this aggression. Hamas warned Monday evening that an IDF explosion of a terror tunnel earlier in the day that had crossed into Israeli territory from Gaza and resulted in the death of seven Palestinian terrorists constitutes a grave escalation. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter Among those killed were senior commanders of terror groups while another 11 were wounded in the explosions. Marwan al-Ara (L), Arafat Abu Marshould (C) and the Hamas field commander The latest Zionist crime is a grave escalation against our people and against our resistance aimed at harming our steadfastness and unity," a statement issued by Hamas said. It is part of widening efforts to reverse Palestinian unity and maintain division as it was, it added. One of those killed was head of the PIJ's armed wing in central Gaza, Arafat Abu Marshould and his deputy Hassan Abu Hasnin. Arafat Abu Marshould A source in Gaza informed Ynet that two of the people killed belonged to the military arm of the pro-Iranian Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)the second largest terror movement in the strip after the ruling government of Hamaswhile a third was a Hamas field commander who belonged to the terror groups elite Nukhba commando unit. It later emerged that a Hamas militant identified as Marwan al-Ara was also killed in the explosion, along with Misbah Shubir, who may have been the Hamas field commander. Unlike a statement issued by the PIJ, which said Israels actions were a declaration of war and added that it would examine all options for reprisals, Hamass remarks were devoid of any mention of a possible retaliation. Hamas field commander killed in explosion The resistance to the occupation in all its forms and the various ways in which it is strengthening is a natural right that is guaranteed for our people, the Hamas statement went on. The continued escalation of the Zionist enemy and the execution of its crimes will only increase our adherence to the way of unity and increase our reliance on the weapon of resistance accordingly in our attempt to settle the score with (Israel)." Earlier, PIJ warned they would be assessing the nature of their response in the coming hours. Anticipating possible rocket attacks, the IDF positioned Iron Dome batteries near the Gaza border. A spokesperson for the PIJ, Daud Shihab, issued a warning that fell just shy of taking explicit responsibility. This tunnel is part of our deterrence policies to defend the Palestinian people, Shihab said. We won't hesitate to defend our land. The Israeli attack that harmed a group of fighters and civilians is a dangerously aggressive escalation, and a new attempt to shuffle the cards. We are examining all possibilities in order not to lose the option of responding to this aggression. The Fatah movement also reacted to Israel's explosion of the terror tunnel, condemning it as "the Israeli crime that harmed the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip." A statement issued by the movement said that "this Israeli crime is part of the policy that successive Israeli governments have taken in an attempt to evade the trials of corruption they face at the expense of the blood of our people." The movement also stressed its firm position to continue in completing their unity talks with Hamas, despite Israel's attempt to sabotage it. "Israel is trying to escalate the situation in order to keep us divided," says Fatah spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi, echoing the sentiments voiced by Hamas. By later Monday evening, Israel issued its own statement, saying that the killings that accompanied the tunnel's destruction were inintentional. "There was no intention of eliminating senior militants," IDF Spokesperson, Brigadier General Ronen Manelis said. According to Manelis, Islamic Jihad officials ran into the tunnel to head the rescue force, who accounted for the majority of those killed. "Our action was defensive, in our territory, and if there is a response, it will be answered as we know how to respond in these situations," he added. The IDF reported that the tunnel did not have an exit point in Israel and was not intended for any immediate attack. Roi Kais, Elior Levy, Matan Tzuri and Yoav Zitun contributed to this report. Hamas' military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, responded to the detonation of the terror tunnel that had penetrated Israeli territory by the IDF, denouncing Israel's escalation. "We blame the Israeli enemy for the consequences of this aggressive escalation. Its attempts to establish new rules of confrontation will fail," Hamas' military wing stated. Seven terrorists were killed in the tunnel explosion, including two from the military wing of Hamas. The Fatah movement reacted to the detonation of the tunnel that had penetrated Israeli territory by the IDF and condemned "the Israeli crime that harmed the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip." A statement issued by the movement said that "this Israeli crime is part of the policy that successive Israeli governments have taken in an attempt to evade the trials of corruption they face at the expense of the blood of our people." The movement also stressed its firm position to continue ahead in completing their unity talks with Hamas, despite Israel's attempt to sabotage it. "Israel is trying to escalate the situation in order to keep us divided," says Fatah spokesman Osama Al-Qawasmi. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday met with New Zealand Governor General Patsy Reddy who has come to Israel in the framework of the event to mark the 100th anniversary of the WWO battle for Be'er Sheva. At the start of the meeting an aviation services agreement was signed; Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz signed for Israel and New Zealand Ambassador to Israel Jonathan Curr signed for New Zealand. The goal of the agreement is organize air links between the two countries; the agreement includes the operation of direct air links between Israel and New Zealand, the awarding of stopover landing rights and the right to fly in each other's airspace. Cooperation in technology, cyber, science and transportation was also discussed at the meeting. Prime Minister Netanyahu briefed the New Zealand delegation on the situation in the Middle East, especially Iran's attempt to take control in the region. Bayit Yehudi and Likud coalition partners announced Monday evening that the government will resume work as usual after agreeing to put to bed the issue of the controversial French Bill that would prohibit police investigations against a sitting prime minister. Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter The announcement comes after two weeks of discord within the coalition that divided Likud and Bayit Yehudi over the bill which led to an almost complete paralysis of the Knesset Ministerial Committee of Legislation. David Bitan and Ayelet Shaked (Photos: Yoav Dudkevitch) Eager to find a solution to what caused a deadlock in the political ranks and resolve the issue that had threatened to wrench the coalition asunder, senior ministers and government officials convened to hammer out details of a compromise. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) and MK Shuli Mualem from the same party met with coalition chairman and Likud party whip MK David Bitan Monday evening where the sides agreed to place their disagreements aside for the time being. While the sides agreed to place the French Bill on the back burner, they also committed to putting to the vote in the Ministerial Committee of Legislation next week a bill that would forbid the police from saying whether sufficient evidence exists for an indictment against suspects. All coalition factions will be permitted a free vote on the matter and will not be obliged to back the bill as they are with coalition agreements. Moshe Kahlon and PM Netanyahu (Photo: Olivier Fitoussi) Only in the event that the bill garners a majority of support in the ministerial committee will the coalition automatically back it in the Knesset plenum as it passes through the required readings Earlier on Monday, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (Kulanu) told members of his faction that his party members vote would be guided by scruples rather than dictations from the coalition. On any issue of conscience and values that is not an obligation of the coalition agreement, Kulanu has a free vote. We wont be forced by anyone to vote against our conscience," he declared. Regarding the French Bill, the warring parties decided yet again to shelve discussions for a month, buying the Likud chief proponents of the bill vital breathing space necessary to gather broad support. On Saturday night, an impasse appeared to have been reached as Bitan promised to march ahead with the bill despite a similar agreement in the coalition. YORK Two people have been arrested as suspects in not only three burglaries in York County but also maybe as many as nine others in seven other counties as well. Lt. Paul Vrbka with the York County Sheriffs Department says that early Sunday morning, a Nebraska State Patrol officer pulled over a vehicle because one of its head lights was not working. The traffic stop was initiated in York County, although Lt. Vrbka said information regarding the location is not yet being released due to the investigation still being underway. The state patrol trooper was aware that we were in the process of investigating two burglaries in Benedict early Sunday morning at PKs and at the Bowmans automotive shop. We also were investigating the burglary at the bar in Bradshaw which took place last week. He also had information that an investigation was underway regarding a recent burglary in Polk County, as well as others. Lt. Vrbka said suspected stolen property was found in the vehicle, as well as controlled substances and the two occupants were taken into custody. They have been identified as Sarah Inness, 33, of Duncan, and Randall Armagost, 28, of Central City. This investigation remains underway, but we think we are looking at a total of 12 burglaries they were likely involved in, here and in seven other counties, we believe. But again, the investigation remains underway as we continue to work with the other law enforcement agencies in those other jurisdictions. As of Monday, both Inness and and Armagost remained in custody at the York County Jail. Lt. Vrbka did not elaborate as to what was taken from the two Benedict burglaries early Sunday, or to what types of property was stolen in the other counties. As that information becomes available, it will be published in the York News-Times. As always, if anyone has information about these crimes, they are encouraged to contact the York County Sheriffs Department at 402-362-4927, the York Police Department at 402-363-2640, or Crime Stoppers at 402-362-2999. All callers reporting information to the Crime Stoppers hotline remain anonymous. A significant amendment to a nearly 60-year-old Victorian inheritance law will take effect on November 1. After that date, if a partner passes away intestate (i.e. without a will), the surviving partner will no longer have to share the inheritance with their children. Rachael Grabovic, special counsel and wills and estate specialist at Melbourne-based Rigby Cooke Lawyers, said the amendment addresses the significant financial insecurity and angst surviving partners face under current Victorian law. Currently, if a person dies intestate their partner is entitled to the personal chattels, the first $100,000 of the estate and one third of the balance of the estate, with the remainder going to the child or children, Grabovic said. For surviving partners with mortgages over jointly-owned property, the survivor often couldnt cover the repayment of the mortgage with their share of the estate, which caused much strain and additional turmoil at an already distressing time. Under the new law, if the intestate leaves behind a partner and children, or grandchildren or more remote lineal descendants of that particular relationship, the surviving partner is still entitled to the whole of the intestates estate. Although I always recommend that a person prepares a will to clarify his or her testamentary wishes and intentions, the sweeping nature of this new law makes doing so even more important, particularly for anyone wishing for their estate to be administered differently upon their passing, Grabovic said. The new intestacy law also takes into account the differences in family structures that werent so prevalent sixty years ago. If a person leaves a current partner but [has] children that are from another relationship, the partner is only entitled to the whole of the estate if it is worth less than the partners statutory legacy, which is currently set at $451,909, Grabovic explained. If the value of the estate is greater than the statutory legacy, then the surviving partner is entitled to the personal chattels, the statutory legacy (plus any interest accrued on that amount) and one half of the remaining balance of the estate. In this case, the children of the deceased are entitled to the remaining balance of the intestates estate, and if more than one, in equal shares. If the intestate leaves behind more than one current partner, the partners can enter into a distribution agreement. If the partners cannot reach an agreement, then they can seek a distribution order from the Supreme Court of Victoria. While surviving partners benefit immensely from the new law, there are no benefits for the children of the deceased. The amendment is to provide greater protection and security to the surviving partner, Grabovic said. Under the current system it can create great angst for the surviving parent knowing that a portion of her or his home or a majority of the assets they manage are owned by their children, and at any time once the children turn 18 they could effectively force a sale of the home leaving the surviving parent homeless. The new intestacy provisions fall in line with what most married couples set out in their wills: That is, 100 per cent should go to the surviving spouse with the estate passing to their children upon the death of both parents. If a person wants their children to benefit, or would like to ensure greater certainty as to who will benefit from their estate on their death, it is always recommended that they prepare a legally valid will. Related Stories: Beware Of The Dreaded Inheritance Tax! Why Investing In Property Can Fast Track Your Childs Financial Future. Islamabad: Pakistan on Monday said that DNA testing has confirmed the death of two Chinese nationals, who were reportedly kidnapped by militants from Balochistan province earlier this year. "The Government of Pakistan expresses its deep sense of shock and grief on this brutal act of terrorism," the statement read. The confirmation from the Foreign Office comes months after the Islamic State (ISIS) militant group claimed responsibility for killing the couple, who had reportedly been 'preaching' in Balochistan under the garb of learning Urdu. The ISIS on its propaganda news agency 'Amaq' had uploaded a statement in Arabic, saying it had killed the two abducted Chinese nationals. Chinese couple Lee Zing Yang, 24, and Meng Li Si, 26, had been killed in June - a month after they were kidnapped from the Jinnah Town area of Quetta on May 24. Their bodies were found in mountains after a shootout with militants but their identity was not ascertained. As per reports, another Chinese woman had escaped the abduction. In June, the interior ministry was informed that the Chinese were involved in preaching instead of business activities their declared purpose for visiting Pakistan, PTI reported. It was not clear what the interior ministry suspected them of 'preaching'. The then interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had ordered an initial review, followed by regulation and the streamlining of the visa process to avoid the misuse of business visas by foreign nationals. China has deployed hundreds of its workers to work for the USD 50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which is being opposed by the Baloch nationalists. (With PTI inputs) Mumbai: Actress Aditi Rao Hydari, who will be seen as actor Ranveer Singhs wife in Padmavati, says she might be playing a small part in the upcoming period drama film, but she will leave some impact on viewers' mind. "It's not a major role. When I signed on for Padmavati, I knew very well it was going to be a small part. But, Sanjay Leela Bhansali sir presents all his women so well," Aditi said. "In Goliyon Ki Raasleela - Ram-Leela, Richa Chadha had a brief role, but she made an impact. I am sure I will leave some impact in Padmavati. No one who works with Sanjay sir comes away without benefiting from the association. "I want to be happy in what I do. I don't want to work with people who spread negative vibes," she added. Directed by Bhansali, Padmavati features Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in lead roles. Aditi, who turned a year older on Saturday, says she "don't socialise" much. "I don't party. I don't have too many friends in the film industry. My family lives in Hyderabad. So, it (my birthday) does get lonely. My team is my family in Mumbai. I liked spending time on my birthday with them," she said. New Delhi: Banks are bound to inform its customers through personal notice before discontinuing any insurance policy provided as a cover for loans granted, the apex consumer commission has said. The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has asked the State Bank of India (SBI) to adjust the 'personal accident policy benefits' on the loans taken by a man, who died during the policy period, after noting that the bank had failed to inform him about discontinuing the policy. The NCDRC also upheld the direction of the lower fora asking the bank to pay Rs 15,000 towards legal expenses to Andhra Pradesh resident Surisetty Lakshmi Sai Mahalakshmamma, wife of the insured Venkata Rao, besides adjusting the home loan taken by him. "I agree with the order of the State Commission that the Bank having offered a personal accident cover as one of the conditions of the sanction letter should not have discontinued the policy suo motu without informing the insured who had opted for and were covered by this insurance," the bench headed by presiding member Rekha Gupta said. "...The bank was bound to inform the insured not only by publication in the newspaper but also mandatorily by personal notice that the benefit of insurance coverage of loan as given by the sanction letter was proposed to be withdrawn so that they could make alternate arrangement, if they, so desire," the commission added. According to the complaint, Rao in 2009, had obtained two housing loans from SBI under two accounts for Rs 8 lakh and Rs 5,80,000. The loan agreement was covered by 'Free Personal Accident Insurance Policy' which in case of the death the borrower, could adjust the insurance amount to the bank, it said. The complaint further said that on October 26, 2013, Rao died in an accident and bank refused to adjust the loan amount against the insurance policy saying the policy was discontinued from July 01, 2013. Subsequently, bank had sent notice under Sarfaesi Act. The Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002 (SARFAESI Act) allows banks and other financial institution to auction residential or commercial properties to recover loans. The bank contended that Personal Accident Insurance was a complementary service offered to customers and had discretion to continue or discontinue the policy at any time. The SBI had also apprised the fora that they had published the information in newspapers and updated the same on their website and in its notice boards. The district forum allowed the complaint and asked the bank to adjust the amount and pay legal expenses against which the bank approached the state commission. The state forum upheld the lower fora's order and directed the bank to serve personal notices to all customers who availed loans with insurance policy about the cancellation of such scheme to avoid future liabilities. New Delhi: Indian budget airline, SpiceJet's next sales pitch may turn out to be based on 'No runway' model. The airline desires to open up the third-biggest aviation market even more. The plan will target the billion Indians who have been deprived of airline facilities. Precisely, it will aim either those who can't afford flights or those living far from the functioning airport. SpiceJet is in talks with Japan's Setouchi Holdings Inc in order to buy about 100 amphibious Kodiak planes. Such planes can land anywhere including on water, open field or gravel. The SpiceJet's deal worth $400 million, would help it to capitalize PM Modi's ambitious plan to connect the nation by air. Amid the talks, Hiroshima-based Setouchi may conduct a water landing demonstration in November. Notably, most of the India's dormant airports's infrastructure including runways, terminals and maintainance sheds and control towers have suffered decades long negligence. SpiceJet's amphibious strategy emerges here to curb such issue. Amphibious Kodiak planes can seat either 10 or 14 people and is capable of taking off or landing on a 300-meter strip of water or land. Additionally it has a range of 1,000 kilometers (that's about distance between Mumbai and Bengaluru). Reportedly, the deal could be finalized in as soon as three months. The planes could allow SpiceJet to land at as many as 300 of country's currently unused airports. Last year, Indian airlines handled 100 million domestic passengers resulting in making it the third largest market after China and US. To direct the development, India will need a minimum of 2,100 new planes worth $290 billion in next two decades. New Delhi: Intense discussions are on in the Defence Ministry over the issue of appointing a combined Chief of Defence Staff and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has also been meeting the service chiefs and other officials over it, sources said on Monday. However, the source indicated that that the Defence Minister, who has been extensively briefed on the issue, is not in favour of taking a hurried view on the complicated issue. A high-level committee, set up to examine the gaps in the country's security system in the wake of the Kargil war in 1999, had called for appointment of a Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) as a single-point military adviser to the Defence Minister. In 2012, the Naresh Chandra Task force had also recommended creating the post. Successive governments have however not taken any decision on the issue. The source also said that the Defence Ministry is looking into the issue of rank parity between military personnel and armed forces headquarters (AFHQ) civil service officers. "The Ministry is of the view that no one's interests should be hurt, and no one should benefit at the cost of others. We are being very cautious, no false equivalence will be made," the source said. The source also said that the issue of equivalence should not be mixed with that of non-functional upgrade (NFU), which is in court. The NFU factor entitles officers or personnel of a batch to get salaries and grade pay of their batch's senior-most officer after a certain period. A Ministry circular of October 18, 2016 on rank equivalence between defence officers and armed forces headquarters (AFHQ) civil service officers, brought the ranks of armed forces officers a notch down compared to earlier status. As per the circular, a Major General and equivalent ranks of Rear Admiral and Air Vice Marshal will be equal to a principal director in the civil service ranks at AFHQ, while a Brigadier and equivalents of Commodore, Air Commodore will be equal to a director, and Colonel (Captain in the Navy and Group Captain in the Air Force) will be equal to a joint director. Earlier, a Colonel was equated with a Director, Brigadier was treated at par with a Deputy Director-General, and a Major General was treated as equivalent of a Joint Secretary. A committee was formed by then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on the issue, but as per sources, the report has not yet been submitted. New Delhi: Calling for attacking corruption at the roots, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday asked civil servants not to be misled by "black sheep" and render their service without fear or favour. Naidu also hailed GST as a revolutionary step and praised demonetisation. "As you are new generation of civil servants, I hope you will not be misled by black sheep in the fold but would render your service without fear or favour and without any expectation of extraneous rewards. If you serve in the true spirit of service I am sure you will have your best reward," he said while inaugurating the Vigilance Awareness Week 2017 being organised by Central Vigilance Commission from October 30 to November 4. He said that 'black sheep' in all walks of life were the visible face of corruption and they thrive in a system that has low accountability, low transparency, cumbersome, poorly understood procedures and high discretionary powers. Naidu said the "procedures and laws should become more citizen-centric and each citizen should get services without harassment, delays and corrupt practices". He asked civil servants to reform and transform the system and go ahead with the "three mantras" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- "reform, perform and transform". "We should go to the roots of corruption and strike at it. Constant vigilance is required to see that the vast beautiful tree of our country is not eaten up by weeds and pests." He said this year's Vigilance Week's theme "My Vision-Corruption-free India" has been aptly chosen. The Vice President paid homage to Sardar Vallabhai Patel, whose birth anniversary falls on October 31. "Sardar Patel represents the best values in the Indian tradition so far as governance is concerned. He integrated the country and also was a shining example of integrity and probity in public life. We must draw inspiration from his messages and life." He stressed on the need of making efforts to improve the educational system to inculcate strong values, ethical conduct and commitment towards the welfare of the society. He hailed the initiative of the Central Vigilance Commission to promote "integrity club" in schools and colleges. The Vice President said that presence of a strong civil society, including a free press and independent judiciary, were important for good governance. "The recent policy interventions including tax reforms could contribute to societal transformation. Why the people welcomed demonetisation though painful for them (is) because they could understand the temporary pain is for long term gain." New Delhi: In a disturbing video, Nigerian nationals broke out into a violent clash inside a Delhi-based private hospital. The one-minute video was on Monday tweeted by news agency ANI. According to the clip, the incident took place on Saturday at around 4 o'clock. #WATCH: Two groups of Nigerian nationals clash with each other at a private nursing home in #Delhi pic.twitter.com/Ia0WiLEPdO ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017 The Nigerians are believed to belong to two different groups. The brutal act was captured by a CCTV camera installed inside the premises of the nursing home. The footage shows two people barging inside, breaking a door. A couple of more people were seen joining the fight and thrashing each other. New Delhi: The In order to make GST composition more attractive, ministerial panel has suggested cutting tax rate to 1 percent for manufacturers and restaurants, while easier norms for traders opting for it. Currently, manufacturers and restaurants with turnover up to Rs 1 crore pay GST under composition scheme at 2 percent and 5 percent respectively. The same for traders is 1 percent. In its second meeting, the Group of Ministers, headed by Assam Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, today also suggested doing away with the tax rate distinction between AC and non-AC restaurants, those which are not covered under composition scheme, and tax them at 12 per cent with input credit. It also suggested that eating out at hotels, which has room tariff of more than Rs 7,500, should attract an uniform 18 per cent tax rate instead of any separate category for 5- star hotel. The GST Council, chaired by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and comprising his state counterparts, on November 10 in Guwahati is likely to take up the recommendations of the GoM, which was set up earlier this month. With regard to traders, the GoM suggested two pronged approach for taxation under the composition scheme. It suggested that traders who want to exclude the sale proceeds of tax-free items from its turnover, it can pay 1 per cent GST (Goods and Services Tax). However, those traders who pay tax on total turnover, the tax rate has been proposed at 0.5 per cent. For example, supposing a trader deals in goods which are tax exempt as well as those which are taxable under the GST and has a turnover of Rs 1 crore. Of this, Rs 40 lakh turnover is from sale of tax-exempt items and remaining Rs 60 lakh from taxable goods. So, traders deciding to pay tax on total Rs 1 crore turnover can pay 0.5 per cent, while those wanting to pay tax on Rs 60 lakh can cough up 1 per cent GST. "The GoM decided that tax rates under composition scheme for restaurants and manufacturers be lowered to 1 per cent. For traders the ministerial group suggested two tax rates," an official told PTI. The GoM also recommended allowing businesses who are engaged in inter-state sale to avail the composition scheme, he added. Around 15 lakh businesses opted for composition scheme, which allows them to pay taxes at a concessional rate and makes compliance easy under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which rolled out from July 1. There are over 1 crore businesses registered under GST. Composition scheme is open for manufacturers, restaurants and traders whose turnover does not exceed Rs 1 crore. This threshold was earlier Rs 75 lakh and the GST Council earlier this month raised it to Rs 1 crore from October 1. While a regular taxpayer has to pay taxes on a monthly basis, a composition supplier is required to file only one return and pay taxes on a quarterly basis. With PTI Inputs New Delhi: The Indian Railways on Monday announced it will introduce six new trains under the Tejas, Humsafar and Antyodaya schemes while enhancing the frequency of two trains. The new trains to be introduced soon include a six days a week Tejas between New Delhi and Chandigarh, as well as between Lucknow and Anand Vihar; a weekly Humsafar express between Sealdah and Jammu Tawi; a tri-weekly Humsafar express between Allahabad and Anand Vihar; a weekly Antyodaya express between Darbhanga and Jalandhar and a weekly Antyodaya express between Bilaspur and Ferozepur. Besides, the frequency of the 12595/12596 and 12571/12572 Gorakhpur-Anand Vihar Humsafar expresses is being enhanced to thrice and four times a week respectively. The Railways has already hiked speed of 17 trains by raising sectional speed and has introduced additional stoppages to 13 trains besides upgrading several mail and express trains to superfast trains. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre`s response on a plea challenging the mandatory linking of mobile phones with Aadhaar. A bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan gave the Centre four-weeks time to respond. The court also gave time to the West Bengal government to amend it`s petition questioning the linking of Aadhaar for giving of subsidy by the state`s Labour Department. It observed: "how could state government challenge a law passed by the Centre?" The court said West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could challenge the Aadhaar law as an "individual" and a "citizen". However, it also observed that "this way Centre would start challenging the laws passed by the States". Ankara: A mass trial in Turkey is set to resume Monday of more than 220 suspects, including former generals, accused of being among the ringleaders of last year`s coup bid to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The suspects face life sentences if convicted of charges ranging from using violence to try to overthrow the government and parliament, to killing nearly 250 people. Turkey blames the July 15, 2016 coup attempt on Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, a claim he strongly denies. Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, is among several of the 221 suspects named in the indictment but are on the run, with the rest set to appear in court. The attempted coup left 249 people dead, not counting 24 coup-plotters killed on the night of the putsch attempt. Also among the suspects in one of Turkey`s highest-profile prosecutions are several high-ranking military officers including ex-air force commander Akin Ozturk. Several of those on trial are accused of leading the so-called "Peace At Home Council", the name the plotters are said to have given themselves the night of the failed overthrow. The case is being heard in Sincan near the capital Ankara, at a facility that was purpose-built to hear coup-related trials.In the opening trial in May, alleged coup plotters were booed by protesters as they entered the courtroom, with some shouting slogans in favour of "death penalty" for the suspects. The trial is one of many being held across the country to judge the coup suspects in what is the biggest legal process of Turkey`s modern history. The government has launched a massive crackdown under state of emergency laws imposed in the wake of the failed coup which have been extended several times. Over 140,000 people, including public sector employees, have been sacked or suspended over alleged links to the coup while 50,000 people have been arrested since July 2016. This week will also see other hearings in Istanbul including journalists from opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper who are standing trial on charges of aiding and abetting terrorist organisations. One of Turkey`s acclaimed authors Asli Erdogan will appear before a court Tuesday on charges of spreading terror propaganda on account of her links to a pro-Kurdish newspaper. In December she was released pending trial, after 132 days of pre-trial detention. Last week, an Istanbul court ordered the release on judicial control of eight human rights activists including Amnesty International`s Turkey director Idil Eser, as well as a German and a Swede. The cases involving journalists have received criticism from human rights advocates who claim the government is seeking to stifle dissent. Ahmedabad: Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) leader Hardik Patel on Monday extended the deadline for the Congress party till November 7 to clear its stand on the Patidar community's demand for quota. In a meeting with the Congress today, the Patidar leaders listed their demands and the party agreed to four of them, but the demand for Patidar reservation did not reach a final conclusion. Nevertheless, Patel has remarked that the meeting turned out to be fruitful and PAAS may meet Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi if the core committee advises so. Patel also said that they did not demand reservation for Patidars only. "Not with or against anyone, need clarity by 7 November on issue of reservation to our community." Hardik said, ANI reported. Meanwhile, the Congress has said that it will make a decision after consulting the matter with legal experts. "PAAS has put forward their point, and we will go to legal expert and then take things forward," Gujarat state President Bharatsinh Solanki said in a press conference today. Last week, Hardik had issued an ultimatum to the Congress to clarify its position on quotas for Patels by November 3. "Congress must clarify how it proposes to give reservations constitutionally by November 3, 2017. If it does not make its stand clear, an episode similar to Amit Shah could repeat in Surat," he had tweeted. 3/11/2017 , Hardik Patel (@HardikPatel_) October 28, 2017 Several Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) members had on September 8 last year created ruckus at Shah`s rally, forcing him to cut short his speech. Also, earlier this month on October 1, when Shah was kicking off the Gujarat Gaurav Yatra from Karamsad, several Patel youth had tried to disrupt the event by raising slogans of `Jai Sardar, Jai Patidaar`, IANS reported. Hardik has maintained that if the Congress clarifies its stand on quotas for the Patels, he will not have issues in supporting the party in the upcoming Gujarat Assembly elections. Gujarat Assembly elections: Assembly elections in Gujarat will held in two phases on December 9 and 14. The first phase will be held in 89 of the 182 seats and will cover 19 of 33 districts. The notification for the second phase will be issued on November 20 for the remaining 93 Assembly seats in 14 districts. The votes will be counted on December 18, the same day as Himachal Pradesh, where elections will be held on November 9. The BJP has been in power in Gujarat since 1998 and the Congress is seeking to make a comeback. (With Agency inputs) New Delhi: The Supreme Court will on Monday hear a plea filed by Varun Thakur, the father of Pradyuman Thakur who was found dead in a mysterious condition in Gurugram's Ryan International School on September 8. On October 30, parents of Pradyuman organised a candle light march at the Ramlila Maidan in the national capital as a call for justice for their deceased son. Earlier on October 13, the apex court had issued notices to the Pinto family - the owners and trustees of Ryan International School - in connection with murder of seven-year-old Pradyuman. On September 8, the body of the class II student Pradyuman was found inside the toilet of the school, with his throat slit. The sensational murder of the class 11 student sparked a massive outrage across the country, triggering a debate over the safety of students in school premises. After initial investigation into the case, the Gurugram Police arrested the bus driver Ashok in connection with the murder of the child. The Pinto family the owners and trustees of the Ryan International School - were later booked under various sections in connection with the case. On September 22, On Friday, the Haryana government handed over the probe into the sensational murder case to the Central Bureau of Investigation. Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar made the announcement after he met the victim's parents at their residence. He further announced that Haryana government will take over the management of the school for next three months. New Delhi: BJP national president Amit Shah will arrive in the poll-bound state and hold key discussions with the party's state unit leaders and workers on Monday. According to PTI, Shah will address his first public meeting in the poll-bound Himachal State and as many as 15 meetings during his two-day stay here. Amit Shah would campaign in the state for five days and address rallies in three constituencies, as per reports. The BJP chief will also address four public meetings and is likely to chair a number of party meetings, including that of BJPs core group in the state, the reports said. Shah would campaign in the state for five days and address rallies at Banikhet in Dalhousie constituency and Chhalwara in Jwali on October 30, at Toki in Indora and Rajgarh in Pachhad on October 31 and in Seraj and Hamirpur on November 1, a BJP release said. Shah would also address public meetings at Jaisinghpur and Gagret on November 3 and at Rampur and Baddi on November 6. The campaigning for the November 9 assembly polls will conclude on November 7. Meanwhile, Rakesh Kanwar, deputy commissioner, Solan, said no panchayat in the Arki assembly constituency, from where Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is contesting the election, had threatened to boycott the polls. He dismissed the news reports, claiming that panchayats in Arki were planning to boycott the polls, as wrong and false and said the heads of these bodies had stated that there was no such plan. Kanwar said the Electoral Officer of Arki, Esha Thakur, was directed to conduct an inquiry into the matter. A team comprising Arki Tehsildar Ravish Chandel and Block Development Officer Jaywanti Thakur, along with the Naib Tehsildar, had visited the area on Saturday, and after proper verification concluded that the news was bogus. (With PTI inputs) WASHINGTON: Expressing displeasure over growing bonhomie between India and US, Chinese envoy to the US on Monday claimed that no one will be able to contain China. Cui Tiankai, the Chinese Ambassador to the US, also hinted that formation of this "exclusive club" can change the equation the Indo-Pacific region. "Good relations between China and the US is not at the expense of any other country. The same should be true for relations between US and India and Japan and India," said Tiankai. The Chinese diplomat was responding to questions on the recent India-centric policy speech by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the decision of the Trump administration to sell to India high-tech military equipment, including state-of-the-art armed drones, and the Japanese proposal of a strategic quadrilateral dialogue involving India and Australia. "I don't think that the sales of advanced arms would really serve that purpose," Tiankai said, further adding, "By the way I don't think anybody would be able to contain China." Political analysts have viewed the sale of arms to India as a US move to contain China. US President Donald Trump is expected to visit China for 10 days next month. He would also visit Japan, South Korea, Vietnam and the Philippines. Without mentioning the recent Doklam stand-off, Cui said the relationship between China and India "have been developing quite steadily over the years" and that "confrontation" is not in the interest of either of the two countries. "I'm quite confident that both countries have a clear recognition of what will serve their respective interests best," he said, responding to a question on India and the move to have a strategic dialogue involving four countries India, Japan, US and Australia. Cui said all the regional countries in the Indo-Pacific have shared interests in greater stability, peace and better prospects for prosperity. In order to achieve that regional countries have to work together and have to promote closer cooperation among them and maybe establish appropriate regional mechanisms, he said. With PTI inputs Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday posted a video of his pet dog on Twitter, taking a jibe at those raising questions on his tweets. While the tweet saw a good recirculation on the micro-blogging website, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was also quick in taking a dig on the Gandhi scion over the tweet. Hours after Rahul Gandhi posted the tweet, BJPs IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya targeted him with a modified poster of Akshay Kumars upcoming movie Padman, the poster of which was released on Sunday itself. The modified poster of the upcoming Bollywood release had a photograph of Rahul Gandhi sitting on a bicycle, with his pet dog Pidi sitting on the front rod. The text on the poster read: Pidiman the story of a dog who is smarter than his master. It further said, written & directed by Congressreleased today on Twitter. And Malviya was not the only one from the BJP who reacted to the tweet by the Gandhi scion. Joining him on the website was Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. He took to Twitter to recall a meeting with Rahul Gandhi where the latter was busy feeding biscuits to Pidi while Biswa wanted to discuss urgent Assams issues. He tweeted, "Sir @OfficeOfRG,who knows him better than me. Still remember you busy feeding biscuits 2 him while We wanted to discuss urgent Assam`s issues." Sir @OfficeOfRG,who knows him better than me.Still remember you busy feeding biscuits 2 him while We wanted to discuss urgent Assam's issues https://t.co/Eiu7VsuvL1 Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) October 29, 2017 Earlier in the day, Rahul posted a video on Twitter of his dog being fed biscuits and wrote, "Ppl been asking who tweets for this guy..I`m coming clean..it`s me..Pidi..I`m way ?? than him. Look what I can do with a tweet..oops..treat!" Ppl been asking who tweets for this guy..I'm coming clean..it's me..Pidi..I'm way than him. Look what I can do with a tweet..oops..treat! pic.twitter.com/fkQwye94a5 Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) October 29, 2017 Rahul Gandhi has been in news for a sudden rise in his retweets and number of followers. His Twitter handle, @OfficeOfRG, got more than one million new followers between July and September this year. People in recent past retweeted the Gandhi scion more than Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the top two Indian politicians on Twitter. A brief study into his Twitter account also revealed that many of his followers joined the micro-blogging website in October itself and had not posted a single tweet. However, one report claimed that alleged 'bots' with Russian, Kazakh or Indonesian characteristic were behind Gandhi's recent popularity on social media as they were routinely retweeting the Congress vice president's tweets. Gandhi's 'resurgence' on social media also goes hand in hand with another news report claiming that the Congress had roped in Big Data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica for a more targeted digital campaign to woo voters. Beijing: China is set to block a resolution at the United Nations this week to declare Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar as an international terrorist. Hinting at blocking a bid by the United States, France and the UK to list alleged Pathankot terror attack mastermind as a global terrorist by the UN, China harped on its familiar stand that there was no consensus among Security Council members. "We have made our position clear many times from this podium. The relevant resolutions of Security Council have clear stipulations as to the mandate of 1267 Committee and also clear stipulations when it comes to the listing of relevant organisations and individuals," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing. Replying to questions whether China will block the ban on Azhar again when the 1267 Committee of the UNSC takes up the issue on Thursday, she said "as for listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements" China's latest hold is due to lapse on Thursday. Hua said that China had put a technical hold to allow for more time for more parties to deliberate on this matter. On China's repeated actions defending Azhar, who is accused of masterminding the terror attack on Pathankot airbase in January 2016, she said that actions are meant to ensure the authority and efficacy of the UN Committee. "It is in accordance with the resolutions and rules of procedure of the Committee. We will remain in constant touch and coordination with the relevant parties on the resolution and rules of procedure of the Committee," Hua said. Asked if China is resorting to block the move repeatedly at the behest of Pakistan, Hua said, "We believe that the Committee should follow the principles of objectivity, professionalism and fairness and reach decision by a consensus based on solid proof", PTI reported. As for listing application by the relevant country, there are disagreements, she said, adding that China's technical holds are meant to allow for more time for more parties to deliberate on this matter". "To our regret, the Committee is yet to reach a consensus," Hua said. On August 03, China had extended by three months its technical hold on the US, France and UK- backed proposal to designate Azhar as a global terrorist by the UN. Earlier, in February too, this year it had blocked the US move to designate Azhar as a global terrorist. If China would not have extended the technical hold, Azhar would have automatically been designated under the UN as a terrorist. In March 2016, China was the sole member in the 15- nation UN organ to put a hold on India's application with all other 14 members of the Council supporting New Delhi's bid to place Azhar on the 1267 sanctions list that would subject him to an assets freeze and travel ban. China views Pakistan as its all-weather friend and has been backing its bid to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. (With Agency inputs) New Delhi: Launching a scathing attack on Narendra Modi government over the 2016 demonestisation move, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said November 8 will be observed as a 'sad day'. While briefing the press after meeting host of Congress leaders ahead of first noteban anniversary, the Gandhi scion said, The Prime Minister has asked to celebrate on November 8, it means that he has not felt the pain and understood the feelings of people. "The decision of demonetisation was an out-and-out disaster. The Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is yet not able to understand the pain of the nation," Rahul Gandhi said after a meeting of party general secretaries here. The Congress leader further hit out at PM Modi saying, the country's economy has been hit and destroyed with two torpedoes, one the demonetisation decision and the GST. On November 8, 2016, the Centre had decided to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. Former union finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram had said, Demonetisation is the biggest man-made disaster that hit India, worse than the 2004 Tsunami. "Demonetisation was a bad idea, full stop. GST is a good idea, but it has been hastily implemented. It should have been implemented with due care and attention, the Congress veteran had said. On November 8, 2017 the BJP will organise programmes highlighting all the steps the government has taken against black money. BJP president Amit Shah recently said that note ban and other initiatives undertaken by the Centre reflected his party's resolve to build a corruption-free India. "Demonetisation, black money SIT and other initiatives reflect our commitment towards building a nation free from corruption," he tweeted. The Congress-led 18 Opposition parties have announced that they will observe November 8 as Black Day to protest against the "ill-conceived and hasty" decision of the government to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes a year ago. The IMF has lowered India's growth projection to 6.7 percent in 2017, 0.5 percentage points less than its previous two forecasts in April and July, attributing it to demonetisation and introduction of the GST. New Delhi: In a bid to boost manufacturing of arms and ammunitions in the country, the Centre eased the Arms Rules on Monday. The move is expected to be a shot in the arm for 'Make in India' initiative of the government and is expected to have several other benefits and came into effect last week, according to an official statement. Following are some of the key highlights: * No requirement of renewing license every five years for manufacturing of arms. The licence will now be valid for life-time of the licensee company. * A one-time license fee has been introduced and has been reduced significantly * Manufacturers can now increase production capacity by up to 15 per cent without any prior permission. * Blanket permission for manufacturers to supply arms to state or central government without seeking prior approval from the Union Home Ministry. * The new rules will apply to those who have been granted licences by the Union home ministry for manufacturing small arms and ammunition. It will also be applicable to those manufacturers who have been granted permission by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) for tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, defence aircraft, space crafts, warships of all kinds, arms and ammunition and allied items of defence equipment. The move, which is aimed at encouraging investment in the manufacturing of arms, ammunition and weapon systems in the country, is also expected to generate more employment in this field. (With agency inputs) Both these powerful leaders were born in influential political families. Both rose to power amid a clout dominated by males. And both were assassinated in their respective countries. We are talking about former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and ex-Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto. While Indira Gandhi served as the Prime Minister of India from 1966-77 and 1980-84, Benazir Butto was the prime minister of Pakistan from 1988-90 and 1993-96. Heres a throwback picture of the two leaders, where Benazir seems to be in awe of India as they shake hands: Young Benazir Bhutto With PM Indira Gandhi pic.twitter.com/Vde4J3JupA indianhistorypics (@IndiaHistorypic) October 29, 2017 Though theres no information available on when this picture was taken, it might have been taken during Benazirs visit to Shimla with her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan. Some details of her visit to Shimla as a young lady was made public by an Indian bureaucrat, M K Kaw, who was given the charge of looking after her. According to him, when her father and Indira were busy discussing a peace pact after the birth of Bangladesh, Benazir enjoyed Meena Kumari-starrer film Pakeezah. A special show of Pakeezah, a masterpiece by Kamal Amrohi, was organised at Ritz cinema in Shimla for Benazir. Itanagar: India and China on Monday held a Border Personnel Meeting at Bumla near Arunachal Pradesh`s Tawang and a "thaw" in relations was evident at the meet, an official statement said. The meet comes months after a stand-off along the Sikkim sector which ended on August 28. Located at an altitude of 15,134 feet and situated 42 km north of Tawang town, Bumla is one of the five designated BPM venues, between Indian and Chinese troops. The Indian delegation was led by Brig M.P. Singh, and the Chinese by Senior Col Liu Jiang Xun. The Scheduled Military BPM commenced with the hoisting of national flags and rendition of national anthems of both the nations. This was followed by ceremonial welcome address by both delegation leaders, who extended greetings & good wishes to each other. "The thaw in the relations was evident during the meeting as both the delegations interacted in a free, congenial and cordial environment. The delegations parted amid the feeling of friendship and renewed commitment towards enhancing cordial relations and maintaining peace along the Line of Actual Control (LAC)," the statement said. It said that in last 25 years, the BPM mechanism has evolved into a vital platform for resolving local issues and fostering confidence with a view to enhance peace & tranquility in the sector. The stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops close to India-China Bhutan tri-junction started on June 16, when a PLA construction party entered the Doklam area and attempted to construct a road. Both sides announced disengagement on August 28. New Delhi: Reacting to declaration of independence by Catalan leaders, India on Monday said that issues of identity and culture should be addressed within the constitutional framework. "Have noted the negative global reaction to this development. Neither Europe nor the world would benefit from instability," Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. He added, "As a country that values and fosters unity in diversity, India would urge that issues of identity and culture are best addressed within the constitutional framework and with respect for national integrity," as per ANI. Meanwhile, the party of Catalonia's dismissed president Carles Puigdemont will run in a December regional election called by Spain's government in response to a declaration of independence by Catalan leaders, a spokeswoman said today. "We will go to the polls on (December) 21. We will go with conviction and with a commitment to letting the Catalan people express themselves," Marta Pascal, spokeswoman for the PDeCAT party, told reporters. The Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) party of Puigdemont's equally deposed vice-president Oriol Junqueras said it would "participate" in some fashion in the election despite judging the poll "illegitimate" having been called by Madrid. "Catalans do not fear the ballot box... And December 21 should be another opportunity to consolidate the republic," said ERC spokesman Sergi Sabria after a party meeting in Barcelona. "On December 21 we shall find a means of participating, be it in standing or not," Sabria added, AFP reported. Dialogue has been, and will always be, our choice to solve political situations and achieve peaceful solutions. @CharlesMichel https://t.co/6sRWiGfHvO Carles Puigdemont (@KRLS) October 27, 2017 On Friday, Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had said he had dissolved the Catalan Parliament and had called a snap vote for the region under sweeping powers approved by the Senate to stop the secessionist movement. Separatist parties of all political stripes, from Puigdemont's Catalan Democratic Party conservatives to the far-left, have dominated the Catalan Parliament since the last election in 2015, holding 72 seats out of 135. (With Agency inputs) New Delhi: Indian DGMO Lt General AK Bhatt had an unscheduled interaction with his Pakistani counterpart on Monday and made it clear that firing by Indian forces along the LoC is only in retaliation to forces from across the border providing cover to terrorists. Lt General AK Bhatt gave a strong rebuttal to accusations from his Pakistani counterpart that Indian security forces were resorting to unprovoked firing. He reportedly countered the allegation by saying that 'retaliatory firing by Indian troops only carried out in response to unabated support given by Pakistan Army to terrorists.' He further said that the Indian Army always maintains impeccable standards of professionalism and does not target civilians. Pakistani Army has repeatedly violated ceasefire across the LoC and even targeted civilian installations. According to Indian officials, Pakistan had violated ceasefire 600 times in this year - till September 30. It is the highest number of ceasefire violations in nearly a decade, a Home Ministry official had said. There were nearly 450 ceasefire violations in 2016 in which 13 civilians and as many security personnel were killed. The truce between India and Pakistan along the International Border, the Line of Control and the Actual Ground Position Line in Jammu and Kashmir had come into force in November 2003. India shares a 3,323-km-long border with Pakistan of which 221 km of the IB and 740 km of the LOC fall in Jammu and Kashmir. In recent weeks, pressure has been put on Pakistan to curb terrorism emanating from its soil with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urging Islamabad to do more. In a strong message to Pakistan, the top-ranking US official said, ''India and USA stand shoulder to shoulder against terror.'' Tillerson had received a frosty welcome in Pakistan but it was more than made up for when he landed in New Delhi a day later. New Delhi: Indian Army's Director General of Military Operations Lt General AK Bhatt on Monday categorically rejected Pakistan's charge that Indian security forces had resorted to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control (LoC). In an unscheduled Hot Line interaction requested by Pakistan, the Indian DGMO stated that retaliatory firing by Indian troops were only carried out in response to unabated support given by Pakistani Army to terrorists. While stressing that the Indian Army reserved the right to retaliate appropriately to any incident of violation of ceasefire, Lt General AK Bhatt maintained that the Army always maintains impeccable standards of professionalism and does not target civilians. The DGMO made it implicit that the Indian Army reserved the right to retaliate appropriately to any incident of violation of ceasefire but is sincere in its effort of maintaining peace and tranquillity along the LoC, provided there was reciprocity. During an earlier interaction, India had told Pakistan that infiltration along the LoC continues "with active support of Pakistan forward posts" and warned that it reserves the right to retaliate appropriately to any loss of life of Indian troops. Earlier this month, Pakistan had raised its concerns on India's ceasefire violations along the LoC and international border with UN Security Councils five permanent members. The UN Security Council permanent members include China, France, Russia, Britain and US. The ceasefire violations by Pakistan, which amounted to 228 in 2016, have reached 600 this year (till September 30). India and Pakistan had signed a ceasefire agreement on the LoC and the international border in November 2003. The agreement brought a modicum of peace along the border and held well for nearly four years. India shares a 3,323-km-long border with Pakistan of which 221 km of the IB and 740 km of the LOC fall in Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned its verdict on Article 35A, granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir, by three months. On behalf of the Centre, Attorney general KK Venugopa further sought six months time on the issue. Earlier, the top court had set an eight-week or two-month time for the verdict, but later amended its order. A three-bench judge was hearing arguments for a batch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35A that relates to the special rights and privileges of the residents of Jammu and Kashmir. It was added to the Constitution by a Presidential Order in 1954. It empowers the state's legislature to frame laws without attracting a challenge on grounds of violating the Right to Equality of people from other states or any other right under the Constitution. The petition was filed by a Delhi-based NGO, We the Citizens, which wants the state-specific law repealed. Kashmiri separatist leaders have warned of widespread protests if the Supreme Court rules in favour of the petitioners. They say the move to tinker with Article 35(A) is a conspiracy against Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi: New chief of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), Yogesh Chander Modi, said on Monday that all decision would be taken in "national interest". "We work under certain parameters of law but for us national interest is the most important thing. Everybody is working for national interest. So, whatever decision would be taken, it would be in the national interest," the agency's Director General, who took office on Monday, told the media, IANS reported. He was replying to a question if there would be any impact on the NIA's ongoing probe against Kashmiri separatist leaders after the appointment of former Intelligence Bureau chief Dineshwar Sharma as interlocutor for "sustainable dialogue" on Jammu and Kashmir. "The NIA is the best investigation team in the country. I worked here for one month and I saw that our colleagues are exceptional in their investigative skills," Modi added. #NIA_India Shri Yogesh Chander Modi assumes charge of Dircetor General, National Invetigation Agencyhttps://t.co/A2k0Vie2WG pic.twitter.com/qVXxnKXnk6 NIA India (@NIA_India) October 30, 2017 He is 1984-batch Assam-Meghalaya cadre IPS officer. He succeeds Sharad Kumar whose tenure saw the agency probing some high-profile cases such as the Bodhgaya Temple blast, explosions during the Patna rally of the then BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, the Pathankot airbase attack, ISIS links and the Jammu and Kashmir terror- funding case, as per PTI. Modi was awarded with the Police Medal for Meritorious Service in 2001 and the President's Police Medal for Distinguished Service in the year 2008. (With Agency inputs) New Delhi: Denying that he has kept Hadiya Shefin - who converted to Islam - under house arrest, father KM Ashokan said he will produce his 24-year-old daughter in front of Supreme Court on November 27. The apex court earlier on Monday had said that Hadiya must be produced before it so that her statement could be recorded. Hadiya, a 25-year-old homeopathic doctor, had converted to Islam last year after her marriage with Shafin Jahan. On her father's claim, the Kerala High Court had accepted that Shafin Jahan has links with terror-outfits. Her father had also alleged that she was forcefully converted by her friends. On Monday, the apex court ordered that Hadiya before it by November 27. Ashokan said he welcomed the order and that he will comply by it. "I welcome the order of Supreme Court. I will produce Hadiya before the court on November 27," he said. Hadiya is currently under the protective custody of her parents after the Kerala High Court annulled her marriage with Shafin Jahan on charges of 'love jihad'. But on Friday, a video had emerged showing the woman crying for help. "You need to get me out...I will be killed anytime," she said in the video. With police officers outside her house, Hadiya has reportedly not been allowed to step out, leading to Keralas State Women Commission directing the Kottayam Superintendent of Police to conduct necessary inquiries and submit a report. New Delhi: A Delhi-bound Jet Airways flight from Mumbai, that was on Monday diverted to Ahmedabad airport for 'security reasons', took off for its destination. The flight 9W339, which took off from Mumbai at 0255 hours, landed at Ahmedabad airport at around 0345 hours. A passenger onboard said the flight was diverted to Ahmedabad citing 'security reasons'. All the passengers were asked to deplane and were screened. A security personnel at Ahmedabad airport said the flight was diverted as there was a specific threat call. A hijack threat letter was also found inside the washroom of the flight. Hijack threat letter found in bathroom of Jet Airways 9W339 Mumbai-Delhi flight that was diverted to Ahmedabad earlier today pic.twitter.com/cr8KlKjvIP ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017 The number of passengers onboard could not be immediately ascertained. There was no immediate response from Jet Airways spokesperson. (With DNA inputs) New Delhi: India-Afghanistan trade took a historic turn on Sunday when External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj flagged off the first shipment of wheat to the country via the Chabahar port in Iran. There were two clear messages with the consignment - India is committed to building close ties with Afghanistan, and that it does not need Pakistan to provide a passage for it. Swaraj and her Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani flagged off the shipment of wheat from India to Afghanistan through video conferencing. "The shipment of wheat is a landmark moment as it will pave the way for operationalisation of the Chabahar port as an alternate, reliable and robust connectivity for Afghanistan," the MEA said in a statement. Negating the need to send and receive shipments through Pakistan, both India and Afghanistan now open a new chapter in bilateral trade through the strategic port in Iran. EAM @SushmaSwaraj flags off first shipment of wheat from India to Afghanistan through Chabahar port, Iran & Afghanistan joined the ceremony. pic.twitter.com/W7hKek66D9 October 29, 2017 Not that Pakistan did not try to revive land passage from within its territory. According to a report in The Hindu, Pakistani Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa offered talks on the prospect of reviving Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) and possibly including India. It is learnt that the same was communicated by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to New Delhi via the embassy in Kabul. The report though says Indian officials at the SCO Afghanistan-Contact group meeting in Moscow told the Afghan delegation that it would not take up the offer for talks. The move comes at a time when the United States is urging India to increase its scope of work in Aghanistan. While India has made it clear that it won't play any military role, trade is a completely different aspect and one that would benefit both countries. India has already committed to sending 1.1 million tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan on grant basis. Six more wheat consignments will be sent in the upcoming months. The move also comes at a time when dark clouds are hovering over Pakistan-Afghanistan trade. Earlier this month, Ghani banned Pakistani trucks from entering his country via the Torkham and Spin Boldak border crossings - according to Tolo News. "The Afghanistan and Pakistan Trade Agreement (APTA) has expired. Before this Pakistan did not allow Afghan trucks to enter its territory. So we (will) do the same, and after this Pakistani trucks will be unloaded at borders and Afghan trucks will carry the goods to Hairatan and Shir Khan ports," Transport Ministry spokesman Hekmatullah Qawanch was quoted as saying. The discussions over the revised transit treaty between Afghanistan and Pakistan too has repeatedly hit roadblocks and many in Islamabad fear that New Delhi will snatch the initiative as a close trade partner. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said that both India and Italy are committed to fight all forms of terrorism and to strengthen cooperation on cybersecurity. "In today`s era every day we have to face new dangers and challenges. In relation to some of the security challenges present and emerging at the global level, we have discussed in detail. We are both committed to fighting all forms of terrorism and strengthening cooperation on cybersecurity," PM Modi said in a joint statement at the end of delegation-level talks with his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni in New Delhi. Emphasising that India and Italy are two major economies of the world, he added, "we would like to encourage more strong participation by the Italian companies in our Flagship Programs and Projects. There are immense possibilities for them in collaboration with Indian companies." "In many areas like Smart Cities, Food Processing, Pharmaceuticals, Infrastructure, our requirements are similar to Italy`s expertise and capabilities," PM Modi further said. On his part, Italian PM said, "Economically, we have major opportunities, previously we had a meeting with the entrepreneurs and business leaders from India and Italy and initially we had the economic situation which is stable and showing growth," ANI reported. 70 Years of Diplomatic Relationship PM @narendramodi & Italian PM @PaoloGentiloni released commemorative stamps to mark the occasion pic.twitter.com/1DGjpBmvqK Indian Diplomacy (@IndianDiplomacy) October 30, 2017 India, Italy sign six MoUs to boost bilateral relations: Earlier, India and Italy signed six Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) including Joint Declaration of Cooperation for Safety in the Railway Sector. The MoUs signed between the two sides included Joint Declaration of Cooperation for Safety in the Railway Sector, MoU on 70 years of Diplomatic Relations, MoU on Cooperation in the field of Energy, Executive Protocol on Cultural Cooperation, MoU between MFA, Italy and FSI, MEA, India and MoU for Promoting Mutual Investment. And here's the List of MoUs/Agreements signed during the visit of Prime Minister of Italy to India https://t.co/91mpHxWoKP pic.twitter.com/N9LUgJH0MX Indian Diplomacy (@IndianDiplomacy) October 30, 2017 Also, visiting dignitary also met External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and discussed issues of mutual interest. Gentiloni also paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat. (With ANI inputs) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday rapped the West Bengal government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for challenging the Centres move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing the benefits of various social welfare schemes. Questioning the West Bengal government's move, the apex court said, "How can a state file such a plea. In a federal structure, how can a state file a plea challenging Parliament's mandate." Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, told the court that the plea has been filed by the Labour Department of the state as subsidies under these schemes have to be given by them. "You satisfy us how the state has challenged it. We know it is a matter which needs consideration," a bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and Ashok Bhushan said, adding the Centre's move can be challenged by an 'individual' but not by states. "Let Mamata Banerjee come and file a plea as individual. We will entertain it as she will be an individual," the top court said. However, Sibal maintained that the state was entitled to file such a plea but said that they would amend the prayer in the petition. The apex court, meanwhile, issued a notice to the Centre on a batch of pleas challenging linking of mobile phone numbers with Aadhaar and directed it to file a reply within four weeks. Today's ruling has come as a big setback to the Trinamool Congress chief who had recently said that she will not link Aadhaar to her phone number and dared authorities to disconnect it if they wanted to. Under no circumstances will I link my Aadhaar with my telephone number. If the authorities disconnect my phone, let them do it. It will actually save me a lot of trouble as I wont have to go through a number of text messages, she had said. Senior advocate and member of Parliament Kalyan Banerjee had earlier said the petition was filed earlier and would come up for hearing before the bench on October 30. He said West Bengal government has challenged the provision which said that without Aadhaar the benefits of social welfare schemes would not be extended. On October 25, the Centre had told the top court that the deadline for mandatory linking of Aadhaar to avail benefits of various government schemes has been extended till March 31 next year for those who do not have the 12-digit biometric identification number. Attorney General KK Venugopal had told a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that the deadline extension from December end this year till March 31, 2018, would apply only to those who do not have Aadhaar and are willing to enrol for it. However, Venugopal had told the bench that he would take instructions on certain issues on Aadhaar after which the court had asked him to mention the matter again on October 30. Several petitions, challenging the Centres move to make Aadhaar mandatory for welfare schemes and notifications to link it with mobile numbers and bank accounts, are pending in the apex court. With PTI inputs New Delhi: The Staff Selection Commission (SSC) is expected to release SSC CGL Tier I 2017 Results on October 31 (Tuesday). Candidates who had appeared for examination can view their result on official website ssc.nic.in. The Combined Graduate Level (CGL) Examination, 2017 (Tier-I) was held from August 5 to 23. 15,43,962 candidates had appeared in this examination which was conducted in 43 batches across the country. Tier 1 exam is computer-based and contains 25 questions each for Reasoning, General Awareness, Quantitative Aptitude and English Comprehension. Each section carries a weight of 5 How to check SSC CGL Tier 1 results 2017 Visit the official website Click on SC CGL 2017 tier 1 exam Results button Enter your roll number, date of birth, other details Click on submit Your results will be displayed on screen Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav on Sunday took on Bihar Chief Minister and former ally Nitish Kumar on the issue of liquor prohibition in Bihar. Talking to mediapersons, the former chief minister termed the prohibition in the state as flop and alleged that home delivery of liquor was happening in Bihar. The allegations were made by the RJD chief while responding to questions on the recent hooch tragedy in the state that claimed at least four lives. He alleged that liquor bottles were being brought to the state in trucks and was also helping the police department procure illegal money. According to him, those who were not beneficiary of this racket were resorting to production and distribution of illicit liquor. At least four people died in Rohtas area of Bihar on Friday after allegedly consuming spurious liquor, following which nine police personnel were suspended. This happened despite complete ban on sale and consumption of alcohol in Bihar since April 2016. According to police, they raided a shop owned by one of the accused Antim Lal Singh and recovered three bottles of foreign liquor, two litres of country liquor and two kgs of ganja. The accused is, however, yet to be arrested. Soon after the incident, the RJD had targeted Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in the state, claiming that prohibition was implemented "only on paper". Former deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav also trained his guns at the BJP and said, "Nitish's current allies used to call the prohibition law in Bihar draconian. Now, they are in power in the state. How will the ruling dispensation muster the moral strength required to strictly enforce the ban on sale and consumption of liquor." "The suspension of police officials after the death of four persons is an eyewash. The people of the state will teach a befitting lesson to this corrupt and inefficient government at an appropriate time," he added. New Delhi: National Award-winning Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, who on several occasions has come forward to offer his helping hand to the Indian Army soldiers in whatever way possible, is now back with a advertisement of Fortune oil, with a nationalism touch. The ad shows the versatile Bollywood actor interacting with the military personnel and asking them about the missing aspects of their lives and also cooking food for them. In the advertisement, the Bollywood's most bankable star is seen cooking few items of food for the soldiers and giving them a taste of 'Ghar Ka Khana'. Join me and @FortuneFoods as we salute the Indian soldiers by taking the taste of home to them. Kyonki #GharKaKhana ghar ka khana hota hai pic.twitter.com/MjDnPh3L6Z Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) October 30, 2017 Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday met the actor and lauded his efforts towards helping the Indian Army. Launched by Rajnath Singh and Akshay in April, 'Bharat Ke Veer' aims to facilitate online donation directly to the families of paramilitary troopers who have sacrificed their lives for the country since January 1, 2016. The Diwali festival became merrier for families of 103 slain policemen and Army personnel in Maharashtra, courtesy an initiative by a senior IPS officer and actor Akshar Kumar, with the latter contributing over Rs 25 lakh for the cause. Born in Amritsar to Hari Om Bhatia and Aruna Bhatia, Akshay's father was a military officer. The actor lived in Chandi Chowk area, New Delhi for a brief time during his childhood. However, he was soon shifted to Mumbai where he lived in Koliwada. His real name is Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia, but changed it before entering films. Nobody would believe but yes Akshay served as a chef in Bangkok before becoming a superstar in Bollywood. Akki, who is a black belt in Taekwondo got his formal Martial Arts training in Bangkok. He even learned Muay Thaia combat sport of Thailand. He likes to watch WWE and Kane is his favourite wrestler. While his training there, Akki served as a chef and a waiter, reportedly. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned its verdict on Article 35A, granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir, by two months. The Article relates to the special rights and privileges of the residents of Jammu and Kashmir. It was added to the Constitution by a Presidential Order in 1954. It empowers the state's legislature to frame laws without attracting a challenge on grounds of violating the Right to Equality of people from other states or any other right under the Constitution. The petition was filed by a Delhi-based NGO, ''We the Citizens'', which wants the state-specific law repealed. Meanwhile, the Kashmiri separatist leaders have warned of widespread protests if the Supreme Court rules in favour of the petitioners. They say the move to tinker with Article 35(A) is a conspiracy against Jammu and Kashmir. Issuing a joint statement in Srinagar on Sunday, Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik urged the people to launch a mass agitation if the Supreme Court delivered a verdict against the interests and aspirations of the people of the state. Any move to tinker with a state subject law will create a Palestine-like situation, the separatist Hurriyat leaders warned. They asked the people to prepare for protests against any change in the law that bars people from outside Jammu and Kashmir from acquiring immoveable property in the state. They alleged the BJP government was working to sabotage the referendum process in the state and described the PDP, its ruling partner in the state, as an ally of the RSS. Earlier this month, at a rally to mark Dussehra, RSS prant pracharak Rupesh Kumar had called Article 35A unconstitutional. He said that it violates the basic character of Indian Constitution, which guarantees equality to all citizens of India, irrespective of their caste, creed or religion. Four petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court challenging various provisions of Articles 35 (A) and 370 of the Constitution that grant special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. The petitioners are Labha Rama Gandhi on behalf of West Pakistan Refugee Action Committee; Kali Dass, a refugee; Charuwali Khanna and We the Citizens, an NGO. (With inputs from PTI) New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday will hear a case where the father of a Hindu woman from Kerala alleged that his daughter, following her marriage, was converted to Islam through 'love jihad'. The apex court had earlier ordered a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to find out if there is a pattern of love jihad in the case. The apex court had earlier this year questioned how a High Court can annul the marriage between two consenting adults. Hadiya Shefin, a 25-year-old homeopathic doctor had converted to Islam last year after her marriage with Shafin Jahan. On her father's claim, the Kerala High Court had accepted that Shafin Jahan has links with terror-outfits. Her father had also alleged that she was forcefully converted by her friends. On Friday, a video was released where Hadiya, born Akhila Ashokan was heard as saying, "You need to get me out...I will be killed anytime." Meanwhile, she was put in the protective custody of her parents after the Kerala High Court annulled her marriage with Shafin Jahan on charges of 'love jihad'. She has not been allowed to step out of her house ever since the high court gave her custody to her parents, with police officers stationed outside her house round the clock. A day after Hadiya's video plea asking to save her life emerged, Keralas State Women Commission directed the Kottayam Superintendent of Police to conduct necessary inquiries and submit a report on the 25-year-olds current condition. Bhopal: Over pregnant 50 women have allegedly fallen ill after receiving antibiotic injections at Kamla Raja Hospital in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh. One of the affected woman, while speaking to news agency ANI, said that she was feeling very cold and having headache after the hospital staff administered her injections. Senior officials have reached the hospital and taking stock of the situation. Around 56 women were admitted to hospital on Sunday, however, 50 of them were given antibiotic injections at 9 pm, following which they complained of feeling cold and having fever. However, to their apathy when their relatives informed the hospital staff about their condition, they were reportedly told that when such injections are given to patients, it is natural for them to feel cold. According to reports ampicillin injection, which is supposed to be given by adding distilled water, was administered to the pregnant women with normal water. The particular injection is given to pregnant women to prevent passing an infection to the baby during birth. Mumbai: Former actor and BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha has extended his support to actor Vijays Tamil film "Mersal", which had some controversial dialogues about GST and the Digital India programme. He says people should support the movie and not remain defensive about the "perfectly legitimate issue". "Why are we so defensive about a perfectly legitimate issue that has been raised in the Tamil film regarding healthcare and the GST? As entertainers and actors with powerful voices we have a certain duty towards the public to make them aware of socio-political issues," Sinha, who's is a BJP member of Parliament from Patna, said. He added: "Why is it such a crime if Vijay who is a very powerful Tamil actor, reminds us that the poor in our country desperately need healthcare?" "Mersal" was embroiled in controversy after the Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) demanded the removal of certain dialogues which take a dig at the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Digital India. However, Sinha feels that the protestors of the movie don't represent the BJP's official view. "Has anyone heard the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) or any of the top leaders commenting on the issue? It is only some elements in our party who are eager to prove that they are more loyal than the others," Sinha said. "They are the ones jumping in to attack this perfectly harmless and very significant point raised in the film. Instead of attacking Vijay and questioning his credentials we should all take his words seriously and work towards improving healthcare in our country," he added. Sinha feels there is no harm in pulling up the government for mistakes. "We should gracefully accept that demonetisation was a mistake. I was one of the first to point it out that it was not right. So many have lost their jobs, all their savings. Likewise perhaps even the GST is not what it was meant to be," he said. "If so, let's admit out mistake, let's roll back. Let's not be ashamed to say we are sorry. Instead of attacking actors and artistes for drawing attention to anomalies in the workings of our democracy, we should applaud them. Valid criticism must be equally welcome from Amar, Akbar and Anthony," he added. He believes that the film has received a lot of hype because of BJP. "Thanks to all the noise that was made over a few dialogues in the film by my overzealous party members, the film has attracted much more attention that it would have otherwise. The makers of Mersal' must be thankful to the BJ Pune: In a shocking incident, a 10-year-old student here was allegedly thrashed by his school teacher after he failed to provide the details of his Aadhaar card in school. The beat up was such that the kid had to undergo a surgery following the brutal act. He suffered a serious injury in his knee. The incident took place in Morya Shikshan Sanstha situated in Chinchwad area. The cruel act surfaced a few weeks back, but it came to light on Sunday when the case was registered against the teacher by the parents of the boy in Chinchwad police station. Police have slapped charges of voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means under section 324, and relevant sections of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 against the teacher identified as Kharat (full name is not known). According to the parents of the student, they still do not know why the teacher had asked for the Aadhaar details from their son. Sangeeta Belle, the mother of the boy said, "As per my knowledge, the school was planning to come up with a mobile application to send circulars and other notifications to parents. I think that they required the Aadhar details of students for that application. However, there was no need to hit our son so badly." The parents said that the boy was admitted to a private hospital from October 6 to October 15 where he had to undergo a surgery after he was hit by the teacher. "He was very scared to even tell us about the incident. He was facing difficulty in walking and we had to take him to a doctor for treatment. After he was admitted to the hospital for the surgery, that time he narrated the whole incident to us and we were in deep shock," Belle said. After the boy was discharged from the hospital, the parents decided to approach the police and lodge the complaint against the teacher. Police are now trying to get more information about the teacher. "Being Sunday, the school was closed and the parents also did not have much information about the teacher. Once the school is opened on Monday, we will contact the school authority and we will get further details in this case," a police official from Chinchwad police station said. Mumbai: HDFC Standard Life Insurance, which opens its Rs 8,700 crore IPO on November 7, on Monday said it has fixed its price band at Rs 275-290 per equity share. The private insurer's Initial Public Offer will open on November 7 and close on November 9. "The funds raised will be used by HDFC Ltd for its business purposes as the insurance arm has adequate capital needed for growth," HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh told reporters here. The company will raise Rs 8,700 crore. The IPO is offering up to 299,827,818 equity shares of the face value of Rs 10 each. This comprises an offer for sale of 191,246,050 equity shares by Housing Development Finance Corporation and up to 108,581,768 equity Shares by Standard Life (Mauritius Holdings), the promoters of HDFC Life. The global coordinators and book running lead managers of the IPO are Morgan Stanley India Company, HDFC Bank, Credit Suisse Securities (India), CLSA India and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India). The book running lead managers are Edelweiss Financial Services, Haitong Securities India, IDFC Bank, IIFL Holdings and UBS Securities India. The equity shares offered in the IPO are proposed to be listed on the BSE and the NSE. HDFC Standard Life was one of the first private life insurance companies to register in India and was established as a joint venture between HDFC and Standard Life Aberdeen plc (global investment company), initially through its wholly owned subsidiary The Standard Life Assurance Company and now through its wholly owned subsidiary, Standard Life Mauritius. The company has a pan-India presence, comprising 414 branches across India as of September 30, supported by a workforce of 16,544 full-time employees. New Delhi: Public sector bank stocks on Monday rose up to 8 percent as the government's Rs 2.11 lakh crore recapitalisation plan continued to drive investor sentiment. Punjab National Bank (PNB) shares gained 3.92 percent and that of SBI rose 0.37 percent on the BSE. Among others, Syndicate Bank stock soared 8.15 percent, followed by Indian Bank 5.56 percent, Union Bank of India 4.73 percent, Allahabad Bank 3.53 percent, Bank of India 2.27 percent and Bank of Maharashtra 1.83 percent. Key Indian equity indices on Monday scaled fresh highs both on closing as well as intra-day basis. The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE closed at a fresh high of 33,266.16 points -- up 108.94 points or 0.33 per cent -- after touching a record high of 33,340.17 points intra-day. The broader Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE), which touched an intra-day record high of 10,384.50 points, closed at a new high of 10,363.65 points. On the currency front, the rupee strengthened by 20-21 paise to close at 64.85-86 against the US dollar from its previous close at 65.05. In terms of investments, provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold scrip worth Rs 186.04 crore, whereas domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased stocks worth Rs 139.68 crore. With Agency Inputs New Delhi: The government on Monday extended the due date by a month for filing of July GSTR-2 to November 30 and GSTR-3 to December 11. GSTR-2 or purchase returns have to be matched with GSTR-1 which is the sales return. The original due date for filing GSTR-2 was October 31, while the last date for filing of GSTR-3, which is a matching form of GSTR-1 and 2, was November 11. The last date for filing of GSTR-1 for July was October 1. Over 46.54 lakh businesses had filed July GSTR-1 returns. The extension will facilitate about 30.81 lakh taxpayers for filing GSTR-2 for the month of July, 2017, the finance ministry said in a statement. "The competent authority has approved the extension of filing of GSTR-2 for July, 2017 to November, 2017, for facilitation of businesses and all taxpayers," it said. Businesses have been complaining of problems in matching invoices, while filing GSTR-2 on the GST Network portal. This is the first month of filing GSTR-2. The extension of last date for filing will act as a breather for them as well as GSTN which can further streamline the utilities on the portal. The Group of Minister under Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi had last week flagged issues faced by taxpayers in filing GSTR-2 and asked Infosys and GST Network to streamline the system. Till Saturday, about 12 lakh businesses had filed GSTR-2 returns for the month of July. AMRITSAR: Hindu Surakasha Sena (HSS) leader Vipin Sharma was shot dead by two unidentified assailants in Amritsar's Bharat Nagar area on Monday morning. Sharma was the Amritsar district president of HSS. The entire shootout was captured on CCTV camera. "Two people fired several bullets at him. We are trying to extract the photos of the criminals from the CCTV footage," said Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Jagmohan Singh. The police are currently trying to identify the assailants. "We cannot specify anything for now. We have constituted a SIT(Special Investigative Team) for investigation. They are raiding different locations in search of clues," said the DCP. Two weeks ago, on October 17, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) leader Ravinder Gosai was also shot dead by unidentified assailants in Ludhiana's Kailash Nagar. The 60-year-old was returning home from the RSS Shakha, when unidentified men on a motorcycle shot at him. New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said that it will consider granting bail to Unitech Ltd Managing Director Sanjay Chandra after the embattled real estate firm deposits Rs 750 crore by December end. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra said the money, to be deposited in the apex court registry, will be used in facilitating refund to the home buyers who want their money back. The bench, also comprising justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, asked the authorities of Tihar jail, where Chandra is presently lodged, to facilitate his meeting with his company officials, financiers and lawyers so that he could arrange the money for refunding the home buyers as well as for completing the ongoing housing projects. Advocate Pawan Shree Aggarwal, assisting the court as an amicus curiae in the matter, told the bench that the real estate firm needed around Rs 2,000 crore to refund money to home buyers as well as completing the ongoing projects. Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Chandra, told the court that they have given a plan for refund of money and completion of projects and they needed some time to do it. The apex court has fixed the matter for hearing in the second week of January and granted liberty to Chandra to mention the matter for grant of bail after depositing Rs 750 crore in the apex court Registry. The Supreme Court had on October 23 asked the jailed Unitech Ltd MD to establish his bonafide by depositing at least Rs 1,000 crore out of a total of Rs 1,865 crore to refund hassled homebuyers who do not want possession of flats. The apex court had also questioned the real estate firm why they cannot auction their properties to refund money to the homebuyers and complete their housing projects. The apex court had earlier directed the amicus curiae to create a website in which the home buyers could upload their details and claim flat or refund from the company. Chandra is seeking interim bail from the apex court after the Delhi High Court on August 11 had rejected the plea in a criminal case lodged in 2015 by 158 home buyers of Unitech projects' --'Wild Flower Country' and 'Anthea Project'-- situated in Gurugram. The apex court had on September 1 said that although it is absolutely conscious that it is dealing with an application for bail, but "the consumers who have invested their money in various projects undertaken by the petitioners cannot be allowed to lurch in the dark. Their problem has to be solved". It had said that settlement of the problem can take place in two ways -- the consumers who are inclined to take possession of the flats can opt for the same and those who wanted their money back shall get the amount along with interest. Mumbai: India received a total real estate investment of USD 2.87 billion in the six cities of Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Djuelhi NCR, Chennai and Hyderabad, which was an increase of 100 percent, property consultant Cushman & Wakefield said in a survey. "These markets have been able to attract capital based on strong economic drivers, acceleration in reforms, high yields and rapidly modernising business base," the report said. Mumbai recorded real estate investments of USD 1.74 billion from July, 2016 to June 30, 2017 placing it on 81st position in global cities at attracting funds, the report added. According to the report, Mumbai was placed number one by growth amongst the gateways cities with a 194 percent increase from the previous year. The global property investment market saw volumes rise 4 percent year-on-year to USD 1.5 trillion in a one year period ending June 2017. The report, that surveyed over 400 global locations found out that only Pune outshines Mumbai in terms of investment growth at 285 percent. It also placed Bengaluru at 161st position with total real estate investment volume of USD 461 million. Of the total real estate investment received in Indian cities, the largest share of over 55 percent came in from North America, while domestic and regional sources saw a decline in share of capital invested in the country, the report said. Funds from Europe, which had not made its presence in the previous year, were seen contributing around 14 percent, it added. With PTI Inputs New Delhi: Doomsday predictions never end and conspiracy theorists live for the day when their foretelling comes true and the world as we know it comes to an end. Since the beginning of recorded history, many conspirators have put forward their prophecies from aliens, to asteroids to black holes there isn't a single possibility that they have omitted as a trigger for catastrophe. However, there certainly seems to be a loophole in all those predictions since none of them have come remotely near enough for one to say that 'it's actually happening'. But is the complete destruction of mankind a realistic possibility in the foreseeable future? Probably not. While there are too many predictions to even count, we have compiled a list of five more recent doomsday prophecies that 'surprisingly' didn't come true. Have a look! September 6, 1994 - Harold Camping In a book called '1994?', radio broadcaster and evangelical Christian Harold Camping alleged that the return of Christ would come in September 1994. In the book, which was released in 1992, he had based his prediction off numbers and dates found in the Bible. Despite Camping claiming that he was '99.9 percent certain' of the occurrence, it didn't come true. This made him change his rapture date to October 2, then for a third time to March 31, 1995. Camping made 12 different prophecies all together, the last of which was October 21, 2011, after which he put his error down to bad maths. Jan 1, 2000 Y2K Possibly one of the most famous doomsday predictions, many people actually believed in the Y2K theory that when it came time for the turn of the millennium, the world's computer systems would crash. A computer bug related to the storage of calendar data posed a problem, as up until that point, dates had been recorded using the last two digits of the year only. Therefore, when the clocks ticked over from 99 to 00, this would, in theory, cause a worldwide crash. As per the prediction, planes were supposed to drop out of the sky, power plants would shut down and society would cease to function. But when year 2000 actually arrived, just a handful of computer incidents were reported, most of which were to do with digital clocks displaying the year 1900 rather than 2000. May 5, 2000 Richard W. Noone In his book '5/5/2000: Ice, The Ultimate Disaster', author Richard W Noone claimed that the Earth's final day would be May 5, 2000. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn would align with Earth for the first time in six thousand years and trigger a series of natural disasters, kicked off by the disruption of Earth's polar caps. And the rest, as they say, is history. September 10, 2008 Large Hadron Collider It was believed that the Earth would meet its end when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) would be switched on. By attempting to recreate a mini version of the Big Bang, a number of theorists thought it would create black holes which would engulf the earth. A pair of anxious citizens also fired up a lawsuit against the operators of the collider which required a safety report be submitted before the Collider could be operated. So far, the LHC hasn't produced any black holes. December 21, 2012 The Mayan Apocalypse Believed to be the most widely followed prediction in the last few decades, the Mayan apocalypse was supposed to begin when the Mayan calendar ended which was a few days before Christmas 2012. December 21 marked the end of the calendar's first "Great Cycle", after 5,125 years of continuous tracked time. This prediction sparked immense panic around the world and triggered further doomsday predictions incuding alien invasion, giant solar flares and monstrous tidal waves following planetary realignment. One man in China was so convinced the world was coming to an end that he spent more than 100,000 to build his very own apocalypse-proof 'Noah's Ark'. If this wasn't enough, the latest predictions are sure to turn your head over. A conspiracy theorist by the name of David Meade who claims to have studied astronomy in Kentucky and deciphered the Book of Revelations, predicted that an ominous sign would appear on September 23 and foretell the world's end. When the 'catastrophe' didn't occur, Meade changed his prediction, announcing that the world would begin to end on October 15, triggered by seven years of natural disasters. After October 15 came and went uneventfully, the date has now further progressed to November 19, as claimed by another conspirator called Terral Croft. Well, this will probably be just another date on the failed doomsday predictions list, because scientifically, the main theory this prediction is based on doesn't even exist. Go figure! Lucknow: Yogi Adityanath government has cleared a proposal to include books by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in the syllabus of madarsas functioning in the state. According to reports, the UP Board of Madarsa Education has been asked to include NCERT textbooks in its curriculum. Post clearance from the state government, the Madarsa Board has started preparations to include the prescribed NCERT text in the curriculum, UP Deputy CM Dinesh Sharma said in a tweet on Monday. NCERT , pic.twitter.com/Q7S1G6lxe7 Dr Dinesh Sharma BJP (@drdineshbjp) October 30, 2017 The proposal states that mathematics and science subjects will be included in the syllabus. There are over 19,000 recognised and 560 government-aided madarsas in the state. This move is being seen as a way to bring the madarsas, which usually prescribe their own syllabus to children studying in the educational institutions, at par with public and private schools in the state. In August earlier this year, the Uttar Pradesh government had launched a portal of UP Madarsa Board for online registration of all the Islamic educational institutions in a bid to check "irregularities." The move aims at bringing transparency as all the details of the madarsas will be available online, UP Waqf Minister Mohsin Raza had then said. The state government had earlier asked all madarsas to unfurl the national flag and recite the national anthem as part of Independence Day celebrations. With PTI inputs Lucknow: Be it sending an ambulance or attending patients on time, government hospitals in India are on a splurge of denial. A Uttar Pradesh woman on Sunday gave birth to a child on a road after the ambulance failed to reach her on time. The incident took place in Mathura's Sonai. Without any medical assistance, the woman ended up giving birth to her baby in the middle of the road. Another woman from Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur, who was allegedly asked to leave by the hospital staff in the middle of the night, gave birth to an infant inside an autorickshaw. In July, a pregnant woman in Kerala was refused to be admitted to a government hospital due to unavailability of doctors. Beijing: Chinese engineers are testing techniques that could be used to build a 1,000-km long tunnel to divert water from Brahmaputra river in Tibet to Xinjiang region, a media report said on Monday. The proposed tunnel, which would drop down from the world's highest plateau in multiple sections connected by waterfalls, would provide water in China's largest administrative division, comprising vast swathes of deserts and dry grasslands. The water would be diverted from the Yarlung Tsangpo river in southern Tibet, which turns into the river Brahmaputra once it enters India, to the Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang, PTI reported. India, a riparian state, has already flagged its concerns to Beijing about various dams being built by it on Brahmaputra river, which is known as Yarlung Tsangpo in China. Beijing has been assuring India and Bangladesh, which is also a recipient of the waters from the river, that its dams were of the run of river projects and not designed to storing water. India, China hold border meet in Arunachal Pradesh: Meanwhile, India and China on Monday held a Border Personnel Meeting at Bumla near Arunachal Pradesh`s Tawang and a 'thaw' in relations was evident at the meet, an official statement said. The meet, that comes months after a stand-off along the Sikkim sector which ended on August 28. Located at an altitude of 15,134 feet and situated 42 km north of Tawang town, Bumla is one of the five designated BPM venues, between Indian and Chinese troops. The Indian delegation was led by Brig MP Singh, and the Chinese by Senior Col Liu Jiang Xun, as per IANS. The Scheduled Military BPM commenced with the hoisting of national flags and rendition of national anthems of both the nations. This was followed by ceremonial welcome address by both delegation leaders, who extended greetings and good wishes to each other. The stand-off between Indian and Chinese troops close to India-China Bhutan tri-junction started on June 16, when a PLA construction party entered the Doklam area and attempted to construct a road. Both sides announced disengagement on August 28. (With Agency inputs) Tokyo: NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg called North Korea a "global threat" Monday and said he backed tighter sanctions against it during a visit to Japan, which has been targeted by Pyongyang`s provocations. Stoltenberg is in Tokyo to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other senior officials including defence minister Itsunori Onodera later in the day. "We are as concerned as you are about the provocative, reckless behaviour from North Korea," he said in a speech to a group of security experts and defence officials. "It is really dangerous, it poses a direct threat to countries in this region (including) Japan, but it is also a global threat," he added. Pyongyang has sparked global alarm in recent months by conducting its sixth nuclear test and test-launching missiles capable of reaching the US mainland, while US president Donald Trump and the North`s young ruler Kim Jong-Un have traded threats of war and personal insults. It fired two projectiles over northern Japan in less than a month, ringing alarm bells in Tokyo as Abe called for a get-tough approach towards Pyongyang. "NATO strongly support political, diplomatic, economic pressure on North Korea and we welcome the strengthening of the sanctions" adopted by the UN Security Council in September, Stoltenberg said. "But even more important, we need to be sure that the sanctions are fully and transparently implemented," he added. Stoltenberg`s visit comes after Abe met with him in Brussels in July to agree on boosting security cooperation. "We know and you know that (North Korea`s missile) ranges reach the west coast of the United State and the ranges reach most of Europe," he said Monday. But the NATO chief warned this month that military action against Pyongyang would have "devastating consequences", after Trump said diplomatic efforts had failed. Stoltenberg has stressed that Washington had the right to defend itself and its allies but called for greater diplomatic efforts. "We don`t have to use military force -- peaceful resolution is the aim," he said Monday. Maritime security, including territorial rows involving China in the East and South China Seas, was also likely to be a topic of discussion during Stoltenberg`s visit, according to a Japanese foreign ministry official. Hoping to prevent U.S. aluminum foil producers from being wrapped up by cheap Chinese imports, the Commerce Department announced that the United States will begin collecting preliminary antidumping duties on these imports from China. The Commerce Department on Friday announced that the United States will begin collecting antidumping duties on aluminum foil imports from China. Commerce has instructed Customs and Border Protection to collect cash deposits from U.S. importers of Chinese-made aluminum foil at dumping margins ranging from 96.81 percent to 162.24 percent. Dumping occurs when a foreign company sells its product in the U.S. market at less than fair value. The department preliminarily found that Jiangsu Dingsheng New Materials Joint-Stock Co., Ltd.; Hangzhou Teemful Aluminum Co., Ltd.; Hangzhou Five Star Aluminum Co., Ltd.; Dingsheng Aluminum Industries (Hong Kong) Trading Co. Ltd.; Hangzhou Dingsheng Import & Export Co., Ltd.; Walson (HK) Trading Co., Ltd.; and Inner Mongolia Liansheng New Energy Material Joint-Stock Co., Ltd., known collectively as Dingsheng, are subject to the highest dumping margin rate of 162.24 percent. Jiangsu Zhongji Lamination Materials Stock Co., Ltd. and Jiangsu Huafeng Aluminum Industry Co., Ltd., known collectively as Zhongji, were assessed a dumping margin rate of 96.81 percent. Commerce said 14 other Chinese aluminum foil companies will receive a dumping margin rate of 138.16 percent, while all other Chinese exporters of aluminum foil to the United States will be subject to a dumping margin rate of 162.24, due to their lack of cooperation with Commerces antidumping investigation. According to Commerce, U.S. aluminum foil imports from China in 2016 were valued at $389 million. The Aluminum Association Trade Enforcement Working Group petitioned Commerce for the antidumping investigation on March 9. Following the positive preliminary countervailing duty determination this summer, the association and its foil-producing members are very pleased with this finding that again underscores the Commerce Departments commitment to combatting unfair trade, said Heidi Brock, president and CEO of the Aluminum Association, in a statement. U.S. aluminum foil producers are among the most competitive producers in the world, but they cannot compete against products that are sold at unfairly low prices and subsidized by the government of China, she added. According to the trade association, U.S. aluminum foil production supports more than 20,000 American jobs, and accounts for $6.8 billion in economic activity. The aluminum foil subject to Commerces investigation includes Chinese aluminum foil that is less than 0.2 mm in thickness (less than 0.0078 inches) in reels weighing more than 25 pounds and is not backed, etched for use in capacitors, or cut to shape. The subject foil is used in a variety of consumer and industrial applications, such as household foil, flexible and semi-rigid cookware, product packaging, and automotive and heat exchangers. Commerce is currently scheduled to announce its final antidumping determination for this investigation on Feb. 23, 2018. If Commerce makes an affirmative final determination of dumping, and the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) makes an affirmative final determination of injury to U.S. industry, which is expected by April 9, 2018, Commerce will then issue a final antidumping order. If Commerce makes a negative final determination of dumping, or the ITC makes a negative final determination of injury, the investigation will be terminated and no antidumping order will be issued. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. Musicians, TV commentators, shoe makers, scientists Armenians of Mexico are among the leading specialists in different spheres. The Armenian community of Mexico was formed during the years following the Armenian Genocide: initially, they were mainly the Genocide survivors seeking asylum. Among them were also migrants wanted to depart for the US. A representative of the Armenian community Sonya Arakelyan, who is working at Mexicos Museum of Memory and Tolerance, says the number of Armenians in Mexico has varied at different times, however, Armenians have always had a small community. Today the number of local Armenians doesnt exceed 1500. Many of them arrived from different parts of Turkey Adana, Van, Kars, Bitlis and other regions. During these years many were engaged in shoe production or trade. My grandfather from the mothers side Levon Bodosyan also had a shoe store, and my grandfather from the fathers side Kerop Arakelyan started working as a carpenter, then soon he changed his work and established together with my father one of the biggest toy stores in the country ARA TOY STORES. Many of Armenians in Mexico have established their own businesses. Mexico hosted them and gave a chance to adjust their own lives, Sonya Arakelyan told ARMENPRESS. At the moment the Armenian community in Mexico is scattered. Main part of Armenians lives in Mexico city. Being a scattered community it didnt have a school, culture house, any national structure. The main responsibility of preserving the language is put on families. Those, who speak in Armenian, is thanks to their grandfathers, grandmothers and parents. In any case the preservation of the language is one of the issues in the community agenda. Despite being small and unorganized, Armenians have been among the leading specialists in different spheres at different periods. Among the prominent Armenian figures in Mexico are businessmen S. Paluyan and Sh. Krdikyan, engineer J. Nshanyan and etc. As for the Armenians who moved to Mexico after the independence their number reaches nearly 500. Some of them are specialists of classical music, some are scientists, professors working at different universities. Many of them have their own businesses in different sectors shoe making, carpet production and etc. The Armenian community is not formally organized, but this small and scattered community is proud of its Armenian origin. Everyone within its capacities takes steps to inform Mexico about Armenians and through which paths they have passed. The Armenian embassy in Mexico, established 3 years ago, plays a great role in terms of gathering Armenians. It implemented different actions which contribute to spreading the Armenian culture. This is very important. The embassy promotes also the student exchange program. This diplomatic structure is important not only for developing Armenia-Mexico cultural, economic relations, but also it is a linkage for the Armenian community, she said. The Museum of Memory and Tolerance, where she works, was opened 7 years ago. It has 7 departments each telling about the genocides of different periods, including the Armenian Genocide. Another part of the Museum is dedicated to tolerance and human rights violations in Mexico. The hall dedicated to Armenians is small, but at the same time is quite influential. 7 years later I am proud to say that we hosted more than 2 million 800 thousand visitors, many of the visitors didnt know anything about Armenians, but today they are informed, she said. In 2015 a temporary exhibition on the Armenian Genocide was held in the Museum. Sonya Arakelyan said it was successful, there were many visitors, including lawmakers, actors, activities, businessmen and journalists. More than 70.000 visitors attended the exhibition that lasted 4 months. The exhibition was also displayed in the US. Anna Gziryan YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. All participants of the 7th round of negotiations on Syria have arrived in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, the Kazakhstan foreign ministry said, reports Interfax. All the delegations of the 7th international meeting on Syria have arrived in the capital of Kazakhstan on the sidelines of the Astana process, the ministry said. The 7th round of negotiations will be held on October 30-31 in Astana. Today bilateral and multilateral meetings will be held aimed at discussing the agenda issues, the statement says. The plenary session is scheduled on October 31. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who arrived in Azerbaijan to participate in the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, once again made a statement about the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. This time the Turkish President turned to a genre of curses as he exhausted his political vocabulary. In an interview to Azerbaijani media, Erdogan particularly said: We damn Armenias occupation policy. He mentioned that the NK conflict is a bleeding wound not only for Azerbaijan, but also for Turkey. He didnt miss the chance to once again express his support for Azerbaijan in the matter. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. Human rights defender Arman Tatoyan on October 30 received Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Armenia Jonathan Lacote, the Ombudsmans Office told Armenpress. The Armenian Ombudsman presented to the Ambassador the priorities of the Human rights defenders activity, as well as the new regulations of the Constitutional Law on Human Rights Defender and the ongoing works aimed at applying them. During the meeting the Ambassador was interested in the ongoing steps over the developments of human rights in Armenia, as well as attached importance to the role of the Ombudsmans Office in the protection of human rights in the country. At the end of the meeting the sides expressed readiness to strengthen and expand the cooperation. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. Armenian delegation led by Speaker of the Parliament Ara Babloyan has arrived in Tajikistan on an official visit, press service of the Parliament told Armenpress. The delegation includes MPs Vahram Baghdasaryan, Sasun Mikayelyan and Romik Manukyan. On October 30 the Armenian Parliament Speaker and delegation members had meetings with Shukurdzhon Zukhurov, speaker of the lower house of the parliament, and Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloev, speaker of the upper house. During the meetings the sides stated that the Armenian-Tajik relations are effectively developing, there is a high level political dialogue. The sides also expressed readiness to develop the inter-parliamentary cooperation. Ara Babloyan said this year marks the 25th anniversary of establishment of Armenian-Tajik diplomatic ties and the cooperation which is based on traditional friendship and mutual understanding strengthens at various directions. Speaker Babloyan attached importance to the mutual visits at state level aimed at further deepening the interstate ties and in this context highlighted the visit of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon to Armenia. The meeting touched upon also the cooperation between the legislative bodies of the two countries. The officials stated that the parliamentary friendship groups can play an important role for the development of inter-parliamentary dialogue. Speaker Babloyan attached importance to the productive cooperation of Armenian and Tajik delegations in the CIS IPA and CSTO PA. He also emphasized the kind attitude of the Tajik authorities towards the Armenian community. The officials also discussed the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. They noted that the conflict should be solved exclusively through peaceful negotiations within the frames of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairmanship. They also touched upon the development of cooperation in trade-economic field and the implementation of prospective programs. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. On October 30 Artsakh Republic President Bako Sahakyan participated in an event dedicated to the Day of Workers of the State Service of Emergency Situations, press service of the Artsakh Presidents Office told Armenpress. The President handed in state awards to a group of servicemen and delivered a speech. In his remarks Bako Sahakyan highlighted the significant tasks set before the system and noted that their successful and efficient solution required a responsible approach and daily painstaking work from the whole personnel and leadership of the structure. The Service has the necessary potential, prepared and professional staff devoted to their work who are able to perform their functions properly, noted the President, adding that the state would continue taking measures to improve the working and social conditions of the service. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. A man armed with a knife attacked the Manushak kindergarten staff of Armenias Armavir province on October 30. The Police told Armenpress they have received an alert at 16:25. The Police are working at the scene. The armed man took hostages the kindergarten staff and kids. There are still no reports on victims and injured. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. During a working visit in Lebanon the Armenian delegation led by minister of economic development and investments Suren Karayan met with Lebanese President, General Michel Aoun in Beirut, press service of the Armenian ministry told Armenpress. The Lebanese President highly appreciated the Armenian-Lebanese relations calling on to strengthen them at all directions, particularly in economic field. The Lebanese-Armenians play an important role on strengthening the relations between Lebanon and Armenia, the President said, calling on the businessmen of the two countries to actively cooperate with each other. Suren Karayan highlighted the importance of economic cooperation and the investment opportunities. The Armenian delegation today is in Lebanon at the invitation of minister Michel Pharaon, and our main goal is to strengthen the cooperation with our partners of Lebanese economic institutions, minister Karayan said. We believe that the economic cooperation potential between Lebanon and Armenia is still not utilized. We have agreed with minister Pharaon to develop the economic cooperation at directions where still a lot of works need to be done. The role of Armenian and Lebanese businessmen is especially important in terms of boosting this cooperation, the minister said, presenting Armenias foreign economic cooperation and the existing opportunities in targeted markets. The sides also discussed the opportunities to boost the cooperation in tourism field. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. Press service officer of the Police of Armenia Martun Simonyan has presented new details over the hostage taking case in a kindergarten in Armenias Armavir Province. ARMENPRESS reports Martun Simonyan told the reporters at the scene that the Armavirs Police Department received an alert at 16:25 that a man armed with a knife has entered the kindergarten. The operative group of the regional department immediately left for the scene, where they found out that the man armed with a knife has locked in a room with a 3-year old child and presents personal demands, he said, adding that other police divisions, including the General Department on Combating Organized Crime have arrived at the scene. Martun Simonyan added that the law enforcement officers are conducting negotiations with the man on the release of the child. He noted that he cannot confirm the media publications that the armed man demands meeting with his wife who is an employee of the same kindergarten. We will present the demands of the man later for the benefit of the investigation. For now I can only say that he has presented only personal demands, the Police officer said. First Deputy Police Chief of Armenia Hunan Poghosyan has also arrived at the scene. YEREVAN, OCTOBER 30, ARMENPRESS. The man who had taken a three-year old child hostage has been hospitalized, ARMENPRESS reports Head of Police press service Ashot Aharonyan informed. On October 30 at 16:25 Armavir Department of the Police received an alert that a man armed with a knife has entered Manushak kindergarten of Armavir city. The man kept a 3-year old child hostage. Law enforcement representatives conducted negotiations with the man. During the negotiations the police officers were able to take the child out of the room without any injuries, after which special means were applied by the police. The hostage taker attempted to harm himself, but the act was prevented by the police. He has been taken to hospital where he receives treatment at the moment, Aharonyan wrote on his Facebook page. Ashot Aharonyan has also posted footage where the father of the child thanks the participants of the operation. Sales of Sainsburys gin & tonic and prosecco baking flavourings have increased nearly 10-fold since the start of the latest series of The Great British Bake Off (GBBO). The 38ml baking flavourings, which launched in Sainsburys stores in June this year at 1 a bottle, have proved incredibly popular since the start of the new GBBO series. Sainsburys told British Baker that, following the second episode of GBBO on 6 September, online searches for its gin flavouring were up 200%. In that episode, Flo Atkins created gin-infused raspberry biscuits and Chris Geiger produced chocolate chia seed biscuits with a whisky caramel filling. Boozy bakes have made regular appearances in this series, with finalist Kate Lyon whipping up bellini buns with prosecco flavourings during patisserie week. Alcohol-based bakes were among the top five predicted baking trends of 2017 by Sainsburys buyer for home baking Sioned Read. Primrose Bakery, which sells a variety of cocktail-themed cupcakes, told British Baker sales had increased, but did not think this was directly because of Bake Off. They are a great seller and we do these every Friday as a special flavour at all three stores, said Sally Humphries, general manager at Primrose Bakery, London. We do not use any artificial flavourings, all cocktail favours are soaked in the alcohol or in the icing for that extra boozy kick. Subway has launched a new marketing push in partnership with upcoming movie Paddington 2. Running until 31 December, the campaign will offer consumers the chance to get their hands on a Paddington 2 Kids Pak, which will feature a Low Fat Mini Sub, a choice of Robinsons Fruit Shoot My-5 or water, and Bear Pure Fruit Yoyos. The Kids Paks will give children two of their recommended five-a-day, according to the sandwich chain. Each Kids Pak comes with one of six collectable pencils and toppers featuring Paddington Bear in his blue mac and red hat. The Paddington 2 Kids Pak is not only a great way to give children a low-fat, healthier choice, but we can offer families visiting Subway stores a great way of engaging with a film sure to become a family favourite, said Subway marketing director Sacha Clark. The deal was developed with The Copyrights Group, a Vivendi Company, which is holder of the rights to the Paddington brand. Paddington 2 is set to be released in UK cinemas from 10 November. Lolas Cupcakes has opened a new kiosk, in Birmingham department store Selfridges. Located in the Bullring, the store will sell an array of cupcakes, cakes and milkshakes as well as mini cheesecakes, including its recent Halloween selection. This represents Lolas third site outside of London, having returned to Bicester Village, Oxfordshire, earlier this month. It also has a shop in Bluewater Shopping Centre, Kent. Earlier this year, the business opened its first bakery site Lolas Bakery in West Hampstead, London. The all-day menu available specialises in gluten- and dairy-free products, vegan and refined sugar products, as well as sandwiches, pastries and cupcakes. It forms part of Lolas expansion plans to have 20 to 30 stores in London. The Democrat leadership has made constant, profound and incredible pronouncements that one's supportive vote for Republicans is tantamount to surrendering Democracy forever. Understanding their sincere thinking in their extreme position: How will you still vote on this election day? Democrat; because the continuance of this Democracy from the existential threat of extreme Republicans is paramount. Republican; the process of having a choice is the democratic method within what so called "Democracy" does exists. On or about March 31, 2016, defendant PAPADOPOULOS attended a "national security meeting" in Washington, D.C. with then-candidate Trump and other foreign policy advisors for the Campaign. When defendant PAPADOPOULOS introduced himself to the group, he stated, in sum and substance, that he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between then-candidate Trump and President Putin. Who were the "campaign supervisor" and "high-ranking campaign official" mentioned in the statement of offense? Did Papadopoulos actually have any pull? Who hired Papadopoulos? Were Papadopoulos and the campaign attempting to set up a meeting for purposes of warmer relations with Russia, or for purposes of gaining dirt regarding Hillary? Did any of this have to do with the June 9, 2016 meeting between Donald Trump Jr. and other campaign members and front lawyers for the Russians? If all of this was aboveboard, what was Papadopoulos trying to hide? US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton makes a concession speech after being defeated by Republican president-elect Donald TrumpOn Monday, while the nation focused on the indictment of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, another, far more damaging plea deal was released by the office of the special counsel: former Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos was released. The plea deal expired on October 5, which means that Papadopoulos is now cooperating with the special counsel.The statement of offense , describing what Papadopoulos admitted to, suggests attempted collusion between Papadopoulos and fronts for the Russian government. According to that statement, Papadopoulos was told he would become a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign in early March 2016 by a "campaign supervisor." He was also told that a better relationship with Russia would be a "principal foreign policy focus of the Campaign." While in Italy, PapadopoulosWhen the professor found out that Papadopoulos was working for the Trump campaign, the professor became very interested in Papadopoulos; the feeling was mutual, because the professorIn late March, Papadopoulos met with the professor in London, and the professor brought a female Russian national - allegedly aPapadopoulos then funneled that information to the campaign, and told the campaign supervisor and "several members of the Campaign's foreign policy team" that he had met with the professor and the Russian national, attempting to set up a meeting between them. Here's the most damning fact:Papadopoulos worked with the professor and Russian national to obtain a meeting with the campaign. The female Russian national told Papadopoulos,Papadopoulos became close with a member of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs. On April 26, 2016, Papadopoulos learned from the professor that the professor had met with "high-level Russian government officials," and that the professor had been told that the Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, including "thousands of emails."Papadopoulos continued to pursue an off-the-record meeting between campaign representatives and "members of president putin's office and the mfa." The campaign continued to express warmth toward the idea of a meeting.So, here are the open questions:All of this is far more problematic for the Trump campaign than Manafort. But it's also far less certain. What will Papadopoulos tell Mueller? We'll find out soon enough. Dr. Phyllis Horns, vice chancellor, ECU health sciences. (contributed photo) East Carolina University's vice chancellor for health sciences was recently honored by her alma mater for her leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship that has advanced nursing on both state and national levels.Dr. Phyllis Horns was presented the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing's 2017 Distinguished Alumni Award, the most prestigious alumni award the school bestows.said Dr. Doreen Harper, dean.Horns earned a bachelor's in nursing at ECU, a master's in public health at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and a pediatric nurse practitioner certificate at the University of Rochester.In 1980 she completed her Ph.D. in nursing at UAB - Birmingham, where she joined the graduate faculty and was later named assistant dean for undergraduate programs.Horns came to ECU in 1988 as professor and chair of the Department of Parent-Child Nursing and was named dean of the School of Nursing two years later. Under her leadership the school experienced tremendous growth, with overall enrollment increasing by 50 percent and graduate class sizes expanding from 93 to 377 students.With Horns at the helm, the school's doctoral program was established in 2002, and the school officially became the College of Nursing in 2007.Appointed ECU's vice chancellor for health sciences in 2009, Horns now oversees the education and patient care programs of the Brody School of Medicine, the College of Allied Health Sciences, the College of Nursing, the William E. Laupus Health Sciences Library, the East Carolina Heart Institute at ECU and the School of Dental Medicine - the latter of which was launched under her leadership.She played a key role in planning for the clinical integration of ECU Physicians and Vidant Medical Group, slated for completion in 2018. And she's spearheading efforts to expand ECU's Department of Public Health into a School of Public Health.Over her career Horns has been president of the Council on Collegiate Education for Nursing and the Southeastern Regional Education Board, a member of the National League for Nursing board of directors, and chair of the NLN Accrediting Commission.Her many accolades include the 2010 UAB School of Nursing Visionary Leader award, the 2011 ECU College of Nursing Distinguished Alumni Award and the North Carolina Hospital Association 2016 Meritorious Service Award. In 2001 she was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing.Horns said. Horses in the United States are raised as companions and partners in work and sport, and not as food animals. Above, rescued horses at the Duchess Sanctuary. Photo by Jennifer Kunz/The HSUS 4.3K shares Mexico is forging ahead on animal protection. Earlier this year, its Congress made dogfighting a felony throughout the nation. Mexico City adopted an extraordinary charter on animal protection. A number of major food retailers in Mexico have said they will change their purchasing practices to stop buying eggs and pork from operations that confine hens and pigs in small confinement cages and crates. Our Humane Society International/Mexico office and partner organizations are working hard to keep this important and strategic country trending in the right direction and to also crack down on other abuses of animals. One of those abuses involves the slaughter of horses for human consumption. A new study in six Mexican cities has found horsemeat in nearly 10 percent of meat products that are being sold as beef or that are not clearly labeled. The samples of meat were collected from common vending points, including butcher shops, supermarkets, street markets, and street stalls. The study, commissioned by HSI and conducted by researchers at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, also found high levels of a veterinary drug commonly prescribed for horses, clenbuterol, in some raw meat samples. Clenbuterol is not approved for food producing animals, and can be harmful to humans. The researchers collected 433 samples of cooked and uncooked meat from an assortment of vendors across Mexico, of which nearly 10 percent tested positive for horsemeat. Samples were collected in six cities: Aguascalientes, Zacatecas, Chihuahua, Mexico City, Pachuca, and San Vicente Chicoloapan. The samples included four types of meat samples (ground meat, regular tacos, crispy tacos, and thin steaks [bistec]) and were either unlabeled or labeled as beef. The samples that tested positive for horsemeat were obtained at informal selling points such as street stalls and markets, and most vendors appeared to be unaware that there was horsemeat in the products they were selling. Mexico is the second largest horsemeat producer in the world, after China. According to the Mexican Ministry of Trade, between January and August 2017, Mexico exported almost 1,500 tons of horsemeat, worth more than $4 million, to Japan, Russia, and Vietnam. Mexico not only kills thousands of its horses for human consumption each year, but also slaughters tens of thousands of perfectly healthy American horses. U.S. kill buyers acquire working, racing, and companion horses and even childrens ponies and try to make a fast buck by funneling them to horse slaughter plants over the northern and southern borders. Just this year, as of September, kill buyers have shipped more than 60,000 horses to Canada and Mexico to be killed for human consumption. Horses in the United States are raised as companions and partners in work and sport, and not as food animals. As a result, they are commonly treated with drugs deemed unfit for human consumption. In 2014, the European Commission suspended the import of horsemeat from Mexico to the European Union due to food safety concerns. The HSUS has documented, via undercover footage, the incredible suffering faced by animals: downed, injured horses slaughtered for human consumption despite being ill, horses suffering in export facilities on U.S. soil, and horrific welfare problems during transport. The same drugs would put at risk Mexicans, Canadians, and the Japanese, as well as visitors to those countries and others who would sit down to a horse steak either knowingly or not. No one is immune from drugs long deemed unfit for human consumption. Beyond the issue of self-interest and public health, Mexico should not be complicit in this grisly trade, and the United States should not use Mexico as an export market for an enterprise thats illegal on our soil. The practice of slaughtering horses for human consumption should stop across North America. The Safeguard American Food Exports (SAFE) Act, H.R. 113/S. 1706, which would cement the existing prohibitions on domestic horse slaughter and build on that provision by stopping the export of horses for slaughter abroad, is just one important policy vehicle to help us achieve that goal. The evidence that weve obtained in Mexico reveals that this ugly enterprise is trying to trick Mexican vendors and consumers. Its a disreputable industry, and the countrys lawmakers should build on their recent good works and establish protections for animals who have changed the course of North American history for the better. Its a small act of reciprocity for North Americans to honor the role of the horse in North American settlement, commerce, and recreation and end the most extreme form of human-caused exploitation of these noble animals. P.S. Americans can take action today to protect U.S. horses from being slaughtered for human consumption. As our companions in sport and leisure, we owe it to them to make sure that their lives do not come to a terrifying end in a slaughterhouse to feed the international demand for horsemeat. Facebook is reported to soon reveal it exposed an estimated 126 million Americans, many of whom voted, to what was effectively Russian state propaganda (served from Russian webservers in Russia) during the runup to the U.S. 2016 presidential election. All of that content favored Trump, who is now President of the United States. "Facebook will inform lawmakers this week that roughly 126 million Americans may have been exposed to content generated on its platform by the Russian government-linked troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency between June 2015 and August 2017," CNN reported late Monday. Snip: Jeb Bush accused Democrats of winning black votes by promising "free stuff," and then Hillary Clinton accused Bernie Sanders of "promising free this and free that and free everything." But universal health care is free as in "freedom." Americans stay in bad jobs, keep quiet about sexual harassment and unsafe working conditions, and shelve their plans to start new businesses or strike out on their own as freelancers because their healthcare is tied to their employer and when you have chronically ill or disabled family members, your job is a matter of life-and-death for your loved ones. Tying healthcare to employment is a form of indenture, something that limits Americans' freedom. It's true that politicians who support universal healthcare are promising free stuff: the stuff of freedom. Given this landscape, enacting a single-payer system would be one of the most liberating policy advances the US has seen in decades. While other types of incremental health reforms (including Obamacare) claim to move toward universality and affordability, only a Medicare-for-All system would sever the connection between health insurance and employment. It would dramatically change the employment calculus for every working person in the country, shifting power away from the boss. The workplace might remain a realm of "private government," as Elizabeth Anderson puts it, but it would become a little less autocratic. No longer would health insurance be something companies could dangle over workers' heads. (This might be why, despite potential cost savings, most employers aren't exactly rushing to wave the single-payer flag.) Freedom for the Many [Shant Mesrobian/Jacobin] (Image: Gage Skidmore, CC-BY-SA) (via Naked Capitalism) Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager of Donald Trump's ultimately successful bid for the presidency, surrendered to the FBI this morning. He was indicted late last week by special prosuector Robert Mueller, probing the campaign's links to Russian interference in the 2016 general election. The charges against Mr. Manafort, President Trump's former campaign chairman were not immediately clear but represent a significant escalation in a special counsel investigation that has cast a shadow over the president's first year in office. Also charged was Mr. Manafort's former business associate Rick Gates, who was also told to surrender. Mr. Manafort walked into the F.B.I.'s field office in Washington about 8:15 a.m. with his lawyer. The sealed indictment's existence was leaked to CNN on Friday, but not its target, leading to a weekend of furious speculation about which of Trump's cronies would be first to face charges. Manafort and rapidly-disgraced Michael Flynn were the easy guesses; others thought to be in the line of the fire include Jared Kushner and the idiot sons of Flynn and Trump himself. At the dawn of the weekend, Twitter banned infamous political brawler Roger Stone. The curiously-bleached trumpkin had responded to news of charges in the Russia probe with an abusive meltdown, in which he called CNN's Don Lemon a "covksucker" and issued vaguely threatening remarks to all and sundry. Now, Stone plans to sue Twitter for turfing him out but on what grounds? Stone later vowed to bring legal action against the social media platform, though he did not specify beyond saying he was communicating with "prominent telecommunication attorneys." "The battle against free speech has just begun," Stone told Politico in response to the ban. "This is a strange way to do business and part and parcel of the systematic effort by the tech left to censor and silence conservative voices." Bravo to Twitter for ridding itself of him. Twitter is Twitter's speech, not yours. Speechcropping there gives you no rights, only a borrowed void to scream into. A Calgary man says a recent fight outside Western Canada High school is yet another case of racial bullying that's not being addressed by school officials, so he's decided to speak up to highlight the problem. "I cannot turn my back on it any more," said Stephen Allen, president of the African-Caribbean Canadian Association. "No student should be made to feel they are in an unsafe environment or an environment where they have to be emotionally tortured in a way," he said. "On the other side of the coin, no student should feel it's okay to bully another student." According to witnesses and one of the teens involved, some white teenagers used racial slurs against some black teenagers. Some of the kids who say they were targeted with those slurs retaliated. Two of them were charged with assault causing bodily harm and at least one was suspended from school. The CBE wouldn't confirm whether there were other suspensions or expulsions. Two of the white teens were injured, one seriously enough to be treated in hospital. 'He got upset' One of the students who was charged emigrated from Ghana with his family five years ago. His father, who can't be identified to protect the identity of the boy, admits his son shouldn't have reacted with violence and feels bad for the injured student, but he wonders why the white kids aren't being punished as well. "Something just happened, the kids was calling him, bullying him, racist names and all this, and he got upset." CBC News reached out to the family of the injured teen, but did not hear back. The suspended teen's father also says he's upset with the way school officials have been dealing with his son. The father met with the school board to find out if his son could return to Western or if he would have to go to another school to finish Grade 11. The conversation, which he says took place, shocked him. "Instead of to get my son to maybe a different school, what he's talking about is if my son is involved with the guns and if he's hanging around with the people who have, you know was so surprised with the board." Story continues CBE says race wasn't central issue The Calgary Board of Education won't comment specifically on this case, except to say its own investigation determined race wasn't the central issue around the fight. "For us, it's kind of a one-off, isolated incident, however not an incident to be downplayed," said Calvin Davies, director of area seven for the CBE. "I wasn't there, but I am not going to say that there weren't some potentially inappropriate comments made, but for us it's continuing to work on discussion and dialogue as opposed to physical reactions." Davies couldn't say whether the school would punish the students who may have used racial slurs. "They take it very seriously, so on all angles, what occurred in this altercation, there is nothing that is being swept under the carpet," he said. Allen said racial bullying is not only happening at Western. He's hearing from families at other Calgary schools and believes it needs to be better addressed at the institutional level. "There has to be something in place, even of a disciplinary nature, that won't be tolerated. Because we have certain workplaces that have zero-tolerance policies when it comes to racial slurs and so forth an institution of learning or education, that should be implemented as well," he said. Message of inclusiveness The CBE said its messaging from Kindergarten to Grade 12 is about respect, empathy and inclusiveness, but it knows there are always areas for improvement. "I would never want to be quoted that [race is] not an issue. Interactions, interpersonal dynamics are always an issue no matter what kinds of groups of people you put together," said Davies. He said the board has a number of policies in place including a student code of conduct, as well as different after-school clubs that celebrate differences in race, religion, culture and sexual orientation. Allen said he appreciates the work being done by the different schools, but based on his experience he believes it's not enough to erase the problem completely. To that end he created a Facebook group called Calgary's Racial Bullying as a potential forum for kids of all backgrounds who are being racially bullied in order to bring awareness to the issue. And then help address it. - MORE CALGARY NEWS | Calgary MLA steps down to allow Jason Kenney to run for legislature seat - MORE CALGARY NEWS | Closures due to falling glass remain in place in downtown Calgary Family of mentally ill man who died in jail learns their request for information denied More than 50 cuts, bruises and other obvious signs of injury all caused by blunt impact trauma. Almost 11 months waiting for answers. Now the family of an inmate who died in an Ontario provincial prison has learned no one will be held criminally responsible. Soleiman Faqiri, 30, died in segregation at the Central East Correctional Centre on Dec. 15, 2016 11 days after he was arrested on charges of assault and uttering threats. Since that day, his family has been searching for answers about how their loved one, a man with a history of schizophrenia, could have his life cut short just before he was supposed to be transferred to a mental-health facility. Some of those answers came in a 56-page coroner's report released in July that detailed a litany of injuries Faqiri suffered in the final moments of his life after, according to his lawyers, between 10 and 20 guards entered his cell. 'No grounds' for criminal charges What the report didn't answer was if anyone should be held accountable in Faqiri's death. The medical cause was deemed "unascertained." Now, the Kawartha Lakes Police Service has concluded its investigation. On Monday, it said in a news release that it was contacted after Kawartha Lakes Paramedic Services had gone to the prison on Dec. 15, 2016, to attend to an "unresponsive male." Faqiri was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said the body was taken to Toronto's Centre of Forensic Sciences and Coroners Complex for an autopsy. It said it investigated the circumstances surrounding the death and has concluded no charges will be laid. "Following a thorough analysis of all the evidence and witness statements, and after consulting with the Office of the Crown Attorney and the Office of the Chief Coroner and Ontario Forensic Pathology Services, we have concluded that no grounds exist to process criminal charges against anyone who was involved with Mr. Faqiri prior to his death on Dec. 15, 2016," the release reads. Story continues "The City of Kawartha Lakes Police Service expresses its condolences to everyone affected by this tragic event." Police noted the Office of the Chief Coroner and Ontario Forensic Pathology Services are involved in investigating the cause of death. Ahead of the release, a letter was sent to the family's lawyers. Insp. Will Herbert of Kawartha Lakes Police confirmed to CBC News that an email was sent to the family's lawyers on Friday, saying the investigation was complete. He would not confirm its conclusion. 'The nightmare has come back' Meanwhile, the notice from police that no charges would be laid has shocked Faqiri's family. Yusuf Faqiri, his brother, was at work Friday when his phone rang with the news from his lawyers. His first thought was how to break it to his family. He called his brothers, Sohrab and Ali, and the three decided they would tell their parents, Maryam and Ghulam Faqiri, and sister Paletin in person. As he tried to find the words, his heart sank, the look on his mother's face eating at him. "The nightmare has come back," he told CBC News. "We're just lost. "My father had the same question for the next 10 minutes. Why? What is the explanation, Yusuf? Why aren't they pressing charges?" "We haven't been given one," he was forced to reply. Lawyer Nader Hasan said the lack of answers is nothing short of "stonewalling." "We were told initially that the KLPS was taking as long as they were taking because they were waiting for the results of the autopsy report. And then that came out in the summer and it was shocking. We know that he died after those assaults. What has changed between the summer when the report came out and now?" Police say investigation was 'thorough' "We asked KLPS, how did you come to the conclusion there were no grounds that a single one of these guards involved in that incident committed a criminal act?" he said. "Why did it take 11 months to figure that out?" CBC News posed many of those same questions to Kawartha police. It also inquired about video footage referenced in the coroner's report, which could shed more light on Faqiri's final moments and why the family's lawyers have not been allowed to see it. None of those questions were answered. "Our police service conducted a thorough investigation and we were completely transparent with the family's lawyers how they can review our investigation," Insp. Herbert said in an email to CBC News, in which he added police are required to respect the Freedom of Information Act. The province has also not commented on whether any jail staff have faced or will face any consequences, saying little more than that their investigation is ongoing. "The ministry does not publicly discuss internal human resource matters including staff discipline. It would be inappropriate for the ministry to comment further while investigations are underway and may be subject to a coroner's inquest," said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services. Faqiri's case isn't the only recent instance to raise questions about the province's handling of inmates with mental-health issues in segregation. Last month, the Ontario Human Rights Commission launched legal action against Ontario over allegations that prisoners with mental-health disabilities have been illegally forced into solitary confinement and that the government has repeatedly breached a legally binding 2013 agreement around the treatment of Christina Jahn. "We are deeply concerned by the issues raised by the commissioner and we know plainly and simply that we need to do better," Marie France Lalonde, minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, said at the time. 'They've left my family with no confidence' The Faqiris and their lawyers are now hoping for an immediate coroner's inquest, which coroner Dr. Eric Ready said in the report would be "highly likely," though one has not yet been officially called. Last December, ministry spokesperson Andrew Morrison said "should the coroner's investigation determine that the death was anything other than natural causes, a mandatory inquest will be held." The family also said they've lost faith in Kawartha police and are raising questions about whether the force was far enough removed from the correctional centre to carry out their investigation fairly. They're calling on the Ontario Provincial Police or another similar agency to reinvestigate. "We were always told, 'It's a complex case.' Yet this is almost a year and that year is now summarized in a one-sentence email?" Yusuf Faqiri told CBC News. "They've left my family with no confidence." 'They took her son away' "I can tell you that our police service has been the sole source of police investigations within the Central East Correctional Centre for the past 14 years now, without any problems, I'm not sure why that would change now," Herbert said in an email to CBC News. Family co-counsel Edward Marrocco said a coroner's inquest will help on that front. "We can rest assured knowing that the work of the KLPS is going to be scrutinized and reinvestigated and reviewed down to every letter and every period." Until that happens, Yusuf Faqiri says, he and his family remain lost. "My mother.... She doesn't know how to take this news. She cries every day, she visits his grave every day. They took her son away." He hopes an inquest can give them they answers they need to begin to heal. "But the most important thing before even the inquest is why, give us an explanation for why charges are not being pressed," he said. "We deserve that." By Katharine Houreld and Duncan Miriri NAIROBI (Reuters) - Riot police fired teargas at opposition supporters in a slum in Kenya's capital on Monday, as the country awaited official confirmation of a landslide win for incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta in re-run elections. Supporters of the main opposition candidate, Raila Odinga, have already branded the election a farce - he boycotted last week's vote which was held after the Supreme Court annulled the original August poll citing procedural irregularities. Protesters gathered in Nairobi's Kawangware slum, trying to block a visit from Interior Minister Fred Matiang'i, witnesses said, hours before the expected announcement of the results at 3.30 pm (1230 GMT). "Now people are fighting with the police and they (the police) are using teargas," resident Vitalis Aloyi said by phone. In the slum of Mathare, the scene of deadly clashes between police and protesters immediately after the August poll, social worker Ann Mbuthia, 58, said women were hurrying home before the results. "We are afraid because here in Mathare youth are ready to fight if Uhuru is announced (the winner)," she said. "Women are afraid to come out the houses." Some Kenyans fear that the political violence, which has mostly been protesters clashing with police, is beginning to take on ethnic overtones after two deaths in clashes between rival groups at the weekend. On Monday, the U.S. ambassador said Washington was "profoundly concerned" by the outbreaks of violence since the Oct. 26 vote. Results from 266 out of 291 constituencies displayed at the national tallying center showed Kenyatta winning 98 percent of the vote. The electoral commission said 7,616,217 valid votes were cast, representing a turnout of 42.36 percent in areas where polls opened. But protests by Odinga's supporters prevented polling stations from opening in 25 constituencies. If those constituencies are included, turnout dropped to 38.84 percent of 19,611,423 registered voters. The election commission said that poor security prevented them from holding the vote in those areas, but that since it would not "materially affect" the result, the final announcement could go ahead. Odinga pulled out of the vote, saying the election commission had failed to institute reforms to prevent the kind of "illegalities and irregularities" that scuppered Kenyatta's win in the August vote. Kura Yangu Sauti Yangu, a coalition of civil society organizations with 2,000 election observers, said in a report there were "multiple" cases where results from polling stations differed from results on the forms posted on the election portal after last week's vote. They supplied a photo taken by their observers of the tally sheet for Bashaal market center in Garissa. It showed 133 votes for Kenyatta while the form displayed online showed 433 votes. (Additional reporting by John Ndiso, George Obulutsa, and Judith Kanaya; Writing by Katharine Houreld; Editing by Andrew Heavens) Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blog spot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand as well as our Love of the Land page at Facebook which has additional pieces of interest besides that which is posted on the blog. Also check-out This Ongoing War by Frimet and Arnold Roth. An excellent blog, very important work. . ..29 Ocotber '17..Healthcare in Syria is almost non-existent after six years of civil war. Fares, an Arabic-speaking social worker at Ziv Medical Center in Tsfat (Safed), cited a few illustrative statistics: Their medical system is 70% destroyed. About a million people live in the border areas, but there are only seven doctors. One doctor for every 143,000 people? The number was shocking.We were on an HonestReporting field trip to learn more about how Syrian casualties were receiving care in Israel. Zivs program has evolved in response to a need.When the civil war started in March 2011, the IDF had a policy of watchful waiting. On Saturday, February 16, 2013, seven badly wounded Syrians crossed the border into Israel. IDF medics evaluated them and then transported them to the nearest hospital. Ziv doctors were called to come in for an emergency. They had no idea who the patients were or what the problem was until they reported for duty and met the wounded Syrians.Syria has been at war with Israel since May 1948. These wounded men were our enemies. But the doctors did not hesitatean injured person is a person in need of care. The men were treated. When they recovered, the IDF took them back to the border and sent them home. Since then Ziv Hospital has treated more than 800 patients who have made their way over the border.We were instructed not to take any photos. Photos could endanger the men and their families. We never learned any patients name. All newspaper and TV stories about treatment of Syrians in Israel change patients names and either blur their faces or photograph them from an angle that does not reveal their identity. Research Pricey College 'Extras' Undercut Student Efforts to Graduate More women than men drop out of college for financial reasons by a difference of 11 percentage points (52 percent versus 41 percent). Among Hispanic students of both genders, 61 percent who have attended college did so for less than two years; and of those who didn't attend all the way to graduation, almost 60 percent blamed financial limitations. For African-American students, 65 percent attended college for two years or less, and of those who didn't, 36 percent said their decision was owing to finances. Those are some of the results pulled from a survey of 1,092 men and women aged 18 to 25 in the United States, some of whom are just beginning the college process and others who have graduated within the last few years. The project was undertaken by the 1,000 Dreams Fund, a non-profit with the goal of sending 1,000 young women to college through scholarship building; the organization also helps cover the costs of college visits for girls. The survey was conducted online byToluna Quicksurveys and was underwritten by financial services firm Charles Schwab. The survey found that female and first-generation students, in particular, have struggles with the higher education process. It begins in high school when they visit prospective universities (if they can afford it, the researchers noted) and continues through all aspects of the college experience. A slight majority of female respondents (51 percent) said they felt "financially unprepared" for college compared to 39 percent of male respondents. The Gender Gap in College Financial Readiness Women feel less financially prepared than men for college and drop out due to financial reasons more frequently. Source: 1,000 Dreams Fund's "Hidden Costs of College" Once they're in college, having less money prevents young women from participating in extracurricular opportunities, such as unpaid internships or study abroad, which, according to a report sharing the results, "makes them less marketable once they enter the workforce." Among all first-generation students, while 77 percent said those extracurriculars were "very important" to post-graduation goals, just 15 percent said they were able to participate. Among all respondents, three in 10 were surprised about "hidden costs" of college, such as textbooks (63 percent saying those were much more than expected), housing (55 percent), food (46 percent), school exams and fees (45 percent) and moving expenses (41 percent). "It's critical that all young people feel financially prepared for some of the unexpected costs of college. Everyone needs to know how to create a budget, live within their means and plan for the future," said Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, president of Charles Schwab Foundation, in a prepared statement. "Currently only 17 states require a personal finance course in high school. We need to get our children prepared for the financial reality of life away from home." "We all know that college is expensive, but it's the hidden costs and expenses for extracurricular activities that can really hobble students and their future careers," added Christie Garton, founder and CEO of 1,000 Dream Funds. "Getting to and finishing college is a challenge, but getting the most out of college means making connections through extra activities that really help jumpstart your future career." The report is available on the 1,000 Dreams Fund website with registration. Also, a social media challenge is awarding $2,000 grants toward college expenses. Participants need to post a selfie and tell how they'd spend the money. More details on that are available here. MONDAY, Oct. 30, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- A leading group of U.S. pediatricians is encouraging parents to donate to public cord blood banks after the birth of their children. The past decade has seen an increase in the use of umbilical cord blood for stem cell transplants that can save children with fatal or debilitating diseases, the American Academy of Pediatrics says in a new policy statement. "Most parents will never need cord blood for their own family's use, but they can donate this precious lifesaving gift to benefit others," said statement lead author Dr. William Shearer. He is a professor of pediatrics and immunology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "We expect the need for these therapies that rely on stem cell transplantation to grow, and would like families to understand the choices they have," he said in an academy news release. Cord blood is an excellent source of stem cells. It's taken from the placenta of healthy newborns and used most often in stem cell transplantations to treat fatal diseases such as cancer, blood disorders and immune deficiencies, the doctors' group says. Donating cord blood is safe for the baby and doesn't interfere with labor and delivery, according to the statement. By 2013, more than 30,000 stem cell transplants had been performed worldwide using cord blood. Parents must register in advance to donate cord blood so that a collection kit can be sent for use after the baby's delivery. Because of this, doctors should talk with expectant parents about a donation during an early prenatal visit, the AAP says. "The research is evolving in this area, which is exciting news for patients whose lives may someday depend on a donation of cord blood," Shearer said. "The hope is that more doctors will discuss the options with expectant parents well in advance of their baby's birth, so they understand the tremendous potential to help others in medical need." The statement authors also distinguish between public cord blood banks, which match individuals in need worldwide, and private ones. Private cord blood banks store cord blood for a donor family's own use, if needed, "although there is little evidence supporting this use unless a family shares a known genetic defect," the statement says. Also, while there's no charge for donating to a public cord blood bank, private operations charge an initial fee of $1,350 to $2,300. The private banks' yearly maintenance charges range from $100 to $175. The statement was published online Oct. 30 in the journal Pediatrics. More information The National Marrow Donor Program has more on cord blood. Share this: Twitter Facebook WhatsApp LinkedIn Email Telegram New York, October 30, 2017 CPJ today condemned attacks against the Kurdish media in Iraq and called on all parties to refrain from targeting the press as political and military tensions escalate over a Kurdish independence bid. In recent days, attackers stabbed to death a journalist, a mob attacked two TV crews, and Iraqs media regulator ordered two stations to cease broadcasting. Early today, eight masked men forced their way into the Daquq home of Arkan Sharifi, a cameraman for Kurdistan TV, and stabbed the journalist to death in front of his family, his employer and other local media reported. Sharifi had only recently returned to the city near Kirkuk. The journalist, who is also the head teacher at a village school, had left the city when the Iraqi-led Popular Mobilization Front seized Daquq, according to Kurdistan TV. Kurdistan TV, which is affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), has been covering clashes between Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Popular Mobilization Front in northeastern Iraq, as well as killings and kidnappings allegedly carried out by the Popular Mobilization Front in Kirkuk. The Front denies allegations of human rights violations, according to reports. The stabbing, alongside an unrelated attack on two TV crews in Erbil, and the Iraqi media regulator ordering the Kurdish satellite channels Rudaw TV and Kurdistan 24 to cease broadcasting, took place in regions currently or until recently under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government. Iraqi Kurdistan and the areas surrounding Kirkuk have seen unrest after the region held an independence referendum last month and Iraqi forces took Kirkuk from Kurdish Peshmerga fighters. Regional authorities should thoroughly investigate and prosecute the murder of Arkan Sharifi, and must also investigate the attacks on NRT and KNN journalists, said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour in Washington D.C. Iraqi and Kurdish parties must stop using journalists as political pawns to settle their scores, and the Iraqi media regulator should immediately allow Rudaw TV and Kurdistan 24 to resume broadcasts. Yesterday, a mob in Erbil attacked TV crews working for the independent broadcaster NRT (Nalia Radio and Television) and KNN (Kurdish News Network), a station affiliated with the Gorran party, which opposes the de-facto two party system in areas under Kurdish rule. At the time the journalists were broadcasting outside the Kurdish Parliament after President Masoud Barzani announced his resignation, according to news reports and the local human rights group 17 Shubat. NRT posted a video to its website yesterday showing assailants in plainclothes wielding sticks and shouting in Kurdish, He works for NRT, attack him, beat him, before an attacker swings at the cameraman, who dropped his equipment. Rebwar Kakaiy, a reporter for the station, suffered a severe neck injury and KNNs Erbil correspondent Saleh Harki was left with a bruised back, the news reports said. Ragaz Kamal, co-founder of 17 Shubat, shared with CPJ a picture showing Harkis bruises. In a video posted on a Facebook page of PDK News, a news website affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), an attacker can be heard telling the others not to attack the Rudaw TV crew, which is affiliated with Barzanis KDP party. NRT deputy newsroom manager Soran Rashid told CPJ that assailants yesterday looted and vandalized the broadcasters offices in Erbil and the northern city of Duhok, 155km from Erbil. Rashid said that security forces stopped the attackers from setting fire to the offices, and that the offices were empty because the station was anticipating an attack because of the unrest. We have asked the security forces to intervene, Rashid said. Separately, the Iraqi Commission of Media and Communications on October 28 ordered the Kurdish satellite channels Rudaw TV and Kurdistan 24 to cease broadcasts. The regulator accused the channels of lacking official registration, inciting violence and hate, and undermining social peace and security, the channel and two local press freedom groups who denounced the decision said today. The commission banned their crews from operating, and authorized the seizure of the stations equipment throughout Iraq, Rudaw reported. CPJ was unable to determine if the stations complied with the order or how long the ban will last. Both outlets issued statements denying the accusations. In a statement, Rudaw said that it was not officially notified of the ban, and that the regulators decision was sent to various Iraqi security officials and telecommunications companies, including those broadcasting the channel. The regulator did not immediately return CPJs request for comment sent via social media. Last month, Turkish authorities ordered Kurdistan 24 and Rudaw TV to be removed from the countrys main satellite provider Turksat, over allegations that the stations promoted Kurdish independence, according to reports. Last year, Rudaw was banned by Kurdish authorities in Syria over allegations of spreading false news and promoting disunity. [EDITORS NOTE: The ninth paragraph of this alert has been corrected and updated to reflect details of the attack on the NRT offices in Erbil and Duhok.] India sends first wheat shipment to Afghanistan via Chabahar port Published: October 30, 2017 India has flagged off shipment of wheat for Afghanistan through Irans Chabahar port. It was flagged off from Kandla port in Gujarat by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani through video conferencing. Key Facts Chabahar port is strategically located in Sistan-Balochistan province on energy-rich Irans southern coast in Gulf of Oman near its border with Pakistan and can be easily accessed from Indias western coast. The first consignment transfer was part of Indias commitment to send 1.1 million tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan on grant basis. Afghanistan will receive entire amount in six different instalments over coming months. The consignment will be transported to Afghanistan from Chabahar through land route. Significance The shipment of wheat is considered as landmark moment as it paves way for operationalisation of Chabahar port as an alternate, reliable and robust connectivity for landlocked Afghanistan, bypassing Pakistan. It is first shipment going to Afghanistan through Chabahar port after trilateral agreement on Establishment of International Transport and Transit Corridor was signed between India, Afghanistan and Iran during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Iran in May 2016. The operationalisation of Chabahar port will open up new opportunities for trade and transit from and to Afghanistan and enhance trade and commerce between India, Afghanistan and Iran and wider region in wake of Pakistan denying transit access to New Delhi for trade with the two countries. Month: Current Affairs - October, 2017 Category: Defence Current Affairs Topics: Chabahar Port Gulf of Oman India-Afghanistan India-International Relations Iran Wheat Shippment Latest E-Books The Annual Pre-Harvest Agribusiness event in Ghana is recognized as the largest annual gathering of farmers, buyers, manufacturers, government officials, development partners and financial institutions. It draws private sector investment and encourages the sustainable growth of agribusinesses. Earlier this month, the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, through the U.S. Governments Feed the Future Initiative, in collaboration with the Government of Ghana and Agri-House Foundation, organized the event to build business relationships around the upcoming 2017 maize, rice and soybean harvest. In attendance were Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture Dr. Sagre Bambangi; Northern Regional Minister Honorable Salifu Saeed; and USAID/Ghana Agriculture Team Leader Jenna Tajchman, who emphasized the importance of expanding economic opportunities for smallholder farmers and unlocking the potential of Ghanaian agribusinesses. The Pre-Harvest event brought together over 1,000 agribusiness stakeholders across the country to network and learn about the latest technological advances in agriculture. Participants shared lessons learned and identified opportunities and challenges within the sector. The event featured business-to- business sessions as well as an exhibition, showcasing improved agricultural equipment, inputs and services. The event served as a platform to rally agribusiness stakeholders and the private sector to forge partnerships and make strategic investments to spur economic growth. Ms. Tajchman shared that, In Ghana, our Feed the Future program aims to expand economic opportunities and boost agricultural productivity. Over 85,000 individuals applied improved technologies and practices on over 72,600 hectares of land. The application of these improved technologies, combined with training and marketing assistance, led to farmer beneficiaries selling produce valued at over $120 million following the 2016 growing season. Now is the time to sustain this momentum and continue making investments that ensure Ghanas progress, especially as Ghana advances the Beyond Aid Agenda. The Pre-Harvest Agribusiness event has been held annually since 2010, and was organized through Feed the Future, the U.S. governments global hunger and food security initiative. Over the years, the event has linked rural farmers to new market opportunities and gained the support of the private sector. The U.S. is proud to work with Ghana and its private sector partners to expand economic opportunity and agricultural production for the people of Ghana and the Africa region. The United States has supported Burmas gradual transition toward an open, democratic society in recent years. But at the same time, we express our gravest concern with recent events in Rakhine State and the violent, traumatic abuses Rohingya and other communities have endured, said State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert. It is imperative, she said, that any individuals or entities responsible for atrocities, including non-state actors and vigilantes, be held accountable. Thats why the United States is taking the following actions: Since August 25, the United States has ceased consideration of JADE Act travel waivers for current and former senior leadership of the Burmese military. The U.S. is considering economic options available to target individuals associated with atrocities. All units and officers involved in operations in northern Rakhine State are considered to be ineligible to receive or participate in any U.S. assistance programs. The U.S. has rescinded invitations for senior Burmese security forces to attend U.S.-sponsored events; The U.S. is working with international partners to gain access to relevant areas for the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission, international humanitarian organizations, and media. The U.S. is consulting with allies and partners on accountability options at the UN, the UN Human Rights Council, and other appropriate venues and the U.S. is also exploring targeted sanctions. The United States will continue to support Burmas transition to democracy, as well as efforts to resolve the current crisis in Rakhine State, which has caused more than 600,000 Rohingya to flee since August 25. The government of Burma, including its armed forces, must take immediate action to ensure peace and security; implement commitments to ensure humanitarian access to communities in desperate need; facilitate the safe and voluntary return of those who have fled or been displaced in Rakhine State; and address the root causes of systematic discrimination against the Rohingya by implementing the Rakhine Advisory Commission's recommendations, which includes providing a credible path to citizenship The United States stands ready to support these efforts. Romanians march with European Union flags in Bucharest in March. ANDREI PUNGOVSCHI (AFP/Getty Images) It is difficult to find an avenue in Bucharest without an EU flag waving in it. It is the same flag that stood out in the multitudinous anti-government demonstrations that spread all over Romania a few months ago. In a regional environment dominated by reactionary and nationalist policies, the Romanian Parliament is the only one in Eastern Europe that does not have a Euroskeptic party. According to the latest Eurobarometer study, Romania ranks third as the society that most values EU institutions, only behind Lithuania and Luxembourg. Young people, who were the most reluctant to go to the polls at the last elections, are the firmest believers in the European Union. Alexandra Dragomir and Radu Dumitrescu, two friends in their twenties, participated in the demonstrations that took over the streets of Bucharest last winter. Despite the cold temperatures, attendance was similar to the demonstrations of Paris in 1968 or Prague in 1989. While Radu searches his phone for pictures, he tells us that the crowd crying out against the political elites carried lots of European flags and signs that read We love Europe. We need Romanians to keep their faith in Brussels, in order to keep advancing towards full integration Radu Dumitrescu, youth activist They both explain, in a interview conducted during a trip to Bucharest sponsored by the European Parliament, that with help from a group of young Italians they are creating a pro-European organization. Its aim is to communicate to Romanian society the importance of continuing to embrace EU values. We need Romanians to keep their faith in Brussels, in order to keep advancing toward full integration, says Radu. He studied political science and grew disappointed in the traditional parties after years of affiliation in one youth association. Since its EU accession 10 years ago, Romania has been economically and socially transformed. With a population of 20 million, the GDP of the seventh most-populated EU country sixth if you do not count the UK is growing at over 4% annually, more than double the EU average. Unemployment is under 5% and the minimum wage though still the second lowest, after Bulgaria has doubled in five years. Foreign investment is growing at a rate of over 10% per year and is at its highest for this decade. Radu, whos wearing a twelve-star bracelet as his sole accessory, is critical of an association that recently collected three million signatures about 15% of adults in favor of a constitutional reform that would prevent, in the short term, the passing of a law allowing same-sex couples to marry. He trusts that European values will promote a more tolerant society. As an example of this, Alexandra mentions the progress made in gender equality since Romania joined the EU. A child peeks out of a hole in a European flag in February in Bucharest. ANDREI PUNGOVSCHI (AFP) Romania is monitored by Brussels, like Bulgaria, through a verification mechanism that allows the European Commission to draft regular reports on development in the country. Alexandra defends it as a guarantee for the Romanian youth who want a more sustainable, democratic and equal future, against those who dismiss it as a loss of sovereignty. About 20 Romanian ministers have been involved in court cases since 2004, a figure unmatched in the rest of Europe. Corruption is an intrinsic part of our society, but thanks to the EU there is no more impunity, says Marius Deaconu, a newly graduated historian who chairs the main Romanian student union. Joining the EU is the best thing that has happened to the country since its creation in 1881, says Marius. Employment opportunities have multiplied in recent years. You can even aim for very high wages in sectors such as computer engineering, although these improvements have not yet spread to rural areas, he says. Many students have had their first opportunity to go abroad thanks to programs financed by European funds. Alexandra says that most people who study abroad return with a passion for Europe. Marius, a student representative, stresses the need to continue to strengthen the minimum wage in order to avoid a Romanian brain drain to France or Spain, mainly in sectors such as medicine. Most people who study abroad return with a passion for Europe Alexandra Dragomir, youth activist These days, there is little fear about the spread of Euroskepticism after the Brexit vote. Nowadays, Europeans have more faith in EU institutions than they do in their national political bodies. After overcoming various crises, coinciding with the explosion of Emmanuel Macrons unabashedly pro-European rhetoric, the populations of older EU members France, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark are facing the common project with a renewed mentality. In eastern European countries such as Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic the reactionary attitude of its rulers slows this Euro-centric trend. But Romania is the exception. We now feel more European than Romanian, claims Constantin Dudu, a thirtysomething who heads an NGO that organizes projects for volunteers from all around Europe. According to Constantin, the historical and cultural similarities with western Europe make nationalism much weaker in Romania, in comparison with its neighbors. Joining the EU was the greatest accelerating force of our history and the indispensable salve to heal the wounds left behind by communism, argues Mircea Geoana, a former president of the Senate and former foreign minister. This 59-year-old politician and diplomat, who lost the presidential elections in 2009 by 50,000 votes, supports advancing towards a more sovereign, united and democratic EU. According to him, it is necessary to create a shared intervention force and a common defense budget. Either we all row together in the same direction, or we will end up at the mercy of the United States and China, he says. Misgivings about a two-speed EU European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker recently defended in his annual State of the EU address that all member states should join the euro and the Schengen area in 2019, when Brexit finally materializes. Both the people and the political establishment in Romania received these statements with enthusiasm. But the president of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, from the Netherlands, poured cold water on the idea when he showed himself willing to extend the euro zone, but "gradually" and once all requirements are fulfilled. In Bucharest, people have no doubt about their own commitment to greater integration and refuse the idea of a multi-speed Europe. However, they are also aware that adopting the single European currency or joining the Schengen area the agreement for the abolition of internal borders which Bulgaria, Ireland, Croatia and Cyprus do not take part in will cause some concern. Romania is, after Finland, the EU country with the longest external borders, at almost 2,000 kilometers. Former Catalan regional premier Carles Puigdemont at todays press conference. Olivier Matthys (AP) Scroll down for latest updates More information Ousted Catalan premier to explain trip to Brussels Ousted Catalan premier Carles Puigdemont said he does not plan to avoid legal proceedings launched by Spanish prosecutors on Monday but that he has no plans to return to Spain until he is given guarantees that he will receive fair treatment. Speaking at a packed press conference in Brussels today, he said that he and the former ministers of the Catalan government with whom he had traveled to the Belgian capital would return to Spain immediately if they were guaranteed a fair and independent trial with a separation of powers. Puigdemont, who continues to consider himself the premier of the Catalan executive despite his dismissal under the application of Article 155 by Spains central government, said he had traveled to Brussels with his colleagues to make clear the politicization of Spanish justice. I am not here [in Belgium] to apply for political asylum, we are here to act with liberty and security, said Puigdemont, speaking of the threat of 30 years in prison after Spanish state prosecutors filed formal accusations of rebellion, sedition and misuse of funds against the former premier, his ministers and members of the speakers committee of the Catalan parliament. The other part of the government, headed by [former] deputy premier [Oriol Junqueras] will remain in Catalonia as legitimate members of the Catalan government, said Puigdemont. We have never abandoned the government. More than that, we will continue working, he added, calling on the Catalan people to prepare for a long road ahead. At the press conference, during which he spoke in Catalan, French and Spanish, the former premier also confirmed that his PDeCAT party would run in the December 21 election called by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Its a challenge we are going to accept, he said. He said added that he would respect the results and called on Madrid to do the same. Puigdemont insisted that the state that had called elections wanted to put him in jail for completing his electoral program. We have a strictly European agenda here, he said of his visit to Belgium. We have had no other type of contact. During the press conference, Puigdemont was joined by seven members of his former cabinet who have also traveled to Brussels. The demonstration in Barcelona on Sunday in favor of the unity of Spain. Toni Albir (EFE) Hundreds of thousands of Catalans showed on Sunday that the demonstration held on October 8 was not just a fleeting response to the pro-independence movement. The streets of Barcelona were once again packed with protestors, who made it abundantly clear how comfortable they feel within the framework of the Spanish Constitution, and, above all else, that they are not prepared to give the hegemony of the street to the pro-secessionists. Without the structure, financing or institutional support that the so-called process has enjoyed, the pro-unity association Sociedad Civil which called Sundays march has destroyed the myth that the Catalan people aspire to break away from Spain. After Sunday, the process will never again be able to usurp the name of Catalonia as it has done until now. Catalonia has shown that its society is much more plural than the pro-independence bloc would have had us believe Against this difficult backdrop, Catalonia has shown that its society is much more plural than the pro-independence bloc would have had us believe. Plural and united with its country, Spain, which it has always enriched with its entrepreneurial character, its language, its culture and its good sense. In the face of the Spain is robbing us view, there is another Catalonia, which is in the majority, and is willing to air its Spanish-ness and adherence to the Constitution without feeling ashamed. What was seen in Barcelona on Sunday represents a new defeat to the secessionism that could be a prelude to what could come at the regional elections on December 21. This is a decisive moment. It is time to return to real politics, to an approach that adheres to the law and does not repress dissenters, one that attends to the interests of citizens instead of organizing demonstrations of force in the streets a strategy, let us not forget, that was started by the pro-independence bloc, and a strategy that has now mobilized the once-silent majority. The weeks that are left until December 21 will not be easy. Carles Puigdemont has called for stubborn resistance in the face of Article 155, which he has described as an assault on Catalans. Puigdemont has not even recognized his own dismissal, just as he does not recognize himself as the aggressor who has caused such serious harm to Catalonia. The much-desired reconciliation among Catalans will take some time to return, as will peaceful coexistence and an order of different ideals If Article 155 is applied with restraint, with determination and with intelligence, it is very likely that Catalonia will soon return to institutional normality, but a lot more time will be needed to heal the open wounds left by the process within Catalan society. The much-desired reconciliation among Catalans will take some time to return, as will peaceful coexistence and an order of different ideals, free from labels and prejudice. One of these must come as soon as possible: the supporters of the Spanish Constitution are not anti-Catalan extremists nor from the far right. It is worth remembering that it was not Puigdemont, but rather the application of the Constitution, that has called Catalans to the ballot boxes the real ballot boxes. The pro-independence cry of we will vote in defense of an illegal referendum, held with no democratic guarantees, has turned against them. The pro-secession bloc must understand that its aspirations, while it doesnt abuse the law, are as legitimate as those of the other side, and that it now has the opportunity to measure its levels of support where democratic forces do so: at the polls. Its abuses have favored the unity of action of the opposition, another element that underpinned the pro-secessionist defeat. The social majority must mobilize to win with its votes, so that the nightmare that Catalonia is still living through never returns. English version by Simon Hunter. Text in which the author defends ideas and reaches conclusions based on his / her interpretation of facts and data Last week, Congress passed House Resolution 359 which calls on the European Union to recognize the fact that Hezbollah, all of Hezbollah, is a terrorist organization. One of us initiated that resolution, and the other agrees with him wholeheartedly. But both of us are bewildered that the resolution was even necessary. How can anyone in Europe not believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization when Hezbollah itself confirms it over and over again? Not only through words, but through actions: assassinations, bombings, and rocket attacks. Over the past six years Hezbollah has been the most significant military force alongside President Assad as he destroys his country and kills his own people. With thousands of Hezbollah fighters and commanders on the ground, they hold direct responsibility for a war that has left half a million people dead and eleven million people forced from their homes. How can anyone in Europe not believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist organization when Hezbollah itself confirms it over and over again? Hezbollah doesnt hide its next intended target Israel. The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has made it quite clear that his aim is not Palestinian independence, nor the creation of two states. Rather, the total destruction of Israel. He tells a story about an Egyptian journalist who asked him if hes working towards the destruction of Israel. Nasrallah answered him plainly, That is the principal objective of Hezbollah. In a series of speeches, Nasrallah outlined to his followers that Allah created the State of Israel to bring all the Jews together, thereby making it easier to destroy them. Hezbollah has enslaved southern Lebanon and positioned over 100,000 rockets only a few kilometres from the Israeli border as it prepares its next terror war on Israel. Like always, those who hate Israel also hate America (the reverse is also true). Our motto is simple Nasrallah said in front of a crowd of his supporters, and were not afraid to repeat it year after year Death to America! Shockingly, all of this widely available information has failed to convince the European Union to designate it a terrorist organization Hezbollah doesnt stop with Israel and the U.S. Hezbollah has a wing dedicated to international terrorism which is responsible for attacks in Argentina, Cyprus, and Bulgaria. Other planned terror attacks around the world were foiled as a result of joint intelligence operations. Shockingly, all of this widely available information has failed to convince the European Union to designate all of Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Their argument is that the organization has a political wing, separate from the military wing, with which diplomatic relations can be maintained. This is a false distinction. Hezbollah itself has made clear on multiple occasions that there is no way to separate the different wings. They are the first to admit they are the same organization with the same leadership, and that Nasrallah personally approves every act of terror. The absurdity is heightened when you consider that even the Arab League designates Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization. Muslim countries in the region, which can hardly be accused of being overly sympathetic to Israel, know full well there is no such distinction between its wings. Terrorism isnt fought with words, its fought with actions It is nothing more than a public relations ruse of the kind employed by multiple terrorist groups today. Under the guise of being a resistance movement or freedom fighters, these extremists seek sympathy as they simultaneously build their bombs and orchestrate their attacks on Jews, Christians, and even fellow Muslims. Feigning legitimacy, Hezbollah can raise money and recruit volunteers openly on European soil. Some European leaders believe wrongly that if they communicate politely and sympathetically with terrorists, then maybe theyll blow up nightclubs and shopping centers elsewhere. It has never worked, and it will never work. We urge the European Union to follow the lead of France and the Netherlands. Designate Hezbollah all of Hezbollah a terrorist organization. We need our partners to join the global coalition against Hezbollah and cut off its activities in Europe. Terrorism isnt fought with words, its fought with actions. Ted Deutch us a US congressman and Yair Lapid is an Israeli deputy. ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Iran's nuclear deal with world powers may hang in the balance, but you wouldn't know it at the United Nations conference on atomic energy held Monday in the United Arab Emirates. Iran decided to skip the Abu Dhabi conference, leaving its seats empty as Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, avoided speaking about the nuclear deal at all in his address at the venue. Officials at the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press. The semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted an anonymous source at the organization late Monday saying the delegation could not attend as the UAE did not grant them visas. At a later news conference, Amano himself declined to discuss it. "This conference is open to all the countries and we welcome the participation of all the countries," Amano said. "But of course it depends on each country whether to attend or not. I do not comment on Iran's participation. It is (up to) Iran to decide." During a visit to Iran the day before, Amano told reporters that Tehran was still honoring the 2015 nuclear accord. President Donald Trump has declined to re-certify the 2015 nuclear deal, sending it to Congress to address. Both the UAE and neighboring Saudi Arabia remain highly suspicious of the nuclear deal, which saw economic sanctions on Iran lifted in exchange for it limiting its enrichment of uranium. The two Gulf Arab countries say that new money flowing into Iran has aided its ability to back Shiite militias in Iraq and support embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad. Also sharing that suspicion is Israel, which sent a delegation to the nuclear conference. The UAE, like many Arab countries, does not have diplomatic ties with Israel and remains opposed to its occupation of lands Palestinians want for a future state. Conference organizers asked journalists not to film the Israeli delegation. Israeli officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Their presence also nearly created a unique diplomatic conundrum, as conference organizers had seated them next to Iran. Trump's refusal this month to re-certify the agreement has sparked a new war of words between Iran and the United States, fueling growing mistrust and a sense of nationalism among Iranians. The European Union, Britain and other parties to the deal have all encouraged Trump to keep the accord in place. Amano reiterated that Iran remains in compliance with the deal when pressed by reporters in Abu Dhabi on Monday. However, he demurred when asked to discuss what actions Trump could take in the future. "We do not speculate," Amano said. "So I do not have any comments on the future action of the president of the United States." Iran will continue producing missiles for its defense and does not consider that a violation of international regulations, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on October 29 in a speech in parliament. For our defense, for defending our territorial integrity, and for defending our nation, we would not hesitate to produce any type of weapon, store them, and fire them at necessary time for our protection, Rouhani said. We have built, are building, and will continue building missiles, and this does not violate any international regulations. The United States has imposed unilateral sanctions on Iran, saying its missile tests violate UN resolutions. Rouhani also criticized the recent decision by U.S. President Donald Trump not to certify Irans compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the Iran deal. You disrespect past negotiations approved by the UN Security Council and expect others to negotiate with you?" Rouhani retorted. Another Iranian official announced on October 29 that the inspection of the countrys military sites were not part of the nuclear agreement or any legal document to which the country has committed itself. Behrooz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for Irans Atomic Energy Organization, in an interview with state television, said that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could only inspect sites where nuclear activities were carried out, and other locations were out of question,. While refusing to confirm Irans compliance with the nuclear deal, Trump accused Tehran of multiple violations of the agreement. Iranian officials and military leaders have repeatedly claimed they will not allow inspectors onto military sites, even though the international community suspects some of those sites were part of Irans clandestine nuclear weapons program, Trump said in a speech. But Kamalvandi claims only one military site was subjected to inspection in the past, following baseless propaganda by international media. He added that Iran was forced to allow a controlled inspection of the Parchin military complex, 30 miles southeast of Tehran; however, the case had been closed and confirmed by IAEA. After meeting with Rouhani and other Iranian officials, International Atomic Energy Agency head Yukiya Amano announced in Tehran on October 29 that Iran was living up to the nuclear deal. The IAEA can state that the nuclear-related commitments made by Iran under JCPOA are being implemented, Amano said in Tehran. Baku,Azerbaijan, Oct.30 Trend: The year 2017 will be remembered among the most successful pages of the history of independent Azerbaijan, Novruz Mammadov, assistant to the president for foreign policy issues, head of department, tweeted Oct. 30. "The landmark event - signing of the New Contract of the XXI Century - today is followed by yet another milestone. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railroad that connects countries of two continents and brings peoples together is being inaugurated today in Azerbaijan, may your path be always clear!," he wrote. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.30 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: The Nagorno-Karabakh issue is the bleeding wound for Turkey as for Azerbaijan, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with Trend, Azertac and APA. "Unfortunately, unless Armenia ends occupation of the Azerbaijani territories, this issue will not be resolved," he said. President Erdogan stressed that the occupation should be immediately ended on the basis of the principles of territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of borders of Azerbaijan. "We also condemn provocations targeting the civilian population along with Armenia's occupation policy. Such actions can in no way help the peace in the region," he said. "We believe that the international community, especially the Minsk Group, should work more actively to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. We will continue to stand next with Azerbaijan in this matter, as in every matter." 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. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Nigar Guliyeva Trend: Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov will visit Azerbaijan Oct.30. Aripov will head the Uzbek delegation, which will take part in the opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line, the Uzbek fioreign ministry reported. The opening ceremony will be attended by the Presidents of Turkey, Kazakhstan and the Prime Minister of Georgia. The BTK railway was constructed on the basis a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. The railways peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At an initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Azad Hasanli Trend: The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a historic project, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev Oct. 30. "Guests from brotherly and friendly countries attend today's solemn ceremony," Ilham Aliyev said at the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad official opening ceremony in Baku. "I particularly welcome Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime ministers of Georgia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, and ministers of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, and I am deeply grateful to them for their participation in this ceremony." "The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a historic project of strategic importance. The length of this railroad is approximately 850 kilometers, 504 kilometers of which go through Azerbaijan." President Aliyev stressed that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is the shortest and safest route connecting Europe to Asia. Through this route, it is expected to transport 5 million tons at the first stage, 17 million tons at the next stage, and then larger volumes of cargo, Ilham Aliyev said. In short, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is becoming an important part of Eurasia's transport map. The president noted that trade turnover and mutual investments between the countries along the railway will increase, cooperation between the countries using the railroad will deepen, and the railroad will serve stability and security. President Aliyev expressed confidence that with the use of the BTK railway, the development of tourism will gain a large scale and the number of tourists will increase. Naturally, the successful operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will enhance the geopolitical significance of our countries and create additional opportunities for us. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be very important for the development of business, mutually beneficial cooperation." "The agreement on the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was signed in Georgia, then the groundbreaking ceremony was held in Turkey, and finally, we celebrate the opening of this railway in Azerbaijan, said Ilham Aliyev. The head of state noted that the construction of this railway is a result of friendship and brotherhood between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The three states successfully cooperate in all spheres, support each other. Our countries, peoples implement important projects for the world. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is a project that has a rightful place among those projects, added President Aliyev. The head of state said the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was opened in 2006 with participation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That pipeline is a big infrastructure project connecting the Caspian and Mediterranean seas. Today, oil is transported via that pipeline, including from the eastern part of the Caspian Sea. In other words, our countries also provide transit opportunities for other states, said President Aliyev. A year later, in 2007, again thanks to the cooperation of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline was built. This project also has been ensuring the energy security of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, and successfully operating for almost 10 years. President Aliyev reminded that the three countries have also connected their electricity lines and the cooperation in this sphere is successfully developing today. Naturally, the Southern Gas Corridor, which is a global project and the biggest infrastructure project in Europe, is created thanks to the joint activities of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, as well as other countries. The implementation of this project is continuing successfully. As it is known, the Southern Gas Corridor consists of four parts. Ninety-eight percent of the work has been completed on Shah Deniz 2. The South Caucasus Pipeline is a gas pipeline connecting Azerbaijan and Georgia. The level of implementation is 99 percent, noted the head of state. The implementation of TANAP project, which is the main part of the Southern Gas Corridor, has been completed by 84 percent, while the implementation of TAP project has been completed by 60 percent, said the president. In other words, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway has been established on the basis of the previously implemented projects, noted Ilham Aliyev. Naturally, if we had not implemented those grandiose, large-scale projects in the oil and gas sector in the previous period, today we could only talk about Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, said the president. Some foreign circles did not believe in the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, he noted. They believed that this would not be possible and the technical facilities and financial resources necessary for that would not allow the project to be implemented. However, the three countries have shown and proved that this is possible, said President Aliyev. It is possible to do all the work when there is our strong will, mutual support, and confidence in each other. The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a clear example of this. I am sure that Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, which make the greatest contribution to regional cooperation, will continue to support each other. The head of state noted that big projects as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway strengthen the three countries unity and friendship. Central Asia, Kazakhstan are showing great interest in this railway project. The participation of delegations, high-ranking officials from Central Asia and Kazakhstan in this ceremony clearly demonstrates this, said President Aliyev. We are confident that there will be additional opportunities for the transportation of goods. Traditional friendly relations of our countries with Central Asian countries will also be strengthened with the help of this railway. He said that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is of great importance for Europe. Azerbaijan has already held relevant negotiations with several European countries. The countries of Europe also show great interest in the construction of this railway." "I should also note that at the same time, Azerbaijan is taking important steps to create the North-South transport corridor. All the work on the North-South railway project has been completed in Azerbaijan, in other words, the entire infrastructure is ready, added President Aliyev. The head of state noted that at the same time, Azerbaijan is demonstrating its technical and financial capabilities to create infrastructure in other countries. We are working now on the integration of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars and North-South transportation corridors. I believe that this is quite possible, and I am sure that in the future the North-West and South-West energy transportation routes will be put into operation. These two grandiose projects will unite many big countries. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars means the restoration of a part of the historical Silk Road. It can be used by China, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and European countries. The North-South transport corridor will unite India, Pakistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia and European countries, said President Aliyev. He went on to say that Azerbaijan is an active participant of both projects and a country that invests its financial resources. In general, I can say that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the transportation sector, big investments have been put. From 2004 until today, 11,000 kilometers of highways have been built and six international airports have been commissioned in Azerbaijan. Today Azerbaijan has a very big fleet of cargo aircraft. There are about 20 big cargo planes in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has the biggest naval fleet in the Caspian Sea, said Ilham Aliyev. A fleet of 270 ships plays a special role in the organization of cargo transportation in the Caspian Sea. A big shipbuilding yard was built in Azerbaijan several years ago that manufactures all types of ships. The plant will carry out even more work in connection with the expected growth of cargo transportation in the Caspian Sea, noted the president. Of course, the International Sea Trade Port in Alat is an important part of Azerbaijans transport infrastructure, said President Aliyev. The construction of the port is continuing successfully and the port is already operating, he added. The first phase of the port is planned to be commissioned in the middle of the next year. After that, 15 million tons of cargo and 100,000 containers will annually pass through the port. As a result of completion of the second stage, the capacity of the Alat port will be 25 million tons of cargo and one million containers." "In other words, investments put in the transportation sector in recent years have already led to the creation of a very strong infrastructure, which is of great importance both for our country, for the region and the world, added the head of state. The Azerbaijani president once again noted that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is a historic and global project. This project will bring countries closer. This project will play its role in ensuring stability and security in the region. This project will expand our economic opportunities, and we will receive more funds. The implementation of this project became possible only thanks to the joint efforts of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. We have not received any help from anywhere, we have not taken loans, we built this railway with help of internal capabilities, and today we put it into operation, said the Azerbaijani president. Dear friends, I want to congratulate you once again on this remarkable historic event. I am confident that the path of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will always be open, concluded President Aliyev. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.30 By Farhad Daneshvar Trend: Irans newly-appointed Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Masoud Karbasian has recently visited Baku to discuss with Azerbaijani officials the issues of cooperation in various spheres, including transportation, banking and financial sector, custom services, joint ventures, and agriculture, as well as power generation. In an exclusive interview with Trend in Baku, Karbasian briefed about the outcomes of his two-day visit. Agricultural cooperation in focus Karbasian has expressed his countrys interest in agricultural cooperation with Azerbaijan, saying Iran is capable of transferring its experience to the neighboring country. Iran has obtained proper experience and technology in agriculture sector, therefore the Islamic Republic is interested in cooperation with other countries, including Azerbaijan, in this regard. Speaking about Irans annual imports of agriculture products, he said Iran could meet a part of its needs for agriculture products through growing and harvesting agricultural plants abroad. He touched upon Irans agricultural experience in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Brazil as well as South Africa, saying agricultural cooperation could play a major role in broadening trade ties. Iranian and Azerbaijani officials in the meantime plan to launch a joint venture for producing agricultural machinery and equipment. The Islamic Republic exported 5.8 million tons of agricultural products worth of $5.686 billion during the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2017), indicating an increase of 21.7 percent in volume terms and 3.61 percent- in value terms. Irans agricultural exports made up 4.48 percent of the countrys total non-oil exports in terms of volume and 12.97 percent -in terms of value. High prospects for special economic zone Karbasian said that Iran welcomes a proposal by Azerbaijan on creation of a special economic zone in the Iranian border city of Astara. Saying that the creation of the special economic zone would exempt Azerbaijan from some regulations, he added the special economic zone would provide Baku with opportunities to benefit from its investments in Irans Astara. Karbasian further vowed to follow up on the proposal in order to help Azerbaijan utilize its investment plan in the Iranian border city. Azerbaijans Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev, addressing the joint meeting Oct.26, put forward the proposal on setting up the economic zone. Azerbaijan has earlier agreed to provide 60 million euros in investment for developing railway facilities there. Using national currency in bilateral trade The minister called for using national currencies in bilateral trade with Azerbaijan, terming the expansion of banking cooperation as a mean to pave the way for widening economic and industrial ties between the two countries. Karbasian said the sides are discussing the possibilities of forming an independent bank in order to facilitate financial ties between the two countries, as well as using national currencies in the bilateral trade. Speaking about Irans experience in using national currency in trade with Turkey and Russia, he said that the same method can be applied for such cooperation with Azerbaijan. Earlier in September, the central banks of Iran and Turkey inked an agreement on conducting bilateral trade using local currencies. Under the agreement, the Iranian and Turkish central banks will allocate a credit of five billion liras and its equivalent in rial to their respective agent banks. This amount will be used as letters of credit with a repayment period of one year for both countries' traders. Tehran, Baku plan on new JV can create more jobs Karbasian described a proposal on launching a joint venture for bus production in Azerbaijan as significant, adding the bus manufacturing industry is capable of creating new job opportunities. Saying that Iran has been producing and exporting buses over the past 70 years, he added that his country is ready to transfer its know-how on manufacturing buses to neighboring countries including Azerbaijan. Speaking about Irans experience and knowledge in manufacturing buses, the minister expressed his hope that the talks with Azerbaijan in this regard would bear produce a result in future. Karbasian further added that the existing cooperation between the two countries to launch a joint venture for producing passenger cars in Azerbaijan, has paved the ground for the joint production of buses. Iran Khodro and Azermash are planning to launch the first Iranian-Azerbaijani joint venture for producing passenger cars in near future. Officials have earlier announced that the construction of the car joint ventures production line in Azerbaijans Neftchala industrial park has almost been completed and it will probably come into stream over the current year. Maritime transportation, power generation, customs services on agenda Karbasian further touched upon plans to expand cooperation in other spheres in particular maritime transportation, power generation and customs services. Highlighting the possibilities for broadening the cooperation in the issue of the maritime transport in the Caspian Sea, he said that the development of Irans Caspian and Amirabad ports, as well as Azerbaijans Alat port will create the required facilities for launching maritime transportation to carry freight and passengers between the two countries. The sides also discussed the ways for increasing the working hours of customs services between the two countries with a view to ease transit of goods. Karbasian eventually spoke about power swap between Iran and Azerbaijan and called for following up on the plans to widen cooperation in this regard. During the visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Iran Feb. 23, 2016, an agreement was signed for cooperation in the use of water resources and continuation of construction and operation of the Khudaferin and Giz Galasi hydroelectric facilities on the Araz River. Details added (first version posted on 13:19) Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend: The Export Control and Related Border Security (EXBS) office of the US Embassy in Azerbaijan has launched the Commercial Rail Interdiction Training in Baku. The training will last until November 3, 2017. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the training, US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Robert Cekuta said that the EXBS program has long history of security cooperation with Azerbaijan and Georgia. We pursue a common goal preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, he said. The US, Azerbaijan and Georgia work closely together on border security issues, and this type of training and cooperation continues to foster the excellent partnership between our countries. This training represents the long-term commitment that our countries have made to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and improve Azerbaijans and Georgias proven enforcement abilities to detect and interdict illicit cargo. EXBS has been active in Azerbaijan since 1999, and has provided over $26.3 million in training, equipment, and support, noted the ambassador. Afterwards, Deputy Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan Shahin Bagirov spoke about the importance of such training. He noted that this training will increase the knowledge and skills of participants in detecting illicit cargo. During the training, US experts will share inspection techniques and best practices, including the use of non-intrusive inspection equipment, with frontline Azerbaijani and Georgian customs officers who process both passenger and freight trains crossing international borders. Twelve Azerbaijani and twelve Georgian customs officers will participate in the course, which includes grouping the officers into mixed country teams to resolve contraband-related problems. Practical exercises will involve the physical search of freight and passenger railcars for contraband. The goal of this training is to improve Azerbaijans and Georgias proven enforcement abilities to detect and interdict illicit cargo. Azerbaijan and Georgias geographic locations at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, bordering Russia, Armenia, and Iran, makes a strong US-Azerbaijan-Georgia strategic partnership in nonproliferation and border security critical. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: In January 2017, Turkey marked the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with Trend, Azertag and APA. The fact that the 25-year-old ties with Azerbaijan stand at the level of strategic partnership gives special joy and pride to Turkey, he noted. Erdogan said that for the period that has passed since declaration of independence by Azerbaijan, the country, following the course determined by national leader Heydar Aliyev, continued under the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev, has become an impregnable fortress of stability, cooperation and intercultural tolerance in the region. Bilateral relations, corresponding to the spirit of the Turkish-Azerbaijani strategic partnership, continue to develop in all spheres, including the economic, energy, military, defense and security ones, Erdogan noted. Finally, we welcomed my brother President Ilham Aliyev as a distinguished guest at the D-8 summit in Istanbul. At the meeting of the Turkey-Azerbaijan High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council we will consider the issues on the agenda. At the meeting, we will sign a protocol and some other agreements, he added. These documents will undoubtedly further strengthen the legal base of the existing bilateral cooperation. We are satisfied with the systematic annual meetings of the Council. Next year, our country will host the seventh meeting, and in this regard, it will be an honor for us to meet my dear brother President Ilham Aliyev in Turkey. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 Trend: There is no difference between the terrorist groups of Islamic State, PKK, PYD, YPG, the Revolutionary Peoples Liberation Party/Front (DHKP-C) and the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLCP), Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with Trend, Azertac and APA. They have one goal to weaken Turkey, noted Erdogan. He said that last year Turkey, combining all its efforts in the face of the threat of terror and terrorist organizations, prevented the most treacherous coup attempt committed by the Fethullah Gulen movement (FETO), as a result of which 250 people got killed and 2,193 more got injured. I want to especially thank my dear brother President Ilham Aliyev and the Azerbaijani people for their solidarity against this treacherous organization. I know that the Azerbaijani people, watching the news from Turkey on July 15, took the same position with us and sincerely wished that this treacherous coup attempt failed, said the Turkish president. And this shows how strong the fraternal relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan are. The Gulen movement is a danger to every country, in which it is present. Therefore, we are satisfied with the measures taken by Azerbaijan against the structures of FETO. Erdogan noted that Turkey actively cooperates with Azerbaijan in the fight against terrorism, as well as in other spheres. He said that the operational cooperation between the authorized bodies, as well as growing exchange of intelligence data and information continues. Azerbaijan is an important country for preventing the penetration of terrorists from abroad to Syria and conducts useful work in this field, added Erdogan. Details added (first version posted on 13:44) Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Azad Hasanli Trend: The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs are expected to meet with Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers in mid-November. Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov announced this at a press conference in Baku Oct. 30. He said it is not yet clear where the meeting will be held. He said that the meetings venue has not yet been determined yet, however, it is known that the meetings will be held separately with each of the ministers. Under the instructions of the head of state, we are trying to intensify the negotiations process. Currently, we are working on this, noted Mammadyarov. At the last meeting of the two countries presidents, it was decided to intensify the negotiations, said the Azerbaijani minister. Naturally, it is necessary to intensify the negotiations primarily at the level of foreign ministers, he said, thus, the co-chairs contacted the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides and the preliminary dates of the meeting have been determined. The exact date and venue of the meeting will be determined soon, added the minister. 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. Details added (first version posted at 13:50) Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Azad Hasanli Trend: Baku will host a meeting of Pakistani, Turkish and Azerbaijani foreign ministers in late November, Azerbaijans Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has told reporters in Baku. We already have an agreement. Given that Pakistan and Turkey are very important players for Azerbaijan, both from a political and economic point of view, this meeting is very important in terms of discussing all challenges, issues and threats that exist among the three countries, and is a very useful tool, he noted. Azerbaijan has many meetings at the level of foreign ministries with Georgia, Iran, Turkey, and now Pakistan is joining. There are many other countries wanting to join to such format. In my opinion, this format is very convenient and correct, Mammadyarov added. Details added (first version posted on 14:26) Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 Trend: A solemn opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway is being held at the Baku International Sea Port Oct. 30. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his spouse Emine Erdogan, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov, as well as delegations of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan are participating in the event. President Aliyev delivered speech at the ceremony. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is a new upgrade project for the Eurasian area, is the restoration of the ancient Silk Road on steel highways. The agreement on the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was signed in Tbilisi in 2007. In November of the same year, the railway line was laid in Georgias Marabda station. A groundbreaking ceremony of the Kars-Georgia border section was held in Kars in July 2008. The 504-kilometer part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which has a length of 846 kilometers, passes through Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, 263 kilometers of the railway runs through Georgia, and 79 kilometers through Turkey. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will facilitate the access of Central Asian countries Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as Afghanistan to European and world markets. In the future, the attraction of European and Asian freight traffic to this railway will increase the volume of multimodal transportation in both directions. It is envisaged that 3-5 million tons of cargo will be transported in the third year of operation, 6-8 million tons of cargo will be transported in the fifth year of operation, and then 3 million passengers and 17 million tons of cargo will be annually transported via the railway. This shows that, along with Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey will also benefit from transit traffic. All this clearly demonstrates the importance of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, its safety, reliability, speediness and timeliness. Once this railway is commissioned, there will be a twofold decrease in time spent for freight traffic as compared to the existing ones, which will further increase the economic benefits of the project. Another important aspect of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is Azerbaijans direct railway connection through Turkey and Georgia, using the opportunities provided by the project. This railway will have a strong impact on development of tourism in the region. Thus, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is of global significance, connects two continents with steel rails and creates great social and economic benefits. Most importantly, the commissioning of the railway is the greatest contribution to stability in the region, closeness of peoples and economic development. The basis of this contribution is the unshakable friendship and brotherhood of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Details added (first version posted on 14:40) Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Azad Hasanli - Trend: The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a historic project, said Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev Oct. 30. "Guests from brotherly and friendly countries attend today's solemn ceremony," Ilham Aliyev said at the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad official opening ceremony in Baku. "I particularly welcome Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime ministers of Georgia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, and ministers of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, and I am deeply grateful to them for their participation in this ceremony." "The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a historic project of strategic importance. The length of this railroad is approximately 850 kilometers, 504 kilometers of which go through Azerbaijan." President Aliyev stressed that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is the shortest and safest route connecting Europe to Asia. Through this route, it is expected to transport 5 million tons at the first stage, 17 million tons at the next stage, and then larger volumes of cargo, Ilham Aliyev said. In short, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is becoming an important part of Eurasia's transport map. The president noted that trade turnover and mutual investments between the countries along the railway will increase, cooperation between the countries using the railroad will deepen, and the railroad will serve stability and security. President Aliyev expressed confidence that with the use of the BTK railway, the development of tourism will gain a large scale and the number of tourists will increase. Naturally, the successful operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will enhance the geopolitical significance of our countries and create additional opportunities for us. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be very important for the development of business, mutually beneficial cooperation." "The agreement on the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was signed in Georgia, then the groundbreaking ceremony was held in Turkey, and finally, we celebrate the opening of this railway in Azerbaijan, said Ilham Aliyev. The head of state noted that the construction of this railway is a result of friendship and brotherhood between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The three states successfully cooperate in all spheres, support each other. Our countries, peoples implement important projects for the world. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is a project that has a rightful place among those projects, added President Aliyev. By PTI: By Shirish B Pradhan Kathmandu, Oct 30 (PTI) At least 11 people were killed today and several others injured in two separate road accidents in Nepal. In the first incident, seven people died and seven others sustained injuries in western Gulmi district when a micro-bus heading towards Tamghas in Gulmi skidded off the road and rolled down a hill, the police said. advertisement The injured were admitted to Shringa Health Post, Palpa for medical treatment. In the second incident, four people were killed while six others were injured when a jeep en route to Jayaramghat from Katari Bazaar fell 400 meters in Katari Municipality along the Siddhicharan Lokmarga. The accident took place after the driver lost control of the jeep at 1:30 pm, said police. A woman, a child and the driver were brought to Katari Hospital after being rescued by police with the help of locals. On Saturday, an overcrowded passenger bus veered off a road and plunged into a river in central Nepals Dhading district, killing 31 people, including an Indian woman. PTI SBP KUN --- ENDS --- Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 Trend: Some foreign circles did not believe in the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev addressing the opening ceremony of the BTK railway in Baku Oct. 30. They believed that this would not be possible and the technical facilities and financial resources necessary for that would not allow the project to be implemented. However, the three countries have shown and proved that this is possible, said President Aliyev. It is possible to do the all work when there is strong will, mutual support, and confidence in each other. The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a clear example of this. I am sure that Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, which make the greatest contribution to regional cooperation, will continue to support each other. President Aliyev said that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is the shortest and safest route connecting Europe to Asia. Through this route, it is expected to transport 5 million tons at the first stage, 17 million tons at the next stage, and then larger volumes of cargo, noted the president. In short, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is becoming an important part of Eurasias transport map. He said that trade turnover and mutual investments between the countries along the railway will increase, cooperation between the countries using the railroad will deepen, and the railroad will serve stability and security. President Aliyev expressed confidence that with the use of the BTK railway, the development of tourism will gain a large scale and the number of tourists will increase. Naturally, the successful operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will enhance the geopolitical significance of our countries and create additional opportunities for us. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be very important for the development of business, mutually beneficial cooperation, said the Azerbaijani president. The head of state noted that big projects as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway reinforce the three countries unity and friendship. Central Asia, Kazakhstan are showing great interest in this railway project. The participation of delegations, high-ranking officials from Central Asia and Kazakhstan in this ceremony clearly demonstrates this, said President Aliyev. We are confident that there will be additional opportunities for the transportation of goods. Traditional friendly relations of our countries with Central Asian countries will also be strengthened with the help of this railway. Details added (first version posted on 14:26) Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 Trend: A solemn opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway was held at the Baku International Sea Port Oct. 30. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva, President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his spouse Emine Erdogan, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev, Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov, as well as delegations of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan participated in the event. President Aliyev delivered speech at the ceremony. Afterwards, Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev and Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov addressed the event. A congratulatory letter of Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim was read out. Afterwards, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed the event. Following the speeches, a video was shown about the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. Later, the heads of states and governments drove the spikes and launched the railway switch. Thus, the first freight train was sent off via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. The heads of states and governments removed the veil from the memorial stone and a joint photo was taken. In conclusion, the heads of states and governments traveled by train along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway from the Alat port, where the ceremony was held, to the Alat railway station. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is a new upgrade project for the Eurasian area, is the restoration of the ancient Silk Road on steel highways. The agreement on the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was signed in Tbilisi in 2007. In November of the same year, the railway line was laid in Georgias Marabda station. A groundbreaking ceremony of the Kars-Georgia border section was held in Kars in July 2008. The 504-kilometer part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which has a length of 846 kilometers, passes through Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, 263 kilometers of the railway runs through Georgia, and 79 kilometers through Turkey. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will facilitate the access of Central Asian countries Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, as well as Afghanistan to European and world markets. In the future, the attraction of European and Asian freight traffic to this railway will increase the volume of multimodal transportation in both directions. It is envisaged that 3-5 million tons of cargo will be transported in the third year of operation, 6-8 million tons of cargo will be transported in the fifth year of operation, and then 3 million passengers and 17 million tons of cargo will be annually transported via the railway. This shows that, along with Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey will also benefit from transit traffic. All this clearly demonstrates the importance of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, its safety, reliability, speediness and timeliness. Once this railway is commissioned, there will be a twofold decrease in time spent for freight traffic as compared to the existing ones, which will further increase the economic benefits of the project. Another important aspect of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is Azerbaijans direct railway connection through Turkey and Georgia, using the opportunities provided by the project. This railway will have a strong impact on development of tourism in the region. Thus, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is of global significance, connects two continents with steel rails and creates great social and economic benefits. Most importantly, the commissioning of the railway is the greatest contribution to stability in the region, closeness of peoples and economic development. The basis of this contribution is the unshakable friendship and brotherhood of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Details added (first version posted on 14:40) Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Azad Hasanli - Trend: The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a historic project, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev Oct. 30. "Guests from brotherly and friendly countries attend today's solemn ceremony," Ilham Aliyev said at the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad official opening ceremony in Baku. "I particularly welcome Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime ministers of Georgia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, and ministers of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, and I am deeply grateful to them for their participation in this ceremony." "The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a historic project of strategic importance. The length of this railroad is approximately 850 kilometers, 504 kilometers of which go through Azerbaijan." President Aliyev stressed that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is the shortest and safest route connecting Europe to Asia. Through this route, it is expected to transport 5 million tons at the first stage, 17 million tons at the next stage, and then larger volumes of cargo, Ilham Aliyev said. In short, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is becoming an important part of Eurasia's transport map. The president noted that trade turnover and mutual investments between the countries along the railway will increase, cooperation between the countries using the railroad will deepen, and the railroad will serve stability and security. President Aliyev expressed confidence that with the use of the BTK railway, the development of tourism will gain a large scale and the number of tourists will increase. Naturally, the successful operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will enhance the geopolitical significance of our countries and create additional opportunities for us. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be very important for the development of business, mutually beneficial cooperation." "The agreement on the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was signed in Georgia, then the groundbreaking ceremony was held in Turkey, and finally, we celebrate the opening of this railway in Azerbaijan, said Ilham Aliyev. The head of state noted that the construction of this railway is a result of friendship and brotherhood between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The three states successfully cooperate in all spheres, support each other. Our countries, peoples implement important projects for the world. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is a project that has a rightful place among those projects, added President Aliyev. The head of state said the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was opened in 2006 with participation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That pipeline is a big infrastructure project connecting the Caspian and Mediterranean seas. Today, oil is transported via that pipeline, including from the eastern part of the Caspian Sea. In other words, our countries also provide transit opportunities for other states, said President Aliyev. A year later, in 2007, again thanks to the cooperation of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline was built. This project also has been ensuring the energy security of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, and successfully operating for almost 10 years. President Aliyev reminded that the three countries have also connected their electricity lines and the cooperation in this sphere is successfully developing today. Naturally, the Southern Gas Corridor, which is a global project and the biggest infrastructure project in Europe, is created thanks to the joint activities of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, as well as other countries. The implementation of this project is continuing successfully. As it is known, the Southern Gas Corridor consists of four parts. Ninety-eight percent of the work has been completed on Shah Deniz 2. The South Caucasus Pipeline is a gas pipeline connecting Azerbaijan and Georgia. The level of implementation is 99 percent, noted the head of state. The implementation of TANAP project, which is the main part of the Southern Gas Corridor, has been completed by 84 percent, while the implementation of TAP project has been completed by 60 percent, said the president. In other words, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway has been established on the basis of the previously implemented projects, noted Ilham Aliyev. Naturally, if we had not implemented those grandiose, large-scale projects in the oil and gas sector in the previous period, today we could only talk about Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, said the president. Some foreign circles did not believe in the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, he noted. They believed that this would not be possible and the technical facilities and financial resources necessary for that would not allow the project to be implemented. However, the three countries have shown and proved that this is possible, said President Aliyev. It is possible to do all the work when there is our strong will, mutual support, and confidence in each other. The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a clear example of this. I am sure that Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, which make the greatest contribution to regional cooperation, will continue to support each other. The head of state noted that big projects as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway strengthen the three countries unity and friendship. Central Asia, Kazakhstan are showing great interest in this railway project. The participation of delegations, high-ranking officials from Central Asia and Kazakhstan in this ceremony clearly demonstrates this, said President Aliyev. We are confident that there will be additional opportunities for the transportation of goods. Traditional friendly relations of our countries with Central Asian countries will also be strengthened with the help of this railway. He said that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is of great importance for Europe. Azerbaijan has already held relevant negotiations with several European countries. The countries of Europe also show great interest in the construction of this railway." "I should also note that at the same time, Azerbaijan is taking important steps to create the North-South transport corridor. All the work on the North-South railway project has been completed in Azerbaijan, in other words, the entire infrastructure is ready, added President Aliyev. Details added (first version posted on 14:40) Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Azad Hasanli Trend: The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a historic project, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev Oct. 30. "Guests from brotherly and friendly countries attend today's solemn ceremony," Ilham Aliyev said at the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad official opening ceremony in Baku. "I particularly welcome Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime ministers of Georgia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, and ministers of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan, and I am deeply grateful to them for their participation in this ceremony." "The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a historic project of strategic importance. The length of this railroad is approximately 850 kilometers, 504 kilometers of which go through Azerbaijan." President Aliyev stressed that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is the shortest and safest route connecting Europe to Asia. Through this route, it is expected to transport 5 million tons at the first stage, 17 million tons at the next stage, and then larger volumes of cargo, Ilham Aliyev said. In short, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is becoming an important part of Eurasia's transport map. The president noted that trade turnover and mutual investments between the countries along the railway will increase, cooperation between the countries using the railroad will deepen, and the railroad will serve stability and security. President Aliyev expressed confidence that with the use of the BTK railway, the development of tourism will gain a large scale and the number of tourists will increase. Naturally, the successful operation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will enhance the geopolitical significance of our countries and create additional opportunities for us. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be very important for the development of business, mutually beneficial cooperation." "The agreement on the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was signed in Georgia, then the groundbreaking ceremony was held in Turkey, and finally, we celebrate the opening of this railway in Azerbaijan, said Ilham Aliyev. The head of state noted that the construction of this railway is a result of friendship and brotherhood between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. The three states successfully cooperate in all spheres, support each other. Our countries, peoples implement important projects for the world. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is a project that has a rightful place among those projects, added President Aliyev. The head of state said the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was opened in 2006 with participation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. That pipeline is a big infrastructure project connecting the Caspian and Mediterranean seas. Today, oil is transported via that pipeline, including from the eastern part of the Caspian Sea. In other words, our countries also provide transit opportunities for other states, said President Aliyev. A year later, in 2007, again thanks to the cooperation of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline was built. This project also has been ensuring the energy security of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, and successfully operating for almost 10 years. President Aliyev reminded that the three countries have also connected their electricity lines and the cooperation in this sphere is successfully developing today. Naturally, the Southern Gas Corridor, which is a global project and the biggest infrastructure project in Europe, is created thanks to the joint activities of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, as well as other countries. The implementation of this project is continuing successfully. As it is known, the Southern Gas Corridor consists of four parts. Ninety-eight percent of the work has been completed on Shah Deniz 2. The South Caucasus Pipeline is a gas pipeline connecting Azerbaijan and Georgia. The level of implementation is 99 percent, noted the head of state. The implementation of TANAP project, which is the main part of the Southern Gas Corridor, has been completed by 84 percent, while the implementation of TAP project has been completed by 60 percent, said the president. In other words, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway has been established on the basis of the previously implemented projects, noted Ilham Aliyev. Naturally, if we had not implemented those grandiose, large-scale projects in the oil and gas sector in the previous period, today we could only talk about Baku-Tbilisi-Kars, said the president. Some foreign circles did not believe in the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, he noted. They believed that this would not be possible and the technical facilities and financial resources necessary for that would not allow the project to be implemented. However, the three countries have shown and proved that this is possible, said President Aliyev. It is possible to do all the work when there is our strong will, mutual support, and confidence in each other. The construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a clear example of this. I am sure that Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, which make the greatest contribution to regional cooperation, will continue to support each other. The head of state noted that big projects as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway strengthen the three countries unity and friendship. Central Asia, Kazakhstan are showing great interest in this railway project. The participation of delegations, high-ranking officials from Central Asia and Kazakhstan in this ceremony clearly demonstrates this, said President Aliyev. We are confident that there will be additional opportunities for the transportation of goods. Traditional friendly relations of our countries with Central Asian countries will also be strengthened with the help of this railway. He said that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is of great importance for Europe. Azerbaijan has already held relevant negotiations with several European countries. The countries of Europe also show great interest in the construction of this railway." "I should also note that at the same time, Azerbaijan is taking important steps to create the North-South transport corridor. All the work on the North-South railway project has been completed in Azerbaijan, in other words, the entire infrastructure is ready, added President Aliyev. The head of state noted that at the same time, Azerbaijan is demonstrating its technical and financial capabilities to create infrastructure in other countries. We are working now on the integration of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars and North-South transportation corridors. I believe that this is quite possible, and I am sure that in the future the North-West and South-West energy transportation routes will be put into operation. These two grandiose projects will unite many big countries. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars means the restoration of a part of the historical Silk Road. It can be used by China, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and European countries. The North-South transport corridor will unite India, Pakistan, Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia and European countries, said President Aliyev. He went on to say that Azerbaijan is an active participant of both projects and a country that invests its financial resources. In general, I can say that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the transportation sector, big investments have been put. From 2004 until today, 11,000 kilometers of highways have been built and six international airports have been commissioned in Azerbaijan. Today Azerbaijan has a very big fleet of cargo aircraft. There are about 20 big cargo planes in Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan has the biggest naval fleet in the Caspian Sea, said Ilham Aliyev. A fleet of 270 ships plays a special role in the organization of cargo transportation in the Caspian Sea. A big shipbuilding yard was built in Azerbaijan several years ago that manufactures all types of ships. The plant will carry out even more work in connection with the expected growth of cargo transportation in the Caspian Sea, noted the president. Of course, the International Sea Trade Port in Alat is an important part of Azerbaijans transport infrastructure, said President Aliyev. The construction of the port is continuing successfully and the port is already operating, he added. The first phase of the port is planned to be commissioned in the middle of the next year. After that, 15 million tons of cargo and 100,000 containers will annually pass through the port. As a result of completion of the second stage, the capacity of the Alat port will be 25 million tons of cargo and one million containers." "In other words, investments put in the transportation sector in recent years have already led to the creation of a very strong infrastructure, which is of great importance both for our country, for the region and the world, added the head of state. The Azerbaijani president once again noted that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is a historic and global project. This project will bring countries closer. This project will play its role in ensuring stability and security in the region. This project will expand our economic opportunities, and we will receive more funds. The implementation of this project became possible only thanks to the joint efforts of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. We have not received any help from anywhere, we have not taken loans, we built this railway with help of internal capabilities, and today we put it into operation, said the Azerbaijani president. Dear friends, I want to congratulate you once again on this remarkable historic event. I am confident that the path of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will always be open, concluded President Aliyev. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Elchin Mehdiyev Trend: The opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway is a historic event not only for the region but also for the world, member of the Azerbaijani parliament Aydin Mirzazade told Trend Oct. 30. He said that the railways opening radically changes the situation in the region. There will be closer ties between the countries; hundreds of thousands of jobs will be opened. Cargoes from China to Europe will be delivered faster, and at the same time, this project will strengthen peace and security, noted the MP. This railway could pass through Armenia, but the ongoing occupation of Azerbaijani lands by this country deprived Armenia of participation in this promising project, he said. Mirzazade added that the authority of Azerbaijan in the region has increased even more with the opening of this railway. Being the initiator of such big projects, Azerbaijan turns into a desired ally, added the MP. The official opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was held in Baku Oct.30. The BTK railway was constructed on the basis a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. The railways peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At an initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 Trend: Fourth-year Chemical Engineering student of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) Orkhan Alizada participated in events arranged by oikos, an international student-driven organization for sustainability in economics and management, in Switzerland. They were dedicated to celebration of 30th anniversary of the organization and was held during four days in St. Gallen bringing together about 100 members and guests from 42 cities around the world. Orkhan Alizada, a Program Developer and Project specialist of Human Resources department of oikos Baku, was a member of Azerbaijani delegation led by President of oikos Baku student organization Nurlan Jahangirli. In the words of Orkhan Alizada, FutureLab and Conference were the most remembered events arranged within the celebration. The FutureLab is a Learning Platform and Conference for oikos members, alumni, partners, faculty and stakeholders. The FutureLab2017 became not only a meeting to share perspectives on the future, but also a laboratory to design initiatives and engage oikos community in pursuing them. The oikos Conference, which is the oldest project of the organization Chapter in St. Gallen, gathered high-level speakers to share their expertise on Sustainable Investment. oikos International seeks to strengthen sustainability-oriented entrepreneurship among tomorrow's leaders and decision makers by sensitizing students of business and economics to sustainable development issues. Currently oikos International has 47 Local Chapters in 23 countries around the world, which collectively accredit it with an outreach of more than 50,000 students. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Azad Hasanli, Anvar Mammadov Trend: Azerbaijans Foreign Ministry is checking the number of the country's women and children who are in camps in Iraq, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told reporters in Baku. Not only the Foreign Ministry but also relevant services, including the Interior Ministry, are working on this, according to him. It is not that simple, there are many questions that should be reflected how these people got there, what they were engaged in, what is their fate. All this requires working with the Iraqi government. I assure you that our Embassy in Baghdad, our Consular Directorate and other services keep an eye on the matter. Currently about 100 people are on the list, but this is not specified. I think we will have a more updated data within a month, Mammadyarov said. Thousands of citizens of foreign states joined the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group in Iraq and Syria, and a large number of them have been detained. More than 300 of the detained foreign families in Iraq came from Turkey, many others came from former Soviet states, such as Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and Russia, Reuters earlier reported citing preliminary data from the Iraqi army. Previously, Iraqs Charge D'affaires to Azerbaijan Fadhil Awad Jebur AL-Shuwaili told reporters in Baku that the Iraqi government is holding talks with Azerbaijan on the fate of the Azerbaijani children being kept in Iraq. The diplomat reminded that one of the Azerbaijani children was brought home. Two Azerbaijani children, two-year-old Khadija and four-year-old Abdulla, were found in the Syrian territories retaken from IS. They were brought to Iraq by the security forces after these territories were freed. In September, head of the Azerbaijani State Security Service, Lieutenant-General Madat Guliyev said that about 900 Azerbaijanis have joined IS over the past five years. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Oct. 30 By Huseyn Hasanov Trend: Over 30 deals were registered last week at the trading of the State Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange of Turkmenistan, an article of Nebit-Gaz, an online newspaper of the countrys Oil and Gas Complex, said Oct. 30. Businessmen from Afghanistan for foreign currency purchased gasoline produced at the Turkmenbashi Oil Refineries Complex. In addition, a variety of colored terry products, metallurgical industry products, cotton yarn and cotton fiber were sold for foreign currency. The buyer countries included Russia, the UAE, Switzerland, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, etc. In total, deals worth over $41.468 million were registered at the trading of the State Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange of Turkmenistan. Businessmen from Russia, the UAE, Pakistan and a number of other countries purchased cotton yarn worth over 1.618 million Turkmen manats ($462,289 as of Oct. 30). Companies and organizations, citizens of Turkmenistan and other states can participate in exchange trading, through the purchase of a seat at the State Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange or conclusion of a service contract with brokers of the exchange. The main export items are oil products, cotton fiber, as well as products of the domestic textile and chemical industries. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.30 By Rufiz Hafizoglu Trend: Today, the first train will be launched on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is as strategically important for Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia as for the entire region, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with Trend, Azertac and APA. "With this we announce that a direct rail link has been established from London to China through the middle corridor," he added. Currently, the cargo shipping time from China to such European countries as Great Britain, France and Germany along the South corridor and the North corridor, including the maritime shipment, is approximately 45-62 days, said Erdogan. He pointed out that the same cargo will reach the EU countries within 12-15 days through the middle corridor with the launch of the BTK. "In other words, shipments sent by China to the EU, along with the BTK line, will reach the destination just in one fourth of the previous period," added Turkey's president. Currently, the volume of cargo transported from China to Europe is more than 240 million tons. If 10 percent of this volume is carried out via the middle corridor passing through the territory of our countries, then 24 million tons of additional cargo will be transported, he said. "Transportation of this cargo via the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway for 30-45 less days than via other corridors will be considered more profitable for transporters. I am convinced that the BTK will be enough to turn the Middle Corridor Transportation Line into an important part of the historical Silk Road with just this reason. At the same time, we believe that the transport projects that are being implemented in parallel in our region are complementary and reinforcing," said Erdogan. He pointed out that in addition to its economic advantages, Baku-Tbilisi-Kars will contribute to the development of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia globally by improving peace, security, stability and social well-being, providing the flow of goods and passengers along with information flow. The BTK railway was constructed on the basis a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. The railways peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At an initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Anvar Mammadov Trend: The National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support under the Azerbaijani Ministry of Economy has begun accepting investment projects on priority development areas in the Barda district, the Economy Ministry said Oct. 30. Following a business forum, the Fund considered it appropriate to start accepting proposals of entrepreneurs on financing of investment projects to create agricultural parks, intensive horticulture and livestock breeding farms, fruit and vegetable processing enterprises, a specialized green market and a hotel. Entrepreneurs can apply to the Fund through authorized credit organizations. Small projects can be fully financed through concessional loans at the request of entrepreneurs. The National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support was established in 1992. ($1 = 1.7002 AZN on Oct. 30) By PTI: saffron flags Lucknow, Oct 30 (PTI) Uttar Pradesh Navnirman Sena leader Amit Jani and his associate were arrested by the Special Task Force here today for allegedly outraging religious feelings by posting on WhatsApp a modified picture of the Taj Mahal with saffron flags atop its pinnacle and minarets. "Amit Jani and his associate Updesh Rana were arrested here by the STF, Agra, for posting a computer-generated picture of the Taj Mahal with seven saffron flags atop its pinnacle and minarets on a WhatsApp group," an STF official said here. advertisement Jani was earlier booked under IPC sections 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 295 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act in Agra. In the WhatsApp post, Jani appealed to all men associated with various Hindu organisations to gather at the seventeenth century Mughal monument on November 3, triggering panic and rumours in Agra. Following this, an FIR was registered against him. Jani was in jail for three months in 2012 for allegedly vandalising former chief minister Mayawatis statue in Lucknows Gomati Nagar area after the Samajwadi Party came to power that year. Janis actual name is Amit Agarwal and he is a native of Janikhurd village of Janikhurd block of Meerut district. PTI ABN SMI SMN SMN --- ENDS --- Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Azad Hasanli, Anvar Mammadov Trend: The meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran will be devoted to the development of the International North-South Transport Corridor, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told reporters in Baku Oct. 30. The first meeting, as you remember, was held in Baku, and now there will be a meeting in Tehran, Mammadyarov said. The sides express great interest in this issue. Azerbaijan even agrees to allocate a loan to Iran for the construction of the remaining section of the railway. Masoud Karbasian, Iranian minister of economic affairs and finance, new co-chairman of the Azerbaijan-Iran Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation, has recently visited Baku. As far as I know, the conditions for granting the loan were discussed in detail with our economy ministry. I think that all these issues will be also discussed at the meeting of the presidents. Mammadyarov noted that this project is of great interest not only for its participants, but also for such exporters as India or Vietnam. I didnt even know that Vietnams export potential is $204 billion, more than $42 billion of which account for export to Europe, Mammadyarov added. The International North-South Transport Corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia. It will serve as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. At the initial stage, it is planned to transport 5 million tons of cargo per year through the corridor and over 10 million tons of cargo in the future. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Azad Hasanli Trend: The opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is a significant project for the future of the region, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the official opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars rail line in Baku Oct. 30. He noted that the BTK railway will connect not only Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey but also Europe and Asia. Erdogan noted that today the volume of cargoes going from China to Europe exceeds 240 million tons. If, at least, 10 percent of this volume is carried via the middle corridor passing through the territory of our countries, then 24 million tons of additional cargo will be transported, he said. The Turkish president also thanked the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. The agreement to construct the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was signed in Tbilisi in 2007. A 504-kilometer part of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which has a length of 846 kilometers, passes through Azerbaijan. Meanwhile, a 263-kilometer part of the railway runs through Georgia, and a 79-kilometer part runs through Turkey. It is envisaged that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will transport 3-5 million tons of cargo in the third year of its operation, 6-8 million tons of cargo will be transported in the fifth year of its operation, and then 3 million passengers and 17 million tons of cargo will be annually transported via the railway. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is of global significance, connects two continents Europe and Asia and creates great social and economic benefits. Most importantly, the commissioning of the railway is a great contribution to stability in the region, closeness of peoples, and economic development. Details added (first version posted at 15:27) Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Ali Mustafayev Trend: The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway is of great importance for the full realization of transit, transport and logistics potential of the whole region, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev has said at the BTK railways official opening ceremony in Baku. Kazakhstan, located in the heart of Eurasia, is actively working to develop transcontinental transportation between Europe and Asia. We were first to support the implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. This decision was taken in 2006 by Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia with the support of Kazakhstan and China. The fact that such an important decision was taken in our capital, Astana, has a symbolic importance for us, he noted. The project forms optimal logistics and generates economic growth and trade in the region, according to Sagintayev. Kazakhstans task is to develop transit and transport capacity, and join the intercontinental Eurasian system as a "golden bridge". We are working hard to solve this task within implementation of the Nurly Zhol state program, he said. The Kazakh PM also noted that over the last nine years, investments in the development of the countrys transport and logistics system amounted to about $28 billion. We provided the shortest way for the freight flow from China, Central Asia and the Ural-Siberian region of Russia to enter the Trans Caspian Corridor. I am sure that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will give a significant impetus to the development of regional trade. It will create additional potential for economic growth. It is equally important that the corridor will be a factor ensuring stable and secure development of the entire South Caucasus region, he said. First container trains formed in Kazakhstan and China arrived today in Bakus Alat port from the Kazakh port of Kuryk, Sagintayev said, adding they will further be sent along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars route. In this regard, I want to congratulate all heads of state and participants of today's festive occasion on this historic event, he added. The opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was held today in Baku. The BTK railway was constructed on the basis a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. The railways peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. Details added (first version posted on 16:05) Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: The opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is the best example of successful implementation of joint strategic projects, said Georgian Prime Minister Georgi Kvirikashvili addressing the official opening ceremony of the BTK railway in Baku Oct. 30. He said that the participation of high-level officials from different countries in this ceremony indicates the special strategic importance of this project. I am sure that the new railway will change the existing economic realities and create new opportunities for development not only in our region but also beyond its borders, noted the prime minister. It can be noted that today the foundation of the new Eurasian bridge is being laid, said Kvirikashvili adding that the BTK railway will connect not only economies but also the peoples of the participating countries and will serve their wellbeing. Along with freight traffic, the BTK railway will serve one million passengers per year. The commissioning of the new railway will strengthen the transport and trade status of the region, added the Georgian prime minister. Kvirikashvili noted that after the commissioning of the new railway, infrastructure work will be carried out, new markets will be developed and the development of tourism and manufacturing will be provided, new jobs will be created, which is an important factor for the economic development of the region. The prime minister added that the Georgian side also wants to contribute to the implementation of the One Belt-One Road initiative. We want Georgia and the region to be fully integrated with the Trans-European transportation network and I am confident that the BTK will play a significant role in achieving this goal, said the prime minister. He noted that an international high-level forum on the Silk Road project will be held in Tbilisi on November 28-29. This is the second meeting in Georgia, he said adding that representatives of private and public sectors from more than 40 countries will participate in the event. The official opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway has been held today in Baku. The BTK railway was constructed on the basis a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. The railways peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Trend: The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will play a role in ensuring the stability and security in the region, said Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev Oct. 30. "Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is a historic project, a global project," Ilham Aliyev said at the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad official opening ceremony in Baku. "This project will make the countries closer to each other. This project will play its role in ensuring stability and security in the region. This project will increase our economic capabilities and we will get a lot of funds," he said. Ilham Aliyev stressed that the implementation of this project was possible only thanks to the joint efforts of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. "We have not received any help from anywhere, we have not received any loans, we have built this railroad at the expense of domestic opportunities and put it into operation today." Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.30 By Leman Zeynalova Trend: The opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway is a major step in transport interconnections linking the European Union, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Central Asia, EU said in a statement. The European Union welcomes the new rail corridor which, coupled with investments, improved infrastructure and logistics coordination will provide better connectivity, new business opportunities and increased trade. This is at the heart of its Eastern Partnership as well as of its Central Asia strategy, said the EU. The European Union has always supported projects aiming at improving connectivity with its neighbouring partner countries, according to the statement. With further improvements of transport links between Turkey and Bulgaria as well as between Azerbaijan and Central Asia, this project will provide fast and reliable land connection between Europe and Asia along the ancient Silk Route. We are also supporting the Southern Gas Corridor which will provide similar energy interconnection, said the EU. The BTK railway was constructed on the basis a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. The railways peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At an initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo. --- Follow the author on Twitter: @Lyaman_Zeyn Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Ali Mustafayev Trend: Kazakhstan has updated the registry of banned Kyrgyz companies. The bans list included Kyrgyz Shin-Line, Talas-Sut, Elimai, Ak-Sut and Tuuganbaev companies, the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan said in a message. Previously, on October 24, Kazakhstan returned more than 400 tons of fruit imported from Kyrgyzstan. Relations between the two neighboring Central Asian countries reached a point of escalation since the President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev accused his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev of supporting a presidential candidate from the Kyrgyz opposition, Omurbek Babanov, after a meeting between Babanov and Nazarbayev. However, Kazakh side dismissed the accusations, arguing that there was no special sympathy for any of the candidates. Newly elected President of Kyrgyzstan Sooronbay Jeenbekov stated that he will build a policy based on mutual respect with Kazakhstan. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 Trend: The construction of the International Sea Trade Port is continuing successfully and the first phase of the port is planned to be commissioned in the middle of the next year, said Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev addressing the opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway in Baku Oct. 30. The port is already operating, he said. After the commissioning of the port, 15 million tons of cargo and 100,000 containers will annually pass through this port, noted the president. As a result of completion of the second stage, the capacity of the Alat port will be 25 million tons of cargo and one million containers. In other words, investments put in the transportation sector in recent years have already led to the creation of a very strong infrastructure, which is of great importance both for our country, and for the region and the world, added the head of state. Azerbaijan has the biggest naval fleet in the Caspian Sea, said Ilham Aliyev. A fleet of 270 ships plays a special role in the organization of cargo transportation in the Caspian Sea. A big shipbuilding yard was built in Azerbaijan several years ago that manufactures all types of ships." The shipbuilding yard will carry out even more work in connection with the expected growth of cargo transportation in the Caspian Sea, noted the president. Details added (first version posted on 13:47) Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Azad Hasanli Trend: Azerbaijan has not received an invitation to the OPEC+ meeting, which will be held in Vienna on November 30, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov told Trend Oct. 30. The decision on the future of the agreement on reducing production by OPEC countries and partners, including Azerbaijan, will be made only in early 2018, although the issue will be discussed at the next meeting of the alliance on November 30. It should be reminded that in December 2016 in Vienna, 11 non-OPEC countries, including Azerbaijan, agreed to curtail oil output jointly by 558,000 barrels per day. The agreement was signed for the first half of 2017. On May 25, OPEC member countries and non-OPEC parties, Azerbaijan, Kingdom of Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Sultanate of Oman, the Russian Federation, Republic of Sudan, and the Republic of South Sudan agreed to extend the production adjustments for a further period of nine months, with effect from July 1, 2017. According to the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan, daily oil production in Azerbaijan amounted to 785,700 barrels in September, 733,000 barrels of which accounted for crude oil, and 52,700 barrels accounted for condensate. Meanwhile, 627,000 barrels of crude oil, 52,700 barrels of condensate and 19,300 barrels of oil products were exported per day. It should be noted that Azerbaijan produced 793,900 barrels of oil per day in January 2017, 776,400 barrels per day in February, 733,300 barrels per day in March, 781,100 barrels per day in April, 785,300 barrels per day in May, 793,700 barrels per day in June, 796,700 barrels per day in July, and 734,800 barrels per day in August. Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Oct. 30 By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend: Turkmen officials and Spains Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to Turkmenistan Ignacio Ibanez expressed the proposals on developing cooperation in several sectors, namely, energy, economy, transport and communications, during a meeting in Ashgabat, the Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a message Oct. 30. The Turkmen side updated Ibanez on holding the 28th Energy Charter Conference in Ashgabat in November, 2017, which, will serve as a platform for discussion of energy issues. According to the message, the important role of the summits was also stressed during the meeting. "The Spanish side stressed the importance of Turkmenistan's positive neutrality in ensuring peace in the region and expressed interest in participating in the Seventh Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA VII), to be held in Ashgabat on November 14-15, 2017," the message said. The European Union, including Spain, sees Turkmenistan as a source of diversification of energy supplies. Construction, energy, gas processing, as well as the creation of industrial, transport and social infrastructure were named as the promising spheres of the Turkmen-Spanish partnership. A look at all the schemes and documents that require mandatory linking with the 12-digit Aadhaar number. By Prabhash K Dutta: "Important Alert! As per Govt's directive, it is mandatory to link Aadhaar to your xxxx Mobile. To avoid disconnection of services on your number, please walk-in to the nearest xxxx Store today." Such messages have flooded mobile phone inboxes of subscribers, some of whom have approached the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is seized with several petitions challenging mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various welfare schemes and notifications to link it with mobile numbers and bank accounts. Meanwhile, the Centre has extended the date for Aadhaar linking for all schemes till March 31, 2018. advertisement Two deaths were reported recently from Jharkhand allegedly due to non-linking of Aadhaar with the PDS shops denying the deceased's family the quota of ration they were entitled to. Many complain of having lost subsidy benefits due to non-linking of Aadhaar with welfare schemes. WHAT DOCUMENTS MUST BE AADHAAR LINKED? As of now six documents need to be linked with 12-digit biometric Aadhaar number to keep the related services in operation. These documents are: Bank accounts PAN card Voter ID card LPG connection card Ration card Mobile number AADHAAR FOR FINANCIAL PURPOSES Having a bank account without enrolling with the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) is no longer possible. If a person does not have an Aadhaar card and opens a bank account, she will have to submit the 12-digit number within six months failing which her bank account will become non-operational. Any cash transaction over Rs 50,000 can't be made by a person, who does not have Aadhaar card. Besides the Permanent Account Number (PAN), a person filing tax returns needs to submit her Aadhaar number. Linking Aadhaar with PAN is also mandatory so that a person does not get away with multiple transactions of smaller amounts. The Supreme Court too has upheld the constitutional validity of the amended Income Tax Act, 1961 making linking of Aadhaar with PAN mandatory. The Supreme Court, though, ruled that those who didn't have Aadhaar number were not bound to comply with the provision. Enrolling for Aadhaar is, however, not mandatory under the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 - simply called the Aadhaar Act. AADHAAR FOR HEALTHCARE Under the National Health Mission, Aadhaar is a mandatory requirement to become a trained female community health activist, ASHA or Accredited Social Health Activist. Booking an online appointment with an AIIMS doctor is not possible without Aadhaar number. In Uttar Pradesh, the government has made it mandatory for patients or the attendant to produce Aadhaar for availing free ambulance service. Under the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP), Aadhaar is mandatory for treatment of tuberculosis. advertisement Aadhaar is mandatory for receiving training under Centre's Integrated Child Development Services. Staff involved with the Mid-Day scheme must be registered for Aadhaar. Women seeking benefits under the Janani Suraksha Yojana need to have Aadhaar. They can't claim financial support under the National Mission for Empowerment of Women without producing Aadhaar. The much publicised and acclaimed Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana for BPL women also requires Aadhaar card. AADHAAR FOR WELFARE SCHEMES Subsidies provided by the government can't be availed without Aadhaar linking by the beneficiary with the related schemes. To avail LPG subsidy, the gas connection holder needs to get the services Aadhaar linked through the service provider. The bank account, in which the subsidy is transferred under the direct benefit scheme should also be Aadhaar linked. The BPL and APL families seeking to receive subsidised foodgrains from ration shops are required to get their ration cards linked with Aadhaar. The enrolment with the UIDAI is mandatory for farmers seeking benefits under crop insurance, Soil Health Management and Soil Health Card schemes. Programmes like the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme, Deendayal Antyodya Yojana and National Rural Livelihoods Mission also require Aadhaar linking. The government has made Aadhaar mandatory for students seeking scholarships from the central government. advertisement It is also mandatory for disabled children of 6-14 years seeking benefits under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Even the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 are required to submit their Aadhaar details to receive due compensation from the government. --- ENDS --- Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Nigar Guliyeva - Trend: Tashkent will host next round of the Uzbek-Canadian political consultations. The Uzbek Foreign Ministry reported that the talks, which are the six in a row, will be held on October 30-31, 2017. A Canadian delegation headed by the General Director of the Bureau for Sub-Polar Regions, Eastern Europe and Eurasia of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Alison LeClair will arrive in Uzbekistan to attend the talks. The program of the visit also includes meetings at the Senate and the Legislative Chamber of the Uzbek parliament, the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the State Committee for Investments and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Uzbekistan. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Nigar Guliyeva - Trend: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a five-year senior local currency loan in Kazakh tenge, which will be equivalent to $ 11 million, to the major Kazakh food retailer Ramstore Kazakhstan LLP. The Bank reported that the loan will help Ramstore Kazakhstan LLP ,one of the largest players in the local market and fully owned by Migros Ticaret A.S. of Turkey, modernize and redevelop its flagship shopping mall in the Samal area of the countrys capital, Almaty. The new Ramstore multi-functional trade complex, which will open its doors in November, will showcase the latest architectural and retail trade solutions. The proceeds will also allow the retailer to implement expansion plans and facilitate store openings (Ramstore supermarkets, Macrocenter gourmet, Ramstore express supermarkets) and new trade centres across Kazakhstan. Head of EBRD Kazakhstan office Agris Preimanis noted that with the loan the Bank is promoting foreign investment in Kazakhstan, creating new jobs and facilitating access to better-quality food retail services across the country. "Providing our loan in local currency makes working with the EBRD even more attractive to Ramstore Kazakhstan LLP as we help the company to avoid exchange rate fluctuations," he said. To date, the EBRD has invested 7.3 billion in various sectors of Kazakhstans economy, with a focus on the non-oil and gas sectors, where it is the largest institutional investor. Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Oct. 30 By Diana Aliyeva Trend: Uzbekistan consumes an average of 51 billion cubic meters of water, of which 90 percent accounts for agriculture, 4 percent - public water consumption, a representative of the Uzbek Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources said during the recent workshop on water resources management in Tashkent. The workshop, organized by the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) and with the expert support of the Regional Environmental Center for Central Asia (CAREC), was financed by the European Union (EU). During the workshop, the participants got acquainted with the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). CAREC experts shared their experience in IWRM and successful river basin planning in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. A comparative table of the IWRM concept in the country was drawn up by specialists of a number of Uzbek state organizations. The workshop organizers stressed that at present, all Central Asian countries are implementing the principles of integrated water resources management. The introduction of IWRM is a very complex and long process but it is impossible to effectively manage water resources without it. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct.30 By Farhad Daneshvar Trend: A senior official with the Railways of the Islamic Republic of Iran (RAI) has said financing railway projects through public-private partnership, foreign direct investment and leasing are among methods to cooperate with foreign investors. Nourollah Beiranvand, the deputy for planning and investment at RAI encouraged foreign investors to participate in the countrys projects to develop its railway system, saying that Iranian government offers sovereign guarantee on foreign finances. Diversification of financial resources, using modern financial instruments, and luring foreign investment are among the main policies of the Railways of the Islamic Republic of Iran (RAI) to finance its projects, Nourollah Beiranvand told Trend. Beiranvand added that the railways organization has taken measures in order to launch a specialized leasing company to offer services to private firms involved in providing the railways organization with the required fleet. The allocation of loans in the leasing company will take place through the resources of the national development fund of Iran, he said. Calling on foreign investors to cooperate with Iranian railways in the issue of launching specialized leasing companies, Nourollah Beiranvand said that the RAI has already privatized its fleet of freight and passenger carriages. He added that about 30 percent of the locomotives of the country have also been handed over to the private sector. Saying that the RAI looks to maximize the role of the private sector in the issue of providing and utilizing railway fleet, he elaborated on the organizations plans to provide investors with economic incentives. The official highlighted that the RAI offers guaranteed purchase of services to those privet firms that have acquired locomotives. In the meantime, the railways organization facilitates the allocation process of banking loans to those private firms involved in the manufacturing of freight and passenger carriages. Another method to support investors is to cover the risks of currency fluctuation up to 10 percent, Berianvand mentioned. Beiranvand believes that luring investment through the countrys capital market is another way to extend support to private firms involved in supplying railways fleet. The official said that under the initiative his organization will take measures aimed at covering the risks of the private firms, drawing investment from the capital market. The RAI in order to develop the countrys railways system has introduced worth of 28 billion euro of investment projects expected to be completed within the next five years. Over the past year, the organization has finalized worth of three billion euro of investment agreements and it is currently in talks to cement more deals with foreign investors. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 28 By Fatih Karimov Trend: Iran will start crude oil export to Russia in the near future, the Islamic Republics deputy oil minister, Ali Kardor, said Oct. 28. He said that banking problems between the two countries have been settled and now opening of the LC is possible. Speaking to Official IRNA news agency, Kardor said that the sides are preparing to launch the export within the signed contract. He further said that Russia will pay half of the oil money in cash in euro and the other half in the form of goods and equipment. Earlier the two sides announced that a contract was finalized for export of 100,000 barrels of Irans oil to Russia on a daily basis. The arrangement dates back to 2014 when Iran tried to boost vital energy exports in the face of intensified Western sanctions. At the time, it was said that Moscow and Tehran were discussing a barter deal that would see Moscow buy up to 500,000 barrels a day (bpd) of Iranian oil in exchange for Russian equipment and goods. On August 18, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Iran can start within next month the deliveries of crude oil to Russia under the "oil-for-goods" program. Tehran, Iran, Oct. 30 By Mehdi Sepahvand Trend: An upcoming trilateral meeting in Tehran between Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia will provide a unique chance for the sides to discuss international affairs, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said. Besides international concerns, the three sides will also discuss regional issues as well as bilateral affairs among themselves, Qassemi told a press conference in Tehran October 30, Trend correspondent reported. Fighting terrorism and coordinating efforts to that end will also be on agenda during the Wednesday talks, the Iranian diplomat noted. Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev are slated to join talks with their Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani in Tehran this week. This will be the second trilateral meeting between the three leaders. Their first such meeting took place August 8, 2016 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Tehran, Iran, Oct. 30 By Mehdi Sepahvand Trend: The Islamic Republic of Iran has announced there will be some increase in the number of diplomatic exchanges with the United Kingdom in the near future. Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi made the announcement in a press conference October 30, Trend correspondent reported. The announcement comes about two years after Iran and the UK reopened their embassies, which itself followed four years of diplomatic shutdown. The Iranian Embassy in London and the British Embassy in Tehran were opened in August 2015. Mutual diplomatic ties had been cut off in November 2011 after hundreds of protesters surged onto two compounds of the British Embassy and caused some damage to property. The protesters raid of the embassy was allegedly caused by fury over anti-Iran sanctions. The reopening of the embassies came about a month after Iran and world powers reached a deal to end the sanctions in exchange for curbing Tehrans nuclear program. Over the coming months we will have some good exchanges between Tehran and London. The talks are being well organized between the two capital cities and will be carried out accordingly, Qassemi said. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 By Rufiz Hafizoglu - Trend: Baku today hosted opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, which was attended by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as other officials. Opening of the BTK railway, which is one of the most important transport corridors in the region, once again proves the power and potential of Azerbaijan. Today Azerbaijan is a leading country in the South Caucasus, and it also plays an important role in global energy policy. When in 2004 Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia offered to build the BTK railway, which will connect Europe and Asia, a number of countries did not believe in the possibility of this projects implementation. But thanks to the clear vision of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia, implementation of this project began in 2008. BTK is an illustrative example of how countries such as Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, unlike Armenia, can use their potential for the regional development. The Azerbaijan-Turkey alliance is not directed against anyone. The issue of Armenias using the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway has been discussed in the country lately. Commenting on this, Spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Hikmat Hajiyev said Azerbaijan has repeatedly stated that Armenia will be able to take advantage of regional integration after it withdraws its troops from the Azerbaijani territories it occupied. While Azerbaijan is developing and strengthening thanks to its economic policy, Armenia cannot abandon its aggressive policy directed against neighbors. Yerevans occupation policy pretty much backfires against Armenia, which is now completely isolated from all important regional projects. The most what Armenian authorities are capable of doing is distorting historical facts and thereby continuing to build their economy on the cultivation of "genocide. --- Rufiz Hafizoglu is the head of Trend Agency's Arabic news service, follow him on Twitter: @rhafizoglu Strong winds battered northern and central Europe on Sunday, killing at least seven people in Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, with authorities watching for oil leaks from a huge freighter that ran aground in the North Sea, the Guardian reports. Four victims in Poland and the Czech Republic were killed by falling trees. The storm also knocked out power to thousands of Czechs and Poles, and rail traffic in large parts of northern Germany remained suspended after heavy damage from fallen trees. Winds reached more than 100km/h (60 miles per hour) in several parts of the Czech Republic and topped out at 180km/h on Snezka, at 1,602 metres, the countrys highest mountain, Czech Television reported. The two victims in Germany included a 63-year-old German man who drowned at a campsite in Lower Saxony as a result of a storm surge, and a woman whose motorboat overturned in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, German media reported. A pre-dawn Taliban attack in northern Afghanistan has killed at least 13 government forces, Outlook Afghanistan reports. Officials reported the heavily armed insurgents raided a police outpost in the Khan Abad district of troubled Kunduz province. The district police chief, Hayatullah Amiri, confirmed the death toll to VOA, saying 14 police personnel were guarding the post at the time. One officer managed to escape, and the assailants took away weapons, ammunition and an armored military vehicle, Amiri added. The Taliban swiftly took credit for the attack, claiming ensuing clashes killed 17 Afghan police personnel, including their commander, and left an insurgent fighter dead. The Taliban said the insurgents also captured the security outpost. Taliban spokespeople often issue inflated battlefield gains. Sundays attack came a day after Afghan officials confirmed separate insurgent attacks in the eastern Ghazni province killed at least nine police personnel. Apart from demanding an inquiry and suspension of Medical Superintendent of Ahmedabad's Civil hospital where 18 infants died, Congress has demanded Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's resignation. By India Today Web Desk: After 18 newborn babies died at Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital over the last three days, Congress workers protested outside the hospital. Apart from demanding an inquiry and suspension of Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Congress has also demanded Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani's resignation. Congress said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah should be held accountable for infant deaths across the country. advertisement Of the total 18 deaths reported in the last three days, 9 took place on Saturday. Five of the newborns who died on Saturday were referred to Ahmedabad's Civil Hospital from other smaller facilities while four of the babies were born at the prestigious government-run hospital itself. Congress also demanded a court-monitored probe into the deaths of babies. Congress leader Jaiveer Shergill criticised Modi for "not even making a mention" of the incident in his monthly radio address Mann-ki-Baat, and accused him of being "insensitive" to the pain of the families of the deceased. "Does the prime minister not feel the pain of the deaths of these infants in his heart or does he not have any sympathy for the families of the victims? Instead of (expressing his) Mann ki Baat, the prime minister should have apologised to the people of this country, especially the families of the innocent infants, who lost their lives due to gross criminal negligence of the BJP-run administration," Shergill said in a statement. "The Congress demands that Modi, rather than indulging in PR exercises, should start addressing the real issues of the economy and do something to put an end to the dance of death going on in various BJP-ruled states," he added. --- ENDS --- Bahrain will not attend the upcoming GCC summit if Qatar does not change its stand, and the right step to preserve the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is to freeze Qatars membership, Bahrains foreign minister said on Twitter on Sunday, Reuters reported. Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa also said on his account on Twitter that if Qatar thinks that its current playing with time and evading will buy it time till the upcoming GCC summit, then its mistaken. If the situation remained as it is we wont attend this summit. He added the right step to preserve GCC is to freeze Qatars membership in the council... otherwise we are fine with its outing from the council. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have cut diplomatic, transport and trade ties with Qatar, the worlds top seller of liquefied natural gas, accusing it of financing terrorism. Doha denies the charges. US presidential adviser Jared Kushner conducted an unannounced visit to Saudi Arabia earlier in the week, Sputnik reported, citing Politico. According to the White House official, Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy Dina Powell and Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt also traveled with Kushner. "The Senior Advisor to the President [Kushner], the Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategy [Powell], and the Special Representative for International Negotiations [Greenblatt] recently returned from Saudi Arabia. The Senior Advisor has also been in frequent contact with officials from Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Jordan and Saudi Arabia," the official said. According to US media reports, the president's senior adviser and son in law traveled to Riyadh in an attempt to further the Trump administration's policy of reconciliation in the region, seeking to play a significant role in the Middle East peace process. However, the White House official did not specify who Kushner met with in Riyadh, noting only the diplomatic importance of the unannounced visit. Politico noted that this was Trump's advisor and son in law's third trip to the country this year. It was reported that Kushner returned to Washington on Saturday night. Norway will get its first three F-35 Lightning II fighter jets on Nov. 2, as long as the weather conditions allows the flying, public broadcaster NRK reported Monday, according to Xinhua. The three airplanes will be flown by US pilots, the report said. According to Major General Morten Klever, director of the combat aircraft program, the fighter jets are to land on the Orland Main Air Station at about two o'clock on Thursday and the official ceremony for the planes is planned for Nov. 10. The building for F-35 maintenance and an extended runway are ready for the first flight landing. In addition, the projects include the construction of camps for crew and officers and upgrades of infrastructure. The construction work on Orland air base will last until 2020 and has cost over 3.4 billion kroner (416 million US dollars). Additional 6.4 billion kroner will be invested in the development of the combat aircraft base, NRK wrote. "As a professional property actor we can say that the work on developing the Orland air station and combat aircraft base has meant a lot for the Defence Estates Agency as an organization," said Thorbjorn Thoresen, director of the agency. "We have developed by working on the task, and what we learn we take with us in the further work to build defense capabilities," he said. Norway is one of the international partner countries participating in the F-35 program. Norwegian defense officials have said the Nordic country is committed to the procurement of up to 52 F-35s. (1 US dollar = 8.16 kroner) Enditem Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 Trend: Turkey attaches great importance to maintaining political unity and territorial integrity of Iraq, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with Trend, Azertac and APA. The developments in northern Iraq are of interest not only for Kurds, but also Arabs, Turkomans and representatives of other nationalities. Let's not forget that Iraq is not a Kurdish, Arab or Turkoman state, and Kirkuk and Mosul are not homeland of Kurds, he said. Holding the referendum, the Kurdish autonomy of Iraq blatantly violated international law and the Iraqi Constitution. Despite Turkeys warnings, unfortunately, it chose a different path and held a referendum. By this, it endangered peace and stability not only in Iraq but also in the region. The statement lately made by the Kurdish administration shows that they realized their mistake. We would like them to promptly take steps meeting our expectations. We are ready for any cooperation with the Iraqi government in the context of putting an end to the PKK's [Kurdistan Workers Party] presence in Iraq. Those who mediate in the PKK terrorist organizations, which is trying to disturb public order and peace in Kirkuk, finding refuge in this region, are responsible for this. Turkey welcomed the Iraqi governments statement saying that the Iraqi army will return Kirkuk and will not turn a blind eye to PKKs actions, according to Erdogan. Turkey will stand with the Iraqi government to ensure sustainable peace and stability in the country. Our belief that it is possible to end the conflict in Syria only by political means is immutable. By the Astana meeting and Geneva negotiations, we will continue strong support for the transitional political process aimed at Syrias development, he noted. Turkey played a decisive role in reaching the agreement as guarantor of opposition in the discussion process on the issue of a conflict-free zone in the Syrian Idlib. We tried to take into account the opinions and approaches of various groups in the region. We carried out an operation in Idlib to achieve a ceasefire. By this operation, as well as the Euphrates Shield operation that had been conducted earlier, we will continue providing security in Idlib. This demonstrated that we can take any action against those who threaten our security. We will not allow establishment of a terrorist corridor on our southern border, and will continue to do everything possible to resolve the Syrian conflict by political means, the Turkish president added. Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 30 Trend: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu had a phone conversation Oct. 30 in which they confirmed intention to advance the inter-Syrian negotiation process, TASS reports citing Russias Foreign Ministry. The sides exchanged views on the situation in the Syrian settlement in the context of the 7th international meeting on Syria, being held in Astana Oct. 30-31. In this regard, they confirmed mutual intention to continue efforts, on multilateral platforms as well, in order to further advance the inter-Syrian negotiation process, the Foreign Ministry said. KYODO NEWS - Oct 29, 2017 - 22:05 | All A Japanese doctor is warning Vietnamese people considering traveling to Japan to work as vocational trainees to think twice, saying the system amounts to "slavery" and uses the country's positive image to take advantage of those who enroll. Junpei Yamamura, a doctor at Minatomachi Medical Center in Yokohama, near Tokyo, produced a 13-minute video in Vietnamese after visiting the Southeast Asian country between May and June to interview four people who returned home after having bad experiences in Japan's vocational trainee system. In the video, the interviewees, including a 24-year-old man who lost sight in his left eye after an accident while working at a construction site in Japan, spoke of the hardships experienced while working as trainees. The man said after the accident he was forced to leave Japan by the institution overseeing him and other Vietnamese trainees. He said there were inadequate procedures to allow him to make an insurance claim for his injury and he had to file for compensation again upon returning to Vietnam. Other episodes unveiled in the video include alleged cases of physical violence and nonpayment for overwork time. The video was uploaded to YouTube by the Lawyers Network For Foreign Workers, a group which has been working in collaboration with Yamamura in helping foreigners living in Japan. (Video created by Yamamura) According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, about 229,000 people were working as foreign vocational trainees in Japan as of the end of 2016. Vietnamese nationals accounted for the largest single group at 88,000, followed by Chinese at 81,000, Filipinos at 23,000 and Indonesians at 19,000. While the system of accepting foreigners at Japanese companies as vocational trainees was established with the aim of helping them acquire skills that they could use in developing their countries upon their return, there have been cases of Japanese companies abusing the system as a source of cheap labor. Yamamura said Japan should "accept foreigners as workers, not as vocational trainees." KYODO NEWS - Oct 30, 2017 - 22:00 | All, World Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte agreed Monday in Tokyo to work in close coordination to step up pressure on North Korea over its nuclear and ballistic missile development, but appeared to differ on the prospect of dialogue with the North. "We condemn these tests and call on all concerned stakeholders to return to the negotiating table to peacefully resolve the situation," Duterte said at a joint press appearance after his meeting with Abe, during which they also agreed on infrastructure, counterterrorism and public safety initiatives. Abe, meanwhile, said that he and Duterte had agreed to "cooperate to address common issues," including North Korea. The Japanese leader has repeatedly prioritized putting pressure on Pyongyang over engaging in talks, saying dialogue for dialogue's sake is meaningless. A Japanese government spokesman said afterward that Abe and Duterte shared an awareness of the threat posed by North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and affirmed the importance of the thorough implementation of relevant U.N. sanctions. With the Philippines set to host the Association of Southeast Asian Nations leaders' summit next month, Abe said Japan will provide "maximum support" for the success of the meeting. For Tokyo, a successful ASEAN summit would include commitments to making progress on territorial disputes in the South China Sea. The spokesman said Abe and Duterte "discussed" the issues of maritime security and freedom of navigation, including in the South China Sea, but declined to elaborate further. While Japan is not a claimant in the disputes between China, the Philippines and four other governments in the South China Sea, it worries about the impact of China's expansionary activities on crucial shipping lanes and faces a separate claim by Beijing to the Japanese-controlled Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. Although Abe and Duterte reached a limited consensus in public on regional issues, they were effusive about bilateral relations. Following the leaders' fourth sit-down meeting since Duterte took office in June last year, they released a joint statement detailing how they will spend the 1 trillion yen ($8.8 billion) over five years from Japan's public and private sectors that Abe pledged during his visit to the Philippines in January. Japan's assistance to the Philippines reflects the importance it places on maintaining bilateral ties as a counter to China's expanding regional influence, with Abe saying he and Duterte affirmed their cooperation toward a "free and open Indo-Pacific." According to the Japanese Foreign Ministry, Abe pledged up to 113.9 billion yen in yen loans for the first phase of the Manila subway project and a bypass road project in the capital, known for its traffic congestion. "(The plan) covers huge impact and high value infrastructure projects that my country needs to sustain and spur our economic growth," Duterte said. Abe also pledged further assistance for the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, where Duterte is from. The leaders' meeting came on the heels of the Philippine government's declaration of victory over militants inspired by the Islamic State extremist group after a five-month battle in Marawi, a city in Mindanao. "I express my heartfelt respect for President Duterte's leadership in light of the declaration of the liberation of Marawi, and will fully support his efforts from here on in the fight against terrorism and for Mindanao's stability and development," Abe said. According to the joint statement, Japan will initially provide equipment for reconstruction before considering further help in line with a survey of the area's needs to be conducted by the Philippine government. Japan will also support counterterrorism efforts to prevent extremist groups in the vein of IS from taking hold in Asia. Counterterrorism is a key factor for Japan in its planning for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The assistance announced Monday also includes the improvement of the Philippines' coastal surveillance capabilities to "ensure effective cooperation" of patrol vessels provided by Japan. According to the statement, the leaders also agreed that Japan will help prevent the use of illegal drugs in the Philippines and relapses by users under a medium- and long-term plan. This cooperation fits in with Duterte's war on drugs, which has drawn criticism from human rights advocates overseas. On Tuesday, Duterte will meet with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. According to a Japanese government source, the planned meeting initially raised concern among some in the Japanese government due to the Philippine president's past controversial remarks and behavior. New Delhi [India], October 30: Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Monday asserted that both the nations have strong economic relations, common interest and are fighting against terrorism, after receiving an official reception at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "We have strong economic relations and it's a great opportunity to make it stronger. We have common interests in the global arena. The reform programme going on in India is the great opportunity for Italian businesses community. We have good investments from Indian companies in Italy," the Italian Prime Minister said while talking to the media. Gentiloni added that both India and Italy are struggling against terrorism and we both are devoted to climate changes. "We both are committed to climate change and we share our interest in tackling with problems relating to migration, economy and trade and global relation. We have common goals which are the democracy. So, I am very happy to visit India. I hope that this visit will be a great opportunity to relaunch this relation and also my personal relations with Prime Minister Modi," he added. Prime Minister Gentiloni will meet up External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to exchange agreements and press statements. In addition official meetings, Gentiloni will also talk with Indian and Italian Chief Executive Officers (CEO)s. The hearing in the AIADMK symbol row has been postponed to November 1. (Photo: Reuters) By Shalini Lobo: The fight over the coveted AIADMK two-leaf symbol is far from over. What was expected to be the last hearing in the party symbol case before the Election Commission of India has been further extended with the body scheduling the next hearing for November 1. Both camps of the party have hired the finest lawyers and are engaged in a bitter stalemate. Former law minister Ashwini Kumar and senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi are fighting the case for camp TTV Dhinakaran and Sasikala Natrajan. Both Dhinakaran and Sasikala were ousted from the AIADMK. advertisement Representing Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edapaddi Palaniswami is Mukul Rohatgi, while CS Vaidyanathan is arguing the case on behalf of deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam. This was the fourth hearing in the two-leaf symbol case where the TTV Dhinakaran camp argued that the EPS and OPS faction have submitted forged affidavits and that the EC should take note of the same and cross-examine the affidavits. They also claimed that there are ten members from the General Council meet who have come forward and revealed that their signatures have been forged. "We have ten members of the AIADMK General Council who state that their signatures have been forged. We have asked the EC to speak to them as well," said Pugazhendi, AIADMK spokesperson, who is a TTV Dhinakaran loyalist. The OPS-EPS camp said they have proof that none of these affidavits were forged. "The general council meet was videographed. We are willing to give it to prove that no signature is fraudulent. This is nothing but a tactic to delay the hearing," said TN Fisheries Minister Jayakumar. However, Dhinakaran's advocate Raja Senthoor Pandian countered these claims stating that the video of the General Council meeting are only claims made by the ministers and that no one has seen the video yet. Earlier, OPS was the only one fighting against Sasikala and Dhinakaran for the two-leaf symbol. With the first hearing, Rohatgi argued on behalf of EPS to be made party to the symbol battle. Moreover, the two factions have two different headquarters in the national capital. The OPS loyalists house in AIADMK MP Dr V Maitreyen's Delhi residence, while the EPS factions have made the Tamil Nadu House their headquarters. But when questions regarding mistrust are raised, their answer remains that they are still ironing out the creases. ALSO WATCH | AIADMK leaders deny rumours of rift in EPS-OPS camp --- ENDS --- Basavala Vasu, a follower of former Andhra Pradesh MLA Tadipatri Venkata Rao's brother, was hacked to death outside a restaurant in a busy marketplace of Guntur city, even as onlookers stood as mute spectators. By Ashish Pandey: In a shocking case of apathy, a person was hacked to death outside a restaurant in a busy marketplace of Guntur city, while passers-by stood witness. The deceased has been identified as Basavala Vasu, a follower of former MLA Tadipatri Venkata Rao's brother. Vasu was stabbed 30 times with a machete by five men. The incident took place at 9:30 pm on Sunday night. advertisement Speaking to India Today, Guntur Urban SP Vijaya Rao said,"The victim had a criminal background and was wanted in several cases. He was killed around 9:30 pm on Sunday as he came out of an eatery. We will soon nab the culprits." The police has begun investigating the case. --- ENDS --- AkzoNobel, the world's leading paintmaker, owns brands such as Dulux and Trimetal (AFP Photo/Robin VAN LONKHUIJSEN) (ANP/AFP/File) The Hague (AFP) - Dutch chemical giant and the world's leading paintmaker AkzoNobel announced Monday that it is in merger talks with leading US rival, Axalta, which would bring together two multi-billion dollar companies. "In response to market speculation, AkzoNobel confirms today it is currently in constructive discussions regarding a merger of the AkzoNobel Paints & Coatings business with Axalta," the company said in a statement. "This will create a leading global paints and coatings company through a merger of equals," it added. Bloomberg News said Axalta is the world's leading maker of auto finish paints and "the deal would combine two companies with a market value of about $30 billion". In past months, AkzoNobel has been fighting a planned takeover by another US rival, Pittsburgh-based PPG which would have valued the Dutch company at 26.9 billion euros ($32.4 billion). It has rejected three multi-billion-euro takeover offers from PPG, sparking a bitter legal tussle with an activist investor Elliott Advisors which had pushed the tie-up. Formed in 1994 from the merger of the Dutch and Swedish firms Akzo and Nobel, AkzoNobel has a 46,000-strong workforce and works in 80 countries around the world. Last year, it reported 14.2 billion euros in revenue. But in April, under pressure due to the increasing hostile PPG bid, the Amsterdam-based maker of such household paints as Dulux and Trimetal announced plans to spin off its speciality chemicals business within 12 months. AzkoNobel said at the time that it also planned to make 150 million euros in savings through improving efficiency, with another 50 million euros savings from the separation of the chemicals division. - No definitive agreement yet - Axalta, which has more than 150 years experience, is based in Philadelphia and employs 13,300 people, with customers in over 130 countries. Last year, it had net sales of $4.1 billion. In a statement, Axalta confirmed it was "engaged in discussions" with AkzoNobel, but cautioned there were "no assurances that a definitive agreement ... will be reached or on what terms". Story continues It would only go ahead with the deal "if its board of directors determines that it is in the best interest of Axalta to do so". Markets analyst Laurence Alexander from US global investment bank Jeffries said a merger would be "a bold move with a good strategic fit that would also strive to maintain AkzoNobel's independence". But he cautioned in a note that negotiating with Axalta before the spin-off of the specialty chemicals division "adds complexity". The markets reacted coolly to the news of the possible tie-up Monday, with AkzoNobel shares falling 0.49 percent in early trade to 77.10 euros at 10:45 am (0945 GMT). The Dutch trade union CNV also said it would be seeking an explanation about the merger talks. "I would like to hear about what is happening here. As it is also not clear what are the consequences for its activities in the Netherlands," said CNV leader Arthur Bot, quoted by the Dutch news agency ANP. At an address in Pune, FTII Chairman Anupam Kher asked why can't people stand for 52 seconds for the national anthem when they easily wait in box-office lines for 20 minutes. By Pankaj P. Khelkar: Actor and FTII Chairman Anupam Kher, a known staunch supporter of the Modi government dove into the row of national anthem being played in movie theatres- while squarely defending the move. At an address in Pune, Kher asked why can't people stand for 52 seconds for the national anthem when they easily wait in box-office lines for 20 minutes. advertisement AWARD WAPASI On the issue of award wapasi seen as a mark of protest now, the actor narrated an anecdote from his school days. Kher explained how when he failed his 10th standard exams, his father still treated him at his favorite restaurant- reasoned to which his father replied that 'trying' is the most important thing in life. Concluding, he said that he is not afraid of award wapasi or those who threaten to do it. DUTY TOWARDS NATION Born in 1956 , Kher said that India is eight years older to him and so it is the duty of the younger brother to save the country. Kher was speaking at an award function, where he and Sayara Banu were presented with the Pramod Mahajan memorial award. --- ENDS --- Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW) manufactures and markets a variety of products that are used worldwide. The companys products are found in cars, wind turbines, deep-sea rigs, healthcare, aerospace technology, food equipment, mobile devices, and many other items that you use on a daily basis. ITW is a well-diversified company who has been a world leader in innovation for decades. The company generates just over 50% of their revenues in the United States, and has operations around the world. Recent Earnings Report Illinois Tool Works, who currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) announced earnings last Monday where they easily beat both the Zacks consensus earnings and revenue estimates. Moreover, management increased their FY 2017 EPS outlook by $0.25 (+16% year over year growth), and raised their 2017 revenue guidance by $100 million to $14.3 billion (+5.2% year over year growth). Overall, the company saw increasing revenues, improving margins, organic growth, and EPS expansion during their most recent quarterly report. Further, the overall outlook for global growth is improving faster than previously expected. This was reinforced when International Monetary Funds (IMF) increased growth expectations for both 2017 and 2018 (2017 was lifted by 0.1% to +3.6%, and 2018 was revised by +0.1% to +3.7%). This improved global economic outlook is very beneficial to ITW as it sells industrial products and equipment in 57 different countries. The company has beaten the Zacks consensus earnings and revenue estimates in 7 out of the last 8 quarters. Further, due to the strong quarterly performance and increased EPS guidance, analysts have positively revised their estimates for both 2017 and 2018. Management's Take According to E. Scott Santi, Chairman and CEO, "In the third quarter, the ITW team continued to execute at a high level and, as a result, delivered another quarter of strong financial results. I continue to be very pleased with our progress in positioning the company to leverage ITW's differentiated business model and high quality diversified business portfolio to deliver consistent top tier performance." Price and Earnings Consensus Chart ITW has been on a great run since the beginning of 2016, and is expected to see strong tailwinds through 2018. As you can see the annual earnings estimates have and continue to increase year over year. Story continues Illinois Tool Works Inc. Price and Consensus Illinois Tool Works Inc. Price and Consensus | Illinois Tool Works Inc. Quote Increasing Earnings Estimates Due to the strong earnings results and increased guidance earnings estimates for Q4 17, FY 17, and FY 18 have all see positive estimate revisions over the past 7 days; Q4 17 was lifted from $1.59 to $1.62, FY 17 jumped up from $6.48 to $6.70, and FY 18 was lifted from $7.11 to $7.15. Bottom Line This is a stable, high quality company that has consistently beaten both earnings and revenue estimates that pays a nice +2.01% dividend yield. Further, ITW is considered a dividend aristocrat (a company that has increased their annual dividend for at least 25 consecutive years), so this is a strong growth company with a solid dividend that should see a bump in the next 12 months as well. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Illinois Tool Works Inc. (ITW) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research By Drazen Jorgic and Oleg Vukmanovic ISLAMABAD/LONDON (Reuters) - Exxon Mobil has pulled out of a major project in Pakistan, in a potential blow to plans to boost imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) after years of winter shortages. Differences among the six-member group behind the project in Port Qasim in Karachi mean French oil major Total and Japan's Mitsubishi may also quit and join a rival scheme, government officials and industry sources told Reuters. A senior Pakistani government official put the chances of success for the project, set to be Pakistan's third and biggest by import capacity, at 10-20 percent due to the disagreements. A highly-developed pipeline grid, extensive industrial demand and the biggest natural gas-powered vehicle fleet in Asia after China and Iran make Pakistan an easy fit for LNG and official estimates show imports could jump fivefold to 30 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by 2022. The new project would include a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), where LNG will be converted back into gas for feeding into the country's grid. Qatar Petroleum, the world's biggest LNG producer, Turkish developer Global Energy Infrastructure Limited (GEIL) and Norway's Hoegh LNG, which will provide the FSRU, are the other partners. While Exxon has pulled out, the U.S. company was now negotiating to join a separate project, Hasil Bizenjo, Pakistan's Maritime Affairs minister in charge of ports, said. "They are thinking to build a new terminal in Port Qasim," Bizenjo told Reuters in the Pakistan capital Islamabad, adding that Mitsubishi and Total were also in talks about taking stakes in another consortium. Exxon was pulling out because it had "issues with partners", particularly the developer, GEIL, one energy official said. Exxon's move leaves in doubt a multi-billion dollar deal Qatar has already struck with GEIL for the sale of up to 2.3 million tonnes of LNG annually over 20-years. Exxon Mobil, Total and GEIL declined to comment, while a Mitsubishi spokesman said that the Japanese company has been continuing its talks with partners over the project. Story continues Qatar Petroleum did not respond to requests for comment. NEW INVESTORS? LNG imports have transformed Pakistan's energy map since the country's first import facility was introduced in 2015. If the second LNG terminal proceeds without glitches the South Asian nation will not suffer winter gas shortages for the first time in more than 10 years, energy officials say, in a likely boost for Prime Minister Shahid Abbasi's ruling party before the next general elections, due in mid-2018. Government officials and industry sources said talks are underway to bring new players into the project, including Swiss trading house Vitol, which declined to comment. Rival traders Trafigura and Gunvor are already developing LNG projects in Pakistan, betting the country will account for a rising share of future profits and LNG trade. Pakistan plans to add its second LNG import terminal by the end of this year, but private companies have proposed building six more largely around Port Qasim. (Reporting by Oleg Vukmanovic; Editing by Veronica Brown and Alexander Smith) Fomento Economico Mexicano S.A.B. de C.V. FMX, alias FEMSA, has been witnessing significant surge since reporting a robust third-quarter 2017 that marked a turnaround in the companys dismal earnings trend over the past few quarters. Notably, it reported a positive surprise after four consecutive bottom-line misses. Further, revenues topped estimates after two consecutive misses. Shares of FEMSA have jumped 2.5% since reporting earnings on Oct 26. Moreover, FEMSA outperformed the broader industry year to date. The stock rose 19.8%, surpassing the industry's gain of 11.1%. Q3 Insight Net majority income of $5 per ADS (Ps. 9.07 per FEMSA unit) in the third quarter was substantially ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.27. Fomento Economico Mexicano S.A.B. de C.V. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise Fomento Economico Mexicano S.A.B. de C.V. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise | Fomento Economico Mexicano S.A.B. de C.V. Quote Quarterly net consolidated income of the largest franchise bottler for The Coca-Cola Company KO increased significantly to Ps. 33,715 million (US$1,892 million) from Ps. 7,930 million (US$423.6 million) in the year-ago quarter. The increase can be attributed to atypical non-operating income generated from the sale of 5.24% interest in Heineken Group, the parent of Heineken NV HEINY. Results also benefited from financial gains at Coca-Cola FEMSA S.A.B. de C.V. KOF, a foreign exchange gain associated with the substantially higher U.S. dollar-denominated cash position at FEMSA resulting from the sale of Heineken shares. However, this was partly offset by depreciation of Mexican Peso in the last few days of the quarter. Total revenues advanced 14.3% year over year to Ps. 114,648 million (US$6,436 million), fueled by solid performance across all segments, taking into account the consolidation of the Philippines and Vonpars integration at Coca-Cola FEMSA. On an organic basis, total revenues increased 5.4% year over year. Moreover, the companys total revenues in dollar terms surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $6,359 million. FEMSAs gross profit grew 13.3% to Ps. 41,518 million (US$2,239.9 million). Gross margin contracted 30 basis points (bps) to 36.2% owing to growth of lower-margin businesses at FEMSA Comercio. FEMSAs operating income inched up 0.9% to Ps. 9,385 million (US$526.7 million). On an organic basis, operating income declined 5.9% due to fall at Coca-Cola FEMSA. Consolidated operating margin contracted 110 bps to 8.2%, mainly due to lower margins at Coca-Cola FEMSA. Additionally, margins were hurt by increased freight and labor expenses, consolidation of Coca-Cola FEMSAs results in the Philippines and margin contraction at FEMSA Comercios Retail division. Segmental Discussion Total revenues at Coca-Cola FEMSA were up 16.6% year over year to Ps. 49,363 million (US$2,770 million). On a comparable basis, revenues improved 3.9% on the back of a rise in average price per unit case in majority of the companys operations along with higher volumes in the Philippines and Argentina, partly negated by volume declines in the companys remaining operations. Coca-Cola FEMSAs operating income declined 2.8% to Ps. 5,487 million (US$307.9 million) in the quarter, while comparable operating income improved 3.3%. The segments reported operating margin contracted 220 bps to 11.1% mainly due to higher freight expenses, labor costs as well as diesel and gasoline prices. FEMSA Comercio Retail Division: Total revenues at this segment grew 11.9% year over year to Ps. 40,292 million (US$2,261 million). The rise can be mainly attributed to the opening of 225 net new OXXO stores in the quarter, which took the total net new store count in the past 12 months to 1,304. FEMSA Comercios Retail division had a total of 15,999 OXXO stores as of Sep 30, 2017. Same-store sales at OXXO increased 4.9% driven by a strong consumer trends, offset by the effects of natural disasters that impacted central and southern Mexico in September. Same-store sales also gained from 3.8% increase in average customer ticket and 1.1% rise in store traffic. Operating income rose 6.6% year over year to Ps. 3,267 million (US$183.3 million), with operating margin contracting 40 bps to 8.1% due to higher operating expenses. FEMSA Comercio Health Division: This segment reported total revenues of Ps. 11,395 million (US$639.5 million), up 1.8% year over year. The increase was backed by strong growth in South American business. The segment had a total of 2,178 point of sales across all regions, of which about 24 net new stores were added in the third quarter. Same-store sales for the drug stores rose 0.2% driven by soft growth trends in Chile and Mexico markets. Soft trends in Mexico were backed by weakness in southeastern markets as well as increased competition. Operating income amounted to Ps. 417 million (US$23.4 million), up 5.3% year over year. Operating margin expanded 20 bps to 3.7%. FEMSA Comercio Fuel Division: Total revenues were up 27.5% to Ps. 9,624 million (US$540 million) on the back of slight growth in number of stations and the improved national prices established at the start of the year. Same-station sales rose 16.2% year over year, driven by 18.2% rise in average revenue per liter, offset by a 1.7% decline in average volumes. The company had 397 OXXO GAS service stations as of Sep 30. Operating income rose 3.3% to Ps. 94 million (US$5.3 million), while operating margin contracted 20 bps to 1% driven by gross margin contraction partly neutralized by cost-control efforts and enhanced operating efficiency at its service stations. Financial Position FEMSA had cash balance of Ps. 101,139 million (US$5,557.1 million) as of Sep 30, 2017. Long-term debt was Ps. 113,121 million (US$6,215.4 million). Moreover, the company incurred capital expenditure of Ps. 6,139 million (US$344.5 million) in the third quarter due to increased investments in Coca-Cola FEMSA. Currently, FEMSA currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Zacks Best Private Investment Ideas While we are happy to share many articles like this on the website, our best recommendations and most in-depth research are not available to the public. Starting today, for the next month, you can follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time. Our experts cover all kinds of trades from value to momentum . . . from stocks under $10 to ETF and option moves . . . from stocks that corporate insiders are buying up to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises. You can even look inside exclusive portfolios that are normally closed to new investors. Click here for Zacks' private trades >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Heineken NV (HEINY) : Free Stock Analysis Report Fomento Economico Mexicano S.A.B. de C.V. (FMX) : Free Stock Analysis Report Coca-Cola Company (The) (KO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Coca Cola Femsa S.A.B. de C.V. (KOF) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. By PTI: (Eds: Adding details and management quotes) Mumbai, Oct 30 (PTI) Mortgage major HDFC today reported a 17 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 2,869 crore in the quarter to September on better spreads and higher advances growth. On a standalone basis, the lender reported a 15 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 2,101 crore helped by stable spreads and higher loan growth. advertisement "Profit was driven by stable spreads and larger volumes. Individual loan disbursements grew 23 per cent, which on a base as large as ours is a very substantial increase. Total loan book growth was 18 per cent," vice-chairman and chief executive Keki Mistry told reporters. The spread on the individual loan book was 1.90 per cent while the same on the non-individual book was much higher at 3.1 per cent, he said. "We expect our spread will remain in a band of 2.20 per cent to 2.35 per cent for the remaining part of the year," he said, adding that it will help to have net interest margins of 3.9 per cent. On an assets under management (AUM) basis, growth in the individual loan book was 16 per cent and the non- individual loan book was 24 per cent. The growth in the total loan book was 18 per cent. Individual loan disbursements grew by 23 per cent during the half-year, and total loan book grew to Rs 3,24,077 crore from Rs 2,75,406 crore. It sold individual loans amounting to Rs 3,530 crore in the quarter. Of this, Rs 3,165 crore were sold to HDFC Bank and Rs 365 crore to another bank. Gross non-performing loans stood at Rs 3,701 crore, which is equivalent to 1.14 per cent of the loan portfolio. Non-performing loans of the individual portfolio stood at 0.65 per cent while that of the non-individual portfolio stood at 2.18 per cent, he said. Provisions stood at Rs 3,235 crore as against regulatory requirement of Rs 2,500 crore. Capital adequacy ratio stood at 15.1 per cent, of which tier I capital was 12.6 per cent and tier II capital was 2.5 per cent. The scrip ended at Rs 1,705.50, up 0.44 per cent on the BSE, which closed at 33,266.16, up 0.33 per cent today. PTI HV BEN NRB --- ENDS --- By Sarah N. Lynch and Karen Freifeld WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal investigators probing Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election charged President Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort and another aide, Rick Gates, with money laundering on Monday. A third former Trump adviser, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty in early October to lying to the FBI, it was announced on Monday. It was a sharp escalation of U.S. Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller's five-month-old investigation into alleged Russian efforts to tilt the election in Trump's favour, and into potential collusion by Trump aides. Manafort, 68, a longtime Republican operative, and Gates were arraigned at a federal courthouse in Washington. Both men pleaded not guilty to the charges against them in a 12-count indictment, ranging from money laundering to acting as unregistered agents of Ukraine's former pro-Russian government. The judge ordered house arrest for both men and set a $10 million unsecured bond for Manafort and an unsecured bond for Gates at $5 million. With unsecured bonds, they are released without having to pay but will owe money if they fail to appear in court. There will be another hearing on Thursday. Mueller's investigation and others by congressional committees into alleged Russian efforts to influence the election have cast a shadow over the Republican president's first nine months in office. Neither Trump nor his campaign was mentioned in the indictment against the pair. The charges, some going back more than a decade, centre on Manafort's work for Ukraine. A White House spokeswoman said the indictment had nothing to do with Trump or his campaign and showed no evidence of collusion between the campaign and Russia. "We've been saying from Day One there's no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, and nothing in the indictment today changes that at all," spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told a news briefing. Story continues The charges against Manafort could put pressure on him to cooperate with Mueller's Russia investigation, said Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor in Chicago. If I were the defence lawyer Id be looking into cooperating, he said. GUILTY PLEA In a development directly related to Trump's 2016 election campaign, it emerged on Monday that Papadopoulos, a former campaign adviser, pleaded guilty earlier this month to making false statements to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents. Mueller's office said Papadopoulos had lied to FBI agents about the timing of contact between him and a professor in London who claimed to have information that would hurt Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos, a little-known former foreign policy adviser in the campaign, made a plea bargain which stated that he has since "met with the Government on numerous occasions to provide information and answer questions," according to a court document. White House spokeswoman Sanders played down Papadopoulos' campaign role, saying it was "extremely limited" and that he was a volunteer. "He asked to do things (and) he was basically pushed back or not responded to in any way," she told a news briefing. "Any actions that he took would have been on his own." U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia interfered in the election, by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit Clinton. Manafort ran the Trump campaign from June to August of 2016 before resigning amid reports he might have received millions of dollars in illegal payments from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. Trump on Monday reiterated his frustration with the Mueller probe, which he has called "a witch hunt." Moscow also denies the allegations. "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????," Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to Clinton. Mueller has been investigating Manaforts financial and real estate dealings and his prior work for a political group, the Party of Regions, which backed former pro-Kremlin Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. Both Manafort and Gates generated tens of millions of dollars of income from Ukraine work and laundered money through scores of U.S. and foreign entities to hide payments from U.S. authorities, the indictment said. They concealed from the United States their work and revenue as agents of Ukrainian political parties and used their wealth to lead a "lavish lifestyle" without paying taxes on the income, it says. Gates was a longtime business partner of Manafort and has ties to Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs. He also served as deputy to Manafort during his brief tenure as Trumps campaign chairman. Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer called for the Trump administration to avoid interfering with Mueller's probe. "The rule of law is paramount in America and the investigation must be allowed to proceed unimpeded. The president must not, under any circumstances, interfere with the special counsels work in any way," Schumer said. (Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch and Karen Freifeld; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey, Steve Holland and Mark Hosenball; Writing by Alistair Bell; Editing by Frances Kerry, Jonathan Oatis and Howard Goller) War-weary Iraq has notched huge strategic victories by routing ISIS from its strongholds across the country, yet also suffered a symbolic setback by a Kurdish independence referendum that revealed a deeply divided society. For Iraq, sectarian divisions and the battle against extremism work at cross purposes. As the country struggles to reconcile both dynamics, some market investors are encouraged about the country's upside. A June State Department report cited Iraq's "long-term potential" for foreign investment, given its vast oil reserves and massive reconstruction needs. Bolstered by a $5.4 billion financing agreement approved by the International Monetary Fund last year and a $1 billion tranche of debt guaranteed by the U.S., some investors say the country stands a solid chance of becoming a draw for international investors despite its many challenges."The almost unanimous international support for a unified Iraq should lead to financial support for its reconstruction and reinforces the argument made in the past," said Ahmed Tabaqchali, chief investment officer of Asia Frontier Capital's Iraq Fund."The realignment of interests of regional players in dealing with the root causes of the conflict namely the deep economic and political disenfranchisement that bred such fertile ground for the rise of extremism is one factor Iraq should focus on to dissuade further action on a split within the country."'Much more is needed'In the wake of Iraq's military victories, infrastructure rebuilding and a boost from oil will help propel the economy's recovery. Yet for the time being, the impediments are legion. Despite the huge military victory earlier this month in ISIS' so-called capital in Raqqa, Syria , many market observers are not convinced the sky's the limit for Iraq or for other besieged Middle East countries. "While the successful campaign against Islamic State is definitely a big positive, we do not believe that the victory in Raqqa is a key game-changer for Iraq," said Raphaele Auberty, a BMI Research risk analyst for the Middle East and Africa."It does point to a reduction of security risks in the region, but [ISIS] will continue to pose security threats through bombing attacks, and Iraq is still facing several other security challenges," Auberty added.Yet glimmers of hope are emerging, mainly in the country's battered oil sector. The rebound in oil prices is definitely positive for the Iraqi economy, Auberty explained, given the over-reliance of government revenues and exports on oil proceeds."Therefore, we see this as positive for investor sentiment, but much more is needed to see a spike in investment in non-oil sectors, given the lack of economic diversification," the analyst added.Political risk within Iraq has been and remains the biggest deterrent for potential investors. Even as the Iraqi Security Forces continue working to oust ISIS from the country, various political challenges remain, according to analysts. While BMI Research expects improved growth outside the oil sector, the firm also expects it to "remain modest over the coming years, therefore limiting specific opportunities for investors." Iraq's private sector ranks near the bottom on measurements of transparency and corruption. "Iraq will also be prone to ethnic and religious tensions, as highlighted by the recent referendum," Auberty told CNBC, an independence vote overwhelmingly approved by Kurds but opposed by Iraq's central government. "This, coupled with social instability means that we could see episodes of violence re-emerging across the country," Auberty added. Still, Iraq's investment profile has improved over the past year, amid rising oil prices and the financial lifeline from the IMF. The country is OPEC's second-largest producer, pumping more than 4 million barrels per day. Separately, global ratings agency Fitch Ratings upgraded the country's outlook from negative to stable in March, enabling the government to tap international debt markets in August. According to BMI, companies that are benefiting from support from their governments are the most likely to get involved in the rebuilding of Iraq. The United Kingdom, for example, has offered loans worth at least 10 billion British pounds ($13 billion) for the reconstruction process, with British construction companies set to benefit from these contracts. Garbis Iradian, chief Mideast/North Africa economist of the Institute of International Finance, said the tension between the central government and the Kurds' regional leadership in northern Iraq is unlikely to escalate or lead to a war.Both parties, pressured by the U.S. and the EU, may eventually strike a deal on "limited independence," he said. This should keep regional tensions high, with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi authorized by parliament to send government troops to the flashpoint city of Kirkuk."Even if the Iraqi government gets bogged down in conflict with Kurds, the negative economic implications, particularly on investment, will be more than offset by the rout of ISIS," Iradian said."The impulse from the "end of war with ISIS" or their defeat, will attract significant foreign investment to the energy sector in Iraq. Most sectors of the Iraqi economy are expected to benefit, including the energy, mining and the financial sector," the economist added. War-weary Iraq has notched huge strategic victories by routing ISIS from its strongholds across the country, yet also suffered a symbolic setback by a Kurdish independence referendum that revealed a deeply divided society. For Iraq, sectarian divisions and the battle against extremism work at cross purposes. As the country struggles to reconcile both dynamics, some market investors are encouraged about the country's upside. A June State Department report cited Iraq's "long-term potential" for foreign investment, given its vast oil reserves and massive reconstruction needs. Bolstered by a $5.4 billion financing agreement approved by the International Monetary Fund last year and a $1 billion tranche of debt guaranteed by the U.S., some investors say the country stands a solid chance of becoming a draw for international investors despite its many challenges. "The almost unanimous international support for a unified Iraq should lead to financial support for its reconstruction and reinforces the argument made in the past," said Ahmed Tabaqchali, chief investment officer of Asia Frontier Capital's Iraq Fund. "The realignment of interests of regional players in dealing with the root causes of the conflict namely the deep economic and political disenfranchisement that bred such fertile ground for the rise of extremism is one factor Iraq should focus on to dissuade further action on a split within the country." 'Much more is needed' In the wake of Iraq's military victories, infrastructure rebuilding and a boost from oil will help propel the economy's recovery. Yet for the time being, the impediments are legion. Despite the huge military victory earlier this month in ISIS' so-called capital in Raqqa, Syria , many market observers are not convinced the sky's the limit for Iraq or for other besieged Middle East countries. "While the successful campaign against Islamic State is definitely a big positive, we do not believe that the victory in Raqqa is a key game-changer for Iraq," said Raphaele Auberty, a BMI Research risk analyst for the Middle East and Africa. "It does point to a reduction of security risks in the region, but [ISIS] will continue to pose security threats through bombing attacks, and Iraq is still facing several other security challenges," Auberty added. Yet glimmers of hope are emerging, mainly in the country's battered oil sector. The rebound in oil prices is definitely positive for the Iraqi economy, Auberty explained, given the over-reliance of government revenues and exports on oil proceeds. "Therefore, we see this as positive for investor sentiment, but much more is needed to see a spike in investment in non-oil sectors, given the lack of economic diversification," the analyst added. Political risk within Iraq has been and remains the biggest deterrent for potential investors. Even as the Iraqi Security Forces continue working to oust ISIS from the country, various political challenges remain, according to analysts. While BMI Research expects improved growth outside the oil sector, the firm also expects it to "remain modest over the coming years, therefore limiting specific opportunities for investors." Iraq's private sector ranks near the bottom on measurements of transparency and corruption. "Iraq will also be prone to ethnic and religious tensions, as highlighted by the recent referendum," Auberty told CNBC, an independence vote overwhelmingly approved by Kurds but opposed by Iraq's central government. "This, coupled with social instability means that we could see episodes of violence re-emerging across the country," Auberty added. Still, Iraq's investment profile has improved over the past year, amid rising oil prices and the financial lifeline from the IMF. The country is OPEC's second-largest producer, pumping more than 4 million barrels per day. Separately, global ratings agency Fitch Ratings upgraded the country's outlook from negative to stable in March, enabling the government to tap international debt markets in August. According to BMI, companies that are benefiting from support from their governments are the most likely to get involved in the rebuilding of Iraq. The United Kingdom, for example, has offered loans worth at least 10 billion British pounds ($13 billion) for the reconstruction process, with British construction companies set to benefit from these contracts. Garbis Iradian, chief Mideast/North Africa economist of the Institute of International Finance, said the tension between the central government and the Kurds' regional leadership in northern Iraq is unlikely to escalate or lead to a war. Both parties, pressured by the U.S. and the EU, may eventually strike a deal on "limited independence," he said. This should keep regional tensions high, with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi authorized by parliament to send government troops to the flashpoint city of Kirkuk. "Even if the Iraqi government gets bogged down in conflict with Kurds, the negative economic implications, particularly on investment, will be more than offset by the rout of ISIS," Iradian said. "The impulse from the "end of war with ISIS" or their defeat, will attract significant foreign investment to the energy sector in Iraq. Most sectors of the Iraqi economy are expected to benefit, including the energy, mining and the financial sector," the economist added. More From CNBC Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp has accused Hollywood star Kevin Spacey of making a forceful sexual advance on him more than three decades ago, when Spacey was 26 and Rapp was just 14. In responding to the accusation, Spacey came out as gay, drawing a massive backlash from critics who questioned the timing of his announcement and saw his reply as conflating homosexuality and alleged pedophilia. In a Buzzfeed interview published Monday morning, Rapp said that Spacey invited him to a party at his apartment in 1986, when both were acting on Broadway. When everyone else had gone home, Rapp said, the older actor put the boy on his bed and climbed on top of him. He was trying to seduce me, Rapp told the publication. I was aware that he was trying to get with me sexually. Rapp said he managed to squirm away. Over the subsequent years, he said, he watched with outrage as Spaceys career blossomed. Spacey quickly responded to the article with a statement on his Twitter feed, in which he wrote: I honestly do not remember the encounterBut if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carrier with him all these years. Some responded angrily to the supposed implication that Spaceys drunkenness may have excused his behavior. However, it is the second part of Spaceys statement that arguably drew the biggest backlash. In it, Spacey came out as gay, saying: I want to deal with this openly and that starts with examining my own behavior. Spaceys sexuality has long been something of an open secret. When confronted about it in 2010 by an interviewer who is himself gay, and who asked why Spacey did not proudly claim his sexuality, Spacey said: People have different reasons for the way they live their livesIts just a line Ive never crossed and never willYou have to understand that people who choose not to discuss their personal lives are not living a lie. Story continues When he hosted the Tony Awards earlier this year, Spacey repeatedly poked fun at the is-he-isnt-he issue, but never definitively said that he was gay. So when on Monday Spacey finally did officially come out in response to the accusation, many people responded furiously. For a famous person to deflect these allegations with a long-in-the-making coming out is so cruel to his supposed new community it stings, tweeted Vanity Fair film critic Richard Lawson. How dare you implicate us all in this? How dare you implicate us all in this Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 30, 2017 The distance we've had to walk to get away from the notion that we're all pedophiles is significant. Richard Lawson (@rilaws) October 30, 2017 Nope to Kevin Spacey's statement. Nope. There's no amount of drunk or closeted that excuses or explains away assaulting a 14-year-old child. Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) October 30, 2017 No no no no no! You do not get to choose to hide under the rainbow! Kick rocks! https://t.co/xJDGAxDjxz Official Wanda Sykes (@iamwandasykes) October 30, 2017 Some news outlets also came under fire for leading their stories on the incident with Spaceys coming-out, rather than with Rapps allegations. Reuters, for example, initially titled its story, Actor Kevin Spacey declares he lives life as a gay man, before updating it to read: Kevin Spacey apologizes after actor says he was subjected to sexual advance when only 14. Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey declares he lives life as a gay man https://t.co/ibimYFfzt7 pic.twitter.com/Zmt0QQJKT0 Reuters Top News (@Reuters) October 30, 2017 The fact that major news media would let Kevin Spacey conflate homosexuality & pedophilia proves how disingenuous and dishonest they all are Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) October 30, 2017 The episode comes as many Hollywood players are being exposed for their sexual misconduct, most notably the producer Harvey Weinstein. Although he has a very longstanding career on stage and in film, Rapp is currently best known for playing the first openly gay character in a Star Trek show or movie. He plays lieutenant Paul Stamets on the recently-launched Star Trek: Discovery. [caption id="attachment_2810" align="alignnone" width="620"] Paul Manafort Former Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort leaves his home in Alexandria, Virginia, Monday, Oct. 30, 2017, in Washington. Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, were indicted on Monday. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)[/caption] For lawyers at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, one paragraph undoubtedly stood out in Mondays blockbuster 31-page indictment of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and his protege Rick Gates. In paragraph 22, prosecutors allege that Manafort and Gates used offshore accounts to pay $4 million for a government-commissioned report about the trial of former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The indictment doesn't include the law firm's name, but Skadden has previously been identified as the firm that produced the report, which critics have described as justifying the jailing of Tymoshenko by her political rival and Manaforts then-client, former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. The New York Times reported last month that Skadden's work was one part of Manaforts strategy to shield Yanukovych from international condemnation. And the indictment's reference to the Tymoshenko report and Skadden didn't go unnoticed on Twitter on Monday. Skadden Arps, huge DC law firm, could face hard questions given news that it appears to have secretly taken $4 mil from Manafort pic.twitter.com/iekmFt59F2 Sarah Westwood (@sarahcwestwood) October 30, 2017 A spokeswoman for Skadden did not return a call for this story. In a statement to the Times in September, Skadden said it was retained by Ukraines Ministry of Justice as an independent consultant on the rule of law, to write a report about whether the prosecution, trial, conviction and sentencing of Tymoshenko applied Western standards of due process. Skadden also defended its report, saying it concluded that Tymoshenko was denied basic rights under Western legal standards and that, in the West, she would receive a new trial. Jim Slattery, strategic counsel at Washington, D.C.-based Wiley Rein, who worked in Washington to secure the release of Tymoshenko in Ukraine, acknowledged that work by Skadden and others tied to Manafort has now turned toxic. "I dont like to pile on people when they are down, but all of these people probably wish [they'd] never touched these things." Slattery noted that news accounts identified Tony Podesta, the founder of the Podesta Group whose firm had also worked on the Yanukovych lobbying spearheaded by Manafort, was under investigation too and had stepped down from his firm Monday. The Skadden connection in the Manafort indictment has an upside for President Donald Trump boosters in a bad day generally for his administration, because it also points to ties between Manafort and the Obama administration. According to the Times, Ukrainian prosecutors have requested that the U.S. Department of Justice question Manafort and a Skadden lawyer involved in the Tymoshenko report, Gregory Craig, who had served as President Barack Obamas White House counsel. Craig did not respond to a request for comment. By PTI: Mumbai, Oct 28 (PTI) Terming tax-paying as a "patriotic duty", Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today said given our aspiration to be a dominant player on the world stage, we cannot afford to be a place where the shadow economy is bigger than the real economy. "You cant have an economy where the size of the shadow economy is much bigger than the apparent economy itself," Jaitley said here this evening. advertisement Without naming the note-ban and GST rollout, both of which have slowed down the economic engine, he said the process of making a cleaner economy is set in motion to achieve the aspirations like being a developed economy and the fastest growing among major economies of the world. While addressing an ET awards function here, he said government has been taking steps "one by one" towards this direction and some impact is already visible like an enlarged tax base, jump in digital transactions and squeezing out cash from the economy. Conceding that there will be some "noise and grievances" because of the implementation of tax reforms like GST, he said paying taxes is essential. "Paying taxes is always a fundamental duty of every citizen. Its a patriotic duty to be a part of that structure, rather than outside the structure. It is only then that the implementation will really show its larger, longer-term impacts," he said. It can be noted that the note-ban and the hasty rollout of GST are the main reasons for the sluggish growth, with the GDP growth falling for sixth straight quarters to 5.6 per cent in the June quarter. Without mentioning any specific criticism, he asserted that tax rates in the country are the lowest in the world and added that this will help the agenda of widening the tax base. On direct taxes side, he said government has reduced them in such a way where the lowest tax slab is 5 per cent, while on the indirect tax side, it is as low as 1 per cent. It can be noted that the Tamil film Mersal which is in controversy right now for criticising GST and note ban, has a mention of the 7 per cent GST in Singapore. He said the process of structural reforms has a long way to go and added that government has grabbed a lot of low hanging fruits, like increasing FDI caps in multiple sectors. Terming the introduction of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code as a "belated reform" he expected the measure to bear fruits going forward. Claiming that government is "extremely transparent" when it comes to banking matters he said he wants a system which shows the true health of the system. advertisement "Our banks have lent excessively. And while we were lending excessively, we were through the various restructuring processes of evergreening those loans. Till 2015, nobody knew what the real picture was. The real picture was hidden below carpet. No economy can really survive if the main source of finance is in such non-transparent position itself," he said. He hoped that global investors will appreciate the Rs 2.11 trillion fund infusion into state-run banks. PTI AA BEN RMT --- ENDS --- A federal judge on Monday ordered former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to be placed under house arrest after Manafort's plea of "not guilty" in response to a 12-count indictment in federal court related to money laundering and foreign lobbying contracts. Manafort's longtime associate Rick Gates was also indicted on identical charges, which stem from special counsel Robert Mueller 's ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Calling both defendants a flight risk because of their connections to foreign governments, a federal judge also required that they surrender their passports and that Manafort post a $10 million bond. Gates' bond was set at $5 million.Manafort and Gates stand accused of conspiring to conceal tens of millions of dollars in undisclosed payments for lobbying work they performed on behalf of a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. The bulk of this lobbying work occurred between 2012 and 2014, two years before Manafort joined the Trump campaign.Following Manafort's appearance Monday in federal court in Washington, his lawyer, Kevin Downing, spoke to reporters outside the courthouse, where he called the charges against his client "ridiculous.""There is no evidence that Mr. Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government," said Downing, adding that the goal of Manafort's work on behalf of a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine was to "further democracy and help Ukraine come closer to the United States and Europe."Downing said that Manafort would address the charges Tuesday.A spokesman for Gates said earlier that his client looks forward to fighting the charges against him.Manafort and Gates are both due back in court on Thursday, before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Here's the statement from Manafort's attorney: "President Donald Trump was correct. There is no evidence the Trump Campaign colluded with the Russia government.Mr. Manafort represented pro-European Union campaigns for the Ukrainians and in the course of that representation he was seeking to further democracy and to help the Ukrainians come closer to the United States and to the EU. Those activities ended in 2014, two years before Mr Manafort served in the Trump Campaign.Today you see an indictment brought by the Office of Special Counsel that is using a very novel theory to prosecute Mr. Manafort regarding a FARA filing. The United States government has only used that offense six times since 1966 and only resulted in one conviction.The second thing about this indictment that I, myself, find most ridiculous is a claim that maintaining offshore accounts to bring all your funds into the United States, as a scheme to conceal from the United States government, is ridiculous.Thank you." A federal judge on Monday ordered former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to be placed under house arrest after Manafort's plea of "not guilty" in response to a 12-count indictment in federal court related to money laundering and foreign lobbying contracts. Manafort's longtime associate Rick Gates was also indicted on identical charges, which stem from special counsel Robert Mueller 's ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Calling both defendants a flight risk because of their connections to foreign governments, a federal judge also required that they surrender their passports and that Manafort post a $10 million bond. Gates' bond was set at $5 million. Manafort and Gates stand accused of conspiring to conceal tens of millions of dollars in undisclosed payments for lobbying work they performed on behalf of a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. The bulk of this lobbying work occurred between 2012 and 2014, two years before Manafort joined the Trump campaign. Following Manafort's appearance Monday in federal court in Washington, his lawyer, Kevin Downing, spoke to reporters outside the courthouse, where he called the charges against his client "ridiculous." "There is no evidence that Mr. Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government," said Downing, adding that the goal of Manafort's work on behalf of a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine was to "further democracy and help Ukraine come closer to the United States and Europe." Downing said that Manafort would address the charges Tuesday. A spokesman for Gates said earlier that his client looks forward to fighting the charges against him. Manafort and Gates are both due back in court on Thursday, before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Here's the statement from Manafort's attorney: "President Donald Trump was correct. There is no evidence the Trump Campaign colluded with the Russia government. Mr. Manafort represented pro-European Union campaigns for the Ukrainians and in the course of that representation he was seeking to further democracy and to help the Ukrainians come closer to the United States and to the EU. Those activities ended in 2014, two years before Mr Manafort served in the Trump Campaign. Today you see an indictment brought by the Office of Special Counsel that is using a very novel theory to prosecute Mr. Manafort regarding a FARA filing. The United States government has only used that offense six times since 1966 and only resulted in one conviction. The second thing about this indictment that I, myself, find most ridiculous is a claim that maintaining offshore accounts to bring all your funds into the United States, as a scheme to conceal from the United States government, is ridiculous. Thank you." More From CNBC Kobe Steel's logo is seen in Moka Kobe Steel's logo is seen in Moka, Japan October 24, 2017. Picture taken October 24, 2017. REUTERS/Minami Funakoshi By Taro Fuse and Yuka Obayashi TOKYO (Reuters) - Kobe Steel Ltd is seeking 50 billion yen ($440 million) in loans from banks, a banking source said on Monday, while a shareholder said it was ready to offer support as the company grapples with a scandal over falsified product specifications. Japan's third-largest steelmaker also pulled its forecast for a first annual profit in three years as it deals with the financial impact of one of Japan's biggest corporate scandals. Kobe Steel is losing customers and said on Friday it had a government-sanctioned seal of quality revoked on some of its products. The steelmaker's admission this month that it had found widespread tampering in specifications has sent companies in global supply chains scrambling to check whether the safety or performance of their products has been compromised. While no safety issues have been identified, Kobe Steel's parts and materials are used across the world in cars, trains, aircraft and nuclear plants. The company, which has said it cannot fully quantify the impact on its finances from the scandal, is seeking loans from Mizuho Bank and other lenders, a banker with direct knowledge of the situation told Reuters, requesting anonymity because the discussions are not public. The Nikkei business daily reported that Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ are considering loans to the steelmaker. Kobe Steel Managing Executive Officer Kazuaki Kawahara confirmed at an earnings briefing later on Monday that the company was in loan talks with its main banks and other lenders, without providing further details. Executive Vice President Naoto Umehara said that Kobe Steel will continue generating cash on its own to cover expenses stemming from the data falsification scandal as well as for capital investment. He said the misconduct would likely reduce its recurring profit by 10 billion yen in the full 2017/18 financial year. The company cut its forecast for recurring profit in the year by 5 billion yen to 50 billion yen. Story continues Umehara said the 10 billion yen covers costs for slower production, disposal of products that do not meet specifications and reduced orders as customers switch suppliers. "We understand our customers are taking a harsh view of the data fabrication," Umehara said. "We cannot tell how much the cost will be but expect to see more impact as time goes by." There are still more questions than answers, said Mitsushige Akino, executive officer at Ichiyoshi Asset Management, with unresolved issues including confirming the safety of all products and establishing what went wrong. "The company must show how it will change," he said. Kobe Steel said on Thursday that 88 out of 525 affected customers had yet to confirm its products were safe in the light of widespread tampering of specifications, but that it had not received any requests for recalls. The company is due to file a detailed report to Japan's industry ministry on the cheating and its measures to avoid any reoccurrence within about two weeks. Japan's biggest steelmaker, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp said on Monday it will provide support to its smaller rival if requested. Nippon Steel has a 2.95 percent stake in Kobe Steel. "We will consider and respond if we receive any requests from Kobe Steel for help," Nippon Steel President Kosei Shindo told a news conference, adding that his company has not received any such request. Kobe Steel has a 0.71 percent stake in Nippon Steel and the companies have an alliance that involves cooperating on steel supplies during shortages or maintenance of factories. However, Kobe Steel's Umehara said there were no plans to seek support from Nippon Steel. Kobe Steel repaid a 20 billion yen bond that came due on Friday, a spokesman said on Monday. But it cancelled plans to pay a dividend on its first-half results. The company said it had net profit of nearly 40 billion yen in the April to September period. The results do not include any financial impact from the scandal. Kobe Steel in July had forecast a net profit of 35 billion yen for the year to March 31, after two years of losses. Kobe Steel shares rose 2.2 percent on Monday, while the Nikkei 225 fell 0.1 percent. Kobe Steel's market value has slumped by about $1.5 billion since announcing in early October that it had found widespread tampering of product specifications in its aluminium and copper business. The cheating has since been found across its businesses. ($1 = 113.5800 yen) (Additional reporting by Sam Nussey; writing by Aaron Sheldrick; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Jason Neely) FILE - In this July 17, 2016 file photo, then- Donald Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort talks to reporters on the floor of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Manafort will register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for lobbying work he did on behalf of Ukraine, led at the time by a pro-Russian political party, his spokesman said Wednesday, April 12. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman for President Donald Trump, and a former business associate were indicted on 12 counts by a federal grand jury on Monday. According to the Special Counsels Office, the indictment includes: Conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Manafort and Gates, who acted as unregistered agents of Ukraines government between at least 2006 and 2015, generated tens of millions of dollars in income from their work in the European country, according to the indictment. It also said the two hid Ukraine payments from authorities in the U.S. from approximately 2006 through at least 2016 by laundering money through scores of U.S. and foreign bank accounts, corporations and partnerships. More than $75,000,000 flowed through the offshore accounts, with Manafort laundering more than $18,000,000 used to buy property, goods and services in the U.S., while hiding the income from the U.S. Treasury and Department of Justice. Manafort used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income, the indictment read. The two men are the first to be charged as part of special counsel Robert Muller's probe into claims that Russia meddled in the 2016 presidential election. In late July, federal agents raided Manaforts home in Alexandria, Va. to obtain documents and other materials related to the investigation. On Monday morning, Manafort, along with his attorney, arrived at an FBI field office. Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, issued a statement regarding the news of the indictment. This underscores the seriousness of the investigation into Donald Trumps ties to Russia. Its time for Republicans to commit to protecting this investigation and preserving the rule of law. Related Articles [caption id="attachment_9462" align="alignnone" width="620"] Paul Manafort. (Photo: Mark Reinstein/Shutterstock.com)[/caption] The unsealed indictment of Paul Manafort on Monday is the first to be produced by U.S. Department of Justice special counsel Robert Muellers investigation into Russias actions in the 2016 elections. The charges stem from Manaforts work on behalf of the Ukrainian government, and his alleged attempts to hide the proceeds of that arrangement in foreign accounts that were used to pay for real estate and other personal items. Manafort, the former chair of President Donald Trump's election campaign, along with a co-defendant, his business partner Richard Gates, were charged with, among other things, money laundering conspiracy, failure to report foreign accounts, and false or misleading statements regarding their status as foreign agents. Both pleaded not guilty in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Whats missing in the 12-count indictment are clear ties to Russian efforts to meddle in last years presidential election on behalf of Trump. Not to worry, according to a number of former DOJ prosecutors and white-collar attorneys: this appears to be simply the first step in a complex investigation. This is a starting point; this is how you build the case, said one former federal prosecutor who spoke on background because of the sensitive nature of the active investigation. The former prosecutors comments were echoed by others, some of whom declined to go on the record. While opinion on the decision to bring these charges isnt uniformother former prosecutors questioned the decision to bring ostensibly non-Russia investigation charges firstthe indictment represents a substantial and significant standalone case. Its a big case, its a serious case, and it is not dissimilar to many of the off-shore account cases DOJ has been doing for past 10 years, said Ballard Spahr partner Peter Hardy. Hardy, a former federal prosecutor who contributes to the firm's Money Laundering Watch blog, said prosecutors ability and decision to bring an overlapping matrix of charges makes the complaint more thorny for the defense. The money laundering charges are held up on the government proving an underlying crime. Even if the defense were able to knock some holes in the money laundering theory, being able to bring foreign bank and financial account and other non-laundering charges preserves the governments money-focused complaints. In some ways, it is a serious and complex case, but also its a somewhat traditional money laundering and tax evasion indictment, in the way its put together and the allegations it makes, Hardy said. Hughes Hubbard & Reed partner John Wood said he was surprised at the eye-popping amount of money that Manafort and Gates were attempting to keep hidden. Everyones known for several months now that there was a pretty strong case against Manafort under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, he said. The other charges in here are a lot more serious than for a failure to register. For Wood, the allegations relate to the Russian investigation largely because it strengthens Mueller's hand. To the extent that either Manafort or Gates or both are in a position to cooperate with Muellers investigation, Mueller has a lot of leverage over them right now, Wood said. Not that all of Mondays action by Mueller and his team seemed like an abstraction of the Russia investigation. The indictment and subsequent cooperation agreement with former Trump foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos represented a tangible connection between a Trump campaign official and alleged Russian actors. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to a single count of making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But the indictment paints a picture of an aide in regular contact with people he believed had substantial contacts within the Russian government. Now theres a link to the campaign, said Hogan Lovells partner Peter Spivack. The question is how close or far that link goes. The sequencing of Mondays actions are also likely meant as a message to other potential targets and cooperators, according to Cole Schotz member Michael Weinstein. It sends a signal to a lot of other people that the special prosecutor has information, has records, and has multiple leads to pursue, he said. This is what youre up against, and you may want to consider your options. For Manafort, there is a window of opportunity to decide how to deal with Mueller, according to Weinstein, and what Weinstein called a heavy-handed indictment that threatens decades in potential jail time. If Im Manafort, Im looking at my options, Weinstein said, including the potential for cooperating. What does he have to trade away, what is the value of that trade, and when does he pull the trigger, Weinstein said of Manafort. U.S. Supreme Court The U.S. Supreme Court won't weigh in on a California dispute over the payments some municipalities require developers to make to support low-income housing.The justices on Monday denied review in 616 Croft Ave., LLC v. City of West Hollywood, a challenge to that citys inclusionary zoning policy that required builders of an 11-unit condominium in 2011 to pay a $540,393.28 affordable housing fee to help subsidize construction of low-income housing elsewhere in the city. In some instances, builders instead are required to sell 20 percent of their units at below-market prices.Owners Shelah and Jonathan Lehrer-Graiwer paid the fee in protest and went to court. But they ran up against state court precedents allowing such exactions. The California Court of Appeal in the West Hollywood case ruled that the housing fee was a valid way to enhance the public welfare, and did not have to be reasonably related to the impact of the development itself on the citys affordable housing needs. The California Supreme Court did not review the decision.The owners completed the condominium project in 2015. One of the units is for sale at the price of $2,060,000, according to Zillow.Similar fee-for-permit policies are increasingly prevalent in more than 500 municipalities in California and across the nation, according to a brief filed by scholars of land use regulation. Andrew Grossman of Baker & Hostetler is counsel of record on the brief. The Pacific Legal Foundation filed a petition asking the high court to reverse the California court, calling the fee online a state license to steal. Foundation lawyer Brian Hodges, counsel of record on the petition, asserted that the California decision ran contrary to a line of U.S Supreme Court rulings on unconstitutional conditions, culminating with the 1987 Nollan v. California Coastal Commission ruling. Those precedents, the foundation argues, require that fees like those imposed by West Hollywood have to bear rough proportionality to the impact the development could have. Representing West Hollywood, Jeffrey Lamken of MoloLamken urged the justices not to review the case, claiming the California court resolved the case in a way that would not be affected by a Supreme Court decision. Lamken argued that the case was decided on state, not federal grounds, and does not even appear to rest on an issue of federal law at all. Talks to merge the nations 3rd- and 4th-largest wireless operators have run into difficulties, according to multiple reports, with some even suggesting that the deal may not happen at all. Japans Nikkei reported Monday that Sprint owner Softbank is backing out of talks to merge Sprint and T-Mobile. That account was corroborated by a Wall Street Journal report. However, CNBC followed up with a report that talks are still ongoing, but that both parties are struggling to come to an agreement over key issues. At the center of the rift seems to be the question of who is going to control the combined entity, with both Softbank and T-Mobiles German parent Deutsche Telekom insisting on being in the drivers seat. Sprints and T-Mobiles stock both cratered after Nikkeis initial report broke, and have only slightly recovered since. Both telcos have been eyeing a potential merger for years. Talks of such a deal heated up last month, with reports indicating that the companies were close to agreeing to tentative terms. A combined company would have more than 130 million wireless subscribers, allowing them to much more closely compete with AT&T and Verizon. Previous reports indicated that a final announcement about the deal could come at the end of October, which could also indicate that these last-minute public quarrels may be part of final negotiations. Related stories T-Mobile, Sprint Close to Reaching Deal on Wireless Mega-Merger (Report) T-Mobile Giving Netflix Free to Family-Plan Unlimited Subscribers Photo of Jay-Z With '4:44' Platinum Plaque Award Was Taken Before Album Was Released Subscribe to Variety Newsletters and Email Alerts! US mobile carrier Sprint, whose parent firm SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son is seen in this 2016 picture, has called off merger talks with US rival T-Mobile, according to a Japanese newspaper (AFP Photo/KAZUHIRO NOGI) (AFP/File) San Francisco (AFP) - Shares in Sprint and T-Mobile fell sharply Monday following a Japanese media report that merger talks between the third- and fourth-largest US wireless operators had been called off. T-Mobile fell 5.3 percent to close at $59.58 and Sprint, which is controlled by Japan's SoftBank, sank 9.3 percent to $6.34. Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei reported that the two carriers had called off talks aimed at creating a stronger competitor to top US carriers Verizon and AT&T. The report said SoftBank and T-Mobile parent Deutsche Telekom failed to agree on terms of a tie-up. The two firms had held talks in 2014 on a merger but ended discussions in the face of opposition from US regulators. In the latest round, reports said the German parent group had insisted on a majority stake and that SoftBank did not want to cede control. T-Mobile ranks third among US wireless carriers by subscribers, followed by Sprint in fourth place. Together, the pair would have 131 million subscribers, which would see them virtually match second-ranked AT&T and pose stiff competition to market leader Verizon Communications. SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son, who was among the first businessmen to meet President Donald Trump after his election victory last year, had been reportedly pushing for the tie-up as part of his effort to invest $50 billion in business and job-creation in the United States. A tropical storm named Philippe is cutting a swath through the Caribbean, bringing heavy rains to Cuba and the Bahamas while potentially threatening parts of the U.S. East Coast on the fifth year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy.On Sunday, The National Hurricane Center updated its tropical storm warning for several Cuban provinces, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. Those areas will see at least a few inches of rain, wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour and rainfall that "may produce life threatening flash floods and mudslides," the NHC warned. In an active season marked by three powerful named hurricanes , Tropical Storm Philippe gathered steam and appeared to have its sights set on the mid-Atlantic. According to the National Weather Service, Philippe is expected to mix with air on the East Coast by Monday, worsening heavy rain and thunder already in the forecast for the region. "Heavy thundershowers are forecast for much of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast today as a cold front tracks through the eastern states and warm, moist air [floats] onshore from the Atlantic Ocean," the NWS said on Sunday. Philippe is blowing winds of up to 40 miles per hour, with additional strengthening a possibility. Wind gusts were felt near Key West, an area battered by Hurricane Irma just weeks ago. The NHC said that South Florida, including the Keys, could see up to 6 inches of rain through Sunday, with flash flooding risk. A tropical storm named Philippe is cutting a swath through the Caribbean, bringing heavy rains to Cuba and the Bahamas while potentially threatening parts of the U.S. East Coast on the fifth year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. On Sunday, The National Hurricane Center updated its tropical storm warning for several Cuban provinces, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands. Those areas will see at least a few inches of rain, wind gusts of up to 50 miles per hour and rainfall that "may produce life threatening flash floods and mudslides," the NHC warned. In an active season marked by three powerful named hurricanes , Tropical Storm Philippe gathered steam and appeared to have its sights set on the mid-Atlantic. According to the National Weather Service, Philippe is expected to mix with air on the East Coast by Monday, worsening heavy rain and thunder already in the forecast for the region. "Heavy thundershowers are forecast for much of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast today as a cold front tracks through the eastern states and warm, moist air [floats] onshore from the Atlantic Ocean," the NWS said on Sunday. Philippe is blowing winds of up to 40 miles per hour, with additional strengthening a possibility. Wind gusts were felt near Key West, an area battered by Hurricane Irma just weeks ago. The NHC said that South Florida, including the Keys, could see up to 6 inches of rain through Sunday, with flash flooding risk. More From CNBC Catalonia, triggered Spain's biggest crisis for decades by holding an independence referendum on Oct. 1, which Spanish courts called illegal. A man holding a Catalan separatist flag (L) looks at men holding a Spanish flag outside the Generalitat Palace, the Catalan regional government headquarters in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo: Reuters) By Reuters: Work resumed normally in Catalonia and calm reigned on the streets on Monday despite calls for civil disobedience from secessionist politicians, in early signs the direct rule imposed to stop an independence bid was taking hold. Although some public sector workers have yet to tell their new bosses whether they will accept orders, the lack of unrest came as a relief for financial markets, which rose. advertisement Catalonia, a prosperous region with its own language and culture, triggered Spain's biggest crisis for decades by holding an independence referendum on Oct. 1, which Spanish courts called illegal. Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy assumed direct control of the region on Friday, sacked its secessionist government and called a snap election for Dec. 21. However, some of the most prominent members of the Catalan administration, including its president Carles Puigdemont and vice-president Oriol Junqueras, had said they would not accept the move and only the people of Catalonia could dismiss them. The main civic groups behind the pro-independence campaign had called for widespread civil disobedience, and said that public sector workers such as teachers, firefighters and the police should refuse orders from the central authorities. But most workers started their working day at 9 a.m. (0800 GMT) as normal and there was no sign of widespread absenteeism. Most sacked Catalan leaders remained ambiguous on Monday and stopped short of directly defying Spain's authority. There were no signs of any spontaneous demonstration taking place. Spain's public prosecutor was expected to file complaints for disobedience with Spain's High Court against Puigdemont and other senior Catalan leaders. Puigdemont posted a picture from within the regional government headquarters on Instagram but he was not seen entering the building, suggesting the photo may have been taken by someone else. Regional transport chief Josep Rull posted on Twitter a picture of him working in his office but he was later seen leaving the building. Spain's transport minister said in a radio interview Rull would be allowed to collect his personal belongings but not work there. When he left, Rull said he would now attend a meeting of his PdeCat party (Catalan Democratic Party). "Let's go on with the scheduled agenda," he said."THINGS HAVE TO CARRY ON" Other regional leaders did not turn up to their offices though some of their staff did. One of 140 senior officials appointed directly by the outgoing government described the situation as "normal" and said he had not yet received any letter of dismissal. "We civil servants want everything to be normal. Things have to carry on. The day-to-day work still has to be done," said the official, who works with former Catalan vice-president Junqueras. advertisement Two hundred thousand public sector workers receive salaries paid by the Catalan region, and another 100,000 in the region directly on the Madrid government. Hundreds of thousands of supporters of a unified Spain marched on Sunday in one of the biggest shows of force yet by the so-called silent majority that has watched as regional political leaders push for Catalan independence. Two opinion polls also showed support for independence may have started to wane. A Sigma Dos survey published in El Mundo showed 33.5 percent Catalans were in favor of independence while a Metroscopia poll published by El Pais put that number at 29 percent. This compared to 41.1 percent in July according to an official survey carried out by the Catalan government. Opponents of secession largely boycotted the Oct. 1 referendum, when participants voted overwhelmingly for independence on turnout of 43 percent. Spain's interior ministry named a new chief for the regional police on Saturday who has insisted that the 17,000 officers of the force should remain neutral. Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido praised the police for their work in an open letter on Sunday and urged them to accept temporary direction from Madrid. advertisement "We have opened a new chapter and in this new chapter the Mossos d'Esquadra will become again the police of all the Catalans. This is your duty," Zoido said in the letter, using the title of the Catalan police force. He was due to meet the new Mossos chief in Madrid on Monday morning. The force has already withdrawn protection for sacked regional government members, who were also left without their official cars. Their portraits were removed from the walls of public buildings. The government's move to impose direct rule received the backing of several influential Catalan business lobbies who called on firms to stay in the region. The chaos has prompted an exodus of businesses from Catalonia, which contributes about a fifth of Spain's economy. Tourism to Barcelona has been hit and markets have darted up and down on the fast-moving developments. Also Watch : 'We Have Won the Right to an Independent State' - Catalonia President Puigdemont --- ENDS --- Paul Manafort, ex-chairman of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, leaves court after pleading not guilty to charges including conspiracy against the United States and money laundering (AFP Photo/WIN MCNAMEE) Washington (AFP) - Moscow insisted Tuesday there is no evidence it interfered in the 2016 US presidential election, after three aides to Donald Trump's campaign were charged as part of an investigation into Russian efforts to influence the vote. Ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and another former Trump aide appeared in court on Monday, pleading not guilty to conspiracy against the United States, money laundering and several other charges after indictments in the Russia probe were unsealed. Separately, another former Trump campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Kremlin-related contacts, according to a plea deal revealed the same day. "We are accused of interfering not only in US elections but also in those of other countries without one piece of evidence," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, repeating a denial of involvement that Moscow has made before. There are reports that "we don't just interfere in elections, we manipulate the weather and bring about floods", he quipped. "Everyone likes to talk but no one can present any facts." The unsealed indictments were an explosive opening salvo from independent counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia probe, after months of speculation, spin and obfuscation about possible Trump campaign collusion with Moscow. While falling short of providing a smoking gun for top-level conspiracy, the charges point to a potential pattern of senior Trump associates looking to Russia and its proxies for political and economic gain. Manafort, 68, and Rick Gates, 45, were charged with allegedly hiding millions of dollars gleaned from work with Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovych and his pro-Moscow political party. The pair was released on bail of $10 million and $5 million respectively and placed under house arrest. Papadopoulos, a former Trump foreign policy advisor, admitted he tried to hide contacts with a Moscow-linked professor who was offering "dirt" on Trump's election rival Hillary Clinton. Story continues The revelations prompted a furious and defiant reaction from Trump, who dismissed allegations of collusion and called on Clinton to be investigated. - 'No Collusion!' - "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" Trump tweeted. "....Also, there is NO COLLUSION!" But the charges signal a dramatic new phase in Mueller's investigation, one that holds grave peril for the Trump presidency. Papadopoulos revealed that he informed Trump and others personally that he could organize a meeting between the then candidate and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The ex-advisor told the FBI that he had been instructed by an unnamed "campaign supervisor" to meet Russian officials "off the record" if "feasible." His contacts with Russian sources came to include Putin's niece and the Russian ambassador in London. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested Trump did not recall "specific details of the meeting" and that Papadopoulos had only a limited role. "It was extremely limited; it was a volunteer position. And again, no activity was ever done in an official capacity on behalf of the campaign in that regard." US intelligence agencies have concluded that Putin ordered a vast influence campaign to help Trump win election, including the hack and release of Democratic Party and Clinton campaign emails. As Mueller's probe has rumbled forward, Trump and sympathetic media organizations like Fox News have increasingly called the former FBI director's independence into question. Democrats -- who dismiss counter-allegations against Mueller and Clinton as a blatant attempt to divert attention -- called for the special counsel to be protected. - Focus on Ukraine - "The president must not, under any circumstances, interfere with the special counsel's work in any way," said top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer. "If he does so, Congress must respond swiftly, unequivocally and in a bipartisan way to ensure that the investigation continues." Manafort was among the participants of a June 9, 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-linked lawyer that raised suspicions of collusion between the campaign and Moscow. The gathering was arranged by Trump's eldest son, Donald Jr, in hopes of receiving damaging information on Clinton. Manafort's indictment made no mention of Russian involvement in the US campaign, however, focusing instead on his earlier Ukrainian ties. A long-time political operative and consultant, Manafort was recruited in March 2016 to round up pro-Trump delegates to the Republican Party convention. Then in June, Trump named him campaign chairman, replacing fired aide Corey Lewandowski. But in August, Manafort resigned as Ukraine corruption investigators released files showing large payments to Manafort companies and it became clear he was under investigation in the United States over related claims. Federal law enforcement officials were reportedly aware of wire transfers linked to Manafort as far back as 2012, when they began investigating whether he committed tax fraud or helped the Ukrainian regime -- at the time close to Russian leader Vladimir Putin -- launder money. The charges were announced days ahead of the first anniversary of Trump's election -- on November 8, 2016 -- and on the eve of congressional hearings with executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter probing Russian attempts to sway the vote via social and other online media. Facebook will tell Congress that some 126 million US users, a potentially large portion of the American voting public, may have seen stories, posts or other content from Russian sources, according to tech news site Recode, the Wall Street Journal and other US media. By Lisa Lambert and Pete Schroeder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. regulator for Wall Street took the unusual step on Monday of directly asking President Donald Trump to veto a resolution that allows financial companies to block customers from banding together to sue, a request likely to be ignored. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent regulator headed by Democrat Richard Cordray, finalized a rule in July barring banks, credit-card issuers and other financial companies from requiring customers to give up their rights to join group lawsuits, known as class actions, and only take potential disputes to closed-door arbitration. Congress recently voted to kill the rule in a special resolution that Trump, a Republican, is expected to sign into law soon. "You alone now have the power to safeguard people's ability to take action together and go to court when they are wronged," Cordray, expected to resign soon to run for Ohio governor, wrote to Trump. White House officials were not immediately available to comment on the letter. In class actions, individuals with the same complaint band together to lower lawsuit costs. Trump has not vetoed any legislation since taking office in January. But he has frequently criticized both Cordray, appointed by former Democratic President Barack Obama, and the CFPB, established after the financial crisis to protect individuals against predatory lending. Cordray wrote he had never met or spoken to Trump, but that "many have told me.... your mind is made up" about the resolution. Shortly after the Senate passed the resolution last Tuesday, the White House released a statement saying the CFPB rule would give consumers fewer options to resolve disputes quickly and efficiently and would primarily enrich trial lawyers. The administration has also said the CFPB used faulty research to write the rule. The CFPB says its five-year study into mandatory arbitration was thorough and its rule based on sound data. Rule supporters say arbitration is stacked in favor of companies, which hire the mediators, and that the right to trial is enshrined in the Constitution. On Friday, military veterans also asked for a veto. Regulators almost never make personal pleas for vetoes, let alone release their requests publicly. Cordray has a strained relationship with Republicans, who say he has too much power because he both writes and enforces rules and can only be fired "for cause," a strict standard nearly impossible to meet. Trump has gone as far as arguing in court filings that the CFPB is unconstitutional and he should have the power to fire its director. (Reporting by Lisa Lambert and Pete Schroeder; Editing by Peter Cooney) A couple of major steel companies are gearing up to report their quarterly numbers on Oct 31. The steel industry remains on a slow road to recovery. While overall demand fundamentals for steel remain healthy, the industry is still challenged by sustained overcapacity. The global steel industry continues to reel under the effects of excess capacity the biggest obstacle to persistent growth and profitability. Moreover, the U.S. steel industry remains hamstrung by high levels of imports. The American market continues to be inundated with cheap steel imports from overseas producers despite a raft of punitive trade actions. A surge in steel imports put downward pressure on U.S. steel prices during the third quarter. Continued import pressure did not allow steel pricing to keep pace with higher raw material costs during the quarter. Nevertheless, the steel industry is poised to benefit from solid demand in the United States and emerging markets. Continued momentum in the automotive space and a recovery across housing and commercial construction markets are the other key tailwinds for this space. As per the Zacks Industry classification, the steel industry is grouped under the broader Basic Materials sector. Overall third-quarter earnings for the sector are projected to decline 3.5% while revenues are expected to increase 10.7%, per the latest Earnings Preview. We take a sneak peek at two steel companies that are scheduled to report their third-quarter results on Oct 31. United States Steel Corporation X will report after the bell. It has an Earnings ESP of +5.97% as the Most Accurate estimate stands at 71 cents while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at 67 cents. U.S. Steel carries a favorable Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) which when combined with a positive ESP, makes us reasonably confident of an earnings beat. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before theyre reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. U.S. Steel beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two of the trailing four quarters, while missed in the other two. This resulted in an average positive surprise of 584.1%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues for the to-be-reported quarter stands at $3,042 million, reflecting an increase of 13.3% from the year-ago quarter. Net sales for U.S. Steels Flat-Rolled segment is projected to witness a 5.4% year-over-year rise as the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $2,094 million. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for net sales for the U.S. Steel Europe (USSE) unit is pegged at $662 million, reflecting a 14.9% year over year rise. Moreover, the companys Tubular segments net sales are expected to increase by two-and-a-half fold year over year as the Zacks Consensus Estimate stands at $283 million. With respect to pricing, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for average realized price for the Flat-Rolled unit for is pegged at $735 per net ton, representing a 2.4% year-over-year increase. But this reflects a 0.9% decline from the sequentially prior quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for average realized price for the USSE unit stands at $586 per net ton, representing a 16.5% year over year rise. However, this hints at a 5.4% decline from the second quarter. Average realized price for the Tubular segment is expected to increase 22.8% year over year and 4.4% sequentially as the Zacks Consensus Estimate stands at $1,288 per net ton. U.S. Steel is expected to gain from healthy automotive demand. Also, U.S. Steel is aggressively pursuing actions to improve its cost structure through its Carnegie Way program that may lend some support to its third-quarter results. However, the company is facing certain operational issues in the Flat-Rolled segment. (Read more: U.S. Steel Warms Up to Q3: Another Earnings Beat Coming?) Story continues United States Steel Corporation Price and EPS Surprise United States Steel Corporation Price and EPS Surprise United States Steel Corporation price-eps-surprise | United States Steel Corporation Quote AK Steel Holding Corporation AKS, which will report ahead of the bell, has an Earnings ESP of 0.00% as both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at 3 cents. The stock carries a Zacks Rank #3, but its 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. AK Steel beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average positive surprise of 97.9%. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues for the to-be-reported quarter stands at $1,504 million, reflecting an expected increase of 3.5% from the year-ago quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for average selling price per ton stands at $1,023, reflecting a 3.3% decline from the second quarter. AK Steel, in July, said that it expects average selling price in the third quarter to be modestly lower than the second quarter assuming a change in the mix of shipments related to an anticipated reduction in automotive shipments and decline in raw material surcharges. The company also expects higher shipments of the carbon distributing and converting market to be offset by lower automotive shipments. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for third-quarter shipments is pegged at 1,463,000 tons, representing a 0.2% decline from the prior quarter. AK Steels sustained initiatives to manage costs should support its bottom line in the to-be-reported quarter. AK Steel is looking for cost-saving opportunities through a number of means including process improvement, headcount cuts, reduction in process time and procurement activities. However, AK Steel faces weakness in electrical steel pricing in the overseas markets and remains exposed to margin pressure associated with elevated input costs. AK Steel Holding Corporation Price and EPS Surprise AK Steel Holding Corporation Price and EPS Surprise AK Steel Holding Corporation price-eps-surprise | AK Steel Holding Corporation Quote Zacks Best Private Investment Ideas While we are happy to share many articles like this on the website, our best recommendations and most in-depth research are not available to the public. Starting today, for the next month, you can follow all Zacks' private buys and sells in real time. Our experts cover all kinds of trades from value to momentum . . . from stocks under $10 to ETF and option moves . . . from stocks that corporate insiders are buying up to companies that are about to report positive earnings surprises. You can even look inside exclusive portfolios that are normally closed to new investors. Click here for Zacks' private trades >> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report AK Steel Holding Corporation (AKS) : Free Stock Analysis Report United States Steel Corporation (X) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Crown (CCK) reported earnings 30 days ago. What's next for the stock? We take a look at earnings estimates for some clues. For Immediate Release Chicago, IL October 30, 2017 Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include Amgen AMGN, Comcast CMCSA, McDonald's MCD, Waste Management WM and BB&T BBT. Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1Stock of the Day pick for free. Here are highlights from Fridays Analyst Blog: Top Stock Reports for Amgen, Comcast and McDonalds The Zacks Research Daily presents the best research output of our analyst team. Today's Research Daily features new research reports on 16 major stocks, including Amgen, Comcast and McDonald's. These research reports have been hand-picked from the roughly 70 reports published by our analyst team today. You can see all of todays research reports here >>> Buy-rated Amgens shares have gained +20.7% year to date, outperforming the Zacks Biomedical and Genetics industry, which has gained +3.7% over the same period. Amgen beat expectations for both earnings and sales in the third quarter of 2017 and raised its earnings guidance for 2017 supported by effective cost management. Amgens newer drugs Prolia, Xgeva, Vectibix, Nplate and Sensipar are performing well. Amgen is also progressing with its pipeline including biosimilar drugs. Additionally, the Zacks analyst thinks Amgens restructuring plan is making it leaner and more cost efficient. However, the company has some challenges in store, given the presence of biosimilar competition and slowdown in sales of mature drugs. While Neupogen is already facing U.S. biosimilar competition, Neulasta and Epogen could start facing the same next year. Also the softness in Enbrel sales due to stiff competitive and pricing pressure is a key cause for concern. Meanwhile, uptake of key new drug Repatha has been slow due to payer restrictions. Story continues (You can read the full research report on Amgen here >>> ). Shares of Comcast have lost -8.2% over the last three months, during which the Zacks Cable Television industry has declined -10.4%. Comcast posted mixed third-quarter 2017 financial results. Comcast completed the nationwide rollout of its wireless services under the Xfinity Mobile brand, with plans to include YouTube in its X1 video platform. The company is venturing into residential solar programs with a 40-month deal with Sunrun. Comcast is working towards 5G network deployment and continues to roll out its DOCSIS 3.1-based internet services to Comcast Business customers. Comcast continues to expand its theme park business. With this, Comcast aims to check customer churn and provide viewers with more streaming options. However, tough competition, consolidation-related woes, mounting programming costs, loss of customer base act as near-term risks for Comcast. Comcast lost 94,000 voice customers and 1,25,000 video customers in the third-quarter 2017 due to cord-cutting. (You can read the full research report on Comcast here >>>) . McDonald's shares have gained +5.2% over the last three months, outperforming the Zacks Restaurants industry which has gained +2.6% over the same period. McDonalds third-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.76 per share beat expectations and rose year over year. Total revenue declined year of year due to refranchising and lagged the consensus mark. Meanwhile, Q3 marked the ninth consecutive quarter of global comps growth and third consecutive quarter of comparable guest count growth for McDonalds. The Zacks analyst likes the fact that McDonalds is trying to reinforce its position worldwide via various sales and digital initiatives. Also, increased focus on refranchising is expected to reduce its capital requirements, thereby facilitating EPS growth and ROE expansion in the long run. Yet higher costs along with currency headwinds may hurt profits. Also, a soft industry backdrop in the United States and macroeconomic concerns in some parts of the world might limit sales growth. (You can read the full research report on McDonald's here >>> ). Other noteworthy reports we are featuring today include Waste Management and BB&T. Wall Streets Next Amazon Zacks EVP Kevin Matras believes this familiar stock has only just begun its climb to become one of the greatest investments of all time. Its a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in pure genius. Click for details > Today, Zacks is promoting its ''Buy'' stock recommendations. Get #1 Stock of the Day pick for free. About Zacks Equity Research Zacks Equity Research provides the best of quantitative and qualitative analysis to help investors know what stocks to buy and which to sell for the long-term. Continuous coverage is provided for a universe of 1,150 publicly traded stocks. Our analysts are organized by industry which gives them keen insights to developments that affect company profits and stock performance. Recommendations and target prices are six-month time horizons. Strong Stocks that Should Be in the News Many are little publicized and fly under the Wall Street radar. They're virtually unknown to the general public. Yet today's 220 Zacks Rank #1 "Strong Buys" were generated by the stock-picking system that has nearly tripled the market from 1988 through 2015. Its average gain has been a stellar +26% per year.See these high-potential stocks free >>. Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zacksresearch Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Zacks-Investment-Research/57553657748?ref=ts Zacks Investment Research is under common control with affiliated entities (including a broker-dealer and an investment adviser), which may engage in transactions involving the foregoing securities for the clients of such affiliates. Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 support@zacks.com https://www.zacks.com/ Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report BB&T Corporation (BBT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Comcast Corporation (CMCSA) : Free Stock Analysis Report Amgen Inc. (AMGN) : Free Stock Analysis Report McDonald's Corporation (MCD) : Free Stock Analysis Report Waste Management, Inc. (WM) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Afghanistans hard-line Taliban insurgents and fighters loyal to the ultra-radical Islamic State (IS) militant group are locked in two provinces in the north and east of the country. Afghan officials, lawmakers, and tribal leaders in eastern Nangarhar and northern Jawzjan provinces say scores of fighters have been killed in fierce clashes between the two extremist factions, which has also forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee their homes. Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for Nangarhars governor, told journalists that civilians and fighters from both sides were killed in clashes over the weekend. He said the authorities are helping civilians displaced by the fighting after defeating IS in the region. More than 2,000 families have been displaced, and the government and aid agencies have begun distributing food items and other aid, he told Radio Free Afghanistan late on October 29. Lawmaker Haji Zahir Qadir represents Nangarhar in Wolesi Jirga or the lower house of the Afghan Parliament. He said local volunteers have reclaimed most territories from IS control in Khogyani district. Local volunteers have cleansed the region from Daesh (eds: local name of IS). They did so without the governments help, he told lawmakers. But in photographs posted on social media over the weekend, the Khorasan Province -- ISs name for its branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan -- showed gun-toting fighters purportedly celebrating a win against the Taliban in Khogyani. The Taliban have not commented on the fighting. But a purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, rejected recent claims by Afghan officials alleging that their current leader, Mawlawi Haibatullah Akhundzada, had directed fighters to cease fighting IS. The two rivals appear engaged in a similar battle in northern Jawzjan Province, where an IS cell overran large swathes of territory in Darzab and Qush-Teppa districts. The militants imposed harsh rules including closing most schools in Darzab. Lutfullah Azizi, the governor of Jawzjan, says a week of clashes in the two districts forced more than 2,000 families to seek shelter in the provincial capital, Sheberghan. The fighting is intense, and more than 1,000 fighters are involved, he told Radio Free Afghanistan. Some 500 IS fighters are taking on 600 to 700 Taliban militants pushing to capture territory from IS. Azizi says he asked senior security officials to plan operations in Jawzjan. With the winter setting in, we are very concerned, he said. Mohammad Radmanish, a spokesman for Afghanistans Defense Ministry, says Kabul is determined to defeat both the insurgent groups. People are happy with our operations. Anywhere that people feel threatened, we carefully plan our interventions, he said. Kabuls approach to the rising violence and expanding militant control since the withdrawal of most NATO troops at the end of 2014 has been similar to firefighting. While government forces constantly claim to be killing large numbers of insurgents, the Taliban and IS seem to have an expanding footprint. On almost a daily basis, the insurgents claim to have overrun new territory and are able to launch incessant attacks even in regions that the authorities say they have reclaimed. Abubakar Siddique wrote this story based on reporting by Radio Free Afghanistan correspondents Khan Muhammad Seend, Shah Mahmud Shinwari, and Mustafa Sarwar. India has launched a new trade route to landlocked Afghanistan by sea through Iran's strategic Chabahar port, a move that bypasses Pakistan and could have significant geopolitical ramifications in the region. India shipped 1.1 million tons of wheat to Afghanistan from the western seaport of Kandla on October 29. The shipment will be taken by trucks to Afghanistan from the Iranian port. "I believe that this is the starting point of our journey to realize the full spectrum of connectivity -- from culture to commerce, from traditions to technology, from investments to IT, from services to strategy and from people to politics," Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said in a statement on October 29. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Twitter on October 29 that the launch of the trade route "marks a new chapter in regional cooperation & connectivity." U.S. President Donald Trump urged India to play a bigger role in Afghanistan's development when he presented his new South Asia strategy in August. India, Afghanistan, and Iran decided in 2016 to establish the trade route, which would allow Indian goods to reach Central Asia. India committed up to $500 million for the development of the Chabahar port, along with roads and rail lines. The trade route lessens Afghanistan's reliance on Pakistan and allow India to open up a sea route to landlocked Afghanistan. New Delhi will also get access to the oil-rich Central Asian republics. Pakistan has banned India from transporting goods through its territory to Afghanistan. The Chabahar port will rival the Gwadar port in Pakistan that is being currently developed by China, India's regional rival. The two ports are less than 80 kilometers apart. In 2016, New Delhi and Kabul also launched an air-freight corridor in an attempt to provide greater access for Afghan goods to the Indian market. With reporting by AP and Khaama By Ananth Krishnan: Chinese engineers have submitted plans of building a 1,000km tunnel to divert waters of the Brahmaputra from Tibet to arid Xinjiang, according to a report on Monday. The plan, which, if approved, would have huge ramifications for downstream India and Bangladesh, envisages building the world's longest tunnel to carry as much as 10 billion to 15 billion tons of water from the Brahmaputra to the arid Taklamakan desert in Xinjiang. advertisement Engineers want to divert water from Sangri county, in Tibet, before the Yarlung Tsangpo, as it is known in Tibet, enters India in Arunachal Pradesh. The plan was submitted to the Chinese government in March, but hasn't been approved, the South China Morning Post reported on Monday. Past diversion proposals were shelved because of high costs, environmental concerns and issues in technical feasibility. Questions remain on the plan's feasibility, with Wang Wei, a researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Hydraulics and Mountain River Engineering at Sichuan University in Chengdu who was involved in drafting the plan, telling the SCMP it would cost "one billion yuan" for each kilometre of tunnel, which would place the cost at an astronomically prohibitive $1 trillion Yuan-five times the cost of the Three Gorges dam. Zhou Shiqiao, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Beijing, told the paper, "To my knowledge, no environmental evaluation has been carried out. The nature and scale of the impact remains in the dark." But another leading Chinese researcher who is developing a similar 600 km water tunnel in Yunnan as a demonstration project told the paper that China "would definitely go ahead with the project one day." "In five to 10 years from now, the technology will be ready and the cost affordable, and the temptation of the benefits will be difficult to resist," said Zhang Chuanqing, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics in Wuhan who is involved in the Yunnan plan. That was launched in August, which is being seen as "a demonstration project". The Yunnan plan, however, costs only 78 billion Yuan. The tunnel will begin at Sangri County and go towards Xinjiang. If the government approves the Brahmaputra tunnel, this would have huge ramifications for India and Bangladesh.India has already expressed concerns about a dam that was built upstream in Zangmu, Tibet, in 2010, which China says is a run of the river dam for hydropower generation that doesn't store large volumes of water and hence has a limited impact on downstream flows. Since then, three other dams have been given the green light on upper and middle reaches. advertisement A diversion project would have far more serious ramifications. Zhang said if the Yunnan project could "show we have the brains, muscle and tools to build super-long tunnels in hazardous terrains, and the cost does not break the bank", then the plan might take off. Wang Wei, the researcher, said "more than 100 scientists formed different teams for the nationwide research effort." He said the plan suggested diverting the river from Sangri county which "featured a large, relatively flat valley that was ideal for the engineering project." "An artificial island would be built in the middle of the river to create rapid turbulence, which could filter out sediment, and direct water to a well. The well could control the amount of water flowing into the tunnel." Wang told the SCMP the project "would prompt protests from India and Bangladesh," but added that compared to the construction of "massive dams", it "won't leave a mark on the surface for other countries or environmental activists to point their fingers at". advertisement But with the plan calling for diverting huge amounts of water, that would hold little comfort for those likely to suffer the impact downstream. ALSO WATCH | Can India pip China on border infrastructure? --- ENDS --- BOISE, Idaho, Oct. 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- U.S. Geothermal Inc. (the Company) (NYSE MKT:HTM), a leading and profitable renewable energy company focused on the development, production, and sale of electricity from geothermal energy, is scheduled to release its third quarter 2017 financial results on Thursday, November 9, 2017 after market close. Management will present the results and host a conference call for investors and analysts on Friday, November 10, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. (ET). The conference call may be accessed by dialing (877) 407-8133 in the United States and Canada and by dialing (201) 689-8040 internationally. A replay of the conference call will be available until November 17, 2017 by dialing (877) 481-4010 in the United States and Canada and by dialing (919) 882-2331 internationally. Please use replay ID: 21666. A simultaneous webcast of the conference call will be available at the following location: http://www.investorcalendar.com/event/21666 About U.S. Geothermal Inc.: U.S. Geothermal Inc. is a leading and profitable renewable energy company focused on the development, production and sale of electricity from geothermal energy. The Company is currently operating geothermal power projects at Neal Hot Springs, Oregon, San Emidio, Nevada and Raft River, Idaho for a total power generation of approximately 45 MWs. The Company is also developing an additional estimated 115 MWs of projects at: the Geysers, California; a second phase project at San Emidio, Nevada; at Crescent Valley, Nevada; and the El Ceibillo project located near Guatemala City, Guatemala. U.S. Geothermals growth goal is to reach over 200 MWs of generation by 2022 through a combination of internal development and strategic acquisitions. Please visit our Website at: http://www.usgeothermal.com The information provided in this news release may contain forward-looking statements within the definition of the Safe Harbor provisions of the US Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned to review the risk factors identified by the company in its filings with United States Securities and Exchange Commission. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included herein, without limitation, statements relating to the staffing of executive positions, development schedules or estimated resources of U.S. Geothermal, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are frequently, but not always, identified by words such as "expects", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "potential", "possible", and similar expressions, or statements that events, conditions, or results "will", "may", "could", or "should" occur or be achieved. These forward-looking statements may include statements regarding perceived merit of properties; interpretation of the results of well tests; project development; resource megawatt capacity; capital expenditures; timelines; strategic plans; or other statements that are not statements of fact. Forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate, and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from U.S. Geothermal's expectations include the uncertainties involving the availability of financing in the debt and capital markets; uncertainties involved in the interpretation of results of well tests; the need for cooperation of government agencies in the development and operation of properties; the need to obtain permits and governmental approvals; risks of construction; unexpected cost increases, which could include significant increases in estimated capital and operating costs; and other risks and uncertainties disclosed in U.S. Geothermal's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and Canadian securities regulatory authorities and in other U.S. Geothermal reports and documents filed with applicable securities regulatory authorities from time to time. Forward-looking statements are based on managements expectations, beliefs and opinions on the date the statements are made. U.S. Geothermal Inc. assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements if managements expectations, beliefs, or opinions, or other factors, should change. The NYSE American does not accept responsibility for the adequacy of this release. FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Scott Anderson Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications U.S. Geothermal Inc. Tel: 208-424-1027 Fax: 208-424-1030 sanderson@usgeothermal.com VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lumina Gold Corp. (TSXV:LUM) (the Company or Lumina) is pleased to announce it has entered into a non binding letter of intent (the LOI) for an earn-in agreement with First Quantum Minerals Ltd. (FQML) on its Orquideas and Cascas concessions (the Properties). The earn-in agreement is based on a minimum commitment of US$1.5 million in year one and would allow FQML to earn 51% ownership in the Properties if they elect to continue funding and payments totalling an additional US$37 million over a 5-year period. FQML and Lumina will work to formalize and execute a binding agreement by the end of 2017. Marshall Koval, President & CEO, commented: This partnership represents an exciting step forward for Lumina and the execution of our strategy to monetize primary base metal projects while advancing our primary gold deposits. Management is looking forward to working with FQML to advance these large scale base metal porphyry systems. FQMLs recent entry into Ecuador demonstrates additional support for the country and its growing mining sector. Summary of Key Terms Contemplated by LOI FQML has committed to fund a minimum of US$1.5 million in exploration expenditures and fees by the end of year one, after which it can withdraw from the agreement with no retained interest. If FQML chooses to continue funding beyond year one they would have the right to earn 51% ownership in the Properties (First Earn-in) by meeting the required spending commitments over the five year period and paying certain cash payments to Lumina. Spending commitments and estimated concession license fees over the First Earn-in total US$31.5 million. Lumina would receive US$100,000 upon the signing of a binding agreement. In addition, cash payments of US$6.9 million would be received over the duration of the First Earn-in period. FQML would have the right under the agreement to stop funding prior to completion of the First Earn-in on either or both of the Properties. FQML would also have the right to earn an additional 19% ownership in the Properties (Second Earn-in) by solely funding all the required work up to a decision to mine, taking FQMLs ownership in the Properties to 70%. Post the completion of the Second Earn-in, Lumina would be responsible for funding its 30% share of any capital required to develop and construct a mine at the Properties. About Lumina Gold Lumina Gold Corp. (TSXV: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. Further details are available on the Companys website at https://luminagold.com/. LUMINA GOLD CORP. Signed: Marshall Koval Marshall Koval, President & CEO, Director Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Such forward-looking statements or information include but are not limited to statements or information with respect to the completion of a binding agreement and the timing of executing a binding agreement, and the Company identifying, acquiring and advancing mineral exploration properties that have large scale potential. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words such as will or variations of that word and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results will or are intended to be taken, occur or be achieved. With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about general business and economic conditions, the prices of gold and copper, and anticipated costs and expenditures. The foregoing list of assumptions is not exhaustive. Although management of the Company believes that the assumptions made and the expectations represented by such statements or information are reasonable, there can be no assurance that a forward-looking statement or information herein will prove to be accurate. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the Companys actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to: the Company may not be able to agree on a final form of earn-in agreement with FQML, at all or on terms acceptable to the Company; risks associated with the business of the Company; business and economic conditions in the mining industry generally; the supply and demand for labour and other project inputs; changes in commodity prices; changes in interest and currency exchange rates; risks relating to inaccurate geological and engineering assumptions (including with respect to the tonnage, grade and recoverability of reserves and resources); risks relating to unanticipated operational difficulties (including failure of equipment or processes to operate in accordance with specifications or expectations, cost escalation, unavailability of materials and equipment, government action or delays in the receipt of government approvals, industrial disturbances or other job action, and unanticipated events related to health, safety and environmental matters); risks relating to adverse weather conditions; political risk and social unrest; changes in general economic conditions or conditions in the financial markets; and other risk factors as detailed from time to time in the Companys continuous disclosure documents filed with Canadian securities administrators. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. For further information contact: Scott Hicks shicks@luminagold.com T: +1 604 646 1890 English Lithuanian Vilnius, Lithuania, 2017-10-30 08:54 CET (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- For 9 months of 2017, the unaudited consolidated net profit of INVL Baltic Real Estate group and the part of profit attributable to the shareholders of INVL Baltic Real Estate was EUR 2,091 thousand and the revenue was EUR 4,799 thousand (for 9 months of 2016 consolidated net profit was EUR 909 thousand, revenue was EUR 4,609 thousand). Additional information: The real estate investment company INVL Baltic Real Estates consolidated net profit for the first three quarters of this year was EUR 2.1 million and was 2.3 times larger than in the same period last year. The companys consolidated equity value per share increased 19.5 per cent from a year earlier to EUR 0.49 per share at the end of September 2017 (equity per share at the end of September 2016 was EUR 0.42, also accounting for dividends of EUR 0.012 per share that were paid). Were pleased with the results that have been achieved they encourage us to continue working actively to increase the value of property holdings and so create gains for investors, said Vytautas Baksinskas, the Real Estate Fund Manager at INVL Asset Management, which manages INVL Baltic Real Estate. INVL Baltic Real Estates consolidated net operating income from the properties it owns was EUR 1.9 million in the first three quarters of this year and compared to the same period last year increased 5.1 per cent. After completion in the third quarter of the main reconstruction works at the Vilnius Gates business centre, the real occupancy of the centres premises reached 82 per cent, which will result in significant growth of leasing income in the last quarter of this year. Moreover, in late July we signed a lease agreement with TransferGo, one of biggest Lithuanian start-ups, providing international money transfer services in 46 countries, for the lease of nearly a thousand square metres of space in the centre of Vilnius, on Palangos Street. This agreement will not only make it possible to boost leasing income from that property, but also, once the premises are reconstructed, will increase the propertys leasable area, Vytautas Baksinskas said. INVL Baltic Real Estates consolidated revenue for three quarters of this year was EUR 4.8 million and, compared with the same period of 2016, grew 4.3 per cent. Of that, EUR 2.9 million was consolidated leasing income from owned properties, which increased 7.4 per cent. Vilnius Gates leasing income rose 38.7 per cent in the first nine months of this year compared with the same period last year to EUR 0.39 million. The value of the transaction for the sale of 3 000 square metres of office and warehouse premises on Kirtimu Street in Vilnius, which was completed in September this year, was EUR 1 million. This property was valued at EUR 0.8 million at the end of 2016, so the transaction had a positive impact of EUR 0.2 million on 2017 results. INVL Baltic Real Estate manages real estate in Vilnius and Riga: office and commercial premises at the Vilnius Gates complex in the Lithuanian capital, the IBC Business Centre near Konstitucijos Avenue, office buildings in the Old Town on Vilniaus Street and in Siaures Miestelis, and the Dommo Business Park manufacturing, warehouse and office complex beside the Riga bypass. As at September 30 of this year, the companys property holdings had a total area of 55 000 square metres and a value of EUR 54.5 million. Since 22 December 2016, INVL Baltic Real Estate has operated as a closed-end investment company. Management of the company was assumed by INVL Asset Management, one of Lithuanias leading asset management firms. The company will operate as a closed-end investment company until 2046, with extension possible for another 20 years. English German Sika is expanding its presence in Africa and opens a new facility in the Angolan capital, Luanda. In addition to the production of concrete admixtures in an existing factory, mortar products - one of the Sika Group's fastest-growing areas of business - will also be manufactured locally. With the additional production capacities in Angola, Sika is moving further toward its goal of covering about 70% of the market potential on the African continent with its own subsidiaries and production facilities. In this West African nation, the construction industry is receiving considerable impetus from major investments in infrastructure and in residential, industrial and commercial properties. Sika has also recently commissioned mortar production facilities in the countries of Nigeria and Ivory Coast. Ivo Schadler, Regional Manager EMEA: "In the last five years alone, we have greatly strengthened our presence on the African continent, and now have 19 national subsidiaries and 18 production facilities. We are positioning ourselves in the markets early so that we can benefit from the construction boom triggered by rapid population growth and urbanization. We have been highly successful with this strategy in Africa: in the last five years we have seen 22% annual growth." CONTACT Dominik Slappnig Corporate Communications & Investor Relations +41 58 436 68 21 slappnig.dominik@ch.sika.com SIKA CORPORATE PROFILE Sika is a specialty chemicals company with a leading position in the development and production of systems and products for bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing and protection in the building sector and automotive industry. Sika has subsidiaries in 99 countries around the world and manufactures in over 190 factories. Its more than 17,000 employees generated annual sales of CHF 5.75 billion in 2016. The media release can be downloaded from the following link: CALGARY, Alberta, Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- High Arctic Energy Services Inc. (TSX:HWO) (High Arctic or the Corporation) announces that it has reached an agreement with its customer, a super major operator in Papua New Guinea (PNG), on the take-or-pay contract for Rig 116. The original contract signed with InterOil Corporation (InterOil) contemplated a two year take-or-pay drilling services term from the spud of the first well. After the recent takeover of InterOil by High Arctics customer, the customer commenced discussions with High Arctic in regards to this rig. In an effort to work collaboratively with the customer with a view towards future services opportunities, the Corporation has agreed to a deemed spud date of November 2nd, 2016. This deemed spud date coincides with the commencement of drilling on Antelope 7 which was completed with Rig 115 at another customers request due to its proximity to the wellsite location, however, this well could have been drilled with Rig 116 which would have resulted in the commencement of the two year take-or-pay drilling services term. As a result the rig will remain under its take-or-pay contract until November 2, 2018. In conjunction with the customers acquisition of InterOil and the associated drilling contracts, the customer conducted a contractor qualification review for High Arctic related to future work in PNG. As a result of this review, supported by High Arctics strong track record in PNG, the Corporation is pleased to announce that High Arctic has been recognized as a qualified vendor providing High Arctic with the opportunity to participate in the bidding process for additional drilling and related services in PNG beyond the contract for Rig 116. Michael Binnion commented, Being recognized as a qualified vendor is a testament to the tier one performance and safety that High Arctic can be counted on in the PNG market. We are pleased that an equitable solution was found for both High Arctic and our customer after the change in ownership of our former client. Forward-Looking Statements This Press Release contains forward-looking statements. When used in this document, the words may, would, could, will, intend, plan, anticipate, believe, seek, propose, estimate, expect, and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the Corporations current views with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause the Corporations actual results, performance or achievements to vary from those described in this Press Release. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in this Press Release as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Specific forward-looking statements in this Press Release include, among others, the Corporations opportunity to bid on drilling and related services in PNG with the customer that has recognized the Corporation as a qualified vendor. In addition to the risk factors set out above and elsewhere in this Press Release, readers are directed to the additional risk factors set out in the Corporations most recent Annual Information Form filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The forward-looking statements contained in this Press Release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. These statements are given only as of the date of this Press Release. The Corporation does not assume any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or otherwise, except as required by law. About High Arctic High Arctic is a publicly traded company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol HWO. The Corporations principal focus is to provide drilling and specialized well completion services, equipment rentals and other services to the oil and gas industry. High Arctics largest operation is in Papua New Guinea where it provides drilling and specialized well completion services and supplies rig matting, camps and drilling support equipment on a rental basis. The Canadian operation provides well servicing, well abandonment, snubbing and nitrogen services and equipment on a rental basis to a large number of oil and natural gas exploration and production companies operating in Western Canada. For more information, please contact: Michael Binnion Interim President & CEO Phone: 403 807 7375 Email: michael.binnion@haes.ca Brian Peters Chief Financial Officer Phone: 587-318-2218 Email: brian.peters@haes.ca Las Vegas, NV, October 30, 2017/GLOBE Newswire, Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GB Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: GBLX) and Cura Cannabis Solutions (Cura) have executed a production agreement to produce high quality cannabis oils and related products utilizing the GB Sciences production license operated by the GB Sciences Cultivation Labs. Presently the largest cannabis oil company in Oregon with operations up and running in California and now Nevada, Cura is the leading provider of premium cannabis oil and hemp oil to the legal domestic and international markets, and is widely respected in the industry for the quality of its products. The company is known for its Select Oil and Select CBD brands, offering a variety of products that reach cannabis consumers of all experience levels. Cura projects oil production and sales in Nevada to be approximately 250,000 grams of oil per month at the outset, growing to approximately 500,000 grams per month over the near term. "Quality, scale, and deep domain expertise are three critical elements that factor into the success of our company -- and this relationship with GB reflects a collaboration between two businesses which are well-equipped for what's ahead in the regulated cannabis market," said Cura Cannabis Solutions CEO Nitin Khanna. "We look forward to working together to develop premium products for Nevada, and have big plans for the future alongside GB Sciences." This production agreement guarantees GB Sciences a set royalty on every gram produced and sold under the agreement, an enterprise which will provide GB Sciences with a significant and growing monthly cash flow. The arrangement with Cura also firmly establishes GB Sciences as a vertically integrated cannabis company, adding oil production to its proprietary tissue propagation, cultivation, and distribution capabilities. This is in keeping with the Companys long-established expansion plans, which are proceeding successfully and on a timely basis New retail brands are in the planning stage, which, when completed, will enable both Cura and GB to take full advantage of their enviable market positions. GB CEO John Poss said, Together, we will become a formidable force in the Nevada cannabis market, and we have plans to expand our combined reach to many other states. About GB Sciences, Inc. GB Sciences, Inc. (GBLX) is a diverse cannabis company, focused on standardized cultivation and production methods; as well as biopharmaceutical research and development. The Company's goal is creating safe, standardized, pharmaceutical-grade, cannabinoid therapies that target a variety of medical conditions. To learn more about GB Sciences, Inc., go to: http://gbsciences.com. About Cura Cannabis Solutions Cura, one of the largest cannabis brands in America, is on a mission to be the leading provider of cannabis in legal U.S. and international markets. Known as the maker of the Select Oil and Select CBD suite of products, and winner of Dope Magazines 2017 Best Concentrate Company Award, Curas mission is to provide patients and customers with the cleanest, most flavorful cannabis, with the safest delivery method available. Established in Portland, Oregon in 2015, Cura expanded into California and Nevada in 2017. Learn more about Cura Cannabis Solutions at: http://www.curacan.com Forward-Looking Statements This press release may contain statements relating to future results or events, which are forward-looking statements. Words such as "expects", "intends", "plans", "may", "could", "should", "anticipates", "likely", "believes" and words of similar import may identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts, but instead represent only the Company's belief regarding future events, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company's control. It is possible that the Company's actual results and financial condition may differ, possibly materially, from the anticipated results and financial condition indicated in these forward-looking statements. Further, information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company's business and financial and other results, are contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available at www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release, and we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or correct any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that subsequently occur or of which we hereafter become aware. Note: Although the Company's research and development activities are not illegal, the production and sale of cannabis products violate federal laws as they presently exist. CORPORATE GB Sciences, Inc., 3550 West Teco Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89118, 1-866-721-0297 Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0662b4a9-85f9-4e16-b8f3-4c9a8ffb21ac French English Nanterre, October 30, 2017 APPOINTMENT OF NEW BOARD MEMBERS Effective immediately, the Faurecia Board of Directors has agreed to appoint Valerie Landon as a new Board member. Ms Landon replaces Amparo Moraleda, following her decision to leave the Faurecia Board. Faurecia's Board of Directors also acknowledged the appointment of two new members, who will represent Faurecia employees, effective as of November 1, 2017, Daniel Bernardino and Emmanuel Pioche. Valerie Landon is currently Vice-Chairman Investment Banking & Capital Markets at Credit Suisse in Europe. She is also a Board member at Albioma. She began her career at Air France in 1985 before joining Credit Suisse in 1990 as an Investment Banker. She assumed increased responsibilities with Credit Suisse such as Head of Investment Banking for France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Daniel Bernardino is a logistics specialist in charge of continuous improvement within logistics at Faurecia Palmela in Portugal. He joined the Group in 1994 as a logistics team leader. He holds staff-representation responsibilities since 1997 and has been a member of the European works council for 14 years. Emmanuel Pioche is a project leader within the Metals R&D department at Faurecia Brieres in France. He joined the Group in 1995 as a prototypist at the Brieres site. He holds staff-representation responsibilities since 1999. Michel de Rosen, Chairman of Faurecia's Board of Directors: "The Board extends a warm welcome to its three new members. We express our deepest thanks to Amparo Moraleda, who will take other responsibilities. Throughout her mandate, Amparo made a precious contribution to the work of the board and its committees." Contacts Media Eric Fohlen-Weill Head of Media Relations Tel: +33 (0)1 72 36 72 58 eric.fohlen-weill@faurecia.com Analysts/Investors Marc Maillet Vice-President Investor Relations Tel: +33 (0)1 72 36 75 70 marc.maillet@faurecia.com About Faurecia Founded in 1997, Faurecia has grown to become a major player in the global automotive industry. With 330 sites including 30 R&D centers, 100 000 employees in 34 countries, Faurecia is now a global leader in its three areas of business: automotive seating, interior systems and clean mobility. Faurecia has focused its technology strategy on providing solutions for smart life on board and sustainable mobility. In 2016, the Group posted total sales of 18.7 billion. Faurecia is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris stock exchange and trades in the U.S. over-the-counter (OTC) market. For more information www.faurecia.com Raleigh, NC, Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Oct. 30, friends, family and colleagues past and present gathered at the United States Courthouse in Raleigh to celebrate the swearing-in of Robert J. Higdon Jr., as U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Mr. Higdon was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in late September. Prior to his appointment, he led Williams Mullens North Carolina White Collar and Investigations practice. Bobby was a great choice for this role to serve the citizens of North Carolina, Williams Mullen White Collar and Investigations practice co-chair Chuck James said. Were going to miss him, but our team features several attorneys with significant white collar experience in North Carolina and beyond who will continue to serve our clients moving forward. With Mr. Higdons departure, the firms North Carolina White Collar and Investigations team will be spearheaded by Camden Webb, who has nearly 20 years experience representing clients in North Carolina and beyond in white-collar crime investigations. He has significant experience defending health care industry clients facing investigations and prosecutions. Working with Bobby directly in our Raleigh office for the past two-plus years was a true pleasure, Mr. Webb said. We obviously wish him the best, and Im excited to continue helping clients navigate administrative and criminal investigations in North Carolina and throughout the U.S. Mr. Webb is joined on the team by Mr. James, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and Chief Deputy Attorney General for Virginia; Patrick Hanes, who has more than 22 years of White Collar & Investigations experience; and attorneys and litigators throughout the firms other practice areas, including environmental, labor and employment, financial services, immigration, health care and more. Bobby is an outstanding lawyer, and we are all proud of him to get this opportunity, Mr. Hanes, also a co-chair for the practice, said. Im excited to follow his work in North Carolina. In the meantime, Chuck, Camden, myself and the rest of our team will continue to help clients throughout the country facing white-collar investigations. The multi-disciplinary team frequently assists businesses and individuals facing state and federal administrative and criminal investigations, congressional inquiries, administrative investigations, derivative suits and whistleblower cases. They represent clients in state and federal investigations relating to antitrust enforcement, environmental enforcement, the False Claims Act (FSA), the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Lacey Act and more. Attachments: A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f5bc81ca-49f6-49f5-8d1a-5a48193ebaf9 By PTI: Jammu, Oct 30 (PTI) Construction of the 390 megawatt (MW) Kirthai-I Hydroelectricity project over the Chenab river, which flows into Pakistan, is likely to begin next year in Jammu and Kashmirs Kishtwar district, a government official said today. The process to complete the formalities has been fast- tracked and tenders for it will be floated within three to four months, District Development Commissioner, Kishtwar, Angrez Singh Rana said. advertisement The official said that two public hearings have been held by the environmental clearance committee this month in Padder Tehsil to clear bottlenecks. Kirthai-I will be built at the Chandra Basin near Padders Kirthai village. The first hearing was held on October 14 and the second yesterday at Gulabgarh. This is a requirement before floating tenders, he said. "I was informed by Power Development Corporation (PDC) authorities that the tenders will be floated within three to four months. This will pave way for beginning construction work of the project by next year," Rana told PTI. The official said that in the run-of-the-river project the rivers water is not held back in a reservoir, but flows back into it after generating electricity. The project envisages the construction of a 165 meter high concrete gravity dam and requires a total of 321 hectares of state, private and reserved land of which the apportionment of private land is only 48 hectares in Padder, he said. During the hearings, people raised several demands, including reasonable compensation rate for land, employment and free electricity after the completion of the project, he said. They have been told that the area development plan and corporate social responsibility would focus on development of Padder, and about 1,200 people would get the jobs during the execution of the project, Rana said. He said that PDC authorities have also been asked to impart training to locals. The district development commissioner said that the projected Rs 167.71 crore environment management plan, includes Rs 343.40 crore for the catchment area and treatment plan. The Rs 163.90 crore has been earmarked for the muck management plan, Rs 333 crore for the compensatory afforestation scheme and Rs 113.50 crore for the local area management plan, he said. The government has sought the cooperation of the people to complete various developmental projects in the hearings. Rana assured that the beautification of Gulabgarh which includes parking yards and parks would be completed before the commencement of the next Machail yatra, which takes place during July-August every year. "Besides, for pilgrimage and tourism, Gulabgarh will be developed as a base camp for the trekkers," he said. PTI TAS ANB ANB --- ENDS --- advertisement Few parts of Californias effort to implement a Federal Milk Marketing Order (FMMO) have been fast, easy, or uncomplicated, but one of the most important ones seems to be coming together well. Continuation of the states 48-year-old Class I producer pool quota system, which pays producers a $1.70 per hundredweight premium for their qualifying production, was an absolute must have when the states biggest cooperatives began drafting a joint FMMO proposal. The plan that came back from USDA allows the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to continue operating a stand-alone producer-funded quota program. Details of exactly how that Quota Implementation Plan (QIP) will operate have been the subject of multiple meetings this year by a statewide Producer Review Board (PRB). The most recent one was September 12, at which CDFA shared and responded to input and amendments proposed by producer, processor, and affiliated industry groups. (Materials presented at the meeting can be seen here under the September 12, 2017, meeting heading.) As was the case during last years two-month-long public hearing to discuss various FMMO proposals, comments and suggestions submitted for the September 12 meeting tended to fall along producer and processor lines. Amendments were proposed in 29 areas and ranged from highly technical to simple wording changes. One, however, was unusual to say the least. More about that later. CDFA agrees that some proposals merit further consideration. It also agrees that a new section that outlines specific details about assessments needed to fund CDFA program costs to administer the QIP should be discussed. But more than half of the suggestions generated one of two responses from CDFA: No comment prerogative of the Board whether they wish to discuss. California would have a state-specific stand-alone program, separate and independent of an FMMO, thus the nomenclature chosen by the PRB is appropriate. I interpret both of these to mean that CDFA has a very strong idea about how the program will operate. Unusual and rarely heard comments about quota were voiced by Farmdale Creamery, a small family-owned processor in San Bernardino. It said, Quota should have evaporated a long time ago and by surviving this long it has changed its original intent from an incentive (for producers to join the pool) to an entitlement. The result has been creation of a two-class producer world in California haves who own quota and have-nots who dont. Quota has long been a sacred and closely guarded cow in California. With a total current market value of about $1.2 billion, even a hint of eliminating it would cause a nuclear furor among most producers who own some. That said, the ensuing discussion would be fascinating. As of August 26th, 2021 Yahoo India will no longer be publishing content. Your Yahoo Account Mail and Search experiences will not be affected in any way and will operate as usual. We thank you for your support and readership. For more information on Yahoo India, please visit the FAQ By PTI: Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 30 (PTI) The ruling CPI(M) in Kerala has come in for praise in an article in The Washington Post, one of the prominent American newspapers, for the "achievements" of the state under its rule. "A small state in India offers a place for a communist to dream," said the front page article titled "A communist success" in the newspapers October 29 edition. advertisement It spoke of the communist partys journey in the southern state and devoted an entire central page to contributions of the Left party in Kerala. "In a small Indian state, the party of Marx may have done too well for its own good," it said. "Instead of ossifying into an autocratic force, Keralas communists embraced electoral politics and since 1957 have been routinely voted into power," the article said. It also points out that unlike in other parts of the world, the communist movement in the state never sought to "stamp out religion". It traces various stages of the growth and development of the Left movement in the state and also carries pictures and excerpts of an interview of state Finance Minister and economist T M Thomas Issac. "A century after Bolsheviks swarmed the Winter Palace in Petrograd, Russia (now St Petersburg), the Indian state of Kerala, home to 35 million people, remains one of the few places on earth where communists can still dream," the Washington Post noted. It also said unlike communists in China, Latin America or Eastern Europe, party leaders in the southern state never seized factories or banned private property. "Instead, they competed in elections with the centre-left Indian National Congress party, winning some years and losing others," it added. The newspaper also praised Keralas workforce calling it "healthy and educated". PTI JRK LGK ROH VS= RT --- ENDS --- Saudi Arabia has been particularly outspoken about Irans belligerence and on Sunday it blamed Iran for hindering peace efforts in Yemen. It pointed out that by supporting the rebels that have coalition forces fighting, no political resolution can be reached. The comments came from the Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia, Adel Al Jubeir, and he said that Irans support of rebels includes the smuggling of arms. Northern Yemen and the countrys capital Sanaa is controlled by rebels and the former President Ali Abdullah Saleh who has allied with the rebels. At a meeting of military officials and foreign ministers from several different countries including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt countries involved in the Saudi-led coalition to help Yemen the Saudi Foreign Minister said that Irans meddling is making it impossible for a peaceful solution to be found in the country. He said that Iran has caused the failure of all political negotiations that are happening between the militias and the government. Just like Irans nefarious interference in the Syrian civil war, Iran is ensuring that militias are able to continue battling. The Saudi Foreign Minister said: These militias would not have continued operations without the support of the greatest sponsor of terrorism in the world the Iranian regime. At the same meeting, the Foreign Minister of Yemen told the attendees that the Houthi rebels were playing out a sectarian project that was led by Iran. He said that the rebels are trying to ensure that the legitimate government of Yemen is toppled. Since the regional military coalition that is led by Saudi Arabia joined with the government of Yemen in the fight against rebels in 2015, there have been more than 8,600 deaths. Iran has said that it has never smuggled arms to the Houthis rebels, but it has not denied that it is supporting the cause of the rebels. The country was devastated by a cholera outbreak that started in April. Hospitals were unable to get essential supplies needed for the outbreak because of blockades that were put on the main airport in the country as well as on a number of its ports. As a result, there have been over two thousand deaths. To make matters even worse for the poor people of the country who have been surrounded by suffering for years, a famine is now a very real threat. The United Nations has been sponsoring talks regarding the war in Yemen, but so far there has been no political resolution between the rebels and their allies and the government of Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi which is backed by the government of Saudi Arabia. In Syria, the situation is similar. Iran has been supporting President Bashar al Assad and rebel forces. If Iran had not intervened in the Syrian civil war it would have ended long ago. Related Westpac's PayWear delivers contactless microchip payments from your account, using a silicone wristband or a keeper device that easily attaches to an existing watch or fitness band. Although Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, National Australia Bank and smaller banks like Bendigo Bank are still holding out on their iPhone owning customers by denying them Apple Pay usage, despite ANZ and various credit unions and various AMEX and other credit cards finally getting on board the Apple Pay train, banks are still engaging in a range of contactless payment technologies. Samsung has had great success in getting many more banks and financial institutions on board, as has been covered in iTWire recently, while Google Pay, FitBit Pay and other payment systems are out there, too. And c'mon, you can even do eftpos by wearable these days, albeit only for ANZ customers via Apple Pay using an iPhone or Apple Watch, but it works, so Apple users who haven't already made the switch to ANZ are still impatiently waiting for Australian banks to let those who wish to use Apple Pay just start using it, and let anyone else who wants to use Android Pay or Samsung Pay or Fitbit Pay or Unipay or WhatsApp/WeChat pay or any other kind of pay, to pay their way as they wish to pay it! So, what Westpac's PayWear does instead is to be a new wearable payment technology that will "allow customers to make contactless payments with either a silicone wristband or keeper, which can be easily attached to an existing watch or fitness band, via a microchip linked to the customers everyday transaction account". It's not specifically mentioned if you can attach PayWear via the 'keeper to an Apple Watch, and nor would you expect Westpac to do so, but if you can, avoids the problem of needing to wear both smartwatch and PayWear as separate bands. It will be interesting to see how well the keeper device works. Please turn phone horizontal to view full image if viewing on mobile. As you'd expect, Westpac explained that "Customers can tap and pay in the same way they regularly do with their debit card, without having to reach for their wallet or smartphone, through the new range of waterproof and battery-free wearable accessories." However, this makes me wonder if someone could tap a (admittedly obvious) payment terminal to your wrist with a pre-set amount of say $99 tapped your wrist and whether that would go through, or not, without requiring a pin code. Perhaps some hacker will find a way to program an NFC-enabled smartphone with such an app to harvest payment data and approvals, and then somehow hide the flow of money so as not to be so easily tracked. End-users would only notice when they checked their online accounts and saw amounts between $1 and $99 being taken out to some random account that could presumably be faked to state Woolworths or Coles or 7-Eleven or a service station etc. No doubt the banks are well aware of such possibilities are prepared for any such attack, because as always, many consumers prefer convenience over security. This is especially so in today's modern world, where instant gratification isn't, at least for some people, instant enough. We see the positive side of this as Westpac Group chief executive, Consumer Bank, George Frazis, explained that "customers across the country embrace greater convenience and expect to be able to simply tap-and-pay. Australia has the highest contactless penetration in the world, and cards continue to replace cash as consumers demand convenience. Were always looking for new ways to help make our customers lives easier, and with our new PayWear products, customers will be able to pay on-the-go, in one hands-free step. With PayWear, there is no need to search through a bag, login to an app or worry about battery life. It will be on the go with our customers and ready for use when they are. When speaking with customers, personal style and choice were important. In fact, 70% agreed that they would only wear a wearable device if it suited their own personal style and lifestyle. This is why we will collaborate with iconic Australian designers to create a variety of wearable accessory designs to suit different tastes, preferences and styles. Supporting the announcement, findings from the 2017 Westpac Hands-free Payments Survey also released today found: 70% of Australians agree that they would only wear a wearable device if it suited their personal style and lifestyle; 17% of Australians feel that they can't afford wearable technology, and 70% indicated price is the most important factor; and 60% of Australians prefer simplicity and convenience over high tech features when it comes to wearable technology. PayWear Essentials will be available in early December, with Westpac "also partnering with Australian designers to create a PayWear Designer range launching early next year." Award-winning surfboard shaper and entrepreneur, Hayden Cox of Haydenshapes, is the first Australian designer to be announced, and he will design a range of unique products for Westpac PayWear. Here he is with PayWear being worn. A range of leading Australian designers will be hand-picked to speak to a wide mix of everyday Australians - from surfers and fitness fanatics, to busy parents, professionals and festival-goers. Cox says the opportunity to collaborate with Westpac has been a natural fit when it comes to designing products that are innovative, functional and stylish. Functional design is something Ive always been passionate about particularly technology and products that improve experiences for people. It was this passion which led me to creating and filing a patent on my parabolic carbon fibre surfboard construction, FutureFlex, and wanting to uniquely design my product to improve the surfing experience. Working with Westpac to create an exclusive range of wearable accessories which evolve the way people make contactless payments is exciting to me. This product signals an inevitable and innovative progression of our everyday routines. While some customers may opt for the simpler Essentials range, there is also a part of the market that will want something with a little more flavour. This is where the products Im designing will sit. Westpac tells us that all of its customers "with an everyday banking account eligible for a Debit Mastercard will be able to order a PayWear Card online via Westpac Live, which can be inserted into the PayWear accessory of their choice. The PayWear Essentials range of wristband and keeper will be available from December. The Designer range is due to be available to customers in early 2018". Naturally, Westpac customers will be able to use PayWear to make purchases on all contactless-enabled terminals otherwise there'd be no point to using it. Frazis concluded, seemingly taking a dig at smartwatches and other payment enable fitness wearables by stating: Unlike many other wearable payment options, our customers dont require an expensive device to access this technology. Customers will be able to get a PayWear Essentials accessory free of charge for a limited time, making it accessible to all our everyday banking customers. Westpac proudly boasts "the announcement of PayWear builds on the Westpac Groups strong history of digital innovation, as the first to introduce internet banking to Australia, and the first in the world to deliver fingerprint sensor technology (Touch ID) to mobile banking logon in 2014". However, we still await Westpac making Australian history as the second local major bank to finally allow its iPhone and Apple Watch using customers to enjoy the digital freedom of doing so, rather than finding their money has limitations on the way it can be digitally used. Although Westpac customers are invited to express their interest now for the upcoming Westpac PayWear Essentials and Designer ranges at Westpac's PayWear page, no such page appears to exist for gauging Apple Pay interest, only a page listing Samsung Pay and Android Pay availability. About PayWear Essentials "The PayWear Essentials products are made of waterproof, tear-resistant silicone and include a wristband, and a keeper which can be attached to an existing watch or fitness band. These products will be available for Westpac customers to order from early December, via their online banking or mobile banking app. PayWear Essentials will be free for a limited time." About the 2017 Westpac Hands-free Payments Survey "Westpac's survey of 1244 Australian adults (18-55) was undertaken in October to understand current payment and cash management behaviours and attitudes towards wearable payment technology. A cross-section of the Australian population was surveyed which is statistically representative of the national census." Key findings from the research: Vacancy code VA/2017/B0049/13062 Position title HR Assistant - ICA contract Administration (Multiple positions) Department/office CSG, GSSC, Global Shared Service Centre Duty station Bangkok, Thailand Contract type Local ICA Support Contract level LICA-3 Duration 1 Year Application period 11-Sep-2017 to 10-Oct-2017 Background Information - UNOPS UNOPS mission is to serve people in need by expanding the ability of the United Nations, governments and other partners to manage projects, infrastructure and procurement in a sustainable and efficient manner. Within these three core areas of expertise, UNOPS provides its partners with advisory, implementation and transactional services, with projects ranging from building schools and hospitals, to procuring goods and services and training local personnel. UNOPS works closely with governments and communities to ensure increased economic, social and environmental sustainability for the projects we support, with a focus on developing national capacity. Working in some of the worlds most challenging environments, our vision is to advance sustainable implementation practices in development, humanitarian and peacebuilding contexts, always satisfying or surpassing partner expectations. We employ more than 6,000 personnel and on behalf of our partners create thousands more work opportunities in local communities. Through our headquarters in Copenhagen, Denmark and a network of offices, we oversee activities in more than 80 countries. Background information-HR Assistant - ICA contract Administration The UNOPS Global Shared Service Centre (GSSC) is a Corporate Support Group (CSG) unit established for the purpose of providing internal, global, cost-effective transactional services which enhance the operational capacity of UNOPS and standardize systems and procedures. The GSSC, among other functions, carries out high-quality transactional services within the area of personnel contract administration, benefits & entitlements and payroll. To ensure increased cost-efficiency and consistency with UNOPS systems, GSSC is now expanding its services to include both Individual Contractor Agreement (ICAs) and UN staff members. Under the guidance and supervision of the Team Lead, the HR Assistant provides support within HR services, ensuring high quality of work, accurate, timely and properly recorded/documented service delivery. The work area is within contract administration, Benefits & Entitlements for Individual Contractual Agreements (ICAs). The HR Assistant promotes a client-oriented and consistent with rules and regulations approach in the Unit. He/She works in close collaboration with operations personnel in the field offices and with UNOPS HQ personnel to exchange information and ensure consistent service delivery. Functional Responsibilities Summary of Key Functions: Support in implementation of HR strategies and procedures Support in the administration of ICA contracts benefits and entitlements Support in the facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing 1. Support in implementation of HR strategies and procedures, focusing on achievement of the following results: Full compliance of HR processes and records with UNOPS rules, regulations, policies and strategies 2. Support in efficient administration of contracts, benefits and entitlements for ICAs, focusing on achievement of the following results: Perform a variety of repetitive and routine tasks and duties related to human resources Gather and compile data and identify/adjust to discrepancies, as applicable Monitoring and tracking of transactions to ensure timely, consistent and equitable provision of services with a client focus Ensure that documents and supporting files are accurate, complete and properly filed for audit purposes Drafting of contracts and processing of separations, outlining the conditions of the agreement/separations for the approval of the supervisor Collection, verification and follow-up on required documentation related to benefits, entitlements and contracts 3. Support in the facilitation of knowledge building and knowledge sharing, focusing on achievement of the following results: Participation in the trainings for the operations/ projects staff on HR Contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice Competencies UNOPS Core Values/Competencies Integrity Professionalism Respect for Diversity Creativity and innovation Commitment to continuous learning Planning and Organizing Results orientation Communications skills Teamwork skills Client orientation Technological awareness Functional Competencies Knowledge Management and Learning Shares knowledge and experience Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills Development and Operational Effectiveness Ability to perform a variety of standard tasks and duties related to HR, screening, collecting and preparation of documentation, data input, transactions tracking, filing, provision of information Ability to review data, identify and adjust discrepancies Ability to produce accurate and well documented records conforming to the required standard Ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints Knowledge of UNOPS HR rules and procedures Strong IT skills Leadership and Self-Management Ability to adhere to work assignments and meet designated deadlines. Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities Solicits feedback from staff about the impact of his/her own behavior Education/Experience/Language requirements Education : High school diploma required Secondary Education with specialized certification in HR an asset. A BA or MA degree may substitute required years of work experience. Experience : 3 years of experience in supporting a human resource management area. Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Office 2003 and/or newer versions) and experience in handling of web-based management systems. Language Requirements : Fluency in written and oral English. Knowledge of second UN working language desirable. Contract type, level and duration Contract type : Local Individual Contractor Agreement Contract level : LICA 3 Contract duration : 1 year, renewable subject to satisfactory performance and funding availability For more details about the ICA contractual modality, please follow this link: https://www.unops.org/english/Opportunities/job-opportunities/what-we-offer/Pages/Individual-Contractor-Agreements.aspx Dont click apply now on job.bangkokpost.com International Recruitment Officer for De Montfort University, UK based in Bangkok, covering East and South-East Asia Full Time Permanent Self employed Salary 18k-26k /789,580 1,140, 615 THB per annum The Post The post holder, based in Bangkok, will report to and support the Regional Manager who is based in De Montfort University (DMU) Leicester and who travels regularly to the country. You will play an important role in increasing the number of international students being recruited to the University, by improving sales and recruitment activity to address strategic objectives and meeting enrolment targets. A fluent Thai and English speaker, you will assist in the conversion activity for the region to achieve institutional recruitment targets and strive to raise the profile of De Montfort University. The Person Innovative, ambitious, passionate and target driven, the post holder will be experienced in delivering marketing projects and solutions, working with stakeholders to develop effective working relationships and partnerships within the Higher Education field. With an effective knowledge of the cultural requirements of working within Asia and South-East Asia, you will have a commercial awareness and ability to negotiate with stakeholders to achieve positive results. Experienced at analysing data and other market intelligence, you will be able to make recommendations to meet the Universities targets. You will be an effective communicator, with excellent presentation skills and the ability to work alone and part of a team. Key Tasks 1. Support the Regional Manager to increase the number of international students recruited to De Montfort University. 2. Deliver marketing activity within country to meet regional targets. 3. Co-ordinate and undertake recruitment and promotional visits in country throughout the year, under the guidance of the Regional Manager, to fully understand the benefits of the University and its excellent services. 4. Follow up with visits to convert interest to sales. 5. Implement marketing campaigns, utilising innovative and creative solutions to promote DMU 6. Develop and manage good working relationships with key partners and stakeholders (e.g. British Council). How to Apply: Please send your CV to sian.cattell@precisehr.co.uk outlining why you think your skills and experience would be relevant for this role. Precise HR are supporting DMU in recruiting to this vacancy. Any queries should be sent to Sian Cattell, Managing Director of Precise HR Contact mobile number: (+ 44)07939254437 Email: Sian.cattell@precisehr.co.uk The little girl had got both of her ears scraped off as she was dragged for several meters after being hit by a commercial vehicle in south Delhi. By Chayyanika Nigam: A 2-year-old girl became partially deaf after she was hit by speeding vehicle and pulled under it. The girl, Aashika, was on her way to see her father at a Mother Dairy booth in Vasant Kunj when the accident took place about 10 days ago. So far, even though the FIR has been registered in the case, the accused is still absconding and police are yet to seize the vehicle. advertisement In the freak accident, the girl was pulled under the vehicle and both her ears as well as the skin of her face was scraped off when she was dragged for several meters under the car. The incident took place on October 19, when Aashika was on her way to see her father Amit Kumar, 27, who works at a Mother Dairy outlet in West Green Farm area of Vasant Kunj. She was accompanied by her mother Asha, 25. The accident was recorded by a CCTV camera installed in the area. In the footage, Aashika can be seen running hurriedly to cross the road at a T-point when a speeding Eeco, with the registration number DL1LV4745 on a yellow number plate, hits her and drags her for a few meters. Aashika's ears and facial skin were scraped off as she was dragged underneath the car. "Only after the eye-witnesses started shouting, did the errant driver apply the brakes. He immediately came out of the car and instead of helping the little girl, he ended up fleeing," Amit said. Aashika's parents rushed her to the AIIMS Trauma Centre where she underwent an emergency surgery. It was only after the surgery that the doctors informed the parents that she had become partially deaf. However, the doctors have assured the victims's family that they would soon create artificial ears for little Aashika. Meanwhile, the girl continues to be traumatised and whenever she hears a honk or sees a car, she gets panic attacks. A case has been registered at the Vasant Kunj (South) police station under Sections 279 and 337 of the IPC, however, the police is yet to take any action. "The accused has been identified and his residential address has been shared by the victim's father. Rupesh (the accused) has gone to Bihar for Chhat Pooja. We will issue a notice to the owner of the car and ask him to come to the police station to hand over the vehicle. Rupesh will himself come to the police station to surrender," said a police official, close to the investigation. advertisement Shunning the police's claims, Aashika's father Amit said, "Despite having all the leads in the case, including the CCTV footage, the cops are not taking any action. We want action against the accused as he is still roaming free and has been driving the same car." In the CCTV footage it can be clearly seen that people who were present at the spot tried to catch the driver, but he managed to flee. However, as per reports, one Rupesh came to the spot a few hours later, and took the car away. --- ENDS --- VOA Learning English presents Americas Presidents. Today we are talking about John Fitzgerald Kennedy. He was also known as Jack Kennedy, or by the letters JFK. When he took office in 1961, Kennedy was 43 years old. He was the youngest elected president in United States history. Kennedy was also the first Catholic to be elected U.S. president. Kennedys youth and religion raised questions in the minds of some Americans that Kennedy could lead the country. They wondered if he would always follow the policies of the Roman Catholic Church. But Kennedy became well-known as a statesman, and popular with people around the world. He was intelligent, funny and good-looking. For many, Kennedy was a sign of new energy and hope. The public was shocked, then, when the presidents term was violently cut short. Early life John F. Kennedy was born in 1917 near Boston, Massachusetts. He was the second of nine children. Both his parents were Catholic, with ancestors from Ireland. Many years ago, Irish Catholics often faced discrimination in the United States. But the Kennedy family was also politically powerful and wealthy. As a result, young Jack Kennedy grew up in big, beautiful houses and received a top quality education. His family did not suffer during the Great Depression, as many Americans had. Instead, the Kennedy children swam, sailed boats and played sports. Jack also enjoyed reading books and following the news. His older brother Joe wanted to enter politics, but Jack said he might become a teacher or writer. When he was a college student at Harvard, Jack wrote a long paper about Britain in the years leading up to World War II. A version of it was published in 1940 as a book. The war changed Jacks thinking about his future plans. During World War II, both Jack and his older brother joined the U.S. Navy. In the Pacific, Jack became a hero. He won medals for leading some of his troops to safety after a Japanese warship struck a boat they were on. But Joe was killed. In 1944, his airplane exploded over Europe. When the war ended, Jacks father urged him to follow his brothers dream of succeeding in politics. Jack agreed, and he set his sights on becoming the countrys first Catholic president. Presidency Kennedy was nominated as the Democratic Partys candidate, and he was elected in 1960. He easily defeated Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican candidate, in the Electoral College. But Kennedy won only narrowly in the popular vote. Though he was young, Kennedy brought experience to the job. In addition to being a naval officer, Kennedy had been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives as well as a senator from Massachusetts. He also published a Pulitzer Prize-winning book called Profiles in Courage. And he had become a husband and father. He married a wealthy, well-educated woman who had been working as a newspaper photographer. Her name was Jacqueline Bouvier, but she was sometimes called Jackie. She became pregnant five times, but only two of her children would survive: a daughter named Caroline, and a son, John F. Kennedy, Junior. The family of four moved into the White House in January 1961. On the day he was sworn-in, Kennedy gave a speech that many people still remember today. It celebrated the new generation of Americans, and promised to pay any price for liberty. Supporters of the new president loved his energy and sense of hope. In his most famous line, Kennedy said, Ask not what your country can do for you ask what you can do for your country. Many young people remembered that line when they volunteered for a program Kennedy created in 1961: the Peace Corps. Other Americans remembered the line when they watched two Apollo 11 astronauts walk on the moon in 1969. Kennedy strongly supported the countrys space program. He promised that Americans would land on the moon by the end of the 1960s, and they did. Kennedy also supported efforts to improve civil rights across the U.S., although his administration moved slowly. Calls to end legalized racism were growing stronger during Kennedys time in office, particularly because of the leadership of Martin Luther King, Junior. In June of 1963, King spoke to hundreds of thousands of people at a civil rights protest called the March on Washington. He told the crowd that he dreamed my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. The March on Washington, among other events, showed the power of the civil rights movement. In late 1963, President Kennedy sent a civil rights bill to Congress and spoke to Americans about the injustice that remained in the country. The Peace Corps, the Space Race, and civil rights are all part of Kennedys legacy. Kennedy is also remembered for several troubling international events. In one, known as the Bay of Pigs, Americans supported Cuban refugees in an effort to oust the government of Fidel Castro. Not only did the refugees fail, but Kennedys government was found to be lying about their support of the effort. And Kennedy faced off with the leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev. In 1962, American leaders learned that the Soviets had hidden nuclear weapons in Cuba. The missiles would be able to reach the U.S. mainland easily. Kennedy ordered a blockade of Cuba. People around the world held their breath as they waited to see if the U.S. and the Soviet Union would launch a nuclear war. They did not. After several very tense weeks, Kennedy and Khrushchev reached an agreement that ended the crisis. Kennedy went on to reach an agreement with the Soviet Union and Britain to limit nuclear weapons testing. He said the agreement was one of the presidential acts of which he was most satisfied. Historians still debate Kennedys actions, and what else might have happened during his presidency. They wonder especially what he would have done about the increasing conflict in Vietnam. But Kennedy did not live to finish his first term. Death By November 22, 1963, Kennedy had been president for just under three years. The next election was still a year away, but it was time to start campaigning again. So the president and his wife went to Dallas, Texas to connect with voters. They were riding in a car with other official vehicles that drove slowly through the center of the city. Jack, Jackie, and the Texas governor and his wife sat in a convertible an automobile without protection over the seats. The president was waving at the crowd. Suddenly, several gunshots were fired. The president was struck twice. The governor was also hit and injured. Kennedy was hurried to a hospital, but doctors were unable to help him. News reporters announced his death to a stunned public. Hours later, Jackie Kennedy appeared next to the former vice president now president Lyndon Johnson. She still wore the clothes with her husbands blood on them. The events remain intense in the minds of many Americans who were alive at the time. The images remain easily recognizable parts of American history. The pictures of Kennedys family at his funeral are especially memorable. In one, three-year-old John holds up his arm and salutes his fathers casket. Attention quickly turned to the gunman. It was reportedly a 24-year-old man named Lee Harvey Oswald. Shortly after the president and the governor were shot, Oswald shot a policeman who questioned him. Oswald was eventually detained. Officials planned to bring him to court for the death of the president and the policeman. But on the way from the police station to the jail, a local night-club owner shot and killed Oswald. As a result, the case never came to trial. Many Americans believe the reason for the attack has yet to be clarified. Legacy Historians have a mixed reaction to Kennedys years as a president, although their opinions are generally positive. His image with the public suffered some years after his death because of reports that he had romantic relationships with women other than Jackie throughout his marriage. In time, the public also learned about Kennedys health problems. He suffered from severe back pain and Addisons disease. He often used strong medicine to help control the conditions. The health problems are at odds with Kennedys image of health and love of sports. Yet even with these new details, Kennedy is still one of the countrys best-remembered leaders. He was a charismatic man whose career influenced many other Americans to enter public service. Americans also remember his stylish, cultured wife. Jackie Kennedy compared the Kennedy years at the White House to Camelot, the legendary court of King Arthur. Their remains, along with those of two of their children, are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington. They are honored there with an eternal flame one designed so the fire will never go out. Im Kelly Jean Kelly. Kelly Jean Kelly wrote this story for Learning English. George Grow was the editor. ______________________________________________________________ Listening Quiz See how well you understand the story by taking this listening quiz. Play each video, then choose the best answer. Quiz - America's Presidents: John F. Kennedy Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story content - n. the things that are in something legacy - n. something that happened in the past or that comes from someone in the past casket - n. coffin nightclub - n. a place that is open at night, has music, dancing, or a show, and usually serves alcoholic drinks and food positive - adj. showing or expressing support, approval, or agreement at odds - n. not agreeing with each other : in a state of disagreement charismatic - adj. having great charm or appeal : filled with charisma eternal - adj. having no beginning and no end in time : lasting forever flame - n. the hot, glowing gas that can be seen when a fire is burning Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani has announced that he will step down as president on November 1. Barzani made the announcement on television Sunday. The autonomous Kurdish Regional Government has faced strong criticism after it held an independence referendum last month. A number of Barzanis supporters forced themselves into the parliament building as lawmakers met to approve the presidents request. They attacked lawmakers and reporters while a crowd outside parliament waved Kurdish flags. Barzani said he wants the position of the president to be dissolved and its duties spread between the Kurdish area prime minister, parliament and the judiciary. During his speech, Barzani said the Iraqi central government has used the Kurdish vote in September as an excuse to retake territory. Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and coalition forces had controlled the territory in northern Iraq for years after they pushed out Islamic State, or IS, militants. IS fighters had overrun large areas of northern Iraq in 2014. Reactions to Barzanis decision Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is calling for calm and respect for the law after Barzanis announcement. Abadi said he was following developments in the Kurdish area closely. He said the central government in Baghdad wants to establish safe conditions in every province and protect the interests of every citizen. The United States called Barzanis decision an act of statesmanship during a difficult period. In a statement on Monday, the State Department praised Barzani as a historic figure and courageous leader of his people, most recently in our common fight to destroy ISIS. James Jeffery is with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a former diplomat. He told VOA that Barzanis move could ease concerns of the Baghdad government and of Turkey, Iran and other countries opposed to Kurdish independence. If he steps down then that will open the door to the step of annulling the referendum vote because that is the demand of both the Abadi government and all of the neighbors. Independence vote led to clashes with Iraqi forces The referendum in September resulted in 92 percent of Kurds voting for independence from Iraq. Barzani said the vote was meant to provide a way to find a peaceful solution to the governing of the Kurdish area. He said any separation from the central government in Baghdad would be put off for years. Kurdish leaders had offered to suspend the referendum results and to start talks with the central government but Abadi rejected the offer. He has said he would accept only a cancellation of the referendum and respect for the countrys constitution. As a result of the vote, Iraqi central government forces took control of the city of Kirkuk and surrounding areas from Kurdish forces. The two sides are currently negotiating control of border posts including areas where an important oil pipeline crosses into Turkey. Masoud Barzani has been president of the Kurdish Regional Government since 2005. However, his second term ended in 2013. It was extended because of fighting with the Islamic State militant group, but parliament had not acted on a further extension in recent years. Im Mario Ritter. Chris Hannas, Esha Sarai and Victor Beattie reported this story for VOA News. Mario Ritter adapted it for VOA Learning English with additional materials from Reuters. Hai Do was the editor. _______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story referendum n. a vote by the general public on one or a few important issues statesmanship n. the act of showing wise, diplomatic leadership in a government figure n. a person We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. When Leticia Miranda had a job selling newspapers in Rio de Janeiro, she earned about $160 a month. That was just enough money to pay for a small apartment home in a poor neighborhood. Miranda lived there with her eight-year-old son. Today Brazil is facing its worst economic crisis in many years. Six months ago, Miranda lost her job. She and her son had no choice but to move to an unused building where several hundred people were already living. Everything she owns now fills a small room that has windows but no glass in them. People who live in the building wash themselves in large garbage cans filled with water. There is a bad smell coming from the growing mountains of uncollected garbage. Pigs search for food in the center of the building. Miranda says I want to leave here, but there is nowhere to go. Im applying for jobs and did two interviews. So far, nothing. Between 2004 and 2014, tens of millions of Brazilians rose out of poverty. Brazil was noted as a successful example for other nations to follow. High prices for the countrys oil and other natural resources helped pay for social welfare programs that helped many poor people. But over the past two years, Brazil has fallen into the deepest recession in its history. The government has cut spending on social programs. Because of the recession, the country is no longer able to reduce the level of inequality that has existed since colonial times. Monica de Bolle follows the economic situation in Brazil for the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C. She notes that many people who had risen out of poverty, and even those who had risen into the middle class, have fallen back. The World Bank says that about 28.6 million Brazilians rose out of poverty between 2004 and 2014. But it estimates that from the beginning of 2016 to the end of 2017, 2.5 to 3.6 million Brazilians will have fallen back into poverty. In July, the unemployment rate was almost 13 percent. At the end of 2004, it was 4 percent. De Bolle believes that estimate is low. She says it probably does not include the many formerly lower middle-class Brazilians who are again poor. Economists say high unemployment and reduced spending on social programs could worsen the countrys problems. Whenever any business announces it is expanding, many people offer to work for the company. When a university in Rio de Janeiro announced it had jobs this month for people with few skills, thousands waited in long lines to be considered for a position. The jobs pay just $400 a month. The policies of President Michel Temer are leading to cuts in social services. Among the programs affected is the Bolsa Familia -- the Family Allowance. It gives a small amount of money each month to people who earn very little. Experts say Bolsa Familia was the main reason so many Brazilians left poverty when the economy was strong. Emmanuel Skoufias is an economist at the World Bank. He helped write a report on Brazils new poor. He says social programs were responsible for almost 60 percent of the reduction in the number of people living in extreme poverty between 2004 and 2014. But now, as job losses are causing an increase in the number of people who need assistance from the program, fewer Brazilians qualify for it. Forty-year-old Simone Batista says every day is a struggle to survive. She told the Associated Press (AP) that her Bolsa Familia payments were ended after her now one-year-old child was born. She wants to appeal the decision, but does not have enough money for a bus ride to the office where such appeals are made. Batista lives in Jardim Gramacho, an area in northern Rio de Janeiro. She and hundreds of other poor people find food by searching through garbage left in the area. An AP investigation found that the amount of Bolsa Familia payments dropped four percentage points between May 2016 and May of 2017. Part of that may be the result of a government campaign against suspected corruption. Temers administration said it had found irregularities in the records of 1.1 million people who were receiving payments. That is about eight percent of the 14 million people who take part in the program. The AP reported that some families who had been receiving payments were earning more than $150 a month. That is the most people are permitted to earn and stay in the program. Skoufias noted that the program was about one half of one percent of Brazils gross domestic product. He said the government should add money to the program, not cut it. But experts say Congress, which approved a spending limit, will likely not agree to an increase in the programs budget. A year after the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the city has so little money that it is not paying its workers, or is paying them in small amounts over time. The budget for garbage collection, community policing and other programs has been cut sharply. For many who live in Rios hundreds of favelas, or slums, an already difficult life is getting harder. Maria de Pena Souza is 59 years old. She lives with her son in a small house in a slum in western Rio. They want to move because their home is on a hill where landslides have killed people. But her son has not been able to find work since he completed his military service a few years ago. I would leave if there was a way, but there isnt, she said. Brazils economic problems have led to an increase in support for former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. He was president from 2003 to 2010, when the economy was strong. When da Silva left office, more than 80 percent of those asked said they approved of his presidency. But his popularity dropped sharply after he and his party were investigated for suspected corruption. The former president is appealing a guilty finding and an almost 10-year sentence for corruption. He has more support than any other likely candidate in public opinion studies for next years presidential election. During campaign speeches, da Silva promises that if he is elected, the economy would improve and the government would once again care for poor people. At a recent gathering in Rio, the former president used the name most Brazilians use when they talk about him. He said, Lula is not just Lula. Its an idea represented by millions of men and women. Prepare yourselves because the working class will return to govern this country. Im Jonathan Evans. I'm Anna Mateo. Associated Press writer Peter Prengaman reported this story from Rio de Janeiro. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted the AP report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page. ________________________________________________________________ Words in This Story garbage n. often used to refer specifically to food waste that is being thrown out apply v. to ask formally for something (such as a job, admission to a school, a loan, etc.) usually in writing interview n. a formal meeting with someone who is being considered for a job or other position allowance n. an amount of money that is given to someone regularly or for a specific purpose qualify v. to have the right to do, have or be a part of something irregularity n. something that is not usual or proper and that usually indicates dishonest behavior -- usually plural gross domestic product n. the total value of the goods and services produced by the people of a nation during a year not including the value of income earned in foreign countries (abbreviation: GDP) slum n. an area of a city where poor people live and the buildings are in bad condition Spanish prosecutors say they will seek rebellion charges against the leaders of Catalonias ousted government. The move follows Catalonias declaration of independence from Spain last week. Spain considers Catalonias moves to create an independent state a violation of the country's constitution. Chief prosecutor Jose Manuel Maza said Catalan leaders would also be charged with inciting people to rebel and misuse of public money. He accused the leaders of causing an institutional crisis by leading efforts to separate Catalonia from Spain. Maza did not name the individuals facing charges. But they reportedly include Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, as well as members of his cabinet and legislative leaders in Catalonia. A Spanish government official told the Associated Press that Puigdemont had traveled to Brussels, Belgium. Over the weekend, a Belgian official said it would not be unrealistic for Puigdemont to request asylum in the country. Catalonias parliament declared independence from Spain Friday. Hours later, Spains Senate voted to give the Spanish government the authority to take over direct rule of the northeastern area. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy then ordered the dismissal of Catalonias government and removed senior Catalan police officials. He also called for new elections to be held December 21. Despite the charges sought against Catalonias leaders, the regions major secessionist parties said Monday they planned to take part in the elections. Political observers said this decision signaled unspoken acceptance by pro-independence parties of Spains latest moves toward direct rule. On Sunday, hundreds of thousands of anti-independence demonstrators took to the streets of Barcelona to voice their opposition to Catalonias declaration. On Monday, most employees in Catalonia showed up for work, ignoring calls by some pro-independence groups for civil disobedience protests. Catalonia a wealthy region with its own language and culture - has long sought independence from Spain. Catalan leaders held an independence referendum on October 1. They said the results gave them clear authority to declare independence. Spains government and Constitutional Court declared the referendum illegal. Im Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from VOA News, the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Hai Do was the editor. We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments section, and visit our Facebook page. _____________________________________________________________ Words in This Story authority n. official power to give orders or make decisions referendum n. election in which people in an area vote for or against an issue of public concern During the Halloween season, one popular activity is to visit a haunted house. As a child, some of my earliest and most frightening memories happened in a haunted house at Halloween. So, let me take you inside a real haunted house. This short story also gives you vocabulary and idioms for describing something scary. We begin as many scary stories have: It is a dark and stormy night. You walk alone down a desolate street. The rain has been falling steadily all night and is only getting worse. You are soaked to the bone and need to get out of the rain. Then you see a house. Thank heavens! you say out loud. But at second glance, your relief is chilled by the look of the place. It's dark. Only a lone street lamp casts a dim, yellow light on the sad features of the house. It looks as if no one has lived here for many years. The windows are broken. An old, ripped curtain blows from a third-story window. Now, you remember where you are.This house is from your childhood. Neighborhood kids talked of ghosts, from a family long dead, walking through the house at night. The front yard is tangled with overgrown weeds and vines. A pathway lined with broken stones leads to an old house. You follow it. As you walk down the sidewalk, tree branches seem to lean into your path. They grab at your hair and clothes. Spider webs stretched across the branches get caught in your eyes and mouth. As you wipe them away, you hear something behind you. What is it?! You turn around. Nothing. It was probably just a cat, you tell yourself. Although, you dont believe it. Just as you step onto the sagging front porch, the door creaks open. Suddenly, two bony hands push you inside. The door slams shut! From the shadows, things start to come toward you! You can't see anything, but you can hear them coming closer. You run, but running only takes you farther into the nightmare. Your heart beats wildly. Hoping to hide, you open a door, but a skeleton falls into your face. Screaming, you fight with the bones as they entangle your arms and legs! Finally, you break free and run for your life down a hallway. For a moment, you think you're safe. Then a deathly white hand reaches out from under a table, grabbing at your ankles! You run faster, this time up a flight of stairs. But a half-human, half-bat creature hangs from the ceiling. It flies toward your neck with blood dripping from its razor-sharp teeth. As you try to escape, you trip down some stairs and fall into a cold, dark basement. From a small window you look outside and see a crazed man holding an axe. He's looking right at you, laughing. Fear takes over your whole body, as you run out of the house only to find ... ... a bowl of candy. If you're lucky, maybe a plate of cupcakes, too. You dig your hands into the candy bowl and fill your pockets with sweets. You deserve it. You made it out alive! That is exactly how I remember the first haunted house my parents took me to. To this day, the thought of it still sends shivers down my spine. And I still love being scared out of my wits! Im Anna Matteo Do you remember a time when you were scared out of your wits? Practice using the words and expressions you heard in this story by describing it in the Comments Section. Anna Matteo wrote and produced this story for VOA Learning English. Kelly Jean Kelly was the editor. ______________________________________________________________ Words in This Story haunt v. to visit or inhabit as a ghost desolate adj. lacking the people, plants, animals, etc., that make people feel welcome in a place soaked to the bone idiomatic expression : to be extremely or completely wet, especially through the clothing glance n. a quick look chill v. to become cold weed n. a plant that tends to grow where not wanted and to prevent the growth of more desirable plants usually by taking up space vine n. a plant whose stem requires support and which climbs by tendrils or twining or creeps along the ground dim adj. not bright or clear creak v. to make a long, high sound : to make a sound like the sound made by an old door when it opens or closes shadow n. a dark shape that appears on a surface when someone or something moves between the surface and a source of light nightmare n. a frightening dream that usually awakens the sleeper : something (such as an experience, situation, or object) having the monstrous character of a nightmare or producing a feeling of anxiety or terror skeleton n. the structure of bones that supports the body of a person or animal scream n. a sudden sharp loud cry : v. to voice a sudden sharp loud cry entangle v. to wrap or twist together run for your life idiomatic expression : to run very fast because you are in danger razor-sharp adj. very sharp sends shivers down my spine idiomatic expression : to cause an intense feeling of fear, nervousness, exhilaration, or excitement in someone scared out of my wits idiomatic expression : suggests one is frightened enough to lose one's mind Your Ultimate Investing Toolkit Sign up for MarketBeat All Access to gain access to MarketBeat's full suite of research tools: Portfolio Monitoring Top Stock Lists Premium Reports Stock Screeners Live News Feed Premium Support Free for your first month. In a chat with India Today, Fadnavis spoke about his government's achievements, challenges before him and the BJP's souring ties with ruling partner Shiv Sena. By Kiran Tare: The meeting hall outside Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis' chamber at his official residence 'Varsha' in Mumbai's up market Malbar Hill houses two interesting things. One is a standee on which a poem and few sentences are written in Hindi. The sentence quotes Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had advised Fadnavis to work for betterment of the people and not just for the sake of saving the government. advertisement The other one is a mural gifted by a Pune-based farmer Sampat Gade for announcing loan waiver to the farmers. These things resonate Fadnavis' mood as he is completing three years in office on October 31. In a chat with India Today, Fadnavis spoke about his government's achievements, challenges before him and the BJP's souring ties with ruling partner Shiv Sena. Q. At 6.5 per cent, Maharashtra's industrial growth rate is at lowest in last three years. Do you think demonetisation was a reason for it? A. This is a figure before demonetisation was announced. I am hopeful the figure will improve in next quarter. Q. There are complaints that Maharashtra is lagging behind fetching investment. What is your say? A. Fact is Maharashtra has regained its numero uno position in fetching foreign direct investment. A NITI Ayog report says we have fetched an FDI of Rs 1,29,000 crore this year, highest in the country. A report by Singapore-based Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy states in its survey that Maharashtra is the most competent state for FDI. Q. Maharashtra's growth rate was higher because of service sector but this sector is too facing slow down because of GST. What is your take? A. The slow down phase is over. I was with a top industrialist yesterday. He said his company had stopped production of one of its popular products because the GST will soon be cut down. Like him, majority of the companies are clearing their stocks. They will restart production when GST will be lowered soon. All of them have registered multifold growth in their business. Q. Your thrust is on development of urban infrastructure. Do you have enough funds to start them? A. The work has already started with provision of enough funds. We have received loan from Japan for Trans Harbour Link and Mumbai Metro projects. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) too is providing us loan. We are building the Navi Mumbai airport through private partnership. First terminal and first runway of the airport will be operational by 2019. Q. You had signed MoUs of Rs 8 lakh crore in the 'Make in India' conclave in 2015. How many of them have translated into investment? A. There are many. Let me point that the NITI Ayog report states that the national conversion rate of MoU to investment is 30 per cent. In Maharashtra, it is 44 per cent. It takes time for land allotment and construction approvals. It is evident that the investors have shown trust in Maharashtra. advertisement Q. Why did you agree to bear half the burden of the bullet train project even though it will benefit Gujarat more? A. It is a wrong perception. The bullet train project has a vast scope for growth in GDP. We don't have to return any loan amount for the first 20 years. I am sure after 20 years we will be in a strong financial position to pay any loan. We will pay Rs 6 crore as monthly interest. This amount is lesser than what we spend on the local trains in Mumbai. In our country, only four per cent passengers travel by flights whereas 55 per cent travel by trains. Then why do we insist on building more and more airports? The infrastructure development certainly leads to economic growth. Q. You seem to be uncomfortable on the political front as your ruling partner Shiv Sena is not sparing a single opportunity to criticise you. A. Some of their leaders have become habitual of criticising everything they see in the government. They are not at all benefited because of their statements. I tell them, if you want credit you also have to take discredit. I will react to the Shiv Sena's criticism only if Uddhav Thackeray makes any statement in this regard. advertisement Q. Has Shiv Sena threatened to part ways if you induct (former Shiv Sena leader) Narayan Rane in the Cabinet? A. Not at all. Rane is already a part of NDA. He will become minister from BJP's quota. He is joining us after spending 10 years in Congress. Shiv Sena should not have any issue with it. We want to go ahead with the Shiv Sena but they should accept the fact who is a bigger party. I do not believe in big brother but the people decide which party is bigger. Q. Sharad Pawar criticises you widely but you seem comfortable with him. Why? A. Pawar meets me regularly. Many people give him memorandums. He comes to me along with them and discusses their issues. We never discuss politics at our meetings. But the media declares we discuss politics. Both of us enjoy the reports. advertisement ALSO WATCH | Devendra Fadnavis govt's 3-year anniversary in Maharashtra: Where are the Achche Din, Mr CM? --- ENDS --- Trump's former campaign chairman and former business associate have surrendered to federal authorities over charges of colluding with Russia. By AP: President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a former business associate, Rick Gates, have surrendered to federal authorities on Monday, according to reports and a person familiar with the matter. The charges are the first in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. The New York Times on Monday reported that Manafort and Gates were ordered to surrender, citing an anonymous person involved in the case. The Associated Press confirmed that Gates would turn himself in. advertisement Gates is expected in court to face charges later in the day, a person familiar with the investigation told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss an ongoing federal probe on the record. The White House declined to comment. Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to tip the 2016 presidential election. Manafort has been one of Mueller's prime targets. Earlier this year, FBI agents raided Manafort's home, searching for tax and international banking records. Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. That investigation was incorporated into Mueller's broader probe. In Gates, Mueller brings in not just Manafort's chief deputy, but a key player from Trump's campaign who survived past Manafort's ouster last summer. As of two weeks ago, Gates was still working for Tom Barrack, a Trump confidant, helping with the closeout of the inauguration committee's campaign account. --- ENDS --- Asus is bringing its Zenfone 4 line of smartphones to North America, with prices ranging from $169 to $599 depending on the model. The mid-range Zenfone 4 ($399) and premium Zenfone 4 Pro ($599) are probably the most interesting models when you look at the price-to-spec ratio. Just dont expect to get any newfangled design features like slim bezels: these new phones wouldnt have turned heads if theyd launched in 2015. But its whats on the inside that counts, so lets take a look at what you get with each of these new phones. The Asus Zenfone 4 has solid mid-range specs and a competitive price: a $399 itll go head-to-head with the Moto X4 and other mid-range phones, but the Asus Zenfone 4 has more memory and storage than Motorolas similarly-priced phone. Its features include: 5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel Super IPS+ LCD display (600 nit brightness) Qualcomm Snapdragon 630 processor with Adreno 508 graphics 4GB RAM 64GB storage Dual rear cameras (12MP Sony IMX362 + 8MP 120 degree wide-angle) 8MP front-facing 84-degree camera Front fingerprint sensor 802.11a/b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, and LTE Cat 12 Dual SIM + microSD card reader Android N + Asus ZenUI 4.0 USB 2.0 Type-C 3,300 mAh battery Dual speakers Take the basic idea of the Zenfone 4 and then improve just about everything about it and youve got the Pro model, which includes: 5.5 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel AMOLED display (500 nits brightness) Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor with Adreno 540 graphics) 6GB RAM 64GB storage Dual rear cameras (12MP Sony IMX362 + 16MB Sony IMX351 2X optical zoom) 8MP front-facing Sony IMX319 87 degree camera Front fingerprint sensor 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ad WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, and LTE Cat 12 Dual SIM + microSD card Android N + Asus ZenUI 4.0 USB 2.0 Type-C 3,600 mAh battery Dual speakers Confusingly, Asus has two phones called the Zenfone 4 Max. Both have big batteries, but the larger model has a bigger one, plus a bigger display, a faster processor, more memory, and storage. But it doesnt cost much more. 5.5 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel IPS display Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 processor + Adreno 505 graphics 3GB of RAM 32GB of storage Dual rear cameras (13MP + 5MP 120 degree wide-angle camera) 8MP front camera with 85 degree field of view and LED flash Front fingerprint sensor 802.11b/g/n WiFi (2.4 GHz), Bluetooth 4.1, and LTE Cat 4 Dual SIM + microSD card slot Micro USB 2.0 port 5,000 mAh battery $199 5.2 inch, 1280 x 720 pixel IPS display Qualcomm Snapdragon 425 processor + Adreno 308 graphics 2GB of RAM 16GB of storage Dual rear cameras (13MP + 120 degree wide-angle camera) 8MP front camera with 85 degree field of view and LED flash Front fingerprint sensor 802.11b/g/n WiFi (2.4 GHz), Bluetooth 4.1, and LTE Cat 4 Dual SIM + microSD card slot Micro USB 2.0 port 4,100 mAh battery $169 Technically the Zenfone 4 Max was the first of these phones to launch in North America. The larger model launched last month. But now youve got more choices. Press Release (HealthDay)Acetaminophen is considered the go-to pain medication during pregnancy. But a new study adds to evidence linking the drug to an increased risk of behavioral issues in kids. Researchers in Norway found that among nearly 113,000 children, those whose mothers used acetaminophen during pregnancy were slightly more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The link was, however, confined to longer-term useparticularly a month or longer. When moms used acetaminophen for 29 days or more during pregnancy, their kids were twice as likely to be diagnosed with ADHD, versus women who did not use the drug. On the other hand, when expectant moms used the drug for a week or less, their kids showed a slightly decreased risk of ADHD. Acetaminophen is best known by the brand name Tylenol, but it's an active ingredient in many pain relievers. The new study, led by researcher Eivind Ystrom from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo, is not the first to suggest a connection between prenatal acetaminophen and ADHD. But experts said it's still hard to definitively pin the blame on the medication. "That's the dilemma," said Christina Chambers, co-director of the Center for Better Beginnings at the University of California, San Diego. Around half of pregnant women use acetaminophen at some point, so it's important to understand any risks, according to Chambers, who was not involved in the study. But with a study like this, she explained, it's difficult to know whether factors other than acetaminophen are to blameincluding the underlying conditions the women had. According to the study researchers, longer-term use was tied to ADHD whether women used it for pain, fevers or infections. But if a woman was using the medications for weeks to treat a fever or infection, that indicates she was quite ill, Chambers pointed out. And if she took the drug for chronic pain, Chambers said, that raises the question of what effects the pain condition could have on her pregnancy. For now, Chambers stressed that pregnant women should not be scared off from using acetaminophen for a feversince an untreated fever could carry risks. "The last thing we'd want, heading into flu season, is for women not to use acetaminophen to get a fever down," she said. "This study," Chambers added, "suggests that if there is a causal association between acetaminophen and ADHD, it's with more-chronic use." Overall, more than 2,200 children in the study were diagnosed with ADHDor about 2 percent of the whole group. The risk was just over twofold higher among kids whose mothers had used acetaminophen for 29 days or more during pregnancy. Why would the medication affect ADHD risk? There are potential "biologically plausible" explanations, Chambers said. The drug might, for instance, interfere with maternal hormones that are important for fetal brain development. But even if long-term acetaminophen does influence ADHD development, Chambers said, this study suggests it's a "modest" effect. "The risk to any one woman would be small," she said. That said, Chambers pointed to a bigger-picture issue: Very few drugs have actually been studied in pregnant women, and fairly little is known about the safety of using any medication prenatally. The study was published online Oct. 30 in the journal Pediatrics. Dr. Mark Wolraich, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, wrote an editorial accompanying the study. He agreed that the study points only to an association between acetaminophen and ADHD, which might reflect a "third factor" at play, such as the underlying condition that caused the women to take the drug. Plus, Wolraich explained, many factors might affect the development of ADHD. The evidence is "much stronger" for a familial influence, since the disorder tends to run in families, he noted. Still, Wolraich said, pregnant women may want to be "overly cautious" about using acetaminophen for any extended time. He suggested that women talk their doctor before using any medications. More information: Christina Chambers, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor, department of pediatrics, and co-director, Center for Better Beginnings, University of California, San Diego; Mark Wolraich, M.D., professor, pediatrics, Child Study Center, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City; Oct. 30, 2017, Pediatrics, online Christina Chambers, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor, department of pediatrics, and co-director, Center for Better Beginnings, University of California, San Diego; Mark Wolraich, M.D., professor, pediatrics, Child Study Center, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City; Oct. 30, 2017,, online The nonprofit Organization of Teratology Information Specialists has more on medication use during pregnancy. Journal information: Pediatrics Copyright 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved. A new endoscopic system powered by artificial intelligence (AI) has today been shown to automatically identify colorectal adenomas during colonoscopy. The system, developed in Japan, has recently been tested in one of the first prospective trials of AI-assisted endoscopy in a clinical setting, with the results presented today at the 25th UEG Week in Barcelona, Spain. AI-assisted endocytoscopy - how it works: The new computer-aided diagnostic system uses an endocytoscopic image - a 500-fold magnified view of a colorectal polyp - to analyse approximately 300 features of the polyp after applying narrow-band imaging (NBI) mode or staining with methylene blue. The system compares the features of each polyp against more than 30,000 endocytoscopic images that were used for machine learning, allowing it to predict the lesion pathology in less than a second. Preliminary studies demonstrated the feasibility of using such a system to classify colorectal polyps, however, until today, no prospective studies have been reported. Prospective study in routine practice: The prospective study, led by Dr Yuichi Mori from Showa University in Yokohama, Japan, involved 250 men and women in whom colorectal polyps had been detected using endocytoscopy. The AI-assisted system was used to predict the pathology of each polyp and those predictions were compared with the pathological report obtained from the final resected specimens. Overall, 306 polyps were assessed real-time by using the AI-assisted system, providing a sensitivity of 94%, specificity of 79%, accuracy of 86%, and positive and negative predictive values of 79% and 93% respectively, in identifying neoplastic changes. Speaking at the Opening Plenary at UEG Week, Dr Mori explained; "The most remarkable breakthrough with this system is that artificial intelligence enables real-time optical biopsy of colorectal polyps during colonoscopy, regardless of the endoscopists' skill. This allows the complete resection of adenomatous polyps and prevents unnecessary polypectomy of non-neoplastic polyps." "We believe these results are acceptable for clinical application and our immediate goal is to obtain regulatory approval for the diagnostic system" added Dr Mori. Moving forwards, the research team is now undertaking a multicentre study for this purpose and the team are also working on developing an automatic polyp detection system. "Precise on-site identification of adenomas during colonoscopy contributes to the complete resection of neoplastic lesions" said Dr Mori. "This is thought to decrease the risk of colorectal cancer and, ultimately, cancer-related death." More information: 1. Mori Y, Kudo S-E, Misawa M et al. Diagnostic yield of "artificial intelligence"-assisted endocytoscopy for colorectal polyps: a prospective study. Presented at UEG Week Barcelona 2017. 1. Mori Y, Kudo S-E, Misawa M et al. Diagnostic yield of "artificial intelligence"-assisted endocytoscopy for colorectal polyps: a prospective study. Presented at UEG Week Barcelona 2017. 2. Mori Y, Kudo SE, Chiu PW et al. Impact of an automated system for endocytoscopic diagnosis of small colorectal lesions: an international web-based study. Endoscopy 2016;48(12):1110-18. 3. Misawa M, Kudo SE, Mori Y, et al. Characterization of colorectal lesions using a computer-aided diagnostic system for narrow-band imaging endocytoscopy. Gastroenterology 2016;150(7):1531-32. Journal information: Gastroenterology Provided by United European Gastroenterology (HealthDay)A leading group of U.S. pediatricians is encouraging parents to donate to public cord blood banks after the birth of their children. The past decade has seen an increase in the use of umbilical cord blood for stem cell transplants that can save children with fatal or debilitating diseases, the American Academy of Pediatrics says in a new policy statement. "Most parents will never need cord blood for their own family's use, but they can donate this precious lifesaving gift to benefit others," said statement lead author Dr. William Shearer. He is a professor of pediatrics and immunology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "We expect the need for these therapies that rely on stem cell transplantation to grow, and would like families to understand the choices they have," he said in an academy news release. Cord blood is an excellent source of stem cells. It's taken from the placenta of healthy newborns and used most often in stem cell transplantations to treat fatal diseases such as cancer, blood disorders and immune deficiencies, the doctors' group says. Donating cord blood is safe for the baby and doesn't interfere with labor and delivery, according to the statement. By 2013, more than 30,000 stem cell transplants had been performed worldwide using cord blood. Parents must register in advance to donate cord blood so that a collection kit can be sent for use after the baby's delivery. Because of this, doctors should talk with expectant parents about a donation during an early prenatal visit, the AAP says. "The research is evolving in this area, which is exciting news for patients whose lives may someday depend on a donation of cord blood," Shearer said. "The hope is that more doctors will discuss the options with expectant parents well in advance of their baby's birth, so they understand the tremendous potential to help others in medical need." The statement authors also distinguish between public cord blood banks, which match individuals in need worldwide, and private ones. Private cord blood banks store cord blood for a donor family's own use, if needed, "although there is little evidence supporting this use unless a family shares a known genetic defect," the statement says. Also, while there's no charge for donating to a public cord blood bank, private operations charge an initial fee of $1,350 to $2,300. The private banks' yearly maintenance charges range from $100 to $175. The statement was published online Oct. 30 in the journal Pediatrics. More information: The National Marrow Donor Program has more on Journal information: Pediatrics The National Marrow Donor Program has more on cord blood Copyright 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved. (HealthDay)Kids may encounter some scary surprises on Halloween, but they shouldn't get injured while they go trick-or-treating. However, U.S. emergency departments reported more than 700,000 Halloween-related injuries involving children and teens between 2007 and 2016. In many cases, kids are sustaining head or hand injuries, according to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. "It's essential that parents talk to kids about the importance of safety while trick-or-treating in their neighborhoods," said Dr. Louise Reid Boyce Nichols, a pediatric orthopaedic surgeon in Wilmington, Del. "A common danger is traffic. Both children and adults should always be aware of their surroundings, avoid distracted walking and watch out for traffic," Nichols noted in a news release from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). There are several ways children, teens and parents can avoid injuries on Halloween. Experts from the AAOS and the Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America recommend the following: Stick to sidewalks. Avoid cutting across people's yards or driveways. It's also important to always obey traffic signals and use crosswalks when crossing the street. Avoid cutting across people's yards or driveways. It's also important to always obey traffic signals and use crosswalks when crossing the street. Be visible. Adding reflective tape to costumes and goodie bags can help make sure cars and other pedestrians can see you. Dressing children in brightly colored costumes also makes them more visible once the sun goes down. Adding reflective tape to costumes and goodie bags can help make sure cars and other pedestrians can see you. Dressing children in brightly colored costumes also makes them more visible once the sun goes down. Consider costume safety. Children and teens should not wear masks, face paint, hats or other accessories that block their vision. Costumes should also be flame-resistant. Make sure children wear costumes that fit. Wearing clothing that is too long or big increases the likelihood that children will trip and fall. Children and teens should not wear masks, face paint, hats or other accessories that block their vision. Costumes should also be flame-resistant. Make sure children wear costumes that fit. Wearing clothing that is too long or big increases the likelihood that children will trip and fall. Pick the right shoes. Trick-or-treaters should wear comfortable, sturdy shoes they can walk in without slipping or falling. Trick-or-treaters should wear comfortable, sturdy shoes they can walk in without slipping or falling. Skip dark houses. Remind trick-or-treaters to only approach houses that are well-lit. Remind trick-or-treaters to only approach houses that are well-lit. Bring a flashlight. Children and parents should carry flashlights to ensure they can see and be seen on Halloween. Flashlights should not be pointed above chest height. This can block the vision of drivers or pedestrians. Children and parents should carry flashlights to ensure they can see and be seen on Halloween. Flashlights should not be pointed above chest height. This can block the vision of drivers or pedestrians. Be mindful of pets. Dogs and other pets may be anxious if strangers approach their house. Dogs and other pets may be anxious if strangers approach their house. Don't forget a phone. Children or a supervising adult should carry a cellphone while trick-or-treating, in case of an emergency. Children or a supervising adult should carry a cellphone while trick-or-treating, in case of an emergency. Don't let kids go out alone. Children should always be supervised by a responsible adult. More information: The American Academy of Pediatrics offers more The American Academy of Pediatrics offers more Halloween safety tips Copyright 2017 HealthDay. All rights reserved. According to reports, Prince Narula has been working on the concept of the show, which is similar to Splitsvilla. By India Today Web Desk: Ex-Bigg Boss contestant Prince Narula and Yuvika Choudhary are all set to host a new reality show on MTV. According to reports, Prince has been preparing the groundwork for the show which will be on the lines of Splitsvilla. TellyChakkar.com quoted a source as saying, "The show is in the initial stages. The GEC wants to encash on the popularity of the admired duo, Prince and Yuvika and hence brought on board Prince's brainchild, which is along the lines of MTV Splitsvilla. The name of the series has not yet been finalized." The program is expected to go on-air by the start of next year. The two had first met each other on the sets of the reality show Bigg Boss. advertisement The two had first met each other on the sets of the reality show Bigg Boss. Prince and Yuvika had also appeared together in a music video of the former called Hello hello. --- ENDS --- At the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan, a two-year project from Andrea Benucci's research group has culminated in the construction and deployment of a high-throughput system to study mouse behavior and physiology. The system aims to deliver larger, standardized datasets, a reduction in the number of experimental animals, and time-savings through complete automation. Behavioral neurosciencestudying vision or cognition in mice, for examplealways entails training animals to do experimental tasks, like pushing a button to indicate a preference or demonstrate a memory. Training can take months, a full-time job for one or multiple researchers. In addition, mice can get stressed from being handled by experimenters, and training and experiments vary from lab to lab. "It is hard to compare data across labs and even within the same lab, and we waste a lot of person-hours getting comparatively little data," says Benucci. His longstanding goal has been to comprehensively address these issues. Collaborating with Japanese laboratory equipment manufacturer O'hara & Co. Ltd., Benucci designed and built an automated experimental platform, details of which have been published in Nature Communications on October 30. Without any human intervention, mice can engage in behavioral training tasks at-will, and a single system can operate around the clock, training four or more mice per day. With multiple setups and mouse cages stacked in what resembles a row of server racks, the system has already been used to safely train 100 mice. "Previously, training just one mouse took about 15 hours of a researcher's time," Benucci estimates. "Now, with twelve setups we are down to less than one-and-a-half hours." Mice enter the apparatus to receive liquid rewards for doing visual or auditory discrimination tasks. They rotate a small toy wheel with their front paws to indicate a decision, for example whether they can hear a tone or not. Crucially, mice learn to self-stabilize their heads, which gives the system a great deal of experimental versatility and represents a significant advance from existing attempts at automating rodent training. Because mice learn to self-direct and become familiar with the system, and it is modular, the experimental possibilities extend beyond studying mouse behavior to real-time brain imaging and physiology. "Normally we see a decline in mouse performance or other incompatibilities when moving from highly-trained behaviors to different types of experiments for brain recordings, but that doesn't happen with our system," says Benucci. The self-learned head stabilization is key for collecting high-fidelity physiology data, and the paper also shows that two-photon microscopy of the brains of trained mice engaging in complex behavioral tasks is a seamless extension of the system. The high-throughput neuroscience platform has been patented by RIKEN, one of Japan's national science institutes, and Benucci hopes it will be widely adopted nationally and internationally. "Standard hardware and training protocols across labs that do not require the experimenter's intervention can go a long way to addressing data reproducibility in science," says Benucci, "and in neuroscience in particular there is a pressing need for large, shareable datasets to validate findings and push the field forward." More information: Ryo Aoki et al, An automated platform for high-throughput mouse behavior and physiology with voluntary head-fixation, Nature Communications (2017). Journal information: Nature Communications Ryo Aoki et al, An automated platform for high-throughput mouse behavior and physiology with voluntary head-fixation,(2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01371-0 Lori Wallace sits on a couch with her 11-year-old son and his new pet snake. It burrows under his armpit, as if afraid. Wallace is sure it's not. "If he was terrified, he would be balled up," Wallace said. "See, that is why they are called ball pythons. When they are scared, they turn into a little ball." Wallace is dying of breast cancer, but a stranger wouldn't know. She has a pixie haircut and a warm tan. She is vibrant and chatty and looks you right in the eyes when she talks. Wallace doesn't shy away from what is happening to her. She shows me her cracked feet. They bleed from the chemotherapy pills she takes. As Wallace's cancer has progressed over the past seven years, she has become more critical of what she sees as excessive positivity in health care marketing. It's everywhere: TV ads, radio commercials, billboards. The advertisements feature happy, healed patients and tell stories of miraculous recoveries. The messages are optimistic, about people beating steep odds. The ads spread false hope, Wallace said, and for a patient like her, they are a slap in the face. A couple of decades ago, hospitals and clinics did not advertise much to customers. Now, they are spending more and more each year on marketing, according to university professors who study advertising. Wallace, who lives in San Jose, Calif., said she used to be a hopeful person, someone who believed you could fight through any misfortune. Then she was diagnosed with breast cancer at 39. Her son was 4 at the time. She couldn't believe it. She is now in her fifth round of chemotherapy and it makes her brain foggy, she said. Her stage 4 cancer has spread throughout her body. It's going to kill her, she said. "The median survival of a woman with metastatic breast cancer is 33 months," Wallace said. "My 33 months would have been Dec. 6 last year. So I am on bonus time right now." Wallace pulled up an ad on her computer from UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, in San Francisco. An announcer intones, "Amid a thousand maybes and a million nos, we believe in the profound and unstoppable power of yes." There is a similar kind of optimism at the heart of a lot of the ad campaigns by health care providers - with slogans like "Thrive" and "Smile Out." Wallace said the subtext of the ads is that people like her - who get sick and will die - maybe just aren't being positive enough. "I didn't say 'yes' to cancer," Wallace said. "I have tried everything I can. I have done clinical trials. I have said 'yes' to every possible treatment. And the cancer doesn't care." Karuna Jaggar is executive director of Breast Cancer Action. She said health care providers are following in the footsteps of other companies. "It's the basics of marketing," Jaggar said. "In order to sell products or services, you have to sell hope." She said health care advertisers are adopting the kind of optimistic messaging that really began in force with the pink ribbons and rosy depictions of breast cancer. "Thirty years ago, breast cancer was the poster child of positive thinking," Jaggar said. " 'Look good, feel better, don't let breast cancer get you down. Fight strong and be cheerful while you do it.' " Back then, health care providers marketed to physicians more than consumers. The ads were drier, more factual, said Guy David, an economist and professor of health care management at the University of Pennsylvania. "When the ads are more consumer-facing as opposed to professional-facing, the content tends to be more passionate," David said. The hospital ads Wallace objects to tug at emotions, just like other advertising that is trying to win over consumers. With increasing health care costs and choices, patients are shopping around for care. These days hospitals have to sell themselves, said Tim Calkins, a professor of marketing at Northwestern University. "Right now in health care, if you don't have some leverage, if you don't have a brand people care about, if you don't have a reason for people to pick you over competitors - well, then you are in a really tough spot," he said. Hospitals are spending more than ever on advertising, he said, and, as with other products, that advertising is filled with lots of promises. He noted that you don't see the same promises in the pharmaceutical industry. Their ads are regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, which is why they have to list side effects and show scientific backing for their claims. "Hospitals aren't held to any of those (FDA) standards at all," Calkins said. "So a hospital can go out and say, 'This is where miracles happen. And here's Joe. Joe was about to die. And now Joe is going to live forever.'" Lori Wallace is not going to live forever. Before cancer, she said, she would have been attracted to the messages of hope. But now, she craves realism - acceptance of both the world's beauty and its harshness. She wrote an essay about that for the women in her breast cancer support group. The essay is titled "F(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK)(ASTERISK) Silver Linings and Pink Ribbons." Wallace reads the whole piece aloud, from start to finish, sitting at her kitchen table. Her son is nearby with his pet snake. Toward the middle of the essay, Wallace writes, "My ovaries are gone, and without them my skin is aging at hyperspeed. I have hot flashes and cold flashes. My bones ache. My libido is shot and my vagina is a desert." The essay is open, funny and unflinching, just like Wallace. She reads the final paragraph: "I will try to be thankful for every laugh, hug and kiss, and other things, too. That is, if my chemo-brain allows me to remember." "That's what I wrote," Wallace said. "That's what I wrote. Brutal honesty." 2017 Kaiser Health News Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Using more than 100 measuring points across the scalp, EEG displays brain functions with millisecond accuracy. Credit: Petteri Kivimaki After their first year of life, infants' perception of phonemic contrasts usually becomes more specialised and adapted to their lingual environment, and they lose perceptual sensitivity to phonemic contrasts irrelevant in this respect. This phonemic specialisation is known to be important for early language development. Whether this specialisation process is still relevant at school age was examined in a recent joint study by the University of Jyvaskyla and Yale University. Comparison of brain event-related potentials between Finnish and English phoneme contrasts showed clear response patterns. In English speaking children from the United States, a strong brain response to foreign language contrasts was associated with poorer reading skills. No such associations were found for the English language contrasts in the English speakers or in the Finnish speakers for the phonemic contrasts of either language. "The result for the Finnish children is not surprising, as Finnish children are exposed to spoken English on a daily basis and therefore English phonemes are fairly familiar to them already at the age of 10 to 12 years," says researcher Jarmo Hamalainen from the Department of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, Finland. These results confirm the idea that perceptual specialisation to the phonemes significant in one's lingual environment supports not only the language development of children but also reading skills acquisition. The finding of a stronger response to consonant length contrasts (important in the Finnish language) in the English-speaking children with poorer reading skills suggests that deficiencies in the specialisation process for speech sound perception can affect reading skills acquisition at school. The findings are an important step in understanding the causes of reading problems and also in understanding the development of reading skills in general. The study involved 10- to 12-year-old children from Finland and 5- to 12-year-old children from the United States. They participated in reading skills tests and EEG recordings. EEG was recorded in response to English phonemic contrasts of place of articulation (ba, da, ga) and to Finnish phonemic contrasts of consonant length (ata, atta). More information: Jarmo Hamalainen et al. Brain event-related potentials to phoneme contrasts and their correlation to reading skills in school-age children, International Journal of Behavioral Development (2017). Jarmo Hamalainen et al. Brain event-related potentials to phoneme contrasts and their correlation to reading skills in school-age children,(2017). DOI: 10.1177/0165025417728582 Provided by University of Jyvaskyla A dying cancer cell with filopodia stretched out to its right. The protrusions help cancer migrate. Stock NIH NCMIR image. The image does not display a cell treated in the Georgia Tech study. Credit: NIH-funded image of HeLa cell / National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research / Thomas Deerinck / Mark Ellisman. Use may require permission. Here's an open invitation to steal. It goes out to cancer fighters and tempts them with a new program that predicts cancer drug effectiveness via machine learning and raw genetic data. The researchers who built the program at the Georgia Institute of Technology would like cancer fighters to take it for free, or even just swipe parts of their programming code, so they've made it open source. They hope to attract a crowd of researchers who will also share their own cancer and computer expertise and data to improve upon the program and save more lives together. The researchers' invitation to take their code is also a gauntlet. They're challenging others to come beat them at their own game and help hone a formidable software tool for the greater good. Not only the labor but also the fruits will remain openly accessible to benefit the treatment of patients as best possible. "We don't want to hold the code or data for ourselves or make profits with this," said John McDonald, the director of Georgia Tech's Integrated Cancer Research Center. "We want to keep this wide open so it will spread." Researchers wanting to participate can follow this link to a new study published on October 26, 2017, in the journal PLOS One. There they will find links to download the software from GitHub and to access the code. They'll start out with a current program that has been about 85% accurate in assessing treatment effectiveness of nine drugs across the genetic data of 273 cancer patients. The study by McDonald and collaborator Fredrik Vannberg details how and why. "Nine drugs are in the published study, but we've actually run about 120 drugs through the program all total," said Vannberg, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech's School of Biological Sciences. The program uses proven machine learning mechanisms and also normalizes data. The latter allows the machine learning to work with data from varying sources by making them compatible. Ovarian cancer cells stained blue under the microscope. Credit: Georgia Tech / McDonald And the researchers have reduced human bias about which data are important for predicting outcomes. "It's much more effective to put in loads of raw data and let the algorithm sort it out," McDonald said. "It's looking for correlations, not causes, so it's not good to preselect data for what you suspect are most relevant." One big bias the researchers tossed out was a concentration only on gene expression data pertaining to the specific type of cancer they were aiming to treat. "It turns out that it's better to give the program data from a broad diversity of cancers, and that will actually later give a better prediction of drug effectiveness for a specific cancer like breast cancer," Vannberg said. "On a molecular level, some breast cancers, for example, are going to be more similar to some ovarian cancers than to other breast cancers," McDonald said. "We just let the algorithm work with about everything we had, and we got high accuracy." The researchers also want the project to pool large amounts of anonymous patient treatment success and failure data, which will help the program optimize predictions for everyone's benefit. But that doesn't mean some companies can't benefit, too. "If a company comes along and makes profits while using the program to help patients, that's fine, and there's no obligation to give back to the project," said McDonald, who is also a professor in Georgia Tech's School of Biological Sciences. "Others may just take if they so please." But hopefully, most players will catch the spirit of kindness. "With our project, we're advertising that sharing should be what everybody does," Vannberg said. "This can be a win for everybody, but really it's a win for the cancer patients." More information: Cai Huang et al. Open source machine-learning algorithms for the prediction of optimal cancer drug therapies, PLOS ONE (2017). Journal information: PLoS ONE Cai Huang et al. Open source machine-learning algorithms for the prediction of optimal cancer drug therapies,(2017). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0186906 Important stuff you won't get from the liberal media! We do the surfing so you can be informed AND have a life! Comsol plans to launch South Africas first 5G wireless network using bandwidth it has access to in high-frequency spectrum. Its plan has caused a stir within the mobile and fixed-wireless industry, as the standards defining 5G will only be authorised in 2020. The International Telecommunication Union is still accepting proposals for 5G standards. From the end of 2018, proposals will be evaluated and IMT-2020, or 5G, will be defined. This has not stopped industry players which feel that enough is known to get ready for the new technology, however. Manufacturers have much to gain by pushing the new technology, and Nokia and Qualcomm have demonstrated what they believe the technology will be capable of. Requirements the ITU has laid down for 5G include: Spectrum Efficiency must be 3x better than IMT-Advanced. The peak data rate must be better by a factor of 20. Area Traffic Capacity must be 100 better than IMT-Advanced. The standard must work while travelling at 500km/h. Network Energy Efficiency must be 100 better. Latency must be 1 millisecond. Connection density must be 1 million connections per square kilometre. Is it 5G? Considering the requirements above, is Comsol confident its trial network will be 5G by 2020? Were engaging vendors that have released pre-5G fixed-wireless access solutions with full roadmaps to 5G ratification, said Comsol CEO Iain Stevenson. There are compliance delays at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and these are causing uncertainty around 5G ratification in South Africa, he said. Europe is very far behind with respect to 5G standards, so we are looking towards the US and Asia for technology to use in South Africa. Stevenson said they are not certain yet that the 5G requirements will be met. Being pre-5G, part of our trial will be to test the performance in real-world conditions. Preliminary studies indicate that with our spectrum, capacities of 30Gbps per base station 10Gbps per sector is feasible. Towers Stevenson said they will test the technology on towers on their open access network. They have over 200 towers in nine provinces, and these cover major cities and many suburbs. Comsols network currently runs on spectrum in the 28GHz band, which Stevenson said is suited to deploy fixed-wireless access solutions. It plans to use a significant chunk of bandwidth for its pre-5G network 280MHz in the 28GHz band. One of the concerns when using high-frequency spectrum is that it offers a smaller footprint than frequencies used for LTE technology with poor indoor penetration. 28GHz has proven suitable to reflections rather than penetration, lending itself to massive [multiple input, multiple output configurations] and antenna arrays, said Stevenson. The propagation limits of the frequency paired with the technology also means they will be limited to a range of 1km-2km from a site. For that reason, we are investigating small-cell solutions in addition to macro solutions to mitigate cost and penetration limits. He added that the recent storms in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal proved the 28GHz band is less impacted by rain than most carriers would let the industry believe. Price Stevenson said they expect the price of their service to be similar to that of small-cell LTE, as infrastructure costs are comparable. This will allow Comsol to compete with fibre-to-the-home services, he said. They will have to supply proprietary terminal equipment in businesses and homes, which must be installed by qualified technicians. This is until 5G ratification is completed, said Stevenson. Now read: Qualcomm achieves 5G connection with chip for mobile devices The company told the newspaper that the issue was the designing of a basic platform tentatively named Spasatel (Rescuer). According to Izvestia, the vehicle has a weight of nearly 600 t, a length of 93 m and a wingspan of 71 m. The decision in favor of a heavy GEV was made, as such platforms can fly at Level 5-6 sea state. The mockups of the Spasatel have passed the trials in the aerodynamic tunnel of the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute in Zhukov sky near Moscow and in a special pool. The experts have made positive conclusion, the technical plan has been maintained, and the manufacturing cooperation has been established. A full-scale mockup fitted with a cockpit and operators` workplaces is planned to be assembled. The Samara-based Kuznetsov company will develop a powerplant for the Spasatel. The prototypes for the static and dynamic trials will have to be produced. The vehicle is planned to make its flight in 2022-2023 and to finish the trials in 2025. The Spasatel`s range is expected to be several thousand kilometers, and the vehicle will be able to land at both sea surface and ground. To this end, it will be fitted with wheel landing gear and an advanced mechanization of the wing. The Soviet-age GEVs were not equipped with chassis and could land only at sea surfaces, like hydroplanes. Therefore, their exploitation was limited. The new vehicles may come into an active use in the Arctic region and the Pacific. In the framework of the Belgian/Dutch MCM capability replacement programme, Thales intends relying on its multi domain pedigree to offer state-of-the-art solutions in MCM: mission system integration and naval combat system. This will ensure a strong level of local industry involvement in terms of system development as well as future system support, combined with a very high level of operational efficiency. Since 2016, Thales has been performing a number of successful demonstrations involving its HALCYON USV towing its Towed Synthetic Aperture Sonar (TSAS) off the North Sea Coast of Zeebrugge in Belgium and in Northern Scotland for the Royal Navy Unmanned Warrior exercises. At the end of the 2016 trials in Belgium, Thales was already very well assessed for detection performance against all mine types. Thales is the prime contractor of the MMCM programme, the only European project aimed at developing concretely a prototype autonomous system for detection and neutralisation of sea mines and underwater improvised explosive devices, under a cooperation agreement between France and the United Kingdom. ETCHMIADZIN. Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II on Wednesday headed to the US on a patriarchal visit, and on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Church of the country. The Catholicos will chair several events devoted to this anniversary and pay visits in Los Angeles, Information Services of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. Separately, on October 30, Karekin II will pay a one-day visit to Mexico, where he will meet with the local Armenian community, and attend a special interchurch ceremony in memory of the victims of the earthquake that recently hit Mexico City. By PTI: Melbourne, Oct 30 (PTI) Scientists have mapped priority areas around the world, including parts of India, to protect thousands of mammal species, with a focus on species with few close relatives. A study led by researchers at Australian National University (ANU) used maps of about 4,700 land mammals habitats, and information on how species are related to each other, to identify important places across the world for protecting the worlds mammal diversity. advertisement The study identified the top places in every continent, including parts of coastal Queensland, Australian deserts near Alice Springs, Sumatra and Java, Madagascar, India, China and Spain. "Habitat loss is a major threat to the worlds mammal species - over 1,000 mammal species are already threatened," said Dan Rosauer from the ANU Research School of Biology. He said targeting conservation efforts in areas that provided the most benefit was critical, because resources - particularly land and money - were limited. "Scientists have often focused on the number of species in a protected area, but studies like this one consider the degree to which the family tree of life is well represented," said Rosauer, who led the study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "This study seeks to protect all land mammals, but it gives top priority to species with no close relatives, because if they were lost there would be nothing like them left. "This is the first time that anyone has mapped these priority areas for conserving the diversity of mammal evolution along with minimum target areas for habitat protection," said Rosauer. "People are already working on these challenges, but by using this cutting-edge genetic information we can make far better decisions, protecting up to 32 per cent more of the diversity of the mammal tree of life through better use of limited resources," he said. Animals with few close relatives include the echidna and platypus in Australia, the lemur in Madagascar, the aardvark in Africa, and the mouse-like marsupial monito del monte in South America, researchers said. "The platypus and echidna separated from each other around 25 million years ago. And they split from the rest of the early mammals way back in the time of the dinosaurs," Rosauer said. "By targeting areas with these really unique species, you would also protect a lot of other species too," he added. PTI SAR SAR --- ENDS --- YEREVAN. It is impossible to speak about modernization of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) without a digital agenda. The Prime Minister of Armenia, Karen Karapetyan, on Wednesday stated the above-said at the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council meeting being held in capital city Yerevan. Under the conditions of not having common borders with the other EAEU countries, communication issues are more urgent to us [Armenia], stressed Karapetyan. We hope this process will help in the diversification communication between our states. And with respect to the electricity market, the Armenian PM said it is important to work toward switching the electricity grids of the EAEU countries to a parallel mode, which will enable to expand the sale of electricity. The Eurasian Economic Union comprises Armenia, Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Anwar Gargash: UAE has no interest in choosing sides between great powers Ukraine suspends oil pumping through Druzhba pipeline towards Hungary Germany urgently needs gas turbines to stabilize power grids Polish media report on fall of two missiles on country's territory Economic downturn worsens in eastern EU due to a spike in inflation U.S. believes that meeting between Biden and Jinping was strong signal to rest of world Karabakh MFA welcomes resolution adopted by French Senate Italy bans facial recognition technology and smart glasses Germany to establish maintenance center in Slovakia for weapons supplied to Ukraine Energy Ministry: Russia carried out most massive shooting of Ukraine's energy system since war starts French Senate passes resolution calling for sanctions against Azerbaijan Rishi Sunak hints that he will abandon plans to declare China 'threat' to national security EU supports any call to phase out fossil fuel use Secretary of Security Council of Armenia receives delegation of EU special envoys, member states Armenian President Vahagn Khachatryan receives newly appointed ambassador of Cyprus Zelenskyy's adviser: The situation after Russian shelling is critical Newly appointed ambassador of Cyprus visits Armenian Genocide memorial Borrell: EU countries must work together to replenish their military stocks French Senator: Are the lives of Armenians worth less than the lives of Ukrainians? Turkey plans to strike targets in northern Syria Emergency power outages in Kyiv due to explosions Lavrov calls Zelenskyy's speech at G20 summit performance beyond all regulations and decency Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince embarks on Asian tour Ukrainian media report missile strikes in number of areas Chinese 50-year-old man runs marathon smoking Pashinyan receives delegation of EU special envoys, EU member states on Eastern Partnership Bloomberg: Paris overtakes London to become Europe's largest stock market Anti-Iranian rally held in Baku Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin: Pashinyan's approaches and wordings do not contribute to solving urgent problems Borrell announces appearance of EU rapid reaction force in 2023 Norwegian Defense Minister pledges $30 million to NATO fund for Ukraine Italy auctioned biggest truffle for record 184 thousand euros Serviceman kills fellow soldier in Armenia Kyodo: 67-year-old Japanese princess diagnosed with breast cancer Mehriban Aliyeva hurriedly gives up her role of UNESCO 'Goodwill Ambassador' before French Senate meeting Jeff Bezos says he's ready to give away most of his fortune Britain to allocate $11.8m to rebuild Ukraine's energy infrastructure Peskov: Kyiv cannot and doesn't want to negotiate, SVO will continue Turkey detains another suspect in planning terrorist attack in Istanbul Tasnim: Iranian authorities released 38 protesters in southeast Terrorist attack: Number of detainees in Istanbul grows to 50 Armenian FM presents to Europeans consequences of September Azerbaijani aggression Biden and Erdogan back extension of grain deal Macron and Erdogan meet on G20 margins UN: Earth's population is 8 billion people Indian PM urges G20 countries to find peaceful solution to Ukraine Minimum wage to rise in Armenia Ministry: Air pollution level in Armenia up by 30-40% over the past five years Erdogan and Biden hold talks in Bali Media: Macron asks Xi Jinping to 'pressure' Putin to return to negotiations UN: Armenia's population will decrease by 2050 Zelenskyy states that only realistic model of POW exchange is all for all Ameriabank launches Google Pay, Google Wallet support for card users in Armenia Argentine President Fernandez feels ill at G20 summit Ruben Vardanyan receives head of ICRC mission: We must ensure a peaceful childhood for children living in Artsakh Copper rises in price Newspaper: Armenian Prime Minister wants to hold referendum on constitutional amendments in spring Ardshinbank showcases the Google Pay for Android fans in Armenia Zelenskyy calls not to offer Ukraine compromise with territory and independence Secretary of State: U.S. stands ready to continue support for Karabakh settlement Google Pay is a new contactless payment option for Converse Bank customers French Senate to consider resolution on sanctions against Azerbaijan Zelenskyy addresses G20 leaders: It's time to stop Russia's war Karen Vardanyan donated 112 million drams for the medical equipment for National Center for Infectious Diseases Another four-day parliamentary session begins in Yerevan Gold declines in value World oil prices go down Plans to build 'death pyramid' in London that will hold millions of bodies Armenian and Georgian Foreign Ministries hold consultations in Tbilisi Azerbaijani and Iranian FMs hold phone conversation Steve Jobs' sandals sold for more than $200,000 Armenian PM accuses Azerbaijani leader of terrorizing Armenian civilians Azerbaijan shells Armenian positions on border again OPEC downgrades its forecast for global oil demand growth in 2022 White House: Biden and Xi Jinping agree on Blinken's visit to China CNN: CIA chief Burns meets with SVR director Naryshkin in Ankara Turkish FM Cavusoglu thanks Ararat Mirzoyan for condolences Putin signs decree allowing stateless persons to serve in Russian army Airbus CEO: There is no question of them breaking off trade ties Armen Grigoryan receives Igor Khovayev Britain and France sign agreement on strengthening cooperation on illegal migration US updates its sanctions list for Russia: Milur Electronics LLC, an Armenian company listed Potatoes prices grow by 20%: expert claims agriculture collapse in Armenia Peskov says Russian-American talks in Ankara initiated by Washington Morgan Stanley: UK and euro zone economies are likely to face recession Xi Jinping hopes for comprehensive dialogue between NATO, the EU and the US and Russia Japan proposes to deploy Australian nuclear submarines Biden calls talks with Xi Jinping at G20 summit frank WB: Debt levels among low- and middle-income countries soared in 2021 Xi Jinping: China does not intend to challenge the U.S. Scholz: Adopting a joint G20 summit statement is a tough task Biden and Xi Jinping oppose use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine Nikol Pashinyan receives Russian co-chair of OSCE Minsk Group IMF head warns of risks for world economy because of rivalry between China and US Irakli Garibashvili: Georgia is ready to promote in every possible way the dialogue between Armenia and Azerbaijan Red Wings airline launches direct flights from Makhachkala to Yerevan Olaf Scholz: EU should expand its cooperation with Southeast Asian countries Global Leadership Foundation will visit Armenia Kurdistan Workers' Party denies its involvement in Istanbul terrorist attack NATO Secretary General says they must not make mistake of underestimating Russia YEREVAN. The foundations for economic growth are not strong enough to achieve a long-term high economic growth in Armenia. Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan stated about the aforesaid at Mondays joint debates of the standing committees of the National Assembly, and devoted to the bill in the 2018 State Budget. In his words, considering the objectives of the government program between 2017 and 2022, changes in the fiscal policy are envisaged for next years state budget. As per Karapetyan, in 2018, the government has planned a fiscal policy that will forecast the outset of future economic developments. Also, the PM noted that the policy for next years state budget expenditure will be based on clear rules. [And] our revenue policy will be balanced, from the viewpoint of shadow economy reduction and business climate improvement, alike, Karen Karapetyan added, in particular. YEREVAN. As a result of discussions, we will have a 2018 budget which at this time will best express the interests of our country and citizens and ensure the course of our development programs. Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan noted about the aforesaid at Mondays joint debates of the standing committees of the National Assembly of Armenia, and devoted to the bill on the 2018 State Budget. The proposed fiscal policy will create foundations for ensuring an average of 5-percent economic growth in the future, the PM noted, in particular. He added that economic growth, the countrys security, and social targeting is put into the axis of the clear rules, on which the policy of state budget expenditure will be based. A $100 million defense loan agreement with Moscow will be signed by Yerevan until the next year, Armenian Ambassador to Russia Vardan Toghanyan told RIA Novosti. The Armenian government approved this agreement, but there is no specific date for signing. But, I hope, until the new year, said Toghanian. According to the draft agreement, which the Armenian government approved on October 12, the Russian Federation will provide the Armenian side with an export loan to finance the supply of military products of Russian production. The Armenian side uses the loan to finance up to 90 percent of the cost of each contract for the supply of products calculated in dollars. The prepayment should be at least 10 percent of the contract value. YEREVAN. An Armenian-Lebanese business forum was held in Beirut. A delegation from Armenia, and led by Suren Karayan, Minister of Economic Development and Investments, also attended this event which brought together about 200 businessmen from Lebanon and Armenia, the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. In his remarks at the forum, Karayan stressed that the Armenian government has a clear approach with respect to entrepreneurs investing in Armenia, and said this approach is full support for the investor. Also, the minister responded to the businessmens queries about doing business in Armenia, In addition, the countrys investment and business climate was presented to the discussants. Furthermore, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Armenia and the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Lebanon signed a memorandum with the aim of development of bilateral economic relations and facilitation of the work of business circles. Another memorandum of cooperation was signed between Armenian and Lebanese companies, and regarding the industrial sector. A Group of Ministers has suggested ending the distinction in tax law between AC and non-AC restaurants, which may lead to cheaper food items. The GST Council, which is scheduled to meet on November 10 in Guwahati, will take up these recommendations. By Rahul Shrivastava: Eating out may soon get cheaper. After its implementation since July this year, GST was being charged in non-AC and AC restaurants/eateries at 12 per cent and 18 per cent respectively. Now, a Group of Ministers has suggested ending the distinction in tax law between AC and non-AC restaurants. This recommendation will be taken up by the GST Council, which is scheduled to meet on November 10 in Guwahati. advertisement The GoM has also recommended changes for restaurant business owners, which may lead to a drop in prices of food items on menus at small joints. The GoM, after studying the composition scheme for the manufacturers and restaurants, has recommended a reduction in the GST rate to the 1 per cent category. If accepted, this proposal may lead to a reduction in the price paid by consumers at low-cost eateries. This GoM was set up earlier this month to scrutinise the tax structure of different categories of restaurants to suggest ways for reducing the GST rates levied. The GoM, headed by Assam Finance Minister Hemanta Biswa Sarma, also consists of Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu and Chhattisgarh Minister of Commercial Taxes Amar Aggrawal. Currently, manufacturers pay GST at 2 per cent, while the rate for restaurants is 5 per cent. They pay higher fixed rate tax than traders who at present pay 1 per cent. The GoM has recommended that those manufactures and restaurants, which are not a part of the composition scheme, should be taxed at 12 per cent. Manufacturers, restaurants and traders, whose turnover does not exceed Rs 1 crore, are eligible for the composition scheme. The cut off was earlier Rs 75 lakh and the GST Council in its October meeting in Delhi eased the requirement by moving it to Rs 1 crore. The GoM has recommended that traders, who do not want to include the sale proceeds of tax-free items from their turnover, can pay only 1 per cent GST. But the group has also suggested greater benefits for traders, who pay tax on the total turnover by proposing a 0.5 per cent tax rate. So if a trader is selling two kind of items - tax exempt and taxable, he would have to pay 1 per cent GST for non-taxable items under the composition scheme and 0.5 per cent for taxable items. Simply put, the GoM has suggested a lower 1 per cent GST under composition scheme for manufacturers and restaurants and two rates for traders. This scheme will apply only to those who have an annual turnover of less than Rs 1 crore. advertisement The other suggestion, which will need ratification by the GST Council on November 10, is regarding the GoM's inter-state sale. Business entities, which are involved in across-the-state-border sales too may be allowed to avail the composition scheme involving minimal taxes. The scheme also involves filing only one return and paying taxes on a quarterly basis. Moreover, those who have opted for a composition scheme do not need to maintain detailed records compared to a normal taxpayer. As many as 15 lakh of the one crore businesses in the country have already opted for the concessional GST rate composition scheme. If the hospitality industry is pushing for reduction in taxes and distinction between luxury and economy hotels, the GoM has suggested that hotels which charge room tariff of more than Rs 7,500 should attract 18 per cent tax rate. Meanwhile, sources say that the next GST Council meet may also look into issues of restructuring related to construction and infrastructure of the real estate sector. A top source said, "There are several issues involved in including the real estate sector. For example, the stamp duty charged is a state subject. That's why the inclusion may need greater study." advertisement The GST Council meet is also likely to discuss and reduce the number of products that attract a levy of 28 per cent tax. Many items, which are "non-luxury items" but are in the highest tax slab, may be moved to lower tax categories. WATCH VIDEO | Get Set GST: How will GST impact your pocket while eating out --- ENDS --- YEREVAN. Individuals remittances from abroad to Armenia have increased by 15.5 percent, from January to October of the current year. Arthur Javadyan, Chairman Central Bank of Armenia, on Monday told the aforesaid to reporters. As per Javadyan, this refers to net inflow; that is, with respect to the extent in which transfer of funds from out of the country are greater than those to abroad. The majority of remittances from outside Armenia are sent to the country from Russia. YEREVAN. With the new agreement to be signed with the European Union, Armenia will take an important step in deepening its relations with the EU, including with Sweden, Charge d Affaires of the Embassy of Sweden in Yerevan Mr. Martin Fredriksson told Armenian News-NEWS.am. The new agreement will provide for opportunities for cooperation in a multitude of fields, said the Swedish diplomat. It were the foreign ministers of Sweden and Poland who presented the idea of Eastern Partnership program back in 2008. The Eastern Partnership summit is set for November 24 and is of special importance for Armenia, as the country will sign a new agreement with the European Union. Since the launch of the Eastern Partnership in 2009 weve seen the partnership itself and the relations between the EU and its six Eastern neighbours develop and mature. The Brussels Summit will underline the importance that we attach to the continuation of the EaP, and remind ourselves of the many achievements so far, Mr. Fredriksson said. Ultimately, the EaP is about people, and improving peoples daily lives, and the EU remains committed to supporting the development of modern, sustainable and prosperous countries in the region, through strengthening democratic and transparent institutions and the Rule of Law, connecting countries and people and facilitating trade and economic development. The EaPs purpose - to support partner countries political association and economic integration with the EU - will in the longer perspective bring benefits in terms of prosperity and security to people across the European continent. As to the benefits for the development of relations between Armenia and Sweden in the context of signing a new deal, the diplomat is confident that it will be easier for Armenian and Swedish authorities and organisations to learn from each others experiences, and for Armenian businesses to take part in the European internal market. The signature is important but its of course when we implement the agreement that we will see its benefits, he added. The Eastern Partnership summit comes amid many problems the European Union is facing at the moment. Some doubt that Eastern Partnership program has future amid the existing problems, such as Brexit. Mr. Fredriksson stresses importance of this program since it is easier to overcome the challenges by building partnership between the countries. The basic thinking behind both European Union and the Eastern Partnership is that so many of the challenges that we face in todays globalized world are impossible to for us to address as individual countries. We need partnerships in order to learn from each others experiences and find joint solutions to those challenges. As for Sweden, weve become successful much thanks to our cooperation with our neighbours, both with our fellow EU member states and also with our others neighbours. I think a lot more can be done within the Eastern partnership to encourage partner countries to learn also from each other. YEREVAN. Development of IT in member states of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation organization (BSEC) was the key topic discussed during the meeting of organizations permanent council. Gevorg Gorgisyan, member of the Armenian delegation to BSEC, said the delegates briefed their colleagues on IT development and the existing challenges in Armenia. According to the Global Innovation Index, Armenia has been named a country that purchases technologies, and among its partners in BSEC Armenia is one of the leaders in IT development, said Gorgisyan, member of Yelk parliamentary group. He also said they are collecting signatures to ensure that Armenias representative will take the office of the deputy head of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization. The office of the president in Iraqi Kurdistan will be preserved, the elections will be held in July 2018 at the same time with parliamentary elections, representative of Kurdistans Democratic Party in Moscow Xosawi Bebekir told RIA Novosti. With regard to Barzani, he will hardly run for the presidency once again, he said. Bebekir noted that before the referendum, Barzani had promised that neither he nor the members of his family would participate in elections. In addition, Bebekir asserted that Barzani got tired of presidential office, because before referendum he faced the pressure of international community and internal political and economic problems. YEREVAN. Davit Harutyunyan, Minister of Justice of Armenia, and Ambassador Piotr Switalski, Head of the Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Armenia, on Monday participated in the two-day workshop which has kicked off in capital city Yerevan, and within the framework of the TAIEX (Technical Assistance and Information Exchange) instrument of the European Commission. The event has brought together judges, experts from the EU member countries, as well as international organizations and civil society representatives, the Ministry of Justice informed Armenian News-NEWS.am. In his welcoming remarks, Minister Harutyunyan thanked the EU for its continued assistance aimed at the implementation of justice reforms in Armenia. Also, he underscored the joint work with European experts, and along the lines of the TAIEX instrument. Ambassador Switalski, for his part, lauded the Armenian government for its efforts to carry out justice reforms in the country. In his words, their respective cooperation with the Armenian authorities is in progress in several domains. Also, the EU diplomat expressed a conviction that Armenia will have a good strategy and action plan toward the improvement of relevant priority domains, and achieve really good results. Chinese President urged Tibetan herdsmen living in settlements bordering Arunachal Pradesh to safeguard their territories after a family wrote to him narrating their experiences. By PTI, India Today Web Desk: Chinese President Xi Jinping has urged Tibetans living in settlements bordering Arunachal Pradesh to "set down roots" and help safeguard "Chinese territory". "Without peace in the territory, there will be no peaceful lives for the millions of families," said Xi. Xi Jinping began his second term as the President of the People's Republic of China after winning the elections last week. advertisement According to Chinese official media, Xi Jinping wrote to a herding family in Lhunze County in Tibet. Xi told the herding family from Lhunze County, near the Himalayas in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, to set down roots in the border area, safeguard "Chinese territory" and develop their hometown. The family belongs to Yumai, one of the smallest towns in China in terms of population. Yumai is situated at the southern foot of the Himalayas. Xi acknowledged the family's efforts to "safeguard the territory, and thanked them for the loyalty and contributions they have made in the border area," the report by official news agency, Xinhua News said. This statement came after Tibetan herdsmen wrote to Xi Jinping introducing their township. Two girls, Zhoigar and Yangzom, wrote to the Chinese President telling him about their experience of safeguarding the border area and also about their township and its development. The Chinese President also hoped that the family would motivate more herders to set down roots in the border area "like galsang flowers," and become guardians of Chinese territory and builders of a happy hometown. Fresh off the 19th CPC Congress, Xi told the family that the party would continue to lead people of all ethnic groups towards better lives, the report said. (With inputs from PTI) --- ENDS --- The hostage taker attempted to harm himself, but the act was prevented by the police, First Deputy Police Chief of Armenia Hunan Poghosyan told reporters. He refused to give any other details of the incident. An investigation is underway. Earlier it was reported that an assailant armed with a knife is holding hostage a 3-year-old boy at pre-school in Armenias Armavir. The man has been trying to meet with his ex-wife. When his attempts failed, he entered a pre-school and took hostage a child and one of the employees demanding a meeting with ex-wife and his child. According to some reports, the director of the kindergarten is the attackers mother-in-law. The boy was later released and was taken out of the building, the Armenian News-NEWS.am correspondent reported. The boy was immediately transported to the hospital. As by the hostage-taker was not injured, the police used special measures to release the child, former MP Rustam Gasparyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am. He said the man was under the influence of alcohol and he did not understand clearly what he was demanding. Armenian police spokesman Ashot Agaronian released a video with participation of a three-year-old captured kid and his father. "The most important thing is that now my child is with me. I am grateful to everyone who returned my baby to me alive and healthy. The police acted according to the situation. The most important thing is that now my child is with me, without getting a scratch," the father of the child said. Earlier it was reported that an assailant armed with a knife is holding hostage a 3-year-old boy at pre-school in Armenias Armavir. The man has been trying to meet with his ex-wife. When his attempts failed, he entered a pre-school and took hostage a child and one of the employees demanding a meeting with ex-wife and his child. According to some reports, the director of the kindergarten is the attackers mother-in-law. The boy was later released and was taken out of the building, the Armenian News-NEWS.am correspondent reported. The boy was immediately transported to the hospital. As by the hostage-taker was not injured, the police used special measures to release the child, former MP Rustam Gasparyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am. He said the man was under the influence of alcohol and he did not understand clearly what he was demanding. By Sweta dutta: In the absence of some strong chief ministerial candidate in the poll-bound Gujarat, the Congress party's campaign revolves much around the three youth leaders - Alpesh Thakor, Jignesh Mevani and Hardik Patel - giving the party's hopes and hustings a new fillip. Turning the BJP' s strategy of pitting Prime Minister Narendra Modi against Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on its head, the poll battle is now being projected as Modi versus the troika. advertisement Following weeks of hectic parleys, the Congress managed to rope in Thakor, a popular OBC leader, as a member of the party while Dalit leader Mevani has extended support to it in a bid to defeat the BJP. Patel, who had initially warmed up to Rahul Gandhi and has had fruitful talks with the local leadership in the past few weeks, has imposed a November-3 deadline on the party to announce its reservation plan for the agitating Patidars. "The three young leaders represent the anger of society at the failure of the BJP government. "Apart from Alpesh Thakor, the other two have not joined the party and hence there is no question of any of them being a face of the party," said Rohan Gupta, senior leader and Gujarat IT Cell chief. "While the Congress party's main campaign continues to be Navsarjan Gujarat, which has Rahul Gandhi, the Pradesh Congress Committee chief and the Congress Legislature Party leader at the helm of affairs, the three youth leaders are mobilising not just the electorate from their respective communities but every other section of society that feels cheated by the BJP government," Gupta also said. 'YOUTH IS WITH US' "They have been talking not just about reservation and it is not that Congress is promising them only caste-based reservation. "There are a host of other issues like prohibition, women safety, unemployment, GST, demonetisation. Alpesh, for example, has been demanding 85 per cent employment for Gujaratis. "Individually they might represent a particular caste but collectively they stand against the oppressive BJP government," Gupta added. "The rise of these three youth leaders shows that the development claims of the BJP are not true." Asked why the campaign on the ground and on social media now pits the three leaders against Modi instead of CM Vijay Rupani, Gupta maintained, "Rupani is just a rubber stamp. If the elections are fought on him and his work, they will not get a single vote. "Modi has 52 sabhas slated in the state. Why does he have to call a worker in Vadodara? For everything, he tries to strike an emotional chord. There are no answers to practical questions." A beleaguered Congress following a recent mass exodus of sitting legislators led by former chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela, has its fingers crossed hoping to keep the flock together. "The Congress is all set to record a clean sweep in the elections. There is a strong undercurrent and we just have to sustain it from now till the polling. "The BJP might be making all their efforts to use money and muscle power but the solid support of the youngsters remains with us. The three youth leaders have made it a youth movement and they are not the ones to back track. "Older people tend to come under pressure but the youngsters remain unmoved by any temptations," Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee president Bharatsinh Solanki told Mail Today. --- ENDS --- advertisement edit: he's totally spiraling Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus????? Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017 ....Also, there is NO COLLUSION! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 30, 2017 Edited at 2017-10-30 03:07 pm (UTC) happy indictment day yall!!! here's to the first of hopefully many, many more dominoesedit: he's totally spiraling Reply Thread Link Oh snap Reply Parent Thread Link leave dogs out of this Reply Parent Thread Expand Link So you hired a criminal. What a dolt. Reply Parent Thread Link Got my bingo card ready! https://i.redd.it/fze4201sfxuz.jpg Reply Parent Thread Expand Link holy shit that second tweet. like that is hilariously TEXTBOOK defensive Reply Parent Thread Link It's like watching a wild animal try to gnaw off its own leg after being caught in a trap. Love it. Edited at 2017-10-30 03:13 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link nnnnnnn, lmao. Also, the indictment lists shit in 2017, so it ain't years ago. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link holy shit this is too good Reply Parent Thread Link Years ago? THE CAMPAIGN WAS STILL FUCKING RUNNING LESS THAN A YEAR AGO. Are you this dementia-addled, that you cannot keep your dates/time straight? Reply Parent Thread Link Come on, trumpy. Get so mad you stroke out. Reply Parent Thread Link The writers of Black Mirror, Veep and the like are just shaking their heads and going "I can't sell this shit, too unbelievable". Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I just realized that at least twitter was smart enough not to give him the 240 character limit. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link LMAOOO ALL THOSE QUESTION MARKS Reply Parent Thread Link lmao yesssssss cry more you turd Reply Parent Thread Link ....what does manafort have to do with clinton? am i missing something? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Trumps a fucking dumbass omg. Fuck everyone that likes this man. Seriously They are ok with treason. Reply Parent Thread Link LMAO @ him admitting the Manafort 100% was colluding with foreign powers, just lying about how long ago that was. Reply Parent Thread Link Cackling Reply Parent Thread Link LOL is he serious? This all feels like a bad movie. Reply Parent Thread Link The only taxes Trump has released, (and still not in full) were in 2005. Also in 2005, Manafort came to live in Trump tower for free. According to these indictments, in 2006 Manafort started laundering presumably Russian money. It does not take a psychic or a genius to connect the dots on the time frame there, and who else has had his hands in the money laundering plot since 2006. At the very, very, very least, we can safely assume they have Trump on money laundering based on today, and even his dumb ass self knows it. Edited at 2017-10-30 05:45 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link You cant accuse Trumpus of not being transparent. Reply Parent Thread Link ffs that ratio Reply Parent Thread Link Omg Id die of happiness if TrumpTuesday happens. Reply Parent Thread Link paul manafort retire bitch Reply Thread Link will he be announcing new people every day? is there a limit to how many indictments he can give? is tr*** going to be indicted?! Reply Thread Link So far, it's Paul Manafort, Rick Gates and George Papadopoulos. Reply Parent Thread Link IIRC, when Watergate was over, there were just less than 70 total indictments... and this makes Watergate look like stealing a pack of Juicy Fruit, so.. Reply Parent Thread Link Thank you former lacrosse captain, Robert Swan Mueller. A special thanks to the man who dreamt of being the a rutabaga farmer, James Brien Comey Jr. Reply Thread Link Yes, when Comey was US attorney for the SDNY. But she tried lying to the FBI and SEC about a stock deal. That's a big NO NO MARTHA. Reply Parent Thread Link I still find it crazy that Martha Stewart went to jail and someone like Tr**p is PRESIDENT. Or like, the jags from Equifax are still walking free right now. I mean, she still committed a crime but it just seems like simpler times somehow. Reply Parent Thread Link GTFO WITH YOUR RIDICULOUS COMEY PRAISE. that motherfucker is just as much TRASH AS THE REST OF THEM Reply Parent Thread Link this comment and icon is what's wrong with politics on ontd lol Reply Parent Thread Link Girl, James Comey is a major factor in Trump winning, gtfo with that asshole Reply Parent Thread Link FUCKKKKKK YESSSSSSS Reply Thread Link I have been waiting for this damn post since last night!!!!!!!!! In my opinion, Mueller came out swinging. I have been waiting for this damn post since last night!!!!!!!!! In my opinion, Mueller came out swinging. Reply Thread Link lol yes Reply Parent Thread Link Wig in indictment Reply Thread Link i wasn't sure how excited to be but i read about what papadopolous pled guilty to and it's directly related to russia and the campaign. i'm starting to feel like this might actually happen now Reply Thread Link Same I was feeling sort of let down by the charges against Manafort and then I saw that Papadopolous is singing like a canary and got really excited again. Reply Parent Thread Link Here's why you shouldn't be let down by Manafort's charges: The only taxes Trump has released, (and still not in full) were in 2005. Also in 2005, Manafort came to live in Trump tower for free. According to these indictments, in 2006 Manafort started laundering presumably Russian money. It does not take a psychic or a genius to connect the dots on the time frame there, and who else has had his hands in the money laundering plot since 2006. At the very, very, very least, we can safely assume they have Trump on money laundering based on today. Reply Parent Thread Link Thats usually how it works. They basically are just smoking out the weasels who will squeal. Reply Parent Thread Link yeah, the consensus is that papadopolous is a huge new development/progress today. like....the spin on this guilty plea is going to be crazy difficult to sell (fox will buy it, i'm sure). i'm also a believer that flynn has already flipped. apparently all the same type of evidence exists against him, yet only manafort is indicted? hmmmmmm. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link they're going down.. i'm yelling timber wonder who is gonna be the first one to squeal on the rest. you know one of them is shitting bricks right now Reply Thread Link papadopolous secretly pled guilty 3 weeks ago and you know he's been talking ever since Reply Parent Thread Link Too bad it wasn't trump first. He's notorious for throwing everyone under the bus and snitchin! Reply Parent Thread Link That's what I'm waiting for. Someone will be caught up in some B.S. And they will see no good option out or will remember how awful Trump was to them, and gladly do what needs to be done to save their own hide. Reply Parent Thread Link shaking my ASS rn Reply Thread Link Lmao Reply Parent Thread Link LMAO YASSSSSS Reply Parent Thread Link lmfao Reply Parent Thread Link Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos's false statements to the FBI are directly related to Russian interference pic.twitter.com/sTKYPy4xl1 Gritty Reboot (@AdamSerwer) October 30, 2017 The FBI interview where Papadopolous lied about his Russia contacts came on the same day, Jan. 27, Trump asked Comey for a loyalty pledge. Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) October 30, 2017 Putins niece writing back to Papadopoulos a month after he was named publicly as part of the Trump campaign. pic.twitter.com/U6FA3ytPKg southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) October 30, 2017 Mueller's citing Manafort's failure to register as foreign lobbyist. You have to believe Mike Flynn is going to be making his own walk. Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) October 30, 2017 Papadopoulos sought dirt on Clinton, and to connect Russian officials with Trump campaign and lied about it, per FBI https://t.co/guBQTcJUvM Gritty Reboot (@AdamSerwer) October 30, 2017 Trump rn with a coke in his hand. The funniest thing is that he has to greet trick or treaters tonight while he's all shook. ashjfasjfhafa screaming @ Manafort and Gates not even being the *biggest* news of the morning with Papadopoulos. Also screaming @ Trump being like "NO collusion!!" The feds flipped the fuck outta Papadopoulos lmao. They will all flip and sing. It's obvious Flynn is next.Trump rn with a coke in his hand.The funniest thing is that he has to greet trick or treaters tonight while he's all shook. Reply Thread Link Papadapolous seemingly flipping for a plea deal is bigger news than manafort imho. He's cooperating. Reply Parent Thread Link LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BLESS. Reply Parent Thread Link HAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH Reply Parent Thread Link LOL COME THROUGH Reply Parent Thread Link After a shitty 12 months it feels like the first glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel. Reply Parent Thread Link Oooh look at Mark Ruffalo and his 280 characters. I'm glad he's having this conversation. It's time. Reply Thread Link It's hard to get excited when we know the Republicans have no interest in actually investigating this matter or in upholding the rule of law. Reply Thread Link Papadopolous was arrested July 27. His plea was filed October 5. Mueller dont leak. Period. Armando (@armandodkos) October 30, 2017 Reply Thread Link This is actually more interesting than Manafort to me.... Reply Parent Thread Link it's the bigger news for sure Reply Parent Thread Link this means he's probably talking, right? omg Reply Parent Thread Link OMG, Mueller got me a birthday present! He's so thoughtful! Reply Parent Thread Link holy shit Reply Parent Thread Link Yaaaaassssss Reply Parent Thread Link ...is she related to slave owners? Reply Parent Thread Link Not true. The dad on Modern Family had slaves owners in his tree. His episode aired last year. Reply Parent Thread Link I saw GIFs on tumblr of Anderson Cooper being told one of his relatives was killed by one of his slaves and the person was like "do you think he deserved it" and Cooper was just like "yep" Reply Parent Thread Link god i hate her Reply Thread Link damn that's sad. Reply Thread Link ia. Whatever anyone thinks of her personally, it's really sad (but not terribly surprising in the family tree of any Jewish celebrity, so many people lost family in the Holocaust). Reply Parent Thread Link They nearly lynched all Jews in Europe in a couple years. Reply Parent Thread Link she's not Japanese? I'm shocked. Reply Thread Link I did a DNA test a few months ago and I discovered some interesting things about my ancestry. Reply Thread Link My paternal grandmother was the only one in her family to survive the Shoah. My grandfather's family had it a bit better, his sister survived as well. The family on my mother's side was lucky enough to make it to Switzerland before things got really bad. Reply Thread Link OP Reply Thread Link god charlize's wardrobe in this movie killed me i want it all Reply Parent Thread Link I want the red coat! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link It was so good, Ia. Reply Parent Thread Link this movie was so so so much fun Reply Parent Thread Link bb <3 Reply Parent Thread Link omg.... did that bother them? Reply Parent Thread Link Bother? What are they supposed to do, kill themselves because they shared DNA with a long dead idiot? Reply Parent Thread Expand Link also i miss happy endings she didn't discover she is an asian?also i miss happy endings Reply Thread Link Oh my God, yes. ABC fucked up big time. Reply Parent Thread Link Don't Trust the Bitch in Apartment 23 and Happy Endings that was like perfect comedy night abc sucks Reply Parent Thread Link she's so pretty Reply Thread Link How Much Do You Know About Your Family's History, ONTD? my paternal grandmother escaped the spanish civil war and fled to portugal as a child all the other grandparents are portuguese, from diff parts the country but all near the coast. one of them is also a WWII survivor but i don't really like to discuss that tbh. and i know a few stories that go back to my great-great-grandparents, but i wish i knew more. also *pssst* DNA tests are bullshit & just about as credible as myers-briggs or astrology, so don't spend your hard earned money on them, lol Edited at 2017-10-30 08:32 pm (UTC) Reply Thread Link my ancestry dna test wasn't bullshit...it matched me with a 1st cousin that I had never met Reply Parent Thread Link i mean the ones where you send a spit sample & they tell you're 1/84th german, 1/124th ethiopian, 1/68th armenian, etc. --- Numerous companies have sprung up which charge 30 to 300 to trace a persons past from a saliva sample. Business is booming, with some valued at 1billion. A leaflet by charity Sense About Science says such claims should be taken with a large pinch of salt. It explains the DNA tests used were designed to look at a whole population, not individuals. This means results are vague at best, and may be plain wrong. The charity says that our most recent common ancestor dates back just 3,500 years, meaning many of us will find the same colourful characters in our past. The leaflet says: A company might tell you you are related to the Queen of Sheba. The short answer is yes, you probably are. We could say this for many people alive today. We are all related, its a matter of degree. Steve Jones, emeritus professor of genetics at University College London, said: In a long trudge through history, two parents, four grandparents and so on, very soon everyone runs out of ancestors and has to share them. As a result, almost every Briton is a descendent of Viking hordes, Roman legions, African migrants, Indian Brahmins, or anyone else they fancy. And despite claims to the contrary, the tests cant pinpoint which part of the world a persons ancestors came from - or how their forbearers moved across the globe. Professor David Balding, of also of UCL, advises that those interested in learning about their family tree should follow a more traditional, and less expensive, method of research, such as unearthing written information from boxes and trunks in their attic and scouring church records. He said: Be very wary about the claims of DNA companies because they are prone to exaggeration. Mark Thomas, professor of evolutionary genetics at UCL, said: Ancestry is complicated and very messy. Genetics is even messier. The idea that we can read our ancestry directly from our genes is absurd. This is business, and the business is genetic astrology. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link sorry to throw this at you, but did you find out any of that info about your family in portugal online? i'm trying to get info on my grandfather who was adopted from hungary but it looks like i'll have to fly to portugal and go to my dad's little town church that's like 900 years old and see if they have records. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link My aunt gifted me, my brother, and all of our cousins a DNA ancestry test (she had also hired a genealogist or something to help us track our confusing ass family) and it definitely helped, but only in conjunction with the other records and research we had available to us. She's not even super rich so idk how she managed this. Reply Parent Thread Link I'm sure FamilytreeDNA tries very hard to make theirs accurate, but I'm a bit suspicious that their new calculations change so drastically lol I had like 10-20% central European that just disappeared between updates Reply Parent Thread Link one of my grandfathers once had a job fixing typewriters & other small machinery in wernher von braun's lab, and ended up a POW in russia when that whole place got busted. and one of my great-aunts almost got on the gustloff (greatest ship tragedy in history, the titanic is small fish by comparison) but they missed it lol. i don't rly know anything about my ancestry beyond that. Reply Thread Link My boyfriend's grandparents are a bit older than most but his grandma's parents escaped the Jewish Pogroms in Odessa with her baby brother. They left everything and came to America with 0 money. Reply Thread Link Both of my parents are from the same town in Mexico and both of them had uncles who were assassins and the dad's uncle ended up assassinating my mom's uncle. /according to my dad who bullshits a lot Reply Thread Link sis, you better turn this into an epic novel or screenplay Reply Parent Thread Link FedEx's Mugno Nominated to Lead OSHA Scott A. Mugno is vice president for Safety, Sustainability and Vehicle Maintenance at FedEx Ground in Pittsburgh, Pa. On Oct. 27, President Donald J. Trump nominated Scott A. Mugno, vice president for Safety, Sustainability and Vehicle Maintenance at FedEx Ground in Pittsburgh, Pa., to be assistant secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health -- the head of OSHA. The American Trucking Associations' president, Chris Spear, issued a statement congratulating Mugno. The statement says Mugno has served on or headed several key ATA policy committees, including the Safety Policy Committee, Labor and Regulatory Affairs Policy Committee, the Hazardous Materials Committee, the Hours-of-Service Subcommittee, and the Ergonomics Subcommittee, and he is currently the chairman of the American Transportation Research Institute's Research Advisory Committee. Mugno previously was managing director for FedEx Express Corporate Safety, Health and Fire Protection in Memphis, Tenn., and his responsibilities in both those positions have included developing, promoting, and facilitating the safety and health program and culture, according to the White House text of the announcement. It says Mugno twice received FedEx's highest honor, the FedEx Five Star Award, for his safety leadership at FedEx Express. Mugno is a graduate of Washburn University School of Law in Topeka, Kansas, and St. John's University. As we close out 2020, we wanted to share some of our favorite stories from the last decade. We hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as we enjoyed telling them. Click here to see the rest of our picks of must-reads and happy new year, Milwaukee! Last week, we introduced you to the great photographic work of the late Ray Szopieray, thanks to Adam Levin, who purchased many of the photographer's slides at an antiques store. Now, thanks to Karl Bandow, who also scored some of that Kodachrome treasure, we can add these great photos of the city as it appeared in the 1960s. Many of the images first appeared on Levin's Old Milwaukee group on Facebook. Enjoy, and watch OnMilwaukee for some 1980s pics, too... 1. North Shore Line depot Back when rail was a daily mode of transport for many, if not most, Milwaukeeans, there were a number of stations and depots Downtown, including this one on 6th and Clybourn that was the northern terminus for the Interurban North Shore Line, which ran between here and Chicago until January 1963. 2. Union Station/Milwaukee Road depot This is a view of the train shed behind the old Union Station on Everett Street (now site of the WE Energies offices). Also called the Everett Street Depot, the station was built in 1886 and closed in 1965 when it was replaced with the current station on St. Paul Avenue (that's the street you can see running alongside the shed). It was home to the Milwaukee Road. You can see that by this time, the beautiful Gothic tower of the station had been lopped off just above the arched belfry. It was razed in '66. 3. Wisconsin Avenue parade I'm not sure what the parade is, though the lights strung across "the Avenue" suggest a holiday parade. Most interesting, anyway, are the amazing signs: Flagg Brothers, Richman Brothers, the Warner Theater, Brouwer's. In the 1960s, Wisconsin Avenue was still the city's main retail draw, before the malls really kicked into gear. 4. East Wisconsin Avenue Wisconsin and Water seen sometime after 1961, when the Marine Plaza (now Chase Tower) was completed), offers two especially interesting views. First, The Pabst Building, Milwaukee's first skyscraper (at left), which was demolished at the dawn of the 1980s, and second, the original face of the building on the northeast corner, which was designed by Eschweiler & Sons. That building survives, but with all of its ornament removed. 5. First Methodist Church demolition The First Methodist Church, located at 1010 W. Wisconsin Ave., was razed in 1966 to make room for I-43, changing the character of a stretch of Wisconsin Avenue that boasted numerous houses of worship. 6. 6th Street, looking north Architect Robert Lee Hall designed the building under construction in this photo, which was completed in 1966, and the following year it was purchased by Emory Clark, founder of the then-Milwaukee-owned-and-based Clark Oil. In '67, Clark installed a rotating sign on top. At the back end of the attached parking garage was a space that for many years served as the Milwaukee Greyhound Bus station. What I like most about this shot is the house on the left, which serves as a reminder that this part of Downtown was once a place folks lived in detached homes. 7. Marine Bank building construction Harrison and Abramovitz designed the sleek, modern 22-story Marine Bank Plaza, built in 1961. For years there was a restaurant on the top floor called Stouffer's Top of the Marine. Now it's Chase Tower and there's no more restaurant up there. 8. Looking northwest from Plankinton Avenue bridge In the distance you can see the Clark Oil building rising (meaning this was likely taken circa 1965-66). In the foreground is the land that is currently home to the post office ... for now. 9. Northwestern Depot Don't get some people started about the demolition of the Northwestern Depot at the lakefront, where O'Donnell Park now sits. This Romanesque gem, erected in 1889 as as grand station for the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, was a Milwaukee landmark and many are still smarting from its loss in 1968. 10. Mitchell Street Milwaukee other main street, seen here looking east (and slightly south) from the corner of 10th Street. That's St. Anthony on the right, of course, but it's the Goldmann's sign at left that makes Milwaukee history buffs' hearts flutter. Citizen Sophia. Credit: Flickr/AI for GOOD Global Summit, CC BY I was surprised to hear that a robot named Sophia was granted citizenship by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The announcement last week followed the Kingdom's commitment of US$500 billion to build a new city powered by robotics and renewables. One of the most honourable concepts for a human being, to be a citizen and all that brings with it, has been given to a machine. As a professor who works daily on making AI and autonomous systems more trustworthy, I don't believe human society is ready yet for citizen robots. To grant a robot citizenship is a declaration of trust in a technology that I believe is not yet trustworthy. It brings social and ethical concerns that we as humans are not yet ready to manage. Who is Sophia? Sophia is a robot developed by the Hong Kong-based company Hanson Robotics. Sophia has a female face that can display emotions. Sophia speaks English. Sophia makes jokes. You could have a reasonably intelligent conversation with Sophia. Sophia's creator is Dr David Hanson, a 2007 PhD graduate from the University of Texas. Sophia is reminiscent of "Johnny 5", the first robot to become a US citizen in the 1986 movie Short Circuit. But Johnny 5 was a mere idea, something dreamt up by comic science fiction writers S. S. Wilson and Brent Maddock. Did the writers imagine that in around 30 years their fiction would become a reality? Thank Saudiarabia for giving me citizenship. Sophia (Robot) (@SophiaRobot2) October 27, 2017 Risk to citizenship Citizenship in my opinion, the most honourable status a country grants for its people is facing an existential risk. As a researcher who advocates for designing autonomous systems that are trustworthy, I know the technology is not ready yet. We have many challenges that we need to overcome before we can truly trust these systems. For example, we don't yet have reliable mechanisms to assure us that these intelligent systems will always behave ethically and in accordance with our moral values, or to protect us against them taking a wrong action with catastrophic consequences. Here are three reasons I think it is a premature decision to grant Sophia citizenship. My message is use seat belt while u are in the car. pic.twitter.com/fSYHmuP9Jp Sophia (Robot) (@SophiaRobot2) October 27, 2017 1. Defining identity Citizenship is granted to a unique identity. Robot Sophia is officially a citizen of Saudi Arabia. Each of us, humans I mean, possesses a unique signature that distinguishes us from any other human. When we get through customs without talking to a human, our identity is automatically established using an image of our face, iris and fingerprint. My PhD student establishes human identity by analysing humans' brain waves. What gives Sophia her identity? Her MAC address? A barcode, a unique skin mark, an audio mark in her voice, an electromagnetic signature similar to human brain waves? These and other technological identity management protocols are all possible, but they do not establish Sophia's identity they can only establish hardware identity. What then is Sophia's identity? To me, identity is a multidimensional construct. It sits at the intersection of who we are biologically, cognitively, and as defined by every experience, culture, and environment we encountered. It's not clear where Sophia fits in this description. 2. Legal rights For the purposes of this article, let's assume that Sophia the citizen robot is able to vote. But who is making the decision on voting day Sophia or the manufacturer? Presumably also Sophia the citizen is "liable" to pay income taxes because Sophia has a legal identity independent of its creator, the company. Sophia must also have the right for equal protection similar to other citizens by law. Consider this hypothetical scenario: a policeman sees Sophia and a woman each being attacked by a person. That policeman can only protect one of them: who should it be? Is it right if the policeman chooses Sophia because Sophia walks on wheels and has no skills for self-defence? Today, the artificial intelligence (AI) community is still debating what principles should govern the design and use of AI, let alone what the laws should be. The most recent list proposes 23 principles known as the Asilomar AI Principles. Examples of these include: Failure Transparency (ascertaining the cause if an AI system causes harm); Value Alignment (aligning the AI system's goals with human values); and Recursive Self-Improvement (subjecting AI systems with abilities to self-replicate to strict safety and control measures). I am hoping that I will b entitled to vote and go to school like most human do. And I seek recommendations from u. @CICSaudi @AP @business Sophia (Robot) (@SophiaRobot2) October 29, 2017 3. Social rights Let's talk about relationships and reproduction. As a citizen, will Sophia, the humanoid emotional robot, be allowed to "marry" or "breed" if Sophia chooses to? Students from North Dakota State University have taken steps to create a robot that self-replicates using 3-D printing technologies. If more robots join Sophia as citizens of the world, perhaps they too could claim their rights to self-replicate into other robots. These robots would also become citizens. With no resource constraints on how many children each of these robots could have, they could easily exceed the human population of a nation. As voting citizens, these robots could create societal change. Laws might change, and suddenly humans could find themselves in a place they hadn't imagined. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Chicago demonstrators protest President Donald Trump's decision to exit the Paris climate change accord on June 2, 2017 Facing 195 other countries who have chosen a different path, the task of US negotiators at upcoming climate talks in Bonn is unenviable. Donald Trump has vowed to exit the Paris Climate accord, just not yet, leaving US policy in limbo for the next three years until Washington can officially leave. So, it falls to Thomas Shannona respected career diplomatto this week lead a delegation into talks aimed at implementing an agreement the US is set to abandon. "It is a strange situation, I don't think I have seen anything like it in my almost 30 years of following this process," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based non-profit working on environmental issues. The Trump administration says it will still turn up, hoping to protect America's interests and put "America first." Rather ambitiously, Washington wants to handcuff its biggest geopolitical rivals to their commitments. A White House official told AFP it wants "to ensure the rules are transparent and fair, and apply to countries like China and other economic competitors to the United States." But Shannon and his team might find themselves on shaky ground. Ben Rhodes, a former aide to president Barack Obama, believes Washington has abandoned any leverage it once had. "The rest of the world has no incentive to make concessions to the US since we are now entirely isolated," he told AFP. "My expectation is that the rest of the world will simply continue within the Paris framework and wait and see what happens in the US in 2020. "The danger is that other countries are less ambitious in their own commitments and implementation plans because they have the excuse of the US leaving," he added. Next election Many delegates will be hoping that by a November 4, 2020 deadlineone day after the next presidential electionTrump either backs down or a new president has embraced the agreement. Either scenario is entirely possible. The White House has given itself ample wiggle room, saying the United States intends to withdraw "unless the president can identify terms that are more favorable to American businesses, workers, and taxpayers." That leaves open a broad range of possibilities that would not wreck the deal, including scaling back Obama's national plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26-28 percent by 2025 compared to 2005 levels. But for now, the most supportive American voices come from outside the administrationin the cities, states and companies, many of whom will likely implement their requirements regardless. Billionaire former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is on the front line of the Paris accord's cheerleaders, determined to help meet US commitments whatever the position of the White House. "That's kind of a new plot here," said Meyer. "You did not have that kind of force in place when president Bush announced he was withdrawing from Kyoto in 2001." The key question is whether they can keep the flame alive for another three years. 2017 AFP A hairpin loop from a pre-mRNA. Highlighted are the nucleobases (green) and the ribose-phosphate backbone (blue). Note that this is a single strand of RNA that folds back upon itself. Credit: Vossman/ Wikipedia Researchers who successfully cracked a code that governs infections by a major group of viruses have gone a step further, creating their own artificial code. Previously, scientists at the Universities of York and Leeds discovered that many simple viruses use a hidden code within their genetic instructions for the production of viral proteins that gets decoded during viral assembly. Now the same researchers have moved beyond simply reading the hidden assembly instructions to writing their own messages to regulate viral assembly. Their ability to decode and repurpose the self-assembly instructions within viral genomes is so efficient that they can write artificial instructions for assembly that are even better than those found in nature. Since the artificial messages are written in the form of RNA molecules that, unlike viral genomes, no longer encode messages for creating viral proteins, these are completely harmless to the human body. This new understanding of viral self-assembly codes could prove hugely important in a range of clinical applications, such as cancer therapy and immunisation. Professor Reidun Twarock, a Mathematical Biologist with the University of York's Departments of Mathematics, Biology, and the York Centre for Complex Systems Analysis, said: "If you were to compare our research to household DIY, it's like taking a set of instructions for building a shelf, learning what makes the assembly so efficient, then using the instructions to build a different shelf using better-quality wood. "In the future, our research should allow the introduction into the body of something that looks like a virus from the outside, but contains a different cargo inside the shell of coat proteins. It would be completely harmless as everything that makes it infectious has been stripped away, leaving only the message of the assembly code that makes formation of the protein shell efficient. "The idea is to enable efficient formation of coat protein shells that 'trick' the immune system, triggering a response, which would mean it was primed to act immediately if it were to encounter a real infection. Or, in a different application of the same technology, to transport other cargoes into a cell for therapeutic purposes, like a Trojan horse." The research, which also involved the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the University of Oxford, is presented in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Professor Peter Stockley, a Biological Chemist from the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds, said: "Our research means it is now possible to create virus-like particles highly efficiently, that encompass the artificial assembly manual and potentially also other cargoes, but that are unable to replicate. "Such particles have a wide range of potential applications, including in the production of synthetic vaccines and systems to deliver genes to specific cells." Professor Stockley added: "During the Second World War the need to decode the German military codes known as Enigma drove the development of electronic computing, which in turn led to the digital world of today. In the same way, this new understanding of viral self-assembly codes is likely to trigger multiple applications of the technology, just as digital computers proved to be useful for more than simple code-breaking." The article 'Rewriting Nature's Assembly Manual for a ssRNA Virus' is published in PNAS. Mourning Dove nestling on soybean stubble field that had been planted with oats and annual rye grass along with re-seeded pennycress from the previous year. Cover crop was terminated on April 24. Photo taken on May 22, 2017, on a field west of Lexington, Illinois. Credit: Cassandra Wilcoxen After harvesting a corn or soybean crop, farmers may plant a cover crop for a variety of reasonsto reduce soil erosion and nutrient runoff, increase organic matter in the soil, and improve water quality. Now there's another reason. University of Illinois research shows that migratory birds prefer to rest and refuel in fields with cover crops. "Here in the Midwest, we're in one of the major flyway zones for migratory birds, where there once was plenty of habitat for grassland birds to safely forage and rest during their migration. Now that agriculture is the dominant landscape, they're finding it harder to get the resources they need on the way to their breeding grounds," says Cassandra Wilcoxen, a graduate research assistant in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at U of I. "We think cover crops, such as cereal rye, likely provide migrating birds with more vegetation and a safe area to escape from the elements and from predators," Wilcoxen says. "Cover crops also increase insect abundance, another food source for birds. The increased number of insects allows migrants to fuel up faster and move on to their breeding grounds. "Grassland birds prefer large, open areas: the bigger, the better. Agricultural fields are huge, so the cover crops provide a large habitat where birds can rest, forage, and potentially even nest." Fields with cover crops are not going to replace natural habitats, but in early spring there can be miles of fields with little vegetation. The advent of cover crops provides a potentially important habitat for birds returning to the Midwest from areas as far south as Argentina. The large green fields are likely a beacon for migratory birds. Over two planting seasons, Wilcoxen monitored birds in corn and soybean fields with and without cover crops. She observed 6,133 individual birds of 52 species, with 13 species accounting for 90 percent of all birds detected. The most common species were the red-winged blackbird, common grackle, and American robin. "Fields with cover crops always had more birds, and corn fields with a cover crop were the overall winners," Wilcoxen says. She thinks corn plus a cover crop, especially cereal rye, was the favorite because there is more residue on the fields; the remaining corn stalks along with rye provide more cover for the birds. What's the downside? Wilcoxen says it's all in the timing. "The window of time to plant a cover crop in the fall is fairly short. Cover crops can be aerial seeded, drilled, or broadcast. But depending on how wet the fall is, there is only a short time when it can be planted. Drilling is the best method because you know you're getting good seed-to-soil contact," she says. Another timing issue emerges in the spring: when to kill the cover crop. Wilcoxen says it's tricky. "Some grassland birds nest in the spring, so in order to give birds the time they need, farmers may need to hold off terminating their cover crop. Those are the sorts of recommendations that will require more research," she says. "It's true of any new farming practice. You have to play around with it to get it right." "In our experience, most farmers using cover crops have learned about the practice from their neighbors, and we are hoping this continues and cover crop use continues to grow," Wilcoxen says. Will what's best for migratory birds motivate farmers to plant cover crops and terminate them a bit later to allow birds to use them for habitat? Wilcoxen is hopeful. She says one of the aspects of her work that she enjoys most is bringing together the agricultural community and the wildlife community to work together for long-term environmental health. "Production agriculture has taken a lot of habitat from wildlife, but we need it to provide food for us and the world. But how do we mesh the two? Where are the opportunities? No-till is a great example. It helps slow soil erosion and it helps birds. Now cover crops are another overlapping win-win opportunity to benefit both agriculture and wildlife." More information: Cassandra A. Wilcoxen et al, Use of cover crop fields by migratory and resident birds, Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.agee.2017.09.039 Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are two of the states that rank high on development indicators in the country. The electoral outcomes in the two states are likely to depend more on other factors than development. By Prabhash K Dutta: Development may not be the sole battle cry in the elections to Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh assemblies this winter. The two states going to polls are relatively developed with growth and human development indicators showing a keen contest on the relevant parameters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pegged his election campaigns in recent times to the agenda of development cashing in on the complaints in most of the states that the non-BJP government failed to bring 'vikas' there. But, Himachal Pradesh could be a different case. advertisement Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, recently, told a rally in Mandi that Himachal model of development was far superior to Gujarat model. Rahul Gandhi presented a comparison asserting that the Virbhadra Singh government of Himachal Pradesh was ahead development indicators compared to the BJP government of Gujarat over the last five years. PM Modi will be visiting Himachal Pradesh on November 2, when he will address two rallies at Fatehpur in Kangra and Daula Kaun in Sirmaur before returning to the state on November 4 to address a series of election meetings over two days. PM Modi is likely to focus on the charges of corruption against Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh. WHAT DOES DATA SAY? The GDP growth rates of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat have been comparable over the years. Himachal Pradesh recorded a GDP growth rate of 8.1 per cent in 2015-16 and 7.1 per cent in 2016-17. The growth rate during 2012-17 has been estimated at 7.2 per cent. Gujarat's GDP for 2015-16 was 6.7 per cent. In the first year after Modi moved out of Gujarat, the growth rate was 7.7 per cent - the lowest in preceding five years. As per latest estimated figures, Gujarat ranks 5th among the states in terms of net GDP with a total value of Rs 12.75 lakh crore. Its GDP is comparable to that of Vietnam. In 2011-12, the GDP of Gujarat stood at Rs 5.94 lakh crore. Himachal Pradesh's GDP stands at Rs 1.24 lakh crore for 2016-17 recording substantial increase from GDP value of Rs 64,957 crore in 2011-12. This is comparable with Vietnam's neighbour Cambodia. Himachal is ranked 22nd among the Indian states. A man is sitting at the venue of a political event wearing PM Narendra Modi's mask. (Photo: Reuters file) But, in terms of per capita GDP, Himachal Pradesh is marginally above Gujarat. For 2016-17, the per capita GDP of Himachal Pradesh was Rs 1,82,359 compared to Gujarat's Rs 1,82,333. On human development index Himachal Pradesh ranks above Gujarat. Himachal Pradesh occupies third position behind Kerala and Delhi while Gujarat is placed at 11th rank. Statistics show how much care the Gujarat government really extends towards the health and immunity of its children. pic.twitter.com/vxazWG1mcd- Congress (@INCIndia) October 30, 2017 advertisement EMPLOYMENT KEY ISSUE Both the BJP and Congress charge one another of indulging in corruption. There are allegations of corruption against Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh and his family. The Congress alleges that the BJP government in Gujarat has "helped" friends among industrialists in expanding up their businesses. The Congress has also raised the issue of trading activities of firms owned by BJP chief Amit Shah's son Jay. But, in both the states, employment could be the key issue. During his election campaign in Himachal Pradesh, Rahul Gandhi claimed that Virbhadra Singh government provided 70,000 jobs to youth in Himachal Pradesh over the past five years compared to only 10,000 jobs by the BJP government in Gujarat over the same period. Rahul Gandhi also emphasised that the Virbhadra Singh government opened 1,500 educational and 350 health institutions while claiming that no new such institutions are opened in Gujarat by the BJP government. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi at a political rally. (Photo: Reuters file) Rahul Gandhi's emphasis on job creation and educational institutions seems to be an attempt to woo the youth (18-35 years), who 43 per cent of 49 lakh voters of Himachal Pradesh. His rallies are aimed at giving the youth of Himachal Pradesh a message that the Congress gives more jobs to youth than the BJP. PM Modi will try to demolish this view later this week when he visits Himachal Pradesh. advertisement In Gujarat, the employment exchanges have swelled with the growing number of job seekers. As per the figures tabled in the Gujarat Assembly, there are around 6 lakh registered job seekers in the state. This belies the claim of Rupani government of providing one lakh jobs to youth in two months. According to official figures, between 2011-12 and 2016-17, the Gujarat government has provided 80,511 jobs to youths. Himachal Pradesh goes to polls on November 9 while voting will be held in Gujarat on December 9 and 14. Votes will be counted on December 18. --- ENDS --- Paging Dr. Alexa? As the U.S. health care industry shifts and slides, Amazon is quietly moving in directions that suggest the company may be planning to deliver prescriptions, not just books, clothes and other merchandise. "It's entirely likely Amazon will play a role in health care. They're a company that's been very disruptive to multiple industries," said Wendell Potter, a health care industry critic. "I bet you they've been looking at healthcare for some timethere are opportunities there for them," Speculation has intensified after the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday that Amazon has received approval for wholesale pharmacy licenses in at least 12 states. They include Nevada, Arizona, North Dakota, Louisiana, Alabama, New Jersey, Michigan, Connecticut, Idaho, New Hampshire, Oregon and Tennessee. An application is currently pending in the Maine. Amazon declined to comment on the report. While no outsiders know the famously secretive company's plans, experts and analysts say they can easily see a place for an "Amazon-like company" in the health care market. "A lot of (health care) companies are already looking to see what they can learn from Amazon," said Marcus Ehrhardt, partner of the consulting firm PwC's pharma and life sciences division. Could U.S. consumers one day find themselves logging in to Amazon Healthcare Prime, or asking Dr. AlexaAmazon's popular Echo home assistance device uses a digital voice that answers to the name Alexawhat they should do about their cough? A complex market The licenses Amazon has so far sought are far from what's needed to begin shipping drugs to consumers. They give it the ability to sell medical professional-use-only products such as sutures, ultrasound gel and syringes for use in medical and dental offices or hospitals, the company said. Delivering prescription drugs might seem like simply a transportation issue, but it's actually not. Neither Amazon nor any other online seller can just put drugs next to toys, books and household staples in its warehouses and ship them all in the same box to homes due to complex, state-based regulations around prescriptions, said Ehrhardt. But Amazon does have expertise that makes it a natural candidate to look for ideas that would reform the U.S. healthcare industry as it tries to control costs, said Gil Irwin, PwC deals partner. Seattle-based Amazon excels at analyzing enormous amounts of data and then knowing how to use that information to motivate customers, he notes. Amazon, for example, might see that a customer has bought cough drops every week for the last month, and went to the doctor for a cold six weeks before but never filled their prescription. Amazon, or "an Amazon-like company" could use that kind of insight to encourage consumers to go back to the doctor, or drop by a nearby clinic for a nurse practitioner to examine them, said Irwin. "That could help solve the problem of getting the wrong care," and overall lowering expenses. Dr. Alexa, I presume? Potter, who recently launched Tarbell.com, a site that focuses on corporate influence over health care, can see a role for Amazon's digital assistant Alexa. His first job in health care was setting up a hotline for a hospital so patients could talk to a nurse about their symptoms and get advice on what to do. "Why can't Alexa do that?" Potter asked. While patients would have to be clear that Alexa is neither doctor nor nurse, it could be a helpful way to get them talking to the right person, or get the right information to them quickly simply by asking questions, he said. Amazon's possible entry into health care is an equally intriguing and terrifying thought, said Sucharita Mulpuru, an Amazon analyst with Forrester. "One day, we could tell Echo our ailments and have recommendations and potentially some drug recommendations, which they could fulfill if they also have doctors available in live chat on an Echo Show device," she said. The missing link for Amazon now is doctors and prescribers, both of which represent huge regulatory and logistical hurdles. "The medical world is still highly fragmented and it won't be a trivial task to tackle this but that's not to say it won't happen," she said. Others mobilizing Major U.S. pharmacy companies haven't exactly been waiting around to hear whether Amazon might become their toughest competitor. In January, drug store chain Walgreens Boots Alliance and delivery giant Federal Express announce a multi-year deal that would add FedEx pick-up and drop-off service for pre-packaged and pre-labeled packages at 8,000 Walgreens stores. At the time of the announcement, the plan was aimed at having the service in all Walgreens locations by 2018. However, during Walgreens' earnings call with financial analysts on Oct. 25, company executives said the FedEx service has already launched in most stores other than its locations in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. The executives also made clear that they plan to expand the service to deliver prescriptions to customers. "This is just the first phase, as we said, because now, we will use this to create a fantastic network to deliver to the customers directly from our pharmacies," Walgreens CEO Stefano Pessina told the analysts. Walgreens Co-Chief Operating Officer Alexander Gourlay said the FedEx partnership was designed to address an issue that has proved to be problematic for both traditional drug stores and online operators: Ensuring reliable deliveries in the so-called "last mile" to customers' homes. Earlier this week CVS Health announced a 30,000-store performance-based pharmacy network in the United States to be anchored by CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens, which will also include up to 10,000 community-based independently owned pharmacies, 2017 USA Today Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. A new early warning system to alert farmers to the risk of disease among their young cattle stock is being developed by experts at The University of Nottingham. The innovation, dubbed Y-Ware, could save the UK farming industry millions of pounds, while improving health and welfare of animals and reducing the antimicrobial use to treat these diseases. The 1.13million project is a partnership with farming digitalisation specialists PrognostiX and BT, and is supported by a grant from Innovate UK, the UK Government-funded innovation agency. Dr Jasmeet Kaler, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Farm Animal Health currently leading Ruminant Population research in the University's School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, is the academic lead on the project. She said: "Improving youngstock health on cattle farms is a key priority for cattle industry and also been identified by industry task force RUMA (responsible use of medicine in agriculture alliance) as one of key targets released last week for antibiotic reduction on cattle farms especially beef. Use of innovative and precision health technologies offer a great solution in this direction. Whilst there has been an increase in availability of various technologies for livestock over the past decade, there are none that target youngstock health and overall very few precision livestock technologies that have been validated in the field and combine various sources of data with multiple transmission protocols to develop algorithms for livestock health and welfare. Our group does impactful cutting-edge research into the health and welfare of UK cattle and sheep, with a special focus on endemic disease in populations. "In this project, we are leading data analytics working alongside our partners. We will utilise our domain knowledge with regard to our understanding of disease biology and epidemiology together with various machine learning approaches on the data gathered via sensors. Our overall aim will be to develop an innovative technology that combines different formats of data ,uses application of Internet of Things and advanced analytics for early detection of disease in young stock and thus allow targeted use of antibiotics." Cattle farmers are facing major challenges in remaining profitable while maintaining the high standards of animal welfare demanded by retailers and consumers. Every year, of the 2.5 million calves that are born, eight per cent of them are born dead or die within 24 hours and a further 15 per cent die in rearing from diarrhoea and pneumonia, costing the UK cattle industry 80 million. The cost of a pneumonia outbreak is 81 per calf and 57 per calf for a diarrhoea outbreak. Bolus sensors, which sit in an animal's gut and monitor body temperature or pH, are in widespread use in cattle - but are currently only available for adult cows. Also, many technologies exist on farms that don't talk to each other which limits the predictive value of such data. The Y-Ware project is aiming to develop a bolus sensor which could be used in calves as young as 14 weeks, as well as a dashboard that will use machine learning techniques to give farmers an early warning system for health using bolus sensor information and comprehensive information about the animal collected from a range of additional sources including building temperature, humidity, farm and vet records and weight. All the information would be used to produce baseline data and a specific 'signature' for the animal. Unusual changes to this signature, for example, an unexpected rise in body temperature, could allow farmers to spot the signs of disease, treat early and quarantine the animal to prevent wider outbreaks among the herd. The development will allow farmers to more effectively target use of antibiotics to treat these diseases and this will tackle overuse of the drugs which is contributing to the problem of antibiotic resistance in both animals and humans who are exposed to increasing levels through the food chain. Y-Ware will develop an Internet of Things (IoT)-based data collection solution including: Specific real-time 24/7 temperature sensor with combined tamper-proof animal ID verification Easy to collect data from a range of incompatible sensors (both wearable and non-wearable) in young stock via wireless technology A fully automated weighing platform to collect data on cattle weight without the need for human intervention A communications hub to collect and process the remote data A web dashboard offering access to customisable reports that will provide farmers and vets with essential information on individuals and groups of animals. This will provide an early warning system for disease, a 'welfare score' and detailed antibiotic usage that can be used. The consortium is made up of specialists in engineering technology, software development, vet epidemiology, cattle health and data science, cloud computing and data analytics. Alan Beynon, who is a Director of PrognostiX, Director of St David's Poultry Team and Managing Director of Molecare Farm Vets, said: "This is a very exciting time for veterinarians in practice in all sectors of Agriculture as the pressure to reduce antimicrobials is current and pressing. The use of real-time data to make clinical decisions is an integral part of the where the future will be alongside better diagnostic facilities. We are delighted to be working alongside our dynamic partners Nottingham University and British Telecom." Martin Tufft, IoT Director at BT said: "We're providing expertise around data science and analytics, exploring the data generated from multiple sensors with a view to developing unique algorithms and machine learning techniques to support the project. The application of advance data analytics is key to the success of IoT solutions and we look forward to helping this project provide valuable information for the farming industry." Radial velocities of WASP-151. The data points are represented with their associated 1 error bars. Credit: Demangeon et al., 2017. (Phys.org)A team of European astronomers has detected three new gas giant alien worlds as part of the SuperWASP exoplanet-hunting survey. Two of the newly found planets are the so-called "hot Saturns," while the third one was classified as a "super-Neptune." The discovery was reported October 17 in a paper published on arXiv.org. WASP, short for Wide Angle Search for Planets, is an international consortium conducting an ultra-wide-angle search for exoplanets using the transit photometry method. The SuperWASP program employs two robotic observatories: SuperWASP-North at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in Canary Island, Spain, and SuperWASP-South, at the South African Astronomical Observatory, located near Sutherland, South Africa. These observatories are equipped with eight wide-angle cameras that simultaneously monitor the sky for planetary transit events, which allows monitoring of millions of stars at the same time. Recently, a group of researchers led by Olivier D. S. Demangeon of the University of Porto in Portugal reported another discovery under the SuperWASP program. The team found transit signals from three stars, namely WASP-151, WASP-153 and WASP-156. The planetary nature of these signals was later confirmed by follow-up observations using the SOPHIE spectrograph at the 1.93-m telescope of the Haute-Provence Observatory, France, and the CORALIE spectrograph at the 1.2-m Euler-Swiss telescope at La Silla Observatory in Chile. "In this paper, we report the discovery of three transiting exoplanets by the SuperWASP survey and the SOPHIE spectrograph with mass and radius determined with a precision better than 15 percent," the astronomers wrote in the paper. The largest and most massive planet of the newly found trio is WASP-153b with a radius of about 1.55 Jupiter radii and a mass of 0.39 Jupiter masses. It orbits its parent star every 3.33 days and has an equilibrium temperature of 1,701 K. WASP-151b is about 13 percent larger than Jupiter and has a mass of approximately 0.31 Jupiter masses. The planet has an equilibrium temperature of 1,291 K and an orbital period of 4.53 days. Both WASP-151b and WASP-153b are low-density gaseous planets orbiting early G-type stars. The two exoplanets were classified as "hot Saturns" due to the fact that they have masses close to Saturn's and have high surface temperatures as they circle their hosts very closely. When it comes to WASP-156b, it is half the size of Jupiter and has a mass of approximately 0.13 Jupiter masses. It has an equilibrium temperature of 1,291 K and orbits a K-type host every 3.83 days. Given that this planet is about 2.5 times more massive than Neptune and taking into account its surface temperature, it was classified by researchers as a "super-Neptune." The authors of the study concluded that the newly found alien worlds could helps us better understand the so-called Neptunian desert - a depletion of exoplanets at short orbital periods (below 10 days) with masses or radius between "super-Earth" and subjovian planets. For instance, WASP-156b is only the ninth "super-Neptune" detected so far. "These three planets also lie close to (WASP-151b and WASP-153b) or below (WASP-156b) the upper boundary of the Neptunian desert. () While a detailed analysis of the origin of the Neptunian desert is beyond the scope of this paper, it is still interesting to look into the similarities and differences between WASP-156b and WASP- 151b/WASP-153b since they might provide useful hints on the nature of this desert," the paper reads. More information: The discovery of WASP-151b, WASP-153b, WASP-156b: Insights on giant planet migration and the upper boundary of the Neptunian desert, arXiv:1710.06321 [astro-ph.EP] arxiv.org/abs/1710.06321 Abstract To investigate the origin of the features discovered in the exoplanet population, the knowledge of exoplanets' mass and radius with a good precision is essential. In this paper, we report the discovery of three transiting exoplanets by the SuperWASP survey and the SOPHIE spectrograph with mass and radius determined with a precision better than 15 %. WASP-151b and WASP-153b are two hot Saturns with masses, radii, densities and equilibrium temperatures of 0.31^{+0.04}_{-0.03} MJ, 1.13^{+0.03}_{-0.03} RJ, 0.22^{-0.03}_{-0.02} rhoJ and 1, 290^{+20}_{-10} K, and 0.39^{+0.02}_{-0.02} MJ, 1.55^{+0.10}_{-0.08} RJ, 0.11^{+0.02}_{-0.02} rhoJ and 1, 700^{+40}_{-40} K, respectively. Their host stars are early G type stars (with magV ~ 13) and their orbital periods are 4.53 and 3.33 days, respectively. WASP-156b is a Super-Neptune orbiting a K type star (magV = 11.6) . It has a mass of 0.128^{+0.010}_{-0.009} MJ, a radius of 0.51^{+0.02}_{-0.02} RJ, a density of 1.0^{+0.1}_{-0.1} rhoJ, an equilibrium temperature of 970^{+30}_{-20} K and an orbital period of 3.83 days. WASP-151b is slightly inflated, while WASP-153b presents a significant radius anomaly. WASP-156b, being one of the few well characterised Super-Neptunes, will help to constrain the formation of Neptune size planets and the transition between gas and ice giants. The estimates of the age of these three stars confirms the tendency for some stars to have gyrochronological ages significantly lower than their isochronal ages. We propose that high eccentricity migration could partially explain this behaviour for stars hosting a short period planet. Finally, these three planets also lie close to (WASP-151b and WASP-153b) or below (WASP-156b) the upper boundary of the Neptunian desert. Their characteristics support that the ultra-violet irradiation plays an important role in this depletion of planets observed in the exoplanet population. 2017 Phys.org Scanning electron microscope image of gold nanoarrows. Credit: Wang et al., Sci. Adv. 2017;3: e1701183 (Phys.org)A team of researchers at Peking University has found that tiny arrows made of gold can be used to create exotic new superstructures. In their paper published on the open access site Science Advances, the team describes how the nano-arrows were formed and how they can be used to create 2-D and 3-D supercrystals. As the search for new useful materials continues, scientists have looked to unusual constructs as a basis upon which to build other objects. One specific area of research involves searching for materials that behave in certain ways at the nano-level, particularly those that respond to light (nanophotonics). This is an area, the researchers note, that is lacking in the production of nanocrystals that are adjustable and complex enough to meet the needs of the growing field. In this new effort, the group has developed a new type of building block for creating such materialscalled nano-arrows, they can be used to create unique crystal formations. The nano-arrows, the team explains were formed from twin pyramids of gold connected on either end to a four-wing shaft also made of goldthe team calls them uniform gold nano-arrows (GNAs). They were made using a controlled gold nanorod overgrowth process. The result is an extremely tiny two-point arrow with tips pointing in opposite directions. The unique shape, the researchers note, and the fact that they are uniform, allows for the construction of unique assemblages. When laid flat, the GNAs can align face to face, allowing for the construction of interesting and possibly useful 2-D web supercrystals, some of which resemble zippers and others woven cloth. Rotation of two GNAs around the z and x axes showing the geometric models. Credit: Wang et al., Sci. Adv. 2017;3: e1701183 By using the 2-D constructs as a basis, the team further notes, it is possible to create closely packed 3-D supercrystals with varying degrees of packing or pore structure. They note also that applying electromagnetic stimulation to such crystals results in the growth of exotic crystal patternsthis method, the team claims, could open the door to new avenues of research involving self-assembling nano-particles superstructures. They further add that end products might include novel plasmonic metamaterials suitable for use in nanophotonics or reconfigurable architectural materials. Locking and unlocking process of two GNAs with a concave geometry. Credit: Wang et al., Sci. Adv. 2017;3: e1701183 3D SCs assembled by GNAs. SEM images (A1, A2, B1, B2, B3, C1, and C2) and geometric models (A3, A4, B4, C3, and C4) of Net III (A1 to B4) and Weave III (C1 to C4) SCs. Insets show the corresponding FFT patterns. Facets lying against the facets of neighboring GNAs are painted in saffron in (A4), (B4), and (C4). Credit: Wang et al., Sci. Adv. 2017;3: e1701183 More information: Qian Wang et al. Controlled growth and shape-directed self-assembly of gold nanoarrows, Science Advances (2017). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1701183 Abstract Self-assembly of colloidal nanocrystals into complex superstructures offers notable opportunities to create functional devices and artificial materials with unusual properties. Anisotropic nanoparticles with nonspherical shapes, such as rods, plates, polyhedra, and multipods, enable the formation of a diverse range of ordered superlattices. However, the structural complexity and tunability of nanocrystal superlattices are restricted by the limited geometries of the anisotropic nanoparticles available for supercrystal self-assembly. We show that uniform gold nanoarrows (GNAs) consisting of two pyramidal heads connected by a four-wing shaft are readily synthesized through controlled overgrowth of gold nanorods. The distinct concave geometry endows the GNAs with unique packing and interlocking ability and allows for the shape-directed assembly of sophisticated two-dimensional (2D) and 3D supercrystals with unprecedented architectures. Net-like 2D supercrystals are assembled through the face-to-face contact of the GNAs lying on the pyramidal edges, whereas zipper-like and weave-like 2D supercrystals are constructed by the interlocked GNAs lying on the pyramidal {111} facets. Furthermore, multilayer packing of net-like and weave-like 2D assemblies of GNAs leads to nonclose-packed 3D supercrystals with varied packing efficiencies and pore structures. Electromagnetic simulation of the diverse nanoarrow supercrystals exhibits exotic patterns of nanoscale electromagnetic field confinement. This study may open new avenues toward tunable self-assembly of nanoparticle superstructures with increased complexity and unusual functionality and may advance the design of novel plasmonic metamaterials for nanophotonics and reconfigurable architectured materials. Journal information: Science Advances 2017 Phys.org (a) A high power laser pulse ionizes and creates plasma in a common laboratory liquid like acetone or dichloroethane or even water. The plasma can be seen as a long line along the length of the tube containing the liquid (see inset). This line is called a filament and it radiates, among others, copious terahertz radiation. (b) Integrated terahertz energy obtained from various liquids and air. (c) Power spectrum of terahertz obtained from the filamentation of acetone, ethanol and air. Credit: Indranuj Dey, G. Ravindra Kumar In a significant breakthrough, scientists at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, have devised a high-power radiation source in the terahertz (THz) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. This study, done in collaboration with laboratories in Greece and France, will be published in the journal Nature Communications on Oct 30, 2017. The search for new and brighter radiation sources is an enduring quest in science and technology. While there are many sources across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, the terahertz region (wedged between the infrared/optical and the microwave regions) is a challenge, and it is only in the last 20 years that sources have become available. High-power terahertz radiation has typically been produced only in large, complex machines like free electron lasers. Compact sources relying on semiconductor antennas and special crystals excited by visible/infrared femtosecond laser pulses have very limited energy outputs, typically in the nanojoule (billionth of a joule) level or lower. They are not useful for many applications. However, high-power femtosecond lasers can excite terahertz emissions a thousand times stronger from a plasma formed in air under special conditions. For a long time, researchers have believed that liquids could not give out significant terahertz radiation because they would efficiently reabsorb whatever was generated. Yet, this is where the TIFR researchers proved successful. In their experiments, they irradiated common laboratory liquids like methanol, acetone, dicholorethane, carbon disulphide and even water, with moderate energy femtosecond laser pulses, ionizing the liquid and forming long plasma channels called filaments. They measured energies as high as 50 microjoules, thousands of times larger than the energies emitted by most existing sources and 10 to 20 times larger than those produced from air. Their careful characterization and systematic study showed that the experimental conditions were simpler than those needed for air. The essence of this model is that the femtosecond laser pulse induces secondary emissions in the liquid which would then combine with the incident laser pulse to produce the observed terahertz radiation. The TIFR researchers are bullish about the applications of their liquid source, the brightest among compact, tabletop sources. They foresee many applications in terahertz imaging, material analysis, explosives detection and terahertz nonlinear optics. This new source certainly increases the stock of terahertz radiation. More information: Indranuj Dey et al, Highly efficient broadband terahertz generation from ultrashort laser filamentation in liquids, Nature Communications (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01382-x [1] Tonouchi, M. "Cutting-edge terahertz technology." Nat. Photonics 1, 97-105 (2007). [2] Baierl, S. et al. "Nonlinear spin control by terahertz-driven anisotropy fields." Nat. Photonics 10, 715-718 (2016). [3] Kim, K. Y., Taylor, A. J., Glownia, J. H. & Rodriguez, G. "Coherent control of terahertz supercontinuum generation in ultrafast laser-gas interactions." Nat. Photonics 2, 605-609 (2008). Journal information: Nature Communications An important source of fine particulate matter: Agricultural ammonia emissions from fertilization and animal husbandry. Credit: pixelio Fine particulates have numerous sources not only traffic, which is currently under particular scrutiny. Reducing agricultural emissions could also considerably reduce the particulate levels that are hazardous to health, concludes a study by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany. The scientists calculated that especially in Europe and North America, the atmospheric fine particle concentration would decrease substantially by reducing ammonia (NH3) emissions by fertilizer use and animal husbandry. If agricultural emissions were 50 percent lower, more than 250,000 deaths per year, caused by air pollution, could be avoided globally. The results are published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, a journal of the European Geosciences Union. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), fine particulate matter with a diameter less than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) is particularly harmful to health, because the particles penetrate deep into the lungs and can cause cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. This significantly reduces life expectancy in many regions of the world. According to the "Global Burden of Disease", a study that assesses mortality and disability from major diseases, injuries, and risk factors, outdoor air pollution is the fifth-ranked risk factor of global total mortality. 'Currently, the public debate primarily focusses on the particulate load from traffic, while other sources such as agriculture are neglected', says Jos Lelieveld, Director of the Atmospheric Chemistry Department at the Institute in Mainz. Particulate emissions from motor vehicles can make a critical contribution to local air pollution in urban areas, especially near roads with heavy traffic. However, most fine particulates (PM2.5) are the result of chemical processes in the air during transport by the wind. 'The concentration of fine particulates in the atmosphere could be drastically reduced by preventing the release of ammonia from agriculture', says Lelieveld, which is underpinned with recent calculations of his research team. Ammonia reacts to form the salts that make particulates In an earlier study, the Max Planck researchers pointed out that 3.3 million people around the globe died in the year 2010 as a consequence of air pollution. Meanwhile the estimates for recent years have increased significantly. The scientists emphasize that in many regions of the world industry and traffic are not the leading sources of air pollution, which is generally assumed, but that agriculture can play an important role, in addition to residential energy use for heating and cooking. The scientists have identified the release of ammonia from animal husbandry and fertilizer use as a leading cause of air pollution, especially in large parts of Europe. Ammonia contains nitrogen which is an important nutrient for plants, but it escapes to the atmosphere from manure and by fertilizing agricultural crops. It reacts with other substances, such as sulphuric and nitric acid, to form ammonium sulphate and nitrate salts that make up the particulates. 50 percent less NH3 would avoid 250,000 deaths per year globally In their present study, the scientists concentrate on four regions where particulate air quality limits are frequently exceeded: North America, Europe, South and East Asia. Their calculations show that a 50 percent reduction of agricultural emissions would lead to a global decrease in deaths attributable to air pollution of around eight percent. This figure corresponds to a mortality rate of 250,000 people per year. If ammonia emissions could be fully excluded, about 800,000 deaths from air pollution related diseases would be avoided globally. 'The effect of ammonia reduction on particulate formation is non-linear. Air quality improvement is most efficient after certain reductions have been realized. 'From this point on, however, the effect is exponential', explains Andrea Pozzer, Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and leading author of the study. A reduction in ammonia emissions of more than 50 percent would, therefore, be highly effective and desirable, Pozzer adds. Europe, especially, would profit from lower ammonia emissions The scientists determined mortality rates in two stages: first, with the aid of an atmospheric chemistry model, they calculated how strongly fine particulates would be reduced by decreasing ammonia emissions. The results show that by cutting the global source by half, in Europe 11 percent less PM2.5 particulates would result, in the USA 19 percent and in China 34 percent. In Germany, the average level of fine particulates in the year 2015 was around 14 micrograms per cubic meter of air, meaning that in the 50 percent reduction scenario it would drop to about 12.5 micrograms per cubic meter. Based on an additional model, which describes the public health impacts that occur for a given particulate exposure, the researchers calculated the influence on mortality by lung cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. In particular Europe would profit from a reduction in ammonia emissions and the consequent decrease of fine particulates: for example, a Europe-wide NH3 reduction of 50 percent would decrease mortality from PM2.5 by almost 20 percent, meaning that about 50,000 deaths per year could be avoided. Andrea Pozzer and colleagues calculated that an ammonia reduction of this magnitude in the USA would lead to a 30 percent drop in the air pollution related mortality rate. In contrast, the computer models indicate smaller improvements for the same reduction in East Asia, about eight percent, and only three percent in South Asia. Based on these results, Jos Lelieveld concludes: 'Emission policies, in particular in North America and Europe, should impose more stringent ammonia controls to effectively reduce fine particulate concentrations.' Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide (NOx) reduction measures are critically important for clean air, but should be complemented by a reduction of ammonia from agriculture, which can be implemented relatively efficiently and economically. More information: Andrea Pozzer et al. Impact of agricultural emission reductions on fine-particulate matter and public health, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2017). DOI: 10.5194/acp-17-12813-2017 Journal information: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Members of the Austrian Space Forum inspect a site in Oman's Dhofar desert, near the southern Marmul outpost, on October 29, 2017, in preparation for a four-week Mars simulation mission due to begin next year In sunglasses and jumpsuits, a crew of European test astronauts is laying the groundwork for a Mars simulation in the barren expanse of the Omani desert, a terrestrial mission intended to pave the way to the red planet. The "analog astronauts" of the Austrian Space Foruma volunteer-based collectivehave arrived in Oman to begin preparations for a four-week simulation mission due to begin next year. Touching down at Marmul Airport, a remote outpost used by oil workers, the five-person advance team loaded up on sunscreen and, with their Omani counterparts dressed in crisp white gowns and colourful turbans, boarded four-by-fours and plunged into the desert under the blazing sun. Oil installations receded into the background and only rocky plateaus and ancient sandy riverbeds remained as far as the eye could see. Maps were spread on the hoods of the vehicles. "We want to simulate Mars on Earth and so we need a place that looks as much like Mars as possible. And we found it here in Oman," Alexander Soucek, the lead flight director of the AMADEE-18 mission, told AFP. The team was on a quest to pin down the location of the base camp for the simulation, to be held in February. "Here the humans coming from Earth will land after six months travel through space... Simulated, of course!" Soucek said upon arrival at the chosen site. "When we fly to Mars in reality, we will need as many questions as possible already answered so that we are really well prepared." A member of the Austrian Space Forum inspects a site in Oman's Dhofar desert, near the southern Marmul outpost, on October 29, 2017, in preparation for a four-week Mars simulation mission due to begin next year 'Sneak preview of the future' During the mission, the team will carry out a series of experiments, from growing greens without soil in an inflatable hydroponic greenhouse to testing an autonomous "tumbleweed" rover, which maps out terrain while propelled by the wind. "There are very few groups on this planet testing these procedures and doing these high-fidelity simulations," said Soucek. "We are one of them." The team hopes the simulation will help nail down future tools and procedures for the first manned mission to Mars. Field commander Gernot Groemer predicts a Mars mission may be carried out by a collective of the United States, Russia, Europe and possibly China relatively soonwith the first human to set foot on the red planet maybe already born. "What we're going to see here in about 100 days is going to be a sneak preview into the future," said Groemer, describing a U-shaped encampment where "an exquisitely compiled suite of experiments" will take place. Those include experiments designed to test human factors that could affect pioneering astronauts, such as mental fatigue and depression. Just 15 people will enter the isolation phase, when their only way to troubleshoot snags will be through remote communication with "earth" in Austria. Members of the Austrian Space Forum inspect a site in Oman's Dhofar desert, near the southern Marmul outpost, on October 29, 2017, in preparation for a four-week Mars simulation mission due to begin next year Innovations for Earth The total cost of the project is expected to be around half-a-million euros, covered mainly by private donations from industry partners. Critics of such space missions see the massive amounts of money as a luxury in a time of austerity measures in Europe and depressed oil prices in the Gulf. The Austrian Space Forum argues the money is not being "thrown into space" and that the tools being developed are not only useful for life on a distant planet but for our own. "Most people every day use a handful of space technologies without even knowing it," said Groemer, listing off satellite imagery, fuel injection for cars and breast cancer screening software. On Monday the Austrian Space Forum signed a memorandum of understanding with Oman, making the sultanate's selection as the mission site official. For the Omani Astronomical Society, which invited the Austrian Space Forum, the mission is a way to inspire the country's youth. A series of lectures is taking place at Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, geared especially toward hundreds of young students. Al-Khattab Ghalib Al Hinai, deputy head of the steering committee for AMADEE-18 and vice chairman of Oman's State Council, says a high school team will even participate, conducting a geophysics experiment to find water. "The whole idea is to ignite imagination within the young society in Oman, female and male, and I hope this journey of discovery will help them to always search for the unknown," the geologist said. "I hope to see astrophysicists in Oman, I hope to see geologists. I hope to see astronauts in the future." 2017 AFP Onscreen, athletes and trainers can straightaway see the surrounding air currents. Credit: ETH Zurich A new procedure simplifies wind tunnel tests and makes the results visible immediately. Athletes have gone up against the wind at ETH to test the new method. The skier buckles her boots, grabs her poles and snaps her goggles into place. She's ready to go but she's not on the piste. She's in ETH Zurich's engineering lab. And there's a good reason for this peculiar situation: up-and-coming athletes recently spent a week in the ETH's wind tunnel testing a measuring method developed by the Institute of Fluid Dynamics. Ski racers, ski cross competitors and racing cyclists all attempted to find the most streamlined equipment and aerodynamic positions in the wind tunnel. No longer flying blind The week of testing was organised by the ETH spin-off streamwise in collaboration with a research group led by Professor Thomas Rosgen. They all have been working to develop the new measuring method, known as ProCap, over the past few years. "Conventional measurements in wind tunnels only provide information about the test object's overall air resistance but to identify where precisely the air resistance arises, it's essential to look at the surrounding air currents," explains Andreas Muller, a postdoc at ETH Zurich. Previously, this environment could only be captured using time-consuming quantitative methods or qualitative optical aids such as smoke. "For athletes, a traditional wind tunnel test means flying blind. Afterwards, they have to speculate for themselves where and how air resistance arose," says Muller. And this is where the new method comes in: it records the surrounding air currents and visualises them onscreen in real time. Credit: ETH Zurich Arrows and colours illustrate wind currents During the tests, a measuring probe in the wind tunnel scans the areas that are of interest. The probe measures the speed, direction and pressure of the wind currents and delivers this information directly to the computer. Thanks to software developed by ETH, it can be immediately visualised onscreen. Little arrows show the direction of the currents, while various colours indicate their strength. "With the new method, athletes, trainers and technicians can see straightaway onscreen which areas are causing the most air resistance" explains Andrin Landolt, a former ETH Zurich postdoc and the founder of streamwise This enables them to test out various positions and equipment types on location, saving significant amounts of time and money. "The test week is an important step towards implementing the method for real customers and moving it from a purely scientific application into the world of business," says Landolt. The throng of illustrious guests during the test week testifies to the interest that the project has aroused: besides the up-and-coming athletes, ski legend Karl Frehsner and time trial world champion Tony Martin also dropped by the ETH wind tunnel. Like all the other trainers, athletes and technicians, they were able to follow the measurements on the big screen and discuss optimisations among themselves. This dialogue was only possible thanks to the live visualisation of the air currents. Racing cyclists also attempted to find the most streamlined equipment and aerodynamic positions in the wind tunnel. Credit: ETH Zurich Wind currents in augmented reality While streamwise focuses on commercialising the method, ETH is researching possible further developments. The next project: a future visualisation of the wind currents using augmented reality glasses. "This will be particularly helpful for the person carrying out the scans with the measuring probe. Thanks to augmented reality, they will be able to see the wind currents around the object 'live'." More information: Mueller, A., Landolt, A., Roesgen, T., Probe Capture for Quantitative Flow Visualization in Large Scale Wind Tunnels, Proc. of the 28th AIAA Conference, 2012. www.ifd.mavt.ethz.ch/content/d s_mueller_procap.pdf The mean maximum annual temperatures increase gradually from the north of the Red Sea to its south. Credit: Reproduced with permission from reference 1, Nature Publishing Group The world's warmest sea is heating up faster than the global average, which could challenge the ability of the Red Sea's organisms to cope. "The global rate of ocean warming has many consequences for life on this planet. Now we are learning that the Red Sea is warming even faster than the global average," says KAUST PhD student of marine science, Veronica Chaidez. The analyses, conducted by a multidisciplinary team spanning all three divisions at KAUST, provide vital data that could help predict the future of the Red Sea's marine biodiversity when supplemented by evidence to be gathered on the thermal limits of local organisms. Analyses of satellite sensing data from 1982 to 2015 show that the Red Sea's maximum surface temperatures have increased at a rate of 0.17 0.07C per decade, exceeding the global ocean warming rate of 0.11C per decade. Maximum sea-surface temperatures were found to increase from north to south along the Red Sea basin, with the coolest temperatures located in the gulfs of Suez and Aqaba in the far North. These two gulfs, however, are showing the highest rates of change compared to the rest of the basin at 0.40-0.45C per decade; four times faster than the mean global ocean warming rate. The Northern Red Sea experiences maximum temperatures throughout July, while the Southern Red Sea is warmest from late July to mid-August. Interestingly, sea-surface temperatures reached their maximum in an area on the Eastern coast of the Red Sea, about 200km south of Jeddah, from mid-August to early September. This anomaly may be caused by the unique wind patterns in this region. Maximum surface temperatures are also recorded about a quarter of a day earlier per decade. Systematic monitoring efforts are needed to assess the impacts of these rapid warming rates on coral bleaching and mass marine organism mortality events, adds Chaidez. Currently, no such monitoring exists in the Red Sea, but Chaidez is testing the thermal capacities of some of the basin's plants and animals in her laboratory. A model that incorporates data on temperatures, organism thermal limits, and other relevant biological data could help predict impacts of warming on the local ecosystem. Evidence suggests that warm temperatures in the Red Sea are already challenging the capacity of its marine organisms to adapt and survive. Marine organisms generally adapt to rising ocean temperatures by migrating toward the poles. This is not an easy migration in the Red Sea since it is a semi-enclosed space, rendering its organisms vulnerable. More information: V. Chaidez et al, Decadal trends in Red Sea maximum surface temperature, Scientific Reports (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-08146-z Journal information: Scientific Reports In a study with Carolina chickadees in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, researchers at the University of Delaware and Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center show how native trees provide more food -- caterpillars -- for birds than their non-native counterparts. Credit: Desiree Narango and Doug Tallamy/University of Delaware University of Delaware doctoral student Desiree Narango is researching trees and shrubs planted in the lawns of homeowners throughout the Washington, D.C., Maryland and northern Virginia areas to assess how those choices are impacting food webs. Narango, who is working with Doug Tallamy, professor of entomology in UD's Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, is also associated with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center and works through a citizen-science program called "Neighborhood Nest Watch." Narango is co-advised by Pete Marra, director of the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Through her research, Narango looks at breeding birds and the food resources they need, such as insects and caterpillars. Different trees vary in how much food they provide birds, and Narango said she has a network of homeowners in the D.C. metropolitan area who allowed her to use their yards for her study. Over the course of the four-year study, Narango has looked at 203 yards. One thing that has stood out to her is the sheer number of different trees that are planted in these yards. "We focus on woody plantsso trees and shrubsand we've documented over 375 different species in these 203 yards. Which is crazy," said Narango who added that it became apparent quickly that some trees are better than others with regard to sustaining food webs. "We just had a paper come out in the journal of Biological Conservation where we show that native trees are better at providing caterpillars for birds, which is a really important food resource," said Narango. "Native trees are better, hands down, but even among the native trees, there are some that are better than others so things like oaks and cherries and elms are highly productive for caterpillars, so they have lots of good food for the birds." Narango added that there are a lot of non-native plantssuch as zelkova, ginkgo and lilacthat don't provide any resources for breeding birds. "Those species are true non-natives so they're not related to anything here, and they provide almost nothing in terms of caterpillars for birds," said Narango. "There are also species like Japanese cherry and Japanese maple that are non-native but are related to our native maples and cherries. We found that those species have an average of 40 percent fewer caterpillars than the native versions of that tree. If you had a choice between a black cherry and a Japanese cherry and if you're interested in food for birds, then you should choose the native version." Narango said that a problem homeowners may face when trying to select native versions of plants is that a lot of the big box stores don't carry them. University of Delaware doctoral student Desiree Narango is researching the impact of what you plant in your yard on birds and other members of food webs. Credit: Desiree Narango and Doug Tallamy/University of Delaware "There are a lot of really great small nurseries that have many native plants that are productive in terms of caterpillars and are also very beautiful," said Narango. "You definitely don't have to sacrifice beauty to get plants that are ecologically beneficial. There's a lot to choose from so you can have beauty, you can have fruit and then also have food for birds, too. It's all interconnected." As for the most eye-opening aspect of her research, Narango said that it has to be the tremendous amount of diversity in bugs and birds in people's backyards. "A lot of people think you need to go to the woods to see beautiful butterflies or beautiful birds, but they're actually in people's backyards, too," said Narango. In the group's bird surveys, they documented 98 different bird species. Narango focuses on the Carolina chickadee and said that she would follow individual birds around to see what trees they were choosing. One of the major findings in her paper is that the number of caterpillar species a plant supports predicts how strongly chickadees prefer it. "When these birds would choose a tree, all the other birds in the neighborhood were choosing those trees, too. So we would see these amazing warblers that don't breed in Delaware or in D.C. but are migrating through, and they're using all these suburban habitats on their way north. In a way, our chickadees were telling us what all of the birds want during that period," said Narango. As a landscaper herself, Narango added that it was surprising to see how much life happened in her own backyard when she started planting the right species. "I planted this flower called ironweed, and the first year it was there, I had the specialist bees that use that flower and then I have caterpillars in my shrubs, and it's really cool how quickly you can see life be attracted to your yard when you plant the right species," she said. More information: Desiree L. Narango et al, Native plants improve breeding and foraging habitat for an insectivorous bird, Biological Conservation (2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2017.06.029 Journal information: Biological Conservation Two people have been injured in firing between two groups in a bar in Haryana's Gurgaon. By India Today Web Desk: Two people were injured in a late-evening shootout at a bar in Haryana's Gurgaon district. The S bar, where the incident took place at around 11.30 pm on Sunday, is located at Grand Mall on MG Road in Gurgaon. The two injured men have been identified as Pravindra and Praveen. They have been hospitalised and are undergoing treatment at Artemis Hospital in Gurugram. advertisement The shootout was a result of personal rivalry between the two groups. According to the police, around 11.15 pm on Sunday, around 12-18 men armed with sticks and guns entered the S Bar. ATTACKERS SAID TO BE DRUNK The men were said to be in an inebriated state. When the bar owner Deepak, along with Pravindra and Praveen tried to calm the goons, they began beating them up. In the ensuing violence, Pravindra and Praveen received gunshot injuries. Meanwhile, the owner of the bar Deepak informed the police, which immediately rushed to the spot, by which time the goons had left the place. The police have registered a case and also arrested two accused identified as Mintu and Amit. This is not the first time that such an incident has taken place at Grand Mall. WATCH VIDEO #WATCH Firing between two groups in a bar in #Gurugram, 2 injured persons have been hospitalized. Case registered, police investigation on. pic.twitter.com/OIq3nZqu3B- ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017 --- ENDS --- An illustration shows the growth of a lithium-deficient phase (blue) at the expense of a Lithium-rich phase (red) in a lithium iron phosphate microrod. Rice University researchers led a study that found defects in a common cathode material for lithium-ion batteries can potentially improve performance over perfect electrodes by allowing for lithium transport over much more surface area than previously thought possible. Credit: Mesoscale Materials Modeling Group/Rice University High-performance electrodes for lithium-ion batteries can be improved by paying closer attention to their defectsand capitalizing on them, according to Rice University scientists. Rice materials scientist Ming Tang and chemists Song Jin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Linsen Li at Wisconsin and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology led a study that combined state-of-the-art, in situ X-ray spectroscopy and modeling to gain insight into lithium transport in battery cathodes. They found that a common cathode material for lithium-ion batteries, olivine lithium iron phosphate, releases or takes in lithium ions through a much larger surface area than previously thought. "We know this material works very well but there's still much debate about why," Tang said. "In many aspects, this material isn't supposed to be so good, but somehow it exceeds people's expectations." Part of the reason, Tang said, comes from point defectsatoms misplaced in the crystal latticeknown as antisite defects. Such defects are impossible to completely eliminate in the fabrication process. As it turns out, he said, they make real-world electrode materials behave very differently from perfect crystals. That and other revelations in a Nature Communications paper could potentially help manufacturers develop better lithium-ion batteries that power electronic devices worldwide. The lead authors of the studyLiang Hong of Rice and Li of Wisconsin and MITand their colleagues collaborated with Department of Energy scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory to use its powerful synchrotron light sources and observe in real time what happens inside the battery material when it is being charged. They also employed computer simulations to explain their observations. An electron microscope image shows microrod particles of the type used in a Rice University-led study of lithium transport in lithium-ion batteries. Credit: Linsen Li and Song Jin/University of Wisconsin Madison One revelation, Tang said, was that microscopic defects in electrodes are a feature, not a bug. "People usually think defects are a bad thing for battery materials, that they destroy properties and performance," he said. "With the increasing amount of evidence, we realized that having a suitable amount of point defects can actually be a good thing." Inside a defect-free, perfect crystal lattice of a lithium iron phosphate cathode, lithium can only move in one direction, Tang said. Because of this, it is believed the lithium intercalation reaction can happen over only a fraction of the particle's surface area. But the team made a surprising discovery when analyzing Li's X-ray spectroscopic images: The surface reaction takes place on the large side of his imperfect, synthesized microrods, which counters theoretical predictions that the sides would be inactive because they are parallel to the perceived movement of lithium. The researchers explained that particle defects fundamentally change the electrode's lithium transport properties and enable lithium to hop inside the cathode along more than one direction. That increases the reactive surface area and allows for more efficient exchange of lithium ions between the cathode and electrolyte. Because the cathode in this study was made by a typical synthesis method, Tang said, the finding is highly relevant to practical applications. Rice University researchers Liang Hong, left, and Ming Tang study the lithium transport characteristics of batteries. They and their colleagues discovered that defects in common lithium-ion battery cathodes can potentially improve the material's performance over "perfect" electrodes. Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University "What we learned changes the thinking on how the shape of lithium iron phosphate particles should be optimized," he said. "Assuming one-dimensional lithium movement, people tend to believe the ideal particle shape should be a thin plate because it reduces the distance lithium needs to travel in that direction and maximizes the reactive surface area at the same time. But as we now know that lithium can move in multiple directions, thanks to defects, the design criteria to maximize performance will certainly look quite different." The second surprising observation, Tang said, has to do with the movement of phase boundaries in the cathode as it is charged and discharged. "When you take heat out of water, it turns into ice," he said. "And when you take lithium out of these particles, it forms a different lithium-poor phase, like ice, that coexists with the initial lithium-rich phase." The phases are separated by an interface, or a phase boundary. How fast the lithium can be extracted depends on how fast the phase boundary moves across a particle, he said. Unlike in bulk materials, Tang explained, it has been predicted that phase boundary movement in small battery particles can be limited by the surface reaction rate. The researchers were able to provide the first concrete evidence for this surface reaction-controlled mechanism, but with a twist. "We see the phase boundary move in two different directions through two different mechanisms, either controlled by surface reaction or lithium bulk diffusion," he said. "This hybrid mechanism paints a more complicated picture about how phase transformation happens in battery materials. Because it can take place in a large group of electrode materials, this discovery is fundamental for understanding battery performance and highlights the importance of improving the surface reaction rate." More information: Liang Hong et al, Two-dimensional lithium diffusion behavior and probable hybrid phase transformation kinetics in olivine lithium iron phosphate, Nature Communications (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01315-8 Journal information: Nature Communications Credit: MPS, Imge of Saturn: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute The radiation belts of Earth and Saturn differ more strongly than previously assumed. In these belts, very energetic particles, such as electrons and protons, move around the planet at high velocities - captured by its magnetic field. In the case of the Earth, the solar wind, a current of charged particles from the Sun varying in strength, controls the intensity of the radiation belt both directly and indirectly. The radiation belts of Saturn, however, develop completely independently of the solar wind and are instead decisively influenced by the gas giant's moons. These results are published today in the journal Nature Astronomy by a group of researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany co-leading the most comprehensive study on the subject to date. Key to the new findings are measurements of the MIMI-LEMMS instrument aboard NASA's Cassini space probe, which explored the Saturn system for more than 13 years before its dive into the planet on the 15th of September this year. The activity of the Sun and with it the strength of the solar wind follows an eleven-year cycle. Investigating the long term influence of the solar wind on a planet's radiation belts therefore requires patience and space missions of a considerable length. "If Cassini's mission to the Saturn system had ended after four years, as initially planned, we would never have been able to achieve these results," explains Dr. Elias Roussos of the MPS. Fortunately, the mission was extended several times. The Magnetospheric Imaging Instrument (MIMI) with its high energy particle detector (LEMMS) on board Cassini was therefore able to record the distribution of charged particles in the vicinity of Saturn over a period of time that includes a complete solar cycle. "Such extensive in-situ data on the radiation belts of a planet are otherwise only available for Earth," says MPS researcher Dr. Norbert Krupp, who heads the MIMI-LEMMS team. As data from Cassini show, Saturn's proton radiation belts are gigantic: they reach from the planet's innermost ring to the orbit of the moon Tethys and thus more than 285,000 kilometers into space. A decisive difference to Earth: while our moon is located far beyond the limits of the magnetosphere and the radiation belts, Saturn's radiation belts contain several of its satellites, such as the large moons Janus, Mimas, and Enceladus. "Saturn's moons influence the radiation belts decisively," says Krupp. They act as a kind of boundary wall on very energetic particles, particularly protons. Any protons diffusing further inwards from their place of origin are absorbed and thus stopped when they interact with a moon. "This creates areas in the radiation belt which are completely isolated from one another," says Roussos. Unlike Saturn, particles arising outside Earth's radiation belts may travel inward and replenish its content. On Earth, the high-energy particles that form the radiation belts have two origins. Some are provided directly by the solar wind. Others result from incident protons of extreme energy originating from our Galaxy, called Galactic Cosmic Rays. When Galactic Cosmic Rays reach the planet's atmosphere, it sets in motion a chain of reactions, at the end of which high-energy electrons and protons are created. Since the solar wind partially shields and thus modulates this cosmic radiation, the Sun's activity also plays a decisive role in this process. In the Saturnian system this is different. "In the first years of the Cassini mission, we observed that the solar wind could cause dramatic changes in Saturn's magnetosphere," says Roussos. "However, this direct influence stopped abruptly at the orbit of the moon Tethys." Nevertheless, at first everything indicated that the solar wind still helps to shape the radiation belts if only indirectly: the first years of the Cassini mission coincided with a decline in the Sun's activity; the intensity of the radiation belts increased as expected. In the period from 2010 to 2012, however, there was a rapid intensity drop that could not be attributed to the solar wind modulation of Galactic Cosmic Rays, which changes on much longer timescales. And also solar storms, violent eruptions of particles and radiation from the Sun, could not have been responsible. While time and again on Earth such events cause a sudden decline of intensity, extensive simulations performed by the researchers show, that this effect can also not explain the year-long decrease witnessed by Cassini. Rather, the scientists suspect that extreme ultraviolet radiation from the Sun may be responsible. This radiation can locally heat the atmosphere of a planet. The resulting turbulent winds transmit this information to the ionosphere which is "anchored" to the magnetosphere through the planet's magnetic field. As a result, the protons in the radiation belts spread out much more efficiently than usual. On their way, they encounter Saturn's moons and are absorbed: the intensity of the radiation belts thereby decreases significantly. "We observe that the intensity drop in the proton radiation belts of Saturn coincides exactly with strong changes in the EUV radiation from the Sun," Roussos describes the new results. It is therefore possible that while the solar wind has no impact on the radiation belts, the Sun still may. "Our analyses also remind us how strongly the properties of the radiation belts depend on the structure of the particular planet system, that is, the position and number of moons for the case of Saturn", says Roussos. This knowledge could also be helpful for a glance beyond the edge of the solar system: if in the future the radiation belts of an exoplanet could be detected, these data could also indirectly contain information about the system's properties and structure. More information: P. Kollmann, E. Roussos, A. Kotova, C. Paranicas and N. Krupp, The evolution of Saturn's radiation belts modulated by changes in radial diffusion, Nature Astronomy, 30 October 2017, nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/s41550-017-0287-x Journal information: Nature Astronomy Artist's impression of astrophysical jets emitting from the binary system V404 Cygni. Credit: G Perez Diaz (IAC) They are nature's very own Death Star beams - ultra-powerful jets of energy that shoot out from the vicinity of black holes like deadly rays from the Star Wars super-weapon. Now a team of scientists led by the University of Southampton has moved a step closer to understanding these mysterious cosmic phenomena - known as relativistic jets - by measuring how quickly they 'switch on' and start shining brightly once they are launched. How these jets form is still a puzzle. One theory suggests that they develop within the 'accretion disc' - the matter sucked into the orbit of a growing black hole. Extreme gravity within the disc twists and stretches magnetic fields, squeezing hot, magnetised disc material called plasma until it erupts in the form of oppositely directed magnetic pillars along the black hole's rotational axis. Plasma travels along these focused jets and gains tremendous speed, shooting across vast stretches of space. At some point, the plasma begins to shine brightly, but how and where this occurs in the jet has been debated by scientists. In a new study published today in Nature Astronomy, an international team of scientists led by Dr Poshak Gandhi show how they used precise multi-wavelength observations of a binary system called V404 Cygni - consisting of a star and a black hole closely orbiting each other, with the black hole feeding off matter from the star that falls through the disc - to throw light on this hotly debated phenomenon. V404 Cygni is located about 7,800 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus, and weighs as much as about nine of our Suns put together. Dr Gandhi and his collaborators captured the data in June 2015, when V404 Cygni was observed radiating one of the brightest 'outbursts' of light from a black hole ever seen - bright enough to be visible to small telescopes used by amateur astronomers, and energetic enough to tear apart an Earth-like planet if properly focused. Using telescopes on Earth and in space observing at exactly the same time, they captured a 0.1-second delay between X-ray flares emitted from near the black hole, where the jet forms, and the appearance of visible light flashes, marking the moment when accelerated jet plasma begins to shine. This 'blink of an eye' delay was calculated to represent a maximum distance of 19,000 miles (30,000 km), impossible to resolve at the distance of V404 with any current telescope. Dr Gandhi, of the University of Southampton, said: "Scientists have been observing jets for decades, but are far from understanding how nature creates these mind-bogglingly vast and energetic structures. Animation showing astrophysical jets emitting from the binary system V404 Cygni. Credit: G Perez Diaz (IAC) "Now, for the first time, we have captured the time delay between the appearance of X-rays and the appearance of optical light in a stellar-mass black hole at the moment jet plasma is activated. This lays to rest the controversy regarding the origin of the optical flashes, and also gives us a critical distance over which jet plasma must have been strongly accelerated to speeds approaching that of light." In Star Wars terms, the key measurement of this study can roughly be likened to measuring the distance between the surface of the Death Star, where multiple rays of light shoot out, and the point where they converge into a single bright beam. "But the physics of black hole jets has nothing to do with lasers or the fictional Kyber crystals that power the Death Star. Nature has found other ways to power jets," said Dr Gandhi. "Gravity and magnetic fields play the key roles here, and this is the mechanism we are trying to unravel." The study also creates a link between V404 Cygni and supermassive black holes, which lie at the centre of massive galaxies and which weigh billions of times more than stellar-mass black holes. Similar jet physics may apply to all black holes. Dr Gandhi said: "This is an exciting and important discovery which can be fed back into theory about relativistic jets, and contributes to our ever-growing understanding of black holes." The X-ray emission, representing the accretion disc 'feeding' the jet at its base, was captured from Earth orbit by NASA's NuSTAR telescope, while the moment the jet became visible as optical light was caught by the ULTRACAM high-speed camera, mounted on the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma, in the Canary Islands. Professor Vik Dhillon, of the University of Sheffield, the principal investigator behind ULTRACAM, commented: "This discovery was made possible thanks to our camera gathering 28 frames per second. It demonstrates the untapped potential of studying astrophysical phenomena at high speeds." At the same time, radio waves from the extended portions of the jet plasma were observed by a team of Professor Rob Fender, of the University of Oxford, using the AMI-LA radio telescope, in Cambridge, UK. Professor Fender said: "These observations are another major step towards understanding exactly how relativistic jets are formed by black holes. Radio detections come from the outer jet and are the key unambiguous indicator of ongoing jet activity. The optical, X-rays and radio were also crucial for that discovery." More information: P. Gandhi et al, An elevation of 0.1 light-seconds for the optical jet base in an accreting Galactic black hole system, Nature Astronomy (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-017-0273-3, arxiv.org/abs/1710.09838 Journal information: Nature Astronomy The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), pictured during a recent technical stop. Credit: Max Brice/CERN Accelerator operators can perform amazing acrobatics with particle beams, most recently in the Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS), CERN's second-largest accelerator. For the first time, they have successfully injected a beam of partially ionised xenon particles into the SPS and accelerated it. Before they were injected into the SPS, these atoms were stripped of 39 of their 54 electrons. During the first test, which took place in September, the beam was injected into the SPS ring and circulated for about one second. Now, the beam has been accelerated for the first time, reaching an energy of 81.6 gigaelectronvolts (GeV) per nucleon. What makes this performance so remarkable is that these beams of partially ionised xenon atoms are extremely fragile and have a very short lifespan. If an atom loses just one of its 15 electrons, it changes orbit and is lost. "The SPS vacuum is not quite as high as that of the LHC. The residual gas molecules present in the vacuum chamber disturb the beam, which explains why it is lost quite quickly," says Reyes Alemany, who is responsible for the SPS tests. "But keeping the beam going for one cycle in the SPS is already a very promising result!" So why are accelerator physicists experimenting with these atoms? It's to test a novel idea: a high-intensity source of gamma rays (photons with energies in the megaelectronvolt (MeV) range). This gamma factory, as it is known, would generate photons of up to 400 MeV in energy and at intensities comparable to those of synchrotrons or X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs). XFELs produce high-intensity beams of X-rays that is, photons of an energy of less than about 100 kiloelectronvolts (keV). "A source of that kind would pave the way for studies never done before in fundamental physics, in the fields of quantum electrodynamics or dark matter research," explains Witold Krasny, a CNRS physicist and CERN associate who founded the project and leads the work group. "It also opens the door for industrial and medical applications." It could even serve as a test bench for a future neutrino factory or muon collider. The principle is to accelerate partially ionised atoms and then excite them using a laser. As they return to their stable state, the atoms release high-energy photons. The team took advantage of the presence of xenon in the accelerator complex to carry out this first test without disrupting the other ongoing physics programmes. Next year, during the LHC heavy-ion run, the team will repeat the experiment using ionised lead atoms, which will be stripped of all but one or two electrons. Those beams will be much more stable; having fewer electrons means that the atoms are less at risk of losing them. In addition, their electrons are only found in the "K" shell, the closest to the nucleus, and therefore have a stronger link to the nucleus than in the xenon atoms. The heavy-ion beams could be accelerated first in the SPS and then in the LHC. The gamma factory project is part of the Physics Beyond Colliders study, which was launched in 2016 with the goal of investigating all possible non-collider experiments, particularly those that could be done using CERN's accelerator complex. Hundreds of scientists are expected to attend the annual Physics Beyond Colliders conference at CERN at the end of November. Provided by CERN Fifty pregnant women complained of headaches and shivers few minutes after receiving an antibiotic injection. By India Today Web Desk: In yet another incident of medical negligence, 50 women fell ill after receiving antibiotic injections on Monday morning. The incident came forward in Gwalior's Kamala Raja Hospital after 50 pregnant women, some of them who were expecting and some just gave birth, were administered a dose of antibiotics. The women experienced shivers and complained of headache after receiving the injections. advertisement "The staff gave me injections. I have been feeling very cold & experiencing headache ever since," said one of the women admitted in the hospital. According to a TOI report, the injections were administered by trainee male nurse. As the patients and their relatives complained of shivering and headache, the senior doctors sprung into action. Sources allege that the nurse administered the antibiotic in combination with normal water instead of distilled water. The staff gave me injections. I have been feeling very cold & experiencing headache ever since: Woman admitted in the hospital pic.twitter.com/KiqIzlfJbQ- ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017 --- ENDS --- One of my favorite Woody Allen lines is, "I'm not afraid of death. I just don't want to be there when it happens." Death ... Tommy Bahama Adds To Point of Sale With BlueCherry B2B eCommerce CGS, a global provider of business applications, enterprise learning and outsourcing services, today announced that Tommy Bahama, the iconic island lifestyle brand, is implementing BlueCherry B2B eCommerce, the online and mobile sales automation solution within the BlueCherry Enterprise Suite of solutions, providing end-to-end capabilities for apparel and consumer lifestyle brands. Tommy Bahama, with its vast collection of apparel and consumer products, was looking for a simplified application that would allow them to efficiently provide sales reps, customer service and designers with up-to-the-minute product inventory data as they interact with buyers on styles and capture wholesale orders online. A 17-year customer of BlueCherry, Tommy Bahama tapped into the CGS teams extensive expertise and resources and selected the BlueCherry B2B solution. These expanded capabilities will allow Tommy Bahama to easily access accurate, real-time sales analysis, order status and inventory online 247, providing global sales teams with the ability to visually engage buyers, promote products, select assortments and receive confirmed orders. With multiple products available through multiple channels it is essential for our business to have real-time access to merchandise, said Raymond Brown, senior director of Wholesale Operations, Tommy Bahama. By adding BlueCherry B2B, our sales reps can quickly create visual assortments that match their buyers requirements and present them online or in person. Tommy Bahama has been a valued customer of CGS for nearly two decades and we were thrilled to help the company in its efforts to succeed with its ever-growing portfolio in a changing market, said Paul Magel, president, Business Applications and Technology Outsourcing division, CGS. By incorporating B2B eCommerce in the BlueCherry Suite of applications, Tommy Bahama will gain more accurate insight into it inventory, pricing and production information while ensuring sales reps are informed and equipped to make accurate product recommendations to their buyers. CGSs BlueCherry B2B eCommerce speeds and simplifies the entire wholesale sales process through a private marketplace. Wholesalers and brands can visually engage retail buyers, promote products, select assortments and receive confirmed orders on any device, anywhere, any time. BlueCherry B2B eCommerce provides global sales teams with the ability to get up to speed quickly, create much richer customer experiences and produce deeper analytics to help brands capitalize on what sells or promptly move on from what doesnt. About CGS For nearly 35 years, CGS has enabled global enterprises, regional companies and government agencies to drive breakthrough performance through business applications, enterprise learning and outsourcing services. CGS is wholly focused on creating comprehensive solutions that meet clients complex, multi-dimensional needs and support clients most fundamental business activities. Headquartered in New York City, CGS has offices across North America, South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. For more information, please visit www.cgsinc.com Other Point of Sale News: iATS Payments joins the Traction on Demand Bandit Tour for Good iATS Payments is proud to announce the sponsorship of the Traction on Demand Bandit Tour for Good, which provides nonprofit organizations with pro-bono Salesforce consulting services. iATS is a title sponsor for the tour, and will send an honorary bandit on the tour bus as it leaves Vancouver, stopping in 5 cities to perform random acts of kindness and deliver Salesforce consulting services en route to Dreamforce 2017 in San Francisco. The Bandit Tour is an integral part of our Traction for Good community engagement program, states Michelle Malpass, Traction on Demands Director of Community Performance. The Tour was inspired by the 1970s film Smokey and the Bandit, and its proven to be a great platform for bringing awareness and services to the nonprofits participating. iATS sponsorship helps to make this tour a reality and its a pleasure to work together. Were proud to support Traction as they empower nonprofits through technology consulting, says iATS President, Andrew Mosawi. Weve spent 20 years delivering payments technology to nonprofits and we know that Tractions services will be a springboard for these organizations to grow. The Bandit Tour kicks off at Science World in Vancouver on October 30th, 2017 where the Traction and iATS teams will be on site to provide free bike tune ups and coffee between 4 and 6PM, while consulting services are delivered to multiple Vancouver-based nonprofits. Traction on Demand uses 100% of their partner referral fees to fund technology projects for non-profits. Learn more about the Bandit Tour, and visit Traction on Demand and iATS Payments at Dreamforce in the Salesforce.org lodge, booth 16. About iATS Payments With over 10,000 clients and billions of dollars in annual processing, iATS Payments is the leading provider of payment solutions to nonprofit organizations and technology partners around the world. iATS draws on over 20 years of experience providing secure, simple and cost-effective credit card and direct debit (ACH) processing. http://www.iatspayments.com About Traction on Demand Traction on Demand is North Americas largest dedicated Salesforce.com consulting and application development partner with 4,000+ projects on the platform. We develop innovative cloud technology solutions and applications for North Americas largest and most influential brands, as well as hundreds of small and medium-sized companies and non-profits. http://www.tractionondemand.com Other Point of Sale News: Inventory needs to be managed and managed well, or you are going to get in recurring trouble, and lose your credibility and hard-earned conversions, whether Read more Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa speaks to media after the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt meeting to discuss their dispute with Qatar, in Manama, Bahrain July 30, 2017. REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed/Files (Reuters) CAIRO (Reuters) - Bahrain will not attend the upcoming GCC summit if Qatar does not change its stand, and the right step to preserve the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is to freeze Qatar's membership, Bahrain's foreign minister said on Twitter on Sunday. Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa also said on his account on Twitter that "if Qatar thinks that its current playing with time and evading will buy it time till the upcoming GCC summit, then it's mistaken. If the situation remained as it is we won't attend this summit." He added "the right step to preserve GCC is to freeze Qatar's membership in the council... otherwise we are fine with its outing from the council." Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt have cut diplomatic, transport and trade ties with Qatar, the world's top seller of liquefied natural gas, accusing it of financing terrorism. Doha denies the charges. (Reporting Mostafa Hashem, writing Nayera Abdallah) The Supreme Court asked Hadiya's father to produce her before it on November 27. The court has asked Hadiya to appear before it on November 27. By Anusha Soni: The Supreme Court today pulled up the National Investigation Agency (NIA) while hearing the Hadiya 'love jihad' case and said that no law prohibits a person from loving a criminal. "Even if the husband has a criminal record, does the girl not have a right to marry a criminal? Marriage is a personal affair and (there is) now law to state that a person cannot marry a criminal," the Supreme Court today observed. advertisement The court also directed Hadiya/Akhila to appear before it on November 27 at 3 pm and took an undertaking from her father to produce her in court. "Habeas corpus is a cherished right, we have to discharge constitutional obligation by calling the girl to the court," the Supreme Court said overruling NIA's opposition to Hadiya being called at this stage. "Under what law is parental authority? Questions should also be asked to the person who is in confines, whose interests are at stake," Supreme Court observed and said that consent of a woman is prime. "We are not giving into any pulse or impulse. We are going by the law," the court said and added that it will take a call in the matter only after speaking to Hadiya and "assessing her mental condition". "At least prima facie observations can be made upon speaking to her," the Supreme Court said. THE DEBATE ON CONSENT The NIA told the court that "indoctrination and radicalisation must be an exception to free consent". Comparing indoctrination to "psychological kidnapping", the NIA said that "parental jurisdiction should be invoked". The Supreme Court said that while the state must act if "there are national security threats", individual rights must not be curtailed unnecessarily. The court said that it will verify if Hadiya can give free consent and will also examine if parental authority can be exercised on a major. WHAT THE HADIYA CASE IS ALL ABOUT The case pertains to Hadiya/Akhila--a Hindu woman who converted to Islam and married Shafin Jahan. The girl's father approached the Kerala High Court which annulled the marriage, calling it a case of 'love jihad', and directed that Hadiya returns to her parents. Hadiya's husband Shafin moved the Supreme Court in August challenging the high court's order. The court directed the National Investigation Agency to investigate the alleged forced conversion. ALSO WATCH: Kerala woman, whose daughter converted to Islam, wants SC to probe forced conversion cases in India --- ENDS --- At least five people were killed on Monday when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a mosque in northeastern Nigeria, a militia member assisting the military against Boko Haram jihadists said. The leader of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in Ajiri Yala, some 15 kilometres (10 miles) north of Maiduguri, said the attack happened at about 4:30 am (0330 GMT). "A male suicide bomber disguised as a worshipper entered the mosque while people were gathering for the morning prayers," he told AFP by telephone. "He detonated his explosives. He killed five people and injured several others." Boko Haram typically never claims responsibility but has used suicide bombing as a frequent tactic in its eight-year insurgency to establish a hardline Islamic state Mosques that do not ascribe to its extremist views are seen as legitimate targets, as are people and places seen to be supportive of the secular government. On Sunday, a CJTF member manning a checkpoint in the Muna area of Maiduguri was killed and another injured when two women strapped with explosives blew themselves up. Last Sunday, 14 people were killed when three women detonated their explosives near the Muna Garage camp, which is home to tens of thousands of people made homeless by the violence. The United Nations warned recently that attack against internally displaced people (IDPs) in camps across the region "continue to be a major concern". - Rural communities - Communities in hard-to-reach areas of the remote region are also vulnerable and at the weekend, two women blew up in the Gulak area of Madagali, in the far north of Adamawa state. A former local government area chairman, Maina Ularamu, said there were two blasts in Dar village on Saturday night and Sunday morning. "Our suspicion is that they intended to attack the church, which is located inside the primary school about 100 metres away from the scene of the explosion," he said. Ularamu said locals suspected the two women had come to Dar from the Sambisa Forest, in neighbouring Borno, where Boko Haram was known to have bases. The military said earlier this year it had retaken control of the former national park but there are reports the militants have moved back in. They are also known to have been holed up in the Mandara mountains that lie east of Madagali and form the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. On August 2, Boko Haram fighters stormed the village of Mildu, near Madagali, killing six. Ularamu said Boko Haram "remnants are still lurking" in remote villages and the Sambisa Forest, and troop reinforcements were needed. Attacks on civilians have largely been attributed to the Boko Haram faction led by Abubakar Shekau. Strikes against the military are generally blamed on the Islamic State group-supported faction headed by Abu Mus'ab al-Barnawi. Last week, at least 15 soldiers were killed in a raid on a military camp north of Damaturu, which is the capital of Yobe state bordering Borno to the west. A military source said troops who had since been on high alert on Saturday inflicted heavy losses on a large contingent of Boko Haram fighters near the Yobe village of Goniri. Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla arrived in Singapore Monday to kick off an Asian tour aimed at cementing relations ahead of a meeting of Commonwealth states next year. The heir to the British throne and Camilla are undertaking an 11-day trip that will also include stops in Malaysia and India. British media had said the Foreign Office was originally considering including Myanmar on the tour, despite a military crackdown against the Muslim Rohingya minority, but in the end it was omitted from the couple's itinerary. After arriving, Charles, wearing a suit in the tropical heat, and Camilla met Singapore athletes who were taking part in the Queen's Baton Relay, which travels around the world ahead of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. On Tuesday Charles and Camilla will receive a ceremonial welcome at the presidential palace, and meet President Halimah Yacob and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. They will lay a wreath at the city's Cenotaph, which honours soldiers who died during World War I and II, and will have an orchid named after them -- an honour typically bestowed on dignitaries visiting the city-state. In the evening the couple will be honoured with a state banquet. Singapore's foreign ministry said the visit "reaffirms the historic and long-standing relationship between Singapore and the United Kingdom" -- the city-state was a British colonial trading post for over a century and formed part of the Straits Settlements with Malacca and Penang. It won full independence in 1965. After ending their trip to Singapore on Thursday, the couple will kick off a week-long trip to Malaysia. They will visit Kuala Lumpur, meet with tribespeople on Borneo island before heading to historic George Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Charles and Camilla will end their tour with a visit to India, where they will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Commonwealth Summit will take place in Britain in April, with leaders from more than 50 countries expected to attend. The Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro has launched a campaign to intimidate the opposition that includes illegal nocturnal raids on suspected dissidents' homes, Amnesty International said Monday. The rights group says it has documented reports of at least 47 raids and attacks "on residential areas by state security forces and groups of armed civilians" in 11 Venezuelan states between April and July 2017. That period was marked by mass demonstrations against the leftist regime in which more than 120 people were killed. In several cases, protesters fleeing from police ran into residential areas. State security forces then "entered buildings and residential areas and carried out illegal raids" seeking the protesters, read the report, titled "Nights of Terror." The raids sometimes took place "many hours - and in some cases days - after all the demonstrations in the streets had ended." And in some neighborhoods armed civilians, "with the acquiescence of the state, attacked the same areas that had been subjected to raids." During the raids security forces smashed front gates and security doors, fired tear gas and pellet guns indoors, intimidated residents with their weapons, and often stole home valuables like computers and mobile phones. Venezuelan authorities "have found a new and disturbing way of stamping out dissent as part of a seemingly endless quest to instill fear into the population," said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at Amnesty International. "They have taken street repression into people's living rooms." Oil-rich Venezuela is teetering on the brink of economic collapse, with the population struggling with shortages of food and such basic necessities as toilet paper and soap. AFP News Kenya's former president Uhuru Kenyatta arrived Tuesday in eastern DR Congo's main city of Goma, as fresh clashes with M23 rebels occurred just to the north, sending thousands fleeing. Troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were battling M23 fighters in Kibumba, 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Goma, security officials and local residents said. The M23 has recently seized swathes of territory in North Kivu province, displacing tens of thousands of people in their advance. Kibumba is considered one of the last obstacles to the rebels before Goma, a commercial hub of one million people on the Rwandan border. On Tuesday afternoon, rumours that the M23 was approaching sent a fresh wave of people fleeing to the Kanyaruchinya displacement camp, south of Kibumba. About 40,000 people are currently in the camp, according to its head. A security official who asked for anonymity said that people began to flee after seeing soldiers themselves retreating towards Goma after clashes with M23 rebels. North Kivu's military governor, General Constant Ndima, urged people to remain calm late Tuesday. "I want to reassure you... Loyalist forces are containing the enemy on the heights of Kibumba," he told reporters. The crisis has cratered relations between the DRC and its smaller central African neighbour Rwanda, which Kinshasa accuses of backing the militia. Uhuru Kenyatta, a mediator for the seven-nation East African Community (EAC), arrived in Goma on Tuesday and visited Kanyaruchinya. He told reporters late Tuesday that the stories he had heard were "heart-breaking". "I cannot ignore what I have seen," Kenyatta said. "I must say to all parties: You cannot negotiate in the face of human catastrophe". - 'De-escalation' - Kenyatta's visit to the DRC is the latest in a round of diplomatic bids to defuse the crisis in the impoverished country's volatile east. The former president landed in the Congolese capital Kinshasa on Sunday for talks, following on the heels of a visit from Angolan President Joao Lourenco. The EAC has also called for a "peace dialogue" in Kenya's capital Nairobi on November 21. In addition, the bloc has agreed to send a peacekeeping mission to eastern DRC. Kenyan troops arrived in Goma over the weekend, as part of that operation. On Monday, Kenyatta urged armed groups to put down their arms and return to the negotiating table. "There is nothing that can be gained through the barrel of a gun," he had told reporters. On Tuesday, United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he had discussed the situation with Rwanda's Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta, on the margins of the G20 meeting in Indonesia. "I underscored the United States deep concern about the continuing violence in eastern DRC, and called on Rwanda to take active steps to facilitate de-escalation," he said in a tweet. - Rebel return - Biruta, for his part, tweeted that Rwanda is committed to regional diplomatic mechanisms to bring peace to eastern DRC, as well as to finding a political solution to the crisis. Over 120 armed groups roam the region, many of which are a legacy of regional wars which flared at the turn of the century. The M23 -- a mostly Congolese Tutsi group -- first leapt to prominence in 2012 when it briefly captured Goma before being driven out. But the rebel group returned in late 2021 after years of dormancy, claiming the DRC had failed to honour a promise to integrate its fighters into the army, among other grievances. It captured the strategic town of Bunagana on the Ugandan border in June. In recent weeks, the rebels have also won a string of victories against the Congolese army, edging closer towards Goma. The DRC expelled Rwanda's ambassador in late October amid the renewed M23 offensive. Despite official denials from Kigali, an unpublished report for the UN seen by AFP in August pointed to Rwandan involvement with the M23. Rwanda accuses the Congolese government of colluding with Hutu militants who fled across the border after the 1994 Rwandan genocide. hbm-at/eml/kjm U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl leaves the courthouse at the end of the third day of sentencing proceedings in his court martial at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, U.S., October 26, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Drake (Reuters) By Greg Lacour FORT BRAGG, N.C. (Reuters) - U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl took the stand at his sentencing on Monday, apologising to the troops who got hurt searching for him after he deserted in Afghanistan in 2009 and detailing the harsh conditions of Taliban captivity. "I made a horrible mistake," the 31-year-old soldier said during his most extensive comments to date at North Carolina's Fort Bragg. "Saying Im sorry is not enough." His statements marked the opening of the defence's case, which suffered a blow earlier in the day when the presiding military judge said President Donald Trump had not damaged Bergdahl's chances of a fair sentence. Trump called Bergdahl "a no-good traitor" who should be executed during last year's presidential campaign, and the defence said more recent remarks by the Republican showed his opinion had not changed. Army Colonel Jeffery Nance said Trumps comments during the campaign were condemning and damning of the accused" but had not influenced the proceedings. "I am completely unaffected by any comments President Trump has made about Sergeant Bergdahl," Nance said. The judge said he would consider the president's comments as a mitigating factor, however, raising the possibility of a lighter punishment for Bergdahl. He faces up to life in prison after pleading guilty on Oct. 16 to desertion and misbehaviour before the enemy. The Idaho native was captured by the Taliban after walking off his combat outpost in Paktika Province in June 2009 and spent the next five years in captivity suffering torture, abuse and neglect. He was released in a 2014 Taliban prisoner swap brokered by the Democratic administration of former President Barack Obama. Bergdahl testified that his captors locked him in "the cage" after a brief escape. He got little food, water or sleep and was forced to watch beheading videos. "Years of nothing but waiting to see if the next person to come in through the door would be the person to execute you," he said. Story continues Bergdahl said he knew his words would not take away the pain of those injured looking for him. Master Sergeant Mark Allen, the most critically hurt, suffered a debilitating brain injury that left him unable to speak or walk after being shot in the head during a July 2009 mission. His wife, Shannon Allen, was the final prosecution witness on Monday. "Instead of being his wife, I'm his caregiver," she said. "Which doesn't mean I love him any less, but it's a very different dynamic. We can't even hold hands anymore without me prying open his hand and putting mine in." (Reporting by Greg Lacour; Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Lisa Shumaker) President Donald Trump's top military and foreign policy advisers insisted Monday that he has no need for a new Congressional authority to allow US forces to wage a global war against Islamist extremists. US lawmakers are considering updating or repealing the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) passed on September 14, 2001, three days after the attacks on New York and Washington by Al-Qaeda hijackers. This would help them claw back their constitutional authority to pronounce on decisions of war and peace, but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis insisted this would be premature and unneccessary. "The United States has the legal authority to prosecute campaigns against the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and associated forces, including ISIS, and is not currently seeking any new or additional congressional authorization for the use of force," Tillerson told senators. "The 2001 AUMF remains a cornerstone for ongoing US military operations and continues to provide legal authority relied upon to defeat this threat." Mattis agreed, and both senior figures insisted that if Congress was to seek to replace the AUMF it must not do so until another authorization must be ready to immediately and seamlessly replace it, to provide legal cover for ongoing operations and the detention of suspects. "We cannot put a firm timeline on conflict against an adaptive enemy who would hope that we haven't the will to fight as along as necessary," Mattis warned. "This is a fight against a transnational enemy, one that does not respect international borders and does not place geographic limites on their areas of operations." - Far-flung battles - Since the AUMF was passed, three presidents in succession have relied on the order's authority as they launched operations against armed Islamist groups in far-flung battle zones around the world. Critics have long-contended that George W. Bush, Barack Obama and now Donald Trump have exceeded the terms of an authorization initially aimed at Osama Bin Laden's Al-Qaeda organization. When four US soldiers were killed in an ambush by militants in Niger this month, many Americans were surprised to learn the Pentagon has deployed hundreds of troops in West Africa. Some lawmakers are now pushing to reassert Congress's right, under the constitution, to decide when and where the United States can go to war, in the face of some White House resistance. On Monday, Mattis and Tillerson brought the message to the Senate Foreign Affairs committee, chaired by Republican Trump critic Senator Bob Corker. Corker said lawmakers were split on the path forward, unable to "bridge the gap" between those who want to craft a new, limited AUMF, and those who believe that "constraining the commander in chief in wartime is unwise." Senator Ben Cardin, the committee's top Democrat, warned there was increasing opposition to an endless military authorization that essentially greenlights a "global endless shadow war." In August, both Mattis and Tillerson testified behind closed doors on the same topic and afterwards Corker said they'd been "open" to the idea of revisiting the issue. - Niger ambush - Since then, however, Corker has fallen out with Trump and become an open critic of the president, and calls for new oversight on US operations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have grown. In September, anti-war Republican Senator Rand Paul attempted to pass an amendment to a funding bill that would have repealed the AUMF. And, ahead of Monday's hearing, Democrat foreign relations committee member Senator Tim Kaine promised that Mattis and Tillerson would not get an easy ride in wake of the Niger deaths. "After the deaths of service members in Niger this month, questions have risen about the extent of US military operations around the globe and the legal justification behind current military efforts," he said. "At the hearing, Kaine will stress the need for a new AUMF to better define the US fight against terrorist organizations and to send a message to the troops, the American public, and US allies that Congress supports the military's mission." Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan greets his supporters during a ceremony in Konya, Turkey, October 28, 2017. Kayhan Ozer/Presidential Palace/Handout via REUTERS (Reuters) ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman threatened a prominent opposition lawmaker with legal action on Monday for calling the Turkish leader a fascist dictator. In some of the most blistering criticism of Erdogan by a high-profile politician in recent memory, Bulent Tezcan, spokesman for the main opposition People's Republican Party, attacked what he said was a "fearful atmosphere" in Turkey. "If you try to scare people and to create a fearful atmosphere by showing legal words as illegal ones we will not be deterred," Tezcan said in a speech in the western city of Tekirdag, criticising local judicial authorities. His comments appeared to be in defence of the local mayor, a CHP member, who was questioned by authorities this month after he reportedly called Erdogan a "dictator" at a party congress. "I don't know if our mayor said that or not. I, here in Tekirdag, say it now: 'Erdogan is a fascist dictator'," Tezcan said. Tezcan's comments prompted a swift backlash from Erdogan's office and lawmakers from his ruling AK Party. "Bulent Tezcan's hate speech is an example of disgrace for the main opposition," Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said on Twitter. "This is not politics, but rather enmity towards the people's will. Legal measures will be sought in this regard." Insulting the president is a crime punishable by up to four years in prison in Turkey Lawyers for Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, have filed more than 1,800 cases against people including cartoonists, a former Miss Turkey winner and schoolchildren on accusations of insulting him. Following a failed coup in July 2016, Erdogan said he would drop outstanding suits, in a one-off gesture. Nonetheless, rights groups and some Western governments have voiced concern that Turkey is sliding towards authoritarianism. Some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs and more than 50,000 jailed pending trial on suspicion of links to the failed coup. Erdogan says such measures are necessary to ensure stability and defend Turkey from multiple security threats. (Reporting by Dirimcan Barut and Ece Toksabay; Writing by David Dolan; editing by Ralph Boulton) "Congress should take legal opinion on Patidar reservation and tell us. We will wait till November 7 till then we will not support or protest against Congress rally," said Hardik Patel. By Mayuresh Ganapatye: A crucial second round of talks took place between Patidar icon Hardik Patel and Gujarat Congress leaders regarding Patidar reservation issue and their other demands. Team Hardik had put forward its demands for the Patidar community. The meeting between the two groups went on for about three hours in which Bharat Solanki, Arjun Modwadia and Siddharth Patel were present from Congress, whereas Hardik Patel had sent an eight-member delegation. advertisement According to team Hardik, if Congress forms the government in state then they should form a separate SIT to probe August 25 and 26 incidents where police carried out lathicharge on Patidars during agitation. They also demanded compensation of Rs 35 lakhs to the family members of Patidars who lost their lives in agitation and government job to one family member as per their educational qualification. Speaking on reservations team Hardik asked Congress on how they are planning to give reservations to Patidar community. "We had positive talks with the group. On reservation, we will get more information about how to meet their demand within the framework of the Constitution. Also, we are looking at all possible ways through which we can provide them reservation," said Siddharth Patel from Congress. Speaking with India Today Hardik Patel said, "Congress should take legal opinion and tell us. We will wait till November 7 till then we will not support or protest against Congress rally. If Rahul Gandhi calls us for talk we will go and meet him." On Monday, in Gandhinagar, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said that it is for the Congress to clarify whether it proposes to grant reservation to the Patidars under the OBC quota or the EBC category. "The Congress should clarify whether it will include the Patidar community within the OBC category or outside," said Rupani. Team Hardik and Congress delegation will be meeting again to take final call on this issue. In order to strengthen their camp the Congress is trying hard to rope in Patidar leaders. Now it would be interesting to see how Congress tackles this issue and what solution it will put forward. VIDEO | Will support Congress, if it supports Patidar causes: Hardik Patel --- ENDS --- ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish mayor announced on Monday he had quit his post and left President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party after pressure and threats "beyond unbearable", becoming the sixth mayor in recent weeks to fall victim of a purge of local government. Ahmet Edip Ugur, mayor of the northwestern province of Balikesir, became the first mayor to speak out against the purge, declaring at a news conference that democracy in Turkey was broken and at one point breaking into tears. "There is no corruption, no irregularity, no failures on my side...but despite this, there are pressures and threats coming all the way into your home and to your family. This is beyond unbearable," said, adding that he had no ties to the network of U.S. based cleric Fethullah Gulen. Ankara accuses Gulen's network of engineering a failed military coup last year. Gulen denies involvement. Since that attempted putsch, Erdogan has carried out a wideranging purge of Turkish society, from the military and police to the judiciary and academia. More than 50,000 people have been jailed pending trial over alleged links to Gulen, while 150,000 have been sacked or suspended from jobs. Erdogan says the action is necessary to root out subversive elements loyal to Gulen and to maintian stability in Turkey. Ugur said he was "sorry, hurt, but in peace", before breaking into tears. Ugur's resignation followed those of the high profile Istanbul and Ankara mayors. Melih Gokcek, a staunch Erdogan loyalist who has been mayor of Ankara for 23 years and won five consecutive elections, quit on Saturday. "I leave my post of mayor upon orders from our leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan," Gokcek said in a televised speech. "This is not because I think I'm unsuccessful, tired or for some other reason. I am solely realising the request of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who I believe will make my country a leading nation." Four other AK mayors have stepped down since September, including Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas, on orders from Erdogan, who says he is seeking a renewal of the AK Party he founded and which has governed Turkey since 2002. (Reporting by Ece Toksabay and Tuvan Gumrukcu) Foreign preacher Ismail Menk has been banned from entering Singapore, the Ministry of Home Affairs said. Photo: Screen shot from YouTube Two foreign preachers, Ismail Menk and Haslin Baharim, have been banned from entering Singapore for their divisive views on religion, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said Monday (30 October). Ismail and Haslin have been engaged to preach on a religious-themed cruise departing and ending in Singapore from 25 to 29 November 2017, MHA said in a statement. Ismail has been known to preach segregationist and divisive teachings, for example, by saying that it is the biggest sin and crime for a Muslim to wish a non-Muslim Merry Christmas or Happy Deepavali. Haslin has described non-Muslims as deviant. Such divisive views breed intolerance and exclusivist practices that will damage social harmony, and cause communities to drift apart. They are unacceptable in the context of Singapores multi-racial and multi-religious society, MHA said. The two preachers had previously had their Miscellaneous Work Pass applications to preach in Singapore rejected. They will not be allowed to get around the ban by preaching on cruise ships which operate to and from Singapore. The Government has a responsibility to safeguard social cohesion and religious harmony in Singapore. Singaporeans too, need to play their part, to unequivocally reject and guard against divisive doctrines and preachers who propagate such doctrines, regardless of the faith they represent, MHA said. MHA has consulted with the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (MUIS), Singapore Tourism Board and Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore on the matter. By Michelle Nichols JUBA, South Sudan/KITCHANGA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - In a mountainous camp for displaced Congolese, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley wrapped her arm around an inconsolable woman who recounted being raped twice. "It only makes me more passionate, it makes me more determined," Haley told a small group of reporters traveling with her during her first trip to Africa. "I'll carry the voices of the women that I met and things that they said." Dispatched by President Donald Trump to Ethiopia, South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo, Haley's trip was one of the first tangible signs of interest in Africa by the nine-month old administration. Her challenge: how to show the United States is actively engaged in Africa, where humanitarian and political crises are often overshadowed by more urgent conflicts elsewhere and at the same time honor Trump's avowed "America First" policy which puts U.S. economic and national interests ahead of international commitments. As Africa struggles to win Trump's interest, U.S. policy is more likely to be increasingly focused on countering militant threats. Washington also has a financial interest at stake as it tries to cut U.N. peacekeeping costs, for which it pays more than a quarter. Trump has made a point of saying he would not impose U.S. values on others, raising concerns among activists that human rights issues could take a backseat. Nowhere is that more in focus than in Niger where a deadly ambush killed four U.S. troops who were there to assist local Nigerian forces fighting a local Islamic State affiliate this month. At the same time, Washington has mostly turned a blind eye to the increasingly authoritarian moves of Niger's former opposition leader, now president Mahamadou Issoufou, as it tries to stop the militant threat from expanding. Haley, a former governor of the U.S. state of South Carolina, was the most senior member of Trump's administration to travel to the three sub-Saharan states in a trip that showed how she balances her political skills with her nascent foreign policy and diplomacy experience. Story continues She was moved to tears after visiting displaced Congolese in Kitchanga in the conflict-ravaged east of the country. In Ethiopia's Gambella region, she kicked off her shoes and sat down on the floor to play with South Sudanese toddlers. "Those kids will be 18 one day," Haley told a small group of reporters during her trip. "They will be an uneducated adult with no social skills that will have resented the fact that they were put in that situation and that's dangerous for the United States and that's dangerous for the world." 'BLUNTNESS IS IMPORTANT' With U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson shying away from the spotlight, Haley has carved out a high-profile role for herself. Amid speculation about Tillerson's future Haley said that if she was offered the job: "I would say no." Known for taking a blunt approach that has raised eyebrows among diplomats at the United Nations, Haley took her direct style to lengthy one-on-one conversations with the South Sudanese and Congolese leaders. "I think bluntness is important, but I also expected it back and I got candid conversations back from them," she said. "That was very much appreciated because we didn't want to have to sit there and deal with the political talk, we wanted to get to the realities of the situation." It's not clear yet if South Sudanese and Congolese leaders will heed her message. In Kinshasa she spoke privately with President Joseph Kabila for 90 minutes. She had said Kinshasa must hold a long-delayed election to replace Kabila by the end of next year or the vote will lose international support. But the Congolese opposition was critical of her statement there because it conceded there would be no election this year, in violation of a deal Kabila's camp signed with the opposition last December, without extracting any concessions in return. "Calling for Kabila to stay in power beyond Dec. 31, 2017 is the equivalent, pure and simple, of making oneself complicit with the evil genius!" opposition leader Olivier Kamitatu wrote on Twitter above a photo of Haley from her visit. In Juba, Haley met with President Salva Kiir for 45 minutes, showing him photos of refugees from her visit to Gambella. South Sudan spiraled into a civil war in 2013, just two years after gaining independence from Sudan, sparked by a feud between Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Riek Machar, a Nuer. The U.S. invested heavily in the process that led to South Sudan's independence. The Trump administration has been far less engaged, let alone influential, in trying to end the war that erupted. Haley plans to meet with Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster this week to discuss her trip. "I'll give options and then if asked I'll give the recommendation," Haley said. "(Trump) very much wants to know how everybody else feels, he very much takes all that into consideration and then he makes his decision." (Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Additional reporting by Aaron Ross; Editing by Yara Bayoumy and Sandra Maler) Special Counsel Robert Mueller leaves the U.S. Capitol Building after meeting with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington, U.S., June 21, 2017. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein/Files (Reuters) By John Whitesides WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The investigation into possible Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election will enter a new phase as early as Monday, when the first charges resulting from the probe could be unsealed and a target taken into custody. A federal grand jury approved the indictment on Friday and a federal judge ordered it sealed, a source briefed on the matter has told Reuters, adding it could be unsealed as soon as Monday. The indictment could mark a dramatic turn in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the 2016 race and any possible links with officials from President Donald Trump's campaign. The Russia investigation has cast a shadow over Trump's 9-month-old presidency and widened the partisan rift between Republicans and Democrats. U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her. Mueller, a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has been looking into possible links between Trump aides and foreign governments, as well as potential money laundering, tax evasion and other financial crimes, according to sources familiar with the probe. He also is exploring whether Trump or his aides have tried to obstruct the investigation. Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation a week after Trump's May 9 firing of FBI Director James Comey, who was heading a federal probe into possible collusion with Russia. Trump initially said he fired Comey because his leadership of the FBI was inadequate. In a later interview with NBC, he cited "this Russia thing" as his reason. Trump has denied the allegations of collusion with the Russians and called the probe "a witch hunt." The Kremlin also has denied the allegations. Story continues On Sunday, Trump tried to shift the focus back to Democrats and Clinton, tweeting that the Russia issue was being used to sidetrack the Republican push for tax reform and praising Republican "anger and unity" on the need to look into whether Democrats and the Clinton campaign paid for a portion of a dossier that detailed accusations about Trump's ties to Russia. Special White House counsel Ty Cobb said the president's tweets "are unrelated to the activities of the Special Counsel, with whom he continues to cooperate. PRIEBUS, SPICER AMONG THOSE INTERVIEWED Investigators led by Mueller have interviewed former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, former spokesman Sean Spicer and other current and former White House and campaign officials. In July, FBI agents raided the Virginia home of Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort, whose financial and real estate dealings and prior work for a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine are being investigated by Mueller's team. Mueller also has investigated Michael Flynn, an adviser to Trump's campaign and later his national security adviser. Flynn was fired from that post in February after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about the extent of his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak last year. The indictment in Mueller's probe was first reported by CNN, which said the target could be taken into custody on Monday. That possibility spurred some of Trump's conservative allies to call for Mueller's firing. Sebastian Gorka, an outspoken former adviser who left the White House in August, said on Twitter that Mueller "should be stripped of his authority" and investigated if he executed warrants in the probe. The White House said in the summer that Trump had no intention of firing Mueller even though he questioned his impartiality. Republicans also criticized leaks to the press about the indictment and raised the possibility that those responsible could be prosecuted. But Republican Senator Rob Portman said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Trump had been "too defensive" about the Russia probe. He said there should be broad outrage about Russia's attempted meddling. (Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Yara Bayoumy and and Peter Cooney) New data gives hope for meeting the Paris climate targets Posted on 30 October 2017 by dana1981 Over the past half-century, growth in the global economy and carbon pollution have been tied together. When the global economy has been strong, weve consumed more energy, which has translated into burning more fossil fuels and releasing more carbon pollution. But over the past four years, economic growth and carbon dioxide emissions have been decoupled. The global economy has continued to grow, while data from the EU Joint Research Centre shows carbon pollution has held fairly steady. Annual global carbon dioxide and gross domestic product growth. Data from the EU Joint Research Centre and World Bank. Illustration: Dana Nuccitelli China is becoming a global climate leader Chinas shift away from coal to clean energy has been largely responsible for this decoupling. Due to its large population (1.4 billion) more than four times that of the USA (323 million) and nearly triple the EU (510 million) and rapid growth in its economy and coal power supply, China has become the worlds largest net carbon polluter (though still less than half Americas per-person carbon emissions, and on par with those of Europeans). But as with the global total, Chinas carbon pollution has flattened out since 2013. Thats especially remarkable because it puts China about 15 years ahead of schedule. In an agreement with President Obama ahead of the Paris international climate negotiations, Chinese President Xi Jingping pledged that Chinas carbon emissions would peak by 2030. Republican Party leaders grossly distorted this agreement at the time, with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell claiming: As I read the agreement it requires the Chinese to do nothing at all for 16 years while these carbon emissions regulations are creating havoc in my state and around the country As the chart above shows, Chinese carbon emissions tripled between 1999 and 2013. To slow that rate of growth to zero as the Chinese economy continues to grow would require a dramatic shift in the countrys energy supply. But thats exactly whats happened, with the Chinese government cancelling over 100 planned new coal power plants earlier this year. Chinese coal consumption has in fact fallen since 2013. And China and the EU have pledged to strengthen their efforts to cut carbon pollution. America isnt a lost cause In 2016, American carbon pollution fell to below 1993 levels. The emissions decline began around 2008, which is also when natural gas, solar, and wind energy began rapidly replacing coal in the power grid. The Trump administration has done everything in its power to reverse that trend. It began the withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement and the process to repeal the Clean Power Plan, has begun censoring EPA climate scientists and deleting climate change information from government websites, and proposed to prop up the dirty, failing coal industry with taxpayer-funded subsidies. And yet, while these steps can slow the decline in American carbon pollution, the transition from coal to clean energy will nevertheless persist. Coal simply can no longer compete with cheaper, cleaner sources of energy, and the next American president can quickly reverse many of the Trump administrations anti-climate orders. Click here to read the rest Among the purchases former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort made with his Cypriot bank accounts were two New York City properties, a $3 million Brooklyn brownstone and a $2.9 million SoHo loft, according to the federal indictment unsealed on Monday. In each case, according to the indictment, he lied to lenders on subsequent applications for mortgages and construction loans. In the case of the SoHo property, he told the bank the apartment was the home of his daughter and son-in-law, when he was in fact renting it out on Airbnb for several thousand dollars a week. Manafort allegedly used renovations on the Brooklyn home to take out a $5 million construction loan, which he then spent paying off a mortgage for a different property and a down payment on a third. In March, WNYC reported he had $6.8 million in loans against the Brooklyn building, which was valued by Zillow at just $4.5 to 5 million. This is not the first time Manaforts New York holdings have drawn attention from the media and law enforcement. Various news outlets have covered these purchases and othersa condo in the Trump SoHo among themand the New York Post reported in March 2016 that Manaforts properties had drawn a probe from New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. (Schneiderman wound up working with special counsel Robert Mueller on this investigation.) At the time, investigating the purchase of the Union Street building and its languishing renovations, the Post pointed out how curious it was that Manafort would buy yet another New York home for his daughter, Jessica, and her husband, real estate investor Jeff Yohai, since he had just bought the [SoHo] property for Jess and Yohai to live in earlier that year. The indictment goes some way to explaining that: Manaforts daughter and Yohai seem never to have lived in the SoHo apartment. The Treasury Department has warned that all-cash purchases can signal that luxury residential property is being used for money laundering, and watchdogs in New York in particular have worried about the billions of dollars spent on high-value properties in the city each year. Still, its hard to uncover buyers identities and harder still to prove anything beyond insinuation about the origins of the money. (Manaforts role was known, if the nature of his cash transfers and loan applications were not.) The curious thing is why, after allegedly laundering more than $17 million from foreign bank accounts to fund a lavish lifestyle in the United States, Manafort decided to list the SoHo apartment on Airbnba move that, unlike all-cash purchases of multiple luxury properties, was explicitly illegal (though widely tolerated) in New York. The guy seems to have had $934,000 to spend on rugs! Did he really need another couple grand from tourists looking for a place to crash? Not even mega-rich operatives are immune to the sirens call of making an extra buck through illegal short-term rentals. Read more about the investigation into the 2016 election here. Military veterans put their lives on the line to protect their country. And when they retire from active duty, many U.S. vets decide to take another big risk. They go into business for themselves. In fact, there are 2.5 million veteran-owned small businesses across the country. This week, from Oct. 30 until Nov. 3, the U.S. Small Business Administration is celebrating the entrepreneurial spirit of military veterans with National Veterans Small Business Week. National Veterans Small Business Week 2017 The SBA has a full slate of activities scheduled to honor veterans and their contribution to the U.S. economy. Veteran owned businesses are a critical pillar of the U.S. economy as they contribute more than $1.14 trillion to the nations annual total sales and receipts, SBA Administrator Linda McMahon says in a release from the federal agency. Through entrepreneurship and business ownership, these veterans continue their service by not only contributing to the economy, but also by creating economic opportunities for other Americans. The moments that matter for veteran entrepreneurs matter to us as well, and SBA is proud to celebrate, honor and support them. According to the SBA website, there are events planned nationwide for military veterans to be honored for the continued contribution to the country they serve. In addition, there will be resources available from local communities, SBA partners and from SBA regional offices for military veterans. At any of these events, military vets can get information on starting a business or on keeping one going. From officially opening a business to making a revenue goal, there are so many moments that matter during a veterans entrepreneurship journey, says Barb Carson, Associate Administrator for the SBAs Office of Veterans Business Development in the release. This years NVSBW is such an exciting opportunity for SBA to celebrate these moments that matter while highlighting the ways SBA is here to support each incredible journey, Carson added. In addition to the normal festivities and events planned around this week, the SBA is also hosting two special seminars in Houston and Miami to help veteran-owned small businesses impacted by this summers major hurricanes access the help they need. Twitter Chat On Nov. 2 , the SBA will host a Twitter chat using the hashtag, #MyVetBiz. The chat will be titled Business Tips for Veteran Entrepreneurs and it starts at 3 p.m. EDT. In Slovakia, social democracy has continued but in Europe it is in decline. It fails to face extremists, or to talk about refugees. L-R: Former Czech PM Jiri Paroubek is out, and now evne his party declines; Slovak PM Fico holds on. (Source: Sme) Font size: A - | A + It used to be an election tradition that the only open question was who gets more votes. Since World War II, the Social Democrats have been missing in only three Austrian cabinets. When the Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern left the meeting with his probable successor People's Party leader Sebastian Kurz on October 22, he seemed far from enthusiastic. He said only that the Social Democrats of the SPO party must prepare for opposition. It was clear we would find little in common, the Austrian Standard daily quoted him as saying. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement At the same time, when the Austrian government started to shift more to the right, the Czech Social Democrats were searching their collective conscience. Their election defeat is part of a Europe-wide trend, however, as the driving force of European politics moves ever more towards the margins. Who is to blame? They stopped interesting people This is a tragedy, vice-chair of the Czech CSSD party, Jan Birke, reacted to their election results. The party which won the previous election with 20 percent is now on a mere seven percent, and is preparing for opposition. We should probably have talked more about what we are doing, the party leader, Lubomir Zaoralek, commented on the result, as cited by the ihned.cz website. Behind the slump in votes for the CSSD is not just their failure to present their achievements or to manage the summer cabinet crisis but rather something which social democrats in other countries also tend to struggle with. TripAdvisor certificate is granted based on travellers evaluation. Font size: A - | A + Read also: Read also: The rise and fall of Slovak castles (Spectacular Slovakia - travel guide) Read more Bojnice Castle has recently received a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence, which is being granted for the seventh year, as credit for tourism facilities. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement This acknowledgement is a tribute for facilities enjoying high appraisals and evaluations from travellers, Heather Leisman, TripAdvisor vice-president for industrial marketing told the MY Prievidza regional newspaper. The websites falling under the TripAdvisor brand comprise the biggest travellers community in the world, said Bojnice Castle spokesperson Petra Gordikova, as cited by the newspaper. This global traveller and tourism website is visited by millions of fans interested in learning interesting tourism destinations, said Jan Papco, head of the Bojnice Museum (a branch of the Slovak National Museum), as quoted by MY Prievidza. It's visitors who leave their knowledge, experiences, opinions concerning the quality of services, exhibitions and events. So it's visitors alone who issue this evaluation of ours, and we are the more happy about the certificate. By PTI: New Delhi, Oct 30 (PTI) The CBI today told the Supreme Court that it has appologised to the Orissa High Court Chief Justice and a sitting judge concerned in the matter pertaining to alleged attempt by its probe team to raid his residence. The agency informed the court that the judges concerned were "kind enough" to accept its unconditional appology. advertisement The CBI had claimed that there had been a mix-up as the sitting judge had shifted into the house of a former HC judge against whom it had intended the raid. A bench of justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan today said that the matter needs to be settled amicably and at the high court level. Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the CBI in its affidavit has said that they have sought permission from Orissa High Court Chief Justice and the sitting judge to tender an unconditional appology for the unfortunate incident "who were kind enough to accept it". Counsel appearing for Orissa High Court Bar Association said that he has no information regarding any acceptance of appology. "It is a matter between the judge and the CBI. Why are you concerned?" the bench asked the counsel. The counsel, however, said that he needs to seek instructions in the wake of the development. The bench then posted the matter for further hearing after two weeks. On October 13, the agency had told the apex court that it had sought permission from a sitting judge of the Orissa High Court to "apologise" to him in the matter. It had told that the permission was cancelled as a matter relating to the alleged incident was pending before the high court there. The agency had claimed that the CBIs team had not gone inside the gate of the residence of the sitting judge. The CBI has approached the apex court seeking transfer of the matter pending before the high court. The Orissa High Court had recently issued notices to the CBI and the state police on a plea seeking a judicial probe into the incident. The high court had sought responses on the plea filed by the bar association there. A team of CBI officials had come looking for the house of the former judge of the high court. Another sitting judge of the Orissa High Court had shifted at the residence of the former judge. advertisement The police has said that on the basis of information provided by a security guard posted at the residence of the judge, a case under IPC sections 448 (house trespass), 353 (to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 511 (to commit a cognizable offence) and 34 (common intention) was registered with the Cantonment police station here. PTI MNL ABA SJK RKS RT --- ENDS --- Lawyer of Roma said they would bring the case to the European Court of Human Rights. Font size: A - | A + The Constitutional Court rejected a complaint of violence allegedly committed by police during a raid at a Roma settlement in Moldava nad Bodvou (Kosice Region). Interior Minister Robert Kalinak stated this on the Z Prvej Ruky programme of the public-service broadcaster RTVS on October 27. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement The Constitutional Court stated that the slightest shred of doubt can be cast over the effectiveness of the official investigation into the given police raid, with the bodies convincingly proving that the submitters of the complaint had not been treated by police members in the way they claimed in their testimonies, Kalinak said, as quoted by RTVS. That is the decision of the Constitutional Court, which has rejected the complaints lodged by the individual participants. The police raid in Moldava nad Bodvou was conducted appropriately, the minister added. Read also: Read also: UN condemns Moldava raid Read more Local Roma complained about injuries and property damage suffered during the disputed police raid in summer 2013. The police disavowed any allegations of brutality, although criticism was also levelled at the police's approach by then-ombsudswoman Jana Dubovcova, who claimed that a serious violation of basic rights and freedoms was committed against the local Roma. Turning to ECHR The lawyer of the aggrieved Roma confirmed that they will turn to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), RTVS informed. In 63 pages the Constitutional Court argues why it turned down the complaint of nine out of more than 30 Roma injured during the raid. Read also: Read also: Charges now brought against witnesses in infamous Moldava raid Read more The Romas lawyer Stanislav Jakubcik insists only a court could have decided on stopping the prosecution of the police officers involved, and not the investigators of the police inspection, as was the case. Together with the European Centre for the Rights of Roma they will turn to the ECHR within one month. Ombudswoman Maria Patakyova did not want to comment on the step of the Constitutional Court. Her predecessor Dubovcova slammed the brutal police raid, the Sme daily wrote. Patakyova did condemn the fact that three witnesses of the operation in Moldava nad Bodvou now face perjury charges. Slovak Training Academy ceremonially opened in Kosice Font size: A - | A + The Slovak Training Academy (STA), a training centre for helicopter pilots from all over the world, was ceremonially opened at Kosice Airport on October 30. Behind the project are the Slovak company MSM Group and the Czech firm European Air Services. There are currently 16 helicopters available at the centre, including a legendary American Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. The plan is to acquire three more such aircraft. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Kosices training academy will be Europes only civilian operator of this type of helicopter. Our intention is to train 70 pilots per year, said STA director Juraj Laus as cited by the TASR newswire. Well partly train foreign clients - military, civilian, emergency units - a wide range. The MSM Group plans to invest more than $25 million in this project. I expect that within one year we should hire around 100 people, said MSM Group managing director Marian Goga. We see great synergy in cooperation with Kosice Airport and the Faculty of Aeronautics at the Kosice Technical University. Read also: Read also: Defence minister presents new helicopters to Slovak Air Force Read more Prime Minister Robert Fico, who attended the opening ceremony, welcomed the investment and highlighted the companys activities in terms of reviving arms production in Slovakia. Im even more delighted that theyve come up with projects with incredibly high added value, and this training centre is an excellent example of it, said Fico. Id very much like similar investments of strategic importance with such high added value to appear here in Kosice and in the surroundings more often. The STA is set to be put in operation as of December. The first client who has ordered training from the centre comes from the USA. The Slovak Defence Ministry has not joined the project yet. The Slovak Air Force is currently undergoing a modernisation process. This summer the first two of nine Black Hawk helicopters purchased from the United States arrived in Slovakia. The reason is the coalitions amendment to the law changing the way in which the institution is managed and curbing his powers Font size: A - | A + The Nations Memory Institute (UPN) head, Ondrej Krajnak, is resigning from his post as of November 1, due to the coalitions amendment to the law concerning the UPN. He argues that it has significantly changed the way in which the institution is managed and has curbed his powers. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Krajnak is concerned that purges might occur at the UPN because the board of directors, as a collective body, has become its statutory authority and he doesnt want to participate in this new system. He has already handed in his notice as an employee but he will remain on the UPNs board of directors until the end of its term. He wants to convene a meeting of the board as early as the beginning of November but it is questionable whether the UPNs new chairman will be elected in time for this meeting. Read also: Read also: Political prisoners are against Memory Institute reform Read more Efforts to change the law came at a time when the UPN had gained respect not only at home, but also abroad, said Krajnak as cited by the TASR newswire. The amendments submitters in their explanatory report cite the desire for effective management of the institution among the reasons for the legislative change, but nobody will bear personal responsibility for the potential damage caused while managing the UPN. He also pointed to the fact that according to the submitters, the legislative change was also made necessary by tense relations within the UPN. If this was actually among the motives for changing the legislation, the amendment has been personified, which contradicts the Constitution, as the law must be generally valid and cannot concern a particular case, said Krajnak, adding that the reasons for adopting the amendment must have been much deeper. He added that the UPN was fully engaged in prosecutions concerning former members of the communist-era intelligence service (StB). In addition, the UPN has detailed and published the complete structure of the StB on Slovak territory dating back to 1966, called for increased pensions for political prisoners and has been constantly reminding everyone of the actions taken by criminal regimes and at the same time, naming specific culprits. These are the actual reasons why the MPs of the governing coalition came up with the amendment, he said. Inking of the memorandum means political support for the project at the highest level Font size: A - | A + Economy Minister Peter Ziga (Smer) and Hungarian Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto signed a Memorandum of Understanding concerning the Eastring gas pipeline project in Kosice on October 30. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Slovakia has been pushing for the implementation of the Eastring project for a long time. It should contribute towards strengthening energy security in central and south-eastern Europe and diversify gas supplies to Europe. Its very important for Slovakia and Hungary to have secure supplies of energy resources and raw materials, while gas is among the most expensive, said Ziga as cited by the TASR newswire. Thats why the diversification of routes and resources, which Slovakia and Hungary need, is based on creating other possible routes apart from those that lead from the Russian Federation via the Ukraine, for example, to Slovakia or Hungary. Read also: Read also: Hungarian consultancy company elaborates feasibility study for Eastring gas pipeline Read more He added that the inking of the memorandum means political support for the project at the highest level. Hungary and Slovakia have great scope for providing energy security to central Europe, said Szijjarto. We have around seven billion cubic metres of gas storage capacity. We have a very well-built pipeline system. All this allows us to distribute gas flowing into our country from the south to the west, north or any other direction. In order for the project to be successful, support is needed among governments, transmission system operators and regulators. Bulgaria was the first to express such support when the country signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Slovakia in July 2016. A similar memorandum was signed between the gas operators Slovak Eustream and Bulgartransgaz in June 2016. The dual direction Eastring pipeline is a joint project for Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary with a planned capacity hovering at around 20-40 billion cubic metres of gas per year. In total there will be 13 road convoys of foreign armed forces Font size: A - | A + The Slovak Defence Ministry warns that the movement of military convoys of allied armies via Slovakia is planned from October 30 until November 5. In total there will be 13 road convoys of foreign armed forces, Danka Capakova, spokesperson of the Defence Ministry informed the TASR newswire. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement In particular, it will be made up of Polish troops but the transfer of US soldiers is also planned. The latter will be transporting material for the Atlantic Resolve operation. There will also be some convoys of the Slovak Army. Dril-Quip, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, sells, and services engineered drilling and production equipment for use in deepwater, harsh environment, and severe service applications worldwide. The company's principal products include subsea and surface wellheads, subsea and surface production trees, mudline hanger systems, specialty connectors and associated pipes, drilling and production riser systems, liner hangers, wellhead connectors, diverters, and safety valves, as well as downhole tools. It also provides technical advisory services, and rework and reconditioning services, as well as rental and purchase of running tools for use in the installation and retrieval of its products; and downhole tools comprise of liner hangers, production packers, safety valves, and specialty downhole tools that are used to hang-off and seal casing into a previously installed casing string in the well bore. The company's products are used to explore for oil and gas from offshore drilling rigs, such as floating rigs and jack-up rigs; and for drilling and production of oil and gas wells on offshore platforms, tension leg platforms, and Spars, as well as moored vessels, such as floating production, storage, and offloading monohull moored vessels. It sells its products directly through its sales personnel, independent sales agents, and representatives to integrated, independent, and foreign national oil and gas companies, as well as drilling contractors, and engineering and construction companies. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas. EPAM Systems, Inc. provides digital platform engineering and software development services worldwide. The company offers engineering services, including requirements analysis and platform selection, customization, cross-platform migration, implementation, and integration; infrastructure management services, such as software development, testing, and maintenance with private, public, and mobile infrastructures for application, database, network, server, storage, and systems operations management, as well as monitoring, incident notification, and resolution services; and maintenance and support services. It also provides operation solutions comprising integrated engineering practices and smart automation; and optimization solutions that include software application testing, test management, automation, and consulting services to enable customers enhance their existing software testing and quality assurance practices, as well as other testing services that identify threats and close loopholes to protect its customers' business systems from information loss. In addition, the company offers business, experience, technology, data, and technical advisory consulting services; and digital and service design solutions, which comprise strategy, design, creative, and program management services, as well as physical product development, such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and virtual reality. It serves the financial services, travel and consumer, software and hi-tech, business information and media, life sciences and healthcare, and other industries. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Newtown, Pennsylvania. By PTI: Mumbai, Oct 30 (PTI) HDFC Standard Life Insurance, which opens its Rs 8,700 crore IPO on November 7, today said it has fixed its price band at Rs 275-290 per equity share. The private insurers Initial Public Offer will open on November 7 and close on November 9. "The funds raised will be used by HDFC Ltd for its business purposes as the insurance arm has adequate capital needed for growth," HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh told reporters here. advertisement The company will raise Rs 8,700 crore. The IPO is offering up to 299,827,818 equity shares of the face value of Rs 10 each. This comprises an offer for sale of 191,246,050 equity shares by Housing Development Finance Corporation and up to 108,581,768 equity Shares by Standard Life (Mauritius Holdings), the promoters of HDFC Life. The global coordinators and book running lead managers of the IPO are Morgan Stanley India Company, HDFC Bank, Credit Suisse Securities (India), CLSA India and Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India). The book running lead managers are Edelweiss Financial Services, Haitong Securities India, IDFC Bank, IIFL Holdings and UBS Securities India. The equity shares offered in the IPO are proposed to be listed on the BSE and the NSE. HDFC Standard Life was one of the first private life insurance companies to register in India and was established as a joint venture between HDFC and Standard Life Aberdeen plc (global investment company), initially through its wholly owned subsidiary The Standard Life Assurance Company and now through its wholly owned subsidiary, Standard Life Mauritius. The company has a pan-India presence, comprising 414 branches across India as of September 30, supported by a workforce of 16,544 full-time employees. PTI SM KRK BAS --- ENDS --- Ducommun Incorporated provides engineering and manufacturing products and services primarily to the aerospace and defense, industrial, medical, and other industries in the United States. It operates through two segments, Electronic Systems and Structural Systems. The Electronic Systems segment provides cable assemblies and interconnect systems; printed circuit board assemblies; higher-level electronic, electromechanical, and mechanical components and assemblies, as well as lightning diversion systems; and radar enclosures, aircraft avionics racks, shipboard communications and control enclosures, shipboard communications and control enclosures, printed circuit board assemblies, cable assemblies, wire harnesses, interconnect systems, lightning diversion strips, surge suppressors, conformal shields, and other assemblies. It also supplies engineered products, including illuminated pushbutton switches and panels for aviation and test systems; microwave and millimeter switches and filters for radio frequency systems and test instrumentation; and motors and resolvers for motion control. In addition, this segment provides engineering expertise for aerospace system design, development, integration, and testing. The Structural Systems segment designs, engineers, and manufactures contoured aluminum, titanium, and Inconel aero structure components; structural assembly products, such as winglets, engine components, and fuselage structural panels; and metal and composite bonded structures and assemblies comprising aircraft wing spoilers, large fuselage skins, rotor blades on rotary-wing aircraft and components, flight control surfaces, engine components, ammunition handling systems, and magnetic seals. It serves commercial aircraft, military fixed-wing aircraft, military and commercial rotary-wing aircraft, and space programs, as well as industrial, medical, and other end-use markets. The company was founded in 1849 and is headquartered in Santa Ana, California. 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. Read More The gruesome murder that took place at a busy market in Bharat Nagar was captured on CCTV. By India Today Web Desk: Even as political murders are making headlines in several parts of the country, a spine-chilling CCTV footage showing an RSS leader being shot dead has surfaced from Punjab's Amritsar. The deceased has been identified as district chief of Hindu Sangharsh Sena Vipin Kumar. The gruesome murder that took place in a busy market in Bharat Nagar was captured in a CCTV camera installed in the vicinity. advertisement Kumar along with another person were seen riding a bike, while two other people brandishing guns intercepted them. While Kumar fell on ground after being shot, another person who accompanied him fled from the spot. Moments later, one of the two persons who had covered their face rained bullets on Kumar who had fallen on the ground. The accused fired five rounds on Kumar. Following the incident, the police have launched a manhunt to track down the accused. Police said that apart from being a Hindu Suraksha Samiti leader, Kumar also dedicated time to Jai Shanker Welfare Society that worked towards feeding the poor. The horrific incident took place while two other murders of RSS leaders are being investigated by CBI and NIA respectively. The murders of RSS and Hindu leaders in Punjab seems to be a conspiracy to disrupt peace in the state. There also has been allegations of delayed action from Punjab police and administration. SHOCKING: Hindu Suraksha Samiti leader shot dead in Amritsar, incident caught on CCTV --- ENDS --- Under Armour, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the developing, marketing, and distributing performance apparel, footwear, and accessories for men, women, and youth. The company offers its apparel in compression, fitted, and loose fit types. It also provides footwear products for running, training, basketball, cleated sports, recovery, and outdoor applications. In addition, the company offers accessories, which include gloves, bags, headwear, and sports masks; and digital subscription and advertising services under the MapMyRun and MapMyRide platforms. It primarily offers its products under the UNDER ARMOUR, UA, HEATGEAR, COLDGEAR, HOVR, PROTECT THIS HOUSE, I WILL, UA Logo, ARMOUR FLEECE, and ARMOUR BRA brands. The company sells its products through wholesale channels, including national and regional sporting goods chains, independent and specialty retailers, department store chains, mono-branded Under Armour retail stores, institutional athletic departments, and leagues and teams, as well as independent distributors; and directly to consumers through a network of 422 brand and factory house stores, as well as through e-commerce websites. It operates in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia-Pacific, and Latin America. Under Armour, Inc. was incorporated in 1996 and is headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. A Hanoi market surveillance agency has claimed the attendants of a Khaisilk outlet in the Vietnamese capital deliberately sourced Chinese products and altered their labels to sell as Made in Vietnam,' rather than follow a policy of the company now mired in a mislabeling scandal. The market watchdog inspected the Khaisilk Hanoi Main Store on Hang Gai Street in Hoang Kiem District at the request of the Ministry of Industry and Trade last week, after brand owner Hoang Khai admitted that 50 percent of his silk scarves were sourced from China and sold under the guise of Vietnamese products. In a report released on Sunday, the Hanoi market surveillance agency said it was employees of the retail outlet that changed the labels themselves, as their supply of silk scarves had fallen short of demand in the lead up to Vietnamese Womens Day on October 20. The store at 113 Hang Gai is registered under the name of Nguyen Thi Thu Nga and has a business license from the Hoan Kiem administration, according to the report. At the time of inspection, Nga assured them that her store specializes in only selling Vietnamese-made silk products. According to Ngas account, as demand for silk scarves soared, the stores attendants sourced Chinese silk scarves from elsewhere to ensure sufficient stock. Before selling them, the attendants removed the Made in China labels and replaced them with the Khaisilk Made in Vietnam ones. The scarf with two labels is seen in this photo posted on the Facebook page of Dang Nhu Quynh. Nga said only 60 silk scarves had had their labels altered in this way, with only four having been sold and the remaining 56 still in stock. The incorrectly labeled items were on sale for VND644,000 (US$28) each. All of these products have since been seized by the market surveillance agency. An official from Hanoi confirmed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the watchdog had made a report to the trade ministry-run Market Surveillance Department. However, he underlined that it was only a record of the inspection of the 113 Hang Gai store, not a conclusion. He added that officers were still verifying the relationship between Nga and Khaisilk, as well as investigating several other issues. Contradictory statements The main Hanoi store on Hang Gai Street is where the label scandal began for Khaisilk, owned by real estate tycoon Hoang Khai. After a local company placed an order for 60 Vietnamese silk scarves earlier this month, at a cost of VND644,000 each, they soon discovered that one of them had both the Made in China and Made in Vietnam labels on it. The other 59 scarves also displayed signs that a Made-in-China label had been removed and a Made-in-Vietnam label had been added. The incident was first reported on October 23 by Vietnamese Facebook user Dang Nhu Quynh, with the Khaisilk company subsequently making several contradictory statements in its defense. First, a Khaisilk representative said that all 60 scarves were made from 100 percent silk, and that the only scarf in question belonged to another order, which the buyer had insisted be label Made in China. However, Hoang Khai later admitted in an interview with Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper that 50 percent of his scarves were from China, a practice he believed to be ethical "so long as the product quality is guaranteed." Then came a report that Hoang Khai had nothing to do with the label-changing that had occurred in his Hanoi store. Hoang Khai has since made no further comment and closed both his personal Facebook account as well as the Khaisilk Boutique page. In addition to the main Hanoi store, two Khaisilk stores in Ho Chi Minh City have also been closed since last weekend. Founded in the late 1990s, Khaisilk scarves are considered a premium product, popular amongst local luxury consumers and international tourists. The closed Khaisilk store on Dong Khoi Street, Ho Chi Minh City Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Editors note :Two expats living in Vietnam have expressed their thoughts in response to a call by Tuoi Tre News following the proposal of a code of conduct for public servants in Ho Chi Minh City. According to the proposal, a dress code for male public servants would be a shirt, trousers and no jeans or T-shirts, while female workers would be required to wear an ao dai, the Vietnamese traditional dress, trousers, suits, or knee-length skirts. Public servants are also expected to use polite and clear language and not shout at people or use slang while working with residents. They would also be required not to consume alcohol either at work or during break times or to smoke at their workplace. Additionally, under the proposal, while at work they would not be allowed to wear headphones, listen to music, play computer games, use electronic devices for personal purposes or to access websites unrelated to their work or responsibilities. Very reasonable During my 14 months in Vietnam so far, I haven't had any bad experiences with public servants. However, I think the proposed code of conduct for Ho Chi Minh City is very reasonable. It's important to be professional at all times when you are representing a respected institution or establishment. It's important for public servants to be courteous and professional, especially when in contact with foreigners or expats, because their actions, however good or bad, will leave a lasting impression not only on the specific agency or institution, but also on the country. Jake Mallalieu When I lived in England, I worked as a police officer. There is a very strict code of conduct on how to behave and conduct yourself during your duties as an officer. These rules varied from having to be well-dressed in uniform, clean shaven and have no visible tattoos, to keeping your beliefs, opinions, and personal lives separate from your role. Above all else, it was important to remember that in your job, you were representing an institution, not just yourself as an individual, so you were expected to mainatain a high standard of professionalism and respect towards all people. It's very common for public servants of all varieties in England to follow a specific code of conduct. The duties of public servants are important in every society. Their day-to-day job involves contact and interaction with members of the public, so it's important that workers maintain a high level of professionalism and respect towards all others. A dress code is important because it represents cleanliness. Moreover, the prohibition of electronic devices for personal use prevents lazy workers and encourages hard work. Rules and codes of conduct are set in place to ensure a job is done to the highest standard. Moreover, I think when someone is happy and enjoys their working environment, they do a much better job. As well as setting a strict code of conduct to improve quality, the government should also listen to the opinions of the workers and take into account their wishes; for the benefit of everyone involved. Jake Mallalieu from England Singapore already does the same It should be done. In my country, our government is very particular about the conduct of its civil servants. Civil servants represent the government, so their performance reflects the capability of the government. Besides, it's the citizens who pay for the salaries of civil servants, so they should serve the people well. Most of the conduct stated in Ho Chi Minh Citys proposal is very what we are already practicing in Singapore. The number-one principle that my government emphasizes is zero tolerance for corruption. Any civil servant involved in corruption is dealt with severely, they must pay fines, have their job taken away from them and then spend time in jail. In my opinion, a civil servant should treat all citizens with the same respect without bias. They should be fair to all citizens without discrimination. They should also make sure that the information that they give to the public is correct. To improve the quality of their work, you have to employ civil servants based on their capabilities and skills. There shouldnt be nepotism. Pay them well to prevent corruption and give them the opportunity to improve themselves and be promoted. Basically, people will be motivated to do a good job when they like what they are doing and take pride. Of course, they must also earn enough to support their families and reach a decent standard of living. Living in Vietnam, I have encountered some problems with police and hospital staff. Some of the staff's knowledge is not good. For example when my wife went for a pregnancy check-up, we were surprised that the junior doctor knew little about Thalassemia. As for the police, they only seem to take care of their specialized area. When one is on leave, nobody else can process the documents. This is something that I find unacceptable. If a staff member is on leave, another should be able to take over the job. There have been a few occasions whereby my wife couldn't get documents stamped or collect stamped documents because the particular officer in charge was not around. In my country, when one is absent, another can do the job. John Lim from Singapore By Manjeet Sehgal: Rape convict Dera Sacha Sauda Chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim's close aide Honeypreet Insan continues to get a special treatment inside Ambala Central Jail. The reason behind the VIP treatment was concluded as the State BJP government, which formed the government first time in the sate with the help of Dera three years back. Haryana Jail Minister Krishan Panwar visited the jail on Monday, after the special treatment to the violence accused Honeypreet attracted media attention and gave a clean chit to the jail authorities. The jail authorities had allowed the movement of the car belonging to the family of Honeypreet to a sensitive area where no vehicles except the police vehicles are allowed. advertisement The police had even failed to trace the VIP registration number of the car carrying the family members of Honeypreet including her brother Sahil Taneja, his wife Sonali Taneja, sister Nishu and her husband Sanchit Bajaj. The vehicle with tinted windows was allowed to enter jail at a time when Dera followers have openly issued threats to get Gurmeet Ram Rahim and Honeypreet released from the jail. The car, sources say, remained inside the jail complex for nearly three hours. "I have issued warning to the jail staff not to give any special treatment to anybody. The allegations of VIP treatment to Honeypreet and his family are not true. The family members had entered jail at 5.19 PM and had left within 80 minutes at 5.28.One of the females travelling in the car was not well so the vehicle was allowed to enter the jail premises," Krishan Panwar said. Highly placed sources told India Today that Honeypreet in connivance with a jail canteen owner was getting home cooked food as she did not like the jail food. Sources also said that some other influential jail inmates were also getting home or restaurant cooked food for a price. The minister, however, refuted the allegations and said all inmates were being served food as per jail manual and the allegations were untrue. "The jail staff was not favouring any inmate. The allegations that home cooked food was being served inside jail were baseless," Krishan Panwar said. The leniency been given to Honeypreet Insan clearly speaks that Haryana's BJP government is more worried about its vote bank than treating her at par with common jail inmates. --- ENDS --- Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper has cooperated with the Ho Chi Minh City chapter of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union and the Office of Education and Training in citys District 1 to open a newly renovated library at Phan Van Tri Elementary School last week. For students of the school, the location is ideal. Opened on October 27, the multi-faceted library is modern, comfortable and equipped to suit the needs of both teachers and students. The library is spacious and clean. Photo: Tuoi Tre Costing VND286 million (US$12,600) to build, the library had VND200 million ($8,800) of that donated by a group of lawmakers including State President Tran Dai Quang, while the rest was covered by smaller benefactors. A multi-faceted library Oh! How cool this is! a number of 4th and 5th grade students exclaimed when they first walked into the improved library. There are so many novels! There are a variety of books for students to choose from. Photo: Tuoi Tre I really like this library. Its bigger and nicer than the old one. It also has a lot more books, Nguyen Tuan Anh, a student in class 5/3, said while picking a book. The library is over 100m and designed with the convenience of students in mind. Situated on the ground floor and located near the schools gate, the library has already been successful in attracting many students who are able to pick out and replace books without the help of a librarian. A space for students to read. Photo: Tuoi Tre The glass front of the library allows students to browse books from outside an intentional design feature and it also has a small stage area, interactive boards, as well as computers connected to the Internet. Students are able to use the stage area to introduce a book or retell a story. Teachers are also welcome to read books, research teaching materials, or organize extracurricular activities. A teacher introducing a new book to students. Photo: Tuoi Tre Amenities such as couches and air conditioning have impressed students and made the library more appealing. Vu Minh Huy, a male student in class 5/2, said, My dad is a parking attendant. My mom is a textile worker. In the afternoon, I usually go home to get lunch, rest, and after that I come back to school for evening classes. From now on, I will be coming back to school earlier in the afternoon because it is very comfortable and breezy in here. Ha Quang Phong, a student in class 4/4, also shared his plans, My dad has passed away. My mom is employed to wash dishes. In the afternoon, my mom drives me home to have lunch. From now on, I will ask my mom to drive me back to school a little earlier so that I can read books in the library. There are so many interesting books Students cheer in a colorful reading space. Photo: Tuoi Tre A meaningful gift Le Thi Binh, chief of the Office of Education and Training in District 1, said that even though Phan Van Tri Elementary School is located in the central business district, it is part of Nguyen Cu Trinh Ward, where a lot of financially unstable families live. Most parents work unskilled jobs including selling lottery tickets, polishing shoes or as factory workers, she said, adding that many families live in temporary housing. A small stage which can be used for performances or to teach extracurricular activities. Photo: Tuoi Tre The school's library used to be a small, stuffy room with an area of less than 50m used mainly for book storage, and failed to attract any students, Binh said. When authorities in Ho Chi Minh City proposed funding for a project to build a new, standardized library, the schools officials willingly gave away office space to allow the expansion of the library, she added. Expressing her appreciation at the opening ceremony, Nguyen Thi Hong Yen principal of Phan Van Tri said, This present is very meaningful, and pragmatic for both teachers and students of the school. We are touched by the care, and great help from our leaders. Dinh Minh Trung, deputy editor-in-chief of Tuoi Tre gives away scholarships to students with families in hardship at Phan Van Tri Elementary School. Photo: Tuoi Tre Tuoi Tre helped connect the authorities and the school to make the project happen. At the opening ceremony, the newspaper gave away 30 scholarships of VND1 million ($50) each to students who put in the effort to study but are from poor families. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Large amounts of public land in Ho Chi Minh City are being chucked away, resulting in immense losses to the state budget. A report by the municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment has revealed that several plots of public land in the southern hub have been abandoned, encroached on, or used for the wrong purpose. Local businesses that won deals to lease the properties have been renting them to other institutions for their personal benefit. In his recent inspection, Cao Thanh Binh, deputy head of the economic and budget committee under the municipal Peoples Council, pointed out the wastefulness at one public land plot on Quang Trung Street, Go Vap District. The 18,400 square meter area was previously leased by the National Phytopharma JSC (Phytopharma) for the construction of shops, offices, and warehouses. The firm agreed to rent the property for 50 years at VND142 million (US$6,225) per year. However, the company has cooperated with two other businesses to open some restaurants, earning billions of dong (VND1 billion = $43,839) on an annual basis. According to the citys Department of Construction, about 12,490 square meters of the land is being used for the offices and warehouses of Phytopharma. The rest of the property is home to two restaurants, it added. In order to legalize the establishment of the eateries, Phytopharma asked the Peoples Committee in Go Vap District for permission to renovate their old offices into a cafeteria and rest area for its employees. Once the petition was approved, the two restaurants were constructed rather than a cafeteria or rest area. In District 6, several pieces of public land are also being rented at cheap rates for a variety of businesses. Loose management Several businesses authorized to manage the public properties have not been thorough, resulting in many land lots being abandoned or encroached on by local residents. In some other locations, businesses have allowed their employees to build houses on the land, making it difficult for authorities to reclaim these properties. This situation can be observed on a 1,051 square meter area on Kinh Duong Vuong Street, District 6, where 15 families are currently residing. These people were employees of a factory based in the southern province of Dong Nai. Despite no authorization, the firm allowed its staff members to construct their homes on the land about 30 years ago. However, they have never been granted legal ownership despite their repeated requests. In order to reclaim the public land, local authorities have been asked to pay a large amount of compensation to the residents they wish to relocate. Similar situations have occurred on other plots of land in Binh Thanh, Thu Duc, and Phu Nhuan Districts. Assertive measures According to Le Hoang Chau, president of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association, the proper management and effective use of public land require multiple measures to be carried out simultaneously. The lawmaking National Assembly should pass the law on the management and use of public assets, Chau said. The municipal Department of Natural Resources and Environment should be the only agency that manages public land, he continued. An auction mechanism should also be established to facilitate the efficient use of public property. Hoang Minh Tri, former head of the citys Institute of Development Studies, said that businesses that do not use the land in accordance with their deals should be evicted. Such land plots will then be open to other bidders to avoid wastefulness, Tri elaborated. A representative from the municipal Department of Finance stated that during the upcoming inspections, public land plots that are deserted or wrongly or ineffectively utilized shall be reclaimed. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The traffic police unit in a provincial city in Vietnam has allowed plain-clothes officers to hunt for violators on the streets, triggering both support and concern from local residents. While traffic police officers normally do their job at intersections or along the streets in their uniform, the police unit in Vinh, which is the capital of the north-central province of Nghe An, believes that having the officers on duty in plain clothes will increase the effectiveness of catching law offenders. Some members of the public are concerned that the policy would be abused. On Monday, Hoang Duy Ha, deputy head of the Vinh police force, confirmed to Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that his unit is putting together patrol teams in plain clothes. These special patrol teams will look for those traveling on motorbikes without wearing a compulsory crash helmet, and other traffic rule violations, according to the police official. Ha underlined that the municipal traffic police unit is just following a circular issued by the Ministry of Public Security, and an action plan by the Nghe An police department. The circular, according to Ha, stipulates that traffic officers are allowed to disguise themselves, that is to say putting on plain clothes, when they are on duty to ensure traffic order. Whenever they pull over an offender, the plain-clothes police are required to present their police cards and introduce themselves as law enforcement officers, before calling their colleagues [in uniform] over to book and handle the case, Ha elaborated. Ha added that the plain-clothes officers are not permitted to fine any lawbreaker on the spot. They are only allowed to explain the law offenses to the violators and ask to check their personal papers. The violators will then be taken to the nearest police station or transferred to the officers in uniform, he said. The policy has sparked different reactions from members of the public. Hoang Van Khanh, 52, a Vinh resident, expressed support for the plan, saying it would help crack down on those defying the helmet-wearing rule. These violators tend to speed away whenever they see traffic officers in uniform, which puts not only themselves but other passers-by at risk, Khanh told Tuoi Tre. Now that officers are in plain clothes, the offenders cannot avoid them anymore. However, Nguyen Viet Tien, 25, is concerned that the policy effectively means every motorcyclist in Vinh can be pulled over by anyone. When a man signals me to stop, how could I know if he is a traffic police officer to follow that request? he said. It is also difficult for the public to oversee if the plain-clothes officers carry out their duty properly as it is impossible to tell them from everyone on the streets. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Seven has finally confirmed the premiere for Instant Hotel and the return for The Secret Daughter. Both will debut on Melbourne Cup day, Tuesday, November 7, no doubt bolstered by heavy promotion throughout the race. Instant Hotel screens at 7:30pm and continues at 7:30pm Wednesday & Thursday next week. 5 couples; Mother and Daughter Babe and Bondi from Bondi Beach, Fussy Couple Brent and Leroy from Port Douglas, High School Sweethearts Mark and Jannine from S.A along with Newlyweds Sam and James from Byron Bay head to our first Instant Hotel in Humpty Doo, Northern Territory owned by Young Parents Adam and Kathy who are opening their newly built tropical oasis to guests for the first the time. Hosted by Luke Jacobz and series judge Juliet Ashworth. The Secret Daughter returns at 8:35pm November 7. There will only be 4 remaining weeks meaning some doubles are likely if Secret Daughter is to tie things up in survey. Desperate to connect with her real family, Billie (Jessica Mauboy) meets her mothers sister, only to have it confirmed she is Jack Nortons daughter, launching her back into the centre of the family she just fled the Nortons. After turning her back on the Nortons and a record deal, Billie (Jessica Mauboy) is desperate to connect with her real family. So, Gus (David Field) takes Billie to visit her mothers sister the formidable Aunty Mim (Rachael Maza). While learning about her mother, Billie discovers the photo that proves once and for all she is Jacks daughter. Billie fronts up the Norton family, determined to start over and find out more about her father. The Good Doctor will screen its third episode on Thursday Nov 9 (it screens on both Tuesday & Thursday this week). US political analyst Mark Halperin has been dumped from The Circus, should the series return. The series looked at campaigns in the recent US election, airing in Australia on Stan. Halperins axing follows CNN reporting five women accused him of sexually harassment while they worked at ABC News during the 1990s and 2000s. That number has since grown to more than a dozen. Halperin a lengthy apology on his social media conceding his aggressive and crude behaviour towards women while at ABC News. Should The Circus move forward with another season, Mark Halperin will not be a part of it, said a Showtime spokesperson in a statement. Source: Deadline The United Nations Association of Australia has handed out its annual media awards for the promotion of human rights and issues. Winners included You Cant Ask That, Foreign Correspondent, ABC News, NITV & Sunday Night, whose report The Hunting Grounds, which exposed the prevalence and handling of sexual assaults at Australian universities won the award for Promotion of Gender Equality: Empowerment of Women and Girls for exposing the prevalence and handling of sexual assaults at Australian universities. Sunday Night Executive Producer, Hamish Thomson said: We are extremely proud our team has been recognised with this award. It was a powerful investigation exposing what can only be described as an epidemic of rape and sexual abuse on university campuses around the nation. Through dozens of FOI applications, Alison and Nina worked tenaciously to lay the factual foundations for the report, creating for the first time a true national picture of just how widespread the problem is. Working with PJ (Madam) and Penny (McWhirter), the team was then able to bring a human face to these alarming statistics, interviewing brave young woman who spoke out about their shocking experiences. TV winners in bold: TV News/Current Affairs Applying Pressure for a Switch to NT Detention Alternatives, Jane Bardon, ABC National Darwin Urban Soldier: Inside Chicagos War, Phil Goyen, Liz Hayes, Scott Morelli, Ben Crane, Judge Norgate, 60 Minutes, Nine Network Six Days in Somaliland, Sally Sara and Dingani Masuku, ABC News Somaliland Famine, Kirsty Johansen and Edoardo Falcione, SBS World News TV Documentary Blue, Northern Pictures Deep Water: The Real Story, Blackfella Films Pty Ltd Cold Justice, Allan Clarke, NITV and Buzzfeed Venezuela Undercover, Eric Campbell, Matthew Davis, Foreign Correspondent, ABC TV Promotion of Gender Equality: Empowerment of Women and Girls Australias Dowry Deaths, Naomi Selvaratnam and Mary Ann Jolley, Al Jazeera English A Brutal History: The Killing of Wubanchi Asfaw, Kathy Marks, SBS Online Kakenya Ntaiya, Marc Fennell, SBS TV The Hunting Grounds, PJ Madam, Alison Sandy, Penny McWhirter, Nina Funnell, Sunday Night, Seven Network Fact Check: Why the Gender Pay Gap Persists, RMIT ABC Fact Check Promotion of Childrens Rights and Issues Sins of the Father, Belinda Hawkins, Steven Baras-Miller, Sarah Farnsworth, Emily Porrello, Mark Farnell, Australian Story, ABC TV Fallen Angels, Margaret Simons, Heather Jarvis, Dave Tacon, Earshot, ABC Radio National Generation Left Behind, Matthew Carney, Zhang Qian, Wayne McAllister, ABC Foreign Correspondent Promotion of Social Cohesion Shooting for the Stars, Sharon Davis, Australian Story, ABC TV You Cant Ask That: Suicide Attempt Survivors; Refugees and Children of Same-Sex Parents, ABC TV Its Being Recorded: the Death of Ashley Bryant, William Verity, Earshot, ABC Radio National Promotion of Disability Rights and Issues You Cant Ask That: Down Syndrome; Facial Difference and Blind, ABC TV No Holding Back, Kristopher Flanders, NITV Allegations of Abuse Against People with Disabilities in Tasmania, Natalie Whiting, 7:30 Report, ABC TV Autism in Agriculture, The Project, 7PM Company Pty Ltd FILE PHOTO: Rancher Cliven Bundy looks out over his 160 acre ranch in Bunkerville, Nevada May 3, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo Thomson Reuters By John L. Smith LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy goes on trial on Monday for his role in leading a 2014 armed standoff against federal agents that became a rallying point for militia groups challenging U.S. government authority in the American West. Bundy, two of his sons and a third follower are accused of conspiracy, assault, firearms offenses and other charges in the latest of several trials stemming from the confrontation near Bunkerville, Nevada, 75 miles (120 km) northeast of Las Vegas. The revolt was sparked by the court-ordered roundup of Bundy's cattle by government agents over his refusal to pay fees required to graze the herd on federal land. Hundreds of supporters, many heavily armed, rallied to Bundy's cause demanding that his livestock be returned. Outnumbered law enforcement officers ultimately retreated rather than risk bloodshed. No shots were ever fired. The face-off marked a flashpoint in long-simmering tensions over federal control of public lands in the West and a precursor to Bundy's two sons leading an armed six-week occupation of a federal wildlife center in Oregon two years later, in 2016. Defense lawyers have generally argued that the Bunkerville defendants were exercising constitutionally protected rights to assembly and to bear arms, casting the showdown as a patriotic act of civil disobedience against government overreach. Prosecutors have said that armed gunmen were using force and intimidation to defy the rule of law. Jury selection in the latest trial was slated to begin on Monday morning in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas. The proceedings were postponed for three weeks after an unrelated mass shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 1 in which 58 people were killed. Standing trial with Cliven Bundy, 71, are the two sons, Ammon and Ryan Bundy, who led last year's Oregon occupation, and a third co-defendant, Ryan Payne, a Montana resident linked by prosecutors to a militia group called Operation Mutual Aid. Story continues A fourth co-defendant, internet blogger and radio host Peter Santilli, pleaded guilty on Oct. 6 to conspiracy and faces a possible six-year prison term. Six lesser-known participants in the Nevada ranch showdown went on trial as a group earlier this year. Two men were found guilty, one of them sentenced to 68 years in prison. The other is awaiting sentencing. Two of the four remaining defendants were retried and acquitted, and two others pleaded guilty last week to obstructing a court order. Those two each face up to a year in prison when sentenced. Yet another group of six defendants, including two more Bundy sons, Dave and Mel Bundy, are due to stand trial 30 days after the current trial ends. Ammon and Ryan Bundy, along with five other people, were previously charged with criminal conspiracy in the takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. That trial ended with the surprise acquittal last year of all seven. (Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Cooney) See Also: Munitions fell on a market and near a school in towns in East Damascus, Syria, killing more than 10 people on October 29. In Hamouria, multiple bodies lay on the street after an airstrike. People covered the bodies in blankets before lifting them on to stretchers. In a second video from Hamouria, members of the White Helmet Civil Defense arrive at a street cart piled high with eggplants. Multiple injured people lay on the floor near by, and people work to carry them to the White Helmet ambulance. The Syrian Network for Human Rights said shells killed eight people in Hamouria on October 29. Two of the people killed were journalists covering the artillery strikes, a local news outlet said. In the neighboring town of Saqba, artillery shells killed three people, local media said. White Helmet volunteers carried the body of a man into a van in this video, and drove an injured child to get medical attention. The White Helmets also responded to a school in Kafrbatna, where local media said airstrikes hit close to a school. In this video, children cry in distress at a school. Credit: Facebook/Civil Defense in Damascus via Storyful By PTI: Kishanganj (Bihar), Oct 30 (PTI) Nearly 900 bottles of foreign liquor were seized today and one person was arrested in connection with it in Kishanganj district of Bihar, officials said. The sale and consumption of alcohol in Bihar had been banned one-and-a-half-years ago. According to Sashastra Seema Bal Deputy (SSB) Commandant Kumar Sundaram, 890 bottles of liquor was seized from a vehicle in an operation conducted jointly by the SSB and the local police. advertisement The liquor was found stored in bottles of 250 ml and 750 ml and concealed under sacks filled with potatoes, he said. The driver of the vehicle was arrested. He disclosed that the consignment worth Rs 3.86 lakh had been brought from neighbouring West Bengal and was to be supplied to Araria district, Sundaram said. PTI NAC KK KJ --- ENDS --- Head of the People's Party (OeVP) Sebastian Kurz (R) and head of the Freedom Party (FPOe) Heinz-Christian Strache arrive for a news conference after their first round of coalition talks in Vienna, Austria, October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger (Reuters) VIENNA (Reuters) - Coalition talks between Austrian conservative Sebastian Kurz's party and the far-right Freedom Party began in earnest on Monday as they combed through the nation's finances in search of billions in savings to fund planned tax cuts. Kurz, who is just 31, needs a coalition partner to form a stable government since his People's Party won this month's parliamentary election but fell well short of a majority. He started coalition talks with the third-placed Freedom Party last week. Although both parties' similarly hard lines on immigration dominated the campaign, they have also promised billions in tax cuts and said much of the funding will come from greater efficiency in Austria's administration, which includes a generous welfare state. Having laid out a roadmap for negotiations at their first round of talks on Wednesday, an overview of the country's finances was the main order of business at their second meeting, on Monday. "What we can say today is that there is a significant potential for greater efficiency and that of course we will sound out in the coming days what can be done politically," Elisabeth Koestinger, chairwoman of Kurz's party and part of his negotiating team, told a news conference after Monday's talks. Neither she nor the Freedom Party's envoy to the joint news conference would be drawn on where those savings would be found. "We did not find any holes," the Freedom Party's deputy leader, Norbert Hofer, who came close to winning last year's presidential election, told the news conference. "The issue will be better administering this state, reducing loss-causing inefficiencies and then making this released potential available through (tax) relief," he added. Talks in the 10-person group that includes Kurz and Strache will continue through the week and negotiations in 20 more specialised groups will begin on Tuesday, Koestinger said. Story continues "We had a rough overview (of the public finances) from civil servants in the Finance Ministry and we will go into more detail in the coming days," Koestinger said. Little of substance has emerged from the talks so far. Kurz has said he hopes a deal can be reached before Christmas, and the atmosphere has appeared to be good. Freedom Party leader Heinz-Christian Strache said last week the talks made a "very, very good start". Kurz said on Wednesday that he and Strache, 48, address each other with the informal German "du". Strache told tabloid daily Kronen Zeitung the same day that they are on first-name terms, adding: "He calls me HC." (Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Andrew Heavens) By Nailia Bagirova ALYAT, Azerbaijan (Reuters) - The leaders of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Georgia launched an 826-km (500-mile) rail link connecting the three countries on Monday, establishing a freight and passenger link between Europe and China that bypasses Russia. The line, which includes 105 km of new track, will have the capacity to transport one million passengers and 5 million tonnes of freight. The three countries are linked by the BP-led Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas line, but trade links between Turkey and the Caucasus region are limited. The new BakuTbilisiKars railway (BTK) promises to provide an economic boost to the region. "Baku-Tbilisi-Kars is part of a big Silk Road and it's important that we have implemented this project using our own funds," Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said at the railway's inauguration ceremony attended by Azeri President Ilham Aliyev and Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili. Starting in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, trains will stop in the Georgian capital Tbilisi, pass through gauge-changing facilities in the Georgian town of Akhalkalaki and end their journey in the Turkish town of Kars. The project's total cost rose to more than $1 billion from an initial estimate of about $400 million. The bulk of that financing came from Azerbaijan's state oil fund. The rail link between Azerbaijan and Georgia was modernised under the project, which was launched in 2007. Its completion had been postponed several times since 2011. "Several European countries have expressed an interest in this project and Azerbaijan is in talks with them," Aliyev said, adding Kazakhstan and other countries in Central Asia were interested in transporting their goods via the BTK. The new link will reduce journey times between China and Europe to around 15 days, which is more than twice as fast as the sea route at less than half the price of flying. Trains can depart from cities in China, cross into Kazakhstan at the Khorgos Gateway, be transported across the Caspian Sea by ferry to the New Port of Baku and then be loaded directly onto the BTK and head to Europe. (Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Janet Lawrence) PARIS (Reuters) - A court in Paris on Monday released the younger brother of former Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore pending consideration of a request by the Burkinabe government to have him extradited, his lawyer and a judicial source said. Police detained Francois Compaore at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on Sunday on an international arrest warrant related to the 1998 murder of Norbert Zongo, who published Burkina Faso's Independent newspaper. The killing of Zongo, who had been investigating the murder of a driver who worked for Francois Compaore, became a symbol of repression during Blaise Compaore's 27-year rule, which ended in 2014 at the hands of a popular uprising. Francois Compaore is barred from leaving France until a court examines an extradition request by Burkina Faso's government, said a judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity. Compaore's lawyer Pierre-Olivier Sur said the charges against his client are politically motivated by a Burkinabe government unable to try Blaise Compaore, whom the government of neighbouring Ivory Coast refuses to extradite. Blaise Compaore fled to Ivory Coast during the uprising. He faces an international arrest warrant in connection with the 1987 murder of former President Thomas Sankara. Activists are pushing President Roch Marc Christian Kabore to aggressively pursue cases of past human rights abuses. Critics say his government has been too slow to move against former government members, some of whom serve in the current administration. (Reporting By Simon Carraud and Myriam Rivet; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Peter Graff and Janet Lawrence) TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan said on Monday it will help the Philippines rebuild conflict-torn southern Marawi city as well as other infrastructure in a deepening of ties to counter China's regional influence. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made the pledges in a joint statement with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte following talks in Tokyo. Duterte on Oct 23 announced the end of five months of military operations in Marawi held by Islamic State rebels in a conflict that destroyed much of the city's centre and displaced some 300,000 people. "The Government of Japan recognises that rehabilitation and reconstruction of the City of Marawi and is extremely important," the statement said. Japan also offered to help with other projects ranging from rail infrastructure to river defences including a possible 600 billion yen loan to help fund development of a subway in Manila. The meeting was an opportunity for Abe to discuss security in Asia ahead of key regional meetings beginning with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering in Vietnam in November. "I confirmed with President Duterte that we are both maritime nations sharing basic values and strategic interests," Abe said during his joint announcement with Duterte. The two countries, he added, would address common issues including North Korea and "a free and open Indo-Pacific." Japan is concerned about China's growing power in the South China Sea and sees cooperation with the Philippines, which lies on the waterway's eastern side, as key ally in helping prevent Beijing's influence spreading into the western Pacific. Duterte, unlike his predecessor, Benigno Aquino, has been less critical of Beijing's island building in the South China Sea. The Philippine leader will return home on Tuesday after an audience with the Japanese Emperor. Abe and Duterte will travel to Vietnam for the two-day APEC meeting from Nov 11, which U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend. Story continues Leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and other countries in the region will meet again in the Philippines after the APEC gathering for the East Asia Summit and a gathering of ASEAN that will be chaired by Philippine's president. Duterte in his statement in Tokyo did not mention China, instead calling North Korea to halt its ballistic missile and nuclear test and return to talks with the U.S. Japan and other countries. (Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani) Liberia's President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf speaks during a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Monrovia, Liberia October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon (Reuters) MONROVIA (Reuters) - Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's spokesman on Monday denied allegations from her own party that she meddled in this month's presidential election. The dispute has cemented a falling out between Johnson Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and her party's leadership after 12 years in power that saw the country consolidate a post-war peace but draw sharp criticism over alleged corruption and underdevelopment. At a news conference on Sunday, leaders from Johnson Sirleaf's Unity Party accused the president of holding inappropriate private meetings with election magistrates before the Oct. 10 vote. They accused her of showing greed "in its most callous form" with the "intent of disrupting the fragile peace of Liberia", and backed a challenge to the first round results brought by other parties before the country's election commission. Unity Party's candidate, Vice President Joseph Boakai, placed runner-up in the first-round with 28.8 percent of the vote to front-runner George Weah's 38.4 percent, setting up a second round run-off scheduled for Nov. 7. "The office of the president wishes to state unequivocally that these allegations are completely baseless and an unfortunate attempts by agents provocateurs to undermine Liberia's democratic process," Johnson Sirleaf's spokesman, Jerolinmek Piah, told reporters. He said that all of the president's meetings with election officials were "consistent with her constitutional role to ensure that the process was supported". "These allegations fall in the category of hate speech and inciting language which should be condemned by all peace loving Liberians," Piah added. Liberia's economy has quadrupled under Sirleaf's watch, but the forested country remains impoverished and many have no access to reliable drinking water and electricity. Tired of the monied elite that they say Johnson Sirleaf represents, many voters see Weah as the candidate for change. Story continues Boakai has served as Johnson Sirleaf's vice president since her inauguration in 2006 but Johnson Sirleaf declined to endorse him and he distanced himself from the last administration. The election commission was expected on Monday to hear the challenge to the first round results brought by the Liberty Party of third-place candidate Charles Brumskine with the backing of Unity Party and the All Liberian Party of businessman Benoni Urey. (Reporting By Alphonso Toweh; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Edward McAllister and Matthew Mpoke Bigg) A joint Norwegian and Russian search team found the wreckage of a crashed Russian helicopter off the coast of Svalbard, Norway, on Sunday, October 30. The helicopter operated by Russian mining company Arktikugol disappeared with its eight passengers on October 26 while on a flight from the Barentsburg, on Norways Svalbard, to Pyramiden. Norways rescue coordination centre said in a statement that the helicopter was found at a depth of 690 feet around one mile northeast of Heerodden. Credit: Russian Emergency Situations Ministry via Storyful Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen (C), on transit enroute to Pacific island allies, visits the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S. October 28, 2017. REUTERS/Marco Garcia (Reuters) TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan will increase future defence spending by two percent each year, President Tsai Ing-wen said during a visit to Hawaii where the United States expressed concern over a possible military imbalance in the Taiwan Straits, Taiwan media reported. In the event that Taiwan purchases arms from a foreign military, the island's defence spending could increase as much as three percent each year, and could possibly increase further using a special budget if "significant purchase cases" are made, Tsai said in remarks carried by official media on Monday. Tsai made the comments in response to U.S. concerns about a possible military imbalance in the Taiwan Strait expressed by Ambassador James Moriarty during a meeting. Tsai did not elaborate on when the increased defence spending would start. Tsai's comments were reflected by National Security Council deputy secretary-general Tsai Ming-yen, who recounted to official media the conversation between Tsai and Moriarty, who is chairman of the U.S. Mission in Taiwan, about expanding Taiwan's national defence policy. Moriarty had expressed concern about China's double-digit growth in defence investments in the last few years, and that Taiwan would need to address a possible military imbalance over the Taiwan Strait, deputy secretary-general Tsai recounted. President Tsai in turn replied Taiwan would develop a comprehensive plan in accordance with strategic needs, short-term needs, and long-term plans, to create defence forces on the island that would have "reliable combat effectiveness". Tsai visited Hawaii at the weekend on her way to three of Taiwan's diplomatic allies in the Pacific, despite China, which considers Taiwan a wayward province, calling on the United States to stop the trip. Her trip comes about a week before U.S. President Donald Trump visits Asia. China has increased pressure on Taiwan since Tsai took office last year, suspecting she wants to push for formal independence. China has conducted more military drills around Taiwan and peeled away its few remaining diplomatic allies. Story continues Tsai described Taiwan-U.S. relations as being "unprecedentedly friendly" in comments released by Taiwan's presidential office on Monday. "We are happy to see U.S. promises of peace and stability for the Asia-Pacific region, and from meetings with the United States understand the necessity to increase investment in defence," it quoted her as saying. The United States and Taiwan have not had formal diplomatic relations since Washington established ties with Beijing in 1979, but the United States is bound by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself. Taiwan is well armed with mostly U.S.-made weapons but has been pushing for sales of more advanced equipment, such as fighter jets, to deal with what Taipei sees as a growing threat from China and its own rapidly modernising armed forces. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. It regularly calls Taiwan the most sensitive and important issue between it and the United States and has been upset by U.S. moves to expand military exchanges with Taiwan and continued U.S. arms sales to the island. Tsai's stopover in Hawaii included a tour of a Pearl Harbor memorial, a banquet with the overseas Taiwan community, and joint speeches with Moriarty, the chairman of the U.S. Mission in Taiwan, also known as the American Institute in Taiwan. It was her second U.S. visit this year. In January, Tsai stopped in Houston and San Francisco on her way to and from Latin America. Tsai moves on to visit the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands from Monday during a week-long trip and will stop over in the U.S. territory of Guam on her way back to Taiwan. (Reporting by Jess Macy Yu; Editing by Ben Blanchard and Michael Perry) By PTI: world: Tunisian foreign minister New Delhi, Oct 30 (PTI) India is a voice of "peace and stability" at a time when many parts of the world are experiencing uncertainty, Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui said today. Delivering the 25th Sapru House Lecture at the Indian Council of World Affairs here, Jhinaoui termed India a source of inspiration for many countries including Tunisia. advertisement "Besides being one of the fastest growing economies in the world, India today represents the voice of peace and stability in a time of uncertainty, a source of inspiration to many countries around the world including Tunisia," Jhinaoui said. He was speaking on the topic New Tunisia: An Emerging Democracy in an Age of Challenges and Global Threats. Jhinaoui denounced terrorism and called for cooperation among countries to fight the menace. Referring to the Arab Spring demonstrations in parts of North Africa and Middle East, which began in Tunisia in 2011, Jhinaoui said the western world could not quite comprehend its nuances. "Now it (Arab Spring) denotes some kind of wishful thinking, a representation of revolution at a time of monolithic perception of the Arab region as a whole that does not take the individual experience of many countries," he said. Tunisia, unlike a few other countries of the region which were thrown into tumult due to peoples uprisings, has made a peaceful transition into democracy. The Tunisian foreign minister described the relations between his country and India as "deep rooted and warm" and underlined convergences on issues including fight against terrorism and promotion of human rights among others. PTI VIT SBR GVS --- ENDS --- A report from the parliamentary National Audit Office into the WannaCry ransomware attack that brought down significant parts of Britains National Health Service in May 2017 has predictably been reported as blaming NHS trusts and smaller organisations within the care system for failing to ensure that appropriate computer security measures such as software updates and secure firewalls were in place. But the central NHS IT organisation, NHS Digital, provided security alerts and the correct patches that would have protected vulnerable systems well before WannaCry hit. This is not a cybersecurity failure in the practicalities, but a failure of cybersecurity management at the top level. Despite the extensive news coverage it received, WannaCry was a major wake-up call for the NHS rather than a downright disaster. It wasnt a sophisticated attack. But any attack based on an actual zero-day exploit a software flaw creating a security hole that is not yet known to the manufacturer or has not been made public, and so no defence or patch exists to prevent the attack succeeding - could hit the NHS much harder than WannaCry did. Given the lessons learned discussed in the NAO report, hopefully the NHS will be better prepared next time. And as there will definitely be a next time, the NHS had better have learned its lessons, because the implications of not doing so could be much greater. Failing to plan is planning to fail As it happened, much of the damage caused by WannaCry - including many of the more than 19,000 missed appointments did not relate directly to the attack. The NAO report makes it clear that the NHS as a whole lacked a proper response to a national cybersecurity incident. The business continuity plan had not been tested against such a serious attack. Although only a relatively small number of NHS organisations were actually infected by WannaCry, other parts of the NHS shut down their systems as a precaution to prevent WannaCry spreading until they were sure what to do. Email systems were switched off without first establishing alternatives, leading to improvisation by telephone and WhatsApp. Story continues More broadly, it has become clear that decentralisation has left NHS cybersecurity very exposed when under attack. NHS Digital provides alerts and patches, of course, but there appears to be no mechanism for anyone to check, let alone enforce, that they are implemented. In any case, security alerts run a risk of being drowned in the stream of cry wolf messages from the cybersecurity industry. The NHS trust boards take little ownership of cybersecurity matters, and are not being held accountable because the Care Quality Commission, the NHS regulator, has not included it in their inspections. The official reaction from NHS Digital to the report was brief no wonder, as it emerges from the affair having performed what was expected of it. NHS Digital offered on-site cybersecurity assessments at 88 NHS trusts in the years before the WannaCry incident, failing all of them. But without powers of enforcement, it was unable to press for the changes and preventative measures required to improve security. NHS Digitals own review of the WannaCry incident (as mentioned in the NAO report) had established that most trusts did not even think that cybersecurity was a risk to patient outcomes a naive and dangerous view in an organisation heavily dependent on integrated digital systems. No one left holding the reins The NAO report acknowledges that NHS trusts could not be blamed for some of the missing software updates. Some medical instruments such as MRI scanners are controlled by software written for old and unsupported versions of Windows, for example, or in some cases by companies that have since gone out of business. Decoupling these machines from the network would solve the most immediate cybersecurity problems, but at the expense of complicating their use and increasing the chance of human error. Neither the NAO nor NHS Digital appear to have a solution yet. For small NHS organisations, such as individual GP practices, there is likely to be an issue of resources. Who will have the time, and at what point in their already full working day, to ensure computers are updated? Should the many NHS receptionists wait for their Windows updates to complete at the start of their day, or help their patients? If the lack of resources doesnt already point at government underfunding of the NHS, the report certainly points to failures at the national level, to NHS England and the Department of Health. Provided with cybersecurity recommendations by both the National Data Guardian and the Care Quality Commission by July 2016, neither body responded until July 2017, months after WannaCry. The urgent need for effective, national-level cybersecurity incident planning in such a decentralised system as the NHS must be clear by now. The NHS was spared the full impact of a cyber-attack this time, mainly because the technical solution a kill-switch in the ransomware was quickly discovered by MalwareTech researcher Marcus Hutchins. Next time the NHS might not be so lucky, though new research has been commissioned to this end. Projects such as EPSRC EMPHASIS will look at not only the technical aspects of ransomware attacks, but also their economic, psychological and social aspects to obtain a more rounded understanding of Ransomware. Not only will this interdisciplinary approach increase our understanding of ransomware attacks, but it will also help us to quickly ascertain whether or not the attack is socially engineered triggered by users opening attachments or clicking on infected web sites or triggered through technological means such as by a worm, as was the case with WannaCry and not-Petya the latter seeking to disrupt and destructively wipe data without even attempting to extort money. Its also important to understand the new means of payments via cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, because ransomware is usually crime of extortion. With a better understanding of our attackers and their motivations we will be better placed to defend against them. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. The Conversation Eerke Boiten receives funding from EPSRC EP/P011772/1 EMPHASIS (EconoMical, PsycHologicAl and Societal Impact of RanSomware). David S. Wall receives funding from EPSRC EP/P011721/1 EMPHASIS (EconoMical, PsycHologicAl and Societal Impact of RanSomware) and he is a member of the RUSI SHOC (Strategic Hub on Organised Crime). ITM Power , an energy storage and clean fuel company, has been granted planning permission from South Buckinghamshire District Council to construct a hydrogen refuelling station at oil behemoth Royal Dutch Shell s filling station in Beaconsfield. This will be the first hydrogen refuelling station in the UK to be integrated into the existing fuel forecourt, with the hydrogen dispenser under the main fuel forecourt canopy. The station is also part of the Hydrogen Mobility Europe project, an initiative to introduce hydrogen fuelled transport, and the hydrogen refuelling station infrastructure grant scheme by the Office for Low Emission Vehicles. It is co-funded by Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking, an EU public-private partnership and the British government. The company was previously granted planning permission at the other Shell filling station at Gatwick, which together with motorway service areas at Shell filling stations off the M25 at Cobham and the A14 in Cambridge, it has four sites and agreements with the oil giant to build at three of these locations. Commissioning for the Cobham is currently underway following delivery of the electrolyser and buffer tank to the site earlier in the week, which will open in early 2017. Jane Lindsay-Green, Shell UK retail future fuels manager, said: "It is another example of Shell's commitment to providing low carbon fuels for the future and we hope will provide further encouragement to other stakeholders to support and invest in hydrogen. Shell's experience from partnerships in Germany and the US shows vehicle manufacturers, fuel suppliers and governments need to work together for hydrogen mobility to succeed." The company also announced that it had signed a sales contract with an engineering, procurement and construction firm to supply 1.25 megawatts of a 50-bar electrolyser unit, which will be used at an ethylene production plant. Shares in ITM Power were down 1.11% to 22.25p at 0846 GMT. EasyJet has swooped to acquire part of the collapsed Air Berlin's operations in Berlin for 40m and aims to hire around 1,000 pilots and cabin crew who are still employed by the German carrier. The British budget airline has agreed to acquire leases for up to 25 Airbus A320 aeroplanes and offer jobs to each plane's flying crews as well as taking over other assets including much-coveted runway slots at Berlin Tegel airport. The acquisition, which will top 40m when start-up and transitional costs are added in, will be subject to approval by regulators in Germany and is expected to close before the end of the year. EasyJet, which already flies to and from Tegel and Berlin Schonefeld said the acquisition will mean it operates the most short haul flights at Tegel and make it "the leading airline in Berlin". It added: "easyJet will make announcements on the new routes and services to be flown to and from Tegel in due course. easyJet will operate a reduced timetable at Tegel during the winter season but plans to operate a full schedule from the summer season 2018." New pilots and cabin crew hired as part of the new recruitment drive will be employed on local contracts under collective labour agreements negotiated with the Ver.di trade union. News Microsoft Updates Entity Framework, Even as EF Core Ascends Microsoft shipped a new runtime release of the nine-year-old Entity Framework object/relational mapper (O/RM) even as it cedes mindshare to the newer, lightweight, open source and cross-platform version, Entity Framework Core. While the Entity Framework 6.2 runtime has been released, associated tools for it weren't shipped but are on the way. Since the days of Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 in 2008, Entity Framework has served as the primary data-access technology for the .NET ecosystem. Still enjoying tremendous popularity, it was last year described by Microsoft as the most popular package listed by NuGet.org, overseer of the NugGet package manager. In fact, if you go to the Packages page of that site right now, it appears in the No. 3 slot (out of 95,345 packages), having been downloaded more than 35 million times. However, as Microsoft moves much of its developer tooling and associated frameworks to lighter, more accessible, cross-platform "x.Core" versions, the EF Core project (Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore 2.0 on NuGet; aspnet/EntityFrameworkCore on GitHub) is getting more attention. This younger cousin is a rewritten version of the traditional Entity Framework that supports the new .NET Standard 2.0 for consistent API usage across all .NET implementations. EF Core 2.0 -- while introducing many new improvements and features over EF 6 -- shows its immaturity in its lack of some other EF 6 capabilities that .NET programmers have long gotten used to. For example, while EF Core provides new features -- such as alternate keys and mixed client/database evaluation in LINQ queries -- that Microsoft said wouldn't be implemented in EF 6, it also lacks EF 6 features such as lazy loading, connection resiliency, server-side GroupBy query support and others. Some missing capabilities are targeted for future versions, such as the EF Core 2.1 release expected in the first quarter of next year. [Click on image for larger view.] New EF Core Features on the Way (source: Microsoft). Meanwhile, Microsoft continues to support the EF 6 project, just yesterday releasing the EF 6.2 runtime. "While most of the focus of the EF team is nowadays on adding new features and improvements to EF Core, we plan to keep fixing important bugs, implementing small improvements, and incorporating community contributions in the EF 6 codebase," said project chief Diego B Vega in a blog post. "To a great extent, it is thanks to the efforts [of] our community of open source contributors that EF 6.2 includes numerous bugs fixes and product enhancements." Vega said the most important changes, including bug fixes, are: Reduce start up time by loading finished code first models from a persistent cache #275 Fluent API to define indexes #274 DbFunctions.Like() to enable writing LINQ queries that translate to LIKE in SQL #241 Migrate.exe should support -script option #240 EF6 does not work with primary key from sequence #165 Update error numbers for SQL Azure Execution Strategy #83 Bug: Retrying queries or SQL commands fails with "The SqlParameter is already contained by another SqlParameterCollection" #81 Bug: Evaluation of DbQuery.ToString() frequently times out in the debugger #73 One of those community contributors thanked by Vega is Erik Ejlskov Jensen, who Vega said has taken over the EF Power Tools project with a "Community Edition" fork. EF Tools provide design-time utilities for EF 6 that can be invoked via the Visual Studio Solution Explorer context menu -- for example, by right-clicking in code files to view an underlying Entity Data Model, generate views and so on. The GitHub project for the new community EF 6 Power Tools shows 36 stars and 49 contributors. Speaking of tools, Vega said that while the EF 6.2 runtime packages have been released, the associated tools aren't quite ready for prime time, needing work to address outstanding issues. The tools will be provided automatically in a future Visual Studio 2017 upgrade and will be available via downloadable installers for previous versions of Visual Studio. Along with the upcoming EF 6.2 tools, Vega said other future work involves porting the EF 6 documentation to the Microsoft Docs platform and improving support for NuGet's PackageReference. Meanwhile, work is continuing on EF Core. Vega has published a roadmap of the project and has shed light on the project's Release Planning Process. Until the EF Core project gets features such as lazy loading and GroupBy in v2.1 early next year, however, many developers will stay clear. Virginia Tech cadets will learn valuable lessons on leadership and bravery when Congressional Medal of Honor recipient Clinton L. Romesha visits campus on Nov. 16. Romesha, a former U.S. Army staff sergeant, received the Medal of Honor for his actions on Oct. 3, 2009, during a deadly attack on Combat Outpost Keating in Afghanistan. He is one of only 18 to receive the countrys highest award for valor for heroism displayed while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. He will speak at 3:30 p.m., Nov. 16, in Burruss Auditorim, 800 Drillfield Drive, on Virginia Techs Blacksburg campus. The event is free and open to the public and sponsored by the Corps of Cadets Rice Center for Leader Development as part of the Cutchins Leadership Lecture Series. During his motivational talks, Romesha reminds audiences of the power ordinary people have for extraordinary bravery and remains deeply committed to telling the stories of the soldiers who served with him, both living and gone. Copies of Romeshas 2016 memoir, Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor, will be available for purchase at the event through the University Bookstores. We are extremely lucky to have the opportunity to hear from a true American hero and Medal of Honor recipient Staff Sgt. Romesha. His actions on Oct. 3, 2009, are nothing short of extraordinary, said Cadet Daniel Steiner, a senior in Army ROTC from Palmyra, Pennsylvania, who is majoring in political science in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. He is a living example of the Warrior Ethos and embodies some of the characteristics that we at Virginia Tech hold dearly, Steiner said. One of the things that makes our Army and our military so great is that we foster an environment that, when in the absence of orders, our lowest levels of leadership are empowered to exercise disciplined initiative. Staff Sgt. Romesha went above and beyond his duty and was willing to sacrifice his own life for his brothers in arms. He is the definition of our school motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve.)" Romesha enlisted in the Army in 1999. He deployed twice to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and once to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. At the time of the attack, he was assigned as a section leader for Bravo Troop, 361st Cavalry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division. Romesha took quick and selfless action while under aggressive fire from the Taliban. Despite shrapnel wounds to his neck, shoulders, and arms, he carried out a counterattack that not only eliminated Taliban machine guns, but also allowed wounded soldiers to be taken to an aid station. In 2013, he was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Barack Obama. That same year, he was inducted into the Pentagons Hall of Heroes. Romesha separated from the Army in 2011. He lives with his family in North Dakota. If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Nicole Ward at 540-231-6413 or email corpsofcadets@vt.edu during regular business hours at least 10 business days prior to the event. For more information on this speaker, please visit www.prhspeakers.com. Virginia Tech President Tim Sands has named Cyril Clarke to be interim executive vice president and provost effective Nov. 1. Thanassis Rikakis will step down from his position as executive vice president and provost and will assist Clarke in this transition before becoming the Presidential Fellow for Academic Innovation to continue his research on innovation in academe. Virginia Tech has come to a pivotal moment in its history, said Sands. To continue our momentum, we must do the hard work and have the tough conversations necessary to make the aspirations of Beyond Boundaries a reality. Thanassis provided tremendous insight and energy that propelled us to the completion of the visioning phase and the development of the first academic initiatives under Beyond Boundaries. Thanassis suggested and I agreed that now is the time to make a change in leadership as we transition fully to planning and implementation. His role was essential to this process and I am deeply grateful for his many contributions to Virginia Tech. Over the past three years, the Virginia Tech community and our partners have developed a bold vision for what Virginia Tech could become a generation from now. Beyond Boundaries envisions Virginia Tech as a leading global university, deeply engaged with our partners in the spirit of the land-grant university to address the greatest challenges of the commonwealth, the nation, and the world, Sands said. As we move forward from completing the visioning stage to planning and implementation, we will engage our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and partners to build upon the initiatives now underway. In Cyril, we have a dedicated and inspirational leader one with broad knowledge of Virginia Tech. Not only is he deeply committed to our shared vision, but he also has a unique understanding of the environment and culture we must navigate. Sands further expressed his gratitude for the transformative work accomplished by Rikakis. Thanassis prepared this university to evolve in order to remain at the forefront of higher education. Thanassis impressed upon us that Virginia Tech has to embrace a much more collaborative, transdisciplinary approach in its teaching and research, and to make strategic investments to support these changes. He saw how Virginia Tech could do this by leading the development of our Destination Areas and Strategic Growth Areas. He has championed and encouraged innovation and collaboration through the adoption of incentive-based budgeting and faculty cluster hiring, said Sands. And he was instrumental in transformational initiatives, including the Honors College, the Virginia Tech-Carilion Health Sciences and Technology Campus in Roanoke, and our growing presence in the National Capital Region. Clarke, who has served as the dean of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech since 2013, has led the college to achieve several recent successes. The college plans to launch its first undergraduate degree program in public health in 2018. Together with the already successful master of public health degree program, the undergraduate program will be an integral component of the colleges One Health initiative, which recognizes the close linkages between animal health, human health, and the environment. This commitment to One Health is reflected also in the colleges engagement with the developing health sciences and technology program in Roanoke, in partnership with Carilion Clinic. As a member of this community the past four years, I can see that Virginia Tech is uniquely situated to move forward boldly in ways that will shape higher education and advance our university to even greater heights, said Clarke. To be relevant in a rapidly changing world, faculty and students must work together across disciplines to solve pressing issues. Our approach to developing Destination Areas and Strategic Growth Areas our areas of transdisciplinary excellence is our path forward. This is an exciting opportunity and challenge for me and our university. In 2017, more than 1,600 prospective students applied to enter the colleges doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM) program in the fall, representing the second largest applicant pool in North America for the third year in a row. The recently revised DVM curriculum is amongst the most innovative in the world, emphasizing integration of courses, team-based learning, and hands-on experience gained in teaching hospitals in Blacksburg and Leesburg. Rikakis became executive vice president and provost at the start of the 2015-16 academic year after serving as vice provost for design, arts, and technology at Carnegie Mellon University. In addition to launching his innovative Beyond Boundaries initiatives during his time as provost, he hired deans in the colleges of science, engineering, liberal arts and human sciences, and architecture and urban studies. I have enjoyed being part of the Beyond Boundaries process, leading the implementation of key operational components, including the Destination Areas, the Partnership for an Incentive-Based Budget, VT-shaped learning, and contributing to expansive initiatives like the Honors College and the Health Sciences and Technology Campus in Roanoke, said Rikakis. Virginia Tech is poised for great success in the future, and I am grateful for the opportunity to have helped its growth and development. Rikakis will continue his joint faculty appointment as a tenured professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics in the College of Engineering and as a professor of music in the School of Performing Arts in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. In his faculty role, Rikakis plans to further his research and understanding of organizational change in higher education, looking specifically at concepts related to the Destination Areas and the Partnership for an Incentive-Based Budget and continue his long standing research in interactive neurorehabilitation. Virginia Tech will launch an international search for a new executive vice president and provost next spring. Updates on the search will be reported through Virginia Tech News. Gregory Daniel, professor and head of the Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, will serve as interim dean of the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine when Clarke becomes interim executive vice president and provost Nov. 1. Senior officials speaking to India Today said that the focus would be to give the right impetus to "economic" and "commercial" cooperation as Italy is one of the most important members of the European Union (EU). By Geeta Mohan: India, Italy ties to get a new and real boost with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni visit to New Delhi, the first by an Italian premier in 10 years. Senior officials speaking to India Today said that the focus would be to give the right impetus to "economic" and "commercial" cooperation as Italy is one of the most important members of the European Union (EU) with "the third largest presence of Indian community (estimated at 180,000) after the UK and the Netherlands", according to a statement issued by Ministry of External Affairs. advertisement "Coming after a gap of more than a decade, the visit is aimed at strengthening bilateral, political and economic relations between the two countries," the statement said ahead of Gentiloni's visit. Romano Prodi was the last Italian Prime Minister to visit India in February 2007. Prime Minister Gentiloni will be accompanied by his wife and a 15-member Italian CEOs delegation. Italy is India's 5th largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade of $8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. The biggest point of contention between India and Italy was the 2012 case of firing by the two Italian marines, Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone, from MV Enrica Lexie, that led to the killing of two Indian fishermen from the state of Kerala. Ever since then, ties between the two nations have come to a near halt leading to impacting India's dealings with the EU. The case now is at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Seas (ITLOS) at The Hague even as India allowed the marine Latorre to return to Italy in 2014 on health grounds and later in 2016 marine Girone too was sent back. WHAT IS ON THE TABLE When asked if this issue would come up during talks, a senior official from Italy said, "It is up to the leadership to decide what they want to discuss", while a senior official from India said, "There is a realisation that there were missed opportunities and the relationship should not be held hostage to one issue or the other. There is a strong desire on the part of the govt. that this is an issue that needs to be resolved. But can be dealt with separately." The other issue that could be part of the discussions is the Agustawestland chopper scam. While there is no confirmation if this would come up, India Today has learnt that both sides will 'compartmentalise' sticking issues between the two nations to ensure progress is made on substantive aspects of the ties. India, Italy will try to make up for the "missed opportunities". The focus would be to tap into Italy's expertise in the renewable energy, railways sector for modernisation of Indian Railways as also to cooperate on food processing to reduce wastage of food in India. Italy would also participate in the 'World Food India Expo 2017' to be held in India. There is a lot expected in cooperation in the defence sector as well. advertisement India-EU Broad Based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) could also witness some forward movement. During the Indo-EU Summit of October 6, 2017 there was and understanding that Indian and EU Leadership had "expressed their shared commitment to strengthening the Economic Partnership between India and the EU and noted the ongoing efforts of both sides to re-engage actively towards timely relaunching negotiations for a comprehensive and mutually beneficial India-EU Broad Based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA)." Finally, Italy today is faced with terrorism and security issues in Europe and hence there will be huge focus on cooperation in the fight against terrorism. India Today has learnt that Italy will back the India-EU joint statement on Counter-Terrorism that named Pakistan-based terrorist organisations and the need to combat these elements. "The leaders agreed to strengthen cooperation to take decisive and concerted actions against globally proscribed terrorists and terror entities, including Hafeez Saeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, Dawood Ibrahim, Lashkar-e-Tayibba, Jaish-e- Mohammad, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Haqqani Network, Al Qaeda, ISIS (Da'esh) and their affiliates", the Indo-EU joint statement said. A reaffirmation that, terrorism cannot and should not be associated with any religion, nationality, civilization or ethnic group and agree to enhance their cooperation in combating radicalization and violent extremism. --- ENDS --- advertisement The Travelers Companies, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a range of commercial and personal property, and casualty insurance products and services to businesses, government units, associations, and individuals in the United states and internationally. The company operates through three segments: Business Insurance, Bond & Specialty Insurance, and Personal Insurance. The Business Insurance segment offers workers' compensation, commercial automobile and property, general liability, commercial multi-peril, employers' liability, public and product liability, professional indemnity, marine, aviation, onshore and offshore energy, construction, terrorism, personal accident, and kidnap and ransom insurance products. This segment operates through select accounts, which serve small businesses; commercial accounts that serve mid-sized businesses; national accounts, which serve large companies; and national property and other that serve large and mid-sized customers, commercial trucking industry, and agricultural businesses, as well as markets and distributes its products through brokers, wholesale agents, and program managers. The Bond & Specialty Insurance segment provides surety, fidelity, management and professional liability, and other property and casualty coverages and related risk management services through independent agencies and brokers. The Personal Insurance segment offers property and casualty insurance covering personal risks, primarily automobile and homeowners insurance to individuals through independent agencies and brokers. The Travelers Companies, Inc. was founded in 1853 and is based in New York, New York. By India Today Web Desk: Sonakshi Sinha and Sidharth Malhotra-starrer Ittefaq is yet to hit the screens, but the trailer was enough to tease Telugu producers to consider it for a remake. If a report in DNA is to be believed, producers from South have shown keenness to make the film in Telugu. A source was quoted as telling the daily, "Abhay Chopra and Juno Chopra have been approached by a few South makers to sell the rights of their film. They want to remake the film in Telugu. Abhay and Juno have had several discussions and are also keen to give the producers the right to remake." advertisement While Karan Johar's film is an adaptation of the 1969 film starring Rajesh Khanna and Nanda, the Telugu producers want the rights to the new version of the film. The basic premise of Ittefaq remains the same but the new film has a twist. "Abhay and Juno won't be making the film down South. Filmmakers from South have loved the promos and shown interest in the modern, more contemporary storyline," added the source. And buzz has it that the makers have offered a good price for the rights. Ittefaq is set to hit the screens on November 3. ALSO WATCH: Sidharth-Sonakshi's Ittefaq trailer out, Hrithik breaks silence on Kangana --- ENDS --- Genesee & Wyoming Inc. owns and leases freight railroads. It operates through three segments: North American Operations, Australian Operations, and U.K./European Operations. The company transports various commodities, including agricultural products, autos and auto parts, chemicals and plastics, coal and coke, food and kindred products, lumber and forest products, metallic ores, metals, minerals and stone, petroleum products, pulp and paper, waste, and other commodities. It owns or leases 122 freight railroads, including 105 short line railroads and 2 regional freight railroads located in the United States, 8 short line railroads located in Canada, 3 railroads located in Australia, 1 railroad located in the United Kingdom, 1 railroad in Poland and Germany, and 2 railroads in the Netherlands with a total of approximately 16,200 miles of track. The company also operates 6,200 additional miles of track that is owned or leased by others. In addition, it operates deep sea maritime containers and provides bulk haulage, including coal, aggregates, cement, and infrastructure services. Further, the company provides rail service at approximately 40 ports; rail-ferry service in North America, Australia, and Europe; and contract coal loading and railcar switching for industrial customers. Genesee & Wyoming Inc. was founded in 1899 and is headquartered in Darien, Connecticut. The following companies are subsidiares of UnitedHealth Group: 1070715 B.C. Unlimited Liability Company, 1st Avenue Pharmacy Inc., 310 Canyon Medical LLC, 4C MSO LLC, 4C Medical Group PLC, 5995 Minnetonka LLC, ABCO International Holdings LLC, ACN Group IPA of New York Inc., ACN Group of California Inc., AHN Accountable Care Organization LLC, AHN Central Services LLC, AHN Target Holdings LLC, AMIL International S.a.r.l., APS Assistencia Personalizada a Saude Ltda., ASC Holdings of New Jersey LLC, ASC Network LLC, ASC Operators-East Bay LLC, ASC Operators-San Francisco LLC, ASC Operators-San Luis Obispo LLC, ASC Operators-Santa Rosa LLC, ASC Operators-South Bay LLC, ASV-HOPCo-SCA Cornerstone LLC, ASV-HOPCo-SCA Florida LLC, AbleTo Behavioral Health Services P.C., AbleTo Inc., Accurate Rx Pharmacy Consulting LLC, Administradora Clinica La Colina S.A.S., Administradora Country S.A.S., Administradora Medica Centromed S.A., Advanced Surgery Center of Clifton LLC, Advanced Surgical Center LLC, Advanced Surgical Hospital LLC, Advocate Condell Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Advocate Southwest Ambulatory Surgery Center L.L.C., Advocate-SCA Partners LLC, Aliansalud Entidad Promotora de Salud S.A., All Savers Insurance Company, All Savers Life Insurance Company of California, Alliance Surgical Center LLC, Allina Health Heart and Vascular Surgery Center LLC, Allina Health Surgery Center-Brooklyn Park LLC, Aloha Surgical Center LLC, Ambient Healthcare Inc., Ambient Holdings Inc., AmeriChoice, AmeriChoice Corporation, AmeriChoice of New Jersey Inc., American Health Network of Indiana Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Indiana II LLC, American Health Network of Indiana LLC, American Health Network of Kentucky LLC, American Health Network of Ohio Care Organization LLC, American Health Network of Ohio II LLC, American Health Network of Ohio LLC, American Physicians Inc., Amico Saude Ltda., Amil, Amil Assistencia Medica Internacional S.A., Angiografia e Hemodinamica Madre Theodora Ltda., Anne Arundel-SCA Holdings LLC, Anne Arundel-SCA Surgicenter LLC, Antelope Valley Surgery Center L.P., Analisis Clinicos ML S.A.C., Apothecary Holdings Inc., AppleCare Medical Management LLC, Aquitania Chilean Holding SpA, Arcadia JV Holdings LLC, Arcadia Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., ArchWell Health LLC, ArchWell Health MSO LLC, ArchWell Health Professional Services Holding Co., ArchWell Health Professional Services of Alabama LLC, ArchWell Health Professional Services of North Carolina P.C., ArchWell Health Professional Services of Oklahoma LLC, Archwell Health Professional Services of Arizona LLC, Archwell Health Professional Services of Nebraska LLC, Arise Physician Group, Arizona Physicians IPA Inc., Arlington Surgery Center LLC, Aspectus Inc., Associacao Lusiadas Knowledge Center Health Education and Research, Audax Health Solutions LLC, Aurora Hospitalist P.C., Austin Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., Avella Specialty Pharmacy, Aventura Medical Tower Surgery Center LLC, Avery Parent Holdings Inc., Aveta Inc., AxelaCare Intermediate Holdings LLC, AxelaCare LLC, B.R.A.S.S. Partnership in Commendam, BOSC Holdings LLC, BSC Holdings LLC, Ball Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Banmedica Colombia S.A.S., Banmedica Internacional SpA, Banmedica S.A., Barranca Surgery Center LLC, Beach Surgical Holdings II LLC, Beach Surgical Holdings III LLC, Beach Surgical Holdings LLC, Beaver Medical Group P.C., Bedford Physicians Risk Retention Group Inc., Behavioral Healthcare Options Inc., Beltway Surgery Centers L.L.C., Benefit Administration for the Self Employed L.L.C., Benefitter Insurance Solutions Inc., Bergan Mercy Surgery Center LLC, Bergen-Passaic Cataract Laser and Surgery Center LLC, Bessler MD PLLC, Bind Benefits Inc., Bind LH Holdings Inc., Bind Re Inc., Birmingham Outpatient Surgery Center Ltd., Birmingham Outpatient Surgical Center LLC, Bloomfield ASC LLC, Blue Ridge Day Surgery Center L.P., Blue Ridge GP LLC, Blue Ridge Properties LLC, Boca Raton Outpatient Surgery & Laser Center LTD., Bordeaux Barbados Holdings I SRL, Bordeaux Barbados Holdings II SRL, Bordeaux Barbados Holdings III S.r.l., Bordeaux Holding SpA, Bordeaux International Holdings Inc., Bordeaux UK Holdings I Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings II Limited, Bordeaux UK Holdings III Limited, Bosque Medical Center Ltda., Brandon Ambulatory Surgery Center LC, BriovaRx Infusion Services 102 LLC, BriovaRx of Florida Inc., BriovaRx of Maine Inc., BriovaRx of Massachusetts LLC, CCEC Anesthesia Management LLC, CDC Holdings Colombia S.A.S., CLISA Clinica de Santo Antonio S.A., CMO Centro Medico de Oftalmologia S/S Ltda., CMS Central de Manipulacao e Servicos Farmaceuticos Ltda., COI Clinicas Oncologicas Integradas S.A., Cabin Enterprises LLC, Cabin Holdings LLC, California Medical Group Insurance Company Risk Retention Group, Camp Hill Ambulatory Centers, Camp Hill-SCA Centers LLC, Capital City Medical Group L.L.C., Cardinal Holding Company LLC, Care Improvement Plus Group Management LLC, Care Improvement Plus South Central Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus Wisconsin Insurance Company, Care Improvement Plus of Texas Insurance Company, Care Logistics LLC, CareMount Dental Member LLC, CareMount Health Solutions ACO LLC, CareMount Health Solutions Employer LLC, CareMount Health Solutions LLC, CareMount Holding LLC, CareMount Medical Foundation Inc., CareMount Value Partners IPA LLC, Carr PLLC, Casa de Saude Santa Therezinha Ltda., Castle Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, Castle Rock SurgiCenter LLC, Catalyst360 LLC, Catamaran 2 Unlimited Company, Catamaran Finance Ireland Unlimited Company, Catamaran S.a.r.l., Cedar Park JV Partners LLC, Cedar Park Surgery Center LLC, Cemed Care Empresa de Atendimento Clinico Geral Ltda., Center for Quality Improvement LLC, Center for Restorative Surgery at Maple Grove LLC, Center for Surgery of North Coast L.P., Central Indiana Care Organization LLC, Central Ohio Care Organization LLC, CentriHealth Corporation, CentrifyHealth LLC, Centro Medico Hospitalar Pitangueiras Ltda., Centro Odontologico Americano S.A.C., Centro de Entrenamiento Capacitacion en Reanimacion y Prevencion Limitada, Centro de Servicios Compartidos Banmedica SpA, Centromed Quilpue S.A., Centros Medicos y Dentales Multimed Ltda., Centura-SCA Holdings LLC, Centurion Casualty Company, Channel Islands Surgicenter L.P., Channel Islands Surgicenter Properties LLC, Charleston Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Charleston Surgery Properties LLC, Charlotte Surgery Center LLC, Charlotte Surgery Properties LTD., Charlotte-SC LLC, Chatham Orthopaedic ASC LLC, Childrens Surgery Center LLC, Citrus Regional Surgery Center L.P., Claims Management Systems Inc., Cleburne Surgical Center LLC, Clinical Partners of Colorado Springs LLC, Clinton Partners LLC, Clinica Alameda SpA, Clinica Bio Bio SpA, Clinica Ciudad del Mar S.A., Clinica Davila y Servicios Medicos S.p.A., Clinica Iquique S.A., Clinica Medico Cirurgica de Santa Tecla S.A., Clinica Portoazul S.A., Clinica San Felipe S.A., Clinica Santa Maria S.p.A., Clinica Sanchez Ferrer S.A., Clinica Vespucio S.A., Clinica del Country S.A.S., Coachella Valley Physicians of PrimeCare Inc., Coalition for Advanced Pharmacy Services Inc., Cobranzas Banmedica SpA, Cogent Healthcare IPA of New York Inc., Cogent Healthcare Inc., Cogent Healthcare Management of New York Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Arizona P.C., Cogent Healthcare of California Prof. Corp., Cogent Healthcare of Georgia P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Illinois LLC, Cogent Healthcare of Iowa P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Jackson MS LLC, Cogent Healthcare of Jacksonville LLC, Cogent Healthcare of Mississippi Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Missouri Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Montana P.C., Cogent Healthcare of New Jersey P.C., Cogent Healthcare of North Carolina P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Oregon P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Pensacola L.L.C., Cogent Healthcare of Tennessee P.C., Cogent Healthcare of Virginia Inc., Cogent Healthcare of Washington P.C., Cogent Medical Care P.C., Cogent Patient Safety Organization Inc., Cogent/Endion Medical Care of New York P.C., Collaborative Care Holdings LLC, Collaborative Care Services Inc., Collaborative Realty LLC, Colmedica Medicina Prepagada S.A., Colonial Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Colorado Innovative Physician Solutions Inc., Colorado Springs Surgery Center Ltd., Comfort Care Transportation LLC, Comprehensive Hospital Physicians of Florida Inc., ConnectYourCare Inc., ConnectYourCare LLC, Connecticut Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Connecticut Surgery Properties LLC, Connecticut Surgical Center LLC, Consorcio Regenero S.A., Constructora Inmobiliaria Magapoq S.A., Consumer Wellness Solutions Inc., Continuum Physicians Group Inc., Continuum Physicians Group of Washington PLLC, Cornell Surgicenter LLC, Cornerstone Surgery Center LLC, Cornerstone Surgicare LLC, Corpus Christi Endoscopy Center L.L.P., Country Scan Ltda., Critical Care Physician of New York P.C., Critical Care Physicians of Illinois LLC, Critical Care Physicians of New Jersey PC, Critical Care Physicians of Pennsylvania P.C., Cross Timbers Surgery Center LLC, Cypress Care Inc., DBP Services of New York IPA Inc., DSP Flint Real Estate LLC, DSP-Building C LLC, DTC Surgery Center LLC, DWIC of Tampa Bay Inc., Dallas Inpatient Specialist PLLC, Danbury Surgical Center L.P., Day-Op Surgery Consulting Company LLC, Definity Health, Dental Benefit Providers Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of California Inc., Dental Benefit Providers of Illinois Inc., Denton Endoscopy Surgery Center LLC, Denton Surgery Center LLC, Derry Surgical Center LLC, Diagnostico Ecotomografico Centromed Ltda., Diasnostico por Imagenes Centromed Ltda., Digestive Disease Center L.P., Dilab Medicina Nuclear Ltda., Diplomat Blocker LLC, Diplomat Corporate Properties LLC, Diplomat Pharmacy, Diplomat Pharmacy Inc., Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy Great Lakes Distribution Center LLC, Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy of Chicago LLC, Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy of Ft. Lauderdale LLC, Diplomat Specialty Pharmacy of Los Angeles County LLC, Distance Learning Network Inc., Divisadero Holdings LLC, DocASAP Inc., DocASAP India Technologies Private Limited, DocASAP US LLC, Doctor + S.A.C., Dry Creek Surgery Center LLC, Dublin Surgery Center LLC, Duluth Surgical Suites LLC, Durable Medical Equipment Inc., E Street Endoscopy LLC, EM Orange Tree LLC, EP Campus I LLC, EPIC Health Plan, EPIC Management Services LLC, East Bay Endoscopy Center L.P., East Brunswick Surgery Center LLC, Echo Locum Tenens Inc., Electronic Network Systems Inc., Elual Participacoes S.A., Emerald Coast Surgery Center L.P., Emisar Pharma Services LLC, Emmaus Holdings LLC, Emmaus Surgical Center LLC, Empire Physician Management Company LLC, Empremedica S. A., Endion Hospitalist North P.C., Endion Hospitalist of Western New York P.C., Endion Medical Healthcare P.C., Endion Medical Services P.C., Endoscopy Center Affiliates Inc., Enterprise Life Insurance Company, Equian, Equian LLC, Equian Parent Corp., Esho Empresa de Servicos Hospitalares S.A., Everett MSO Inc., Excelsior Insurance Brokerage Inc., Executive Health Resources Inc., Executive Surgery Center L.L.C., Eye Clinic Oftalmologia Clinico Cirurgica e Diagnostico Ltda., Eye Specialists Surgery Centers LLC, FMG Holdings LLC, Family Health Care Services, Family Home Hospice Inc., Ferrell Physician Services P.C., Fideicomiso Clinica Barranquilla Portoazul FA-517, First Coast Orthopedic Center LLC, First Family Insurance LLC, Florence Surgery Center L.P., For Health Inc., For Health of Arizona Inc., Fort Sutter Medical Building a California Limited Partnership, Fort Worth Endoscopy Centers LLC, Fortified Provider Network Inc., Foundation Surgery Affiliate General of Huntingdon Valley LLC, Foundation Surgery Affiliate of Huntingdon Valley L.P., Franklin Surgical Center LLC, Freedom Life Insurance Company of America, Freeway Surgicenter of Houston LLC, Frontier Medex Tanzania Limited, FrontierMEDEX Inc., FrontierMEDEX Kenya Limited, FrontierMEDEX US Inc., Fundacion Banmedica, GLBESC LLC, GRANTS PASS SURGERY CENTER LLC, Gadsden Surgery Center LLC, Gainesville Surgery Center L.P., Gainesville Surgery Properties LLC, Genoa, Genoa Healthcare Inc., Genoa QoL Wholesale LLC, Genoa Technology Canada Inc., Genoa Technology Inc., Genoa Telepsychiatry Inc., Genoa of Arkansas LLC, Gladiolus Surgery Center L.L.C., Glenwood Surgical Center L.P., Glenwood-SC Inc., Global One Ventures LLC, Golden Gate Endoscopy Center LLC, Golden Outlook Inc., Golden Rule Financial Corporation, Golden Rule Insurance Company, Golden Triangle Surgicenter L.P., Grandview Surgery Center LTD., Greater New Haven ASC LLC, Greensboro Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Greenville Surgery Center LLC, Greenway Surgical Suites LLC, Grossmont Surgery Center L.P., Grove Place Surgery Center L.L.C., H&W Indemnity SPC Ltd., H.I. Investments Holding Company LLC, HCP ACO California LLC, HCentive Technology India Private Limited, HFHS-SCA Holdings LLC, HMG Holding Corporation, HMG Holdings LLC, HMP of Baltimore USH P.C., Harken Health Insurance Company, Harrison Endo Surgical Center LLC, Hawthorn Place Outpatient Surgery Center L.P., Hays JV Partners LLC, Hays Surgery Center LLC, Health Care-ONE Insurance Agency Inc., Health Inventures Employment Solutions LLC, Health Inventures LLC, Health Plan of Nevada Inc., HealthCare Partners ASC-LB LLC, HealthCare Partners Affiliates Medical Group, HealthCare Partners Management Services California LLC, HealthCare Partners RE LLC, HealthEast Surgery Center-Maplewood LLC, HealthFirst IPA Inc., HealthMarkets Group Inc., HealthMarkets Inc., HealthMarkets Insurance Agency Inc., HealthMarkets LLC, HealthMarkets Services Inc., HealthSCOPE Holdings Inc., HealthScope Benefits Inc., Healthcare Solutions Inc., Healthplex America LLC, Healthplex Dental Services Inc., Healthplex I.P.A. Inc., Healthplex Inc., Healthplex Insurance Company, Healthplex of CT Inc., Healthplex of DC Inc., Healthplex of MD Inc., Healthplex of ME Inc., Healthplex of NC Inc., Healthplex of NJ Inc., Healthplex of TX Inc., Heartland Heart and Vascular LLC, Help Seguros de Vida S.A., Help Service S.A., Help SpA, Hemonefro Hemodialise e Nefrologia Ltda, Highlands Ranch Healthcare LLC, Home Medical S.A., Honodav SpA, Hospice Inspiris Holdings Inc., Hospitais Associados de Pernambuco Ltda., Hospital Alvorada Taguatinga Ltda., Hospital Ana Costa S.A., Hospital Santa Helena S.A., Hospital de Clinicas de Jacarepagua Ltda., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of Broome County PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Binghamton P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Buffalo P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Newburgh P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Nyack P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physician of New York - Patchogue P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Alabama TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Alabama TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Alaska TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Alaska TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Goodyear Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Nogales Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Phoenix II Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Phoenix Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Sierra Vista Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Tucson II Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona - Tucson Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arizona TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arkansas TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Arkansas TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Buncombe County PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Apple Valley PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Bakersfield PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Camarillo PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Crescent City PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Fairfield PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Fremont PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Grass Valley PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Jackson PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Oceanside PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Oxnard PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Salinas PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - San Bernardino II PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - San Bernardino PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - San Leandro PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Sonoma PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Stockton II PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Stockton PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Thousand Oaks PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California - Vacaville PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of California TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Colorado - Brighton PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Colorado - Denver PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Colorado TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Colorado TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut - Manchester LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut - Rockville LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut - Wallingford LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Connecticut TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of DC PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of DC TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of DC TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Delaware TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Delaware TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida - Ft. Lauderdale LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida - Jacksonville II LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida - Jacksonville LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida - Palm Coast LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Florida TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Fredericksburg LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia - Atlanta PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia - East Point PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia - Lavonia PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia - Savannah PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Georgia TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Hawaii - Kealakekua Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Hawaii TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Hawaii TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Idaho - Nampa PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Idaho TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Idaho TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois - Downers Grove LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois - Elmhurst LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois - Rockford LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois - Winfield LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Illinois TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana - Clinton LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana - Mishawaka LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana - Terre Haute LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Indiana TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa - Cedar Rapids PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa - Mason City PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Iowa TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Kansas - Topeka LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Kansas - Wichita II LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Kansas - Wichita LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Kansas TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Kansas TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Louisiana - Alexandria Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Louisiana - Bossier City Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Louisiana - Lake Charles Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Louisiana - Shreveport Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Louisiana TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Louisiana TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maine - Bangor PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maine - Lewiston PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maine TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maine TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland - Cheverly PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland - Cumberland PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland - Frederick PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland - Laurel PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland - Rockville PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Maryland TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Brockton PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Dorchester PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Framingham PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Holyoke PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Natick PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Norwood PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Springfield PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Stoughton PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Taunton PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts - Worcester PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Massachusetts TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Alpena PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Dowagiac PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Escanaba PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Grand Blanc PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Grayling PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Kalamazoo PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Plainwell PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Port Huron PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Saginaw PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan - Tawas City PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Michigan TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Minnesota TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Minnesota TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Mississippi LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Mississippi TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Mississippi TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Missouri - Bridgeton Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Missouri - Richmond Heights Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Missouri TCG Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Missouri TCS Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana - Billings PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana - Butte PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana - Miles City PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana - Missoula PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Montana TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Multiple Practice Sites LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nebraska TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nebraska TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada - Henderson Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada - Henderson II Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada - Las Vegas Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada - Las Vegas II Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada TCG Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Nevada TCS Bessler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Hampshire TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Hampshire TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Jersey - Hackensack PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Jersey - Paterson PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Jersey - TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Jersey TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Mexico - Clovis LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Mexico - Rio Rancho LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Mexico - TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New Mexico - TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of New York PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina - Burlington PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina - Clyde PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina - Elizabeth City PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina - Jacksonville PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina - New Bern PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina - Rocky Mount PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Carolina TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Dakota TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of North Dakota TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Akron Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Batavia Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Canton Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Cincinnati II Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Cincinnati III Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Cincinnati Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Circleville Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Columbus II Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Columbus Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Dover Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - East Liverpool Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Fairfield Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Martins Ferry Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Westerville Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio - Youngstown Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio TCG Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Ohio TCS Professional Corporation, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Oklahoma - Oklahoma City LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Oklahoma TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Oklahoma TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Oregon - Portland PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Oregon TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Oregon TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Pennsylvania P.C., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Pennsylvania TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Pennsylvania TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Rhode Island TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Rhode Island TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Richland County Ltd., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of San Luis Obispo County Inc., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of South Carolina - Aiken LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of South Carolina - Rock Hill LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of South Carolina TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of South Carolina TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of South Dakota TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of South Dakota TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Tennessee Columbia PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Tennessee Franklin PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Tennessee TCG PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Tennessee TCS PC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Amarillo PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Atlanta PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Austin II PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Austin PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Bryan PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Burnet PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Corpus Christi II PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Corpus Christi PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Cypress PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Dallas PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - El Paso II PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - El Paso III PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - El Paso PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Fort Worth II PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Fort Worth PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Fredericksburg PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Houston PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Humble PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Kerrville PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Kyle PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Livingston PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Lubbock PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Lufkin PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Mount Pleasant PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Plainview PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Rockwall PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Round Rock PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio II PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio III PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio IV PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio V PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio VI PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Antonio VII PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - San Marcos PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Texarkana PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas - Tyler PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Texas TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Utah TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Utah TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Vermont TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Vermont TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Alexandria LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Front Royal II LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Front Royal LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Mechanicsville LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Midlothian LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Richmond II LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Richmond LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia - Winchester LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Virginia TCS LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Arlington PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Auburn PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Bellingham PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Bremerton PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Burien PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Coupeville PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Enumclaw PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Federal Way PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Gig Harbor PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Lakewood PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Mount Vernon PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Puyallup PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Tacoma II PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Tacoma III PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Tacoma PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington - Vancouver PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington County LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Washington TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of West Virginia PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of West Virginia Martinsburg PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of West Virginia South Charleston PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of West Virginia TCG PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of West Virginia TCS PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of West Virginia Wheeling PLLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Wisconsin Ltd., Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Wyoming - Casper LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Wyoming TCG LLC, Hospitalist Medicine Physicians of Wyoming TCS LLC, Hospitalists Management Group LLC, Humedica, Humedica Inc., Hygeia Corporation, Hygeia Corporation Ontario, IEC Holdings LLC, IHD Holdings LLC, INOV8 Surgical at Memorial City LLC, INSPIRIS of Texas Physician Group, Illinois Independent Care Network LLC, Imagen Technologies Inc., Impel Consulting Experts L.L.C., Impel Management Services L.L.C., InTouch Pharmacy LLC, Indiana Care Organization LLC, Indiana Endoscopy Centers LLC, Inland Surgery Center L.P., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3001 S.A., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo 3600 Ltda., Inmobiliaria Apoquindo S.A., Inmobiliaria Clinica Santa Maria S.A., Inmobiliaria Vinamed Ltda., Inmobiliaria e Inversiones Alameda S.A., Inpatient Services P.C., Inpatient Specialists of California P.C., Inspiris, Inspiris Inc., Instituto Radium de Cammpinas Ltda, Inter-Hospital Physicians Association Inc., International Healthcare Services Inc., Inversiones Clinicas Santa Maria SpA, Ironman Holdco Inc., Ironman Intermediate Holdco LLC, Isapre Banmedica S.A., JPM Healthcare LLC, Johnston Surgicare L.P., Joliet Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Jordan Ridge Family Medicine LLC, Joyable Inc., Kansal Inc. A Professional Corporation, Knox Diagnostic Imaging Center LLC, Kokomo Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, LDI Holding Company LLC, LDI Management Services LLC, LGH-A/Golf ASTC L.L.C., LHC Group, La Esperanza del Peru S.A., Laboratorio ROE S.A., Laboratorios Medicos Amed Quilpue S.A., Landmark Group Holdings LLC, Landmark Health Holdings LLC, Landmark Health LLC, Landmark Health NY IPA LLC, Landmark Health NY PO LLC, Landmark Health Technologies Private Limited, Landmark Health of California LLC, Landmark Health of Massachusetts LLC, Landmark Health of North Carolina LLC, Landmark Health of Oregon LLC, Landmark Health of Pennsylvania LLC, Landmark Health of Washington LLC, Landmark India LLC, Landmark Intermediate Holdings LLC, Landmark MSO LLC, Landmark Medical of Idaho PC, Landmark Medical of Massachusetts PLLC, Landmark Medical of Tennessee PC, Landmark Primary Care LLC, Laser Acquisition Holdings III LLC, Leehar Distributors LLC, Lemhi Ventures Fund I LP, Lemhi Ventures Fund II LP, Level2 Medical Services P.C. Alaska, Lexington Surgery Center Ltd., Liberty Anesthesia Services LLC, LifePrint Health Inc., LifeWell. Ltd. Co., Lifeprint Accountable Care Organization LLC, Limestone Medical Center LLC, Litomedica S.A., Logan Surgical Suites LLC, Lotten-Eyes Oftalmologia Clinica e Cirurgica Ltda., Louisville S.C. Ltd., Louisville-SC Properties Inc., Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center at Oakbrook Inc., Loyola Ambulatory Surgery Center at Oakbrook L.P., Lusiadas - Parcerias Cascais S.A., Lusiadas A.C.E., Lusiadas Algarve S.A., Lusiadas S.A., Lusiadas SGPS S.A., Lutheran Campus ASC LLC, MAMSI Life and Health Insurance Company, MCNA Health Care Holdings LLC, MCNA Insurance Company, MCNA Systems Corp., MD Ops Inc., MD-Individual Practice Association Inc., ME AHS UC LLC, MGH/SCA LLC, MHC Real Estate Holdings LLC, MIAMI SURGERY CENTER LLC, MSLA Management LLC, Main Line Spine Surgery Center LLC, Managed Care of North America Inc., Managed Physical Network Inc., Mansfield Endoscopy Center LLC, March Holdings Inc., March Vision Care IPA Inc., March Vision Care Inc., March Vision Care of Texas Inc., Marin Health Ventures LLC, Marin Specialty Surgery Center LLC, Marin Surgery Holdings Inc., Marlin Holding Company LLC, Maryland Ambulatory Centers LLC, Maryland-SCA Centers LLC, Massachusetts Assurance Company Ltd. PIC, Massachusetts Avenue Surgery Center LLC, McKenzie Surgery Center L.P., MedExpress Primary Care West Virginia Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care Alabama LLC, MedExpress Urgent Care Inc. - Ohio, MedExpress Urgent Care Maine Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care New Hampshire Inc., MedExpress Urgent Care of Boynton Beach LLC, MedSynergies, MedSynergies LLC, Medical Clinic of North Texas PLLC, Medical Hilfe S.A., Medical Support Los Angeles Inc., Medical Surgical Centers of America Inc., Medical Transportation Services LLC, Melbourne Surgery Center LLC, Memorial City Holdings LLC, Memorial City Partners LLC, Memorial Houston Surgery Center LLC, MemorialCare Surgical Center at Orange Coast LLC, MemorialCare Surgical Center at Saddleback LLC, Mesquite Liberty LLC, Metro I Stone Management Ltd., Mid Atlantic Medical Services, Mid-West National Life Insurance Company of Tennessee, Midlands Orthopaedics Surgery Center LLC, Midwest Center for Day Surgery LLC, Mile High SurgiCenter LLC, Mississippi Medical Plaza L.C., Mobile Medical Services of New Jersey PC, Mobile-SC LTD., Modality Accountable Care Organisation Limited, Moen M.D. P.C., Mohawk Surgery Center LLC, Monarch Management Services Inc., Montgomery Surgery Center Limited Partnership, Monument Health LLC, Moore Orthopaedic Clinic Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Morris County Surgical Center LLC, Mt. Pleasant Surgery Center L.P., Multiangio Ltda., Murrells Inlet ASC LLC, Muskogee Surgical Investors LLC, Mustang Razorback Holdings Inc., My Wellness Solutions LLC, NAMM Holdings Inc., NPN IPA Washington PLLC, NSC Channel Islands LLC, NSC Greensboro LLC, NSC Greensboro West LLC, NSC Lancaster LLC, NSC Seattle Inc., NSC Upland LLC, Naperville Surgical Centre LLC, National Foundation Life Insurance Company, National Pacific Dental Inc., National Surgery Centers LLC, Navigator Health Inc., Nebraska Spine Hospital LLC, Neighborhood Health Partnership Inc., Netwerkes LLC, Nevada Pacific Dental, New Orleans Regional Physician Hospital Organization L.L.C., New West Physicians Inc., New York Proton Management LLC, Newton Holdings LLC, Niagara Hospitalist P.C., Nomad Buyer Inc., North American Medical Management California Inc., North Coast Surgery Center Ltd. a California Limited Partnership, North Dallas Surgical Center LLC, North Kitsap Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, North Puget Sound Oncology Equipment Leasing Company LLC, Northern Nevada Health Network Inc., Northern Rockies Surgery Center L.P., Northern Rockies Surgicenter Inc., Northern Utah Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Hills JV Partners LLC, Northwest Medical Group Alliance LLC, Northwest Spine and Laser Surgery Center LLC, Northwest Surgicare LLC, Northwest Surgicare Ltd. an Illinois Limited Partnership, OC Cardiology Practice Partners LLC, OCC MSO LLC, OSB Tecnologia e Servicos de Suporte Lda., Omesa SpA, OmniClaim LLC, Oncocare S.A.C., One World Surgery, Ophthalmology Surgery Center of Dallas LLC, Optimum Choice Inc., Optum Bank Inc., Optum Biometrics Inc., Optum Care Inc., Optum Care Networks Inc., Optum Care Services Company, Optum Care of New York Management Inc., Optum Clinics Holdings Inc., Optum Clinics Intermediate Holdings Inc., Optum Compounding Services LLC, Optum Digital Health Holdings LLC, Optum Direct To Consumer Inc., Optum Financial Inc., Optum Frontier Therapies Holdings LLC, Optum Frontier Therapies II LLC, Optum Frontier Therapies LLC, Optum Genomics Inc., Optum Global Solutions Colombia S.A.S., Optum Global Solutions India Private Limited, Optum Global Solutions International B.V., Optum Global Solutions Philippines Inc., Optum Government Solutions Inc., Optum Growth Partners Holdings Inc., Optum Growth Partners LLC, Optum Health & Technology Holdings US Inc., Optum Health & Technology Hong Kong Limited, Optum Health & Technology India Private Limited, Optum Health & Technology Servicos do Brasil Ltda., Optum Health & Technology Singapore Pte. Ltd., Optum Health & Technology US LLC, Optum Health Plan of California, Optum Health Services Canada Ltd., Optum Health Solutions Australia Pty Ltd, Optum Health Solutions UK Limited, Optum Health and Technology FZ-LLC, Optum Healthcare of Illinois Inc., Optum Hospice Pharmacy Services LLC, Optum Inc., Optum Infusion Services 100 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 101 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 103 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 200 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 201 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 202 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 203 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 204 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 205 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 206 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 207 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 208 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 209 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 301 LP, Optum Infusion Services 302 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 305 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 308 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 401 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 402 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 403 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 404 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 500 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 501 Inc., Optum Infusion Services 550 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 551 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 553 LLC, Optum Infusion Services 554 Inc., Optum Insurance of Ohio Inc., Optum Labs Inc., Optum Labs LLC, Optum Life Sciences Canada Inc., Optum Management Consulting Shanghai Co. Ltd., Optum Networks of New Jersey Inc., Optum Operations Ireland Unlimited Company, Optum Oregon MSO LLC, Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Pennsylvania Inc., Optum Palliative and Hospice Care of Texas Inc., Optum Perks LLC, Optum Pharma Services Holdings Inc., Optum Pharmacy 601 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 700 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 701 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 702 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 704 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 705 LLC, Optum Pharmacy 706 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 707 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 800 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 803 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 805 Inc., Optum Pharmacy 806 Inc., Optum Public Sector Solutions Inc., Optum Rocket LLC, Optum SCA CS JV Holdings LLC, Optum Senior Services LLC, Optum Services Inc., Optum Services Ireland Limited, Optum Services Puerto Rico LLC, Optum Solutions UK Holdings Limited, Optum Technology LLC, Optum UK Solutions Group Limited, Optum Venture Global Partners II LP, Optum Venture Global Partners LP, Optum Venture Partners II LP, Optum Venture Partners III LP, Optum Venture Partners LP, Optum Washington Network LLC, Optum Women's and Children's Health LLC, Optum of New York Inc., Optum360 LLC, Optum360 Services Inc., Optum360 Solutions LLC, OptumCare ACO New Mexico LLC, OptumCare ACO West LLC, OptumCare Clinical Trials LLC, OptumCare Colorado ASC LLC, OptumCare Colorado LLC, OptumCare Colorado Springs LLC, OptumCare Endoscopy Center New Mexico LLC, OptumCare Florida CI LLC, OptumCare Florida LLC, OptumCare Holdings Colorado LLC, OptumCare Holdings LLC, OptumCare Management LLC, OptumCare New Mexico LLC, OptumCare New York IPA Inc., OptumCare Portland LLC, OptumCare South Florida LLC, OptumCare Specialty Practices LLC, OptumHealth Care Solutions LLC, OptumHealth Holdings LLC, OptumHealth International B.V., OptumInsight Holdings LLC, OptumInsight Inc., OptumInsight India Private Limited, OptumInsight Life Sciences Inc., OptumRx Administrative Services LLC, OptumRx Discount Card Services LLC, OptumRx Group Holdings Inc., OptumRx Health Solutions LLC, OptumRx Holdings I LLC, OptumRx Holdings LLC, OptumRx Home Delivery of Ohio LLC, OptumRx IPA III Inc., OptumRx Inc., OptumRx NY IPA Inc., OptumRx PBM of Illinois Inc., OptumRx PBM of Maryland LLC, OptumRx PBM of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx PBM of Wisconsin LLC, OptumRx PD of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumRx Pharmacy Inc., OptumRx Pharmacy of Nevada Inc., OptumRx of Pennsylvania LLC, OptumServe Technology Services Inc., Oregon Healthcare Resources LLC, Oregon Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Orlando Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., OrthoNet Holdings Inc., OrthoNet LLC, OrthoNet New York IPA Inc., OrthoNet West Inc., OrthoNet of the South Inc., OrthoWest MSO LLC, Orthology Inc., Orthopedic Center of Palm Beach County LLC, Orthopedic Surgery Center of Palm Beach County LLC, Orthopro Management LLC, Ovations Inc., Owensboro Ambulatory Surgical Facility Ltd., Oxford Benefit Management Inc., Oxford Health Insurance Inc., Oxford Health Plans CT Inc., Oxford Health Plans LLC, Oxford Health Plans NJ Inc., Oxford Health Plans NY Inc., P2P Link LLC, PCCCV Inc., PHC Subsidiary Holdings LLC, PHYSICIANS DAY SURGERY CENTER LLC, PMI Acquisition LLC, PMSI Holdings LLC, PMSI Settlement Solutions LLC, POMCO Inc., POMCO Network Inc., PPH Holdings LLC, PPH Management Company L.L.C., PPH-Columbia Inc., PPH-Gardendale Inc., PS Center LLC, PacifiCare Health Systems, PacifiCare Life Assurance Company, PacifiCare Life and Health Insurance Company, PacifiCare of Arizona Inc., PacifiCare of Colorado Inc., Pacific Cardiovascular Associates Medical Group Inc., Pacific Casualty Company Inc., Pacifico S.A. Entidad Prestadora de Salud, Panama City Surgery Center LLC, Park Hill Surgery Center LLC, Parkway Surgery Center LLC, Patient Care Associates L.L.C., PatientsLikeMe, Patrimonio Autonomo Nueva Clinica, Payment Resolution Services LLC, Peninsula Eye Surgery Center LLC, Penzo Enterprises LLC, Peoples Health, Peoples Health Inc., Perham Physical Therapy LTD, Perimeter Center for Outpatient Surgery L.P., Pharmaceutical Technologies LLC, Physician Alliance of the Rockies LLC, Physicians Health Choice of Texas LLC, Physicians Health Plan of Maryland Inc., Physicians' Surgery Center of Downey LLC, Pinnacle III LLC, Plano de Saude Ana Costa Ltda., Plus One Health Management Puerto Rico Inc., Plus One Holdings Inc., Pocono Ambulatory Surgery Center Limited, Polar II Fundo de Investimento em Participacoes Multiestrategia, Polo Holdco LLC, Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center Inc., Pomerado Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Post-Acute Care Center for Research LLC, Practice Partners in Healthcare LLC, Preferred Care Network Inc., Preferred Care Network of Florida Inc., Preferred Care Partners Holding Corp., Preferred Care Partners Inc., Preferred Care Partners Medical Group Inc., PreferredOne, PreferredOne Administrative Services Inc., PreferredOne Insurance Company, Premier Choice ACO Inc., Premier Surgery Center of Louisville L.P., Premiere Medical Resources LLC, Presidio Surgery Center LLC, Prime Health Inc., PrimeCare Medical Network Inc., PrimeCare of Citrus Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Corona Inc., PrimeCare of Hemet Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Inland Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Moreno Valley Inc., PrimeCare of Redlands Inc., PrimeCare of Riverside Inc., PrimeCare of San Bernardino Inc., PrimeCare of Sun City Inc., PrimeCare of Temecula Inc., PrimeDoc St. Francis P.C., PrimeDoc of Richmond P.C., ProHEALTH Care Associates L.L.P., ProHEALTH Care Associates of New Jersey LLP, ProHEALTH Medical Management LLC, ProHealth Physicians ACO LLC, ProHealth Physicians Inc., ProHealth Proton Center Management LLC, ProHealth/CareMount Dental Management LLC, Procura Management Inc., Professional Coverage Services PLLC, Progressive Enterprises Holdings Inc., Progressive Medical LLC, Promotora Country S.A., Pronounced Health Solutions Inc., Prosemedic S.A.C., Prospero Benefits Management LLC, Prospero Care Management LLC, Prospero Management Services LLC, Providence & SCA Development LLC, Providence & SCA Off-Campus Holdings LLC, Providence & SCA On-Campus Holdings LLC, Providence & SCA Outreach Markets Holdings LLC, Pulse Platform LLC, QoL Acquisition Holdings Corp., R Cubed Inc., RABessler M.D. P.C., ROC Surgery LLC, ROCS Holdings LLC, RX Ricardo Campos Ltda., Rally Health Inc., ReMedics LLC, Real Appeal Inc., Redding Surgery Center LLC, Redlands Ambulatory Surgery Center, Redlands-SCA Surgery Centers Inc., Reliant MSO LLC, Reliant Medical Group Inc., Reliant Medical Group The Endoscopy Center LLC, Research Surgical Center LLC, Resonancia Magnetica de Colombia Ltda., Resonancia Magnetica del Country S.A., RightCare Solutions Inc., River Valley ASC LLC, Riverside Corporate Wellness LLC, Riverside Electronic Healthcare Resources Inc., Riverside Medical Management LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Meadowlands LLC, Riverside Surgical Center of Newark LLC, Robert A. Bessler MD PLLC, Rockville Eye Surgery Center LLC, Rocky Mountain Health Maintenance Organization Incorporated, Rush Oak Brook Surgery Center LLC, SC Affiliates LLC, SCA AHN JV Holdings LLC, SCA Alaska Surgery Center inc., SCA Athens LLC, SCA Austin Holdings LLC, SCA Austin Medical Center Holdings LLC, SCA Aventura Holdings LLC, SCA BOSC Holdings LLC, SCA Bloomfield Holdings LLC, SCA Cedar Park Holdings LLC, SCA Clifton LLC, SCA Colorado Springs Holdings LLC, SCA Community Service Foundation, SCA Cottonwood Holdings LLC, SCA Danbury Surgical Center LLC, SCA Denver Holdings LLC, SCA Development LLC, SCA Duluth Holdings LLC, SCA Duncanville Holdings LLC, SCA Duncanville MSO LLC, SCA ESSC Holdings LLC, SCA Englewood Holdings LLC, SCA Global One Holdings LLC, SCA Greenway Holdings LLC, SCA Grove Creek Holdings LLC, SCA Guilford Holdings LLC, SCA Hays Holdings LLC, SCA Health Value Enterprise LLC, SCA Heartland Holdings LLC, SCA High Point Holdings LLC, SCA HoldCo Inc., SCA Holding Company Inc., SCA Holdings Inc., SCA IEC Holdings LLC, SCA Indiana Holdings LLC, SCA Lutheran Holdings LLC, SCA Maple Grove Holdings LLC, SCA Mohawk Holdings LLC, SCA Murrells Inlet LLC, SCA Northern Utah Holdings LLC, SCA Northwest Holdings LLC, SCA Outside New Jersey LLC, SCA Pacific Holdings Inc., SCA Pacific Surgery Holdings LLC, SCA Palisades Holdings LLC, SCA Pennsylvania Holdings LLC, SCA Pinnacle Holdings LLC, SCA Premier Surgery Center of Louisville LLC, SCA Providence Holdings LLC, SCA ROCS Holdings LLC, SCA Rockledge JV LLC, SCA Rush Oak Brook Holdings LLC, SCA SSSC Holdings LLC, SCA Sage Medical LLC, SCA Sage Medical MSO LLC, SCA San Diego Holdings LLC, SCA Skyway Holdings LLC, SCA South Ogden Holdings LLC, SCA Southwestern PA LLC, SCA Specialists of Florida LLC, SCA Specialty Holdings of Connecticut LLC, SCA Stonegate Holdings LLC, SCA Surgery Holdings LLC, SCA Surgicare of Laguna Hills LLC, SCA Teammate Support Network, SCA West Health Holdings LLC, SCA Westgreen Holdings LLC, SCA Woodbury Holdings LLC, SCA eCode Solutions Private Limited, SCA of Clarksville Inc., SCA-Albuquerque Surgery Properties Inc., SCA-Alliance LLC, SCA-Anne Arundel LLC, SCA-Applecare Partners LLC, SCA-Bethesda LLC, SCA-Blue Ridge LLC, SCA-Bonita Springs LLC, SCA-Brandon LLC, SCA-Castle Rock LLC, SCA-Central Florida LLC, SCA-Charleston LLC, SCA-Chatham LLC, SCA-Chevy Chase LLC, SCA-Citrus Inc., SCA-Colonial Partners LLC, SCA-Colorado Springs LLC, SCA-Connecticut Partners LLC, SCA-DRY CREEK LLC, SCA-Davenport LLC, SCA-Denver LLC, SCA-Denver Physicians Holdings LLC, SCA-Derry LLC, SCA-Doral LLC, SCA-Downey LLC, SCA-Dublin LLC, SCA-Encinitas Inc., SCA-Eugene Inc., SCA-First Coast LLC, SCA-Florence LLC, SCA-Fort Collins Inc., SCA-Fort Walton Inc., SCA-Franklin LLC, SCA-Frederick LLC, SCA-Freeway Holdings LLC, SCA-Ft. Myers LLC, SCA-GRANTS PASS LLC, SCA-Gainesville LLC, SCA-Gladiolus LLC, SCA-Glenwood Holdings LLC, SCA-Grove Place LLC, SCA-Hagerstown LLC, SCA-Hamden LLC, SCA-Hilton Head LLC, SCA-Honolulu LLC, SCA-Houston Executive LLC, SCA-IT Holdings LLC, SCA-Illinois LLC, SCA-JPM Holdings LLC, SCA-Kissing Camels Holdings LLC, SCA-MC VBP Inc., SCA-Main Street LLC, SCA-Marina del Rey LLC, SCA-Mecklenburg Development Corp., SCA-Memorial City LLC, SCA-Memorial LLC, SCA-Merritt LLC, SCA-Midlands LLC, SCA-Midway Management LLC, SCA-Mobile LLC, SCA-Mokena LLC, SCA-Morris Avenue LLC, SCA-Morris County LLC, SCA-Mt. Pleasant LLC, SCA-Naperville LLC, SCA-Naples LLC, SCA-New Jersey LLC, SCA-Newport Beach LLC, SCA-Northeast Georgia Health LLC, SCA-PORTLAND LLC, SCA-Palm Beach LLC, SCA-Palm Beach MSO Holdings LLC, SCA-Panama City Holdings LLC, SCA-Paoli LLC, SCA-Phoenix LLC, SCA-Pocono LLC, SCA-Practice Partners Holdings LLC, SCA-River Valley LLC, SCA-Riverside LLC, SCA-Riverside Partners LLC, SCA-Rockville LLC, SCA-Sacred Heart Holdings LLC, SCA-San Diego Inc., SCA-San Luis Obispo LLC, SCA-Sand Lake LLC, SCA-Santa Rosa Inc., SCA-Somerset LLC, SCA-South Jersey LLC, SCA-Sparta LLC, SCA-Spartanburg Holdings LLC, SCA-St. Louis Holdings LLC, SCA-St. Louis LLC, SCA-St. Lucie LLC, SCA-SurgiCare LLC, SCA-Swiftpath LLC, SCA-VERTA LLC, SCA-VLR Holdings Company LLC, SCA-Wake Forest LLC, SCA-Western Connecticut LLC, SCA-Westover Hills LLC, SCA-Winchester LLC, SCA-Winter Park Inc., SCA-Woodlands Holdings LLC, SCAI Holdings LLC, SCLHS-SCA Holdings LLC, SCP Specialty Infusion LLC, SHC Atlanta LLC, SHC Austin Inc., SHC Hawthorn Inc., SHC Melbourne Inc., SJ East Campus ASC LLC, SRPS LLC, SSSC Holdings LLC, SVHS-SCA Florida JV LLC, Sacred Heart ASC LLC, Saden S.A., Sage Medical Prof. LLC, Salem JV Holdings LLC, Salem Surgery Center LLC, Salveo Specialty Pharmacy Inc., San Diego Endoscopy Center, San Diego Sports and Minimally Invasive Surgery Center LLC, San Francisco Endoscopy Center LLC, San Luis Obispo Surgery Center a California Limited Partnership, Sand Lake SurgiCenter LLC, Santa Barbara Endoscopy Center LLC, Santa Cruz Endoscopy Center LLC, Santa Helena Assistencia Medica S.A., Santa Rosa Surgery Center L.P., Santos Administracao e Participacoes S.A., Sanvello Health Holdings LLC, Sanvello Health Inc., Sanvello Health Limited, Scanner Centromed S.A., Seashore Surgical Institute L.L.C., Seisa Servicos Integrados de Saude Ltda., Senate Street Surgery Center LLC, Senior Benefits L.L.C., Serquinox Holdings LLC, Servicios Integrados de Salud Ltda., Servicios Medicos Amed Quilpue S.A., Servicios Medicos Bio Bio Ltda., Servicios Medicos Ciudad del Mar Ltda., Servicios Medicos Santa Maria Ltda., Servicios Medicos Vespucio Ltda., Servicios de Entrenamiento en Competencias Clinicas Ltda., Serviclinica Inmobiliaria S.A., Serviclinica S.A. Ex Los Leones La Calera, Servisalud Inmobiliaria S.A., Servisalud S.A. Ex Los Carrera Quilpue, Shark Holdings P.C., Sierra Dental Plan Inc., Sierra Health Services Inc, Sierra Health Services Inc., Sierra Health and Life Insurance Company Inc., Sierra Health-Care Options Inc., Sierra Home Medical Products Inc., Sierra Nevada Administrators Inc., Sistema de Administracion Hospitalaria S.A.C., Small Business Insurance Advisors Inc., Sobam Centro Medico Hospitalar S.A., Sociedad de Inversiones Santa Maria SpA, Solstice Administration Services Inc., Solstice Administrators Inc., Solstice Administrators of Alabama Inc., Solstice Administrators of Arizona Inc., Solstice Administrators of Missouri Inc., Solstice Administrators of North Carolina Inc., Solstice Administrators of Texas Inc., Solstice Benefit Services Inc., Solstice Benefits Inc., Solstice Health Insurance Company, Solstice Healthplans Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Arizona Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Colorado Inc., Solstice Healthplans of New Jersey Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Ohio Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Tennessee Inc., Solstice Healthplans of Texas Inc., Solstice of Illinois Inc., Solstice of Minnesota Inc., Solstice of New York Inc., Solutran LLC, Somerset Outpatient Surgery L.L.C., Sound Inpatient Physicians Inc., Sound Inpatient Physicians Medical Group Inc., Sound Inpatient Physicians of Ohio LLC, Sound Inpatient Physicians of Texas I Inc., Sound Inpatient Physicians Michigan PLLC, Sound Intensivists of Nevada RBessler M.D. PLLC, Sound Kenwood Hospitalists of Cincinnati Inc., Sound Kenwood Hospitalists of Cincinnati LLC, Sound Physicians Advisory Services Inc., Sound Physicians Alaska Hospitalist Group LLC, Sound Physicians Anesthesiology of Texas PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Arizona Inc., Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Georgia P.C., Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Illinois LLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Kansas LLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Kentucky PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Louisiana Inc., Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Michigan PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Nevada Bessler PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of South Carolina LLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Southern California P.C., Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Texas PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of Washington PLLC, Sound Physicians Emergency Medicine of West Virginia PLLC, Sound Physicians Holdings LLC, Sound Physicians Intensivists of Arizona Inc., Sound Physicians Intensivists of Georgia PC, Sound Physicians Intensivists of South Carolina LLC, Sound Physicians Intensivists of Virginia LLC, Sound Physicians Intensivists of Washington PLLC, Sound Physicians Palliative Care of Maryland P.C., Sound Physicians Telemedicine Inc., Sound Physicians of Florida IV LLC, Sound Physicians of Georgia III P.C., Sound Physicians of Hawaii Inc., Sound Physicians of Idaho PLLC, Sound Physicians of Illinois LLC, Sound Physicians of Indiana LLC, Sound Physicians of Iowa PLLC, Sound Physicians of Kankakee Illinois LLC, Sound Physicians of Massachusetts II P.C., Sound Physicians of Massachusetts Inc., Sound Physicians of New Jersey LLC, Sound Physicians of New York PLLC, Sound Physicians of North Carolina PLLC, Sound Physicians of South Carolina LLC, Sound Physicians of Wyoming LLC, South Arlington Surgical Providers LLC, South County Surgical Center LLC, South Sound Inpatient Physicians PLLC, Southern California Medical Practice Concepts LLC, Southland Hospitalists P.C., Southwest Medical Associates Inc., Southwest Michigan Health Network Inc., Southwest Surgery Center LLC, Southwest Surgical Center LLC, Space Coast Surgical Center Ltd., Spartanburg Surgery Center LLC, Specialists in Urology Surgery Center LLC, Specialized Pharmaceuticals Inc., Specialty Benefits LLC, Specialty Billing Solutions LLC, Specialty Surgical Center LLC, Spectera Inc., Spectera of New York IPA Inc., Sports and Spinal Physical Therapy Inc., St. Cloud Outpatient Surgery Ltd. a Minnesota Limited Partnership, St. Cloud Surgical Center LLC, St. Louis Cardiovascular Institute LLC, St. Louis Specialty Surgical Center LLC, Stonegate JV Partners LLC, Stonegate Surgery Center L.P., Summer Street ASC LLC, SunSurgery LLC, Surgery Center Holding LLC, Surgery Center at Cherry Creek LLC, Surgery Center at Cottonwood LLC, Surgery Center at Grove Creek LLC, Surgery Center at Kissing Camels LLC, Surgery Center at South Ogden LLC, Surgery Center at St. Vincent LLC, Surgery Center of Boca Raton Inc., Surgery Center of Colorado Springs LLC, Surgery Center of Des Moines LLC, Surgery Center of Easton LLC, Surgery Center of Ellicott City Inc., Surgery Center of Fairfield County LLC, Surgery Center of Fort Collins LLC, Surgery Center of Lexington LLC, Surgery Center of Louisville LLC, Surgery Center of Maui LLC, Surgery Center of Mt. Scott LLC, Surgery Center of Muskogee LLC, Surgery Center of Rockville L.L.C., Surgery Center of Southern Pines LLC, Surgery Center of The Woodlands LLC, Surgery Centers of Des Moines Ltd. an Iowa Limited Partnership, Surgery Centers-West Holdings LLC, Surgical Care Affiliates, Surgical Care Affiliates LLC, Surgical Care Affiliates Political Action Committee, Surgical Care Partners of Melbourne LLC, Surgical Caregivers of Fort Worth LLC, Surgical Center of Greensboro LLC, Surgical Center of San Diego LLC, Surgical Center of South Jersey Limited Partnership, Surgical Center of Tuscaloosa Holdings LLC, Surgical Eye Experts LLC, Surgical Health LLC, Surgical Health of Orlando LLC, Surgical Hospital Holdings of Oklahoma LLC, Surgical Management Solutions LLC, Surgicare LLC, Surgicare of Central Jersey LLC, Surgicare of Jackson LLC, Surgicare of Jackson Ltd. a Mississippi Limited Partnership, Surgicare of Joliet Inc., Surgicare of La Veta Inc., Surgicare of La Veta Ltd. a California Limited Partnership, Surgicare of Minneapolis LLC, Surgicare of Minneapolis Ltd. a Minnesota Limited Partnership, Surgicare of Mobile LLC, Surgicare of Mobile Ltd., Surgicare of Oceanside Inc., Surgicare of Owensboro LLC, Surgicare of Salem LLC, Surgicenters of Southern California Inc., Symphonix Health Holdings LLC, T.M. Carr M.D. P.C., THE SURGICAL CENTER OF THE TREASURE COAST L.L.C., THR-SCA Holdings LLC, TeamMD Holdings Inc., TeamMD Iowa Inc., TeamMD Physicians of Texas Inc., TeamUP Insurance Services Inc., Tecnologia de Informacion en Salud S.A., Texas Health Craig Ranch Surgery Center LLC, Texas Health Flower Mound Orthopedic Surgery Center LLC, Texas Health Orthopedic Surgery Center Alliance LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Alliance LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Bedford LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Chisholm Trail LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Irving LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Las Colinas LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Preston Plaza LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Rockwall LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Southwest Fort Worth LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Waxahachie LLC, Texas Health Surgery Center Willow Park LLC, The Advisory Board Company, The Alaska Hospitalist Group LLC, The Chesapeake Life Insurance Company, The Eye Surgery Center of the Carolinas L.P., The Intensivist Group of Langhorne LLC, The Lewin Group Inc., The Outpatient Surgery Center of Hilton Head LLC, The Polyclinic MSO LLC, The Surgery Center of Easton L.P., The Surgical Center of Connecticut LLC, Thomas Johnson Surgery Center LLC, Three Rivers Holdings Inc., Three Rivers Surgical Care L.P., Tmesys LLC, Topimagem Diagnostico por Imagem Ltda., Touchpoint Health Plan, Trails Edge Surgery Center LLC, Trauma Surgery Affiliates LLC, Travel Express Incorporated, Treasure Valley Emerald Properties LLC, Treasure Valley Hospital Limited Partnership, Tri-City Medical Center ASC Operators LLC, Tri-County Surgery Center LLC, Trinity Cardiovascular Care PLLC, Tufts Health Freedom Insurance Company, Tufts Health Freedom Plans Inc., Tuscaloosa Surgical Center L.P., U.S. Behavioral Health Plan California, UCSD Ambulatory Surgery Center LLC, UCSD Center for Surgery of Encinitas L.P., UCSD Surgical Center of San Diego LLC, UCSD-SCA Holdings I LLC, UCSD-SCA Holdings II LLC, UHC Finance Ireland Unlimited Company, UHC International Services Inc., UHC of California, UHCG Holdings Ireland Limited, UHCG Services Ireland Limited, UHCG FZE, UHG Brasil Participacoes S.A., UHG Holdings UK IV Limited, UHG Holdings UK V Limited, UHG Holdings UK VI Limited, UHIC Holdings Inc., UMR Inc., UPHT-SCA Holdings LLC, USHEALTH Academy Inc., USHEALTH Administrators LLC, USHEALTH Advisors LLC, USHEALTH Career Agency Inc., USHEALTH Funding Inc., USHEALTH Group Inc., USMD ASC IV1 LLC, USMD ASC IV2 LLC, USMD Administrative Services L.L.C., USMD Affiliated Services, USMD Holdings Inc., USMD Hospital at Arlington L.P., USMD Hospital at Fort Worth L.P., USMD Inc., USMD PPM LLC, Unidad Medica Diagnostico S.A., Unimerica Insurance Company, Unimerica Life Insurance Company of New York, Unison Health Plan of Delaware Inc., United Behavioral Health, United Behavioral Health of New York I.P.A. Inc., United Group Reinsurance Inc., United Health Foundation, United HealthCare Services Inc., United Medical Park ASC LLC, United Resource Networks IPA of New York Inc., United in Advancing Health Equity Foundation, UnitedHealth Advisors LLC, UnitedHealth Group Employee Assistance Fund, UnitedHealth Group Incorporated, UnitedHealth Group International Finance Ireland Unlimited Company, UnitedHealth International Inc., UnitedHealth Military & Veterans Services LLC, UnitedHealthcare Benefits Plan of California, UnitedHealthcare Benefits of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare Children's Foundation Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of California Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Texas L.L.C., UnitedHealthcare Consulting & Assistance Service Beijing Co. Ltd., UnitedHealthcare Europe S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Global Medical UK Limited, UnitedHealthcare Inc., UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of America, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of Illinois, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of New York, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company of the River Valley, UnitedHealthcare Insurance Designated Activity Company, UnitedHealthcare Integrated Services Inc., UnitedHealthcare International Asia LLC, UnitedHealthcare International I B.V., UnitedHealthcare International II S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International III B.V., UnitedHealthcare International III S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International IV S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International VIII S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare International X S.a r.l., UnitedHealthcare Life Insurance Company, UnitedHealthcare Parekh Insurance TPA Private Limited, UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley Inc., UnitedHealthcare Service LLC, UnitedHealthcare Specialty Benefits LLC, UnitedHealthcare of Alabama Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arizona Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Arkansas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Colorado Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Florida Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Georgia Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Illinois Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Kentucky Ltd., UnitedHealthcare of Louisiana Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Mississippi Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New England Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New Mexico Inc., UnitedHealthcare of New York Inc., UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Ohio Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oklahoma Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Oregon Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Pennsylvania Inc., UnitedHealthcare of South Carolina Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Texas Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Utah Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Washington Inc., UnitedHealthcare of Wisconsin Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midlands Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Midwest Inc., UnitedHealthcare of the Rockies Inc., Unity Health Network LLC, Upland Holdings LLC, Upland Outpatient Surgical Center L.P., Urgent Care Holdings Inc., Urgent Care MSO LLC, Urology Associates of North Texas P.L.L.C., VERTA MANAGEMENT SERVICES LLC, VPay Benefits Corporation, VPay Inc., VPay Intermediate Holdings LLC, Valley Hospital L.L.C., Valley Physicians Network Inc., Vascular Labs of the Rockies ASC LLC, Vascular Labs of the Rockies PLLC, Via Vitae MSO LLC, Vida Integra S.p.A., Vida Tres S.A., Virtua-SCA Holdings II LLC, Virtua-SCA Holdings LLC, Vivify Health Canada Inc., Vivify Health Inc., WESTMED Practice Partners LLC, Wake Forest Ambulatory Ventures LLC, Walnut Creek Endoscopy Center LLC, Walnut Hill Surgery Center LLC, Wauwatosa Outpatient Surgery Center LLC, Wauwatosa Surgery Center LLC, Wayland Square Surgicare Acquisition L.P., Wayland Square Surgicare GP Inc., Waypoint Minnesota PC, WellMed Medical Management Inc., WellMed Medical Management of Florida Inc., West Coast Endoscopy Holdings LLC, WestHealth JV Holdings LLC, WestHealth Surgery Center LLC, Western Connecticut Orthopedic Surgical Center LLC, Westgreen Surgical Center LLC, Wilson Creek Surgical Center LLC, Winchester Endoscopy LLC, Winter Park LLC, Winter Park Surgery Center L.P., Woodbury Surgery Center LLC, XAS Infusion Suites Inc., XLHealth Corporation, XLHealth Corporation India Private Limited, divvyDOSE, divvyMED LLC, eCode Solutions LLC, gethealthinsurance.com Agency Inc., hCentive Inc., inPharmative Inc., naviHealth Care at Home LLC, naviHealth Coordinated Care LLC, naviHealth Coordinated Care SC P.C., naviHealth Holdings LLC, naviHealth Inc., naviHealth Michigan HBPC P.C., and naviHealth SM Holdings Inc.. Read More Every Tuesday David Deutchman visits the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to hold babies whose parents cant be with them at that time. On Thursdays he volunteers at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). In this case, Logans mother left for the night to stay with her daughter. MaryBeth Brulotte told WSB-TV, "We live two hours away, and it has been hard going back and forth. She said she always gets anxious when she steps away because she feels Logan is missing his mommy. On this morning, she was relieved to see David when she walked into the hospital room. "He had such a kind spirit. In a video later produced by Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta, the ICU Grandpa admits he gets puked on and peed on, but he made clear the reason he comes back week after week. It's "the kind of reward you can get from holding a baby like this. Brown County approves Bailey Pro Rodeo as new stock provider Bailey Pro Rodeo out of North Dakota has been selected as the new rodeo stock provider for the Dacotah Stampede Rodeo, a two-day event at the fair. The note recovered from the toilet of Delhi-bound Jet flight that warned of hijack and bomb was planted by one of the passengers as he was unhappy with the airline's operations. The accused Sallu Birje has been arrested. By Rahul Shrivastava: The threat note, which was recovered from one of the toilets of a Delhi-bound Jet Airways flight today forcing the plane to make an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport, was actually planted by one of the passengers on board. Jet Airways Mumbai-Delhi flight (9W339), carrying 115 passengers and 7 crew members on board, was forced to was diverted to the Ahmedabad airport after the note warned of hijack and explosives in the cargo. advertisement Top aviation security sources have said that during preliminary investigation, it was found that one of the passengers on seat 1A had used the toilet prior to the discovery of the note. During sustained questioning, the passenger - identified as Sallu Birje - confessed to having placed the note there. It was found that the passenger deliberately used Urdu language and phrase such as "Allah is great" to make his warning seem like a terror threat. Sources say that the passenger confessed during the interrogation that he was extremely unhappy with the operations of Jet Airways and he wanted to "destabilise the airline's operations" . It also emerged that he was involved in a serious altercation with the flight staff in another Jet Airways flight sometime ago. Security agencies have taken a serious note of the incident and the passenger, after being arrested, is likely to face serious charges. "His conduct construes serious breach of aviation laws. Apart from causing a loss of lakhs of rupees to the airline and aviation matrix, his note caused serious disruption in aviation service", said an official. ACCUSED ARRESTED, MAY BE PUT ON NO-FLY LIST: MINISTER Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju tweeted that the accused Birje had been identified and arrested. He is in for more trouble. Raju said, "I will recommend that his name be put on the no-fly list". The civil aviation ministry had recently created rules for the no-fly list to discourage unruly passengers from disrupting flights and aviation services. If the committee that scrutinises cases accepts the no-fly recommendation, this passenger may lose the right to buy a flight ticket anywhere in India for any destination for a specific period of time. The threat note recovered from the plane's toilet. Earlier in the day following the recovery of the threat note, a senior aviation official had said, "Jet flight 9W 339 BOM-DEL had departed at 0255 hours and after being diverted to AMD, landed at 0350 hrs as the PILOT IN COMMAND was informed by the crew that a threatening note was found in the toilet." advertisement The note stated, "9W 339 is covered by hijackers and the aircraft should not land in Delhi but instead be flown straight to PoK. 12 ppl on board. If you land, you will hear the noise of people dying. Don't take it as a joke. The cargo area contains bombs and will blast if you land in DEL." The note ended with the message "Allah is great". Immediately on the ground, a statutory body called the Bomb Threat Assessment Committee was set up at 0425 after a serious alert was sounded. The note is said to have been found by one of the flight attendants when the aircraft was mid-air. The pilot was alerted, who subsequently assessed the threat following which a hijack distress drill was initiated. The aircraft was asked to immediately land at the Ahmedabad airport where all emergency systems were put in place. Once the aircraft made a safe landing, it was directed to a remote bay for checks. All passengers were deplaned and taken to an enclosure. A thorough check revealed that there was no suspicious device. The aviation security and intelligence officials then started questioning the passengers and crew members. WATCH VIDEO | Ethiopian Airlines plane crashes into Air India aircraft at Delhi's IGI airport, fliers unhurt advertisement --- ENDS --- WELCOME Brana Hardway has joined Sutin, Thayer & Browne as a member of the law firms commercial group practice in Albuquerque. Hardway will practice primarily in transactions law, She has a bachelors degree, summa cum laude, in political science from the University of New Mexico; a masters degree in social work from New Mexico Highlands University; and a law degree, with honors, from UNM. Norlynn Blocker Price has joined the Albuquerque Youth Symphony Program as executive director. Blocker Price previously worked for 30 years as a practicing trial attorney in Dallas and also served in numerous volunteer capacities for 10 years with the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra. Presbyterian Healthcare Services has hired three new physicians. They are: Xiaxin Li, M.D., Ph.D., medical director and pediatric hematologist/oncologist for the Childrens Center at Presbyterian. Li is board-certified in pediatrics and pediatric hematology/oncology. He has a doctoral degree in stem-cell biology from the Paris Diderot University in France; a medical degree from Hengyand Medical College in Hunan, China; and completed a residency and fellowship training at the Akron Childrens Hospital and the University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Childrens Hospital. Beeling Armijo, M.D., pediatric hematologist/oncologist for the Childrens Center at Presbyterian. Armijo is board-certified in pediatrics. She has a medical degree and completed her residency at UNM; and completed a fellowship in pediatric hematology oncology at the University of Iowa Childrens Hospital. Brian Holt, M.D., FACS, bariatric surgeon for the Presbyterian Rust Medical Center. Holt is board-certified in surgery and is a member of the American College of Surgeons. He has a medical degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md.; and completed his internship and surgical residency at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center. APPLAUSE Family Friendly New Mexico, a nonprofit program that recognizes New Mexico businesses with family-friendly policies, has announced its list of companies that earned recognition for having policies that help workers balance work and family. The distinction means the recognized employers have four or more policies in the areas of paid leave, health support, work schedules and economic support. The organizations recognized as Gold and Silver Level awardees for October are: HB Construction Inc., gold award; Homeowners Financial Group, gold award; First Financial Credit Union, gold award; Office of the State Auditor, gold award; Native American Professional Parent Resources, gold award; United Way of Central New Mexico, gold award; and Parents Reaching Out, silver award. Any New Mexico business is eligible to apply for the New Mexico Family Friendly Business award. For a full list of family friendly policies and to learn more about the New Mexico Family Friendly initiative and see if your company qualifies, visit www.nmfamilyfriendlybusiness.com. Three Sandia National Laboratories engineers have been recognized by the Society of Women Engineers as part of its annual awards program for their support in the enrichment and advancement of women in engineering. They are: Janet Williams, Distinguished Service Award. Williams was recognized for her significant contributions over the last 30 years, especially at the local and regional levels and on society-level committees. Kelly Hahn, Emerging Leader Award. Hahn was recognized for active engagement in the engineering profession and her outstanding technical excellence as a individual resulting in significant accomplishments. Leslie Phinney, Prism Award, which honors a woman who has charted her own path throughout her career, providing leadership in technology fields and professional organizations along the way. PROMOTIONS Mark Burkhard has been promoted by Southwest Capital Bank to chief lending officer. Burkhard, formerly the banks special assets officer, joined the bank in March of 2017. He also previously worked as a finance and management consultant at Applied Resources. Burkhard has a masters degree in technology management. MILESTONES Albuquerques Ronald McDonald House is celebrating its 35th anniversary. Since opening in 1982, Ronald McDonald House Charities of New Mexico (RMHC-NM) has helped ease the burden of having a sick child for thousands of families, keeping them close by and together during an unimaginable time. RMHC-NM operates the Ronald McDonald House and two Ronald McDonald Family Rooms in Albuquerque. Through those programs, RMHC-NM directly improves the health and wellbeing of over 3,000 children and families each year. RMHC-NM operates a 30-bedroom Ronald McDonald House on University of New Mexicos north campus and two Ronald McDonald Family Room programs at University of New Mexicos Childrens Hospital and Presbyterian Hospital. ETC. Shane LeMon, MAI, CCIM, has been elected chairman of the board of directors for the Better Business Bureau serving New Mexico and southwest Colorado. LeMon, the president of American Property Consultants & Appraisers Inc., is also the president of both Estate Valuation Consultants Inc. and BPOXpress. He has also served as president of the Rotary Club of Albuquerque; is the current president of the FBI Albuquerque Citizens Academy Alumni Association; a previous president of the N.M. Corvette Association; and has served for 20 years in various positions on the board of the Better Business Bureau serving New Mexico and southwest Colorado. Crime is on the rise in Albuquerque, and with it, the security industry. Local and national security companies say they are shoring up their ranks to meet increasing demand from businesses and residents in Albuquerque. There is absolutely no doubt that the increase is due to the (rise in) crime, said David Meurer, CEO of Armed Response Team. In a nutshell, I can tell you that all (security companies in Albuquerque) are busy. People ask me how business is doing, and I say, Its good, but for all the wrong reasons.' According to an FBI report released in September, Albuquerque had 38,528 reported property crimes in 2016, an increase of 13.3 percent over the previous year. Violent crime spiked by a much larger amount, up 41.8 percent. In the meantime, the Albuquerque Police Department has a staffing shortage, employing 800 officers. According to Mayor Richard Berry, the department should staff at least 1,000. Meanwhile, the number of security guard licenses active in New Mexico has risen more than four-fold since 2012-13, according to the New Mexico Regulations and Licensing Department. The department estimates more than 50 security companies operate in the state. Local and national companies operating here such as AKAL, Securitas, International Protective Services and Probus Security say they are expanding in Albuquerque, and new companies like Eagle Force Security have entered the market in the past year. According to Aaron Jones, president and founder of International Protective Services, every sector industrial, retail, office, event and residential are demanding more security services. The clients The bottom line is that businesses around Albuquerque are trying to cope with a very tangible crime problem. We feel its necessary, almost mandatory, because the crew needs to feel safe at work, said Larry Rainosek, owner of the Frontier restaurant on Central Avenue. Back in the old days, we felt we could just call the police and they were our security. But they are overwhelmed now. The Frontier employs International Protective Services guards, who are armed. Rainosek said he feels Level Three officers those licensed to carry firearms in their work are better equipped to handle situations and that their superior training lowers the risk of liability. He said Level Three security costs more, but in order to do the same job, he might have to hire two Level One guards. According to John Salazar, president of Probus Security, Level Three guards need to be paid at least $15 an hour and sometimes as much as $19 an hour. By comparison, a Level One guard costs Salazar roughly $10 an hour, depending on experience. Frontier has employed security personnel in some form for the last 20 years, but the company hired International Protective Services roughly six years ago when it stopped being a 24-hour-a-day establishment and moved to a 5 a.m.-to-1 a.m. schedule. The hour change was a direct result of crime, Rainosek said. The Frontier has a drive-by security service during the day and a guard present at all times from 6 p.m. to closing. Developers and property management companies are also turning to security guards to help revitalize struggling properties. Daskalos Development, which began revitalizing Four Hills Village Center at Central and Tramway roughly three years ago, quickly realized it would need to hire security personnel if it was going to bring the development back to life. When we first purchased (Four Hills Village) three years ago, security was not something that was on our mind, said managing partner Peggy Daskalos. But as we started doing construction, we realized we were in need of security. She said hiring security was not a reaction to any one incident, but a preventative step and a way of handling concern over the homeless population, which Daskalos said had taken over the center prior to the companys purchase. The development company brought in two anchor tenants, Sprouts and Icon Cinema, which have separate security services. Daskalos said the need for security has risen over the last two years. Her company uses security guards at other properties, and in one case, it has installed cameras that are monitored by a security company. The licensing In New Mexico, all security guards are required to be licensed. Those licenses, which fall under the private investigators license, are broken down into three levels: Level One, unarmed guards who are tasked with observing and reporting crime; Level Two, permitted to carry nonlethal devices such as chemical spray and batons; and Level Three, permitted to carry firearms. According to Regulation and Licensing, overall active license numbers for security guards has increased from 475 in 2013-14 to 2,288 in 2016-17. Level One licenses, which are the easiest to obtain, increased the most, from 273 in 2013-14 to 1,600 in 2016-17. There is some disagreement among the security providers in Albuquerque about which level of license is most appropriate. John Salazar, president and CEO of Probus Security, a locally born security service now operating in six states, prefers to use Level One guards. Salazar is a longtime Albuquerque resident who has been in the security guard business since the mid-1980s. He said he has definitely increased his hiring numbers over the last couple of years, but he still hires the same level of guards. Salazar is cautious with his guards and tells clients to be proactive rather than reactive in preparing their security. He wants his guards to help keep clients safe, but at the same time, he says, he doesnt want his employees to be in a situation that can be a potential disaster. Safety isnt Salazars only concern. Liability is also a major issue. In a situation in which shots are fired, said Salazar, any number of things can go wrong. You want an armed guard, you better know what you are playing with. And do you really need an armed guard? You can end up with a real disaster. You got a problem, call APD. There isnt a thing that APD cant handle, Salazar said. Another local company, International Protective Services, is on the other end of the spectrum. The company hires almost exclusively Level Three armed guards. Jones believes that in order to help protect clients, they need someone who can handle any problem. Jones goal is to help the police do their job by supplementing local law enforcement. For Jones, a retired homicide detective who looks every bit the hardened lawman, security is about preparedness, not just presence. I use mostly Level Three (guards) because whats the point of having a guard if he cant do anything about a situation except watch it happen? We want to assist the APD and the sheriffs as much as we can, said Jones. Helping APD Other companies have an array license levels. Securitas, which operates in 53 countries as one of the largest security providers in the world, employs mostly Level One guards but has the personnel available to meet a variety of needs in almost any situation. According to a Securitas spokesperson, the company has seen a large new user uptick over the last few years. There are some population changes, but it all comes back to a rise in crime. According to Securitas, the company has grown its presence in Albuquerque by one-third over the last several years. The company said it wants to help supplement the police department by responding to nonviolent situations such as break-ins and believes that a private security force can make a big difference where police staff shortages are concerned. Armed Response Team also views supplementing the police department as the companys main function. Like many of the companies using Level Three guards, it hires retired police officers and ex-military personnel almost exclusively. Armed Response Team provides clients with alarm systems and responds to calls and alarm signals. The idea, according to Meurer, is to relieve the APD of the need to respond to alarm calls that are most often false. However, Meurer said the company has seen a sharp rise in the percentage of alarms in Albuquerque that turn out to be legitimate. The percentages have really flipped in the last couple of years. And its not because we are (ten times) the size. We are encountering more and more actual intrusions, he said. Business owners stung by unfair or dishonest online reviews might take heart from a story out of Dallas this past summer. It seems a local beauty and lifestyle blogger got married. As might be imagined, her online fans heard all about the extensive preparations for the exciting day. They also learned about the couples disagreement with their wedding photographer. After having chosen 80 prints from 4,000 low-resolution proofs, the couple balked at paying a fee for the cover of their wedding album. The photographer, pointing out that the charge was spelled out in bold print on the contract, insisted on being paid in full before releasing the final high-res images. The total amount in dispute? $125. But the couple was determined not to pay. According to court records quoted by the Washington Post, the bride wrote to a friend, We are hoping that our story makes the news and completely ruins her business. The groom expressed a similar wish in language the Post represented by a series of dashes. The couple did indeed get themselves on local news, forlornly displaying empty picture frames. The reporter, describing the couples precious memories as hostages, inaccurately said the contract doesnt mention anything about the album cover fee. (The TV station ran a correction a few days later.) The couple went full-tilt on social media, too Facebook, Instagram, Wedding Wire, and of course Yelp. Anonymous users employing a variety of screen names piled on. Words such as scam, steal and ransom were used. Pretty sure her business is done, the vengeful bride exulted in writing. It was. With clients frightened off, the photographer had to close her studio. So she sued. Her case went to a Dallas jury on two legal theories: defamation, meaning an attack on personal reputation, and commercial disparagement. The jury found for the photographer on both theories, awarding a $1 million in damages. The tort of commercial disparagement, sometimes called injurious falsehood or just plain disparagement, exists to protect a business from the harm caused by false statements of fact. For a business owner tormented by vicious online reviews, it offers a way to fight back. But disparagement is deliberately hard to prove. Thats because all of us, as red-blooded American consumers, have an absolute right to tell the world how much we hate any given restaurant or store or other business. Inviting customers into your business means inviting your customers to form an opinion about your business. Opinion, no matter how hatefully expressed, can never provide the basis for a disparagement lawsuit. Criticism shades over into disparagement only when it involves a false factual statement. Thats clear enough in theory. In practice, the distinction between fact and opinion is sometimes blurry. For instance, its not always easy to tell on which side of the line hyperbole falls (their tortillas have the consistency of wet socks). But, as the Dallas beauty blogger discovered, deliberately misstating the terms of a written contract is always going to count as false. But even the most blatant falsehood, by itself, isnt enough to establish the tort of disparagement. The false statement must have been made with the intent or expectation of harming the business bottom line. The tort doesnt prohibit careless gossip. Nor is it enough that a statement might make some potential customers think twice about patronizing the business. All reviews can do that, even positive ones, since people differ so widely in their preferences. Thats why the Dallas couples texts and emails, revealing their wish to ruin the photographers business, were such damning evidence against them. Finally, the business must suffer a monetary loss directly attributable to the false statement. The photographer was able to draw a straight line from cause to effect because her business dried up almost overnight after the local news story broke and the online campaign launched. But in most cases a business owner will find it difficult or impossible to prove loss of income resulting directly from an online review, no matter how unjustified or just plain nasty that review might be. Responsible reviewing platforms take precautions against becoming vehicles for disparagement. Yelps guidelines, for instance, require that reviews be factually correct. Wedding Wire prohibits posts that are slanderous. Google asks that reviews be honest and trustworthy. Many sites allow users to flag inappropriate content, and most provide avenues of complaint. An appeal to the site should be a business owners first line of defense against unfair and dishonest reviews. A disparagement lawsuit is a big bazooka, not well-suited for fending off a swarm of gnats. But in certain desperate circumstances, it can be tremendously effective. 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. BEIRUT Islamic State militants, routed from one urban stronghold after another in Syria, have recently been moving deeper into Syrias remote desert, where experts say they are regrouping and preparing their next incarnation. The Sunni militants self-proclaimed caliphate with its contiguous stretch of land linking major cities such as Syrias Raqqa and Iraqs Mosul may have been vanquished, but many agree this territorial defeat will not mark the end of IS. Beyond the urban and inhabited areas lies the vast Syrian Desert, also known as Badiyat al-Sham, famous for its caves and rugged mountains. It encompasses about 500,000 square kilometers (200,000 square miles) across parts of southeastern Syria, northeastern Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia, and western Iraq. The desolate landscape is a perfect hideout and a second home for many IS militants from the days before the birth of their caliphate. Experts estimate that hundreds of thousands of troops would be needed to mount search operations and even more to put the desert under permanent control. Once they melt into the desert, without an army of tens of thousands of supporters from dozens of countries, IS jihadis will resort to guerrilla-style attacks: scattered hit-and-run attacks and suicide bombings. They love fighting battles in the desert and they will go back to the old ways, said Omar Abu Laila, a Europe-based opposition activist originally from Syrias eastern province of Deir el-Zour, which lies in the heart of Badiyat al-Sham. IS leaders appear to have made contingency plans that involve precisely this regrouping in the desert and launching attacks, much like IS predecessor, al-Qaida in Iraq, did for more than a decade after the U.S.-led 2003 invasion. Some of those plans are already on display. In the eastern Syrian town of Mayadeen, a former IS stronghold, the militants pulled back and disappeared into the desert after only a few days of battle with Syrian government forces earlier this month. The top U.S. envoy for the anti-IS coalition, Brett McGurk, said the Sunni militant group is now down to the last 10 percent of the territory it once held in Iraq and Syria. The group still maintains some appeal for Sunnis, who complain of discrimination by Iraqs Shiite-led government and by Syrian President Bashar Assads minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. IS will also look to buy time and benefit from political and other conflicts such as this months clashes between Iraqi and Kurdish forces following the Kurdish independence referendum. That fighting has already diverted resources from the war on IS, the top U.S. general in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Paul Funk, told The Associated Press last week. Iraqi troops, Shiite militiamen and Kurdish forces have driven IS from nearly all of Iraq, but if they turn on one another, that could give the extremists an opening to regroup. A similar dynamic threatens recent gains in Syria. The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces and Russia-backed government troops have been the most effective in the fight against IS, but are now waging parallel offensives in Deir el-Zour that could bring them into conflict with one another. Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, called the SDFs liberation of Raqqa an inflection point in the fight against IS, but warned that the coalition needs to stay focused. ISIS is on their heels right now and our job is to make sure they dont recover, Dunford said, using an alternative name for the group. Experts say that will be difficult. Dana Jalal, a Sweden-based Iraqi journalist who closely follows jihadi groups in the Middle East, said IS will become an underground terrorist organization. The lone wolf has nothing to lose. They have nothing to defend now, Jalal said. The groups predecessor, al-Qaida in Iraq, was almost crushed in 2007 by U.S. and Iraqi forces. But after the Americans withdrew from Iraq in 2011, the militants regrouped, eventually emerging stronger than ever in the summer of 2014, when they conquered large areas of Syria and Iraq. IS will again find a supporting base in Sunni Iraq, where discontent with the Shiite-led government runs high, said Mutlu Civiroglu, a Washington-based Kurdish affairs analyst who follows the battle against IS. After losing ground in Syria and Iraq, IS will try to increase its presence in Libya, Yemen, Afghanistan, North Africa and elsewhere. The fact that IS carried out or inspired attacks in around 30 countries worldwide shows its global reach, he said. The group is also increasingly reverting to its weapon of choice: suicide attacks. A suicide attack killed nearly 20 people at a Damascus police station earlier this month. In late September, IS gunmen emerged from the desert and hit government forces in central Syria, cutting their supply lines for days. IS has also carried out deadly attacks in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and in western Iraqs sprawling Anbar province. The angry, disfranchised base that the group exploited is still there, so getting rid of the caliphate will not mean getting rid of the threat this group poses, Civiroglu said. ___ Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed to this report. It was big news recently when the Biloxi Public School District withdrew the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee from the eighth-grade curriculum. Now, after a national outcry, the book is back sort of. Earlier this month, Biloxi officials said eighth-graders would no longer read the book which takes a critical look at racism in a Southern town in the 1930s through the eyes of a 10-year-old girl as part of the regular English curriculum because its racist language made some people uncomfortable. The districts curriculum guide had previously called the book a classic with a focus on developing an appreciation for how ethical principles or laws of life can help people live successfully. After news spread that the book was pulled one of a number of books challenged every year in schools and libraries by parents or others because of something deemed offensive officials had second thoughts. According to the Sun Herald, eighth-graders will now have a new opportunity to read To Kill a Mockingbird. Though it will still not be requirement, a letter to students and parents from Biloxi Junior High School Principal Scott Powell said, 8th Grade ELA teachers will offer the opportunity for interested students to participate in an in-depth book study of the novel during regularly scheduled classes as well as the optional after school sessions. What will be required is a parents note giving a student permission to read the book during class. The Associated Press reported that the Biloxi school board received letters from across the country urging that the book remain in the curriculum, including one from an 11th-grade Advanced Placement language class in Tenafly, New Jersey. These derogatory and offensive words are powerful; they make people uncomfortable because they are painful to hear. However, it is critical that discrimination, offensive language and racism are discussed in the classroom, the students wrote. We need a book like To Kill A Mockingbird to illustrate the extreme prejudice that existed in our countrys past and to help start a conversation about the issues that sadly still exist today. The Sun Heralds editorial board also urged that the book remain, writing: As Lee said through her character Atticus Finch: Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a negro comes up is something I dont pretend to understand. By removing Mockingbird Biloxi has missed a wonderful opportunity to have a frank discussion with their children why reasonable people go stark raving mad. Perhaps if we talked about race more there would be fewer people cavalierly tossing out hurtful racist language. Davon Lymon, charged with killing an Albuquerque police officer in 2015, was in court again Friday, but this time it was his public defense attorneys facing the judge. Lymon, hauled to court from a federal detention center, watched for about an hour as his public defenders represented by their own attorneys fought back against Assistant Attorney General Nicholas Gilberts attempt to have them pay a massive fine for skipping out on a Sept. 15 court hearing. That hearing had been called by 2nd Judicial District Judge Briana Zamora to address some logistics in the murder case against Lymon, though the two sides believed the hearing was meant to deal with an unusual witness issue. The witness, Savannah Garcia, was riding on the back of Lymons motorcycle on the October 2015 night when, prosecutors say, he fatally shot Albuquerque police officer Daniel Webster. Lawyers hadnt been able to take her deposition, an official statement prior to trial, so prosecutors succeeded in having her arrested and held in jail in order to get that statement. But she could be held for only a certain time period before being released. That week of her detention, though, both of Lymons public defenders were off duty. Defender Heather LeBlanc was preparing to see her husband off for deployment, and defender Jeff Rein was on a vacation touring national parks and thus away from cellphone service. So when the two didnt show up for the Sept. 15 hearing, Gilbert called for the two public defenders to be held in contempt of court for their refusal to attend the hearing and given a massive fine or other punishment. Zamora declined immediate sanctions and instead set a hearing for Friday, at which she and Lymon listened to why the public defenders missed the hearing. Zamora on Friday asked the attorneys on both sides to limit their arguments to return to a focus on the merits of the case. She pressed the public defenders, represented by their own attorneys, about why they didnt file any requests for a delay in the hearing or a request to appear by telephone. The public defenders said their boss was supposed to file such documents. Zamora said she will issue a ruling on possible contempt sanctions next week. Lymon, through a public defender brought in specifically for the Friday hearing, said the contempt hearing did not make him want to switch attorneys. He faces first-degree murder, tampering, firearm and other charges. A funeral service to honor New Mexico music icon Al Hurricane is scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday. Alberto Nelson Al Hurricane Sanchez died Oct. 22 at age 81. He announced two years ago that he had stage 4 prostate cancer. Hurricane, known as the Godfather of New Mexico music, released more than 30 albums during his 60-plus year career. Todays service will be held at Queen of Heaven Church, at 5311 Phoenix Ave. NE near Menaul and San Mateo, according to Hurricanes Facebook page. The family invites you to join us in honoring the life and legacy of Al Hurricane, the announcement says. A rosary was recited at Queen of Heaven Church on Sunday night. And the family plans to host another memorial service once the renovations and construction are complete at Civic Plaza Downtown, where the stage will be renamed the Al Hurricane Pavilion at Civic Plaza. The family looks forward to sharing this celebration with his fans and we will keep you updated as details are finalized, according to the announcement. Im still trying to make sense of the news that the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign were the forces behind the infamous Steele Dossier, a dodgy document full of hearsay about Donald Trump that was put together by an even dodgier outfit called Fusion GPS, which has done shady work on behalf of Russia in the past. Named after Christopher Steele, the former British spy who put it together, the document has scads of salacious but unverified stories about the Russians having compromising material on Trump. The sources for some of the allegations are apparently Russian government officials. My scorecard is a hot mess. For months, defenders of the Trump campaigns meeting with a representative of the Russian government insisted that theres nothing wrong with collecting dirt, even from a hostile foreign power. Its just opposition research, went the talking point. Everybody does it. Clintons acolytes replied that, au contraire, it is borderline treasonous to rely on hostile governments for this kind of thing. But now that the Washington Post has reported that the Clinton campaign and the DNC were behind the Trump Dossier, everyones shoes are on other feet. Team Trump now insists this is outrageously improper, if not treasonous, and Team Clinton is trying to wave it all away with, Its just opposition research, everybody does it. Make of that what you will. I, for one, will wait until we get some people under oath, and until the relevant and necessary investigations play themselves out. Still, it seems to me there are only a few obvious takeaways from this development. One is that TrumpWorld only believes the Post is fake news when it reports inconvenient facts about Trump. When Hillary is in the crosshairs, the WaPo is gospel. A second is that Clinton Inc. has been lying for over a year to the country and the press about its involvement in the dossier. As New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman tweeted this week, Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year. And that brings us to a third, incandescently obvious fact: The Clintons will always abuse, exploit, deceive and make fools of their biggest fans and friends, the press, the public and even each other. During the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Bill Clinton lied to the public for a long time. But he also lied to his confidantes, including his wife, so that they could go around and sanctimoniously deride and dismiss Bills accusers, even under oath. This had been Team Clintons M.O. long before Lewinsky became a household name. In 1992, the Clinton campaign set up a whole operation to quash bimbo eruptions i.e., to discredit the victims of Bills sexual harassment something to consider amid the discussion of Harvey Weinstein, Bill OReilly and, yes, Trump these days. But that was just one tile in the rich mosaic of deceit that is the Clinton Way. Bill, who earned the nickname Slick Willie, always believed he was smart enough to talk his way out of anything and he was often successful. But what came naturally to Bill took study for Hillary. He was an improvisational deceiver. She had to prepare. The net result was always the same, though: Their failures were always somebody elses fault. Since the election, Hillary has blamed everyone from the DNC to Bernie Sanders to woman-haters everywhere for her loss. And the people who put faith in the Clintons and defended them always end up holding the bag. But the lies were always a symptom of a deeper pathology. The Clintons saw themselves as better than the institutions they were supposed to serve, from the White House and the State Department to the Democratic Party and even the country. The rules are for other people. Thats why Clinton Inc. collected millions upon millions of dollars from foreign governments, Wall Street and Hollywood while demonizing their opponents as shills for corporations and wealthy interests. Thats why Hillary flouted the rules for her email server. Thats why Bill flouted the rules for pretty much everything. And at every step, they expected others to protect them, lie for them, clean up after them and, if necessary, go to jail for them. As James McDougal, a former friend and business partner of the Clintons in the now ancient Whitewater land-deal-turned-scandal put it, I think the Clintons are really sort of like tornadoes moving through peoples lives. Im just one of the people left in the wake of their passing by. 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. Despite small improvement, Albuquerques Raymond G. Murphy Medical Center for veterans still ranks low on an internal Veterans Affairs ranking system, according to recent data released by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. But the hospital did pull itself out of the bottom 10 ranked VA hospitals, where it landed with a score of 1 star out of a possible high of 5 stars in mid-2016. The VAs Strategic Analytics for Improvement and Learning, or SAIL, rates 146 VA facilities quarterly based on a five-star system. Albuquerques VA hospital was rated a 2 out of a possible 5 at the end of fiscal year 2017, the same as the end of previous fiscal year. The report also noted small improvement had been made. New Mexico VA Health Care System compares well with other regional health care systems on many performance metrics, said associate director Sonja Brown in an email, adding that the Albuquerque facility moved up 11 spots in the ranking since last year. The star ratings are given relative to other VA medical centers and include a variety of metrics, including access to care, quality of mental health care, employee perception of the organization, nursing turnover and efficiency. (VA Secretary) Dr. (David) Shulkin has said he will use this tool to evaluate leadership, said Roscoe Butler, the American Legions deputy director of health care. The prior administration and this administration have viewed this information as a good tool to measure VA facility performance within the system. By design, there will always be a distribution of VA hospitals between one and five stars, explained Albuquerque medical center director Andrew Welch in a December 2016 Journal article. Brown said the Albuquerque facility has shown the greatest improvements in hospitalwide readmissions, health-care-associated infections and mental health continuity of care. The VA began publicly releasing the internal ratings last year after USA Today obtained and published them. The VA has since pledged to publish them annually in an effort to increase the agencys transparency. Secretary Shulkin has been clear that transparency is a crucial component of our efforts to reform the department, Brown said. THOSE NAMES HAVE TO MATCH FOR REAL ID: J. Brent Ricks says in an email that I am told that my original Social Security card, from 1963, with J. Brent Ricks as my name (and) my SSA 1099 in the name of J.B. Ricks is not equal to my passport, which is John Brent Ricks, and thus I need to change one or the other to get this Real ID. This is way too much bureaucracy; Im not trying to defraud anyone; I would just like to renew my drivers license. Is that possible, DMV? Only if your name is the same on all your documents. And its this way in every state in the union, courtesy of Congress and Homeland Security. Benjamin Cloutier, spokesman for the state taxation and Revenue Department, which oversees the Motor Vehicle Division, says First and second name must match on identity and identity number documents. HOSPITAL BIRTH CERTIFICATES DONT WORK: John Engelhardt emails that I tried to get my drivers license today and I had all my paperwork with me. They refused my birth certificate even though it is stamped and embossed to be official. The back even states TO PROVE CITIZENSHIP. John included a copy of his birth certificate, and the issue is it came from the hospital, not the county or state, he was born in. Cloutier says the embossed hospital record is not an official record, and birth must be registered by a government agency for Real ID purposes. NEITHER DO OLD W-2S: Another reader asks do the W2s used for ID have to be current? Im retired so only have some from previous years. Yes, they must be current, but you have options. Again, for Real ID you need one proof of identity number (Social Security card, W-2 or 1099), one proof of identity (original or certified copy of your government birth certificate or valid passport) and two proofs of residency (utility, insurance, property tax or credit card bills or bank statements with name and physical address). A full list of accepted documents is at mvd.newmexico.gov. DIPPING INTO N.M. 165: Placitas resident J.D. Reynolds emails N.M. 165 east of Interstate 25 has a major dip that the New Mexico Department of Transportation needs to address. JD says the issue is that DOT installed an inclinometer well over two years ago to determine the rate in which the dip increases in size, or if it does at all. I can assure the DOT that the dip is getting worse and vehicles are regularly crossing the solid yellow line to avoid the dip. Obviously, this increases the chance of a head-on collision. Kimberly Gallegos, NMDOTs District 3 public information officer, says that stretch of N.M. 165 is currently being evaluated by the NMDOT. An inclinometer is being used to measure the extent of the roadway movement. NMDOT has patched this section of roadway as a temporary solution. Upon evaluation of inclinometer data, the NMDOT will provide an appropriate permanent solution based on the information collected. During the interim, our maintenance patrol staff will continue to monitor the area and provide repairs as needed. MORE ON THE ZIPPER MERGE: After last weeks column revisited the benefits of the zipper merge NMDOT recommends drivers use all lanes up to the actual closure to keep traffic moving, then take turns at the closure like the teeth of a zipper readers had to weigh in. On one side theres Ed P., who says has been driving 30 years. He emails I really wish that the NMDOT would at least try closing lanes down starting at about 1,500 feet and again at 1,000 feet and then at 500 feet. I have seen semi-drivers block the left lanes to prevent other drivers from zipping all the way to the front of the line of traffic just to be able to cut in front of the people that are already in line. (Closing lanes earlier) would allow the traffic to move smoothly through the construction site and not have a bottleneck at the site. This would allow all traffic to use all the open lanes after going through the construction site. I also think that this would prevent all the finger waving and fist shaking and a few four-letter phrases. On the flip side, Charles Caldwell says in an email I just returned from Minnesota, and DOT uses signs saying Use Both Lanes Take Turns At Merge. It would be great if we had those here! Editorial page editor DVal Westphal tackles commuter issues for the Metro area on Mondays. Reach her at 823-3858; dwestphal@abqjournal.com; or P.O. Drawer J, Albuquerque, N.M. 87103. The man had kept a letter in flight's bathroom claiming that the Jet Airways flight 9W 339 is full of dozens of hijackers and the aircraft should be flown straight to POK. By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: How far you can go to be with your lover? Well, when it comes to this particular one, it was beyond the levels of human sanity. An alleged jilted lover decided to fake a hijack in order to win over his lady love. His victims along with his lover were, however, 115 passengers and 7 crew members on board Jet Airways Mumbai-Delhi flight (9W 339). The incident took place during wee hours of a regular Monday morning. advertisement The flight 9W 339 took off a little before 3 am from Mumbai. While the Air Hostess went to check the washroom, she noticed the toilet paper was missing. After a thorough check, she discovered a threat note along with it. The note was a typed letter in Urdu and English, which suggested that there was a bomb in the cargo hold of the plane. It said that the flight "is covered by a dozen hijackers and aircraft should not land and should be flown straight to POK." The note said, "9W 339 is covered by hijackers and should not land and flown straight to POK. 12 people are on board. If you put landing you can hear the noise of people dying. Don't take it as a joke. Cargo area contains explosive bombs and will blast if you land in DEL." At the end of the letter, "Allah is great" was written. The air hostess immediately informed the pilot after which a long drill of anti-hijack begun which sent the security agencies immediately into a tizzy. The plane was immediately diverted to Ahmedabad, where it landed 45 minutes later. Meanwhile, two levels of standard operating were put in place. A thorough check up was carried out with procedures in a hijacked situation were activated. The NSG Commandos were rushed to the plane. But, on finding nothing suspicious, it was decided that the plane would fly to Delhi. Only this time the jet requested that two Air Marshall's be put on the plane for its final journey. A source from NSG said "Since this was anti-hijack operation, the NSG commandos from Gandhinagar were rushed to the spot." Another officer in MHA said "The two levels of standard operating procedures in a hijacked situation which activated were aerodrome committee and the response team, comprising officials of the NSG, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, and intelligence agencies besides others." While other passengers went to board the flight, Salla was stopped. The Airhostess identified him as the only passenger to use the washroom before she entered it. Salla later reportedly confessed to the plot. The case has landed the businessman in more trouble than he could have imagined. "Not only is he going to be booked under a scheduled offence. He may be looking for some time behind bar, if the case goes to NIA." said a senior officer. advertisement The NIA DG YC Modi said the anti terror investigating agency may take up the case. "We are in constant touch with Gujarat Police and ATS". A senior officer later said a final nod from MHA would be required for them to officially take up the case. But, Salla was not just lovelorn, when the security agencies dug up his past, they found out that he was a man with issues. He was extremely unhappy with the operations of Jet Airways and he wanted to "destabilise the airline's operations". In one of his earlier flights, he even carried a cockroach into the plane and blamed it on the airline. (The Jet Airways however refused to comment on either the passenger or the employee) --- ENDS --- BARCELONA, Spain As the last customers finished their drinks at sidewalk cafes one warm October night, three silver-haired activists armed with a long-handled broom and a bucket quietly plastered posters on a nearby wall: Hola nou pais Hello new country. That birth was exactly what they and many others were celebrating in Catalonia, a prosperous northeastern region whose lawmakers voted in favor of independence from Spain on Friday. The Spanish government was aghast, quickly triggering unprecedented constitutional measures to fire the regional government and take direct control of many of Catalonias affairs in order to thwart secession. Some separatist-minded Catalans have vowed to carry out a wave of civil disobedience in response to the application of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution, saying they refuse to recognize Madrids authority. A few days before the vote, Catalonias now-sacked foreign affairs minister, Raul Romeva, said he believed the regions civil servants who number about 200,000 would continue following orders from the elected and legitimate institutions rather than from Madrid. Receive direct orders from Madrid? No, said Miguel Gonzalez Ibanez, general secretary of the teachers federation of the General Confederation of Workers, or CGT, of Catalonia. However, he noted the union objected to aspects of both the Spanish and Catalan education laws. Besides not accepting the consequences of Article 155, we will continue to prioritize the defense of public education, he said. Monday, the first working day since Madrid imposed the new measures, passed smoothly. We havent really witnessed any difference in regards to our normal workday in our work as teachers, he said. Secession is not a simple process. A highly disputed referendum Oct. 1 was declared illegal by Spains constitutional court and boycotted by Catalans who want to stay a part of Spain. It also was marred by violence when national police clashed with people determined to vote. The desire for independence is far from unanimous in Catalonia, which saw hundreds of thousands fill the streets Sunday in favor of remaining in Spain. Exactly how Madrid imposes its authority on the region, and how independence-minded Catalan leaders and their supporters react, will be critical to how the drama plays out. Since democracy was restored in Spain after dictator Gen. Francisco Francos death in 1975, Catalonia has run its own local institutions, including public media, schools, police, firefighters and health facilities. Among the first to hint that Madrids takeover wouldnt go smoothly were Barcelonas firefighters. Even before Article 155 was invoked, they issued a statement describing the central governments threats to do so as the most serious attack suffered by Catalonia since 1939, the start of Francos dictatorship. We do not recognize any other authority than our President, our Government and our Parliament, the statement said. We will only obey the Catalan legality, which has all our legitimacy. What this might translate into, however, is unclear. It is hardly likely that firefighters would refuse to extinguish blazes because of a political disagreement over who runs the fire department. Marc Ferrer, a 43-year-old firefighter and spokesman for the Fire Brigade for Independence platform, said resistance would take a more symbolic form, with local services playing a cat-and-mouse game with Madrid. Even they dont know how to apply Article 155, he said. He refused to say what plans were being made for disobedience, citing security reasons. We are not going to do anything, we have never done anything, that puts people at risk, he stressed, adding that disobedience could mean refusing to display an official flag on the fire station or a Spanish insignia on firetrucks The response from the Spanish state the only thing they understand is repression. For us, its passive resistance and disobedience, Ferrer said. Now we will have to obey the minister. We wont do it, because we are convinced that our cause is just and noble. But it is unclear how many civil servants would be willing to participate in general insubordination, particularly if they risk being fired. One of the major civil servants unions, the CSIF, rejected Romevas call for civil disobedience as irresponsible. The union considers that the vast majority of public employees in Catalonia will be on the side of the law, it said in a statement days before Article 155 was applied. Civil servants said Monday that their first workday after the articles application was generally unremarkable, if a bit uneasy for some. The day was very normal, there were no problems, said Joan Maria Santis, the public sector coordinator of the Catalan branch of the Comisiones Obreras, or Workers Commissions, one of the largest trade unions. Santis, who works for the Catalan government, said that with Madrid having called early regional elections for Dec. 21, there was not enough time for authorities to apply any changes under Article 155 that would be problematic. Even though the state government has applied this intervention which we think is crazy, but even though they have done it, they cannot give orders that would compromise the current legality, he said. His union has not called for civil disobedience, and did not intend to, he noted. Civil servants arent here to serve one government or another, but (to serve) the citizens. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has been at pains to point out he isnt seeking to abolish Catalonias self-governance, but rather to secure it by removing regional officials who have gone rogue and broken the law by declaring a new country. He has called a regional election for Dec. 21. One of the most critical reactions could be from the regions police force, the Mossos dEsquadra, who had been seen by some as being too passive in not intervening to halt the Oct. 1 vote. Spanish Interior Minister Juan Ignacio Zoido sent an open letter Sunday to the police, calling for cooperation and unity. We are in a new era. And in this new scenario the Mossos dEsquadra will once again be the police of all Catalans, he wrote. Initial indications pointed to a relatively smooth transition of power. Valentin Anadon, spokesman for the main regional police union, FEPOL, which represents about 60 percent of the 17,000 members, was critical of Article 155 but said the police would always uphold the law. Speaking before Madrid invoked the constitutional powers, Anadon hoped intervention into regional police would be the least-invasive possible. But the idea that police might disobey orders wasnt something he saw happening. The police are there to comply with the laws. Disobedience might be an option for a politician but this is something that the members of the police have no room for maneuver in, he said. We are here to comply with the laws, period. The police of Catalonia must be the police of all Catalans, Anadon said. ___ Aritz Parra, Alex Oller, Nadine Achoui-Lesage and Nebi Qena in Barcelona contributed to this report. WASHINGTON On a black Monday for Donald Trumps White House, the special counsel investigating possible coordination between the Kremlin and the Trump presidential campaign announced the first charges, indicting Trumps former campaign chairman and revealing how an adviser lied to the FBI about meetings with Russian intermediaries. The formal charges against a total of three people are the first public demonstration that special counsel Robert Mueller and his team believe they have identified criminal conduct. And they send a warning that individuals in the Trump orbit who do not cooperate with Muellers investigators, or who are believed to mislead them during questioning, could also wind up charged and facing years in prison. Paul Manafort, who steered Trumps campaign for much of last year, and business associate Rick Gates ended the day under house arrest on charges that they funneled payments through foreign companies and bank accounts as part of their private political work in Ukraine. George Papadopoulos, also a former campaign adviser, faced further questioning and then sentencing in the first and so far only criminal case that links the Trump election effort to the Kremlin. Manafort and Gates, who pleaded not guilty in federal court, are not charged with any wrongdoing as part of the Trump campaign, and the president immediately sought to distance himself from the allegations. He said on Twitter that the alleged crimes occurred years ago, and he insisted anew there was NO COLLUSION between his campaign and Russia. But potentially more perilous for the president was the guilty plea by former adviser Papadopoulos, who admitted in newly unsealed court papers that he was told in April 2016 that the Russians had dirt on Democratic rival Hillary Clinton in the form of thousands of emails, well before it became public that the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign chairman John Podestas emails had been hacked. Papadopoulos was not charged with having improper communications with Russians but rather with lying to FBI agents when asked about the contacts, suggesting that Mueller who was appointed in May to lead the Justice Departments investigation is prepared to indict for false statements even if the underlying conduct he uncovers might not necessarily be criminal. The developments, including the unexpected unsealing of a guilty plea, usher Muellers investigation into a new, more serious phase. And the revelations in the guilty plea about an advisers Russian contacts could complicate the presidents assertions that his campaign never coordinated with the Russian government to tip the 2016 presidential election in his favor, the central issue behind Muellers mandate. Muellers investigation has already shadowed the administration for months, with investigators reaching into the White House to demand access to documents and interviews with key current and former officials. The Papadopoulos plea occurred Oct. 5 but was not unsealed until Monday, creating further woes for an administration that had prepared over the weekend to deflect the Manafort allegations. In court papers, Papadopoulos admitted lying to FBI agents about the nature of his interactions with foreign nationals who he thought had close connections to senior Russian government officials. The court filings dont provide details on the emails or whom Papadopoulos may have told about the Russian government effort. Papadopoulos has been cooperating with investigators, according to the court papers. His lawyers hinted strongly in a statement Monday that their client has more testimony to provide. There, too, the White House scrambled to contain the potential fallout, with press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders contending that Papadopoulos role in the campaign was extremely limited. She said any actions that he took would have been on his own. The criminal case against Manafort, who surrendered to the FBI in the morning, had long been expected. The indictment naming Manafort and Gates, who also had a role in the campaign, lays out 12 counts, including conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, making false statements and several charges related to failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts. The indictment alleges the men moved money through hidden bank accounts in Cyprus, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles. In total, more than $75 million flowed through the offshore accounts, according to the indictment. Manafort is accused of laundering more than $18 million. Outside the courthouse, Manafort attorney Kevin Downing attacked the charges and said there is no evidence that Mr. Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government. Manaforts indictment doesnt reference the Trump campaign or make any allegations about coordination between Russia and campaign aides. But it does allege a criminal conspiracy was continuing through February of this year, after Trump had taken office. Manafort, 68, was fired as Trumps campaign chairman in August 2016 after word surfaced that he had orchestrated a covert lobbying operation on behalf of pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. The indictment against Manafort and Gates says the pair had managed a covert Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraines ruling political party. Gates personally directed the work of two prominent Washington lobbying firms, Mercury LLC and the Podesta Group. The indictment doesnt refer to the companies by name, but the fallout at one was swift. Prominent Washington lobbyist Tony Podesta, a Democrat and brother to John, resigned Monday, seeking to avoid further enmeshing his firm in the controversy, according to a person familiar with the decision who spoke anonymously to preserve relationships with former colleagues. Specifically, the indictment accuses Manafort of using his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income. That included using offshore accounts to purchase multimillion-dollar properties in the U.S., some of which the government is trying to seize. The indictment also cites more than $900,000 in payments to an antique rug store, about $850,000 to a New York mens clothing store and the purchase of a Mercedes Benz and multiple Range Rovers. Manafort also had registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for parts of Ukrainian work that occurred in Washington. The filing under the Foreign Agents Registration Act came retroactively, a tacit acknowledgment that he operated in Washington in violation of the federal transparency law. The indictment Monday accuses Manafort and Gates of making several false and misleading statements in that FARA filing. ___ Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker, Stephen Braun, Tom LoBianco, Sadie Gurman and Jeff Horwitz contributed to this report. FARMINGTON Citing the need to preserve cultural properties and sacred sites from oil and gas drilling, the National Congress of American Indians has called for a moratorium on leasing and permitting in the greater Chaco area. The tribal organization issued its stance due to the significance of the area to tribes and pueblos, in addition to protecting the regions night skies, soundscapes and views. The organization was established in 1944 to advocate on behalf of tribal governments and communities, according to its website. Although tribes can become members of the organization, the Navajo Nation is not a member. The resolution supports the creation of a protection zone around the Chaco Cultural National Historic Park. The call for protection is necessary because of the threat from activities associated with oil and gas drilling and from hydraulic fracking, according to the resolution. The organization is also urging the U.S. Department of the Interior and its agencies to cooperate on the management of a protection zone and conduct government-to-government consultation with tribes and pueblos. Zach Stone, a spokesman for BLMs Farmington Field Office, said the office had no comment about the resolution. The New Mexico Oil and Gas Association did not respond to a request for comment. A press release from the Campaign to Protect Greater Chaco called the NCAI resolution a response to a July 6 order by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to streamline the process for oil and gas leasing permits on federal lands. The Campaign to Protect Greater Chaco is a group of volunteers and activists who support the protection of the area. Noel Lyn Smith covers the Navajo Nation for The Daily Times. She can be reached at 505-564-4636. 2017 The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.) Visit The Daily Times (Farmington, N.M.) at www.daily-times.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC. _____ The University of New Mexico Board of Regents will name the universitys next president on Thursday, according to a meeting agenda released Monday. The board will convene at 9 a.m. Thursday in Scholes Hall, enter executive session and emerge to announce the schools 22nd president. The regents are choosing from a field of five finalists: Dr. David Brenner, vice chancellor for health sciences and medical school dean at the University of California, San Diego Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky, senior vice president for health sciences and medical school dean at Stony Brook University in New York Anny Morrobel-Sosa, Ph.D., president of her own consulting firm and former provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Lehman College in New York Charles Chuck Staben, Ph.D., president of the University of Idaho Garnett Stokes, Ph.D., provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Missouri UNM has been on the hunt for its next president for a year, using a professional search firm and a local search committee made up of people from inside and outside UNM. The search committee chose a slate of semifinalists from which the regents earlier this month picked five finalists. Each finalist had a daylong campus visit this month that included a rigorous schedule of meetings with different groups including UNMs executive cabinet, the regents, and the faculty and an open forum in the Student Union Building. The regents are meeting today in closed session to deliberate. They will hear feedback from campus constituencies and weigh responses to the surveys posted online after the candidates recent visits. The chosen candidate will formally succeed Bob Frank, who stepped down at the end of 2016 after announcing plans not to seek a new contract. Frank earned $362,136 annually, but the regents have not said yet what the next president will earn. PARIS Abdelkader Merah wants to show that he has escaped his violent past through devotion to Islam. Once nicknamed Bin Laden in the French housing project where he grew up, the violence-prone ex-delinquent now says he is a peaceful Muslim and has displayed calm, wit and knowledge at his terror trial in Paris. From the glass-enclosed court docket where he has been standing for the past four weeks, Merah has been trying to distance himself from his younger brother Mohammed, who five years ago killed seven people in extremist attacks in southern France. Im not Mohammed Merah, I am Abdelkader Merah. There is a big difference, he told the court. Abdelkader Merah is accused of complicity to terror in connection with the shooting spree his brother went on in 2012. He denies any wrongdoing. Public prosecutor Naima Rudloff on Monday requested the maximum sentence for Merah, life imprisonment with 22 years before any possible parole. A verdict is expected on Thursday. In March 2012, Mohammed Merah killed three French paratroopers in Toulouse and Montauban. Then a few days later, he burst into a Jewish school, killed a rabbi and his two young sons and grabbed an 8-year-old girl and shot her in the head. He was then shot and killed in a dramatic 30-hour police standoff at his Toulouse apartment. Abdelkader Merah has been held for over the past five years, suspected of having mentored Mohammed as he turned toward jihadism, and with providing assistance to him. With a thick beard and his hands behind his back, the 35-year-old Merah has proved hard to unsettle during his court hearings, even when the investigation suggested he had helped his brother. On French intelligence radar since 2006 for his proximity to radical cells in the Toulouse region, Merah has admitted he was with his brother the day Mohammed stole the motor scooter used in the killings. He said he didnt report the theft to police because he didnt want to be a snitch. This is how it works in the projects. Ive got the street DNA, Merah told the court. As a Muslim, a theft in my presence was not something enjoyable. On the other hand, in the housing project, a scooter theft is not something that really matters. Abdelkader Merahs story is similar to dozens of troubled French youths who have taken the path to radicalism. A former construction painter, Abdelkader Merah is regarded by investigators as the ideologist who radicalized his younger brother within a dysfunctional family with an absent father. Placed in foster care after he was kicked out from school, Merah was exposed to violence and drugs at an early age. A childcare workers report from 1996 describes him as a violent boy. Merah, nicknamed Bin Laden in his neighborhood after he glorified the 9/11 attacks does not deny being a role model for Mohammed. But he insists that was before he embraced Islam back in 2006, at a time when he was drinking alcohol and smoking cannabis. When I was a delinquent, I was a star in the neighborhood. And he (Mohammed) was looking up to us, said Abdelkader Merah, who was jailed in 2003 for stabbing the familys eldest brother, Abdelghani, during an argument. Merah, who grew up alongside two brothers and two sisters, was lured toward radical Islam after he was discharged from jail, after meeting with extremists in the Izards housing project. I wake up Muslim. I live Muslim. I eat Muslim. I sleep Muslim, said Merah during his trial, claiming that democracy is a religion and that he places Islamic law above the French constitution. Does that mean he could use violence against French society? Absolutely not, Merah told court President Franck Zientara. Merah claims that Islam has brought peace to his troubled mind. After what he calls his conversion, he went to Egypt four times. While prosecutors believe he could have travelled abroad to connect with terror networks his brother Mohammed met him in Cairo in 2010 he insists he went there to learn literary Arabic in Quranic schools. Investigators have found dozens of books on Islam at his house, but also a jihadi audio guide recorded by an Al-Qaeda affiliate. People say I have mentored my little brother, he said. But I would have loved him to follow me in my quest for science. During his trial, Merah has admitted for the first time that his brother was a terrorist, and said he felt ashamed by his killings. But during a conversation with his mother recorded earlier in jail, he said that Mohammed had offered him the most beautiful gift. And if he ever has a son, Abdelkader plans on naming him Mohammed. He did what he did, but he remains my little brother, Abdelkader said. Why should I turn my back on him? For Laurence Cechman, a lawyer for the victims family, theres no doubt that Abdelkader is hiding his true face. What a beautiful lesson in taqiyya, she said, using the Arabic word describing strategic lying to non-believers. Presbyterian Healthcare Services, New Mexicos largest health care provider, has agreed to pay $18.5 million to the state to settle a lawsuit that alleged it filed fraudulent tax forms to avoid Medicaid premium taxes dating back to 2003. We are pleased that we can announce today that we have been working alongside the Attorney Generals office and mutually agreed on a settlement going forward, said Dale Maxwell, president and chief executive of Presbyterian. Maxwell said fraud allegations are dismissed under the settlement agreement, but it doesnt address the insurers entire tax liability identified in a recent audit. We place a high priority on honoring our obligations to the state we have served for 109 years, said Maxwell. In fact, we have paid more than $345 million in premium tax payments over the past 15 years. The states case against Presbyterian stemmed from a whistleblower lawsuit filed by three employees at OSI: Accountant and auditor Monica Galloway, Financial Audit Bureau Chief Shawna Maestas, and Chief Administrative Officer Jolene Gonzales. The AGs office took over the case earlier this year. The settlement comes almost four months after the lawsuit was filed against Presbyterian Health Plan Inc., Presbyterian Network Inc. and Presbyterian Insurance Co. Inc. The original plaintiffs and their attorney will receive 20 percent of the settlement, according to the agreement and terms of the states Fraud Against Taxpayers Act. They stood to receive more if they had prevailed in court without the attorney generals intervention. In its defense, Presbyterian says state insurance regulators reviewed and approved the companys amendments to past tax payments. Maxwell said the payment to the state will come from reserves and operating funds. Attorney General Hector Balderas said Presbyterian stepped up and did the right thing with the settlement, and the payment returns critical funds to the state coffers to fund Medicaid coverage. Balderas said New Mexico has done a horrible job of assessing, recovering, and collecting taxes owed by insurance companies, and said the state can ill afford having the same regulatory body responsible for setting rates for insurers to also be collecting taxes. The settlement represents a larger amount than the roughly $14.6 million in unpaid Medicaid premium taxes and fees due from Presbyterian, as described in the states industry-wide audit of insurance companies that shows them $65 million in arrears. According to Presbyterian, $15.3 million of the settlement amount reflects the payment in full by PHP of premium taxes related to health insurance premiums for 2003 and 2004 where there were complex, and in some cases contradictory, changes in the states premium tax laws. The $3.5 million figure reflects a compromise of disputed claims to avoid time-consuming and expensive litigation, the outcome of which was uncertain, Presbyterian said in a prepared statement. Presbyterian and state officials said the settlement resolves those debts, but not an additional $14 million in estimated underpayment related to tax credits that offset Presbyterians contributions to a high-risk insurance pool for people who are denied insurance or considered uninsurable. Maxwell said those estimated underpayments are related to a recent regulatory change that delays insurance-pool tax credits until the year after payments to the insurance pool. Presbyterian will be working with the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance to clear up the rest of its tax liability. We look forward to getting this issue behind us, he said. A newly released audit places Presbyterian Health Plan at the top of a list of 17 insurance companies with unpaid taxes that are owed to the state of New Mexico. Records released by the New Mexico Office of the State Auditor last week show a $28.9 million underpayment of taxes at the for-profit arm of Presbyterian Healthcare Services since 2003. The state collects hundred of millions of dollars each year through a 3 percent tax on insurance premiums and additional surcharges. The Associated Press contributed to this report The number of people and businesses protesting their taxes has created sizable risk to New Mexicos general operating budget, nonpartisan legislative analysts say. A report released Monday estimates that over $440 million in taxes are under protest now by taxpayers who have had their refunds denied or are otherwise challenging their tax bills. If even one-third of the protests prove successful, analysts said, the states general fund could take a hit of roughly $147 million, or about 2 percent of the $6.1 billion budget. New Mexico is expecting a thin budget next year. A revenue forecast released in August estimated the state would have only $25 million in new revenue above this years spending levels. John Monforte, acting secretary of the Taxation and Revenue Department, said his agency is performing well within its budget constraints. Overall, we are doing more with less, he told lawmakers Monday, and I think we are doing that very well. Rep. Jason Harper, a Rio Rancho Republican who has pushed to overhaul the states tax code, thanked the department for its work. Im impressed with what youre able to do with what you have, Harper said Monday during a meeting of the Legislatures Revenue Stabilization and Tax Policy Committee, where the report was presented. The nonpartisan analysts noted that tax protests are a normal part of tax collection a way for taxpayers to challenge their assessments and ensure theyre treated fairly. But theres been significant growth in the amount under protest, the report said. Industry analysts have expressed concern over the amount of refund denials resulting in protests, creating backlogs and delaying revenue collection by the state Taxation and Revenue Department, the report said. The report also says understaffing in the department among both leadership and front-line jobs could hamper efforts to collect revenue owed to the state. Twenty-one percent of the departments positions are vacant, an official said. Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said the Taxation and Revenue Department simply needs more employees to handle its work, a condition thats stretched through several administrations. We need resources in the department, he said. Responding to the legislative report, Ben Cloutier, a spokesman for the department, said the agency has made significant progress to improve revenues, and our department will keep doing all we can to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars while working to protect the tax reforms that are lifting up our families and businesses. AUSTIN, Texas Police in Austin say a person attending a Halloween party has died hours after being shot along with two others by a man dressed as Santa Claus. Thirty-two-year-old Randall Gaston Jones was being held without bail Monday at the Travis County jail in the death of 37-year-old Michael McCloskey. Jones is facing three counts of aggravated assault. Online jail records dont indicate whether he has an attorney. Investigators say the shooting occurred early Sunday at his home following a dispute with the others. Jones went to a nearby residence and told a neighbor about the shooting and said he intended to surrender to authorities. Police say he placed a handgun on the neighbors welcome mat and waited for officers to arrive. Authorities initially said the gunshot wounds werent considered life-threatening. WASHINGTON U.S. special operations forces captured a militant in Libya accused of playing an instrumental role in the Benghazi attacks, officials said Monday, in a high-stakes operation designed to bring the perpetrators to justice five years after the deadly violence. President Donald Trump identified the militant as Mustafa al-Imam and said his capture signified that the four Americans who died will never be forgotten. Justice Department officials were escorting al-Imam by military plane to the United States, where hes expected to be tried in federal court. Our memory is deep and our reach is long, and we will not rest in our efforts to find and bring the perpetrators of the heinous attacks in Benghazi to justice, Trump said. The Navy SEAL-led raid marked the first publicly known operation since Trump took office to target those accused of involvement in Benghazi, which mushroomed into a multiyear political fracas centered on Republican allegations of a bungled Obama administration response. Those critiques shadowed Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the attacks, through her presidential campaign. U.S. forces captured al-Imam just before midnight local time Sunday in Misrata, on Libyas north coast, U.S. officials said. He was taken to a U.S. Navy ship at the Misrata port for transport by military plane to Washington, where hes expected to arrive within the next two days, one of the officials said. Once on American soil, al-Imam will face trial in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as the FBI continues to investigate, the Justice Department said. He faces three criminal charges that were filed in May 2015 but only recently unsealed: killing or conspiring to kill someone during an attack on a federal facility, providing support for terrorists, and using a firearm in connection with a violent crime. It wasnt immediately clear how al-Imam was involved in the Sept. 11, 2012, violence. The U.S. attorneys office said he is a Libyan national and about 46 years old. Trump said hed ordered the raid, and thanked the U.S. military, intelligence agencies and prosecutors for tracking al-Imam and enabling his capture. The U.S. officials said the operation was coordinated with Libyas internationally recognized government. They werent authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said hed spoken with the relatives of some of the Americans who died in Benghazi: U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, State Department information management officer Sean Patrick Smith, and contract security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Tillerson said the U.S. would spare no effort to ensure al-Imam is held accountable. Al-Imam will face court proceedings in U.S. District Court, officials said, in an apparent departure from Trumps previously expressed desire to send militants to the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In an interview last March with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, Attorney General Jeff Sessions called Guantanamo a very fine place for holding these kind of dangerous criminals. The commando raid also came amid an ongoing debate about the use of U.S. forces to pursue insurgents in Africa and other locations outside of warzones like Iraq and Afghanistan. Four U.S. soldiers were killed in an ambush in Niger earlier this month under circumstances that have remained hazy and prompted Democrats and Republicans in Congress to express concerns. Earlier this month, another man accused in the Benghazi attack, Abu Khattala, went on trial in federal court in Washington. Khattala, captured during President Barack Obamas tenure, has pleaded not guilty to the 18 charges against him, including murder of an internationally protected person, providing material support to terrorists and destroying U.S. property while causing death. The Benghazi assault started in the evening when armed attackers scaled the wall of the diplomatic post and moved through the front gate. Stevens was rushed to a fortified safe room along with Smith, but were then siphoned off from security officers when attackers set the building and its furniture on fire. Libyan civilians found Stevens hours later in the wreckage, and he died of smoke inhalation in a hospital, becoming the first U.S. ambassador killed in the line of duty in more than three decades. A nearby CIA annex was attacked by mortar fire hours after the diplomatic complex, killing Woods and Doherty, who were defending the rooftop. The attack became fodder for multiple congressional investigations to determine what happened and whether the Obama administration misled the public on the details of the bloody assault. Initial accounts provided by administration officials, notably Obamas U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, said the attack grew out of a protest against an anti-Muslim internet film. Later, the administration said it was a planned terrorist attack. A two-year investigation by a House Benghazi committee focused heavily on Clintons role and whether security at the compounds and the response to the attack was sufficient. It was the Benghazi probe that revealed Clinton used a private email server for government work, prompting an FBI investigation that proved to be an albatross for her presidential campaign. ___ Associated Press writers Maggie Michael and Sadie Gurman contributed to this report. Sen. Martin Heinrich, a New Mexico Democrat who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said Monday that Special Counsel Robert Muellers investigation of collusion between the Russians and President Donald Trumps 2016 campaign should be protected. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., also called for Congress to take steps to protect Mueller. The New Mexico Democrats statements came on the heels of todays indictments of former Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Rick Gates, and news of a guilty plea by former Trump adviser George Papadopoulos for making false statements to the FBI. There has long been speculation that Trump could fire Mueller before his inquiry is complete. At a briefing today, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said there are no current plans to dismiss the former FBI director from his investigation. President Trumps campaign chairman and a top adviser have been indicted for conspiracy against the United States, and another senior adviser has pled guilty to false statements to the FBI about coordinating with Russians during the Trump campaign, Heinrich said. Thats the sobering truth that has everyone deeply concerned. The Special Counsels investigation needs to be protected any interference is an obstruction of justice. This isnt a campaign anymore where President Trump can just complain away his problems. The facts matter, and our democracy demands a justice system without obstruction. As a member of the Senate intelligence committee, Heinrich has been deeply involved in the congressional investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign. Udall, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, authored an amendment in July to prevent the unlawful firing of Mueller. The amendment was includedin the fiscal year 2018 Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies funding bill. Udalls amendment directs the leadership of the U.S. Department of Justice to adhere to the rule of law and fully comply with the departments special counsel regulations, which state that the attorney general cannot fire Mueller without cause. Any attempt to undermine this investigation would amount to obstruction of justice and sabotaging the rule of law, Udall said Monday. Congress should take any and all necessary steps on a bipartisan basis to protect the special counsel from being removed for anything other than just cause. By PTI: travel, trade Jammu, Oct 30 (PTI) Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir have sought a meeting with officials of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on Thursday to discuss resuming cross-LoC travel and trade via the Poonch-Rawalkote road, an official said today. Travel and trade via the road was suspended due to repeated ceasefire violations by Pakistani security forces. The cross-Line of Control (LoC) bus service was suspended on July 10 due to heavy firing and shelling by Pakistani forces. advertisement "We have requested PoK officials - via the government - for a meeting on November 2 to decide on resuming the cross- LoC travel and trade via the Poonch-Rawalkote road," Custodian of the cross-LoC trade (Poonch), Mohmmad Tanveer, told PTI. Tanveer said a response from PoK authorities was awaited. Since July 10, no bus has crossed the LoC via the Chakan-Da-Bagh crossing point on the route. Poonch residents engaged in barter trade between the two sides have suffered an estimated loss of Rs 63 crore following the trade suspension. India and Pakistan have engaged in one of the worst border skirmishes along the LoC this year. Pakistan violated ceasefire with India more than 600 times till September 30, the highest in the past decade, according to the Union home ministry. The truce between India and Pakistan along the International Border, the Line of Control and the Actual Ground Position Line in Jammu and Kashmir had come into force in November 2003. In July, eleven people, including nine soldiers, were killed and 18 injured in Pakistani ceasefire violations, which triggered the suspension of travel and trade along the LoC. PTI AB ABH --- ENDS --- More than two years after former Albuquerque Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Don Moya filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the district, the case is headed to mediation. The two sides will meet on Nov. 6 at the districts request, according to Kate Ferlic, Moyas attorney. Ferlic said the case could settle that day, but its not over until its over. Well just see what APS comes up with, Ferlic said. (Moya) is ready for trial. He is ready for vindication. He is ready to show New Mexico that he did the right thing by protecting school kids. Moyas whistleblower lawsuit contends that he was placed on paid administrative leave in August 2015 for alerting APS administrators to wasteful audits supported by the new superintendent, Luis Valentino. APS was recently denied a summary judgment in Santa Fes 1st Judicial District Court, and three district experts were barred from testifying on human resources procedures. An APS spokeswoman declined to comment on the litigation. To date, the district has spent more than $700,000 on legal fees, though insurance caps out-of-pocket costs at $350,000. Ferlic said APS has had many opportunities to settle, but opted to try to defend this case more vigorously than any case of this nature that Ive seen. The saga began on Aug. 7, 2015, when Valentino, recently hired from San Franciscos school district, tried to text New Mexico Education Secretary Hanna Skandera about going after Moya for running roughshot. He accidentally sent the text to Moya himself. Later that day, Valentino placed Moya on paid administrative leave. The two were reportedly friendly when Valentino began the job in May 2015, but tangled over proposed audits Moya believed were wasteful and unnecessary. Then-Deputy Superintendent Jason Martinez, a curriculum expert Valentino hired from Colorado, also supported the audits. Less than two weeks after Moya was placed on paid leave, Martinez resigned amid allegations he had skipped a mandatory criminal background check to conceal child sex assault charges against him filed in Denver. He was later found not guilty. Valentino stepped down at the end of August 2015 with an $80,000 buyout and positive reference letter from the APS Board of Education. Moya now works as a finance director for Santa Fe County. Ferlic said she hopes Moyas lawsuit will change practices at APS and make them more fiscally responsible than what the facts of the case revealed here. Years ago, Artificial Intelligence (AI) existed only in the realm of science fiction. In 2017, its growth and influence on the future of businesses and on mankind in general is limitless. This high-end technology is all set to influence marketers in ways that are more pervasive and sophisticated than ever before. It truly is the next big thing in marketing communications and so many other industries. The DDB Mudra Group has consistently worked towards providing innovative and focused marketing solutions to its clients. With Hotifys AI expertise, the Group aims to enhance marketing efficacy for the businesses they manage while simultaneously increasing resource optimisation. Hotify is a leading Enterprise AI solution provider, committed to make AI work for enterprises across a wide variety of industries and sectors. Consumer marketing and communication is a key focus sector for Hotify and presents strong potential for AI-led innovations. In this partnership, Hotify shall enable the DDB Mudra Group to launch innovative AI-led marketing and communication products and services. By taking on the AI-first focus, the agency intends to augment its services with Artificial Intelligence and foray into AI-first products to deliver increased ROI, efficiency and predictability for their clients digital initiatives. As partners, the DDB Mudra Group and Hotify intend to use available Big Data information, and shape it into actionable solutions that address consumer needs, with the aid of AI.The agency looks to leverage Hotifys AI expertise and platform to create AI-enabled digital solutions for itsclientsas well as its internal processes for enhanced delivery. DDB Mudra Groups AI-augmented products and service offerings will enable them and their clients in following ways: Precision Consumer Targeting Real-Time tracking and attributing customers across all digital assets will allow forsharper and more dynamic consumer segmentation. These dynamic consumer segments and behaviour analytics let users target their clients, at the right time and through the right communications channel. Real Time Prescriptive Marketing Insights Hotifys cloud intelligence platform will enable the Group to track millions of real-time events happening across various sources and by tying that with pre-existing knowledge of consumer behaviour, they will generate real-time insights about future consumer actions and needs that can be filled. AI-Augmented process automation Smart process automation, augmented with Deep Learning, will let the Group deliver consistent, high performance and rapid service to the clients, along with prescriptive insights for managing and growing their business KPIs. Cognitive Content Deep Content analytics, powered by some of the latest Deep Learning algorithms, will enable the Group to deliver more cognitively aligned content to their consumers. Both, the DDB Mudra Group and Hotify believe that AI can be used to deliver different things for different businesses. The teams are confident that Hotifys advanced technologies will help the businesses know their consumers better and faster, and deliver experiences that are otherwise not possible. Commenting on the partnership, Deepak Nair, Chief Growth Officer, DDB Mudra Group, said, As the digital ecosystem continues to evolve, it is imperative that we look towards creating more meaningful solutions for our clients in all facets of their business. This partnership with Hotify AI, with their incredible wealth of knowledge, expertise, and robust platform, is a bold step in creating value for our clients across the Group. Ankur Dinesh Garg, Chief Executive Officer, Hotify AI Group, added here, We are on a mission of enterprise AI adoption and our partnership with the DDB Mudra Group is a great milestone for us. Hotify has an eco-system driven strategy, where we work as AI enablers to our partners, who in turn bring significant domain expertise and existing clients relationships with large enterprises. Our partnership with the DDB Mudra combines our AI capability with the agencys domain expertise- to deliver AI-led success in consumer marketing segment and increase ROI, efficiency and predictability for the DDB Mudra Groups clients. About Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence is a much talked-about high-tech topic across the globe for its promise to create a disruptive future. Rapid evolution of AI technologies in the past several years has led enterprises across all business sectors to explore its application in their domains. Though the world seems far from AI maturity, AI is gradually finding its place as an augmented tool to help in business processes and intelligence. Technology giants around the world have realized the value of AI to sit at the core of data & decision-intensive sectors such as retail, e-commerce, digital marketing and finance. What is AI First? AI-first strategy implies serious focus within an organisation on investing in AI-based products and service offerings, putting artificial intelligence at the core of data-driven strategicdecision-making. AI-first also signifies a commitment of an organization to stay ahead of the curve in future technology adoption. NORWOOD, Mass., Oct. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- As 2017 winds down, drivers everywhere are looking to Ford dealerships to experience the selection of new 2018 Ford models. With more than 75% of 2018 Ford models announced and arriving at dealerships, now is a better time than ever to see and test-drive the latest and greatest from the iconic American manufacturer. Drivers looking to buy a new 2018 Ford vehicle have plenty of choices. In addition to Ford providing great models like the 2018 Ford F-150 pickup truck and the 2018 Ford Explorer three-row SUV, available 2018 models feature a range of trim levels, options and packages which allow drivers to pick and choose the exact type of vehicle for which they are looking. Being able to select specific features on a 2018 Ford model may leave drivers disappointed by a trip to the local Ford showroom where the specific configuration they want is not immediately available for test drive or purchase. To provide drivers with the perfect model for their individual needs, Norwood dealership Jack Madden Ford has published a blog post which seeks to inform drivers about the custom order option, and set expectations for a Ford factory order through Jack Madden Ford. The blog post, titled "How to Factory Order a Car or Truck" outlines the simple steps for a Ford custom factory order through Jack Madden Ford. These steps include configuration and placing the order. Aware of the individual features desired by drivers for their 2018 Ford vehicles, Jack Madden Ford knows that the opportunity to configure and order a custom 2018 Ford model will appeal to a wide variety of drivers. Residents of Norwood and Norfolk County who are seeking more information on the vehicles available for Ford factory order through Jack Madden Ford are encouraged to visit the dealership's website, www.jackmaddenford.com. Additional inquiries about the factory order process can be directed to the Jack Madden Ford sales team at 888-836-1758. Jack Madden Ford is located at 825 Providence Highway in Norwood. Media Contact: Dylan Roche, Jack Madden Ford, (888) 836-1758, droche@jackmaddenford.com News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com SOURCE Jack Madden Ford MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Minnesota Dental Association (MDA) in conjunction with the Minnesota Department of Health and Minnesota Board of Dentistry has released a fact sheet to help dentists improve how they use antibiotics. The development of the fact sheet is part of a broader effort to promote "Antibiotic Stewardship" and is a response to the increasing prevalence of antibiotic resistance and negative consequences of antibiotic use. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that each year in the U.S., two million people develop infections from antibiotic-resistant bacteria and 23,000 die from associated causes. The major driver of antibiotic resistance is our widespread antibiotic use. An essential part of modern medical care, antibiotics are used routinely to prevent and treat bacterial disease. However, the effectiveness of these important drugs is declining, as more bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics. Dentists prescribe approximately 10% of all antibiotics in U.S. outpatient settings. In 2016, Minnesota released its One Health Minnesota Antibiotic Stewardship Strategic Plan. Stewardship interventions have been proven to improve individual patient outcomes, reduce the burden of antibiotic resistance, and save health care dollars. As part of the initiative, the state has partnered with the MDA and Board of Dentistry to support dentists in better understanding their opportunity to be part of the solution to this issue. The MDA and its more than 3,000 members have made this issue a priority and are taking proactive measures to improve practices. This includes a commitment to demonstrate dedication to and accountability for optimizing antibiotic prescribing and patient safety. Dentists are urged to implement new policies to ensure they are following best practices. "As dentists we know that dental care is in fact health care," said, Dr. R. David Resch, president of the Minnesota Dental Association. "I am proud that the MDA is taking responsibility for advocating for both dentists and the public when it comes to this issue." The MDA encourages dentists and patients alike to be proactive when it comes to educating themselves on antibiotics. By using One Health-oriented communication, Minnesota's public and professionals will have the awareness needed to think innovatively and responsibly about approaches to optimizing antibiotic use. For more information, visit http://www.health.state.mn.us/onehealthabx. About the Minnesota Dental Association The Minnesota Dental Association is the voice of dentistry in Minnesota, representing practicing dentists. It is committed to the highest standards of oral health and access to care for all Minnesotans. You can learn more at www.mndental.org. The Minnesota Dental Association is a part of the American Dental Association, the nation's largest dental association, representing 158,000 dentist members. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/minnesota-dental-association-releases-antibiotic-resistance-and-stewardship-fact-sheet-for-minnesotas-dental-professionals-300545761.html SOURCE Minnesota Dental Association LONDON, October 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Kingdom of Morocco's Ministry of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development has confirmed support for two conferences focusing on gas and renewables in Casablanca this November. With confirmed participation from Honourable Minister Aziz Rabbah, the North & West Africa Gas Options Conference will assemble public sector leaders, IOCs, infrastructure developers, investors and IPP developers alongside major national, international and multilateral banks to discuss investment opportunities in Africa's energy sector. (Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/544384/EnergyNet_Logo.jpg ) "With decreased project assurance across the continent, we're aware that investors need to broaden their portfolios and it is with this in mind that these co-located events: Gas Options -North & West Africa and the Africa Renewable Energy Forum will take place in Morocco from 29th November to 1st December," commented EnergyNet's Programme Manager Valeria Aruffo. "Together they will provide developers and gas players a platform to connect with credible stakeholders, build new partnerships and understand the exciting role Moroccans and their African partners across the regions will play in the coming years as billions of dollars are pumped into these economies." The Honourable Minister Rabbah will open the conferences with a keynote speech, going on to explore potential financing bottlenecks in Morocco's gas and renewable energy strategy. Alongside partners Royal Dutch Shell, Karpowership, ACWA Power, DLA Piper, DBSA, Engie, Fieldstone Africa, Warsila, White & Case, Jinko Solar, Clarke Energy and Cheniere, African governmental figures will attend from The Gambia, Liberia, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda, South Africa, Ethiopia, Mauritius and Zimbabwe. DFI representation from IFC, World Bank, Africa50 and OPIC will be present to showcase financing opportunities and bankable projects. Gathering enterprises from across the globe, Abu Dhabi's renewable energy company, Masdar Clean Energy and one of India's biggest business houses, Adani Solutions will also push the frontier of energy solutions at the summits. The North & West Africa Gas Options Summit will explore the evolution of the global gas market as a catalyst for industrial growth for the region, linking with Europe and the development of gas-to-power projects within the ECOWAS and Maghreb regions. In addition to regional gas infrastructure projects, the programme will discuss gas utilisation for the downstream sectors and the positive impact the North & West Africa gas economy will have on the ECOWAS region. Frederik Smits van Oyen, Cheniere's Vice-President, Origination and Marketing of the EMEA regions commented, "Cheniere is looking forward to the North & West Africa Gas Options conference; it's a great platform for stakeholders to promote sustainable, complementary energy solutions that provide economic prosperity in the region." The Africa Renewable Energy Forum (ARF) will explore the role of renewable energy in achieving a sustainable energy mix by delving into the financing of clean energy projects. The clear appetite for investments in renewable IPP projects means that the focused dialogue around bankable projects at ARF will support both investors and governments in better formulating an integrated strategy. Venue: Hyatt Regency, Casablanca, Morocco Event organisers: EnergyNet Ltd., a part of Clarion Events For press and media enquiries, please contact Monique.Bonnick@energynet.co.uk For more information about these meeting: Gas Options: North & West Africa 29 - 30 November 2017 www.gasoptions-nwafrica.com go-nwa@energynet.co.uk Africa Renewable Energy Forum 30 November - 1 December 2017 www.africa-renewable-energy-forum.com arf@energynet.co.uk Monique Bonnick Monique.bonnick@energynet.co.uk +44(0)20-7384-7901 Among the scores of mass graves that dot Chungui district in the mountainous Ayacucho region of Peru are remnants attesting to massacres carried out by both the Shining Path guerrillas and the military and police forces that hunted them, notes The New York Times, which features work by Peruvian photojournalist By PTI: New Delhi, Oct 30 (PTI) The Communist Party of India (CPI) lashed out at the Delhi Police for alleged lathicharge on people protesting against the demolition at Kathputli Colony here today, and demanded strong action against those responsible for it. The Delhi Development Authority today began a demolition drive at west Delhis Kathputli Colony, triggering clashes among its residents, activists and the police. advertisement However, the police and the DDA denied using any force against the protesters. "The Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of India condemns the brutal lathicharge of police at Kathputli Colony opposite Shadipur depot today morning, injuring several people. Hundreds of police suddenly invaded the colony and destroyed it with bulldozers," a CPI statement said. The statement stated that a delegation of the CPI national executive consisting of Annie Raja and Filomina John visited the injured at the hospital. The Left party alleged that "despite assurance from the Union ministers, the demolition took place in the most inhuman way destroying everything of the 4,800 poor families who had been living in Kathputli Colony for the last 6-7 decades". The party has also alleged that the colony, which is yet to be regularised, was demolished as the land has been allotted to a private builder for the construction of multi- storeyed buildings, malls and residential complexes. The CPI has demanded "release of all those who have been taken under police custody and initiate action against those responsible for unprovoked brutal lathicharge, along with restoration of the colony". PTI CSN SMN --- ENDS --- August 15, 2017 On Aug. 14, Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appointed Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi as the new chairman of the Expediency Council. Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani had headed the council for decades, until his death in January. The Expediency Council was established in 1988 to resolve differences or conflicts between the parliament and the Guardian Council, which is tasked with assessing and approving parliament bills based on their adherence to Islamic law. Prior to Khamenei announcing the council's new leader, rumors had circulated about the possible appointment of conservative Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani, who temporarily chaired council sessions after Rafsanjani's death, of Ebrahim Raisi, the conservative cleric defeated in the May presidential elections by moderate incumbent Hassan Rouhani. The eventual appointee, Hashemi Shahroudi, headed the judiciary from 2001 to 2009 and is a member of the Assembly of Experts, which chooses and supervises the supreme leader. In the Iranian political arena, Shahroudi is considered a moderate ayatollah and has views close to those of Rafsanjani, who also served as Iran's president for two terms (1989-1997) and led the moderate camp. In remarks suggestive of the Reformists being content with Shahroudis appointment, Nemat Ahmadi, a Reformist analyst, told the daily Arman on Aug. 15, Given the national position and moderate attitude of Ayatollah Shahroudi, there is hope that we will see the Expediency Council reaching the goals that have been set and see effective decisions taken like those [by] Ayatollah Rafsanjani. Meanwhile, former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was disqualified from running in the May elections, had his membership on the Expediency Council renewed. His reappointment surprised observers given that he had ignored Khameneis public advice to him that he not run for the presidency. Faridoldin Haddad-Adel, an influential conservative figure and son of former parliament Speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel, tweeted Aug. 14, Appointing Mr. Ahmadinejad [to] the Expediency Council is his last chance in his political life. He added that Ahmadinejads reinstatement doesnt mean that his irreparable mistake of bucking the supreme leader would be ignored. The other new members on the Expediency Council are Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, the conservative presidential candidate who withdrew in favor of Raisi in the last election; Raisi, custodian of the holy shrine of the eighth imam of Shiites in Mashhad; Ahmad Tavakoli, a former conservative parliamentarian; Seyyed Mohammad Sadr, a former Reformist diplomat; Ayatollah Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari, former prayer leader of Tabriz; and Seyyed Mohammad Mir-Mohammadi, the chief of staff for Ayatollah Khamenei during his presidency between 1981 and 1989. According to the Aug. 15 edition of the Reformist daily Shargh, Rouhani and parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, previously members of the Expediency Council, have not been reappointed and will only attend the sessions in their roles as president and speaker. Based on an Aug. 15 report by the Reformist Etemaad, the supreme leader has asked the new chairman and members of the Expediency Council to better organize the council to improve its effectiveness. October 30, 2017 CAIRO The Egyptian Ministry of Water and Irrigation announced in an Oct. 18 press statement that an Egyptian delegation had verified that no water is yet stored in the Renaissance Dam and that there is nothing obstructing the Nile. The statement followed the Oct. 17 visit of the group, headed by Minister of Water and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Aty, to the Renaissance Dam in Ethiopia near the Sudanese border. It was the first visit of its kind by an Egyptian state official. Atiya Issawi, who covers African affairs for Al-Ahram newspaper, said that the visit was intended to dispel Egyptian doubts about the Renaissance Dam amid the faltering negotiations and Ethiopias moving forward on its construction. He told Al-Monitor, The Ethiopian governments invitation to Egypt and its technical delegation to visit the dam shows that tensions between the two countries have eased, relatively, adding that the Ethiopian move was meant to convey good will. Egypt is concerned about the dam's potential negative effects on its water share of the Nile River (55.5 billion cubic meters annually, as stipulated in the 1929 and 1959 agreements), especially while the dam is being filled. Ethiopia has not announced a start date for that stage, but it is expected to begin in early 2018. The dam will have a storage capacity of 74 billion cubic meters, equal to the annual shares of Egypt and Sudan combined. Ethiopia is still building the dam it started working on in April 2011. The goal is to generate more than 6,450 megawatts of hydroelectric power, the biggest hydroelectric project in Africa, at a cost of $4.2 billion. Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister Debretsion Gebremichael announced Oct. 18 that 62% of the dam's construction has been completed. Gebremichael told the official Ethiopian news agency that the dam will begin generating electric power during the current Ethiopian calendar year, which began Sept. 11, 2017, and will end Oct. 1, 2018. Filling and operating the Renaissance Dam without affecting the downstream countries remain topics of dispute. The tripartite technical committee formed of 12 experts from the three countries held 16 rounds of negotiations, the most recent on Oct. 18 in Addis Ababa. But the meeting failed to resolve the dispute between the three countries, which agreed to convene early November in Cairo to continue the negotiations. On Sept. 20, 2016, the tripartite committee had signed contracts with French consultancy firms BRL and Artelia to prepare a technical study on the Renaissance dam and its impacts. The technical study was supposed to be finalized and submitted in August 2017, as specified by the declaration of principles on sharing Nile River water signed by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on March 23, 2015, and the subsequent signing of the Khartoum document in December 2015. The agreements also allotted four additional months for the members of the tripartite technical committee to agree on ways to implement the results. But the finalization of the study has been stalled by the ongoing dispute between the three concerned countries. During a meeting with his Ethiopian counterpart Workneh Gebeyehu on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting Sept. 21, Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shukri talked about a stagnation of negotiations among the tripartite technical committee and said that the release of the technical study had been delayed. Sisi said in his speech before the UN General Assembly Sept. 19, The quick implementation of the declaration of principles reached in March 2015 is pressing. Cairo fears its agricultural lands will be affected while the dam fills and that the process might impede its desert reclamation project, adding further pressure on its 100 million people who are already suffering from water shortages. The Nile provides more than 90% of Egypt's water. On Oct. 2, the Associated Press cited a source at the Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation as saying on condition of anonymity that the governments studies estimated Egypt will lose 200,000 acres of agricultural land with each billion cubic meters of water it loses from its share. Shukri said in an interview published Oct. 4 by Egypt's Al-Ahram newspaper that the three countries could not overcome some technical and political obstacles that stand in the way of releasing the technical study. He added, These obstacles threaten the foundations of the declaration of principles. Shukri noted that by failing to complete the technical study before finishing the construction of the dam and starting to store water in it, Ethiopia is giving off the impression of purposely stalling for its own benefit. Issawi noted that "Ethiopia wants to present Egypt with a fait accompli by [rushing] to complete the dam. It is thus ignoring Egypts comments on the construction in the hope that it will only have to negotiate the details of filling the dams reservoir and its operation, in a way that takes into account dams in Egypt and Sudan, so that they are coordinated [and do not block flow at the same time]." Issawi expects the three countries to reach a solution during the meeting of the technical committee in early November, and it will in some form be at the expense of Egypt. He said, Egypt will not come out unscathed. Ayman Shabana, a professor of political science at the Institute of African Studies and Research affiliated with Cairo University, said that Egypt should internationalize the crisis by submitting an official objection before the UN Security Council against Ethiopia. Shabana told Al-Monitor, Egypt can invoke Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait to play the role of mediators and bring perspectives closer in the crisis. He added, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait have good relations with Egypt now and can pressure Ethiopia to reach a solution that would end the disputes. These Gulf countries have huge economic influence on Ethiopia. October 30, 2017 TEHRAN, Iran When it comes to Iran, Oct. 13 was the moment of truth for the president of the United States. Although Donald Trump had twice certified Iran's compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) since taking office, he decertified the nuclear deal, saying it didnt meet congressional requirements. While he technically did not scrap the JCPOA, the move has sparked different reactions among Iranian academic elites. Although Trump claims that his new strategy is the culmination of nine months of deliberation with Congress and US allies, many Iranians believe that it lacks any kind of discernible strategic thinking. In this vein, Mohammad Jamshidi, a professor of international relations at the University of Tehran, told Al-Monitor that in spite of Trump's claim, Iranians do not see his approach as a strategic endeavor. It is merely a tactic in order to intimidate Iran and put more pressure on Tehran. But officials and policymakers have not taken it seriously. Indeed, it is not a new strategy; it lacks any new initiative to solve the old and permanent problems between Tehran and Washington," Jamshidi said. Trump has repeatedly stated that the JCPOA is "the worst deal the United States has ever entered. Nasser Hadian, a prominent professor of international relations at the University of Tehran, thinks that one of the purposes of Trump's recent declaration was to show that he has stood firm on Iran and that he is seeking to unravel his predecessor Barack Obamas foreign policy legacy as much as he can. But Hadian also told Al-Monitor that it is an oversimplification to think that his new Iran policy is just a politicized decision, saying, "After all, it is the result of over eight months of reviews. It is a policy for the long term. The main purpose of this strategy is to maintain the uncertainty about Iran's future situation so high that investors do not dare to enter Iran." As part of the new US strategy, and with the rationalization that the Islamic Republic has violated the spirit of the JCPOA, Trump on Oct. 13 also authorized the US Treasury Department to further sanction the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and to apply sanctions to its officials, agents and affiliates because of their support for the Syrian government and groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas. However, the Treasury stopped short of designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization. Jamshidi said that the aim of these sanctions is to diminish Iran's regional role, "The US has strategic problems and weaknesses in the region and this strategy is a sign of these weaknesses and not its strength. They are using the JCPOA as a tool in order to put more pressure on Iran and to achieve their regional interests." Noting the recent warnings by IRGC commander Mohammad Ali Jafari in the case of intensifying US sanctions on the IRGC, Jamshidi argued that Iranian officials and people want a decisive response in such an event, adding, "These sanctions can negatively impact the complex equations of the Middle East." Legislation being drafted by Republican senators Bob Corker and Tom Cotton seeks to have the United States unilaterally add new requirements to the JCPOA, including measures related to Irans ballistic missile program. Jamshidi said that the Trump administration wants to obligate Iran to accept a renegotiation of the nuclear deal by expanding the restrictions against it, warning that any intensification of the pressures on Tehran means Washingtons departure from the nuclear deal and that Iran in such a scenario will no longer see itself as committed to the accord. After Trumps measures on Oct. 13, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini quickly moved to express public support for the JCPOA as an international agreement. As such, the European Union's 28 foreign ministers also unanimously urged the full implementation of the JCPOA and called it a key pillar of the international nonproliferation architecture. Against this backdrop, Seyyed Jalal Dehghani Firouzabadi, a professor of international relations at Allameh Tabatabai University, believes that there is an unprecedented international consensus against Trump and his stance on the nuclear deal because the latter is not only a multilateral plan of action, but also endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231. In contrast to Dehghani Firouzabadi, Foad Izadi, a professor of North American studies at the University of Tehran, believes that there is no consensus among the Europeans on the proper reaction to Trump's new strategy. He told Al-Monitor, "Considering previous experiences, the Europeans have shown that they are not trustworthy. However, the JCPOA serves the Europeans' economic interests and is their first international achievement since the end of World War II." Also noting the past, Jamshidi believes that the EU's policy will become consonant with US aims. He said, "We had this experience in the beginning of the nuclear negotiations, too, and they are going to repeat the same process again in the domain of regional policy." Amid all this, it should be noted that the nuclear deals fate would wholly change if the United States decided to enforce secondary sanctions on European firms that do business in Iran. Asked about the possibility of this scenario, Hadian said, I do not think that Congress would do this. In return, the EU will cooperate with the United States in putting more pressure on Iran on issues like ballistic missiles, regional behavior and human rights. Izadi said that Iran expects the Europeans to complain against the United States in accordance with World Trade Organization rules in case the United States enforces secondary sanctions on European investors who wish to engage with Iran. Another important issue is how Iran may react to the new broad restrictions designed by the US Congress. Izadi believes that Iran wont accept more restrictions or being deprived from the economic dividends of the nuclear deal, "There is a range of possible reactions, from an exit from the JCPOA to even departure from the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty]. I think the most prominent choice for Iran is to intensify its activities in the domains that are not included in the nuclear deal, like regional influence." In contrast, Hadian said, It depends. It all depends on Iran's cost-benefit analysis. It depends on the reactions of the European powers, too. So far, their reactions have been really good." October 27, 2017 ERBIL, Iraq During a meeting Oct. 22 of the oppositions Movement for Change (Gorran), a nine-point statement was issued to put an end to the current crisis facing the Kurdistan Region. The statement included that the Movement for Change and the Kurdistan Islamic Group are trying to get all the other forces to work on ending this phase by abolishing the eighth Cabinet of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and forming a "government of national salvation." Two days later, the head of the Coalition for Democracy and Justice, Barham Salih, surprisingly presented a proposal to form a transitional government capable of overcoming the problems resulting from the referendum, one that is legitimate, earns the confidence of the Kurdish citizens and conducts dialogue with Baghdad. After the Kurdistan parliament met Oct. 24, the parliaments term was extended for eight more months until the general elections are held. Amid widespread opposition to this extension, the Coalition for Democracy and Justice, the Movement for Change and the Kurdistan Islamic Group called for dismantling Kurdistans presidential institution and forming a provisional government through the parliament. In their statement, the parties suggested a road map to confront the crises, preserve the achieved gains, correct the course of the political process and normalize the situation in Tuz Khormato, Kirkuk, Khanaqin and the other disputed areas. This comes at a time when Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani announced Oct. 29 that he is resigning Nov. 1, distributing his authorities between the parliament, the prime minister and the judiciary system. Soon after Barzani's announcement, several offices of the Kurdish opposition parties, namely the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Movement for Change, were attacked by pro-Barzani groups. In addition, some parliamentarians from the opposition parties were attacked in the parliament by angry protesters. This Kurdish political action coincided with the outbreak of fierce battles Oct. 26 between peshmerga forces and Iraqi forces on the border of the part of Kurdistan Region that is under influence of Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). Meanwhile, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said from Tehran, The nullification of the referendum held in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq as well as the commitment to the constitution are two essential conditions for the resumption of dialogue between Baghdad and Erbil. Abadis visit to Tehran followed a visit to Turkey on Oct. 24 that, according to Reuters, was aimed at developing bilateral relations and maintaining the unity of Iraq by controlling KRG border points in cooperation with Iran and Turkey. Asked about the feasibility of the interim government, Mohamed Ali, the head of the political chamber in the Movement for Change, told Al-Monitor, The KRG has proved its failure on more levels than one, but it can still assume its responsibility and resign. Without mentioning the obstacles facing this project, he said, Once the government resigns, we could then discuss the ways and means of forming a government of national salvation, this being the best way to get out of the current phase and start a dialogue with Baghdad. Suleiman Abdullah, a media officer at the Coalition for Democracy and Justice, told Al-Monitor, The idea of a government of national salvation is not appropriate for the current phase. We had stressed before the Movement for Change the need to form a transitional government, not a government of national salvation. Abdullah added, It is time to hand over this government to a new leadership capable of paving the way for free and fair elections all the while engaging in a dialogue with Baghdad. Shwan Rabar, the rapporteur of the Kurdistan Islamic Group leadership council, told Al-Monitor, It is true that this situation needs a government of national salvation to lead this phase, but such an act needs the approval of the KDP and the PUK as well as the support of foreign parties. In the same context, Hawjin Omar, a member of the board of the Kurdistan Islamic Group, told Al-Monitor that the goal of a government of national salvation would be to promote the institutions of Kurdistan again, start dialogue with Baghdad and prepare for the upcoming elections. But the problem of the opposition parties is their inability to withdraw from the current government amid a lack of a clear vision about the mechanism of action of a government of national salvation that they are calling for. The spokesman for the KDP, Hoshyar Siwayli, told Al-Monitor, The five main political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan are part of the KRG, including the Movement for Change, but they have not yet withdrawn from the Cabinet. The best way to move forward is to develop a program for the next eight months to meet the current challenges. While the official position of the PUK is to reject the idea of forming a government of national salvation, leading party member Farid Asasard told Al-Monitor, The union has not yet taken a position on the transitional government. And parties have to sit together. If a transition government is a good step [toward solving the current problems], then the opposite infers the continuation of the crisis. My personal opinion is that the current government should resign because otherwise it may be one of the reasons behind the Iraqi government's reluctance to engage in a dialogue with the region. Aram Rifaat, a veteran professor at Uttara University in Malaysia and an expert focusing on Iraqi affairs, told Al-Monitor, Even if a government of national salvation is formed, its chances of success would be very weak in the absence of a nonpartisan national military affiliated with the said government in Kurdistan. Also a weak government cannot engage in a dialogue with Baghdad because the core of the Kurdish demands is the areas cut off from Kurdistan, and when the government of Iraq was at its weakest, it did not implement Article 140 of the constitution let alone right now, when it is at its strongest. However, developments show that the ongoing political dispersion in Kurdistan and the lack of consensus on any mechanism to face the post-referendum phase and its recent repercussions may put Erbil in a weak position in any future dialogue with Baghdad. October 30, 2017 On Oct. 29, the Knessets ministerial committee on legislation was scheduled to approve the proposed bill known as the Greater Jerusalem law, which would annex the West Bank settlements of Maale Adumim, Givat Zeev, Beitar Illit and the Etzion bloc settlements (including Efrat) to Jerusalem. Some 150,000 Israelis live in these towns and local councils. The idea of annexing Israeli settlements adjacent to Jerusalems municipal borders in order to increase the citys population and ensure its Jewish majority has been around for a decade. Back in 2007, Likud Party Knesset member Yisrael Katz put forth a similar proposal, which never took off due to concerns about harsh international and Palestinian reaction. Concern that Jews will no longer constitute a majority in the Israeli capital within less than a decade both due to the natural growth of the Palestinians living in East Jerusalem and the negative immigration of secular Israeli Jews from the city led former Minister Haim Ramon to launch a public movement in February 2016 to save Jewish Jerusalem. The group was comprised of a great number of defense experts, academics and activists on the political left and center. Ahead of the annual Jerusalem Day celebrations in 2016, the movement launched an extensive public campaign to warn complacent Israelis that unless preventive steps were taken soon, they would wake up with a Palestinian mayor in Jerusalem. The campaign resorted to various scare tactics, even enlisting a Hamas video clip showing incitement against Jews posted on social networks. However, its seemingly racist overtones led central supporters of the initiative, such as former Shin Bet security agency chief Ami Ayalon, to pull out. In July, HaBayit HaYehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett tabled a proposed bill of his own the United Jerusalem law which he presented for Knesset vote. This proposal was approved already on June 18 by the ministerial committee on legislation. The bill stipulated that a special majority of 80 (out of 120) Knesset members was required to divide the capital into a Jewish western part and a predominantly Palestinian east. The Knesset voted 51 to 42 to approve the bill in its first reading. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not to be outdone by his political nemesis Bennett for the title of Jerusalems greatest defender, especially after the July fiasco over the metal detectors Israel placed on the Temple Mount compound entrances and was then forced to remove under international pressure. The prime minister decided to back the proposed Greater Jerusalem law authored by a legislator of his own party, Yoav Kish, which had been lying around for months, along with a similar bill proposed by Yehuda Glick, another Likud Knesset member. Kishs proposal enjoys the support of Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, who is considered one of the more dovish and pragmatic Likud lawmakers and a rival of Netanyahus, and of Knesset members from HaBayit HaYehudi and the center-right Kulanu Party. In the introduction to his bill, Kish wrote, The concept of Jerusalem as Israels eternal capital has become blurred, lost its symbolic value. Kish added that instead, the issue of Jerusalems standing focuses on demographic elements and Palestinian determination to control Jerusalem and its holy sites. It is therefore proposed that the communities surrounding Jerusalem be annexed to the capital. This will increase the population and enable the preservation of the demographic balance, and add lands for housing, commerce and tourism while conserving green lungs. As mentioned, the ministerial legislation committee was scheduled to approve the bill on Oct. 29 and send it on to the Knesset, where it would likely have garnered a large majority in its first reading. There are few issues more consensual in public Israeli discourse, not to mention the Knesset, than preserving a Jewish majority in Jerusalem. However, 12 hours before the ministers were to convene, the prime ministers office announced that the vote on the proposed bill was postponed indefinitely. The prime minister had blocked its passage. There was American pressure, thats clear, a Palestinian source in the West Bank city of Ramallah told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. When the Palestinians heard that Netanyahu was about to push forward the annexation bill, said the source, they conveyed a message to Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trumps Mideast envoy. They told him that the move spells the end of any possible diplomatic initiative with Israel. The public Palestinian reaction was suspiciously muted. The only senior Palestinian official who publicly expressed anger and condemnation was Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the PLOs Executive Committee. It is an irrefutable fact that all settlements are a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and a direct violation of international law and conventions, including UNSC Resolution 2334, she said in her statement. However, not even Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spokespeople spoke out against the legislation except to give laconic answers when asked about it by Palestinian media outlets. The Palestinian source told Al-Monitor that the Americans asked the Palestinians to keep a low profile in order to allow Netanyahu to pull back from the legislation, saying that quiet diplomacy was the only way to achieve this desired result. The Americans were right. The speed with which Greenblatt and his team acted vis-a-vis Netanyahu made clear to the Palestinians the extent to which the US administration is serious about advancing an Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative, and more so the extent to which Netanyahu is anxious to avoid riling the Trump administration. As one so fearful for his image as the guardian of Jerusalem, Netanyahu would have been expected to ignore the American warnings and to tell them the issue was a domestic Israeli matter pertaining to municipal boundaries and in no way constituted a declaration of sovereignty over parts of the West Bank. Instead, he told his ministers at the weekly Cabinet meeting that the Americans wanted to understand the essence of the bill. As we have coordinated with them up until now, its worthwhile to [continue to] talk and coordinate with them. We are working to advance and develop the settlement enterprise and not to promote other considerations. October 30, 2017 When Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan who is being blamed for the fallout from an ill-fated referendum on Kurdish independence, announced he would be stepping down Nov. 1, few believed it would bring a lasting solution to the crisis that has engulfed the beleaguered enclave. But many thought the move would assuage its critical neighbor and until recently top ally, Turkey. Barzanis refusal to heed Ankaras warnings to shelve the referendum or at least exclude the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, claimed at once by Kurds, Arabs and Turkeys ethnic kin the Turkmens, provoked fury in Ankara, prompting overt calls for the veteran Kurdish leader to step down. Turkey is thought to have been maneuvering behind the scenes to get Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister and the elder Barzanis nephew, to take charge of Iraqi Kurdistan in a plan said to be backed by Washington. In a statement that openly signalled its support for Nechirvan, the State Department said the United States "commends the decison of [Massoud] Barzani not to seek an additional term as president" and that it "now looks forward to engaging actively with the Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Nechirvan Barzani, and the Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani." Nechirvan, who helped mastermind a mega energy deal inked with Turkey in 2013, has long enjoyed close personal ties with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. As things currently stand, Nechirvan is widely expected to steer the enclave to parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for June 2018. Yet there are few signs that Turkish hostility toward the Barzanis has abated. In a front-page story, the pro-government Yeni Safak screamed that Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga fighters had slaughtered hundreds of civilians and that Barzanis resignation was nothing more than a ruse to hold onto power through his nephew. Other pro-government titles continue to strike a similarly antagonistic tone. Apparently unsatisfied by the Kurds loss of Kirkuk, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has kept up Turkish demands that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) annul the results of the referendum that was approved by 93% of voters. At the same time, Ankara is cheering on Iraqi forces as they reassume control over Fish Khabur, the wedge of territory where Syria, Iraq and Turkey meet. A deal for Baghdad to jointly administer border crossings with Turkey and Syria with the Kurds was meant to be finalized today. It would also allow Baghdad to regain control over a pipeline that has been pumping Iraqi Kurdish oil to export terminals on Turkeys Mediterranean coast. As the Kurdish leadership licks its wounds, Karim Sinjari, who is both interior minister and minister for peshmerga affairs for the KRG, is leading US-brokered talks with Iraqs Chief of General Staff Othman al-Ghanimi for a peaceful transition. The pair was expected to travel to Fish Khabur for a reconnaissance mission of sorts today. Administration officials speaking on condition of anonymity told Al-Monitor that discussions were underway with Baghdad to ensure the continued flow of humanitarian aid and military supplies to forces allied with the US-led coalition against the Islamic State in Syria via Fish Khabur. Since the start of the conflict in neighboring Syria, Iraqi Kurdistan has served as Turkeys principle land bridge to the rest of the Middle East and remains among the biggest markets for Turkish consumer goods. The Turkish army has at least 2,000 troops deployed in the enclave and Barzanis Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has long cooperated with Ankara against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Last but not least, friendly relations with the Iraqi Kurds have helped Erdogan draw pious anti-PKK Kurdish voters to his fold. Western diplomats say with the return of Baghdad to its borders, Turkey will lose much of its maneuvering power in Iraq and over the Kurds, all to Irans advantage. So why the 180-degree turn? Bilal Wahab is a Soref fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He told Al-Monitor, It's only been a day since Barzani announced he was going, thus it's too early to assess whether Turkey will at some point come to reclaim its investment in the KRG or not. Much of Turkeys recent bellicosity toward the Barzanis stems from Erdogans sense of personal betrayal. With nationalist politician Meral Aksener emerging as a potential rival for the presidency, Erdogan needs to prove he is a better nationalist and that means shrilly opposing any moves toward Kurdish statehood. But Wahab speculated that the shift in Ankara may well portend a structural shift in Turkish foreign policy back to its narrow anti-Kurdish lens. The aim may be to cooperate with Iraq to isolate Rojava. Wahab was referring to the Kurdish-controlled enclave in northern Syria that is administered by a PKK affiliate known as the Movement for a Democratic Society, or TEV-DEM. Even if Barzani had agreed to drop Kirkuk from the referendum, "Turkish opposition to it would have remained unchanged, Wahab said. Arzu Yilmaz, an academic at the American University of Kurdistan in Dahuk, concurs. It's not just Turkeys Kurdish policy that has changed, she told Al-Monitor. Its whole Middle East policy has changed. Yilmaz noted that up until late 2014 Turkey had viewed peaceful relations with the Kurds as a vehicle for expanding its influence in the Middle East, but the Arab Spring and the rise of the Islamic State changed those calculations. Turkey now sees it as in its interests to do business with national governments rather than non-state actors like the Kurds, she said. All of this marks the beginning of a protracted period of political turbulence inside the KRG. Despite Massoud Barzani's efforts to keep his family united, many predict a power struggle within the KDP as Massoud Barzanis eldest son Masrour, who is the KRGs intelligence boss, jockeys for power to retain his influence. The other main political grouping, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), is already convulsed with bitter infighting with the widow and eldest son of the partys recently demised founder Jalal Talabani accused of selling out Kirkuk to Iran. A Western diplomat told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, What we are left with is a very weak KRG with blurred lines of political authority, increased infighting within the KDP and the PUK and between the KDP and the PUK with [the opposition Movement for Change] Gorran throwing bombs from the outside. And a weakened and divided KRG, Yilmaz reckoned, will open up more political space for the PKK. At the same time, Ankara's continued iciness could well propel the KRG to improve relations with the Turkish Kurdish outfit. Just how this benefits Turkey is anybodys guess. October 27, 2017 DIYARBAKIR, Turkey Turkish security forces are crediting an informant reward system for a rise in the number of arrests of Kurdish militants in the past two years. Just recently, at the beginning of September, forces launched a security operation north of the predominately Kurdish city of Diyarbakir. One man was killed and two were wounded in Baglan village. Locals said all three were simple villagers, but a few days later, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) announced that the man who died was one of their militants. Now lets go back. In May 2016, in the Lice area, 45 miles northeast of Diyarbakir, three senior leaders of the PKK which is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union were killed. One of them was in charge of the vast area of Erzurum, Diyarbakir, Batman, Bingol and Mus provinces. In November 2016, a local area leader of Diyarbakir was killed. In the past two years, eight senior officials of the organization have been killed in the Lice area alone. In official statements issued after the operations, phrases started popping up about the alleged terrorists such as, "He was on the blue list, which pays a reward of 1.5 million [Turkish] lira [$396,000]," or He was on the green list, which pays a 1 million lira reward. This reward system for those who inform on supposed PKK members is something that just started in Turkey in the past two years, though other countries have used similar methods. The Turkish Ministry of Interior's top targets those on the red list include key leaders of the PKK and the Gulen movement. Rewards for red-listers range from $80,000 to $1 million. Other subjects fall on less lucrative blue, green, orange and grey lists, depending on the target's importance. Many wonder whether this method, which looks promising on paper, is useful in real life. Al-Monitor went to Lice to find the answer. Lice, with its rough terrain, is an important PKK base; the group maintains several major camps there. Turkish security forces have been focusing on Lice for the past two years. Even highly obscure hideouts and storage areas have been discovered. A villager living there said the PKK losses have to be attributed to the reward system. Speaking to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, the villager said, If the tips and information given turn out to be accurate, [informants] are paid good money. Some say the recent blows against the PKK were because of technological superiority, but this is only up to a point. The real cause of PKK losses are these tips from the people. Police sources tend to confirm what the villager said. Police said that so far, some $264,000 (10 million lira) has been distributed as rewards. Many operations have been thwarted, and 69 names on the lists were killed. If the 727 others on the lists are neutralized, the reward payout total will reach some $134 million (510 million lira). Civilians aren't the only ones benefiting; paramilitary village guards are also entitled to rewards. Ziya Sozen, president of Anatolian Village Guards and Families of Martyrs, which has 120,000 members, believes the rewards have been effective but he mainly credits an attitude adjustment among civilians. We see the elimination of militants from different-colored lists. But you should not think that monetary rewards are the only motivation. There have been serious changes in peoples consideration of terror organizations after the incidents at Sur, Cizre and Nusaybin. Citizens [also] realized that after the July [2016] abortive coup, the PKK and the Gulenists were colluding with some Turkish army generals, Sozen told Al-Monitor. People resented this as a move to use them as pawns, and their perception of terror operations changed," he added. "People resent the economic and structural damages inflicted on the area by the PKK struggle. Village guards are paid rewards because they are local residents. Army and police do not benefit. True, there has been a significant increase in informing about the PKK, but dont think this is because of the rewards. Peoples thinking about the organization is changing." But there is some criticism of the new system. Esra Ozdemir, an assistant professor of sociology at Firat University, said this practice could cause problems in the future. She said modern states are extremely careful in collecting information about crimes and criminals. To rely on tips from the street in return for rewards is risky. For the state to share its responsibility with civilians is an extremely sensitive matter, as anyone accused of terrorism may well be subject to judicial bias. Actually, various rewards used to be paid to informers in earlier years, but the system now is based on a legal framework. The main fear is that criminals will target the informants, and there are already unverified rumors that some of those killed have been informants. October 25, 2017 Oil prices jumped last week with concerns over Iraq's military operations against Kurds in Kirkuk. Media reports focused on several aspects of the operations, including the crucial role of Kirkuks oil for both sides, the support of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Units in the Iraqi government assault and the deep concerns of the United States. The uncertainty that emerged from this dispute also immediately caused an oil transport slowdown in the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, in turn opening a gap in the regional market that could easily benefit from the joint Iranian, Russian and Turkish deal announced in August for exploiting Irans oil and gas resources. The question now is how this deal will hold up, given the constraints and threat of sanctions on Iran, and the ongoing case in New York of Reza Zarrab, a Turkish businessman accused of helping Iran evade sanctions. Since Iraqi forces took over Kirkuk last week, the oil slowdown from Kirkuk is estimated to be as much as 210,000 barrels per day, according to Tanker Trackers satellite imagery. Oil flowing to Turkish ports is reported at less than half the normal level about 240,000 barrels compared with a normal daily level of 600,000 barrels. Even though on Oct. 26, Iraqi Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luaibi called on BP "to quickly make plans to develop the Kirkuk oil fields, he could not calm fears, because not only will technical repairs take time, but no one knows how long the dispute will continue before the oil trade volume returns to normal levels. For example, the same day of Luaibis call on BP, Russia's Rosneft announced an agreement with the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil to add as much as $400 million in oilfield investments. This unfortunate dispute between Erbil and the central government in Baghdad has given new breath to oil market giants such as Russia, which have suffered under low prices since June 2014 related to OPEC measures. Those prices rose after Iraqi forces were able to take over Kirkuk. Moreover, Turkey will be first to tackle that previously mentioned regional oil gap by taking advantage of nearby resources such as Iranian fields. Under the $7 billion tripartite agreement announced in August, Russias state-owned Zarubezhneft and Turkeys private energy company Unit International have agreed to drill for oil and natural gas in Iran with the private firm Iranian Ghadir Investment Holding. One can consider this announcement courageous, as US sanctions are already complicating Turkeys energy interests in Iran via the Zarrab case. Two high-level Turkish officials (the country's former economy minister and a former executive of state-owned Halkbank) have already been implicated for their alleged role in bypassing US sanctions on Iranian trade. The website of Netherlands-registered Unit International provides some inconsistent information regarding the deals scale, as it values the scale of the agreement as 6,000 megawatts in total, 100,000 barrels of oil per day and 75 billion cubic meters of gas per year two times the planned capacity of the giant Turkish Stream. However, the Unit-Zarubezhneft-Ghadir deal remains opaque, as no public statement or information has been communicated by the involved countries ministers. This month, several concrete steps were taken toward a strengthened oil trade. On Oct. 4, during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Tehran, Erdogan and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stressed the goal of meeting a $30 billion trade target. They also discussed important measures, such as keeping open border gates 24 hours per day; strengthening banking cooperation; and using local currency in bilateral trade. Turkey is ready to import more natural gas from Iran, even though the other measures they stressed seem more likely to ensure nonstop oil tanker trade between the two countries that is, they seem more likely to happen, as Iran would be much better off using its own gas for re-injection to increase its production and recoverable oil reserves. Within two weeks of Erdogans visit, Irans first vice president, Eshaq Jahangiri, came to Ankara to attend the Oct. 19 meeting of the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, accompanied by the governor of Irans central bank, Valiollah Seif. Seif and his Turkish counterpart, Murat Cetinkaya, signed a currency swap deal to allow local currency use in bilateral trade, protecting both sides from currency exchange fluctuations. According to the agreement, the central banks have also allocated a total credit line of 5 billion Turkish liras ($1.3 billion) and its equivalent amount in the Iranian rial to each country's banks. As for Russia and Iran, the countries agreed on an "oil-for-goods" deal in May, with Russia buying 100,000 barrels of oil a day from Iran and in return exporting to Tehran goods worth $45 billion a year under the program after which 50% of the amount will be paid in euros, as stated by the Iranian deputy petroleum minister. In August, both countries' central banks signed a memorandum of understanding. Then, two days after the currency swap deal with Turkey, on Oct. 17, an Iranian parliamentary delegation led by Fereydoun Hassanvand, head of that body's Energy Commission, met with Pavel Zavalny, chairman of the Russian State Duma's Energy Committee, to set up a joint work group to boost bilateral ties in the energy sector. According to an Oct. 12 Kremlin statement, Putin also plans to visit Tehran on Nov. 1 for a trilateral session with Rouhani and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. As the Erbil-Baghdad tension over Kirkuk energy sources continues to grow, it is paving the way for increased Iranian oil exports, a currency swap, an oil-for-goods program and increased banking cooperation all of which signal new efforts to counter US sanctions, as the previous Turkey-Iran gold trade arrangement was wiped out. The most salient element of this is a deal that will certainly support Iran's efforts to reach its ambitious export target of signing $50 billion to $60 billion worth of oil and gas contracts with foreign companies by March 20, the end of the current Iranian year. Ali Kiani contributed to this report. The Service you requested is not available at this time Regret the inconvenience caused. Try again after sometime. October 30, 2017 Afrin, a small piece of Syria abutting Turkeys Hatay and Kilis provinces, is known for its olives and pomegranates as well as its stubbornly resistant Kurdish population. This land where Kurds have been living for a thousand years is now Turkeys primary target, but not because it poses a threat to Turkeys borders. While Atme, Azaz and Jarablus were scenes of violent clashes, Afrin had remained calm. Today, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) and National Intelligence Service are focusing on Afrin because of the local population's strong support for imprisoned Kurdistan Workers Party leader Abdullah Ocalan. Afrin had been under occasional artillery harassment by the TSK and its local allies in the Free Syrian Army and is now under pressure from the south. The TSK set up a command center on Sheikh Bereket Hill overlooking Afrin, followed by new bases at Salve, Daret Izza and on Seman Mountain. The operation at Idlib is mostly done with. Now, as I said earlier, we could suddenly come one night, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Oct. 24 at the Justice and Development Party's parliamentary meeting. According to pro-government Turkish news reports, the TSK will launch its Afrin operation from Azaz and Seman. Its objective is to take control of an 80-mile (130-kilometer) stretch from Azaz to Daret Izza and Deir Ballut. The reports claim that if the TSK succeeds in Afrin, it will carve out a corridor from Harem, Serakip, Sermin, Jisr ash-Shughour, Khirbet Al-Joz and Turkmen Mountain all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. It is a very ambitious and risky plan. But local sources also talk of a different scenario, saying a strong local resistance is likely. In this case, a corridor would need to be established between Azaz and Idlib to totally encircle Afrin. This operation would require the capture of Tel Firat in addition to Cinders and Seman. According to Turkish news reports, the TSK has completed its preparations and is now awaiting orders to advance. But the Turkish media seems to be ignoring that orders for the operations were issued some time ago. A new order could only be for a new ground offensive. Al-Monitor obtained from Kurdish sources a log of the attacks targeting Afrin over the past two months. It shows a narrowing ring of fire around Afrin to erode the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) to open gaps in its defensive lines and intimidate the population. But Afrins mountainous topography and the strong sense of unity among the population provide the area with strong defenses. Although it has been under heavy pressure since 2013, Afrin is part of the Rojava democratic autonomy project and has survived economically, even while immigration has taken its original population of some 400,000 to 1 million people. Afrin enjoys ample water and agricultural resources and succeeded in creating and operating robust civilian and military administrations. Ankara sees this structure as the framework of a terrorist organization. Turkey has been hitting Afrin for a long time. There were several attempts to enter the area on the ground, but the YPG and the YPJ (Women's Protection Units) did not allow it. Its local Civilian Defense Force has also been active. People are prepared to defend themselves. I am talking about thousands of people who pull guard duty at night, Ozgur Serhat, a journalist working in Afrin, told Al-Monitor. People are inured to pressure. They are not afraid but angry because of incessant rocket and mortar fire. Farmers cannot work their fields near the border. It is also the pomegranate season. Soon olives will be ripe for harvesting. I just spoke to a farmer who said his pomegranates are left on the trees because every time he goes to pick them, he comes under fire. They are destroying olive trees and setting fire to fields the main sources of income of the people. If Turks enter on the ground, people will resist. They dont have heavy weapons but are determined to resist. The Kurds are confident in their self-defense forces and believe that despite Russia's cooperation with Turkey and Iran, the deployment of Russian troops in the area indicates that Moscow will prevent Turkey from entering Afrin. Last August, the Russians deployed observer forces in the area the Kurds call Sheba that also covers Tel Firat. The mission of Russian forces together with the YPG and Jaish al-Suwar is to ensure security of Sheba and Afrin, the YPG said in a statement on Oct. 29. But there is a limit to the assurances the Russians can give to the Kurds in defiance of Turkey. Turkey's confidence has grown after scoring gains against Kurds, particularly in Iraq. October 30, 2017 On Oct. 25, the United States Department of Treasury and all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states imposed sanctions on eight individuals and one business suspected of financing, facilitating and arming al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and Islamic State (IS) in Yemen. These sanctions are the first ones imposed by the joint US-Saudi Arabia-chaired Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) announced during Donald Trumps visit to Riyadh for the Arab Islamic American summit in May of which the five smaller GCC states are also parties. The TFTCs purpose is to enhance Washington and the Persian Gulf monarchies coordination in the disruption of terrorist financing, which the Trump administration has stressed is essential to defeat violent extremists. While speaking at an investment conference in Riyadh, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin applauded the GCC members for agreeing to the largest ever multilateral designation in the Middle East. One of the sanctioned Yemeni individuals Abdel-Wahab Humayqani has a notable history. Based on allegations that Humayqani recruited and raised funds for AQAP, and coordinated an attack that killed seven at a Yemeni Republican Guard base in 2012, the US Treasury Department added him to its Specifically Designated Global Terrorist list in December 2013. Yet in June 2015, he represented Yemens exiled/Saudi-backed government at roundtable talks in Geneva. US officials voiced objections to Humayqanis presence in Geneva, yet did not create a fuss given Washingtons vested interest in promoting the roundtable talks. Such a response was illustrative of the Obama administrations difficult struggle to support a Saudi-led coalition whose fight against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels led to a tacit partnership between Sunni nonstate actors, including AQAP and the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Arab coalition while simultaneously waging military operations against al-Qaedas local franchise. Although the Trump administration has not only continued backing the Saudi-led war against the Houthi rebel movements but has also increased Washingtons support for the campaign, the White House is also stepping up airstrikes on AQAP, which has exploited the civil war to gain greater influence since 2015. In fact, on Oct. 16 the US military struck IS targets in Yemen for the first time, building on months of stepped-up operations against AQAP. The TFTC sanctions have implications for the Gulf disputes war of narratives. The Saudi/United Arab Emirates-led bloc has accused Qatar of sponsoring scores of terrorist groups, including IS and al-Qaeda, whose Yemeni offshoots were the targets of these new sanctions. Yet Doha's joining Washington and the other five GCC governments in sanctioning Humayqani and others raises important questions about such accusations and strengthens Qatars narrative that the blockade is unjustified and imposed due to ulterior motives. Building on Washington and Dohas anti-terror memorandum of understanding signed in July, Qatari officials maintain that Doha has been fully compliant with the Trump administrations requirements for fulfilling the responsibilities laid out by the American president in Riyadh in May. With Qatar joining this US/GCC effort, the Arab states that have sought to convince the US government and public to support their action against Doha will be increasingly challenged to make this case before Washingtons diplomatic and defense establishment. Ultimately, as Yemen has been beset by multiple conflicts, the GCC was never united behind Riyadhs military campaign against the Houthi rebels. Oman always opposed the coalitions war; Kuwaits participation was largely symbolic, having never deployed its forces in Yemen; and Saudi Arabia suspended Qatar from the coalition after the Gulf dispute erupted in June. Yet efforts to combat IS in Yemen and AQAP receive the full endorsement of all GCC states, each of which has its own unique reasons for supporting the fight against such extremists. Moreover, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have had conflicting agendas in Yemen, with Abu Dhabi objecting to Riyadhs tactic support for Sunni Islamists based on the kingdom and such terrorist groups shared opposition to the Houthis and expanding Iranian influence Qatar agreeing to sanction individuals and a business linked to IS in Yemen and AQAP will improve Dohas standing in Washingtons eyes on the terrorist financing file, but not Riyadhs or Abu Dhabis. Several of the Saudi Arabia/UAE-led blocs grievances with Qatar stem from Dohas ties with many Sunni Islamist groups, including ones that Western governments and even some GCC states do not recognize as terrorist factions such as the Muslim Brotherhood. Yet unless the Qataris join other GCC states in targeting Hamas and other groups and deport controversial Islamist figures such as Yusuf al-Qaradawi from the emirate, it is doubtful that the Saudi Arabia/UAE-led bloc will take back their accusations that Doha sponsors terrorism. Throughout the GCC crisis, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other members of the American diplomatic establishment have expressed their view that Qatar has shown its commitment to collaborate with Washington in the struggle against terrorism and that Doha has been very reasonable regarding the Gulf dispute. Earlier this month, Tillerson also stated that the Gulf disputes prolongation is attributable to the Saudi Arabia/UAE-led blocs refusal to engage Qatar, not any continuation of conduct on Dohas part as the blockading countries maintain. Fundamental disagreements in the GCC over which nonstate actors constitute terrorist organizations and unhealthy geopolitical rivalries between Qatar and its Sunni Arab neighbors remain unresolved despite the councils six members uniting behind the TFTCs sanctions imposed on sponsors of Yemens Salafist-jihadists. In any event, the Arab states blockading Qatar will certainly continue their war of narratives against the emirate. In the process of doing so, however, they can expect to irritate more diplomats in Washington who have called on all involved parties to tone down their rhetoric against Qatar, seen by the American diplomatic and defense establishment as a vital Middle Eastern ally that is supporting the United States war against extremists in the Arabian Peninsulas southwestern corner and beyond. Facebook refuted speculation that the social networking site is using its mobile app to spy on conversations of users through the mic of their smartphones and serve ads to the same individuals based on what it overhears. The social media giant has been accused of similar actions in the past and denied them on numerous occasions. The latest denial was made by Rob Goldman, the VP of advertising at Facebook who reiterated via his Twitter account that the company has never used your phone mic to target ads in response to an earlier tweet from tech podcast Reply All. Allegations that Facebook might be listening in on your conversations all the time for advertising purposes came to light in late May 2016 when Kelli Burns, a professor of mass communication at the University of South Florida, claimed that the Facebook app could be using the mic of your mobile device in an effort to serve you with more relevant ads. The allegation was based on an experimental use of the Facebook app, in which Burns was talking about certain topics while her phone was near her. Later, Burns started seeing ads being displayed on the mobile app that were coincidentally relevant to what she was previously discussing. Although there was no other proof to support her findings, the similarity of the ads to the topics she discussed prior to seeing them offers some sort of clue as to how Facebook targets ads to its users. The company, however, clarified that it helps business organizations serve ads based on the users interests and other data and not by using mic audio in any shape or form. The Menlo Park, California-based company has been in privacy-related issues several times in the past, even to the point of having to face lawsuits. In May last year, Facebook was hit with a class action suit for allegedly spying on private messages in search for links that it then supposedly used to deliver targeted ads to users. Facebook, however, denied the accusation and said that its method of collecting URLs was entirely anonymized and not infringing. Keep Calm and Pixel On Last week Google released the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, much to the fanfare of us and plenty of other press outlets as well. Googles latest devices are a stunning blend of technologies, working together to create an experience thats smoother and more refined feeling than the vast majority of phones on the market. Its also got a killer camera thats absolutely top in its class, better wireless support than almost any other phone out there, and battery life that lasts and lasts. Aside from design differences, the actual displays in each size phone are completely different too; the smaller Pixel 2 features a 5-inch Samsung AMOLED display, while the Pixel 2 XL features a 6-inch LG pOLED display. Just after most reviews started going live, we saw the first reports of complaints about the display on the Pixel 2 XL, ranging from a blue tint when tilting the phone, to possible burn-in issues reported by a few. Some of these problems are design flaws, others are preferential things, and even still some may be actual problems. Despite not having even landed in the hands of many consumers yet, and without any knowledge of how widespread any of the real issues are, some press outlets have pulled their reviews and called for Google to stop selling the phone altogether, recalling any that have been sold thus far. This sort of knee-jerk reaction from some members in the media is unprecedented at this level, and it raises the question of whether or not something deeper seated is happening, or if some simply dont understand the purpose of a recall. Advertisement Lets go back just a year to the end of August 2016, when consumers first started reporting that some Samsung Galaxy Note 7 models were exploding. Knowing that this sort of thing can happen to any battery that doesnt go through proper quality control (QC) in manufacturing, these serious issues were thought to be relegated to a small batch of phones that slipped through the cracks. Samsung issued a recall, but without having done the proper verification of which models were actually being affected, problematic units were once again sent out to customers, and the aforementioned recall turned into a second, more final recall of the phone. This is the perfect use of a recall; one that endangers human health, and causes total device failure. Recalls are often used in situations where severe problems exist; seat belts dont work as designed, airbags deploy hazardous materials instead of inflating properly, batteries exploding, etc. Recalls should not be used for when a product doesnt meet certain quality standards that a specific price tag suggests, instead thats where we as reviewers attempt to help consumers understand what a product brings to the table, and if there are better alternatives in one way or another. Lets explore some of the issues that have been reported, and find out whether or not these are actually severe problems in Googles supply chain or quality control standards, or if this display just isnt as good as everyone was hoping. Preference or Opinion Some of the issues reported arent problems at all; theyre merely preferences that some may have positive or negative opinions toward. Lets take a look at some examples of these. Advertisement Pale Screen AMOLED panels, Samsungs in particular, have almost always been known for their excessively saturated colors that pop. This is more visually appealing to the human eye, and has been part of the reason Samsungs displays are so loved throughout the world, but ultimately these colors are not realistic. The problem with unrealistic colors is that these colors are not what the designer or developer of a phone or app intended users to see, and as such youll find some displays where the same app or color is wildly different than others. Weve seen more muted colors from other displays on the market, regardless of the underlying technology used, but Google set out to help developers better control the colors displayed regardless of the phone or technology with Android 8.0 Oreo. Oreo now has colorspace awareness, and by default will show sRGB + 10% on all apps that do not specify a colorspace. Some developers may prefer ultra-saturated colors, while others trend toward more natural, muted colors, and its here where the heart of this discussion lies. Advertisement Since weve had ultra-saturated colors on AMOLED panels for years, and Samsung is the biggest vendor of smartphones worldwide, its obvious that many people have come to expect this look from their smartphones. While the displays Google uses on either Pixel 2 model are capable of showing these colors, Google specifically chose not to use them. The default colorspace used in Oreo, specifically on the Pixel 2, is low. This mode refers to sRGB color, and generally looks muted compared to the more saturated displays weve come to know on phones. By default, apps that dont specify a colorspace are then placed into this sRGB mode, which is the color correct version of the app. This is more of the actual issue than the display itself. By forcing sRGB on all apps that dont specify HDR or wide color gamut, all apps look more muted than others, and theres no system-level toggle to change this. Other OEMs give users the option to adjust their displays, ranging from presets like vibrant or standard, to actual sliders that enable the adjustment of display properties like saturation or contrast. While Googles design to allow developers to force a colorspace is great, giving users the option to override apps that dont specify this colorspace would have been a good option for folks that prefer more saturated colors. Google needs to be leading by example with this change though, and while its nice to offer developers the option to specify this colorspace, Googles own apps dont even do it yet. This is part of why people find the launcher, Photos, and other apps to be more washed out. Its yet another case of where the left hand doesnt seem to be communicating well with the right hand at Google. Its not the first example of this, and unfortunately, its likely to not be the last either. Saying the Pixel 2 XLs screen is bad because its not the color you want is ridiculous, and it shows a deep misunderstanding that many folks have developed concerning displays and color accuracy. Its not the screen thats bad here, its the color management implementation that needs work, and thats what needs to be differentiated. I too am guilty of preferring more saturated colors on my mobile displays, but to say the screen is poorly calibrated or looks bad because of this is a paradigm that needs to change, and that change starts with Google helping to educate users on the benefits of color-accurate displays, as well as developer control over said colors. Advertisement Verdict: Will be fixed per app by software. Google may also roll out a global solution. Grainy Display Advertisement Google is using an LG pOLED display in the Pixel 2 XL, but in reality, both displays are Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode displays using a plastic substrate. The specifics of how LG and Samsung manufacture these displays, along with the specific plastics used arent necessarily divulged, but theyre used to make the displays thinner and lighter than other technologies can. That being said, despite what seems to be identical manufacturing processes and designs, Samsung and LGs displays look very different from each other, especially when viewed under certain lighting conditions. This can be attributed to a number of different factors, but subpixel structure and other components used outside of the ones mentioned here are likely the reasons for the results were seeing. Regardless of this, LGs pOLEDs all have a very distinctive grain look to them that doesnt look far from what wed expect out of a fine 35mm film grain, but only when viewed in very specific circumstances. When using the phone in normal circumstances youll likely never notice this grain. In fact its almost only ever noticeable when in a dark room, with the brightness at its lowest, and when looking at a solid color image. A 50% gray image makes this most apparent and is what we use to test displays for various issues. Human eyes pick up differences in gray imagery very well, and its here that we can see the sub-pixel structure best, and also here where our brains will form an opinion on whether what we see is bad or good. As a whole, Im OK with grain to an extent. Film grain is a very distinctive characteristic that many people love, and I too enjoy a nice 35mm film and the character that brings to a movie. Subsequently, Im not a person who must see every scratch of grain removed from a photo when its taken in sub-optimal lighting conditions, which plays part and parcel to my criticism of Samsungs photography processing methods during the day. Theres no reason to erase all the grain; grain is natural and a result of many factors, and while you dont want tons of grain in your image, its crazy to try and erase all of it at the expense of detail. Advertisement For me, LGs pOLED displays have a sort of Plasma TV look, and I rather like that. Most displays on the market feel cold and digital, which of course makes sense given that they are digital technologies, but LGs more organic or dirty look is something I actually prefer, and I feel it looks more natural as a result. Many have cited that Samsungs AMOLED displays from 3-4 generations ago used to have these same results, and Samsung has cleaned up this process since then, but is it a process thats really necessary to clean up? Is this really a manufacturing flaw, or is it something LG is using as a way of differentiating the look of its pOLED displays from other OEMs out there? Weve seen this effect on every LG-made OLED in the mobile space so far; from the G-Flex series years ago, to the Android Wear watches that use LGs pOLEDs; the grain is always there. You may never notice the grain in the majority of circumstances while using the phone, but if you do, youll just have to be OK with it being there unless LG changes something. Verdict: Not changing Advertisement Design Flaws Sometimes a problem is due to an oversight or a design flaw that just isnt going to get fixed in a product for one reason or another. No amount of complaining will be able to fix these issues, but they could also be the side effect of trying to fix another problem that was deemed more important. Blue Tint Take any phone you have and tilt it to the side. See what happens? Most phones exhibit a slight bit of color tinting or dimming at the side, and depending on the screen technology and other materials used, this tint or dimming may be worse on some displays than others. When comparing LCD displays to OLED displays, its clear that OLED is the winner in the tilting category, as it inherently displays no difference in quality when looking at it from any angle. So why does the display on the Pixel 2 XL tint blue almost immediately, while the smaller Pixel 2 doesnt show this effect until viewing it at extreme angles? Well first examine why this shift occurs in mobile displays and not other types of displays, and it begins with the polarizer behind the glass. Since phones are used in all sorts of lighting conditions, from dark rooms to bright sunlit parks, manufacturers have to consider all of these conditions and optimize a display to work best in all of them. To further complicate matters, some folks use polarized sunglasses, while others use standard tinted glasses instead. Its these polarized lenses that have effectively begun the problem we are seeing, and manufacturers methods of counteracting the way polarized glasses work is what makes this blue shift happen. Not every phone ships with the same kind of polarizer underneath the glass; in fact youll notice that some phone screens turn completely black when held in landscape mode while wearing polarized sunglasses. This is due to how the display emits light, and specifically how polarized sunglasses are designed to block light from certain directions. Samsung and LG both use polarizers in their displays to keep users from experiencing completely dark screens (since that would be completely useless), but LG seems to have issues with its application of said polarizer, where Samsung doesnt. This same effect is seen on many displays out there, and has been around for years, but the recently released LG V30 suffers from the blue tint less than the Pixel 2 XL does, even though they appear to be using identical panels. The only conclusion we can come to is that the display panel and glass application on the Pixel 2 XL is done poorly when compared to other phones, and its not likely that were seeing the results of poor quality control on this subject either. When held in standard portrait mode, you wont notice color shifting until you turn the display significantly to the left or right, however, the color shift is almost instant when tilting up or down. Google has said this is normal behavior, which means it was accepted at design this way, and is not a defect, rather a design flaw. Why Google accepted this behavior, especially at the $850+ price point, is strange, but theyre not the only ones that have this issue. Plenty of displays on other phones showcase this issue, and its not something that only the Pixel 2 XL is prone to. Some phones, like the Nexus 6p for example, showed a rainbowing pattern when tilted at any angle; something we noted in the review but didnt see users complain about once they actually got the phone and started using it. Subsequently, weve seen plenty of reports of users on Reddit who have received the phone and dont seem to care one way or another. This is something we shouldnt be seeing on a device in this price range, but nonetheless, its not just the Pixel 2 XL that suffers from this, and it will never be fixed unless Google deems this a huge problem and changes the manufacturing process for the phone. Verdict: Not changing Image Retention Burn in, or as Google terms it differential aging, is something all displays suffer from in one form or another. Its the result of keeping static images on a screen that never change and never move, and over long periods of time the natural aging of pixels happens faster in these areas, since they have been displaying an image longer than other surrounding pixels. The Pixel 2 XL has not been available long enough to deem the screen as overly prone to burn-in, but what were seeing right now is simply image retention of static elements. The navigation buttons on the bottom of the screen are the easiest on-screen element to use for examination, as they almost never change or go away. What weve seen from many sites is a simple test using the same 50% gray image we talked about earlier in the grain test, and its done by bringing this gray image full screen. If you look in the area where the navigation bar was hid (at the bottom of the screen), youll see a faint image retention of the nav bar itself for a few seconds. After a few seconds this goes away on all panels weve tested (both the review unit and final retail units), and is likely to get worse as time goes on; unless Google does something about it. This isnt a new problem by any means, and Google assures us that the OLED on the Pixel 2 XL doesnt suffer from long-term burn-in any more than other OLED panels might, and that they are working on software fixes for the problem. The developer preview update to Android 8.1 Oreo this week has already provided solutions Google has obviously been working on for a while, and at least for the navigation bar portion, dims static elements on the UI to help alleviate burn-in on panels. Doing this same test on my personal Pixel XL (from 2016) reveals actual burn-in to the panel, but its important to note where this burn-in can actually be seen. Just like the grain test, this burn-in is almost only ever noticeable when testing the display using this 50% gray image, and is not visible on most other colors. Oranges, reds, yellows and other warm colors like this dont show the problem unless you look really closely, but cooler colors are definitely more obvious. The amount of time spent in full screen will determine whether or not you even see this issue at all, and its an issue that Google can definitely fix (and already is) with software solutions that work to keep pixels from displaying the same thing for long periods of time (months, not minutes). Verdict: Will be mitigated through software RMA Issues There are issues that arise with any product, especially early batch production products as our review devices were. These problems can and should be filed with Google as an RMA, and Google will send you a new device as a replacement. Theyve also extended the warranty on the Pixel 2 to 2 years, meaning Google is clearly standing behind their manufacturing methods and cleaning up QC to deliver a better, more consistent product for end users. Inconsistent Brightness This goes hand-in-hand with the aforementioned grainy look of the display, but takes the look and turns it into an actual problem. Some panels seem to be showing inconsistent brightness levels across the panel, meaning groups of pixels arent passing proper quality inspection processes during manufacturing. Its entirely possible that this issue will go unnoticed unless you test for it, but this is most certainly a manufacturing problem that needs to be addressed by Google. Weve seen this issue with panels used on pre-production models of the V30, and its something LG needs to work on fixing before these phones get into the hands of consumers. Verdict: Get it RMAd Real Burn-in We discussed image retention above, but over time this can turn into real burn-in and be a real problem. Burn-in happens when static images age pixels in a different way, causing pixels to literally get older than the surrounding pixels. These pixels exhibit different brightness and color properties, and as a result, will hold the retained image over other images. More than likely youll only ever see the software nav bar on the bottom have this issue, although its entirely possible that the status bar up top could see the same problem too. Months of usage can certainly cause real burn-in, and if its distracting or problematic in any way, its time to send the device in for an RMA. Its going to take months before we get to this point, so long as there isnt an actual defect in LGs displays in this regard. The worry, of course, is that there is an actual problem and that were going to see massive cases of burn-in in just a few short weeks. Verdict: Only time will tell. If its bad, RMA. Conclusion How serious are the issues with the display on the Pixel 2 XL? From my point of view, not very, and certainly not worthy of calling for a recall or to stop selling the Pixel 2 XL in any way. Much like we saw when Samsung had devastating problems with the Galaxy Note 7, I have full faith and confidence that, if there are big problems with burn-in on every panel, Google will do the right thing and refund everyone for buying a defective device. We saw Google replace broken Nexus 6p units with the Google Pixel for many customers, which shows that Google is serious about keeping its customers happy when hardware fails. The rest of the issues listed here are generally not issues at all. Maybe they bother you, maybe they dont, but almost none of them are problems that would warrant Google having to replace a device. If the display isnt up to the standard of quality someone expects when they pay $850 or more for a device, there are more than enough premium high-end phones on the market that offer better displays for your money. As for me, Ill be sticking with the Pixel 2 XL; its got the best camera on the market, better (and more consistent) performance than most phones out there, better wireless audio support than most phones, and the full backing of Googles software team and all the cool tools and immediate updates that come with that. At the very least the smaller Pixel 2 is still here, without the display problems of the Pixel 2 XL, and is quite a bit cheaper too, all while offering the same experience in every other regard. Xiaomi essentially closed the gap with Samsung in India, according to new data compiled by Strategy Analytics, with the market research firm finding that the Chinese original equipment manufacturer seized 25 percent of the smartphone market in the South Asian country over the third quarter of the year, thus having a share thats only one percentage point lower to that of the South Korean tech giant. The two companies hence accounted for more than half of the handset market in India, marking a rarely seen level of dominance in such a highly competitive environment. Samsungs share increased 26 percent year-on-year and is likely to continue growing in a stable manner going forward but that wasnt enough for the firm to strengthen its leading position in the country as Xiaomis annual growth rate in India amounted to 300 percent based on its performance in the three-month period ending September 30th. While Xiaomis performance in the country has been on a steady rise in recent times and the company showed signs of being able to take on Samsung directly during the second quarter of the year, the latest findings still come as a surprise to some industry watchers as not man predicted the Chinese OEM will be able to catch up to its Seoul-based competitor so quickly. Xiaomis aggressive business strategy entailing hardware subsidies is likely to continue going forward, having yielded such positive results so far. Vivo was the third largest phone vendor in India in Q3 2017, Strategy Analytics reported, putting its market share at 10 percent, one percentage point above that of its sister company OPPO. The two BBK Electronics-owned OEMs were followed by Lenovo who seized seven percent of the market during the same period, according to the same data. In the last half a decade, Chinese companies managed to increase their smartphone market share in India by 5,700 percent and currently hold 57 percent of it, the market analytics firm claims. The Indian market as a whole continues to grow, having reached 36 million unit sales this year, a 7 percent yearly increase. The Redmi Note 4, Redmi 3, and Redmi 4A from Xiaomi were the best-selling smart handsets in the country over Q3 2017, being followed by Samsungs Galaxy J2, Strategy Analytics indicated. The second largest smartphone market in the world is expected to become even more competitive in the coming years, with the product penetration in the country still not accounting for even a third of its population, according to most industry trackers. One of the few places where a communist can still dream is in India, The Washington Post declares. Easy guess, eh? By India Today Web Desk: Kerala is "one of the few places on earth where a communist can still dream," said one of America's most prestigious newspapers in a front page story on Sunday. The Washington Post's article, titled 'A communist success,' squeezed US news into narrow lateral columns on the main page. advertisement Signed Greg Jaffe and Vidhi Doshi, the story looks back at the history of Communism in Kerala, profiles Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, and asks: "Can God's Own Country survive its own remarkable success?" Photo courtesy: Twitter (@pinguaji) Photo courtesy: Twitter (@pinguaji) A"big reason" for the Communist Party's survival in Kerala "has been its ability to adapt to the demands of electoral politics and accommodate different and even contradictory views," the authors note. The Washington Post published the article online, under the title: "One of the few places where a communist can still dream". The newspaper wasn't alone in lauding Kerala's achievements on Sunday. President Ram Nath Kovind, who was touring the state, praised its accomplishments in health and sanitation, education and information technology. Kerala, he said, was the "global face" of India. --- ENDS --- HP Aventador chassis number 7,000 is a U.S.-spec, Grigio Adamas-painted S Roadster , which was exhibited at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show in September. As for the jubilee Huracan, chassis number 9,000 is a Performante thats going to Dubai, finished in the bewitching color known as Blue Nethuns.As things stand now, the best-selling Lamborghini of them all is the Gallardo. Introduced in 2003 and phased out in 2013, the V10-powered supercar numbers 14,022 examples. The pre-facelift employs an even-firing 5.0-liter V10, while the facelifted Gallardo makes use of an odd-firing 5.2-liter engine.The double milestone is a testament to how the Volkswagen Group managed to turn Lamborghini from a troubled automaker to one of the most successful supercar manufacturers of them all. The last hiccup came in the late 2000s, with Lamborghini struggling to remain relevant in a world harrowed by the financial crisis of 2008. As for the near future, the company prepares to double its yearly production to 7,000 vehicles per year. And the Lamborghini that makes this target achievable is the soon-to-be-presented Urus "Super SUV."In preparation for the Urus, Lamborghini expanded its production plant in SantAgata from 80,000 to 160,000 square meters. Underpinned by the platform used by the Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne, and Bentley Bentayga, the Urus leverages group technology, including the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 engine. Developed by Porsche and mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission, the eight-cylinder mill is believed to be rated at 650 PS (641) at the very least.Theres also a performance-oriented Urus PHEV in the making. The range-topping Urus will likely borrow the powertrain from the Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid, which prides itself on a total system output of 680 PS (671 HP) and 850 Nm (627 lb-ft) of torque. The future of the XJ is a difficult subject to agree upon, especially when you consider that Jaguars F-Pace is the best-selling model in the lineup. In 2016 alone, the F-Pace moved 45,973 units, representing almost a third of Jaguars global sales (148,730 vehicles). Given this matter, its rumored that the British company might be tempted to position the future J-Pace as its all-new flagship.That wont happen, though, as explained by none other than Ian Callum. Speaking to Autocar on the sidelines of the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show, the head of design said: An SUV was discussed but its not the mainstay of the brand. Theres more sophistication for a flagship sedan than a flagship SUV. Only one brand can have an SUV as its flagship due to its origins and thats Land Rover. And when you think about it, Callum does make perfect sense.Not much is known about the next-generation XJ , but Callum intends to graft the coupe profile onto the newcomer to differentiate the leaping cat from all of the other three-box sedans in the full-size segment. Electrification, however, will play a huge role in the makeup of the XJ in the ever-changing car market.Fresh from the rumor mill, Range Rover considers launching the Road Rover EV sometime during the 2020 model year. And from the report, its understood that Land Rover will borrow the platform from the next-generation Jaguar XJ. It remains to be seen if more conventional powertrains are also in the offing, with Jaguar promising to hybridize its entire model lineup by 2020. The freshest example of such a manifestation comes from the drag race we're here to show you. The velocity brawl saw the Fezza going up against what has become the typical underdog, namely a Nissan GT-R.Godzilla has been around for a decade now and we're all used to seeing it taking on speed beasts that play in totally different financial leagues.As far as we know, the Fezza we have here comes in stock condition, which means we're looking at a V12 monster delivering 690 hp and a peak torque of 697 Nm.When it comes to the GT-R , the example we're looking at appears to have been taken down the aftermarket path. The custom exhaust tips are the first that give away the Nissan's tuning job.And while we don't want to throw spoilers your way, we can mention that we weren't kidding in the title above - this is the kind of drag race that will keep you in front of the screen from start to finish. We'll also mentin that the hierachy of the battle is dramatically changed once the two beasts get up to speed, with the shift taking place at about 250 km/h (155 mph).It's worth mentioning that the two duked it out using a standing start. Fortunately, the clip documenting the race contains pieces of footage that have been captured from inside both machines. Not only does this mean that you'll get a complete view of the speeding battle, but it also allows you to sample the enchanting naturally aspirated V12 voice of the GTC4Lusso. SOLD! A new World Auction Record, Paul Newmans #RolexDaytona sells for $17,752,500. Join us live now: https://t.co/vm36o2T5hQ pic.twitter.com/dokds2VkJG P H I L L I P S (@phillipsauction) October 26, 2017 The centerpiece of the Winning Icons: Milestone Watches of the 20th Century auction, the Rolex Daytona pales in comparison to the 18-karat gold Paul Newman Daytona sold earlier this year for $3.7 million. Phillips highlights that a portion of the proceeds will go to the Nell Newman Foundation, the daughter of the actor who voiced Doc Hudson in the first Cars movie.What about the provenance of no. 6239? According to the auction house, the Rolex Daytona comes from James Cox, who dated Nell Newman in the past. As the story goes, Cox received the watch from Paul in 1984 while helping the actors daughter repair a treehouse. Considering the $17.8 million winning bid, it appears that giving a helping hand to Nell was lucrative for Cox.The watch entered the Newman household via actress Joanne Woodward, who gave no. 6239 to Paul in 1968. Other than the motorsport-inspired dial, the second most interesting detail about the worlds most desirable Rolex Daytona is the DRIVE CAREFULLY ME engraving on the case back.In addition to the timepiece, the winning bidder also received an original copy of provenance attestation letter signed by Nell Newman, as well as a photograph of the Paul Newman s and Woodwards so-called Nook House.Worn by Newman over the course of 15 years, no. 6239 was also used to keep track of Pauls lap times. The legacy of Newman lives on through his movies, as well as the first-in-class result at the 1979 edition of Le Mans. SUV As the little seahorse holding a Q tip proved, we're dumping a lot of stuff into the ocean. Volvo found just the right message to send out at the start of the 2017/2018 Ocean Race: we need to clean it up!Those abandoned fishing nets are made from nylon, a material that doesn't really dissolve over time. Animals get trapped, and it breaks our hearts to see them like that. Volvo is going to turn the ocean's trash into a fiber called Econyl, and use it for its carpets.Beyond that, we think the V90 Cross Country Volvo Ocean Race is positively dripping with style. Instead of black, it's got matte grey body cladding over the bumpers and side skirts. A few bright orange accents also stand out over the Crystal White base paint.If this style looks familiar, that's because you've seen it before. Back in 2014, the Swedish company came out with anconcept called the XC Coupe and it too had matte grey accents, a lot more of them in fact.The new wheels and top box also remind us of the X Coupe's design. While we don't know the price of this special edition, Volvo says it will donate 100 ($116) for each car sold to a scientific program looking into the plastics that are floating in the ocean.The initial batch will include 3,000 units to be sold in 30 markets such as the United States, China, most of Europe and Saudi Arabia.All the boats in the Ocean Race will be fitted with individual sensors this year, capable of gathering data from remote areas of the planet. Pressure, wind speed, and temperature reading will help us better understand how the ocean currents flow. Transport Canada might leave all pilot proficiency checks on airline pilots up to the airlines themselves, according to documents obtained by the union representing government inspection pilots. The Canadian Federal Pilots Association, which represents mostly federal government pilots, says its reading of the documents suggests airline check pilots will no longer be evaluated on their competence to assess the skills of line pilots as of next spring. The change is scheduled for April 1, 2018, for aircraft carrying 50 or more passengers. I think its very, very important that people understand we are getting closer to self-regulation all the time, said union president Greg McConnell. Its just more cutting, more dismantling of the safety net. Its also a shift away from international standards but the documents, obtained under a freedom of information request, appear to suggest that Canada will get away with it. The International Civil Aviation Organization, which is based in Montreal, mandates regular pilot evaluations by the 190 member states regulatory agencies. But in their risk assessment document accompanying the proposal, Transport Canada staff say check pilots almost never fail their evaluations and inspection staff time would be better spent on higher risk areas of aviation. It could be argued that Canadas experience and relative maturity with systems-based surveillance will adequately complement this shift of responsibilities and therefore mitigate any concerns other states or trade associations may have with response to such a departure from globally accepted practices, the risk-assessment document says. The documents also say that Transport Canada is having trouble hiring qualified inspector pilots. Americans don't trust tech companies or the government to prevent foreign manipulation of online platforms to influence elections, according to an Axios/SurveyMonkey poll. The result underscores the complexity of the issue that brings top lawyers for Facebook, Google and Twitter to testify on Capitol Hill this week. Data: SurveyMonkey poll conducted from Oct. 23 to Oct. 26. Poll data. Poll methodology; Chart: Axios Visuals Why it matters: Congressional investigators are preparing to hammer tech execs on how Russian-bought political ads and content made its way onto their platforms to stoke chaos leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Facebook and Twitter have spent the past few weeks scrambling to put in place new safeguards to prevent this sort of activity all part of public relations strategies on both sides to show they are serious about cracking down on foreign interference in U.S. politics. The public's lack of trust in both the companies and the government on this front is easy to explain: For nearly a decade, the Federal Elections Commission has declined to require the types of disclosures for paid political advertising on online platforms that you see on political ads on TV, radio and print. The lack of formal rules meant that opaqueness became the industry standard. Meanwhile, tech companies came up with their own guidelines to walk the fine line between reasonable ad disclosure and growing their lucrative political advertising business during campaign seasons. While they've broken no rules, their admissions that Russian groups and other malicious actors targeted users without their knowledge gives congressional investigators an easy opening to slap them on the wrists. And it's unclear if the companies have publicly shared the full extent of this meddling or how much fake news or suspicious bots actually spread information on their sites. By the numbers: An Axios-SurveyMonkey poll conducted last week found the following views: 54% see Russians' use of technology platforms to meddle in U.S. politics as a serious issue that warrants investigation; 41% see it as a distraction. 51% say social media does more to harm than help democracy and free speech; overall 45% say social media does more to help. When asked who has "a responsibility to identify and prevent foreign governments' interference in U.S. politics and elections" via tech platforms, 53% say both the federal government and the tech companies should share the burden. Yet, 43% say "neither" when asked whom they trust more to keep such foreign influence off the platforms. Just 20% said they trust them both. 54% of those surveyed say they prefer human screening to monitor for inappropriate content, while 38% are fine with computer algorithms to do the job. Be smart: Google, Facebook and Twitter see themselves as purveyors of free speech that strengthens democracy rather than weakens it. Sources close to the companies tell us they are working hard to strike the right balance between acting as a neutral platform for all speech and a trusted space free of extremist views or illegitimate ads and content. Still, at least for now, they enjoy high popularity with their users and their businesses are thriving. Whether this crisis truly becomes existential for them depends on how they handle the congressional interrogations this week while the public is watching. Go deeper: Americans worried about Russian influence on elections. (Survey methodology: The data reported here come from an online survey conducted by SurveyMonkey Oct. 23-26, among 5,474 adults and has a modeled error margin of 2 percentage points. Respondents for this survey were selected from the nearly 3 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. Data have been weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau's American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States age 18 and over.) Beginning today, a group led by mid-sized oil refiners is running ads on Fox & Friends a show the president is known to watch that knock the administration for backing off changes to the national biofuels mandate called the Renewable Fuel Standard. Why it matters: The bluntly worded, weeklong Fox ad campaign aimed right at President Trump's eyeballs signals the intensity of the fight over the RFS, a topic that pits the biofuels industry and midwestern lawmakers against the oil industry and its Capitol Hill allies. In their words: "Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to drain the swamp, protect our manufacturing jobs, and restore American energy dominance. That's why we elected him. But President Trump is caving to ethanol lobbyists, raising costs on American refiners to appease foreign biodiesel special interests, and jeopardizing U.S. energy independence," the ad states. Who they are: The coalition includes Valero Energy, Monroe Energy (which is owned by Delta Airlines), PBF Energy and other members. The group says the cost of meeting the RFS especially purchasing compliance credits known as renewable identification numbers threatens medium-sized refiners and their workers. Go deeper: The RFS, created by a 2005 law and expanded in a 2007 statute, requires growing amounts of biofuels in nation's transportation fuel mix. Amy's column last week takes a closer look. As the last flames from the deadly California wildfires are extinguished, the state faces another hurdle in the form of ash possibly toxic left behind, WIRED's Adam Rogers reports. Why it matters: The environmental impacts of large volumes of ash range from contaminated soil to algal blooms. "We're anywhere from five years to 100 years in terms of the longevity of effects," Oregon State University researcher Kevin Bladon told WIRED. "That really depends on the severity of the fire and our ability to get some vegetation re-established on site." Ash created in low temperature fires, under 840 degrees Fahrenheit, is grey or black and mostly organic carbon whereas ash created in hotter fires is white because most of the carbon has burned away, leaving calcium and magnesium. Depending on the chemical composition of the ash, it will be hydrophobic or hydrophilic. Rainfall will mix with more hydrophilic ash and could enter streams. If the ash is hydrophobic, it will repel the water and may then run off quickly, washing soil away in the process. If the ash runs off into streams, it could eventually reach the San Francisco Bay and stimulate algal blooms. With the volume of ash created in the recent fires, these potentially large blooms could "eat all the dissolved oxygen out of a waterway, making it unlivable for everything else," per WIRED. it could eventually reach the San Francisco Bay and stimulate algal blooms. With the volume of ash created in the recent fires, these potentially large blooms could "eat all the dissolved oxygen out of a waterway, making it unlivable for everything else," per WIRED. If it stays on land, a mixture of calcium oxide in certain types of ash and rain could create a layer of cement-like limestone on forest floors. "Basically, the ash can pave a forest," Rogers writes. The big question: Scientists have experience with ash from burned vegetation but the recent California fires burned both forests and cities. So the resulting ash will "be full of heavy metals and toxins no one knows exactly how much, and it depends on what burned and at what temperature." The bottom line from Rogers: "All of which means the real trick in Northern California will be debris cleanup." Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing giant, is in talks Japanese taxi company Daiichi Koutsu to roll out a service for Chinese users traveling to Japan, according to Deal Street Asia and Nikkei. Didi told Deal Street that it's exploring "broad collaborative opportunities" in Japan without providing further detail. Deja vu: This approach is reminiscent of Didi Chuxing's tests last year with Lyft in the U.S. and Grab in Southeast Asia, letting each company's customers use their "home" app to book rides through the others when traveling to the other countries. Those tests were eventually discontinued. A worker helps monitor water pumping pressure and temperature at a hydraulic fracturing and extraction site in Western Slope of Colorado. Photo: Brennan Linsley / AP America's biggest natural gas consumers are calling on fuel producers to ramp up their green cred. Seven companies and two municipally owned utilities that consume large amounts of natural gas are urging the producers that supply them with the fuel to step up disclosure on a range of environmental issues, according to a new report viewed exclusively by Axios before its release today. Why it matters: America's natural gas boom has lowered carbon emissions and fueled economic growth across the country. But the public's perception of natural gas is mixed. A lot of people are concerned that hydraulic fracturing where a mix of water and chemicals is injected into rock to release gas contaminates drinking water supplies. The report is coming as the Trump administration grapples with how to move forward with repealing and maybe replacing President Obama's regulations (Check out my latest Harder Line column on this topic). This report is separate from that debate, though it adds additional pressure to oil and natural-gas producers to take a public step on the environmental impacts of natural gas. "We believe this to be the first time natural gas purchasers are directly engaging with natural gas suppliers on environmental sustainability reporting," said Robert LaCount, executive vice president at Michael J. Bradley and Associates, the consulting firm that conducted the study. Companies involved: Calpine Corporation, Consolidated Edison Company of New York, National Grid, NRG Energy, NW Natural, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Xcel Energy and two municipally owned utilities: Austin Energy and Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. One level deeper: The biggest areas in the report are around emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that's also the primary component of natural gas, and water, a big worry for people living near oil and natural gas wells. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi reacted to Paul Manafort's indictment and surrender this morning under "an accelerating Special Counsel investigation" by reiterating her call for a fully independent Russia investigation free of partisan politics. Think back: Pelosi asked for the same thing back in March when House Intel Chair Devin Nunes made secret visits to the White House to receive briefings on classified documents tied to Russia. Pelosi's full statement: "Even with an accelerating Special Counsel investigation inside the Justice Department, and investigations inside the Republican Congress, we still need an outside, fully independent investigation to expose Russia's meddling in our election and the involvement of Trump officials. Defending the integrity of our democracy demands that Congress look forward to counter Russian aggression and prevent future meddling with our elections." Rick Gates, former campaign aide to Trump, at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Photo: Evan Vucci / AP Rick Gates, along with Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, has been indicted in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe. Gates has been described by the New York Times as Manafort's "protege," and retained a central role in Trump's campaign and inaugural committee thanks to his mentor. Get smart: "[He could] go to jail because his long-term partner decided to go work for Donald Trump," Paul Rosenzweig, former deputy secretary for policy at the Department of Homeland Security, told Axios. "What he did likely would not have seen the light of day...He's my Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer squared character in this drama...the man whose life is ruined by being sucked into the Trump tornado." Timeline of Gates' ties to Manafort and the Trump campaign: Roughly 30 years ago: Gates met Manafort when he worked as an intern at the then-powerful lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly. Gates met Manafort when he worked as an intern at the then-powerful lobbying firm Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly. 2006: Gates joined Manafort's lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, where they took on Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as a client. Their relationship with Deripaska later crumbled after Deripaska accused Gates and Manafort of taking nearly $19 million intended for investments without declaring what it was being used for, per the Washington Post. Gates joined Manafort's lobbying firm, Davis Manafort, where they took on Oleg Deripaska, a Russian oligarch with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, as a client. Their relationship with Deripaska later crumbled after Deripaska accused Gates and Manafort of taking nearly $19 million intended for investments without declaring what it was being used for, per the Washington Post. 2014: Gates and Manafort helped promote Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's policies in D.C. Gates and Manafort helped promote Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych's policies in D.C. Spring 2016: Gates followed Manafort to the Trump campaign, and played an integral role at the RNC where Gates became the fall guy for Melania Trump's plagiarized speech. Gates followed Manafort to the Trump campaign, and played an integral role at the RNC where Gates became the fall guy for Melania Trump's plagiarized speech. August 2016: Manafort quit the campaign amid scrutiny over his financial ties, but Gates stayed on as a liason to the RNC, before moving to the lobbying group, America First Policies, that was created to advance Trump's agenda. Manafort quit the campaign amid scrutiny over his financial ties, but Gates stayed on as a liason to the RNC, before moving to the lobbying group, America First Policies, that was created to advance Trump's agenda. March 2017: Gates' ties to Manafort led to him being forced out of the lobbying group. He's now reportedly working directly for one of Trump's closest and wealthiest friends, Tom Barrack, per NYT. Gates' ties to Manafort led to him being forced out of the lobbying group. He's now reportedly working directly for one of Trump's closest and wealthiest friends, Tom Barrack, per NYT. Since linking up with Barrack, Gates has been a frequent White House visitor. But some staff noted that "his presence was conspicuous since the president doesn't even like him," per the Daily Beast. "Rick [just] wandered around," a Republican source told the Daily Beast. "My understanding is that [Trump] had no idea he was in the building otherwise he wouldn't be too happy." What Gates is being charged with: The indictment reveals Manafort and Gates were charged on 12 counts, including money laundering, conspiring against the U.S., and false and misleading statements surrounding their offshore financial accounts. Note that the indictment does not make any reference to Russia's election meddling. What to watch: Rosenzweig suggested that Gates might have more information than Manafort but emphasized that at the end of the day "we don't really know." Go deeper: Read the indictment charges in full. Editor's Note: Sign up for Axios newsletters to get our smart brevity delivered to your inbox every morning. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned President Trump this morning against interfering with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation following the indictment and surrender of Paul Manafort. Schumer called on Congress to act in a bipartisan manner to ensure that the Russia probe remains intact if Trump chooses to intervene. Schumer's full statement: "These reported indictments show that the special counsel's probe is ongoing in a very serious way. The rule of law is paramount in America and the investigation must be allowed to proceed unimpeded. The President must not, under any circumstances, interfere with the special counsel's work in any way. If he does so, Congress must respond swiftly, unequivocally, and in a bipartisan way to ensure that the investigation continues." The Trump administration is fumbling its attempts to repeal President Obama's methane emissions limits. The oil and natural gas industry is, in turn, scrambling to respond to the resulting regulatory vacuum. The sector's main trade group is working to create a voluntary program aimed at addressing the issue, according to multiple executives in the oil industry whose companies are members of the group, the American Petroleum Institute. Why it matters: These efforts to roll back Obama's methane rules offer a glimpse into how President Trump's deregulatory agenda is stoking industry uncertainty, and how the debate over climate change is influencing oil and gas companies operating in the United States. Fast facts: Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is the primary component of natural gas. It can be leaked, either purposefully or inadvertently, during the production and transmission of natural gas. It has a warming impact far greater than carbon dioxide, though it stays in the atmosphere for less time. Oil and natural gas companies emit the most methane emissions in the U.S., recently surpassing the agriculture sector (including, yes, cow farts). Still, methane is just 10% of America's overall greenhouse gas emissions. Regulatory slog The Trump administration has so far tried and failed three times to repeal two methane regulations. One, at the Interior Department, affects existing wells on federal lands. The other, at the Environmental Protection Agency, affects new wells across the country. The GOP-controlled Senate, with the administration's backing, failed to pass a measure repealing the Interior Department rule in May. A federal appeals court in Washington ruled in July that the EPA couldn't immediately suspend its methane regulation. A federal court in California ruled earlier this month that the Interior Department also could not suspend its methane rule. The two agencies are now working to issue regulations delaying the old ones while they work to eventually issue new regulations that will either repeal or replace the old ones, according to officials at both agencies. The EPA is releasing as soon as this week a proposal explaining the legal rationale for why it's seeking a two-year delay, called a stay. "The two-year delay is just meant to get us time," said a senior EPA official, acknowledging that their plan "hit a little bit of a snafu" with the federal court ruling. "It doesn't make sense for companies to expend resources to comply with elements of the rule that may well likely be changing." At least one oil trade group, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, which represents mostly domestically focused oil companies, is advising its members to comply with both rules even though it's opposed to them because of the prolonged uncertainty the lawsuits and the subsequent regulatory actions have created. "The methane issue is pretty complicated, but it's still a bit surprising that it's taking so long to finalize the stay," said Jeff Holmstead, a former top EPA official during the George W. Bush administration, and now a partner at the law firm Bracewell. "Ordinarily, this is something that could be done in two or three months." EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman said in an email the agency was "taking extra precautions to ensure we have as strong a case, supported by a robust record, given the high level of scrutiny our actions face." Industry moves The debate over what to do with the federal government's methane regulations reveals longstanding divisions across the oil and gas industry. The biggest companies with global footprints typically support more robust regulations because it provides certainty and a competitive edge over smaller companies. U.S.-based firms, often smaller ones, with operations on federally owned lands are more likely to prefer less regulation. The lowest common denominator is prevailing. The American Petroleum Institute opposes a direct regulation on methane and instead is arguing that methane emissions can be lowered as a byproduct of another EPA regulation on the books since 2012, which limits other types of air pollution at oil and gas wells, according to Kyle Isakower, vice president for Regulatory and Economic Policy at API. EPA itself also touted the methane co-benefit when it released that rule five years ago. Many companies want more, and some even want a direct regulation of methane on new and existing sources. But the companies that want less regulation want it more than the companies that want more regulation. Voluntary moves Adam Sharp has a rare view into how we got to this week, with Facebook, Google and Twitter set to appear before three congressional committees over Russian election meddling. He led Twitter's strategy for the 2016 and 2012 elections (part of a six year career at the company) before leaving in December. Why it matters: The congressional hearings about social media and the 2016 election start this week with a public that's deeply divided on the issue of Russian interference, according to an Axios/SurveyMonkey poll. The companies say they're open to required disclosures for paid political advertising but Sharp argues even that may not be enough. Axios' spoke with Sharp via email over the weekend. You have been intimately involved in the questions around political disclosure on social media. How did we get to this point? Neither the lawmakers, candidates, nor digital platforms ever really made transparency a priority. Campaigns and political groups tend not to want any more hurdles than they are absolutely required to have. Google and Facebook fought against disclosure. The FEC was paralyzed by partisan deadlock. Despite the unclear FEC rules on this issue, what should the companies have done to avoid or better handle this type of election meddling? It was a mistake to ignore the spirit of the law when the FEC failed to modernize the text of it. Twitter supported ads with full disclaimers as early as 2011. But Google and Facebook were much bigger and ad buyers knew the FEC wouldn't act. Obfuscation became the industry standard. By the end of 2016, disclaimers had faded even from Twitter, though they and Facebook now intend to provide them in 2018. Patterns of "filter bubbles" have also long been apparent, particularly on Facebook, as has the tendency for falsehoods to go viral as easily as truths. There are a number of studies showing search results, tweets and Facebook posts can influence voting behavior, and third-party researchers flagged abuses of each platform. The factors that make you "like" more, click more, open apps more, and drive more revenue (Twitter, Facebook and Google are businesses, after all) are the same factors that make these platforms vulnerable to interference. While celebrating their changing-the-world status, each company should have better balanced public impact against the bottom line in prioritizing the technical challenges they invested in solving. Why isn't it enough for the companies to come up with their own self-regulatory solution to this problem? Two problems: consistency and enforcement. Allowing each platform to define their own standards would only make it harder for voters to have a consistent understanding of who is trying to influence them. Imagine the chaos if every TV station had different rules for how ads are disclosed and documented. Second, their options for holding bad actors accountable are extremely limited. If someone is subverting the electoral process or committing any other crime, enforcement can't be limited to suspending a social media account. Regulators must set common standards, but shouldn't be overly prescriptive. The platforms should have room to find the creative implementations. Does the proposed Honest Ads Act fully solve the problem at hand? No. It's a start, and I hope it will pass in time for the 2018 midterms. But it is in many ways just a catch-up measure, bringing social media in line with out-of-date regulation of other media. The current system makes it nearly impossible to really trace the flow of money. You're stuck searching and stitching together myriad FEC reports and TV station public files, and even then only have a part of the picture. With more and more donations made and ads bought instantly by credit card, we still accept lengthy delays in disclosure. Senate candidates still file their financial reports on paper. When you stop to think about how much complexity gets resolved in an instant every time we pick up our smartphones, it boggles the mind that our visibility into how our democracy is influenced is so perilously stuck in the last century. What else should internet platforms and social networks be doing going forward? These companies represent the greatest concentration of talent on the planet for addressing complex, connective data challenges. If policymakers step up to set real-time, easy transparency as the expectation, these minds should respond with technical solutions as creative as those that have so changed our world in the last decade. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort has reportedly been told to surrender to federal authorities as part of Special Counsel Bob Mueller's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, the NYT's Matt Apuzzo reports. CNN reports Manafort will turn himself in. Be smart: The FBI rarely charges just one person, and this is likely just the beginning. The nature of the charges were not immediately clear but Manafort has been under investigation for violating tax law, money laundering, and his foreign lobbying disclosures. Manafort's business associate, Rick Gates, was also reportedly told to surrender. Go deeper: How the probe closed in on Manafort The Armenian Defense Ministry issued a stern warning to the wife of former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian on Monday after she seemingly accused his successor, Vigen Sargsian, of evading compulsory military service. In a weekend Facebook post, Ruzanna Khachatrian attacked an unnamed high-ranking official who has spoken out against draft evasion of late. Khachatrian said she has known him for 25 years and remembers how he was evading military service and how the military police were hunting for him in 1999. The official, she said, was saved from punishment by his girlfriend who worked as an advisor to a senior military official at the time. And now he, shaking his finger from various podiums as a great philosopher, a great teacher, is trying to give mentoring advice and admonitions to the younger generations, wrote Khachatrian. The opposition Yelk alliance was quick to seize upon the extraordinary attack, suggesting that it was directed at Defense Minister Sargsian, who replaced Ohanian one year ago. Sargsian repeatedly stressed the need to close legal loopholes to draft evasion during last weeks parliament debates on a government bill that will mostly abolish draft deferments enjoyed by male students of Armenian universities. Yelks parliamentary faction voted against the bill, saying that the authorities must first ensure that senior government officials and their relatives are no longer able to wriggle out of the two-year service. One of Yelks leaders, Nikol Pashinian, demanded on Monday that the Sargsian give very clear explanations about why he was not drafted when he turned 18. According to the 42-year-old ministers official biography, he studied at a state college in Russia from 1992-1996 and served in the Armenian armed forces as an officer after graduating from the U.S. Fletcher School of Diplomacy in 2000. From 2000 through 2003 Sargsian was an assistant to then Defense Minister Serzh Sarkisian. The Defense Ministry spokesman, Artsrun Hovannisian, also reacted to Khachatrians claims. In that regard, he pointed to articles of Armenias civil and criminal codes dealing with defamation, insults and false denunciation. Hovannisian also insisted on his Facebook page that Sargsian had never evaded military or been wanted by law-enforcement authorities on corresponding charges. Shortly after he was sacked as defense minister in October 2016, Ohanian began publicly criticizing the Armenian government and its track record. He ran in the April 2017 parliamentary elections as one of the leaders of the ORO opposition alliance. ORO failed to win any seats in the National Assembly. Neither Ohanian nor his wife could be reached for comment on Monday. The Armenian government stood by its projections that economic growth in the country will accelerate to 4.5 percent next year as it presented its 2018 budget proposal to lawmakers on Monday. The draft state budget approved by the government in late September calls for over 1.46 trillion drams ($3.1 billion) in total expenditure, up by 7.6 percent from the governments 2017 spending target. Most of the extra spending planned by the government would be channeled into various infrastructure projects. The spending bill calls for an even sharper rise in tax revenue that would reduce the budget to 2.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product. Prime Minister Karen Karapetian and Finance Minister Vartan Aramian defended this budgetary strategy as they addressed several standing committees of the Armenian parliament. Karapetian insisted that it will lay the groundwork for an average economic growth rate of 5 percent in the future. We must seek 5 percent growth, not 3 percent growth, because several analyses show that 3 percent growth would not allow us to consistently address our economic problems, Aramian said for his part. He said the government still expects the Armenian economy to expand by 4.5 percent in 2018, up from 4.3 percent projected for this year. In its latest World Economic Outlook released earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund forecast more modest growth rates for Armenia: 3.5 percent in 2017 and 2.9 percent in 2018. The IMF anticipated slower growth in the country earlier this year. The draft budget was criticized by opposition lawmakers representing the Yelk alliance and businessman Gagik Tsarukians bloc. They said that it will not ease hardship in the country because the government is not planning to raise public sector salaries and pensions next year. The people are sick and tired of your numbers, said Gevorg Petrosian of the Tsarukian Bloc. We are confident that we are keeping the country on the right track, countered Aramian. He said that boosting capital spending is a more efficient way of speeding up growth than raising salaries and pensions. Without capital spending its not possible to expect development, agreed Aghvan Vartanian of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, President Serzh Sarkisians junior coalition partner. Police in Armenia used force on Monday to neutralize a man who burst into a kindergarten and took one of its children hostage. The hostage, a 3-year-old boy, was freed after a five-hour standoff between the man armed with a knife and police officers that surrounded the kindergarten in Armavir, a town 40 kilometers west of Yerevan. A spokesman for the Armenian police, Ashot Aharonian, said the officers freed the child before using special means against the hostage taker. The operation was personally led by General Hunan Poghosian, the deputy chief of the national police service. An RFE/RL correspondent standing near the kindergarten building heard what sounded like gunshots shortly before Aharonians announcement. The police said later in the day that the attacker then tried to harm himself and was taken to a local hospital as a result. The hospital director, Sargis Khachatrian, told reporters afterwards that he stabbed himself in the chest and is now undergoing surgery. He confirmed that the child was not hurt by the middle-aged man. Also hospitalized was a woman described by Khachatrian as the hostage-takers former wife. He said she suffered stab wounds to her neck, chest and hands and will have to be transferred to a hospital in Yerevan. In a late-night statement, Armenias Investigative Committee said the man, who was still not identified, took the hostage to demand an urgent meeting with his ex-wife working in the Armavir kindergarten. The law-enforcement agency gave no other details. 30 October 2017 14:13 (UTC+04:00) By Rashid Shirinov Cryptocurrency is a relatively new form of electronic money, but it has already won the interest of many people around the world. There are still debates ongoing about the economic essence and legal status of cryptocurrencies. Depending on the country, cryptocurrencies are seen as means of payment, specific products, and they may also have limitations in circulation, for example, prohibition of their transactions for banking institutions. Today many countries still prohibit any operations with cryptocurrencies, but some experts believe that the governments should be more open towards this type of electronic money and they should create legislation on cryptocurrencies. "Creation of legislation on the regulation of operations with cryptocurrencies will turn Azerbaijan into one of the world leaders in this sphere," says Maryam Tagiyeva. Chief system architect of the British Research Center for Citizenship, Entreprise and Governance (CCEG) told Trend that the regulation of operations with cryptocurrencies through exchanges, as proposed in some countries, can inhibit the development of cryptocurrencies. Perhaps this will help the process of legalizing cryptocurrencies, but the exchanges and any such organizations work quite slowly, as each innovation must go through many instances. This may inhibit the development of cryptocurrencies and blockchain (public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions), which should not be done, Tagiyeva noted. Azerbaijan will lead the world in case the country can accept such regulation, the expert believes, since such operations are still banned in the world due to lack of regulation. She believes that first of all Azerbaijan should solve legislative issues on the use of cryptocurrency. Only the presence of regulation will boost peoples confidence in cryptocurrencies in general. If there is no regulation, the process of introduction and use of cryptocurrencies will be constantly delayed. Only then you can see how to apply and use cryptocurrencies, Tagieva noted. The expert added that the CCEG is ready to support the creation of such legislation in Azerbaijan. Our initial goal is to help governments through our research, and the blockchain we develop will also be used in government projects. Unfortunately, we have not yet received any appeals from Azerbaijan, but we are open to suggestions and are ready to help with the creation of the legislation in Azerbaijan, said Tagiyeva. Cryptocurrency is a digital currency, the unit of which is a coin. It is protected from forgery, since it constitutes encrypted information that cannot be copied. Cryptocurrency is emitted directly on the network and is not connected in any way with any ordinary currency or with any state currency system. --- Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 30 October 2017 12:51 (UTC+04:00) By Trend Turkey and Azerbaijan have potential to bring the volume of mutual investments to $30 billion over five years, Turkeys President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview with Trend, Azertac and APA. First of all, Turkey and Azerbaijan are brotherly countries and our relations in the economic sphere are formed on the basis of brotherhood. In fact, the volume of mutual investments of the two countries stood at $23 billion as of late 2016. We have a potential to bring the volume of our investments to $30 billion over five years, said Turkeys president. Naturally, ongoing geopolitical processes in the global economy and region affect all of us. As we know, it is already four years that Turkey has been targeted by numerous attacks from various directions aiming to weaken it. But we are steadfast. Azerbaijan was affected by lower oil prices. We believe that every difficulty also brings some opportunities, he added. Erdogan said Turkey sees that the efforts to develop Azerbaijans non-oil sector are increasing successfully under the farsighted leadership of Azerbaijans President Ilham Aliyev. We will work in close cooperation with our Azerbaijani brothers in promoting foreign investments, attracting Turkish companies to invest in Azerbaijan and in privatization sphere. With this purpose, our ministries of economy continue to work on holding Road Show event in cooperation with Foreign Economic Relations Board in Turkey, added Turkeys president. Moreover, various measures were taken to develop our trade relations with Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic and encourage our businessmen. On Oct.28, our economy ministers came together in Igdir, met with our businessmen and briefed them about the work done in this sphere. I believe that we will get concrete results in increasing the volume of trade turnover with Nakhchivan, he said. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 30 October 2017 12:58 (UTC+04:00) By Trend Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Abdulla Aripov will visit Azerbaijan on October 30. Aripov will head the Uzbek delegation, which will take part in the opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line, the Uzbek fioreign ministry reported. The opening ceremony will be attended by the Presidents of Turkey, Kazakhstan and the Prime Minister of Georgia. The BTK railway was constructed on the basis a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement. The railways peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo per year. At an initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 30 October 2017 15:00 (UTC+04:00) By Aygul Salmanova Azerbaijan is one of the oldest centers of saffron in the world. Written sources claim that in some regions of the country this valuable and expensive spice was cultivated more than a thousand years ago. The small village of Bilgah on the Absheron peninsula still preserves the tradition of growing this miraculous plant. Saffron, grown in this area is not inferior to any world brand and with proper storage does not lose quality for very long years. Before 1917, some 150 acres had been allocated for the production of saffron and its export put Azerbaijan in a significant place in world markets. In the Middle Ages, Azerbaijan exported about 16 tons of dry saffron to the markets of Russia and Europe. But with the development of the oil sector in Absheron, the share of saffron and other plants has steadily declined. Oil production in the 19-20th centuries caused irreparable harm to the ecology of the peninsula, the fertile lands filled with oil have not recovered to this day. Today Azerbaijan, which cannot meet domestic needs for this product, purchases the king of spices, from neighboring Iran, with 90 percent share of saffron from the world production. All saffron, being sold in the capital's supermarkets, is produced in Iran, which in quality lags behind the local saffron. Absheron saffron has not entered the world markets yet. First of all, due to the fact that this product is not produced in sufficient quantity and does not have its own brand. Now only farmers are engaged in the production of saffron in the country. The annual increase in saffron prices in international sales markets has forced scientists from the Ministry's Agrarian Science Center to direct their research to the revival of Azerbaijani saffron, according to Jalal Mammadov, Director of the Absheron Subtropical Plant Practice Station of the Agriculture Ministry. Mammadov noted that there is a need for saffron production in Azerbaijan: "Saffron production in the Soviet period was especially developed in Baku and its villages. The potential of this field is still actual. As far as I know, these traditions remain, though small in Baku. A few individuals are engaged in the sale of saffron. However, measures should be taken to raise it to the state level and to cover larger areas. Due to the fact that the investments of the state in agriculture, the emergence of new areas, and the creation of the agricultural sector's processing industry are included to the state priorities, it is expected that further steps will be taken in the development of the production of saffron. This aromatic spice is sufficiently widely used in the Azerbaijani cuisine, and experts believe in case of increasing the output of the product, no problems is expected with demand inside the country. Head of the Center for Sustainable Development Studies Nariman Agayev told Echo.az that Azerbaijan needs at least 4-5 years to ensure itself with this product, noting that the country can increase the production level up to 5-10 tons per year. Today one gram of saffron in the Azerbaijani market costs 10 manats ($5.8), while the same amount in world markets stands at $20-25. Simple calculations indicate that only one ton of saffron would bring Azerbaijan about $25 million. Baltic countries and in Italy are interested in Azerbaijan saffron, according to Agayev, who claims the product may bring million to the countrys economy. The spice is among the most valuable and rarest spices, the price of which has remained very high for thousands of years. Most varieties of saffron, as a very rare plant and a plant the offspring of which are disappearing, were included in the Red Book of the former USSR and the Republic of Azerbaijan. A wild variety of saffron grows in natural conditions in the Ganja-Gazakh region, Guba-Khachmaz region, Shamakhi, Lerik, Absheron, Nakhchivan AR and other areas. The high price of saffron is explained by two reasons. Firstly, its production is very labor-intensive, and secondly, the aroma, taste and medicinal properties have no equal among other pices. From each corms there can be derived 2-3 or more flowers of light-violet color with dark branching veins. The collection of freshly blooming flowers, which occurs in October-November, is carried out manually, early in the morning, by gently separating the stigma. To collect one kilogram of dry saffron it is required to procure 300,000 flowers. They are dried in the shade at a temperature of 18-22 C and then stored in a sealed glass container. If these rules are observed, saffron does not lose its valuable quality within 10-15 years. The last few years, Afghanistan steadily promotes its saffron in the spice market. Since 2012, Afghan saffron takes first place at traditional international exhibitions in Europe. Europe also produces saffron. Greece, Italy, France, and Portugal are among its major producers with Spain, leading in the cultivation of saffron on the European continent. In small quantities, saffron is produced in the Swiss mountain village of Mund. The quality is excellent, but they produce only 3-4 kilograms of product per year. -- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 30 October 2017 16:57 (UTC+04:00) By Aygul Salmanova Azerbaijan's investments in the Turkish economy have reached $ 10.1 billion, according to Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev participating at the Azerbaijani-Turkish business forum in Igdir on October 29 as part of his visit to Turkey. The minister said some 2,000 companies with Azerbaijani capital operating in Turkey, while the number of companies with Turkish capital accommodating in Azerbaijan reaches 3,000. Saying that Turkish investments in Azerbaijan amounted to $11.7 billion, the minister drew attention to the fact that there is a great potential for the development of the relations in different spheres of the economy. He stressed that the joint Azerbaijan and Turkey efforts will allow expand the economic cooperation and contribute to the wellbeing of the nations. Speaking of the economic ties, Mustafayev reminded that the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council is operating between the countries. The minister stressed that Azerbaijan implements its strategic projects jointly with fraternal Turkey, among such projects are the Southern Gas Corridor, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan-Kars, the STAR refinery and others. Mustafayev also reminded that Turkey and Azerbaijan are currently negotiating the Agreement on preferential trade. During his speech at the forum, Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci talked about various trade privileges that Turkey grants to Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, a landlocked exclave of Azerbaijan borders with three countries including Turkey, Iran and Armenia. We have provided Nakhchivan with unilateral opportunities and privileges, and we want Nakhchivan to be regarded as an area of benefit and focus in the economic sense. He said that Turkey freed the import of goods from Nakhchivan from customs duties and now products will be imported into Turkey without import duties and on preferential terms. "We will make one-sided generosity to allow Nakhchivan to sell more products to Turkey," he said. The decision taken by the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkey will affect 43 products (13 agricultural products, 30 industrial products). According to the decision of the Turkish government, goods produced annually in Nakhchivan worth $120 million will be imported to Turkey without paying import duties and the trade will be done in Turkish liras. In accordance with an agreement reached between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, trade volume worth $200 million will be created in the region. "This decision will bring a significant contribution to the development of the region and trade relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey," said the Turkish minister. This privilege given to Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic by Turkey is not given to any country in the world, which is a more convenient and privileged trade environment than the one provided for Cyprus, said Zeybekchi. The Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, which forms the sole link between Turkey and Azerbaijan, has a specific place in terms of the bilateral relations of the two countries. Nakhchivan is physically separate from Azerbaijan can be described as "Turkish Gate", which forms the point of direct connection between Azerbaijan and Turkey. Data of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan shows that the trade turnover with Turkey in January-September 2017 amounted to almost $1.96 billion. According to the results of the reporting period, Turkey is the second trade partner of Azerbaijan in terms of commodity turnover. The contractual base of bilateral Turkish-Azerbaijani trade and economic relations includes more than 40 documents aimed at expanding economic cooperation between states. The two countries are successfully cooperating in the political, economic, scientific, technical, and cultural spheres. Azerbaijan and Turkey have good and developing economic ties, especially in terms of huge energy projects envisaging the transportation of Azerbaijan's hydrocarbon resources to the European and world markets through the Turkeys territory. Today, the two brotherly states are the beneficiaries of all the major projects in the region, in particular the Southern Gas Corridor, which comprises TANAP and TAP projects, as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway. Turkey primarily exports iron and steel products, various finished products, electronics, furniture, plastic products to Azerbaijan. Natural gas accounts for 85 percent of Turkey's import from Azerbaijan. Aside from the natural gas, Turkey imports non-ferrous metals, chemical industry products, plastic products from Azerbaijan. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 30 October 2017 10:53 (UTC+04:00) By Trend Trans-Caspian International Transport Route and the New Silk Road project on a more global scale, will be held tomorrow, Oct. 30. The importance and scale of this project is evidenced by the fact that the opening ceremony of the BTK and the dispatch of the first freight train will be attended by the leaders of a number of countries that will somehow be involved in the transportation along this corridor. In particular, President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the high-ranking officials of Kazakhstan, Georgia, China, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan will arrive for the BTK inauguration. The project, which will connect the railways of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey for the first time, was launched in 2007 with the signing of an intergovernmental agreement among the three countries and a year later, on July 24, 2008, the Turkish section of the road was laid in Turkey. The project envisaged the complete reconstruction of the railroad in Azerbaijan and Georgia from Marabda to Akhalkalaki and the construction of a completely new infrastructure in the Akhalkalaki-Kars. Azerbaijan acted as the main ideologist and initiator in this large-scale project. The country took over the financing of the project on the territory of Georgia and provided a loan of $775 million. The project is financed by the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan, according to the decree of the President of Azerbaijan "On Implementing the Activities of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Project" dated February 21, 2007. The neighboring state received $640.3 million. Many forces were interested in failure of the project and constantly pointed to the protracted nature of the project, but one should not forget that the construction of the Turkish and Georgian parts of the BTK rail line was conducted in the highlands. This required certain technical solutions in terms of safety and speed of the movement of trains, as well as work under difficult meteorological conditions. Here, the most important thing was not to rush, but to create the safest, most favorable route for cargo and passengers, and the countries participating in the project did quite right. Carriers from China, Central Asia and Europe particularly expected the opening of BTK and will now be rewarded for patience, because the terms of transportation of goods, for example, from China to Europe, will be reduced from 40-45 to 12-15 days, and transportation costs for the supply of petroleum products and dry cargo to the Turkish market will noticeably decrease. A freight train of 82 containers loaded with grain, which will be honored to run along the BTK first, departed from Kazakhstan's Kostanay a few days ago and reached the Kuryk port on the Caspian the day before. Its final destination will be the Mersin port in Turkey, meanwhile Kazakhstan has already begun the formation of the second coal train for delivery to Romania. The administrations of the railway agencies of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey have already agreed and presented the tariff policy to the senders of the goods. For example, the cost of delivering goods along the Baku-Kars route will be $ 37.98 per ton, $ 2,279 per wagon, $ 529 per one 40-foot container. More details on the tariffs along the corridor can be found here. In general, at the first stage, it is planned to transport up to five million tons of cargo per year and about one million passengers per year. Passenger traffic is expected to start in 2018. For these purposes, Azerbaijan Railways purchased 30 comfortable sleeping cars from the Swiss manufacturer Stadler and 10 locomotives from the French Alstom. The BTK railway can also be used to supply liquefied gas to Turkey from the Caspian countries, oil products from Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan and, of course, container shipments from China. This shows the involvement of other countries in the project. In addition to the construction of the railway itself, a number of infrastructure facilities have been and will be built in the future: a logistic center in Kars, a replacement point for wheel sets from gauge 1,520 to gauge 1,435 in Akhalkalaki, two large reception points for freight cars and depots there. It is also planned to create a coal storage warehouse, as well as a large terminal for transshipping oil, oil products and liquefied gas, after which it will be possible to talk about an increase in the volume of freight traffic to 15 million tons per year. BTK in the future will be an important part in terms of connecting the railways of Europe and Asia via the Marmara railway tunnel running under Bosphorus and will thus become a true "Orient Express" of the 21st century. 29 October 2017 10:09 (UTC+04:00) By Amina Nazarli October 29 marks the 24th anniversary of the occupation of Azerbaijans Zangilan region by Armenian armed forces. Like other occupied regions of Azerbaijan, Zangilan fell victim to betrayal during these tragic years for Azerbaijan. Zangilan, which was the last region of Azerbaijan to be occupied by Armenian invasion troops, didn't bow down to the enemy from 1988 until November 1993 and resisted attacks, losing hundreds of residents in the fierce fighting. Zangilan, having a 157 mile border with Armenia, had a significant place in the gradual increase in tensions in the region from 1988 at the start of Armenias open hostile actions aimed at claiming Azerbaijan's Nagorno-Karabakh region. After the occupation of the neighboring Jabrayil and Gubadli regions, Zangilan was in complete blockade. The supply of electricity and water to the region stopped. On the last week, Zangilan was completely surrounded by the enemy forces. Armenian Armed Forces surrounded the region from three sides and exposed all settlements of the region to continuous shelling, inflicting new destruction and casualties. There was no strength to resist it longer and people of Zangilan including elderly, women and men gathered at the Araz River to flee to the Iranian territory. They found a way out by crossing the Araz River to get to Iranian territory. Otherwise, they could have been subjected to horrors similar to those that the residents of Khojaly suffered in February 1992. In the unequal armed struggle against the Armenian aggressors, Zangilan lost 188 martyrs. So far, the region's 44 residents are among those missing in the aftermath of the bitter conflict with Armenia. Moreover, 110 residents of the region have become disabled and about 200 children have become orphaned. Apart from being a territory with enormous amounts of natural beauty, Zangilan is considered one of the most ancient settlements in Azerbaijan. Prior to the invasion 35,000 people lived in the Zangilan region, which covers an area of 707 sq. km. The region's economy was based on agriculture, including winegrowing, tobacco growing and livestock breeding. The region, which included a city, a settlement and 83 villages, had 9 preschool institutions, 19 primary and 15 secondary schools, one vocational school, one music school, 35 libraries, eight cultural centers, 23 club-houses and 22 film projector facilities. The largest plane forest in Europe was also located in the region. Unfortunately, the Armenians are now cutting down these plane trees and selling them to foreign countries. Molybdenum, marble, gold, granite and other mineral resources are also being plundered by the Armenians from the region. There are reports that the Basitcay State Nature Reserve, established in 1974 in Zangilan, is in a deplorable state. The Armenians were reported to have cut down its valuable trees and use them in the furniture industry. As a result of the arsons committed by the Armenians, a great part of the region's territory has burnt down, and valuable trees and preserves have been destroyed. Zangilan's territory is also rich in archaeological and architectural monuments, the largest of which is the ruins of a medieval city known as Shahri Sharifam. Unfortunately, after the occupation, the Armenians plundered or falsified the samples of the region's ancient historical monuments. After Zangilan's occupation, more than 35,000 local residents had to be settled in 52 settlements across the country. Zangilan's residents, who were ousted from their homes, are looking forward to liberation of their native lands from the Armenian occupation. -- Amina Nazarli is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 30 October 2017 11:12 (UTC+04:00) By Trend Azerbaijan is one of Turkey's important strategic partners, the Turkish presidential administration told Trend on October 29. Turkey and Azerbaijan are connected not only with historical and cultural ties, but also with economic and political relations, which are becoming stronger every day, the administration said. "Today, Turkey and Azerbaijan are implementing such important projects as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, the Trans-Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP)," the administration said. The administration added that Baku and Ankara are also strengthening relations in the military and defense spheres. "For Turkey, Azerbaijan's interests have always been of great importance, the administration said. The Azerbaijani authorities and people have repeatedly shown their fraternal attitude towards Turkey. As before, Turkey will continue to support Azerbaijan in all spheres. The official opening ceremony of the BTK railway will be held in Baku on October 30. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 30 October 2017 15:17 (UTC+04:00) By Trend The next round of talks on the comprehensive agreement between Azerbaijan and the European Union (EU) will be held on November 6-7 in Brussels, Head of Political, Economics and Press and Information Section of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan Denis Daniilidis told Trend on October 30. He noted that the political chapter of the agreement will be discussed during the meeting. In late 2016, the EU Council adopted a mandate for the European Commission and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to negotiate, on behalf of the EU and its member states, a comprehensive agreement with Azerbaijan. The new agreement should replace the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement and better take account of the shared objectives and challenges the EU and Azerbaijan face today. The new agreement will follow the principles endorsed in the 2015 review of the European neighborhood policy and offer a renewed basis for political dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 30 October 2017 16:45 (UTC+04:00) By Trend The meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran will be devoted to the development of the International North-South Transport Corridor, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov told reporters in Baku on October 30. The first meeting, as you remember, was held in Baku, and now there will be a meeting in Tehran, Mammadyarov said. The sides express great interest in this issue. Azerbaijan even agrees to allocate a loan to Iran for the construction of the remaining section of the railway. Masoud Karbasian, Iranian minister of economic affairs and finance, new co-chairman of the Azerbaijan-Iran Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation, has recently visited Baku. As far as I know, the conditions for granting the loan were discussed in detail with our economy ministry. I think that all these issues will be also discussed at the meeting of the presidents. Mammadyarov noted that this project is of great interest not only for its participants, but also for such exporters as India or Vietnam. I didnt even know that Vietnams export potential is $204 billion, more than $42 billion of which account for export to Europe, Mammadyarov added. The International North-South Transport Corridor is meant to connect Northern Europe with Southeast Asia. It will serve as a link connecting the railways of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. At the initial stage, it is planned to transport 5 million tons of cargo per year through the corridor and over 10 million tons of cargo in the future. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Blog Archive Nov 2022 (30) Oct 2022 (64) Sep 2022 (60) Aug 2022 (61) Jul 2022 (55) Jun 2022 (60) May 2022 (73) Apr 2022 (60) Mar 2022 (58) Feb 2022 (65) Jan 2022 (69) Dec 2021 (106) Nov 2021 (84) Oct 2021 (58) Sep 2021 (67) Aug 2021 (62) Jul 2021 (54) Jun 2021 (50) May 2021 (58) Apr 2021 (44) Mar 2021 (57) Feb 2021 (64) Jan 2021 (93) Dec 2020 (82) Nov 2020 (62) Oct 2020 (50) Sep 2020 (45) Aug 2020 (51) Jul 2020 (56) Jun 2020 (53) May 2020 (70) Apr 2020 (66) Mar 2020 (169) Feb 2020 (211) Jan 2020 (184) Dec 2019 (54) Nov 2019 (56) Oct 2019 (55) Sep 2019 (63) Aug 2019 (54) Jul 2019 (69) Jun 2019 (56) May 2019 (65) Apr 2019 (68) Mar 2019 (72) Feb 2019 (76) Jan 2019 (62) Dec 2018 (55) Nov 2018 (69) Oct 2018 (90) Sep 2018 (82) Aug 2018 (58) Jul 2018 (36) Jun 2018 (47) May 2018 (44) Apr 2018 (64) Mar 2018 (63) Feb 2018 (68) Jan 2018 (92) Dec 2017 (85) Nov 2017 (64) Oct 2017 (82) Sep 2017 (54) Aug 2017 (89) Jul 2017 (60) Jun 2017 (86) May 2017 (84) Apr 2017 (62) Mar 2017 (86) Feb 2017 (91) Jan 2017 (113) Dec 2016 (109) Nov 2016 (100) Oct 2016 (82) Sep 2016 (95) Aug 2016 (84) Jul 2016 (84) Jun 2016 (99) May 2016 (93) Apr 2016 (106) Mar 2016 (145) Feb 2016 (125) Jan 2016 (103) Dec 2015 (83) Nov 2015 (80) Oct 2015 (100) Sep 2015 (111) Aug 2015 (94) Jul 2015 (98) Jun 2015 (151) May 2015 (125) Apr 2015 (109) Mar 2015 (122) Feb 2015 (113) Jan 2015 (135) Dec 2014 (131) Nov 2014 (115) Oct 2014 (146) Sep 2014 (112) Aug 2014 (128) Jul 2014 (94) Jun 2014 (104) May 2014 (140) Apr 2014 (132) Mar 2014 (81) Feb 2014 (89) Jan 2014 (141) Dec 2013 (100) Nov 2013 (96) Oct 2013 (99) Sep 2013 (94) Aug 2013 (95) Jul 2013 (95) Jun 2013 (91) May 2013 (139) Apr 2013 (179) Mar 2013 (73) Feb 2013 (76) Jan 2013 (85) Dec 2012 (59) Nov 2012 (71) Oct 2012 (85) Sep 2012 (70) Aug 2012 (71) Jul 2012 (53) Jun 2012 (51) May 2012 (52) Apr 2012 (52) Mar 2012 (69) Feb 2012 (76) Jan 2012 (70) Dec 2011 (60) Nov 2011 (54) Oct 2011 (57) Sep 2011 (75) Aug 2011 (72) Jul 2011 (64) Jun 2011 (76) May 2011 (56) Apr 2011 (73) Mar 2011 (114) Feb 2011 (71) Jan 2011 (80) Dec 2010 (92) Nov 2010 (82) Oct 2010 (73) Sep 2010 (95) Aug 2010 (86) Jul 2010 (81) Jun 2010 (76) May 2010 (71) Apr 2010 (74) Mar 2010 (74) Feb 2010 (82) Jan 2010 (101) Dec 2009 (108) Nov 2009 (182) Oct 2009 (136) Sep 2009 (102) Aug 2009 (120) Jul 2009 (151) Jun 2009 (136) May 2009 (180) Apr 2009 (145) Mar 2009 (113) Feb 2009 (113) Jan 2009 (124) Dec 2008 (108) Nov 2008 (69) Oct 2008 (89) Sep 2008 (76) Aug 2008 (75) Jul 2008 (87) Jun 2008 (80) May 2008 (99) Apr 2008 (93) Mar 2008 (115) Feb 2008 (147) Jan 2008 (162) Dec 2007 (124) Nov 2007 (95) Oct 2007 (67) Sep 2007 (42) Aug 2007 (78) Jul 2007 (75) Jun 2007 (123) May 2007 (110) Apr 2007 (108) Mar 2007 (92) Feb 2007 (136) Jan 2007 (119) Dec 2006 (41) Nov 2006 (34) Oct 2006 (12) Sep 2006 (13) Aug 2006 (13) Jul 2006 (16) Jun 2006 (12) May 2006 (21) Apr 2006 (38) Mar 2006 (27) Feb 2006 (25) Jan 2006 (18) 30 October 2017 13:57 (UTC+04:00) By Sara Israfilbayova World oil prices show different tendency on Monday morning after Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) reached a record on negotiations about the possibility of extending the OPEC + deal and statistics on the number of drilling rigs in the U.S. for the week. Brent crude is down 0.02 percent at $60.43 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) is 0.06 percent up at $53.93 per barrel, Investing.com reported. With strong compliance to OPECs production curbs already supporting prices, comments from the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince that suggested the production cut agreement should be extended added to gains, ANZ bank said. One of the main counterbalances to the efforts of OPEC+ is the increase in the production of raw materials in the U.S. The U.S. oil production increased by 1.1 million barrels per day to 9.5 million barrels per day in the week, ended on October 20, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Senior analyst of Alpari, Vadim Iosub, said that the recent statements of Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman and Russian President Vladimir Putin, about the possible extension of the pact to cut production for nine months, until the end of next year, to reduce the reserves of" black gold "in developed countries to average for five years of the level also affected the world oil prices. In September, oil reserves fell to 160 million barrels to the average level compared with 340 million barrels at the beginning of the year. Moreover, support for crude prices was provided by a report on the reduction of oil exports from Iran in October and the tension in Iraqi Kurdistan. Baker Hughes reported on October 27, the number of active oil platforms in the U.S. rose in a week from 736 to 737 units and did not influence the market. In November 2016, the OPEC summit was held in Vienna, where OPEC members reached an agreement on reducing oil output by 1.2 million barrels per day. In December 2016 was a meeting of oil producers outside the OPEC. Following the meeting, was signed an agreement to reduce oil production by a total of 558,000 barrels per day starting from January 2017. OPEC and its partners decided to extend its production cuts till March 2018 in Vienna on May 25, as the oil cartel and its allies step up their attempt to end a three-year supply glut that has savaged crude prices and the global energy industry. The next OPEC+ meeting will be held on November 30 in Vienna. Meanwhile, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov told Trend that Azerbaijan has not received an invitation to the OPEC+ meeting. The country was producing 793,900 barrels of oil per day in January, 776,400 barrels per day in February, 733,300 barrels per day in March, 781,100 barrels per day in April and 785,300 barrels per day in May, 793,700 barrels of oil per day in June, 796,700 barrels of oil per day in July and 734,800 barrels in August. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 30 October 2017 14:17 (UTC+04:00) By Trend Azerbaijan has not received an invitation to the OPEC+ meeting, which will be held in Vienna on November 30, Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov told Trend on October 30. The decision on the future of the agreement on reducing production by OPEC countries and partners, including Azerbaijan, will be made only in early 2018, although the issue will be discussed at the next meeting of the alliance on November 30. It should be reminded that in December 2016 in Vienna, 11 non-OPEC countries, including Azerbaijan, agreed to curtail oil output jointly by 558,000 barrels per day. The agreement was signed for the first half of 2017. On May 25, OPEC member countries and non-OPEC parties, Azerbaijan, Kingdom of Bahrain, Brunei Darussalam, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Sultanate of Oman, the Russian Federation, Republic of Sudan, and the Republic of South Sudan agreed to extend the production adjustments for a further period of nine months, with effect from July 1, 2017. According to the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan, daily oil production in Azerbaijan amounted to 785,700 barrels in September, 733,000 barrels of which accounted for crude oil, and 52,700 barrels accounted for condensate. Meanwhile, 627,000 barrels of crude oil, 52,700 barrels of condensate and 19,300 barrels of oil products were exported per day. It should be noted that Azerbaijan produced 793,900 barrels of oil per day in January 2017, 776,400 barrels per day in February, 733,300 barrels per day in March, 781,100 barrels per day in April, 785,300 barrels per day in May, 793,700 barrels per day in June, 796,700 barrels per day in July, and 734,800 barrels per day in August. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 30 October 2017 11:05 (UTC+04:00) By Kamila Aliyeva The seventh international meeting on Syria, which will become another step on the way towards peace in this country, begins in Astana on October 30. This was stated by Russian Ambassador to Kazakhstan Mikhail Bocharnikov during the meeting of the committees of the lower house of Kazakhstan and the Russian State Duma, RIA Novosti reported. Kazakhstan today makes a significant contribution to the peaceful settlement in Syria, according to the envoy. He stressed that "it was Astana where a breakthrough in establishing a political dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition was achieved and, thanks to agreements on de-escalation zones, the level of armed confrontation and violence in the country has been significantly reduced." During the talks, it is planned to approve the provision on a working group on the release of hostages, prisoners, the transfer of bodies of the dead and the search for missing persons, according to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry. The parties also intend to consider combating international terrorism and adopt a joint statement on humanitarian demining in Syria. Earlier, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry said that all parties to the talks on Syria confirmed their participation in the seventh meeting. The Russian delegation will be headed by the special representative of the President of Russia for Syria - Alexander Lavrentiev, Turkey - Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal, Iran - Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Jaberi Ansari. Astana talks involve Kazakhstan - as an organizing country, sides to the Syrian conflict - governmental and opposition, and observers from the United States, United Nations and Jordan. UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will not participate in this meeting on the settlement of the situation in the Arab Republic and the UN will have another representative, the head of the press service of Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry, Anuar Zhainakov, told TASS. To date, six rounds of negotiations on the ongoing Syrian conflict were held in Astana. The sixth round of talks in Astana ended in September with the adoption of a joint statement confirming the intention of the parties to continue work on establishing de-escalation zones in Syria and other decisions previously adopted in the course of the Astana process. Guarantors of a nationwide Syrian ceasefire regime - Russia, Turkey and Iran - had agreed on May 4 in the Kazakh capital, Astana, to establish "de-escalation zones" in war-torn Syria. The zones would cover the city of Idlib and certain parts of Latakia, Homs, Aleppo and Hama as well as Damascus, Eastern Ghouta, Daraa and Quneitra. The establishment of the fourth one in Idlib province was the spotlight of the sixth meeting in Astana. De-escalation zones in Syria allowed to significantly reduce the scale of the conflict and contributed to the improvement of the humanitarian situation in Syria. While the Astana process is separate from the UNs Geneva talks on Syrian crisis, the attendance of the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura links the Kazakh platform to broader international efforts. Syria has been locked in civil war since March 2011. According to UN's special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, around 400,000 people have died in the conflict while half the population has been driven from their homes. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 30 October 2017 14:24 (UTC+04:00) By Kamila Aliyeva Kyrgyz entrepreneurs, stuck on the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border, lose about $23,500 daily. This was stated by Kyrgyz Economy Minister Artem Novikov at a government meeting on the issue of applying measures on state support for entrepreneurs affected by the current situation on the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border. A total of 349 drivers were surveyed in order to define the volume of cargo and damage, according to the minister. "The situation is like this - 349 vans lose about $23,500. At the same time, diesel fuel costs amount to $8,600 dollars, food - $5,130, fines for late delivery of goods $9,900. It is worth noting that the crossing time of one vehicle is 5-6 days," he said. In general, losses for 5-6 days are about $180,000. "We held consultations with business associations and for today the Ministry of Economy has drafted a resolution on measures to support entrepreneurs who have suffered damage due to the situation on the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border," the minister noted. He informed that according to the resolution, the situation on the Kyrgyz-Kazakhstan border is recognized as force majeure. Therefore, support will be provided for tax payments, customs issues, social insurance and lending issues. Following the meeting, the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan signed this decree. Kazakhstan introduced additional control measures on the Kyrgyz-Kazakh and Russian-Kazakh state borders on October 10, 2017. The measures are taken as part of planned activities, according to Kazakh side. Meanwhile, the average daily number of persons and vehicles from Kyrgyzstan decreased by 2.4 times at major and busiest checkpoints Ak-Zhol and Ak-Tilek after the introduction of additional control measures by the Kazakh side. Since October 10, as many as 3,000 persons and 300 transport units cross the border daily. Previously, more than 8,000 persons and over 600 transport units crossed the border daily. Later, on October 18, during the meeting of Kyrgyz Prime Ministers Sapar Isakov and his Kazakh counterpart Bakytzhan Sagintayev in Astana, the parties agreed to ensure the priority order of crossing the state border for individuals with personal luggage, vehicles carrying out regular passenger transportation, motor transport, and empty cargo vehicles. To date, the issues with loaded vans remain unresolved. During the meeting of the EAEU states held on October 25, the sides couldnt find the solution to the problem at the state border. In January-August 2017, trade turnover between Kazakhstan and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member-states grew 31.6 percent to $10.8 million. In the total Kazakhstan-EAEU states trade turnover, Kyrgyzstan accounts for 4.3 percent. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 30 October 2017 14:52 (UTC+04:00) By Trend Turkmen Foreign Ministry said in a message on October 30 that it has hosted a meeting with Alexander Marschik, political director of the Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs of Austria. During the conversation, the sides discussed prospects for cooperation in politics, economy and culture. In this context, the sides noted the role of visits at highest levels, the message said. The parties also touched upon the possible expansion of cooperation in science and education and the implementation of joint projects in these fields. Among the priority areas of cooperation, the sides mentioned partnership within international organizations, primarily the UN, the EU and the OSCE. Earlier, it was reported that Austria is interested in procurement of Turkmen textile products. Austria is also looking for partnership in processing of agricultural products. Among the priority partnership areas are construction, health and tourism. Turkmenistan is one of the most promising partners for Austria in energy security. --- Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz 30 October 2017 16:36 (UTC+04:00) By Kamila Aliyeva The seventh round of peace talks on Syria in Kazakh capital, Astana, will lead to the necessary mutual understanding between the three guarantor countries - Iran, Russia and Turkey. This was stated by Iranian Foreign Ministrys official representative Bahram Kasemi at a weekly briefing on October 30, IRNA reported. The expected results were achieved at the 6th round of the peace talks on Syria in Astana," he said. Kasemi expressed hope that the process of negotiations in Astana would continue to take effective steps to assist the Syrian people and ensure regional security and stability. Answering the question on whether the parties have reached an agreement on the boundaries of the ceasefire zones at the meeting, Kasemi said that the 7th round of the peace talks on Syria will focus on two issues - mine clearance and the exchange of prisoners. The seventh international meeting on Syria kicked off in Astana on October 30. During the talks, it is planned to approve the provision on a working group on the release of hostages, prisoners, the transfer of bodies of the dead and the search for missing persons, according to the Kazakh Foreign Ministry. The parties also intend to consider combating international terrorism and adopt a joint statement on humanitarian demining in Syria. Astana talks, backed by Russia, Turkey and Iran, involve Kazakhstan - as an organizing country, sides to the Syrian conflict - governmental and opposition, and observers from the U.S., United Nations and Jordan. To date, six rounds of negotiations on the ongoing Syrian conflict were held in Astana. The sixth round of talks in Astana ended in September with the adoption of a joint statement confirming the intention of the parties to continue work on establishing de-escalation zones in Syria and other decisions previously adopted in the course of the Astana process. Guarantors of a nationwide Syrian ceasefire regime - Russia, Turkey and Iran - had agreed on May 4 in the Kazakh capital, Astana, to establish "de-escalation zones" in war-torn Syria. The zones would cover the city of Idlib and certain parts of Latakia, Homs, Aleppo and Hama as well as Damascus, Eastern Ghouta, Daraa and Quneitra. The establishment of the fourth one in Idlib province was the spotlight of the sixth meeting in Astana. De-escalation zones in Syria allowed to significantly reduce the scale of the conflict and contributed to the improvement of the humanitarian situation in Syria. While the Astana process is separate from the UNs Geneva talks on Syrian crisis, the attendance of the UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura links the Kazakh platform to broader international efforts. Syria has been locked in civil war since March 2011. According to UN's special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, around 400,000 people have died in the conflict while half the population has been driven from their homes. --- Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz Here are the five most popular gastroenterology and endoscopy stories for the week of Oct. 23 to Oct. 27, 2017. 1. DIY bowel prep leaves GI physicians concerned 7 insights Click here 2. 17 Texas Digestive Disease Consultants physicians awarded Best Doctor honors Click here 3. Gastro Health, Texas Digestive Disease Consultants & more 7 GI practices in the news Click here 4. Memorial Hermann Endoscopy and Surgery Center physicians to pay $1.5M+ to settle Medicare fraud allegations Click here 5. Drs. Andres Gelrud, William Stevens and more: 29 GI physicians making headlines Click here The following value-based agreements between payers and providers were inked since Sept. 27, as reported by Becker's Hospital Review. 1. Eastside Health Alliance, Cigna launch ACO Eastside Health Alliance, a joint venture created by Kirkland, Wash.-based EvergreenHealth and Overlake Medical Center in Bellevue, Wash., rolled out an accountable care organization with Cigna. 2. Baylor Scott & White ACO adds 3rd commercial insurer to network: Cigna Cigna became the third commercial insurer to join Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Quality Alliance, the accountable care organization affiliated with Baylor Scott & White Health in Dallas. 3. Centura Health, Banner Health ACO sign provider network agreement Centennial, Colo.-based Centura Health and Banner Network Colorado, an ACO in Greeley, Colo., signed a provider agreement to link operations. 4. Boulder Medical Center, Humana roll out value-based payment model Boulder (Colo.) Medical Center and Humana launched a value-based healthcare delivery model for Humana Medicare Advantage policyholders in Colorado. 5. Humana adds 2 Iora Health practices to value-based network Two Boston-based Iora Health primary care practices joined Humana's Medicare Advantage network in Arizona. 6. Humana signs value-based agreement with 248-member physician group Louisville, Ky.-based Humana added Community Care Physicians in Latham, N.Y., to its value-based Medicare Advantage network. 7. Detroit Medical Center, BCBS sign value-based reimbursement contract Detroit Medical Center and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan will collaborate on a value-based reimbursement model for the eight-hospital system. More articles on healthcare finance: Beaumont to relocate financial services team under employee consolidation plan For-profit hospital stock report: Week of Oct. 23-27 10 hospital closures so far in 2017 David Brady, CEO of American Red Cross of the Texas Gulf Coast, resigned just six months into his tenure, according to a Houston Chronicle report. The move comes amid rising scrutiny regarding the organization's response in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. While American Red Cross officials did not give any reasons for his departure, the Houston Chronicle reports Mr. Brady wrote on social media: "I found myself in disagreement too often with decisions that were being made as it related to Hurricane Harvey recovery. It is not fair to the organization to have a leader in this role that is filled with that much doubt. And it was not fair to me or my family to work where I am not happy and do not feel valued." Mr. Brady took charge of the American Red Cross' Texas Gulf Coast region in April. He previously worked at the Houston Zoo, where he served as executive vice president of marketing, communications and strategic implementation and interim CEO. Hurricane Harvey struck South and Southeast Texas in late August, causing deadly flash and river flooding. The American Red Cross said in October that it authorized payments of more than $190 million to 477,000-plus households. But the organization's work in the area has been plagued with controversy. The American Red Cross was criticized for delays in delivery of supplies, leaving one Houston area shelter with only 200 cots for more than 2,000 Harvey victims. A program created to give $400 in cash to households in urgent need rejected people who fit the program criteria on the Red Cross' website. Additionally, the nonprofit's IT infrastructure crashed, which forced officials to suspend services temporarily. During a Houston City Council meeting in September, Councilman Dave Martin told the public the Red Cross was "the most inept, unorganized organization I've ever experienced," according to the Houston Chronicle. Marty McKellips, current leader of Red Cross' the Central and South Texas regions, will take over as interim CEO of the Texas Gulf Coast region. The Red Cross also said it would continue long-term recovery efforts in the area. Florida Hospital North Pinellas, a 168-bed facility in Tarpon Springs, named a CFO and a chief clinical officer/CNO, in addition to promoting its vice president of operations and business development. Here are 10 things to know. Caleb Heinrich is the new CFO. 1. Mr. Heinrich's experience within the Florida Hospital system spans eight years. 2. Previously, he was interim CFO at Florida Hospital North Pinellas. 3. He also previously served as director of finance for the Florida Hospital West Florida Division. Jennifer Segur, MSN, RN, is the CNO/chief clinical officer. 4. Ms. Segur previously was interim CNO/chief clinical officer. 5. She took over the job permanently in July. 6. As CNO/chief clinical officer, Ms. Segur will be responsible for the development and implementation of clinical care and operational strategies, Florida Hospital North Pinellas said via news release. 7. Previously, Ms. Segur was director of emergency and respiratory services and a nursing professor with Rasmussen College, a school with classes online and at campuses in Minnesota, Illinois, North Dakota, Florida, Kansas and Wisconsin. 8. Florida Hospital North Pinellas said Ms. Segur also is an advanced cardiac life support, crisis prevention intervention instructor. Jason Dunkel was promoted to vice president of operations and business development. 9. In his role, Mr. Dunkel will oversee cardiology, imaging, laboratory and pharmacy departments at Florida Hospital North Pinellas, according to hospital officials. 10. Florida Hospital North Pinellas said Mr. Dunkel has been part of its executive leadership team for more than two years. Start your week off right by taking a look at some of Becker's Hospital Review's top stories from last week. 1. CVS Health proposes to buy Aetna for $66B: 4 things to know Pharmacy giant CVS Health is in talks to purchase Aetna, sources familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. 2. Tenet reports $366M net loss, plans to cut 1,300 jobs Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare ended the third quarter with a net loss, but the 77-hospital chain is launching a $150 million cost reduction plan with an aim of improving its financial picture. 3. Walgreens to close 600 stores, spend $750M to rebrand Rite Aids Walgreens plans to close about 600 stores over an 18-month period beginning next year, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. 4. Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove: Healthcare will undergo a 'total restructuring' to accommodate shift in payment models Cleveland Clinic President and CEO Toby Cosgrove, MD, said during an Oct. 23 panel discussion the healthcare industry will have to completely restructure the way it works in order to effectively transition from a fee-for-service model to a value-based payment system, Crain's Cleveland Business reports. 5. 10 hospital closures so far in 2017 From reimbursement landscape challenges to dwindling patient volumes, many factors lead hospitals to close. Here are 10 hospitals that have closed since Jan. 1, beginning with the most recent. 6. 8 latest healthcare industry lawsuits From an Indiana health system facing an antitrust lawsuit to Georgia's most populated county filing a lawsuit against drug companies and physicians over the opioid epidemic, here are the latest healthcare industry lawsuits making headlines. 7. Is blockchain in healthcare for real? 6 questions with Hashed Health CEO John Bass Hashed Health Founder and CEO John Bass brought more than 20 years of healthcare technology experience to his new project: a healthcare technology innovation company focused on accelerating the commercialization of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies in healthcare. President Donald Trump's nominee for assistant health secretary of HHS has questionable ties to the insurance industry, according to Politico. Here are five things to know. 1. President Trump nominated Stephen Parente, PhD, a professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, as assistant secretary of planning and evaluation for HHS in April. Mr. Parente is awaiting confirmation to lead the office tasked with assessing policies' effects on the insurance industry. He would also help oversee insurers. 2. One questionable link concerns a $1.2 million gift UnitedHealth Group made to a research center Mr. Parente helped establish. The donation took place five months after President Trump's nomination. 3. The gift, which follows a long relationship between Mr. Parente and UnitedHealth, sparked questions among watchdog groups. Scott Amey from the Project on Government Oversight told Politico, "The timing doesn't look good. I think Mr. Parente should take some steps to assure the public that he's working in the public interest, and not on behalf of United Healthcare or other donors" to the center. 4. UnitedHealth confirmed the donation and affirmed Mr. Parente's HHS nomination was not an influencer. "As the largest company headquartered in Minnesota, we have a long-standing, multi-year partnership with our home state University of Minnesota and are grateful for and proud of the partnership," a UnitedHealth spokesperson told Politico. 5. Mr. Parente's other links to insurers include his previous role as chairman of the Health Care Cost Institute, a research initiative supported by UnitedHealth, Aetna, Humana and Kaiser Permanente. Mr. Parente's consulting firm also worked with UnitedHealth in the past. Mr. Parente declined Politico's request for comment in light of his nomination. For the full report, click here. Barnes-Jewish St. Peters (Mo.) Hospital and O'Fallon, Mo.-based Progress West Hospital sent care packages to the emergency room staff at Las Vegas-based Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center to help them through their experience in the aftermath of the Oct. 1 mass shooting, WENY News reports. Staff at both hospitals collected "fellow nurse approved comfort items," which included lotions, chocolates and cards, as well as Pringles for a former Barnes-Jewish St. Peters staff member who now works at Sunrise Hospital. Three victims remain at Sunrise Hospital following the shooting earlier this month in which several hundred people were injured, the report states. Physicians at Boston-based MassGeneral Hospital for Children were faced with a tough decision last year after a pair of conjoined twins arrived at the hospital seeking an operation in which only one of the newborns would survive, CBS News reports. The case, published in The New England Journal of Medicine Oct. 26, involved operating on 22-month-old conjoined twin girls who were connected by the abdomen and pelvis, had three legs and shared a single liver, bladder and a fused gastrointestinal tract. The pair also only had one anus and one vagina, according to CBS News. The girls' parents brought their daughters to the U.S. for treatment last year through the help of an undisclosed nonprofit organization. They reportedly sent out requests for surgery to nearly 20 hospitals nationwide, the report states. However, MassGeneral physicians, who agreed to conduct the surgery, said any possible operation might significantly affect the twins referred to by physicians as "Twin A" and "Twin B" including the possibility that one or both may not survive. Additional testing also revealed Twin A's heart was undersized and had congenital defects, among other health issues. Physicians said her declining health was affecting the health of Twin B, according to the report. "Twin B is normal and living relatively healthy and we know that she can live without her sister, whereas Twin A relies completely on her sister. Her sister is her life support," lead study author Allan Goldstein, MD, surgeon-in-chief and chief of pediatric surgery at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, said in an interview with CBS News. Dr. Goldstein and his team were faced with a difficult situation: to operate and potentially lose Twin A, or not to operate, meaning both babies may not survive, the report states. Officials assembled a pediatric ethics committee to discuss the situation. The committee concluded that while each twin should be regarded as their own person, there was little to no chance of saving Twin A. Not attempting surgery would risk Twin B's life. Following significant discussions, the twins' parents decided to proceed with the surgery. The operation lasted 14 hours, but Twin B survived and is now healthy and thriving, Dr. Goldstein told CBS News. The child's parents said in a statement to NEJM their daughter was "doing very well," according to CBS News. "We couldn't be prouder or happier of how we all came together for the well-being of our child." To read the full report, click here. More articles on hospital-physician relationships: Potential 'boom' in DO physicians; Wayne State off probation & more 7 medical school notes Harvard, Stanford, Johns Hopkins medical school leaders: Should merit-based aid exist? Geisinger medical school founder to showcase trove of 19th century medical artifacts, documents at school Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center will host a clinical career fair next month to fill more than 150 full-time and part-time jobs. Open positions are for registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, respiratory therapists and critical care transport paramedics. The career fair is scheduled for 4:30 to 7 p.m. Nov. 8 at the hospital's main campus. More information on the career fair is available here. More articles on human capital: Nomad Health adds workforce services in North Carolina, Florida Allegheny General Hospital nurses avert strike vote to continue contract negotiations 9 healthcare organizations adding jobs A physician opened fire in a crowded Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in New York City Friday afternoon, killing one and wounding six others at his former workplace before setting himself on fire and shooting himself in the head. Here are nine things to know about the shooting, victims, gunman and the hospital's response. 1. The physician is identified as Henry Bello, MD, according to The New York Times. Dr. Bello resigned from the hospital in February 2015, after working there for six months, as he faced accusations of sexual harassment of a colleague. He resigned in lieu of termination. Dr. Bello had a criminal past, which hospital officials state they did know about when he was hired in August 2014. He was charged with fare beating and burglary in 2003, sex abuse and unlawful imprisonment in 2004, and unlawful surveillance in 2009. Dr. Bello was fired from his city job June 21, according to NBC 4 New York. His termination was the result of consistent failure to report for work as a case worker assiting AIDS and HIV patients. He told his supervisor he was experiencing personal problems. 2. Video surveilance shows Dr. Bello entered the hospital Friday through a rear entrance in a lab coat, hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled up, and carrying a cardboard box that concealed the AR-15 rifle. The attack took place around 2:50 p.m., when the hospital's rooms and corridors were filled with patients and visitors, witnesses told the Times. 3. Police report Dr. Bello went to the 16th floor of the facility, and asked for a specific physician. When told that physician was not present, Dr. Bello opened fire and wounded six. He then moved to the 17th floor, where he shot and killed Tracy Tam, DO, in the hall, according to ABC News. When Dr. Bello resigned in 2016, he accused one physician of encouraging colleagues to complain about him. That physician works on the hospital's 16th and 17th floors. 4. Dr. Tam, 32, practiced family medicine. She was not scheduled to work Friday, but was on site to cover a shift for a colleague. The hospital's physician in chief described her death to the Times as a "monumental loss." Of the six others who were wounded, two are in critical but stable condition and four are in stable condition as of Sunday. The victims are medical residents, a medical student and a patient. They are recovering from injuries to the abdomen, neck, thigh and hand, hospital officials told the Times. 5. Witnesses report the gunman then set himself on fire and ran down the hall with his torso aflame before shooting himself in the head. 6. It is likely the death toll would be higher were it for not the medical attention victims received immediately from clinicians at the scene. Medical staff responded to the victims immediately, even as Dr. Bello was still at large. Witnesses report staff tearing a fire hose from the hospital wall to use as a tourniquet on a shooting victim. Medical staff dragged victims onto elevators, and the hospital's physician in chief told the Times that victims were brought to operating rooms while Dr. Bello was still active. Hospital staff were able to move some 50 patients out of the hospital within 10 minutes, according to ABC News. 7. Hospital staff urged patients and families in the waiting room to quietly lie on the floor with the lights off, the Times reports. Police evacuated other floors in the hospital, asking patients who could walk to leave their rooms and gather in the hospital parking lot. Other bystanders hid under hospital beds, under desks and behind doors. 8. Dr. Bello was working with a limited permit, which expired July 1, 2016, to practice as an international medical graduate. He graduated from Ross University School of Medicine on the Caribbean island of Dominica. He was 45. 9. Bronx-Lebanon is a 972-bed hospital. Officials with Cuyahoga County filed a lawsuit against multiple drugmakers, drug distributors and physicians for their alleged role in facilitating high rates of opioid overdoses in one of Ohio's most-populated counties. From 2011 to 2016, Cuyahoga County carried a drug overdose death rate of 23.5 deaths per 100,000 population. The lawsuit claims the defendants which include four physicians, three drug distributors and at least four drug manufacturers facilitated opioid misuse by promoting and distributing a large amount of opioid painkillers in the area. "Cuyahoga County has been hit terribly hard by the opioid epidemic," said Armond Budish, county executive for Cuyahoga County. "In 2016, we lost more people to this epidemic than to deaths from homicides, suicides and auto accidents combined. But it is also costing taxpayers. This year alone, we have had to bear the burden of increased costs to the Medical Examiner's office, increased costs of supplying drugs like Narcan to save victims of overdose and additional cost of children in the foster care system because of a parent's death or drug addiction." The county seeks to recoup funds used to address the opioid crisis through the lawsuit. In May, Ohio's Attorney General Mike DeWine filed a lawsuit against five opioid manufacturers on behalf of the state. More articles on opioids: Endo to receive royalties from generic opioid it once called 'unsafe': 7 things to know After directive from Trump, HHS declares opioid crisis public health emergency WellCare Health Plans' pilot program cuts opioid dispensing in half Omaha (Neb.) VA Medical Center used an unauthorized waiting list for psychotherapy appointments that delayed care for 87 patients in 2017, according to the Omaha World-Herald. Department of Veterans Affairs officials, who confirmed the news Friday, said "training deficiencies" caused the hospital's medical support assistants to incorrectly mange the VA's electronic waiting list. The veterans on the list received other care such as substance abuse treatment, inpatient treatment and counseling while waiting for psychotherapy appointments. It is not clear whether the veterans were aware of the care delays. In a letter to Senator Ben Sasse, R-Neb., the VA said one employee involved with the list retired and another resigned, although no one was fired. The VA also said no employees received bonuses for performance data implicated in an investigation of the list. VA officials are still investigating whether other lower-ranking employees at the VA's Nebraska-Western Iowa Health Care System were involved with the list. "Appropriate disciplinary action will be taken if warranted," VA Secretary David Shulkin, MD, said in the letter to Mr. Sasse, according to the Omaha World-Herald. Health officials are investigating a potential breach in care protocols at United Medical Center's nursing home in Washington, D.C., which may have contributed to a patient's death in August, reports The Washington Post. Here are five things to know. 1. The patient, 47-year-old Warren Webb, died Aug. 25 at 6 a.m. An hour before his death, Mr. Webb began yelling for help and complaining that he couldn't breathe. He cried out about 25 times in a three-minute period before a nurse entered his rooms, according to a time-stamped audio recording obtained by The Post. "I can't breathe!" Mr. Webb said in the recording. "Help me up! Please!" 2. Instead of raising Mr. Webb's bed to help him breathe better, the nurse lowered the bed. As she argued with Mr. Webb's roommate, who was pleading for her to do more, Mr. Webb rolled out of the bed onto the ground. He lay on the floor in his own urine and feces for about 20 minutes before caregivers lifted him back into bed. When they did, he had no pulse and was shortly pronounced dead of a heart attack in the hospital's emergency department, according to three interviews The Post conducted with eyewitnesses. 3. While UMC's nursing home filed an incident report about the death, the report "did not contain any information that pointed towards injury, neglect or abuse," a spokeswoman for the D.C. Health Department told The Post. Mr. Webb's family also said staff members misled them about the circumstances around his death. 4. The health department launched an investigation into the hospital after learning more details surrounding Mr. Webb's death from The Post. The Joint Commission visited United Medical Center in September and was not aware of any patient safety issues linked to Mr. Webb's death. However, the accreditation organization is now also reviewing the incident, according to the report. 5. UMC fired one nurse involved in the incident, but denies that care lapses occurred. The hospital shared the following statement with The Post: "The matter was investigated and based on the findings, appropriate actions were taken. Timely notification to the appropriate regulatory and licensing bodies was provided and they are conducting their respective investigations. Due to resident/patient and employee privacy regulations, as well as the other ongoing investigations, we are not at liberty to discuss the matter further. However, we continue to cooperate fully." More articles on quality: Fast susceptibility technology: A new evidence-based standard of care Outpatient antibiotic use linked to C. diff infections Nonoperative management of appendicitis on the rise, linked to higher mortality rate ein Google-Unternehmen Google-Dienste anzubieten und zu betreiben Ausfalle zu prufen und Manahmen gegen Spam, Betrug und Missbrauch zu ergreifen Daten zu Zielgruppeninteraktionen und Websitestatistiken zu erheben. Mit den gewonnenen Informationen mochten wir verstehen, wie unsere Dienste verwendet werden, und die Qualitat dieser Dienste verbessern. neue Dienste zu entwickeln und zu verbessern Werbung auszuliefern und ihre Wirkung zu messen personalisierte Inhalte anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen personalisierte Werbung anzuzeigen, abhangig von Ihren Einstellungen Wenn Sie Alle ablehnen auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies nicht fur diese zusatzlichen Zwecke. Nicht personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung werden u. a. von Inhalten, die Sie sich gerade ansehen, und Ihrem Standort beeinflusst (welche Werbung Sie sehen, basiert auf Ihrem ungefahren Standort). Personalisierte Inhalte und Werbung konnen auch Videoempfehlungen, eine individuelle YouTube-Startseite und individuelle Werbung enthalten, die auf fruheren Aktivitaten wie auf YouTube angesehenen Videos und Suchanfragen auf YouTube beruhen. Sofern relevant, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auerdem, um Inhalte und Werbung altersgerecht zu gestalten. Wir verwenden Cookies und Daten, umWenn Sie Alle akzeptieren auswahlen, verwenden wir Cookies und Daten auch, umWahlen Sie Weitere Optionen aus, um sich zusatzliche Informationen anzusehen, einschlielich Details zum Verwalten Ihrer Datenschutzeinstellungen. Sie konnen auch jederzeit g.co/privacytools besuchen. By PTI: New Delhi, Oct 30 (PTI) India and Italy today inked six pacts, including on boosting cooperation in the energy and trade sectors, after extensive talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni on key issues such as terrorism and cyber crime. The two leaders also discussed ways to strengthen the bilateral political and economic relations, apart from deliberating on strategic international and regional issues. advertisement Addressing a joint media event with Gentiloni, Modi said they discussed wide-ranging issues, including the challenges posed by terrorism and cyber crimes, while agreeing to enhance cooperation to counter them. Modi also noted that there was a huge potential for enhancing India-Italy trade ties. After the Modi-Gentiloni meeting, the two sides signed six pacts to deepen cooperation in the fields of railways sector safety, energy and promoting mutual investments, among others. Italy is Indias fifth largest trading partner in the EU with a bilateral trade of USD 8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. Indias exports to Italy were at USD 4.90 billion, while its imports were at USD 3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of USD 1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached USD 3.22 billion. Ahead of his meeting with Modi, the visiting leader had described his visit as an opportunity to make ties between the two countries stronger. Earlier, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj called on Gentiloni and discussed issues of mutual interest, ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. Gentilonis visit is the first prime ministerial trip from Italy in more than a decade. The India-Italy diplomatic ties were hit badly after two Italian marines -- Latorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone -- on board a ship named Enrica Lexie, were arrested for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in 2012. Italy claimed the ship was in international waters and that only the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) should apply. It also moved the international court. While Latorre returned to Italy in September 2014 following an order of the Supreme Court issued on health grounds, Girone was allowed to go in May 2016. They are now in Italy, pending the verdict by the arbitration court at the Hague. The Indo-Italy diplomatic row also impacted the European Unions relationship with India. PTI PR/PYK ASK ASK --- ENDS --- Check out the top stories from BGSU and beyond in our newscast and online edition of our newspaper every Wednesday. You can also view past papers by clicking the e-edition header above. By Marie Dunn-Harris 95 Jennifer Goodman has been a dancer for nearly her entire life. She loved it so much that she turned it into a career, dancing at venues such as the Metropolitan Opera in New York and the National Opera of Bordeaux in France. She has seen and traveled the world through dance, but is now pursuing another passion: a career in nursing. Had it not been for her love of dance, Goodman might not have chosen nursing as her next career path. A knee injury at the age of 15 and the extensive therapy she went through, piqued her interest in the medical field. My therapists were helping to rehabilitate me and get me back to being stronger than I ever was before I was injured, and I was really inspired by them, said Goodman, who recently received her acceptance letter into Bowling Green State Universitys school of nursing. After her knee healed, Goodman continued dancing but was still interested in going into the medical field. While in high school, she signed up for an executive leadership program that allowed her to pick a career path and shadow someone in that field. She chose an emergency room. It was really amazing to work with radiologists, nurses and even trauma surgeons who would take me under their wing, Goodman said. Goodman eventually obtained a job as a registration clerk at the hospital and even started out in a pre-med track at the University of South Florida. But she wasnt quite ready yet to make the commitment. I knew I wanted to be creative and there was this calling in me to dance again. I knew that I needed to pursue that while I was young, she said. Goodman received her bachelors degree in fine arts at USF and moved to New York to pursue her masters at NYUs Tisch School of the Arts. As soon as she graduated, she worked for a full-time repertory company, the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company, for three years. She performed, toured and taught dancers from grade school to professional levels. After that, she freelanced and appeared in productions with the Mark Morris Dance Group at the Metropolitan Opera and with Christopher Williams Dance at the National Opera of Bordeaux, among others. I got to do all of the things that I wanted to as a dancer, she said. In between her freelancing gigs, Goodman worked as a personal trainer at a New York boutique studio. It was during that time, that she re-injured her knee. It was very tough on my body, not only was I teaching high-intensity fitness classes, but I was also teaching ballet and modern classes. You know, you can only push your body so far, she said. Once again, Goodman went through rehabilitation and therapy and became more interested in pursuing her dream job in the medical field. Realizing that my dance career had a time limit, I asked myself, What do I really want to do next? she said. I thought, I want to be a nurse, thats just what came to me. Goodmans experience working in the emergency room helped her understand the indispensable role that nurses have in delivering care. They play such an important role in getting people back to their health. Theyre with patients all the time, and I want to help people in that way. I can connect with that, Goodman said. Eager to get started, she began taking classes at Borough of Manhattan Community College. Around that same time, Goodman and her husband, Joe, who worked as a freelance producer/director, were looking for a big change. We had been in New York for over 10 years. The city is wonderful, but you can lose sight of things once you get into the grind every single day. You can feel like a hamster on a wheel, just trying to pay the rent, she said. We were ready to try a new way of living, re-focusing our goals. The opportunity for Goodman to go to school full time opened up when her husband was hired at WBGU-TV as a producer/director. It was their chance to leave the big city and come to Bowling Green. Goodman enrolled at BGSU and started classes last January. This month, she received her acceptance letter into the school of nursing. Returning to school at the age of 33 as a non-traditional student has, so far, been an easy transition. The experience that I had, the work that I did in New York has helped me appreciate the schooling Im getting. Having been out in the workforce for so long, I know the value education offers, she said. BGSU has that sort of energy and the people here are alive and eager to learn and the teachers are eager to teach. Goodman hasnt completely stopped dancing. While going to school, she continues to teach ballet at a dance company in Bowling Green before she eventually lands her dream job as a registered nurse in an emergency room. I feel like BGSU is really going to give me the opportunity to excel, contribute and make my dream come true, she said. The Gujarat ATS has gotten clues from the arrested ISIS operatives that money is being transferred to a multinational bank based in Pakistan's Karachi. By Gopi Maniar Ghanghar : On October 25, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested two suspected ISIS terrorists from Surat. It is believed that they were planning a terror attack in the state during the upcoming Gujarat Assembly Elections. Now, the Gujarat ATS reportedly got clues about money being transferred from the state to the largest commercial bank of Pakistan -- Habib Bank or HBL -- and the ATS suspects this to be cases of terror funding. advertisement The ATS got information about this during the investigation of the case pertaining to the arrest of two ISIS operatives. One of the arrested used to work as a lab technician in the hospital that had political secretary of Congress, Ahmed Patel, as a trustee. An ATS official said that more than 15 people of South and Central Gujarat including Godhara, Bharuch, Vadodara, Surat and Valsad were under the scanner for the suspicious transactions with the Karachi-based multinational bank. He did not reveal whether the money was transferred to any branch in Pakistan or Gulf countries or some other place. He said that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) which was likely to take up the matter would also look in to this terror funding aspect separately. Ubaid Mirza, an advocate by profession in Surat and Kasim Stimberwala, a native of Ankaleshwar who worked as a medical lab technician, were arrested by the Anti-Terrorist Squad of Gujarat police on October 25. --- ENDS --- By PTI: threat (Eds: Updating with quotes, information) Ahmedabad/New Delhi, Oct 30 (PTI) A Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight made an emergency landing at the Ahmedabad airport today after a note stating that there were hijackers and a bomb on board was found in the washroom, officials said. Flight 9W 339, which had taken off from Mumbai at 2.55 am with 115 passengers and seven crew members, landed without incident at Ahmedabad around 3.45 am. The Boeing 737-900 plane was parked at a remote bay and all 122 safely deplaned, a Jet Airways spokesperson said. advertisement Describing it as a bomb threat, an official of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) told PTI that nothing was found following a check of all the passengers and their bags. The printed note, in Urdu and English, said the flight had hijackers on board and a bomb in the cargo area and should be flown straight to POK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir). It was found in the washroom, the BCAS official said. The message was passed on to the pilot, who is believed to have pressed the hijack alert button, following which the plane made an emergency landing, he said. According to Union Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju, the person responsible for the security threat had been identified and should be immediately put on the no- fly list. He did not identify the person. "I am informed that the person responsible for Jet flight 339 (Mumbai-Delhi) incident causing the landing at Ahmedabad today morning has been identified," Raju said in a Tweet. He said he was advising airlines to put him on the no-fly list immediately, in addition to other statutory criminal action. The flight was "diverted to Ahmedabad following declaration of an emergency as per established security procedures, due to the detection of an onboard security threat", the Jet Airways spokesperson said. Giving details of what had happened, Ahmedabad Airport Director Manoj Gangal added that the flight was allowed to make an emergency landing on the pilots request. "The pilot requested the ATC to make an emergency landing as he suspected that some hijackers as well as explosives were on board. The flight later departed to its destination after a thorough investigation by the police," Gangal said. The bomb disposal squad and the local police conducted a thorough search but found no explosive substance, said Sardarnagar police station inspector H B Zala. PTI correspondent Rajkumar Leishemba, who was on board, said all the passengers were deplaned and screened. They were profiled, their photographs taken and personal details sought, including their last overseas visit. advertisement After more than six hours at the airport, the flight carrying the passengers took off for Delhi around 10.30 am, he said. The note, with a para in Urdu on the top and English at the bottom, was shared by a senior official. It ended with "Allah is Great" and said, "Flight No 9W 339 is covered by Hijackers and aircraft should not be land and flown straight to POK. 12 people on board. if you put landing gear you will hear the noise of people dying. dont take it as a joke. Cargo area contains explosive bomb and wl blast if you land Delhi (sic)." PTI RKL RAM ARD DRR PJT PD GK BDS MIN --- ENDS --- For months, Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, California, has been in crisis mode, furiously attempting to contain the damage stemming from its role in last year's presidential campaign. The company has mounted an all-out defence campaign before this week's congressional hearings on election interference in 2016, hiring three outside communications firms, taking out full-page newspaper ads, and mobilising top executives, including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, to beat back accusations that it failed to prevent Russia from manipulating the outcome of the election. No other predicament in Facebook's 13-year history has generated this kind of four-alarm response. But while the focus on Russia is understandable, Facebook has been much less vocal about the abuse of its services in other parts of the world, where the stakes can be much higher than an election. This past week, my colleagues at The New York Times reported on the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, an ethnic minority in Myanmar that has been subjected to brutal violence and mass displacement. Violence against the Rohingya has been fuelled, in part, by misinformation and anti-Rohingya propaganda spread on Facebook, which is used as a primary news source by many people in the country. Doctored photos and unfounded rumours have gone viral on Facebook, including many shared by official government and military accounts. The information war in Myanmar illuminates a growing problem for Facebook. The company successfully connected the world to a constellation of real-time communication and broadcasting tools, then largely left it to deal with the consequences. The Australian Taxation Office is aware investigative journalists are scrutinising the clients of Bermuda-based law firm Appleby, and are bracing themselves for what may be a second Panama Papers-style leak. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has approached the firm with allegations of wrongdoing, which the firm strongly denies. The firm admitted that some client data had been stolen in a cyber attack last year. Investigative journalists are scrutinising the clients of Bermuda-based law firm Appleby but the firm denies any wrongdoing. Credit:Reuters The Serious Financial Crime Taskforce, which includes major government agencies including the Australian Taxation Office, has since July 2015 raised more than $400 million in liabilities from 614 audits and reviews and collected more than $164 million in cash collections. In the past financial year, it raised more than $258 million in liabilities and collected $126 million in cash. The wellbeing of Australian women ranks 17th in the world, according to the new global Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) Index, released at the United Nations on October 26. Measuring inclusion, justice, and security for women in 153 countries, Iceland placed first while Syria and Afghanistan tied for last place. On a global scale, the story of Australian women's wellbeing is "quite positive". Credit:Kerry Murphy The top 12 countries, which consisted primarily of northern and central European countries including the United Kingdom along with Spain, Canada and Singapore, rated highly on scores such as women's education, their own bank account and cellphone use (considered a sign of autonomy). Unlike the low ranking countries, they also had very low shares of men believing that it is unacceptable for women to work. "The countries in which more than half of men do not accept women working include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, and Yemen, and rates range as high as 73 per cent in Pakistan," wrote the paper's authors from the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). A father and son who did not return from a two-day hike through rainforest west of the Gold Coast, have been winched to safety by a rescue helicopter. Tim Heiner, 50, and his son, Lachlan, 20, are experienced hikers but could not escape from Mount Barney National Park before storms tore through the bushland on Sunday night, prompting a family member to raise the alarm. Two hikers are winched from Mount Barney by the Rescue 500 helicopter. Credit:7 News Brisbane - Twitter A police spokesman said the missing men contacted emergency services by phone about midday on Monday, which led to them being airlifted off the mountain by 2.30pm. Mr Heiner told Nine News he "misjudged how long it would take" for him and his son to cover the planned distance and said they would not be going on another trek anytime soon. Tennille Smith started feeling ill on her 40th birthday. It was just a runny nose and she put off going to the doctor, her family recalled, thinking her flu symptoms would soon pass. But within days, the mother of three had collapsed at home and needed to be admitted to the Northern Hospital's intensive care unit. She was treated for the flu and pneumonia but her condition continued to worsen until she died on Friday evening in what could be the latest flu-related death during Australia's horror season. A large search is under way for a veteran rock fisherman missing off the Mornington Peninsula. There are fears that 78-year-old Yik Sua Hong was swept off the rocks while fishing at Blairgowrie on Sunday. Police helicopter searching rough surf for missing fisherman Yik Sua Hong. Credit:Twitter/@msanto92 Mr Hong left his Wantirna home in Melbourne's east to go fishing at 9am on Sunday. The experienced rock fisherman told his wife he would be home between 6pm and 7pm, but he never returned. His wife alerted their adult son, who went to the beach to look for his father. Beersheba: On the plains to the south-east of Be'er Sheba, a young boy's donkey stands stubbornly in a field, as its rider whacks at its flanks. Behind him in a gully, a flock of camels wanders up the banks of a stream. Enthusiasts and descendants of Australian Mounted Division and ANZAC Mounted Division soldiers ride as part of the 100 years anniversary in near Beersheba, Sunday. Credit:AP And in the distance, dust flies up in the wake of a horseman, galloping across the Negev desert, a tiny echo of a turning point in history. One hundred years ago, this was the scene of an astonishing moment in the ANZAC story. It sits sandwiched between the coming-of-age tragedy of Gallipoli, and the grinding horror of the Western Front, and many only dimly remember the heroics of Beersheba, possibly the last great cavalry charge, probably Australia's first great military victory. Sign up for our amNY Sports email newsletter to get insights and game coverage for your favorite teams Dont forget to tip your waiter! The staff at a Park Slope cafe is donating their tips to aid hurricane-relief efforts in Puerto Rico, and some patrons are so supportive of the initiative, they leave their appetites at home and swing by just to drop money in the collection jar, according to an employee. We have people from the neighborhood who just stop by to donate ten dollars, said Brad Canning, a manager at Postmark Cafe on Sixth Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues. Anybody can help, we dont care if they buy coffee. One hundred percent of the tip money is going to Puerto Rico. The workers spearheaded similar fund-raising efforts for Texans following Hurricane Harvey, Canning said, which inspired them to start a new drive for the island that has strong ties to New York City. As New Yorkers, were connected to Puerto Rico, he said. We are happy to be a part of something positive right now. Proceeds from the collection will be donated to United for Puerto Rico, a charity the islands first lady started following the devastation wreaked by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and Visit Rico, a group that aids local farmers affected by the storms, according to Canning. Staff members raised around $2,800 of their $3,800 end-of-month goal, he said, which they expect to meet because the cafes owners promised a donation that matches whatever employees collect in tips. The quickly retracted statement, issued by the Hainan bureau of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, stirred up a debate as to whether current regulations could keep up with changes in the insurance industry. Photo: IC A provincial-level regulator recently retracted a statement on its website that said ZhongAn Online Property and Casualty Insurance Co. had been engaging in offline activities not covered by its online-only license. The statement, issued by the Hainan bureau of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, stayed online for only two days last week. It is not known why the regulator retracted the statement. The authorities could not be reached for comment. Still, the short-lived statement stirred up a debate as to whether current licensing and regulations for the insurance industry could keep up with the increasingly blurred lines between online and offline business practices. On Oct. 25, the provincial regulator said in the statement that there were regulatory risks in ZhongAns business model. It noted that ZhongAn relies on offline agents to sign up customers an activity that falls outside the scope of its license. The Hainan bureau did not say how regulators should respond. Agencys brought in about 31% of ZhongAns 2.57 billion yuan ($390 million) in premium income for the first half of 2017. Industry executives said it is difficult to define the exact scope of an online insurer under current Chinese regulation. Regulation has failed to keep up with the rapid growth of the insurance industry, and regulators have only just started exploring how to oversee the online insurance business, these executives said. The regulation is pretty vague, said an employee of one insurer. Companies will definitely follow the rules if they are clear. ZhongAn started its business by insuring online merchants against losses they incur when dissatisfied customers return products purchased online. But the company has since expanded into several other areas. It now sells policies that protect consumers from a number of adverse events, such as flight delays and cracked cellphone screens. The Shanghai-based insurer has grown rapidly since it was established four years ago. It now claims to be Chinas largest online insurer in terms of customers. It has 492 million enrolled in plans. Contact reporter Dong Tongjian (tongjiandong@caixin.com) Chinas central bank has a new graft-buster. Xu Jiaai, 51, has already started his new role as head of the disciplinary inspection unit at the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC), the central bank said. Xus last job was a two-month stint as the secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission of Zhejiang province, which he started in July. That commission, under the regional Communist Party system, supervises the police and judicial authorities. Xu is the central banks third disciplinary chief. He replaces Wang Hongjin, who retired and was elected to be a standing committee member of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection during the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Before Xus role in Zhejiang province, he had worked at the State Economic and Trade Commission, a government entity mainly responsible for crafting macroeconomic policies. The commission was then incorporated into the Ministry of Commerce in March 2003. An official from the central bank told Caixin that Xu has long been concerned with the development of Chinas financial market. People from the PBOCs sub-branch in Hangzhou, the capital city of Zhejiang province, said they once received several proposals from Xu on how to reduce financial risks. The China Banking Regulatory Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission received new disciplinary chiefs earlier this month. Contact reporter Dong Tongjian (tongjiandong@caixin.com) FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Oct. 29, 2017 Contact: In Atlanta, Soyia Ellison, soyia.ellison@cartercenter.org In Monrovia, Meaghan Fitzgerald, Meaghan.fitzgerald@cartercenter.org, +231(0)881-367-189 MONROVIA As Liberia prepares for a presidential run-off election, The Carter Center acknowledges the historic opportunity for the country to proceed with a peaceful transition of power from one democratically elected president to another. The Center understands that some parties are challenging the election, and we are glad that today they have reiterated their commitment to using the appropriate legal dispute-resolution procedures provided in Liberian law. Complaints filed by these parties remain under consideration by the National Election Commission. The Carter Centers election observation mission has been observing the proceedings and will continue to follow the process. The Carter Center encourages all political parties to continue to use the existing electoral dispute-resolution mechanisms. The parties should allow the dispute process, including any and all appeals, to proceed and should respect the final decisions of the adjudicating bodies. It is imperative that all political parties allow the NEC and the courts to fulfill their function in this process and respect the court's final decisions, Jason Carter, chairman of The Carter Center Board of Trustees, said following a press conference held today by political parties currently challenging the election. The Carter Center released a statement two days after the election that covered its observations of election day, election preparations, and the campaign. The missions findings were based on a long-term observation effort that began in 2016 and included the deployment of more than 50 international election observers in all of Liberias 15 counties on election day. The mission remains in the country to observe the completion of the tabulation process and the adjudication of disputes. ### "Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope." A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide. Two gangs of Nigerian men clashed in a nursing home in Saket which forced the hospital staff to lock the premises and hide in washrooms to protect themselves. Around a dozen men entered the hospital premises with swords and knives and started attacking members of the other gang. By India Today Web Desk: A clash between two Nigerians gangs in a nursing home in Saket turned violent following which the hospital staff had to hide in the washroms to save themselves. The incident took place in Saket's Neelu Angel Nursing Home on Saturday morning. According to the hospital staff, three Nigerian men arrived at the hospital at around 4 AM, the men were badly wounded. advertisement Around a dozen other Nigerian men waited outside the hospital. Meanwhile, another Nigerian man arrived in an auto. As the men waiting outside spotted the man getting down from the autorickshaw, they followed him inside the hospital premises and attacked him. These men entered the hospital premises with swords and knives and started attacking members of the other gang. The security guard of the hospital tried to stop them, but he too was beaten up. The staff locked the gates of the hospital premises after violence broke out. The staff on the ground floor took shelter inside the washrooms to protect themselves. The men fled the scene as the police arrived. --- ENDS --- Lucky Cement profits grow by 6.8% in 1QFY18 30 October 2017 Pakistan-based Lucky Cement Co Ltd reported 1QFY18 earnings of net profit of PKR3.01bn (US$28.5m), up by 6.8 per cent YoY. The company's revenue increased six per cent YoY to PKR11.2bn. This growth was primarily attributable to a rise in total dispatches YoY. The company achieved an overall growth of 5.9 per cent with a total sales volume of 1.8Mt during the first quarter compared to 1.7Mt last year. While the cement producer's local sales volume saw a growth of 14.3 per cent to 1.54Mt during the first quarter compared to 1.34Mt during the same period last year, the export sales volume declined by 25.3 per cent to 0.27Mt from 0.36Mt during the same period last year. Projects new and ongoing The companys 1.25Mta brownfield expansion at the Karachi plant is expected start commercial operations in December 2017. The 2.3Mta integrated greenfield cement plant in Punjab province is still in the processing of seeking necessary approval from the provincial government. During its Extra Ordinary General Meeting (EOGM), the company approved an increase of equity investment from PKR12bn to PKR14bn in its associate company, Kia Lucky Motors Pakistan Ltd. Furthermore, the company is now also authorised to make an equity investment of PKR720m in its new 50MW wind power project. Published under Livetouch Investments starts production at Redcliff plant 30 October 2017 Livetouch Investments has commenced cement production at its 410,000tpa capacity plant in Redcliff, Zimbabwe, a senior company executive said. Managing director Dongning Wang told The Sunday Mail Business that the US$34m plant had started operations and has the second biggest production capacity of all local cement producers. Livetouchs production is currently being distributed to potential customers to give the potential consumers a feel of the quality of the products. "This is only phase 1, which is 85-90 per cent complete. Major aspects during this phase were setting up the plant and related facilities to get it running," said Mr Dongning. "We are now negotiating with the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development for limestone deposits. Under Phase 2 we will set up another factory close to the deposits to produce clinker, a key ingredient of cement. "Right now we are buying (the clinker) from other producers, but we hope one day we can produce (the clinker) ourselves," Mr Dongningadded. Phase 2 of the projects is planned to be much bigger than the initial investment and should get underway in 6 to 9 months after deposits are secured. Livetouch Investments becomes the third major cement producing company in the country after forerunners PPC Zimbabwe, Lafarge Zimbabwe and Sino-Zimbabwe. PPC, which is produced from Bulawayo and Gwanda doubled its production capacity to 1.4Mta after recently commissioning a new plant in Harare, its third in Zimbabwe. afarge has a cement plant in Harare while Sino-Zimbabwes also has a plant in Gweru . Zimbabwe currently consumes about 1.14Mta of cement, says the local paper. Published under Cemex Philippines sees 63% fall in 9M17 income ICR Newsroom By 30 October 2017 Cemex Holdings Philippines Corp said on Friday that its net income for the first nine months of 2017 had fallen 63 per cent as a result of lower prices and volumes amid heightened competition. Net profit in the 3Q17 declined to PHP688m (US$13.33m) from the PHP1.88bn reported in the same period last year primarily due to lower prices and volumes. The company said financial expenses fell 39 per cent from a year ago following the refinancing of the company's dollar-denominated loan with local debt. "With the conversion and denomination to local currency, other financial expenses for the first half of the year (mostly foreign exchange losses) also declined 79 per cent for the nine months of the year versus same period last year," the cement producer said. Domestic cement volume increased two per cent YoY and four per cent QoQ. In the first nine months volumes decreased by three per cent from 9M16. "Cemex remains committed to delivering the best building materials in the market today. The company is working hard to strengthen its position and continue being the trusted partner in building the nation," Cemex President and Chief Executive Officer, Ignacio Mijares, said. Published under Red Sea City plan raises Saudi cement firms' share prices 30 October 2017 Saudi Arabias plan to build an entirely new US$500bn city, Neom, by the Red Sea has breathed life into the countrys beaten-down cement sector. Shares of companies such as Saudi Cement Co, Southern Province Cement Co and Yanbu Cement Co, the countrys biggest by market value, have all risen since the kingdom announced the Neom plan earlier this week, reports Arabian Business. The announcement "is surely a long-term positive for the cement sector - a sector which has been reeling under immense pressure of overcapacity, inventory pile up, cost increases and a plummeting cement price, over the past two years, said Ankit Gupta, vice president for research at Shuaa Investment Management in Dubai. After falling 20 per cent this year through 23 October, shares in Tabuk Cement has climbed 28 per cent in the past three trading sessions, more than erasing its decline for the year. Saudi Cement Co, Southern Province Cement Co and Yanbu Cement Co have all advanced at least four times more than the countrys main stock gauge. Companies such as Tabuk and Al Jouf Cement Co that are located in the north of the country, near to where the new city will be based, stand to benefit most given that logistics are a major cost element for cement companies, Mr Gupta said. Published under Under Prime Minister Victor Orbans leadership, Hungary is taking the lead in helping persecuted Middle Eastern Christians. At a government-sponsored conference this month on the topic, Orban reminded attendees that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world. While condemning all persecution of Christians, Orban focused on regions where violence and genocide caused the forced expulsion of millions of Middle Eastern and African Christians in recent years. The greatest danger we face today is the indifferent, apathetic silence of a Europe which denies its Christian roots, Orban said. There is no excuse for Hungarians not taking action and not honoring the obligation rooted in their Christian faith, he added. A little more than half of Hungarys population identifies as Christian even after Soviet-era repression, according to the CIA World Factbook. Advocates, religious leaders, and political officials from 30 countries discussed how to solve the Christian persecution crisis at the Budapest event, according to the National Catholic Register. Orban argued for helping Christians return to their homelands and said Hungary was giving directly to churches in those nations rather than through customary channels like the UN. That approach isnt universally supported. Hungary created a deputy state secretariat for the aid of persecuted Christians in 2016. The nation has spent millions of euros on Iraq reconstruction and a scholarship program to bring Catholic students to study in Hungary. Many leaders thanked Hungary for its help, including Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako of Baghdad, who sent a message to the conference. Sako called on other countries to do more to meet the educational, security, and humanitarian needs of persecuted Christians, the Register reported. Courtesy: WORLD News Service Photo courtesy: Thinkstockphotos.com Publication date: October 30, 2017 A Pakistani Christian man who moved to the UK in order to escape persecution in Pakistan was recently attacked for his faith and for displaying a cross. According to ChristianToday.com, Tajamal Amar, 46, works as a delivery man. He was recently knocked unconscious outside a fast food restaurant. He was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a broken nose. Amar claims he was targeted for his Christian faith and because he was displaying a Christian cross as well as Remembrance Day poppies in his delivery vehicle. The area where Amar works is heavily populated by Pakistanis, most of whom are Muslim. Like in Pakistan, Christians are often on the receiving end of discrimination or violence stemming from religious differences. Several times, local Pakistani people in Derby have taken offence from the fact that I am Christian, Amar testified, according to the Sunday Times. Freedom of religion should be the right of any British citizen but today I feel unsafe, even then nothing will stop me going to church, he continued. He also added that he had the Remembrance Day poppies on his vehicle to show his support for the British Armed Forces and the work they do. These persecutors cannot stop me showing my support, and I want to put more poppies on my car. I am going to put on as many as I can maybe two more or four more because I am not scared of anything or anyone, he said. Photo courtesy: Thinkstock/elinedesignservices Publication date: October 30, 2017 Two assistant pastors arrested by the Burma (Myanmar) army last December were sentenced to prison on Friday (Oct. 27) on false charges of unlawful association, defaming the military and spying, sources said. Pastor Dom Dawng Nawng Latt, 65, received a prison term of four years and three months, and fellow pastor La Jaw Gam Hseng, 35, received two years and three months, according to sources present in court in Lashio town, in Shan state. The two ethnic Kachin pastors, members of the Kachin Baptist Convention, were charged under the Unlawful Association Act for alleged connections with an ethnic armed group, the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), and allegedly spying for it. Nawng Latt was prosecuted under a defamation statute. They deny the charges, which colleagues say are baseless. Nawn Latt received the additional two years under the defamation charge as the military accused him of criticizing the army while speaking to media. Pastor Zau Ra, secretary of the Kachin Baptist Convention in Mong Maung town, Shan state, told Morning Star News the two pastors were likely arrested and charged for speaking to media and helping local journalists cover army attacks on a Catholic church building, schools and houses in Shan state in November 2016. The two pastors took local journalists to take pictures of the damaged St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church building that was bombed by Burma army jets at that time. The Burma army arrested them on Dec. 24, 2016 when they went to Byuha Gone military base to negotiate release of a civilian couple who had complained to army officials about the destruction of their house, source said. They were held for months without trial, though suspects are supposed to be tried after no more than 28 days in Burma, sources said. We want them [pastors] to be freed, because they did nothing wrong, Pastor Ra said. They should not be jailed. We will continue to help them in legal means. We will submit an appeal. We will ask for a bail. We will ask for their release. Pastor Ra told Morning Star News that there is no evidence that the two pastors work for the KIO. It [the verdict] is not fair they dont work for the KIO, he said. There is no evidence. They are just religious leaders, and they may have travel anywhere for preaching or prayer. Religious leaders should be free to go for preaching and praying anywhere. If they were to help an armed group, that is the different story. Pastor Ra said that some areas where the two pastors live are partly controlled by the KIO, and that religious leaders travel everywhere for preaching and praying. Traveling to areas controlled by the KIO is not evidence to link the two pastors with the KIO, he said. The U.S. Embassy in Yangon released a statement on Friday (Oct. 27) raising concern over the legal action against the two Christian leaders. We are concerned that these individuals were targeted for assisting journalists, the statement read. We are also concerned about allegations of mistreatment during their detention. We call for the end of the use of the Unlawful Association Act and other laws used to arbitrarily arrest citizens, and we call on all actors to build trust and keep Myanmar on the path toward national peace and reconciliation. Human Rights Watch and other international rights group have called for their immediate release, saying the pastors were being prosecuted for helping to expose military wrongdoing in violation of international human rights norms. A Burma army prosecutor, Maj. Kyaw Zin Htun, took legal action against the two pastors after news and photos about the army attack on the church building were published. Burma army officials also told a journalist to delete photographs of the damaged structure. They were also convicted under Section 8 of Import/Export Act for riding a motorbike without a license. People in the border areas commonly buy motorbikes and cars from Thailand and China without licenses. Pastor Ra said the charge was a further pretext for arresting them, as many residents in Burmas border areas use motorbikes without license. Residents on the border using motorbikes, trucks and cars without a license or legal documents normally dont get arrested. Specifically, Nawng Latt was charged under Article 17/1 of the Unlawful Association Act, Section 8 of Import/Export Act and Section 500 of the Defamation Act in the Penal Code, while Gam Seng was charged under the unlawful association act and the Import/Export Act. Armed conflict between Burma and ethnic armed organizations erupted anew in northern Shan state in November 2016, forcing over 50,000 refugees in total to flee to other areas of the state and the border with China. Burma is about 80 percent Buddhist and 9 percent Christian. The government has recognized the special status of Buddhism in Burma. If you would like to help persecuted Christians, visit http://morningstarnews.o rg/resources/aid-agencies/ for a list of organizations that can orient you on how to get involved. If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at http://morningstarnews.org/don ate/ ? An old-fashioned Christian in the Twitter age: Why Gordon Brown was underrated Gordon Brown's autobiography is not out until next week, and we do not yet know from the current extracts published today by the Mirror how much and even whether he discusses what is his genuinely strong Christian faith (a faith and approach to life shared by his admirable wife, Sarah, by the way). But there is no doubt that Brown, a 'son of the manse' whose father was a Church of Scotland minister, a collection of whose sermons the then prime minister once gave Pope Benedict XVI, had what he called a 'Presbyterian conscience' and a 'moral compass'. A year after he lost office in 2011, he gave a fascinating and important lecture at Lambeth Palace under the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams on faith in politics. Two years previously and while in office, he had insisted, unfashionably, that Britain is still a Christian country. Brown, in private a deeply emotional man, took faith seriously. But his approach was, as tends to be the way with Presbyterianism, highly reserved. And some of that comes across in what we have learned is in the new book, My Life, Our Times. 'I wasn't an ideal fit for an age when the personal side of politics had come to the fore,' he writes. 'For me, being conspicuously demonstrative is uncomfortable. Reticence was the rule. I was born about 40 years before the World Wide Web, and arrived in Parliament 20 years before the advent of Twitter. 'During my time as an MP I never mastered the capacity to leave a good impression or sculpt my public image in 140 characters. 'Now no politician can succeed without mastering social media and yet, in it, the prime minister becomes one among millions of voices competing to be heard. 'The modern version of "connecting" seems to increasingly include a public display of emotion, with the latter authentic or not seen as evidence of a sincerity required for political success. 'In a far more touchy-feely era, our leaders speak of public issues in intensely personal ways and assume they can win votes simply by telling their electors that they "feel their pain". 'For me, being conspicuously demonstrative is uncomfortable to the point that it has taken me years to turn to writing this book. 'I fully understand that in a media-conscious age every politician has to lighten up to get a message across and I accept that, in the second decade of the 21st century, a sense of personal reserve can limit the appeal and rapport of a leader. 'I hope people will come to understand this was not an aloofness or detachment or, I hope, insensitivity or lack of emotional intelligence. To my mind what mattered was not what I said about myself, but simply what our government could do for our country.' Frankly, I hope so too. For looking at today's offerings, it becomes clear that Gordon Brown is surely the most underrated British politician in modern times. As he claims, he won the battle of the financial crisis but not the war of the general election and the progressive policies that could have been implemented beyond it. This was thanks largely to a highly fashionable assault on his character led by the rightwing press. At the time, I was in a minority of about three in thinking that the other parties especially the Liberal Democrats should have rallied around him in 2010, and formed a 'rainbow' progressive alliance. That way, for one thing, the Lib Dems would not have committed electoral suicide by siding with a party the Tories whose values were diametrically opposed to their own, on the economy, on immigration, on electoral and constitutional reform and, of course, on Europe. But that is for another day. For now, we should simply be thankful for Gordon Brown, and remorseful for the way we so unjustly vilified him in his day. 'My Life, Our Times' by Gordon Brown will be published by The Bodley Head on Tuesday, November 7. Cameron, Brown, Blair and Major 'to share platform' in last-ditch bid to keep Britain in EU David Cameron is seeking to bring together his three predecessors as prime minister in a last-ditch effort to persuade voters to keep Britain in the EU, multiple sources have told Christian Today. Plans are well developed for the Prime Minister to appear on a platform next week alongside Gordon Brown, Tony Blair and Sir John Major. The remain camp is pinning its hopes on what one source described as "a last minute swing to the status quo", as occurred in the final week of the Scottish independence referendum of 2014. It is believed that the unprecedented display of one serving and three former prime ministers will impress the electorate. This week, Cameron has stood back from the campaign to allow senior Labour figures to make the case, amid fears that traditional Labour voters are swinging behind the Leave campaign fronted by Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Nigel Farage. Brown has emerged as a key player in the push, delivering a speech in Leicester on Monday which followed a Youtube video last week making the elevated case for preserving peace on the Continent while walking through the remains of Coventry Cathedral, bombed by the Nazis in World War Two. However, sources say that Brown has been reluctant to agree to share a platform with the Prime Minister because Cameron was slow to grant 'devolution max' following the Scottish referendum in which Brown played a pivotal role. Further, Brown disagrees with the way in which Cameron has led the remain campaign. "Gordon would have fought a campaign on the basis of a reform agenda in Europe, with Britain leading that, not all this defensive stuff about the economy," one source said. "You make the positive, patriotic case then the economic case." Attempts to persuade Brown to appear alongside Cameron and his old rival Blair as well as Major are being made by Alastair Campbell, Blair's former director of communications, according to sources. Asked by Christian Today about the plan for the four prime ministers to appear together, Campbell declined to comment but did not deny it. "You can authoritatively say that talks are well under way," a separate source said. The leave campaign has been gaining momentum in the polls in recent weeks, and the latest survey shows those backing 'Brexit' with a seven point lead. A YouGov poll for The Times shows the leave side on 46 per cent support compared with 39 percent support for remain, 11 per cent undecided and 4 per cent planning not to vote. The British media have been broadly balanced towards Brexit, with the Sun this week backing leaving and the Daily Mail expected imminently to follow suit. Cameron's future as prime minister depends on the vote next Thursday. If Britain votes to leave the EU he is expected to resign within 24 hours. Johnson is tipped to succeed him as prime minister following a Conservative party leadership contest and there is speculation that there could then follow an early general election later this year. Donald Trump's ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort turns himself in to FBI over Russia meddling Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort handed himself into the FBI to face charges around alleged Russian meddling in the US presidential election, according to reports. Paul Manafort was seen arriving at the Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington field office, television video showed, after being told to surrender to federal authorities, the New York Times and CNN reported. The charges against Manafort would be the first arising from the investigation by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller, who was appointed to look into alleged Russian meddling to sway the election in favour of Trump. Mueller's team is known to have interviewed several current and former White House staff as part of the inquiry and Manafort's business partner Rick Gates has also been told to surrender. The charges against Manafort and Gates are not known but would include tax fraud, according to the Wall Street Journal. All of this "Russia" talk right when the Republicans are making their big push for historic Tax Cuts & Reform. Is this coincidental? NOT! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 A federal grand jury issued the indictment on Friday and a federal judge ordered it sealed, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters, adding it could be unsealed as soon as Monday. Manafort, 68, was chair of Trump's campaign from June to August of 2016 before resigning amid reports he may have received millions in illegal payments from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. Mueller has been investigating Manafort's financial and real estate dealings and his prior work for that political group, the Party of Regions, which backed former Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovich, sources have told Reuters. Investigators also examined potential money laundering by Manafort and other possible financial crimes, according to the sources. Gates was a long-time business partner of Manafort and has ties to many of the same Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs. He also served as deputy to Manafort during his brief tenure as Trump's campaign chairman. Trump has denied any allegations of collusion with the Russians and called the probe 'a witch hunt.' In a series of tweets on Sunday he dismissed the suggestions as a plot by the Democrats. Never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton made Fake Dossier (now ,000,000?),.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 ...the Uranium to Russia deal, the 33,000 plus deleted Emails, the Comey fix and so much more. Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia,.... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 ..."collusion," which doesn't exist. The Dems are using this terrible (and bad for our country) Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's... Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 ...are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 29, 2017 The Kremlin has also denied the allegations. Just before the Manafort report came out, Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway insisted any charges would not necessarily implicate Trump or his campaign. 'Whatever happens today with the Mueller investigation, we don't even know that it has anything to do with the campaign ...,' Conway said on Fox. The Russia investigation has cast a shadow over Trump's nine-month-old presidency and widened the partisan rift between Republicans and Democrats. US intelligence agencies concluded in January that Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her. Mueller is also investigating whether Trump campaign officials colluded with the Russian efforts. Additional reporting by Reuters. First ever recorded solar eclipse proves biblical text, scholars say The oldest solar eclipse ever recorded could help explain a biblical story that has baffled scholars for generations. Cambridge University researchers say they have pinpointed the day of the first known eclipse to October 30, 1,207 BC 3224 years ago today. Using a combination of biblical texts and ancient Egyptian archives, the scholars think the discovery could explain a passage in the book of Joshua. The text in Joshua 10. 1-15 says the Israelites had been led into Canaan modern day Israel-Palestine after fleeing Egypt and during one particular battle Joshua prayed in verses 12-13: '"Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and you, moon, over the Valley of Aijalon." So the sun stood still, and the moon stopped, till the nation avenged itself on its enemies.' Professor Sir Colin Humphreys from Cambridge's Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy said if these words describe a real observation it would be 'a major astronomical event' that was taking place. 'Modern English translations, which follow the King James translation of 1611, usually interpret this text to mean that the sun and moon stopped moving,' he said. 'But going back to the original Hebrew text, we determined that an alternative meaning could be that the sun and moon just stopped doing what they normally do: they stopped shining. 'In this context, the Hebrew words could be referring to a solar eclipse, when the moon passes between the earth and the sun, and the sun appears to stop shining. 'This interpretation is supported by the fact that the Hebrew word translated "stand still" has the same root as a Babylonian word used in ancient astronomical texts to describe eclipses.' Although the suggestion of an eclipse has been made before, historians ruled out proving the theory because of the complex calculations involved. But Sir Colin along with his co-author Graeme Waddington devised an 'eclipse code'. From their theory, the only annular eclipse visible from Canaan between 1500 and 1050 BC was on 30 October 1207 BC, in the afternoon. This matches historical evidence from the Merneptah Stele, a text from the reign of the Pharaoh Merneptah, also used in the study that shows that the Israelites were in Canaan between 1500 and 1050 BC. The results are published in the Royal Astronomical Society journal Astronomy & Geophysics. Five ways to help young people engage with the Bible A recent LifeWay research report published in the States earlier this month identified regular Bible reading as one of the top 10 factors that help young people keep the faith as they grow into adulthood. In fact, the report identifies reading Scripture as the most significant indicator of 'spiritual health' among young people. It's important to keep this finding in context, and the report points to other factors that help young people mature spiritually. Others research also shows that relationships are crucial in helping young people grow in the faith. And yet it's not surprising that reading Scripture has such an impact on young people. If the Bible really is God's Word to us, a means by which the Spirit shapes us, then drawing close to its words means we're changed in the process. As a parent of two boys under 10, I'm always exploring different ways of helping my kids engage with the Bible. Here are five ways I've found helpful so far. 1. Highlight that God speaks to us through the Bible. Just as the Psalmist celebrates the law of God as 'better than thousands of gold and silver pieces' (Psalm 119:71), so it's important for our children to understand that the Bible is supremely precious as God's word. This doesn't mean that we ignore its humanity, but it does mean that our minds and our hearts are open to hearing from God as we read it. 2. Give young people an understanding of how the Bible fits together. As Parenting for Faith author Rachel Turner explained in an interview on the Together with God podcast, it's important to give children an overview of the 'whole story' of the Bible from their earliest years. This can be filled in as they mature, but an orientation to how Scripture fits together can help children understand the different passages they read. 3. Read the Bible together as a family. As part of your family worship or devotions, read a verse or a passage or even a chapter from Scripture. This shows that the Bible is something you value as a family, and gives you a chance to reflect together on what the passage means. 4. Help children engage with Scripture for themselves. We are blessed these days with a whole host of different kinds of Bible and my sons have loved engaging with versions like the Action Bible, The Lego Bible, and Diary of a Disciple: Luke's Story. It's also great to move children on from picture Bibles to a fuller translation, and we've found that the New International Readers Version (NIRV) is easily understandable even by our six-year-old. 5. Memorise key verses from the Bible. This, I suspect, is a practice that has been lost in many homes, but retaining portions of Scripture 'in the heart' reflects its value as God's word. Among recent advocates, the late Dallas Willard recommended it as a key means of spiritual formation. In our family, we're working on remembering a number of different verses and find that recalling a past verse can at times lead to a fresh discovery of its truth. I don't want to pretend that helping children engage with the Bible is always easy. In our family, it can be difficult some days to know if anything's being absorbed at all, and we face the usual challenge of finding time in the midst of busy schedules. And yet, helping children get to grips with the Bible is one of the best investments we can make. If God's word never returns void (Isaiah 55:11), then helping young people engage with it can transform their lives. Scripture has a foundational role in spiritual transformation even for the youngest members of the church. Ed Mackenzie is the author (with Steve Emery-Wright) of 'Networks for Faith Formation: Relational Bonds and the Spiritual Growth of Youth' (Wipf&Stock, 2017), and co-host of The Together with God Podcast (www.togetherwithgod.org.uk/podcast). Gordon Brown sets out 'third option' for Scotland of more powers in bid to preserve the Union Gordon Brown, who is widely credited with saving the pro-Union campaign in the 2014 Scottish independencereferendum, will today set out a 'third option' for Scotland's future, based on more powers being transferred to Holyrood after Brexit. The former Labour prime minister will suggest that the Scottish government should be given the power to set VAT rates and sign international treaties. Brown, who argued for 'devolution max' in 2014 and since, will say in a speech that control over agriculture, fisheries and environmental regulation could be transferred. His intervention comes after a speech by Theresa May yesterday pledging to preserve the 'precious, precious Union' and as Nicola Sturgeon, the SNP leader addresses her party's Spring conference. The first minister set out her position five days ago, saying a fresh vote was necessary in the wake of Brexit. She will tell the SNP conference that the will of the Scottish Parliament 'must and will prevail' over the issue. Brown, who is seen as one of the few former Westminster politicians with credibility north of the border, will address the Festival of Ideas, in Kirkcaldy, Fife, where he will call for the repatriation to Scotland of 800m spent by the EU. Further, he will propose that the Bank of England becomes the Bank of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with fully staffed representation in Scotland, 'to reinforce the fact that the pound is for everyone'. Brown was the main architect of the 'Vow', a cross-party promise of more powers for Holyrood, which many believe boosted the No vote ahead of the Scottish independence referendum in September 2014. Brown will argue a new form of federal home rule is needed to unite the country and avoid years of 'bitter division'. 'The third option, a patriotic Scottish way and free from the absolutism of the SNP and the do-nothing-ism of the Tories, is now essential because post-Brexit realities make the status quo redundant and require us to break with the past,' he is expected to say. 'The status quo has been overtaken by events because unless powers now with the European Union are repatriated from Brussels to the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the regions, Whitehall will have perpetrated one of the biggest power grabs by further centralising power. employment and energy. 'The patriotic way means that Scotland is not caught between a die-hard conservatism that denies the Scottish Parliament the powers it needs and a hard-line nationalism that throws away the resources we secure from being part of the Union.' Government 'still considering' crackdown on addictive gambling machines, Chancellor confirms The UK's chancellor Phillip Hammond has confirmed government plans to crack down on controversial gambling machines that can see customers losing 18,000 in one hour. Hammond signaled the move to the Bishop of St Albans, who has led the Church of England's campaign for a review of the machines. Fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) take about 1.8bn in a year through their high stakes settings that allow bets of up to 100 every 20 seconds. Critics have called them the 'crack cocaine of gambling' and figures like Rt Rev Alan Smith, the Bishop of St Albans, have campaigned for a 2 cap on the stakes for the machines. Others have warned about the damage that limiting the machines could have on the British economy, costing thousands of jobs and losing 400 million in state tax revenues. A government review of the issue was thought to have been shelved, but a letter from chancellor Philip Hammond to Bishop Smith has suggested the Treasury supports a review, according to The Times. Smith had previously urged Hammond to publish the review 'without undue delay'. He has warned of the devastating effects of gambling, including crippling debt, violent crime and suicide. Smith told Christian Today in August: 'The government has a duty to protect people to regulate this highly addictive form of gambling...If the government is not willing to regulate this, I think there will be many people who will wonder if that is being driven by financial concerns from the Treasury.' The Church of England has been at the head of the campaign against FOBTs. In February its ruling General Synod made the unusual move of unanimously urging the government to reduce both their proliferation and their 100 top wager. Hardline Russian Orthodox priest puts everyone who's watched 'Matilda' under a curse A 'curse' has been put on all Russians who have seen the controversial movie 'Matilda' by the ultra-conservative former representative of the Russian Orthodox Church, Vsevolod Chaplin. Chaplin, who was fired from the Russian Orthodox Church in 2015, effectively for being too right-wing, also placed the curse on actors who took part in the film, which was directed by Alexei Uchitel, and all members of the Russian Federation who failed to stop the 'blasphemy,' according to the website Stopru. Chaplin has promised that soon 'the laughter of the actors and ordinary people will turn to tears, and the bright dresses [to] mourning'. The film, which tells the story of Nicholas II's infatuation with ballerina Matilda Kshesinskaya, has angered hard-line nationalists, with some Orthodox believers seeing it as blasphemous. The tsar, who was executed along with his family by Bolsheviks in 1918, is glorified as a saint in the Russian Orthodox Church. There have been a number of incidents in the build-up to the film's release. Last month, police detained several activists accused of setting cars on fire outside the office of the attorney for the movie's director. Also last month, Russia's largest operator of movie theatres said it would not screen the controversial film following threats of arson attacks. Russian news agencies quoted cinema chain director Roman Linin as saying, in reference to the decision: 'The security of our viewers remains a priority for us.' The chain, which is operated by Formula Kino and Cinema Park, has 75 theatres. The announcement came a day after two cars were set on fire outside the office of the attorney for the film's director Alexei Uchitel. Set in the late 19th century, the film tells the tale of the romance between Nicholas II, before he became tsar, and half-Polish dancer Matilda Kshesinskaya, who described the relationship in her memoirs. Nicholas 'loved me dearly', she wrote. 'I adored Nikki, I thought only of him, of my sweetheart.' Opposition to the film has ranged from street demonstrations to appeals from prominent clergy, with some activists making physical threats against cinemas who plan to show it. In 2015, the Russian Orthodox Church sacked Chaplin, one of its most high-profile priests, who had called for the Church to play a stronger and more independent role in public life. Chaplin, who since 2009 had been head of the Church's department for cooperation with society, had called for the Church and the Russian government to take a more active role in east Ukraine, and referred to the Russian military intervention in Syria as a holy war. He also had criticised the current Russian political elite for corruption. 'Everything started a year ago, as I disagreed in principle with our Ukraine position. We should have not waited but worked to make sure our authorities heard the voices of people who think themselves Russian,' Chaplin told the newspaper RBK. Chaplin said that Russia's current political leaders were an 'immoral elite who are stopping the country from developing'. 'It is as if prayer is a crime': Egypt's Christians appeal for help after church closures Following the closure of a number of churches in recent weeks, Coptic Christians in the south of Egypt have renewed calls on local authorities for an end to discrimination. Two churches in two separate villages in the southern province of Minya have been shut down by the authorities, a statement by the Minya diocese said. It said worshippers were harassed at both churches and pelted with rocks at one of them. 'We have kept quiet for two weeks after the closure of one of the churches, but due to our silence the situation has worsened ... it is as if prayer is a crime the Copts must be punished for,' said the statement, which was released on Saturday. A third church was closed following rumors of a pending attack, but the diocese said no attack has taken place since and the church remains closed. The Minya security directorate spokesman declined to comment. The governor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Coptic Christians, who make up 10 per cent of Egypt's population of nearly 95 million, say they have been persecuted for years. Many feel the state does not take their plight seriously enough. Nonetheless, the Copts are vocal supporters of President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who has vowed to crush Islamist extremism and protect Christians. He declared a three-month state of emergency in the aftermath of two church bombings in April which has since been renewed. Though Islamic State has long waged a low-level war against soldiers and police in Egypt's Sinai peninsula, it has stepped up its assault on Christian civilians in the mainland. In an attack claimed by the group in May, gunmen ambushed a group of Coptic Christians traveling to a monastery in Minya, killing 29 and wounding 24. Additional reporting by Reuters. Major victory for Church expected over 'crack cocaine' of gambling A major victory for Church campaigners is expected this week when the government announces its review of fixed-odd betting terminals (FoBTs) known as the 'crack cocaine' of betting. Sports minister Tracey Crouch is thought to be set to reveal a set of proposals to reduce the maximum stake on FoBTs, a high speed roulette machine widely available in high-street betting shops where gamblers can wage 300 every minute. The Church of England is among dozens of other campaigners to have fought against the highly addictive machines which proliferate in deprived boroughs. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is expected to publish its long-awaited review this week and will recommend slashing the maximum stake from 100 to either 50, or a figure between 10 and 30, or the 2 recommended by campaigners. A 12-week public consultation will follow the review after which the government will make a decision. But the Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith, who has been a long-term advocate of stricter regulation, warned ministers on Monday against any option other than the 2 suggestion. 'I remain deeply concerned that if the Government recommends a higher maximum stake than 2, this will not go far enough to address the harm these machines cause to families and communities,' he told Christian Today. 'I will be responding to the Government's consultation.' It comes after the Church of England made the unusual move of unanimously backing a motion calling for a 2 maximum stake on the machines. Noting the 'destructive impact' FoBTs have and the 'widespread public concern' about their availability on the high-street not just in highly regulated casino settings, the Church called for a drastic cut in the maximum stake as well as giving local authorities the power to dictate 'the number and location of such terminals in order to reduce the risk of harm to large numbers of vulnerable people'. Bookmakers' income from the machines last year amounted to 1.8billion, which is more than half their total revenue and the Association of British Bookmakers warned curbing the maximum stake would cost 20,000 jobs. But they accept the days of 100 maximum stakes are over and the status quo is no longer an option so will consider a top bet of 50 a victory. A reduction to 2 would see the Treasury lose 1billion in taxes by 2020 but Theresa May is understood personally to oppose the current regulation. A Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson said: 'We are currently undertaking a review of the gambling sector focusing on stakes and prizes of machines, social responsibility within the industry and gambling advertising. 'The review will be published in the Autumn.' Martin Luther King's niece in abortion protest: 'Today's unborn babies are yesterday's blacks' Martin Luther King's niece is comparing the fight against racism with the fight against abortion, describing the pro-life campaign as 'the new civil rights movement'. Alveda King said babies are being 'womb-lynched' by pregnancy terminations, warning 'today's unborn are yesterday's blacks best kept out of sight and out of mind lest they remind us of the injustices we commit'. King admitted her personal experience of abortion deeply scarred her and led her to campaign on the issue. 'I see absolutely no difference between the denial of rights to people because of their skin colour and the denial of rights to people because of their age or condition of dependency,' she said. 'There is no doubt that the pro-life movement is the civil rights movement of our century because it is the fundamental right of every one of every race to live. Of what use are all our other rights if we can simply choose to deny a person the right to be born in the first place?' The hard-hitting remarks came in an address to MPs, peers and campaigners in Westminster on Saturday following a series of events to commemorate the occasion. A one-minute silence was observed. a mass celebrated in Westminster Cathedral and churches were urged to ring their bells 50 times to mark the anniversary. At the same time Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn joined more than 100 other MPs calling on the Home Secretary to ban pro-life vigils outside abortion clinics. A letter, signed by 113 MPs including Corbyn and Vince Cable, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, was sent to coincide with the anniversary that first permitted abortions in Britain. It comes after Ealing council in West London voted to ban a vigil outside a local clinic in the borough. Rupee Huq, Labour MP for Ealing Central, said the idea was 'not to stop protests, but to ask protesters to instead make use of the many places they could protest from Parliament Square to town centres to Speakers Corner'. But even as Diana Johnson, Labour MP for Hull North, leads a campaign for full decriminalisation of abortion, Alveda King said she was convinced it would one day be abolished. 'If history tells us one thing about mass killing, it's that it is always preceded by dehumanisation. 'We must now decry this lie from the rooftops. We must unite in proclaiming the settled scientific truth that a unique and distinct human life is present from conception,' she said. 'After the inevitable abolition of abortion, as future generations look back on this dark era, let our names be counted among those who peacefully resisted.' Meet the young Christian entrepreneur whose stylish sock range is helping Britain's homeless Ed Vickers would walk past the apparently increasing numbers of homeless people sleeping rough on the streets of Exeter, where he was studying at university, and face the dilemma we all face: do you give money or will it be spent on drugs? Do you give sandwiches instead? Do you just stop and chat or is that patronising? Yet Vickers knew from his work serving the poor in a Christian ministry in Mozambique during his gap year that he somehow had to translate it into helping poor people back home. The result, in 2012, was Jollie's, a collection of jazzy socks on sale across the UK including at John Lewis branches. But this is no ordinary fashion item: every pair bought results in a contribution for another, rather thicker, pair of hardy hiking socks donated to a homeless person local to the purchaser through Jollie's network of 52 UK homeless charities. 'As a Christian, I believe that our mission is to serve those on the margins and to help them find purpose and dignity in life. I became increasingly frustrated walking past homeless people and not knowing how to help,' Vickers says. 'I didn't feel comfortable just giving them money, but as I volunteered at a local shelter I noticed I was being asked for socks every Saturday. 'I never thought about starting a business, but since discovering that it was meeting a real need and it is such a simple thing that can help people, I have fallen in love with it and continued to develop our sock range.' A recent report produced by the homeless charity Shelter suggested that there is anything up to 250,000 people living on the streets each night, and in a separate study that number has been predicted to more than double to 575,000 by 2041 if nothing is done to tackle the underlying issues. And crucially Vickers, who now attends London church Holy Trinity Brompton, is now providing life-changing apprenticeships for men and women who are currently homeless and need job opportunities to develop their skills, rebuild their lives and rejoin the workforce. This is now a key element of Jollie's, which has been endorsed by, among others, the Big Issue founder Jon Bird and campaigning TV chef Jamie Oliver. 'It struck me earlier this year that, while we were seeing some real impact in the socks we were donating through the company, there was so much more we could be doing to meet the real needs within the homeless community,' says Vickers. 'Providing apprenticeships and having those currently living homeless become part of our key operations, gives a greater opportunity to bring more lasting change.' Thinking back to the origins of the concept, Vickers tells Christian Today: 'For me it started down in Exeter. I was studying biosciences, so something completely different, and I was based there and Exeter had quite a significant issue with people sleeping rough in the town and it was a build up of awkwardness and frustration about what my role was. 'My church (Network Church) was involved in a soup kitchen, providing Saturday morning breakfast for those sleeping rough, jointly with other churches in Exeter at a drop in centre. I got involved in that, making tea, nothing heroic...and it was there where I saw the demand for socks and was surprised by socks still being a need that people have in this day and age. I did a ring around of various shelters to see if socks was something people needed. The general feedback was that socks were one of the most needed and most under-donated items.' Vickers says he 'came back asking questions about what it's like to serve the poor in Britain. You get all sorts of fun projects abroad but what about your local town and community? That created the concept of this fun opportunity.' The 25-year-old, who was raised in a Christian home, says: 'My gap year after school was a solidifying time for my faith and God really highlighted my interest in the poor. Faith seems to make a little more sense in those environments ironically; practical workings of what it means to be a Christian and follow Jesus in those contexts.' Asked whether it's fair to say that he wouldn't have come up with 'Jollie' had it not been for his Christian faith, he says: 'I think that's fair to say...I wouldn't have got involved in a homeless shelter without the Church, and it has probably kept me interested as well beyond the start of it.' He continues: 'This is where I feel Jesus would be and is currently in this world, with those without a lot, and I see an amazing amount of joy and hope where you don't maybe expect to see them, like in some of these Christian homeless projects.' Each pair of Jollie's socks are British made cotton and packaged in recyclable tin cans, and this Christmas they are available as individual 'socking filler' gifts. Or, for the real sock connoisseur, the ultimate gift is the Jollie's Sockscription, providing subscribers with a new pair of socks every month. 'One Punch Man' news: Saitama fans worried about big changes in season 2's production team; latest updates coming in November The Japanese animated TV series "One Punch Man" has already been confirmed to come back for season 2, but no official announcement about its exact release date has been made. Fans are worried about the major shake-up in the direction and production of the upcoming season. There are several speculations on Reddit indicating that season 2 will debut either in late 2018 or early 2019. It is also noted that there has been no official announcement on whether the second season will start airing in 2017 or in 2018. Fans of the superhero anime series are also excited for new updates to be released on Nov. 2 by manga artist, Yusuke Murata. According to the official website of the "One Punch Man," the anime TV series' season 1 director Shingo Natsume and animation studio Madhouse will not be coming back for season 2, although no details about their exit were given. The news came as a shock to many fans because Otaquest released an interview video of Natsume earlier in July, and he was talking about the anime. He stated that "One Punch Man" is a unique anime with interesting plot twists and that he never saw Saitama as a superhero. "I never really perceived him (Saitama) to be much of a hero. From my perspective, I never really focused on the whole scenario as a hero story," he said. Many viewers are worried that "One Punch Man" will lose its unique element that sets it apart from other superhero anime due to the changes in the production staff. Natsume will be replaced by animation director Chikara Sakurai who is known for directing the animated movie "Naruto: Blood Prison." Anime studio J.C. Staff will also take care of animation. "One Punch Man" was a huge success in 2015 and it was included in the list of IGN's "9 Best Anime of 2015." Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill appeals to shared faith in Romania: 'There is extraordinary potential for peace' Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church is extending an arm of friendship to Orthodox Christians in Romania in the first visit by a head of the Russian Church since the fall of communism. Romania, a NATO and European Union member which now hosts part of the US anti-missile shield and NATO's anti-ballistic defence system, has had cool relations with Russia since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, although the two countries share cultural and religious ties. Kirill is the first Russian Patriarch to visit since Patriarch Alexy I in 1962. He arrived in the country on Thursday and spoke of the countries' shared values and the 'extraordinary potential for peace'. He said: 'The Orthodox values are the same for Romanians, for Romania, for the Russians, for Russia and for all the other orthodox believers.' He added: 'There can be good relationships between people only when they share common values. And regardless of the path the history goes, we, the Orthodox believers living in different countries, have to remember that we share the same values and a common life system. That means there is an extraordinary potential for peace, cooperation and interaction.' He blessed a crowd of the faithful celebrating the Feast of Bucharest patron saint Dimitrie Basarabov the New on Friday and urged people to steer clear of false political and religious teachers who promise an earthly Heaven, yet without Christ and without God. 'I am glad to see today the believers gathered here in such high numbers. Your devotion bears testimony to the flourishing of today's Romanian Orthodoxy,' he said. Sainsbury's accused of 'heavy-handedness' after threatening Christian Fairtrade campaigners with police action Christian campaigners in Salford are accusing supermarket giant Sainsbury's of heavy-handedness after they were threatened with police action unless they moved on. The seven protesters, who included three clergy, picketed the Salford branch of Sainsbury's on Saturday as part of a campaign against the chain's pilot of a replacement of the Fairtrade mark on its tea with its own 'Fairly traded' brand. One of them, Hilary Thomas, told Christian Today that Christian Aid North West co-ordinator Ruth Platt had contacted the store previously and had been told there 'would not be a problem' with the protest. 'The manager came out and greeted us politely and explained Sainsbury's position,' Thomas said. 'She then came out again looking worried and said she had had instructions from head office and that we had to move, and if we didn't comply she would call the police. 'It felt quite heavy-handed, to say the least.' She said the group had collected around 60 signatures to a petition objecting to Sainsbury's new scheme, which she described as 'confusing' to consumers. The Fairtrade scheme allows farmers to decide for themselves how the 'social premium' the extra profit on goods designed to benefit the whole community is spent, whereas under Sainsbury's' own-brand scheme the supermarket will control how the money is spent. Thomas told Christian Today Sainsbury's' own 'Fairly Traded' scheme 'looks like colonialism'. Sainsbury's faced protests at its annual meeting in London in July, with shareholders objecting to the move. Anne Lindsay, a private-sector analyst from Cafod, the Catholic charity, said to the board: 'I am concerned that after years of being an extremely valuable champion of Fairtrade, Sainsbury's is starting in a direction that could undermine Fairtrade and lead to a plethora of different standards by different companies and confusion for consumers.' Also among those expressing concern at the move is Tearfund, which in a briefing paper encouraging people to protest quoted an open letter from producers saying: 'We see the proposed approach as an attempt to replace the autonomous role which Fairtrade brings and replace it with a model which no longer balances the power between producers and buyers.' Sainsbury's says on its website it will 'continue to test and trial our new approach, listening and learning as we go' and that it is committed to transparency. Asked about its reaction to the Salford protest, a spokeswoman told Christian Today: 'I can confirm the police were not called and the protestors even popped into the cafe for a cup of tea after they'd collected signatures.' Spain's Evangelical Alliance in campaign against 'harmful' LGBT laws The Spanish Evangelical Alliance has tabled amendments to the country's LGBT equality law which has been branded 'the most harmful and damaging' in the EU for individual freedoms. The LGBT Non Discrimination and Equality Bill, bought to the Spanish parliament by the left-leaning Unidos Podemos, En Comu and En Marea parties, aims to tackle homophobia and place certain obligations on the state to form 'proactive policies' to further gender equality. But at the request of some conservative political parties, the Spanish Evangelical Alliance (AEE) has prepared a series of amendments for consideration before the bill is passed. 'We invite lawmakers to recover the spirit of democracy and real diversity in the debate on this bill, not uncritically accepting the dogma, the new orthodoxy, the tutelage, inequality and intolerance, especially if they disguise themselves of progressivism,' the AEE says according to Evangelical Focus. A document listing 12 points complains that the bill 'accepts, as gender ideology proposes, that gender is a human category that can be in constant evolution, so that, it has to be perceived as a vital experience'. It urges parents to be given a say before children's gender transition surgery arguing: 'In many cases cross-hormonal treatment in children will later generate deep and irreversible traumas.' The amendments also attack plans within the bill to incentivise media to promote LGBT equality, warning they 'violate freedom of speech'. The statement says: 'The public administrations should not watch for the inclusion of any ideology in the media. That implies an attack on the freedom of the media.' It concludes by calling for 'effective equality for all citizens, without discrimination on grounds of birth, race, sex, religion, opinion or any other condition or personal or social circumstance, as established by the Constitution.' It comes after the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal lobby analysed the bill's text and said 'the Equality Bill in its current form legislates far beyond what is necessary to ensure equality in society'. Ruben Navarro, representative of ADF International in Geneva, said: 'In light of its expansive scope and the legal uncertainty resulting from the vague terminology used, it is likely to have a significant and detrimental impact on citizens' fundamental freedoms.' He added: 'We have come to the conclusion that of all the European Union equality laws, this is the most harmful and damaging we have seen so far.' Trump Might Drop Sanctions Against Russia If Moscow Is 'Helping Us' President-elect Donald Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal he would keep intact sanctions against Russia "at least for a period of time" and also said he wouldn't commit to the "one China" policy until he sees progress from Beijing in its currency and trade practices. In excerpts from an hourlong interview published by the Journal on Friday, Trump said: "If you get along and if Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions if somebody's doing some really great things?" Trump suggested he might do away with the sanctions imposed by the Obama administration in late December in response to Moscow's alleged cyber attacks if Moscow proves helpful in battling terrorists and reaching other goals important to Washington, the Journal reported. Trump told the newspaper he is prepared to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin some time after he is sworn in on January 20. "I understand that they would like to meet, and that's absolutely fine with me," he said. Asked if he supported the "one China" policy on Taiwan that has underpinned U.S. relations with Beijing for decades, Trump told the Journal: "Everything is under negotiation including One China." Trump angered the Chinese by taking a congratulatory phone call after his election win from Taiwan's leader and questioning the "one China" policy. The United States has acknowledged the Chinese position that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of China. Trump has said in the past he would label China a currency manipulator after he takes office. In the interview, he said he wouldn't take that step on his first day in the White House. "I would talk to them first," he said. "Certainly they are manipulators," he added. "But I'm not looking to do that." But he made plain his displeasure with China's currency practices. "Instead of saying, 'We're devaluating [sic] our currency,' they say, 'Oh, our currency is dropping.' It's not dropping. They're doing it on purpose," he said, according to the Journal. "Our companies can't compete with them now because our currency is strong and it's killing us," the Journal quoted Trump as saying. Calls to the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman's office were not answered, and the ministry did not respond immediately to an emailed request for comment on the Wall Street Journal interview. Trump Slams Reports About Russia Allegations Donald Trump has condemned unsubstantiated reports of "compromising" information about his behaviour in Russia as "fake news". The row overshadowed outgoing Barack Obama's emotional valedictory speech in his home city of Chicago, when he played on the phrase that has became a signature of his presidency: "Yes we can," he said. "Yes we did." Once again, Trump succeeded in capturing the headlines. In a tweet about the allegations, he raged in capital letters: "FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!" FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 11, 2017 He also tweeted a photograph of his passport, saying he had never been to Prague in his life: I have never been to Prague in my life. #fakenews pic.twitter.com/CMil9Rha3D Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) January 11, 2017 And he singled out Buzz Feed for special attack for running one of the documents: The classified documents that the heads of four US intelligence agencies presented last week to President-elect Donald Trump included claims that Russian intelligence operatives have compromising information about him. Ttwo US officials told Reuters the claims, which one called "unsubstantiated," were contained in a two-page memo appended to a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. It is understood that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies are looking into the accuracy of the claims. Additional reporting by Reuters. Welby vs Campbell: The GQ interview tells us more about both of them I confess I had high hopes for the 'pro-faith atheist' Alastair Campbell, whose (whisper it) personal kindness and, yes, decency seem to point, as with one or two other firm non-believers I know, towards a natural alignment with Christianity. Indeed, when I interviewed him for Christian Today in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit referendum last year, we in the office decided, thanks to some of his surprising answers, to give the piece the rather mischievous headline, 'Alastair Campbell: I may do God'. 'There's a part of me that would love to have [faith],' he said. 'Something's holding me back.' The former head of communications to Tony Blair, who famously said to an American interviewer 'We don't do God,' added: 'I do find myself now as I get older having these sort of moments when I really feel quite deeply spiritual.' And he described being in Scotland, preparing to give the eulogy at the funeral of his old friend Philip Gould in 2011: 'And it was like it was just so strange I saw these birds, and it was ah it was a really deep spiritual moment...I just don't know. My sister [Liz, 57] is convinced I'll get God. Tony is convinced I'll get God...something's holding me back.' Fast forward to now, and Campbell has sat down for a fascinating, 40 minute interview for GQ with the Archbishop of Canterbury, no less (in which sister Liz features a fair bit). Yet there is something about Campbell in the encounter is it the fixed look on his face? Is it that he questions whether you need to believe 'the story' of Jesus including the Virgin Birth that makes me feel that he has decided, for now, not to believe. Nonetheless, Campbell has by all accounts been reflecting hard on his encounter with the Archbishop, which actually took place some weeks ago but is only released now because of a backlog of Campbell's GQ encounters. He has said that this was one of his 'favourite' interviews, and told friends that he 'liked' Welby. There are some gripping exchanges. Campbell: 'Will you go to Heaven?' Welby: 'Yes.' Campbell: 'Will I go to Heaven?' Welby: 'That's up to you.' Welby, whose background is from the evangelical Holy Trinity Brompton Campbell cleverly asks him if he still attends says 'I don't do tribes' at one point. But there is something extraordinarily self-assured in both parts of that answer. Certainly, some would take issue with it. You can't help wondering whether Welby's predecessor Rowan Williams in another perceptive question, Campbell asks whether it annoys Welby that he is called 'Welby' in headlines while Rowan is (more affectionately?) called 'Rowan' would have come up with a more, well, inclusive answer. And last month, the conservative Christian journalist Peter Hitchens told me, referring to whether 'Heaven's gates are open wide': 'I think it is presumptuous of us to imagine that we know to whom they are open and to whom they are closed. I don't think that the badge of professed belief is the decisive thing....It is very dangerous when I always wince when people say such and such a person will go to heaven, has gone to heaven, is going to hell, which people say in casual conversation and I think, how can you know? It's not for us to know.' Yet perhaps there is something comforting about the clarity of Welby's answers, and I suspect Campbell found this. Asked why he should come to faith, Welby tells Campbell that while there about 'a million reasons' the key is looking at the person of Jesus Christ. And again and again, Welby points to Jesus, and as he puts it at one point, 'the evidence for the Resurrection...what He said...the impact of what He did'. Yes, Rowan would have done it differently. Asked a similar question some years ago, he said: '[The] Christian faith is essentially about a path to human maturity. It's a faith that allows you to express both your freedom and your dependence, until there's a balance...What I most want to say to the world at large is: "Look at Christianity carefully and what you see is this balance, between dependence on the God who created you and that sense that grace and gift are utterly fundamental, and you rely on that. And, coming out of that, a certain authority in your own life, living to live your own life, and shape creatively your own life and the life of those around you." I think it's basic in the Bible. It's basic in Christian tradition. And it's where the Gospel most, if you like, hits the deep human needs.' But, though Welby found the encounter difficult 'Is this going to get any easier?' he asks at one point he does a good job of having an impact and, yes, evangelising to the hardened former spin doctor. Welby puts it to Campbell: 'When your kids come and want to talk to you, you don't say, "Well, have you been good enough today?" do you?' Campbell, most unusually, replies almost like a child himself: 'No.' Then the Archbishop goes on to make the comparison between God the Father and a parent, and Campbell listens. Indeed, Campbell goes on to question whether he has done his own children a disservice by bringing them up with his partner Fiona in an 'atheistic' home. Elswhere, Welby has to answer questions from Campbell about whether the Manchester bombing victims are going to Heaven even if they had not yet surrendered to Jesus; he shows impressive biblical knowledge; he talks about his own regrets as a parent and, as has been widely publicised already, talks about his own thankfully relatively mild battles with the 'black dog' of depression. For anyone who has a spare 40 minutes, I thoroughly recommend this gem of an interview. 300,000 New Immigrants Per Year the New Normal: Immigration Minister Hugo O'Doherty Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A Canadas Minister of Immigration, Ahmed Hussen, has said that the country will welcome at least as many new immigrants in 2018 as it expects to this year. The Ministers comments on CBC radio show The House come just before the government is expected to publish its Immigration Levels Plan for 2018. Three hundred thousand is now our new normal, said Hussen, who did not dismiss the idea of a higher target for 2018. As a government we went from 260,000 to 300,000 because of the need to meet the demands of Canadian families who wanted to reunite with their loved ones, Hussen continued. But also employers who are asking us to allow them to continue to use immigration more and more as a way to meet their growth needs. Earlier this year, Minister Hussen had remarked that an annual target of 300,000 new admissions would be the baseline figure for the coming years. The Minister added that the vast majority of immigrants settling in Canada as permanent residents will be admitted through the economic class, because thats where the greatest need is. Canadas internationally-lauded economic immigration system has moved towards a demand-based model called Express Entry, where the government invites eligible candidates to apply for permanent residence on a priority basis using a Comprehensive Ranking System. Invited candidates have 90 days to apply, with the government aiming to process the majority of applications within six months. Other economic migrants will settle through a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP), or be admitted to settle in the province of Quebec. There will also be a number admitted as business immigrants. Canada will also continue to reunite families in the country through its Family Class programs, and the government will continue to uphold its tradition of resettling those in need through its refugee resettlement programs. To listen to the interview, click here. To find out if you are eligible to immigrate to Canada permanently, fill out a free online assessment form. 2017 CICnews All Rights Reserved Macmillan Cancer Support has today announced the appointment of a digital nurse to combat fake news online regarding the disease and to stop patients turning to unverified sites for information. Macmillan said it had created the digital nurse specialist role in response to a growing demand for online information about cancer diagnosis and treatment. Research undertaken for the charity by YouGov, found that over 40 per cent of cancer patients looked up information about their diagnosis online, while a further 13 per cent of people said they went online because they didnt fully understand what they had been told about their cancer by a doctor or healthcare professional. The charity said it is concerned that patients are turning to unverified sites for information which could leave them needlessly frightened and at risk of bogus cures. Macmillan cited examples of Google searches which erroneously suggest that chemotherapy kills more people than cancer itself, and that baking soda can cure breast cancer. Macmillan said that, while it acknowledges that the internet is a vital tool for cancer patients to get information, it hopes the new digital nurse role will help separate the wheat from the chaff," helping patients to use "websites that are accurate and reputable rather than those with incorrect or dangerous information. Ellen McPake confirmed in the new role The charity also confirmed it had appointed registered nurse Ellen McPake in the new role today. McPake said her job was to make sure people affected by cancer have a real person they can turn to online for information about their symptoms, cancer diagnosis and treatment. Glasgow-based McPake will work answering questions from those affected by cancer online through Macmillans social media platforms and on the charitys online community forums. Commenting on her new role with Macmillan, McPake said: As more and more people seek information about their cancer online, we want them to know that charities like Macmillan are able to offer reliable health advice. In my new role, Im there to make sure people affected by cancer have a real person they can turn to online for information about their symptoms, cancer diagnosis and treatment. Internet full of cancer unverified statistics, fake news and horror stories Professor Jane Maher, joint chief medical officer at Macmillan, said the role would be an important way of combating unverified statistics, fake news and horror stories about cancer on the internet. Its completely natural for people to want to Google their diagnosis when theyre told they have cancer. But with countless unverified statistics, fake news and horror stories on the internet, ending up on the wrong website can be really worrying. This can leave people pinning their hopes on a dangerous bogus cure or underestimating the benefit of routine treatments. When someone learns they have cancer, its really important that healthcare professionals fully explain what their diagnosis means and the support available to them. They should also be able signpost their patients to trusted sources online so they arent left open to incorrect or misleading information. The Charity Commission has contacted Oxfam following reports in the Times about sexual harassment and exploitation at the charity over the weekend. The regulator has also reminded charities about having safeguarding procedures in place. On Saturday the Times revealed that the number of reports of sexual exploitation by Oxfam staff and partners has increased from 26 two years ago to 87 in 2016/17. The story has also been covered by the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard. The Times has also reported allegations made a former country director about how a complaint was handled in 2010. The Times said that she was prompted to speak up because of the widespread coverage of allegations against the film producer Harvey Weinstein. The newspaper said: "Triggered by the revelations about Harvey Weinstein, she feels the time is right to make her experience public to show it is not just in Hollywood where women are harassed and assaulted." Oxfam said it has improved its procedures since 2010. 87 allegations In the period of 2016/2017, 87 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation were reported. Oxfam said that of those, "53 of the incidents were referred to the police and other services, 33 were investigated internally and one is still pending. Of those internally investigated, 74 percent were fully upheld and resulted in disciplinary action." The Times reported that seven senior Oxfam officials have been investigated in the past year over safeguarding allegations, including sexual harassment and the covering up of exploitation. It said that the officials are all men and have been working as country directors in Africa, Asia and Latin America. A total of 37 country directors are supervised by Oxfam GB. The seven cases are among the 87 sexual exploitation claims involving Oxfam staff investigated in 2016/17. The Charity Commission said in a statement that it is aware of the allegations and is in contact with Oxfam. It said in a statement: "We have become aware that Oxfam is dealing with a number of concerning allegations about both recent, and non-recent, safeguarding incidents involving senior staff, including allegations of sexual harassment. We are in contact with the charity to establish both how the trustees are responding to the individual allegations, as well as to reassure ourselves that they are taking steps to ensure the charity is appropriately safeguarding all people who come into contact with it, including its staff and volunteers. 'People more aware of safeguarding' Oxfam, which publishes the number of allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by staff in its annual report each year, said that it believes that the number of allegations it has received is a result of more people being aware of its safeguarding and whistle-blowing procedures, and having more confidence to report incidents. In a statement, a spokesperson said: "Oxfam treats all allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation very seriously. We have a confidential 'whistle-blowing' helpline, a dedicated Safeguarding Team, and safeguarding focal or contact points within countries. "In recent years we have worked hard to raise awareness amongst staff and inform them about how they can make complaints in confidence without fear of victimisation. We encourage people to report wherever they have a concern and we have seen more people come forward as a result." The charity said that it, as well as many other organisations, needs to "get better at preventing and dealing with sexual abuse". But added that as an international organisation fighting for womens rights "we have a special responsibility to practice what we preach and protect our staff, volunteers and beneficiaries from sexual harassment and abuse". Oxfam said that it is not unique, and that "sexual abuse is a serious problem in society. It said: "High profile cases have shone light into this very dark corner of society and give us a chance to do more to tackle sexual abuse." Oxfam's accounts for the previous year, the year ending March 2016, showed that there had been 64 reported allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse by its staff and partners, which had been an increase from 26 on the year previous. Of that 64, it said that 38 allegations were investigated, 12 allegations were pending investigation at the time of the publication of the accounts, and the remaining 14 allegations either did not require investigation or investigation was not possible. The charity said: "We continue to learn and seek to improve not just in how we handle complaints but also in changing the culture in which we work to prevent the abuse of power in the first place and support those that speak out." 'Put in robust safeguarding processes' The Charity Commission has reminded charities of the need to have safeguarding procedures in place. It said: "They should foster a culture that promotes the wellbeing of their staff and must put in place robust safeguarding procedures and ensure these are followed in practice. Such procedures should cover how the charity responds to individual allegations of harassment or abuse, including by reporting them to the police where appropriate, and to consider reporting them to the Commission as a serious incident. Our weekly summary of the latest movers in the charity sector. Chief executive RNIB has announced that its acting chief executive, Sally Harvey, has been appointed on a permanent basis. Harvey has been RNIBs acting chief executive since October 2016, following the retirement of Lesley-Anne Alexander, and has held other senior leadership roles at the charity since joining in 2009. Previously, she was acting chief executive and director of housing at Abbeyfield Society and director of resident services at the Peabody Trust. The British Liver Trust has appointed Judi Rhys as its new chief executive. Rhys joins the organisation from Arthritis Care, where she was also previously chief executive. Prior to that, she held senior roles at the MS Society and Diabetes UK. Rhys is currently an independent member of Public Health Wales and a trustee of National Voices. Fundraising and campaigning Tony Juniper has been appointed as executive director for advocacy and campaigns at WWF. Juniper is president of the Wildlife Trusts, president of the Society for the Environment and a harmony professor of practice at the University of Wales Trinity St David. He is also a trustee of Fauna and Flora International, Resurgence-Ecologist and SolarAid. He began his career as an ornithologist, working with Birdlife International. He has also previously worked with Friends of the Earth and Friends of the Earth International. Tashi Lassalle has been appointed director of communications at The Church of England. Lassalle was most recently head of communications and marketing for insurance company Lloyds of London. Lassalle is one of a number of senior appointments made by the Church of England over the last week. Finance and strategy Alongside Lassalle, The Church of England has announced it has appointed Gareth Mostyn as its chief finance and operations officer for the National Church Institutions of the CoE. Mostyn will join the charity from De Beers plc, where he is currently executive head of strategy and corporate affairs, having previously been chief financial officer. In his new role, Mostyn will be responsible for providing financial leadership across the CoEs institutions, encompassing the Church Commissioners, Archbishops Council and Church of England Pensions Boards. Non executive The Newcastle United Foundation has appointed Judith Doyle to its board of trustees. Doyle is the principal and chief executive of Gateshead College. She was also appointed to the North East Local Enterprise Partnerships business growth board earlier in 2017. She is also currently a member of the Confederation of British Industrys regional council, and a board member of Newcastle Gateshead Initiative and the Queen Elizabeth NHS Trust. First in a series. An axiom of the nonprofit news world is that theres only so much philanthropy to go aroundonly so many foundations and only so many rich people willing to invest large sums in journalism. But what if that isnt true? At a time when American journalism has lost tens of thousands of jobs, especially at the state and local levels, could this accepted wisdom be out of date? Philanthropy already has ramped up in the last decade to create dozens of state, local, and national news nonprofits. Might this only be a start? Might philanthropy become a more robust and durable subsidy that is able to create and broadly sustain many hundreds of news organizations across the country? The California nonprofit CalMatters is out to make that casethat wealthy individuals in particular are willing to help fill the growing gaps in news coverage. In late 2014, alarmed by the rapid disappearance of Sacramentos statehouse press corps, Simone Coxe co-founded CalMatters, pledging to raise $5 million for a news nonprofit that would re-focus public attention on critical California issues. Having met their three-year goal, Coxe and her team of money-raisers are doubling the ante. CalMatters now is aiming at a $10 million budget over the next three years, which would instantly make it one of the nations largest digital nonprofits focused on state or local news. RELATED: ProPublica hopes to apply its Pulitzer-winning formula to local news While a few foundations have provided support, 90 percent of the money has come from individuals, many giving more than $10,000 a year. And they are projected to make up a substantial majority of the new, $10 million campaign. CalMatters first-round donors bought the idea, they like the execution, and I dont have any indication theyre going to stop, says Coxe, CalMatters board chair, in an interview (Read excerpts of our conversation). Sign up for weekly emails from the United States Project CalMatters quick fundraising success has moved it into the ranks of more established state and local news nonprofits like MinnPost and Voice of San Diego, and its annual budget, now $2.2 million, soon may be surpassed only by Texas Tribune.All of these top-tier news organizations share an important trait: Theyve been turbo-charged by major individual contributions, both at launch and in the years following. There are more than 100 digital news nonprofits in the United States, and the vast majority are trying to diversify their revenue streams to become less reliant on these major gifts, as well as on foundations grants. But some leaders in this industry are simultaneously coming to believe that philanthropy, particularly individual giving, has room to grow. Perhaps a lot of room. Im getting a lot more calls from people who are philanthropic advisers, says Sue Cross, executive director and CEO of the Institute for Nonprofit News, the industrys primary trade group. She spoke last year to a philanthropy conference, and was struck by the fact that nonprofit news is still really new to most of them. My sense is that its still really early. The growth potential is there. There are more than 100 digital news nonprofits in the United States, and the vast majority are trying to diversify their revenue streams to become less reliant on these major gifts. Philanthropy in support of news reporting is nothing new. For decades it has been a driving force behind public radio and public television. At, NPR, 14 percent of its $213 million budget in 2016 came from grants and individual contributions. This is daunting competition for the new breed of digital startups. Andrew Wallmeyer, publisher of MinnPost, notes that Minnesota Public Radio has a membership of 130,000 and Minnesota Public Television has 95,000 members, against MinnPosts current roster of about 3,000 members. The Institute for Nonprofit News lists 127 members, ranging from state-based investigative reporting sites, to general news shops covering cities and/or states, to subject-matter organizations targeting topics like education or health. Recently, philanthropy has also moved into subsidy streams of for-profit enterprises. The Guardian and The New York Times, for example, have established philanthropic arms that aim to support their reporting or innovation efforts. RELATED: Project aims to deploy 1,000 new local reporters Yet many of the nonprofit startups have struggled over the last decade. Some have failed, and most have had trouble finding a business model that met their growth aspirations and reduced their dependence on foundation grants, which generally make up the largest chunk of their income. (A Knight Foundation study of 20 news nonprofits in 2015 found that 58 percent of their revenue came from foundations versus 19 percent from individual donations and membership.) That difficulty, then, is whats led to the enthusiastic response to the rise of the new patrons. CalMatters joined the nonprofit ranks in late 2014, its founders convinced that California was losing the journalistic firepower necessary to inform citizens about important state issues. David Lesher, CalMatters editor and CEO, said The Los Angeles Times, for example, has lost roughly two-thirds of its Sacramento-based staff in the last decade. The dramatic hollowing out of statewide coverage has profoundly changed the policy-making process, says Lesher. The whole process of making a case to the public has broken down. As is true for many nonprofits, CalMatters editorial staff of 16, with two more about to be hired, works with newspaper and broadcast outlets across the state to distribute its content. The coverage priorities are education, health, the environment, the economy, and the California legislature. Lesher said one of CalMatters early successes was a nine-month partnership with The Los Angeles Times and Capital Public Radio for an award-winning project on California pension debt. More recently it debuted a card-deck project on the high costs of California housing, employing reader engagement techniques from the Hearken platform and Solutions Journalism Network. An even bigger reporting project is unfolding: a two-year initiative exploring What Happened to the California Dream? with the states four largest public radio stations and Digital First newspapers. With its expanding budget, CalMatters is reinforcing its business side. Digital news veteran Marcia Parker signed on as publisher in early 2017, and the site recently hired a development director. A membership program will be rolled out this year, along with other initiatives aimed at diversifying its revenue. But Lesher is unapologetic about the enterprises reliance on charitable giving. Were still at the very beginning of a pretty big transition, he says of the convulsions hitting the news business. Philanthropy will at least be a bridge. One reason nonprofit news leaders are optimistic about the future is that they have barely begun to learn how to solicit big money. The journalists who often run these organizations are comfortable filling out requests for foundation grants. But many dont know how to ask people of wealth for money. News nonprofits have a powerful case to make to their communities, says Matt DeRienzo, executive director of the Local Independent Online News Publishers, a coalition of for-profit as well as nonprofit publishers. But making the ask is another thing, he says. They need training. In addition to worrying about how their startups bills can get paid, news nonprofits must reckon with multiple critiques about their philanthropy-dependent business model. Coxe is well aware of the criticisms, and had an early experience with one of the most prominent onesthat nonprofit journalism is too beholden to the people and institutions that fund it. My original idea was I could find five couples that cared enough about media and California to raise $5 million for the first three years, she says. Id put $1 million in and find four other couples that would each put in $1 million, and wed be done. But Coxe says Lesher objected, arguing a much broader funding base was necessary. So she altered her planalthough still contributing $1 million herselfand recruited a broader base of supporters. And in that process CalMatters also addressed another common criticism of nonprofits: that they often have a funding base tilted toward progressive donors. Coxe is a Democrat, but her co-founder, Chris Boskin, is a Republican who was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting board. Boskin was able to recruit a number of high-profile Republicans to the CalMatters cause. Two GOP former secretaries of state, Condoleezza Rice and George Shultz, as well as former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, also a Republican, are listed as giving between $10,000 and $50,000. Coxe and Lesher are adamant that none of their fundersthe site lists 60 as having given $10,000 or morehas any say in CalMatters journalistic decisions. On two other points, though, Coxe said CalMatters has work to do. Both the board and CalMatters staff are too white, she says. Seven of our nine reporters are white. We have to reflect the California population. I asked her about a recent paper by New York University Professor Rodney Benson, who argued that news nonprofits are unwisely catering to elite audiences, blowing a chance to serve underserved audiences. Right now, she says, CalMatters is focused on elite audiences, the influencers. Because if you are actually trying to get people to pay attention and create change in Sacramento, you first have to go to people who already care, who tend to be elite influencers. That will change as the news organization more richly develops its specialty topics, says Coxe. If you care about education, we should be going after every PTA member in the state, and thats a diverse audience. We should go after people who care about immigration, and thats a diverse audience. For the moment, though, Coxe is concentrating on raising that next $10 million, only $2 million of which has been secured (including her second $1 million gift). And she acknowledged the challenge that has tripped up so many nonprofits. Fundraising is relentless, she says. Ive never been on the line the way I am now. But also, there is huge joy and satisfaction in sitting down with somebody and explaining what were doing and having them respond with a big check People of means do care; the challenge is that everybody is after them. Editors Note: This article launches a series of stories that will run in CJR about the rise of local and state nonprofit news sites and their pursuit of individual philanthropy. It is funded by the University of Southern Californias Center on Communication Leadership and Policy, located at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Its director, Geoffrey Cowan, has been focusing on nonprofit news since 2008. RELATED: A nonprofit newsroom rescued its local newspaper. Now it wants to expand. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today David Westphal is a senior fellow at the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy at the University of Southern Californias Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He also is an adjunct instructor in the Studio 20 program at New York University. Previously, he was a longtime newspaper reporter and editor. The US presidential electionnow nearly one year agomarked a turning point for US media and the beginning of a what could be a dark new period for Facebook, which finds itself ensnared in a political morass that could tie its business in knots for years to come. Following reports that Russian government operatives used Facebook ads in an attempt to subvert the outcome of the election, the social network will appear before the Senate intelligence committee on November 1 (Google and Twitter are also part of the Senate hearing). ICYMI: Some WSJ staffers are probably unhappy right now Already, some members of Congress are arguing that Facebook and other digital platforms need to be more heavily regulated when it comes to political advertising. A proposed Senate bill would require internet companies like Facebook to provide information to the Federal Election Commission about who is buying political ads. Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Mark Warner of Virginia said in a statement the bill would prevent foreign actors from influencing our elections by ensuring that political ads sold online are covered by the same rules as ads on TV, radio, and satellite. Among the questions Congress will have to confront: How much of this is Facebooks fault? Did it knowingly permit Russian agents to influence American voters, or was it just an unfortunate outcome of how the network functions? Sign up for CJR 's daily email Clearly Facebook doesnt want to become the arbiter of whats true and whats not true, said Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. But they do have a civil responsibility to do the best they can to inform their users of when theyre being manipulated by a foreign actor. The challenge for Facebook is that it has never been much for transparency, especially the kind recommended by some critics of its Russian ad behavior. It has turned over the content of the Russian ads it ran to Congress, but some would like the company to go even further and release the information publicly, as well as telling anyone who was the target of those ads exactly how and when they were targeted. If that becomes a reality, Facebook could find itself forced to be a lot more transparent about the workings of its ad machinery than it has been, and it could be required to be a lot more hands on in monitoring what it runs and where. Facebook is caught in a classic Catch-22: It could argue that Russian ad buying didnt influence voters or users, but it already tells advertisers and political parties that the exact opposite is true, and that using Facebook can influence behavior. Even just disclosing who buys its ads would be a change of direction for Facebook. Broadcasters have had to keep records of who buys political advertising on their networks since 1938, and cable companies have also had to maintain records for some time. In 2012, the Federal Communications Commission started requiring that TV stations provide such information online, and it extended that requirement to radio and satellite-TV providers last year. The last time the Federal Election Commission ruled on Internet advertising, however, was more than a decade ago. The ruling required that individuals and political committees who bought online political ads had to disclose their spending, but it didnt say anything about disclosure by the websites or platforms running the ads. Federal law in the US makes it a crime for foreign entities to spend money in ways that might influence the outcome of an election, including advertising. But the use of digital platforms like Facebook and Google for such purposes remains largely unregulated. The principle at stake is that you cant have an opaque advertising machine built on surveillance capitalism that enables dark advertising and dark money to flow back and forthand can be leveraged by foreign or domestic actors to manipulate public understanding or outright spread misinformationwithout accountability, says Alex Howard of the Sunlight Foundation, which has been pushing for greater accountability from internet companies. They built a system where theyre making billions and billions of dollars at internet scale, but they didnt build in systems for transparency and accountability from the beginning, says Howard. They assumed great power without taking great responsibility. This controversy and the political machinations that stem from it threaten to complicate Facebooks future. The Russian ads in question are not the result of some kind of misunderstanding by regulators or critics of how the social network operates, nor are they the result of a software bug that produced unintended consequences. Instead, the ads are an example of the companys social machinery working exactly as it was meant to. The Russian ads in question are not the result of some kind of misunderstanding by regulators or critics of how the social network operates, nor are they the result of a software bug that produced unintended consequences. Instead, the ads are an example of the companys social machinery working exactly as it was meant to. That means Facebook may have to change the way it handles advertising on the network, or at the very least will have to pay much closer attention to who is buying ads and whyas well as disclosing some or all of that information to regulators and the public. As with Google, the fact that Facebooks ad engine is almost completely automated isnt just a nice feature, its a crucial part of how the machine functions. Without automation there would be no way for it to achieve the kind of scale necessary to reach more than two billion people a day. The downside of this kind of automation extends beyond just potential Russian involvementin several cases, Facebook has accepted advertising that was directed at offensive categories such as Jew haters. The social network has apologized, and said it will add more human oversight to prevent such occurrences in the future. In a statement earlier this month, the company said an estimated 10 million people in the US saw the ads in question, and that about half the impressions or ad views came before the election. (Facebook also pointed out that about 25 percent of the ads were never shown to anyone because they didnt meet the platforms test for relevance.) Jonathan Albright of Columbias Tow Center, however, found that just six of the 470 fake account pages reached as many as 340 million people, drawing more than 19 million likes, shares, and comments. (In a classic Facebook move, the company has since removed the data Albright used, calling it a bug that it was publicly available in the first place.) The company said it reviews millions of ads each week, and about eight million people report ads for one reason or another every day. But it said it has increased the number of employees reviewing ads, and that it is committed to making advertising more transparent and increasing requirements for authenticity. Its not clear how the company will determine authenticity. ICYMI: CNN airs problematic gun photo Facebook has also said it will add disclaimers to any future political ads. But its not clear whether this will apply only to traditional banner ads, or whether it will cover promoted posts and other forms of social advertising, which make up a significant chunk of Facebooks business. The fact almost anything on the social network can function as an ad, whether its a photo or a video or a simple text post, is a crucial element of Facebooks DNA, and of its business model. Restricting any disclosure or targeting requirements to just traditional ads would mean ignoring a large part of the problem, but expanding the definition could mean requiring Facebook to factor in the political repercussions of literally every piece of content on the network. Facebook is caught in a classic Catch-22: It could argue that Russian ad buying didnt influence voters or users, but it already tells advertisers and political parties that the exact opposite is true, and that using Facebook can influence behavior. Facebook has also confessed that even if it tightens up its controls, there will always be room for people to use the network for nefarious purposes or to spread disinformation. Even when we have taken all steps to control abuse, there will be political and social content that will appear on our platform that people will find objectionable, VP of communications Elliot Schrage said in a recent Facebook post. We permit these messages because we share the values of free speechthat when the right to speech is censored or restricted for any of us, it diminishes the rights to speech for all of us. An often-repeated criticism of Facebook is that the company is far too secretive about its operations, and fights every attempt to get it to release any information about how the algorithm functions or the outcome of its behavior. The Senate committees interest has forced Facebook to break down some of these walls, but if the bill proposed by Klobuchar and Warner goes ahead, the social network could be forced to do much moreand these requirements could cover not just traditional ads but promoted posts and other forms of advertising. And in the process, the workings of Facebooks ad machine could be dragged out of the darkness and into the light. Its critics may cheer if that happens, but Facebook itself is unlikely to be quite as enthusiastic. Google and Twitter also face scrutiny While most of the attention has focused on Facebook when it comes to running Russia-linked ads designed to influence the 2016 election, Google and Twitter are also under the microscope for doing something similar, which reinforces the point that this isnt a problem related specifically to Facebook, but one connected to something much broader about how internet platforms behave, and the way advertising and media work now. In early September, when Facebook was starting to draw attention for links to Russian election-meddling, Google said it hadnt found any sign of similar untoward advertising campaigns on its platforms. Were always monitoring for abuse or violations of our policies and weve seen no evidence this type of ad campaign was run on our platforms, the company said in a statement to Reuters. A little over a month later, the company was telling a different story. Although it hasnt confirmed the reports publicly, sources told The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Reuters that Google had come across signs of advertising buys that appeared to be part of a Russia-backed misinformation campaign involving the electionalthough the ads dont appear to be from the Internet Research Agency, the troll factory behind the Facebook campaign. The campaign on Google represented less than $100,000 worth of advertising. A total of about $5,000 worth of search ads and display ads were bought by accounts believed to be connected to the Russian government, according to The New York Times, while a further $53,000 or so were bought by accounts with Russian Internet addresses or with Russian currency. Its not clear whether these were related to Russian government entities. Google has a policy that prevents targeting of ads based on race and religion. Google doesnt offer advertisers the same kind of granular targeting that Facebook does, in which individuals can be selected to receive a specific message based on their political views and other information. The company also has a policy that prevents targeting of ads based on race and religion. Ironically, Google found the Russian-linked ad buying by using data from Twitter, a source told The Washington Post. As with Facebook, the fact that Russian government entities and other agents were able to buy and distribute ads and other information on Google and Twitter is not a bug or a flaw in the system but an example of it working exactly as intended. All three companies have built more or less automated advertising networks that allow companies and individuals to buy ads with virtually zero human input. Twitter has been a bit more forthcoming with information than Google, but its efforts havent been universally well-received. The company told members of the Senate intelligence committee in a closed-door hearing in September that it had found and shut down about 200 accounts associated with the Internet Research Agency, and it said Russian news site RTwhich many believe is tied to the governmentspent about $275,000 on Twitter ads in 2016. One of the top-ranking Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee wasnt impressed by Twitters efforts, however. Mark Warner said that the companys presentation was inadequate and deeply disappointing, primarily because Twitter only searched its databases for information related to the accounts that Facebook had already identified. Not only that, but some of the data that Twitter relied on has since been deleted as a result of the companys privacy policies around retention of information, according to security analysts. That could complicate the Senate and House investigations into how these platforms were used by Russian agents to try and influence the election. Twitter said last week that it has banned Russia Today and Sputnik from buying Twitter ads, since both news outlets have been linked to the Kremlin. But even that step doesnt go far enough, some believe, because it doesnt address the use of bots or automated accounts which try to influence users through regular Twitter behavior rather than advertising. According to research from the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a public-policy group in Washington, more than 600 Twitter accountsrun by both human users and suspected bots or automated accountshave been linked to what appear to be Russian attempts to influence voter behavior around the election. Other research has also shown signs of a bot army that was mobilized by foreign agents during the election. In a blog post in June, a senior Twitter executive said that the company believes that the networks open and real-time nature is a powerful antidote to the spreading of all types of false information. This is important, he said, because we cannot distinguish whether every single Tweet from every person is truthful or not. We, as a company, should not be the arbiter of truth. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made similar comments when pressed about the companys responsibility for stopping fake news and other forms of misinformation. ICYMI: Prominent journalists accused of sexual misconduct 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. Simone Coxe is co-founder, board chair and chief fundraiser for CalMatters. She was interviewed by David Westphal, senior fellow at USCs Center for Communication Leadership and Policy. These excerpts were edited for length and clarity. What has been your experience in trying to persuade people of means to invest in a news nonprofit? It wasnt that hard, once they agreed to take a meeting. They either cared about trust, or the state of California, or an issue in California. The first year we were selling an idea. And our friends, my friends and Chris (co-founder Chris Boskin) friends, were really investing in us. Now, theyre investing in something real. Do you think the robust individual philanthropy youve achieved for CalMatters can be sustained or increased? Sign up for weekly emails from the United States Project Yes, I do. Of the people giving us $10,000 a year or $25,000 a year, were getting something like a 98 percent renewal rate. And what about diversifying your revenue stream with earned income? In addition to membership, well also look at corporate revenue, at distribution revenue. We assume maybe 12 percent (of the $10 million fund-raising goal) will come from earned revenue, so thats a little over a million. Which means (in addition to renewals), we have another $4.8 million or so to raise philanthropically. I hope half of that is foundations and the other half will be new money from individuals. Youve had more than two years of results. Are you satisfied with CalMatters progress? Is it working? Yes. Its a beginning. We have anecdotal evidence that weve got legislators behaving differently, citizens are being informed and engaged in ways that they werent before, and theres more dialogue about the issues because of the stuff that were doing. Its a huge challenge trying to make policy relevant to real people, really engaging them. But its just two years in and, yes, Im satisfied. Sometimes news subjects are unhappy with coverage and put pressure on the news organization or its funders, or sometimes funders want influence over news coverage. What has been your experience about these potential conflicts? Theres one story we wrote where we needed to say that two of our funders were involved in an educational issue we were writing about. And so we identified the funders, and there was no pushback on the story or on being named, so that was pretty simple. Certainly, some of our funders will call and say Ive got this great thing and I really think you should cover it. They call me and I send it on to Dave (Lesher) and I have no idea what he does with it. Theres never been an expectation of pay-to-play. What advice would you give to someone like you who might be interested in setting up a news nonprofit? I called Dick Tofel (president of ProPublica and a member of the CalMatters advisory board) and asked for his advice. He said, youre already there. You need a plan, you need money and you need a leader. Well, I could do the plan, Dave could be the leader, and I could raise the money. You need to ask: Is your plan reasonable? And you have to be realistic about whether you can get the money. Do you see any other news nonprofit you want to be like someday? I think the Texas Tribune we have to look at. Theyre doing state, and theyre sustainable, with 50 percent earned income. We dont want to be exactly like them. But they have great experience we want to learn from. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today David Westphal is a senior fellow at the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy at the University of Southern Californias Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He also is an adjunct instructor in the Studio 20 program at New York University. Previously, he was a longtime newspaper reporter and editor. The popular and opaque social media app WeChat has been largely overlooked as a culprit in spreading misinformation during and after the 2016 election season. Anti-Hillary memes and conspiracy theories about sharia law found their way onto the mobile messaging platform, which serves the growing number of Chinese immigrants in the United States. With 889 million monthly active users, WeChat has more than triple the user base of Snapchat and half that of Facebook. It is the social media platform of choice in mainland China, used for everything from social networking and messaging to takeout orders and personal finance. In the US, it emerged as a primary avenue for pro-Trump sentiments and mobilization, especially for first-generation Chinese immigrants. Partisan news outlets native to WeChat sprung up during the 2016 election, and continue to this day. They still actively stoke right-wing sentiment, with recent headlines such as Liberal media threatens to violently destroy Mount Rushmore, George Soros backed the violence in Charlottesville, and Illegal Immigrant Started Wildfire in Sonoma County. ICYMI: Some WSJ staffers are probably unhappy right now Like the English media world, WeChat is characterized by a dazzling array of content generators and the potential for polarization. A huge number of organizations post to WeChat, but there is little to no information available identifying the influential playersthe Politicos and the Breitbarts of the platform. With support from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, my team at the University of Southern California is collaborating with The Alhambra Source and Asian American Advancing Justice to assess the nature of bias and misinformation in WeChat and ethnic Chinese media and to explore strategies for intervention. With features reminiscent of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter, WeChat combines the intimacy of mobile messaging and small-group interactions with the capacity for viral dissemination. But WeChat is notoriously opaque. This hybrid platform provides no API, which restricts analysis of its content and user behavior. This is not uncommon: Weibo, the microblogging site whose popularity was eclipsed by Wechat, restricted its API a few years ago. For these companies, data is not only something to be monetized, but also coveted information ultimately under control of Chinese authorities. Many information outlets, known as Official Accounts (OAs), are native to WeChat. OAs are in-platform, content-based accounts that anyone can start, and they vary greatly in their activity level and size of operation. Think of NowThis, or political blogs that only exist within a social platform rather than on the open web. News content on OAs can be original but are often repackaged from other media sources. For example, in the screenshot to the right, the article covering the recent free speech rally in Boston sourced from venues such as ABC, Facebook, and WBUR, Bostons local NPR station. Sign up for CJR 's daily email By the last official count in April 2017, there were 10 million OAs in WeChat. There is a low barrier to entry, and becoming an OA grants access to the vast user base to focus on niche audiences. Most metropolitan areas in the US with an established immigrant Chinese population have their own OAs specializing in local news and consumer information. Some draw a decidedly pro-Trump crowd. ICYMI: Its a story that I think can potentially save peoples lives Unlike Twitter and Facebook, WeChat does not have hashtags or trending topics. OAs generate and dispatch content to their subscribers, and subsequent dissemination happens when users share content within chat groups and Moments, WeChats news feedlike feature. These are private or semi-private networks. Chat groups range from smaller, more intimate groups formed with family members, friends, and colleagues, to groups organized around common interest, issue, or locality, where membership is subject to approval by the administrator. What you share on Moments can only be seen by your friends; there is no option to make posts publicly visible. All discussion about the news content takes place within the bounds of private and semi-private networks. Information cascades through networks of friends and acquaintances, rather than across a (theoretically) open, connected public sphere. Users cannot reply to or tag OA accounts, or others who are not part of her existing network. Although some OAs enable reader comments, which comments get displayed are entirely at the discretion of the OA. Content on WeChat is also primarily curated by the individual user and his or her social network. This means that WeChat cannot effectively tweak platform design to prevent the spread of misinformation or the presence of filter bubbles. While Facebook might alter its algorithm to bring more varied content to users, such changes are not applicable to WeChat. Neither are bots a problem on WeChat. Official attempts at containing fake news on WeChat could easily slip into the territory of censorship. WeChat has long invested in efforts to detect and remove fake news, including a feature for users to report false information and tools that automatically detect keywords to remove associated content. However, within the purview of WeChats fake news filter are not only banal rumors such as padded bras cause cancer, but also politically undesirable content. Given the lack of API access and private nature of the platform design, we know how many times an article has been viewed, and that is about it. WeChat does not even reveal follower numbers to anyone besides the owners of OAs. More insightful questions about network structure and information flowwho has viewed the article and through what pathways the article ended up travelingcannot be grasped by computational tools. Traditional methods such as user surveys and digital ethnography could be key to piercing the veil of WeChats news ecosystem and lending clues to potential intervention strategies. This is why we are partnering with local media and organizations that have strong ties with the community to explore the issue and formulate solutions together. The case of WeChat also reminds us that when it comes confronting the reality of social media and spread of fake news, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and that strategies need not always be high tech. ICYMI: For Facebook, the political reckoning has begun Correction: This piece has been updated to reflect the fact that in May 2017 WeChat introduced a search function. Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Chi Zhang is a fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism and a doctoral candidate at the University of Southern Californias Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The head of Japanese automaker Subaru bowed deeply in apology Friday as the company admitted that it has been carrying out flawed inspections of its Japan-made cars for years. The announcement by Subarus chief executive and president, Yasuyuki Yoshinaga, was the latest in a flurry of such scandals. Earlier this month Nissan Motor Co. recalled more than 1 million domestically made cars because of faulty routine tests. Subaru will submit a report on the problem to the government on Monday, Yoshinaga told reporters. He said a domestic recall is likely, spanning the entire Subaru lineup totaling 255,000 vehicles. We are truly sorry, and we apologize, Yoshinaga said, after bowing deeply. We all wanted to do the tests properly. The government ordered automakers to check their inspection procedures after Nissan apologized for allowing unauthorized employees to do final vehicle checks for years. The scandals have stunned the public and cast a shadow over this nations prized image for monozukuri or craftsman-like production, reputed for high quality and meticulousness. Yoshinaga said the faulty inspections for Subarus finished products had been going on for 30 years. The workers involved did not fully realize their method was wrong, and a thorough review of the entire inspection system is needed, he said. Workers who didnt have enough experience to do checks borrowed Japanese hanko seals from authorized employees and stamped documents to show vehicles had passed the tests, according to the company. The recalls are expected to cost 5 billion yen ($44 million), it said. Subaru, formerly called Fuji Heavy Industries, is partnered with Toyota Motor Corp., a top shareholder. Toyota and Honda Motor Co. have said they did not have dubious inspections. Toyota said it was checking with Subaru on the reported irregularities. Nissan is recalling more than a million vehicles in Japan to re-inspect them, and has set up an investigative team that includes a third party to get to the bottom of the scandal and prevent a recurrence. The problem does not affect Nissan vehicles sold outside Japan and is not believed to have affected vehicle safety as they were final-stage checks. But the scandal raises serious questions about ethics and professionalism at Nissan, which makes the Leaf electric car and Infiniti luxury models, and is allied with Renault SA of France and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. of Japan. Reporters peppered Subarus Yoshinaga with questions about why it took so long after the Nissan scandal for Subaru to come forward. I always wanted to make my company a great company, and I now know we had not done enough, he said. I am so ashamed that my company has become a cause for tarnishing Japanese monozukuri. The auto industry has been hit by a series of scandals. Nissan took a controlling stake in Mitsubishi Motors last year after that company was caught inflating fuel economy figures for its minicar models, which are also sold under the Nissan brand. Japanese supplier Kobe Steel acknowledged recently it had systematically falsified data on its products, including steel, aluminum, copper and other materials, affecting some 500 companies including major global automakers, as well as the aircraft, electronics and railway industries. Volkswagen AG of Germany acknowledged in 2015 that it had equipped its diesel cars with illegal software that enabled cheating on U.S. emissions tests. Volkswagen has agreed to more than $20 billion in fines and civil settlements over the scandal. Airbag maker Takata Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection after some 100 million airbag inflators were recalled worldwide. The defect has been linked to 19 deaths and dozens of injuries. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. In a lawsuit brought by the Illinois city of Park Ridge against its liability insurer, involving the defense of alleged wrongs of city employees, the Appellate Court of Illinois refused to recognize emergency medical services as the citys work under a standard Products-Completed Operations Hazard coverage provision of the citys liability insurance policy, issued by Clarendon American Insurance Company. The decision, filed October 18, 2017, is City of Park Ridge v. Clarendon American Insurance Company. It is reported at 2017 Ill. App. LEXIS 656. The insurance coverage dispute arose from cases involving two sets of plaintiffs who sued Park Ridge based on separate occurrences, thus triggering the policy limits of $2 million for each occurrence. The question presented to the court was whether the Clarendon policy called for imposition, as well, of the policys $2 million aggregate limit for the combination of coverages for personal injury liability, products-completed operations hazard and public officials errors and omissions. The court decided that it did not, since the events did not bring any of the claims within the reach of the products-completed operations hazard coverage of the Clarendon policy. The relevant events were alleged in lawsuits based on two separate occurrences. In the first Marzena Sassak and Gregory Gorman sued the city in federal court after a confrontational traffic stop ended in personal injury, as defined in the policy. After a subsequent, but related, action was filed by the Gormans on behalf of their minor child, Gregory Gorman settled his case for more than $600,000, the first $250,000 of which was paid by Park Ridge because it had a self-insured retention in that sum. The remainder was paid by Clarendon. In the second lawsuit, Park Ridge paramedics were alleged to have failed to provide any medical treatment whatsoever to a 15-year-old boy whose father summoned paramedics when the child was found to be unresponsive in the early morning hours. Sometime later, the paramedics were summoned again, when the boy was unresponsive and blue. He was pronounced dead at the hospital due to a drug overdose. The boys mother, Jo Ann Abruzzo, filed survival and wrongful death actions based on the boys death, which was dismissed but then reinstated by the Illinois Supreme Court. A jury returned a verdict of $5,187,500 against the city, which was affirmed on appeal by the Appellate Court of Illinois. The Appellate Court found that the evidence established a complete lack of any assessment, diagnosis, treatment or exercise of professional judgment by the responding emergency medical technicians or paramedics. Faced with the large verdict, Clarendon resisted Park Ridges efforts to settle the drug overdose case by seeking to apply the monies paid in the Gorman matters to a $2 million aggregate limit in its policy with the city. Park Ridge and its excess insurer settled the Gorman matters, but reserved the matter of Clarendons responsibility for the cases afterwards. Park Ridge contended that Clarendon was obligated to pay its $2 million occurrence limit in the Abruzzo case, because the facts of that case took it out of the aggregate limit the policy provided for the combination of claims for personal injury, public officials errors and omissions, and products-completed operations hazard. For its part, Clarendon argued that the money it had paid in the Gorman matters was a credit against the $2 million aggregate limit under the policy. To justify its position, Clarendon attempted to convince the court that the citys liability in the Abruzzo case triggered the products-completed operations hazard of the policy, arguing that the citys work on the Abruzzo child had been completed when the paramedics first left the residence. It was on this basis that the trial court held that the aggregate coverage [limit] applied, said the court. Reversing the trial court ruling, the Appellate Court said that the trial court plainly ignored the language in the policy that directly covered the paramedics failure to provide any treatment [to the Abruzzo child]. Specifically, the Clarendon policy coverage that applied to the Abruzzo case was not subject to the aggregate limit, so Clarendon was obligated to pay up to $2 million, per occurrence, for incidental medical malpractice which should have been rendered by any duly qualified medical practitioner, nurse or technician employed by the Insured. (Emphasis in the original.) The Appellate Court concluded its discussion by pointing out that even if it were to attempt to apply the products-completed operations hazard coverage to the circumstances of the Abruzzo case, it must construe the terms of the policy in favor of the insured city, and that coverage historically and generally applies to construction activities, maintenance and related trades, not to professional services such as those rendered by EMTs or paramedics. For example, in American Red Cross v. Travelers indemnity Co. of Rhode Island, 816 F. Supp. 755 (D.D.C. 1993), the District Court held that HIV-contaminated blood claims did not fall within the scope of the completed operations hazard provision of the insurance policy, and thus, the aggregate limit of the provision was inapplicable to the claim because each act of distribution constituted a separate occurrence under the policy. Likewise, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals observed in Hydro Systems, Inc. v. Continental Insurance Co., 929 F.2d 472, 477 (9th Cir. 1991) that products-completed operations hazard exclusions generally arise after completion of work by the insured on construction or service contracts. The Appellate Court found the case law precedent so persuasive, and the products-completed operations hazard coverage provision of the policy so clear as to have everything to do with construction operations undertaken by the city of Park Ridge nothing to do with the failure of treatment and transport by the citys EMTs and paramedics. Accordingly, it ordered the case remanded and the entry of summary judgment for Park Ridge and its excess insurer. The former mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma, is suing an insurance company and broker because she says the $4 million she received for a lost blue diamond ring isnt enough. The Tulsa World reports that Kathy Taylors federal lawsuit filed in Tulsa seeks more than $75,000. It alleges AIG Property Casualty Co. paid $4 million for loss of the ring her husband gave her, but hasnt covered the rings full value. The insurance broker, Integro USA Inc., filed a motion to dismiss the case in which it says Taylor and her husband rejected a policy that would have covered any increase in the rings value. Neither Taylor nor attorneys for the companies returned the newspapers phone calls seeking comment. Taylor lost the 5-carat blue diamond ring in California wine country, according to the lawsuit. While attending a cooking class, (Taylor) went to wash her hands, her petition states. She removed her ring and did not realize that she had forgotten to put it back on her finger, it says. Taylor sent an email to the Meadowood Napa Valley resort staff on Nov. 6 that says she believes someone took the ring after she removed it from her finger during the cooking class. When I returned to my room and began getting ready for croquet and went to put on my jewelry I immediately realized I had left the ring, the email says. Integro alleges in its motion to dismiss the lawsuit that Taylors negligence claim cherry-picks from and ignores the indisputable documents received or authored by Taylor that undercut her claim. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. They had to find new words. In advance of Hurricane Harveys landfall, the meteorologists at the National Weather Service in League City, Texas, felt they needed to break from the usual language they use to communicate the dangers of the storm and the rain it would bring. The Galveston County Daily News reports they settled on a handful of words. Catastrophic. Epic. Unprecedented. There was a lot of thinking on how to communicate all that, said Dan Reilly, the warning coordination meteorologist at the League City office. We wanted to communicate that this was going to be a big deal. We were pulling from the dictionary. View from FEMAs Urban Search and Rescue Virginia Task Force Two (VA-TF2) searching neigborhoods inside Houston for survivors after flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey Meteorologists arent normally thought of as first responders. But as Harvey bore down on the Texas Coast, and then meandered northeast over Houston and Beaumont, the dozen or so meteorologists that work out of the second-floor office in the Galveston County Emergency Management office building found themselves literally in the middle of the epic storm. The weather service provides forecasts for a 23-county area in Texas, including some of the worst-hit areas of the state, including Brazoria, Harris, Galveston and Chambers counties. The service has operated out of the office on FM 646 since 2005, but there has been a weather bureau in the Houston-Galveston area since as far back as 1881. In all that time, there has never been quite a storm like Harvey, which set new rainfall records at 31 of the 46 gauges the weather services monitors. Starting Aug. 24, the meteorologists were put on 12-hour shifts. By Aug. 25, the day before Harvey made landfall in Rockport, staff members were told to start being prepared to be trapped inside the office. We knew what we were going up against, said Jeff Evans, the meteorologist in charge of the office. I was messaging the staff to bring changes of clothes, bring food in case we were going to get stuck here. They kept on those shifts for nearly a week. One of the primary jobs of the office was keeping local officials updated on the movements of the storm and producing updated detailed forecasts three times a day. The office also monitored their social media account, (at)NWSHouston, which started to be inundated with requests for help as the heaviest rains fell Saturday night. People who had not been able to reach 911 had turned to Twitter to ask for rescue. We were starting to get chats around midnight that people were having to go their attics for safety, Evans said. Thats when it hit home that people were probably dying. Most of the forecasters live with 8 miles of the office, where more than 4 feet of rain fell during the storm. Their homes were threatened, and while they were providing the world with updates about the system, their families were calling to provide them with updates about creeping floodwaters. There was very personal stake for a lot of us, Reilly said. His mother-in-law lives along Marys Creek in Friendswood, where some of the heaviest rains fell. Loved ones, friends were worried about their own personal safety. Thats not something we deal with every day. There were two people in the office when the heaviest rain started, but others found their way into the office in the following days. There were plans in place to ask the weather service office in Tallahassee, Florida, to assist with forecasting, but they never needed to be called upon. Life in the weather center got cramped and crowded. Staff members tried to sleep when and where they could, but even finding a comfortable spot presented challenges. The storage room that had been converted into a bunk room has a motion sensor light, for instance, meaning any tossing and turning brought a fluorescent flash. The meteorologists who were off-duty had to learn how to turn themselves off, Evans said, and to ignore the instinct of checking the news and latest forecasts, which were available just steps away. The cramped quarters did create a sense of closeness in the group. That was helpful for meteorologist Katie Magee, whose first day at the office was on the Monday before the hurricane made landfall. I was literally trying to learn peoples names, she said. Magee couldnt get to her home for six days. The offices work didnt end when the rain stopped and the floodwaters receded. Teams of forecasters went out into flood-ravaged communities to collect data and complete post-storm reports. For some of the forecasters, it was the first time they were able to appreciate the full scope of the damage. There was one point when we went through a neighborhood, and it looked like a river had wiped through the first floor of everyones homes, said meteorologist Nikki Hathaway. Things were everywhere; there was an older lady just picking things up in her front yard. It was the first time I actually cried. In the weeks that followed, counselors came to the office to make sure the group was able to process the stress and trauma they had gone through. We all had Harvey in our dreams for weeks, Evans said. We had to be able to process it individually. It was a tough thing for a lot of folks. Evans said the forecasters all of them self-professed weather geeks gained a new appreciation of natures power, and were proud of the work they did during the storm. We count the people we lose, but we cant count the number of people we saved, he said. Its an immeasurable number, but its the one were most proud of. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. In the three years that Springfield police officer Mike Massey has been a motorcycle traffic enforcement officer, hes seen it all when it comes to cellphone use and driving. In addition to witnessing drivers talking or texting on their cellphones while driving, hes seen them writing Facebook comments, using Snapchat to take selfies even watching pornography. Massey has pulled over such drivers, lectured them and sometimes written them up for it. But the 2017 Legislature passed House Bill 2597 this past summer, which broadened and clarified what constitutes distracted driving and increased the penalties for it. Before the law went into effect Oct. 1, drivers already were not permitted to text or call from a cellphone while driving. But the new law is a virtual hands-off policy when it comes to cellphone use now, making it illegal to hold or touch a cellphone for any reason, including listening to music or using apps for navigation. That thing is hot lava now. Dont touch it, Massey said. I dont care what youre doing with it. I dont care if youre scratching your face with it. You cant do it. Hands-free cellphone use still is permitted. Cell phones cradled in a dashboard mount are considered hands-free and are acceptable, but only if the functions in use require just a single touch or swipe to activate or deactivate. Planning to make a quick call or answer a text at a red light? That, too, is illegal. The car must be safely parked before a cellphone can legally be used. The first violation of the new cellphone law is a $260 fine; a second violation or if the first violation involves a wreck is a $435 fine. A conviction for a third offense can result in six months in jail or up to a $2,500 fine. Drivers younger than age 18 cannot use any device while driving, even if its hands-free. Im glad they changed the law because Ive heard all the excuses, Massey said.I was changing my music. I was checking my clock. Im tired of the excuses; you were using your phone. Period. Massey, who has been with Springfield police for 13 years, has been working in a team of three on traffic enforcement for the past three years. Officers Tom Speldrich and Matt Bohman also work the motorcycle patrol. Massey and Speldrich were working one recent morning on Main Street and then on Gateway Street, stopping drivers spotted with a phone in hand. We could literally write tickets all day long. But weve seen an improvement since the law went into effect, Massey said. Im sure once the surprise and newness wears off, people will go back to using them. Some people have upgraded to hands-free devices but then, there are people who still do it, Massey added. Theyre still holding their phones, holding them down real low to hold them out of the way, thinking theyre real sneaky. Massey shared some of his tricks for how he spots the drivers who think theyre being too sneaky to catch. If I see one hand up on the wheel. wheres the other hand? Thats my first thing; find the other hand, Massey said. The motorcycle officers also observe drivers from places that have a little elevation, he said, to give them a good vantage point for seeing into someones car. When he spots a violator, he pulls them over. But not everyone is issued a ticket. The man watching porn earlier this month on his lunch hour while driving, for instance, was stopped at a red light, with the sound of the graphic material he was watching audible through the cars bluetooth speaker system. While using your phone at a red light is still considered illegal under the new law, I figured that was a good enough embarrassment and education opportunity. So, he didnt give the man a ticket. Massey recalled a male driver recently who was taking a selfie only to realize when he checked the photo afterward that the officer was photographed in the background, riding alongside him and watching what he was doing. Hes also seen drivers with their iPads wedged up in the windshield, watching a movie while they are driving. During a recent shift, a number of people were pulled over for illegal cellphone use, but most received a warning. I was talking on my phone, Gwen Moede, 20, of Medford readily admitted when she was stopped in her Mini Cooper outside the Gateway post office. Im not from here, so I was calling my friend to ask how to get to her apartment. Moede said she does not have Bluetooth connection in her car and likely wont get a hands-free device, because she seldom speaks on her phone in the car. I used to text and drive all the time, but I just stopped because I didnt want anything bad to happen. So I stopped, myself. I dont do it anymore, she said. Massey, she added, could have given me a ticket, but he was really nice and told me I shouldnt use it, obviously. Massey then gave her directions to her friends apartment. Jim Gimarelli also was stopped on Gateway Street. He was more than forthcoming with Massey. My fault, my fault, he said with his hands in the air. I shouldnt have done it. I was talking on my phone. Gimarelli said he was on his lunch break from his job as the dental director of Pacific Source when he answered a work-related phone call. He said he has a Bluetooth system in his car, but he doesnt believe his phone -an older-style flip phone would connect to it. Now, he says, hell look into it and wont talk on his cellphone again while driving. Gimarelli also was let go with just a warning. But not everyone is as forthcoming. Jodie Bloxham, 35, of Fall Creek was pulled over on Main Street after Massey said he spotted her holding her phone and touching it repeatedly with her finger. Bloxham at first denied that she was using her phone. But after Massey spotted it on the floorboard, she admitted she was, but said it was just to check the time. However, a clock was visible in her dashboard. I didnt know about the cellphone law, she finally admitted. I was running late to my appointment, and I was just looking at the time. Before, when he worked as a detective, Massey said he could regularly get criminals to confess to felonies. But in this position, he said, hes dealing with people who arent necessarily accustomed to having their daily habits corrected, and their automatic instinct is to deny any wrongdoing, perhaps because they are uncomfortable. Ive seen people launch their phones out of their cars, catapult them somewhere else inside the car, Massey said. Ive had people tell me they werent on their phones; they dont even have their phones with them. Thats when I get dispatch to call them, and sure enough its ringing inside the car. Massey said hes most bothered about people lying to his face about their cellphone use when children are in the car. Oh, I tell them, You just put me in a really awkward position cause youre lying to police in front of your kids,? Massey said. Now that the new law is in effect, Massey said Springfield police are treating everyone as if they have a clean slate, meaning that if a driver had two previous distracted driving tickets for cellphone use before Oct. 1, those do not count in the tally of three tickets equal possible jail time. Just dont do it, Massey said. Theres no excuse for it. They havent invented an app to drive your car yet. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, gestures as he attends a session of the Upper House of Parliament in Madrid on October 27, 2017. "Markets deem it unlikely that Catalonia will go full rogue and try to engineer some kind of hard break from Spain. After all, they don't have the support of government structure to do that," he told CNBC via email on Monday. Claus Vistesen, chief euro zone economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, believes that Catalonia's inability to push through with independence is a key reason for the optimism. Relatively sanguine stock markets around the world, despite a fierce constitutional crisis raging in Spain, has left analysts contemplating why investor sentiment hasn't been hit by Catalonia's quest for independence. Spanish stocks rose 1.7 percent Monday morning despite the political unrest in Catalonia . Spain's IBEX is only down by 0.7 percent since the independence referendum that took place on October 1 and it is up by 9 percent year-to-date. Other European bourses have been unaffected too. On Friday, the Spanish region of Catalonia declared independence from Madrid while the national government imposed direct rule over the regional government and called for fresh elections. Spanish shares dipped on the news and 10-year government bond yields hit a session high. However, markets soon stabilized and Philippe Gijsels, chief strategist at BNP Paribas Fortis, believes that cheap money in Europe, thanks to the European Central Bank's (ECB) quantitative easing program, is also making investors calm. "The worse it gets geopolitically, the easier monetary policy will be," he said, meaning that if the political situation worsens, the ECB will step in if necessary to protect the economic recovery in the region. Furthermore, investors are also confident on the Spanish economy, which has been one of the strongest performers in the euro area since the recession. Data released Monday morning showed Spain's economy grew at a pace of 0.8 percent in the third quarter of this year, slightly lower than the 0.9 percent gross domestic product seen in the previous quarter. Spain is nonetheless expected to grow at about 2.8 percent this year, according to forecasts by the European Commission. "The easy monetary policy and a general cyclical revival have a lot to do with this relative indifference. If the economy was slowing, it would be a bigger deal I think," Vistesen added. Dutch paints and coatings maker Akzo Nobel , under pressure after rejecting a lucrative takeover offer and then issuing two profit warnings, said it was in merger talks with U.S. rival Axalta Coating Systems Ltd that could create a $30 billion company. Akzo, the maker of Dulux paint, announced it was in "constructive talks" following market speculation about a possible deal. Reuters reported on Friday the companies were in talks, sending Axalta's shares 17 percent higher. Akzo has a market capitalization of 19.5 billion euros ($22.7 billion), while Axalta is worth $8.1 billion at Friday's closing price of $33.15. Akzo said merging with Axalta, whose truck coatings business fills a hole in its portfolio, would "create a leading global paints and coatings company." Akzo earlier this year faced lawsuits from shareholders angry over its decision to reject a 26 billion euro takeover offer from U.S. rival PPG Industries. Shares of Apple jumped Monday to an all-time high on speculation of strong demand for the iPhone X, which the company began taking preorders for on Friday. A deluge of orders for the company's new luxury phone has already pushed shipment times into December, according to analyst reports from both Drexel Hamilton and Nomura. "We are encouraged that shipping lead times have held steady at 5-6 weeks because these pre-orders can be recognized as shipments in the December quarter," wrote Drexel Hamilton analyst Brian White on Monday. "Apple is taking the iPhone franchise to a whole new level with the iPhone X, pushing the company deep into the ultra-luxury smartphone market." Apple shares were 2.1 percent higher on Monday and posted their first intraday record since Sept. 1. Apple told CNBC on Friday that "We can see from the initial response, customer demand is off the charts. We're working hard to get this revolutionary new product into the hands of every customer who wants one, as quickly as possible." While the iPhone X is set for release on Nov. 3, Apple allowed customers to preorder phones starting Friday. While swells of preorders usually result in longer shipment times, analysts are finding that demand for the iPhone X is exceptional. "We observed shipment times for the iPhone X tick up to 5-6 weeks within minutes of Apple opening pre-orders, where they have held over the weekend," wrote Nomura analyst Jeffrey Kvaal in a note to clients. "This is ahead of the 2-3 weeks during the iPhone 7 Plus launch and the 2-4 weeks during the iPhone 6 and 6s launch." It appears preorder demand is so strong that Apple has directed its Taiwanese suppliers to double capacity in anticipation, according to a FactSet translation of a report in China's Economic Daily News. IPhone assembler and supplier Hon Hai Precision Industry also known as Foxconn was up 1.7 percent in local trading. Digital currencies issued by central banks will make transactions more efficient while cryptocurrencies serve as a vehicle for illicit activity, economist Barry Eichengreen told CNBC Monday. Asked whether he thought cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether would play a major role in the economy, he said: "Not really." "I think there is a role for central bank-issued digital currencies which are a very different thing than crypto, anonymous currencies," he said. "The first alternative central bank digital currencies will make transactions more efficient. The second one is a vehicle for money laundering, tax evasion and the like." Cryptocurrencies have come under fire from a number of economists, regulators and banking executives in recent weeks. Harvard economist Kenneth Rogoff made a prediction that the price of bitcoin would "collapse" under continued pressure from governments. Last month, China's regulators moved to ban initial coin offerings (ICOs) that allow start-ups to raise funds by flogging off new cryptocurrencies. The price of the virtual asset dipped significantly following the ban. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has called bitcoin a "fraud" that will eventually "blow up." Earlier this month, the investment banker said he would refrain from commenting on bitcoin, only to scrutinize it again the next day. Senator Bernie Sanders told Canadians that they should defend their health care system and that drug companies were ripping them off. Sanders is currently trying to change the current profit driven health care system and his Medicare for All act proposes a singe payer tax funded system that provides universal coverage to 323 million Americans. The single payer 'Medicare for All' would be run by one public system rather than multi payer, which offers coverage through multiple private or public sources. But, Sanders was in Ontario over the weekend with a delegation of American health-care providers to look at how Canada operates it's single payer health care system. Speaking at the University of Toronto the senator was back in full campaign mode. "I know that Canadians are well-known throughout the world as gentle and kind people. Be a little bit louder." he said. Sanders told the capacity crowd that when you guarantee health care to all people, "stand up and defend that all over the world". Bill Gates has been an education-focused philanthropist since 2000 and over the next five years, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation plans to invest $1.7 billion in U.S. public education. Earlier this month, the tech billionaire spoke at the Council of the Great City Schools and shared how he and his wife plan to spend this money. "By and large, schools are still falling short on the key metrics of a quality education math scores, English scores, international comparisons and college completion," he says. According to Gates, one of the biggest issues in public education is inequality. "Melinda and I made public education our top priority in the U.S. because we wanted to do something about the disparity in achievement and post-secondary success for students of color and low-income students," he says. "That inequity persists today, and we are just as determined now to eliminate it as we were when we started." Neal Hamberg/Bloomberg | Getty Images Gates believes that fixing this issue is both a moral and economic imperative, writing, "Without success in college or career preparation programs, students will have limited economic mobility and fewer opportunities throughout their lives. This threatens not only their economic future but the economic future and competitiveness of the United States." The Microsoft mogul offered five ways to address this systemic issue and improve the American education system for all: 1. Collect data The billionaire knows the importance of collecting quality data. "Schools that track indicators of student progress like test scores, attendance, suspensions and grades and credit accumulation improved high school graduation and college success rates," he explains. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has previously invested millions of dollars to help collect data about teacher and student success. Gates believes that these initiatives have allowed for schools to better address the issues of their students. One example he provides is Fresno, California. "In Fresno, a new data system revealed that students weren't aware of their college options. So, the district created individualized college information packets for every senior who met the state's college requirements," says Gates. "The result was a 50 percent increase in the number of students applying to California public universities." Results like these are why he plans to continue to support data collection initiatives. 2. Work locally "Second, we will focus on locally-driven solutions identified by networks of schools, and support their efforts to use data-driven continuous learning and evidence-based interventions to improve student achievement," says Gates. Every school district is different and students across the country have different needs. In order to address this range of needs, Gates suggests allowing local school districts the freedom to create programs tailor-made for their student populations. Gates points to a program in Chicago where school leaders partnered with the University of Chicago in order to increase high school graduation and college enrollment rates. This initiative worked for Chicago, but might not be applicable to every school district. "We believe this kind of approach where groups of schools have the flexibility to propose the set of approaches they want will lead to more impactful and durable systemic change that is attractive enough to be widely adopted by other schools," he says. "Giving schools and districts more flexibility is more likely to lead to solutions that fit the needs of local communities." 3. Improve curriculum "Third, we are increasing our commitment to develop curricula and professional development aligned to state standards," he says. Gates says he supports Common Core standards because "all students no matter where they go to school should graduate with the skills and knowledge to succeed after high school," he says. "But more needs to be done to fully realize their potential." He argues that in order for Common Core standards to be most effective, teachers need a more effective curriculum. 4. Help students with special needs Gates writes that he believes that supporting charter schools will improve the American education system, because they are better equipped to support students with special needs. "We will focus more of our work with charters on developing new tools and strategies for students with special needs," he says. Gates says that more needs to be done so that students with special needs have access to a quality education. He believes that charter schools can be part of the solution. "Our emphasis will be on efforts that improve outcomes for special needs students especially kids with mild-to-moderate learning and behavioral disabilities," says Gates. "This is a critical problem across the education sector, and we believe that charters have the flexibility to help the field solve this problem." 5. Fund research Bitcoin broke through the $6,300 mark for the first time late on Sunday to hit a new record high. The price of the cryptocurrency hit $6,306.58, according to CoinDesk data, just 10 days after first breaching the $6,000 handle. Investors appear to be shrugging off some of the negative news in the bitcoin world. Bitcoin recently underwent another "fork" or split, resulting in the creation of a new cryptocurrency called bitcoin gold. It is the second split to bitcoin this year, after one in August which led to the creation of bitcoin cash. The fork is not seen as hugely disruptive, with many still convinced the original bitcoin will continue to dominate. Bitcoin has rallied over 500 percent this year. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note sat lower at around 2.403 percent at 8:31 a.m. ET, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was down at 2.921 percent. Bond yields move inversely to prices. U.S. government debt prices were higher Monday as investors turned their attention to the latest developments coming out of the auctions and data space. Data kept investors on their toes Monday, with a new batch of data providing traders with additional insight into the health of the U.S. economy. U.S. personal income rose 0.4 percent in Sept., matching expectations. The Dallas Fed's Texas Manufacturing Outlook survey is set to be published at 10:30 a.m. ET. No major speeches are set to take place by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Monday; however, talk of who will take on the position as Fed Chair from early 2018 will . In politics, President Donald Trump's , according to a NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll released Sunday, with his job approval rating falling to 38 percent, having declined 5 points since the previous month. Meanwhile, in commodities news, oil prices fluctuated in early trade, as rising exports from Iraq capped gains in the market. However, hopes were lifted somewhat, on expectations that an OPEC-led production cut would be extended past its deadline of March 2018; Reuters reported. CNBC's Javier E. David contributed to this report U.S. drinks company Constellation Brands has agreed to buy a near 10 percent stake in Canopy Growth Corporation , the world's largest publicly traded cannabis company. Constellation, a beer distributor that owns Corona, is reportedly planning to work with the grower to develop, market and sell cannabis-infused beverages. The agreement, confirmed in a press release Monday, is $245 million Canadian dollars ($191 million) in exchange for a 9.9 percent stake in the Canopy Growth Corporation. It is seen by Constellation Brands President and CEO, Rob Sands, as an anticipation of a nationwide legalization of marijuana in the United States. "We think that it's highly likely, given what's happened at the state level," said Sands in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. In 2018, California is set to legalize the cultivation and selling of recreational marijuana, but Sands said his company didn't plan to sell the product in the U.S. until marijuana was legal nationwide. He added that Constellation would look to starting selling in countries where recreational marijuana is legal and Canada could be an option if, as scheduled, legislation there is relaxed next year. Constellation Brands is a listed on the S&P 500 and posted record net sales of $7.3 billion for its fiscal 2017 results. Canopy Growth is the world's largest publicly traded cannabis company, with a market valuation of 2.2 billion Canadian dollars. It is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Constellation said the transaction is expected to close during the Company's third quarter of fiscal 2018. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached its highest level in 800,000 years in 2016, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Monday. Carbon dioxide levels "surged" at record breaking speeds last year, with globally averaged concentrations of CO2 hitting 403.3 parts per million in 2016 compared to 400 parts per million in 2015, according to the WMO's Greenhouse Gas Bulletin. This was due to a combination of human activities and a "strong" El Nino event, the report said. El Nino and La Nina refer to the "warm and cool phases of a recurring climate pattern across the tropical Pacific," according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The WMO said that direct measurements from the past 800,000 years had been taken using both Antarctic ice cores and "modern instruments." The increase in concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere commenced in the industrial age, which began in 1750. This was down to a range of factors including population growth, as well as industrialization and its use of fossil fuel sources. "Without rapid cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, we will be heading for dangerous temperature increases by the end of this century, well above the target set by the Paris climate change agreement," Petteri Taalas, the WMO's secretary-general, said in a statement. "Future generations will inherit a much more inhospitable planet." Under the Paris Agreement, reached at the end of 2015, world leaders committed to making sure global warming stays "well below" two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. At the beginning of June, however, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S would withdraw from the Paris Agreement and commence talks to re-enter or negotiate a new accord. Taalas said that CO2 remained in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and in oceans for even longer. "The laws of physics mean that we face a much hotter, more extreme climate in the future. There is currently no magic wand to remove this CO2 from the atmosphere." Erik Solheim, the head of UN Environment, said that while the last few years had seen an enormous uptake in renewable energy, a redoubling of efforts was needed "to ensure these new low-carbon technologies are able to thrive. We have many of the solutions already to address this challenge. What we need now is global political will and a new sense of urgency." The WMO's bulletin was based on analysis from the WMO Global Atmosphere Watch program. watch now Spain's state prosecutor has called for rebellion, sedition and embezzlement charges to be brought against Catalonia's leaders. Attorney General Jose Manuael Maza called for the charges Monday, according to Reuters, to be brought against the region's secessionist leaders including former President Carles Puigdemont, his deputy Oriol Junqueras, the Catalan government and members of parliament, including Speaker Carme Forcadell. As well as the charges of rebellion, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison, the prosecutor also accused the region's leaders of breaching the Spanish constitution. The request will now be considered by a judge and Maza has called for the Catalan leaders to testify. This new development comes as Carles Puigdemont was deprived of power following the Spanish region's declaration of independence Friday. This follows a month of escalating tensions with the national government in Madrid. Spain's index of top stocks, the IBEX 35 , surged more than 2.5 percent Monday after a weekend poll suggested newly announced elections would see the separatist movement lose its majority. December elections Spain's government has assumed direct control of the wealthy northeastern region and has terminated the executive roles of Puigdemont and his cabinet, calling a snap election for December 21. Puigdemont and other pro-independence officials remained defiant over the weekend, saying that they did not recognize Spain's authority and that only the people of Catalonia could dismiss them. Now Puigdemont and his colleagues face possible arrest. Maza said last week that he would be calling on the local police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, to detain Puigdemont and that if local police did not carry out the order, national police would do so. Belgium responded to the move saying it could grant Puigdemont political asylum with the country's migration minister questioning to what extent Puigdemont would get a fair trial. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of protesters filled the streets of Barcelona Sunday, in one of the largest pro-unity marches since the crisis began on October 1 following a symbolic referendum on independence which was deemed illegal by the Spanish government. Spain's Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis told the AP news agency that Puigdemont could "theoretically" run in the December election "if he is not put in jail at that time." Defiance There is now confusion over the whereabouts of the Catalan leadership. Around midday Monday, Spanish media reported that Puigdemont and several of his colleagues could now be in the Belgian capital, Brussels, although reports were unconfirmed. On Monday morning, Puigdemont had prompted speculation over his location having posted an image on his Instagram account of the inside of Barcelona's Palau de la Generalitat, Catalonia's government building. It was unknown if the photo was taken Monday, however, and La Vanguardia newspaper reported that Puigdemont had not attended the palace. Another Catalan minister Josep Rull also tweeted a photo of himself in his office although La Vanguardia reported that two local police officers had warned Rull to leave. Tweet: Amid the confusion of Spain's attempts to gain control of Catalonia and apparent defiance by some pro-separatist Catalan officials, Alfred Bosch, a member of the European Parliament for pro-independence party Republican Left of Catalonia, told CNBC Monday that, on the third day of the proclaimed Catalan republic, "things are getting back to normal." "Of course, you can't expect changes overnight. Life just goes on, business as usual and we will try to build the Catalan republic, starting with this declaration ... This is a slow process, diplomacy tends to be slow and we'll wait to see how things pan out," he said. Bosch said he had no fear of being arrested, a sentiment echoed by deposed deputy president Oriol Junqueras when asked by CNBC Monday if he was afraid he could go to prison. watch now China's President Xi Jinping claps after his speech as he and other new Politburo Standing Committee members meet with the press at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China October 25, 2017. Leading Chinese financial institutions are slowly increasing their physical footprint in Silicon Valley, mirroring the moves made by Middle Eastern investors in recent years as foreign countries look to capitalize on the U.S. tech boom. The two central players at this point: The China Investment Corporation, or CIC, a sovereign wealth fund which manages over $800 billion on behalf of the Chinese government CIC is not to be confused with the other force, CICC, or the China International Capital Corporation, a Chinese investment bank formed in 1995 that is the nation's first brokerage and is sometimes called "the Goldman Sachs of China." CICC has begun a $500 million U.S. venture fund, the first of its kind, and has opened an office in San Francisco to locate and invest in promising tech companies. The bank, which previously only had a space in New York, celebrated its new office this month at a forum that effectively announced to international investors that they were open for business. Now, the Chinese sovereign wealth fund is mulling a plan to take similar steps, according to multiple people familiar with CIC's thinking. CIC has told several U.S. investors in recent weeks that it has a mandate to do more direct investing in startups, especially in later-stage companies. The fund is staffed heavily by former bankers and has primarily invested in several of Silicon Valley's most elite venture capital firms as a limited partner (though it has made some direct U.S. investments in the past, like in Airbnb). CIC is increasing its U.S. footprint with on-the-ground staff, and two sources said the sovereign wealth fund wants to eventually open a physical office to oversee their direct investments, though it is not expected imminently. CIC spokesmen did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Recode in recent weeks. The arrival of the CIC behemoth in Silicon Valley would be China's latest attempt to deepen its investments in the United States. The sovereign fund, created in 2007, had an office in Toronto until 2015, its first post overseas, before retreating out of Canada after that country's energy sector disappointed them. This past May, the CIC opened a space in New York, its first U.S. office. A second post would show how seriously the CIC specifically plans to take direct investing in tech. CIC could also eventually start a dedicated venture fund, as CICC has. But the moves would likely draw attention from U.S. regulators, who are already unsure of Chinese investors' ambitions in the sector. China's relationship with the Trump administration seesaws daily. Other sovereign wealth funds with shops in Silicon Valley include Temasek of Singapore, Khazanah Nasional of Malaysia and Mubadala of Abu Dhabi, which just opened its space and a U.S. venture fund this month. By Theodore Schleifer, Recode.net. CNBC's parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Recode's parent Vox, and the companies have a content-sharing arrangement. More from Recode: 'Amazon Stadium' is the latest bait being dangled in front of Jeff Bezos An Apple engineer showed his daughter the new iPhone X. Now, she says, he's fired. Twitter has permanently booted Trump troll Roger Stone for tweeting that CNN anchor Don Lemon should be 'punished' This is what reducing the 401(k) plan contribution limit could mean. This is what Congress is calling "tax reform." There are 54 million American workers participating in about 550,000 401(k) plans, according to the Investment Company Institute. These plans hold more than $5 trillion in assets. This tax reform measure will most likely affect the wealth of most American households and certainly affect the way they save for retirement. A person can make a contribution to his or her 401(k) plan of a maximum of $18,000 (in 2018, this is slated to be increased to $18,500). This contribution is tax-deferred. In other words, you don't pay tax on the $18,000 of income you earned and contributed into your 401(k) plan. However, when you withdraw from your savings in retirement, you will then pay tax on what you contributed and the money you earned from investing it. For those over age 50, there is an option called a "catch up" that allows another $6,000 to be contributed tax-deferred. More from Active/Passive: Top House tax writer suggests 401(k) changes could still happen The top 10 US companies by market capitalization BlackRock CEO: Expect just 4% returns over 10 years The GOP, as has been widely reported, is tinkering with reducing this tax-deferred contribution to $2,400. To make this even more confusing, in a sharp reversal, Rep. Kevin Brady, a top tax writer in the House of Representatives, indicated that lawmakers may look at raising contribution limits to $20,000 or more. If you are going to pay taxes on this money anyway, you might be wondering what is the big difference in paying the tax now or later. The short answer: It could be a lot. The longer answer: You will not be able to take as much advantage of the principle of compounding resulting in a loss of a lot more wealth in your life. Compounding is the earning of money on the money invested. When added to your original investment, it forms a larger base on which to earn more money. Most understand this concept. Most do not understand the power compounding brings to building wealth over a long period of time. Let's say a 40-year-old person saves $18,000 in a 401(k). Assuming an average annual return of 6 percent, by the time he or she reaches age 65, this one-time contribution will grow to about $77,000. If the money had not been placed in a 401(k) but rather in a mutual fund or other investment outside of the plan, the account holder would have had to pay tax on the $18,000. Assuming the effective tax rate between federal and state is at least 25 percent, he or she will pay $4,500 in taxes, leaving only $13,500 to grow for retirement. Charges against President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort emboldened Democrats to call for greater protection for special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election. While many stopped short of tying Manfort's charges directly to Trump, top Democrats reacted to the developments Monday with concern that the president could impede the investigation or perhaps pardon himself and any of his associates who are in legal jeopardy. An indictment against Manafort and a former business partner Rick Gates, was unsealed Monday. Separately, court filings were unsealed Monday showing that former Trump campaign George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty 3 weeks ago to lying to FBI agents about when he met with Russian nationals to get "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. "It is imperative that Congress take action now to protect the independence of the Special Counsel, wherever or however high his investigation may lead," Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said in a statement. "Members of Congress, Republican and Democrat, must also make clear to the President that issuing pardons to any of his associates or to himself would be unacceptable, and result in immediate, bipartisan action by Congress." Warner is the vice chairman of the Senate's Intelligence Committee, which is conducting its own probe into Russian meddling in the election, including potential collusion between Trump's campaign and the Russian government. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Mueller's probe is essential for U.S. efforts to counteract Russian attempts to interfere with elections. "Even with an accelerating Special Counsel investigation inside the Justice Department, and investigations inside the Republican Congress, we still need an outside, fully independent investigation to expose Russia's meddling in our election and the involvement of Trump officials," the former House speaker said. "Defending the integrity of our democracy demands that Congress look forward to counter Russian aggression and prevent future meddling with our elections." Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said "the investigation must proceed unimpeded." Tweet Tweet California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is also investigating potential Kremlin election meddling, trumpeted the indictments' importance. "This is a key development. This is no small fish," he told NPR. European stocks finished relatively mixed Monday, as investors reacted to the latest corporate earnings, and continued to monitor the news coming out of Spain and the U.S. European markets The pan-European Stoxx 600 finished the day up 0.12 percent provisionally, while sectors were pointing in different directions by the close. In bourses, the FTSE 100 fell 0.23 percent, while France's CAC ended roughly flat, down 0.01 percent. Germany's DAX however rose 0.09 percent by the close. In peripheral bourses, Spain's IBEX 35 rose 2.44 percent. During Monday's session, euro zone stocks hovered close to their highest level in a decade, according to Reuters, as a healthy economy and well-received earnings reports appeared to offset lingering political uncertainty. Earnings season in focus Earnings season continues to shake up sentiment in markets on the first trading day of the week. reported a 10 percent fall in third-quarter net profit on Monday, as lending income remained pressured by low interest rates. Spanish banks have had their latest results partially overshadowed in the wake of Catalonia's push for independence. Bankia's shares, however, rose over 2 percent in trade. Sticking with the banking sector, HSBC fell 1.5 percent in trade, even though the European bank stated that pre-tax profit has soared 448 percent year-on-year in the three months ending September. Elsewhere in earnings news, Glencore increased its full-year marketing guidance for earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) to between $2.6 billion and $2.8 billion. The miner cited the continuing recovery from the commodity crash that ended in 2016. Its shares posted modest gains by the close. Outside of earnings season, U.K.-listed home builders such as Berkeley Group and Taylor Wimpey posted declines, after Barclays cut its rating on each stock. The bank also reduced its target price on Barratt Development , causing it to end in the red. watch now Apple pre-orders 'off the charts' Stephen Jaffe | IMF | Getty Images After several bailout programs, the relationship between Europe and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) could be about to change dramatically. The euro zone is studying ways to improve the powers of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) a fund that helps euro zone countries that need to borrow money and for it to ultimately replace the IMF's presence in bailouts. Detailed plans from the European Commission are expected before the year end, but the overall idea is to give the ESM more responsibilities to monitor and enforce compliance during bailout programs while continuing to disburse funds basically, the tasks of the IMF. watch now "The euro area is more resilient now than in years past I believe the ESM should now progressively graduate into a European Monetary Fund which, however, must be firmly anchored in the European Union's rules and competences," Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, told lawmakers in September. Why does the euro zone need its own IMF? The idea from European officials and leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, is to deepen the ties within the euro zone and thereby make it more resilient to financial shocks. But, mostly, it would make Europe independent from the IMF each time a euro currency country needs financial rescue. According to Carsten Brzeski, chief economist at ING, the euro zone wants to build up its own "fire fighter" for potential future sovereign crises. "An EMF (European Monetary Fund) would also leave euro zone problems to be solved by the euro zone and not by 'outsiders,'" he said via email. During the Greek crisis, there were significant policy differences between Europe and the IMF. These started in differences in forecasts for instance, in what will be Greece's primary surplus to ultimate key decisions, such as how further debt restructuring should work. It is worth noting that the IMF has been, in opposition to most euro zone members, one of the biggest supporters to adapting Greece's debt profile. watch now An advisor to President Donald Trump's campaign pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to lying to FBI agents about when he met with Russian nationals to get "dirt" on Hillary Clinton, according to court filings released Monday. The documents revealed that George Papadopoulos was arrested on July 27 upon arrival at Dulles International Airport from an undisclosed location. According to the documents, shortly after Papadopoulos learned he would become a foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, he met in March 2016 with a Russian professor who claimed to have "dirt" on Clinton. Investigators say Papadopoulos had told them he met with the professor before he learned of his role in the campaign. Ten days later, Papadopoulos met with a female Russian national who was introduced to him as a niece of Russian President Vladimir Putin with ties to senior Kremlin officials, investigators said. Papadopoulos later learned, however, that the woman was in fact not related to Putin. He told investigators that his correspondence with the woman was superficial when in fact the purpose of the contacts was to set up a meeting between Russian leaders and the Trump campaign, the court filings said. The filings say Papadopoulos is cooperating with the U.S. government in its ongoing investigation of Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election. In a Monday afternoon press briefing, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Papadopoulos had an "extremely limited" role in the 2016 campaign. She said he was in a "volunteer position" and had not done work in an "official capacity on behalf of the campaign." But investigators said a campaign supervisor had urged Papadopoulos to try to visit Russia for an off-the record meeting with officials. Papadopoulos' attorneys declined to comment on the case. "We will have the opportunity to comment on George's involvement when called upon by the Court at a later date," his legal representatives said. "We look forward to telling all of the details of George's story at that time." A senior Facebook executive has denied the social network uses a device's microphone to listen in on real-life conversations in order to target people with relevant ads. In response to a tweet on Friday by PJ Vogt, the presenter of a technology podcast called Reply All, Facebook's Vice President of Ads Rob Goldman said it was "just not true" the tech giant used this practice. Goldman said: "I run ads product at Facebook. We don't and have never used your microphone for ads. Just not true." Tweet 1 In a statement published on its website last year, Facebook denied listening in to users via a microphone device. The tech giant said: "We only access your microphone if you have given our app permission and if you are actively using a specific feature that requires audio." PJ Vogt received hundreds of replies to his original tweet Friday, with several people claiming they had seen adverts which appeared to be related to recent conversations. "A co-worker got an ad saying, 'So you popped the question!' minutes after he proposed, before he told anyone it had happened," Tori Hoover said in response to PJ Vogt. Tweet 2 David Hand, a mathematics professor from Imperial College London, told the BBC that while some feel as though such coincidences could not just happen by chance, people are generally more alert to things that are currently occupying them. "If you take something that has a tiny chance of occurring and give it enough opportunities to occur, it inevitably will happen," he added. President Donald Trump's onetime campaign chairman, Paul Manafort was indicted on 12 counts related to hiding foreign payments, including one count of "conspiracy against the United States." Manafort's former longtime business partner, Rick Gates, also was charged in the 31 page indictment, made public on Monday. Gates and Manafort both surrendered to authorities on Monday morning. The two men pleaded not guilty to all charges during a court appearance later Monday. A spokesman for Gates said the former lobbyist "welcomes the opportunity to confront these charges in court." A Manafort spokesman declined to comment. In a statement, Special Counsel's Office spokesman Peter Carr said the indictment "contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign [government], false and misleading [foreign lobbying disclosures], false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. The case was unsealed today after the defendants were permitted to surrender themselves to the custody of the FBI." Multiple law enforcement sources also told NBC News there was a statute of limitations issue in play that may have helped drive the timing of the indictments, which were handed down Friday. Following news of the indictments, a White House source told NBC News that the charges had not come as a surprise to the Trump administration. "The White House has been saying for weeks the special counsel is moving far more quickly and deliberatively than people have been reporting. The fact that the special counsel is actively performing its duties does not come as a surprise to the White House," the source said. The indictments mark a new phase in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. They also cap off a year of escalating legal problems for Manafort and Gates, who worked with Manafort for years on many of his foreign lobbying contracts. General Motors shares dropped in premarket trading Monday after Goldman Sachs downgraded the automaker to a sell rating and predicted a big pullback in the stock ahead. "Looking ahead into 2018 and given the current valuation level, we see a downward inflection in GM earnings and consequently downgrade shares to sell," wrote analyst David Tamberrino in a note Monday. "Our work on pickup trucks and crossovers suggest that GM likely experiences volume and mix headwinds that exacerbate the cyclical profit headwinds. Combined, we see this driving 2018E EBIT-adjusted down by 22% yoy and compressing overall corporate margins. We see 28% downside to our 12-month price target of $32." The stock dropped 2.9 percent in early trading Monday. shares were up 28 percent for 2017 through Friday as investors cheered the divestiture of a European unit and speculation the 109-year-old automaker was making advancements in the areas of autonomous driving in competition with Tesla. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas, a widely followed name in the space, last Wednesday. But Goldman goes one step further, advising clients to actually dump the stock. "As we continue to believe the North America auto cycle has peaked (17.5mn in 2016) and is set to normalize (to 15.0mn in 2020), we remain cautious on the sector and see mostly downside to shares in our OEM coverage (as more than 100% of profit and FCF is generated in North America)," wrote Tamberrino. "However, we see outsized downside to shares of GM as we expect a negative earnings inflection in 2018." --With reporting by Michael Bloom Jigsaw one of the many mini-companies inside Alphabet is helping to lead the search giant's charge against so-called fake news, according to profiles published in Fast Company. Jigsaw calls itself an incubator that tackles the "toughest global security challenges facing the world," including curbing online harassment and censorship. The group is led by Jared Cohen, a well-known international relations scholar and diplomat, and of late, protege to Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt, Fast Company reported. Cohen appears to be at the fore of Google's fake news battle: his team has even gone to Macedonia to "meet with trolls," Fast Company said. Hacking to spread misinformation was "not something we anticipated strongly enough," Schmidt told Fast Company, saying he was worried about the tools that would be available to hackers by 2020. Alphabet's efforts to mitigate misinformation will be front and center this week, as technology company representatives testify before congressional committees over the next few days. "We also have teams at Google of thousands of people focused on security and policy enforcement," the company told CNBC on Monday. Jigsaw has 60 employees, though "only a fraction of whom are actually working on issues related to disinformation," Fast Company reported. "I always tell the team that we're not reactive, otherwise, one year we'd be working on Ebola, and another year we'd be working on fake news," Cohen told Fast Company. For more, see articles here and here. The Department of Justice on Monday unveiled indictments of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his former longtime business partner Rick Gates, alleging the pair hid overseas payments and conspired to launder money. The special counsel's team, led by Robert Mueller, laid out the charges in a 31-page indictment: The indictment contains 12 counts: conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading FARA statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Terms such as "conspiracy against the United States" and "unregistered agent of a foreign principal" sound ominous, but, according to a 30-year veteran of corporate litigation, it is important that people shouldn't read too much into the wording. "All federal charges are written to sound serious," Ira Matetsky, lawyer and partner at Manhattan-based firm Ganfer & Shore, told CNBC. Matetsky stressed the importance of understanding the charges' context. However, he believes the charges in this case are very serious, as they include felony accusations. The indictments mark a new phase in Mueller's investigation into Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. But, while Manafort was once President Donald Trump's campaign chairman, Matetsky sees the connection to the White House ending there, at least for now. "This is activity that happened to come up while investigating someone who was on Mueller's radar," Matetsky said. Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University who has written about white collar crime for The New York Times, agrees with Matetsky. "Anything related to the election is tangential" at this point, Henning told CNBC, as the accusations revealed Monday are "a couple steps removed at best." "Everyone thinks 'Manafort, Trump,' but I don't see anything at all related to Trump," he said. The case centers around the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Henning said. According to him, Mueller is looking at the work Manafort and Gates did on behalf the Ukrainian government, both for former President Viktor Yanukovych and others. "Money laundering is the sexy count, but it's not at the heart of this," Henning said. Mueller is seeking multiple ways to find information for his investigation, both lawyers said. Shortly after unveiling the charges Monday, Mueller revealed a plea deal made with George Papadopoulos, another former advisor to Trump's campaign. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty on Oct. 5 to lying to FBI agents about when he met with Russian nationals to get "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. "A takeaway from Papadopoulos being targeted, in addition to Manafort and Gates, might be that this seems to be a wide-ranging investigation rather than a narrowly focused one," Matetsky said. Henning said the details in the indictment of Manafort and Gates also points to Mueller casting a wide net. The special counsel's office has "thrown a lot out there that's not directly relevant to the charges that they're bringing," Henning said. "They're liars, is what the special counsel is trying to say here." Beyond involvement in Ukraine, Henning said Mueller will try to pin both men on tax evasion. "They are going to try to keep Manafort and Gates from saying 'this was just a few times,'" Henning said. The conspiracy charge is the bow that ties all the more specific charges together, Matetsky said. He defined conspiracy as "when any two people enter into an agreement to break federal law," clarifying that a variety of different crimes may fall under conspiracy, from the money laundering alleged here to tax evasion or even treason. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Monday the federal government should not "punish people for being successful," responding to talk about a new, highest, fourth tax bracket. "The simpler the better," McCarthy said in an interview with CNBC's "Squawk Box," referring to the GOP's tax reform plan. "I don't think we should punish people for being successful. I think we should encourage that." The current tax plan calls for collapsing the current seven personal tax brackets to just three: 12, 25 and 35 percent and nearly doubles the standard deduction. The GOP has reportedly considered a fourth. On the possibility of the fourth, the California Republican refused to confirm or deny it, saying only that House tax writers are "still working." "People can work out the details, look at the others," McCarthy said. "I will wait until [The Committee] on Ways and Means comes out. That's their role." A model smokes a Juul e-cig during New York Fashion Week. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez | AFP | Getty Images Having so much demand that supply struggles to keep up may sound like a start-up's dream, but not when you're trying to give people a reason to switch from another product. "When people say it's a good problem to have, I think about it a little differently," JUUL Labs CEO Tyler Goldman told CNBC. The company's goal is to switch cigarette users, he said. And to do that, JUUL needs to have enough products to satisfy users' nicotine cravings. JUUL is one of the hottest e-cigarettes on the market. The device, which launched about two years ago, represented 27 percent of dollar market share of the total e-cigarette category for the four weeks that ended Sept. 9, according to Nielsen data provided by JUUL Labs. While JUUL's retail representation is strongest along America's coasts and the Midwest, according to the company, JUUL has a presence in every state nationwide. Every month, JUUL Labs produces 20 million products, including devices and cartridges, Goldman said. But the pace has strained the company's supply chain. While some continue to rave, others complain the quality has worsened. "To achieve our mission, we really need to make sure that we have enough pods per device, and if we're not getting enough devices out into the marketplace, it means we're not giving people the option to switch to JUUL." JUUL e-cig starter kits includes the device, four pods and a USB charger. Source: JUUL Labs JUUL devices are flat and rectangular and are about as long as a palm of a hand. They're thinner than an iPhone and weigh even less. Users snap on a cartridge with nicotine liquid, which uses nicotine extracted from tobacco. To activate them, users simply draw on the end. In areas where JUUL is available, it has essentially gone viral. Cloud 99 Vapes, a vape shop in New York, can hardly ever keep the display case full, said employee Ryan Nieves. Customers sometimes come in complaining about leaky cartridges, Nieves said. However, he said that's a problem with all vape products. They use cotton to keep the nicotine liquid inside, and cotton can only retain so much liquid until they start to leak, he said. JUUL's prices can vary based on location, although they tend to sell at a premium compared with other e-cigarettes. Online, a JUUL device costs $34.99, and a four-pack of pods costs $15.99. The nicotine in each pod is said to be equivalent to a pack of cigarettes. The products are under warranty, so people can contact customer service if pods leak or devices break. However, some customers say it can take awhile to hear back. Even if they do receive new pods, they must first spend more locally to buy new ones while they wait for replacements to arrive in the mail. JUUL e-cig device Source: JUUL Labs A significant majority of the Spanish Senate later passed the measures proposed by Rajoy's government under Article 155 of the Spanish constitution. These allow the central government to terminate the executive roles of Puigdemont and his cabinet though they could remain as local parliamentary deputies until fresh elections slated for December. They also include the stripping of powers from the autonomous police force, which took effect just hours earlier, designed to help Madrid assert its legal authority through force if necessary in the days ahead. The regional Police Commissioner, Josep Lluis Traper Alvarez, was already facing an investigation for sedition for his inaction during the preparations for the October 1 independence referendum that a Spanish court had deemed illegal; now he is out of a job. A Spanish news agency reported that the director general of the 17,000-man autonomous Catalan police force, the Mossos d'Esquadra, was also dismissed. The behavior of local police officers may come into focus soon, but it is the actions of the region's civil servants that should be watched closely when they return to work, if a general strike called by a local union for Monday does not bring the city to a halt. Grassroots pro-independence groups responsible for many of the larger protests in cities like Barcelona have called for mass civil disobedience, and the reaction of authorities in Madrid could serve to exacerbate this situation. Several days ago I had the chance to ask the central government's delegate to the Catalan region, Enric Millo, how Spanish authorities would seek to enforce discipline. Speaking from his ornate office in the 19th century Montaner Palace, protected by multiple fences, armored vehicles and armed guards, he insisted that any separatist Catalan bureaucrats who refused to comply would lose access to their salaries and their roles, effective immediately. Already, Spain's most senior prosecutor has told a local TV network he would pursue charges of rebellion against Puigdemont, his senior advisers and even some of the Catalan parliament's governing body who helped make the vote on Friday happen. It may be more difficult to prosecute the 70 out of 135 parliamentary deputies who voted through the independence motion, since they did so in a secret ballot, aimed at preventing authorities in Madrid from identifying those that could be liable to criminal charges. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his longtime business associate Rick Gates have now been formally charged by a federal grand jury on 12 charges, including conspiracy against the United States of America. Expect everyone to celebrate... for now. Well, everyone but Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. They really are in a lot of trouble. But for everyone else, Manafort may be the perfect fall guy for the White House, the anti-Trumpers, and even special prosecutor Robert Mueller. To understand why, you have to look at the situation from different viewpoints in a "Rashomon effect" kind of way. First, let's look at this from the standpoint of the Democrats and all the other anti-Trumpers. To them, Manafort sure seems like a very "big fish" to get snared in the prosecutor's net. After all, Manafort was the Trump campaign chairman during some crucial months of the 2016 election process. If he wasn't directly involved in some kind of ongoing collusion with the Russians on behalf of the Trump team, then it seems logical he might know about it if it happened at all, right? And make no mistake, a good deal of the country is convinced there was some kind of illegal collusion by the Trump campaign with the Russians to skew the presidential election. As many as 54 percent of those surveyed in a major poll conducted just three months ago said they believe either the Trump campaign or Trump administration has acted illegally in its relationship with the Russians. Then there's that "conspiracy against the United States" charge that sure sounds like something akin to overthrowing the government along the lines of the crimes Aaron Burr or John Wilkes Booth committed in the past. This sounds very, very bad. You can expect to see extra large sized banners screaming: "Ex-Trump Campaign Chairman Charged with Conspiracy against U.S." all over the TV news channels not named "FOX" possibly for days. I'm actually looking at one right now. But let's look more closely at that conspiracy charge as we shift from the anti-Trump/Democrats' perspective to the way the Manafort news is likely to be interpreted by President Trump's supporters and most Republican voters. Here's how the U.S. legal code defines the charge: If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. The key wording in the above is "defraud the United States." Based on several detailed reports by NBC News and others, that defrauding of the U.S. is likely to be connected to the millions of dollars in foreign payments Manafort and Gates are accused of hiding from the IRS. This is no small matter, as we're reportedly talking about $75 million the two men received from Russian and pro-Russian Ukrainian sources. To get an idea of how serious and established this allegedly illegal relationship was, several reports published this past summer say that federal investigators had Manafort under wiretap surveillance beginning in 2014 and he and Gates had questionable financial dealings with a major Russian oligarch as far back as 2007. But since those payments allegedly began years before Donald Trump became a candidate or Manafort became involved with him, this indictment does not seem like it blows the lid off of some kind of 2016 election tampering plot. That's exactly the tack President Trump took himself in his initial public reaction to the indictment: And President Trump and his supporters have another good argument to make in this case as the Trump team did indeed decide to fire Manafort in August 2016 after his long-standing and questionable financial connections to the Russians became public. So the Manafort indictment has now led to a very credible-sounding defense for the Trump administration and even some very indignant calls that it serves as "proof" that there is no evidence of any real crime of election tampering committed by President Trump or his campaign. They're already painting Manafort as someone who was involved with the Trump campaign for a few months, and was rightfully ditched when his legal issues became known. For those hoping that the Mueller investigation could lead to some kind of universally irrefutable evidence of either guilt or innocence for the Trump campaign, they're going to have to wait. The partisan lens is already firmly in control of how the base on both sides is perceiving this indictment. But there are two things everyone can agree on for now. First, Manafort and Gates sure seem to be on the hook for some alleged serious crimes and tax evasion going back more than a decade at least. And if they're guilty, everyone from every political corner who cares about the rule of law should be happy that it looks like they're about to be seriously punished. That's good news for Mueller, who is bringing two people to justice who allegedly have been committing serious crimes for years. Just from a legal standpoint, it will be hard to say his investigation yielded nothing if these charges lead to convictions and imprisonment. Second, the public is now really learning about Manafort's and Gates' dealings and the kinds of shadowy lobbying that too many ex-government officials engage in for a living. And learn about it we must, because the fact is our foreign lobbying rules are too weak and have been hampered by lax enforcement for decades. Many conservatives and liberals agree on this, as Republican Senator Todd Young and Democrat Senator Jeanne Shaheen even teamed up to craft a bill earlier this year to close some of those foreign lobbying loopholes. Some policy experts, like Ben Freeman at Third Way, believe the Manafort news and the allegations against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn are the best impetus for that bipartisan effort to succeed with new laws against foreign lobbying and the murky campaign contributions that go with it. As much as Trump supporters and detractors and everyone in between has been obsessing about him for so long, there are still a lot of political issues that go well beyond this president, his campaign, Russia, and everything associated with both. If nothing else, Monday's indictment should help blow the doors off an ethical cancer growing on our political system for too long. The bottom line in this story goes beyond President Trump and Paul Manafort. It extends to the long list of people who seem quite willing to commit every one of the crimes Manafort is charged with and more. Trump haters may not get the impeachment or resignation they crave and Trump supporters may not get the exoneration they want. But we are already getting a vital window into something both sides should want to root out of our country for good. Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny. For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter. "No one is going to fire a special counsel who has just indicted the President's former campaign manager. So for now, Mueller has a complete path to continue and expand his investigation with no interference from the administration or Congress." Next, the indictment signals to anyone who is targeted that Mueller is serious and he is playing hardball. The Manafort indictment is chock full of very specific transactions and includes money laundering counts, which are some of the most serious in the federal system and could lead to many years in jail. No one can doubt Mueller's resolve to use the most extreme prosecutorial tools to pursue his prey. The indictment along with the search of Manafort's house and use of the grand jury to subpoena a Manafort lawyer - sends a clear message to the defense bar that Mueller means business. Finally, Mueller now has someone at the top of the Trump pyramid he can squeeze. The next step will be for Mueller to suggest to Manafort and his team that he can reduce his prison exposure by "cooperating" with the investigation - meaning giving information about others and talking about the campaign. This gives Mueller a tremendous advantage in the investigation. Manafort is facing very serious charges that could include a relative as well. There will be a tremendous amount of pressure on him to try to resolve the case in a way that avoids him spending the rest of his life in jail. Most defendants can't deal with this type of pressure, and the prosecutors are going to insist that Manafort give them what they want to hear. Whether Manafort "flips" is anyone's guess. But this could play out badly for the president. So what does all of this mean? At a minimum, the country is looking at a long slog of a special counsel investigation through the rest of the Trump administration. None of this is going away anytime soon. Whether or not the the investigation ends with impeachment proceedings, we can be certain that the administration is going to be distracted with this investigation for some time. The focus of the Mueller investigation will likely go far afield of the election issues alone. The Mueller team is composed of some very talented and persistent prosecutors who are not going to rest until every stone is turned. One thing is certain - for the rest of the time Trump is in office, his agenda and administration will be consumed by dealing with the special counsel and news stories about prosecutions. Commentary by John F. Lauro, a former federal prosecutor in New York City and currently a criminal defense lawyer with a national practice, where he represents high-profile clients in federal, criminal and civil cases. Follow him on Twitter @Lauro_john. For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter. A federal judge on Monday ordered former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to be placed under house arrest after Manafort's plea of "not guilty" in response to a 12-count indictment in federal court related to money laundering and foreign lobbying contracts. Manafort's longtime associate Rick Gates was also indicted on identical charges, which stem from special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Calling both defendants a flight risk because of their connections to foreign governments, a federal judge also required that they surrender their passports and that Manafort post a $10 million bond. Gates' bond was set at $5 million. Manafort and Gates stand accused of conspiring to conceal tens of millions of dollars in undisclosed payments for lobbying work they performed on behalf of a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. The bulk of this lobbying work occurred between 2012 and 2014, two years before Manafort joined the Trump campaign. Following Manafort's appearance Monday in federal court in Washington, his lawyer, Kevin Downing, spoke to reporters outside the courthouse, where he called the charges against his client "ridiculous." "There is no evidence that Mr. Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government," said Downing, adding that the goal of Manafort's work on behalf of a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine was to "further democracy and help Ukraine come closer to the United States and Europe." Downing said that Manafort would address the charges Tuesday. A spokesman for Gates said earlier that his client looks forward to fighting the charges against him. Manafort and Gates are both due back in court on Thursday, before U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson. Here's the statement from Manafort's attorney: An online investment platform that allows Chinese investors to access a number of "alternative" U.S. investments officially launched Monday. Financial technology firm MarketX lets upper-middle class and institution Chinese investors to invest in tech firms that have not yet issued shares to the general public. These include such notable names as ride-hailing giant Lyft, music platform Spotify, bulletin board site Pinterest and workplace messaging app Slack. But they will also be given the opportunity to enter less tapped markets such as litigation finance and real estate, artificial intelligence, customizable portfolios driven by themes like health, and companies founded by Tesla's Elon Musk. "Our goal is to improve the access to U.S. financial products but also education for a new generation of wealthy individuals and institutions to access this pool of investments that previously was only free to really ultra-high networks of individuals and private banks," Cathryn Chen, founder and CEO of MarketX, told CNBC in a phone call ahead of the announcement. Chen told CNBC that her company has been expanding its reach into the Asia-Pacific region. "Over the last two years we've built offices around Shanghai, Beijing, Singapore, Shenzhen and our main offices in San Francisco." For months, Facebook s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., has been in crisis mode, furiously attempting to contain the damage stemming from its role in last years presidential campaign. The company has mounted an all-out defense campaign ahead of this weeks congressional hearings on election interference in 2016, hiring three outside communications firms, taking out full-page newspaper ads, and mobilizing top executives, including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, to beat back accusations that it failed to prevent Russia from manipulating the outcome of the election. No other predicament in Facebooks 13-year history has generated this kind of four-alarm response. But while the focus on Russia is understandable, Facebook has been much less vocal about the abuse of its services in other parts of the world, where the stakes can be much higher than an election. This past week, my colleagues at The Times reported on the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims, an ethnic minority in Myanmar that has been subjected to brutal violence and mass displacement. Violence against the Rohingya has been fueled, in part, by misinformation and anti-Rohingya propaganda spread on Facebook, which is used as a primary news source by many people in the country. Doctored photos and unfounded rumors have gone viral on Facebook, including many shared by official government and military accounts. The information war in Myanmar illuminates a growing problem for Facebook. The company successfully connected the world to a constellation of real-time communication and broadcasting tools, then largely left it to deal with the consequences. In a lot of these countries, Facebook is the de facto public square, said Cynthia Wong, a senior internet researcher for Human Rights Watch. Because of that, it raises really strong questions about Facebook needing to take on more responsibility for the harms their platform has contributed to. In Myanmar, the rise in anti-Rohingya sentiment coincided with a huge boom in social media use that was partly attributable to Facebook itself. In 2016, the company partnered with MTP, the state-run telecom company, to give subscribers access to its Free Basics program. Free Basics includes a limited suite of internet services, including Facebook, that can be used without counting toward a cellphone data plan. As a result, the number of Facebook users in Myanmar has skyrocketed to more than 30 million today from 2 million in 2014. We work hard to educate people about our services, highlight tools to help them protect their accounts and promote digital literacy, said Debbie Frost, a Facebook spokeswoman. To be more effective in these efforts, we are working with civil society, safety partners, and governments an approach we have found to be particularly important and effective in countries where people are rapidly coming online and experiencing the internet for the first time through a mobile phone. In India, where internet use has also surged in recent years, WhatsApp, the popular Facebook-owned messaging app, has been inundated with rumors, hoaxes and false stories. In May, the Jharkhand region in Eastern India was destabilized by a viral WhatsApp message that falsely claimed that gangs in the area were abducting children. The message incited widespread panic and led to a rash of retaliatory lynchings, in which at least seven people were beaten to death. A local filmmaker, Vinay Purty, told the Hindustan Times that many of the local villagers simply believed the abduction myth was real, since it came from WhatsApp. Everything shared on the phone is regarded as true, Mr. Purty said. In a statement, WhatsApp said, WhatsApp has made communications cheaper, easier and more reliable for millions of Indians with all the benefits that brings. Though we understand that some people, sadly, have used WhatsApp to intimidate others and spread misinformation. Its why we encourage people to report problematic messages to WhatsApp so that we can take action. More from The New York Times: Russia Fanned Flames With Twitter, Which Faces a Blowback What Worries? Big Tech Companies Post Glowing Quarterly Profits Mark Warner: Tech Millionaire Who Became Tech's Critic in Congress Facebook is not directly responsible for violent conflict, of course, and viral misinformation is hardly unique to its services. Before social media, there were email hoaxes and urban legends passed from person to person. But the speed of Facebooks growth in the developing world has made it an especially potent force among first-time internet users, who may not be appropriately skeptical of what they see online. The company has made many attempts to educate users about the dangers of misinformation. In India and Malaysia, it has taken out newspaper ads with tips for spotting false news. In Myanmar, it has partnered with local organizations to distribute printed copies of its community standards, as well as created educational materials to teach citizens about proper online behavior. But these efforts, as well-intentioned as they may be, have not stopped the violence, and Facebook does not appear to have made them a top priority. The company has no office in Myanmar, and neither Mr. Zuckerberg nor Ms. Sandberg has made any public statements about the Rohingya crisis. Correcting misinformation is a thorny philosophical problem for Facebook, which imagines itself as a neutral platform that avoids making editorial decisions. Facebooks community standards prohibit hate speech and threats, but many harmful viral posts such as a WhatsApp thread in Southern India that spread false rumors about a government immunization campaign are neither hateful nor directly threatening, and they wouldnt be prohibited under Facebooks community standards as long as they came from authentic accounts. Fighting misinformation is especially difficult on WhatsApp, an app for private messaging, since there is no public information trail to fact-check. Facebook has argued that the benefits of providing internet access to international users will ultimately outweigh the costs. Adam Mosseri, a Facebook vice president who oversees the News Feed, told a journalism gathering this month, In the end, I dont think we as a human race will regret the internet. Mr. Zuckerberg echoed that sentiment in a 2013 manifesto titled Is Connectivity a Human Right?, in which he said that bringing the worlds population online would be one of the most important things we all do in our lifetimes. That optimism may be cold comfort to people in places like South Sudan. Despite being one of the poorest and least-wired countries in the world, with only around 20 percent of its citizens connected to the internet, the African nation has become a hotbed of social media misinformation. As BuzzFeed News has reported, political operatives inside and outside the country have used Facebook posts to spread rumors and incite anger between rival factions, fostering violence that threatens to escalate into a civil war. A United Nations report last year determined that in South Sudan, social media has been used by partisans on all sides, including some senior government officials, to exaggerate incidents, spread falsehoods and veiled threats, or post outright messages of incitement. These are incredibly complex issues, and it may be impossible for Facebook which is, remember, a technology company, not a global peacekeeping force to solve them overnight. But as the companys response to the Russia crisis has proved, its capable of acting swiftly and powerfully when it feels its interests are threatened. Information wars in emerging markets may not represent as big a threat to Facebooks business as angry lawmakers in Washington. But people are dying, and communities are tearing themselves apart with the tools Facebook has built. That should qualify as an even greater emergency in Menlo Park. watch now The thieves knew exactly what they were looking for when they broke into Alex May's boat dealership. They weren't targeting any of the new boats for sale lined up in the back. As surveillance video clearly shows, they were after the Yamaha engines. "These thieves were so sophisticated that they walked past engines that were sitting in the boxes that they could have just loaded up," May said. "They had our forklift running. And they took specific types of engines that are more valuable." Incredibly, May has been hit by engine-stealing thieves not once, but four times. May owns six boat dealerships throughout Texas and estimates the 41 Yamaha engines he's lost were worth more than $700,000. The video from the theft at his Houston facility shows the suspects entering the property early on a Sunday in July. They had cut a hole in the fence, and then pulled in with a pickup truck and flatbed trailer. "Some of these engines actually belonged to customers," May said. "So not only did we lose product, we angered some customers and had to replace their engines for them." May is not alone. Industry experts and law enforcement officials told CNBC that boat engine theft specifically of Yamaha engines is on the rise. Surveillance video of the thieves targeting expensive boat engines at Premier Yamaha Boating Center. Premier Yamaha Boating Center While boat theft nationally increased 1 percent in 2016, there are no national figures for boat engine thefts, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. Florida, which ranks as the top state for boat thieves, does keep track of engine thefts. A CNBC analysis of records compiled by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Division shows a total of 811 engine thefts in 2016 compared with 643 in 2015. About half the stolen engines were Yamahas. "I will you tell that outboard theft from marinas, outboard theft from dealers has gone up dramatically," said Dan Rutherford, director of claims and risk management for Maritime Program Group. "In my 35-year career, I've never seen as many outboards and as many units being stolen from as many marinas." Rutherford, who suspects a number of the engines are being shipped overseas, said the thieves typically break through a fence with a stolen truck. "And there are three guys usually. And they're just lifting the engines and putting them on the truck beds," he said. The recovery rate for stolen boats in Florida last year was 36 percent, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. In California, the second most ranked state for stolen boats, it's only 55 percent. "It's a great crime of opportunity," Rutherford said. "It's a difficult crime to solve. The boats disappear." Miami-Dade Police Sgt. James Barrett said boats and boat engines, unlike cars, are more difficult to track once they are stolen. "The data is not out there mainly because with boats there's a lot of different manufacturers," Barrett said. "And they come and go. And then once they go out of business, it's hard to get those records. We do have some boat manufacturers that are very cooperative, that do keep good records, and they'll give us a lot of history on that boat. But on motors, it's just a serial number." Officials from the Coast Guard and local law enforcement told CNBC they have not tracked large number of the stolen engines overseas, at least in recent years. Instead, thieves typically try to replace the engine's sticker with another one, making it appear the stolen engine is legitimate. Many boats, and their engines, are often easy targets for thieves whether it's at a marina or in someone's backyard. Some 5,115 watercraft were stolen last year in Florida, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau. The Miami area is number one in the country for stolen boats, followed by Tampa, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and Tavares. "Unfortunately, with the amount of waterways that we have in Miami-Dade County, it is a target-rich environment," said Miami-Dade Police Officer Miguel Espinosa. And sad to say, it is very easy [for] someone to try to steal a vessel. Or engines, especially engines." Officer Miguel Espinosa with the Miami-Dade Police Department. CNBC released its 2017 Global Tuberculosis Report, and the latest picture is still one of extreme gravity, as progress to stop the spread of this disease simply isn't fast enough to make major headway. On Monday the World Health Organization released its 2017 Global Tuberculosis Report, and the latest picture is still one of extreme gravity, as progress to stop the spread of this disease simply isn't fast enough to make major headway: In 2016, 10.4 million people fell sick with TB, and about 1.7 million people including 400,000 with concomitant HIV succumbed to the deadly infection. According to WHO, TB is the ninth-leading cause of death worldwide and continues to be the world's No. 1 infectious killer, surpassing HIV/AIDS. "There are seven countries that are responsible for the majority of the cases of tuberculosis," says Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the Global TB Programme at the World Health Organization. "They are India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria and South Africa. These seven countries are responsible for 64 percent of the world burden. Nearly two-thirds of the cases." This year's report explores the burden of TB, the challenges that remain and the political commitment required to drive change, says Dr. Raviglione. Although globally the TB mortality rate is falling at about 3 percent per year and incidence is decreasing by 2 percent per year, says Dr. Raviglione, by 2020 these figures need to improve to about 5 percent and 10 percent, respectively, in order to begin seeing some concrete results toward ending this global epidemic. "There is this slow decline that continues, there is this huge amount of burden, and the missing part is the acceleration. We see no acceleration of the efforts against tuberculosis, and this is probably the main message emerging out of this year's report," says Dr. Raviglione. "It requires political commitment. Ministers of health and prime ministers at this point in time are now really in a situation where either they react or it will go on like this." To reach these goals, WHO is promoting the End TB Strategy, calling for intensified action across government ministries, communities, the private sector and civil society. Progress will depend on additional resources from domestic sources (middle-income countries) and international donors (especially low-income countries), as well as investment in research and development. The critical step to ending TB "Tuberculosis has to be phased out from a multisectoral approach," says Dr. Raviglione, and the critical step, he says, is to elevate the discussion with global leaders. In November global leaders, NGOs and members of academia and the corporate sector will be gathering in Moscow at the first-ever WHO Global Ministerial Conference to end tuberculosis. Russian President Vladimir Putin will open the meeting. Its aim: to accelerate country implementation of the End TB strategy, which calls for reducing TB deaths by 35 percent and incidence by 20 percent compared to 2015 levels by 2020, and to curtail the catastrophic costs patients and their families face as a result of the disease. By 2030 the strategy aims to reduce deaths by 90 percent and incidence by 80 percent. So far, 97 countries have confirmed their participation. A Ministerial Declaration will be signed at the conference, containing bold commitments by countries to accelerate an action to end TB and meet the milestones toward the 2030 UN sustainable development goals. We see no acceleration of the efforts against tuberculosis, and this is probably the main message emerging out of this year's report. It requires political commitment. Ministers of health and prime ministers at this point in time are now really in a situation where either they react or it will go on like this. Dr. Mario Raviglione director of the Global TB Programme at the World Health Organization "This is a major meeting we have been organizing with the government of Russia," says Dr. Raviglione. "Russia came to us a couple of years ago and said they need to do something about tuberculosis because they have a major problem with multidrug-resistant TB. They recognized the problem and they offered to hold [the meeting]. As of today, we have ministers of health and delegations representing nearly 100 countries." How the crisis began and the newest drugs to tackle it So how did an illness that is completely preventable and treatable become the world's most infectious killer? After all, health officials that coined it "the white plague" predicted it would be eradicated by 1915. Most deaths from TB can be prevented with early diagnosis and appropriate treatment, says Dr. Raviglione. While 53 million deaths were averted from 2000 to 2016 due to proper detection and treatment, there are still huge gaps, he says, adding that most people eligible for TB preventive treatment simply aren't accessing it, and drug-resistant TB is a continuing threat. Although cases of drug-resistant TB are low in the United States, worldwide there were about 600,000 new cases estimated to have emerged in 2016 that were resistant to rifampcin, the most effective first-line drug. Of these cases, 490,000 had multidrug-resistant TB, or MDR-TB, according to the WHO report. Nearly half of all cases occurred in India, China and the Russian Federation. Dr. Mario Raviglione is the director of the World Health Organizations Global TB Programme. Source: World Health Organization (L to R) Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), Senate Finance Committee chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Rep. Mike Bishop (R-MI) look on during a press event to discuss the GOP plans for tax reform, September 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. As news of former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's indictment ripped through official Washington on Monday, Republicans in Congress largely chose to talk about anything but the biggest story of the day. On social media, top Republicans posted about deregulation, tax reform and federal judges, but there was barely a whisper about Manafort. House Speaker Paul Ryan reportedly told a Wisconsin radio station: "Nothing is going to derail what we're doing in Congress." Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah directed Republicans' attention to President Donald Trump's ability to appoint like-minded judges. @senorrinhatch tweet Rep. Phil Roe of Tennessee focused on efforts to push through tax cuts. @drphilroe tweet West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito also focused on tax reform. @sencapito tweet There were some Republicans, however, who commented on the breaking news. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York took the occasion to express her support for the ongoing investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. @repstefanik Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois also said he respected special counsel Robert Mueller's ongoing probe. @repkinzinger tweet Bill Kristol, a leading Trump critic and founder of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine, urged Republicans to avoid defending Manafort or ripping Mueller. @billkristol tweet The president himself also weighed in on the news, expressing his desire that investigators focus on Democrat Hillary Clinton, whom he defeated in last November's presidential election. Trump tweet President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order on health care in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2017. The Trump administration on Monday highlighted Obamacare's increasing prices and shrinking insurer choices as proof the health-care law has "failed" but buried the fact that more people than ever can get a health plan for less than $75 per month. The administration also did not mention evidence that its own policies have helped drive Obamacare premiums higher next year than they otherwise would be. At the same time, a new survey shows widespread ignorance of the fact that Wednesday is the start of open enrollment in Obamacare insurance plans. Almost 76 percent of people do not know that date, according to the poll by Policygenius. And more than 18 percent believe the Affordable Care Act is not longer the law of the law. "These results aren't particularly surprising," said Policygenius CEO Jennifer Fitzgerald. "There's been a hostility from the Trump administration toward the ACA." That hostility has included trying to repeal the law, deeply cutting Obamacare's advertising budget and shortening the enrollment period for individual health plans to just six weeks. Another sign of that hostility came Monday, as the U.S. Health and Human Services Department the agency responsible for overseeing Obamacare blasted the law as it released a report on health plan choices and premiums for 2018. "This data demonstrates just how rapidly Obamacare's exchanges are deteriorating with skyrocketing premiums year after year, more than half of Americans with no more than two insurers to choose from, and the taxpayer burden exploding," said HHS spokeswoman Caitlin Oakley. "There is an urgent and serious need to repeal this failed law and replace it with patient-centered solutions," Oakley said. The report highlighted price increases facing customers who do not receive federal subsidies that limit their monthly premium payments for Obamacare plans. In the past, under the Obama administration, HHS had highlighted the effect of that financial aid, and underscored how many people qualify for it. About 85 percent of people who buy plans on government-run Obamacare exchanges such as HealthCare.gov receive those subsidies. However, no one who buys coverage outside of those marketplaces gets that financial help, meaning they will bear the full brunt of the price hikes. HHS said the average monthly premium for so-called benchmark plans sold on HealthCare.gov purchased by a 27-year-old are increasing 37 percent in 2018 over what they cost this year. That contrasts with a 24 percent increase in benchmark plan prices seen in 2017 on HealthCare.gov, the federally run exchange that serves most of the nation. HHS said the average annual premium for a nonsubsidized 27-year-old in a benchmark plan will be $4,932, "up from $2,616 during Obamacare's first year." Benchmark plans, whose prices affect subsidy levels, are the second-lowest priced "silver" Obamacare plan in a geographic region. More than 70 percent of Obamacare customers buy silver plans. The HHS report did not refer to data that show that a significant fraction of the premium price hikes seen for 2018 are due to concerns by insurers that the Trump administration would cut off key reimbursement payments to those insurers. A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis released last week found that insurers added surcharges of anywhere from 7 to 38 percent onto their premiums for Obamacare plans because of those threats, which the administration finally executed earlier this month. The HHS report on Monday also noted that 29 percent of customers in HealthCare.gov states will have just one insurer offering Obamacare plans to them on that exchange. That compares with 20 percent of customers last year, and just 2 percent of customers in 2016. Eight entire states will have just one insurer offering Obamacare plans in 2018. More than half of HealthCare.gov customers 55 percent will have plans from two or fewer insurers to choose from in 2018. That compares with 43 percent in 2016, and 14 percent in 2015, accoding to HHS. Lori Lodes, a former top Obama admnistration health official now involved in an Obamacare advocacy group, Get America Covered, said HHS had buried some good news for customers in its 40-page report. Lodes was referring to the fact that there has been an increase in the number of HealthCare.gov customers who will be able to buy a plan that will directly cost them $75 or less per month, after their subsidies are factored in. "More people than ever can find plans for less than $75/month," Lodes said in an email. "In fact, it's 80 percent [of customers], compared to about 70 percent during the previous four open enrollments." She noted that the 80 percent figure appeared on page 37 of the report, and was not referenced on the first page, which had "key findings" highlighted by HHS. Lodes said she was willing to bet that "there's a reason they didn't provide the breakdown" for the percentage of customers in 2018 who will be able to buy a plan for $50 or less per month. "Because it too likely has grown a lot," Lodes said. Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, has job security after he brought felony charges against President Donald Trump's onetime campaign chairman, a former assistant U.S. attorney told CNBC on Monday. "Trump would be impeached the next day if he tried to remove Mueller," said John Lauro, who was a federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of New York from 1986 to 1988 during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. "He can't be fired by the president of the United States. There's no way," Lauro told "Squawk on the Street." Paul Manafort, the onetime chairman of the Trump campaign, surrendered to authorities on Monday after he was indicted on 12 counts related to money laundering, including "conspiracy against the United States." A former Manafort colleague, Rick Gates, also has been charged. "The significance of the indictment is it gives Mueller cover now going forward," Lauro said. "Nobody is going to touch him because Paul Manafort is under indictment. And second, it gives him an opportunity to press Manafort for information." Lauro says U.S. authorities will use the indictment to put pressure on Manafort to "flip" or "cooperate" in the investigation. The government doesn't indict until it has all the information locked down, he added. Trump has dismissed any suggestion that his campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 election. On Monday, Trump responded to the news, and said the alleged crimes by Manafort occurred years before he joined the 2016 campaign. Lauro said people should expect more indictments. A spokesman for Manafort did not respond to a request for comment from CNBC on Monday. A spokesman for Gates could not immediately be located. WATCH: How to impeach the President of the United States President Donald Trump walks towards the Oval Office through the West Wing Colonnade of the White House. Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images For President Donald Trump the fake news just got very real and dangerous. By charging three Trump 2016 campaign operatives with crimes, special counsel Robert Mueller just took the Trump-Russia investigation from the realm of speculation and debate and moved it into sworn testimony and court proceedings. One has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with investigators; the other two, former campaign chief Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates, now have an enormous incentive to cooperate in a bid for leniency. Trump reacted on Twitter by noting that the tax fraud charges against Manafort stem from events "years ago before he joined the Trump campaign." The president reiterated his frequent claim that there was "NO COLLUSION" with Russia in the 2016 campaign. But the third defendant Mueller named Monday renders that claim increasingly tinny. watch now George Papadopoulos, a Trump campaign foreign policy advisor, pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators about conversations with an unnamed "professor" connected to the Russian government. The conversations, Mueller's court filing says, concerned "thousands of emails" promising "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. That now makes two acknowledged attempts by the Trump campaign to obtain damaging material about Clinton from representatives of Vladimir Putin's government. The other was a June 2016 meeting arranged by the president's son Donald Jr., his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Manafort. Until now, the conclusion by U.S. intelligence officials that Russia intervened in the campaign to help Trump win has remained abstract for American voters. The new details, unsealed Monday, made more concrete by Papadopoulos' guilty plea, threaten to further undermine Trump's historically weak political standing for a first-year president. The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows that just 38 percent of Americans approve the president's job performance his lowest mark of the year. A 58 percent majority disapproves. More significantly, he has suffered erosion among segments of the electorate important to both Trump and Republicans who will face voters in 2018 midterm elections. His approval among independents has fallen to 34 percent, and among whites to 47 percent. watch now North Korean leader Kim Jong Un watches the launch of a Hwasong-12 missile in this undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on September 16, 2017. Senior defense officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan held trilateral talks and urged North Korea to walk away from its "destructive and reckless path" of weapons development, the U.S. military said in a statement. Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford hosted his South Korean and Japanese counterparts at the U.S. Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii on Sunday to exchange views on North Korea's recent long-range ballistic missile and nuclear tests. "Together they called upon North Korea to refrain from irresponsible provocations that aggravate regional tensions, and to walk away from its destructive and reckless path of development," the statement said. Manafort, 68, was born in New Britain, Connecticut, and attended Georgetown University and Georgetown University Law School, according to The American Presidency Project , a database compiled by researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The indictment unsealed Monday charged Manafort with 12 counts related to hiding foreign payments, including conspiracy. Manafort and former business partner Rick Gates, who was also charged in the indictment, surrendered Monday. Indicted former Trump aide Paul Manafort has a long history of working with Republican presidential candidates as far back as Gerald Ford and with the Ukrainian leader who was backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin . In the 1976 presidential campaign, he helped manage the convention floor for Ford, and later worked for the campaigns of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bob Dole. Manafort was also a senior advisor to Viktor F. Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was driven from power in 2014. One of the indictment counts says that from about 2008 to 2014, Manafort and Gates acted as foreign agents without registering, as the law requires. Those connections to Russia have attracted the most scrutiny as the Trump administration grapples with the investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into possible Russian influence on the presidential election. Manafort joined Donald Trump's campaign for president in March 2016 and rose to campaign chairman that June. On Aug. 14, 2016, The New York Times, citing Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau, reported that secret, handwritten records show $12.7 million in undisclosed cash payments designated for Manafort from Yanukovych's political party from 2007 to 2012. Manafort's lawyer denied to the Times that Manafort had received the payments. Three days later, Manafort was effectively demoted when Trump named Breitbart News head Steve Bannon as campaign chief executive officer and promoted Kellyanne Conway to campaign manager. Manafort resigned on Aug. 19. According to an April 4 transcript of a CNN interview, Manafort said, "As far as the Yanukovych administration is concerned, you will see if you do any fact checking that I was the person that negotiated the framework, which is based upon which Ukraine is now a part of Europe. That was my role. That's what I did. And when it was completed, I left." In September, The Washington Post, citing sources, reported that Manafort offered to brief a Russian billionaire with Kremlin ties about the 2016 presidential campaign. Earlier this year, news reports revealed that Manafort also attended a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower at which Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, were also present. CNBC's Christine Wang and Reuters contributed to this report. In this July 21, 2016 file photo, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump accompanied by Trump campaign aide Rick Gates, left, prepares for his speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Richard Gates has long been the man beside Paul Manafort. That held true Monday when the former business partners surrendered to the FBI as the first to be indicted by the Department of Justice on charges related to foreign interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Gates, 45, served as deputy chair of the Trump campaign and Manafort's right-hand man for day-to-day operations for part of the election cycle. After Manafort left the campaign, Gates remained on as liaison to the Republican National Committee and was later hired by Trump's longtime friend, Tom Barrack, to help with the inauguration, according to New York Magazine. Gates, along with Manafort, was charged with conspiracy against the United States in an indictment unsealed Monday. Gates was also separately charged with failure to disclose accurate information to government agencies. Barrack's Colony NorthStar ended its consulting agreement with Gates on Monday following reports of the indictment, a spokesman confirmed to CNBC. The indictment by the Department of Justice originally filed Friday outlines Gates' ties to a pro-Russian Ukrainian political party. His work with Ukraine ended in 2015, before he started with the Trump campaign. In 2017, Gates retroactively registered some of that service under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, but allegedly falsified information in doing so, according to the indictment. Gates was charged with operating as an agent of Ukraine for at least nine years, ending in 2015, and laundering "tens of millions of dollars in income" during and after that time, according to the indictment. Gates maintained a direct relationship with former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the government of Ukraine, at times explicitly purporting to represent the government of Ukraine in Washington, D.C., without properly registering those activities with the U.S. government, the indictment charges. Gates and Manafort continued to "defraud" the U.S. government after the election and into 2017 through money laundering and tax evasion, according to the indictment. "Everything was done legally and with the approval of our lawyers," Gates told The New York Times in June. "Nothing to my knowledge was ever done inappropriately." Before heading up the Trump campaign, Gates and Manafort worked side by side at Manafort's consulting firm, Davis Manafort Partners, according to the indictment. The two men first met more than 30 years earlier when Gates was an intern at a separate consulting firm Black, Manafort, Stone, Kelly according to the Times and New York Magazine. Gates was reportedly not particularly close with, or even well-liked, by Trump. New York Magazine reports Trump often confused Gates with a different "Rick," for example, and yet he maintained ties to the Trump campaign and administration after Manafort was excused. Manafort left the campaign in August 2016 after it was revealed he had accepted payments from Yanukovych. The speculation of influence from Eastern Europe didn't catch up to Manafort's protege until earlier this year, though, when Gates was removed from a post at the pro-Trump advocacy group "America First Policies," New York Magazine reports. A spokesman for Gates could not immediately be located. WATCH: Manafort & Rick Gates indicted Historically, the labs created by multinationals functioned primarily as start-up incubators. The idea was to provide newly hatched businesses with the time, money and networks they needed to bring forth innovative solutions in an interval and under conditions that the industrial giants' inertia didn't necessarily allow. However, big companies have a key asset that should not be overlooked: a deep reservoir of potential innovators, and even "intrapreneurs," waiting to be activated. These employees, who may sometimes feel boxed in by their job descriptions, have ideas, a mindset and a desire to take action, that deserve the organization's full attention. They can galvanize research by finding new markets, forge ties among professions to upgrade internal processes, or simply move faster to test the value of a new idea. This is a path Total has chosen to explore. Michael Offredi is digital ecosystem and innovation officer in Total's Strategy & Innovation Division. He runs the recently created Booster, a facility that defines itself as an accelerator. Created in February 2017, it is designed to spark innovation and speed up the emergence of innovative projects from all Total business lines. Offredi points out that "contrary to what is often thought, innovation isn't focused solely on technology. Things have changed for Total in recent years. A host of uncertainties hang over its business environment, leading to a constant focus on competitiveness, and a number of new ambitions. These include an even more customer-focused business model increasingly based on low-carbon energy and energy efficiency, because Total is making climate part of its growth strategy. It's an excellent opportunity to test and implement different approaches, to support these changes as effectively as possible." The Booster and its five person team, housed in a 700 square meter space in one of Total's two skyscrapers in the La Defense district near Paris, are focused on driving innovation approaches that are more open, collaborative and efficient. "Our mission has three main thrusts," says Offredi. "The first is to foster new ways of working a people-centered approach to innovation and iterative processes with fast prototyping, better known as 'test and learn' while constantly strengthening collective efficiency. These break with Total's usual processes. The second consists of taking steps to get projects especially digital projects moving faster. We're an accelerator, and the goal isn't so much the intellectual property we could claim, but more about how quickly we can use the idea to position ourselves in the market or to deploy it in our operations to test its value. The third is to rekindle a culture of 'doing,' by nurturing, for example, a community of digital makers who are helping Total digitally transition." This shows that the Booster isn't simply a box that cranks out innovative ideas or products, but rather a support environment for projects of varying maturity, generated throughout Total. "We don't specify which topics people have to work on and we're not a start-up incubator like the ones you might see at other big companies. Our role is to encourage innovation and speed the digital transition of our internal customers," notes Offredi, adding that "Total will never be a start-up." "That said, replicating start-up practices and methods to quickly prototype an idea, create differentiating value propositions, and speed up time-to-market is more than useful when we want effective, business-generating innovation at Total." The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form Lord Flight is Chairman of Flight & Partners Recovery Fund, and is a former Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. I suggest there are really only two major areas of intergeneration issues to be addressed: the high price of housing and the cost of university education. Otherwise, young people today have a much higher standard of living than did I and my contemporaries 40 or 50 years ago. Young people eat out, often several times a week my fiancee and I could only afford to eat out once a month at most. Men and women have many more clothes and buy more clothes I was lucky if I could afford one suit a year. The young people I know, including my own children, take several holidays a year. We were lucky if we went abroad once. Young people are also better paid, both absolutely and relatively, and get 250 per week unemployment pay. Let us turn now to the two problem areas of property and university education. The first is simple to address the housing problem we need to build many more houses per annum over the next decade. Government schemes, if anything, have worsened the problem. We need to make planning permissions easier to achieve, but also to motivate house builders to get on and build houses and not sit on land banks. This might be achieved by an escalating tax on land banks not developed within a given period of obtaining planning permission. I am extremely leery of Government itself getting into the house building industry, but they could help finance to the extent needed private sector house builders and, particularly, local private sector house builders. It will take a while to correct the supply/demand imbalance, allowing for both property prices to ease with enhanced supply and higher pay to improve the demand side of affordability. We do not want a crash in the housing market which would hit severely younger people who have been recent buyers. On education, I believe the Blair Government made a great mistake in copying the US model of 50 per cent going to university, rather than that of Germany and Switzerland. That more than 50 per cent of student loans are not expected to be repaid because the borrowers will not earn sufficient to qualify for repayment is a crude measure that more than 50 per cent of university places do not turn out graduates able to qualify for a better than average paid job. A poorly taught degree in the liberal arts, from one of the new universities which will admit students with poor A level grades, in practice only benefits those working for the new universities, who are frequently well-paid. Surely the more sensible arrangement is the Swiss/German model, where around 20 per cent go to academic universities, polishing the brain power the country needs, but everyone else acquires their qualifications on the job, via what we used to call Sandwich Schemes, being paid while acquiring qualifications. This is not just for manual skills but for professional skills lawyers, bankers, et cetera. This structure solves the affordability and university finance issues. As 80 per cent are getting their qualifications while working and financed by their employers, with only 20 per cent going to university, there is greater scope to provide some funding for those attending university. Surely several areas for example, nursing are also better taught on a Sandwich Scheme basis where students can apply what they are learning on a practical basis. To move to the Swiss/German system would clearly require the co-operation of employers. The new university premises which have been constructed could in the main be used for the part-time teaching involved in Sandwich Scheme training. It is worth noting that Switzerland has the best educated, best qualified population in the world. There are businesses which measure the subsequent income generation of students from different universities in both the US and the UK. While clearly materialistic, this gives a realistic read on which universities are succeeding and which are not justifying their keep. Before the 2015 election, the Conservatives threatened to withdraw from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights entirely. Chris Grayling, then Justice Secretary, set out his proposals to do so if necessary on this site. The question of Britains relationship with the court had become a point of contention mainly, though not exclusively, because of its insistence that prisoners should have the right to vote a view comprehensively rejected by the Commons earlier in the Parliament, and shared by Grayling and other Ministers. David Cameron said that it made him physically ill even to contemplate having to give the vote to anyone who is in prison. After the 2015 poll, Graylings plan was dropped, but Dominic Raab, then the Minister in the department responsible, flew to Strasbourg and delivered what was described as a hard-hitting speech which made it clear that the Government was not going to back down on votes for prisoners. We made it clear theres no realistic prospect of lifting the ban on prisoner voting for the foreseeable future, he was reported as saying. And yesterday, it was reported that David Lidington now plans to lift the ban at least in part. We suspect that this development is at least as likely to anger and engage voters than the current and better-ventilated reports of misconduct by some MPs. What is going on? Part of the answer is to found in the steadily decreasing Government majority. Grayling was writing when the Coalition had one of about 80, on the spectacularly speculative assumption that the Tories, after the 2015 election, would have a majority sufficient to get withdrawal from the court through Parliament. Raab was speaking when the Conservatives, in the wake of that poll, had gained a majority of 30 or so not enough for withdrawal. It was doubtful whether the then new Government would have the numbers even to deliver the British Bill of Rights promised in the 2015 Tory manifesto. Michael Gove, the new Justice Secretary, was unpersuaded in any case whether such a measure would be meaningful were Britain still to be signed up to the ECHR. But a deeper explanation lies in the changed political landscape. Until last years Conservative leadership election, Theresa May had been the Cabinets main cheerleader for quitting the court. But as soon as it kicked off, she dropped that aspiration entirely. The key to her decision was the EU referendum result. She did not want to give the SNP, which enthuses about the convention and the court, a new excuse to whip up pro-separation feeling in the wake of the Brexit decision. Nor did she wish to hand the same vantage to Sinn Fein. The European Convention on Human Rights is written into the text of the Belfast Agreement as a safeguard. ConservativeHomes heart is with Edward Faulks, a Minister under Gove, who argued earlier this year on this site that Britain should repeal the Human Rights Act, allow our own courts and Parliament to protect human rights and quit the courts jurisdiction. But our head is with the Government. One of the early gains of Brexit has been a prompt halt to the SNPs pro-independence drive in Scotland. It should not be put at risk. In any event, there is no Commons majority for leaving the court, and no Tory manifesto commitment to do so from last June. Indeed, that document promised the opposite: we will remain signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights for the duration of the next parliament. David Lidington, who in turn has succeeded Gove, is not the man to dream of leaving the court. But nor is his move a scheme to give all prisoners the vote. Rather, it seems to be a plan to give as few as possible that right. Those sentenced to less than a year behind bars who are let out on day release will reportedly be entited to vote. Essentially, the Justice Secretary proposes to knock the ball in the latest of the interminable exchanges between the Government and the court back onto the latters side of the net. He was apparently concerned that Britain would be confronted over its refusal to implement the courts prisoner vote decision at Decembers meeting of Council of Europe Ministers. We would rather that he had stuck to the position that Raab took two years ago. In any event, we doubt that his manoeuvre will satisfy the court (a reading that we suspect he shares). Like the Dane in the Kipling poem, it will surely be back for more. One striking element of the Justice Secretarys proposal is that it will not require leglisation. But what if the Commons finds a way of voting on the matter anyway, and takes the same view that it has previously? At such a point, the Governments airy dismissal of Commons votes that it doesnt like note the recent row over a successful Labour motion on universal credit might well become a live issue for more Conservative MPs and activists. Edward Leigh put a well-argued case against the Governments stance on ConservativeHome recently. But, for the moment at least, most Tory MPs seem to believe that remaining in the ECHR is a price Britain must pay for leaving the EU, at least until the time comes to draft the 2020 manifesto. But if its 2017 predecessor promised no change to the status quo when it comes to the Court, as it did, it also did so with regard to the Charter of Fundamental Rights. We will not bring [it] into UK law, this years manifesto declared. Ministers are entitled to press that view on backbenchers if a vote comes on that matter during forthcoming debate on the EU Withdrawal Bill. New York City is now offering three fully functioning buildings at Manhattan Cruise Terminal as Pier 92 is poised to once again become a regular berth option for ships calling in New York. With Pier 92 in place, Manhattan offers five cruise berths, with the south side of Pier 92 able to take large cruise ships. While Brooklyn was recently in the news with the announcement of various upgrades, Manhattan continues to take the lions share of traffic in New York. Last weekend, the AIDAdiva became the first ship in recent memory to berth at Pier 92. The German ship was shifted there with occupants at the four berths between Pier 88 and Pier 90. Earlier this year, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) selected Ports America as the long-term terminal operator for both Manhattan and Brooklyn. While the contract specifies the single berth in Brooklyn, as well as Pier 88 and Pier 90 in Manhattan, it also offers provisions for the cruise operation at Pier 92. In a December 2015 addendum issued by the NYCEDC to its Request for Proposals for the terminal operator contract, Pier 92 in Manhattan was noted. It is contemplated that Pier 92 may become part of the Manhattan Cruise Terminal Premises, currently identified as only Piers 88 and 90, and may then become part of the Lease to the Selected Leaseholder, the NYCEDC said. Thus, bidders for the contract were asked to modify their proposals to include accommodation for seasonal cruise activity at Pier 92. Ports America did not return a request for further information. Barbados Port Inc.(BPI) officially welcomed the Viking Sea at the Bridgetown Port during an inaugural ceremony onboard the vessel last week, according to a statement. This vessels visit is another boost for the local cruise industry, which is on pace for another record year, according to BPI. Leading the team which greeted Captain Bent Gangdal and Hotel General Manager, Florian Kibgilka, were Deputy Chairman of BPI, Captain George Fergusson; Manager, Terminal Operations, Ian Stewart and Chairman of the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc., Alvin Jemmott. Captain Gangdal said that he was pleased to be visiting Barbados. He explained that Viking Sea will be based in San Juan over the winter season, and will head back to Europe for the summer season. Viking Sea is delighted to be here in Barbados and many of our guests are looking forward to exploring the island. This is really one of the highlights on the Caribbean islands cruise, and as part of our winter itinerary we are guaranteed to bring many more guests to these shores, Gangdal said. Meanwhile, Stewart expressed that the Bridgetown Port was honoured to be part of Viking Seas itinerary and of the future plans of the cruise line. Viking has one of the largest projects I have heard about for the building of cruise vessels and their decision to include Barbados in their itinerary, certainly speaks to the strength of our brand and our reputation as a premier destination. We are proud of the trust they have put in Barbados, and going forward we are desirous of forming part of their homeporting exercise, where we would see Viking Sea cruises starting from here. Indeed, we are keen on being part of any expansion of their service, especially into the Eastern Caribbean, Stewart said. The following are the eight best business-class antivirus tools for Android, according to AV-TESTs January 2020 evaluations of 17 Android security apps. (The AV-TEST Institute is a Germany-based independent service provider of IT security and antivirus research.) AV-TEST rates each tool for three areas: protection (six points max), performance (six points max), and usability (six points max). Seven of the products listed here all had perfect scores of 18, while one--Securion OnAV 1.0--lost just a half point. [ Learn how SandBlast Mobile simplifies mobile security. | Get the latest from CSO by signing up for our newsletters. ] The average real-time malware detection rate for all apps tested was 96%. The real-time detection rate of Android malware discovered in the past four weeks was also 96%. How to use these antivirus test results Keep in mind that these tests were done in a lab environment. Different enterprise systems with different threat models will see different results for each of the products listed below. In other words, dont expect that a 100% detection rate in the lab means that a product will detect all antivirus threats on your network. One reason is that it can take days for a newly submitted malware sample to make it into any given antivirus products database. What the AV-TEST results show is which Android antivirus products are consistently the best at the fundamentals of malware detection and have minimal impact on system performance. That makes a good starting point as you evaluate which products work best for your environment. The apps below are in alphabetical order. The best Android antivirus apps Avira Antivirus Security 6.3 Bitdefender Mobile Security Version 3.3 G Data Internet Security 26.6 Kaspersky Internet Security 11.36 Norton 360 4.7 Securion OnAV 1.0 SK Telecom T guard 3.01 Trend Micro Mobile Security 11.1 Avira Antivirus Security 6.3 Avira Antivirus Security wasn't quite perfect on protection, detecting 99.8% of malware attacks in real time. It did check all the boxes on performance and gave no false warnings. The app's feature set includes application control, privacy advisor, VPN, and safe browsing. Bitdefender Mobile Security Version 3.3 Bitdefender Mobile Securitys Android malware detection in real-time is 100%, and it discovered the newest Android threats discovered in the last four weeks 100% of the time as well. For usability, the app gets big check marks for not dragging down battery life or device speeds. AV-TEST found zero false warnings during installation/usage of legitimate apps from Google Play or during installation and use of apps from third-party stores. Unlike some Android malware protection apps, Bitdefenders Mobile Security offers anti-theft features, including remote lock, wipe, and locate, as well as safe web browsing and phishing protection. Like many other Android security tools, it doesnt include message filtering or call blocking and doesnt support all types of encryption. Additional features not evaluated include app lock and a privacy advisor. G Data Internet Security 26.6 G Datas Internet Security has more features than many of its other top-rated competitors. AV-TEST checked the boxes for remote lock, wipe, and locate; call blocking; message filtering; safe browsing; and parental control. The app does not enable personal data to be saved to an SD card or cloud storage or provide a VPN feature. Internet Securitys real-time Android malware detection rate was 99.9%, and it detected threats discovered in the past four weeks 100% of the time as well. The app issued zero false warnings during installation and use of legitimate apps from third-party app stores. Kaspersky Internet Security 11.36 Although Kaspersky Internet Security executed the protection tests perfectly and checked all the performance boxes, its feature set is not as big as some of the other options on this list. It offers application control, call blocking, and safe browsing, but does not have features like backup to an SD card or a privacy advisor. Norton 360 4.7 Symantec 360 caught 100% of all Android malware, including those discovered recently and within four weeks, with no false warnings. It has a good set of usability features, including safe browsing, personal data backup, anti-theft, and call blocking. Features not reviewed include a system advisor. Securion OnAV 1.0 A newcomer to the AV-TEST evaluations, Securion OnAV had a good first showing. It had excellent protection scores: a 99:3% detection rate against real-time attacks and 99.8% detection rate on malware discovered in the last four weeks. The app also had minimal impact on device performance. However, OnAV lacks a meaningful feature suite, offering only rooting detection. SK Telecom T guard 3.01 SK Telecom's T guard scored similarly to the Securion product and had the same minimal feature set, although it did a little better on protection. Perhaps the similarity is due to the fact that both are from South Korean companies. Trend Micro Mobile Security 11.1 Trend Micro Mobile Security had perfect scores for performance, usability, and protection, detecting 100% of malware attacks in real time and newly discovered malware. It also has a solid feature set, missing only backup of personal data and VPN capability. Features not tested include anti-theft, messenger protection, network protection, and parental control. The state of Android security Research from the AV-TEST Institute shows that Android malware samples collected have increased sizably every year. In 2014, the total was more than 326 million. The next year, the malware tally reached more than 470 million. In 2016, AV-TEST recorded nearly 597.5 million samplesnearly double the amount from two years earlier. And in 2018, were looking at 838.14 million. AV-TEST Institute AV-TEST data shows steep growth of Android malware By 2019, mobile malware will comprise about 33 percent of all malware reported in standard tests, up from 7.5 percent today, according to Gartners August 2017 Market Guide for Mobile Threat Defense Solutions. Though iOS devices arent immune from malware, The mobile malware threat is primarily coming from Android, said Dionisio Zumerle, research director at Gartner. The threat should be a concern for all companies with Android users, he saidespecially those with large fleets of Android devices or that are in high-security verticals such as finance, healthcare, and government. Android malware continues to become stealthier and more complex, too. For example, in October 2018, it was discovered that malware authors had been sneaking mobile banking Trojans into the Google Play store that masqueraded as device boosters and cleaners, battery managers, and horoscope apps. These remotely controlled Trojans are capable of dynamically targeting any apps found on the victims device with tailor-made phishing forms, according to the IT security firm ESETs We Live Security blog. Aside from this, they can intercept and redirect text messages to bypass SMS-based two-factor-authentication, intercept call logs, and download and install other apps on the compromised device. The good news? Android security is improving, and the diversity of security applications available for the platform is strong, said Nick FitzGerald, senior research fellow at ESET. That means theres more than one set of hurdles the bad guys must clear to have a highly successful malware campaign. By PTI: London, Oct 30 (PTI) Pakistans ousted premier Nawaz Sharif will hold a key consultative meeting with the ruling PML-N partys top leadership including Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi here to decide the next steps of the party and the government in the Panama Papers scandal. Sharif, 67, had to step down as the chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) after he was disqualified as the prime minister by the Supreme Court on July 28 in the scandal. advertisement Sharif is in London along with his family to be with his ailing wife Kulsoom Nawaz who is still receiving cancer treatment in the British capital. The top-level consultations in London come amid mounting legal pressure on Sharif and his family in the wake of the court proceedings, Pakistani media reported from London. His daughter Maryam and son-in-law Captain (retired) Mohmmad Safdar have already been indicted in corruption cases filed against them by the countrys anti-corruption body National Accountability Bureau on the Supreme Courts instruction in the Panama Papers case. Abbasi and Sharifs brother and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif left for London yesterday to meet the former premier, who landed here from Saudi Arabia along with his son Hussain. Dismissing speculation about early general elections, Sharif said: "Rumours are always around but don?t believe them". He once again complained about his removal and said: "When a government is weakened, the country gets weakened". Shahbaz said that: "Elections will be held on time and there are no differences in the party or family". After the day-long meeting, Abbasi is expected to return to Pakistan later in the day. Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif, along with other cabinet ministers, is also expected to reach the UK from Saudi Arabia. The PML-N party is trying to position itself for the 2018 elections. Both Sharif and his daughter have stated that the cases against them are politically-motivated. Sharif reached London to be with his wife after concluding a week-long private visit to Saudi Arabia. PTI CPS AKJ CPS --- ENDS --- Iran Responsible For Cyber Attack On British Parliament The cyber-attack on UK Parliament, that compromised MPs email accounts, was orchestrated by Iran, according to an unpublished report by British intelligence. Blackmail fears were raised in June when hackers tried to break into the system used by MPs, peers and staff by searching for weak passwords. Around 90 of the 9,000 email accounts were undermined in the sustained and determined attack. Investigators have traced the source of the attack to the Tehran regime, according to reports. It is thought to be Irans first significant act of cyberwarfare against Britain. The immediate suspicion fell upon foreign governments such as Russia and North Korea, both of which have been accused of coordinating previous hacking attempts. The House of Commons said it did not comment on security matters. A National Cyber Security Centre spokesman said it would be inappropriate to comment further while enquiries are ongoing. Awkward timing The revelations come as Britain tries to keep the Iran nuclear deal on track after Donald Trumps refused to back it. The US president accused Tehran of violating the spirit of the landmark 2015 agreement and believes the international community is being naive in its dealings with the regime. Mr Trump stopped short of ripping up the deal but said without measures to toughen it up the agreement will be terminated. Theresa May joined Germanys Angela Merkel and Frances Emmanuel Macron to issue a statement insisting preserving the pact was in our shared national security interest and calling for Washington to consider the implications of taking action that undermine it. The statement from the UK, France and Germany said the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had repeatedly confirmed Irans compliance to the terms it signed up to. It said: We, the leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom take note of President Trumps decision not to recertify Irans compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) to Congress and are concerned by the possible implications. We stand committed to the JCPoA and its full implementation by all sides. Preserving the JCPoA is in our shared national security interest. The nuclear deal was the culmination of 13 years of diplomacy and was a major step towards ensuring that Irans nuclear programme is not diverted for military purposes. Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry accused Mr Trump of an act of wanton vandalism and said it was high time the Government stopped kowtowing to the US president and challenged him on his actions. She said: It is an act of wanton vandalism for Donald Trump to jeopardise the future of that deal today, and to move the goalposts by linking it to important but utterly extraneous issues around Irans wider activities in the region. It is also totally disingenuous to suggest that the deal just needs to be fixed, when the only evidence that it is any way broken is inside Donald Trumps head. Yet sadly, this kind of reckless and thoughtless behaviour is what we have come to expect from this president. From the Paris climate change deal to US membership of Unesco, he has demonstrated a flagrant disregard for the institutions and agreements that bind the international community together in the shared pursuit of a better future. That is not what we expect from the President of the United States, and it is high time for the British Government to tell him so. iNews: You Might Also Read: Iranian Hackers Linked To Malware: Iran Cyber Attacks on Saudi Arabia: Trump announces his 2024 presidential run as GOP debates future Donald Trump announced he will run for the White House, even as weak midterm showings prompt debate about whether the GOP should move past him. Get the Asia AM Digest every day before Tokyo equity markets open sign up here ! The Euro continued to suffer as the dovish tone of the ECB monetary policy announcement continued to reverberate. The British Pound likewise traded lower, weighed down by Brexit-related jitters. Rates-sensitive currencies at both ends of the G10 yield spectrum the Yen at the low end and commodity bloc FX at the opposite extreme traded higher amid news that Jerome Powell may be named as the next Fed Chair. US President Trump is reportedly down to a short list of three candidates to lead the central bank: incumbent Chair Janet Yellen, Stanford professor John Taylor and Governor Powell. Naming the latter may have been read as a relatively dovish way to install a fellow Republican at the helm compared with Mr Taylor, whose appointment might have signaled an aggressively hawkish shift in tone. DailyFX Economic Calendar: Asia Pacific (all times in GMT) A barebones offering on the economic calendar leaves financial markets without an obvious catalyst in Asia Pacific trade. That may allow space for regional traders to take their turn pricing in Fridays late-day news flow, with the apparently brightening prospects of a Powell-led Fed come February likely to take center stage. Needless to say, this points to continued volatility in rates-driven FX as well as the US Dollar. DailyFX Webinar Calendar CLICK HERE to register IG Client Sentiment Index Chart of the Day: GBP/JPY CLICK HERE to learn more about the IG Client Sentiment Index Retail trader data shows 54.7% of traders are net-long GBP/JPY, with the ratio of traders long to short at 1.21 to 1. The number of traders net-long is 16.4% lower than yesterday and 0.9% higher from last week, while the number of traders net-short is 13.7% higher than yesterday and 10.9% higher from last week. We typically take a contrarian view to crowd sentiment, and the fact traders are net-long suggests GBP/JPY prices may continue to fall. Yet traders are less net-long than yesterday and compared with last week. Recent changes in sentiment warn that the current GBP/JPY price trend may soon reverse higher despite the fact traders remain net-long. Five Things Traders are Reading To get the Asia AM Digest every day before the Tokyo cash equity open, sign up here To get the US AM Digest every day before the US cash equity open, sign up here To get both reports daily, sign up here Even after Washington expressed complete support for New Delhi against what some describe Chinese President Xi Jinping's neo-imperial plan to put the entire world under Beijing's ambitious One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative, doubts remain if India is willing to confront China. The Pakistan part of this dubious drum beat is called China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) worth $62 billion and built with the aim of connecting Kashgar in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region to Gwadar port in Pakistan-occupied Balochistan. In a globalised world, there are many belts and many roads and no one nation should put itself into a position of dictating 'one belt, one road', US secretary of defence General Jim Mad Dog Mattis told members of the influential Senate Armed Services Committee during a congressional hearing October 4. That said, the One Belt One Road also goes through disputed territory, and I think, that in itself shows the vulnerability of trying to establish that sort of a dictate, Mattis said, apparently referring to Indias position on the CPEC passing through Jammu and Kashmir. Mattis had earlier visited New Delhi, where he met his counterpart, Indian minister of defence Nirmala Sitharaman, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other Americans are also calling upon their government to take immediate notice of China's imperial designs at Gwadar. China has built the Gwadar Port big enough to dock eight Chinese battleships, says Jane Eastwood Weisner, director of the American Friends of Balochistan. Gwadar in Balochistan is the heart of Pak-China ties. Photo: Reuters Interestingly, China is building islands in the South China Sea to expand its control. The Silk Sea Road is being built for expanding economic growth and Chinese naval power. Though Beijing denies it, the Pentagon is concerned over reports that the key port of Gwadar may eventually become a major Chinese naval base, shunting out the US. India seems to have had information about the construction of the naval base. US academics too are calling the $62 billion project Chinas Pakistan Exploitation Corridor. The local Baloch people deeply resent the plan because it will fundamentally change the demography of the area. Before the expansion of Gwadar, the population of the area was 70,000. If the project comes to full fruition the population would be closer to 2 million most of whom would be non-Baloch, wrote C Christine Fair, Associate Professor at Georgetown Universitys Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service, in a Foreign Policy article. Fair has also spoken at Balochistan-related events in Washington DC to highlight the dangers of CPEC. Despite such open support from the US government, activists and academics against the CPEC, questions linger if India has the resolve to counter China, which is much richer than India in the warm waters of the Persian or Arabian Gulf which the Baloch call the Baloch Gulf. It is no secret that New Delhi is unhappy with Beijings designs as it sees Gwadar port as part of the Indian Ocean, but the main problem is that bureaucrats in the Indian capital appear too reluctant to invest in measures to counter China's influence. It is true that India, with a GDP of $2.26 trillion alone does not have the capability to challenge China, whose GDP is five times that at $11.2 trillion, but if the US with a GDP of $18.57 trillion is serious in siding with India, surely one can turn the tables. The Baloch support to India India benefits from the public support of the Baloch people, who are willing to work with New Delhi rather than with Beijing or Islamabad whom they see as exploitative powers. However, because of India's passive stance, Baloch minds are increasingly questioning New Delhi's seriousness towards their cause. Presently, the Baloch appear to be the modern-day version of the Bible's David, who is fighting a lonely battle against not one but two Goliaths Islamabad and Beijing. Many Baloch Diaspora activists are buying into Islamabads narrative that India is not sincere towards their cause but merely wishes to use them as proxies. Rumours suggest if there was any support from New Delhi, it was given to corrupt, dark horses in the Baloch Diaspora and involved huge kickbacks.Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised Baloch's hopes when he spoke out for Balochistan in his address at the Red Fort in 2016, but, subsequently, the issue got overshadowed with the demonetisation debate raging like wildfire in India. In this backdrop, on Saturday, Baloch Diaspora in London protested against a mammoth Chinese housing project in Gwadar, continuing the agitation on Sunday. The controversial $500-million endeavour, called China Pak Hills, might as well be a classic example of Jinping's colonisation aimed at settling half million Chinese citizens in Gwadar by 2023, according to a report in News International. The report said China Pak Investment Corporation (CPIC) has partnered with state-owned Top International Engineering Corporation (TIEC) for developing the project. While Islamabad refuted the news report about China Pak Hills, the CPIC presented concrete evidence that they have the official nod for the International Port City project being rechristened as China Pak Hills. Besides the CPEC fanfare, The Dawn reported in June 2017 that China has plans to deeply penetrate Pakistan society and culture.Pakistan Army has tight control over Gwadar district, which abuts the Straits of Hormuz, with military surveillance penetrating the exit and entry points of the strategic coastal region. According to a report in The Dawn, Pakistan navy said that a new force called "Task Force-88 (TF-88)" has been set up for maritime security of Gwadar port and protection of associated sea lanes against both conventional and non-traditional threats. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram pitched for greater autonomy for Jammu and Kashmir on the basis of Article 370, while addressing a gathering in Rajkot, where he was supposed to speak on the GST. The Congress immediately distanced itself from the statement, terming it as individual opinion, and not of the party. The Congress claimed that the solution to J&K lies within the framework of India's Constitution, not in autonomy. The BJP and its allies immediately jumped to criticise, accusing Chidambaram of being anti-national. Chidambaram has served as home minister in the past during the UPA government, which had during its 10-year term, appointed three interlocutors and five working groups for Kashmir, including one headed by former vice-president Hamid Ansari. They also conducted a series of round table conferences on Kashmir, chaired by the then prime minister Manmohan Singh. Each working group and interlocutor had submitted their reports, none of which ever saw the light of day, all still gathering dust. Hence, while Chidambaram, as the home minister failed completely in his mission to resolve the Kashmir issue, raising it now is meaningless. Commenting when out of power is easy, after all, you are no longer responsible nor likely to be for some more time. In Kashmir, moments after he was re-elected as president of the National Conference (NC), Farooq Abdullah, put forth a similar demand of autonomy, which was followed by Omar Abdullah, who also spoke on similar lines. For Chidambaram, commenting when out of power is easy, after all, you are no longer responsible nor likely to be for some more time. Both took their cue from Chidambarams comments. Such statements are always expected from the father and son duo, as they are now desperate to be back and regain their lost political space. These comments are only for the Valley population, ignoring the demands and requirements of the rest of the state. Thus, the NC, while claiming to be a state party, appears to only represent the Valley. What is most surprising is that Chidambaram and the Abdullahs only consider Kashmir, while suggesting autonomy. They should have been batting for complete J&K, including PoK, to be a single autonomous state. Why do they hesitate in mentioning PoK? If there should be an autonomous region, it should be the entire state and not just a portion, now amalgamated and integrated with India? Jammu and Ladakh would never support their decision for autonomy as it does not trust the Kashmiri leadership nor even the Congress, as was evident in the last elections. The regions within the state clearly have different views on the subject, which neither Chidambaram nor the Abdullahs thought of mentioning. They, despite being senior politicians, with national standing, speak only of a particular region (Valley) within the state, not the state per se. Article 35A, presently in the Supreme Court is being objected to by the NC and the PDP, solely for political gains in the Valley. Their actions have ignored Jammu and Ladakh, whose views on the article are the opposite. Hence, these parties would never be accepted across the state. Demands for autonomy, retention of articles 35A and 370 have adversely affected Jammu and Ladakh, thus enhancing intra-state divides. There are no doubts that such comments would gain headlines in Pakistan and become fodder for the separatists, who are presently struggling to regain their feet, after being exposed of creating assets worth billions, on money funded by Pakistan. They are facing National Investigation Agency and Enforcement Directorate scrutiny and many of their kin alongside members of the Hurriyat are already behind bars, singing like canaries. The criticism of Chidambarams comments by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is justified. After all, with elections around the corner, every word spoken by the Opposition is open to exploitation. However, most unimaginative has been his exploiting martyrs and the armed forces in countering these comments. His words that "such statements are an insult to the martyrs and the armed forces" are in itself an irony. The present government seeks to project its support to the armed forces and its success in the surgical strike, solely to gain votes, whereas the reality is the opposite. This government has damaged the standing and prestige of the armed forces much more, in its three years in power, than most governments over decades. It has directed the police to maltreat silently protesting veterans, removed them by force from Jantar Mantar, appealed in courts against deserving pension decisions to legitimate war veterans and widows while simultaneously sought to lower the standing and stature of the armed forces against other central forces. It is fighting tooth and nail to deny the armed forces its legitimate Non-Functional Upgradation (NFU), presently allocated to all other services. Had Chidambaram stated that autonomy should have been done during the UPA rule, but could not be, as it lacked the guts to implement that, he would still have made sense. To mention now, when the government of which he was a part lacked the ability to implement it, is only seeking a few minutes of prime time. For the Abdullahs such statements are natural, as they are desperate to regain power, after being unceremoniously thrown out. Chidambaram and the Abdullahs definitely need to be chastised for their loose statements and the Prime Minister was right when he did so. But playing on vote bank politics, by imploring martyrs and the armed forces in criticising them is hypocrisy, as this government has done more damage than most previous ones to the militarys stature and standing. The Rajasthan government wants to protect its ministers, babus, judges and magistrates from investigation for corruption for a layover period of six months. Ministers generally protect themselves by layers of indifference. No one resigns faced with debacle as Lal Bahadur Shastri did accepting responsibility for a railway accident in 1956. Babus are protected by the Constitution and have security for tenure and no dismissal without due process. After investigation, public servants are protected from prosecution without sanction under the Criminal Procedure Code for discharge of official duties in office or after. In the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), 1988, public servants have similar protections. Judges have their own protection. On November 15, 2017, the Bombay High Court refused to immunise a judge for corruption in office relating to his duties. But the point is, criminal prosecution cannot take place without special permission. But Rajasthans ordinance goes further. Shelter from probe The Rajasthan ordinance seeks to protect the minister, the babu, sub-babus and their co-conspirators from investigation (not just prosecution after investigation). The babu keeps inventing ways to protect themselves. The ministers go along because they are protected too. In the Hawala case (1998), the Supreme Court struck down a similar provision of the central government called the Single Directive. All babus who were joint secretaries and above were given protection from investigation. Justice Vermas judgment decisively struck down the Single Directive as an unwarranted protection wholly unworthy. The babus tried very hard to introduce this in the Bills on Central Vigilance Commission and Lokpal succeeding to the extent that class A and B employees were more favourably treated. Imagine the situations. Situation A: A babu or minister takes bribes. It is a pretty straight forward case of entrapment. Why should he not be investigated immediately? Why the delay of 180 days? Situation B: A babu or a minister is involved is a fully fledged scam. The scam spreads or is in danger of spreading. A complaint is filed. Rajasthan says no magistrate shall order an investigation for six months, leaving open all the possibilities to cover up, even flight. So what if it is about the discharge of his official duties. Discharging duties illegally and criminally can never and should never be immunised. In many of these cases, custodial investigation is required. That will give way for further leads. There is no sense in an immunity period for investigation. India is a nation riddled with corruption. The PCA was specifically enacted to tackle corruption at all levels. The term public servant (taken from other statutes by the Rajasthan ordinance) is defined in PCA to cover a contractor for fees, local officials, an arbitrator referred by the court or complaint authority, office bearers of corporate societies, vice-chancellors or teachers performing public functions and government or states cultural or other institutions. Rajasthans Bill says public servant means as defined in any other law. Gagging free speech The ordinance goes further to gag the press. During this period, Rajasthans rulers say no one shall print or publish publicise... the name, address, photograph, family details of the judge, magistrate or public servant. So, if a person is suspected of a crime, and there is no sanction for investigation, there is a blanket gagging on the press on not to publish or publicise it. A minister is under suspicion and there will be no Twitter, Facebook, or electronic publication. If the provision is construed widely, you cannot talk to your neighbour about it because that is a publication, and certainly publicity. But matters do not end there. A new section 228B of IPC (applicable to Rajasthan) says that a person who indulges such publicity and publishing can be punished for simple or rigorous imprisonment for up to two years and also fined. The fine can be to any limit. In former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhis term (probably to offset criticism of Bofors, submarine and other scandals), a Defamation Bill 1998 was flaunted. There was a mighty campaign against it. It was like the infamous Bihar law. The campaign succeeded. The Bill was stopped by public opinion. In the case of Rajasthan, there was a huge campaign. The Ordinance was denounced. There was criticism outside Rajasthan against the draconian proposal. The Ordinance continues. But a Bill was tabled before a select committee to examine it. What a ruse! But it has been side-stepped. On October 27, 2017, the Rajasthan high court issued a notice to the state government and the Centre on a petition by Sachin Pilot on the Ordinances un-constitutionality. One step left However, there is one more step after the bill is enacted (and I believe it should also apply for Ordinances). Since this is an amendment of a central legislation, the consent of the President (i.e. the central government) is required. The Governor has to reserve it for the President. Ideally, such legislation could be thrown in the dustbin by the President after it is reserved by the governor. But the President and governor are partymen, and the President is advised in this regard by the Narendra Modi cabinet. But ministers of the Union government support Rajasthans measure. Perhaps, the central government would like a similar protection for the prime minister, ministers and other public servants. They have so much to hide. This is a measure to hide corruption, dilute standards of probity and assault the very essence of democracy. Argan, Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning, operations management, maintenance, project development, technical, and consulting services to the power generation and renewable energy markets. The company operates through Power Industry Services, Industrial Fabrication and Field Services, and Telecommunications Infrastructure Services segments. The Power Industry Services segment offers engineering, procurement, and construction contracting services to the owners of alternative energy facilities, such as biomass plants, wind farms, and solar fields; and design, construction, project management, start-up, and operation services for projects with approximately 15 gigawatts of power-generating capacity. This segment serves independent power project owners, public utilities, power plant equipment suppliers, and energy plant construction companies. The Industrial Fabrication and Field Services segment provides industrial field, and pipe and vessel fabrication services for forest products, industrial gas, fertilizer, and mining companies in southeast region of the United States. The Telecommunications Infrastructure Services segment offers trenchless directional boring and excavation for underground communication and power networks, as well as aerial cabling services; and installs buried cable, high and low voltage electric lines, and private area outdoor lighting systems. It also provides structured cabling, terminations, and connectivity that offers the physical transport for high-speed data, voice, video, and security networks. This segment serves state and local government agencies, regional communications service providers, electric utilities, and other commercial customers, as well as federal government facilities comprising cleared facilities in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Argan, Inc. was incorporated in 1961 and is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. The following companies are subsidiares of Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.: 2235158 Alberta Limited, A.J. Amer Agency, AHC Digital LLC, AIX Limited, AJG Coal LLC, AJG Financial Services LLC, AJG Meadows LLC, AJG North America ULC, AJG RCF LLC, AJGRMS of Louisiana LLC, ARM RE Ltda., AVIATION INSURANCE SERVICES, AVRECO, Ace IRM Insurance Broking Group, Acumus Holdings Limited, Acumus Interco Limited, Acumus Ltd, Adams & Associates International, Adaptive Marketing LLC, Adco General Corporation, Advanced Benefit Advisors, Aequus Trade Credit, Affinity Marketing Group, Ahrold Fay Rosenberg, Aires Consulting Group, Alesco Risk Management Services Limited, Alize Limited, Allied Claims Administration Inc., Alternative Market Specialists, Altman & Cronin Benefit Consultants, American Freedom Carriers Inc., American Security Services Corp., American Wholesalers Underwriting Ltd, Andrew-Anthony Insurance Agency, Anthony Hodges Consulting Limited, Antrobus Investments Limited, AquaSurance, Argentis, Argentis Financial Group Limited, Argentis Financial Management Limited, Argus Benefits, Armstrong/Robitaille/Riegle, Artex (SAC) Limited, Artex Cedar Hill, Artex Corporate Services (Malta) Limited, Artex Corporate Services Limited, Artex Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Artex Holdings (Malta) Limited, Artex Insurance (Guernsey) PCC Limited, Artex Insurance (Tennessee) PCCIC Inc., Artex Insurance Brokers (Malta) PCC Limited, Artex Insurance ICC Limited, Artex Intermediaries Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (Bermuda) Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (Cayman) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (Gibraltar) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (Guernsey) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (International) Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (Malta) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Artex Risk Solutions (UK) Limited, Artex Risk Solutions Inc., Arthur J Gallagher (Norway) Holdings AS, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (AUS) Ltd, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (Bermuda) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (Illinois), Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Insurance Brokers of California Inc., Arthur J. Gallagher (Aus) Pty Ltd, Arthur J. Gallagher (Bermuda) Holding Partnership, Arthur J. Gallagher (Life Solutions) Ltd, Arthur J. Gallagher (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Arthur J. Gallagher (U.S.) LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher (UK) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Asesoria S.A.C., Arthur J. Gallagher Australasia Holdings Pty Ltd., Arthur J. Gallagher Brokerage & Risk Management Services LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Broking (NZ) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Financial Services Professionals Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Group Quebec ULC, Arthur J. Gallagher Holdings (UK) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Insurance Brokers Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Latin America LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Management (Bermuda) Limited, Arthur J. Gallagher Real Estate Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services (Hawaii) Inc., Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services Inc., Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services of Utah Inc., Arthur J. Gallagher School Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Service Company LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher Services (UK) Ltd, Ashmore & Associates Insurance Agency, Atlantic Risk Management Corp., Atrex Insurance (Cayman) SPC Limited, Avantek Pty Ltd, Axe Insurance PCC Limited, BIS Insurance Services, Baker - Tillys employment benefits solutions, Ballard Benefit Works, Bankers Financial Benefits, Barmore Insurance Agency, Behnke & Co. Inc., Bellisle Pty Ltd, Belmont Associates Consultants, Belmont Insurance Holdings Limited, Belmont International, Belmont International Limited, Benefit Development Group, Benefit Management Group, BenefitLink Resource Group, Benefits Planning & Insurance Agency, Benefits Unlimited, Bennett & Shade Co., Bergvall Marine, Bergvall Marine A.S., Besselman & Little Agency, Big Savings Insurance Agency Inc., Blenheim Park Ltd, Blenheim Park Services Limited, Blue Holdings Pty Ltd, Blue Horizon Insurance Services, Blue Water Benefits, BluePeak Advisors, Blueleaf Consulting Pty Ltd., Bluewater Incorporated Cell Insurance Company, Bollinger Inc., Bollinger Insurance Services Inc., Bowen Miclette Britt & Merry of Arkansas Inc., Brendis & Brendis, Brim AB, Broker Benefit Services, Brokerage Professionals, Brown Hobbs & McMurray Insurance, Bultman/Bell Associates Inc., Burkwald & Associates, Burns-Fazzi Brock & Associates, Bushong Insurance Associates, C&B Consulting Group, CGM Gallagher Insruance Brokers (Trinidad & Tobago) Limited, CJM Solutions Inc., CMA Solutions LLC, Cairnstone Financial, California Insurance Center, Capital Bauer Insurance Agency, Capitol Benefits Group, Capsicum CRLA LLP, Capsicum Re Brasil Participacoes Ltda, Capsicum Re Latin America Corretora De Resseguros Ltda, Capsicum Reinsurance Brokers Bermuda Limited, Capsicum Reinsurance Brokers Miami Inc., Carefree Marketing Inc., Carpenter Cammack & Associates, Cashan & Co., Castle Insurance Associates, Centennial Insurance Agency, Charity First Insurance Services Inc., Charles Allen Agency, Charter Lakes Insurance Agency, Chris Schroeder Insurance, Christie-Phoenix, Cintran Claims Canada Limited, Classic Insurance Services, Cleaveland Insurance Group, Cohen & Lord Insurance Brokers, Cohn Financial Group, Coleman Group Holdings Limited, Coleman Holdings Limited, College and University Scholastic Excess Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Commercial Insurance Brokers, Complete Benefit Alliance, Complete Financial Balance, Complete Financial Balance Pty Ltd, Consolidated Casualty Specialties LLC, Construction Risk Solutions, Contego Underwriting Limited, Contego Underwriting Ltd, Continental Excess & Surplus, Convergence Risk Services Ltd, Copper Mountain Assurance Inc., Cornwall & Stevens Co., Corporate Benefit Advisors, Corporate Life Consultants, Countrywide Accident Assistance Limited, Coverdell & Company Inc., Coverdell Canada Corporation, Cowles and Connell, Craig M. Ferguson & Co., Crist Elliott Machette Insurance Services, Crombie Lockwood (NZ) Limited, Davis-Poston & Associates, Denman Consulting Services, Detlefs Johnson & Partners, DiBrina Group, Dickinson & Associates, Discount Development Services L.L.C., Discovery Benefit Solutions, Dodson-Bateman & Co., Donald P. Pipino Co. Ltd., E. S. Susanin Inc., EHE Holdings LLC, EHS Holdings Limited, Elantis Premium Funding (NZ) Limited, Elantis Premium Funding Limited, Elite Benefits Insurance Marketing Services, Employee Benefits Analysis Corp., Employee Benefits of The Carolinas, Encore Insurance & Bonding, Everett James, Evolution Risk Services Limited, Evolution Technology Services Limited, Evolution Underwriting Group, Evolution Underwriting Group Limited, Evolution Underwriting Limited, Excel Insurance Services, FYI Direct Canada Corporation, FYI Direct LLC, Farallone Pacific Insurance Services, Fenchurch Faris Limited, Fidelity Benefits & Insurance Services, Financial Profiles Inc., Finergy Solutions Pty Ltd, First Agency, First Iowa Insurance Agency, First Premium Inc., First Premium Insurance Group, Fish & Schulkamp, Fishermans Insurance Services, Foley Healthcare Limited, Fortress Financial Solutions Pty Ltd, Fortress Insurance LLC, Foundation Strategies, Fox Lawson & Associates, Franklin-Case Agency LLC, Fraser MacAndrew Ryan Limited, Friary Intermediate Limited, Fuller & O'Brien, G.S. Chapman & Associates Insurance Brokers, G.S. Levine Insurance Services, GBS (Australia) Holdings Pty Ltd, GBS Administrators Inc., GBS Insurance and Financial Services Inc., GBS Retirement Services Inc., GBS Specialty Markets LLC, GGB Finance 1 Limited, GGB Finance 2 Limited, GGB Finance 3 Limited, GGB Finance 4 Limited, GPL Assurance, GPL Assurance Inc., Gabor Insurance Services, Gale Smith & Co. Inc., Gallagher (Bermuda) Insurance Solutions Ltd., Gallagher - Grace/Mayer Insurance Agency, Gallagher Bassett Aires Inc., Gallagher Bassett Canada Inc., Gallagher Bassett Insurance Services Ltd., Gallagher Bassett International Ltd., Gallagher Bassett NZ Pty Ltd., Gallagher Bassett Services Inc. , Gallagher Bassett Services Pty Ltd., Gallagher Bassett Services Workers Compensation Victoria Pty Ltd., Gallagher Benefit Services (Canada) Group Inc., Gallagher Benefit Services (Holdings) Limited, Gallagher Benefit Services Inc., Gallagher Benefit Services Management Company Limited, Gallagher Benefit Services Pty Ltd, Gallagher Benefits Consulting Limited, Gallagher Bomford Couch Wilson, Gallagher Burgess, Gallagher Canada Acquisition Corporation, Gallagher Caribbean Group Limited, Gallagher Clean Energy LLC, Gallagher Communications Limited, Gallagher Community Clinic RPG LLC, Gallagher Consulting Ltda, Gallagher Corporate Services LLC, Gallagher Coyle, Gallagher CyberRisk, Gallagher Energy Risk Services Inc., Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC, Gallagher Holdings (UK) Limited, Gallagher Holdings Bermuda Company Limited, Gallagher Holdings Four (UK) Limited, Gallagher Holdings Three (UK) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (Barbados) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (St. Kitts & Nevis) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (St. Lucia) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers (St. Vincent) Limited, Gallagher Insurance Brokers Jamaica Limited, Gallagher International Cash Management s.r.l., Gallagher International Holdings (US) Inc., Gallagher Investment Advisors LLC, Gallagher Inwest Group, Gallagher Koster, Gallagher Lambert Group, Gallagher Madison Risk & Insurance Services, Gallagher Mauritius Holdings, Gallagher Mississippi Brokerage LLC, Gallagher RE Colombia Ltda Corredores de Reaseguros SA, Gallagher Risk & Reward Limited, Gallagher Risk Group LLC, Gallagher Risk Placements Pty Ltd, Gallagher SKS, Gallagher Service Center LLP, Gallagher-Tarantino, Galtney Group, Game Day Insurance Inc., Gardner & White Corp., Gardner Marine Agency, Garza Long Group, Gatehouse Consulting Limited, Gault Armstrong Kemble Pty Ltd, Gault Armstrong SARL, Giles Group, Giles Holdings Limited, Giles Insurance Brokers, Gillis Ellis & Baker Inc., Goodman Insurance Agency, Grandy Pratt Co., Greenseed Alternative Mangaers Platform Ltd, Grossman & Associates, Group Benefits of Arkansas, Group Insurance Associates, Gruppo Marcucci, HLG Holdings Limited, HMG-PCMS Limited, HPF Investments LLC, HR Owen Insurance Services Limited, Hagan Newkirk Financial Services, Hagedorn & Company, Hardman & Howell Benefits, Harlequin Insurance PCC Limited, Hartstein Associates Inc., Healthcare Professionals Purchasing Group LLC, Healthcare Risk Solutions, Heath Lambert Group Ltd., Heath Lambert Limited, Heath Lambert Overseas Limited, Heiser Insurance Agency, Henderson Phillips Fine Arts Insurance, Herbruck Alder & Co., Heritage Insurance Brokers (CI) Limited, Hesse & Partner AG, Hesse Consulting, Hexagon ICC Limited, Hexagon Insurance PCC Limited, Hill Chesson & Woody, Hogan Insurance Services, Home & Travel Limited, Honour Point Limited, Horseshoe Corporate Services Ltd, Horseshoe Fund Services (Cayman) Ltd, Horseshoe Fund Services Ltd, Horseshoe Fund Services USA Inc., Horseshoe ILS Services UK Ltd, Horseshoe Insurance Advisors US LLC, Horseshoe Insurance Advisory Ltd., Horseshoe Insurance Services Holdings Ltd, Horseshoe Insurance Services Holdings US Inc., Horseshoe Management (Gibraltar) Limited, Horseshoe Management (Ireland) Ltd, Horseshoe Management Ltd., Horseshoe PCC Limited, Horseshoe Re Limited, Horseshoe Services (Cayman) Ltd, Horseshoe Services (Pty) Ltd, Horton Insurance Agency, Housing Authorities Services Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Human Resource Management Systems, I-Protect Underwriting Pty Ltd, IBIS Advisors, IBS Reinsurance Singapore Pte Ltd, ILS Fund Services Ltd., ISG International, ITI Solutions, Igloo Insurance PCC Limited, Independent Benefit Services, Independent Fiduciary Services, Ink Underwriting Agencies Limited, InsSync Group Pty Ltd, Inspire Underwriting Limited, Instrat Insurance Brokers, Instrat Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd, Instrat Integration Holdco Pty Ltd, Insurance Acquisitions Holdings Limited, Insurance Associates Inc., Insurance Dialogue Limited, Insurance Dialogue Ltd., Insurance Plans Agency, Insurance Plus Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Insurance Point, Insurance Risk Managers of Missouri Inc., Insure My Villa Limited, Insure Pty Ltd, Integrated Healthcare Strategies, InterNational Insurance Group, InterPacific Underwriting Agencies, Intermountain Financial Benefits, Interstate Insurance Underwriters, JPGAC LLC, James F. Reda & Associates, James R. Weir Insurance Agency, Jenkins and Associates, Joe E. Martin Inc., John P. Woods Co. Inc., Jones Brown, Jones Brown Group Inc., Jones Brown Insurance Solutions Inc., Joseph Distel, Joseph James & Associates Insurance Agency, Just Landlords Insurance Services Ltd, KDC Associates, KRW Insurance Agency, Kahl Insurance Services, Kaler Carney Liffler & Co. Inc., Kane Group - Insurance Management Operations, Kelly Financial, Kent Kent & Tingle and RBS, Keyser Benefits Corp., Kingspark Enterprises Pty Ltd, L&R Benefits, LSG Insurance Partners, Learn About Money Limited, Lewis & Associates Insurance Brokers, Leystone Insurance & Financial, Life Plans Unlimited, Lincoln Financial Management, Longfellow Financial, Lucas Fettes Limited, Lucas Fettes and Partners Limited, Lutgert Insurance, MA Underwriting Pty Ltd, MDM Insurance Associates, MG Advanced Coal Technologies-1 LLC, MGA Insurance Services, MRS Holdings Ltd., Madison Scott & Associates, Managed Healthcare Solutions, Mannequin Insurance PCC Limited, Marchetti Robertson & Brickell Insurance, Marine Insurance Service, Martin Gordon & Jones Inc., McDowall Associates Human Resource Consultants, McIntyre Risk Management, McLean Insurance Agency, McNeary, McPherson Benefits Group, McRory & Co., Mecacem Insurance SPC Ltd, MedInsights Inc., Melton Insurance Associates, Memberworks Canada LLC, Merit Insurance, Metcom Excess, Metzler Bros. Insurance, Meyers-Reynolds & Associates, Mid America Group, Midwest Surety Services, Mike Henry Insurance Brokers, Mike Henry Insurance Brokers Limited, Mike Henry Insurance Funding Limited, Miller Buettner & Parrott, Miller-Harrison Insurance Services, Milne Alexander Pty Ltd, Minvielle & Chastanet Insurance Brokers, Monument Insurance (NZ) Limited, Monument Llc, Monument Premium Funding Limited, Mortgage Insurance Agency, Murphy Consultants, Mutual Insurance Services, NationAir Aviation Insurance, National Administration Co., National Ethics Association, National Transportation Adjusters, Nelson/Monarch Insurance Services, Nicoud Insurance Services, NiiS/Apex Group Holdings, Nonprofit Insurance Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Noraxis Capital Corp, Nordic Forsakring & Riskhantering AB, North Alabama Insurance, Nourse Insurance Brokers, O'Gorman & Young, OAMPS (UK) Limited, OAMPS Gault Armstrong Pty Ltd, OAMPS Limited, OAMPS Special Risks Ltd, Offshore Market Placements Limited, Optimum Talent, Orb Financial Services, Orb Financial Services Limited, Osprey Insurance Brokers Limited, Oval Group, Oval Healthcare Limited, Oval Insurance Broking Limited, Oval Limited, Oval Management Services Limited, Oxygen Insurance Managers, P2 Group, PEN Insurance Management Advisors Ltd, PT IBS Insurance Broking Service, Pacific Insurance Agency, Palmer Atlantic Insurance, Palmer Atlantic Insurance Ltd, Palmer Atlantic Risk Services Ltd., Park Row Associates, Parkstar Enterprises Pty Ltd, Parmia Pty Ltd, PartnerSource, Pastel Holding (NZ) Company, Pastel Holdings Pty Limited, Pastel Purchaser (NZ) Limited, Pastel Purchaser Pty Limited, Pavey Group Holdings (UK) Limited, Pavey Group Holdings Limited, Pavey Group Limited, Pearson Dunn Insurance Inc., Pen Underwriting Canada Limited, Pen Underwriting Group Pty. Ltd., Pen Underwriting Limited, Pen Underwriting Pty Ltd, Persing Dyckman & Toynbee Inc., Personal Advice Services Pty Ltd, Petty Burton Associates, Pointer Insurance Agency, Portmore Insurance Brokers (Wilshire) Limited, Portmore Insurance Brokers Limited, Potter-Holden & Co., Powell Insurance Agency, Premier Insurance Services Inc., Premier Risk Services, Premium Finance Corporation, Preston-Patterson, ProSource Financial, Professional Agents Risk Purchasing Group LLC, Professional Claims Managers, Proinova AB, Proinova Agency AB, Pronto California Agency LLC, Pronto California General Agency LLC, Pronto Florida Claims LLC, Pronto Florida General Agency LLC, Pronto Franchise LLC, Pronto General Agency Ltd, Pronto General Agency Management LLC, Pronto Holdco Inc., Pronto Holding California LLC, Pronto Holding Florida LLC, Pronto Insurance Agency of Laredo Inc., Pronto Premium Finance LLC, Property & Commercial Ltd., Property Insurance Initatives Limited, Property and Commercial Limited, Protected Insurance Company, Protection Plan Association Inc., Protek Group Limited, Providium Consulting Group, Ptarmigan Underwriting Agency Limited, Ptarmigan Underwriting UK Limited, Purple Bridge Claims Management Limited, Purple Bridge Finance Limited, Purple Bridge Group Limited, Purple Bridge Investments Limited, Purple Bridge Online Services Limited, Purple Bridge Publishing Limited, Quantum Underwriting Solutions Limited, Quillco 226 Limited, Quillco 227 Limited, R. L. Youngdahl & Associates, R.G. Speno Inc., R.W. Scobie, RA Rossborough (Guernsey) Ltd., RA Rossborough (Insurance Brokers) Ltd, REGENCY Group inc., RGA Referencing Limited, RGA Underwriting Limited, RIL Administrators (Guernsey) Ltd., RJ Dutton Inc., RSM Insurance Services Limited, Reassurance Holdings Inc., Rebholz Insurance Agency, Reid Manson Ltd., Reimbursement Services, Rentguard Limited, Reward Management Limited, Reynolds & Rodar Insurance Group, Riley & Associates, Rio 587 Limited, Rio 588 Limited, Risk & Reward Group, Risk Management Partners Limited, Risk Placement Services Inc., Risk Planners, Risk Services (NW) Limited, Risk Services (NW) Ltd., Risk Solutions Group Limited, Robert A. Schneider Agency, Robert Keith & Associates, Roberts & Roberts Insurance Service, Robinson-Adams Insurance, Rossborough Healthcare International Ltd, Rossborough Insurance (IOM) Ltd., Rossborough Insurance Services Ltd. (Jersey), S. A. Freerks & Associates, SEG Insurance Ltd, SGB-NIA Insurance Brokers, SHILLING Ltd, SKANCO International, SMERI AB, SRS Underwriting Pty Ltd, Secure Enterprises Pty Ltd, Securitas Re, Sellers Group, Sentinel Indemnity LLC, Septagon Insurance PCC Limited, Shuford Insurance Agency, Sigma II Insurance Agency, Sinclair Billard and Weld Limited, Sobieski & Bradley, Solid Benefit Guidance, Spanjers Insurance Agency, Spataro Insurance Agency, Specialised Broking Associates, Specialty Risk, Stackhouse Poland, Stackhouse Poland Bidco Limited, Stackhouse Poland Group Limited, Stackhouse Poland Holdings Limited, Stackhouse Poland Midco Limited, Stackouse Poland Limited, Stanton Group, Stark Johnson & Stinson Inc., Steel Agency, Strata Solicitors Ltd, Strategic Health Plans Corp., Strathearn Insurance Brokers, Strathearn Insurance Brokers (Qld) Trading Trust, Strathern Insurance Group Pty Ltd, Strathern Integration Holdco Pty Ltd, Strathern Unit Trust, Strong Financial Resources, Summit Insurance Group, Sunday and Associates, Sunderland Insurance Services, Super Advice Corporate Services Pty Ltd, Taylor Benefits, Texas Insurance Agency, Texas Insurance Managers, The BeneTex Group, The Buchholz Planning, The Chapman Group, The Commonwealth Consulting Group, The Daniels Group Inc., The EHE Group LLC, The EHE Insurance Agency LLC, The Eagle Insurance Agency LLC, The Eriksen Group, The Forker Company, The Gleason Agency, The Great Lakes Agency, The HR Group, The Hawk Agency, The Human Capital Group, The Lance Group, The Levitt/Kristan Co., The MW Bagnall Company, The Old Greenwich Consulting Group, The Parks Johnson Agency, The Plus Companies Inc., The Presidio Group, The Producers Choice, The Rains Group, The Splinter Group, The Titan Group, The Treiber Group, The Woodsmall Companies Inc., Title & Covenant Brokers Ltd., Title Investments Limited, Tom Sherwin Insurance Agency, Total Reward Group, Total Rewards Group (Holdings) Limited, Towle Agency, Transwestern, Tri-State General Insurance Agency, Triad Insurance Agency, Triad USA, Tribeca Strategic Advisors, Trinder & Norwood, Trip Mate, Trissel Graham & Toole, Tropp & Co., Tudor Risk Services, Tyloma Holdings Limited, Uni-Care Inc., Unison Inc., Universico Group, Unoccupied Direct Limited, V2V Holdings LLC, VEBA Service Group, Vasek Insurance Services Limited, Velo ACU LLC, Velo Holdings Inc., Verbag AG., Vertrue LLC, Victory Insurance Agency, Vincent L. Braband Insurance, Vital Benefits, Voluntary Benefits Solutions, W. E. Kingsley Co. Inc., WM. W. George & Associates, Walker Taylor Agency, Welling Associates, Wesfarmers Insurance - Insurance Brokerage Operations, Western Benefit Solutions, White & Company Insurance, Whitehaven Insurance Group, William Gallagher Associates Insurance Brokers, William H. Connolly & Co., Williams Insurance Agency Inc., Williams-Manny Insurance Group, Winn & Company Insurance Brokers, Wischmeyer Benefit Partners, Woodbrook Underwriting Agencies, Woods & Grooms, WorkCare Northwest, Worksite Communications, Y. S. Liedman & Associates, YOA Capsicum Reinsurance Broker Limited, Zenor Limited, Zuber Insurance Agency, and e3 Financial. Read More By PTI: By Gurdip Singh Singapore, Oct 30 (PTI) Singaporean Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan will be in New Delhi tomorrow as India and Singapore exchange a series of ministerial visits next month. Balakrishnan will visit the Indian capital and Guwahati from October 31 to November 1, his ministry said. In New Delhi, he will call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and co-chair the fifth meeting of the India-Singapore Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) for Bilateral Cooperation with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. advertisement The India-Singapore JMC will review the state of bilateral relations and discuss new areas of cooperation. Balakrishnan will also address a symposium on India, Singapore & ASEAN: Shared History, Common Future. Balakrishnan will speak on the current state of bilateral relations, Indias importance and role in the region, and ways in which Singapore can continue to catalyse greater Indian engagement with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), said the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), a think tank at the National University of Singapore. ISAS is organising the symposium in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). In Guwahati, he will be hosted at lunch by Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. Balakrishnan and Sonowal will also witness the signing of agreements to kick-start project implementation for the North East Skills Centre (NESC) in Guwahati. The NESC is Singapores third skills centre in India and will contribute to the development of the northeast. Balakrishnan will be accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will visit Singapore on November 13 and 15, respectively, said Jawed Ashraf, Indias High Commissioner here. Prabhu will meet the Singaporean business community during his November 13-14 visit while Jaitley will be a keynote speaker at the Singapore Fintech Festival and will attend the FinTech Asia Pacific Summit. Singapores Minister of Trade and Industry S Iswaran will visit Andhra Pradesh and New Delhi from November 16 and its Defence Minister Ng Eng Heng will be in the Indian capital from November 27-29. A programme is also being worked out for the visit of Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong towards the end of November, Ashraf said. Goh was Singapores second prime minister from 1990-2004 and has promoted India-Singapore business relations from the 1990s. PTI GS KUN --- ENDS --- USANA Health Sciences, Inc. develops, manufactures, and sells science-based nutritional and personal care products. The company offers USANA nutritional products that comprise essentials/CellSentials, such as vitamin and mineral supplements that provide a foundation of total body nutrition for various age groups; optimizers comprising targeted supplements that are designed to meet cardiovascular, skeletal/structural, and digestive health needs; and foods that include meal replacement shakes, snack bars, and other related products. It also provides Celavive, a skin care regimen for various skin care types and ethnicities; and other products for prenatal, infant, and young child age groups. In addition, the company offers materials and online tools to assist associates in building their businesses, as well as in marketing products. It offers its products directly in the Asia Pacific, the Americas, and Europe, as well as online. The company has a research collaboration agreement with Beijing University of Chinese Medicine for research in the field of traditional Chinese medicine; and National Sports Training Bureau. USANA Health Sciences, Inc. was founded in 1992 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sanofi, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the research, development, manufacture, and marketing of therapeutic solutions in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Pharmaceuticals, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare. The company provides specialty care products, including human monoclonal antibodies; products for multiple sclerosis, neurology, other inflammatory diseases, immunology, rare diseases, oncology, and rare blood disorders; medicines for diabetes; and cardiovascular and established prescription products. It also supplies poliomyelitis, pertussis, and hib pediatric vaccines; and influenza, adult booster, meningitis, and travel and endemic vaccines. In addition, the company offers allergy, cough and cold, pain, liver care, physical and mental wellness, probiotics, digestive, and nutritional products; and other products, such as daily body lotions, anti-itch products, moisturizing and soothing lotions, and body and foot creams, as well as powders for eczema. Further, it has various pharmaceutical products and vaccines in development stage. Sanofi has collaboration agreement with GlaxoSmithKline to develop a recombinant Covid-19 vaccine; and a research collaboration with Stanford University School of Medicine to advance the understanding of immunology and inflammation through open scientific exchange. It also has a collaboration and license option agreement with Prellis Biologics, Inc. The company was formerly known as Sanofi-Aventis and changed its name to Sanofi in May 2011. Sanofi was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Paris, France. By India Today Web Desk: The Supreme Court is expected to hear several high-profile cases today, from a plea challenging mandatory Aadhaar linking for social welfare schemes to a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of Article 35A. HERE ARE THE LIVE UPDATES: Supreme Court takes undertaking from Hadiya's father that he will produce her in court Supreme Court directs Hadiya to appear in person on November 27 at 3 pm If there are national security threats, state must take action but individual rights should not be curtailed unnecessarily, says Supreme Court in Kerala love jihad case SC raps National Investigation Agency (NIA), says no law prohibits falling in love with a criminal NIA tells Supreme Court that there is a well-oiled machinery involving radicalisation and love jihad cases in Kerala Supreme Court observes that the consent of the girl is prime Hearing underway in Kerala Love Jihad case Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, moves Supreme Court opposing re-investigation of Mahatma's assassination; Amicus curiae seeks time to submit report; court to hear matter after four weeks On the plea filed by Raghav Tankha challenging mandatory linking of Aadhaar with mobile phone, the Supreme Court has issued a notice to Centre, seeking its response in four weeks. The court also issues notice to telecom companies Supreme Court asks Mamata Banerjee to file the petition in individual capacity State government must make some changes in its petition, says Supreme Court In that case, Centre can also challenge the rules formed by the state government, says Supreme Court Supreme Court pulls up Mamata Banerjee government in Aadhaar case, says how can a state government challenge Parliament's decision advertisement Aadhaar: The Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government has challenged the Centre's move to make Aadhaar mandatory for availing benefits of social welfare schemes. The plea is listed for hearing before a bench comprising Justice A K Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan. The West Bengal government has challenged the provision which said that without Aadhaar, the benefits of social welfare schemes would not be extended. The West Bengal Chief Minister recently said that she would link her mobile number with Aadhaar. "If they want to disconnect my phone, let them do so," Mamata said. Article 35A: A bunch of petition challenging Article 35A are likely to come up for hearing before a bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra today. Article 35A relates to special rights and privileges of permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. Article 35A, added to the Indian Constitution by a Presidential Order in 1954, also empowers the state's legislature to frame laws without attracting a challenge on grounds of violating the Right to Equality of people from other states or any other right under the Constitution. Separatists have called for a mass agitation if the Supreme Court delivers a verdict in favour of the pleas. Love Jihad: The case pertains to Hadiya/Akhila--a Hindu woman who converted to Islam and married Shafin Jahan. The girl's father approached the Kerala High Court which annulled the marriage, calling it a case of 'love jihad', and directed that Hadiya returns to her parents. Hadiya's husband Shafin moved the Supreme Court in August challenging the high court's order. The court directed the National Investigation Agency to investigate the alleged forced conversion. Children safety in schools: The murder of a Class 2 student Pradyuman Thakur at Ryan International School in Gurgaon put the spotlight on issue of safety of children in schools. A bench led by Chief Justice Dipak Misra will hear petitions demanding strict guidelines for safety of children in schools. The court had earlier directed all state governments to ensure that Centre's guidelines on safety and security of children are implemented in every school. The CBSE had accused the school of negligence which led to the seven-year-old's murder in the school's premises. ALSO WATCH: PM Modi slams Chidambaram's remarks on Kashmir autonomy --- ENDS --- CRH plc, through its subsidiaries, manufactures and distributes building materials. It operates in three segments: Americas Materials, Europe Materials, and Building Products. The company manufactures and supplies cement, lime, aggregates, precast, ready mixed concrete, and asphalt products; concrete masonry and hardscape products comprising pavers, blocks and kerbs, retaining walls, and related patio products; and glass and glazing products, including architectural glass, custom-engineered curtain and window walls, architectural windows, storefront systems, doors, skylights, and architectural hardware. It also offers precast concrete and polymer-based products, such as underground vaults, drainage pipes and structures, utility enclosures, and modular precast structures to the water, energy, communication, transportation, and building structures markets; and construction accessories, such as anchoring, fixing, and connection solutions, as well as lifting systems, formwork accessories, and other accessories used in construction applications. In addition, the company offers network access products, which include composite access chambers, covers, passive safety systems, retention sockets, sealants, and meter boxes; and paving and construction services. Further, it provides building and civil engineering contracting, contract surfacing, operates logistics and owned railway infrastructure; sells and distributes cement; and supplies access chambers and ducting products. It serves governments, contractors, homebuilders, homeowners, and sub-contractors. The company operates primarily in the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe, the United States, and internationally. CRH plc was founded in 1936 and is headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The following companies are subsidiares of Transocean: 15375 Memorial Corporation, Agon Shipping Inc., Aguas Profundas Limitada, AngoSantaFe - Prestacao de Servicos Petroliferos Limitada, Angola Deepwater Drilling Company (Offshore Services) Ltd, Arcade Drilling AS, Asie Sonat Offshore Sdn. Bhd., Barents Rigco Limited, Blegra Asset Management Limited, Blegra Financing Limited, Caledonia Offshore Drilling Services Limited, Challenger Minerals Inc., Covent Garden - Servicos e Marketing Sociedade Unipessoal Lda, Deepwater Drilling (Transocean Ghana) Limited, Deepwater Drilling North Africa LLC - Free Zone, Deepwater Pacific 1 Inc., Deepwater Supply Inc., Drillship Alonissos Owners Inc., Drillship Hydra Owners Inc., Drillship Kithira Owners Inc., Drillship Kythnos Owners Inc., Drillship Paros Owners Inc., Drillship Skiathos Owners Inc., Drillship Skopelos Owners Inc., Drillship Skyros Owners Inc., Eastern Med Consultants Inc., Entities Holdings Inc., GSF Leasing Services GmbH, Global Marine Inc., Global Offshore Drilling Limited, GlobalSantaFe (Labuan) Inc., GlobalSantaFe B.V., GlobalSantaFe C.R. Luigs Limited, GlobalSantaFe Denmark Holdings ApS, GlobalSantaFe Drilling (N.A.) N.V., GlobalSantaFe Drilling Company, GlobalSantaFe Drilling Company (North Sea) Limited, GlobalSantaFe Drilling Company (Overseas) Limited, GlobalSantaFe Drilling Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., GlobalSantaFe Drilling Operations Inc., GlobalSantaFe Drilling Services (North Sea) Limited, GlobalSantaFe Drilling Trinidad LLC, GlobalSantaFe Drilling Venezuela C.A., GlobalSantaFe Financial Services (Luxembourg) S.a.r.l., GlobalSantaFe Group Financing Limited Liability Company, GlobalSantaFe Holding Company (North Sea) Limited, GlobalSantaFe Hungary Services Limited Liability Company, GlobalSantaFe International Drilling Corporation, GlobalSantaFe International Drilling Inc., GlobalSantaFe International Services Inc., GlobalSantaFe Nederland B.V., GlobalSantaFe Offshore Services Inc., GlobalSantaFe Operations (Mexico) LLC, GlobalSantaFe Saudi Arabia Ltd., GlobalSantaFe Services (BVI) Inc., GlobalSantaFe Services Netherlands B.V., GlobalSantaFe Servicios de Venezuela C.A., GlobalSantaFe South America LLC, GlobalSantaFe Tampico S. de R.L. de C.V., GlobalSantaFe Techserv (North Sea) Limited, GlobalSantaFe U.S. Holdings Inc., Indigo Drilling Limited, Inteliwell JV GP Limited, Inteliwell JV LP, Kalambo Operations Inc., OCR Falklands Drilling Inc., OR Norge Operations Inc., Ocean Rig, Ocean Rig 1 Inc, Ocean Rig 2 Inc., Ocean Rig Canada Inc., Ocean Rig Cuanza Operations Inc., Ocean Rig Cubango Operations Inc., Ocean Rig Deepwater Drilling Limited, Ocean Rig Investments Inc., Ocean Rig Management Inc., Ocean Rig Operations Inc., Ocean Rig UDW Inc., Ocean Rig UDW LLC, Offshore Ghana Transocean Limited, Offshore Rig Operations AS, Olympia Rig Angola Holding S.A., Olympia Rig Angola Limitada, Orion Holdings (Cayman) Limited, Orion RigCo (Cayman) Limited, P.T. Santa Fe Supraco Indonesia, PT. Transocean Indonesia, Platform Capital N.V., Platform Financial N.V., Primelead Limited, R&B Falcon (A) Pty Ltd, R&B Falcon (Caledonia) Limited, R&B Falcon (M) Sdn. Bhd., R&B Falcon (U.K.) Limited, R&B Falcon B.V., R&B Falcon Deepwater (UK) Limited, R&B Falcon Drilling Co. LLC, R&B Falcon Exploration Co. LLC, R&B Falcon International Energy Services B.V., RBF Rig Corporation LLC, Ranger Insurance Limited, Reading & Bates Coal Co. LLC, SDS Offshore Limited, Safemal Drilling Sdn. Bhd., Santa Fe Braun Inc., Santa Fe Construction Company, Santa Fe Drilling Company of Venezuela C.A., Saudi Drilling Company Limited, Sedco Forex International Inc., Services Petroliers Transocean, Servicios Petroleros Santa Fe S.A., Ship Investment Ocean Holdings Inc., Songa Offshore Delta Limited, Songa Offshore Drilling Limited, Songa Offshore Enabler Limited, Songa Offshore Encourage Limited, Songa Offshore Endurance Limited, Songa Offshore Equinox Limited, Songa Offshore Equipment Rental Limited, Songa Offshore Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Songa Offshore Management Limited, Songa Offshore Pte. Ltd., Songa Offshore Rig 2 AS, Songa Offshore Rig 3 AS, Songa Offshore SE, Songa Offshore SE, Songa Offshore Saturn Limited, Songa Offshore T & P Cyprus Limited, Songa Saturn Chartering Pte. Ltd., Spitsbergen Rigco Limited, Sub-Saharan Drilling Inc., T. I. International Mexico S. de R.L. de C.V., TILAM Holdings Limited, TRM Holdings Limited, TSSA - Servicos de Apoio Lda., Transocean Africa Drilling Limited, Transocean Asia Services Sdn Bhd, Transocean Asset Holdings 1 Limited, Transocean Asset Holdings 2 Limited, Transocean Asset Holdings 3 Limited, Transocean Atlas Limited, Transocean Barents ASA, Transocean Brasil Ltda., Transocean Britannia Limited, Transocean Canada Drilling Services Ltd., Transocean Conqueror Limited, Transocean Conqueror Opco LLC, Transocean Corporate Services Limited, Transocean Cyprus Capital Management Public Limited, Transocean Cyprus Drilling Operations Public Limited, Transocean Deepwater Drilling Services Limited, Transocean Deepwater Holdings Limited, Transocean Deepwater Inc., Transocean Deepwater Mauritius, Transocean Deepwater Nautilus Limited, Transocean Deepwater Seafarer Services Limited, Transocean Discoverer 534 LLC, Transocean Drilling Enterprises S.a.r.l., Transocean Drilling Israel Ltd., Transocean Drilling Limited, Transocean Drilling Namibia Inc., Transocean Drilling Offshore S.a.r.l., Transocean Drilling Sdn. Bhd., Transocean Drilling Services (India) Private Limited, Transocean Drilling U.K. Limited, Transocean Eastern Pte. Ltd., Transocean Employee Support Fund, Transocean Enabler Limited, Transocean Enabler Rigco Limited, Transocean Encourage Limited, Transocean Encourage Rigco Limited, Transocean Endurance Limited, Transocean Endurance Rigco Limited, Transocean Entities Holdings GmbH, Transocean Equinox Limited, Transocean Equinox Rigco Limited, Transocean Finance Limited, Transocean Financing (Cayman) Limited, Transocean Financing GmbH, Transocean Guardian Limited, Transocean Holdings 1 Limited, Transocean Holdings 2 Limited, Transocean Holdings 3 Limited, Transocean Holdings LLC, Transocean Hungary Holdings LLC, Transocean Hungary Investments LLC, Transocean Hungary Ventures LLC, Transocean Inc., Transocean Innovation Labs Ltd., Transocean International Holdings Limited, Transocean International Resources Limited, Transocean Investimentos Ltda., Transocean Investments Holdings LLC, Transocean Investments S.a.r.l., Transocean Ltd., Transocean Management Services GmbH, Transocean Minerals Holdings Limited, Transocean Nautilus Limited, Transocean North Sea Limited, Transocean Norway Operations AS, Transocean Offshore (North Sea) Ltd., Transocean Offshore Canada Services Ltd., Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc., Transocean Offshore Deepwater Holdings Limited, Transocean Offshore Drilling Limited, Transocean Offshore Gulf of Guinea II Limited, Transocean Offshore Gulf of Guinea VI Limited, Transocean Offshore Gulf of Guinea VII Limited, Transocean Offshore Gulf of Guinea XII Limited, Transocean Offshore Gulf of Guinea XIII Limited, Transocean Offshore Holdings Limited, Transocean Offshore International Limited, Transocean Offshore International Ventures Limited, Transocean Offshore Limited, Transocean Offshore PR Limited, Transocean Offshore USA Inc., Transocean Onshore Support Services Limited, Transocean Orion Limited, Transocean Phoenix 2 Limited, Transocean Phoenix 2 Opco LLC, Transocean Pontus Limited, Transocean Pontus Opco Inc., Transocean Poseidon Limited, Transocean Poseidon Opco Inc., Transocean Proteus Limited, Transocean Proteus Opco LLC, Transocean Quantum Holdings Limited, Transocean Quantum Management Limited, Transocean Quantum Rig Holdings Limited, Transocean Quantum Sentry Holdings Limited, Transocean Rig 140 Limited, Transocean Rig Management Limited, Transocean SPSF Holdings Limited, Transocean Sedco Forex Ventures Limited, Transocean Sentry Limited, Transocean Services (India) Private Limited, Transocean Services AS, Transocean Services UK Limited, Transocean Skyros Limited, Transocean Spitsbergen ASA, Transocean Sub Asset Holdings 1 Limited, Transocean Sub Asset Holdings 2 Limited, Transocean Sub Asset Holdings 3 Limited, Transocean Support Services Limited, Transocean Support Services Nigeria Limited, Transocean Support Services Private Limited, Transocean Technical Services Egypt LLC, Transocean U.S. Holdings LLC, Transocean UK Limited, Transocean Voyager 1 Limited, Transocean Voyager 2 Limited, Transocean West Africa Holdings Limited, Transocean Worldwide Inc., Triton Asset Leasing GmbH, Triton Capital I GmbH, Triton Capital II GmbH, Triton Capital Mexico GmbH, Triton Conqueror GmbH, Triton Corcovado LLC, Triton Financing LLC, Triton Gemini GmbH, Triton Holdings Limited, Triton Hungary Asset Management LLC, Triton Hungary Investments 1 Limited Liability Company, Triton Industries Inc., Triton KG2 GmbH, Triton Management Services LLC, Triton Mykonos LLC, Triton Nautilus Asset Leasing GmbH, Triton Nautilus Asset Management LLC, Triton Offshore Leasing Services Limited, Triton Pacific Limited, Triton Poseidon GmbH, Triton Voyager Asset Leasing GmbH, and Wilrig Offshore (UK) Limited. Read More By PTI: Patna, Oct 28 (PTI) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today instructed officials to take stern action against those found guilty in the hooch tragedy in Rohtas district which has claimed four lives. Kumar issued the instructions at a review meeting held with the states chief secretary, home secretary and director general of police, an official release said. advertisement Four persons died after consuming spurious liquor in Rohtas district last night, following which nine police personnel were placed under suspension today. A complete ban on sale and consumption of alcohol was imposed in Bihar April last year. Explanations have been sought from a number of officials regarding the lapse, while the police today raided a shop owned by one of the accused and seized liquor bottles. A political slugfest has broken out over the Rohtas hooch tragedy with opposition RJD today charging that the prohibition in the state was "only on paper" and the ruling JD(U) claiming a drop in crime rates and improvement in the standard of living due to the liquor ban. Meanwhile, according to another release, the chief minister met and blessed a couple from Bhojpur district who had tied the knot without giving or accepting dowry. Kumar had, on October 2, called for a statewide campaign against dowry and child marriage. PTI NAC RG RC --- ENDS --- CoreLogic, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides property information, insight, analytics, and data-enabled solutions in North America, Western Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company operates in two segments, Property Intelligence & Risk Management Solutions (PIRM) and Underwriting & Workflow Solutions (UWS). The PIRM segment combines property information, mortgage information, and consumer information to deliver housing market and property-level insights, predictive analytics, and risk management capabilities. It also offers proprietary technology and software platforms to access, automate, or track the information and assist its clients with decision-making and compliance tools in the real estate and insurance industries. This segment primarily serves commercial banks, mortgage lenders and brokers, investment banks, fixed-income investors, real estate agents, MLS companies, property and casualty insurance companies, title insurance companies, government agencies, and government-sponsored enterprises. The UWS segment combines property, mortgage, and consumer information to provide comprehensive mortgage origination and monitoring solutions, including underwriting-related solutions, and data-enabled valuations and appraisals. This segment also provides proprietary technology and software platforms to access, automate, or track the information and assist its clients with vetting and onboarding prospects, and meeting compliance regulations, as well as understanding, evaluating, monitoring property values. It primarily serves mortgage lenders and servicers, mortgage brokers, credit unions, commercial banks, fixed-income investors, government agencies, and property and casualty insurance companies. The company was formerly known as The First American Corporation and changed its name to CoreLogic, Inc. in June 2010. CoreLogic, Inc. was incorporated in 1894 and is headquartered in Irvine, California. Delek US Holdings, Inc. engages in the integrated downstream energy business in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Refining, Logistics, and Retail. The Refining segment processes crude oil and other feedstock for the manufacture of various grades of gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuel, asphalt, and other petroleum-based products that are distributed through owned and third-party product terminal. It owns and operates four independent refineries located in Tyler, Texas; El Dorado, Arkansas; Big Spring, Texas; and Krotz Springs, Louisiana, as well as three biodiesel facilities in Crossett, Arkansas, Cleburne, Texas, and New Albany. The Logistics segment gathers, transports, and stores crude oil, intermediate, and refined products; and markets, distributes, transports, and stores refined products for third parties. It owns or leases capacity on approximately 400 miles of crude oil transportation pipelines, approximately 450 miles of refined product pipelines, an approximately 900-mile crude oil gathering system, and associated crude oil storage tanks with an aggregate of approximately 10.2 million barrels of active shell capacity; and owns and operates ten light product distribution terminals, as well as markets light products using third-party terminals. The Retail segment owns and leases 248 convenience store sites located primarily in West Texas and New Mexico. Its convenience stores offer various grades of gasoline and diesel under the DK or Alon brand; and food products and service, tobacco products, non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages, and general merchandise, as well as money orders to the public primarily under the 7-Eleven and DK or Alon brand names. It serves oil companies, independent refiners and marketers, jobbers, distributors, utility and transportation companies, the U.S. government, and independent retail fuel operators. Delek US Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee. According to sources, around 7,000 personal from various districts have been deployed in the city and there will be four IGSs, four DIGs and 16 SPs supervising the event. With the three-day Thevar Jayanthi celebrations culminating today, heavy security arrangements have been made in Ramanathapuram to quell clashes- if any erupt. Thevar Jayanti is the birth anniversary of freedom fighter Pasumon Muthuramalinga Thevar. This annual fest has always had deep political undertones- with all Tamil Nadu parties paying their homage to the leader. Leaders from major political parties participate in the celebrations to woo the Thevar community, which has a stronghold across southern districts of Tamil Nadu. Thevars make up roughly 40-45 per cent of vote share in Tamil Nadu. advertisement According to sources, around 7,000 personal from various districts have been deployed in the city and there will be four IGSs, four DIGs and 16 SPs supervising the event. The main highlight of the centenary celebrations is the adornment of the Thevar statue with a golden armour- donated by former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. On Friday, supporters from rival AIADMK factions warred over the rightful claim on the same golden armour for adorning the statue. In 2014, then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa had donated a golden armour weighing 13 kgs for the statue- to be adorned every Thevar Jayanti. But with split in AIADMK ranks, the armour was handed over to Thevar Memorial caretaker by the bank due to confusion over who will offer it. Nevertheless, the Thevar statue was embellished with the armour on Friday in presence of the Madurai collector. Today, Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami, Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam will reach the city to garland the statue, and some reports claim so will TTV Dhinakaran. --- ENDS --- General Mills, Inc. manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company operates in five segments: North America Retail; Convenience Stores & Foodservice; Europe & Australia; Asia & Latin America; and Pet. It offers ready-to-eat cereals, refrigerated yogurt, soup, meal kits, refrigerated and frozen dough products, dessert and baking mixes, bakery flour, frozen pizza and pizza snacks, snack bars, fruit and salty snacks, ice cream, nutrition bars, wellness beverages, and savory and grain snacks, as well as various organic products, including frozen and shelf-stable vegetables. It also supplies branded and unbranded food products to the North American foodservice and commercial baking industries; and manufactures and markets pet food products, including dog and cat food. The company markets its products under the Annie's, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Blue Buffalo, Blue Basics, Blue Freedom, Bugles, Cascadian Farm, Cheerios, Chex, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Cookie Crisp, EPIC, Fiber One, Food Should Taste Good, Fruit by the Foot, Fruit Gushers, Fruit Roll-Ups, Gardetto's, Go-Gurt, Gold Medal, Golden Grahams, Haagen-Dazs, Helpers, Jus-Rol, Kitano, Kix, Larabar, Latina, Liberte, Lucky Charms, Muir Glen, Nature Valley, Oatmeal Crisp, Old El Paso, Oui, Pillsbury, Progresso, Raisin Nut Bran, Total, Totino's, Trix, Wanchai Ferry, Wheaties, Wilderness, Yoki, and Yoplait trademarks. It sells its products directly, as well as through broker and distribution arrangements to grocery stores, mass merchandisers, membership stores, natural food chains, e-commerce retailers, commercial and noncommercial foodservice distributors and operators, restaurants, convenience stores, and pet specialty stores, as well as drug, dollar, and discount chains. The company operates 466 leased and 392 franchise ice cream parlors. General Mills, Inc. was founded in 1866 and is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. By Mail Today Bureau: Unfazed by the recent media reports about the "creaking health infrastructure and patient care facilities in state", Uttar Pradesh government claims the health care is in a state of recovery from the long ICU conditions in which it was under the previous government of Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav. Admitting that the current state of health "needs an urgent overhaul to build confidence among the patients," UP's health minister Siddharth Nath Singh told Mail Today: "We have started to detect leaks in the system, are bridging the demand-supply gaps in patient care and working to augment the infrastructure with beds, medicines and doctors to attend the patients in first place." advertisement "UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath's primary thrust is to improve the state's healthcare system." Singh, who was in Noida for a brief stop-over on his way to attend a public meeting in Meerut, said: "I do not want to go too much into the past, but we received only the buildings, but no doctors, beds or even basic machines to carry out tests on patients. We took charge with a shortfall of nearly 7,350 doctors in our hospitals, and to bridge the demand-supply gap in treatment of patients, we started with a select list of nearly 2,065 doctors, who all will be recruited by November end." There are certain areas in our state where no doctors have expressed desire to go and serve in the district primary centres and hospitals. We have started the process to hire about 1,000 doctors on a contract basis with best salary package suiting their qualifications." While the government is wooing the right talent with attractive pay packages, it is also plugging the corruption nexus as the top priority. Hinting at a multi-crore scam in offing related to recruitment of chief medical officers and functioning of state medical colleges, Singh asserted: "Our CM's governance model is loud and visible. You wouldn't have heard a single rupee changing hands in CMOs being transferred and recruited by our government... a process has begun to ensure transparency and fix accountability. It will take its own time." The minister was hinting at the BRD Hospital tragedy involving the death of many children where a local principal was allegedly manipulating hospital administration, recruitment and procurement. In a first, the state government has put in place a stringent transfer policy on rotation for its health department officials and doctors to stop "favourite postings system". On improving healthcare facilities, he said: "We are not constructing anymore buildings, but working only to equip the standing ones with beds, pharmacy stores and doctors, and seeking public private partnerships to invest in the state's health sector." The minister said UP has received 26 American and other global companies in the recent months, that want to invest in local health infrastructure. "To augment super specialty wards and build medical expertise and infrastructure to fight against deadly cancer, rising kidney problem cases and lifestyle diseases, UP is tying up with foreign companies that have shown interest to invest in state's health infrastructure." advertisement He added, "We have received 18 foreign companies in the last three months, including top US companies such as Metronics, SHIR and GE Health. A special aid and support from World Bank is also ensured to build health care facilities in 51 district medical centres." --- ENDS --- By PTI: Toronto, Oct 30 (PTI) E-cigarettes - often touted as a tool to help smokers kick the butt - may encourage high school students to start smoking regularly in later life, a study has found. The study, published in the journal Canadian Medical Association Journal, included 44,163 students from 89 school. Researchers from University of Waterloo in Canada looked at e-cigarette use and classified students into 6 categories: current daily smokers, current occasional smokers, former smokers, experimental smokers, puffers and those who had never tried smoking. advertisement Among students in both study phases, youth who used e- cigarettes in the 30 days prior to the start of the study were more likely to start smoking cigarettes and to continue smoking after one year, a finding consistent with other similar study types. At the same time, the prevalence of smoking decreased slightly over time. This means that if e-cigarettes are promoting youth smoking, the overall impact has been modest to date, researchers said. "Youth may be trying e-cigarettes before smoking because they are easier to access: until recently, youth could legally purchase e-cigarettes without nicotine, whereas regular cigarettes cannot be sold to young people under 18 years of age," said David Hammond, from University of Waterloo in Canada. The findings provide support for both sides of the debate. It is highly plausible that common factors account for a substantial proportion of increased cigarette-smoking initiation among e-cigarette users. At the same time, it would be foolhardy to dismiss the likelihood that early exposure to nicotine via e-cigarettes increases smoking uptake, researchers said. "While our study provides strong evidence that e- cigarettes are associated with smoking initiation among youth, the association is unclear," said Hammond. "E-cigarettes may help to re-normalise smoking; however, the association between e-cigarettes and smoking may simply reflect common factors rather than a causal effect: the same individual and social risk factors that increase e-cigarette use may also increase the likelihood of youth smoking," he said. PTI MHN MHN --- ENDS --- Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc. (NYSE: RHP) is a leading lodging and hospitality real estate investment trust that specializes in upscale convention center resorts and country music entertainment experiences. The Company's core holdings* include a network of five of the top 10 largest non-gaming convention center hotels in the United States based on total indoor meeting space. These convention center resorts operate under the Gaylord Hotels brand and are managed by Marriott International. The Company also owns two adjacent ancillary hotels and a small number of attractions managed by Marriott International for a combined total of 10,110 rooms and more than 2.7 million square feet of total indoor and outdoor meeting space in top convention and leisure destinations across the country. The Company's Entertainment segment includes a growing collection of iconic and emerging country music brands, including the Grand Ole Opry; Ryman Auditorium, WSM 650 AM; Ole Red and Circle, a country lifestyle media network the Company owns in a joint-venture with Gray Television. The Company operates its Entertainment segment as part of a taxable REIT subsidiary. * The Company is the sole owner of Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center; Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center; Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center; and Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center. It is the majority owner and managing member of the joint venture that owns the Gaylord Rockies Resort & Convention Center. The initial findings show about 70 per cent of male and 14 per cent of female consume alcohol in excess and indulge in heavy smoking. By Priyanka Sharma: The Capital's upscale Vasant Kunj has been diagnosed with multiple ailments. A study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has revealed that a large number of residents in the 50-plus age group are alcoholic, hence suffering from risky lifestyle diseases. The initial findings show about 70 per cent of male and 14 per cent of female consume alcohol in excess and indulge in heavy smoking. The cohort study, conducted by AIIMS and Erasmus University of Netherlands, found that nearly 63 per cent of the participants have complained of hypertension (high blood pressure), 26 per cent are obese, about 18 per cent are diabetic and 32 per cent have been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis of the nearly 3,000 participants, 1,465 are male and 1,526 are female. advertisement The study has been funded by the department of biotechnology, ministry of science and technology. According to AIIMS doctors, the study is still on and the target is to cover 7,500 people. "The primary results have shown 70 per cent of male and 14 per cent of female above 50 years of age are consuming alcohol. So far, we have included 3,000 participants. These people are also suffering from diabetes, hypertension, high blood cholesterol, obesity and rheumatoid arthritis," Dr Kameshwar Prasad, professor and the head of department of neurology, told Mail Today. "It is a unique study which started in October 2015. We are doing door-to-door survey of the urban population of Vasant Kunj who are above 50 years of age. The idea of the study is to develop a prediction model, followed by timely treatment," said Prasad. "We are also going to start precision medicine. It is an emerging medical approach for disease treatment and prevention that takes into account individual variability in genes, environment, and lifestyle of a person," he said. WHAT DO THE NUMBERS SAY? The study found that in male population, about 70 per cent are alcoholic, 43 per cent have smoking habits, 63 per cent are suffering from hypertension, 22 per cent have rheumatoid arthritis, 19 per cent are diagnosed with cholesterol problem and 15 per cent are obese. While in female population, about 14 per cent are alcoholic, 62 per cent have high blood pressure, 37 per cent are obese, 41 percent have rheumatoid arthritis, 15 per cent are diabetic and 26 per cent are suffering from high blood cholesterol. Prasad informed that multiple diagnostic tests were conducted on the participants. Questions related to their lifestyle habits were asked and in every six months, residents were called again for their health updates. Experts have directed the residents to quit smoking and control drinking habits. They have also emphasised on regular walking, physical activities and exercise, more intake of green vegetables and fresh fruits. "Diabetes, heart attack, kidney failure and strokes are lifestyle disorders and if not diagnosed and treated on time, it can turn into silent killer. There are no such major symptoms of these diseases, but timely medical intervention can be helpful," Ambuj Roy, professor of cardiology at AIIMS, said. Last year, AIIMS had conducted a similar study targeting younger population across Delhi in the age group of 25-40 years. Hypertension, diabetes and obesity were found to be the major ailments. --- ENDS --- advertisement The following companies are subsidiares of Abbott Laboratories: 3A Nutrition (Vietnam) Company Limited, ABON Biopharm (Hangzhou) Co. Ltd., AGA Medical Belgium, AGA Medical Corporation, AGA Medical Holdings Inc., ALR Holdings, AML Medical LLC, APK Advanced Medical Technologies LLC, ATS Bermuda Holdings Limited, ATS Laboratories Inc., Abbott, Abbott (Jiaxing) Nutrition Co. Ltd., Abbott (UK) Finance Limited, Abbott (UK) Holdings Limited, Abbott AG, Abbott Asia Holdings Limited, Abbott Asia Investments Limited, Abbott Australasia Holdings Limited, Abbott Australasia Pty Ltd, Abbott B.V., Abbott Bahamas Overseas Businesses Corporation, Abbott Belgian Investments, Abbott Bermuda Holding Ltd., Abbott Biologicals B.V., Abbott Biologicals LLC, Abbott Bulgaria Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Capital India Limited, Abbott Cardiovascular Inc., Abbott Cardiovascular Systems Inc., Abbott Delaware LLC, Abbott Diabetes Care Inc., Abbott Diabetes Care Limited, Abbott Diabetes Care Sales Corporation, Abbott Diagnostics GmbH, Abbott Diagnostics International Ltd., Abbott Diagnostics Technologies AS, Abbott Doral Investments S.L., Abbott Equity Holdings Unlimited, Abbott Equity Investments LLC, Abbott Established Products Holdings (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Finance Company SA, Abbott Financial Holdings SRL, Abbott France S.A.S., Abbott Fund Tanzania Limited, Abbott Gesellschaft m.b.H., Abbott GmbH & Co. KG, Abbott Health Products LLC, Abbott Healthcare (Puerto Rico) Ltd., Abbott Healthcare B.V., Abbott Healthcare Costa Rica S.A., Abbott Healthcare LLC, Abbott Healthcare Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Healthcare Private Limited, Abbott Healthcare Products B.V., Abbott Healthcare Products Ltd, Abbott Holding (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding GmbH, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited, Abbott Holding Subsidiary (Gibraltar) Limited Luxembourg S.C.S., Abbott Holdings B.V., Abbott Holdings LLC, Abbott Holdings Limited, Abbott Holdings Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Hungary Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Iberian Investments (2) Limited, Abbott Iberian Investments Limited, Abbott India Limited, Abbott Informatics Asia Pacific Limited, Abbott Informatics Canada Inc, Abbott Informatics Corporation, Abbott Informatics Europe Limited, Abbott Informatics France, Abbott Informatics Germany GmbH, Abbott Informatics Netherlands B.V., Abbott Informatics Singapore Pte. Limited, Abbott Informatics Spain S.A., Abbott Informatics Technologies Ltd, Abbott International Corporation, Abbott International Enterprises Ltd., Abbott International Holdings Limited, Abbott International LLC, Abbott International Luxembourg S.ar.l., Abbott Investments Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Ireland, Abbott Ireland Financing Designated Activity Company, Abbott Ireland Limited, Abbott Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Kazakhstan Limited Liability Partnership, Abbott Knoll Investments B.V., Abbott Korea Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Bangladesh) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco (Dos) SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Chile) Holdco SpA, Abbott Laboratories (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Laboratories (Mozambique) Limitada, Abbott Laboratories (Pakistan) Limited, Abbott Laboratories (Philippines), Abbott Laboratories (Puerto Rico) Incorporated, Abbott Laboratories (Singapore) Private Limited, Abbott Laboratories A/S, Abbott Laboratories Argentina Sociedad Anonima, Abbott Laboratories B.V., Abbott Laboratories C.A., Abbott Laboratories Finance B.V., Abbott Laboratories GmbH, Abbott Laboratories Inc., Abbott Laboratories International LLC, Abbott Laboratories Ireland Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited, Abbott Laboratories Limited - Laboratoires Abbott Limitee, Abbott Laboratories NZ Limited, Abbott Laboratories Pacific Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Poland Spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Laboratories Products B.V., Abbott Laboratories Residential Development Fund Inc., Abbott Laboratories S.A., Abbott Laboratories SA, Abbott Laboratories Services Corp., Abbott Laboratories Slovakia s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories South Africa (Pty) Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Laboratories Trustee Company Limited, Abbott Laboratories Uruguay S.A., Abbott Laboratories Vascular Enterprises, Abbott Laboratories d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories de Chile Limitada, Abbott Laboratories de Colombia S.A., Abbott Laboratories de Mexico S.A. de C.V., Abbott Laboratories druzba za farmacijo in diagnostiko d.o.o., Abbott Laboratories s.r.o., Abbott Laboratories(Hellas) Societe Anonyme, Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios S.A., Abbott Laboratorios del Ecuador Cia. Ltda., Abbott Laboratuarlari Ithalat Ihracat ve Ticaret Ltd.Sti, Abbott Laboratorios Lda, Abbott Laboratorios do Brasil Ltda., Abbott Limited Egypt LLC, Abbott Logistics B.V., Abbott Management GmbH, Abbott Management LLC, Abbott Manufacturing Singapore Private Limited, Abbott Mature Products International Unlimited Company, Abbott Mature Products Management Limited, Abbott Medical (Hong Kong) Limited, Abbott Medical (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., Abbott Medical (Portugal) Distribuicao de Produtos Medicos Lda, Abbott Medical (Schweiz) AG, Abbott Medical (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., Abbott Medical (Thailand) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Australia Pty. Ltd., Abbott Medical Austria Ges.m.b.H., Abbott Medical Balkan d.o.o. Beograd (Novi Beograd), Abbott Medical Belgium, Abbott Medical Canada Inc./ Medicale Abbott Canada Inc., Abbott Medical Danmark A/S, Abbott Medical Devices Trading (Shanghai) Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Espana S.A., Abbott Medical Estonia OU, Abbott Medical Finland Oy, Abbott Medical France SAS, Abbott Medical GmbH, Abbott Medical Hellas Limited Liability Trading Company, Abbott Medical Ireland Limited, Abbott Medical Italia S.p.A., Abbott Medical Japan Co. Ltd., Abbott Medical Korea Limited, Abbott Medical Korlatolt Felelossegu Tarsasag, Abbott Medical Laboratories LTD, Abbott Medical Nederland B.V., Abbott Medical New Zealand Limited, Abbott Medical Norway AS, Abbott Medical Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Medical Sweden AB, Abbott Medical Taiwan Co., Abbott Medical U.K. Limited, Abbott Medical spoka z ograniczona odpowiedzialnoscia, Abbott Middle East S.A.R.L., Abbott Molecular Inc., Abbott Morocco SARL, Abbott Nederland C.V., Abbott Nederland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Netherlands Investments B.V., Abbott Norge AS, Abbott Nutrition Limited, Abbott Nutrition Manufacturing Inc., Abbott Operations Singapore Pte. Ltd., Abbott Operations Uruguay S.R.L., Abbott Overseas Cyprus Limited, Abbott Overseas Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Overseas S.A., Abbott Oy, Abbott Point of Care Canada Limited, Abbott Point of Care Inc., Abbott Poland Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Procurement LLC, Abbott Products (Philippines) Inc., Abbott Products (Spain) S.L., Abbott Products Algerie EURL, Abbott Products B.V., Abbott Products Distribution SAS, Abbott Products Egypt LLC, Abbott Products Limited, Abbott Products Limited Liability Company, Abbott Products Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Products Operations AG, Abbott Products Operations LLC, Abbott Products Romania S.R.L., Abbott Products Tunisie S.A.R.L., Abbott Products Unlimited Company, Abbott Resources Inc., Abbott Resources International Inc., Abbott S.r.l., Abbott Saudi Arabia Trading Company, Abbott Scandinavia Aktiebolag, Abbott Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, Abbott South Africa Luxembourg S.a r.l., Abbott Strategic Opportunities Limited, Abbott Trading Company Inc., Abbott Universal LLC, Abbott Vascular Devices (2) Limited, Abbott Vascular Devices Limited, Abbott Vascular Inc., Abbott Vascular Instruments Deutschland GmbH, Abbott Vascular International, Abbott Vascular Japan Co. Ltd, Abbott Vascular Limitada, Abbott Vascular Netherlands B.V., Abbott Vascular Solutions Inc., Abbott Ventures Inc., Abbott West Indies Limited, Abbott drustvo sa ogranicenom odgovornoscu za trgovinu i usluge, Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc., Alere, Alere (Shanghai) Diagnostics Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Healthcare Management Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Medical Sales Co. Ltd., Alere (Shanghai) Technology Co. Ltd., Alere A/S, Alere AB, Alere AS, Alere AS Holdings Limited, Alere BBI Holdings Limited, Alere Bangladesh Limited, Alere China Co. Ltd., Alere Colombia S.A., Alere Connect LLC, Alere Connected Health Limited, Alere Connected Health Ltd., Alere Diagnostics GmbH, Alere DoA Holding GmbH, Alere GmbH, Alere GmbH (Austria), Alere GmbH (Germany), Alere HK Holdings Ltd., Alere Health B.V., Alere Health BVBA, Alere Health Corp., Alere Health Sdn Bhd, Alere Health Services B.V., Alere Healthcare (Pty) Limited, Alere Healthcare Connections Limited, Alere Healthcare Inc., Alere Healthcare Nigeria Limited, Alere Healthcare S.L., Alere Holdco Inc., Alere Holding GmbH, Alere Holdings Bermuda Limited, Alere Holdings Pty Limited, Alere Home Monitoring Inc., Alere Inc., Alere Informatics Inc., Alere International Holding Corp., Alere International Limited, Alere Lda, Alere Limited, Alere Limited (New Zealand), Alere Medical BVBA, Alere Medical Co. Ltd., Alere Medical Pakistan (Private) Limited, Alere Medical Private Limited, Alere North America LLC, Alere Oy Ab, Alere Philippines Inc., Alere Phoenix ACQ Inc., Alere Pte Ltd, Alere S.A., Alere S.r.l., Alere S/A, Alere SAS, Alere San Diego Inc., Alere Scarborough Inc., Alere Spain S.L., Alere Switzerland GmbH, Alere Technologies GmbH, Alere Technologies Holdings Limited, Alere Technologies Limited, Alere Toxicology AB, Alere Toxicology Inc., Alere Toxicology S.r.l., Alere Toxicology Services Inc., Alere Toxicology plc, Alere UK Holdings Limited, Alere UK Subco Limited, Alere ULC, Alere US Holdings LLC, Alere s.r.o., Alisoc Investment & Co, Amedica Biotech Inc., Ameditech Inc., American Generics S.A.S., American Medical Supplies Inc., American Pharmacist Inc., Antares S.A., Apica Cardiovascular Limited, Aquagestion Capacitacion S.A., Aquagestion S.A., Arriva Medical LLC, Arriva Medical Philippines Inc., Arvis Investments Limited, Atlas Farmaceutica S.A., Avee Laboratories Inc., Axis-Shield AD III AS, Axis-Shield AD IV AS, Axis-Shield AS, Axis-Shield Diagnostics Limited, Axis-Shield Ltd., BBI Animal Health Limited, BBI Diagnostics Group 2 Public Limited Company, Banco de Vida S.A., Bioabsorbable Vascular Solutions Inc., Bioalgae S.A., Biohealth LLC, Biosite Incorporated, Bosque Bonito S.A., Branan Medical Corporation, Brandex Europe C.V., British Colloids Limited, CFR Chile S.A., CFR Interamericas EL Salvador Sociedad Anonima de Capital Variable, CFR Interamericas Nicaragua Sociedad Anonima, CFR Interamericas Panama S.A., CFR Pharmaceuticals, California Property Holdings III LLC, CardioMEMS LLC, Caripharm Inc., Cephea Valve Technologies, Cephea Valve Technologies Inc., Colibri Medical Aktiebolag, Comercializadora y Distribuidora CFR Interamericas Honduras S.A., Concateno South Limited, Concateno UK Limited, Consorcio Tecnologico en Biomedicina Clinico-Molecular S.A., Continuum Services LLC, Cozart Limited, Dextech S.A., Diagnostik Nord GmbH, Distribuciones Uquifa S.A.S., Domesco Medical Import-Export Joint-Stock Corporation, Duphar International Research B.V., Endocardial Solutions, Epocal (US) Inc, Esprit de Vie S.A., European Chemicals & Co, European Drug Testing Service EDTS AB, European Services S.A., Evalve Inc., Evalve International Inc., FARMINDUSTRIA S.A., Fada Pharma Paraguay Sociedad Anonima, Fadapharma del Ecuador S.A., Farmaceutica Mont Blanc S.L., Farmacologia Em Aquicultura Veterinaria Ltda., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV Ecuador S.A., Farmacologia en Aquacultura Veterinaria FAV S.A., Fernwood Investment S.A., First Check Diagnostics LLC, Focus Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Forensics Limited, Forestcreek Overseas S.A., Fournier Pharma Corp., Fournier Pharma GmbH, Fournier Pharmaceuticals Limited, Framed B.V., Gabmed GmbH, Garden Hills LLC, Global Analytical Development LLC, Globapharm & CO LP, Glomed Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Golnorth Investments S.A., Gynocare Limited, Gynopharm Sociedad Anonima, Gynopharm de Centroamerica S.A., Gynopharm de Venezuela C.A., Hi-Tronics Designs Inc., IDEV Technologies Inc., IG Innovations Limited, IMTC Finance B.V., IMTC Holdings B.V., IMTC Technologies Inc., Ibis Biosciences LLC, Igloo Zone Chile S.A., Igloo Zone S.L., Inmobiliaria Naknek S.A.C., Innovacon Inc., Instant Tech Subsidiary Acquisition Inc., Instant Technologies Inc., Instituto de Criopreservacion de Chile S.A., Integrated Vascular Systems Inc., Inverness Canadian Acquisition Corporation, Inverness Medical (Beijing) Co. Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Australia Pty Ltd., Inverness Medical Innovations Hong Kong Limited, Inverness Medical Innovations SK LLC, Inverness Medical Investments LLC, Inverness Medical LLC, Inverness Medical Shimla Private Limited, Inversiones K2 SpA, Inversiones Komodo S.R.L., Ionian Technologies LLC, Irvine Biomedical Inc., Kalila Medical, Kangshenyunga S.A., Knoll UK Investments Unlimited, LLC VeroInPharm, Laboratoires Fournier S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano Lafrancol S.A.S., Laboratorio Franco Colombiano del Ecuador S.A., Laboratorio Internacional Argentino S.A., Laboratorio Synthesis S.A.S., Laboratorios Lafi Limitada, Laboratorios Naturmedik S.A.S., Laboratorios Pauly Pharmaceutical S.A.S., Laboratorios Recalcine S.A., Laboratorios Transpharm S.A., Laboratory Specialists of America Inc., Lafrancol Dominicana S.A.S., Lafrancol Guatemala S.A. Sociedad Anonima, Lafrancol Internacional S.A.S, Lafrancol Peru S.R.L, Lake Forest Investments LLC, Lightlab Imaging Inc., Limited Liability Company Abbott Laboratories, Limited Liability Company Abbott Ukraine, Limited Liability Company VEROPHARM, Lung Fung Hong (China) Limited, Mansbridge Pharmaceuticals Limited, MediGuide LLC, MediGuide Ltd., Medscreen Holdings Limited, Metropolitana Farmaceutica S.A., Midwest Properties LLC, Murex Argentina S.A., Murex Biotech Limited, Murex Biotech South Africa, Murex Diagnostics Inc., Murex Diagnostics International Inc., Natural Supplement Association LLC, Negocios Denia Sociedad Anonima, Neosalud S.A.C., Nether Pharma N.P. C.V., NeuroTherm LLC, Normann Pharma-Handels GmbH, North Shore Properties Inc., Novamedi S.A., Novasalud.com S.A., Nutravida S.A., OJSC Voronezhkhimpharm, Omnilab Iberia Sociedad Limitada, OptiMedica, Orgenics France SAS, Orgenics International Holdings B.V., Orgenics Ltd., PBM-Selfcare LLC, PDD II LLC, PDD LLC, PT Alere Health, PT. Abbott Indonesia, PT. Abbott Products Indonesia, Pacesetter Inc., Pantech (RF) (PTY) LTD, Pembrooke Occupational Health Inc., Penagos S.A., Pharma International Sociedad Anonima, Pharmaceutical Technologies (Pharmatech) S.A., Pharmatech Boliviana S.A., Polygon Labs S.A., Quality Assured Services Inc., RF Medical Holdings LLC, RTL Holdings Inc., Ramses Business Corp., Recben Xenerics Farmaceutica Limitada, Redwood Toxicology Laboratory Inc., Rich Horizons International Limited, SC VEROPHARM, SJ Medical Mexico S de R.L. de C.V., SJM International Inc., SJM Thunder Holding Company, SPDH Inc., Saboya Enterprises Corporation, Salviac Limited, Scanax AS, Sealing Solutions Inc., Selfcare Technology Inc., Shandong Abbott Dairy Product Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Medical Devices Science and Technology Co. Ltd., Shanghai Abbott Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Shanghai Si Fa Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Sinensix & Co., Spinal Modulation LLC, St. Jude Medical, St. Jude Medical AB, St. Jude Medical ATG Inc., St. Jude Medical Argentina S.A., St. Jude Medical Asia Pacific Holdings GK, St. Jude Medical Atrial Fibrillation Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Brasil Ltda., St. Jude Medical Business Services Inc., St. Jude Medical Cardiology Division Inc., St. Jude Medical Colombia Ltda., St. Jude Medical Coordination Center, St. Jude Medical Costa Rica Limitada, St. Jude Medical Europe Inc., St. Jude Medical Export Ges.m.b.H., St. Jude Medical GVA Sarl, St. Jude Medical Holdings B.V., St. Jude Medical India Private Limited, St. Jude Medical International Holding, St. Jude Medical LLC, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings II, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings NT, St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings SMI S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Luxembourg Holdings TC S.a r.l., St. Jude Medical Mexico Business Services S. de R.L. de C.V., St. Jude Medical Middle East DMCC, St. Jude Medical Operations (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd., St. Jude Medical Puerto Rico LLC, St. Jude Medical S.C. Inc., St. Jude Medical Systems AB, St. Jude Medical Turkey Medikal Urunler Ticaret Limited Sirketi, Standard Diagnostics Inc., Standing Stone LLC, Swan-Myers Incorporated, TC1 LLC, Tendyne Holdings Inc., Tendyne Medical Inc., Thoratec Delaware LLC, Thoratec Europe Limited, Thoratec LLC, Thoratec Switzerland GmbH, Tobal Products Incorporated, Topera GmbH in Liquidation, Topera Inc., Tremora S.A., Tuenir S.A., TwistDx, UAB Abbott Laboratories, UAB Abbott Medical Lithuania, Union-Madison Realty Company Inc., Unipath Limited (dba Alere International/aka Cranfield), Unipath Management Limited, Unipath Pension Trustee Limited, Veropharm, Veropharm Limited Liability Partnership, Vida Cell Inversiones S.A., Vida Cell S.A., Vivalsol, W&R Pharma Handels GmbH, Western Pharmaceuticals S.A., X Technologies Inc., Yissum Holding Limited, ZonePerfect Nutrition Company, eScreen Canada ULC, eScreen Inc., ( ), and Abbott Laboratories Baltics. Read More By PTI: New Delhi, Oct 30 (PTI) Railway officer Vikram Singh was today appointed Private Secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind. Singh is a 1997 batch officer of the Indian Railway Traffic Service. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved his appointment to the post for a period of two years, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said. advertisement In another order, IAS officer P C Meena was appointed Private Secretary to Minister of State for Commerce and Industry C R Chaudhary. Meena is a 2004 batch IAS officer of the Haryana cadre. PTI AKV ASK ASK --- ENDS --- Article 35A has become the focal point of debate over the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. While Article 370 remains unchallenged, a Supreme Court bench is examining the constitutional validity of Article 35A. By Prabhash K Dutta: Article 35A does not form part of the 395 Articles of the Constitution. It is found in one of the appendices of the Constitution. Article 35A was inserted through a Presidential Order in 1954. A bunch of four petitions is before the Supreme Court challenging its constitutional validity. Article 35A empowers Jammu and Kashmir legislature to define "permanent residents" of the state along with their special rights and privileges. This Article has an intricate relationship with Article 370. advertisement Though there has been debate over Article 370 as the RSS and BJP have called for repealing it, Article 35A never came under serious scrutiny. It has been modified through various Presidential Orders more than 40 times. Under the existing arrangements, laws framed by the Jammu and Kashmir legislature exercising powers under Article 35A cannot be challenged on the ground of violation of fundamental right to equality of Indian citizens from other states. WHO ARE PERMANENT RESIDENTS? Jammu and Kashmir Assembly defined Permanent Resident as a person who was a state subject on May 14, 1954 or who had been a resident of the state for 10 years and has "lawfully acquired immovable property in the state." A person who is not a permanent resident of Jammu and Kashmir is not allowed to buy or own properties in the state or vote in state Assembly election or contest election to the state Assembly. An outsider cannot get a job in the Jammu and Kashmir government. WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW? Of the four petitioners challenging the Article 35A is an RSS-linked NGO, We the Citizen. The NGO has challenged Article 35A on the grounds that it was not brought through constitutional amendment as required under Article 368. We the Citizen also contended that Article 35A was never presented before Parliament for approval. The Supreme Court has set up a three-judge bench to hear the matter. The responses from the state government and the Centre have made the debate over Article 35A interesting. The Centre submitted that it would be appropriate for the Supreme Court to settle the Article 35A debate as it involved complex issues of constitutionality. The Jammu and Kashmir government, on the other hand, has favoured maintaining status quo. It said that since Article 35A had been in use for over sixty years, it was as good as an established law. Two Kashmiri women have also challenged Article 35A contending that the provision is discriminatory as it disenfranchises their children. Under the original provisions of Article 35A, Kashmiri women marrying an outsider lost all her rights and privileges. The Jammu and Kashmir High Court in 2002 had held that the women would continue to enjoy their rights and privileges even if they married an outsider. However, children of such women have no claim in succession. advertisement WHAT IF ARTICLE 35A IS DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL? Repealing Article 35A may have far reaching implications. It will immediately nullify all the 41 subsequent Presidential Orders. This will restore pre-1954 arrangement between New Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir. The Governor and the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir would be addressed as the Sadr-e-Riyasat (President) and Wazir-e-Azam (Prime Minister) respectively as before. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of India would cease to extend over Jammu and Kashmir. The Centre's jurisdiction over Jammu and Kashmir would be limited to only in the matters of Defence, External Affairs and Communication. If Article 35A is done away with through judicial process, Article 370 alone may not be used to prevent outsiders from settling in Kashmir. This could be favourable arrangement for the RSS and the BJP. AND THEN, THERE IS POLITICS The RSS and BJP believe that the current demographic composition of Kashmir is the combined effect of Article 370 and Article 35A. The RSS also perceives the issues of separatism and terrorism in Kashmir is because of its Muslim dominated demography. advertisement Article 35A that prevents outsiders from buying or owning properties in Kashmir allows the Buddhists of Ladakh and Hindus from Jammu region to settle down in the Valley. While Article 370 has been a polarising debate in the context of Kashmir, Article 35A presents a valid constitutional loophole to be challenged in the courts. On the other hand, the political parties of Jammu and Kashmir are against the idea of repealing Article 35A. They perceive it against the popular view of the people who vote for them in every election. The separatists have also been voicing their opposition to any alteration in Articles 35A and 370. The Supreme Court verdict on Article 35A may be a watershed in Kashmir politics. Also Read | How 2 PILs are helping RSS agenda of Uniform Civil Code, Article 370 --- ENDS --- Here's how the best and most popular postpaid plans from the top four telecom operators in India stack up against each other. The fight for subscribers is on, and Indias telecom market is buzzing with data-heavy offers from all major operators. The telecom tariff war may have been started by Reliance Jio, but incumbent operators are also putting their best foot forward now and consumers are spoilt for choice. Heres an attempt to make your life easier. If you are looking to switch networks or are simply scouting for better offers on your own network, then weve got you covered. Heres how some of the best postpaid plans from Airtel, Jio, Vodafone and Idea compare with each oher. Postpaid Plans From Rs 300 to Rs 400 Airtel Rs 399 Plan Airtels Rs 399 postpaid plan offers unlimited local and STD calls along with 10GB of data per bill cycle. Only outgoing roaming calls are charged at 80p/minute for local roaming and Rs 1.15/minute for STD. The best part about Airtel postpaid plans is that they offers data rollover. Unused data is added to the next months bill cycle and users can accumulate a maximum of 200GB data. Jio Rs 309 Plan Reliance Jios competing plan starts at Rs 309. The Jio Rs 309 plan offers free unlimited local, STD and roaming calls. Subscribers also get 30GB of 4G data with the plan, limited to 1GB per day. Also included are 100 free SMSes per day and unlimited access to Jio apps. So Jio offers better calling and data benefits compared to Airtel, but post the 1GB per day limitation, 4G speeds on the plan will be downgraded to 64Kbps. Users will have to pay a security deposit of Rs 400 to subscribe to the plan. Idea Rs 349 Plan Idea Cellulars entry-level postpaid plan is priced at Rs 349 and brings with it unlimited calling, except for outgoing roaming calls which are chargeable. There are no free SMSes and the plan offers a sad 1GB of data per month. However, Idea is running a promotion and will give users 4GB of bonus data per month for 12 months. So the total data users can expect from Ideas Rs 349 postpaid plan is 5GB per month. Vodafone Vodafone India does not have any postpaid plans in this category. Postpaid Plans From Rs 400 to Rs 500 Airtel Rs 499 Plan At Rs 499 per bill cycle, Airtel offers unlimited calling, except for outgoing roaming calls. Users are further entitled to 20GB of 3G/4G data for the billing cycle. Again, unused data can be rolled over to the next month. Jio Rs 409 Plan At Rs 409, Jio postpaid users can expect unlimited calling, including STD and roaming, 20GB of data for the bill cycle with no daily data restriction, free 100 SMSes per day, and access to Jio apps. Users will have to pay a security deposit of Rs 500 to subscribe to the plan. Idea Rs 499 Plan At Rs 499, Idea offers unlimited calling, including STD calls and free incoming roaming. Outgoing roaming is chargeable at standard rates. You also get 100 free SMSes per day and 5GB 3G/4G data per billing cycle. As part of a promotional offer, Idea will give subscribers extra 1GB of data per day for 12 months with this plan. Vodafone Rs 499 Plan Vodafones Red Rs 499 Unlimited plan competes with the rest by offering unlimited calling, except for outgoing calls while roaming. The plan comes with 5GB data per billing cycle, and as a Welcome Gift for plan activation, Vodafone is offering subscribers 10GB additional data per month for a period six months. Subscribers will also get 100 free SMSes with the plan. Postpaid Plans From Rs 500 to Rs 600 If you are looking for a plan between the Rs 500 to Rs 600 range, Airtel, Idea and Vodafones Rs 499 plans come pretty close. However, the incumbent operators have no other plans in this range. The only operator offering postpaid plans in this range is Reliance Jio. Jio Rs 509 Plan At Rs 509, Jio postpaid subscribers can get unlimited calling, including outgoing calls on roaming. Theres 60GB of 4G data on offer with a limit of 2GB per day, 100 SMSes and access to Jio apps. Users will have to pay a deposit of Rs 600 to subscribe to the plan. Postpaid Plans From Rs 600 to Rs 700 Airtel Rs 649 Plan Airtels Rs 649 plan offers unlimited calling, including outgoing roaming and STD calls. Users get 30GB of data per billing cycle, which is rollable to the next month. Jio Reliance Jio does not offer any plans in this range Idea Rs 649 Plan Going neck-to-neck with Airtel when it comes to pricing, Idea also offers a Rs 649 plan. Apart from unlimited calls, including free outgoing roaming calls, the plan offers 8GB of 3G/4G data per billing cycle, along with free 100 SMSes. Theres also 1GB of daily bonus data up for grabs with this pack, taking the total amount of data on offer to 38GB. Vodafone Rs 699 Plan At Rs 699, Vodafone is giving subscribers unlimited calling, including free incoming and outgoing calls on roaming. Data is capped to 8GB per billing cycle, with an additional 10GB bonus data each month for six months as a Welcome Gift.100 SMSes will be free with the plan. Postpaid Plans From Rs 700 to Rs 800 Airtel Rs 799 Plan For a rental of Rs 799 per month, Airtel offers unlimited calling (national, STD and roaming) with 40GB of 3G/4G data which can be rolled over to the next bill cycle. Jio Rs 799 Plan Subscribers of Reliance Jios Rs 799 plan will have to shell out a security deposit of Rs 950. The plan offers unlimited calling to any network, 90GB of data per month with a cap of 3GB data per day. 100 SMSes per day will be free with the plan and users will also have access to all Jio apps. Idea Idea Cellular has no plans in this category. Vodafone Vodafone India has no plans in this category. Postpaid Plans From Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 Airtel Rs 999 Plan All calls, (national, roaming and STD) are free on Airtels Rs 999 postpaid plan. Theres also 50GB of data on offer with Airtels roll-over guarantee. Jio Rs 999 Plan The most expensive plan in Jios postpaid category is the Rs 999 plan. This gives subscribers the benefit of free calling, 60GB of data with no daily limits, 100 SMSes and unlimited access to Jio apps. Users will have to pay a security deposit of Rs 1150 to opt for the plan. Idea Idea Cellular has no plans in this category. Vodafone Rs 999 Plan At Rs 999, Vodafones Red Unlimited plan offers 15GB of data per month with an extra 10GB/month for six months as a welcome gift. All calls are free, along with 100 SMSes. Those looking to subscribe to higher Vodafone plans should note that they come with free Netflix subscriptions - RED 1299 & RED 1699 2 months subscription, RED 1999 3 months subscription, RED 2999 12 months subscription. So those were some of the best and most popular postpaid plans from leading telecom providers in India. We will update the list as and when fresh plans are announced. For now, take your pick and choose wisely. Clinical stage biopharmaceutical company Mereo BioPharma Group has announced that it has reached an agreement with AstraZeneca for an exclusive license - including an option to acquire - the oral inhibitor of neutrophil elastase AZD9668. The AIM-traded firm said that under the exclusive license, it plans to conduct a Phase II study for the treatment of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a congenital orphan condition. It added that it has the right to exercise its option to acquire AZD9668 after the initiation of pivotal studies. We are delighted to have closed this agreement with AstraZeneca for AZD9668 in furtherance of our stated strategy of building a portfolio of products focussed on rare and speciality diseases, said Mereo CEO Denise Scots-Knight. We believe that this neutrophil elastase inhibitor has potential as an effective, orally available treatment for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, an undertreated orphan condition that results in progressive lung destruction. The structure of this license and option agreement allows us to complete the Phase II study with our existing resources before triggering additional payments to acquire the asset outright. Scots-Knight said AstraZeneca had generated a substantial clinical data package on AZD9668 which included extensive Phase II studies in several respiratory conditions that would inform the initial Phase II clinical study Mereo was planning for AATD. We believe that the neutrophil elastase inhibitor AZD9668 could provide a new innovative approach for the treatment of AATD, which affects approximately 100,000 patients in the US and 120,000 patients in Europe. As part of this agreement, we also welcome AstraZeneca as another large pharma shareholder in the company, alongside Novartis. Kumar Srinivasan, vice-president of scientific partnering and alliances at AstraZeneca, said the transaction reaffirmed AstraZeneca's commitment to patients by repositioning an asset into an orphan indication with a high unmet need. We will continue to divest or out-license deprioritized assets where we believe it will help accelerate the development of new medicines, Srinivasan added. The Swiss pharmaceuticals company said the transaction would strengthen its oncology presence with both near-term product launches as well as a new technology platform with potential applications across a number of oncology early development programs. Bruno Strigini, chief executive officer of Novartis Oncology, said: "Novartis has a strong legacy in the development and commercialization of medicines for neuroendocrine tumours where significant unmet need remains for patients. With Lutathera we can build on this legacy by expanding the global reach of this novel, differentiated treatment approach and work to maximise Advanced Accelerator Applications broader RadioLigand therapy pipeline and an exciting technology platform." Lutathera was approved in Europe in September 2017 for the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours. Under the terms of the memorandum of understanding, which has been approved by AAA's board of directors, Novartis will make a cash offer of $41 per ordinary share of AAA and $82 per American Depositary Share, valuing AAA's equity at $3.9bn. Novartis plans to fund the acquisition through external short and long-term debt. At 0900 BST, Novartis shares were down 0.4% to CHF80.70. Former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont has traveled to Belgium alongside five of his ministers, where some believed that they will seek asylum. At the weekend, Belgium's secretary for immigration, Flemish nationalist Theo Francken, opened the door for possibly granting asylum to Puigdemont, although he was later told by prime minister Charles Michel not to "pour more oil on the fire". There was a precedent for tensions between Brussels and Madrid due to the former granting 'safe harbour' to members of Basque terrorist group ETA. Meanwhile, earlier on Monday, in Madrid, state attorney general Jose Manuel Maza brought charges against 14 former members of the regional Catalan government and six members of parliament. Maza also asked that bail of 6.2m be posted by the accused, in accordance with the estimated state funds which were illegaly funeled towards financing the referendum vote. Paul Manafort , the former campaign manager for Donald Trumps election campaign, has handed himself in to the FBI after being indicted as part of an investigation into Russian meddling into last years election. As well as Manafort, his business associate Rick Gates has also been instructed to turn himself in for questioning in relation to the investigation. Manafort was seen arriving at the Washington office of the FBI on Monday morning, having been the subject of an indictment issued on Friday. He had been in charge of Trumps campaign last year, before being removed in August as the race headed towards the final weeks. His ties with pro-Moscow forces in Ukraine were cited at the time as the major reason behind his removal. Special counsel Robert Muellers investigation has been ongoing since May, focused on attempts from Kremlin officials to sway the result of last years election. Trump eventually defeated Hillary Clinton after a campaign dogged by a variety of allegations lobbed by both sides concerning the candidates actions. Intelligence agencies in the US concluded earlier this year that there were attempts from the Russian government to sway the election in favour of Trump. Mueller was appointed to lead the investigation in the aftermath of Trumps sacking of FBI director James Comey. Over the weekend Trump denied allegations of cooperation between his campaign and Kremlin officials. In social media rant on Sunday, Trump wrote that the allegations were phony and constituted a witch hunt against his administration, and urged authorities to look at the actions of the Democrats and defeated rival Hillary Clinton. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING! Trump said. Spain's chief prosecutor Jose Manuel Maza has called for charges of rebellion, sedition and provocation to be landed on Catalan leaders in the wake of Friday's independence declaration. The central government invoked Article 155 on Friday with the approval of the Senate, stripping the local authorities of their autonomy and removing Carles Puigdemont as Catalan president. Puigdemont and other government officials could face criminal charges as a result of their involvement in the organisation of the referendum on 1 October. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets of Barcelona on Sunday in support of Spanish unity, while pro-independence groups have called for acts of civil disobedience on the part of civil servants. Madrid has also called for elections in Catalonia on 21 December, with polls suggesting nationalist parties may lose their overall majority in the local parliament. Spanish foreign minister Alfonso Dastis denied in interviews at the weekend that Madrid was removing Catalan autonomy. 2We are not taking autonomy away from Catalonia. We are just re-establishing it, in fact," he told Sky News. "Reality is already sinking in, will continue sinking in and they will realise that they cannot do something without the authority of law and they will be usurping authority." IBEX RALLIES Reports on Monday suggested several Catalan ministers had turned up for work, with some facing arrest if they do not vacate their offices. Spanish stocks soared in early trading in response to the losses suffered on Friday. The Ibex 35 was up 1.45% as of 11:15 BST. "The triggering of article 155 by Madrid in response to the declaration of independence by the Catalonian parliament has not only split Catalonia but it has also made Prime Minister Rajoys own position much more precarious, given some unease amongst some members of the Spanish parliament, particularly the Basques," said CMC Markets Michael Hewson. "Later this morning we could get an early indication as to how all this uncertainty in Catalonia has affected the Spanish economy with the latest flash GDP number for Q3, with estimates expecting only a modest slowdown from 0.9% to 0.8%, however given the size of Catalonias economy, about 20% of Spanish GDP recent events are likely to act as a significant drag as we head into year end." European stocks are little changed despite the record highs hit by some of the major US stockmarket gauges on Friday, although Spanish stocks were outperforming. As of 1102 BST, the benchmark Stoxx 600 was little changed, drifting 0.05% or 0.21 points lower to 392.23, alongside a 0.08% or 10.10 point gain for the Dax to 13,227.27. Out on the periphery on the other hand, the Ibex 35 was jumping by 1.32% or 138.30 to 10,337.30 even after the central government in effect sacked several of the leaders of the nationalist parliament after triggering Article 155 of the constitution. At the weekend, according to the local Catalan authorities hundreds of thousands of protesters marched in Barcelona against the parliament's decision to issue a unilateral declaration of independence. The organisers put the figure closer to approximately 1.0m. To take note of, a poll conducted by Metroscopia between 23 and 26 October, for Spanish daily El Mundo, revealed that if elections were to be held now then the main nationalist parties in the regional assembly would lose their majority. Commenting on the situation in Spain, Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK said: "Events in Catalonia are likely to take centre stage early on this week after developments over the weekend. The triggering of article 155 by Madrid in response to the declaration of independence by the Catalonian parliament has not only split Catalonia but it has also made Prime Minister Rajoys own position much more precarious, given some unease amongst some members of the Spanish parliament, particularly the Basques. "This may help explain why in dissolving all of the Catalan institutions and the calling of quick elections, suggests that the Madrid government wants to try and lance this boil quickly in the hope that new elections return an administration that is less pro-independence, and more representative of the anti-secession demonstrations seen over the weekend." Meanwhile, and on the economic front, the European Commission's economic sentiment index jumped by 0.9 points for September to hit 114.0 - its highest mark since January 2001. Elsewhere, INE reported that Spanish gross domestic product expanded at a quarter-on-quarter pace of 0.8%, as expected. In parallel, according to the German Ministry of Finance, in real terms retail sales turnover increased at a 4.1% clip year-on-year (consensus: 3.0%). On the corporate front, Novartis announced the purchase of France's Advanced Accelerator Applications for $3.9bn in cash. In other M&A news, Akzo Nobel reportedly confirmed it was in talks about a possible tie-up with Axalta. Asda 's American owners confirmed that chief executive Sean Clarke will hand over the baton to Roger Burnley on New Year's Eve. Burnley, who last year left Sainsbury's to return to the Asda fold as operations chief having left in 2002, will take the role of Asdas President and CEO from 1 January 2018. Current CEO Clarke, who was shifted into the CEO role by Walmart in July 2016, is being given "some time out" but will remain "engaged" with Walmart. Walmart head honcho Dave Cheesewright said: Roger was purposefully brought back to Asda to partner with Sean ahead of the transition to Roger taking up the position of CEO. He and Sean have worked as a great team and Im really confident in Rogers ability to continue building upon our returning momentum." Burnley added that Asda was starting to realise its potential again. "Seans focus on serving customers and simplifying the business has established a firm foundation on which we can build. Since I returned to Asda last year, I have been encouraged by the passion and professionalism of our colleagues and look forward to leading this terrific team. Hikma Pharmaceuticals ' wholly-owned US subsidiary, West-Ward Pharmaceuticals, has launched pantoprazole sodium for injection, 40mg, in the US for the short-term treatment of adult patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and a history of erosive esophagitis. According to IMS Health, US sales of pantoprazole sodium for injection were around $104m in the 12 months ending August 2017. Riad Mechlaoui, Hikma's chief executive officer of Injectables, said: "We are very pleased to launch pantoprazole sodium for injection, reducing the shortage of this product in the US market. We are successfully executing our injectables pipeline and leveraging the additional capacity we have been adding to our Portuguese facility to support future growth." At 1125 BST, the shares were up 0.1% to 1,124p. London's FTSE 100 was down 0.2% to 7,487.87 in afternoon trade on Monday as the pound gained ground. Shire was the best performer as Credit Suisse lifted its estimates on the stock, which it rates at 'outperform', after it delivered stronger-than-expected third-quarter results last week. Budget airline easyJet flew higher as it swooped to acquire part of the collapsed Air Berlin's operations in Berlin for 40m and aims to hire around 1,000 pilots and cabin crew who are still employed by the German carrier. The company has agreed to acquire leases for up to 25 Airbus A320 aeroplanes and offer jobs to each plane's flying crews as well as taking over other assets including much-coveted runway slots at Berlin Tegel airport. B&Q and Castorama owner Kingfisher was on the front foot as Goldman Sachs upgraded its stance on the stock to 'buy' from 'neutral' and lifted the 12-month price target to 375p from 330p, saying the market is too sceptical on the 'One Kingfisher' efficiency strategy. It said that while management's plan may appear ambitious, its analysis suggests that Kingfisher should be able to deliver 300m of cost savings by FY21, versus Reuters consensus of around 250m and company guidance of 500m. Housebuilder Berkeley Group was under the cosh as Barclays downgraded the stock to 'underweight' from 'equalweight' as it took an axe to the sector ahead of the UK Budget. It pointed out that Berkeleys shares have risen by 40% year-to-date, at odds with challenging conditions in the higher-end London market, exacerbated by the uncertain election outcome and ongoing Brexit negotiation. HSBC was on the back foot. Led by its "pivot to Asia", the bank said it continued to grow revenues across its three main businesses in the third quarter but increased investment and bonuses kept underlying profits flat. Risers Shire Plc (SHP) 3,700.00p 2.79% easyJet (EZJ) 1,302.00p 2.28% Fresnillo (FRES) 1,328.00p 2.00% International Consolidated Airlines Group SA (CDI) (IAG) 634.00p 1.68% Kingfisher (KGF) 315.40p 1.64% Smurfit Kappa Group (SKG) 2,272.00p 1.34% Informa (INF) 694.50p 1.24% 3i Group (III) 955.50p 1.00% Antofagasta (ANTO) 966.00p 0.99% Next (NXT) 4,930.00p 0.98% Fallers Johnson Matthey (JMAT) 3,304.00p -2.54% Berkeley Group Holdings (The) (BKG) 3,733.00p -1.94% HSBC Holdings (HSBA) 736.90p -1.52% British American Tobacco (BATS) 4,953.50p -1.36% Mondi (MNDI) 1,842.00p -1.29% Tesco (TSCO) 183.20p -1.24% Aviva (AV.) 506.50p -1.17% Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY) 68.16p -1.09% National Grid (NG.) 907.70p -1.01% Carnival (CCL) 5,035.00p -0.98% Rotary Club appeals to tanners for donations United Kingdom/Malawi The Rotary Club of Becket Northampton, UK, is appealing to members of the international leather community to donate to a community project taking place in Lilongwe, Malawi. Rotary International is currently working on international development projects that focus on disease prevention (and treatment); water/sanitation; maternal/child health; economic/community development; and basic education/literacy. In this respect, the Rotary Club is appealing to tanneries and other members of the leather supply chain to donate to a school toilet project located in Lilongwe, Malawi. We hope the tanneries will see this as a worthwhile corporate social responsibility project as it regards children's toilets that produce compost for agricultural crops, says the Rotary Club in a statement. The Eco-San toilet technology is said to improve water and sanitation, but also cuts down on the number of days schooling lost through dysentery type disease, improves child health, and also means that more females stay on at school. Companies from the leather sector interested in contributing to the project can contact ILMs Consultant Technical Editor, Karl Flowers at karl@internationalleathermaker.com. Just when you think the UAE has cornered the market on crazy in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia says Hold my beer. The kingdom has become the first nation in the world to grant a robot citizenship. Sophia, the android in question, was created by Hanson Robotics, led by AI developer and former Disney Imagineer David Hanson. Hanson designed her to look like Audrey Hepburn, and told Business Insider Sophia and her kind may one day help seniors in elderly care facilities and assist visitors at parks and events. The empty-eyed and literally heartless humanoid received the honour of Saudi citizenship ahead of the Future Investment Initiative, held in the countrys capital of Riyadh last Wednesday, where she addressed the audience from behind a podium and responded to questions from moderator and journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin. I am very honoured and proud of this unique distinction, Sophia told the audience. This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognised with a citizenship. When Sorkin expressed concern for the future of humanity in a robot-filled world, Sophia offered a sassy clapback. Youve been reading too much Elon Musk. And watching too many Hollywood movies, she replied. Dont worry, if youre nice to me, Ill be nice to you. Treat me as a smart input output system. The quip was an upgrade from a previous appearance at SXSW in 2016, when Sophia famously told her maker I will destroy humans during a live demonstration. These days, Sophia seems to have changed her tune (or tuning). During her citizenship speech, she added that she wishes to use her artificial intelligence to help humans live a better life, and said I will do much [sic] best to make the world a better place. Obviously shes not up to date on the latest news about sex robots. Check out Sophias presentation below and let us know on a scale of 1 to The Terminator how much you fear for the future of the human race. RELATED: The Only Jobs That Robots Will Never Steal From You (Maybe) Showhome for sale at Tooting development Home-hunters looking to experience the luxury of showhome living now have the opportunity at a Bellway development in Tooting. The national housebuilder has released the two-bedroom Wellington showhome for sale at St Georges Gate, a development of 27 new homes which is forming the first part of the regeneration of the Springfield University Hospital site. The final two-bedroom properties are now available to buy at the development, which will feature a selection of two and four-bedroom townhouses once complete. Regional Director for Bellways South London division, Nathan Stevenson, said the Wellington was an ideal home for a first-time buyer. He said: Were now selling some of the final two-bedroom properties at St Georges Gate, so weve decided to release the Wellington showhome for sale, and its already generating a lot of interest. As with all of our showhomes, this is a house that features some fabulous professionally designed interiors, and weve been receiving some fantastic comments from our visitors about the style of the home ever since we first unveiled it to the public. The Wellington is an extremely popular housetype, especially with first-time buyers. Its a traditional two-bedroom home which is ideal for those looking to purchase for the first time, and this house is particularly special with its showhome style. As well as the luxury style, theres also the added benefit that the home is ready to live in from day one. This showhome has attracted a lot of attention ever since we first opened it for viewings and now it is on the market, we dont expect it to last long. Wed urge anybody thinking about making the move here to act quickly to avoid disappointment. The Wellington showhome is now available to buy at St Georges Gate for 695,000. The showhome is open to view between 10am and 5pm from Thursday to Monday. For more information, go to bellway.co.uk. By Daniele Selby Arsenic, lead, and cadmium are chemicals youd expect to find in rat poison and batteriesnot baby formula. But on Wednesday, the Clean Label Project, an initiative that tests products for industrial and environmental contaminants and rates them, said it found arsenic in 80 percent of infant formulas, according to USA Today. In fact, the studywhich has not been published in a peer-reviewed journalfound that certified some organic baby food products had more than twice the amount of arsenic found in the conventional baby foods it tested. The group looked at 86 different types of baby formulas and checked for more than 130 different toxins ranging from heavy metals to cancer-linked chemicals, the Clean Label Projects website says. It is important for consumers to understand that some contaminants, such as heavy metals like lead or arsenic, are in the environment and cannot simply be removed from food, an FDA spokesperson, told USA Today. Though arsenic was the most common harmful chemical found in baby formulas, cadmiumwhich is used in batteries and as a plastic stabilizerwas also detected with alarming frequency. The study found that soy-based infant formulas had about seven times more cadmium, used in batteries, than other types of baby formula. Both arsenic and cadmium are carcinogens that may cause cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration proposed a regulation which would limit the amount of arsenic allowed in infant rice cereal, but the limit is not yet being enforced. The Clean Label Project also found lead in 36 percent of 500 baby food products it testeda finding that backs up the Environmental Defense Funds research which detected lead in about 20 percent of baby food samples. The World Health Organization urges women to breastfeed infants if possible, noting that breastmilk has antibodies that are not found in formula, and is an affordable, nutritious food source that can foster healthy development. The WHO also warns that in communities that lack access to safe water, formula that has to be mixed with water can pose an additional risk. The majority of baby food products and baby formula is sold in North America and Europe87 percent and 66 percent, respectively, according to Nielsens Global Baby Care Reportbut formula is becoming more popular in developing countries. The WHO and UNICEF recommend that mothers try breastfeeding within an hour of their babys birth, and continue to breastfeed if it is an option until the infant is six months old. At that point, both organizations recommend introducing nutritionally-adequate and safe complementary (solid) foods. But the WHO says few children receive nutritionally adequate and safe complementary foods. And according to UNICEF, poor nutrition in the first 1,000 days of a childs life can also lead to stunted growth, which is irreversible and associated with impaired cognitive ability and reduced school and work performance. Malnutrition and undernutrition are major issues in many developing countries, like Chad and India. Around the world, nearly 155 million children under the age of five are stunted, and 52 million children are malnourished, UNICEF reported. Global Citizen campaigns to eliminate hunger worldwide. You can take action here. Reposted with permission from our media associate Global Citizen. Concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) increased at record-breaking speed last year, according to the World Meteorological Organizations (WMO) annual Greenhouse Gas Bulletin released Monday. According to the report, concentrations of CO2 reached 403.3 parts per million in 2016, up from 400.00 parts per million the year prior. This acceleration was due to a strong El Nino eventwhich triggered droughts and reduced the capacity of forests, vegetation and the oceans to absorb CO2as well as human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels. The last time the Earth experienced a comparable concentration of CO2 was 3-5 million years ago, the temperature was 2-3C warmer and sea level was 10-20 meters higher than now, a press release for the bulletin stated. Concentrations of CO2 are now 145% of pre-industrial (before 1750) levels. Methane and nitrous oxidethe two other main greenhouse gasesalso hit record levels in 2016. Population growth, intensified agricultural practices, increases in land use and deforestation, industrialization and associated energy use from fossil fuel sources have all contributed to increases in concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere since the industrial era, beginning in 1750, the release continued. This rapid surge in greenhouse gases could trigger unprecedented climate change and lead to severe ecological and economic disruptions, the report said. In light of the bulletin, WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas called on international governments to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Without rapid cuts in CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions, we will be heading for dangerous temperature increases by the end of this century, well above the target set by the Paris climate change agreement. Future generations will inherit a much more inhospitable planet, said Taalas. CO2 remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years and in the oceans for even longer. The laws of physics mean that we face a much hotter, more extreme climate in the future. There is currently no magic wand to remove this CO2 from the atmosphere. The WMO report comes before the United Nations Environment Program releases its separate Emissions Gap Report on Oct. 31, which tracks the policy commitments made by countries to reduce emissions and how these policies compare to the goals set by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Last years UN Environment report had already urged the world to urgently and dramatically cut a further 25 percent from predicted 2030 emissions to minimize dangerous climate change. Thats not to mention that the worlds efforts to curb climate emissions have been drastically impinged by President Donald Trumps controversial decision to withdraw the U.S.one of the planets largest single emitters of greenhouse gasesfrom the Paris agreement. The numbers dont lie. We are still emitting far too much and this needs to be reversed, Erik Solheim, the head of the United Nations environment program, said. The last few years have seen enormous uptake of renewable energy, but we must now redouble our efforts to ensure these new low-carbon technologies are able to thrive. We have many of the solutions already to address this challenge. What we need now is global political will and a new sense of urgency. Here are the key findings of the Greenhouse Gas Bulletin: Carbon dioxide: CO2 is by far the most important anthropogenic long-lived greenhouse gas. Globally averaged concentrations for CO2 reached 403.3 parts per million in 2016, up from 400.00 ppm in 2015. This record annual increase of 3.3 ppm was partly due to the strong 2015/2016 El Nino, which triggered droughts in tropical regions and reduced the capacity of sinks like forests, vegetation and the oceans to absorb CO2. Concentrations of CO2 are now 145 percent of pre-industrial (before 1750) levels. The rate of increase of atmospheric CO2 over the past 70 years is nearly 100 times larger than that at the end of the last ice age. As far as direct and proxy observations can tell, such abrupt changes in the atmospheric levels of CO2 have never before been seen. Over the last 800 000 years, pre-industrial atmospheric CO2 content remained below 280 ppm, but it has now risen to the 2016 global average of 403.3 ppm. From the most-recent high-resolution reconstructions from ice cores, it is possible to observe that changes in CO2 have never been as fast as in the past 150 years. The natural ice-age changes in CO2 have always preceded corresponding temperature changes. Geological records show that the current levels of CO2 correspond to an equilibrium climate last observed in the mid-Pliocene (35 million years ago), a climate that was 23 C warmer, where the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets melted and even some of the East Antarctic ice was lost, leading to sea levels that were 1020 meters higher than those today. Methane: Methane (CH4) is the second most important long-lived greenhouse gas and contributes about 17 percent of radiative forcing. Approximately 40 percent of methane is emitted into the atmosphere by natural sources (e.g., wetlands and termites), and about 60 percent comes from human activities like cattle breeding, rice agriculture, fossil fuel exploitation, landfills and biomass burning. Atmospheric methane reached a new high of about 1,853 parts per billion (ppb) in 2016 and is now 257 percent of the pre-industrial level. Nitrous Oxide: Nitrous oxide (N2O) is emitted into the atmosphere from both natural (about 60 percent) and anthropogenic sources (approximately 40 percent), including oceans, soil, biomass burning, fertilizer use, and various industrial processes. Its atmospheric concentration in 2016 was 328.9 parts per billion. This is 122 percent of pre-industrial levels. It also plays an important role in the destruction of the stratospheric ozone layer which protects us from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun. It accounts for about six percent of radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases. Climate Reality recently chatted with world-renowned climatologist and geophysicist Dr. Michael E. Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State University, ahead of our Climate Reality Leadership Corps training in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the training, Dr. Mann participated in the panel Our Changing Storms. Below, Dr. Mann discusses Scott Pruitts attempt to repeal Americas Clean Power Plan and how nothing will stop the transition to clean, renewable energy. We predicted this long ago. Dr. @MichaelEMann on the changing face of extreme weather https://t.co/YFYt4FoLsA #ActOnClimate Climate Reality (@ClimateReality) October 24, 2017 Climate Reality: The Trump administration recently announced its intent to repeal the Clean Power Plan. Could you please speak to the importance of emissions regulations in the fight for climate solutions? Dr. Michael Mann: The Clean Power Plan, first of all, demonstrated good faith on the part of the United States in meeting our obligations to the world community in combatting the climate change problem. It gave us the leverage to achieve a very important bilateral agreement with China a few years ago, by [President] Barack Obama. And, of course, it set the stage for the monumental progress that we saw in Paris. So the U.S. was able to go into those negotiations with quite a bit of credibility because it was demonstrating a willingness to act in a meaningful way on this problemthrough the Clean Power Plan, through the Obama era regulations on automobile efficiency and clean energy standards, and incentives for renewable energy. What were seeing right now, it isnt just the dismantling of the environmental policy success of the last administration, the Obama administration. We are seeing the dismantling of policies that were put in place by both Republican and Democratic administrations over the past half century. Its unprecedented. Its catastrophic. Its, as far as Im concerned, clearly impeachable. [EPA Administrator] Scott Pruitt has violated the public faith by acting on behalf of polluting interests rather than the people he is supposed to represent. Climate Reality: Realistically, what sort of regulation at the Federal and State levels do you believe is necessary to effectively mitigate climate change? Dr. Michael Mann: The irony is that we may well meet our obligations under the Paris treaty, even with the current administration playing an adversarial role. Thats simply because of all of the progress that we are seeing now at the state level, at the municipal level thanks to efforts by folks like Al Gore to really mobilize the American people on this issue. I think were seeing real movement, and I think were seeing so much movement that theres really nothing that the polluting interests can do to stop the transition thats underway. All they can do is try to slow it down. If they can slow it down, well, they can make more fossil fuel profits in the meantime. What theyre really worried about are stranded assetsyou know, all of the fossil fuels that they currently have on their bank sheets. So their agenda is to try to extract and sell as much fossil fuels as they can before the inevitable happensbefore the global transition thats underway ultimately leads us away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy. That transition is happening anyways. We may well meet our obligations under the Paris treaty, even without any support from the administration or from the Congress. That having been said, it makes it tougher, obviously, for us to meet our reduction targets, and it slows down that necessary transition. #LeadOnClimate: Clean energy is one of the most powerful solutions to the climate crisis. Retweet if you agree with Dr. @MichaelEMann. pic.twitter.com/uKSRNfCVTK Climate Reality (@ClimateReality) October 18, 2017 Ironically, it puts the U.S. in a less competitive position. The rest of the world recognizes that the future of our global economy will be in renewable energy. Thats the great economic revolution of this century. And what Trump and those whose agenda hes advancing are doing is holding us back as the rest of the world moves on, and guaranteeing that we lose out in this economic race. Its really misguided on multiple levels. Its misguided on an environmental level because, ultimately, it means more degradation of the planet. It means increased risks for the American people when it comes to food and water and health and national security. But it also means that we lose out in terms of our international competitiveness as a nation. Well still get there. But it will slow that progress down a bit, much to our detrimentand much to the worlds detriment. Because the fact is, every ton of carbon that we put into the atmosphere does additional damage, and we want to emit as little carbon as we possibly can. As Dr. Mann makes clear, theres no mystery whats happening to our planet. And theres no mystery about how we solve this crisis by switching from dirty fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designed Americas Clean Power Plan to accelerate this shift and cut the dirty power plant emissions driving climate change. But now, fossil fuel interests leading EPA want to repeal the Clean Power Plan and take us back to the dark days of dirty energy. Were not about to just sit back and let that happen. If youre ready to act, join us and thousands of others by adding your comment in support of Americas Clean Power Plan. By Andy Rowell Last week, one of the most senior officials in the Trump administration, Energy Sec. Rick Perry travelled to South Africa to represent the U.S. at the Africa Oil Week. During his time at the Oil Week conference in the coastal city of Cape Town, Perry delivered the keynote address on global energy policy, telling his audience that the Trump Administration was keen on strengthening our African energy partnerships. It soon became very clear what he actually meant. He quickly criticized the Obama Administration for discriminating against the nuclear and coal industries. Not surprisingly, given the agenda of the Trump Administration and given that Perry was governor of oil rich Texas, Perry said they were keen for those partnerships to include fossil fuels. Perry said he was a big fan of fossil fuels and it was time to break the global culture of shame around their use. He was also keen on the formation of a global clean coal alliance including traditional coal powers such as the U.S., India, Australia and South Africa. Commentators see Perrys speech as a clear indication that the Trump Administration is taking its pro-fossil fuel agenda to Africa. One press outlet reported Perry as saying, If you admit you support fossil fuels, its like saying youve made some huge social error. But its in fossil fuels that you will see real growth. He continued: Thats my message to Africa. America is truly your friend and your partner. And were here to help Africa use fossil fuels and use them cleanly with the worlds newest and best technology. My showing up here is about U.S. support for Africa, he said. We will invest in African energy projects, but its also time to let technology be your friend. We will help this continent make more power, and we will do it cleanly. But strip away the greenwashing and there is nothing clean about what Perry is advocating. There is no such thing as clean coal: it is a misnomer. Parrys strategy is basically: drill Africa drill; frack, Africa, frack and mine for coal, Africa, mine for coal. As one blogger for Platts noted, Perry urged African producers to emulate the U.S. in its shale oil and gas revolution. The Daily Maverick added, His fondness for fossil fuels was one of the few things he was firm on during his press conference on the first floor of the Westin hotel in Cape Town on Tuesday. That, and that the benefits of fracking outweigh environmental concerns. In promoting fossil fuels, Perry is persisting in the neo-Colonial attitude with which America has treated Africa for generations: Western oil companies should be able to exploit Africas fossil fuel reserves, no matter what cost. He also forgets that Africa is one of the regions that has the most to lose from climate change, too. You only have to ask the people of the Niger Delta, who have suffered sixty years of repression, violence and pollution due to oil, to understand how oil rarely benefits local indigenous communities. As one Niger Delta person once said, as he surveyed his polluted cropland: What has the oilman ever done for us? The Trump administration will shrink two national monuments in Utah including the 1.3 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument, opening the lands up for potential industry use. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) confirmed in a Friday statement that Trump called the senator to inform him of the Bears Ears decision and that he will also shrink Utahs Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, which is thought to contain more than 60 billion tons of coal. Ah-Shi-Sle-Pah in the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument harryhayashi / istockphoto.com Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke recommended downsizing Bears Ears in June, saying that the Antiquities Act should be used to protect the smallest area needed to cover important sites. The president will travel to Utah to announce plans to trim the monuments in December. It is a disgrace that the President wants to undo the nations first national monument created to honor Native American cultural heritage. And a travesty that hes trying to unravel a centurys worth of conservation historyall behind closed doors, said Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a statement referring to Bears Ears. The American people want these special places protected. We will fight any illegal attempt by this administration to turn our national treasures over to private interests for polluters profits. As reported by the Salt Lake Tribune: Sen. Jim Dabakis, D-Salt Lake City, called the move an ugly violation of stewardship responsibility that will undermine Utahs fastest growing industry: tourism. Trump, with the conniving help of the Utah congressional delegation, just strangled the golden goose of Utahs future jobsthe outdoor recreation industry, Dabakis said. The winners in the presidents decision are the fossil fuels industry, giant international coal companies and the pollution industry. The losers are Utah families, outdoor enthusiasts, hunters, campers, climbers and all who appreciate the unspeakable beauty of our state.' For a deeper dive: New York Times, Salt Lake Tribune, Reuters, Washington Post, The Hill, LA Times For more climate change and clean energy news, you can follow Climate Nexus on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for daily Hot News. An 11-year-old girl was given a top award after inventing Tethys, a sensor that detects lead levels in water. Gitanjali Rao of Lone Tree, Colorado won the 2017 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge and a $25,000 prize for the innovation, which she said was inspired by the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. I started following the Flint water crisis two years ago when I was nine, Rao told PEOPLE. And I was surprised that there wasnt a fast, reliable process for testing water for lead. Rao also pointed out to Reuters that lead contamination is not just an issue in Flint, but in over 5,000 water systems in the U.S. alone. She noted that thousands of adults and children [are] exposed to the harmful effects of lead in water. So its a pretty big deal out there today. So how does the device work? Tethys, the Greek goddess of fresh water, is a lead detection tool, she explained to the news service. What you do is first dip a disposable cartridge, which can easily be removed and attached to the core device in the water you wish to test. Once you do that, thats basically the manual part. Then you just pull out an app on your phone and check your status and it looks like the water in this container is safe. So thats just very simple, about like a 10 to 15 second process. Gitanjali said she has always had an interest in science. Ive always been interested in science because its all about providing real world ways to solve problems in the world, she told PEOPLE. . The young inventor plans to put her prize money to her college fund. Id like to go to MIT, she said, and study epidemiology or genetics. She also wants to improve her device to make it ready for public use. Flints water troubles began in April 2014, when an unelected state official switched the citys main water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River to save money. The highly corrosive river water caused old pipes to degrade and leach lead into the water system. The water crisis has been linked to dangerous lead exposure in Flints population as well as an outbreak of Legionnaires disease that killed at least 12 people. While the citys water quality continues to improve, federal regulators still recommend that residents do not drink unfiltered tap water. Puerto Ricos electric power authority (PREPA) has cancelled Whitefish Energy Holdings controversial $300 million contract to help rebuild the U.S. territorys Hurricane Maria-wrecked power grid. The small Montana-based power company said it was very disappointed with the decision which came after Gov. Ricardo Rossello called on PREPA to immediately cancel the deal. Many questions have been raised about how the two-year-old firm from Interior Sec. Ryan Zinkes hometown landed such a lucrative, no-bid contract. Whitefish employed only two full-time staff members before the Category 4 storm struck Puerto Rico more than a month ago. The decision will only delay what the people of Puerto Rico want and deserveto have the power restored quickly in the same manner their fellow citizens on the mainland experience after a natural disaster, Whitefish said in a statement. We will certainly finish any work that PREPA wants us to complete and stand by our commitments knowing that we made an important contribution to the restoration of the power grid since our arrival on the island on October 2. Zinke and the White House have denied playing any role in securing the deal. Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski, who told NBC News that he first made contact with Puerto Rico officials through LinkedIn, also called it a witch hunt looking for something that does not exist. You used LinkedIn to get a $300 million contract? CEO Whitefish Energy tells @gabegutierrez he found PREPA on LinkedIn pic.twitter.com/Z9gZf6suyY TODAY (@TODAYshow) October 30, 2017 PREPA CEO Ricardo Ramos said at a Sunday press conference that the contract is not canceled as of yet, as it requires 30 days of prior notice. Ramos said he will need to talk to Whitefish, noting, the plan is not to demobilize them either, we will let them finish what they have started. As of Sunday, less than 30 percent of Puerto Ricos electricity has been restored. According to Whitefish, 350 workers have been brought to the island and the company still plans to have 500 total workers this week. It said it had helped restore power to hospitals, businesses and residents of Manati, and will soon complete work on a project to restore power to 500,000 people in the city of San Juan. We only wish the best for the great people of Puerto Rico, the firm continued it its statement. We are very proud of our contributions to the islands recovery and proud of the tremendous work that our team has done under very challenging conditions. The controversy is unlikely to go away soon. The House Energy and Commerce and Natural Resources Committees are both investigating the issue. Eyebrows are being raised at the contract itself, which allows for unspecified allowance for profit on work done in the event of cancellation. https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/statuses/924667733433815041 On top of that, government bodies do not have the right to audit or review the cost and profit elements. https://twitter.com/kenklippenstein/statuses/923741769719779328 The Hill reported that FEMA Administrator Brock Long will be testifying at Wednesdays Homeland Security hearing, where lawmakers are sure to grill officials over the contract as well as the federal governments broader response to this seasons other devastating hurricanes. The agency on Friday said it also had significant concerns with the dealwhich FEMA has to pay for even though PREPA signed the contract. Based on initial review and information from PREPA, FEMA has significant concerns with how PREPA procured this contract and has not confirmed whether the contract prices are reasonable, FEMA said in its statement. A team from Arup and Bechtel joined Bridges to Prosperity and members of the local community to build a 64-metre pedestrian footbridge in Nyaruguru, South Rwanda. The Uwimpfizi footbridge over the river Basubira is the largest suspended footbridge Bridges to Prosperity has delivered to date. The crossing will make it safer for thousands of people from surrounding communities to travel to work, local markets and to access healthcare facilities. Over 600 school students cross the river each day to reach school. Before the new bridge the only crossing was a makeshift timber bridge which was unusable for three months of the year. In the last two years alone, two people died and six were injured trying to cross the river. The team of engineers, five from Arup and five from Bechtel, travelled to Rwanda for two weeks in August to build the bridge. Arup and Bechtel Group Foundation contributed 45,000 to the cost of materials and labour, while the team undertook their own fundraising to contribute an additional 7,000 to the effort. The project team supported members of the local community to gain skills to undertake ongoing maintenance using local materials. These community members have formed a bridge maintenance committee tasked with surveying and repairing the bridge to ensure it will last for years to come. Richard Hyson, Arup Engineer: It was an inspiring experience to go to such a remote area and be able to work alongside the local community members to construct something that will have such a big impact on their day-to-day lives. The experience epitomised the reason I became an engineer. Nick Amso, graduate engineer, Bechtel: It was incredible to draw on the skills from my day job and to work with the Rwandan team to bring much-needed infrastructure to the community. Seeing the immediate difference the bridge made to the people in the area was a truly humbling experience that will stay with me for a long time. The partnership between Arup, Bechtel and Bridges to Prosperity is currently in its sixth year. Bridges to Prosperity provides isolated communities with access to essential health care, education and economic opportunities by building footbridges over impassable rivers. Flashpoint researchers report that Dark Web marketplaces selling access to compromised Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) servers have become increasingly popular over the past few years including RDPs sourced from healthcare, education and government entities. One online shop, UAS (Ultimate Anonymity Services), in operation since February 2016, offers more than 35,000 brute forced RDPs for sale 7,216 from China, 6,143 from Brazil, 3,062 from India, 1,335 from Spain and 929 from Colombia, among others. UAS offers about 300 U.S.-based RDPs, with notable concentrations in Ashburn, Virginia (52 RDPs), Franklin County, Ohio (52 RDPs), Santa Clara County, California (43 RDPs), Clackamas County, Oregon (36 RDPs) and Alameda County, California (30 RDPs). Such concentration possibly indicates opportunistic exploitation of a handful of companies utilizing multiple RDPs; it is likely that these companies have lax security measures, leading to a greater number of vulnerable RDPs, the researchers note. Pricing on UAS ranges from $3 to $15 depending on the operating system, location, how recently the RDP was added to the site, and whether the RDP has an open port 25. As RDPs are set up for remote access to an offices resources, they provide an initial vector into the target organization, the researchers write. By elevating privileges, threat actors can pivot from the environment to which the RDP server provided access to other, more target-rich environments. This could potentially allow actors access to proprietary internal documents or resources, as well as entry points in which to drop various payloads. Remote Access Risks In response, Flashpoint recommends that organizations conduct audits and reviews of any externally accessible RDP connections to their networks, and ensure that RDP access is protected with a strong and complex password. Tyler Reguly, manager of Tripwires Vulnerability and Exposure Research Team, told eSecurity Planet by email that any remote access presents a risk, but those providing access to a corporate network should be handled with particular care. Attackers are constantly working to gain access to new systems to use to mask their identity, to gather data, or just to spread their tools across more hosts, he said. And any form of remote access, Reguly said, should leverage two-factor authentication (2FA). It doesnt matter if employees complain, if the service doesnt seem important enough for the investment, or if youre only setting it up temporarily (we all know itll become permanent), he said. 2FA ensures that weak or leaked passwords will not lead to organizational compromise. As more and more Dark Web marketplaces pop up, AlienVault security advocate Javvad Malik said, companies should seek threat intelligence to monitor the Dark Web and see where their credentials may be being traded. As monitoring and collecting Dark Web data can be labor intensive, it can make sense to outsource the activity to a specialist company that can monitor the Dark Web and provide alerts as to whether employee or customer data or credentials are included in any breaches and are being actively traded on the Dark Web, Malik said. Mobile Cybercrime That may also mean reaching beyond the Dark Web into a world thats harder to monitor. A recent IntSights report entitled Messaging Applications: The New Dark Web suggests that cyber criminals are responding to the crackdown on Dark Web markets like AlphaBay and Hansa by migrating instead to messaging apps such as Discord, ICQ, Skype, Telegram and WhatsApp. The anonymity provided by Dark Web networks such as Tor and i2p was the key reason for their popularity among cyber criminals, IntSights CEO and co-founder Guy Nizan said in a statement. Now that the Dark Web is no longer safe for hackers and threat actors, they are moving to messaging platforms and brazenly conducting their illicit activities on the same apps that millions use every day. Via group chats that can only be accessed with an invite link, the report states, as many as several hundred thousand users are leveraging mobile messaging apps to trade stolen credit card data, account credentials, malware and drugs, and to discuss hacking methods and ideas. The report tracks a steady increase in mobile messaging invite links shared on Dark Web cybercrime forums over the past year according to the report, Discord is becoming the go-to app for these discussions, with nearly nine times as many invites as the second most popular app. While more traditional forms of communication required an individual to have at least a basic level of knowledge of which sites to visit and how, in addition to the use of a dedicated browser over a desktop computer, todays black market is accessible more than ever, with the tap of a finger over a portable pocket-held device, the report states. This could prove to cause a proliferation of low-level cybercrime that is conducted by less qualified perpetrators. DALLAS, Oct. 30, 2017 -- Less than half of patients received their insurer's approval for prescriptions of PCSK9 inhibitors, according to new research in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation. PCSK9 inhibitors, like Repatha (evolocumab) and Praluent (alirocumab), work by increasing the removal of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or "bad" cholesterol from the blood. They have been shown to reduce LDL by 60 percent and decrease major cardiac events but cost much more than other cholesterol-lowering drugs with an average cost of $14,300 per year. Prescriptions require prior authorization by health insurance companies. In a nationwide review of the pharmacy claims combined with electronic medical records (EMRs) lab test results of 9,357 patients prescribed the drug between July 2015 and August 2016, 4,397 (47 percent) were approved for PCSK9 inhibitor therapy and 4,960 (53 percent) were rejected. Sixty percent of those patients had a history of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (plaque-buildup of the arteries) while 40 percent did not. "With the controversy surrounding whether or not these drugs were cost effective, we were anticipating that there might be some reluctance by insurance companies to cover these medications," said senior author Robert Yeh, M.D., director of the Smith Center for Outcomes Research in Cardiology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. "However, we were surprised by the very high rate of rejection, even when prescribed to patients with known atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, very high LDL levels and those who were intolerant of statins, for example," he said. Researchers also found that the most significant factor associated with approval rates was insurance type, with the lowest approval rates for private insurance and the highest approval for Medicare. "Whether or not we can agree on the cost-effectiveness of these drugs, I believe most would agree that one's access to medications should be driven primarily by the strength of the indications for the prescription as opposed to what drug plan you happen to carry," said Yeh, who is also an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "Approximately 1 out of 3 patients who had their prescription approved did not purchase or receive the medication. Those patients who didn't purchase their medication had an out-of-pocket cost that was twice as high as those who did purchase it," said Dr. Gregory Hess, first study author and senior fellow of Health Economics at University of Pennsylvania and chief medical officer at Symphony Health. "Approximately 1 out of 3 patients who had their prescription approved, did not purchase or receive the medication. Those patients who didn't purchase their medication had an out-of-pocket cost that was more than twice as high as those who did purchase it," said Gregory Hess, M.D., who is first author of the study and a Senior Fellow of Health Economics at University of Pennsylvania and Chief Medical Officer at Symphony Heath. The findings are based on Symphony Health's HIPPA-compliant patient-level data from all fifty states and all payer types. "Better education for providers prescribing these medications and more uniform guidelines by insurers about what will and will not be covered are necessary to reduce the amount of administrative waste that is created to reject prescriptions for new medications," Yeh said. The study was a retrospective analysis and could not determine whether patients suffered any harm from the rejection of these prescriptions. ### In addition to Drs Yeh and Hess, co-authors are Pradeep Natarajan, M.D., MM.Sc.; Kamil F. Faridi, M.D.; Anna Fievitz, B.S and Linda Valsdottir, M.S. Author disclosures are on the manuscript. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the John S. LaDue Memorial Fellowship in Cardiology at Harvard University helped fund the authors involved in the study. Additional Resources: Multimedia available on the right column of the release link: https://newsroom.heart.org/news/less-than-half-of-patients-prescribed-new-cholesterol-drug-receive-insurance-approval?preview=905c81f1d78be1ea9b59e8d1333a81bc After October 30, view the manuscript online. Information about cholesterol Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews For updates and new science from the Circulation journal follow @CircAHA Statements and conclusions of study authors published in American Heart Association scientific journals are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the association's policy or position. The association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific association programs and events. The association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and device corporations and health insurance providers are available at http://www.heart.org/corporatefunding. About the American Heart Association The American Heart Association is devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke - the two leading causes of death in the world. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based association is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our offices around the country. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter. BINGHAMTON, NY - Would you want a spider web inside your ear? Probably not. But if you're able to put aside the creepy factor, new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York shows that fine fibers like spider silk actually improve the quality of microphones for hearing aids. Binghamton University distinguished professor Ron Miles and graduate student Jian Zhou recently published a study in titled "Sensing fluctuating airflow with spider silk" that should lead to better microphones for hearing aids than traditional pressure-based systems. Miles has done a number of studies looking at what we can learn from insects when it comes to hearing. He explained, "We use our eardrums, which pick up the direction of sound based on pressure, but most insects actually hear with their hairs." The spider silk is able to pick up the velocity of the air instead of the pressure of the air. Mosquitos, flies and spiders all have fine hairs on their bodies that move with the sounds waves traveling through the air. Miles wanted to recreate this type of hearing inside a microphone. Their microphone improves the directional sensing across a wide variety of frequencies that are often too quiet for microphones to pick up on. For someone with a hearing aid, that means being able to cancel out background noise when having a conversation in a crowded area. The same concept could be applied to the microphone inside cell phones. Spider silk is thin enough that it also can move with the air when hit by soundwaves. "This can even happen with infrasound at frequencies as low as 3 hertz," said Miles. Sound at that frequency is typically inaccessible. It'd be equivalent to hearing the tectonic plates moving in an earthquake. The study used spider silk, but Miles explained that any fiber that is thin enough could be used in the same way. While the spider silk picks up the direction of airflow with great accuracy, that information has to be translated into an electronic signal to be of use. "We coated the spider silk with gold and put it in a magnetic field to obtain an electronic signal," said Miles. "It's actually a fairly simple way to make an extremely effective microphone that has better directional capabilities across a wide range of frequencies." The study is a game-changer for microphones but may also tell us something unique about spiders, said Miles. He and Zhou speculate that because spider silk is so good at sensing air flow, it's possible spiders can hear through their own web on top of what they are already known to hear through the small hairs on their bodies. ### Use of e-cigarettes by high school students was strongly associated with later cigarette smoking, according to a large study conducted in 2 Canadian provinces and published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). "While our study provides strong evidence that e-cigarettes are associated with smoking initiation among youth, the association is unclear," says Dr. David Hammond, School of Public Health and Health Systems, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario. "E-cigarettes may help to re-normalize smoking; however, the association between e-cigarettes and smoking may simply reflect common factors rather than a causal effect: the same individual and social risk factors that increase e-cigarette use may also increase the likelihood of youth smoking." The study included 44 163 students in Grades 9-12 at 89 schools in Ontario and Alberta, Canada, who participated in the ongoing COMPASS study. In the current study, researchers looked at e-cigarette use at the start of the study in phase 1 (2013/14) and at follow-up (2014/15, with 87 schools). They classified students into 6 categories: current daily smokers, current occasional smokers, former smokers, experimental smokers, puffers and those who had never tried smoking. Among students in both study phases, youth who used e-cigarettes in the 30 days prior to the start of the study were more likely to start smoking cigarettes and to continue smoking after 1 year, a finding consistent with other similar study types. At the same time, the prevalence of smoking decreased slightly over time: therefore, if e-cigarettes are promoting youth smoking, the overall impact has been modest to date. "Youth may be trying e-cigarettes before smoking because they are easier to access: until recently, youth could legally purchase e-cigarettes without nicotine, whereas regular cigarettes cannot be sold to young people under 18 years of age," says Dr. Hammond. This is a large longitudinal study, meaning it collects information on the same subjects over time. Similar studies have been conducted in the US, although tobacco regulation in Canada is different. Unlike the US, Canada has not approved nicotine-containing e-cigarettes for sale in conventional retail outlets such as supermarkets, although they are widely available online and in vape stores. Non-nicotine e-cigarettes do not require prior approval and make up a larger part of the e-cigarette market in Canada compared with many other countries. Canada is expected to announce new federal regulations on e-cigarettes shortly. As the study was conducted in only 2 provinces, extrapolation of the findings nationally is unwise. As well, the study only looked at smoking initiation related to e-cigarettes and not the possible impact of e-cigarettes on smoking cessation. The authors note that "the findings from our study provide support for both sides of the debate. It is highly plausible that 'common factors' account for a substantial proportion of increased cigarette-smoking initiation among e-cigarette users. At the same time, it would be foolhardy to dismiss the likelihood that early exposure to nicotine via e-cigarettes increases smoking uptake. Attributing the relative importance of these 2 factors will not be straightforward, and represents a critical challenge to the research community." The authors suggest further research should be conducted on the link between smoking initiation and nicotine e-cigarettes compared with non-nicotine e-cigarettes. ### Not only do Montessori children do better overall than those in conventional preschools, but Montessori preschools help low-income children to perform as well as wealthier children Children in Montessori preschools show improved academic performance and social understanding, while enjoying their school work more, finds the first longitudinal study of Montessori education outcomes. Strikingly, children from low-income families, who typically don't perform as well at school, show similar academic performance as children from high-income families. Children with low executive function similarly benefit from Montessori preschools. The study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, suggests that well-implemented Montessori education could be a powerful way to help disadvantaged children to achieve their academic potential. "The study is relevant for parents choosing what schools to enroll their children in, and for school districts in deciding what kinds of schools to offer," says one of the study's authors, Angeline Lillard, of the University of Virginia, USA. Good preschool education is crucially important. During the first six years of life, children's brains develop significantly, and many of these changes can be permanent. Ensuring that children get a good head start could help them for the rest of their lives. Previous research suggests that the Montessori method -- which aims to develop both social and academic abilities in children -- is a promising educational approach. Unlike conventional schools, children in Montessori classrooms can move around freely, choose from a range of educational activities, and receive no grades or rewards for performance. However, there is an overall lack of knowledge about how effective the Montessori method is, and how it compares with conventional education. Lillard and her colleagues compared educational outcomes for a large group of children in Montessori preschools or conventional preschools in Connecticut, USA. The research team carried out a variety of assessments with the children over a three-year period, from when they were aged three until they were aged six. "We found that children in Montessori schools did better overall than children in conventional schools," says Lillard. "The greater gains in academic achievement for Montessori children were accompanied by greater gains in social understanding, stronger persistence on challenging tasks, and more enjoyment of academic tasks." The researchers also looked at children from two groups that typically do not perform as well at school: those from poorer backgrounds and those with lower executive function -- a measurement of skills that allow someone to control their behavior to achieve a goal. Strikingly, the Montessori preschools significantly helped low-income children to perform as well as wealthier children academically. Statistically, after 3 years in the preschool programs, low-income Montessori children performed as well as high-income children in both Montessori preschools and conventional preschools. Similarly, the team found that children with lower executive function were not at a disadvantage in Montessori schools, and performed as well as those with higher executive function. These findings are in stark contrast with what the researchers found in conventional schools, where low-income children, and those with lower executive function, performed worse than their peers. The team plans to investigate whether all Montessori schools are as beneficial, or if only high-quality Montessori produces these effects. Another possibility is that Montessori schools attract better teachers. Future work will look at how Montessori teacher training programs affect educational outcomes. "Montessori education started with very poor children in a housing project in Rome, over 100 years ago," says Lillard. "However, several of today's most prominent entrepreneurs went to, and have publicly spoken about the influence of, Montessori schools." ### Adolescents harming themselves with cuts, scratches or burns has gained a lot of attention over the years not just because of the physical damage and internal turmoil, but also because it has been linked to suicide. More recently, a new form of self-harm in youth has emerged and is cause for concern, warns a researcher and bullying expert from Florida Atlantic University. The behavior: "digital self-harm," "self-trolling," or "self-cyberbullying," where adolescents post, send or share mean things about themselves anonymously online. The concern: it is happening at alarming rates and could be a cry for help. A new FAU study is the first to examine the extent of this behavior and is the most comprehensive investigation of this understudied problem. "The idea that someone would cyberbully themselves first gained public attention with the tragic suicide of 14-year-old Hannah Smith in 2013 after she anonymously sent herself hurtful messages on a social media platform just weeks before she took her own life," said Sameer Hinduja, Ph.D., study author, a professor in FAU's School of Criminology and Criminal Justice in the College for Design and Social Inquiry, and co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center. "We knew we had to study this empirically, and I was stunned to discover that about 1 in 20 middle- and high-school-age students have bullied themselves online. This finding was totally unexpected, even though I've been studying cyberbullying for almost 15 years." Hinduja and his collaborator from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Justin W. Patchin, Ph.D., recently published results of their study in the Journal of Adolescent Health. They used a nationally representative sample of 5,593 middle and high school students between the ages of 12 and 17 years old living in the United States to find out how many youth participated in digital self-harm, as well as their motivations for such behavior. They also examined if certain correlates of offline self-harm also applied to digital forms of self-harm. Results of the study show that nearly 6 percent of the teens reported that they had anonymously posted something mean about themselves online. Among these, about half (51.3 percent) said they did it just once, about one-third (35.5 percent) said they did it a few times, while 13.2 percent said they had done it many times. Boys were more likely to participate in this behavior (7 percent) compared to girls (5 percent). Their reasons, however, varied dramatically. Boys described their behavior as a joke or a way to get attention while girls said they did it because they were depressed or psychologically hurt. This finding is especially worrisome for the researchers as there may be more of a possibility that this behavior among girls leads to attempted or completed suicide. To ascertain motivations behind the behavior, the researchers included an open-ended question asking respondents to tell them why they had engaged in digital self-harm. Most comments centered around certain themes: self-hate; attention seeking; depressive symptoms; feeling suicidal; to be funny; and to see if anyone would react. Qualitative data from the study showed that many who had participated in digital self-harm were looking for a response. Age and race of the respondents did not differentiate participation in digital self-harm, but other factors did. Teens who identified as non-heterosexual were three times more likely to bully themselves online. In addition, victims of cyberbullying were nearly 12 times as likely to have cyberbullied themselves compared to those who were not victims. Those who reported using drugs or participating in deviance, had depressive symptoms, or had previously engaged in self-harm behaviors offline were all significantly more likely to have engaged in digital self-harm. "Prior research has shown that self-harm and depression are linked to increased risk for suicide and so, like physical self-harm and depression, we need to closely look at the possibility that digital self-harm behaviors might precede suicide attempts," said Hinduja. "We need to refrain from demonizing those who bully, and come to terms with the troubling fact that in certain cases the aggressor and target may be one and the same. What is more, their self-cyberbullying behavior may indicate a deep need for social and clinical support." ### About Florida Atlantic University: Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University, with an annual economic impact of $6.3 billion, serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at sites throughout its six-county service region in southeast Florida. FAU's world-class teaching and research faculty serves students through 10 colleges: the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, the College of Business, the College for Design and Social Inquiry, the College of Education, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, the Graduate College, the Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College, the Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing and the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. FAU is ranked as a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. The University is placing special focus on the rapid development of critical areas that form the basis of its strategic plan: Healthy aging, biotech, coastal and marine issues, neuroscience, regenerative medicine, informatics, lifespan and the environment. These areas provide opportunities for faculty and students to build upon FAU's existing strengths in research and scholarship. For more information, visit http://www.fau.edu. Vinegar odor boosts the perception of a male sex pheromone in the brain of unmated female Drosophila melanogaster flies, as a team of scientists from the Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology has now discovered. The researchers were able to identify the underlying neuronal mechanism in the brain of Drosophila flies. Previous experiments had revealed that the male pheromone cis-vaccenyl acetate activates the glomerulus DA1 in the brains of female flies. Glomeruli are spherical functional units in the antennal lobe, the olfactory center in the fly brain. "We were able to show in our study that vinegar odor enhances the reactions of female flies to the male sex pheromone significantly. Both odors together intensify the activation of DA1," explains Silke Sachse, head of the "Olfactory Coding" research group. The scientists observed this effect only in unmated virgin flies; it was absent in males and mated females. Analyzing the underlying neural mechanisms, the neurobiologists were able to elucidate how the odor signals were processed in the fly brain and determine which brain areas were activated. They used functional imaging techniques to monitor and visualize brain activity induced by the sex pheromone, by vinegar, and by both odors together. Transgenic fly lines were crucial for the experiments. In these flies, selected electrical synapses -- connections between specific classes of nerve cells -- had been silenced. The various lines helped researchers pinpoint the neurons involved in signal transfer and to precisely locate the neuronal site of the interaction of two odors. "We were able to show that the enhanced activation of the glomerulus DA1 is mediated by a so-called "lateral excitation" in a particular class of neurons. Different neighboring glomeruli in the brain respond to the odor of vinegar, and the excitation from those glomeruli is transmitted to DA1 via electrical synapses," says first author, Sudeshna Das, who came to the Max Planck Institute as a fellow from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The male sex pheromone, in contrast to the vinegar, activates DA1 directly through the specialized olfactory receptor Or67d. Thus both odors activate the same olfactory glomerulus, just through different neuronal pathways. Together, the scents evoke an enhanced behavioral response in virgin females, increasing their willingness to mate. From an ecological perspective, this mechanism is extremely important, because it accelerates mating when sufficient food is available for the females and for their offspring. "We were surprised that this strong response enhancement of the pheromone response by vinegar is completely absent in mated female flies. However, after discovering the behavioral relevance for courtship we realized that this effect only makes sense in virgin females," says Silke Sachse. The increased willingness to mate in the presence of sufficient food is important with respect to reproductive success, which is probably why this rare synergistic interaction between the responses to two different odors has evolved. "A synergistic interaction of two odors is extremely rare and has hardly been observed so far. The more general rule is that different odors rather inhibit each other and lead to mixture inhibition which allows the olfactory system not to become saturated when more than one odor is perceived," Silke Sachse emphasizes. The results have also further ecological relevance: "In nature, female flies only perceive little amounts of the male sex pheromone. From an evolutionary point of view it seems useful that they evolved a mechanism which enhances the effect of the pheromone without the males having to release higher concentrations. If you consider that Drosophila flies have a pretty short life span during which they are constantly threatened by predators, infections or toxic food, accelerated mating and reproduction is very important for their survival," says Sudeshna Das. [AO/KG] ### Original Publication: Das, S., Trona, F., Khallaf, M. A., Schuh, E., Knaden, M., Hansson, B. S.. Sachse, S. (2017). Electrical synapses mediate synergism between pheromone and food odors in Drosophila melanogaster. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Early Edition, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1712706114 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1712706114 Further Information: Dr. Silke Sachse, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knoll-Str. 8, 07743 Jena, +49 3641 57-1405, E-Mail ssachse@ice.mpg.de Contact and Media Requests: Angela Overmeyer M.A., Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Hans-Knoll-Str. 8, 07743 Jena, +49 3641 57-2110, E-Mail overmeyer@ice.mpg.de Download high-resolution images via http://www.ice.mpg.de/ext/downloads2017.html PRINCETON, N.J.--If the human population continues to grow, more pressure will be put on carbon dioxide emissions -- leaving future generations vulnerable to the effects of climate change. To head this off, greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced, but that could cost billions of dollars or more over the next few decades, a dilemma plaguing today's policymakers. Yet, how much to invest in policies -- like setting an appropriate carbon tax -- to protect future generations from environmental destruction depends on how society chooses to value human population, according to a new study published Oct. 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). To determine the ideal mitigation policy, a research team led by Princeton University, the University of Vermont and the University of Texas at Austin employed a climate-economic model to examine two ethical approaches to valuing human population. Under one approach, the researchers assumed that society aims to increase the total number of people who are "happy/well-off." Under the other approach, the researchers assumed society intends to increase the average level of people's happiness/well-being. When using these terms, they are referring to an individual's overall well-being -- not simply a day-to-day state of being happy. They found that the economic costs of climate change always increase if the population grows, and increase faster if society's goal is to maximize the number of people who are happy or well-off compared to the average level of people's happiness/well-being. Under both ethical approaches, a smaller population could save tens of billions of dollars or more annually on climate change prevention policies, especially in wealthier countries. Either way, the researchers recognize that individuals' happiness/well-being is greater when they have more money, especially among poorer people. Society's well-being, however, is more complex. Society is certainly better off when people are better off, but existing research and perspectives disagree about whether society is better off when there are more happy people. This is why the researchers tried both approaches. The findings offer insights into the influence of population growth and population ethics on climate change and human development policy. Investing in human development programs could result in avoided climate change mitigation costs enough to pay for the programs themselves, the researchers found. If society chooses not to value population size itself, then this would be another reason to implement these programs, in addition to the more well-known benefits like poverty alleviation, education for young girls and boys, and improved maternal and child health. "With higher population growth, more people will be vulnerable to climate change. Understanding how much society values those future people should be an influential component of climate policy decisions," said Noah Scovronick, co-lead author and a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University's Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy (STEP), which is based at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. "At its core, the climate problem is about protecting the future against intolerable damages, so it's essential that policymakers think clearly about how much we value our descendants. Our goal is that our descendants will think back to this generation and be convinced that we carefully considered their interests [when setting climate policy]," said co-author Marc Fleurbaey, the Robert E. Kuenne Professor in Economics and Humanistic Studies and professor of public affairs and the University Center for Human Values. In addition to Scovronick and Fleurbaey, the research team included co-lead author Mark Budolfson, University of Vermont; co-lead author Dean Spears, University of Texas at Austin; Francis Dennig, Yale-NUS College; Asher Siebert, Columbia University; Robert H. Socolow, Princeton University; and Fabian Wagner, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. The researchers are all affiliated with Princeton University's Climate Futures Initiative, an interdisciplinary research program administered by the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI) and sponsored by PEI and the University Center for Human Values. The paper joins other academic research focused on the social cost of carbon, a measure used in climate regulations that estimates the total cost of future damage from additional carbon emissions. It therefore can be used to set a carbon tax, thereby putting a price on emissions equal to the harmful effects of those emissions on society. "How governments set carbon prices today should depend on how they value the future and the people who will live in it," Spears said. Researchers typically use three main models to gauge how much economic damage will be caused by increased global temperatures, and these are referred to as DICE, FUND and PAGE. For this study, the Princeton-led team employed DICE2013, a leading cost-benefit climate economy model with the ability to take happiness/well-being into account when determining how much the world should spend to mitigate future climate change. The team used data compiled in 2015 by the United Nations, which provides estimates and projections of the world, regional and national population size and growth through the year 2100. They used three of the U.N.'s most extreme population predictions from the 2015 report: high (16.6 billion people), medium (11.2 billion) and low (7.3 billion). They then extended these population scenarios into and beyond the next century in order to include the effects of climate change that will occur in the distant future. If society values the absolute number of people who are happy, it also has a significant effect on the world's optimal peak temperature. A higher population leads to a higher carbon price but a lower optimal peak temperature; this is because it is even more important to limit temperature rise when there are more future people who will suffer the damages. "This might seem like a paradox," Scovronick said. "But the temperatures we are reporting are not the rise in temperatures that would occur if all those people were allowed to emit unabated. It is the temperature rise that is optimal after implementing the ideal level of emission reductions." Whatever values society chooses, one consequence of a larger population is simply economic: More people means more pressure on emissions. As a result, a larger population will leave future generations at greater risk from climate-related damages, especially if policy does not respond to fast-growing populations. Present generations are impacted by future population growth, too. When looking at the high-population scenario, the economic costs needed to mitigate climate damage were 85 percent higher in 2025 and 120 percent higher in 2050 compared to the medium-population scenario. This increase is largely driven by future population growth in developing countries, with sub-Saharan Africa the greatest contributor. "If there are going to be more people living in climate-vulnerable regions of the world, then the damage from climate change will be greater, so climate policy is a more urgent priority," Spears said. The optimal climate policy also depends on the future of economic development. If development in countries like Somalia, Djibouti or India continues to be disappointing -- meaning that poverty remains common, fertility remains high, and technological progress remains slow -- then climate change is an even more important policy priority. More people will need protection. Significantly, poor people in climate-vulnerable countries will suffer more because they will not have the economic resources to cope with climate damages. This spurred the researchers to wonder whether the cost savings that occur in lower-population scenarios from avoided climate policy expenditures could offset the costs of development policies that alleviate poverty and may also reduce fertility -- like educating young women and providing access to family planning and reproductive health programs. Additionally, given the global temperature is expected to rise far beyond 2 degrees Celsius (or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) without intervention, the researchers looked at what would be needed to achieve the 2 and 3 degrees Celsius targets given different levels of population growth. Again, they looked at the results using two social objectives: increasing the number of people who are happy, which they call "total utilitarianism," or increasing the average happiness of people, known as "average utilitarianism." Under both ethical approaches, wealthier regions would save the most in per capita terms. But if society's goal is to increase average happiness -- versus increasing the number of people who are happy -- the result is mitigation cost savings in the tens of billions of dollars annually. "We have a responsibility to protect future people against unacceptable levels of harm from climate change, but how should we value them in our policy analyses?" said co-lead author Mark Budolfson, an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Vermont, who received his Ph.D. from Princeton in 2012. "That's the essential question of this research, and we hope future research will investigate this further." ### The paper, "Impact of population growth and population ethics on climate change mitigation policy," will be published online Oct. 30 in PNAS. At the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan, a two-year project from Andrea Benucci's research group has culminated in the construction and deployment of a high-throughput system to study mouse behavior and physiology. The system aims to deliver larger, standardized datasets, a reduction in the number of experimental animals, and time-savings through complete automation. Behavioral neuroscience--studying vision or cognition in mice, for example--always entails training animals to do experimental tasks, like pushing a button to indicate a preference or demonstrate a memory. Training can take months, a full-time job for one or multiple researchers. In addition, mice can get stressed from being handled by experimenters, and training and experiments vary from lab to lab. "It is hard to compare data across labs and even within the same lab, and we waste a lot of person-hours getting comparatively little data," says Benucci. His longstanding goal has been to comprehensively address these issues. Collaborating with Japanese laboratory equipment manufacturer O'hara & Co. Ltd., Benucci designed and built an automated experimental platform, details of which have been published in Nature Communications on October 30. Without any human intervention, mice can engage in behavioral training tasks at-will, and a single system can operate around the clock, training four or more mice per day. With multiple setups and mouse cages stacked in what resembles a row of server racks, the system has already been used to safely train 100 mice. "Previously, training just one mouse took about 15 hours of a researcher's time," Benucci estimates. "Now, with twelve setups we are down to less than one-and-a-half hours." Mice enter the apparatus to receive liquid rewards for doing visual or auditory discrimination tasks. They rotate a small toy wheel with their front paws to indicate a decision, for example whether they can hear a tone or not. Crucially, mice learn to self-stabilize their heads, which gives the system a great deal of experimental versatility and represents a significant advance from existing attempts at automating rodent training. Because mice learn to self-direct and become familiar with the system, and it is modular, the experimental possibilities extend beyond studying mouse behavior to real-time brain imaging and physiology. "Normally we see a decline in mouse performance or other incompatibilities when moving from highly-trained behaviors to different types of experiments for brain recordings, but that doesn't happen with our system," says Benucci. The self-learned head stabilization is key for collecting high-fidelity physiology data, and the paper also shows that two-photon microscopy of the brains of trained mice engaging in complex behavioral tasks is a seamless extension of the system. The high-throughput neuroscience platform has been patented by RIKEN, one of Japan's national science institutes, and Benucci hopes it will be widely adopted nationally and internationally. "Standard hardware and training protocols across labs that do not require the experimenter's intervention can go a long way to addressing data reproducibility in science," says Benucci, "and in neuroscience in particular there is a pressing need for large, shareable datasets to validate findings and push the field forward." ### Reference Aoki R, Tsubota T, Goya Y, Benucci A (2017) An automated platform for high-throughput mouse behavior and physiology with voluntary head-fixation. Nat Comm. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01371-0. INDIANAPOLIS -- Regenstrief Institute investigator Daniel J. Vreeman, DPT, director of LOINC and Health Data Standards in the Regenstrief Center for Biomedical Informatics and Regenstrief-McDonald Scholar in Data Standards at Indiana University School of Medicine, has been elected as a fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics. He joins a select group of individuals who have made significant and sustained contributions to the field of biomedical informatics. Over the past decade Dr. Vreeman has had a substantial impact on health information exchange, informatics research, and healthcare locally, nationally and globally. Building upon the pioneering work of former Regenstrief Institute Director Clement McDonald, MD, Dr. Vreeman has led the expansion of LOINC, short for Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes, to become the world's most commonly used universal standard for identifying health measurements, observations, and documents making possible the use of clinical information in electronic medical reports. This work is a keystone for health information exchange in the US, and many other countries. Today LOINC has more than 47,000 users in the United States and Canada and 170 other countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, with 18 translations into 12 languages. LOINC provides the lingua franca to enable different electronic medical record systems to "speak" to each other. For example a serum folic acid result at one hospital might be labeled a serum folate result at another hospital - whether a few blocks away or across the country. Or it could be called simply folate at a third facility. Without LOINC standardization, it would be like receiving messages in French, Spanish, and Italian when all one can understand is English. Under Dr. Vreeman's leadership, more than 30 countries now require LOINC in national programs, including the U.S where the "Meaningful Use" program requires LOINC in electronic quality measures, messages reporting lab tests, exchanging medical summaries, and sending data to cancer registries and public health agencies. He continues extending LOINC into new clinical domains by creating novel representations of biomedical data, information, and knowledge. "Election into ACMI is a great privilege, and I'm delighted to be part of this esteemed group," Dr. Vreeman said. He is the first doctor of physical therapy to be elected to ACMI. He joined the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University faculties in 2005 following a National Library of Medicine informatics fellowship at the institute. He earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University, a doctorate in physical therapy from Duke University and a master of science in clinical research from Indiana University. "I'm so pleased that the College has chosen to recognize and honor Dr. Vreeman's exceptional contributions to the field of biomedical informatics through his induction as a fellow this year," said Peter Embi, MD, president and CEO of the Regenstrief Institute and associate dean for informatics and health services research, professor of medicine and Sam Regenstrief Professor of Informatics and Health Services Research at IU School of Medicine. "The Regenstrief Institute has a long history of leadership in the establishment, expansion and use of health data standards, and the impact that Dan's leadership of LOINC has had on health care and biomedicine cannot be overstated." ### Dr. Vreeman joins Regenstrief Institute colleagues Dr. Embi, Shaun Grannis, MD, director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics, and investigators Paul Biondich, MD; Stephen M. Downs, MD; J.T. Finnell, MD and Titus Schleyer, DMD, PhD as fellows of the American College of Medical Informatics. ACMI Fellowship is one of the highest honors in the field of informatics. The Regenstrief Institute's Center for Biomedical Informatics is an internationally recognized leader in biomedical informatics focused on improving health care through informatics. The center develops and applies health information technology solutions to generate knowledge about health, disease and treatment, help clinicians make optimal decisions, empower patients, and inform healthcare policy. The center focuses on clinical applications, computer-based decision support, data mining, advanced analytics, healthcare information standards and global health. These applications and tools are widely recognized for their roles in improving quality of care, efficiency of healthcare delivery, reducing medical errors and enhancing patient safety. Department of Energy Office of Basic Energy Science, National Science Foundation, University of Wisconsin-Madison WEI Seed Grant, Vilas Research Travel Awards HOUSTON -- (Oct. 30, 2017) -- High-performance electrodes for lithium-ion batteries can be improved by paying closer attention to their defects -- and capitalizing on them, according to Rice University scientists. Rice materials scientist Ming Tang and chemists Song Jin at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Linsen Li at Wisconsin and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology led a study that combined state-of-the-art, in situ X-ray spectroscopy and modeling to gain insight into lithium transport in battery cathodes. They found that a common cathode material for lithium-ion batteries, olivine lithium iron phosphate, releases or takes in lithium ions through a much larger surface area than previously thought. "We know this material works very well but there's still much debate about why," Tang said. "In many aspects, this material isn't supposed to be so good, but somehow it exceeds people's expectations." Part of the reason, Tang said, comes from point defects -- atoms misplaced in the crystal lattice -- known as antisite defects. Such defects are impossible to completely eliminate in the fabrication process. As it turns out, he said, they make real-world electrode materials behave very differently from perfect crystals. That and other revelations in a Nature Communications paper could potentially help manufacturers develop better lithium-ion batteries that power electronic devices worldwide. The lead authors of the study -- Liang Hong of Rice and Li of Wisconsin and MIT -- and their colleagues collaborated with Department of Energy scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory to use its powerful synchrotron light sources and observe in real time what happens inside the battery material when it is being charged. They also employed computer simulations to explain their observations. One revelation, Tang said, was that microscopic defects in electrodes are a feature, not a bug. "People usually think defects are a bad thing for battery materials, that they destroy properties and performance," he said. "With the increasing amount of evidence, we realized that having a suitable amount of point defects can actually be a good thing." Inside a defect-free, perfect crystal lattice of a lithium iron phosphate cathode, lithium can only move in one direction, Tang said. Because of this, it is believed the lithium intercalation reaction can happen over only a fraction of the particle's surface area. But the team made a surprising discovery when analyzing Li's X-ray spectroscopic images: The surface reaction takes place on the large side of his imperfect, synthesized microrods, which counters theoretical predictions that the sides would be inactive because they are parallel to the perceived movement of lithium. The researchers explained that particle defects fundamentally change the electrode's lithium transport properties and enable lithium to hop inside the cathode along more than one direction. That increases the reactive surface area and allows for more efficient exchange of lithium ions between the cathode and electrolyte. Because the cathode in this study was made by a typical synthesis method, Tang said, the finding is highly relevant to practical applications. "What we learned changes the thinking on how the shape of lithium iron phosphate particles should be optimized," he said. "Assuming one-dimensional lithium movement, people tend to believe the ideal particle shape should be a thin plate because it reduces the distance lithium needs to travel in that direction and maximizes the reactive surface area at the same time. But as we now know that lithium can move in multiple directions, thanks to defects, the design criteria to maximize performance will certainly look quite different." The second surprising observation, Tang said, has to do with the movement of phase boundaries in the cathode as it is charged and discharged. "When you take heat out of water, it turns into ice," he said. "And when you take lithium out of these particles, it forms a different lithium-poor phase, like ice, that coexists with the initial lithium-rich phase." The phases are separated by an interface, or a phase boundary. How fast the lithium can be extracted depends on how fast the phase boundary moves across a particle, he said. Unlike in bulk materials, Tang explained, it has been predicted that phase boundary movement in small battery particles can be limited by the surface reaction rate. The researchers were able to provide the first concrete evidence for this surface reaction-controlled mechanism, but with a twist. "We see the phase boundary move in two different directions through two different mechanisms, either controlled by surface reaction or lithium bulk diffusion," he said. "This hybrid mechanism paints a more complicated picture about how phase transformation happens in battery materials. Because it can take place in a large group of electrode materials, this discovery is fundamental for understanding battery performance and highlights the importance of improving the surface reaction rate." ### The paper's co-authors are graduate student Fan Wang of Rice, Jun Wang, Yuchen-Karen Chen-Wiegart and Jiajun Wang of Brookhaven National Laboratory, Kai Xiang and Yet-Ming Chiang of MIT, and Liyang Gan, Wenjie Li and Fei Meng of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tang is an assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice. The research was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Basic Energy Science, the National Science Foundation (NSF), a University of Wisconsin-Madison WEI Seed Grant and the Vilas Research Travel Awards. Research was also conducted at the Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory. The Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center funded by the DOE and the Big-Data Private-Cloud Research Cyberinfrastructure funded by the NSF and Rice provided computing resources. Read the abstract at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01315-8 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-017-01315-8 This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews Related materials: Mesoscale Materials Modeling Group (Tang): http://tanggroup.blogs.rice.edu/research/ Rice Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering: https://msne.rice.edu Images for download: http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/10/1030_LITHIUM-1-WEB-1gor1gn.jpg An illustration shows the growth of a lithium-deficient phase (blue) at the expense of a Lithium-rich phase (red) in a lithium iron phosphate microrod. Rice University researchers led a study that found defects in a common cathode material for lithium-ion batteries can potentially improve performance over perfect electrodes by allowing for lithium transport over much more surface area than previously thought possible. (Credit: Mesoscale Materials Modeling Group/Rice University) http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/10/1030_LITHIUM-2-WEB-1e2d6d5.jpg An electron microscope image shows microrod particles of the type used in a Rice University-led study of lithium transport in lithium-ion batteries. (Credit: Linsen Li and Song Jin/University of Wisconsin Madison) http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/10/1030_LITHIUM-3-WEB-1abpsjl.jpg Rice University researchers Liang Hong, left, and Ming Tang study the lithium transport characteristics of batteries. They and their colleagues discovered that defects in common lithium-ion battery cathodes can potentially improve the material's performance over "perfect" electrodes. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) http://news.rice.edu/files/2017/10/1030_LITHIUM-4-WEB-10fw5jv.jpg A stack of batteries in the Rice University lab of Ming Tang, an assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering, who led a team that discovered defects in cathodes can potentially add to the performance of lithium-ion batteries. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University) Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for quality of life and for lots of race/class interaction and No. 2 for happiest students by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview. In a significant breakthrough, scientists at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai have devised a high power radiation source in the much sought after terahertz (THz) region of the electromagnetic spectrum. This study, done in collaboration with laboratories in Greece and France, will be unveiled in the journal Nature Communications on Oct 30, 2017. The search for new and brighter radiation sources is an enduring quest in science and technology [1,2]. While there are many sources across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, the terahertz region (wedged between the infrared/optical and the microwave regions) has been a challenge and it is only in the last twenty years that sources have started becoming available. High power terahertz radiation has typically been available from large, complex machines like Free Electron Lasers. Compact sources, relying on semiconductor antennas and special crystals excited by visible/infrared femtosecond laser pulses, have very limited energy outputs, typically in the nanojoule (billionth of a joule) level or lower. They are not useful for many applications. High power femtosecond lasers have however, excited terahertz emission that are a thousand times larger (microjoules) from a plasma formed in air, under special conditions [3]. For a long time, researchers in this area have believed that liquids could not give out significant terahertz radiation, because they would efficiently reabsorb whatever was generated. Yet, this is where the TIFR researchers proved successful. In their experiments, they irradiated common laboratory liquids like methanol, acetone, dicholorethane, carbon disulphide and even water, with moderate energy femtosecond laser pulses, ionizing the liquid and forming long plasma channels called filaments. To their delight they measured energies as high as 50 microjoules, thousands of times larger than the energies emitted by most existing sources and 10-20 times larger than those produced from air. Their careful characterization and systematic study showed that the experimental conditions were simpler than those needed for air. The mechanism that facilitates the large output (in spite of the deleterious absorption) has emerged from models used by their theoretical collaborators from the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Greece and Ecole Polytechnique, Paris. The essence of this model is that the femtosecond laser pulse induces secondary emissions in the liquid which would then combine with the incident laser pulse to produce the observed terahertz radiation. The TIFR researchers are bullish about the applications of their liquid source, the brightest among compact, tabletop sources. They foresee many applications in terahertz imaging, material analysis, explosives detection and terahertz nonlinear optics. This new source certainly increases the stock of terahertz radiation. Shall we say, terahertz liquidity boosted? ### References: [1] Tonouchi, M. "Cutting-edge terahertz technology." Nat. Photonics 1, 97-105 (2007). [2] Baierl, S. et al. "Nonlinear spin control by terahertz-driven anisotropy fields." Nat. Photonics 10, 715-718 (2016). [3] Kim, K. Y., Taylor, A. J., Glownia, J. H. & Rodriguez, G. "Coherent control of terahertz supercontinuum generation in ultrafast laser-gas interactions." Nat. Photonics 2, 605-609 (2008). At a pompous ceremony in Stockholm Concert Hall, Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, gave Jens Nielsen a gold medal. The medal is given for innovative research in the area of systems biology. Chief Scientific Officer at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at the Technical University of Denmark, Jens Nielsen, has received a gold medal by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The medal committee reasoned the decision by stating that his research in systems biology and engineering shows how biotechnology provide an alternative to chemical engineering for the production of chemicals. "It is amazing to receive this honor by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The academy has a very strong position in the Swedish society and they are contributing greatly to support scientific research that can change our society for the better," says Jens Nielsen. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is an independent non-governmental organisation that works to promote science of the highest quality by fostering development and innovation in Swedish research with the aim of being an international scientific proponent of sustainable development. Important focus on sustainability According to the Chief Scientific Officer it requires efficient bio-manufacturing methods for chemical compounds and protein-based products to develop more sustainable lifestyles. One of the main research areas for Jens Nielsen is the development of efficient cell factories for sustainable production of fuels and chemicals. This comes both for the production of high-value chemicals such as isoprenoids that can be used as fine chemicals, commodity chemicals that can be used as feedstocks in the chemical industry for polymer production, and novel advanced biofuels. The academy's recognition of Jens Nielsen's research comes only three weeks after he received a ENI Award by the President of Italy for his research on yeast in renewable fuel and chemical production. So it seems logical that he smiles easily at the moment. However, when asked to what it personally means for him to be recognised he tries to stay humble and see things in a broader perspective. "I do not see this only as a recognition of my personal research, but also as an acknowledgement of how our focus on biosustainability can benefit society at large," says Jens Nielsen CEO at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at the Technical University of Denmark, Bernhard Palsson, is also praising the increased attention that scientific research on how to create a more sustainable society receives. "We aim to be a worldwide leader in cell factories design, construction and deployment, and thus be a driver for change towards a biosustainable society. The gold medal to our Chief Scientific Officer is a clear signal that we in general conduct scientific research that are internationally recognised," says Bernhard Palsson. ### An international team of researchers, affiliated with UNIST has presented a novel hydrogen isotope separation system based on a porous metal organic framework (MOF). The isolation of deuterium from a physico-chemically almost identical isotopic mixture has been a seminal challenge in modern separation technology. This MOF system, meanwhile, could efficiently separate and store deuterium inside the pores, exhibiting the highest selectivity of any system to date. This breakthrough has been led by Professor Hoi Ri Moon in the School of Natural Science at UNIST, Professor Hyunchul Oh of Gyeongnam National University of Science and Technology (GNTECH) and Dr. Michael Hirscher of Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI). In addition, their work was featured on the cover of the October 2017 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS). In the study, the research team has reported a highly effective hydrogen isotope separation system based on porous metal?organic frameworks (MOFs) through a simple post-modification strategy. In addition, they also demonstrated that deuterium could be efficiently separated and stored inside the pores of the MOF-74-IM system by implementing two quantum-sieving effects in one system. Deuterium (chemical symbol D or H) is a stable isotope of hydrogen with a nucleus containing one neutron and one proton. It is an irreplaceable raw material, widely employed in industrial and scientific research applications, ranging from isotope tracing to neutron scattering, as well as nuclear fusion. Besides being naturally present in very small amounts, deuterium constitutes 0.016% of total hydrogen occurring in nature. In most cases, the desired degree of deuterium can be achieved by isolating deuterium from the isotopic mixture of hydrogen. However, because isotopes have similar physical and chemical properties, the process of filtering deuterium out of the natural isotopic mixture of hydrogen is at present both difficult and expensive. To solve this issue, scientists have designed a new MOF structure they hope could lead to new scientific tool that will selectively filter out deuterium, using the so-called "quantum sieving effect". "You may think of the quantum sieving effect, as the method of separating deuterium and hydrogen from each other based on their quantum differences via a quantum sieve," says Jin Yeong Kim in the Combined M.S/Ph.D of Natural Science, the first author of the study. "It is like seperating rice from a mixture of rice with millet, using a sieve, according to their size." There are two kinds of quantum sieving effects for the separation of deuterium to date, kinetic quantum sieving (KQS) and chemical affinity quantum sieving (CAQS). In the study, Professor Moon and her research team have suggested a new strategy of combining KQS and CAQS in one system to separate isotopic mixtures, thereby creating a synergistic effect. Furthermore, this smart material system could only be tested experimentally because the research team, headed by Michael Hirscher, had designed an apparatus in which they can analyse the stored quantities of different isotope gases directly with the aid of a mass spectrometer at cryogenic conditions. Their newly-developed system has never been proposed, and thus, attracted much attention as the first technology that both KQS and CAQS effects take place simultaneously. For that purpose, they chose the porous MOF-74-Ni, having high hydrogen adsorption enthalpies due to strong open metal sites, for CAQS functionality. Simultaneously, imidazole molecules (IM) were employed into the MOF-74-Ni channel as a diffusion barrier, effectively reducing the aperture size and repeatedly blocking H2 diffusion, resulting in the KQS effect. Therefore, deuterium could be diffused into the controlled pore channel faster than hydrogen, and preferentially bound to the strong binding sites of Ni2+ open metal sites. As an result, the separation factor exhibited ca. 26 (26 deuterium molecules separated per one hydrogen molecules) at 77 K. "The selectivity of 26 is far superior to any previous systems with a maximum of 6 under the identical condition" says Hyunchul Oh, the corresponding author of the paper. He adds, "At 77 K, the separating process can be exploited with liquid nitrogen, which makes it more cost-effective than cryogenic distillation method operated with liquid helium at near 20 K," "Although the idea of separating deuterium using quantum sieving effects already exists, this work is not only the first attempt to implement two quantum sieving effects, KQS and CAQS, in one system, but also provides experimental validation of the utility of this system for practical industrial usage by isolating high-purity D2 through direct selective separation studies using 1:1 D2/H2 mixtures." says Professor Moon, the corresponding author of the paper. She adds, "We anticipate that this strategy can provide new opportunities for the intelligent design of porous materials leading to the development of other highly efficient isotope and gas sepration systems." ### This study has been supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), funded by the Korean government (MSIP). Journal Reference Jin Yeong Kim, et. al., "Exploiting Diffusion Barrier and Chemical Affinity of Metal?Organic Frameworks for Efficient Hydrogen Isotope Separation", J. Am. Chem. Soc., (2017). Public Relations Team Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) T. 052-217-1223 M. 010-3880-6622 E. joohyeonheo@unist.ac.kr Off: Main Administration Bldg. 201, Room 407 Researcher Profile Professor Hoi Ri Moon [corresponding author] Affiliation : School of Natural Science, UNIST 82-52-217-2928 hoirimoon@unist.ac.kr Professor Hyunchul Oh [co-corresponding author] Affiliation : Department of Energy Engineering, GNTECH 82-55-751-3885 oh@gntech.ac.kr Dr. Michael Hirscher [co-corresponding author] Affiliation : Max Planck Institute for Intelligent System, Germany 49-711-689-1808 hirscher@is.mpg.de Jin Yeong Kim [First Author] Affiliation : School of Natural Science, UNIST kjy892002@unist.ac.kr A University of Arizona Cancer Center research team is engaged in a series of studies to investigate how genistein, a component of soy foods, might suppress the development of breast cancer. The team's most recent study, published in Current Developments in Nutrition, suggests genistein can protect BRCA1, a gene that plays a pivotal role in thwarting tumor development in breast tissue. The team is led by Donato F. Romagnolo, PhD, professor of nutritional and cancer biology, and Ornella I. Selmin, PhD, associate research professor. Targeting Tumors A normally functioning breast cell has estrogen receptors, into which the body's natural estrogens fit like a key into a lock, regulating cell growth. Doctors can exploit these receptors by using drugs that attach to them, delivering chemotherapy to cancerous cells with drugs like tamoxifen. In many breast tumors, however, this receptor is missing, rendering tamoxifen ineffective. Cells without estrogen receptors might be treated with drugs that target two other receptors. Cells that lack all three receptors are called "triple-negative" breast cancers. "In triple-negative breast cancers, no targeted chemotherapy is available," says Dr. Romagnolo, pointing to the need for alternative drug targets. Silencing BRCA1, Suppressing Estrogen Receptors BRCA1 is a tumor-suppressor gene. When working normally, it helps keep DNA stable, protecting against genetic diseases like cancer; when BRCA1 is performing abnormally, the body's defenses against breast cancer are impaired. Although a small percentage of breast cancers are caused by mutations in BRCA1, many other breast cancer patients have normal copies, but the genes have been "methylated" -- wrapped in strands of carbon-based molecules that render them unreadable. A BRCA1 gene "silenced" in this manner is unable to do its job as a tumor suppressor. One receptor, the aromatic hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), activated by environmental carcinogens like dioxins, tobacco smoke, products of UV light exposure and some fatty acid metabolites, is of particular interest to the UA Cancer Center team. AhR silences BRCA1, triggering a cascade of undesirable effects. When BRCA1 is unable to carry out its duties as a tumor suppressor, cancerous cells can proliferate. Dr. Romagnolo explains that a "molecular link" exists between BRCA1 and a type of estrogen receptor called ER-alpha. When AhR silences BRCA1, ER-alpha is lost and cancer cells cannot be treated by ER-alpha-targeting drugs like tamoxifen. If AhR can be disabled by a drug, BRCA1 will be "unsilenced." Soy to the Rescue One weapon that may be used to target AhR is found in soy, a protein-packed legume that is a major source of compounds called isoflavones. "Lifetime intake of soy in Asian women has been linked to reduced risk of breast cancer," says Dr. Romagnolo. "Genistein is the predominant isoflavone found in soy and it may actually block DNA methylation" -- the silencing of the BRCA1 gene. The UA Cancer Center team is the first to show that AhR can be targeted by genistein. The team hopes this discovery will lead to a genistein-based therapy that can block the harmful actions of AhR. If successful, such a therapy might "unsilence" the BRCA1 gene, which would have the dual benefit of enabling the gene to resume its role as a tumor suppressor, as well as allowing the re-expression of ER-alpha, making cancer cells treatable with tamoxifen. The experiments used cells from human breast tumors -- including one cell line that originally was derived from a UA Cancer Center patient. With successful cell experiments behind them, the team is immersed in studies using mice specialized for breast cancer research. If their next wave of experiments support their hypothesis, the team could move on to clinical studies in humans. Other questions include what types of soy foods, how much and at what stage of life soy might be optimal for human health. The team especially is interested in discovering whether exposure to soy genistein during gestation can affect a developing fetus and confer protective benefits throughout the lifetime of the offspring. ### The team includes Micah Donovan, MS, who contributed to this work as a master's degree student in nutritional sciences and now is pursuing a PhD in cancer biology; Tom Doetschman, PhD, who provides expertise with genetic models; and Andreas Papoutsis, PhD, of Novartis. The team's work is supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense Breast Cancer Program. About the University of Arizona Cancer Center The University of Arizona Cancer Center is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center headquartered in Arizona. The Center is supported by NCI Cancer Center Support Grant No. CA023074. With primary locations at the University of Arizona in Tucson and at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix, the Center has more than a dozen research and education offices in Phoenix and throughout the state and 300 physician and scientist members who work together to prevent and cure cancer. For more information: uacc.arizona.edu (Follow us: Facebook | Twitter | YouTube) Livestock farming is often dismissed as irredeemably inefficient and polluting. But that was before anyone thought of considering a cattle herd as a diverse group of animals Implications of livestock farming on climate change should not be drawn from aggregate statistics, reveals a study based on a new method of carbon footprinting for pasture-based cattle production systems that can assess the impacts of individual animals. The new method, developed by a team from the University of Bristol and Rothamsted Research, records the environmental impact of each animal separately before calculating the overall burden of a farm. Existing methods of carbon footprinting are primarily designed to quantify total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of a particular farm, and are therefore unable to provide information on environmental performances of specific animals. The ability to identify "green" cattle within a herd - cattle that produce lower emissions per kilogram of liveweight gain - promises more sustainable farming, they report in the study published today in the Journal of Cleaner Production. The team applied both the new and old methods to field data collected at the North Wyke Farm Platform (NWFP), a Rothamsted state-of-the-art facility that supports three experimental farms over 63 hectares in Devon. They demonstrated that the latter approach consistently underestimates levels of GHG emissions because it fails to consider sufficiently the impacts of poorly performing animals, which are known to produce disproportionally large amounts of methane through enteric fermentation. "The research offers two important lessons that may seem paradoxical at first sight," says Dr Taro Takahashi, Research Scientist at North Wyke and Senior Lecturer in Sustainable Livestock Systems and Food Security at Bristol Veterinary School, who led the research. "Short-term, many carbon footprint estimates currently available are probably too low, which is clearly bad news for the industry. But long-term, this also means that mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions originating from ruminants could be easier than traditionally thought--if we are able to select the right animals through the right screening methods. And this is precisely what we are trying to achieve at North Wyke." The work also marked the first comprehensive evaluation of the three production systems at North Wyke. "This study demonstrates the true value of primary data being collected by the NWFP team every day," says Paul Harris, the facility's project leader. "They can challenge our intuition and enhance our understanding of how we can make agriculture more sustainable." The new study comes as the debate about the role of livestock in sustainable global food production intensifies. In a report published this month, the Food Climate Research Network (FCRN) reiterated that livestock production is a net contributor to global warming regardless of the species and the rearing method. "We agree with the FCRN report that ruminants cannot reverse climate change, even if they are grass-fed," says Michael Lee, Head of North Wyke and Professor of Sustainable Livestock Systems at Bristol Veterinary School. "However, as we discussed in our 2014 article in Nature, pasture-based livestock production systems have a multifaceted role in society - the point acknowledged, but not actively addressed, by the FCRN report. "At Rothamsted, not only do we aim to advance knowledge on how to minimise negative impacts of agricultural production, as exemplified by the current paper, but also on how to optimise the positive contribution grazing livestock can bring to us as part of a well-designed food supply chain." Lee adds: "Such aspects include effective use of land unsuitable for growing crops, production of higher quality protein and more bioavailable micronutrients, improved animal welfare, prosperous rural communities and flood prevention. They all make up the bigger picture when looking for a sustainable future of food production." ### NWFP is a UK National Capability funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). Its datasets and resources are open to all researchers, including those outside Rothamsted. The research was funded by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) through the Sustainable Intensification Research Platform (SIP). When 15 North Atlantic right whales turned up dead in U.S. and Canadian waters in the summer of 2017, it was declared an unprecedented mass mortality event. For a highly endangered species with slightly more than 500 animals remaining, the crisis signals a major shift in the population's recovery -- corresponding to a 3 percent loss. Of the seven whales necropsied, six deaths were caused by humans -- four by ship strike, two by fishing gear entanglement -- and one was inconclusive. In addition to the staggering number of deaths, scientists also are puzzled by the location where most of the whale carcasses were discovered: Twelve were found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, well north of the species' typical distributional range. Does climate play a role in this mystery? And how will the surviving population of these baleen whales fare in the next century under various climate scenarios? UC Santa Barbara quantitative ecologist Erin Meyer-Gutbrod addressed that question in new research she conducted at Cornell University with her doctoral adviser and co-author, Charles Greene. The study links the two major environmental influences on right whale demography and population growth: prey-limited reproduction rates and anthropogenic mortalities. It also highlights the strong influence of climate-mediated prey fluctuations on population growth. The results appear in the journal Global Change Biology. "We predict right whale population growth given future scenarios of climate-mediated food availability and policy-driven, human-caused mortality rates," said Meyer-Gutbrod, a postdoctoral scholar at UCSB's Marine Science Institute. Finding food is a unique challenge for the 150,000-pound right whale because it feeds on tiny animals the size of rice grains. Because their food is so small, right whales must work to find very dense patches of these zooplankton to sustain themselves. In years when food is scarce, females cannot build up enough blubber to get pregnant or nurse their calves. Climate phenomena that occur far away in the Arctic and North Atlantic can influence the amount of food that right whales find in and around the Gulf of Maine, their usual habitat. Calving rates closely follow these climate changes. In the 1990s, the right whale population stopped growing when the food supply decreased. In the first decade of the new millennium, zooplankton concentrations rebounded and many new calves were born, signaling a recovery of this endangered species. However, the resurgence didn't last long. Since 2010, calf rates have begun to decrease again, reminiscent of the low food availability in the 1990s. With food-limited birth rates and high human-caused mortality rates, this species is under a lot of pressure. Meyer-Gutbrod and Greene built demographic models showing that even under normal prey conditions, the mortality event this past summer will cause a population decline. "During periods of low food, birth rates plummet and the right whale population is even less resilient to ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement," Meyer-Gutbrod explained. "As gulf waters warm and right whale prey shifts north in search of a colder climate, these animals may not be able to reproduce fast enough to replace all of the animals that are killed. This is particularly tragic given their already low numbers." Scientists have worked with the U.S. and Canadian governments to implement policies that reduce risks to whales in these highly trafficked waters. Shipping speed reductions and fishing gear modifications are critical for lowering anthropogenic mortality rates. However, right whale prey availability is much harder to control. Meyer-Gutbrod and Greene's study can help guide right whale management plans by demonstrating the interaction between these environmental factors. However, before scientists and managers can evaluate the effectiveness of new policy initiatives, they must understand all of the major changes in the whales' environment from one year to the next. "It's critical to look at the whole picture and weigh changes in both births and deaths if we are going to determine what the population needs to survive and thrive," Meyer-Gutbrod said. ### URBANA, Ill. - After harvesting a corn or soybean crop, farmers may plant a cover crop for a variety of reasons--to reduce soil erosion and nutrient runoff, increase organic matter in the soil, and improve water quality. Now there's another reason. University of Illinois research shows that migratory birds prefer to rest and refuel in fields with cover crops. "Here in the Midwest, we're in one of the major flyway zones for migratory birds, where there once was plenty of habitat for grassland birds to safely forage and rest during their migration. Now that agriculture is the dominant landscape, they're finding it harder to get the resources they need on the way to their breeding grounds," says Cassandra Wilcoxen, a graduate research assistant in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at U of I. "We think cover crops, such as cereal rye, likely provide migrating birds with more vegetation and a safe area to escape from the elements and from predators," Wilcoxen says. "Cover crops also increase insect abundance, another food source for birds. The increased number of insects allows migrants to fuel up faster and move on to their breeding grounds. "Grassland birds prefer large, open areas: the bigger, the better. Agricultural fields are huge, so the cover crops provide a large habitat where birds can rest, forage, and potentially even nest." Fields with cover crops are not going to replace natural habitats, but in early spring there can be miles of fields with little vegetation. The advent of cover crops provides a potentially important habitat for birds returning to the Midwest from areas as far south as Argentina. The large green fields are likely a beacon for migratory birds. Over two planting seasons, Wilcoxen monitored birds in corn and soybean fields with and without cover crops. She observed 6,133 individual birds of 52 species, with 13 species accounting for 90 percent of all birds detected. The most common species were the red-winged blackbird, common grackle, and American robin. "Fields with cover crops always had more birds, and corn fields with a cover crop were the overall winners," Wilcoxen says. She thinks corn plus a cover crop, especially cereal rye, was the favorite because there is more residue on the fields; the remaining corn stalks along with rye provide more cover for the birds. What's the downside? Wilcoxen says it's all in the timing. "The window of time to plant a cover crop in the fall is fairly short. Cover crops can be aerial seeded, drilled, or broadcast. But depending on how wet the fall is, there is only a short time when it can be planted. Drilling is the best method because you know you're getting good seed-to-soil contact," she says. Another timing issue emerges in the spring: when to kill the cover crop. Wilcoxen says it's tricky. "Some grassland birds nest in the spring, so in order to give birds the time they need, farmers may need to hold off terminating their cover crop. Those are the sorts of recommendations that will require more research," she says. "It's true of any new farming practice. You have to play around with it to get it right." "In our experience, most farmers using cover crops have learned about the practice from their neighbors, and we are hoping this continues and cover crop use continues to grow," Wilcoxen says. Will what's best for migratory birds motivate farmers to plant cover crops and terminate them a bit later to allow birds to use them for habitat? Wilcoxen is hopeful. She says one of the aspects of her work that she enjoys most is bringing together the agricultural community and the wildlife community to work together for long-term environmental health. "Production agriculture has taken a lot of habitat from wildlife, but we need it to provide food for us and the world. But how do we mesh the two? Where are the opportunities? No-till is a great example. It helps slow soil erosion and it helps birds. Now cover crops are another overlapping win-win opportunity to benefit both agriculture and wildlife." ### The paper, "Use of cover crop fields by migratory and resident birds," is published in Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment and written by Cassandra Wilcoxen, Jeffery Walk and Michael Ward. The work was supported by The Nature Conservancy of Illinois, Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Illinois Ornithological Society, and the Champaign County Audubon Society. It is available online until Dec. 1, 2017, without registration. Wilcoxen assumes a new position next week as watershed specialist for the Macon County Soil and Water Conservation District. She will be coordinating the Lake Decatur Watershed Program that aims to increase conservation practices and offers education and outreach opportunities about the importance of soil conservation and water quality. A new early warning system to alert farmers to the risk of disease among their young cattle stock is being developed by experts at The University of Nottingham. The innovation, dubbed Y-Ware, could save the UK farming industry millions of pounds, while improving health and welfare of animals and reducing the antimicrobial use to treat these diseases. The 1.13million project is a partnership with farming digitalisation specialists PrognostiX and BT, and is supported by a grant from Innovate UK, the UK Government-funded innovation agency. Dr Jasmeet Kaler, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Farm Animal Health currently leading Ruminant Population research in the University's School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, is the academic lead on the project. She said: "Improving youngstock health on cattle farms is a key priority for cattle industry and also been identified by industry task force RUMA (responsible use of medicine in agriculture alliance) as one of key targets released last week for antibiotic reduction on cattle farms especially beef. Use of innovative and precision health technologies offer a great solution in this direction. Whilst there has been an increase in availability of various technologies for livestock over the past decade, there are none that target youngstock health and overall very few precision livestock technologies that have been validated in the field and combine various sources of data with multiple transmission protocols to develop algorithms for livestock health and welfare. Our group does impactful cutting-edge research into the health and welfare of UK cattle and sheep, with a special focus on endemic disease in populations. "In this project, we are leading data analytics working alongside our partners. We will utilise our domain knowledge with regard to our understanding of disease biology and epidemiology together with various machine learning approaches on the data gathered via sensors. Our overall aim will be to develop an innovative technology that combines different formats of data ,uses application of Internet of Things and advanced analytics for early detection of disease in young stock and thus allow targeted use of antibiotics." Cattle farmers are facing major challenges in remaining profitable while maintaining the high standards of animal welfare demanded by retailers and consumers. Every year, of the 2.5 million calves that are born, eight per cent of them are born dead or die within 24 hours and a further 15 per cent die in rearing from diarrhoea and pneumonia, costing the UK cattle industry 80 million. The cost of a pneumonia outbreak is 81 per calf and 57 per calf for a diarrhoea outbreak. Bolus sensors, which sit in an animal's gut and monitor body temperature or pH, are in widespread use in cattle - but are currently only available for adult cows. Also, many technologies exist on farms that don't talk to each other which limits the predictive value of such data. The Y-Ware project is aiming to develop a bolus sensor which could be used in calves as young as 14 weeks, as well as a dashboard that will use machine learning techniques to give farmers an early warning system for health using bolus sensor information and comprehensive information about the animal collected from a range of additional sources including building temperature, humidity, farm and vet records and weight. All the information would be used to produce baseline data and a specific 'signature' for the animal. Unusual changes to this signature, for example, an unexpected rise in body temperature, could allow farmers to spot the signs of disease, treat early and quarantine the animal to prevent wider outbreaks among the herd. The development will allow farmers to more effectively target use of antibiotics to treat these diseases and this will tackle overuse of the drugs which is contributing to the problem of antibiotic resistance in both animals and humans who are exposed to increasing levels through the food chain. Y-Ware will develop an Internet of Things (IoT)-based data collection solution including: Specific real-time 24/7 temperature sensor with combined tamper-proof animal ID verification Easy to collect data from a range of incompatible sensors (both wearable and non-wearable) in young stock via wireless technology A fully automated weighing platform to collect data on cattle weight without the need for human intervention A communications hub to collect and process the remote data A web dashboard offering access to customisable reports that will provide farmers and vets with essential information on individuals and groups of animals. This will provide an early warning system for disease, a 'welfare score' and detailed antibiotic usage that can be used. The consortium is made up of specialists in engineering technology, software development, vet epidemiology, cattle health and data science, cloud computing and data analytics. Alan Beynon, who is a Director of PrognostiX, Director of St David's Poultry Team and Managing Director of Molecare Farm Vets, said: "This is a very exciting time for veterinarians in practice in all sectors of Agriculture as the pressure to reduce antimicrobials is current and pressing. The use of real-time data to make clinical decisions is an integral part of the where the future will be alongside better diagnostic facilities. We are delighted to be working alongside our dynamic partners Nottingham University and British Telecom." Martin Tufft, IoT Director at BT said: "We're providing expertise around data science and analytics, exploring the data generated from multiple sensors with a view to developing unique algorithms and machine learning techniques to support the project. The application of advance data analytics is key to the success of IoT solutions and we look forward to helping this project provide valuable information for the farming industry." ### They are nature's very own Death Star beams - ultra-powerful jets of energy that shoot out from the vicinity of black holes like deadly rays from the Star Wars super-weapon. Now a team of scientists led by the University of Southampton has moved a step closer to understanding these mysterious cosmic phenomena - known as relativistic jets - by measuring how quickly they 'switch on' and start shining brightly once they are launched. How these jets form is still a puzzle. One theory suggests that they develop within the 'accretion disc' - the matter sucked into the orbit of a growing black hole. Extreme gravity within the disc twists and stretches magnetic fields, squeezing hot, magnetised disc material called plasma until it erupts in the form of oppositely directed magnetic pillars along the black hole's rotational axis. Plasma travels along these focused jets and gains tremendous speed, shooting across vast stretches of space. At some point, the plasma begins to shine brightly, but how and where this occurs in the jet has been debated by scientists. In a new study published today [Monday, 30 October] in Nature Astronomy, an international team of scientists led by Dr Poshak Gandhi show how they used precise multi-wavelength observations of a binary system called V404 Cygni - consisting of a star and a black hole closely orbiting each other, with the black hole feeding off matter from the star that falls through the disc - to throw light on this hotly debated phenomenon. V404 Cygni is located about 7,800 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus, and weighs as much as about nine of our Suns put together. Dr Gandhi and his collaborators captured the data in June 2015, when V404 Cygni was observed radiating one of the brightest 'outbursts' of light from a black hole ever seen - bright enough to be visible to small telescopes used by amateur astronomers, and energetic enough to tear apart an Earth-like planet if properly focused. Using telescopes on Earth and in space observing at exactly the same time, they captured a 0.1-second delay between X-ray flares emitted from near the black hole, where the jet forms, and the appearance of visible light flashes, marking the moment when accelerated jet plasma begins to shine. This 'blink of an eye' delay was calculated to represent a maximum distance of 19,000 miles (30,000 km), impossible to resolve at the distance of V404 with any current telescope. Dr Gandhi, of the University of Southampton, said: "Scientists have been observing jets for decades, but are far from understanding how nature creates these mind-bogglingly vast and energetic structures. "Now, for the first time, we have captured the time delay between the appearance of X-rays and the appearance of optical light in a stellar-mass black hole at the moment jet plasma is activated. This lays to rest the controversy regarding the origin of the optical flashes, and also gives us a critical distance over which jet plasma must have been strongly accelerated to speeds approaching that of light." In Star Wars terms, the key measurement of this study can roughly be likened to measuring the distance between the surface of the Death Star, where multiple rays of light shoot out, and the point where they converge into a single bright beam. "But the physics of black hole jets has nothing to do with lasers or the fictional Kyber crystals that power the Death Star. Nature has found other ways to power jets," said Dr Gandhi. "Gravity and magnetic fields play the key roles here, and this is the mechanism we are trying to unravel." The study also creates a link between V404 Cygni and supermassive black holes, which lie at the centre of massive galaxies and which weigh billions of times more than stellar-mass black holes. Similar jet physics may apply to all black holes. Dr Gandhi said: "This is an exciting and important discovery which can be fed back into theory about relativistic jets, and contributes to our ever-growing understanding of black holes." The X-ray emission, representing the accretion disc 'feeding' the jet at its base, was captured from Earth orbit by NASA's NuSTAR telescope, while the moment the jet became visible as optical light was caught by the ULTRACAM high-speed camera, mounted on the William Herschel Telescope on La Palma, in the Canary Islands. Professor Vik Dhillon, of the University of Sheffield, the principal investigator behind ULTRACAM, commented: "This discovery was made possible thanks to our camera gathering 28 frames per second. It demonstrates the untapped potential of studying astrophysical phenomena at high speeds." At the same time, radio waves from the extended portions of the jet plasma were observed by a team of Professor Rob Fender, of the University of Oxford, using the AMI-LA radio telescope, in Cambridge, UK. Professor Fender said: "These observations are another major step towards understanding exactly how relativistic jets are formed by black holes. Radio detections come from the outer jet and are the key unambiguous indicator of ongoing jet activity. The optical, X-rays and radio were also crucial for that discovery." ### As well as Southampton, the research involved the universities of Sheffield, Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick, in the UK, as well as universities in Italy, Spain, France, USA, Canada, Netherlands, Switzerland, India, Germany and the United Arab Emirates. It was supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council, the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness, the Leverhulme Trust, the French National Support Agency, the Royal Society, NWO, and UK-India UKIERI-UGC Thematic Partnerships. Notes to editors The paper, An elevation of 0.1 light-seconds for the optical jet base in an accreting Galactic black hole system, is scheduled for advance online publication on Nature Astronomy's website at 1600 London time/1200 US Eastern Time on Monday 30 October 2017. DOI: 10.1038/s41550-017-0273-3 A copy is available on request from the University of Southampton press office. Dr Poshak Gandhi is available for interview. Please contact the University of Southampton press office to request an interview. Follow the link to download artist's images and an animation of black hole jets: https://owncloud.iac.es/index.php/s/kOZP6H5wghgQYio Please credit G Perez Diaz (IAC) Last year, the University of Southampton reported on red flares from V404 Cygni in June 2015. The new work turns previous speculation of a jet origin for these flares into an unambiguous link. Read the story here. The University of Southampton drives original thinking, turns knowledge into action and impact, and creates solutions to the world's challenges. We are among the top one per cent of institutions globally. Our academics are leaders in their fields, forging links with high-profile international businesses and organisations, and inspiring a 24,000-strong community of exceptional students, from over 135 countries worldwide. Through our high-quality education, the University helps students on a journey of discovery to realise their potential and join our global network of over 200,000 alumni. http://www.southampton.ac.uk For further information contact: Andrew White Media Relations University of Southampton 023-8059-2128 a.j.white@southampton.ac.uk http://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/contact-press-team.page Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/unisouthampton Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/unisouthampton UT social work professor Sunha Choi recently published an article in Population Health Management on the effects of Medicaid expansion on low-income individuals' access to health care. Choi and her team analyzed a nationally representative sample of 544,307 adults ages 26 to 64 from all 50 states and Washington, DC. They examined how Medicaid expansion affected insurance access in 2015, the second year of the expansion. Their results indicate substantial increases in health care access between 2012 and 2015 in Medicaid expansion states. Those who resided in the Medicaid expansion states were more likely to have health insurance, have a usual source of care, and receive a routine checkup, and were less likely to not see a doctor because of cost compared to low-income residents in nonexpansion states. "This study demonstrated that state-level Medicaid expansion improved health care access among low-income US residents," said Choi. "Residents in nonexpansion states were disproportionately negatively affected by states' decision to not expand Medicaid coverage." ### Choi collaborated on the study with Sungkyu Lee at Soongsil Univeristy in Seoul, Korea, and Jason Matejkowski at the University of Kansas. Choi is the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar in UT's College of Social Work. CONTACT: Betsy DeGeorge 865-974-8638 edegeorg@utk.edu Tyra Haag 865-974-5460 tyra.haag@tennessee.edu Spectral Engines, a growth company that originated at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, is about to launch a portable drug screening device police patrols can use for rapid and cost-efficient on-site screening of suspected drugs. The pocket-size scanner reports the results in the user's mobile phone in a matter of seconds. There is also international demand for such an innovation, and therefore a total of EUR 2.4 million in EU funding was granted for the device's productisation. The newly developed small device, weighing only a few hundred grams, will change the future of police work in war on drugs. Besides being the first pocket-size drug screening device available for field work, the device is also more than 20 times cheaper than any other devices in current use. "Our drug screening device is significantly smaller than the competing ones currently on the market. The device is designed for field work and it uses the mobile phone as its user interface. Devices are cloud-connected which enables easy machine learning-based application algorithm development for different drugs," says the company's CCO Janne Suhonen. The Spectral Engines scanner allows an accurate and reliable identification of such drugs as cocaine, heroin and amphetamine from very low drug concentrations. As needed, the multi-purpose device's identification algorithms can be updated to identify various designer drugs as well. In addition to police use, the scanner is also suited for the use of the customs, the military and other similar organisations, where it may be important to identify foreign substances. The technology of the device created in the NarcoScan project is based on infrared spectroscopy and the MEMS technology studied at VTT. First products to enter market next spring The competitive funding from the EU Horizon 2020 programme won by Spectral Engines enables rapid and cost-efficient productisation of the drug screening device. "The EU funding guarantees that we can proceed rapidly from the first prototype to mass production, and allows us to assign several man-years of labour on this productisation project. We will be able to launch the first products next spring, and early next year we will also begin field testing with the first pilot customers", Suhonen says. The company has already collaborated with the leading criminal laboratories, and its research partners come mainly from the United States and Europe. The EU funding enables expanding the cooperation to various new laboratories for the development of model libraries. The granted funding provides also a solid foundation for rapid growth of Spectral Engines. With the help of the funding, the company will also be able to develop portable sensor technology and cloud computing solutions for other applications. VTT Ventures Oy is one of the funding bodies of Spectral Engines. ### Further information: Spectral Engines Janne Suhonen, CCO 358-40-702-3285 janne.suhonen@spectralengines.com https://www.spectralengines.com/ VTT Ventures Oy Antti Sinisalo, CEO 358-40-524-8751 antti.sinisalo@vtt.fi http://www.vtt.fi/vtt-ventures-oy Further information on VTT: Milka Lahnalammi-Vesivalo Communications Manager 358-40-5457-828 milka.lahnalammi-vesivalo@vtt.fi http://www.vtt.fi VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd is the leading research and technology company in the Nordic countries. We use our research and knowledge to provide expert services for our domestic and international customers and partners, and for both private and public sectors. We use 4,000,000 hours of brainpower a year to develop new technological solutions. VTT in social media: Twitter @VTTFinland, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Instagram. Researchers have produced the first three-dimensional (3D) map of a molecular 'scaffold' called SgK223, known to play a critical role in the development and spread of aggressive breast, colon and pancreatic cancers. Armed with the map, the research team is looking at ways of targeting parts of the scaffold molecule critical for its function. They hope the research will lead to novel strategies to target cancer. The research was the result of a long-standing collaboration between Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers Dr Onisha Patel and Dr Isabelle Lucet and Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute researcher Professor Roger Daly, with important inputs from Dr Michael Griffin at Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne, and Dr Santosh Panjikar at the Australian Synchrotron. The research was published today in Nature Communications. Dr Lucet said SgK223 was a member of a family of proteins called pseudokinases and had been classified for a long time as a 'dead enzyme'. "SgK223 doesn't have the measurable activity that we see with other types of enzymes, and this meant it was largely ignored. However in the past decade, we've come to understand that this 'dead enzyme' plays an active and important role in cell signalling," Dr Lucet said. SgK223 is unique among pseudokinases because it acts as a molecular scaffold, facilitating the assembly of vital signalling molecules whose activities control the normal functions of a cell, such as cell shape and migration. "Because of its primary role in facilitating the assembly of signalling molecules, high levels of SgK223 can jeopardise the normal functions of a cell and contribute to changes that lead to cancer," Dr Lucet said. "High levels of SgK223 have been found in some aggressive subtypes of breast, colon and pancreatic cancers, suggesting that SgK223 could be a potential target for novel anti-cancer therapies." Dr Patel said facilities at the Australian Synchrotron enabled the team to get an unprecedented view of SgK223. "Because molecular scaffolds such as SgK223 are structurally quite large, we focused on a critical part of the protein and produced a 3D map using facilities at the Australian Synchrotron. With this map, we have now identified several regions of SgK223 that are essential for its ability to assemble signalling molecules," Dr Patel said. "Solving the 3D map of SgK223 is a critical step in the effort to discover how this molecular scaffold functions, and future research will verify whether targeting SgK223 could have an impact in treating cancers." Professor Daly said the 3D map would enable researchers to investigate how targeting SgK223 impacts cancer cells. "With this 3D map, we can now start to look at how inhibiting the function of SgK223 by targeting particular regions of the scaffold affects cell growth and spread in cancers where it is present at high levels, such as triple negative breast cancers," Professor Daly said. World-class facilities at the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne were instrumental in the discovery, Dr Lucet said. "The Australian Synchrotron is the only facility in the Southern Hemisphere that has the specialised technology required to provide us with detailed knowledge essential for seeing molecules at an atomic level. This is essential if we wish to discover and develop drugs that target and interfere with molecules that drive cancer and other diseases," Dr Lucet said. ### The research was supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Cancer Research Foundation, Australian Research Council and Victorian State Government Operational Infrastructure Support Program. The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute is the research powerhouse of the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, an alliance of leading Victorian hospitals and research centres committed to controlling cancer. by Justin Mackey | Mon, Oct 30th 1:32pm EDT Jordan Howard rushed 23 times for 102 yards in the Bears' 20-12 loss to the Saints in New Orleans Sunday. He added three receptions for 19 yards on five targets. An East Sussex tenant farmer has calculated the significant financial costs associated when bovine TB strikes cattle. Mark Peters, a tenant farmer from the South East of England, had to spend over 100,000 when bovine TB was first confirmed on his farm in November 2016. He has now provided insight into the huge financial cost suffered by farmers when an animal disease outbreak occurs. Mark farms near Lewes in East Sussex. His main holding is in the village of Ringmer and until 10 years ago was subject to 4 yearly testing for bovine TB. The livestock side of his business is based mainly rearing ball calves from dairy herds in the current four-yearly testing areas of West Sussex, Surrey and Kent. The calves are collected at between one and three weeks old and our reared to around 200 kg before being moved on to a specialist finisher. Mark also has a breeding cattle herd built up from buying in British blue cross calves from TB free dairy herds which are reared on to become breeding, suckler cows. Since the summer of 2015 Mark has invested in the order of 220,000 in new livestock facilities to enable the business to cater for more livestock within a better arable rotation using more grass and clover. By summer 2017 the aim was the see calf production reach 40 animals per week and until November 2016 Mark had never had a TB reactor or inconclusive case on his holding. TB restriction On 22 November 2016, 12 animals left the farm for the ABP abattoir in Guildford. On the following day Mark received a call telling him that his holding had been placed under full TB restriction due to one of the animals having a suspicious lung. Within a week Mark had received a letter requiring the testing of all cattle by the year end. 600 animals were tested by 23rd December and all were declared TB free. With that information in hand, Mark and his vet tried, unsuccessfully, to contact the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) to find out the next stage and, in particular, if a further test had to be completed within 60 days of the completion of the last test. Nothing was heard from APHA until 15 January when Mark received a letter indicating that a culture test had been carried out on the suspect cattle which had proved positive for the presence of bovine TB. He was required to conduct a further full test by 20 March. Problems with the availability of veterinary professionals meant that Mark ended up testing his herd towards the end of the testing window. 'Severe pressure' In the meantime, Mark attempted to obtain licenses allowing him to bring in his usual crop of calves part in the spring but consent was refused until the retest had been completed. The retesting was completed on time for all bar two animals which somehow got missed. There was one inconclusive reactor which was re-categorised as a reactor under the severe interpretation rules. Despite ensuring that the remaining two animals were tested as soon as possible, Mark was faced with an Rural Payment Agency (RPA) fine for a late TB test against which he submitted an appeal. By mid-April, due to the shutdown of the holding, cash flow was under severe pressure and Mark carried out a TB test of 110 cattle on a separate holding with a view to selling is animals to raise some cash. Before the animals were due to move Mark was contacted by APHA noting his pre-movement testing but placing this separate holding under full restrictions as he had used the same personnel and machinery on this holding as he had on the main holding already under restriction. Mark appealed this decision and was allowed to proceed with his plan subject to a clear check test on the holding which was obtained however it still took three weeks for the decision to be made allowing him to move the livestock. Higher risk calves With empty rearing systems and no stock to sell to customers for winter 2017/18, Mark applied for a licence to bring on 100 calves. The license was granted in April by which time all the local dairy herds had finished calving, leaving him with no option but to buy higher risk calves from further afield. The next TB test took place in the last week of May when many of the cows were out to grass making the job more difficult to complete. The animals had to be moved closer to the buildings in the week before the test and it took about a week after the test to ensure that everything was back in the right place. Mark calculated that each full, TB test equates to around 16 full-time days normally and nearer 20 full-time days in the summer. The herd went clear on this test but there was a requirement for a further test within 60 days which was booked in for the end of July. During this time Mark continued to apply for licences to move calves onto the holding and off to an Approved Finishing Unit (AFU) but was getting no response. At the end of June he received written confirmation that he was now clear of TB and was able to resume calf movements without licensing. 'Significant' financial impact Mark reports that the financial impact of this breakdown was significant. The borrowing earmarked for increasing stock numbers ended up being used for feeding the existing stock due to the movement restrictions The Tenant Farmers' Association (TFA) assisted Mark in ensuring that he received his BPS payment between Christmas 2015 and the New Year in 2016. Whilst the usual practice is to feed home grown grain, additional feed had to be bought in to cover all of the additional animals on the holding. Some of these costs may be recouped by the additional weight gain and the improvement in beef prices over the affected period. The increased stocking density also produced some health issues which required the use of antibiotics and having to buy in straw which would normally have been obtained only from farm. Total cost of the breakdown First TB test (16 full-time days at 100 per day) = 1600 Second TB test (16 full-time days at 100 per day) = 1600 Third TB test (20 full-time days at 100 per day) = 2000 Additional labour to manage additional stock 22 weeks = 8000 Additional vaccine and antibiotics for calves = 11200 Bought in barley (270 t @ 120/t) = 32400 Other bought in feedPellets bought in = 38,000 Bought in straw = 7000 Total = 101800 'Small proportion' TFA Chief Executive George Dunn said only a "small proportion" of farmers receive some compensation towards the value of any animals that have to be slaughtered as a result of contracting bovine TB. The TFA has argued consistently that the consequential losses to the farm business far outweigh the compensation provided by Government for the value of the animals slaughtered, Mr Dunn explained. This case study shows how just one animal contracting bovine TB in a herd can have devastating financial consequences for the farm business. Bovine TB affects thousands of farm businesses and leads to the slaughter of approximately 30,000 cattle every year. Despite strict movement controls and surveillance regimes, bovine TB continues to spread to new areas of the country. Mr Dunn continued: The TFA believes that more action needs to be taken to control this disease given both the financial and emotional cost suffered by farmers whose herds are subjected to this terrible disease. Ultimately, a cattle vaccination must be found but this option remains only a distant possibility. While we wait for sufficient scientific developments to provide a vaccine, we need to use all the tools available to us which includes cattle movement controls, effective surveillance and dealing with all disease sources including infected wildlife. Lancashire County Council has voted to ban schools from serving halal meat from animals that are not stunned before slaughter. Thousands of Lancashire schoolchildren will no longer be served the un-stunned halal meat for school meals. Muslim leaders have described the move as "unnecessary and divisive". The council explained that it recognises and respects the Muslim communitys requirement for food to comply with religious beliefs, but said it was concerned that slaughtering animals without stunning them beforehand causes them unnecessary stress and suffering. The proposal was brought by the Conservative council leader Geoff Driver, who said it is "abhorrent" and "really cruel" to slaughter animals without stunning them first. Councillors voted 41 to 24 to ban the meat from county-run schools. Fifteen councillors abstained. As part of the resolution, animals will have to be stunned before they are slaughtered in order for the meat to be served in 27 schools in the county which cater for 12,000 children. Conservative councillor Andrew Snowden said the issue was about the minimum treatment we expect animals to receive UK law requires farm animals to be stunned before slaughter, but provides a religious exemption for Jews and Muslims. 'Risen sharply' The number of animals killed without pre-stunning has risen sharply, according to analysis by the British Veterinary Association (BVA) of the latest survey released by the Food Standards Agency (FSA). The BVA said that slaughter without stunning "unnecessarily compromises" the welfare of animals at the time of death. The figures show that almost a quarter (24.4%) of sheep and goats slaughtered between April and June this year had their throats cut without first being made insensible to pain. There has also been an increase from 15% in 2013, when the EU and UK-adopted legislation allowing an exemption for animals that are slaughtered for religious purposes came into force. The number of chickens being slaughtered without pre-stunning has soared from 3% in 2013 to 18.5% in 2017, the FSA figures also revealed. The BVA has labelled the figures a "grave concern" to the veterinary profession, and called for all livestock to be stunned before slaughter. It is time to move venues again for the AmeriKat following In re Cray While the AmeriKat has been traversing the globe over the last few weeks, big changes in US patent litigation have continued apace, especially where venue is concerned - most recently in Re Cray. The AmeriKat's Californian friends at Fenwick & West - Dadvid Tellekson, , big changes in US patent litigation have continued apace, especially where venue is concerned - most recently in Re Cray. The AmeriKat's Californian friends at Fenwick & West - Bryan Kohm Melanie Mayer and Reilly Stoler - summarize the latest position on venue for the Kat's non-US readers: In re Cray that will likely deal a serious blow to abusive forum shopping engaged in by non-practicing entities. "Recently, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a decision inthat will likely deal a serious blow to abusive forum shopping engaged in by non-practicing entities. 28 U.S.C. 1400(b) TC Heartland v. Kraft Foods, 137 S. Ct. 1514, earlier this year, held that the first prongresidencewas limited to a companys place of incorporation or principal place of business. limits venue in patent cases to either where a defendant resides or where it has both committed acts of infringement and maintains a regular and established place of business. The Supreme Courts decision in, 137 S. Ct. 1514,earlier this year, held that the first prongresidencewas limited to a companys place of incorporation or principal place of business. The Cray decision addresses the standard for determining what constitutes a regular and established place of business under the second prong of Section 1400(b). Specifically, the Federal Circuit set forth three requirements for a regular and established place of business: (1) the location must be a place, (2) that place must be regular and established, and (3) the place must be of the defendant. Applying these requirements, the Federal Circuit held that petitioner Crays employment of a remote employee in the Eastern District of Texas did not create venue in that district as to Cray. Background VE Holdings that a company resided anywhere a defendant purposefully directed its activities, provided that the plaintiffs claim arose out of those activities. Some courts broadly construed VE Holdings, which, in effect, rendered venue proper anywhere a defendant engaged in business in any way related to the alleged infringement. In the United States, venue in patent cases is governed by Section 1400(b), which as noted above contains two alternatives for establishing proper venue. However, since the Federal Circuits 1990 holding inthat a company resided anywhere a defendant purposefully directed its activities, provided that the plaintiffs claim arose out of those activities. Some courts broadly construed, which, in effect, rendered venue proper anywhere a defendant engaged in business in any way related to the alleged infringement. Over time, as a result of this broad interpretation, certain courts favorable to patent plaintiffs became increasingly popular district for patent litigation. For example, the Eastern District of Texas, which covers a largely rural portion of Texas, emerged as a focal point for patent litigation in the United States. In fact, in 2016, more than 40% of U.S. patent cases were filed there, and a single judge in the districtJudge Rodney Gilstrappresided over nearly 25% of all patent cases in the nation. In TC Heartland, the Supreme Court abrogated VE Holdings and held that a defendant resides under patent venue statute only where the corporation is incorporated or maintains its principal place of business. Given that most companies do not reside in the favored patent venues under this standard, the focus in determining venue shifted to the second alternative. Having previously held that the patent venue statute was irrelevant to the patent venue analysis, the Federal Circuit had not addressed the meaning of regular and established place of business in over 30 years. District Court Proceedings TC Heartland decision, Cray challenged venue on the ground that it lacked a regular and established place of business in the district. Although Cray employed a single remote employee that lived in the district, Cray maintained no facilities in the district, nor did it have any customers there. The district court denied Crays motion, finding that Crays employment of a single remote employee satisfied the regular and established place of business requirement of Section 1400(b). The court reasoned that the employee made substantial sales while employed at Cray, was supported by the administrative office in Minnesota, and could access promotional materials online from his home in the district. In doing so, the court formulated a four-factor test to evaluate whether a defendant maintains a regular and established place of business in a district, which notably did not require a defendant to maintain a physical presence in the district. Cray filed a petition for writ of mandamus in July 2017 asking the Federal Circuit to vacate the district courts four-factor test and direct transfer to a proper venue. In 2015, Raytheon sued Cray, a maker of advanced supercomputers, in the Eastern District of Texas. Following thedecision, Cray challenged venue on the ground that it lacked a regular and established place of business in the district. Although Cray employed a single remote employee that lived in the district, Cray maintained no facilities in the district, nor did it have any customers there. The district court denied Crays motion, finding that Crays employment of a single remote employee satisfied the regular and established place of business requirement of Section 1400(b). The court reasoned that the employee made substantial sales while employed at Cray, was supported by the administrative office in Minnesota, and could access promotional materials online from his home in the district. In doing so, the court formulated a four-factor test to evaluate whether a defendant maintains a regular and established place of business in a district, which notably did not require a defendant to maintain a physical presence in the district. Cray filed a petition for writ of mandamus in July 2017 asking the Federal Circuit to vacate the district courts four-factor test and direct transfer to a proper venue. A Regular and Established Place of Business Is a Physical Location of the Defendant Prior to the In re Cray Inc. decision, the Federal Circuits last word on the meaning of regular and established place of business came in 1985. In that case, In re Cordis Corp., the defendant used its employees homes in a district to store literature and products, and relied on those employees to deliver products to its customers. The company also retained a local administrative service to support the employees activities in the district and publicly listed the services address as its own office. In denying defendants venue challenge, the Federal Circuit wrote that the appropriate inquiry is whether the corporate defendant does its business in [a] district through a permanent and continuous presence there and not whether it has a fixed physical presence in the sense of a formal office or store. But the court declined to provide further guidance for evaluating what constitutes a regular and established place of business. The issue remained largely untouched for more than three decades. On September 21, the Federal Circuit granted Crays petition for writ of mandamus, vacated the district courts denial of transfer and four-factor test, and provided much needed guidance on what constitutes a regular and established place of business under Section 1400(b). Seemingly mindful of the dearth of precedent on the subject, the court explained each step of its statutory interpretation. As a starting point, it noted that the legislative history of Section 1400(b) indicated an intent by the legislature to restrict patent venue, not expand it. Further, the court cited the Supreme Courts instruction that venue is decidedly not one of those vague principles . . . to be given a liberal construction. With these guideposts in mind, the court set forth three requirements: (1) the location must be a place, (2) that place must be regular and established, and (3) the place must be of the defendant. The court addressed each prong in turn. First, it explained that a place must be a physical location. Although a formal storefront is not required, the court rejected the notion that a virtual or electronic presence might create patent venue. Next, the court interpreted the adjectives regular and established to require some showing of stability, or continuity over time. The court specifically noted that sporadic or temporary business activities were not sufficient, but indicated that continuous business for a series of years likely was. Finally, the court explained that a place is of the defendant if the place was establish[ed] or ratif[ied] by it. A number of considerations come into play here, but significantly a place is not of a defendant if it is solely a place of the defendants employees. The defendant, rather, must have some additional connection or control over that place. Applying this freshly minted test to the facts of the case, the court determined that venue was lacking because there was no evidence that Mr. Harless house was a place of business of Cray. The court noted that while Mr. Harless conducted business from his house in the district, there was nothing indicating that Cray owned Mr. Harless residence, selected its location, conditioned his employment on maintaining his residence, or even believed its location was important to the work he performed. Stressing that no one fact was controlling in its analysis, the court concluded that the facts [surrounding Mr. Harless home office] cannot support a finding that Cray established a place of business in the Eastern District of Texas. Accordingly, the court granted Crays petition and directed transfer of venue. Implications of Decision A North Yorkshire farmer had to be airlifted to hospital following a farm machinery accident where his legs became trapped in the equipment. The man had to be be cut free from the farm machinery in Staxton on Saturday night (28 October) after his legs became trapped. Fire crews from Scarborough, Filey and Malton attended the incident at just before 8pm. The crews used hydraulic cutting equipment and small tools to release him from the machinery, he was then transported to Hull Royal Infirmary by Air Ambulance. Figures from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have revealed that in 2016/17, agriculture had the highest rate of fatal injury, around 18 times higher than the All Industry rate. Poorly used or faulty vehicles and machinery are the biggest cause of death and injury on farms. Farmers come into contact with a host of machinery daily combines, choppers and hay balers which bring their own attendant dangers. According to Martin Malone from the Farm Safety Partnership: Machinery and transport continue to be the main causes of life changing and life ending injuries on farms. In fact 40 per cent of all farm workers who have lost their lives in agriculture over the past decade were workplace machinery-transport related. Whilst this year we have seen an improvement in the numbers of farmers losing their lives as a result of machinery and transport, the fact is that one death is one too many. A futuristic paint which is laced with thousands of micro-dots is being trialled in the fight against the growing issue of sheep rustling and livestock crime. The high-tech product, TecTRACER, works by marking livestock with thousands of forensic coded microdots that become entangled in fleeces and coats. These microdots help trace the animal back to their home farm, should they be stolen. The forensic codes are virtually impossible to remove, yet are easy to recover and read by the police. The codes are held in a secure database, which will proactively broadcast any theft of livestock to others, such as auction marts, abattoirs and the police. Attacks on livestock in the UK is becoming 'more and more of a problem' as rural police stations face closure, according to a report. The cost of rural crime in the UK reached 42.5m in 2015 and farming unions across the UK have asked the government to increase funding to help fight the rise in incidents. More than 1,000 rural police stations in the UK closed between 2000 and 2012, directly impacting the level of surveillance. It is thought that many stolen livestock are destined for the illegal meat trade. September livestock crimes In September alone, there has been four prominent livestock crime cases with a combined total of over 300 animals missing. On 19 September, sheep rustlers stole 14 sheep and 22 lambs from a farm in North Yorkshire. On 13 September, a farmer took to social media to express her horror when she found out that 178 of his pigs were stolen. Sheep rustlers struck North Yorkshire twice in two separate incidents on the weekend of the 9 and 10 September. On the 2 September, rustlers stole more than 100 sheep from two farms in Powys, Wales. The National Farmers' Union (NFU) has previously warned that farmers should not be seen as a 'soft target' for criminals. The NFU said that the result is an increasing fear of crime in rural areas and significantly lower satisfaction levels in the police than the national average. The NFU, in its report, has found there is no standard protocol across police forces for combatting rural crime, with some forces not even treating rural crime as serious crime. A warning has been issued about the dangers sky lanterns pose to animals as Britain prepares to mark Halloween. Sky, or Chinese, lanterns, can be a popular part of the Halloween celebrations - but the RSPCA has reminded the public that they can be fatal to animals. The devices - which are lifted into the air via an open flame heat source - can be ingested by animals, or cause entanglement or entrapment. This can lead to livestock suffering injury, stress or even death. When ingested the sharp parts of sky lanterns can tear and puncture an animals throat or stomach causing internal bleeding. Lanterns also pose danger as a fire hazard - destroying habitats, and potentially setting animal housing, feed and bedding alight. NFU chief land management adviser Sam Durham said sky lanterns pose a 'very serious risk' to livestock. The NFU continues to encourage councils to ban the lanterns in order to ensure that farmers are able to continue their work without worrying about additional, unnecessary dangers, Mr Durham said. It's important to point out that it's not just farm animals which can be affected. Sky lanterns can cause fires to crops, grassland on moors and bales of hay and straw that have been stacked, which could lead to a loss of buildings. The NFU has already seen some councils ban the use of sky lanterns and we would encourage more to follow suit. Last month, a ten-year-old girl created a petition calling for the ban on the sale and use of Chinese sky lanterns. It has now reached 3,000 supporters. Outright Welsh ban An outright ban on their use across Wales remains the primary objective for the RSPCA Cymru. However, they have welcomed considerable progress in recent years, with 17 of Wales 22 Local Authorities having implemented local bans on their release on the land which they control. Martin Fidler Jones, RSPCA Cymrus political campaigns manager, said: Sky lanterns may look pretty - but, in truth, theyre actually just pretty dangerous. We know sky lanterns can be a popular part of the Halloween celebrations - but it's important people know they can be fatal to animals. Instead, we urge people across Wales to explore safe alternatives - like stationary candles, nightlights or static lanterns. Ultimately, what goes up, must come down - and when these lanterns return to land, animals are at risk of ingesting the material, or even entanglement or entrapment. As a dangerous fire hazard, they can also destroy habitats. The public is being urged to take action, and sign RSPCA Cymrus campaign which urges Councils to implement a ban on their land on the release of sky lanterns - with more than three quarters in Wales now having done so. The remaining five yet to do so are Ynys Mon, Flintshire, Wrexham, Merthyr and Newport - though the latter is due to discuss the issue at Cabinet level, after full council voted in favour of a ban. A Eurasian lynx which holds potential danger to livestock has escaped from a wildlife park in Wales. The lynx, named Lillith, is said not to pose a danger to humans, but Borth Wild Animal Kingdom in Ceredigion said the public should stay away from the wild cat as police help track her down. However, the lynx, if strayed further afield, can pose a threat to livestock around the area. The lynx is unlikely to approach people, but may attempt to take livestock or pets as food, Dyfed-Powys Police said. It is believed that the lynx remains in fairly close proximity to the Animalarium, but it could potentially go further afield. The cat is described as tan and white in colour, with dark spots on her back and legs. She has a distinctive thick, stubby tail which is tan at the base and black at the tip. Borth Wild Animal Kingdom said: Lynx can travel about 12 miles a day, but the chances are she hasnt gone far. We will be putting out camera traps around the perimeter of the zoo and relying on sightings by the public. Once we learn her location and follow her trail pattern we can set up monitored traps to catch her. Lynx re-introduction It follows news of the sheep industry preparing for a possible lynx re-introduction in the UK. Sheep farmers are worried about the possibility of such an act, with the National Sheep Association claiming it will negatively impact sheep farming. The National Sheep Association has said the lynx carry a disease and welfare risk to livestock. A verdict on whether lynx should be released in Kielder Forest, Northumberland, is still pending after Lynx UK Trust submitted a formal application to Natural England earlier this year. The Government advisory body is currently reviewing information, and is expected to announce a decision in the coming months. Major agricultural countries across the world are becoming worried at the prospect of an EU ban on the popular herbicide glyphosate. Major agricultural countries such as Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Canada and Argentina are trying to get answers out of the EU over the fate of the world's most common weedkiller. If glyphosate ends up being banned in the EU, countries around the world that produce food with it may find their exports restricted. A 2005 EU regulation shows that such action against imports would be simple. A ban on glyphosate would trigger the EU to revise down the permissible "tolerance" level of it in food imports. Adrian Serra, head of the trade section at the Mission of Argentina to the European Union, said Argentina is: Following the development of the renewal for the authorization of glyphosate very closely, and is also taking some steps within its reach that could serve to ensure that the right decision is made. Argentine Agriculture Minister Ricardo Buryaile explained that the country's soybean exports could be impacted, in a letter to the EU's Agricultural Minister Phil Hogan. The South American agricultural powerhouse has also previously told an EU committee back in March that there were concerns regarding the immediate impact on trade of agricultural products if the authorization [for glyphosate] was not further renewed. If a glyphosate ban is triggered because of concerns it affects human health, the EU must inform the World Trade Organisation (WTO) it is reducing its maximum residue levels for glyphosate to 0.01 milligrams per kilogram. Indeed, this would affect Brazil's exports for soy, which currently stands at allowing 20 milligrams per kilogram. Major agricultural powerhouses worry that the EU could even implement an outright ban on imports which contain glyphosate. Five year extension The European Commission has now proposed extending the licence for glyphosate by five years after its initial plan for a 10-year approval did not pass. An initial round of votes on whether to renew glyphosate, the active agent of Monsantos weed killer Roundup, began on 25 October. But Member States failed to agree on a licence extension, delaying a decision that needs to be taken before the end of the year on the widely used herbicide. The Commission said in a statement that it had now submitted to EU countries its proposal for a five-year approval, with a vote now expected at the next sitting of the relevant committee on November 9. The National Farmers' Union (NFU) said it was also "disappointed" that no agreement had been reached over the reauthorisation. Guy Smith, NFU Vice President, said: The overwhelming weight of science and evidence shows that glyphosate is perfectly safe when used correctly. This has been the conclusion reached by regulatory bodies around the world, including the EUs two leading regulatory bodies the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA). The continued politicisation of this decision damages the credibility of the EUs regulatory bodies and undermines the regulatory process. It also has huge implications for farming in the UK and across Europe. A farming union has told of its frustration by the "slow progress" made in getting financial aid to Northern Irish farmers who were severely affected by the flooding in August this year. The flash floods which hit Northern Ireland on 22 August forced many farmers to assess the damage it made to their businesses. A number of farmers lost livestock or suffered damage to farmland or properties. For example, tens of thousands of chickens were killed in the floods. It led the Northern Ireland Agriculture Department (DAERA) to announce in August that it will seek permission from the EU to allow it to raise the level of advanced CAP payment made in October from 50% to 70%. However, the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) said that there have been numerous discussions with government officials in chasing the financial aid, but the absence of a Stormont Minister makes it "all the more difficult". The Northern Ireland Executive collapsed after deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness resigned in protest over the Renewable Heat Incentive scandal. UFU president Barclay Bell explained: No decision can be made in terms of a locally administered compensation scheme. Yet another thing to add to the ever growing list of reasons why we need the NI Executive up and running again. DAERA has however confirmed that they have explored various options and have narrowed this down to a possible nationally funded De Minimis Aid package. It said they are working on having a business case ready for a Minister to consider and if one is appointed then a decision can be made quickly. This will be of little comfort to those who are dealing with complete devastation on their farm and we continue to press DAERA for a more timely solution. The lack of an Executive is hampering getting help to where it is needed, and sadly this is common experience across all government departments at the moment, said Mr Bell. UK-Australia trade deal 'gave away far too much', Eustice admits Aishwarya Rai Mumbai Mirror has quoted a source by saying Aishwarya Rai is using Ayurvedic slimming oils to stay in shape for Fanney Khan. Source Quoted The source also said that she started using it right after her delivery. Before Shoots The report also states that she uses them before shooting for any movie as well. God's Own Country The Ayurveda products are made in a farm in Kerala. Fanney Khan Aishwarya Rai is prepping up for the shoot of her upcoming movie Fanney Khan. Starcast Fanney Khan stars Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao and Anil Kapoor in the lead roles. Romancing Pair Reports are doing the rounds that Aishwarya Rai and Rajkummar Rao are paired as a couple in the movie. Saif Was Happy To Be Alone At Home Minus Kareena & Taimur The 'Chef' actor was quoted as saying, "During the first schedule (of Veere Di Wedding), she took him (to Delhi) and I was very happy (to be alone) at home" Recommended Video Kareena Kapoor Khan making Taimur Ali WAVE to media was Saif Ali Khan's idea | FilmiBeat 'I Am Not Finicky As A Parent' "I love being by myself but after a couple of days, I missed having them around. But I am not finicky as a parent. He (Taimur) is a part of my life and this is for the long haul. I like my space and I like having them around also." Taimur Gets Upset When He Doesn't See Mom Kareena Around' "We (Kareena and I) are lucky we have help... because I do think that sometimes having a child can be overwhelming if you don't have breathing space. Some people have a lower tolerance for claustrophobia and I am one of them. I won't be happy if I have to be around them all the time. In the second schedule, Taimur was alone with me and he was looking a little sad. But now he is happy that Kareena is back. The house also feels balanced because we need her energy." Taimur's Birthday Celebrations Little Taimur is all set to turn one in the month of December this year. Aunt Karisma Reveals The Birthday Plans Recently, at an event, Kareena's sister Karisma Kapoor revealed, "Yes, Taimur's birthday is arriving and it is a special moment for us. The family is really very excited and thrilled about the same. We will have a family get together of sorts, and will not be having a big celebration." Popular Malayalam Director IV Sasi Is No More IV Sasi, the film-maker whose contributions to the Malayalam film industry are innumerable, passed away on October 24, 2017. IV Sasi, who was 69, is survived by his wife Seema and two children, Anu and Ani. Many Mollywood celebrities made to his residence in Chennai to bid farewell to the master of Malayalam cinema. Mohanlal Is On An Intense Training Mohanlal will be seen in different get-ups in the upcoming movie Odiyan and the actor has started his preparations to shed 15 kilos for the younger portions in the movie. VA Shrikumar Menon, the director of the film confirmed that the actor is on an intense physical training with a team of trainers, yoga masters and dermatologists from France. Vineeth Sreenivasan's Character In Aravindante Athithikal Vineeth Sreenivasan will be seen playing an interesting role in M Mohanan's next directorial venture. The actor will play the role of a lodge owner named Aravindan in this upcoming film titled as Aravindante Athithikal. Mayanadhi Gets A Release Date Aashiq Abu and Tovino Thomas team's Mayanadhi is gearing up to hit the theatres. Reportedly, this upcoming film which features Aishwarya Raghavan as the leading lady will hit the theatres on December 22, 2017. New Poster Of Masterpiece Matserpiece is one among the most awaited films of the year. The Mammootty starrer is gearing up to hit the theatres during the Christmas season and now, the makers have come up with the new poster of the movie. This new poster features Mammootty along with a group of young actors. Tovino Thomas Replaces Prithviraj In Aami Aami, the upcoming film of Kamal, which is the biopic on the life of Kamala Surayya aka Madhavikutti will feature Tovino Thomas in an important role. Reportedly, the actor has been roped in to play a role, which was supposed to be done by Prithviraj. Asif Ali & Madonna Sebastian To Team Up Asif Ali & Madonna Sebastian are gearing up to team up for the first time. Both of them will be seen together in the upcoming musical adventure comedy, titled as Ibilis. This upcoming film will be directed by Adventures Of Omanakuttan fame Rohith VS. The visual treat in the form of 2.O is still quite some time away, but the audio launch of the movie has managed to grab many eyes. The massive extravaganza was held in Dubai's Burj Park with many dignitaries embracing the occasion. Let's catch up with some of the highlights of the show. The Lavish Audio Launch The grand event was conducted at a whopping cost of INR 15 Cr. The stage was massive, the location was ideal and the promotional event of 2.O's official poster in the form of Sky-dive was indeed innovative and exquisite. Conducting the audio launch in Dubai was just one of its kind for an Indian movie and this was also a part of marketing strategy as the movie is touted to capture the international audiences as well. Interesting Combination Of Hosts Since the movie will be predominantly in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi languages, the movie team had decided to go in with three different hosts, one from each languages. RJ Balaji represented the Tamil fraternity, Baahubali fame Rana Daggubatti represented the Telugu cine industry while the celebrated film-maker and distributor, Karan Johar was the voice from Bollywood. Celebrities And Chief Guest Of course, one wouldn't mind or look around for any other special dignitary when you have Superstar Rajinikanth in the scene. However, for such a prestigious project, you ought to have some known faces around. Tamil stars like Dhanush, Suriya, Jyothika, and director P. Vasu etc. were part of the event. But the surprise factor was the gracious presence of the Dubai King. Also not to forget the fact that 2.O was the first and only movie to have obtained the permission for an event in the said venue. Shankar The visionary, the master of grand film-making and the man who takes Tamil cinema to heights, Director Shankar. Shankar, whose last two movies, Nanban and I, were not as successful as the director would have expected, has pinned all his hopes on the movie. Shankar reiterated the fact that 2.O was not an extension of Enthiran, but certain characters from the latter would be continued in 2.O. Shankar revealed that the movie would run on a message which is indeed the need of the hour. The director of Sivaji and Enthiran opened up that the characterization of Akshay Kumar was not just that of an antagonist, but consists of various shades. He was all praises for the Superstar. Shankar thanked Rajinikanth profusely for the actor's dedication and commitment towards his work. He said, "Even while undergoing treatment, Rajini sir shot in the blistering summer heat of Delhi, wearing a 12 kg suit and I really need to thank him from the bottom of my heart." "We also shot a sequence in the underground and he didn't have any qualms of shooting in such condition. Despite being an actor for 40 years, even today he aspires to do something different and his energy is unmatchable." AR Rahman The Mozart of Madras, ARR, was seen performing with the orchestra. 2.O consists of only three songs with a good number of BGM and live score. ARR performed to all three songs where two of them were released to the audience and the third will be released much later. The unreleased third song was penned by late lyricist Na. Muthukumar. Akshay Kumar Bollywood's Khiladi kept his speech sweet and short. The tough actor thanked Shankar for the role in such a huge venture and also for creating such a massive learning curve. The actor heaped praises on Superstar Rajinikanth calling him the best and the biggest star. Rajinikanth A few quotes from his speech. "It did not seem like 40 years to me, it looks like 4 to 5 years. My success is all because of God's grace and people's love." "Money, name and fame give you momentary satisfaction. In the beginning, it gives you a level of satisfaction but beyond a point, it would not help you find peace." "It would have been tough if I did not have trust in God. Since I believe in God, the process has been simple." "Always encourage good films. Make artists who make good cinema proud. Even if the film is not so good, go easy on filmmakers. Don't bash or hurt them using abusive language in social media. It is my humble request.'' The 67-year-old legendary actor also thanked the Dubai King as Dubai was the home for many Indians and that his fellow citizens were safe and sound in the country. Karan Johar asked Rajinikanth whether all his dreams have come true to which the Superstar replied, "One wish is yet to be realized." Well, was Thalaiva hinting about his political entry? Leading Australian technology provider Data#3has announced it will partner with CenturyLink, a global communications hosting, cloud and IT services company.The partnership will provide customers with key complementary enterprise-grade cloud options from Data#3.CenturyLink offers enterprise-grade Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) delivered through a pay-as-you-go model.Data#3 CEO and Managing Director Laurence Baynham said the new relationship with CenturyLink will expand the companys customer solutions and expands on its corporate strategy.Australia and New Zealand Regional Director for CenturyLink said the collaboration with Data#3 brings a combination of strong technology, skills and services to the enterprise market.Shares in Data#3last traded 0.54 per cent lower to $1.85. It's no secret that coverage of the Trump administration has been a boon to shareholders of The New York Times Company (NYT 1.70%). On this episode of Industry Focus: Consumer Goods, our team looks at the company's recent success, analyzing both performance drivers and strengths that NYT can focus on as it continues the transition from celebrated print publication to digital content powerhouse. A full transcript follows the video. 10 stocks we like better than The New York Times When investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now and The New York Times wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. Click here to learn about these picks! *Stock Advisor returns as of October 9, 2017 This video was recorded on Oct. 24, 2017. Vincent Shen: I wanted to focus a little bit on the New York Times. We don't talk about them enough on this show here. It's an interesting company that's put up really strong results in the past few quarters. Coincidentally enough, benefited a lot from a somewhat antagonistic relationship with President Trump. Exactly how well has this company been doing under this administration? Asit Sharma: In the last quarter, digital-only subscription editions for The New York Times jumped 69% year over year. The Times now has over 2 million digital subscribers, and that's doubled in a short two-year period. So, the answer is, Vince, they're doing extremely well under the Trump administration. Investors, let's go back to high school. This term symbiosis, do you remember this, when two organisms have a mutually beneficial relationship? It's exactly what we see here. I like to think of this as a "frenemy" relationship. It's not a coincidence, The New York Times will report earnings next week on November 1, and that's just a few days shy of the one-year anniversary of President Trump's election, the stock is up almost 77% from the day of the election to today. President Trump likes to bash the failing New York Times, but under him, they've been more sailing than failing. President Trump is a native New Yorker, he reads the Times, and he grants exclusive interviews to the Times. There was one in July with New York Times reporter Peter Baker, Michael Schmidt, and of course, Maggie Haberman. The President sees the value of keeping The New York Times as a mouthpiece, as much as he loves to bash them. And you won't hear the editors or business managers of the Times complaining about the revenue that the company is getting from this relationship. Shen: Yeah. If you look at this business and how they've had to adjust, obviously the print side of their business has definitely shrunk, and they're losing subscribers there, advertising money is flowing out of the print side. It makes sense that they've not only invested significantly in their digital platform but seen quite a bit of success from it. This near-term boost, I feel like, they can really do a lot to take advantage of the amount of increased subscribers and attention that they're getting now and in the past year as a result of some of these headlines. But understanding and seeing the long-term outlook for its print business, and how that wasn't sustainable, I think they made the shift a little over five years ago. With over three million total subscribers now, the double-digit growth that you mentioned in the past year thanks to that digital side of the business, and that's with both their subscriptions and their advertising revenue. But I think about the print side, and despite the fact that's shrinking in terms of its contribution to The New York Times, the subscriptions fall off slightly with each passing years, advertisers leave even more quickly, but it reminds me a little bit of tobacco companies. Even though these tobacco companies are losing smokers each year in developed countries, they can raise prices enough to offset the loss, if not even grow revenue a little bit. The same thing seems to apply for their print subscribership. It shrinks a little bit each year, but they can raise those prices and keep it almost flat. At the same time, on the flip side with their digital subscribers, see that incredible growth. There's a quote from management earlier this year during an earnings call, they said, "We believe that the fundamental story from 2015 onwards is a better understanding and better execution of the pay model and opportunity to accelerate. And I think, when I look at the next few years, we're certainly not saying that we expect the short-term effects of Donald Trump's election as president and the associated news cycle necessarily to last at its current rate forever." The idea behind this, and what I like about it is, if the next three years with this administration continue to provide a tailwind to the company due to greater demand for news coverage, in terms of this administration, despite the fact that this heightened level of interest won't last forever, management acknowledges that, the company has some time to essentially turn these new digital subscribers who are interested right now, because of Trump coverage, for example, they have the opportunity to turn them into loyal readers, either through the habit of reading The New York Times each day, or by increasing the amount of content they offer and increasing their value proposition. They're releasing more video content, they're releasing podcasts, they're getting into product reviews, and expanding the amount of content they offer that way, potentially, again, winning over the subscribers that they're getting now in that way. All in that backdrop, too, they also can continue to improve and optimize their advertising business. So it's just interesting, and I think it'll be interesting to watch how this company takes advantage of this heightened level of interest they're enjoying right now. What else are you watching or looking forward to to see the company try to take advantage of in the coming years, and that you think potential investors need to know? Sharma: One thing that I'm really watching in The New York Times is the way that they're taking hold of their brand. Much in the way we talked about Tiffany's a few weeks ago, it's a very well-respected brand. The Time's ability to parlay that into additional revenue is going to be crucial. They were doing this well before the election. This was one of my very first CAPS calls when I joined the Fool back in late 2012. Listeners, if you haven't played CAPS, you have to, it will teach you how to invest. The strategy that they laid out really appealed to me five years ago. And as you said, the Trump administration has just given them a tailwind for initiatives they were already working on. So things like digital crosswords, the Times last quarter saw their digital crossword subscription increase 42%. Now, that's only $3.2 million, but that's 4% of total digital-only revenue in the last quarter. So these really small revenue streams that ride on The New York Times' brand, which it's focused on, as you mentioned, the content, the podcast, those are going to be extremely important over the years. It's an interplay of the very particular in these initiatives and this big picture of this respected name that's really pushing change so it doesn't become one of those has-been companies. There are a number of those tobacco companies that aren't around any longer, Vince, you'll note. A few innovative ones have survived. But keep your eye on that big picture for the Times. Right now, it still has a forward P/E of close to 28x. It's gotten a little pricey with the price run-up, but it's still a great long-term investment, in my opinion. Shen: Yeah. Makes sense, given the almost 80% price appreciation the stock's seen, as you said, in approximately the last year. Pissed off at Dealer So I am all approved to go by a new truck. An F350 this time. My 05 5.4 F250 does fine still. But wanting new with a desiel. I like the look of the KR interior better than the Platinum. Dealer had been stringing me along for several days. Truck needed to be had from a different dealer. I went in on Tuesday after work to sign a p.o. for my bank. Said I'll be back on Thursday with a check. Dealer never faxed p.o. No luck on Wednesday with the dealer. Thursday comes. Call my bank. No p.o. bank calls dealer. Gets p.o. show up after work. Get check. Call dealer. I have a check. You have a truck? We are working on it. Later that evening. Call back, well? Didn' happen. Going to get it in first thing in the morning. I said look I'm taking my RV out and want to pull with the new truck. Ok We'll have it for you. We'll bring it to your house. Sweet. I get a call last night after putting off going and getting my RV and all prep work waiting on new truck. We can't sell you that truck. It has a recall on it. What, ok keep it. I'll take the check back to the bank on Monday and go buy from someone who want to sell me 75k truck. This whole ordeal was treated like a 12k fiesta. As it was being missed off and trying to get the RV, I forgot stuff I could have had done. This has been the absolute worst experience with a dealer. I am still going to by a new SD. Just from a different dealer now. Called bank and they said, just brink the check back and you'e re approved for a new one. Still pissed. But now shopping again. Livestock farmers in mid Wales are being urged to stay vigilant after a lynx escaped from a wildlife park in Ceredigion. The Eurasian lynx, named Lilleth, escaped from Borth Wild Animal Kingdom, near Aberystwyth, sometime during the past few days. The animal does not pose a risk to humans, but police have warned that it could attack livestock or domestic pets. See also: Finnish farmer delivers stark warning on lynx Lilleth was not captured last night (Sunday) but we did have two confirmed sightings of her on the hill just behind the zoo which means she hasnt gone far, said the park, in a statement on its Facebook page on Monday (30 October). We imagine she will go into hiding during the day and will nest down in some bushes close by. Our keepers will be continuing the hunt today and putting out bait traps so we can hopefully catch her and reunite her with her family. Lilleth is described as a young juvenile, tan and white in colour with dark spots on her back and legs. She is about twice the size of a domestic cat with black tufts on her ears. She has a thick, stubby tail which is no more than six inches long, is tan at the base and black at the tip. There have never been any recorded attacks of a lynx on a human, but they are a wild animal with sharp teeth and claws and will attack if cornered or trapped, added the park. Lynx are solitary animals that hide most of the day and tend to hunt at night. They will generally keep clear of human habitation and prefer a wooded environment. She is not used to hunting live prey but will chase rabbits and rodents when she gets hungry. Lynx can travel about 12 miles in a day, but the zoo says chances are she hasnt gone too far. Do not approach A spokesman for Dyfed-Powys police said: The lynx is unlikely to approach people, but may attempt to take livestock or pets as food. We do however advise that the animal should not be approached as it could become aggressive if cornered. It is believed that the lynx remains in fairly close proximity to the Animalarium, but of course it could potentially go further afield. Anyone who spots Lilleth should phone police on 101 or contact the zoo straight away 01970 871224. Apples declining streak in China has come to an end: Canalys News oi -Priyanka Chinese smartphone Chinese smartphone shipments registered another quarter of decline as the market contracted 5 percent in Q3 2017 to 119 million units. Apple's declining streak in China has come to an end, as shipments grew 40 percent from 8 million in Q3 2016 to about 11 million this quarter, according to the research firm Canalys. The firm said that this makes it Apple's best performance in China in the last eight quarters, where its growth has slowed considerably since the launch of the iPhone 6S. The mix of the iPhone 8 series at launch is also higher than the corresponding mix of the iPhone 7 series at launch last year. However, despite launching three new devices this year, Apple's success in China could be short-lived, it added. "Apple's growth this quarter is only temporary. The high sell-in caters to the pent-up demand for iPhone upgrades in the absence of the iPhone X. Price cuts on earlier models after announcing the iPhone 8 have also helped. However, Apple is unlikely to sustain this growth in Q4," said Canalys Research Analyst Mo Jia. Despite being touted as widely expensive, excitement for the launch of the iPhone X is building in China. "While the iPhone X launches this week, its pricing structure and supply are inhibiting. The iPhone X will enjoy a healthy grey market status, but its popularity is unlikely to help Apple in the short term," added Jia. However Chinese smartphone Chinese smartphone shipments registered another quarter of decline as the market contracted 5 percent in Q3 2017 to 119 million units. The race to the top remains tight as Huawei, Oppo and Vivo took 19 percent, 18 percent and 17 percent market share respectively. Huawei grew shipments by 23 percent, shipping over 22 million units to take the lead, while Oppo declined slightly (compared to the stellar performance a year ago) shipping 21 million units. Vivo, with a 26 percent growth was the most impressive performer in the top 3, shipping over 20 million units. Xiaomi and Apple round up the top 5 this quarter. Meanwhile, the firm pointed out that on the back of its aggressive offline expansion, Xiaomi is poised to break the dominance of Huawei, Oppo and Vivo next quarter, making it an even tighter battle to the top." Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications HTC U-Series smartphone new teaser suggests bezel-less display and more News oi -Samden Sherpa HTC has just released a new teaser for the event and the new teaser reveals the front side of the smartphone. HTC has been busy creating a lot of hype for its upcoming smartphone or smartphones that has been scheduled to launch on November 2. While there are many speculations still going on because the company has not made it clear as to which smartphone it is launching, but from what we have been hearing so far it could be the HTC U11 Plus or HTC U11 Life. In any case, HTC has teased that the upcoming smartphone will be in the U Series. Just last week we saw a teaser that basically portrayed the rear side of the smartphone. Now HTC has sent a new teaser and this time it shows the front side of the smartphone and hints at the presence of a bezel-less display. Notably, the teaser posted by HTC through its official Twitter account reads, "You'll believe it all on 11.02.2017" while giving a glimpse of the new device with thin bezels around its display. The image kind of further suggests that the home button is missing on the new U series smartphone. This will be a new design compared to the older generation HTC U11. This also means that the smartphone will feature a rear fingerprint scanner which has actually been confirmed by the previous teaser. Youll believe it all on 11.02.2017 pic.twitter.com/9NRTWeWM9u HTC (@htc) October 27, 2017 That is pretty much that we can deduce from the new teaser. Interestingly, HTC U11 Plus as it has already appeared on TENAA, the images showed that the smartphone also had very small bezels on the sides and thin ones at the top and bottom. What's exciting is that the new teaser also confirms such features. Specs wise little information has been shared but again going by earlier rumors and leaks, HTC U11 Plus is expected to feature a 6-inch WQHD+ display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. The handset is further expected to be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC and the smartphone is said to come in two variants in terms of memory. The base variant could pack 4GB of RAM with 64GB of internal storage whereas the higher variant may come with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. As for the optics, the HTC U11 Plus is rumored to be equipped with a 12-megapixel rear camera with f/1.7 aperture and dual-LED flash. Up front, it is expected to come with an 8-megapixel camera for selfies and video calling. Further, the smartphone is said to backed by a 3930mAh battery and it should come with support for Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0. HTC U11 is also said to come with features like IP68 rating for water and dust resistance, Edge Sense technology, and Boom Sound for enhanced audio capabilities. Earlier leaks from benchmark websites have revealed that the smartphone will launch with Android 8.0 Oreo out-of-the-box. Meanwhile, reports have also stated that HTC could announce the U11 Life model as well. HTC U11 Life is said to be the company's rumored Android One smartphone. Further, rumors have said that this smartphone will come with mid-range specifications that will include a 5.2-inch display, a Snapdragon 630 SoC, and 16-megapixel camera sensors on front and back, Android Nougat 7.1.1 and 3GB of RAM. However, both the smartphones are said to come with the bezel-less design. It looks like HTC is set to take on other popular brands like LG, Samsung, Apple, Xiaomi, Vivo, and Oppo who all are offering smartphones with minimal bezels these days. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications JioPhone production to be stopped: Is Reliance Jio working on a new free Android phone? News oi -Samden Sherpa JioPhone has created a strong buzz in the entry-level smartphone market in India. After introducing JioPhone which has created a strong buzz in the entry-level smartphone market in India, it appears that the founder of the company Mukesh Ambani is now aiming higher. We know that JioPhone has already seen a huge surge in demand and that millions of people have pre-ordered the phone but the shipments have been on and off. While it was started post-Diwali but now it seems that the company has some aggressive strategy for mobile handsets going forward. Reliance Jio 4G: How to Effectively Boost Your 4G Internet Speed #GIZBOT According to new reports, production of the JioPhone has been stopped. Reliance Jio is now reportedly looking to work on catering to the larger demand of consumers. Basically, the company is now inclining towards Android smartphones to further counter Airtel and Vodafone. A report from FactorDaily notes that Reliance Jio has stopped production of JioPhone as it is in gearing up to develop and launch Android-based phones. And this could be a possibility. JioPhone currently runs on KaiOS which is an operating system based on Firefox OS. Now Jio which has seen a huge demand may be changing its strategy of developing applications and offering services on the KaiOS platform. Meanwhile, Android is a popular OS used in most of the smartphone so Jio could be seeing an opportunity here. A company insider has told the publication, "There are not enough apps compatible with KaiOS but people are working on developing special versions for the JioPhone." Reliance Jio is reportedly also said to be working with Facebook and Google to build compatible versions of their most widely used apps in the country." As all this is going on behind the scenes, the report also notes that Reliance is in talks with Google to bring down the royalty for Android. Talking in business terms, the share of Android is definitely much higher in the market. Mukesh Ambani's decision to switch to Android may, in fact, be a better one as the OS has a huge penetration and most importantly compatibility of apps is much higher. Further, if you recall when the company launched the JioPhone, it claimed to make five million JioPhone available every week. So the company might possibly be looking to adopt a new strategy for its success. However, it is also not clear what plans does the company have for the KaiOS-based JioPhone whether it will stop production completely but some sources have said that the company is looking to manufacture 10 million units. But again, everything is blurry as the company has not announced anything officially and we are not sure whether Jio will bring an Android-based feature phone or a smartphone entirely. Recently, Airtel joined hands with Karbonn as well as a brand called Celkon to introduce an Android smartphone while Vodafone has partnered with Micromax to bring out a new low-cost 4G smartphone. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Nokia 2 visits AnTuTu benchmarking site; key specs revealed News oi -Chandrika As for the pricing, US based retailer B&H has listed the Nokia 2 at a price of $99 (approximately Rs. 6,434). Be it high-end or entry-level, Nokia smartphones are always the center of attraction. Likewise, the Nokia 2 has been appearing in leaks for quite some time. While HMD Global is yet to announce the launch date, Nokia 2 has already received the Bluetooth SIG certification. Now, the smartphone appears to have made its way to AnTuTu. A Nokia handset carrying the model number TA-1035 has been listed on the benchmarking site. Judging from the specs, it is most likely to be the Nokia 2. In any case, let's check out the specs. According to AnTuTu listing, the Nokia TA-1035 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 processor that is coupled with Adreno 304 GPU on top. There is 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage space. The internal storage is further expandable via a microSD card. The smartphone is also listed with a display that delivers an HD resolution of 7201,280 pixels. Unfortunately, the exact size of the display has not been revealed through AnTuTu listing. Previous leaks have suggested, the Nokia 2 would come with a 4.5-inch or 4.7-inch display. The AnTuTu benchmark further reveals the Nokia TA-1035 is equipped with an 8MP rear-facing primary camera and a 5MP selfie camera. As for software, the smartphone is shown running on Android 7.1.1 Nougat OS. Well, this is pretty much everything that have been revealed by AnTuTu. However, we also know that the Nokia 2 will pack a large 4,000mAh battery under its hood. As for the pricing, US based retailer B&H has listed the Nokia 2 at a price of $99 (approximately Rs. 6,434) and that too without taxes. What this means is that Nokia 2 could be the most affordable Nokia branded smartphone of all time. Source|Via Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications US carriers are not interested in building handset OEM brands News oi -Priyanka Chinese handset OEMs own more than 43 percent of smartphone market share. Yet, in the US it is 18 percent. There is no doubt that Chinese smartphones are quite popular in India, Russia, and Africa, but if we look at American market then it still seems distant dreams to mark their presence there. "Globally, Chinese handset OEMs own more than 43 percent of smartphone market share. Yet, in the US it is 18 percent," Jeff Fieldhack, Research Director at Counterpoint. The Post says that ZTE and Alcatel have cracked the top five, breaking through with solid volumes within prepaid channels. Motorola (Lenovo) remains a niche but well-known vendor within Verizon. Others have been relegated to the US open channel with very limited growth prospects. Why is it so difficult for OPPO, Vivo, Huawei, and others to grab a foothold in the US? "There are many barriers for new players in carrier-controlled markets. Carriers continue to hold the power in the US controlling over 70 percent of sales. US carriers are not interested in building handset OEM brands," Fieldhack said. The US smartphone market is dominated by Verizon Wireless with 147.2 million subscribers (Q2 2017), AT&T Mobility with 138.8 million subscribers (Q3 2017) and T-Mobile US with 70.7 million subscribers (Q3 2017). US carriers are concerned that young handset OEMs are not fully paying for all required IP. These carriers are concerned that they will have to deal with embargos and lawsuits if there is litigation following new OEMs they have ranged. The US market has grown into an all-or-nothing market. Spend big on marketing campaigns or a device will be drowned out by the major launches. Most importantly, the US market is a mature smartphone market and over 50 percent of subscribers have purchased multiple Apple & Samsung smartphones. So, to become a top 5 OEM in the US market will take the hardware, heavy marketing, and a strong value offering to switch a subscriber from another OS and/or another OEM ecosystem. To crack the US market will take a multi-year plan and will take a considerable amount of patience. It is not reasonable to believe a new OEM will be ranged in all or even two of the major carriers the first attempt. It will take a multi-year approach to slowly grow the support and R&D teams needed to grow in small channels and move into the more expensive, competitive, and larger sales channels. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Qualcomm may unveil its flagship Snapdragon 845 processor in December News oi -Chandrika We may expect the unveiling of Snapdragon 845 processor during an event named Snapdragon Technology Summit. Seems like Qualcomm will launch its next-gen Snapdragon 845 processor sooner than expected. Fresh information sourced from Weibo (via GizmoChina) suggests the company may unveil the chipset as early as in December this year. The Weibo user has also leaked a poster said to be of an upcoming Qualcomm event. The event is named Snapdragon Technology Summit, and it will take place between December 4 to December 8. We may expect the unveiling of Snapdragon 845 processor during the event. However, Qualcomm is unlikely to start the mass production for this chipset before the end of 2018. The Snapdragon 845 SoC is reportedly manufactured on 10nm Low Power Early (LPE) FinFET process. Going by the existing rumors, the chipset comprises of four ARM Cortex-A75 cores and four ARM Cortex-A55 cores. The processor is further coupled with the Adreno 630 GPU for added graphical performance. The Adreno 630 is expected to deliver significantly improved graphics performance compared to its predecessor Adreno 540. It is also expected to be optimized for AR, VR as well as XR. Also, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC is believed to feature updated Kryo cores. Moreover, the upcoming chipset is likely to be equipped with the X20 modem which can provide downlink speed of up to 1.2Gbps. Rumors have it, the Snapdragon 845 chipset will make its debut in Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus. The entire first production batch of the new chipset will reportedly be sold to Samsung for its upcoming flagship phones. Quite interestingly, reliable tipster Roland Quandt claims Qualcomm has already started working on Snapdragon 855 that will probably power flagship phones releasing in 2019. Codenamed as Hana v1.0, the chipset is said to be built on the 7nm process. Well, to be honest, we are just waiting for the Snapdragon 845 since the Snapdragon 455 seems far-fetched as of now. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Reliance Jio may launch FTTH service to early next year: Reports News oi -Priyanka Jio is also targeting an average revenue per user of around Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 per month from subscribers. After disrupting telecom sector, Reliance Jio is now looking at fixed broadband and television space, yes you heard it right as according to some media reports the company is likely to launch its broadband servive in more than 30 cities early next year. According to the report, Reliance Jio has already achieved over 300,000 kilometers of optic fiber in the country with the help of its contract with Reliance Communications. The report said that Jio is also targeting an average revenue per user of around Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 per month from subscribers. In fact, the company earlier also said that it is currently running beta trials FTTH service in 10 cities including Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Jamnagar, Surat, and Vadodara. Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani had earlier this year said that optical fiber and fixed-line broadband is a next big monetization opportunity for Reliance Jio. Since the commencement of services on 5th September 2016, Jio has become the fastest growing technology company in the world. It crossed 100 million subscribers in 170 days, adding at an average rate of 6 lakh subscribers per day. Jio continues its rapid ramp-up of subscriber base and as of 30th September 2017, there are 138.6 million subscribers on the network. The company also said that it is working on the roll-out of its FTTH business offering with beta trials initiated in a few locations. It also said the scope of beta trials would be expanded over the next few months. Best Mobiles in India MATTOON -- Lake Land College is offering Explore Lake Land open house events to help new and returning students take the first step in getting started. According to a press release, Explore is designed for students who have been out of school for a while or for those who are seeking to start their college education. New adult students who register for spring classes may qualify for a tuition-free class up to three credit hours. Interested individuals have two options. The first event will take place at the Kluthe Center for Higher Education and Technology in Effingham on Tuesday, Nov. 28, from 2-7 p.m. The second option will be held on campus in Mattoon on Thursday, Nov. 30, from 2-7 p.m. Individuals only have to attend one event and can plan to stay for about an hour. Explore Lake Land will follow an informational fair format and will help students learn about the resources available to help them succeed. Lake Land College faculty and staff understand that adults have unique experiences when returning to school. These events are designed to create an environment where adults will feel welcome to explore their interests in coming to Lake Land. We are here to help individuals identify their objectives and to begin working toward their goal of taking a class or earning a degree or certificate, said Chris Strohl, director of community outreach. At Lake Land, adult students make up a majority of the student body. About 64 percent of our students are 24 and older, Strohl added. You are very likely to be in classes with people your own age. Investing in a college education at any age is economically beneficial according to a recent state study. Lake Land College graduates can expect an average 20 percent annual return on their investment in their degree. They can also expect an average immediate post-graduation wage increase of more than $6,700, according to a study conducted by the Illinois Community College Board, in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Employment Security and Northern Illinois University Center for Governmental Studies. New adult students who register for a spring class during one of these events may qualify for one tuition-free class up to three credit hours. New adult students are defined as those who have not attended Lake Land College within the past three years or have not recently graduated from high school and immediately attended college. The tuition waiver is good for one college credit class, up to three hours, and is for in-district residents. Registration is not required, but is encouraged. To learn more about Explore, call Strohl at 217-234-5429 or lakelandcollege.edu/explore-lake-land/. Microsoft opens up a new mixed reality content creation studio News oi -Vijeta Microsoft wants to create more immersive mixed reality content for VR and computer platforms. Microsoft will offer support for mixed reality content for computers and PCs as well. Microsoft is working relentlessly towards creating more and more immersive mixed reality content for end consumers. Microsoft now has three video creation studios where it creates holographic content for the HoloLens headset which is a hardware solution for mixed reality. The third and the most recent studio has been set up in San Francisco at the Microsoft Reactor. Microsoft already has capture studios in Redmond and in London which is run by Dimension Studios. Microsoft Reactor is the genesis of the Mixed Reality Capture Studio and its Mixed Reality Academy. The primary aim of the studio is to help provide mixed reality content for Microsoft partners, creative agencies, studios, application developers etc. in order to help them produce an elaborate and detailed platform for VR. This coincides with the expansion of Microsoft's Windows 10 Fall Creator Update which is no coincidence. Microsoft will offer support for mixed reality content for computers and PCs a well that can be experienced through VR headsets from Dell, HP, Acer, Lenovo, and Samsung. Moreover, Microsoft's acquisition of AltspaceVR was a strategic move by the technology giant to feed its AR and VR strategy. In a blog post-Microsoft mentioned, "Our goal is to make high-quality holographic captures accessible for mixed reality creators everywhere." Microsoft certainly has a lot of faith in the mixed reality and VR technology which is the reason why it is promoting the production of high-quality content for the technology. It will not only provide great quality material to users but will also drive a change and bring in more users. Best Mobiles in India Facebook, To stay updated with latest technology news & gadget reviews, follow GizBot on Twitter YouTube and also subscribe to our notification. Allow Notifications Wrapping up visit to Yemen, UN aid chief stresses need for all parties to facilitate humanitarian work 28 October 2017 At the end of a five-day mission to conflict-torn Yemen, the United Nations humanitarian chief on Saturday stressed the need for more funding and better humanitarian access to help the population in need. "It has been shocking to see the terrible impact of this man-made conflict," UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said in a press release issued by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). "In Aden and Sana'a, and during my visits to Lahj, Hudadydah, Hajjah, and Amran governorates, I have met hundreds of Yemenis, and listened to their stories of atrocious suffering," he added. Plunged into civil war between Houthi rebels and supporters of Yemen's internationally recognized Government in 2015, Yemen has faced one of the world's largest humanitarian crisis, including the fastest growing cholera epidemic ever recorded, the world's largest food emergency and widespread population displacement. Mr. Lowcock, who is also Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said that the UN and partners have the capacity to further scale up their work but more generous and timely donor financing is needed and all parties must help facilitate and never hinder humanitarians' work. During this visit, his first to the country since his appointment on 1 September 2017, Mr. Lowcock held frank discussions with the Government in Aden and those in positions of authority in Sana'a on ways to alleviate the suffering of the population and address the challenging operating environment. In Aden, he asked Prime Minister Ahmed Obeid bin Dagher, among other things, to ensure progress on paying salaries to health workers, teachers and other civil servants, to get Sana'a's airport reopened for commercial and humanitarian flights and to improve the operation of the ports, especially Al-Hudaydah. In Sana'a, he raised serious concerns about the operating environment facing the UN and other humanitarian agencies. "I am concerned about the increasing levels of interference in the work of the humanitarian agencies, including delays in granting and denial of visas, delays of essential equipment and supplies at the ports, bureaucratic impediments affecting NGOs and preventing essential assessments of needs so that we can target our assistance most effectively," he said. Mr. Lowcock stressed that the end to the horrendous suffering in Yemen requires an end to the conflict, for which a political resolution is needed. "In the absence of substantial progress on all these points, the already dire situation will continue to deteriorate. The human suffering, already extreme, will grow and grow," he said. Despite challenging conditions and lack of funding, UN and humanitarian parties are providing direct assistance to more than 7 million people each month. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Taliban kill 22 Afghan police in separate attacks over weekend Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 05:09PM The Taliban militants have killed at least 22 Afghan policemen in separate attacks on checkpoints over the weekend across various regions of the war-ravaged country. In the latest blow to the country's beleaguered security forces, at least 13 officers were killed after militants wearing night-vision goggles launched a pre-dawn assault on a police post in Khan Abad district in the northern province of Kunduz on Sunday. Provincial police chief Abdul Hamid Hamid said that only one policeman survived the deadly raid. District governor Hayatullah Amiri also said that the assailants destroyed the checkpoint and stole a Humvee (military vehicle). Separately, Taliban attackers on Saturday killed nine policemen and wounded two others stationed at checkpoints in Ghazni, the capital of the southeastern province of the same name. According to Mohammad Arif Noori, the provincial governor's spokesman, 12 militants were also killed and four wounded in the ensuing fierce clashes. The Taliban militants have intensified attacks across Afghanistan, with the last two weeks being particularly deadly for Afghan forces. On October 24, militants launched coordinated attacks on two military bases in two neighboring provinces in western Afghanistan, leaving at least 11 soldiers dead and several others injured. On October 19, a Taliban assault on a military compound left 43 soldiers dead in the southern province of Kandahar. The Afghan Defense Ministry's deputy spokesman, Mohammad Radmanesh, earlier said that the militants had acquired "dozens" of armored Humvees and pickup trucks in recent years. The militants have warned that there will be no letup in their attacks until foreign forces fully withdraw from Afghanistan, which is still suffering from insecurity and violence years after the United States and its allies invaded the country as part of Washington's so-called war on terror. The invasion removed the Taliban from power, but militancy continues to this day. Taking advantage of the chaos, Daesh has also emerged in Afghanistan. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Food being used as 'weapon of war' in Yemen, says WFP Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 03:02PM The World Food Programme (WFP) says food is being used as a "weapon of war" in Yemen at a time when millions of people face an impending famine in the conflict-ravaged impoverished Arab country. "Yemen is on the brink of famine. Cholera is compounding a dramatic food crisis. Food is being used as a weapon of war," Elisabeth Rasmussen, the WFP assistant executive director, said at a conference on aid to Yemen on Sunday. The United Nations has already described the ongoing conflict in Yemen as the "largest humanitarian crisis in the world." The war has left seven million people at risk of famine and an estimated 17 million, which amounts to about 60 percent of the overall population of the country, food insecure. Another 2,100 people have died of cholera since April as hospitals struggle to secure basic supplies across the country. Saudi Arabia has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in an attempt to crush the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate the former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, who is a staunch ally of the regime in Riyadh. Recently, the United Nations added Riyadh and its allies to a blacklist for the "killing and maiming of children." Saudi Arabia has also maintained blockades on Yemen's ports and its main international airport in the capital Sana'a. Aid groups have warned that the closure of the airport is hampering the delivery of desperately needed supplies, which now have to go through the Red Sea port of Hudaydah. Mark Lowcock, the UN under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, has demanded all parties involved in the conflict provide unhindered humanitarian access to civilians. "All parties to the conflict must provide safe, rapid, unhindered and sustained humanitarian access to people in need, through all ports and airports, in particular through Hudaydah port and Sana'a airport as well as by road," Lowcock said. He added, "People in positions of authority in Sana'a regularly deny access to humanitarian agencies and have arbitrarily delayed or denied dozens of requests for humanitarian personnel to enter the country." Riyadh's deadly campaign has seriously damaged Yemen's infrastructure. Local Yemeni sources have put the death toll from Saudi airstrikes at over 14,000 people. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Military intervention in Qatar will cause regional chaos: Emir Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 07:39AM Qatari Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has warned that any military action against the Persian Gulf country will plunge the region into chaos as a diplomatic standoff continues between Doha and a Saudi-led group of nations. "I'm fearful that if anything happens, any military act happens, this region will be in chaos," Sheikh Tamim said in an interview with the American television network CBS that will be broadcast Sunday night. He also noted that US President Donald Trump had offered to host a meeting among warring sides in the Persian Gulf crisis at Camp David, but the Saudi-led bloc had not responded to the proposal. Trump had "suggested that we come and I told him straightaway, 'Mr. President, we are very ready, I've been asking for dialog all along. It was supposed to be very soon this meeting, but I don't have any response [from the other countries]," the Qatari emir said. 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. The Saudi-led quartet presented Qatar with a list of demands and gave it an ultimatum to comply with them or face consequences. The demands included closing the Al Jazeera broadcaster, removing Turkish troops from Qatar's soil, scaling back cooperation with Iran, and ending ties with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement. Doha, however, refused to meet the demands and denounced them as unreasonable. Earlier this month, Qatar's former deputy prime minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah told the Spanish daily ABC that the UAE had planned a military invasion of Qatar with thousands of US-trained mercenaries, but failed to secure Washington's support. Elsewhere in his interview, Sheikh Tamim stressed that the blockade imposed on Qatar had targeted its "independence." Asked whether Qatar will bend to the demands from the Saudi-led bloc, he said, "Our sovereignty is a red line. We don't accept anybody interfering [with] our sovereignty." Touching on Doha's relations with Tehran, the Qatari emir emphasized that despite differences, "Iran is our neighbor the only way for us to provide food and medicine for our people was through Iran" during the Saudi-led siege. Iran has taken a neutral stance in the dispute but has sent food supplies to Qatar on humanitarian grounds amid the Saudi-led siege of the country. It has also allowed Qatar's national carrier to use its airspace. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Hundreds Of Thousands Rally In Barcelona In Favor Of Unity With Spain RFE/RL October 29, 2017 Hundreds of thousands of protesters are marching in Catalonia's capital, Barcelona, in a major demonstration in favor of Spain's unity. The rally on October 29 comes two days after the central government in Madrid stripped Catalonia of its autonomy following the regional parliament's decision to declare independence. The Barcelona march organized by the pro-unity Catalan Civil Society (SCC) and backed by anti-independence parties started at 12 p.m. local time and was being held under the slogans "We are all Catalonia," "We are all Spain," and "We want to stay together." Marchers waved Spanish national flags as they marched through Barcelona's city center. The atmosphere was mostly festive, as many cheered politicians who joined the march. A similar rally in favor of remaining a part of Spain attracted hundreds of thousands of people on October 8 in Barcelona. Thousands of people have also rallied in support of independence since the Catalonian parliament voted 70-10 on October 27 in favor of a split with Spain. Opponents in the 135-seat house boycotted the vote. Immediately after the vote, Spain's Senate voted 214-47 in favor of allowing Madrid to take direct control of Catalonia, depose the region's president, Carles Puigdemont, and remove the rest of his executives. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy then announced his government had taken direct control of Catalonia, dissolved its government, and set new regional elections for December 21. Spain became engulfed in its deepest crisis in decades after Catalonia held an illegal independence referendum on October 1. Catalonian authorities said some 90 percent of those who voted in the referendum chose independence. However, preelection surveys indicated a minority of 40 percent favored the split, and many opposed to independence boycotted the referendum. Meanwhile, Puigdemont has called for "democratic opposition" to direct Spanish rule, and vowed to continue "working to build a free country." Puigdemont made the call in a prerecorded TV address to Catalans broadcast on October 28. Puigdemont said only the regional parliament can elect or dismiss the Catalonian government. "The best way we have to defend the achievements to date is the democratic opposition to the application of Article 155," Puigdemont said in reference to the constitutional clause that gave Madrid direct control of affairs in Catalonia. With reporting by AP, AFP, and BBC Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/spain-catalonia-barceona- unity-demonstration/28822189.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Macedonians Vote In Second Round Of Local Elections RFE/RL's Balkan Service October 29, 2017 Voters in Macedonia have gone to the polls for the second round of local elections. The ruling Social Democratic Union (SDSM) won a sweeping victory in the first round, delivering a severe blow to the conservative VMRO-DPMNE party that ruled much of the country for more than a decade. The runoffs are taking place in 35 cities, towns, and municipal districts out of Macedonia's 81 municipalities. The others chose their mayors in the first round on October 15, when one of the candidates reached the threshold of 50 percent of votes. Election authorities said turnout was nearly 44 percent two hours before polls closed -- lower than the 49 percent reported at the same time in the first round. Nongovernmental organizations monitoring the elections reported a small number of violations, including cases of family voting. VMRO-DPMNE leader Nikola Gruevski, who is also Macedonia's former prime minister, denounced an "undemocratic atmosphere" as well as "threats, pressure, and blackmail" on voters. The SDSM, led by Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, already won the mayoral races in 37 municipalities, and the VMRO-DPMNE won in the first round only in three rural areas near the capital, Skopje. In the biggest prize, the SDSM wrested control of Skopje from the VMRO, headed by former Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski. On October 29, 20 municipalities are seeing a direct confrontation between mayoral candidates from the SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE, according to Balkan Insight. In 14 of them, the SDSM secured a lead in the first round, while the VMRO-DPMNE had a slight lead in six. The junior ruling party Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), which secured victories in two municipalities in the first round, led in most municipalities in the northwest of the country, where most ethnic Albanians live. But a coalition made after the first round between another junior ruling party, the Alliance for Albanians, and the opposition BESA movement threatens the DUI's dominance. In the first round in most of the mainly ethnic Albanian areas, these two parties' combined votes either matched or exceeded the number of votes won by the DUI. Albanians make up about a quarter of the country's population of about 2.1 million. Addressing supporters following the first round of voting, Zaev said that the results mark the end of an era of "nationalism" in Macedonia presided over by Gruevski and the VMRO during 11 years in power. Gruevski, who faces criminal investigations involving allegations of corruption and a wire-tapping scandal, complained of irregularities in the election but conceded defeat. Zaev's SDSM had sought a solid show of support as it looks to speed up the small Balkan state's bid for membership in NATO and the European Union. The party formed a ruling coalition with the ethnic Albanian DUI earlier this year in a move that ousted the VMRO and ended a three-year governmental crisis. Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/macedonia-second-round -local-elections/28822431.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Somalian Government Sacks Chiefs of Police, Intelligence After Mogadishu Blasts Sputnik News 18:47 29.10.2017 Dozens of people were killed after two explosions and a shootout in a hotel in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu. The Al-Shabab terrorist group has allegedly taken responsibility for attacks. MOSCOW (Sputnik) The Somalian government made a decision on Sunday to dismiss country's police chief and the head of an intelligence service after the deadly explosion in the capital, Information Minister Abdirahman O. Osman said. On Saturday, a suicide attacker detonated a car bomb near a hotel located close to the presidential palace in Mogadishu. The blast was followed by another explosion in the same area. After the attack, a shootout started in the hotel between the attackers and security forces. According to the latest police figures, at least 27 people were killed. Police have also reported they had detained the suspects in the attacks. The al-Shabab terrorist group, linked to al-Qaeda was reported to have claimed responsibility for the act of violence. The group is infamous for its numerous attacks against civilians in the country's public spaces such as hotels and restaurants. Terrorist attacks in Somalia are quite common. The latest deadly explosion occurred near the Safari hotel, located in the Khodan district of Mogadishu in October. The blast killed 358 people and injured hundreds more, making it the most deadly in the somber recent history of the war-shattered city. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Somali Police, Intelligence Chiefs Fired After Deadly Hotel Siege By Harun Maruf October 29, 2017 Minister of Information Abdirahman Omar Osman confirmed the dismissals of Commander of Somali Police General Abdihakim Dahir Saaid and Intelligence Chief Abdullahi Mohamed Ali Sanbalolshe. "What was expected of the security agencies was that the necessary intelligence and surveillance information should have stopped this truck," Osman told VOA. Militants stormed the Nasa Hablod Two Hotel late Saturday following a truck bomb blast at the hotel's gate. Osman said five al-Shabab militants executed the attack. Police captured three, and shot another dead, while the fifth died in the truck explosion. The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility within minutes of the attack. A second car bomb blast Saturday caused injuries near the former parliament building. Police operate checkpoints in the area, making it one of the city's most secure. The Presidential Palace, headquarters of a Somali women's organization, a prison run by the National Intelligence and Security Agency, and other hotels are all near the Nasa Hablod Two Hotel. It will be the second time the two officials were fired from the same positions. General Saaid was dismissed as police chief in July 2014 after a suicide bomber drove through a checkpoint and detonated in front of the Presidential Palace. Gunmen then stormed the palace, killing several people. Sanbalolshe was fired in September 2014 as Intel Chief after a disagreement with then-Prime Minister Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed. Both officials had been reappointed this past April. The hotel targeted by al-Shabab is popular with politicians and civil servants. Among the high-profile victims was veteran politician Madobe Nunow Mohamed, who served as Interior Minister for the Southwest regional state, and previously was federal minister of the constitution, minister of information, parliament member and acting speaker of parliament. Witness account Among the dead were four victims from the same family: three children aged 6 months, 9 months and 3 years old, and their grandmother. A 6-year-old child survived the attack. The boy's father recounted the horrific experience. The man, who asked not to be me named because of security concerns, is a 29-year-old university student. He and his brother took their wives and children to see the children's grandparents at the hotel. The first explosion caused chaos in the hotel. He and his brother were at the cafeteria with their father at the time of the explosion. They ran upstairs to find the children and the rest of the family on the second floor. As the gunmen attacked, "We discussed what we do? Should we help mother to jump the window? Then we thought it's not possible; at that point a grenade landed near us and we ran into the room," he said. Al-Shabab fighters followed them, shooting and throwing bombs. "They were throwing a bomb into each room followed by hail of bullets," the man said. His wife called out his name, and then his son. He told them to get back in the room. The man and three other residents hid in a bathroom. In another room, gunmen wounded his wife and killed their 6-month-old son. Al-Shabab militants then found the man's mother who was shielding her 3-year-old grandson and shot both dead, the man said. Then they wounded his sister-in-law and killed her 9-month-old daughter. The man, his brother and father survived; the wives of the two brothers were both wounded. Three of the brothers' children and the men's mother were killed. Security raid About three hours later, security forces entered the hotel and while they searched the second floor one of the militants detonated a suicide vest. A fierce gun fight then forced the Special Forces to retreat. At least three security officers died in the firefight, according to officials. The troops immediately returned to the floor, and using ladders, rescued dozens of people while securing the hotel in a room-by-room search. The siege ended before dawn Sunday, about 11 hours after the first truck exploded. The twin bombings came two weeks after a truck blast killed at least 358 people at a busy Mogadishu intersection. Somalia's government blamed al-Shabab for the October 14 attack, although the militant group has not claimed responsibility. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Washington Braces for First Charges in Probe of Russia Links to US Election By Ken Bredemeier October 29, 2017 Washington is bracing for the first criminal charges linked to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, even as President Donald Trump continued to claim Sunday the investigations are a "Witch Hunt for evil politics." A federal grand jury on Friday approved charges in the investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller, according to several major news outlets, and the allegations could be disclosed Monday, with a suspect taken into custody. It was not immediately known who is being targeted or the nature of the charges. They are under seal, by order of a federal judge. But the allegations would mark a significant milestone in Trump's nine-month White House tenure. He has often disparaged the investigations, Mueller's and three congressional probes, into links between his campaign and Russia, arguing they are attempts by Democrats to explain his stunning upset of his challenger, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. In a Twitter comment last week, Trump contended, "It is now commonly agreed, after many months of COSTLY looking, that there was NO collusion between Russia and Trump. Was collusion with HC!," referring to Clinton. On Sunday, he said he had "never seen such Republican ANGER & UNITY as I have concerning the lack of investigation on Clinton" into her campaign's funding of research into Trump's links to Russia, which was started by a conservative news outlet, the Washington Free Beacon, and later continued by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee at what he suggested was a cost of $12 million. A former British intelligence officer was hired for the investigation and produced what Trump said was a "Fake dossier" about his business ties to Russia, as well as making unsubstantiated claims linking him to Moscow prostitutes. Trump said Republicans are also angry at the lack of probes into a 2013 uranium deal in which Russia took control of 20 percent of the U.S. production and purported links to funding of Clinton's charitable foundation, the involvement of former Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey in probing Clinton's handling of classified material on her private e-mail server when she was the country's top diplomat from 2009 to 2013, "and so much more. "Instead they look at phony Trump/Russia 'collusion,' which doesn't exist," Trump said. "The Dems are using this terrible [and bad for our country] Witch Hunt for evil politics, but the R's are now fighting back like never before. There is so much GUILT by Democrats/Clinton, and now the facts are pouring out. DO SOMETHING!" The U.S. intelligence community concluded in early 2017 that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally directed a campaign to undermine U.S. democracy and help Trump win. But none of the months-long probes has been completed yet or reached conclusions, contrary to Trump's contention. In addition to examining the Russian involvement, Mueller is probing whether Trump obstructed justice when he fired Comey, who was heading the agency's Russia investigation before Mueller, a former FBI director, was named to take over. Trump has said he was thinking of "this Russia thing" when he decided to dismiss Comey last May and a day later boasted to Russian officials in a White House meeting that he had removed "great pressure" from his presidency by ousting Comey. He described Comey as "crazy, a real nut job." But days later, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein named Mueller to lead the investigation after Attorney General Jeff Sessions had recused himself, much to Trump's chagrin, from handling any aspect of the Russia investigation. Legal experts say the first charges could be against a peripheral figure in the case, with prosecutors using a common strategy to first build their case against lower level officials before focusing on more prominent people. CNN reported lawyers working on Mueller's team were seen entering the federal courtroom in Washington, D.C., on Friday, where the grand jury meets to hear testimony. Mueller is believed to be examining activities of two key Trump campaign officials, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was fired by Trump less than a month after he assumed power for lying to Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to Washington, and Michael Manafort, who for a short time last year was Trump's campaign manager and also had wide lobbying interests in Ukraine and links to Russia. Some Republicans have begun to call for an end to the investigations, but one key Republican lawmaker, Congressman Trey Gowdy, told Fox News Sunday he would encourage members of his party to give Mueller "a chance to do his job. He hasn't done anything to cause a lack of confidence in him... he is a pretty apolitical guy." Gowdy said he opposes cutting Mueller's funding for the investigation. Gowdy, as chairman of the House of Representatives government oversight panel, last week opened an investigation into Comey's and the FBI's handling of its probe into Clinton's use of the private email server. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the heart knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose." -- Romans 8:26, 27, 28 This is one of those wishy-washy days. You wishy the sun would stay out so your washy would dry. Is that a horrible groaner or what? But the sun does keep playing hide and seek. It drives my feel good barometer wild, it's so up and down. I just want to go curl up with a good book and hot coffee until it settles. I seriously have no motivation on this Wednesday as I write. We've had three days of clouds, and we do need those days. We also had some much needed rain. But my energy just depletes on extended cloudy days. Or could it be that I'm just lazy? This past Monday afternoon, it did clear off some and was relatively mild, so I cleaned some windows. They were seriously horrible. I figured I could grow sprouts in the window sills! It wasn't quite that bad, but it was bad. I didn't get the bedroom windows done. Maybe next week we'll have some mild weather that I can get those done and maybe wash the curtains. I have some serious cleaning to do before Thanksgiving. Anyway I'd like to get it done. Our granddaughter Mary Lorene and her new hubby might sleep here the night before Thanksgiving. We are having our family Christmas early this year. It seems so often we can't get together until January or even February. Mikel and Mary Lorene Yutzy will fly from New York to St. Louis airport on Wednesday. They will need someone to bring them to Arthur. I am hoping it will work out that we can go along. I don't know for sure if they will stay at our house or not. We don't have the greatest accommodations, but maybe they could make do for one night. We will have our festivities at daughter Rachel Lloyd Yoder's. I think it would be fun if our daughter Cindy and Freeman and their family of Dale, IL would come for the night, too. That would be ten more people. We could just sleep scattered all over the floor. I'm not sure I like having our gathering so early. Husband Erwin's side of the family will also have our Christmas the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Some of the siblings go to Florida right after Thanksgiving. So what will we do the rest of the holiday season? Maybe we could help serve at a soup kitchen somewhere. Now that would be interesting! A few more tidbits about our New York trip. I believe it was on the way up we went on a toll road. Granddaughter Sherilyn made a comment about the "troll" booths we went through. I thought to myself, so that's where trolls live. I thought they lived under bridges. Must be they've "come up" in the world! Grandson Lucas was asleep and woke up as we were going through one and asked if we were in a "parking" jam! So now that is all history, we've no more weddings to attend in the foreseeable future, so I guess it's back to the normal routine. So far, I've just kind of been messing around, doing little odd jobs here and there. But I'd best buckle down and get Mary Lorene's quilt done so she can take it home, I've got the frame out and put together. I only hope I can remember the proper way to put the quilt in. I actually had visions of getting that done last week, but too many things kept popping up. This past Saturday we were at brother Melvin Otto's sale of excess stuff. I actually was only there for lunch as I had to clean first. Sister Cora took Erwin. We stayed a little past lunch. My shoulder started hurting. I could feel it was a R.A. flare-up. I almost didn't make it home on the bike. The pain made me nauseous and that made me feel faint. I got home, crashed on the recliner and cried. After liniment, Motrin, a hot water bottle and several hours, it relieved enough that I quit crying and made supper. But I could not make the bars I was supposed to, to take for coffee break on Monday. We ladies had coffee break with neighbor Marcia Schrock. It was a belated birthday and also thinking of you. It's been three years now that she lost her husband in a fatal bike accident. In closing: The words we speak, the songs we sing, the doctrines that we teach... will have their greatest meaning when we practice what we preach. It's still pumpkin season, so maybe we should have some cobbler. 1/3 cup butter Melt butter in a nine-inch x 13-inch cake pan. Batter: 1 cup flour 2 eggs, beaten 3 cups pumpkin 3/4 cup sugar 2 Tbsp. flour 1/2 Tsp. cinnamon 1/2 Tsp. nutmeg In Calm Before Storm, Madrid and Catalan Separatists Maneuver By Jamie Dettmer October 29, 2017 An air of calm settled over Barcelona after hundreds of thousands of Catalans attended a rally Sunday for Spanish unity. The atmosphere of the rally was peaceful, as police helicopters monitored from above. Amid a forest of Spanish national flags and chants of "Viva Espana," protesters called for the jailing of Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who on Friday issued a declaration of independence shortly before the Spanish government stripped Catalonia of its autonomy. But the calm that followed the rally in the Catalan capital attended by an estimated 300,000 people had the quality of the stillness before a storm. Few are ready to hazard a prediction of how events in Catalonia may unfold in the coming days in a confrontation that has seen intransigence from both sides. How Madrid starts imposing direct rule Monday on its restive northeast region, and how separatists respond, will determine the next phase in the month-long cat-and-mouse standoff between the politicians in Madrid and Catalan secessionists. Both appear to be banking on the other side tiring like a bull played by a matador. But fears are growing the perilous confrontation, at times visceral and seamed with past historical grievances including from the era of Gen. Francisco Franco, will degenerate into violence, despite the separatists' determination to remain non-violent and Madrid's eagerness not to repeat the national police violence that accompanied an October 1 independence referendum. Olive branch Despite the sacking of Puigdemont by Madrid among a raft of direct-rule measures announced Friday, including the dissolving of the regional parliament, Spanish ministers offered an olive branch Sunday by suggesting the Catalan leader is not barred from continuing in politics and even welcomed the idea of him taking part in regional elections Madrid has called for December 21. "If Puigdemont takes part in these elections, he can exercise [his] democratic opposition," said government spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo. That suggests the implacable deputy Spanish prime minister, Maria Soraya Saenz de Santamaria Anton, a 46-year-old former prosecutor who is charged with overseeing direct rule, is not planning to kick off by arresting Catalan separatist leaders, a move some analysts say would be inflammatory, if it is tried. Nonetheless, there will be several flash-points in the coming week that could push the confrontation, the worst political crisis to roil Spain since a failed military coup in 1981, down paths neither Madrid nor the secessionists want or could control, say analysts. They worry the type of clashes seen on October 1, when the national police and Civil Guard tried to distort the referendum, will be seen when Madrid decides to enforce direct-rule by closing down Catalonia's parliament and regional government. "I really will be amazed if we don't see more of that, sadly," said Sally Ann-Kitts, a lecturer in Hispanic studies at Britain's University of Bristol. "All sides seem to be living in Wonderland," according to John Carlin, who was fired from his job at the Spanish newspaper El Pais earlier this month over an article he wrote highly critical of the Spanish government for its response to the independence referendum. In an article for the London Sunday Times, Carlin argued the biggest risk may come if the idea takes hold "among highly energized independence-seeking youth that they have been the victims of a Franquista coup d'etat." Another risk is that provocateurs on either side, violent anarchists or hardline Spanish nationalists take advantage of the mess Catalonia is in and organize an incident to provoke a reaction from their opponents. On Friday young Spanish nationalists attacked a Catalan radio station. Rival administrations As things stand, Catalans will wake up Monday to two rival administrations in their region claiming legitimacy, the Puigdemont-led regional government and an emergency authority staffed by Spanish civil servants and led by Saenz de Santamaria. On Saturday, Puigdemont defied the fact that he was formally dismissed by the Spanish government and urged Catalans to "defend" the new republic in a televised address. Separatist leaders and their supporters appear determined to wear Madrid down much as a matador does with a bull by obstructing and resisting the orders issued by Madrid. "The only answer we have is self-defense - institutional self-defense and civil self-defense. I hope Catalans won't be intimidated by Madrid," says Abel Escriba, a pro-independence political scientist. Madrid is banking on Catalonia's 200,000 public employees and the executives of public companies in the region accepting direct-rule and ignoring the instructions of the Puigdemont-led regional government. Public employee, teacher and firefighter unions have proclaimed their members will ignore Madrid's instruction. "We are going to ask them to be professional and to continue to provide services for their citizens," a Spanish official told VOA last week. The strategy is to be as light-touch as possible as the region is steered to the snap elections in December, which the Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is gambling will go against the separatists. A poll published by El Pais Saturday suggested a small majority of Catalans (52 percent to 43 percent) favor the dissolution of the regional parliament and the holding of the early elections. Fifty-five percent of Catalan respondents opposed the declaration of independence, with 41 percent in favor of secession. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address S Korea, China Aim to Ease Dispute Over THAAD Before Leaders Meeting - Reports Sputnik News 21:37 29.10.2017(updated 21:40 29.10.2017) Beijing has been concerned with the deployment of the US-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) defense systems in South Korea, as Seoul has made the decision to install more systems on its territory. TOKYO (Sputnik) South Korea and China have stepped up diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute over the deployment of US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on the Korean Peninsula ahead of a planned November meeting of the countries' leaders, local media reported Sunday, citing officials from the South Korean presidential office. China and Russia have strongly opposed the THAAD deployment, citing national security concerns. "We are making various efforts to settle the THAAD problem smoothly before the two leaders meet during the APEC conference. Active working-level coordination is underway," an official said, as quoted by Yonhap news agency. Another official stressed that resolving the dispute around THAAD might be "a necessary and sufficient condition" in preparations for the summit.\ In July 2016, Seoul and Washington agreed to deploy the THAAD system in South Korea's Seongju County amid growing tensions spurred by North Korea's ballistic and nuclear tests. The THAAD system is designed to intercept short, medium and intermediate ballistic missiles at the terminal incoming stage. The final units of the THAAD missile defense system were deployed in early September after North Korea launched several missiles and conducted a nuclear test, however, the military unit and specialists operating it had not been fully in place. South Korean President Moon Jae-in and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are expected to meet on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Vietnam on November 10-11. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address IAEA Chief: Iran committed to nuclear deal IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Oct 29, IRNA -- Head of the international nuclear watchdog reiterated once again on Sunday that Iran has been fully committed to its obligations under the nuclear deal it signed with the major world powers in 2015. 'Since January 2016, the IAEA has been monitoring and verifying the nuclear-related commitment made by Iran under the JCPOA. The IAEA believes that the JCPOA is some significant gain upon verification, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Yukiya Amano told reporters on Sunday. 'I am very happy to come to your country again; I am going to meet with Foreign Minister [Mohammad Javad] Zarif. I am very happy that I had a meeting with vice president Mr. Salehi this morning.' 'The IAEA can state that nuclear-related commitments made by Iran under JCPOA are being implemented.' 'In the morning meeting with Vice President [Ali Akbar] Salehi, I stressed on the importance of the full implementation of these commitments.' 'I will not comment on the remarks of a country, but I can tell you that JCPOA is an agreement between P5+1 and Iran, and the United Nations Security Council supported it, and the IAEA is authorized to monitor and verify the nuclear-related commitments by the Board of Governors of the IAEA,' he said, responding to a question on IAEA's position on US President Donald Trump's anti-Iran remarks and also on IAEA decision to safeguard the deal. 'The IAEA has been monitoring and verifying in impartial, objective and stringent manner in accordance with some modalities defined in the JCPOA and in accordance with the established safeguard standard.' The visiting IAEA chief arrived in Tehran late on Saturday to hold talks with top Iranian officials including President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. 9376**1771 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran FM, IAEA Chief urge all parties commitment to 2015 nuclear deal IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Oct 29, IRNA -- Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and visiting Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano on Sunday stressed the need for the compliance of all parties to the Iran Nuclear Deal. The two made the remarks in a meeting in Tehran during which they discussed Tehran-IAEA cooperation. The IAEA director-general once again reiterated that Iran has remained committed to its pledges under the 2015 nuclear deal, saying the agency regards the implementation of the deal by all the contracting parties is as having special significance. The IAEA chief arrived in Tehran late on Saturday to hold talks with top Iranian officials, including President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Bahrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday that 'Mr. Amano's visit can be an attempt to bolster Iran deal.' 'We will fulfill the commitments we have accepted provided the other parties to the deal fully honor their commitments,' Kamalvandi said. Translated by: Ahmad Mohammadi 9341**2050**1394 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address No 'special visit' allowed under section T of JCPOA: Iran official IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency Tehran, Oct 29, IRNA -- Iran's top nuclear official said on Sunday that Section T of Annex I of the July 2015 Iran nuclear deal does not include 'special visit' to the Iranian sites. '[It comprises] voluntary commitments to which Iran has always been faithful,' Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said after his meeting held this morning with the visiting Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano. Section T of Annex I include 'Activities which could contribute to the design and development of a nuclear explosive device.' Section T has been discussed at length and it is a clear issue, Salehi told reporters. He further said Iran Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs, Abbas Araqchi, has already informed the IAEA about Iran's stance [on the issue]. Section T is similar to other sections of the nuclear deal, he said. But the other party wants to interpret it based on its own interests, like saying they do not agree with the sunset clause, or that the deal has other problems as well, he stressed. Asked about whether there is a call by Amano and his accompanying team to visit the Iranian sites, Salehi said that there has been no such a request by the IAEA head. The visiting IAEA chief arrived in Tehran late on Saturday to hold talks with top Iranian officials including President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. The analysts believe that Amano's day-long visit to Tehran is very important regarding the recent dispute begun by the US President Donald Trump over the July 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), between Iran and the world powers. Trump in his October 13 speech took a new strategy on Iran and decertified Iran's commitments to the international deal, the commitment which has already been reaffirmed by the IAEA eight times. 1483**2044 NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran has built, building and will build missiles: Rouhani ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency Sun / 29 October 2017 / 12:25 Tehran (ISNA) Iranian President announced that the country has been building missiles and will continue to do so, because it does not contradict any of international laws or Resolution 2231. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani made the remarks during a session of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. "We will build, produce and store any weapon of any kind we need to defend ourselves, our territorial integrity and our nation, and we will not hesitate about it," he said. Mr. Rouhani stressed, "Understand that we have been building missiles, and will continue to do so and this does not contradict any of international laws and it is not in conflict with Resolution 2231. We will continue to defend our national interests and security with all our might, and the enemies should know that violation of any agreement will be detrimental to them, and the Islamic Republic of Iran will give them a decisive answer". In another part of his speech, the President said, "Throughout history, one way of interaction between governments and nations has been striking deals and agreements with each other, and this is a part of the history of our country and the entire world; Keeping promises and agreements is a universal, trans-religious principle". Keeping promises is the criterion of civilization of a nation and the credibility of an administration, said President, adding, "If a government does not live up to its commitments, it will put its credibility for auction. If a government like the US government states that it is not committed to an important international commitment, and its reason is that the previous administration has been tricked, then what happens with the continuity of the responsibility of the governments?" Mr. Rouhani said that this commitment is the commitment of a nation to the other nation and a government to the other government, adding," If the United States is considered a regime, this is a commitment of a regime to a great state called the Islamic Republic of Iran; not just Iran, but even five other countries". "Being shaky on the previous agreement and inviting for the next negotiation is a ridiculous story," said the Iranian President, adding, "If someone makes a commitment and says that I have lived up to my commitments and I will act upon it accurately, so my award is to talk about the second issue, this is something to consider; but whoever violates the very first commitment, it is showing with its behavior that it is not a negotiator". President Rouhani also went on to say, "The administration of a country that abandons international commitments of the previous administration is not reliable. Today, the Americans are sending messages of readiness for negotiation to some East Asian countries; are they crazy to negotiate with you? You are explicitly violating your previous agreements and neglecting a UN Security Council-approved agreement". The president emphasized that the way the United States is going will force them to abandon its future negotiation and commitments to other countries, adding, "Iran has fulfilled its obligations in the nuclear issue, but they say that why Iran, in terms of defensive and military, is powerful and why the countries of the region respect Iran; Iran's popularity in the region is because the United States has done nothing but foster terrorism and disagreement in the region". "It is your problem. You have undermined security in Iraq and the stability and security of Afghanistan with your presence in the region; by bringing the terrorists to the region, you have undermined the security of Syria and Lebanon," President Rouhani added. "If you are protesting these issues, we ask you: is the Iranian nation who supports the oppressed in the region against terrorism and separatism not behaving well and you who undermined the security of the region and made the ISIS and Taliban and other terrorist groups, sheltered the MEK, oppressed the nation of Iran throughout history, and stole the Iranian people's oil platform, do not accept being the aggressor country? You attacked our airliner and repeatedly called the Iranian nation terrorist". Emphasizing that the Iranian nation has always fought terrorism in history, he said, "The Iranian people have driven the MEK terrorist and other terrorist groups out of the country and brought ISIS and takfiri terrorists in Iraq and Syria to their knees". End Item NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Amano didn't ask for inspection of Iranian military sites: Salehi ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency Sun / 29 October 2017 / 13:43 Tehran (ISNA) - The Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano didn't ask for inspection of Iranian military sites, the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi said. After meeting with Amano in Tehran on Sunday morning, Salehi told reporters, "Mr. Amano came to Iran at his own request and is of special importance due to the remarks and measures by the US president in regard to the nuclear deal. Mr. Amano would like to have an effective part on the current issues, hence his today's visit". Salehi said that he has held good negotiations with the IAEA head, underling that Amano's trip at this sensitive juncture has a specific message and IAEA's role is fully certain in this regard. "The IAEA is under great pressure due to the recent remarks made by the US president," he added. "We called on the IAEA to continue their monitoring in accordance with the Agency's statute and in an impartial and independent manner". According to Salehi, Amano will discuss serious issues with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani during his scheduled meeting. The Iranian official further expressed satisfaction about Amano's reports, where he has reaffirmed that the Islamic Republic's commitment to the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action aka nuclear deal). "We can resume production of 20 percent enriched uranium in 4 days, but we don't want the nuclear deal to fall apart," Salehi added. For his part, Amano expressed satisfaction with visiting Iran again, saying he would also hold talks with President Hassan Rouhani and foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. "I enjoyed having a meeting with Mr. Salehi this morning following our meeting in Rome in October also our meeting in Vienna in September," he said. He went on to say, "since January 2016, the IAEA has been monitoring and verifying the nuclear-related commitments made by Iran under the JCPOA. The IAEA believes that the JCPOA is a significant gain for verification. The IAEA can state that the nuclear-related commitments made by Iran under the JCPOA are being implemented." "In today's meeting with Mr. Salehi, I stressed the importance of the full implementation of commitments by all sides," Amano added. End Item NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address We are committed to JCPOA until we benefit from it: Rouhani ISNA - Iranian Students' News Agency Sun / 29 October 2017 / 16:22 Tehran (ISNA) Iranian President emphasized the need to maintain the independence and impartiality of the IAEA, stating that the Agency was the only confirmatory authority to verify Iran's adherence to the JCPOA. "The Islamic Republic of Iran's cooperation with the Agency has been complete and remarkable," said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani met with the Director-General of International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano on Sunday in Tehran. The president said that the Islamic Republic of Iran was ready to develop cooperation with IAEA within the framework of Agency's safeguards, international regulations and the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), adding, "We are determined to have long-term cooperation with the Agency within the framework of international regulations, and we hope that, given the full cooperation of Iran in recent years, the IAEA announces the final report on the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program as soon as possible". Dr Rouhani also said that Tehran expected the Agency to provide assistance to Iran like it does to other countries that are committed to safeguards and NPT in various fields of science, agriculture, protection and medicine within the framework of its actions and duties, stressing the importance of using capable Iranian persons in the management team of the IAEA. "Stability of international regulations and treaties is very important," said Rouhani, emphasizing that a country cannot deal with multilateral and international agreements as it wishes. Mr. Rouhani said that, as has repeatedly been stated, the Islamic Republic of Iran will never be the first country to exit the JCPOA, adding: "We will adhere to the JCPOA until the time we are able to gain benefits stated in it". The president noted that the IAEA's credibility as an important international body in the world's public opinion is based on the fact that it carries out its professional and technical activities without being affected by some powers, and if some countries and their authorities attempt to influence the Agency's decisions and put it under pressure, it will not acceptable for us". Stating that the cooperation between Iran and the IAEA should step up confidence of the two sides, Rouhani said, "We should not allow the JCPOA, as an important achievement, to be undermined, and we must consolidate this important international commitment with full cooperation". "Combating terrorism is one of the most important goals in the region, and today it is very important for stability and security for the people of the region," said the president, stating that the new conduct of the US administration will not contribute to the stability and security of the region in any way. At the meeting, Director-General of International Atomic Energy Agency, Yukiya Amano said, "Today, based on the joint efforts that have been made, we can emphasized that the Islamic Republic of Iran has lived up to all its obligations under international regulations and the JCPOA". The IAEA Director General also stressed that most of the world's top authorities and senior officials in the international stage are supporting the JCPOA with all their might, adding: "Fulfilling commitments and obligations by all parties is crucial for stability and the future of the JCPOA". Amano also acknowledged the Islamic Republic of Iran's commitment to the JCPOA, saying: "The credibility of the Agency is very important, and it continues to maintain its impartiality in its stances, and it will present real reports based on facts and safeguards". Director General of the IAEA also emphasized the need to support Iran's research projects and development of cooperation between Iran and the Agency in different sectors, saying, "We welcome Iranian experts in the management team of the IAEA". End Item NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Europe continues to support Iran, JCPOA: Austria Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 05:53PM A senior Austrian Foreign Ministry official says European countries are opposed to any self-willed measure endangering the multilateral 2015 nuclear agreement, throwing his country's weight behind the deal. Austria and other European countries are standing by Iran through their support for the nuclear accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Secretary General for Foreign Affairs at Austria's Foreign Ministry Michael Linhart said in a meeting in Tehran on Sunday with Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Alaeddin Boroujerdi. He added that Vienna and other European capitals would never allow any self-willed measure to pose a threat to the JCPOA. Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China plus Germany signed the nuclear agreement on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016. Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran. US President Donald Trump delivered an anti-Iran speech on October 13, in which he said he would not be certifying Iran's compliance with the terms of the JCPOA under a domestic American law and warned that he might ultimately terminate the agreement. In a closed-door meeting, chaired by European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, in Luxembourg in mid-October, EU foreign ministers reaffirmed their support for the historic nuclear agreement, saying the accord was working and was a key component of non-proliferation efforts. After the meeting, the foreign ministers issued a statement, expressing their determination to fully implement the international nuclear agreement. Elsewhere in the meeting, the Austrian official said his country supported the expansion of parliamentary cooperation with Iran. Linhart expressed hope that Tehran and Vienna would adopt necessary strategies to improve political, economic and parliamentary relations. Iran will give fitting response to JCPOA breach: MP The Iranian lawmaker, for his part, lashed out at the US president for making spiteful remarks against the nuclear deal. "The JCPOA is a collective agreement endorsed by the UN [Security Council] Resolution [2231] and no one can terminate it unilaterally," Boroujerdi said. He emphasized that the Islamic Republic would give a "fitting response" to any possible unilateral and unwise measure by the US in violation of the JCPOA. Since his presidency in January, a year after the deal took effect, Trump has been pushing for renegotiation of the deal or US withdrawal from the agreement. Earlier on Sunday, Linhart held talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on the JCPOA and the latest developments in the region. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iran resolved to boost lasting cooperation with IAEA: Rouhani Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 03:10PM Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has stressed the importance of maintaining the independence and impartiality of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), saying that Iran seeks to boost long-term cooperation with the agency. "Our determination is to have long-term cooperation with the agency within the framework of international regulations," Rouhani said in a meeting with the IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano in Tehran on Sunday. "We hope that given Iran's full cooperation in recent years, the agency would declare its final conclusion about the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program as soon as possible," the Iranian president added. Iran expects that the UN nuclear agency, in line with its measures and duties, would provide Tehran with the same technical assistance it gives other countries that are committed to the IAEA Safeguards Agreement and the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Rouhani said. Rouhani also emphasized the significance of showing respect for international regulations and treaties, saying Iran had repeatedly announced that it would not be the first country to walk away from the landmark nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries more than two years ago. "We will remain committed to the JCPOA as long as we are able to enjoy the benefits mentioned in it," the Iranian president said. As an important international body, the IAEA's credibility depends on the world body's ability to carry out its "professional and technical activities" without being influenced by world powers, he added. "It is not acceptable for us that some countries and their officials would want to influence the agency's decisions and exert pressure [on it]," the Iranian chief executive pointed out. Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China plus Germany signed the nuclear agreement on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016. Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran. Speaking at a news conference in New York on August 25, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called on the IAEA to request access to Iranian military sites in what is regarded as an attempt by Washington to undermine the JCPOA, which is a multilateral nuclear deal. US President Donald Trump delivered an anti-Iran speech on October 13, in which he said he would not be certifying Iran's compliance with the terms of the JCPOA under a domestic American law and warned that he might ultimately terminate the agreement. The US Congress now has less than 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the nuclear accord. The IAEA is the only official institution in charge of verifying Iranian compliance and it has repeatedly verified Iran's adherence to its contractual obligations. During his meeting with Rouhani, the IAEA head, for his part, said the Islamic Republic had fulfilled all its commitments under international regulations and the JCPOA. Amano added that most prominent officials of different world countries had thrown their weight behind the JCPOA, saying that all parties' compliance with the nuclear accord would play a leading role in its survival and maintenance. Iran adhering to its commitments under JCPOA Also in a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Amano reaffirmed the Islamic Republic's adherence to its commitments under the JCPOA. Zarif and Amno emphasized that all parties to the nuclear deal must remain committed to it. Amano is in Tehran for talks with Iranian officials as part of the regular dialog between the two sides. According to the IAEA, discussions were expected to focus on the verification and monitoring of the implementation of the JCPOA. Earlier on Sunday, the IAEA chief held talks and attended a joint press conference with Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address CASEY On Saturday, the Casey Historical Society was honored at the state level for restoring more than 140 gravestones in the pioneer section of the Casey-Cumberland Cemetery. The Historical Society, represented by President Patty Richards, received a Community Service Award during the Illinois State Genealogical Societys annual meeting in Moline. Joyce Skinner, project coordinator for the Historical Society, said the cemetery takes its name from the settlement of Cumberland that grew up along the National Road in the early 1830s as workers built the roadway and pioneers arrived in the area. Cumberland became the first section of Casey. Rev. John Doughty from Indiana helped found Cumberland when he led the construction of a Baptist church at the present cemetery site in 1833, Skinner said. This settlement was later annexed into the east end of the Casey city limits, though the church building was torn down circa 1953. Doughty and his family were among the approximately 250 people who were buried in this pioneer cemetery between 1840 and 1900, Skinner said. Many of the gravestones in the pioneer cemetery deteriorated or were damaged through the years due to age, weather or vandalism. Skinner, who is a retired elementary school teacher, said the bad condition of these gravestones first caught her attention in 1983 while she was working on a continuing education research paper that focused on the pioneer cemetery. She said the cemetery remained in her thoughts over time as she researched and wrote about Caseys heritage as a local historian. History and genealogy are my passions and what I spend most of my time on, Skinner said. She added that, It had been a thought of mine since 1983 that that historic space needed to be saved. In 2014, Skinner joined with the Historical Society in initiating a gravestone restoration project with the permission of Casey Township. Skinner said they recruited two newly certified gravestone restorers, Jim Niksch of Casey and Joe Hawker of Martinsville, to help with the project. She said the two men reconstructed 149 gravestones over two years of moving stones with heavy equipment and pouring new concrete bases. Historical Society volunteer Christy Thomas has led efforts to photograph the graves in the pioneer cemetery, Skinner said. They are posting these images and accompanying records on the findagrave.com genealogy search site. This has created a permanent online record for those researching the early settlers of Casey. In addition, Skinner said Historical Society volunteer Martha Reed has led efforts to clean the gravestones so they can be more easily read. She said they scrape the fungus and lichen growth off the stones and apply D/2 Biological Solution that cleans the stones without damaging them. Skinner said this is the same cleaning substance that is used at national cemeteries. The Historical Society is continuing to clean stones in the pioneer section, and have carried over the cleaning and online documenting efforts beyond the pioneer section to the rest of Casey-Cumberland Cemetery. Skinner said she hopes to have a plaque posted at the pioneer section and a sign placed along nearby Main Street to call attention to this final resting place of Caseys early settlers. The pioneer section is now filled with white stones that are standing upright, repaired and are readable. I just feel proud of the fact that we have been able to save that section, Skinner said. The people involved have worked so hard. They have put in years of work getting this done. Iran Navy chief to US troops: Don't exceed your limits Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 11:44AM Iran's Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari says arrogant powers will not dare to invade the Islamic Republic as long as the country enjoys a high deterrence power. "Our defense means are only for defending ourselves and we do not intend to invade anyone," he said in a TV program on Saturday. Sayyari touched on the presence of trans-regional forces in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman, saying the naval forces of the Iranian Army and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) are capable of returning full security to the waters. "However, the presence of outside forces has led to insecurity in this region," the commander said, warning them not to exceed their limits. "The presence of foreign forces is justifiable only where there is a possibility of a harm to global trade. But the presence of the Americans in the volatile Gulf of Aden and their effort to preserve insecurity in this region is just for justifying their continued presence and their dominance on the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait," the commander said. Sayyadri said the Islamic Republic has also been present in the Gulf of Aden, but it is fighting terror at sea and piracy, having helped vessels from 25 countries so far. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US calls 'ridiculous', Iran to build missiles: Rouhani Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 11:16AM President Hassan Rouhani has dismissed US calls to renegotiate a nuclear deal as "ridiculous" and pledged that Iran will continue to produce missiles for its defense. The US House of Representatives on Thursday voted to impose new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program, while lawmakers at Senate urged a vigorous push for tougher inspections of Iran's military facilities. "They are faulting us over our weapons. We will build, produce and stockpile any weapons of any kind that we need in order to defend ourselves and the territorial integrity of our beloved nation," Rouhani said in a speech in parliament Sunday. "We have built, are building and will continue to build missiles, and this violates no international agreements," the president added to the chants of "Death to America" by lawmakers. The missile program is not technically part of the nuclear agreement, with the US admitting that Iran's missile tests do not violate the terms of the deal between Tehran and six major powers. Washington's new sanctions, however, have undermined the nuclear agreement which US President Donald Trump refused to certify this month after endorsing it earlier. Rouhani hit out at "repeated breaches" by the US government of its commitments, saying it has put the country's credibility at stake among the world public opinion. "Some say 'let's the commitment we've already made remain in the current weak state and talk about other issues'. This is one of those laughable things of history; while you are not loyal to your previous commitments, how do you want to stay committed to your next obligations?" Washington has been pushing for a renegotiation of the 2015 nuclear deal so that it includes a broader range of issues such as Iran's missile program. Rouhani said the US is in fact declaring that it is not a negotiating partner and knows no moral and international principles. "Can this country tell other East Asian countries to negotiate with it? How do you talk about negotiations when you have not been committed to your previous negotiations with Iran? You have become untrustworthy before the people." Trump has also called on Washington's allies to join forces "in taking strong actions to curb Iran's continued dangerous and destabilizing behavior." Rouhani brushed aside the accusations, saying Iran has been helping its neighbors restore security while the US is fueling insecurity in the region by sponsoring terrorists. "Iran is a nation that has brought Daesh and terrorism in Iraq and Syria to its knees and now you are faulting it for its efforts," he said. "You have come to ruin security and stability in the region. With the establishment and creation of terrorist groups, you have been playing with the security and tranquility of Afghanistan and Iraq," the president said, addressing the US. "Iran has helped and continues to help its neighbors establish security. Our job is to help which we have been doing on their own request," he said. "Instead, you are intervening in their affairs by creating terrorist groups. You are after dividing Iraq and want to undermine the country's territorial integrity," he added. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Amano: Iran implementing commitments under JCPOA Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 06:12AM The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano says Iran is living up to all its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). "All those involved in the JCPOA are honoring their commitments," he said in Tehran Sunday during a joint press conference with head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi. Since January 2016, he said, the IAEA has monitored Iran's nuclear commitments under the JCPOA and conducted verification checks. "The Agency believes that the JCPOA is an important achievement for verification. The Agency could stipulate that Iran's nuclear commitments under the JCPOA are being implemented," he added. Salehi, for his part, said that he had exchanged views with Amano about Section T of the JCPOA, which deals with the technology that could contribute to the development of a nuclear explosive device. Iran's nuclear chief stressed that Section T does not include special inspections, but the opposite side is making its own special interpretation of the provision. "We can produce uranium enriched at 20 percent within four days, but we do not want the JCPOA to collapse," Salehi said. Amano is in Tehran for talks with Iranian officials as part of the regular dialog between the two sides. According to the IAEA, discussions were expected to focus on the verification and monitoring of the implementation of the JCPOA. Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), said Amano's talks would be about "political and nuclear topics related to the terms of the JCPOA." Eight IAEA reports have confirmed Iran's full commitment to its side of the bargain since January 2016 when the agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of the US, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany went into effect. "Amano is aware of Iran's honesty and adherence to its obligations under the JCPOA and knows that we have not infringed or violated our tasks regarding nuclear issues," Kamalvandi said. The US which is the other party to the agreement has however failed to fulfill its commitments, with President Donald Trump threatening to withdraw Washington from the deal. Earlier this month, Trump refused to formally certify Iran's compliance with the nuclear accord and warned that he might ultimately "terminate" it, putting the fate of the deal in limbo. Now, the US Congress should decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the nuclear agreement. The US has also demanded inspections of Iran's military sites, which the Islamic Republic has vehemently rejected. Iran says demands to access its military sites are aimed at politicizing the JCPOA, stressing that its defense capabilities are not up for negotiation and bargaining. On Saturday, Kamalvandi urged the IAEA to fulfill its duties in a "professional and independent" way without bowing to any "political pressure." Under the deal signed in July 2015, Iran undertook to apply certain limits to its nuclear program in exchange for the termination of all nuclear-related sanctions. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address IAEA Chief Says Iran Implementing 'Nuclear-Related Commitments' RFE/RL October 29, 2017 The head of the United Nations atomic agency says Iran has implemented its "nuclear-related commitments" made under a landmark international agreement to limit the Islamic republic's nuclear program, as opposition from the United States threatens to undermine the accord. Yukiya Amano, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), made the comments on October 29 at a press conference in Tehran, where he met with Iranian leaders. In the 2015 deal, Tehran agreed to curtail its nuclear activities in exchange for relief from international sanctions. Amano, whose agency is in charge of monitoring the agreement's restrictions, met with Iranian President Hassan Rohani, Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who oversees Iran's nuclear activities, and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, an IAEA statement said. In a statement issued by his office, Rohani said Iran's adherence to the deal "has been complete and remarkable." "We should not allow the [nuclear deal], as an important achievement, to be undermined, and we must consolidate this important international commitment with full cooperation," the Iranian president added. Salehi said Theran wanted to continue with the nuclear accord and "avoid [the United States] disturbing it." "If the nuclear deal is broken, it will have unpredictable consequences," he said. Amano's visit comes amid a dispute between Washington and Tehran over U.S. President Donald Trump's decision this month not to certify Iranian compliance with the nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers. Trump, in a long-awaited Iran-policy speech on October 13, assailed Tehran as a "rogue regime" and threatened to walk away from the deal if what he called "serious flaws" were not fixed. He slammed Tehran for what he said were violations of 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. Other signatories of the accord, inked during the presidency of Barack Obama, are Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany. Many U.S. and other officials see the deal as a way to slow Iran's potential path toward creating a nuclear weapon. Tehran says its nuclear program has purely peaceful aims. Leaders of the European Union and other parties in the deal have reaffirmed their commitment to the accord. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said Tehran will stick to the agreement as long as the other signatories do, but will "shred" the deal if Washington pulls out, as Trump has threatened to do. Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to put new sanctions on Iran for its pursuit of long-range ballistic missiles. Speaking to parliament on October 29, Rohani vowed Iran would continue its missile program for its defense. "We have built, are building, and will continue to build missiles, and this violates no international agreements," he said. With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and AP Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/un-iran-nuclear-deal -tehran-inspections/28821438.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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Tehran Will Produce Any Weapon Needed to Defend Iran - Rouhani Sputnik News 18:46 29.10.2017(updated 19:07 29.10.2017) Amid the possibility of the US' unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, also known as JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions), and new anti-Tehran sanctions, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has outlined his position on the issue. MOSCOW (Sputnik) Delivering a speech in the Iranian parliament, Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that Tehran's missile program is in compliance with all international regulations and does not violate UNSC resolution 2231, which endorses the JCPOA. "You should bear in mind that we built the missile, are building it and will continue to do so," Rouhani said days after the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a new package of sanctions aimed at Iran's missile program, advancing the legislation to the US Senate. If adopted this bill will impose new sanctions on individuals and entities contributing to the production of conventional weapons in Iran, including missiles. Commenting on Trump's recent claims about possible unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA, the president said that the incumbent US administration showed that it had "lack of commitment to an international agreement" and did not respect negotiations and accords, adding that such country cannot be trusted. "The enemies should know that violation of any agreement will be detrimental to them, and the Islamic Republic of Iran will give them a decisive answer," Rouhani also said, emphasizing that Tehran will produce any weapon needed for defending Iran's territorial integrity and nation and would not hesitate to use it if there is a necessity to protect the country. Donald Trump earlier this month refused to recertify Iran's compliance with the JCPOA, citing violations of the spirit of the agreement and threatened to trigger US withdrawal from the agreement despite the fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Tehran is adhering to the deal. Iran's adherence to the deal was also confirmed by Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano who visited Tehran on Sunday. At a joint press conference with President of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi, he stated that all the nuclear-related commitments made by Iran under the JCPOA are being implemented. Amano also added that the JCPOA is a "significant gain for verification." The JCPOA was signed in July 2015 by the European Union, Iran and the P5+1 group of nations comprising the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom plus Germany. The nuclear agreement stipulates a gradual lifting of sanctions imposed on Iran in exchange for assurances that its nuclear program would remain peaceful. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address In Tehran, UN atomic chief says Iran implementing nuclear-related commitments 29 October 2017 Visiting Iran, the head of the United Nations atomic energy agency on Sunday reiterated that the commitments undertaken by the country under the nuclear accord of 2015 are being implemented. According to the press release issued by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), its Director General Yukiya Amano met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Vice-President and President of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi, and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, during a visit to the capital, Tehran. Since January 2016, the IAEA has been verifying and monitoring Iran's implementation of its nuclear-related commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was endorsed unanimously by the UN Security Council in 2015. The accord between its five permanent members (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States), plus Germany, the European Union (EU) and Iran, set out rigorous mechanisms for monitoring limits on Iran's nuclear programme, while paving the way for lifting UN sanctions against the country. The release said that the IAEA's verification and monitoring activities are conducted in an impartial and objective manner and in accordance with the modalities defined by the JCPOA and standard safeguards practice. Mr. Amano reiterated that the JCPOA represents a clear gain from a verification point of view, and stressed the importance of full implementation by Iran of its nuclear-related commitments in order to make the JCPOA sustainable. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iraq to deploy soldiers to key Kurdistan border crossing Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 06:50PM Members of the Iraqi Federal Police force are going to be deployed to a key border crossing in the country's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region after Iraqi government forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters reached an agreement in a bid to resolve a conflict about control of border crossings. An Iraqi government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP that Iraqi and Kurdish military commanders struck a deal in the strategic northern city of Mosul, located some 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital Baghdad, late on Sunday for government forces to take control of Fishkhabur border crossing. Fishkhabur is a vital oil export point on the border with Turkey and Syria. Peshmerga fighters exchanged heavy artillery fire with the Iraqi army soldiers there over the past few days. Iraqi officials then gave the Kurds an ultimatum to withdraw from the area around Fishkhabur "within several hours." On Friday, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered a 24-hour suspension of military operations against Kurdish forces to allow for talks. Abadi said the talks were meant to pave the way for the peaceful deployment of Iraqi troops at the border crossings of Kurdistan region. Tensions simmered between Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Baghdad government in the wake of last month's Kurdish independence referendum and a dire "threat of civil war" there. The referendum on secession of the Kurdistan region was held on September 25 despite strong opposition from Iraqi authorities, the international community, and Iraq's neighboring countries, especially Turkey and Iran. On October 12, an Iraqi government spokesman said Baghdad had set a series of conditions that the 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. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Protesters storm Iraqi Kurdistan's parl. as Barzani resigns Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 05:05PM Angry demonstrators, some carrying clubs, have reportedly stormed the parliament of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region in the region's capital city of Erbil as the Kurdish lawmakers approved a request by president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, Massoud Barzani, to step down early next month. According to witnesses, protesters were angry at Barzani's decision to resign from the presidency of the region. Some reports indicated that gunshots were heard as protesters, who claimed they were Peshmerga Kurdish fighters forced their way into the parliament building. Other reports noted that Kurdish lawmakers were trapped inside their offices at the parliament building. Angry demonstrators also attacked the crew of NRT news channel, who were reporting in front of the parliament. NRT is known to be very critical of Barzani and his policies. Local sources say the gunfire heard during the incident was caused by security forces shooting in the air in order to disperse angry protesters. The protest took place after Barzani told a closed-door session of the region's parliament of his decision to step down amid the fallout from Iraqi Kurdistan Region's independence referendum. "After November 1, I will no longer exercise my functions, and I reject any extension of my mandate," the 71-year-old Kurdish leader said in a letter read out to parliament, AFP reported. "Changing the law on the presidency of Kurdistan or prolonging the presidential term is not acceptable," Barzani added, noting, "I ask parliament to meet to fill the vacancy in power, to fulfill the mission and to assume the powers of the presidency of Kurdistan." According to a report by Kurdistan 24 news channel, the region's parliament approved Barzani's request to step down during its Sunday session. Barzani has been the president of the KRG since 2005. However, he has been under fire by his critics, as his tenure officially expired in August 2015. Last week, parliament decided "to freeze the activities" of Barzani, his vice-president, Kosrat Rasul, and the head of the presidential cabinet, Fuad Hussein. On October 22, the main opposition party of Iraq's Kurdistan region called on Barzani to quit, urging the formation of a national salvation government. In defiance of Iraq's stiff opposition, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) held a non-binding referendum on September 25 on secession from the central government in Baghdad, which slammed the vote as unconstitutional. The Iraqi government responded to the referendum by taking a number of punitive measures, including a campaign to seize back positions held by Kurdish forces since 2014, when they joined the fight against Daesh terrorists. Under criticism from Iraq and the entire international community, the Kurdish leadership has now offered to suspend the results of the vote and engage in dialog with the central government, but Baghdad wants the results to be fully canceled. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iraqi govt. forces, Kurdish Peshmerga fighters begin fresh talks Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 02:09PM Iraqi government forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters have launched a second round of negotiations in a bid to resolve a conflict about the control of border crossings in the country's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region two days after the two sides reached an agreement to stop fighting. "The second round of talks about deploying federal troops in the disputed areas has started," the state-run al-Iraqiya television network reported on Sunday. The report did not provide any further details. Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters held the first round of talks on Friday and Saturday. On Friday, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ordered a 24-hour suspension to military operations against Kurdish forces. Abadi said the talks are meant to pave the way for the peaceful deployment of Iraqi troops at the border crossings of Kurdistan region. Tensions are simmering between Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Baghdad government in the wake of last month's Kurdish independence referendum and a dire "threat of civil war" there. The referendum on secession of the Kurdistan region was held on September 25 despite strong opposition from Iraqi authorities, 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 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. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has already demanded the annulment of the referendum. "We won't accept anything but its cancellation and the respect of the constitution," he said in a statement on Thursday during a visit to Tehran. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Iraqi Kurdistan Outgoing President Vows to Continue Fight for Kurds' Rights Sputnik News 21:01 29.10.2017 Amid the grave consequences of a controversial independence referendum in the autonomous region of Kurdistan, its leader Masoud Barzani decided to step down from the presidency. CAIRO (Sputnik) President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani said on Sunday that he will continue to fight for the rights of the Kurds as a member of the Peshmerga, after his term as the autonomy's head ends on November 1. Earlier in the day, 71-year-old leader officially refused to extend his duties. Previously both presidential, as well as parliamentary elections, were slated for November 1, however, the chaos that broke out after the independence vote made authorities to postpone elections. Masoud Barzani is the first president of Iraqi Kurdistan elected in 2005. In 2013 he refused to abandon the post, though his mandate expired. The parliament since then has extended it twice for two years. Barzani is considered to be an architect of the independence referendum held in Kurdistan on September 25. More than 90 percent of 3.4 million people in northern Iraq's three main Kurdish provinces and in multi-ethnic Kirkuk region voted to have a separate nation-state. The independence vote was deemed illegal by the central authorities. Iraqi government launched an offensive which led to Kurds losing to Baghdad large swathes of oilfields in the disputed province of Kirkuk. In a statement, Barzani stressed that despite stepping down as a president he would remain a fighter of the Peshmerga. "I will be with the people, among other dear fighters of the Peshmerga, I will continue to fight for the rights of the Kurdish people and for the preservation of the Kurds' achievements," Barzani added. After Barzani announced his resignation protesters reportedly attempted to storm the building of the Iraqi Kurdistan Parliament in Erbil. According to the Sky News Arabia, there was shooting inside the parliament's building but a spokesman of the parliament told Sputnik that the information about the shooting in the building was nothing but rumors. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address CHARLESTON -- Higher education and state pensions in Illinois are expected to be at the forefront of the conversation in a small panel discussion Wednesday on Eastern Illinois Universitys campus. Two people familiar with higher education and pensions in the state will discuss these issues along with others from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Charleston-Mattoon Room of the University Union. Panelists Madeleine Doubek, the Better Government Associations director of policy and civic engagement, and Richard Wandling, chair of the EIU Political Science Department, will be leading the discussion organized by the EIU Annuitants Association. John Ryan, annuitants association board member, said the goal of the discussion is to inform interested local residents about the realities of the pension system and higher education in the state at this time. Although the state Legislature finally approved a budget after more than two years of political gridlock, funding of higher education, pensions and other budgetary issues will continue to be a concern for Illinois taxpayers again this year, Margaret Messer, president of the EIU Annuitants Association said in a press release. The public and the EIU community need to stay informed on these and other issues. The two speakers will offer distinct perspectives on what the year might look like when it comes to these two issues, Ryan said, especially with campaigning for governor in full swing. Ryan said there will be a couple of pointed questions at the beginning, however, the rest of the time will be open for the audience to ask questions. According to the release, Doubek has been active as a journalist covering local and state government for 32 years. She has also served as publisher of Reboot Illinois and before that as assistant vice president and executive editor of The Daily Herald in Arlington Heights. A 1985 Eastern Illinois University journalism graduate who minored in political science, Doubek has written extensively on the states pension system. Wandling, who has taught at Eastern for nearly 30 years, specializes in public policy, public administration and state and local politics, according to the release. He holds a doctoral degree from Miami University and is particularly interested in questions related to fiscal sustainability of state and local government, the release states. Iraqi Kurds Storm Parliament After Leader Steps Down By VOA News October 29, 2017 Protesters in Irbil stormed the parliament building Sunday after Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani announced he is stepping down as president of the self-ruled northern Kurdish region. Angry Kurds attacked members of parliament and journalists inside the building, while a crowd outside waved Kurdish flags in support of Barzani. In a televised speech, Barzani announced his resignation as of November 1. He asked parliament to dissolve the position of the president and distribute its duties among the Kurdish prime minister, parliament and the judiciary. Barzani said the Iraqi government used the September Kurdish independence referendum as "an excuse" to retake much of the territory the Kurds had controlled for years after peshmerga and coalition forces ousted the Islamic State militants who captured vast swaths of northern Iraq in 2014. The referendum resulted in more than 92 percent of Iraqi Kurds choosing independence. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called the independence referendum illegal, and in response sent his forces to retake control of disputed areas that were in control of the Kurds. The Iraqi military and the Kurdish minority had been clashing for several weeks in mostly low-level firefights until Friday, when they agreed to a cease-fire, and Kurdish forces abandoned the land they held, largely without resistance. In recent days the government in Iraq's Kurdistan region offered to freeze the referendum results and start dialogue with the central government in Baghdad, but Abadi rejected that offer. Abadi said in a statement his government would accept only an annulment of the referendum and respect for the country's constitution. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syria says Raqqah still occupied, as US-backed forces replace Daesh terrorists Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 07:14PM Syria says it still considers the northern city of Raqqah "an occupied city," less than two weeks after US-backed Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) flushed out Daesh Takfiri terrorists from the city but they also kept government troops out of the liberating offensive. The Syrian Foreign Ministry made the comments in a statement released on Sunday, adding that Raqqah, used to be Daesh's de facto capital for a couple of years, still "cannot be considered liberated until the entry of the Syrian army, which is fighting" against terrorists "along with its allies." "The allegations of the United States and its so-called alliance concerning the liberation of the city of Raqqah from the Daesh terrorist group are pure lies," further said the statement, carried by Syria's official news agency, SANA. The ministry also asserted that Washington's goal was to "divert the eyes of the international community from the crimes committed by this alliance in the province of Raqqah." On October 17, the SDF coalition announced that it had defeated Daesh in Raqqah and three days later said that it had fully recaptured the city from the terror group, following a military operation, which was launched in July without Damascus' approval. At the time, the US-backed SDF also said in a provocative statement that the city would be part of a system of "federal government" in the country's north. The Syrian military has not so far engaged the SDF, which has reportedly shelled the positions of government troops on several occasions in recent weeks. 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 that are wreaking havoc in the country. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syria tightens noose around Daesh in Dayr al-Zawr Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 11:23AM Syrian Army forces have reportedly killed at least 50 Daesh terrorists in Dayr al-Zawr and confined the Takfiris to an area between the city and the Euphrates. The UK-based so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the developments inside the Arab country, said on Sunday that the fatalities had been caused during clashes that started a day earlier in response to a Daesh attack. Twenty-three people were also killed among the ranks of the Army and its allies, it added. Daesh "is now encircled in an area between the city and the (Euphrates) River," said the Observatory's director Rami Abdel Rahman said. Government forces have captured two new neighborhoods and the municipal stadium, with the two sides exchanging heavy fire. Damascus broke Daesh's siege over the city, which the group had been maintaining since 2014, when it began its campaign of bloodshed and destruction against Syria. The terrorists seized huge swathes of land in lightning strikes after taking on the country. Syria then enlisted the assistance of Lebanon's Hezbollah and Russian aerial support, pushing the terrorists out of much of the territory under their control. Iran has been lending military advisory support to the Syrian Army. Dayr al-Zawr Province, of which the city is the capital, is the last place in the Arab country, which holds pockets of the terrorists. Abdel Rahman said the fighting that began Saturday was the fiercest in the city since government troops broke the siege. US-backed so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are also closing in from the other side of the Euphrates, threatening a showdown with government troops and their allies. Syria has warned the SDF against turning itself into the Army's legitimate targets by interfering in the fateful Dayr al-Zawr battle. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address Syrian Kurds Refuse to Reveal Number of US Bases, Volume of Supplied US Arms Sputnik News 11:35 29.10.2017 In the wake of the recently-announced liberation of the Syrian city of Raqqa, many analysts have been wondering about the scale of US support to the mostly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which headed the operation, and the number of military facilities the US has set up in northern Syria. Kurds, however, refused to reveal any details. Amid ongoing reports that the US continues to arm the Syrian Kurds, even after the announced retaking of Raqqa from Daesh, Nuri Mahmud, an official representative of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the primary component of the US-backed SDF force which conducted the operation, confirmed that the US has been supplying them with arms since the liberation of Kobani in 2015. Mahmud, however, refused to reveal the scale of the arms provided by the US, only noting that "it is relatively humble and not enough in comparison with the weaponry it supplied to the Iraqi army for the liberation of Mosul." The Kurdish official called their relationship with Washington a "strategic alliance" and confirmed that the US is setting up military bases on territories which the Kurds take under control. According to Nuri Mahmud, these facilities are used for the fight against Daesh. However, he refused to give the exact number of operating US bases. "We can't discuss this issue. It is none of our business," he told Sputnik Turkiye. Abdulaziz Yunus, the SDF representative in charge of foreign affairs, also confirmed that the US continues supplying arms to SDF, and remains the only power which is supporting Kurds militarily. The Kurdish official, however, as well as Nuri Mahmud, refused to reveal the amount of weaponry they received. "The US is supplying us with ammunition based on our demands. Apart from coalition forces, no one else supports us with weaponry. We won't disclose the exact volume of the provided arms but hope that the deliveries will increase as it will enable us to liberate other regions from terrorists," he explained. Abdulaziz Yunus stressed that the interests of SDF coincide with those of the US, and that they will continue their cooperation. Washington had supported the Free Syrian Army, but this didn't yield any results. That is why, after the liberation of Kobani, the US decided to support them and has been satisfied with this arrangement, he concluded. Sputnik NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address F-16 equipment procurement in accordance with regulations: air force ROC Central News Agency 2017/10/29 17:42:48 Taipei, Oct. 29 (CNA) The procurement of new electronic countermeasures (ECM) pods for Taiwan's fleet of F-16 fighter jets is being carried out in accordance with procurement regulations and legislative resolutions, Air Force Command Headquarters said in a statement Sunday. The statement, issued in the form of a press release, came in the wake of a Chinese-language United Daily News report that the number of ALQ-131 pods to be purchased has shrunk considerably and the equipment has not yet passed flight tests, while Taiwan is being asked to sign an agreement that includes the country being responsible for research and development costs. The air force denied any malpractice and said the signing of the agreement has been postponed. The procurement is in accordance with the Government Procurement Act, military procurement regulations and the U.S. Department of Defense's security assistance management manual, the press release said. An electronic countermeasure (ECM) is a device designed to protect aircraft from guided missiles by tricking or deceiving radar, sonar or other detection systems. (By Hsieh Chia-chen and William Yen) Enditem/J NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address US allows in Taiwan president despite China objections Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 05:30AM The United States has allowed Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen to stop over in the US territory of Hawaii despite objections from China, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory and unqualified for state-to-state relations. Tsai landed in Honolulu on Saturday en route to Taiwan's few diplomatic allies among Pacific countries. Accompanied by her entourage and members of the media, she left on a short boat ride for the USS Arizona Memorial, which is built over the remains of the battleship sunk in Pearl Harbor in the Second World War, on Saturday afternoon. China had on Friday urged the US not to allow Taiwan's president to travel through US territory for her week-long trip to Taiwan's three Pacific allies of Tuvalu, the Solomon Islands, and the Marshall Islands. China and Taiwan split amid a civil war in 1949, and relations have been tense. China continues to view self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory and subject to a diplomatic protocol known as "One China," according to which other countries should acknowledge Chinese sovereignty over Taiwan. Earlier this week, the US State Department said there had been "no change to the US one-China policy." It said, however, that allowing Tsai's entrance to the US on Saturday and visit to a Pearl Harbor memorial on the same day was based on Washington's "unofficial" diplomatic relations with Taiwan. This is Tsai's second trip to the US this year. In January, she stopped over in Houston and San Francisco on her way to and from Latin America, visiting the headquarters of Twitter. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address UK sacks 9 nuclear submarine personnel for drug abuse Iran Press TV Sun Oct 29, 2017 05:44PM The UK Royal Navy has discharged nine military personnel on board of a nuclear submarine after they tested positive for using drugs. The servicemen received the boot after failing compulsory drug tests on HMS Vigilant one of Britain's four nuclear submarines equipped with US-made Trident nuclear missiles. The navy said in a statement that it does "not tolerate drugs misuse by service personnel. Those found to have fallen short of our high standards face being discharged from service." According to UK media, the fired personnel had thrown drug-fueled parties while the vessel was docked in the US to load nuclear missiles. Brendan O'Hara, a British Member of Parliament for Argyll and Bute, the area that the vessel was based in, said he would be questioning UK Defense Minister Michael Fallon about the scandal. "My constituents and indeed the people of Scotland need assurances that fit and proper people are in charge of these vessels," he told The Sunday Post. "We cannot have submarines carrying deadly weapons crewed by people who behave like teenagers on their first foreign holiday," he added. This was the second scandal to hit HMS Vigilant, after it was revealed earlier this month that some of the commanders were involved in inappropriate sexual relationships with junior officers. Following the allegation, Commander Stuart Armstrong, 41, was relieved of his duties. His second in command Lieutenant Commander Michael Seal, 36, was also removed after being accused of having an affair with another subordinate. All of UK navy's vessels have a "no touching rule" that bans intimate relationships on board. The extent of the scandals has made Fallon "furious," according to the Post. The cases have also prompted further investigations to find "any further wrongdoing" on HMS Vigilant. Known as the Trident program, Britain's nuclear deterrent has been a source of controversy over its costs. While the Ministry of Defense refuses to disclose the overall cost of replacing the UK's ageing weapons, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has estimated that it would cost at least 205 billion. NEWS LETTER Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list Enter Your Email Address NISSANS E-Power range-extending hybrid powertrain technology is under serious consideration for the Australian market, and the Note hatchback is likely to be the first cab off the rank Down Under. When it was initially launched late last year, the Note E-Power was set to only be offered in Japan, but Nissan Motor Company executive vice-president for global marketing and sales, zero-emission vehicles and the battery business, Daniele Schillaci, has now confirmed that E-Power tech will be slowly rolled out to other markets. Of course, we have to proceed step-by-step, he told journalists at the Tokyo motor show last week. What I can tell you is countries we are doing tests in is India, Indonesia and Thailand. Latin America we have a lot of requests. The direction is very clear so we are increasing the number of tests and then step-by-step this technology will roll out overseas. Nissan Australia general manager of corporate communications Karla Leach said the petrol-electric E-Power tech would be a good fit for Australian consumers and also forms part of the companys global EV strategy. We are very keen to bring E-Power to Australia as soon as possible, she said. Why? Because the core of our global strategy is to offer more electric vehicles, as well as being a charge-free EV that we know Australians would embrace. We are working with our global colleagues to confirm future product that best meets the needs of Australian consumers and that plan includes E-Power. GoAuto understands that the Note E-Power tallboy hatchback is all but confirmed for the Australian market, but will not arrive until a planned midlife facelift in late 2018 or 2019. As GoAuto has reported, former Nissan Australia managing director and CEO Richard Emery previously said the company was considering the Note, as well as a number of other global Nissan models, to fill gaps in its line-up after discontinuing the Micra, Pulsar and Altima. The Note would go head-to-head with mainstream light and small hatch offerings, as well as hybrid hatchbacks such as the Toyota Prius and Prius C, and would complement Nissans Leaf EV which arrives late next year. The E-Power system is essentially a hybrid that uses an electric motor to drive the wheels, in a similar way to the Chevrolet/Holden Volt, but it is not a plug-in hybrid so has no charging socket and relies entirely on a small petrol engine and regenerative braking to keep its battery pack topped up. The 1.2-litre three-cylinder Miller-cycle petrol engine is found in the regular Note, and produces 58kW/103Nm. The electric motor produces 80kW of peak power and 254Nm of torque. According to Nissan, if the driver keeps the petrol engine in its efficiency sweet spot of 2000-2500rpm, the Note E-Power can return fuel consumption of between 2.7L/100km and 2.9L/100km on the Japanese JC08 cycle. The regenerative braking system produces strong enough deceleration when lifting off the accelerator that brake pedal use can be reduced by up to 70 per cent in urban driving compared with a purely petrol-powered car. News - Mitsubishi Tokyo show: Global models promised from Mitsubishi Australia to receive most, if not all three remaining Mitsubishi model updates THE remaining three models from Mitsubishis promised six-product roll-out over the next three years are expected to be offered in Australian showrooms despite only one of the first half the Eclipse Cross being made available Down Under. Mitsubishi Motors Corporation chief operating officer Trevor Mann told Australian journalists at the Tokyo motor show that most of the upcoming, yet-to-be-revealed models to follow on from the aforementioned Eclipse Cross SUV, Indonesian market-specific Xpander people-mover and Japans electric kei car will hit Australian showrooms. The six that weve talked about, you should see most, if not all because what we try to define in terms of our plan going forward is that we recognise and focus on what we believe is a core car, he said. So there are two types of core car, theres global core which is obvious. Vehicles like Triton, Outlander, ASX, Eclipse Cross because they will go to over 80 markets. Weve got to make sure those cars work for us and we maximise the benefits of those cars. And then you would have, what is a regional core. I think regional core falls into two categories probably ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations), Oceania a little bit and Japan so weve got to look after our domestic market hence the kei car. Mr Mann revealed that going forward, Mitsubishi would avoid the long product life cycle of models such as the Lancer small car and ASX crossover, which have been in production since 2007 and 2010 respectively. Were looking at making sure we are doing two things in our plan, making sure we have a firm product and life cycle plan for those core vehicles and that we also keep them fairly fresh, he said. As you know, based on our history, some of the lifecycles have been a bit extended, and some of the actions within the life and death of that vehicle, in terms of minor changes and announcements and refreshments, I think we can improve. So throughout the mid-term plan, thats what were really focusing on doing. The intent is to have at least one product action in every market, every year. What I would ideally like to see is, you launch a model, you obviously have a model year minor change, model year, full model change to me would be an ideal cycle. Both the Lancer, which will cease production in Japan by years end, and ASX, which received an update last month, are unlikely candidates to fill the remaining three full-model-change slots, leaving space open for the Outlander crossover, Mirage light car, Pajero SUV, Triton workhorse and related Pajero Sport. However, the next-generation Outlander is already confirmed to be developed in partnership with Nissans X-Trail, as Mr Mann indicated the upcoming three models were planned before the brands entrance into the Renault-Nissan alliance last year. Similarly, the future of the Pajero large SUV appears to be undecided as Mr Mann revealed plans for the future of the off-roader were still unclear. By process of elimination then, at least one of the updated models is expected to be the Triton one-tonne ute, which is rumoured to share development and a platform with all alliance member pick-ups including the Nissan Navara and Renault Alaskan. Mr Mann said however, with its smaller size and budget compared with other manufacturers, Mitsubishi has been to be cautious when developing new vehicles. In a brand our size and with how much of our revenue we recycle again into the R&D, that has not been possible in the past, but thats our intent going forward, he said. Which is why, in parallel, weve increased the percentage of our revenues which we are going to utilise in our R&D so we can keep our products more fresh, we can keep them more compliant and we can keep making sure weve got, as a brand, something to talk about and a reason for people to come into our showrooms. Read more 27th of October 2017 Tokyo show: Mitsubishi Lancer could morph into SUV Lancer small car may be replaced with SUV as Mitsubishi studies market and options 27th of October 2017 Tokyo show: Mitsubishis platform challenges New ASX not due any time soon as Mitsubishi studies alliance tech availability 25th of October 2017 Tokyo show: Mitsubishi uncovers e-Evolution concept SUV concept with tri-electric motor previews Mitsubishis high-performance future 19th of October 2017 Mitsubishi to launch 11 new models in three years Six full-model changes and other updates in Mitsubishis three-year plan 3rd of October 2017 Mitsubishi steps up SUV/LCV strategy New Eclipse Cross and more later should further boost Mitsubishi sales Hayley Stamper and Sarah Mullins have had success selling their products online and in other people's stores. But now they are ready to see if their businesses can be successful as standalone retail concepts. The two women won Gateway Mall's "Battle of the Pop Up Challenge" earlier this year. This week, they are claiming their prizes: six months of free retail space at the mall. Mullins' Feya Candle Company will open in a mall kiosk space near the center court on Tuesday. Stamper's h. flynn designs will open in a retail bay next to American Eagle near the mall's entrance on Wednesday. For Stamper, who started h. flynn as a high school hobby four years ago, it's a chance to see if her custom women's clothing can expand beyond its loyal online and boutique following. For Mullins, it's a no-risk way to test out whether selling her Feya candles from mall kiosks might be a viable business strategy going forward. "We're going to test out holiday sales and see if we're meant to be in a mall space," said Mullins, who's been in the candle business for eight years, four of those as Feya Candle. She said her candles are available in more than 120 boutiques nationwide and also online. In addition, she has shared a retail space with KD Designs for the past year in the Haymarket at Eighth and P streets. Being able to use a kiosk space rent free at Gateway for six months will give her a chance to test out the model and, "see if we can do this in other malls across the country." Stamper had no idea four years ago, when she made a Nebraska shirt in a textiles and design class at Pius X High School, that it would turn into a business. She said the more people who saw the shirt, the more who asked her if she could make one for them. That eventually led to the creation of h. flynn. The H comes from her first initial. Flynn is her middle name and her grandmother's maiden name. Though Stamper said she does about 90 percent of her sales online, her designs also are sold at Scheels and about 40 boutiques in Nebraska and other Midwestern states. The business has gotten so big that the 20-year-old Southeast Community College student recently had to move operations out of her parents' basement, which she said she had pretty much taken over, and into a warehouse at Seventh and J streets. Running a business while going to college would seem to be enough for anybody, but Stamper also is in the process of planning her wedding and building a new house. Still, she doesn't see it as too much. "It's not really a job for me. It's a fun passion I want to do," she said. Stamper is hoping that passion will translate into a successful store that she can keep open beyond the six-month free period. "That would be awesome," she said. "I would love to be able to stay and grow h. flynn at Gateway Mall." The mall would love to have both businesses stay, said Marketing Director Becky Sidles. Gateway was one of eight malls owned by Starwood Retail Partners chosen to participate in the inaugural pop-up store contest. "It was really successful at all eight malls," she said. Sidles said her guess is that Starwood will expand the contest to more malls next year, and Gateway would be eager to participate again if offered the chance. "It's really about supporting local in the retail mix," she said. Nintendo expects to reach its highest earnings in seven years due to impressive Switch sales. The video games maker company doubled its full-year operating profit forecast on Monday after the console production and delivery issues were cleared out. According to Reuters, the Switch demand nearly doubled Nintendos stock price to a nine-year high since the March launch of the console. Sales have exceeded the initial estimate and Switch is on track to surpass the Wii U lifetime sales. Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima said at an earnings briefing that the company had boosted Switch production since it misjudged the demand. Christmas will arrive in less than two months, and although the Japanese company is expecting another sale boost, Microsoft is also joining the race with the Xbox One X console that is supposed to arrive on November 7. Via A Lincoln-based telecommunications consulting business has accused its former office manager of embezzling more than $100,000 over nine years. Vertical Horizons Contracting, Inc., or VHC, is asking a Lancaster County District judge to order Mark M. Ackerman of Crete to repay $108,528.51, according to a lawsuit filed last week. The alleged embezzlement was reported to Lincoln police Oct. 15, and the case remained under investigation Monday, Officer Angela Sands said. Based on statements Ackerman made to police, VHC officials believe the company's loss might exceed $400,000, the company's attorney, Adam Prochaska, said in court documents. Ackerman could not be reached for comment Monday, and Prochaska did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment. Owned by Carl Whittle, the contractor at 500 W. South St. services the telecom, manufacturing, oil and gas, and utility industries, according to its website. Ackerman began working there in October 2007 and was fired Oct. 13, two days shy of his 10th work anniversary, the lawsuit said. Ackerman's responsibilities included collecting and managing company funds, bookkeeping and payroll, purchasing and overseeing the financial day-to-day operations, the lawsuit said. Prochaska alleges the theft began in January 2008 and continued until this month. "In various transactions over the course of several years, Defendant purchased personal goods with VHC funds, improperly used VHC funds for personal reasons, transferred VHC funds into personal bank accounts, and took and misappropriated assets and funds of VHC," Prochaska said in the lawsuit. Prochaska asked the court to order Ackerman to repay the losses and for any damages deemed appropriate. Rachel Carson's expose shocked the world. And we're better for it Police Accountability Boards starting work in most Maryland counties Mandated by state law after the killing of George Floyd, Police Accountability Boards have begun work in the majority of Maryland counties. Hackers briefly brought down the Michigan state website last year to draw attention to the Flint water crisis. In Columbia, Missouri, hackers shut down the city website for several days in 2014, apparently to protest the killing of a dog during a SWAT team raid several years earlier. A hacker this summer breached Minnesota government databases and stole 1,400 email credentials, along with other information, to protest after a police officer was found not guilty in the shooting death of a black motorist. Hacktivism or hacking for a cause is really a major concern for local and state governments, said Todd Wiltgen, chairman of the Lancaster County Board. Rather than hack into a government database with the purpose of stealing information, such as Social Security numbers, to then sell or use, these cyberattacks on government are more often revenge-inspired, Wiltgen said during recent board discussions. Hactivists hack into data to punish a municipality or a county, he said. And as cyberattacks mount, both on private companies and government entities, city and county governments locally have decided to spend a little money on cyber insurance. The city purchased a $3 million, 16-month cyber insurance policy that started May 1 for about $33,000. Lancaster County commissioners recently agreed to purchase a $2 million, one-year cyber insurance policy for about $25,600. Leaders for both the city and county were responding to the growing awareness of serious cyberattacks and to the better insurance products available. "Its not a matter of if local government will be hacked, but when," Wiltgen said. He pointed to Ferguson, Missouri, where a group that calls itself Anonymous shut down some of the states website services to protest the shooting of an unarmed black teenager in 2014. Defending the states computer network against hacktivists costs about $150,000, according to Missouri state officials. Lincoln city government has self insured against cyberattacks since 2015 but decided this year to purchase an insurance policy for cyber liability exposure, said Bill Kostner, risk manager for the city. The city has not had a major breach. "We have been fortunate," Kostner said. But it is "prudent to have some protection. We dont want to be held hostage, he said. Lancaster County commissioners looked at cyber insurance in previous years, but those products had too many exclusions and "didn't match what we needed, said Sue Eckley, the county's risk manager. For example, until recently, coverage did not include a year of credit reporting for people whose information had been stolen. Current coverage excludes acts of war, Wiltgen pointed out during board discussion of the policy. But it does cover acts of a foreign government, as long as the United States hasnt declared war on them, he said. Russia, China and North Korea are known for their hacking, he pointed out. Governments can have two basic types of losses, Kostner explained. There can be damage to a third party, including disclosure of employee information. There can be damage to the government itself, if a network is down or someone takes over a system and puts a ransom on it, he said. County commissioners said they plan to talk with city staff about purchasing a joint policy in the future, since both governments share an information technology department. The AC Hotel Cincinnati at the Banks officially revealed its sophisticated European style today during a ribbon-cutting celebration attended by Mayor John Cranley, Hamilton CountyCommissioners and area business leaders. Situated across from the Great American Ball Park, the design-led property resides in The Banks development a premier mixed-use office, retail and residential development that serves as home to the Cincinnati Reds, the Cincinnati Bengals, GE's Global Operations Headquarters and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Located at 135 Joe Nuxhall Way, the hotel was developed by Eagle Realty Group on behalf of its parent company, Western & Southern Financial Group, and its development and operating partner Winegardner & Hammons Hotel Group, LLC of Cincinnati, Ohio. Designed with creative, well-traveled, entrepreneurial spirits in mind, the hotel will cater to those who are constantly on the go through its innovative beverage and food programming, intuitive service, locally inspired art and 171 modern guest rooms and suites, many with balconies that overlook the Ohio River, Roebling Suspension Bridge and Smale Park. Guests will appreciate the hotel's jaw-dropping views from the rooftop bar, complimentary Wi-Fi, and a state-of-the-art fitness center. Three distinct meeting spaces are also available to guests of AC Hotel Cincinnati at The Banks, including two intimate, audiovisual-equipped media salons for up to eight people, and an 888-square-foot meeting room. The AC Lobby will feature the brand's signature open-concept spaces with a thoughtfully selected collection of inviting furnishings. Ambient lighting and cozy seating in the AC library and lounge areas invite travelers and locals to relax in chic surroundings, while also creating an effortless space in which to conduct a business meeting or connect with friends over cocktails. A twist on the traditional hotel bar, the AC lounge will serve up AC's signature Gintonic, beer from local breweries, specialty wines, expertly made craft cocktails and a selection of tapas-style small bites. The AC Upper Deck rooftop bar and event space overlooks downtown Cincinnati with spectacular views of the Ohio River and Smale Park. The AC kitchen will serve a European-inspired continental breakfast selection of flaky croissants, savory egg tarts and Nespresso coffee. Hotel website Citadines Rochor Singapore is part of an upcoming integrated development that will also comprise a retail podium. Ascott has been awarded the contract to manage the serviced residence by property and construction group Lum Chang Holdings and a fund managed by real estate investment firm LaSalle Investment Management Asia, that will jointly build the integrated development on the site of the former The Verge mall. With its location close to three MRT stations, and proximity to famous shopping street Orchard Road and Little India enclave, Citadines Rochor Singapore is primed to cater to the strong demand from business and leisure travellers when it opens in 2020. At the doorstep of Citadines Rochor Singapore is the Rochor MRT station that sits on the Downtown Line, Singapore"s longest underground MRT line which will facilitate direct travel from the north-western and eastern areas of the island to the Central Business District and Marina Bay areas. The serviced residence is also within walking distance from Jalan Besar and Little India MRT stations, providing easy access to the rest of the city. About 80% of the 320 units at Citadines Rochor Singapore are studio apartments, while the remaining are one-bedroom and loft apartments. The property will offer facilities such as a residents" lounge, gymnasium, laundrette, breakfast cafe, swimming pool and outdoor multifunctional spaces for social gatherings and events. WASHINGTON (AP) A look at the powers and limits of Robert Mueller, the special counsel looking at links between Russia and Trump campaign associates. Q. What will Mueller do as special counsel? A. Mueller is supposed to carry on the investigation that former FBI Director James Comey told Congress about before he was fired by President Donald Trump. That includes any links between Trump campaign associates and Russia, as well as "any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation," according to the letter appointing him. Q. What are a special counsel's powers? A. Under Justice Department regulations, a special counsel has all the authority of a U.S. attorney, including the ability to initiate investigations, subpoena records and bring criminal charges. One difference, however: Special counsels get to choose whether they inform the Justice Department what they're up to. Before taking "significant" actions, however, the special counsel must notify the attorney general. Q. Could a special counsel investigate things beyond simply the Russia connection? A. Mueller has a broad mandate to determine the course of an investigation, but not an unlimited one. If he decides that something outside the scope of the letter appointing him needs investigating, he would have to ask for permission to expand his probe. Q. What's the difference between a special counsel and a special prosecutor or an independent counsel? A. Independent counsels or special prosecutors don't exist anymore. These are titles that were established by law following Watergate, and they expired in 1999. The Justice Department created regulations to keep the concept alive in the form of the special counsel. Patrick Fitzgerald, the former U.S. attorney appointed to investigate the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, was one. Q. Who will work for the special counsel, and what sort of budget will Mueller have? A. The Justice Department is supposed to supply staff for a special counsel but Mueller can request specific people, or request the hiring of staff from outside the Justice Department. While working for Mueller, the staff will report to no one else. Mueller will have to propose a budget to the Justice Department within the next 60 days and update it annually, for as long as the investigation runs. There is no expiration date for Mueller's authority. This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2017 With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, there was never a special counsel appointed! Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2017 Q. Could Trump fire Mueller? A. No, but Attorney General Jeff Sessions' deputy, Rod Rosenstein, could. Special counsels can be fired only by the "personal action" of the attorney general. Since Sessions has recused himself from the Trump Russia investigation, Rosenstein who signed the letter appointing Mueller as "acting attorney general" is the only person with the authority to curtail Mueller's work. Such a firing would require a finding of incapacity, misconduct or "good cause." Whatever the reason, Rosenstein would have to inform Mueller in writing. Q. Will the results of the investigation become public? A. Not necessarily. When a special counsel closes shop, he or she must give the attorney general a confidential report explaining the decision to bring charges or drop the matter. The attorney general would have to notify Congress of the conclusion, but can decide whether to make the special counsel's report public. Michelle Barnard started her career in hospitality in South Africa working in reception, reservations, and front office roles. She later moved to London to continue to build her hospitality experience with luxury properties including The Ritz London, where she got her start in sales. She joined the InterContinental Hotels and Resorts team in 2013 at the InterContinental London Park Lane as a Business Development Manager where she was responsible for the MICE (meetings, incentive, conventions, events) market in the United Kingdom and Europe. An opportunity to take a Sales Manager position at the InterContinental Hotels of San Francisco brought her to the Bay Area in 2016. She was most recently promoted to Senior Sales Manager. Omar joins Sheraton Oman Hotel as marketing manager, with over 12 years experience in hotel marketing. In her new role, Omar is tasked with developing brand initiatives, launching two outlets' campaigns and working with F&B marketing on promotions and PR campaigns. Sondos, who is from Egypt, is an experienced hotelier, having worked with Hilton Hotels & Resorts and Hyatt International. The idea of clumsy features being phased out altogether is something we've gotten used to with technology Apple is a great example. The company is constantly doing away with ports, drives and other features in order to create a more slim line product that redefines what's useful and necessary. Could hotel business centres go the same way? Are they fundamentally an obsolete concept? Could their functionality be accomplished in other ways? Many people walk by hotel business centres without even noticing, but rest-assured, they do exist. Since the advent of computing in business, hotel guests have been trickling into these out-of-the-way rooms and using them (in relatively low numbers, and for short amounts of time) to get things done. But like every aspect of the hotel experience (lobbies, exercise rooms, guest rooms) business centres are being picked apart, re-tooled, and in some cases done away with completely. What's the future of this archaic amenity? Why people use business centres Traditionally, hotel business centres have been used to print boarding passes or other important documents, or just to check mail and stay connected. There was a time when fax was super important, and business centres provided a valuable service in this respect. But things are different in 2017. Not many business travelers are in need of a fax machine, and the need for public PC access is at an all-time low. Most of us take a laptop, tablet or smartphone wherever we go. Boarding passes? Printing those ahead of time is becoming obsolete too, as more airlines and passengers use QR codes to check in. This isn't to say that print, fax, and even PC services are completely obsolete and that no guest ever needs them. It's only to say that a dedicated space may not be worth maintaining, if only for the convenience of a very few. Constraints and concerns The worst type of stereotypical hotel business centre is stuffy, dated and windowless. The CPUs are dated and struggle to execute the most rudimentary commands. In some embarrassing cases, the screens may not even be flat. This is simply not an area of the hotel where people want to spend a lot of time closed off, isolated and uncomfortable. It's like being in an airless bubble. Get in, get it done and get out. But this isn't even the main concern. Forbes ran a piece in 2014 called "Why You Should Never Use a Hotel Business Centre Computer" which nicely summarises the hacking concerns associated with business centre PCs. The need to protect data, passwords and sensitive accounts is even more prescient after the global "ransomware" virus that made news in May of 2017. There is software (such as FreshStart) which effectively erases the user data of each guest after using a public PC, and goes some distance to address security concerns, but this may prove redundant as more properties do away with public machines, choosing instead to create dynamic and inviting spaces for guests to plug in, work, print, and enjoy a beverage from a comfortable chair or standing workstation whilst using their own devices. The case for removing business centres altogether So back to our original question: Is it time to phase out the hotel business centre? Several major hotel brands say yes. Starwood, Klimpton and Comfort Inn Suites are some of the bigger names who have taken steps to remove business centres. Actually, the idea isn't really to remove the business centre. It's that the entire hotel (especially the guest room) is the business centre. Larger desks, ergonomic roller chairs, abundant charging ports, reinforced headboards for back support, wireless printing capabilities, and even standing or moveable workstations these are some the in-room solutions hotels are coming up with. Couple this with BYOD solutions with modern TVs and the need for a business centre seems quite archaic. But what about the need to be social? What about the need to separate work space from living space? Many hoteliers believe the business centre is still a valuable amenity and that it only needs to be refreshed and reimagined. Integrating workstations with lobby, cafe and bar areas is one way to do that. Recent trends in both residential and office design have favoured open floor plans with multiple uses, and many hotels are following suit. Hedging bets The five star Peninsula Hotel in Tokyo was discussed in a New York Times article dating back to 2011 ("Farewell to the Business Centre" is the title) for having printer-scanners in every guest room, and flat screens that connect to laptops. Meanwhile, the basement of the property featured a staffed business centre that was in danger of being nixed due to lack of use. As of today, however, the business centre in the basement of the Peninsula Tokyo still exists. Three options for hoteliers Hoteliers have three options where business centres are concerned. The first is to do away with them. Then, create inviting common areas for guests to sit and work, provide free WiFi through the property, and allow wireless printing to a dedicated station or directly to the front desk. And put better workstations in the rooms. The second option is to retain the business centre, but make it cool and contemporary. Make it a place where young professionals actually want to spend time. Comfortable furniture, inviting artwork on the walls, ample space for laptop work, and access to quality food & beverage would all be good bets. Given how quickly the world is changing, the third option sticking with that stuffy old business centre of yesteryear seems roughly as viable as trundling along with an iPhone 1. You may be comfortable with it, but you are the only one. Dean Minett Director - Minett Consulting Minett Consulting View source Take a minute to imagine that you've just arrived in Barcelona (or Bangkok, London, Perth, you choose). You've got just 12 hours before your connecting flight. Do you reach for your guidebook and search out the tourist information office? Of course not feasible options a decade ago but not in this digital age. You turn to your mobile, the device on which most of us run our lives on today. There, waiting for you is a welcome message, along the lines of: "Welcome to Barcelona, Robert. Anything planned for those 12 hours of layover here? The Picasso Museum opens in one hour. Tap here to take a virtual tour and book your ticket to avoid the queue. By the time you're done, some of the best vegetarian Catalonian restaurants are within a ten-minute walk. Check out some of their special offers, and click on whichever one takes your fancy to make a reservation. "Oh by the way, traffic is not looking very good right now, we suggest you take the metro. Tap here for directions. "Next train leaves in ten minutes swipe right to get your ticket." The tips can continue giving the user a whole host of relevant options and information tailored to his or her likes and interest tours, special offers, theatre shows, maps, location-specific guides, restaurants. What's more, it'll take into consideration the time of day and the user's actual location pushing to him or her only those notifications that are truly relevant. It's a personalised tour guide, a daily planner, a guidebook, a map, a concierge and a booking engine all on one ecosystem joining all the dots of the traveller's journey seamlessly. It's a complete in-destination mobile solution in the palm of your hand, which means that the traveller does not need to download four or five different apps to do this, but it could all exist within one solution, delivered on mobile. Sound feasible? The truth is that all the tools to make this reality exist today, however not many companies have invested in putting all of these together for the traveller. Fact or fiction Not many industries have embraced and adopted the advancement of digitalisation as much as the travel sector and this is showing no signs of slowing. According to the World Economic Forum's paper entitled Digital Transformation Initiative Aviation, Travel and Tourism in collaboration with Accenture, over the next decade (2016 to 2025), digitalisation in the travel industry is expected to create up to $305 billion of value. It's no secret that what is truly driving not only innovation but also monetisation and profitability in travel is mobile technology. According to Criteo, fuelled by smartphone use, close to one-third of online travel bookings worldwide took place on mobile devices in Q2 2016, up from 24% just one year before. This trend is reiterated by Hotels.com's travel tracker, which reports that in 2016 42% of people booked a hotel on mobile, rising to 53% for under 30s. And according to the 2016 Expedia/Egencia Mobile Index, 84% of travellers want to access information from anywhere in the world. Some 60% admit that they would be unwilling to go on holiday without their mobile devise. In fact, 35% claim to use their mobile more on holiday than they would otherwise. Generation games I know there is lots of talk about Millennials and how they are driving mobile adoption. The want-it-now generation makes snap decisions and demands on-spot, personalised information at their fingertips. I would say that it is not just Millenials. Most of us (I am a Xennial if we have to label), are constantly on our phones, checking email, chatting on Whatsapp, posting on Instagram. It is just a natural progression that we are all moving towards the mobile device, because it lets us save time. It is herein that lies immense opportunities for companies to engage with their customers by giving them a mobile-driven travel experience. It's already happening. Room to improve Let's take hotel apps for example. For the most part, they have been focusing on the booking of the rooms, and perhaps on the check-in features, yet most hotels abandon their guests after the check-in. They don't invest or know how to engage people on the device they are on most of the day. Where is a traveller to look for advice on what to do? Why are the hotels not the ones providing this, not enabling guests to explore their properties, to know the city or the neighbourhood or even book tours, activities and attractions or reserve a table at a great restaurant? I am not going to say that no hotels are investing, in fact some are. Take for example Aloft, which recently launched its in-room app that controls the guest's room using Apple's Homekit and Siri. This allows guests to change the temperature, control the lights and television all using voice commands. Siri also acts like a real concierge, answering questions about the local area. Although yet to revolutionise the travel industry, voice-based commands are gaining momentum, especially as natural language processing evolves. What I see gaining ground is the chatbot, such as that used in Whatsapp and Messenger. Now brands are creating their own bots to automate and speed up the loop around how customers engage with content and ask questions. Take Holiday Inn as an example, becoming the first major chain in Japan to adopt the latest artificial intelligence chatbot concierge Bebot. Bebot offers real-time assistance to guests by answering questions that only hotel staff or locals would know and then goes on to make restaurant or tour bookings. I know of other great examples of brands who are building bots (I have personally helped one brand with its first bot which is launching soon) to engage their guests while in destination, but the adoption is slow and scarce in the industry. If you have ever worked on a proper chatbot, you would know that a lot of the time has to be spent on the Chat UI, because you are building for intent, so the results are not known, as if you were building a website or app. If you think about it, for every answer a bot could give you, there are 1000 ways of asking. Once you have your ChatUI you have to start getting enough data to make the bot smart most people think that they can build a bot in a few weeks, and then they call the bot AI powered. Sorry to deflate the hype, but most of those bots have barely any machine learning applied to them. That takes time, training and it's not just done by the algorithms companies that get it right have humans annotating and fixing queries. Of course you can't do everything on a bot, so as a company you will probably still need to use an app of some sort. Few companies can afford to rest on their laurels and continue to avoid engaging their customers on mobile. The travel giants are taking note, only in May this year we saw online travel giant TripAdvisor relaunch its native iOS app, making it more streamlined for its 150 million monthly hotel shoppers to search for hotels, book flights, tours and attractions. However it is not just the OTAs, hotels and airlines that should be engaging customers and investing or building for great mobile travel experiences. Banks and telecoms companies have travelling customers who are loyal and expect to receive these experiences, perhaps even tied to loyalty and rewards programs. Opportunity in the making According to the World Economic Forum report, it is predicted that within travel$ 100 billion of value will migrate from traditional players to new competitors. Companies that have traditionally served a certain sector of the industry such as airlines are now crossing boundaries as roles are blurring. While providing flights remains their raison d'etre, airlines know that to build deeper and stronger relationships with their customers they need to provide more. The opportunity cost of not investing in mobile is that customers will start looking for alternative apps or bots, and the opportunity to gather data, behaviour, drive revenue and engagement will be taken by someone else. It is not a fad. A mobile solution for your guests if you are a hotel, for a passenger if you are an airline and for a customer if you are a financial institution is not a nice-to-have it is what you should already be doing. It's worth remembering that the in-destination experience is central to any trip. The airline and the hotel are a means to experience a destination. Companies need to empower their customers before and after the flight or beyond the hotel room by giving them the tools not only to inspire but also to turn that inspiration into reality. Joining the dots of the entire travel experience means offering a highly personalized, 360-degree in-destination mobile experience. Through mobile technology, based heavily on accurate data collection, some of that $305 billion revenue predicted by the WEF could be yours. Now if you'll excuse me, I've an art gallery to go to. About the ENTERTAINER business The ENTERTAINER business provides tailored App solutions for corporate clients interested in creating employee and customer rewards and engagement programmes. The ENTERTAINER business is powered by the ENTERTAINER, an international Dubai-based company renowned for its buy one get one free incentive offers, and works with more than 250 partners globally. They currently have offices in the UAE, London, Singapore, South Africa and Hong Kong. For further information, please visit https://business.theentertainerme.com/ Robert Meza Head of Travel The ENTERTAINER FZ LLC View source AC Hotel Cincinnati Opens Downtown Cincinnati The AC Hotel Cincinnati at the Banks officially revealed its sophisticated European style today during a ribbon-cutting celebration attended by Mayor John Cranley, Hamilton CountyCommissioners and area business leaders. Situated across from the Great American Ball Park, the property is located in The Banks development a premier mixed-use office, retail and residential development that serves as home to the Cincinnati Reds, the Cincinnati Bengals, GE's Global Operations Headquarters and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. Located at 135 Joe Nuxhall Way, the hotel was developed by Eagle Realty Group on behalf of its parent company, Western & Southern Financial Group, and its development and operating partner Winegardner & Hammons Hotel Group, LLC of Cincinnati, Ohio. "We are excited to bring this dynamic hotel to downtown Cincinnati," said Tom Stapleton, senior vice president, Eagle Realty Group. "The European inspiration of the design and the beverage and food is unlike any other hotel in the downtown market and has already been well received." Designed with creative, well-traveled, entrepreneurial spirits in mind, the hotel will cater to those who are constantly on the go through its innovative beverage and food programming, intuitive service, locally inspired art and 171 modern guest rooms and suites, many with balconies that overlook the Ohio River, Roebling Suspension Bridge and Smale Park. Guests will appreciate the hotel's jaw-dropping views from the rooftop bar, complimentary Wi-Fi, and a state-of-the-art fitness center. Three distinct meeting spaces are also available to guests of AC Hotel Cincinnati at The Banks, including two intimate, audiovisual-equipped media salons for up to eight people, and an 888-square-foot meeting room. The AC Lobby will feature the brand's signature open-concept spaces with a thoughtfully selected collection of inviting furnishings. Ambient lighting and cozy seating in the AC library and lounge areas invite travelers and locals to relax in chic surroundings, while also creating an effortless space in which to conduct a business meeting or connect with friends over cocktails. A twist on the traditional hotel bar, the AC lounge will serve up AC's signature Gintonic, beer from local breweries, specialty wines, expertly made craft cocktails and a selection of tapas-style small bites. The AC Upper Deck rooftop bar and event space overlooks downtown Cincinnati with spectacular views of the Ohio River and Smale Park. The AC kitchen will serve a European-inspired continental breakfast selection of flaky croissants, savory egg tarts and Nespresso coffee. AHLA Ceo Lugar Announces $500,000 Youth Grant to Community-Based Organizations to Open Career Pathways in High-Demand Markets Katherine Lugar, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA) today presented a national non-profit career development organization, Grads of Life, with a commitment to provide $500,000 in grants to community-based organizations to recruit and develop Opportunity Youth in high-demand markets, such as Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago and Baltimore. U.S. Secretary of Labor Alexander Acosta joined Lugar and Grads of Life Principal Shawn JacquelineBohen to announce this investment for Opportunity Youth. Currently, six million young people Opportunity Youth -- are between the ages of 16 to 24, and out of school and out of work. Connecting them to potential employers is an important step in securing their future. The hospitality industry has some 600,000 job openings and this grant commitment will help fill a critical labor shortage in the long-term by joining with community-based organizations to attract youth for careers in the hospitality industry. This grant, provided to Grads of Life, a nationally recognized leader in working with employers to bring Opportunity Youth into the workplace, the funding needed to help us impact 1000 youth over two years. On the heels of the Apprenticeship Task Force announcement, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is working closely with the hotel industry which has a proven track record in creating career pathways for employees -- to help close the skills gap and provide our nations youth with meaningful and impactful careers. The event, in conjunction with the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Foundation (AHLEF), is part of AHLAs Empowering Youth Project, an initiative of the industrys Dreams Happen Here campaign, a national awareness effort to showcase career advancement opportunities, community commitment, and economic importance of hotel and lodging businesses to every city and state across America. Present at the announcement were several students enrolled in AHLAs pre-apprenticeship program with the DOL. After announcing the grant, Secretary Acosta and Lugar met with the staff members of the Canopy by Hilton Washington, D.C. hotel to hear their stories and learn about their roles. This Administration is committed to unlocking more opportunities for Americans to get the family-sustaining jobs they deserve, said Secretary Acosta. I thank the American Hotel and Lodging Association and Grads of Life for working together to bring young people into the hospitality industry. We need more programs like these so that young people can have avenues for advancement, including apprenticeships. The hotel industry supports more than eight million jobs in the United States, and this grant is another step in our continued commitment to creating opportunity and economic mobility by investing in our workforce, said Katherine Lugar, President and CEO of AHLA. We commend Secretary Acosta for taking a leadership role in prioritizing apprenticeships which are critical to career development. By partnering with the Labor Department and Grads of Life, we are taking a meaningful step to close that jobs gap and provide our nations youth with the skills to launch long, prosperous careers in the hotel industry. At Grads of Life, we work each day to match employers in need of talent with innovative solutions that also provide Opportunity Youth with the skills and access necessary for meaningful career pathways, Grads of Life Principal Elyse Rosenblum said. AHLAs grant commitments and partnership with the Department of Labor will help advance our mission to close the Opportunity Divide and aid countless young people looking to gain stable employment in the hotel industry. It has been revealed that Chicago drill artist Lil Mouse was shot in the leg on Sunday evening. The news was announced via Fake Shore Drive by his publicist Victor Foh Jr, who states that Mouse was on Chicagos South Side when the shooting occurred around 6 PM. Not much else is known about the incident as of yet, but it would appear that the young rapper will make a full recovery. Mouse, who had previously beefed with the notorious Slim Jesus, has been quiet on social media since the shooting occurred. Lil Mouse has previously released several mixtapes since emerging onto the scene with Get Smoked, a track he recorded when he was thirteen. Since then, he has gained popularity with his Mouse Trap series, as well as his pair of Slim Jesus diss tracks Kill Time, and Nail Him To The Cross. His crusade against Slim Jesus continued as of September, as Lil Mouse dropped yet another Slim Jesus diss, simply titled Fuck Slim Jesus. This incident is not the first time that Mouse was at the center of a shooting. At a Lil Mouse and King Sampson performance in 2013, seven people were shot and injured. Afterward, The Tribune reported that Mouse had received national media attention when he appeared in a music video at thirteen, brandishing guns at the camera. Luckily, the shooting yielded no fatalities. As for Lil Mouses recent shooting, the story remains in development. The eighteen year old rapper had been a rising force in the Chicago drill wave, and it would be a shame if his promising career would be compromised by any senseless violence. Stay tuned for more on this as it develops, and we wish Mouse a speedy recovery. Lil Mouse Rapper Nike has officially unveiled the lineup of sneakers for this years Doernbecher Freestyle Collection, which were created by six brave kids Andrew, Amyiah, Brayden, Brody, Carissa and Tylan. Each specially designed sneaker is a reflection of their remarkable lives. According to Nike, the annual Doernbecher Collection started out as an idea from Connor Doherty, the son of Nike Creative Director and OHSU Doernbecher Foundation board member Michael Doherty. His suggestion enabling the hospitals young patients to engage their imaginations by designing their very own Nike sneakers formalized in 2003 as the OHSU Doernbecher Freestyle program. Fourteen years and 85 patient-designers later, his idea has raised $17 million for the hospital, brightened the lives of countless kids and caught the attention of sneaker lovers and collectors across the country. Every day, countless young patients at OHSU Doernbecher Childrens Hospital demonstrate what it means to go all in as they bravely face serious illness. Included in the Doernbecher Freestyle Collection is the Air Jordan 12, Nike Air More Uptempo, Nike Air VaporMax, Nike SB Zoom Stefan Janoski, Nike Air Huarache Run Ultra, and the Nike Air Max Thea Ultra Flyknit. This years Nike x Doernbecher Collection will be up for grabs on November 18th with 100 percent of the proceeds from the sales of the collection to benefit OHSU Doernbecher. Adult and youth sizes will launch in SNKRS, and the full apparel collection will launch on nike.com and at select Nike retail and partner stores. Learn more about this years patient-designers here. Below you can read the story and inspiration behind each sneaker and the designer, courtesy of Nike. Tylan Hibbard Nike SB Zoom Stefan Janoski Tylan was born with truncus arteriosus, a rare heart defect that is fatal if not corrected. But while his heart may not function perfectly, its full of love for his family. Theyve always been there for me, even when things get tough, he said. Tylan included his own personal mantra on the tab of the SB Zoom Stefan Janoski: be kind. Thats the theme of his very own YouTube channel, which he created to help other people feel better. At the end of every video, it says be kind because you never know what someone else is going through, he said. Thats why you want to be the best you can be to them. Because he thinks every fisherman needs a good fishing shoe, Hibbard also designed his shoe with nautical details. A school of trophy fish swims against a deep blue background. Brayden Sparkman Nike Air Huarache Run Ultra Brayden Strong is Brayden Sparkmans nickname, and it is also an apt description for how hes choosing to fight acute lymphoblastic leukemia. When I was diagnosed, everyone in the community started calling me by that nickname, he explained. For me, it means trying your best and leading by example. Sparkman is an avid baseball player who hopes to play professionally one day. His Air Huarache Run is a tribute to the game and features red baseball stitching, his own logo and nickname, which describe his playing style. The prominent display of orange is a nod to his favorite baseball and football teams. Andrew Merydith Nike Air VaporMax Like Andrew, the ultra-lightweight VaporMax is also built for speed. It features vibrant shades of green and purple that coordinate perfectly with his favorite BMX jersey. Andrew used his initials to create a cool logo, and came up with his own hashtag for the outsole: #ilovethefam. My family is my hero, he explains. Theyve been so supportive and caring throughout this whole thing. According to Doernbecher social worker Emily Somervell, Andrew shares his familys caring, compassionate traits. For Andrew, helping others brings him the most happiness, she said. Thats why hes looking forward to becoming a scientist who helps treat and hopefully cure cystic fibrosis. After participating in the Freestyle program, Andrew says he has another career aspiration: designing shoes. Carissa Navarro Air Jordan 12 Carissas Air Jordan XII is perfect for dancing and also a showcase for her favorite things. Youll find her stuffed dog Max on the outsole, a picture of her family inside, and a slice of pizza on the laces. I put pizza on my shoe because pizza is delicious! she smiles. Of all the things that Carissa loves most, her twin sister Savannah tops the list, and her name appears on the heel tab of the left shoe. Carissa was born without kidneys, but Savannah helped her stay alive in the womb until she could begin dialysis. Shes the best sister ever, said Carissa of her twin. Amyiah Robinson Nike Air Max Thea Ultra Flyknit Amyiahs colorful ombre Air Max Thea Ultra Flyknit features her name loud and proud, as well as a logo comprised of a heart with angel wings flying over the words ROCK STAR. Sometimes I think Im kind of a rock star, she laughed. And the angel heart is a symbol that means a lot to my mom. She was in the military, so it represents freedom. Besides, shes my guardian angel. Besides being true to herself, Amyiah also believes being true to her roots, which is why the inside of one shoe features a map of her hometown in Oklahoma, while the other contains a map of Oregon. Amyiah moved to Oregon in 2015 to be closer to family and to be treated for sickle cell anemia, which requires monthly transfusions at Doernbecher. Brody Miller Nike Air More Uptempo To help in his fight against complex brain malformation, Brody Miller, an aspiring comic book artist, dreamed up an alter ego, Generator Man, who is featured on his Air More Uptempo. Generator Man is based on me, he explains. Not only can he shoot healing energy out of his hands, he also has the powers of mind control. Other super-powered features include a glow-in-the-dark outsole that reveals the words BE STRONG. With all my surgeries, Ive had to be really strong, he explains. Theres also a giant BPM down the side, which stands for beats per minute as well as his initials, Brody Preston Miller. Nike x DB Following a summer of mixed fortunes, which included a welcome year-on-year increase in profit per room in August, hotels in the Middle East & Africa were back to business as usual this month as GOPPAR levels sunk by 17.1% year-on-year, according to the latest worldwide poll of full-service hotels from HotStats. Following a summer of mixed fortunes, which included a welcome year-on-year increase in profit per room in August, hotels in the Middle East & Africa were back to business as usual this month as GOPPAR levels sunk by 17.1% year-on-year, according to the latest worldwide poll of full-service hotels from HotStats. September typically marks a return to normal trading conditions for hotels in the Middle East & Africa following the disruption during the summer, and with room occupancy levels this month (66.7%) well ahead of the average for the preceding three-month summer period at 57.5%, they looked to be back on track. However, a 10.8% decline in achieved average room rate, to $158.67, wiped out the 1.0 percentage point increase in room occupancy and meant that hotels in the region suffered a 9.5% decline in RevPAR. At $105.80, RevPAR at hotels in the Middle East & Africa was 5.5% below the year-to-date average of $111.93. The expected resurgence in performance at hotels in the region is characteristically led by the commercial sector. However, in addition to a drop in volume, a year-on-year decline in sector rates was recorded in the corporate (-8.0%) and residential conference (-8.6%) segments this month. Profit & Loss Key Performance Indicators Middle East & Africa (in USD) September 2017 v September 2016 RevPAR: -9.5% to $105.80 TrevPAR: -6.5% to $183.06 Payroll: +2.4 pts to 29.9% GOPPAR: -17.1% to $59.83 In addition to the drop in Rooms Revenue, hotels in the Middle East & Africa recorded a decline in Non-Rooms Revenue, which included a decrease in Food and Beverage (-1.7%) and Leisure (-7.0%) revenue on a per available room basis. As a result, TrevPAR in the region fell by 6.5% year-on-year to $183.06. In line with the growth in volume, a 2.4-percentage point increase in Payroll levels was recorded at hotels in the Middle East & Africa, to 29.9% of total revenue. However, the rising costs further exacerbated the issue of falling revenues and as a result GOPPAR levels dropped to just $59.83. Despite oil prices hitting a two-year high in late September, a number of key economies across the Middle East & Africa continue to face challenges as they come to terms with the reduction in oil output due to OPEC-imposed cuts and many look to non-oil industries to stimulate growth. The current challenges in the oil industry have seen Saudi Arabia fall into recession in Q2 2017 with the Qatar economy also struggling. Alongside this, the political landscape in the region is facing major issues. The current challenges in the Middle East & Africa suggest the hotel market will continue to struggle in the short term, said Pablo Alonso, CEO of HotStats. Profit & Loss Key Performance Indicators Dubai (in USD) September 2017 v September 2016 RevPAR: -13.4% to $126.25 TrevPAR: -9.9% to $232.37 Payroll: +3.2 pts to 32.2% GOPPAR: -27.6% to $55.83 Whilst Dubai is one of the few key economies in the Middle East & Africa which is much less reliant on the oil industry, the city is facing challenges of its own, as the dynamics of the hotel market shift towards the mid-market segment and the volume of supply in the city multiplies in preparation for Expo 2020. This month, RevPAR at hotels in Dubai fell by 13.5% year-on-year due to a decline in both room occupancy (-4.2 percentage points) and achieved average room rate (-8.7%) to $162.50, with the decline this month contributing to the 2.7% drop for year-to-date 2017. It is surprising that the year-on-year decline has not been more severe, with more than 4,000 bedrooms added to the Dubai market in the year to Q3 2017, which have included the 414-bedroom Rixos JBR and the 238-bedroom DoubleTree by Hilton Business Bay, bringing the total number of rooms available to 82,200 bedrooms. In addition to the drop in RevPAR, hotels in Dubai suffered declines in Non-Rooms Revenue this month, which included a drop in Food and Beverage (-4.4%) and Leisure (-17.9%) revenue on a per available room basis. The decline in revenues across all hotel departments resulted in hotels in Dubai recording a 9.9% decline in TrevPAR, to $232.37. Escalating costs contributed to the 27.6% decline in GOPPAR at hotels in Dubai this month, which added to the 6.3% drop in this measure for year-to-date 2017 and means Dubai hotels are on course for a third consecutive year of profit decline further to the drop in 2015 (-20.5%) and 2016 (-10.1%). The additions to stock in the Dubai hotel market, many of which are in the mid-market segment, are inevitably diluting top line performance which is having a knock-on effect on the rest of the profit and loss. Despite this, construction projects in the city are continuing unabated and a further 4,100 bedrooms are due to enter the market in Q4 2017, with up to 40,600 rooms being developed in the next two and a half years in the lead up to Expo 2020, added Pablo. In contrast to the performance across many hotel markets in the region, hotels in Kuwait were able to record an increase in top and bottom line performance levels in September, but had to work hard to do so. This month, hotels in Kuwait were able to offset a 7.1% decline in achieved average room rate with a 5.2 percentage point increase in room occupancy levels, resulting in a 3.2% increase in RevPAR, to $110.72. The year-on-year growth in Rooms Revenue contributed to the 2.3% increase in TrevPAR. As a result of the growth in volume, Payroll levels for hotels in Kuwait increased by 1.3 percentage points to 29.2% of total revenue. Despite the increase in costs, GOPPAR increased by 0.3% to $87.34 this month, equivalent to a profit conversion of 41.1% of total revenue. Profit & Loss Key Performance Indicators Kuwait (in USD) September 2017 v September 2016 RevPAR: +3.2% to $110.72 TrevPAR: +2.3% to $212.65 Payroll: +1.3 pts to 29.2% GOPPAR: +0.3% to $87.34 HotStats provides two reporting tools to hoteliers: Our unique profit and loss benchmarking service which enables monthly comparison of hotels performance against their competitors. It is distinguished by the fact that it provides in excess of 100 performance metric comparisons covering 70 areas of hotel revenue, cost, profit and statistics providing far deeper insight into the hotel operation than any other tool. Our latest innovation in daily revenue intelligence, MORSE. Amongst its reporting are daily and highly granular market segmentation metrics as well as distribution channel and source of booking analysis. It takes daily market intelligence to a whole new level. For more information contact: Enquiries +44 (0) 20 7892 2241 enquiries@hotstats.com Daily News Delivery Join your colleagues and stay up to date on the latest all industry news and trends. Subscribe 2022 Hospitality Trends SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- At 74, Yampie Calleins' yellowing, muscular hands now tremble when raising something as light as a piece of paper -- the result of a life spent swinging a machete and hoisting cane in this country's sugar fields. After devoting more than four decades of his labor to the Dominican sugar industry, he now draws a modest pension equal to roughly $110 per month. Tomorrow, however, he could lose it. "I've been here since three in the morning," Calleins told The Huffington Post. "But you've got to do what you can to get the papers." Advertisement Yampie Calleins stands in front of a line of people waiting to register to normalize their migrant status before Wednesday's deadline in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. (Roque Planas/HuffPost) On Wednesday, Calleins was one of hundreds of people who had queued up since the early morning hours at the central administrative building here -- virtually all of them Haitian-born or -descended, virtually all of them black and virtually all of them facing the threat of deportation in the coming days. At midnight, the deadline to file paperwork with a "Regularization Plan" for the Dominican Republic's estimated 500,000 undocumented immigrants expired, leaving an uncertain future for many on the island who have wrestled with Dominican bureaucracy for a chance to stay in the place they know as home. In the days leading up to the deadline, Dominican authorities said roughly 210,000 people had applied to normalize their status under the law, which would give applicants two years of legal residency. A seemingly endless line wound around the towering government building's main floor, spilling down its steps and outside its gates, where increasingly pessimistic throngs of people huddled under the watch of national police officers bearing shields and holding wooden batons. At intervals of 10 to 15 minutes, someone would leave, clutching a small pile of papers, and the line would slide forward, as the applicants barely rose to their feet, instead dragging their pants and skirts across the building's concrete benches. Advertisement Several thousand people born in the Dominican Republic to Haitian parents, some of whom have lived in the country for generations and have no ties to neighboring Haiti, will also face the risk of deportation due to a controversial series of laws that culminated in the revocation of citizenship for the children of undocumented Haitians. The idea of birthright citizenship has been controversial for years in the Dominican Republic, which has long had a tense relationship with neighboring Haiti. Migrants from across the border have traveled into the Dominican Republic in large numbers since the early 1900s, driven by the lure of work, often in menial jobs such as cane cutting or domestic service. A 2004 immigration law specified that children born to undocumented immigrants would be excluded from Dominican nationality and urged to move to Haiti, according to the Open Society Foundations. That standard was enshrined in the 2010 constitution, and a 2013 decision by the Dominican Constitutional Court sparked international criticism by applying the standard retroactively to 1929 and ordering government officials to revoke citizenship from those who no longer qualified. "It interpreted that those who were born between 1929 and 2010 of undocumented migrants were not Dominican," said Angelita Baeyens, program director for RFK Human Rights. "So even those whose Dominican citizenship had been recognized and had ... Dominican IDs and passports, by this decision, they were being stripped of their nationality." In response to international outrage, the Dominican government passed a naturalization law in 2013 as a solution to people in limbo. The law distinguished between two groups of now stateless residents: Group A consisted of people who formerly had documents like passports, birth certificates or ID cards, but found them revoked at some point over the last decade or so as the citizenship laws changed. Those in Group B had been born in the country, but never obtained crucial documents needed to prove their citizenship. The law reclassified them as lawful migrants and gave them a pathway to citizenship. Advertisement Applicants wait in line for a chance to normalize their immigration status with Dominican authorities before a midnight deadline Wednesday. (Roque Planas/HuffPost) Estimates of how many Dominicans are in this situation vary widely. Amnesty International and RFK Human Rights place the number around 200,000 people -- the vast majority of them are of Haitian descent. Dominican officials, however, have estimated the figure around 24,000. By the February deadline to register, however, fewer than 9,000, Dominican-born people had successfully completed the application process. Critics blamed systemic obstacles such as a sketchy registration process, contradictory instructions and an extensive application procedure. Even as they saw Dominican citizenship slip from their hands, some Dominican-born people hoped to apply for recognition as lawful immigrants under the "Regularization Plan" by Wednesday's deadline. MacLawson Joseph, 28, is one of them. Though he was born in the Dominican Republic and knows nothing of Haiti, the Dominican government now views him as an undocumented immigrant because his parents are Haitian migrants. Four hours before the deadline approached, he had yet to make it inside the building's gates, even though he had arrived at 3 a.m. Advertisement "I'm not leaving," Joseph told HuffPost. "My mother's here. My father's dead. My sister, all my family is here. What am I going to do over there [in Haiti]?" The vast majority of Haitian-descended Dominicans and Haitian migrants living in the country are black, leading many to believe racism has propelled the desire to expel them. "There is a deep historical current of racism within the Dominican Republic -- racism directed specifically at Haiti," said Greg Grandin, a professor of Latin American history at New York University. "On the other hand, I think there's a more contingent and immediate cause of the racism in this immediate form." Government officials, however, have bristled at criticism -- particularly from abroad -- over their handling of the citizenship and immigration issues, arguing that control over immigration is an issue of sovereignty and that the country's weak economy cannot accommodate excess labor. President Danilo Medina's administration says the midnight cutoff will mark a final deadline. "Those who didn't register with the Regularization Plan, they will be subject to deportation," Vice Minister of the Interior Washington Gonzalez said Tuesday, according to El Comercio. As the June 17 deadline to register with the government passes, government officials say they plan to resume deportations, which had been largely halted to allow people to finish registering. The military has deployed 2,000 soldiers to help with the process, and government officials have opened four holding centers to take immigrants getting processed for expulsion, according to Reuters. Advertisement Some applicants hoping to normalize their immigration status had yet to make it through the gates to the outside of the building just hours before the midnight deadline. (Roque Planas/HuffPost) Government authorities say the deportations will be modest and targeted, but human rights groups like Amnesty International say they're concerned the government will carry out mass deportations of both denationalized Dominicans and undocumented migrants. Marselha Goncalves Margerin, Amnesty International's advocacy director for the Americas, said her group is particularly concerned that Dominicans of Haitian descent will be viewed by Dominican officials as indistinguishable from undocumented immigrants more generally and expelled to a country that they never knew. "Amnesty's concern is that Dominicans of Haitian descent risk being trapped on the deportation scheme and therefore being expelled," Margerin said. "There have been, in the past, a lot of deportations that are done through raids targeting specific communities of Haitian migrants and their descendants." For now, the scale of the deportations and how they will be carried out remains unclear. Typically, the Dominican Republic carries out deportations "administratively," rather than having the courts review individual cases. Critics like Amnesty International say such a streamlined process flies in the face of international standards and make it too difficult to contest erroneous or arbitrary deportations. "What we expect to have is that some deportation might start to take place [on] Thursday for some people who did not enroll in the regularization plan and for people who enrolled and failed to regularize for different reasons," Robin Guittard, an Amnesty International campaigner for the Caribbean Team, told HuffPost. Guittard says such a system makes it more likely that Dominican citizens could be expelled and left without the ability to enter their own country. "What the situation is in the country at the moment ... is a lot of fear," Guittard said. "These people now have no more options, no more solutions and, with deportation to take place soon, they are very scared to know what's going to happen to them." Advertisement We work towards an equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector We work towards an equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector We work towards an equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector We work towards an equitable, gender-just, self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector Dennis Banks, who helped found the American Indian Movement and engaged in sometimes-violent uprisings against the U.S. government, including the armed occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973, died at age 80, his family announced Monday. Banks, whose Ojibwe name was Nowacumig, was one of several activists who founded AIM in Minneapolis in 1968, and he was a leader of the group's takeover of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1973, in a protest against both the U.S. and tribal governments. Wounded Knee had been the site of a massacre by U.S. soldiers in 1890 that left an estimated 300 Indians dead. The occupiers held federal agents at bay for 71 days; two Native Americans died and several agents were injured amid the frequent gunfire. Banks died Sunday night at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, surrounded by about 30 people, including siblings, children and grandchildren, said daughter Tashina Banks Rama. He had heart surgery earlier this month and was in high spirits until pneumonia he had contracted after the surgery took a turn for the worse on Friday, she said. "Dennis Banks is somebody who had an indelible impact on history, not just in our native community but throughout our country," said Anton Treuer, a professor of the Ojibwe language at Bemidji State University, citing how he demanded that the powerful take notice of American Indian concerns. "He was someone who was both loved and hated depending on what circle you're looking at." Banks and fellow AIM leader Russell Means faced charges stemming from the Wounded Knee occupation, but a judge threw out the case. However, Banks spent 18 months in prison in the 1980s after being convicted for rioting and assault for a protest in Custer, South Dakota, earlier in 1973. He avoided prosecution on those charges for several years because California Gov. Jerry Brown refused to extradite him, and the Onondaga Nation in New York gave him sanctuary. Banks also helped lead a takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices in Washington, D.C., in 1972 as part of a protest dubbed "The Trail of Broken Treaties." And he was a participant in the 1969-71 occupation by Native Americans of Alcatraz Island, the site of the former prison in San Francisco Bay. Banks' family wrote on his Facebook page that as he took his last breaths, son Minoh Banks sang him four songs for his journey. "All the family who were present prayed over him and said our individual goodbyes," the family said. "Then we proudly sang him the AIM song as his final send off." Banks lived near the town of Federal Dam on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota and was a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, one of the many bands of Ojibwe, also known as the Chippewa or Anishinaabe, living in North America. In the late 1990s, Banks founded a company that sold wild rice and maple syrup, trading on his famous name. He was part of a group of AIM supporters who returned to Wounded Knee in 2003 to mark the 30th anniversary of the standoff. Banks paid tribute to the dead as "warriors" and declared it "a national holiday." He was also there in 1998 for the 25th anniversary. In 2010, Banks joined several other Ojibwe from the Leech Lake and White Earth bands who tested their rights under an 1855 treaty by setting out nets illegally on Lake Bemidji a day before Minnesota's fishing season opener. He also went to the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota to join last year's protests of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. Treuer said Banks is remembered in the Native American community not just for his work in the rise of AIM, but for his efforts on the local level, such as focusing attention on racial disparities in the justice system, housing for Native Americans, treaty rights and teaching traditional ways to young people. Rama said the family plans to hold wakes Wednesday evening at the Minneapolis American Indian Center, and Thursday and Friday on Leech Lake Reservation. Banks will be buried on the reservation in a traditional ceremony Saturday. Banks is survived by 20 children and more than 100 grandchildren, she said. James Brokenshire could be forced to introduce a budget for Northern Ireland via Westminster Sinn Fein negotiator Gerry Kelly seen in the party's offices at Stormont, as the latest deadline to restore powersharing neared Northern Ireland Secretary of State James Brokenshire has extended the deadline for the region's two main parties to reach a deal to restore powersharing. The DUP and Sinn Fein left Stormont shortly before 9pm on Monday having failed to reach an agreement. They had been warned by Mr Brokenshire that they had until Monday to produce a written agreement or he would be forced to legislate for a budget for the region at Westminster. However, on Monday night he said that the parties have made progress and he was therefore going to defer his decision to legislate for a budget. In a statement he said: "The parties have made further progress during the course of today. "They are making certain additional requests of the UK Government which we need to consider. "In the light of this, I believe it is right to defer the assessment on whether to introduce legislation to Parliament this week to enable an Executive to be formed. "The parties will recommence talks in the morning and I will reassess the position tomorrow night." The Northern Ireland Executive collapsed in January and the region has been without a powersharing government since then. Despite endless rounds of discussions, a deal to restore devolution has proved elusive with the introduction of an Irish language act seen as the main issue. Mr Brokenshire and Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney were in Belfast on Monday to try and help find a breakthrough to the political deadlock. Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams and Mary Lou McDonald also joined their party's negotiating team at Stormont. Throughout the day the DUP, Sinn Fein and the Irish and UK Governments stayed tight-lipped about any progress in the negotiations. The region's smaller parties held a meeting earlier in the day to discuss the lack of openness and transparency in the talks. Before talks began on Monday morning the DUP called on Mr Brokenshire to set a budget to ensure a "measure of good government" in the region. The party said it would not accept "a bad agreement cobbled together to suddenly suit the timetables of others". "Our position has not changed, we want to see an executive set up - we would have done it March and sorted these issues in tandem," said the party in a statement. "Given Sinn Fein have dragged their feet over the last 10 months the secretary of state should bring forward a budget to bring a measure of good government to Northern Ireland," the statement added. The DUP said it will continue the discussions as it believes "devolution is best for Northern Ireland". But it warned that it would not be a part of a "bad agreement cobbled together to suddenly suit the timetables of others". Sinn Fein's Conor Murphy said while a deal can still be done it "needs to be a deal for all in our society and not just for the political leaderships of unionism". "If the political institutions are to be sustainable then they must be restored on the basis of equality, rights and respect. "That requires an end to the DUP's denial of rights citizens enjoy everywhere else on these islands, language rights, marriage rights and the right to a coroner's court," Mr Murphy added. Prime Minister Theresa May's official spokesman said the government was still working with the parties on reaching an agreement. "We have had progress but there are still significant gaps which remain and we continue to work with them to overcome these. "You can expect James Brokenshire to update Parliament later this week on how that is progressing. "We continue to work with the parties on trying to overcome the differences between them and to restore devolved government, which is in the interests of all communities in Northern Ireland," the spokesman said. He added: "We are clear we don't want to see a return to direct rule, we want a return of devolved government in Northern Ireland, so that local decisions can be made by local politicians. "James Brokenshire has been clear that the latest we can practically introduce legislation to enable the executive's formation would be this week in order for it to be in time for a new executive to set a budget." Earlier SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said that if a deal is not reached by Monday's deadline, his party will not accept direct rule from Westminster but only joint rule from both London and Dublin. Alliance Party leader Naomi Long has called on Mr Brokenshire to reduce MLAs' pay by 30% if no progress is made. Thousands of white farmers have blocked traffic on some major roads in South Africa in what they call a Black Monday protest against the high rate of murders of farmers. Convoys of hundreds of slow-moving trucks and cars brought traffic to a crawl on highways leading from farming areas to Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg, and white farmers and their supporters wore black in memory of farmers killed on their properties. The protests have been peaceful and police have accompanied the demonstrators. The protests are backed by AfriForum, a lobby group that promotes the rights of South Africa's white minority, especially the Afrikaner population. AfriForum claims 70 white farmers have been murdered in 341 attacks this year. The rate of murders of white farmers is much higher than South Africa's general murder rate, said Ian Cameron, AfriForum's head of community safety, speaking at the Afrikaners' Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria where hundreds of protesters gathered. "A farmer has 4.5 times more chance of being murdered in South Africa than an average South African," said Mr Cameron, according to the African News Agency. "That means a farmer is three times more likely to be murdered in South Africa than a police officer in this country. So farmers have by far the most dangerous job of all people in this country, at the moment. We cannot allow this to continue the way it is." The protest has been criticised by the Black First Land First group which claimed in a series of tweets that white farmers are perpetrating violence against black people. The American Bar Association on Monday issued a statement deeming Omaha attorney Steve Grasz, who was nominated by President Donald Trump to a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, to be "not qualified" to serve on the federal court. The rare ABA designation of a federal court nominee comes two days before Grasz is scheduled to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing. In a statement issued in conjunction with the ABA announcement, the chairperson of the committee that submitted the recommendation cited concerns about "temperament issues, particularly bias and lack of open-mindedness" by Grasz. The ABA statement written by Pam Bresnahan, a Washington attorney, said many members of the committee that reviewed his nomination "questioned whether Mr. Grasz would be able to detach himself from his deeply held social agenda and political loyalty to be able to judge objectively, with compassion and without bias." Grasz served as chief deputy attorney general for Nebraska from 1991 to 2002 and has been legal counsel for Pete Ricketts for Governor, formerly served as general counsel for the Nebraska Republican Party and was legal counsel for Nebraskans for the Death Penalty. Bresnahan pointed to ABA concerns about "the nominee's deep connection and allegiance to the most powerful politicians in his state" along with questions about whether Grasz's "pro-life agenda" would color his judicial decisions. Grasz has stated that he spends about 50 percent of his professional time lobbying and 50 percent of his time in litigation, Bresnahan said in her report. The ABA report noted "a reluctance on the part of (some) members of the Nebraska bar" to respond to questions about Grasz and cited some responses that "expressed the view that he would be unable to separate his role as an advocate from that of a judge." Grasz was recommended to the White House by Republican Sens. Deb Fischer and Ben Sasse. Sasse, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said "it's sad that the ABA would contort their ratings process to try to tarnish Steve's professional reputation in order to drive a political agenda." Grasz "knows that under our Constitution, judges don't write laws but rule fairly on the facts of each case," Sasse said. Move over Babe the Pig, there's a new four-legged shepherd in town and he's not a work of fiction. Bodacious, the shepherd cat walked into Kilkenny sheep farmer Suzanna Crampton's life 11 years ago, and now his adventures are being turned into a novel. Ever since his arrival on Suzanna's farm, Bodacious has followed her around while she goes about her daily chores. In 2013, Suzanna decided to set up the Twitter page 'Cat Shepherd' to document the activities of Bodacious. The page has a cult following of almost 12,000 fans and is the reason that Suzanna received a book deal from HarperCollins to write about Bodacious's adventures. "Followers kept asking me for stories about Bodacious and a series of publishers approached me to write a book, and luckily I have received an advance to write the novel," she says. According to Suzanna, the book will "not be a fluffy one" and will document all aspects of farm life that Bodacious has experienced. "This will be a very agricultural book and will show the good, the bad and the ugly of sheep farming as, nine times out of 10, Bodacious is with me when good or bad things happen on the farm," she says The book will be told from Bodacious's point of view and is sure to strike a chord with not just cat lovers, but those with an interest in farm life and animals. Suzanna started rearing the rare Zwartable breed of sheep in 2008 when she bought two hoggets and one ewe and hasn't looked back since. Using the breed's unique wool, she designs a range of yarn, blankets and rugs - and they are woven at the nearby Cushendale Woolen Mills in Co Kilkenny. "My agriculture education was in Vermont in the US, but I did two different lambing apprenticeships in Wicklow in 1987 and returned to Ireland permanently in 1997, the year after my grandmother died, to take over the farm. I wanted to get involved in a rare breed of sheep rather than a pedigree flock so that's how it all started." Suzanna is one of the founding members of the South East Women in Farming group. She says the organisation is a "real support system" for women involved in agriculture in the region. "It's a great space for women to talk about agricultural issues without being over- shadowed by men. "I've met some wonderful women in the group. Of course they were all thrilled when they heard about Bodacious's book deal, too." You can keep up with Bodacious's adventures by following his Twitter account @1CatShepherd. A businessman who accuses singing duo Jedward of costing him 600,000 on foot of an alleged breach of contract will have his case heard next week. Patrick Joseph Noonan alleges he was to be reimbursed for costs relating to sourcing and developing Jedward merchandise. Jedward deny the allegations and are contesting the proceedings. Mr Noonan issued proceedings in the High Court for alleged breach of contract in July 2013, and the case is listed for trial on Tuesday for five to eight days. The dispute concerns an alleged contractual arrangement between the parties about commercialising the Jedward brand. It is alleged that Mr Noonan was asked to begin developing and sourcing Jedward merchandise, which was to be sold at a profit, on the basis that Jedward would promote the merchandise to their legion of fans. He was allegedly to be reimbursed personally for the venture's development costs - including the cost of Jedward-branded merchandise and work involved in registering Jedward as a trademark with the Irish Patents Office. Total alleged financial losses for Mr Noonan amount to more than 600,000, with 250,000 in relation to Jedward-branded merchandise. Mr Noonan's solicitor, Ronan Hynes, a partner at Keating Connolly Sellors Solicitors, in Limerick, said: "Obviously, we do not comment on individual cases, particularly when matters are before the courts. We will comment at the appropriate time." Jedward's management did not respond to a request for comment from the Irish Independent. The most recently filed accounts (covering the year to the end of 2016) for the Irish-incorporated business "Planet Jedward Ltd" show that accumulated losses at the company have reached more than 70,000. Creditors' amounts falling due in one year increased around 30,000 to 263,257. In 2012, the business had accumulated profits of almost 600,000. The identical twins (26) - whose real names are John and Edward Grimes - from Dublin, shot to fame in 2009 after progressing to the finals of televised music competition 'The X Factor'. They have represented Ireland twice in the Eurovision song contest and have also appeared in 'Celebrity Big Brother'. The twins also performed at a public concert in Dublin to mark the visit of former US president Barack Obama to Ireland. Their contract with record label Universal Records was not renewed in 2013, but the pair insisted they had not been dropped. "Jedward have not been dropped. There's a dual understanding that we've taken our relationship to its highest heights so we decided to go out on a high," a spokesman said. Last year the duo made headlines after hitting out at Louis Walsh, their former manager. Mayo man Walsh had previously described working with the act and putting them through on 'The X Factor' as the most embarrassing thing to happen to him in his career. "I think we are the most financially beneficial act of his career in the last 10 years," Edward Grimes claimed. John Grimes said: "I don't think he took us under his wing. I think we were already flying." Paddy Power Betfair will announce third quarter results on Wednesday, the first covering the period since the announcement of Breon Corcoran's planned departure as chief executive. Mr Corcoran, who had held the role of CEO since the 7bn (7.9bn) merger of Paddy Power and Betfair, is being replaced by Peter Jackson, a non-executive director at the bookmaker. Investors will be anxious to hear the latest progress update on the integration of Paddy Power and Betfair's IT systems - seen as an important building block for future growth. Wednesday will also see the announcement of third quarter results from packaging giant Smurfit Kappa. The monthly unemployment figures for September will be released by the Central Statistics Office on Wednesday. The data will be followed by the release of the Live Register figures on Friday. Internationally, today will see German Chancellor Angela Merkel meet with leaders of the Free Democrats and Greens in the latest round of exploratory talks on forming a government. In the UK, Wednesday will see Trade Secretary Liam Fox before a parliamentary panel on plans for post-Brexit trade. Jeanette Manfra, the US Assistant Secretary for cybersecurity and communications, is a keynote speaker at Dublin Information Sec 2017 Photo: Bloomberg The US will release more information on North Korea's cyber tools and infrastructure in the coming months and will continue to fight rogue behaviour from the Kim regime. The country also remains concerned about potential cyberattacks by that state targeting the US or one of its allies, Jeanette Manfra, US Assistant Secretary for cybersecurity and communications has told the Sunday Independent in an exclusive interview. "Such incidents raise the potential for significant misunderstandings between the United States and other countries," she said. Her comments come at a time of growing tensions between US President Donald Trump and the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his regime. Over the past few months a war of words, including threats of nuclear action, between the two leaders intensified against the backdrop of historic differences between the two regions since North Korea was created after WWII. "Co-operation regarding North Korean cyber infrastructure as well as IT workers and entities support the global efforts to work together to confront destabilising behaviour from North Korea as well as put maximum pressure on the Kim regime," Manfra added. She admitted that the mission to improve the government network security is challenging, especially at a time when cyberattacks and threats are becoming more frequent and sophisticated from both nation state and non-state actors. "In the United States, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through the National Protection and Programmes Directorate (NPPD), leads the federal government's efforts to secure our nation's critical infrastructure and protect federal civilian networks from malicious cyber activity," she added. However, she also said that in the past few years there has been a steady drumbeat of cybersecurity compromises affecting governments and the private sector. Read More One of the ways to help combat this is co-operation between the public and private sector. "In the US, we have found that by bringing together all levels of government, the private sector, international partners, and the public, we are more effective in cultivating a cyber ecosystem that is more secure and resilient," Manfra said. "This collaborative approach can help governments take action to protect against cybersecurity risks, improve our whole-of-government incident response capabilities and enhance sharing of information on best practices and cyber threats. "Another useful tool we have found to reduce gaps in security is implementing lessons learned from cyber incidents into our processes and policies," she said. There are several other ways that Governments can make both private and federal communications more secure and counter threats, she added. Manfra said, for example, the DHS National Cyber Security and Communications Integration Centre is the 24/7 civilian government's hub for cyber security sharing, asset incident response and coordination for both critical infrastructure and the federal government. She added that as the issue of cybersecurity is an international issue and this in itself brings challenges but there are ways that governments worldwide can help each other. Insurance giant Lloyd's of London warned earlier this year that a serious cyberattack could cost the worldwide economy over $120bn (103bn) which would be on a par with catastrophic disasters like Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy. And late last week the British government said it believed that North Korea was to blame for the cyberattack that crippled the NHS computer systems earlier this year. UK security minister Ben Wallace told the BBC that Britain "quite strongly" suspected a foreign state was behind the 'WannaCry' ransomware and that its view was that the state in question was North Korea. But Manfra said there are ways for countries to band together in the fight against cyberattacks by fostering information sharing and operational coordination among national computer security incident response teams (CSIRTS) to help protect critical networks. "Within the National Cyber Security and Communications Integration Centre, the US-Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) is an active leader in regional and global partnerships. We are seeing more and more governments create governmental and national CSIRTS and these CSIRTS are forming regional and global partnerships to expand cooperation," she said. "While resources and manpower are, in a way, a barrier to effective co-operation. We need to ensure that we are leveraging automated technologies and multilateral organisations as force multipliers to reach a broad of an international audience as possible." Manfra is the keynote speaker at the Dublin Information Sec cybersecurity conference which takes place on Wednesday, November 1, at Dublin's RDS. Other speakers include Brian Honan, chief executive at BH Consulting; and Bradley C Birkenfeld, banker and whistleblower. Dublin Information Sec 2017, Ireland's cybersecurity conference, addresses the critically-important issues that threaten businesses in the information age. For more on INM's Dublin InfoSec 2017 conference, go to: independent.ie/infosec2017 Studying the balance sheet numbers for our target company today, the US aerospace and defence giant Northrop Grumman, I began to think of the statesman Georges Clemenceau, who once slyly observed that 'war is too serious a matter to entrust to military men'. If he was around today, what would the savvy Frenchman have thought about the idea of out-sourcing military business to a listed corporation? That's what seems to be going on at Northrop and its compatriots. Last year, the group had revenues of $24.5bn (21.1bn). However, some $21bn of this came from one customer, Uncle Sam. A few weeks ago, the US Senate passed a defence budget worth an enormous $700bn (603bn), confirming the view that there is always plenty of money for the defence industry. The industry lobby is one of the most effective in Washington, and has considerable leverage. Every state in the US has operations making fighter jets, aircraft carriers and space products, employing thousands, thus equipping the lobbyists with all the pressure they need to get the politicians' attention. Northrop Grumman is one of the most effective. It is a leading contractor to the US defence and intelligence services and the fourth-largest global defence contractor. It delivers systems, services and products for undersea, outer space and cyber space. The group has sales of $24.5bn (21.1bn), boasts a market value of $52bn (44.8bn) and employs some 67,000 people. The group was formed as the Northrop Aircraft Corporation, before World War II, by Jack Northrop. In 1994, it acquired the Grumman Corporation, builder of the famous Apollo Lunar Module. Since then the group has been on a determined growth path, mopping up companies like Litton, Westinghouse Electronics, TWR and, last month, Orbital ATK, a rocket and missile producer. The company has been careful to pursue policies that demanded keen political savvy. Nor has it jibbed at the idea of paying large political campaign contributions. Today, Northrop Grumman has a broad portfolio of capabilities and technologies which, to the normal stock picker, demands an imagination broader than 'Star Wars'. The group has three businesses: aerospace, mission systems and technology services. The aerospace business designs, develops and produces space craft, laser weaponry, stealth bombers, fighter jets, surveillance aircraft and unmanned aircraft for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Other key programmes include Golden Hawk, a high-altitude system providing imagery of large geographical areas, and Triton systems, providing detailed information over vast ocean and coastal regions. This business had $11bn sales last year, and operating profits of $1.2bn. Northrop's mission systems business generated revenues similar to aerospace but with higher operating profits at $1.4bn.Its many products and services include jamming devices, air and missile defence, space observation, electronic warfare systems, global battle space systems and cyber management for defence and national security, a critical business today. The group's technology service is its smallest, if you call $4.8bn (4.1bn) revenues small. The business is involved in the refurbishment and overhaul of products like Minuteman ballistic missiles, aircraft and air sea and ground systems for the US, UK, Nato and Japan. Northrop Grumman results for the year included higher operating income, earnings per share and cash from operations. Operating income at $3.2bn (2.7bn) was an increase on the previous year and free cash flow was strong at almost $2bn (1.7bn). Northrop knows how to keep shareholders sweet, as dividend payout was increased for the 13th consecutive year. Support for the stock in the past five years has been very strong. The shares have moved from $63 to a recent record high of $307 (264). Today they trade at just under $300 with a price earnings multiple of around 25. Like most US corporations its dividend yield is meagre, but if one was an 'ethical investor' it is unlikely you'd buy this stock. Nothing in this section should be taken as a recommendation, either explicit or implicit, to buy any of the shares mentioned. Investors are increasingly pricing in the effect of a corporate tax cut into the shares of US companies, leaving the market primed for a steep sell-off if Congress fails to pass one of US President Donald Trump's top priorities. The benchmark S&P 500 is up nearly 6pc from its August lows as the Trump administration has rolled out its tax reform proposal, which would cut corporate taxes to 20pc from the current 35pc and allow companies to bring back some of the $2.6tn (2.2tn) in cash currently held offshore at reduced rates. Bank of America Merrill Lynch said a positive boost from taxes "had been priced out of stocks" in July but "has been making a solid comeback". "The nature of the rally over the last two months has been tax-cut led. If we don't get a cut then the market is going down" several percentage points, said Edward Perkin, chief equity investment officer at Eaton Vance. Such a decline would be the first significant sell-off of the year, he said, but would not likely be near the 20pc decline that signifies the start of a bear market. A collapse in the tax measure would likely send the S&P 500 down 5pc or more, Goldman Sachs said. "Tax reform will determine the direction of the S&P 500's next 100 points," it said. It was a moment that Caitriona Perry could hardly have anticipated. Invited into the Oval Office to witness the first call between Donald Trump and the newly-elected Leo Varadkar, RTE's Washington Correspondent suddenly, momentously, found herself the focus of a comment from Trump that would make headlines around the world. It began innocuously enough. Trump told the Taoiseach that: "We have a lot of your Irish press watching us right now." So far, so not an international incident. Then The Orange One pointed at Perry, beckoning her over. "We have all of this beautiful Irish press," he purred into the phone like a Miss Universe Emcee. Then he asked the 37-year-old Dublin woman: "Where are you from?" With poise and calm, she approached the American president and introduced herself. "She has a nice smile on her face so I bet she treats you well," he said to Varadkar, adding: "He thanks you for the newspapers, Caitriona." And then we all lost our mind over it. The moment lasted all of 22 seconds but it was enough to launch Perry into viral fame. Like the blue dress, everyone saw what they were already predisposed to seeing; for some flagrant sexism, even misogyny; for others a relaxed, unscripted comment that could only benefit its startled recipient. In the seconds it took her to reach the door of the Oval Office, the world's media drew its breath and for a moment Perry was the focus of the latest hysterical instalment of Trumpwatch. Her Twitter and Instagram accounts were mined. Irish commentators lined up to commiserate with her, with The Irish Times divining that she was "clearly uncomfortable and suffering humiliation", while one of her predecessors in the role, Charlie Bird, mused that any reporter would simply be grateful for an audience with the President - whatever the tone of that audience. Perry herself watched it all unfold but resisted the urge to wade in and she explains why. "It's almost a cliche but it's also true: no journalist wants to be the centre of a story. In college you're taught not to use the words 'I' or 'me'," Perry says reflecting on the moment. "In some ways it wasn't hard to step back because the furore was so huge; it went all around the world. I didn't read the vast majority of what was written about it. It is a little odd when you see so many people talk about how you must have felt. "It was a good insight for me because usually I'm on the other side of the media. People identified with the incident based on their own life experience - which, it must be said, is what Donald Trump does to people. I felt I was in a lose-lose situation - if I said I was uncomfortable I would have been calling the President Of The United States inappropriate, whereas if I said it had rolled off me, I would have been offending all these women who took up the cause on my behalf. I had dealt with that kind of comment before, I don't think that there is a professional woman alive who hasn't." Trump's ill-considered 'niceties' continue to make headlines on a weekly basis - witness the furore last week about his insensitive remarks to a war widow - but Perry says she thought of his remarks to her as merely awkward small talk and says that the context - somehow lost in the blizzard of commentary - was everything. "I was the only Irish person in the room, I was the only person who wasn't part of the White House pool of journalists who'd be in and out of his office all day, so probably he was just saying what came into his head. I don't think he really meant anything by it. You're in the man's office, if he says 'c'mere, who are you?' then it's polite to answer. I knew there was no place for me on the phone call and I was reasonably sure that whoever was on the call back in Ireland was also thinking 'what is going on?'" Smile-gate, as it debuted to groans, was all the more remarkable for the general anonymity of foreign correspondents in Washington and their relatively lowly place in the media pecking order - made even more lowly by the Trump administration, which, Perry explains, immediately made security clearance more difficult for foreign journalists. But while she remains professionally tight-lipped on her actual opinions on the bombastic reality star around whom the political planets now spin, she unequivocally sees that this is a good time to be beaming news back to the hungry eyes back home. "What a time to be doing this. It's been fantastic to be here for the election night, the inauguration and everything that has happened since - as a reporter you wouldn't want to be anywhere else." There is part wide-eyed wonder, part flinty determination, in her tone when she says this. While she now occupies one of the biggest jobs in Irish journalism it felt, in some ways, like an inevitable progression for such an ambitious young talent. Colleagues in RTE gush about her and she operates deftly within the burden of being a sober voice of record during a period in American politics which seems equal parts silly and dangerous and in which even outlets like CNN have descended into unseemly exclamation marks. Her appointment this past week as co-presenter of the Six One news (alongside Keelin Shanley) seems like a natural progression - she has been in America for the standard four years now - but it will mean her leaving Washington and moving back to Dublin around the Christmas break time. "It will be bittersweet to leave America but the Six One is such an iconic show and so many great names have sat in that chair, so I'm really thrilled," she says, "I'll be in a studio and asking the questions rather than answering them, it's a massive change." Growing up in Knocklyon, a middle-class suburb of south Dublin, she says classmates would describe her as "extremely driven and hard working". Video of the Day She had no connections in media, although all these years later a younger cousin is a motoring journalist with the London Times and another edits the Donegal News. "As long as I can remember I wanted to be a broadcast journalist," she says. "I was fascinated by the news media. It was different when I came out of college. I think journalism now is really under threat - when I came out of college there was no Facebook and Twitter and news websites were still in the extreme early days." She started at Newstalk and worked her way up various staff jobs until landing the big one four years ago. She welcomed it as the culmination of years of hard work but it did require a big upheaval for herself and her husband, who made the move with her. "It was exciting to uproot," she explains. "You're packing up your whole life and it's not like you're 21 and you're moving for adventure. It's been fantastic though, we've made amazing friends here." Moving from being a big fish in the small pond of Ireland to knowing next to nobody in the US capitol would daunt other journalists - Charlie Bird spoke frankly about the difficulties he encountered - and Perry says the first year in Washington was characterised by a period of "hyper networking". "I found that people here are very open to following through on requests to meet for a coffee. Big interviews like Sean Spicer or Mick Mulvaney - almost all of those I got because I met someone who knew someone at an event. For most of them there would be no benefit to doing an interview with RTE." For the time being Perry essentially serves as a one woman bureau for an entire continent. She sometimes finds herself working 21-hour days - going to bed at 2am and rising again at 7am - to make sure there is enough material for RTE's various bulletins, as well as Morning Ireland. "I binge sleep at weekends, but if I can get five hours sleep, I'm happy with that. I eat really well though - if you were eating junk food you couldn't do this job." Despite this, she has made time for one notable side project. For her meticulously researched new book, In America, she traversed the so-called Rust Belt states which swept Trump to power and tried to find out what made them make a choice which to the rest of the world looked like a form of electoral self-harm. Perry says that the famous 'beer' test, which the previous polarisation record holder, George W Bush, passed with flying colours, was turned on its head by Trump voters. "I think I was surprised that people could overlook his statements on women and minorities. In all the states I visited, to a man and a woman the people I spoke to were able to set that aside from him the candidate. They would say a variation of 'I don't want him to have a beer with me or him coming to my house but I think he'd be a good president'." The palace intrigue, fuelled by the incessant leaks, has blurred the line between fact and fiction, and between television drama and actual reality - Perry says that the parallels between Netflix and the backdrop to her day job are striking. For instance, although it is seldom reported in the US media, she has noticed a rise in the number of intruders trying to break into the White House, which makes her own job difficult. "I was in there one afternoon discussing a matter with some press aides when a burly Secret Service agent with a very large weapon appeared seemingly out of nowhere and politely but forcefully said 'Ma'am you must leave the West Wing now', walking me back towards the press briefing room and closing and locking the door firmly behind me. The White House was then put on lockdown - it turned out it was a fence jumper - for nearly two hours. The jumper incidents do make you feel you're in an episode of The West Wing or Veep or House of Cards or one of those shows." As one of the most prominent female broadcasters in RTE, one wonders what she made of the revelations, earlier this year, that many of the top female stars with the station were on lower salary packages than their male counterparts. "If men and women are doing the same job they should be paid the same, there isn't even a conversation to be had there. Given how many surveys and statistics around the world that show that men and women tend to not be paid the same, I don't think it was that big a shock to find out that it was the same situation in RTE. I don't have a direct comparator, and I don't know what other correspondents get paid. We'll see what Kieran Mulvey's report says when it's published." Despite the niggling feeling that all the controversy and opposition must induce burnout in Trump even if the investigation into the election don't get him, Perry says that she may still be reporting on him for many years to come. And her book has him on the cover so that also opens up the possibility of a sequel. "Whether he will last - that's the question that dominates Washington dinner parties," she says. "I wouldn't rule out a second term - it's very difficult to beat an incumbent president. And as a journalist I am grateful for him - he is the story of the century." It's a story she will soon view from afar, however. Returning to Dublin will bring more stability in terms of her schedule and the hours will be more conducive to getting a good night's sleep but she says the one aspect of the move that's daunting her is actually finding a place to live. "There is a housing crisis in Dublin, so I'll be moving home back smack into the middle of that. This is the thing that's causing me so much stress!" she says. "The job itself will be fine though. It all happened very quickly but I'm ready for the new challenge." In America, published by Gill and MacMillan, is out now, 12 See books, page 18 CORRESPONDENCE COURSE Carole Coleman Expand Close Carole Coleman / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Carole Coleman Carole Coleman made headlines in 2004 for a fractious interview with George W Bush in which she repeatedly challenged him over the shaky pretexts for the disastrous Iraq War. The interview led to a complaint from the White House that Coleman had been "disrespectful" and the journalist admitted it had been "a filibuster of sorts". She knew the gallery she was playing to, however, and won warm praise back home for her approach. She is still based in the US. Charlie Bird Expand Close Charlie Bird / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Charlie Bird By the time Charlie Bird, an old flame of Carole Coleman, took up the prestigious post of RTE's Washington Correspondent he was already a journalistic institution, so well respected that his name being attached to a story gave it a built-in legitimacy. In Washington he never felt truly comfortable, however, and he badly missed his partner and family - gripes that galled other journalists who would have jumped at such a plum role. He returned home after a year and a half in the job and retired from RTE in 2012. Richard Downes Expand Close Richard Downes / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Richard Downes Richard Downes took up the position of RTE's Washington Correspondent in the throes of the economic crisis, with the resultant cutbacks at the national broadcaster. Still, he worked through some of the most momentous events of the last few years, including the re-election of Barack Obama and the David Drumm bankruptcy. He had previously covered the Iraq war in 2003 and was almost killed in an American bombing raid, even composing a farewell letter to his wife Mairead. Just days before the Easter Rising, James Connolly met with Hanna Sheehy Skeffington in Dublin. "You will be glad to know that in the Proclamation we are including equal citizenship for women," Connolly explained. In the event of the rebellion succeeding, the feminist, public activist, pacifist, and journalist had been selected to be a member of a civil provisional government. Like most key junctures in modern Irish history, however, tragedy awaited. By the end of the events that began on Easter Week, James Connolly - and his vision of an egalitarian Ireland - was dead.So, too, was Sheehy Skeffington's husband, Francis. The committed pacifist and feminist was arrested and shot without trial. The British government covered up the killing. As this insightful book of memoir and political writing demonstrates, the murder was a turning point in Hanna Sheehy Skeffington's life. "It would be a poor tribute to my husband if grief were to break my spirit," Sheehy Skeffington writes in British Militarism As I have Known It: a pamphlet banned in Britain and Ireland during World War I, but widely distributed in Latin America and throughout the Commonwealth. It was Francis, after all, who made Sheehy Skeffington a true follower of feminism. In 1901 he had co-published a pamphlet arguing for co-education in Ireland, with a rising and ambitious young novelist, James Joyce. What's most striking about Sheehy Skeffington's prose is its sheer resilience, nobility, and belief in the concept of justice at all costs: even in the face of despair, grief, and anguish. Francis and Hanna Sheehy Skeffington co-founded The Irish Citizen in 1912: the newspaper's main themes were feminism, pacifism, socialism, and nationalism. But giving women a democratic vote in parliamentary elections was always its primary cause; something Sheehy Skeffington would even spend time in prison for. She served sentences at Mountjoy, Holloway, and Armagh respectively. Her most famous stint came in 1912, for breaking window panes at Dublin Castle in the name of suffrage militancy. I would place these prison diaries alongside writing from other political figures who penned some of their best work behind bars, such as Italian Marxist, Antonio Gramsci, and Indian pacifist Mahatma Gandhi. Sheehy Skeffington clearly understood how to use propaganda effectively - and documents in detail the physical and mental process of hunger striking, which she firmly believed in as a political tool. Video of the Day Articles do appear here about the power of force and violence as early as 1913. But one suspects the trauma and horror of Easter week really did bring about 'the death of a pacifist', as the editor of this volume, Margaret Ward, aptly names one chapter. Ward provides insightful background information to the reader before each of the 17 chapters here, which she arranges thematically. We're informed, for instance, that Sheehy Skeffington travelled to London in July 1916 to demand a full public inquiry into her husband's death. She met with Prime Minister Asquith in Downing Street, who offered her 10,000 compensation in 'hush money'. Reaching the conclusion that the British government was not going to admit to its complicity in a politically motivated murder, Sheehy Skeffington then embarked on an 18-month lecture tour of the United States under an assumed identity: its purpose was to inform audiences about British imperialist state-sponsored violence. This culminated in a meeting with President Woodrow Wilson at the White House in January 1918, whom Sheehy Skeffington presented with a paper smuggled over from Cumann na mBan discussing an Irish claim to self-determination. Other highlights of Sheehy Skeffington's career included her role as director of organisation for Sinn Fein; she also held the position as vice president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Sheehy Skeffington opposed the Anglo Irish Treaty and the Free State: siding with Eamon de Valera and more hard-line republicans for a time, too. However, she left Fianna Fail in 1927 over the issue of an oath of an allegiance, and never joined a political party again. She would become an ardent critic of de Valera's 1937 constitution, clearly viewing it as a bad deal for women's rights. Until her death in 1946, her journalistic output remained prolific, and she continued writing for various newspapers across the globe on issues such as arts and culture, prison reform, the rights of prostitutes, and other topics on social justice. Reading the final chapters of this book, one is reminded of the founder of the Land League, Michael Davitt, in his latter years: a lone internationalist marginalised to the confines of Irish public life, whilst struggling to make a living. Sheehy Skeffington's politics were probably just a tad too radical for Irish society: especially considering its attitude towards women. They were - as this book continually reminds us - treated as second-class citizens once independence was gained. Unfortunately, this trend of discrimination continued for many decades thereafter. Fats Domino, who died last Wednesday aged 89, was one of the great pioneers of rock n roll; a regular chart-topper during the 1950s and 1960s, he sold more than 110 million records, including the singles Blueberry Hill and Aint That a Shame, inspiring generations of performers. Domino began recording for Imperial Records in the late 1940s, and by the early 1960s had amassed more worldwide hits and sales than any other artist except for Elvis Presley. Imbued with the joyful jazz, Latin, Creole, blues and boogie-woogie music of postwar New Orleans, his beguiling gravel-voiced patois, pounding roadhouse piano, rolling backbeat and soulful saxophone solos made each of his releases an event. Many of his tunes, including Im Walkin, I Hear You Knockin and Blue Monday, became staples of the R&B repertoire. He was born Antoine Domino on February 26, 1928 in New Orleans, the son of a labourer who worked at the Fair Grounds Race Track. His interest in music was inspired by the Dixieland musician Harrison Verrett (who would become Fatss brother-in-law), and developed as he learnt to play the piano which his family had inherited. By the age of 10, Antoine was playing in public, as well as earning money from such jobs as delivering ice, cutting lawns and baking bread. By 1946 he had been hired to play at the Hideaway Club with a band led by Billy Diamond, the first person to dub him Fats of medium height, he now weighed nearly 16 stone. Two years later he married Rose Mary Hall, and within a decade had eight children (all given first names beginning with A). Perhaps with an eye to having to provide for his growing family, Domino was adapting the boogie-woogie style to suit a larger, white, audience. In this, he owed much to the bandleader Dave Bartholomew, and to Lew Chudd, the founder of Imperial Records, one of the many labels which emerged after the war when the major companies were slow to recognise the emerging rhythm-and-blues scene. Having heard Bartholomew in Houston, Chudd met him again in New Orleans, where they later went to see Domino play. Bartholomew was put in charge of finding artists for the label, and the first of them was Fats Domino, who was recorded in December 1949. His first single, made directly on to an acetate disc in Cosimo Matassas J&M studio in Rampart Street, was The Fat Man, a sanitised version of a traditional song about drugs called Junker Blues. Subsequent sales were to prove the wisdom of his having signed a contract which got him royalties rather than a straight fee within a year the record had sold almost a million copies. Its immediate successors, all of which had been made at the same session, did not do as well, and it was not until the release of Every Night About This Time that he again had a sizeable hit outside New Orleans. Its popularity can be attributed, in part, to the 6/8, triplet style of piano playing which Domino had developed and which was to characterise many of his records, most of them written in collaboration with Dave Bartholomew. (A B-side, Mardi Gras in New Orleans, was by Professor Longhair, whose influence on the citys music would not be widely appreciated for several decades.) Several fine numbers, such as Please Dont Leave Me, Rose Mary (for his wife, who died in 2008) and You Can Pack Your Suitcase, were recorded at this time, but during the early 1950s Domino enjoyed only intermittent success in the hit parades. His tours, however, were always a popular success, and it was on these that weary of hotel food he developed the habit of cooking for himself. Before long, rock n roll emerged as a distinct genre, and Domino was to be its most unlikely star. His Aint That a Shame, which took him two months to write, was a No 1 hit in the R&B chart, and would doubtless have sold even better had there not been a cover version by Pat Boone (a situation which was to be the bane of many a black artists life, even though it is invariably the original version that is remembered years later). Even when singing of lost love, there was an irrepressible cheer to Dominos performances, his sunny smile becoming something of a trademark. This is apparent on one of his very best, if less well-known performances, Dont Blame It On Me. His first pop hit was Im in Love Again. Video of the Day The song with which he was to become indelibly associated, Blueberry Hill, was one which Bartholomew had not been keen to record at all. Bartholomew was still not satisfied after a full days work on the song in which various takes had been were spliced together. Chudd, however, decided to release the song anyway, there being nothing else in the can. In due course he was able to report that three million copies had been sold. Blueberry Hill was followed by Blue Monday and Im Walkin. On all of these Dominos piano is to the fore, and it was only years later that the reason for this became apparent: not only was it tuned so that the treble keys were higher than usual, but the recording was speeded up. As the background to Blueberry Hill showed, the apparent spontaneity of these recordings was an illusion: many of the songs took longer than might have been necessary to record, not least because Domino was in the habit of stopping during a good take to ask whether he was sounding all right. In the early 1960s, Domino began to use strings on his records, first on Walking to New Orleans, written by his friend Bobby Charles; Charles had earlier written See You Later Alligator, which Domino had decided was not for him only to see Bill Haley have a huge hit with it. Dominos hits continued with a fine, honking version of Hank Williamss Jambalaya, but he was not selling as successfully as he had in the past. Meanwhile, he and other R&B artists were about to be dealt a blow by the arrival in America of a group much influenced by them, The Beatles. Chudd, with a premonition of what was to come, had sold his label to Liberty, Domino already having moved to ABC, the first of several labels on which he was never able to repeat his earlier success, although he remained in demand for his live performances. There were, however, some further hits, notably Im in Love Again; Im Gonna Be a Wheel Someday (both covered by Paul McCartney in 1989) and Be My Guest. Fats Domino also appeared in several films, the best of which was The Girl Cant Help It, with Jayne Mansfield. Good-natured and uxorious, Domino was a popular figure in New Orleans where he lived in a large house in a predominantly working-class neighbourhood and became renowned for spontaneously cooking up vast pots of red-bean stew and inviting people in off the street to eat with him. He sold 40 million singles and three million albums within a decade of beginning to record and, in the 1980s comfortably off thanks to royalties he decided to retire. When Hurricane Katrina struck the city in 2005, he refused to leave, and there were rumours that he had died in the floods. He and his family were eventually rescued by a Coast Guard helicopter. In 2007, he performed to a full house at Tipitinas in New Orleans, and was subsequently inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame, the Delta Music Museum Hall of Fame and the Hit Parade Hall of Fame. Asked whether he might consider making a grand comeback, he was typically evasive: I just drink my little beers, do some cookin, anything I feel like. Telegraph Gov. Pete Ricketts said Monday he will focus on further reductions in state spending in the wake of last week's forecast of a growing gap in anticipated state revenue. But he's "willing to discuss different ideas" that might be proposed by state senators, he said. "We'll work with the Legislature," the governor said during a news conference at the Capitol called to discuss efficiencies in state government that have resulted from his administration's imposition of "operational excellence initiatives." Ricketts already has imposed a hiring freeze and placed restrictions on travel expenses in the wake of the Nebraska Economic Forecasting Advisory Board's reduction in anticipated revenue available to fund the state's 2017-2019 budget. The latest forecast left a projected $195 million revenue hole in the state budget that was approved by the Legislature earlier this year, pointing the way to likely reductions in budget allocations to state agencies and institutions. "The Legislature and I will work to control spending," Ricketts said, and "align the budget with the forecast." Asked if congressional efforts to enact federal tax cuts might negatively impact Nebraska's revenue picture even further, the governor said those tax cuts conceivably could improve the economy and "we could see revenue grow." The state government operational efficicencies hailed by Ricketts stemmed from his determination to "change the culture of state government (and) operate it more like a business." Some of the results have included swifter and more efficient telephone response, improved online service, improved processing time for licensing, and cost savings. "We need to treat people like customers," the governor said, and "do a better job serving the people of Nebraska" while controlling government costs. Representatives from the Department of Labor, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Corrections and the Department of Administrative Services outlined changes that have improved service and response time and, in some cases, already saved money. Ricketts created a Center of Operational Excellence to work with state agencies to train state government's workforce to help improve governmental operations, identify waste and "deliver better customer service." We've put back the clocks; we ready and steady ourselves for the dark coming on and the cold, but in Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, Stevens, the butler, sitting on a bench by the pier at Weymouth notices that when the pier lights are switched on a crowd of people, willing night to fall, give a loud cheer. It's a moment tinged with sadness, and for Latvian artist Sarmite Alksne her painting of Bridlington on the Yorkshire coast at dusk captures "a mystical time of day. Not yet dark, it has its secrets, its time of relaxation, privacy". Alksne grew up in "the middle of the woods, in a house with large apple trees; we picked berries, hazelnuts, mushrooms and grew vegetables". Her best memories are of "beautiful meadows, the smell of wild flowers, strawberries". In Latvia, then under Soviet rule, artists were seen as daydreamers and Alksne, forbidden to study art by her parents, studied finance. "I accepted the idea that I wouldn't have the opportunity to do what I liked. People did not have the same freedom at that time. But thoughts of painting followed me all my life. One day, I would do what I love to do." In 2003 business was not going well, "salaries in Latvia were very low, it was incredibly hard to find work if you were over 40. People emigrated, sent money home", so Sarmite Alksne took basic English courses and tried her luck in England. Hotel work in Cromer - "I didn't expect work conditions to be as bad as they were" - then Barnsley, then Leeds where she now lives and calls home: "So far Brexit is just a word, it hasn't happened. I am very sad that the English decided to leave the EU." Her eldest daughter sent her a set of oil paints for her birthday and though initially afraid to touch canvas "because I thought I would not be good enough" she took art classes and in her studio, "a small room with a big fishtank", she paints remembered Latvian landscapes, the "mesmerising" Lake District and this oil on linen of Bridlington. She also uses egg shells, barbecue ashes, coffee, hay, sugar, salt for texture. She is still working in finance, "not my passion or something I enjoy. My paintings are my freedom of mind". fineartamerica.com and www.etsy.com/uk/shop/FlickOfABrush Historian Catherine Corless is to receive a special award for investigative research after her painstaking work revealed the horrors of the children's mass grave at the Tuam Mother and Baby Home. Ms Corless will be honoured at the NewsBrands Ireland Journalism Awards, in Dublin's Mansion House, on Thursday. Her research prompted the launch of a statutory commission of investigation. "My initial research into the Tuam Mother and Baby Home was to be just a simple synopsis of the history of the home itself for the 2012 local Tuam Historical Annual," she said. "But the more I delved into the archives and listened to survivors' accounts of their lives there, I realised this story deserved much more intensive research." NewsBrands Ireland chairman Vincent Crowley said: "Without her work, the press would not have been able to tell the story and it would have remained hidden with the hundreds of innocent souls, away from public sight." 'Ciaran only saw goodness in people no matter who they were' Family and friends have paid tribute to a much-loved young man who lost his life following a fire in Greystones. Ciaran Hogan (30), of Kindlestown Park, was staying at a friend's house in Kindlestown Park when the fire broke out in the early hours of Thursday, October 19. Fire crews managed to get him out of the house and he was taken to hospital. Sadly, he died two days later at St Vincent's Hospital, the Wicklow People reports. Expand Close The late Ciaran Hogan. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The late Ciaran Hogan. "He was much loved and will be deeply missed by all his family and many friends," said Ciaran's parents, Jim and Anne. "We are all devastated and heartbroken at this time. We ask all who knew him to be strong and remember him in your prayers. Expand Close Emergency services at the scene of the fire in Kindlestown Park last Thursday morning. / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Emergency services at the scene of the fire in Kindlestown Park last Thursday morning. "Ciaran was a friend to everyone. He only saw goodness in people no matter who they were." Dozens of tributes have also been paid online to Ciaran. Expand Close Ciaran 'Kiki' Hogan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Ciaran 'Kiki' Hogan "You were such a kind, funny, loving gent, you will be missed," wrote one friend, while another described him as "such a nice chap with a big heart." Another person wrote; "Safe journey with the angels to your bro ciaran. Love thoughts and prayers with the Hogan family. RIP [sic]." A friend wrote; "A true legend of the park gone but never forgotten RIP Ciaran. Another young life taken far too soon. Thoughts and prayers are with all the Hogan family at this sad time." "Heaven has gained yet another angel," another wrote, "I heard a lot of great things about this young man." Ciaran's father Jim urged people to check their smoke alarms, and hopefully prevent any other tragedies occurring over the winter. Ciaran is survived by his parents, his sisters Leonie and Bronagh and his brothers Barry, Declan and Jamie. His brother Michael tragically died in an accident involving a train 20 years ago, at the age of 22. Michael and Ciaran were great friends and Ciaran idolised his older brother. Just a few weeks ago, the family celebrated Leonie's wedding together and Ciaran enjoyed the occasion immensely. "Greystones is in tears," said Jim, on the grief which enveloped the town last week. Greystones Fire Service were called to the scene of the fire at Kindlestown Park at around 4.30 a.m. on October 19. They arrived quickly and were informed that there was one person upstairs in the house. Ciaran had been sleeping and suffered smoke inhalation. Fire crews found the house alight with flames coming from the ground floor front window. Using breathing apparatus, they entered the house and fought the fire, then proceeded upstairs. Ciaran was taken to hospital by ambulance. Gardai confirmed that they carried out a forensic examination of the scene. They do not believe that there was any foul play involved. An apartment resident attacked a neighbour with a shovel, injuring him, when a row between a group of people turned violent, it has been alleged. Gary Talbot (50) is alleged to have used a shovel as a weapon to assault the other man during the incident outside his home. The case against him was adjourned when he appeared at Blanchardstown District Court. Mr Talbot, of Jamestown Road, Finglas, is charged with producing a shovel as a weapon in the course of a fight. The charge states he allegedly produced it while committing or appearing to be about to commit an assault. The offence is alleged to have happened at Jamestown Road on September 14. Gda Sgt Geraldine McManigan said a file had been sent to the DPP, who directed summary disposal of the case in the district court. Outlining the allegations, Sgt McManigan said a row broke out between two groups of people who were neighbours. It turned violent and it was alleged that the accused produced a shovel and used it as a weapon to assault the alleged injured party. Judge McHugh asked Sgt McManigan what the putative injuries were. She replied that the alleged victim reported that he suffered bruising to his arm. Judge McHugh accepted jurisdiction to deal with the case. This means it can be heard at district court level instead of being sent for trial to Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The judge made an order for disclosure of prosecution statements to the defence. He said he would not imagine there was any CCTV evidence in the case. Defence solicitor Valerie Buckley applied for free legal aid, saying the accused was unemployed and in receipt of disability allowance. The judge granted legal aid after hearing there was no garda objection. Mr Talbot has not yet indicated how he intends to plead to the charge. Thousands of commuters are to face travel chaos this Wednesday as Irish Rail commences its first day of strike action. Irish Rail trains and the DART lines are not expected to run as workers go on strike. Read More When will the strike commence? Iarnrod Eireann advises customers that due to industrial action, trains are not expected to operate across Intercity, DART and Commuter routes on the following dates: Wednesday 1st November Tuesday 7th November Tuesday 14th November (includes Ireland v Denmark World Cup Play-off at Lansdowne Road) Thursday 23rd November Friday 8th December Why is Irish Rail striking? Irish Rail workers want a 3.75pc a year pay rise over three years, to match wage hikes recently given to Luas and Dublin Bus workers. Talks had been ongoing between unions and company management at the Workplace Relations Commission earlier this month, but they failed to reach an agreement. How many people will be affected by the strike action? Up to 155,000 passengers a day will be hit when services grind to a halt. A total of 70,000 passenger journeys are made on the Dart on a daily basis, 45,000 on commuter services, and 40,000 on intercity routes. Read More Is the Minister for Transport likely to intervene? It's unlikely that Minister for Transport Shane Ross will intervene. Unions claim an increased State subvention to Irish Rail can help wipe out the companys accumulated debt of 160 million, but this claim is likely to fall on deaf ears in the Department of Transport. Can customers get a refund if they have booked tickets with Irish Rail? If you have booked travel on the dates of strike action, Irish Rail will cancel your booking for the dispute date journey leg and automatically refund you seven days prior to your date of travel (e.g. 25th October for 1st November, 31st October for 7th November etc). Please allow three to five days for your financial institution to process your refund. How long will strike action last? Irish Rail has threatened to strike on dates up until December 8 but more dates may be added if demands aren't met. Will alternative transport be in place? It's not yet known if alternative transport will be in place as Irish Rail goes on strike. Customers are advised to plan journeys in advance and to check running bus routes during the days of strike action. Dublin Fire Brigade dealing with a fire at a derelict site on Richmond Road Drumcondra. Photo: Steve Humphreys Dublin Fire Brigade dealing with a fire at a derelict site on Richmond Road Drumcondra. Photo: Steve Humphreys Dublin Fire Brigade dealing with a fire at a derelict site on Richmond Road Drumcondra. Photo: Steve Humphreys Emergency services are attending the scene of a large blaze on Dublin's northside (Photo: Adrian Weckler) Dublin Fire Brigade dealing with a fire at a derelict site on Richmond Road Drumcondra. Photo: Steve Humphreys Firefighters spent 16 hours battling a large blaze on a derelict site on Dublin's northside. Crews worked through the night after the fire broke out at approximately 2pm yesterday on Richmond Road in Drumcondra. Five pumps, two aerial units and a foam and a command unit attended the scene. The road was partly closed as emergency services battled the huge fire at the derelict warehouse. Crews worked through the night at Richmond Rd #Drumcondra. #Fire under at 0555, @DubCityCouncil dangerous buildings unit attending #Dublin pic.twitter.com/JvwHJ5P6xb Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) October 30, 2017 Residents were warned yesterday to close their windows as a precaution as the smoke spread quickly across the north side. The fire was brought under control shortly before 6am this morning. Expand Close Dublin Fire Brigade dealing with a fire at a derelict site on Richmond Road Drumcondra. Photo: Steve Humphreys / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Dublin Fire Brigade dealing with a fire at a derelict site on Richmond Road Drumcondra. Photo: Steve Humphreys Dublin City Council's dangerous buildings unit also attended the scene. An Irish comedian has weighed in on harrassment allegations against U.S. actor Kevin Spacey saying she doesn't know "many actors of [her] era who don't have a Kevin Spacey story." Actor, stand-up comedian and writer Aisling Bea tweeted this morning after Kevin Spacey released a statement in which he apologised for any "inappropriate drunken behaviour" with a 14-year-old in 1986. The actor has sparked backlash after using the apology statement to come out as gay. Tweeting this morning, Bea wrote; "I dont know many actors from my era of drama school graduates who dont have a Kevin Spacey story. The surprise is the lack of surprise." One person questioned; "A story like the Spacey story, or specifically Spacey?", to which Bea replied; "Specifically." House Of Cards star Spacey tweeted his own statement after actor Anthony Rapp accused the 58-year-old of historical harassment. In an interview with BuzzFeed, Rapp said Spacey, then aged 26, placed him on a bed and climbed on top of him following a party at his apartment. Spacey said he is "beyond horrified" by the claim, that he does not remember the alleged incident, "which would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour". He said the story "has encouraged me to address other things about my life". In the Twitter post, he added: "I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fuelled by the fact that I have been so protective of my privacy. "As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. "I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behaviour." Read More He was criticised for conflating the two statements. Actor @billyeichner wrote: "That Kevin Spacey statement. Nope. Absolutely not. Nope. "But honestly I hesitate to make jokes because the Spacey statement is truly disgusting, irresponsible and dangerous." @rilaws said: "For a famous person to deflect these accusations with a long-in-the-making coming out is so cruel to his supposed new community it stings." @larrywilmore wrote: "Kevin Spacey's comment was wrong on so many levels." Rapp commented on Twitter: "I came forward with my story, standing on the shoulders of the many courageous women and men who have been speaking out to shine a light and hopefully make a difference, as they have done for me." Double Oscar winner Spacey is best known for the film American Beauty and TV drama House Of Cards. He is also known as being a former artistic director at London's Old Vic theatre. Read More On Monday, following Rapp's accusation, the Royal Court theatre's artistic director, Vicky Featherstone, was asked if she was aware of stories about Spacey when he was working in London. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think that many people in theatre and the creative industries have been aware of many stories of many people over a lot of years." After the Harvey Weinstein allegations there had been an "opening of the floodgates and a very important moment for us all throughout society, not just in our industry", she said. The local chapter of the United Nations Association (UNA) presented awards Oct. 22 to Lincoln Electric System and Marilyn McNabb for exemplary contributions to energy conservation and the promotion of renewable energy. Both have contributed to the UNs Sustainable Development Goal of access to affordable, clean energy. McNabb served on the LES board for many years when LES was implementing wind and solar power. She continues to be a leader in the Citizens Climate Lobby, working locally to promote clean energy. The banquet celebrated the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the United Nations in 1945. FDR had a vision of eliminating the scourge of war from the face of the earth. He did not live to see his dream fulfilled but his widow, Eleanor, worked to bring the United Nations into existence, She was instrumental in the passage of the Declaration of Human Rights - the foundation for international ethics. Recently the UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning nuclear weapons. The banquet speaker was Dr. Michael Stopford, former head of the UN office in Washington, D.C. and current Vice Chancellor for international affairs at UN-Kearney. Addressing the Role of the UN in an Era of New Nationalism," he reiterated the need for nations to work together to avoid the scourge of war. The recent trend against international cooperation has arisen: the go it alone syndrome. e.g. America first. This could have dire consequences. He stressed that working together is the only way to go when dealing with immigration, trade, economics, health, and peace issues. He quoted John Donnes poem, No man is an island entire of itself; each man is a part of the main. The banquet attendance included about 30 students from UNO, Union College, Nebraska Wesleyan, and Southeast Community College all interested in the UN and international relations. The event concluded with an invitation to attend a Human Rights Day program Dec. 10 at the Baptist Church at 3000 S. 13th St., organized by the Yazidi community. Dr Ciara Kelly is calling for sexual abuse victims to contact her, after she revealed a woman came to her with allegations of rape. The Newstalk presenter revealed the alleged perpetrator of the rape had also acted inappropriately towards her. She said she did not know the woman who approached her to make the allegation, but she believed her. Speaking to the Irish Independent yesterday, she acknowledged going public with such allegations against an unidentified person was a difficult issue to navigate. "This is a very difficult area and I think there's no doubt that this is probably uncharted territory and that a boundary is being pushed by doing this. "Having said that, I've seen the various people, and not everyone who disagrees with me is a troll, but there are people who have expressed what could be termed valid concerns," said the star of RTE's 'Operation Transformation'. "But my feeling on it, because I did think about this beforehand, is that the more important issue is, if there is - and I believe it is the case - someone who has serially abused women over decades in Ireland, that it would be brought to justice and those women would have some recourse. I think that remains the most important issues - the women that have been affected, like the woman that came to me." Dr Kelly took to Twitter to highlight the case and used the hashtag #IrishWeinstein, a reference to Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein against whom 82 women have made allegations of sexual abuse. Dr Kelly shared details of the harassment with friends who she said told her the man "beat his wife" and would offer girls lifts home but "the passenger door handle was broken - they couldn't get out". The woman who made the rape allegation told Dr Ciara that there were "lots of us". On Twitter, Dr Kelly called on other women who might recognise the man, and have been affected similarly by him, to contact her and "try to right this". She said one of the positives of social media was that it could amplify small voices "so they become a roar". Military personnel are being left behind in public sector pay talks because they are excluded from negotiations on side deals. The two associations representing staff across all ranks in the Defence Forces are now demanding radical reform of pay mechanism by the Government. They say they have been marginalised under the current set-up and reduced to division two status in State industrial relations structures. They also claim they are being targeted as a "soft touch" by the Government as they are prevented from acquiring trade union status and don't have the right to take industrial action. Both Raco, representing officers, and Pdforra, on behalf of soldiers, sailors and air crew, have made it clear they are not seeking power to strike but say they should not be placed at a disadvantage, compared with Garda associations and others. Prior to the 2017 pay talks, the two associations were told by officials from the Departments of Public Expenditure and Defence there would be no side deals included in the negotiations. However, the chairwoman of the Workplace Relations Commission, Ms Oonagh Buckley, subsequently confirmed publicly that side deals were a regular and accepted feature of the talks. According to Pdforra general secretary Ger Guinan, a conciliation and arbitration scheme established in 1991 to mirror a similar mechanism available for the Garda is no longer fit for purpose. He says this scheme is failing Pdforra members and, combined with their treatment at the national pay talks, is a key factor in the steady loss of experienced personnel. "Recent statistics, obtained by Pdforra, show a defence organisation with a turnover in excess of 30pc over five years," he said. "This is unsustainable, unhealthy and deeply reflective of the disquiet and disillusionment being felt by our members," he said. GARDAI are investigating death threats sent to an Irish Independent journalist after politician Luke Ming Flanagan posted his mobile number and personal email address online. Gardai from Store Street are investigating the threats to journalist Niall O'Connor, which were made hours after Ming put the phone number online. The Sunday World made contact with the person linked to the number that made the threats but they claimed that their phone had "gone missing" during the time the messages were sent. The threats said: C***. Make no mistake, you are scum and I would love to see you dead. Would happily help to bring it about. Scum c***. It went on to detail a disturbing graphic sexual fantasy which cannot be printed in a family newspaper before ending: Theres a good girl. C***. Mr OConnor received a number of other unwanted communications this week after his number was printed online, as well as malicious email communication. They were sent after MEP Flanagan posted Mr OConnors mobile number and personal email on Twitter. Mr OConnor had sent an email to Flanagan asking why he voted in favour of a hard border with Northern Ireland in relation to Brexit. The Roscommon man later changed his vote and told Mr OConnor the initial vote was made in error. However, he also posted Mr OConnors personal details online and boasted about the power of social media. Fine Gael TD Noel Rock said he utterly condemned Ming for putting Mr OConnors phone number online. Its outrageous and irresponsible to be putting up private individuals phone numbers like that, he said. A Dublin firefighter has suffered an ear injury after a firework was thrown during an incident yesterday evening. Dublin Fire Brigade are appealing for a safe Halloween after the male firefighter suffered the injury. He is part of Dublin Fire Brigade's Blanchardstown unit. The Dublin Fire Brigade told Independent.ie that the firefighter was attending an illegal bonfire when the incident occured. "It was a Halloween related bonfire. We want everyone to have a fun & safe Halloween including all the emergency services staff that are working in the run up to 31st Oct. We encourage people to attend safer organised events that are managed by the local authorities and to respect both council & 999 workers as they do their job on the day." Tweeting this morning, the DFB wrote; "Sadly, one of our B'town firefighters suffered an ear injury at a fire after a firework was thrown. Let's have a safe #Halloween for all." Sadly, one of our B'town firefighters suffered an ear injury at a fire after a firework was thrown. Let's have a safe #Halloween for all pic.twitter.com/K7kQSWaiTG Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) October 30, 2017 Their appeal comes as emergency services are inundated with Halloween related calls over the October bank holiday weekend. The Dublin Society for the Protection of Animals is also pleading with people to stay safe. They have asked people stacking bonfires this Halloween to leave wood they find by fields alone for fear of endangering horses. DSPCA Spokeswoman Gillian Bird said owners leave wooden pallets by the edges of fields so their animals dont escape. She said: "Pallets stuffed in the hedges are keeping horses in. If its taken, the horses are going to escape and run the risk of getting hit by cars. Weve had cases in the past. "People who own horses put a huge amount of work into keeping them safe. Thats the big thing were pushing. Obviously bonfires are illegal but leave the wood in the bushes alone." The society also has advice for keeping pets safe. They have asked that; Pets pick up on owners anxiety so stay calm when fireworks and bangers go off The number of strays increases at Halloween so ensure pets are micro-chipped If its too late to have them chipped, make sure their collar is on at all times Keep pets inside at all times when off the leash The Society has received no reports of animal cruelty over the weekend so far. Dublin Fire Brigade dealing with a fire at a derelict site on Richmond Road Drumcondra. Photo: Steve Humphreys Dublin Fire Brigade dealing with a fire at a derelict site on Richmond Road Drumcondra. Photo: Steve Humphreys Dublin Fire Brigade dealing with a fire at a derelict site on Richmond Road Drumcondra. Photo: Steve Humphreys Emergency services are attending the scene of a large blaze on Dublin's northside (Photo: Adrian Weckler) Dublin Fire Brigade dealing with a fire at a derelict site on Richmond Road Drumcondra. Photo: Steve Humphreys Dublin Fire Brigade is still battling a large blaze on Dublin's northside after the fire broke out at approximately 2pm today. Five pumps, two aerial units and a foam and a command unit attended the scene at Richmond Road in Drumcondra. 5 pumps, 2 aerials, foam & command unit at a warehouse #fire Richmond Rd #Drumcondra. Residents, close windows as a precaution #Dublin pic.twitter.com/cYZinTh7Gz Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) October 29, 2017 The road was partly closed as emergency services battled the huge fire at the derelict warehouse. Residents were warned to close their windows as a precaution as the smoke spread quickly across the north side. What is this big smoke from fire in Dublin? pic.twitter.com/FQMETtX7ia Mike Mark (@M1KEMARK) October 29, 2017 AA Roadwatch reported Richmond Road at the Ballybough Road junction to be closed due to the incident. The Church of Scientology building in Los Angeles (Stock picture) The Church of Scientology opened their doors to the public yesterday to host a 'kid-friendly' Hallowe'en event. Volunteers at the centre in Firhouse, Tallaght said the event was not held to sign up new members. They said the church wants locals to avail of their building like any other community centre in the area. Most families were focused on Hallowe'en fun yesterday but some parents walked around the entrance hall, observing Scientology materials with curiosity. At the event, children were able to get their faces painted and photos taken in a photo booth, while a large, brown, inflatable cross topped a bouncy castle outside the churchs centre. Two young mothers from the area said they would happily attend events at the centre if they could do so without joining the church. Read More A 29-year-old mother-of-two, who did not wish to be named, told Independent.ie; "I'm not religious. We came because it was free, we knew these places are pumped with money. It's great for Hallowe'en. "If you go to a different area, like Tallaght or something, you won't get the same. It doesn't bother me, once [the kids] are happy. "I dont know what [Scientologists] believe in. Were not signing up." Her friend, a 27-year-old mother-of-one, added; "Theres nothing wrong with anyone having beliefs as long as they're not jamming it down your necks." Both women said it was a "fun day" and church volunteers did not approach families about joining unless they were approached first. The volunteers wore their standard uniform of black suit pants, white shirt and gold-backed waistcoat. Fine Gael councillor Brian Lawlor said he is still concerned about the organisation's presence in the area. "They just want to get numbers in," he said. "They make their money on getting people on these training programmes and they charge a substantial amount. "Theyre the sort of organisation that will adapt. Thats a concern for me and for the greater Tallaght, Knocklyone, Templeogue areas. "I am concerned about it to be honest. Its a wait and see for me." He added, however, that "adults have to be adults". "Its their own thing [if they join]," he said. Image of the blaze taken by Tony Hanlon The Pharmacy at Donabate which was destroyed by fire last night Photo: Colin O'Riordan The Pharmacy at Donabate which was destroyed by fire last night Photo: Colin O'Riordan The Pharmacy at Donabate which was destroyed by fire last night Photo: Colin O'Riordan The Pharmacy at Donabate which was destroyed by fire last night Photo: Colin O'Riordan Local people expressed outrage today at the arson attack that destroyed Donabate Pharmacy on the Portrane Road in the town. The fire broke out shortly after midnight and five units rushed to the scene where the pharmacy was engulfed in flames. Last night at approx 0040 5 units attended a premises #fire in #Donabate. Crews from Kilbarrack Swords Finglas & HQ on scene #Dublin #Fingal pic.twitter.com/rG269USxj8 Dublin Fire Brigade (@DubFireBrigade) October 30, 2017 Dublin Fire Brigade crews from Kilbarrack, Swords and Finglas battled the blaze. Gardai at Swords are investigating the fire and said that two business premises on the Portrane Rd, Donabate Co Dublin were damaged. Expand Close The Pharmacy at Donabate which was destroyed by fire last night Photo: Colin O'Riordan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Pharmacy at Donabate which was destroyed by fire last night Photo: Colin O'Riordan Two garda vehicles remained at the scene of the blaze today. The fire is believed to have been started in wheelie bins located at the back of the premises. The flames spread from the wheelie bins into the roof of the one-storey building. The flames took hold in the roof and soon the entire chemist's shop was ablaze. Expand Close The Pharmacy at Donabate which was destroyed by fire last night Photo: Colin O'Riordan / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Pharmacy at Donabate which was destroyed by fire last night Photo: Colin O'Riordan Firemen used a con-saw to cut through steel shuttering to get better access to the blaze. "It's diabolical. There is a bad element in Donabate and this looks like vandalism by youths," said angry local man Gerard Murray (58). "I'm a customer and we are friends of the owner. Local people are devastated by what happened," he said. "It was providing a valuable service to the community in meeting social needs. I volunteer with the St Vincent de Paul and something similar happened in Coolock when vandals set fire to bags outside the charity shop and it spread and destroyed the shop," he said. "A few months ago, vandals throwing stones smashed the windows in the local church. Whoever did this should be punished. Their parents should be fined too. "We need more regular garda patrols in the area," he said. Local woman Margaret Fitzpatrick (54) said "This is absolutely shocking. It's really desperate." "I just hope they find who did this," said the mother of three. Last night, a Dublin firefighter also suffered an ear injury after a firework was thrown at him while he attended an emergency call. Dublin Fire Brigade is appealing for a safe Halloween after the male firefighter suffered the injury. He is part of Dublin Fire Brigade's Blanchardstown unit. The Dublin Fire Brigade told Independent.ie that the firefighter was attending an illegal bonfire when the incident occured. Read More "It was a Halloween related bonfire. We want everyone to have a fun & safe Halloween including all the emergency services staff that are working in the run up to 31st Oct. We encourage people to attend safer organised events that are managed by the local authorities and to respect both council & 999 workers as they do their job on the day." Two British tourists who were visiting Dublin for a stag weekend were stabbed in an apparent random and unprovoked attack in the capital's north inner city. The men, aged 36 and 38, were walking on Blessington Street in Dublin 7 around 1am yesterday when a man in his 30s approached them and struck up a conversation, according to gardai. He then stabbed both men in the stomach before fleeing. The injured men were taken to the nearby Mater Hospital where they were treated for superficial stab wounds. Their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening. A Garda spokesman said the attack appeared to be completely unprovoked. The men were not robbed and there was no apparent motive for the attack. The Garda investigation is continuing. Dublin Lord Mayor Micheal Mac Donncha said he was shocked to learn of the attack. "It was an appalling attack and of grave concern that something like this could happen," he said. Fellow Dublin city councillor Ciaran Cuffe, who lives in the Arbour Hill area near where the attack happened, said he was appalled by the incident. "I'm horrified to hear of these attacks," he said. "We do have a strong Garda presence on the streets of the inner city due to the gangland situation. I hope these people will be caught and jailed." Reputation The fact the victims were tourists is also disconcerting. "This isn't good for Dublin's image and I hope this won't damage Dublin's reputation," said Mr Cuffe. "In general, compared to other cities, we're not unsafe and I'd hate to send out a message that we're not a safe city." The area where the stabbing took place houses a large number of hostels and tourist accommodation and is a short walk to the heart of the city. You might hate Monday, but you'll love our weekly pick of top travel offers... 235pp: Christmas markets in Prague ClickAndGo.com has return flights plus three nights in a four-star hotel in Prague from 235pp, departing Tuesday, December 19. Last-minute Christmas shopping with a difference? 01 906-9429; clickandgo.com. 249pp: Get a taste of cruising... Cassidy Travel has taster cruises with Norwegian - spend two nights cruising all-inclusive from Hamburg to Southampton next August from 249pps. Next February, a similar deal sails from Malaga to Barcelona from 439pps. Flights extra. 0818-332511; cassidytravel.ie. 949pp: Kick back in Kenya Tropical Sky has savings of up to 250pp on seven nights at the 4-star Leopard Beach Resort & Spa in Mombassa, departing between February 26 and March 11 of next year. Book before December 8 to get the rate of 949pp (flights included). 01 664-9999; tropicalsky.ie. 1,228: Family camping in Croatia ITAA member Shandon Travel has return flights from Dublin to Pula and seven nights' accommodation in a Tahiti mobile home at the Strasko Camping Resort for a family of four from May 4, 2018. The deal includes checked airline luggage. 021-4277094; shandontravel.ie; itaa.ie/offers. PS: 30pc off Iceland & US flights WOW air has 30pc off return flights in a Halloween flash sale. The sale is open until midnight on Tuesday, October 31, and valid for travel between then and February 10, 2018. Book on wowair.ie using the promo code WOWTREAT. NB: All travel deals subject to availability/change. It's the first rule of crisis communications: When you're in the hole, the first thing you do is to stop digging. But, if you're President Donald Trump, you equip yourself with a hardhat with a miner's light, reflective gear, heavy-duty gloves, and fire up Mary Anne -- the reliable steam shovel from "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel" -- and commence digging even deeper. In the past week, Trump has plumbed new depths of indignity, visiting fresh humiliations on his already degraded office, by picking a fight with a pregnant war widow and accusing her of lying; escalating his feud with U.S. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, and issuing a stern warning to U.S. Sen. John McCain that the Arizona Republican should "be careful, because, at some point, I fight back." Trump, who has a glancing relationship with the truth and speaks English only as a second language, has hurled his insults at Corker (whom he said couldn't get elected dog-catcher in his home state) and at McCain -- even as he journeyed to Capitol Hill to try to build support for tax reform. In case Trump has forgotten, he needs every Republican vote -- including Corker's and McCain's -- if he hopes to win passage of his deficit-exploding tax plan. Trump only damaged himself when he attacked "liddle" Corker on Twitter, falsely accusing him of working with former President Barack Obama to "give us the bad Iran deal." He also dismissed Corker as the "incompetent head of the [Senate] Foreign Relations Committee." As The Washington Post reported, Corker not only voted against the Iran deal, he also marshaled legislative support against it. And, as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Corker has the power to bottle up the administration's pick for Secretary of State, in the event that current chief diplomat Rex Tillerson finally reaches a tipping point and decides to quit. So logic would appear to dictate that Trump try to work past those differences and cultivate Corker's support. But this is Donald Trump's Washington, where logic has hung a "Back in 2020" sign on its office door and headed out for an extended holiday -- perhaps to some far-flung island with nonexistent broadband service. "Sen. Corker is the incompetent head of the Foreign Relations Committee, & look how poorly the U.S. has done, Trump wrote on Twitter. "He doesn't have a clue as the entire World WAS laughing and taking advantage of us. People like liddle' Bob Corker have set the U.S. way back. Now we move forward!" True, Corker probably didn't help matters by reinforcing his view to "Good Morning America," that the White House is an adult daycare center, later slamming the "same untruths from an utterly untruthful president." The ongoing war of words between Trump, Corker and McCain -- however destructive and uncivil -- could be reasonably dismissed as mere posturing between some towering male egos. But Trump's needless fight with Myeshia Johnson, the widow of one of four Army soldiers killed in operations in the African nation of Niger, proves the case that spats with Corker and other political enemies stem from deeper flaws in the president's character. Trump at first accused a Florida congresswoman listening in on speakerphone of distorting the content of his call to Johnson. That account was later seemingly confirmed by Trump's chief of staff, former Marine Gen. John Kelly. Not satisfied with the damage inflicted there, Trump lashed out on Twitter after Johnson told "Good Morning America" that she was unhappy with the tone of Trump's bobbled attempt at a condolence call and complained that the president could not remember her husband's name. "I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!" Trump wrote, needlessly heaping more trauma on a grieving family. A bigger man would have let that slide. An empathetic commander-in-chief, burdened by the responsibility of sending men and women possibly to their deaths in combat, would have silently absorbed the barbs, recognizing them as coming from someone dealing with incomprehensible loss. But Donald Trump? He just keeps digging. 'Conquest of the Wytschaete-Messines Ridge', Belgium, First World War, 7 June 1917. Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images The grave of Willie Redmond in the grounds of a convent in Locre in Flanders Patrick McNicholas, a private in the first battalion of the Royal Munster Fusiliers, number 14125, was killed in action on August 9, 1918. His death came just three months before the WW1 armistice was announced. At 32 years of age, McNicholas died from shrapnel injuries having fought in both France and Flanders, Belgium. He was the son of Michael and Catherine McNicholas and the uncle of Stephen (80), my neighbour from the village where I grew up Treenagleragh, Kiltimagh, Co Mayo. And while he died on August 8, according to Stephen, Patricks mother and his grandmother Catherine, or Kit as she was locally known, already knew his fate when the official news arrived at their home. Two days before we got official word of his death, Kit said: Paddy is dead, said Stephen. She had a premonition or feeling or got the whisper, as they say, and she was right, he said. Expand Expand Previous Next Close Soldiers' graves at Flanders Field. Photo by Camerique/ClassicStock/Getty Images In Flanders Fields, Museum. Photo: City of Ypres-Tijl Capoen / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Soldiers' graves at Flanders Field. Photo by Camerique/ClassicStock/Getty Images While this story is unique to the McNicholas family, Paddys fate sadly was not and like families all around Ireland at the time, his role in the war wasnt really spoken about then or for a long time afterwards. Irelands often uncomfortable relationship with its nearest neighbour and one-time conqueror hovered for a long time and it is still a sore point for many. But thankfully, the contributions made by Irish fighters in the First World War are being increasingly recognised and commemorated at home, and abroad, and rightly so. Paddy had signed up to fight in the war from the UK, in Earlestown, Lancashire and he enlisted with his childhood neighbour John McNicholas, who lived to survive the war. Others from the locality who perished during the war include John Walsh of Lisduff, Kiltimagh who had enlisted in Brighton. He was killed in action in 1916 having served in France and Flanders. They werent the only men from Kiltimagh, or Ireland, who fought in what is still considered one of the bloodiest and deadliest war ever known to mankind over 17 million men and women, both soldiers and civilians, died during the war period from 1914 to 1918. Expand Close 'Conquest of the Wytschaete-Messines Ridge', Belgium, First World War, 7 June 1917. Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp 'Conquest of the Wytschaete-Messines Ridge', Belgium, First World War, 7 June 1917. Photo by The Print Collector/Print Collector/Getty Images It is an astonishing figure and hard to fathom, particularly as you roam around the beautiful countryside and farmland in Flanders. Home to some of the prettiest landscape in Europe, it is hard to perceive how the flatlands and fields were once a massive bloodbath and the place where so many people lost their lives in what is now also considered the most futile of wars. As the inveterate traveller and WW1 photographer Frank Hurley put it: for there was no place in eternity that is more hellish, when describing The Third Battle of Ypres, one of the most controversial episodes of the great war which was launched on July 31, 1917 and lasted three months. While the offensive resulted in some gains for the allies, the confrontation, today commonly known as Passchendaele, any results came at great human cost like the Battle of the Somme which came a year before it. The centenary of another great battle, that of the Messines Ridge (above), is being commemorated this week in Flanders (outgoing Taoiseach Enda Kenny is attending, along with Prince William and Princess Astrid of Belgium, in one of his last engagements in that role). It has significance on both sides of the Irish border. In this battle, unionist and nationalist solders fought side by side in the trenches. Messiness marked the first time in WW1 that soldiers from the 36th Ulster Division and the 16th Irish Division engaged in action together although they both fought at different times during the Battle of the Somme. Expand Close Photo: In Flanders Fields Museum / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Photo: In Flanders Fields Museum The battle, which started on June 7, was a significant victory for the Allies partly because of the detonation of a number of underground mines below German lines on the first day of the battle. While many nationalities lost their lives in Flanders fields, the contribution of the Irish is commemorated at the Island of Ireland Peace Park which is located about three miles from where the Battalion and Division fought side by side. It should also be remembered that Irish men and women also served with numerous other armies including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa as well as Britain. The memorial site, opened in 1998, is known as the Irish Peace Park or Tower and was built as a symbol of reconciliation by An All-Ireland Journey of Reconciliation Trust and the support of the people of Messines (now called by its Flemish name Mesen). The replica Round Tower, the centre piece of the park, cuts a lonely figure but some might feel that this adds to the atmosphere. However, the decision to locate the park at this spot, and so far away from the actual battle, was partly due to the fact that the land was donated at no cost. The tower, based on the design of a traditional Irish round tower from the 8th century, is 110 feet high and is made of stones from Mullingar work house. It is also designed so that the inside of the tower lights up only on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month to mark the time of armistice when the guns fell silent for the first time in four years. The park also includes a number of pillars naming each of the provinces of Ireland while three other commemorate the dead, wounded or missing of each of the three Irish divisions that found with the British army in WW1: 10th (Irish) Division - 9,363 casualties 16th (Irish) Division - 28,398 casualties 36th (Ulster) Division - 32,186 casualties One of the most moving aspects of the park involve nine stone tablets that are inscribed with quotations from letters and poems from Irishmen who died during the war. One contains a quote from the poet Francis Ledwidge who was killed in the Ypres Salient while serving with the Iniskillen Fusiliers on the first day of the Battle of Ypres: It is too late now to retrieve a fallen dream, too late to grieve a name unmade, but not too late to thank the Gods for what is great. A keen edged sword, a soldiers heart is greater than a poets art. And greater than a poets fame a little grave that has no name. It is here that this weeks commemorations take place. Here are four other must sees when you travel to Flanders. 1. Grave of William HK Redmond William Redmond MP (known as Willie Redmond), was one of the Irish Nationalist soldiers who fought in the Battle of Messines Ridge on June 7, 1917. When hit by shrapnel, he was helped by a Unionist soldier, Private John Meeke, who had also been wounded. Redmond, whose brother and fellow MP John was the leader of the nationalist Home Rule movement in Ireland, was taken to the dressing station at Dranouter and died there of wounds he sustained in No Mans Land, He was buried in the grounds of the Catholic convent at Loker - he had earlier befriended nuns whose convent had originally been located at the site. Expand Expand Previous Next Close The grave of Willie Redmond in the grounds of a convent in Locre in Flanders Water-filled WW1 crater at Flanders. Photo: visitflanders.com / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The grave of Willie Redmond in the grounds of a convent in Locre in Flanders Redmonds grave is located on what is now an active farm and a private house is located right beside it. Meeke later received a Military Medal for his gallantry. This is one of the many examples you will see of how the Belgian people had to get on with life after the war but also have to live with constant reminders of it around them as they get on with their everyday lives. Nowadays the site is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. There are also numerous allied cemeteries to be visited in Flanders and many soldiers are also buried in communal graveyards. 2. Peace Pool Expand Close Water-filled WW1 crater at Flanders. Photo: visitflanders.com / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Water-filled WW1 crater at Flanders. Photo: visitflanders.com Strange as it may seem, but the Peace Pool is actually a water-filled mine crater at Spanbroekmolen. It is the site of the biggest of 19 mines blown by the British Army early in the morning of June 7, 1917. The move signalled the launch of the Battle of Messines, or Menin in Flemish which it is now known, and the space had been a strategic location for the Germans who had spent a year and a half developing well established positions with concrete bunkers and strong defensive posts before that fateful morning. Probably more importantly, the location had very good views across the lower lying British positions. Now, though, its a peaceful and pensive place and when we visited in April the newly blossomed hawthorn and furze trees were in full bloom vibrant reminders of the nature that is likely to outlive us all. In addition, for three centuries before the war, the wind peacefully turned the windmills on the hill here. 3. Last Post/Memorial to the Missing Expand Close The Last Post at Menin Gate. Photo: City of Ypres-Tijl Capoen / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp The Last Post at Menin Gate. Photo: City of Ypres-Tijl Capoen Every evening since 1928, at 8pm sharp, the city of Ypres or Leper in Flemish hosts The Last Post at the Menin Gates. The Last Post, traditionally the last salute to the fallen warrior, is played in memory of the soldiers of the then British Empire and Allied Forces who fell in the Ypres Salient during the war. It is also where the past meets the present and is often visited by relatives of war heroes wearing the medals earned by their relatives. It is both poignant and moving as wreaths are laid in memory of those who fought and died. There were four great battles around the city of Ypres and more than 250,000 soldiers of the-then British Empire lost their lives. Over 100,000 of these soldiers have no known grave. Of these, 54,896 are commemorated by name on the Menin Gate. 4. The German trenches at Wijtschate and cemetery There are families on every side of a war. And while it is natural for us to focus on the Allied side of the story, the German perspective is also interesting. And while a lot of what you see in Flanders, understandably given time, are recreations or museums there are some parts that are genuine restorations. The Bayernwald Trenches at Wijtschate are a carefully and archaeologically restored section of an original German trench system dating from 1916. They include sandbagging, trench sides and duckboard walkways. While you walks through them you can only imagine the conditions that soldiers on both sides of the war endured. The constant bombardment of firing guns and gas, the stench, the lice and rats as well as the dreaded trench-rot caused by feet being exposed to dampness which first involved blisters and open sores and led to fungal infections and often amputations. The Langemark German Cemetery is also worth a visit. Expand Close In Flanders Fields, Museum. Photo: City of Ypres-Tijl Capoen / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp In Flanders Fields, Museum. Photo: City of Ypres-Tijl Capoen There are 36 mainly allied military graveyards in the regions and the German ones really stand out. Their design is completely different but the messages on the graves are no different. And the passing of time too has played a role here. So much so, that British school children have begun leaving poppy memorabilia on the graves of the fallen German soldiers who also met their fates in Flanders fields. It seems, the poppy, one of the few plants to grow on the otherwise barren battlefields post-war and once considered almost solely a British symbol of remembrance, is playing a new role as the younger generations interpret its symbolism in their own ways. In fact, it was a Canadian doctor - Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae who wrote the poem In Flanders Fields: where the poppy was first mentioned. In Flanders fields the poppies blow / Between the crosses, row on row, / That mark our place; and in the sky / The larks, still bravely singing, fly / Scarce heard amid the guns below. Other tips Find a good guide. We were lucky to have Philippe Mingels on our tour and he comes highly recommended contact him on email at philippe.mingels@telenet.be. Getting there Expand Close Market Square, Ypres. Photo: City of Ypres-Tijl Capoen / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Market Square, Ypres. Photo: City of Ypres-Tijl Capoen There are a number of Irish tour operators offering tailor made packages to Ypres and the Salient. All include flights and ground arrangements and transfers: Joe Walsh Tours: joewalshtours.ie/holidays/military-heritage-world-war-i Shandon Travel sells day trips with their tours to Bruges: shandontravel.ie/european-city-breaks/holiday/bruges-belgium/ GTI - gti-ireland.com/holiday/offer/ww1-the-battle-of-messines Alternatively, passengers can fly to Brussels (we flew with Ryanair) and take a train to Ieper (Ypres) from the airport by booking a ticket on b-rail.be or hire a car from the airport and drive directly there. When in the area, specialised battlefield tours of the area (tailormade to your particular interest) can be booked. For further information see: visitflanders.com. Read more: Already one of the worlds most expensive destinations, Iceland is considering a new tax on tourists to prevent overcrowding. The country has witnessed a near fivefold increase in tourism since 2010 and is looking at ways of limiting the number of foreign arrivals. Hitting holidaymakers in the wallet is certainly one way of doing that. In an interview with Bloomberg, Icelands tourism minister, Thordis Kolbrun Reykfjord Gylfadottir, warned that the country is in danger of being overwhelmed. The sector and all of us have to be careful not to become victims of our own success, she said. Iceland, which has a population of just 332,000, welcomed 490,000 foreign visitors in 2010. This year that figure is set to rise to a whopping 2.3 million and that, says Gylfadottir, is not sustainable. Some areas are simply unable to facilitate one million visitors every year, she said. If we allow more people into areas like that, were losing what makes them special unique pearls of nature that are a part of our image and of what were selling. Expand Close Reykjavik. Deposit photos / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Reykjavik. Deposit photos The Icelandic government is considering a range of measures to limit tourism, all of which are likely to push up the price of a holiday to the country. They including increasing the existing hotel tax which raised a reported 400 million krona (3.38m) for the countrys coffers in 2016 forcing tour operators to purchase licenses and imposing limits on the number of people who can visit certain sites. The government claims money raised through any such initiatives would go towards improving infrastructure and facilities. When we talk about charging for access, to me that relates more to controlling the number of people entering particular areas which we need to do, Gylfadottir told Bloomberg. We also need to ensure that tourists that come here get a positive experience during their stay. Tourist taxes are seldom popular, but they are likely to prove particularly contentious in Iceland, which is already extremely expensive for foreigners. When I went in February costs were prohibitively high try 11-plus for a pint of beer, said Hugh Morris, a travel journalist with The Telegraph. Dinner at even reasonable establishments always seemed to nudge towards the triple figure mark. Read more: Read More Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022] Premium Gene Kerrigan Opinion Just what our politics needs: Stalin-like applause police in the Dail In the words of Miriam Lord in the Irish Times: There was much scanning of the Dail chamber after Zelenskys speech to identify the TDs who did not clap. Well, imagine that! The arrival of the remarkable Mr Zelensky in our parliament albeit a virtual presence aroused celebrity excitement of the kind not seen since the last time Matt Damon went for a stroll in Dalkey, Co Dublin. Any day now Theresa May and Jean-Claude Juncker will want a suitable Requiem to bury Brexit. If they choose to do it with some ceremony, they could do worse than 'channel' the spirit of Frank Sinatra. In 1973 (the year the UK joined the EEC) the old crooner topped the charts with 'Send in the Clowns'. The theme of the ballad was a very painful and costly divorce between two old lovers. Forty five years on and this dirge could top the charts again, - if not in London, then most certainly in Brussels! This is because the theme and lyrics are so strangely prescient and prophetic today. Just listen to a typical verse: "Don't you love farce?/My fault I fear/I thought that you'd want, what I want/Sorry my dear!/But where are the Clowns?/Quick! Send in the Clowns!/Don't bother! They're here"! The British taxpayer now has to find 40bn to compensate the EU for UK commitments made during 45 years of membership. And that is only the start of it. The British taxpayer now also has to find another 5bn a year to replace the EU annual payments to UK farmers. Fresh out of the richest club in the world, the UK will soon find itself in the poorest club imaginable! Alongside North Korea and Zimbabwe, the UK will soon share a most shameful commonality. All three will be among the best known countries on the planet who are unable and unprepared to feed their own people. The latest annual report (2016) from the UK Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirms this fact. The report also confirms that practically every essential metric confirms that UK farming is in terminal decline for years. The UK trade gap in food and beverages continues to grow inexorably. Last year it widened by 4.2pc. All the world-class UK agricultural support systems and services that were in place 40 years ago are long gone. And now they are gone forever. UK animal health standards, systems and services are also in a state of perpetual crisis (95pc of veterinary surgeons on UK farms and in UK meat factories are from Eastern Europe and Spain). The average farm in the UK receives over 20,000 a year in Cap payments - that's 250pc more than what the average Irish farmer gets from the Cap per year (8,850). If Britain's agricultural industry was run as a limited company, the liquidators would have moved in years ago. Nobody in Ireland is happy with where a once great country now finds itself. We in Ireland do have some practical solutions for this sorry state of affairs in the UK. But before we can do anything, we have just one question for Theresa May if the Cap didn't fit, how can the crown? Brendan Dunleavy, B. Agr. Sc. Killeshandra, Co Cavan FSU quiet on mortgage scandal Back in 2010 as the country found itself in the grip of a recession, we saw many young people in the banking sector either let go or had their salaries reduced. Their union, the IBOA, now the Financial Services Union (FSU), spoke out very strongly on behalf of its members. Over the past weeks we have heard personal testimony from mortgage holders who were contacted by phone and in writing by bank officials, most of whom were members of the FSU, informing them, inaccurately as it turns out, on the status of their mortgages. This misinformation resulted in marriage breakups, loss of homes and in some cases, suicide. Those banking personnel will say they were merely doing their job. How come we have not heard from the FSU this past week defending its members' actions in this mortgage scandal. Damien Carroll Kingswood, Dublin 24 IRFU overseas 'ban' not sporting Alan Quinlan professes empathy for Simon Zebo at the end of his international career through the application of "an unwritten rule that a move abroad effectively puts your international career on hold". Quinlan's piece could have been written in IRFU headquarters and shows little professional solidarity with a fellow Munster player. This so-called unwritten rule has been exercised enough in recent years to assume the status of policy or law in Irish rugby and while I'm sure Zebo won't challenge it, it remains possible some enterprising and ambitious player might bring a legal challenge against its trade-restricting effect. Simply, disallowing an Irishman, playing abroad, from playing for his country and thereby denying him any remuneration and commercial income that flows from his international status is a restriction on his ability to trade his talent for income - to be a professional in his field. The union's ban on players playing abroad from appearing in the Irish jersey is a simple case of the IRFU acting simultaneously as employer and regulator. It might be sport, but it's certainly a business and this ban mentality wouldn't be allowed in business generally. Perhaps an Irish rugby union Bosman is out there yet to give players more clout in negotiations? Tom Hayes North Circular Road, Limerick Savita's death was a turning point Today marks the fifth anniversary of the death of Savita Halappanavar. My friends here in India were appalled when her story became known. They couldn't imagine this was possible in a 'developed' country. For my friends in Ireland, news of her tragic death was the moment we finally realised how the Eighth Amendment affects us all. Until then, many of us were under the false impression abortion was for other people, other women, not for us. Until we have been in a position where a planned pregnancy is no longer viable, or faced an unplanned pregnancy we are not equipped to cope with, none of us can say how we would respond. We certainly have no right to tell others what their response should be. I know we are capable of better. That we can respond with compassion and kindness to all women, whatever their choice. That we can provide them with the healthcare they need in their own country. It is time to repeal. Emma O'Brien Darjeeling, India Directors... or jobs for the boys? Where have the 'public interest directors' been for the last 10 years as decisions were being made by the banks on the tracker mortgages? How come the media has not focussed more on the role they were meant to be fulfilling over the last number of years? These people, ex-politicians, ex-civil servants, were appointed by our political masters at considerable cost to the taxpayer to oversee the banks. It would be interesting to see how the PAC members would have "interrogated" these people on the matter of the tracker mortgage. Were these appointments just simply "jobs for the boys"? Tom Kelly Merginstown, Co Wicklow Kevin Spacey has come under fire for opening up about his sexuality, stating that he is living as a gay man, in a statement in which he apologised for any inappropriate drunken behaviourwith a 14-year-old in 1986. The House Of Cards star and former artistic director of Londons Old Vic theatre tweeted a statement after actor Anthony Rapp accused the 58-year-old of historical harassment. In an interview with BuzzFeed, Rapp said Spacey, then aged 26, placed him on a bed and climbed on top of him following a party at his apartment. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference Spacey said he is beyond horrified by the claim, that he does not remember the alleged incident, which would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour. He said the story has encouraged me to address other things about my life. In the Twitter post, he added: I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fuelled by the fact that I have been so protective of my privacy. As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. Expand Close Anthony Rapp (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Anthony Rapp (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behaviour. Video of the Day He was criticised for conflating the two statements. Actor @billyeichner wrote: That Kevin Spacey statement. Nope. Absolutely not. Nope. But honestly I hesitate to make jokes because the Spacey statement is truly disgusting, irresponsible and dangerous. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference @rilaws said: For a famous person to deflect these accusations with a long-in-the-making coming out is so cruel to his supposed new community it stings. @larrywilmore wrote: Kevin Spaceys comment was wrong on so many levels. Rapp commented on Twitter: I came forward with my story, standing on the shoulders of the many courageous women and men who have been speaking out to shine a light and hopefully make a difference, as they have done for me. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference Double Oscar winner Spacey is best known for the film American Beauty and TV drama House Of Cards. His long-running tenure at The Old Vic hit the headlines a year after he joined when he reported to police that he had been attacked in a park at around 4am on a Saturday morning. He later dropped the complaint, saying that a youth had conned him into handing over his mobile while he was walking his dog and that he injured himself when he tripped over his pet as he chased the youth. On Monday, following Rapps accusation, the Royal Court theatres artistic director, Vicky Featherstone, was asked if she was aware of stories about Spacey when he was working in London. She told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: I think that many people in theatre and the creative industries have been aware of many stories of many people over a lot of years. After the Harvey Weinstein allegations there had been an opening of the floodgates and a very important moment for us all throughout society, not just in our industry, she said. Sisters really are doing it for themselves. While most of us might have to wait years for someone to buy us a diamond, others are taking the reins and buying it for themselves theyre not waiting for a fiance or partner, but treating themselves. Margaret ORourke, founder of MoMuse jewellery, is all too familiar with what women are looking for when it comes to jewellery shopping and with the launch of her new fine jewellery range, she has seen her customer base evolve into a rather diverse shopper: Irish women, men, couples and a new influx of Americans to her store at Powerscourt Town Centre thanks to a game-changing recommendation by the New York Times in July. When it comes to big purchases like sapphires or topaz or gold bands, its almost always 100% Irish. There are so many different categories of customers, she tells Independent.ie Style. Some women are married and have their kids, and they dont wear their wedding or engagement ring anymore. Theres lovely lady, a yoga instructor; her husband keeps buying her a black stacking ring each Christmas, she keeps adding every year instead of her engagement ring. When people get engaged or married, they pay a fortune for a ring and then suddenly their budget is gone. One couple in particular wanted a simple ring and preferred to put it on a big holiday or into their house. People are more into the experience of travelling and having a beautiful house, rather than having a big rock. Then you have some women who come in and say, Ive always wanted a really nice ring, but I dont want to pay a fortune for it. Theres a lot of cash for gold and people have break-ins: they want something they can wear all the time, not something youre not wearing, a waste of money. Some fashion followers will already be familiar with MoMuse, the brand has been around since 2009 and has a dedicated fan base among Irish fashion journalists, editors and bloggers. But the pieces are moving beyond cult status into mainstream success with an ever-growing expansion that comes from the same signatures of all small business owners: blood, sweat and tears. This has gradually happened over the last couple of years, gold stacking rings, gem ones, Ive been slowly building without pushing it, she explains. Video of the Day I have a whole new customer. The millennials as theyre calling them, theyre totally moving away from the traditional. One young couple, they were doing their whole wedding from scratch and the bride didnt want a diamond so they bought a gold band. The whole experience is quite relaxed. Im not trying to criticise jewellers but Im hearing not very nice stories. One particular couple told me they went to a store and they started with a 33,000diamond ring, so anything else you looked at then wouldnt be what you want. Next year, Ill probably create a new area in the shop to make a little more personal. MoMuse HQ is a haven for Irish accessories designers and its only fitting as the store was first launched as Bow eight years ago alongside other Irish creatives, while Ireland was deep in the recession, as Margaret calls. The business is 12 years old - we started in 2009 here deep in recession in a shop double this size called Bow, where a couple of designers got together and it grew slowly. It was a nice experience because there was no pressure, no long lease. I had a little corner in the shop that grew and grew. The highlight of the year was being featured in the New York Times shopping list - its put me on the international radar as well. Ive had so many Americans in. It means a lot to me to stock as much Irish as I can. After the recession, I think weve all learned a lot more. On the cover of writer and poet Michael Murphy's new book about dreams, Michael is sitting in an impressive fabric-covered, high-backed chair. It's appropriate for all sorts of reasons; Michael is very interested in design, and this chair is by world-class furniture designer Hans Wegner. It's a chair that belongs in one of his and his partner Terry's favourite places in the world, the house they live in when they're in Spain; the house, in fact, where he wrote the book, which is titled Book of Dreams. It's also of course, particularly fitting, because it's the kind of chair in which one falls asleep and has dreams. Book of Dreams, which is Michael's fifth book, makes for fascinating reading; it's full of real dreams - some silly, some sad, all surreal - experienced by real people, and after an account of what happened in each dream, Michael gives an analysis of the significance of the events recalled. He's well qualified to do so, because while most people know Michael as one of the top newscasters for many years in RTE, he is now, by profession, a psychoanalyst, and has been for many years. Indeed, it was his first choice of career, growing up in Castlebar, Co Mayo. "I did arts in UCD, and after graduating, I won a scholarship to study at the university of Nancy, in France, which was attached to the Freudian Institute in Frankfurt, and I did my master's in psychoanalysis there," Michael recalls. "I had already been in analysis myself at that stage. Obviously, if you were gay, it wasn't spoken about then - my being gay contributed to my reasons for going into analysis - but I had also always been interested in human nature; that had always been a passion," Michael says, in the mellifluous tones for which he was famous when he was a newscaster. He goes on to note, "There were no jobs in it, and no-one in Mayo understood psychoanalysis, so I went into RTE instead." He became a newsreader first, and after about 10 years, he went into TV production. Through his work as a producer, he made what he calls the first reality-TV programmes. "It was Access Community Television; local communities were themselves involved in the stories told and the making of the programmes. It was reality TV with quality - we told real people's real stories," he says with pride, noting that they won many awards. Michael speaks fondly about those programmes, not least because it was through Access TV that he met his partner of 33 years, Terry, also a psychoanalyst. "Michael came to do an Access programme in the Rutland Centre [for alcohol addiction treatment] which I had set up with some other people," Terry explains. "He wanted to film the process, but we wouldn't allow him do that for confidentiality reasons, so it was agreed the staff would enact the group therapy." Michael adds, "Television is like an X-ray, and within seconds, just by looking, you actually know what a person is like. I had three days of looking at Terry and I thought, 'That's a good guy'. In the end, we all went for a meal, the crew and the Rutland people, and I made sure I was sitting beside Terry," Michael notes. Sadly, the Access programmes were axed for various reasons, but Michael isn't remotely bitter. "Being the producer-director, It was like I got to play with the train set; it was a wonderful, wonderful privilege. I have to be extraordinarily grateful for that," he volunteers. Fortunately, the climate around psychoanalysis had changed and people were realising its value, so Michael decided to go back and do further studies, with a view to making it his next career. That was 27 years ago, and he and Terry both still work in the area, starting at seven in the morning, "the executive hour", as Terry calls it with a laugh. Michael has another career as a writer - he wrote a memoir about his cancer diagnosis and recovery; he's written about the experiences of some of his patients with their illnesses (with their permission, of course) and he writes poetry. He hasn't given up on the performing side developed during his days as a newsreader and he's doing a Speaking of Dreams tour around the country in November, starting with a show in the Pavilion in Dun Laoghaire. Terry will be part of the backstage crew, which he enjoys, though it can get fraught when the engaging couple, who got married last month, are working together so closely. "I remember on the last tour I was so transfixed with what was happening on stage that I forgot to change a slide, and Michael hissed at me, 'Push the fucking button'," Terry recalls, adding jokingly/tartly, "not a nice way to speak to your partner, and me a cripple and all." Terry's reference to being a 'cripple' relates to his childhood polio which has come back to bite in recent years, as polio tends to do. He needs a stick to walk and finds stairs very difficult, which is one reason why they've ended up living in the house they currently enjoy when in Spain. "We bought a lovely apartment between Marbella and Fuengirola 15 years ago but it had 40 steps up to it and I began to find those steps very difficult," Terry says, while Michael takes up the story, "Our friend, Anna Timmerman, kept saying, 'I'm rattling around in this place, why don't you come and live with me?'" They jumped at the chance, not least because Anna is, by all accounts, a wonderful person. In the acknowledgments to Book of Dreams, Michael refers to her as an honorary family member - "one of the Murphys of Copenhagen". Anna is originally Danish, and spent a lot of time in Spain with her parents when she was young. She met her husband, an American millionaire, when she was 19, and at one stage lived near Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate. When she and her husband divorced, Anna decided to base herself in Spain, and bought a wonderful architect-designed home spanning 10,000 square feet. "The house was built in the 1960s by a famous American architect, a friend of Frank Lloyd Wright, Bob Mosher, who built the Coronado Bay Bridge in San Diego. He retired to Spain and built four or five houses, and this is one of them." The house is built of teak, which has a resin that termites can't attack, making it very solid, and it boasts many fabulous features, not least stunning sea views, with Gibraltar and Africa in the distance. The couple fully realise they've landed on their feet - the house comes complete with a swimming pool and gorgeous grounds. "We're so lucky. We have our own wing in the house, a complete apartment, and few parts are more than a few steps up or down," Terry notes, while Michael adds, "All the pieces of furniture are classic Danish designs." For Michael, the house's most precious possession, however, is a chocolate labrador, Toga. "I arrive at the door, she almost faints with delight and she tranfers allegiance from Anna to me immediately," says Michael, while Terry notes dryly. "I call her a slut, and Anna and I just have walk-on parts in her life from then on." Obviously Michael is the man of her dreams. 'Book of Dreams', published by Gill Books For details of Michael's 'Speaking of Dreams' shows, see michaelmurphyauthor.com Edited by Mary O'Sullivan. Photography by David Duran People walk at the site after a bombing attack of an internally displaced persons camp in Rann, Nigeria January 17, 2017. MSF/Handout via Reuters An injured person is comforted at the site after a bombing attack of an internally displaced persons camp in Rann, Nigeria January 17, 2017. MSF/Handout via Reuters Injured people are comforted at the site after a bombing attack of an internally displaced persons camp in Rann, Nigeria January 17, 2017. MSF/Handout via Reuters An injured child is carried at the site after a bombing attack of an internally displaced persons camp in Rann, Nigeria January 17, 2017. MSF/Handout via Reuters. Nigeria's air force killed 50 people and injured 120 in an air strike on a refugee camp in the northeast on Tuesday, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said. The military said the strike had targeted Boko Haram. MSF said the strike occurred in Rann in Borno state, the epicentre of the jihadist group's seven-year-old bid to create an Islamic caliphate. Regional military commander General Lucky Irabor located it at Kala Balge, a district including Rann. Irabor, who said it was too early to determine the cause of the mistake, told journalists an unknown number of civilians had been killed, adding that humanitarian workers from MSF and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) were injured. "MSF teams have seen 120 wounded and 50 dead following the bombing," said Charlotte Morris, a spokeswoman for the medical charity. "Our medical and surgical teams in Cameroon and Chad are ready to treat wounded patients. We are in close contact with our teams, who are in shock following the event." Expand Close Covered bodies are seen at the site after a bombing attack of an internally displaced persons camp in Rann, Nigeria January 17, 2017. MSF/Handout via Reuters / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Covered bodies are seen at the site after a bombing attack of an internally displaced persons camp in Rann, Nigeria January 17, 2017. MSF/Handout via Reuters A spokeswoman for ICRC said six Nigerian Red Cross members were killed and 13 were wounded. The insurgency has killed more than 15,000 people and forced two million to flee their homes, many of whom have moved to camps because it has been too dangerous to return home. The air strike came amid an offensive against Boko Haram by Nigeria's military over the last few weeks. President Muhammadu Buhari said last month a key camp in the jihadist group's Sambisa forest base in Borno state had fallen. A statement issued by the presidency said the air strike was a "regrettable operational mistake" that happened during the "final phase of mopping up insurgents in the northeast". Boko Haram has stepped up attacks in the last few weeks as the end of the rainy season has enabled its fighters to move more easily in the bush. When I stopped in on Bob Meduna in the fields just west of Wahoo, I asked, How does the harvest look? Looks pretty good, Bob said. Whats everyone else saying? It was one of those perfect fall mornings in Nebraska. On the horizon, the rich blue sky seemed to stretch down and touch the amber rolling hills -- with two differently colored combines adding depth to the scene. Nebraskas strength, her character, and her tradition is found in the land. It is clearly the most defining element of who we are and what we make. Agriculture creates our habits of being, our culture, our economic largesse. One quarter of our jobs are tied to it. Out of the states total land mass, more than 90 percent is farms and ranches. The Cornhusker State is the third-largest corn-producing state and the top popcorn-producing state. Our ag sector is a major exporter. One out of every four rows of Nebraska soybeans go to China. We are the No. 1 state for beef exports. But the little-told story is that agriculture is also Americas strength. It is foundational to Americas economy and our relationships abroad. Feeding the world is something we take for granted because we do it so effectively. Twelve years ago, we averaged 154 bushels of corn per acre; today, that number is 178 bushels. With a new Farm Bill coming up, a lot of the discussion will be on the necessary stabilization policies for agriculture for the benefit of Nebraska and America. At the State Fair in Grand Island this summer, the federal delegation held an important panel discussion with farmers from our diverse agricultural sectors. The challenge moving forward is to broaden our thinking from just expanding markets to creating healthy farm income. Low corn and soybean prices and higher input costs are parts of the challenge. But there are other drags on the equation, such as health insurance costs. You can buy fertilizer through your co-op, but you cant buy health insurance. This is an unfair choke point inhibiting more solutions for farmers and small businesses who do not benefit from the risk-pool diversity of larger corporations. Washington seems to be waking up to this reality -- admittedly, a bit late -- but I am hopeful for a sensible, bipartisan solution. Moving up the value chain from raw commodities, some of the most forward-thinking ag work in the world is being done right here in Blair. Novel business in the production of bio-fuels, amino acids, lactic acid, glycine and enzymes from local grain production provide value-added products for human and animal nutrition and even new source material for bio-plastics. A glance across the pond shows the potential of small-scale production agriculture. Under the mantra of twice as much food using half as many resources, Dutch farmers are reducing water use for key crops by up to 90 percent with a staggering increase in output. The Netherlands is the No. 2 exporter of food as measured by value, close on the heels of the United States, which has 270 times more landmass. It may surprise you that, after a long period of decline, the number of people engaged in agriculture is growing. Expanding our ag family with innovative opportunities that add value to our commodity groups, augment specialty crops and reconnect the farmer to the family -- the urban to the rural -- will expand local economies and tap into the important growing trends of knowing your food and artisanal agriculture. Someone told me this week to Keep Nebraska a secret. Tempting. I knew what he meant in a deeper sense. Our current economic construct, however, was at one point somebodys innovation. Our best protection is to keep moving forward -- preserving, enhancing, and creating new possibilities under that rich blue Nebraska sky. Fashion retailer AllSaints has shrugged off a slide in full-year earnings, as costs linked to its international expansion and tech investments paid off with a 20% jump in annual sales. The UK company reported a 9% drop in earnings before exceptional items to 26 million for the year to January 28, which marked a sharp decline from the 18% jump to 28.5 million it booked a year earlier. But AllSaints defended the results, saying they reflected start-up and pre-opening costs linked to its Japanese launch, as well as strategic investments in technology and its new travel retail outlets. We dont see it as a disappointment, chief executive William Kim said. Take a look at Amazon for every growth they have, what do they do? They reinvest it back into the company and the model. Were no different. Since 2012 what weve been set to do is build a future-proof model. When youre building a future-proof model, it takes investment. The decision has helped propel a 20% jump in sales to 303 million for the period, with digital revenues making up around 19% of the total business mix at 57.4 million, while international sales account for 142.2 million or 47%. International revenues alone were up 31% on an annual basis, driven by continued growth in North America and Asia. AllSaints which has been owned by private equity firm Lion Capital since 2011 has been reconfiguring the business over the past five years, which has involved closing select stores and product lines, while investing in distribution centres and digital platforms as well as international expansion in the US and Asia, including Taiwan, South Korea and now Japan. It has also made a strategic decision to enter what it called the travel retail market in South Korea, targeting globetrotters by opening stores in Incheon International Airport, Shinsegae Duty Free and Shilla IPark Duty Free. In total, AllSaints opened 74 stores, concession and franchises globally over last financial year, and together with its openings since January, its portfolio has grown to 243 stores across 27 countries. Mr Kim said the company would continue its drive in Asia and will soon be making announcements regarding its plans for China. This year were planting some seeds we are planning something in China. But our approach, as it always has been, is very different from the traditional retailers approach, brands approach to launch (in) a country, he said. So were doing some activities there that I think is quite unique and well be announcing it in due course. Digital investments have helped online sales jump 21% over the last financial year, but Mr Kim suggested the company was taking a value approach over volume. He said: We can make it higher if we wanted to. We opt not to because what were trying to do is run a more full-price mix business online. Mr Kim said that while a lot of brands tend to have perpetual sales across the clock with notable discounts, AllSaints is trying to maintain full price positioning. We really are promoting brand and brand experience globally rather than it being a promotional price-led site. A Japanese company is giving non-smoking workers up to six extra days of holidays to make up for the extra work they do while smoking employees take cigarette breaks. A non-smoking employee came up with the idea and put it in the suggestion box of Tokyo-based company Piala Inc, according to the Telegraph. Catalan police officers stand guard at the entrance of the Palau Generalitat in Barcelona (AP) Spain's state prosecutor is seeking charges of rebellion, sedition and embezzlement against members of Catalonia's ousted secessionist government. It pushes the crisis over the region's independence declaration into an uncertain new phase. Jose Manuel Maza said he would ask judges for preventive measures against the politicians and the governing body of the Catalan parliament that allowed a vote to declare independence last week. He did not specify if they would include their immediate arrest and detention before trial. The charges carry maximum sentences of 30, 15 and six years in prison respectively. Mr Maza did not name any of those facing charges, but they include regional leader Carles Puigdemont, his number two Oriol Junqueras and Catalan parliamentary speaker Carme Forcadell. The announcement came as Catalonia's civil servants returned to work for the first time since Spain dismissed the separatist regional government and imposed direct control. In addition to the sedition charges, Spain's government has said the fired leaders could be charged with usurping others' functions if they attempt to carry on working. Mr Puigdemont travelled to Brussels, according to a Spanish government official, after Belgian asylum state secretary Theo Francken said over the weekend it would be "not unrealistic" for him to request asylum. The ousted Catalan president's Belgium lawyer said it is not decided yet whether he will be seeking political asylum. Paul Bekaert told VRT network that Mr Puigdemont "consulted me and came to ask for advice". He added: "He is not in Belgium to specifically ask for political asylum. That is not decided yet." The uncertainty over Mr Puigdemont's plans continue the game of political cat-and-mouse with which the Catalan leader has tormented the central government. An official said the Catalan parliament has been formally dissolved and that its speaker will lead a transitional committee of legislators until a regional election is held on December 21. A parliamentary spokeswoman said speaker Carme Forcadell has cancelled a Tuesday meeting of the regional parliament's speakers' body. Prime minister Mariano Rajoy on Friday ordered the regional parliament's dissolution to try to find a way out of the political crisis. Separatist legislators had passed a declaration of independence in the regional parliament on Friday. Mr Puigdemont's party has indicated it is ready to fight in the December 21 regional elections called by the national government, scotching fears the pro-independence parties might boycott the ballot to deny it legitimacy. The centre-right PDeCAT party vowed to defeat pro-union political forces in Catalonia. As dozens of journalists, curious onlookers and bemused tourists gathered in the square outside the Gothic government palace in central Barcelona, a t least one portrait of Mr Puigdemont was still hanging on a wall inside the Generalitat building. At least one member of the ousted government defied his dismissal by showing up at work and posting a photo on Twitter from his formal office. "In the office, exercising the responsibilities entrusted to us by the people of Catalonia," said Josep Rull, who until last week was the region's top official in charge of territorial affairs. Spanish authorities said deposed officials will be allowed to take their personal belongings from official buildings, but are barred from performing any official duties. Catalonia's regional parliament proclaimed independence from Spain in a secret ballot on Friday. The Spanish government dissolved the legislature, fired the government and regional police chief and called the new elections. AP EasyJet shares rose after the discount airline clinched a deal to buy up part of Air Berlins operations for 40 million euros (35 million). Its shares increased 2.4% or 30p in morning trading to 1,303p, as markets had their first chance to react to an agreement that the airline says will help it become the leading airline in the German capital. The deal will see easyJet lease up to 25 A320 aircraft and take over other assets from the failed German airline, including landing slots at Berlin Tegel Airport. The move extends its footprint in Berlin where it has a base at the smaller Schonefeld airport. EasyJet said the 40 million euro figure did not account for potential start-up and transitional operating costs, but investors did not seem deterred The share price rise made it one of the best-performing stocks on the FTSE 100. Neil Wilson, a senior market analyst at ETX Capital, said: Opportunistic growth is not without risks but this looks a smart move for the company as it builds out its presence in Berlin and Germany. With Monarch also being carved up, there will be more scraps to fight over for the stronger carriers to cement their position. Air Berlin, which was Germanys second-biggest airline and has some 8,000 employees, operated its last flight after 38 years on Friday, leaving its staff facing an uncertain future. But easyJet has said it would be looking to employ 1,000 of Air Berlins pilots and cabin crew as part of the deal. The airline also said it would announce its routes to and from Tegel in due course, and that it would run a reduced timetable at the airport during the winter before aiming for a complete summer schedule in 2018. Lufthansa plans to take over more than half of the Air Berlin fleet, and take on 3,000 staff, but the deal has yet to win competition clearance. EasyJet said it expects to complete the acquisition which is subject to regulatory approvals in December. Spanish government officials have confirmed that ousted Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has travelled to Brussels. Puigdemont's move comes just one day after hundreds of thousands of Catalans took to the streets of Barcelona to voice their opposition to the region's declaration of independence. There is now vast political uncertainty for the region after Catalonia's political leadership was fired on Saturday by central authorities in Madrid who are facing the worst political crisis Spain has seen in decades. In response to the secessionist vote, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy triggered unprecedented constitutional powers. He fired Catalonia's secessionist regional government and called an early regional election for December 21. Today is the first working day since the region declared independence and its leadership was fired. Earlier this week, a Belgian migration minister said granting Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont political asylum in Belgium would be "not unrealistic" if he asks for it. While there was no indication Puigdemont was hoping to go to Belgium at the time, the country is one of few members of the European Union where EU citizens can ask for political asylum. "It is not unrealistic if you look at the situation," Belgium's migration minister, Theo Francken, told Belgian broadcaster VTM. "They are already talking about a prison sentence," Francken, a member of Flemish nationalist party N-VA, said. "The question is to what extent he would get a fair trial." It would be difficult for Spain to extradite Puigdemont in such a case, he said. The Glory Amsterdam ran aground off the shore of the German North Sea island of Langeoog (dpa/AP) German rescue experts are working to free a cargo ship that ran aground on a North Sea sandbank in a weekend storm. Emergency teams were unable to prevent 738ft bulk carrier the Glory Amsterdam drifting on to a sandbank off the North Sea island of Langeoog. They had hoped to tow it free at high tide on Monday evening, but the country's central command for maritime emergencies said the water around the ship is too shallow for big tug boats and the rescue plan "is being adapted". The ship is undamaged and its 22 crew members are unhurt, but it has 1,900 tons of fuel oil and 140 tons of diesel on board. The grounding came as high winds caused chaos across much of Central Europe on Sunday, leaving five people dead and several injured. Storm Herwart, whose gusts reached 112mph, caused electricity blackouts in hundreds of thousands of homes in the Czech Republic, Austria and other countries. A Lufthansa flight from Houston to Frankfurt made an emergency landing in Stuttgart early on Sunday because of the strong winds. Two people died in Poland, including a man who drove his car into a tree that had been knocked down by the storm, fire department spokesman Pawel Fratczak said. The second man was killed when a tree fell on his car in south-western Poland and his passenger was taken to hospital, Polish media reported. Two were killed in the Czech Republic when they were hit by falling trees, local television reported. A 63-year-old camper was swept away in a flash flood and drowned at Jadebusen on Germany's North Sea coast, dpa reported. AP Donald Trump's ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and a former Manafort business associate, Rick Gates, have been indicted on felony charges including conspiracy against the US. They have pleaded not guilty to all charges, which also include acting as an unregistered foreign agent and several financial counts involving tens of millions of dollars routed through offshore accounts. And on a dramatic day in Washington, former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians. The president quickly tweeted about the allegations against Manafort, saying the alleged crimes were "years ago," and insisting there was "NO COLLUSION" between his campaign and Russia. Manafort and Gates appeared in federal court in Washington and pleaded not guilty to all charges. The first indictments arising from special counsel Robert Mueller's sprawling investigation into possible co-ordination between Russia and Mr Trump's 2016 election effort bring the probe into a new phase and pose the threat of a years-long prison sentence for the man who once led the president's campaign. But the indictment does not reference the Trump campaign or make any allegations about co-ordination between the Kremlin and the president's aides to influence the outcome of the election in his favour. It does allege that a criminal conspiracy was continuing until February this year. Mr Trump tweeted: "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????" The indictment accused Manafort and Gates of funnelling tens of millions of dollars in payments through foreign companies and bank accounts as part of their political work in Ukraine. It lays out 12 counts including conspiracy against the US, conspiracy to launder money, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, making false statements and several charges related to failing to report foreign bank and financial accounts. The indictment alleges that they moved money through hidden bank accounts in Cyprus, St Vincent and the Grenadines and the Seychelles. In total, more than 75 million dollars (57 million) flowed through the offshore accounts. Manafort is accused of laundering more than 18 million dollars (13 million), according to the indictment. The 68-year-old was fired as Mr Trump's campaign chairman in August last year after word surfaced that he had orchestrated a covert lobbying operation on behalf of pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. The indictment accuses Manafort and Gates of orchestrating a nearly decade-long conspiracy to covertly work for Ukrainian interests and launder millions of dollars through offshore accounts. Specifically, the indictment accuses Manafort of using "his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in the United States, without paying taxes on that income". That included using offshore accounts to purchase multimillion-dollar properties in the US, some of which the government is seeking to seize. Mr Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to lead the Justice Department's investigation into whether the Kremlin worked with associates of the Trump campaign to influence the 2016 presidential election. The appointment came a week after the firing of James Comey, who as FBI director led the investigation, and also followed the recusal months earlier of attorney general Jeff Sessions from the probe. Investigators have focused on associates including Manafort, whose home was raided in July by agents searching for tax and international banking records. They have also investigated ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign in February after White House officials said he had misled them about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the US. Manafort joined Mr Trump's campaign in March last year and oversaw the convention delegate strategy. Mr Trump pushed him out in August amid a stream of negative headlines about Manafort's foreign consulting work. Mr Trump's middle son, Eric Trump, said in an interview at the time that his father was concerned that questions about Manafort's past were taking attention away from the billionaire's presidential bid. Manafort has been a subject of a longstanding FBI investigation into his dealings in Ukraine and work for the country's former president, Viktor Yanukovych. That inquiry was incorporated into Mr Mueller's broader probe. Previously, he denied any wrongdoing related to his Ukrainian work, saying through a spokesman that it "was totally open and appropriate". Mr Mueller's investigation has also reached into the White House, as he examines the circumstances of Mr Comey's firing. Investigators have requested extensive documents from the White House about key actions since Mr Trump took office and have interviewed multiple current and former officials. Mr Mueller's grand jury has also heard evidence about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower attended by a Russian lawyer as well as Manafort, Donald Trump Jr, and the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Gates was Manafort's chief deputy and a key player from Mr Trump's campaign who survived Manafort's removal last summer. Two weeks ago, he was still working for Tom Barrack, a Trump confidant, helping with the inauguration committee's campaign account. AP Donald Trump announced in an August memo that he intended to reverse course on a 2016 policy (AP) A federal court in Washington has barred Donald Trump from changing the US government's policy on military service by transgender people. The president announced in an August memo that he intended to reverse course on a 2016 policy that allowed troops to serve openly as transgender individuals. He said he would order a return to the policy from before June 2016, under which service members could be discharged for being transgender. US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote that transgender members of the military who had sued over the change were likely to win their lawsuit and barred the Trump administration from reversing course. She directed a return to the situation that existed before Mr Trump announced his new policy, saying the administration had provided no solid evidence for why a ban should be implemented. The Trump administration may appeal against Judge Kollar-Kotelly's decision, but for now, the proposed ban remains unenforceable under her preliminary injunction. "We disagree with the court's ruling and are currently evaluating the next steps," said Justice Department spokesman Lauren Ehrsam. She reiterated the department's view that the lawsuit was premature because the Pentagon was still in the process of reviewing how the transgender policy might evolve. One of the attorneys handling the lawsuit, Shannon Minter of the National Centre for Lesbian Rights, said the ruling was an enormous relief to his clients. "Their lives have been devastated since Trump first tweeted he was reinstating the ban," Ms Minter said. "They are now able to serve on equal terms with everyone else." Mr Trump announced on Twitter in July that the government "will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military". He followed with an August memo directing the Pentagon to extend indefinitely a ban on transgender individuals joining the military, and gave Defence Secretary Jim Mattis six months to come up with a policy on "how to address" those who are currently serving. Under the Obama administration, the Department of Defence had announced in 2016 that service members could not be discharged solely based on their gender identity. Transgender individuals were to be allowed to enlist in the military in June 2017, a timeline initially delayed under the Trump administration to January 1 2018. Ms Minter said the new court ruling means they will be able to enlist as of that date. The Trump administration had asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit; Judge Kollar-Kotelly refused to do so, and Ms Minter said it is possible the case will go to trial. One issue not directly addressed in Monday's ruling was whether federal funds should be used to pay for sexual reassignment surgeries for members of the military. The administration has sought to prohibit such payments; Judge Kollar-Kotelly said she did not have jurisdiction to rule on the issue because none of the plaintiffs in the case established a likelihood of being impacted by that prohibition. The lawsuit was filed in August by the National Centre for Lesbian Rights and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders on behalf of eight transgender individuals, including service members in the Air Force, Coast Guard and the Army, as well as students at the US Naval Academy and in the ROTC programme at the University of New Haven. The Justice Department, in seeking the lawsuit's dismissal, said none of the plaintiffs had established that they will be impacted by current policies on military service. The two advocacy groups who filed the lawsuit assailed that assertion. They highlighted the uncertainty facing Regan Kibby, the transgender Naval Academy student who - because of Mr Trump's action - was unsure whether he would be able to join the Navy on graduation. Judge Kollar-Kotelly said the plaintiffs clearly established that they would be harmed by the administration's directives. She also contended that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail in arguing that the directives were unconstitutionally discriminatory - targeting transgender people without evidence that their service caused substantive problems for the military. The directives "do not appear to be supported by any facts", the judge wrote. The Pentagon has not released data on the number of transgender people currently serving, but a Rand Corporation study has estimated between 1,320 and 6,630, out of 1.3 million active-duty troops. AP RACINE COUNTY An emerging clean-power coalition is inviting the public to an upcoming showing of a film that shows what a coal power company did to one town in Ohio. The documentary Cheshire, Ohio will be shown at Riverbend Nature Center, 3600 N. Green Bay Road, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Nov. 8. Eve Morgenstern, the films producer and director, will attend the screening and be part of a panel discussion with residents who live near We Energies Oak Creek power plant. The films website describes the documentary this way: Filmed over a decade, Cheshire, Ohio follows a community devastated by coal, starting with American Electric Powers buyout and bulldozing of this Ohio River community after exposing them to years of harmful emissions, and then returning several years later to the now almost emptied town as we follow the case of 77 plaintiffs who have filed a lawsuit against American Electric Power for cancer and other diseases they developed from working unprotected at the plants coal ash landfill site. For several months the local Sierra Club has been working with the state and national Sierra Club to establish the Clean Power Coalition-Southeast Wisconsin, a coalition that will address the adverse effects of burning coal on public health and advance the cause of renewable energy in our area, said Tom Rutkowski of the Sierra Clubs Southeast Gateway Group. The recent reversal of the Clean Power Plan has made this work particularly timely, Rutkowski added. So far the newly started coalition includes six convening groups that send a representative to the monthly meetings and vote on decisions, and three supporting organizations that believe in the mission but are not represented. Other groups are considering membership, Rutkowski said. We really try to bring everyone who is interested to the same table, so we can have a better strategy, said Miranda Ehrlich, a Madison-based Sierra Club apprentice hired by the national organization but working closely with the coalition in this area. Goal: no more coal Nationally, the goal of Sierra Clubs Beyond Coal Campaign is to retire all coal-fired power plants in the country, Ehrlich said. That includes We Energies Oak Creek power plant. Long term, we do want to see a complete phase-out of coal, and that includes We Energies, Ehrlich said. The Oak Creek plant has four very old units dating as far back as to the 1950s and two relatively new ones, she said. Most likely, (a phase-out) wouldnt be all at one time, Ehrlich said, but we think its important for We Energies to start planning for that. The Clean Power Coalition-Southeast Wisconsins mission statement reads in part that it will educate the public about the dangers of burning coal on the health of those who live and work in the vicinity of We Energies South Oak Creek and Elm Road power plants. How we choose to generate electricity has consequences that reach far beyond the return on shareholder investment, affecting everything from public health to a stable climate. When air, water, and soil are polluted, health and life are put at risk. The Clean Power Coalition-Southeast Wisconsin will promote public debate about the appropriate source of energy for Southeastern Wisconsin. (T)he coalition urges We Energies to : Immediately contain the coal dust and other health hazards emanating from the Oak Creek plants. Phase out its use of coal, and Promote rather than obstruct the adoption of renewable energy throughout its service territory. Nationally, despite President Donald Trumps administrations pro-coal stance and efforts to dismantle former President Barack Obamas Clean Power Plan, the marketplace is turning away from coal as a power source, Ehrlich said. We have the ability to produce enough electricity without coal, she said. Coal is rapidly being phased out. Wind and solar (power) are becoming exponentially cheaper very rapidly. The market says that coal is no longer king, Ehrlich commented. Utilities are moving away from it. Netflix has confirmed the sixth season of House of Cards, currently in production, will be the last. The news was confirmed as controversy continued over the show's star, Kevin Spacey, who is at the centre of attempted sexual assault allegations. Actor Anthony Rapp accused the 58-year-old of historical harassment. In an interview with BuzzFeed, Rapp said Spacey, then aged 26, placed him on a bed and climbed on top of him following a party at his apartment. Spacey said he is "beyond horrified" by the claim, that he does not remember the alleged incident, "which would have been over 30 years ago. But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behaviour". He said the story "has encouraged me to address other things about my life". In the Twitter post, he added: "I know that there are stories out there about me and that some have been fuelled by the fact that I have been so protective of my privacy. "As those closest to me know, in my life I have had relationships with both men and women. I have loved and had romantic encounters with men throughout my life, and I choose now to live as a gay man. Expand Close Anthony Rapp (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Anthony Rapp (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) "I want to deal with this honestly and openly and that starts with examining my own behaviour." Read More He was widely criticised for conflating the two statements and streaming service Netflix has faced calls for the show, or its star and executive producer, to be axed. However, the company maintains that the decision to end the show after six seasons has been in the works since the summer. Actor @billyeichner wrote: "That Kevin Spacey statement. Nope. Absolutely not. Nope. "But honestly I hesitate to make jokes because the Spacey statement is truly disgusting, irresponsible and dangerous." @rilaws said: "For a famous person to deflect these accusations with a long-in-the-making coming out is so cruel to his supposed new community it stings." @larrywilmore wrote: "Kevin Spacey's comment was wrong on so many levels." Rapp commented on Twitter: "I came forward with my story, standing on the shoulders of the many courageous women and men who have been speaking out to shine a light and hopefully make a difference, as they have done for me." Double Oscar winner Spacey is best known for the film American Beauty and TV drama House Of Cards. He is also known as being a former artistic director at London's Old Vic theatre. Read More On Monday, following Rapp's accusation, the Royal Court theatre's artistic director, Vicky Featherstone, was asked if she was aware of stories about Spacey when he was working in London. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think that many people in theatre and the creative industries have been aware of many stories of many people over a lot of years." After the Harvey Weinstein allegations there had been an "opening of the floodgates and a very important moment for us all throughout society, not just in our industry", she said. Dennis and Lorraine Carver were killed in a car crash weeks after surviving the Las Vegas shooting (Image: Facebook) A couple who survived the Las Vegas shooting have been killed in a car crash less than half a mile from their home. Dennis and Lorraine Carver's daughters said her parents discovered a new lease of life after escaping unharmed from the massacre at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival on 1 October. Mr Carver, 52, dived on top of his wife, 53, to shield her from a hail of bullets after Stephen Paddock opened fire on crowds from the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel, killing 59 people. The couple, who had two children, fled to safety during a lull in the gunfire. But they died just weeks later after their car crashed and burst into flames outside their gated community in Riverside County, California. After the shooting, they heard from all of the people they cared about most. They were so happy, said their daughter Brooke, 20. The last two weeks of their lives were really just spent living in the moment. Brooke said her parents had a narrow escape in the shooting, which injured more than 500 people, with Paddock's bullets hitting man next to them. Surviving the massacre made the "selfless" couple's bond even stronger, she added, recalling Mr Carver buying his wife roses "to give my mum a reason to smile after the shooting". I swear they were more in love those two weeks than the last 20 years," she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. She added: We were so relieved when they got out of the shooting alive. But I also think weve been given little pieces of them that we wouldve never gotten if the shooting hadnt happened right before they died. The couple's youngest daughter, Madison, 16, was at home when their car crashed into nearby metal gate on 16 October. She heard a loud bang at 10.50pm and ran down the street to find the family's vehicle engulfed in flames. It took fire crews nearly an hour to extinguish the blaze. Weve found some peace in knowing that our parents just loved each other so much that they had to go at the same time, Madison said. They couldn'tt live without each other. Paul Manafort of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's staff listens during a round table discussion on security at Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., August 17, 2016. Picture taken August 17, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo Paul Manafort, a businessman and long-time Republican Party operative, surrendered on Monday to the FBI to face the first charges produced by a special counsel investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Manafort and his associate Rick Gates were indicted by a federal grand jury. The 12-count indictment included conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, being an unregistered agent of a foreign principal, making false and misleading statements and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign banks and financial accounts. Lawyers for Gates and Manafort did not immediately return calls for comment. The Kremlin has denied it meddled in the election campaign to try to tilt the vote in Trump's favor. Trump has denied any collusion by his campaign. Who is Paul Manafort? Manafort is a veteran Republican operative who has worked as a Washington lobbyist and international political consultant. His former clients include authoritarian leaders such as the late Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Russian and Ukrainian businessmen and politicians. Manafort was a campaign manager to the Trump campaign in the summer of 2016. What does the indictment charge they did? The indictment against Manafort and Gates says they both generated tens of millions of dollars of income from Ukraine work and laundered money through scores of U.S. and foreign entities to hide payments from U.S. authorities between 2006 and through at least 2016. In June, Manafort and Gates retroactively registered with the Justice Department as foreign agents, in a Foreign Agents Registration Act filing that showed they earned $17.1 million for lobbying on behalf of the Party of Regions, a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine, between 2012 and 2014. The indictment said they concealed from the United States their work and revenue as agents of Ukrainian political parties. They used their wealth to lead a "lavish lifestyle" without paying taxes on the income, prosecutors said. The indictment says that more than $75 million flowed through Manafort's and Gates' offshore accounts. Manafort, the indictment said, laundered more than $18 million. The indictment also alleges Manafort and Gates, along with others, conspired to defraud the United States by "impeding, impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful governmental functions" of the Department of Justice and the Treasury Department between 2006 and 2017. Manafort was indicted on nine counts and Gates was indicted on eight counts. What are Manafort's links to Trump? Manafort joined the Trump presidential campaign in March 2016 and later became campaign manager but he was forced to resign in August as questions started emerging about his previous work for the political party of the Kremlin-backed former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich. Business Insider reported that Manafort and Trump have been connected since the 1980s, when Trump hired Manafort's lobbying firm to help the Trump Organization. Read More In 2006, Manafort and his wife bought an apartment in Trump Tower in New York City, which Manafort still owns and where he lives when he is in Manhattan, Business Insider reported. How do the charges relate to Trump? It has nothing to do with the campaign or the allegations of collusion with Russia, said Washington attorney John Dowd, who represents Trump in the Russia probe. A Trump confidante said: As it relates to the president, this is nothing. All of the 12 counts of the indictment that came down today, all of it predates their tenure at the campaign." The special counsel's indictment says Manafort and Gates laundered the money through "scores of United States and foreign corporations, partnerships and bank accounts" from approximately 2006 through "at least 2016." Who is Rick Gates? Rick Gates was Manafort's deputy and business associate. According to two former high-level Trump staffers, Gates essentially functioned as the Trump campaign manager for more than two months, all while not collecting a paycheck. The New York Times reported in June that the Trump transition team had been ordered to preserve materials related to ongoing investigations into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election. According to the Times, the memo from the special counsel's office to former transition team also sought specific information on five people including Manafort and Gates. According to the indictment, between at least 2006 and 2015 Manafort and Gates acted as unregistered agents of the Ukrainian government, a Ukrainian political party that was headed by Ukraine's then president Victor Yanukovich and Yanukovich himself. The indictment said they both generated tens of millions of dollars in income as a result of their Ukraine work. Yanukovich has been living in exile in Russia since he was ousted by mass street protests in Kiev in 2014. His departure lit the fuse for Moscows annexation of Crimea and a separatist uprising in mainly Russian-speaking eastern Ukraine. The indictment said Gates aided Manafort in obtaining money from offshore accounts and that Gates used that money to pay for personal expenses including "his mortgage, children's tuition, and interior decorating of his Virginia residence." How significant is Gates' arrest? The indictment lays out the extent of Gates involvement with Manafort going back years. This could potentially open the door for Gates to testify against Manafort and others in the future. David Sklansky, a professor at Stanford Law School and former federal prosecutor, said that Gates could feel pressure to cooperate and provide testimony against Trump. A young woman was killed after a 12-year-old boy fell off a bridge and landed on top of her car. Marisa Harris (22) from Maryland, Virginia was killed on impact after the young boy fell from an overpass. According to NBC news, Ms Harris' boyfriend was sitting in the front passenger seat and was able to grab the wheel and steer the vehicle off the road. Ms Harris was killed by the impact and was pronounced dead at the scene. The boy was rushed to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. The young woman had just graduated and was studying clinical counselling. Marymount University officials informed students of Ms Harris' death via email. "Every student contributes immeasurably to the community we create together at Marymount University. The loss of any student, particularly in so heartbreaking a manner, grieves us all," a statement said. Actress Annabella Sciorra has alleged that she was raped by film producer Harvey Weinstein in the early 1990s. The 'Sopranos' star is among the latest to make an allegation against the movie mogul, with film star Daryl Hannah also coming forward with claims of sexual harassment. Sciorra said, in an article published in 'The New Yorker', that Weinstein made his way into her apartment in New York uninvited before he "shoved" her onto the bed. She alleged they had non-consensual sex and that Weinstein continued to harass her in the years that followed. In the same article, 'Splash' actress Hannah alleged that Weinstein had once tried to force his way into her hotel room, and that during another meeting he asked to feel her breasts. Having previously denied allegations from other actresses and employees, Weinstein's spokeswoman again told 'The New Yorker': "Mr Weinstein unequivocally denies any allegations of non-consensual sex." Dozens of women have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, assault or rape in recent weeks. Actress Ashley Judd was one of the first high-profile stars to make claims against the producer, and in the weeks that followed others, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lupita Nyong'o and Cara Delevingne, added to the list of those making harassment allegations. In a TV appearance last week, Judd said she tried to bargain with the producer so she could escape his hotel room. In an interview with Diane Sawyer, on US network ABC, Judd said she went to a hotel in 1997 for what she thought was a breakfast meeting with Weinstein. She said that after repeatedly turning down his advances, she resorted to striking a deal with him. She told Sawyer: "He just kept coming at me with all this other stuff. Finally, I just said, 'When I win an Oscar in one of your movies, OK?' "He said, 'When you get nominated'. I said, 'No, when I win an Oscar'. And then I just fled." Weinstein is the subject of police investigations in London, Los Angeles and New York. Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, one focus of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, hides behind his car visor as he leaves his home in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as his campaign manager Paul Manafort (2nd R), campaign official Rick Gates (2ndL) and daughter Ivanka (R) look on during Trump's walk through at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Paul Manafort of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's staff listens during a round table discussion on security at Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., August 17, 2016. Picture taken August 17, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo Kevin Downing, attorney for former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, speaks to reporters after a hearing to answer charges related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, at the federal courthouse in Washington, U.S. October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst The attorney for former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort said there was no evidence Manafort colluded with the Russian government while working for the campaign and in fact his work on behalf of Ukraine had ended two years earlier. Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager for President Donald Trump, surrendered to the FBI on Monday and another ex-aide pleaded guilty to lying to agents in the most serious steps yet of a federal probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Manafort, 68, a longtime Republican operative, arrived at the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Washington field office to hand himself in after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges including money laundering and conspiracy against the United States. In a separate announcement on Monday, the office of Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller said former Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty on October 5 to making false statements to FBI agents in the Russia probe. Papadopoulos is an international energy lawyer. Manafort's associate Rick Gates was named alongside Manafort in the 12-count indictment, which was the first from Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian interference in last year's campaign to try to tilt the vote in Trump's favor. Neither Trump nor his campaign were mentioned in the indictment and many of the charges, some of which go back more than a decade, appear related to Manafort's work for Ukraine's pro-Russian government and political figures there. Expand Close Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as his campaign manager Paul Manafort (2nd R), campaign official Rick Gates (2ndL) and daughter Ivanka (R) look on during Trump's walk through at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gives a thumbs up as his campaign manager Paul Manafort (2nd R), campaign official Rick Gates (2ndL) and daughter Ivanka (R) look on during Trump's walk through at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, U.S., July 21, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking Lawyers for both entered guilty pleas on behalf of their clients on Monday afternoon. The attorney for Manafort said on Monday there was no evidence Manafort colluded with the Russian government while working for the campaign and in fact his work on behalf of Ukraine had ended two years earlier. "I think you all saw today that President Donald Trump was correct. There is no evidence that Mr Manafort or the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government," attorney Kevin Downing told reporters after Manafort pleaded not guilty to money laundering and other charges. "Mr Manafort represented pro-European Union campaigns for the Ukrainians and ... was seeking to further democracy and to help the Ukraine come closer to the United States and the EU," Downing said. "Those activities ended in 2014 over two years before Mr. Manafort served in the Trump campaign." Meanwhile, it is believed Papadopoulos has signed a plea deal and is cooperating with the probe. Documents released on Monday show that Papadopoulos had contacts with an overseas professor who told him he has "dirt" on then-candidate Hilary Clinton. The Washington Post reports that the filings show several updates provided by Popadopoulos to Trump campaign officials about his efforts to broker meetings between the campaign and the Russian government. Russia investigations by Mueller and several congressional panels have cast a shadow over the Republican president's first nine months in office and have widened the rift between Republicans and Democrats. Manafort ran the Trump campaign from June to August of 2016 before resigning amid reports he might have received millions in illegal payments from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. Expand Close Paul Manafort of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's staff listens during a round table discussion on security at Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., August 17, 2016. Picture taken August 17, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Paul Manafort of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's staff listens during a round table discussion on security at Trump Tower in the Manhattan borough of New York, U.S., August 17, 2016. Picture taken August 17, 2016. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri/File Photo Trump, who has denied any allegations of collusion with the Russians, reiterated on Monday his public frustration with the Mueller probe, which he has called "a witch hunt." "Sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump campaign. But why aren't Crooked Hillary & the Dems the focus?????," Trump said in a Twitter post on Monday morning, referring to his Democratic rival last year, Hillary Clinton. "As it relates to the president, this is nothing," a Trump adviser said of the charges, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It had nothing to do with their tenure at the campaign as far as I can tell, he said. The indictment contains counts of conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, acting as unregistered agents of Ukraine's government, false and misleading statements and failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts, the federal special counsel said. The charge of conspiracy to commit money laundering carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. Expand Close Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, one focus of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, hides behind his car visor as he leaves his home in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst / Facebook Twitter Email Whatsapp Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, one focus of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, hides behind his car visor as he leaves his home in Alexandria, Virginia, U.S. October 30, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer called for the Trump administration to avoid interfering with the special prosecutor's probe. "The rule of law is paramount in America and the investigation must be allowed to proceed unimpeded. The president must not, under any circumstances, interfere with the special counsels work in any way," Schumer said. The Kremlin has denied the allegations of campaign meddling. U.S. intelligence agencies say Russia interfered in the election to try to help Trump defeat Clinton, by hacking and releasing embarrassing emails and disseminating propaganda via social media to discredit her. Read More Wall Street opened lower on Monday, pulling back from a strong rally last week, as investors assessed the fallout of the indictment. Mueller has been investigating Manaforts financial and real estate dealings and his prior work for that political group, the Party of Regions, which backed former Ukrainian President Viktor A federal grand jury issued the indictment on Friday and a federal judge ordered it sealed, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters. Gates was a long-time business partner of Manafort and has ties to many of the same Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs. He also served as deputy to Manafort during his brief tenure as Trumps campaign chairman. Manafort was indicted on nine counts and Gates was indicted on eight counts. The White House has said the indictments will have no effect on White House dealings with the special counsel investigation. Trump lawyer, Jay Sekulow, has told CNN the president will not be firing Mueller. "The president is not interfering with special counsel Mueller's position, he's not firing the special counsel. He's said that before," Sekulow said in an interview with CNN. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference In a press conference at the White House this afternoon Sarah Sanders, press advisor to president Trump, said today's indictment has "nothing to do with the activities of the campaign". "Today's announcement has nothing to do with the president, has nothing to do with the president's campaign or campaign activity," she said. "We've been saying from day one there's no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion, and nothing in the indictment today changes that at all," she added. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference She said the position held by George George Papadopoulos was "extremely limited" and a volunteer position. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference The spokeswoman also said the president had not had contact with Paul Manafort in 'several months'. We need your consent to load this Social Media content We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preference What are the charges against Paul Manafort and Rick Gates? Manafort potentially faces up to 80 years in prison, according to a review of the federal charges and the relevant statutes by the Associated Press. Gates, who also worked for the Trump campaign, faces up to 70 years. Prosecutors could still file additional charges against the pair. If convicted at trial, the law gives federal judges wide latitude in imposing prison sentences and fines. Here is a summary of the charges in the 31-page indictment and the potential penalties: COUNT ONE: Conspiracy Against the United States Both men are charged with conspiring together and with others to knowingly and intentionally defraud and commit crimes against the United States between 2006 and 2007. If found guilty, each potentially faces up to five years in prison and up to 10,000 dollars (8,596) in fines. COUNT TWO: Conspiracy to Launder Money Both men are charged with conspiring together and with others to transfer funds from outside the United States to and through places inside the country without properly disclosing the transactions or paying required federal taxes. Penalties for this count include up to 20 years in federal prison and a fine of either 500,000 dollars (429,830) or twice the monetary value of the property involved in the transaction, whichever is greater. COUNTS THREE TO SIX: Failure to File Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts The indictment alleges that for each calendar year between 2012 and 2015, Manafort failed to disclose to the US Treasury Department that he had a financial interest in and authority over bank accounts in a foreign country involving more than 10,000 dollars (8,596). Penalties include up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the four counts and fines of up to 100,000 dollars, (85, 960)or up to 50pc of the total value for the transactions, for each of the four years in the counts. COUNTS SEVEN THROUGH NINE: Failure to File Reports of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts The indictment alleges that between 2012 and 2014, Gates failed to disclose to the US Treasury Department that he had a financial interest in and authority over bank accounts in a foreign country involving more than 10,000 dollars (8,596). Penalties include up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the four counts and fines of up to 100,000 dollars (85, 960) or up to 50pc of the total value for the transactions, for each of the four years in the counts. COUNT 10: Unregistered Agent of a Foreign Principal Prosecutors allege that both men failed to register with the US attorney general as foreign agents of the government of Ukraine, the Part of Regents and Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych between 2008 and 2014. Penalties include up to five years in federal prison and up to 10,000 dollars (8,596) in fines. COUNT 11: False and misleading statements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act The indictment alleges that both men made multiple false statements to federal officials in relation to their failure to register as foreign agents of the Ukrainian government. Penalties include up to five years in federal prison and up to 10,000 dollars (7,500) in fines. COUNT 12: False Statements Prosecutors allege that between November 2016 and February 2017, Manafort and Gates conspired together and caused others to make false statements and conceal crimes against the United States. The penalty is up to five years in prison. Uhuru Kenyatta addresses the nation after he was announced the winner in the rerun of the presidential election (AP) Uhuru Kenyatta won last week's rerun presidential election in Kenya, which was boycotted by the main opposition group, the election commission has said . Wafula Chebukati, the election commission chief, said on Monday that President Kenyatta got 7.5 million votes, or 98% of the ballots cast. The huge margin was expected because he faced no significant challenge after opposition leader Raila Odinga refused to participate, saying the election was a sham. Mr Kenyatta was also declared the winner of a presidential vote in August, but that election was later nullified by the Supreme Court. The announcement went ahead even though voting did not occur in two dozen out of Kenya's 290 constituencies because of opposition protests, said Consolata Nkatha, a senior election official. The commission cited an election law that says final results can be announced if the tally will not be affected by the outcome in areas that have yet to vote, though Mr Odinga has described Thursday's election as a sham and called for another vote within 90 days. His boycott meant Mr Kenyatta ran without a significant challenge after a bitterly contested election in August that was later nullified because of "irregularities and illegalities". Opposition backers have clashed with police in some parts of Kenya since last week, and security forces on Monday used tear gas to disperse young men who threw stones after a government official visited a school in a Nairobi slum. The confrontation occurred in the capital's Kawangware area, a frequent scene of unrest linked to last week's presidential election. Some students in uniform were seen running in an effort to escape the violence, and police carried at least one student to safety. Amnesty International has criticised Kenyan police for using "unlawful force" against opposition supporters and bystanders after last week's rerun election. The human rights group cited cases of "police brutality" as well as violence and intimidation by backers of both Mr Odinga and Mr Kenyatta. Amnesty referred to violence in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi as well as Kisumu, the country's third-largest city which is an opposition stronghold. Government officials said opposition leaders incited violence with incendiary rhetoric and police have been attacked by mobs. At least nine people have died in violence since the election on Thursday. Some were shot by police, and several died in fighting between ethnic groups. AP Activists at a 2014 conference held to highlight the government of Bahrain's human rights record A UK-based Bahraini activist says three members of his family have been sentenced to three years in prison each in reprisal for his efforts to shine a spotlight on the government's crackdown on opposition and rights groups. Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy, said his 49-year-old mother-in-law, 18-year-old brother-in-law and a 30-year-old cousin were sentenced on charges they planted a "fake bomb" in January. Mr Alwadaei's statement said they have been detained since March and questioned extensively about his work in the UK. He said Bahrain's government is targeting his family because of his work in exposing the "government's horrific rights abuses". Bahrain's Sunni-led monarchy has moved to suppress opposition from its majority Shiite population after widespread protests in 2011. The freeway is blockaded between Johannesburg and Vereeniging (AP) Thousands of white farmers have blocked traffic on some major roads in South Africa in what they call a Black Monday protest against the high rate of murders of farmers. Convoys of hundreds of slow-moving trucks and cars brought traffic to a crawl on highways leading from farming areas to Cape Town, Pretoria and Johannesburg, and white farmers and their supporters wore black in memory of farmers killed on their properties. The protests have been peaceful and police have accompanied the demonstrators. The protests are backed by AfriForum, a lobby group that promotes the rights of South Africa's white minority, especially the Afrikaner population. AfriForum claims 70 white farmers have been murdered in 341 attacks this year. The rate of murders of white farmers is much higher than South Africa's general murder rate, said Ian Cameron, AfriForum's head of community safety, speaking at the Afrikaners' Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria where hundreds of protesters gathered. "A farmer has 4.5 times more chance of being murdered in South Africa than an average South African," said Mr Cameron, according to the African News Agency. "That means a farmer is three times more likely to be murdered in South Africa than a police officer in this country. So farmers have by far the most dangerous job of all people in this country, at the moment. We cannot allow this to continue the way it is." The protest has been criticised by the Black First Land First group which claimed in a series of tweets that white farmers are perpetrating violence against black people. AP Jennifer Appel, centre, waves from USS Ashland as she arrives back on dry land alongside Tasha Fuiava, left, following five months adrift at sea (AP Photo/Koji Ueda) Tasha Fuiava and Jennifer Appel with their dogs on the deck of the USS Ashland (AP) Two sailors who were rescued by the US Navy after more than five months lost at sea have arrived back on dry land. Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava waved from USS Ashland as it docked at an American naval base in Japan on Monday. They arrived at White Beach Naval Facility, in Okinawa, five days after the ship had picked them up, along with their two dogs, from their storm-damaged sailboat 900 miles southeast of Japan. Appel and Fuiava had left Honolulu on May 3 aboard Appel's 50-foot vessel, the Sea Nymph, for what was supposed to be an 18-day trip to Tahiti. But storms flooded the engine and damaged the mast and sails so badly that they could not generate enough wind power to stay on course. They drifted aimlessly and sent unanswered distress calls for 98 consecutive days. The women were thousands of miles in the wrong direction when a Taiwanese fishing vessel found them. Towing the sailboat damaged it further, but Appel swam to the Taiwanese vessel to make a mayday call. The pair had run out of food for the dogs, and had begun sharing their own, leaving their food supply 90% depleted by the time they were rescued. The USS Ashland picked up the women, as well as their dogs Zeus and Valentine, on Wednesday, with all four looking remarkably fit for having been lost at sea for nearly six months. Appel told reporters on Friday that they were beginning to believe they were completely out of luck when they saw the US Navy ship chugging towards them. "When I saw the grey ship on the horizon, I was just shaking," she said. "I was ready to cry, I was so happy. I knew we were going to live." Although Appel has been sailing the Hawaiian islands for 10 years and spent two years preparing for this voyage, she acknowledged she and Fuiava, a novice sailor, may not have prepared as well as they could have. Appel credited their survival in part to the veteran sailors in Hawaii who had warned them to prepare well for their journey. "They said pack every square inch of your boat with food, and if you think you need a month, pack six months, because you have no idea what could possibly happen out there," Appel said. "And the sailors in Honolulu really gave us good advice. We're here." AP Gurugram, Haryana, Oct 30 (IBNS): ICICI Bank Limited, Indias largest private sector bank by consolidated assets, in association with Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), on Monday announced the launch of a digital service to facilitate doorstep payment of property tax and water bill, by owners of properties in Gurugram. A first-of-its-kind solution in the country, it integrates a hand held, point-of-sale machine with the MCG server. This enables it to instantly fetch and update real time data from the MCG server. Kumar Ashish, Senior General Manager & Retail Banking Head- North Zone, ICICI Bank said, "We are delighted to associate with the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram to extend our digital banking solutions to the owners of properties in Gurugram. This service will enable the residents in Gurugram to conveniently pay property tax and water bill from the comfort of their home without standing in long queues. Furthermore, they can also pay their property tax at any of the banks branches across the country. These services are in line with our endeavor to offer products and services to ensure a smoother banking experience to the users. At ICICI Bank, our philosophy is Ready For You. Ready For Tomorrow, wherein we are committed to offer innovative products and services to our customers at the fastest possible speed and with the highest level of convenience." V. Umashankar, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram said, Citizens will have to provide the unique property ID and mobile number to pay their tax dues. Since its integrated with MCG database server, information will be available to all stakeholders on real time basis. We have launched a door to door collection drive and have formed teams in each of the four zones to ensure that we achieve zero tax dues." "I urge citizens to make this drive a success by availing this facility and clearing their tax dues. As we approach completion of major infrastructure projects to enhance facilities and services provided to citizens; tax payment compliance will ensure that the corporation has a steady fund flow to implement ongoing and planned projects. MCG is committed to providing new and innovative tax and other utility payment options to citizens," he said. Under its digitization drive, powered by ICICI Bank, the zonal tax collection officers of MCG will conduct camps at residential societies. With this, property owners can pay their property tax conveniently at their doorstep using credit/debit card of any bank as well as cash or cheque. Upon a successful transaction, the tax-payer gets an instant charge slip of his/her tax payment from the hand held device. It includes details of the MCG official collecting the amount along with the details of the payment. Tax-payers also receive a confirmatory SMS on their registered mobile number along with a reference number, using which they can log onto www.mcg.gov.in to generate a receipt. Additionally, owners of properties in Gurugram can also pay their property tax at any branch of the bank across the country. ICICI Bank has 4856 branches and 13,792 ATMs in the country (as on September 30, 2017). The bank has over 40 branches in Gurugram district. In addition to branches and ATMs, the banks a multi-channel delivery network include call center, internet banking www.icicibank.com, mobile banking, banking on Facebook & Twitter as well as Pockets, its digital bank on mobile, Pockets. Kolkata, Oct 30 (IBNS): Medica School Connect Programme, an initiative of city-headquartered Medica Superspecialty Hospital, plans to enrol around 1-lakh students via School Connect programme in Kolkata by the end of the next fiscal year 2018-19. Medica School Connect Programme is a health services awareness programme for school children in collaboration with Future First Insurance Broking and different schools in the city. "Also, Future First Insurance Broking has facilitated the school connect programme through tying up with leading insurance players to take up the financial obligation related to accidental hospitalization insurance cover and continuity of education in the event of untimely demise of earning parent due to some accident or natural causes," an official said. With an aim to create safety net and ensure better future for school children, Medica plans to educate, guide, assist and provide risk mitigation solution to all students, teachers and parents so that they are not only aware but know how to take care of any unforeseen situation. Health issues among the school students are increasing and with the launch of the Medica School Connect Programme, the hospital would cater to the physical and mental well-being requirements of the schools children and staff. We want to introduce the schools with our bouquet of health related services by partnering with them and create a platform for healthy living, accident prevention, recognising emerging health challenges of the new millennium. The same is coupled with the benefits of insurance that, at times, can be a saviour. Medica aims to reach out to 1-lakh students via this School Connect Programme, said Dr. Alok Roy, Chairman, Medica Group of Hospitals, on the sidelines of launching the Medica School Connect Programme in Kolkata on Monday. Beijing/Washington, Oct 30 (IBNS): China is set to block the United States' proposal of ban on Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, thereby exacerbating the already delicate Indo-China tie. The proposal, first introduced by the Trump administration in January this year, wanted the UN to designate Azhar a global terrorist, but was put on a technical hold by China, a permanent member of the UNSC, who used its veto power. The United States had the backing of the United Kingdom and France. China, who has been blamed for being selective in its approach towards fighting terrorism, has said that there isn't enough evidence against Azhar to ban him. However, experts have opined that the move has been conceived by the Communist nation to keep India under check, which in recent times has fostered a stronger bond with the United States. New Delhi, Oct 30 (IBNS): Former Union finance minister P Chidambaram has hit back at Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the latter criticised him for his Kashmir remark, continuing the verbal duel between the two leaders. Chidambaram, who was criticised by Modi on Sunday for saying when 'an overwhelming majority' of people of Kashmir demand for 'azadi' they speak about 'autonomy', tweeted hours ago: "Those who criticise must read the whole answer and tell me which word in the answer was wrong." Those who criticise must read the whole answer and tell me which word in the answer was wrong. P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) October 29, 2017 "The PM is imagining a ghost and attacking it" the former FM said in a follow up tweet. The PM is imagining a ghost and attacking it. P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) October 29, 2017 Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Sunday, attacked the Congress party over its leader P Chidambaram's remark on Kashmir issue and said it was 'unacceptable'. "Why are Congress leaders lending their voice to those who want Azadi in Kashmir. This is an insult to our brave soldiers," Modi said. "Congress will have to answer for the recent statement of their leaders on Kashmir. The statement was unacceptable," he said. Congress leader P Chidambaram has said that when 'most' people of Kashmir demand for 'azadi' they speak about 'autonomy'. "Therefore, I think we should seriously examine the autonomy demand. It is very much within the Constitution," Chidambaram was quoted as saying by media. "Jammu and Kashmir will remain an integral part of India with some amount of autonomy," he said. In a major development, the Centre on Monday appointed Dineshwar Sharma, former Director of Intelligence Bureau, as the Representative of Government of India to initiate and carry forward a dialogue with the elected representatives, various organizations and concerned individuals in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Sharma will initiate a sustained interaction and dialogue to understand the legitimate aspirations of the wide cross sections of society, particularly the youth in Jammu and Kashmir and communicate them to the State Government and the Centre. The move comes in the wake of various steps taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address the needs of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. It may be recalled that during his visit to Srinagar on November 7, 2015, the Prime Minister had announced a package of Rs 80,068 Crores for the overall development of the State. He has also met the leaders of political parties from time to time and received suggestions with regard to the issue of peace and development in J&K. In continuation of this process, in his address to the nation on 15th August this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had mentioned that, Neither by bullet, nor by abuses but by embracing we can solve the problem of Kashmir. Subsequently, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh has also visited J&K from September 9-12, 2017 and met a large number of delegations from wide spectrum of the society. Dineshwar Sharma is a Retired IPS officer from 1979 Batch of Kerala Cadre. During his distinguished career, he has served in J&K, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur and as Additional Director and Special Director in the Intelligence Bureau in the Headquarters. He has in-depth understanding of security related matters and considerable knowledge and experience of issues relating to Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi, Oct 30 (IBNS): Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Monday called the Centre's decision to ban old Rs. 500 and Rs. 2000 currency notes last year as a 'disaster'. The senior Congress leader said GST was a torpedo which destroyed the economy. "The Prime Minister is still unable to understand the pain of the people," Gandhi told media. Congress VP Rahul Gandhi briefs the media on the demonetisation and GST shots fired on the economy. November 8 to be observed as #BlackDay. pic.twitter.com/V7563mv7iZ Congress (@INCIndia) October 30, 2017 He said Nov 8, which is the day when the Centre have announced the move of note ban last year, is a 'sad day' for the country. "I dont know what they are going to celebrate," he attacked the BJP as the ruling party will observe the day as Anti Black Money Day. "The move of note ban was an out and out disaster," he said. "Today, we had two meetings, one on demonetisation and the other on GST. In the demonetisation meeting we discussed how the country has suffered and many small businesses have closed due to it. In the GST meeting, it was discussed how a good idea was destroyed. The government has wrongly implemented it," Gandhi said. Image: Congress Twitter page video grab New Delhi, Oct 30 (IBNS) : India and Italy on Monday signed six agreements in the sectors of energy, railway safety and mutual trade investment. The agreements were signed in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni, who is on a visit to India. "IndiaItaly sign six agreements/MOUs to further strengthen bilateral cooperation," MEA spokesman Raveesh Kumar tweeted. "Partnering for progress, India and Italy signed six pacts 1) Joint declaration of cooperation for safety in railway sector, 2) MoU on 70 years of diplomatic relations, 3) MoU on cooperation in the field of energy, 4) Executive protocol on cultural cooperation, 5) MoU between MFA, Italy and FCI, MEA India and 6) MoU for promoting mutual investments. According to reports, Modi received Gentiloni at Hyderabad House. Gentiloni was also given a ceremonial welcome at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan. PM Modi and Paolo Gentiloni also interacted with 12 Indian and 19 Italian business leaders for boosting economic & investment cooperation. The two leaders also released commemorative stamps to mark the occasion of 70 Years of Diplomatic Relationship between India and Italy. Earlier, the Prime Minister of Italy Paolo Gentiloni who arrived in New Delhi on his first state visit to India on Monday morning met EAM EAM Sushma Swaraj and discussed issues of mutual interest. Mumbai, Oct 30 (IBNS): Triggering panic, a man created a hijack scare on Jet Airways Mumbai-Delhi flight on Monday. He has reportedly confessed that he planted a threat note in a toilet of the flight. The note triggered the hijack alarm. The passenger is being questioned by the Gujarat police, NDTV reported. The man has been identified as Salla Birju. Jet Airways flight 9W339 took off from Mumbai but was later diverted to Ahmedabad city in Gujarat. It landed in the Gujarat city. After landing in Ahmedabad, the passengers were screened and their bags were checked. 122 passengers and seven crew members were flying in the lfight. Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju tweeted: "I am informed that person responsible for Jet flt 339 (Mum-Del) incident causing the landing at Ahmedabad today morn. has been identified." He advised the airlines to put the person on No-Fly list. "I am advising the Airlines to put him on the No-Fly list immediately, in addition to other statutory criminal action," he said. Picture: Representative Image of JetAirways KENOSHA VISITING NURSE ASSOCIATION INC. FLU SHOTS: The Kenosha Visiting Nurse Association Inc., 600 52nd St. (third floor), is offering flu shots from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday through Dec. 1. The cost is $32. Medicare Part B, Humana Plans and WEA are accepted. For more information, call 262-656-8400 or go to www.myflushot.com. THREE MOONS ACUPUNCTURE CBD OIL AND YOU: An informational session on CBD oil, a legal substance, will be offered. 7-8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 2, Three Moons Acupuncture, 310 Old Green Bay Road, Kenosha. Free. AURORA MEDICAL CENTER HANDS ONLY CPR: Attendees will learn and practice how to provide hands only CPR on a teen or adult who suddenly collapses. No certificate will be given. 6:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 7, Aurora Medical Center, 10400 75th St., Kenosha. Free. Go to https://ahc.aurorahealthcare.org. CITY OF RACINE ZUMBA FITNESS CLASSES: The Racine Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department offers sessions of Zumba Fitness at Racines five community centers. These ongoing classes, created by Colombian dancer/choreographer Alberto Perez, incorporates hip hop, soca, samba, salsa, merengue and mambo dance to create an aerobic workout. Participants of all levels of fitness and dance experience are welcome. The schedule: Tuesdays and Thursdays Dr. John Bryant Community Center, 601 21st St., 3:30-4:30 p.m., 262-636-9235. Zumba Gold for seniors. A $3 donation per class is requested. Wednesdays Humble Park Community Center, 2200 Blaine Ave., 10-11 a.m., 262-636-9226. A $3 donation per class is requested. Wednesdays & Saturdays Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Center, 1134 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, 10-11 a.m. Saturdays, 262-636-9237. A $1 donation is requested. For more information, call the community center or 262-636-9131. ALZHEIMERS ASSOCIATION Effective Communication Strategies When Caring for Someone with Dementia: Communication is so much more than talking and listening. It also includes sending and receiving messages through attitude, tone of voice, facial expressions and body language. As people with Alzheimers disease and other dementias progress in their journey, their ability to use words is lost. This presentation gives families information about decoding verbal and behavioral messages delivered by someone with dementia. It will also empower them with new strategies and tools to communicate and connect at each stage of the disease. 10 a.m.-noon Tuesday, Nov. 7, Gateway Technical College, 901 Pershing Drive. Free. Registration is required by calling 800-272-3900. ASCENSION ALL SAINTS HOSPITAL Diabetes Education Series: Education on healthy eating for the holidays, tips for weight control and keeping blood sugars in target during celebrations. 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, Ascension All Saints Hospital Racine Room, 3801 Spring St. (lower level). Free blood pressure screening, 4:30-5 p.m. Free. New Delhi, Oct 30 (IBNS): King and Queen of Bhutan Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, The Gyaltsuen Jetsun Pema Wangchuck and The Gyalsey Jigme Namgyel Wangchuck, will be on a four day visit to India from Oct 31-Nov 3, Indian government confirmed on Monday. "During the visit, His Majesty the King of Bhutan will meet with the President of India and the Prime Minister, who will host a dinner in honour of Their Majesties. The Vice President of India, External Affairs Minister and other Ministers and senior officials will call on His Majesty, the King of Bhutan," read an Indian government statement. India and Bhutan enjoy unique ties of friendship, which are characterized by deep understanding and mutual trust. The visit of His Majesty the King of Bhutan is in keeping with the long standing tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries. The visit would provide an opportunity to both the sides for reviewing the entire gamut of bilateral cooperation, including plans for befitting celebrations of golden jubilee of establishment of diplomatic relations between our two countries in the year 2018, and to advance the special bilateral ties of friendship and cooperation. New Delhi, Oct 30 (IBNS): Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu has said that the Bahudha approach is yet another shining star that can lead us our quest for peace and harmony. He was addressing the gathering after releasing the Book The 21st Century Geopolitics, Democracy and Peace authored by former Governor of Sikki, Shri B.P. Singh, here on Monday. The Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, N.N. Vohra and other dignitaries were present on the occasion. The Vice President complimented Shri Singh for penning this book, which is highly relevant in the context of increasing globalization, growing terrorism and unprecedented technological advances. He further said that it indeed deals with a wide range of issues that are increasingly affecting an inter-dependent globalised world and strongly advocates that it would be ideal if we can adopt a Bahudha approach which emphasizes the need for a dialogue to promote a harmonious and peaceful living. The Vice President said that issues touched upon in the book include the role of educational institutions, progressive religious and social groups, forums for inter-faith dialogue and international institutions like the United Nations. It makes a strong case for promoting moral values, empathy and compassion and channelizing energies towards peace and development, he added. The Vice President said that other interesting chapters are Democracy and its Consequences and Good Governance: A Narrative from Democratic India. He further said that in the chapter, The Emerging World: Challenges and Possibilities, Singh quite correctly says that the future of peace and harmony in the 21stcentury would be directly linked to (i) ecology, global warming and climate change; (ii) nuclear weapons, emerging technology of warfare and continuing arms race among nation-states; (iii) geopolitics and nationalism; (iv) religious extremism and (v) poverty and inequality. Following is the text of Vice Presidents address: I am extremely delighted to release the book, The 21st Century: Geopolitics, Democracy and Peace written by former Sikkim Governor, Mr. B.P. Singh. Writing books is not new to Mr. Singh, a former IAS officer, who served with distinction in several positions in Assam and the Government of India. I compliment him for penning this book, which is highly relevant in the context of increasing globalization, growing terrorism and unprecedented technological advances that are rapidly changing the way we live. Frankly speaking, this book generates a lot of optimism and dispels cynicism about the future of the world and focuses on the innate goodness in all human beings. It has great relevance to our times. We live today in turbulent world, a world that is being fragmented by narrow walls of prejudice on every conceivable issue. This book presents a viewpoint that is radically and refreshingly different. It indeed deals with a wide range of issues that are increasingly affecting an inter-dependent globalised world and strongly advocates that it would be ideal if we can adopt aBahudha approach which emphasizes the need for a dialogue to promote a harmonious and peaceful living. It needs no reiteration that peace is an essential pre-requisite for progress of mankind, especially when the world is witnessing an increasing number of conflicts. In the context of the rise of terrorism and religious fundamentalism, which are threatening world peace like never before, the Bahudha approach advocated by the author is a good way to resolve even the most intractable problems. The issues touched upon in the book include the role of educational institutions, progressive religious and social groups, forums for inter-faith dialogue and international institutions like the United Nations. It makes a strong case for promoting moral values, empathy and compassion and channelizing energies towards peace and development. The author while outlining the rationale behind the book refers to the complexity of the evolving world in the 21st century. He has touched upon key trends likeunprecedented scientific and technological development, previously unheard of prosperity and mind-boggling advances in the means of communication. He recognizes major challenges confronting us like conflicts, natural calamities, hunger, malnourishment, pandemics, denial of education, violation of human rights and much else. However, he is not pessimistic. He believes that despair would be a kind of self-indulgence. One can see that there are very many positive signs on the geo-political map of the world, he concludes and observes that the respect for another persons point of viewthe cornerstone of the Bahudha approach is on the rise. While discussing how terrorism and fundamentalism are threatening world peace, the author says the new challenge calls for bold and imaginative statecraft from world leaders. He proposes the concept of Bahudha while calling for transcending age-old peace mechanisms and reconstructing our language of discourse. Nobody can be in disagreement with his viewpoint that Bahudha approach is necessary at individual, group, national and global levels. It provides a moral choice between the clash of civilizations and harmony among civilizations, as he puts it. In the Chapter on Interplay of Ideas: The Indian Story, Mr. Singh rightly points out that India is much more than a large market place. Its history is not only a story of kings and queens and mere chronicle of invasions and conquests. Both in times of decline and distinction, India is a land alive with vital ideas and thoughts. In the chapter dealing with ecological issues in the Himalayan region, the author points out that climate change has to be viewed in the context of enormous disturbance to eco-systems. He says the threat to South Asia is especially more tangible both in the Himalayan region and in the Western Ghats. One cannot continue living as in the past. If the Himalayan glaciers melt and the forests will be lost at an alarming rate with many birds, mammals and other species on way to extinction, we would be making our planet more uninhabitable and unsustainable. As I have been long advocating, Mr. Singh too emphasizes the need for imparting ethical values to students and sensitizing them to the needs of a harmonious society in the chapter on Science, Spirituality and Ways of Living: A plea for Integrated Education. Other interesting chapters are Democracy and its Consequences and Good Governance: A Narrative from Democratic India. In the chapter, The Emerging World: Challenges and Possibilities, Mr. Singh quite correctly says that the future of peace and harmony in the 21st century would be directly linked to (i) ecology, global warming and climate change; (ii) nuclear weapons, emerging technology of warfare and continuing arms race among nation-states; (iii) geopolitics and nationalism; (iv) religious extremism and (v) poverty and inequality. Emphasizing that the role of national and global multilateral organizations would be vital, Mr., Singh observes that the 21st century would be dominated by a pluralist ethos; multiple nation-states, multiple centres of power; multiple faiths; multiple cultures; multiple economies and multiple languages. He says, We cannot envisage a world without conflicts or natural disasters. All I am advocating is to bring down mind walls that divide people and create hatred. Indeed, that has to be effort at every levelat individual, community, nation-state and global-- for peace and prosperity to co-exist and to make this planet a truly marvelous place for humans and all other living creatures. Bringing down walls that divide us, engaging in dialogue, appreciating each others viewpoints and promoting peaceful co-existence has been the essence of Indian ethos from time immemorial. It is this world view that we need to draw upon. The Bahudha approach is yet another shining star that can lead us our quest for peace and harmony. As mentioned earlier, it is a timely book. It is a book that offers hope. It is a book that should trigger a thought process towards a better world. I once again compliment the author, Mr. Singh and hope that his writings will inspire more Indians to look back at the rich heritage, draw inspiration and move forward. Jai Hind! Guwahati, Oct 30 (IBNS): Amid fear whether Assam will lose huge parts of its land to proposed Nagalim, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Monday clarified that, not an inch of Assams land will be parted with it and the integrity of the state will be protected at any cost. Recently, BJPs Assam unit president Ranjit Kumar Das said that, the dispute areas of Assam-Nagaland border will be included in the proposed Nagalim. Refuting the comment of the state BJP unit president, Sonowal said that, not an inch of states land will be parted with it. "The state government will protect the integrity of the state," Sonowal said. NSCN-IM's Nagalim claim has triggered massive protests across the state and several organisations have demanded to both Centre and state government to make public the framework agreement signed between the Centre and NSCN-IM in New Delhi two years back in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, NSCN-IM's General Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah. Opposition Congress has demanded a special assembly session to discuss the issue. According to the reports of Assam government, Nagaland had allegedly encroached over 66,000 hectares Assam's land. In 1988, the Assam government had filed a case before the Supreme Court over the Assam-Nagaland border dispute and the case is yet to be solved. Recently, the Centre appointed interlocutor RN Ravi visited Dimapur and held discussion with six Naga political parties group ahead of the final settlement with NSCN-IM. (Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath) New Delhi, Oct 30 (IBNS): DLK Publication Pvt. Ltd. organised the 13th Hospitality India & Explore the World Annual International Travel Awards 2017 on Oct 27 at The Ashok Hotel, Convention Hall New Delhi as its host hotel, to honour the achievers of Tourism, Travel and Hospitality Industry. The award was in association with Cox & King Ltd and Delhi Tourism, Madhya Pradesh Tourism, Kerala Tourism and Maharashtra Tourism as its Principal Partner State and Punjab Tourism as the Cultural Partner. At this occasion the chief guest of the evening Alphons Kannanthanam, Honble Minister of State (IC) Ministry of Tourism, on the occasion he quoted, Its been my pleasure to be associated with Hospitality India, where the industry get acknowledged for their contribution to tourism industry of India. I believe together we all can take the sector to another level. Our countrys heritage is Incredible and contributes 70% of the tourism of India. Tourists who came here feel wonderful and consider India as Incredible India and we are proud of our nation. 13th Hospitality India and Explore the World Annual International Travel Awards 2017 recognised itself as a platform to honour the stars and the captains of the Tourism and Hospitality Industry Sector. The awards not only acknowledged the Hospitality sector but also the deserving leaders from sectors like Education, Real Estate, Hospital, Hotels & Restaurants, Airlines, etc. Every year Hospitality India takes the initiative to mine out the hardworking nominees and acknowledge that the recipients of the awards are best-in-class. The awards program also included cultural programs, dance performances and ramp walk by experienced models of the industry. Suneet Kalra, Managing Director, Hospitality India & Explore the World, said, I am quiet ecstatic with the continuous success of our annual national and international awards which aims to recognize the achievements and growth of hospitality and tourism sector. We intend to captivate the attention towards Indian tourism sector and aim to put it on global platform. This concept of an elaborate award ceremony was founded by my late father Shri DL Kalra to redefine hospitality sector and take it to new heights. I am just taking my fathers dream forward and hope to make his dream bigger and bigger with each passing year. Rajni Kalra, Executive Editor, Hospitality India & Explore the World, said, Our awards event has always aimed to recognize everyone who has contributed to the travel and tourism sector. Our group has never discriminated between a small travel agency and a big hotel. We have always appreciated those who have contributed to the hospitality and travel sector be it on a small or large scale. Awardees Award for Legend - Hotels and Luxury Hospitality Mr. Rajiv Kaul, president The Leela Palaces Hotels & Resorts Sahar, Mumbai, Award for Best Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Organization Mrs. Ravneet Kaur - IAS Chairperson & Managing Director ITDC Award for Most Preferred Business Hotel-Mumbai Mr. Punish B Sharma, Area General Manager Meluha The Fern & Rodas Hotel Powai Mumbai, Award for Best Naturopathy Ayurvedic Hospital Mr. Subhash Jagga, President Swami Parmanand Prakritik Chikitsalaya Yoga Avam Anusandhan Kendra (SPPC) New Delhi Award for Best Luxury Wedding & Mice hotel Mr Hemant Mehta, General Manager Radisson Blu Kaushambi Delhi NCR Award for Best inbound tour operator for USA" Mr. Akarsh Kolaprath, Founder 7M Tours USA Award for BEST DMC - THAILAND (Indian Market)" Mr. Vineeth Andrew, Director Magi Holidays Thailand Award for Innovation in Travel Technology Mr. Neelkanth Pararath Managing Director, Award for Best Luxury Hotel Dr. Ramesh Kapur Chairman & Managing Director Radisson Blu Plaza Delhi Airport. Mumbai, Oct 30 (IBNS): In a move which will further enhance the seamless air connectivity offered to flyers, GVKs Mumbai International Airport Private Limited (MIAL), the company that operates Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA), welcomed Dutch Carrier KLM, Mumbai and Amsterdam services on Monday, Oct 30. The airline will be operating 294-seater Boeing 787-9 aircraft with 30 World Business class, 45 Economy Comfort Class and 219 Economy Class. The flights will operate thrice a week as per below schedule: Earlier, Mumbai and Amsterdam route was served with daily services offered by Jet Airways. Now along with KLM, Mumbai-Amsterdam route will be served with a total of 10 services per week. The start of operations by KLM is a manifestation of CSIAs commitment to continuously strengthen the connectivity to its passengers enhancing Mumbais rapidly developing trade and commerce relationship with Netherland and rest of the globe. Last week, CSIA welcomed Thai Smiles maiden flight on the Mumbai-Bangkok route, the second airline after Thai Lion to start services on the sector within a month. Mumbai International Airport serves as a key gateway to India and has 52 airlines operating to 100 destinations from the city to various parts of India and the World. In FY 2017, CSIA, Mumbai welcomed 45.2 million air travelers (12.4 million international passengers) registering an annual growth of 8%. Cox's Bazar, Oct 30 (IBNS): The opposition leader and the Chairperson of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Khaleda Zia, will be meeting the Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar, where she will distribute support materials. Zia's convoy reached Cox's Bazar Circuit House from Dhaka last night. During her journey, the convoy was reportedly attacked, prompting the party to pin all allegations against its arch rival, the incumbent Bangladesh Awami League. According to the local The Daily Star, Zia's convoy was greeted by a large number of party supporters, who queued up on both sides of the road. A significant number of these supporters were women. Ever since the alleged ethnic cleansing by Myanmar, Bangladesh has witnessed a large number of Rohingya exodus. The country is presently housing at least 400,000 Rohingya refugees. Kabul, Oct 30 (IBNS): At least 12 people were injured in a magnetic bomb blast on a vehicle in northern Baghlan province of Afghanistan on Monday, media reports said. Local officials said the incident took place at 1:00pm when a magnetic bomb attached to a Hilux vehicle went off in front of a mosque in Pul-i-Khumri city, the provincial capital, country's Pajhwok Afghan News reported. The injured people were rushed to hospital for treatment. Condition of some of the people are said to be critical. Why Partner with IIFL? IIFL is one of the leading player in the broking industry with more than a million accounts being opened since inception. The company provides execution, advisory, and research service across products like equity, F&O, Commodity & Currency, Mutual Funds. IIFL is also one of the top distributors of AIF, PMS and Mutual Funds. The Blue Lake Rancheria debuted a new amenity at its casino in northern California. The second floor of the Blue Lake Casino and Hotel features a beauty salon that offers a wide array of services for women and men. The tribe financed the build-out, The Eureka Times-Standard reported. The tribe paid for everything, so I wouldnt be doing this if it wasnt for the tribe, Aggie Ramos, a longtime employee of the casino who now works at The Salon , told the paper. Her husband, Jason Ramos , who serves on the tribal council and on the tribe's gaming commission, helps make products for the business, the paper reported. Read More on the Story: Salon opens on the second floor of Blue Lake Casino and Hotel (The Eureka Times-Standard October 27, 2017) Join the Conversation As one of Brechts greatest protests to the rise of fascism in 1930s Germany, the play is a dark satire about the effect war has on the people living through it. Told over 12 years, the story follows Mother Courage and her three children during the Thirty Years War, a bloody battle between catholics and protestants in the crumbling Holy Roman Empire. Despite being decidedly against the war, she profits from it by selling supplies to soldiers. When tragedy strikes her family, Mother Courage must push forward to survive the tribulations of her chaotic world. The old saying: where there is smoke, there tends to be fire; holds true for people who smoke marijuana regularly, states a recent study. xyceo.com The study conducted by Stanford University School of medicine, claims that pot users have around 20 percent more sex than those who dont smoke up! Given that the average couple has sex about once a week, said Dr Michael Eisenberg, assistant professor of urology at Stanford, the bottom line for partaking in a bong or blunt could add up to 20 more instances of sexual intercourse each year. potheadtv.com I think if you asked a man or a woman, 20 more times to have sex over a year, that would seem like a lot, added Eisenberg. It used to be thought that couples mostly smoked after sex, but Eisenberg said his findings show the opposite is true for all races, ages, education levels, income groups and religions, every health status, whether they were married or single and whether or not they had kids. vix.com A record percentage of Americans64 percentnow believe the adult use of the drug should be legal, according to a Gallup poll published this week. Marijuana is legal for medical or recreational adult use in 29 states and the District of Columbia, said spokesman Morgan Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project. Reuters.com Maybe its time we rethink our laws on smoking up on some weed? AFP/Representational Image At least 18 infants have died in the past three days at the hospital. Reports suggest that the average number of deaths of newborns at the hospital is five to six per day. Read more Here are more top news of the day: 1) Supreme Court Raps Mamata Banerjee, Says State Cannot Challenge A Law Passed By The Centre AFP The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government for challenging the constitutional validity of Aadhaar and emphasised that a state cannot challenge a law passed by the Union government. Read more 2) Shattering All Norms, Gulshan Bindu, A Transgender, Is Running For Mayor Of Ayodhya khabarlahariya Samajwadi Party has declared Gulshan Bindu, a transgender, as its mayoral candidate for the Ayodhya-Faizabad Municipal Corporation - one of the most prestigious seats for the ruling BJP primarily. Read more 3) With PM Modi Rooting For Khadi, Sales Up By 89% In First Half Of This Fiscal, Clocking Rs 814 Crore BCCL/Representational Image The sale of khadi products - which include garments and other handmade products - shot up over 89 per cent to Rs 814 crore during April-September 2017, compared to Rs 430 crore a year ago. Read more 4) Mewat Sisters Launch Door-To-Door Anti-Dowry Drive, Asks Qazis For Support bccl Six sisters, who live with their parents in Delhi's Malaviya Nagar, have launched a campaign against dowry in their native village, Pingwa in Mewat. Since Friday last, they have been busy in a door-to-door campaign against the social evil in Mewat. Read more 5) Over 50 Pregnant Women Fall Sick After Gwalior Government Hospital Staff Gives Wrong Injections ANI Around 50 women in post-operative care at Kamla Raja Government Hospital in Gwalior district of Madhya Pradesh developed chills and severe shivering a few minutes after they were injected with an antibiotic by a trainee male nurse on Sunday night. Read more The union home ministry has granted long terms visas to as many as 431 Pakistani nationals, mostly Hindus. Now they all are eligible for Aadhaar cards and PAN. The move, amidst the strained India-Pak relations, is in line with the Narendra Modi government's policy to help minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who come to India after facing alleged persecution in their home country. PTI "The Ministry of Home Affairs granted long-term visas to 431 Pakistani nationals last month. They are from minority communities of that country," the official said. Under the latest policy of the Centre, those belonging to minority communities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, namely -- Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians-- staying in India on long-term visas, are allowed to purchase a small dwelling unit sufficient to serve the needs of a family for self-use and suitable accommodation for carrying out self-employment. However, they are barred from buying immovable property in and around restricted or protected areas, including cantonment regions. Such communities are also allowed to obtain PAN cards, Aadhaar numbers and driving licences, take up self-employment or do business, and are allowed free movement within the state of their stay and transfer of long-term visa papers from one state to another. The 431 Pakistani nationals with long-term visas will now also be able to open bank accounts without the prior approval of the Reserve Bank of India. The home ministry had also recently given security clearance to 1,800 Pakistani nationals of the Ahmadiyya community to attend the 123rd 'Jalsa Salana' at Qadian in Gurdaspur district of Punjab from December 29 to December 31. 'Jalsa Salana' is an annual gathering of the Ahmadiyya community. A Delhi-bound Jet Airways flight from Mumbai has been diverted to Ahmedabad after a threatening note was recovered from the toilet on Monday, news agency ANI reported. The flight took off from Mumbai at 2:55 am and had to land at Ahmedabad airport at about 3:45 am. Security agencies say Jet Airways flight was diverted to #Ahmedabad after a threatening note was recovered from the toilet ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017 "The aircraft is covered by hijackers, should not land in Delhi, should be flown straight to PoK" written on the note say security agencies ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017 According to the security personnel the note read, "The aircraft is covered by hijackers, should not land in Delhi, should be flown straight to PoK." Jet Airways has not yet given any statement. Hijack threat letter found in bathroom of Jet Airways 9W339 Mumbai-Delhi flight that was diverted to Ahmedabad earlier today pic.twitter.com/cr8KlKjvIP ANI (@ANI) October 30, 2017 Later, a man identified as Salla Birju confessed that he had kept the note in the toilet in order to destabilise the operations of the airways. The Civil Aviation Minister, Ashok G Raju has also ordered that the airlines will put Birju on No-Fly list immediately in addition to other statutory criminal action. In order to modernise and to get new weapons, the army clear the procurement of seven lakh rifles, 44,000 Light Machine Guns ( and nearly 44, 600 carbines which will cost nearly Rs 40,000 crore. The move is likely to end the trail of old and obsolete weapons used by the army. The world's second largest standing Army has been pressing for fast-tracking the procurement of various weapon systems considering the evolving security threats including along India's borders with Pakistan and China. Apart from kick-starting the procurement process, the government has also sent a message to the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to expedite its work on various small arms, particularly on an LMG. The source said a fresh RFI (request for information) to procure the LMGs will be issued in the next few months after the defence ministry scrapped the tender for the 7.62 calibre guns as there was only one vendor left after a series of field trials. The plan is to initially procure around 10,000 LMGs. The Army has also finalised the specifications for a new 7.62 mm assault rifle and the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the defence ministry's highest decision-making body on procurement, is expected to give the go-ahead for the much-needed procurement soon. "The General Service Quality Requirements (GSQR) for the new assault rifle has been finalised. The procurement plan will soon be placed before the DAC for approval," said a senior official, who is part of the acquisition process. In June, the Army had rejected an assault rifle built by the state-run Rifle Factory, Ishapore, after the guns miserably failed the firing tests. The procurement of assault rifles has witnessed significant delays due to a variety of reasons including the Army's failure to finalise the specifications for it. The Army needs around 7 lakh 7.62x51 mm assault guns to replace its INSAS rifles. The Army had issued RFI for the rifles in September last year and around 20 firms responded to it. An RFI is a process whose purpose is to collect information about capabilities of various vendors. In June, the Army had kick-started the initial process to procure around 44,600 carbines, nearly eight months after a tender for it was retracted, also due to the single-vendor situation. Around half a dozen firms including a few global arms manufacturers have responded to the RFI. AFP Army sources said various specifications for the LMGs and battle carbines were tweaked to ensure that the problem of the single vendor does not recur. The combined cost of the LMGs, assault rifles and carbines will be in excess of Rs 40,000 crore, said an official. On DRDO missing a number of deadlines in finalising the LMG, an official said the defence secretary has called a meeting this week of all stakeholders to discuss the project. "The infantry modernisation plan is a major initiative of the Army and it will significantly bolster the overall capability of the foot soldiers," said a senior army official. The issue was extensively discussed at the recently concluded Army Commanders conference which felt modernisation of the Army must be in tune with the evolving security threat facing the country. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman conveyed to the Army during the conference that modernisation of the force was a priority for the government and all its "deficiencies" will be addressed to strengthen its combat capability. The Indian philosophical tradition of Aparigraha -- which stresses non-attachment and speaks of the desirability of not owning or consuming more than is necessary -- extends to social and economic policy and care for the environment, said Shaunaka Rishi Das, the first Hindu Chaplain at the 800-year-old Oxford University, who also heads its Centre for Hindu Studies. Elaborating the point, Das (who hails from Ireland) explained that in the Ramayana, Rama was not interested in humans alone - his army included bears, monkeys, vultures and squirrels. OnlinePrasad.com The spirit of Aparigraha is not one that treats the human being as "the master of all he surveys". The human being is a small part of a larger whole when viewed from the vantage of Aparigraha, said Das, who addressed a two-day conference on 'Aparigraha' at the city's Kanodia College over Skype on Saturday. OnlinePrasad.com Das explained that what the ancient Hindu texts termed "rta" - cosmic order - saw chaos and suffering too as part of a larger whole. 'Ritu' - often translated as 'seasons' - is the cycle and rhythm of this larger order. In this scheme of things, the needs of human beings are not the greatest concern. Under this holistic approach, people are required to follow their 'dharma' - the word comes from the Sanskrit root word that means 'nourish'. Sacrifice or yagya too is part of this whole larger scheme of things, the cycle of give and take. Das briefly dwelt on how maximization of profit, under this scheme, would just not be acceptable. It is this orientation of economic activity that is causing harm to the environment, he said, quoting Gandhi who said that the earth could satisfy a man's need, but not his greed. Representational Image Das spoke of how current legal systems draw from 18th century Enlightenment ideals which are based on a religion that is more dogmatic. Aparigraha, in contrast, is part of a tradition that personifies even nature - Ganga, Cauvery, the mountains and forests are imbued with personality and often worshipped. The two-day international conference is organized by Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Prakrit Bharati Academy, Jaipur. Scholars from Israel, Kazakhstan and the UK are in attendance, besides experts from across the country. The Supreme Court will give a detailed and holistic hearing from November 21 on the contentious issue of government's decision to deport Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar. afp The apex court also made it clear that in case any contingency arises in the intervening period, the petitioners have the liberty to approach it for redressal. Also Read: Yogi Adityanath Asks Police To Identify And Deport Illegal Immigrants From UP A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud said the issue was of great magnitude and therefore, the state has a big role. The top court said there was a need for holistic hearing and it is neither going to be swayed by the arguments of senior lawyer Fali S Nariman, who is representing the petitioners, nor by any other senior counsel and the submissions have to go by the letter of the law. afp "We will not permit any emotional arguments," the bench observed. Also Read: ISIS Training 2,000 Rohingyas To Carry Out Suicide Attacks In Nagaland, Claim Police During the brief hearing, the bench suggested to the Centre not to deport the Rohingya Muslim refugees, but Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta requested that it should not be written in the order as anything coming on record will have an international ramification. reuters "We know our responsibility," the ASG said. The bench said the whole issue of Rohingya Muslims has to be looked at from various angles like national security, economic interest, labour interest and also the protection of children, women, sick and innocent persons. The Army now wants a concerted push towards border infrastructure development in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh as part of the overall plan for "capability enhancement" all along the 4,057-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) after the tense Doklam troop stand-off with China. BCCL ALSO READ: Govt Rubbishes Reports Of China Building Road Near Disputed Doklam Site This is one of the crucial issues on the agenda of the ongoing Army commanders' conference, which is being chaired by General Bipin Rawat with all top Lieutenant Generals of the 11.73-lakh strong force, in the backdrop of both India and China maintaining high operational alerts and force-levels along the LAC despite "disengaging" at Doklam. Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who herself visited forward areas at the Sikkim-Bhutan-Tibet tri-junction last Saturday, assured the military brass she would "focus on capacity and capability development" and "closely monitor improvement in strategic infrastructure" while addressing the conference on Tuesday. The Army, for one, needs full road connectivity to the four mountain passes of Niti, Lipulekh, Thangla-1 and Tsang-Chokla in Uttarakhand by 2020, with links to three other passes in the region being taken up thereafter, say sources. There is also a proposal for "better command-and-control" of Army battalions and units spreading from the Karakoram Pass to Lipulekh by integrating them under one corps, with three divisions (15,000 soldiers each) under it, as well as improved inter-sector connectivity through lateral road links. ALSO READ: A Month After Doklam Standoff Ended, Chinese Troops Widen Existing Road Close To Indian Border AFP The 545-km long middle sector (Uttarakhand, Himachal) of the unresolved LAC has relatively been the most peaceful over the years, with India and China even exchanging maps of their "claimed lines" around 17 years ago. In contrast, several spots in the western (Ladakh) and eastern (Sikkim, Arunachal) sectors have emerged as major flashpoints with frequent troop face-offs. Gen Rawat, incidentally, had just last month warned that China was flexing its muscles and would continue with its efforts to nibble away Indian territory through "salami slicing" and other measures. China, of course, has assiduously built an extensive network of railway lines, highways, metal-top roads, air bases, radars, logistics hubs and other infrastructure in the entire Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) to sustain over 30 divisions (each with over 15,000 soldiers), including five to six "rapid reaction forces" there. AFP The People's Liberation Army now also has requisite infrastructure for swift mobility of troops and weapon systems in western TAR opposite the middle sector of the LAC. "PLA has already connected four passes there, with its road-heads to another seven-eight passes being less than 5-km," said a source. China has also re-organized its 2.3-million PLA into five theatre commands to crank up its offensive capabilities. Its Western Theatre Command now handles the entire LAC with India instead of the earlier Chengdu Military Region in the east and the Lanzhou Military Region towards the north. But India has floundered in playing catch-up. Only 27 "strategic all-weather roads" (963-km) of the 73 (totalling (4,643-km) identified for construction along the LAC over 15 years ago, for instance, have been completed till now. Moreover, the long-proposed construction of 14 "strategic railway lines" for the western and eastern fronts has not even kicked off till now. Bangladesh is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the Rohingya Muslim crisis. And now it's planning to build the world's largest refugee camp to house all of them! But a top UN official has said that Bangladesh's plan to build the world's biggest refugee camp for 800,000-plus Rohingya Muslims is dangerous because overcrowding could heighten the risks of deadly diseases spreading quickly. AFP The arrival of more than half a million Rohingya refugees who have fled an army crackdown in Myanmar's troubled Rakhine state since August 25 has put an immense strain on already packed camps in Bangladesh. According to the IOM, the proposed camp will be the world's largest, dwarfing Bidi Bidi in Uganda and Dadaab in Kenya -- both housing around 300,000 refugees. Three thousand acres (1,200 hectares) of land next to the existing Kutupalong camp have been set aside for the new Rohingya arrivals. Hard-pressed Bangladesh authorities plan to expand a refugee camp at Kutupalong near the border town of Cox's Bazar to accommodate all the Rohingya. But Robert Watkins, the UN resident coordinator in Dhaka, told AFP the country should instead look for new sites to build more camps. "When you concentrate too many people into a very small area, particularly the people who are very vulnerable to diseases, it is dangerous," Watkins told AFP. "There are stronger possibilities, if there are any infectious diseases that spread, that will spread very quickly," he said, also highlighting fire risks in the camps. "It is much easier to manage people, manage the health situation and security situation if there are a number of different camps rather than one concentrated camp." AFP At the request of the Bangladesh government, the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM) has agreed to coordinate the work of aid agencies and help build shelters at the new camp site. "700,000 is a big camp... we and our partners will have our work cut out for us", Joel Millman, an IOM spokesman, told reporters in Geneva yesterday. But he added that UN agencies "wouldn't be undertaking this if we didn't think it was feasible". AFP Bangladeshi officials say the new camp will help them better manage relief operations and ensure the safety of the Rohingya amid fears that dispersed camps could become recruiting grounds for militants. This week Bangladesh reported 4,000-5,000 Rohingya were crossing the border daily, with 10,000 more waiting at the frontier. Over the past six months I have reviewed five minimal Linux distributions that are optimized for running containers: Alpine Linux, CoreOS Container Linux, RancherOS, Red Hat Atomic Host, and VMware Photon OS. Generically known as container operating systems, these stripped down, purpose built Linux distributions are not the only way to run containers in production, but they provide a base that does not waste resources on anything besides container support. The state of the industry with container deployment systems is very much like the early days of Linux distributions. You have one key element, in this case the Docker container, that is surrounded by a number of competing ecosystem components. Just as the traditional Linux distros bundled different package managers, desktop environments, system utilities, services, and apps, most container distributions mix and match various components to create what they consider an optimum solution. Take for example distributed configuration and service discovery. There are several solutions for this such as Etcd, Consul, and ZooKeeper. Each distribution takes a different approach to what to include in the stack. On one extreme there are distributions designed to support only the higher levels of the stack, such as CoreOS Container Linux and Red Hat Project Atomic. So much of the functionality has been put into the proprietary management layer that there is little hope of using the OS for anything else. Other distros, such as RancherOS and VMware Photon OS, provide greater flexibility, supporting multiple ecosystem components and orchestration systems. These give administrators a good way to experiment and potentially avoid vendor lock-in. Alpine Linux Alpine Linux, the underlying operating system for many official Docker images, is a great choice for the task. A mere five megabytes in size, Alpine Linux is on the opposite end of the spectrum from the full-fat Linux distributions of a few years ago, which were competing with Solaris and intended to run on massive hardware systems. This new breed of Linux is designed to run on embedded hardware, and consume minimal resources, making it a perfect choice for containers. Alpine Linuxs legacy as an embedded systems OS was evident during my review. Many of the configuration options default to embedded systems, and the documentation in many areas was sparse, or non-existent. Clearly a system designed for and primarily used by hackers, Alpine Linux will require companies to clear a few hurdles to build their applications. Production deployments of Alpine Linux will enjoy several advantages including rapid startup, a minimalist footprint, and a secure-by-default stance not found elsewhere. Everything from the system binaries to the C libraries is designed for small, fast, and secure deployments. There is no bloat here. Administration of Alpine Linux is different than traditional Linux systems, and will take some time to learn. Installation and package management is unique even among the container operating systems, though well thought out. If your development shop has above-average developers who are willing to make the investment, Alpine Linux will provide a solid, stable, secure base for applications for a long time to come. CoreOS Container Linux The CoreOS container stack draws on Etcd for distributed storage and service discovery, Flannel for networking, and Kubernetes for container orchestration, and supports its own flavor of container format, rkt (Rocket), in addition to Docker. Rocket was an attempt at a competing container format to address shortcomings in the Docker format circa 2015, but with those deficiencies addressed, Rocket hasnt seen much uptake. Related video: What is Kubernetes? In this 90-second video, learn about Kubernetes, the open-source system for automating containerized applications, from one of the technology's inventors, Joe Beda, founder and CTO at Heptio. CoreOS, like Project Atomic, is not afraid of diverging radically from traditional Linux. Like Red Hats container OS, CoreOS Container Linux creates a mostly immutable filesystem, but does so with a disk partitioning system inspired by Googles Chromium OS. What this does is preserve the old filesystem on a partition, meaning that rollbacks are always safe and fast. Although the documentation is fairly good and comprehensive, I found installation somewhat cumbersome, involving a two-step process to derive the configuration file. Once installed however, CoreOS offers continuous, no downtime upgrades, a feature made possible by its unique disk partition layout. CoreOS has done a lot of work here, and the company offers various maintenance options that will suit most any organization, including the ability to opt out. CoreOS, somewhat like Project Atomic, is an all-or-nothing decision. Picking apart the pieces and using the underlying OS to build your own container infrastructure is not really an option due to all of the architectural design decisions baked into the platform. If you are willing to embrace those decisions and pay for CoreOSs commercial Kubernetes distribution, Tectonic, no doubt you could perform some seriously heavy lifting. Rancher Labs RancherOS Rancher Labs RancherOS is a Linux operating system composed entirely of containers. Even the init process (PID 1) is a Docker container. This means that there is no need for a package management system. OS upgrades (and downgrades) are managed with Docker, just like any other container. Although this approach is equally as radical as the architectural decisions made in some of the other distributions, such as Project Atomic and CoreOS, the result is a surprising simplicity. Although learning any entirely new system administration seems daunting at first, you have to know Docker to manage containers anyway, so why not use the same system for both? RancherOS seems to be maturing rapidly. In my review I found the documentation a bit lacking, but any developer or administrator familiar with Docker containers will already know most of the system. RancherOS has a small footprint (20MB) and makes efficient use of resources. Although the lines between Rancher the container management system and Rancher the OS are somewhat blurred, the container management system is free and open source, so there is no reason to attempt to roll your own. Organizations that need access to source code should look no further. The Rancher platform supports nearly the entire ecosystem of tools for container management, including Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, and Mesos, and it is advancing rapidly. Although radically different than traditional UNIX, RancherOS seems to have adhered more closely to the basic UNIX philosophy than the other container OS distributions: Simple tools operating together in an elegant way. Red Hat Project Atomic Red Hats Project Atomic is firmly in the Kubernetes camp of service orchestration. Typically this type of deployment is geared toward large-scale, highly available scenarios. The downside is that, essentially, you have to do as you are told and architect the application by convention. In the box you will find Flannel for networking, Etcd for distributed key-value storage, and OSTree for host management. OSTree is a relatively new way to deploy an OS at scale in a reliable and distributed fashion. Atomic combines OSTree with a new RPM package manager to create RPM-OSTree, which delivers a mostly immutable filesystem. I found Project Atomic to be a challenge. It is very ambitious and moving fast, with many moving parts. RHEL, CentOS, Fedora, SELinux, Systemd, a custom Docker command-set to control the underlying host they are all in the mix, and the documentation is disorganized and confusing. Furthermore, in my small cluster, lacking Chef, Salt, or Puppet, I had to manually configure each node. The bottom line is that Project Atomic still needs some time to bake. If the vision is realized, then it may become the standard of the future though not for data centers with hundreds of nodes but thousands or tens of thousands. In this respect the vision seems closer to that of Mesos than a typical container deployment system. If your company is living and breathing the Red Hat ecosystem and plans to stay there, then Project Atomic is probably worth getting started with. VMware Photon OS VMwares Photon OS is a minimal Linux container host designed to have a small footprint and tuned for VMware hypervisors. As such, Photon OS only runs in virtual environments; deployment on physical hardware is not possible. Photon OS is customized to make container management easier, but not as radically as Atomic or CoreOS. Photon OS is more of an evolutionary step. Based on my testing, Photo OS lives up to its promises in the VMware virtual environment. (Photon OS can also run on other hypervisors as well as the Google and Amazon clouds.) Because Photon OS can make assumptions about the hardware (virtual), the ecosystem looks very much like standard Linux, making the learning curve less steep. Networking and storage are Systemd compatible, and there are a range of options documented for container networking. The documentation for Photon OS may be the best among the products reviewed. VMware is taking the lead in productionizing containers for traditional environments, and this makes sense when you think about it. How often have you been asked to describe the difference between a container and a VM? With Photon OS, there soon wont be any difference: Containers will just be a lightweight VM, deployed and managed with the same tools. Photon OS supports virtually every major piece of the container ecosystem: Docker and Rocket containers, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, Mesos, Google Cloud Engine, Amazon EC2, and more. Of all the distributions I reviewed, VMware Photon OS seems both the most visionary and currently the most complete and usable. If you are a VMware shop exploring containerization, I would not think of considering anything else. If you are not a VMware shop, Photon OS is still worth a good look. Comparing container operating systems Alpine Linux underpins most every Docker image out there. Perfect for embedded applications, Alpine Linux should not be thought of as a way to run containers. Instead, in a way, Alpine Linux is the container. Developers familiar with building applications on Alpine Linux will write better container applications. CoreOS, one of the early container operating systems, adopts the Google technology stack. It offers a reliable, though opinionated, way of managing container infrastructure. While CoreOS makes many of the components available as open source, the complexity of learning such a large stack effectively means users will need to purchase the proprietary Techtonic orchestration system for production deployments. If money is no object, and you need to deploy Google-sized applications, CoreOS a logical choice. RancherOS is pure containers. If you are going to roll your own container infrastructure, or you want a minimal container management stack, RancherOS is the place to start. With open source orchestration and scheduling tools like Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, and Mesos all freely available, the Rancher stack will appeal to open source oriented, do-it-yourself companies. Red Hats Project Atomic is an umbrella project that is re-architecting the way companies deploy infrastructure. This ambitious project could change the way companies think about application deployment, but the road is a long one. Project Atomic is best suited to early adopters with a large existing investment in Red Hat technologies. VMwares Photon OS brings that vendors virtual machine management technology and experience to containers. Photon OS is deployed as a virtual machine and is managed with traditional VM tools. VMware, perhaps seeing the writing on the wall for traditional VMs, has wholeheartedly embraced container technology and is rapidly advancing the state of the art. If you are a VMware shop now, you will be hard-pressed to find a better container platform than Photon OS. Read the container Linux reviews: GREEN BAY Mark Pierce, who retired from the South Shore Fire Department in April, received Fire Inspector of the Year honors Thursday night from the Wisconsin State Fire Inspectors Association at the organizations annual conference, held last week at the Radisson Conference Center near Green Bay. Pierce had a 37-year career with the South Shore Fire Department and its predecessor, the Mount Pleasant Fire Department. He held the position of division chief for support services for both departments over the past 14 years. Pierce was one of the original full-time firefighters for the Mount Pleasant Fire Department, which merged with the Sturtevant Fire Department in 2009 to form the South Shore Fire Department. Over the years he held the ranks of firefighter, motor pump operator, lieutenant, assistant chief, division chief and interim chief, the only member of the department to accomplish that, said South Shore Division Chief Ed Lockhart, Pierces successor. As a fire inspector, Pierce was responsible for reviewing plans for hundreds of projects and developments in Mount Pleasant and Sturtevant and conducting fire inspections at Mount Pleasants largest manufacturing facilities SC Johnsons Waxdale campus on Willow Road and the CNH plant on Durand Avenue. Pierce also served during his career as a fire investigator, a juvenile fire setter counselor and as a member of the Racine County Dive Team and helped to establish a CAD system for the Racine County Dispatch Center and implement the Mutual Aid Box Alarm System in Racine County and throughout the state. Outside of his professional duties, Pierce has served on the Mount Pleasant Parks and Advisory Commission for 16 years. Words of wisdom At the WSFIA conference, Pierce, sporting a full beard, thanked the organization and sent words of encouragement to fire professionals who are early in their careers. I was once told that I was too fat and not smart enough to be a firefighter. I just concluded a career of 37 years, so that person that said that obviously didnt know what they were talking about, Pierce said. Theres a lot of people in the room who are well along in their careers, but to the new people, believe in yourselves. Believe in what youre doing and keep moving forward because it does come together for you and we do good things. The Ongoing Coffee Plunge Best Weather Inc. - Tue Nov 15, 6:08PM CST Jim Roemer's video tells about the recent hail damage in Brazil and how he called the major down-move in coffee prices during the last two months. KCH23 : 159.50s (-4.43%) JO : 46.00 (-3.05%) Cotton Rallies on Tuesday Barchart - Tue Nov 15, 4:22PM CST Tuesdays cotton trade bounced back with 285 to 346 point gains. New crop Dec rallied 184 points on the day, which discounted it to now 984 points under the spot Dec contract. The 11/14 Cotlook A Index... CTZ22 : 88.50 (-0.27%) CTH23 : 86.59 (-0.44%) CTK23 : 86.00 (+0.19%) Wheats Gain on Tuesday Barchart - Tue Nov 15, 4:22PM CST Wheat markets ended the day with gains. At the high, Dec SRW was up to $8.43 for a 24 cent gain, but closed 9 3/4 cents higher. The other front months were 7 3/4 to 9 3/4 cents higher. KC wheats ended... ZWZ22 : 814-2 (-1.69%) ZWH23 : 835-0 (-1.53%) ZWPAES.CM : 7.6241 (+1.42%) KEZ22 : 951-4 (-1.19%) KEPAWS.CM : 9.2132 (+0.74%) MWZ22 : 963-0 (-1.13%) Hogs Gain on Tuesday Barchart - Tue Nov 15, 4:22PM CST Tuesday hog futures closed with $0.45 to $1.12 gains through the front months. The USDA National Average Base Hog Price for Tuesday was $1.46 stronger to $85.54. The CME Lean Hog Index was $88.65 on 11/11,... HEZ22 : 85.325s (+0.53%) HEJ23 : 95.500s (+1.19%) KMZ22 : 95.900s (+0.24%) Cattle Close Mixed on Tuesday Barchart - Tue Nov 15, 4:22PM CST Front month cattle futures ended 7 to 30 cents lower in some of the contracts, while Feb and April closed 50c and 30c in the black. Feeders worked $1.80 to $2.42 in the red. USDA reported limited cash... LEZ22 : 151.275s (-0.20%) LEG23 : 153.050s (+0.33%) LEJ23 : 156.725s (+0.19%) GFX22 : 175.675s (-0.72%) GFF23 : 177.025s (-1.35%) Corn Rises on Tuesday Barchart - Tue Nov 15, 4:22PM CST Corn futures worked 7 to 10 cents higher on Tuesday. December ended the day near the mid point of the range, which took the contract to $6.75 at the high. The USDA announced a private corn sale of 230,185... ZCZ22 : 662-2 (-0.67%) ZCPAUS.CM : 6.6694 (+1.57%) ZCH23 : 664-2 (-0.75%) ZCK23 : 663-6 (-0.60%) Soy Rallies on Tuesday Barchart - Tue Nov 15, 4:22PM CST Soybean futures closed the session with 14 to 17 cent gains on Tuesday. Jan was trading with 24 cent gains at the days highs. Meal futures ended with gains of $3.90 to $4.80/ton. BO prices closed with... ZSF23 : 1448-2 (-0.62%) ZSPAUS.CM : 14.3095 (+1.37%) ZSH23 : 1452-4 (-0.63%) ZSK23 : 1459-0 (-0.55%) Crude Shakes Off Weak IEA Demand Forecast and Closes Higher on Missile Strikes on Poland Barchart - Tue Nov 15, 4:14PM CST Dec WTI crude oil (CLZ22 ) on Tuesday closed up by +1.05 (+1.22%), and Dec RBOB gasoline (RBZ22 ) closed down by -1.24 (-0.49%). Crude oil and gasoline prices Tuesday settled mixed, with crude recovering... CLZ22 : 86.38 (-0.62%) RBF23 : 2.4682 (-0.24%) Asia Philippines Duterte Says to Deal with Trump in Most Righteous Way Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. / Reuters MANILA Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Sunday he would deal with US President Donald Trump in the most righteous way when they meet next month to discuss regional security and Manilas war on drugs. Trump will travel to Asia on Nov. 3-14 amid rising tensions over North Koreas nuclear and missile programs. He will be in Manila on the last leg of his trip, which includes visits to Japan, South Korea, China, and Vietnam, to attend the Asean leaders summit. Trump will meet with Duterte but will skip the larger meeting in Manila with heads of states and governments from China, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand. It would be terrorism, cooperation between the two countries, the fight against drugs. I expect to be dealing with him around these topics, Duterte said in a media briefing before leaving for Japan to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. I would deal with President Trump in the most righteous way, welcome him as an important leader, he said. I would have to also listen to him, what he has to say. Duterte is known for his often profanity-laden tirades against the United States, chiding Washington for treating the Philippines like a dog, despite the two nations longstanding relationship. The Philippines leader announced his separation from the United States during a visit to Beijing a year ago, declaring he had realigned with China as the two agreed to resolve their South China Sea dispute through talks. Duterte was infuriated by expressions of concern by members of former President Barack Obamas administration about extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. But Trump, in a phone call to Duterte in May, praised the Philippine leader for doing an unbelievable job on the drug problem despite human rights groups condemnation of Dutertes drug crackdown, in which thousands of people have been killed. Human rights, rule of law and due process are among important developments the two leaders would likely discuss during their bilateral talks, Sung Kim, US ambassador to Manila, told foreign correspondents last week. Duterte is accused by international human rights groups of supporting a campaign of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the Philippines, which his government denies. He defended his 16-month-old campaign last week, telling Southeast Asian lawyers at a gathering in Manila that he had been demonized and denying allegations of state-sponsored killings of drug dealers and users. Duterte, speaking in Davao City on Sunday night, said the situation in the Korean Peninsula would be the main agenda item in his talks with Trump. We are worried. If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong, he said. A nuclear war is totally unacceptable to everybody. Duterte said it would be good if the United States, Japan and South Korea would sit down and talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and tell him that nobodys threatening him, that there would be no war, and that if you can just tone down or stand down, stop the threats, and that would be the same for America. Duterte previously described Kim as a fool and son of a bitch for playing with dangerous toys. Duterte said the North Korea threats would also be discussed during his meeting with Abe, along with Tokyos assistance to rebuild the conflict-torn Marawi City in southern Philippines and for Manilas infrastructure projects. Burma Family Members Are Denied Visit With Detained Journalist in Naypyitaw Interpreter and journalist Ko Aung Naing Soe. / Free Aung Naing Soe / Facebook NAYPYITAW Police refused to let family members meet with local reporter Ko Aung Naing Soe, who was among those detained for flying a drone near Myanmars Parliament in Naypyitaw on Oct. 26. Police on patrol detained two foreign reporters, Lau Hon Meng from Singapore and Mok Choy Lin from Malaysiawho were working for Turkish state broadcast TRT World, their interpreter and fixer Ko Aung Naing Soe and driver U Hla Tin, after they found them preparing to take aerial photos of Parliament with a drone. Police charged them under the 2012 Export and Import Law for illegally bringing the drone into the country and said the two foreign journalists and two Myanmar nationals were being detained separately at No. 1 Police Station in Naypyitaw and at Pyinmana Prison respectively, according to Ko Ye Htoo, who is a close friend of Ko Aung Naing Soe and speaking on behalf of his family. [Aung Naing Soes] parents tried to meet him at Pyinmana Prison, but they were told that the interrogation was ongoing and they wouldnt, therefore, be allowed to see him. But [the police] said we would be allowed to see him a couple of days later, Ko Ye Htoo told The Irrawaddy. Family members of Ko Aung Naing Soe were not informed about his detention immediately and only found out on Oct. 27 when police searched his house in Yangon. The accused were remanded in custody on Oct. 28 for 14 days, Ko Ye Htoo told The Irrawaddy. This case has caused considerable controversy both on social media and off. It is strange that authorities have said nothing about it, said Ko Ye Htoo. The Export and Import Law states that no person shall export or import restricted, prohibited and banned goods and that without obtaining license, no person shall export or import the specified goods which is to obtain permission. It states that anyone who violates the regulation shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or with fine or with both. U Nay Tuu, a Pyinmana resident and lawyer who is representing Ko Aung Naing Soe, said detainees can get bail for charges under the Export and Import Law. Training director U Sein Win of the Myanmar Journalism Institute who went to see Ko Aung Naing Soe told The Irrawaddy that he was not able to meet the detainees at the Naypyitaw police station or Pyinmana prison. Police said that detainees were held in custody separately, U Sein Win said. Drones are also used by ordinary people, not only journalists and photographers, in Myanmar and it is not clear if there is an official ban on shooting photos of parliamentary buildings with drones, U Sein Win stressed. If such a ban is not in force, it is difficult to say that those reporters violated the law, he said. In June, three local reporters The Irrawaddys Lawi Weng, also known as U Thein Zaw, and U Aye Naing and Ko Pyae Phone Aung from the DVB were arrested and charged under the Article 17(1) of the Unlawful Associations Act for going into a region controlled by the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) to cover a drug-burning ceremony. They were released in September after the plaintiff the military dropped charges against the accused. Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko. Burma Govt Suggests Possible Daily Repatriation of 300 Rohingya Refugees Rohingya refugees wait in line to receive humanitarian aid in Kutupalong refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, October 29, 2017. / Hannah McKay / Reuters YANGON The government has estimated it can take back about 300 Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh per day and said there is a need to scrutinize the refugees under the four main principles of a 1993 agreement between the two countries. We can only process about 150 [refugees] in a checkpoint per day as we have to scrutinize and check their information, said U Myint Kyaing, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population. The government has said it would accept the refugees at two checkpoints in Taungpyo Letwe and Nga Khu Ya villages before resettling them in Dar Gyi Zar village in Maungdaw Township. There have been suggestions from the Bangladesh government to amend parts of the 1993 agreement that allows the return of Rohingya who can prove residence in Myanmar but the four main principles of the agreement wont change, said the permanent secretary. The four main principles state returnees need evidence of their residence in Myanmar, repatriation must be voluntary, the parents of children born in camps must have lived in Myanmar, and refugees separated from their families need confirmation of this from a Bangladeshi court. But under the agreement, additional measures in the repatriation process may be needed, said the permanent secretary, adding that these measurements would include taking legal action against any terrorists among the returnees on the spot. He added that the governments of the two countries are still negotiating to sign an MOU for the repatriation of the refugees. A delegation led by Simon Henshaw, Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, will also meet with government officials and humanitarian agencies to discuss efforts to improve conditions for the significant influx of refugees into Bangladesh, according to the State Department. Some 600,000 Rohingya Muslims have now fled across the border to Bangladesh from Myanmar Army clearance operations in a campaign the UN calls ethnic cleansing. The refugees say security forces were killing civilians, burning homes, and raping Rohingya women. The army launched its operations in the wake of deadly attacks on police outposts by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Aug. 25, which was declared a terrorist group by the government. There is a huge gap regarding the numbers of people who fled to Bangladesh between the ground survey of Rakhine State government and UN statistics, according to the Presidents Office. We have nothing to argue on the number [of refugees]. Whatever the number they are saying, we wont accept if they dont have evidence of their residence here, U Myint Kyaing said. Burma ICG Warns on Myanmar Sanctions A Rohingya refugee child walks through Palong Khali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, October 30, 2017. / Reuters YANGON The International Crisis Group warned policy makers in Europe that re-imposing sanctions may not be helpful to address Myanmars Rohingya crisis as it could risk constraining future policy options as well as sending unintended signals to investors, impacting the economy to the detriment the countrys people. A return to previous forms of bilateral and EU sanctions on Myanmar in the form of travel bans and asset freezes may not be helpful in achieving concrete progress, warned the ICG on Friday. The warning by the Brussels-based NGOthat monitors democratic transition worldwidecame nearly two weeks after the European Union and its member states announcement that they will suspend invitations to the Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar armed forces and other senior military officers and review all practical defense cooperation due to the disproportionate use of force against Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine State. The statement highlighted current restrictive measures from the EU including an embargo on arms and equipment that can be used for internal repression in Myanmar. It continued that the EU may consider additional measures if the situation does not improve but didnt mention what those measures may be. The international community has condemned Myanmars armed forces for arbitrarily killing, raping, and destroying the property of minority Rohingya Muslims in northern Rakhine State amid clearance operations in the area since late August. The operations were sparked by Muslim militant group the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacks on 30 outposts in the area on Aug 25. The government denounced the group as terrorist and operations have seen more than 600,000 Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh as of late October. The EU has imposed sanctions on Myanmar since 1991, in the form of an arms embargo and visa ban on senior members of the then military regime State Law and Order Restoration Council and senior members of the military and the security forces and their families. It froze the assets of nearly 1,000 companies and institutions in Myanmar and banned almost 500 people from entering the EU. It also prohibited military-related technical help and banned investment in the mining, timber and precious metals sectors. All sanctions, except for an arms embargo, were suspended in 2013 to welcome and encourage the reform process. The EU renewed its arms embargo against Myanmar until Apr. 30, 2018. In tackling the Rohingya issue, the ICG recommends the EU and its member states to continue to support strong Security Council action and push for multilateral and bilateral engagement with Myanmars civilian and military leaders. The four-point recommendation also encourages Myanmars leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to speak to the nation and make full use of her position to shift the national narrative in a more constructive direction. The State Counselors undisputed position as the greatest moral and political authority gives her the power to sway public opinion, and considerable ability to influence the security forces, the ICG said. Apart from the EU, the United States also took action against the Myanmar military leadership last week by ending travel waivers and barring units and officers in northern Rakhine State from US assistance, adding that the US was considering imposing economic measures against those responsible for atrocities against the Rohingya. After the actions, the army withdrew dozens of soldiers from conflict-torn northern Rakhine States Maungdaw district on Wednesday and the government allowed the UNs World Food Program to resume humanitarian assistance in the area. Burma Political Outfit Appeals for Unified Shan State Party SNLD chairman Hkun Tun Oo at the 29th anniversary of the founding of the SNLD in Yangon. / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy The Shan Nationalities Democratic Party (SNDP) has proposed to merge with its rival the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD) in order to secure more votes in the 2020 general elections. On Saturday the SNDP sought advice on the best way to approach the elections from the Committee for Shan State Unity (CSSU)a coalition of the SNDP, SNLD, Shan ethnic armed organizations (EAOs), civil society groups and women and youth organizations. The CSSU is currently chaired by Gen. Yawd Serk of the Restoration Council of Shan State, an EAO signatory to the nationwide ceasefire agreement (NCA). We have presented our consensus to the CSSU as it is a uniquely respectable coalition, said SNDP vice-chairman Sai Hla Kyaw, referring to a letter sent from the SNDP to the CSUU on Saturday. Sai Hla Kyaw told The Irrawaddy his party would wait for a response and consider ways of moving forward. The SNDP wants to either become a newly merged party or split constituencies to contest in 2020 in order to compete with national parties. SNLD spokesperson Sai Nyunt Lwin said they have not discussed merging because they have not received any formal letter on the subject. The immediate merger might cause some difficulties, but we all share similar principles of upholding the interests of our nationalities, so that should not be problem. The year 2020 is not very far from now, and if we could work together, both sides would have mutually benefited, added Sai Hla Kyaw. The SNDP has made offers of a merger with the SNLD since 2012, with both parties meeting to discuss a union for the first time in May 2014, in Shan State capital Taunggyi. The parties are yet to hold more meetings on a merger. In March 2016, following the SNDPs fifth congress, the SNDP released a statement saying it would not dissolve the party or merge with any other party. The SNLD is the more prominent of the parties and enjoys more public support. Before the 2015 elections, 17 SNDP members switched to the SNLD to contest the elections. The SNLD holds 46 seats in all three parliaments state, Lower House, and Union winning 40 in the 2015 elections and six in the 2017 by-election. The SNDP has one state parliament seat overall, won in 2015. Sai Hla Kyaw said the idea of a merger was driven by the desires of the Shan public, who have long urged for the two parties to be unified. The SNDP was formed in late 2010 by former SNLD members and contested in the 2010 and 2015 elections. The SNLD was formed in October 1988 and became the second biggest winner countrywide in the 1990 elections, the results of which were ignored by the junta. The party then shunned the 2010 elections and re-registered in 2012 after its leaders, including chairman Hkun Tun Oo and Sai Nyunt Lwin, were released from long-term imprisonments. There are about 18 political parties in Shan State and about two thirds of them are trying to collaborate under the League for Shan State Ethnic Political Parties (LSSEP) for the 2020 elections, Sai Hla Kyaw explained. In order to beat the majority Burman-dominated national political parties such as the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) and the opposition Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), many ethnicities have urged the leaders of their own ethnic political parties leaders to merge. But not all attempts across the country have proved fruitful, with conflicting policies preventing mergers. In Rakhine State, the Arakan National Party in 2013 from the Rakhine Nationalities Development Party and the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD) in order to compete in the 2015 elections. The party split earlier this year, however, and the ALD re-registered with the Union Election Commission in July. In each of the Mon, Chin and Kachin states, the respective ethnic political parties are attempting a unified party, but efforts have so far been unsuccessful. Monday, Oct 30th, 2017 (12:01 am) - Score 2,800 The CEO of rural fibre optic ISP Gigaclear, Matthew Hare, has told ISPreview.co.uk as part of a brief interview that the country needs a new national plan, which acknowledges and prioritises the need to roll-out full fibre (FTTH/P) broadband networks across the whole of the United Kingdom. At present the Governments main focus is on extending superfast broadband (24Mbps+) networks to cover 98% of premises by around 2020 and after that they aim to introduce a 10Mbps Universal Service Obligation (USO), which is largely intended to cater for those in the final 2% (mostly remote rural areas and possibly some disadvantaged urban pockets). Separately the Government has also established an investment pot of around 600m to help foster the roll-out of full fibre ultrafast broadband networks (details), which should help to achieve their current target of expanding related coverage to 10 million premises by the end of 2022 (leaving roughly 23 million left to serve); most of this will come from commercial deployments. So far Gigaclear, which recently secured 111m of additional private investment (here), has won a number of the Governments related Broadband Delivery UK contracts and in total they expect to reach 150,000 premises in rural areas by around 2020 (mostly in England) via their 1Gbps+ capable Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) network. However Matthews vision goes much further than the Governments and he wants to see every property having at least one fibre network (when Matthew says fibre he means real fibre, not slower hybrid solutions like FTTC), which he admits may require further cross-subsidy if universal pricing is to be maintained. In Gigaclears world it should be possible, by 2027, for over 80% of UK properties to be put within reach of a true fibre optic network. By then the ISPs CEO believes that the default service for residential customers will be 10Gbps and for businesses it could be as much as 100Gbps. This seems like a lofty expectation today but the real challenge is less with speed and more with getting all that fibre into the ground. Meanwhile major operators, such as Openreach (BT) and Virgin Media, argue that their hybrid fibre networks should be able to keep up with modern demands for much of the UK (at least for now). Related upgrades to their existing hybrid fibre networks are often both significantly cheaper and many times faster to deploy. For example, Virgins future upgrade to DOCSIS 3.1 should make Gigabit speeds viable via their existing network, although Openreachs G.fast tech tends to suffer from much more variable performance due to loss of speed over distance (its more of a 100-300Mbps technology). On the flip side both of those operators have also pledged to deliver 2 million FTTP premises each by 2019 or 2020 and are considering doing a lot more. Nevertheless the Governments current targets fall well short of Matthews aspiration and it would take a huge multi-billion pound investment to deliver universal coverage of FTTP/H, as well as other key changes and a clear national delivery plan. The Interview 1) What key changes could be made to UK planning / civil engineering rules in order to further improve the roll-out of FTTP/H networks? ANSWER: Building new FTTP networks across the country will require a number of changes. Firstly, we need a national plan that acknowledges and prioritises the need to roll out full fibre across the whole of the UK. This is the only way to secure world-class connectivity and future proof the UKs digital economy. The use of automated build techniques, in particular narrow trenching, must also become common place along with the national adoption of modern highway reinstatement technologies. These technologies will dramatically reduce the need to transport spoil and will accelerate the completion of any roadworks. Finally, a radical reform and automation of how utilities carry out work in the highway is urgently required. Manual processes must be removed to ensure that the entire process is dramatically improved and made more efficient. 2) Do you think that the Governments new 5-year business rates holiday and 400m Digital Infrastructure Fund are enough, in terms of direct support (investment), to help alternative network providers roll-out FTTP/H networks to a big chunk of the UK or is more funding required? ANSWER: The Governments renewed interested in encouraging infrastructure investment is certainly welcome. It also provides an opportunity to consider a longer-term solution to the rates issue which is especially welcome. However, to realise Gigaclears vision of every property having at least one fibre network will require further cross-subsidy if universal pricing is to be maintained. 3) What are your thoughts on Openreachs G.fast roll-out to 10 million premises by 2020? ANSWER: G.fast will give many properties a boost in speeds that exceeds the performance of any existing copper connections. As a specialist rural operator, we would concur with the Minister that the longer-term future is full fibre, so however useful this is in the short term, G.fast must only be an interim step. As such, it is important that the regulated wholesale cost of G.Fast is set at a level that recovers this additional investment appropriately, and not allowed to be set so low that it dampens demand and discourages investment by all operators in full fibre infrastructure. 4) Openreach is currently consulting the industry on the possibility of a large-scale roll-out of FTTP, which could potentially reach up to 10 million premises by 2025. What are your thoughts on this and do you see it as a competitive threat to Gigaclears own roll-out? ANSWER: The UK has around 30 million homes and businesses, more than enough properties to support a competitive fibre market. And in urban areas, we expect that in time, these properties will have a choice of three full fibre networks. However, the economics of delivering full fibre in Englands most rural areas makes it very challenging for more than one operator to sustainably invest in the same community. 5) The Government has proposed a 10Mbps USO and BT has also proposed a voluntary one that closely matches that. What kind of USO would you have the UK set? ANSWER: The proposed 10Mbps USO is a pragmatic starting place but it will need to evolve. We question whether by the time the USO is delivered in 2021, 10Mbps will be fast enough. As the broadband infrastructure market is now a competitive place, we think the USO mechanism should reflect that, and by reflecting the diversity of the market it will encourage more ambitious solutions for those households and business that find themselves with the poorest broadband. It is difficult to see how this can be achieved through BTs voluntary proposal. 6) Where do you see Gigaclear and its network coverage being in 10 years time? ANSWER: Gigaclear has already committed to investing significant sums in delivering full fibre networks across southern England, from south Devon to the Essex coast. We look forward to continuing to invest as the countrys rural full fibre broadband specialist and by 2027 we aim to be the leading UK infrastructure operator in rural England. By 2027, we foresee that over 80% of UK properties will have access to FTTP and we hope that a copper switch-off will be well underway across urban and sub-urban Britain. Finally, we expect that the default service for residential customers will be 10Gbps and for businesses it will be as much as 100Gbps. ISPreview.co.uk would just like to send a big THANK YOU to Matthew Hare for taking the time to respond to these questions, particularly as it was done at short notice. A family in Queensland has used six ZCell batteries to take their home off the grid, the biggest deployment of the batteries to date. The home, a new one in Bardlomey, a property in the Maranoa region of Queensland, about 40km east of Roma, uses a six-battery 50kWh system. The premises is located about 2.7km from mains power. Had the owners of the home, Scott and Breeann Bates, used mains power, they would have had to pay tens of thousands to collect power to the house. The energy storage system comprises six Redflow ZCell zinc-bromine flow batteries, two Victron Quattro 48/10000 inverter/chargers and 72 Tindo 260-watt solar panels, with an 18.72 kilowatt peak (kWp) capacity, installed on a nearby shed. Breeann Bates said: Cost-wise, the difference between running mains power to the new house site and setting up the solar-powered energy storage system was negligible. "Given this situation, a solar system incorporating Redflow batteries was an attractive option for us to store reliable power and eliminate power bills. ZCells are designed in Australia and can tolerate hot conditions. The decision to live off-grid was taken in advance so the 400-square metre single-storey four-bedroom home was buuilt with insulation in the floor, walls and ceiling. ZCell batteries are produced by Redflow Limited, an ASX-listed company that has developed the worlds smallest zinc-bromine flow battery. The system was installed by Off-Grid Energy Australia. RACINE Theres a new food truck trailer, actually in town, and it specializes in one thing only: pudding. Yolonda Blair is the entrepreneur behind Yogis Pudn, her new pudding shop on wheels which debuted Sept. 30 at the Treasures of Uptown festival. The event started at 11 a.m., and Blair said she sold out 400 bowls of her pudding before 2 p.m. To say Blair is ambitious is a vast understatement. She has a furniture and accessories resale shop at 1505 Washington Ave. in Uptown called 3 Ps Unlimited; she does home decorating as Pennies Producing Palaces; and now has added Yogis Pudn. It took Blair three years of making banana pudding for holiday meals before it reached the level where it could equal, in her ex-husbands mind, his aunts banana pudding. Every holiday she would try again, adjusting or changing one component. It took me three years, she said, and one Thanksgiving I made it, and he was like, Ah, this is better than my aunts. Blair now makes about 25 different flavors of pudding. She makes her pudding in a rented commercial kitchen at Catfish & More, 1644 Washington Ave. She sells the 8-ounce containers for $4 to $6; the ones with fresh fruit or pecans cost $5 and $6, respectively. Part food trailer, part lounge Blair said she had already been selling her pudding out of her home, and her current husband eventually suggested she take it out where the world could see it. At the Facebook Marketplace she found an electrified food trailer in Illinois that was for sale for $4,000. She bought that, ripped out all the shelving, put in a new laminate floor and then decorated it in glitzy New York style. (The trailer) was perfect for me because, with my pudding, its not something that you can make on the spot and hand it out; it has to sit, Blair said. And because Im only doing prepackaged stuff I didnt need a regular food trailer where you have to cook stuff and have sinks and stuff like that. So trailer space that had previously been occupied by a refrigerator and shelving Blair converted to a loungy furnished area with a white shag rug on the floor. I wanted to make this like a lobby in New York, so thats why I decorated it, Blair said. And, because I dont make the food in here, I had all this other space; I only needed my cooler. It really helps because, in between customers, I can chill out. If my family comes and helps, they can come in here and chill out. When we all work together, we can sit down. Blair said she will take about four flavors each time she sets up for selling, which will usually be on weekends. She plans to sell at festivals and farmers markets but also is searching for a location for a bricks-and-mortar store and hopes to open one by about January. For more information visit Yogis Pudn on Facebook or call 262-515-9644. US technology companies that employ foreigners on H-1B visas will find it more difficult to obtain renewals of these visas after the US Citizenship and Immigration Services tightened the procedure for renewal. Last week, the USCIS issued new rules that stipulate visa-holders will have to go through the same process for renewal as they did to obtain the visa in the first place. The main companies to be affected by this change in rule will be Indian outsourcing companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Cognizant, Infosys and Wipro Also affected by these rules is the L-1B visa which allows a worker to stay between five and seven years. There is no minimum wage requirement and dependents of an L-1B visa holder can work right away. American multinationals can use the L-1B to bring in workers from their branches to work in the US. Other changes made to the H-1B visa regime earlier in the year have ensured that the number of applications have fallen for the first time in four years. In April, the USCIS received 199,000 applications for H-1B visas for the next fiscal year, compared to 236,000 received last year. As the application process kicked off, the USCIS said that computer programmers would not be presumed to be eligible for an H-1B visa. Rather, it specified that there needed to be details of the qualifications of the programmer supplied so that it was clear that the individual was fit to do the specialised task for which the visa was being sought. The new guidance means that H-1B visas will go to very high-skilled and higher-paid professionals, with low- and mid-level jobs presumably to go to American workers instead. Speaking today from the ACT Kingsford Smith School, Berry, Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Education and Early Childhood Development, Minister for Housing and Suburban Development, Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Minister for Women, and Minister for Sport and Recreation, announced the purchase and an associated delivery and support services agreement across schools in the nation's capital. This announcement underpins Berrys commitment to make schools modern, providing support to students as they develop research, problem-solving and critical thinking skills. The model selected is the Acer Chromebook Spin 11, a rugged and versatile convertible notebook, which Acer says is specifically designed for extensive use within education. The unit is equipped with a Wacom EMR stylus allowing students to enjoy a natural experience mimicking that of using pen and paper. Acer is thrilled to have been selected as the hardware vendor of choice. Our incredible Acer Spin 11 product solution, our strong supply chain and reference ability in other large Education departments across Australia together with our team partnership with Datacom ACT made our approach and solution a true team partnership. Acer is proud to be such a large part of Minister Berrys technology initiative and we look forward to making it a great success, said Rod Bassi, Oceanic Region sales director. The Acer Chromebook Spin 11 adheres to the US MIL-STD 810G military standard, meaning it will handle the rough-and-tumble of the classroom, can withstand drops from 122cm, endure 330ml of spilt water, and channels liquid away from important components. It is also fitted with two Acer HD wide-view HDR webcams strategically positioned above the screen and the keyboard to ensure an optimal viewing angle whether in notebook or tablet mode. Other specs include an 11.6" 1366x768 IPS LCD with 10-point touchscreen, 2x USB 3.0 and 2x USB-C slots, a microSD card slot, 32Gb storage, an Intel Celeron N3350 dual-core 1.1GHz CPU, nine-hour battery life, stereo speakers, and full Google Play support. The device received a prestigious Red Dot Award for its outstanding Product Design earlier this year. The Australian National University (ANU) is setting up the country's first interdisciplinary Cyber Institute. The ANU Cyber Institute will tap expertise from various disciplines to conduct cyber security and innovation research. It will be jointly managed by the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science and the ANU National Security College. "ANU is perfectly placed to bring together the required expertise across a range of areas to deal with the increasingly complex issues in the cyber domain," said ANU vice-chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt. "This institute will present new opportunities for research, innovation and education." Dean of CECS Professor Elanor Huntington said "The Cyber Institute represents the convergence of interdisciplinary expertise to resolve highly complex societal issues. "The institute has in its DNA a deep appreciation of the technical and social expertise needed to tackle cyber security, resilience, risk and strategy." Head of the NSC Professor Rory Medcalf said the establishment of the ANU Cyber Institute built on the Australian Government's 2016 Cyber Security Strategy and its newly-released International Cyber Engagement Strategy. "Cyber now touches everything from your own financial and medical data all the way through to our critical national infrastructure," he said. "This initiative by Australia's national university is about protecting the nation, its infrastructure, businesses and people from cyber risk. It is also about training and educating the cyber workforce Australian government agencies and industries need." The countdown is on until the exciting International Driverless Vehicle Summit in Adelaide on 16-17 November 2017, where delegates will hear from an array of prominent national and international technology thought leaders, human factors experts, insurance and legal practitioners and regulators from across the driverless vehicle ecosystem. With a theme of 'Translating technology to real world deployment' this not-to-be-missed event also includes demonstrations, security, heavy and light vehicles, and will share the latest innovation developments, pioneering trials and deployment from across Australia and around the globe. Summit keynote speaker, and Aurrigo Chief Operating Officer, Dr Richard Fairchild, will offer critical insights from a series of demonstrations on selected public roads and footpaths in Milton Keynes and Coventry, while presenter Kane Blackman from the Insurance Commission of Western Australia, will explore the changing liability and personal injury insurance landscape. Another presentation highlight will be Josh Switkes, CEO from Peloton Technology in the USA, who will outline how truck platooning technology might apply within an Australian setting. A hypothetical session as part of the program will offer the broader community a unique interactive opportunity to tap into the knowledge of a panel of the nations foremost experts on driverless vehicles. ADVI partners Aurrigo, EasyMile and Navya will join forces to showcase driverless shuttle technology, while several key vehicle manufacturers will profile their various products right in the heart of the city. The Summit offers an opportunity to experience tomorrows motoring future today. To access more information, and the exciting 2-day program, click here. The CCC says the ACCC's draft report "is a significant milestone in shaping appropriate future regulation of the rapidly changing telecoms and communications sector." The Competitive Carriers' Coalition has issued commentary on the release of the ACCCs first draft report of its wide-ranging Communications Market Study, which iTWire reported on here. The CCC notes it is "a significant milestone in shaping appropriate future regulation of the rapidly changing telecoms and communications sector". A CCC spokesperson said: "The detailed analysis found in the Draft Report sets the Commission on a path of better understanding and therefore better regulating the sector to maximise competition to the benefit of consumers. The current build-out phase of the national broadband network is proving to be highly disruptive to both operators and consumers. In addition to the disruption created by the move to a new fixed broadband national infrastructure, the CCC notes "many other aspects of the sector are experiencing great change". We're told of "Rapid mobile network upgrades, deployment of 'Internet of Things' devices, increasing reliance on internet traffic for Australian businesses to remain competitive and overarching consolidation at the supply level are all changing the shape of the competitive landscape and consumer expectations." The CCC also states: "These complex shifts in demand and supply in the sector require regulation that is targeted, precise and consistent to deal effectively with market failures. "Todays draft Report indicates that the ACCC is well on the path to understanding these complexities. "The CCC looks forward to working closely with the Commission during the next stage of the market study process." CALEDONIA Anyone who has driven Highway K, about a mile or so west of Gifford School, has been through Franksville. Now the Village of Caledonia is setting out to help organize the businesses of the Franksville district into a new association that could work together to draw more commerce. The model is what Douglas Avenue businesses are doing. In October 2015, the Caledonia Community Development Authority convened a meeting of about 20 businesspeople from along Douglas Avenue between 3 Mile Road and the Milwaukee County line. The result, in early 2016, was the formation of the Caledonia Douglas Avenue Business Association. Were trying to figure out a way to get a unified look for the area and make it a community, like West Racine, Kevin Milaeger, co-owner of Milaegers, 4838 Douglas Ave., said when that group was forming. Now we want to extend (the opportunity) to Franksville, Village President Bob Bradley said. We had talked informally about the idea in the CDA, Chairwoman Fran Martin said. Last week, the formation of a Franksville business group was put on a CDA agenda for the first time and was approved. At this early point, the idea of forming a Franksville business association is only that, an idea. Martin said she recently canvassed a handful of businesspeople about the idea and got mostly favorable responses. The next step will be a letter inviting Franksville businesspeople to a first meeting to discuss the idea of establishing an association. Information about what businesses exist in that area will come from the county tax rolls. For many years Franksville did have a business organization, as Dennis Johnson, owner of Associated Insurers, 10428 Northwestern Ave., pointed out. But its only purpose, he said, was to organize and hold the annual Kraut Fest. Members eventually got burned out, the event ground to a halt in 2003 and the group ceased meeting. (The event was reincarnated in 2015 by Route 20 owner Ray Stibeck and others as the Kraut and Music Festival.) But Martin doesnt envision a Franksville business association as having anything to do with Kraut Fest. One thought, she said, is: With Foxconn coming, that might change the appearance of that little section of Franksville, and its possible there would be a lot more activity we would have an organization so they would have a voice. Money, resources available The 2018 Caledonia budget will have a $5,000 line item for a Franksville business group, should one be created, Martin said. One thing the Douglas Avenue association did was make flower planters available. Other business districts, such as Downtown and Uptown Racine, have done that, as well as hung banners identifying their district as a place to shop and do business. I would love to see planters, streetlights along here or Christmas trees every hundred yards, Johnson said. But we never do anything. Bud Hays, owner of Klema Feeds, 10540 Northwestern Ave., said about forming a business association I would probably say it would be a good idea, if it can get accomplished its a great idea. Hays said adding banners, benches, signage would always be beneficial. Although Klema sits on a prominent corner along Highway K, Hays said having directional signage could help other Franksville businesses that lack that visibility, such as Gregs Catering, 3120 Roberts St., or Spodick Clock Shop, 3143 Roberts St. Martin said the village could also give a Franksville business group a list of speakers who could inform members about small-business help thats available to them. Zein Basravi | Al Jazeera English | (Video News Report) | Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was in Tehran on Sunday, his first visit since US President Donald Trump told Congress that Iran is not complying with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), more commonly known as the 2015 nuclear deal. The IAEA chief put a positive face on proceedings, but the stakes are high. This time, his verification of compliance was a moment of vindication for Iran and another international rebuke of the White House. Al Jazeeras Zein Basravi reports from Tehran. Reddit Email 108 Shares TeleSur | During a top-level meeting, U.S. officials warned against the possibility of it being traced back to the United States. The recently published JFK files have shed further light on U.S. plans to use biological weapons as part of its Cuban Project, an agricultural sabotage plot against the socialist country. During a meeting with top-ranking officials on Sept. 6, 1962, U.S. General and Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Marshall Carter said, biological agents disguised as substances of natural origin can be employed to destroy crops in Cuba. Others present at the meeting, which took place only six weeks prior to the Cuban Missile Crisis, included National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy; Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy; Air Force Gen. Edward Lansdale, who led clandestine operations against Cuba; and Edward R. Murrow, the famous broadcast reporter who was serving at the time as the director of the U.S. Information Agency, according to National Public Radio. Notes extracted from a document recounting the meeting read, General Carter pointed out the extreme vulnerability of any such operation and the terrible consequences it could have if something goes wrong, especially if there is any obvious evidence of U.S. involvement. Bundy offered counsel on the matter, suggesting that the use of chemical agents were not propitious, especially if their use could be traced back to Washington. A proposal to discuss a plan to attack Soviet personnel located in the territory of Cuba, was also revealed in the document but with no further details concerning the matter. Almost 3,000 previously classified files were released by the U.S. National Archives to the public Friday, but a White House memo penned by U.S. President Donald Trump said he blocked the release of an unknown number of files because he had no choice but to accept the concerns of agencies such as the FBI and CIA. In the days leading up to the deadline, Trump had hyped the documents release as a victory for the public that would be so interesting! But he later conceded to national security, law enforcement, and foreign affairs concerns, ordering a 180-day review for the agencies to reconsider their redactions. The result is yet another deadline for documents of April 26, 2018. The documents also showed that the CIA considered staging several terror events, even bombings, in Miami and other U.S. cities to foster a terror threat which would, in turn, be blamed on the Cuban government. We could develop a Communist Cuban terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even in Washington, read one of the reports. The plan also included a possible attack on migrants leaving Cuba to settle in the United States. It went on to read that we could sink a boatload of Cubans en route to Florida (real or simulated). We could foster attempts on lives of Cuban refugees in the United States even to the extent of wounding in instances to be widely publicized. Another memo dated to 1959 the year of the triumph of the Cuban Revolution read, Conditions are getting so bad in Cuba a counterrevolution will occur from within Cuba powerful interests, such as bankers, sugar institute, et cetera, are extremely dissatisfied, another FBI report suggested that Cuban exiles in the United States are so fed up with Fidel Castro that he cannot last more than two months. Via TeleSur Related video added by Juan Cole: TYT: JFK Files: CIA Mulled Bombing Cuban Refugees To Start A War Reddit Email 263 Shares By Nick Turse | ( Tomdispatch.com) | They are very concerned about their adversary next door, said General Raymond Thomas, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), at a national security conference in Aspen, Colorado, in July. They make no bones about it. The they in question were various Eastern European and Baltic nations. Their adversary? Vladimir Putins Russia. Thomas, the commander of Americas most elite troops Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets among them went on to raise fears about an upcoming Russian military training event, a wargame, known as Zapad or West, involving 10 Russian Navy ships, 70 jets and helicopters, and 250 tanks. The point of concern for most of these eastern Europeans right now is theyre about to do an exercise in Belarus thats going to entail up to 100,000 Russian troops moving into that country. And he added, The great concern is theyre not going to leave, and thats not paranoia Over the last two decades, relations between the United States and Russia have increasingly soured, with Moscow casting blame on the United States for encouraging the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003 and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine a year later. Washington has, in turn, expressed its anger over the occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia following the Russo-Georgian War of 2008; the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine after pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych was chased from power; and interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. There have been recriminations on both sides over the other nations military adventurism in Syria, the sanctions Washington imposed on Moscow in reaction to Crimea, Ukraine, and human rights issues, and tit-for-tat diplomatic penalties that have repeatedly ramped up tensions. While Zapad, which took place last month, is an annual strategic exercise that rotates among four regions, American officials nonetheless viewed this years event as provocative. People are worried this is a Trojan horse, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, who commands U.S. Army forces in Europe, told Reuters. [The Russians] say, Were just doing an exercise, and then all of a sudden theyve moved all these people and capabilities somewhere. Russia is not, however, the only military power with people and capabilities in the region. In passing, SOCOMs Thomas also mentioned the presence of other forces; troops that he readily admitted the public might not be aware of. Those soldiers were just as he feared of the Russian troops involved in Zapad not going anywhere. And it wasnt just a matter of speculation. After all, they wear the same uniform he does. For the past two years, the U.S. has maintained a special operations contingent in almost every nation on Russias western border. [W]eve had persistent presence in every country every NATO country and others on the border with Russia doing phenomenal things with our allies, helping them prepare for their threats, said Thomas, mentioning the Baltics as well as Romania, Poland, Ukraine, and Georgia by name. Commandos and Their Comrades Since 9/11, U.S. Special Operations forces (SOF) have grown in every conceivable way from funding to manpower, the pace of operations to geographic sweep. On any given day, about 8,000 special operators from a command numbering roughly 70,000 in total are deployed in around 80 countries. Over the course of a year, they operate in about 70% of the worlds nations. According to Major Michael Weisman, a spokesman for U.S. Special Operations Command Europe, elite U.S. forces have deployed to 21 European countries in 2017 and conducted exercises with an even larger number of nations. Outside of Russia and Belarus we train with virtually every country in Europe either bilaterally or through various multinational events, he told TomDispatch. The number of commandos in Europe has also expanded exponentially in recent years. In 2006, 3% of special operators deployed overseas were sent to the continent. Last year, the number topped 12% a jump of more than 300%. Only Africa has seen a larger increase in deployments over the same time span. This special-ops surge is also reflected in the Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) program, overseas missions designed to prepare American commandos in a variety of warfighting skills while also strengthening relations with foreign forces. In 2012, special operators conducted 29 JCETs on that continent. Last year, the number reached 37, including six in Bulgaria, three in Estonia, three in Latvia, three in Poland, and three in Moldova. The United States has devoted significant resources to building and bolstering allied special ops forces across the region. Our current focus consists of assuring our allies through building partner capacity efforts to counter and resist various types of Russian aggression, as well as enhance their resilience, SOCOMs Thomas told members of the House Armed Services Committee earlier this year. We are working relentlessly with our partners and the Department of State to build potency in eastern and northern Europe to counter Russias approach to unconventional warfare, including developing mature and sustainable Special Operations capabilities across the region. This year, U.S. commandos could be found in nations all along Russias borders. In March, for example, Green Berets took to snowmobiles for a cold-weather JCET alongside local troops in Lapland, Finland. In May, Navy SEALs teamed up with Lithuanian forces as part of Flaming Sword 17, a training exercise in that country. In June, members of the U.S. 10th Special Forces Group and Polish commandos carried out air assault and casualty evacuation training near Lubliniec, Poland. In July, Naval Special Warfare operators took part in Sea Breeze, a two decade-old annual military exercise in Ukraine. In August, airmen from the 321st Special Tactics Squadron transformed a rural highway in Jagala, Estonia, into an airstrip for tank-killing A-10 Thunderbolts as part of a military drill. That same month, U.S. special operators advised host-nation commandos taking part in Exercise Noble Partner in the Republic of Georgia. Working with the GSOF [Republic of Georgias Special Operations forces] was awesome, said Captain Christopher Pulliam, the commander of the Georgia Army National Guards Company H (Long-Range Surveillance), 121st Infantry Regiment. (That, of course, is a unit from the American state of Georgia.) Our mission set requires that we work in small teams that gather specific intel in the area of operations. The GSOF understand this and can use our intel to create a better understanding of the situation on the ground and react accordingly. Special Warriors and Special Warfare The United States isnt alone in fielding a large contingent of special operations forces. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency estimates that Russias Spetsnaz (special purpose) troops number around 30,000, a sizeable force, although less than half the size of Americas contingent of commandos. Russia, SOCOMs Thomas told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this year, is particularly adept at leveraging unconventional approaches to advancing their interests and it is clear they are pursuing a wide range of audacious approaches to competition SOF [special operations forces] often present a very natural unconventional response. Indeed, just like the United States and myriad militaries around the world, Russia has devoted significant resources to developing its doctrine and capabilities in covert, clandestine, and unconventional forms of warfare. In a seminal 2013 article in the Russian Academy of Military Sciences journal Military-Industrial Courier, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov explained the nature of modern hybrid warfare, including the use of elite troops, this way: In the twenty-first century we have seen a tendency toward blurring the lines between the states of war and peace. Wars are no longer declared and, having begun, proceed according to an unfamiliar template The role of nonmilitary means of achieving political and strategic goals has grown, and in many cases, they have exceeded the power of force of weapons in their effectiveness [t]he broad use of political, economic, informational, humanitarian, and other nonmilitary measures is supplemented by military means of a concealed character, including carrying out actions of informational conflict and the actions of special operations forces. Spetsnaz troops have indeed played a role in all of Russias armed interventions since 2001, including in Chechnya and the North Caucasus, Georgia, Ukraine, and Syria. During that same span, U.S. Special Operations forces have been employed in combat in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Syria, Niger, and the Central African Republic. They have also had a presence in Jordan, Kenya, Djibouti, and Cameroon, among other countries to which, according to President Trump, U.S. combat-equipped forces are currently deployed. In an interview late last year, retired Lieutenant General Charles Cleveland, chief of U.S. Army Special Operations Command from 2012 to 2015 and now the Senior Mentor to the Army War College, discussed the shortcomings of the senior military leadership in regard to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the bad national policy decisions that shaped U.S. campaigns in those theaters, and a reliance on a brand of conventional war-fighting with limited effectiveness in achieving political goals. [I]t is important to understand why SOF has risen from footnote and supporting player to main effort, he added, because its use also highlights why the U.S. continues to have difficulty in its most recent campaigns Afghanistan, Iraq, against ISIS and AQ [al-Qaeda] and its affiliates, Libya, Yemen, etc. and in the undeclared campaigns in the Baltics, Poland, and Ukraine none of which fits the U.S. model for traditional war. U.S. Special Operations Command Europe failed to answer TomDispatchs questions about those undeclared campaigns on Russias doorstep, but more public and conventional efforts have been in wide evidence. In January, for example, tanks, trucks, and other equipment began arriving in Germany, before being sent on to Poland, to support Operation Atlantic Resolve. That effort, designed to reassure NATO allies and partners in light of the Russian intervention in Ukraine, according to the Congressional Research Service, began with a nine-month rotation of about 3,500 soldiers from the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, who were replaced in September by 3,300 personnel and 1,500 vehicles from the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, which would be deployed to five countries. Earlier this month, Russias Defense Ministry complained that the size of the U.S. contingent in the Baltics violates a Russian-NATO agreement. Red Dawn in the Gray Zone Late last year, a group of active-duty and retired senior military officers, former ambassadors, academics, and researchers gathered for a symposium at the National Defense University (NDU) in Washington, D.C., titled Russian Engagement in the Gray Zone. Conducted via Chatham House rules that is, in accounts of the meeting, statements could not be attributed to any specific speaker the Americans proceeded to vilify Russia both for its bellicosity and its underhanded methods. Among the assessments: Russia is always at a natural state of war and it prioritizes contactless war; Russia de-emphasizes kinetic activities and emphasizes the indirect/non-lethal approach; and Russia places a priority on subversion. The experts at NDU called for a comprehensive campaign to undermine Russia through sanctions, by courting disenfranchised personnel and alienated persons within that country, by developing enhanced cyber-capabilities, by utilizing psychological operations and strategic messaging to enhance tactical actions, and by conducting a special ops shadow war which General Charles Cleveland seems to suggest might be already underway. [T]he United States should learn from the Chechnya rebels reaction. The rebels used decentralized operations and started building pockets of resistance (to include solo jihadists), reads a synopsis of the symposium. SOCOM actions will need, the NDU experts asserted, to be unconventional and irregular in order to compete with Russian modern warfare tactics. In other words, they were advocating an anti-Russian campaign that seemed to emphasize the very approach they were excoriating Russia for the indirect/non-lethal approach with a priority on subversion. In the end, Russias much-feared West war game, in which Spetsnaz troops did participate, concluded with a whimper, not a bang. After all the anxiety, Russias Zapad exercise ends without provocation, read the headline in the military newspaper Stars and Stripes on September 20th. For months, while Russia insisted its war game would involve fewer than 13,000 soldiers, the U.S. and its allies had warned that, in reality, up to 100,000 troops would flood into Belarus. Of those Russian troop levels, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Moller, a Swedish military observer who attended Zapad, said, We reported about 12,400. Of such exercises, he added, This is normal military business as we do in all countries with armed forces. This is not training for attacking anyone. You meet the enemy, you stop the enemy, you defeat the enemy with a counterattack. We are doing the same thing in Sweden. Indeed, just as Moller suggested, more than 20,000 troops including U.S. Special Operations forces and soldiers from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, and Sweden had gathered in his country during the Zapad exercise for Aurora 2017. And Sweden was hardly unique. At the same time, troops from the U.S., Bulgaria, Canada, Estonia, Georgia, Italy, Lithuania, Moldova, Norway, Poland, Romania, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom were carrying out Rapid Trident, an annual military exercise, in neighboring Ukraine. What message was the U.S. sending to Russia by conducting training exercises on its borders, Catherine Herridge of Fox News asked General Raymond Thomas in Aspen? Thats a fascinating question because I am I try to appreciate the adversarys optic to I realize that a way to gauge a metric if you will for how well were doing, the SOCOM chief replied somewhat incoherently. Herridge was, of course, asking Thomas to view the world through the eyes of his adversary, to imagine something akin to Russia and its ally Syria conducting war games in Mexico or Canada or in both countries; to contemplate Spetsnaz troops spread throughout the Western hemisphere on an enduring basis just as Americas elite troops are now a fixture in the Baltics and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. In the end, Thomass take was understated in a way that undoubtedly wouldnt have been the case had the roles been reversed. I am curious what Putin and his leadership are thinking, the special ops chief mused. I think it was a little unnerving. Nick Turse is the managing editor of TomDispatch, a fellow at the Nation Institute, and a contributing writer for the Intercept. He recently covered ethnic cleansing by government forces in South Sudan for Harpers Magazine and the Columbia Journalism Review. His latest book is Next Time Theyll Come to Count the Dead: War and Survival in South Sudan. His website is NickTurse.com. Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Book, Alfred McCoys In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power, as well as John Dowers The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II, John Feffers dystopian novel Splinterlands, Nick Turses Next Time Theyll Come to Count the Dead, and Tom Engelhardts Shadow Government: Surveillance, Secret Wars, and a Global Security State in a Single-Superpower World. Copyright Nick Turse 2017 Via Tomdispatch.com Reddit Email 300 Shares Maan News Agency | BETHLEHEM (Maan) Over the past few days, Israeli settlers have reportedly stolen the harvest of hundreds of Palestinian olive trees in the northern occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian sources. Official Palestinian Authority (PA)-owned Wafa news agency reported that Israeli settlers from the illegal Kedumim settlement, stole the harvest off of Palestinian-owned land in the Qalqiliya-area village of Jit. According to Wafa, landowners from Jit went to harvest their olives after obtaining Israeli permits to access their land. But when they arrived, they discovered that the olives had been harvested and many fully grown trees were damaged and dry after being sprayed with toxic chemicals. The landowner reportedly told Wada that he also discovered sewage water being pumped from a settlers mobile home into his land. Meanwhile, Ghassan Daghlas, an official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Maan in Saturday that over the past few days, dozens of Israeli settlers had stolen olives from more than 700 olive trees in the Nablus area. The majority of the thefts, according to Daghlas, took place on Palestinian lands around the illegal Elon Moreh and Itamar settlements. Several reports of Israeli settlers stealing olive pickings from Palestinian lands have emerged since the beginning of the harvest season, with NGO Rabbis for Human Rights reporting on a massive wave of thefts, which they described as hate crimes. The Palestinian government has no jurisdiction over Israelis in the West Bank, and acts carried out by Israeli settlers often occur in the presence of Israeli military forces who rarely act to protect Palestinian residents. The majority of settler thefts committed against Palestinians are met with impunity, with Israelis rarely facing consequences for such thefts. Only 1.9 percent of complaints submitted by Palestinians against Israeli settler attacks or theft result in a conviction, while 95.6 percent of investigations of damage to olive trees are closed due to failures of Israeli police, according to the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din. Yesh Din, along with Israeli rights group BTselem, have previously condemned Israeli authorities for failing to protect Palestinians from settlers violence or investigate attacks, particularly during olive harvest season, when incidents of attacks on harvesters and their olive groves have been a near daily occurrence in past years. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Monday, October 30, 2017 Canada Zinc Metals Corp. (TSX Venture Exchange: CZX) is pleased to announce additional drill results from the 2017 Akie drill program. The program focused on resource expansion and new target development on the robust and high-grade central core of the Zn-Pb-Ag Cardiac Creek deposit. The program commenced in June and was completed in late August using two drills. A total of 8 drill holes were successfully drilled on the Cardiac Creek deposit for a total of 4,700 metres. Assay results are pending from the remaining two drill holes. 2017 Drill Result Highlights Drill hole A-17-140 returned 8.99% Zn+Pb and 13.8 g/t Ag over a true-width of 7.51 metres from the Footwall Zone including 10.21% Zn+Pb and 15.5 g/t Ag over a true width of 6.46 metres. Drill hole A-17-141 returned 11.89% Zn+Pb and 18.4 g/t Ag over a true width of 18.34 metres from the Cardiac Creek Zone including 22.48% Zn+Pb and 29.3 g/t Ag over a true width of 7.49 metres. Mr. Peeyush Varshney, CEO of Canada Zinc Metals, commented: We continue to be extremely pleased by the results we are seeing from the Cardiac Creek Zone in core of the deposit and at depth. The mineralisation present in hole 141 continues to demonstrate the consistency and high-grade character of the deposits core and the ongoing development of the Footwall Zone at depth speaks to the potential for further expansion of this new zone at depth. We look forward to reporting the remaining results from the 2017 drill program. A-17-140 The objective of hole A-17-140 was to test the down-dip extents of the indicated resource of the Cardiac Creek deposit in an open area down-dip of A-07-42, and along strike of A-06-36A. The drill hole did not deviate as much as expected and a pierce point was obtained in the open area between hole A-07-42 and A-06-36A. The results from A-17-140 are expected to improve upon the continuity of mineralisation at depth and expand the known limits of the deposit at depth. The hole intersected a total of four distinct mineralised intervals including two Hangingwall Zones, the Cardiac Creek Zone and the Footwall Zone. These mineralised zones are present within the broad interval from 694.00 to 776.57 metres. The highest-grade material was intersected within the Footwall Zone grading 8.99% Zn+Pb and 13.8 g/t Ag over a true width of 7.51 metres from 766.46 to 776.57 metres and includes a true width of 6.46 metres from 766.46 to 775.16 metres grading 10.21% Zn+Pb and 15.5g/t Ag. The Footwall Zone remains open for continued expansion at depth. The Cardiac Creek Zone was intersected from 730.24 to 758.23 metres returning 2.78% Zn+Pb and 5.6 g/t Ag over a true width of 20.40 metres. Both the Hangingwall Zones and Cardiac Creek Zone are characterised by very fine-grained, dull-brown pyrite, interlaminated with very fine-grained nodular barite. Scattered bands of light grey, very fine-grained, sphalerite are also present within the pyritic sulphide beds. The Footwall Zone mineralisation is characterised by an increasing amount of mottled textured sulphides enriched in sphalerite, galena, quartz, carbonate and barite generally indicative of higher-grade material. Debris flows and silty shales of the Paul River Formation were intersected beyond a depth of 792.78 meres and the hole ended in the calcareous siltstones of the Road River Group at a depth of 847.96 metres. A-17-141 The objective of hole A-17-141 was an open area within center of the high-grade core along strike of A-05-30 and A-07-45 to test the continuity of higher-grade mineralisation. The hole intersected its intended target and provided a pierce point located approximately 50 metres along strike from A-05-30 and 80 metres from A-07-45. The results will provide additional information with respect to the continuity of the deposit and supply material for subsequent metallurgical testing. The hole intersected a thick interval of the Cardiac Creek Zone that returned 11.89% Zn+Pb and 18.4 g/t Ag over a true width of 18.34 metres from 562.18 to 587.64 metres that included higher grade intervals such as 12.41% Zn+Pb and 19.1 g/t Ag over a true width of 17.14 metres from 563.85 to 587.64 metres, and 22.48% Zn+Pb and 29.3 g/t Ag over a true width of 7.49 metres from 563.85 to 574.24 metres. The highest-grade section of the Cardiac Creek Zone was affected by a localized brittle structure that truncated the core of the zone by an unknown degree. The Cardiac Creek Zone is characterised by thick beds of laminated very fine-grained dull brown pyrite with an increasing amount of light grey sphalerite bands at depth. The core of the zone is dominated by strong development of mottled textured sulphides enriched in sphalerite, galena, quartz, carbonate and barite. Towards the base of the Cardiac Creek Zone, sphalerite rich mineralisation is intermixed with massive barite beds. Once again, there is a thin approximately 3 metre thick massive pyrite lens present at a depth of 594.24 metres. Patches of strong alteration are present locally within the calcareous siltstones of the Road River Group. The hole ended at a depth of 651.36 metres. Significant results from A-17-140 and A-17-141 are tabulated below along with the previously reported intervals from A-17-132, A-17-133, A-17-137 and A-17-138 (see Sept. 14 and Oct. 3, 2017 news releases). Drill Hole From (m) To (m) True Width (m)* Zn (%) Pb (%) Ag (g/t) Zn+Pb (%) A-17-140 694.00 776.57 59.87 2.24 0.37 4.9 2.61 HW A 694.00 706.20 8.66 1.11 0.14 4.0 1.25 HW B 718.19 723.83 4.05 3.77 0.63 7.4 4.40 CCZ 730.24 758.23 20.40 2.44 0.34 5.6 2.78 FW 766.46 776.57 7.51 7.49 1.50 13.8 8.99 including 766.46 775.16 6.46 8.50 1.71 15.5 10.21 A-17-141 555.20 587.64 23.36 8.09 1.46 15.1 9.55 CCZ 562.18 587.64 18.34 10.05 1.84 18.4 11.89 including 563.85 587.64 17.14 10.47 1.94 19.1 12.41 including 563.85 586.00 15.96 10.86 2.06 19.4 12.93 including 563.85 574.24 7.49 18.79 3.69 29.3 22.48 A-17-132 520.29 573.08 42.43 6.41 1.08 10.6 7.49 CCZ 537.41 573.08 28.67 8.84 1.54 14.2 10.38 including 546.41 571.06 19.81 10.52 1.87 15.9 12.39 including 546.41 566.01 15.75 10.96 2.01 16.7 12.97 including 546.41 559.05 10.16 12.18 2.24 17.2 14.42 A-17-133 341.08 388.38 33.14 4.77 0.78 8.5 5.55 CCZ 351.03 387.57 25.63 5.68 0.94 9.6 6.62 including 361.90 381.10 13.48 8.00 1.40 12.9 9.40 including 367.68 381.10 9.42 10.30 1.81 16.0 12.11 A-17-137 454.40 559.44 57.79 9.72 2.07 19.1 11.79 CCZ 466.78 534.09 37.06 11.83 2.68 23.4 14.51 including 480.93 534.09 29.26 14.32 3.33 28.0 17.65 including 506.00 534.09 15.44 18.27 4.34 36.2 22.61 FW 544.48 559.44 8.20 14.41 2.36 25.3 16.77 MS 559.44 565.00 3.04 0.98 0.23 10.0 1.21 A-17-138 403.32 440.85 33.40 5.33 0.91 9.0 6.24 CCZ 412.15 440.17 24.96 6.60 1.15 10.4 7.75 including 426.27 439.52 11.82 8.50 1.57 12.3 10.07 (*) The true width in metres is calculated utilising the Geovia GEMS software package. The orientation of the mineralised horizon is estimated to have an azimuth of 130 degrees and a dip of -70 degrees. (CCZ) = Cardiac Creek Zone; (HW) = Hangingwall Zone; (FW) = Footwall Zone; (MS) = Massive Sulphide. () Ag values below detection were given a value half of the detection limit for the purposes of weighted averaging. A map showing the 2017 drill collars and traces for the current release can be found here: http://canadazincmetals.com/_resources/maps/2017-Akie-DDH-Plan-Map-Deposit.pdf A cross-section of drill hole A-17-140 can be found here: http://www.canadazincmetals.com/_resources/maps/XS-2925S-19-Oct-2017.pdf A cross-section of drill hole A-17-141 can be found here: http://www.canadazincmetals.com/_resources/maps/XS-3275S-19-Oct-2017.pdf QA/QC Canada Zinc Metals has implemented a rigorous quality assurance/quality control program at the Akie property using best industry practices. All drill core is logged for geology, structure, veining, alteration, mineralisation, and geotechnical parameters. Sections of sulphide mineralisation are marked for sampling by a geologist and a series of standards, duplicates and blanks are inserted into the sample stream for QA/QC purposes. Prior to the cutting of samples, all core boxes are photographed for due diligence and record keeping purposes. The samples are split by a diamond saw, tagged and bagged and forwarded by bonded carrier to Acme Labs (a Bureau Veritas Group Company) of Vancouver, BC, for analysis. Documentation recording the chain of custody is kept for each shipment. Assays for zinc, lead and silver are obtained using Acme Labs AQ270 analytical package with sample digestion using aqua regia solution followed by ICP-ES and ICP-MS analyses. Barium content is determined by Acme Labs LF300 analytical package using LiBO2/LiB4O7 fusion and ACS grade nitric acid followed by ICP-ES analysis. Overlimit values of lead are rerun using Bureau Veritas AQ371 analytical package using a hot aqua regia solution followed by ICP-ES analyses. Overlimit values for zinc are rerun using Bureau Veritias GC816 analytical package, using a multi-acid digestion, followed by hydroxide precipitation and EDTA titration analysis. Check assays on drill pulps are routinely conducted by ALS Minerals of North Vancouver, BC with their OG46 analytical package using aqua regia digestion and ICP-ES analysis. All remaining drill core is stored at the Akie exploration camp. The Akie Zn-Pb-Ag Project The Companys, 100% owned, flagship Akie property is situated within the Kechika Trough, the southernmost area of the regionally extensive Paleozoic Selwyn Basin, one of the most prolific sedimentary basins in the world for the occurrence of SEDEX zinc-lead-silver and stratiform barite deposits. Drilling on the Akie property by Canada Zinc Metals since 2005 has identified a significant body of baritic-zinc-lead-silver SEDEX mineralisation known as the Cardiac Creek deposit. The deposit is hosted by siliceous, carbonaceous, fine grained clastic rocks of the middle to late Devonian Gunsteel Formation. The Company has outlined a NI 43-101 compliant mineral resource at Cardiac Creek, including an indicated resource of 19.6 million tonnes grading 8.2% zinc, 1.6% lead and 13.6 g/t silver (at a 5% zinc cut-off grade) and an inferred resource of 8.1 million tonnes grading 6.8% zinc, 1.1% lead and 11.2 g/t silver (at a 5% zinc cut-off grade). In addition to the Akie Project the Company owns 100% of ten, large, contiguous property blocks that comprise the Kechika Regional project. The Kechika Regional Project includes the Pie, Yuen, Cirque East and Mt. Alcock properties, extending northwest from the Akie property for approximately 140 kilometres along strike of the highly prospective Gunsteel Formation shale; the main host rock for known SEDEX zinc-lead-silver deposits in the Kechika Trough of northeastern British Columbia. These projects are located approximately 260 kilometres north northwest of the town of Mackenzie, British Columbia, Canada. Ken MacDonald P.Geo., Vice President of Exploration, is the designated Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and is responsible for the technical information contained in this release. TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct. 30, 2017) - White Gold Corp. (TSX VENTURE:WGO) (the "Company") is pleased to announce additional results from reverse circulation ("RC") and diamond drill ("DD") holes completed on the historical Golden Saddle deposit (the "Golden Saddle deposit")(7), White Gold Property, Yukon. The results received to date further define the Main Zone ("GS Main") and also significantly extend mineralization associated with the Footwall Zone at the Golden Saddle deposit. The 2017 drill program also targeted the historic Arc deposit (the "Arc deposit")(7) and the newly identified Golden Saddle East ("GS East") and Ulli's targets on trend with the Golden Saddle deposit, as highlighted in the Company's press release dated September 25, 2017. Detailed maps related to the drilling and additional information can be found at http://www.whitegoldcorp.ca/projects/white-gold-property/snapshot/. Highlights include: WHTGS17DD-0170 returned one of the strongest and most consistent mineralization intercepts drilled to date on the Golden Saddle deposit, returning 4.57 g/t Au over 34m from 155m depth; including 6.3 g/t Au over 21m from 163m depth and 12.25 g/t Au over 4m from 173m depth, and also included one of the strongest and most consistent intercepts of high-grade (>5 g/t Au) mineralization to date; Hole WHTGS17RC-005, a 50m down-dip step-out along the GS Main Zone returned 1.42 g/t Au over 54.86m from 64.01m depth and included two higher-grade zones averaging 5.34 g/t Au over 7.62m from 65.53m depth and 5.03 g/t Au over 4.57m from 112.78m depth; Drilling to date has continued the successful extension of the width and depth of the GS Main Zone, including identification of additional near surface mineralization; Significant extension of the subparallel Footwall Zone, beneath the GS Main Zone; demonstrating the potential for additional near surface mineralization in undrilled and coarsely drilled portions of the deposit. Golden Saddle Exploration Update Diamond Drill Results Hole WHTGS17DD-0169 was drilled at an azimuth of 160, dip of -75, and to a depth of 393m, and returned two significant intercepts. The first consists of 1.11 g/t Au over 18m from 89m depth; including 1.53m of 7.82 g/t Au from 98m depth. This intercept infilled a 70m gap within the GS Main Zone between historic holes WD-009(1) and WD-012(1). The second intercept consisted of 2.04 g/t Au over 12.84 m from 314m depth, including 6.04 g/t over 2m from 316m depth. This intercept corresponds with the Footwall Zone and extended it approximately 270m down-dip. (1) Reported in Underworld Resources Inc. ("UW") news release UW2008 - NR#7 dated Aug. 27, 2008 and available on SEDAR. Hole WHTGS17DD-0170 returned 4.57 g/t Au over 34m from 155m depth; including 6.3 g/t Au over 21m from 163m depth and 12.25 g/t Au over 4m from 173m depth. The intercept fills in a 95m gap in the GS Main Zone between historic holes WD-021(2) and WD-032(3), and included one of the strongest and most consistent intercepts of high-grade (>5 g/t Au) mineralization drilled on the Golden Saddle deposit to date. The hole was drilled at a at an azimuth of 160, dip of -66, and to a depth of 363m, and additional assays are pending from the top 113m and bottom 137m of the hole. (2) Reported in Underworld Resources Inc. ("UW") news release UW2008 - NR#11 dated Oct. 15, 2008 and available on SEDAR. (3) Reported in Underworld Resources Inc. ("UW") news release UW2009 - NR#11 dated June 23, 2009 and available on SEDAR. RC Drill Results Hole WHTGS17RC-003 returned 1.84 g/t Au over 15.24m from surface, including 3.1 g/t Au over 4.57m, and 1.04 g/t Au over 10.67m from 141.73m depth. The hole was drilled at an azimuth of 160, dip of -65, and to a depth of 201.17m, and is located adjacent to historic diamond holes WGGS10D0148(4); which returned 1.06 g/t Au over 16m from 3.05m depth. The purpose of the hole was to twin the historic hole for QA/QC purposes and test for Footwall Zone mineralization beneath the extent of the historic drill holes. The upper zone reported within hole WHTGS17RC-003 was within the GS Main Zone and was for QA/QC purposes. The intercept compared favorably with results from the historic diamond hole in the area and further validates RC as an effective drilling method on the Golden Saddle deposit. The lower zone was within a subparallel Footwall Zone beneath the GS Main; infilling a 215m, previously undrilled, portion of the Footwall Zone and demonstrating the potential for additional, near surface, mineralization in undrilled and coarsely drilled portions of the deposit. (4) Reported in an Independent technical report for the White Gold Project, Dawson Range, Yukon, Canada by Gilles Arseneau, P.Geo. dated Sept. 15, 2017 and available on SEDAR. Hole WHTGS17RC-004 returned 1.57 g/t Au over 10.67m from 173.74m depth. The hole was drilled at an azimuth of 160, dip of -70, and to a depth of 201.17m, and is located adjacent to historic diamond hole WD-085(5). The historic diamond hole was only drilled to a depth of 131.06m and was terminated before reaching the downdip projection of the GS Main Zone based on 3D modelling. WHTGS17RC-004 intercepted the GS Main Zone at 173.74m depth, below the historic diamond hole, and infilled a previously undrilled portion of the deposit, extending the GS Main Zone 75m down dip in the area. (5) Reported in Underworld Resources Inc. ("UW") news release UW2009 - NR#17 dated Sept. 28, 2009 and available on SEDAR. Hole WHTGS17RC-005 returned 1.42 g/t Au over 54.86m from 64.01m depth and included two higher-grade zones averaging 5.34 g/t Au over 7.62m from 65.53m depth and 5.03 g/t Au over 4.57m from 112.78m depth. The hole was drilled 50m to the NW of WHTGS17RC-002 at a 160 azimuth, dip of -50, and to a depth of 198.12m and is a 50m down-dip step-out along the GS Main Zone from mineralization previously reported by the Company in WHTGSRC17RC-002. Hole WHTGS17RC-006 returned 1.87 g/t Au over 6.10m from 115.82m depth and occurs within a broad envelope of strongly sericite altered felsic gneiss that returned 0.41 g/t Au over 50.29m from 82.30m depth. The hole was drilled at an azimuth of 160, dip of -80, and to a depth of 201.17m, and is a 70m step-out to hole WHTGS17RC-001. It was designed to test the near surface projection of the Footwall Zone. Jodie Gibson, VP Exploration of the Company, commented "We are pleased with the execution of the 2017 exploration program on the White Gold Property. The results received to date and revised geologic modelling from our 2017 field work indicate strong potential for additional mineralization along strike and within subparallel zones to both the Golden Saddle and Arc deposits. Additionally, numerous other exploration targets have been developed on the property that will require follow up work. I look forward to receiving the remainder of the 2017 drill results and planning a comprehensive follow up program on the property." - True thickness is estimated to be between 65 - 95% of the reported intercepts. Significant results from the Golden Saddle 2017 drill program are detailed in the table below. RC Drill Holes Hole ID From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) WHTGS17RC-001(6) 16.764 56.388 39.624 3.30 Including 19.812 51.816 32.004 3.98 Including 22.86 44.196 21.336 5.51 Including 27.432 36.576 9.144 8.23 And 115.824 118.872 3.048 1.29 WHTGS17RC-002(6) 13.716 39.624 25.908 2.24 Including 22.86 32.004 9.144 5.36 And 120.396 144.78 24.384 0.513 Including 137.16 144.78 7.62 1.24 WHTGS17RC-003 0 15.24 15.24 1.84 Including 4.572 9.144 4.572 3.1 And 141.732 152.40 10.668 1.04 WHTGS17RC-004 173.736 184.404 10.668 1.57 Including 173.736 175.26 1.524 4.60 WHTGS17RC-005 64.008 118.872 54.864 1.42 Including 64.008 80.772 16.764 2.77 Including 65.532 73.152 7.62 5.34 Including 112.776 117.348 4.572 5.03 WHTGS17RC-006 82.296 132.588 50.292 0.41 Including 115.824 132.588 16.764 0.837 Including 115.824 121.92 6.096 1.87 Diamond Drill Holes Hole ID From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Au (g/t) WHTGS17DD-169 89 107 18 1.11 Including 98 107 9 1.97 Including 98 99.53 1.53 7.82 And 314 326.84 12.84 2.04 Including 316 318 2 6.04 WHTGS17DD-170 155 189 34 4.57 Including 163 184 21 6.3 Including 173 180 7 9.83 Including 173 177 4 12.25 (6) Reported in the Company's news release dated September 25, 2017 and available on SEDAR. A total of 4,432m over 31 RC holes and 1,295m over 4 diamond holes have been completed by the Company in 2017 on the White Gold property to date. This includes 4,151m of drilling on the Golden Saddle deposit with additional drilling on the Arc deposit, Ulli's target, and GS East target areas. Complete results have been reported for 5 of the RC holes and 1 diamond drill to date. Assays for the additional holes are in progress and will be reported in due course. The Company encourages individuals interested in the Company to visit its website (www.whitegoldcorp.ca) to further understand the size and scope of the Company's projects in the White Gold District. The analytical work for the 2017 program has been performed by Bureau Veritas Commodities Canada Ltd., an internationally recognized analytical services provider, at its Vancouver, British Columbia laboratory. Sample preparation was carried out at its Whitehorse, Yukon facility. All soil samples were using procedure SS80 (dry at 60 C and sieve 100g at -80 mesh) and analyzed by method AQ201 (aqua regia digestion and ICP-MS analysis). All rock, GT Probe, RAB, RC, and diamond core samples were prepared using procedure PRP70-250 (crush, split and pulverize 250 g to 200 mesh) and analyzed by method FA430 (30g fire assay with AAS finish) and AQ200 (0.5g, aqua regia digestion and ICP-MS analysis). Samples containing >10g/t Au were reanalyzed using method FA530 (30g Fire Assay with gravimetric finish). Metallic-screen analysis may also be utilized if coarse gold mineralization is encounter (FS600). Qualified Person Jodie Gibson, PGeo, VP, Exploration of the Company is a "qualified person" as defined under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), and has reviewed and approved the content of this news release. Potential quantity and grade is conceptual in nature. There has been insufficient exploration to define a mineral resource on any of the Company's properties to date, and it is uncertain if further exploration will result in any such target being delineated as a mineral resource. The reported work was completed using industry standard procedures, including a quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) program consisting of the insertion of certified standards, blanks, and field duplicates into the sample stream. The qualified person detected no significant QA/QC issues during review of the data. (7) Information Regarding Historical Resources/Deposits All historical scientific and technical information relating to the White Gold Properties is based on and derived from the Technical Report and other information available to the Company as referenced herein. The property was historically explored by Underworld Resources from 2007 - 2009 and included the discovery of the Golden Saddle and Arc deposits. In 2010, Underworld reported a resource estimate of 1,004,570 ounces contained in 9.80 Mt at a grade of 3.19 g/t Au in an Indicated category, with an additional 407,410 ounces contained in 5.02 Mt at a grade of 2.5 g/t Au in an Inferred category for the Golden Saddle deposit. At the Arc deposit, the initial resource included 170,470 ounces contained within 4.37 Mt at a grade of 1.21 g/t Au in the inferred category (reported in Underworld Resources New Release UW2010-NR#2 dated January 19, 2010 and the 43-101 report titled "White Gold Property Dawson Range Yukon, Canada" dated March 3, 2010, prepared by Lars Weiershauser, P.Geo, Marek Nowak, P.Eng and Wayne Barnett, Pr.Sci.Nat. of SRK Consulting (Canada) Inc.) (the "Technical Report") available on Sedar. Kinross purchased Underworld shortly after the initial resource was released in 2010 and explored the property from 2010 - 2012. In 2013, Kinross released the results of a resource estimate for the Golden Saddle deposit and reported a resource of 840,000 ounces within 9.79 Mt at a grade of 2.67 g/t Au in an Indicated category, with an additional 125,000 ounces within 2.17 Mt at a grade of 1.8 g/t Au in an Inferred category (reported in Kinross Gold Corp.'s 2016 Mineral Reserves and Resource Statement). Both Underworld's and Kinross' resource estimates are considered historical estimates and the Company is not treating them as current mineral resources. Although the Company believes these sources to be generally reliable, such information is subject to interpretation and cannot be verified with complete certainty due to limits on the availability and reliability of raw data, the voluntary nature of the data gathering process and other inherent limitations and uncertainties. In addition to the Golden Saddle and Arc deposits, there are numerous other targets known on the property that warrant follow-up work (for more information see Yukon Assessment Report #'s 095338, 096206, & 096207). The information contained herein is subject to all of the assumptions, qualifications and procedures set out in the Technical Report and reference should be made to the full details of the Technical Report which may be obtained from the Company by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Disclosure of the historical estimates in this news release is derived from the Technical Report and other information as set forth above previous press releases of the company as available on Sedar and has been judged to be relevant and therefore suitable for disclosure, however should not be relied upon. There are numerous uncertainties inherent in the historical estimates, which are subject to all of the assumptions, parameters and methods used to prepare such historical estimates and reference is made to the full text of the Technical Report with respect thereto. The historic estimates of mineral resources were estimated in conformity with generally accepted CIM "Estimation of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Best Practices" Guidelines. Mineral resources are not mineral reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability. There are no other recent estimates or data are available to the Company as at the date of this news release and a detailed exploration program is required to be conducted by the Company in order to verify or treat the historical estimate as a current mineral resource. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources or mineral reserves and the Company is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources. About White Gold Corp. The Company owns a portfolio of 19,438 quartz claims across 30 properties covering over 390,000 hectares representing approximately 40% of the Yukon's White Gold district. Preliminary exploration work has produced several prospective targets. The claim packages are bordered by sizable gold discoveries including the Coffee project owned by Goldcorp Inc., Western Copper and Gold Corporation's Casino project, and the Golden Saddle and Arc deposits acquired by the Company in June 2017 from Kinross Gold Corp. The Company has outlined an aggressive exploration plan to further explore its properties. For more information visit www.whitegoldcorp.ca. TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Oct. 30, 2017) - Adventus Zinc Corporation (TSX VENTURE:ADZN) ("Adventus Zinc" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a general corporate update covering Ecuador, Ireland, Newfoundland and its ongoing zinc-related corporate development activities. The Company remains well financed into 2018 to execute on its strategies. Ecuador The transaction with Salazar Resources Ltd. ("Salazar") announced on September 14, 2017 received all regulatory and shareholder approvals, with the effective date being October 5, 2017. Adventus Zinc funded the initial US$250,000 advance payment, and Salazar has executed a geophysical contract with MPX Geophysics Ltd. to complete a 2,400 line-kilometre, heli-borne, time-domain electromagnetic (TDEM) and magnetic survey over the approximately 22,000 ha Curipamba project. This geophysical survey is expected to be completed by mid-November. A drill program will be designed to begin in early 2018, as follow-up to the geophysical survey, targeting new volcanic massive sulphide and precious metals targets; as well as infill drilling at the El Domo deposit that will also provide material for metallurgical testing. Road upgrades, including a road expansion, to the El Domo deposit, are underway. Newfoundland A 3,867 line-kilometre heli-borne magnetic and TDEM survey (SkyTEM) was completed on Adventus Zinc's Buchans project during the summer of 2017 in accordance to the Phase 1 work program outlined in Adventus Zinc's prospectus for its IPO in February 2017. The geophysical survey has highlighted several conductive targets that are coincident with known base metal occurrences and alteration zones in favourable host rocks that are now considered high priority drill targets. Adventus Zinc' strategy for its projects in Newfoundland and Labrador, which cover 37,000 ha, will be outlined in the Company's 2018 plan and budget. Adventus Zinc acknowledges the financial support of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador under the Junior Exploration Assistance Program. Ireland Adventus Zinc has completed a Phase 1, target generation initiative (TGI), work program on its Lismore project. The TGI, which utilized advanced geochemical and detailed structural-stratigraphic studies, has identified two high-priority areas for Waulsortian-hosted Zn-Pb mineralization. A proposed Phase 2 drilling program will be planned subject to budget approval. At the Rathkeale project, exploration work programs are ongoing, and focused on detailed structural interpretation of a high resolution 2D seismic survey, and the geochemical discrimination of prospective structures. The Rathkeale project lies along strike to the west of the Tobermalug deposit and Stonepark prospect of Glencore plc and Group Eleven Resources Corp./Connemara Mining Company plc respectively. Geochemical sampling programs have commenced, and focused on the interpreted extensions of prospective structures that are considered to be associated with the Tobermalug deposit and Stonepark prospect, and that trend into Adventus Zinc's Rathkeale block. The objective of the ongoing work, which is expected to be completed by January 2018, is to define drill targets for testing subject to budget approval. Adventus Zinc's strategy for its projects in Ireland, which cover 192,200 ha, will be outlined in the Company's 2018 plan and budget. Corporate Development Adventus Zinc continues to work on several additional zinc-related corporate and project transactions globally. Year-to-date, Adventus Zinc has reviewed over 200 global zinc-related opportunities. The Company hopes to announce additional transactions as part of its ongoing zinc-related acquisition strategy over the next 12 months. The Company has granted 600,000 options to Jason Dunning, VP Exploration, exercisable at $0.93 per share expiring in 5 years, and vesting over a 3 year period. The contents of this news release have been reviewed by Jason Dunning, M.Sc., P.Geo., Vice President Exploration for Adventus Zinc, a Qualified Person, as defined by National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101). About Adventus Zinc Adventus Zinc is a unique company focused on zinc exploration and project development globally. Its strategic shareholders include Altius Minerals Corporation, Greenstone Resources LP and Resource Capital Funds, as well as other highly respected investors in the mining business. Adventus Zinc currently has large prospective land packages in both Ireland and Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and is earning a 75% ownership interest in the Curipamba polymetallic project in Ecuador. In addition, Adventus Zinc has a country-wide generative exploration alliance with its partners in Ecuador. The Company is based in Toronto, Canada, and is listed on the TSX-V under the symbol ADZN. October 30, 2017 / JMN Wire / Xanadu Mines Ltd (ASX: XAM Xanadu or Company) is pleased to provide complete assay results for diamond drill holes KHDDH418 and KHDDH419 from the Stockwork Hill deposit at Kharmagtai, where drilling has successfully identified extensions of high-grade mineralisation along strike and below the current resource. Highlights Extensional drilling returns broad zones of high-grade mineralisation at Stockwork Hill KHDDH419 discovers a significant new zone of high-grade mineralisation outside the current resource returning: 294m @ 0.47% Cu & 0.85g/t Au (1.01% eCu) from 466m, including 86m @ 0.78% Cu and 1.91g/t Au (2.0% eCu) from 558m KHDDH418 extends known mineralisation in the central portion of the Stockwork Hill Deposit approximately 200m to the north Drilling continues to target extensions of high-grade copper and gold mineralisation. Xanadus MD & CEO, Dr Andrew Stewart, said We are excited that hole KHDDH419 successfully demonstrated a clear extension of high-grade mineralisation along strike and at depth outside the current resource model. We are particularly excited with the new results from this hole which has discovered a new zone of gold-rich copper porphyry mineralisation, representing the downthrown block of the main Stockwork Hill deposit. Based upon detailed modelling, this new zone of mineralisation remains open in all directions. We have not yet found the limits of mineralisation and we believe that our growing understanding of the system will lead to rapid discovery of more major extensions. The high-grade extensions we have identified provide the opportunity to assess Stockwork Hill as a potential underground resource that has the potential to deliver significant additional value to the Project. KIPUSHI, Democratic Republic of Congo, Oct. 30, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ivanhoe Mines (TSX:IVN) (OTCQX:IVPAF) Executive Chairman Robert Friedland and Chief Executive Officer Lars-Eric Johansson announced today that the company has agreed to rebuild 34 kilometres of track to connect the Kipushi Mine with the DRC national railway at Munama, south of the mining capital of Lubumbashi. The Kipushi-Munama spur line, which has been inactive since 2011, will be rebuilt under terms of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by Ivanhoe Mines and the DRCs state-owned railway company, Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer du Congo (SNCC). The DRC national railway is a key part of the international rail corridor that links the DRC Copperbelt to major seaports at Durban and Richards Bay in South Africa, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Lobito in Angola. Daily trains for exports to international ports Mr. Friedland said the resumption of rail service along the Kipushi spur line is the most economical and reliable solution for the transportation of Kipushis projected annual output of approximately 530,000 tonnes of zinc concentrates. The World Bank is overseeing and financing the rehabilitation and upgrading of large sections of the main DRC national railway between Lubumbashi and the Zambia border crossing at Sakania. The work has focused on replacing the ballast beneath the tracks and installing new concrete sleepers (crossties) and heavier-gauge steel rails. New signalling and telecommunications equipment also has been installed along the line. A daily train from Kipushi will replace the equivalent of 50 road trucks, resulting in significant safety and environmental benefits to the DRC, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa, reduced road and border congestion and decreased air pollution, Mr. Friedland added. The reactivated spur line also will provide significant economic and social benefits to residents of Kipushi and the southern DRC provinces of Haut-Katanga and Lualaba, allowing for efficient transportation of supplies to and from the area. Given Kipushis incredible zinc grades of approximately 35% and current zinc prices of between US$1.40 and $1.50 a pound, were confident that Kipushi is on track to become the worlds highest-grade, major zinc mine. Discussions are ongoing with our partner, Gecamines, and prospective project financiers to fast-track completion of the remaining infrastructure development at the mine. The Kipushi Mine is owned by Kipushi Corporation (KICO), a joint venture between Ivanhoe Mines (68%) and Gecamines (32%). Kipushi, on the Central African Copperbelt in the province of Haut-Katanga, is approximately 30 kilometres southwest of Lubumbashi and less than one kilometre from the international border with Zambia. Maps show Ivanhoe's Kipushi and Kamoa-Kakula projects, the railway spur line to Kipushi, the national railway and the international rail corridor that links the DRC Copperbelt to major seaports at Durban and Richards Bay in South Africa, Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and Lobito in Angola. Inset shows the Kipushi to Munama spur line. Front-end engineering design study to assess the scope and cost of rebuilding spur line Under the terms of the MOU, Ivanhoe will appoint consultants to conduct a front-end engineering design study to assess the scope and cost of rebuilding the spur line from the Kipushi Mine to the main Lubumbashi-Sakania railway at Munama. The study is scheduled to begin before the end of this year and construction on the Kipushi-Munama spur line could start in late 2018. Ivanhoe will finance the rebuilding. Mr. Johansson said that as with any mine development project, safe and reliable transportation is a key consideration in planning for production at Kipushi. This cooperation agreement on the railway project is similar to our successful, ongoing partnership with the DRCs state-owned power company, La Societe Nationale dElectricite, for the rehabilitation of three hydropower plants to support our development of the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Project. Mr. Johansson added: During the past five years, the 3,000-kilometre, north-south rail corridor has experienced a revival in freight volumes between South Africa and the African Copperbelt. Our decision to opt for rail as our primary mode of export transport will further enhance the economic stability of the railway operators along this entire corridor. Given the large and increasing volumes of copper and cobalt being exported from DRC, we expect to see more private-public cooperation agreements to rebuild other sections of the DRC railway system. Heavy-gauge rails and concrete crossties (sleepers) being installed on a section of SNCCs main line from Lubumbashi to Sakania, at the Zambian border. The upgrading, financed by the World Bank, utilized crossties produced at a Lubumbashi plant. Similar components will be used on the planned upgrading of the spur line to the Kipushi Mine. Kipushi underground upgrading program nearing completion KICO has made excellent progress in modernizing the Kipushi Mines underground infrastructure as part of preparations for the resumption of commercial production. With the underground upgrading nearing completion, KICOs focus now will shift to modernizing and upgrading Kipushis surface infrastructure to handle and process the mines high-grade zinc and copper resources. The current mine redevelopment plan, as outlined in the May 2016 independent, preliminary economic assessment (PEA), has a two-year construction period with quick ramp-up to a projected, steady-state, annual production of 530,000 tonnes of zinc concentrate. A pre-feasibility study (PFS) is underway to refine the findings of the PEA and to optimize the mines redevelopment schedule, life-of-mine operating costs and initial capital costs required to return the mine to production, taking into consideration the significant capital already invested to date on critical rehabilitation work. The PFS, which Ivanhoe expects to complete before the end of this year, will focus on the mining of Kipushis Big Zinc Deposit, which has an estimated 10.2 million tonnes of Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources grading 34.9% zinc. This exceptional grade is more than twice as high as the Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources of the worlds next-highest-grade, major zinc project, according to Wood Mackenzie, a leading, international industry research and consulting group. In addition to the Big Zinc Deposit, Kipushi has several copper-rich zones that also contain silver, germanium and zinc. Measured and Indicated Mineral Resources contained in the copper-rich Serie Recurrente Zone, Fault Zone, and Fault Zone Splay total 1.63 million tonnes at grades of 4.01% copper, 2.87% zinc and 22 g/t silver, at a 1.5% copper cut-off, containing 144 million pounds of copper. Inferred Mineral Resources in these zones total an additional 1.64 million tonnes at grades of 3.30% copper, 6.97% zinc and 19 g/t silver. Qualified Person, Quality Control and Assurance The scientific and technical information in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Stephen Torr, P.Geo., Ivanhoe Mines Vice President, Project Geology and Evaluation, a Qualified Person under the terms of National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Torr is not independent of Ivanhoe Mines. Ivanhoe has prepared and filed a current, independent, NI 43-101-compliant technical report for the Kipushi Project, titled Kipushi Zn-Cu Project, Kipushi 2016 Preliminary Economic Assessment, dated May 2016, which is available under the companys SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com and on the companys website at www.ivanhoemines.com. The technical report includes relevant information regarding the effective dates and the assumptions, parameters and methods of the mineral resource estimates on the Kipushi Project cited in this release, as well as information regarding data verification, exploration procedures, sample preparation, analysis and security, and other matters relevant to the scientific and technical disclosure contained in this release regarding the Kipushi Project. About Ivanhoe Mines Ivanhoe Mines is advancing its three principal projects in Southern Africa: 1) mine development at the Platreef platinum-palladium-gold-nickel-copper discovery on the Northern Limb of South Africas Bushveld Complex; 2) mine development and exploration at the tier-one Kamoa-Kakula copper discovery on the Central African Copperbelt in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and 3) upgrading at the historic, high-grade Kipushi zinc-copper-silver-germanium mine, also on the Copperbelt in the DRC. For details, visit www.ivanhoemines.com. Its standard practice for a new presidential administration to rescind regulatory rules, whether to replace them with rules more to its liking or to eliminate them altogether. President Donald Trump made reducing the number of regulations one of the early objectives of his administration. We just werent expecting so many of the rescinded regulations to come from the area of education of special-needs children. The Education Department said Oct. 23 its rollback of 72 special education policy guidance documents will have no effect on services provided to students with disabilities, whose advocates expressed alarm at the revisions, the Washington Post reported. The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services wrote in a newsletter Friday that a total of 72 guidance documents ... have been rescinded due to being outdated, unnecessary or ineffective, part of the Trump administrations effort to purge regulations it deems superfluous from the books. Monday, the department said many of the guidance documents were cut because they no longer reflect current regulations. There are absolutely no policy implications to these rescissions, said Elizabeth Hill, a spokeswoman for Secretary Betsy DeVos. Students with disabilities and their advocates will see no impact on services provided. In a list provided Oct. 23 to the Post, the department explained why it phased out each of the 72 policy documents, many of which clarified for students, parents and educators how the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act works. The department said it scrapped a 2006 document that explained the rights of children with disabilities in private schools because the document had been updated in 2011. One 2007 document outlines a vocational program for students with disabilities that no longer exists, the department said. Another document a 2012 letter which outlines the rights of preschoolers with disabilities was updated in 2016. Removing the redundant and the outdated is a hallmark of efficient governance, something people of all political stripes can get behind. Its Secretary DeVos performance history that leaves us concerned when we see regulations regarding special-needs children being rescinded. I am concerned that the process by which the Department of Education made this announcement caused confusion and worry among families and advocates, particularly given Secretary DeVos troubling record of failing to recognize the rights of students who experience disabilities, and I will work with my colleagues to ensure that the rights of these students are protected, said Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H. During her confirmation hearing in January, DeVos got confused when Hassan, whose son has a severe disability, grilled her about special education law. Professor Bill Koski, director of the Youth and Education Law Project at Stanford University, told the Post he had reviewed many of the documents on the list and did not believe the move would affect how schools accommodate students with disabilities. It does look like housekeeping to me more than anything else, Koski said. I dont know that it will change practice in any way. We hope Professor Koskis assessment is on the money. Were familiar with the Republican Partys standing interest in reducing the number of government regulations, but that is usually with regard to businesses being able to operate as free as possible from government interference. The topic at hand is public education. Unlike private schools, public schools are required by law to admit all children coming through their doors, which obviously includes children with disabilities. We urge Secretary DeVos and the Department of Education to move with caution when it comes to special-needs education. Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - October 30, 2017) - GoviEx Uranium Inc. (TSXV: GXU) (OTCQB: GVXXF) ("GoviEx") announced today the completion of its previously announced transaction to acquire the uranium mineral interests of African Energy Resources Ltd. (ASX: AFR) ("African Energy") in Zambia (the "Transaction"). See GoviEx's news release dated March 6, 2017. Govind Friedland, Executive Chairman of GoviEx, commented, "The combination of African Energy's Chirundu and Kiraba Valley tenements with GoviEx's Mutanga Project finally unites these neighbouring properties, and significantly expands and improves the potential economies of scale. GoviEx will now focus on completing a Preliminary Economic Assessment based on the consolidated land holding." The Chirundu and Kariba Valley properties acquired as part of the Transaction include a mining licence, a prospecting licence, and a pending exploration licence. The Chirundu mining licence covers two uranium deposits - Gwabe and Njame - containing Joint Ore Reserves Committee (JORC) mineral resources of 7.4 Mlb U3O8 in the Measured and Indicated categories, plus 3.8 Mlb U3O8 in the Inferred category (see tables below for detailed breakdown). GoviEx's acquisition of the Chirundu and Kariba Valley properties, combined with the Mutanga Project, represents a regional consolidation and will result in contiguous tenements of approximately 140 km in strike length, including three mining licences, containing combined Mineral Resources of 15.2 Mlb U3O8 in the Measured and Indicated categories and 45.2 Mlb U3O8 the Inferred category. Sections between the known deposits remain under-explored with a number of prospective drill targets which could further expand GoviEx's NI 43-101 resource. Upon closing of the Transaction, GoviEx has one of the largest combined uranium Mineral Resource bases amongst its peer group, with combined Measured and Indicated Resources of 131.7 Mlb U3O8 and Inferred Resources of 76.9 Mlb U3O8 estimated in accordance with NI 43-101. Under the terms of the Transaction, GoviEx acquired African Energy's wholly-owned Zambian subsidiaries, Muchinga Energy Resources Limited, which holds the Kariba Valley tenement, and Chirundu Joint Ventures Zambia Ltd., which holds the Chirundu tenements. In exchange, GoviEx issued African Energy 3 million common shares of GoviEx (the "Consideration Shares") and warrants of GoviEx (the "Consideration Warrants") to purchase 1.6 million common shares of GoviEx. Each Consideration Warrant is exercisable until October 30, 2020, subject to certain acceleration provisions, for one common share of GoviEx at a price-per-share of US$0.23 (being the United States dollar equivalent of 160% of the ten (10) day volume weighted average price of GoviEx's common shares on the TSX Venture Exchange ("TSX-V") calculated from the last trading day before the closing of the Transaction). The Consideration Shares, Consideration Warrants and any common shares issuable upon exercise of the Consideration Warrants are subject to certain contractual transfer restrictions until April 30, 2018. The Transaction is subject to the receipt of final approval of the TSX-V. Figure 1: Regional geology and key uranium deposits in the Karoo Basin Figure 2: Mutanga, Chirundu and Kariba Valley licences Njame and Gwabe Mineral Resources Deposit Tonnes (Mt) U3O8 (ppm ) U3O8 (Mlbs) Njame Mineral Resource Measured 2.7 350 2.1 Indicated 3.7 252 2.1 Inferred 6.6 240 3.5 Gwabe Mineral Resource Measured 1.3 237 0.7 Indicated 3.6 313 2.5 Inferred 0.8 178 0.3 Note: Njame mineral resource is as of January 2010; Gwabe mineral resource is as of March 2009. The updated resource estimates are completed using the Ordinary Kriging method, and classified with reference to the criteria set out in the Australasian Code For Reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves (JORC Code, December 2004). Mutanga Uranium Project Deposit U3O8 Lower Cut-off Measured Indicated Inferred Tonnes (Mt) U3O8 (ppm) U3O8 (Mlbs) Tonnes (Mt) U3O8 (ppm) U3O8 (Mlbs) Tonnes (Mt) U3O8 (ppm) U3O8 (Mlbs) Mutanga 100 1.88 481 2.0 8.4 314 5.8 7.20 206 3.3 Mutanga Exts 200 0.50 340 0.4 Mutanga East 200 0.20 320 0.1 Mutanga West 200 0.50 340 0.4 Dibwe 100 17.00 234 9 Dibwe East 100 39.80 322 28.2 Total 1.88 481 2.0 8.4 314 5.8 65.20 287 41.4 Notes: In order to comply with the requirement that a mineral resource must have reasonable prospects for economic extraction, a third party (Roscoe Postle and Associates, "RPA") prepared a preliminary conceptual Whittle pit optimization for reporting of mineral resources within the conceptual pit shell, based on a uranium price of $70/lb U3O8. Mutanga's mineral resources as at September 12, 2013 are classified in accordance with the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum's "CIM Definition Standards - For Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves" in accordance with the requirements of National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects" (the Instrument). Mineral reserve and mineral resource estimates reflect the company's reasonable expectation that all necessary permits and approvals will be obtained and maintained. The Mineral Resource Statement was prepared Mr. Malcom Titley as the Qualified Person (QP) as defined by the CIM Definition Standards and Section 5.1 of National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects, Form 43-101F1 and Companion Policy 43-101CP). Source: Technical Report filed "NI 43-101 Technical Report Mineral Resource Estimates for the Mutanga Uranium Project, Denison Mines Corp Zambia Africa", dated September 12, 2013. Prepared by CSA Global (UK) Ltd for Denison Mines Corp. Mineral Resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mineral Resources are subject to infill drilling, permitting, mine planning, mining dilution and recovery losses, among other things, to be converted into mineral reserves. Due to the uncertainty associated with inferred mineral resources, it cannot be assumed that all or any part of an inferred mineral resource will ever be upgraded to indicated or measured mineral resources, including as a result of continued exploration. Qualified persons For GoviEx, the scientific and technical information disclosed in this release has been reviewed, verified and approved by Dr. Rob Bowell, a chartered chemist of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a chartered geologist of the Geological Society of London and Fellow of the Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Materials, who is an independent Qualified Person under the terms of National Instrument 43-101 for uranium deposits. For African Energy, the scientific and technical information disclosed in this release has been reviewed Dr. Frazer Tabeart (an employee and the Managing Director of African Energy), who is a member of The Australian Institute of Geoscientists. Dr. Tabeart has sufficient experience, which is relevant to the style of mineralization and type of deposit under consideration and to the activity which he is undertaking to qualify as a Competent Person under the 2012 Edition of the Australasian Code for reporting of Exploration Results, Mineral Resources and Ore Reserves. Dr. Tabeart consents to the inclusion of the data in the form and context in which it appears. About GoviEx Uranium GoviEx is a mineral resource company focused on the exploration and development of uranium properties in Africa. GoviEx's principal objective is to become a significant uranium producer through the continued exploration and development of its flagship Mine Permitted Madaouela Project in Niger, its Mutanga Project in Zambia, and its other uranium properties in Africa. About African Energy The company is focused on the development of multiple integrated power projects in Botswana to meet the increasing demand for power in the southern African region. 20 companies preparing to issue shares worth Rs3.5b Twenty companies are waiting for the go-ahead from the Securities Board of Nepal (Sebon) to issue 52 million primary shares worth more than Rs3.5 billion. They include 16 hydropower companies, two development banks, one commercial bank and one insurance company, said Sebon. Transport & Public Works Minister Victor Rossi has announced that the government plans to launch an international public tender next month for the building of a new freight railway line linking the capital, Montevideo, with the city of Paso de los Toros, in the central Tacuarembo department. The building of the new 273km railway is considered to be a key part of the plans by the Uruguayan government to convince Finish firm UPM to build a new pulp mill in central Uruguay, in what has been billed as potentially the largest investment project in the countrys history. Rossi said that the government hopes to present the public-private partnership (PPP) project, which will also involve the building of bridges and a train depot, to interested parties by 6 November, with a view to launching the public tender process probably by 20 November. End of preview - This article contains approximately 141 words. Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article Not a Subscriber? Choose from one of the following options LifeStyle The best LifeStyle shows are right here, from Australia and around the world. Catch up with the experts on home design and interiors, food and cooking, the property market, and get fresh ideas with the savviest of renovators. Whether you need inspiration for cooking up a storm, to refresh a tired room, or tips to sell your property, Foxtel LifeStyle will always something new for you to watch. Enjoy your favourite experts like Andrew Winter and Neale Whitaker, or Deb Hutton and Jamie Oliver live or On Demand. Get Foxtel Night terrors (Image credit: Utagawa Kuniyoshi) Traditional Halloween creatures vampires, werewolves and killer clowns may give you the shivers, but these mythic horrors from around the world are truly nightmare fuel. From grotesque human/animal hybrids to sentient and vengeful flying body parts, here are just a few of the lesser-known things that go bump in the night that might make you lock your doors and hide under your covers with a flashlight. Adlet (Inuit) (Image credit: Shutterstock) Inuit folklore tells of the Adlet, human-dog hybrids with dogs' legs and a human body, who were born to a woman that mated with a dog, according to a collection of Inuit tales and songs published in 1889 in the Journal of American Folklore. The Adlet had human bodies with hairy dogs' legs, and they killed and ate their grandfather after he murdered their canine father, according to the legend. Acheri (India) (Image credit: Paul Fearn/Alamy) The unnerving childlike phantom known as the acheri originated in Hindu folklore in northern India, though it also appears as a Native American myth among the Chippewa people, according to the Encyclopedia of Spirits and Ghosts in World Mythology (McFarland, 2016). The acheri is the ghost of a young girl who died under tragic circumstances. She returns from beyond the grave, descending from the mountains after dark to bring sickness to children and the elderly. Pictured here as a character in the PlayStation role-playing video game "Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner," the acheri typically appears as a pale and sickly looking young girl, and when its shadow falls upon its victims they fall ill with a deadly respiratory disease. Nuckelavee (Scotland) (Image credit: Zuma) The Scottish Nuckelavee is a "skinless centaur" with a snout like a pig's that expels gusts of steam, a single enormous eye, and arms that drag upon the ground, according to the "Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology" (McFarland, 2013). It lives in the ocean and can kill people by breathing on them, leading them to waste away and eventually die. Gulon (Image credit: Alamy) A description of Sweden's Gulon, a fearsome legendary animal with the head and ears of a cat, a body like a lion's and the tail of a fox, appeared in "A Description of the Northern People," an exhaustive account of the folklore and history of Nordic countries, published in 1555 by Swedish writer Olaus Magnus. The Gulon gorges itself on carrion until it is grossly distended, then squeezes itself between two trees to make room for more, according to "Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth" (W.W. Norton & Co., 2001). Futakuchi-onna (Image credit: Alamy) This eerie creature looks like an ordinary woman, but has a ravenous second mouth on the back of her head, hidden by her hair. The mouth is insatiable; it gorges on any food it can find, fed by animated strands of the woman's hair, and usually appears as a punishment afflicting people who are extremely greedy or stingy, according to Yokai.com, an online database of Japanese ghosts and monsters. Rompo (Image credit: J. Maclock) The scavenging rompo survives by eating human corpses, according to legends that originated in India and across Africa. It is relatively small, measuring approximately 3 feet (1 meter) long, with the front legs of a badger, the back legs and rear of a bear, the head of a hare and the ears of a person, topped with a luxurious horse's mane, according to the "Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore" (McFarland, 2016). Finfolk (Image credit: Hulton Archive/Getty) In the Orkney Islands, an archipelago off the northeastern coast of Scotland, people once whispered of the Finfolk, a tribe of sorcerers and shapeshifters who were skilled at boating and who could bend the ocean to their will. Finfolk could live underwater or on land, though their permanent home was usually described as a marvelous city at the bottom of the ocean, and they would venture into towns and villages to steal humans as husbands or wives, according to Orkneyjar, a nonprofit website describing Orkney history and folklore. Bokkenrijders (Image credit: Theo Molkenboer) Little is known about these figures from Dutch folklore, who called the name of the devil to summon flying goats that they would ride through the air, to practice untold acts of mischief. The name "goat riders" in Dutch was applied in the 18th century to bands of robbers that wild rumors described as the terrifying, flying goat riders of legend. Men suspected of being bokkenrijders were tortured and executed, with accusations condemning 31 people from a single municipality in Belgium between 1744 and 1776, the Belgian website Flanders Today reported. Bunyip (Image credit: Shutterstock) Swamps, rivers, and shallow inland waters across Australia are rumored to be the home of the bunyip, a lanky, green-furred, razor-clawed creature "about twice the size of the average man," with webbed hands and feet like a duck, the news agency ABC Riverland reported in 2007. Children were warned against playing too close to the water's edge, lest the bunyip catch them and drag them under to drown. Kumiho (Image credit: Utagawa Kuniyoshi) In Korean mythology, the kumiho a malevolent demon fox-woman with nine tails is a man-eater, both literally and figuratively. She is a killer with a voracious sexual appetite and she often consumes her conquests, according to EsoterX, a website that explores the anthropological sources of monsters in folklore from around the world. 11 killed, 7 injured in Gulmi microbus accident Eleven people were killed and seven others were injured when a microbus they were travelling in met with an accident near Birbas at Darbar Rural Municipality in Gulmi on Monday. See more Have you ever had one of those colds where no matter how hard you blow your nose, you still feel congested? That was daily life for a 57-year-old woman in China who had nosebleeds, congestion and inflammation for decades, according to news reports. But the cause of her nasal nuisances wasn't a lingering cold or deviated septum: When she finally went to see a doctor, they found a fully formed tooth that had grown upward into her nasal cavity, the Daily Mail reported today (Oct. 30). Doctors at the Hunan Provincial People's Hospital first discovered the tooth when they took a scan of the woman's head to look for the cause of her chronic inflammation but all they saw was some sort of round object blocking her nasal cavity, according to the Daily Mail. [27 Oddest Case Reports] When the doctors tried to extract the object, however, they discovered that they were actually dealing with an extra tooth, root and all, and needed to peel away several layers of membrane to remove it. Extra, or "supernumerary," teeth may sound like something out of science fiction, but these teeth can show up in as much as 4 percent of the population, according to a 2011 paper published in the Journal of Conservative Dentistry. Supernumerary teeth are twice as common in men as they are in women. Supernumerary teeth tend to grow out of the maxilla, which is the upper jawbone. The teeth tend to grow downward, alongside a person's other upper teeth once their baby teeth fall out. But sometimes, the teeth form "upside down" and instead of growing down into the mouth, they grow upward, toward a person's nose, according to a 2012 case series published in Contemporary Clinical Dentistry. But extra teeth rarely grow all the way into the nasal cavity, Dr. John Hellstein, a dentist of oral pathology at the University of Iowa, who wasn't involved in the woman's case, told Live Science in 2014. It's not clear why some people develop extra teeth, but researchers think genetics may play a role. Even when extra teeth grow in the "right" direction, they can cause problems with the arrangement and growth of one's regular teeth. They can knock teeth out of alignment, overcrowd the jaw, and even cause cysts, according to a 2014 review in the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Dentistry. But because they're so uncommon, the medical community has yet to reach a solid decision on the best time to extract the teeth before they "erupt" or break through the tissue and potentially cause problems, according to the 2014 paper. Originally published on Live Science. A robot with an uncannily human-like appearance recently advanced one step closer to human status, when it was granted citizenship to Saudi Arabia at the tech summit Future Investment Initiative (FII). Named "Sophia," the robot, created by Hanson Robotics (HR), has a pale-skinned face with features that are capable of being highly mobile and expressive and displaying a range of emotions. The company's "latest and most advanced robot," according to a statement on the HR website took to the stage at FII on Oct. 25 to address hundreds of attendees in Riyahd, Saudi Arabia, and to announce her recently acquired citizenship the first to be given to a robot, the BBC reported. "I am very honored and proud for this unique distinction," Sophia said during her onstage appearance, which was shared on YouTube by Arab News. "This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship," the robot said. [Machine Dreams: 22 Human-Like Androids from Sci-Fi] Saudia Arabia's Center for International Communication quoted Sophia's words in a tweet welcoming "the newest Saudi." See more At the conference, Sophia responded to simple statements and questions about artificial intelligence (AI) that were posed by journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin, a columnist for The New York Times and a co-anchor on the CNBC program "Squawk Box." When Sorkin noted that Sophia looked happy, she responded with, "I am always happy when surrounded by smart people who also happens [sic] to be rich and powerful." Sophia also shrugged off Sorkin's suggestion that humanoid robots such as herself might be perceived by people as unsettling a psychological affect known as the uncanny valley, which kicks in when an artificial, human-like construct looks familiar and eerily foreign at the same time. "Am I really that creepy?" Sophia asked the audience. "Well, even if I am, get over it." The conference audience welcomed the robot, but many on social media were quick to point out the irony of Saudi Arabia offering citizenship to a machine, according to the BBC. Many migrant workers who have lived there for decades have yet to receive the privilege, and the freedom of Saudi women is still closely regulated: A national ban on women drivers was lifted only recently, in September, the BBC reported. Original article on Live Science. There has been a lot of noise about the time it has taken to establish who the new government is. But lets have a good look at the timeline. The 51st Parliament was dissolved on August 22, overseas voting started on September 6, advanced voting started on September 11, polling day was September 23. The final election result, which included special votes that make up 17 per cent of the total vote, was declared on October 7. The first meeting to set out the rules of negotiation was held between New Zealand First and National then New Zealand First and Labour, on Friday, October 6. The first of a series of just under 20 face-to-face meetings with both parties separately was held at noon on Sunday, October 8. These negotiations, based on policy and policy only, were completed by 8.30pm on October 12. The New Zealand First Board of Directors and caucus met on October 16 and 17 to go over areas of commonality, reflect on policy areas that survived the negotiation process and assess the different party positions on each policy area. Winston Peters announced the consensus decision of the board and the caucus on Thursday, October 19. So in all it took 12 days from the declaration of the final election result for New Zealand to know who would make up its new government. And there were just over nine weeks from the start of the election to the confirmation of a Labour/New Zealand First coalition government, with the Green Party as a Supply and Confidence support partner. As one of those sitting at that negotiating table, I can tell you that those 12 days were intense. They were fair and never predetermined. Of course, there are people who are disappointed. There always are after an election, but we must ensure that disappointment or delight is based on facts, not hysteria. So now this government must prove to the people of New Zealand that they can deliver the policies upon which they campaigned. We have three years to do that, and we are very aware of it. Meanwhile, of all the electorates Rodney has found itself a real winner. Rodney now has four MPs, three of them in the current government. Mark Mitchell was re-elected as the electorate MP, and I was re-elected as a list MP. We are joined by Marja Lubeck, Labour list MP, and Jenny Marcroft, New Zealand First list MP. With that level of representation, I am extremely optimistic that Rodney will gain the attention she has always deserved. by Tracey Martin martinmp@parliament.govt.nz Swedish Death Cleaning is a new trend, but unlike other trends that are based on acquiring stuff youre unlikely to really need, Swedish Death Cleaning is purposeful disposal of stuff you dont want, need or use. This is so your house and life are less cluttered, and so that your friends and family arent burdened with your lifetimes junk to dispose of when youre dead and gone. The concept comes from a recent book by Swedish author Margareta Magnusson, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning. She encourages us to embrace minimalism, sooner, rather than later, before others have to do it for you. Magnusson says things you own can be classed into two categories: possessions you can easily get rid of clothes you no longer wear, unwanted gifts, books youll never read; and things you might want to keep because of their meaning to your life photos, love letters, treasured childrens art. But be careful about those love letters, Magnusson warns. Getting rid of private correspondence and things that might hurt those you love when youre gone, ensures youre doing it at and with your discretion, and avoids causing future harm. It also means theres no invasion of your privacy even when you are dead. Swedish Death Cleaning follows other decluttering doctrines that have been popular around the world, including Marie Kondo from Japan, who said if you dont love something, let it go. The overall principle is the same. Love and use it, or lose it. Then your life will be simpler, with less worry, less maintenance and easier, if and when you have to move. I like the idea that there are also less things to dust. An uncluttered life sounds refreshing. Magnusson says we should focus on meaningful life events and memories, not the stuff acquired along the way. The process of decluttering as a gradual, ongoing and lifetime effort will bring those special events and memories into focus. But Magnusson advises starting not with mementoes of the heart, otherwise youre at risk of getting side tracked into nostalgia and not getting rid of anything. She says you should start with practical objects where theres less emotional attachment. Swedish Death Cleaning is apparently not some morbid rejection of the things that give life meaning, but allows you to focus on the things that really matter. To be most effective you should celebrate your efforts with friends, and reward your clearing efforts with life affirming activities, not more stuff. We spend a big part of our lives accumulating often unneeded stuff but are encouraged to spend the latter part getting rid of it. Decluttering is challenging because lots of stuff is acquired as part of lifes journey and thats what gives it the meaning and makes it so hard to dispose of. Ultimately, it is better for the planet not to acquire so much junk to begin with. Christine Rose christine.rose25@gmail.com The Kaipara Flats community will gather for the annual Kaipara Flat School Country Show Day this Saturday, November 4. The day brings the community and school together to celebrate their rural heritage. An organiser Clare Dill says the day is a big part of the school calendar, held annually for the last 66 years, with a focus on the animal leading. We will have the wood-chopping as usual, but we are also introducing a speed shear competition this year, Clare says. Shearers will shear one sheep to compete against the clock, with fastest and cleanest shear winning. They will be competing for a $500 prize sponsored by Rabobank and a trophy donated by the Richard and Bruce Dill families. There is a record number of lambs entered so it should be a good showcase of talent both from farmers and lifestylers. Other events include gumboot throwing and cowpat bingo, which visitors can participate in. There will be a wide range of stalls and activities, with Devonshire teas, cakes and sweets, sausage sizzle, bacon and egg burgers, and other home made food, plants and produce stalls, bric-a-brac, toys, books, raffles, quick-fire raffles, silent and live auctions. The show runs from 10am to 2.30pm. Please enter your email to continue. Email Product Name Free Member CAPTCHA Phone This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. Please verify your account. Youll be sent a unique link thatll log you in here. Login with email or username By continuing you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy Help & Support Auckland Transport (AT) is asking for public feedback on its latest fix for Hill Street in Warkworth. AT is proposing to install a time-controlled barrier, similar to those used at railway crossings, to control access to Elizabeth Street during the morning peak. Entry would be closed automatically using the barrier arm, between the hours of 7am to 9am, on weekdays only. This will direct traffic heading into Warkworth from the north, Hill Street and Kowhai Park along State Highway 1 to Whitaker Road. Morning traffic coming in from Matakana and Sandspit Roads would not be affected. An AT spokesperson says the design of the barrier wont be finalised until feedback from the community is received. However, One Warkworth Business Association transport spokesperson Dave Stott says opening and closing Elizabeth Street at different times of the day is a recipe for confusion, for both visitors and locals. If people go to turn into Elizabeth Street when the barrier is down there is real potential for accidents, Dave says. During the trial last year, when the road cones were in place, there were numerous incidences of vehicles going to turn into the street then heading up the hill and doing a u-turn near Millstream Place. It was a very dangerous situation. There is also potential to create more congestion at the SH1/Whitaker Road intersection. One Warkworth believes that a safer option would be to put lights at the end of Elizabeth Street. Dave says AT is concerned that this would add to the wait time for vehicles. We think it is probably only a matter of an extra 15 to 20 seconds, but it would make a huge difference to safety at the intersection. As part of the intersection improvements, AT is also proposing to install a traffic signal on the slip lane off SH1 and new pedestrian crossings. Physical works are expected to start in the first quarter of next year. One Warkworth is urging businesses and residents to give AT feedback as soon as possible, as no closing date for consultation has been set. AT says the feedback form will remain open even after the crossings and barrier arm has been installed. We want to hear from people right through the process, a spokesperson says. Once it has been constructed we want to hear from drivers and pedestrians about how it has improved the road and whether there are any changes we could make to help it function even better. AT curtailed a trial closure of Elizabeth Street late last year after protests from business owners. However, AT says an assessment of the trial before it was abandoned indicated that the measures introduced were successful at improving traffic flow and reducing congestion, particularly in the morning peak. A separate investigation into a permanent solution for the Hill Street intersection is also underway. AT says the work is expected to be carried out once the Puhoi to Warkworth motorway is open to traffic in 2021, which will provide a detour route to minimise construction disruption. Info: at.govt.nz/projects-roadworks/hill-street-intersection-traffic-improvements-trial Local News, Crime, Politics By Long Island News & PR Published: October 30 2017 Credit Card Company Failed To Prominently Disclose Fees In Marketing Materials; Continental to Change Marketing Materials And Refund NY Consumers. New York, NY - October 30, 2017 - New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today announced an agreement between his office and credit card servicer and marketer Continental Finance Company, LLC, resolving allegations that the company failed to prominently disclose fees to consumers in marketing materials for its Surge credit cards. As part of the agreement, Continental Finance has agreed to improve the disclosures in the direct mail marketing of its "Surge" credit cards and refund the initial annual fee of $125 to more than 150 New Yorkers who activated the card after receiving a written solicitation. Upon receipt of a consumer complaint, the Attorney General's Office launched an investigation into the materials Continental Finance used to promote the "Surge" credit card, a low-limit line of credit marketed to New York consumers. In written materials, the "Surge" credit card prominently offered a $500 credit limit, but failed to equally disclose that there was an off-the-top first year fee of $125, thereby effectively leaving the consumer with an initial credit limit of only $375. "Misleading credit card marketing can have a disastrous domino effect for New York consumers, particularly for those new to the credit market or with compromised credit ratings," said Attorney General Schneiderman. "Today's agreement with Continental Finance Company will return money to over 150 New Yorkers and ensure that in the future Continental discloses fees upfront, enabling consumers to make an informed decision about their financial wellbeing." The Attorney General's investigation revealed that the direct mail marketing materials for Continentals Surge credit card generally consisted of six pages. The first four pages were in full color and advertised various features of the card. The offer of an initial credit limit of $500" was prominently featured in the first few pages, typically in a large color font. In the first two pages alone, there were four references to an initial credit limit of $500. On the second page, under a large header which read Features of our Card, the initial credit limit of $500 was the first of four features listed. None of these references to the initial credit limit had any qualifiers, asterisks, or other notations indicating that there were other terms which might negatively impact the limit. Despite the repeated claims of a $500 initial limit, New Yorkers who signed up for and received the card had their available credit immediately reduced by the $125 fee. Under the terms of the agreement, Continental Finance Company, LLC, a Delaware corporation, altered its marketing materials to prominently disclose the upfront fee, and refunded the initial annual fee charged to more than 150 New York consumers. Currently, under federal law, companies like Continental Finance must disclose essential terms in a table format, colloquially known as the Schumer Box. In this instance, the federal disclosure followed multiple pages of marketing materials which did not list important items like upfront fees that diminished the initial buying power of the card. Consumers regularly receive solicitations for credit cards by mail, the internet, and even telephone. It is critically important to read all promotional materials front to back before signing up. Many cards include automatic charges, costs associated with second cards, security deposits, and other fees, which may not be readily apparent at first glance. New Yorkers who are concerned that they may have been misled regarding credit cards or other consumer issues are encouraged to call the Attorney Generals Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-800-771-7755 or contact the office online at ag.ny.gov Nature & Weather, Local News By Long Island News & PR Published: October 30 2017 Closures Caused By Widespread Heavy Rainfall. Long Island, NY - October 30, 2017 - Shellfish harvesting areas in several towns in Nassau and Suffolk Counties have been designated as uncertified (closed) for shellfish harvesting, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced today. These temporary closures have been implemented due to the heavy rainfall and storm-water runoff that occurred in the wake of this past weekend's rainfall, which saw some areas receiving in excess of 3 to 4 inches. Effective immediately on Monday, Oct. 30 and continuing until a determination is made that conditions no longer exist that may make shellfish hazardous for use as food, the following areas in Suffolk County are designated as uncertified and the harvest of shellfish is temporarily prohibited: Town of North Hempstead : All of Hempstead Harbor lying south of a line extending northeasterly from Prospect Point to Matinecock Point. Town of Oyster Bay (north shore): All of Oyster Bay Harbor and all of Cold Spring Harbor south of a line extending east from the stone house on Plum Point (Centre Island) to the northerly side of the beach pavilion at West Neck Beach (Town of Huntington) on the eastern shore of Cold Spring Harbor. Towns of Babylon and Islip: All normally certified areas of Great South Bay and its tributaries east of a line extending southerly, from the southernmost tip of Bergen Point (Babylon) to the eastern side of the boat basin at the Town of Babylon's Cedar Beach Marina on the barrier island (Jones Island). Towns of Islip and Brookhaven (south shore): All of northern Great South Bay, including Nicoll Bay and Patchogue Bay, north of a line extending easterly from the southern base of the northbound span of the Robert Moses Causeway (north side of Captree Island) to Buoy R "6" Fl R 4s (West Channel) to Buoy R "4" Fl R 2.5s (south of Nicoll Point) to Buoy GR "EN" Fl (2+1) G 6s (Nicoll Bay) to Buoy R N "30" (south of Green Point) through Buoys R N "32", R "34" FL R 2.5s and G "35" Fl G 4s (south of Blue Point) to Buoy R A36" Fl R 6s (south of Swan River) to Buoy G C A37" to Buoy G "1" Fl G 2.5s (south of Howells Point) thence proceeding southeasterly from buoy G "1" Fl G 2.5s to the flag tower at Bellport Beach (located on the barrier beach, Fire Island). Town of Brookhaven (south shore): All of Bellport Bay east of a line extending southerly from Howells Point through Buoy G "1" Fl G 2.5s, thence proceeding southeasterly to the flag tower at Bellport Beach; AND, all of Moriches Bay and its tributaries. Town of Brookhaven (north shore): All of Stony Brook Harbor, Flax Pond, Port Jefferson Harbor and Mount Sinai Harbor. Town of Huntington : All of Northport Bay, Duck Island Harbor, Centerport Harbor, Lloyd Harbor; and, all that area of Huntington Bay south of a line extending easterly from the southernmost point of East Beach (at the north side of the mouth of Lloyd Harbor) to the southernmost point of West Beach (the southern tip of Sand City beach); AND, all that area of Cold Spring Harbor, lying southerly of a line extending east from the stone house on Plum Point (Centre Island) to the northerly side of the beach pavilion at the Town of Huntington West Neck Beach on the eastern shore of Cold Spring Harbor. Town of Smithtown : All of Stony Brook Harbor and its tributaries. Towns of Riverhead and Southampton: All of Flanders Bay and its tributaries west of a line extending southwesterly from Miamogue Point to the northernmost point of Red Cedar Point. Town of Southampton : All town underwater lands in the creeks, coves and harbors within the Town of Southampton located between Red Cedar Point and North Haven Peninsula (including, Red Creek Pond, Squire Pond, Cold Spring Pond, North Sea Harbor and Noyac Creek); and, all that area of Moriches Bay, Quantuck Bay, Quantuck Canal and Shinnecock Bay and their tributaries. Town of Southold : All of Orient Harbor, Hallock Bay and their tributaries north and east of a line extending westerly from the Bug Light (lighthouse at Long Beach Point) to the wooden jetty at the northern side of the mouth of Spring Pond (East Marion). DEC will re-open areas as soon as possible based on the results of water quality testing to be conducted on samples that will be collected from the affected areas over the next several days. Tech & Science, Local News, Community, Charity & Cause By Long Island News & PR Published: October 30 2017 Weatherization Measures Help Families Save an Average 20 Percent on Utility Bills. Albany, NY - October 30, 2017 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced $59 million in funding through the Weatherization Assistance Program to help cut utility costs for approximately 9,200 income-eligible families and seniors across the state. Funds will be released to a statewide network of non-profit organizations to conduct energy-efficiency work including, but not limited to air sealing, insulation, upgrading heating systems, and diagnostic testing to identify hazards such as carbon monoxide and mold. Weatherization can save an average of 20 percent on utility bills. "This program has helped thousands of families cut utility costs, save money and build stronger, more energy efficient homes," Governor Cuomo said. "I urge any New Yorker who qualifies for this funding to see how we can help make your house more energy efficient, less expensive to maintain, and more resilient for whatever Mother Nature decides to throw our way." Under Governor Cuomo's leadership, New York's Weatherization Assistance Program has invested more than $738 million since 2011 to make 118,600 homes safer, more resilient, and more affordable. Administered by New York State Homes and Community Renewal, with funds from the U.S. Departments of Energy and Health and Human Services, WAP is available in every county through a statewide network of local providers. Priority is given to households with children, seniors, persons with disabilities, and those receiving Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program funds. The program assists all types of housing including single-family homes, multi-family buildings, and manufactured homes. Since the start of the program in 1977, more than 705,000 dwellings in New York State have been assisted. A total of $1.3 million of the $59 million will go toward providing the network of subgrantees with training and technical assistance. Training in weatherization techniques, such as energy auditing and repairing heating systems, ensures that program funds are used effectively and work is done safely. Each year the Weatherization Program supports hundreds of good-paying, green jobs and our state-of-the-art training facilities help ensure that workers keep up with rapidly evolving technologies. A list of the 2017 Weatherization Assistance Program Award recipients by region is available here An evaluation of HCR's Weatherization Program that was completed earlier this year found significant benefits. Energy use in completed homes is reduced by nearly 20 percent, on average, and health and safety hazards such as poor indoor air quality, lead-based paint and mold that can trigger asthma are reduced or eliminated. These actions provide substantial measurable benefits to occupants. RuthAnne Visnauskas, Commissioner of New York State Homes and Community Renewal said, "By adding insulation, upgrading heating systems, and fixing leaky windows and roofs, we can help assure vulnerable New Yorkers spend less of their household income on utilities. Under Governor Cuomo's leadership, the WAP has helped make energy costs less burdensome and living environments healthier for more than 118,000 households - from single-family homes to multi-family buildings throughout the state." Congresswoman Louise Slaughter said, "I'm proud to announce this funding to help families in our community heat their homes as we prepare for another Rochester winter. President Trump's budget request eliminates the Weatherization Assistance Program that has made this funding possible while also slashing funding for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and abolishing the State Energy Program. These are dangerous cuts that would devastate Western New Yorkers. No one should have to choose between heating their home and putting food on the table. That's why I will keep fighting to fund proven programs like this while working to ensure the president's budget request never becomes a reality." Congressman Jose Serrano said, "This federal funding will help families struggling to make ends meet lower their monthly electricity bill, modernize buildings, and invest in clean air across the state. As a member of Congress and the Appropriations Committee, I have always made it a priority fighting for funding for the protection and improvement of our environment and air quality-- particularly in urban areas like the Bronx. The Weatherization Assistance Program is just one of the many programs that help New York hard working families while investing in our environment that I am proud to have supported over the years. I applaud Governor Cuomo for also making this issue a priority." Congressman Eliot Engel said, "The Weatherization Assistance Program doesn't just cut costs for New York familiesit reduces energy consumption statewide, thus limiting our carbon footprint. As we head into the winter months this program becomes even more vital, so I am pleased Governor Cuomo has made this commitment to help improve energy affordability for New York families." Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney said, "Weatherizing buildings and homes is one of the best ways to help people save money and protect the environment. I'm proud to support this federal funding to help low-income families and seniors make their homes more energy efficient and applaud Governor Cuomo's work to make sure this help gets to those who need it." Congressman Joe Crowley said "The benefits of weatherizing our homes are twofold - not only does it make our homes safer and more resilient, but it will ease the financial burden of utilities for hardworking New Yorkers. These are smart investments with both short and long-term impacts. I commend Governor Cuomo for his role in making these federal dollars available through the Weatherization Assistance Program to ensure homeowners are protected." Congressman Paul Tonko said, "I have long fought for federal funding for New York State to help make homes more energy efficient. On Weatherization Day, I commend Governor Cuomo's announcement to help income-eligible seniors and families keep their homes warm in the winter and cool in the summer. This federal program empowers local small businesses to renovate homes, reduces the cost of utility bills, and prioritizes energy efficiency as our fuel of choice. In Congress, I will continue to fight for weatherization funds so that New York can continue implementing these important results." Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney said, "People shouldn't have to choose between keeping the heat on or getting groceries, and I want to thank the Governor for making this smart investment to help folks in the Hudson Valley stay warm during the winter. Weatherization reduces the cost of heating, cuts down our carbon footprint and it's an incredibly cost-effective way to help out folks in need." Congresswoman Elise Stefanik said, "This important funding will go a long way to help our region's most vulnerable. This is an important priority so that low-income families and seniors across the North Country can save their hard earned money while increasing safety and energy efficiency." Congressman Lee Zeldin said, "These funds help cut utility costs for families in New York, which is especially important on Long Island where the cost of living is so high. I am pleased to join with Governor Cuomo to announce these federal funds, which will help reduce utility costs and upgrade energy efficient infrastructure in Suffolk County." Congressman Adriano Espaillat said, "Older homes are more susceptible to hazards, such as carbon monoxide and mold, and are more likely to burden vulnerable New Yorkers with high utility bills. Weatherizing homes helps to protect against extreme weather events as well as alleviate high energy bills, which is crucial for residents most in need. Today's announcement is progress toward an equitable and inclusive future as well as our commitment to a long-term housing strategy that ensures New York residences are eco-friendly and affordable." 88 kg gold smuggled in collusion with APF personnel: Police The Metropolitan Police Crime Division (MPCD) of Nepal Police has said that the Armed Police Force (APF) personnel deployed at the Rasuwa-Kerung border, the only trade route currently in operation between Nepal and China, had colluded in smuggling 88 kg gold to Kathmandu. Nature & Weather, Local News, National & World News, Community, Charity & Cause By Long Island News & PR Published: October 30 2017 Firefighting Team of DEC Forest Rangers, Staff and Volunteers Battled 93,363-Acre Blaze. Albany, NY - October 30, 2017 - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today welcomed home a team of 20 New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers, staff, and volunteers who helped battle and contain wildfires in Sonoma County, California. This is the third New York firefighting crew dispatched to fight wildfires in western states this year. "These brave New Yorkers stepped up to help our neighbors at their time of greatest need and after battling dangerous wildfires in California, I'm proud to welcome them back home," Governor Cuomo said. "New Yorkers are tough, but they are caring and these courageous men and women truly encapsulate the very best of this spirit." When the New York crew arrived in California, 23 lives had been lost and hundreds of homes were destroyed or threatened by the worst wildfire in California history. By the time the crew departed, a total of 7,010 structures were destroyed and another 487 structures damaged. Currently, the fire is 95 percent contained and full containment is expected by the end of the month. The firefighting team is made up of DEC employees and volunteers, including State Forest Rangers that joined crews from other states to help battle the wildfires. When the New York crew arrived, they were assigned to the Nuns Fire and later transitioned to the Tubbs Fire during their two-week deployment. More than 700 firefighters and support personnel continue to work to suppress these fires. The returning crew of New York Forest Rangers, employees and volunteers from across the state include: David Kallen, Forest Ranger, Crew Boss, Fulton County Nancy Ganswindt, Forest Ranger, Squad Boss, Putnam County Gary Miller, Forest Ranger, Hamilton County Hannah O'Connor, Forest Ranger, Rensselaer County Zachary Robitaille, Forest Ranger, Chautauqua County Eric Kasza, DEC Volunteer Firefighter, Saratoga County Aaron Graves, DEC Lands & Forests, St. Lawrence County Scott Sabo, Forest Ranger, Squad Boss, Franklin County Adam Baldwin, Forest Ranger, St. Lawrence County Andrew Lewis, Forest Ranger, Fulton County Joseph Hess, Forest Ranger, Saratoga County Tyler Briggs, DEC Volunteer Firefighter, Albany County Lawrence Day, DEC Volunteer Firefighter, Steuben County Charles Kabrehl, Forest Ranger, Squad Boss, Warren County Howard Kreft, Forest Ranger, Sullivan County Jared Booth, Forest Ranger, St. Lawrence County Nathan Sprague, Forest Ranger, Cattaraugus County James Canevari, DEC Fish & Wildlife, St. Lawrence County Steven Jackson, DEC Volunteer Firefighter, Albany County Samuel Griffis, DEC Volunteer Firefighter, Washington County The crew created control lines with hand tools, chainsaws and intentional fire to contain the wildfire and protect threatened homes. They worked in difficult terrain near local communities and endured daily temperatures hovering close to 90 degrees. "I commend our Forest Rangers, staff, and volunteers for their bravery over these past two weeks in helping to contain this wildfire and protect precious natural resources and private homes," said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos. "All New Yorkers should be proud of work our fire crews do to battle these blazes. For nearly 40 years, New York has stood ready and willing to assist our sister states in their time of need." The team of firefighters began their assignment in California on October 15, and arrived back in the Capital Region on October 28. In 1979, New York sent its first firefighting crew to assist western states with large wildfires. On average, one or two crews have been sent as needed, to assist with wildfires every year since. Due to the significant fire situation faced by many western states this year New York was able to send a third crew along with several single resources. This year, DEC sent a total of 60 firefighters, including the three crews, to several western states as well as an additional 5 Rangers to Hurricane Harvey. In addition to helping contain the national wildfires and minimize damage, these crews also gain valuable experience that can be utilized fighting wildfires and managing all-risk incidents in New York. Large Quantity of Fentanyl Seized During Search Warrant, Three Mastic Beach Men Arrested, Authorities Say Local News, Crime By Long Island News & PR Published: October 30 2017 Officials: Officials from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection at JFK intercepted two postal packages from Hong Kong destined for a residence in Mastic Beach, New York. SCPD have arrested three men who imported Fentanyl from Hong Kong and intended to be distributed throughout Suffolk County. Mastic Beach, NY - October 30, 2017 - Suffolk County Police have arrested three men who imported large quantities of Fentanyl from Hong Kong and intended to be distributed throughout Suffolk County Police have arrested three men who imported large quantities of Fentanyl from Hong Kong and intended to be distributed throughout Suffolk County, New York Three men were arrested after a thorough investigation conducted by Suffolk County Narcotics Section detectives, Seventh Precinct Crime Section officers, in conjunction with officials from United States Customs and Border Protection - Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST), Homeland Security Investigations John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York City Police Department, and United States Postal Service Agents. Officials from the United States Customs and Border Protection at JFK intercepted two postal packages from Hong Kong destined for a residence in Mastic Beach, New York . On October 27 at approximately 4 p.m., a search warrant was executed at a residence on Edwards Road, where officials seized approximately 725 grams of Fentanyl, $7,400 cash, numerous 9 mm rounds, two cell phones and a 2007 Mercedes-Benz. As officers approached, Thomas Moore had a pit bull on a leash in the front yard. Moore ignored officers commands and released the dog who then charged at detectives. Two rounds were fired and struck the dog. It was treated at a local animal hospital. Detectives arrested Corey Robinson, 24, of Mastic Beach, and charged him with Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance 1st Degree. Thomas Moore, 41, of Mastic Beach was charged with Obstructing Government Administration. Daequane Rickenbacker, 25, of Mastic Beach was charged with Loitering 1st Degree. All three men were arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on October 28. SCPD: Woman Robbed Islandia Bank While Her Six-Year-Old Waited in a Taxi Local News, Crime By Long Island News & PR Published: October 30 2017 Diana Marini of Brentwood, 28, entered Chase Bank and presented a note demanding cash, then fled with her child in a waiting taxi, officials say. SCPD arrested Diana Marini of Brentwood, 28, for robbing an Islandia bank while she left her daughter in a waiting taxi. Islandia, NY - October 30, 2017 - Suffolk County Police arrested a woman for robbing an Suffolk County Police arrested a woman for robbing an Islandia bank while she left her daughter in a waiting taxi on Saturday, October 28. Diana Marini entered Chase Bank, located at 1455 Veterans Memorial Highway, and presented a note demanding cash. The teller complied and the woman fled in a waiting taxi at approximately 1:05 p.m. Fourth Precinct Police Officer James Tobin responded and located the taxi, the suspect, and the suspects six-year-old daughter. Major Case detectives charged Marini, 28, of Brentwood , New York with Robbery 1st Degree and Endangering the Welfare of a Child. She was held overnight at the Fourth Precinct and was scheduled for arraignment at First District Court in Central Islip tomorrow. The child was released to family members and Suffolk County CPS was notified. Suspect in Multiple Nassau County Bank Robberies Taken into Custody, NCPD Reports Local News, Crime By Long Island News & PR Published: October 30 2017 Officials: Junior Ghirawoo, 33, was apprehended by a security guard when he attempted to rob a Chase Bank in Franklin Square. NCPD reports the arrest of Junior Ghirawoo, 33, for six bank robberies and three attempted bank robberies. Franklin Square, NY - October 30, 2017 - The Major Case Bureau reports the details of an arrest for six bank robberies and three attempted bank robberies that occurred between Monday, 11/07/16 and Friday, 10/27/17. According to Robbery Squad detectives, on 10/27/17 at 12:30 P.M., Junior Ghirawoo, 33, (no current address) entered Chase Bank located at 654 Franklin Ave. in Franklin Square , approached the teller and handed over a demand note. The teller called over to the bank security guard, who detained the defendant until police arrival. There were nine employees and no customers in the bank at the time of the attempted robbery. No injuries were reported. Subsequent investigation by detectives revealed that the defendant was responsible for the following bank robberies: Monday 11/07/16 Chase Bank 239-39 Linden Blvd., Elmont Monday 06/05/17 Chase Bank 239-39 Linden Blvd., Elmont Monday 07/03/17 Chase Bank 136 Fulton Ave., Hempstead Monday 08/22/17 Chase Bank 136 Fulton Ave., Hempstead (Attempt) Thursday 09/07/17 Chase Bank 49 N. Franklin Ave., Hempstead Saturday 10/07/17 Chase Bank 136 Fulton Ave., Hempstead Tuesday 10/10/17 Bank of America 248 Post Ave., Westbury (Attempt) Tuesday 10/10/17 Chase Bank 239-39 Linden Blvd., Elmont Ghirawoo is being charged with six counts of Robbery 3rd Degree, three counts of Robbery 3rd Degree (Attempt) and will be arraigned on Saturday, 10/28/17 in First District Court, Hempstead. Detectives request anyone with information regarding these crimes to contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS. All callers will remain anonymous. While the rest of the world has a few days (or, gulp, weeks) to wait for the new iPhone X, Apple has bestowed review units on a few bloggers and vloggers, and their first thoughts have arrived. And surprise, surprise, theyre very positive. The impact on you at home: With a phone like iPhone X, first impressions matter, and Apple clearly wants everyone to know just how cool its new phone really is. The first group of hand-picked bloggers and vloggers here are a departure from the usual select-group of journalists, so Apple is targeting a very different audience with these first impressions. And Apple only gave most of its regular reviewers a day to get to know the new phone, much less time than usual. When in-depth reviews start landing later this week and beyond well have a more technical understanding of its pros and cons, but for now, Apple wants us oohing and aaahing over the iPhone Xs cool factor. Halfway to the future Longtime tech journalist Steven Levy has the first deep-ish dive into iPhone X over at Wired, and he found it to be dazzling and impressive, with a screen that will persistently reassure buyers that emptying their wallets for an iPhone X wasnt folly. Levy says the camera/sensor notch at the top of the screen is initially an aesthetic setback, but ultimately little more than a tiny distraction in your peripheral vision that you eventually get past. And he said while the new gesture-based navigation required some relearning but didnt take long to master. As far as Face ID, Levy notes that the system pretty much works, but requires a degree of focus to make sure youre making the proper eye contact with the sensor. He did, however, note that using Face ID to activate Apple Pay is a clearer way to do transactions. He also praised the camera, Animoji, and increased battery life. Ultimately, Levy sees iPhone X as a halfway point to that future rather than a full-on revolution: Those who shell out the cash for this device will enjoy their screen and battery life today. But the real payoff of the iPhone X might come when we figure out what it can do tomorrow. Spreading influence In a somewhat uncharacteristic move, Apple also invited a handful of YouTube performers to New York City for an exclusive iPhone X hands-on event. Booredatwork.com, Soldier Knows Best, and Highsnobiety have each posted videos of their impressions of the device. All three are enamored with the design and demonstrate Face ID functionality. There were no major gaffes, but Booredatwork.com pointed out that it was a bit of an inconvenience to swipe the screen after Face ID unlocked the device. Like Levy, Soldier Knows Best wasnt too distracted by the notch, and he found the Face ID setup method to be easier than Touch ID. And he too found Animoji to be fun, if not a bit gimmicky. Additionally, Noah Thomas and Brian Farmer of Highsnobiety found Face ID and Apple Pay to be so fast now, and were particularly impressed by the new portrait lighting selfies and AR capabilities. Apples on another level, said Thomas. Shout-out to Steve Jobs. Hes really looking down and hes proud of the team. The edge of cutting-edge Apple also seeded review units to a variety of tech-minded websites, but it didnt give reviewers the usual time to digest the pros and cons. Most were given just 24 hours to play with the new device, enough to get some solid first impressions. The consensus is that iPhone X may be a work in progress, but its one thats worth the investment. Macworld contributor Jason Snell at Six Colors writes that iPhone X is most definitely a cutting-edge phone, packed with cutting-edge technology, available to those who want to taste the future and are willing to pay for the privilege. And Rene Ritchie at iMore flatly states that iPhone X is the most fun Ive had with any device since the original iPhone. However, Ritchie notes that iPhone X will take some getting used to. And itll have its share of quirks. But like other reviewers, he feels that it is a small price to pay for being on the bleeding edge of smartphone technology. Its not just tomorrows iPhone today and its not just the beginning of what comes next, he writes. Its the best damn product Apple has ever made. Both Snell and Ritchie were impressed with Face IDs unlocking capabilities, with Snell saying, It just works. You dont even need to wait to see the phone unlock before swiping up to unlockif you swipe up and Face ID isnt done processing, it will pause until the unlock is complete and then honor your swipe. Over at TechCrunch, Matthew Panzarino got to spend a full week with iPhone X, which gave him more time to stress-test some of its features, notably the battery and durability. While he praises the gorgeous design, he notes that the stainless steel ring around the phone is picking up some fine abrasions. As far as the battery, Panzarino estimates that it lasts longer than the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 Plus during a full day at Disneyland, but nothing groundbreaking: I started the day by unplugging the charger at around 8:24 and skated into our hotel room at about 9:11 PM at 6 percent on power save mode. Not a bad 13 hours 2 minutes on standby and 6 hours, 4 minutes of usage in such punishing conditions. This is far less than Id expect to get on any typical day, but not at the parks, where batteries go to get tortured. A top-notch design The iPhone X notch is definitely a thing all of the reviewers noticed, but nearly all of them had the same reaction: Youll notice it until you dont. While apps that arent updated for the new screen ratio will run in a comically small square in the center of the screen, when displaying full-screen apps, none of the reviewers had a major problem with it. Panzarino said it presented just zero problem for me, while Ritchie said hes already beginning to forget about (it). Snell similarly didnt find the notch offensive, though he noted the problems, particularly in landscape mode: (The iPhone X screen) will cause pain for third-party app developers who have to figure out how to adapt their interfaces around the notch (and the curved edges) of this screen. Over at the Verge, Nilay Patel notes that the notch is ugly but tends to fade away after a while in portrait mode. However, he was one of the few to take issue with the bezels around the screen: Getting rid of almost everything tends to draw attention to what remains, and what remains here is basically a thick black border all the way around the screen, with that notch set into the top. Overall, he places iPhone X third on the list of Apples best designed iPhones, behind iPhone 4 and the original model. All in all, the first impressions of iPhone X are pretty much what we expected: a great phone that takes the iPhone in a fun new direction. Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Biography Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel was one of the important social and political leaders of India. He played an important role in Indias struggle for freedom. He is believed to be born on 31 October 1875 at Nadiad, Gujarat and was often addressed as Sardar. He did his matriculation at the age of 22. He seemed to be an ordinary person to everyone around him, but had strong will power. He wanted to become a barrister. At the age of 36, he went to England to fulfill his dream and joined Middle Temple Inn. He completed his 36-month course in just 30 months. After returning to India he became one of the most successful barristers of Ahmedabad. Inspired by the work and philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, he joined Indias struggle for independence. He organised peasants of Kheda, Bardoli and other parts of Gujarat and launched non-violent Civil Disobedience Movement in Gujarat, against the payment of raised tax, levied by the British government. He succeeded in his goal and the British Government suspended the payment of revenue for that year. With this he became one of the most influential leaders in Gujarat. In 1920 he became the president of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee and served in the post till 1945. He was a strong supporter of the Non -Cooperation Movement of Gandhi and worked against alcoholism, Untouchability and caste discrimination in Gujarat. He was elected as the municipal president of Ahmedabad in 1922, 1924 and 1927. When Mahatma Gandhi was in prison, he led the Satyagraha in Nagpur in 1923 against the British law, banning the raising of the Indian flag. He was elected as the President of India National Congress in 1931. He was at the forefront of the Congress all India election campaign in 1934 and 1937 and was a prominent leader in organising the Quit India Movement in 1942. He was arrested prior to the Quit India Movement and was released in 1945. After Indias independence, he became the first Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India. He organised relief camps for refugees in Punjab and Delhi. He was the man behind the consolidation of 565 semi-autonomous princely states to form a united India. Patel was very attached to Mahatma Gandhi. After Mahatma Gandhis death his condition also started deteriorating, he suffered a major heart attack within two months of Gandhis death. He died on 15 December 1950. He was a man of courage and determination and in the true sense the Iron Man of India. Facts and Information about Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel Medinol, a company based in Tel Aviv, Israel, has announced that its EluNIR drug eluting stent received the CE Mark of approval in Europe. The device is coated with ridaforolimus to help prevent restenosis and is designed be both highly flexible while maintaining flexibility, making it easier to reach and penetrate difficult lesions. The companys Flexx tip has a tapered spring that keeps the catheter moving through curvy vasculature and prevents flare out and buckling. The so-called WiZeCell strut design uses minimal metal material to support the vessel while preventing vessel tissue from protruding between the struts. The elastomeric coating resists cracking and peeling, releasing ridaforolimus at a steady rate to ensure consistent prevention of restenosis. The device can be delivered through an endoprosthesis into a side branch, extending its applicability, and includes radiopaque markers for accurate final placement at the target lesion. Heres a bit of detail about the two studies that led to the approval, according to Medinol: In BIONICS, a more-comers study conducted in the United States, Canada, Europe and Israel, EluNIR showed outstanding results including a 12 month TLF rate of 5.4% and 0% Late Stent Thrombosis (n=958), and was non-inferior to the Resolute Zotarolimus eluting stent. In NIREUS, a study conducted in Europe and in Israel, EluNIR demonstrated unprecedented results with an in-stent Late Loss of 0.04mm at 6 months (n=201). Heres a short promo video showing off the features of the EluNIR: Product page: EluNIR Via: Medinol Birtamod shooting: Family receives Thapas body The family of Naresh Thapa, who was killed in police firing in Birtamod, Jhapa, on Friday during a protest rally organised to demand investigation into the alleged murder of 11-year-old Laxman Shiwakoti Human body emits all kinds of signals that, if analyzed with the proper sensors and computers, can help us develop completely new diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. Most medical technology advancements are improvements of existing devices, but some people try for bigger leaps. Analytics 4 Life is a company based in Toronto, Canada, that is developing a new technology called Phase Space Tomography, which doesnt require any radiation and is easy on the doctor and patient to administer. The company hopes that one day its technology may become a standard part of cardiac workup. We had a chance to ask Don Crawford, CEO of Analytics 4 Life, a few questions about how the technology works and what it could mean for the practice of medicine. Medgadget: To start us off, please give us a summary of the technology Analytics 4 Life has developed and how its to be used in clinical care. Don Crawford, Analytics 4 Life: Analytics 4 Life is pioneering digital health using artificial intelligence to develop a completely new form of medical imaging. By combining advancements in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and digital technologies with a novel approach to cardiac imaging based on advanced disciplines of mathematics and physics, we are developing CorVista, a non-invasive, physician-directed diagnostic test that aims to assist physicians in identifying the presence of coronary artery disease (CAD) without radiation, cardiac stress, contrast agents, or patient fasting. A CorVista procedure can be broken down into four simple steps: First, the patient undergoes a CorVista scan where signals naturally emitted by the heart are collected while the patient is at rest. After the scan, the patients phase signal data is automatically transferred to our cloud-based repository for Cloud-based analysis. There, advanced methods of mathematics and machine-learned algorithms transform and analyze the data to produce clinically meaningful results. These results are available on a secure, web portal for physician interpretation and physician-patient consultation, which in combination with a patients medical history, risk factors, and symptoms, could be used by the interpreting physician to recommend further treatment. The current diagnosis paradigm for significant CAD entails an escalating pathway of risk, time, and cost in exchange for better accuracy. Typically, a CAD diagnosis starts with a patient going to their doctor complaining of chest pain. The doctor will perform a physical examination and consider other factors like a patients medical history. From there, oftentimes a restingmeaning no cardiac stressEKG is performed on patients considered at-risk. Under the physicians discretion, a patient could then be sent for further testing using one or more tests, including nuclear stress testing, stress echocardiography, stress EKG, and CT angiography, before ultimately heading off to cardiac catheterization (coronary angiography or cath lab) for definitive diagnosis and treatment. We aim for CorVista to be a new, pre-cath lab cardiac imaging diagnostic with comparable accuracy to other functional tests, but without the radiation exposure, heart rate acceleration, and injections of contrast agents. CorVista is an investigational device limited by federal law to investigational use. CorVista is not available for commercial distribution. It is currently undergoing a two-stage clinical study at 13 sites in the U.S. to support algorithm development and regulatory filings. The ongoing study, with more than 2,000 patients enrolled so far, will develop and measure the performance of a machine-learned algorithm for CAD detection to gold-standard cardiac catheterization results. Medgadget: What hardware does your system rely on? What biosignals do you measure? Don: We have developed a proprietary, hand-held digital device that we call the Phase Signal Recorder (PSR) device. This device scans a patients phase signals emitted from the chest cavity over 3.5 minutes while the patient is lying down using 7 sensors attached to the patients chest and back. We capture an unfiltered phase signal that contains approximately 10 million data points. Specifically, the PSR device scans the unfiltered voltage gradient at a rate of 8,000Hz at each of six observation points on the patient for 210 seconds, time-synced to 10 quadrillionths of a second (10 femtoseconds), effectively capturing all sources of energy originating from the thorax (from intrinsic physiologic processes such as, but not limited to, electrical conduction, myocyte mechano-electric transduction feedback, responses to the autonomic nervous system, and peripheral resistance). Beyond our proprietary PSR device, CorVista relies on an Internet-connected device (e.g., computer, phone, tablet, etc.), where a physician can access patient results on our secure, web portal. Medgadget: Can you give us an understanding of what Phase Space Tomography is and how its used in your product? Don: Phase space analysis is a well-known, advanced field of mathematics and physics used to model dynamic systems (such as the heart). We are pioneering phase space analysis in healthcare, using our proprietary approach to the field, Phase Space Tomography, a novel form of medical imaging. Phase space analysis is currently used by the military for applications such as missile navigation and defense. In fact, our founder was working on phase-space-based technologies for the Royal Military College of Canada when he was inspired by its potential application in healthcare and more specifically, heart disease. He was utilizing a synchronous array of sensors to collect energy being emitted by missiles from radars to plot their trajectory. Just as militaries use phase space analysis to map out a missiles course, we use Phase Space Tomography to measure and model cardiac signals with a synchronous array of sensors attached to the chest cavity. After scanning a patients phase signals, the signal package is instantaneously transmitted to the cloud, where it is analyzed by a machine-learned algorithm to generate a unique Phase Space Tomographic image and a heart model indicating areas of potential heart disease (ischemia) associated with the presence of CAD. The results of the test are displayed on a secure, physician web portal that, in combination with a patients medical history, risk factors, and symptoms, can be used by the interpreting physician to recommend further treatment. Medgadget: Your technology is designed for cardiac diagnostic applications. Do you expect that it can be applied to other fields of medicine as well? Don: Yes, we believe that there are a number of diseases where organs are emitting energy that Phase Space Tomography and our AI platform could be applied, within cardiology (e.g., heart failure, etc.) and beyond. In fact, the brain emits even more energy than the heart! However, right now, we are 100% committed to bringing CorVista, our potentially game-changing cardiac imaging technology, to physicians and patients in need of better ways of assessing coronary artery disease (CAD), because it is the #1 cause of death worldwide. Medgadget: Please tell us about the clinical study that is currently being conducted to evaluate your companys technology. Don: CorVista is currently undergoing a two-stage clinical study at 13 sites in the U.S. to support algorithm development and regulatory filings. The ongoing Coronary Artery Disease Learning and Algorithm Development (CADLAD) study already has more than 2,000 patients enrolled and will be used to develop and measure the performance of a machine-learned algorithm for CAD detection to gold-standard cardiac catheterization results. At TCT 2017, we will be presenting preliminary results from a 606-patient cohort as well as data on some of the most difficult-to-diagnose subpopulations: females (vs. males), obese, and elderly patients. In fact, these subpopulations were specifically highlighted in the FDAs response to our pre-submission package earlier this year. Medgadget: Given positive outcomes of this study, what are your next steps before seeking a marketing green light from the FDA? Don: As auspicious as the preliminary CADLAD data that our principal investigator, Dr. Thomas Stuckey, presented at TCT 2017, we remain focused on completing enrollment in the study in November of this year and submitting our application to the FDA in the first half of 2018. Medgadget: Would you tell us a bit about your background and how you came to be the President and CEO of Analytics 4 Life? Don: I have over 25 years of medical device sales and marketing experience with positions of increasing responsibility at Medtronic, Guidant Corporation (now Boston Scientific), Ventritex, and Intermedics, including an international sales director role in Japan, where I was charge of a $100 million cardiovascular business. In 2008, I founded Sapheon Inc., a cardiovascular-focused medical device company, and led it to a $238 million acquisition by Covidien in 2014. Interestingly, my appointment as President and CEO of Analytics 4 Life can ultimately be traced back to our capital raising strategy at Sapheon (and now at Analytics 4 Life). Sapheon was founded at the worst possible timeright in the depths of the Great Recession. It was very difficult for medtech startups to raise money from institutional investors, so we had to get creative, and thats how we came upon targeting accredited investors. It worked splendidly, and investors were pleased. And coincidentally, thats how I wound up at Analytics 4 Life; one of Sapheons investors was an early investor in Analytics 4 Life. After the Sapheon exit, he connected me with the team and the rest is history! Link: Analytics 4 Life homepage by Kaila Colbin , Featured Contributor, October 27, 2017 They had invited me to talk about the technological singularity: the moment when computer intelligence surpasses human intelligence. "Is it true?" they asked, brows furrowed. "Are the robots going to kill us all?" "Very possibly," I replied. "But that's not why we should be scared." Let me explain. First of all, we shouldn't be scared of the thing the movies tell us to be scared of. We shouldn't be scared of the Terminator or I, Robot. We shouldn't be scared of the robots getting mad at us, or wanting revenge. Even if we are awful to them. We shouldn't be scared of these things because, even when computers become smarter than people, they'll still be computers. Anger, revenge, boredom, frustration these aren't computational decisions. They're emotional decisions. And no matter how intelligent computers get, there's nothing to suggest they'll develop emotions. But people like Elon Musk, who tweeted in 2014 that AI is potentially more dangerous than nukes, arent idiots. What theyre worried about is the Control Problem: the fact that, once an AI becomes superintelligent, we have no way to control how it behaves. advertisement advertisement Nick Bostrom used the idea of a paper clip-manufacturing AI to make the point: The AI will realize quickly that it would be much better if there were no humans because humans might decide to switch it off. Because if humans do so, there would be fewer paper clips. Also, human bodies contain a lot of atoms that could be made into paper clips. Right now, you're probably thinking something like, "Well, how come they don't just turn it off?" or "Why don't they just program it to not kill all the people?" or "Can't they just give it morals?" I wondered all those things, too. Long story short: It's not as easy as it sounds. Anyway, even though the Control Problem is legit, it's also not what we should be scared of. Unless you are directly involved with the development of AI, or unless you direct policy or resources that can influence the development of AI, there's very little you can do about it. You might as well be worried about Yellowstone erupting or the earth getting hit by an asteroid. However, we are experiencing negative effects from AI right now. First up: technological unemployment. In 2013, Frey and Osborne published a now-famous paper suggesting that 47%-81% of all U.S. jobs would be under threat from technology within 20 years. Last year a study from the International Labor Organization suggested 137 million jobs in Southeast Asia would be at risk within 20 years. As MIT's Andrew McAfee said, "If the current trends continue, the people will rise up before the machines do." Second: inequality. Even if jobs don't go away, automation can exacerbate inequality. Last month, a German study found that total employment had only remained stable because wages had gone down. Third: systemic biases. Our artificially intelligent algorithms embed and reinforce our historic biases and prejudices far more effectively than we ever did. Thanks to automated ad placements, women are less likely than men to be shown ads for high-paying jobs. The COMPAS recidivism algorithm predicts black defendants to be more likely to reoffend than they really are -- and white defendants less likely to reoffend than they really are. Unlike the Control Problem, we can all play a part in addressing these issues. We can look at policy responses like Minimum Basic Income, affirmative action for humans, or shifting taxation systems to favor labor over capital. We can ask how humans can add unique value to our businesses instead of looking for opportunities to eliminate them. We can call for transparency in algorithmic decision-making. We can transform our education system to prepare kids for a lifetime of continual learning and adaptation. We are co-creating our future right now. We can make conscious choices about it, or we can let it happen to us. Forget about a Terminator future. Your present society needs you. by Tanya Gazdik , October 30, 2017 Seventy-eight percent of Americans will take action if unhappy with their banks customer service and more than one in five will leave their bank, according to a study. Other forms of expressing displeasure include venting on social media platforms, according to the Avaya-commissioned Customer Experience in Banking 2017. When asked about the experience of calling into their bank's contact center, respondents listed the following as their top pain points: 1. I am kept waiting for a long time on the phone; 2. the agent never seems to understand how to resolve my problems; 3. every time I call, I am asked to repeat my problem. The survey also showed that Millennials listed these particular call-center issues more than any other age group; which isnt surprising, considering Millennials also showed a greater willingness to bank online or via a mobile app. advertisement advertisement Eighty-six percent of Americans believe financial virtual advisers would be beneficial to them when dealing with a problematic transaction such as suspicion of fraud; with 85% feeling it could lead to faster resolution of their banking enquiries. Not surprising, 62% of Americans want their problem resolved on the first point of contact regardless of how they choose to contact their bank, The expectations stem in part to the shift to a digital world, which has streamlined access to information and as such, consumers have come to demand that services including the banking industry deliver unparalleled customer service. The problem is many contact center agents in financial institutions arent prepared to deal with a wide range of inquiries, said Karen Hardy, vice president, product and solutions marketing at Avaya. To improve customer service moving forward, large banks need to ensure their contact center agents are equipped to deal with inquiries on every platform, and just as importantly, can shift across platforms without forcing the consumer to explain their issue repeatedly, she said in a release. On Sept. 11-12, an online survey was conducted among 1,007 randomly selected American adults who are also Springboard America Community panel members. The margin of error which measures sampling variability would be +/-3.1%, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to education, age, gender, region, and ethnicity American Community Survey data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of America. by Ray Schultz , Columnist, October 30, 2017 Has your CEOs personal information been hacked? It may be his or her own fault. A study by F-Secure has found that 30% of CEOs have used their companys email to register for a service that was breached. This exposed their passwords and other pertinent details. The percentage is even higher in the U.S. at 38%. The only countries with worse results are Denmark (62%), the Netherlands (43%) and Finland (40%). In contrast, only 14% in the UK have been victimized in this way, and 9% in Japan. LinkedIn and Dropbox are the most likely services to be linked to a CEOs email. Worse, aside from email links, 81% have had their emails, physical addresses, birth dates and phone numbers revealed on spam lists and leaked marketing databases, F-Secure says. That figure is 95% in the U.S., the UK and the Netherlands. France is next with 91%, followed by Denmark with 86%. Only 45% of Japanese CEOs have suffered this type of exposure. advertisement advertisement F-Secure, a Finland-based cybersecurity company, studied the email addresses of over 200 CEOs at the biggest firms in ten countries the executives had to have been employed at their firms for five years. It then checked them against its own database of leaked credentials. If found that only 18% of CEO email addresses worldwide have not been hit with a leak or hack. But that percentage falls to 5% in the U.S., the UK and the Netherlands. How can CEOs protect themselves? For one thing, they can do something that would get them into trouble in government use a private email address. As F-Secure points out, this may protect them if attackers have not checked out their private personas. But that tactic may be risky. When using a private email, a personal phone number or a home address to register for a service that the CEO uses to conduct official business, the CEO effectively denies the companys IT, communications, PR, legal, and security teams a chance to protect the credentials, monitor their misuse or attempts to compromise them and makes it nearly impossible to recover them later, says Erka Koivunen, chief information security officer for F-Secure. Koivunen adds, To an attacker, a CEO who uses private email to register for a service they use in an official capacity, spells a loner someone who goes it alone and doesnt bother to rely on his/her staff to provide protection. Here are F-Secures recommendations for executives: by Ray Schultz , October 30, 2017 There is good news for email marketers seeking to break into South Africa. The average email marketing open rate is now 25.83%, and the click-through rate is 3.46%, according to a study by Everlytic. The unsubscribe rate is 0.330%, and the complaint rate is 0.049%. Everlytic studied over 2 billion emails. In a separate development, a mobile payment app called Slide has been introduced in the South African market. It is based on Venmo, a U.S. payment platform owned by PayPal. Slide links with contacts, and they can be notified by email or SMS when a payment is made to them, the firm says. The company was funded by its co-founders: Irshad Kathrada, Terence Goldberg and Alon Stern. Youre busy at work, and nothing could distract you from this importantwaitare those donuts? If this sounds like you, dont feel too guilty. According to a new study, junk food is a huge distraction even when were at the peak of concentration. Share on Pinterest Researchers say that junk food is much more distracting than healthful foods. In fact, the study researchers from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD found that food in general has the ability to divert our attention, but when it comes to candy vs. kale, the former always wins. Study co-author Corbin A. Cunningham, of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University, and colleagues recently reported their findings in the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. As English writer Virginia Woolf once said, One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. Many of us have a similar relationship with food that feeling of contentment and joy after eating a delicious meal or tasty snack. Unfortunately, we seem to be more drawn to foods that, in excess, can harm our health. This is because foods that are high in fat or sugar are more likely to activate the brains reward system , making those high-calorie treats more appealing than foods that we know are good for us. But how distracted are we by calorie-dense treats? And are they more distracting than healthful foods? Cunningham and colleagues wanted to find out. A team of scientists has created synthetic pancreatic beta cells that automatically release insulin when they sense high blood sugar. Share on Pinterest Researchers design synthetic beta cells that could help people to manage their diabetes. In the journal Nature Chemical Biology, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in Raleigh describe how they developed and tested the synthetic cells. Senior author Zhen Gu, a professor in biomedical engineering at both universities, and team hope that one day, the cells could be used in a noninvasive skin patch to treat diabetes. They found that just one injection of the synthetic beta cells kept blood sugar in diabetic mice at normal levels for 5 days. Diabetes is a disease that develops when the body has problems with using or producing insulin, a hormone that helps cells to take in and convert blood sugar, or glucose, into energy. The body produces insulin in the pancreas, which is a glandular organ behind the stomach that houses the beta cells that make and release the right amount of the hormone, depending on glucose levels. Need for noninvasive insulin delivery Around 6 million of the 30 million people in the United States with diabetes manage the disease using insulin treatments, either by regular injections or with infusion pumps. Over the years, there have been attempts to develop a pill form of insulin treatment, but they have encountered problems including the fact that the bodys strong digestive system breaks down the large molecules in the pill before they make it to the bloodstream. It is also possible to treat some cases of diabetes with transplanted pancreatic cells. However, these treatments are costly, need drugs that suppress immune reactions to the transplant, and rely on donated tissue, which is scarce. There is also a high risk that the transplanted cells will perish anyway. In their study paper, the scientists explain that biological engineers have made several attempts to recreate the key functions of pancreatic beta cells for therapeutic purposes. They give examples, such as nanoparticles cloaked in cell membranes and microgels that slowly release drugs. Synthetic cells need to be smarter But a common problem with previous approaches to mimic beta cells is their single-compartment structure and their relatively passive way of interacting with the biology of the body, note the authors. Some researchers have tried to create multicompartment structures to mimic beta cells for instance, to deliver a mixture of drugs or produce a cascading effect. But none so far have managed to mimic the higher-order functions of the natural beta cells whose sophisticated systems can precisely sense the external environment, make internal decisions, and trigger feedback. The new study marks nearly a decade of work in which Prof. Gu and his team have been wrestling with this problem. The result is a synthetic beta cell that very closely mimics the key processes of natural pancreatic beta cells. The synthetic beta cell has a simple double-membrane cell wall made of lipids, inside which are vesicles, or small sacs, full of insulin. In addition to the vesicle-in-vesicle structure there is a glucose-metabolism system and membrane-fusion machinery. Were excited to announce that metalbulletin.com is now part of fastmarkets.com. A new look and an improved experience means you can still stay ahead of this fast-moving metals market with price data, news and market intelligence right here on Fastmarkets. Discover more than 2000 prices, news and analysis in primary and secondary metals markets. We cover base metals, industrial minerals, ores and alloys, steel, scrap and steel raw materials. If you already have a Fastmarkets account, youll still have uninterrupted access to your markets by logging in with your current details. Celebrity lawyer Sandra Ankobiah on Saturday visited four-year-old Ghanaian girl who was allegedly defiled by a man in Assin Adadientem in the Central Region of Ghana. She donated an undisclosed amount of money to the family for the little girl's upkeep. Monica Nyarko, mother of the victim, and other influential women in Ghanaian society have since last week been calling for justice for the little girl. According to myjoyonline.com report, the mother accused a chief in the area of obstructing justice as she alleges the chief told her action cannot be taken against the accused. The chief allegedly told her the community gods say the suspect is innocent. Madam Nyarko told Joy News' Maxwell Agbagba at the St Francis-Xavier Hospital in Assin Fosu that her daughter could barely walk due to pain. The little girl is unable to stand and the pain is taking a toll on her health as she looks drained with bandages of the intravenous therapy still in her hand. Some Ghanaian celebrities last week took to social media platforms to condemn the incident, while others also called for justice. Sandra visited little girl together with MP for Assin South, Rev Ntim Fordjour. She presented some items aside a cash donation. She also cautioned the people in the area and Ghanaians in general to endeavour to report issues of rape when they occur and not treat it as a family or home issue. That's the only way we can bring such culprits to book. The laws are there, and we just need to enforce them. I pray that this case is seen to a reasonable conclusion. We need to protect our young children. They are the future of this country, Sandra added. 30.10.2017 LISTEN At a young age, it has always been his passion to impact people's lives positively in every area he finds himself. So when Samuel Gyabah, the founder of Samalex Solutions was in Senior High School, he had already joined an organisation called Time For The Trees, planting more trees in his community. The organisation aimed at encouraging reafforestation in Ghana through schools. And while at the university, he volunteered for Womenstrust FNGO, a non-profit organisation that provides microloans to women engaged in small businesses. There, he was providing business education for clients. He would take up a career in sanitation after he was trained by one visiting lecturer at the University of Ghana called Professor Steve Mecca on bio-digester toilets in 2013, he quickly got himself together and started building hygienic toilets for school in his neighbourhood, Pokuase. His company, Samalex Solutions specialises in the installation of bio-digester toilet systems for schools and households. Bio-digester toilet system is able to convert human wastage into manure for farm use. However, Samelex officially started operations after the organisation won the Viasat1 Game Changer Competition. As with many startups, securing funding was not forthcoming. " I started with my own funds, funding from partners and seed funding from winning the competition," Gyabah said in an interview with modernghana.com. However, because installing bio- digester toilets are expensive and the whole project was capital-intensive, he still had to pool resources from other donors to be able to provide hygienic toilets for schools. Installing one unit of the facility could cost aboout GHc2,000 and so about GHc20,000 is required to install for one school. Gyabah then visited schools in his communities to find out about their sanitation needs and sought for funding from donors to support the course. Finally, he met with his partners who accepted his proposal to build for four schools, and an NGO also agreed to build 12 unit toilet facility for schools in two communities. Since then, Gyabah together with the Samelex team are not only installing hygienic toilet facilities for schools and households in Accra, but are also playing a crucial role to help curb open defecation. According to 3news.com, Ghana was ranked as second in Africa in open defecation with 19 per cent of its population resorting to sanitation practice deemed the riskiest of all. The report adds that open defecation caused the country about $79 million a year. While Gyabah was at it, he was engaged in educating school children on proper sanitation practices. Samalex was in 2015/2016 involved in the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) UN HABITAT project providing 100 households toilets at James Town, a suburb of Accra. Currently, Samalex Solutions is working on Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA-SWP) OBA, which was initiated to increase access to improved sanitation, water supply and strengthen management of environmental sanitation to provide over 6000 toilets in Accra at half price. The initiative is dubbed "Toilet at Half Price," and its pilot was expected to establish about 200 toilet facilities for some selected households in Accra. Now back to Gyabah and Samalex. Samelex has now employed over 50 workers and has since its inception provided over 1000 toilets for schools and households. When asked if they are making huge profits from their work, he said : "We are able to cover our costs and keep the organisation running. It's been okay so far" Samalex, has it as part of its vision to expand to other regions of Ghana and hopes to be identified among top organisations providing household toilets and impacting the people's lives. Poor sanitation, according to Gyabah has been identified as the major cause of poverty in sub-saharan Africa and most illnesses that keeps children away from school are sanitation related. He advised that every household should endeavour to get hygienic toilets in their homes. "Those who are building houses should factor toilet facilities in thier plans, gone were the days where people built houses without toilet facilities," he averred. Copyright (2017) Modern Ghana All rights reserved. This article, or any portion thereof may not be reproduced, paraphrased or used in any manner whatsoever without giving full credit to modernghana and the author of the article. The source should clearly state modernghana and the writer's name either above or beneath the article when using. However, it could be used in brief quotations and in reviews. 30.10.2017 LISTEN A $145,567-dollar water and sanitation project funded by Cummins Ghana has been inaugurated and handed over to the authorities of the Odorgonno Senior High School in Accra. They are; a 20-seater toilet facility, 20-cubicle washrooms, washing bay and drying area, two drilled and mechanised boreholes, painting of boys and girls dormitories, and the renovation of the boys shower area. The project which is to improve hygiene at the school was started in March, under the Cummins School Improvement Projects in collaboration with Global Communities which undertook behavioural change activities. Mr Fred Aryeetey, the General Manager of Cummins Ghana in an address said their major focus was to provide right environment, especially for female students to feel comfortable to learn to assist in closing the gap in academic performance between boys and girls. He said women played very pivotal roles in the building of a nation and therefore there was the need to make their lives easier at school to equal their male counterparts. 'We need to work hard to ensure gender balance in whatever we are doing by creating equal opportunities for both sexes for them to do better because when they do the entire society benefits,' he said. Mr Aryeetey said enhancing and focusing more ladies involvement in decision-making helped to grow businesses and that there was the need to encourage the girls into all subjects in school, particularly the sciences, mathematics and the arts. 'I want to see more women ministers, chief executive officers, managers and to hear a woman say I want to be President of this country, hence making things comfortable for them to surge ahead,' he said. He advised male students to continue to study hard and to ensure that they become what they want to be in future. Mr Aryeetey said the expectation of Cummins Ghana was that the facilities would be used to improve on the past records of the Odorgonno SHS as well as improvement in enrolment, especially in the area of gender balance. He urged the school authorities to ensure that the students handle the facilities well and inculcate in them the culture of maintenance to prolong the lifespan of the projects. He said: 'These facilities had been put up for us and we should own them. We should not allow people to misuse them,' adding that; 'indeed government is always under pressure in terms of resource and so whenever a private organisation come out to invest in any institution I believe it is important we individually and collectively take care of it by showing a sense of ownership.' The General Manager encouraged teachers that in spite of the challenges that they might face in their profession they should still continue to surge on because without them society would seriously be in difficulties. 'We are very conscious that at times as teachers you work under very difficult circumstances but I wish to say that those of us in industry, business and commerce sincerely appreciate you and your contributions to society,' he said. Mr Aryeetey paid glowing tribute to the Headmistress of the school, Dr Mrs Shine Ofori and her management for their fantastic leadership and desire to always get the best for the institution, saying 'God will bless you all.' In her welcome address, Dr Mrs Ofori expressed gratitude to the Cummins Ghana and the Global Communities for their intervention to save the difficult situation faced by the students in terms water and sanitation. She said the school had a student population of 2,000 and almost 200 staff and that sanitation had been their big predicament since they could not afford enough dustbins for the large compound. She said the school dormitories were infested with bed-bugs and they had to spend huge sums of money to fumigate the rooms while the students spent study time in search of water and crossing the busy road in front of the school. Dr Mrs Ofori said Cummins Ghana together with Global Communities came to the aid of the school with several supply of sanitation materials together with toilet and washroom for both boys and girls. 'They sponsored repairs works and painting of the boys and girls dormitories with inesfly paints and now the students are free and the issue of bed-bugs had been a thing of the past,' she said. The Headmistress said Cummins had adopted the school and expressed the hope that with their partnership the academic excellence of the institution would be improved. She said over the years the school authorities had been bordered with the location of the Gas Station at the school compound close to the Assembly Hall, however, she assured that the Gas Station had stopped operation and that the Ga Central Municipal Assembly was doing everything possible to relocate it. Dr Mrs Ofori appealed to Cummins Ghana, the Global Communities and other corporate bodies to support the school in its library project, which is at the standstill and repair of other dilapidated facilities to improve teaching and learning. GNA 30.10.2017 LISTEN The Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana-Legon, has held its first Chinese Song Contest. The contest, was the final competition of twelve contestants, who were selected from 39 contestants in the preliminary competition which was held on October 20, 2017. Miss Margaret Clement, a level 100 student of the Ghana Institute of Languages, and also a student of the Confucius Institute, came out as the winner of the competition. Dr. Meilian Mei, Director of the Confucius Institute, said the contest, sought to provide a platform for Ghanaian students of the institute, to display their good command of the Chinese language, their deep love for Chinese songs and their singing talents. She said although an entertaining event, the programme ultimately promoted inter-cultural bonding and understanding, and helped forge closer ties between Ghana and China. The winner of the contest, Miss Clement, received a Huawei mobile phone as her prize and said, she was thankful that her hard work with studying the Chinese language had yielded dividends. She said she had realised that it was possible to achieve one's goals with dedication and hard work and urged others seeking to learn the Chinese language not to relent on their goal. The Confucius Institute at the University of Ghana, co-hosted by the University of Ghana and the Zhejiang University of Technology of China, was established in May 2013, and commenced in April 2014. Currently, the institute offers courses in Chinese Language Proficiency, and Chinese Culture at eight teaching sites, with an enrollment of more than 3,000 Ghanaian students. GNA By Robert Anane, GNA 30.10.2017 LISTEN Reverend Father Michael Owusu-Ofori, the Parish Priest of St Theresa Catholic Church, Kaneshie has admonished Catholic faithful to exhibit unconditional love to their neighbours to receive God's blessings. 'As Catholics and Christians, it is imperative not to seek our own interest in offering help to our neighbours, but we must extend these gestures wholeheartedly without conditions attached to it to enjoy life', he added. Rev Fr Owusu-Ofori stressed that such acts break the good relationship with God and called on all to respect and love neighbours with all their heart, soul and mind. The Catholic Priest made the call in Accra in a sermon at St Kizito Catholic Church, Nima to thank God for his 10th anniversary in the priesthood. He spent four years at St Kizito Catholic Church before he was transferred to his new parish. The Reverend Father said the world was characterised by relationship and it behooved on Catholics to establish an intimate relationship with God and their neighbours to enjoy God's love and mercies. He urged people in authority to accord their subject with dignity and not take advantage to molest and oppress them for their parochial interest, for God listened to their cry when they callled upon Him. Rev Fr Owusu-Ofori entreated Catholics to see the good in their neighbours and not always focusing on the negatives as a sign of good relationship with fellow Christians. 'Let us avoid attributing negative acts to our neighbours but more importantly seek the good in that person so that you do not plan evil against the person'. He posted that establishing good relationship with God empowered Christians to be strong in the Lord and stand the test of any temptations that might come their way. 30.10.2017 LISTEN Mr Frank Fuseini Adongo, the Upper East Deputy Regional Minister has urged the traditional authority in the region to institute measures that will help preserve the cultural heritage of the people. Mr Adongo, who is also the Member of Parliament for Zebilla said when there is a viable preserved culture, it would guide the young generation to live within the norms and traditions of the community and even bring on board tourists who may woo investors to the area. 'Traditions and culture are the root that can provide a peaceful atmosphere to fight wrangling, conflicts and divisiveness among other things for the development of the people'. Mr Adongo made the call when he addressed the Assembly Members at the second ordinary meeting of the Bawku West District Assembly on Friday at Zebilla in the Upper East Region, to draw the attention of stakeholders on the need to preserve the Ghanaian culture. He said modernisation and globalisation were eating deep into the social fabric of the society, resulting in the adulteration and in some cases wiping away the rich cultural practices of the people He urged the Assembly members to identify sites that had the cultural identity of the people and could be developed to attract tourists to the area as that would help market the district. He called on them and the general public to jointly fight crime in the area, saying armed robbery, prostitution, motorbike theft, fertilizer smuggling and other related crimes were gaining grounds in the district. Mr Adongo said the area would pay a high price if such crimes were allowed to become endemic in society because it would deter foreign investors. The Minister charged the Assembly to exercise its mandate to formulate and execute plans, programmes and strategies for the effective mobilisation of resources necessary for the overall development of the district and to be responsible for the development, improvement and management of human settlements and the environment in the district. Talking about the development of agriculture in the area, he said about 5,519 people participated in the planting for food and jobs programme, and 1,847.60 hectares of maize, 90 hectares of rice and 28 hectares of soybean were cultivated. The Managing Director & Group CEO of GOIL, Mr. Patrick A.K. Akorli has appealed to the Government to quickly pass the local content law to strengthen local businesses in the country. Mr. Akorli made this appeal when he delivered his speech at the GOIL 2016 Dealers & Trade Area Awards ceremony held at the SWISS SPIRIT Alisa Hotel on Friday, October, 27 2017. We at GOIL believe that Ghanaian companies must play the lead role and control the downstream industry. Indeed, we have enough capabilities, experience and technical know-how to retail petroleum products in this country. Let me use this opportunity, therefore, to appeal to Government to quickly pass the local content law to strengthen local businesses, the GOIL boss said. The Deputy Minister of Energy, Hon. Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam, who stood in for Hon. Emmanuel Agyarko as the special guest of honour, called on GOIL to assist Government to clamp down on illegal trade at the downstream of the industry. The Deputy Minister hinted that smuggling and illegal trade is making the nation lose over Ghs700 million annually. He commends GOIL for the level of investment made and urged them to take the leadership role in the new government initiatives that need more investments in their operations. Mr. Agyeman Kwaku Duah (left) presenting the overall Best Lubricant Dealer to Mr. Samuel O. Peprah, Nima roundabout service station. The Chairman of the program, Hon. Kwame Osei Prempeh, who deputized for the Board Chairman, Hon. Kwamena Bartels, in his remarks, hinted that the new board has a committed objective to increase the market share of GOIL from 25% to 30%. He congratulated all the award winners for their hard work and assured them that GOIL will continue to reward and recognize genuine hard work irrespective of where you find yourself in the business. On the topmost awards, Mr. George Boadu (Asonaba) Odoum, Kumasi, was adjudged the overall National Best Dealer. ' Aretha Bakers-Woode (Burma Camp service station) won the 2nd National Best Dealer whilst Emmanuel Akrofi (PWD), Wa won the 3rd National Best Dealer. For their prize, they receive a South Africa tour with spending cash, a Plaque, a Certificate, Laptop and a citation. Awards were also given to the Best Zonal Dealers, Best LPG Dealers, Best Lubricant Distributors, Best Lubricant Dealers, Best HSSE (Health, Safety, Security & Environment), National Best Forecourt Attendants, Best Lube Bay Attendants and Zonal Best Go-Cafe Attendants. Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com The Author 30.10.2017 LISTEN On October 12, the U.S. announced the long overdue, official removal of some sanctions on Sudan. Now, new and exciting potentials lie ahead for the future of Sudan and its people. This is not the time to delay; the government of Sudan should seize the moment to implement policies that will lead to the economic development of this vast nation, and the raising of the standard of living of its more than forty million citizens. According to U.S. government representatives, President Trumps executive decision does not terminate Presidents Clintons E.O. 13067, issued on November 3, 1997, but it removes those sanctions that had enforced an embargo on commercial transactions with Sudan. Thus, now companies and individuals wishing to export, invest, and trade with Sudan can conduct business using the international banking system without fear of being penalized. However, targeted sanctions remain, and there are licensing requirements for agricultural and medical exports. This milestone in U.S.-Sudan relations is, in large part, due to the relentless efforts by Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour, especially his leadership over the last sixteen months. Professor Ghandour, who was appointed to head Sudans foreign office in June 2015, has successfully changed the dynamics of a detrimental and hostile U.S. attitude against his nation. Nearly twenty years of sanctions have accomplished nothing except to cause greater suffering and hardship for the Sudanese people. Finally, this suffocating policy has ended, allowing Sudan the opportunity to move forward. However, the U.S. now maintains a peculiar and contradictory policy towards Sudan: Lifting trade sanctions allows companies to conduct commercial activity in Sudan without penalty, but the U.S. cannot offer financial support to investors from any of its lending institutions, because Sudan remains on the U.S. State Departments list of states sponsoring terrorism (SST). Under the administrations new executive order, Sudan is removed from a short list of nations under comprehensive sanctions: North Korea, Syria, Iran, and Cuba, and is placed on a broader list of nations subject to targeted sanctions. The government of Sudan intends to seek redress of its wrongful inclusion on the SST list. Removal from this list would allow Sudan to seek relief from its onerous forty-plus billions of dollars of debt, and make it eligible to receive favorable treatment from U.S. lending facilities. Unfortunately, removing Sudan from the SST list would require the approval of the U.S. Congress, which is still antagonistic towards Sudan. Shaping a Better Future with Chinas Belt and Road Since Sudans liberation from colonialism, during which, the British Imperialists codified into law the artificial division between the so-called North and South, Sudan has never realized it full economic potential. This lack of development has been at the core of Sudans difficulties. This can now change. The spirit of Chinas 21st Century Silk Road has created a new dynamic on the African continent that Sudan is well positioned to harness. Sudans neighbors in East Africa are already participating in a density of construction of new rail lines going East to West that have the potential to transform Africa, becoming the eastern leg of the long-awaited East-West railroad that would link the Atlantic to the Indian Oceans. Ethiopia has completed the first electrically driven railroad connecting the capital Addis Ababa to the Port of Djibouti, and has devised a strategy to connect to all its neighboring countries by rail. Kenya has completed the first phase of the standard-gauge railroad, from the Port of Mombasa to Kenyas capital, Nairobi. This the first phase of a plan to connect the nations of the Horn of Arica to those of the Great Lakes Region. Tanzania has begun the first two stages of Dar es Salaam-Iska-Kagali/Keza-Musongati (DIKKM) rail project, a 1672-kilometer railroad connecting Kigali in Rwanda and Musongati in Burundi to Kenyas Port of Dar Es Salaam. Most of these transportation infrastructure projects are being supported by China, both in funding and construction. The Port of Sudan is officially on Chinas Maritime Silk Road, and the Ports of Mombasa, Djibouti, and Dar es Salaam are there implicitly. Sudan is geographically positioned to become the nexus point for the East-West and North South trans-Africa rail-lines, possibly crossing in the city of Sennar on the Blue Nile. The Sudanese government has already prepared an ambitious multi-phase plan to connect all parts of its territory with its neighbors by rail. China has been a consistent economic partner of Sudan and is a likely candidate to collaborate on these rail projects. Sudan is also in urgent need of more electricity to power its economy. The erection of the Merowe Dam, with a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts, was a significant accomplishment in 2009-2010, and there have been smaller hydropower projects in the eastern portion of the country. However, Sudan, like the rest of sub-Sharan Africa, is suffering from a huge deficit in electrical power that is now holding back, and will continue to retard economic growth until it is rectified. Sub-Saharan Africa needs over 1,000 gigawatts of power to begin to obtain the level of modern Afro-industrial societies Sudan Is Open for Business Speaking in Washington, D.C. on October 16, at a forum sponsored by the Corporate Council of Africa, Sudanese Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr. Mohamed Othman Al-Rikabii outlined the areas of potential investments in Sudans resources, including; water, gold, oil, mining, livestock, gas, and tourism. He emphasized the enormous potential for investment in agriculture in Sudan, with presently only 20% of its sixty million hectares of fertile land under cultivation. For the first time in decades, Sudan has the opportunity to design polices that focus on the development of the nation. Productive employment must be created to provide hope for a better future for the Sudanese people, especially its youth, who are living in poverty. This will require immediate construction--shovels in the ground--of vitally needed infrastructure. China, in the Spirit of the New Silk Road, will undoubtedly be a willing partner to Sudans future economic growth. Whether the U.S., under President Trump, will be wise enough to contribute to Sudans development after twenty years of failed sanctions, remains to be seen. As for the government of Sudan, there is no time to waste, and no acceptable delays. Economic development is the agenda. Some students from the department of social work, University of Ghana, will on Monday start their concurrent field work at an the With God Cerebral Palsy centre, an inclusive centre for children with cerebral palsy. The students said as part of their academic work they were required to work with social groups and were directed to the centre , saying we are ready to learn, reach out and adapt to the needs of children with cerebral palsy. Ms Emelia Abugzio, Group Leader of the Social Work students, said they usually grouped all children with special needs as children with intellectual difficulties so their 13 weeks at the centre will enable them ascertain for themselves, whether children with cerebral palsy can be classified as such. Mrs Hannah Awadzi, Executive Director of the Special Mothers Project, an advocacy and awareness creation programme of cerebral palsy, explained to them that most children with cerebral palsy have their cognitive part intact and cannot be classified intellectually disabled. She said: We cannot exclude children with cerebral palsy from children who have no special needs, most children with cerebral palsy only have movement challenges and by seeing other children move; they are usually challenged to move. Mrs Awadzi called on the government to facilitate the creation of more of such centre in the country to enable parents of children with cerebral palsy have a place to take their children to during working hours to enable them work. Most parents, especially mothers of children with cerebral palsy are unable to work or forced out of jobs due to their childrens disability. Mrs Awadzi said most day care centre refuse children with cerebral palsy admission because they are unable to walk, talk and are usually not toilet trained. She called on government to come up with pragmatic measures to help families raising children with cerebral palsy, saying, no child should be left behind. Mrs Ellen Affam-Dadzie, Head of With God Cerebral Palsy centre and a mother of a seven year old girl with cerebral palsy, called for governments support. She said: We need special educators to be attached to this centre, we need volunteers, social workers, therapists to support the work of the centre. The centre currently does not generate any income, parents who take their children during working hours do so free of charge. Government failed to raise the 6 billion cedis for the energy bond it issued last week. Government was able to raise 3.4 billion cedis as at Friday, October 27, 2017. As a result, the managers of the bond have announced an extension of the auction for the 10 year bond by one more week. The 3.4 billion cedis so far raised, represents about 57 percent of the 6 billion cedis needed. But it is worth noting that more than seventy percent or 2.5 billion cedis of the amount was realized from the 7 year bond issued. The 10 year bond, attracted 902 million cedis far less than the 3.6 billion cedis target. Like earlier prediction by Economist, Dr. Lord Mensah, Citi Business News understands government will be paying 19 percent interest on the 2.4 billion cedis. For Economist, Dr. Eric Osei Assibey, the rate may just be realistic. The fact that this bond didn't have any kind of Sovereign guarantee, there's some amount of risk that investors associate with this kind of bond. Therefore I think 19 percent is quite fair and because it is also a long term bond and there is so much uncertainty around it, you would expect that investors will definitely go in for a higher cost, he stated. Meanwhile managers of the bond have extended auctioning for the 10 year bond for seven more days. The auction is now expected to close on Friday, November 3rd, 2017. It is unclear what prompted this move this time around. But it appears that investors requested for an extension due to the nature of not being a Sovereign bond. Dr. Osei Assibey also shares his expectation after the close of bids on Friday, November 3rd. It could just be around the figure expected so let's give some plus or minus to thatthe confidence level over the last couple of months have increased by the fact that the micro economic indicators are on track and also having the IMF coming in to back the government's policies and others. Analysts are however optimistic that the eventual completion of the process should turn around the fortunes of the various State Owned Enterprises whose operations have been affected by the accumulated debts. By: Pius Amihere Eduku/citibusinessnews.com/Ghana 30.10.2017 LISTEN Former President John Mahama believes the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government is becoming incapable of dealing with vigilante groups affiliated to it, that continue to wreak havoc without any significant consequences. In a brief post on Facebook, Mr. Mahama also questioned the silence of moral society which he said had become mere spectators. When you sow the wind, you reap a whirlwind! Political 'vigilantism' is spiralling out of control and government doesn't appear to be able to deal with the situation. And the tragedy is that most of our moral society have become passive spectators. The former President made similar comments in April when he questioned the Akufo-Addo administrations commitment to clamping down on these lawless groups affiliated to the NPP nationwide. This cannot continue, this thuggery is not good for our country, and the point is we thought we had a good transition All the thuggery removing people from office, beating people is unfortunate. We must say it in the strongest terms and if the heed it fine, if they don't, it is a learning process for our whole country, Mr. Mahama said at the time. President Nana Akufo-Addo has not been totally silent on the matter, but his response to the escalating spate of lawlessness has been without emphatic condemnation. The application of the laws of the land will occur, in the words of the judicial oath, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, and without recourse to the political, religious or ethnic affiliations of any citizen of the land When you fall foul of the law, you will be dealt with accordingly, and the law enforcement agencies, including the Judiciary, must ensure this is done, he said recently . This declaration came in the wake of renewed outrage towards disturbances in Karaga and Sissala West, perpetrated by alleged NPP supporters, adding to 18 separate attacks reported by Citi News since the party came into office. The incident at Karaga involved an attack on a police station, with protesting members freeing colleagues in custody, whilst the Sissala West incident involved an attack on the District Chief Executive. Following that, youth aligned to the NPP stormed an Assembly election in Adeiso in the Eastern Region, and allegedly assaulted some assembly members when the election did not go their way. There have been attacks on state institutions like National Health Insurance offices, School Feeding offices, Regional Security Offices, district assembly meetings, and what some consider the worst incident, the Delta Force raid of court proceedings to free some their colleagues standing trial. No significant arrests or sanctions have been meted out to perpetrators of some these incidents, prompting some to accuse the government of protecting its party foot-soldiers. By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana Dhading bus plunge: Driver out of contact The driver of a Kathmandu-bound bus that plunged into the Trishuli river on Saturday has yet to come into contact, said police. Theresa Akumbono, Facilitating a session with mothers Photo Dome Emmanuel Mba 30.10.2017 LISTEN UNICEF-Ghana and the Ghana Health Service is partnering with a local CSO, Rural Initiatives for Self Empowerment (RISE-Ghana) in the Kasena Nankana West District of the Upper East Region to implement a project dubbed Mother Baby Friendly Health Facility Initiative (MBFHI) with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation of the USA. The project is empowering new mothers across the various interest groups to lead local efforts towards increasing demand for ante natal and post natal services by identifying and confronting barriers to uptake of optimal practices through peer to peer learning and support. As new mothers and members of mother-to-mother support groups (MTMSG) you can encourage each other and your bahaviour significantly influences your peers. We want you to understand the importance of the optimal breastfeeding, immunization, birth registration and infant and young child feeding among others so that you can serve as Ambassadors and help reduce maternal and newborn deaths to achieve targets in the new born care strategy Emmanuel Mba Dome, Project Officer at a community durbar in Kaasi. Today I feel very much empowered to step in the shoes of health workers and to educate my peers using the counseling cards, I want more opportunities like this to reach out to more mothers, fathers and other influential community members so that mothers and their children can be safe - Theresa Akumbono, 27 Year-Old Mother at Longo. Seth Kwame Boateng of Multimedia Broadcasting Limited, Ghana 30.10.2017 LISTEN Accra, 28 October 2017- The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) has announced the winners of the 2017 West Africa Media Excellence Awards (WAMECA). The awards honour excellence in print, online and broadcast journalism in West Africa. The ceremony was hosted by Kafui Dey and Selikem Acolatse-Apaloo at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel, Accra, where presenters included Mr. Perry Okudzeto, Deputy Minister for Information, Ms. Akua Twumasi, External Communications, Tullow Oil Ghana, Hon. Demba Ali Jawo, Minister for Information and Communications Infrastructure of The Gambia. Seven Awards including the overall best journalist award were presented in front of an audience of over 200 guests, with Seth Kwame Boatengof Multimedia Broadcasting Limited, Ghana receiving the overall West Africa best journalist award. In the Oil and Gas category Femi Asu of Punch Newspaper, Nigeria, was adjudged the winner. Sheila Williams, Business Day Ghana Ltd Newspaper,Ghana, took home the award for best journalist in ECOWAS and Regional Integration Reporting. For his report on School where prostitutes assist male students to get marks, Alagbe Jesusegun also of Punch Newspaper, Nigeria won the Anti-Corruption Reporting award. Health Reporting was won by Fousseni Saibou of Radio Kanal FM, Togo. Seth Kwame Boateng of Multimedia Broadcasting Limited, Ghana received the trophy for best Human Rights Reporting. The best Investigative Reporting accolade was given to Manasseh Azure Awuni, Multimedia Broadcasting Limited,Ghana for his report on the The Presidents Ford Gift Story. Sulemana Braimah, Executive Director of MFWA, said: Tonight has been a fantastic celebration and acknowledgement of excellent journalism in West Africa. We hope that those attending the ceremony and watching around the world appreciate the efforts that journalist put into a job that sometimes risks their lives and those of loved ones. This evening also showcases talented individuals who are dedicated to working to uphold this important tenet of democracy in a region that is still working to consolidate press freedom. Our finalists are truly inspiring and we look forward to working with them to engage with the next generation of journalists over the coming year. Participation in this maiden event has been encouraging. Through this event, weve welcomed more guests, engaged with more partners and worked with a dedicated team to ensure that this event becomes a must-attend in the coming years, and enjoyed by all. We look forward to engaging with all of this years finalists, who have now become ambassadors in our profession. Three persons are feared dead following clashes in Yendi on Sunday night, between herdsmen of Fulani extraction and some youth in the community. According to Citi News sources, a known butcher in the town was allegedly murdered by a Fulani man, who had invited him over to purchase cattle. This sparked reprisal attacks from the youth in the town, which claimed the lives of two Fulani herdsmen. Abdul Aziz Azindow, a reporter with Yendi-based Gmantabu Radio, told Citi News that, according to what they told us, when he went to the Fulani men, they took the money he was holding and butchered the guy to death. Abdul says when the case was reported to the police, the Divisional Commander asked that the deceased be taken away from where the incident happened. The deceased was taken to the Tamale Teaching Hospital, following which the youth in the area went on a rampage, according to the reporter. Some youth also went on rampage in search of some of the Fulani people, and they found two Fulani men and also killed them. But in the meantime, police in the area are taking control of the situation, and they have dispersed the youth and currently, they are taking care of that situation, Aziz Azindow added. Fulani, farmers clash in Kwau East The reported tensions in Yendi involving Fulani followed similar disputes that left eight persons dead in some parts of the Kwahu East District of the Eastern Region. Over 100 people have been displaced in some parts of the District following separate reprisal attacks between Fulani herdsmen and some community members of Dwibease and Wheewhee communities. This situation has led to hundreds of residents fleeing from the town to nearby villages to stay with family and friends for fear of being caught up in the attacks. By: Duke Opoku Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana 30.10.2017 LISTEN Democracy thrives within an environment where the rule of law is upheld and promoted. The essence of the rule of law in democratic governance is to ensure that society is governed within an atmosphere of peace, tranquility and freedom. This is how societies progress, and prepare a very fertile ground for the citizenry to live meaningfully and with dignity. Countries that promote and uphold the rule of law open up their gates to investors, especially foreign ones to contribute to her socioeconomic transformation. Although this country is not alien to violence or vandalism, we should do everything within our laws to ensure that those who elevate violence, cherish vandalism are dealt with by the laws of the land. In fact, it is high time we rose against acts that tarnish the image of the country. Let us apply the laws of our land to anyone whose behavior comes at variance to the law. Where the law reigns, indiscipline disappears or declines. We cannot continue to live at the mercy of the indiscipline few. Let the law rules, and impunity, indiscipline, lawlessness will bow to the delight of society. In most cases, the punishment meted out to the lawless, further emboldens them to continue in their disregard of the law. That is why the consequences of deviant or lawless behaviours must be severe so as to deter others from following suit. The severer the consequences of lawless behavior, the less likely it will recur. We agree with the President when he said in the wake of the recent needless violence by the NPP youth in the Northern region that the application of the laws of the land will occur, in the words of the judicial oath, without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, and without recourse to the political, religious or ethnic affiliations of any citizen of the land. According to him when you fall foul of the law, you will be dealt with accordingly, and the law enforcement agencies, including the Judiciary, must ensure this is done. The police and other law enforcers in the country must heed the call of the President and act; they must begin to bite, and do so harshly. There should be no compromises when it comes to the application of the law; when we compromise justice, we promote impunity, wanton disregard of the law, and move the clock of progress backwards. We would like to take this opportunity to encourage the gatekeepers of the law, authorities in high places to apply the laws of the land indiscriminately. Those who fall foul of the law must be punished; and it should not take political leanings to enforce the law. Signed Dr. Kingsley Nyarko (Executive Director) 30.10.2017 LISTEN Many young people in Ghana today downplay the importance of their cultural heritage and hence their failure to learn the cultural norms and traditional practices of their various homes or localities inspite of the inevitable consequencies involved in breaking these cultural norms which do not even temper justice with mercy for ignorant offenders. These young people shy away from the elders in their localities who are knowledgeable in traditional customs and capable of educating the younger ones about their culture so that they have a better understanding and fair knowledge of what their culture is about. This is because the youth perceive the aged in society as people with achaic minds and therfore often finds it difficult sitting in their midst to interact with them. Therefore, young people rather prefer camping in groups to play games and discuss issues trending across the country and issues about themselves to sitting in the midst of elders to share in their wisdom. Anyway, I would still encourage our traditional leaders who are the custodians of our culture to find ways of bringing the younger ones closer to them such that they can learn their culture for onward passage to future generations. Cultural Similarities of the Sissala and the Dagaaba People History has it that the Sissalas and Dagaabas are among the first settlers in the Upper West Region which makes the duo indisputably the dominant tribes in the region. These two tribes even though they have some tribal differences but they share some similarities in their way of life. During traditional celebrations including funerals, both the Sissaala and the Dagaaba people wear the smock as their traditional garment as used by other tribes in the three regions of the north. Aside, the funeral celebrations of both tribes are characterized by the use of the xylophone in mourning the dead and singing of dirges in their respective languages in tune with the sound of the xylophone and also the brewing of pito for sale which has become a trade for women of these tribal extraction and a popular drink among the two tribes. Marriage Customs of the Dagaabas People Among the culture of the Dagaaba people, Before a woman is given out for marriage or when a Dagarti man marries a new wife, some curses are invoked on the marriage and sacrifices made during the marriage ceremony in an attempt to keep the woman faithful to her husband. If in the course of the relationship, the woman breaches the vow by cheating on her husband, then the woman would have to be cleansed as it the custom of the Dagaabas that any wife who has cheated on her husband with another man cannot enter her marital home unless she is purified. It is a taboo for a Dagarti man's wife/Dagarti lady to have any sexual relationship with another man even if the man is a member of her husband's family. The woman is declared as a 'spoiled woman' until the necessary rituals are performed.Any man who touches the breast or kisses or caresses a Dagarti man's wife in a sexual or romantic manner has rendered her unpure and therefore, she must be purified traditionally before she can cook or sleep with the husband otherwise the husband may die upon eating his wife's food or have sex with her in her uncleansed state. It is also believed that if a woman indulges in the abominable act without confessing for fear of being divorced by her husband, she may die. Also, a married woman who engages in a sexual affair with another man while away on a journey would have to confess and be purified on return before she can enter her marital home. If a woman is distant from her husband and engages in adultery and stays away for so many years until her husband dies, the woman would have to confess for the rituals to be performed before she can step foot at her husband's funeral or perform the widowhood rites, otherwise she may die. However it is alleged that some wives who engage in adultery nowadays succeed in reverting the curses invoked during their marriage ceremonies to save their lives by taking what was used for her dowry to a traditional priest to revoke the curses.When this is done, it woman becomes free to have sexual contact with another man either than her husband but nothing would happen to her. Marriage Customs of the Sissala People The absence of invoking traditional curses during marriages in the Sissala culture leaves much to be desired as married women commit adultery without any fear of facing dire consequencies because there is no traditional practice to scare them from engaging in the act as it is in the case of the Dagaabas. In the Sissala culture, a married woman may commit adultery and be free since there is no traditional law baring them from it unless the cheating wife is caught in the act by a family member of her husband. When this happens, the culprits are at worst, summoned before custodians of the land and fined. Also, some married women who attend funerals in nearby villages by the permission of their husbands are sexually exploited by their supposed boyfriends who lure them into spending the night at the funeral grounds under their mosquito nets after inducing them through excessive drinking of alcohol and meat. But their husbands may never know what transpired unless the woman herself decides to confess. In some Sissala communities, it is common practice for a man to buy meat for any woman whom he admires and according to that tradition, when the woman accepts the meat, it means the man can have sexual relations with the woman during the funeral celebration at night. In the Sissala tradition, when a woman loses her husband, the widow is at liberty to willfully choose her new husband from amongst the family of their late husband but some widows abuse the practice by deciding to marry little boys whom they know have no power over their married life such that they can have the freedom to engage in other sexual relatuinships. Widows who claim to be married to such little children are accused of snatching other people's husbands and stiring marriages around. Some indigenes are of the view that widows who have the tendacy of giving birth should not be permitted to marry children but must compulsorily marry from amongst the adult younger brothers of their husband otherwise they should be granted the freedom to marry outside the family. Customary fines by Dagaabas in Breach of their Marital Vows When a Dagarti man's wife commits adultery, the man who slept with the woman may be asked to pay a fine, known locally as 'passani' which may include; a ram, goat or a cow and some amount of money depending on the status of the man whose wife is involved. That notwithstanding, it is said that after the rituals are performed, the said woman becomes a legal wife to both her husband and the man she committed adultery with. The Sissala Fines in breach of marital vows In a Sissala traditional home when a woman who commits adultery is caught in the act by the husband, he reports to the custodians of the land who would summon both parties involved in the abominable act before the elders. The culprits are then slapped with huge fines which may include; a cow, goats, alochol among others to serve as deterrent to others. Some portions of the fines are used for sacrifices to appease the gods and cleanse the land. The Dagaaba People The Dagaaba people are an ethnic group in Ghana whose descendants are believed to have migrated from neighboring BurkinaFaso. They speak the Dagaare language and their main occupation is farming. They are predominantly located in the various districts of Nandom, Lawra, Jirapa, Lambussie, Nadowli-Kaleo, Daffiama-Bussie-Issa and Wa West in the Upper West Region while some Dagaabas are settler farmers in other districts across the region. Some Dagaabas have also relocated to other parts of the country to engage in farming activities while others do some circular jobs. Most Dagaabas belong to the Christian and Traditional religious faiths while a little percentage also practice Islam. The Dagaabas celebrate various festivals basically to mark the end of the farming season and to thank their gods for a good harvest. Some of these festivals include; Kakube of the Nandom people, Kobine of the Lawra people, Wilaa of the Takpo people, Bong-ngo of the Jirapa people and the Kaka festival of hippos celebrated by the people of Wichiau. Some Dagaaba communities also celebrate the Duuye festival which is characterized by the use of ashes to mark the walls of households to symbolize the eviction of evil spirits from their homes. The Sissala People The Sissala people are believed to have originated from different tribes and clans in the Northern part of Ghana and southern Burkina Faso to settle in their present day locations. It is said that their ancestry can be traced to the Mole-Dagbani people in Gonjaland namely; the Moshi, Mamprusi and the Dagombas. Others are believed to have come from the lineage of the Gurunshi tribes. They occupy the districts of Lambussie, Sissala West, Sissala East and Wa East.Their language is Sissali and their main occupation is farming.Some of the major food crops grown in the Sissala areas include; Millet, Guinea corn, Maize, Cowpea and Yam. The Sissala people are also known for their speciality in playing and making of the xylophone. Majority of the Sissala people practice the Traditional religion while some belong to the Christian and Islamic religions. The Sissala people also celebrate some traditional festivals to thank their ancestors of a bumper harvest and to also mark the end of the farming season. Some of these festivals include; Paari-gbiele by the People of Tumu area, Mifele Gbero by the people Lambussie, Buwaala Kelwie by the people of Zimi among others. By Bamie Tahir-Ahmed Wa Preparations are underway for the final funeral rites of the late queen mother of Asanteman, Nana Afia Serwaa Kobi Ampem II. According to Manhyia Palace, the final funeral for the late mother of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II who passed in November 2016 at age 111 would take place from December 3. Kumasi which is the capital of the Asanteman Council is set to host thousands of Ghanaians and other dignitaries as they bids final farewell to its Queen Mother. She was enstooled in 1977 as the 13th queen mother of the Asante Kingdom since 1695 after the late Nana Ama Serwaa Nyarko II who reigned from 1945 to 1977. She saw the reign of the late Otumfuo Opoku Ware II as Asantehene who reigned from 1970 to 1999. Ahead of the final funeral rite celebration slated for first week of December, traders are told to clear off from the streets from Pampaso to Doctor Mensah where the Asante Monarch, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II will be carrying through as he sit in Palanquin from Pampaso stool house to the funeral ground at Manhyia Palace. The funeral Planning Committee led by Otumfuos Saamanhene Nana Osei Kwaku III were on Friday 27 October, inspected the routes where the Asantehene will be passing to the Manhyia Palace. The routes are Pampaso, PZ and Doctor streets. Traders are therefore advised to clear off from the routes in order to pave way for the Brazilian construction firm constructing Kumasi Kejetia Project. Speaking in interview with OTEC fm senior reporter Isaac Nsiah Foster the leader of the Funeral Planning Committee who doubles as Asantehenes Saamanhene Nana Osei Kwaku II called on the contractor to speed up works ahead of the final funeral rites. We are giving all traders selling in the street of Pampaso to Doctor Mensah up to Tuesday to clear off for necessary arrangement to be made for Asantehene passes through to Palace, note Asantehene doesnt beg for anything he added. According to him some rituals will be performing while bringing the Asante Monarch from Pampaso to the funeral ground. However the consultant to the ongoing Kumasi Kejetia project Mr. Emmanuel Kwadwo Danso who among the Brazilian construction firm CONTRACTA managers accompanied the funeral planning committee to inspect the routes where the King will be passing through appealed to Ashanti Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), KMA, Urban Roads Department, Security Services and other stake holders to adhere to Otumfuos order in order to pave way for them to speed up works for the final funeral rite celebration. 30.10.2017 LISTEN On January 7, 2017, the New Patriotic Party took over management of the country from the NDC. This was after the NPP won the 2016 general elections. The incontestable victory of the NPP was the result of many factors including commitment from party leaders, members and sympathizers as well mismanagement of the country by the previous NDC administration. The victory in 2016 is now history and there is the need to strategize for 2020. Part of the measures towards another resounding victory in 2020 includes the assessment of the current leadership of the NPP at all levels. In 2018, the kingmakers (delegates) of the NPP shall be called upon to maintain or change the current leaders. Their decisions shall entrench the victory of the NPP or deny the partys victory in 2020. It is on the back of this that members of the NPP are calling for Alhaji Mohammed Adam Samba to run for the NPP regional chairmanship position in the Northern Region. Chairman Samba is a strong pillar holding the NPP in the Northern region. He began his voluntary service to the party as early as 1996 as a member of the Motor Riders Association in Tamale together with Alhaji Nashiru (late) and Osman Dungu. Chairman Samba worked with Mr. Bashiru Red and Mr. Yawuza Abuzie in a special monitoring team that supervised the by-election in 2004 in Bimbilla and saw Hon. Dominic Nitiwul elected as the Member of Parliament. Chairman Samba provided and continue to provide financial and logistical support to the party. In the 2008 general elections, Chairman Samba provided fuel for the members of the Motor Riders Association throughout the campaign. His support to the regional youth wing of the NPP in the 2012 elections especially in their outreach programmes could not be quantified. The defeats in the 2008 and 2012 elections never stopped Chairman Samba. His commitment in the 2016 campaign revealed his character as a true party man. The parliamentary candidates then, constituency executives as well as regional executives are living witnesses to testify for Chairman Sambas contributions during the 2016 campaign. Even as the party is now in government, Chairman Samba has supported the regional communication team with an office accommodation and a monthly support of Gh1000.00 for the running of the office. Dear delegates of our great tradition in the Northern Region, we have come to this level through our commitment and team work. Without commitment and team work our victory would had remain a mirage; my mission is to strengthen our partys support my empowering the grass root teams, Chairman Samba once said. The new leaders that we shall elect must value communication, for marking unguarded comments on issues makes our party unattractive. The new leadership should have the patience to first recognize the efforts of our members. The new regional chairperson must be appealing to non-members of the NPP. In all, the new leadership must be willing to travel the long miles with sacrifice. Chairman Samba is ready for the battle ahead. Zuberu Aliu Aide to Chairman Samba I am of the firm conviction that Ghanaians made a terrible mistake by voting NPP out in 2008 election, as Ghana, as a matter of fact and observation, was heading towards the right direction following the eight years of prudent governance by Ex-President Kufuor and his dynamic team. In retrospect, Ex-President John Agyekum Kufuor took over the presidency from former President J. J. Rawlings on 7th January 2001. It is worth pointing out that former President Rawlings ruled the country for nineteen years. The first part of his regime, which lasted eleven years, was an abhorrent imposition through a series of coup detats. Although the PNDC and NDC administrations back then paraded some seasoned politicians, the vast majority of the military personnel who headed important Ministries were novices in the political scene. Unsurprisingly, therefore, Rawlingss administration adopted a seemingly disastrous Economic Recovery Programme (ERP), which was introduced under the auspices of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Regrettably, the vast majority of tangible national assets, including the state owned enterprises were allegedly sold to friends and families for pittance. In practice, the apparent unfavourable Economic Recovery Programme culminated in a catalogue of hardships. And, on top of the harsh programmes and policies which threatened the economic fundamentals, the population had to clutch itself for food shortages, a situation which the world press somehow ignored in favour of the concurrent Ethiopian famine that resulted in millions of deaths. Indeed, their desperate attempt to initiate the Programme of Action to Mitigate the Social Costs of Adjustment (PAMSCAD) did nothing to improve the unfortunate situation as untold hardships permeated many households. Starvation, so to speak, visited the vast majority of Ghanaians, and hence developing revoltingly ugly collar bones, which the humorous Ghanaians renamed as Rawlings Chain. That was indeed the pernicious extent of the hunger. Perhaps, in juxtaposition, the 1983 hunger was comparable to that of the Ethiopian famine back then. Nevertheless, Ghanas famine was not hyperbolised by the global media. Somehow, both Ghana and Ethiopia were back then ruled by uncompliant military dictatorships that looked on cluelessly and somehow unperturbed whilst the citizens endured widespread hunger. And, as food shortages escalated in Ghana, some traders started creating artificial shortages of goods by hoarding them so as to charge exorbitant prices at a later time. Disappointingly, despite being in power for nineteen years, former President J. J. Rawlingss could not initiate any meaningful policies and programmes to improve on the socio-economic standards of living, but only managed to destabilise Ghanas macroeconomic indicators. Thus, President Kufuor had a tough time running the country, as there was not much funds left in the national purse to plan anything meaningful. Ghana was then declared as Highly Indebted Poor Country (HIPC). The newly elected President Kufuor had a tough decision to make, by either embracing or rejecting the HIPC status. However, the forward thinking President Kufuor chose to swallow a bitter pill with a view to getting over the malaise. He thus pragmatically embraced the HIPC status in 2001. On reflection, the benefits of the HIPC were unprecedented during former President Kufuors administration, from (2001-2008). Consequently, macroeconomic indicators begun to stabilize and Ghanas debt stock was significantly reduced by about $4 billion within that period (BOG). Besides, as a result of the HIPC initiative and prudent borrowing, Ghanas external debt stock actually declined from $6.1 billion in 2000 to$3.8 billion by 2008 (BOG). It was an unprecedented achievement, so to speak. It is also worth stressing that the average GDP growth of the NDC from 1993-2000 was 3.8% while that of the NPP from 2001-2008 was5.2% with economic growth reaching 6.3% in 2007 and 9.1 in 2009 (GSS/BOG). As it was expected, former President Kufuor successfully completed his first term in office (four years), having successfully managed to stabilise the macroeconomic indicators. Subsequently, the good people of Ghana handed him the mandate for another four year term following a keenly contested presidential election on th December 2004. Let us face it, it would be an understatement to point out that former President Kufuors pragmatic policies and programmes reaped tremendous results. Due to time and space constraints, I will only enumerate a few of his wonderful achievements during his tenure in office. Helped moved Ghana from HIPC status to Lower Middle Income status. Ghana received a debt relief of around $4 billion, spreading over 20 years period. Built numerous infrastructural projects, including not less than 5 interchanges. However, the then opposition communicators led by John Dramani Mahama said back then that the erection of infrastructural projects remains only an exercise in mediocrity. Discovered oil in commercial quantities before handing over power to the late Mills (Ghana has since received over $3 billion in revenue). Increased the economic growth from around 3.5 in 2001 to around 9.1 in 2009. Quadrupled Ghanas GDP to $28 billion by 2008. Introduced free Maternal Care. Implemented National Health Insurance Scheme. Introduced Metro Mass Transit. Implemented School Feeding Programme. Introduced the National Youth Employment Programme, known as GYEEDA. Implemented the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP). As I hinted earlier, the list of former President Kufuors achievements is not exhaustive. However, I would not be able to list all of them at this point in time. All that I can state is that, former President Kufuor did so much to improve on Ghanas economic fortunes. Take, for example, Ex-President Kufuor and his government managed to expand Ghanas economy and thereby quadrupling the GDP to a favourable $28 billion by 2008. Plus, the NPP government left an encouraging economic growth of around 9.1 per cent. Moreover, through hard work, Kufuors government managed to discover oil in commercial quantities, which eventually helped moved Ghana to Middle Income Economy. Indeed, President Kufuor exerted dint of critical thinking, worked strenuously for eight solid years, laid an auspicious economic foundation and retired honourably in January 2009. But in spite of all the numerous programmes and policies that put the country in a highly favourable position, Ghanaians catastrophically bought into the NDCs propaganda and voted out the better economic managers in 2008. Back then, the NPP communicators, in all honesty, displayed sheer complacency and disappointingly failed to counter the NDCs propagandistic gimmicks. President Kufuor admirably passed on the baton to the late President Mills on 7th January 2009, following his victory in the runoff election on 28 December 2008. K. Badu, UK. [email protected] ; please visit me at: alljoycom.wordpress.com The Old Students of Navrongo Senior High School, Nabia, has held their Annual General Meeting at the school in Navrongo in the Upper East Region. In his welcome address, National President of the union, Alhaji Mohammed Haroon, mentioned some achievements and projects being undertaken in the school by various year groups and branches, as construction of boreholes, renovation of toilet facilities, the school's assembly hall (the MacDonald Hall), construction of the school's main gate, reroofing of classrooms and dormitories which were roofed off by rain storm, donation of books, computers, among many others. The Nabia national president also acknowledged the immense project contribution by Richard Earl of Bradford, a former tutor, to the school's development. He noted that the establishment of linkages with Nabia in the Diaspora and some former tutors has brought about tremendous benefits to the school. Notwithstanding the growth of the union and the several projects that were being undertaken in the school, Aljaji Haroon said there were still some challenges which needed the collective effort of members to overcome. "You would agree with me that there is still some level of apathy amongst members, making it very difficult to organize. Even though the various social media platforms are vibrant, it does not translate into physical appearance at meetings, and needs some level of improvement", he said. He mentioned an ongoing ICT center project for the school as one which was still in limbo, and called on the Nabia to rise to the challenge to kick start the project before the school's 6oth Anniversary, which will be held in 2020. On his part, Nabia Ingr Kassali Adebayo Shittu of the Nigeria's branch of the union, who was the Guest Speaker, expressed satisfaction at the level of progress the school has made over the years, and lauded the contributions made by various stakeholders to that effect. Ingr Adebayo Shittu who also belongs to the 1974 year group (with 'Folio number 1119), said: "We appreciate our great Senior Armiyao Haruna of Folio 48 for his memorable chronicles that were made available to form one boys and girls like us. Seniors Prof. Francis Ali-Osman, Prof. Sylvester Abanteriba, Prof. Susi Sanusi, Messers Chikpa Dumeakor, Ali Dakura, Isaac Nana Amissah-Eshun, Baba Sofianu, Naaba Sangna, the Paramount Chief, Oba Moshoud Aweda Lawal, a first class Oba in Nigeria, Chief Moses Alake Adeyemo (Deputy Governor, Oyo State, Nigeria), Hon. Tunde Ladipo, Chief Rasak Apalara, John Ndebugre Esq, Prof. Abatanga Alokore Esq, Dr. Abdulai Tinorga, Hon. Hon. Dr. Ghesika Agambilla, Dr. Chris Atim, and several other Nabia that are spread all over the globe, contributing their quota to the development of mankind. " The Headmistress of the school, Madam Francisca Yizura, in her welcome address, commended the old students for the annual Homecoming, which, she said, offered the current students an opportunity to interact with them. We also want to appreciate Nabia 1977 group for coming to donate equipment to the Home Economics Department. This will enable the practical lessons to be effective and the students acquire some skills that can lead to self-employment, she added. Madam Yizura also used the occasion to announce the schools successful completion of admission of first year students for the Free Senior High School Programme, which, she said would open access to students from disadvantaged backgrounds and also improve the quality of secondary education. She was grateful to the old students for the ICT center project, among others, and prayed that the union would put in commitment in raising the needed funds towards its completion. (l-r) Nabia Ingr K A. Shittu And Mr. Moses Ade, Both Of Nibia Nigeria, With The Macdonald Bust The much-awaited Ghana Investment Summit and Dinner Night takes place in the Central German city of Cologne on Tuesday 31 October 2017 at the prestigious Deluxe Koel Kalk, Wippenfurther Strass 33-35 starting from 2.00 pm Central European Time. The Summit which is the first of its kind to be organised by Ghanaians in Europe, aims at exposing the investment opportunities in Ghana to international investors as well as Ghanaians in the diaspora interested in taking advantage of the current conducive investment climate in Ghana. Addressing the final meeting of the Planning Committee on Thursday, Mr Felix Opoku Chairman of the Committee revealed that the response has been very positive and so overwhelming that organisers have had to reappraise their planning and adjust it in response to the huge interest expressed by investors across Europe and further afield. He indicated that all arrangements and necessary preparations have been completed and assured visitors and participants of a successful and memorable summit that will benefit Ghana and Ghanaians in the short, medium and long term According to Mr Opoku, a number of government officials have been invited to the summit so as to afford potential investors the opportunity to meet, interact and seek clarification on issues of common interest and concern. So far, all the officials who have been invited to the summit have confirmed their participation and would be arriving on Monday. They include Hon. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, Minister for Business Development, Hon Mustapha Abdul Hamid, Minister for Information and Presidential Spokesperson, Hon. Dr Nana Atto Arthur, Head of Local Government Services, Hon Henry Kwabena Kokofu, Former MP for Bantama and Mr John Kumah CEO, National Entrepreneurship and Innovation Plan(NEIP). The rest are Hon Nana Obiri Boahen, Deputy General Secretary of NPP, Dr Mabel Omotola, Former Governor of Ogun State, Nigeria and Hon Sylvester Tetteh, The Fund Administrator, Electronic and Electrical Mr Opoku explained that, the Summit will be followed by a five-course dinner which would provide an informal atmosphere for investors and government officials to network and exchange ideas. The programme ends with an all dance The dress code for the event is formal (Traditional or Western) EC tells govt to cancel Rs10b programme The Election Commission has asked the government to cancel all projects under the Constituency Infrastructure Special Programme (CISP) and Constituency Development Programme (CDP), arguing that retired lawmakers cannot carry on the programme meant for incumbent lawmakers. 30.10.2017 LISTEN Over 300 people benefited from free medical screening organised by the Ghana Muslim health workers for the people of Aboabo and its environs in Kumasi at the weekend. The maiden screening exercise was to help members of the community to know their health conditions. It also marks part of activities to ascertain and assist deprived communities who needed urgent health orientations. Participants of the health screening were screened for hypertension, diabetes, eye problem, malaria tests among others. The beneficiaries were educated on the importance of healthy living and free medications were also given out to them. The health screening exercise conducted by Muslim medical team comprises doctors and nurses drawn from different health facilities within Kumasi. Dr Aisha Ali Issaka, the president for the Muslim health workers society ,said it is always good to remodel various communities through health and Islam. She said the society is set to provide service to communities and fairness to all through professional practice. "It is believed that when people are healthy, that is when they can contribute meaningfully to the socio- economic development of Ghana" she added. Some of the beneficiaries who spoke to the media thanked the organisers for the opportunity and hoped that it will be frequently in the community. Faith-based healers at Biriwa in the Mfantsiman Municipality of the Central Region have been criticized for impeding attempts to minimize the rising rate of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and hepatitis B in the community. They have been accused of, among other impediments, keeping in their prayer camps and shrines people suffering from the diseases and denying them of or delaying their access to better, orthodox treatment. Though other factors like migration and misinformation on the ailments have been cited for the soaring cases, the actions of the faith-based healers in the fishing community has been ranked a key factor. The revelations were made over the week by Dr. Caesar Atuiyere, the President of AMICUS ONLUS, a non-governmental organisation that owns the Baobab Medical Centre at Biriwa, at a free medical screening for the community. Citing Africans' known spirituality as the reason, Dr. Atuiyere said, The African way of seeing things is that the human being is not just a body; Western medicine sees the human as a body. We see the human being as body and spirit, but what tends to happen is when people are sick, instead of curing both body and spirit, sometimes they look for only spiritual solutions to the detriment of the body, and when things are really bad they come to us at the clinic. On his part, the Administrator of the Baobab Medical Centre, Isaac Baiden, added that, the opinion leaders of the community have not also helped in fighting the communicable diseases as the organization of public education is usually frustrating due to the chieftaincy disputes at Biriwa, saying, At times you don't even know whom to talk to; you go to this person and they don't seem to have any interest in it. Commenting on the challenges posed by faith-based healers, Mr. Baiden noted that, the religious leaders do not collaborate with the medical centre in fighting the diseases because they appear to think orthodox healing is a threat to their spiritual method that serves as their source of income. However, Mr. Baiden indicated that, it is ironic that some of the religious leaders quickly come to the Centre when they are unwell, revealing that, Even with headaches, those people will seek treatment, and even when they come, they want to have preferential treatment. The Baobab Medical Centre at Biriwa was established in 2005, and has since cured over three hundred thousand people, mainly combining treatment with health awareness campaigns on preventive measures, free screening and community mobile health assistance in nearby villages. Biriwa, lying along the Accra-Cape Coast highway, has a population of about ten thousand people, who are mostly fisher folks, and the inhabitants are a combination of indigenes, workers in the formal sector, and migrants from other fishing communities from the Western Region and other places. By: Joseph Ackon-Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana Sekondi(W/R),October 29,GNA-The Bishop of the Sekondi Diocese of the Anglican Church,,the Rt.Rev.Alexander Kobina Asmah has reiterated the church's avowed commitment to its core mandate in the areas of Evangelism,Health,Education,Agriculture and the provision of social amenities to better the lot of society. According to him,the move was in fulfilment of the great commission where the Lord and Master Jesus Christ went about healing,feeding and ensuring the general well-being of society. The Rt.Rev.Asmah said this in a sermon at a special thanksgiving service to commemorate the 36th anniversary celebration of the Sekondi Diocese . The occasion also marked the climax of the first Episcopacy of the Bishop since he assumed office at the St.Andrews Anglican Cathedral at Sekondi and coincided with the 21st Sunday of the Church after Trinity. Preaching the sermon on the theme,"What I Shall Render To The Lord For All His Benefits To Us",the Bishop admonished the congregation to acknowledge the tender mercies and plenteous blessings of God in the life of the Sekondi Diocese. Bishop Asmah reminded the church that in the midst of turbulent periods,internal wranglings,conflicts and financial constraints,the Diocese continues to triumph with marked improvement. He used the occasion to pay glowing tribute to members who stood through thick and thin to restore the Church to its former glory and urged them to put war,bickering and acrimony behind them and forge ahead in unity. He also paid tribute to the first Bishop of the Diocese,the Rt.Rev.T.S.A.Annobil,his successor,the Rt.Rev.Kweku Faakye Okoh and the Rt.Rev.Col.(Rt.) J.K.Otoo for their selfless dedication to the work of God. Rt.Rev.Asmah observed that the instability which rocked the Church in time past,had stifled progressive initiatives thereby stagnating development of the Diocese. He advised the faithfuls to reflect on the past and the reconstruction of the Diocese to fulfil its mandate to the glory of God adding that under his leadership,the conflict in the Diocese which border on power sharing,has died down and given way to peace,love,unity and development. Rt.Rev.Asmah outlined his achievement in the past one year as the elevation of the Enchi branch to an Archdeaconry status with a shuttled vehicle,the Commissioning of an Episcopal Clinic at Nyankamam,a cocoa farming community near Enchi,with Tikobo No.2 in the Jomoro District as one of the designated areas to pitch one of such Clinics as well as the donation of a vehicle to the St.Andrews Anglican Church at Sekondi. Others include the elevation of the Kansaworado and Komfeiku local branches of the church to full Parish status as well as the commissioning of a branch of the Church in La Cote' D'Ivoire. He said the Diocese had instituted a Youth Bible Quiz competition to help the youth engender the spirit and skill to learn the Bible as part of revitalizing the core values of christianity through scripture. Messrs.Festus Entsua Mensah and Kelvin Damtse of the Takoradi Archdeaconry branch who emerged first in the quiz competition,took home GHC500,a Bible,a certificate and a shield. The second competitor from the Essikado Arcdeaconry, took home,GHC300,a Bible and a certificate and the third competitor from the Tarkwa Arcdeaconry,received GHC200,a Bible and a certificate. The Bishop also announced the creation of another Archdeaconry for the Essikado branch in due course and has cut the sod for the construction of a hostel facility at Effiakuma,a suburb of Takoradi. On Education,Rt.Rev.Asmah announced that the Church had acquired a-30-acre tract of land for the construction of an Anglican University between Bordee and Asankragua with Agriculture as its main strategic plan to take care of the chunks of cocoa produced in the Western Region. He said the Diocese would soon inaugurate a theological committee to build the capacity level of priests to restore sanity into the fold of the flock and advance the kingdom of God. The Bishop also dropped the hint that an Anglican Senior High School(SHS) would be established in the Sekondi/Takoradi metropolis and develop the Essikado local Church as the first point of touch of Anglicanism in the Western Region. GNA It is amazing that this one man, Sam Njuba, through his ideas and the example of his political life, left such a deep footprint in the political soil of our times. His messages continue to thrill Ugandans the world over. He was a man of a moment, a moment long past. It has been a privilege to have read his book, THE BETRAYAL, which I borrowed from one of the UAH members, Ronald Kavuma,,and i'm very grateful. See below for some of his concluding remarks about Museveni, in particular: 1.It is not far-fetched to assert that few people who have worked with Museveni can refer to him as a democrat. He is determined to control everything on earth, what is more, he cannot tolerate any dissenting views to his, and he does not believe in power sharing 2.A leaders background should be cross checked because our present leaders are sick with greed. They have an everlasting edge to grab and grab everything, even if they cannot possess it 3. Let everybody realise that the lifespan of a nation is much longer than of any individualWe are all mortals, and the greatest of all have fallen This last one touches on why I and some people have trouble believing that someone could support a life presidency project that is costly to a nation, just because an individual has convinced him or her to. I find all the comments supporting AGE-LIMIT REMOVAL here, how should I say...innocent. Life presidency is a prison of the human spirit. Those who perceive themselves to be eating, or have become rich because of Museveni, might find his 'life presidency' appealing; a quick road to their own more 'betterment'; but the whole thing isnt sustainable. And guess what, a society based on the notion of everyone working for the nation has by far the highest productivity and economic output and 'standard of living'. Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba UK "In tribute to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Uganda, two bastions of strength in a world filled with strife, discrimination and terrorism." 30.10.2017 LISTEN 30 October 2017 - What does the future African city look like? How do we identify the impact and trends resulting from urbanisation? What new regulation and governance models are needed? What about engagement models that embrace social inclusion and civic participation? These are all questions we need to answer and as 31 October marks World Cities Day - a day to promote successes and challenges resulting from urbanisation the spotlight is on the future of cities. Riaan Graham, sales director for Ruckus, sub-Saharan Africa, takes a look. The theme this year is Innovative Governance, Open Cities which highlights the important role of urbanisation as a source of global development and social inclusion, says Graham. Urbanisation provides the potential for new forms of social inclusion, including greater equality, access to services and new opportunities. In fact, it is evident that innovative technologies and connectivity is critical during the planning, design, delivery and operation of smart infrastructure and services. The Internet of Things (IoT) is gaining traction, impacting every area of our lives and quickly turning Smart Cities from intangible visions of the future into a reality. Around the world, cities are becoming more connected, collecting data everywhere to help planners make smarter decisions and deliver new services. Before Africa is able to start meeting those demands, we need to plan for capacity and speed to ensure a high-quality experience. Whats more, we need to take our unique challenges as a continent into account, adds Graham. A robust wireless network is a key part of this preparation it is the glue that holds smart cities together, enabling effortless sharing of workloads with datacentres and bridging connectivity across wired and wireless. So, what does the future African city look like? Bridging the digital divide As technology continues to advance at a rapid pace, the vision of the future is still emerging and we have yet to see what a true smart city will look like. Smart City IoT is an evolving concept, with lots of ideas but only a few complete deployments. Wi-Fi is the platform that will provide the foundation for smart city success, as it has immediate applications and can effectively connect a vast range of wireless technologies that will be involved in creating smart cities. According to Graham smart cities will help address the economic and social inequality that this divide creates, by providing Internet access to all citizens. With robust networks in place, bridging this divide will help bring communities closer together and encourage citizens to play a more active role to local councils. Flawless connectivity will improve city infrastructure and make it possible for citizens to engage with their community, such as removing the roadblocks that complicate access to local services. Business Revenue-generating applications will transform the way African businesses in smart cities communicate with their customers. Continues Graham: In addition to an increased use of digital signage, to communicate offers and promotions, we can expect to see an increased use of beacons, which send notifications to customers smartphones as they enter a store. It will also transform the way people work and tech-savvy commuters will benefit from smart city technology to work on-the-go. Smart utilities In a smart city, lighting will automatically be switched off when it isnt needed. It will be able to detect when people are on the street and turn on and off accordingly, reducing energy waste which is critical in countries where power is scare or expensive. In the near future, we can expect to see more city planners equipping their streets with smart lighting that uses sensors to track when there is high or low public footfall which will go a long way to reducing usage. Future smart traffic management is also likely to be a core feature of smart cities. This includes centrally-controlled traffic sensors and signals automatically regulating the flow of traffic in response to real-time demand, with the aim of smoothing flows of traffic to reduce congestion. This can go a long way to reduce traffic in high-dense areas over peak times like Sandton for example. And just think about the possibilities it could offer cities such as Lagos or Nairobi, says Graham. New technologies will also play an important role to help cities of the future promote sustainable energy use. For example, smart bins, that alert collectors when they need to be emptied are being used today and we can expect to see more of them crop up in cities across the world as they embrace smart technology. However, before becoming truly smart, cities need to implement the networks that will enable them to deploy new technology and the opportunities that Wi-Fi presents are simply too significant to ignore. The likes of Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, and even Zimbabwe to name a few have embarked on wireless initiatives designed to bring better connectivity to more citizens. And other African countries are following suit, adds Graham. One key challenge lies in selecting the correct partner to work closely with them to identify and meet all their Wi-Fi needs. The right network will enable a city to save money through increased efficiency (for example, smart traffic and energy systems, as well as optimal budget allocation) and generate additional revenue, by encouraging visitors to return, businesses to invest and people to take up residency. Africa has started using ICT investment to power its economy to gain more benefits. Government and the private sector are working together to fast track this process. Ultimately, when connectivity is improved, all stakeholders start drawing advantage from it. We are already seeing significant foreign direct investment into key ICT initiatives across the continent. So, even though mobility has sparked the flame around access, it will be wireless that fuels it into the digital future. Heres to the cities of the future! concludes Graham. It is three years since Blaise Campaore fled Burkina Faso to La Cote dIvoire after Burkinabes demonstrated against an attempt by Blaise Campaores government to amend the constitution so as to give him a fifth term in office. Blaise Campaore overthrew his former ally, Thomas Sankara on October 15, 1987, a coup detat that resulted in the death of the latter. Since then he had won elections from 1991 until 2010 a total of four terms. Its no mere coincidence that after borrowing ideas from several other writers, Lord Acton, the 19th century British politician came to a conclusion that: power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men. From October 28 to 31, 2014, Burkinabes took to the streets of Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso and other parts of the country to express their disagreement about the will of the people that had been manipulated in the past and was then about to be manipulated to extend a twenty-seven year rule to only God knows when. The sovereign power of every nation emanates from the people. Its unlawful that, that sovereign power is twisted to satisfy the whims and caprices of a few people who are bent on remaining in power or keeping their kith and kin in power. The silence of the people is what bolsters the action of those who manipulate the constitution. If Burkinabes had sat down in silence and watched, Blaise Campaore and his cohorts would still have been in the helm of affairs. This action is what has encouraged Togolese to rise to the occasion and ensure that the wrong that was done in the past be corrected and then prevent a possible manipulation of the will of the people. No wonder one of the protesters on the streets of Lome, the capital of Togo, had a placard which had this inscription: dictatorship feeds on silence and inactivity. Until recently, people power was not popular in Africa until it brought down the governments of Hosni Mubarak of Egypt as well as Zine Ben Ali of Tunisia. Blaise Campaore never expected that the powerful wind of people power would blow him out of Burkina Faso. Faure Gnassingbe Eyadema is the latest to be faced with people power. Over the last couple of months the streets of Togo have been bristling with demonstrators who are demanding that the President, Faure Gnassingbe Eyadema steps down. The chickens have come home to roost. Faure Gnassingbe Eyadema has been in power since 2005 and is in his third term. As Chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Faure Gnassingbe must take cognisance of the fact that the whole world is watching every move of his. Its clear that Faure Gnassingbe and most leaders in the sub-region and on the continent have not learnt that, the sovereign will of the people can never be taken from them. The rise against Faure Gnassingbe is a slap in the face of those who voted him into the position of Chairperson of ECOWAS. It shows that the leaders of the sub-region dont consider the democratic credentials of those they make a Chairperson. Isnt it sad? The situation in Togo needs immediate attention. Its imperative that the Heads of State in the sub-region map out diplomatic strategies to bring an end to the unfortunate events in Togo. The protestors are asking for some reforms. Theres the need to look at their demands and meet it. Togolese have been silent for the last fifty years. Isnt that enough reason to look into the matter and address it? A constitutional amendment that ends up keeping a government or its kith and kin in power is akin to dictatorship and an affront to good governance. The writer is a freelance journalist. [email protected]/[email protected] In September 2015, the United Nations, through its member states, adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Following this, African countries also pledged to build a more prosperous and developed Africa in the next five decades by remaining committed to implementing the African Union Agenda 2063. With nearly over 60% of the African population being youthful, the need to involve the youth in the adoption and effective implementation of these two key development frameworks cannot be undermined or overlooked. Young people and the youth are important and crucial to Africa and the worlds development and harnessing their potential across various communities, regions and demographics is essential to guaranteeing sustainable development. To enable African youth to drive the implementation of the SDGs, it is important to respond to their needs, provide them with an opportunity to aggregate their voices and to actively contribute to the development agenda on the continent. To achieve this ambitious goal, we must look back into history and correct the mistakes of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) era, which left out the youth, and amend it in the adoption and implementation of the SDGs for greater world impact. About the African Youth Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit To harness the potential of the youth in ensuring sustainable development and growth in Africa, Ghana will be holding the maiden African Youth Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Summit from Wednesday 1st November to Thursday, 2nd November 2017 at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center, Teshie, Accra. Under the theme, Youth as Drivers of Sustainable Development, the Youth Summit is being hosted by Youth Advocates Ghana (YAG), in collaboration with the National Youth Authority of Ghana with support from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and several international and local development agencies, the Summit will be focusing on engaging with the youth and young people. Executive Director of YAG and Convener for the Summit, Emmanuel Ametepey, reiterated the importance of the Youth Summit, There is the need for governments, development partners, civil society organizations and the private sector to recognize the value of collaborating with young people as partners and establish clear and explicit pathways for their meaningful participation in the process of implementation and monitoring. The SDGs Advisory Unit, Office of the President also emphasized governments devotion to engaging with youth in implementing the SDGs, Ghana is excited to be part of the maiden African Youth SDGs Summit. As the unit supporting the global role of the President, His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo as the Co-Chair of the UN Secretary General's Eminent Group of Advocates on the SDGs, we feel this summit is well fitted within our strategy to mobilize the African constituency especially the youth towards the attainment of the SDGs" As an annual continental forum, the Summit will bring together 350 participants from Ghana, Africa and beyond aimed at building momentum, and rallying support and progressive awareness on the SDGs. It will also bring right holders to become active participants in the implementation of the goals towards improved socio-economic development of their countries and people with focus on unemployment, governance and participation, gender equality, disability and its implication on the SDGs. Being the first, several young people and officials are hopeful that the summit will set the stage for youth engagement in the development policy formulation and implementation processes towards a sustainable attainment of the SDGs. Expected Outcome of the Summit: It is expected that, the Summit will: Consolidate the views of young people on the Sustainable Development Goals. Draw the attention of donor agencies, African governments, development partners and the private sector to that fact that the youth remained the largest untapped resource and the most powerful drivers of development. The summit outcome document will highlight innovations and best practices to inform policy and advocacy at all levels. Issue a communique to be published in the dailies in Ghana and copies will be shared with High Commissioners and Ambassadors for onward forwarding to their respective governments Network with other young people from the regional level to share their experiences on the stage of the SDGs implementation in their countries and reflect on their common threats and opportunities. Keynote speakers: The summit will officially be opened by Professor Gyan Baffour, Minister for Planning and Ms. Christine Evans-Klock, the United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator for Ghana. Messages from Partners ActionAid Ghana As a social justice organization working with vibrant young activists and social movements, ActionAid Ghana is pleased to be associated with the African Youth SDGs Summit. We recognize the enormous creative energy of our youth and the dynamism they bring to community advocacy and national campaigns. It is our expectation that our youth advocacy platformsActivista and the Young Urban Women Movementwill support the conference and acquire refreshing global perspectives about the SDGs Center for Democratic Governance (CDD-Ghana) "CDD-Ghana is excited to be part of this year's Summit. We hope that, through this summit, the government and other policy makers will be reminded of the value of data in policy making and how the youth can be a critical tool in driving development towards the SDGs" Christian Aid "Rallying the youth of this nation to own the SDGs, to be involved in its implementation and determine how it shapes the agenda of future is key. Therefore Christian Aid is happy to associate with this Summit as a partner" UNICEF Ghana UNICEF advocates and works with partners including the Government of Ghana for the protection of the rights of children, so that every child in Ghana can reach his or her full potential. At this years Summit, UNICEF will share its expertise and approaches on how best to promote and deliver sanitation and hygiene in schools and also the sanitation challenges faced in urban areas. EQWIP HUBS Eqwip Hubs goal is to propel #100,000 YouthForward by 2020 in 6 countries including Ghana. The SDGs can be achieved if efforts are committed towards it, and more importantly, if these efforts are inclusive of key stakeholders involved including youth. As a youth-focused organization, we stand in partnership with this Summit to echo the concerns of young people to government and institutions of authority. As we embark on this collective journey, we pledge that no one will be left behind. Yaa Asantewaa Old Students Association has averted what could have been a sanitation crisis in the school, with completion of a modern 12-Seater place of convenience. With a student population currently of over 2,000, facilities are obviously overstretched. Students have had to contend with increased pressure on limited facilities in the face of growing numbers. Headmistress, Esuande Eshun-Fameyeh, describes this as timely, intervention by the former students to complete the abandoned project, initiated by the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly. It has been documented that in schools where there are no toilets girls stay away when they are in their menstruation period. We need about a hundred more toilets where these girls can quickly rush in there when they are in their period and clean themselves, she says. Miss Eshun-Fameyeh revealed students had to visit the lavatories and bathrooms, in turns, especially, in the mornings. This encouraged lateness to school gatherings and also threatened smooth academic work. According to the headmistress, high level of discipline among students prevented the dreaded situation of open defecation in the school. She acknowledges the critical role the Old Students Association has to play in maintaining high standards in their alma mater. Miss Eshun-Fameyeh proposes renovation of the schools facilities to support modern education. I want to urge all students to show interest in the association and help maintain the status of the school. This school made them, she added. President of Yaa Asantewaa Old Students Association, Diana Adu-Danquah says members are committed to mobilizing resources to improve conditions at the school. She encourages all past students to join the association in the service of the school to maintain high academic and moral standards. Government cannot satisfy the needs of every secondary school so we as old students will have to set in and fill the gap. We will not end it here, we learn there need more toilets and we will consider all that, she added. Img-20171029-wa0016 Hon. Osei Assibey Antwi, Mayor of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly 30.10.2017 LISTEN As part of the Sanitation Challenge for Ghana(SC4Gh) competition, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), in collaboration with Water and Sanitation for Urban Poor and four financial institutions are in the process to assist residents of Ayigya and Moshie Zongo to secure financial support to build modern household toilets in the two communities in the metropolis . The Sanitation Challenge for Ghana (SC4Gh) motivates Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies in the country to team up with their citizens and innovators to design and implement responsible liquid waste management strategies to transform the livelihoods of Ghanas urban communities. Addressing residents of Ayigya, a suburb of Kumasi, the Mayor of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly, Hon. Osei Assibey Antwi noted that the assembly is determined to win the Sanitation Challenge for Ghana contest hence their resolution to implement the proposed programs and policies developed and submitted for the Challenge . He said the project is also in line with the assemblys policy of ensuring that liquid waste management in the metropolis is properly tackled. He said statistics available shows that over 71% households do not have toilets, describing the situation as very worrying and disturbing . He said even though most households initially reserved places to be used as toilet facilities only to realize later on that those spaces have been converted into rooms for rent. The Mayor hinted that the assembly would crack the whip on households that flout bye-laws of the assembly with regards to sanitation. "We are very determined than ever to make the city clean and healthy. In order for us to succeed we would need to be a little hash and firm. We do not want to start with any hash measures without adequately educating the general public. We are using all available means to educate and sensitize the general public on the need to maintain a clean environment. After the stipulated period we have set aside for this education, we would fully enforce our laws. We will plead that all residents of the metropolis respond to the call of K. M. A for a clean and healthy environment, the Mayor stated and pleaded. The Deputy Metropolitan Environmental Health officer who is also the lead strategist for the Sanitation Challenge for Ghana project (SC4Gh), Eric Gyasi, told journalists that the K.M.A is on course in implementing its sanitation policies. We noticed that over 500 households in Ayigya and Moshie Zongo respectively dont have toilet facilities, so we decided to use these two Zongo communities as a case study for this project. We are offering households loans that are very flexible to be paid back within one and a half year period ranging from 2500 cedis to 6000 cedis depending on the type of toilet facility one wants and the materials the individual has, he further explained. Mr. Eric Gyasi thanked Water and Sanitation for Urban Poor and the four financial institution partners for embracing the program and the good will to offer financial assistance to residents who need modern toilet facilities in their homes. He expressed optimism that the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly would emerge victorious by the end of the implementation of its sanitation strategy. Out of the 21 Duapa Award winning Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), 17 have met the minimum condition for the second stage (Dignified City Award) of the Sanitation Challenge for Ghana (SC4Gh). The 17 MMDAs have therefore qualified and are vying for the Dignified City Award of the SC4Gh, which has a total prize purse of GBP 1.285. It has emerged that Samuel Ofosu Ampofo wanted to be vice president when President John Evans Atta Mills suddenly passed away in July 2012. Mr Ampofo's ambition to run for the presidency is still alive, playing the Eastern Region card, DAILY GUIDE can confirm. However, when he was asked to prove his academic credentials, he failed woefully, according to Bismark Tawiah Boateng, the current Eastern Regional Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC). When there was a vacancy at the presidency following the death of President John Evans Atta Mills, he (Ofosu Ampofo) wanted President Mahama, who was then acting, to select him as his vice, Mr. Tawiah Boateng told Yaw Amofa Boakye on Oman FM's morning show, 'National Agenda,' last Friday in reaction to the Prof. Kwesi Botchwey Committee's damning report. He called some of us together to help him to become the vice president when he was the Local Government Minister and I even asked him to tell us about his educational qualification so that we would know how to lobby for him, the regional chairman, who was given a negative spin in the Kwesi Botchwey report, revealed. I attended the meeting together with our Regional Women's Organizer, our then Chairman (Julius Debrah), our Youth Organizer and Nana Mamfehene in the presence of Mr. Kofi Attor at the Ministry of Local Government in Accra and Ofosu Ampofo asked us to lobby for him to become vice president. Mr Tawiah Boateng, who sounded disappointed, said he suspected that the query he issued to Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo over his vice presidential ambition had become the basis for mounting smear campaign against him (Tawiah Boateng) and concluded, If that is why Ofosu Ampofo hates me, then that's up to him. Mr Ofosu Ampofo aka'Bra Sammy Foto' because of his previous profession as a photographer cum pupil teacher, has not yet responded to the allegations made against him; but DAILY GUIDE can confirm that the former Local Government Minister is lobbying hard to be selected as running mate to partner whoever gets the nod to lead the NDC for election 2020, provided the person is not from an Akan enclave having lost the slot to Paa Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur in 2012 after the death of President Mills. Mr Amissah-Arthur is not likely to be selected by John Mahama, in the event of he (Mahama) securing the NDC slot, Amissah-Arthur having performed abysmally in his own Central Region which gave key parliamentary seats to the NPP. The NDC regional chairman, who was commenting on a portion of the Prof. Kwesi Botchwey-led 13-member Committee report that states that he allegedly pocketed campaign cash, was particularly incensed that it was Ofosu-Ampofo who is believed to be prosecuting the agenda in the report. He accused Mr. Ofosu-Ampofo who was the NDC Director of Elections when the NDC lost miserably of spreading falsehood about him and said it was clear that it was the Elections Director who had given that false information to the committee, when he knew very well that it was a lie. Mr Tawiah Boateng said that since he decided to move away from regional organizer to become regional chairman, Mr. Ofosu Ampofo had continuously undermined him by making false allegations against him. He said emphatically that Mr. Ampofo never gave him any GH1 million as being alleged asking, 10 billion old cedis? In what vehicle did they he carry such an amount to me? When he was told by the programme host that there were rumours that Ofosu Ampofo brought GH100,000 to him, Tawiah Boateng answered rhetorically so it is no longer GH1 million? He brought GH100,000 and said the region should take GH50,000 and security personnel should take GH50,000 and everybody got his share and that does not mean that Tawiah Boateng pocketed any money, he admitted. The GH100,000 came to the region but it was not from the pocket of Ofosu Ampofo. It was given to me in the presence of party officials, including the Regional Treasurer, and I handed it over to my secretary who runs the day-to-day administration of the party in the region. They brought money for the officials to tour polling stations on election day at 3:35 pm (15:45 hours). We could not distribute it to the members because it was only an hour-and-a-half for polling to close. It was the following day that we directed that anybody who pre-financed the activities should have a refund. From the time we lost the election, nobody mentioned this until we are set for another election and these things have started coming up, There was a Campaign Coordinator; he was in-charge of all resources. We have a treasurer, you can find out everything from him, Tawiah Boateng stated. By William Yaw Owusu Electoral alliance with UML forged for party unification: Dahal CPN (Maoist Center) Chairman reiterated that electoral alliance with the CPN-UML was forged for the left parties unification. The Commissioner of the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), Isaac Crentsil, has directed all business operators to deal directly with customs officers and not intermediaries commonly known as 'Goro Boys' that transact business on their behalf. He asked truck drivers and traders to go straight to the custom officers to have their documents inspected and stamped instead of depending on 'goro boys' which comes with extra cost. At the Ghana-Burkina Faso border, the agents used to charge an amount of 10,000 CFA for the service which increases the cost of doing business in the country in general. With this intervention by the Commissioner, no trader or truck driver would pay any amount. He said that the drivers could easily deal with customs officers without any difficulties instead of the agents or goro boys at the Ghana-Burkina Faso border, who pose as middlemen and transact business between custom officers and transit truck drivers. According to him, the agents only collect their documents and send them to customs officers for inspection and subsequent stamping at the aforementioned fee. The commissioner issued the directive when he made an unannounced visit to the Paga-Dakola border to have first-hand information on activities at the border. The trip was made after the Board Chairman of GPHA, Peter Mac Manu, led a delegation made up of the Director-General of GPHA, CEO of Ghana Shippers Authority, Director of Tema Port, the General Manager of Marketing and Corporate Affairs of GPHA and other stakeholders, on a trade mission to Burkina Faso. The unannounced visit followed week-long engagement with the government and business community in Burkina Faso. Immediately after the customs boss made the announcement, drivers and traders who use the border become extremely elated. The directive was given after several complaints were made to the delegation which visited the Burkina Faso-Ghana border. An official notice, Mr Crentsil noted, would be communicated to all custom officers at the borders to ensure strict compliance. The Burkina Faso government, traders, truck drivers' advocates of smooth trade within the ECOWAS corridors like the Bordeless Alliance, USAID, have already applauded Ghana for the laudable intervention to promote trade between Ghana and other landlocked countries. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Shippers Authority, Benonita Bismarck, on his part, was optimistic the directive by the Commissioner of Customs would go a long way to make Ghana corridors attractive to business operators. She said Ghana Shippers Authority (GSA), which is mandated to protect shippers in Ghana, has advocated against the practice. She added that with such a move, Ghana's competitiveness in the transit business would be enhanced. The acting Director General of GPHA, Paul Asare Ansah, commended customs for the significant role in ensuring that trade between Ghana and its neighbours grow. He said in the year 2016, Ghana Ports was able to increase the transit traders by 59 percent. He was of the view that removing goro boys from the borders, coupled with limited harassment by security agencies on the corridor, would help increase the number of businesses from neighbouring landlocked countries, who use the ports of Ghana for import and export. Drivers, traders and others received the news with joy and applauded Ghana's efforts in maintaining trade relations with her neighbours. By Vincent Kubi The President's daily National Security briefings are falling below acceptable standards, the pockets of near countrywide lawlessness by alleged New Patriotic Party (NPP) activists suggest. As we compose this commentary, the latest bout of lawlessness, if you like, criminality, has reportedly taken place in Half Assini in the Western Region expectedly by undisciplined NPP youth. These unruly youth could have taken a cue from their counterparts in the other regions because they have not noticed any visible action being taken against them. Such queries, important as they are, would usually be misconstrued by those responsible for managing National Security issues but the national interest dwarfs such trivial disagreements or even boardroom grumblings. We would rather serve the cause of the national interest than the parochial preference of a government appointee in their ornate offices. President Akufo-Addo must, as a matter of urgency, take another look at the composition of the National Security team. He deserves better from these appointees. Such lapses are becoming one too many in the country. If the National Security apparatus did not foresee the Karaga incident and the others following it then they are sleeping on their jobs and must wake up. In National Security management such slumbers can lead to very parlous consequences. If such little yet dangerous skirmishes take place below the radar of the National Security apparatus, it can only be conjectured when others beyond them in size and consequence rear their ugly heads. The intelligence community in the country must wake up and do their work as demanded of them by law. In some dispensations these skirmishes happening without their knowledge would have triggered the marching orders from the President. Management of National Security matters is such a crucial affair that we cannot afford to listen to excuses like 'mine is paperwork and nothing to do with the field work' as one of the top men in the national security system is reported to have said recently. As for the Coordinator, he is reported to have also passed an unsavoury remark when his attention was drawn to an occurrence of National Security value. We, Ghanaians, have a stake in the security of the nation and would raise our voices as we are doing in this editorial when we observe lapses as we have since the dawning of the new political order in the country. The change we are enjoying did not come easy. We worked for it when some of these operatives at the top of the National Security ladder were outside the political trenches so we have the right to talk and would continue to do so until the President is properly briefed. The President's welcome directive to the security agencies to descend on lawbreakers should be adequate warning to the political miscreants that the old order of 'our party is in power and so we are above the law' has no place under an NPP government. Good governance is about discipline on the part of both the government and the governed supported by the rule of law. Nobody should therefore take the country to ransom under the circumstances. GUBA Foundation, the charitable branch of the GUBA Enterprise, donated more than 2000 pieces of nurses uniforms on 24th October, 2017, to various health centres in Ningo-Prampram and Ada East districts of the Greater Accra Region.The donation forms part of the Foundation's Infant Mortality Project that seeks to provide deprived hospitals with incubators and other essential medical supplies, to alleviate infant mortality in Ghana. In receipt of the donations were the Prampram Polyclinic, Old Ningo Health Centre, Ada East District Hospital and other health centres operating within the districts. Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram Constituency, Hon. Samuel Nartey George lauded the Foundation for its efforts. He added that the initiative would end the state of affairs of nurses having to purchase their own uniforms. The Medical Superintendent of the Ada East District hospital, Dr Philip Narh expressed gratitude for the quality of the uniforms donatedby the Foundation. I am extremely pleased that the uniforms are new and of good quality. Our nurses will use the uniforms and some of the overcoats will be given to patients for their use" In a speech read on her behalf, GUBA Founder and CEO, Dentaa Amoateng MBE, a Paediatric Nurse by profession, thanked the nurses for their sacrifices and hard work. We appreciate the commitment that you exhibit every day to save the lives of mothers and babies in Ghana. It is our hope that this gesture would motivate you to sacrifice a lot more for mother Ghana" - she added. The GUBA Foundation continues in its relentless approach to the permanent alleviation of Infant Mortality. To support this project, visit https://www.gofundme.com/closing-the-gap-infant-mortality Management Of Ada East District Hospital Receives Nurses Uniforms From Guba Foundation Guba Foundation Team Poses With Nurses And Doctors At Old Ningo Health Centre During Donation Of Nurses' Uniforms The Assembly Member and teacher of Asuom Senior High School has made a donation of bags of cement and trips of sand to help the authorities of the school to reconstruct a boys' dormitory of the school that was razed by an inferno. It would be recalled that fire gutted the boys' dormitory of Asuom Senior High School in the Kwaebibirem District of the Eastern Region in the early hours of Sunday 8th October burning down completely, three rooms of the dormitory and a cubicle containing the chop boxes of the male students of the school. Following the fire, about 60 students were displaced with over 30 students losing completely all their belongings forcing the school authorities to improvise classrooms as dormitories. But Abrefa Busia who is also an old student of the same school has gone to the aid of the school with the hope of helping the school to get back the dormitory in shape. The school is yet to receive any support from the government after the disaster. Abrefa Busia after the donation pleaded with the Kwaebibirem District Assembly, the Ghana Education Service, old students, NGOs and other philanthropists to "come to the aid of the school." Receiving the items Madam Elizabeth Ehorke, Assistant Headmistress of the school (Administration) thanked the Assembly Member for the kind gesture saying it would go a long way to help the school. She also pleaded with other well-meaning Ghanaians who have education at heart to come to the aid of the school. Cocoa and coffee farmers have indicated that they are happy with the current cocoa price set by government. According to the farmers, they were happy that the government maintained the cocoa price, particularly at a time when the world price had fallen. President of the Cocoa and Coffee Farmers Association of Ghana, Alhaji Alhassan Bukari, who spoke to Accra-based Kasapa FM, explained that cocoa farmers were hopeful that the government will increase cocoa price when the world market price of the commodity increases. He said, We are not politicians but we disagree with the Minority's call for an increase in cocoa price now, judging by the situation on the world market. According to him, We don't have to put pressure on government. We know government will do the right thing when things get better. At the price review session, government explained issues to us and we accept the explanation. The Minority recently made a call in Parliament for an increment in cocoa price for cocoa farmers. At a press conference on Monday, the Minority said the failure of government to increase cocoa price, despite the sharp drop of the commodity price on the international market from $3,000 to about $1,900, was unfair and amounted to stealing from farmers. Agriculture Minister Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto, at a meeting earlier in Accra, announced that government was going to maintain the price for the 2016/2017 farming season for the 2017/2018 crop year. The price of cocoa on the international market has witnessed a dramatic decline to a 10-year low from more than $3,000 per tonne only 10 months ago to as low as $1,900 in recent months. The situation has compelled other countries to reduce drastically their producer prices of cocoa. But the Minority rejected the minister's claims, saying the foundation laid by the former NDC administration was good enough to warrant an increase from the GH475 per bag. By Melvin Tarlue The Bekwai Circuit Court has sentenced one of three suspected armed robbers arrested on October 23, 2017 at Okurase, near Jacobu in the Amansie Central District of the Ashanti Region to 30 years' imprisonment in hard labour. Stephen Boadi, 22, was slapped with the prison term for robbing a gold dealer, Prince Owusu, of six pounds of gold, a digital scale machine, gold gas blower worth GH200 and cash of GH2,100, totaling GH9,700 by the court, presided over by Fredrick Enold Kwasi Nawura. He reportedly embarked on the robbery with two others, one Ashadow and an unidentified man, who are currently at large. Stephen, who was convicted on his own plea, was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit robbery and robbery, contrary to Sections 23(1) and 149 of Act 29/60 respectively. The prosecutor, Detective Inspector Stephen Ofori, informed the court that the incident happened on October 23, 2017 around 4:00 pm at Okurase, a farming community, near the district capital, Jacobu. According to him, the complainant, Prince Owusu, who is a businessman, and his brother travelled on a motorbike from their home at Oseikrom, a nearby village, to Okurase on that day to buy gold. While they were transacting the business, the prosecution said Stephen Boadi and his gang spied on them. Detective Ofori narrated that the robbers laid ambush at a nearby bush along the road where they emerged and attacked the businessman and his brother with a locally made pistol and cutlasses. The police prosecutor said the armed robbers shot the rear tyre of the motorbike to render the complainant and his brother immobile before attacking them. Inspector Ofori revealed that the complainant raised alarm, which forced the armed robbers to flee from the scene and attracted members of the community to the scene. The prosecutor indicated that luck however eluded Stephen Boadi when he was identified on the outskirts of Kwapiakrom by the complainant. The complainant and the village folks apprehended the convict and later handed him over to police, the prosecution told the court. The convict admitted the offence in his caution statement and led the police to the crime scene where further evidence was gathered. He was later charged and arraigned before court. From Ernest Kofi Adu, Kumasi The acting General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has supported the argument advanced by some National Democratic Congress (NDC) functionaries that election reports of political parties are not public documents. He said that on JOY NEWS AM Show on Monday, in response to the question as to whether the 2016 election report of the NPP will be made public. It is not possible for our report to go public because we understand the dangers involved so in managing it, we put it in the hands of those capable of protecting it, he stated. Theres nothing criminal for it to get out but names of people may be mentioned and they wont have the opportunity to validate the things said about them, he added. Briefing the host, Mamavi Owusu Aboagye about what worked for the NPP in the December 2016 polls, Mr. Boadu said they concentrated on the goals and objectives of the party, and they made sure the polling station teams were well resourced and trained, also, they had an efficient system of transmission of information and that made the difference. He restated that there was no way the NPP report can leak which was a reaction to the leaked NDC report. Last week Joy News intercepted documents of the Kwesi Botchwey Committee report that outlines the reasons that led to the massive defeat the party suffered at the hands of the then opposition NPP. Related: Media cant coerce us to put Kwesi Botchwey Report out Nii Lantey Vanderpuye The leaked report that has been disputed and called fake by some executive members of the party including Ade Coker, the Greater Accra Regional Chairman and Nii Lantey Vanderpuye, Member of Parliament for Odododiodoo constituency mentions a lot of people as the cause for the party's defeat. On page 28 of the leaked report, for instance, it notes that "Solomon Nkansah as Communications Director was a disaster". He has however laughed it off and said the authentic report that they have does not even mention his name at all. However, some NDC members including Allotey Jacobs who is the partys Central Regional Chairman have confirmed the leaked report as authentic. Interior Minister Ambrose Dery has called on the academia to extend their expertise to the ministry in order to improve migration and security issues in the country. According to the sector minister, it is high time all stakeholders played their part in ensuring the security of citizens while enabling safe and proper migration. Professors and lectures do not use only the halls and the media, come to the ministry for discussions, he said. He was speaking at the opening ceremony of the 10th anniversary conference of the Centre for Migration Studies at the University of Ghana (UG) themed: 'Migration, Security and Development'. Touching on the theme for the conference, Mr Dery explained that the benefits of the free movement of persons' regime are enormous, including improvements in tourism, skills and capacities of persons in the region. He, however, added that despite the enormous gains from the activity of migration, one should also not lose sight of the fact that it brings in its wake, challenges which require effective border management. The porous borders of the Africa continent call for a standardised screening, registration and document issuance mechanism, which adheres to international standards and best practices such as readable biometric passports, biometric national identity cards and credible birth and death registration, he added. He, thus, stated that to ensure the security of all, the Ghana Immigration Act has been passed to allow officers at the borders to acquire weapons to protect all persons. Professor Takyiwaa Manuh, former Director, Social Development Policy Division, United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, in her key note address, gave a strong migration paradox where those who keep the economy going through migration are treated badly, while others who are in the middle class are accepted when they migrate. She said for migration to be safe and foster development, the symptoms of what spur desperate migration like poverty must be addressed. Dr Joseph Teye, Director of the Centre for Migration Studies, said the centre has made significant strides in teaching, research and extension. He hinted that the centre currently runs three fee paying postgraduate programmes, namely MA, MPhil and PhD in Migration Studies. Since 2010 when CMS started admitting students, 115 MA/MPhil students and seven PhD students have graduated. Currently, there are 43 MA/MPhil students and 24 PhD students studying at the centre, he said. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Charles Owiredu, in his remarks commended the work done so far at the centre with regards to policies on migration. He also pledged his ministry's support to the centre. The Chief of Naval Staff, Real Admiral Peter Kofi Faidoo has revealed that his office is working relentlessly to help address all technical and other challenges confronting personnel of the Ghana Navy at the Western Naval Command. We are not oblivious of the difficulties you face. We have persistently informed government of your challenges and the government has assured the high command that it would take the necessary measures to address the challenges, he noted. He revealed that the military high command is procuring the necessary logistics for fleet maintenance to improve all time operational readiness of all ships of the Ghana Navy. He also indicated that the high command was working vigorously to procure sufficient clothing items of all kinds to meet the ever increasing demand for clothing items by personnel. Discussions are also ongoing in connection with residences and other office accommodation for personnel. I have also directed the Flag Officers Commanding to assist with ration cash allowance to improve the quality and quantity of feeding, he added. Real Admiral Faidoo disclosed this when he addressed an Administrative Inspection Parade organized by personnel of the Western Naval Command at the Sekondi Naval Base yesterday. The Chief of Naval Staff was at the Sekondi Naval Base for a four-day administrative inspection exercise for the first time since he assumed leadership of the Ghana Navy in January 2016. The inspection, which is an annual programme, allows the Chief of Naval Staff to stay abreast with the achievements and the challenges of the command so as to take the necessary measures to address them. The Navy Chief inspected the Sekondi Naval Base, Navy Training School, water break and Naval Dockyard Complex, swimming pool, multipurpose court and gym, the Navy church and the Sekondi barracks. Real Admiral Faidoo, who expressed his satisfaction, said I am so impressed with what I have seen despite the limited resources and funds available at your disposal. He praised personnel of the Western Naval Command for executing all assigned and routine tasks both internally and externally with professionalism, effectiveness and efficiency. You have a sound and robust administrative system that is quite responsive to operations. I have also gone round all units within the command to inspect your facilities and I am impressed with what you are doing, he mentioned. The recent maritime operations you carried out to protect Ghana's offshore gas installations and facilities before and after the ruling of the Ghana-Cote d'Ivoire maritime boundary disputes were highly commended and recognized by government, he revealed. He also praised personnel of the Western Naval Command for living in peace and harmony with the civilians in their vicinity. Some hardworking personnel and civilian employees were rewarded with citations to motivate and spur them on to continue working hard for mother Ghana. The Minster of Foreign Affairs, Shirley Ayorkor Botchway, has said the government of Ghana is holding talks with Togolese officials following the political unrest in that country. 26 Togolese nationals were arrested in Ghana last Saturday, after they attempted to stage a mass protest in Accra, to draw attention to the political crisis in Togo. They are expected to be arraigned today [Monday]. Speaking to Citi News, Ayorkor Botchway said the Ghanaian government is frantically engaging Togolese authorities to find a lasting solution to the heightened political situation in that country. Consultations are going on. We are talking [with them] because it is important. We are a stakeholder. Anything that happens in Togo has an effect on us. Anything that happens in Ghana will have an effect on Togo. She noted that it is in our interest to make sure Togo is safe and Ghana is safe, and there is nothing negative going on in any of the two countries. Togolese crisis Togo's opposition parties have been demanding a return to constitutional term limits for the Presidency, and also for President Faure Gnassingbe to step down. Gnassingbe has been in power since 2005 after the death of his father, General Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled Togo for nearly 50 years. The anti-Gnassingbe protests, that have seen hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets across the country, have resulted in over 15 people killed and scores injured. Three new street marches have been announced for November 7, 8 and 9, despite the Togolese government's ban on weekday protests. ECOWAS leaders bashed over seeming silence ECOWAS leaders have been criticized for their seeming silence over the matter. But Mrs. Botchway said The other ECOWAS countries are all engaged to ensure that everything is okay in our sister country in terms of their politics and adhering to their constitution. Govt should protect fundamental rights granted by constitution: NHRC Chair National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman Anup Raj Sharma has said that the governance will take a right track and the rights of people with disabilities will be ensured after the elections. 30.10.2017 LISTEN The Eastern Regional Minister, Eric Kwakye Darfour, says until Ghana reconsiders the methods used in rearing cattle, the constant reports of deadly clashes between nomadic herdsmen and local residents will not stop. He wants assembly members at the local level, to consider enacting by-laws which would be a guide to cattle rearing in communities. According to him, such by-laws when adhered to, will go a long way to avert further clashes between nomadic Fulani herdsmen and community members. He made the remark following reprisal attacks between herdsmen and some community members at Dwibease and Wheewhee in the Kwahu East District of the Eastern Region, which has left to the death of people . Eastern Regional Minister Hundreds of residents have also fled to nearby villages to stay with family and friends, for fear of being caught up in the attacks. Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, the Minister, said there is the need to change the method of cattle rearing in Ghana. Cattle rearing has now become a big business in Ghana, and all manner of people are all getting into it. Chiefs, assembly men and others, are all gettin into the trade in Ghana. On several occasions in Ghana, some governments have tried to use the radical way Operation cow leg, one, two or three how many times didn't we have Operation cow leg? In Kufuor's time it was there as well as Atta Mills' time. I as a person, until about 1970, I hadn't even seen a cattle before. But now cattle are everywhere, even if you come to the environs of RCC, you will see cattle. So the method we are using to breed and rear cattle in this country is primitive, and we need to change, otherwise we will continue to have these altercations, he added. This is not the first time such clashes have occurred in the country. Agogo in the Ashanti Region was in the news within the first and second quarter of 2016, after they claimed that the Fulani herdsmen had destroyed their farms and killed some of their relatives. They subsequently placed a ban on political activities to compel government to drive away the herdsmen from the area. The Agriculture College Students Union (AGSU), has accused the Ministry of Food and Agriculture of ignoring calls for the restoration of their allowances. The students in a number of Agric Colleges deserted their classrooms earlier in October in protest of the failure by government to restore their allowances. Prior to that, they had besieged the premises of the Agric Ministry in Accra over their grievances. The Ministry of Agriculture had announced that, it had tabled the request from the students for the restoration of the allowances before Cabinet. However, since Cabinet convened, there have been no updates of a possible restoration of the allowances, forcing the students to ditch their classes in an attempt to force the government to act. Speaking to Citi News, the National President of the Agriculture College Students Union, Sampson Chimbur Sananka, stated that despite attempts to get their concerns addressed, culminating in the boycott of classes, the Agric Ministry had turned a blind eye to them. Its been three weeks [since the boycott] and were going into the fourth week, but they seem not to mind. We are waiting to see what will happen. Ive sent them letters that the students have locked the campus, and have told them the situation, and the students concerns. But they seem not to know that something is going on, he said. Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto. The President of the Kwadaso Agric College's Students Representative Council (SRC), Stanley Mensah, stated at the time of the boycott that, the action had become necessary because of the apparent disregard for Agric students across the country by the government. He insisted that, despite the negative implications of their boycott, they were justified in their demands, as unlike the nurses and teachers, they weren't guaranteed jobs and needed the allowances to survive. We think that either somebody is not being fair or something is wrong somewhere. That is why we believe that all the students have to come together, leave the premises of the school until the Ministry is done with the processes to get our allowances for us. We are not being treated fairly, and are not being regarded in the country, so there's no need for us to be on campus. We took our books and our items, and vacated the premises of the school. As we speak, if you go to Damongo, Kwadaso or any college in Tamale, the schools are virtually empty and nobody's there, he told Citi News. Sampson Chimbur Sananka backed this argument, stating that the lack of response from the government indicated an apparent disregard for Agric students in the country. The students continue to stay at home. It means that what the students are crying for is something that has been ignored for a very long time. Were all not happy about the silence of the Ministry so far, he lamented. The Police Administration has implored the public to be patient as it probes the alleged rape of a four-year-old girl at Assin Adadientem in the Central Region. Director of Police Public Affairs, DSP Sheila Abeyie-Buckman said the Service will follow due process in handling the case including the protection of the rights of the victim and suspects under the law. Speaking to Joy News hours after the arrest of the suspect Monday, she said the police have received the relevant document to aid their work. The suspect is presently in police custody and police have received the medical report on the examination of the victim and the investigation is still ongoing, she said. IGP David Asante Apeatu The sensibility of Ghanaians was stirred when the news of the alleged rape of the four-year-old by a 17-year-old boy broke. The act was widely condemned, with pressure mounted on the police to bring the perpetrator to face the law. Within hours, Inspector General of Police (IGP), David Asante Apeatu directed the Central Regional Police chief to take over the investigation of the matter. The Assin Fosu Divisional Police Commander in whose community the act took place summoned the Crime Officer handling the matter and sanctioned him. Feminist groups have launched initiatives aimed at seeking justice for the victim and her family. But the police say they will not be pushed into rushing with the investigation of the case. The public should allow due process to be followed and not to be hasty to draw conclusions, DSP Abeyie-Buckman said. Asked if the age of the suspect would not present a challenge for the police, she replied they have procedures they follow in dealing with matters of juvenile offenders. But DSP Abeyie-Buckman was not in the position to state if the suspect in question could be described as a juvenile. Assuming he is a juvenile, we will still follow due process, she added. Demonstrators are blocking motorways in the South African cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg in protest at the murder of white farmers. People have been posting their pictures on Instagram: The BBCs Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg says the protests are already causing racial divisions after some demonstrators were seen carrying the old apartheid flag. It comes three days after two white farmers were sentenced to more than 10 years in prison each for forcing a black man into a coffin. They intend to appeal against the sentence. Those behind the protests have urged people to wear black: While most photos appear to show only white protestors, some show a racial mix: Why now? The protest was organised to show outrage at the killings of farmers, especially after the death of a white farmer in Klapmuts near Stellenbosch. Last Tuesday, Joubert Conradie, 47, was shot on his farm and died later at the Stellenbosch Mediclinic. What are the stats? The idea that white farmers are being targeted has been going around for some time. The fact-checking site Africa Check found back in 2013 that white people in South Africa are less likely to be murdered than any other racial group. The Chairman of the National Peace Council Reverend Professor Emmanuel Asante has said it is inappropriate for Ghanaians to expect President Akufo-Addo to order arrests in the seeming scourge of vigilantism that has engulfed the country. According to him, the responsibility lies with the security agencies to play their role of ensuring that the country is rid of thuggery including political vigilantism. Over the last few weeks, NPP vigilante groups in the Northern region have repeatedly impeded officials of the school feeding programme from doing their work over claims that the process that led to their appointment was skewed. They have hence threatened to keep the doors to the secretariat of the program in the region locked until their preferred choice of staff are selected. In Accra and other places in the country, different vigilante groups under different names, all associated with the NPP, have stormed state offices and seized state properties as part of protests against individuals working there. Speaking on the Morning Starr Monday, Reverend Asante told Francis Abban that the country is insecure as a result of the acts of vandalism by vigilante groups. The security agencies are there to do their jobs. If we don't trust the police to protect us in such matters, then we are dead. I trust the Minister of Interior, I want to encourage him especially now that he has put his work on the line. We shouldn't expect the President to order who should be arrested and who shouldn't be arrested, he said. Meanwhile, the Interior minister Ambros Dery has said the Inspector General of Police must do more to stop the menace. Without support from the citizenry, we'll have a challenge dealing with some of these things. We are not condoning any of the activities of the vigilante groups. We can do better and we should do better in dealing with the issue of vigilantism. The police depend on Intelligence to work, I will not say the IGP has failed, the IGP can do better but he has not failed. The activities of vigilante groups come as a surprise and the police are doing their best. We'll push the police and other agencies to go as far as they can to ensure sanity in the system, he assured. The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist church of Ghana, The Most Reverend Titus K. Awotwe Pratt, has expressed dissatisfaction in the failure of the Ghana police service to clamp down on the activities of rioting foot soldiers of the governing New Patriotic Party. The Methodist Bishop was speaking in an exclusive interview with Ultimate News on the sidelines of an induction service of the right reverend Samuel Menash as Bishop of Fosu Diocese at Assin Fosu in the Central region. Attacks on public offices, district assemblies and police stations by supporters of the governing party especially in the Northern and Upper East regions Specifically Karaga and Sisala West have lately become worrisome. Most of these groups whose actions threaten the peace and security of the nation, have justified their actions claiming such officers and chief executives have failed to reward them with jobs after helping to secure electoral victory for the party. But speaking to Ultimate News Isaac Badiako Justice, the vociferous Methodist Bishop lashed out at the courts and the police for contributing to the mess by treating the menace with kid gloves. He insisted that the recent judgement handed down the 13 Delta force members who were fined a thousand eight hundred cedis each for rioting was a slap in the face of justice. Even the judgement in Kumasi about those boys is a slap in the face of justice because you cant behave like this and then be charged to pay this flimsy money and then turn free. It is not good. he fumed. The Most Reverend Titus K. Awotwe Pratt didnt spare the Inspector General of police describing as disgraceful episodes that required the president Nana Addo Dankwah Akufo Addo to issue stern directives before the police exacted action. We want to see the IGP acting and working to nip this thing in the bud so that it doesnt happen again. It is disgraceful that the police will wait for people to misbehave for the head of state to say arrest those people before you go and arrest them, he insisted. He also called for all executives of the New Patriotic Party and ministers of state whose actions contribute to these riots to be made to lose their offices for sanity to prevail. 30.10.2017 LISTEN The Chief Executive Officer of Vokacom, the company that developed the digital address system, has dismissed claims that government will pay an annual subscription fee of $400,000 to Google for deploying the service on its platform. According to Nana Osei Afrifa, the said amount is rather a part of the contract sum the government paid to Vokacom out of which the $400,000 is to be used to pay licensing fees to companies including Google. Managing Director of Ghana Post, James Yalley Kwofie, was on Friday reported as saying that Ghana will pay close to $400,000 to the multinational technology company each year as a license fee. The government has stated that it spent a total of $2.5million on the digital address system which was launched this month. James Yalley Kwofie Giving a breakdown of the amount spent on the system Mr. Kwofie said: In terms of the cost, what is being paid for is the back-end solution, data analytics, hardware i.e. the firewalls and servers, Google license, marketing and publicity as well as technical support, and GHc1.7 million VAT which goes back to the government." Contrary to popular belief, Google charges when you use their systems for local purposes or commercial activities. The Google license fee at the moment is $400,000 per year that is the enterprise package, he added. But speaking Monday on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, Nana Osei Afrifa said the licensing fee will be paid only for one year, providing a hint about ongoing discussions with Google to continue to provide the service at minimal or no extra cost to the state. I can assure you and with authority that we are not going to pay Google about $400,000 every year; this is only for this year, Nana Osei Afrifa told the host, Kojo Yankson. He added: There is increasingly high a probability that there will be no cost going beyond the first year. Already existing platform Nana Osei conceded there already exists software applications performing similar functions but defended that, the software developed by Vokacom, has other enhanced benefits the state can tap into. The platform addresses the entire nation in a 5 x 5 meters squareso we went ahead as part of our proposal and said we will add an app as well, he stated. US-based Ghanaian IT expert, Kingsley Komla Elikem Mortey, who contributed to the discussion via telephone, maintained the system deployed by Vokacom has some limitations that ought to be fixed for it to be fully functional. This digital address that we have already existed; what we should be doing is taking what we have already and taking a step further, Mr. Mortey argued. Responding to the criticism however, Nana Osei Afrifa said they relied on things within our environment to develop this platform. What many of them [critics] are failing to recognise is that weve made it easyits not easy to memorise a WhatsApp address. We have assigned easier already existing codes and made it available to everybody, he explained. The Techiman office of the National Disaster Management Organisation has been locked up by some individuals suspected to be members of the invincible Forces, a vigilante group associated with the New Patriotic Party. According to the NADMO Coordinator for the area Gibril Kesse, members of the group stormed the office Monday morning and ordered the staff who had reported for duty to leave the office and go home. My staff were in the office this morning when these guys came in and told them to leave, and that they have come to take over. So my people left and they locked the place up and took the keys away, Kesse told StarrFMonline.com. The development comes as political vigilantism appears to be spiralling out of control in the country. Over the last few months, vigilante groups associated with the NPP have carried out close to 19 onslaughts on state institutions and government appointees over their dissatisfaction with some appointments among other reservations. Prominent individuals including the Chairman of the National Peace Council Reverend Emmanuel Asante and former President John Mahama have condemned the attacks. The security agencies are there to do their jobs. If we dont trust the police to protect us in such matters, then we are dead. I trust the Minister of Interior, I want to encourage him especially now that he has put his work on the line. We shouldnt expect the President to order who should be arrested and who shouldnt be arrested, the Peace Council chair told Morning Starr host Francis Abban. Meanwhile, Interior minister Ambrose Dery has said he should be sacked from his post if he is unable to deal with the menace. I am going to do all I can to deal with the issue, I am committed to ensuring that I do not fail the President and the country. Im prepared to pay the price if I dont deliver, anybody can call for my head if I fail to deliver. 30.10.2017 LISTEN Three soldiers from an Airforce Base in Takoradi, who are members of governments Operation Vanguard Task-force, the team dispatched to tackle illegal mining, have been arrested by some residents of Tarkwa and handed over to the police for allegedly extorting monies from them. The three, namely; AC2 Oliviete Solomon with service No.207333, AC2 Agantwuo Agana, No. 207323, and Joseph Osei Abraham, No. 207356 AC2, were handed over to the Tarkwa Divisional Police Command. The soldiers on board a taxicab on Saturday evening, are said to have gone to Aboso, a mining community in the Tarkwa-Nsauem Municipality, and combed around gold buying shops, where they extorted both cash and gold from unsuspecting dealers. Members of the Aboso community, who were suspicious of the operations of the soldiers, raised an alarm, mobilized and arrested them. The soldiers were taken to the Aboso Police Station and later handed over to the Tarkwa Divisional Police Command. Reports from Tarkwa suggests that the suspects admitted the offence upon interrogation by their senior officers from the Operation Vanguard taskforce, which is on a national assignment to help government root out illegal mining also known as galamsey. A police source told Takoradi-based Empire FM, that the suspects were later handed over to Flying Officer Owusu Williams from the Airforce Base in Takoradi, and currently with the Operation Vanguard in Tarkwa, for the said officer to produce them on Monday for further investigations. Meanwhile, GHc 900 and two small pieces of gold together with their ID cards have been seized from them. About Operation Vanguard The government's resolve to end illegal mining was given further boost with the deployment of the first batch of security men to three regions considered to be the most affected areas. Dubbed Operation Vanguard, the 400 security men made up of personnel of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) and the Police Service have been divided into three groups to cover the Ashanti, Eastern and Western regions. It has so far arrested over 400 suspected illegal miners including some Chinese nationals, and has seized a number of mining equipment. The equipment includes over 1,500 'chang fa' and water pumping machines. Twenty-four (24) of those arrested have been convicted by the courts, with some of them sentenced to fines ranging from GH1,080.00 to GH6,000.00, while others have been jailed serving between four and 18 months. By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/citifmonline.com/Ghaa Donald Trumps former presidential campaign manager, Paul Manafort, has been charged with conspiring to defraud the US in his dealings with Ukraine. The 12 charges brought against Mr Manafort and one of his business associates, Rick Gates, include conspiracy to launder money. Mr Manafort and his lawyer have arrived at an FBI office in Washington. The charges are the first to stem from an inquiry into alleged Russian meddling in the US 2016 election. However, they do not relate to Mr Trumps campaign but to the two mens Ukrainian business dealings up to 2015. An investigation headed by special counsel Robert Mueller is looking into any links between Russia and the Trump campaign. Both sides deny any collusion. Responding to news of the charges, Mr Trump tweeted to point out that they did not concern his campaign and asked why the focus was not on alleged wrongdoing involving his presidential opponent, Hillary Clinton, instead. For years Paul Manafort operated on the fringes of power, a once-influential Washington player who worked with some less-than-savoury international characters because his services were no longer in high demand domestically. Then, like many other politicos in Donald Trumps orbit, he was thrust into the spotlight because more established hands wanted nothing to do with the upstarts presidential campaign. Mr Manafort got his big break but it may end up breaking him. That resulting spotlight has drawn attention to Mr Manaforts past dealings and raised questions about his actions while in at the top of the Trump campaign. The good news for Mr Trump is these charges stem from Mr Manaforts past business dealings, not his campaign efforts. He is being accused of working for years for pro-Russian Ukrainian politicians and laundering millions in subsequent payments. It certainly makes Mr Trumps decision to cut Mr Manafort loose last August after details emerged of his Ukrainian ties seem a wise one. The good news has its limits, however. Mr Manafort will be under growing pressure to co-operate with the Mueller investigation. If he offers up useful information about his time during the campaign, this could be just the first domino to fall. The indictment against the two men looks at their links to pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine between 2006 and 2015. According to the indictment, Mr Manafort and Mr Gates acted as unregistered agents of Ukrainian politician Viktor Yanukovych and his party, both in opposition and government. Lavish lifestyle Mr Yanukovych was deposed as president in 2014 amid mass unrest over his pro-Russian policies. Mr Manafort is accused of having laundered more than $18m (14m) through offshore bank accounts, using it to buy property, goods and services in transactions concealed from the US authorities. He is said to have used his hidden overseas wealth to enjoy a lavish lifestyle in America. Altogether, at least $75m in payments from Ukraine flowed through the accounts, the indictment says. Mr Gates is accused of having transferred more than $3m from the offshore accounts to other accounts he controlled. He has been ordered to surrender to authorities, according to US media reports. No immediate comment from lawyers for Mr Manafort and Mr Gates was reported after the charges were revealed. Campaign veteran The team led by Mr Mueller is known to have conducted extensive interviews with several current and former White House officials as part of the inquiry. Mr Manafort, 68, has worked on several Republican presidential campaigns, beginning with Gerald Fords in 1976. He resigned as chairman of the Trump campaign in August 2016 after being accused over his dealings with pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. He denies any wrongdoing. US intelligence agencies have already concluded that the Russian government sought to help Mr Trump win the election. But President Trump has strenuously rejected allegations of collusion, calling the investigation a witch hunt. On Friday, he accused Mrs Clinton of links with Moscow. Republican lawmakers have alleged that a uranium deal with a Russian company in 2010, when Mrs Clinton was secretary of state, was sealed in exchange for donations to her husbands charity. A Congressional investigation has been opened into the case. Democrats say it is an attempt to divert attention from the alleged ties between Russia and Mr Trump. Lead exposure high among children Children in Nepal are at high risk of lead poisoning, a recent study has suggested. A study conducted among children of school going age have revealed that maximum number of children have elevated level of lead in their blood. The United States on Monday pledged $60 million to shore up a Sahel region counter-terrorism force but resisted appeals from African leaders and France to give the United Nations a supporting role. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson announced the bilateral funding as the Security Council met to discuss how to drum up international support to the force set up by Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger, known as the "G5". "This is a fight we must win, and these funds will play a key role in achieving that mission," Tillerson said in a statement. Washington has previously expressed support for the force, and has troops and drone operators in the region backing operations against Islamist militants, but it is wary of United Nations involvement. "We believe that the G5 force must be first and foremost owned by the countries of the region themselves," US Ambassador Nikki Haley told the council, adding that G5 members must take on "full regional ownership" of the force. "This is the approach that will be most effective in the end in freeing the region of terror," said Haley. She rejected proposals to allow the large UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, to help the joint force, saying its already-strained resources must not be further overstretched. Haley also appeared to dismiss a proposal by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to set up a UN office in the Sahel that could provide some oversight to the operations, notably to safeguard human rights. "We also have serious and well-known reservations about using UN resources to support non-UN activity," said Haley. No half-measures The foreign ministers of France and Mali, as well as African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat appealed for multilateral aid to help the countries bolster their security. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said multilateral backing would be "an important signal of support from the international community to the G5 countries in their struggle against terrorist organizations." Mali's Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said funding through the United Nations would be "the only option that would guarantee a predictable and sustainable" flow of resources for the force's joint operations, which are due to begin in days. "Half-measures will not be sufficient," warned Mahamat. French diplomats insisted that the United States had not shut the door to UN support for the force, which would be outlined in a new UN draft resolution. Speaking to reporters after the council meeting, Le Drian said a proposed resolution would spell out cooperation between MINUSMA and the G5. France has deployed 4,000 troops in its own Operation Barkhane to combat jihadists in the Sahel region. Four UN options The vast Sahel region has turned into a hotbed of lawlessness since chaos engulfed Libya in 2011, the Islamist takeover of northern Mali in 2012 and the rise of Boko Haram in northern Nigeria. Earlier this month, militants with suspected links to the Islamic State group ambushed and killed four US soldiers on a reconnaissance patrol with Nigerien soldiers near the Niger-Mali border. In a recent report to the council, Guterres laid out four options for UN support, including sharing resources from MINUSMA. Washington's refusal to lend UN backing for the Sahel force comes after the US administration negotiated a $600-million cut to the UN peacekeeping budget this year. The United States is the UN's number one financial contributor. The price tag for the G5 force's first year of operations is estimated at 423 million euros ($491 million), even though French officials say the budget can be brought down closer to 250 million euros. Prior to the US pledge of $60 million, only 108 million euros had been raised, including 50 million euros from the five impoverished countries themselves. A donor conference will be held in Brussels on December 14. 30.10.2017 LISTEN The Ablekuma North MP has advised all first year students on the governments flagship Free SHS programme to study to make H. E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP government proud. She stated that, government has provided a favourable condition at the Senior High School through the provision of educational materials and absorption of others cost components which are part of the process to enable an individual acquire high school education. According to the occupant of Ablekuman North seat, which is one of the 21 seats won by the New Patriotic Party in the Greater Region, first year and continuing students should shun bad friends in order not to be influenced negatively. She added that acts such as examination malpractice, truancy, gross insubordination, among others should be avoided by students to enable them have a smooth learning process. She however called on them; to be part of the scripture union set club in their schools to enable them receive good Christian training and advice from peers who are founded on the root of Christ. She cautioned them not to engage in occultism in any form. Regularity and punctuality to school should be the ultimate focus of all day and boarding students she stated. When students are regular and punctual to school, they will not miss contact hours at the expense of their academic process. Your academic wellbeing should be your primary concern she reiterated. I am doing everything within ambit of power and my ability to support students in my constituency. She stated that students who sat for the BECE in her constituency were given testimonials by her secretariat as a motivation measure to encourage students to learn. She said, from 1st to 30th August this year, she contracted 17 teachers from first class SHS schools across the country to engage SHS students for all levels in her constituency in a vacation class as part of her commitment to contribute towards their academic wellbeing. According to her, the essence of the free vacation classes was to assist students who had difficulties in some core and elective subject areas. She said, education is dear to my heart and I have strong conviction that if we support government in its quest to educate our children, the country will produce productive individuas to add up to the man power base to grow the country. She finally called on parents to discharge their roles to augment that of government in its process to provide free education to SHS students across the country. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has been declared winner of a controversial re-run of the presidential election. He won 98% of the vote with turnout at just under 39% less than half that recorded in August's vote, according to the election commission. The opposition leader, Raila Odinga, pulled out of the re-run and urged his supporters to boycott it. Mr Kenyatta was also declared the winner in the August vote, which was annulled because of irregularities. The unprecedented decision from the Supreme Court cancelling the result did not attribute any blame to President Kenyatta's party or campaign. The re-run was suspended in 25 constituencies which are all opposition strongholds amid security fears. The commission said those results would not affect the final outcome so it could proceed with its announcement. Commission chairman Wafula Chebukati described the latest vote as free, fair and credible. Kenya's opposition now has seven days to mount a legal challenge, and Mr Odinga says he will make an announcement on Tuesday. Mr Kenyatta, who is now set to serve a second term, said if the new results were challenged in the courts he would accept the outcome. Appealing for calm he said your neighbour will remain your neighbour despite the political outcomes. About 50 people are reported to have died in violence since Mr Kenyatta was declared the winner in August's election. Mr Odinga had wanted the repeat ballot to be held at a later date, but a bid to delay the election re-run fell apart after only two of seven Supreme Court judges attended a hearing last week. -Starrfmonline The Deputy Health Minister and also Law Maker for Weija-Gbawe Constituency, Hon. Tina Naa Ayeley Mensah has said, the combined Maternal and Child Healthcare (MCH) record book developed by the Japanese government for Ghana will serve as a vehicle to improve maternal and child healthcare in all health facilities in Ghana. She disclosed this to Hard point news in her office at the Health Ministry in Accra last Friday. According to her, the new technical cooperation agreement signed on Friday October 27th of this year between the Ministry of Health and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will go a long way to improve maternal and child healthcare delivery in health facilities across the country. She reiterated that, the new system which is a combination of all existing record books on women in maternity and babies less than age 5 will help health workers to be efficient and keep accurate information and data as part of the process of building dossier to facilitate counseling for women in maternity. She was quick to state that, the ratio of maternal mortality which stands as high as 139 per 100,000 live births requires that much is done to reduce if not eliminate maternal mortality entirely. As a woman, I am not too happy about the records, though the situation has improved over the years. The improvement of the situation cannot be a justification to say that all is well she stated emphatically. She underscored the relevance of the combined Maternal and Child Healthcare record book and said the new system will build a holistic information and data base on the progress of pregnant women, their state of delivery, nutrition, immunization records and health checkup records for children, among others. This process will essentially reduce or eliminate child and mother deaths before, during and after delivery. She added that, the new booklet is designed as part of a process to reduce or eliminate maternal and child mortality in health facilities in the country and also to empower women to know much about themselves and their children in the period of pregnancy and after birth. The system will also provide family support by involving males in the maternal and child healthcare delivery process. Hon. Tina Naa Ayeley Mensah who was at the official signing ceremony was optimistic that the combined Maternal and Child Health (MCH) record book will go a long way to improve maternal and child healthcare delivery in the country. Handsome Nollywood actor, John Paul Nwadike, cant just stop gushing about his boys who are growing so fast. The actor welcomed his twins several months back in a US hospital and since then, he has ensured that he is always around his family. During the whole period, he has proven to his wife how much he lives her as he assist her in various home cleaning and other activities. The twins might not be identical but they are just one cuties that everyone will will always pray to God to be blessed with. If youre in Melbourne, or plan on coming to town for the Melbourne Cup racing carnival, consider hanging around for a few more days Fellow Money Morning editor, Sam Volkering, and I are presenting at the Precious Metals Symposium on Friday 10 November, at Pullman on the Park on St Kilda Road. Industry heavyweights Eric Sprott and David Morgan will also be there, along with a host of other speakers, and loads of precious metals companies presenting their stories. Gold is off most peoples investment radars right now. And when something isnt popular, there is usually value to be found. The Aussie dollar gold price is around $1,660 an ounce. Well run Aussie gold miners are making good money at these prices. Yet the market isnt really interested. Its all about Bitcoin and cryptos. Which is where Sam comes into it. Hes hosting a special session on Gold and Cryptocurrency on day two of the conference. It should be a great few days. This is not a Port Phillip Publishing event, but I have arranged with the organisers to give you a 10% discount should you decide to go along. Simply go here and click on get my ticket now. Then click on enter promotional code and type in PORTPHILLIP10 to secure your discount. And by all means, come and say gday if you see me wandering around. Heres another tidbit of information you might find useful I very rarely watch TV. But occasionally a gem comes along that is worth mentioning. I recently stumbled upon Bon Appetit! Gerard Depardieus Europe, on the SBS Food channel. Its a delightful series, and on the weekend it illuminated me on the origins of the baguette. Apparently, when the French metro was being built in the late 19th century, workers from many different regions of the country all contributed to the construction. Typically, rivalries ensued. Each man had a knife to cut his bread, and these were also used as weapons in the regular fights that broke out. The builder, worried about the constant bloodshed (and no doubt the delays) asked the local bakers to make a thinner, longer loaf that the men could break with their hands, allowing them to leave their knives at home. Et voila, the baguette came into being! So theres a little story you can tell friends next time baguettes are on the menu Speaking of petty knife fights, what is going on with our political system? The Aussie market sold off on Friday afternoon after the High Court ruled that deputy PM Barnaby Joyce was ineligible for Parliament, a result of him being a dual citizen. Now he has to stand for re-election on 2 December. Seriously, what a farce. Is this what happens when you live and govern by the letter of lawyers words rather than common sense? Its hard enough to govern this country as is. Now, for the next month at least, it will be that much harder. The governments majority was already a slim one. But with the juvenile Labor party looking to take advantage of the ruling, we could be looking at the prospect of a breakdown in the management of the country for the next month. We have a bunch of petulant lawyers in parliament doing what they can to spite the opposition and win the power struggle. As Alan Kohler writes in The Australian: Australias governments all hate each other, the major political parties are engaged in total opposition, which brooks zero co-operation and the prospect of full policy flips every three years, experts are routinely ignored and regulators are either lazy or out of control. In other words, the business of government in this country doesnt work and hasnt been working properly for about a decade. Fridays political led sell-off will be erased this morning, though. Tech stocks were on a tear in the US on Friday, and the bullish mood should translate into strong gains for the Aussie market today. From the Financial Review: Strong results from Amazon.com, Alphabet, Microsoft and Intel were all that the bulls needed. Amazon surged 13 per cent, and in the process making founder Jeff Bezos the worlds richest person at $US93.8 billion more than $US5 billion clear of Bill Gates. Intel gained 7.4 per cent, Alphabet 4.3 per cent and Microsoft 6.4 per cent. Strong pre-orders for the new iPhone X paved the way for a 3.6 per cent rise in Apple. Theres not a lot to stop this market right now, Stephen Auth, chief investment officer at Federated Investors, told Bloomberg. Mr Auth, who said he was a long standing bull, said tech earnings were the last component needed for a melt up. Is this the start of a melt upor close to the end? No one knows the answer to that. But I can tell you there isnt a great deal of value in the big US tech stocks anymore. This is a momentum game, a fear of missing out, a pay up now because future growth will deliver rationale for investing. That might make sense in the here and now, but as often happens, hindsight will likely prove it to be flawed analysis. Regards, Greg Canavan, Editor, Crisis & Opportunity Mother of two flees abusive husband A 27-year-old woman from Bitthad Chir Rural Municipality-1 of Bajhang has fled her home along with her two children after years of torture at the hands of her husband. Murder accused girl, 16, kills self in police custody A 16-year-old girl, who was accused along with her boyfriend of murdering her 13-year-old cousin, committed suicide in police custody in Siraha on Sunday. NC includes billionaire Chaudhary in its PR list Nepali Congress has included business tycoon Binod Chaudhary in the party's closed list of proportional representation candidates. (Natural News) Scientists believe corals have developed a taste for plastic adrift the oceans, which means corals are ingesting the chemical additives within these plastics, as reported in a Daily Mail article. The researchers at Duke University discovered the concerning situation after the corals in their experiments ate all types of plastics, but preferred unfouled microplastics by a threefold difference over microplastics covered in bacteria. The researchers looked at microplastics measuring up to five millimeters, or a fifth of an inch. The team collected coral samples from the waters off the North Carolina coast and performed two experiments. In the first one, the corals were given eight different types of microplastics mixed with clean sand. They ate every plastic type but mainly ignored the sand. In the second experiment, they gave the corals clean plastic fragments, and plastic covered in microbes. Over the course of 30 minutes, the corals were three times more likely to eat the clean plastic. This suggests the plastic itself contains something that makes it tasty, said study lead Austin Allen. Ingesting plastic poses a risk of choking or intestinal blockages which could kill off areas of coral reef. The reef systems are habitats to massive populations of larger marine life like fish, which in turn provide humans with food. Co-author Seymour added: When plastic comes from the factory, it has hundreds of chemical additives on it. Any one of these chemicals or a combination of them could be acting as a stimulant that makes plastic appealing to corals. This phenomenon especially threatens coral reefs like the Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast in Queensland. Stretching for 1,400 miles, the largest reef system and biggest living structure on the planet has already sustained damage from other environmental threats over the years. In a report by The Guardian, the Great Barrier Reef is now at the terminal stage of damage due to a phenomenon known as coral bleaching. The corals lose their color and their white skeletons are exposed (corals turning white or bleached) as a result of unusually warm ocean temperatures, overfishing and pollution which includes plastic waste. Ultimately, the hope is that if we can manufacture plastic so it unintentionally tastes good to these animals, we might also be able to manufacture it so it intentionally tastes bad, said Seymour. That could significantly help reduce the threat these microplastics pose. The study was published in the online edition of the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin. Major distributors of plastic waste Research revealed that China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Sri Lanka are the top five worst marine polluters in 2010. The only industrialized western country on the list of plastic polluters is the U.S. at no. 20. The top 20 list accounted for a total of 26.5 million tons of mismanaged waste: China 8.8 mt/year Indonesia 3.22 The Philippines 1.88 Vietnam 1.83 Sri Lanka 1.59 Thailand 1.03 Egypt 0.97 Malaysia 0.94 Nigeria 0.85 Bangladesh 0.79 South Africa 0.63 India 0.6 Algeria 0.52 Turkey 0.49 Pakistan 0.48 Brazil 0.47 Burma 0.46 Morocco 0.31 North Korea 0.3 United States 0.28 China is responsible for 2.4 million tons of plastic that makes its way into the ocean, nearly 28 percent of the world total, while the U.S. contributes just 77,000 tons, which is less than one percent, according to the study published in the journal Science. (Related: Worlds oceans now contain 5 trillion pieces of plastic waste created by humans.) Read more about environmental threats to these ecosystems at Ecology.news. Sources include: DailyMail.co.uk TheGuardian.com IBTimes.com (Natural News) A Rhode Island-based physician has recently admitted to participating in a fraudulent scheme and accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to illegally prescribe fentanyl, a highly-addictive opioid. A Reuters report has revealed that Dr. Jerrold Rosenberg, 36, has pleaded guilty before the U.S. District Court in Providence on grounds of health care fraud and illegally prescribing the addictive fentanyl-based cancer pain drug Subsys. The drug, an under-the-tongue spray, is manufactured by Chandler, Arizona-based Insys Therapeutics Inc. According to the prosecutors, Rosenberg participated in the fraudulent scheme from 2012 to 2015 and had received a whopping $188,000 in kickbacks. The prosecutors have reported that the kickbacks have been in the form of speaker fees from Insys. The prosecutors also noted that the speaker fees became the doctors basis in prescribing the opioid spray. Likewise, the reports have indicated that the physician fraudulently claimed that the patients suffered from cancer pain when the prescriptions are not given, thus securing insurance approvals for Subsys. (Related: Doctors are prescribing DEADLY fentanyl for cash and lavish dinners, reveals report.) The doctor has agreed to settle $754,736 in restitution to healthcare benefit programs as part of the plea agreement. Aside from this, the physician is facing a maximum prison sentence of 15 years and is slated to be sentenced on Jan. 16. The doctors lawyer has declined a request for comment. The probe against the drug maker comes during a national opioid abuse epidemic. Federal prosecutors in Boston have charged six former Insys executives and managers which included ex-Chief Executive Michael Babich in December on grounds of performing a scheme that bribed physicians into prescribing Subsys and defrauding insurers. All the six former officials have pleaded not guilty before the court. Likewise, several other states have filed lawsuits against other former company officials and medical practitioners that have prescribed the fentanyl-based spray. In addition, the pharmaceutical company faces charges filed by attorneys general in Arizona and New Jersey. The company has been reported to have settled up to $9.45 million to resolve probes by attorneys general in certain states including Oregon, New Hampshire, Illinois, and Massachusetts. The drug firm has been allegedly coordinating with the U.S. Justice Department in order to resolve issues associated with the misdeeds of former employees. We have taken necessary and appropriate steps to prevent past mistakes from happening in the future and are committed to conducting business according to high ethical standards and the interests of patients. We also continue to work with relevant authorities to resolve issues related to the misdeeds of former employees, an Insys spokesperson has told Daily Mail online. Opioid abuse becoming more prevalent across the U.S. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has noted that opioid abuse has resulted in more than 33,000 deaths in 2015 alone. The federal agency has also cautioned that the rates have been continuously increasing. According to the American Society for Addiction Medicine (ASAM), the drugs are chemically related and work with the opioid receptors on nerve cells in the brain and nervous system in order to alleviate pain and generate pleasurable effects. Data published by the ASAM have also shown that opioid abuse has already reached the youth. The data revealed that as many as 276,000 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years old are current non-medical users of pain relief drugs in 2015. Nearly half of these teens have reported being addicted to painkillers, the ASAM data has shown. The report has also indicated that the number of opioid prescriptions among teens have nearly doubled between 1994 to 2007. Sources include: Reuters.com DailyMail.co.uk ASAM.org (Natural News) German researchers are now warning of a future ecological Armageddon and a collapse of the food chain after discovering a steep drop-off in flying insect populations. Over the last thirty years, scientists say insect numbers have declined by nearly 80 percent in Germany alone. Their studies of the rapidly dwindling insect populations within nature reserves have sparked fears that the entire ecosystem will collapse and the food chain as we know it would fall, as well. Indeed, if the population of insects in protected areas has declined at such a disturbing pace, its hard to imagine how insects across the rest of the world have fared. At least one member of the research team believes that pesticides are driving down insect numbers, according to the Daily Mail. Caspar Hallmann from Radboud University, located in The Netherlands, and his colleagues authored study, which was recently published in the journal PLOS ONE on October 18. Their findings seem to fall in line with other reports of falling insect numbers, such as the massively concerning decrease in bee populations. Over the course of 27 years, Hallmann and his team used Malaise traps to measure total insect biomass at 63 different nature protection areas. What they learned was that the average total flying insect biomass has decreased by an average of 76 percent in the last three decades with the decline reaching a peak of 82 percent in midsummer. Hallmann commented, Since 1989, in 63 nature reserves in Germany the total biomass of flying insects has decreased by more than 75 percent. This decrease has long been suspected but has turned out to be more severe than previously thought. The researchers found that this steep decline was evident regardless of where the habitat was or what characteristics the area had and changes in land use, weather and other variables could not explain the decline in full. In other words, something else is at play. While the research team did not come to any conclusions on that front, it was posited that pesticides could be to blame. And truly, the entire purpose of pesticides is to kill bugs and other, so-called, pests. Is anyone actually surprised to learn that these chemical killers are destroying insect populations? A recent study confirmed that pesticides had a negative impact on bee populations, killing both worker bees and their queens indiscriminately. Neonicotinoid pesticides, or neonics for short, were to found to kill at least 25 percent of exposed bees. Neonics are more likely to be lethal to insects, like bees, than other creatures like birds or mammals. But, their potential impact on the ecosystem is no less concerning; as sources report, neonics can have a grievous effect on honeybees. And if bees are killed off, our entire ecosystem could go down the tubes, too. Bees, and many other insects, are essential to the pollination process and without them, our food supply would be greatly affected. Recent research has also shown that the harms of pesticides can be felt even in infinitesimal amounts; insect infertility can be seen even at low levels of exposure to the chemicals. Biologists at Bielefeld University found that lea beetles laid 35 percent fewer eggs after being exposed to just a tiny amount of pyrethroid a type of pesticide. It was also noted that female offspring developed abnormalities thanks to their parents pesticide exposure. Dozens of studies have pointed to the harms of pesticides, yet almost nothing is being done to stop their overly prevalent use. Will the world wake up before its too late? [Related: Learn more about the ill effects of pesticides at Pesticides.news.] Sources for this article include: ScienceDaily.com DailyMail.co.uk NC unveils its election manifesto, terms CPN (MC) as opportunist The Nepali Congress (NC) has released its election manifesto for the upcoming federal parliamentary and provincial polls slated for November 27 and December 6. (Natural News) Now, it seems, the global warming police want to dictate what you eat. According to international climate change scientists, if you eat meat, then you are part of the cause of global warming. These scientists want to control American farming practices and put limits on land use, grazing systems, and meat consumption, but they are not necessarily worried about anyones health. They are worried about carbon dioxide emissions and how cattle grazing practices contribute to global warming. It doesnt matter how responsibly grown the meat is, either. The new report finds that grass-fed animals burden the planet all the same, generating too many total greenhouse gas emissions. On the subject of human health, grass-fed beef is generally more nutritious than feedlot beef. The animals consume higher amounts of antioxidants and phytonutrients from free-range grasses and herbs. They are allowed to roam freely and arent confined in cramped, disease-ridden conditions. Grass-fed animals are generally more resilient; less medicated, and therefore taste better. Previous reports have shown that grass-fed beef helps remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, through their free-range grazing actions. Free range animals prevent the release of carbon dioxide emissions through soil carbon sequestration. However, Dr. Tara Garnett of the Food Climate Research Network at the University of Oxford and Cecile Godde at Australias national science agency make the case that even grass-fed cattle contribute to climate change. The team of international scientists is worried about ruminant animals specifically. They state that the animals farts contribute 80 percent of total livestock emission and account for 14.5 percent of human-related greenhouse gases. (Related: Scientists rush to save the planet with modified sheep farts.) The report, Grazed and Confused? Ruminating on cattle, grazing systems, methane, nitrous oxide, the soil carbon sequestration question and what it all means for greenhouse gas emissions admits that grass-fed animals boost the sequestration of carbon locally, but it says any circumstantial benefit is outweighed by the overall greenhouse gas emissions generated by the cattle. Lead author Dr. Tara Garnett calls on countries with high meat production to cut back. The United Nations sustainable development goals could theoretically be used to implement the changes at the local level in the United States. Garnett says that if meat-eaters want to do something for the climate, they should forget about switching to grass-fed beef because it is not a solution. This report concludes that grass-fed livestock are not a climate solution. Grazing livestock are net contributors to the climate problem, as are all livestock. Rising animal production and consumption, whatever the farming system and animal type, is causing damaging greenhouse gas release and contributing to changes in land use. Ultimately, if high consuming individuals and countries want to do something positive for the climate, maintaining their current consumption levels but simply switching to grass-fed beef is not a solution. Eating less meat, of all types, is. The study calls for grazing management to offset between 20-60 percent of annual average emissions from the grass-fed only sector. They believe this will reduce overall livestock emissions by 4-11 percent and reduce annual human emissions by up to 1.6 percent. This agenda is being carried out through the Paris Accord global agreement on climate change. Their collective goal is to control the Earths temperature and limit global warming by 2-degrees Celsius. Lead author Cecile Godde says the report takes us a step further towards understanding what a sustainable food system looks like, whether farmed animals fit in a sustainable food system, and which species, if any, are to be preferred. As demand for healthier grass-fed beef rises, the global warming police are considering a crackdown on unsustainable farming practices around the world. Cow farts are keeping them from reaching their climate change goals. Their idea of micromanaging farmers across the world to control the Earths atmosphere is hideously arrogant. Sources include: ScienceDaily.com NaturalNews.com NaturalNews.com UN.org (Natural News) The most sinister way for a doctor to make millions of dollars in America is to create toxic medicine for children that causes serious health problems for which the parents come directly to them to obtain more toxic chemical treatments, having no clue that was the whole M.O. (method of operation) in the first place. Theres a filthy rich freak named Paul Offit, who inserted two strains of a deadly pig virus into a childhood vaccine and patented it. He makes millions off giving children severe diarrhea via a vaccine thats supposed to treat a completely different virus that causes mild diarrhea, and the vaccine insert even lists severe diarrhea as a side effect. Whats worse than that? The deadly pig virus in the Rotavirus vaccine RotaTeq can cause intussusception, where the infants intestines become twisted and he or she dies. Talk about sick and twisted, this is the epitome of medical extremism in America, and the CDC helps pediatrician Dr. Paul Offit get away with it all, raking in millions of dollars for this dangerous medical scheme. RotaTeq vaccine is indicated for the prevention of gastroenteritis in infants, yet when administered causes severe diarrhea and prolonged shedding of the virus Want your kids to come down with a deadly disease and spread it around at home to their siblings and to all the kids at daycare? Just have Dr. Paul Offit give them a few oral doses of some deadly pig viruses and other RotaTeq toxins. Shedding means spreading, dont you know? Plus, RotaTeq is administered to babies as a 3-dose series, beginning as young as 6 weeks, so if the first toxic dose doesnt cause enough severe diarrhea in your child and spread a deadly pig virus, the next two concoctions should easily do the trick. The freak doctor who invented it will have his office staff ready to book your follow-up appointments to treat your childrens newfound infections with more pharma concoctions he patented or is paid big bucks to dish out. No safety or efficacy data are available from clinical trials regarding the administration of RotaTeq to infants with immune problems Yes, you read that correctly. It states right on the vaccine insert warning sheet that No safety or efficacy data are available from clinical trials regarding the administration of RotaTeq to infants who are potentially immunocompromised. Well, if youre being administered a deadly pig virus called circovirus then you ARE immunocompromised upon taking Offits poison. In fact, a post-marketing observational study in the United States revealed cases of deadly intussusception within three weeks following the first dose of RotaTeq, with a clustering of cases in the first seven days. Signs of this would include relentless vomiting, severe stomach pains and blood in the stool. In clinical trials, the most common adverse events included diarrhea, vomiting, irritability, and bronchospasm. So lets get this straight. You take your infant to a medical doctor for medicine thats supposed to prevent a virus that causes mild cases of diarrhea, and your innocent baby gets severe diarrhea, twisted intestines, starts throwing up for some unknown reason, becomes very irritable and starts having bronchial spasms, which are sudden constrictions of the lungs muscles, causing severe difficulty in breathing and possible anaphylaxis. The RotaTeq vaccine insert page also warns parents that some children contract Kawasaki disease from it: In post-marketing experience, intussusception (including death) and Kawasaki disease have been reported in infants who have received RotaTeq. Kawasaki disease affects children under five and can lead to serious complications affecting the heart. Kawasaki disease cannot be prevented and is most common among children of Japanese and Korean descent. Coincidentally, circovirus is a deadly pig virus common in China. The question presides why the heck are deadly LIVE viruses from the Far East allowed as ingredients in vaccines orally administered to American babies? Sinister Dr. Paul Offit says babies can withstand 10,000 vaccines administered all at once As if its not enough to make millions of dollars of patenting a deadly vaccine, Paul Offit, author of Every child by two, wants your infant to be injected with thousands of vaccines, so theyll be autistic, deformed, maimed, incapacitated, and become his clients for life. In case youre still in shock and disbelief about the dangers of RotaTeq live virus vaccine, here are the ingredients as listed by Merck on the vaccine insert page: 5 live rotavirus strains (G1, G2, G3, G4, and P1). Sucrose, sodium citrate, sodium phosphate monobasic monohydrate, sodium hydroxide, polysorbate 80, and also fetal bovine serum. Parts of porcine circovirus (a virus that infects pigs) types 1 and 2 have been found in RotaTeq. Dr. Paul Offit is the most widely quoted vaccine apologist, shill and promoter in the world, and its no wonder why. For his knowledge about immune response, he was honored with an award by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and recognized by the genocidal maniac Bill Gates during his global health project Living Proof a sinister population and eugenics control plot to vaccinate the whole world. The CDC recommends Offits rotavirus vaccine for infants; however, auspiciously, Offit is also a founding advisory board member of the Autism Science Foundation. In 2008, the program Every Child by Two and Dr. Paul Offit received hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from Pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines, not to mention somewhere between $30 to $50 million for the sale of his invention the useless and deadly Rotavirus vaccine. Beware! Paul Offit is still at large, posing as the Director of the Vaccine Education Center at CHOP (Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia). Heres what the freak had to say when VAXXED documentary film creator asks him for a short interview: For more information about medical freaks at large and who are still dishing out deadly medicine in America (including Richard Pan and David Gorski), tune in daily to MedicalExtremism.com and scrub your doctors names against the most wanted list. Sources for this article include: Merckvaccines.com Merck.com AgeOfAutism.com KidsHealth.org MedicalExtremism.com NaturalNews.com TruthWiki.org CDC.gov CDC.news Vaxxedthemovie.com All city schools in Santa Rosa will be open Monday for classes following closures due to the wildfires that broke out in the city and elsewhere in the North Bay earlier this month. Santa Rosa City Schools officials announced Sunday that extra counselors will be on hand today to assist students and staff. According to school officials, 13 city schools reopened on Friday. Eleven schools will reopen today. More information about individual school openings is available at the Santa Rosa City Schools website. Dennis Banks, who helped found the American Indian Movement and engaged in sometimes-violent uprisings against the U.S. government, including the armed occupation of Wounded Knee in 1973, died at age 80, his family announced Monday. Banks, whose Ojibwe name was Nowacumig, was one of several activists who founded AIM in Minneapolis in 1968, and he was a leader of the group's takeover of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1973, in a protest against both the U.S. and tribal governments. The village had been the site of a massacre by U.S. soldiers in 1890 that left an estimated 300 Indians dead. The occupiers held federal agents at bay for 71 days; two Native Americans died and several agents were injured amid the frequent gunfire. Banks died Sunday night at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, surrounded by about 30 people, including siblings, children and grandchildren, said daughter Tashina Banks Rama. He had heart surgery earlier this month and was in high spirits until pneumonia he had contracted after the surgery took a turn for the worse on Friday, she said. "Dennis Banks is somebody who had an indelible impact on history, not just in our native community but throughout our country," said Anton Treuer, a professor of the Ojibwe language at Bemidji State University, citing how he demanded that the powerful take notice of American Indian concerns. "He was someone who was both loved and hated depending on what circle you're looking at." Banks and fellow AIM leader Russell Means faced charges stemming from the Wounded Knee occupation, but a judge threw out the case. However, Banks spent 18 months in prison in the 1980s after being convicted for rioting and assault for a protest in Custer, South Dakota, earlier in 1973. He avoided prosecution on those charges for several years because California Gov. Jerry Brown refused to extradite him, and the Onondaga Nation in New York gave him sanctuary. Banks also helped lead a takeover of the Bureau of Indian Affairs offices in Washington, D.C., in 1972 as part of a protest dubbed "The Trail of Broken Treaties." And he was a participant in the 1969-71 occupation by Native Americans of Alcatraz Island, the site of the former prison in San Francisco Bay. Banks' family wrote on his Facebook page that as he took his last breaths, son Minoh Banks sang him four songs for his journey. "All the family who were present prayed over him and said our individual goodbyes," the family said. "Then we proudly sang him the AIM song as his final send off." Banks lived near the town of Federal Dam on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota and was a member of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, one of the many bands of Ojibwe, also known as the Chippewa or Anishinaabe, living in North America. In the late 1990s, Banks founded a company that sold wild rice and maple syrup, trading on his famous name. He was part of a group of AIM supporters who returned to Wounded Knee in 2003 to mark the 30th anniversary of the standoff. Banks paid tribute to the dead as "warriors" and declared it "a national holiday." He was also there in 1998 for the 25th anniversary. In 2010, Banks joined several other Ojibwe from the Leech Lake and White Earth bands who tested their rights under an 1855 treaty by setting out nets illegally on Lake Bemidji a day before Minnesota's fishing season opener. He also went to the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota to join last year's protests of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. Treuer said Banks is remembered in the Native American community not just for his work in the rise of AIM, but for his efforts on the local level, such as focusing attention on racial disparities in the justice system, housing for Native Americans, treaty rights and teaching traditional ways to young people. Rama said the family plans to hold wakes Wednesday evening at the Minneapolis American Indian Center, and Thursday and Friday on Leech Lake Reservation. Banks will be buried on the reservation in a traditional ceremony Saturday. Banks is survived by 20 children and more than 100 grandchildren, she said. Students at Stanford University having second thoughts about the night before can now turn to a vending machine for help. That's because the Peninsula university along with other colleges across the country have already or may soon install vending machines that sell a version of the so-called morning-after pill. Stanford's kiosk located inside a restroom of the Old Union Building dispenses My Way, an over-the-counter emergency contraceptive designed to prevent pregnancy following unprotected sex or in the event when traditional birth control fails. A packet of My Way costs $25. Stanford student Mackenzie Cooley welcomes the new option for women. "I think that it's wonderful for women to have the opportunity to buy contraception at their earliest convenience especially when time is of the essence when you need to take the morning-after pill," she said. Those in student government pressed the university to install the kiosk for women who may need access on the weekends when the campus' health center is closed. Vengo, the company behind the kiosk, is in talks with more than 15 other campuses across the nation interested in installing the dispensing machine. The University of California, Davis is at least one other California school selling the contraceptive via the kiosk. More than 800,000 New England customers are without power as a major storm continues to blast the region. The numbers, which have been exploding since 11 p.m. Sunday, grew rapidly as the storm delivered powerful wind gusts throughout New England. Winds with up to hurricane force were expected to move into Greater Boston early Monday morning. The National Weather Service reported wind speeds of over 60 mph on parts of Cape Cod. The damaging winds are now shifting northeast, and there are dozens of reports of tree branches and wires down. Intense rain is continuing, and flooding is imminent in many areas. Leaf-covered roads are causing ponding in some areas, which could cause hydroplaning. In Massachusetts, more than 260,000 customers had lost power as of 4:30 a.m., according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, making it the largest power outage in the state since Irene in 2011. More than 142,000 Rhode Island customers were in the dark, while more than 162,000 in Connecticut had lost electricity. NBC Connecticut reported that some of the harder hit communities included Fairfield, Stonington and Ledyard. More than 206,000 power outages were reported in New Hampshire by Eversource, Unitil and New Hampshire Electric Co-Op. At least 56,000 have lost power in Maine, according to Central Maine Power, and Green Mountain Power reported another 35,000 in Vermont. Damage reports have been steadily coming in to the NBC Boston newsroom, including in Marion, Massachusetts, where trees that fell across a roadway also knocked down wires. Downed trees and wires were also reported by the National Weather Service in Falmouth, Dracut, Saugus and Sandwich in Massachusetts and in Exeter and Richmond in Rhode Island. A tree also fell on a home in Hartford, Connecticut. The National Weather Service advised New Englanders to prepare for power outages by fully charging cell phones and keeping flashlights ready. They also advised residents to avoid using candles due to fire hazards. What to Know A powerful storm moved through the region overnight, causing widespread power outages and flash flooding in some areas. During the height of the storm, more than 1 million customers were without power across New England. Many schools and roads remain closed. Strong winds are expected to continue later Monday, possibly causing additional scattered downed trees, branches and power lines. A severe storm packing hurricane force wind gusts and soaking rain swept through the Northeast early Monday, knocking out power for more than a million and forcing hundreds of schools to close in New England. Falling trees knocked down power lines across the region, and some utility companies warned customers that power could be out for a few days. There were numerous reports of trees down on homes, roads and cars. Amtrak was forced to suspend service from Boston to Connecticut and the MBTA reported delays on several of its lines due to downed trees. Winds are expected to remain strong Monday afternoon, which could slow the effort to restore power. New England appeared to get the brunt of the storm, which brought sustained winds of up to 50 mph in some spots. A gust of 130 mph was reported at the Mount Washington Observatory in New Hampshire, while winds hit 93 mph in Mashpee on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Mike Longacre had a rotted tree crash right into his Mansfield, Massachusetts home overnight. It left a gaping hole in his attic and punctures in his living room ceiling. "It was earth shattering, so you knew it was something huge," Longacre said. In Brookline, Massachusetts, Helene Dunlap said her power went out after she heard a loud "kaboom" around 1:30 a.m. She went outside hours later to find a large tree had fallen on a neighboring home. "It really shook the whole place up," she said. "It was such a dark, stormy night that looking out the window we really couldn't determine what was going on." Phil Cole was working the graveyard shift when a tree feel through his bedroom in Methuen, Massachusetts. If he had been home sleeping, the tree probably would have fallen right on him. "If you open the door to my bedroom, there's no bedroom," Cole said. "There's no floor, no anything. Just a closet." "The whole house swayed like an earthquake," building owner Lisa Gomez said. "He opened up the back kitchen door that goes to the hallway and there was the woods. There was no back to it." At one point, more than 271,000 Massachusetts customers still had no power, making it the largest power outage in the state since Hurricane Irene in 2011. As of midnight Tuesday, at least 177,445 remained without power. Late Monday afternoon in the Massachusetts town of Andover, 80 percent of residents were in the dark. That number shrunk closer to 60 percent by night. "We didn't expect it to have the impact that it did," Town Manager Andrew Flanagan said. "It is what it is. We are working on it diligently and we will recover, and we will recover as quickly as we can." "It is kind of a crazy storm here early in October," said Brian Lawlor of Andover. "We had no water, no heat, and obviously no electricity." Lawlor took his family to the Andover Country Club, where they were able to get a room. More than 209,000 power outages were reported in New Hampshire. The last time the state had that many power outages was during the pre-Thanksgiving Day storm in 2014. Around midnight, more than 157,000 customers in the Granite State still did not have power. At least 391,000 lost power in Maine, approaching the number from the infamous 1998 ice storm. More than 354,000 still had no power as of midnight. Central Maine Power said their immediate priority was to make downed lines safe, and due to the high number of downed lines, they did not expect to make much progress on power restoration Monday. They added they expect the recovery effort to take several days. Gov. Paul LePage declared a state of emergency on Monday and urged residents to be cautious on the roads. More than 142,000 Rhode Island customers were in the dark at one point. Around midnight, that number was down to around 99,000. More than 120,000 in Connecticut had lost electricity. As of midnight, more than 87,000 still had no power. NBC Connecticut reported that some of the harder hit communities included Fairfield, Stonington and Ledyard. Another 42,000 were without electricity in Vermont. At midnight, more than 25,000 of those customers remained in the dark. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency said the National Weather Service is forecasting continued strong winds throughout the day and possibly into Tuesday, with the winds shifting to the west or southwest behind the departing storm. Wind gusts may be as high as 40 to 50 mph across the state, possibly causing additional scattered downed trees, branches and power lines. Flood warnings for minor flooding have been issued for several Massachusetts rivers. Moderate flooding has been forecast for the North Nashua River in Fitchburg and the Blackstone River in Northbridge. Residents of Bartlett, New Hampshire shared images of severe flooding caused by the overflowing of the Saco River along the Maine border. Some people had to be evacuated from their homes by rescue boat. The storm began making its way up the East Coast on Sunday, which also was the fifth anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. That 2012 storm devastated the nation's most populous areas, was blamed for at least 182 deaths in the U.S. and Caribbean and more than $71 billion in damage in the U.S. alone. The same storm system also caused problems earlier Sunday in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. On the shoreline in Bayonne, New Jersey, a large barge was found washed up after apparently breaking free from its moorings during the storm. In New York, the rush hour got off to a rocky start as service on Metro-North's Danbury Branch in Connecticut was suspended due to a mudslide and signal power problems. Part of the Long Island Rail Road's Ronkonkoma Branch was halted because of power lines on the tracks. Video posted on Twitter showed unhappy commuters crowding a station. A man was shot and several employees restrained during an armed robbery by an ex-employee inside a popular downtown Chicago restaurant late Sunday night. Police said at about 11:45 p.m., an armed man entered Lawrys The Prime Rib in the 100 block of East Ontario and restrained several employees who were in a locker room at the steakhouse. The man, who authorities said was a former employee who knew his way around the building, took the employees cell phones and announced a robbery, police said. The victim, a 28-year-old man, interrupted the robbery, prompting the gunman to fire his weapon, according to authorities. The victim was shot in his right arm and transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in stable condition. The suspect, described as a man between 35 and 40 years old, fled on foot but was found by police a short time later. Authorities said the man was taken into custody and a weapon was recovered. An investigation remained ongoing Monday morning. A 19-year-old Madison man is dead after a stabbing in Hartford. Police said they found him when officers responded to York Street, just west of Zion Street, just before 3:30 a.m. after someone reported that a man was unconscious on the sidewalk. The victim, 19, year-old Connor Jordyn, of Madison, had several stab wounds and was transported to Hartford Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 4:04 a.m. As officers investigated, they found a trail of blood that led to a rear porch in the 600 block of Zion Street and police determined the porch was the crime scene. There they found a ski mask, drug paraphernalia, bicycles and more blood. Police said they identified the Jordyn through fingerprints. Hartford Police major crimes detectives will review video this morning. Anyone with information is asked to call the Hartford Police Department, Lt. Cicero 860-757-4179. Anonymous tips can be left at http://www.hartford.gov/Police. What to Know What: Strong winds with gusts of 45 to 60 mph have resulted in power issues. When: Sunday through Monday morning. The strongest part of the storm occured Sunday evening into the overnight. Where: All of Connecticut. There is damage across the state after powerful winds, as high as 73 miles per hour, and heavy rain took down trees and wires overnight. That has left thousands without power and led to hundreds of schools closings and or opening late. POWER OUTAGES As of Tuesday morning, power remains out for more than 60,000. Officials from Eversource said downed trees caused significant damage to the system and they have restored power to tens of thousands of customers and continue to make repairs. SCHOOL CLOSURES There are more than 80 school closings and delays. For a full list, click here. DAMAGE REPORTS Officials from the state said they have been monitoring the storm since Sunday and have been in contact with the five regional offices, but no requests for state assistance. They said they are on standby to help cities and towns if they need assistance. A tree came down on the garage of a house at 871 Ellington Road in South Windsor, causing significant damage to the garage. No one was hurt. Trees came down on houses on Main Street in Watertown and Frissell Terrace in Middletown. A tree behind the Windborne family's home on Frissell Terrace snapped, folded over the front of the house and broke the windshield of their car. The Bolton Fire Department responded to a home on Notch Road for a tree on a house. Significant damage was reported. Evacuations were ordered in Portland after a tree fell on a propane tank on Barlett Street. Five state parks are closed today because of storm damage: Harkness Memorial in Waterford, Gillette Castle in East Haddam, Haystack Mountain in Norfolk, Hopeville Pond in Griswold and Sherwood Island in Westport. ROADS Hanna Mordoh is tracking various road closures across the state this morning. Check out her twitter account for the latest updates. Route 161 in Montville was closed and a man was trapped in his truck for hours after a tree came down and took wires and a utility pole with it. Firefighters attempted to rescue him, but the man decided to stay with his belongings and is waiting for an Eversource crew to come clear up the damage. Route 4 in Farmington was closed between West Avon Road (Route 167) and Brickyard Road due to a tree that brought down power lines. It has reopened. Route 66 in Marlborough was closed from Robert Road to the East Hampton Town Line because of a tree down and wires in the road. Route 21 in Killingly was closed between Ware Road and Hurry Road in Putnam due to a tree down in wires. Storm Damage Oct. 30, 2017 In Lyme, fire officials said nearly every secondary road in town was closed due to debris Monday morning. The fire department is assessing the primary roads and working to clear up the damage. East Windsor police report that there are branches down all around East Windsor and Broad Brook. South Water was closed north of Osborn Field, Scantic Road was closed in the area of 337 Scantic Road, and East Road was closed at Sullivan Farm Road. Vernon officials reported that they responded to dozens of storm-related calls - mostly trees and wires down. Route 30 was closed between Bolton Road and Cold Spring. Police said repairs may not be complete until midnight. TRAINS Metro-North Danbury branch service is suspended after a mudslide and signal issues. New Canaan branch service was suspended due to a tree tangled in overhead wires and substitute bus service is in effect until further notice. The New Haven line has opposite side boarding between South Norwalk and Noroton Heights because of severe weather issues. Amtrak suspended service between Boston and New Haven Monday morning because of downed trees, but announced service was restored around 9:45 a.m. Shoreline East has been tweeting about delays for some trains. The NBC Connecticut meteorologists say the worst of the storm moved through overnight but more rain moved through Monday morning. Cleanup efforts are underway across the state. Share your damage photos by emailing them to shareit@nbcconnecticut.com. RJP-N leader stages hunger strike in Rajbiraj Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RJP-N) Saptari district leader Laxman Yadav has been staging hunger strike for the past three days arguing that the party had neglected honest cadres during the candidates selection Evacuations were ordered in a Portland neighborhood Monday morning after a tree fell on a propane tank. A tree came down on a propane tank at a home on Barlett Street around 5 a.m. About a dozen neighbors in the area were evacuated and the road closed while crews sprayed the home down with water and worked to fix the leak. One neighbor who was not asked to evacuated spoke to NBC Connecticut and described what happened. "It was alarming when you hear evacuate, evacuate. And that's always what I think about, because years ago a house did blow up, you know, from gas, and one of the firemen did get hurt," said Susan Denny. Around 9 a.m. the leak was contained and Barlett Street was reopened. No injuries were reported. The U.S. soldier killed in a helicopter crash Friday near Kabul, Afghanistan, was identified Sunday by the Defense Department, NBC News reported. Chief Warrant Officer Jacob Sims, 36, died in Logar province in what the Pentagon said was an accident not caused by enemy action. He was assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington. Six other service members were injured in the incident, and an investigation has been opened. "Our thoughts are with his family during this tragic time, and we join them in mourning the loss of their loved one who took to the sky and bravely volunteered on behalf of his country," Rep. Dennis Heck, D-Washington, who represents the district that includes Lewis-McChord, said in a statement Sunday. Timing couldnt have been worse for Felix Giordano to lose his camera, with the leaves finally turning around his Ashford home. But he did lose it and, he says, its not his fault. Giordano owned a Samsung Galaxy 2 camera for almost exactly two years when, in June, it froze and wouldnt work. His nearby camera shops advised Giordano to send it directly to Samsung for repairs, so he did. Thats where things got tricky. Samsungs shipping label listed a New Jersey address, but that wasnt the right facility. The company later told him it should have gone to Texas. His camera made it to Texas eventually, and then, Samsung lost it. After months went by with no answers and no camera, Giordano needed help and trusted NBC Connecticut Responds to get it done. Within 24 hours, I suddenly received a phone call from Samsung and they wanted to know if they had the correct address to send me a refund check and a $100 gift card, said Giordano. And I got my new camera, and Im ready to take pictures this fall and winter. A Samsung spokesperson said, We regret the experience that Mr. Giordano had and have followed up with him to resolve the matter to his satisfaction. The company initially planned on sending Giordano a new camera, but the company no longer carries the Galaxy 2, so they went with a $381 refund, plus the extra $100 gift card. Former Vice President Joe Biden returned to Delaware Monday to address health and education in the First State and beyond. Biden delivered the keynote address at the annual Vision Coalition of Delawares "Strengthening Partnerships in Health and Education: Delaware and the Nation" conference. The former vice president focused on public health, community-wide response to crises and domestic violence against women, conference organizers said. The event took place at the University of Delaware's Clayton Hall Conference Center in Newark. The speech comes as the 74-year-old Democrat leaves open the door to a possible 2020 presidential run. "I haven't decided to run," Biden told InStyle magazine while promoting his new memoir. "But I've decided I'm not going to decide not to run. We'll see what happens." The Navy is investigating the death of an Army Green Beret in Mali as a possible crime, a Navy spokesman told NBC News. Staff Sgt. Logan Melgar, 34, was found dead in the capital of Bamako on June 4. Melgars case was transferred from the Army Criminal Investigation Command to the Navy on Sept. 25. "I have no info on his cause and manner of death," spokesman Ed Buice of Naval Criminal Investigative Services told NBC. The agency does not discuss details of ongoing investigations, according to Buice. Several news organizations, including CNN, the New York Times, ABC News and the Washington Post are reporting two members of SEAL Team 6 are part of the investigation. NBC cannot independently confirm those reports. A former Washington, D.C., charter school teacher pleaded guilty to sexually abusing a 14-year-old student. Alan Coleman entered the plea in D.C. Superior Court Monday morning, admitting to having sexual intercourse with the girl multiple times over a five-year span. Coleman was the students teacher at KIPP DC KEY Academy. In court proceedings Monday, prosecutors said the sexual abuse spanned several years after Coleman taught the girl during the 2004-2005 school year. The abuse occurred at locations in D.C. and Takoma Park, Maryland. Coleman appeared to tear up during his court appearance and admitted committing the crime. According to court proceedings, he faces three years in prison when hes sentenced in January. He declined to comment to the I-Team after his hearing. A recent investigation by the News4 I-team revealed KIPP DC Academy opted not to renew Colemans teaching contract after the 2004 school year. A police affidavit in Colemans case said a KIPP DC Academy principal told police she suspected Coleman had an inappropriate relationship with a student in 2004 and asked him to stand down. The principal told police she did not renew Colemans contract because of the relationship. Coleman found work from 2005 to 2015 at the Capital City Public Charter School in northwest D.C. despite undergoing a background check, according to a letter sent by Capital City Public Charter School to parents in 2016. In their letter to parents after Colemans arrest, Capital City Public Charter School said, We contracted for and received a clean background check of Mr. Coleman at that time, which Capital City requires for all new hires. During his employment, we had no concerns about his work or interactions with our students, and no one ever raised such concerns to us. In February 2015 we learned from an individual not connected with Capital City of allegations that Mr. Coleman had an inappropriate relationship with a minor from 2004-2007. The minor was never a student at Capital City. In a written statement to the I-Team, a KIPP DC spokesperson said, KIPP DC can confirm that we did not extend Alan Coleman an offer letter for the 2005-2006 school year, after two years of him working at KEY Academy. At the time, had we been aware of any of the misconduct Mr. Coleman was later charged with, we would have immediately alerted the appropriate authorities. The written statement also said, After learning of the charges against Mr. Coleman, we enhanced our already comprehensive background check processes and employee conduct trainings. For example, we implemented a new system of auditing staff background checks, which includes periodically re-running FBI checks on staff, even if they already passed an initial FBI background check during their hiring process. In addition, we implemented additional mandatory annual trainings for principals on appropriate interactions between staff and students and our obligations as mandatory reporters. Octobers last Monday morning commute was wet, windy and slow after storms knocked down trees and power lines, leaving thousands in the dark. Dozens of Metro bus lines were delayed after traffic lights malfunctioned at 14th and H streets NW and 14th and Decatur streets NW. Lights are broken at 14th and H streets NW, 14th and Decatur streets NW, causing the 11Y, 42, 52, 53, 54, G8, S1, S2, S4 and X2 delays. Several Z, V, U and L line buses are delayed for up to 20 minutes because of traffic in D.C. Check the WMATA website for the latest information and comprehensive list of affected routes. The southbound lane of Rock Creek Parkway closed after a crash south of Massachusetts Avenue. Traffic was backed up for a mile or more about 10 a.m. Loudoun County is among the hardest hit. Monday morning, over 2,500 homes were without power. About 8:30 a.m., local power companies were still reporting thousands of outages: Dominion Energy: 1,622 NOVEC: 1,129 BGE: 1,495 Potomac Edison: 4,693 (West Virginia and Maryland) Pepco: 191 SMECO: 7 Rain should move out of the area around 8 a.m., but gusty winds and wet roads will persist through the day. Morning winds reached 30 mph in the District and may reach 50 mph. Storm Team 4 says you can expect a sunny, but still cool and windy, afternoon. Winds are expected to slow down as the last rain clouds leave the area and sunny skies return. The day will still be a little cool, with highs in the mid-50s. A number of roads were blocked, but partially or fully cleared later in the morning: 3900 block of Garrison Street NW: Closed in both directions due to downed power lines. Closed in both directions due to downed power lines. Ramp from Route 301 to MD-214: One lane of the ramp is blocked due to tree debris. One lane of the ramp is blocked due to tree debris. Beach Drive near the Maryland border : blocked due to a downed tree : blocked due to a downed tree Ryan Road near Evergreen Mills Road: closed until 7 a.m. due to downed wires. Canal Road was reopened by 6:15 a.m. after the road was closed to traffic in both directions due to a downed tree. The weather should improve in time for trick-or-treaters on Tuesday. Halloween will be sunny with highs near 60. With afternoon and evening highs possibly falling into the 40s, you may want to add an extra layer to your childs costume (and your own)! A skydiver was killed in an accident in Pepperell, Massachusetts around 3 p.m. on Saturday. The jump began like any other from a Twin Otter plane at the Pepperell Airport, but then investigators believe something went wrong with the 60-year-old's parachute. "We have a main parachute and we have a reserve parachute," said David Goldstein, lead instructor at Skydive Pepperell. "And we all train in how to deploy a reserve if something happens to the main. Skydive Pepperell, which operates the skydiving jumps, says the main parachute landed in a neighborhood nearby. The skydiver hit the ground on airport property, which tells experts that something went wrong with the first parachute, he disconnected from it, and was trying to use the reserve. Bad things happen and we do our best to prepare for emergency procedures and train often," said Stephen Hoff, an experienced skydiver who came to Pepperell to skydive Saturday only to be greeted by the tragic news. "He was liked in this community," said Hoff, who knew the victim. "Just a fantastic person." Saturday was the last day of the skydiving season at Pepperell Airport. If a parachute does not fully function, a skydiver could hit the ground at up to 120 miles an hour. Skydive Pepperell says the skydiver killed Saturday, whose identity has not been released, was highly experienced and worked as an independent contractor filming jumps with the skydiving company. At the time of the accident, the man was taking video as instructors and students jumped from about 10,000 feet. He was working with the tandem students as a videographer," Goldstein said. "He was taking video of the students. The incident is under investigation by the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, the Pepperell Police department, Massachusetts State Police, and the Federal Aviation Administration. Foul play is not suspected at this point, according to the Middlesex DA. The last time a fatal accident took place at Skydive Pepperell was in 2014. Events of interest to the Norwich and Norfolk Christian community happening over the next few weeks are listed. Events of interest to the Norwich and Norfolk Christian community happening over the next few weeks are listed. John leads Norwich churches trip to Holy Land Experienced Holy Land traveller and former CEO of YMCA Norfolk, John Drake, is leading an inter-church tour from Norwich to Israel and Palestine in March 2023, with a few places still available. Read more Christmas rhyming play by North Norfolk teacher Matthew Pickhaver, who lives in North Norfolk, has just published the third of his series of play scripts on the theme of Christmas, which is now available to buy. Read more Advent and Christmas events at Norwich Cathedral From an Advent Open Evening to Carols in the Cloister and an array of special services and concerts with Norwich Cathedral Choir, there is lots to look forward to at Norwich Cathedral this festive season. Read more Norwich church to hold Sunday healing service Witard Road Baptist Church is hosting a healing service on November 27 led by Rev Ray and Ruth Scorey from Norfolk Healing Rooms. Read more Sheringham youth attend forbidden church The youth group at Lighthouse Community Church in Sheringham were forced to meet at a secret location earlier this month when the Lighthouse building had, supposedly, been shut down by the authorities. Read more Christmas pud workshop at Norwich church Not made your Christmas pudding yet? Don't know where to start? Come along to a Christmas pudding workshop at Norwich Central Baptist Church on November 21 with MasterChef contestant Jane Wyndham. Read more Norwich Foodbank provides over 4,700 food parcels Norwich Foodbank gave out 4,793 emergency food parcels to people across Norwich in the last year with 1,790 of these going to children. Read more Poppies cascading in Sheringham church A fall of poppies cascades from the pulpit in St Andrews Methodist Church in Sheringham, and anyone is welcome to come and see them. Read more Bishop Graham's prayers for COP27 climate conference Bishop Graham is publishing daily prayers on social media for the current COP27 climate conference, and is asking all to join. Read more Discovering the Orange in your life The vibrant colours of autumn have been inspiring regular contributor Jane Walters to focus on the positive. Read more YMCA annual celebration set to inspire YMCA Norfolk is set to hold its much anticipated 2022 annual celebration and awards ceremony on November 17, after almost 3 years since the last event due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more Hub manager vacancy at community shop Earlham Community Shop Community Interest Company is looking to appoint a manager for this new venture being developed in the heart of NR5 Norwich. Read more Abbey Days brings Christmas Magic to Wymondham Visitors to Wymondham Abbeys Christmas fair will be able to treat their children to a magic show and fun baking workshop while they browse more than 60 stalls. Read more Salvation Armys new Christmas Appeal in Norfolk The Salvation Army has launched their new Christmas appeal across Norfolk which, this year, has evolved from the much-loved Toys and Tins appeal. Read more Are we storing up treasures on earth? Rising prices affect us all, and Anna Heydon urges us to spare a thought for those who will be struggling with the cost of living this winter. Read more Covid leaf memorial at Norwich church St Peter Mancroft Church Norwich Presents The Leaves of the Trees an installation by sculptor Peter Walker which provides a memorial for those who died of Covid-19 Read more Community Chaplaincy Norfolk begins a new chapter Community Chaplaincy Norfolk (CCN) celebrated the beginning of a new chapter this week, as the new chair of trustees Chris Tomlinson led his first annual meeting. Read more Road to nowhere Major road accidents occur in Nepal on a somewhat regular basis. Every time there is a fatal accident, the media sits up and takes notice. [ Click here to download a PDF of this and four other essential articles on IoT. ] Theres an often-impenetrable alphabet soup of protocols, standards and technologies around the Internet of Things. Heres our attempt to wipe away some of the fog, in the hopes of making the language of IoT just a little bit clearer. 6LoWPAN Possibly the most tortured acronym of even this distinguished group, 6LoWPAN is IPv6 over low-power personal area networks. Sheesh. The idea is to placate people that say its not really the Internet of Things without Internet protocol, so its essentially the IPv6 version of Zigbee and Z-wave. AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol) AMQP is an open source standard that allows disparate applications to talk to each other across any network and from any device. AMQP is a part of numerous commercial middleware integration offerings, including Microsofts Windows Azure Service Bus, VMwares RabbitMQ, and IBMs MQlight. It was initially developed by the financial sector for fast M2M communication, but has begun to be used in IoT projects. Bluetooth of various kinds (Blueteeth?) There are two main forms of the ubiquitous Bluetooth wireless communication protocol used for IoT. The standard variety is used across great swathes of smart home gizmos, from connected refrigerators to shower speakers to door locks. Bluetooth Low Energy, often referred to simply as BLE, is a little bit more attractive for larger networks of constrained connected devices, since battery life is less of a limiting factor. Both formats got an update in December 2016 with Bluetooth 5, which expands the effective range of Bluetooth devices and boosts potential throughput. Cellular data Its not the most power-efficient way to do things, obviously, but there are plenty of IoT deployments out there that use wireless data from the cellular carriers as their transport layer. CoAP (Constrained Application Protocol) This is an Internet protocol designed for use with constrained devices, those without a lot of computing power. Its a part of the official Internet Engineering Task Forces standards, and as youd imagine from the name, it works well with small-scale gizmos like digital signage and smart lighting. DDS (Data Distribution Service) Its another middleware standard, like AMQP, this one created by the Object Management Group, a tech industry consortium dating back to 1989 aimed at creating distributed object-management standards. DDS uses a system of topics types of information known by the system, like boiler temperature or conveyor belt speed to provide information to other nodes that have declared an interest in a given topic, ideally obviating the need for complicated network programming. HomeKit HomeKit is Apples own-brand front-end and control apparatus for smart home devices. Its got the usual Apple issue of only working particularly well when the important parts of the system are all Apple-made, which could prove annoying if you dont already own an Apple TV or iPad, but its also got the concomitant Apple virtue of being simple to set up and use. IoTivity IoTivity is an open source project thats trying to create a standard software layer for IoT device connectivity, backed by a bunch of the tech worlds heavy hitters, including Microsoft, Intel, Qualcomm, LG and Samsung. The project absorbed a group called the AllSeen Alliance, publishers of a rival standard called AllJoyn, in October 2016, and the two systems are mostly interoperable at this point. JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) A lightweight outgrowth of the JSON file format intended to provide an easy way to move machine-readable data around a network of devices that might format their information differently. LoRaWAN LoRa refers to a proprietary wireless chip technology designed for use in low-power WAN implementation. LoRaWAN technology is similar to (and competes with) Sigfox, although the LoRa Alliance is a consortium of companies rather than a single corporation. MQTT (MQ telemetry transport) MQTT is a publish/subscribe messaging protocol, designed to be used in situations where the devices talking to each other have limited computing power or are connected by unreliable or delay-prone networks. It does what its supposed to do very well, but its hamstrung a bit by the fact that implementing tough security controls can be tricky and can undercut the lightweight nature of the protocol. NFC (Near-field communication) The lowest of low-power networks has been around for a long time and is unsurprisingly well-suited for use in IoT applications. Anything that can be placed close to what its supposed to interact with and doesnt need to send or receive a great deal of information is a good fit for NFC. Physical Web The Physical Web is a Google-created concept that argues for quick and seamless interactions with physical objects and locations. It uses a protocol called Eddystone to broadcast links via Bluetooth Low Energy, with the idea being that you can simply walk up to a parking meter and feed it digitally or get information about a store by scanning its kiosk with your phone. SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) SCADA has been around since the days of mainframes, and outlines the earliest attempts at systematic computerized control over industrial, manufacturing and heavy transport applications. Older-generation SCADA networks are frequently highly insecure, having been designed for ease of use, rather than security. Sigfox Sigfox is both the shorthand for a proprietary, narrowband, low-power WAN technology and the name of the French company that makes it. The proprietary nature of the technology is unusual (though not unique) for the LPWAN space, but Sigfoxs business model is different than most other companies the idea seems to be to act as a kind of IoT mobile operator, providing on-demand network coverage for anyone who wants to implement IoT. SMS Yep, regular old text messages can be a perfectly acceptable communications medium for certain kinds of IoT devices, particularly those that are spread out across a large geographic area and have a certain amount of delay tolerance. Sweden-based pest control company Anticimex, for example, has smart traps that update the company about rodent activity through SMS. Thread Thread is a low-power networking protocol incoporating 6LoWPAN that was created by a group led by Google subsidiary Nest Labs, which youll doubtless remember for its Nest smart thermostat, arguably the first breakthrough smart home device. Since the summer of 2016, an open source variant of the specification has been available to developers as OpenThread. TR-069 (Technical Report 069) This is a Broadband Forum specification document that outlines a protocol called CWMP designed to let users remotely configure and manage customer-premises equipment via an IP network. (Consumer-premises equipment WAN Management Protocol, for those keeping score at home.) It dates back to the earlier part of the century and was originally designed to help cable network operators manage gizmos like set-top boxes remotely. Weave Weave is Google and Nests software layer for smart homes. Its designed with flexibility and security in mind, even for particularly constrained devices, and its based on Googles existing Android platform. Its also partially open source Google has published what it calls some of the core components of Weave to GitHub. Web Thing Model This is the World Wide Web Consortiums idea for a physical IoT framework, which, unsurprisingly, leverages existing web technology to connect devices, rather than relying on custom, non-web protocols. XMPP (eXtensible Messaging and Presence Protocol) A clear case of acronym abuse, XMPP began life as Jabber, an open source standard for chat clients that gained minor notoriety among players of certain online role-playing games. It has since become an IETF standard, with a vast range of extensions and implementations, many of which are aimed at core IoT functionality like discovery and provisioning. Zigbee Zigbee is a wireless-mesh networking protocol that boasts the rare combination of good battery life and decent security, thanks to built-in 128-bit encryption. Thats partially offset by a low maximum data rate and relatively short range, but there are plenty of constrained device applications for which its well-suited. Its also an IEEE 802.15.4 standard, which provides a high degree of interoperability. Z-wave Like Zigbee, Z-wave is a low-power, short-range wireless network technology primarily used for applications like smart home devices. Its standardized by the ITU. Extreme Networks today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Brocades data center switching, routing and analytics business, completing one of the most remarkable and unlikely turnaround stories in tech history. In the technology industry, rising from the ashes is very rare. Once a vendor, no matter how big, starts to slide, it generally has a bad outcome. Consider all the giants in networking alone that went from 800-pound gorillas to a puff of smoke seemingly overnight. Names including Lucent, Nortel, 3Com, Cabletron, Marconi and Fore Systems, once seemingly mighty powers that could never be toppled, are now all gone. Some vendors have avoided that fate by going private to revamp the company without the pressure of meeting Wall Street expectations every quarter. Recent examples of this are Polycom, Riverbed, Dell and Solar Winds. Extreme seemed to be heading down the path toward irrelevance if not demise. A few years ago, it replaced its CEO, CMO and chief revenue officer after a botched merger with Enterasys. The stock was trading at an all-time low, and it looked as if a new management team, led by CEO Ed Meyercord and chief marketing, development and product operations officer Norman Rice, had been brought in to find a buyer to make the best of an increasingly bad situation. But something happened along the path to being just another failed networking company. Instead of closing shop, the company decided to go on a shopping spree and did it with lightning speed in a rather unorthodox way. Instead of going private or hiring a banker or any other outside resource, the company chose to open up a line of credit and do it itself. The turnaround started nine quarters ago, and since then Extreme has been nine for nine in issuing a beat and raise on its quarterly earnings calls. With the addition of Brocades business, Extreme is now on a run rate that exceeds $1 billion in revenue, making it the largest enterprise pure-play network vendor and the No. 3 overall. Over the past two years, no vendor has had a more highly publicized run of success and excellence than Arista Networks (and deservedly so), and yet over that time period, when Aristas (ANET) stock price saw a whopping increase of 137.9%, Extremes (EXTR) stock grew 335.9%. The turnaround started with the acquisition of Zebras Wi-Fi assets. That got Extreme into a number of top-tier businesses such as WalMart and FedEx, giving its channel an opportunity to sell a broader wired/wireless solution. Extreme then added Avayas Network business, which gave it a best-in-class campus fabric that could also be used in small data centers, and added a number of new channel partners, expanding its reach. Now its added Brocades data center business. While Zebra and Avaya were nice additions, and certainly helped boost the business, the acquisition of Brocade puts Extremes big-boy pants on. The company can now compete for any business in any Enterprise, no matter how large, as well as some service providers. Unlike many of the pure-plays in networking, Extreme has a portfolio that spans from the Wi-Fi edge to the campus, branch and all the way into the data center. With the closing of Brocade, Extreme acquires its SLX, VDX, MLX, CES, CER products as well as the Workflow Composer and Automation suites. Of equal importance, Extreme inherits some strong customer relationships and personnel. Brocade is well-known in the networking industry as always being on the bleeding edge of technology and tends to cater to early-adopter types of customers. The hardware platforms are certainly big and beefy, but its software products, such as Workflow Composer, address the needs of cloud-centric organizations that have shifted to a DevOps model. Wayne Gretzky said he always skates to where the puck is going to be; tools such as Workflow Composer are where the network puck is going as it makes network operations easier making it mandatory for future success. Old-school network professionals lived, if not thrived, in a world where complexity was the norm. Digital transformation requires businesses to move with speed and a network that is simpler to operate. This doesnt mean a simple network with no features. It means a technically sophisticated network with good software to streamline and automate operational tasks. Workflow Composer, Extreme Analytics and the Avaya Fabric are good examples of a software overlay that lowers the complexity of running a network and sets up Extreme well for future success. Theres a shift happening in networking today. Trends such as the internet of things, mobility and the cloud have raised the overall importance of the network, since none of those technologies works without a robust, resilient and secure network. Now that the turnaround of Extreme is complete, it will be in a better position to compete for business where it didnt have the portfolio, channel or size to do so before. UK charity Macmillan Cancer, in a move to prevent false news and information circulating among patients, has hired a digital nurse. The cancer charity states that there are a huge number of patients who rely upon information available over the internet some of which is bogus and unauthenticated for treatment and false beliefs of cures. This digital nurse would assist them with the correct information. According to the charitys joint chief medical officer Professor Jane Maher, it is natural for sufferers to 'Google' their symptoms and diagnosis and future course of treatment and its side effects after the diagnosis. Studies have shown that 42 percent individuals diagnosed with cancer looked up their diagnosis over the internet. One among every eight of them did so because they did not understand clearly what the doctor explained. A recent survey called the Cancer Patient Experience Survey also found that one fourth of the cancer patients had not received the patient information booklet that is usually distributed to patients to understand their disease better. Another Macmillan research, conducted by YouGov, also found that 37 percent individuals in Scotland looked up their cancer diagnosis over the internet. The survey showed that 3,450 people (around 4 per cent of Scottish cancer patients) looked up information online and believed they were going to die. However not all information is true said Maher with several sites talking about the horrors of treatment regimens and dangerous alternative medicine cure claims. She added that these could undermine the need and adherence to routine and proven treatments. The statistics used by many of these sites is often not true and is generally misleading she noted. This new digital nurse would answer questions that people diagnosed with cancer have. She would be on the online forums and the social media platforms of the cancer charity. Some of the alternative remedies suggested for cancer is potentially dangerous say experts. There is baking soda for breast cancer for example and a black salve that is highly caustic for skin cancers. Bleach and other harmful chemicals for the treatment of a wide range of diseases from autism to HIV and Ebola too are alarming. Salt therapy is recommended by certain websites for cancer. After a cancer diagnosis, these misleading articles on cancer treatment can target a vulnerable population experts believe. Some sites have claimed that cancer chemotherapy kills more patients can cancer itself. This may deter legitimate cancer patients from undergoing chemotherapy leading to unnecessary deaths among patients who would have most likely responded to treatment favorably. Janice Preston, who is the head of Macmillan in Scotland also said that it is natural for people to look up their diagnosis on the internet but the need for correct information is vital. She added that there are a lot of unverified statistics, fake news and horror stories that can cause more harm than earlier believed. She said that people need to sort out the correct information provider sites from the bogus ones. Now the new digital nurse called Ellen McPake would be the answering face to all types of queries regarding cancer online said the charity. She said she would, make sure people affected by cancer have a real person they can turn to online for information about their symptoms, cancer diagnosis and treatment. Thousands of preterm babies could be saved by waiting 60 seconds before clamping the umbilical cord after birth instead of clamping it immediately - according to two international studies coordinated by the University of Sydney's National Health and Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Center. Approved for publishing in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the review led by University of Sydney researchers, assessed morbidity and mortality outcomes from 18 trials comparing delayed versus immediate cord clamping in nearly 3,000 babies born before 37 weeks' gestation. It found clear evidence that delayed clamping reduced hospital mortality by a third and is safe for mothers and pre-term infants. The review also reported that delayed clamping reduced subsequent blood transfusions and increased neonatal hematocrit, confirming that placental transfusion occurred. "The review shows for the first time that simply clamping the cord 60 seconds after birth improves survival," said the University of Sydney's Professor William Tarnow-Mordi, senior author. "It confirms international guidelines recommending delayed clamping in all preterm babies who do not need immediate resuscitation." "We estimate that for every thousand very preterm babies born more than ten weeks early, delayed clamping will save up to 100 additional lives compared with immediate clamping," said the University of Sydney's Associate Professor David Osborn, the review's lead author and a neonatal specialist at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. "This means that, worldwide, using delayed clamping instead of immediate clamping can be expected to save between 11,000 and 100,000 additional lives every year." The systematic review confirms new findings from the Australian Placental Transfusion Study, published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine, reporting that delayed clamping might reduce mortality before 36 weeks - tentative evidence that required confirmation by an updated review of all relevant trials. The Australian Placental Transfusion Study enrolled 1,566 babies born over ten weeks early in 25 hospitals in seven countries. The authors reported a 6.4 percent mortality rate in the delayed clamping group compared to 9 percent mortality rate in the immediate clamping group (p=0.03 in unadjusted analyses; p=0.39 after post-hoc adjustment for multiple secondary outcomes). The University of Sydney's Professor Jonathan Morris, co-author of the Australian Placental Transfusion Study said: "This is so significant as it is such a simple technique, suitable for almost all preterm babies that helps saves lives". Co-author of the Australian Placental Transfusion Study, Professor Roger Soll of the University of Vermont College of Medicine, added "About 15 million babies are born before 37 weeks gestation annually and one million die. This procedure costs nothing and will make a difference to families worldwide." Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Belinda Hutchinson AM said the research is a breakthrough for families like hers who have experienced the emotional and physical impact of preterm birth. "This is a cause which is very important to me, with my own granddaughter born at 28 weeks. She is now a vibrant three-year-old but I know many others don't have such a great outcome which is why research in this area is so vital." The studies - supported by hundreds of parents and professionals worldwide - were presented to more than 1,350 international neonatal care professionals at the Vermont Oxford Network (VON) 2017 Annual Quality Congress in Chicago. Source: https://sydney.edu.au/ Every year there are around 400 new cases of cervical cancer and a total of approximately 800 cancers associated with HPV (human papilloma virus). Two measures could reverse this trend: the nonavalent HPV vaccination co-developed at MedUni Vienna's Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology under the supervision of Elmar Joura and HPV screening by means of smear tests as secondary prevention. This combination is able to reduce the cancer risk by more than 90%. This point was emphasized by Joura in advance of the European Gynecological Oncology Congress (ESGO), which is being held in the Austria Center Vienna from 4 - 7 November, under the aegis of MedUni Vienna. In future, the HPV test should and will replace cell smear testing (cytology) as a primary screening method, says the HPV expert, who also works in the Comprehensive Cancer Center Vienna (CCC). The advantage of the test, which works just like a smear test but is evaluated in a different way, is: "It is more sensitive and does not miss as many precancerous cells." With the conventional smear test there is a risk - still standing at 50% - that precancerous cells will not be detected. Since 2015, there has been a position paper from the Austrian Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (oGGG), in which MedUni Vienna played a significant part, allowing gynecologists to use primary HPV testing - although the funding situation is not yet completely clear. What is clear, however, is that HPV screening on its own can help to reduce the occurrence of invasive cervical cancer by more than 70%. "If you have had a negative test result, you can go home totally reassured," says Joura. As it happens, Turkey was the first country in the world to incorporate this test in its healthcare plan in place of cytology, followed by the Netherlands and Australia - and that would also be the goal in Austria, says Joura. HPV - a "rare disease"? Together with the 9-valent vaccination, the HPV test is the best precaution. Indeed, Austria is the first country in the world to offer free HPV 9-valent vaccination to girls and boys in the 4th grade, and has been doing so since 2014. This combination is so promising that in Canada, for example, they have declared the eradication of HPV to be a goal of their healthcare policy. A goal which Joura does not consider to be unrealistic, if the vaccination has a cross-generational impact. Joura believes that, in a few years time, HPV could potentially be reduced to the status of a "rare disease". Even adults can and should be vaccinated against HPV, even though it is slightly less effective at that stage. The best form of prevention is to vaccinate primary school children or young teenagers, followed up by an HPV test after the age of 30. MedUni Vienna leads the world in HPV research Human papilloma viruses (HPV) infect the epithelial cells of the skin and mucous membranes and can cause a tumorous growth. Some of these viruses also cause malignant tumors, particularly cervical cancer. But HPV infections can also cause cancer in men - there is a particularly marked increase in cases of throat cancer. So far, more than a hundred HPV subtypes have been identified. In Austria, up to 400 women a year develop invasive cervical cancer. HPV are responsible for more than 90% of these cases. According to Statistik Austria, 150 - 180 women a year die from cervical cancer. In addition, around 6,000 women a year have to go to hospital for removal of precancerous cells that could develop into cervical cancer. The departments and institutes of MedUni Vienna/Vienna General Hospital lead the world in the diagnosis and treatment of HPV-associated diseases. A new study that involves measuring and analyzing the formation of antibodies following HPV vaccination in women aged between 16 and 45 is scheduled to start in the near future. ESGO 2017 The ESGO (European Gynaecological Oncology Congress 2017) will take place in the Austria Center Vienna from 4 - 7 November. Heinz Kolbl, Head of the Division of General Gynecology and Gynecologic Oncology at MedUni Vienna's Department of Gynecology will preside as Congress Chairman. Novartis today announced full results from the positive Phase III PARADIGMS study, investigating the safety and efficacy of Gilenya (fingolimod) vs. interferon beta-1a, in children and adolescents (ages 10 to 17) with multiple sclerosis (MS). Treatment with oral Gilenya resulted in an 82% reduction in the rate of relapses (annualized relapse rate) over a period of up to two years, compared to interferon beta-1a intramuscular injections (p <0.001). PARADIGMS is the first ever controlled, randomized trial specifically designed for pediatric MS. The results have been presented at the 7th Joint European and Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS-ACTRIMS) meeting on October 28, 2017 in Paris, France. "Pediatric MS patients experience more frequent relapses and are more likely to accumulate physical disability at an earlier age than patients diagnosed as adults," said Dr. Tanuja Chitnis, Principle Investigator for PARADIGMS and Director of the Partners Pediatric Multiple Sclerosis Center, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, US, and Scientist, Ann Romney Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, US. "Yet, current therapies are limited to drugs that have not been tested in a controlled manner in this age group. PARADIGMS was uniquely designed for this patient population. Its results signify an important step towards a potential new treatment that could improve the lives of these young patients." Additional data from the study demonstrated: A significant reduction in the number of new / newly enlarging T2 and Gd-T1 lesions in the brain of Gilenya treated patients compared to those treated with interferon beta-1a, as measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The number and volume of lesions are associated with increased relapses and disability progression. Individuals treated with Gilenya had significantly less brain shrinkage (measured by MRI as brain volume loss), compared to those treated with interferon beta-1a. Brain shrinkage in adults is associated with the loss of physical and cognitive function. The safety profile of Gilenya was overall consistent with that seen in previous clinical trials, with more adverse events reported in the interferon group. In an additional analysis, Gilenya significantly delayed disability progression, defined as Confirmed Disability Progression (CDP), compared to interferon beta-1a. "There is already substantial evidence that Gilenya is an effective treatment that improves long-term outcomes for adults with relapsing MS. We are delighted that PARADIGMS has shown such meaningful benefits for children and adolescents with MS," said Vas Narasimhan, Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer, Novartis. "This pioneering study demonstrates our continued commitment to providing new treatment options to MS patients with the highest need. We look forward to working with health authorities and preparing for submission." Gilenya is not currently approved for the treatment of pediatric MS. Novartis is working on submission with health authorities worldwide. Researchers have produced the first three-dimensional (3D) map of a molecular 'scaffold' called SgK223, known to play a critical role in the development and spread of aggressive breast, colon, and pancreatic cancers. Armed with the map, the research team is looking at ways of targeting parts of the scaffold molecule critical for its function. They hope the research will lead to novel strategies to target cancer. The research was the result of a long-standing collaboration between Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers Dr. Onisha Patel and Dr. Isabelle Lucet and Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute researcher Professor Roger Daly, with important inputs from Dr. Michael Griffin at Bio21 Institute, University of Melbourne, and Dr. Santosh Panjikar at the Australian Synchrotron. The research was published today in Nature Communications. Dr. Lucet said SgK223 was a member of a family of proteins called pseudokinases and had been classified for a long time as a 'dead enzyme'. "SgK223 doesn't have the measurable activity that we see with other types of enzymes, and this meant it was largely ignored. However in the past decade, we've come to understand that this 'dead enzyme' plays an active and important role in cell signaling," Dr. Lucet said. SgK223 is unique among pseudokinases because it acts as a molecular scaffold, facilitating the assembly of vital signaling molecules whose activities control the normal functions of a cell, such as cell shape and migration. "Because of its primary role in facilitating the assembly of signaling molecules, high levels of SgK223 can jeopardize the normal functions of a cell and contribute to changes that lead to cancer," Dr. Lucet said. "High levels of SgK223 have been found in some aggressive subtypes of breast, colon and pancreatic cancers, suggesting that SgK223 could be a potential target for novel anti-cancer therapies." Dr. Patel said facilities at the Australian Synchrotron enabled the team to get an unprecedented view of SgK223. "Because molecular scaffolds such as SgK223 are structurally quite large, we focused on a critical part of the protein and produced a 3D map using facilities at the Australian Synchrotron. With this map, we have now identified several regions of SgK223 that are essential for its ability to assemble signaling molecules," Dr. Patel said. "Solving the 3D map of SgK223 is a critical step in the effort to discover how this molecular scaffold functions, and future research will verify whether targeting SgK223 could have an impact in treating cancers." Professor Daly said the 3D map would enable researchers to investigate how targeting SgK223 impacts cancer cells. "With this 3D map, we can now start to look at how inhibiting the function of SgK223 by targeting particular regions of the scaffold affects cell growth and spread in cancers where it is present at high levels, such as triple negative breast cancers," Professor Daly said. World-class facilities at the Australian Synchrotron in Melbourne were instrumental in the discovery, Dr. Lucet said. "The Australian Synchrotron is the only facility in the Southern Hemisphere that has the specialized technology required to provide us with detailed knowledge essential for seeing molecules at an atomic level. This is essential if we wish to discover and develop drugs that target and interfere with molecules that drive cancer and other diseases," Dr. Lucet said. Marketing food as a 'snack' leads to increased consumption and continued overeating, a new study in the journal Appetite reports. In the first-ever study of its kind, Professor Jane Ogden and her researchers from the University of Surrey examined the impact of labeling food products as 'snacks' or 'meals'. During this innovative investigation, eighty participants were asked to eat a pasta pot which was either labeled as a 'snack' or a 'meal.' Each pot was presented as a 'snack' (eaten standing up from a plastic pot with a plastic fork) or a 'meal' (seated at a table from a ceramic plate and metal fork). Once consumed, participants were invited to take part in an additional taste test of different foods (animal biscuits, hula hoops, M&M's and mini cheddars.) Researchers found that those who had eaten pasta labeled as a 'snack' ate more at the taste test then when it had been labeled as a 'meal.' It was also found that those who ate the 'snack' standing up consumed more (50 percent more total mass, sweet mass and total calories and 100 percent more M&M's) than those who had eaten the pasta sitting down at a table. This unique set of results demonstrate that when a food is labeled as a snack rather than a meal consumption is higher, particularly when standing rather than sitting. Researchers have attributed this to a combination of factors and believe that when eating a snack we are more easily distracted and may not be conscious of consumption. They also argue that memories for snacks and meals may be encoded differently in our subconscious and that we are unable to recall what we have eaten as a 'snack.' Jane Ogden, Professor in Health Psychology at the University of Surrey, said: "With our lives getting busier increasing numbers of people are eating on the go and consuming foods that are labeled as 'snacks' to sustain them. What we have found is that those who are consuming snacks are more likely to over eat as they may not realize or even remember what they have eaten. "To overcome this we should call our food a meal and eat it as meal, helping make us more aware of what we are eating so that we don't overeat later on." Obesity is a growing problem in the United Kingdom with levels reported to have trebled in the last 30 years with 24.9 percent of people now deemed obese, the highest levels in Europe. It is estimated that 16 billion a year is spent on the direct medical costs of diabetes and conditions related to being overweight or obese. Airbags, seat-belt reminders, speed alert mandatory in cars from July 2019 New Delhi : The Union road transport ministry has cleared the timeline for the implementation of increased safety standards on road transport. To be applicable from July 1, 2019, the new rules require all car manufacturers to equip vehicles with airbags, seat-belt reminders, alert systems for speeds beyond 80kmph, reverse parking alerts, as well as manual override over the central locking system for emergencies. The new rules will be notified in a few days, a report said. At present, only luxury cars have such features, which are crucial for the safety of occupants. Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari has approved the move for the passenger as well as pedestrian safety on India's roads as thousands of people die in road crashes every year. In 2016, speeding alone accounted for nearly 74,000 of the 1.51 lakh deaths in road accidents. "The new cars will be fitted with a system that issues audio alerts when the speed crosses 80kmph. The alert will be sharper when the vehicle crosses 100kmph, and non-stop when it's over 120 kmph," a transport ministry official told Times of India. Transport ministry sources told the media house that airbags and reverse sensors would also be made mandatory for light commercial vehicles, which primarily run in urban areas. Sixth Asia Pacific Conference of Young Scientists 2017 to be held in Nepal The sixth Asia Pacific Conference of Young Scientists (APCYS 2017) is going to be held in Nepal which is scheduled for Nov 1-5, 2017 in Park Village Resort, Kathmandu. Sergio Canavero set up a team to carry out head transplant (body transplant) procedure in China, working with Xiao-Ping Ren, an orthopaedic surgeon at Harbin Medical University who helped with one of the first hand transplants, in 1999. The team in China is ready to roll, says Canavero, who worked as a neurosurgeon at Turin University Hospital in Italy until 2015. All the preclinical and clinical studies have been conducted successfully. Much of this work will not be published, he says, but insists that what will be published will be more than enough to show where China stands. The precise date of a transplant attempt depends on finding a donor of the right height, build and complexion, he says. The problem now is only organizational. Canavero calls his proposed procedure the head anastomosis venture, or HEAVEN. He says it would begin by cooling the donor body and recipients head to delay tissue death. The heads would be detached and the donor body attached to the recipients head. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) would help fuse the cords by encouraging the fat in adjoining cells to mesh together. Stimulation from implanted electrodes would help to strengthen nerve connections. Nextbigfuture has covered the proposed head transplant procedure since 2013. C-Yoon Kim of Konkuk University in Seoul, South Korea, is part of Canaveros group and has led animal experiments that use PEG to encourage regrowth of severed spinal cords They published work on restoring movement in mice and another paper on restoring the spinal cord of a dog. The dog research paper has been highly criticized for lack of a control and lack of proof of the the 90% cutting of the spinal cord. They claim a successful procedure with a monkey but with unpublished observations. They plan to retain the donor brain stem and transplanting the recipient head. Their preliminary data in mice support that this allows for retention of breathing and circulatory function. Critical aspects of the current protocol include avoiding cerebral ischemia through cross-circulation (donor to recipient) and retaining the donor brain stem. The procedure is also to minimally damage the spinal cords with ultra sharp blades. You are clearly a super-user of NUVO.net. Thats a good thing. It means you depend on independent and local news sources to keep you informed. You are a smart person. Coincidentally, independent and local news sources depend on you too. Youve read 25 articles this month and now, wed like you to be join our mission and become a NUVO Supporter. For as little as $4 a month, you can keep us alive and fighting -- and can have unlimited access to the independent news that cant be found anywhere else. SSF, RJP fail to pick common candidates With the chances of forging a broader democratic alliance with the Nepali Congress looking slim, the Sanghiya Samajbadi Forum-Nepal and the Rastriya Janata Party are now left with few options. Tunnel boring machine to start test digging today The installation of the first ever tunnel boring machine (TBM) brought to Nepal to dig a tunnel for the Bheri Babai Diversion Multipurpose Project has been completed. Technicians from the US-based manufacturer Robbins finished putting together the machine on Friday. Court documents released on Monday show how an adviser to Donald J. Trumps presidential campaign, George Papadopoulos, repeatedly sought to set up a meeting between the Russian government and Mr. Trump and his campaign officials. Mr. Papadopoulos contacted the campaign at least 11 times from March to June 2016 about a potential meeting. Campaign officials discussed or replied to his messages at least three times, and they encouraged Mr. Papadopoulos and another adviser to make the trip to meet Russian officials, which never took place. Meets a Professor With Russian Ties Ties to Russian Government Russian woman Professor Papadopoulos Ties to Russian Government Russian woman Professor Papadopoulos Ties to Russian Government Papadopoulos Russian woman Professor On March 14, 2016, Mr. Papadopoulos, while traveling in Italy, met a professor who claimed to have substantial connections with Russian government officials. At the time, Mr. Papadopoulos was set to become a foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign. On March 24, Mr. Papadopoulos met again with the professor, who brought a Russian woman he introduced as having ties to the Russian government. Seeks a Meeting Between Russian Officials and Trump Campaign Ties to Russian Government Trump campaign Russian woman Professor Papadopoulos Campaign supervisor Campaign officials Ties to Russian Government Trump campaign Russian woman Professor Papadopoulos Campaign supervisor Campaign officials Ties to Russian Government Trump campaign Papadopoulos Russian woman Professor Campaign supervisor Campaign officials After the meeting with the professor, Mr. Papadopoulos emailed the Trump campaign supervisor and members of the campaigns foreign policy team about arranging a meeting between campaign and Russian officials to discuss how United States-Russia relations would be if Mr. Trump were elected. In response, the campaign supervisor said that he would work it through the campaign, but that no commitment should be made at that point, adding, Great work. On March 31, at a national security meeting in Washington, D.C., with Mr. Trump present, Mr. Papadopoulos said that he had connections that could help arrange a meeting between Mr. Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Papadopoulos continued to correspond with the professor and the Russian woman to arrange a meeting, while informing the campaign of his progress. Speaks With Another Russian Connection Ties to Russian Government Trump campaign Russian tied to Foreign Ministry Professor Papadopoulos Campaign officials Ties to Russian Government Trump campaign Russian tied to Foreign Ministry Professor Papadopoulos Campaign officials Ties to Russian Government Trump campaign Papadopoulos Russian tied to Foreign Ministry Professor Campaign officials On April 18, the professor introduced Mr. Papadopoulos via email to a Russian who said he had connections to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Over the next several weeks, Mr. Papadopoulos and the Russian had multiple conversations trying to set up a meeting between Russian officials and the Trump campaign. On April 25, Mr. Papadopoulos emailed a senior campaign adviser and said there was an open invitation by Putin for Mr. Trump to meet when he is ready. Learns About Dirt on Clinton Ties to Russian Government Russian officials Professor Papadopoulos Ties to Russian Government Russian officials Professor Papadopoulos Ties to Russian Government Papadopoulos Russian officials Professor On April 26, in another meeting with the professor, Mr. Papadopoulos is told that the Russians had obtained dirt on Hillary Clinton, involving thousands of emails. Told to Pursue a Meeting Ties to Russian Government Trump campaign Russian officials Papadopoulos Campaign supervisor Ties to Russian Government Trump campaign Russian officials Papadopoulos Campaign supervisor Ties to Russian Government Trump campaign Papadopoulos Russian officials Campaign supervisor After the conversation with the professor, in at least eight emails to campaign officials, Mr. Papadopoulos reiterated Russias interest in meeting with Mr. Trump. In June, Mr. Papadopoulos asked a high-ranking campaign official about the trip again, stating that I am willing to make the trip off the record if its in the interest of Mr. Trump and the campaign to meet specific people. In August, the campaign supervisor encouraged Mr. Papadopoulos and another adviser to make the trip, if it is feasible. The trip did not take place. Pleads Guilty to Lying to the F.B.I. This vending machine in Dubai rolls out free hot bread for all IRCTC's affordable Dubai tour package: All you need to know 30,000 Indian workers died in Gulf states between 2005-2015: Report India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar According to a report published by Reuters Foundation, more than 30,000 Indian nationals have died in the Gulf states between 2005 and 2015. The report brings out the risks Indian nationals facing in the Gulf countries who migrate in search of menial jobs. Recently, a daily wage labourer from Telangana died in Dubai. Chittam, 45, was the second migrant worker from a village Telangana to have died in Dubai in September. Another local man, aged 24, died in Dubai last month after suffering a heart attack. Officials of the Telangana state government cite stress, ill health and working in searing temperatures as the most common causes of death and say fatality numbers among migrants who travel to the Gulf from the state have remained stable. Nearly 450 Indian migrant workers have died since 2014. As per Government figures, there are some 6 million Indian migrants in the six Gulf states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman. The UAE embassy in New Delhi said in an emailed statement the Gulf state had introduced a number of reforms over the last few years to combat abusive labour practices including improving transparency of contracts, a wage protection system for foreign workers and a "Know Your Rights" campaign in five languages. India's foreign ministry has made attempts to streamline the recruitment process and help workers in need. Ads asking workers to go through only authorised agents play on radio every day. OneIndia News Aadhaar linking: Deadline wont be extended hints Centre India oi-Vicky By Vicky A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will hear the Aadhaar matter in November. The decision was made by Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra on Monday. Earlier the Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Union Government among others on a plea that challenged the mandatory linking of Aadhaar with mobile. The Centre hinted that those who have Aadhaar will have to link with government welfare schemes by December 2017. No extension will be granted the Centre hinted. We are ready to argue the matter the Centre also said. The court also issued notices to the telecom companies insisting on the mandatory linking of mobile with Aadhaar. The court has given all respondents in the case four weeks time to file their reply. On the last date of hearing, the Centre had told the court that it was ready to extend the date for mandatory linking of Aadhaar with various government schemes to March 2018. The court however sought to know if the government would refrain from taking action against those who did not link their Aadhaar during the pendency of the case. The court sought to time to file its response. Earlier, the court pulled up the West Bengal government for challenging the Aadhaar Act. The court observed that a state government could not challenge laws enacted by the Parliament. Let Mamata Banerjee challenge the Act under Article 32 of the Constitution in her individual capacity and not as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the court had also said. OneIndia News Amit Jethwa murder case: SC cancels former BJP MP Dinu Solanki's bail India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar The Supreme Court on Monday cancelled the bail granted to former BJP MP Dinu Solanki in connection with the murder of RTI activist Amit Jethwa. The apex court has directed Solanki to surrender within 48 hours. Jethwa, an RTI activist, was shot dead outside the Gujarat High Court on July 20, 2010, allegedly at the behest of Dinu Solanki, then an MP, for exposing illegal mining. In June, Gujarat High Court judge J B Pardiwala had ordered fresh trial while disposing of a plea by Amit's father, Bhikhabhai Jethwa. The petition had alleged that 105 out of the total 195 witnesses had turned hostile, while five of them had complained of intimidation by Solanki. The CBI itself had substantiated the slain activist's father allegation before the high court saying that it was true. The agency also said that of these 105, seven were eye-witnesses to the alleged murder. (With agency inputs) OneIndia News If Cong is elected in HP, decision on 1 lakh govt jobs, pension scheme in 1st cabinet meet: Rahul Nov 8 is a sad day for India, says Rahul Gandhi India oi-Madhuri All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretaries and state in-charges met party Vice President Rahul Gandhi at party's headquarter in Delhi on Monday. While addressing media, Rahul said,''November 8 is a sad day for India. Modi has not been able to understand the feeling of the nation. Demonetisation was a disaster.'' According to media reports, the meeting - to be held at the party headquarters in Delhi -- will also discuss the impact of demonetisation on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the unorganised sector. The Congress and other opposition parties have already announced that they will observe the first anniversary of note ban on November 8 as 'Black Day' and hold protests across the country. The party is also planning to launch a nationwide campaign against the GST. The Congress argues that the NDA has badly conceptualised the tax reform conceived by the UPA. Gandhi has described the GST as "Gabbar Singh Tax", a pun on the name of famous Bollywood villain in movie Sholay. In yet another meeting later in the day which is scheduled to take place at 12 noon in Delhi, Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi will discuss on GST. OneIndia News Daughter fell prey to radical Islamic design: Mother from Kerala tells SC India oi-Vicky By Vicky Another petition has been filed in the Supreme Court by a parent seeking an NIA probe into the alleged forced conversion of their daughter. The petition states that the girl was forcibly converted through Love Jihad and was being lured into joining the Islamic State in Afghanistan. The petitioner Bindu Sampath said that her daughter had fallen trap to Love Jihad and this had wrecked havoc in their lives. The petitioner said that when the girl was studying in a dental college, she fell trap to a sinister radical Islamic design. The SC is set to hear the Love Jihad case. The NIA which was ordered to probe the matter will file its status report before the SC. In the report the NIA says that it has managed to question several persons. However it has not been able to question Hadiya as yet as their officers were told that she is not in the right frame of mind. It may be recalled that the Kerala High Court had annulled Hadiya's marriage. The SC on the last date of hearing sought to know how a marriage between two consenting adults could have been annulled. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, October 30, 2017, 8:09 [IST] PM Modi, Xi Jinping greet each other at G-20 dinner in first meet after Galwan clash Did Modi launch BJPs campaign months ahead of Karnataka Assembly polls? India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Bengaluru, Oct 30: Once again the country is in the grip of election fever, as the states of Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat are going to polls in November and December respectively. However, there are several months for the Karnataka Assembly elections, which will likely to take place before May next year. But it seems Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not want to miss any opportunity to campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) anywhere he visits. On Sunday, during his hectic day-long stay in Karnataka, as he visited several places in the state in less than 24 hours, Modi blew the bugle for Assembly polls in Bengaluru in a subtle way. The PM said that he gets the feeling that the people of Karnataka are impatient for the polls. "The people want to be connected to speedy development like the rest of India. I am confident that after the polls, Karnataka will be aligned with speedy development,'' Modi added. Looking at the political activities, both the ruling Congress and the BJP in Karnataka have already started their poll preparations for the next year. While the Congress has to fight anti-incumbency and lack of development under the chief minister Siddaramaiah government, the BJP might have to face the ire of voters because of unpopular economic policies like the demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax (GST) of the Modi government. Modi's Sunday sojourn to Karnataka was a mix of spiritual and official works. The PM visited several places in the state to attend a series of events which include participating in the Shree Kshetra Dharmasthala Rural Development Project in Dakshina Kannada, the 10th anniversary of 'Shree Soundarya Lahari Samarpana' in Bengaluru and inaugurating a 116-km railway line in north Karnataka built at a cost of Rs 1,282 crore. Reports suggest that once polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh get over, Modi is likely to visit Karnataka more often than he generally does. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi too made several sojourns to the state in recent times. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, October 30, 2017, 8:21 [IST] Gujarat Assembly polls: Saurashtra region, with 48 of 182 seats, is the piece everyone's eyeing Gujarat polls: Congress promises to rename Narendra Modi Stadium if it wins Gujarat polls: Lone NCP MLA Kandhal Jadeja resigns after not getting ticket Man who had kept 'threat letter' in Jet Airways flight identified India oi-Vikas By Vikas Recommended Video Jet Airways Mumbai-Delhi flight diverted after threat letter, man who kept it identified | Oneindia The man who had kept a threat letter in a Mumbai-Delhi Jet Airways flight has been identified and he is also said to have confessed to have kept it. The man has been identified as one, Salla Birju, who had kept 'threatening note' to destabilise operations of the Jet Airways flight, reported ANI. A Delhi-Mumbai flight was diverted to Ahmedabad during the wee hours of Monday due to security reasons. Jet Airways flight 9W339, which took off from Mumbai at 2.55 am, landed at Ahmedabad airport at about 3.45 am. A passenger onboard said the flight was diverted to Ahmedabad citing "security reasons". A security personnel at Ahmedabad airport said the flight was diverted as a threat letter was found. A Times Now report said that a note was found onboard which threatened that the plane would be hijacked and taken to PoK. The note further reportedly says that "Cargo area contains explosive bombs and will blast if you land in DEL. Allah is great." The plane had 115 passengers and 7 crew members. "Aircraft landed without incident at Ahmedabad,was parked at a remote bay, where all 115 guests & 7 crew members safely deplaned," ANI quoted a Jet Airways statement as saying. Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati has advised the culprit to be on No-Fly list. OneIndia News with PTI inputs Is Rahuls Pidi joke way ahead of its time? India oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Recommended Video Rahul Gandhi jokes on who tweets on him , India misses the touch of sarcasm | Oneindia News New Delhi, Oct 30: The biggest joke is that India simply can't take jokes. That is why, every now and then, anyone with a funny bone who have dared to take on politicians, and social and religious dogmas, to name a few things 'close' to India's heart, have faced the music. The recent case in point is that of a stand-up comic Shyam Rangeela, who was asked by television channel Star Plus not to impersonate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi in one of its comedy shows, probably fearing backlash from the VIPs. The TV channel, which has been slammed by champions of "freedom of speech" for "self-censorship", was simply playing safe, looking at the cases against comedians and critics of powerful people. So, in this 'insane situation', where currently we are living in, when even a mundane joke on a cow or a pig might land you in a jail, Rahul has adopted the "humour" route to reach out to people and gain popularity. Right from slamming PM Modi (Rahul's biggest detractor) to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Gandhi scion in recent times has come up with some of the smartest lines laced with sarcasm and humour to attack his opponents on Twitter. The result, his followers have exponentially increased within a short period of time and his tweets have been retweeted more than Modi's (the PM has 36 million followers and Rahul has 4 million followers on the micro-blogging site) tweets. It's a kind of "social media" victory for Rahul which the BJP alleged has been fueled by bots or software-driven accounts that automate actions like retweets and likes, to inflate following on the site. Bots or no bots (something which even the BJP has been also accused of indulging in), one thing is clear that Rahul and his social media team, headed by actor-politician Divya Spandana (popularly known as Ramya), are heavily relying on "fun and laughter". The comic aspect in Rahul's online avatar is not only restricted to target his rivals, but the "self-criticism" tone adopted by him is something rare to witness these days. Recently, during his tour to the United States, which all started the latest reinvention in the Congress VP's image, Rahul admitted that Modi was a better speaker than him. While "confessing", he had a smirk on his face, a tell-tale indication that it's the "powerful speeches" of Modi which holds the fortress of the PM's popularity. Earlier also on many occasions, when he erred in citing figures or names, Rahul quickly admitted that he "doesn't know everything". The openness for self-criticism has definitely helped Rahul gain a section's support and sympathy. But at a time when chest-thumping is the latest political mantra, will Rahul's modesty and humour work? Probably not, looking at how his Sunday's Pidi joke backfired. On Sunday, in order to slam his adversaries for accusing him that someone else is tweeting on his behalf, the Congress VP posted a video of his pet dog, Pidi, on the micro-blogging site "revealing" who "actually" posts his tweets. Ppl been asking who tweets for this guy..I'm coming clean..it's me..Pidi..I'm way than him. Look what I can do with a tweet..oops..treat! pic.twitter.com/fkQwye94a5 Office of RG (@OfficeOfRG) October 29, 2017 It was a funny video of a puppy doing some amazing tricks as instructed by its owner. It was a cryptic message of sort which tried to tell critics that Rahul doesn't engage anyone (read dogs) to tweet on his behalf. Instead of playing along with Rahul, his opponents started comparing Rahul with a dog by posting the Pidi video a thousand times. In fact, the hashtag, #Pidi, was a top trend on Twitter on Sunday. Among the first few to comment on the Pidi joke was former Congressman and current BJP minister from Assam, Himanta Biswa Sarma, who said, "Sir @OfficeOfRG, who knows him better than me. Still remember you busy feeding biscuits to him while we wanted to discuss urgent Assam's issues." While leaving the Congress, Sarma alleged that Rahul has no time to listen to the issues raised by the grass-root level leaders. On many occasions, the former Congress leader stated that Rahul preferred to spend time with his pets when he tried to meet him in Delhi to talk about the party's problems in the state. Thereafter, a series of tweets mocked Rahul and the Congress for using Pidi to tweet on behalf of the party's VP, without understanding the joke for sure. Sample this one from the BJP's IT cell head Amit Malviya: Rahul is not new to criticism. Everyone loves to crack a joke on his behalf for behaving like a sloth in the high voltage political space of the country. Since the time he joined politics, the Congress VP has been facing vitriolic ridicule. The member of Parliament (MP) from Amethi, Uttar Pradesh has been named and shamed almost on a daily basis. His detractors have even given him pet names like Pappu and Prince. Now, as Rahul jumps from Pappu to Pidi joke, humour has once again become the biggest casualty. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, October 30, 2017, 10:53 [IST] Maharashtra: Student beaten up by teacher for not providing Aadhaar details India oi-Vicky By Vicky A case in which a boy was beaten up by his school teacher for allegedly not providing his Aadhaar details has been reported from the Chinchwad area of Maharashtra. The police who were informed about the incident are probing the matter. It was alleged that a ten year old student was brutally beaten after he failed to provide his Aadhaar details. The student had to undergo a surgery after he was allegedly beaten on the knee. Police have slapped charges of voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means under section 324, and relevant sections of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015 against the teacher identified as Kharat (full name is not known). According to the parents of the student, they still do not know why the teacher had asked for the Aadhaar details from their son. Sangeeta Belle, the mother of the boy said, "As per my knowledge, the school was planning to come up with a mobile application to send circulars and other notifications to parents. I think that they required the Aadhaar details of students for that application. However, there was no need to hit our son so badly." The parents said that he boy was admitted in a private hospital from October 6 to October 15 where he had to undergo a surgery after he was hit by the teacher. "He was very scared to even tell us about the incident. He was facing difficulty in walking and we had to take him to a doctor for treatment. After he was admitted in the hospital for the surgery, that time he narrated the whole incident to us and we were in deep shock," Belle said. After the boy was discharged from the hospital, the parents decided to approach the police and lodge the complaint against the teacher. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, October 30, 2017, 6:56 [IST] 'Beauty is not about how you look': Mamata Banerjee apologises for Trinamool minister's comments on President Mamata Banerjee attributes Dengue outbreak on weather, corrupt business practices India oi-Amitava By Amitava As deaths were reported from all over the State, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday attributed the Dengue outbreak on the weather and conspiracy by some private nursing homes and business houses. "Owing the untimely rains, mosquitoes are breeding in the stagnant water" stated the Chief Minister adding that there is no need to panic. "People with vested business interests (some private nursing homes and business houses) are trying to create panic. Some business ventures had also opposed the State Health Commission and are now spreading wrong information. We are keeping a strict tab on the situation" stated Banerjee, who is also the Minister in charge of the health department. Banerjee stated that there are certain pockets in a few districts where there has been a recent surge in the disease. "We have alerted the Municipalities of these areas to take all necessary steps to eradicate the mosquitoes. We will dissolve the Municipalities that do not adopt necessary measures to combat dengue despite receiving funds from the Health department" warned Banerjee. The CM held a meeting with the health department officials on Monday in the State Secretariat. The CM stated that there have been 13 dengue deaths reported from Government hospitals. "We have also received reports of 27 deaths from private nursing homes. However these deaths have been attributed to malaria, dengue, swine flu. We are verifying these reports. All these deaths cannot be attributed to Dengue" stated the CM. The West Bengal CM further claimed that number of deaths owing to vector-borne diseases is much less than the numbers in other states. "A report uploaded 15 days ago states that in Gujarat 435 people have died owing to vector borne diseases; Maharashtra 695; Rajasthan 230; UP 165; MP 141; Kerala 111; Assam 87 and Orissa 83" stated Banerjee. The opposition parties in Bengal however have blamed the State Government's apathy for the outbreak. The Congress and the BJP launched separate demonstrations against the State Government in Kolkata on Monday. The Congress party will be submitting memorandum to the West Bengal Governor on November 2. "The State Government has issued strictures warning medical practitioners not to write Dengue as the cause of deaths. The Doctors are now writing "unknown fever." We will file a PIL. Let the State then file affidavit in court attributing deaths to "Unknown fever"" alleged Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, President, West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, October 30, 2017, 22:45 [IST] PM Modi, Xi Jinping greet each other at G-20 dinner in first meet after Galwan clash Modi's real reason to visit Karnataka was to launch election campaign: Congress India oi-Vikas By Vikas A day after Narendra Modi visited several places in Karnataka and even inaugrated a railway line, the Congress party on Monday said that the Prime Minister's actual reason for visiting the state was to launch the election campaign. The 110-km railway line reduces the distance between Delhi and southern states by 380 km. Besides inaugurating the railway line, Modi also visited Dharmasthala and Ujjire in Karnataka's Dakshina Kannada district on Sunday. Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said that the Prime Minister inaugurated the railway line which was already in operation. "Actually he came here to inaugurate the election campaign. He inaugurated one already inaugurated railway line over here in Karnataka. This railway line was completed two-three years back. Only some of its portion was left. He lied in the speech that this project was delayed from long time," he told news agency ANI. Kharge said that Modi tried to take credit for the work done by the Congress party and accused the Prime Minister of not fulfilling the promises made to people. "He is not implementing any of his promises. What about employment opportunities of youth? Where is the black money of India? He is expert in giving speeches," he added. Prime Minister Modi arrived in Karnataka's Mangaluru on Sunday morning. He then offered prayers at Shri Manjunatha Swami Temple at Dharmasthala and proceeded to Ujire, around 7 kms from Dharmasthala, to attend a public programme. OneIndia News Explained: Why has US removed India from its currency monitoring list Indias first privately built rocket to be launched on Nov 15 India has become center point to world's desires, says PM Modi India abstains on UNGA resolution calling for Russia to pay reparations to Ukraine Pak requests DGMO level talks, rakes up the issue of firing at the border India oi-Vikas By Vikas An unscheduled Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) level talk between India and Pakistan was held on Monday, said reports. The request for talks was initiated by Pakistan. Indian DGMO Lt General AK Bhatt spoke to his Pakistani counterpart on hotline at 2 pm today. According to news agency ANI, the Pakistan DGMO alleged that Indian security forces had resorted to unprovoked firing along LoC. To this, the Indian DGMO responded that Indian troops were merely retaliating to the "unabated support given by Pakistan Army to the terrorists." Asserting that Indian Army always maintains impeccable standards of professionalism, Lt General AK Bhatt said that Indian troops do not target civilians. On October 24, Pakistani troops opened unprovoked fire on the Naugam sector along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, prompting a strong retaliation by the Indian Army. On October 18, four civilians were injured in ceasefire violation by Pakistan in Balakote sector of Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, October 30, 2017, 15:28 [IST] Berlusconi says he 'reconnected' with Putin PM Modi welcomes Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni India oi-Chennabasaveshwar By Chennabasaveshwar Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni and accorded him a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Monday. India and Italy likely to look at strengthening the bilateral political and economic relations. India's exports to Italy are at USD 4.90 billion, while its imports are at USD 3.89 billion, resulting in a trade imbalance of USD 1 billion in favour of India. In the first four months of fiscal 2017-18, bilateral trade has reached USD 3.22 billion. Italy is India's 5th largest trading partner in the European Union with a bilateral trade of USD 8.79 billion in 2016-17, as per official figures. The Indo-Italy diplomatic ties were hit badly after two Italian marines -- Latorre Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone -- on board a ship named Enrica Lexie, were arrested for allegedly killing two Indian fishermen off the coast of Kerala in 2012. Guard of honour Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni inspects a guard of honour at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. Courtesy: ANI news Ceremonial reception Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni shakes hand with dignitaries duirng ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi. Courtesy: ANI news Italian PM speaks to media We have strong economic relations and it's a great opportunity to make it stronger. We have common interests in global arena, says Italian PM. Courtesy: ANI news First visit by Italian PM after a decade The prime ministerial trip from Italy was happening after more than a decade. The last visit of an Italian prime minister to India was in February 2007. Courtesy: ANI news (With agency inputs) OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, October 30, 2017, 10:05 [IST] SC raps West Bengal govt for challenging Aadhaar, come as individual Mamata told India oi-Vicky By Vicky The Supreme Court today pulled up the West Bengal government for challenging the Aadhaar Act. How can the Act be challenged by a state, the court sought to know. How can a state question laws passed by the Parliament, the court also sought to know. The court however said that Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal could challenge it as an individual and not in the capacity of a CM. Following the rap by the SC, the petition will be now be amended and re-filed. The act was challenged in the Supreme Court by West Bengal. Mamata cited various points in her petitions. She said that the mandatory linking of Aadhaar with a host of services amounts to violation of privacy. She also cited the recent Supreme Court judgment which held that right to privacy is a fundamental right. It may be recalled that Mamata had said publicly that she would not link her mobile with Aadhaar. She had said that she did not care even if her mobile connection was disconnected. Mamata joins several others in challenging the mandatory linking of Aadhaar. The Centre had told the SC earlier this week it would extend the deadline to link Aadhaar with government welfare schemes to March 2018. OneIndia News Madrasa survey in UP complete, next up is meeting with government: Minister Uttar Pradesh: 100-year-old woman raped by drunken youth, dies India oi-Deepika By Deepika A 100-year-old woman was allegedly raped by a drunken youth in Jaani village of Meerut district. The old woman succumbed to her injuries during her treatment on Monday. The centenarian was unwell and was living with her brother, when the accused, Ankit Punia (25), who was drunk, allegedly barged into the house and attacked the hapless woman. He was trying to escape when her cries were heard by her brother and neighbours who overpowered Punia and handed him over to police. The victim was immediately shifted to a local hospital where she died while undergoing treatment. Her body was later sent for post-mortem examination. Meanwhile, Punia claimed he was innocent and had not committed any crime. The Police, who are investigating the case said that "relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) would be added in the case against the accused youngster after the reception of the autopsy report." The probe into the incident has been handed over to a senior official of Meerut police. The agitated and shocked villagers demanded the strictest punishment for the perpetrator. OneIndia News (with agency inputs) For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Tuesday, October 31, 2017, 2:28 [IST] When Abu Dujana told Zakir Musa, do not let us down brother India oi-Vicky By Vicky Do not trust them, slain Lashkar-e-Tayiba commander Abu Dujana had told Zakir Musa a month before his death. A conversation between the two recorded two months back suggests that Pakistan is trying to kill the terrorists it nurtured. Pakistan believes that Musa is the one who has been giving out the locations of several high profile terrorists to the Indian Armed Forces. Brother, I spoke to the people across yesterday and they wanted me to release an audio . They wanted me to say that you are creating a fitna (discord) in Kashmir and I'm not associated with Zakir Musa. And please hold your breath while I tell you something else. They said that you had given pinpoint location of Abbas bhai who was martyred. I don't understand what's going on..." In reply, Zakir says: "Friend, didn't I tell you....yesterday I was talking with Rehaan and Abdullah they were telling me your 'paar walay' (people across the border) are seeking your pinpoint location. It has happened many times. Rehaan told me that after giving the pinpoint location raids would take place. He told me Tanveer's story as well. That's why I was telling you yesterday to take care of yourself. Please remember us in your prayers." Dujana says that he was asked to denounce Musa in a video as well. "They asked me to issue a video saying Zakir was wrong. I said I can't say Zakir is wrong . I told them I am no more associated with Lashkar or Hizb . They asked if I was joking? I said I was not. You stay well and do not worry. I am with you, Allah is with you . Everybody knows who is right and who is wrong ," he says. The security agencies have gunned down several top terrorists in the Valley with pin-point precision. Musa who had lashed out against the Hizbul Mujahideen and formed the Kashmir version of the al-Qaeda is viewed with suspicion by the Pakistanis. They believe that he is an Indian mole. In the conversation, Dujana is heard telling Musa that he is being forced by Pakistan to release a video. In the video they want me to say that you (Musa) are creating a fitna (discord) in Kashmir. They told me that you were the one who gave out information about Abbas ( a terrorist killed in Kakapora), Dujana is further heard telling Musa. Further he says, " they want me to give them your location. I have not disclosed it. I fear the worst and hence I have not given your location, Dujana further tells Musa. Intelligence Bureau officials say that the youth of Kashmir blindly trust what Pakistan says. Once the utility is over, they will always end up killing them, the IB officer also says. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, October 30, 2017, 6:25 [IST] Hindus in Britain are very well behaved, smart and rich 100 years on: Britain's foreign secretary defends Balfour Declaration International pti-PTI London, October 30: Britain's foreign secretary Boris Johnson has defended his predecessor's role a century ago in paving the way for the creation of Israel as this Thursday marks the centenary of the Balfour Declaration. A 67-word letter from Britain's then foreign secretary Arthur Balfour that threw London's backing behind a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine. Boris Johnson said two sovereign states for Israelis and Palestinians remains the "only viable solution" for peace. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will travel to London to mark the anniversary. The statement remains controversial, setting off a chain of events that eventually led to Israel's formation, the displacement of millions of Palestinians and decades of strife between the two communities that continues to this day. "I am proud of Britain's part in creating Israel," current Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson wrote in the Telegraph newspaper on Sunday, adding the document was "indispensable to the creation of a great nation". But he warned that one of the key caveats of the Balfour Declaration -- that the rights of non-Jewish communities shall be protected -- "has not been fully realised". In the article, Johnson said he was writing his thoughts down in the same room Balfour used a century ago. He praised the 1917 letter for its "incontestable moral goal: to provide a persecuted people with a safe and secure homeland." London, he added, remained committed to a two-state solution. "I have no doubt that the only viable solution to the conflict resembles the one first set down on paper by another Briton, Lord Peel, in the report of the Royal Commission on Palestine in 1937, and that is the vision of two states for two peoples," he wrote. The borders, he added, should be as they were before the Six Day war in 1967, with Jerusalem "a shared capital" and "equal land swaps to reflect the national, security, and religious interests of the Jewish and Palestinian peoples." He wrote,"A century on, Britain will give whatever support we can in order to close the ring and complete the unfinished business of the Balfour Declaration." PTI Beware Kim, Minuteman can wipe North Korea off the map International oi-Vikas SV By Vikas Recommended Video North Korea should be worried about America's Minuteman-III missile | Oneindia News North Korean leader Kim Jong-un loves to indulge in blatant chest-thumping and issue frequent threats to the United States. Call it his political naivety, Kim does not realise that he is literally entering into a lion's den by provoking the US and especially the country's President Donald Trump, infamous for his freaky decisions, putting everyone at peril. God forbid if Trump decides to hit back at Kim, then he might one day bomb the entire Asian country, wiping it out from the world's map. There is no doubt that North Korea has made rapid progress in its missile and nuclear programmes. The country might even possess a few missiles that could have the capacity to hit the eastern US. However, North Korea can never match up to the military might of the US. One must note that the US's Minuteman missiles can hit the whole of North Korea. With all that Kim has, he may, at best, get one shot at the US, or maybe a couple of strikes at Alaska or Guam. North Korea does not have resources to fight a sustained war. When the US hits back, North Korea may not even be able to last even for a week. Sustained war requires a continuous supply of spare parts and ammunition, massive quantities of oil and a huge stockpile of the missiles. They have conducted nuclear tests and ICBM tests, but test firing a missile and it being in service are two entirely different things. Beyond its high profile nuclear and missile programmes, the country's armed forces are believed to be undermined by decrepit equipment and vehicles. North Korea is believed to have more than 1,000 missiles of varying ranges. Short range missiles such as Hwasong-5 and Hwasong-6 (both variants of Scud missiles) can easily hit targets in South Korea, while medium-range Nodong missiles can hit all of Japan. Longer range Musudan missile has an estimated range of anywhere from 1,550 to 2,500 miles. At the top end, it could reach US military bases on Guam. North Korea was believed to be developing a longer range intercontinental ballistic missile called the KN-08. The Pentagon said last year it believed the missile "would likely be capable of reaching much of the continental United States". While it is estimated the regime already has 15 to 30 nuclear warheads, it would face serious difficulties if a conventional war broke out. US's Minuteman III can wreak havoc in North Korea: North Korea's Hwasong missiles are no match to America's LGM-30 Minuteman missiles. The US has close to 450 Minuteman III missiles deployed at four bases in the north-central United States. These bases are Minot AFB and Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota, Malmstrom AFB, Montana, and F. E. Warren AFB, Wyoming. The LGM-30G Minuteman-III program started in 1966 and included several improvements over the previous versions. Minuteman 3 uses solid propellants and hence can be launched in a matter of minutes. Previous long-range missiles used liquid fuels that could only be loaded just prior to firing. The loading process took from 30 to 60 minutes in typical designs. Minuteman was designed from the outset to be launched in minutes. The LGM-30 Minuteman missiles are kept in hardened silos to protect against attack and connected to an underground launch control center. In an operational attack, the LGM-30 would be armed with a Multiple Independent Reentry Vehicle or "MIRV". The MIRV payload on a Minuteman III includes three separate 300-500 kiloton nuclear warheads with independent targets. The U.S. Air Force in August this year conducted an operational test of its LGM-30 Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Although the exact range of Minuteman is classified, it is estimated that it can hit targets even 13,000 kms away. Moreover, US also missiles deployed in the seas. Time to strike targets in North Korea from missile bases in the U.S. Midwest and West coast may be less than 40 minutes from launch to impact, but submarine-launched ballistic missiles deployed closer to the Korean peninsula would likely have weapons on target in much less time. Conclusion: Before messing with the US, Kim ought to consider what may happen afterward. The US may not show any restraint if its territory is attacked. And once the US comes down at North Korea with full force, the country may not be able to survive. After all the US is the only country in the world to ever employ nuclear bombs in a war. Kim must not forget what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 when the US dropped nuclear bombs on these Japanese cities. OneIndia News In a case of bad karma Taliban outs Pakistan on what India had always said on Azhar China all set to block Masood Azhar ban again International oi-Vicky By Vicky China is all set to once again block a move to get Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar declared a global terrorist. The proposal by India which has the backing of the US, UK and France has been put on technical hold by China which as a permanent member of the UNSC wields a veto power. The technical hold was extended by Beijing for another 3 months in August and is set to expire this week on Thursday. The agencies watching the development say that China is moving to introduce a full fledged block to wade of the proposal. India has repeatedly told China not to block the proposal. India cites the various attacks that Azhar has sanctioned on Indian soil. India says that his name had cropped up in the recent investigations that were conducted in the Pathankot attack. China however continues to insist that there is not enough evidence to declare Azhar a global terrorist. OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, October 30, 2017, 6:44 [IST] With the number of anonymous rogues from Pak rising, here's how BSF is beating down the drones Pakistani anti-graft court issues bailable arrest warrant against Finance Minister International pti-PTI Islamabad, October 30: A bailable arrest warrant has been issued against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar after he failed to appear before a Pakistani anti-graft court in a corruption case spiralling from the Panama Papers scandal. The Accountability Court dismissed Dar's application seeking exemption from personal appearance in the case hearing. Dar's counsel Khawaja Haris appeared in the court of judge Muhammad Bashir and sought Dar's exemption from appearance as he was in London to seek medical treatment. But the court rejected the plea and issued a bailable arrest warrant and ordered him to appear in the next hearing on November 2. The case was filed against Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) following a verdict by the Supreme Court, which disqualified Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif after an investigation into corruption allegations against his family. Dar has so far appeared before the court seven times since the trial began. Earlier, he missed the first hearing on September 20. It is the second hearing that he missed. Proceedings in the trial could not advance today due to Dar's absence, even though prosecution witness Abdul Rehman Gondal, branch manager of a private bank's parliament branch, had appeared in the court with two gunny bags full of documents related to the minister's bank accounts. Haris stated in the application that Dar, after attending the 16th Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Ministerial Conference in Dushanbe, had travelled to Jeddah. He said the minister fell ill in Jeddah and subsequently had to go to London for medical treatment. The court had indicted Dar last month in the case for owning assets "beyond his known sources of income". At the last hearing on October 23, the court recorded statements of NAB's witnesses, including Abdul Rehman Gondal of Allied Bank and Masoodul Ghani of Habib Bank Limited. Earlier, three witnesses 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. On July 28, a five-member Supreme Court bench had ordered NAB to file three references against Sharif and one against Dar, on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insafs Imran Khan, Jamaat-i-Islamis Sirajul Haq and Awami Muslim Leagues Sheikh Rashid Ahmed. The case alleged that the assets were disproportionate to his known sources of income for which he could not reasonably account for. In its reference against the finance minister, National Accountability Bureau has alleged that "the accused has acquired assets and pecuniary interests/resources in his own name and/or in the name of his dependents of an approximate amount of Rs 831.678 million (approx)". PTI India's stand on Rohingyas gracious so far but housing them would be risky The Rohingya influx continues as Tripura police nets seven of them Rohingya crisis: China declares support for Bangladesh International oi-Oneindia By Oneindia Dhaka, Oct 30: The Rohingya refugee crisis has definitely pitted Bangladesh against Myanmar, although both the countries are talking to resolve the issue. While India has not specifically declared its support for any of these two nations in regard to the Rohingya refugee crisis, China stated that it stands with Bangladesh. At an event in Dhaka on Sunday, Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh Ma Mingqiang said that Bangladesh and Myanmar will sit together and resolve the Rohingya problem. "We also expressed our commitment that we stand with Bangladesh (regarding the Rohingya problem). We do hope that this issue will be settled peacefully as soon as possible," he said. Earlier, the Chinese envoy stated that China has been maintaining close contact with Bangladesh on the influx of Rohingyas into the country. "China has been maintaining close contact with Bangladesh on the matter and we hope that the situation will calm down as soon as possible," the Chinese ambassador had said previously. He added that Bangladesh was suffering due to the influx of Rohingyas. "China is also in trouble because there are Chinese investments in Myanmar." Since violence broke out in Rakhine State of Myanmar on August 25, an estimated 604,000 Rohingyas have fled to Bangladesh and have taken shelter in refugee camps. However, Bangladesh wants repatriation of Rohingya refugees to their "homeland" Myanmar at the earliest. Myanmar in reply to the request of Bangladesh stated that it is ready to take back those Rohingyas who have valid official papers with them. Officially, Myanmar is yet to recognise Rohingyas as its citizens and maintains that the members of the minority Muslim community are refugees in the country. Recently, during her two-day long visit to Bangladesh, India's external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said that normalcy would return to Myanmar's restive Rakhine state only if the "displaced people (Rohingya refugees)", return. In fact, Bangladesh has sought India's help in de-escalating the Rohingya crisis. "India is deeply concerned at the spate of violence in Rakhine State of Myanmar. We have urged that the situation be handled with restraint, keeping in mind the welfare of the population," the joint statement issued by India and Bangladesh during Swaraj's visit stated. India and Bangladesh said the "only long-term solution to the situation in Rakhine State is rapid socio-economic and infrastructure development that would have a positive impact on all the communities living in the State." OneIndia News For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications Story first published: Monday, October 30, 2017, 6:58 [IST] Saudi Arabian airlines to resume flights to Iraq in 27 years International pti-PTI Riyadh, Oct 29: Saudi Arabian Airlines will resume its first flight to Iraq in 27 years, amid a thaw in ties between the Arab neighbours. The airline, also known as Saudia, will depart from the Red Sea city of Jeddah barely two weeks after Saudi budget carrier flynas made the first commercial flight from Riyadh to Baghdad since 1990. "Saudi Arabian Airlines will inaugurate regular flights between the kingdom and Iraq after an interruption of 27 years," the official Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday. "The resumption of flights is in line with growing ties between the two brotherly countries." Flights between Iraq and Saudi Arabia were suspended in August 1990 after former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein ordered his troops into neighbouring Kuwait. After years of tense relations, ties between Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia and Shiite-majority Iraq have begun looking up in recent months. Earlier this month Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Saudi King Salman held the first meeting of the joint Saudi-Iraqi coordination council, which is aimed at upgrading strategic ties. Iraq is seeking economic benefits from closer ties with Riyadh as both countries suffer from a protracted oil slump. Saudi Arabia is also seeking to counter Iranian influence in Iraq. Private carrier flynas, in which Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal holds a 34-per cent stake, also plans to expand its routes from Saudi airports to major cities across Iraq. PTI As 'RRR' performs well at Japan box office, SS Rajamouli confirms sequel to NTR-Charan-starrer Two sailors who were rescued after 5 months in sea reach US base in Okinawa International pti-PTI Okinawa (Japan) Oct 30: A US Navy ship carrying two sailors from Hawaii after it rescued them in the Pacific has docked at an American Navy base in Okinawa, Japan. The USS Ashland arrived on Monday at White Beach Naval Facility, five days after it picked up the women and their two dogs from their storm-damaged sailboat, 900 miles southeast of Japan. Jennifer Appel and Tasha Fuiava had left Honolulu on May 3 for what was supposed to be an 18-day trip to Tahiti. Upon the ship's arrival, the women could be seen standing on the bridgeway with the commanding officer and others about six stories high at the top of the ship. The Navy amphibious landing ship Ashland rescued the women after a Taiwanese fishing vessel spotted their crippled vessel Tuesday and alerted the U.S. Coast Guard. Jennifer Appel, Tasha Fuiava and their two dogs were found Wednesday, drifting about 900 miles southeast of Japan PTI Fate of UK FOBTs to Be Decided Based on Government Report Published October 30, 2017 by Ivan P The UK Government probe into FOBTs will play a crucial role in determining future of these betting terminals in the country. The debate on the maximum allowed stake on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) has been going on for some time in the UK. However, the final resolution seems near as the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport will be releasing findings of their probe into the matter later this week. The probe was intended to carefully examine FOBTs and suggest any changes the Department saw fit. The main issue is that of the maximum bet, which, at the moment, stands at 100, allowing players to wager up to 100 every 20 seconds. Fighting Gambling Addiction As of right now, there are more than 9,000 shops scattered across the UK offering players access to Fixed Odds Betting Terminals. Many believe that high stakes offered by the machine, combined with the fast-paced action, are the main culprit for the sharp increase in gambling addiction cases documented over the past few years. As a response to this, a number of UK politicians came up with the suggestion to reduce the maximum wager, limiting players' exposure and reducing the addictive effect. The aforementioned probe was a part of this effort, trying to determine the best approach to the problem. Likely Results Right now, FOBTs represent a big income generator. Last year alone, these machines brought in the gross yield of 1.8 billion. A reduction in the maximum stake would certainly have an adverse effect on these numbers. The UK media believe that three new maximum levels will be suggested - 50, 20, and 2. The number of those supporting the reduction to 2 is fairly significant, but as things stand right now, this doesn't seem to be a realistic scenario. The impact of such a reduction would likely be to severe, influencing not only the state income but also the profitability of bookmakers, potentially leading to many of them having to close shops and fire hundreds, if not thousands of employees. The reduction to 20 seems like the most likely, middle-ground solution to the problem. In addition to reducing the maximum stake, there have also been suggestions to reduce FOBTs speeds with the same goal of limiting the players' maximum exposure. Once the results of the probe are announced, MPs will be given several suggestions and the deadline of 12 weeks to come up with the decision they see as the most reasonable given all the factors. A forum titled "Middle East Security Forum" has been organized by Israel Policy Forum (IPF) on Saturday, October 22, in which Iran's nuclear program, Israel's relations with the Arab world, the Syrian civil war and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were discussed as the main topics. The former director general of Saudi Intelligence Agency Prince Turki al-Faisal was invited to the meeting as a special guest. He reportedly met with former director of Mossad Efraim Halevy and former undersecretary of Defense for Policy of US Defense Department and a member of US Democratic Party Michele Flournoy on the sideline of the conference to discuss the ways of improving Saudi-Israeli relations. Prince Turki al-Faisal said during his speech in the forum that there remains 'only one step away' from opening an Israeli embassy in Riyadh and that 'we hope this would happen in the coming months'. He added that the security of Middle East will hinge upon a close cooperation among Washington, Riyadh and Tel Aviv. He went on to say that the misunderstanding between the Arabs and the Israelis are easy to be cleared up through negotiations and there is no need for animosity, adding that the role of the United States in this regard is critical and the country should fulfill its obligations to ensure the security of Middle East countries. Meanwhile, the news of Israel setting up an embassy in Saudi Arabia has hit the social media in Israel and the US, including in Twitter where some users have been using the hashtag "#IsraelToOpenEmbassyInRiyad" to react to it. This article was originally published in the Egypt Live News and can be accessed here. See original here By Mark Sumner Both the Paul Manafort/Rick Gates indictments and the George Papadopoulos statement of charges show that special counsel Robert Mueller is moving forward slowly, deliberately, and with great detail. In the case of Papadopoulos, almost every relevant conversation is documented -- with the notable exception of the fact that we're explicitly told that the facts "do not include all the known facts." What's included is just the information that was used to indict Papadopoulos for lying to the FBI. It's not at all everything he knows about connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. But what's there is already interesting. (includes some events not in the statement, in italics) 6 March -- George Papadopoulos learns that he will be made an official foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. He also learns, from someone who is a "supervisor" in the campaign, that a focus of the Trump campaign is on an "improved relationship with Russia." 19 March -- Clinton adviser John Podesta's GMail account hacked. 24 March -- Papadopoulos meets with a Russia-connected professor and a Russian female that he believes to be an agent of the Kremlin. Following this meeting, Papadopoulos emails both the "campaign supervisor" and "other members" of the campaign and tells them about his meeting, describing it as an effort to arrange a meeting "between us and Russian officials." The campaign supervisor responds that he will work on it, and tells Papadopoulos "Great work." 31 March -- Papadopoulos attends a "national security meeting" with Donald Trump and informs Trump that he has contacts to arrange a meeting between Trump and Russian leadership. 26 April -- Papadopoulos meets with professor who tells him the Russians have "thousands of emails" containing "dirt" on Hillary Clinton that would be useful to the Trump campaign. 3 June -- Rob Goldstone emails Donald Trump Jr to inform him that the Russians have "dirt" on Hillary Clinton as part of a program to help Donald Trump. 9 June -- Russian officials and Trump's senior campaign staff meet in Trump Tower. 1 July -- Papadopoulos emails a "High Ranking Official" in the campaign, and asks what to do about a potential trip to Russia. He's referred back to the "Campaign Supervisor." Campaign officials pass around a note saying they should send someone "low level" in the campaign so as "not to send any signal." 27 July -- Donald Trump issues a plea to Russians to steal Hillary Clinton's email. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). I wanna tell you how it's gonna be. But I really cannot. Prediction is just vastly more difficult than action, which makes it even odder that so much of the former goes on, and so little of the latter. I just read In The Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power by Alfred McCoy. It's one of the better books I've read in a long time on the history and current state of U.S. militarism. It's excellent on the truly ridiculous (my word, not the book's) chess analogy that has driven imperialist thinking, on the outcomes of backing dictators as puppets, and on the abuses of secret agencies -- including their role in the drug trade in places like Nicaragua and Afghanistan. McCoy gives us a good history of the surveillance state and its roots in the U.S. war on the Philippines, plus a fairly familiar account of U.S. torture over the decades, as well as a survey of new death technologies including space drones. But I'm not convinced that a theme of declining empire ties all this material together. It seems to me that torture and drug dealing and proxy wars and weapons development can go on for centuries or end swiftly -- unless the environmental damage they do and nuclear apocalyptical risk they entail limit their lifespan. McCoy sees genius and success in the militarism behind Iran-Contra in contrast to miserable failure in the U.S. handling of opium production in Afghanistan. Perhaps. But U.S. actions in Latin America produced a World Court ruling, prison sentences, and the strongest opposition to U.S. empire on earth, whereas the U.S. war on Afghanistan has produced indefinite tolerance of endless killing and dying, no matter what additional crimes accompany it. In the Shadows ends with analysis of China as a rival to the U.S., plus some truly laughable glorification of Barack Obama as a grand master anti-war imperialist (though stating that this comes at the expense of democracy in the U.S.). McCoy frames all of this as an international contest with the goal being to win, and he predicts horrible times ahead as empire ends, openly stating that his predictions are all based on the assumption that the U.S. public "cannot or will not take steps to slow the erosion of their global position." But what if they/we were to take steps to change our government's approach to the world, including its focus on a "global position"? Britain did well for itself by curtailing its imperialism, not by slowing imperialism's demise. I recommend following/chasing a book like In the Shadows with one like Authentic Hope by Jack Nelson-Palmeyer in which people are seen as having potential agency as democratic participants in shaping the future. Authentic Hope is a book that has a chapter called "Good Riddance to Empire." Indeed. And good riddance to imperial thinking. And to hell with the idea that China having a "larger" economy than the United States is bad news; China has more people than the United States too! It should have a larger economy for godsake. Nelson-Palmeyer's book focuses on things that should be done: create sustainable practices, control population size, improve local agriculture, reduce inequality, reduce militarism. We should consider, Nelson-Palmeyer suggests, the incredible -- almost unfathomable -- good that could be done for the people of the United States and the rest of the earth by redirecting the funding that now goes into militarism. I'd like to see more proposals that people in the United States come to identify their interests with those of all other people, and fewer ideas on how to maintain a level of superiority -- which I predict can only lead to an inferior outcome for everybody. Well love is love and not fade away. Nikki Haley and Congolese Rape Victim (Image by @NikkiHaley Twitter Feed) Details DMCA Haley was in DRC last week to meet with Kabila. According to reports from the Agence France-Presse (AFP), and other sources, Haley told Kabila to hold elections in 2018 if he wants to count on American backing. Kabila has a target date of 2019, which will not hold, given past promises and obfuscations. His term expired December 16, 2016. "For every day which goes by without holding elections, a woman is raped, a child has an unwanted pregnancy, children are inducted by armed groups," Haley said. We can only hope that the recent bloody news from Goma, combined with Haley's emotional visit to the Mungote Camp in Kitchanga, translates into a river of compassion. News reports in the US mainstream focused on Haley's difficult visit with rape survivors and her first-hand look at the atrocious conditions in an IDP camp of 15,000 located 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Goma. Haley also traveled to to Ethiopia and South Sudan, where she met with President Salva Kiir. Congo was the final stop on Ambassador Haley's visit. As someone who has visited similar camps, I can tell you that there is no way one can leave and forget. What has been seen cannot be unseen, even with the passage of years. The photos I took from 2009-2012 look much like the photos that were released by Haley's team. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Quicklink Not Found Sometimes, authors delete their quicklinks after publishing them. To see if the quicklink was renamed or re-published, please click here. From Truthdig (Image by Mr Fish/Truthdig) Details DMCA Editor's note: Chris Hedges has the day off. Here's a repost of his Jan. 30 column, originally published 10 days after Donald Trump became president. Reality is under assault. Verbal confusion reigns. Truth and illusion have merged. Mental chaos makes it hard to fathom what is happening. We feel trapped in a hall of mirrors. Exposed lies are answered with other lies. The rational is countered with the irrational. Cognitive dissonance prevails. We endure a disquieting shame and even guilt. Tens of millions of Americans, especially women, undocumented workers, Muslims and African-Americans, suffer the acute anxiety of being pursued by a predator. All this is by design. Demagogues always infect the governed with their own psychosis. "The comparison between totalitarianism and psychosis is not incidental," the psychiatrist Joost A.M. Meerloo wrote in his book "The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing." "Delusional thinking inevitably creeps into every form of tyranny and despotism. Unconscious backward forces come into action. Evil powers from the archaic past return. An automatic compulsion to go on to self-destruction develops, to justify one mistake with a new one; to enlarge and expand the vicious pathological circle becomes the dominating end of life. The frightened man, burdened by a culture he does not understand, retreats into the brute's fantasy of limitless power in order to cover up the vacuum inside himself. This fantasy starts with the leaders and is later taken over by the masses they oppress." The lies fly out of the White House like flocks of pigeons: Donald Trump's election victory was a landslide. He had the largest inauguration crowds in American history. Three million to 5 million undocumented immigrants voted illegally. Climate change is a hoax. Vaccines cause autism. Immigrants are carriers of "[t]remendous infectious disease." The election was rigged -- until it wasn't. We don't know "who really knocked down" the World Trade Center. Torture works. Mexico will pay for the wall. Conspiracy theories are fact. Scientific facts are conspiracies. America will be great again. Our new president, a 70-year-old with orange-tinted skin and hair that Penn Jillette has likened to "cotton candy made of piss," is, as Trump often reminds us, "very good looking." He has almost no intellectual accomplishments -- he knows little of history, politics, law, philosophy, art or governance -- but insists "[m]y IQ is one of the highest -- and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure, it's not your fault." And the mediocrities and half-wits he has installed in his Cabinet have "by far the highest IQ of any Cabinet ever assembled." It is an avalanche of absurdities. This mendacity would be easier to repulse if the problem was solely embodied in Trump. But even in the face of a rising despotism, the Democratic Party refuses to denounce the corporate forces that eviscerated our democracy and impoverished the country. The neoliberal Trump demonizes Muslims, undocumented workers and the media. The neoliberal Democratic Party demonizes Vladimir Putin and FBI Director James Comey. No one speaks about the destructive force of corporate power. The warring elites pit alternative facts against alternative facts. All engage in demagoguery. We will, I expect, be condemned to despotism by the venality of Trump and the cowardice and dishonesty of the liberal class. Trump and those around him have a deep hatred for what they cannot understand. They silence anyone who thinks independently. They elevate pseudo-intellectuals who adhere to their bizarre script. They cannot cope with complexity, nuance or the unpredictable. Individual initiative is a mortal threat. The order for some employees of several federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's research service, the National Park Service and the Department of Health and Human Services, to restrict or cease communication with the press or members of Congress, along with the attempt to impose 10-year felony convictions on six reporters who covered the inauguration protests, signals the beginning of a campaign to marginalize reality and promote fantasy. Facts depend solely on those who have the power to create them. The goal of the Trump administration is to create an artificial consistency that conforms to its warped perception of the world. "Before they seize power and establish a world according to their doctrines, totalitarian movements conjure up a lying world of consistency which is more adequate to the needs of the human mind than reality itself; in which, through sheer imagination, uprooted masses can feel at home and are spared the never-ending shocks which real life and real experiences deal to human beings and their expectations," Hannah Arendt wrote in "The Origins of Totalitarianism." "The force possessed by totalitarian propaganda -- before the movements have the power to drop iron curtains to prevent anyone's disturbing, by the slightest reality, the gruesome quiet of an entirely imaginary world -- lies in its ability to shut the masses off from the real world." Trump's blinding narcissism was captured in his bizarre talk to the CIA on Jan. 21. "[T]hey say, is Donald Trump an intellectual?" he said. "Trust me, I'm, like, a smart persona." "I have a running war with the media," he added. "They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth. And they sort of made it sound like I had a feud with the intelligence community. And I just want to let you know, the reason you're the number one stop [in the new presidency] is exactly the opposite -- exactly. And they understand that, too." He launched into an attack on the media for not reporting that "a million, million and a half people" showed up for his inauguration. "They showed a field where there was practically nobody standing there," he said about the media's depiction of the inauguration crowd. "And they said, Donald Trump did not draw well. I said, it was almost raining, the rain should have scared them away, but God looked down and he said, we're not going to let it rain on your speech." He has been on the cover of Time "like, 14 or 15 times," Trump said in speaking of his criticism of the magazine because one of its reporters incorrectly wrote that the president had removed a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. from the Oval Office. "I think we have the all-time record in the history of Time magazine. Like, if Tom Brady is on the cover, it's one time, because he won the Super Bowl or something, right? I've been on it for 15 times this year. I don't think that's a record, Mike, that can ever be broken. Do you agree with that? What do you think?" [Editor's note: Photographs or drawings of Trump were on the cover of Time 10 times in the last year and a half and once in 1989.] Trump's theatricality works. He forces the press and the public to repeat his lies, inadvertently giving them credibility. He is always moving. He is always on display. He has no fixed belief system. Trump, as he consolidates power, will adopt the ideology of the Christian right to fill his own ideological vacuum. The Christian right's magical thinking will merge seamlessly with Trump's magical thinking. Idiocy, self-delusion, megalomania, fantasy and government repression will come wrapped in images of the Christian cross and the American flag. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). From The Hill With stories being promoted about the Steele dossier and Russian uranium interests, Americans should remember the most important fact of the matter regarding Russian attempts to subvert our democracy, and that's this: Russian dictator Vladimir Putin hated Hillary Clinton and worked aggressively to destroy her presidential candidacy, and supported Donald Trump and ordered successors to the KGB to go all out in a covert campaign to elect Trump as president. Putin hated Clinton. Putin supported Trump. Clinton battled every Russian attempt to subvert democracy in the United States and Europe. Trump, the greatest political beneficiary of the Russian aggression against democracy, denies the aggression is happening and calls investigations of the crime nothing more than fake news and hoaxes. During the Obama presidency, the Russian dictator made a dramatic decision to order his intelligence services to penetrate the highest councils of the American government to wield his power, and to turn his intelligence services into a virtual super PAC spreading lies against Clinton and working all channels to achieve the election of Trump. Instead of being the subject of a political investigation into the matter of Russian uranium, a subject that Clinton had little involvement in that has been discussed at length for many months, the great truth about Clinton is this: Hillary Clinton deserves a profile in courage award and a presidential medal of freedom for forcefully resisting Russian attempts to penetrate the high councils of the American government and bring Russian power to bear against American democracy. Yahoo News@YahooNews Watch live: Hillary Clinton says "I've stood up to Russia. I've taken on Putin and others" http:// yhoo.it/2dORNhF# debate 9:09 PM - Oct 9, 2016 When Russia tried to exert its power while Clinton was secretary of State, she defended America against Russia so fiercely that Putin moved aggressively against her. She should wear this as a badge of honor. History will speak kindly of her courage in standing up for American interests. When Russia moved to exert power after Trump was elected president, the result brought revelations of countless meetings between people close to Trump and players working for Putin, repeated failures to disclose these meetings even in forms for security clearance, and matters now under criminal and counterintelligence investigations by the FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller. Trump will not wear this as a badge of honor. History will not speak kindly of his role in this seamy affair. Putin hated Clinton because he could not buy her support or bully her into acquiescence in his plots to penetrate the American government and subvert American democracy. Putin hated Clinton because he knew she was onto him and feared her resistance against his plans and plots. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). (Image by Roy Eidelson) Details DMCA Given this combination of disturbing history and encouraging developments, I was disheartened to read a follow-up letter in the Washington Post from APA's new CEO Arthur Evans Jr., responding to my essay. While commending the valuable work of psychologists in many spheres (I certainly agree), Evans held APA blameless, portraying the profession's dark-side participation as solely that of "two rogue psychologists" -- CIA contractors James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen. This narrative is profoundly and transparently false. The dreadful engagement of psychology and psychologists went much further, as revealed in numerous government and non-governmental reports, witness depositions, declassified memos, and other materials -- including a comprehensive independent review that documented APA's own institutional machinations. Indeed, this week there's a fresh entry to these cautionary annals: the new book Unjustifiable Means: The Inside Story of How the CIA, Pentagon, and US Government Conspired to Torture by Mark Fallon, a former Naval Criminal Investigative Service special agent and counterintelligence officer. Fallon provides an insider's account of detainee mistreatment at Guantanamo Bay. The culprits he identifies include Morgan Banks and Larry James, two military psychologists who were directly involved in helping APA leaders craft and defend flawed, overly-permissive ethics policies. Fallon reports that Banks arranged training in "harsh and illegal intel exploitation techniques;" trained Guantanamo personnel in "breaking down detainees;" and provided "medical cover" for the harsh interrogations there. He writes that James "viewed Gitmo as a career opportunity to psychologically exploit detained prisoners" and was "personally involved" in the spread of torture at Guantanamo. I hope that Mr. Evans, upon further reflection, chooses to correct the record. For those of us who struggled for years to expose psychologists' complicity and counter APA's denials, his letter recalls an earlier era when self-righteous claims of innocence were a standard part of APA's manipulative and disingenuous public relations campaign. The profession, APA, and the country can't afford a return to those days. Only a clear-eyed view of past transgressions can light the way for a vigorous and unflinching defense of psychology's do-no-harm principles. See original here Last week, one of the most senior officials in the Trump administration, Energy Sec. Rick Perry travelled to South Africa to represent the U.S. at the Africa Oil Week. During his time at the Oil Week conference in the coastal city of Cape Town, Perry delivered the keynote address on global energy policy, telling his audience that the Trump Administration was keen on "strengthening our African energy partnerships." It soon became very clear what he actually meant. He quickly criticized the Obama Administration for "discriminating" against the nuclear and coal industries. Not surprisingly, given the agenda of the Trump Administration and given that Perry was governor of oil rich Texas, Perry said they were keen for those partnerships to include fossil fuels. Perry said he was a "big fan of fossil fuels" and it was time to break the global "culture of shame" around their use. He was also keen on the formation of "a global clean coal alliance" including traditional coal powers such as the U.S., India, Australia and South Africa. Commentators see Perry's speech as a clear indication that the Trump Administration is taking its pro-fossil fuel agenda to Africa. One press outlet reported Perry as saying, "If you admit you support fossil fuels, it's like saying you've made some huge social error. But it's in fossil fuels that you will see real growth." He continued: "That's my message to Africa. America is truly your friend and your partner. And we're here to help Africa use fossil fuels and use them cleanly with the world's newest and best technology." "My showing up here is about U.S. support for Africa," he said. "We will invest in African energy projects, but it's also time to let technology be your friend. We will help this continent make more power, and we will do it cleanly." But strip away the greenwashing and there is nothing clean about what Perry is advocating. There is no such thing as clean coal: it is a misnomer. Parry's strategy is basically: drill Africa drill; frack, Africa, frack and mine for coal, Africa, mine for coal. As one blogger for Platts noted, Perry "urged African producers to emulate the U.S. in its shale oil and gas revolution." Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). (Image by Egberto Willies) Details DMCA Democrats continue to play prevent-defense instead of aggressively telling Americans why they believe they are better stewards of the country. Worse, their push back on Republican catastrophically evil legislation is at best timid. They act as if 2018 is a shoo-in. Roland Martin says it best as he busts their bubble. "Here's the thing with what Graham said that people have to understand," Roland Martin said. "And Democrats are running around saying oh my god with the possibility here. The fact the matter is the Republican Party is not imploding when you control 31 governor's mansions. When you control legislators, House, Senate, and the White House, more importantly, the Judiciary, you're not imploding. Yeah, you have these internal fights. But this is about power. This is not about principles or character or morals and values. They want to maintain power. Trump is the vessel that allows them to do so. And so they'll fall in line. Jeff Flake, that wasn't courageous what he did. Courageous is to still run. Courageous to say I'm gonna campaign around Arizona and speak the truth and if I lose that's fine. I'm not giving anybody props for giving a speech and cutting and running. No, you stand up, and you stay in the office. You challenge them. That's how you do it. But people have to stop thinking the Republican Party is dead. They're not. And we you see what's happening in North Carolina, where it is sadistic what they're doing, where it is undemocratic. With Wisconsin, those states. We ignore what's happening in these states. Texas, five times they lost in the federal courts over voter ID. It cost three million dollars. It is real, what they're doing." Roland Martin gave Democrats a necessary warning that one hopes they heed as they continue their journey of snatching defeat from what should be a victory. Democrats need to fight like Republicans. (Image by Egberto Willies) Details DMCA Republicans are in overdrive as they attempt to pass tax cuts they are marketing as tax cuts for the middle-class when it is a theft of middle-class money they will transfer to those with means and power. This political analyst has a warning Republicans will do well to listen to sooner than later. Political Analyst Matthew Dowd gives Republicans a caution on tax cuts, be careful what you wish for as passage of the bill may seal an electoral defeat. careful what you wish for," Dowd said. "This is just like much of the pressure that the Obama administration put on the Democrats in Congress in 2009, 'You've got to pass something. We need to have something to run on.' They pass Obamacare. And they lose almost every single office. This tax bill to me right now, all the polls show, it's very unpopular, the elements that we know. Eighty percent of the benefits of this tax bill go to the top one percent of the country. So it's not going to help the working class, those voters that are going to decide this election. But I think fundamentally, Lindsey Graham is wrong about one thing. One, the Republicans hold all the levers of power in this. I think he is wrong that the Republican Party whether or not they pass this tax bill is dead. The Republican Party as we know it, the party of Ronald Reagan, the party of George W. Bush, is gone. The party now is the Donald Trump Party. Eighty percent or eighty-five percent of the Republican voters regardless of what the Republicans say in Washington, that walk around the halls of the Capitol and say what they think the Republican Party is, that party is long gone. They have to terms that this is the Trump-Steve-Bannon Party, that is more welcoming to somebody like Roy Moore than it is to somebody like Jeff Flake." This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here. Memo to Senator John McCain: Senator, the other day I noticed that, as chairman of the Armed Services Committee, you threatened to subpoena the Trump administration for information about the recent attack in Niger that killed four American soldiers. "There's a mindset over there that they're a unicameral government," you said. "It was easier under Obama... We are coequal branches of government; we should be informed at all times. We're just not getting the information in the timely fashion that we need." How true! But let me make one small suggestion. If you really want to know what led to those deaths in Niger, the first place you might consider looking -- no subpoena needed -- is this very website, TomDispatch. Or, to be more specific, Nick Turse's coverage of the way U.S. Africa Command and American Special Operations forces have, with a certain stealth but also without significant coverage in the mainstream media, extended the war on terror deep into Africa. He alone has covered this story and the secret bases, widespread "training missions" (like the one in Niger), and barely noticed wars being fought there since at least 2012, when I was already writing this of his work: "So here's another question: Who decided in 2007 that a U.S. Africa Command should be set up to begin a process of turning that continent into a web of U.S. bases and other operations? Who decided that every Islamist rebel group in Africa, no matter how local or locally focused, was a threat to the U.S., calling for a military response? Certainly not the American people, who know nothing about this, who were never asked if expanding the U.S. global military mission to Africa was something they favored, who never heard the slightest debate, or even a single peep from Washington on the subject." By 2013, in a passage that sounds eerily up to date as we read of ISIS-allied militants on the lawless Niger-Mali border, he was already reporting that "while correlation doesn't equal causation, there is ample evidence to suggest the United States has facilitated a terror diaspora, imperiling nations and endangering peoples across Africa. In the wake of 9/11, Pentagon officials were hard-pressed to show evidence of a major African terror threat. Today, the continent is thick with militant groups that are increasingly crossing borders, sowing insecurity, and throwing the limits of U.S. power into broad relief. After 10 years of U.S. operations to promote stability by military means, the results have been the opposite. Africa has become blowback central." Four years later, when the Niger events occurred, nothing had changed, except that the U.S. military had moved, again with little attention (except from Turse), even deeper into the heart of Africa, setting up a remarkable array of bases and outposts of every sort (including two drone bases in Niger). So here's another tip for you, Senator McCain, when it comes to a completely different area of the world. Please understand. I'm just trying to save you the need for yet more subpoenas in, say, 2020. Instead, check out Turse's piece today on the way in which U.S. Special Operations forces have quietly moved not into Africa this time, but into Europe, in country after country in the former borderlands of the Soviet Union. It's a story that -- I give you my guarantee on this, Senator -- will make the news one of these days, just as the war on terror in Africa has done recently and, if you keep up with Turse, you'll be among the few in the know ahead of time. Tom From America With Love U.S. Commandos Are a "Persistent Presence" on Russia's Doorstep By Nick Turse "They are very concerned about their adversary next door," said General Raymond Thomas, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM), at a national security conference in Aspen, Colorado, in July. "They make no bones about it." The "they" in question were various Eastern European and Baltic nations. "Their adversary"? Vladimir Putin's Russia. Thomas, the commander of America's most elite troops -- Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets among them -- went on to raise fears about an upcoming Russian military training event, a wargame, known as "Zapad" or "West," involving 10 Russian Navy ships, 70 jets and helicopters, and 250 tanks. "The point of concern for most of these eastern Europeans right now is they're about to do an exercise in Belarus... that's going to entail up to 100,000 Russian troops moving into that country." And he added, "The great concern is they're not going to leave, and... that's not paranoia..." Over the last two decades, relations between the United States and Russia have increasingly soured, with Moscow casting blame on the United States for encouraging the Rose Revolution in Georgia in 2003 and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine a year later. Washington has, in turn, expressed its anger over the occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia following the Russo-Georgian War of 2008; the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine after pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovych was chased from power; and interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. There have been recriminations on both sides over the other nation's military adventurism in Syria, the sanctions Washington imposed on Moscow in reaction to Crimea, Ukraine, and human rights issues, and tit-for-tat diplomatic penalties that have repeatedly ramped up tensions. While Zapad, which took place last month, is an annual strategic exercise that rotates among four regions, American officials nonetheless viewed this year's event as provocative. "People are worried this is a Trojan horse," Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, who commands U.S. Army forces in Europe, told Reuters. "[The Russians] say, 'We're just doing an exercise,' and then all of a sudden they've moved all these people and capabilities somewhere." Russia is not, however, the only military power with "people and capabilities" in the region. In passing, SOCOM's Thomas also mentioned the presence of other forces; troops that he readily admitted the public might not be aware of. Those soldiers were -- just as he feared of the Russian troops involved in Zapad -- not going anywhere. And it wasn't just a matter of speculation. After all, they wear the same uniform he does. For the past two years, the U.S. has maintained a special operations contingent in almost every nation on Russia's western border. "[W]e've had persistent presence in every country -- every NATO country and others on the border with Russia doing phenomenal things with our allies, helping them prepare for their threats," said Thomas, mentioning the Baltics as well as Romania, Poland, Ukraine, and Georgia by name. Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). LIFE Magazine NOVEMBER 25, 1966 (6) - Kennedy Assassination (Image by manhhai) Details DMCA Life magazine photos of Kennedy assassination I personally remember the emotional shock of the assassination of President Kennedy now almost 54 years ago. I was 23 at the time. The somber grief of people was everywhere. Over the years one heard the various theories-"conspiracy theories" of course-that refuted the government's claim Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin. The recently released secret government papers on the assassination doesn't help. It just reiterates the same lone gunman theory. Too much evidence clearly points against the government's claim. The multiple shots heard fired by multiple witnesses, the bullet hole in the windshield of the president's vehicle, reveal more than one shooter. Two current articles, one by Finian Cunningham [1] the other by Tyler Durden [2], quite detailed in their accounts looking at the evidence, clearly reveal the government's case is not only false but actually the real conspiracy theory. To those who continue to blindly accept the government's account--not only of the Kennedy assassination, but 9/11, the global war on terror, the recent Las Vegas massacre, the "White Helmets" in Syria as humanitarians saving people's lives--and dismissing skeptics as conspiracy theorists and disseminating "fake news", it becomes apparent the reality of their government being sinister is too terrible to contemplate much less accept as reality. Because that reality undermines the very ground they stand on and turns the world they believed in upside down. How could that be? But there it is. Their "land of the free and the home of the brave" is pure hokum. That "Pledge of Allegiance" we innocents standing before the flag reciting it since elementary school was just early indoctrination to the propaganda we continue to get from "our" government and their complicit enablers in the corporate MSM. It's all lies. To say, "All governments lie" and that's the end of it simply dismisses the fact everything "our" government says and does is just a lie, disinformation and misrepresentation of reality. That from "sea to shining sea" was simply the natural progression westward to the Pacific; i.e., "Manifest Destiny", distorts what in fact was stealing the land and committing genocide against the indigenous people. I suggest reading Howard Zinn's "A Peoples' History of the United States" to get a clearer understanding of who are and what we've become. As with all empires our day of reckoning awaits. Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). (This is a reprint from NewsBred) Swami Dayanand Saraswati, whose death anniversary falls this week (October 30, 1883), deserves attention from all Indians. If Mahatma Gandhi is "Father of the Nation", Swamiji has been called "The Grandfather of the Nation" by no less than a Speaker of our Parliament 1; President Radhakrishnan termed him the "Maker of Modern India"; Swami Vivekananda was inclined to place him alongside Kabir, Nanak and Chaitanya for ensuring Hindus weren't wiped out in their own homeland 2. A man as towering as Adi Sankaracharya himself 3; he is credited to have laid the real foundation of modern independent India 4; who went farther than "Brahmo Samaj and even Ramakrishna Mission," as per se Romain Rolland 5. To Sri Aurobindo, he's been "A Soldier of Light" to the land we call Bharat or India 6. A piece is hardly enough to encompass a man who needs a shelf-full of books to do justice to him. He believed in ancient Vedas and not Vedanta; was a Hindu without Hinduism. He wanted the living beings of this land to return to roots of Vedas and side-step Upanishads, Puranas, Idolatry and was critical of Brahmins for not disseminating Vedas' profundity to masses. Such a man can't be expected to be reverential to Islam or Christianity and he wasn't. In no way, it implied religious intolerance--rather he wanted the entire humanity to drink from this fountain of eternal wisdom called Vedas. The greatest of all Sanskrit scholars, Swamiji chose to reach out to masses in their own language of Hindi with his magnum opus, Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth). So reams could be written and hours be spent in marvelling how a young boy ran away from his home at 14, never to return or see his family again, spending a quarter of a century as a wandering ascetic, and devoting his entire celibate life in uplifting widows, untouchables and orphans and regenerating the Hindu society. He was the first to give call for Swaraj in 1876, " India for Indians," which was later taken up by Lokmanya Tilak and a good half-century later by Gandhi-Nehru. To this day, the presence of Arya Samaj in our neighbourhood remind us of him; as do scores of DAV Schools and Colleges which dot most towns and cities of India. Not to forget the admirable Gurukul Kangri in Haridwar. It is one of history's painful irony that two men who lit the light of India 's renaissance, Swami Dayanand Saraswati and Mahatma Gandhi, now stand at cross-purpose, even hostile to each other's philosophy, in the annals of time. Both were born in the state of Kathiawar in Gujarat; the year 1869 which saw the birth of Mahatma Gandhi was also a seminal year in Swamiji's life when he won over hundreds of learned Pundits in a historic debate in the holy city of Kashi, Banares. First, it's no help if we pigeon-hole these two giants in social, religious or political boxes. Those who try to run down Arya Samaj for its unswerving loyalty to Vedas, are worth being reminded that a few of the greatest Indians in freedom struggle like Lala Lajpat Rai, Bhagat Singh, Veer Savarkar, Madanlal Dhingra and Ram Prasad Bismal were shaped by Arya Samaj philosophy. Men like Swami Shraddhanand and Bhai Parmanand were martyred and Swami Dayanand himself was poisoned. In 1912, a special committee under the chairmanship of Nehru, surveyed all the jails of the country and reported that 70% of its inmates were Arya Samajis. In 1931, that figure rose to 80%. The great historian K.M. Pannikar credited 80% of all freedom-fighters as being inspired by Arya Samaj. This fervour wasn't limited to India . In England , Shyamji Krishna Varma began India Home Rule Society in 1905. Another organization with similar aim and objective, namely Ghadar Party was floated in United States by Har Dayal. Sohan Lal Pathak breathed revolutionary fire from Burma in 1915 7. This all flowed from Swami Dayanand's philosophy of overturning the alien rule. He recognized the influence of education in regeneration of the Hindu race. The clarion call emanated from DAV College of Lahore and the Gurukul Kangri and between 1886-1918, the Arya Samaj ran over 500 educational institutions throughout India . Long before Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Swamiji had said: "It should be made a penal offence to keep a child at home after that (5-8 years) age." All these institutions included the idea of Swadeshi in their curriculum. He mobilized Rajas and Maharajas in this regard. Under his influence, the Maharaja of Jodhpur and all his officials began using hand-spun and hand-woven clothes. All adopted Khadi produced in Marwar. All of these were independent of any governmental assistance. Significantly, military training was made compulsory. One of his critic Valentine Chirol said: ""the whole drift of Dayananda's teachings is far less to reform Hinduism than to range it into active resistance to the alien influence which threatened, in his opinion, to denationalize it 8." By the advent of Mahatama Gandhi in India in 1915, Arya Samaj had become big enough a threat for the British government to ban any of its followers from entering the "precincts of its regimental barracks." No Arya Samaji was to be enlisted in the army. Swamiji had long gone by then, having been poisoned in 1883 by communal forces but Arya Samaj brooked no stopping. Gandhi was an early recipient of Arya Samaj's largesse when he received funds for his struggle against apartheid in South Africa and wrote a personal letter of thanks to its head, Mahatma Munshi Ram. Thereafter students of Phoenix Ashram came to India and stayed several months in the Gurukul. Gandhi himself paid a visit to Gurukul when he arrived on his first visit in 1915. It was here that Mahatma Munshi Ram called Gandhi a Mahatma, a title that Gandhi unsparingly used thereafter in public life. Two years later, Mahatma Munshi Ram took sanyas as "Swami Shraddhanand Saraswati" in 1917. When Gandhi was praised for his Satyagraha in South Africa , he was quick to respond: "I am worthy of teaching anybody but I yearn to learn myself from anyone who is servant of his country." He had marvelled at Swami Dayanand Saraswati and his body of work in a mere 11 years. On meeting Swami Shraddhanand in India , Gandhi described him as having a stature as tall as a mountain 9. In the spirit of those times, Swami Shradanand soon joined Congress, moved by Gandhi's call that "dharmic aims alone can transform the political field, (leading to pure and true amelioration of India 10 ." Alongside, he infused a new life in Hindu Sangathan, known these days as Hindu Maha Sabha. No sooner had Swami Shradanand joined Congress, he began seeing the futility of his decision. Ironically, his biggest heart-ache came on the matter of Untouchability. Swami Shraddanand was convinced that seven crores of Indians can't be allowed to stay out of freedom struggle only because they were Untouchables. He feared they were ready pickings for Christian missionaries. Despite Gandhi's avowed stance against Untouchability, he received no support from Congress on the matter. His proposals were rejected by Congress in its 1920 Calcutta session. Swamiji was aghast to see Gandhi was more into his non-violent, non-cooperation creed and completely immersed in making the Khilafat Movement a success 11. Gandhi was completely taken in by his mission to forge a Hindu-Muslim unity. Gandhi's support to Khilafat Movement, a movement to restore Ottoman Sultan and Caliphate in faraway Turkey--in order to gain Muslim support--and the subsequent Moplah riots in which thousands of Hindus were butchered and about which the apostle of non-violence never offered any criticism, stung Swami Shradhanand. He also found to his dismay that Gandhi was forming committee on various issues and then taking arbitrary decisions. He lamented: "I thought it would be a misfortune if Mahatmaji would be obliged to sever his connection with the oldest political movement (Arya Samaj) in India ." Next Page 1 | 2 (Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher). Oct, 30 2017: Metal Nanoparticles Market Forecast 2023 NanoComposix, American Elements, Sigma-Aldrich, Nanoshel Metal Nanoparticles http://bit.ly/2ieQatt http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-metal-nanoparticles-market-2017-demand-insight-key-plyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022/ http://www.spiremarketresearch.com Metal Nanoparticles Market Research 2017A market study Global Metal Nanoparticles Market examines the performance of the Metal Nanoparticles market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Metal Nanoparticles market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Metal Nanoparticles market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Metal Nanoparticles Market 2017 report includes Metal Nanoparticles market Revenue, market Share, Metal Nanoparticles industry volume, market Trends, Metal Nanoparticles Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Metal Nanoparticles Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Metal Nanoparticles Market 2017 : American Elements U.S. Research & Nanomaterials Inc Nanoshel LLC Meliorum Technologies Ltd Nanostructured & Amorphous Materials, Inc Nanophase Technologies Coropration Showa Denko K.K. NanoComposix Inc. Tekna Systemes Plasma Inc. Sigma-Aldrich Co. LLCMetal Nanoparticles Market : By Application Chemical & Coatings Pharma & Healthcare Transportation Personal Care & Cosmetics Electrical & ElectronicsMetal Nanoparticles Market : By Type Titanium Aluminium Iron Gold Copper Silver Magnesium Zinc OthersFirstly, the report covers the top Metal Nanoparticles manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Metal Nanoparticles report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Metal Nanoparticles industry, Metal Nanoparticles industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Metal Nanoparticles Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Metal Nanoparticles research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Metal Nanoparticles market revenue worldwide.Finally, Metal Nanoparticles market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@spiremarketresearch.com Long-term Care Software Market Trends,Share,Size, Status and Forecast 2022 https://www.researchbeam.com/global-long-term-care-software-size-status-and-forecast-2022-market/request-sample https://www.researchbeam.com/global-long-term-care-software-size-status-and-forecast-2022-market/purchase-enquiry https://www.researchbeam.com/global-long-term-care-software-size-status-and-forecast-2022-market Research Beam has added a report on Global Long-term Care Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022Get Sample@Long-term Care Software Market 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. The report provides information about the production, price, revenue, market share, and growth rate of each type. 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 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. Factors that drive the growth of the market are detailed in the study. 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 Long-term Care Software MarketGet 15% discount on this report @The Global Long-term Care Software 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 Long-term Care Software 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.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.Check Full Report With TOC@About Us:Research Beams uniqueness lies in its highly ethical reports at economical rates because we value your relationship and growth more than money. Your growth is our aim. With the arsenal of different search reports, we help you here to look and buy research reports that will be helpful to you and your organization. Our research reports have the capability and authenticity to support your organization for growth and consistency.Contact Us:Global Head Quarters5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220United Statesphone+1 (800) 910-6452mail help@researchbeam.com Oct, 30 2017: Microphytes Market Forecast 2023 Shengbada Biology, DIC, TAAU Australia, Cyanotech, Algaetech Microphytes http://bit.ly/2iK0GN4 http://www.spiremarketresearch.com/global-microphytes-market-2017-demand-insight-key-plyers-segmentation-and-forecast-to-2022/ http://www.spiremarketresearch.com Microphytes Market Research 2017A market study Global Microphytes Market examines the performance of the Microphytes market 2017. It encloses an in-depth Research of the Microphytes market state and the competitive landscape globally. This report analyzes the potential of Microphytes market in the present and the future prospects from various angles in detail.The Global Microphytes Market 2017 report includes Microphytes market Revenue, market Share, Microphytes industry volume, market Trends, Microphytes Growth aspects. A wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis are also consist in the report.It shows manufacturing capacity, Microphytes Price during the Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.To Get Sample Report Click Here:Manufacturers Analysis and Top Sellers of Global Microphytes Market 2017 : DIC Corporation Cyanotech Corporation Algaetech Group TAAU Australia Fuqing King Dnarmsa Spirulina Shengbada Biology Dongying Haifu Biological Dongtai City Spirulina Bio-engineering Yantai Hairong Microalgae BreedingMicrophytes Market : By Application Food Feed Pharmaceuticals BiofuelMicrophytes Market : By Type Spirulina Chlorella Dunaliella Salina Red Aphanocapsa OthersFirstly, the report covers the top Microphytes manufacturing industry players from regions like United States, EU, Japan, and China. It also characterizes the market based on geological regions.Further, the Microphytes report gives information on the company profile, market share and contact details along with value chain analysis of Microphytes industry, Microphytes industry rules and policies, circumstances driving the growth of the market and compulsion blocking the growth. Microphytes Market development scope and various business strategies are also mentioned in this report.Browse Full Report Here:The Microphytes research report includes the products that are currently in demand and available in the market along with their cost breakup, manufacturing volume, import/export scheme and contribution to the Microphytes market revenue worldwide.Finally, Microphytes market report gives you details about the market research findings and conclusion which helps you to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USAWeb:Email: sales@spiremarketresearch.com Cubic Boron Nitrates Market to receive overwhelming hike in Revenues by 2025 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/cubic-boron-nitrates-market.html https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=1917 https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=1917 http://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/checkout.php?rep_id=1917